steveblock.com

It’s way super mega late for me. Quarter to three in the morning. I don’t even stay up this late on the weekends. I got started reading an a fun novel and couldn’t stop, and now here I am.

News flash update time (flash is probably not right this news is days old but that’s just semantics). On Sunday morning I finally took a few pictures of the old Ford Taurus and put the thing up on craigslist.com. I only asked for $200 since it had some problems (besides the rust and noise) and I really only just wanted it gone. The listing went up around 11:45. By 4:30 in the afternoon the car was gone and I had my asking price in cash. Yay for CL and yay for no longer having that car.

A quick summary for those not in the know, if there are any. I bought the Taurus in the summer of 2001 for $600. It had about 180,000 miles on it (give or take), squeaked, had the beginnings of rust along the door bottoms but otherwise a good looking paint job, and ran great. Five years later it had 210,000 miles on it, I had put about $600 into repairs (not including oil changes and the like), and the rust and paint were worse. It still ran great, it just started to smoke and smell of burning rubber after about 30 minutes. Overall I think still qualifies as one of the best purchases I ever made.

Other things that are happening include me flying to Pittsburgh this weekend for the AWEA conference, a somewhat slow but pleasant reorganizing of my finances (trying to dump credit except for emergencies and the really big things like cars and houses), and my recently constructed darkroom. The darkroom is sort of crude but it works well. I’m going to get my hands on 4×6 paper and really go nuts, I think. 8×10 is great but once you print 20 or 30 of them you start to think of what to do with them. With 4×6 I can put them in albums more easily.

I also went to the first rodeo of my life last Friday (or if that’s not true at least the first that I can remember). Now if that seems lame to you I should mention that I went to the rodeo with four girls. I need to make more opportunities to do things with girls, as it is a welcome change. They are rather more pleasant to look at than boys.

steve :: May.31.2006 :: Kansas City, Photography :: 5 Comments »

Maybe, but for now it’ll do. I’ll keep tweaking it of course.

steve :: May.21.2006 :: Uncategorized :: 7 Comments »

So retro. I’m planning to actually build a new theme this weekend, rather than one of the less than satisfying canned ones I tried.

steve :: May.19.2006 :: Little Things :: 4 Comments »

Any new Mac would let me drive my 20″ display with DVI rather than VGA. Like I said though it’s just a thought.

steve :: May.18.2006 :: Little Things :: 6 Comments »

I went to the Apple Store after work to look at the new MacBook laptops they just released. The black one looks very nice, very stealth. It’s not shiny at all, thankfully. The white one looks just like an iBook only larger. The new keyboard, though funky looking, feels fine and has good travel and firmness. The battery fits better with the rest of the case than the one my powerbook, the screen is way brigher, and the machine is quite a bit faster.

I’m considering buying one, though of course I’m also trying to convince myself that my current mac is just fine. And it is, but the new ones are so fun.

I’m also not sure if I really want/need the additional power provided by the MacBook Pro. Do I plan to ever buy a 30″ screen? If so I’d need the dual link DVI in the Pro model. Do I plan to play any graphics intensive games? I would again want the Pro model if so.

I also want to wait a little while to see if some of the nice touches they added to the non-pro model, such as the magnetic latch and relocated sleep light, make it to the MacBook Pro.

I don’t know, I always get like this when I think about buying something new. That’s why I had to get at least a 2000 model Outback rather than a 1999. Gotta have them features, you know? Ah well.

steve :: May.18.2006 :: Uncategorized :: 5 Comments »

Sufjan’s “Chicago” always makes me feel better somehow, when the song goes “I made a lot of mistakes” over and over again. I don’t know why but i does.

steve :: May.10.2006 :: Little Things :: 2 Comments »

I turned on the AC tonight because I was tired of sweating, even though it wasn’t that bad outside. I probably should get a fan.

steve :: May.09.2006 :: Little Things :: 3 Comments »

Hand Me the Gun and Ask Me Again

steve :: May.08.2006 :: Little Things :: 6 Comments »

Sunday was laundry and cleaning day, and while I was at it I decided to make it furniture arrangement day as well. Keith is lending me his couch until he needs it again, which is great, but it meant that my old living room arrangement was sort of not working. You had to squeeze around the edge of the couch to get into the thing, and it felt closed off and actually kind of oppressive.

To counter this, I took some time today to change things around. The one thing with the new layout, which you can see below, is that there is some unused space around the fish tank. Now trust me when I say this thing can’t be moved. Not by me alone, at least, and not even with several other people if it is still full of water. There is a triangular area in front of the tank that has nothing in it. I think what I might do is get a plant or two and place it back there, as well as maybe a lamp. Even with that unused space though, the overall effect is to make the room seem bigger.

The first picture is taken from the doorway, and is what you see when you enter the apartment.

The second picture is taken from the dining area, and is pretty much what you see when you leave the second bedroom/office.

steve :: May.07.2006 :: Uncategorized :: 15 Comments »

I got my hands on a Gralab 300 series darkroom timer. If you were ever in the Ames High darkroom you know this timer. If you’ve ever been in some sort of school darkroom at all you probably know this timer. If you did Science Bowl in Iowa you probably know this timer, since they used them for all the official timekeeping. Oh yeah.

steve :: May.04.2006 :: Little Things :: 2 Comments »