Sorry, but to avoid needless drama, I switched this journal to "friends only" some time ago. I'm pretty easy-going about who I let in though, so if you'd like to see journal content try sending me a private message.

I went to bed and forgot to put my white bunny back in her cage. Remarkably, the entire living room was not destroyed this morning (although she had found her way to my games shelf).

I brought my micro-controller stuff to the robot club gathering, and had one of the veterans tutor me in “C” for the Atmel line of Micro controllers. I’ve had about five years experience in “C” programming. It didn’t translate too well to working with the Atmel stuff. Yes, I’ll learn it, but it’s going to take a lot longer than I thought. The advantage of using “C” (as opposed to BASIC, which I had been using) is that you can control every detail of the machine you are writing the program for. The disadvantage of using “C”, is that you HAVE to control pretty much every detail. BASIC is clumsier and more limiting, but give my mid-march deadline, I may have to go with that.

I put together a cucumber salad that Jenn taught me how to make. My concave cutting board with the curved knife works really well for chopping up herbs.

Friday night: Prisoner came over, and goofed off for a while. We dug into the laptop I got through the “One Laptop Per Child” program and played the board game “Statego”. Jenn joined us, and we all headed down to First Saturday, where we found czarina69 and sclerotic_rings. I handed off the model skeleton to sclerotic_rings, who hinted that he’d do something interesting (possibly plant related) with it.

Saturday: Got up. Watched some cartoons. Eventually got in gear and spent the day exploring downtown McKinney with Jenn. They have a revitalized town square and a lot of interesting older homes. We took in a light lunch at the McKinney branch of the Londoner. Over lunch, Jenn was good enough to play a couple of games of Mancala with me (I had carried it along in my backpack). She figured it out very quickly, and beat me both times.

Later that evening, we had dinner at the Thai place we discovered last week. The service was a bit slow, but that was fine because we were in no hurry, the food was great, and the company was even better. On the way home, Jenn was good enough to accompany me to the comic book/game store. Bear in mind we had both dressed reasonably nicely dinner. This clashed with the rest of the patrons who were clad in old t-shirts. The guy behind the counter seemed to regard us as tourists, but accepted my money regardless.

Sunday: Skipped Church (I’m bad, I know), had a quick breakfast at Café Brazil, and explored the nearby Half-Price Books. There, I found a first edition book on robotics. It’s unique in that the second edition had been published without the approval of one of the original authors, and was deemed inferior. I think there may have even been some legal issues involved (Drama! Get some in YOUR life!).

I took advantage of the nice weather, and did some work on the Mustang. While getting her apart was easy enough, I was in for a nasty surprise when I removed the AC blower. For the past ten years, I had been running wires behind that for retro-fit projects (new radio, and car alarm). Not having direct access, I had simply shoved the wires up into the dashboard. Now they fell out like a large rats-nest. I untangled what I could, and worked on ways to secure them properly.

That evening, I checked some of my robotics/micro-controller tools against the new revision software. Apparently, the hardware I’ve been using went obsolete several years back. I can either upgrade my hardware (at a modest cost), or continue to limp along with the obsolete stuff.

I continued cleaning my study. While there is still a big pile of junk (use your imagination) in the corner, I am able to chip away at it.

Has anyone planned on hitting First Saturday this weekend?

Spent the weekend with Jenn. Friday we vegg’d out to a Nova episode on quantum mechanics. We spent Saturday exploring McKinney Ave and trying a new Thai place with her singles group.

Sunday was mostly spent taking apart the Mustang. Heaven forbid I ever get my hands on the guy who decided that molded cardboard would be a fine material for the heater ducting. At least the replacement parts are made from plastic. As long as I have the dashboard apart, I might as well continue and do some additional interior work.

Monday: Attended Furry Happy Hour. Snuck out early to race home, and finish programming a simple stepper-motor driver I had been working on for the past couple of days.

Tuesday: Attended robot club night (it was my turn to bring a box of fried chicken). We have an old robot arm manufactured back in the 80’s for educational purposes. While it seems solid, the electronics have been removed. This is why I was working on my stepper motor controller. I was able to hook it up to the arm, and confirm that all six stepper motors still work. It would be nice if I could jury-rig a simple joy-stick controller for it in time for All-Con in March.

Wednesday: Went and visited this older couple from my Church after work. As the wife is a serious sci-fi junkie, we regularly trade videos. I had picked up a couple of audio books last year, and just now delivered them to her (her bad eyes prevent her from reading, so she relies on audio books for her fix). Her legs have been giving her trouble, so she had been stuck at home for a while.

On the way home, the windshield wipers on the Mustang stopped working. It looks like I need to replace the wiper motor (#$%*).

Jenn dropped by my place on her way home from the airport, for coffee and company. As I was walking her to her car, she commented that she could smell gasoline. The smell was stronger in the Mustang’s trunk, where we found evidence of some spillage (double - #$%*). I couldn’t tell for sure where the leak was, and I replaced the entire gas tank less than a year ago. It looks like the Mustang is dry-docked for a while (again).

Thursday: I have my welding class tonight. Weather reports suggest that we might have freezing rain tomorrow morning.

While channel surfing the other night, I caught a few minutes of a rerun of “Friends”. I don’t think I have ever actually watched a full episode of this show. Seeing the few minutes of it that I did reminded me why I never watched it: These people were mind-bogglingly shallow and self-centered.

OK, so the people (and thus the show) never appealed to me. Apparently, I am in the minority, as it ran for some ten years and inspired numerous (and mostly short-lived) clones.

So what was it’s appeal?

Took my first welding class last night. Actually, this is not my first time to do this sort of thing. A couple of summers ago, I took a “welding and forging for artists” class at a community college. I got plenty of hands-on time, but not as much technical insight as I would have liked. This one is taught at a Garland area high-school, but a guy who trains kids for a career in welding. He seems pretty good.

We spent last night covering cutting with an oxy/acetylene rig. I learned quiet a bit.

Several members of the robot club and my Dad are taking the class with me. This is going to be an interesting next six weeks.

I suppose I shouldn’t complain, as according to my LJ notes, it’s been about a year since I’ve been ill enough to miss work. Still, it is frustrating when I think of all the things I could have accomplished. Lets back up a few days.

Friday: Snuck out of work early, and went to Jenn’s place for dinner. She fixed us an awesome one-pot meal of potatoes, shrimp, & sausage.

Saturday: Went to Jenn’s place again. Her Dad was coming over from west Texas to deliver her Christmas furniture, and I was on-hand to help unload it. I presented the tool-shed plans I had been working on to Jenn’s Dad. He had some good ideas on how to proceed.

Jenn and I then went to lunch at a tiny place in Richardson called “Dells Charcoal Burgers”. It’s been around since 1951, but one wouldn’t know about it unless they made a habit of prowling the older parts of town (like I do). Jenn had agreed to help me pick out a new color scheme for the re-modeled bathroom (the current towel set had been following me around since I moved into the place some seven years ago). With Jenn’s advice, I was able to find a green bamboo shower curtain, that was complimented by dark green towels. I was pleasantly surprised to find some that were made in the USA. The final touch was chrome and white ceramic shower curtain rings to match the rest of the fixtures in the new bathroom. We spent the rest of the day just goofing around.

As the day wound down, I felt a slight scratchiness at the back of my throat. I skipped jogging, drank some orange juice, and went to bed early in hopes of heading off anything really bad.

Sunday: I woke up to discover that my tonsils felt like I had been gargling a mixture of battery acid and metal shavings. I drank more orange juice and stayed in bed. This really honked me off, as I had planed to take advantage of the mild weather we were having to work on the Mustang.

Monday: Took some time off to recover. Still felt dead.

Tuesday: Felt well enough to sit up and read a bit. Did get to the computer, and added in the updates to the tool shed plans. I’m rather proud of myself. It was about a month ago when I purchased this program. I had not done any read CAD work since college. Now I’m able to crank out the tool shed plans in several hours time. It’s detailed enough for me to calculate a beginning cost for lumber. I’m using better grade materials and construction techniques, and am still coming in at about 50$ less than the starting cost for a smaller shed sold by Home Depot. Of course, if the bathroom debacle taught me anything, it’s to increase my cost estimates by about 50%

Wednesday: Felt a little better. Not quiet solid enough to return to work, but with deadlines looming, I don’t have much choice. I’d feel bad about exposing my coworkers, save that I suspect it’s one of these clowns who infected me. So who was it? The gal who was so messed up she lost her voice? Or the guy recovering from bronchitis who insisted (despite his cough) he was no longer contagious. I guess it’s a pretty moot point, as about 25% of the people here seem to be suffering from one ailment or another.

Yup...things are back to normal, save for the lack of postings and e-mail. Anyone wanna post something? Anything?

Did I mention I used to run security at a small Furry con? Trust me. It sounds a lot more impressive than it really is. Oddly enough, it was more rewarding than running the outdoor robotics contest. Below are some of the more succesfull policys I’ve implemented.

Put the conduct rules in writing. (Actually, I’d recommend putting pretty much everything in writing, but I’ll restrict this to security matters.) Post the rules where people can see them. Make it clear you reserve the right to throw anyone out for any reason. It may sound like the rules deliberately favor the house. That’s because they do. And we do this so someone doing something mind-bogglingly stupid (such as say, streaking up & down the halls, or shaving in the hot tub) can not cry “well it’s not against the rules, is it?”

Maintain a good rapport with the hotel staff. Get together and meet them prior to the opening of the con. This is also a good time to find out about any other events the hotel might be hosting at the same time you are there.

Get your money up front. In other words volunteers are subject to the same rules as attended in terms of admission. They pay like everyone else, then get reimbursed AFTER they do their work.

Lose the idiots. This would include the security people who’s main qualification is the ability to bust heads. The last thing you want is an over-zealous volunteer getting into a fight (one word: Lawsuit). I’d recommend excluding anyone who offers to volunteer in return for crash-space and not having to pay attendance fees up front.

Figure out ahead of time what to do about ghosters (people who show up, but don’t actually purchase a membership). This might seem petty, but you don’t want anyone getting any ideas from the ghoster’s bad example.

Work the convention room schedule (video room, dealers room, ect). When a room is closed for the night, it’s your responsibility to make sure it really is secure or at least has all the valuables removed from it. In the past, I’ve used a daily time-stamped checklist for all the rooms.

Wonder if I missed anything?

I threw together the plans for a section of a simple dressing screen using a drafting program I have been trying to learn. The idea was to see how simple I could make it. Any feedback?

This article about the proliferation of virtual lives makes an interesting projection: More people will spend more time on them, depleting the real world in the process.

*shakes head* I’m torn on this one.

It would be easy for me to slam on people who jump head-first into that pit, but also really unfair. And hypocritical.

I used to do the text-based online thing. With a few lines in my character description, I could be anyone (or anything) I wanted to. Bear in mind that everyone logging in was thinking the same thing, and no one was going to set their character description to “balding cubicle dweller with hair growing on his back”. I got my start over a decade ago when this sort of thing was in it’s infancy, and text-based stuff was all there was.

One day, I simply stopped. My reasons are my own, but I am confident I made a good choice.

Now, I’m sort of a luddite. I drive cars older than most people reading this. I still use dial-up for internet. I don’t have cable, or dish TV. I don’t even play video games that much anymore. It’s pretty ironic for someone who makes a decent living by whoring himself out to the tech industry, but it still works out pretty well.

By avoiding the on-line worlds, I may not be dog-man who makes a living by slaying space-dragons while traveling about with my own harem in my star-cruiser. Instead I’ve made a good living with real world skills in robotics, mechanics, wood-working, accounting, and best of all I’ve got a wonderful girl-friend who likes me even though I don’t have a star-cruiser

While at Target last night, I was digging around the toy section. While I don’t contribute to my wall of weird nearly as often as I used to, I still dig through the toys occasionally. In this case, I was grabbing a few inexpensive items for “toys for tots”, but I digress.

Anyway, while there, I found what has to be the weirdest toy ever. Remember those old pretend kits? Things like a pretend doctor’s bag or tool box, so a kid could fantasize about curing patients or working construction.

How about a “Pretend office kit”?

That’s right. A “pretend office kit” that came with a tie, coffee-cup, toy-laptop, and other items you might find in a beige cubicle (I swear I am not making this up).

What kind of kid in his right mind fantasizes about working in an office?

Another bad dream: I woke up Thursday morning in tangled covers, indicating I had been thrashing around. In this dream, I was back in school doing a science lab. Normally, I was pretty good at these, but this time things were off. Lab equipment didn’t match the instructions and pages were missing from the lab manual. At first I started to stay after class to complete it, but quickly remembered I’d be late for my next class. I ran to my locker, where I realized I had completely forgotten my locker combination. I could go on, but it’s all pretty much more of the same. The theme is consistent with the last two bad dreams: Struggling for control in a chaotic environment.

A sick bunny: I mentioned that my older grey bunny has not been eating for the past few days, right? Today I took some time off from work to carry her to the vet. When the vet couldn’t find anything obviously wrong with her, I opted to go ahead and have some x-rays taken. These clearly showed a mass about the size of a dime in her right abdomen. We have no idea what the mass is, so we opted to proceed with a regimen of mild pain-killers and GI meds (the next steps are blood work followed by surgery). This includes mixing up some mushy bunny food and feeding it to her through a big syringe (She loves that. Not.). At twelve hours after the visit, she is eating a little on her own and she is active. I’ll take that as a good sign.

Jenn and I chatted a bit about our favorite Christmas presents. I have two that really stick out in my mind.

A stuffed dinosaur that Mom made for me back in 2nd grade (the year was 1977). Once I got it, I carried it pretty much everywhere.

A star wars Lego set given to me by my little brother. He had come over for a Christmas visit from Louisiana, and apparently had fallen off the wagon some time before. When he’d get like that, almost all his income would go towards drugs, so it came as a big surprise to be handed a box from him on Christmas morning. Even more surprising was what a cool present it was. (what can I say? I like Legos and star wars).

So what were your favorite Holiday gifts?

Jenn and I headed out to a local country bar for an evening of dance lessons. While this was challenging, it was also a lot of fun.

Anyone else here remember the TaskMaster? The TaskMaster was a fictional comic book super-villain, who’s super power was “photographic reflexes”. This meant he could duplicate any physical movement he watched once. If he were to watch a cowboy doing rope tricks, he could then do them the same as the experienced cowboy. He could perform Olympic-class dives after viewing the Summer Olympics. What does this have to do with dancing? The waltz is a six-step dance. Sounds pretty simple, right? Even at the intermediate level, there were some amazing moves. I was able to pick up some of them, but not enough to do it gracefully. That “Photographic Reflexes” thing would have made the ‘twinkle’ step a lot easier. Lacking that, I’ll have to make due by repeated practice. Jenn and I are looking at taking private lessons to get me up to speed. (note: if you guys aren’t tired of the comic book references by now, you will be soon enough)

After dancing class, Jenn and I wandered through Super Target. I’m only just getting started on the holiday shopping, and still have no clue as to what to do for most of the people on my list. Jenn helped me pick out a couple of gifts for the teens on the Salvation Army’s Angel Tree. At least that is covered.

Oh yeah. I had another bad dream last night. Not an out-right nightmare (I can deal with those), but just an unsettling dream. This time I was back in High-School. Yep, High-school, where mediocrity and conformity are valued over creativity and individual achievement. Where being even remotely different is just asking for a beating, and any sign of weakness was immediately pounced upon by a fellow inmate looking to increase their social status. The only differences this time around were (a) I had my beloved Mustang and (b) I wasn’t quiet the nervous wreck I really was back then. While I’m not big into dream interpretation, I suspect it somehow reflects my lack of control of the world around me.

Asking me that question, is a bit like asking Helen Keller what her favorite color is: You might get an answer, but it likely wont make much sense. Luckily for me (and equally clueless people like me) czarina69 recently posted that question to her live journal. The answers were very interesting.

Lets continue, shall we? What do YOU folks find romantic?

Normal people celebrate Thanksgiving by scarfing down as much food as they can, then dozing of in front of a football game. As I’ve repeatedly mentioned before, my family is not normal.

Thanksgiving morning: The running of the cosplayers. For about the past ten years, Dad and I have run the Turkey-Trot race through downtown Dallas on Thanksgiving morning. As we approached the parking area, I noticed a few runners dressed in something other than standard running attire. The most common one, was a Native American looking running outfit. After the race began, I spotted one runner dresses as Santa Clause, complete with two elves running along side him. One runner was dressed as what appeared to be a giant banana (I avoided eye-contact). My favorite was probably the head-gear shaped like a roast turkey.

Thursday evening through Friday: How ya like them apples? One of my earliest memories with the dearly departed grandparents was making apple-butter. This was no trite affair. My Dad is now carrying on the tradition, meaning I got to help. I don’t think Jenn realized quiet what she was signing up for when she agreed to help. If I haven’t said it enough, I’ll say it again. She was an absolute angel to help, and we could not have done it without her.

The task started Thursday after a dinner of pork roast and Jenn’s home-made cheesecake (exquisite!). Mom, Dad, Jenn, and I started by peeling apples. We peeled. And peeled. And peeled. To give you an idea of how many we did, we needed three bushels of apples, with each bushel containing roughly sixty apples. Luckily, we had two hand-cranked apple peelers. We completed the last apple about two hours after we started.

We’d continue the next morning bright and early. Dad inherited grandpa’s large cooper kettle. The kettle is about two feet deep and two feet in diameter. I started the wood fire under the kettle, and we poured in the apples. The next four hours consisted of pretty much just continuous stirring. When the apples had cooked down to the consistency of mush, we added cinnamon, sugar, and stirred some more. About two hours later, we had put it all into mason jars. All in all, I think we got some 27 quarts of the stuff.

By the time it was all done, I smelled like smoke and was dog-tired. Still, it wasn’t bad for a couple of days work. And this will keep the family in apple-butter for at least a couple of years.

I’m still undecided about the one laptop per child program. The best tools for learning, in my opinion, are still pencil and paper. However, right now, they are running a promotion. Anyone heard much about this? This XO laptop looks interesting, but for $400 (really the cost of two), a person could get a full laptop.

The evil and charismatic sclerotic_rings turned me on to this one. I’m still not sure what to think? On some levels, I think it’s genius. On other levels, I want to start burning my comics and start driving a mini-van. I’ve seen my share of strange things** on the convention circuit. I have photographs to prove it. While I’m aware it’s based on an 80’s song, it seems a shame not to touch on the legions of fanboys***.

** Currently, the “Happy roll of toilet paper” costume holds the top spot for weirdest thing seen.

*** There, but for the grace of God, go you and I.