Category Archives: Different

Archimedes used to say : "Give me a place to stand and with a lever I will move the whole world."

My backyard has a slab of concrete that is 5 1/2 feet by 3 1/2 feet by 6 inches. With out a real plan, I decided to get rid of it as it stuck into the lawn like a sore thumb. Both my wife and I  got tired of it a while ago. Removing it seemed simple enough, dig under it, stick a 2 by 4 under it as a lever and move it out. Great plan, right?

From what I can find out (After the Fact), concrete is at least 94 pounds per cubic foot.  If my math is correct, I levered up a slab of concrete weighing more than 700 pounds. Once I got it lifted up, I couldn't move it an inch! No problem I thought, I have a sledge hammer! Yet Another great plan, right? No…

A few  hours later, I had the slab in manageable sized pieces. The next problem, what to do with this pile of rubble and this hole in my lawn? Well, I got my Shovel and dug a 5 1/2 feet by 3 1/2 feet by 18 to 20 inches hole.  The Slab is mostly still there, just 18 inches under. I should of taken a photo, but After several scrapes and bruises I just wasn't up for it.

Whomever laid that slab did a great job as it was solid as hell! I'm just glad they didn't put Steel rebar in it as I'd NEVER get it in pieces, even with a sledge hammer.

As it stands, I'm really exhausted. The perils of being a home owner. 

Music I'm listening to now:
"In my life" by The Beatles from the "Rubber Soul" album.  

The lawsuit against Lance Dutson has been dropped. Apparently, depite not being the brightest lights on Broadway, the Advertising Agency withdrew the lawsuit. You could read about it here. I wonder if they still have a Contract with the Maine Office of Tourism? 

I'm amazed that it took so much negative publicity for them to get a clue.  

Music I'm listening to now:
"Bounce Right Back" by Howard Jones from his "Dream Into Action" album. 

Maine Web Report is being sued by an Advertising Agency in the employ of the Maine Office or Tourism (MOT).

The long and short of it is this: Lance Dutson operates the Maine Web Report and has been critical of MOT. He pointed out some rather embarrassing things about the MOT Web site (loved the Visit Maine graphic with the 800 "Chat" Number on it!), some Odd testimony about Not being able to track where people go from the VisitMaine.com Site (Not quite true) and other irregularities.

This is an Odd situation. One would think an Advertising agency would be a little better equipped to handle a disagreement than this. Go read about it on Maine Web Report site. I first read about this on Crooks and Liars Site. 

Want to help? 

• To start with: Email the Gov't of Maine. Start with the Governor, Be Polite and respectful (Seriously!). I'd post the Email here but some SPAMERS would pick it up. Look up the site on the Web, get the EMail address and POLITELY speak your mind. It might not be read, but if enough people hit One Email Address, it will get attention. 
• Look up the MOT 800 Number and Call them. Again, be polite, the person on the other end is NOT responsible and, just like you and me,  is earning a living. If the person is short with you, keep in mind that he/she probably has fielded a lot of phone calls and might be a little tired. Ask to speak to someone about this situation or what MOT's "position" on this is. Do they normally employ Agencies that sue their Citizens?
• Tell people about this. No, I don't mean Mass Email all your friends. Just Talk about it. You'd be surprised how news media will pick up on things just via conversation.
• Post a Blog entry and ping Technorati.  At this writing, 230 Blogs reference "Lance Dutson"

Music I'm listening to now:
"Everything in Its Time" by Corrinne May from her "Safe in a Crazy World " album.

At least I hope so! I Don't mind rains so much, but I do wish it would rain weekdays when I'm at work. My backyard still needs work, but at least I managed to get mulch into the vegetable garden.

Made a slight mistake when I bought some Mulch last week: I purchased some Vigoro Mulch that turned out to have weed killer in it.

Vigoro makes good products and we use their fertilizer for plants and vegetables, but  you don't want to use any chemicals when your planting vegetables that you intend to eat. Luckily, I realized my mistake before putting it on the vegetable garden. We'll  use it for roses, our gladiolus, gardenia and Asiatic Lilies. Instead, I was able to get Scotts Mulch which works out nicely as it has no chemicals in it.

My wife handles the flowers in our yard, I handle the lawn and the vegetables which is also my contribution to the kitchen as I can't cook.

So far we have:

• Roses
• a Gardenia plant
• lots of Gladiolus
• an Asiatic Lily
• a Hydrangea
• Assorted Lettuce
• Broccoli
• Basil
• pepper
• a Grape tomato plant
• 3 Beefsteak Tomatoes plants
• Cucumber (Yet to be planted)
• String beans (Yet to be planted)

It's a lot of work, but worth it. I think that doing hard work for your own reward is a goods thing. Should all look good within the month.

Music I'm listening to now:
"Pretty Vegas" by INXS from their "Switch" album.

Been a Busy week, so not much posting going on. Just read on Engadget.com: "Mamiya bailing on camera biz" First Konica-Minolta and now Mamiya?!

If true, This is a little odd as they just released the ZD in Europe last month. Since nothing is on DPreview yet, I'm half hoping this is not true or just a Japanese press release that was poorly translated. Mamiya is one of those professional companies that makes Cameras that amateurs like my self would love to have. Who is next I Wonder? Pentax??

Music I'm listening to now:
"Hey Pretty" by Poe from the "Haunted " album.

One of the perils of being a homeowner is that unexpected things come up. In this case, Tree roots have invaded my sewer line. I did what I did last time (over three years ago) and called Roto-Rooter.

The Long and short of it is: The drain pipe is bent, near the street, allowing roots to grow in where the water seeps out. It took over an hour to properly clear the tree roots from the pipe. They came quicky and it's under warranty for six months so I'm not terribly unhappy. 

As an interim solution, this works. Long term, I'll be pouring 2 pounds of Root Destroyer (Copper Sulfate Pentahydrate) into the reap every 6 months. This should kill the tree roots near the pipe without killing the tree (Which is illegal in NYC…).

The alternative to this is to replace the sewer line which would caost a lot more money than I'd care to spend. I suppose I'll just have to wait and see.

Music I'm listening to now:
"In My Life" by The Beatles from thier "Rubber Soul " album.

It's funny how some people will Troll around some Blogs, anonymously making mean spirited comments for the mere purpose of getting attention. Others attempt to engage them in reasonable discourse about the post, only to be personally attacked about anything unrelated to the subject at hand. They'll use meaningless labels like "Left Winger/Right winger", etc.

Engaging them tends to be just a waste of time. Basically, anything anyone else says is "invalid" while anything they say is valid. Then they attempt to get off topic to bait you into responding, which is just a waste of time. If they have anything to say that can be commented on, they'll quicky revert to type just to get more attention.

Personally, I think these people get off on being an anonymous nuisance. IMO, it makes the feel bigger and lets them vent anger in their lives.

It's best not to feed their little ego trip and one hopes they get professional help.

 Image from www.cartooncritters.com

Music I'm listening to now:
Nothing at the moment.