Author: Aren Cambre

I am an “Enterpriser”

I don’t normally do online “surveys” because most of them are made up, stupid, or grossly faulty, providing pointless conclusions.

However, I came across the Pew Research Center‘s 2005 Political Typology survey. It says I am an enterpriser. I am satisfied with that label, but I depart somewhat from Pew’s description of this group:

  • I am more religiously observant than the nation as a whole.
  • I rarely watch Fox News. Most of my news comes from left-leaning sources like NPR, CNN, BBC, and The Dallas Morning News. (I supplement with Drudge Report.)
  • I do not favor government intervention in moral issues. I strongly support a robust separation of church and state. Mingling the two causes tyranny and corruption.

Rigid dryer vent eliminates minimal fire hazard

After getting a hoax email on the fire danger of dryer sheets (see Consumer Reports’s refutation), I remembered that I need to replace my flexible dryer hose with a rigid type. Apparently, rigid hoses are less of a fire hazard because they don’t collect lint.

My flexible hose setup:

Notice the nice sag in the middle to (theoretically) catch lint:

In fact, closer inspection showed the entire duct was pretty clean despite 3 years of use. The worst part was actually near one of the ends:

Far from clogged!

The inside of the dryer and the outside vent were clean:

So much for the dire warnings of dryer lint fires!

Next I installed the rigid vent. All I needed were two elbow connections and a 2 foot straight section. This is the first elbow, inserted into the outside vent:

Then I cut the middle section to fit, using about four test fits to get it right:

The tubing is thin, so I was able to cut it with traditional, black-handled scissors. (It comes in a sheet; you snap the the length side together along a seam.

A picture of the top, with the seam visible on the bottom right:

Then, with a little coaxing and finagling, I got it in place:

In only 40 minutes, I eliminated a trivial fire risk! Yay.

I think the dryer may run more efficiently. The exhaust no longer goes through a long, snaking tube.

Sick grass

I am trying to diagnose a possible SAD infection of my new Palmetto St. Augustine grass. Even though Palmetto is advertised as a superior St. Augustine, it appears to easily catch diseases.

These are images of “sick” parts of my grass. I am not sure if I have SAD or downy mildew or something else. While some pieces of grass show SAD-like symptoms, most show strong symptoms of downy mildew or fungus.


You can barely make it out, but this blade has parallel stripes running down its length.


Another blade with stripes and burn marks.


Stripes and burn marks readily apparent.


The lighter-colored areas are where the grass is discolored. The grass on the left half is the “new” grass from Sept. 2006. The grass on the right is old grass. The grass in the foreground is some native (?) bermuda that grew over a spot where I filled in some dirt.


More representative grass sections.


Here’s a piece showing SAD-like symptoms and burn marks.


Another view with other striped grass blades shown more prominently.

Kodak camera “hard drive” disappeared, but now is found!

I had another small computer victory today.

I have a Kodak DX7590 camera. It is a great camera. It has gotten me through 7933 pictures over 21 months, and last April, it survived a 4 foot drop onto asphalt with no damage.

When I connect it to the computer, it shows up as another hard drive:

From there, I cut and paste the pictures to my hard drive. Really convenient, and I don’t have to use the terrible EasyShare software. Kodak makes this software look good, but it’s really garbage that locks up your images in its awful interface.

A couple of weeks ago, the “hard drive” stopped appearing after I connected the camera. I was unable to get any pictures off the camera. I futzed around for quite a while, eventually thinking my system was messed up.

I finally called Kodak’s technical support line in desperation. After 10 minutes convincing the tech support representative I am not an idiot, she finally admitted that Kodak removed the “hard drive” feature in EasyShare 6.0, the latest version. At first, she spun some yarn about how Kodak doesn’t retain the old software and I would have to get by with this new version. After explaining that I don’t want the full EasyShare product, she relented and gave me a link to get the old software: http://www.kodak.com/go/ess5/.

After upgrading to the old version, EasyShare 5, my computer and camera are once again happy campers.

Workout Change

I am changing my workout.

For the past 13 months–and off and on in the 9 years before that–my weightlifting routine was a single set of up to 12 repetitions on each of about 8 machines. I then repeated that circuit three times.

It has served me fairly well. Between summer 2005 and now–the time period where I have been most serious–I have made great improvements. For example, I have doubled my capabilities on the machine where you press your extended arms together (fly).

My routine concentrated on the upper body with the lower body left for improvements through jogging.

This routine has two problems:

  1. I haven’t regularly jogged in over 2 years.
  2. Multiple circuit training is not beneficial.

That’s right: the crux of my routine, which is where I repeat the circuit thrice, isn’t doing me any good. The Mayo Clinic has an article about a 1998 study that found that you should just do one workout per machine. As long as the weights are sufficient that you fatigue by the 12th repetition, you get the maximum benefit.

Starting tomorrow, I am taking that advice. That will leave me more time to do multiple machines, so I will start a full body workout.