Category Archives: Daily Scribble

My random thoughts of the day.

Daily Scribble

Selling old kitchen cabinets

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We are remodeling our kitchen, remove the old cabinets and install new ones. The problem is what to do with our old cabinets? Technically speaking, the old cabinets are junks to me. Actually they are worse than junks, because if I would have to spend some money to hire a garbage collector even I want to throw them away. There is a 2nd hand market for old cabinets, I see many listings on Craigslist, the only problem is I have no idea how much my old kitchen worth.

My only reference on pricing are listings on the Craigslist. 2nd hand cabinets are selling from a few hundred bucks to a few thousands. The same set of cabinet has different value to different people. It depends on how well the cabinets fit their kitchen. On one hand, I want to get as much as I can from the old cabinet. one the other hand, I want to get rid of them before my contractor install the new cabinets. If I set the price too low, I didn’t get the most out of it. If I set the price too high, it may not be sold. Since I don’t know the market price for my cabinets, I can’t even name the right price.

My solution to the problem is to listing my cabinets as a close bid auction. I set up a time and let people come to see the cabinets, make measurements and ask questions. They write me their best offer and I simply pick the best offer at the end of the day. To make it fair, I ask them to put their offer in an envelope and I am not going to look at their bid before the end of the auction. By doing this way, I can avoid dealing with the bargain hunters and I don’t have to feel bad being ripped off for selling the cabinet too cheap.

The final price is much better than I had expected. I listed $500 as the base price. I would be happy if I can get a few hundred bucks more. Most of the offerings are around $800, but I got two offerings just over $1000. I figure the highest possible value I could get should be around $1200-1300. Since it is a best offer auction, according to auction theory the expected value of return is a bit less than the true value because the buyers would will not bet the full amount of their true value, I am quite happy for what I got.

Setting up the auction and answering emails and phone calls is time consuming. Not only that I got more money for my old cabinets, it is also a good learning experience observing how the buyers response to my auction.

Daily Scribble

Beginning of the ski season

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The skiing season is pretty short this year due to the Olympic. The Sea to Sky Highway is closed during the games for normal traffic and hotels in Whistler will be ridiculously expensive. That means I have to use up most of all my ski passes before the Olympic in February.

Today is my second skiing day in season. I feel much better than my skiing first day before Christmas. Last time I sign up for lesson and I am so out of shape that the instructor bump me down from level 6 to level 5. I am getting a bit better today, plus we have really great snow, a very powder day. Skiing on powder snow is very different from skiing on groomed runs. If you don’t go fast enough, your ski will sink. I got trapped twice today in knee deep snow, digging myself out is pretty exhausting. You also have to lean a bit more backward on powder snow, or your ski tip will catch the snow and make you fall.

A few years ago, when I took my instructor class, I was told I lean too much backward. Since then I consciously try to lean more forward. This time, the instructor told me I am leaning too much forward, looks like I over correct my stands. It is important to keep your balance even between your ankle and arch. Leaning backward speed you up and makes you lose control. Leaning forward put too much pressure on the ski tip and make it hard to turn.

When I go to Whistler, I always have the noodle bowl and a cup of coke for lunch. Somehow the portion of the noodle bowl seems getting smaller and smaller every year. The cafeteria server only gives you half a bowl of noodle and fill it up with the empty space soup. That portion is definitely not enough to feed a hungry guy had exercised the whole morning. The portion is so small this year that I finally decided I am not going to get rip off the Whistler. I fix the problem myself and get even with them. I simply ordered two bowls and merge the noodles before checking out at the cashier. Now I get a full bowl of noodle, as shown in the advertisement, instead a pathetic half empty noodle bowl.

Daily Scribble

Christmas Dinner Crossword Game 2009

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This year, I and Pat created a crossword puzzle game for the Christmas dinner. The clues are Bible knowledge about the nativity and general knowledge about Christmas. I will publish the answer after Christmas. Have fun.

Across

  1. (Nativity) Fill in the word for “Angels we Have Heard on High-Gloria in excelsis _____”
  2. (General) What is Santa Claus’ Postal Code in Canada?
  3. (General) Which company was the first to use Santa Claus in advertisement?
  4. (Nativity) Bethelem means “House of ______”.
  5. (Nativity) In Joseph’s dream, where does the angel tell them to return home safely?
  6. (General) What’s the name of Santa’s reindeer start with letter V?
  7. (Nativity) What word means “God is with us”.
  8. (General) What color is the Grinch?
  9. (Nativity) Name the song from the verse: “Round yon Virgin, Mother and child”

Down

  1. (Nativity) What did the Three Kings of the East see so that they know where Jesus was born?
  2. (General) Who wrote “A Christmas Carol”?
  3. (Nativity) What is the name of the King who ordered to kill baby Jesus?
  4. (General) What snack is often left out for Santa?
  5. (Nativity) Jesus’ ancestor is King ____
  6. (General) What kind of Christmas does Elvis Presley sings about?
  7. (General) Which ocean is Christmas Island located?
  8. (General) What color are mistle toe berries?
  9. (Nativity) Angel appears and ask Joseph, “Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a ___, and they shall name him Emmanuel”
  10. (Genernal) What is the holiday drink that contains sugar, milk and eggs?
  11. (Nativity) To where does the angel tell Joseph to bring baby Jesus to flee?

created with eclipsecrossword

Daily Scribble

Flexible hours

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Last year, I was invite to give a talk to grade six student on career day about my work. A student asked me what is the working hours like. I told him engineers work flexible hours. They don’t understand what’s flexible hours, so the teacher explained to them that I can come to work any time I like, go home any time I like and take breaks as much as I want. The idea of flexible hours seems novel to the students and they all say that’s cool. Then the teacher use the chance to teach them the importance of time management. Maybe I should tell the students, flexible hours is not cool in reality.

Flexible hours does not mean shorter hours, in fact it is often longer hours. Engineers’ work is project based, as long as we meet the dead line and show up in the meeting, to some extend we have the freedom of when and where to work. In other nine to five jobs, they have day in day out tasks. If you take a day off or have a sick day, someone have already covered your work for you. But in our job, if you take a day off, your tasks are still sitting there waiting for you come back and finish them. I end up working extra hours before my vacation so I can get all my the tasks out of my way. The only time I enjoy flexible hours is down time between projects. I can take the benefit of flexible hours by having a shorter work day if I don’t have much to do.

Daily Scribble

Cleaning mold

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Mold grows on the windows frame rail is very hard to clean. The steam cleaner helps me a lot by blasting them out, but the problem becomes what to do with the flying debris. I first tried to use a cloth covering area I am blasting, but I found the cloth get soak up with dirt pretty fast. I spent more time walking back and forth between the window and the sink to rinse the cleaning cloth. Then I remember when I went to see my dentist, he has some kind of vacuum sucking the water from the tooth drill and the loosen plagues form my month, I could use a similar idea. The only problem is regular household vacuum cleaner can not handle water, since the water in the air may short circuit the fan. I got myself a wet/dry shop vacuum for this task. A shop vacuum use negative pressure to create suction, so the air does not flow through the fan directly. My only complain is the hose of the shop vacuum is pretty heavy. I have to put it around my neck and let my shoulder carry some weight. Now I work very efficiently with a steam cleaner and a shop vacuum and somehow I think I look like a dentist.