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December 31st, 2010
 | 12:01 am - Regular Updates
This journal, while not wholly dead, is mostly dead. I now post at Mishalak on Dreamwidth much more often.
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June 18th, 2009
| 11:33 am - Dreamwidth Invitation
I have two invite codes for Dreamwidth. Right now it looks to be a livejournal clone that favors payment over advertising, thus keeping out the pressure by advertisers to censor journals. Additionally I worry less about my journal suddenly disappearing because they're not based in a totalitarian state (Russia) and they are less uptight about sexual subjects.
Right now it is rough around the edges, but seems like it is on a path towards being a thoroughly professional service. I think I am going to sign up for a paid account should I find someone interesting posting there or one of my friends from LJ follows me over there.
So, anyone want to try it out? Comment with your email (I've turned on screened comments so it won't be exposed to the public) and I'll send the invitation.
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June 11th, 2009
 | 11:14 pm - Buying More Tee Shirts
Mirrored from Dreamwidth
I am considering the purchase of some American Apparel shirts. This was one of the long list of things I desired once I had money from my new job
Specifically the ones called Sunset T-Shirts by the company are the ones I most like. I particularly like the Fluorescent Orange Sunset. Their Satin Charmeuse Night Jacket also temps me greatly in red.
Their standard Fine Jersey Short Sleeve T-Shirt is well cut, but a bit pricey at $17.00 a piece. Even though I'd rather support American workers I find myself wishing they were only a little more than tees at Target rather than being about twice as expensive even when Target is not having a sale. The colors I like are Brown, Cranberry, Aqua, Sea Foam, Kelly Green, Olive, and Army.
I would have been likely to order rather a lot of the Long Sleeve T-Shirts, but almost none of them are available in even small, much less the extra small that my measurements say I should wear, and in colors I like. Unavailable in Cranberry, Light Blue, or Silver. And only in small for Brown and Asphalt, so I'm only thinking of getting Sea Foam since it is available in extra small. Fortunately their arms are more than long enough for me even in XS.
A silly technological tee that interests me is the Thermochromatic Sheer Jersey T-Shirt. But what color? "Hyper Green" is nice, the "Hyper Vermilion" is fun, the orange gold is good looking, but might be the wrong color with my skin tone, and "Hyper Fast-Blue" and "Fast-Black" do not seem cheerful/vibrant enough to me. And what size? I've tried on their products in the past and the extra-small fit me exactly with just enough room to move comfortable and not a centimeter more. This is because I fall between their sizes with my 29 inch waist and 33 inch chest. So if I was buying strictly for looks I might go with extra small, but would this sort of thermochromatic tee look better a bit loose?
If anyone has better suggestions for me to spend my hard earned money on I'd love to hear them.
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June 9th, 2009
| 09:19 am - I'm on Dreamwidth
I'll give you two guesses what user name I picked and the first one does not count. I'm always Mishalak So far I like it though I need to figure out if I can port my journal from LJ and I need to decide if I like it more or less than blogspot.
Edit: Oh, there it is. Well successful import of everything from LJ. Painless and effective. Now I just need to figure out if I can crosspost to blogspot and if so it will be about perfect.
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March 24th, 2009
 | 10:26 am - LED Search Roundup
From my Blog.
In an ideal world this is what I would get. Six sets of 'raspberry' type (The G12 globe) LED Christmas light strings. Half would be in warm white and the other half would be in cool white and both would be full wave rectified and on white wires.
Why? I think the round globe shape is neat and when Halloween rolls around I'll just have the cool white globes up since they look rather ghostly. But together I think they will make for a neat blue and gold effect at during the Yuletide season and with warm ones alone I think they will be pretty good party lighting at other times of the year.
The reality is that it can be very hard to find exactly what one is looking for. I can find the cool white LEDs on white wire and free of flickering, but they're not globes. The warm white LEDs on white wires are actually not too hard to locate. I may end up just getting the warm white ones for now and getting cool white ones later on green wire when it is a bit closer to Halloween.
Environmental Lights.com has fully rectified G12 LED strings including warm white on white wire, $24.60 each if you buy three or more strings each with 70 LEDs.
They also have some cold white LEDs on white wire, but the C6 Strawberry type $28.40 a string.
For pure bargain price I might consider Holiday Direct. Full rectified M5 (mini) and C6 strawberry lights on white wire. The only problem is that I worry that they are somewhat fly by night. 100 M5 LEDs for $7.37 a string and 100 C6 LEDs for $10.50 a string.
Another inexpensive option are these Warm White on White Wire M5 for $10.00 a string.
There are lots of things on offer from Christmas Lights Etc. They have both warm for $27.95 and cool for $26.50 white M5 lights on white wire, but they are not rectified. All their rectified strings are "commercial grade" and thus need special adapters and are on green wire to boot.
There are plenty of styles and types at Forever LED and they're all rectified. Slightly less expensive than Environmental Lights, but no white wire except for icey white bulbs in the M5 and C6 styles. Wait, I take that back, some soft white M5s, but with "icicle" style wires.
If I wanted to pick up lights right away rather than mail ordering it I probably could try a local store named St. Nicks down in Littleton.
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March 22nd, 2009
 | 08:24 pm - A Query About LED Lighting
I am looking for LED lighting, in particular the strings that are often used for Christmas. Why? Because I wish to decorate with them, especially to set the right mood at upcoming parties. So I thought to inquire among people I know online to see if anyone has had a particularly good (or bad) experience with a website or a manufacturer so that I might have some clue as to where to purchase them or what to look for.
Alternatively if you local to me and have a string of LED lights you won't need back for some months I'd be happy to rent them for a while.
The ideal situation would be to put up enough lights that I would softly light a room to set a good party mood and I like LEDs for this purpose because of their low power consumption and their wonderfully bright and clear colors.
I've done a google search and I'm uncertain about my results. Some sites mention full wave rectified strings (that sounds good since it means they will be brighter due to not being off half the time) and a huge variety of prices. This leaves me uncertain as to what to do since I don't want to buy something that will quickly become dim or cause a fire hazard.
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January 28th, 2009
 | 09:23 am - A Garage or Basement
My parents have to move out of their house due to foreclosure. They're not going to be able to find a place to live until May due to everything that is going on and they have to be out by April 8. Anyone in the Denver Metro area have a garage or basement they're willing to volunteer from now until the end of July to store my grandmother's dinning room table, six chairs, and a sideboard? It is the same size as my current dinning table and so if I took it in I would then have the problem of what to do with my dinning table.
That's the big thing, but any space that they could beg for would be helpful. Like me my parents have box after box of books they're packing up.
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January 19th, 2009
 | 02:06 pm - A Modestly Half Baked Idea
The United States of America, un-devastated by war and with large number of appliances in use, decided not to migrate to a 220V standard in the 1950s. Forget everything you read about Tesla, 120V at 60Hz is an historical accident informed by engineering. The problem is that we're stuck with a range of less efficient devices as a result.
My half baked idea? Individual migration and importation of 220V devices. A home could be wired with a few outlets of the type most commonly used in nations that have good 220V single phase power. The fact that we're be at 60Hz instead of the European standard of 50Hz does not hurt either since there is at least one industrialized nation that already uses 220V/60Hz, South Korea. And Taiwan uses both 110V and 220V at 60Hz using two different plug outlets, much like I'm proposing gradually doing.
Okay, it'll never work. But if I was crazy rich I could be irresponsible with my money in this way if I wanted to.
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January 15th, 2009
 | 11:41 pm - Nonsense Question: How Does Augury Work?
When prognostication or prophesy is used in a story how do you imagine it works? The future has a set outcome and the seer can see part of it, but he might not be able to see everything anymore than someone with a telescope can see everything all the way to the horizon. Fortunetelling somehow taps into the magical equivalent of the futures market or current weather conditions to predict a certain amount of the future. God/gods have a plan and are just using the poor prophet as a mouthpiece to announce their plans. The wizard doesn't actually know the future, he's performing a sort of magic to force the future to conform to his vision rather like someone deliberately crashing a market for personal gain. Just like in the real world he's being vague enough that he can claim credit later on. Other?
Or are signs and portents in a story a cheat and something no good writer should muck about with?
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January 11th, 2009
| 05:01 pm - Nonsense Question: What Rock Music Would the Fair Folk Listen To?
If the various sídhe, fairies, sprites, bogies, and/or elves were real what rock musicians would they listen to?
( My Answer )
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December 31st, 2008
| 04:03 pm - Right Wing Loon of the Year
Oh and I'm surprised that James Nicoll has not put this on his journal yet. Orson Scott Card is up for Daily Dish's Malkin Award for "shrill, hyperbolic, divisive and intemperate right-wing rhetoric. A[--] C[------] is ineligible -- to give others a chance." He is nominated alongside such luminaries as Ben Stein who, as of this post, is leading the pack.
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 | 12:26 pm - NASA and the Moon
I will wager anyone any amount (preferring to wager beer) that NASA will not return to the moon by its 2018 target date. Indeed I will also wager one beer to two that no human will stand on the surface of the moon before December 31st 2020 (because I'm greedy and want more beer rather than thinking that NASA any more likely to make it in the two years after their target date).
As for moon bases or colonies anytime before 2050... well I would feel bad about taking your money. I laugh derisively at such fantasies.
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December 22nd, 2008
 | 10:11 pm - Happiness is Yuletide Desserts
Oh yeah, by the way, Christmas Pudding is good! It makes me happy even when it it hard to set on fire. And I've got one more pudding to eat before I issue a complete report about what I think is good and bad about the three variations I cooked this year.
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December 3rd, 2008
| 02:10 pm - The Jewish/Hindu/Islamic Equivalent of a Cross?
First Published on Mishalak
My research-fu is failing me. In Christianity very often crosses are ritually blessed objects that give magical protection. For purposes of fantasy story I'm making the assumption that this works (in part, because I like the image of the vampire shrinking from the cross), but that it often works for other religions too if they have a tradition of such objects. So while a believer will say, "God protected me" it is a little unclear if there is a god protecting wielders of a cross from vampires or if it is just the ritual. Since even atheists can wield a cross and the Soviets (in my stories) successfully created 'blessed' hammer and sickle pin to protect good Marxists from vampires. And they worked, though the Christians always claim that they had crosses hidden inside, were demonically created, and/or did not work as effectively (don't ask them about the logical contradictions).
My problem is that I know the Jews are a lot more about the Torah being their holy thing, but do they have any ritually blessed metallic objects that might operate similarly to the cross? And Hindus and Muslims as well if you happen to have cultural/religious knowledge? I don't want to leave them completely unprotected, but I don't want to play any more silly buggers with real world beliefs than I already am by adding real magic to history.
FYI in creating my system I decided that the best materials for such blessed objects are silver and copper, though bronze and brass can work as well depending upon the particular circumstances and the particular ingredients. Less commonly large blocks of aluminum will work sometimes and completely pure gold or very low carat gold both work. So, ironically, the rich man with a 22k cross won't be protected while someone with a cheap < 12 karat cross will be. Though this would not have been common knowledge outside certain academic circles before the 1920s.
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November 26th, 2008
| 11:15 pm - Observation that Will Shortly Be Proven Wrong
I'm going to get more people writing here. How? Well I'll simply mention that I've noticed a decline in the number of people writing entries on livejournal and as sure as saying "Well at least things can't get any worse" my entry will be followed by everyone posting.
It is hard to quantify, but I'm sure there has been a decline in LJ over the last year. I think people are somewhat drifting away from the service, I know I'm using blogger a lot more often than LJ.
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November 25th, 2008
| 05:23 pm
It won't make you feel any better, but if I could trade places for the job you hate with a boss who's crushing your soul I would. Why? At least for a while even a shit job is better than no job.
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 | 12:47 am - I Need a Place
I need a place to put a vending machine or else to get it sold for a reasonable percentage of its value. I need to do this relatively quickly, before the end of the month of December would be well. The most ideal place would be somewhere with a good number of people and in of doors. Less ideal, but preferable to some street, would be placing it in of doors in a low traffic area as I would prefer not to risk this considerable investment. Ideas and actual locations in or immediately around Denver are welcome.
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November 22nd, 2008
| 05:59 pm - Idiot Bloggers Fall For "Stupid American" Meme
The headline should read "Self Identified Government Officials on the Anonymous Internet Flunk Badly Worded 'Test' Created By Group With An Ax to Grind". I can't believe the number of people who fell for the test by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute. Go look at that Wikipedia page. They're a conservative pressure group that wants intelligent design taught in schools. And even if they were not they get money by proving that people are undereducated about their most important lessons. If they found that the majority of Americans actually knew about government it would be a surprise.
Yes, most people are woefully under educated, but so apparently are the bloggers who uncritically pass this on as "news". It's not news, it's fark.
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November 12th, 2008
| 11:28 pm - Will Marching Do Any Good?
Protesting has worked for oppressed nations and ethnic groups. It has worked when violence bubbled just below the surface and people were united due to the injustice. But protesting did not end the Vietnam War. In fact I can make a case that it probably lenthened the war.
Protests work to get basic rights. To get the rest there needs to be long slow work in courts and tactical voting. That's why I won't take part in the planned protests against Prop. 8. I think the plan is bad. The way to get Prop 8 overturned would be to get another 10% of people from age 18-29 who say they support gay marriage in polls to actually turn up at the damn voting booths.
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November 7th, 2008
 | 01:24 am - Yesterday: Wood Splitting Again
My father needed help with the wood splitter. The dead tree was about 175 years old with a cross section of a little under a meter. There was no way without help where it would have been safe for him to do the splitting alone. Plus many hands make light work and so Richard and I went out to help with the work. It did not look like that much wood at first, but once split it became more apparent how much mass there was there. Only a few scrapes and bruises, the usual in such an operation. And it was a nice day for it. Cool enough that I didn't break a sweat at all while wearing a long sleeve shirt.
It is too bad my camera isn't working. I could replace the old picture of myself in front of the yearly wall of wood with a new one showing shorter hair and a new tee.
Afterward there was a free movie showing of Bolt. Surprisingly good considering some of Disney's other solo computer animation efforts. Sometimes it seems like studios except for Pixar don't take computer animation seriously. Like it is just a scam to pack butts in seats.
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