whatcha doing?

[Pintgudge]

Yeah Rench, but at least you entirely did RAG!

[guitargeek]

Procrastinating.

Go fix your bike.

[Skkot]

I'm on a plane, heading back to where Ragnarok was to retrieve my cooking gear that little fuck decided to keep. I plan to be back in Denver Tuesday night; didn't know if Tuesdays at Streets of London is a regular thing.

[guitargeek]

Whoa, what the fuck! How'd that happen?

[thack]

I'm on a plane, heading back to where Ragnarok was to retrieve my cooking gear that little fuck decided to keep. I plan to be back in Denver Tuesday night; didn't know if Tuesdays at Streets of London is a regular thing.

Tuesday nights at Streets are, by the new gods and the old, still a thing. 8pm is when $2/u-call-it starts.
You will tell us a story, yes?
Also, we could have gone to retrieve it for you, but now that you're already on a plane, we will welcome you and drink to your presence.

[goose]

I'm on a plane, heading back to where Ragnarok was to retrieve my cooking gear that little fuck decided to keep. I plan to be back in Denver Tuesday night; didn't know if Tuesdays at Streets of London is a regular thing.

Tuesday nights at Streets are, by the new gods and the old, still a thing. 8pm is when $2/u-call-it starts.
You will tell us a story, yes?
Also, we could have gone to retrieve it for you, but now that you're already on a plane, we will welcome you and drink to your presence.

I miss the Denver cell. I'm trying, truly trying to break away from all this work and get out there. Will update accordingly

[Toonce(s)]

[media]http://youtu.be/qEC7TBI8IT8[/media]

Spent all day with lawyers, came out with a MOU. Settled! Legal separation as of Sep1 and final Jan1. Awash with feelings I cannot name or describe.

[Skkot]

I shouldn't have left the box there for UPS. That guy figured the stuff was worth less than an airline ticket, and he could use it there. He miscalculated. I'll look forward to seeing Denver folks!

[guitargeek]

MEMORANDUM

TO: World

Do not fuck with Skkot.

[Toonce(s)]

Note to self: Buy Skkot a beer tonight

[thack]

Note to self: Buy Skkot a beer tonight

probably have to get in line for that.
i sent out a mass text. hoping for good turnout.

[Jaeger]

MEMORANDUM

TO: World

Do not fuck with Skkot.

Just remember: Skkot always has a way to dispose of the bodies.

And good on ya, Skkot. It's not often mere mortals get to right petty wrongs like that.

--Jaeger

[DerGolgo]

Spent yesterday morning in the psychotherapist's waiting room, for the 9AM appointment. 50 minutes, first session. After she didn't show up by 9:45, I left. I had had to involve the shop-steward to arrange that I'd have time for the recurring appointment every Wednesday. I was later informed the therapist had, by accident apparently, jotted me down for 2PM. Oh, after trying to get a damn therapy spot for 6 months, that's just how you want the treatment of your depression and ptsd to start, yeah.
I actually had to resort to sending registered letters to therapists, asking for an apointement. Email? Phone? Psychotherapists here don't do that.

I apologize for venting. I wrote this after actually calming down.

After getting home late last night, I spent a few hours tallying up how much income I lost due to the accident. A surprising number.
Spent this morning going through various different accident-related bills, tallying those up, also.
Why?
Because today, finally, the opposing side's insurance will meet with me to find a settlement. It took them 9 months for their medical experts to examine me. Third round of full examinations, btw. The last one was November last year, the eye stuff. Took them only till motherfucking JUNE, late June at that, to type up their findings. They had plenty of time to type up short letters as to asking for some more time, that their report would come soon ... I, for one, suspect malicious delay tactics, but my lawyer disagrees. He figures more on incompetence.
Never attribute to malice what can be explained by incompetence, truly.

The insurance guy I'll meet today is new. The last one was ... slick. The kind of "hey, let's be buddies and work this out" sort of properly dangerous slick.
After my lawyer had already notified them they should make a settlement offer so I could refuse it and move along (a letter composed at a time I was still asking "where am I" a few times a day), he still finagled to offer me a big number to make it all go away when we met. I still had a big cognitive deficiency then, but that I recall. I also recall how he explained to me how they'd subtract 10 bucks for each day in hospital, since they'd feed me there and I didn't have to buy groceries. Making it all sound like I was applying for welfare.
That was also the guy who's "fax machine broke", so the ergo-therapists threatened to sick a collections agency on me when a bill I had been assured the insurance would handle directly hadn't, in fact, been handled.
I'd joke that I'd expect the anguished screams of lost souls to underscore the man opening his mouth. Except that, what with him working for one of the world's largest financial services companies, that's a reasonable expectation.

On a more positive note:
After TWO years, and a whole comedy of errors (seriously, I'm almost considering to write a screenplay), the experts report about my arm is finally in. You know, the one I had to "work through the pain!" arm, with the failed pin and everybody competing to misdiagnose it.
The second report now, the first one had found no evidence of negligence. Because my lawyer's assistants, instructed to send the x-rays to the experts, knew that x-rays came on CDs. What the square-yard brown folder I had liberated from the clinic (before it's inevitable and irrecoverable "accidental" misplacement) could possibly be, they had no clue. Kids, damn them and their discmen and VHS and stuff. Like I said, screenplay.
The second report begins with two pages explaining why the first medical expert was a highly qualified, diligent and conscientious fellow who hadn't made any mistakes, listing why every single one of his findings was correct, actually, and that it wasn't the poor man's fault nobody had shown him the x-ray.
Those two pages are followed by half a page basically calling for an air-strike against the clinic that fucked me over.
I'm meeting my lawyer week after next. This will be exciting.

[guitargeek]

Fuuuuuuuck...

[red]

I spent most of today replacing the cv shafts on my Element. Got one side done and the other is at about 60%. I'm exhausted but can't go to sleep because I'm stuck at my laptop assisting with series of server migrations. By assisting, I'm calling the 24/7 call centers to make sure all is well w/their systems as they move each connection.

Trying to entertain myself w/the Android FallOut game but it's boring.

Must stay awake....

*edit*
Also, I opened the garage this morning to get my tools out and saw a nice puddle of oil under my XJ. WTF? I changed the oil a week ago, it's been fine all week as I have been commuting. No leaks and nothing weird until today. Not sure what's going on. Gotta have either the XJ or the Element road worthy (prefer both) by Sunday evening.

[DerGolgo]

Had another lawyer's appointment this morning.
Then, I did the me equivalent of ladies shoe-shopping.
The hardware store.

For, as an incorrigible vapist, I mix my own e-liquid.
Which, depending on the aroma used, may take seven minutes ... or seven days to be ready for consumption.
Because, apart from the occasional shake, just entropy doing it's thing while it sits around is all the mixing that'll go on. Kitchen appliances are inappropriate for this.
So buy a damn magnetic stirrer!
I would, but ...

Spoiler

Show

... the cheapest ones cost about 80 Euros, and they are very bare-bones simple. My brother in law, chemist (the laboratory kind, not the pharmaceutical variety), told me those 80 buck things can't cost more than 30 to make.
So, I went on the internets and researched and ordered some things. A grid-to-12V DC converter, a CPU fan, an RPM controller, an adapter cable. Actually, as it turns out, I hadn't read the CPU fan item description correctly, it came with an RPM controller out of the box, didn't need the external one, even came with an adapter cable. Meh, spares are always good.
Today at the hardware store, I bought some nuts and bolts, literally, some 2-component glue, and no casing. Couldn't find anything I like, so a 59 cent Tupperware box from the grocery store got the nod.
Also went to the electronic-things store (also used bikes, analog and motorized, and fishing tackle) and bought a switch and some solder.

Finally assembly occurred! All in, subtracting the stuff I bought because I is dumb and cantz readz, about 30 euros in materials, not counting the magnets.
Originally, I had taken apart a bunch of old harddrives. The super-ossum magnets from the ancient 200gb Samsung could be liberated from their mounting brackets with some effort, those from the 1000gb Samsungs could not.
And, genius that I am, I thought I didn't need the super-2-component-glue after all, what with how well the magnets stuck to the fan's hub on their own accord.
Cue the nuts and bolts around the fan's perimeter being added, and you know where this goes. Fucked up magnets.
Lucky me, I also had some other fairy strong neodymium magnets lying around so, carefully fixing them in place with glue this time, I went and built myself a magnetic stirrer today.
I even soldered without a soldering iron. The "creme-brulet-browner" I use to heat-treat wire would have been called a compact brazing torch before the French culinary invasion. Coupled with an old screwdriver I managed to do the single soldering job, adding the little switch so I wouldn't have to plug-in and unplug to turn the thing on and off.

Unfortunately, the fish aren't here.
I either have a magnetic stirrer, or a generic-tupperware box with a whole lot of electric things shoddily affixed to it, and I cannot try it out.
I do have a magnetic stirrer fish, from university, but I fear it might be too large for my liquid bottles and not very magnetic anymore, after a decade.
Gotta wait for the new fish to see whether it's a pile of fail or a wonderful creation of my indefatigable ungenius!
This is what the horror looks like, assembled with the almost entirely, but not quite, wrong tools:

[guitargeek]

Sounds like something I'd cook up...

[DerGolgo]

Sounds like something I'd cook up...

High praise sir, thank you!
Because, "something GG builds" sounds to me like "something that works well".

[wyckedsin]

You could have gone to the pet store and purchased a very small liquid pump for a small aquarium.

[DerGolgo]

Do you suggest to affix the magnets to the spinning thingy?

[guitargeek]

Do you suggest to affix the magnets to the spinning thingy?

The spinning thingy (impeller shaft) is a magnet. He's suggesting that you use the pump to circulate the juice, but I imagine that the pump would soon get gummed up by residue.

[DerGolgo]

Do you suggest to affix the magnets to the spinning thingy?

The spinning thingy (impeller shaft) is a magnet. He's suggesting that you use the pump to circulate the juice, but I imagine that the pump would soon get gummed up by residue.

Quite. The whole idea of the magnetic stirrer is also to minimize the mess, the cleaning. If I used that pump, even if it didn't get gummed up, it would be a major cleaning effort after preparing a liquid and to make it ready for preparing the next.
Also, magnetic stirrers mix very, very well. It's why they use them in chemistry labs. No mess, excellent mixing. Not even any pipes to seal or nothing, you just plop the fish in the vessel full of liquid, not even a shaft sticking in there.
Though I wonder, if that impeller is magnetic ... would that pump work with zero liquid going through it? I guess one could hook up just a glass of water. If the magnetic field of the impeller is oriented right, it's basically a magnetic stirrer already ... hm ...
Well, got mine now, I'll wait for the new fish and see what's what.

[calamari kid]

...would that pump work with zero liquid going through it?

Yup. It's actually designed to be submerged in whatever you're pumping. The pic doesn't show it fully assembled. When it is, the liquid is pulled in from the front of the unit and pushed out the top spout. Cleaning actually wouldn't be too bad, I do it all the time on the pumps in our cat's water dishes. The only moving bit is the impeller. Pop off the front cover, pull out the impeller/magnet, give it all a good soak and scrub, and you're done.

[wyckedsin]

a friend of mine has horses that are on the aged side. He mixes up their medications that use PG as a filler using one of those pumps. He disassembles the whole assembly, puts it in a mesh bag he picked up at the grocery store and washes it on the top shelf of his dishwasher. He simply drops the whole assembly into the container he is mixing the liquid up with. Some of them come with a small flow control to adjust how much fluid is moved at a time. Average cost for that size is about $7US

[DerGolgo]

Yeah, that all sounds like a possibly suitable solution for mixing one sort of liquid.
I'll be mixing different flavors, and I don't think I want Coconut in my Cappuccino (although ...).
Also, while I still use some PG in my liquids, I'm at 75% vegetable glycerine (VG), which is much, MUCH thicker than PG.
With the magnetic stirrer, if it works (here fishy fishy, come here ...), I'll just throw all the ingredients into the bottle that servers for final storage anyway, throw in a stir fish, put the top on and let the magnets do their thing. At the end of it, a half-inch pill-shaped thing with a teflon surface and the steel stick I use to fish it out of the bottle will be all that need cleaning.
But thanks for the idea!

[DerGolgo]

When I moved out of my parent's house, I moved to the student dorm. Which had coin-op washing machines and dryers.
After I moved out of there, I bought my own cheap-but-cheerfull washing machine. But no tumble dryer, plain don't have the room.
So, evrything gets hung up to dry. Stuff gets dry, too. Even the towels.
But have you ever tried a towel dried like that?
As it is, I've been tired of rough, scratchy towels for a while already.
So, now, for the very first time in my life, I'm sitting in an actual laundromat, waiting for the washing machine to finish with my towels so I can load them into the glorious tumble drier.
Ooohh, fluffy towels. This will be ossum!!

[Zim]

When I do the laundry (which is most of the time), it gets line dried as often as possible. Towels included.

I call them 60 grit, and tell my wife that they're exfoliating. She tells me to get bent.

[xtian]

now that rolly's XJ6 is sold and gone to become someone else's little bitch (work all day, sleep outside, never get any love) I spent 3 hours building an elaborate network of articulated tubes from the drier machine to the window of the garage door in which I adapted a grid as aesthetically as possible to not be exposed to the wrath of all the other elderly people living in my square, so that I never have to care about drying towels again.

[Bigshankhank]

WTH I thought you Germans were all about austerity?

We line dry as much stuff as possible. Years back our dryer crapped out and in an effort to hurry up and get some laundry done the wife and I bought a xmas tree style drying stand and put it up in the backyard. We saw a $40 reduction in our electric bill that month, which made believers out of us. I managed to fix the dryer (starting a long aggravating string of appliance repair projects) but we still rely on the line more than anything.

[DerGolgo]

WTH I thought you Germans were all about austerity?

Yes, obviously we are!
We are so superior at it, have such competence and qualification, we don't even need to practice it anymore ourselves! We must, however, bestow our wisdom upon the lesser peoples in the world! If they only do austerity as we tell them to they to, one day, might be able to live austere without actual austerity!
You know the sort. The Greeks. Or working classes, even here!