It's getting on towards Northern Hemisphere winter, and people are coming out of the woodworks asking about space heaters. Since I answer this question so frequently, I decided to just make a website answering it. :)

Feel free to give the link to others.

X-posted
My landlord recently came back from a week-long vacation to Costa Rica. He told me all about the parrots and monkeys and sloths they saw, but says they didn't photograph well. I totally want to go now.
Long live Mr. Roomba!

His brushes have continued to not turn, other than for some 5 minutes after a thorough cleaning. So I called Roomba support this evening, and brushes not turning is covered under warranty - by a replacement of the unit. The new one will arrive within 3-10 business days, and we are to ship back the old one at our own expense ($6-8 via FedEx or UPS, so not too bad).

This makes me so sad, we're losing Mr. Roomba! I have to keep reminding myself that losing an old Mr. Roomba means gaining a new one... So sad! :'(
Lots of dust, a few snips of cat hair, and 2/3 a can of air later, Mr. Roomba's as good as new and cleaning the house again. ^_^ Yay!
asterroc: (Gabriel - Sleepy)
Whee! I figured out how to set the heat so it'll turn up to 62ºF when we're awake and home, and back down to 60ºF when we're out or asleep. 62ºF has been tolerable while I'm awake and home. Should I turn it colder while we're out, or while we're asleep? I'm also checking on bird lists how cold they think I can turn it down to and have Gabe ok, I'm just looking for what people think is ok for humans.

cold

Oct. 13th, 2007 10:42 am
asterroc: (Smoothie)
holy fsck, no wonder I'm cold, it's 59º in here! I'd recently rearranged part of Gabe's cage to encourage her to sit on the heated perch more, but she'd been alternating between it and a wood dowel, and usually sitting on the fat part of the heated perch when she did, where it isn't warm at all. When I just uncovered her cage she was on a skinny part. :-\ I emailed my landlord to ask him if we can try out the heat. I told T$ a while ago that I was willing to try as low as 60ºF to save on our heat bill, and it's already below that! I think I'll put the heat lamp back on her cage so she has that option as well.
Mr Roomba has a new hobby: he's learned how to weave cat hair into yarn via his many brushes and gears. Said cat hair is in abundant supply from a cat that lived here two tenants ago. I've been cleaning for two weeks straight and said cat hair is still in abundant supply.
asterroc: (xkcd - Binary Heart)
Is there any way to monitor the total traffic on my wireless network, not just my own computer, w/o going to my upstairs neighbors and asking them what they're doing? My reason is that when I upload images to Flickr, it clogs the entire network, so I'd rather do this when I know they're not using the network. By default, during the M-F workday is safe, as usually no one but me is home then, but I'd like to know more directly.

ETA: I'm using a Mac

ETAA: I'm using Flickr Uploadr, and another option might be to limit its bandwidth. Does it use a different port from Firefox, and if so how can I figure that out and restrict it? I found that HTTP uses port 80, and have set it to high priority in the router. How can I find the port for a different application (Uploadr) so that I can set it to low priority? (Alternatively, I could just set this whole computer to low priority, but I'd rather not.)
Cleaning my office again. I've got a stack of stationary. I'm thinking of sending letters to Any Soldier to get rid of some of them. I'll think about it a bit - it does take time - time I should be spending cleaning.

Roomba

Aug. 1st, 2007 09:21 am
asterroc: (xkcd - Binary Heart)
OMFG, T$ got us a Roomba and it arrived today! I'm so excited, it looks like so much fun. ^_^ We have to charge it for 16 hours to start though. We have to pick up 4 D batteries for the virtual wall units (2 units, 2 D's each), and I'm now searching for AA batteries for the remote. And we'll have to move wires out of the way and such, that's a pain, but we'll deal. ^_^ He's so cute! We need to name him.
None of the below are available any more, as I've completed the cleaning and moveout. Yay!

If you are within driving distance of me and want any of the below, let me know; some are small enough to be mailable. Some of it's vague b/c I'm too lazy to write too much about it or b/c I haven't yet created a full pile but I know I will by the end of the summer; I can clarify more if you want stuff or want to know what it is. Nearly everything is used, with condition ranging from "needs cleaning" to "like new," with a few random items being unused. Clothing that does not get claimed will go to Goodwill, the others will go on the sidewalk with a "free" sign or to Freecycle. As items go away I will strike them off the list. New items will go on the top.


  1. Assorted bath/shower/floofy stuff - fizzy bath scents, bath beads, hair spray/goop, scent spray, lotions, etc. Most have been partially used, some I've had for years.

  2. Assorted purses/handbags


  3. Assorted computer/wiring items - 2 keyboards, 1 mouse, wireless keyboard/mouse (having problems), phone wires, speaker wires, Win98 copied CD, parallel port wire, wires for old HDs to motherboards... Put on lawn w/ FREE sign for first taker.

  4. Reading glasses Ditto.

  5. Book on tangrams - book and 2 sets of plastic pieces. Good for kids already in school. Mailable if you reimburse me. Ditto.

  6. Bike Computer - one of those little units where you have a sensor on a wheel and it measures your speed and distance and things like that. Mailable. Claimed by [livejournal.com profile] rumorofrain

  7. Logo T-shirts - sizes S, M, L. All have been worn, most are in like-new condition. Being donated to the family of a student at my school whose house burned down w/ all their posessions inside. (No injuries reported.) Family includes two adult women (a college student and her mother), 2 young girls, and a young boy.

  8. Assorted other clothing - I wear size S/XS on top, M (8 or 10) on bottom. Ditto.

  9. Assorted shoes - I usually wear size 7 or 7.5 in dress shoes/boots, and size 8-9 in sneakers/causual boots/shoes. I've more dress to get rid of than casual ones, as I buy them thinking they fit and after an evening of wear I'm limping, and I forget to return them, so most of these are worn once but will be dusty or scuffed from sitting in boxes. Ditto.

  10. Christmas gift bags - some are generic winter holiday. Mailable. Free-signed

  11. Nintendo NES w/ assorted games - I have two NESs, one does not work, the other needs blowing on most of the time. Going to [livejournal.com profile] kelsin.

  12. Assorted winter hats, including a Sherlock Holmes -style one. Goodwill

  13. Handmade clay plates set, dark green glaze, clunky style. Sizes from cake plates to dinner plates, flat bottoms w/ a lip, some have small chips, not dishwasher or microwave safe. These served me well throughout college from a friend's roommate, but I haven't used them in years. Free-signed

  14. Random other useful pottery Free-signed

  15. Stuffed dolls - from 6" tall to 3' tall, mostly bunnies and teddy bears. Need a dusting, vacuuming, or washing machine. Good for you or gifts. Designated for neighbors

  16. Birdcage in POOR condition - this one probably should go to the trash, but I can't bear to throw it out w/o seeing if anyone wants to fix it up. It's 13"x17"x24", 3/4" bar spacing, rounded top, metallic rusted bars - new owner should paint the cage w/ a non-toxic paint that won't flake, or get it powder coated or something. I will NOT give this to you if you're going to use it as-is or resell it, it's dangerous to a bird as-is, and is why I'm/Gabe's no longer using it. Garbage



(well, maybe not quite...)

yesterday I cleaned up papers on my table. There was quite a lot of crap there. Into the paper recycle bag.

Today I packed ceramic mugs (and will continue with a couple tea sets and wine glasses). Paper came out of the bag.

I think I need to scare up some more boxes. After a late lunch soon I'm going to go to a few stores and try to scare up some boxes. And go grocery shopping.
There's around a cubic meter of junk in boxes labeled FREE on my lawn. They will be gone before dinner.
asterroc: (xkcd - Fuck the Cosine)
3 trash bags: ~0.5 m3.
2 mid-sized boxes of free stuff: ~1.0 m3.
2 mid-sized clear plastic boxes of stuff to move: ~0.5 m3.
Knowing that I'm making progress: Immeasurable!

Cleaning

Jun. 16th, 2007 08:38 pm
Going through piles of computer related crap. Added to the free stuff post. You know you want it! I really hate throwing things out that're usable. It's painful. But I don't know if I can find anyone to take it for free.

Donations?

Jun. 16th, 2007 07:33 pm
Anyone know, can I donate items to Goodwill, like books, jewelry, backpacks, hubcaps, and so on? I haven't found this info on their webpage, but it could just be that my intartubes-fu is bad. If not, anyone else you recommend? (My primary restriction is that it needs to be a secular group, so the Salvation Army is out.) Or should I just bring stuff to a pawn shop? Or put it on my porch with a FREE sign? I don't want the hassle of trying to yard sale it, despite my earlier good intentions.
asterroc: (Smoothie)
The problem with cleaning, I'm finding, is that you can't just do it once and be done with it. You can't even just clean the whole house over the course of a couple weeks and be done with it. No, every single day, every single action you take, has to be done with cleanliness in mind. You bring the mail in - but you have to read it and put it away with cleanliness in mind, or else you have increase the pile that's slated to be cleaned on Monday. You do the wash and bring it up stairs, but if you don't put it all away, then when you change your clothes you have no where to put the newly sullied clothes but on the floor.

Today I did four bags of laundry, amounting to around 6 machines. Two bags or so were my normal load from a few weeks of procrastination (I'm *so* looking forward to having a machine in the same building so I can do wash at convenient intervals!), and then another two bags from cleaning the house and finding summer clothes that I needed. And now I have three laundry bags on my bedroom floor and one in the dining room, and a pile of clean clothes that came out of the laundry basket so I could do the wash is sitting on my bed. I cannot sleep until at least the one on the bed goes away, and I don't want to go to bed until I've cleaned out another bag or two, or at least the basket so I can put the shirt I wore while doing laundry into the basket or a sorted bag.
In cleaning my house, I just discovered a whole slew of 2003 Paris photos, all on film. The B&W ones I need to find a negative scanner. The color ones I got a CD of when I had them developed, so they're going up on my Flickr account. Someone prod me if I don't remember to feature some of the good ones here. Meanwhile, sadly, my pro Flickr account is to expire at the end of the week. :(

And heh, uploading my photos to Flickr via my desktop PC is apparently slowing down my network, as Pandora is stalling here on my Mac. :-P Amusing. Never noticed network slowdowns before.

Yard Sale?

May. 28th, 2007 10:37 pm
asterroc: (Smoothie)
Are there laws against yard sales anywhere? I keep filling up bags with clothes in good condition, some of them are even fancy, like fancy shirts that my Mom got me that just aren't my style so I *never* wore them. So I'm wondering if I can just plunk down on my yard some weekend morning and sell them for something like $1-5 each.

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