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Some sweat when the heat is on

December 15, 2009 – 4:06 pm

Looking for some hot stuff

I continue to make edits to the site, so if anybody's watching you will see the site odlly from one moment to the next. Some might say it is unprofessional to make changes to a live site, but I'm not too worried about tons of people continually reloading this site every minute of the day.

After spending a lot of time coming up with a script that would take all my blog categories and dump them into a simple drop-down menu (as opposed to the default setting, which just lists them out ad infinitum), I discovered WordPress has some very simple code to do this, which is what you see on the sidebar now. While it is important to know how to do stuff on the web, sometimes it's more important to know when to stop and say "Hey somebody already did the work for me." This is the soul of being a project manager, which is apparently what I'm shooting for on the job scene.

Speaking of which, I finally have a preliminary draft of my resume, so without further ado I guess I'm officially looking for work now. I say I'm looking for project manager work, but that sounds loftier than what I really want to do, which is tinker around with web programming and design elements, while getting some leeway to call the shots. In essence, choosing "Project Manager" is the moral equivalent of calling someone a "Jack of all trades," while pushing aside the qualifier of "Master of none." So I say "Project Manager" if only to avoid saying "I'm not good enough at any one thing to make a living, so please give me the job whose major facet is getting heaped with all the blame when things go wrong."

My old job paid for career services, which have been a big help for the resume, but now I'm thinking I should see if they have courses on improving my attitude.

By Jimmy Legs | Also posted in Job | Comments (2)

My view stretches out from the fence to the wall

July 1, 2009 – 2:11 pm

Gazing out, originally uploaded by Jimmy Legs.

One of the things that sold me on our house (aside from the fact we couldn't afford anything else we looked at) was the size of the kitchen. It's a 22×11 foot room with a lot of counter space and one really old sink. Its only downside was its lack of light. It's on the ground floor and the only light came through a tiny window (and a little from the open vent in the wall meant for a range hood.)

The back door was a big metal exterior door. Soon after we moved in I decided to change the lockset on it, as the existing one was rusty and rinky-dink. The same night I chose to irrevocably remove the old knob (I had to pry it out in pieces) was the same night the people who lived behind the hosue on the next street decided to have a loud argument, which led to a loud fight, which led to a loud round on gunfire. It was our first "on the block" experience with shootings, and definitely the first time we literally didn't have a door to hide behind. I will never forget that night, standing half in and half out of the house, struggling to remove the old hardware while somebody protected their precious reputation (the argument involved the oft-elusive 'respect' one participant was not receiving in kind from others.) At no time did I think, "I've made a huge mistake buying this house," after all we'd explored the neighborhood a lot before committing to buy. No, what I thought was, "I hate this fucking door." I got the new knob in and engaged the deadbolt, safely inside. The crisis was over but I never stopped hating that ugly-ass door.

So it's been nearly 3 years since then and while the door still hasn't gotten me shot, it's proving hateful right back at us. Its wood frame warped in humid weather, which as you know, has been pretty much every day so far in 2009. You have to literally slam against it to get it open, at which time a bunch of cats would either run in or out, depending on which side had food left. The door sucked, we needed more light in the kitchen … a glass door seemed obvious.

Actually it seemed obvious over a year ago, when I first got a guy out for an estimate. Disagreement between me and my lady led to apathy and we never got the door. So this year, when we got our tax refunds we committed to get rid of the old door, contact NorthernLightsExteriors.com and pick out with their help a glass door and accompanying security door.

It took them 6 weeks to get back out to install it (after a gentle reminder) and after a few false starts we finally have it! It's a total generic door, I guess there's not a whole lot of creativity at this level of industry, but it's doing the trick. Having two doors is a little cumbersome, but at least I can open both with a couple of fingers instead of concentrating all my force onto my shoulder as I try to bash my way outside.

The cat are fascinated by it; Stymie tried to jump 'through' the glass door and received an unfortunate lesson. They line up at the door to peer into the yard. And the feral cats line up outside to peer in. We still have to get some kind of curtain for it, but for now I don't want to do anything to obstruct the view.

By Jimmy Legs | Comments Off

Little boxes made of ticky tacky

May 15, 2009 – 10:50 am

Replacing camera LCD, originally uploaded by Jimmy Legs.

Here's something sort of not cat related! I use my digital camera a lot (mostly for taking photos of cats, yes). But I treat it horribly. I never use a camera bag and I generally just let it bang around in my stachel-bag. Consequently it's all banged up. That's fine, as it was all cosmetic damage. But a little while ago I scratched the LCD screen, which created lines across the viewable area. This was annoying but did impede the functioning of the camera. So in my leisure I investigated how I might replace it.

First I checked with Canon, but amazingly enough they have no service offices in New York City (lame). And the thought of shipping it off somewhere seemed like a recipe for blowing a buncha dough for what seemed to me to be a simple swap job. So I decided to do it myself.

I found a cheap replacement LCD kit on eBay, it even comes with a small screwdriver and plastic prybar. I had mistakenly ordered an LCD backlight from somebody else, so I had a full replacement if need be.

I googled a couple of how-to guides but I couldn't find anything about my specific model. So I went with the instructions from some other Canon camera, assuming it couldn't be much different. Wrong! I took the camera apart, separated the LCD-backlight assembly, separated the LCD from the back light, and yanked out the LCD ribbon-tape plug. Easy!

I got out the new LCD and slipped it into the backlight (which has its own, tinier ribbon-wire plug). With some difficulty I got the new LCD plugged in, but I was having trouble getting the two parts to play nice together and fold back down into position. The ribbon wire allowed limited movement of the component and unbeknownst to me it got caught under the housing for the screen. When I tried to put it all flat on the camera body, the wire broke. Hard!

Lucky for me, I had been dumb enough to buy a replacement backlight, so I swapped this in. But the plug was super small and I could not for the life of me figure out how to get it into the socket. I gave up and started researching camera repair shops. But I turned to the Internet once more and found somebody who had my same model. He mentioned in passing that the way to re-attach the plug involved lifting up a tiny clip on the opposite site of the socket. Jesus.

I got the plug in and the tiny clip back down and got the camera back together. Success! What a pain in the ass. So it cost me $60 to replace it, all told. I have to assume that's cheaper than having somebody who knows what they're doing do it. I have to!

By Jimmy Legs | Comments (1)

Why can't you be nice to me

March 16, 2009 – 9:36 am

the princess, originally uploaded by Jimmy Legs.

We're back on the catwagon. Over the weekend we trapped the white cat who had been wandering around for a few weeks at least. We figured she wasn't a feral due to her clean coat and regal manner. We were correct, but what we hadn't figured on is her bad attitude. This cat is a Princess.

We left her in the trap for a while to acclimate. She was alone in her room, the lights off with a towel over the trap. This is supposed to keep a cat calm. But she decided to throw herself against the cage bars, knocking over her water bowl and causing a ruckus. She was making such a racket we could hear it downstairs. Eventually I gave in and came in to let her out of the trap. She hissed and hissed, but when the door opened she stepped smugly out (most cats will dash out and immediately hide somewhere). She kept hissing so I left her alone.

The next time I came in she was napping on the chair but desite the big plate of cat food I was holding, she still hissed a lot. But I approached slowly and reached out my hand and she rubbed her chin on it. She let me pet her for a while, and I thought all was forgiven. Not so, the next time I came in the room she started all over again.

She won't really do anything while I'm in the room, she won't really eat and she certainly won't deign to let me see her play with her toys. but when I leave the room I can hear her running around with the cat toys, which are always in different locations when I come back. I'm hoping she lightens up soon, she'll make such a great pet once she gets over herself a little! I know, I know, she's gotta have time to adjust, and she's already a lot nicer than most cats we trap. But you want them to be 100% friendly or 100% feral, since that easily determines what to do with them.

As for this lady (who I haven't even confirmed is female, but come on) I'm gonna assume she will soon come around so I am already planning on treating her like an adoptable. No eartip for the princess!

By Jimmy Legs | Comments (3)

With teeth

February 23, 2009 – 4:26 pm

Jefe's new talent, originally uploaded by Jimmy Legs.

Let's lighten the mood a little. Here's a photo of Jefe nursing and humping his favorite blanket. Even before we got him fixed he practiced safe sex on a wadded up towel in the back yard. So this is a good lead-in: Tomorrow, as it turns out, is Spay Day USA 2009. I am increasingly having issues with the Humane Society of the United States, but this is fairly benign, something we can all agree upon. Get those animals fixed! The ASPCA Mobile Spay Clinic is still out there offering lower-cost options for those who don't quite understand why it costs $300 to remove your cats' balls. Unfortunately, the had to raise their prices a bit. But I think we can agree that $75 is still pretty cheap and remember, it's still free for people on public assistance. It's pretty hard to argue with the logic in any case. Tomorrow, the Brooklyn spay van will be at Brower Park, in Crown Heights. But for Bushwick people it comes to the lovely Maria Hernandez Park thus Thursday. Check the listings for the other, lesser neighborhoods.

Honestly, I don't know how people live with unfixed pets. I dunno about dogs, but cats get loony: males spray and fight and yowl, females spray and yowl and flirt obscenely. Is that really the world you want to live in?

By Jimmy Legs | Comments (1)