Bryce Thornton

I inherited a compost bin/pile with the house a bought a few years ago. I added to it from time to time, but it wasn’t built well and ended up falling apart. After that I knew I wanted to get it going again, but kept putting it off.

Recently I’ve completely tore down the old bin and used the existing compost for my garden. I’ve now erected three used pallets that I picked up from behind my local Lowe’s to create a very simple compost bin. I’ve also purchased an indoor bucket for under my sink in order to store kitchen scraps. It has a filter in it’s lid in order to keep the smell out while also letting the future compost breathe.

I’m glad to finally get this new system working and I am excited to see some new compost forming soon!

I typically donate a couple bags of clothing to Goodwill each year. I also gave a small donation to the Susan G. Komen Race For The Cure this year. It is definitely not enough, but I am marking this off my list. I plan to continue doing these small things and hopefully contribute much more in the future.

I’ve been keeping a running log for about a month. So far, I’ve been using mapmyrun.com. It’s okay, but I’m still looking for a better site. mapmyrun.com has a LOT of features, 90% of which I don’t need. I’m looking for something simple. Oh, and I need an RSS feed for each logged run. mapmyrun.com has an RSS feed, but it only updates for each NEW route I map.

I just tried my first (successful) batch of beer and it’s pretty damn good. My first attempt was foiled by the lack of a proper seal during fermentation. This time I recruited my brother-in-law to help during each stage of the process. He’s been brewing for a while and knows the ins and outs of each step. I chose to make an IPA since I’m a bit of a hop head.

I think this batch is just a bit yeasty right now since it’s only been two weeks since I bottled it. The extra hops we put in during secondary fermentation are noticeable. The color is just about right, only a bit cloudy. I’m excited to have some more soon though. Overall I think it’s pretty great. Can’t wait to brew my next batch!

I feel like I’ve done enough to consider this finished. The original goal was intended to kick me in the butt and make me complete a Rails project. Well, the project is fairly complete and very functional. I’m calling it a “public beta” for now. I swore I would never use this trendy “beta” status, but it just isn’t quite production quality. I set up my host (Dreamhost) for the app and used Capistrano to move it up. To be honest, the only reason I wanted to do this app was to feel more comfortable going from start to finish with a rails app. Now that I’ve moved an app to production, I do feel fairly comfortable. So, there you go.

I’ve probably started five Rails apps in the past year and a half. Do you know how many are online and being used right now? Zero. I tend to head into the project with a full head of steam only to lose my motivation when I’m 75% done. I guess that goes to show that pulling through at the end, when you need to finish the things that aren’t fun, is the toughest part of a project for me. I’m determined to do this. Having this goal here will hopefully help me push through the tough times on my current project.

My patch for a YAML data export has been accepted for the 2.11 release of PHPMyAdmin. It feels good to mark this “thing” off my list.

https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&atid=377410&aid=1657624&group_id=23067

I sent in the paperwork today.

The book can be a little dry (no pun intended) at times, but overall it’s a great resource for programmers. Even if you think you have a great approach to programming, this book will (re)enforce good, clean, efficient techniques. Very little code is actually presented in the book. Instead, they deal more the way to approach and organize your entire project.

I’ve been using little tidbits of wisdom from the book here and there at work. My coding is getting DRYer by the day!

We went down to the new Segway store on High Street to try one out. The one we rode was a new model with improved steering. Instead of twisting the hand grips, you just move the entire handle bar the direction you want to turn and it follows. It took literally less than a minute to figure out. I might have to take a tour of the town on one soon to really see what she can do.

I only grew peppers and cucumbers this year. Both turned out decent and I’ve been enjoying them for about a month.

I’m now officially going. It should be a disgustingly dirty good time. I’m most looking forward to seeing Radiohead, Bright Eyes, My Morning Jacket, Andrew Bird and Devendra Banhart.

I was all pumped to brew beer for the first time. I got all the equipment I needed at the local homebrew shop. The yeast I bought was the liquid kind that comes in a plastic bag. I broke the inner “lump” and waited for the bag to begin expanding as per the directions. When the yeast looked to be ready I went ahead an followed the instructions. Brought 1.5 gallons of water almost to a boil, took off heat, stirred in the malt, brought the mixture a full boil for about an hour, took off heat and cooled in an ice bath, poured the wort into my brew bucket and added water. Before you ask, yes I did sanitize everything. At least I think I did. How do you know when everything is as clean as it’s supposed to be?

Anyway, the result has not been promising. The airlock never “bubbled” as the directions said it would. I’m guessing this means that fermentation was not happening. It’s been over a week now and I’m not sure what to do. Start over?

After seeing the lineup for 2006 version, I’ve decided that I must go. The drive will be about 8.5 from Columbus, OH.

I looked and looked and looked for a house from August until November. Actually, I started out thinking I would get a condo. As I thought more about it, I decided I’d rather take the big plunge and get an actual house. I really wanted a yard and didn’t particularly want neighbors on the other side of the wall. I’ve always lived in apartments and had to worry about the volume of my music, movies, etc.

So, I decided to concentrate on finding a house. My real estate agent was a HUGE help during the process. I would strongly suggest finding an ambitious real estate agent if you’re in the market. They take care of setting up showings, but more importantly they help you actually purchase the place. There is an endless array of tasks to be completed before you can actually call the home yours, so it’s good to have someone to help you along the way.

The house I finally found is in a great neighborhood and has a large back yard. It’s got a garage, three bedrooms, a fireplace and nice hardwood floors. It’s got just about everything I could ever want. It pays to be a little bit picky and look at a lot of places.

Good luck. Definitely worth doing!

There used to be some old city council member from Leeds, Alabama taking up my coveted number one spot. suprglu.com finally got me to the promised land though. All I had to do was put my name in the title of the page and BAM, number one within a few days.

I had my fourth lesson tonight. I still can’t play barre chords very well at all, but I found a way to fake it. If I play chords that require a finger on one of the strings I can’t properly barre then it actually sounds decent. I learned the “A” chord on the 5th fret. It doesn’t sound great but I do hear an “A” in there somewhere.

Also, I learned to play a simple song called “California Stars” by Billy Bragg & Wilco. It’s an old Woody Guthrie cover and only requires three chords. I can actually play along with the song now, which is more than I could have said two weeks ago. Improvement, yeah!

Barre chords are not working out well for me. My instructor taught me a decent amount of music theory tonight and introduced barre chords for the first time. I’ve wanted to learn barre chords ever since I saw Jack Johnson play “Flake”. He uses them throughout the song. Though he makes it look easy, I am having a dandy of a time configuring my finger in a proper barre.

Is it possible to have a finger incapapable of barre chords? The G and B strings just won’t ring out cleary. They hit the fleshy part of my finger between knuckles and just don’t get enough pressure to ring out. I’ve tried moving my finger up and down to try to find a better position, but so far nothing is working. Is this normal? Any tips?

I’ve had two lessons so far and I’m pretty happy with the results. It’s not that I’m instantly becoming a good guitar player, it’s that I now look forward to picking up my guitar when I come home. My goal when I signed up for lessons was to learn enough so that I could enjoy playing. I’ve got a LONG way to go, but so far I’m having a lot of fun.

Well, I had my first guitar lesson tonight. Overall I was pleased with how it went. We went over all the parts of the guitar and what they are for. I pretty much already knew these things, but I was happy to start from the very beginning. I’m glad my instructor didn’t assume I knew anything. After that we talked about how to hold the instrument. So far, so good!

The difficult part begins when we actually start playing. He starts me off with a G major chord. This is one of the easiest chords to play and I didn’t have any trouble with it. Next came C and D. These were a little tougher, but not too difficult on their own. I started having trouble when I tried to move from one chord to another. The fingers just didn’t want to cooperate.

My instructor gave me a few exercises to practice for next time. I’m going to get a package of ten half-hour classes. If I’m still absolutely horrible after that then I will probably move on to another “thing”.