hmatt's blog

Rehearsals, vlog 59

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Isn’t it amazing what we just end up living with? Things will remain broken and we find some way around it instead of taking care of it.

For several months now I’ve had getting my car fixed on my list—

The e-brake has been on since July, My oil date was earlier this month (but I still had 200 miles left) my tires are going bald and the front brakes need to be replaced.

The only time during the week to get a cheap oil change is on Fridays.. I had planned on doing that later in the day yesterday.

I was driving to Culver City to meet up with a friend and … clink clank.

“Hmm”, I thought to myself, “that doesn’t sound like a good sound).

I had my hand on the stick-shift and I could feel a loss of power or control..

“Uh oh.”

I pulled over to the side of the freeway and called AAA. I had my iPhone but it is usually using Edge to conserve battery life, and I can’t use the maps feature at the same time in that mode. I tried explaining where I was, on the 10, near the Museum of Tolerance exit.

To make a long story shorter, I learned quite a few things that day:

-When the metro truck comes, let him at least tow you off of the freeway as it is less dangerous for you & it’s free
-7 free towing miles isn’t very much (I used 8, and would to have to of paid $9 extra, but the guy let me off easy.. because..
-you should always carry cash
-even spanish kids don’t remember how to say orange in spanish (heard this on the bus ride home)
-don’t put off tomorrow what you can do today

So that was my entire afternoon from 1-5

Ever since I’ve moved to this new apartment, I’ve been getting mail addressed to the last occupant.

I’ve been writing “return to sender” but I recently read that I should write “not at this address”

I wish there was some sort of stop mail service. It would save the USPS a lot of trouble.

Ah, my new external hard drive came in the mail yesterday. I followed the instructions on http://obscuredclarity.blogspot.com/2008/10/500gb-macbook-harddrive-upgrade-for.html and everything was going great.. except I put the hard drive in upside down so it didn’t work.

To make matters worse, the little rubber things inside the walls where the hard drive goes came unglued and then fell off!!

Fortunately, I was at Eric’s house and he suggested that I go buy some superglue. I stopped at the dollar store and bought some superglue and some bamboo skewer sticks to reach the excess gunk that was along the inner parts of the wall.

It worked like a charm after that! I put the 80GB hard drive into the enclosure and then duped the new hard drive from my g-drive that I’ve been booting off of for a while now.

I’ve also a new battery and I’m ready to roll! It’s like having a new computer! I can take the metro or whatever and now I can work on the go.

Great! = ) I just hope that my hard drive doesn’t fail anytime soon, as I’ve voided the warranty I suppose.

I wish I could make my wordpress wiki like so I could update older pages and such.

Wow. So the US is losing jobs… and fast!

Ugh, it makes for a scary future. I have faith that things will turn out alright. It certainly changes my plans for the next few months. I had been toying with the idea of finding another job, but it looks like the market will be swamped!!

Meanwhile I keep racking up debt.. and I find everyday purchases just keep getting more expensive. I’ve been trying to make ends meet, but there are certain big purchases that I keep making. These purchases are totally worth the extra fees I’ll incur, as they are making my life a little easier to operate.

An example, that quite expensive scanner. I’ve been wanting one for YEARS and I’m so glad I bought it.. but I really can’t afford it.

I also can’t really afford the new harddrive I bought for my macbook. I read http://obscuredclarity.blogspot.com/2008/10/500gb-macbook-harddrive-upgrade-for.html and was inspired. I forked over the $120 and I plan on taking it apart on Friday.

It will be nice to have all my info at once. I’ve SO outgrown the 80GB drive. I’ve been running off a 500 that requires external power. Hmm.

The big bummer is that my battery is dead. It only has 100 cycles, but I didn’t follow the suggestions on http://apple.com/batteries so, there you go.

A replacement is another $100. = (

Plus I still need to get a shredder. AND get new car tires, AND get my ebrake fixed. Yikes.

I need to get another job. Ugh, like I have the energy though…. I’ll have to figure out something I can do on the bus on the way to work or something. Or start my own business selling something original. Hmm.

Yeah! I spent all day scanning my documents.. a task that would have normally been EXTREMELY tedious with my flatbed scanner. I wish I would have spent the cash for this ScanSnap S510M long ago! I scanned over 1000 documents!!

I’m using YEP to organize them with various tags.
I’m using the bundled FineReader to do text recognition on most of them

Amazing. They currently only take up 810MB, but I figure it will triple after they’ve been re-written with text under them.

Awesome. It is so nice having access to these files, but not having to deal with the actual paper items themselves.

Next up, buying a shredder for all my old bank receipts and other old sensitive materials.. I’m going to buy a REAL shredder too.. the ones that rip the paper into bits. I’ve always thought those were better than the ones that turn them into strips instead.

So I’ve been spending my evening crossing off all sorts of to dos and it feels great!

[expand title=I’ve even been testing little things for my site]Like expanding content[/expand]

Although I doubt the expanding content will work outside of hmatt.com/blog

At any rate though, I always have a story to tell [expand title=and more]But only if someone is willing to take the time to read more about it. Because I could go on and on and on.[/expand]

This book was read at a Bookpals event I went to back in college. I’ve been trying to remember the name for a long time. I just did another websearch and there it was!

Oh man, this book is awesome. It has to do with this fellow, Mr. Hatch, who lives a lonely life until one day he gets a box of chocolates. His attitude is changed and then his life is changed.

I like this story because sometimes life can seem very lonely.. but all it really takes is to put out a little effort and you can meet all the new friends around you.

.. but you don’t have to take my word for it.

Do-dun-dunn

The day began with me working on my website. I was using iWeb to organize my ideas on what it could look like. Robin had told me that she got out of work at 6 and we were going to meet up then. Then around noon she called me. Apparently some water line had burst and she was able to leave work early.

We met up around 2 and walked around Koreatown together. We explored a couple buildings and went into the Wilshire Christian Church. There was a man there who gave us some literature on the history of the cathedral and we sat there in amazement. We also walked over to a wall whereupon a variety of photos was on display. They were against the wall like when you browse through posters, how they are attached to frames that swing back and forth.

Next we ended up at the Wilshire center. Apparently every friday they have a farmers market! We sampled the variety of oranges and apples. So delicious! We bought a few fruits and began walking back. I mentioned how the first time I’d been in that area was when I and a bunch of monkeybutler people saw speed racer. Her eyebrows raised- “You saw speedracer there? I was there!”

I only recall vaguely that skyler had introduced us to a friend. That friend was her. It seems funny to me.. how you meet people and then remeet people.

Back at my place we drank tea and ate our fruit. Robin is a thoroughly interesting person to talk to. She has visited a variety of places and she is so full of life. She works at a mission and loves to serve. What a spectacular heart she has. = )

I love meeting people like her.

This is where the market is every friday.