The Times We Live In

 I talk to my nephew about once a week.  He likes to talk about Anime and video games, while I try to steer the conversation towards current events and politics.  One point I made was how important it is to vote, and that elections have consequences.  The example I used was the war in Ukraine.  If Trump had won the 2020 election, the United States, and probably the rest of the world, would not have lifted a finger to help Ukraine fight the Russian invasion.  Putin most likely would have taken over Ukraine.

It's amazing the things that we see in our life times.  For me, The Challenger disaster, 9/11, Halley's Comet, no WMD's, OJ being acquitted, the country's first black president, the Internet, billionaires buying Supreme Court Justices, AI, and everything that goes with Trump.  It's fascinating.  

Also, the room rebuild is coming along.  I started by cleaning everything, since my house collects a ton of dust.  I'm rearranging the furniture to accommodate the new computer.  After my brother told me about some breaking news regarding the Wagner Group, now in Russia, I hurried to get my networking back online.

I put the news on, and continued working.  For more room, I moved my mom's china cabinet out, which opened up the space a lot.

Line Conditioner & UPS

 

These arrived yesterday.  On top is a line conditioner for incoming power.  I always like to protect my electronic investments with transient voltage protection. 

 

 

I use the UPS for clean power, and an added level of protection.

Still haven't seen the motherboard and CPU yet.

 

More Parts Came In

 Today I got a couple of solid state hard drives, and the monitor.

 

 This is an Alienware AW3423DWF curved monitor.  I'm really looking forward to gaming on this screen!

My New Summer Project

 This arrived the other day.

The last time I built a computer from parts was almost 10 years ago.  My current computer gets too loud when I'm playing The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, and with my birthday around the corner, I decided to splurge and get something new.  After all, Elon Musk has turned me off of the Tesla I planned to buy for my 60th birthday, so I'm actually saving money!

So far, I've got the case, a graphics card, and a power supply.  This case is HUGE!  

 

You can see the old computer from 2014 to the right of the new case.  This time, I bought a full tower, because I want a very quiet computer, so I'll need room for water cooling and fans.

 

It's a freaking barn!  I'll never fill it (kudos if you recognize the movie line).

2022 Summer Project (cont.)

 My plan worked well!  I was able to climb the branches.  I wouldn't have been able to cut down an oak, or maple that way.  This is when it got very, very dangerous.  I must admit that I got scared once while I was up there, when the wind kicked up and the tree started swaying.  I decided it would be easier to cut the top off, rather than continue climbing, as the branches were getting smaller and smaller.

 

 

I used a chain saw, which made me nervous because I could imagine cutting a deep gash in my thigh, and being stuck up there, unable to climb down.  Though I didn't know the other dangers.

I cut that wedge out, then cut from the other side, towards the middle, using the chain saw.  What I didn't count on was that the tree "wanted" to fall in the other direction.  To make matters worse, my neighbor decided to mow her back lawn that afternoon.  I warned her about the tree wanting to fall towards her property, and she assured me she'd not go near the tree.  But of course, she did anyway.  Luckily, I saw her, and just waited until she was done.  

This is when I was stupid.  It was tiring hanging on to the branches, which weren't in an ideal place, so I placed my arm in the cut out, and held myself in place that way, while I waited for her to finish mowing.  Once she was gone, I tried rocking the tree back and forth, to make it fall, but it wasn't enough.  I had to climb down and get a steel wedge.  I put the steel wedge in the crack I had cut opposite the cut out wedge, and hammered it in a bit with a 5 lb. hand sledge.  I paused a moment to get my phone, to take a picture when suddenly, the whole top dropped down, then fell to the ground.  There was no slow, steady tipping over then falling.  It was down in less than three seconds.

 All I could think about was, "What if my arm was in there when the top dropped?  Jesus, my arm would have been crushed."  But the top was safely down, on my property, and no one was injured.

Next, I needed to work my way down the main trunk, cutting pieces off.  I felt that was a better idea than trying to drop the entire log, not knowing which way it would go, or what damage it could cause. 

 

That also took time, but in the end, I cut it down to about 20' high, then put a bat house at the top, hoping the bats would stay there, instead of in my attic, as they had in July.