This is quite possibly my favorite lolcat picture ever… excluding any that I can't remember at the moment which may, in fact, be better.

dis is u wen u drink beer

I posted before about my idea for hydroponically growing food in my apartment, and using custom made LED grow lights.
… this is an update to that (hence the post title)

I'm skipping the hydroponic part for now. It introduces too many variables at this stage, and since I've never implemented a hydroponic system, it would just be one more potential source of problems. I have built a test version of my LED grow light. It's not as powerful as I would like, but once again, it's just a prototype. It's currently using less than 2 watts of power, and the goal is to have 2 slightly larger versions.

The current setup is a 35 gallon plastic storage container, lined with reflective mylar to reduce light loss, and a layer of white wrapping paper behind that, to further reduce light loss (even though mylar is reflective, it's so thin that some light gets through, the wrapping paper prevents that light from being wasted). The LEDs are mounted on a solderless breadboard (the final version will be soldered onto a circuit board), and I'll skip the details of the voltages and light frequency of the LEDs.

I've had a Snake Plant in the box for about the last week, and it seems to be doing well. One of the dominant leaves has grown about 1.5-2" since moving to the box, while another comparably sized plant sitting in my window has grown less than half that. A couple of days ago I found some mint and chamomile seeds and planted those in there as well. The seeds are 2 years old, so I'm not sure if they're even still viable, but we'll see.

One thing I was worried about was whether or not it would be cost effective to set up a system like this. Some quick math shows that it costs almost nothing to power a system like this:

The light is on for 14 hours a day, and uses less than 2 watts. That's 28 watt-hours per day. Which is about 840 watt-hours a month. 1,000 watt-hours (1 kWh) is about $0.12. Even doubling the lights on this thing, the cost to run it per month would be less than $0.25.

I would have to strongly advise looking ANYWHERE else if you need any plumbing work done.

Recently, a family member used the plumbing services of Mark The Plumber (out of Fort Atkinson, WI). It was just one mess after another.

• Bathroom 1:
  • The plumber FORGOT to glue the PVC pipes leading to the bath together – so when the water was turned on water was spraying all over the inside of the wall. This required a hole to be cut in the wall.
  • Memorable quote: "water in the wall doesn't cause mold"… really? What does?
• Bathroom 2:
  • Leaking supply pipes to the sink
• Bathroom 3:
  • Leaking drain on bath
• Kitchen:
  • Mark the Plumber destroyed the latch on the dishwasher, and then lied about it. Story changed several times from "I didn't even touch it" (which is odd, since before he came it was *not pushed underneath the counter, *not hooked up to the plumbing, and *closed, without a broken latch), to "it opened a bit hard" – but never admitting fault or taking responsibility for his actions.
  • The clamp on the drain hose from the dishwasher to the under-sink plumbing was not tightened, resulting in another leak once the dishwasher situation was fixed.
  • The water shutoff valves were installed so high that it causes the hose from the sink sprayer to catch on them
  • Asked for the garbage disposal to be installed on the right side of the sink… somehow it ended up on the left side. Left/Right – come on.. they teach this in kindergarten (or earlier)!

And then there were just general issues with the business. The "secretary" seemed unpleasant to deal with, and refused to let anyone speak directly with Mark. There were definite communication issues with this, and it doesn't seem like Mark was 100% filled in on what was being requested.

The scheduling was a huge issue – for example, being told that he could be out Tuesday, and to call Monday to verify that that was still going to work. Call Monday and are told that he won't be able to make it out until next week now. And then decides to show up on that Wednesday, unannounced, with no one there, and let himself in and start working.

Mark the Plumber is now a strong contender for the "2009 – Ass-hat of the Year" award! And well deserving of the win. Congratulations!

Well, you asked for it (not really) – so here it is… video of a dog Riverdancing!

Today was kind of a suck day.
Maybe just because it was so long.

It was better than being at work though!
And I got three silver, numbered, cans of soda that say "TEST PRODUCT ONLY NOT FOR RESALE" on them. They're test flavors for the "new" Mt Dew flavor. I've only tried #493… so I can't say which I like better.

The jackass can't quit! Just look at this!


Kanyelicious

via [Make]

I just thought this was a great picture.

Still on the topic of bats, and also great: There is an organization – "Bat Conservatory of Wisconsin, Inc." – that is also known as… BATCOW!