hp Compaq 6910p

Whenever a model has a p I have a good laugh, I am just juvenile. I upgraded this notebook to Windows 7 Professional, er, strictly speaking, I didn't actually do the upgrade, some Jack did it some time ago, and I am happy to report that he fixed the falling off blue nipple thingy in the middle and the stuck key. So he is the man.

Not too long ago, that's a about a few weeks ago, I noticed the hard drive was overheat most of the time and the fan was spinning like crazy. Loud and crazy. Yesterday I was thinking to upgrade the BIOS. I did a search and was able to locate and download the BIOS. It was surprisingly easy and painless. That is there is no floppy disk, no USB drive, you just did everything within Windows. The instruction could be a little better. It made no mention to Windows 7 at all, though, I went ahead anyway thinking Windows 7 is pretty much just marketing as much as it's an upgrade compared to Vista. I know there is some difference at least the Cisco VPN works so much better in Windows 7 than in Vista. Anyway, the new BIOS seem to have calmed down the harddrive, I can actually put my wrist on the wrist rest where the harddrive is and the fan, though spinning is no where near the decibels it cranked out before. So that's surprising in a very good way.  Let's see how long it can stay this way. Plus after the Win 7 upgrade, the SD drive is totally able to read my humble 8 gb sd card, which it failed to read when on Vista, that led me to believe it was really a driver issue not a hardware issue. I thought the overheat would lead me to dumping it but I guess I will have to keep it for longer now that it's cool and quiet, i.e. relative to the hot and loud before.

Urban Legends

I don't know when these kinds of urban legends would end--I perversely hope they would never end as I find them entertaining, I guess for as long as stupid people live.  I still got emails telling me how racist Tommy Hilfiger is and we should all boycott buying his rags.  I mean I don't know for a fact whether the dude is racist or not.  But the episode described is pure urban legend.  You look at its ads, at least the guy, yeah I know the guy sold his company some time ago to some Hong Kong dude, use a rainbow colors of dudes to sell his stuff, if not for political correct reason at least for good marketing reason or at least care enough to have the politically correct facade.  You look at other high end or not so high end brands at the moment it's all white out.  I don't mean to be overly sensitive or politically correct but recently I think some lifestyle brands have really gone too far, not that I can afford any of their crap anyway.

And then you have the Facebook legend, claiming that you would lose your photos right to advertisers.  Number 1, I am not worried as you know I don't look like Brad Pitt....  Yeah, go ahead protect your pictures as if.

Hurricane Irene

Compared to last year's nameless storm, this Irene is really an non event, at least on my block, not that I am complaining.  The wind is still blowing but the rain has stopped.  Even my basement is dry so that's good.  There are debris, mainly sprigs and fallen tree branches, on the street from the howling wind the night before but that is pretty much it.  Water and power are running normal.  Reporting live from the storm center.

Halved Fig

This fig together with many of its brethren (or should I say sisters?) trespassed to our backyard.  The punishment is severe and swift.  Beheaded, halved and devoured.

Poor Menswear Gets You No Chicks

Wearing an ill fitting suit like that, any sensible, mildly superficial chick won't fall for you.

Reblogged and picture from Edwin Hu  I am so lame I can't even do a proper reblog.  Original picture from cover of the current August 20 Economist, the weekly English magazine, er I mean newspaper ....

Hurricane Irene

This is the Hurricane Irene storm center, for all the news that is not fit to print.

Irene is said, depending on who you ask, to bring 5 to 10 inches of water to the New York metro area.  So don't worry about buying bottled water, you will get plenty of them.

MTA finally got some legitimate reason to shut down its lines, all of them.  Instead of the perennial tired "signal problems,"  they now have hurricane Irene.  It sounds so much more convincing and ominous.

So far it has been pretty quiet before the storm.  There has been some light showers but really nothing to write home about.  It's hot and humid outside.

Hurricane Irene

Category 32 hurricane Irene is going to bear down on New York some time in the weekend.  I don't remember the last time any hurricane hit the city.  When I was in Hong Kong like many decades ago, typhoon was a constant but not so here in NYC.  Anyway.  I guess things will be OKAY.  I am boarding up the windows, loading up my bunker with months long supplies of food, drinking water and Japanese shrimp crackers, and yes ammunition for my handguns and shotguns too just in case NYC sinks into chaos and lawlessness like what happened across the pond.

I am going to test my Bean Gore Tex wading jacket see how it does under the wrath of Irene.  Will keep you posted.

Blundstones

Time to say goodbye. Friday is garbage night.  So it's time.  I will definitely chuck the black ones, the soles are just disintegrating badly.  The brown ones are better so perhaps I will just keep them around. Sent from Yahoo! Mail on Android note: I found out there is some chatter on the sole disintegration, somewhere it says it's called hydrolysis.  For me, the sole didn't get bad until many years of wear so it wasn't exactly a big problem.  But I hate if and when it happens say within the first couple of years or months--that's what I read.  Yeah, this sole turning into cheese is disappointing.  If not because of this, the soles definitely can last a few more years.  When I wore them, I wore them every day.  Of course, Blundstone says nothing to clarify one way or another.

Port Jefferson Marina

Didn't know about the quake until heard it from the radio driving back on 347 on LI. Sent from Yahoo! Mail on Android

Port Jefferson Marina

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Dia: Beacon

Fishkill Farms

Drive-in

Drive in

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America Unsolved Mystery

I am forever intrigued by who actually took the pictures of Cindy Sherman.

Egregious Mistake?

Oh no, we can't afford to have another September 11 in 2011.  What an egregious mistake.  I think I will love the original Polaroid pictures better.  But I am open to like.

EDIT:  OKAY, maybe it's just confusing ... "FACES OF GROUND ZERO, PORTRAITURE OF THE HEROES OF SEPTEMBER 11, 2011"  The "2011" just refers to the present exhibit not part of a date.  That's the only way that makes sense.  But you really have to go the extra mile to interpret it.



via Nikonrumors.com

Fiebing's and Obenauf's

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I pretend I own a horse or a  stable of them ....  I like their smell.

Reconditioned

Previously ...

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Russell Moccasin

Men's Oxford 300-SV

I applied some Pecard Leather lotion on the shoes, soles included before I even wear them. The Pecard smells fantastic. See the common theme, I begin to like leather lotion or preserve kind of smell. Some considers Russell Moccasin on a par with English Church's ... I don't know but I think the material is definitely good but the craftmanship can be of a higher standard, you can call it rustic but I guess you can also call it sloppy. But overall I am happy. Now Church's is totally expensive. I think Prada bought Church's if I am not mistaken. Straight from the horse's mouth. I even like how they spell words wrong. Just shows how un-elitist they are, just endearing ...

Our finest oxford, stylish 4-eyelet design, with straight line quarter. Best grade Spainish[sic] Calf Grain in rich Royal Oak or Black color. Hand sewn toe seams; leather lined quarters; double oak soles and rubber heels. Heel counters.

Restoring my boots and boat shoes

Finally I amassed the basic essentials to "restore" my decade old boots and shoes.  My Georgia boots leather has been pretty much bone dry and on the verge of cracking if I were to leave them as is.  The Timberlands would probably join their deceased brethren in shoes heaven.

My weapons of choice for this minor restoration project are soap and lotion.  It seemed simple enough but I had to wait for 6 months before I got them in the mail.  I cleaned the shoes with soap, let them dry and then applied the lotion.  Structurally the shoes are fine so it's not exactly a restoration other than reconditioning the leather.

Fiebing's Glycerine Saddle Soap.

I gingerly opened the packaging paper box and cut opened the plastic wrap.  And there was this pristine rectangular bar of soap, in all its translucent 7 oz. orange glory.  I wet a piece of rag salvaged from a flannel bed sheet, rubbed it against the soap and then rubbed it against the shoes.  The lather wasn't particularly rich in part I guess I didn't really work it.  But I felt like it was good enough.  The soap had a very pleasant clean smell that's similar to that of my shaving soap, probably both are glycerine based with no scent added.  Even though it says no scent added but I still smell something clean.  Maybe next time I can use this saddle soap to shave.  Or maybe not.  I did this soapy thing late at night and I left the shoes and boots dry overnight in the basement where it's nice and cool.

I thought soap would normally dry out the leather.  But I guess the answer is it really depends on the type of soap.  For glycerine soap, it actually restores the leather and makes it supple.  Good stuff.

Obenauf's Heavy Duty LP

Once the shoes were dry, I applied a coat of this stuff to the leather.  I read that it doesn't have any scent but holy moley I think it has some natural scent that is light and appealing, almost like honey if honey has a smell.  Maybe not artificial scent but it definitely carries some pleasant honey like smell.  My fingers were all smooth, water repellent and smelled fantastic after applying Obenauf's to the shoes.  Yes, I used my bare hand to apply the Obenauf's, showing a lot of love to my old shoes.  I may just apply another coat.

I love my shoes and they love me back (the same cannot be said in other relationships).

Untitled

Some flowers

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Lunch sky

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The Grandmasters

Now I'm still a bit confused with the use plural on the word master but if imdb is any indication, then it's more than one grandmaster, probably two or half a dozen, who knows? The trailer doesn't seem all that promising. First there is this cognitive dissonance between what I see and what I hear. It doesn't sound like Tony Leung talking in Mandarin at all. Or it just means a voice over? Plus I always think the tag line is lame very lame. I get what it's trying to say "all it matters is being the last man standing" but it just totally reduces Kung Fu to street fighting. The minute long trailer is reminiscent of the Matrix finale, down to the green cast. I just hope WKW and his team can bring something new to the genre.  Maybe I am asking too much.

Icecream sundae

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Best wash

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Finedge Ostiso

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