Rocket Farms Bamboo

Purchased a Rocket Farms "Lucky" Bamboo plant (Dracaena braunii), at a local Trader Joe's.

The label details say it will "improve" luck...which represents a relief...sometimes they do not specify good or bad luck! ; o )

Care instructions

NOTES

• How I Keep My Houseplants Alive
• Water
• Filtered or distilled OK
• Tap water OK, but let sit overnight, so additives evaporate
• Low humidity can cause leaf tips to turn brown as well (via)
• In soil: should be kept moderately moist. Lucky bamboo doe not like to be soggy or dry. (via)
• Other (?)

Makers Market Santa Cruz

Visited the Makers Market Santa Cruz today, at Abbott Square.

We met local glass maker Zachary Rudolph, saw Nickelodeon popcorn for sale, and listened to live harp music, by local artist Jesse Autumn. Zachary had purple drinking ware for sale (note: other colors, as well). He practiced his sales-fu on us, but we resisted! : o ) Good stuff; hoping he keeps doing it.

Favorite Sounds

An ongoing list:

• Clacking of slow-moving, elevated light rail trains, from a distance
• Cicadas, in the summertime (audio)
• Frogs, at night
• Male woodland cicadas (Tibicen platypedia?), in redwoods: "...from male woodland cicadas, sending out their mating calls with "a cacophony of mechanical-sounding clicks." These little insects climb high into the trees, so that they're often heard but rarely seen." (via)
• Red-winged blackbird 💜 (example)
• Other (?)

Only as sick as your secrets

Having never attended AA, I had not heard this quote, until randomly hearing/reading about it the other day.

Hiyashi Tan Tan Men

Had this cold noodle dish at Ramen House Ryujin, in Sacramento.

Andrew Westerman

Westside Coffee, in Santa Cruz, features his photography.

Radio Songs

Heard on KOSF 103.7 FM, out of San Francisco, California:

• Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany-native Peter Schilling's "Major Tom (Coming Home)", from his 1983 album "Error in the System" on the Elektra and WEA Records labels. Video.
• London, England-native Murray Head's "One Night in Bangkok", from the 1984 album "Chess" on the RCA label. Video. Note: Murray Head also sang "Superstar" from the musical "Jesus Christ Superstar".
• London, England-formed Talk Talk's "It's My Life", from their 1984 album "It's My Life" on the EMI label. Video.

Heard on KBLX 102.9 FM, out of Berkeley, California:

• Detroit-native Kem's "I Can't Stop Loving You", from his 2005 album "Album II", on the Motown Records label. Audio.

Heard on KUSP 88.9 FM, out of Santa Cruz, California:

• Heard a classical tarantella . A fun exchange where the host did not know how to pronounce "roulette".

Cloning, Increasing SSD Partitions of Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon, 2nd Generation (Rel 2)

Used a Transcend 512 GB SATA III SSD, in the following enclosure, to clone the existing 128GiB SSD: "ZTC Thunder Enclosure NGFF M.2 SSD to USB 3.0 Adapter. Support UASP SuperSpeed 6Gb/s 520MB/s Black Model ZTC-EN004-BK"

• Really tough to insert the Transcend SSD drive into the ZTC M.2 SSD to USB 3.0 Adapter board (the adapter board and SSD then gets inserted into the enclosure)
• The adapter's USB 3.0 Micro-B receptacle seemed poorly soldered, most likely a factory defect
• After inserting the USB 3.0 Micro-B plug, Microsoft Windows recognized the adapter, then, after a few seconds, lost connection to it
• The adapter's blue LEDs turned on/off in the same way
• Physically bumping the adapter seemed to produce the same effect
• After some experimentation, I discovered flexing the USB 3.0 Micro-B receptacle, at a downward angle, allowed for a reliable connection
• After finding the workaround mentioned above, I sat for nearly 18 minutes, holding the adapter board perfectly still, at this angle, to complete the clone of the existing disk
• We did not use the aluminum enclosure, just the M.2 SSD to USB 3.0 Adapter...due to the faulty soldering...having the adapter in the enclosure did not allow for the workaround
• We used software Macrium Reflect Free, version 6.0.685 (17 June 2015); it worked perfectly--love it!

After cloning the internal disk, we replaced the 128GiB X1 Carbon internal SSD with the new 512GiB SSD:

• This went smoothly
• We needed to apply a non-trivial amount of force to unscrew the screw holding down the SSD
• Insertion of the Transcend 512 GB SATA III drive was no problem

Rebooting showed everything as expected!

Due to dual-OS configuration, on one disk, enlarging partitions had a few wrinkles:

• The original 128GB SSD had a hidden, 7GiB Intel Rapid Start Technology (IRST) partition, as the last partition
• We found no partition editors which would allow us to move this partition 
• After disabling BIOS IRST support and doing some research, we deleted this partition, with no ill effect
• The vendor seems to have labeled this partition "OEM", which caused a bit of confusion, initially...many posts advised, rightfully so, to not delete the OEM partition
• After deleting the IRST partition, we successfully moved the Ubuntu swap partition, allowing room to expand the main Ubuntu partition size
• After a reboot, we increased the partition size of the Microsoft Windows 8 C:\ partition (after taking a risk and deleting a 1.0 MiB partition which seemed unused)
• We also created a new IRST partition:
• Type = Unformatted
• Drive Letter = None
• Use diskpart to set the ID to D3BFE2DE-3DAF-11DF-BA40-E3A556D89593
• After creating the IRST partition, we re-enabled IRST in BIOS
• Hibernation works, as expected, with the system going into Microsoft Windows S4 sleep mode

So far, all seems well. Ubuntu and Microsoft Windows work, as expected. 

Cleanup tasks:

• Migrate files from external USB 3.0 SSD to internal USB 3.0 SSD
• Update Ubuntu
• (?)

Previously

Wanship

An "n"...or maybe an "r" (?)

Passed by this thought-provoking logo, on a trailer:

Note: Wanship seems to refer to the Utah city...however, the web site seems a bit vague.

Wisdom, from their History page: "Bruce said, the most important thing is to know what your costs are, and don’t run for less than your costs ! sounds simple, but as our industry has proven time and time again, overcoming that obstacle is something that is easier said than done."

"Dokdo Belongs to Korea"

Saw this sign, as I passed the dispensary, "Santa Cruz Mountain Herb," on Highway 17. It refers to Dokdo:

"The Liancourt Rocks,[a] also known as Dokdo or Tokto (Korean pronunciation: [tokt͈o]; Hangul: 독도; hanja: 獨島, literally solitary island) inKorean, and Takeshima (竹島/たけしま?, literally bamboo island) in Japanese,[2] are a group of small islets in the Sea of Japan. WhileSouth Korea controls the islets, its sovereignty over them is contested by Japan. South Korea classifies the islets as Dokdo-ri, Ulleung-eup, Ulleung County, North Gyeongsang Province.[3] Japan classifies them as part of Okinoshima, Oki District, Shimane Prefecture."

Tom Paine Slough

A thing I passed.

"Yesterday This Day's Madness did prepare...."

“Yesterday This Day's Madness did prepare;
To-morrow's Silence, Triumph, or Despair:
Drink! for you know not whence you came, nor why:
Drink! for you know not why you go, nor where.”

The Rubaiyat
By Omar Khayyam

Saw this today, at an Alhambra Theatre Fountain, now a Safeway, in Sacramento.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon, 2nd Generation (Rel 2) - SSD Replacement / Upgrade

Our refurbished laptop came with a 128GB SSD, which quickly filled-up, due to dual-booting, student software, and so forth.

So, time to upgrade!

Lenovo recommends the following storage options:

• 128GB SSD M.2
• Intel 180GB Opal SSD
• 256GB SSD M.2 eDrive Capable
• Intel 240GB Opal SSD
• 512GB SSD M.2

NOTES

• Lingo
• Second generation names:
• ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 2
• ThinkPad X1 Carbon 2nd gen
• New ThinkPad X1 Carbon
• ThinkPad X1C2
• m.2
• "The M.2 connector can have different keying notches that denote various uses of M.2 modules."
• Overview of what M and B+M means
• eDrive: 
• Per Wikipedia, "Microsoft eDrive is a specification for storage devices to allow compliant storage devices to use its built-in encryption."
• It seems "eDrive adds the additional capability of BitLocker in HW mode (IEEE1667)
• Opal: 
• Per Wikipedia, "The Opal Storage Specification is a set of specifications for features of data storage devices (such as disk drives) that enhance their security. For example, it defines a way of encrypting the stored data so that an unauthorized person who gains possession of the device cannot see the data."
• It appears Opal does not represent an acronym
• PCIe (PCI Express, or Peripheral Component Interconnect Express)
• Overview of what 2280 means (note: please ignore PCIe, at the link)
• 2280 means, "22mm wide, 80mm length"
• 22mm width seems to represent the standard, with lengths set at 30, 42, 60, 80, and 110
• Reference
• Hardware Maintenance Manual, for machine types: 20A7 and 20A8
• Lenovo Product Specifications Reference (PSREF)
• Comparing mSATA (generation one) with m.2 (generation two)
• X1 generation 2, announced in January, 2014, comes in two machine types:
• 20A7
• 20A8
• The difference (?)
• Storage details:
• One commenter, on which drives will work: "...any SATA (not the newest PCIe) 2280 m.2 SSD with M or B+M keys."
• Seems to imply it needs the notch in the m.2 module in the "M" position
• 80mm length (or less, I guess?)...so, no 110mm form factors
• "Only one M.2 slot in the X1C2 will recognize SSDs" (via)
• Note: "The SSD in the X1C2 only supported SATA M.2 2280 NGFF SSDs. Which means that the port was only connected to SATA. With the X1C3, the socket is connected to both PCIe and SATAIII." That is, you can use PCIe SSDs.
• SSDs advertised as 480GB instead of 512GB...potentially the controller over-provisioning (?)
• Upgrade notes
• Video of removing chassis screws and replacing SSD, in a first generation X1 Carbon
• Clone the existing SSD to the new SSD
• Vendor options:
• SSD:
• Transcend 512 GB SATA III 6Gb/s MTS800 80 mm M.2 SSD Solid State Drive TS512GMTS800
• Reviews: positive and positive
• M+B keyed
• Micron MTFDDAV512MBF-1AN12A M600 512 GB Internal Solid State Drive - M.2 - 560 MBps Maximum Read Transfer Rate - 510 MBps Maximum Write Transfer Rate - M.2 2280
• Crucial M500 480GB SATA 6Gbps M.2 Internal SSD [Crucial PN: CT480M500SSD4]
• (?)
• Cloning
• M-Factors Storage "DT-119 (M.2 (NGFF) SSD to SATA adapter)" + Apricorn EZ Upgrade USB 3.0 enclosure + Apricorn EZ Gig software  
• Cloning hint: "The only tricky part was getting the X1 Carbon 2014 to recognize the Transcend ssd while it was attached externally through the USB 3.0 configuration. But this just requires that you run diskmgmt.msc (just do a search for it in the X1 Carbon 2014 start menu and then click on the program once you find it to open it) to right-click on unallocated drive-space to create a "New Simple Volume," partition so that the new SSD can then be formatted."
• ZTC Thunder Enclosure NGFF M.2 SSD to USB 3.0 Adapter. Support UASP SuperSpeed 6Gb/s 520MB/s Black Model ZTC-EN004-BK
• (?)
• Post-upgrade:
• "The SSD did not have the latest firmware. There is no update program for Windows 8, so it was necessary to create a bootable USB flash drive (or a bootable CD/DVD). The recommended program "Universal USB Installer" prepared the USB flash drive. It was not UEFI compatible, so it was necessary to temporarily disable Secure Boot and enable Legacy Boot mode. This was not difficult for me, but it could be for others. The firmware update was successful and no files were lost." (via)
• "I had troubles for the first two days ater installation due to Power saving configuration under windows 8." (via)

We determined to go with the Transcend and ZTC Thunder.

Cat maintenance

Spending some time today reviewing our cat maintenance setup.

CURRENT
Two domestic shorthair cats
Omega Paw Roll' N Clean Litterbox (3x)
PetSmart ExquisiCat Naturals Pine Cat Litter

PROBLEMS
The Roll' N Clean litter box does not work with pine pellets litter. It does work well with pine cobble litter, but the cobble tracks all over our carpets. The pine pellets track much less. The Roll' N Clean litter box takes some effort to turn over and sift, which means, in practice, it does not get done, as frequently as needed.

With a busy student lifestyle, minimizing maintenance represents a goal.

IDEAS

Feline Pine Self Cleaning Litter Box

• Pine sawdust falls into sub-tray
• Unused pellets remain in upper-tray (note: we dispose of many unused pellets, currently, as too much hassle to sift)
• Manually remove solids, daily
• "The sawdust that falls to the bottom absolutely REEKS when you go to scoop it out...I guess because it’s so concentrated and no air gets to it down there."
• A response: "I find that spreading a little bit of litter on the bottom pan to help absorb the urine soaked litter as it falls makes a big difference. When I do this, I don’t get the urine smell."
• Pellets get wedged in the holes (note: yes; have noticed this also on our tracking mats)
• Lower sides (?)

PeeWee Cat Litter Box (note: not in the United States (?) )

Smart Cat Box

• Non-absorbent safflower seeds
• Liquid drains to sub-tray, then collected, via slope, into sub-sub-reservoir
• Manually remove solids, daily

Tidy Cats Breeze litter box

• Zeolite pellets; exchange after one month
• Pads trap liquids, in sub-tray; exchange after one week
• Anecdotal evidence seems to indicate can use pine pellets
• Manually remove solids, daily
• "Runny/watery solids which will go all over the pellets and is tougher and takes longer to clean."

Iris Cat Litter Scoop

We determined to go with the Feline Pine Self Cleaning Litter Box.

Additionally:

We recently purchased a BISSELL SpotClean Professional Portable Carpet Cleaner, 3624.

On Saturday, we wondered where to find BISSELL 2X Pet Stain & Odor Portable Machine Formula, 32 ounces, 74R7. Unfortunately, the ones we saw, at PetSmart, said, on the label, "for FULL SIZED cleaner only." So, we did not buy those. On the Bissell web site, they have some squishy answers (in my opinion) about this.

Bissell also recommend "pre-treating the area before cleaning for best results." So, we should probably do that.

Star Wars Review

For later:

http://redlettermedia.com/plinkett/star-wars/star-wars-episode-1-the-phantom-menace/

What is the purpose?

"To find it."

One answer!

Random Marshall Rosenberg Notes

Paolo Freire - regarding his efforts to teach literacy to Brazilian populace

Alfie Kohn - "Punished by Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A's, Praise, and Other Bribes" (Houghton Mifflin, 1993/1999)

O.J. Harvey - Research on the relationship between language and violence

Stimulus notebook, for later review

Dan Greenburg - "How to Make Yourself Miserable: Another Vital Training Manual" (1966)

Herb Gardner's play, "A Thousand Clowns" (1962)

Manfred Max Neef - "...urged a change towards "Human Scale Development" of local economies based on the satisfaction of nine fundamental human needs: subsistence, protection, affection, understanding, participation, leisure, creation, identity and freedom. He measured the success of a development plan by how well it satisfied these nine needs for the community in question." (via)

Safety comes from how we respond to people, not how they respond.

Carl Rogers

Martin Buber

Choppy energy of people in the most need of empathy express it most violently. (Disk 4, Track 2)

Example of husband who denies own needs. (Disk 5, Track 3)

Dr. M.R. recommends making a list of things afraid to say and then think about why afraid to say it. If honest, others are ok (Disk 4, Track 10)

Santa Cruz Sunday

Walked from our apartment to the Seymour Marine Discovery Center / Long Marine Laboratory.

Smells of dill as we passed the Homeless Garden Project, the non-profit which currently operates the Natural Bridges Farm location, at 30 W Cliff Dr, Santa Cruz.

Watched two surfers floating and waiting for sizable waves, a few of which they caught and rode, for a short distance.

From there, we took the coastal path a short distance to the Seymour Marine Discovery Center. An interpretive sign mentioned how the facilities use a coastal water intake to service their operations with sea water, which they return to the sea. A passing docent talked a bit about the gray whale skeleton (for example, she mentioned they favor one side when diving into the mud, at the bottom; also, they have not protected the bones with a cast, yet). We saw Ms. Blue, then headed to the Ocean Discovery Shop. At the gift shop, we saw the following:

• Starfish bracelet, vendor = (?)
• Coastal Classics technical long-sleeve running shirt (CC-172), with nautical map of Santa Cruz harbor, from vendor Altered Latitudes, out of Charleston, South Carolina
• Turtle purse, vendor = (?)
• Pajama bottoms, from vendor Lazy One, out of North Logan, Utah:
• Deep Sleeper Whale pajama bottoms
• Otter Be Asleep pajama bottoms
• Wide Mouth Goldfish socks, from vendor K. Bell, out of Inglewood, California
• Sea Turtles of the World poster, by Dawn Witherington, out of Florida
• Sea turtle ring (silver, #40946, $70), vendor = (?)
• Jewelry, from vendor Bamboo Jewelry, out of Alameda, California:
• Leatherback Sea Turtle pin
• Flatback Hatchling Sea Turtle necklace
• Sea Turtle tile, from vendor Pacific Blue Tile, out of Rough and Ready, California
• Jellyfish mosaic stationery/poster/etc., from vendor Lantern Press, out of Seattle, Washington
• A 2.25" square ceramic tile with a turtle, from vendor Cindy Searles, out of Occidental, California

On the way back, we noticed a car with a sticker reading "Can't Afford It", which seems to represent Santa Cruz resident Zachary Frandeen's enterprise, started in 2011-12.

Grandmaster Chess Blitz

Out of the blue, I saw an article on Grandmaster Maxim Dlugy, who lost to a complicated maneuver.

Interestingly, this represented the first chess Banter Blitz I have seen! So, I have watched a few, since then.

When Marnie Was There

Dawn and I viewed the 2014 Studio Ghibli film, "When Marnie Was There", at The Nick.

A wonderful film, one of the best animated films I have seen, ever.

Costco Jewelry

572458 - heart-shaped pendant, diamond, ruby
970951 - heart-shaped pendant, blue topaz
886221 - amethyst pendant
444915 - multicolor freshwater pearl necklace

Om Gallery - Egg Chair, Space Chair

Stopped at Om Gallery store in Santa Cruz and Dawn really liked this wicker hanging egg chair:

Note: photo via Om Gallery Instagram (price: 50% off, I think, as of 9/25/2015, so down from ~$900 to ~$450 (?))

Also liked the hanging turtles. And also a space chair two-seater (!):

Chair, on the right (tag read something like "hyacinth chair": ~$1500 (?))

UPDATE: "HALF-MOON WATER HYACINTH CHAIR"

Metrojuice Porsche, Tesla

At Jamba Juice for breakfast, on Thursday, and noticed a woman and a man talking. They exited, and she departed in a Tesla, while he left in a Porsche. They both carried what seemed like lunch bags with the logo "Metrojuice" on them.

Apparently, this refers to Metro Juice Kitchen and Drinkery, which plans to open a new location on R Street.

Notable only due to the vehicles!

Radio Songs

Heard on KFOG 104.5 FM out of San Francisco, California:

• Honolulu, Hawaii-native Israel Kamakawiwo'ole's "Somewhere over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World" from his 1990 album "Ka 'Ano'i" on the Discos Tropical, Mountain Apple, and Big Boy labels. Video.

Heard on FRSC (namely, "Free Radio Santa Cruz") 101.3 FM out of Santa Cruz, California:

• As mentioned previously, heard what sounded like ambient music, ala Hearts of Space, around 10:30 p.m.

Homey Cozy Lovey Dovey

So good!

Puuung
http://www.grafolio.com/illustration/detail.grfl?projectNo=31639

From the artist:

“Love” is something everybody can relate to.
And “Love” comes in ways we can easily overlook in our daily lives.
So, I try to find the meaning of love in our daily lives and make it into artworks. 

Red Knoll, LLC

In Sacramento, on S Street, between 15th and 16th Streets, the City of Sacramento has shuttered at least three homes:

The notices on the structures cites, in one case, a dangerous structure (the stairs), and, in the other case, junk left in the yard, poor upkeep, and so forth. City staff seem to have served the papers in the March-April time frame.

City staff have also shuttered the building on the corner of 15th Street and S Street. The building in-between all of these buildings also seems abandoned/empty.

However, the final two buildings, on that side of the block, an auto repair business and a private homeowner, seem OK. 

My first thought: someone plans to do development. My second thought: who is Red Knoll, LLC, out of Roseville, California, that owns and apparently has abandoned at least two of the properties?

Hrm. A mystery!

UPDATE: 10/2015: It seems this may represent a project in the works, to convert these properties into "76 residential units above 13,000 square feet of commercial space. Steve Whitesides of Roseville is the applicant." Via: http://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/news/2014/07/29/five-story-mixed-used-building-proposed-for.html

Guitarist - Beat It, by Michael Jackson

Question: The guitarist for the song "Beat It", by Michael Jackson.

Answer: Who was Eddie Van Halen?

Nice! : o )

Santa Cruz Wave Photography

Photography on display at Westside Coffee, Santa Cruz:

MATT DOLL (worldwaveimagery)

I think they have this one blown up to 5'x4' (approx) (?)

Photo: Matt Doll; used for illustrative purposes only

Radio Songs

Heard on KSJS 90.5 FM out of San Jose, California:

• Los Angeles-formed Charles Wright & the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band's "Express Yourself" from their 1970 "Express Yourself" on the Warner Bros. Records label. Audio.

Heard on KPIG 107.5 FM out of Freedom, California:

• Canton, Ohio-native William Royce "Boz" Scaggs' "I'm Easy" from his 1969 album "Boz Scaggs" on the Atlantic label. Audio.

James Mickens - Zombie Preparation

http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/people/mickens/thenightwatch.pdf

Via

Santa Cruz Japanese Cultural Fair

http://jcfsantacruz.org/

Santa Cruz poster

Java Junction, in Santa Cruz, near Petsmart, has this poster:

http://www.lanternpress.com/catalog/item/33335?from=

Houseboat living

http://www.sunset.com/home/architecture-design/houseboat

Radio songs

Heard on KISQ 98.1 FM out of San Francisco, California:

• ??? at 5/29 at 11:15 p.m.

Heard on KABX 97.5 FM out of Modesto, California:

• ??? Something with lyrics "I've got some news for you" from 6/1 at 11:55 a.m.

Heard on KRXQ 98.5 FM out of Sacramento, California:

• Worthing, England-based Royal Blood's "Little Monster" from their 2014 album "Royal Blood" on the Black Mammoth and Warner Bros. Records labels.

Dawn had this on her mind: 

"Camille Saint-Saëns Clarinet Sonata in E flat major, Op.167 - Allegretto" (audio)