jeremyrandall / blog /

I love hardware stores. I find it kind of amazing that they have so many fun, interesting, cool and unexpected items; that I can buy a single bolt or enough wiring and pipes to do up an entire house. There are three hardware stores near my apartment — four if you count the one that is on the next hill over. I like going to them and looking for project ideas. Sometimes it’s just hooks or picture hangers, sometimes it’s shelves or organizers, sometimes it’s a new idea for lighting or electrical projects and sometimes it’s coming up with a creative way to make toys and inventions out of common household items. I really like coming up with ways to store and organize things, clean, decorate, try new lighting or just manage the recycling and trash better. I like to do things that enhance my apartment without adding clutter, of course.

Last week I went to the hardware store and found a bunch of fastening gear for a home project I was finishing up. It usually takes me a couple trips since I tend to figure some of it as I go. That’s why the hardware store two blocks from my place is a good starting point. Of course it’s certainly no burden to walk another five or seven blocks to see if I can find the right items at one of the other two nearby stores (the fourth hardware store is eleven or twelve blocks away, which is still along a regular walking route, but doesn’t have the same “in my neighborhood” feel).

There are coffee shops and restaurants, a movie theater that plays indie flicks and a Good Vibes near my house and my hardware stores. Plus an odd grocery store that has fancy individual cakes (which I get once in a blue moon for a treat to share). Almost all of them are local businesses, not chains. I love my neighborhood.

This morning we went to the hardware stores and found hooks and tape, light bulb sensor switches, chains and ropes and odds and ends to finish up the projects we started from the bag of items we bought a couple weeks ago. Rubber dipping proved to be an interesting way to add a handle to an existing item. Arts and crafts day for grownups, with a nap thrown in for good measure. It was a gorgeous sunny day, just like yesterday when we walked along the Wharf and rode the cable car back up the hill. I never rode the cable cars before I started living near them with a monthly Muni pass; they get the tourists to pay five dollars one-way, no transfers.

I love August in the Bay Area. The weather is great, there’s lots to do and the sun comes up early and goes down late. It’s my favorite month.

We took the ferry out Angel Island a couple weeks ago to go hiking. I had done the perimeter road in the past, but this was the first time I had climbed to the top. I’m usually an urban hiker, but there are trees and dirt trails just a boat ride away. We plowed up the hill like billy goats; the view was gorgeous at the top. We sat and ate our energy bars and drank our protein drinks, then headed down the other side and back to the ferry boat. Walker, hiker, urban foot-transit enthusiast. I chuckle when I see the Segway groups near Aquatic Park; do we really need vehicles that mimic walking?

It’s slowing down here. The crowds at the Wharf and Union Square are thinning out. I guess the kids are back in school or something. September and October are greats months here too, especially for the locals. I’m done with today’s chores, cleaning my apartment, screwing in hooks, taking things out and adding things in. Until the next hike to the hardware stores, of course.

Plus some New Year’s resolutions…

Technology

When I bought my primary Mac a while back, I decided that I was going to treat it as a sort of “home production server,” meaning I wouldn’t use it to try beta software, I wouldn’t repartition the disk, I wouldn’t do things to mess it up and, thus, I wouldn’t need to reinstall the OS after some unnecessary technological debacle (I have other computers that I use for testing, experimenting and messing things up). But over time this computer started to degrade as some applications came and went and various parts saw incremental upgrades, and one not-so-incremental upgrade; for the sake of convenience I did an in-place upgrade to 10.5 instead of doing a clean install. Sure, all my stuff was intact, but performance and overall reliability went down, of course.

Last night I decided to bite the bullet and do a clean install. I run backups every night, so I made sure the backup data was valid, then started formatting. Everything went great and the machine was running perfectly after installing the OS and various universal binaries of the applications I use. Then I realized that I didn’t have any of the iLife apps that came preinstalled originally (iPhoto being the only one that is particularly important to me). I did some searching around and found that I could install the older iLife apps from the OS disc that originally came with the machine. I fired up that installation and everything was fine until it crashed unexpectedly. And brought the whole system down with it. The internal hard drive was totally corrupted! I booted from the CD and ran Disk Utility. It took three tries and then it claimed the massive amounts of corruption had been fixed. I went to start up the machine and, well, it’s not coming up at all. Here we go again.

The positive things: my backups are solid (as expected, using a shell script created before Time Machine was an option), it was pretty painless to import my database backups back into MySQL and it was a snap to configure apache2 for the webapps I use locally. I get to run through this whole routine again, which is good practice. And once I get this rig done up again, I expect performance and reliability to be back on track.

Update: I did another full rebuild, reinstalled all my apps and copied all of my data back, only to have the machine freeze up and refuse to boot again. Time to try TechTool and then go to a diagnostics appointment; the machine is still under AppleCare.

On another note, my boss bought me one of the new thin aluminum Apple Keyboards to use at work (I thought he was just being nice; turns out I was typing really loud on the old clackety keyboard); I liked it so much I bought one for myself to use at home. Excellent keyboard.

Travel

I did a small amount of travel over the holidays, both by train and by plane. I like train trips since I don’t have to deal with the airport, I can move around freely while en route and, most importantly, I can bring a laptop and write. Life has been so busy lately that having a day riding the rails meant I had a day to write and reflect. I wrote over 5,000 words on the train, examining my year and my accomplishments, looking at patterns I have been repeating and working out the things I’d like to keep doing and the things I need to change or stop doing. There are some hard decisions there, but that’s what taking an objective look at myself is all about. I was also able to see some amazing scenery and see how the train winds its way down a particularly tall mountain pass.

The plane ride was pleasant; I chatted the entire time with an interesting couple sitting next to me. We had a remarkably broad conversation for three people who had just met.

The silly moment was before the flight, at the security check, when they pulled my bags for a secondary search. I hadn’t even thought that my tube of toothpaste would be a problem, but it was more than the three ounce limit. I think that limit is ridiculous (as is removing our shoes), but I also know that it’s just not worth arguing about. I just quietly said, “okay, you can keep the toothpaste.” The security woman looked at me with compassion and asked if I’d like her to squeeze some of the toothpaste into a plastic ziplock bag so I could have a little with me to brush my teeth later. I thought that was nice of her, though it occurred to me later that since she believed it was actually toothpaste, and was willing to give some back, then why not let me keep all of it? I figure we were both doing our parts to act sane, within the confines of the insanity imposed around us.

Transit

I got a chance last week to ride the double decker bus that Muni is testing out. It’s nice and clean, and the view from upstairs is interesting. The ceiling on the top level is pretty low, so heads will be bumped. The bus itself felt responsive and didn’t seem to strain under the load. I did notice that it has double axles at the back; I’m assuming that is to carry what must be much more weight than a regular bus carries. I’m curious how these buses compare, weight-wise and fuel efficiency-wise, to the long articulated buses that are used on many of the routes.

I think that an electric trolley-bus version of the double decker would be needed here in SF; we should be lessening the amount of diesel burned here, not increasing it.

Weather

Someone recently said, snarkily, that I “just write about the weather” here. I disagree. The weather is a handy way to mark changes, and the changes in the weather often remind me of the passage of time and prompt me to write a little something here. But the weather is in the background, helping me set a tone for the limited writing I do in this space. I’d like to think that someone who thinks I just write about the weather is someone who is not really paying much attention to what I’m saying. That being said, it’s 45 degrees Fahrenheit right now. To me that is really cold! I am so grateful for the double-paned windows, the radiator and the new boiler down in the basement, firing with half the gas consumption of the old one.

Work

I have some interesting projects underway at work. The big ongoing project has been rebuilding the core network, moving everything to new equipment, renumbering the network with new subnets and moving machines around. All without the folks using those systems noticing. It’s sort of like the way Caltrans is rebuilding the bay bridge and approaches; they build around the old and then move the traffic back and forth, all without shutting down the roads. Caltrans has closed the bridge a couple times, but I’ve avoided any prolonged outages. We’ve migrated from one firewall to another and moved the core switching to a new “layer 3 switch” (layer 3 switching is still so cool). There was about 30 seconds of downtime when we switched traffic over to the new firewall. I’ve been joking that we scheduled it for when the CEO was in his car for the ten-minute drive between the office and his house. It did take some time to migrate some IPSec tunnels to the new firewall, but those tunnels are for specific traffic, not general access.

Design

I’m rooting through my list of art and design projects, looking to pick out a couple small projects I can fit in here and there, scoping some medium projects to make them more manageable and doing some preliminary planning for a larger remodel-type project that may get underway later in the year.

Social

I already have plans into the first couple weeks of the new year. Community, seeing friends, helping folks when I can, enjoying people and being enjoyed; that’s what it’s all about.

I’ve been posting short status updates fairly regularly on Facebook; if you know me in person, please add me to your friends list there.

I’ll be attending the usual events and look forward to seeing folks and catching up.

New Year’s resolutions

I actually have New Year’s resolutions to exercise more, eat more vegetables, lower my fat intake, rest more and pay more attention to healthy choices, physically and emotionally. Delightfully outrageous, indeed.

I’m totally happy to be making some real progress on decluttering and organizing. Not that my place is some packrat hovel to start with, but it’s amazing how much stuff can pile up over even a small amount of time.

I’ve been reading Apartment Therapy and have embarked on one of the first projects recommended in that book: creating a landing strip. The idea is to have a system in the entryway to deal with coats and bags, to sort mail and to put away things like keys and cell phones. Basically, none of the carry-in items should continue into the living space.

My entryway is small, so I needed to come up with ways to fit things in, with a goal of leaving the entryway open with nothing on the floor. After some searching, sketching and playing with ideas, I decided to (a) use the back of the door for coats and bags, (b) sort mail on the side of the shelving unit next to the door and (c) store shoes on or at the inside wall across from the door.

I found the first pieces to make this plan work at the Container Store. I installed two of their brushed metal coat racks on the back of the door, one at the top and one midway. Now I can hang a bunch of coats, sweatshirts, bags and outgoing laundry (headed to the cleaners) on the door. Nothing on the floor.

I found a solution to the mail sorting problem, as well as a place for keys, phone, etc., at the Container Store as well. They sell a “Fabric Wall-Mounted Magazine Organizer” that has four pockets. I adapted it to mount on the side of the bookshelf next to the door, with the first pocket holding keys and phone (plugged into its charger), the second pocket for personal and social mail, the third pocket for bills and financial mail and the fourth pocket for magazines, catalogs and entertainment mail. Items in the fourth pocket cycle into the recycle bin, sometimes directly.

When I came home the first evening after setting this all up, I was amazed how everything did, in fact, have a place to go and nothing followed me in further. Everything is in a known place to be dealt with and recycled out as needed. It’s sweet.

The last part of the entryway is dealing with shoes. Right now they all sit across from the door; I am still deciding whether to put a regular shoe rack there or install one of the wall-mounted “TRONES” systems from IKEA.

On the decluttering front, I made a pass through my books and pulled out about 25 of them, which I then gave away via Craigslist, and another 20 or so that went from the bookshelves to the storage room downstairs (tech/work books that I’m not using now, but may need again in the future). Letting go of that first batch is making it easier to make additional passes and remove more. It feels really liberating.

I did a pass through the kitchen as well, moving things that were on top of the fridge, or on the counters, in to the lower cabinets. Now the whole kitchen is clear and looks even tidier than before.

Finally, another tip from Apartment Therapy: each week I am buying fresh flowers to liven up my apartment and treat it well and with respect. The flowers add a splash of organic texture, color and scent which adds even more life to my living space!

There seems to be a growing number of people, tools and sites dedicated to “getting things done,” a term which seems to encompass not just the actual trademarked “Getting Things Done” (or “GTD”) system developed by David Allen, but more general lifestyle organization tips and tricks.

I love these kinds of things. I’m all about finding ways to organize, reduce clutter, get work done and find ways to make my living spaces both cozy and coherent. I’ve recently started reading sites like Life Hacker (it’s rad) and 43 Folders; their ideas fuel my ideas, which is a sort of creative high that really hits a sweet spot for me.

Where I have trouble, though, is learning about and adhering to strict methods of execution. Although I crave organizational tools, I avoid committing to them because, perhaps, I don’t want to feel locked in to one system where I can’t be creative and flexible and spontaneous. I find myself starting books like The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People or Getting Things Done — finding them very engaging and thinking they make loads of sense — but not finishing the books or working the methods presented. I love the idea of being adept at change, but I struggle to actually be someone who can change quickly.

So my goal right now is to finish the books and implement some of these processes so I can accomplish more of the things I want to do.

Note: I’ve started adding lifestyle/organization sites to this blog’s links section.