And so it goes...

I watch a LOT of YouTube. Like...most of my days are spent watching other people's content. Some of it is let's plays, some is documentary-based, some informational, some educational. It is very eclectic. Anyway, I just recently watched this one (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFEHFsO-XSI) about heat pumps. BTW this guy is pretty amazing. Just watch this and then go down his rabbit hole.

So I'm watching this and then get to thinking about recent return-to-work policies that companies are now implementing. Then I recall a tweet/image/post that someone made about how if we DON'T return to work at the office, then ALL of the *INVESTMENTS* that our companies have made for those spaces/buildings/skyscrapers are completely invalid.

I can see the point there. But what about the heating and cooling that is required to keep humans comfortable? You really don't need to heat the building in the winter (that much) for equipment. They like it cooler, which is why you have AC units running 24/7 during the summer, right? Plus lights? And equipment like desks and chairs and partitions and extra docking stations and monitors for people who have a setup at home ALREADY but don't want to lug everything back and forth?

Like my ENTIRE team has unequivocally proven that we are 100% effective at home. It matters not where we are located, we're on the ball. And yet, management has decided at the VP level that we need to go back to work one day a week. So I get that it's nice to see your co-workers every once in a while. But I came from a job where we had 12-hour shifts and saw someone for a couple of minutes MAYBE when we handed off the on-call phone and told them if there was anything to expect on their shift. But there was also an email chain for that specific purpose, so more than half the time it was 'leave the phone on the desk and let the email do the talking, then wave to them on the way out of the parking lot'. I shit you not.

And on THAT job, 99% of the office was FUCKING EMPTY, and 90% of the 625,000 square footage buildings were ALSO completely empty. The only reason to be there was to monitor stuff. Stuff that could be monitored...you guessed it...remotely. All of the admins on that job were 'offshore'. If you know what 'do the needful' means.

But I digress. We're looking at an energy crisis due to certain geopolitical events, and gas prices are through the roof. And yet, our employers are wanting us to get back into the office. I've been thinking about buying a new car, because my current daily driver is a 1992 SVX, which isn't exactly the best daily in the world. In fact, when it comes to parts availability for these things, the answer for picking up a part is generally 'Buy another SVX.' Not exactly what you want to hear on the reliability front. I was REALLY hoping I could manage a new BRZ, but now that gas pricing is fluctuating, I'm really thinking that instead I should just go electric.

So what's my point here? Well, it's about energy. Where it comes from, where it's going, and where it gets used. I feel like I have a little bit of an unfair advantage being in the PNW, and I don't have to worry so much about my electricity coming from coal-burning plants, as we have a LOT of power coming in from renewable sources. I think WE, as a nation, should focus more on that. How we spend our energy and what we can do to conserve it. And not just as a nation, but the world in general. However, we have to start somewhere, and it's easiest and most effective to begin where you are - so locally, regionally, and nationally make the most sense.

First off, get a car that doesn't need fossil fuels. If you need to commute long distances, pick up a hybrid. If you're worried about shit going down and need a soft-roader, many companies make hybrids of that type. We'll probably get one as the 2nd car. Advocate for working from home. Meetings do NOT need to be in-person, no matter what Jeff from management thinks. He's probably a republican anyway, so his 'family values' only extend to his own family, and only if they're cis. Less people in the office mean a lower heat load for the air handlers, which mean a lower bottom line for the company. 2020-2022 heating bills should bear that out, if he doesn't believe you. Ask him about the cleaning bills as well, not to mention the trash and coffee (if they used to be free, anyway).  Invest in solar, wind, geothermal, hydro power. Like, buy stocks in those companies, as well as upgrade your house. Get a heat pump (did you watch that video I referenced in the first paragraph yet?), look into solar panels, maybe even a vertical wind turbine. Try to get to the point where you are pushing power BACK into the grid. Our power grid is super fragile, and becoming a little independent of it will at the VERY LEAST help it be less fragile.

You're probably saying, "But Richard, I can't afford all of this! Hell, I can't afford ANY of this!" You're right. Me neither. But at some point, your furnace is probably going to die on you, and you'll be faced with a replacement bill. Spend/finance the extra $1500 and get something energy-efficient. You'll save money AND energy in the long-run. You're going to buy a car again in the future, very likely. Get something that sips gas or maybe even a used hybrid/electric with a warranty for the battery. When you have to re-roof your house, consider solar tiles(like Matt in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFwZQHZAJDc). Appliances break, get one that is better on energy. Do what you can, because it ALL adds up.

Change of Plans

 Well that was short-lived. After a couple of forays into the current housing market, we found that we are WOEFULLY unprepared for what's happening at the moment. People are getting 20-30 offers, and then the house is going for 100k over asking. So we're stepping back from that for a moment and working on the current house.

Plans are now to do some quality-of-life upgrades to the place, move some stuff around, and paint. Probably replace flooring. Soundproofing. Finish perimeter surveillance system. Fix the shed storage situation and get the stuff from the storage unit back into the shed. Maybe finally install the wired ethernet outlets I've been planning for years, and get a networking rack going. Just enough projects to (hopefully) ride out this bubble and get a plan in place to move, with this place nicely upgraded to give us a little more capital to get into something suitable.

On the game streaming front, I recently changed my work schedule - I'm still working from home though - and that sorta interrupted plans for that. I just finished week 3 of the new schedule and we're still not really 100% on our daily routine. It's put us both off JUST enough that we're having a hard time adjusting and figuring out what we should be doing on off-times. I still plan on making that happen, but I need to get myself sorted with my schedule so I can get it done on a regular basis.

On another note, I got myself jabbed with the Pfizer Covid Vaccine today (Sunday May 2nd). For a couple of hours my arm didn't even hurt, but it's been 3 now and it's just starting to get sore. One of my co-workers got the Pfizer recently, and he had what you'd consider 2nd-shot symptoms on the first shot. I hope tomorrow isn't any worse, but knowing my luck I'll be sick and out of commission for my weekend. :(

I got distracted (read: tipsy) and didn't finish this, and then the next day I was a both a little hungover and a smidge under the weather due to the vaccine. It wasn't horrible, but I didn't get much of anything done. With the house project happening above, not doing anything on my day off is a big hit to the productivity front. I've been trying to get *something* house related accomplished most days. I'm writing this paragraph like 4 days after the one above and since then I've gotten new motion sensor lighting installed around the outside of the house, preliminary lighting installed in the den with a tasmota-flashed sonoff, and a good plan in place for all of the other things. 

 I attempted to go to the storage unit and grab some stuff that I'd packed away that I NOW realize I need for the house upgrades, but the alternator in the Outback finally died on me and I didn't even make it out of the neighborhood. That was an adventure. You wouldn't think that it'd be so bad to charge up the battery just enough to drive a whole 500m, but let me tell you - when you're sitting next to the car with another car and jumper cables attached, a single minute feels like 10. I didn't even close the hood because I didn't feel like I had the time in the battery to waste, and I didn't even make it that 500m. I had to push the last 50-100m. But got it back to the house and have an alternator ordered. This weekend will be BUSY.

New Home Things

 This is kinda exciting. We've been looking into moving from the place we've lived in for the past ~8 years. Tonight we found a place in Newberg that is in the range we're looking for, and actually contacted the agent. We've really been dragging our feet on that part so it's a huge step for us. Unfortunately the showings for this evening dropped off the site while we were discussing if we wanted to do this, so we HAD to get ahold of someone so that we might be able to go see it tonight. 

It's exciting and anxiety-inducing at the same time. We want to do this, but it's a ginormous step and there's a LOT of stuff involved. After moving nearly every year of my life prior to coming here, I feel like I've put some roots down. Jaime was the same way in her life as well, and so this place that we're in now is where we've been the longest, and it's hard to think about. But this place doesn't seem fully like 'home', either. So it's good and bad and strange and everything all at once.

We're both excited and scared to move. Next chapter please!

Streaming Redux

 So the main reason I've never streamed my gaming is really because I figured my gaming system wasn't good enough to do so. I'm rarely above 30fps in most of my games and if I'm that low on the regular, adding in the streaming requirements to my system will make things nigh unplayable, and thus mostly unwatchable. However, after the tests I've done over the past couple of days it looks like I was wrong in my assumptions.

720p gaming in Star Citizen (https://youtu.be/fdRMY3hYZn8) went fine. I had fun playing and talking at the same time. There were a couple of dog and Jaime interruptions, but I don't have a dedicated space for this stuff. We have a computer area in the living room (it's a HUGE living room) and so it kindof becomes a do-everything area. We're looking to move in the next couple of months, so this will likely change.

1080p gaming in Cyberpunk 2077 (https://youtu.be/BczSU8eWUCA) went much better than expected. That might become my default, but I'll do a few more tests with the games I play on the regular to verify. I had an audio echoing issue with CP2077, I'll have to look into that - it might just be because I had the system volume up a bit more than I did in Star Citizen, but I might switch to using my BT headset for game sounds in the future instead of the desk speakers. I've found that works better for SC anyway because the sounds are a little muted and turning it up really only amplifies the ship ambient sounds anyway.

Streaming my gaming is going much better than I expected. Which means, of course, that the trolls will be coming shortly. I need to steel myself against the YT comments that will test my spirit. They'll criticize my style, my voice, my gameplay, everything. But I'm not doing it for them, this is for me. I like doing this.

I've said fairly often in the past that there are a couple of different kinds of people - consumers and creators. If you can manage it, be a creator. It's not bad to be a consumer, but creators shape the world. Be someone who helps shape the world rather than someone who merely lives within it.

Streaming!

 I've been thinking long and hard about what I WANT to do, and one thing that has been a constant in my life is gaming. I don't know if I'll ever be able to make a living doing it, but I like doing it and lots of other people make a living streaming the shit that they do, so why not? If nothing else it is a fun distraction. I did my first stream tonight and uploaded the video to my channel. If you're interested, my stream is here: https://youtu.be/fdRMY3hYZn8

My twitch name is 'm4rsmall0w' if you'd like to follow me.

What, me, blogging again?

So why use this and not Facebook? Well, to be honest - Facebook completely bogs down my computer. Like it's unusable. It's a gaming laptop with 64gigs of ram, a 970 EVO SSD, GTX1070, i7-6700. Yeah it's a little older but a webpage like FACEBOOK should NOT bring it to it's knees, ffs. Jaime complains that her computer is slow, I upgraded it a while back with more ram (16gb) and an SSD not too long ago, I suspect that FB is doing the same on it. I have absolutely zero issues when facebook isn't one of my browsing tabs, so there you go.

It's been a few years since I've used this last. I think mainly because FB became the de-facto standard for people to write about themselves. I've also got https://volvogeek.blogspot.com/, and I stopped using that around the same time as this one. Hell, I don't even drive a Volvo anymore - I've moved on to Subarus. I've got a '96 Outback (that we're probably going to sell for a newerish Forester) and a '92 SVX. The SVX is SWEET but quirky and there are quite a few things that are just no longer available for it. I'll probably relegate it to project car status and get a BRZ or something to commute in - once I actually go back to working somewhere other than home.

Because of the PANDEMIC! Holy fuck there's a lot to unpack here. I've been WFH for a year now. We don't think we've gotten it, but we've never been tested nor have we had reason to be. Spent the first 6 months or so ordering everything online and wiping down every single item that came into the house. We do more local shopping ourselves now but everything STILL gets sanitized before use. We're waiting to be eligible for the vaccine at this point, while we do have a couple underlying conditions (mostly high BMI) we're not in the risk groups that need it so we can wait. We double-mask up when going out and use wipes frequently. One of my first posts after the pandemic started last year was about how gamers are set for handling this, and it's borne itself out every day since. I even got a 32" curved 2k monitor because I moved the old 24" dell to the work setup. (I HAD to! I promise!)

And I'm also addicted to 3D printing. I picked up a Prusa I3 MK3S in November and have been having a blast. Ordered a MMU2 and the MK3S+ kit late Feb, but it's backordered and *should* be shipping out soon. I already do manual color changes, but the MMU should make things super cool - as long as I get past the teething issues that everyone seems to have with the thing.

There are tons of political things happening too, but I won't go into them here...at least not right now. Suffice to say that I'm super liberal and Trump can go fuck himself.

I've been living in the same place since about the last time I posted here. So it's time for a change. We're looking at selling and moving, but...to where? We took a drive to Newberg last weekend just to see if it fit our expectations. See, we would like someplace with a little land, but barring that - a house in a quiet neighborhood that doesn't cost $3k/month just for the mortgage would be fine. Places in the metro area are just out of fucking control. So towns just outside are looking better and better. Just need to stay within a certain radius in case I have to return to commuting to work daily again.

Packing everything up isn't going to be fun, but we got a storage unit so that we can get a head start on it just in case. Get everything we really don't need out of the house and then go get it at our leisure once we find someplace and get it setup to our liking.

Anyway that's things in a nutshell, I'll update again once I have a topic to dive more deeply upon. This will probably be a smorgasbord of  random shit, so buckle up.

No soap!

People who know me, know that I have a tendency to be sick. I rarely ever took a REAL vacation because I'd spend my vacation days here and there due to every cold that came down the pike. When I was working at Google it was even worse because there was 4 hours of driving involved every day, and if I was feeling under the weather that would make it MUCH worse, plus the fact that I'd be stuck at work with no way to leave until the shuttle returned to Portland at the end of the day. My illnesses, while not major by any means, have caused me significant problems.

Which is why it's such a landmark for me to say that I've not been sick for over a year, and I have only one thing I can possibly attribute to my newfound increased healthiness.  I could say diet - I've been eating better lately, but honestly my diet hasn't changed THAT much.  I eat more vegetables in general, and maybe less steak, but all in all, the change in foods that I consume are fairly insignificant. No, I'm pretty sure the reason I've not been sick is because of soap.

Or, rather, the lack thereof.

I'm going to rant a little bit here, mainly because this is something that I complained about back in the mid-90's. Antibacterial soap. You see on the label that it kills '99.9% of bacteria', right? That's a pretty good number, until you look at just how MANY bacteria are on you at any one time. A quick googling gives varied numbers between 1500 and 1 million per square cm on the hands, so let's say for the sake of argument 100,000 per square inch, or if the hand has ~20 square inches of area (palm side only) then about 2 million bacteria. 99.9% of 2 million kills all but 20,000. However, those 20,000 are at least semi immune to whatever it was that you're trying to kill them with. That number will double around 30 minutes, then double again, and again... in 2 hours you'll have 160k semi-resistant bacteria on your hands. In 4 hours you're back over 2 million - how many of those will your 99.9% cleaner kill now?

Your immune system is designed to handle the regular bacteria, but not the resistant stuff. This is why we now have superbugs that are resistant against antibiotics. But I digress.

Instead of using soap, I've simply been washing my hands with water. Or if I have dirt or grease/oil on them, a squirt of Doctor Bronners (which is a natural castille oil soap). But after using the bathroom, I don't use the antibacterial soap that EVERY place has installed next to the sink. Not even after I poop.

Let me ask you a question: when you're done going number 2, do you stand up after wiping and wash your hands IMMEDIATELY afterwards? Probably not, because your pants would be around your ankles with your privates all hanging out. So, what do you do? Right - use your HANDS to pull up your pants, zip up the fly, button the clasp, buckle the belt, tuck in your shirt, put your phone away...  And THEN you wash your hands. By this point you've already wiped any fecal material you got on your hands onto your clothes.

So yes, just water. Usually warm, if not hot, but I don't wait around the sink for a minute or two for the water to get warm if it's cold. Rinse, rub, dry, done.

And I do believe that THIS is why I'm not getting as sick as I used to. The worst 'sickness' I've had in the past year+ has been a headache that was probably a combination of not sleeping+hangover+caffiene withdrawal.