Archived News starting from 07-18-2014 and earlier
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The Senator decided to arrange a meeting of epic proportions in the guise of a going away party for my upcoming exit from the state. While I'm clearly not worthy of the
friends I've accumulated, it was nice to see everyone show up and make homophobic jokes at each others expense. The kids all jumped in the neighbors trampoline and
the adults shot darts at each others faces. After a few beers I got as close as I can to sentimental and
thanked the Senator for his efforts (and food).
Lisas annual family reunion did not disappoint this year, with all cousins reporting for adventure at the usual stops. A fairly large pool was thrown in the mix this year as well
giving both Lila and Lucy an extra dose of giggles.
With the house empty and for sale, I decided it was time to cancel my cable service. After disconnecting this server, my home server and the media center I realized I'd also be
returning the cable card in my media center. I'm finally a cable cutter, but not really because I'm sure I'll still get some basic channels at my dads house. Speaking of which,
I subsequently moved all machines into my dads basement so I'm officially based at his house now. My dream of being a 30 something living at home has finally come to pass, and to celebrate
I upgraded his router to support the port forwarding needed to run this server out of his basement. Sadly, the
Gnomecam and
Weather pages
will no longer update, but saving $120 / month in cable bills is enough to help me get over my loss.
While it's sad my grandma passed away, the funeral was a great big family reunion that got Lila all riled up and Lucy handed around like a hot potato.
I was unable to farm Xbox achievements at this funeral as it as a more rural setting, but the bonfire and polaris rides more than made up for it.
It was nice to spend a weekend with my cousin and his family, and Lila enjoyed destroying/hiding his kids toys while Lucy as usual just enjoyed being Lucy.
After successfully mining half a bitcoin, I decided it was time to ramp down my operations. On May 25th I sold both of my
ASICMiner cubes on eBay (for half of what I paid for them) and purchased two
Antminer U2 devices. I couldn't just go cold turkey with bitcoin, but you can clearly see the
dropoff that happens when you go from almost 70 GH/s down to a measly 4 GH/s. Hopefully this new (more power friendly) setup keeps the itch away without costing close to $40 / month in electricity. I was also starting to have a thermal crisis in my garage without the cold of winter keeping the temps down. I quit Litecoin and am mining Dogecoin exclusively at work (because Doge).
My house is now
officially for sale, and today both the sign and first showing arrived. After spending over 30 minutes at the house, they do not appear to have made an offer completely crushing my expectation that the house would sell for the asking price immediately. So begins the long wait for the sucker willing to pay me well over market price for a house with a barn in the back yard.
My increased activity and attention toward my house was bound to bring attention from someone, and that someone was a contractor working for my neighbor. He did the standard sales pitch of "anything you need help with" which I rejected out of habit before remembering my shrubs had not been trimmed since I moved in. Sensing a sucker, I offered him $40 to trim them up and make them look sell able. Surprisingly, this guy
did an unbelievable job most likely knowing I'd gladly tip him an additional $20 for making it look professional. I now have to question my standard "no thanks" response when I get solicited by contractor folk, they aren't as hateful of life as Carney folk.
With the move to South Carolina looming, it was time to clear out my house of unnecessary crap. If it were up to me, I'd simply toss/sell anything that wasn't electronic, but Lisa feels we need additional crap. Fortunately, my crap is excluded from her requirements so two
bagsters were purchased from Home Depot and setup in my driveway. Over the next few days I filled both bags with 10 years of accumulated junk and old furniture then setup the pickup time. At 6 a.m. I was awaken and informed that placing them on the driveway meant I had to sign a waiver for any damage the truck did during pickup. Half asleep, I gladly signed and began taking
photos of the whole process immediately. The $200 total cost of the entire process was well worth the entertainment and debris removal, considering the cost of a standard dumpster is upwards of $500. I can't recommend it enough.
Today we were cordially required to attend a "Tranny Race" presented by a radio show to advertise our products while on air. I'm not sure how a radio show benefits from showing product, but I'm not a marketer so I went along with it. I'm also not one to complain about getting an hour outside during work. After filling up on free coffee, and being told the complementary massage chair was full, I decided it was time to
get a photo with two trannies. As you can tell, the guy on the right was impressed, as were my co-workers who regarded me with both respect and hesitation for the remainder of the day.
I spotted the carnival on my way to work and was determined to bring Lila, who is now almost 3 inches over the 42" minimum height requirement. Last year she was only allowed 2 rides in the whole thing which of course prompted a tantrum when I took her home. This year only 2 rides were off limits and I made sure she rode every single one. Lucy didn't seem to mind missing out as she was fully occupied chewing on a straw and laughing at Lila. The carney folk were strangely upbeat which I attributed to it just opening. I found myself surprised when they talked to Lila but maybe I'm just a cynical pesimist and this is the normal carnival experience.
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