Category: Notes

photo credit: me and the sysop

Before those dishes start washing themselves, in addition to the new appliance, you are going to need a few things: fittings, like properly sized brass elbows to connect the dishwasher inlet to the copper supply line as well as compression fittings for attaching the supply under the sink to the angle stop. Your home repair and maintenance tool box should always have some Teflon tape for wrapping the threads of water spigots and other threaded pipe ends.
Medium sized wire nuts are always good around the house, and probably come with the new appliance. You’ll want to have hose clamps for attaching the drain hose, and some plumbers strap to secure that hose.
A few simple tools and a couple of specialty items are all you’ll need to complete this install. Again, your repair tool box should have a variety of screwdrivers, pliers and an adjustable wrench. If you don’t have wire strippers, make the investment, you’ll thank me later!
A power cordless drill will make the job easier. You’ll need a 2 inch hole cutter as well. If using copper tubing, you’ll want to have bending springs and a tube cutter (close quarter is preferred). Rubber or plastic tubing? You should be fine without investing in the pipe tools.
Connect your water supply line to the angle stop, or the “faucet” under the sink. Run your supply through the cabinet wall hole you drill there. If your electrical is coming from under the sink, it’s advisable to run through it’s own hole.
With the 2 lines now into empty appliance cavity, measure how much line you’ll need to connect to the water inlet and the electrical connection box. Don’t hesitate to gently tip the dishwasher forward to gain better access to the bottom of the appliance. From this position you can ensure the inlet fitting and electrical connections are secured. If you’re using copper tubing, leave a few inches past the inlet location, use a curving spring to bend the tube to the fitting.
Open the electrical box and run in your 3 wires: white, black and green with about 3/8 of an inch stripped. Using wire nuts, connect the 3 feed wires to their corresponding appliance lines. Replace the metal box cover, and ensure you’ve affixed the electrical feed line to the back wall.
Attach the drain line at the dishwasher side; secure with a hose clamp. Snake this line through at least a 2 inch hole into the under sink area. Clamp the end of the drain line to the inlet of your garbage disposal, or the sink’s tail piece and be sure to tighten the hose clamp to prevent leakage of discarded dish water.
Push the dishwasher all the way until the closed front is flush with the other cabinet doors. Using a small “torpedo” style level, make sure the dishwasher is level by adjusting one or both of the feet in front (they usually screw up and down.) With the dishwasher in place and level, insert small screws into the built in tabs just under the counter creating a stable connection between the top of the dishwasher and the underside of the counter.
Turn on your water supplies and check fittings. Give them some time, as a build up in pressure sometimes works out leaks. When you are certain all is dry, plug in or make your electrical connection and run a test cycle. Continue to check your water feed and intakes as well as the drain hose clamps on the appliance and under your sink.
Finally, if your model has a kick plate, insert it into place, tighten the install screws, and enjoy your new dishwasher. Take pride in the expert installation job and be happy with your water and energy savings.

Twitter, originally uploaded by willnorris.

Has twitter always had the “blog this” option right from their web pages? I thought at one point I had added a GreaseMonkey script that would allow that to happen.

Anyway, this image was captured by our friend Will Norris, just to show his gratitude at my tweet of exactly 140 characters. Unfortunately, most of those characters were not broken by spaces, causing any page that my tweet showed up on to be jacked all to hell!

Taking bets on how long it takes the great folks at Twitter to fix this with an overflow: hidden in their css (or some other equally groovy solution)

Geesh, and I was just trying to be me. At least I’m not known as Glitch, hey Joseph?

http://JosephCizek.info

Posting this under Are You Healthy because they say laughter is the best medicine!
The guy really does need to calm down!
Thanks Jason!

and then you want to probably buy the book. This was a very light and fun way to spend 5 minutes. Give it a whirl, and then let our readers know your thoughts on the site concept, the book, whatever!

My Suburban was ready to start getting packed. I had retrieved my 6’x12′ open box trailer from the welder (where repairs to the tongue had been made). As I was backing, backing and rebacking the trailer down my steep front drive towards my garage, I suddenly heard something different sound-wise coming from under the hood.
Now you have to understand that while I’m no rocket scientist, most of the operations of a motor vehicle are pretty straight forward from a common sense, mechanical point of view. Complications do arise with computer interactions and what not, but the “mechanical” aspects of how motors operate have essentially stayed the same since Ford started the wheels a rollin.
Anyways, after popping the hood I discover that all of my power steering fluid is coating the interior of my engine space (and subsequently dripping down the driveway of the house I am trying to move out of and sell :'(
So, being the “save a buck” and “do it yourself, like real men do” kind of guy that I am, I went to Kragen’s (my favorite autoparts store). They are usually very helpful, and the individuals I usually consult with were not in that day so I went it alone. Purchasing what I figured were adequate parts, I went home to make the repair. What I hadn’t accounted for was the 1500 to 2000 psi of pressure that is exerted through the power steering hose and how that would simply blow through the rubber repair patch that I had painstakingly applied.
Well, at this point my options were to buy a kit for $10 or so that calls for cutting the high pressure hose, inserting a male:male fitting into the two cut ends of the hose and clamping it down on both sides, or I could go to the local mechanic that I trust, by the way, and see what it would take to get the right part installed.
As fate would have it all it “took” was $69.90 parts and labor and about an hour and a half of my time. I value my time pretty highly, so let’s just say that the entire “job” cost me in the neighborhood of $250. But that $69.90 cash out of my pocket is so incredibly worth the piece of mind that I won’t have to think about it as I make the 1,000 mile trip from NorCal to AZ late next week (pulling a trailer, no less!)
Have you had auto repair scenarios like the above? I often repair my own vehicles and do most of the maintenance work on them as well. Makes me feel more connected and in touch with the mechanical aspects of how they are running at any given moment. But I have more stories like the above, as I bet you do as well. I’d love to hear some of your stories of how you discovered that spending just a few dollars was so much more effective than doing it yourself. Please share!
~Go Boldly!

This is precisely the spirit of sharing that we love at Boldly Going, and Tom has created the sort of company and powered it with the vision to give, and do great things as a result of the companies success. If you have a couple of moments check out the promotional video embedded below, and then join us in purchasing your next pair of shoes from Tom’s Shoes!
TOMS Shoes
And if anyone has a pair, share with the rest of us what the experience was like for you, how the shoes are, and generally how you felt about the process. Thanks!

I know I saw this elsewhere before, but it hit my radar again thanks to studentlinc via LifeHacker.

The concept is elegant and simple: (1) Call Jott from your phone. (2) Speak a message to “me” (yourself) or to a person on your contact list. (3) Jott converts your spoken message as a text message, and sends it to the recipient’s phone and/or e-mail account.

I really like this idea because I like text messaging, but hate composing a text message (I know, it’s an artform that takes time and paitence, and any 12 year-old punk out there could be the Texting Master to me, the Carpal Tunnel Padawan….).  Using Jott.com, I can speak my message, it gets sent in the format I was after, and I don’t blow 10 minutes of my life.

One issue I did note is that test messages I created to 24 – 28 minutes to get transcribed by the system, and sent out.  Maybe I’m just used to everthing being at “Web speed” – as in, any wait is too long.

I plan on trying Jott out when I’m walking or hiking, since I haven’t figure out how to secure a notepad or laptop to myself when out – but that’s when I do my best thinking.

 lifehacker.com

studentlinc.net

Eating out is over as we now know it. According to the report today by LIBBY QUAID, AP Food and Farm Writer (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak), Chinese Restaurant Food Draws Criticism.
Seems that those pesky small business entrepreneur (who this time happen to be the owner/operators of Chinese food restaurants) are really sticking it to the rest of us when it comes to the food on our plates. Apparently, when we are ordering Chinese take out, thinking to ourselves, “Mmmm, delicious and healthy” we are really only getting “Delicious”! Quaid, or someone had the nerve, the audacity to actually do some studies of the nutritional content of the yummy food in those little take out containers.
Low and behold! They are chock full of calories, fat, sodium, (not to mention, taste, fun, memories of romantic meals by the fireplace…oh, sorry 😉 ). And to be fair, the article also mentioned pretty much every other restaurant you could go to is in the same boat. Ironically, what the report didn’t talk about, likely for fear that we’d all mutiny is the ALL YOU CAN EAT buffets.
Honestly, that’s where the problem is. I am a firm believer that you can eat whatever the heck you want as long as there is some moderation. Now, not sure about you, but Friday Night Fights comes on, long week, particularly hard session at the day job, and I’m ready to seriously hurt that (HUGE) order of Chicken Chow Fun (yeah, they really came down on noodles :'( ) and knock down a beer or three!
So the problem comes not from the fact that there is so much fat and sodium in the plate of food they are serving, but the fact that the serving is bigger than the plate! How many times have you heard someone recommend a place to eat that really “gives you your moneys worth”? A lot.
Oh, and those three beers I had with the Chow Fun did very little for my health in two ways:

1. They were not the no/low calorie (aka, no/low taste) beers! They had some flava!
2. The effect of the alcohol, whether we want to admit it or not, affects our physical ability to stop the fork to mouth action. Well, it does for me, anyways!

Moderation then seems to be the name of the game. Discipline from the perspective of eating when you are truly hungry. And that’s not easy. Breakfast, lunch, dinner. Eat everything on your plate, blah, blah, blah (sorry Mom!) But if your body is telling you to eat. Eat. When you’ve satiated your hunger, stop. Definitely easier said than done.
And if it is Friday Night (or Saturday night) and there’s some good fights on, moderation and discipline are going to be that much harder. But then one or two nights a week are better than 5 or six. Right?