JWL.Freakwitch.net

lofty bed photos

posted by JWL at 4:47 PM | 0 comment(s)

lofty expectations

The corner posts are hemlock 4x4s, the bed slats and ladder are pine 2x4s, and the shelves are pine 1x8s (desk) and 1x10s (rear bookcase). The desktop is made of MDF, and there is a shelf below the desktop (also made of MDF, with pine 1x6 upright braces). I still have to cut and install the desktop surface, which is a sheet of masonite with a layer of white dry-erase board on one side. I had to get a 4x8 sheet of this, so I'll also use it as the back of the bookcase, which will also provide a dry erase surface behind it (at the foot of the bed).

The loftbed part of it is cool (especially from a kid's perspective... what is it about increased elevation whilst slumbering that is so exciting to a kid?!??), but the best part I think is the desk, with the increased bookshelf space being a close second. But the desk in particular, especially for a homeschooled kid. Space to spread out her work without having to move it by dinner is definitely welcome.

I got the wood last week, and took it out to Starcat and Quester's home and got all the pieces cut that day (there were 58 separate pieces, mostly for the bed slat assembly and the ladder). But when I assembled them, I realized that something didn't quite translate from my 2-D sketch on graph paper to 3-d reality. The bed was too wide overall, though the slats were too wide by 2" less than the rest of the too-wideness. So I had to shorten it, which meant disassembling the frame and cutting all the shelves and the desktop a bit narrower, and trimming a bit off the slats fo good measure. Did that yesterday, and assembled all the pieces using drywall screws.

Once that was done and everything seemed to go together, I went through and, one by one, removed the drywall screws and drilled a 3/8" hole for a bolt.

The unit is modular, and is designed to be held together by 5" and 7" bolts. I started off with carriage bolts, but found that they were ineffective because they kept turning in the wood as I tried to tighten them. So I ran out again and got normal bolts, so I'd have something to grab onto as I tightened the nuts. So now I have about 40 carriage bolts that I need to return, as they cost something on the order of $1 each.

Starcat was wonderfully patient and flexible tonight. We had a walking date scheduled, which we ended up spending in my daughter's bedroom. The room got completely rearranged top to bottom, a task that was basically 8 hours of work for all of us. Whew. I'll have photos of the new loftbed up soon. So thanks to everyone for helping (everyone tonight, plus Quester for his assistance during assembly and cutting, not to mention driving the truck out to our place today, plus Starcat's aunt for the use of her truck).

In other news, Freakwitch gets to play as a 5 piece tomorrow, and then as a 5-piece-minus-a-drummer on Friday. So that's good. Next week is the great acoustic guitar recording session....

I switched departments at work. I used to take road-service calls for AAA, but now I am a dispatcher. The job is more complicated, but it isn't a bad thing at all. It makes the time go faster. So now, instead of talking to grumpy, stressed-out motorists, I talk to tow truck drivers who are grumpy because they have to deal with stressed-out motorists.

I've been moving through a bunch of energy these past couple weeks, part of which have been manifesting as specific ailments in my body. I won't go into detail as everything is fine, but I've spent much of the past fortnight both in a bit of pain, and also afraid that something more serious was wrong with me. Turned out to be OK, though I was certainly moving slowly and gingerly. As a result, I haven't exercised much in almost 2 weeks. Back to it. I feel awake again, as the ailments are all but gone.

Now that the loftbed is done, my next project is to rebuild the home computer. The studio machine seems to be functioning well, so now it's time for some computergeek luuuvv at home as well.

Plus I need to play my guitar every day for a while....

posted by JWL at 1:22 AM | 0 comment(s)

order complete

But at least is cool is the fact that I'll bring the current studio motherboard setup home, so I'll now have easily the most powerful computer I've ever had at home. We'll be able to watch DVDs at home again! Plus the increased capabilities of this machine will mean my daughter can play better computer games.... this too is cool.

Lots of money to spend, but I think it will be worth it! 2 computer upgrades for the price of one....

posted by JWL at 1:19 PM | 0 comment(s)

w00t! Google Earth for Linux

posted by JWL at 6:21 PM | 0 comment(s)

word to your mother (board)

In addition, the studio computer is still chugging along. It's a nice motherboard, but it's just not well-suited to serious audio production work. I've managed to make it workable, but it's not ideal.

So we've decided to kill 2 birds with one stone. I'm going to upgrade the motherboard in the studio computer, and then use that motherboard in the home machine, where it will be MORE than adequate (read: by far the most kickass home computer we've ever had).

So now, in order to upgrade, I have to do some serious research on motherboards for a DAW. A friend of mine works for AMD, and also runs Sonar (the same program I use), so I asked him. He recommended that I use Asus motherboards, and to avoid VIA chipsets, so my challenge is to find a model that does not use VIA chipsets, and has the features I need (ie, an AGP slot for the video card I use, onboard USB 2 and Firewire, etc).

The first contender is the Asus K8N. This board, along with a AMD Athlon 64 3400+ 1600MHz HT Socket 754 Processor and 1 GB of Corsair memory would run just under $300. This is a first step; I imagine there will be further updates to this post as I continue investigating.

Also, I'm being somewhat active on both the Sonar forum and on the Tape Op (TOMB) forum. I'm mostly documenting these here for my convenience.

Geek out....

UPDATE: People in audiogeekland are raving about the Gigabyte GA-K8U-939 board as well. Another option.

posted by JWL at 1:03 PM | 0 comment(s)

chakra blockage

So today I was lying on the floor and I did a spinal twist. I felt a wonderful "thump" as one of my lower vertebrae, between the 2nd and 3rd chakra, cracked into place, in that not-quite-sadistic-chiropracter kind of way. After the pop, I felt the wave of energy move up and down my system, and just groaned with the intensity of the sensation, hovering between pleasure and pain.

It occurs to me that this is yet another example of the correlation. The energies I've been working through lately are indeed between the 2nd and 3rd chakra.

Just sayin.'

posted by JWL at 6:53 PM | 1 comment(s)

Stratification of wealth

The total net worth of all Americans in 1989 was $25 trillion (in 2004 dollars). Of that amount, the top 1 percent owned 30 percent, or $7.775 trillion. The bottom half owned 3 percent of the total, or $763 billion.

Fifteen years later, in 2004, the total wealth of all Americans had doubled to $50.25 trillion. The top 1 percent of the population now owns 33.4 percent of the total, or $16.774 trillion. Their percentage share of the total has increased by more than 3 percent in fifteen years. At the same time, the total wealth owned by the bottom 50 percent increased to $1.278 trillion, but its percentage of total wealth declined from 3 percent to 2.5 percent in the same time period.

Thus the wealth of the top 1 percent was ten times the wealth of the bottom 50 percent in 1989. Fifteen years later, the wealth of the top 1 percent was thirteen times the wealth of the bottom 50 percent.

posted by JWL at 10:57 PM | 2 comment(s)

thunder, and the priest

Thunderstorms are much rarer in Maine. We usually get one or two per year; the other day we had a doozy. Lightning hitting very closeby and an incredibly loud thunderclap right on top of the flash of light. We live at the top of Munjoy Hill in Portland, and it occurred to me that this thunderstorm didn't quite sound the way I was used to hearing them. I thought for a moment and realized what I was hearing was the sound of the thunder echoing over the water on Casco Bay, finally making its way up the hill to my ears. Wow! It sounded amazing. I wish there was a way to capture a sound like that; even my best microphones would miss something if I tried to record that.

Very cool. Now I have yet another reason to love thunderstorms.

On another note, I feel like I've found a new kind of strength lately. It's difficult to describe, but of all my "inner selves" who drive the Jim bus, I usually feel strongest when the "priest" is driving. When I say priest, I mean that part of me who is highly attuned to the energy flows around me, who can skillfully direct the energies at work in my life, in the service of both myself and the greater community. The priest is an edgewalker; his awareness is among the patterns behind what we see in our day-to-day existence.

One danger is that sometimes, the priest (like his ontological cousin, the shaman) often sees things that others don't yet see. And when he tries to communicate these seeings to others, he is sometimes met with resistance. But if these seeings are true, then good, intelligent people will soon see them as well.

I was once told as a child, by a catholic nun, that I was going to make a wonderful priest when I grew up. Little did she know...

posted by JWL at 6:34 PM | 0 comment(s)

save the Internet?

Congress is now pushing a law that would end the free and open Internet as we know it. Internet providers like AT&T and Verizon are lobbying Congress hard to gut Network Neutrality, the Internet's First Amendment and the key to Internet freedom. Net Neutrality prevents AT&T from choosing which websites open most easily for you based on which site pays AT&T more. So Amazon doesn't have to outbid Barnes & Noble for the right to work more properly on your computer.

Yet the free exchange of ideas as mediated by computers and the Internet is in danger. Every revolution has a counter-revolution, and the counter-revolution upon the free exchange of ideas is well underway. The Information Counter-Revolution is an attempt by corporate interests to assert control over the Internet, with the end goal of recasting it in terms of pre-Information Revolution media outlets, which treat information infrastructure as "content delivery systems" controlling what passive viewers may see. The counter-revolution seeks to accomplish these ends through two primary means: expansion of "intellectual property" laws and a re-architecting of the Internet to unilaterally enforce these laws through an infrastructure of centralized control; these are the virtual enclosures.

It cannot be stressed enough that one key element of this struggle is that the Internet, as a commons, is an invaluable tool to those who resist the neoliberal world order, the process of corporatization and globalization, not to mention peace activists. It is in danger of being taken away from us.

posted by JWL at 1:03 PM | 0 comment(s)