"Sinterklaas [sɪntər'klaːs] (or more formally Sint Nicolaas or Sint Nikolaas; Saint Nicolas in French; Sankt Nikolaus in German) is a traditional winter holiday figure still celebrated today in the Low Countries,
including the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg, as well as some
parts of Germany, French Flanders and Artois. He is also well known in
territories of the former Dutch Empire, including Aruba, Suriname, Curaçao, Bonaire, and Indonesia. He is one of the sources of the holiday figure of Santa Claus in North America.[1]"
My opinion as a hobbyist in linguistics, is that the name Santa Claus name does not come from a child's mispronunciation of Sinterklaas or Saint Nicholas.
Where it's coming from? I have no idea but if you take the letter n from the middle of the word and put it at the end, guess what's resulting? Too much of a coincidence especially when we try and switch the spelling of the name Claus, which i never heard in US, to the more common word claws.
Don't know about the creation of the name or the character but the use of it and the taking of the main stage at Christmas after so many years raises questions...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Claus
Showing posts with label Hell. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hell. Show all posts
Sunday, December 16, 2012
Monday, December 10, 2012
Sunset
Sunset just ended. A few minutes ago it was really glorious. Grabbed my new little camera, remove the mosquito net at the small window above the sink in the kitchen and took a few shots. While at it i hear this diesel engine sound. A school-bus full of children just under the window. It's not the first time i see it. It probably comes from Eagle Crest from one alley and goes back to it on other. It's not picking or leaving anybody.
 |
| From the kitchen window, posting time. click to enlarge. |
76
Talking about jobs. I remember my last one. Between April 06 and July 06 i had a brief job at a 76 gas station in Beaverton, OR. At that time it belonged to ConnocoPhilips and owned at least partially by Lukoil of ... Russia. I didn't know until after the orientation. Then, i also found out that Chevron uses additives in gasoline that are almost as good as 76s. And the fact that not all gasoline is created equal. And why we should never buy gasoline from store stations because they accept in their tanks the lowest quality, the one that all major gasoline suppliers refuse.
At the intersection of Cedar Hills and Walker Rd. Also as told at orientation, the busiest 76 and generally the busiest gas station in the NW.
12 pumps. 2 or 3 guys per busy shifts. Convenience store.
Curiously enough that job was between two major dental works. And i was on antidepressants at the time since the last time in the hospital in 75. Mirtazapin. My prescription was 30 milligrams, as agreed with the doctor, to be cheaper for me at copay and officially i was supposed to break them in two. But i was breaking them in 4 and getting only 7.5 milligrams. And i think that was too much as well. Now i think the only benefit of that was the antihistamine action of Mirtazapin. And i was not feeling myself. I was living like in a dream.
Dr. Jeff Call of Gentle Dental did a root canal and a crown. The crown was supposed to be ceramic only but then he switched to metal and ceramic. It still has some galvanic reaction if i touch the exposed metal part of it with a fork it starts hurting really bad.
Dr. Douglas Boyd of Portland did and apicoectomy. The apparent necessity of it was an overfill to a root canal done by dr.Negru of Aloha, OR. On July 27 2006, the same day when Mr. Băsescu, the President of Romania did a visit in Washington DC and the ex-Prime Minister Mr.Tăriceanu fell from his motorcycle. The surgery went wrong and i had to quit the job. I couldn't eat solid food for several month.
Later i found out that in fact the pain to that tooth was due to an insufficiency of vitamin C and probably a periodontitis. No surgery necessary. In fact i would not be fair if i wouldn't tell Dr. Boyd tried to convince me not to do it.
But what happened in between is more interesting. Job was officially part time. But due to the very busy nature of the place and the fact that they couldn't keep nobody to work there for long time because of being so busy and hard to run all day from one pump to another, it became full time and even over time.
The only guy who was working there for a long time before and after me was Charlie. Charlie the communist with the crooked teeth. He said he was communist but had no idea of what that was. He said he was an alcoholic, he would get pissed if he didn't have his beers every day.
After job i started chatting with other Romanians over the internet out of being so homesick and lonely. Started drinking Cuba Libre in top of antidepressants and started a blog which i later abandoned.
I caught a few days with temperatures over 100 degrees. At 46 and out of shape, i thought i was going to die but i didn't.
Each pump had a printer and most of the customers were asking for a receipt. But some times the printers were jamming or running out of paper and we had to run inside to get receipts from the cashiers. And had to stay in line with the other customers, that had priority. And one day, shy at first then more bold i started fixing the printers and refilling them with paper. Soon i became unofficially the guy who did that on my shift. It was like a promotion and it gave me an ascendance over the younger guys.
They were a couple of black guys, can't remember their names now. When i was coming to my shift, around 11 AM, i was almost every time finding them with half of the printers not working and with their tongs out from running inside to get receipts. So i was fixing those first thing.
One day i decided i should try and make them fix those for themselves. So i showed them how to do it when nobody was around so many times until they got probably annoyed and started doing it themselves. But only when i was there.
But when i was coming at my shift, again they were broken.
One day one of them got fired for no big reason.
I never realized why the thing with printers was happening. But lately when i realized the impossibility of me getting a job according to my experience and qualifications, i think i started to understand.
Some categories of people are not allowed around here to do certain "more qualified" types of works which are reserved for insiders.
At the intersection of Cedar Hills and Walker Rd. Also as told at orientation, the busiest 76 and generally the busiest gas station in the NW.
12 pumps. 2 or 3 guys per busy shifts. Convenience store.
Curiously enough that job was between two major dental works. And i was on antidepressants at the time since the last time in the hospital in 75. Mirtazapin. My prescription was 30 milligrams, as agreed with the doctor, to be cheaper for me at copay and officially i was supposed to break them in two. But i was breaking them in 4 and getting only 7.5 milligrams. And i think that was too much as well. Now i think the only benefit of that was the antihistamine action of Mirtazapin. And i was not feeling myself. I was living like in a dream.
Dr. Jeff Call of Gentle Dental did a root canal and a crown. The crown was supposed to be ceramic only but then he switched to metal and ceramic. It still has some galvanic reaction if i touch the exposed metal part of it with a fork it starts hurting really bad.
Dr. Douglas Boyd of Portland did and apicoectomy. The apparent necessity of it was an overfill to a root canal done by dr.Negru of Aloha, OR. On July 27 2006, the same day when Mr. Băsescu, the President of Romania did a visit in Washington DC and the ex-Prime Minister Mr.Tăriceanu fell from his motorcycle. The surgery went wrong and i had to quit the job. I couldn't eat solid food for several month.
Later i found out that in fact the pain to that tooth was due to an insufficiency of vitamin C and probably a periodontitis. No surgery necessary. In fact i would not be fair if i wouldn't tell Dr. Boyd tried to convince me not to do it.
But what happened in between is more interesting. Job was officially part time. But due to the very busy nature of the place and the fact that they couldn't keep nobody to work there for long time because of being so busy and hard to run all day from one pump to another, it became full time and even over time.
The only guy who was working there for a long time before and after me was Charlie. Charlie the communist with the crooked teeth. He said he was communist but had no idea of what that was. He said he was an alcoholic, he would get pissed if he didn't have his beers every day.
After job i started chatting with other Romanians over the internet out of being so homesick and lonely. Started drinking Cuba Libre in top of antidepressants and started a blog which i later abandoned.
I caught a few days with temperatures over 100 degrees. At 46 and out of shape, i thought i was going to die but i didn't.
Each pump had a printer and most of the customers were asking for a receipt. But some times the printers were jamming or running out of paper and we had to run inside to get receipts from the cashiers. And had to stay in line with the other customers, that had priority. And one day, shy at first then more bold i started fixing the printers and refilling them with paper. Soon i became unofficially the guy who did that on my shift. It was like a promotion and it gave me an ascendance over the younger guys.
They were a couple of black guys, can't remember their names now. When i was coming to my shift, around 11 AM, i was almost every time finding them with half of the printers not working and with their tongs out from running inside to get receipts. So i was fixing those first thing.
One day i decided i should try and make them fix those for themselves. So i showed them how to do it when nobody was around so many times until they got probably annoyed and started doing it themselves. But only when i was there.
But when i was coming at my shift, again they were broken.
One day one of them got fired for no big reason.
I never realized why the thing with printers was happening. But lately when i realized the impossibility of me getting a job according to my experience and qualifications, i think i started to understand.
Some categories of people are not allowed around here to do certain "more qualified" types of works which are reserved for insiders.
Monday, November 12, 2012
Antz
Remember the movie? We had ants back then too. At the other apartment. But those were bigger, more normal ants. These are tiny, 3-4 mm long. To take this picture in 12/29/2010 i used a 55 mm fixed length lens held by hand at about one inch in front of the 27-105 equivalent focal length from my Sony DSLR 300 camera with the zoom at maximum. It focuses on auto-focus. Can't remember the light source.
They are everywhere on the counter-tops. Especially on the one next to the window. Yesterday i had left about 2 ounces of pomegranate liquor in the bottle. After i drank that i went to sleep normally but woke up kinda wiped out, sort of lethargic. Cannot be the ants that possibly crawled on the bottle and touched the cap now can they? Back then when i took the picture i had traps with honey and borax but they still came. From where? The apartment underneath is vacated.
I looked again while writing this post. The ants disappeared, i can swear i saw them earlier this morning, i'm too used to them anyways. And i also heard a loud door noise and a Jeep noise under the window. The neighbor at Nr.5 left in a hurry.
They are everywhere on the counter-tops. Especially on the one next to the window. Yesterday i had left about 2 ounces of pomegranate liquor in the bottle. After i drank that i went to sleep normally but woke up kinda wiped out, sort of lethargic. Cannot be the ants that possibly crawled on the bottle and touched the cap now can they? Back then when i took the picture i had traps with honey and borax but they still came. From where? The apartment underneath is vacated.
I looked again while writing this post. The ants disappeared, i can swear i saw them earlier this morning, i'm too used to them anyways. And i also heard a loud door noise and a Jeep noise under the window. The neighbor at Nr.5 left in a hurry.
 |
| Antz, eating honey&borax. Click on the picture for better view. |
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Brake Job
My brakes were done 2 years ago at Les Schwab Tires Center in Tigard. Sunday i drove to Vancouver to talk to some guys i knew at a church over there. None of them were actually there. When i left here i found this 1/2x1/2 inch by 2 mm piece of magnet glued to one my shoes. When i pulled it it came out with the top layer of the leather from the right shoe in the rear on the outside. When i came back my brake pedal was making this farting sound. When i looked there was no brake fluid in the front reservoir. Monday i went to one of the Les Schwab stores in Aloha, Oregon. They did the brakes in warranty but did not machine (resurface) the rotors. The brakes aren't working well. They pull right. Today i was looking to take a picture to prove to them they did not machine the rotors and i found the left caliper was leaking again by the line, exactly in the same spot as before. Today at 2 PM i have appointment at the Lake Oswego Les Schwab store. By the way every time i go in the parking lot to take a picture of some part of my car a plane or two show up.
Maybe that's why they did this back in 2008. Can't distinguish tire size but i will try to enhance contrast on this one. Maybe i'm going to download Gimp after all.
When i was returning from Wilsonville Les Schwab... I wrote in the comment then i added the picture...
 |
| 47 Eagle Crest dr, Lake Oswego, OR. Post date. Click to enlarge. |
 |
| 47 Eagle Crest dr, Lake Oswego, OR. Post date. Click to enlarge. |
 |
| 47 Eagle Crest dr, Lake Oswego, OR. Post date. Click to enlarge. |
 |
| 47 Eagle Crest dr, Lake Oswego, OR. Post date. Click to enlarge. |
 |
| 47 Eagle Crest dr, Lake Oswego, OR. Post date. Click to enlarge. |
 |
| 47 Eagle Crest dr, Lake Oswego, OR. Post date. Click to enlarge. |
 |
| 47 Eagle Crest dr, Lake Oswego, OR. Post date. Click to enlarge. |
Maybe that's why they did this back in 2008. Can't distinguish tire size but i will try to enhance contrast on this one. Maybe i'm going to download Gimp after all.
 |
| 6810 SW Hall Blvd, Beaverton, OR |
When i was returning from Wilsonville Les Schwab... I wrote in the comment then i added the picture...
 |
| Wilsonville, OR |
Thursday, September 13, 2012
Computer Age Auto Service
Ran By David Diggins of now Texas?, who i met at Beaverton Church of the Nazarene (he had a breathing problem, he was wheezing) in 98 then we went together to a Bible study at Ron Boger in Beaverton, now in Vancouver, WA. Wally Johnston, chaplain of Beaverton Police, Robert (Shawn) Parker of Beaverton, OR, Carlton Smith of Aloha, OR and of course pastor dr.Dennis Swift now of Portland, Oregon. And many others. Can't remember when i last saw David, in 2002? He fixed my noisy truck (found a loose rocker arm bolt) and created a coolant leak that stayed there for many years without the coolant level to go down... Actually i found out about a year ago, it was an engine imbalance due to a spark plug or wire... And my wife's car many times... With his Mexican helper...
I remember David kept asking me "What for did you go to school so many years, George?" and now i think i can answer him, so i can now write this blog, David...
View Larger Map
Now i have to confess, i wrote this because of a picture i found on the internet and a voice in a video that looks/sounds exactly like David's. Part of the reason is i don't have cable and don't go to the movies at least since 2004. One day maybe @2009 the apartment manager at the other place in Beaverton (Sussex Village Apartments) came to our door and told us to remove the satellite dish from the kitchen window. And that was it we didn't get cable because back then the non HD cable had 240 lines, half of NTSC resolution then we got used to the antenna and now we have HD on the antenna and spend too much time and money on the internet anyways. A graphic artist from New York put a number of photoshop altered pictures of artists as how would they look those men/women if they never became celebrities but lived a normal life. This one below taken from there is supposed to be Tom Cruise, fatter, perspired and dressed casaually.
 |
| David Diggins? |
Friday, September 7, 2012
Lasciati
Pentru cine încă îşi mai bate capul să înţeleagă ce se întâmplă în România. Pentru toţi oamenii de bun simţ care par încă să existe după unele comentarii de pe forumurile pe articole din ziare. De obicei nu mă gândesc mai mult de 5 minute dacă să scriu ceva. Ceva ce de cele mai multe ori îmi stă pe suflet de mult timp. În schimb după ce am citit ieri Caţavencu (http://www.academiacatavencu.info) am vreo 10 ore de când mă gândesc dacă să scriu ce urmează. Dar cu o paranteză aici, se vor diminua multe speranţe dar nu şi şanse. În ideea că orice informație suplimentară poate să micşoreze iluzii şi să mărească şanse.
Dacă e adevărat ce scrie aici, atunci trebuie să adăugăm şi următoarele:
Cine a cumpărat cartea poate să confirme sau nu.
Nu mai rămâne decât să adaug: după ce PNL se va declara învins de sine însuşi ca PNŢ atunci românii vor trebui să se gândească care va fi ultima lor scăpare, partidul u-nick care să vegheze la bunăstarea noastră. Că nu mai avem loc nici în partidul piraţilor.
Dacă e adevărat ce scrie aici, atunci trebuie să adăugăm şi următoarele:
Cine a cumpărat cartea poate să confirme sau nu.
Nu mai rămâne decât să adaug: după ce PNL se va declara învins de sine însuşi ca PNŢ atunci românii vor trebui să se gândească care va fi ultima lor scăpare, partidul u-nick care să vegheze la bunăstarea noastră. Că nu mai avem loc nici în partidul piraţilor.
Saturday, September 1, 2012
The Hole in the Wall
OK here's the deal. Behind one of bedroom's storage board when i moved there was a hole about as big as i could stuck my hand in it. About 5 feet from the floor level. I fixed it pouring gypsum 3 or 4 times so far. First time when i painted again the bedroom i think. Last week i introduced the camera through it and took a picture around the corner to see how i put the foam (by touch only with a tiny 1/4 inch one foot long transparent flexible vinyl tube hooked to a foam can (Great Stuff brand). I couldn't have bend the exhaust with it, it's a bit stronger). Exactly where the two pieces of flexible exhaust coming from the ground level apartment are held together by a piece of duct tape that is too small, with too few turns and it probably leaks. It was also strangulated by the tape after it was bent. At the time i thought the smell was coming from the 1 inch space between the panels that i filled with foam. Today i took a better look at the pictures and saw the tape. Normally one would tape the joint for more than two width of tape.
(At times ever since i moved here the bedroom was filled with smoke. I remembered when i was falling asleep in the living room at the TV in the morning when i went in there were my wife was sleeping you could barely breath in there.)
I fixed the hole again a week ago. Monday there where these two guys with a big diesel powered truck that got lost around here and where asking probably directions on the phone for about 15 minutes. The sound was so annoying it prompted me to grab the camera and film them, twice. Actually they took off when i started filming them the second time. I think it might have cracked again when they did that. Or afterwards from other vibrations from other cars and planes that pass and fly too frequently around here. I think i saw them one more time during the week after that. Lost again or maybe this time delivering. Only this time the crack was on the side with the plywood, near the exhaust housing. And was still wet.
But it is not possible for the gypsum to be wet after a week. Even if it is near a board that could have gotten wet (the housing board) The board from the storage does not touch it, it's about 5 mm apart. Enough for air to circulate and let it dry in a week. Last few days i've been very sick and there was smoke in the bedroom. I was waking up in the morning very tired and with my nose congested after few hours of sleep. I slept alone in the bedroom. I felt like i was drunk. Friday @noon i was almost fainting after hyperventilating for hours and then i took a look and felt the smell and opened the windows. Exactly when another neighbor (with the Jeep) parked under the window and opened two doors looking for something in the car for a minute or two.
It took me hours after if fixed it while hyperventilating until i got better.
When i fixed it again yesterday it was smelling like some weird animal urine. By the way, i didn't put the storage board back and it's completely dried after i repainted today. 24 hours but with a fan.
Here below is barely visible in this before picture taken from the attic (i wouldn't see if i didn't know it's there) the taped joint and i think you can see how it is strangulated. On the left you can see one of the thin pieces of plywood i used keeping it in place by pulling two nails while pouring gypsum then extracting them and letting it fall. Last time when i fixed i saw the pouring was very well formed, almost like continuing the drywall without noticing, except it cracked again exactly in the corner.
By the way even right now as i am editing this there is a little bit of smoke inside, my nose is congested and i feel like it' very hard to concentrate.
9-5 05 PM. OK, there's one more exhaust... The one coming from the apartment below that is vacant for a year and i don't know why... Some might... It goes under the bathtub then into the housing that is part of the apartment next to mine... Nothing to do there... Except open the kitchen window when the wind blows from West or the bedroom when the wind blows from the East so i equalize the pressure so the un/idendified smells from the wall don't come inside... Like it happened today when i forgot... Got to fill this one with foam as well...Cause the smell goes under the kitchen hardwood-floor and into the bathroom... I discovered this one because of a leak coming from the tub somewhere...
They always have to do it in pairs... For back-up...
But for that i'd have to go to Home Depot or Lowe's to buy more foam... And raise more eyebrows... Just finished removing the foam and the hairs from my hands...
(At times ever since i moved here the bedroom was filled with smoke. I remembered when i was falling asleep in the living room at the TV in the morning when i went in there were my wife was sleeping you could barely breath in there.)
I fixed the hole again a week ago. Monday there where these two guys with a big diesel powered truck that got lost around here and where asking probably directions on the phone for about 15 minutes. The sound was so annoying it prompted me to grab the camera and film them, twice. Actually they took off when i started filming them the second time. I think it might have cracked again when they did that. Or afterwards from other vibrations from other cars and planes that pass and fly too frequently around here. I think i saw them one more time during the week after that. Lost again or maybe this time delivering. Only this time the crack was on the side with the plywood, near the exhaust housing. And was still wet.
But it is not possible for the gypsum to be wet after a week. Even if it is near a board that could have gotten wet (the housing board) The board from the storage does not touch it, it's about 5 mm apart. Enough for air to circulate and let it dry in a week. Last few days i've been very sick and there was smoke in the bedroom. I was waking up in the morning very tired and with my nose congested after few hours of sleep. I slept alone in the bedroom. I felt like i was drunk. Friday @noon i was almost fainting after hyperventilating for hours and then i took a look and felt the smell and opened the windows. Exactly when another neighbor (with the Jeep) parked under the window and opened two doors looking for something in the car for a minute or two.
It took me hours after if fixed it while hyperventilating until i got better.
When i fixed it again yesterday it was smelling like some weird animal urine. By the way, i didn't put the storage board back and it's completely dried after i repainted today. 24 hours but with a fan.
Here below is barely visible in this before picture taken from the attic (i wouldn't see if i didn't know it's there) the taped joint and i think you can see how it is strangulated. On the left you can see one of the thin pieces of plywood i used keeping it in place by pulling two nails while pouring gypsum then extracting them and letting it fall. Last time when i fixed i saw the pouring was very well formed, almost like continuing the drywall without noticing, except it cracked again exactly in the corner.
By the way even right now as i am editing this there is a little bit of smoke inside, my nose is congested and i feel like it' very hard to concentrate.
9-5 05 PM. OK, there's one more exhaust... The one coming from the apartment below that is vacant for a year and i don't know why... Some might... It goes under the bathtub then into the housing that is part of the apartment next to mine... Nothing to do there... Except open the kitchen window when the wind blows from West or the bedroom when the wind blows from the East so i equalize the pressure so the un/idendified smells from the wall don't come inside... Like it happened today when i forgot... Got to fill this one with foam as well...Cause the smell goes under the kitchen hardwood-floor and into the bathroom... I discovered this one because of a leak coming from the tub somewhere...
They always have to do it in pairs... For back-up...
But for that i'd have to go to Home Depot or Lowe's to buy more foam... And raise more eyebrows... Just finished removing the foam and the hairs from my hands...
Sunday, August 26, 2012
Comrade Peter
As heard in ~72-74 when i was 12-14. Version adapted for English, slightly modified from the original which is hard to reproduce here.
Lenin died and went to Hell. One day St.Peter met with Satan. St.Peter was curious about Lenin and asked Satan how was he doing. Satan said: St.Peter, it's good you asked, it's a big problem, i don't know what to do with him anymore, he's turning all my devils into commies, soon they'll be all on strike and i couldn't run the Hell anymore. Saint Peter went OK, i'll take him a few days to see what's going on and then i'll return him to you. A couple of weeks later they meet again. Satan asked: Saint Peter, did you fix Lenin, can i have him back now? And Peter answers: What saint are you talking about, you mean comrade Peter, and now don't keep me here wasting my time, cause i was on my way to a party meeting and i don't want to be late!...
Lenin died and went to Hell. One day St.Peter met with Satan. St.Peter was curious about Lenin and asked Satan how was he doing. Satan said: St.Peter, it's good you asked, it's a big problem, i don't know what to do with him anymore, he's turning all my devils into commies, soon they'll be all on strike and i couldn't run the Hell anymore. Saint Peter went OK, i'll take him a few days to see what's going on and then i'll return him to you. A couple of weeks later they meet again. Satan asked: Saint Peter, did you fix Lenin, can i have him back now? And Peter answers: What saint are you talking about, you mean comrade Peter, and now don't keep me here wasting my time, cause i was on my way to a party meeting and i don't want to be late!...
Saturday, August 25, 2012
Heads Down!
As heard in early 80s. Original in Romanian, slightly modified for English.
http://www.mioritice.com/banc/14989/#ixzz24a8jStwN
Booly dies and goes to Hell. A little devil gives him a tour of Hell and shows him the rooms he could chose from.
The first room, huge boilers of tar. He passes on that one.
The second room, huge boilers of sulfuric acid. He passes that one too.
The third room, a huge bowl of shit in which the sinners where standing up to their necks and smoking.
Booly quickly picks the third room. He hops in the bowl, lights up a cigarette and in a couple of minutes another little devil comes in and says:
- Come on guys, break's over, heads down now!...
http://www.mioritice.com/banc/14989/#ixzz24a8jStwN
Booly dies and goes to Hell. A little devil gives him a tour of Hell and shows him the rooms he could chose from.
The first room, huge boilers of tar. He passes on that one.
The second room, huge boilers of sulfuric acid. He passes that one too.
The third room, a huge bowl of shit in which the sinners where standing up to their necks and smoking.
Booly quickly picks the third room. He hops in the bowl, lights up a cigarette and in a couple of minutes another little devil comes in and says:
- Come on guys, break's over, heads down now!...
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Matter Over Mind
@11 AM Tuesday 8-21.
Woke up quite refresehd after 11 hours of sleep, with a breakfast break @7AM. Lately, i was only sleeping 4-6 hours and my wife even fewer. And she works. Some stomach pain but actually with some energy to face the day. I briefly heard the Tuesday blowers but i fell back asleep. Started the computer, read some of the news then started thinking. Then a few car alarms and slammed doors remembered me where i was.
For a long time i suspected this. They can read your brain waves. I even was admitted to the psychiatric ward a few times for saying this in public. I was declared officially crazy by all my "friends". But now it became harder to deny it. If there are toys that can do it, for how much more somebody could do it from the next door?
There was this guy George Hârşovescu now in Seattle, ex-pilot on Romanian airlines, who also told me 17 years ago that they have visualizing devices that can look through walls. I even heard on the local news once that some firefigters here in Portland got one of those stolen. And i also remember since 17 years ago that Ioan Mladin told me that "they" put everething on the computer, including the color of your crap every day and how many times a fly was sitting on a certain wall. It's been 17 years since. Techonolgy has evolved. Not human mind though. They rely more and more on this, now including software that talks to you on the phone when you think you talk to your mother and supercomputers that store and filter your all your internet. And Dan Costan who told me back then too that i was thinking too fast and they had to slow me down so he took me to the temp agency who sent me at Electronic Specialty. (After adding this more slammed doors and sinister stomping on the stairs).
They can use real time feedback in the form of synchronized noise. Slammed door, cars, planes, name it. (actually i was editing this paragraph hours after i wrote it and there was no noise in here for hours and i just heard a slammed door. My neighbor sometimes can be so quite i don't know he/she is at home).
Now imagine somebody reads in real time you EEG and makes a repeated noise in certain points of the curve where the brains cycles. It will definetely alter your thinking process, decision making, resolve, change your breath rhytm, pulse, blood pressure, and by this making your kidney to eliminate electrolytes, etc. Make you live the house in a hurry for no apparent reason. This being the simple case scenario.
Now i almost hyperventilate and my day is ruined.
But what if they can decipher the EEG in real time and know approximately what you're thinking off? I don't think it's hard, there must be certain patterns associated with certain activities and thoughts. When you want to eat. When you wanna to go outside. When you wanna go to sleep or see a sexy woman in an ad. When you see a politician's face on the computer' monitor. They can interrupt some thoughts and let others free.
Sometimes i think even further, forget about supercomputers, what if there was an app for this?
Thanks to the pioneering work that's been done so far, i think we are not so far from the moment when a vibrating iPhone in our pocket will let us know that the person we're talking to is lying. Vibration on a higher frequency would mean is attracted to us. Etc. That would simplify the hell out of our communication experiences. Words would be "very unnecessary". A OK there is one. Still looking for a completely remote one without sensors attached.
Have to confess, what triggered this post is the news below. It's still big today. Just heard on the radio. I remember i was driving many years ago through Hilsboro and saw a sign and maybe people protesting about. But i never knew they have 4800 monkeys in Hilsboro, for tests! 4800? And i assume it's not only for shampoos and allergy medications. Macaque monkeys. The name Hauser comes to mind. By the way, one day i'd like to go and see how those monkey live in there. Maybe i will in the video below. Maybe i should watch it after i click update.
Woke up quite refresehd after 11 hours of sleep, with a breakfast break @7AM. Lately, i was only sleeping 4-6 hours and my wife even fewer. And she works. Some stomach pain but actually with some energy to face the day. I briefly heard the Tuesday blowers but i fell back asleep. Started the computer, read some of the news then started thinking. Then a few car alarms and slammed doors remembered me where i was.
For a long time i suspected this. They can read your brain waves. I even was admitted to the psychiatric ward a few times for saying this in public. I was declared officially crazy by all my "friends". But now it became harder to deny it. If there are toys that can do it, for how much more somebody could do it from the next door?
There was this guy George Hârşovescu now in Seattle, ex-pilot on Romanian airlines, who also told me 17 years ago that they have visualizing devices that can look through walls. I even heard on the local news once that some firefigters here in Portland got one of those stolen. And i also remember since 17 years ago that Ioan Mladin told me that "they" put everething on the computer, including the color of your crap every day and how many times a fly was sitting on a certain wall. It's been 17 years since. Techonolgy has evolved. Not human mind though. They rely more and more on this, now including software that talks to you on the phone when you think you talk to your mother and supercomputers that store and filter your all your internet. And Dan Costan who told me back then too that i was thinking too fast and they had to slow me down so he took me to the temp agency who sent me at Electronic Specialty. (After adding this more slammed doors and sinister stomping on the stairs).
They can use real time feedback in the form of synchronized noise. Slammed door, cars, planes, name it. (actually i was editing this paragraph hours after i wrote it and there was no noise in here for hours and i just heard a slammed door. My neighbor sometimes can be so quite i don't know he/she is at home).
Now imagine somebody reads in real time you EEG and makes a repeated noise in certain points of the curve where the brains cycles. It will definetely alter your thinking process, decision making, resolve, change your breath rhytm, pulse, blood pressure, and by this making your kidney to eliminate electrolytes, etc. Make you live the house in a hurry for no apparent reason. This being the simple case scenario.
Now i almost hyperventilate and my day is ruined.
But what if they can decipher the EEG in real time and know approximately what you're thinking off? I don't think it's hard, there must be certain patterns associated with certain activities and thoughts. When you want to eat. When you wanna to go outside. When you wanna go to sleep or see a sexy woman in an ad. When you see a politician's face on the computer' monitor. They can interrupt some thoughts and let others free.
Sometimes i think even further, forget about supercomputers, what if there was an app for this?
Thanks to the pioneering work that's been done so far, i think we are not so far from the moment when a vibrating iPhone in our pocket will let us know that the person we're talking to is lying. Vibration on a higher frequency would mean is attracted to us. Etc. That would simplify the hell out of our communication experiences. Words would be "very unnecessary". A OK there is one. Still looking for a completely remote one without sensors attached.
Have to confess, what triggered this post is the news below. It's still big today. Just heard on the radio. I remember i was driving many years ago through Hilsboro and saw a sign and maybe people protesting about. But i never knew they have 4800 monkeys in Hilsboro, for tests! 4800? And i assume it's not only for shampoos and allergy medications. Macaque monkeys. The name Hauser comes to mind. By the way, one day i'd like to go and see how those monkey live in there. Maybe i will in the video below. Maybe i should watch it after i click update.
Mysteries of the Attic II
@11 PM Monday 8-20. All "weekend" i've been very tired. The apartment was slowly filling with some sort of smoke, kinda like cigarettes but not only. Sunday around midnight i tried to start my Holmes True Hepa filter with three 20 dollars each sub-micronic fiberglass filters (two of them are 2 month old and i vacuum them weekly) and multiple carbon prefilters. It was smelling like burnt oil.
So i went into the attic to see what's going on. Two of the one way valves where stuck open, the one at my bathroom exhaust and the one for the attic. (I installed four 4 inch valves under one of the 6 inch vents, those designed for laundry driers, one for each exhaust and one for the attic). In top of those just under the vent there is a computer fan. The fan was stopped since the last few days i saw the attic valve open and i thought because of the heat there is too much thermal flow already. But the valve was stuck open. So the bad smell from the attic and the smoke from my neighbor was back flowing in the bathroom. (The valve at the other end of the pipe above the bathroom shown above was bent as well.) But i noticed there was a lot of dust inside the pipe near the valve. I quickly fixed those and suddenly the air in the apartment was much clearer and i started feeling better too.
So i came back inside and i opened the filter fan and i saw one of the bearings overheated and all the oil burned out and spread inside the housing. I oiled those 1 cm inner diameter bearings with motor oil and cleaned the housing. Like i did last year. They got some rings with cotton inside where you put the oil. The bronze bearings were tight, no sign of wearing. I started the filter, at 2 AM i went to bed.
AT 6:30 my wife went to work and i woke up and started thinking of what i saw last night in the attic. I went back in there with a dust mask and looked inside that pipe. It had a huge amount of dust with oil in it. And it was smelling like burnt oil. Probably because i oiled the tiny motor of the fan in the bathroom because it was too noisy. Those bearings have a inner diameter of about 5 mm and i never saw them wearing out. So i took the whole thing apart, whased the 3 meter 3 inch flexible pipes with laundry detergent in the ... bathtub eliminated an extra piece of 2 meters of pipe (it was way too long), inside, with a brush tied to a stick, and put it back together in about 3 hours. I was completely exhausted with no power left to breath. I couldn't read on the computer monitor. I was thinking about going to the hospital but in the end i fell asleep for a little bit.
I've been thinking, when planes go around at 70 mph with the flaps down and the engine revved up as they are so much doing these days they can vibrate those pipes and valves and make all that dust to back-flow in the bathroom. But the fan under the vent sucks everything out of the pipes and creates a negative pressure in them. But the fan was stopped in the last few days.
I just remembered those Harleys @midnight last night at the appartment complex across the street thundering for minutes, it seemed like they would never stopped their engines after they arrived.
(Or the dust blowers in the parking lot going for hours on Tuesday and blowing asphalt dust in the attic too.)
When i moved here that flexible pipe from the bathroom exhaust was laying on the attic floor where is the intake for the attic, opening above the kitchen window and i moved it near the others near the 6 inch vent in the top of the roof. (There is a 3 inch chimney too for it going through the roof but ... only outside! Nothing inside, just the plywood.)
The @20 year old dishwasher just stoped. And it smells like burnt oil too. I think i should oil those pump motor bearings but i'm gonna look for some bearing oil with pressure additives and no detergent or maybe i should try white mineral oil, from what i just read on the internet, motor oil is not good for electric motor hydro-static bearings.
There is no way metal came out of those axles inside those fan motors. It is possible from the dishwasher or the microwave/exhaust in the kitchen, but from what i remember when i washed that turbine from the microwave there was no play at the axle when i re-installed it. At the Holmes filter most of the load from the turbine is axial and there is a tiny teflon washer that takes that load and it's still there.
But there is a huge number of planes flying above usually under legal altitude limits. There was one that passed in just a few seconds at 1 PDT today, at low speed and probably just above the roof. The cars at @5 PM are in the hundreds per hour although it is not justified by the number of houses or size of the street.
The skin on my face, hands, legs, seems very tight. I noticed that every time i come in contact all day with these bad smells.
By the way my wife just tried to open the balcony door and there is still a barbecue going on (it was before i started writing this). And every time when i go in the balcony a car comes on the alley from nowhere and a small plane flies above!
Talking about vacuum, one day the flexible hose was too dirty inside and washed it in the tub. (I cover one end and extend it in the tub filled with a few inches with water until no dirty water comes out of it.) Then i didn't want to wait until it completely dried and used it like that. And then i saw the dust was sticking inside. Two of the filters and the collector are washable anyways and then i started vacuuming the apartment with the "wet method", cleaning the hose in the tub every few minutes or so. There is no dust coming out of it and all the dirt gathers in the tub and i just flush it! Then i removed all filters but one and still no dust is coming out of it, but the cleaning power is about three times bigger! It really sucks the s... out of the carpets.
Thursday, August 2, 2012
DE CE
I know some people would do anything to make me stop writing on this blog. But i wouldn't write about Romanian politics anyway anymore, i already decided that. At least for a while. Maybe i should start writing this like a log.
I really hoped things would somehow get fixed, maybe get a job, maybe some money from people who owe me and never had to write this here. But that might very well never happen.
I barely got out from a "road rage" incident when a 70-80s black Chevy with modified suspension and exhaust and huge tires was trying to back-up from the alley where i live, ocuppying both lanes and making big noise and smoke almost climbed on my little S10. There was a "witness", a guy with a dog in a black T shirt with some white drawing on it nearby. I can imagine what would have happen if i was tried to confront the guy. I just passed him and went to the other alley.
But this is just the last incident. I was thinking maybe i should start to say how i got here in the first place. But the story is too long and now i would try to write it backwards. Earlier i tried to drive to the only open liquor store after 8 about 6 miles from where here where i live. Every intersection, an opportunity for accident. On the freeway, there was like 10 cars trying to aggress me, it's too long to remember and write it here but it was worse than usually. Every time is. Subtle enough not to raise suspicions to unaware people though. If there's anyone left. At the store, in the line, in front of me, a white guy with shaved hair was talking way too much with the cashier, buying and unbuying things, packing and unpacking until behind me grew a line. Earlier i saw a woman with a wet, cold, just pulled from the fridge gallon of milk in her hand buying liquor. I salivated instantly because i drink lots of milk. Etc. Then he synchronized and drove on the alley in the parking lot in front of me with a 30 year old car. All the turns until i got on the boulevard. I didn't even start the ventilation in the car. On the way back the same show. It's good though today not every time when i turned my head i saw someone drinking or sucking from a jug. Cause this was the last trend of the last year. If i passed someone with a smoking car and look at him/her he would pull a jug with drink and start drinking with big thirst.
Before that. This whole apartment where i live sometimes i think it was build from recycled stuff and designed especially to get people sick. Especially the exhaust from the cooking stove that instead of going vertically and through the roof and then a few more feet upwards like a chimney, it goes almost horizontally about 7 meters to the other side of the roof and opens inside the attic where there is a flat vent. Even if it pushes the odor from the kitchen outside, the flow sticks to the building and comes back through the windows. Many times i said i wouldn't use it but sometimes i forget. And when it's hot the temperature in the attic goes to 110 F and more and everything there is in that 6 inch x 7 meter exhaust rots and smells really bad. It happens only in the afternoon when it gets hot and if i forget to start the fan and push some air in it i get sick before i realize it because the smell grows gradually. And if a plane passes by it vibrates and some of the stuff gets pushed inside the room. And i only realized this today. Or maybe i did before but i wasn't sure or i forgot. Don't get me wrong, i have a good memory but there's too many things going on. Then i leave the place because i'm so sick but just by driving around i get some fresher air and then come back later when it's cooler. But because of what happens on the streets i usually forget why and how seek i was when i left. About a year ago i closed the joint between the exhaust and the vent under the roof so the stuff cannot get back into the attic and goes all through the vent and put a one way valve on the end near the stove but on hot days like today it doesn't really help. But the vent is still flat and doesn't have a chimney. It only helps if i cycle some fresh air for about an hour through it. Today i put some enzyme from the pet store that decomposes stuff and has some deodorant in it.
In short, i spend hours every day just to clean or fix the place. Most of the time i'm sick because i'm sensitive to smell and also sick to the stomach. But it always happens in the afternoon when my next door neighbor and my wife are at work and i'm alone. Sometimes i feel like fainting or paralyzed to my spine. My wife lost some of her sensitivity to smell because of the chemo back in the fall of 2004, but she wasn't so sensitive in the first place. It's between a half time and full time job every day in a very bad environment. Not counting the trips at home improvement stores and the thousands of dollars i spent and hundreds of receipts i try to keep. I just finish fixing one stinking obnoxious thing then another one starts. I will try and continue to write this backwards but right now one of my neighbors maybe the one that's a real estate agent, the one who dug a whole withe her Mercedes power steered wheels in the asphalt, by turning the wheels to the right after the car is stopped make some really weird noises that seem synchronized with my keyboard or something. Sounds like moving stuff around but i'm not sure. She does that frequently when she's at home. Monday she "forgot" the TV on all morning after she or somebody else made a big noise and woke me up at 6 am after 5 hours of sleep. That day and the following i was really like a zombie.
Yesterday no Tuesday was gardening day at my neighbors. By the pool. Almost 5 hours two power tools of over 100 dB each in the same time where trimming and blowing the fences and bushes. My ears where hurting, literally. And my brain was scrambled inside.
And then there's my down stairs neighbor. The Italian looking guy. The apartment underneath is vacated since last September. One more level down. The guy smokes some slow burning natural untreated cigarettes that smell really really bad. When he leaves for work i think, before noon, he opens the bedroom window and then i have to close mine. Depending on the wind, sometimes it comes from the other way, from the kitchen. I have to be very careful opening the windows cause it can get worse.
A few days ago i looked at a small ball of mineral insulation from the attic with a strong magnifying glass. Actually with a camera lens pulled out of the camera. Among fibers i say tiny maybe a few hundredth of a mm tar or rubber particles, or both. That explains the hellish smell of the attic, combined with cigarette smoke. Especially when it gets hot like today at 110F. The tiles of the roof are made of bitumen and sand. There's washed out bitumen and sand from the tiles in the gutters.
By the time my wife got home a quarter to midnight i almost fainted. I opened the balcony door to get some air and the neighbor was having a glass of some alcoholic drink visible on the side of the balcony. I opened the bottle, poured myself a shot of rum and tried not to faint until my wife gets home. Then when she entered the door a few minutes later i got better as i always do. Drink or not. Then she got mad and threw my 12 dollar bottle of rum i risked my life for in the sink. She never done that before. I didn't want to argue too much especially because the voice of the neighbor in the balcony speaking on the phone "got scared". I went to the supermarket and bought some beer, again avoiding a cohort of mostly small and old and smelly cars that were showing out of nowhere at this hour in every intersection. All liquor stores are closed after ten. I was actually tempted of stopping and enter in a bar, i saw the Lure was opened. Never been in a bar before since 1995 when i came here. Only once in a restaurant where they serve alcoholic beverages. No, i once had a beer at Spaghetti Old Factory.
But now i don't feel like drinking anymore. Maybe watch some TV and go to sleep. Ok, i opened a bottle of beer and reread and corrected typos and mistakes of what i wrote before. Now i think i begin to feel like a philosopher again.
I really hoped things would somehow get fixed, maybe get a job, maybe some money from people who owe me and never had to write this here. But that might very well never happen.
I barely got out from a "road rage" incident when a 70-80s black Chevy with modified suspension and exhaust and huge tires was trying to back-up from the alley where i live, ocuppying both lanes and making big noise and smoke almost climbed on my little S10. There was a "witness", a guy with a dog in a black T shirt with some white drawing on it nearby. I can imagine what would have happen if i was tried to confront the guy. I just passed him and went to the other alley.
But this is just the last incident. I was thinking maybe i should start to say how i got here in the first place. But the story is too long and now i would try to write it backwards. Earlier i tried to drive to the only open liquor store after 8 about 6 miles from where here where i live. Every intersection, an opportunity for accident. On the freeway, there was like 10 cars trying to aggress me, it's too long to remember and write it here but it was worse than usually. Every time is. Subtle enough not to raise suspicions to unaware people though. If there's anyone left. At the store, in the line, in front of me, a white guy with shaved hair was talking way too much with the cashier, buying and unbuying things, packing and unpacking until behind me grew a line. Earlier i saw a woman with a wet, cold, just pulled from the fridge gallon of milk in her hand buying liquor. I salivated instantly because i drink lots of milk. Etc. Then he synchronized and drove on the alley in the parking lot in front of me with a 30 year old car. All the turns until i got on the boulevard. I didn't even start the ventilation in the car. On the way back the same show. It's good though today not every time when i turned my head i saw someone drinking or sucking from a jug. Cause this was the last trend of the last year. If i passed someone with a smoking car and look at him/her he would pull a jug with drink and start drinking with big thirst.
Before that. This whole apartment where i live sometimes i think it was build from recycled stuff and designed especially to get people sick. Especially the exhaust from the cooking stove that instead of going vertically and through the roof and then a few more feet upwards like a chimney, it goes almost horizontally about 7 meters to the other side of the roof and opens inside the attic where there is a flat vent. Even if it pushes the odor from the kitchen outside, the flow sticks to the building and comes back through the windows. Many times i said i wouldn't use it but sometimes i forget. And when it's hot the temperature in the attic goes to 110 F and more and everything there is in that 6 inch x 7 meter exhaust rots and smells really bad. It happens only in the afternoon when it gets hot and if i forget to start the fan and push some air in it i get sick before i realize it because the smell grows gradually. And if a plane passes by it vibrates and some of the stuff gets pushed inside the room. And i only realized this today. Or maybe i did before but i wasn't sure or i forgot. Don't get me wrong, i have a good memory but there's too many things going on. Then i leave the place because i'm so sick but just by driving around i get some fresher air and then come back later when it's cooler. But because of what happens on the streets i usually forget why and how seek i was when i left. About a year ago i closed the joint between the exhaust and the vent under the roof so the stuff cannot get back into the attic and goes all through the vent and put a one way valve on the end near the stove but on hot days like today it doesn't really help. But the vent is still flat and doesn't have a chimney. It only helps if i cycle some fresh air for about an hour through it. Today i put some enzyme from the pet store that decomposes stuff and has some deodorant in it.
In short, i spend hours every day just to clean or fix the place. Most of the time i'm sick because i'm sensitive to smell and also sick to the stomach. But it always happens in the afternoon when my next door neighbor and my wife are at work and i'm alone. Sometimes i feel like fainting or paralyzed to my spine. My wife lost some of her sensitivity to smell because of the chemo back in the fall of 2004, but she wasn't so sensitive in the first place. It's between a half time and full time job every day in a very bad environment. Not counting the trips at home improvement stores and the thousands of dollars i spent and hundreds of receipts i try to keep. I just finish fixing one stinking obnoxious thing then another one starts. I will try and continue to write this backwards but right now one of my neighbors maybe the one that's a real estate agent, the one who dug a whole withe her Mercedes power steered wheels in the asphalt, by turning the wheels to the right after the car is stopped make some really weird noises that seem synchronized with my keyboard or something. Sounds like moving stuff around but i'm not sure. She does that frequently when she's at home. Monday she "forgot" the TV on all morning after she or somebody else made a big noise and woke me up at 6 am after 5 hours of sleep. That day and the following i was really like a zombie.
Yesterday no Tuesday was gardening day at my neighbors. By the pool. Almost 5 hours two power tools of over 100 dB each in the same time where trimming and blowing the fences and bushes. My ears where hurting, literally. And my brain was scrambled inside.
And then there's my down stairs neighbor. The Italian looking guy. The apartment underneath is vacated since last September. One more level down. The guy smokes some slow burning natural untreated cigarettes that smell really really bad. When he leaves for work i think, before noon, he opens the bedroom window and then i have to close mine. Depending on the wind, sometimes it comes from the other way, from the kitchen. I have to be very careful opening the windows cause it can get worse.
A few days ago i looked at a small ball of mineral insulation from the attic with a strong magnifying glass. Actually with a camera lens pulled out of the camera. Among fibers i say tiny maybe a few hundredth of a mm tar or rubber particles, or both. That explains the hellish smell of the attic, combined with cigarette smoke. Especially when it gets hot like today at 110F. The tiles of the roof are made of bitumen and sand. There's washed out bitumen and sand from the tiles in the gutters.
By the time my wife got home a quarter to midnight i almost fainted. I opened the balcony door to get some air and the neighbor was having a glass of some alcoholic drink visible on the side of the balcony. I opened the bottle, poured myself a shot of rum and tried not to faint until my wife gets home. Then when she entered the door a few minutes later i got better as i always do. Drink or not. Then she got mad and threw my 12 dollar bottle of rum i risked my life for in the sink. She never done that before. I didn't want to argue too much especially because the voice of the neighbor in the balcony speaking on the phone "got scared". I went to the supermarket and bought some beer, again avoiding a cohort of mostly small and old and smelly cars that were showing out of nowhere at this hour in every intersection. All liquor stores are closed after ten. I was actually tempted of stopping and enter in a bar, i saw the Lure was opened. Never been in a bar before since 1995 when i came here. Only once in a restaurant where they serve alcoholic beverages. No, i once had a beer at Spaghetti Old Factory.
But now i don't feel like drinking anymore. Maybe watch some TV and go to sleep. Ok, i opened a bottle of beer and reread and corrected typos and mistakes of what i wrote before. Now i think i begin to feel like a philosopher again.