My first consist

If you're not a railroad fan like me, you probably have no idea what
that means... Basically, each locomotive has only so much horsepower and
traction. This means that a single locomotive can only pull a certain
number of cars. In the case of my 3 truck shay, that's around 7 short
coal cars. Any more than that and the shay just sits there and spins its
wheels (all 12 of them).

In the real world, let's say an engine can pull 10 cars. If the railroad
needs to move 15 cars, they hook 2 engines together to do the job. Since
modern engines are electronically controlled, the control systems are
also linked and the 2 engines operate as one. The engineer in the
primary engine operates the controls and the second engine mirrors them.

This is what I did this morning for the first time. I hooked another
engine to the front of the shay and hooked 12 cars together. Without the
second engine, the train did not move at all. When I made a consist and
linked the engines, the train now moves with ease.

Since I run DCC (digital cab control) on my layout, I control each
engine independently on one electronic controller. I told the controller
that the 2 engines are a consist, and the control signals sent to the
primary engine are obeyed by the secondary engine as well. I can consist
up to 4 engines with my controller I believe. With analog controls, it
is much harder to do this unless the engines are identical. Otherwise,
they would want to run at 2 different speeds. With the digital controls,
if the 2 engines run at different speeds, it is possible to program the
speed tables in the on-board control chip so that the 2 engines match in
speed and acceleration. This is so cool to see in operation.

It's alive!

Well, today we did the Xmas decorating, and as part of that I set up the
train around the tree. I have 2 trains running on a double loop and am
loving it. There is nothing like the clickety-clack of train wheels on a
track joint. I did some more painting on the layout too since it's in
the living room now. I figure that by the time it's time to take the
tree down I'll have the 4 curved sections all painted and landscaped
pretty well.

What happened of note on 8/17/1930?

I've been going through old family photo albums, boxes of photos, etc.
and organizing them lately. In a plastic shopping bag buried in a box of
photos and albums I found a few sections from the August 17, 1930
edition of the Philadelphia Inquirer. The paper is in pretty bad shape,
but still readable if handled with care. Parts of it are starting to
fall apart on their own, so I am reluctant to fully un-fold this
historical gem just yet. I saw an ad for a new Hudson (car) for $885...

This leads me to ask the question of what happened that was so important
that someone thought to hang onto these 2 sections of newspaper for
nearly 80 years. This isn't a newspaper clipping, but what appears to be
2 whole sections of newspaper still folded as it came off the news stand
(more or less). The front page headlines that I could get to didn't
strike me as anything noteworthy, so I'm digging for an on-line archive
of this newspaper or information that might point me to the reason why
this paper was kept for so long.

I'm also looking for information on how I might preserve this item and
maybe be able to actually open it up fully and read it. For now, it is
safely stored away in a hard plastic box (the back side of a photograph
organizer I'm using to hold some of the thousands of prints I have to go
through) so that moisture exposure should be kept to a minimum and it is
protected from further physical damage as much as I possibly can for now.

If anyone has any advice or information, please pass it along as I am
dying to know what this contains.

Social services

I'm at social services attempting to get adrien covered under medicaid. Hopefully this won't take too long to do. They're looking it up. Now I wait.

Ugh

Its 9:40pm and I'm going to bed... What's wrong with this picture?

Bike parts

I got the parts I ordered for the bike today and the shop manual. I've been wanting to get that for a few years now since I do most of my own maintenance anyway.

My first trigger

If you're not a database user, this will be greek to you, but I wrote my
first database trigger today and it was a success. :) I just opened up a
whole new world of possibilities in my job.

Photos... And more photos

Ok, so I've been going through the piles of photo albums and boxes of photos and sorting them out. I have somewhere near 3500 sorted so far and another 1000 or so left to go through. Then the fun part begins. Trying to scan them all in because only a small number are scanned in so far. I can see me killing a scanner to do this job and that doesn't count the hundreds of rolls of negatives.

The cat condo

Well, since we rearranged the living room, the cats have started using
the cat condo very regularly. I'm happy to see that my hard work didn't
go to waste in making it.

It's been a busy weekend

Yesterday I did more cleaning in the basement. In the process, I found our wedding cards. I decided it was time to finally put them into a scrapbook. At keast that way they might get looked at once in a while.

Last night we went out without the kids for once. That is always a good thing once in a while.

This morning I took zack back home so he could go to work. I needed to work on the brakes on the black jeep since the rear was grinding. It turns out that I had a seized caliper, so I had to replace it. The new caliper came with pads, so that saved me $45.

I did more scrapbooking of the cards today. Now I'm working on sorting through some of the piles of photos that we have. I have hundreds of rolls of negatives too that need to be put into binders and preserved. For now they're stored flat in the sleeves the lab put them in. Eventually I'll find more 3 ring binder sleeves and move them to binders.

Web Site

I re-did the look of the website. It is much easier for me to add pages
now as well. :)

I've been busy

Tonight I decided to rearrange the living room. It took 3 hours but everything is pretty well put away and all the electronics work. :)

Rotten "Christians"

I have to say that I am rather irked by the rottenness of some
"Christians" around the holidays. Last night was Halloween. We took the
kids trick or treating, which is a really harmless, NON-RELIGIOUS event.
Apparently some "Christians" don't get this concept. So as I am going
through the kid's goodies, I find a pamphlet advertising "Jesus Christ".

Ok, so you have freedom of religion, but that does not automatically
give you the right to advertise your religion on a holiday which is all
about wearing costumes and getting candy. So you don't agree with the
holiday. That is your right. If this is the case, turn the porch light
off and don't answer the door. It's as simple as that. Really.

How would you feel if I handed your kids pamphlets advertising "The real
truth behind the bible" when they were out Christmas caroling? I can
pretty well imagine you'd get quite pissed if I did that, wouldn't you?

I hate to break it to you, but Halloween has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do
with religion, contrary to what your narrow-minded bigoted religious
leaders tell you. It is not about worshiping pagan gods or anything of
the sort. Yes, it does fall on a date that was STOLEN from the pagans by
"Christians" way back when in an attempt to do away with their religious
practices (and they almost succeeded too).

Halloween is about one thing and one thing only... Putting on a costume
and walking miles and miles in an attempt to fill a really big bag full
of candy. Why do these "Christians" have to try and ruin a PERFECTLY
HARMLESS holiday by preaching to these children. Get with the program,
folks! These kids don't need to be preached to about how if they pray to
your God that their "sins" will be forgiven. They need to have fun and
get lots of candy.

Has your life been so bad that you have forgotten what it is like to be
a kid and just have fun??? Maybe you should dress in a costume and wish
the kids a "Happy Halloween" for a change. Go to a Halloween party with
some friends and have fun. I realize that this concept is probably
foreign to you, but maybe it will help you get that stick out of your ass!

Cleaning the basement

I finally got back to cleaning in the basement. I have a sort of kids play area put together now. With a little more work I should have a rec room setup again.

God twitters creation

By melindataub | Published: October 29, 2009

God: Gosh its dark in here.
7 days ago

God: There thats better.
7 days ago

God: Hey guys im finally on twitter! Whats up?
7 days ago

God: guys?
7 days ago

God: oh right. i’m the only thing in existence, haha.
7 days ago

God: shut up i wasnt talking 2 you RT @Satan I TOO EXIST
7 days ago

God: BOOORREEDD with endless void gonna make some stuff
7 days ago

God: Hey look what I did today! Separated the darkness from the light. Universe looks like a black and white cookie.
7 days ago

God: I shall call the light day and the darkness Eileen.
7 days ago

God: Darkness doesnt look like an Eileen. Lets go with night
7 days ago

God: Also i created heaven & earth.
7 days ago

God: also i created apostrophes but im not gonna use them
7 days ago

God: thats enough creating for now. Catch ya tomorrow
7 days ago

God: RT @Satan: WHAT IS “TOMORROW”
7 days ago

God: oh i forgot 2 mention i created time too. Busy day.
7 days ago

God: kind of lame creating 2day. Created a firmament. Not sure what that is
6 days ago

God: OMme so much 2 do 2day you guys! Got to bring 4th land from the waters AND create plants and trees. What should i do first?!
5 days ago

God: should have done land first. plants sank
5 days ago

God: fixed! Trees now ON TOP of land.
5 days ago

God: sorry no tweets yesterday guys. Made the sun moon & stars. turned out 2 be more work than i expected. Theyre bigger than they look
3 days ago

God: another busy day. Made @beastsofthesea, @birdsoftheair, and best of all: @penguins. Those turned out so well.
3 days ago

God: made some more kinds of penguins.
3 days ago

God: Poll: What else should i make? a. beasts of the land b. creatures in my own image c. more penguins
2 days ago

God: Answer my poll!
2 days ago

God: maybe it was a mistake to create the internet b4 invention of computers
2 days ago

God: all right penguins it is. Yay!
2 days ago

God: oops. Penguins don’t like the desert.
2 days ago

God: or Indiana.
2 days ago

God: or the sky.
2 days ago

God: ill try the rainforest. Everything thrives in the rainforest.
2 days ago

God: Not penguins.
2 days ago

God: screw it. Made a bunch of other beasts of the land. Not as awesome as penguins but much less picky.
2 days ago

God: also created fake fossils and planted them in the ground 2 make the earth appear much older than it is. Just a little practical joke.
2 days ago

God: i need more followers.
2 days ago

God: #FollowFriday @adam @eve
2 days ago

God: @adam @eve I am the LORD your God who separated the light from the darkness. You shall have no other God before me for I am the LORD your Go
2 days ago

God: &#$%ing character limits. Point is, yay! I made you! Hi! Do what i say.
2 days ago

God: @adam: such as #noteatingapples.
2 days ago

God: @adam what do u mean why? Because im ur god and i said so.
2 days ago

God: @adam why r u bugging me about this? u can have all the mangoes u want and theyre way better.
2 days ago

God: @adam well youre just going to have to take my word for it.
2 days ago

God: @adam WHAT is ur DAMAGE with this apple thing? Eves not tweeting about apples. Shes just off – um –
2 days ago

God: @eve Hey!
2 days ago

God: @adam @eve: EPIC FAIL at #noteatingapples. Both of u r BANNED
2 days ago

God: so yesterday was really stressful. Im taking a break today. No more tweets til tomorrow.
1 day ago

God: Check it out, baby panda sneezing! http://tr.im/DsZ5 (took a break from my break to create YouTube.)
1 day ago