Wiring outlets and networks

Last weekend was productive and tiring.  Fresh off of my second week on my new job I thought I’d relax at home by running some wiring.  Fun!  While don’t have pictures to back up this claim, I was somewhat successful in two DIY projects last week.

The first was adding a new electrical outlet.  I’m moving my office to our current guestroom, and to accommodate my home server (which I hide in a closet) I needed a new outlet.  After a few hours in the dark with my trusty head-lamp lighting the way, I had a working outlet!  I felt very good about my accomplishment but then I saw it again with fresh eyes when showing off to my wife and I then realized that the 4″x3″ square of missing dry-wall next to the outlet was a bit unsightly.   It looks like I may be learning how to patch dry-wall soon.

My other project was running some network cabling and adding a new network outlet in our living room.  The devices I have in the living room are mostly WIFI capable, but the signal gets very weak in that corner of the house.  To fix this, I ran a single length of CAT6 from my router through the ceiling and down a wall to a new outlet I installed.  I have a few other network outlets in the house, but those were relatively short runs and easy to install.  This new run was much longer, and the work in the attic was more difficult due to the recently upgraded AC vents blocking the barely navigable path.  It was hot up there too.  After a bit of work and a few poorly terminated cable ends, I was able to setup a switch behind the TV for a fully-hardwired living room.

When it comes to our home there are things I wish I could tear out and completely redo from scratch.  Seeing random cables draped and obstructing pathways in the attic bothers me, but after spending a bit of time up there for a single network run, I couldn’t imagine even thinking about a project like that.

My OCD Granola

I recently made a batch of homemade granola.  It’s really good!  It has oats, maple syrup, chopped almonds, allspice, black pepper, brown sugar, salt, and some dried blueberries.  That last ingredient has caused me a lot of stress the last few days.  Then I realized that perhaps how I’ve eaten my food my entire life has led me to be the organized, somewhat OCD person I am today.

When I was younger I would from time to time have Lucky Charms for breakfast.  Lucky charms has some sort of “standard” bit, probably made of some grain or something, but really, who cares?  The important part of Lucky Charms is the marshmallows.  That’s why kids eat it.  You don’t remember the amazing grain that some leprechaun was singing about, you remember blue diamonds, orange stars, etc.  I remember the big addition of purple horseshoes in 1984! (Full disclosure: I remember the commercial for the addition of purple horseshoes, but I had to look up the year.)

The point of all this talk of marshmallows in my cereal is that I distinctly remember taking my time to ensure that I had an optimal bite during my breakfast.  This entailed maneuvering my spoon to get some of the oat things and at least one marshmallow, but not too many.  Sometimes I’d go for two, but you have to be careful.  Creating the perfect bite with a heterogeneous cereal is a balancing act:  You want to have a good bite throughout the meal.  You can eat too many marshmallows up front or you’ll have spoonfuls of oat-stuff (TM) at the end, and no one wants that.  You could also front-load the oats and get full spoons of orphaned marshmallows at the end, but that’s not what the chefs at General Mills intended when they crafted their recipe!!

So what does this have to do with my awesome granola?  These damned dried blueberries are my modern day purple horseshoe.  They add so much to the mix, but too many or too few can really throw the balance off.  So long to my casual grabbing of handfuls of granola.  This also flows over into my cooking about which Christina noted that I “really like to chop things up into little bits.”  My rationale for the intense chopping is simply a even distribution of flavor!  It makes perfect sense!!

Luckily attention to detail helps a bit with my chosen profession.  You kids who can’t enjoy your cereal without planning it out in a logical way, we look forward to you joining the ranks of computer geek-dom as you grow older (I accidently typed “odder”, which is probably just as fitting).

How I spent New Year’s Day

Resolutions for 2012

It’s time for New Year’s resolutions.  I’m a huge fan of continuously improving oneself to avoid complacency, and this time of year is perfect to focus in on that topic.  Here’s some of my resolutions for the next year.

• Write.  I want to write more this year.  I want to do a bit of creative writing as well as just general blogging.  Being the geek I am I’ve set a reminder for next December to come back and review these resolutions and gauge my progress.  For comparison sake, I’ll have written 34 entries in 2011.

• Learn.  I’m starting a new job so my brain’s circuitry will need to be a bit ready for burning new pathways.  In addition to on-the-job stuff, I’d like to take a further dip into some mobile development for several different platforms (Android, Windows Phone, maybe IOS).  My new job also offers tuition reimbursement, so I may reconsider some graduate education.  I’m also attempting more and more DIY projects at home.  Starting with my motorcycle, my car, and my house.

• Listen.  I want to reconnect with my inner music snob.  I used to have so many great playlists and music for every occasion.  I feel like for whatever reason over the past few years I’ve lost track with picking up new songs and creating hand-crafted playlists, and I hope to rectify that this year.

• Read.  I’m shooting for a book a month.

• Get fit.  Venerable isn’t it?  I’ve got some weight loss goals I’ve set for myself throughout the year.  I’m not planning on any particular diet or specific exercise regimen.  Instead I want to focus on consistent exercising and not over-indulging in food.  I’m at about 211 or so right now and I’m aiming for below 190 by December 2012.

All of these resolutions will (hopefully, if I follow through with my first resolution) become a category on this blog and I’ll update each when appropriate.

Have a Happy New Year!

Interlude 7

So now I am older
Than my mother and father
When they had their daughter.
Now what does that say about me?

Oh how could I dream of
Such a selfless and true love?
Could I wash my hands of
Just looking out for me?

Oh man, what I used to be.
Oh man, oh my, oh me.

“Montezuma” by Fleet Foxes

Day 1 – Movember 2011

Today is the first of Movember! I shaved clean yesterday and now starts the daily growth much to Christina’s chagrin.

Help raise awareness for men’s health issues by donating here:

http://mobro.co/eightybower

Pictures forthcoming!

PUGG Interview

I was recently interviewed by theUgamer regarding the founding of a gaming club I started back at Purdue.

College Orientation: Purdue University

The club Mike Liska and I founded was called PUGG, and it’s still going strong today.

A toast to Grandma

When I was in middle school, I would sometimes go up to visit my brother at the University of Michigan on the weekend.  This usually involved a football game and my parents.  I can distinctly remember one trip where I was dropped off on a Thursday or Friday, and my parents came back and picked me up on Sunday.

This trip was special.  It wasn’t just the limited engagement of his little brother visiting that my brother was lucky to experience.  I had brought treasure.

I had a loaf of grandma Bower’s bread.  This isn’t just any bread.  This was home, comfort, family, and butter, all mixed together.  I think we sliced, toasted, and ate every bit of that loaf of bread the night I arrived.

From what I can tell, Grandma Bower baked bread every week of her adult life while she still had a kitchen.  I base that on the seemingly limitless quantity of loaves available at her house.

It has probably been over a decade since I had Grandma’s bread in its original form.  There was maybe once or twice that I had a bread-machine-adapted recipe, but it never had quite the same texture.  My sister sent me the recipe a while back, and I’ve finally gotten around to baking it for the first time.

Here are loaves three and four.

A day later they are almost gone.  Here’s the recipe if you’re interested.  I recommend toasting at about a medium setting and butter.  Enjoy!

Interlude 6

If I know only one thing it’s that everything that I see
of the world outside is so inconceivable often I barely can speak
Yeah I’m tongue-tied and dizzy and I can’t keep it to myself
What good is it to sing helplessness blues?
Why should I wait for anyone else?

And I know, I know you will keep me on the shelf
I’ll come back to you someday soon myself.

If I had an orchard… I’d work ’til I’m raw.
If I had an orchard I’d work ’til I’m sore.
And you would wait tables and soon run the store.

Gold hair in the sunlight, my light in the dawn.
If I had an orchard I’d work ’til I’m sore.
If I had an orchard I’d work ’til I’m sore.

Someday I’ll be like the man on the screen.

“Helplessness Blues” by Fleet Foxes

Moonlight