This past week, the forum on my web site dedicated to the Pontiac Bonneville, www.BonnevilleClub.com, surpassed 2000 posts. At this rate, it should break the 3000 mark sometime in early September. We already have 147 registered members, a number of which seem to really appreciate the site. Knowing that I made something that can be enjoyed by so many gives me a good feeling.

As almost everyone reading this web site knows, I am a college student at Rose-Hulman. If you didn’t know this, I want to hear from you. Anyhow, college students tend to be tempting targets for credit card companies. The students think: “Wow, free money! I’ll spend now and pay it back when I get out of this school thing!” The credit card companies (a.k.a. CCC, not to be confused with the Civilian Conservation Corps., which ironically, also dealt with money and the lack thereof) think of students as nice juicy steaks. “Mmmm… there’s a filet mignon” is roughly translated to “Hey, that kid is living in a materialistic society and appears to be down with the current styles! Let’s hit him up for some debt!” Paradoxically, the more long-term debt [student loans] that one has, the better one’s credit rating, and thus one becomes an even more tempting prize for revolving-credit issuers.

I have a not-insignificant student loan debt (almost enough to buy that Porsche that I constantly lust for) so I am constantly stalked by big CCC’s. Let me tell you, having a multi-national conglomerate following you home is a hair-raising experience. It’s hard to overlook a forty-story office building with a company logo emblazoned on top when it’s peaking around the corner. I got my first credit card a short time after my 18th birthday. It had an absurdly low limit (a couple hundred dollars) a high interest rate (about 20%) and no perks other than a lack of annual fees. Despite the restrictions, I was happy. I was finally recognized as a player in the great American financial institution. I was a minion of Visa. For two years, all through freshman and sophomore terms, it was the only credit card I carried. I used the card occasionally, and with such a low limit, I never had a problem paying it off. Sure, I received many other offers in the mail, but none caught my eye. The overtures were usually loaded with strings: high interest rates, annual fees, low limits, no grace periods, fees for inactivity, security deposits – nothing that I wanted a part of. Two full years went by, until one day I got a letter from one of my student loan banks. The proposition was sound: no annual fee, no fine-print “gotchyas,” an interest rate half of that with my other card, and a credit limit an order of magnitude higher than my then-beloved Visa. I applied and thus received my first Visa Platinum card. I promptly cancelled my old card and stuck the new plastic in my wallet.

Okay, so I did it mostly for the status symbol. Frankly, plunking the Platinum down at Bar Abilene is a whole lot cooler than a boring debit card. The Platinum is all shiny and silvery and, for some reason, tends to give the impression that you’re making it in the world. It’s not a store card, regular Visa/MC, or even Gold card: it’s platinum.

I continued to receive card offers by mail. In the month after I left Minnesota, I acquired nine credit card offers: one GM card, one Discover Gold card, one pre-approval for the Discover Platinum card (same day as the Discover Gold card), one Platinum MasterCard, one Platinum Visa, one Gold MasterCard, and a Visa business card from my former card issuer. Whew… that’s a lot of paper. Into the shredder it all went. My single Platinum Visa would need to stay lonely in my wallet.

But wait! What’s that an ad for? Blue from American Express? Ooo… the coolness factor is sky-high on that one. I need to get it; it just looks so neat! Browse on over to AmEx/blue … apply … Woohoo, accepted! Of course, I went for the full, regular Blue, not the Student Blue. The normal Blue looks better than the Student (clear as opposed to white). A week later, The Card arrived in the mail. (AmEx refers to all of their credit/charge cards as singular proper nouns, similar to The Artist except with more plastic.) I needed to get some stuff to spiff up my room, so I thought I’d give The Card a test drive.

Skip ahead to the Menard’s checkout line. I have a trendy cable-track halogen light system under my arm and The Card in my hand. I am feeling quite effervescent as I hand over The Card to pay, when I feel the blow of six words: “Sorry, we don’t take American Express.” D’oh! Gotta save face – maybe I can still impress the chick working the till. Out comes the Platinum. She rings it through and completes the transaction.

The following day, I decide that I need more low-voltage halogen lights. I still have yet to use The Card, so I head over to Lowe’s. I approach the register with various halogen lamps, electrical wire, wire nuts, tools, screws, faceplates, gang boxes, and switches in my basket. I have The Card in hand but the Platinum nearby. The clerk rings through my purchase. I present The Card. Without a word of rejection, she swipes it through. “Cool card” she remarks. “I’ve never seen one like that before.” “Thanks,” I reply, tacking on a smile. She returns the smile, hands over the receipt, and we part ways. I repeat the experience later at Ace Hardware. It seems that the ladies are fond of The Card. Hmmm… Maybe AmEx should emphasize this in their advertising campaign.

As I mentioned above, I bought several strands of Halogen lights for use in my room at the Pike House. One was a cable-track light system (similar to Mutak’s) while the other three were under-cabinet strands. I mounted the cable lights near the ceiling for an indirect glow. The cabinet lights found home underneath my loft. In all, there are now twelve 20-watt halogen bulbs burning in my room, three per strand. Of course, lights need electricity to work, so I drilled holes, mounted boxes, and ran line so that everything is powered in a neat, orderly fashion. At the same time, I eliminated a hodgepodge of extension cords and power strips that had been in place for the better part of a year. The room looks much cleaner and brighter now that the installation is complete. I’ll post photos as soon as I get new batteries for my digital camera.

The lights were only phase one of my master plan for the room. Phase two involves installing more storage nooks (shelves, book cases, dressers) and acquiring a decent couch. Phase three might mean repainting the room, getting a T.V., and further improving the lighting situation. Phase four is to take over the wo… But wait, what would I do tomorrow night?

Two hours, 1200 words, and an intervening load of laundry, and this post is finally drawing to a close. I keep a list of things I want to write about, and this week, here are some quick thoughts about things that didn’t make it into the main post: Last Thursday, I was so hungry that I ate at Arby’s. I enjoyed one of their heavily-promoted Market Fresh sandwiches which, surprisingly, tasted reasonably good. Arby’s takes Visa and MasterCard, but not The Card. This weekend the Brickyard 400 stormed into Indiana. Judging from the traffic, I think every man, woman, and child who considers himself a Hoosier converged on Indianapolis for the race. No word on whether or not the Brickyard takes The Card. The Simpsons, my favorite T.V. show, continues to get better after a pitiful Season 12. Due to scheduling conflicts, I missed most of the last episodes of Season 13. Due to the poor quality of Season 12 and the beginning of Season 13 (most of the punch-lines revolved around the fate of the show), I had low expectations for the later Season 13 eps. However, I have been very impressed thus far.

With that, this installation of Keacher.com draws to a close. Good afternoon, good evening, and goodnight!

I spent most of this weekend in Indianapolis watching musical performances.

On Friday night, I went with one of my Fraternity brothers to a Nickelback concert at the Verizon Wireless Music Center. By utilizing some connections, we got nearly free tickets. The opening bands, Course of Nature and 7 Dust, were decent, but I don’t particularly care for either of their songs. Nickelback, however, was fantastic. They played all of their hits, some unrecorded stuff, and ‘unplugged’ versions of some of their songs. Along with the music, they put on a great visual effect show featuring a plethora of pyrotechnics. It was a good concert.

Saturday morning, I went with another one of my Brothers to the Drum Corps International midwest championships. We went to support another Brother, Martin (who also happened to be my freshman floor’s SA). We got to see a dozen drum corps from around the country compete in the RCA Dome. The show was great. Afterwards, we met up with Martin at a local middle school. We hung out for a few minutes, at which point Martin had to start a practice which would last the next four hours. We departed and began the trip back to Terre Haute.

Okay, I had a nice, long self-reflective post all typed up. I’d been working on it for about an hour when I accidentally backed out of my update page, which destroyed my entry. *Sigh*

Maybe I’ll reconstruct it tomorrow.

I woke up at the Pike house hotter than normal today. The box fan, not more than a foot from my head, was roaring. My alarm, now under my loft for unknown reasons, clanged brazenly but could not compete with the jet-like thunder of the fan. Sweating, I stumbled out of bed, slapped the alarm off, and braced myself for the light of day.

After taking a shower, I decided to tackle the perpetual heat that saturates third floor, location of my room. After feeling the HVAC registers, I decided that a low air flow was the source of my agony. Increasing the flow meant examining the ductwork and the AC unit.

I made my way through the crawl space to the air conditioning evaporator unit, pulled of the cover, and was not at all shocked to see a dirty air filter. Very dirty. In fact, it was so caked with dust that it had become opaque. The last time the filter was changed was in August 2001 when I discovered a similar situation. I’ve heard that the filters should be changed monthly; now I see why. I got a new filter from the supply closet, installed it, and was dismayed to find no increase in air flow. What else could cause the problem?

I checked the evaporator core to see if it had frozen. Nope. Perhaps the blower fan had something touching it. Nada. Maybe the flexible ducts were being pinched. Indeed, some were. Although moving the ducts didn’t increase flow, doing so led me to the real culprit: poor duct joints.

I emerged from the plenum, hopped in the Bonnie, and drove to the hardware store. “Where’s the duct tape?” “Down aisle 10” “No, not the gray ‘Duck’ duct tape. I want the stuff that actually can be used on ducts. You know, the shiny silver adhesive foil.” “Ah, you want aisle 10” “Great. Yowza! That stuff is expensive!” “Yup.” “That’s it? That was some pathetic empathy…” “Yep. Do you need a bag for that?”

Okay, I made that exchange up. The people at Ace Hardware were actually quite helpful, and the girl who showed me the HVAC duct tape nearly freaked out over the price. It was a bit expensive: 10 yards for $3.99. Ah well. Supply and demand.

After I got back to the House, I returned to the ducts. Everywhere I felt cold air, I slapped some tape down. In one case I plugged a hole with tape and a sock. Another time, I needed to plug a gaping (5 x 20 inch) hole, so out came the cardboard. Incidentally, I think that the behemoth hole was the source of my air pressure woes.

After buttoning up the system with the foil duct tape, socks, cardboard, and a pear tree, I checked the register. Success! Iced air was gushing out in a stream of cold.

In fact, it is getting so cold in here that I can no longer tolerate sitting at the computer. That, and it is now 3:20 a.m., so I probably should go to sleep. Off to enjoy a blissful protracted slumber!

Shortly before my previous entry, I returned to Terre Haute. My job: web programming and other computer tasks for the Midwest Center for Rural Health; specifically, revamping and maintaining RuralConsult.com. RuralConsult allows rural doctors to post queries to get the aid of a specialist. By consulting with a specialist via the web, the rural doctor can help the patient without the patient travelling long distances to a major city. The web consultation can generally occur many weeks before the specialist would be available for an appointment, allowing the rural doctor to start treatment earlier. I’m quite happy working at the Midwest center: my job is fun, the office is nice, and my colleagues are great.

Last weekend an air show visited Terre Haute. Planes of all types were doing tricks and fly-bys. My favorite plane was the F-117A Stealth, which flew about 500ft above the Pike House. Seeing and hearing the USAF Thunderbirds was an experience that defies description. Perhaps it is best to just say: wow!

Other musings:

I took some new photos of my Bonneville. In the last week we’ve grilled twice at the House, one time brats and the other chicken. I’m still looking for a bike, though due to financial constraints my search will not come to fruition until spring. We took the pumper truck out on the road for a bit – what a blast!