Small block

Gustavo and his crew are half-way done with the bookcase install. The floating shelves and counter-top are next to be installed. We still need to choose the plastic for the back of the bookcase.


While unpacking kitchen items I came across a pencil holder my old office mate made for the wife. It was fabricated from a solid block of stainless steel with 15 holes drilled into it. Apparently it took 40 minutes for each hole to be drilled. The block goes well with the cabinets.

Turf Fight Club

The same guy fucked me twice tonight at the Turf Club. First instance was him fucking with our food at the grill. Second instance he kept on elbowing the pregnant wifey. Both times I told him to fuck off. Both times he complained to his girlfriend about me. The second time I yelled at him extra and flipped off the girlfriend. Darren and I were ready to fight. I hate dudes who wear untucked vertical striped shirts, him and his friends were squishy Gaslamp dudes. Of course the odds of victory would have been better if Chris actually showed up like he was supposed to with Erik. My better half deescalated the second confrontation.

Fucking Chris. Way to be a stand-up guy.

Seminar

Seminar this morning.

It was good.

Here are observations.

1. Attention, adaptation and orienting response are intertwined - Adaptation is highly underrated.

2. Prof. X and Y have aged tremendously since I saw them present their model at CNS '98. Fast forward ten years, they are fine tuning the original '98 model. They do it very well. Sitting in seminar I realized that I do not want to be doing basic research in the twilight of life. The talk was disheartening on a personal level, but theoretically rich in the sciences.

3. While walking past the spectators on their way to the US Open, I realized that no one in the outside world cares about science. I could hear the cheers from a mile way accompanying each hole Tiger Woods sank. People did not cheer when Prof X's model predicted performance across differing luminance levels.

Sigh ....

Kitchen completed ... more or less.

The kitchen is basically done. We are happy with the way it turned out. I need to buy two more light fixtures for the short cable run above the sink, mend dings and remove the protective plywood layer off the finished bamboo floor. We still need to run bamboo up the vertical face of the sink counter.

Points of interest:
1. The big metal disc on the wall is a transformer for one of the cable runs. I am unhappy with the protruding transformer. The woman who helped us with the system is a certified idiot. In the end I called Tek Lighting directly for help.

2. We chose Caesar stone for the back splash, we wanted the material to read such that it is continuous from the floor to the counter and up the wall. Moreover, by not using tile we minimized grout lines which in turn makes cleaning a breeze.


3. Roberto is a complete cock sucker. I made him come on a Saturday to remove the panels so that he could refinish them. I pointed out that the finish was blemished and too heavy (likely due to a dirty spray nozzle). He told me that he did not have a clean room to spray panels and that the average person would find this acceptable. I stated that our stairs were finished on-site and the finish was far superior. Moreover, Jen told him that it was irrelevant what the average person thinks. He reluctantly resprayed them all. They turned out nice in the end. Just to be an asshole, I casually let it drop to Roberto that the craftsman who finished the stairs did not have an advanced degree from CMU. I am sure that really pissed him off.

4. I also wanted the cut-out on the far end of the cabinets. That cock sucker tried not to do it. He called me several times to whine about it (i.e, "I have a MFA from CMU and that just looks wrong"; "This is your last chance, are you sure you want this?"). I am happy I stuck to the original idea. I really like how the cut out breaks up the cabinet. I can confidently not recommend Roberto to anyone, he has a serious chip on his shoulder.