I’ve tried to read more on July as I started full time stay at home dad-hood.
I read ask the Lord of the Rings books (Fellowship, Two Towers, and Return), followed by The Silmarillion, and have moved onto a Harry Truman Biography about his first for months in office (The Accidental President).
I’ve got my next book out from the library. The Witch Elm by Tana French. Heard a positive npr review and picked it up.
Now that the weather has cooled some, Marceline and I have fine for morning walks aground the neighborhood after her first feeding each morning. Just a short half mile walk around the neighborhood.
It’s not much, but it sure is a nice way to start the day.
Just laying on the floor book reading.
Why is the power button on the base unit the button in the center, but the power button on the satellite units on the left? Its just confusing.
I’m trying to find a logical reason for this design, but I can’t. It makes no sense and makes blindly trying to on our off the units clunky.
A few years ago work the health insurance company gave all of our schools smart scales. The idea being that staff would weigh themselves and do some sort of ‘Biggest Loser’ type deal.
Shocker! Our teachers didn’t care and didn’t want to use it. We also work in a school without a weight room, exercise room or any showers. Its not like people could exercise at work. When I used to bike to work I had to take a wash cloth and towel into the staff bathroom and use the sink to clean myself. No one wants to weigh themselves in a public place. So it went into the closet and stayed there for a few years.
Don’t get me wrong. It’s a super nice scale. It’s a Withings Body Cardio. Despite being several years old, this scale still sells for a $150 on Amazon. This year I pulled it out of the closet and tried to charge it. While it always said it was charging, the battery never held a charge and you couldn’t get it to read anything but charging. Resetting it, leaving it plugged in for overnight, and other solutions didn’t work.
Researching the issue, it turns out that the scale’s software can over-drain a battery to the point that it no longer holds a charge, and sitting in the closet for over a year can do that. Withings solution to the problem is to offer a discount towards a new scaled (25%).
Anyways, being that it was now junk that didn’t work, options were either leave it there broken for the new principal or throw it out. Instead I took it home and decided to play around with it. Sam had a soldering iron here, and in some forums online people talked about replacing the battery. So, why the hell not try it out. I bought an $8 battery off amazon and got to work cracking open the scale.
Twenty minutes of work and the scale now works! Which is kind of exciting. I was able to put a new battery in, solder the wires to the battery, and get it charging. I even was able to weigh myself.
Of course I’ll leave in the garage for a little bit to make sure I didn’t screw up the battery and in the hopes that it won’t explode while charging, but it was kind of fun to play with electronics, even something simple like this.
I was a weird high school kid apparently. I mean I did all the normal things, held down a respectable job (life guard / swim instructor), did three sports, kept decent/good grades, and stayed out of any trouble.
In art class, I always like drawing with the Mr. Sketch Smelly Markers. Technically they are called Mr. Sketch Scented Markers…. Smelly Markers sounds so much better. Regardless, they were, and still are fantastic.
So last year when I was cleaning out my closet at my parents, I came across old artwork from high school done in the Mr. Sketch Smelly Markers. ‘Peter… the giant turtle’ is a two part story completed in Art Class back in the mid 90’s. And I call it a story because I actually wrote short paragraphs on the back of the drawings to go along with these drawings. It’s more of an unfinished saga than it is a story I suppose.
So, without further ado… The Mr. Sketch Smelly Markers saga of Peter… the giant turtle:
Story: Peter – the giant turtle – was in the pond when a rage went through his head. There were no more flies, for the humans had killed them to get rid of the pests. Peter was outraged as he crawled out of the pond towards the village. When he reached the village he stomped on their homes and ate their kids. He took out his frustration on the women, crushing their heads with his claws. People fled in terror. Only a few stays and fought in vain. Peter killed them all. He found he liked the taste of human flesh. Peter left in search of more victims….
Story: Peter – the giant turtle – wanting more human flesh swam across the great ocean. On his way through the ocean, he sedated his blood thirst with a whale here, and another there. Once, a crazed killer whale tried to kill Peter. Peter sliced off its head with his claws and then ate the whale’s heart. Peter swam on, and soon he came to a great city. He smelled the humans. He knew he would soon feast again….
I can’t imagine what the art teacher thought as a I gleefully sat there making these drawings. I mean, as a principal, well former principal now, I would have some thoughts on students making these drawings. However, they are missing any big red flags… no guns, no specific people’s names, and only as gory / graphic as stick figures could be. So not a horrible ting to see, but still….
