Last Sunday, my wife and I, after reading the Sunday morning paper, found a compressor with 3 nail guns (a brad nailer, a stapler, and a finishing nailer) at Home Depot for only $300 some-odd dollars.  If you're a guy, you know that secretly you've always wanted one since you first saw Bob Villa fixing up his "Old House".  Well, I'm no different.  I've always wanted one, if only for the racing pit crew sound of an air drill.

Unfortunately, we've been too busy this week to open it up and play with it but I was able to assemble it Friday afternoon after work.  We bought a few attachments; tire connection with gauge and a generic spray nozzle.  What can I say, I LOVE IT.  I've only blown up some bike tires so far but man it is the coolest thing.  I was hoping to use the nailer this weekend but haven't had the chance yet.  Hopefully, I'll be able to set those up and nail something together this week or weekend.  We need legs for a table top to be used as a work table in the garage. 

The same day we also bought a table saw (we wanted a mitre saw but had to back order it, it'll be here in a week).  Saturday afternoon I put that together but I have yet to use it.  For the legs to the table, I need to cut down some 4x4 pieces of wood.  I'll use the table saw thank you.  Mitre saw might be a bit more practical but again, we don't have it yet.

Why all the tools (pronounced toys)?  Well, I like to think I can build things and I love tinkering with wood while my wife has a more practical use; she's going to build her own stretcher bars for canvases.  With the mitre saw, brad nailer and stapler, she'll be able to build canvases for a fraction of the price compared to purchasing pre-made ones.  We like that.

Next on my list will be an air drill and socket wrench so I can work on my motorcycle a bit.  It's summer and I need to get it drivable again.  And yes, I need to have it sound like a Indy 500 pit crew when I'm working.

Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997)

Dr. Evil: The details of my life are quite inconsequential... very well, where do I begin? My father was a relentlessly self-improving boulangerie owner from Belgium with low grade narcolepsy and a penchant for buggery. My mother was a fifteen year old French prostitute named Chloe with webbed feet. My father would womanize, he would drink. He would make outrageous claims like he invented the question mark. Sometimes he would accuse chestnuts of being lazy. The sort of general malaise that only the genius possess and the insane lament. My childhood was typical. Summers in Rangoon, luge lessons. In the spring we'd make meat helmets. When I was insolent I was placed in a burlap bag and beaten with reeds- pretty standard really. At the age of twelve I received my first scribe. At the age of fourteen a Zoroastrian named Vilma ritualistically shaved my testicles. There really is nothing like a shorn scrotum... it's breathtaking- I highly suggest you try it.

While perusing CodeProject this morning looking for a .NET slider control example I ran across this interesting article.  Not that I need a "Combo control" but I decided to check it out to see what it was about, I scrolled down (about a quarter of the way down the page) and noticed the following:



Now if you ever find something that says "The user control has four public properties:", wouldn't you expect to see ONLY 4 items detailed right below it and NOT 6?

I've decided to redo the look and feel for my blog.  Because traffic has picked up a bit, I thought a cleaner, more professional look was in order.

What do you think?

If you still see the old look, hit ctrl+F5 to reload the new css and images.

My horoscope for today (from my wife):

Success is also about the long run, not just the immediate payoff. Remind yourself of that when you start getting impatient and are tempted to take shortcuts. You want the real thing, and you want it to last, remember?

Sometimes I need to remember that, especially when it comes to my side projects.  I get discouraged easily.

As many of you know, I have an off-shoot blog counting down the days Bush has left in office.  For the most part, it gets about a quarter to a third of the visitors of xerratus simply because I don't post to it too often nor do I promote it as much as this blog. 

With Bush's declining approval ratings, the never-ending illegal war in Iraq and gas prices at an all time high, I've noticed that the daily number of visits to the countdown increasing.  Today though, the number of visitors to the countdown have surpassed those to this blog.  Although, the day isn't over yet I'm eager to see if the numbers stay steady.  Will the "Days Bush has left" beat out "Happily stressed out, since 1974!"?  This also begs the question; will that trend remain or is it a just a fad?

I have to admit though, a lot of the traffic seems to be coming from this forum entry where the URL was submitted by a fan (honestly, it wasn't me) in one of the comments.  Even though the posting was added today, it doesn't mean that traffic hasn't been increasing before this.  Albeit (my new favorite word according to my wife), the posting has generated a good share of traffic today and may be the reason for the numbers passing those of xerratus.

I'll post the results tomorrow.

UPDATE: And the winner is.... the days Bush has left countdown!

Unique Hits
countdown: 111
xerratus: 91

Searches that resulted in a click-thru
counddown: 47
xerratus: 45

This morning I got paid.  Now that my account has money again, the first thing I did this morning before getting to work was to fuel up.  So I leave for work, a tad bit late but that's normal for me... so technically I left on time.  Riding on fumes, seriously, I pulled into the Fred Meyer gas station at 82nd ave & Johnson Creek Blvd.  My wife and I go there all the time because they have relatively priced gas but we also have the little Fred Meyer Reward cards, which knock off 3 cents per gallon.  These days, it's worth it.  

Already at the station was a large pickup truck with a trailer.  Nothing unusual and the attendant seemed to be talking with the guy and walking around the little office in middle of the station.  So I sat there... waiting... waiting... waiting, occasionally looking over my shoulder to see the attendant rummaging thru the office as if he trying to "find" something to do.  Nothing urgent behind it as if to say "I can't find the key to unlock the pumps" but rather "If I act like I don't see him, maybe he'll leave".  All the while, the large truck seems to be filling up.  

While this was all happening, another car pulls up and waits but not too long.  This driver pulled away less than a minute of waiting.  So, I followed suit and we both went across the street to the Conoco.  There, the nice attendant filled up my tank and had me on my way in less than a few minutes.  Satisfied, and now about 10 minutes late to work, I drove past the Fred Meyer station.  Still thinking that there could have been some trouble that the attendant was attending to I expected to see cars standing idly by as the attendant "finished" his imaginary search.  Low and behold, there were 3 cars (the big truck was gone) and one attendant servicing them.  What the fuck?  People, this is just a scant 4 minutes after I left with no service.  Now he's on the ball?  Come on!

The only thing I can think of is that the pickup truck that was there before me was having payment problems and the attendant was running around trying to either get the payment to go thru processing or unlock the cash drawer so that he could make change.  What ever the case, a nice "sorry, we're having some technical difficulties.  If you could bare with me for a couple minutes, I'll be right with you" would have been nice.  

<rant>
Which leads me to wonder why the hell can't I just pump it myself!  I've only been in Oregon for a few years which, like New Jersey, mandates that only gas station attendants can pump gas into your car.  Personally, I enjoy pumping my own gas.  Every time I go to Washington, I look forward to getting gas because I get to do it myself.  If things were different, I wouldn't have sat in my car waiting like an idiot for someone to help me do something that I could essentially do on my own.  
</rant>

Any who, I got my gas and made it to work only a few minutes late.  Do I have a bad taste in my mouth for Fred Meyer gas?  No.  I'll keep going back despite this little incident.  If it happens again, I'm not so sure though.

We had some friends over for dinner and drinks last night (Ty and Bernie).  My lovely wife cooked up broiled breaded chicken with whole roasted garlic, a side of polenta stuffed with cheese, tomatoes and mushrooms, caesar salad and tortellini soup; it was to die for.  She even got the approval from Ty who’s a chef.  That’s a big thing, like a restaurant getting a good review from a food critic.  No, we are not open to the general public.

Before dinner, Ty and Bernie helped me move the pool table that has been hibernating in the back of my truck since the weekend to a corner of the garage (read full story).  No, it’s not set up yet.  We still need to determine where it’ll go.  For now, we just propped it up against the wall until we clean the garage and figure out where it’s going to live.  Once we find a home for the pool table, we’ll have Ty and Bernie back over for dinner and drinks again … hint, hint (read, “I can’t move a 500lb pool table by myself”).

After dinner we all decided to play Yahtzee.  Both Nikki and I thought we had the game but it turns out that we have Word Yahtzee, circa 1978 (purchased at an estate sale a while back).  We all had fun and it was an interesting game but I think we all like regular Yahtzee better.  After a few beers and some wine, we could barely spell “IF” from the letters “YEFOSID”.  Although when you’re a bit tipsy, the good words come out; “CUM WADS”, “CUNT” and “ME IDIOT” just to name a few.  Not to brag, but I did manage to win.  Which brought back a vivid thought from the depths of my alcohol soaked mind: I’ve never lost at Monopoly!

Yup, I’m undefeated in that popular game of real-estate.  Albeit, I’ve only played about 4 or 5 times in my entire life and the first time I played was only about 3 years ago but that doesn’t change the fact that I have yet to lose.  So perhaps the next dinner, drinks and game outing we all have, Monopoly will have to be played instead of Yahtzee.  Who knows, maybe I’ll be toppled as the Monopoly Grand Champion… or maybe I’ll win again.

To make a short story long, Ty and Bernie are good friends that we need to see more of.  Maybe I’ll just keep moving the pool table to get them to come over more often.  Hell, I just need to answer my phone and return messages in all honesty.  They try to get together with us but my lazy-no-message-returning-ass keeps it from happening more often than not.  In the immortal words of almost everybody on News Years Eve; “I’m going to make more of an effort to get together with friends”.  There, I said it.  Happy New Year.

The 40 Year Old Virgin (2005)

Cal: You know what's a fun game? Take 3 Excedrin PM's and see if you can whack off before you fall asleep. You always win, that's the best part about the game.

Four!  Actually, that is all the people we had yesterday to move a pool table from our friends house (which just sold so we had to get it out this weekend) in Seattle.  For those of you who don't know, as I didn't until yesterday, pool tables are heavy... fucking heavy!  Here's a quick excerpt from a pool table manufacturer:

A pool table weight will vary between manufacture, style and thickness of slate. A good rule of thumb is to expect the table to weigh between 500-1000 pounds. This is about equivalent to 4-5 men standing in the same room. Better floor support will enhance the playability of the game. Floors that have minimal support will flex slightly as players move around the room. This will impact with the balance of the table over time.

So how did 4 people move a 500lb (give or take a hundred pounds) pool table?  Awkwardly!  First off, let me introduce the players; Me, my wife, our friend Shawn, and his wife Chrissy.  My wife is a bit under the weather and can't life heavy objects.  So that just leaves Shawn, his wife and I.  The heavy lifting was left to Shawn and I with Chrissy helping in the initial lift and stabilization when we had it standing up straight.

That brings me to how we actually moved it, seeing as we could not lift and carry it.  Once outside (we dragged it on its side up and out the back door) we laid it down flat and, to move it, lifted up one end and laid it down on the reverse side.  Basically, we end-over-ended it all the way to the truck.  Turns were tricky as we had to turn it while it was standing up straight then pivot on one corner.  Chrissy was able to stabilize and hold while Shawn and I lifted and pivoted one end.  All the while, my wife hurriedly moved 2 tarps along the yard as this was all going on.  Picture a large rock being rolled on logs; she was the one lifting up the last log and moving it to the first position.

This concert of awkwardness took about 2 hours and we were able to move a 500lb pool table from the back of the house to my truck.  Luckily, nobody got hurt and it didn't fall out of the truck on the way from Seattle back down to Portland.  Even luckier, it didn't rain; it was actually sunny and nice out.  Why is this lucky you ask?  Well first, it is Seattle and secondly, the forecast called for rain showers throughout the day.  Albeit, we did hit a small patch of rain near Olympia but the table was covered with a tarp and we had sun to dry it once that was over.

Long story short, I now have a pool table in the back of my truck in my garage and I now have to figure out how to get it out. 

A big thanks to Shawn and Chrissy for all their efforts and help.  Thanks to Angela for allowing us to come and take the pool table (for free I might add).  And thanks to my sweet, sweet wife who put all the pieces together and made this "move" more like a nice outing with friends. 

The Usual Suspects (1995)

Verbal: The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist.

Throughout any given day, I usually monitor my blogs activities via the DasBlog referrer’s page (Referrers.aspx).  Since I use a tabbed browser (Firefox), I keep the referrer's page open all day in one of my tabs and just go back to it to see the activity up to that point; call it my obsession.  Two things bug me about doing this though.  The first is having to refresh the page manually (not a big deal but an extra step).  The other is when I come back and refresh the page after my session has ended because it prompts me to re-login, and then I have to navigate back to the referrer’s page.

The first idea I had to solve this problem was to add the following code to my admin/homeTemplate.blogtemplate page in the <head> tag.

<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="300">

What this does, for those who don't know, is to automatically refresh the page in 300 seconds (5 minutes) well within my session timeout period.  A big problem arises out of this though; this would go on EVERY admin page including the add entry page.  Simply put, I'd have to add an entry within 5 minutes or else the page would refresh (not postback) and all of my data would be lost.  Not acceptable!

With that said, I had to come up with a way to utilize the <meta> refresh tag (because I like the simplicity of it) but only on the referrers page; enter JavaScript.  By default every page has the document object associated with it, which means that it also has a location object as well.  So all I had to do was check the document.location object for the existing href to see if that string had "referrers.aspx" within it.  If it did, I knew I was on the correct page and could add the <meta> tag.

<script language="javascript" type="text/javascript">
if(document.location.href.indexOf('Referrers.aspx') != -1)
{
    // Refresh the page every 300 seconds (5 minutes)
    document.write('<meta http-equiv=\"refresh\" content=\"300\">');
}
</script>

My solution is simple and can be added quickly by anyone who runs DasBlog as their blogging software.  Simply add the above <script> block to the admin/homeTemplate.blogtemplate within the <head> tag.  Viola, only the referrers page refreshes every 5 minutes.  So activity obsessed people, such as myself, can have easy access to our blog traffic by simply switching to that open tab throughout the day without having to hit refresh and/or re-login back in.

The Big Lebowski (1998)

Gunnery Blond Treehorn Thug: [holding up a bowling ball] What the fuck is this?
The Dude: Obviously you're not a golfer.

Why you ask?  Because I got this bug up my ass to dig up a tree in my backyard and move it to another location.  Eh, that shouldn't be too bad right?  Did I mention that it was a redwood... a 15 foot tall redwood?

Last year, my wife and I were at Portland Nursery, she looking at flowers and herbs I at trees, found a beautiful 8 foot tall redwood.  After some convincing, I suggested we get it and put it right outside our bedroom window.  Yeah it's a redwoood but it'll take YEARS for it to grow big, right?  NO!  Fucking thing grew a good 7 feet in one year... SEVEN FEET... S-E-V-E-N F-E-E-T!  So, before it got out of control my wife and I talked and thought it best to cut down an old, ugly looking tree right outside our fence and move the redwood there.

So last weekend, with only a tree saw, I chopped down the old tree in the corner.  Yeah, you read that right... all I used was a hand saw (insert dumbass quip here).  This weekend I dug up the redwood and transplanted it.  Now you have to realize that a 15 foot tall redwood is heavy to begin with but the damn root ball with encased dirt around it added to that weight two-fold.  The first day, Saturday, I dug up the tree but couldn't break a few of the last roots.  Then Sunday, I finally broke it free and found out just how heavy the fucker was.

After cleverly devising a lever system I got the thing out of the hole I dug (thought I could roll it out... HA) then, over the course of an hour, rolled, dragged and shimmied the poor guy to his new home.  My wife took pictures... I'm sure she'll post them on her blog sooner or later. 

So what have I learned today?  Moving a fucking redwood tree is a pain in the ass.  If you do it alone, be prepared to hurt the next day... and I mean hurt!

CORRECTION: My wife pointed out that we purchased the redwood 2 years ago so it grew 3 some-odd feet per year, not 7... still a lot though.

Full Metal Jacket (1987)

(Best war movie ever!)

Gunnery Sergeant Hartman: If you ladies leave my island, if you survive recruit training, you will be a weapon. You will be a minister of death praying for war. But until that day you are pukes. You are the lowest form of life on Earth. You are not even human, fucking beings. You are nothing but unorganized grabastic pieces of amphibian shit. Because I am hard you will not like me. But the more you hate me the more you will learn. I am hard but I am fair. There is no racial bigotry here. I do not look down on niggers, kikes, wops or greasers. Here you are all equally worthless. And my orders are to weed out all non-hackers who do not pack the gear to serve in my beloved Corps. Do you maggots understand that?

Kingpin (1996)

(This movie is on my list of 10 funniest movies of all time.)

Land Lady: What is it about good sex that makes me have to crap? You really jarred something loose tiger.

Now here's one you don't (and most likely wont) see too often; a Google 404 requested url not found while requesting the default www.google.com page.  Right after I snapped the screen shot, I refreshed and all worked fine.  So, I thought I'd share.

[click image to see the full-size]

A few weeks back, I read an interesting article concerning rumors of Apple's move to using Windows as their core operating system.  Things like moving to Intel-based chips and Microsoft’s declaration that it is not going to proceed with another version of Office for the Mac OS makes it very possible that Apple is going the way of Windows.  Not that there is anything wrong with that, Apple after all touts itself as a hardware company that makes high-end products.  Even as a PC user I know that to be true.  So why not make the switch and give Microsoft the headache of keeping the OS compatible with the thousands of new hardware products that come out on an almost daily basis?  Honestly, the only alternative I see to a Windows based Mac is to license the Mac OS for other PC manufactures to preload on PC's but I really don't see that in the horizon for Apple even with the switch to Intel.

So this morning I go to CNET News, part of my daily ritual, and the first article that caught my eye was Apple: Windows on a Mac is here.  Called Boot Camp, this program allows Windows to run natively on the newer Intel-based Macs; basically dual booting.  The user will get the option to select the Mac OS or the Windows XP OS at startup.  While it's not Windows "shipping" on a Mac, it is a step in the direction of being able to order a Mac with Windows installed.  

And why not?  Let’s face it, I'm a Windows man; I program in .NET, manage Windows Servers, own and administer multiple PC's but I have to tell you, Apple is becoming more appealing if I can run Windows on it.  My guess is that Apple can win over a lot of Windows users and take away a large share of the market from PC companies such as Dell, HP, and IBM.  

Just a few years back, before the iPod, I had my doubts about Apple and the direction the company was headed but now, if things keep progressing the way they are, those doubts are fading.  And who knows, maybe, just maybe, I'll own a Mac before the end of this decade.

While perusing the web this morning, I found this very nice, simple AJAX HTML editor.  Very simple in its design and implementation, I find that I can't stop playing with it (hey, mind out of the gutters!). 

Often, while developing sites or working on projects, I will work on some HTML trying to come up with either a layout or new style.  Either way, I usually create a quick test page, edit my code, and refresh the page in a browser while tweaking.  With this real-time editor, I can see my results as I type.  Simple but very effective. 

So go ahead, try it out... that's right, play with it for a little while but stop if it starts to chafe.

On this April Fools Day, Fark, once again, has been the only sight with the balls enough to change their front page.  Last year, they made it appear that they had been hacked, brilliant!  They actually had me going for the first few minutes.  This year, they're making it appear like you've some how logged in to Drew's 'User Abuse' tool. 

Like last year, every link will take you to the real Fark.com page.  It's just great to see a site as big as Fark poke fun at itself on April Fools Day. 

Fark is again this years April Fools Day contest winner.  Of what contest, I don't know.

UPDATE: Wow.  Check out the April Fools Day Wiki listing the days pranks on the web and radio for 2006.