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Well, its memorizing time again. Seems I’m finally going to be forced to get my Linux+ certification. Otherwise, according to the government, I won’t be “qualified” to work on the systems I helped design and build. You have to love these silly bureaucratic contractual requirements.
Actually, I’ve been pretty pig-headed about the whole thing. I was supposed to have this done a year ago, but made the point that I already had an AIX cert so why a stupid Linux cert? That only lasted so long. It’s now time to pay the piper as it were.
So, $192 for the voucher to go take the darn test. What a flat waste of money. Anyhow, the test will consist of 100 questions from a pool of roughly 450 total possible questions. I have a PDF with all the possible questions and answers, and a couple of practice exams. So, just to cover my butt, I’ll spend a few hours here and there over the next few days and read through/memorize all of the possible questions. That way when I go take the test I’ll be fairly sure not to waste my time and screw it up. That would be a touch embarrassing.
I’m fairly sure I can pass without memorizing the questions. However, I’m not the kind of person that gets a thrill from knowing all the possible options of a command. If I want to know how to do X with the rpm command that I will only do once or twice in my life, well, I’ll use the bloody man command or rpm –help and look it up. Not memorize it. Sadly however, guess what they ask on the test? Ya, what’s the options for some stupid command you might use twice in your career. And yes, I know, I’m the same idiot that memorized Pi out to a hundred plus digits because I was bored. Doesn’t mean I want to know all the options for every stupid command in Linux.
I did the same read through / memorization thing with the Security+ certification. Just read the questions over a couple of times before going to take the test. Interestingly enough there were 3 questions on the test that weren’t in the practice exams. Go figure. And yes, I’m certain it was only 3. Don’t ask, I’m a nerd and notice things like that. For what it’s worth I got em all right, even the surprise 3. Statistically speaking I should have missed at least one or two just from hitting the wrong button, but I didn’t. Surprised me.
Well, I decided to do some work on Wally this weekend. Just some minor stuff. At least that’s how it started out. It always starts as a simple fix, and just goes horribly wrong from there. 
While pulling off the windshield wipers I dropped a bolt down the vented section between the bonnet and the windshield. Unfortunately I could see the bloody bolt, but couldn’t reach it. So, I open the hood and look at the cover for the windshield wiper motor and blower fan. The cover I’ve never been able to get off before. That was before I got serious with a pair of pliers and a screwdriver.
So, long story short. I’ll put up drawings and pictures later for the next poor schmuck that has to try this on a 1974 SuperBeetle.
- Pull Wiper Motor cover.
- Clean out old rotten leaves and debris. Get bolt.
- Discover seized blower fan.
- unplug ‘something’ from under the dash while trying to get enough slack to mess with blower fan.
- Discover that you can not see under the dash of a superbeetle.
- Discover 5 hidden screws to remove dash front from dash. (Diagram coming)
- Discover speedometer is held in via pressure fit rubber gasket
- Remove speedometer and clean all 17 or so connection on the back of it. Yes. 17 or so connections. (Diagram coming)
- Discover 1 bad light and 5 good ones. $1.50 a pop from CIP1.
- Discover the cable that came unplugged was actually reachable, just hidden. (Go figure)
- Plug cable back in. Clean all connections with sandpaper and put dash back together.
- Realize blower fan is well beyond repair and will need to be replaced. Shove back in place.
- Replace cover.
- Discover bolt is missing. (Grrrrr!!!) Search for 10 minutes before finding again.
- Put windshield wipers back on.
- Discover only the driver side wiper now works. Take back apart. Fix. Put back together.
- Done.
All this because I wanted to remove the wipers to sand and repaint them. That was all.
Believe it or not, I’ve walked in the footsteps of Jimi Hendrix. In Scotland I walked in the footsteps of kings, here, I’ve walked in the footsteps of the greatest rock guitarist of all times.
By meeting Dave the Luthier I was introduced to a rock group from the 60′s call Moby Grape. Dave is meeting with one of the guitarists next month to do some work on his guitar, who’s also a friend, and then he’s playing Don Quixote’s in Felton CA. (I’m hoping to be there for the gig.)
Anyhow. Upon researching the Moby Grape, which I’m listening to as I write this. I ran across a reference to the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival, what’s been called a prelude to Woodstock. What? Monterey? Pop fest? Yep, right here in Monterey California at the Monterey Fairgrounds that I drive past every day on the way to work, one of the greatest rock festivals of the decade. Who knew?
So, what’s so big about this festival? Jimi Hendrix. That’s what. Arguably the greatest rock guitarist of all time. He played the Monterey Pop Festival. Here’s him playing Purple Haze at the concert. Not only that, he was from Seattle, my home town. Then I discovered that Jimi got in a bit of trouble as a young man, surprised?, and ended up with the choice of 2 years behind bars or the military. He chose the military. Now, this is where it gets crazy. Jimi ended up with the 101st airborne at Ft. Campbell KY. Where I spent 3 years. He got out and formed a band based out of Clarksville, TN. Where my crazy bud Darrin still lives.
It’s amazing how small the world is. Really amazing some times. Some day I need to go check out his grave site in Renton WA, just because.
By chance and happenstance I met a master luthier today. While wandering around Carmel with Roberta we went into a small antique store to check things out. Inside there was a mandolin and Roberta commented on it. Turns out it was the proprietors instrument for when it was slow in the shop. This led him and I to discuss different music, what bands were coming to town, etc.
I mentioned I was a fiddler and a luthier hack. He then mentioned a friend of his was a luthier in Pacific Grove. What? I haven’t heard of any! Well, it turns out that Dave Enderby has no advertisement at all. None. The door to the shop has a red letter E and a sign that says “by appt only” with a phone number that doesn’t even work. Behind that door is a master luthier and his tools. He mainly works on Guitars but does other work also. He’s rehairing my old violin bow for me.
Anyhow, Dave gave me the tour of his shop and we ended up shooting the breeze for over an hour. I know I’m going to screw this up because I’m not a guitar guy, but, he pointed out a 1920 Martin guitar hanging on the wall needing restoring. His comment, “The right person hasn’t come in yet for that, when they do I’ll fix it up.” Same comment was made for the 1940′s Les Paul(?) hanging next to it.
Dave is also the first person I’ve met that tap tone checks all the pieces of his instruments to insure they match tonally before putting them together This is an old style of making sure the pieces will work together, and is an art in itself to learn. It was pretty interesting to watch him pick up pieces of instrument and tap it, say, ya, that’s about a full tone under the front so it should work pretty good together.
Oh ya, turns out my ”Ole Bull” fiddle and bow I picked up for $100 off of Ebay a long time ago, well the bow is made from Pernambuco wood and a pretty decent quality one also. The only info I have on the Ole Bull fiddle was the repair tag from 1912 and no information on the bow. So I’m not sure if the bow is that old or not, but a good chance it is. So, Dave is going to rehair it, clean up the varnish, and rewrap it for me. Another $100, but it should be a real nice playing bow when it’s done. Definitely worth more than the $200 I’ll have into it and the fiddle. The fiddle turned out to be pretty junky, so, even taking that into account I’m ahead just from the bow.
Nora and Molly have been practicing their violin like crazy lately. They’ve been getting ready for their very first concert.
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| From Family |
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| From Family |
They did really good. They had a good time and are looking forward to continuing to learn and enjoy music.
After Molly and Nora played Roberta was feeling pretty rough so she took the instruments, Nora, Meg, and Tyler home. Molly and I stayed for the high school orchestra and Molly’s friend Thuy’s turn with the band.
Well, after the concert was over, a bit after nine, we decided to walk home instead of calling Roberta to pick us up. We had some good father and daughter time. I’m not working nearly as much as I did when they were born, and yet with everything going on I don’t get to spend enough time with them.
Long story short. We’re a block from home when here comes Roberta. “Where the bleep were you guys?!? I kept trying to call you!” Oops. Seems my cell phone was still on vibrate from the concert and I didn’t know she was calling. She got worried and came looking for us. My bad. )-:
Molly and I did make plans to check out the Monterey Symphony. Maybe try to attend some of the Bach Festival this year.
And let’s not forget Megan’s very first concert waaaay back in 2002. She sang in front of her grade school class. A funny folk song about being a little bird and spitting in your eye. The whole place was laughing.
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| From Family |
I’m on a roll checking out t-shirts with twin sayings. Some of them are pretty good.
- It’s a twin thing. You wouldn’t understand.
- Ctrl-C Ctrl-V
- Copy Paste
- I’m the father of twins. And yes sleep is overrated.
- Twin A and Twin B
- Thing 1 and Thing 2
- Tic and Tac
- Naturally Cloned
- Good/Evil twins
- I’m with stupid
- Experience wildlife. Raise twins.
- I love my Wombmate.
- Get one free
- Parent^2
- You can’t scare me! I have twins!
Tic and Tac
And the final quote. “There are two things for which you are never truly prepared. Twins!”
If you’re anything like me you find all the pop ups, pop unders, flash adds, and what not very annoying when you’re trying to read an article online. There are sites out there that are so bad that even if I want to read an article they have I won’t. I’ll go searching elsewhere.I especially Hate the ones that walk across the screen and force you to click em to make them go away. I will literally just close the window and go elsewhere when those come up.
Not long ago I discovered a nice add-on to firefox called Readability. It rocks. It gets rid of 99% of the crap and let’s you read the article you were looking at. Of course Micro$oft IE doesn’t have this. Which is one of the reasons I use firefox.
As an example you go from this
Normal Guardian article
To this.
Guardian article with Readability
Much, much better.
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