I don’t understand why business want to be like every other business. I was reading a recent Ledger article about rent increases in a building in downtown to meet “market rates”. “Dye said all of this is standard business practice.” That statement ticks me off. I don’t want my business to be “like everyone else” and I strive to be different. If I was like everyone else, then why would my customers bother to use me? Why can’t they just go somewhere else if we are all using the same “business practice” or the same rate. Needless to say, this Dye character will soon be trying to find new tenants and not receiving ANY rent, as they just can’t afford to stay there, or more likely, in business.

Ok, so I have a lot of customers with AOL. Some of them want to get rid of it. So they ask if there is a way to get their favorites out, and their contacts. Nope. AOL does not have an export function so to speak. So I am making one. I discovered you can take your AOL Favorites, and back them up into a “PFC” file. Well, I’ve been looking at this file. The contents is some soft of plain text flatfile database. I’ve found the pattern in the file in the hex code. I should be able to easily write a PHP file that uploads the file, then decodes it, and then can generate either an HTML file to import into Firefox, or a ZIP file containing a bunch of .url files for IE. Then I can develop it into a website so that there is an actual FREE tool for people to do this. Then I will find out more about the AOL Address Book. I don’t see how I could be breaking any law, unless it is the DMCA. I am certainly not breaking any terms with AOL, as I am not an AOL user. The only thing that makes me question it is… why hasn’t someone done this sooner?

So I was at a customers today and went back to my truck to total up her bill. I had to park in her driveway, which appears to be on a 45 degree angle. Normally, when I open my door, I know just how far back to stand based on where my hand is. I did the same thing this time. However, I did not account for the difference in angles. I slammed the corner of my truck door into the left side of my head. It almost knocked me on the ground. I said a few bad words. I sat down for a second, and took a look at my head. I now have a 1/4″ long gash in my head. Luckily, I keep band-aids and Neosporin in my truck, so I slapped some on, and I was good to go. I am however on my third band-aid. I’m not sure if it needs stitches or not, but… eh. Funny thing is, it is right above my old scar on my eyebrow.

On my way to yet another customers (I had seven appointments today I think), I was following behind a truck that said “Hickman’s Small Engines” or something to that affect. This reminded me of the generator that I have acquired (a hand-me-down). This particular generator has powered many-a-house. It does however need a tune-up. I have neither the time, the parts, nor the patience to work on it myself, so I called him up to schedule a time. I asked what he had available, and he said “How about August?” I know how he feels. He had to fiddle with his calendar just like me when I am driving (not really, I would never do that *cough*). Of course, if he is this busy, it either means he is really good, or really bad and keeps going back. So I have an appointment in two weeks (his first available), and we shall see how it goes.

And lastly, I got home today, only to find out that my fan wasn’t working again on my air conditioner. It’s been flaky lately, and doesn’t want to start up. So I ripped apart my air conditioner as Danielle and her children were coming over for dinner, and I don’t think any of us wanted to sit in 85 degrees. I discovered that the fan never even gets power. So it appears to be the relay. Probably a $30 part. Of course, it’s still freakin’ 85 degrees in my house, and I needed something now. So I checked the fan, and it appears that it would get 110V as opposed to 220V. So I grabbed an extension cord, cut up an old power cord for a computer, put some ends on it, snapped it to the fan, and plugged it in. The fan started up. Woot woot! I covered it up, and we proceeded to eat dinner in much cooler air. I did of course unplug it when I left, as the cable is pretty thin. I will consider hooking it inside the A/C unit itself so that the fan just runs all the time (as it has been for several weeks), until I have time and money to have someone actually come out and check the relays. When Danielle had seen what I had done, she commented, “You really are like MacGyver.”

So, I have several things to write about, so sit back and relax and enjoy the ride.

First, Meiko has fleas. A lot of them. They are in my house. I have neglected to give her some flea stuff, and now she meows at me all the time. It was so bad Thursday night, that I woke up at 5:00 in the morning and went to WalMart and got her flea shampoo. I brought her into the shower and wet her down. She did not like being in there at first and slashed my stomach. But then I started rubbing her down and scratching her with the shampoo, and her meows got quieter and quieter. It killed all of the fleas on her and I dried her up with a towel. She was a wet kitty afterwords. But man, oh man, she smells and looks better. She’s not been a happy camper the past few days (I gave her another bath today since the vet was closed today, and I have to wait till Monday to purchase the flea stuff). However, she seems to be more quiet and wanting attention (she is sitting behind me in my chair at the moment). Once I get her cleaned up, I will be bombing my house.

Secondly, I am happy to announce that the next phase of the bathroom project has been completed. I have now brought the piping for the toilet through the wall. This will allow me to place the new flooring down much more easily. It has also stopped the leaks (however, it may be leaking at the toilet itself… but this is also fixable. I also replaced the O-rings in the shower handle so that I know longer have to hear drips at night from the shower. Funny story about that… I must have installed the O-rings wrong, because it wouldn’t turn off, so I turned off the water. I proceeded to take apart the handle (while water was still coming out of the head, I just thought it was a little bit of pressure in the line. The handle blew off in my hand and continued to spray to the other side of the shower for about a minute (I had to open some hoses outside to relieve the pressure).

And lastly… my vehicle woes. So on Friday, Danielle was following me in the morning, and mentioned to me that my brake lights were out. I’ve replaced the bulbs once or twice already, so I figured I’d stop by Discount at some point and replace both of them (hmm… what a coincidence that both’d go out). So I get there, and discover the bulbs are just fine and dandy. So I check the fuse. Also fine. So I figure it must be the switch on the brake pedal itself. I get one ordered in Discount (of course, they have none in stock). I get home, and take apart both switches only to find that in one of them, the metal prongs had fused together. So I figure I’ll just drive the Cavalier the next day, and go get the new switch when it comes in. This morning, I awoke at 4:30am, as I had to take a friend to the airport at 6:00. I clean up the car, and me and Danielle leave the house at 5:30 or so. We get the end of Ewell Rd heading into Lakeland and stop in the turn lane while waiting for the green arrow. The light turns green, and I start to ease forward, when I look to my left and right (as I always do as I am easing forward), and I notice to my left a very large black pickup truck flying at us at what I would have guessed 55+ mph. I slam the brakes, and the truck passes inches in front of us. Danielle was a little freaked out, but thankful that I was so awake these last few mornings. Had I not looked to my left, we would have probably been careened down Florida Ave for at least 150 feet. So I get to my friends house, and load up his luggage. We all hop in, and I move the shifter to drive. But when I step on the gas, it goes in reverse. I look at the gages, and it says I am in reverse. I move the shifter around… it stays in reverse. The shift linkage cable must have broken. So in a rush, I turn it off, put on the parking brake, and we all hop into his car, slowly backing it out around my car. I finally get back from the airport, and take a look at the car. However, I did not have any tools, so I took the time to go to Discount to get that part, and get a small toolkit to keep in the car. I get to Discount… not the right part. No listing for it. Oh well. Head back, and take apart the console. Linkage cable looks good on that end. Start looking under the car for linkage cable. Not there… stupid front wheel drives. Look under the hood, and see the problem. The linkage cable on an electronic switch has broken apart. So I lay it on, shift the car, and we take off. Stop by Discount on the way (making sure I do not have to shift out of drive while parking) and of course, don’t have the part. So we get home, and I call a Chevy dealer. They do not sell just the little rubber insert of the linkage cable. You have to buy the entire linkage cable, which is approximately $55, but they have it in stock. So I say screw you (well, not really), and I zip tie it together for now (rednecks unite!). At the moment, with a minimal amount of shifting, it will be fine until I get to a junk yard to find the molded piece of rubber they they will let me walk out for free with. I break apart the switch for my truck, make some other adjustments to the switch, and put it all back together. Brake lights working again. Oh, I also checked the brake pads on my truck. I have 58,000 miles on my truck, and I have yet to change the pads. I take the wheel off and examine the pads… I probably have another 10,000 miles on it if they were anything like the pads I just bought. So I’ll wait a little longer.

So all in all, it’s been an eventful day, and I am getting really tired. I hope to soon settle down for the night, and get some decent sleep. And maybe some cookies.

For the past couple of weeks, Bobby has been dealing with someone over at Robobak, a product that we use for remote backup solutions. This particular person created a press release, and mentioned us in it. You can read the article that mentions ElectroNerdz. This has also forced me to start redesigning the ElectroNerdz website, since the old design was, well, old. Four to six years I believe. The current design has been done in just over three hours from scratch. The verbiage and the actual context are still being tweaked.

So I have been in possession of four different webcams. I’ve been trying to get them to work on Linux, but have been having issues. Two of them are too old to even work on Windows, one of which works in Linux, but it doesn’t do the auto light exposure. The third one was DOA, and the last one seems to lock up computers. So I broke down and went to Target to look at cameras. I finally decided on a Logitech QuickCam Messenger after a little research via Google on my phone. It also came with a second camera, a Labtech. I took the camera home, and to my surprise, Ubuntu immediately recognized it and the built-in microphone (I had previously had issues with the microphone on my computer). Ever since, I have been Skyping away with my family, including my sister in Iraq, and Danielle’s friend Misty. I love it, and it’s becoming quite an addiction. So if you have Skype, Skype me at jason.greb. I will be sending the free camera to my grandmother so that I can see her also.

It’s been a busy last few weeks. I needed a break. So I took one with Danielle. We spent Friday afternoon at Busch Gardens. It was a blast. Well, sorta. So we got there at about 1:30. Got her ticket (I’ve got a pass, so I get right in), and headed for SheiKra. By the time we got in line, we were dripping in sweat. It was hot out. And being surrounded by hundreds of other sweaty people was not helping. So we get about 15 feet from the ride… and then it starts raining and thundering. They shut the ride down. For about 45 minutes. We waited it out however. And it was worth the wait! While standing in line, the girl in front of us looked strikingly similar to Amber. It was uncanny their similarities in both mannerisms and posture. They had the same physical features, from the hair down. They even wear the same clothes. It actually started freaking me out. I snuck a picture of her… shhh.

After the first ride, it got to be more fun. We went on water rides, and even a short “Safari” ride, called Rhino Rally. The girl driving the truck was quite hilarious. As we were all piling in, some old lady couldn’t figure out the seatbelt, and the driver said “It’s just a seatbelt. They’ve been around since 1893.” We also stopped by the special “brownies” left by the rhinos. She made sure to move slowly by them so we could all get the “full effect”.

Also, Jungala just did not impress me. Maybe I didn’t see all of it, but it’s mostly kids things (in fact, it says you must be accompanied by a child. And the there was only two tigers out. Now, if they had thrown out a big hunk of meat, I might have been impressed, but there was nothing. Just a sleeping tiger.

Toward the end of the evening, the park started emptying out. It’s Summer Nights at Busch Gardens, and it stays open later. The lines on the rides were incredibly short. We rode Montu, and both became dizzy and started a headache. We then headed for SheiKra again (via the skyride, where the ferocious child strollers must ride alone). We rode it twice. However, on the second time, I literally saw a drop of water smash into my eye, and there was nothing I could do about it. All I could do was watch in horror as my head (forced back in the seat by the G-force) headed for falling droplets of water. Then, the water smashed into my eye at 70mph. Also, I must note that each time we rode it, we were shoeless. It made the ride quite a bit more interesting.

Anyway, it is now a full 24 hours later, and I am still drained of energy. We will save more trips to Busch Gardens for another day (or night when the rides have shorter lines, and it’s not so hot out).

I don’t like frogs. I think they are disgusting. I feel about frogs the way a few people I know feel about cockroaches. That is why I love this video:

So I’ve taken another step in my home improvement/energy savings. Yesterday, I got a 7-day programmable thermostat. While I am away, the temperature will go up, but at night, it will go back down. And on the weekends, it won’t go up so much. Of course, I was hooking up the wires, and I snapped the head off of one of the screws. I tried drilling the screw out, stuffing the cable in, etc. Nothing. So I MacGyvered it. The cover will press on the wire (via finely crafted, stacked pieces of rubber), and hold it against the terminal. And this morning, I took apart my leaky faucet, and will be getting new O-rings for it so it will leak no more. Now if I’d only wash the floors or something…

Being a small business owner, the state of economy both interests and worries me. I certainly don’t know all the terminology and don’t claim to know everything about the economy. But I do see it plummeting. Some say we are in a recession. I don’t think we’ve even seen it yet. And in my opinion, it’s only going to get worse. And summers are bad. Summer has always been a bad part of the year for me with slower business. However, as I am entering summer, I don’t have as bad of a feeling as I usually do for myself. But I am not seeing booming business either. I think it was stay pretty level throughout the summer for me. For others however, not so well. I have several customers who appear to be on the edge of bankruptcy… scrambling for a way to make it to the next month. Now and then, I have been like that, and it’s hard. But my revenue numbers aren’t near what theirs are. It makes me wonder how some people even make it when their monthly bills are in the thousands or tens of thousands. I have a bad feeling that a lot of businesses will be closing up this year. Gas prices are certainly not helping. My tank fill up in my truck is now $70. Two to three times a week. When I first got my truck, it was about $40 to fill it. Prices are rising, from food to clothing to housing. I can see a lot of families just making it. Thankfully, I have done a lot this year to keep costs down. My electric bill is extremely low, and can be made even lower (although, with summer coming, it will be harder). I have a second vehicle that gets better mileage than my truck. I have changed certain eating habits. I am learning how to not need the latest and greatest and not be so extravagant.

I pray that I am wrong, and that things will get better… but I don’t know. I’d like to think more positively, but I don’t get that feeling.

How do you feel about the economy? What have you seen?