Fish and more

After a massage, starbucks, 5 more peppermint shrimp, and 50 pounds of lace rock I'm ready to add a bit more live sand. One end is a bit lower than the rest. I'd like to add some live rock soon, but I'll need to wait until the lights are on more than 3 hours a day (they are being incrementally increased each week). One of the small damsels has been looking a bit messed up lately. It stopped eating and went to the bottom this morning. The shrimp had a snack.

Niece Sammy

Roger and Dave from xmas

Keep off the grass

Tank

The tank has some new critters this week: 5 peppermint shrimp, 4 nassarius snails, 10 mexican turbo snails, 4 scarlet reef hermits. Ammonia 0 - 0.25 ppm, Nitrates 0 ppm, Nitrites 0 ppm, SG 1.020 (still low), Ph. 8.0 (still low), temp 76F. In went some RO top off water, salt mix, and buffer.

Last night was a wine class downtown at CFU. At about 3 hours, it was fun.

This Thursday I disappear to Mexico for a week. I could use some more working days, but it's here already and there is not much you can do to change it.

Sleeping

Sleeping is for pussies. Who needs sleep?

Some new interesting divx hardware out now that is lan based. Play video/music from various formats from your media server/computer.
Check it out here.

Sean, Robin and Kim on movie night

Kim does her John Travolta move

Tuesday

I took yesterday off. Cardio today, some computer work, fisher, projects, etc.

Today it's grey out. Blah!

Threw some turbo snails in the tank. Bought and set up a RO filter in the basement.

It looks like the missy higgins concert in April (san fran) is sold out already.

TCA (corked) wine

If you've had a wine that ended up musty, blah, and generally tasting like a wet dog, then it might not be the wine -- it might be contaminated with TCA. TCA (2,4,6-trichloranisole) sometimes contaminates corks in very small concentrations (parts per billion) which ends up ruining the taste of wine.

People have different levels of sensitivity to TCA, so it may be a problem for some people over others. If you have a wine that may be contaminated, return it for a replacement bottle at the store. TCA is harmless in the concentrations found in wine, so don't worry about that part. Just get another bottle and try again. TCA contamination, or 'corked' wine probably accounts for up to 20% of bottles sold. Screw caps don't have this problem.

During a wine tasting at the house last summer, we had two identical bottles -- one ended up corked, and the other one wasn't. The difference was very noticeable. If you ever have a chance to compare two identical bottles in that way, do it. The TCA won't hurt you, and you'll know in the future what to look for in a potentially corked bottle of wine.

2-18-05 Wine event pictures

Wine event 2-18-05 California Cabernet Sauvignon pictures.

Click to view.

2-18-05 wine event ratings

Wine rating results in pdf format. Click to download.
California Cabernet Sauvignon

Lori

Sean & Lori

Fiona movie

Fiona at Law school. Click to watch. The movie is 3.95MB. You'll need the QuickTime free viewer from Apple.



Outside her school



My Aunt Fran drove me to the airport so we could chat

Missy concert, San Fran, Tank stuff

Let's see. I come back and crowbar the mail out of the box. The tank temp controller is putting out some kind of 'cat dying' wail because the heater failed while I was gone. The temp had drifting down to about 72F from 76F (luckily I hadn't set the heat in the house to 60 or something). I threw in the 2 new 500 watt titanium heaters, and waited.

There may be some dead fish in there. I can't find a couple. Oh well.

Here are some concert pictures:


Back stage after the concert



Playing 'Katie' by sean's request



More concert pictures

Check out her site: www.missyhiggins.com

I'll be back there in April for another.

Missy concert

The concert was really fun. Afterwards we hung out back stage and got to visit for about an hour or so. I'll post pictures/video when I get back to Denver tonight.

I've been doing all of Fiona's law classes this week. This morning is evidence. It's been interesting. I like it.

Last night for dinner was a big sushi night. The sushi out here is very good -- but expensive.

After class I'm on the plane at 2pm. I have an aunt here that may visit me at the college before I go. We're coordinating.

San Fran - Wed

I made it alive to San Fran yesterday. It's been raining here.

The airplane out here was pretty empty -- but I slept anyway, so it doesn't matter. After getting in I went with Fiona to her last law class. She's year 2.

Today 3 more classes with her (it's interesting, since I've been thinking about law school anyway) and then tonight is the Missy Higgins concert. That should be fun.

I brought a book so she could study between classes. 'The air conditioned nightmare' by Henry Miller. Maybe I'll finish it this time.

Tonight some sushi and then concert fun.

Ok...shower time.

Airport

I'm off to the airport soon. The tank is doing better. The temp is solid at 76F, and the decreased lighting is making the algae dissipate. I'm updating my ipod (rebuilt the computer last week) because all my playlists are gone. Apparently the one song I bought from the itunes music store won't play anymore because it's 'not authorized on this computer'

I hate DRM.

Fly fly away

I'm off tomorrow for a few days in San Francisco. There is a concert I'd like to see. It should be fun...

tank update

The heater controller showed up, but they sent the wrong heaters. I'll have to make due for a few days until they send the correct ones.

I've decided to gradually bring up the lights. I need the Nitrates to fall so I can get some tank cleaners in there. It's basically brown goop. The light timers are set to 1hr/day for this first week.

I should have done that in the first place. I'm listening to some bad advice.

tank update

The brown stuff is diatom shells. Diatoms are basically algae that use silicates to create tiny shell like structures. They're common in a new tank for a couple of reasons: high silicates likely from tap water, high Nitrates from the Ammonia cycle, and energy from the lights. Below you can see nitrogen bubbles in the sand:

The deep sand is anoxic at some point. Nitrates are being converted to Nitrogen gas from bacteria in the sand. At some point, the bacteria in the sand will grow to a point or the Nitrate levels will fall, and the diatoms will stop growing. At that point, I can add some diatom eaters and the tank will clear.

The nitrogen cycle is fascinating. Fish produce Ammonia waste from metabolism. Ammonia is aerobically oxidized by bacteria to Nitrites. Nitrites are aerobically oxidized by another kind of bacteria to Nitrates. Nitrates are reduce in an anoxic environment deep in the sand to Nitrogen gas. The gas escapes, reducing the total nitrogen load in the tank.

Another anoxic bacteria can reduce sulfates to hydrogen sulfide gas. I've read a lot of discussion about this. Some people advocate stirring the sand to prevent this from occurring. The problem is, you oxidize the sand and remove the Nitrate reduction pathway.

I guess I may know more soon enough.

Space Ghost

Click to watch the video. The size is 13.3MB.

trunk monkey

Click to watch the video. The size is 2.13MB.

Robin and Kim video

Click to watch the video. The size is 12.6MB. You can watch it using apple's quicktime player. The original file was 61.7MB, but I turned it into a MPEG-4 data stream.

Outlook folder

Well, I created a bunch of outlook pst files for old clients and move some emails out of my main folder. I'm down from 1700MB to 800MB. Still some work to do. Luckily I'm running gigabit ethernet off of my raid server (15K rpm scsi drives).

Basket girl

Click to watch the movie. The file size is 661KB.

MIA

Nietzsche. MIA since 1992.

MIA

Sid. MIA since 1996.

Tank

Screw it. I bought a new controller and (2) 500W titanium heaters. The new controller does +/- 0.1F accuracy, with digital readout and alarms. It also can control a chiller, in case the tank get's too warm this summer.

Tank

Stupid tank heater isn't doing what it is supposed to. Woke up and the tank was 73F. That's about 3F lower than it should be. The Damsels in there now will probably be ok, but that would seriously fuck up anything else.

Why is it that the best heater in the store is some stupid piece of shit with a rotary dial temperature setting? +/- 1F control? What kind of crap is that? I could design something better in about 3 hours.

Screw it. I'm getting 2 new heaters. They better have a digital setting for temp and something better than +/- 1F control window.

J. Moreau & Fils 2002 Vouvray

This one was a bit too sweet for me, but it was still good. About $10/bottle

Loire Valley, France

The Loire Valley is the largest white wine region in France.
You can read more about the region here.

MIA

Izzy. MIA since February 2004.

MIA

Sophia. MIA since February 2004.

MIA

Katie. MIA since February 2004.

MIA

Jen. MIA since 1999.

Bush

MIA

Joe Keating. MIA since October 2004

MIA

Brian Field. MIA since 1988.

MIA

Howard and Elena Roepnack. MIA since October 2004.

This girl I need to spend more time with

Tank update

Here is the current tank specs:
Ammonia 0 ppm
Nitrites 0 ppm
Nitrates 5 ppm
ph 8.0
SG: 1.021

The ph is a bit low. Hopefully I've gone through the ammonia spike and soon the nitates will fall. I'd like to put some cleaners in there. I'll have to put some ph buffer in there before stuffing any more fish in. That shouldn't be a problem.

I like her already

Monster outlook file

It looks like my outlook pst file is about 1.7GB. That's way too big. I'll have to do something....

Office view

View of my office. The box open on the desk is a current project -- an audio video router for Sprint, with Ethernet, serial, compact flash, voice prompt system over telephone, learning IR remote, and IR out ports. The unit uses an ARM7 processor from OKI. It's currently in manufacturing out of China.

Fish tank

I'm getting an algae bloom. I knew it would happen, but I'm not enjoying it. It's a new tank, so I expected it.

Yesterday a bunch of people were over, and I had to explain why I only had 7 fish in there (damsels). Everyone wondered where all the fish were. I had to explain that the tank was new and needed to go through an Ammonia cycle before anything else would have a chance of living. I'm hoping that the 420 pounds of live sand in there will basically make the cycle pretty mild. I need to get some algae eaters in there soon.

More sitting room pictures

More house pictures with the new camera.

Feed links

I added some new feed links on the main page. I had to dust off the html book. It's been a while...

Fat cat

New camera does video too.

I guess the new camera does video too. That's kind of neat.


Click to watch the video. The size is 7.7MB. You can watch it using apple's quicktime player. The original file was 36.7MB, but I turned it into a MPEG-4 data stream.

Beautiful agony dot com

Got orgasm?
www.beautifulagony.com

read my lips

Goals

Focus on your goals. Just don't get caught focusing.

Perm retainer broke

I got my braces off when I was about 11 or 12. Since then, I've had this permanent lower retainer. The other day it just broke off. I went into the dentist today thinking I'd get it replaced, but since I have a lower molded splint for grinding/clenching my teeth in my sleep, he suggested that I wouldn't need to get the retainer replaced.

We'll see.

I ordered another battery for the new camera last night. It's interesting what you can find on ebay. It's coming in from Hong Kong.

I had a client meeting this morning that went fine. I need to run to the gym here soon... I was up early getting ready for the meeting instead of working out.

The fish seem fine.

New camera

The new camera showed up today. Actually the fed ex guy hung something on the door and I picked it up. He said he came by at 2:30, but I was here.

It's pretty cool. I took a few test shots and uploaded them to the server. The pictures look good at 5MP. The old camera was a coolpix 995 at about 3MP. The new one is about 1/4 the size of the old one, so I'll be more likely to bring it along.

I have a 1GB SD card in it now, so I can store up to 408 pictures. I'd like to get a spare battery.

Get boinked

Reserve your copy today!

Free cat anyone?

Morning

A bit more of that up at 3am thing again. I didn't buy anything this time (which is good). Today I'm off to Judy's house for a super bowl party.

I'll feed the fish, do some cardio, maybe work a bit before going over there.

I have tickets for San Francisco after valentines day. I'm going for a concert for a few days. It should be fun.

It's grey out today.

Random from the web

Maybe she's always got the bear?

Jeff visits

Jeff came by and picked up his computer. We're doing a swap -- his old hardware for something a bit newer. I'll use his old computer for something....

Kim and Robin might come over later. I'm not sure yet. I'm looking for kind of a quiet evening.

I'm kind of in the mood for some video games. I don't do that very often, but tonight I may dissapear into deus ex 2 on the xbox with some wine.

Xcel

Damn.
The Xcel bill this month was $274! What a rip off!

The workout went fine today. The temp changes on the tank is still a problem -- I haven't put in the new heater yet. I tracked my new camera and it should be here Tuesday. Yesterday I bought a 1GB SD card for it at Sams club while shopping.

Tonight I'm going to a play with the girl.

Beer

Click to watch the movie.

New digital camera DMCFX7

The problem with being up at 3:30AM on the web is that sometimes I buy things. I needed a new digital camera anyway. The coolpix 995 I have already is too big to take to the mountains or on vacation. The new camera is 5Mp.

House pictures

I've been working on the house a bit lately. Here are a couple of pictures:

Who needs an alarm clock?

...When you're up at 3:30AM every night anyway?

Fish tank gets lights

I put the lights in tonight. There are two lights, 36 inches long each, with two sets of bulbs. There is a dawn/dusk set on a timer, and a regular day set on a timer. Here is the tank with lights on....

Fish tank temp excursions

There is about a 1 degree F temperature excursion on the fish tank during a 24 hour period (not good). It appears that the 300W heater I have in the sump is a bit underpowered for the heat loss. It seems to be on all the time.

The tank is near a sliding glass door, and it has been a bit colder out lately. I'll have to run to the store and pick up another heater. I need to order lights anyway, so it's probably a good time to go down there and do it.

Also, the plastic hydrometer I have is a piece of shit. I need something that will give a more reproducible salinity measurement.

I've been doing some work on a patent infringement case today. My job is to review parts of the firmware and determine claim infringement. We started out with paper copies, but that soon appeared to be worthless. There are 1133 separate files in the firmware. Luckily today, I received an electronic copy of the design. I'm using codewright to parse the program and follow the state machine.

I bailed early on the workout today. Everyone I know is sick, and I think I'm fighting something off. I'd rather miss a day or two as opposed to a week.

Restraining orders are just another way of saying I love you

When you care enough to send the very best -- use a process server.

Buy your shirt here.

Geyser peak Chardonnay, Alexander Valley 2003

Vikki found this wine recently. I bought about 6 bottles. It's not very expensive, at about $11 a bottle. We tried a couple of them at the beginning of the last wine event. It seemed to go over well. You can learn more about this wine here.

Dirty story

Probably the best play I've seen so far in the 2004-2005 season is "Dirty Story'. I enjoyed it so much, I actually went twice, which I never do...

One of the leads is Susan Pourfar, a new addition to the DTC crew. She did a fantastic job.



The fish seem happy this morning.

My workout went well. I've been doing a 7 week program for the past few months that I really like. Basically it's a progressive loading program that works like this:

M,W,F : 30 minutes heart rate target cardio, lift weights
T,TH, S: 60 minutes heart rate target cardio

lifting:
week 1,2: 15 reps, whole body, 3x week progressive weight increase (last day to max load)
week 3,4: 10 reps, whole body, 3x week progressive weight increase (last day to max load)
week 5,6: 5 reps, whole body, 3x week progressive weight increase (last day to max load)
week 7: no lifting, light cardio.

Tonight I'm volunteering.

T-shirt hell dot com

www.tshirthell.com