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Inspectors Test by *panfah on deviantART


Inspector's Spigot by *panfah on deviantART

Shot in mid-December of 2008, these were from when markvd and I were doing some explorations during the renovation of our newly acquired building in Wood Dale, IL. This sign and drain spigot were in the 2nd floor boiler room, looking like they were a few decades older than I know the building actually is.

This morning I received a surprise invitation for lady_curmudgeon and myself to join datahawk and ottr for brunch-type foods at a restaurant in the area. I'd never been there and Curmudgeon wanted to get out of the house, so we readily accepted. We made good time to Wheaton, where the restaurant was... and then I had an attack of the Self Doubts, which lead us to leave the restaurant and pursue the other location, which is not where we were to meet up with our friends. Thankfully we were only a little ways away when the call was returned and the address verified.

We met up outside the door to the restaurant and that's when the trap was sprung - Data and Ottr handed Curmudgeon and I some wrapped-up gifts. SURPRISE PRESENTS! Unacceptable. My revenge will be without warning.

Inside things were hectic, obviously it's a pretty popular place. We made our orders, drank coffee and kibitzed while we waited for the food. It wasn't long before Curmudgeon and I were pressured to open our presents. To my complete delight and surprise I received season 2 and season 3 of Robot Chicken, and Curmudgeon got two boxed seasons of Pee-Wee's Playhouse. Pretty cool!

After our meal we made a stop at Fry's Electronics. While there we discovered that Ottr wasn't going to get his Nintendo DS from them as their inventory was completely ravaged last week, prior to Christmas. We also learned that there's an AirSoft pistol made to look like my Sigma SW40F. Pretty darn neat, and it puts the BBs out at something akin to 315fps. Not bad, though I've no idea if it's CO2 operated or what (Edit @2133: It's a spring!). While in the toy aisle I found a metal Slinky in excellent condition (the last one I bought from there was completely twisted and ruined, but I never got around to returning it). We also wandered around the store to pick up a set of USB extension cables for Mudgeon's computer. On the way to the check-out line I had a minor altercation with the father of a young boy -- the kid (around 8 or 9) was tromping around and, as he went past, kicked over the toy trains on display next to me. I made a sharp comment and told the kid to pick it up, which brought his dad over with an attitude, demanding to know if I "was his father?!" I said nope - but the boy's being incredibly rude by not picking up what he's knocked over, at which point I gestured to the wreckage of the display. I was surprised to see the dad turn to the boy and ask if he'd knocked it over. A mumbled "I don't know," was met with the father asking again, more strongly, "Did you knock it over?" The kid admitted yes, he had. "Then pick it up!" And within a few seconds the display was put back to half-assed rights and the family continued on their way. Good enough for me.

Since Ottr didn't have anything to buy and the hunt for a Nintendo DS was now officially on our group parted ways, with Data and Ottr heading off to shop at my retail nemesis (Best Buy) while I checked out with Curmudgeon. Shortly after that we were home and I tore apart the passenger-side wiper arm on my Expedition. It had frozen in place on Friday and didn't seem interested in moving anymore. I found that luckily I hadn't stripped the splines on the motor shaft, the arm had just come loose. I cleaned up the connection point with a bit of paper towel, jammed it back in place and tightened the nut down. A flick of the wiper control later and I had proof that all was once again right with the world. It's good to have windshield wipers! Especially with all the wacky weather we're having...

As Ferenpanther.

And in the back of my head all I hear is "one of us, one of us!"

Up-front disclaimer: No, it was not a Daily Deviation.

I keep a pair of galleries for my work. One is at FA, the other is on dART. Most of you who read this journal are familiar with DeviantART because it's the system I use to post my work as "deviations" to my LiveJournal. I balance my work so that FA and dART pretty much mirror one another, so it's not as if one gallery gets sooper seekrit work while the other doesn't. I keep them both mirrored simply because they offer exposure to different types of audiences and I enjoy being able to share my efforts. Do I have a favorite? Not really. I like FA and dART pretty much equally, though dART is a bit superior as it seems to have less problems reading the EXIF data from my photos. And it doesn't limit the size of my images to 1280x1280. And it lets me post my work directly to my LJ, as you all well know. And dART has a working search function.... but I digress.

I haven't been doing much posting on either site for the last month because I've been busy with work and personal matters. Imagine my surprise when I signed into DeviantART the other day and found that a user (tainte-truffle) had put together a narrative complimented by a collection of photographs -- and that one of my photographs had been included! That's right, my "Missing Door" piece was featured in the "Abandoned Places" collection alongside some other fantastic works.

I'm incredibly honored and I don't mind saying that it really made my day.

Those interested can see the "Abandoned Places" collection at http://news.deviantart.com/article/64552/

Trucks Hauling Ass by *panfah on deviantART

Trying to make up for being quiet on LJ and not posting many photographs as of late, I've been mostly doing post-processing and other work. However, while I was running through a batch of Minnesota photos tonight, I came across this one - and since it made me grin I had to share it.

So it snowed and rained and generally was stupid, weather-wise last night, starting at around 2300. I got up this morning and made it to the hospital in reasonable time. In fact, I got there act exactly 0855, the requested twenty minutes before my MRI was scheduled.

Fuckery ensues.

So an hour and change (as well as about two dozen phone calls by the Imaging nurse/receptionist) later, my results for the ocular orbit X-ray are found (doctor's impression: clean of ferrous metal), I've filled out the paperwork (yes, I have an orthodontic element in my jaw, no I don't have a pacemaker, no I'm not pregnant...) and most importantly they've located the scrip for the MRI itself. And determined that I don't need an RQI or ... some damn acronym related to a referral number that was related to my insurance. Once all that was settled I was whisked off to the changing room, stripped of everything that might kill me or damage the machine and then whisked down a different hall to the MRI itself. While the tech got me situated I bantered with her a bit, and when I started talking about the helium cooling system I think I surprised her. She surprised me back by sharing a discussion she had with a GE engineer about the new water-cooling models they're going to be introducing, as well as a 9 Tesla model they're experimenting with at the U of I. Pretty cool, though as I understand it the tunnel's only big enough to shoot images of rodents. We won't be seeing people in that any time soon...

I can see why traditional MRIs could freak some people out. Lots of different noises that were quite loud, even with the earplugs I was given by the technologist. If somebody were claustrophobic the tight space of the tunnel could be very disconcerting. You've no sense of time in there, which didn't bother me (I just counted through the seconds for each imaging shot) but it could make some people twitchy. The hardest part for me, really, was just the sheer act of concentrating on not moving while the studies were being taken. That's when you get paranoid with thoughts of Shit, I have to swallow. Did I move when I swallowed? Oh, I have to s wallow again already! ARGH! That, or your nose itches and you know you can't do anything about it. Mostly I just kept my breathing shallow and sorta half-napped throughout the experience. Twenty minutes later or so I was up and out, being guided back to the locker room so I could put all my accessories back on.

Ruin, decay and machinery from my parents' farm in Minnesota. Shot over Thanksgiving 2008. Here we see a few shots of my father's 1958 (or so) John Deere 440 Industrial Crawler. The crawler has been rusting quietly behind the house for at least the last 12 years (when I left for college). I don't think it's been moved in that time, a belief that's confirmed by the level of junk that's been piling up atop it. Given that it had a lot of hours put on it with little to no maintenance, maybe it's time that this equipment was retired.


Start Me Up, Let's Go Digging by *panfah on deviantART


Hydraulics Levers by *panfah on deviantART


Hydraulic Ram by *panfah on deviantART

I have a few pictures from my parents' farm, I'm hoping to post those on Thursday or Friday.

It is very cold right now: 8 degrees F. That's well below freezing! God bless my house, my house's insulation, my gas heating and our cats.

I need to write the epic saga of Sunday, which I will title "Putting Up A Christmas Tree." Who knew the holiday spirit was this demanding?

I'm still plugging away for $EMPLOYER. Today I woke up to everything being encased in ice. Tomorrow, after work, I expect everything to be covered with snow.

The gentleman from A-Elmhurst Refrigerator Repair showed up today at 10 AM (I later found out he was subcontracted from Wheaton Refrigerator Repair, according to the service sticker he put on the fridge before he left). When I called in yesterday I had been told that I could expect "Scott" between 9 and 11 AM today. Curmudgeon and I both figured this would be a case of the "waiting for the cable guy," so when he showed up at 10 on the dot it was ( a pleasant surprise. )

lady_curmudgeon just called me at work, in tears, because our kitchen fridge/freezer has apparently decided to stop fridge/freezing. While something of a surprise, this wasn't entirely unexpected to me; the compressor has been running non-stop for the last week or so. I suspect the compressor may have finally failed, but I don't know for certain and don't have the time to deal with troubleshooting or fixing it myself (though I would really rather do it myself). So a repair man will be stopping by tomorrow between 0900 and 1100 to provide an estimate and possibly repair it, assuming the price of the repair work isn't too outrageous when compared to buying a whole new unit.

In the mean time our food was getting thawed/not chilled and Curmudgeon didn't know what to do with the it. I suggested she grab our cooler and totes from the garage, put the food into those and take them outside to make use of the giant walk-in freezer that Nature has gifted us with since late November. I have no real doubt that the totes and cooler will keep local wildlife out of my food while the 15 degree temps outside will preserve it until we have a working unit again (one way or another I'll have a running fridge and freezer come late Saturday).