Dan Krill's BLOG on BinaryBedlam - Opinions, Rants, Comments, Notes, and Realizations

Clapton Daltrey Concert
February 28, 2010 03:21:37 PM

     Last night we went to the Eric Clapton and Roger Daltrey concert and it was pretty freaken sweet! For Valentine's Day Khine got us the tickets and I'm so glad she did. I've been living in Nashville, Music City, for about 3 years now and I've still never gone to any concerts. Well not any more, and boy was this a good first one. So Daltrey, the lead singer from the Who, sang first for about an hour. He sang about half and half of solo stuff and Who stuff. I remember he opened with, I can see for miles, and closed with Baba O'Reilly (Teenage Wasteland). Clapton was on a little longer and played mostly his newer jazzy blues material, which I wasn't as familiar with, but he also played, Cocaine, Layla, Shot the Sheriff, and a few other classics. He performed in three segments, electric, then acoustic, the electric again.
     Despite the distant seats and the no-camera rule, it was still a great concert, Daltrey still has so much energy on stage! I mean it sure was a treat to see them live! I was at least able to snap off a few low res pics with my phone.

Outsourcing
February 26, 2010 03:47:33 PM

     What is it with big companies outsourcing so often these days? Now I understand why they do it, because it saves them money to pay some other company rather than paying out high salaries and benefits themselves, but I think a lot of places are going a little overboard. And in certain cases it's just plain inappropriate.
    Just the other day I found out that a company I've been working with for a year and a half just up and decided to outsource their entire engineering Dept. Now I wasn't going to use specifics, but Bristol Myers Squibb, the huge honkin pharmaceutical company, just build a plant in MA and I've been working with their engineering crew to get the place operational. Over the course of that time we've developed good working relationships and understanding with those people, and now suddenly they're about to get shit canned for a bunch of HS dropouts who probably won't even know how to execute a closed circuit transition.
    Now I might be speaking from a slightly biased position because I liked those guys and I feel really bad for them moving up there only to be fired a year and a half later, but realistically, isn't this a case where you would want knowledgeable qualified people? I mean it seems to me you would want good stable workers who know their equipment in the department responsible for keeping the facility afloat. Putting a bunch of under paid uneducated out-sourced people who don't care about the very system they're assigned to is simply setting themselves up for their own failure, and for what, a few extra thousand a year? It’s like they don’t even care about their own quality or efficiency. That's pretty crappy if you ask me.

Snow 2010
February 14, 2010 02:39:25 PM

It finally happened! Since I keep moving further and further south, I was starting to think I'd never see a large snow fall again. But after living here in TN for almost 3 years now, we finally had our first significant snow fall, about 7 inches! Not too bad considering the locals say they only see around 5in accumulations once about every 5 years. After the bulk of it fell, the precipitation starting turning to freezing rain, so the next morning there was a hard icy layer ontop of the snow, perfect for sledding. Now if only we had a real sled! Or if only places around here sold sleds (you can't even find snow shovels!) Khine and I tried to sled on it with various items, dry erase boards, plastic-crate lids, cardboard, but they all sunk down as soon as we sat on them, oh well, we were at least able to have a snow ball fight.
Back home, in Pennsylvania, they're getting record amounts of snowfall themselves! Almost over night they got between 2 and 3 feet of snow, twice! There's supposedly a third storm of equal strengh moving in, and only a few days after the other blasts! They will be up to their heads in snow, and I'm missing it :-(

X-mas Break 09
January 05, 2010 09:24:11 AM

     Just got back from the winter vacation and am already back at work. It went soo fast! We had a jam packed schedule the entire time. Khine and I left TN for effectively the entire break; x-mas eve until the Sunday night before the first full week in January. We both flew into MD, I was in PA the whole time and she was in VA for a few days visiting her aunt and then joined me later. We spent x-mas day at mom’s, dad’s, Brandon’s, and Khine’s Aunt’s. Through out the week we also had separate dinners with My Aunt Tammy, Grandma, an evening with Grandpa, lunch with the LaMontagne’s, a little bridal shower for Khine (where I got to meet up with some cousins I hadn’t seen in a long while), a few nights out to the movies with some friends, and an interesting night at Kurzik’s new place in Carlisle with the Beatles Rock Band after dinner at Round O’ Clock.
     For New Years, Khine and I went to downtown RedLion to watch the Cigar Rise. Afterwards we hung out with the Darby’s, Janet and Andrew, Don, and Vince the bike guy. That was a certainly an illuminating evening. We never even had time to go to LBC this year, we just had too much scheduled :-(
     The day we were finally to go home ended up being spent almost entirely at the airport. We got there really early because we kept hearing that the security would be off the wall since that guy tried to blow up a plane with his underwear just after x-mas day. Well the lines weren’t too bad (about 1.25 hours wait) but since we tried to check in more than 4 hours before our flight, they wouldn’t take our luggage, so we had to come back to the ticket line 1.5 hours later and then check in again. When we were finally inside the Terminal, we found that our plane was delayed. So basically we left home at 12:30, got to the airport at 2, and didn’t even get into the air until 9pm.
     We’re now home from a 2 week vacation, and I’m about ready for another vacation.

          ==> You can see the Photo Album HERE

Halloween 2009
November 09, 2009 01:06:18 PM

Each year one of my colleagues, Mellisa Jenkins, hosts a huge Halloween party at her house. Everyone at work is invited and hundreds show, yet it's not a company event. Any ways, this year, Khine and I finally dressed to match. Can you guess which famous duo we are supposed to be? Clue: under the vest my shirt reads: 'IMAGINE'.

Vacation 2009 ; Engagement
September 12, 2009 11:03:58 PM

     For our official vacation this year we decided to head down to Panama City Beach for the week following Labor Day. From Nashville it's about an 8.5 hour drive if you go non-stop, but we ended up doing a bunch of site-seeing along the way. We went to Chattanooga to see Ruby Falls in the limestone caverns of Lookout Mountain, Huntsville to see the US Space & Rocket Center, and Birmingham to just look around. Once in Panama City we were able to stay at a beach resort for the week for free because of my collected travel points from work.
     Besides all the other typical beach stuff you do at a beach, this trip was extra special, I proposed! Khine and I are finally engaged! And yes, I used a robot to deliver the ring :-) Hey, it's me, it had to be original. Right after, completely unexpectedly, fireworks were being set off over the ocean to celebrate Labor Day. It was so perfect!
     While there We also went Para-sailing (they kept us in the bay, we didn't get to go over the ocean, but it was still a blast), learned how to properly eat crabs at Dirty Dicks, ate the best oysters in the south at Shuckums, ate and drank authentic German food at the Hofbrauhaus, visited the Museum of Man Under the Sea where we saw the actual original SeaLab, and got pretty good tans with out any ridiculous burns!

               See all the Photos HERE!!

Disney Buys Marvel
September 01, 2009 09:34:21 AM

Now here is something to get upset about! I was just sipping my coffee and reading Slashdot this morning and stumbled upon this coffee-spitting article:

Disney Buys Marvel For $4B
'Disney has announced they will be purchasing Marvel. Building on its strategy of delivering quality branded content to people around the world, The Walt Disney Company has agreed to acquire Marvel Entertainment, Inc. in a stock and cash transaction, the companies announced today.'

-Slashdot

This is just crazy, I mean I didn't even know they were looking to sell, and of all the people to sell to, Disney? JEEZE! What now, IronMan on Ice? SpiderMan Vs The Little Mermaid? Awful!

Pickled Peppers
August 09, 2009 10:46:33 PM

     It never ocured to me when I first planted my jalapeno pepper plants that jalapenos by them selves actually aren't that great. Like, even if you have a really high tolerance to spicy foods, they're not something you just want to eat raw, they just don't taste that good, largely due to their absence of sugars. Sure you can cook with them to add spice to things, but otherwise I don't think they have a lot of uses. UNLESS... you pickle them!
     I can't believe I never knew this, but the jalapenos you eat in salads, on your nachos, in your subs, they're pickled, not raw. So of course I read about pickling, developed a recipe and gave it a try.
     I didn't have a lot of jalapenos so I threw in a green pepper too. It's remarkably simple, below is the recipe and pictures of the progress.

Krill's Pickled Pepper Recipe
     1)Boil the mason jar while completing the following steps.

     2)Boil in pan:
         3 cups white vinegar
         1 cup water
         1/2 cup sugar

     3)Remove the jar from the boiling water with tongs.

     4)Add to mason jar:
         1 tablespoon diced garlic cloves (for aroma)
         the sliced peppers packed tightly (so they don't float like mine did)

     5)Pour the pickling solution over the peppers up to 1 inch from the top.

     6)Seal the jar. (as it cools the lid button will pop down)

     NOTES: * Pickled and ready to eat in 1 to 2 weeks.
                    * Has a shelf life of over a year.


Just after Jarring.	After one week.

Buy & Sell Metal
July 29, 2009 09:44:38 AM

     You wouldn't believe how hard it is to find a metal scrap yard that will sell! Just about all the ones I've found around here only buy. Apparently you need a different license for both selling and buying and it just isn't worth it to renew the selling license.
     It wasn't until after fighting with this one lady at a scrap yard who wouldn't give me a single inch of aluminum after driving 30 miles and even calling in first, that I found this out! (So never go to Gray's Scrap Iron & Metal or Auto Parts in LaVergne, they will tell you one thing on the phone and flat out treat you like shit when you get there).
     It all turned out for the best though, I ended up finding a place that both buys and sells, and they have a huge selection. Auto Express Recyclers, also near LaVergne, has a metal division and they have great prices. I was able to pick up 2 arm fulls of aluminum square stock and it only cost me $4! If I bought the same gauge aluminum in this amount at Lowe's, it would have easily been well over $300 as they chage $19.99 for each piece!

     Here are some prices:

          You sell to them:
               tin cans = $0.065 / lb
               soda cans = $0.40 / lb

          You buy from them:
               aluminum = $0.50 / lb

Golf Ball
July 28, 2009 08:52:08 PM

     Can't say I've ever had this happen before. I had just picked up the rental car from the airport. This being still in Nashville, by the way. I was heading out for a long drive to Owensboro Kentucky for a job. Only a few miles from the airport, while I was driving North on Briley Parkway in front of the Oprymills Mall, I thought I saw a white object bounce over my car, then a moment later I hear something smash into the car. It all happened so fast. My first reaction was I just hit some trash or something. There was no damage to the hood or windshield, so I didn't think anything of it.
     A day later, I'm outside the hotel on my cell phone just sort of pacing around my car. It was then I noticed something odd about the headlight. Not only was there a golf ball sized hole in it, there was a golf ball in it! To make it even odder, I reached in with my fingers and fished out the ball. Written on it with a sharpie was the greek letter 'Omega'!
     I guess I was the victim of a kid's prank or some sort of gang crime. Oh well, luckily no one was hurt, I mean if that had gone through someone's windshield or if someone tried to dodge it, who knows what could have happened. What I do know is that it caused a few hundred dollars worth of damage to my rental. Thank goodness my company's insurance covered it.

          Here is the damage ==>

Thingyan Water Festival 09
June 14, 2009 10:09:19 PM

In Burmese tradition, every year in April (June when celebrated in the US because April is typically too cold), there is a 4 day water festival called Thingyan to celebrate the new lunar year. Khine was told by a friend at work that there is a small gathering and festival held for Thingyan here in Nashville, so we thought we'd check it out. It was pretty neat. There was lots of vendors selling Burmese products, plenty of traditional food stands, and a stage with live music. Not too much splashing or spraying, though. According to Khine, in Burma, its customary to squirt or water balloon anyone you see weather you know them or not. All in all, it was pretty neat to get a taste of Khine's culture and to see her speaking and interacting with other Burmese people.

Check out the Photo Album HERE!

Sneaky Cop Cars
June 04, 2009 09:40:43 AM

Now I've seen undercover cop cars before, but this is a whole new level of tricky. Usually the under-cover cars are still identifiable, like they'd have govt issued tags, no hub caps, and are always a domestic car. This time, however, I saw a car that I would have never guessed was a cop car. It was an older beat up purple Nissan! Complete with regular TN tags. It was the first time I'd ever seen a non-domestic police car. And I'm sure it was a police cruiser because all it's blinking lights were on and it's owner was busy cuffing a scruffy middle-aged yellow stained wife-beater wearing perp. So be careful who you cut off or zoom past because you never know, it could be a cop!

Citizenship for Khine

May 26, 2009 10:49:39 PM

Visiting Pyae and Andrew in New York
May 25, 2009 12:23:45 AM

     Khine's sister, Pyae, spent her latest semester in New York and wanted us to visit before her exchange program was over as she normally goes to school in Massachusetts. So while in NY, she stayed in a dorm type setting (where she posted Khine and my housing for the trip) which was actually a college funded hotel offering basically all the ammenaties of an upscale resort.
      At about the same time as our visit, Andrew was just getting moved into the city, sort of. He's decided to try being an urban nomad for the summer (aka homeless) to try living with out expenses and to get by on wild vegatation and the earnings from his music. In the evenings, after all the touring and site-seeing, I thought it'd be fun to preform some street entertainment and to see if I could earn any tips, so I joined Andrew and we played some duets. Unfortunately we didn't really get anything, just some about-to-expire subway passes. Oh well, it was probably mostly due to us always playing too late at night and in the wrong locations. Andrew can make some pretty good payoffs sometimes, though, like $5 / 10min.
     While there, we even rented a car for a day and made a road trip all the way up to Pyae's actual college. Once there, while the girls toured the campus, Andrew and I scoped out the surrounding country side. We even found the Caretaker Farm; a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) farm complete with it's own solar array, greenhouses, composting, and animals for complete self-sustainability. After joining back up, we went on some nature hikes and then out for dinner at a Chinese/Japanese restaurant. Right around dusk we headed back to NY, took a short nap, then drove ourselves back to LaGuardia for our flight back to Nashville.

      CHECK OUT THE PICS HERE!

Tick Removal
April 27, 2009 06:26:03 PM

     I seem to be having a lot of incidents with arthropods here lately, what with my Interesting entries on the wasp and the crane fly. Well this time it's not an insect, but an arachnid, a tick to be specific.
     I finally get the ole paint ball gun put together, so Khine and I go out behind our apartment towards the woods to shoot off a few rounds. About a month ago I built a target out of some tin cans, a long piece of metal and some string, so we set it on a log only about 10feet into the woods from the edge of the grass.
     After about 30min or so, when we ran out of paint balls, we cleaned up and headed back to the apartment. Later, when I was getting a shower, I noticed a dark round mark on my upper thigh. After closer inspection, I discovered it was a Tick! I told Khine about it and she was mortified! She had never seen one attached to a human before. And we were both kind of shocked that I had one considering we weren't out very long at all.
     Like most ticks, it was attached pretty good. It was yanking my skin every time we tried to pull it off. Luckily I remembered an old trick I learned from when I was a kid. If you hold a match near them they might loosen up their hold. Well sure enough, it did, and we pulled him right off.

Moral of the story, always check yourself for ticks even if you were only in the woods for a minute.

first		Newer Older		last
page 18 of 28

first		Newer Older		last
page 18 of 28