| Dead scooter |
[Oct. 11th, 2009|12:59 pm] |
My scooter died last night. The engine kept running while making horrible noises until I stopped, then it died instead of idling. Now the starter sounds like it's not attached to the engine (spins at high speed, doesn't turn the engine over). I'm going to drop it off at AMR for a diagnosis and estimate, but if the repair is going to be more than about $300 then I might as well just buy a new scooter instead. Anyone out there do scooter repair for less than $60/hr?
Until further notice, I am on foot (or might pick up a $25 bike at a thrift shop). |
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| TGIMBOEJ Plenticity |
[Sep. 12th, 2009|02:31 am] |
I have a lot of sorted and unsorted electronics components, ranging from single inductors to ribbons of hundreds of parts I will never use to giant heavy things like motors and pumps. A large part of that middle area is due to ordering a few Surprise Boxes from Electronics Goldmine (which contents I detailed here). I am going to start at least one TGIMBOEJ to get rid of things that I don't need, and this is the first.
( Read more... ) |
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| Tennessee Dept of Safety |
[Sep. 3rd, 2009|05:20 am] |
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I need someone in TN to take some documents (that I will email or fax to you) to the Dept of Safety, turn them in, get some other documents from them, and fax/email them back to me. Getting desperate, really really need this done before the weekend. Please reply or call me if you can help. |
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| New Phone, lost #s |
[Sep. 3rd, 2009|04:56 am] |
Text me your name to make sure I have your number during the con!
I only got about half the #s moved from my old phone to the new one before the old one went kaput. I still have the SIM, and will be looking for someone with an unlocked phone to copy all the #s from the old SIM to the new, but until then I am short half my #s and need you to refresh my memory, especially if your first name starts after 'K'. |
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| Appropriate payback for flicking butts? |
[Aug. 26th, 2009|04:01 pm] |
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I was driving down the street (Ponce, near Briarcliff) on my scooter and someone going the opposite way flicked a cigarette out the window that hit me in the arm. Imagine my disgust and annoyance (imagine if it hit me in the face...). Now, what might be an appropriate response to this? I was considering picking it up, turning around, and throwing it back in their window, or possibly throwing something equally nasty (to them, as their cigarette was to me) in. Thoughts? |
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| My last phone number |
[Aug. 24th, 2009|01:52 am] |
I am moving my primary phone service to Google Voice as soon as they offer number portability... OR I am going to pick a new phone # with them to be my last.
Some current contenders...
41226sparr i12amsparr
72769sparr 727mysparr
72489sparr 7citysparr 72guysparr
93721sparr yes21sparr
70779sparr 70spysparr
20967sparr
20986sparr
20987sparr
57342sparr
66192sparr
71935sparr
71964sparr
80465sparr
90925sparr
2605sparr0
661sparr01
Your thoughts on the matter are appreciated |
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| LED stuff |
[Aug. 20th, 2009|12:43 am] |
I can make these for maybe $10 and an hour of labor each... Do you think they would sell to the raver crowd?
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| Christa animated hula hoop |
[Aug. 16th, 2009|05:24 pm] |
Playing around with rapid fire on the camera and building an unrealistic animation from the results. She was spinning slightly out of sync with the camera shutter, so each pair of photos made up almost a whole rotation, then I rearranged them from ABCDEF to ACEBDF so that the hoop appears to be making a slow single rotation while she jumps through (effectively) 6 different poses that came 2-4 frames apart. |
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| Contingencies |
[Jul. 25th, 2009|02:24 pm] |
I ended up with no ride to Birmingham today, and don't have a backup ride OR anything planned to do today. I usually plan better than this. I need to reverse the turn-to-mush course my brain is on lately. |
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| Almost a shortcut... |
[Jul. 18th, 2009|07:02 am] |
I was walking from Le Bam back to The Spot last night and I found what could be an awesome shortcut but is instead very difficult. I thought I should share, first with my friends and soon with a few friendly business owners at Amsterdam Walk who are probably missing out on some business (how many people come, can't find parking, and leave?).
# Best parking for 502 Amsterdam, The Spot
# Huge new parking garage for Piedmont Park
# Path of shortcut, halves the distance from Monroe + Dutch Valley to Amsterdam Walk
# 10 feet of deep undergrowth and forest, followed by a 10 foot fence with barb wire and a gate that is welded shut.
How hard would it be to install a sidewalk through that little bit of woods and open up the gate? It would add awesome parking possibilities for the businesses on Amsterdam. |
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| Uncut currency experiment. |
[Jul. 15th, 2009|05:45 pm] |
I am going to order some uncut currency (that is, poster-sized sheets of bills) and document my experience spending (or trying to spend) them in different ways. A few ideas occur to me, and can be applied in different combinations.
A small 'checkbook' of bills. Perforated and torn out to pay for things, or not perforated and I cut the bills out.
Using larger than 1x1 sheets (that is, more than 1 still attached to each other) of bills.
Any of the above, applied to a transaction where I already have the goods (such as a restaurant meal I have already eaten, or a post-paid utility bill), and thus the other party is required to accept them (they could say no in other situations).
I am also trying to think of a good way to video-record the experience without needing a wingman, maybe a small video camera on a lanyard or hat?
Your thoughts? |
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| URL Shortening |
[Jul. 8th, 2009|09:28 pm] |
First came tinyurl. It produced URLs like this:
http://tinyurl.com/xxxxx (and eventually 6 and 7 characters, as it got more popular)
Then came a huge assortment of services with shorter domain names, some with interesting features...
http://is.gd/xxxxx
http://bit.ly/yourowntext
But the ultimate URL shortener, in terms of length, has been achieved... The admins of the TK top level domain (owned by the country Tokelau) have started a service called Tweak.tk, which registers a domain name for every shortened URL, so your long URL shortens to something like this:
http://xxxxx.tk
That's it. No path, no extra stuff, nada. It really can't get much shorter than that (sure, you could do 4 characters, but those are more likely to be registered for real, and there are far less of them).
Bit.ly users can rest assured that Tweak.tk won't be offering custom names, since that would undercut their domain registration business, but they will probably end up offering all the other popular features. |
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| Intent, risk, liability. |
[Jul. 7th, 2009|09:36 pm] |
Six guys sit around a table playing russian roulette, with the gun pointed at the guy next to them. One of them inevitably ends up shooting another. Has that guy committed a greater crime than the other 5? The intent and risk was identical every time. They all knew the chances that someone would die when they pulled the trigger, they all chose to take that risk.
Two people buy the same car. Bob just starts driving his. Joe does thousands of dollars in aesthetic customization first. They get in identical wrecks, being hit by Sue and Amy (who are completely at fault). The chance of your car being hit is predictable, just like getting struck by lightning or having a tree fall on it. If Sue and Amy had stayed home that day, the chance of Bob and Joe's cars being hit would not have changed in any significant way. Joe took a greater risk than Bob by putting a more expensive car on the road, but our society puts the burden of Joe's risk on Amy, who took the exact same risk as Sue. Why is that? Why does Joe not bear any liability for his riskier behavior?
Somewhere out there is Sam. He has that same car again, and spends even more than Joe making it prettier. But Sam recognizes that he is taking a greater risk by putting a more expensive car on the road, and he does the responsible thing and gets comprehensive insurance. Why is Sam not the norm?
In almost every part of life, sensible people can come to a consensus that with greater risk comes greater liability and responsibility. In this particular situation, and a few other similar ones, that consensus is shattered. Why? |
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| Weight |
[Jun. 30th, 2009|04:24 pm] |
Oh, and I have lost 10 pounds in 8 days on the "nothing that requires chewing" diet. Milkshakes, smoothies, scrambled eggs, mashed potatoes, grits, etc. |
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| State of the Sparr |
[Jun. 30th, 2009|04:35 am] |
Roommate's car got keyed while I was away, leading to a police report and a shouting match with the neighbor that did it. I think we are going to break our lease here. Between the pool failing inspection (closed for 3 weeks now), semi-monthly interruptions to water service, 80%-nonworking security gates, and a host of other small things I think we will be ok if they try to come after us.
On that note... I am looking for a new place. I need an apartment/house or room for myself, or an apartment/house or rooms for myself and my current roommate, or a house for *sale* (<$120k) for consideration by a friend who I am sorta house hunting with. ITP on the north or east cooridors would be great. Sandy Springs, Chamblee, Decatur, or anywhere between downtown and those locations.
Origins was fun. Daytime volunteering cut into gaming, need to get some night shifts next year. Made some new friends when I found a ride home, and finally got contact info for some folks that I only get to see once a year.
I arrived home from vacation to find my PC with a dead video card. Hopefully that's the only dead part, but an erratic router and a dead power supply for an unrelated device tells me we probably had a lightning strike and I will have to check all my electronics that were running. So glad I found a netbook on woot recently or I would be computerless right now, and that would be no good for a lot of reasons.
My dental troubles continue to mount. Good news, less pain due to less pressure, and less bleeding overall due to more regular flossing. Bad news, less pressure due to crowned-after-10-years-of-impacting wisdom tooth, leading to unstoppable bleeding at one site. Eating is seriously difficult, I have been on a mushy-foods-only diet for over a week now. I need a thorough teeth cleaning and can't find a dentist in Atlanta that will do it for less than $500, and on top of that I need 3 wisdom teeth out. Fortunately I can get the teeth out in Nashville for 1/10th what it will cost in Atlanta, just have to get up there ASAP. Recommendations on diet, dentist, and/or oral surgery options would be appreciated.
Finally, I am really enjoying having a scooter. I miss my bike, and being able to take it on MARTA, but not enough to switch back. |
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| TCPA, Cell Phones, Magistrate Court... |
[Jun. 16th, 2009|07:51 pm] |
I am thinking about suing businesses that robodial my cell phone, or call with prerecorded messages. I will make some enemies, and possibly lose some services*, but weighing that against the potential monetary judgements (a gentleman in DC who does this makes thousands of dollars per year) is pretty tempting.
The TCPA provides for laws and regulations that cover all of this, to the tune of $500 per infraction, some individual calls being multiple infractions (robodial, pre-recorded message, etc).
In Georgia I would have to file in Magistrate Court, since we do not have a Small Claims court. That means defendants could bring a lawyer, which would hurt my chances of winning.
* - My gas utility provider might cut my service off if I sue them, but they have made at least $10000 worth of infringing calls to my cell phone already this month. If I can recover even 10% of that, it would be well worth switching gas companies.
( Legal Citations ) |
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| Downs and ups... |
[Jun. 10th, 2009|11:12 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  pleased | ] |
I started the day realizing I had deleted over 100 hours worth of work done over the past 6 months... I spent about 3 hours trying to recover it in various "obvious" ways.
I ended the day having just remembered that I foresaw this contingency and set all that work to be backed up in another location, where it still sits safe and sound.
Maybe my really shitty birthday week is finally over. |
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sparr0's journal
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pissed off