Catexia

I have a soft spot for all things Steampunk, and every so often tear off into the wilds of the internet in search of anything interesting in that genre. Normally, it comes up with some cool projects, a few wallpapers, and that’s about it. This time, however, I came up with something I didn’t expect – a band called The Cog is Dead. They’ve got one album available, which I purchased out of curiosity.

If you’re curious about the music, you can check out a few of the songs on The SixtyOne. Overall, I’m a big fan of the music – the album hits a surprising range of genres – The Copper War, for instance, sounds like a Western ballad, while I Want Only You is clearly a Reggae song. Yeah, that’s right, Reggae – steel drums, and all. The styles and tone vary considerably throughout the album, but this largely works to keep the album interesting as it moves from one track to the next. The music is catchy and enjoyable – the only major issue I have with the music is that the lyrics run a bit too prosaic at times. It causes the songs to stumble at times to my ear – the music flows much more readily, while the lyrics feel choppy. It doesn’t ruin the music by any stretch, but it’s something that could stand improvement.

I’m typically a picky listener, only enjoying a few songs off any album. This album has more songs than usual that I enjoy, which is always a good sign. In particular, I’m a big fan of The Copper War, The Depths Below, The Inventor’s Daughter, and The Death of the Cog. I’ll continue listening, and look forward to hearing future albums as they come out.

A few more minor observations about the iPad:

1. One of our cats, Pyewacket, loves the iPad. Not using it, but for the space it opens up on my lap. She not only climbs into my lap now, but will let me use her as an impromptu stand for it. It’s nice to have the normally indifferent kitten clamoring for my lap.
2. Trying to figure out how to read all my web comics resulted in discovering the ability to organize RSS feeds into folders, along with reading comics through my RSS reader. This was one of the issues I had been having, so it’s nice to finally eliminate it.
3. I had several e-mails I had to show the wife and process, which normally is a bit of an ordeal to get her to sit down and read an e-mail. This time, however, I was able to open it, and treat it more as a clipboard. The iPad seems to encourage sharing the device more than a laptop, which seriously helps when dealing with things like that. The same holds true for gaming, with two player games on a single device feeling perfectly natural.

Just some minor observations as I continue to discover little bits and pieces of differences in the interaction with the iPad.

I didn’t expect to get an iPad in the first generation. When I realized I had the opportunity, I didn’t leap at the chance to do so – I hemmed and hawed, discussed it with co-workers, friends, and my wife. My biggest fear was that it would end up like so many other gadgets – quickly relegated to gathering dust. Then the wife admitted she was planning on buying one later in the summer, so an early gift would make more sense. A trip to the Apple Store, a swipe of the credit card, and a 16GB Wi-fi model leaves the store with us.

The hardware itself has been reviewed by many others, more in depth and eloquently than I. I don’t aim to replicate that effort – my interest is largely to compile my experiences and observations after a week a a two days of using the iPad as part of my daily life.

Continue reading ‘My iPad Experience: One Week Along’ »

During the snowy winter weather here in Pittsburgh, we stored my wife’s Honda Accord in the garage for the winter. While the garage kept the car away from rock salt, icy roads, and deep snow, unfortunately it didn’t protect the car from water deposits. Wait, water deposits?

Well, yes. It turns out that our garage, made of concrete, will slowly soak water through it. Not very fast, but given a deep snowfall like Pittsburgh had, it’ll eventually work its way through, and very slowly drip. I didn’t think much of it, until several weeks had passed, and white, smooth spots had formed on the car. It turns out calcium leeches out of the concrete, and accumulates on whatever surface is below – in this case, the side of a Honda Accord. My wife’s Accord – her baby.

After swearing I’d fix it, no problem, right away, I grabbed the hose, the sponge, and the car soap, and gave it a wash. No change. A second wash, more vigorous. Then scrubbing hard. Now the wife was worried, so a quick trip to the auto shop to grab a clay cleaning kit. This promises to clean all manner of evil off cars – spray the lubricant on, scrub with clay, be the hero of the day. Even a friendly passing neighbor swears by it, telling me he used to work cleaning cars fresh off the train using clay. The result? Nothing.

Then I remember a useful bit of chemistry – calcium doesn’t dissolve in water very well, which means the scrubbing would get nowhere. However, calcium will dissolve quite easily in an acid, if I had one in hand. Like vinegar! Rushing into the house, grabbing the bottle of distilled vinegar, I triumphantly douse the spots in vinegar, and wait for it to work. And wait. And wait. Huh. Scrubbing doesn’t help much – some of the smaller spots come clean, but the big spots have no change. One last crazy thought enters my head.

Clay from the super-cleaning kit, a little bit of handiwork, and behold! This clay cavity holds a pool of vinegar on the spot. If you look closely, you can even see the bubbles from the calcium dissolving. A few minutes of waiting for the calcium to dissolve, a quick rinse with water (the vinegar might damage the car if left on the car,) and the calcium is gone. And I feel smart for the next few hours. And most importantly, the wife is happy.

I’ve been finally making some strides to use my web space, and discovered that my old Drupal install was incapable of updating. So I’ve shifted to WordPress to see if it’ll work as a slightly lighter weight blogging platform.

My current thought for this blog is to post the insights and learning experiences I have as I strive to improve my personal organization and skills. I’ve been striving for these for awhile, so I thought I’d use this blog as a place to record notes and share my experiences.

If you’re looking for my cache of amusing internet media, my Tumblr contains that at http://jasedit.tumblr.com – to interact with me online, you can catch me on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/jasedit