Temperature problems? Here's a fan!

Americans like changing temperatures of spaces by blowing air into that space on various temperatures. I have no idea why they're so obsessed with this solution... The air conditioner works that way, we all know that, but the rest of things work differently in Europe than in the US. And I tend to feel, that Europe does it right...

Central heating to Europeans means that there's a furnace/boiler somewhere that heats water. The furnace can be in the apartment/house, or part of a bigger network. Maybe a power plant just outside the city. The water then circulates in pipes and it goes into the radiators heating them up, which will eventually heat up the space they're supposed to. Requires a house not made of paper, insulated walls and windows and doors that actually close tight. Efficient, nice, quiet, no dust. In the USA, central heating still has a furnace, but air is blown through it, which then will exchange the air of the rooms through the registers in the wall or floor. It's a very nice way of bringing a bit more dust into our lungs. Plus it's quite loud. I personally cannot sleep with the heating on. We have portable electric heaters in the bedroom because of that for night time. Remember, if you switch of the heat, you have a half an hour before your home cools completely down.

Now here comes this:

First I wondered why there is a fan in the fridge, too, but then this thought disappeared. Well yesterday I noticed that our freezer is working fine, but the fridge below is not cold enough even though we turned the dial earlier that day to make it even cooler. So before calling our landlord to tell him the fridge is broken, I googled the phenomenon.

How an American fridge works: the cooling unit is in the freezer. Together with the fan I mentioned earlier. It has a sophisticated microchip controlled thermostat to control temperature everywhere...

LOL! Hell no!

The dials to adjust the temperature are simple plastic latches. You turn it to not too cold, it closes the way of cool air, if you say cold please, it opens all the way up. The fridge gets the cool from the freezer, too. There's a small hole through which the excess cold air arrives downstairs.

Now, since the top was fine for us, but the bottom was not, our problem was exactly the same thing experts said in the above linked forum entry: ice. When we bought our first bag of ice, the bag was too big, and once the fridge door remained open (only half an inch though) for about half  an hour to an hour before we noticed. Ever since the ice was building up even though both our freezer and fridge is self thawing. The excess ice thaw into water, which then was frozen back to ice while it was making its way down the dropping pipe. At the same time, the little hole between the freezer and the fridge was also blocked with ice. Therefore the fridge was not cold enough.

Since the thing was full, I didn't want to wait a day until the ice melts. So threw everything from the freezer to my brand new (previously purchased) family sized plastic cooler, removed the back panel in the freezer so I could get to the heat (or rather cold) exchanger part. A hairdrier and about 15-20 minutes of blowing hot air on the radiator solved the problem. Most of the ice melt, the dropping pipe got unclogged along with the hole down to the fridge.

Plugged back in, and put all the things back. In the morning the milk was cold again. Sophisticated technology, now isn't it?!

Now somebody should tell these folks that air is actually a substance that does not conduct heat but insulates.

Oh no! Don't download my videos in mp3! You pirate!

This whole copyright misery is getting more and more ridiculous. Somebody should end this already! The latest news, that YouTube is threatening sites offering MP3 downloads from YouTube videos... This whole thing is a joke!

It's like suing Sony, Panasonic, Philips and all the other tape recorder manufacturers in the 80's. Their gadgets made it possible to record (a.k.a. pirate) music from radios. Sounds ridiculous? But this is exactly what's happening right now!

Btw. I wonder how many of you know what's on this picture:

Intellectual Property piracy machine of the 80's

Or what's the difference between Dolby B and C?

Because, what'll happen if those sites are shut down? You still have the FlashGot plugin for Firefox! This little baby can download multimedia streams, too! And why? Because the data gets to your browser. Until then anything can be done! Even so primitive methods like recording it with an audio editor. You can mute everything but Firefox, and there you go! A bit of a hassle, but so was recording sh*t from the radio, too!

I think RIAA should grow up already. Release songs, that's worth buying, don't try to sell mp3 files for $2 and so on. Or say goodbye to digital audio completely and release everything on tapes and LPs again, so even we have a chance to re-live the 70's! Anybody would like to buy Katy Perry on a reel? You know what, I'd still buy a best of Steve Miller Band collection on a collector's box LP release! Britney Spears? I don't think so ;)

Haha, bring that reel-to-reel player running next year!

Or better yet, cardio theater has to be updated (or rather down-dated?): put a turntable on your elliptic trainer not an iPod dock ;)

Working from home

If I ever will have another job, I will allow two options to myself

1. My employer has the recreational areas sealed behind soundproof walls and doors and windows, and I get in an office. Or it's my own company, and then it'll be my rules, anyways...
2. I have to work from home.

Think about it! Apparently in the US the collegiality is a bit different. It never gets pass the 'Hi, how are you doing? Nice weather we have today!' phase. You are unlikely to make any friends. So people at your workplace are down to have only annoying functions: bother you and interrupt your work. All the f*cking time.

So why even bothering with getting to the office, right? Working from home is more flexible. It comes with tons of tax benefits (you can deduct almost everything the extra room costs in the monthly rental and expenses!), spare the commute (time and anxiety), save on gas, yet you might not even need that second car! That's $500/month savings on the credit payments and another $300-$400 on insurance! Savings on daycare! Another $500/month. I mean if you have children. You don't have to obey any dress code either! Having a video conference? Can they see what's below the belt? :)

Dreams dreams dreams...

What grinds my gears

I have a bad day, so I'm just about to write some of my frustrations.

Driving

When I was playing GTA it always bothered me why is it so often that a car from the left lane decides to exit the freeway right now, and crosses 3 lanes right in front of me suddenly and we crash into each other. I was sure that the AI was simply bogus in the game's engine. Now, after living in the US for almost 2 years I have a new conspiracy theory: Secretly at the DMV when they are issuing a driver's license to an Asian person (regardless of South- or North-Asia, Middle-East etc.) they make them to take an oath: under all circumstances their primary goal on the road is to piss off all the other drivers even risking their own and their passengers' life. Occasionally they make white chicks to take this oath, too!

As I was learning how to drive, the driver's handbook said: 'Never trust another motorist, ever'. So far I didn't have to live by this rule. Here, even though the US is practically the birthplace of the automobile, nobody can drive. There was this chick the other day in her cute little bright-red Mini Cooper S. She realized she needed to make a left at the next traffic light. There was about 30-50 yard for her to do so. On an a 6 lane express way... She was in the rightmost lane... So instead of taking a right, to a street with almost no traffic, making a u-turn achieving her goal, she crossed 3 lanes practically without looking. She ended up next to me on my left waiting for the green, so I had the chance giving her the evil eye. And she had no idea, what my problem was!

Things like drive below the speed limit w/ no particular reason, are common. Or entering an expressway from a ramp without looking and yielding is also common. That's why I'm so keen to trade in my car for one w/ ABS.The all way Stop junction with the first in first out system is a practical thing though. It's way better than our roundabouts.

On the road, everybody's an idiot except for me, of course.

Gym

It's been 8 weeks I guess since I started my diet and workout plan. I lost 15 pounds and now i'm hovering around 220lbs. For 6'3" w/ some muscles, that ain't so bad. Finally I fit in my size XL muscle fit A&F T-Shirts I bought last year. And at the same time they're feel tighter around my arms, too ;) But still, I'm just getting tired of the whole thing. And not just dieting and working out but generally tired of everything. Which one is the 'dietary supplement' that turns you into a gym-rat? I only take N.O. Xplode, but that doesn't have that effect. Btw, taking fiber pills is a good idea. With the stupid eating it gives regularity. I just've started recently and it's way better now.

I need something that helps me through loosing the other 15-20 pounds I want to get rid of! I'm not enjoying this any more, but I want to go through it. Plus I should only drink decaf at my workplace. The 2 espressos in the morning at home should be enough. The other two at work in the morning just makes me irritated about all stupid things. They turn me into Red Forman. The workouts in the morning negated them before, put apparently my body got used to the 5 miles elliptic and another 30 minutes weight training every morning, and takes on the extra caffeine and passes it on my brain, making me believe that everybody is a moron, or rather say dumb-ass. What is probably true, but I shouldn't realize it so often. It makes me enjoy life less. Once a month was my regular freak out rate. I should keep it that way...

The stupidest thing ever

Ladies and Gentlemen, I hereby present you the stupidest thing in the whole World:

I ask, who is that retarded inbred dweeb, who can work at a multinational, market leading tech company, but cannot flush the toilet after taking a dump?

That IR sensor there has the following functions:

• Flush when you're finished (works under laboratory circumstances without any problem).
• Give you a shower down south if you lean a bit forward because you're wiping or playing on your smartphone (writing an email counts as playing w/ phone, in this case).
• Prevents you from using it if all the urinals are taken. You need to wait or go to another restroom. If you still plan to use it for number 1, you'll have to cover the IR sensor for 10-15 seconds with your palm after finishing to make it believe someone was sitting there and the thing needs a flush.
• If your dinner last evening was plentiful, one flush will not be enough, since its a water saving low-flow fixture. See previous bullet-point to overcome the obstacles.

I understand the sudden urge to be economical, environment friendly, cutting edge and technologically advanced, but common sense should play a role as well! It's enough already that I find myself sometimes holding my hands under the tap at home wondering why there's no water coming out of it... Then in about 5 seconds I realize that I'm home, there's no sensor and I have to open it manually myself...

But anyhoo, congrats, Mr. Architect!
(Probably the same person, who's responsible for the ping-pong tables!)

Starring in alphabetical order

After over 20 years it's continued. I DVR-ed the pilot this week, it's still waiting to be watched, but I'm really curious. I appreciate that they didn't change the theme song significantly and not Flo Rida (who ever he or she is) is 'signing' it or something!

I remember rushing home after swim practice as a child to watch it. I don't know how much I understood from it as an elementary school student though. I also remember taping some of the episodes I couldn't see. Lol, taping. Does anybody below 20 know what VHS is anymore? :) Since they changed a couple of names in the Hungarian dubbing (Suellen = Samantha, J.R. = Jockey) it'll be a bit confusing to watch in English at first.

For our Hungarian visitors, please enjoy:

Another TV series to resurrect would be 'The streets of San Francisco'. As they are likely to cancel Alcatraz, that'd be fun. It's a pity that there none of the original cast could be included. Still I think it's a fun idea. Or is it enough to watch Channel 2 news at 10? :) Nah, that's about Oakland... :D

After 5 weeks, finally under 220lbs

After 5 weeks, this morning the scale showed a number under 220lbs. 219lbs to be exact. Finally!

Why it's going down so slow? Mainly because I jeopardize my diet over the weekends. Memorial day weekend we went on a trip, so we ate at Denny's. If you don't know Denny's, then the most important thing about this restaurant chain is, that all the foods are delicious, rich in 'energy' (aka. calories), super-american-diner-dishes (burger, bacon, eggs, sausage, cheese, pancake, waffle...). Each local restaurant has a dozen of really really fat regular customers from which at least one is always there when you step in. Just to remind you not to come too often. So we ate there, and whatever I ordered didn't have the word 'fit' in it, so it was definitely over 1000kcal. Yummy! 'Fit' items are below 550kcal.

On the other hand, the weather turns to be the real Northern-Cali weather: warm, sunny, not too hot with some nice breeze. It makes you spend the whole weekend in your backyard. And if you're there you're gonna grill. And if you fire up the grill, then you won't be BBQin' just one slice of meat! That thing is hot the whole afternoon, and you keep putting stuff on it until the fire goes out, and you eat everything that comes off, too! If you haven't tried it yet, do it just once. You'll be hooked immediately. I never understood people's obsession about grillin' before, but I'm sharing it now!

So to make up for all this, instead of going only on the weekdays to the gym I'm adding a weekend morning to the stack: 60 minutes on the elliptic, plus cool down. After that I don't have to rush to work, so I can enjoy the steam and hot tub of my gym I'm paying extra $10 for each month with the upgraded membership to the higher level clubs. (It's still freakin' cheap: $49.99 a month, unlimited admission.)

That's over 6 miles and 1000kcal in 1 hour!

I need to say thanks to my wife though, who's guarding the fridge every evening like an amazon! Because it seems to be true, that eating anything for dinner is the sneaky little bastard here. If you don't have dinner, but just like a bowl of baby carrots (45kcal and full stomach, and after 2 weeks you'll hate them but still keep eating them as there's no other choice), that seems to work...