Scattered thoughts

Domain names for sale or rent... lol xd omg.

noreply@blogger.com (Jason DAngelo) — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 09:54:00 +0000

Well, it is that time of year again. Time to clean-out the closet of investments. That, plus my investment funds are falling since I have been spending all my time programming and researching, and not pestering people to contemplate investing. Wow, I blink, and another year passed. I wish time was more relevant. But the things I have learned in that year... OMG. LOL. XD

Ok, here are some of the websites that I have acquired, and I am looking to sell or rent, to get funding to further this project. Rent would be 1/100th of the asking BUY price, for direct advertisement space on the pages as I try to sell them all over the net. Exposure is what I do best. The rest is up to you. The format for prices will be, (AUCTION price), (BUY price), (RENT price). All prices are in USD. A price of $0.00 is NO-SALE, for RENT-ONLY. Rent is per year for sites not listed as for sale, and until the site sell, for domains that are selling.

- www.ISAWHIM.com
(I Saw Him), (Is A Whim)
(AUCTON: $0.00), (BUY: $0.00), (RENT: $80.00)

- www.TreasureBanner.com
(Treasure Banner)
(AUCTON: $0.00), (BUY: $0.00), (RENT: $80.00)

- www.FeedMeYour.com
(Feed Me Your Dot Com)
(AUCTON: $0.00), (BUY: $0.00), (RENT: $80.00)

- www.MYeTAG.com
(My E Tag)
(AUCTON: $2,000.00), (BUY: $4,000.00), (RENT: $40.00)

- www.MYeLIST.com
(My E List)
(AUCTON: $2,000.00), (BUY: $4,000.00), (RENT: $40.00)

- www.zFate.com
(Z Fate)
(AUCTON: $2,000.00), (BUY: $4,000.00), (RENT: $40.00)

- www.360sun.com
(360 SUN), (### ZZZ)
(AUCTON: $2,000.00), (BUY: $4,000.00), (RENT: $40.00)

- www.XDOMG.com
Listed on ebay. Search for it.
(XD OMG), (Xd Omg), (XD oMg), (xD OMG), (xD oMg)
(AUCTON: $1,000.00), (BUY: $4,000.00), (RENT: $40.00)

- www.QVRL.com
(Q Vrl), (Q Vr L), (Qv Rl), (Qvr L), (Q V R L)
(AUCTON: $2,000.00), (BUY: $12,000.00), (RENT: $120.00)

- www.GQBO.com
Listed on ebay. Search for it.
(G Qbo), (G Qb O), (Gq Bo), (Gqb O), (G Q B O)
(AUCTON: $2,000.00), (BUY: $12,000.00), (RENT: $120.00)

- www.VMQA.com
Listed on ebay. Search for it.
(V Mqa), (V Mq A), (Vm Qa), (Vmq A), (V M Q A)
(AUCTON: $2,000.00), (BUY: $12,000.00), (RENT: $120.00)

- www.Paid-AD.com
- www.Paid-ADs.com
Listed on ebay. Search for it.
(AUCTON: $8,000.00), (BUY: $12,000.00), (RENT: $120.00)
NOTE: Both names above are a pair and both come with (.com, .org, .net, .info). That is eight total domain names in that bundle price.

- www.PegTo.com
(Peg To), (P E Gto), (P Eg To), (Pe Gt O), (Pe Gto), (P Egt O), (P E G T O)
(AUCTON: $1,000.00), (BUY: $2,000.00), (RENT: $20.00)
NOTE: This names above comes with (.com, .org, .net, .info). That is four total domain names in that bundle price.

Feel free to contact me by e-mail, listed on the top-left of my home-page www.ISAWHIM.com. For those who do not know, the "WWW" part is optional for all website names. You are purchasing the NAME ONLY, which will be transferred to a registar or host of your choice. I do offer web-space, but that is not a requirement. I can keep the pages parked here until you are ready to have them moved, but all my content will be removed. If you wish to purchase the content too, you will need a new quote. Ads are subject to personal screening, and NO-FLASH is allowed. Only text-ads and banner ads. If you wish, you can use google-ads, and target my websites, but google doesn't make me money, so don't expect that to last long.

What kills micro-economy universes?

noreply@blogger.com (Jason DAngelo) — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 18:10:00 +0000

It is almost comical to see the number of growing micro-economy universes side-by-side with the larger growing number of failing micro-economy universes. Yes, there are a few still around, because there are always tolerant people and uninformed new suckers introduced as these places get forgotten and re-birthed on a daily basis. They all have one thing in common. They are doomed for failure from the beginning, due to the inability or lack of desire to manage a realistic micro-economy. Instead, they choose to fight the forces of nature, and laws of simple physics, without avail. Yes, I said laws of physics and forces of nature. Economics laws for real money does not apply here, which may be a large reason they struggle. They hire "Economic analysts", who have no clue what virtual-money is, and completely ignore the fact that economic laws just don't work here with the ignorance of the prior laws of economics being cast-out. Essentially, if the rules say "Jump off base to live", and there is no "base", how can you apply the laws of "life"?

I have seen three basic models for VR cash systems. All three based off of historically failed methods for economic control. The most popular method used is the simple, monopoly/monarchy. The owner of the system determines all prices and ignores supply and demand of items, living off the supply and demand of the new funds. Usually keeping fixed prices for items, but raising and lowering the cost of VR credits. The second most popular method is a more complex, pyramid/ponzi scheme. This fails for obvious reasons. The guys on the top thrive while anyone new, on the bottom, will fade away in an endless sea of exponential hopeful others. The third method is a horrible mess of WTF, anarchy/sounds-good-at-the-time. There seems to be no real method. Things change without notice, info seems scattered, prices don't reflect items, supply and demand is purely suggestive and backwards, everyone gets hurt.

The monopoly/monarchy model is actually the best at the moment, but it requires TONS of maintenance and upkeep and adjustments. Eventually the management becomes a full-time job, ten fold, and this creates a stopping point for the owners/rulers. This stopping point is what causes the down-fall. Frozen asset values with increasing or non-fading funds, and your value is near zero. Everyone is rich, and everything can be purchased, and nothing is desired. Supply quickly and permanently exceeds demand and it can never be restored. Everyone leaves with a sour taste in their mouth. The operator now sits in VR debit, and will quickly sell-off the whole system. Now they move on, and reproduce a similar system, with the same flaws as before. (Since they have prefected the flaws, the new place falls into this same failure faster.)

I almost like the second method, with some modifications. The pyramid method is what all economies are based off of today. Yes, we are a giant pyramid scheme. There are a few on the top, who control the levels of those underneath. Each higher level that has more, has gotten it with less effort and at the expense of those below him or her. Seriously, if you don't see this in your system, it is because you are on the bottom. You are not supposed to see it, that is the point. That is how it works so well. It really hurts only those who participate. Those who don't participate, don't loose. Those are the ones that the people on the bottom are trying to turn into users. The concept is simple, but obviously hits a large wall, once everyone has received that ponzi scheme e-mail... "Join now! Free!" Followed by, "Buy credits, cheap!". The ending users just trade among themselves once no-one joins, or they join, but have purchased billions for a dollar, and purchased all they want, and are become instantly bored.

I hate this third method of anarchy. One day you are rich, the next day you can't afford anything, and then you are just average. Though you have worked and saved and paid for a lot, your value constantly seems more fluid than the shit that spews from the owners mouths. They know what they want, more... They know how to get it, from you... They don't care how they get it, so they do whatever it takes. When and if they realize that they are about to die, they give back a little, so they can take more later. Each time they get less and less, though they are taking more and more. This eventually ends with a bang, and some news article about some overpriced company purchased for pennies on a dollar. The new owners can't begin to clean the mess, and they don't think of it as a loss, because it makes them enough to make the loss null for them, at our expense.

So, what is the real issue? Some say it is infinite VR cash. However, real cash is infinite. Governments print and overprint all the time. Infinite funds are not the problem, but how you handle the reprinting of those infinite funds is a problem. The standard model is "dollar in, credit out", which is horrible. In the beginning, this is fine because there are no credits in circulation. Once seasoned, this is bad, because you have tons of credits in-hand, and more being created without justification. You become your own failure for future sales. If there are not a lot of credits in hand, than you have no balance, and supply is lower than demand. You will suffer the same fate as having many credits in hand.

Some say the problem is credit liquidity. Wrong, having credit value that fluctuates is a good thing, unless it fluctuates too much, or if it ever falls beyond the 50% mark. That shows an instant issue with the economics. The only way to compensate for that loss, is fluctuating fees and absorption of honestly earned credits. These systems become one-way systems, or self-supporting. It is not good to be self-supporting for a business. That translates into zero new sales, since all sales are internal for a majority of the income. This is good for the people inside, except for the fact that no-one is refilling the credits with real money. The value will come to a halt, and exchanges will ultimately drop to 25%, sell fast, and completely kill the sales of any outside new credits. The normal solution is to stop allowing the sale of internal credits, which is usually impossible. If this is done, there is no reason for anyone to produce anymore, and the luster is lost. People stop talking about your VR toy, and you end the game with a quickly decaying smother of real dollar sales on your way out.

I completely love the anarchy method, mostly because it is used by the most greedy, and it kills them faster. I hate greedy people who love to walk all over the little people who made them what they are. I have no remorse for those don't heed the warnings, and participate in those games. I know that sounds evil, but you get what you asked for, and you ask for it when you fail to look beyond your own nose. Noting good comes from anarchy, and nothing good comes form surviving participation in anarchy. Perhaps you can learn, but often you just find comfort in similar situations, and you develop an egotistical belief that you can survive longer the second time. It is inevitable, you will fade away like the company you participated in. Just because they are big, does not make them better. It just makes them fall harder, possibly lasting longer. That is horrible, falling fast and hard, and taking in more victims while you crash to the floor killing your supporters. Pure evil.

I will have to come back and finish the rest of this blog. For now, I have to go to work and play the real VR game of life. One which I like to think I have control of. However, that is just another VR illusion. BRB!

Digital vs 35mm photography (Slides or Film)

noreply@blogger.com (Jason DAngelo) — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 19:33:00 +0000

Wow, where to begin... No matter where I begin, this story will not have a good ending. I will start by saying this... In this never-ending battle, the winner is irrelevant to a professional. However, most photographers are not professional, as shown by the "Majority" of "Opinions of the best" and "Actual camera sales". This obviously deserves an explanation, but I will hold-off on that until I have spouted my "Observations". Am I a pro? It doesn't matter when you are the artist looking for the best archival reproductions of his or her works. I am a professional consumer with the strictest standards for "My art".

Before I start to fill-in what many reviewers are leaving out, I would like to say... "I love digital cameras!", but "I love film more." However, I don't care for the many idiots writing reviews, delivering false hope and justifying lower quality at higher expenses, when they didn't have to work for the money spent on the devices, and only review to get "Props" from the people selling the devices, in hopes of keeping the device, getting a raise, getting sponsorship, keeping their job, or just seeming like they have some kind of educated knowledge beyond the instruction manual and advertisement publications.

To begin, I must say this first. Digital photo capturing devices have reached an inevitable limitation, as they always do. The best digital photo capturing devices are still out of the price-range of any normal consumer, and barely in the budget of a professional. They may be able to afford the camera initial purchase, but the life expectancy of the microscopic sensors and controllers makes it over the top. However, if you don't mind throwing away expensive equipment when it goes bad and becomes out-dated, then shop away!

Let me explain some of this with a wide-view perspective. I keep reading about comparisons of digital to film, and the people doing the comparison stop when they see grain on the film. That is unfair. There is detail within the grain, and on the grain. They also compare cheap film and film processing on cheap cameras with cheap lenses from non-professionals, to the "Pro Digital Cameras". However, they fail to show any real "Detail standard test", which I did see one, which a 20 mega-pixel camera failed horribly. It failed against a non-professional camera, non-pro lens, standard ISO consumer film, processed by a generic consumer developing lab. (EG, this pro digital camera failed standard detail/quality tests.)

What irked me more than anything was the failure to mention the cons of any and all digital cameras in these comparisons. Must be the "New owner glow", where you completely overlook the fact that you just wasted hundreds or thousands of dollars on something that is a guaranteed poor investment. Possibly in combination with the fact that the user is not actually a professional, as they strive to be, but biased reviews like they publish are keeping them from getting to that point. So, what are these overlooked and significant points that are "Always" left out of these spontaneous uneducated, unprofessional reviews?

To start, digital cameras have grain, more than any film. You can't get less by spending more and you can't ever remove it. Digital grain is part of the package when you are attempting to capture individual photons on super-sensitive and microscopic digital sensors. The smaller they get, the more grain you will see, and do see. Photograph pure white light, and pure blackness with any digital camera. What do you see? Digital grain. This also comes from decaying sensors, which happens faster when you add heat or light or time or power to any digital CCD. Basically, you have X-amount of photos you can take, before a CCD is no longer taking high quality shots. Most pro cameras seem to decay fast and live only a few years before they start taking Polaroid style, washed-out, spotted, photos with dead spots. Oh, dead pixels or sensors is another common issue, so common, that they explicitly say in the warranty that these "Natural" occurrences are not covered in any warranty or guarantee.

Should I stop there? Hell no! What do you do with a $10,000.00 camera when it goes bad? Have it repaired... If it dies within a two year period, is it worth repairing? After two years, you will only be able to get it repaired by them dissecting another perfectly operating device. They don't let these CCD's sit on shelves, they rot in time. They also stopped producing those older models, two years before they started selling them. (Takes time to make a million cameras. They don't start selling them until they can put one in the store, and keep three on the shelves.) So, you are already purchasing old technology, the minute you saw it released for sale. There is $10,000.00 down the drain, or another $5,000.00 to repair it with the $1,000.00 paperweight sitting on their shelves, for the first few years. After that 2 year period, they have to hunt down replacement parts, and they are all going to be sub-par, but functional if they can be found.

I know it seems like I am slamming, but I will end the digital camera review with a positive note, I promise! Now, back to the slaughter house. Speed and power are the two largest hurdles that digital cameras have to contend with. The good CCDs require massive power to detect these microscopic light changes, and to process them for display and storage. Storage has obvious limitations when you get into Gigabytes of raw data storage. Unless the camera is a super-computer also, it will never be fast. Imagine walking around with a camera that has a 300 Watt power-supply and ten laptop batteries to power it for two hours of photography. That is what you need to get the speed of the cheapest 35mm film camera. Speed between snapshots, not speed of the single snapshot.

Power mentioned above, is my last topic for review in the digital professional camera area, also for the consumer camera. Unlike a normal film camera which uses microvolts of power for light, millivolts for adjustments, and volts for a few occasional flashes. Digital cameras require ten times the power for simple display, twenty times the power for capture, and thirty times the power for storage and processing the final image. Translation, you need several large and expensive batteries for a few hours of operation. These batteries are heavy and bulky too. Battery technology is at a stand-still, however, processing and sleeping is getting better. However, it is the awake time that is important. Going into low-power when not being used is irrelevant, since you are not using the camera and saving only millivolts of power consumption.

The grand total of the cost to operate and own one of these devices is not even comparable to any other film camera. That $10,000.00 camera will need $5,000.00 a year to add adequate power from multiple batteries, and add in the energy cost required to charge them all hourly. Once you purchase the required pro-lenses, you can add another $10,000.00 onto that cost. Throw-in the required super-media computer and you have another $10,000.00 which includes any decent pro-digital photo software and all hardware for transferring and processing data in your lifetime. Add the power cost of operating that computer, $5,000.00 a year is modest for a professional computer. Your grand total for a generous four years of use, comes to $70,000.00 for the complete setup, and $60,000.00 required every four years. (The lenses will hopefully be recycled, but you would not continue using a four year old digital camera, or pay to have one that old repaired. The battery and power cost for operating was per year, so multiply that times four years to get $20,000.00 each.) Remember, you are PRO, so you are not taking only 100 photos a year, you are taking 1,000 a week or 52,000 a year or 208,000 in four years. Estimations are not as far-off as you would think. Consumers pay less for electricity than a business, and the hidden costs of fuel to tote this equipment from location to location and hours to process images at wages are in those numbers, modestly I might add.

Now back to film and slides. Obviously, slides have the best potential within the common speed limits. the ability to find high-speed ISO 1600 slides is not likely, though it does exist. On the opposite end, there is not a large market for ISO 50 slides. The most obvious advantage is the potential for additional detail with slides that you will not get from film of equal value. Why is that? Because of ISO, the standard size for 35mm film as a photo, is 5" X 7". Like with OEM parts for vehicles, most films will MEET that standard quality, and not spend additional money on frills. That is why they are standards, they guarantee that you do not get LESS, but never limit your ability to get MORE. The places that manufacture more into that standard, make it noted in the label or the price. The standard it for time and grain/quality. Each speed has an allowable level of grain in that standard. When you buy good quality pro films, ISO 1600 can be comparable to ISO 50, but ISO 50 will always be the better than most ISO 1600 of the same process.

When it comes to film and slides, you get what you pay for. Unfortunately, this is where I love digital more. You have to pay, and pay, and pay with film and slides. You also have to wait. This is where the digital is a better choice, and why it is still a consumer item, and not a professional staple for all pros. You have to pay for the film, for the development, for the print, possibly for delivery too. Even if you do it yourself, you still have to pay, and add hour-wages onto that bill. Since you have to pay, and you get what you pay for, obviously if you pay for cheap processing you will get quality that is lower than those pro digital cameras. That makes you unprofessional, not the photos. That also doesn't make the digital cameras better, it just makes them better than your photos. Stop going to the 1-hour photo on the street-corner, and stop using those nasty photos for your comparisons. Anyone can drive a Lamborghini fast, only a pro-racer with a pro-pit-crew can win the race.

What are the comparable costs of the 35mm SLR? A good pro camera body could cost you $5,000.00 but a $300.00 camera body will take the same photos. Modest pro film ISO 50 - 1600 with low grain can be purchased for $30,000.00 for 208,000 frames. Overpriced but trusted at $30,000.00 for developing all those into quality photos. Quality lenses $10,000.00. Batteries only for flashes possibly add up to $2,000.00 in four years. Every four years you only pay $32,000.00, since the camera and lenses should last nearly 30 years with modest repairs. If it comforts you, add $4,000.00 onto that four year cost. Compared to the $60,000.00 every four years for the digital, which is sub-par on these 35mm photos.

Now, if you are only photographing where quality needs to be adequate, printing only images smaller than 9" X 12", and intend to junk most of your shots, or work in disposable media... Than the digital method is perfect, as it will provide more than four years of adequate use, and the batteries can be fewer if you use wall-power, and you use a modest computer and have plenty of cheap hourly labor to process the many images at leisure. (AKA, the normal consumer application.) Go ahead, and buy that $10,000.00 camera and only fork-out $2,000.00 for a modest set of lenses. But don't boast about the quality being better, when it is clearly not, with the real pro-setup, which you don't even own. No-one cares about the guy in second place. They don't even care who wins first-place. Just don't expect to sell or show anything large enough to be inspected in detail with your digital camera, unless you don't mind the snide comments about the pixels. (EG, Don't print anything larger than a magazine cover.)

How to get "Reality" from "Virtual-Reality"...

noreply@blogger.com (Jason DAngelo) — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 20:29:00 +0000

For my point of focus, I choose www.IMVU.com as my target. Why do I choose them, because you don't have to spend thousands to create a mini-empire with a cash return. The only other alternative, which I will not mention directly, has some advantages, but has more disadvantages. IMVU is the only choice which offers you more for your dollar, a larger potential audience, and creations do not require a college degree in 3D construction. Most can be done by simply swapping out simple images. If you can operate any custom MySpace profile makers, you can make items to sell in IMVU.

Where does reality separate from virtual-reality? You have a great mix of both, or you can sway one way or the other, in many aspects of IMVU. Your items, you home-page, your forum postings, your virtual persona can even be half-real, mostly real, or completely virtual. Your sales of created items does not seem to stray much, no matter which path you choose. However, the unclear part that many struggle with, is turning the virtual funds into actual cash.

IMVU is the creator of all original credits. Each paid credit is created at the exchange of a dollar, for a specified amount of credits. IMVU is not the only way to obtain credits, they allow transfers between accounts, and allow brokers/users to handle the exchange of private sales of earned credits. There are a hand-full of large volume rollers, when it comes to credit re-sales. Biggest is not always the best, and best is left open to interpretation across the board.

If you are looking to buy, the person selling the cheapest credits is the best. If you are a seller, the person offering the highest dollar per credit is the best. There are all sorts of happy mediums, where some sell high, but they make little profit, so there is more for the artist selling credits. For me, in my greatest opinion, the best is one who takes the least, and offers the best of both worlds, while still having the movement of exchanges to compensate both desires.

There is no deal in a broker that offers to sell your credits for more, but takes ten years to sell them for that extra penny. The reality of the situation says that time costs money. Having a dollar in your pocket now, is more valuable than having a dollar and a penny, ten years from now. If the credits move, there are more to go around, and the value will naturally increase. With every item sale, IMVU absorbs a fraction to cover expenses of the item use. Thus, once there are no more discounted credits, the customers have only one choice. Restock at full price.

The restock is not a big damper. IMVU offers volume and bundle discounts, and once restocked credits are spent, the artist have more to sell. Since demand is high, they will sell for more. Now, that was the reality of virtual-reality, when it comes to buying and selling, as a market. Now there is still the matter of the actual exchange, no matter what the cost actually is. Brokers have a rather smooth arrangement on payment, both in cash and credits. Due to the multiple payment gateways and due to IMVU's own credit payment gateway. SSL and secure transactions are a standard.

It is not unrealistic to assume that you will be able to exchange 2,500cr for $1.00usd, with any good broker, or as a private sale, or a mix of the two. For a quick example, I will use a minimum wage of $7.00usd and 40 hours a week times 4 weeks at an exchange rate of 2,500cr per $1.00usd. You would have to earn 2,800,000cr a month to equal the wages of $1,120.00usd a month. Wow, you say, 2,800,000cr is a lot! Sounds like a lot, but you could quit working at McDonalds, and make a few 3D items for a living.

Seriously, if you do work at McDonalds, think about this. If you made only 50,000cr a week, you just earned an extra $0.50usd an hour, or $20.00usd a week. I, personally, make a modest 500,000cr a month. Not enough to live off of, but then again, I only have fifteen items for sale. None of my items are spectacular or special, just simple furniture and pictures. The biggest factor in how well you do, besides quality, is exposure. Oh, yea... I have exposure, some of it is even good exposure!

Just for kicks and giggles, due to issues that have arisen, I am going to be jumping into the development market again. I have a goal of 2,800,000cr a month, and I could use that extra funding to further my development that is being offered to IMVU users. Mostly, I just want to do it, just to show that it can be done, for those who don't think it can be done. Minimum-wage from sales of IMVU virtual items, turning virtual-reality into a reality that anyone can comprehend. Come join me... beat me to my goal... I dare you!

My IMVU credit broker...

www.DevCredits.com

Everything is good in moderation!

noreply@blogger.com (Jason DAngelo) — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 10:29:00 +0000

There is no law that states you are libel for the thought of others. Freedom of speech, includes freedom to publish personal thoughts. Personal publications, such as diaries and blogs, which are not documented with references are nothing more than thoughts. Your only obligation to those publications, is that you remove any questionable republication, if presented with a legal obligation to remove such content. It is not illegal, until a judge has determined it to be illegal. Innocent until proven guilty.

If the person requesting removal of content, has no proof of a law being broken, you can leave that content published, until proper due process has determined the legality. Just as you can live in any domicile, until law has determined you are to be removed.

If you use honest judgement, and make no claims of, "Active moderation of all posted content.", then it can not be legally assumed that the presence of a moderation ability, is claim to that statement. Unless you explicitly state anything, nothing is legally assumed. The only assumptions that can be drawn from facts, is that your publication uses a public submitted collection of thoughts and perceptions. (When references are not presented. For references to "Publications", the publication is libel for the content they have written. They are a self-claimed publication of factual statements and knowledge, with all expressed permissions outlined within copyright. EG, no copyright, no case.)

Yes, it is better to moderate, where your moderation is to remove any undesired or questionable content. That is your right, on your public hosted page of perceptions. It is yours, only by limitation. You do not own the internet, or the server, or the hard-drive, or the electricity used to contain the data. You did not force people to read your content in a public display, such as media advertisement, (Like a billboard). You did not pay for the viewers internet connection, or computer that reconstructs the 10100010101001 into the content they see. (They assume the risk of seeing potentially offensive media, beyond control, and with the right to stop viewing such content at any moment, by the ISP TOS they signed-up with.)

Just my 2cents...

(Show me a winning case on this matter, and I will avoid THAT situation. Show me the law that says I am libel for public thoughts, which others publish on my blog. These are not anonymous, posters can all be traced to any ISP. You have my permission to research the offenders, by your own means, when you have proven there was an actual offence. I will gladly remove anything that a judge has told me to remove.)

Terrible, horrible, no-good, very-bad-day!

noreply@blogger.com (Jason DAngelo) — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 01:40:00 +0000

Picture this, if you will...

A peaceful Sunday morning. The sun just beginning to finish its early morning shadows, the morning dew, long gone. Mid-summer, yet a nice cool breeze floods the surrounding air. You think to your-self... "Today is going to be a good day!"

FTFO

Quickly, before the noon heat decided to break, I figured I would mow the front yard. Bam, done! Knocked that off in a quick hour. Ambitious, I decided to see why our AC system wasn't operating normally. I suspected that mice had chewed through the soft-lines, and turned it into a personal highway to the warm attic.

With a flashlight in hand, and a peculiar stance, I weaved through the rafters. I didn't see anything suspicious, until I reached the second portion of the attic, above our main living-room. My inspection for a leaky feed-line, stopped once I saw that the return-line was collapsed. It looked like a giant had stepped on it.

I attempted to fathom what might have caused such an odd thing to happen. (For those who do not know about soft-lines, they are like dryer exhaust lines. There is a long spring-style winding encased in plastic. That keeps the soft-line from folding and collapsing, so it can weave into odd places.)

Looking around, I could not find any holes, so I made one. Hehe... how else are you going to see inside? I reached in, and felt around. There was no inner support wall, well, it was there, just not where I poked the hole. So I cut the hole bigger, reached inside, and eventually found the inner support. The plastic had torn, and the pressure had sucked the inner case deep inside. Since it is a giant spring, it just bunched up, and fell flat.

The best way to imagine it... Take a roll of quarters, dump half of them out. Pinch the tube flat, but not completely flat. Let the quarters inside, slide to the end where it is flat, but not fall out. That is what the inside looked like, sucked flat, and the spring all twisted and flat, running the length of the tube. Ok, easy enough to fix... Unfortunately, I don't do contract work anymore, so my tools are limited. I don't have a 16-inch soft-line union on hand. (That is what joins two sections of soft-lines. You need to put a piece inside or you have nothing to bond them with.)

Hehe, Time for my ghetto-quick-fix. DUCK-TAPE, the cheap stuff. Not fun to work with, but I didn't have any other options at the moment. All patched-up and ready to go, so I got out of the quickly heating attic, and played with the house vents. (They were all whistling from the pressure, now that the line wasn't crushed.) Yahoo, the AC actually turned off for once. Normally it would run all day, and never get below 81F.

OK, I headed to Home-Depot, picked up a union, some real tape, and got a coffee. (Yes, my tooth is feeling better now, I am on antibiotics.) I come home, and everyone is asleep, in the nice chilly house. The stuff was set aside, for later. I didn't want to climb up there again in the noon heat.

I am not sure why, but I had an urge to "Check" the patch-job, and wanted to see if the union I had purchased was the right one. If it was not, I could take it back before they closed. That was where the nightmare begins!

I found it hard to breathe, the air was so hot, it felt like it was burning my lungs. This was going to be a quick check. Um, No!

While I was up there, I noticed the ghetto tape job, well, worked like a ghetto tape job... It had come undone, and was sucking in full hot attic air. Just a quick hit with some of the new foil-tape should fix it until I can get back again. Carefully I pulled back the insulation, and started to feel for the hole I could hear. Suddenly, I heard water???

I had snapped a brittle PVC water-line that runs to our fridge. In a panic, with water spraying all over the rafters, I flew out of the attic. Frantically I searched for the water shut-off valves. All I could find was the valves to the washer and the water-heater. WTF, some idiot reinstalled new water lines, without adding the water-shutoff valves!

I had to run outside, and dig a foot down to the water shutoff line buried in the front yard. Sure, it needs a valve key to turn the damn thing! Where the hell am I going to find a valve key? (It is a giant T bar that has a special key to fit the water valve. Not a standard twist valve.)

Great, the house and attic is flooding, water pouring out the AC vents, walls, and ceiling... and now I have to try to make a damn valve-key! Lucky for me, one of the neighbors had one. (Don't aks why.)

By the time the water was turned off, it was raining a storm in our house, and small rodents would drown if they didn't know how to swim. Quick, where is the wet-dry vacuum?!?! Hehe... Um... it works!

OMG... Now it is past noon. The attic is like 190F, the house doesn't have AC or water, there is rain slowly dripping through every nail holding up the ceiling... I am never doing a favor again! (Nor do I think they will ask me to do a favor again!)

After suffering for six hours without AC and water, I was able to cool the attic down enough to get to work. The AC works, but I have not tried to turn the water on yet. I hope I am a good plumber!

Know when to fold-em...

noreply@blogger.com (Jason DAngelo) — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 05:22:00 +0000

No, I am not talking about your freshly washed clothes, nor am I talking about a bad poker hand. There comes a time, when things just begin to consume you. I suppose it could be cards, but in my case, it was my own mind that consumed me. I am not going to attempt to explain that, not to someone without A.D.D. however, it is a real situation.

I think, if I had a choice, I would rather have lost my mind. Folding hurts, but the end result it worth the pain endured. Pain, the only pain I feel at the moment is my damn tooth! Two weeks ago it was lightning shock and burns. Why? Why does everything come in threes? Ok, everything except eggs, hotdogs, and hotdog-buns. Which come in 12 or 13 for eggs, and 8 or 10 for hotdogs, while buns come in packs of 6 or 12.

Folding, you have to visualize what it takes to find that balance in your mind. You need to buy one pack of 8 hotdogs, drop one immediately on the ground, and let the dog eat it. Throw one directly on the grill, since that one will burn until you get the temperature right. Then you have 6 hotdogs to match the 6 hotdog-buns.

Damn, the dog ate one of the buns too...

(Lets use the extra hotdog for some childishly lewd joke, zipppp!)

That is when you fold-em!

(Your thoughts, not your pants.)