Cruftbox: My Box of Cruft

The washing machine is broken.
Last night Michele casually says, “I know you just wanted to read your new book up front, but I think the washing machine isn’t washing.”
I go check and sure enough, the agitator is not agitating.
I assume that it’s due to the normal condition of Michele shoving 3 loads of clothes into the washer at the same time. She explains the reasoning for overloading the washer as “We have a lot of laundry!”
The wet laundry is pulled out of the washer and into the sink to reveal a washer that still won’t agitate. I try the usual cycling of the washer, all to no avail. Something is actually broken.
After a bit of disassembly, I find that a plastic adapter for the agitator that connects to the drive motor is stripped. Now, I don’t mean stripped as in it still works and slips occasionally. I mean stripped as in completely smooth with no traction at all. The part will have to be replaced.
It took many, MANY oversized loads to do this kinda damage.
I go explain this to Michele and her only question is, “Can I have a new front-loading washer now?”. I roll my eyes and go check the internet for the part.
The part is $4.90 and $20+ for overnight shipping. For grins, I check to see the price of a new front-loading washer. The cheapest one is around $700 at Sears.
$25 vs. $700? Hmmm… What to do, what to do?
Of course, I ordered the spare part and explained to Michele that it will take a much more expensive break to get me to buy a new washer. She just smiled.
Later, I had a vision of Michele taking a hammer to the insides of the washer, hoping to bring about the early arrival of the new front-loading washer. I need to keep a eye on her. She’s sneaky.

The heat is going to be arriving soon here in Sunny Southern California, and I am getting a quick post in before the day really begins.

Mira blowing out candles with Zoe in support.

Yesterday, the hosting provider for this site did a software upgrade.
As a result, the interface between perl and mysql was broken for part of the day. Basically it meant that MovableType didn’t work and you couldn’t read comments.
It appears that everything is fixed. Please resume your normal commenting.

A few pictures before I wrap up the day.

Mira on her new bicycle and in her new dress. Happy 5th!

Here I am lurking in the shadows on my new bike.

At lunch we headed out to grab our free Slurpees at 7-Eleven.
We walked into the store and said, “Where’s the free slurpees?”
The man behind the counter said, “Seven to Eleven!”
I said, “Yeah, where”s the free Slurpees?”
He said, “It’s over! Seven to Eleven!”
Evidently the knuckleheads at Corporate 7-Eleven decided to only have free stuff from 7AM to 11AM.
Fuckers…

Tomorrow my youngest daughter, Mira, turns five years old. It will be a good day.
I spent the evening wrapping presents and attaching a basket & bell to her new bicycle. The Magic Talking Grill is sure to be a hit as well.
I also did the final touches on my MeFI CD Swap. I had resisted opening the CDs I got before I finished my mixes. I started listening to them tonight. The CD from greengrl is absolutely kick-ass. I hope she likes my selections as much I like hers.
My good friend Len has launched his blog. Please give him a read and a comment for encouragement.

I went from 500+ emails in my inbox to under 100. The flow of emails in unending. Eventually it will wreck all productivity in modern business.
There’s got to be a better way.

We are out of ice, so I am drinking my scotch neat. Usually I have two rocks to chill the scotch just a bit. Life is rough.
I just finished a book I picked up at the local discount bookstore. It’s called Rebel Moon and based on the story form a 1996 video game. It’s not worthy of a full review. The book hums along for a bit and at the end the rebels basically lose and the story abruptly ends with the appearance of aliens. We don’t even know what happens next. There’s no sequel. What a ripoff, even at $2.99.
I was talking to some people at work about what apps to run to protect yourself from things like spyware and other malware. Here’s a list of what I run defensively.
ZoneAlarm – A software firewall that also controls outbound traffic
Norton AntiVirus – If you don’t run antivirus, you are asking to get your computer wiped out.
AdSubtract – Pop-up blocker and privacy software.
AdAware – Spyware scanner.
Spybot – Alternate spyware scanner
SpamBayes Outlook Addin – Spam filter for Outlook.
Oh, Michele just got back from her Quilt Meeting. Gotta go.

On the 4th I finished my latest book, The Golden Age. I was quite pleased, but the author did leave me in a classic cliffhanger.
The Golden Age – John Wright
The Golden Age is a classic space opera with a twist of occuring outside the typical swashbuckling firefights of many Sci-fi novels. In Wright’s far future, humans are immortal and surrounded by ultra-smart artificial intelligences that help them manipulate thier perception of the world. No longer do most people physically travel anywhere, they mind is fed the senses and experiences where android bodies and remote sensors.
The protaganist, Phaethon, is a hero in a world without desire for adventure. Society is content to stop progress and bask in their utopia. Without revealing much plot, finds that the world is not as it seems and soon learns that part of his past has been hidden.
The story follows his attempts to find out what’s really going on in a world of fantasy and illusion. The story is a bit slow in the beginning until you pick up the lingo and concepts. Soon enough you are hanging on for the wild ride.
The book ends in a cliffhanger with our hero ready to face the final outcome in the next book. Amazon can’t deliver it fast enough. To bad my library doesn’t have it.

First, here is a page with picture on my recent upgrades to my Tivo. Enjoy.
Today was a good home day.
I went bike riding with the kids to the park.
We washed Michele’s car in the driveway.
I watched the kids play in the hot tub while I surfed on the laptop.
I burned a DVD from video I extracted from the Tivo.
Mira took a nap on top of me (I was forced to take one too.)