When remodeling the house, I tore out the bedroom down to the dirt under the house. I propped up the roof, and removed the floor and walls, fixed the foundation, and then rebuilt it all.

I insulated it well, and then put in a small gas furnace. Gas is cheaper than electricity, I reckoned, and it definitely needs a heat source, so with effort I ran a new gas line and hooked it all up.

The pilot light alone warms the room.

Usually too much. So the furnace is unused, and an electric oil-filled space heater heats the room. What a waste.

So when building my daughter’s nursery, I opted to put in an electric heater instead, since it has off mode that’s actually off…

I roughed in the can and ran 240v wiring to it, and 24v wiring from there to another wall where I wanted the thermostat to live.

Then all the finish work was done, the drywall and the painting, and it was time to install the heater itself.

And I discovered I’d installed a line voltage heater, which needs a line voltage thermostat. And instead I had a low voltage thermostat. 24 instead of 240. Only off by a factor of 10.

Worse than having the wrong thermostat is the fact that the wiring is already done and inside the walls and there is not 240 volt electrical cable leading from the thermostat to the heater.

I googled around for a solution, and found this transformer/relay (Model RC840T-240) to connect the two.

But at first I didn’t see how it would work. A light switch has the black “hot” supply wire come in, and another one leave and go to the light, right? And the switch determines if the current stops at the switch, or continues on to the light fixture.

Well I figured the relay would work the same way… two 120 volt supply wires, a black and a red, leave the circuit box and go to the relay, and then two 120 volt wires leave the relay and go to the heater. The thermostat is also hooked up to the relay and that is basically the switch. Right?

Except the wiring diagram showed the relay had three wires, a black, red, and blue. Just three. Not four. Shouldn’t it have a black/red pair for the incoming power and a blue/something pair for the outgoing power? The way it looked, one of the supply wires still went straight to the heater.

I was confused because the heater’s manual indicated that you should use 120 volt power with a 240 volt heater; that it wouldn’t run at full power that way.

So I figured if one 120 volt wire went straight to the heater, it would always be on, but at half power, right?

By the way I e-mailed these Aube people that make the relay, and they never answered. I also e-mailed the makers of the heater, but they said it would probably work but I sure really just buy a line voltage thermostat from them instead (ignoring that it would be a hardship to rewire the finished room) and didn’t answer my question about why the relay only had three wires.

Well, I finally figured out that a 240 volt heater needing two supply wires simply won’t work at all with only one. It doesn’t run at lower power. It doesn’t run at all. The warning against using 120 volt power on a 240 volt heater is probably for some yabo that would twist both heater wires together to avoid running two wires or something.

So the relay works great, and the wiring diagram makes perfect sense given my newfound knowledge. I had to break the wiring in the attic crawlspace (which I was going to have to do no matter what, since I made the initial mistake). I put in a nice box with the relay attached and was able to use all the wiring I had put in.

My daughter’s room has heat with a programmable thermostat! I wish I had had that, growing up.

Anyway, in case any other idiot out there doesn’t realize some of these things I learned the hard way, and googles for help, perhaps this page will come up.

Well he doesn’t. He lives in the book, and he lives in the movie too. He’s riding uphill at the end, clearly alive.

So don’t believe what movies tell you, even about other movies.

There are a few indoor playgrounds in the area, but they cost money and are for somewhat older children.

One nice place is an indoor play area in Tanforan Park, a shopping mall in San Bruno, on the San Francisco Peninsula.

If you’re in the Bay Area looking for indoor playgrounds or places to go with your toddler, this is a nice enough place.

It’s not large, and on Friday nights it can get rowdy with older kids, but it’s got a soft spongy floor, and soft plastic structures to climb on or through.

Tanforan used to be a racetrack, so it is themed that way. There is a saddle, two horses, a horseshoe garland, a pair of binoculars (functions as a double tunnel) and a car with a slide.

It’s inside the mall right outside the lower level entrance to Target. There is a storage area for shoes and cushioned benches inside for parents to sit.

Along the walls is a distortion mirror, a bas-relief like racing scene, and some toys where you flip panels or move a ball through a maze.

The structures are such that bare feet provides excellent traction allowing kids to crawl up anything if they know how.

If your child is small, you’ll want to keep an eye out that bigger kids don’t jump off the taller structures without looking, particularly on busy Friday nights.

In addition, a short distance from the play area is an island with rides. Like the horsey rides of old outside supermarkets, but on steroids. They have a helicopter, a space shuttle, a ride which mimics a roller-coaster (with video screen) and more. They are 75 cents or a dollar.

Another ride island is on the upper level above the food court. That is my preferred location in the evening as it is usually uncrowded. Furthermore, the ice cream truck ride moves on its own every few minutes (to entice passers-by) and many of the buttons work whether you put money in or not, making it a great budget choice.

The rides all say 3 years and up, but if you’re responsible and don’t leave your child’s side for a moment, you can enjoy them much earlier.

Note: Tanforan Park was remodeled and now they call it “The Shops at Tanforan” which I think is a STUPID name so I don’t call it that. Also the old mall layout was nicer, but I guess I’m in the minority because it was a pretty dead mall until the remodel. And the play area is new so I guess I’m happy about that, now that I have a child to use it.

However, the show is actually pretty cool. I don’t know much about shows like Teletubbies or Dora the Explorer, except to know that I hate them from what little I’ve seen.

But this show has some pretty awesome music sometimes. The hook is that five children (anthropomorphic animals/aliens) share a big backyard and have adventures in their imagination. They all play well together, taking turns being in charge (in one episode one will be a Butler, obeying the others, in another the Boss at a racetrack, giving out orders), and usually playing with cooperation instead of competition, but when they do compete it’s always good natured.

In the most recent episode I watched, “Who Goes There?” Tyrone is a security guard at a museum. In an homage/ripoff of the film Night at the Musuem, Pablo, Uniqua, and Austin are works of art that come to life.

The musical style of this episode is Flamenco, and it is wonderful. I’ve been listening to it when my daughter isn’t even in the room.

Here’s a youtube clip I found, and the lyrics transcription.

Snape is a bigot. He is prejudiced. If you like Snape, then you like a deeply, truly prejudiced person. He treated Harry like trash the minute he met him, because he looks like James, who Snape hated.

James was apparently a bully and a jerk. That’s fine, but that doesn’t somehow make Snape sympathetic, just because his rival is a scumbag. Harry isn’t a bully, so he isn’t like James. But Snape hates him from Day One.

He also treats Hermione, Ron, and Neville like trash and favors the kids from his own house. And no, that’s not all just an act as part of the Bigger Plan. Dumbledore even admits that these are Snape’s own personal hangups.

So Snape was originally fine for James to die, okay, I can accept that, even though if he really loved Lily he probably shouldn’t be okay with her husband’s death, since that would obviously hurt her, and if you love someone in a way that isn’t just selfish and possessive, you generally don’t want to hurt the one you love.

But he also didn’t care if Harry died, as long as Lily was spared. That’s pretty calloused. And then when Lily dies anyway, he does agree to help protect Harry. Not because it’s right, but because he wants (a) to do something for Lily and (b) revenge on Voldemort.

And finally, when Dumbledore tells him Harry must die, Snape is devastated, as he thought all his sacrifice was to protect him. Dumbledore asks if he has begun to care for Harry. “For him?” Snape exclaims. He doesn’t care about Harry. He never cared about Harry. Harry can suffer, Harry can hurt, that doesn’t bother him. All he cares about is Lily, but not her son, only because he’s a tool that through protecting him, he can feel good about doing something for Lily.

So then when he learns that he can’t protect Harry any more, that he is for the slaughter, he continues his secret work for reason (b), revenge on Voldemort.

So yeah, Snape is brave. You have to be to play both sides for so long like he did, to risk his life so many times… but is bravery enough? And I believe he did come around from his Death Eater ways, he eschewed the use of Mudblood in private (or was that merely because he had called Lily that and the word reminded him of his worst memory?) and he did try to save George from a Death Eater. When Dumbledore asked him how many people he’d seen die, he said “Lately, only those I could not save.” So sure, he retreated from his evil.

But does dialing back the evil make him good? The thing to remember is, if he’d lived, then once Harry knew the truth about his life, they’d still have been enemies. Snape hated Harry, because he reminded him of James, and that wouldn’t have changed. In his death, Harry found forgiveness to bestow, but if Snape was alive and well and sneering and insulting as ever, would he have?

Snape did what he did for his own purposes. His sick fascination with Lily drove his life. He was a loyal servant of Voldemort, if James and Harry had died but Lily had lived, wouldn’t he still be? If he could have turned Lily into a Death Eater, wouldn’t he have?

It’s like the broken message in Return of the Jedi: Darth Vader murdered so many people (including children), but when he saves the life of his own son, suddenly he’s redeemed? As if, unless you are 100% full-stop evil, you must be Good?

Yes, Snape was not as evil as he could have been, or as he had used to be, or as everyone thought. That doesn’t make him good. He was prejudiced, until the end of his days, and content in his prejudice. He was an awful teacher, abusive, and petty. He probably helped corrupt Draco Malfoy and gang; after all, he was their influence for so many years… was he honest about fostering their ambition for power, or was their corruption part of maintaining his status as a spy? Either way, it’s pretty horrible.

He should have moved on and tried to find someone else to love. His obsession with Lily was unhealthy.

And worst of all, for as obsessed with her as he was, why did he join the Death Eaters in the first place? That’s what drove her from him, not James. He did it. He chose power over her. But did he ever own up to that? He preferred to blame James for that, I guess.

How about the sorting? Harry chose Gryffindor, although the hat might have put him in Slytherin. Why didn’t Snape? He chose Slytherin over being with Lily… okay, that’s maybe not his fault. The whole Sorting concept is deeply flawed.

And on reflection, the wizarding world if full of horrible prejudices and irrationality, so perhaps Snape is not to be judged quite as harshly…

But he’s still not a good person. Brave, yes. Valuable and instrumental in Voldemort’s downfall? Yes. Protected Harry? Physically, anyway, though he had no problem with psychological tortures extraordinaire. But it takes more than that to make a good man. Snape remains a villain in my eyes. Dumbledore states that the world is made up of more than Good Guys and Death Eaters.

It’s true. Snape did good things, and bad things, but remains a bad person.

He won’t restore our liberties. He won’t reduce the power of the government.

If you think he will, you have bought into the system.

McCain (should he win) sure won’t do any of that stuff either. The difference is that Obama supporters seem to think he’s something new and special, instead of just the latest in a long line of chief executives who perpetuate the system and take more power for the federal government.

You had your chance to elect Ron Paul, or even Dennis Kucinich, but you all blew it, because you don’t *really* want change, you just want someone who talks about it, but in a nice non-threatening way (i.e. who won’t *actually* change things, because anything other than the status quo is scary).

Meanwhile Obama supports partial-birth abortions and letting die without treatment babies who survive abortion procedures anyway. Even if you think a fertilized egg or 1st trimester fetus is not a person with rights, that should horrify you.

But then, killing full-term post-partum babies should horrify Indians, and apparently it doesn’t that much.

Just remember, if you’d been alive in the times of American slavery, you wouldn’t have protested that much. Status Quo is king. Don’t rock the boat. Everyone else is doing it. It’s what we’re used to, so we aren’t shocked. No matter how shocking it ought to be.

I couldn’t come up with anything else that I both liked and thought practical. Constraints were that it couldn’t be too hot (small house, lots of people), and couldn’t be too bulky (I’ll have a lot of baby wrangling to do).

So I ruled out my Matrix coat (which really only looks good while carrying a sword, hard to do indoors) and my Renaissance cloak (look, I don’t dress like this year round, so don’t get judgmental because I own these items from previous years!).

That left my Dr. McNinja costume from 2 years ago. I hadn’t wanted to do it again because I didn’t want to have to cover my face the whole time.

But I have a better Ninja mask now. My previous one didn’t fit and wasn’t made well, a cheap Halloween kid’s mask actually, and I ended up using velcro stuck to my forehead and cheeks to actually keep in in place, so my hair didn’t show and my face was kept hidden. It meant it was sorta delicate and needed readjustment a few times, especially because it was actually in two pieces, a hood and then a face mask, almost just a veil.

Anyway, I got a better once since then, which fits, and is all one piece, so I will be able to pull it down quickly and eat something and it’ll snap back into place, without compromising my secret identity.

So that’s what I’ll be for the party, anyway. There’ll be a lot of kids so I won’t carry my real sword, but I’ll have a bokken.

But while my wife was trying to help me pick a costume, she found a Renaissancy type shirt and said with a little work I could have a pirate costume. “But… I can’t be a pirate… pirates are my mortal enemies” I told her, completely straight, with just a touch of whiny. She proceeded to fall face first on the bed and try to suffocate herself. “But the Internet told me so…” I continued to whinge, and she only pressed her face down harder.

Sometimes it’s hard to be a ninja.

Except hardly anyone really wants that to happen, even the progressives. 100% freedom is simply anarchy, any society must limit the freedom of its citizens somewhat if it wants to exist. For example, do even the staunchest “pro-freedom” progressives really want it to be legal for people to engage in public sodomy in the middle of a toy store? No? Well then we can agree that there are limits to freedom then, can’t we? We just don’t agree on where they are.

At some point, if the progressives got all they wanted, they would become conservatives. They would then want to freeze things in place, because to go beyond that would actually make things worse for everyone, right? They just think people don’t have enough rights at the moment, but surely they have some stopping point, if they’ve thought that far ahead…

So all the talk of unending progress is just stupid, right? They don’t really want progress forever. There are always limits.

Conservatives are fools too though. They seem to all want to return to the “good old days.” Except there were no good old days. Some things were better a few years ago, if you’re against things like socially acceptable premarital sex and pornography. But what if you’re for equality of individuals without regard to race or sex? You wouldn’t want to return to the 50s. I wouldn’t even want to return to the 80s and have to endure smoking in every restaurant and public place. (Hooray for California for anti-smoking laws.)

The difference between the groups is that Progressives act like conventional morality is stupid and we should always march towards (their version of) progress. Conservatives believe in right and wrong. Progressives believe that the idea of right and wrong, is wrong. Conservatives concept of morality may be skewed, they might like conventional morality more because it’s conventional than because it’s actually right, but at least they take a stand.

Of the two groups, I view the Progressives as the most smug in their superiority while being the most myopic. The irony of that drives me from them.

Keep in mind the Progressives have made great strides over the years. But also keep in mind that today’s conservative is yesterday’s progressive. Martin Luther King Jr., with his radical ideas of racial equality, was surely no conservative. But if he were still alive, would he be preaching for the acceptance of same-sex marriage? What do the two have to do with each other, at all, really?

Let’s not tout “moving forward” as a good thing unless we know what we’re moving to, and know it’s better than where we’re at.

As someone who is actually against such things myself, at first blush I might be tempted to say “bravo.” But the problem with that is that it doesn’t prevent the stuff I’m against. Rather, films that should be rated NC-17 are ever-so-slightly trimmed and resubmitted, resulting in the hardest of hard R-ratings.

The result is that NC-17 is barely used, and many films that certainly ought to have that rating are instead simply rated R. And idiot parents take their kids to see them.

I sure saw plenty of R-rated movies as a kid, and you know what? It messed me up. I wish I hadn’t done that. I wish my parents had been more responsible. But they’d buy me the ticket and drop me off.

I’d actually rather end the stigma of NC-17, so that movie-makers who want scenes of hideous bloodbathery or eroticerry could do so. Why? Because they are going to be passing it off as R anyway, so let them at least label it properly. It won’t be much worse than what we’ve got, and the R rating can be used for stuff that a responsible parent might actually take their child to.

The theaters only care about money. They won’t show NC-17, not because they care one whit about decency, but because they fear a boycott. And people don’t boycott R movies even if they are just as bad as NC-17. So that’s what they support.

Well, either start boycotting the obscenity regardless of rating, or let theaters know you’ll let them show NC-17. It’d be preferable to simply showing NC-17 films but saying they’re really R.

The stigma of NC-17 has done nothing to stop obscenity from appearing in film; all it does is make it more accessible to young people, the ones who are least equipped to deal with it. That I know from experience.

What’s the fun of participating in a game, and perhaps winning, but your reward… is an apple. Woo hoo.

So I suggested bobbing for bacon. “That’s disgusting, who would want water-logged bacon?” “Well,” I said, still off the top of my head, “you put it in a ziplock bag, filled with some air, keeps the bacon dry, and buoyant enough to still bob for.”

I haven’t tried it, and it was a silly idea, but the more I think of it, the more I like the idea. I handed out actual toast at my wedding as a wedding toast, so maybe I’ll push forward with this. I don’t know if the ziplocks would really work, probably too easy to get hold of, need something with the right difficulty level.

How about a hollowed-out wax apple, with bacon inside? You think you’re getting a piece of fruit, but it’s actually bacon! That’s a reward.