The Periphery of the Mind

"El Mañana" by Gorillaz.

Labels: Funky Friday

To compensate for the severed, living dog head of yesterday, I offer:

Where the Hell is Matt?

When I was a kid I used to get Choose Your Own Adventure books. They were a neat kind of interactive fiction, where you'd be reading along and suddenly the story would ask you to make a decision! Do you choose to go follow the creepy old man down into the crypt (if so turn to page X) or would you rather call the cops on the guy (if so turn to page Y). After a while of playing you'd learn two things. First, you'd learn to leave your finger as a bookmark while you went to see if your decision killed you or not. And secondly you'd learn which pages lead to a generic death ending, and not to take them.

The stories were kind of neat and weird, with aliens and monsters and such, and illustrated in fairly decent style that drew dumb kids like me in. But truthfully I always like the Endless Quest books better. The stories and writing were usually even worse, but the characters were more memorable, and the art and monsters were a lot of fun back then.

But even they couldn't hold a candle to the weirdness that was the Be An Interplanetary Spy series. You didn't just read the text and randomly pick left or right. You had mazes to solve, pattern-based riddles, and so forth. Not to mention all kinds of gonzo sci-fi goofiness. "Choose the correct sequence to make your disguise suit work or die!"

Now, why am I mentioning all of this?

Well, there was one series that kind of stood out. "Fighting Fantasy". What made it special was that you actually had to keep track of stuff like your health and equipment, and you rolled dice throughout the game to randomize combat and the like. It wasn't a simple "page 14 or page 375" decision any more; you had to pick a choice and then hope the dice would back you up on it. Anyway, there've been fan efforts to start converting the old books into web-based games. I suspect at least one of you out there might be interested, and for me it was a fun walk down memory lane.

Labels: Geeky

Seriously, it may or may not be a hoax, but it's pretty freaking messed up.

And, as this guy explores, it may not be a hoax at all.

Here's a list of other bizarre scientific experiments. Including Stalin's failed human-ape breeding program.

Honestly, I was disappointed with it. The frame didn't hold together as well as I'd hoped, and the solder on the glass was a lot worse than I'd feared during final cleaning, the Professor and I nearly had a fight over hammering in staples (I didn't want to hammer them in, but nothing was broke by my doing so), it lacks legs or a hanger, and I dang near chucked the whole thing into the trash and decided to buy her a toy or something she'd appreciate more. But maybe as she gets older she'll appreciate it more. I dunno'.

Anyway, I was really and truly pleased with my woodworking on this one. Other than not getting the thing to fit quite right, the wood turned out fairly well. And I have some ideas for fixing that in the future. Anyway, next project: a set of shelves for the kitchen.

Labels: Craft, General

Pink Floyd's "Have a Cigar", with one of those unforgettable bass performances.

Labels: Funky Friday

http://view.break.com/521743 - Watch more free videos

Okay, it's cute and it's fun. And here's a movie of my first critter.

The storm last night downed a willow tree branch on to our main power line, but didn't break it. The Professor and I both slept through the lightning striking the tree, as well as the branch breaking. The company came out and sawed the branch down, but we still have to get rid of it. I figure one of the in-laws will be interested in taking it for the firewood, but maybe I can hoist it up on my table saw? Hmmm....

In the meantime, I'll probably have to call the insurance company and have them take a look at this. Not sure if it's just ugly or a fire hazard, but I figure they should take a look. The downed line nearly ripped that strut out of the house.

Labels: General

Made some pizza last night. Lightly fried diced onions and pressed garlic in some olive oil, added lean ground beef, then spiced with curry powders, italian seasonings, and chilli powders. Dumped in a can of tomato sauce, and presto! Not bad as pizza, but it'll make for incredible Sloppy Joes come Tuesday.

Made a second frittata for breakfast yesterday as well. Added salsa to the uncooked eggs, and that was a mistake. Adding them to the pan for a few minutes -after- the eggs were done would have probably been better.

Labels: cooking

Worked some more on the glass work. Got a lot farther actually. To the point that I'm staining wood for the next couple of days and putting the frame on Wednesday I hope. That said, it went a lot quicker once I realized that I had a third less glass to solder on due to imperfections in the project. I'll cut myself slack though since I didn't really know what I was doing.

The main things I learned from this project....

Patterns: I don't think I did much wrong here at all. Mainly in scanning the pattern in and trying to clean it up. I think removing the grid lines was a mistake, and I'll just use a good scanned image as is next time.

Cutting: Getting your cuts right is crucial, and you're only going to do that with the right tools. If I decide to work with cutting glass again, I intend to purchase something like this to make sure my lines stay straight. I also realize how important it is to get a good (but not too good) adhesive for gluing your pattern pieces on; the stuff I got was easy to clean up but poor for sticking.

Grinding: I'm sure it has a place, but it seems to be a fairly minimal one for this project. A few quick passes usually did as much damage as good from what I could tell.

Wrapping: Not too bad really, just wrap in foil and try to make sure the wrapped areas overlap on the glass so you can't see any foil backing from the other side.

Soldering: I'll get some more experience here, but I did find it amusing that the solder contains chemicals that are "known by the state of California to cause cancer and birth defects". I really admire how the legal system of our nation can recognize carcinogens in one state, and completely ignore them in another. I figure we should have lawyers elsewhere be forced to eat the stuff; since they don't recognize any harm, it should be safe right?

Framing: I can cut wood well, if I do say so. No problems here.

Staining: I know from past experience I can stain well, as long as I don't rely on spray cans. This is the next step.

Assembling: I think I can do this part. Just need to figure out how to staple and hook it without damaging the glass.

Labels: Craft

Muddy Waters and Willie Dixon, "You Need Love", reminding everyone out there that Led Zepplin wasn't really all that creative.

Labels: Funky Friday

'Warcraft' Sequel Lets Gamers Play A Character Playing 'Warcraft'

Labels: Humor

Continuing the idea of posts with numbers for titles, thirty nine is the number of pieces of glass I cut yesterday. I'm far from being a competent amateur, but I'm also pleased with the results. I may have to go back and cut a couple of pieces again however, but I'm well on schedule. Next up is wrapping the pieces in copper foil, welding them together, cutting a wood frame to hold them all, staining the frame, and then assembling the frame. I'm hoping to be about another 8 hours or so away from having it all finished.

Labels: Craft

That's my gas mileage. Driving at or under 70mph and minimizing my car's AC got me to this, from 32.5mpg a few weeks ago. Not bad savings, and the commute is a little smoother too.

It's true what they say. They being me of course. "If you torture enough electronic equipment long enough, eventually it will sound like 'Nude' by Radiohead." Music starts at the 1:10 mark.

Labels: Funky Friday

Tuesday my glass grinder came in. Got to set it up and play with it some last night. I'll be taking off Monday to really work on it though. And for those paying attention, yes, that's my table saw it's sitting on.

Labels: Craft, Tools

Just posting this to see how good or bad the images are.

This is a picture of a tree (and pot) I found at work that the previous owner was just going to throw away. I've trimmed off the dead branch, put decorative gravel in the pot, and cleaned it up a bit. It looks really good and sets off that part of the house, but it's growing taller every day it seems.

Saturday, the Professor and I went to Silver Dollar City. An interesting mixture of amusement park, tourist trap, and frontier recreations. It's like visiting Eureka Springs, only with much higher parking fees, free water rides, and seeing lots of period costumes and Christian groups instead of motorcyclists and homosexuals.

But first I had to get some new sandals. After hitting about... five different places, I finally settled on some Columbia Sun Trax. Spent about $25 more dollars than I wanted to, but these things are comfortable as heck, and should hold up pretty well. I did find it funny that the store we bought them at listed their prices as "$40. Our Price $60." Not sure what they were trying to convey exactly, but they sold them at the cheaper price.

Once we got to Silver Dollar City (and I recovered from the twisting, curving Ozark roads) the lines for the rides weren't bad, despite the park being fairly busy. Parking was a bit overwhelming however; the combined parking lots were about half as big as the town I grew up in.



Once inside I got to watch some woodworking, which was fun. Saw a live monkey that did nothing except keep his period costume on; it's sad when you can tell the monkey is bored. Honestly, the games and goods all seemed overpriced to me, even after you consider inflation. As an example, I looked at some pattern welded knives that were selling for hundreds of dollars. By comparison, I've seen pattern welded swords that sell for only slightly more. Concessions were overpriced as well, but that's always the case. Restaurants were a bit less expensive however; I had a giant fried pork sandwich and sprite and some calico potatoes for about $10.

The rides were pretty fun. "Fire in the Hole" was a mix between a "haunted house" style ride (goofy looking animatronic criminals menace guests) and a roller coaster. "The Lost River of the Ozarks" was a nifty little water raft ride. We went on a couple of other rides, saw some other attractions, and walked, and walked, and walked. The new Columbia sandals I bought really helped, but I still had blisters on my feet. Still, at the end of the day we upgraded our day passes to season passes. It's worth a repeat visit.

Labels: General