Mark’s Blog

Greenbean passed this morning.

I haven’t been able to rationalize my way out of feeling miserable today.  I can’t even explain how she came to mean so much to me, but I know my mom understands.  Ten years ago, I welcomed her (with some reservations…. I didn’t even like cats) into my home when Deb moved in.  In no time at all I found I had a new best friend.  My mom somewhat hesitantly did the same when we moved to England.   It shouldn’t have been surprised that my mom fell for her too.   I thought we might be fighting her for custody when we returned.

Greenbean had a presence.  It didn’t matter if she was snoozing in another room, probably cuddled up in my clean laundry basket…  you knew she was there.  The house just felt more comfortable with her in it.  And when she met me at the door, or interrupted me at the computer, or offered her belly to me for scratching I had the rare pleasure of a few moments mental peace and a feeling of sincere warmth and friendship.  Over ten years this was never offset by anything negative.

I should feel lucky… but not today.

but some days I feel like a peninsula.

I keep Mark from sleeping each night.

I make Mark feel like the walking dead.

Over time my Wii has become progressively louder. As the DVD spun it made a terrible buzzing sound… so loud it really bothered me. I finally took the time to disassemble it and here’s what I did to fix it.

1) Follow the instructions here to get to the drive: http://forums.lovingwii.com/nintendo-wii-hardware/425-guide-disassemble-nintendo-wii-video-pictures.html

Now I tried tweaking just about everything… but the only effective way to kill the noise was to jam a small piece of rolled up electrical tape between the drive housing and the spring loaded carrier. As illustrated here:

I had the Wii powered on and spinning while I did this… keep trying until it goes silent, eject the disk a few times to check and see if everything still works, and call it a day. Mine is now effectively silent.

shot by Martin Unsal

I bought a new flatbed scanner (Epson V500) . It does a very good job of scanning color negatives, especially considering its price (~$200.) So I brought my pre-digital photo collection home with me to scan. It’s a fairly slow process, about 25min for 8 photos, but over the course of a day I can get a roll or two scanned.

I’m now really looking forward to tackling my family’s photo albums. My parents took quite a few photos, so it will be a big project. But it will be so worth it… if only to serve as a backup.

We’ve been in the US for the holidays.  It has been a remarkably busy time for us.  When we weren’t taking care of months of past due chores at home or work, we were spending all our time visiting friends and family.

We fly back tomorrow, and we go back with suitcases full of goodies and to be honest some mixed feelings.  England still feels like home, and we are looking forward to settling back in to our routine (if the last year could be considered at all routine.)  Sadly, it also feels so much more temporary.  Two years seemed like such a long time last Christmas, but this last year passed so quickly.  I may have a fix for that, in the next few months I hope to learn if my contract will be extended.  But if not, by the end of summer we will need to begin the slow process of wrapping up and coming home.  I’m not one for making (or keeping) long-term plans, but not knowing what is next is making me a little anxious.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=504380&in_page_id=1770

“The average price of a pint of bitter in Britain’s pubs could increase from around £2.20 to as much as £4 next year, the industry warned today. The massive hike, which is also expected to affect cans bought from off licences, is due to the increased prices of key ingredients barley and hops.”

I’m officially tired of delivering training.  Having to keep my personality and voice turned up a notch all day (and often into the evening if I’m entertaining) is draining.  I now realize how much I need/enjoy having quiet time to myself during the day.   Fortunately, I’m down to one final week of courses to deliver before I’m free for the Christmas break.

http://finance.google.com/finance?q=GBPUSD

Maybe that Red Bull at 10pm wasn’t a good idea.

Is Red Bull ever a good idea?