Story Archive - January 2007

So Long and Thanks for All the Records (01/22/2007)

Tower Records is like a temple to me. I'll stay there for hours. Nobody can shop for records with me. It drives them out of their minds. - Billy Bob Thornton

I forget how sentimental I am. I was up in Sacramento over the weekend for a friends birthday party filled with go cart racing and Lord of the Rings Trivia (hard core trivia based on the books) when I happened to drive by one of the main Tower strips that were only a few miles from my house growing up. I used to peruse the books every Sunday between softball bowling. I also visited the Comics and Comics that was nestled in the middle.

Tower is closed and the stores are empty and I felt sad about it. Lots of people complain how big chain stores muscle out the old mom and pop shops. I know plenty of people who are proud of their trips to independently owned music stores, but I've always been proud of the old independent store that become a national chain from my home town. It's sad to see it close, but I contributed. I buy all my books from Amazon and all my music from iTunes, so Tower hadn't seen my business for nearly a decade.

I can still be proud of Java City and Shakey's Pizza.

Oh My, Work! (01/15/2007)

In Mexico an air conditioner is called a politician because it makes a lot of noise but doesn't work very well. - Len Deighton

I have worked over sixty hours for five of my last six weeks at the office. If not for the winter holidays, I might have exploded. I cannot remember the last time I have consistently worked so hard for so long. What needs to be done most to resolve the issue is to hire another person or two onto my team. If you know me, and where I work, and have anyone you can my way I would love to take a look at them.

MacWorld was last week and I was a little disappointed by it. On the day of the keynote, I like to head over to the Apple Store, give my credit card, and walk home with something awesome. This year, there was nothing I could get that day. I ordered my AppleTV and I'll order the Apple iPhone the day they start taking online orders, but I'll just have to wait a bit until them. I bought the iPod Hi-Fi the very first day it was available in stores. I called the Palo Alto Apple Store every day, "do you have the iPod Hi-Fi yet?" He was very excited the day it arrived and could say yes, and I was the first one to buy one.

The air conditioner construction in my apartment is nearly done. We've been without heat for over two weeks now. Last night there were people over and we resorted to running the oven with the door open to try and heat the apartment. The process has been painful, horribly painful, because it is miserable to work a long day and then come home to a freezing apartment. I'm working on my official comment/complaint letter I'll need to send the management. The worst thing is that the old heater in my room worked well, but the new wall mounted heater/air conditioner uses a heat pump, and that is a highly inefficient and less effective way to heat. I might actually be forced to go out and a buy a little electric heater.

Some Construction (01/07/2007)

Sometimes when things get worse they get better, but everytime things get worse they get worse. - Cory Doctorow

My apartment complex is working on a two year project to install air conditioning units into all the rentals. It's unfortunate that when the complex was built just a few years ago, no one was smart enough to suggest putting in air conditions are that time. I'm sure they assumed that since we live in the always-pleasant bay area, there was no need. That was a valid assumption. The climate change isn't fast enough to cause it to get very hot, but a one week heat wave over the previous summer got enough rich doctor residents annoyed that the apartments knew they needed to do it.

The project is incredibly inconvenient for a lot of reasons. The first is that the two places they are installing the units are the main room and my bedroom. All items must be moved at least four feet away from the exterior wall. It makes our main room completely unusable and my bedroom is crammed into a corner. We're half-way through the two week project, and there are huge holes cut in the walls. The holes don't go all the way through, but are cut deep enough to expose the fiberglass insulation (and that can't be good to be breathing) and remove almost all insulation. So now, during the coldest part of the winter, the rooms have no insulation.

The other major part of the problem is that animals must be kept out of the way of the construction from between 8am to 5pm each day and that is no fun for Ross' poor kitten who is locked up in Ross' room. The night before it started I bought a set of tent tarps and spread them throughout his room to try and cut back on the amount of kitty litter and food that would get spread everywhere.

We're halfway done with the process. The place is still hardly livable. I can't wait for it to be done so I can stop sleeping in the gutter outside.