Sunday, December 16, 2012

Shower Temperature


I got rather good at figuring out how to do shower temperatures.

Single Knob controls: turn it all the way hot, leave it run until it's actually all the way hot (usually five minutes), then turn it down to the magic "just right" spot if you already know it. If you don't already know it, twist it about a fourth of the way along the allowed range, and wait a couple minutes. Adjust a tiny bit, wait a couple mins, repeat as needed until the "just right" spot is found. Memorize the spot.

Two Knob controls: turn the hot water all the way on, leave it run until it's all the way hot (usually five minutes). Turn the hot water down halfway and add cold slowly until it's the right temperature.

My old shower was a two knob, but it was tricky. After five minutes of running, it would appear to be done heating up, but if you adjust the temperature at that point every couple of minutes during the shower you'll need to change the temperature back down. So you have to wait another two minutes before turning the temperature down.

My current shower is a single knob, and it is the devil. The way single knobs are supposed to work, each spot on the run has a set temperature. The way this one actually works, it randomly decides what temperature it should be based on how much you moved it from the previous one, except it increases the change exponentially. So moving it too far, all of a sudden you have cold water in the middle of the hot side of the range. To make matters worse, no matter how long you let it run or what temperature you finally wrangle it in to, every two minutes it will randomly change to either hotter or colder. And how much of a change either way varies so much that you could end up with a workable temperature, or you could end up being scalded by the shower. Where the knob is on the range seems to have no bearing on whether it gets hotter, colder, or by how much.

Now, it's possible I just haven't figured out the trick of it yet. It's possible that I've just been impatient, and not letting it sit long enough between temperature changes. It's possible that the only thing wrong with the shower is that it shares hot and cold water with the rest of the building so anyone in any of the eleven other apartments could be messing it up for me. But I only just a few years ago got over my phobia of bathrooms, and the longer this continues the worse I'm going to have to fight it, and the more likely it is that I'll be so tense about the shower that I'll be unable to give it the time it needs to heat up and change temperature.

Besides, I swear the shower just WAITS until I'm actually under the water to change temperatures on me.

My wish- they would come out with Enterprise-like showers, not in space, just in temperature control. We tell the computer hotter or colder, and it remembers what temperature we like. It could start at baby-bath temperature to make sure no one is ever actually hurt by the water (seriously, there was one shower where if you weren't careful, you'd get burned by it).


Owie


On Monday my period started and I got sick. I stayed up most of the night until my nose stopped being a fountain so I could sleep without drowning in snot, and spent Tuesday alternating between being awake and being asleep. On Tuesday, I couldn't eat anything because everything made me want to throw up, so I've been slowly getting my body used to food again for the past week, while I cough up flegm.

Today I went to get Paraguard, an IUD. They recommended that I take 800 mg of Ibuprofen, which translates into 4 pills of it, about an hour before the appointment. 15 minutes into the appointment, I got really woozy. I feel like I have cramps, and I'm still kinda bleeding. It might be a few days before I can cam again. I'm still really woozy, from lack of sleep, lack of food, and painkillers (after the appointment, I slept awhile, woke up to intense pain, took 3 more ibuprofen, and went back to sleep for another few hours).

I will be checking my hotmail and mfc mail, so if anyone is interested in the videos in my store but doesn't want to use clips4sale to purchase them, get in touch with me one way or the other. I'll let you know if I have it and what price it is (general prices are $1 or 10 tokens per 30 seconds, rounded to the nearest 30 secs. 14 rounds down, 15 rounds up, 44 rounds down, 45 rounds up. Unless it's one of my findom films, which are the ignore ones). DO NOT send the money before I confirm the price and whether or not I actually have the vid. Please do send the video title, description, claimed length, and filename, so I can verify, because there are a few on the site where I have a different video named the same as the title, but it's a different length and different filename.


Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Dream Car


I've been through a lot of cars. I'm not going to go into details about how or why, but I've been through a lot. So I have a pretty good idea by now of what I want to drive, and be driven around in (since when my partner and I have two cars, we usually take mine and he drives if he's with me).

Size and Shape:

I really liked driving my 2006 Kia Spectra. So that would be my ideal size and shape. However, that size might not be big enough to contain everything I want in the car, so I'm willing to go up to the size of the 2006 Honda Accord that I drove.

Engine:

I want it to be easy to do self-maintenance on the engine. Oh, I'll take it to the shop until the warranties are out, but once they're out, I want to learn how to do the tune ups and oil changes. It needs to get good gas mileage, but I also want it strong enough to be able to tow a small flatbed.

Seats:

Two seats up front, two seats in back. Back seats need to fold down to extend the trunk, and I want the hole between the backseat and the trunk to be as big as allowed by the frame of the car. None of this blocking off all but half of it that all the new cars like to do.

I prefer cloth seats. I just don't like how leather burns my ass in the summer and freezes it in the winter. I want the front seats to be able to go all the way back, and I want all the seats to be comfortable.

Cupholders and storage:

One of the cars I had, in the door there was a place for a water bottle, along with the usual paper-holder. I want that. I've seen cars that have cupholders right behind the shifter, followed by a storage compartment, and finally cupholders that could fold up and drop back down for the back seats. This is the ideal setup for me.

I've never understood why there can't be more storage under the back seats. If it's possible, then I'd like that in my car. If it's not possible, then I guess I'll have to deal with it. I like the idea of a hidey-hole in the headrests where I can put emergency supplies, like matches, a swiss army knife, and some emergency cash. Under the backseat would go bigger emergency supplies, like jumper cables, blankets, foldable road cones, flares, a gas can, and a toolbox. That way, when I put groceries in the trunk, I don't have to worry about that stuff touching the food.

Of course, the trunk will have the usual lift up the bottom to get to the spare. If it won't sacrifice too much gas mileage, I'd like an actual spare, not the dinky donuts. It doesn't have to be a full sized spare, but an actual spare tire.

Stereo

Quality sound. Can take usb, audio cables, sd cards, and cd's up front. Hooked up to it is a 10-cd changer, that I understand is usually in the trunk of the car.

Power

I would like two power outlets under the rear cupholders. I would also like two power outlets and one cigarette lighter under the radio. No ashtray needed, though an indent for change would be nice.

Coloring:

I like white exterior with tan interior. Dunno why, I just do.

So there you have it, that's what my dream car is like. I don't even know if some of it is possible, but it would be so nice. ^_^


Friday, December 7, 2012

Global Warming


Many people don't think global warming exists. They are wrong. It's definitely getting warmer and warmer every year. When there's a "record low", they mean record for the last 20 years, not as low as it was 100 years ago. Did humans make it happen? I don't know. I know the Earth has temperature cycles, and I think we would have to deal with a warming no matter what. But I also know that it doesn't usually get warm enough to melt the polar ice caps, and that it might this time.

If it does, there won't be enough land left for humans to live on. We'll have to find new ways of living between now and then, but no one seems to be thinking about it. Well, here's my thoughts:

1. Land- learning to build cities underground and as skyscrapers. Learning how to farm indoors. Learning how to make indoor gardens and maybe even indoor forests would definitely help. These things can then be translated into the next two areas.

2. Sea- we need to discover how to make buildings that can work under the ocean, or on the ocean. I think under would be safer during storms, but not too far under, because of the giant sea-creatures down there. Or maybe they can make them on the sea, and figure out how to protect them from the giant waves that happen when it's stormy.

3. Space- learning to make space stations that can support countries instead of just a village. Exploring ways of living on the moon, and living on mars. Maybe green-house gasses could be used to create an atmosphere around them? I don't know enough about science to say how this can happen, but it needs to be explored at the very least.

These are the things science needs to be working on, so that we can live during the years when there is so little land on earth. Heck, if all the people live on the ocean and in space, the land can be used for plants and animals.

If you think it can't be done... look at zoos and aquariums  Seriously, they build tanks to hold that much water in, can't they use the same concepts to keep that much water out? They already make habitats inside for the animals that need climate control. So don't laugh at me for thinking this. It needs to happen.

Alright, I'm done with my soapbox for today.