It wasn't me. You can't prove anything.


2012-12-31

2012 year in review



FieldData
Title2012 year in review
DescriptionStrong language. What I have to say about the past year and what is coiming in 2013.

Blog from 2003
http://plastickelly.blogspot.com/2003/12/new-years-resolutionim-giving-up-sex.html
Blog from 2004
http://plastickelly.blogspot.com/2004/12/no-christmas-im-not-doing-christmas.html

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Tagsvlog, vlogging, 2012, 2013, year in review, Johnnie Walker Black, whisky, New Years resolution, no sex for a year
LinkLink


2012-12-29

Eyebrows



FieldData
TitleEyebrows
DescriptionWatch and behold a one eyebrowed man.

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Tagsvlog, vlogging, hygiene, trim, hair, eyebrows, mustaches, beard, goatee,
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2012-12-28

Notes

I’m watching these guys who are playing Minecraft with an add on called Techet. It appears exist to make a simple fun to play game far too complex and a pain in the ass.

I have a Fujitsu laptop at the house. The wifi on it is going out. Sometimes it works for hours on end, they just quits. It will say it is connected and nothing will work. I’ve looked at the settings and everything seems in order. I plug the wire in and everything seems to work fine. It looks like I’m suffering the same kind of mysterious dropping of connectivity while the computer says it is connected. It is a pain in the ass.

I moved the access point two feet to the North. This means the laptop in the living room now has an open line of sight to the AP. This seems to have helped. We will see how it goes in the long run. None of the other devices seem to have suffered from this issue.

What I got for Christmas 2012




FieldData
TitleWhat I got for Christmas 2012
DescriptionQuick video for those who care about such things.

* Twitter https://twitter.com/#!/zhsy00001
* Google+ https://plus.google.com/110920679448216202152/posts/p/pub
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Tagsvlog, vlogging, Christmas, 2012, things, commercialism, gifts
LinkLink


2012-12-26

Christmas Day 2012




FieldData
TitleChristmas Day 2012
DescriptionWhat I did this Christmas day.

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Tagsvlog, vlogging, Christmas day, 2012, air compressor, nozzle, hose, nipple, garage, father and son, Houston
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2012-12-23

Me and the cat



FieldData
TitleMe and the cat
DescriptionThe cat’s name is Merlin. He is a Maine Coon we think. He came along one day when the garage door was open and wouldn’t go away.

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Tagsvlog, vlogging, cat, main coon, play, wrestle, kitty, arm chair, living room, family, fun
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Went to stab this up on YouTube. I forgot how huge the files are straight off the camera. I use a Canon 110 something ot other. It is OK. The files that come off it are obnoxiously vast.

Nat did give me permision to putthis up.


2012-12-22

Week off




FieldData
TitleWeek off to think about life
DescriptionDay one of my week off. Rant about how hard drives work and socialized medicine.

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Tagsvlog, vlogging, job, career, socialized medicine, government, politics, vacation, garage, rant
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Notes


Is it the end of the world? Well not according to the half of the planet that has already gone through most of the day.  Some say this is simply the beginning of a new era. I say it was hopefully the last workday of my year.

What are my plans for the last real end of the year break that I will have for some time? Well, I would like to get some poetry written. May or may not show up on the blog. I would like to shoot some videos. It doesn’t matter how bad those are. They will go on the vlog.

Elle found my wedding ring under the bed in the master bedroom. I tried wearing it for one night and the tendon running along the top of my finger is sore this morning. I had  to take it off. I cannot wear jewelery. I’m going to try wearing a watch again. I miss wearing a watch.

The number one destination for Scotch is the far east. Japan and now China are mad for the elixir. Like it myself if I’m honest.

 I was one of the early adopters at work for the new network. This is only because I’m in IT. My passwords came due yesterday. It took me an hour to get them all changed. I’m getting reports that some of the other folks having to do the same effort are having an easier time of it. Of course, they don’t have two computers or some of the strange IT related accounts to deal with.


2012-12-21

Notes:

Is there any other story on the internet besides the shooting in a school? It is the current catastrophe that turns heads and makes people mad. I cannot find other news. If you want to take out national bank or sink a corporation do it right now. When did I lose the right to vote? Remember that school shooting? I believe it is worthy of the time. I also think it will distract from many worthy stories.

Passwords
At my new company, we have a few more passwords to deal with.

  • Windows
    • BIOS
    • User (including encryption and admin)
    • Local email setup
  • Linux
    • BIOS
    • User
    • Admin
    • Hard drive
    • Local email setup
  • Intranet
  • VPN

This took me an hour to complete this morning. I plan on writing that down under overhead in my time sheet. I’m sure I forgot something. I do keep track of all these things separately, which increases the amount of time it takes to update things.


2012-12-19

News

All that is in the news

  • Israel  & Middle East
    • Destruction thereof
    • Iran nuclear program
    • The Arab Spring wound up putting worse people in charge
  • School shooting
    • Gun control
    • Parading small coffins in front of the cameras
  • Economy
    • Dismal sales for Christmas this year
    • Online vs local
    • Criminal Gangs around the world are becoming quasi states
  • Drugs
    • Turmoil in Mexico
    • Legalizing marijawana


2012-12-17

Notes

I’m in the awkward position of telling people no. They ask me for resources and I have to tell them no. I hate that. I would like to say yes to most things. Particularly those things that make sense. This is not always possible. In the near future, people will stop asking me for things and start asking someone else. They will still get no in many cases.

So friggin nice outside for lunch today. Too bad I had to work through it. The window nearly had drule, or were they tears dripping down the insi

Found a new audiocast (podcast) today. http://www.iceboxradio.org/ They are treating it like public broadcasting. They even beg for money. They sound like PBS. A lot like PBS.

How do you catch a squirrel? Climb in a tree and act like a nut.

Sparkler fail




FieldData
TitleSparkler fail
Descriptionnot every vlog is a diamond. Some are playing with fire.

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Tagsvlog, vlogging, sparkler, fail, family , fun, dark, driveway, garage, matches, cat, outside
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2012-12-16

Encryption and Light




FieldData
TitleEncryption and Light
DescriptionThat’s a good title. The video is not worth of it.

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Tagsvlog, vlogging, laptop, computer, hard drive, theft, white balance, brightness, Canon, Christmas tree
LinkLink


2012-12-15

Before
Today there is a team building exercise at a place downtown. I have chosen not to go. I have a list of treasons. Mostly, it is a hassle and I just don’t want to deal with ti right now. I have been working flat out for a while and today, I was hoping that it would be quite.

I got to work and found out that event does not last all day. It is from 10:00 to 14:00 or so. Sounds like a plan. I still do not want to go. I found out that it is a buffet. That was the icing in the cake of me not wanting to go. There is a primal problem with not knowing what you are putting in your mouth while you eat. It has a tendency to kill the appetite. This happens to me all the time when eating at buffets. It drives me nuts

It looks like only the old company team will go to the team building thing. I believe all the new company people will hang around. The productivity of the morning was a bit below normal I would say. I can’t blame anyone.

A couple have asked discreetly if the powers that be expect people to come back to work after the event. I’ve heard that some people asked if they could just take the day, or at least the afternoon off. By this point in the morning, I was pretty sure I would be here all day

A friend called me and tried to convince me to come. It is nice to be asked.

While roaming around the halls, there is a particularly high level of chatter today. To be expected. Our old company always let people carry over a week of vacation. The new company does not do this. They say it is to get people to take vacations. That’s fine. This has caused people to take the last two weeks of the year off on mass. I’ll be here fo4r all but the week between Christmas and New year’s day. Thus, this is the last day for an abnormally large number of people.

During
About 9:30 people all gathered round, made a bunch of noise and filed out the door. I had been in our production area a bit before and it was empty. They all gathered in one room and had a little before we leave get together. That made sense once I thought about it. People are just going to stand around and pretend to make plans for rides and whatnot.

Me and another guy worked on some virtualization stuff while everyone was gone. It was kind of nice. Got quite a bit done. Still managed to not get what I wanted. It turns out I’m going to have to wait for more information.

Someone texted me about some Christmas bonus activity. Nice.. Wont turn that down. Need to pay off some bills for sure. next year is going to be even worse because of Health care costs. We will be paying a good deal of our costs next year. This is going to hurt.

After
I was not the most productive person today. I have to admit it. I did get some audiocast listening done while hacking away today. Normally, I get interrupted so much that I don’t make it though many episodes.

Someone was making a loud clicking noise. I wandered around looking for them, but found no one to strangle. Could have rounded out an otherwise excellent afternoon.

Normally, by 17:00, most of the company is still plugging away at their desks. Today, however, the place was a ghost town. It was me and three other folks all heading for the door more or less a bit after 17:15. That is how it should be dang it. I hope the culture changes a bit at our company. People need lives outside of work too.

Jobs

I have worked as:
  • Grocery stocker
  • Construction assistant, picked up shingles mostly
  • House cleaner, second class
  • Clipper programmer at a software company that went out of business in the early ninties
  • Large printer operator at a printing sweatshop
  • Petrochemical design lacky, P&ID copy twat
    • Petrochemical contract lackie.
    • Software
    • VBS monkey
    • Internal web design
    • Manage web app for collaboration
    • Unofficial IT
  • Script kitty at a computer hardware manufacturer (not one you have heard of)
    • Software packager
    • Web design (poor)
    • Official IT

My next job will be at a computer hardware manufacturer that you have heard of. One thing all of these jobs have in common was how I found them. I got all these jobs through networking. Every single one was obtained that way. Most of the jobs are for the same company. As I look at this, I notice that I have moved around inside companies quite a bit. Not sure what to think about that.

Some of the writers I’ve heard the bios on list their jobs. They seem to have interesting lists of jobs. As I look back at my list, it is not all that diverse. It is not exciting.

Notes

One of the audiocasts I listen to compared some stories from Grey’s Anatomy to St. Elsewhere. It was kind of surprising how plots line straight up. Shameful.

What happened to our Brisk Tea at work?

There are several stories out about antibiotics being linked to obesity. Apparently, giving children under six months of age antibiotics may very well cause a lifetime of obesity. It turns out the body at that age is adapting to the world of food and bacteria. That is, the gut bacteria balance may be set for life at this point in life. The gut bacteria balance contributes greatly to how heavy someone is. throughout their life. At some point there may be a pill you can take, or a yogurt you can eat that will correct your balance. If this holds true, you just might be able to eat your way thin.

My top ten movies for the year are as follows ... I don’t think we went to the movies this year. If we did, I don’t remember it therefore it does not deserve to be in a top whatever list.


2012-12-12

Why I don’t vlog on work days




FieldData
TitleWhy I don’t vlog on work days
DescriptionThis should answer the question why Kelly is a weekend vlogger.

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Tagsvlog, vlogging, week day, weekend, boring, subway, commuting, cold, westheimer, Houston, texas,
LinkLink


2012-12-11

Notes

This transition thing is not working like a well oiled machine. There are squeeks, grinds, clunks and a bit of smoke in the mechanism. It is happening. There are issues and people who are not catching up as quickly as I would hope. It is happening. may it happen without anyone being ground up in that mechanical workings.

Remember that radar lock that fighter pilots dreaded? That used to mean something. Now, if you are on a radar of a modern fighter, you are locked. Trust me.

Europe is auctioning off 4G spectrum by the bucket. The commentators on the BBC seemed to think this would lead to lower prices. I think they are mistaken. I believe the idea behind 4G is that it will make people who are really happy with 3G cough up some more money for essentially the same services. They are using old analog TV wavelengths.


2012-12-10

Contact lenses




FieldData
TitleContact lenses
DescriptionMe and my contact lens woes.

Me putting on contacts
http://youtu.be/w6WuQxAvCgU

Zenni optical
http://www.zennioptical.com/

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Tagsvlog, vlogging, contact lens, sight, vision, legally blind, solution, cleaner, eye, eye health
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New Phones

I have to change Phone companies. The plan I’ve been on for a while through Virgin mobile is about to go batshit. This means signing up with Verizon. The company I now work for has some discounts through Sprint, AT&T and Verizon.

I ditched T-Mobile because they were thinking about being bought out by AT&T so they are out this time too. I just don’t care if they have the best plan on the planet. Sprint, that is who I have now via Virgin Mobile. I feel in my bones that Virgin Mobile is going away and the same kind of thing will happen With Sprint. I don’t like Sprint plans or how they handle customer service. Version was recently rated as a pretty decent company to deal with as a customer so I’ll give them a try.

This may mean I need to get on a plan again. I hope there are options for lowering the rate after the contract is up or buying the phones outright and securing a monthly rate without the payment amount built in every month on phones that are paid for. I shall not hold my breath.

As for coverage, I could care less.

Data is going to be an issue. Nat will want to use data on her phone occasionally and It is going to cost a fortune. I’m simply not going to be able to cover it. All the plans now have caps and overage costs. The idea is don’t go over your plan. The numbers on the plans are so low that you cannot user your devices without going over. The companies rape you every month if you do all the amazing things they intice you to do.

God, help me get a dal. Help me not get screwed.

Notes


Video:
Contacts and fluid.
Glasses while wearing contacts
Sunglasses
Putting on contacts http://youtu.be/w6WuQxAvCgU

Other:
Got a free lunch today. The building I work in has a lunch for the residence once a year for Christmas. Well, for the “holidays”. Tree is lit up and all, but don’t call it Christmas. I made it to t the line with a total of four pieces of chicken left. There was plenty of everything else. They had these little ice cream muffin things that were pretty good. They also had little cheese cake cubes. I meant to head down again ten minutes later and pile up on them, but didn’t make it. I don’t need the calories. I’m getting tubby. Nat and I need to stop eating every single meal out. hey, free food wins every time.

Penn Jillette mentioned the kind of breakfast he used to have in his younger days. He would take a huge shot of Hershey's chocolate sauce and wash it down with a Coke. The Twitter sphere is alive with people trying it. No thank you. I prefer having teeth and a functioning pancreas.


2012-12-09

Lawn and the art of YouTube



FieldData
TitleLawn care and the art of YouTube
DescriptionMe complaining about the state of online freedom.

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Tagsvlog, vlogging, lawn care, lawn work, online video, rights, speech, freedom,
LinkLink


2012-12-08

Notes

Video ideas
The argument that science is a belief or coping mechanism.

How dead I am after work. The lack of drive.

Couple of non start days (morning introes)

My criteria for an interface
The device has to perform the intended purpose without making me want to put my fist through it.

Remember wipe cuts.

Other
The state law in Washington now says you can possess 1 oz of weed. You cannot buy it. You cannot sell it. You cannot smoke it. You may only have it on you without getting in trouble. Apparently there is a legal limit of THC in your blood as well.

How many days have I been alive? Apparently I have been around 16,008 days. It is all down hill after the first thousand or so.

Foreign Policy Vlog




FieldData
TitleForeign Policy Vlog
DescriptionMe ranting about my government again.

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Tagsvlog, vlogging, U. S., China, middle east, oil, U. N., un, Iran, Cuban Missile Crisis, Paranoia, Politics,
LinkLink


2012-12-06

Notes

last night someone was at the end of my block at Westheimer with blinking lights blocking traffic. It looked like it might have been some kind of off duty cop or possibly a security person. They were blocking the intersection because a tow truck was picking up a vehicle from the middle of the street. Someone got in a wreck in the entrance to the parking lot of the bar across the street. I scoffed and went back to bed. Big excitement, not. Didn’t even feel like switching on the video camera.

I need a set of wireless headphones for work. They cost too much. I need to find a pair of headphones that I can move around in and that I can still hear the world around me while using. That is a tall order.

The Iran nuclear crisis has been described as the Cuban missile crisis in slow motion. That is very apt in my book. It was coined by a guy who lived through the Cuban missile crisis. I heard this on NPR of course. They still had no real solutions. The president said something about consequences, but what are those consequences? No one is willing to say. I hear options like “war crime trials in The Hague” and other abstract like that.

The next story on NPR was all about the U. S. Chinese policy and how China looks east and sees a line of U. S. allies. Well, do the work. It takes centuries of good will and kicking ass to win allies.

I like the idea of having a calendar to help me remember things. There are two troubles. 1) I never put things in it to remember and 2) I never check it for things that  I did put in it. There some design flaws in having a calendar. With the advent of online calendars I find that I can send myself reminders. This kind of works. that is, the mechanism does work, but it kind of works for me. I tend to blow the reminders off. There is a flaw in the design of these things. They have no authority to smack me in the head until I do the thing they are reminding me to do.

Egypt and Syria have both cut the country off from the internet. In both cases it came back pretty quickly. Things like banks, insurance companies, well, everyone who does business started bitching instantly. Cutting off the internet doesn’t just cut off the people you want to shut up.

I may just start reading this notes section of my vlog into a video camera and just let the fur fly. I bet some of the things I say her would trigger conversation, aka shouting matches, if more people came in contact with it. YouTube is a great venue for such things. At some point it becomes work and I don’t want to do it anymore. Perhaps it won’t last. We shall find out. Stay tuned.

One of the ladies at my work brought in brownies. She had sent in a ticket to IT asking for help and I said something stupid like “I don’t know, we haven’t had brownies in a while.” So, she brought some in. I feel like a petty child after doing this. It was just a joke. Still, I ate a brownie. I’m still me.

My online calendars start on Monday. Work and home I prefer starting my week on Monday. All the print calendars start on Sunday. For some reason that bugs me. Monday is always going to suck so it might as well suck all the way.

At work, I use a Linux box. I would love to install VLC player and run across the internet like a gazelle. However, I have a specific list of software I can use. VLC happens to not be on the list. So, I use whatever I can. The Flash players on Shoutcast works fine in Firefox, but like crap in Chrome. I have no idea what the difference is. One would think it is the same Flash code running in both. I use Chrome for everything except a couple specific Flash media players. For that I still need Firefox. It cracks me up how many things still do not work in one browser vs the other.

The only Port wine I’ve ever had was nasty. Funny, most of the House wine I’ve had was pretty good.

I really need to just start randomly shooting more pictures. I remember the days when I would just whip out the camera and snap some pics of nothing. That is the beautiful thing about a digital camera. It costs more or less nothing to take a bunch of pictures once you pay for the camera and computer. Probably pay for both of those regardless of how many pics I take. Same with video.=

The hits on my videos is just one among many analytics that Google provides. One of the numbers is estimated number of minutes watched. This number encompases my entire channel of over 400 videos. In the last 30 days, I had 4500 minutes watched. That is 75 hours total. This kind of freaks me out. That is spread over thousands of people. Most of my videos have well less than a minute watched ,even if they are several minutes long. This means people stop watching the video very quickly. Still, That seems like a lot of hits and a lot of minutes watched.

Lots of notes today.


2012-12-05

Notes

More austerity for Europe. We could use more here in the States as well. I know it hurts. Do it quick li9ke ripping off a band aid.

“North Korea believes in three generations of punishment for political crimes.” That is, if you do something that piss the Norks off they will punish your parents, siblings and children.

Switching off email most of the day. One person at a time. They complain about stuff missing and I laugh! Kidding. I try to fix their issues, again, one at a time. Such is the plite of IT.

Another friend of mine is having heart issues. he is a bit older than I am, but still not miles out there. He works in the petrochemical industry. That industry should be banned for causing heart disease. I have to admit I’m glad to be out of it.


2012-12-04

Notes

What is with Tuesdays? They are invariable the longest day of the week for me. Never understood this. It has happened this way since I was in middle school.

Intelligence varies from one day to the next. Blood sugar, time of day, any number of other factors change your ability to solve problems. The complex world in which we live may be raising intelligence from one generation to another. I believe  it is measurement methods. The average intelligence of Nobel prize winners is 120. Average is designed to be 100.

I was watching some YouTube videos of game play yesterday. That is, computer game play. I noticed I could pretty easily tell when someone was using a game game controller instead of a mouse to control view. The movements are much smoother with a controler. They are much more choppy with a mouse. I remember having a very hard time with a controler. The mouse felt much more natural to me. That might just be because that is how I started playing games.

Cheese-It crackers give me a stomach ache. Why do I continue to eat them? Oh, yes. They are free at the snack bar thing at work. They are trying to kill me.