Bio-Engineered Terrorist Designer Disease
As I sit here writing this, I’m convulsing in pain as an invisible hand grabs and twists my bowels. Every joint and muscle in my body aches. And still I write this post as the ultimate futile act of defiance against the bio-engineered designer terrorist disease that threatens to consume [...]

The Samurai School of Appliantology
This is our clever name for our do-it-yourself appliance repair forum. This post explains how to access the forum. Please keep reading.
Due to the higher cost of maintaining the Samurai School of Appliantology, we’ve changed from an open forum to membership-by-approval forum. Each page view from non-supporting members [...]

Clawing my way out of Computer Hell
It’s been a tough haul out of the mess that the Yahoo Intellisync program made on my computer (Intellisync lets you synchronize your Palm calendar with with a database on the internet so Grasshoppers could look at it and Mrs. Samurai could add things like watching the kids to [...]

Crash n’ Burn!
Fighting through a major computer crash. Everything was running far too good to just leave it alone. So, like an idiot, I downloaded and installed Yahoo Intellesync yesterday so I could access my Palm schedule online. The program overwrote several files critical to Windows and cut off my cable modem [...]

Back At It
Back from my trip to Waco. Good trip, bad flight, same old story. But I’m back, re-oriented and re-focused. I’ll be starting back up the service side of my bidness but doing commercial appliance gasket replacement. It’s a very mundane sounding but highly specialized and profitable niche bidness.
All my [...]

Off to Waco
Well, friends, I’m flying down to the sprawling metropolis of Waco, Texas, Saturday morning for a big Mr. Appliance meeting. I’ll learn the subtle art of commercial refrigeration door gasket fabrication and replacement. Also, Whirlpool factory reps will be there to teach us repair procedures on the Calypso washer and the [...]

Comprehending Engineers - Take Three
What is the difference between Mechanical Engineers and Civil Engineers?
Mechanical Engineers build weapons, Civil Engineers build targets.

Comprehending Engineers - Take Two
To the optimist, the glass is half full. To the pessimist, the glass is half empty. To the engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be. (Safety factor of 2)

Comprehending Engineers - Take One
Two engineering students were walking across campus when one said, “Where did you get such a great bike?” The second engineer replied, “Well, I was walking along yesterday minding my own business when a beautiful woman rode up on this bike. She threw the bike to the ground, took off all [...]

Hillstomping Update: The Adirondacks Trip
Well, for all my big talk about bagging all those peaks, we ended up only bagging one. The hiking trip to the Adirondacks turned into more of a camping trip since the summits were immersed in clouds. We camped the first night in the Garden parking lot and [...]

Gone Hiking
Heading out to the Adirondacks today for a backpacking trip. I’ll be meeting up with a couple of buds from PA. The K-9 unit and I will camp in the van at the trail head tonight waiting for Dave and Bob, who should be there around midnight. Tomorrow morning we’ll all [...]

Live Help Poll
So, I’m wondering about offering live help anymore at Fixitnow.com. Seems like there’s enough personal help with the forum, Yahoo Messenger, the Appliantology Group, etc. I just don’t know how useful live help is with all those other forms of communications available. So, I turn to you, my gentle grasshoppers, [...]

Commoonications Update

Ok, I finally broke down and installed Yahoo Messenger. My handle is zenzoidman. I also added that spiffy whatchahoozit to the homepage that tells whether I’m on- or off-line. Not only does it tell whether I’m on-line or not, but you can click it to send me messages. Big Brother [...]

Live Help Update
More changes are brewing here at Fixitnow.com. This time it’s live help. Currently, I’m using Live Person to offer live help to users. I wouldn’t mind the $700/year cost for the service if it weren’t so glitchy. So, I’ll be phasing out the Live Person system in favor of [...]

Brain Drain
Just got back from a three-day section hike on the NH Appalachian Trail with my K-9 hiking bud, Ouzo. Found out that EZBoard, the host for the Samurai School of Appliantology, has been dead in the water for the past couple of days. They’re back up now.
The backpacking trip I [...]