PT's Blog

Plantation Update

2010-08-03T08:15:00.002-05:00

Well we're into the summer heat now. August in Texas is always hot. well over 100 degrees is in the forecast for the next few weeks but the Plantation Project is going strong. The Virginia Gold tobacco plants are growing fast and getting bigger every day. Several of the transplants are still kind of small but there are a few that are really going to town. Here's a picture:

The Dining Room Project

2010-07-04T17:36:00.010-05:00

Spanning 2 weekends we finally finished the flooring/painting in the Formal Dining room.
Last weekend (Saturday) we moved everything out of the room and ripped out the carpet. At the end of the day the entire room (and ceiling) was painted. The room looked like this at the end of the day So Sunday morning I started with the flooring. By lunchtime the room was about halfway complete.

And by the afternoon all the flooring was done. I even managed to hand a new blind too.
During the week the new molding was installed and painted along with some minor touch up work. Then today we moved stuff back into the Dining room.

Here are a few pictures of the finished project.This project went pretty fast and I think the room looks great. Now on to the next one......

Project Complete

2010-06-20T11:48:00.005-05:00

Well, for now ayway, the construction has stopped. We have finished the flooring project. Lots of work, lots of painting (i hate to paint) but everything is looking great!!! We start in the dining room hopefully next weekend. My goal is to get stuff moved out of that room (its been a staging area during the flooring project) rip out the old carpet, paint, get the floor installed all in a single weekend. Can it be done??? stay tuned.

Here are some pictures of what has been completed so far:Its been a lot of work but its also been fun to do. Can't wait until its done!!!

2010-05-01 09.49.43

2010-06-15T17:55:00.001-05:00

Flooring Project Update

2010-04-28T08:24:00.005-05:00

Well we're into full swing on the flooring project. furniture moved out (what a pain) old carpet ripped out and the first room stripped down to nothing. Walls were painted and some new trim installed around one of the windows. Now the floor goes down. the project is taking shape.

Home Improvements

2010-04-18T16:08:00.002-05:00

Well we've been in our house for almost 15 years now and its time to make a few changes. Starting in the next week or so we will be installing new hardwood flooring in the Family Room and the Formal Living Room. I will be posting some pictures along the way, marking our progress.

It sounds so simple. Rip out the old carpet and install new wood flooring. If only it were that easy. Both rooms will be cleared out, walls painted, new blinds installed, then the new floor goes in. Oh, one more thing... Can't move that old furniture back in. Need to buy a new sofa and love seat.

Hopefully everything can be completed in the next few weeks. Don't want this project to drag on too long.

Here's another picture

2010-03-30T15:14:00.003-05:00

Here's another picture of all the "starts" so far. I have more in the works, they're running about 2 weeks behind the first batch. this picture is the first group of "starts"

Progress Measured In Small Steps

2010-03-30T10:54:00.007-05:00

Its been just a tad over 3 weeks since the seeds were planted. Low and behold, tiny plants are growing. We also planted some Okra and snow peas at the same time. those plants are towering over the little tobacco plants(you can see them in the background). The seeds took about 8 or 9 days to germinate. They reside in a sunny window for now.

Planting Has Started

2010-03-16T11:03:00.003-05:00

Well its the middle of March, time to get the tobacco seeds planted. I will plant the seeds in peat pot starters and keep them indoors for a while. When the seeds sprout the planter will be exposed to more light. but for now they're doing fine sitting in the warm house. The actual Virginia Gold seeds were very, very tiny. About half the size of a grain of sand. I poured the seeds out on to a piece of paper, then into the peat pots being careful not to sneeze!!

Next week the actual garden area will be prepared. Lots of new top soil to truck in and spread.

My guess is that this first batch of seeds (including some garden favorites) will find their way outside and into the soil by mid April.

Oh and the picture is how the peat pot starters look inside their little greenhouse. The lid will come off shortly after the seeds sprout up.

PTs Plantation Project

2010-03-01T18:28:00.001-06:00

Its still oficially winter here in North Texas but plans for my plantation are already in motion. Today I ordered my tobacco seeds. After doing my research I have decided to plant Virgina Gold #2. This plant should do well in North Texas.
While waiting on the seeds, I will begin preparing a spot in the garden. hopefully planting will happen in early April.
I will be posting pictures in future updates. stay tuned!

Lights, Camera, Action!

2010-02-17T14:45:00.002-06:00

PT's Really Big Show is almost ready for the first show of the new year. Yeah, I know it's already the middle of February but things have been busy here in the Deluxe Trailer & RV Park. A few finishing touches on my recently re-loaded PC along with some additions to the playlist are still in order. As soon as everything is ready I will post the next show date and time on the website.

Stay tuned!!!

What a Snow Day

2010-02-12T13:30:00.002-06:00

Here in North Texas we usually don't see much snow. The typical "Winter event" is usually a dusting of snow maybe once each winter. Maybe an ice day here and there. Yesterday we set a record for a single day snow fall. 12.5 inches of snow. Here at our place we have 10.5 inches on the ground. The snow just kept coming and coming and coming. I have some video, I'll post to show everyone what it looks like here. It's a record amount of snow, it's a Friday and the kids are out of school. What a cool day.

Social Networking - Time Bandit

2010-02-03T09:14:00.002-06:00

Isn't it amazing how much time we spend keeping everyone up to date on the various social networks? If you're connected to Facebook, Twitter, Myspace etc. you can spend a significant amount of time using these sites. Someone with a lot of "internet friends" could spend hours chatting, posting, and blogging their time away. Shortly after the first of the year I stepped back from being connected. I nearly stopped checking email and updating the various social sites. You know what, I'm still doing fine. I'm alive and doing just fine. The biggest change was a lot of extra time on my hands and that isn't a bad thing.

Try to step back from the constant updates folks. Think what you could do with a few extra hours of free time each week. What would you do? Read a new book? Try a new hobby? The choices are endless.

Social networking is fun, no doubt about it. But it can be a huge time bandit.

I've survived my month long dis-connect with the social networking world. Could you do it??

Give it a try. maybe try it for a week and think about how you spent your free time.

It's Time For 2010

2010-01-02T09:27:00.002-06:00

Well Christmas has come and gone in what seems like a blink of an eye. Time to take down the tree and the lights. Not nearly as time consuming as getting everything up a few weeks ago.

The one thing that I always find odd is the number of people that flip a switch and turn Christmas off on Christmas day. In our neighborhood several homes with Christmas lights burning since late November went dark on Christmas day. I think the tree and lights should stay up until New Years Day. Mine did.

Some parts of the world leave their tree and lights up until Twelfth night.

For many, Christmas expires as soon as the packages are opened.

For me, I look forward to the holidays every year and hate to let them go so quickly.

Welcome Festivus!!!!

2009-12-23T10:53:00.001-06:00

It's December 23rd. The Day of Festivus!!! Festivus, the Latin world for "festive." The December 23 observance calls for little more than the erection of an aluminum pole, the airing of grievances and the demonstration of feats of strength -- which preferably culminate in wrestling down to the ground and pinning the head of the household.

What a wonderful Holiday. Happy Festivus everyone!!!

The Computer Controls The Xmas Lights

2009-12-20T12:32:00.001-06:00

The Christmas tree and lights have been up for a while now but for some reason I couldn't get my home automation software to control them. In years past this has been a pretty simple part of the Christmas preparations. This year it just didn't work. I control the Christmas lighting using the popular X10 automation hardware and some customized software. It's all available off the shelf at many electronics stores like Radio Shack and Frys.

X10 works by sending signals over your household electrical wiring to special modules. Simply plug what you want controlled into a module, then plug the module into any wall outlet. It sounds pretty simple and most of the time it is. X10 signal can however, be confused by some other electrical devices through out the house (motors, laptop power supplies etc...). So the introduction of something "new" (plugging in a new toy) could disrupt the X10 signals.

Back to this year's problem. It seems that sometime during the past year something new was plugged in, somewhere in the house, and it affected my seasonal lighting. After several days and some strong language I finally gave up trying to control the lights using my standard automation PC. I installed a separate automation platform using a different automation package on another PC in the house. Bingo!!! the lights are worked!!!

So for the Holidays, I am running separate automation PC's. No more going outside in the cold to plug/unplug the Christmas lights. No more fumbling with the cord behind the Christmas tree. The computer now controlls the Christmas lights......

All Quiet, PC Wise That Is.....

2009-12-19T16:51:00.002-06:00

I'm not sure what has been happening here but over the past couple of months, one by one 3 PC's started to become louder and louder. Either their disk drives or fans were running almost constantly, even if nobody was using the PC. In each case I scanned for malware and viruses and came up with nothing. In each case I formatted the hard drives and re-installed the operating system and bingo, no more noise.

I don't know if these machines were infected with a rootkit type of bug (many are undetectable by virus scanners) or what exactly the problem was. All I know is a complete rebuilding solved the problem.

I also replaced the McAfee virus scanner on each machine with a different product. Maybe that will keep things quiet now.

Help! Auto PT Want's My Job

2009-12-19T16:46:00.002-06:00

The management at the Planet Texas Studio want's to replace me with Auto PT to trim costs. This is terrible and must be stopped. Check out Auto PT on the Planet Texas website HERE.

Let management know you're against this evil plan. Send them an email to Studio@planettexas.net to let them know how you feel.

PT

PT's Joins Facebook

2009-12-16T07:37:00.002-06:00

Well I finally did it. I signed up for Facebook. Not sure why I needed too, probably the last person on the planet to do this. So far I'm waiting on some friends to accept the invites I have sent them and I'm figuring out how to navigate around the site. More updates to follow....

http://facebook.com/planet.texas

Mobilize Your Website

2009-12-12T22:09:00.002-06:00

wow, today I installed a plugin from www.osmobi.com that formats my web content so it works on a smartphone. This is one of those things I didn't even know I needed until I used it. Now I can easily browse my website while on the go. The plugin works with Joomla and Drupal powered websites and it was installed and configured in about 5 minutes. Not bad.

The cool part about this pluging is I didn't have to make any changes to the website. osmobi includes a template that does all the work.

Did I mention this is all free!!! Free is good.

Check out www.planettexas.net mobile

Time to update the site

2009-12-07T12:11:00.001-06:00

The www.planettexas.net site has remained unchanged for a while now (the current platform is joomla 1.0) it's time to upgrade.
I will be performing a clean slate install of the server OS as well as the webserver platform.
this should only take a day or so (fingers crossed).
I will post the outage date as soon as I can.

I'm kind of excited about this.

Fearcasting vs. Forecasting Update

2009-12-04T10:49:00.001-06:00

Well it seems the National Weather Service was correct. No snow in Dallas today. Up to last night local TV stations were still banging their drum talking about snow. It's all about ratings folks and Fearcasting draws people in.

Fearcasting

2009-12-03T07:45:00.001-06:00

Here in North Texas we are having our first brush with winter. Yesterday we even had an unexpected dusting of snow. Checking the official NOAA forecast it looked like another slight (30%) chance for snow later in the week. The local TV stations put the chance for snow at 50%. Is this just Fearcasting? Could the local media outlets make these statements just to pull in more advertising revenue?
This morning NOAA has dropped the chance of snow to 20% but the local weather outlets are still banging their drums trying to pull in viewers with their tales of up coming snow.
This begs the question, what else is hyped in the media for the sake of bigger profits? The old thought of "don't believe everything you hear" comes to mind.
Let's. see how this turns out later this week.

Coming Soon. Google Wave Review

2009-11-29T18:56:00.002-06:00

I received my long anticipated invite to the Google Wave beta. I'll post some comments on this in a few days.

Fring Brings IM Together on Your Phone

2009-11-29T18:06:00.002-06:00

If you're like me you probably keep up with a couple different IM packages and maybe Twitter too. I came across an app named Fring on the Android Market (also available for iPhones). Fring lets you communicate using all your IM accounts via one single app. This is very handy especially on a small smartphone screen.

I installed Fring a couple days ago and I can already see it is much more stable than iSkoot.

Calls to my Studio line AND voice chats via Skype are also supported. Now I never miss a conversation with a friend (IM or voice).

The one weak area I have found so far is that Fring seems to just go offline. A simple stop/restart of the app corrects this but it's not fun when you go offline and you don't even know it.

Its a minor issue that i'm sure will be fixed in later versions.

Check the app out via your smartphone market place or go to www.fring.com for more details.