Lee.org

Hurumph. I didn’t get to sub on Friday. It was a snow day. The snow was absolutely beautiful. It was about 25 degrees, very little wind, and big fluffy beautiful flakes covered everything. The tops of all the tree branches were covered in an extraordinary way.

We put in a whole-house humidifier today. After only a few hours we could all feel the difference in the house. It feels warmer and cozier! The coziness is quite palpable.. in exactly the same way that a room in summer can be stuffy. Now our house is 3 shades closer to stuffy and 3 shades further away from bone dry.

When putting one in, you’ve got to watch out that you don’t encourage mold growth in your ductwork. I did a little research on the topic. Here’s some tips:

Think very carefully about using one if you have insulated ductwork. You can get into trouble with this. I didn’t follow up on this angle but it looks important.

The guys at Lennox said that you have to make sure the plenum is at least 120 degrees. (plenum is a $5 plumber word for “duct-work”… actually, it refers to any space pressurized by air. Your ducts are pressurized by the fan in the heater so that the air gets pushed around the house) This means that (according to our installer) you shouldn’t install it on a Lennox pulse-fired heater because the output air isn’t hot enough…. but I don’t have much faith in what he says; he installed our humidifier incorrectly.. I’ll tell you about that later. It also means that you shouldn’t run the humidifier while the heater isn’t running. As an example, you should recall how in room humidifiers, the filters often advertise how they are impregnated with silver to keep the mold at bay. Well, imagine if there wasn’t any silver and the mold had free reign of all your duct-work. Bad. The idea is that the 120 degree air in the plenum keeps the mold at bay.

In our installation, our guy incorrectly wired the motor on the humidifier to the 24 volt “ACC” accessory tie in. So the humidifier wheel would run whenever the blower in the furnace was on. I had him rewire it so that it was attached to the wires for heat (green and white wires, I think) going between the furnace and the thermostat. So then the humidifier only comes on when there is a call for heat… and the plenum is hot. We’ll see how well it goes.

I was a little disappointed with their choice of humidifier as well. A Lennox WD 15 Humidiwheel. Even though the guy swore up and down that it didn’t have any trouble with lime deposits, I don’t believe him. There are several newer models that go to special lengths to flush lime out of the system… I mean, this thing evaporates 15 gallons of water a day of pretty hard water… The lime has to go somewhere! I’ve got a feeling that I’m going to be self-installing my own unit in a few months. It’s good that I watched him install the unit.

Next time, I’ll definitely install the things myself. The average HVAC technician just doesn’t have the brain-power to get it right.

There was this other issue about a hot water heater safety valve that I spoke to him about… The conversation we had bothered me. He sounded more intent on replacing parts and charging us than fixing the problem. You see, 2 months ago we had asked him to fix a problem with a leaky safety valve on our hot water heater so he replaced the valve. He was pretty sure it wouldn’t fix the problem (and it didn’t) but did it anyway because we had told him “that valve leaks, fix it.” Duh, I’m not a plumber but I’m smart enough to say, “Hey, there’s water on the floor, I should call someone that will know what to do.” If they’re not smart enough to know what to do, then I should call someone else! Or… learn how to fix it myself. Grrrr.

I’m subbing tomorrow! Just like that! I’ll be subbing for an 8th grade math class. I was getting myself terribly nervous about this but when I heard what I was teaching, it all of a sudden seemed much more doable. Heck, the math class warmed me up for it! I suppose I’ll be going things like basic algebra, fractions, negative numbers, and word problems…. Not completely unlike what I’m doing in the class that I’m taking! I’ve still got butterflies in my stomach though.

Ugh, more NERO crapola. See this page.

I’m starting to enjoy my math class. Maybe it won’t be -completely- impossible. Each time I sit down to math homework, I’ve got to really turn on my gray matter. It’s pretty cool actually. I’ve started cheering myself after getting hard problems. “Yes!” It feels good when you understand the universe a tiny bit more! Psych never posed itself as too much of an obstacle.

I got a call at 5am yesterday to go substitute! Just like that! I’ve got to call them back and tell them when I can actually work.. .and then get ready for them to call me… at 5am(!!) so I know if I’m working on a particular day.

My cousin Sam recently asked me where I got the name Gadlen:

I took the name Gadlen from a comic book that I used to read called Sandman by Neil Gaiman. The main character being The Sandman, the god of sleep… Morpheus, Dream.

There’s this one time in the story when Dream comes home from a rough trip to his castle in his funky dream-domain. We get to meet the two caretakers of the place, Gadlen and Hobbes. They are these fairly strange little guys that didn’t have particularly important jobs… cleaning the castle, tending to the grounds and stuff. They sort of feel like the Rosencrantz and Gildenstern of the Sandman world (mostly in the funny “R & G Are Dead, the movie way). I really enjoyed their presence… how they held themselves.

The name “Gadlen” stuck out in my mind when I wanted to create a unique name for myself to use on the internet. It pleased me that the name was, and still is, virtually unused by anyone else on the internet and the world. So there you have it!

Sandman is a tremendous comic that had a big impact on the way comics were made and marketed to older (17+) readers. It was the impetus for DC Comics’ “Vertigo” label. If you’re mature enough, I think you might get a lot out of it. They’re now available in graphic novel format, 10 books in all I believe. I only have the first 5. Hmm… you know…. gift giving is the finest form of flattery!

Out of the blue, I was offered a staff position at a new NERO International chapter. The head of the campaign wrote to me:

I am starting a chapter of NERO International in New Jersey, and I am looking for creative knowledgeable people to form a Staff, or even just to NPC. I want to reward people justly and to have great events where a Staff that works together makes for a great game for players – even people who know nothing about NERO. I love to roleplay and I love to LARP, which is why I have gotten involved over time. I remember your characters – and though I would not normally send an email like this, I recall you as an excellent roleplayer and great to roleplay with.

I was of course appropriately flattered, and the spark inside me that glows brightly when playing shimmered a bit. But I didn’t let it smolder. I’m too disappointed in the too many years of hanging out with people that couldn’t ground themselves. I graciously declined the offer.

2 years ago my old company considered distributing demos and content on DVD discs but I determined that it wasn’t cost effective and the disc formats had compatibility problems. DVD discs cost $17 apiece, recorded only in DVD-RAM format (only playable on DVD-RAM drives… no you don’t own one), and the burners cost $6,000.

Moore’s Law has been working overtime… Today, DVD media now costs as low as $0.79 per 4.7 gig disk. Recorders cost $350 for a 4x drive, recording onto DVD+R (the same format as your computer and DVD video player)

Here’s a burner: Sony DRU-500A Here’s some media: (0.47 terabytes for $90!)

Of course, this makes DVD copying tools like this one very popular The world is evolving at a lightning pace!

Hey neat. I just caught the tail end of a song on WNTI that I had never heard before…

Artist	Track Title	Album	Label	Time Played
The Bobbettes	Mr Lee	45 rpm	Atlantic ’51	5 Minutes ago

Check out the song (a local link)

The refrain is “Mr. Lee Mr. Lee. Oh, Mr. Lee”. A lot of people have called me “Mr. Lee” before, and they sometimes double it up, “Mr. Lee, Mr. Lee!” but I always thought they were calling me that because of it’s Chinese sound and it’s fun to say. Go ahead, try it! Oh, and, no my name isn’t Chinese, it’s a shortened form of a Hungarian name. Wow. I’ve lived my whole life without knowing this personally important facet of the collective unconscious!

[additionally, see my July 30, 2003 Journal entry]

A friend asked me, “And you? How are things?”
————

I got a letter just a few days ago saying that the Hackettstown school system has approved my application to become a substitute teacher. :-). They say I’ll be teaching in 2 weeks.

I started my math and psych courses…

The Math class is hard. It’s really hard. I’m worried. This is gonna take a lot of concentration and work… a lot of hours of cursing my own stupidity during homework sessions. Well, at least I’ll have the psych class to balance it out!

I’ve been working a lot on my web page. I think it’s replacing some important social element in my life… like not getting out enough or having a girlfriend or somesuch. It’s a healthy enough and stimulating activity so I’m not too worried. Check it out at www.lee.org.

I’ve started playing chess online and with Chessmaster 9000. Even when set to high school level, little automaton “Carrie” still kicks my ass, but that’s what learning is all about. At least she doesn’t gloat about it. :-)

I continue to sell my bottles of Marilyn Merlot wine on eBay. See . Wine is gonna put me through college! (assuming my supplier doesn’t run out or figure out how -he- can make as much money as I am on these bottles!

My folks haven’t been in NJ now for a month and I’ve taken over the house. It’s nice. Though I have to say that even when they were here, it was pretty darn OK. They’ll be back for a week starting next week.

I’d love to have a partner to interact with, voice ideas with, and work with. I feel I’d be more happy and successful in life if I had one. I’ve thought this for years and I’m disheartened that for all my looking I haven’t found one. I’ve been a part of a whole, missing the whole for a long time.

Kindred spirit: Penn, the larger half of Penn and Teller.

Kikkoman! Kikko Man!

Original – link dead :-(

local version – not dead :-)

Wuw. This is some of the most….. I don’t know.. you just have to see it for yourself… Wuw. Did the soy sauce maker actually commission this work? If so… what does that mean? Wuw.

If you can read the Japanese and it says anything interesting, please write to me! I’d be most interested in finding out what predicated the swinging dead cat, and how the fish-headed Kikko-Man got the chick in bed. Wuw.

Did I mention…. “Wuw”?