We just got on the plane. We are in the VERY back. The last to leave and the last to arrive. The window seat is missing its window.

On the way to the airport. All packed and ready to go. Mom says k got snow yesterday and there might be more today.

Fort drum service station. $6 for a hot dog. Half the meals at Burger king are $7. Highway robbery. The lines where long too. Amazing.

The journey begins. I had to work on fish tank before i left. 95 looks slow. I an going to take the turnpike instead to get to Katies place.

All packed up...

 
Lots of stuff, Small suitecase.

I managed to make everything fit into the small suitcase. I am going up with the small suitcase in the big suitcase so I can come back down with more stuff.

Getting excited about going now.

As a side note. I Kinda Sorta posted this blog post through Picassa. I wrote it, and then copied it. I posted it in Picassa. I then went and created a new post in Blogger and pasted the text into it. Picassa is uploading the images, just not finalizing
the post.

Creuzer's 'Quarium Cam

Well, I found a camera that is small enough to slip between my fish tank and the tank stand. It wasn't as cheap as I was hoping, $28, but it wasn't bad either. The camera I got is a GE MiniCam Pro.

I have it basically wedged between the tank and the stand. It is propped up on an extra suction cup thingy for holding the filter inlet and outlet pipes to the tank. It is on the right side of the tank looking left. I picked direction because the tank isn't quite in the middle of the stand and there was more room.

The camera is focusable, so I focused it in about 1/2 way into the tank. I am hoping that this will be enough for the tank.

I have set up my template to include a photo that updates every 30 seconds on the top of my blog. Not many people visit my blog, so it isn't going to create a lot of traffic.

The tank cleared up a lot in the last couple of days, which is good.

I really had to futz with the settings on the camera to convince it to take a photo that wasn't hard to look at. I still don't think it is great, but, hey, nobody is perfect.

I am not really happy with the view. A closeup of that large piece of driftwood isn't all that exciting. And don't hold your breath for any fish, they aren't coming before I get back from vacation.

It looks like I need to clean the glass in front of the camera, it is smudged.

What do you think? Fun investment of $28? The camera I really want is $280, but then you would be able pan and tilt and zoom in and all kinds of fun stuff with that one!

Replanting my planted tank

I did a lot of research yesterday, looking at getting new plants for my aquarium. I ripped most everything up after Thanksgiving. I gave the 2 best looking swords to a guy from work - one of which was the original stem I bought 3 years ago. I am back down to 3 of them. Anybody want a Amazon Sword plant or two? I just want one. I tossed 95% of the Pennywort. Well, actually I pulled it ALL out, and left whatever little pieces where still in the tank. Well, some of those are now over a foot long again. I am kinda leery about leaving this in the tank as it grows so well. It is the bulk of what caused my tank to turn into a swamp (besides my neglect of course).

I am wanting to make my tank look "nice", you know them pretty tanks, with all the fancy plants and what not. This tank has always been very green, what with 9 full Amazon Sword plants. I rather liked that look, but I am going to try something different. I am cordoning off the Amazons so they stay on their half of the tank. I am keeping the one for when I set my 110 gallon tank up again.

I am thinking, with me leaving on Thursday, I will have a few days to make sure the plants take, and then I will be hands off for 2 weeks, and see what they look like when I come back. I won't micromanage them to death this way.

I went to Big Al's today. I bought 3 types of plants for $12. I got 2 bunches of Glossostigma, 1 bunch of Microsword, and 1 bunch of Narrowleaf Ludwigia.

Glossostigma (Glossostigma elatinoides)- From what I have read, this plant likes a PH of mid to high 6, soft water, and LOTS of light. It appears to come from Australia. It appears to have hit the US markets in 1996 or 1997. It can grow into a tight turf, but seems to need some coaxing first. If it doesn't "take", it will die off from the bottom up, like the roots just rot away. It will also tend to grow straight up, however putting pebbles on it to try to get it to lay down will eventually get it to grow horizontally.

I had tried this plant before, maybe six months ago, but the bunch I had gotten the roots where already rotting away. It also didn't get much light as the swords where shading it out.

Microsword (Lillaeopsis ???) - This plant seems to be one of a couple of species, but most likely from Brazil. This plant looks like it likes harder water then the Glossostigma does. The brighter the light, the shorter it grows it looks like.

This one is new to me. I picked it because it seems a lot of people have luck with either this or the Glosso. Between the two, I should get a good ground cover on my tank.

Narrowleaf Ludwigia (Ludwigia arcuata?) - Another bright light lover. This one will get taller, about 15 inches it looks like.

I picked this because I seemed to recall that it liked bright light. I also liked the red color, I think it will play well with the other plants. It is a stem plant, but the leaves are smaller and thinner, kinda reminiscent of the other plants in the tank.

I took some photos of me ripping the tank apart and replanting it.


Here is the tank before I started replanting it. notice where the 3 Amazon Swords are and the Pennywort starting to fill in again.


Look at how much muck I kicked up while moving 2 of the Amazon Swords closer to the left of the tank. You can tell this tank is 3 years old. I had done 50% water changes sucking up all the mulm with my Python siphon. I was trying to go in and get at it deep down. My rocks are over 4 inches deep. I was worried about the deep parts getting really bad and killing off the rest of the tank. The one amazon sword had enough root to completely fill a mason jar. That is a LOT of roots!


This is the clump of pennywort that I missed last week. I clumped it together and weighted it down with some lead plant weights. Lets see how long they stay put.


This is the Microsword clump I got. Nice, clean roots. You can see how tight they will grow in once they get going.


I worried the whole knotted mess apart into individual pieces. If you are patient, and work from the roots and not the plants, it's pretty easy. You can pull the leaves down, through the roots easily, you can't pull the roots up, through the other roots.


You can see I planted the Microsword in the back right third of the tank. I didn't put it too close to the driftwood, as it starts to get shady there. I took each piece and whorled it together and planted it as a clump. They are spaced about as close together as I can get them without pushing the prior one out. I have a few stray pieces in the front left, just for fun. I half expect the Amazon Swords to shade them out before they get started.


This is one of the two Glossostigma clumps. The roots on this one are much more developed then with the other clump. I am thinking this one is starting to rot back. We shall see.


Here the other bunch of Glossostigma is broken apart. I planted each piece (or 2 smaller pieces) individually.


Here is the results of nearly 3 hours of planting and moving, and whatnot. The water is still a little hazy.

I am hoping that the Glosso and Microsword fill in nicely. I am going to move the driftwood somewhere else once I get rid of 2 of the Amazon sword plants. I have the Narrowleaf Ludwigia in the back right, about 1/3 of the way from the edge of the tank. I think it will fill in nicely and balance the heights of the tank out. The tank is a little lopsided looking right now with all that Amazon Sword on the one end.


Check back the first weekend of the new year and see how it looks.

It's Official.

I have fallen to the dark side.

I can now say, been there, done that, got the t-shirt.

'Tis the season...

I needed a timer for my fish tank lights. My big Coral Life Light Fixture has 2 grounded plugs so I need a heavy duty timer.

Christmas time is the best time to buy timers because it's about the only time most people need one. You can find some that are pretty fancy.

I found this one at Target. It looked really promising. Digital timer, 3 grounded outlets, and when I replace it with my homebrew controller, it will still be very useful.



It is fairly easy to program, not as easy as dials to switches to set. It is set like a watch is. Set a few buttons and your done.
This one has 3 modes, pure timer (up to 8 of them, so I can set them daily, weekday, weekend, and all week). It also has a photo eye, so it can turn lights on at night. It can also turn on with the photoeye, and turn off by the timer. Pretty cool actually.



I liked the look of this one, I can hang it on the back of my aquarium stand. I picked up a small package of wood screws to hang it.

It works. It turned my big lights off tonight. I think the lights running constant for 5 days straight over Thanksgiving lead to the aquarium turning on me.

Time will tell.

Mom's Christmas Present

I am buying my mom the Internet for Christmas. (Shhh don't tell her even though she already knows!)

She shall get bigger tubes!



I will now be able to send my mom more internets without worry that this movie will block up all the tubes. Even better yet, she might actually be able to VIEW this movie.


I ordered my mom Wild Blue Satalite Internet Service this morning to replace her current dial up and 2nd phone line. It looks like she is going to save ten bucks a month or so with the new service. It will also be faster. I bought the hardware, the installation, and her first month of service.

Hopefully it gets installed before I arrive. I remember last year and the slow internet connection! Good Senator, I need my own personal internet tubes unblocked by your streaming 10 or 12 movies and a book at the same time.

Supper of Kings

I originally wanted to call this post Breakfast of Champions, but I am having it for dinner.

Doesn't this look good?

Corned beef and Potatos. I rememberd I had some Garlic, so I added that a bit late, it didn't get a chance to brown up before I decided I was hungry.

All that work keeping them seperate in the Skillet just to pour them into the same bowl and mix them together while I am eating them.

Blog Template

Is it bad that I am a web developer and use a default template for my blog?

I have had my blog for nearly a year now... Looking back... 10 days and 1 month short of a year it looks...

Tonight is my first major tweakage of the template. Well, I had added my Delicious bookmark's tag cloud, Google calendar, and just a few weeks(?) ago I added my PicassaWeb photo album. Oh, this last week I added a Technorati search to the site too. I guess I have added to the template a fair bit.

After the Blogger Beta incident I am wanting to have my list of Labels in the WORST of the ways! Forbidden fruit tastes the best, right?

Playing around a bit, I had a thought. I host my own blog. I wonder what happens if I put PHP into my blogger template? By George, a little .htaccess magic, and it works!

Sweet!

OK, first thing's first. I want to post to my main blog (this one) a running tally of updates to my car blog. I whipped up a little RSS reader that I include into my template and viola! Instant RSS Feed of my cars blog on my main blog!

WOOT WOOT

Stumbling block, no RSS feed for my labels.

DOH!

Guess I am going to have to roll my own. I have PHP take a peak into my /labels/ folder, read all the files, tally up the number of posts in each file, and create a tag cloud. How is that for a run-on sentence? The amazing thing is, it works. Really well. I love it!

OK, this calls for a re-think of my cobbled together right column. A bit of consultation with Stewie and I moved just about everything around. I think it works.

I still need to tweak the photo album as it doesn't display quite right in FireFox. I also need to colorize my new Labels Tag Cloud.

What do you think?

Upgrading to Beta Blogger

How Frustrating.

I have been watching Blogger Beta for a while now, wanting access at the "labels" feature. These would give me a great way to organize my blog on topics and not just by date. My posts have a few natural groups and no easy way to clump them together.

I would switch to wordpress, simplog, or roll my own blog engine except that, well, I am a Google Geek and use all of their tools. Picassa & Docs (which is what I am writing this post in right now with), gmail, and the list goes on. Everything just works so well together. I don't dislike blogger, I just want some of the "modern" features that beta promises.

So, today I come across http://knownissues.blogspot.com/2006/10/initial-release-of-blogthis-from-picasa.html which says Picassa is now supposed to work with Blogger Beta. Great! A friend tested it for me and he got it to work.

I make the switch.

Ohhps!

Guess what, it doesn't work! I can't use the new templates because I FTP publish my site (please don't let FTP publishing die Blogger, PLEASE!). OK, no biggie, I am clever, I still have the original blog that I don't FTP to my sever. I can play with the template there, and copy it to my main blog. WRONG. Well, when they publish an API, hopefully they let me emulate the features I want via AJAX or something.

However, the bad news doesn't stop there! Oh No. I can't publish to my main blogs with Picassa. I can publish to the test blog. Great. Either a template issue or an FTP issue. I did a lot of twiddleing with this and that. The only thing I can come up with is that it's either the template or FTP publishing.

Blogger, what are you guys doing over there? Why does my choice in DISPLAYING a blog affect how your software ACCEPTS it?

Frustrated. I broke my blog even though I was being very careful not to.

HELP!

Pomegranates...

I was madder then a wet hen at work today. So I decided I needed to eat a Pomegranate.

I don't think Pomegrantes are designed to be peeled like oranges. I hurt my thumb by lifting the nail trying to peel it this way.

I am a putz, I need to ptuz with stuff. To blow off steam from the day I needed to fiddle with something that I don't have to worry about breaking. What better then eating a Chinese Apple as they are called one Kernal at a time. I am half way through eating my Pomegranate and I am feeling better aleady.

There is something rewarding about ripping an object apart and shoving the peices into your mouth after a hard day at work. Almost as relaxing as shooting a rifle.

Anyway, why I am mad. I again had the realization that organizations are run by people, and people by and by are basically clueless. I have been told, and have spent a lot of time at work operating under a particular premise. Well, I learned in the last 2 working days that the powers that be had no !@#$%^ clue and pulled said premise out of the only orface that is opposite the direction they SHOULD be looking. They would still be clueless tomarrow if I wasn't there to figure it out for them.

I feel taken advantage of and lied to

Again

Did you know that a signifacant portion is under 3%. Feh...

***

I still remember the feeling when I realized a few years ago that the people who make stuff are just like you and me. Boeng airplanes, your car, guns, washmachines, microwaves. All designed by people. Persons. Individuals. The guy and gal that just walked past you on the sidewalk.

Bizarre  

Creuzer: Introduction to growing your own furniture

Creuzer: Introduction to growing your own furniture

In response to Stewie's comment (it was too long of a comment):

I already thought of that...

5 acres of bar stools. 1 acre a year. I could sell them online!

Home Grown Barstools only at homegrownbarstools.com

Hrmm... I can create each one in a raised planter the width of the mower apart so I can mow around them easily. Bark mulch to keep the weeds down. Every 5 years, break the planters down, chip them up, till that acre with a tractor to refresh the dirt, incorporating the old mulch, and rebox and replant new stools.

I think I want clover instead of grass. And honey bees, yes, I want honey bees so I can have clover and apple honey! 1 free pint of honey for every stool purchased!

Gonna need a green house to get my seedlings started. Oh oh oh, and a workshop to make the stools... and a drying shed to cure the stool stumps after they have been cut, but before I can work them.

Now to make some interesting tops... I could do covered. I am thinking a nice inlaid wood top would be cool. So my workshop will need to also be set up to do wood inlays. Oh gosh, custom inlays - somebody's fancy mountain cabin, 4 stools, 4 inlays from photos taken in each direction.

Now only if I had some land....

Introduction to growing your own furniture

Introduction to growing your own furniture

OK, I found a new hobby! I SO want a set of stools and end tables made from grown furnature! This looks SO neat!

I want to make a full set of stools and tables out of grown furniture. I would probably need to make a few different hights as I am taller then some. But really tall stools for a bar would be cool tool! I guess that means I will need a bar for my uber-cool stools.

It would also really make nice looking patio furnature.

Hrmm...

I can dream, right?

Snow

This is what I missed this weekend. Milwaukee & Chicago got a bit of snow the end of last week. Here are a couple photos from Schaumberg Illinios around 8 am on Friday Morning.

These photos are courtesy of my College Roomate Brian.

I miss the snow.... 

My very own swamp!

I admit it, I have been neglecting my fish tanks. They just usually run themselves so well by themselves now that I try not to mess with them. (that's my story and I am sticking to it)
Thanksgiving weekend, my planted tank finally turned into a swamp. It quickly proceeded to turn septic, killing all the fish in it. Katie came down this weekend to the most aweful stench!
I had cleaned the tank on Friday before she arrived, and it is just finally clearing up today. I give full credit to 2 Eheim canister filters, one set up for filtering (no charcoal even with this disaster), and the other to water conditioning (and light filtering) combined with my CO2 reactor uncapped so it sucked in normal air and nocked out the protien ( I am assuming that is all the white foam that formed in it is).
What happened is this surface plant, moneywort I think it is, grew so well, it sufficated off the rest of the tank underneith. Combined with one of the lights being plugged in for nearly a week straight while I was out for thanksgiving, it killed the rest of the tank off. Oohps. Time to either finish my computer programmed light controller box or invest in a timer with a ground plug so I can plug in my big aquarium lights into it.

It truly did smell like one of those, vile, evil smelling swamps. How many of you keep a pet swamp inches from your bed? Plants climbing out of it and everything - some where already about 3 feet from the tank behind the bed!

Google Adwords multiplexer

I needed to create a list of word combinations for Google Adwords. I created a tool to do this for me. I thought the world would find it useful.

I can enter my base bid, and have certain words up that base bid so more popular terms can be bided on appropriately.