What is a Self-tapping saddle valve?

All of a sudden last night while I was working, I heard water leaking in the basement. Running downstairs and found it's from a connector on the main water pipe. Obviously the previous owner found the problem before and taped it around. Damn, I don't remember the inspector said anything about that.

Anyway, since it's dripping water right on top of 10 big boxes containing all my books, I rushed to move them away and put my green organic trash bin underneath. Then I sit down starting catching up my breath. Men, I shouldn't have brought all these books with me. Some boxes were not even open for the years I was in LA.

I couldn't resist the temptation to touch the tape. Oh boy, how I regretted that decision. While it was just dripping a few drops per minute, now it started to shooting out like a stream, which was filling the 10 Gallon bin really fasted. Thank god the water main switch is not far, I jumped over, closed it down.

Now what? I tried to take the connector out but it was so rusted that I couldn't do anything without some WD-40, which I just didn't have in the house. Okay, I guess it's time to go to bed. Since I'm the only one home tonight, as long as I only need to use the bath room no more than twice tonight, everything should be fine. Just wait till morning and call a plumber.

The night went well. After two bath room trips, both toilets tanks are now empty. Here came dawn and I realized there's a big problem: I've got an important meeting scheduled at 11:30 and wouldn't have time to wait for the plumber. What's worse was that I couldn't go to the meeting without shower, which I didn't do last night. After giving it some serious thought (and calculation), I put the biggest trash bin I can find under the leak; then prepared everything in the bathroom. Now it's show time: I turned on the water main and rush to the bathroom upstairs; took a really really really quick shower; and run down to the basement to close down the water. Thank god, the water just filled up the bin.

After 10 calls, it seemed that all plumbers in town had some kind of emergency to take care and mine obviously is not on the top the lists. So, without a plumber, I went to work while kept thinking what was that connector and what's wrong with it. The main pipe is a 1/4 rigid copper pipe and the connector goes to another thinner flexible pipe which is connected to the air filter on the forced air AC/Furnace system. The connector itself has also some kind of valve. Never seen these before, I've been very puzzled.

Finally, I found my old contractor. He told me it is mostly likely a valve that controls the water goes to the air filter system to put humidity to the air. I went to Home Depot after work and found out that it is called "Self-tapping Saddle Valve."

Now we're talking. Armed with the eight bucks valve and WD-40, I went back home and replaced it in 15 minutes. Can't believe one of plumbers asked $200 for that and he lives only 3 blocks away!

I guess this is the fun of buying an old house.

FSU vs Citadel: An underdog story in collage football

Picture:

Pre-game ritual: Citadel linebacker and team captain Shawn Grant goes through his pre-game routine in silence before the start of the game.

(Damon Winter / LAT)

An LA Times feature story on one of this year's "most mismatched" collage football guaranteed games between the mighty Florida State Seminoles and the Citadel Bulldogs on September 10, 2005. Unlike many football/sports movies (e.g. Any Given Sunday, The Replacements), it is a very touching story without a happen ending. Unfortunately, the latter fact makes there's little hope a movie will be made based on this. What I had expected to find out more is the "Money" factor the author brought up from the very beginning but failed to illustrate clearly.

Citadel is a tiny Charleston military college, which was under the spotlight about 10 years ago for been forced to admit women. See this feature story at NOW (National Organization for Women). What's also interesting is that Citadel now has a picture of a female cadet on the top of its web site.

Copyrights and your freedom

See this NY Times story regarding a new law suit brought against Sony BMG by the Electronics Frontier Foundation.

Although it seems that EFF won this battle, the future won't be as bright as one may have thought. The reality is that the record and movie industry will eventually force everybody to agree on something before sell you any Disc, no matter what's on there. As a consumer, the only choice you may face is not buying (and not listening, watching, etc). This would mean higher cost for distribution and eventually fewer artists will be able to have them heard or watched for that matter.

The solution? Probably the increase of independent produced records/movies? I'm not so sure about that. How many shareware programmers make a decent living on shareware?

Guardians for profit - an outrages LA Times story about conservators

How can you allow for-profit businesses to this? These should be common sense questions that these appointed judges couldn't see. How come? Please read the whole story. I'm speechless.

March of the Penguins- best love story this year

The main site at Yahoo

Can we call it a documentary, or a feature film? As a documentary, it sure beats Fahrenheit 9/11 and as a drama, it's much more touching and realistic comparing with the only other Romance feature film this year: Just like Heaven.

Answer machine greetings

Got a new place, new office, and new voice mail greetings. I wish I can use some of these:

A is for academics, B is for beer. One of those reasons is why we're not here. So leave a message.
Hi. This is John. If you are the phone company, I already sent the money. If you are my parents, please send money. If you are my financial aid institution, you didn't lend me enough money. If you are my friends, you owe me money. If you are a female, don't worry, I have plenty of money.

Hi, I'm not home right now but my answering machine is, so you can talk to it instead. Wait for the beep.

Hi, this is John's answering machine. He's not here, but I'm open to suggestions.

Hello. You are talking to a machine. I am capable of receiving messages. My owners do not need siding, windows, or a hot tub, and their carpets are clean. They give to charity through the office and don't need their picture taken. If you're still with me, leave your name and number and they will get back to you.

Hello, epicenter of the Universe, God speaking. If you leave your name, number, and prayer after the tone, I will call you back as soon as I can. Please note that I answer all prayers, but sometimes the answer is NO. Bless you, my child, and have a nice day.

Hi. I'm probably home, I'm just avoiding someone I don't like. Leave me a message, and if I don't call back, it's you.

(Noisy pick-up of phone.) Hi, I'm a burglar and I was just about to steal Troy's answering machine. If you give me your name and number I'll... Uh, I'll post it on the fridge where he'll see it. Uh... By the way, where did you say you live?

Making sense of the California propositions

Prop 73: Require 48 hour notification to parents prior to abortion by minors.
My pick: NO
This is the same restriction that they failed to impose on every women who seeks abortion. Although it has much stronger argument, still "NO".

Prop 74: Makes teachers wait longer (5 years instead of 2) to become tenure and easier to be fired.
My pick: NO
Yes, there are too many under qualified teachers in our public schools. But is it the main problem of current public schools? I don't think so. The problem is that qualified teacher is under paid and desperately needed. Without the current tenure incentive, how would you to recruit new teachers? There's no free lunch. Arnold has to just pay back his loan from education funding.

Prop 75: Require unions to obtain specific permission on spending members' dues on political contributions and lobby.
My pick: NO
It sounds legitimate, the union members should be the one deciding how their dues can be spent on lobbying for a particular cause. The reality is that this is the typical trick politicians use to prevent the union actually use this money for any lobbying. Campaign financing is necessary but you can't cherry pick the ones that only do your good, Arnold. Besides, it's up to each union itself to decide how to use their dues. The most one can do is to opt out, instead of opt in.

Prop 76: State spending restrictions, budget should be in line with revenue.
My pick: YES
If I can't spend what I didn't earn, why could the state? Fiscally responsible may not be easy but it's "tough love" for California in the long run. The proposition should make it more clear that what should be cut first and it's not totally up to the governor to decide.

Prop 77: Redistricting by a third party instead by politicians themselves
My Pick: YES
In principle, this should be a YES. However, how do you do that still need negotiation. At least, the three judges the governor picks wouldn't work.

Prop 78 & 79: Prescription drug discounts
My Pick: NO on both
I don't think either plan works. It'd be interesting to see which one would won and how it will pan out.

Prop 80: Electricity providers should be limited by the same law that governs public owned utilities.
My Pick: not sure
Didn't read enough to understand what's behind it. In general, the current system works well at certain degree. You can tell that from the mild energy gas price increase right after Katrina in California comparing with East coast states. But whether it discourages investment on new power plants and infrastructure is not known, at least to me.

I'm moving out of southern California

Moving is really no fun. Although setting up the new place is interesting and challenging but also requires a lot of work.