My home office after assembling my new desk

And yes, I know… I need to use all that cool cable management gear I bought with the desk. But hey, I just wanted to get everything put together, folks! Next up — I’m going to paint this room. Now that everything can roll about on the new desk, this will make painting the room a bit easier, while allowing me to keep everything up ‘n operational during the renovations.

1) I ordered a brand spanking new Anthro computer desk.. I am done with the cheap Office Depot & Staples furniture I’ve gotten by on for years, and I finally decided I wanted a desk that could accomodate the way I work — which is that I constantly context switch between my laptop and a desktop.

2) I run VMWare Fusion instances of Windows XP and Linux so that I can mirror my customers’ environments. Unfortunately, I have so many virtual machines now that I can’t fit them all comfortably on my laptop’s 160GB hard drive. The problem? My MacBook Pro has a 7200 rpm drive in it, and I was loathe to give up speed for additional space. The solution? I ordered a Western Digital Scorpio Black 320GB 7200rpm drive from Newegg. It’s on the way, and so that leaves me free to make a change I’d been thinking about for a while…

3) ..because I had a 320GB hard drive that spun 5400rpm that I was using in an external Firewire 800 case to “augment” my MacBook Pro’s internal drive. I’d thought about replacing the internal drive for a while with the slower drive, but never mustered the gumption to do it. Instead that drive is now in my Playstation 3, so now I have a 320GB Playstation 3 instead of a 60GB Playstation 3. Score! (I followed the instructions in this handy article from Gamespot!)

4) Did I mention I’m cleaning house? I become a slob during the work week, and I needed to do some much needed house cleaning. I’ve got a big house for a single guy (4BR, 2.5 Bath), and I need to reorganize a lot of the “stuff” I have stored from when my Mom passed away back in 2003. With any luck, I won’t have to make excuses like the one on that welcome mat next week!

5) I finished the Dune prequel trilogy: “The Butlerian Jihad“, “The Machine Crusade”, and “The Battle of Corrin”, each of which clocks in at over 600 pages a pop. Whew!

6) And most importantly: I’ve paid all my bills and got all my work-related stuff knocked out. I may do some work this weekend, but a lion’s share of it will be around the house!

Basically, I was chilling, watching “Syriana” (courtesy of Netflix) because I’ve had it for… six months and still haven’t watched it.

Then I noticed a weird odor…

(No, not my own flatulence)

I thought it may be one of the many electronic gizmos in my home theater rig overheating, since it smelled like roasted electronics with a hint of rubber.

Given how shitty my sense of smell is, it could have smelled like roast duck with mango salsa and I’d have freaked…

So I cut the lights on, looked in my kitchen and noticed a smoky haze in the kitchen.

I then proceeded to run around the kitchen (“like a chicken with its head cut off” as my dear old Mom used to say) looking to see if the oven, the cooktop or anything else might be on.

Nada.

I noticed the smoke was up to the ceiling in there, so I bolted upstairs, and checked all the rooms. Nothing burning, and the odor was not even noticeable up there.

So I dialed 9-1-1, told the operator what was going on, and got a visit from PGFD and Greenbelt Volunteer FD so quickly that I barely had time to move my car out the garage (because I sure as Hell was not going to let my precious car go up in flames… or get water damaged if they needed to put a fire out!) before they showed up en masse.

My boss may appreciate the fact that somewhere in the process of moving the car, I also threw my laptop and all my work-related stuff into the trunk because I love my job.

So the fire department ran around the place checking for the source of the smoke and discovered that something electronic failed in the (overly complex and, in my opinion, poorly designed) electronic HVAC unit that handles the heat in the house.

It kicked out a lot of smoke, tripped the circuit breaker, but the fans pushed the smoke throughout the house.

Joy.

That said, I’m glad to be alive, glad that all the “things” I’ve got aren’t lost to fire, damaged, or destroyed. And I’m grateful to the fire department for getting out here so quickly, even though I caught one of the guys playing with an elastic ribbon I used while rehabilitating my ankle (why do I keep it? I don’t know!) to smack his co-worker on the ass.

I especially enjoy it when friends look me square in the eye and tell me, “I know someone who would be perfect for you!” because, quite frankly, I know that I am about to learn a lot about what that friend thinks about me.

It also makes me wonder if some of my friends really know me at all, but hey…

This week’s amusing fix-up comes via a friend of mine from college who shall remain nameless. We don’t see much of each other, but she’s always been a sweetheart, and rarely acts the role of a busybody. So let’s watch how this one unfolds.

It begins with this (seemingly) harmless inquiry in to my relationship status. I’m not the type who goes traipsing from relationship-to-relationship, stepping over the body of my ex on the way to the next, so my friend knew the odds favored me being single. To her credit, she does ask what my status is…

Of course, this is scary and exciting because, quite frankly, I know this could be very bad. I have never had a fix-up go well. It’s like my friends pick people who are like funhouse mirror distortions of what would really work for me. I partially blame myself because, hey, I may emphasize certain things like, “It wouldn’t hurt if she looks like one of Prince’s protegés”, or “I really dig a girl who is smart!”, or “I like a chica who can drive a car with a manual transmission”, or one that probably confuses them “I want a woman who can put up with me.”

For example, here’s what I think when I see Mayte Garcia, former Prince protegé:

So, naturally, I respond with the sentiment that this question is scary and yet intriguing.

Now things get a bit confusing for my friend…

…before I make it clear, that yes, I am interested in meeting a single available woman who might make my brain light up like this:

…which led to this exchange…

Being naturally suspicious, and wanting to jerk my friend’s chain a little, I react as if this person may have The Black Plague. Or was bitten by an ebola monkey.

Not an ebola monkey, but equally disturbing. Plus, I think having a picture of him in my blog makes me look that much better by comparison…

And then I get this response.. the possible deal-breaker:

The girl I want to introduce you to has one in the oven, and oh, by the way, “Have a great weekend?”

Whoa!

I can’t even begin to wonder why my friend thought this might have been a good match for me, but rest assured, I’m going to ask her “WHAT THE F*CK WERE YOU THINKING!??!?!?!?!??!!?!??!” the first chance I get.

It also doesn’t hurt to have a good book to read between visits by goblins, ghouls, and vampires. Oh, and quite a few superheros…

So, submitted for your approval, here is what I’ll call “Antique Radio, version 1.0 Beta”.

The full view…

A (Zaxxon-style) angled view of the controls & speakers.

Plain view of the controls and speakers.

Okay, so I know the hardcore nerds (i.e., people like me) will only care about the list of equipment used — so here goes:

• Apple Mac Mini (PowerPC G4 @ 1.42Ghz, Bluetooth, no Airport, 512MB RAM, 80GB HD)
• Dell 20″ LCD (2001FP)
• Adesso Wireless Keyboard w/ Trackpad (to the far left in the top photo)
• A pair of Orb Audio Mod 2 speakers with a Super 8 subwoofer tucked away in the radio cabinet.
• Also in the cabinet is an Onkyo M-282 stereo amplifier. The line out from the Mac Mini goes to this, and it produces enough thump to make the Orbs sing, and it feaures RCA outs that I feed to the Super 8.
• Three Griffin PowerMates, using the beta version of Proxi to allow them to act as controls to launch & control iTunes. And without Proxi, only one works at a time, so if you’re thinking of doing this on a PC, make sure you have a tool that can allow you to leverage multiple PowerMates…

Next up, I need to start cutting some wood to provide better support for the amp inside the cabinet. I’m going to see how proficient I get with a jigsaw and a dremel when I do my basement, and then I’ll make a decision about how I want to mount the speakers to the radio’s cabinet. Right now, I’m leaning towards keeping them external because I may be able to allow for “flexible aiming” of the speakers. I also need to figure out how I’ll ultimately mount the PowerMates so they can be used as knobs. Oh, and I need an LCD mount… some kind of funky articulating arm would be perfect!

I spent the morning at the New Deal Cafe which has free Wi-Fi for anyone and everyone. All hail the wonders of communist Greenbelt! Kidding aside, the entire co-op mentality here really paid major dividends, and I had a tasty chocolate chai latte there that easily tops anything I’ve had at Starbuck’s. And hey, the Wi-Fi is free at New Deal, and decidedly not free at Starbuck’s.

And that chocolate chai latte rocked my world. Greenbelt rocks!

Howard Heating & Air Conditioning is here servicing the blown A/C motor. You may recall that I’ve been battling that one for a while… and my “clean it, lube it, and then poke it until it starts to work”-technique (which I also apply to dating ) worked for a while, but failed me a few days ago. It looks like a new motor will solve the problem. Not too pricey, but more than I wanted to spend right now.

So now I’m back in the saddle, and the only outstanding issue is my dead iPod nano. I’ll post more on that later, but I’m convinced it’s a design flaw for anyone who is using the lanyard earbuds. In essence, if you’re working out and sweat (like a pig?), it will drip down the lanyard and eventually seep into the dock connector. This will ultimately cause water damage and corrosion inside your iPod nano.

I’ve already dissected mine, and I think it may be “salvageable”, but we’ll see… Right now, I’m mulling over my options. My gut tells me that new iPods are probably on the near-term horizon, but I love the nano’s flash memory and form-factor. If they come out with a new one that has a larger capacity flash drive, I’d be sold in a heartbeat.

But this time: NO LANYARD.

Plus, wearing it around my neck makes me feel like a Flavor Fav-wannabe. But it was damn practical, and I think, nicer than the arm straps…

Before I get all political… back to the original point — there’s a guy in Northern Ireland who has a better home theater setup. And gigabit ethernet. And 5 terabytes of storage. And a bunch of Mac Minis for use as set-top boxes for showing movies. All over his house.

Oh, I think I know where some of my bonus money is going… but part of me wonders what the heck he is talking about when he mentions a “BluRay” player in the MacBook Pro. Mine has a DVD drive, so he may just be full of sh*t.

Even so, I’m jealous.

A little background…

People who know me IRL (In Real Life) know that I’m not particularly mechanically-knowledgeable. I would have said mechanically-inclined, but the truth of the matter is — I do take a bizarre pleasure in wrenching on stuff. One of the nice things about owning my home and the car that I do is that I have the perfect scenario to “learn” without hurting (or blowing anyone else up) other than myself.

Good times, to quote John Teagle at Jenny Kimball’s birthday dinner…

So today, I realize the temperature in my house was perilously close to eighty degrees. That’s not just hot, that’s getting to the point where my flabby American ass can’t cope with sweating indoors. Sure, skinny girls like my friend Sarah probably like to feel like chickens in a rotisserie, but I like it cold. My protective layer of fat and blubber allow me to feel most at home in near Arctic conditions.

So I play with the thermostat. I note the A/C unit’s motor makes some godawful noises.. then stops. Finally I open up the A/C unit (mental note: always cut the power to the air conditioner when you’re going to work on it), and poke around. Basically there was lots of debris and nastiness in there, and after a healthy cleaning…

I’m feeling like Sub-Zero in Mortal Kombat, bitches.

I like fixing things.