My new Shure microphone arrived today. It is an SM86 and requires separate (phantom) power but there is a significant difference in sound between it and my (old, reliable, Shure) SM58. So I'll take the SM58 along as a spare but plan to use the SM86 for performances. The phantom power supply box I bought is a Rolls (Mic Power II, PB223) which handles up to 2 microphones (48 volts). I'm not sure if the Rolls is the best power supply but it is a switcher and is supposed to be very "quiet". Plus it was also available from zZounds and I therefore got free shipping as the mic already had free shipping and they just threw them both in the same box (nice).
For singing gigs, I've decided to transfer all my equipment from my (smallish) carry bag (open at the top and made of heavy cloth) to a spare duffel bag that's not doing anything else right now. That will give me room for the extra equipment (mic, power supply) as well as space for an additional XLR cable and, whenever desired, video hookup equipment to drive a separate monitor/TV.
In other news, now that the bathrooms are updated (whew!), I donated the two old toilets to Habitat for Humanity and got them out of my garage. Next on the agenda is to clean up the front entrance with a fresh coat of paint and then clean up a stack of old wood off the back walkout. Having braced the two 4x4's at the ends of the deck earlier this week, I think the house will then be in pretty good shape for company (well, except for an incredible amount of vacuuming, etc., on the inside). Even though I'm not terribly domestic, I'm confident I can get the inside cleaned up if I just pace myself ;) ...
Next week I have 4 singing gigs and can't wait to use the new mic ... plus I talked to a hospice worker last Monday who asked for several of my cards to pass out to places she knows of where they might like to have a singer from time to time. Right now the only new place I have coming up is at Mercy Hospital towards the end of May. It's all fun ... and it does help keep me off the street, hehe.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Garmin Streetpilot 2820 Settings
Having resolved an interesting issue with my Garmin 2820 in the past 10 days or so, I thought I'd publish a few notes here on my observations, problems and steps taken to resolve them. This unit is one I've had for a few years now and I've been very happy with it, overall. While I'd like to say I bought it because my older (Garmin Streetpilot 2610, now discontinued) receiver was "adopted" by my (then) girlfriend, I confess that I also wanted Bluetooth phone capability and, well, it's always fun to play with new toys, eh? Plus I was making good money as a systems engineer and so the price wasn't a big factor ... enter the Streetpilot 2820.
All that said, my experience with commercial GPS receivers is that they are usually quite user friendly but there are settings in the units that sometimes result in receiver outputs that are unexpected and/or difficult to understand. By the way, one of the most useful settings (to me, anyway) is found by going to the Settings>Navigation 2nd page. There you will find "Off-Route Recalculation:" and in a great step towards eliminating unnecessary noise in the cockpit, you can set it to "Auto (Silent)". Without doing this, anytime you are navigating a route and make a turn that is not "correct", according to the Garmin, it announces "Off route, recalculating", repeating it ad nauseam until you "return to the path". By setting it to "Auto (Silent)", two things are accomplished simultaneously: anytime you leave the route a recalculation automatically starts and the voice announcing the recalculation process is (mercifully) silent. In a recent examination of a (newer receiver) Garmin Nuvi 750, I did not see a similar setting, so perhaps that's one thing that they've missed the boat on (although I didn't examine all the Nuvi settings in detail, so maybe it is there ... somewhere).
Back to the main point of this article ... on the same page, Settings>Navigation 2nd page, there is a setting called "Avoidance Setup". On its 3 pages of options, entries are made to do one of three things, Prefer, Avoid, Don't Avoid, for various road conditions. The settings are applicable to driving situations you may find yourself in, including 9 preset categories and a 10th called "Custom Avoids". The 9 preset categories for Avoidance setup are (in order): Major Roads, Medium Roads, Minor Roads, Traffic, Unpaved Roads, U-Turns, Toll Roads, Carpool Lanes and Ferries. Then, under "Custom Avoids", there are two subcategories: "Add New Avoid Area" and "Add New Avoid Road".
To touch briefly on Custom Avoids, this is a nice feature for (primarily) local operation but also, for example, if you are traveling to another city and are made aware that there are specific neighborhoods or streets that are to be preferred or avoided. The two subcategories allow the user to make selections by generating a 4 point "blocked off" area or simply by selecting beginning and ending points of a specific street. This is done directly off a map display. I have not used this feature but mention because it could easily be overlooked and it is pretty cool.
The original problem I ran into involved the first 3 settings identified above. For Major Roads, Medium Roads and Minor Roads, I had set Prefer, Prefer and Avoid, respectively. The reasoning being that I'd like to be on "better" roads than not and "Minor" roads felt like they would not be as good as the other two types. Additionally (although not related directly to this problem as far as I can tell), in deference to my motorcycle's performance and preference for dust/rocks/dirt avoidance, I had set "Unpaved Roads" to "Avoid". I do not know what the internal (to the receiver) definition is for these various road types but I have had multiple times where the Garmin would try to direct me in crazy directions and I never really suspected the road preference settings. Usually, as I now recall, the issues did involve minor vs. major roads and that should have tweaked me ... alas, live and (finally) learn is all I can say. Anyway, I had been again given the runaround as I tried to get to a somewhat "out in the country" address. The 2820 wanted me to go around an extra 1.5 miles or so when I was only .5 miles away via (what I would call) a "minor" road. Having finally had enough, I resolved to pull over and check out my preference settings. In the process, I changed "Minor Roads" to "Prefer" so that it now agreed with the other two (Major and Medium) road settings. To my surprise, it recalculated the route correctly, making me a happy camper (er, driver).
The point here is that the Avoidance settings may have unintended consequences and if you find yourself regularly routed down non-optimal roads, take a look at them and see if some changes might be in order. Perhaps "Minor" road avoidance might be important for, say, a large Recreational Vehicle. But it really was not a problem for my Camry or motorcycle. I am glad that there are categories for both Minor and Unpaved roads, however, as I do want to avoid Unpaved roads, if possible. Again, the "human in the loop" often has a better idea of the correct road to pick than the GPS receiver ... so don't hesitate to use your instincts from time to time. After all, GPS can always "rescue" you if you do get lost somewhere. And that can be a part of the adventure of it too. Happy navigating!
All that said, my experience with commercial GPS receivers is that they are usually quite user friendly but there are settings in the units that sometimes result in receiver outputs that are unexpected and/or difficult to understand. By the way, one of the most useful settings (to me, anyway) is found by going to the Settings>Navigation 2nd page. There you will find "Off-Route Recalculation:" and in a great step towards eliminating unnecessary noise in the cockpit, you can set it to "Auto (Silent)". Without doing this, anytime you are navigating a route and make a turn that is not "correct", according to the Garmin, it announces "Off route, recalculating", repeating it ad nauseam until you "return to the path". By setting it to "Auto (Silent)", two things are accomplished simultaneously: anytime you leave the route a recalculation automatically starts and the voice announcing the recalculation process is (mercifully) silent. In a recent examination of a (newer receiver) Garmin Nuvi 750, I did not see a similar setting, so perhaps that's one thing that they've missed the boat on (although I didn't examine all the Nuvi settings in detail, so maybe it is there ... somewhere).
Back to the main point of this article ... on the same page, Settings>Navigation 2nd page, there is a setting called "Avoidance Setup". On its 3 pages of options, entries are made to do one of three things, Prefer, Avoid, Don't Avoid, for various road conditions. The settings are applicable to driving situations you may find yourself in, including 9 preset categories and a 10th called "Custom Avoids". The 9 preset categories for Avoidance setup are (in order): Major Roads, Medium Roads, Minor Roads, Traffic, Unpaved Roads, U-Turns, Toll Roads, Carpool Lanes and Ferries. Then, under "Custom Avoids", there are two subcategories: "Add New Avoid Area" and "Add New Avoid Road".
To touch briefly on Custom Avoids, this is a nice feature for (primarily) local operation but also, for example, if you are traveling to another city and are made aware that there are specific neighborhoods or streets that are to be preferred or avoided. The two subcategories allow the user to make selections by generating a 4 point "blocked off" area or simply by selecting beginning and ending points of a specific street. This is done directly off a map display. I have not used this feature but mention because it could easily be overlooked and it is pretty cool.
The original problem I ran into involved the first 3 settings identified above. For Major Roads, Medium Roads and Minor Roads, I had set Prefer, Prefer and Avoid, respectively. The reasoning being that I'd like to be on "better" roads than not and "Minor" roads felt like they would not be as good as the other two types. Additionally (although not related directly to this problem as far as I can tell), in deference to my motorcycle's performance and preference for dust/rocks/dirt avoidance, I had set "Unpaved Roads" to "Avoid". I do not know what the internal (to the receiver) definition is for these various road types but I have had multiple times where the Garmin would try to direct me in crazy directions and I never really suspected the road preference settings. Usually, as I now recall, the issues did involve minor vs. major roads and that should have tweaked me ... alas, live and (finally) learn is all I can say. Anyway, I had been again given the runaround as I tried to get to a somewhat "out in the country" address. The 2820 wanted me to go around an extra 1.5 miles or so when I was only .5 miles away via (what I would call) a "minor" road. Having finally had enough, I resolved to pull over and check out my preference settings. In the process, I changed "Minor Roads" to "Prefer" so that it now agreed with the other two (Major and Medium) road settings. To my surprise, it recalculated the route correctly, making me a happy camper (er, driver).
The point here is that the Avoidance settings may have unintended consequences and if you find yourself regularly routed down non-optimal roads, take a look at them and see if some changes might be in order. Perhaps "Minor" road avoidance might be important for, say, a large Recreational Vehicle. But it really was not a problem for my Camry or motorcycle. I am glad that there are categories for both Minor and Unpaved roads, however, as I do want to avoid Unpaved roads, if possible. Again, the "human in the loop" often has a better idea of the correct road to pick than the GPS receiver ... so don't hesitate to use your instincts from time to time. After all, GPS can always "rescue" you if you do get lost somewhere. And that can be a part of the adventure of it too. Happy navigating!
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Water Use Efficiency-UPDATE, 5/23/09
Another little project of mine is seeing how much water I use and how to cut back on that (I know, I know, not something Rush would approve, or even think, of ... sadly enough). I noticed that my water usage increased last year when I retired. This makes some sense as I started spending more time at home flushing toilets, drinking water and generally using more resources at my own residence instead of at work. In fact, my water usage went up from 1283 gallons per month in 2007 to 1450 gallons per month in 2008 (I retired at the end of March, 2008). This is a 13% increase and it's probably more like 15-17% since I only had 3/4 of the year where I was home in 2008. As a part of that higher 1450 gallon average, I used 1800 gallons or more in three of the last six months of 2008, a trend that I didn't want to have continue.
My goal is to consistently be under 1000 gallons a month in water usage, with a challenge of 900 and a super challenge level of an 800 gallon per month limit. In terms of daily use limits, 1000 gallons per month equates to a bit less than 33 gallons per day, 900 gallons is about 29.5 gallons per day and 800 gallons is just over 26 gallons per day. My 2008 average of 1450 gallons per month was over 47 gallons of water per day.
Data will almost always provide the answers, if you have enough of it. So I started looking at how all that water was being used in my home. With standard toilets each flush was about 3 gallons of water at a rate of perhaps 9 or 10 times per day. So right there was 27-30 gallons per day. The clothes washer is a front loading high efficiency unit and some measurements via meter read show that it uses 10-25 gallons of water per load, depending on the size of the load and the wash cycle selected. By the same measuring method, a shower could easily take 15-25 gallons of water. The dishwasher, interestingly enough, uses only about 9 gallons of water for the entire cycle.
By my last water bill (March, 2009), water usage was down to 1200 gallons and it will go down further as I get better at this, but here are the conservation steps I've currently implemented:
1. Watering the lawn is out if water conservation is a serious goal, so that's something that's straightforward to do (and I've never done much of it anyway) but I may allow for a little of it from time to time if the grass is really dying. A better solution here may be to put in grass that is extremely hardy and so will easily survive (as much as 2 months) with little or no water.
2. Wait longer to do laundry. Since the washer is easily capable of handling very large loads of clothes, the logic is that it should take less water to do one large load than two smaller ones. This seems to be true and I find that I can easily do laundry every two weeks instead of every week, except the bedding is every week. OK, I will confess that I had to buy some extra underwear to make this one work ;) ...
3. Showers are now "sailor showers". This means that the water is on to wet down, then it is turned off while applying shampoo and soaping. The water is then turned back on to rinse. It's easily possible to take a shower with less than 5 gallons of water using this approach. A bonus here is that this significantly reduces the amount of hot water needed, saving (electricity and natural gas in my case) on running the water heater. Additionally, less time spent under hot water means less dry skin ... especially important for dry midwest winters. Also, when washing hands, it's not necessary to let the water run while the hands are not under the faucet, so turn it off while rubbing the soap in ... every ounce adds up.
4. Run the dishwasher only when it is completely full, in my case about 3 times a month instead of 4 or 5.
5. Install High Efficiency toilets, in my case, 2 toilets, Toto brand, Drake and Gwyneth models. These require 1.6 gallons and 1.3 gallons of water, respectively, per flush. This reduces the water for toilet usage to under 15 gallons per day. Also, it's not necessary to flush the toilet after every use so a few additional flushes can be saved. Installing the high efficiency toilets is no doubt the number one water saver in my home, certain to be even more helpful with a large family. I'm saving between 10 and 20 gallons of water per day with this change alone. If you're "flush" with cash or have really big water bills, look into installing a compost toilet. These are quite expensive for a good one, but water usage is zero and there is a great fertilizer benefit for your garden.
Results:
To test the efficacy of my water conservation steps, I've been collecting meter read data at the same time (9am) every day since March 19. After 20 days, I'm averaging 24.8 gallons per day of water use (about 756 gallons per month). This is well within my set goals and I'm happy with the results so far. It's really a fairly easy change to make in lifestyle (especially for a single guy living alone) but, like many things, one has to be intentional about doing it consistently. Like dieting, it will only last if it becomes a lifestyle choice. For families with children, there seem to be very good reasons why everyone should be taught conservation from an early age. In the long run, it is certainly going to be easier for individuals if they have "always done it that way" and it will definitely help both current and coming generations to have the planetary resources they need to live both comfortably and inconspicuously. Now that's being a good steward.
UPDATE: 4/19/09-After one month, I've used 718 gallons for an average of 23.2 gallons per day (31 days). This is less than 50% of my water usage (average per month) rate in 2008. Gratifying ... and I now see no reason why I shouldn't be able to consistently continue to achieve using 800 gallons per month or less (at least for those months when I don't have any company, which is most of the time, hehe).
UPDATE: 5/23/09-In the second month (as of 5/19/09) I used 662 gallons for an average daily use rate of 22.1 gallons per day (and 22.6 gallons per day over the running total of 61 days). With the exception of times when I have visitors, it now looks like it shouldn't be a problem to stay at between 22 and 24 gallons per day. This means that the (average month) upper limit on my usage of water should be around 30.5*24 or 732 gallons per month. I'm using just 50% of the water I used in 2008 ... gratifying and quite simple to do. All it has seemed to take is spending some time thinking about what I'm doing and then figuring out how to do it better. It did cost some for the new High Efficiency toilets but, as a single person household, I could've gotten by with only one new one instead of two. Otherwise, it's just being conscious about what it is I really need vs. what it is that I'm actually using. Try it ... you may like it.
My goal is to consistently be under 1000 gallons a month in water usage, with a challenge of 900 and a super challenge level of an 800 gallon per month limit. In terms of daily use limits, 1000 gallons per month equates to a bit less than 33 gallons per day, 900 gallons is about 29.5 gallons per day and 800 gallons is just over 26 gallons per day. My 2008 average of 1450 gallons per month was over 47 gallons of water per day.
Data will almost always provide the answers, if you have enough of it. So I started looking at how all that water was being used in my home. With standard toilets each flush was about 3 gallons of water at a rate of perhaps 9 or 10 times per day. So right there was 27-30 gallons per day. The clothes washer is a front loading high efficiency unit and some measurements via meter read show that it uses 10-25 gallons of water per load, depending on the size of the load and the wash cycle selected. By the same measuring method, a shower could easily take 15-25 gallons of water. The dishwasher, interestingly enough, uses only about 9 gallons of water for the entire cycle.
By my last water bill (March, 2009), water usage was down to 1200 gallons and it will go down further as I get better at this, but here are the conservation steps I've currently implemented:
1. Watering the lawn is out if water conservation is a serious goal, so that's something that's straightforward to do (and I've never done much of it anyway) but I may allow for a little of it from time to time if the grass is really dying. A better solution here may be to put in grass that is extremely hardy and so will easily survive (as much as 2 months) with little or no water.
2. Wait longer to do laundry. Since the washer is easily capable of handling very large loads of clothes, the logic is that it should take less water to do one large load than two smaller ones. This seems to be true and I find that I can easily do laundry every two weeks instead of every week, except the bedding is every week. OK, I will confess that I had to buy some extra underwear to make this one work ;) ...
3. Showers are now "sailor showers". This means that the water is on to wet down, then it is turned off while applying shampoo and soaping. The water is then turned back on to rinse. It's easily possible to take a shower with less than 5 gallons of water using this approach. A bonus here is that this significantly reduces the amount of hot water needed, saving (electricity and natural gas in my case) on running the water heater. Additionally, less time spent under hot water means less dry skin ... especially important for dry midwest winters. Also, when washing hands, it's not necessary to let the water run while the hands are not under the faucet, so turn it off while rubbing the soap in ... every ounce adds up.
4. Run the dishwasher only when it is completely full, in my case about 3 times a month instead of 4 or 5.
5. Install High Efficiency toilets, in my case, 2 toilets, Toto brand, Drake and Gwyneth models. These require 1.6 gallons and 1.3 gallons of water, respectively, per flush. This reduces the water for toilet usage to under 15 gallons per day. Also, it's not necessary to flush the toilet after every use so a few additional flushes can be saved. Installing the high efficiency toilets is no doubt the number one water saver in my home, certain to be even more helpful with a large family. I'm saving between 10 and 20 gallons of water per day with this change alone. If you're "flush" with cash or have really big water bills, look into installing a compost toilet. These are quite expensive for a good one, but water usage is zero and there is a great fertilizer benefit for your garden.
Results:
To test the efficacy of my water conservation steps, I've been collecting meter read data at the same time (9am) every day since March 19. After 20 days, I'm averaging 24.8 gallons per day of water use (about 756 gallons per month). This is well within my set goals and I'm happy with the results so far. It's really a fairly easy change to make in lifestyle (especially for a single guy living alone) but, like many things, one has to be intentional about doing it consistently. Like dieting, it will only last if it becomes a lifestyle choice. For families with children, there seem to be very good reasons why everyone should be taught conservation from an early age. In the long run, it is certainly going to be easier for individuals if they have "always done it that way" and it will definitely help both current and coming generations to have the planetary resources they need to live both comfortably and inconspicuously. Now that's being a good steward.
UPDATE: 4/19/09-After one month, I've used 718 gallons for an average of 23.2 gallons per day (31 days). This is less than 50% of my water usage (average per month) rate in 2008. Gratifying ... and I now see no reason why I shouldn't be able to consistently continue to achieve using 800 gallons per month or less (at least for those months when I don't have any company, which is most of the time, hehe).
UPDATE: 5/23/09-In the second month (as of 5/19/09) I used 662 gallons for an average daily use rate of 22.1 gallons per day (and 22.6 gallons per day over the running total of 61 days). With the exception of times when I have visitors, it now looks like it shouldn't be a problem to stay at between 22 and 24 gallons per day. This means that the (average month) upper limit on my usage of water should be around 30.5*24 or 732 gallons per month. I'm using just 50% of the water I used in 2008 ... gratifying and quite simple to do. All it has seemed to take is spending some time thinking about what I'm doing and then figuring out how to do it better. It did cost some for the new High Efficiency toilets but, as a single person household, I could've gotten by with only one new one instead of two. Otherwise, it's just being conscious about what it is I really need vs. what it is that I'm actually using. Try it ... you may like it.
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