Small first steps

Well, I am on day four of the 30 day shred. It's embarassing how out of shape I am, but hopefully this program at least gets me moving and on to other workout programs. My goal is to stick with it, every day, until at least my birthday in March. I'll see where I am at then!

I'm also making progress with my goal of eliminating debt, though some of that progress may be fleeting. I applied our tax return to our biggest non-student loan balance, the wells fargo credit line. For now, it is at zero. Once the hospital bills from Baby D's birth come in, that might change.

For now, things are going great. I haven't made any progress on my third goal, instead I have been playing catchup at work. Once work calms down, I hope to use Code Academy to make more progress.

Before I turn 30...

So, I'll be turning 29 next month. It's made me think that perhaps I want to consider getting some things done before I turn 30. I think, importantly, that I want to focus on three specific goals.

1. Get myself in shape
2. Program a computer game
3. Get out of all debt except student loans

I'm fully capable of making all three of those happen, it will be a matter of sticking to it. I'll put more of my thoughts down soon as to my gameplan for each goal.

Being a giant computer geek...

So - my laptop fan finally ran out of steam. It still spun, but at 1/2 to 1/4 the speed it should have. It also started to stop altogether - a terrible sign for a fan! So, I decided to replace the fan, as well as the thermal paste in the heatsink. I almost regretted replacing the thermal paste: the first time I did it didn't make contact and I almost melted the thing. I tried again and got it right - the computer runs a full 10-20 degrees cooler (Celsius).

Just a few screws...seems easy.

After removing the cover and setting that aside, the real fun began.

The guts of a laptop - the heatsink and fan are the majority of what you see here.

First I needed to unscrew the heatsink for the CPU, and disconnect the fan. Prying up the CPU was rather difficult, the heat melted a lot of the old adhesive and thermal paste.



The fan, fan housing, and heatsink for the CPU pulled aside.



The next step was to pry up the GPU (the copper area in the picture above). This was incredibly, incredibly difficult. It's tough to "gently remove" something that has been melted together. Eventually, and with much patience, it popped off and I removed the full unit. 

Look at that melty paste!

I had purchased a new fan on ebay ($12), so it was time to install it. The fan is mounted with three tiny screws. After they were removed, I dropped in the new fan.

Guess which one is the new one.

Before applying the new thermal paste - I needed to clean off the old ones. I used a credit card (since plastic doesn't scratch metal), alcohol, and some q-tips. The cleaning must be very, very thorough - even the oil from the human hand will ruin the thermal paste. 

First the heatsink...

Then the GPU and CPU

After everything was clean, I applied the thermal paste (I used Arctic Silver 5) to the GPU and CPU. I spread it evenly with my finger (using a plastic bag over my hand to keep the oils from destroying the paste).

This was the first attempt: I had to add more paste the second time.

Finally, put it all back together!

It's blurry from the awesomeness.

It's running fantastic now. I won't feel guilty selling it - knowing it had a bum fan would have made it much more difficult to do.

Those darn cats...

They get into everything. The most recent "fun" they've had involves tunneling into the underside of our couch. While admittedly adorable at first, this behavior gave us a real scare. We were leaving for the weekend, and we couldn't find one of our cats : she was trapped, half-suffocated in the couch. That's when we, with the help of a very helpful Home Depot man, came up with a plan to repair the couch.

Our cat, showing off his new hiding spot.

We first cut away all the old fabric on the bottom of the couch, leaving only the frame.

The couch, upside down and stripped.

We used "pet screening" that's black and intended to be used in screen doors to stop dogs/cats from breaking through them. The entire roll was about $15.

Hardest part of this repair? Getting that plastic wrapping off. 

We didn't have a staple gun, so we had to get one of those too. This one was amazing: for no effort it drove the staple solidly through the frame and into the wood. Very easy to use!

Awesome Stapler.

It was simply a matter of cutting the screening and stapling it to the wooden frame. Simple and effective!

All finished! Take that, cats!

I'm sure they'll figure out more ways to be mischievous in the future, but for now the couch is back in action!

Ye Olde Laptop

It's actually not that old. However, like smoking and stress does to people, I take years off the life of my PCs. This laptop has been known to have severe heat issues - and I finally managed to burn the fan out. I had planned on selling it in a month, but since it failed to cooperate, I am left with an interesting choice: repair or replace.

We'll see how that plays out, but for now I sit using a can of compressed air to "jump start" my fan. Yes, it literally wont run until I blow air onto it and start it spinning incredible fast and its own motor takes over. No, just blowing on it won't work. It's not like a Nintendo game. Of course I tried that first.

Animal Overload!

It's no secret I'm one of those animal loving hippies. Today I got to indulge that, thanks to Margo (my wife). We started the day volunteering at Heartland Farm Sanctuary in Verona, Wisconsin. Margo has volunteered there before, but it was my first day. The animals were shockingly friendly to people (I've never had a cow "attack" me looking for petting, but it happened!). After that, we went to the free (but awesome) Madison Zoo. What a day!

Margo petting the very friendly goat!

Margo hanging out with the new arrivals, April and Maude.

It's surprisingly hard to get a goat to look at you when you want it too. 

I'm glad I'm a vegetarian some days.

'Pink Slime' Will Be a Choice for Schools - Yahoo! News:

"The low-grade trimmings come from the parts of the cow most susceptible to contamination, often close to the hide, which is highly exposed to fecal matter. But because the treatment of the trimmings - simmering them in low heat, separating fat and tissue using a centrifuge and spraying them with ammonia gas to kill germs - the United States Department of Agriculture says it's safe to eat."

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