Home improvement Sep 25, 2006
Every time something goes wrong with my house (which is frighteningly often), I'm presented with a dilemma:  Should I pony up the money to get a professional to fix it and risk know that I'll be overcharged, or should I attempt to learn a new skill by doing it myself?  The latter pretty much always wins that battle.  I'm under this strange belief system that says that if I'm physically able to do a job/project/thing, I'll do it.  When I'm 80 and/or a quadriplegic, I'll get somebody else to do it.  If it's a question of whether I'll pay someone to climb on my roof to remove my satellite dish or do it myself, I'll do it myself.  If it's a question of digging a stump out of my backyard or hiring a company to do it with a machine, I'll do it myself (probably).  But if it'll most likely cause serious injury, death or financial loss, I'll probably shy away.  Anything electrical scares me, so I usually don't even attempt it.  I'd most likely hire a guy to cut down a tree that has a good chance of falling on my house.  But everything else is fair game, which is weird because I have no discernible skills in anything other than academics.  I'm the product of a lifetime of honors classes.  I'm useless.  I'm skinny and pale.  I don't like getting motor oil on my hands or clothes. 

But like most new (cheap/poor) homeowners, I'm willing to give things a try.  And after several mildly successful projects, I've learned a few important lessons: 

1.  Everything is easy the 2nd time.  All do-it-yourself projects look so simple on the back of the box and in the Home Depot displays.  But when it comes right down to it, there's this little thing called reality.  Reality accounts for the fact that things rust over time, which means they won't be easy to take apart.  Reality has all the right tools.  Reality realizes that things break when you bang them too hard.  A single step on the back of the box could mean 45 minutes of intense physical struggling followed by 3 separate trips to Home Depot to find the right tools and parts.  And in the end, you might just end up using a hacksaw to achieve your goal.  The instruction manual tends to leave out certain aspects of reality, so first-time projects become difficult and seemingly impossible.  But after you do it once, you find out it's incredibly easy, and you become a self-certified expert. 

2.  Projects escalate and multiply.  Everything starts off with a simple idea:  "I think I'll try to fix this leaky pipe."  Upon further examination, I found that the pipe was hardly the problem.  Most of the ceiling was rotting and moldy from stagnant water dripping onto it.  After ripping the ceiling down, I found the real problem:  A rotten and leaking window sill.  Oh, and a cracked drain pipe.  Oh, and uninsulated and therefore sweating supply pipes.  Oh, and ... the list goes on.  What starts as a simple afternoon job turns into a several month overhaul.  But if you don't start it when you do, things will only get worse. 

3.  The end result is all that matters.  I usually have some sort of idea of how a certain project or task will work out in the end.  But the middle is a vast wasteland of changed plans, banged up fingers, broken tools, and bleeding head wounds.  When the project calls for "fixing a broken piece of pipe", the end result will achieve that goal, whether it involves actually fixing a broken pipe or using osmosis and black magic.  How it's done doesn't matter as much as the fact that it's done. 

4.  Hacks are great.  I wrote about this before.  Anything that can produce the end result by making life easier or by covering up mistakes is worth its weight in gold.  Things like caulk, expanding foam insulation, insulating tape, Teflon tape, silicone tape, duct tape (notice a pattern?), wood glue, molding, etc. come to mind.  Don't feel like replacing a section of drywall to fix a hole under the stove?  Load it up with some expanding foam insulation.  Something wrong with your bathroom?  Caulk to the rescue!  Bad with cutting straight edges?  Molding takes care of that.  Don't feel like using nails for the molding?  Use wood glue. #lifestyle
Rocket science vs. brain surgery Sep 25, 2006
This Yahoo News article talks about the controversy between rocket scientists and brain surgeons concerning which group is smarter. 
Rocket scientists, long considered the gold standard in intelligence among all professionals, are not nearly as smart as originally thought, according to a controversial new study published today by the American Association of Brain Surgeons.

The study, which appears in the organization's monthly publication, Popular Brain Surgery, is entitled "The Intelligence of Rocket Scientists: Myth Versus Reality," and suggests that rocket scientists' reputation for smartness is largely undeserved.

The article drew an immediate rebuke from a spokesperson for the American Society of Rocket Scientists, who blasted the study as "state-of-the-art pro-brain surgeon propaganda."
Yes, this is a joke.  (via Digg) #science
Leaf Sep 22, 2006
This picture was taken right near the NJ/NY border during the hike a few weeks ago. 

#nature
Feedback sweepstakes Sep 22, 2006
I get pretty annoyed when the cashier tells me to "Visit our website and use this code to enter a contest for your chance to win a prize".  First of all, I don't believe in democracy.  I don't think that the opinions of one skinny, irate, white male will have any effect on the policies of a multinational, multibillion dollar corporation.  Plus, I just used a credit card to buy a pack of gum.  You actually lost money on that transaction. 

Second, I don't like entering my personal information into websites unless I'm buying something or signing up for something significant.  Why should I tell you what my household income is?  Why do you ask to know my race yet give me the option of declining to answer?  Do you want to know or not? 

Third, I don't believe in sweepstakes, contests, or trying to win prizes.  I might be a little more willing to try them out if I heard of a single person who won anything.  I know a few people.  And not one of them has ever said, "Yeah so I entered that stupid contest on the bottom of my receipt and I won $5000."  I never hear any stories on the news or through important email forwards that say something about somebody's neighbor's cousin's step-daughter's boyfriend who won anything.  When I walk into the store, they don't say, "You should really do this feedback thing.  A guy from this store just won a bunch of money by going to our website.  I'm serious." 

Fourth (I thought I was done too), I might be a little more inclined to believe these stupid offers if they were at least somewhat reasonable.  A free Coke.  A $20 gift card.  A 5 second shopping spree in the pet goods aisle.  Instead, they offer $50,000, a brand new Ferrari, and a free trip to the International Space Station.  I mean come on.  What kind of company just gives stuff away for free because a person provided some useless, biased, self-centered, racist feedback. #business
Rechargeable Sep 22, 2006
I have a rechargeable facial hair trimmer that has an amazingly stupid feature:  It doesn't work while it's plugged in.  That's right.  Some genius engineer came to the conclusion that it would be a good idea to make a rechargeable device that'll only be used while not plugged in.  To that jerk face idiot, I say this:  It's impossible for this feature to not fail.  Without question, the device will run out of batteries while it's being used.  What does this mean for the user?  A half shaved face.  And when the user plugs the device into the charger, what do you get?  An angry, half-shaved user with a rechargeable device that doesn't work while plugged in.  It would be one thing if the device had some sort of battery meter telling the user when it was time to recharge.  But no.  It's left up to chance.  Will it die this time?  Will it die while I'm trying to shave my face?  Will it die right before I shave off my mustache, leaving me with a dirty dirt-stache (yes this happened to me)? #technology
Brown sugar and cinnamon Sep 22, 2006
I always get food that's flavored with some variation of brown sugar and cinnamon.  Always.  I get granola bars of the "Maple Brown Sugar" variety.  I get "pastry bars" (funny little snack that thinks it's a breakfast food, and yet is relatively good for me) of the "Cinnamon Danish" variety.  I used to eat Frosted Brown Sugar Cinnamon Pop Tarts (until I found out that they're pretty bad for me).  I was on an oatmeal cereal stint for a while there and guess what flavor I got?  That's right, cinnamon sugar.  I can't explain my obsession with this flavor, but I can say that it's the best food on earth.  And that's a fact. #food
Nerd, geek, dork (8) Sep 21, 2006
This reminds me of one of those stupid email forwards that people I hate send me and expect me to complete and send back to them.  But this one is different:  "The Nerd? Geek? or Dork? Test".  It turns out I'm a nerd.  More specifically, I'm 56% Nerd, 13% Geek, and 26% Dork.  And to emphasize my nerdiness, I noticed that those percentages only add up to 95%, which means this website apparently doesn't think I'm a whole person.  But then I realized that these numbers are independent of one another.  A person can be 100% of all three.  Wouldn't that be super. 
For The Record:

A Nerd is someone who is passionate about learning/being smart/academia.
A Geek is someone who is passionate about some particular area or subject, often an obscure or difficult one.
A Dork is someone who has difficulty with common social expectations/interactions.
You scored better than half in Nerd, earning you the title of:  Pure Nerd.

The times, they are a-changing.  It used to be that being exceptionally smart led to being unpopular, which would ultimately lead to picking up all of the traits and tendencies associated with the "dork."  No-longer.  Being smart isn't as socially crippling as it once was, and even more so as you get older:  eventually being a Pure Nerd will likely be replaced with the following label:  Purely Successful.
(via Digg) #technology
Remember Ring Sep 21, 2006
This company is designing a wedding band that heats up to 120°F the day before a couple's anniversary, reminding the wearer every hour on the hour.  (via Boing Boing) #products
Watch band Sep 21, 2006
The first watch I owned was pretty typical.  It was a cheap little digital thing with a belt-like band.  At the time, my tiny little wrists were too small even for the tightest setting.  So I was forced to punch a new hole in the watch band to make it fit.  Later on when I got other watches, they were always either too big or too small.  They never fit perfectly because of the spacing of the holes on the band.  Later on I got a watch with a metal band.  I knew this was a bad idea before I even bought it.  It pulled out my arm hair and left me permanently scarred (mentally). 

And then I stepped into watch band zen:  Velcro!  Velcro always fits, no questions asked.  When my wrists swell in the summer, it fits.  When they shrink in the winter, it fits.  A Velcro watch band can't not fit.  Although Velcro doesn't give me points in the "cool" category, I don't have many points to begin with. 

Velcro should really be used for belts too.  I have the same problem there. #products
Biggest regrets (1) Sep 20, 2006
Because of my blind and sometimes ignorant perseverance, I often do things past the point of rational thought.  These are the things I have the biggest regrets about.  I once said that, if I had the chance, I wouldn't go back and do many things differently because I don't think I can currently make an honest judgement call about my then-16-year-old mindset.  Things were different then.  I "grew" from those experiences. 

But one thing I'm pretty darn sure I would change is my involvement in sports.  I played soccer through my senior year of high school, but I really should've "retired" after my freshman or sophomore year.  That's when I was at the top of my game.  I was a starter, I was relatively good, and I had a great time playing.  But I really should've noticed that things were going downhill.  If freshman year was the top, sophomore year was the beginning of the end.  People started getting exponentially better by going to summer sports camps and things like that, meanwhile I stayed at the same skill level I had attained in 8th grade.  But instead of throwing in the towel and letting them retire my jersey (heh), I "stuck it out".  I continued playing in my junior year, practiced with varsity yet played with JV, and ended up spraining my ankle.  And by the time senior year rolled around, I was a committed benchwarmer, wasting my time and energy trying to attain the golden "varsity letter" I had so patiently waited my entire life to receive (unlike my dumb sisters who got easy varsity letters by playing field hockey and doing cross country [no offense; God bless their hearts]). 

And why did I persevere through stupid running drills and watching games from the sideline?  "It'll look good on your transcripts."  Yep, that's it.  A good 96% of things I did in high school were done for the purpose of "looking good on my transcripts".  What are transcripts anyway?  I've never seen them or read them.  But of course colleges read them.  Of course colleges base huge decisions and millions of dollars on a mythical piece of paper that doesn't actually exist.  Am I really supposed to believe that Stevens Institute of Technology looked at my transcript and thought, "Hmm, he's a scholar, a musician, and an athlete.  He'll do great at our school."  If they did, I'd hate to break the news to them that my athleticism didn't do me much good in college.  My musicianship hardly helped the school either, unless you consider playing guitar for the Christian group a "big help". 

Getting back on topic, I'd have to say the same thing about baseball.  I "retired" from baseball after 9th grade, only because it was the last year I was able to play for the town team.  I thought about stopping after 7th or 8th grade, but I thought, "I'll stick it out till the end, until I'm not allowed to play anymore."  Meanwhile, my playing skills peaked when I was in 4th grade, when I was pitcher and made the all-star team (quite the honor).  Everything after that was downhill. 

Thankfully, I gracefully drifted away from other sports.  I played football from 4th to 6th grade.  My last year was most likely my best, though I'll never know.  I stopped playing and started soccer (what a great decision that turned out to be).  I "retired" from basketball after 9th grade because I sat the bench and hated playing on the team.  I probably should've retired a year or two earlier, but at least I got out when I did.  I doubt it's a coincidence that my two favorite sports to play/watch are football and basketball. 

So in conclusion, I regret the things I did that I thought would eventually benefit me in some way.  I don't feel like I benefited from playing soccer those last 2 or 3 years.  I don't feel like I'm a better person because I played baseball those extra 4, 5, or 6 years.  My experience in marching band hasn't helped me get ahead in life.  Mock trial had a temporal benefit, all of which has since worn off.  Sometimes, maybe it's better to just give up. #education