Some kind of mutant strain of the common cold attacked me Monday in Tampa and I’ve been incapacitated since then. So, I missed out on half my vacation because I was in bed trying not to hack up a lung with every breath. Flying sick is a whole new experience. Upon landing in San Diego, I thought my right eyebrow had split open because I had never had such a sharp pain there before in my life. Its the weirdest sensation and causes one to overreact because unless you get black eyes on a regular basis, most people aren’t used to feeling pain in that part of their body. Slowly I’m recovering, but I’m sorely behind on work and taking care of other things. Isn’t it funny how life goes on even when you aren’t?

I guess I’m a little overly stressed and excited about my trip to Flordia tomorrow. I haven’t quite worked out the logistics of my missing programmer for my newest site build. But I have to remain hopeful or I’d just walk outside in front of a bus. I am very excited about seeing my friend Randie though. It’s been way too long. I also get to meet for the first time the newest addition to the Timko family. My new nephew Max.

Max Jason Timko Born 10/06/08

I think he takes after his daddy a bit. I intend to take a stroll around the Tampa aquarium, so be expecting pics soon.

While this is not a new thought, I felt that it was important enough to repost here for archiving purposes. I went to Qingdao, China to work for a week and there were only squat toilets in the warehouse where I worked. I acutally had to go to the hotel and google search how to properly use these archaic contraptions.

Blog Entry April 12, 2007

Wow, just when you thought you were all grown up and the new things that you can learn are just a few, life throws you a curve ball. Squatting Toilets. Call me crazy but I just couldn’t image how to use a hole in the ground to pee. I mean I don’t want to get graphic but, gees how do you keep your pants that are down around your ankles dry? So yesterday I held it in all day because I was at a factory working where they only had these neanderthal sqatting toilets. I went in and did a “dry run” (no pun intended) and I just couldn’t see myself successfully releaving my bladder without soaking my pants and shoes. Thank God for the internet. I came back to my hotel room, and peed first of all..then I did some research. I really had to see how to pee properly at these things because I couldn’t spend a whole day holding it in again. So I found this article http://www.worldhum.com/how_to/item/use_a_squat_toilet_20060923/ and I read literally dumbfounded that people can do this. Well one thing this other lady said is that it is very smart for beginners to strip from waist down. Shoes and all. Well, she must have been in a slightly cleaner place than the one I am at cuz I would rather pee on my shoes than touch this floor. So anyway, I went to work today with the newfound desire to conquer these toilets. I mean come on….anyone should be able to figure out how to pee right? So come lunchtime, I went to the bathroom…I took off my pants completely. There was no where to put them so I had to make a turban on my head. No joke. Great mental picture huh? Half naked squatting with a turban on my head.!!! It makes me laugh just remembering it. I really felt like someone was going to jump out and yell, “your’re on candid camera!”. But after a few controled adjustments to the aim and pressure, I was able to releave myself in a civil fashion. Not something I would ever wish on ANYONE, but alas I was not conqured by the squat toilet. I still refuse to even entertain the idea of doing #2 there though. No way someone can balance that good. there is nothing to lean on! You’d be better off with a hole at the base of a tree. At least you have something to lean on.

I’m working on a large e-commerce website build for two weeks now. I thought I was set to move forward with the project and I hit a huge brick wall. This site was one of the biggest builds to date for Creative Soup, so I took what I normally paid a programmer and multiplied it by 4 to give an estimate. I got the business and went to the most professional looking programming firm in town to discuss the details. They verbally agreed that working within my budget shouldn’t be an issue. So I designed my site according to their shopping cart. The day I sent over the design my account rep writes me back that they want DOUBLE what they had originally talked about!! WHY is it that when it comes to money people lose all common sense? They want to charge me for just programming MORE than I’ve charged customers for entire site builds and then some. Needless to say I wrote back telling them that they were indeed crazy, and now I’m on the frantic hunt for a new programmer.

I hope to find one this weekend, but I am going to let the client know up front about the situation. That way if there happens to be a delay in the site launch he can at least have expected it a month in advance.

Lesson Applied: Be 100% up front and honest with the client

Lesson Learned: Always have a back up plan, no matter how much money you feel you’re throwing at someone to do things right.

$500 million later: San Francisco's California Academy of Sciences has solar panels and a living roof. By Tim Griffith

The Cal Academy of Sciences opened this September after their remodel and I absolutely can’t wait to go. Before this year I had barely visited one aquarium and now I’ve seen 4 going on 5 this year alone. But what I’ve always wanted to do and have never done is go to a planetarium. I don’t know why… maybe it was all those years of Star Trek that did it to me, but i’ve always wanted to see what the universe can look like.

So what do Star Trek and Finding Nemo have in common? Why the Cal Academy of Sciences of course! That place is like Disneyland for nerds of all kinds. Planetarium, rain forest, huge saltwater reef tank….it goes on and on.

I met one of the guys that works there, Richard Ross from The Daisy Cuttle Fish Farm at MACNA this year and he seemed like a really great guy. Needless to say I fully intend on shamelessly trading in on any good graces I may have with him to obtain a behind the scenes look when I get there.

Read more here:

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/2008-10-16-cal-academy_N.htm

So I’ve finally signed up on facebook. I’ve had a myspace for a long time, but never really do anything with it. As it turns out a lot of my old friends from Ohio are on facebook so it works out nicely. Its so funny to see how people change so much (surgically ;)) and how some are exactly how they were at 12 years old.

So here’s how I made my light bars to hang my lights above my aquarium:

Shopping list (this is to make two bars to hang a 48″ lighting fixture)

2 -10′ lengths of 3/4 conduit pipe (get a 3rd because you’ll make mistakes on bending)
2 - sets of “Sunlifts” from sunlight supply (http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_ViewIt…915~tab~2.html) Got mine from SWI much cheaper
4- 1″ hooks
4- Decorative nuts (got mine from a current light fixture set, but I’m sure they sell something like it at HD)
4- 3/4 brackets for attaching to the wall or stand
1- Bag of end caps (1/2″) see picture for type **optional**
Screws for mounting to the wall/stand

Tools-
Drill
3/4 Pipe bender ($40 @ HD) –gonna return mine
Pipe Cutter

To make these light bars I needed them to hang a 14″ light fixture 16″ over a tank. (I chose to hang it slightly closer to the front of the tank)

Measure Twice, Cut Once

I measured 18″ to start my first bend. That gives me 2″ extra on each side of my fixture of dead space.

If you’ve never worked with a pipe bender before, you have to line up the little star with your line.

Bend your first 90 degree angle by stepping on the pedal and forcing it up.

I needed my light bar to extend 15-16″ out from the wall.. so I made my next mark 12″ from the top of the perpendicular pipe. Bending with the 3/4 in pipe bender adds about 4″ extra to the finished bend. Thus a 12″ mark becomes 16″ finished product.

Bend your second 90 the same way as the first.

Cut the excess length off the foot of your pipe. I cut 7.5″ off the end for my purposes.

Drill holes straight through the pipe to screw in the hooks

I finished mine off with a decorative nut, but any nut will do.

I went the extra step and capped the pipe for a finished look. This is the bag for these caps…Notice they are 1/2 to fit inside the 3/4 pipe.

This is what the final close up of the hangers look like

My pipes sit on the floor behind my tank because I couldn’t access behind my stand to attach them to the stand (my first choice) so I attached them to the wall

Final Product

Update with the 48″ light fixture I use now

If you’re looking for any information on sumps, saltwater critter ID, or aquarium photography, Marc Levenson’s site www.melevsreef.com is a great resource. He also sells RO/DI units that are second to none. I bought one from him for my reef needs and I couldn’t be happier with it.

My RO/DI Unit from Melev's Reef set up above my washer/dryer

You can check it out here:

http://www.melevsreef.com/ro_di.html