A Thought
A thought just struck me… had I been sitting in my office when the lightning struck, things might have been a bit uglier.
Getting Back to Normal
I spoke with the insurance adjuster yesterday. I’ve been directed to come up with a list of items that were damaged. I’ll have to get a professional estimate on the computer before they’ll do anything about it. I’m still not completely clear on what exactly the insurance is going to cover. I think I’ll just submit the list, see what they offer, and then either accept it, fight it, or pass on it. If I’ll only net a couple of hundred bucks after my deductible, I’m not sure it’ll be worth it.
It dawned on me yesterday afternoon that I really needed to replace the TV’s that were fried sooner than later. The cable guy would be coming Saturday (today) and without TV’s I wouldn’t feel confident that everything was fixed. I bought two RCA 20″ flat front tube TV’s at Walmart for $150 a piece. Not bad considering the POS Admiral I’ve had for a long time cost me $200.
Since I had no cable last night, I stopped at the video store last night and picked up a bunch of movies. Night At The Museum was pretty funny, Idiocracy had its moments, but the gem so far has been Stranger Than Fiction.
The cable guy spent about an hour and a half here redoing the majority of my cabling. The hold up was getting the cable modem to connect, but after bit more work he finally got that straightened out too. He was pretty good guy, and did a really good job. I’m connected to the world again, even if my desktop machine is still out of commission.
Tomorrow I’m helping David take down a couple of trees and depending on how we feel when we get done there, we might take down a few trees here too. I’m not expecting us to get that far tomorrow, but since I’m on vacation until Thursday, we’ll have plenty of time if we’re so inclined.
Lightning
Last night the Richmond area was overrun by thunderstorms. Usually this isn’t such a big deal, except that last night my house took a strike and blew up a bunch of stuff. As best as I can tell, the strike came in through the cable line.
Once the lightening bolt hit, the smoke alarm upstairs went off. After I managed to get it to shut up, I went down stairs to check all of my gear. I smelled electrical smoke in the downstairs hall. Clearly it was coming from the cat closet where the stereo, and cable box for the plasma tv are stored. I opened the door, and the smell was super concentrated. I turned on the stereo to see if it had been hit, and it sparked and smoked right in front of my eyes. No big deal… I wanted a new stereo anyway.
Then I went into my office and nothing would come on… no lights, nothing. So I checked the breaker panel and sure enough, the breaker had been tripped. Once I reset the breaker, I checked everything in my office and started to realize it was going to be an ugly situation.
It took me awhile, but I finally noticed this:
That’s a picture of the corner just behind my desk in my office where the brunt of the strike did it’s damage. My guess is that it hit the cable line in the backyard and then turned this particular piece of coax into a fuse. You can see the discoloration on the extension cord from the heat. Also notice how the paper was blown off the wall. All the electronics gear plugged in to the extension cord has scorch marks on the prongs of the plugs and no longer works. Of all the places that piece of cable could have come apart, that was the only place I would have possibly seen it.
So far, the casualty count is this:
- All Three Cable Boxes
- Bedroom TV
- Office TV
- Office DVD Player
- External DVD drive
- USB/Ipod Hub
- Desktop Computer
- The Living Room Stereo System
Luckily, neither my ReadyNAS nor the the plasma TV got hit.
I called the insurance company last night, and an adjuster is supposed to be calling me today to figure out what the next steps are. I also have the cable company coming out tomorrow to see what the story is there.
All told, I guess I was lucky.
BOOM! BOOM!
I love these guys…
And I’m not some Johnny Come Lately jumping on the Flight of the Conchords bandwagon. I’ve known about these guys for a while now.
Foundation Flash CS3 for Designers
Dave’s book is mighty close to be released. So close, in fact, that there’s an Amazon page available where you can preorder your own copy. They aren’t showing a release date yet, but I have it on good authority that it’s supposed to be shipping in the later half of next month.
Buying via this link will help send his daughter to college.
A New Favorite Thing
Watching Star Wars on HBO Latino
Matt Damon Vs. Sylvester Stallone
2002: The Bourne Identity
2004: The Bourne Supremacy
2007: The Bourne Ultimatum
2010: The Bourne Ad Nauseum
TUF Season 5
I haven’t been too impressed with the fighters this season. Nate Diaz is the exception.
Manny Gamburyan’s skills are nowhere near those of his cousin, Karo Parisyan, and honestly, I’m not sure how he made it to the final. He never dominated a fight in the classic sense. Sure, he won, but not because he did anything (excepting his first fight which ended with a kimura). Taking someone to the ground, and then laying on them for the entire fight is not what MMA is about. Admittedly, the ref can be partly to blame… I found myself yelling at the tv for the ref to stand the fighters up quite often. I only wish he had Karo’s skill… Parisyan’s judo is a thing of beauty.
Diaz, on the other hand is a scrapper. His fights on the show started kind of rough (mostly featuring him fight round one from his back), but he eventually overcomes to submit his opponents in round two. His brother’s influence is clear… Nate has heavy hands and solid jiu jitsu.
I’m not too sure how fair it was to the rest of the fighters that Karo showed up to train Manny. No other fighters were allowed the opportunity to have family members come to camp. The point of sequestration is that all of the fighters are on an even playing field without the distraction (or advantage) of outside involvement. I think it was a poor decision by the producers (I assume Dana White signed off on it). Why not allow Nick Diaz to help his brother Nate? Also, the drama between Diaz and Parisyan in episode 11 should have been shut down immediately… another poor decision by the producers.
The final could be interesting, providing Diaz a chance to avenge his brother’s loss to Parisyan by defeating Gamburyan. My money is confidently on Nate Diaz to stay true to form: a rough first round followed by a submission in round two.
Hartman Creative Arts
I’ve been kicking around the idea of trying to sell some of my work for awhile now, and after my experience this weekend with the very complimentary, flirty, and downright attractive older woman who did the prints for a few of my photographs at the Costco Photo Center, I’ve finally decided to get a bit more serious about promoting myself.
I’m working on a new portfolio site right now. Once it’s done, I’ll likely retire the Bruce Hartman Design website permanently. It’s been an incredibly long time since I’ve updated that site anyway, and I gave up monitoring the traffic there a long time ago as well. I’ll keep the domain, but point it to the new site and allow BruceHartmanDesign.com ride off into the sunset like a cowboy who’s been too long in the saddle.
HartmanCreativeArts.com will be the new home for any professional aspirations I have. To begin with, I’m planning to release limited edition photographic prints and one-off pieces of sculpture. I’ll continue to do the consulting and graphic design stuff that I’ve always done, but the main focus will be on fine arts and photography, and less so on the utilitarian graphic work that I’ve concentrated on in the past.
At least that’s what I’m telling myself now.
Not to sound immodest, but I’ve had always had people around me telling me that my work is of high enough quality that I could easily sell it. The thing is, like most underachievers plagued by overwhelming self-doubt, I never really believed them. It’s not a reflection on those friends at all, but a further symptom of my lack of confidence. Super Complimentary Hot Chicks at Costco, however, have a way of making those doubts fade away.
I’m a sucker for a brunette in a push up bra, what can I say?
Russian Dolls
These photographs were taken more than two years ago. For some reason I never processed them. I stumbled on them this evening, so here you go.
