All posts by johncohn

thursday night – Drained

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Ahhh.. the virtual end of a long week. I say virtual because I’m on vacation starting today.. I celebrated by meting up wiht my friend Kevin at On The Rise . There I had  a new drink creation I invented.. half kambucha, half hard cider.. I call it an ‘outsider’… strong and medicinal. yum !

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My last official act of my working week was to solve a vexing drain problem.. Gabe was taking a shower the other day when the top of oe of the shampoo bottles slipped down the drain.. there used to be a grill to stop stuff.. but it’s long gone… So.. we had this inch wide plastic top stuck deep in the drain.. which plugged it almost completely. . To make matters worse, the drain trap is completely inaccessible .. Somehow it was installed over a sheetrock ceiling.. and the only way to reach it would be to cut through the ceiling.. ..

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I  couldint see or feel the cap.. but I could reach it with a snake.. unfortunately.. there wasn’t anything to grab.. the smooth end must have been towards me.. .. Next thing I tried was inside out ductape on a cable.. no dice.. i wasn’t enve sure I was reaching it..   Then I had an idea.. i could drill through it.. I created a flexible drill with a bendable gooseneck drive.. and a small drill bit.

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Unfortunately the hex drive drill bit I had was too long to make the bend in the drain,  so out came the cutiff wheel (i love cutoff wheels) ,, I shortened the bit and hex drive holder.. and reinstalled it on the gooseneck

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I was able to get the gooseneck in there .. pushed it back into the trap and drilled.. a few minutes later. i was able to drill it and pull it nearly out of the drain.. from there a snuc a wire through the whole I’d drilled and eventually pulled it free. soon . I was holding the offending cap n my hand.. Yeahhhhhh !IMG_2175

 

a nice cap to my week to be sure..

 

ok.. its only 9 pm but I’m having trouble staying awake.. so I’ll end here..

more tomorrow from the road..

 

nite all. nite sam

-me

 

Wednesday night – emits shower of sparks

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Fun time tonight.. we ended up having about 18 internes from IBM over for an impromptu end of summer assignment party. Normally the company takes very good care of our interns.. this year, unfortunately, the really good folks (my friends) who normally look after the interns and arrange their education sessions and social stuff were effected by the layoffs.. .. the students worked through this difficult summer under the shadow of the fear of layoffs, the layoffs themselves.. adn now furloughs.. They were feeling a little bewildered by it all.. still most of time managed to have good work experiences..

i did my best to meet witht he group a few times during their stay.. they are great folks.. lots of different backgrounds and interests. we had feebly planned to try and make something cool as a group.. but as the summer wound down we realized there wouldn’t be time.. we opted instead to have a fireworks party here at my house.. and find innovative ways to light them…
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we did a few chemical experiments, ran the flame thrower, launched a hot air balloon.. then let loose a pretty nice fireworks show for our neighborhood.. . not bad for august..

 

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then we came in for lots of pizza… IMG_2164

 

such a nice group of folks.. Ill miss them.. hope they come back !IMG_2166 IMG_2168

ok.. time for sleep

nite all, nite sam

-me

Tuesday night – Hacked

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Back home in VT again (ahhhh) after yet another quick trip to NY. my fourth in as many weeks. This one was to take Max back down to NY after his trip up to be here for Janet’s celebration. It was wonderful to have that time driving down with hin.. he has SUCH an interesting life.. (and I think I’m busy . he’s 10 times busier it seems)   We had a nice dinner with Jac.. then i grabbed a few hours to sleep (shared a bed with Eskimo the cat.. and woke up feeling like I’d swallowed a hairball.. I guess I’m allergic to cats or something.. .. By 6:30 I was driving back up to Hawthorne for a very interesting set of meetings..   Can’t go in to it here.. but one interesting story from that meeting..

We were discussing security in the ‘internet of things’.. No surprise but ..  It seems like the more things we connect to the internet.. the more things are getting hacked into ..   This week I’ve heard of ships GPS gettign hacked, porsche automobiles getting taken over , water systems getting broken into ,  even fancy internet toilets getting hacked.. but today I heard that someone has learned how to hack into a brand of crematorium oven and start them remotely.  .. How creepy is that..   Guess we’re going to need to learn how to protect these things.. and quick !..

Thats what was on my mind as I drove back with 6 hours of phone calls… .. dinner was taco bell eaten while driving.. I have a good technique there.. I rip the hot suace packet with my teaath.. suck the sauce out of the packet, then bite the burrito while the sauce is still in my mouth,: no fuss, no mess.. no nutrition either .. I guess.. but it’s as relaxing a meal as I get on these long drive days…

the weird thing is.. I don’t mind days like this…

what does that say about the days I spend in the office 🙂

nite all, nite sam

-me

 

Monday morning – Prisoner 88

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Folks,

I’m really excited to share that our good friend Leah has just published her first book for young adults. It’s called Prisoner 88.. and it’s  inspired by the  true story  10 year  Jake Oliver Evans who  was thrown into the Idaho Territorial Penitentiary in 1885,   The book tells of what it was like for this young kidoto be in this horrible place with hardened adult criminals.  The book is available at bookstores everywhere and can be ordered from the publisher, Charlesbridge.

Its been very exciting talking to Leah as shes researched this book. She came across Jakes story by accident… and was hooked.. Who was this kid ? What had he done to deserve such a punishment ? What happened to him in proson ? Did he ever get out ? She and her husband Larry even visited the tortting old proson that was in active use up until the last decade..   I have just downloaded the book.. but you can get a sense of it by reading a few pages from it here . It really looks amazing !!

Were so proud of Leah .. I’m hoping that some of you out there have young adult readers who would give her some feedback…   She and I would love to hear what you think !

Thanks so much !

nite all, nite sam

-me