So it is a brand new year (2009 for those not paying attention), and this time of year is often used as an opportunity for people to reinvent themselves... or at least wholeheartedly make plans to nix those bad habits and get back on the track to being a happy and successful human being. Now of course there are naysayers that claim that people who really want to change could do it anytime of the year, if they really put their mind to it. And to be honest, they're probably right.
But I say nuts to them.
I'm the type of guy that only likes cooking when the counter-top is clean. The transition from one year to the next, as arbitrary as our calendar system may be in the universal scheme of things, lifts the cloud of problems, tasks, and details that was last year and shines a light on all the possibilities ahead. Tabula rasa.
Having said all that, I'm also a pragmatist, so I don't plan on achieving unreasonable goals, or even trying to set goals with rigid timelines. Life is too unpredictable to adhere to tight schedules. But, I do believe in the importance of goals, and that keeping track of progress towards a goal can help you stay on track.
To that end, I'm going to try to use this blog to help achieve some of my goals this year. Hopefully it will keep me honest. [And if not, it's my blog so I can lie and nobody will be the wiser ;)]
If it's not obvious by now, organization of my photos has been a gargantuan monkey (would that be a gorilla?) on my back. I would love to have all my photos tagged and archived by the end of this year. But there are over 18,000 photos right now (with more coming), so that's not exactly realistic. I will be happy if I can come up with a system that lets me chip away at the pile faster than it grows. My plan is to tackle one month at a time, starting with my 2005 photos (when I got my D70!). After I've tagged and archived (meaning, backed up on DVD, and maybe stored at Ryan's house?) that month, I'll upload the best to flickr. I'm hoping that will give me incentive to continue. I have also added a progress bar to my sidebar; I suspect it may become discouraging at some point, but right now it's pretty.
Do I have other goals for this year? Sure, but I'll keep them to myself for now until I'm successful enough to admit them.
Good luck to everyone with their own goals, private or otherwise.
Showing posts with label project. Show all posts
Showing posts with label project. Show all posts
House project #1
There's not very many renovations that we have to do, but this one is a no-brainer. In the main bathroom, there was a hanging light... in the bathtub... right in front of the shower. If I were to stand under it, I would probably hit my head. So, we decided that it should go.
On Tuesday night, we went to Home Depot and picked up a fancy shower lamp. After playing with the breakers for 30 minutes, we finally shut off the power to the bathtub light, and I proceeded to remove the light fixture.
I got the light down, but realized that I would need to buy an insulated housing for the new light, as it was recessed, and would be sitting beside insulation in the attic. I almost called it a night, but decided to replace our front hall light fixture with the less gaudy cracked glass globe I had just taken down. We are much happier with this change, but there are still about a half-dozen more light fixtures to go.
The following night, I went back to Home Depot to get geared up for the attic. I bought the insulation box, and a mask and coveralls. It's fairly risky posting a picture like this, so i'm trusting all of you to be nice. :)
Unfortunately, not having a ladder of the appropriate height, I had to wait until Carolyn came home, so that she could bring a ladder from her parents. It was about 10pm by the time I first went up into the attic. Figuring it would be a quick job, I wasn't too worried.
Before I continue, I thought I should mention that fibreglass is not at all as fun as it looks. Also, balancing on two joists in a stiflingly hot suit is also not fun. And the nails coming through the roof were downright nasty.
Anyway, I imagine it was around 10:30pm when I saw the light. And by that I mean, I touched two seemingly dead wires together and created a spark, and melted some of the wire. Fortunately this happened inside the insulation box as I was feeding the wires through. It was shortly after this that I had Carolyn call our good friend Ryan, who happens to know a thing or two about electricity, and a bit more about not getting killed.
After he showed up, he determined that that light must have been running on two circuits, and I had only shut off the one. (Feel free to ask him about the details) Seeing as I had broken the second circuit, we were ok to proceed. Now we were at the interesting part... fitting object A into slot B.
Two hours and a few curse words later, the new light was installed. Isn't it pretty?
Here's a sneak preview of Project #2. Carolyn got a headstart on this while I was stuck in the attic. Bye bye plaid.
On Tuesday night, we went to Home Depot and picked up a fancy shower lamp. After playing with the breakers for 30 minutes, we finally shut off the power to the bathtub light, and I proceeded to remove the light fixture.
I got the light down, but realized that I would need to buy an insulated housing for the new light, as it was recessed, and would be sitting beside insulation in the attic. I almost called it a night, but decided to replace our front hall light fixture with the less gaudy cracked glass globe I had just taken down. We are much happier with this change, but there are still about a half-dozen more light fixtures to go.
The following night, I went back to Home Depot to get geared up for the attic. I bought the insulation box, and a mask and coveralls. It's fairly risky posting a picture like this, so i'm trusting all of you to be nice. :)
Unfortunately, not having a ladder of the appropriate height, I had to wait until Carolyn came home, so that she could bring a ladder from her parents. It was about 10pm by the time I first went up into the attic. Figuring it would be a quick job, I wasn't too worried.
Before I continue, I thought I should mention that fibreglass is not at all as fun as it looks. Also, balancing on two joists in a stiflingly hot suit is also not fun. And the nails coming through the roof were downright nasty.
Anyway, I imagine it was around 10:30pm when I saw the light. And by that I mean, I touched two seemingly dead wires together and created a spark, and melted some of the wire. Fortunately this happened inside the insulation box as I was feeding the wires through. It was shortly after this that I had Carolyn call our good friend Ryan, who happens to know a thing or two about electricity, and a bit more about not getting killed.
After he showed up, he determined that that light must have been running on two circuits, and I had only shut off the one. (Feel free to ask him about the details) Seeing as I had broken the second circuit, we were ok to proceed. Now we were at the interesting part... fitting object A into slot B.
Two hours and a few curse words later, the new light was installed. Isn't it pretty?
Here's a sneak preview of Project #2. Carolyn got a headstart on this while I was stuck in the attic. Bye bye plaid.
