Random Thoughts: Feeling "Off"

It's strange. I don't feel sick. I don't really feel all that tired. Everything seems to be in full functioning order, but for some reason I feel "off." I don't really know what it is, but I can most compare this feeling to my preflight state of mind.

I enjoy flying. I am perfectly content to sit and people-watch for long periods of time. I love the fact that I can walk into a metal and plastic cylinder and a few hours later walk out on the other side of the world to see new and different things. Where I encounter my problems is getting to the airport. I don't know why, but for some reason I have this overwhelming anxiety that I will miss my flight. Have I ever missed a flight? No. Never. Not even close. Does that matter? Apparently not. I move around in a blur, talk very fast, drive very fast, walk very fast, and get jumpy standing in line very slowly. I bug the hell out of my wife with this personality "feature."

Anyway, I guess that defines the feeling that I have right now. I am feeling anxious. Why? Maybe it's sleep deprivation. I did wake up at 4:00 a.m. Should I call home and make sure Erin and Laura are OK? I'm sure they're fine. It's me that has the problem. Maybe I left the coffee pot on, even though I didn't (and wouldn't) turn it on in the first place. Actually, come to think of it, we don't even have a coffee pot. Well, I guess everything is OK then.  So, why do I feel like this?

Entertainment: Back by popular demand

I have finally added my movie countdown timer back into the site. I tried countless things to get my old version working, but I don't have the time to devote to understand the intricacies of javascript, php, and wordpress plug-ins. Fortunately, I realized that I don't have to. I don't know why I never thought of this before, but there is a huge library of plug-ins available for free download. I downloaded one, installed it and tweaked it. I suffered a few minor setbacks, but I eventually got it working right.

Anyway, now you can all see the list of movies I am looking forward to watching. Doing this, though, I realize how sad the movie listings are these days. Granted, there are a few movies I might want to see here and there, but the next big one I am looking forward to is Harry Potter in November. Four months of summer and early fall without a "big" movie.

If you go to the site directly, you will see the sidebar that has my list. Enjoy it. Hopefully, there will be more additions to the countdown in the near future.

Update:

It appears that date code in this plug-in isn't exactly precise. Going back in my mind, now, I remember having this problem when I tried to make my own. It looks like the programmers of this plug-in did not fix this bug. I believe, if I remember correctly, that it has something to do with the fact that there are not the same number of days per month or something. Maybe I will fix it. Maybe not. At this point, it's close enough.

Random Thoughts: Endless? Not so much.

What happened to the endless content of the net? I remember back when the "web" was first created there were like 18 sites and it was awesome. I could pull up weather satellite photos and utilize my amateur meteorology skills. The boom times followed with content on anything and everything. Whatever I was interested in, the internet provided. It was a glorious day when someone figured out how to get the internet to provide basic human sustenance (aka, food).

Now, it seems like we have entered the dark times. Gone are the days of the five-minute time wasters that held interest for the full five minutes. Gone are the days of people doing all sorts of stuff for free because they could and it was fun. Now, it's all a business. Now, it's all generic. It only takes 10 minutes to exhaust my daily content, whereas just a year ago, it would have taken an hour.

I have nothing better to do while my report is generating than create my own useless internet content. Damn you, internet! You have failed me!

Random Thoughts: Insulation Update

After making that post the other day, I stopped in Home Depot and purchased three rolls of R-30. Upon closer inspection, I only need to replace a couple sections of the R-19 that is already there. I still haven't figured out what I will do about the stuff I am storing up there. I really don't have a place to keep baby clothes, Xmas ornaments and a few other miscellaneous things. This would be one of those big detractors to owning a raised ranch house. No basement means no storage.

As a long term idea which would be decades from now, I would like to add on an addition to the garage side of the house. If it were open season on house modifications, I would build as close to the neighbor as possible so that we would have a two-car garage facing the street instead of underneath the house. This would allow me to create a dedicated storage area (aka, basement) between the living area and the garage. My aunt and uncle have something similar and it seems to work really well. As a short term solution, I think I will move things around so that they are all in a blocked off area which I can insulate around. Anyone know the R-value of Xmas ornaments?

A mid-term solution I thought of was to build a raised platform to store stuff while insulating under it. Addition aside, I think I still will do this. You can never have too much storage space. The problem there is designing something that is raised up at least a foot, but is still accessible aperiodically. While I'm at it, I think I might add extra lighting up there. A single, exposed 60 watt bulb isn't the best attic lighting system I could imagine. I have lightly bumped it when working up there and burned it out. I don't know what can take the heat-cold cycling that is experienced in an attic. Maybe I'll go for a low-voltage system. They seem to be cheap enough.

Random Thoughts: Warm and Toasty

That's what I want to be this winter without breaking the bank if that's possible. The other day, I saw the post written by a former coworker who is pre-buying the oil to heat his Bed and Breakfast in central Vermont. In his post he discusses the option (converting to wood heat) he is considering as a result of the high price of oil. I have considered seriously using wood as a supplemental heating source, but it is impractical to use it as a primary source unless I want to invest in the infrastructure of a wood boiler. Knowing that I will need it soon, I checked the price from the place I buy my oil. I think I actually heard my wallet faintly scream when I saw $4.44 per gallon.

On my way to work that day, it just so happened that the talk-radio host was taking a deviation from rampant local corruption and outrage. He was soliciting ideas from people to save energy (money) and improve efficiency of their homes. The first and only caller I heard had the best, most cost-effective, logical suggestion... Insulation. That fluffy pink stuff can turn a drafty ice box into an oven.

Naturally, I wanted to know some additional information. First off, I checked what I "should" have. According to various places, in this area of the country I should have an R-49 in my attic. OK, great. So now I have to find out what I currently have. I grab the tape measure and climb up into the attic and find that I have about 4.5-5 inches of partially compressed fiberglass in my 2x6 joists. Being generous, I would have R-19. More realistically, I have somewhere around R-16. Hmm... That doesn't sound all that great.

OK. I have made the choice to find out what it would cost to replace what I have with a full R-19 and add an additional R-30 on top of that. The only place I can think of locally that lists the prices online is Home Depot. The cost per Kraft-backed R-19 roll is $19.78. I would need approximately 18 rolls for a total of $356.04. The cost per R-30 unfaced roll is $23.75. Because they are thicker, they cover less square footage. As such, I would need 28 rolls for a total cost of $665.00. The total comes to $1021.04. That seems like a lot of money. Is it worth it?

A little (actually, surprisingly, a lot) of searching led me to a pretty nice calculator. Using the estimate of 5750 heating degree days, 864 square feet, $4.44 per gallon and a switch from R-16 to R-49, I would save $186.81 per year. Factoring in error and the fact that I couldn't easily find space to store the stuff that is in the attic, I would safely say that I could probably save $125 per year. If the price of oil stays flat, I would make out after 8 years. If it rises, I would obviously do better. It seems like a pretty good investment to me.

Random Thoughts: Blockbuster

I am less than pleased with the service provided by Blockbuster for their through-the-mail rental system. Certain things are and always have been listed as "Very Long Wait" since adding them to the queue. Other things are listed as Available, but never ship. The second one is more troubling because I believe it is a form a throttling. I will have a mediocre movie in my queue that I am willing to give a chance. I put it down the list around 20 or so. I have another much more popular movie in my queue right at the top. Both are listed as Available. I end up receiving the mediocre movie, almost without fail and the wife scolds me for adding nothing but crappy movies to the top of our queue. In the end, we still get to see the good movies because we will trade in the bad movie for a good one in the store, but it's still annoying. If something is listed as available and its at the top of my queue, why isn't it the next one shipped, damn it?!? I wonder if they need some remedial instruction on the technical definition of a queue... First-in, first-out (aka, FIFO).

Anyway, I am not annoyed enough to cancel my service. I'm not even annoyed enough to call and complain, but I am real close. If one more piece of crap comes in from the depths of my queue, I might just call and bitch. Maybe they'll throw me some additional in-store rentals or something.

Random Thoughts: I'm hungry!

Why is it that when I wake up early, I am always ravenously hungry? Anyone else experience this? I should mention that I don't want to be awake, but I am. I guess the good thing about getting into work at 3:45 a.m. is that I can leave as early as 2:45 p.m. Can that really be considered a "good thing"?

For me, the answer is 'yes'. Any time I get to spend with the family is a good thing. In addition, I had a rough day with Laura yesterday due to her absolute refusal to take a nap. I tried everything in my arsenal but nothing worked. I even tried driving around, which I haven't done for several months. The problem was that she was using all her tricks to counter me and stay awake. Usually, I comply with her simple requests or otherwise placate her at nap time to make sure she is calm and relaxed, and that usually works. A few times, though, the hugs for her bear and moose and book reading and the going potty requests are just manipulation. When I finally put my foot down try to rock her, she throws a fit and ensures that she will be awake for another 20 minutes because of how amped up she gets.

From what I've heard, we have a pretty easygoing baby, so I'm not complaining. Well, I guess this is 'sort of' complaining, but not really. I love my baby and no amount of crankiness will change that.