Author: Rob's Surf Report

Rob lives near the geographical center of the North American continent with his wife, daughters, and one very needy cat. Most days he's a member of the law enforcement community, and tries to keep himself sane by making himself both stronger and more creative. His big plan is to find a way back to the coast and to stay there for good so he can surf the livelong day.

>A Week’s Worth of Snapshot

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>    Well, I’ve done a whole lot over the past week. Maybe I haven’t done as much as some people have, but I’ve really got the ball rolling and I’m proud of what I have accomplished. For example, I have mysteriously pulled off a credit score of 732. Out of 800. That’s phenomenal, considering I had a bankruptcy finalized three years ago, but I guess that’s due to doing what’s right and trying hard to stay out of debt and respect my credit.

    On a related tangent, on Thursday Karisa and I went to see a banker by the name of Debby Wisdom at Dakota Community Bank. Not only did she not try to tell us that the monthly payments from our student loans should be eating up all of our disposable income, but she didn’t let that get in the way of sending our info out to the underwriters for preapproval; that lady from Vue Community Credit Union can kiss my grits.
    I’m expecting to hear back on the preapproval tomorrow. If all goes well, we should be meeting with the realtor by the end of the week. My opinion is, my school loans are my business and should not get in the way of my getting a house. A HOUSE. Noun. A place to live that’s not a hot, stuffy attic. I’ll always need a roof over my head, but I can do without school if necessary, and while I could put off the U.S. Department of Education because of “financial hardship,” the mortgage must always be paid and I know this, man. That lady from Vue Community Credit Union can go suck an egg. And a lemon. At the same time.
    So yeah, and I went to see my advisor for Dickinson State University on Friday, and I think I decided on majoring in Composite Social Science Education, with a middle school endorsement for my minor. At first I left thinking that I had chosen English Education for my major, but in retrospect I think I decided that I would be more marketable as a teacher who can teach any social science to grades 7-12, as opposed to just English. Of course, I might not be able to teach English, but I don’t think that would be an issue with me. I’m like that little boy in the movie who just wants to dance, but instead of dancing, I want to teach.
    At any rate we got things going, and I should be registered for classes within the next couple of days. One of the classes is two-in-one; for half the semester I attend an Intro to Education class, and for the second half of the semester, I’m a teacher’s shadow. Or test-grader, I guess. Cool stuff! Then there’s College Composition III and Adolescent Psychology, too. Over the past week I have gotten my FAFSA submitted, my transcripts sent, and my financial aid verification paperwork filled out – it gets put in the mail tomorrow – so I’m thinking I’ve slipped into DSU for the Fall semester. Not too shabby!
    With this weekend being Memorial Day weekend and all, we spread things out pretty well; we cleaned up some things and went through some other things. We don’t want to move a ton of junk that we don’t want to keep to a new home (eventually,) so we’re going through stuff and putting a lot of it into a tote for a rummage sale at the in-laws’ place this Summer. I’ve been posting my dragon statues on Ebay since I’ll probably never take them out of their styrofoam blocks ever again for any other reason, and hopefully the stuff I’ve posted on Bisman Online will sell. We’re probably going to get a zero-down first-time home buyer’s loan because we both qualify for that (apparently, “first time” means that you haven’t done it in three years. If that counted for sex, I’d have been a virgin a few times prior to being married.) Still, I know we’re going to need five hundred dollars’ “earnest money” for the realtor and another five for the bank toward closing costs (inspection and whatnot.)
    And then there’s the Wii. Oh yes, we’re getting a Wii. Target has the Wii, and it’s black!! Which is just awesome. Karisa’s been talking about it, and I finally broke down and admitted that it sounds cool. We can use it for Netflix, and maybe we won’t have to try starting something ten times to get the sound to work (like it does on the XBox 360.) Plus, I would be totally nuts for Wii Fit and MARIO KART!! Wahoo! So yeah, now all I have to do is figure out how to get it without busting into the down payment money and the only thing I can think of is my credit card, but that’s like two hundred on my credit card and with the current balance, that would leave me about $100 credit. Is that a safe margin? Well, I don’t use the credit card for much, but. . . I’m just really careful about my credit and all. So I’m hoping this guy comes through on the Ovation.
    The Ovation is one of the things that I’ve listed on Bisman Online. It’s Bismarck/Mandan’s version of Craig’s List. The Ovation is a semi-hollow electric guitar that is older than I am – by five years. And it’s in great condition, so I think I’ve really undervalued it at $300, but with that much I’ll break even on it, which is better than nothing. But I swear, if this guy falls through, I’m listing it on Ebay; that means I have to do math to figure out how much to mark it up to account for the listing fee and something to cushion the selling fee (which I think is 5%.) So basically, I have to add enough to that $300 so that the $300 is 14% less than the selling cost (which I think is about $348.84, but I could be wrong.) If the Ovy sells higher, then I still bank because Ebay only gets 5% of the extra, so. . . 
    I think maybe I should have listed the Ovation on Ebay in the first place. But hey, lesson learned. Let’s go, Nintendo!

>An attempt at a new hobby

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>    You know how people have hobbies? Well, I’m not sure I really have any. I find it difficult to play the guitar as much as I once did; even if I manage to pick it up I seem to just play the same old crap I always have. Oh sure, once in a while I come up with something new, but I feel like I’ve already lost my chops and I can’t figure out where I put them.

    At any rate, I’ve decided to try book binding. This is where you actually make a book – the cover, the pages, everything – whether or not there is something written inside. Specifically, I’m going to be making several different types of journals. I’m going to start by cannibalizing what’s left of my sketch pads for paper. I ordered some tools to start off with last night from an art supply site – an awl, a bone folder, some linen thread and a block of beeswax. That’s just for step one, making a stack of signatures and sewing them together. A signature, by the way, is a folded section of pages.
    My idea is that if it works out, I enjoy it, can get creative enough with it. . . that I can sell these journals and maybe even get a spot at the annual Pride of Dakota show someday. That would be quite awesome. I have my first customer lined up: Karisa’s friend, Trish Fettig. So far, all I know is that she prefers unlined paper.
    I’m going to try as many techniques as I can learn, too. I’ve already watched a tutorial on making a softcover journal with a leather cover, and that was about as simple as it gets. I’m also going to do some Japanese stab binding, and some that look like regular hardbound books. I’ll be able to custom-make journals for people, and they could potentially choose:
  • the thread color
  • the paper color
  • the paper type (heavy, light, parchment, natural, recycled, etc.)
  • the end pages
  • the cover design
  • which materials to make the cover from (leather, cloth, natural paper, etc.)
    There’s really a lot of creative options here, and the best part is I can be innovative in how I make journals. I could possibly make a small journal whose cover is a jeans butt pocket. I’m not sure exactly how it would work, but I’m confident that I could do it and make it look good. I should start sketching my ideas, too. That would be a good way to use a sketch journal. . . 
    Oh yeah, I’ve also decided that if I am going to start making journals, I’m going to have to start using the pile of journals that I already have. My first custom job for someone else is going to be a tweed journal for Karisa, and my second just might be something for myself.
    Another cool thing about this is I want to be able to do as much of this from scratch as possible, with as few conveniences as possible. That means that I’m stitching the paper together, making the covers from the board on out, of course – but that also means that some day I’m going to teach myself to make paper, too. The art supply website that I visited has two sizes of paper presses for about $300; they’re made from birch, have a hand crank in the center for moving the press up and down and are capable of pressing several sheets at a time. Awesome!
    I don’t think I’ll be tanning leather or weaving cloth, but I’m trying to do it authentic and professional, which might be kind of difficult at first, but I’m confident that if I’m careful and scrupulous – taking my time at each step until I’m thoroughly familiar with the process – I can make empty books into works of art.

>Surprise update brings new features to Nook

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>     If you’re a Nook user like I am, then undoubtedly you were surprised to see an email in your inbox today announcing an available software update (version 1.3) for Barnes and Noble’s e-reader which brings some surprising and fun new features to the table:

  • Read entire books for free – for up to an hour a day, you may read as much of any e-book as you like while you’re in a Barnes & Noble store. This might be a way of getting customers in the door, and I haven’t had a chance to use this feature yet. However, it’s more of a competing feature than Amazon will be able to come up with – as they have no stores, in the physical sense. In addition, this feature more than any other may contribute toward maintaining a literary culture which was once centered around the library, but is now centered around retail establishments. My prediction: Barnes & Noble stores may want to invest in some additional comfy chairs.

  • Games! – chess and Sudoku have arrived on the Nook. While I haven’t had a crack at the Chess yet, I did play a sudoku puzzle and am happy to report that it is not only usable, but it’s fun too. The little color touchscreen at the bottom of the nook displays a 3 x 9 square strip of the puzzle that can be scrolled up and down. Touching an empty square brings up a strip of number buttons and a few more buttons. If you make a mistake, the numbers will show up in red. Very nice for on-the-go reading breaks, I’d wager.

  • Basic web browser – that’s right, you can browse the web on your Nook! As hokey as it may sound, it works better than one might imagine. The screen shows an e-ink version of the web page you’re looking at, while the color touchscreen shows a strip of the page that you can swipe to move around the whole thing. Tapping on a text-entry field brings up that keyboard you haven’t seen since setting up your Nook. I gave it a test drive by logging into my Gmail. Like they said, basic – but good.

    In addition to the aforementioned features, the software update brings enhancements to performance (quicker page turns, faster book loading) and wifi. My guess with the “enhanced wifi” is more support for different wireless security protocols.
    The update downloads and installs in roughly ten minutes. Upon your first reboot after the update, you will notice some extra tiles on the main button bar. There’s one for the games, and one for the browser. In addition, you will find a new wifi button that will allow you to manage wifi connections, as well as activate/deactivate airplane mode without having to go into your settings to do it.
    This update was a pleasant surprise for me. I’m sure that Nook owners all over will agree, and I’m just looking eagerly forward to new features to come in the future. Just a word to those who connect the reader exclusively over 3g: this update is only available over-the-air on wifi connections, but there is a way to do the update from your computer. Read more about it at http://www.nook.com/update.

>And now for today’s crisis:

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>    I got up at the crack of dawn this morning. As usual. My alarm normally goes off at six o’clock anyway. Today was different, however; I had an eight o’clock appointment at the Farmers’ Union Cenex and I meant to make it. I wanted to get my jog in, though, so I was up at six and out jogging by 6:20. I listened to. . . The Dandy Warhols. Thank you, memory. Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia, to be exact – the best darned album the Dandy Warhols have offered so far.
    By 6:55 I was back home and getting in the shower. 7:40 I was saying good-bye to the wife and leaving. I made it to the Cenex a minute or two late, but the Gary – the shop manager – didn’t seem to mind. He was a little surprised that I was going to wait for the diagnosis of the check-engine light and the estimate, though. Strange? Not so much – I guess sometimes the “check engine” light can be squirrelly, especially with newer cars. I went and sat down at one of the pic-a-nic tables before I decided to buy a coffee. I had eaten breakfast, though I hadn’t had time to boil a couple of eggs; I had made do with three slices of lean turkey and two spoons full of peanut butter. Now, I had the chance to get my caffeine on.
    I was about fifteen minutes into watching Sherlock Holmes on my Zune and Gary came back out and told me that I had a bad EGR valve, as well as a bad coolant temperature sensor. I said, “how much?” The EGR valve, Gary said, was about two hundred dollars. The coolant temp sensor was twenty-five. Add labor and the computer hook-up (a rip-off if I ever heard of one,) that’s about another hundred. So I’m thinking, yeah. I’ve got the money. But. . .
    I say, “what’s the downside of skipping the EGR thing?” Gary says, “it’s still gonna run rough,” (It’s been really bad lately,) “and the check engine light’s going to stay on. I can turn it off, but it’s going to come right back on.” So I thought about it. . . (not really. . . ) and then I said, “how long?” About an hour, hour and a half. . . so I said, “ok, let’s do it.” I’m such a sucker. But you know, in Detroit we had this thing. . . can’t fix your car? Run it into the ground. North Dakota, however, has been quite fertile and I’m socking away cash like I’m Eminem on a bad flashback.
    I drove the Saturn away from that place like nothing was ever wrong with it, and I don’t regret that. So anyway, I thought I’d stop at Best Buy on the way to work and see if I could find the Sherlock Holmes soundtrack, because I kept hearing Irish punk music, like Flogging Molly and the Dropkick Murphys and such. Best Buy had nothing of the sort. OF COURSE. So I Googled it on my phone, and the only soundtrack anyway is Hans Zimmer. Orchestral!! What?? God!! Some movies did this horrible, unspeakable thing and spawned two separate soundtracks – one for the orchestra and one for the regular music. I know –  it sounds tragic, right?
    But the foray into Best Buy wasn’t a total waste. After all, I hate Best Buy like an abused housewife hates her husband. I can’t help but to go back and see if I can find something good in there. This time, I found the DLO Action Jacket for my Zune HD, with the cord-keeper on the back. Awesome!! I bought it.
    So I went to work, and I worked. Then I left work at 5:30, knowing that I was going to have to be back in Bismarck at 7:15 so that I could see the Spring concert, where Karisa would be playing her bass clarinet in a show titled, “Around the World in 80 Minutes.” It was amazing. They did this medley from Edvard Grieg’s Peer Gynt Suite that just blew Fantasia out of the water. By the end of the concert, however, I was marveling under the surface how many people in the band I had connections with. My wife was playing the bass clarinet. My brother in-law was playing clarinet. My manager at work was playing french horn. The guy at work who helps me on Wednesday morning with the huge stock transfers? His wife was on the other french horn. The only female in the trumpet lineup used to work at Eckroth. Another girl on clarinet was my Music Appreciation teacher last semester. The band’s conductor was my academic advisor. The guy who composed the second-to-last piece, Halls of Anubis, was at my wedding and is someone I see at the store on a regular basis. This is just the tip of the iceberg – I can tell you where half of the other half of the band works! This chick works at K-Mart. That guy works at Target. It’s crazy.
     But I decided when I got home I would do some research to figure out where I’m going to school next year, seeing as how I’m going to be graduated from Bismarck State College in less than a month and I need to get this ball rolling, and here’s where the crisis comes in: I’m not finding any options I like. I’m in a panic! The only college in town that offers Bachelor degrees is University of Mary and they want a structured curriculum and a whole block of theology courses thrown in. The latter is interesting, the former – intolerable. University of North Dakota, I can get a bachelor degree in Psychology online. But there’s no education degrees and no English degrees online. Fail! North Dakota State University has no online degree programs even close to applicable to what I’m looking for. Double fail! So what do I do? What the heck do I do? I just want to get a jump on my Bachelor degree, while simultaneously keeping my student loan lenders at bay – just out of reach, in deferment-land.

>a fix for non-working external hard drives

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>     Real quickly, I wanted to post a fix I performed just now so I’ll have it in the future. I did a stupid thing and tried to use Boot Camp to put a copy of Windows on Karisa’s iMac so that she could dual-boot and play MSN Games (it sounds dumb, I know – but it really is.) Somehow, either Boot Camp or the Windows boot disc toasted the computer and I had to reformat the hard drive and re-install OS X. Well, Karisa was okay with all this as long as nothing was wrong with her external hard drive, which has her pictures and music and stuff for iTunes on it.
     Well wouldn’t you know, for some reason, I couldn’t read that either. If I plugged it into the mac, it would tell me that it was unformatted and I had to format it. If I plugged it into Windows on my laptop, it would tell me it was unformatted and I had to format it. If I plugged it into Linux on my laptop, it didn’t see the drive at all. So what to do?
     I found a little utility called TestDisk that saved my life. I downloaded it from here. I had to rebuild the boot sector of the disk; according to TestDisk, without the boot sector, the disk is unreadable whether it’s bootable or not. Well ok! I went to “Advanced/Boot/RebuildBS” and confirmed, which fixed the boot sector, and what pops up? Explorer’s autorun prompt. Awesome! I win again.

>Introducing. . . Disco Flash!

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>     Well, getting my morning exercise is going well. This morning I went out again, which is great! Coming back from the blue dome (which Karisa says is a water tank – makes sense to put it on a hill, right?) I put my sights on going down 9th Street from Collins to 6th Avenue NW. It was so steep. In fact, it was too steep; I had to go so slowly down that hill, I wasn’t even moving at a walk. Oh well, it was a great workout. I stopped at the store before going home to get soda, mustard, and garlic toast. Gotta keep the supply chain moving!
     I had speech class this evening after work. It was the same thing at first; we had to watch examples of persuasive speeches. Sweet. I had a hard time staying awake, thanks to my narcolepsy. Then we had a cool little activity: our teacher – a fun little lady who probably qualifies as a midget in terms of her stature – put us in groups of five and gave each group a little knick-knack. Our job was to make an impromptu infomercial based on that item (which could be anything we wanted it to be – it was an inspirational prop.) We had about ten minutes; the criteria were that everyone had to speak, and there had to be three selling points. We had a little blue disco ball on a keychain.
     Disco Flash was born. Have you ever found yourself nervous while walking down the street at night? Have you ever felt like pepper spray just wasn’t enough? Do you wish that you had a way to retreat? Well now, your escape is within reach with Disco Flash!
     Just pull the pin and chuck it in! Disco Flash is a military-grade flash-bang grenade in a convenient keychain. This high-speed device looks like an ordinary, el-cheapo keychain; but when you’re looking for that quick exit, you just pull the pin and chuck it in! That’s right, folks: no more lame excuses and victimization! Disco Flash is fashionable, easy to use, and quite affordable. Are you facing the threat of imminent death at the hands of a mugger? Do you feel like telling your boss off, once and for all? How about getting rid of that ultra-clingy girlfriend? The bright flash and loud noise generated by Disco Flash will incapacitate your foe and give you time to make your escape!
     If you call now, for the low price of $19.95, you’ll receive not one, not two, but three Disco Flashes, and as a bonus we’ll throw in the patented Disco Flash sunglasses with built-in earplugs!
     Pretty cool, right? I’d buy that!

>Climbing Mt. Mandan

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>     Jogging has been going well. I got out and scoured Mandan for the past three days, including today; and I can feel the difference already. Of course, I’m worn out at the end of the day, too. I had an intense pain in my knee last night when I kneeled on the floor. But I breathe easier, it’s not so challenging to go up the stairs to the apartment, and I’m looking forward to losing some of this dead weight. I let myself go for too long.
     I’m also finding it easier to jog. I head up the sloping streets of Mandan, past houses yet asleep and passed by cars, heralds of the busy day ahead. I reach what I feel may be the zenith, the high point of the area I’ve been hiking; I look upon the blue dome at the corner of Collins and Division from beyond the fence with its “no tresspassing” signs. I do not fear prosecution, and yet I have no desire to go any closer. Roughly eighteen minutes into this walk, this slog up the steeply sloping sidewalks of this hill-studded city, I turn around and begin to jog lightly down. With Last.fm playing a klezmer version of the Pink Panther theme into my ears, I focus on keeping pace on the downslope so that I can make it last.
     A lady in a truck passes me by, and I see that she has a huge grin on her face. I’m thinking, “yep, it’s a great morning, people are out jogging, what a great day to come.” It hits me about a minute later, while I’m rounding the corner from Division onto 6th Avenue that she was probably amused with my cans. I’ve taken to wearing my Yamaha RC-3 headphones while I’m out in the morning because they’re sturdy and stabile, not to mention they keep my ears warm while I’m still warming up. The thing is, I probably resemble Ben Stiller from Starsky and Hutch, when he’s jogging on the beach with those ridiculous 1970’s radio headphones – except mine aren’t sporting telescoping antennae.
     I got back to the house, huffing and puffing but not so badly, and went right past it to the grocery store. I had planned this, so that I could pick up yogurt cups to put in lunch this week. I also picked up a loaf of bread for myself and a couple of energy drinks for Karisa and myself. Got back home, showered, and woke up the wife. Not a bad morning, if I may say so. I’m looking forward to tomorrow morning!

>It’s finally Friday!

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>     Yes, and the weekend brings awesome weather!! I managed to get out to jog this morning; in fact, it was almost like an exact redo of Tuesday morning (which was the first time back jogging,) except that I took a different route this time. Instead of wandering around the turns in the subdivision at a half-jog and wishing I could breathe, I went straight for the inclines.
     Don’t let anybody tell you North Dakota is flat; I mean, it is, right? But there are hills to go around, and for some reason the hills are mostly in the cities. They build around and over the hills. Apparently, suburban design is more of an art than a science. My SimCities never looked like this; the hills in my neighborhood are steep. Some people even have steps in their sidewalks! It wasn’t long before I was having trouble catching my breath again, pushing through at the fastest walk I could muster. . . again.
     I’m not a patient man, but I will get through this. I will run again. On another note, today’s weather is quite lovely; it’s fifty-four degrees and awesome. Karisa and I are going to see “How to Train Your Dragon” tonight in 3D at the Grand Theatre. I’ve been looking forward to seeing this film, to say the least. Work was much less hectic, and I used less slack time to blog. . . obviously.

Ciao for now!

>Thursday has been trashed.

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>     Oh, what a stupid day. As if it didn’t start out cruddy; I couldn’t run again, because it was nineteen degrees outside and there was snow on the ground. What? What happened to Spring?!? Well, Monday’s high is supposed to be sixty-four, so there’s hope yet. I get to work and it’s a freaking zoo. Kids all over the place, carrying violins and violas and cellos and I’m thinking, I thought this was supposed to happen last night. Despite the distraction and the inability to get anything done quickly, I finish receiving and dealing with “special” issues by 12:30, and I’m supposed to find stuff to do among all of the hubbub?
     Oh yeah, there’s a string festival happening in the store right now. Apparently whomever holds it couldn’t afford the space they usually get, so Eckroth was kind enough to host it. I’m actually writing this right now because I’m bored to tears and I can’t do anything else because there’s too much traffic in the store. The good thing about today is that I get to pick up the Saturn after work. The shop manager at Cenex called me just before eleven this morning to tell me that it’s ready to go. Apparently, the coolant was leaking from a gasket and he just tightened it and solved the problem!

     We’ll see, right?

>Wicked Wednesday

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>     This has been one tiring day. I didn’t get a chance to run this morning because it’s Wednesday, and on Wednesday I start work two hours earlier than usual. Karisa didn’t feel well – grumpy stomach, possibly due to the tuscani pasta from Pizza Hut last night – and I let her stay home instead of taking me to work because we have her Mom’s van for the time being and I wanted to drive the Saturn anyway to check my suspicion that it still has a coolant leak.
     I was right. Although the coolant reservoir was full when I left the house, when I checked it at lunch time, it was nearly empty. Go figure, right? The chumps at Cenex replaced the water pump and didn’t fix the coolant leak. I had to call them and make an appointment for them to “look at it” tomorrow; I dropped it off after work at the Cenex, where Karisa was waiting for me in the van.
     On the upside, I got a really sweet Fender lunchbox at work today, with a little thermos and everything. We got ten of them because all of our stores are switching over from loose guitar picks to pick packs, and so we had to order a ton of picks for seven different locations. I also picked up some cool Ernie Ball stickers from an order that came in today, which was a nice surprise. Usually Ernie Ball sends us guitar cables and picks as promos, which I usually throw in the marketing area for giveaways and door prizes.
     Also, the weather here was nicer than expected today – very sunny, high in the mid-fifties, which was supposed to be in the high forties. . . so that was great, and we’ve opened up the windows in the apartment for the first time since last Fall, when we moved in. The air coming in is a tad cooler than I would prefer, but it’s fresh air, after all, and I totally approve.
     But work was definitely busy. It’s about that time of year that I stop having an excuse to slack off, and products will begin to arrive with increasing frequency. Today I received two pallets of snare/bell kits and pad/bell kits. Forty-seven pieces in all, each one serialized and kind of heavy. I didn’t have this problem with them last year. . . but then again, I was less out-of-shape last year; I’m tackling that one.
     I’m ready to rest, but it’s going to have to wait a little bit longer. The Zunited podcast has a dearth of email for the next show (which is on April 6) and they requested on air that I write a thought-provoking email. Let’s see how that goes!