Monitoring progress in the SUL

For those who are unaware (and this may be most readers), I very recently revamped one of my desks in the Secret Underground Lair (SUL). This is the culmination of a long-overdue equipment upgrade to our displays.The two CRT monitors in the middle photo were replaced with this pair of 23" LG

monitors.

 The next photo shows the old monitors which, to be fair, were never intended to be more than an interim monitor solution for these workstations. 

 

The new 23" LG IPS LED monitors are mounted on a Fleximounts M13 dual monitor arm, which is quite a nice piece of engineering. The last picture shows the vertical support tube as viewed from the top. It's a solid piece of extruded aluminum, with the outer wall and center cylinder each having approximately .125" in (~3.175mm) wall thickness.

 

The hardware which makes up the base is all steel, and the disk that screws up to hold the assembly to the desk is metal as well. If you're in the market for a monitor arm/support, I'd strongly recommend reading the reviews online. I purchased the monitors and arm from Newegg.com, but nearly any reputable seller will have reviews available. As far as reviews go, this was probably the fifth arm I had in the cart before I pushed the "BUY" button. At one point, I had been looking at a 27" monitor that was being offered at a very attractive price, but at least one review for the arm I had initially selected stated that it in no way would practically accommodate a pair of 27" monitors. One other thing I have to say about the Fleximounts arm is the completeness of their kit: the only thing I needed to supply was a Phillips head screwdriver for the VESA screws- everything else is tightened by one of the three supplied Allen wrenches (hex head screws). Fleximounts also includes in their kit a painted, predrilled steel plate to allow for permanent mounting of the arm on a desk. Overall, I am very satisfied with this hardware.

Other than that, I guess it's been a pretty slow week for news, blogging, tweeting- pretty quiet both on- and offline for me.

Amanda and Mike (daughter and son-in-law) came to visit this past weekend. We had a great time- played Cards Against Humanity, Settlers of Catan, had many conversations and some excellent food. Mike and Amanda are now official denizens of the menagerie!

Nothing else is new. Well, except for the story. Y'all remember my e-friend in Japan J.S. Frankel? Well, he and I have been chatting on and off over the past few months about writing, and so I'm once again taking a stab at fiction.  

Lastly, J.S. Frankel and I met on a bodybuilding site a few years ago. I'm not sure what his commitment to bodybuilding is today, but mine is down near zero.  It's something I want and need to change. To that end, I purchased a genuine Wham-O Super Ball last week at Aldi. Actually, its a Super Duper Ball. It's about twice the size of the original, and I don't think its as dense or bounces as high as the original. Still, it's a pretty nifty all-in-one workout device... I'm not going to get Arnold-sized using it, but I'm using it, and this is important in the calorie burning/muscle building department. 

One more bit of news, and then I need to put this blog to bed. Jennifer and I were out shopping yesterday, and wouldn't you know it but the TPMS (tire pressure monitoring system) warning light came on. We were able to drive Meerkat, our trusty Subie, home without incident. The thing that's mildly amusing about this is my history with flats: I've had four- exactly four- in over thirty years of driving. My first occurred in Chicago on my Chevy Nova in a slightly rough neighborhood of Chicago. Mark, Dr. Dave and I were on our way back from a concert with The Alarm and The Pretenders at the Aragon Ballroom. I turned a corner on a sidestreet, and one of Chicago's famous potholes blew out a tire- that was college days. Flat #2 occurred at high speed on I-355 on my way home from work, pre 9/11. It was the left rear tire of our 1999 Escort... the same car I drove to work last night. I remember this flat because although it was rush hour, no one stopped to see if I needed assistance. I changed that tire with my butt facing traffic. It was not pleasant. Flash forward to Meerkat. We've had Meerkat for 15 months, and I've gotten two flats, and I'd bet both of them were due to construction in the area... I know for a fact the first one was, because the technician that repaired the tire showed me the offending piece of metal.

That's it for now. As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.

Joe Cool, etc.

One of the things that is really pretty nifty about blogging (and yes, I do talk this way in real life) is that it is creative writing which does not need to be tied to a plot. I think I've had the desire to write a book since around my high school years, and have yet to do it. I'm sometimes a little jealous of some folks who are actually published, like my good e-buddy J. S. Frankel. He's written a few books and if you follow the link you'll get to see his Young Adult offerings on Amazon. The extent of my creative writing (apart from things required in school) was some reporting I did for my college newspaper,  The Reporter ( I kid you NOT!), Twitter (known in some circles as "microblogging"), this blog, and an infrequently updated blog on Wordpress. Oh, and a slew of incomplete and unpublished science fiction and/or fantasy stories, as well as one incomplete collaboration from college with my good friend Mark. We were once best friends, but once he became engaged, he felt it was his duty to inform me that I was being demoted in favor of his soon-to-be-bride. Not to be outdone, Jennifer appeared in my life not long after that, and we were married in the same year that Mark and Mary were.

Although I've only used "Potpourri" as part of a blog title twice, and even though that is an apt description of this blog, I've decided to reserve the use of that word for another blog. "Joe Cool" was/is an alter ego of Snoopy, along with the famous World War One fighter ace. I think I grew up during the heyday of the Peanuts comic strip- Peanuts seemed to be all over pop culture, and the Peanuts holiday cartoons on television were a must-see, even if it was the third or fourth or more time of watching them. They were special, and they were really family time.

This blog, though, borrows thematically from- of all things- a tee shirt I bought in the 80's.

For a brief period in the 80's, I worked at J.C. Penney's in the Brickyard, the first "real" shopping center in Chicago. I actually ended up working at a few stores in the Brickyard, but I worked at Penney's before the mall actually opened. At some point, Penney's carried a line of Peanuts-themed shirts. I purchased several (with an employee discount) and one of them had a picture of Snoopy (in his Joe Cool persona). The graphic featured Joe Cool in his signature dark sunglasses flipping a flying disk (a.k.a. "Frisbee") with the following text:

"What else is there to do on a Saturday afternoon when there's nothing on TV,  your clothes are in the laundry and your girlfriend has left you?"

That's pretty close to a quote, in any event. I tried Googling it and came up with nothing.

Finally, in the world of news, I'd like to introduce someone new to my blog- my sister-in-law Donna. In true Love American Style fashion, we've known "of" each other for nearly thirty years, but have only really connected in the past year. She's a good egg- anyone who enjoys my particular brand of humor deserves a pat on the back. And a job- she got caught in the recent bout of Schlumberger layoffs. So if you're in Houston (or maybe Dallas) and reading this- she's lookin'.

Someone recently asked me (okay, it was Donna, who is new to blogging) how I find all of these readers in countries outside of the United States? The answers is: I don't know. I was checking my view stats just before getting back to the blog, and discovered twenty-five new page views from Portugal.

Go figure.

I need to close this out, but one or two more topics are left. First, as I am a proud member of that special group of I.T. workers known to the world only as Nightstalkers, I have to update our grass. At home, that is... the lawn. We seem to have had a good deal of rain during May and June it seems, and as I enjoy cutting the grass (probably an Air Force flashback, but more than likely because it was one of my chores as a youngster), I generally get to do the mowing. And, I'm quicker than Jennifer. So, I happily cut the grass. The problem, though, is that I'm a Nightstalker, and as such, my grasscutting hours are sometimes a bit constrained. For example, we are allowed to "start our engines" after 0700, and are requested to cease power equipment operation by 1900 by our local municipality. The Chicago area is known to be rather humid, so the grass is often dewy in the morning... difficult to cut. My "morning" during the workweek is 1900, so my best opportunities for lawn maintenance are the weekend and Monday.  Although there's been no rain for a few days, I ended up cutting the grass in two stages- Thursday before work, and this morning (Saturday) after work. Our compost bin is nearly overflowing from the clippings, and the lawn was still quite wet, so I think more grass clippings got left on the lawn than those which made it to the compost.

At the start

Compost overflowing

I'm not sure how much can bee seen from these pictures, but the grass in many areas was close to 4" (10cm) tall. It was so tall that I'd started to get calls from conservation agencies around the world asking me to kindly return their endangered species.

Well, not quite, but it was certainly buggier the closer I got to the lushest, least-trafficked area behind the garage.

Also, not sure about the rest of the world, but here in the United States, tomorrow (Sunday) is Father's Day. Happy Father's Day to all of the Dads out there.

No data to report this week, but I have a programming update.

My employer uses a very interesting software package for programming our products. As you may know, we produce what is known in the United States as "direct mail"; that is, advertising pieces that are sent through the postal service to named recipients. The client gives us their designs, tells us what specific information that a particular addressee should receive, and we- through composition, layout and programming- will produce a mailpiece that is tailored to each recipient's anticipated needs. On Thursday night, I had to do a bit of break/fox on one of these programs, and then on Friday I was able to pass this newfound knowledge to a few colleagues.

One other bit of very informal data- actually closer to conjecture: I may quite possibly have the highest percentage of folks with PH.D.'s that follow a non-degreed poster than any other non-degreed poster on Twitter... maybe just a hunch... maybe!

As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.