Showing posts with label construction. Show all posts
Showing posts with label construction. Show all posts
Monday, December 10, 2012
Resonance
It is very hard to understand from the article in Wikipedia. Let's put it simple. Let's say we have a guitar with 6 chords. Each chord has a different thickness. If it is normally tuned you can pinch one chord and make it vibrate and all of the others will stay pretty much put. You will hear only the chord that you pinched until the vibration get dampened by the friction with surrounding air.
But if you intentionally put on the same guitar or even on two different ones two chords of the same thickness and tune them to make the same sound, if you will pinch one chord pretty soon the other will start vibrate and make the same sound. It will absorb half of the energy of the first chord and they both will vibrate until will spend all the initial energy and die. We can say they resonate at a resonance frequency and that is the frequency you tuned them to.
In buildings. Especially in those made of panels. Each panel has its own resonance frequency and more than one harmonics. Most of them will be the same size but will not have the same frequency as are assembled differently depending on the contact with the frame. If you can find a way to transfer some vibration to the walls from a source at resonance, you can make them vibrate. In a building made of panels you will have practically all kind of resonances at a multitude of frequencies.
If you use a blower in the parking lot or a noisy car or a plane passes by, some of the panels will vibrate in resonance with the instant frequency of the blower that changes constantly sweeping a range of frequencies.
A multitude of scenarios can happen. Usually dust falls from the walls. Air gets pumped inside and outside the walls bringing very unpleasant odors, bacteria and fungus from the walls inside and nutrients from the normal dust inside back in the walls.
More complicated things can be imagined as some walls in the building will have different substances in it, like formaldehyde, smoke from neighbors, etc. Depending on the frequency, only some walls will vibrate and fill the apartment with a certain thing, on demand. Even the bottles under the sink with things like chlorine, 409, etc. Once i found them all with their cap loose.
Every internal organ of one's body must have a resonance, and it can be different from one person to another as organ sizes match the person's size.
Yesterday across the street somebody used a creosote sweeping log to clean the chimney. For about 4 hours the place was filled with creosote smoke and i felt terrible. Shortness of breath, knot in my throat, dizziness for several hours and ruining the rest of my day. I think some of that smoke turned into dust and falls from the walls while vibrating.
The noise itself can be annoying in a residential area.
Last night around 11 i went to bed. I was tired and slightly buzzed as i had a glass of cheap red wine not long before. I was about to fall asleep when my wife came and opened the bedroom's window together with the balcony door.
I liked the fresh air coming from outside. I didn't like i was waking back up. Then several cars passed by. One of them made an unusual high pitch loud sound for about 30 seconds. Probably a defective transmission or a rattle. The room got filled with some very fine dust. Smelled like wood dust. I closed the window. Then i started feeling very ill. Arrhythmia when laying down. Probably systemic allergy.
I went back up and started pacing around. Every time i tried to go back to sleep i had shortness of breath and arrhythmia. I turned on the computer. Spent a couple of hours until i felt good enough to go back to sleep. Everything came back to "normal".
Right now across the street right now are blowing leaves with power blowers. If i open the windows there will be at least 50 dB flooding the apartment. But even with the doors closed my ears almost hurt although i don't hear much.
This to me is happening for at least a decade. Hours lost almost every day to it. Time ruined. Life ruined.
Today. For a few hours there will be leaves blowing in the neighborhood. Then at night creosote smoke. Slammed doors from the neighbors all day. A new week is starting.
My plan for today included applying for some jobs. Now i write in the blog.
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.
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| Antz, eating honey&borax. Click on the picture for better view. |
Saturday, September 29, 2012
Endless Hole With Smoke
For a week now i'm re-caulking a ~5-10 mm 1/2" thick 6-12" long space between the bathroom wall and floor next to the bedroom using GE Silicone II of about $6.50 a tube. One day a redo a portion the next day it hardens just fine and 2 days later becomes soft like the 1.25 dollar cheap one made of milled limestone and an adhesive. Two days ago i completely removed all the material and put a new one. Yesterday it was hard and completed today now is just disintegrating. But every time i touch the stuff that's already in the wall the rest of the day my hands become stingy and skin slightly paralyzed all over after taking a shower. I just went to Lowes and gave the tall blond guy who says he's one of the managers a tiny sample in a plastic bag and asked him to send it to the manufacturer. But he didn't even ask what brand i bought, he showed total lack of interest. Last time i bought two tubes i discovered at the check-stand that one of the tubes was cracked and took it back. Then another manager of the store, an older guy to whom i gave the cracked tube told me the expiration month on the tube was September 2012. (There was this Lowes bearded guy standing behind me so close i felt uncomfortable and couldn't talk more with the manager. I remember that the bearded guy one recent time i went there he was standing there band with his but right in front next to the paint department. That made uncomfortable as well.) Then they opened a new box with the expiration date 04/13.
Before caulking i discovered the corner with the missing wallpaper was cracked to pieces, i had to pour gypsum and redo the corner, using some transparent plastic molds, but you cannot pour gypsum all over you have to keep the edges clear of touching anything because if it touches the floor or a beam it's gone crack later due to vibration.
I did the whole thing because of the unidentified smoke coming out of it, i remember the first day i did the gypsum my face was stingy because of the smoke. The cracked parts of drywall i took out of there were brown inside because of the years of smoke. The rest if it probably still is. The apartment below is vacant for more than one year, i don't know exactly where the smoke is coming from. After i re-caulk there is no smoke for one day or so then it becomes soft in different areas not all of it and tiny holes appear together with the smoke.
Before caulking i discovered the corner with the missing wallpaper was cracked to pieces, i had to pour gypsum and redo the corner, using some transparent plastic molds, but you cannot pour gypsum all over you have to keep the edges clear of touching anything because if it touches the floor or a beam it's gone crack later due to vibration.
I did the whole thing because of the unidentified smoke coming out of it, i remember the first day i did the gypsum my face was stingy because of the smoke. The cracked parts of drywall i took out of there were brown inside because of the years of smoke. The rest if it probably still is. The apartment below is vacant for more than one year, i don't know exactly where the smoke is coming from. After i re-caulk there is no smoke for one day or so then it becomes soft in different areas not all of it and tiny holes appear together with the smoke.
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| 47 Eagle Crest dr, Lake Oswego, OR |
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| 47 Eagle Crest dr, Lake Oswego, OR |
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| 47 Eagle Crest dr, Lake Oswego, OR |
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Oregon XLX
There was some kind of a smoke this morning in the apartment. (I later filled some more cracks near the bathroom floor next to the bedroom wall. It appears that vibrations make walls pump stuff from inside outside. It actually makes sense since the during vibrations the air from inside goes outside because of the rhythmic change of air volume between panels in empty interior walls.)
Last night i fell asleep late and this morning like never before i slept till noon. Then i woke up, read the news and fell the smoke choking me. It was cigarette smoke mixed from shit smell from the ground level neighbor's bathroom. I can recognized it as i smelled it once in the attic while his bathroom fan was working. Coming from the walls.
I left and drove towards the park. And then it started as usually. Some asshole in a black SUV possibly Chevy Suburban with license plate Oregon XLX was putting out diesel smoke or oil smoke from the pipe. I couldn't see the license plate and drove faster so i can read it then pulled in the park's parking lot and called DEQ's hot number to report the smoking vehicle. First i told the woman the location and then the license plate number. She went: "That's not a complete number" and i said "no ma'am that's the whole number" and she said "thank you", then she hung the phone. Then i realized, maybe she thought that it was a joke, given the number. Then i called DMV and asked if that was a valid number and the woman said yes, and i asked how can they issue such numbers and she said maybe it's a Roman numeral, anyways, everybody on the phone seemed up to something. (By the way let's see what XLX means as Roman numeral... 50, give or take ten). Then i stepped into the Tryon park and all hell broke loose. A very low altitude very high RPM very high noise plane flew by (By the way the parking lot was empty, i was the only one there). And lots of other things happened for the 45 minutes i was in there, maybe i'm gone continue this tomorrow.
Last night i fell asleep late and this morning like never before i slept till noon. Then i woke up, read the news and fell the smoke choking me. It was cigarette smoke mixed from shit smell from the ground level neighbor's bathroom. I can recognized it as i smelled it once in the attic while his bathroom fan was working. Coming from the walls.
I left and drove towards the park. And then it started as usually. Some asshole in a black SUV possibly Chevy Suburban with license plate Oregon XLX was putting out diesel smoke or oil smoke from the pipe. I couldn't see the license plate and drove faster so i can read it then pulled in the park's parking lot and called DEQ's hot number to report the smoking vehicle. First i told the woman the location and then the license plate number. She went: "That's not a complete number" and i said "no ma'am that's the whole number" and she said "thank you", then she hung the phone. Then i realized, maybe she thought that it was a joke, given the number. Then i called DMV and asked if that was a valid number and the woman said yes, and i asked how can they issue such numbers and she said maybe it's a Roman numeral, anyways, everybody on the phone seemed up to something. (By the way let's see what XLX means as Roman numeral... 50, give or take ten). Then i stepped into the Tryon park and all hell broke loose. A very low altitude very high RPM very high noise plane flew by (By the way the parking lot was empty, i was the only one there). And lots of other things happened for the 45 minutes i was in there, maybe i'm gone continue this tomorrow.
Friday, September 21, 2012
Turn Signal Lever.
Wedndesday at the Police Station in Beaverton, around 9 AM i picked the phone in the hallway and told the dispatcher what i was there for. They dispatched an officer name Rountree?. I also had in my pocket a sample of the padding from under the carpet that is smelling very strong like chemicals to show to them.
In the Police hallway there was this long line with people that were paying fines and a tall African American officer with badge number 614 that later said he was officer Chris Warren who also looked like a known celebrity. After waiting for more than 20 minutes, no policeman showed up sent by the dispatcher and officer Warren took me to a room downstairs near the hallway and took my complains. Basically i was complaining that two different celebrities, before and after 2000 as described in the linked above were impersonating other people pretending they were living in this area and having business like auto shops or fence building around here. In the end he threatened me with putting me in a mental facility and called the Victim Assistance Person who turned out to be yet another celebrity look alike, a blonde female, not very tall, with a round face and blue eyes, just under 30 years old. But they changed their minds after i told them the story with dr.Sigurtsson.
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| My place, post date |
Last year (2011) @ July 4th i wanted to change the padding from under the carpet. I removed the carpet and the padding. I tried to use some pet enzyme to remove the smell from the padding and almost died from the smell. Then i went to a store on 72 near 217 in Tigard and bought a big roll of a new padding. The new one was pink in color. After removing it from the transparent plastic cover, it was smelling worse than the one i had. I took it back to the store but it wasn't until several month later after i made a call in Tillamook? when they returned my money, @70 dollars. Couldn't find a less smelly one even at the Tigard Lowes or Home Depot.
Thursday, September 13, 2012
Missaligned Intersection
Friday, September 7, 2012
DEQ - What For?
There was a fire in Tigard last night. I live in Lake Oswego in the area called Mountain Park. I can barely breath inside. Either that or the smoke is coming from the Gorge or from Vancouver where there was also a grass fire. I took a look at the DEQ real time readings from the stations across Portland. None of them reports anything unusual, the air quality looks "Good" according to them. One question comes to mind. Do they work at all or they are just another waste of tax money?
Thursday, September 6, 2012
Smart Meters
Reedited 09/07/2015
How are the damn smart meters affecting your privacy. Nobody i heard so far got it right.
Don't get me wrong. They save a lot of human work and (real) inconvenience for everybody by not needing to manually read them. But they shouldn't be wireless. Why?
Anybody within a few miles with a receiver and encryption cracking device could get your meter's data stream. What that means? Every few seconds or on interrogation the meters send the very instant power consumption. With a little bit of software the privacy intruder can figure out what you are doing in your house with seconds delay. Each appliance and device has it's own unique power consumption. When you turn on your TV, your computer, how much you use the fridge (by how many times you open the door, the more you open it the more it has to work), water heater, when you turn your bedroom's or bathroom's light on, when you when you take a shower (the heater will start working about a minute after cold water flows in to replaced the used hot water) and when not and so on.
How are the damn smart meters affecting your privacy. Nobody i heard so far got it right.
Don't get me wrong. They save a lot of human work and (real) inconvenience for everybody by not needing to manually read them. But they shouldn't be wireless. Why?
Anybody within a few miles with a receiver and encryption cracking device could get your meter's data stream. What that means? Every few seconds or on interrogation the meters send the very instant power consumption. With a little bit of software the privacy intruder can figure out what you are doing in your house with seconds delay. Each appliance and device has it's own unique power consumption. When you turn on your TV, your computer, how much you use the fridge (by how many times you open the door, the more you open it the more it has to work), water heater, when you turn your bedroom's or bathroom's light on, when you when you take a shower (the heater will start working about a minute after cold water flows in to replaced the used hot water) and when not and so on.
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...
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
Tar Balls
Not from Linux...
In these sunny days in the attic it gets like 120F. In Oregon. (I have one of the weather station's sensors in there. I wonder how it is in hotter states). The tiles of the roof are made of bitumen and tiny pieces of it break and fall through the cracks of the plywood underneath the tiles and mix with the insulation and start decomposing. The more volatile components go first and smell bad but the big problem is the nutrients that are coming from the barbecues. They rot in there and mix with the smell of tar and make a stink that combined with other stinks i described here earlier make your life very hard in a place like this. Tar is antibacterial but i think it favors some yeasts. When i opened the attic this morning to take a sample of the insulation that contains these (actually the tiny tar balls separated from the wool rock in the bottom of the bag i used and when shaken make a sound like they're already dried, the volatile components evaporated but they still smell) there was a back flow from the attic inside the apartment. That's because my next door neighbor has a window opened in the direction where the wind is coming from or the two fans in the window are working creating pressure that goes through the cracks or by the lid into the attic and make that smell to back flow into my apartment or through the intake above the kitchen window or through the vents. And because she/he had the fans started yesterday, the temperature in the attic didn't go that high at the expense of the back flow above the kitchen window. But yesterday morning when i had breakfast i had the kitchen window opened then i got really really sick, almost...
To take the macro below i used one more 55 mm fixed length camera lens held by hand at about one inch in front of my 70-105 equivalent Sony/Minolta lens with the zoom at maximum. First i put the focus on automatic and it did focus but for more precise focus i put the focus on manual ant then moved around until i got it. You may click or middle click on it to better view.
The distance between two graduations on the tape measure below is 1/32 inches. The tar samples have been shaken out of a small insulation sample that could been caught between two fingers but these are only a small part. The total amount is probably in the order of 1/10-1/100 of the total mass of the mineral fiber insulation.
(Macro photographs done with one extra 55 mm lens held by hand at one inch in front of the 28-105 mm stock lens of my Sony DSLR-300 set at maximum or 105 mm. The distance between the out of focus ruler divisions is 1/32 inch. Can click to enlarge)
Although it does not look like asbestos to me (in the picture looks more like it but in reality not, these fibers a lot shinier and more regulated) when i manipulated the sample that's already been shaken to extract the above sub-sample in the sunlight near the window i saw one million shiny sparkles that dissipated in a few seconds i don't know where, and i also felt the smell and the sting in my throat.
Or maybe... from here? http://www.flickr.com/photos/39325385@N07/7686495606/in/photostream Or here? http://www.flickr.com/photos/39325385@N07/9472963275/
In these sunny days in the attic it gets like 120F. In Oregon. (I have one of the weather station's sensors in there. I wonder how it is in hotter states). The tiles of the roof are made of bitumen and tiny pieces of it break and fall through the cracks of the plywood underneath the tiles and mix with the insulation and start decomposing. The more volatile components go first and smell bad but the big problem is the nutrients that are coming from the barbecues. They rot in there and mix with the smell of tar and make a stink that combined with other stinks i described here earlier make your life very hard in a place like this. Tar is antibacterial but i think it favors some yeasts. When i opened the attic this morning to take a sample of the insulation that contains these (actually the tiny tar balls separated from the wool rock in the bottom of the bag i used and when shaken make a sound like they're already dried, the volatile components evaporated but they still smell) there was a back flow from the attic inside the apartment. That's because my next door neighbor has a window opened in the direction where the wind is coming from or the two fans in the window are working creating pressure that goes through the cracks or by the lid into the attic and make that smell to back flow into my apartment or through the intake above the kitchen window or through the vents. And because she/he had the fans started yesterday, the temperature in the attic didn't go that high at the expense of the back flow above the kitchen window. But yesterday morning when i had breakfast i had the kitchen window opened then i got really really sick, almost...
To take the macro below i used one more 55 mm fixed length camera lens held by hand at about one inch in front of my 70-105 equivalent Sony/Minolta lens with the zoom at maximum. First i put the focus on automatic and it did focus but for more precise focus i put the focus on manual ant then moved around until i got it. You may click or middle click on it to better view.
The distance between two graduations on the tape measure below is 1/32 inches. The tar samples have been shaken out of a small insulation sample that could been caught between two fingers but these are only a small part. The total amount is probably in the order of 1/10-1/100 of the total mass of the mineral fiber insulation.
(Macro photographs done with one extra 55 mm lens held by hand at one inch in front of the 28-105 mm stock lens of my Sony DSLR-300 set at maximum or 105 mm. The distance between the out of focus ruler divisions is 1/32 inch. Can click to enlarge)
Although it does not look like asbestos to me (in the picture looks more like it but in reality not, these fibers a lot shinier and more regulated) when i manipulated the sample that's already been shaken to extract the above sub-sample in the sunlight near the window i saw one million shiny sparkles that dissipated in a few seconds i don't know where, and i also felt the smell and the sting in my throat.
Or maybe... from here? http://www.flickr.com/photos/39325385@N07/7686495606/in/photostream Or here? http://www.flickr.com/photos/39325385@N07/9472963275/
Saturday, August 11, 2012
High Windows
Today i cleaned the vaulted ceiling windows above the couch where i watch TV and sometimes i sleep. (The other day i went to bed in bedroom and woke up on the couch). Haven't done it yet, in a couple of years. (I painted that area with an extension for the brush, the ladder was too short. The only time when the handyman came, when i moved, he sealed the windows with the silicon i bought. But i was too sick to the stomach to get up there on his ladder.) Full of dead bugs, spiders and ceiling pop corn. It stank like the primordial stink in the apartment, when i worked a month before i moved and continued until today. So now it all still stinks inside from disturbing that shit. First i tried with a duster, then the vacuum cleaner. They are at least 4 meters above the floor so i had to improvise an extension for the vacuum. After that i took pictures with a camera tied at the end of a pole because i don't have a ladder that long and i cannot see in there. This is the left one, the one above the couch where i watch TV and sleep, with the cracked window, after vacuuming. But there are a lot of people around making noises and trying to suggest i was doing something else in here. Never heard a single kid yelling at the neighbors' pool after 8 PM. Today it was until after 9 or more. Especially when i was taking pictures of the vaulted ceiling windows.
Thursday, August 9, 2012
Crooked Stripes on I5
How hard is to draw a straight stripe on a highway? I assume it's much easier than to build one and yet the surface of I5 is pretty straight but the stripes are crooked. I only could take a few pictures between Wilsonville and 217 and these are not the worst places. It is a very easy way to ruin the work of other people who built the highway and make it a little less safe for drivers. The same with 217. Or maybe studies found that it's safer when it's less monotonous... Or maybe ther're hidden subliminal messages in that modulation...
But nothing can surpass what i saw today on KATU web site:
http://www.katu.com/news/weird/Road-crew-paints-yellow-line-over-dead-raccoon-165642176.html
I have to confess first i laughed then i remembered about the pictures i took yesterday and made the effort to put them here since i risked my life and my wife's life to take those. But this is no joke since it can ad to other problems on the road. And it became a habit in Oregon in the last years. The worst i can remember is in Beaverton or Portland, on 217 near the end at Barnes road, under 26 overpass.
I apologize for the greenish taint and poor focus on my pictures it's because they've been taken through the windshield. And of course i couldn't possibly stop to take them properly, so many times.
But nothing can surpass what i saw today on KATU web site:
http://www.katu.com/news/weird/Road-crew-paints-yellow-line-over-dead-raccoon-165642176.html
I have to confess first i laughed then i remembered about the pictures i took yesterday and made the effort to put them here since i risked my life and my wife's life to take those. But this is no joke since it can ad to other problems on the road. And it became a habit in Oregon in the last years. The worst i can remember is in Beaverton or Portland, on 217 near the end at Barnes road, under 26 overpass.
I apologize for the greenish taint and poor focus on my pictures it's because they've been taken through the windshield. And of course i couldn't possibly stop to take them properly, so many times.
Sunday, August 5, 2012
The Microwave as a Stove Top
Never use a microwave as a stove top. Why? because it gets full of shit and in a couple a years at most depending on how much you cook or heat up both on the stove and in the microwave. When i moved in here @March 2010 it was in the same position, i took it apart as i did today and put all the smaller parts in the dishwasher which by the way was in a similar state, and i cleaned the rest of it and put it back together. Didn't pay attention to the fact that by design the air from underneath doesn't go directly through a fan to the exhaust but through a labyrinth of ducts impossible to clean. And there is back flow from design with not enough sealing of the joints, besides the back flow at the joint with the exhaust. Never thought it was so important.
After washing just to show lack of sealing. There was no seal or gaskets on the high pressure side just the box itself in top of the fan housing sitting at an average of 1 mm distance after carefully tightnening all screw. By the way, the top of the box warps under weight near the two bolts that it hangs from under the the cabinet.
The last piece of duct of the high pressure part slides too easily in place with a play of mm. In the left side there was a big back flow both in front and rear. In rear you can see the stain on the wall. In front it was coming through the middle area of the upper grill (not shown in any picture) where was a large area of dead space and in the room just above the stove where we were cooking. All cooked food was spiced up with up to 2 years old stuff. That combined with ohter factors were contributing to making me sick. You couldn't feel the smell because every time you start the stove there is a few seconds of smell from the spiral heaters until they heat up because they get sprinkled with tiny droplets of oil that cannot be washed and you mostly don't see.
Even if the microwave was new it was the same. I washed this one up two years ago as i said in the beginning. It was clean like new. Like right now. But it has a bad design and the whole concept of putting it in top of a stove is idiotic.
Ok 8/5 1:50 PM. While trying to install an extra fan in the duct i discovered the one way valve in top of the black square box in the picture above was only opening about 1/4 because it was hitting the adapter, visible above the oven in the cabinet in the first picture. Because of the misalignment with the duct they used an asymmetrical adapter. The curve at the corner is preventing the rectangular piece of aluminum that makes the valve to open all the way. Probably depending on how much you push the adapter in. When i removed that valve the flow grew a lot bigger. It probably wouldn't have back flowed that much.
After washing just to show lack of sealing. There was no seal or gaskets on the high pressure side just the box itself in top of the fan housing sitting at an average of 1 mm distance after carefully tightnening all screw. By the way, the top of the box warps under weight near the two bolts that it hangs from under the the cabinet.
Even if the microwave was new it was the same. I washed this one up two years ago as i said in the beginning. It was clean like new. Like right now. But it has a bad design and the whole concept of putting it in top of a stove is idiotic.
Ok 8/5 1:50 PM. While trying to install an extra fan in the duct i discovered the one way valve in top of the black square box in the picture above was only opening about 1/4 because it was hitting the adapter, visible above the oven in the cabinet in the first picture. Because of the misalignment with the duct they used an asymmetrical adapter. The curve at the corner is preventing the rectangular piece of aluminum that makes the valve to open all the way. Probably depending on how much you push the adapter in. When i removed that valve the flow grew a lot bigger. It probably wouldn't have back flowed that much.
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.