One of my first tough encounters with English language. After i've learned the very basics of English in high school, i once heard this song. Twice. Many times in discos and on the radio. Never figured out the lyrics though. Part of a northern ice cold culture. Maybe it's common knowledge to them. Maybe one day i'll learn it. Till then i'll keep listening. The voices sound still nice and fresh to me.
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.
Kaleb?
Reedited 4/18/2014. In July 1996 we moved at 6810 SW Hall Blvd #16, Beaverton, Oregon. Sussex Village Apartments at
the corner of Hall and Denney. I remember as of December 97 there was a Silver Dollar Pizza Restaurant exactly at the corner. Like 2 miles from where we live here there's Portland Community College - Sylvania Campus. But after 2004
the place was sold or rented to one of the Islamic Centers of Portland.
We had many neighbors until we moved out in March 2010. Dozens. So many stories to tell that if i sat here at this computer one year i probably wouldn't finish. Bur i never or almost never spoke to my neighbors. Kinda like here where i live right now.
View Larger Map
In the last few years in the same 4 apartments building was living an Arab guy who had a Russian looking girlfriend visiting him. At Nr.13. I assumed he was Arab by the looks and the language i heard him speaking with others and on the cell phone. I never met him. I also assume he was doing some computer work since i saw him carrying a laptop in and out of the building and into his Silver new Honda i was jealous for. And once the door was opened and i saw he didn't have much furniture and was typing at a big CRT monitor on the wall separating from the other apartment (under ours). And i think i remember he was making interesting noises while i was typing or chatting at the computer. I was suspecting at the time he was possibly one of the guys who studied in Romania during Ceauşescu and possibly speaking Romanian. I think he was about the same age or younger then me. He looked healthy.
And the cooking. Every Saturday he was cooking some traditional meal with sheep's meet. That meant boiling sheep for hours. The vapor of that grease was going in the attic and helped stabilizing the mineral insulation. Thus, i started feeling slowly, much better. Probably that's why my stomach pain that lasted practically since i moved in that apartment in 1996 ended in 2006. Probably the reason for my wife's cancer. (I remember some Romanian guy told me to eat sheep fat if i wanted to get rid of stomach pain. Which i tried in 2004 with no success.)
In early January 2010 i saw him once pacing in the alley in front of the building with no apparent purpose. He was making a few steps forward than a few steps backwards then changing his mind and starting again looking weird. Kinda like me before i went to the psychiatric wards several times.
Saturday late evening January 23rd 2010 my wife found a vacation notice in the mail dated January 21. It said in 60 days we have to find a new place. No explanation. I spoke on the phone with John Winquist, president and/or owner of Regency Management who i knew from Beaverton Church of the Nazarene we both attended in 96-97. The guy who was married to a beautiful Filipino woman. He only repeated several times: "George, it's time for you to move."
Next Monday @10 i was at my computer and on the phone already looking for a new place to move. I think i already called a place or two when i heard several loud bangs at someone's door. I didn't know which door. Somebody was yelling: Kaleb, Kaleb! That's when i first heard his name or any neighbor's name. I myself wasn't feeling good as i am not right now but my wife was at home and that made me feel safe. I went at the window and looked, there was this agitated Arab looking guy i think i saw before at Kaleb using a cell phone and in a few minutes the Police where there. No ambulance for sure, no firefighters as i remember. Just the Police. Later that day or a few days later a policeman came at our door and told us the guy was found dead of natural causes and asked if i saw him within the last few days. I told him i saw his car on Sunday before and after i came from Fry's in two different spots in the parking lot. A few days later i saw him or something on an ambulance carriage, covered with a black cover and that was it. Nothing in the news. Just a couple of armed guys at his door for a few days.
Here at the new apartment i had to fix the place for about a month. But i did not know about the role of the sheep grease in stabilizing the insulation and did not know about insulation getting inside through all kind of construction irregularities and mistakes as i do now.
Kaleb had a cat. I mean, i think he had cause people were not allowed with pets at Sussex. But i think the cat was roaming around and he was feeding it. After he died, somebody gave the cat a... fur cut, and let the fur around the head and tail uncut and made the poor thing look like a lion. So he may have been not Arab but Persian after all?
We had many neighbors until we moved out in March 2010. Dozens. So many stories to tell that if i sat here at this computer one year i probably wouldn't finish. Bur i never or almost never spoke to my neighbors. Kinda like here where i live right now.
View Larger Map
In the last few years in the same 4 apartments building was living an Arab guy who had a Russian looking girlfriend visiting him. At Nr.13. I assumed he was Arab by the looks and the language i heard him speaking with others and on the cell phone. I never met him. I also assume he was doing some computer work since i saw him carrying a laptop in and out of the building and into his Silver new Honda i was jealous for. And once the door was opened and i saw he didn't have much furniture and was typing at a big CRT monitor on the wall separating from the other apartment (under ours). And i think i remember he was making interesting noises while i was typing or chatting at the computer. I was suspecting at the time he was possibly one of the guys who studied in Romania during Ceauşescu and possibly speaking Romanian. I think he was about the same age or younger then me. He looked healthy.
And the cooking. Every Saturday he was cooking some traditional meal with sheep's meet. That meant boiling sheep for hours. The vapor of that grease was going in the attic and helped stabilizing the mineral insulation. Thus, i started feeling slowly, much better. Probably that's why my stomach pain that lasted practically since i moved in that apartment in 1996 ended in 2006. Probably the reason for my wife's cancer. (I remember some Romanian guy told me to eat sheep fat if i wanted to get rid of stomach pain. Which i tried in 2004 with no success.)
In early January 2010 i saw him once pacing in the alley in front of the building with no apparent purpose. He was making a few steps forward than a few steps backwards then changing his mind and starting again looking weird. Kinda like me before i went to the psychiatric wards several times.
Saturday late evening January 23rd 2010 my wife found a vacation notice in the mail dated January 21. It said in 60 days we have to find a new place. No explanation. I spoke on the phone with John Winquist, president and/or owner of Regency Management who i knew from Beaverton Church of the Nazarene we both attended in 96-97. The guy who was married to a beautiful Filipino woman. He only repeated several times: "George, it's time for you to move."
Next Monday @10 i was at my computer and on the phone already looking for a new place to move. I think i already called a place or two when i heard several loud bangs at someone's door. I didn't know which door. Somebody was yelling: Kaleb, Kaleb! That's when i first heard his name or any neighbor's name. I myself wasn't feeling good as i am not right now but my wife was at home and that made me feel safe. I went at the window and looked, there was this agitated Arab looking guy i think i saw before at Kaleb using a cell phone and in a few minutes the Police where there. No ambulance for sure, no firefighters as i remember. Just the Police. Later that day or a few days later a policeman came at our door and told us the guy was found dead of natural causes and asked if i saw him within the last few days. I told him i saw his car on Sunday before and after i came from Fry's in two different spots in the parking lot. A few days later i saw him or something on an ambulance carriage, covered with a black cover and that was it. Nothing in the news. Just a couple of armed guys at his door for a few days.
Here at the new apartment i had to fix the place for about a month. But i did not know about the role of the sheep grease in stabilizing the insulation and did not know about insulation getting inside through all kind of construction irregularities and mistakes as i do now.
Kaleb had a cat. I mean, i think he had cause people were not allowed with pets at Sussex. But i think the cat was roaming around and he was feeding it. After he died, somebody gave the cat a... fur cut, and let the fur around the head and tail uncut and made the poor thing look like a lion. So he may have been not Arab but Persian after all?
Wednesday, September 5, 2012
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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...