Spent the night in Walsenburg for the planning commission meeting today — which took all of 15 minutes.
They determined that the county needed to determine a few things before they could determine my purchase — so everything is still pending. I’ll know more when the next meeting with them happens — in February.
Fortunately I’m in no real hurry. 🙂
I got to Walsenburg at about 4pm yesterday as it was looking like snow (despite the weather folk saying it wouldn’t snow), and by about 7pm it was blizzarding sideways thanks to the 40+ mph winds.
There are a few fringe benefits to living here for half a century I suppose…
The snow did make it mighty pretty this morning though:
Looking east from the Best Western at exit 52 on southbound I-25… There’s a whole lotta nothin’ down there. 🙂
I had an early morning meeting with Comcast Business to go over the final paperwork before presenting it to my CFO for signature. This comes after I sent the ‘thanks but no thanks’ letter to CenturyLink yesterday… I simply can’t gamble with the lines here at work, and CL spent four months failing to install a circuit and proving that they weren’t capable of handling it.
Anyway, I’m hoping I can get out of here a little early today so that I can pack an overnight bag and get down to Walsenburg before dinner / rush hour. I have a 9:30 am meeting with the county tomorrow to go over my land purchase, so it’ll be another night in a hotel.
Oh well, at least it’s a pretty three hour drive. 🙂
Not a lot of news as I’ve been down with a touch of the flu for the last couple of days.
I stayed home yesterday to try and recover a bit, but they are replacing the balconies on the building. So the entire day was guys on a scaffold outside my condo with a jackhammer…
Oh well. I’ll just try to get to get some extra sleep tonight.
My second Christmas present to myself came in yesterday; a new pillow that is intended to help my perpetual neck issues. It’s this super high-tech foam thing made by a company called Malouf.
So far, so good… I got up this morning without wincing, and that’s pretty amazing.
The down-side, of course, is the cost. Pillows that work tend to be spendy, and the one I’m using now was pretty close to $200.
I also caved and signed up for one of these subscription boxes that are all the rage here in the future… It’s called the “Butcher Box” and is a monthly selection of small ranch meats such as cuts of steak, burgers, bacon, chicken — it’s a vegetarian’s hellscape. But it’s also been very, very good so far!
The NY Strip steaks were really good, the chicken breasts were fantastic, and the bacon was really tasty.
It’s $150 a month for the box, but that’s comparable to what I spend at the grocery store per month on meat and it’s higher quality — so I’ll stick with it for a while I think.
In other news, I need to be down in Walsenburg on the 13th for a land hearing where the county decides if I can actually purchase the land I’ve purchased… It’s complicated, but apparently even if you own a piece of land down to the mineral rights, you can’t just sell it to someone. The government has to get involved, and that grinds everything to a standstill.
So while the agreement to buy this bit of land has been done and paid-for for several months now, I still don’t own it because Huerfano County needed to grant their blessing.
Oh well. I’m pretty sure that after the hearing on the 13th I’ll finally be able to sign the papers… Maybe…
Yesterday was a one / two punch of failure that has me doubting my ability to split my focus on my day-job and my after-hours art job…
The Christmas card I designed for a client came out a lot darker than expected in the print process. It’s still workable, but it’s not optimal and the client isn’t totally happy.
I’m not sure this one is 100% my fault as VistaPrint is pretty much Diet Print Shop, but it’s still something I should have considered.
The two final designs for the business cards have the font entirely too small for use, which is probably 50% my fault as I mentioned trying to squeeze war and peace onto one side of a card was dicey at best, and the designs were approved by the client…
But this sunk in after 500 cards were printed, so they aren’t happy…
Normally I do test prints of final designs to find these sorts of things, but this time I didn’t. I’m not sure why other than the fact I finished the final, final, final revisions at like 10 pm and was just burnt.
Oh well. Lessons learned I suppose… Nothing, and I mean NOTHING will be PDF’d for print and sent to the client for print until I’ve printed it myself for final proofing.
This means I need to re-ink my expensive printer… Sigh…
In other news I’m off the hook with the icon client — mostly. They’ll have someone else fight with them over the glyph design in a more ‘live’ fashion than I can manage with my process having to be after 5 pm. But as I’ve kind of patented the process of turning the base icon into the 40-ish variations for the application in a speedy fashion, I’ll still be doing that.
It’s the best of both worlds I suppose; someone else gets the design headache and I still get a few hours here and there of extra income.
I picked up a new sleeping bag yesterday — a Big Agnes Buffalo Park. It’ll be super comfy as it’s one of those new integrated pad/bag setups where there’s a sleeve in the bottom to install an insulated sleeping pad.
No more bag sliding off of the pad in the middle of the night. 🙂
This will primarily be used for “Car Camping” as the back of the Murano is about the same size as a tent, so I don’t see any real need to spend the money on a separate tent.
Next year I plan to spend more time out and about up in the hills, if at all possible. So this is a step in that direction.
Yesterday I talked to Comcast Business regarding competing with CenturyLink and Level-3 for the internet service here in my building… Comcast’s prices are identical to Level-3 (~$3000 a month), so I guess I’ll keep trying to get CenturyLink to pull their collective head out.
I have a meeting with CenturyLink tomorrow for “turn up” on the line they finally got working after two months of hassle… At this point though, even if the line works and has all of the addresses I asked for, I’ll be paranoid that if anything happens it’ll take them months to fix it.
Not a warm and fuzzy.
See, Level-3 is ridiculously expensive — but if anything acts up they’re on it in minutes… Meanwhile I’m not sure CenturyLink will even answer the phone if their routers are on fire.
Oh well; I’ll burn that bridge when I get to it. 🙂
I have a meeting with the client that has me making icons this afternoon. I think I’ll let them know that once they are happy with this one set, I’m done.
I was told via the grapevine that they are upset that I’m not creating what they want, which isn’t too surprising as it’s clear they don’t know what they want… So it’s probably best that they just hire someone full-time to work out what they want and unify the design.
I can apply the time I’m burning on this on other more fruitful endeavors.
Other than that, it’s a Monday…
CenturyLink finally got the message that the install they were supposed to have finished last month still isn’t done — even though they sent a bill for a month of service that cannot be used.
Back in August I decided to try and switch from Level-3 to CenturyLink being as CenturyLink owns Level-3 now — and this would reduce my internet costs from $3000 a month to $500 a month, bonus!
After they got me to sign they explained that their business-class offering only comes with five IP addresses though. This is problematic as I have a full class-C and a couple of partial blocks as well… The sales guy (who is no longer there) said this was no problem, I just had to submit a form for the wider address range…
Once I submitted for the wider IP range, CenturyLink all but vanished; emails go unanswered, phone calls drop to full voicemail boxes, and no one will return calls. I unplugged the router a week ago to see if the alarm would trigger a phone call — no dice.
Sunday I got an email from someone at CenturyLink though, mentioning that the IP address range has been fixed. I have a meeting with them on Wednesday to go over the issues we’ve had. So — maybe.
The funny thing is this comes after Comcast Business showed up Friday to ask if they could put some gear in my building to expand service across the street to the new apartment complex… This means that Comcast Business is now an option for my building, so I have a meeting with them this afternoon to discuss the options.
Somehow I will reduce my internet costs from what Level-3 was charging. See, I was with Data393 back on 2005, who then got bought by Time Warner, who then got bought by Level-3, who then got bought by CenturyLink — and though all of these acquisitions the costs have stayed the same… So I’m paying 2005 rates for service that is much cheaper these days.
A friend of mine likes to bowl, and even though I don’t I still go to watch and get in on some bowling alley food… Bowling alley food tends to be pretty good; lots of repeat customers so if it’s not they complain and things get fixed. 🙂
Bowling alleys also tend to have old arcade cabinets or, in the case of the one last night, pinball tables!
The entire gamut of machines was well represented, from a 1977 Bally ‘Eight Ball’ table (foreground left) to a super modern 2018 ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ by Jersey Jack (next to it).
So after dinner and while folks bowled, I was here feeding quarters into the machines. The one that treated me best was one that was themed for the band ‘Iron Maiden’, and had a wide selection of tunes from various albums.
2018 ‘Iron Maiden: Legacy of the Beast’ by Stern.
And you can’t have a good room of machines without at least one PinBot themed machine. The one at the bowling alley was a “Jack Bot” table…
A 1995 Williams PinBot ‘Jack Bot’ table.
There were a lot of classics too, like these three…
Some pinball history here: a 1983 Bally ‘Centaur II’ flanked by a Bally ‘Fireball’ and a Bally ‘8 Ball Deluxe’.
All in all it was a fun evening — even if I was out waaaaay past my bedtime. 🙂
The Murano is about to tick over to 3000 miles — not too bad for having bought it with 13 miles on the clock back in July.
It’s been a fantastic vehicle so far; super comfy to drive, very capable in any weather, wonderful amenities like the Bose sound system and the leather interior, etc. I really like it. I’ve even come to terms with the CVT in it…
Speaking of, I need to schedule the first oil change and maintenance for it… I’ll do that today.
Back on the first of November I signed another 18 month lease on the condo, so I’ll be in DTC (south Denver) for at least another year and a half. The condo is still really great too, though I do wish I had a bit more time and money to enjoy the location.
Not that I’m doing poorly in those aspects, I just have a few long-term goals to hit and that means being frugal with both time and money.
I’ve been part-timing my art skills to help offset the upcoming house costs and doing a lot of graphic design work. It’s fun, and I like spending time slaving over a hot Wacom — I just wish my clients were a bit more solid on what they want versus me stabbing in the dark over and over and over until I hit something they like.
It’s the whole reason I stopped taking commissions back in the late 90’s; I have an allergy to doing the same thing over and over again.
One of my other clients has me making icons for their mobile app, and I’m rapidly coming to the conclusion that I’m the wrong person for making icons… They’re too small and too fiddly. And the existing design is two shades of green and white at 100 x 100 pixels, which simply doesn’t leave much room for creativity let alone communicating anything to the user.
Give me 4-color process, 300 dpi, and at least business card size any day…
Here’s an example of a recent marketing project.
This is the front of an A2 card that encloses a 16G USB key that’s shaped like an actual key. Said key contains some promotional materials and whatnot, and is of a decent enough size to actually be useful — so it has some intrinsic value.
It was a fun project. 🙂
I’ve also done a couple of corporate Christmas cards, about two dozen business card designs, some thank you cards, a certificate, two booth designs, a roll-up banner, a dozen flyers of various sizes, a sample WordPress website design, and some other random stuff in the last six months… I should probably put together a portfolio.
It’s not a huge income, but it’s enough to warrant the hassles and it’s helping to hit my ten year plan…
This goes with the short-lived attempt at a cyberpunk-esque roleplay setting I was creating with some friends.
I got the setting backstory done, all of the races and whatnot, and even half of the build completed before enthusiasm dried up.
Basically it was determined that it’s just far too much work, hassle, and expense to keep doing these settings in Second Life. So without saying as much, we all just quietly let the idea drop.
Oh well; I got a setting to tell stories with and some neat art out of the effort. 🙂
On the way to work this morning I had to stop by the bank and hit up the ATM for $20. See, we have 25 cent sodas in the machines in the break room, so I tend to get something to drink from there to go with whatever I brought for lunch…
Well, I needed to break the $20 as the largest bill the machines will take is a $5 and a $20 is the smallest bill you can get from the ATM. This is when I noticed there’s a Del Taco next to the bank that serves breakfast; so I figured I’d get something from there this morning.
After careful perusal of the menu I decide on something called the “Epic Scrambler” with chorizo, and a large unsweetened iced tea — which by the picture looks like a common breakfast burrito — and am eventually handed a bag that weighs like 5 pounds.
I’m immediately curious what’s up with that, but there are a line of other hungry commuters behind me — so tossing the sack in the passenger seat I wend my way to work. This, as usual, requires dodging numerous people who are sleep-driving at a quarter after 6 in the morning.
Seriously, get a cup of joe before you get on the highway to get a cup of joe. 😀
Anyway, I get to work, get the building unlocked, disable the alarms, and meander down to my office to enjoy breakfast before digging into the weekly systems updates.
The only thing in the five pound bag is a singular aluminum-wrapped football that is my breakfast. It’s HUGE!
It’s quite good, but I could only at about half of the thing. Oh well, I guess I have lunch too!
Over the last couple of days I binge-watched all 64 episodes of “Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood”…
I found it quite enjoyable, and would recommend it to anyone looking for a quirky alternate-history magi-punk sort of thing.
One of the things I greatly enjoy about anime is how they don’t normally explain things for you; either you pay attention and think, or you miss most of the story. This is directly opposed to Western entertainment, where they feel the need to lead the audience by the nose and I generally have the plot figured out by the end of the fist act…
I was getting frustrated with the service and it’s obvious biases, privacy issues, and the engineered outrage at anything politically convenient. So I bailed.
It’s not a big issue for me really as I never really have anything important enough to say that it requires an audience – which is why I never really got into Facebook and the others of its ilk.
So, for now, I guess I’m back to LJ. Not that this is a bad thing. 🙂
Marco’s Pizza is on the first floor of the building the new condo is in, so I can get Neapolitan pizza whenever I feel like it.
I felt like it today.
After a couple of years of not being able to get pizza delivered (Murphey Creek is just too far out in the boonies for delivery), it’s nice to have a top-shelf pizza joint effectively in my basement. 😀
For the last couple of weeks I’ve been working on moving out of the palatial mansion I had over in Murphey Creek and into something smaller and less expensive to live in.
Huge 4000 square foot houses are great when you have a bunch of roommates to fill it, but I’m back to just Scott and myself.
Here’s a few pictures of the new condo in DTC.
From the main street out front – the condo is on the left, third floor. The ground floor are all shops and restaurants and the parking is underground.A view from the third floor near the main elevators. It’s a secure building, so everything is prox-id including the elevators.The main area of the condo with it’s 15 foot celings. My bedroom will be on the left, Scott on the right.
After several years of design work and the efforts to a truly talented toymaker, Iridae is done.
She stands about two feet tall at the top of her head and is fully posable. Even her tail is ball-jointed and her wings move!
As a bonus; the bedroom side of my room here in Murphey Creek. Behind me is my ‘office’, yes that’s a fireplace, and yes the other side of the fireplace fronts the big soaking tub…
