Greg In The Desert

• How I Use FriendFeed, and Why I Love It at Josh Bancroft’s TinyScreenfuls.com – in the beginning, I didn’t really “get” FriendFeed. I signed up for it, piped in all of my stuFriendFeed (Twitter, blog, photos, etc.), but never really used it much. Why would I go to yet another social network to read the stuff I was already seeing elsewhere? What changed it for me is when I happened to pop in to FriendFeed, and noticed that stuff I was sharing was being discussed on FriendFeed, a LOT, and I was completely missing out on the conversation. That’s when I decided that I needed to make it part of my “regular” routine.
• Pew Research Center: GOP Party Identification Slips Nationwide and in Pennsylvania – But these Republican losses have not translated into substantial Democratic gains. So far in 2009, 35% of adults nationwide identify as Democrats, about the same as in 2008 (36%). While GOP identification has fallen seven points since 2004, the Democrats have gained only two points over that period. Instead, a growing number of Americans describe themselves as independents, 36% in 2009 compared with just 32% in 2008 and 30% in 2004.
• Grunt You Wimp! – Increase Power In Your Workouts – Instead of having a poster that says “don’t grunt”… How about a poster that says “Did you know that a quick and forceful exhalation of breath can result in a 10-20% increase in power output?” — It’s true. This is why in Karate you’ll see everyone doing something called a “Kia” every time they throw a strike. You are releasing your inner energy to increase your power output, not to be a purposeful asshole to others around you.
• Adios Countrywide – Countrywide was already a well-known brand name when I got into the business 30 years ago. I'm not sure how big a company it was back then but everyone knew it as the independent source for mortgage financing if you didn't want to go the your local Savings & Loan or bank. They had a good reputation too.

  I remember that when I started my Internet website www. loan-wolf.com back in 1996, I think that Countrywide was one of the few other mortgage companies with a web presence. But things changed after 2000.

• Candidate for Georgia governorship says he’d kill his own son to secede – A longshot Georgia candidate for governor who’s already admitted having sex with a mule before finding God says he’s ready to sacrifice his own son in an effort to get his state to secede from the union.
• BBC NEWS | Health | Lithium in water ‘curbs suicide’ – The suicide rate was significantly lower in those areas with the highest levels of the element, they wrote in the British Journal of Psychiatry.
• Chip sales up slightly in March, down for quarter – New Mexico Business Weekly: – Worldwide sales of semiconductors were $14.7 billion in March, a gain of 3.3 percent from the prior month when sales were $14.2 billion, according to a report Friday by the Semiconductor Industry Association.

  However, the San Jose-based SIA said sales for the first quarter of 2009 totaled $44 billion, a 29.9 percent decline from the first quarter of 2008 when sales were $62.8 billion; and a 15.7 percent decline from the fourth quarter of 2008 when sales were $52.2 billion.

• What are the great health benefits of coffee? I’d consider to include your article once I put up our generic blog about coffee. – Mahalo Answers – A 2004 study in Sweden across all ages and demographics demonstrated a significant negative correlation between high coffee consumption and the risk of developing high insulin resistance (Agardh et. al 2004). This and other studies have demonstrated that persons who consume more than two cups of coffee a day are much more likely to avoid developing Type II diabetes. Interestingly enough, many individuals who fall into the category of obese also suffer from Type II diabetes or are "pre-diabetic". A number of studies have shown that coffee plays a significant role in preventing the increase in insulin resistance that causes Type II diabetes.
• Disincentive – I was ready to put a 3 kilowatt solar array on top of my house. The new tax credits made it feasible to do so with a 10 year payoff and the concurrent lessening of green house gases being put into the atmosphere. And then I begin to worry about how the county assessor would be required to look at the value of the solar installation.
• Nine ‘probable’ cases of swine flu in New Mexico – There were three five new suspected cases reported today according to the N.M. Department of Health:

  15-year-old female from Valencia County
  17-year old female from Eddy County
  15-year old male from Eddy County
  17-year old male from Hidalgo County
  27-year old male from Bernalillo County

This was a long work week. 4 x 12 hour shifts and workouts afterwards meant I had little energy left at the end of the day to work on the master bathroom. With the weekend here I finally was able to complete the installation of the heating elements.

The first step was cleaning the living piss out of the floor. I’m installing an insulating layer, which the manufacture of the heating system says will improve heat transfer. It’s not required but I would like to try to use this as the primary heating system for the house. (One Project Closer did this same project and there’s some debate in the comments on whether or not insulation is needed. They went without the insulation.)

The insulating materials is a dense closed cell foam that’s about 1/8″ think. It has a black plastic mat on the under side and attaches to the floor like contact paper. I have to first put a tacky glue on the floor and let it set for about 20 minutes.

If I was experienced at this, I could have cut the mat in one or two sections and applied it all at once. But I’m not so I cut it into small pieces and applied it to the floor a little at a time. It was much easier that way.

Installing the heating elements was a little more involved. Not only did I need to cut it, I had to do some manual wire layout where the floor was not square in front of the shower.

Since I will be embedding the elements in self leveling concrete, it’s important that they are anchored onto the floor so they don’t float up in the SLC.

The heating element is sewn onto the green mat but the round edges are not. They can easily stick out and have to be glued down. The manufacturer recommends using hot glue, a procedure I tried. After about a half hour and when I ran out of glue I thought there had to be a better way. There’s no way I can do this when I do the much larger master bedroom.

I found double-sided carpet tape at Lowes. I taped the green mat to the floor then taped the rounded edges to the mat. Not only does the double sided tape do a better job of holding down the mat it’s a lot faster and easier to put down.

Next up is to lay the self-leveling concrete. Concrete is still kind of magic to me and SLC is just that much more of magic. I will definitely need help with this part.