/dev/null

Apparently I've spilled the contents of my New Mexico Tech EE321 Lab Kit.

I've been really busy lately. Here's a shot of some of our plants.

Things are quiet here because I'm busy at the office.

But, after years of rocking solely point-and-shoot digitals, I did pick up a Canon Rebel T2i, the new top of the entry-level Canon range.

This is the first DSLR I've found which has a complete set of HD video features, and which doesn't cost a bajillion buckazoids. It doesn't have the sweet enclosure of the spendier bodies but it is otherwise totally functional and sweet.

Here's a photo of a squirrel climbing on our screen door. Continuous shooting FTW.

In all, we dropped 169 plants into the ground over the last two days. Over 90 of those were in the front yard, which took all day Sunday (thanks, Rob!) The remainder were in the back and we got them all in the ground by 11:30am this morning once we figured out how to pipeline the four step process: clear mulch, dig through cardboard and soil, drop compost in, and plant.

I spent the remainder of today dealing with loose ends (notably an irrigation valve that leaks oodles of water), finishing up pruning the plum trees, and cleaning everything up.

We planted all day today. These are the 1-gallon containers left behind—I estimate there are around 75 of them.

Tomorrow: the back yard.

P.S. the perspective isn't great, and diminishes how impressive this pile of plastic really is.

This is a video of rapper T-Pain showing off his '91 Cadillac hearse done up in Miami Dolphins livery. You can skip the first minute if you want.

As you watch this, I want you to pay attention to: (a) just how ridiculous this car is, and more importantly, (b) the intense and unflagging satisfaction in T-Pain's voice. The ongoing commentary makes it clear that he is immensely pleased with this car.

This man has what he wants. Hit that button, microwave oven.

That's right. I've got two $100,000,000,000,000 Zimbabwean dollar bills.

So, the story here is that we had mulch blown into our back yard before we had an opportunity to remove the raised bed filled with plantings that was sitting next to the fence. I pulled up the bed (which was just a wooden frame), leaving behind this planter in the mulch.

Today is the five-year anniversary of my blog. It's been nearly 1500 days since I first launched the site with a post designed to be unreadable, a theme some will argue I've carried through the subsequent 2435 posts.

I don't have a lot to say, really. I don't really see blogging as fun or as a hobby—it's closer to a compulsion, or a necessity. I do happen to enjoy it but that's not why I post. Writing is a way I keep my sanity, and I don't plan on giving either up anytime soon.

What I do plan on giving up is the daily grind. Starting tomorrow, I'm not going to bend over backwards to ensure there's something new and fresh on /dev/null on every calendar day. Instead, I'm going to draw from the well a little less often with the hope that it'll be a bit deeper when I do.

Thanks a million for sticking with me. I'm looking forward to the next five.

These arrived today.

This weekend I believe I spotted a Bentley T1 or T2 hacked up and turned into a pretty phenomenal-looking shooting brake¹. It looked pretty similar to the photo at right, which is actually a Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow because I couldn't find any photos of Bentley wagons. And yes, even though they look pretty similar, I'm reasonably confident it was a Bentley (or maybe a Rolls with a Bentley grill dropped on the front).

¹ I disagree with the terminology in the Wikipedia article—the term "shooting brake" really applies to any wagon converted from a factory coupe or sedan, and not just two-door models.

It took me a little over three weeks to dig trenches across much of my front and back yards.

It took three guys with machinery about a day to fill most of the trenching in with gravel, and chop up tremendous lines of sod everywhere.

Yesterday's concrete removal netted two full light-pickup-truck loads of concrete—this is one of them. Given how the truck drove, I'm guessing this was right around the truck's 1400 lb. payload capacity.

I rented an electric jackhammer today and Rob and I removed the concrete walkway leading from the driveway to the front door.

Before:

After:

Jackhammers are totally sweet and awesome.

There are wrong ways to do "emergency" coloring, and there are right ways to do it. Diagonal bright-white and bright-red on broken concrete surface is pretty hardcore.

Pity about the sign itself. The striping is sweet.