Gmailevolent

I recently ditched Apple's Mail program for Gmail once I found out that I could forward all of my email to that address and it would automatically set me to that address on replies. This works rather well for most things, except when I want to send a second reply. Whatever figures out which email to use only looks at the "To:" area from the previous email, even if I sent it. This led me to email someone an addendum from a different address. I'm sure that was confusing.

Links are Fixed

I fixed the links to the larger-sized pictures.

Cabin Work With Pictures

I spent five days in Canada with Nate and Joe. While there, we worked to fix up the guest cabin that was infested with ants, mold, and rot. We had thought it was only affecting a single part of the building, but there were still a lot of ants in the other part, but they should be gone now. I've got pictures to share:

We started by ripping a big hole in the wall. A lot of the support beams along with the outer wall were rotted or filled with ants, so we ripped it apart.

We also revealed some problems on the inside of the cabin. The two left pictures are of a rotted and and-ridden support beam. This beam requires replacement, which requires replacement of the entire roof. The roof could use it, though, since it sags horribly. Also there were live ants everywhere. After we cleared out the interior, we fogged the place to find piles of ants on the floor the next day.

While we ripped out the outerwall, we noticed the beams underneath a window were falling apart, so we replaced all of the wood around it. The last picture shows the final product.

We also ripped all the interior off, including the trim and the old desk that was nailed to the wall. All usable materials ended up piled in the corner, while the rest of the wood made a good-sized burn pile.

We did other things, such as split wood, eat food, or go hiking and falling in order to get nasty cuts on our thumbs (just me, really).

Since there were no girls around, we took the opportunity to grow our beards for the week. We did not fare so well. I'll need some thickening of the beard before I can really get the grad-student look.

A Little Project

1. I bought a laptop bag in Japan that had a slot for the handle of some rolling luggage.
2. I inherited the rear-wheel bike rack from the bike my little brother wrecked last summer.
3. I spend an hour in my dad's wood shop building an addition to the rack that holds my laptop bag.

Check it out. The bolts are now cut short and I plan to paint it black and round off the corners, but the idea is there.



I'm currently working on a tutorial on instructables which will be linked later.

Home Ending

In the next few days, I will be leaving home for a few new places. First, going up to the cabin in Canada to fix up a failing cabin. Then, I'll alternate between visiting the fiancée in Kansas City and studying for qualification exams in Lincoln. I'll be driving a lot and studying a lot. The first part involves no internet, so I will not be able to post. Entertain yourself elsewhere.

Jell-O? Or not, Jell-O?

I am really bored and need to do something active. The best idea I could devise was making pudding. However, the pudding box I have been saving since last summer expired in March. I'm going to try it, anyway. How can pudding powder go bad?

What kind of hick town is this?

I had a hankering to have a beer while typing up my math notes (I have already highlighted the material, I just need to copy it down), so I biked to the single liquor store in town. Apparently, it closes at 8:30, unless it's Friday or Saturday and it stays open until 10:00! What kind of a hick town doesn't have continual access to alcohol?

Google, Analyzing

I just signed up for Google Analytics so I can get better information on my traffic than my hosting service provides. Also, if I choose to do my own hosting someday, this information will carry over.

The process involved adding a few lines of Javascript to the template, so if you don't like Big Brother spying on you, you should just stop reading my blog. Of course, it will just track when you come here, and won't track who you are, just how many of you there are.

School's over! School has just begun!

This weekend, I had the difficult task of packing all of my junk into a 5-by-10 storage unit or an SUV and drive back home in those storms that hit the midwest. That was difficult enough. However, now that I am home, unemployed, and "bored" I can focus on my qualification exams coming up at the end of May.

I am attempting two exams: Algebra and Discrete. For a glimpse at what I will be doing, see a list of recent exams. In an effort for frantic studying, I am reviewing the textbooks and putting the facts in a compact list. A "study guide" if you will. I will be updating these daily, but I thought I could put a few links up for tracking progress:

Algebra study guide - I am starting over from the beginning. For the last semester's, see 818 Study Guide.
Combinatorics study guide - The first half of discrete, taken from the Cameron text.
Graph Theory study guide - The second half of discrete, taken from the West text.

My hopeful schedule is to tackle a chapter a day from each book. After that is completed, I will start working the previous quals and annotating the notes as necessary.

Famous on the Internets: Part Deux

Apparently, people really like the Code Monkey video. Some like it so much, they don't want other things distracting them. Thanks for the links, Henry and Tim.