I used a piece of plywood to cover the void of the server rack. Its purpose is to enable me to place things atop it. I must remind myself of this singular purpose to cope with its ugliness.

The stain looked great, then I completely ruined the look by encasing it in a thick layer of polyurethane plastic. Now it has a wet-looking orange glow to it, and probably sheds a trillion microplastic particles into the air each day. I am a little ashamed of the decision, but life goes on and the finish is totally inconsequential to the tabletop’s stated purpose.

The engine coolant temperature gauge reports temperatures that are too low. The engine never reaches the proper operating temperature. The cabin air heating system produces only slightly hotter-than-ambient air. The upper radiator hose begins to warm immediately on starting the car. These are all symptoms of a thermostat that is stuck in the open position. I bought a new one from automotive store.

🛠️ Parts and equipment

I need a few tools and the replacement part:

My computer rack would benefit from some better cable management. To facilitate this I need to make some modifications to the rack:

• Extend the rack to ≈30 in, up from ≈24 in. This wil give me more space at the rear to route cables.
• Move server chassis down for 0U gap. This will give me more space at the top.
• Put wheels back on the rack. This will allow me to roll out the entire rack from the wall for better access.

I purchased these server rack tie bars to give me something to fasten the cables to. I use hook-and-loop straps for this.

It is winter time. We live on the third and top floor of an apartment complex, top of the thermal strata. My downstairs neighbors’ gas heaters, 250 W of plant lights, a server rack of computer equipment (which I have made some effort to make energy efficient for summertime), and various other, now 100% efficient heat-making household electrical appliances are all that are needed to heat our apartment, even at sustained temperatures as low as ~20°F.

We need Christmas decorations. The most important holiday. Late October is not too soon. How many Christmases do we get in a life? I do not want to think of it.

✨ Lights

I attached standard Christmas string lights to the plant cart, a little haphazardly. It will do. I am not sure I will ever take these down. I used maybe 50 cable ties and it will a little tedious to remove them all. Also, it looks not explicitly Christmasy in the mean time, and the room could use more light, although they seem to exhibit a kind of flickering which I read is due to cheap half-wave rectified LED drivers. 60 Hz flickering.

In this fast food reverse engineering post, I reference two documents:

• Arby’s Ingredients
• Arby’s Nutrition

📋 Ingredient List

Surpringly, the sauce contains absolutely no berries. In fact, it looks a lot like a basic sweet and sour sauce:

High Fructose Corn Syrup, Water, Bell Pepper, Distilled Vinegar, Modified Corn Starch, Jalapeno Pepper, Vegetable Juice Concentrate (color), Potassium Sorbate and Sodium Benzoate (preservatives), Onion (dehydrated), Salt, Spice, Xanthan Gum, Citric Acid, Acetic Acid.

Compare this to La Choy Sweet and Sour Sauce. Curious….