Life Lessons That Matter - Tire Changing

It is very often in life that you know the exact source of extremely useful information, but I do happen to know the origin of one such useful tid bit in my life.  The tale begins this morning, when I walked outside to my truck only to notice yet another flat tire.  I have changed a metric ton of flat tires in the past 5 years, and every time that I do I remember the little saying that most of us use to know how to tighten or untighten bolts and screws, and I remember when and where I learned it.

When we were in late high school and then for some years after Devin and I got in the habit of going out to our old farm house with friends on weekends to howl at the moon and have lots of fun.   These times were the best, we called them "wood stock weekends", I guess cause it was always a 3 day party in the country.

One Sunday after one such weekend I found myself with a flat tire on my good ole Nissan pick up.  I don't need to again mention how much this truck meant to me, but I will.  I had loved that truck ever since I watched it drive down the long driveway to the farm on the day dad drove it home from Beloit, KS (is that right dad? answer through mom in the comments since you never comment).  The truck looked just like the one that Marty Mcfly got in back to the future, and it served me well through more adventures than I can relate, though perhaps soon I should try.

Digression aside, my tire is flat at the end of woodstock weekend and I'm now tasked with my first solo tire change.  I'm sure Dad had gone over this task with me at some point, and I'm sure I had seen him do it multiple times, but I had never had to do it when dad wasn't around.  A drawback to having a really handy dad is that stuff get fixed and maintained almost by magic, and it's easy to learn to take stuff for granted.

So on my first ever tire change I find myself with sticky lug nuts, which made me question which way I needed to turn them to loosen them up.  My future cousin in law Natalie happened to be along that weekend and managed to be the first person in life who told me the rhyme, "lefty loosey, righty tighty".  Boom, lesson lived and learned.  I use that nugget still to this day when I have to change a damn tire.

Tracked Time Update

My Time Tracking experiment continues.  On Friday I switched from task timer to the light verision of Klok.  Even the light verision of Klok is a step up and it allows easily for the collection of stats over time, something I'm already putting to better use.  I have always enjoyed taking the first half hour after dishing out tech assignments to read local and some national news, along with whatever interesting articles I can find from a skim of stupid facebook.  I've justified this expenditure of time by calling it a job duty to be up on current events, however, my time tracking has revealed something undermining in this.  In just the last week and a half I was able to note that on days where this was my first activity, and that activity lasted longer than 15 minutes, I had noticeably less productive days.  So today I set out to put in a the first two hours of my day in solid work.  Then I allowed myself some time to see what happened in los angeles and the greater world.  Preliminary results show this to be a far more effective strategy at keeping me on track during my most productive hours of the day.

Get Klok here, don't but, just get the free version.

Tracking of the Times

I'm having a good week.  School has started again and with it my free time is limited.  On top of school and various musical projects I've made a vow to myself that I won't let LACC disrupt my fitness as thoroughly as it did last semester.
Lucky for me I have a new winter evening running route that is super challenging, beautiful and rewarding.  My biggest complaint with the time change is that forces me to only hit the canyons for serious runs on weekends, and weekend time is the first time to get gobbled up by life.  To that end I've started running up the steep streets of beachwood canyon.  From my door to the point where I turn around it's 3 miles of constant climb.  The view from just below the hollywood sign this time of year is a delight.  In the late evening it's foggy, and the lights create beautiful mist orbs to be seen across the horizon.
Here is the typical path I've been doing.

I've also this week started to do some time tracking.  On monday I started using this app Task Timer. I have to say that in just 3 days I can see a marked improvement in how I spend my time at work.  It's a commitment that I could see myself easily breaking from, because it can be very inconvenient to be reminded that you are wasting time when you really want to waste more time.  Yet there is something in me that loves records and statistics so much that I so far am motivated to continue in this new mode.
The concept is simple enough.  I have defined the ways in which I spend my time at work, between my actual job duties, the cooking and the cleaning, sanity breaks, lunch, things I hate doing, and homework.  I set pre-defined goals of time allotment for each of those tasks, and then I leave Task Timer open all day while I work and click start on a new task when I switch.  It's simple and it displays a pie chart at the bottom of the app, showing me in a glance where my time for the day is going.  
Task Timer is buggy though, and I don't like that it's not keeping stats for more than the day that I'm on.  So next week I will begin using a different app to the same ends, I just haven't figured out which one will work best for my needs.

Being back in school again made me curious to see my old college transcript.  It was pretty cool to see that I could request it, pay $9 and have the record of my lack of achievement displayed upon my screen in less than two hours.

Be well friends.

Almost like being there Pt. 1

I'm a happily married man as of 19 days ago.  I know many faithful readers of my blog would have loved to attend our ceremony and were not allowed to do so.  Trust me when I tell you that we love all of you so much that we decided to keep everyone away so as to avoid putting anyone out.  Now as one of the only 2 witnesses anyone of you know that was in attendance I shall do my very best to share with you and all of human history the data which you so desire.

The officiant of our wedding was Las Vegas Gene Simmons and he was AMAZING!

  image reposted with no permission but mad love and respect. 

Today as I was scanning some of the documents relating to our legal union, I realized that LV Gene had been cool enough to include his script of our vows in the envelope with the other documents.  Special points if you can tell me the number of Kiss songs referenced in said vows.  

Thanks for reading and look out for more.  

New Orleans pt. 3

 Friday Morning, 10/24/14 - After an honest good night's sleep we are back into the French Quarter headed for coffee and a cemetery tour.

 Angela is excited to start her 3rd day in New Orleans!

 Ross glances casually over his shoulder, all the while disapproving of the cargo shorts passing him on the left.

 In the streets of the quarter our tour guide under an umbrella begins.

 Here we go into Saint Louis Cemetery Number One.  For some interesting reading about burial styles and traditions in New Orleans go here.  This is pretty much what we were told on our tour.

Offerings left for an ancestor.

This is the future home of Nick Cage.

Modern legend states that wearing red lip stick and kissing his grave helps you with Tax problems.  Oddly specific huh?  Too bad he can't help himself with that.

Ross is gettin' Tomby.

This is the tomb of a false voodoo queen, so says the umbrella tour guide.

Somewhere in this cemetery are the remains of Plessy, of Plessy Vs. Ferguson fame.

 This horse wanted to say hello to all external mind drive readers.

 After the tour I waited in line to get Po'Boys for Angie and.

 And I walked past this place in the day time.

 We had some time to kill so we decided to ride the trolly car and see some parts of the city that aren't the quarter.

 hats and glasses.

We had to send this cute to go chardonnay cup shout out to adrienne.


After our Trolly Car adventure we had to head back to our room and begin the project of getting ready for the costume party.  Look for that in Part 4.

New Orleans PT2

Hunger and a desire for coffee pulled me from my slumber on our second day in New Orleans.  I pulled on some jeans and a shirt and made my way to the coffee in the hotel lobby.  As the caffeine worked it's magic the gravitational pull of a new city kicked in.  In short order Angie and I were up and out to the French Quarter for our first daylight look around.  In the mid morning light things were much more orderly.   

 As we walked in search of food, Angie took a moment to pose for my dear mother.  We both agreed that she would want to see this building.  We also knew she prefers pictures with people in them.

 Soon we had picked our lunch spot.  Chartres House.  Picked primarily because we could see shady open tables on their second story balcony.

 We hadn't been seated more then 10 mintutes before this here parade passed below us.

 Bloody Marys make me feel much more merry.

 Angie also enjoys a Bloody Mary.

I lover an oyster.  I love things fried.  I love a sandwich.  Put these things together and the entire trip was worth it for me.  This sandwich was amazing and yummy.  Our waiter had the best creole accent.  He told us about a guy with some weight on him, that plays guitar every night at a bar down the street.  It was a delightful tip to get from a man who speaks like dripping hot butter.  

 After lunch we wondered around and found a lovely lit antique store.

 This banjo player had it figured out.  His dog would walk up to people and take their money, then drop it in his bucket.  Busy dog, happy banjo man.

 After our afternoon of wandering, we were pretty beat from the night before.  It was then back to the hotel for a nap for us.
We slept an hour or so and then took a cab to the garden district.  Selfishly I made us walk about 30 blocks, because I needed to see the studio where Trent Reznor recorded "The Fragile" and where Marilyn Manson recorded "Anti-christ Superstar"

 Here it is, a clothing store now.  It maybe doesn't look like magic, but it felt like it to me.

Kudos to my lovely wife for hoofing it out with me!

On our cab ride to the garden district we had another great creole accent driver.  He was running down the things we should do while we were in town and mentioned we absolutely had to eat at Cochon.  I felt very cool to be able to tell our cool-voice cabbie that we had reservations for Cochon that very evening.
After we found Trent's old haunt we were beat.  I had just enough juice left in my phone to figure out how to take public transport back to the hotel.  Big plus for the bus in new orleans, it was clean and the air conditioner worked very well.
After a shower and rest in the room we met our group in the lobby of our hotel and we were off to eat some pig.

Here is our group enjoying our after meal glow.  I ordered:  louisiana cochon with turnips, cabbage & cracklins $24 and worth every penny.
To drink I had:
the rub $10
michter’s rye whiskey, apple cider vinegar, angostura
bitters, simple syrup

day two was long, and after our excellent meal we walked back to the hotel with some of our gang, had a couple of beers and called it a night.

Before the Memory Fades: New Orleans Pt. 1

I've been meaning to type out some remembrance of New Orleans before I fail to recall any of it at all.  In fact, it's rather handy that my phone categorizes backed up photos by date, otherwise this would be a blur.  

October 23rd

Angela and I took a car service to LAX and flew to New Orleans, arriving at 4:50pm.  We grabbed our bags and stood inline for a taxi to take advantage of the flat rate to the French Quarter.  We were staying just outside of the Quarter proper at :

Pelham Hotel

444 Common St
New Orleans, LA 70130

Our room was nice and comfortable, but really lacking in lighting.  The act of applying a thick layer of make up in a room this dark is really a challenge.  Apply before the sunsets... that's the only way.  Wanna see the view from our window?  

We were the last members of our group to arrive so we scuttled up to our rooms to change and meet them for after dinner drinks.  We burst into the New Orleans night for our first taste of the city and to meet our new companions.  The Quarter was bustling and teeming with life, in short order we found our new/old friends and something to drink.  Good times began to roll.

Our first night out was to be fairly tame for most of our group.  We explored the Bourbon Street and the oldest bar in America.  Ending our night with friends at Cafe Du Monde for coffee and beignets.  It was then back to the hotel for rest... for everyone but me.  Angela being smart drifted quickly into slumber, but I was far too excited to finally be in New Orleans.  I took it upon myself to head back into the Quarter, to search out the place where Blind Melon recorded there 2nd and official final album, one of my all time favorites "Soup".  I put the album on and walked into the night.  It was now close to 3am, The Quarter at this hour takes on an overall flavor of mild depravity.  The depravity seeming to be only tempered by the fact that most of the tourists can't stand up under the weight of all they've had to drink.  I with my headphones on am merely a specter removed from the lot.  I've procured a cigar and a tall boy, and I'm off to an address.  

At the end of my journey as I find the intersection I'm debating on which building they recorded in.  Just as I find the address marker, and focus on the building pictured above, another lone wolf passes by.  In my exuberance of discovery I asked my fellow night trawler if he can confirm that the location is in fact correct.  This is information that he does not have, but stranger still he tells me that Nico, the album Blind Melon released after the death of their singer, is one of his favorite albums.  I leave him with more information about the city he lives in than he has before, and I've only been in town for about 11 hours.  

I feel accomplished and I've walked a fair distance.  I plug my ears back in and hoof it back to the hotel where my first night of sleep takes hold.