Been busy.

Been busy the last few days, that I haven't posted much. Things I've done the last several days:

• Made multiple trips to Goodwill to drop off stuff that I've compiled from clearing out my closets.
• Prepped my closet walls with patching, sanding, priming and painting, then installed the first third of my new closet -- IKEA Algot system.
• Bought / received a refurb'd Dell desktop and an MSATA SSD. Installed MSATA drive (directly on the motherboard) and turned it into the primary boot drive. Also, updated all of the drivers and installed about 2/3rds of the software I need, in order to work.
• Bought enough Luxury Vinyl Tile (LVT) and accessories to install the first third of my planned flooring in my place. The boxes were crazy heavy -- ~45 pounds -- that it was too much of a struggle to carry two at a time, using a friction grasp with two hands. I'll explain in some separate post, later on, about why I chose LVT.
• Cleared out my massive drafting table, in anticipation of selling it, or otherwise getting rid of it, in order to make room to install my flooring.
• Received my PocketScan, installed the app, played around with it for a bit. I discovered a possible problem with the app, such that the Bluetooth device's install created an IP conflict of some sort, that would drop my signal to my router. Once I uninstalled the app, the problems disappeared. Of course, it didn't help that my WiMax signal dropped out, a few times.

My To-Do list is equally long, too:

• Mount IKEA hardware in bathroom (went to Pearl Hardware to get the stainless steel screws to match).
• Drop off recyclable bulbs and batteries.
• Prep (really old) Pentium 4 computer to be given away, by going through hard drive and stripping out encryption and copying files as desired, prior to wiping -- 2 hours.
• Prep (slightly less ancient) Xeon workstation to be given away or sold, by reinserting old drive, stripping out encryption and copying files as desired, prior to restoring to original config -- 2 hours.
• Sell or give away temporary IKEA shoe rack.
• Buy bottle of Super 77 to spray-glue padding to drafting board, spray-glue padding to drafting board.
• Get rid of drafting table.
• Strip out carpet and install flooring.
• Recycle some old paint, and buy Metro recycled paint, all at Miller Paint. I'm going to sample the Metro recycled paint to see if I can incorporate it into my remodel...because it's the green thing to do, and it's hella cheap.

In the meantime, some quick observations of things going on:

• Russia and their allies in eastern Ukraine pushed out Ukrainian forces, after the peace truce was supposed to be in effect. Putin is a liar, and Merkel and Hollande are idiots for continuing to place even the least bit of trust in him.
• Kate Brown was sworn in, and she gave a speech that lasted about 5 minutes, before everyone got back to work. The tale of tangled interests between Kitz and his fiance are definitely not going away, though.
• Speaking of work in Salem, in between data centers (Apple and others) and Google Fiber, there are a handful of senate bills  (SB 566, 568, 569, 570, 571) that need to be worked through the system.
• According to Google Flu Trends, Oregon's flu season is practically over and done with. The nation as a whole, is just about done with the flu, too.
• It's been so consistently warmer than usual in Oregon, that daffodils and tulips are all popping up right now. But the cherry trees on the waterfront are still about two weeks away. I went back and looked at the dates of prior years' photos, and they were all in late March or early April, making this possibly the earliest spring blossoms, ever.
• Either Greece exits the Eurozone or we'll see riots. Patience with 25% unemployment is being tested, and I don't think it can last much longer. A few days ago, Paul Krugman pointed out the similarities between the Weimar Republic's post-WWI / pre-WWII condition and the current Greek situation, and it's more than a bit scary to see how closely one resembles the other.