Well Done.

Let Me Tell You About My Day

So, its 10:25 pm Arizona time on Thursday night. I haven't talked about the vacation at all so far, but I am breaking radio silence to kvetch a little. It's 1:27 am Friday in Pittsburgh. If all had gone as planned I would be in my bed at home, having arrived at Greater Pitt round about 4:00 pm Thursday afternoon.

Needless to say, thats not how it worked out.

We arrived at the airport (OGG) in Maui at something like 8:30 pm Wednesday evening for a flight that was to depart just before 11 pm. The passengers were at the airport, the plane was at the airport, but due to a brush fire between Ma'alena and Lahina the flight crew was not able to get to the airport. So, we sat.

They told us they would hold out hope until 2 am Maui time before canceling our flight. The scheduling depended entirely upon when the road opened and when the flight crew could get to the airport. The road opened this morning around 9 am Maui time. We finally departed Maui at something close to 12:30 pm Thursday - just about time to be missing our connection in Phoenix.

They'd told us before we left that the airline would rebook all of us while the plane was in the air and that we would get new connecting flights upon our arrival in AZ. That didn't happen. Luckily we happened to call the 800 number just prior to leaving Hawaii, and at the moment it looks like we're good to go - not to Pittsburgh, but to Charlotte and then to Pittsburgh, arriving just before 9 am on Friday. That's 17 hours late, and I think we may have done much better than many other people on our flight.

Of course there is the question of our bags...

Still, before we went to the airport what seems like ages ago we started our day with leftover anniversary cake, and then snorkeling at the condo - where we got to swim with a very nice green sea turtle. Then because the fire had everything jammed up we went to the movies and saw Ocean's 13 and then had dinner at a conveyor belt sushi restaurant. So even now - taken as an aggregate very long day, it's still probably above average on the whole.

Keep your fingers crossed for us!

David Posts Spam

I don't know why people that send a joke or 12 every day don't just start their own blog. Seems to be so much less an intrusive way to spread mindless jokes and pictures around the tubes.

But every now and then you get something nice...

The Final Exam

At [a large American] University , there were four sophomores taking Chemistry and all of them had an 'A' so far. These four friends were so confident, that the weekend before finals they decided to visit some friends and have a big party.

They had a great time, but after all the hearty partying, they slept all day Sunday and didn't make it back to Duke until early Monday morning.

Rather than taking the final then, they decided that after the final they would explain to their professor why they missed it.

They said that they visited friends but on the way back they had a flat tire. As a result, they missed the final.

The professor agreed they could make up the final the next day. The guys were excited and relieved They studied that night for the exam. The Professor placed them in separate rooms and gave them a test booklet.

They quickly answered the first problem, worth 5 points. Cool, they thought!

Each one in a separate room, thinking this was going to be easy, they turned the page.

On the second page was written....

For 95 points: Which tire?________________

Father's Day. Killer Bee

On the occasion of this Father's Day I thought I would share a memory. I don't know why this is the one I've picked.

When I was 12 my family took a California trip. My mother, sister, and I flew to LA and my father and a friend drove the car out so we could do the whole trip with our own transportation. We did Disneyland, Universal, then went North to San Francisco and Sequoia, then South to San Diego. My mother and sister flew home from there. Dad and I drove. We started with a high school student government conference in Tuscon and then over four weeks did the Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, Zion, Bryce, Capitol Reef, Gunnison, Continental Divide, Boulder, the US Air Force Academy, Fort Laramie, and the Strategic Air Command among other places.

One of the "other places" was a park called Natural Bridges. Arches was just too far out of the way, but we had the opportunity to see this kind of red rock formation so we took it. I don't know how much national park experience you have, but while all the scenery is impressive you have to get used to a few things. First, the top of the park is really quite a way from the park proper. I gather now at many of the parks this is actually as far as you are allowed to take your own car. At the time we were there this wasn't the case. So you get there, but really its still a while until you get there.

Secondly, at most of the parks - Grand Canyon and maybe Bryce as notable exceptions - you really don't get to see what the park is there for from the car. It's pretty and all, but really to see the sights you have to hike.

As you can tell from the list above, our pace didn't allow for much hiking. We spent a half day here, a half day there and then move on. Also, at the time, while I was a spry 12 year old my father really hadn't caught the work out bug yet and all things being equal was probably still in a long recovery from prior bypass surgery. Still we tried to get off the road, and at each park we looked for short excursions from parking overlooks.

All of the interesting formations at Natural Bridges are well off the road, but there was one you could at least see with only a short walk. In this particular case, that short walk almost killed us both.

At various places along any of these walks you would discover little information stations. At the time this consisted of a little wooden box you would open up and get a small flyer showing information about the area you were in. We'd parked the reliable Toyota Corolla wagon at the overlook and hiked what was probably only about a quarter mile to the end of the short trail to the viewing point. When we got to the end I excitedly opened up the info box and discovered not a pile of paper but something else entirely.

An angry bee.

I guess the bee had flown into the box the last time it was open and become trapped. Totally unlike a genie trapped in a bottle or a lion with a thorn in its paw this bee offered neither wishes or a lifetime friend ship. This bee was pissed, and it was going to take it out on us.

Naturally I take off like a shot back down the trail. Illinois public schools required PE every day and a quarter mile spring to me was achievable. Less so for my father. There is however a principle difference between Northern Illinois and Southern Utah, well several differences but the one I mean to speak to here would be altitude.

You know, there's a reason athletes train at altitude. We noticed it too when the ultimate team I played with in Vegas would play at tourney's in LA. If you practice at altitude and then play closer to sea level you get a freebie of better endurance. For the men of the Boevers family, running for their lives from an angry bee the reverse was true. Living closer to sea level and then exerting yourself at higher altitude just brings you that much closer to death.

Which is why two men found themselves back at the parking area bent over and gasping for air yelling at each other "Is it gone?"

Damn angry bee. But, I guess that which doesn't actually kill you makes you stronger - and closer.

Happy Father's Day Dad.

Really Cool Shadowplay

the new shelton wet/dry



I might actually try to do something like this. Maybe.

Jellicles Can and Jellicles Do

News from the "Real World": "Playbill News: 'London's Daily Mail reports that Lloyd Webber's new kitten Otto has managed to destroy the music he has penned for the upcoming sequel to The Phantom of the Opera. The six-month-old cat somehow climbed into the frame of Lloyd Webber's digital Clavinova piano, which features a built-in computer.'"

Yard Art

My folks have about 1000 bird feeders in their yard. They also have a mariachi band, which even though the house next door is for sale for an unGODly amount of money, must be pushing down property values.

Still, they say the apple does not fall far from the tree and I guess I am no exception. Today I completed the project that was featured in a couple of previous posts.

Here it is:

It is a wonder to me what some time off, nice computer hardware, wildly over powered CAD software, and a fairly expensive CNC machine can add up to. This is one of the two projects I have really wanted to do since we first got the table last year.

If you haven't been following, I ordered a toy skeleton kit online and then I scanned the pieces into the computer. After I did that I wondered for a little bit why I just didn't scan the instructions, which would have been much easier to trace. But who knows, maybe that image doesn't match the pieces exactly. I ported the image into AutoCAD and blew up a kit that was roughly 21 inches to 96 inches (96/21 makes for about 4.5 times the original size). I picked 96 because that would fit on a single sheet of plywood. In hind site I think maybe this budget restriction was an unfortunate stipulation on my part.

So then we have several hours of tracing in the computer. The CNC program wants to see closed polylines for each tool path. I think there was about six hours in this stage total. It might have been a little less, and had I been doing it for work it would have gone even faster.

It's at this point that I start to notice some things about the kit. There are some features of the pieces that appear to sort of depend on the scale of the piece. While drafting I notice that a few of the notches don't appear to be right on the centerline of the piece and things like that. In the small size it probably doesn't show much of an error when assembled. Blown up? Well at this point I am committed, so all I can do is cross my fingers. It does lead me to wonder if there are other things that depend on the scale or the material to work properly. A small annoying voice in my head begins to ask me if I think it will drop under it's own weight.

With everything drafted I go shopping for material. In another somewhat ill researched decision I decide to go with pressure treated ply so I don't have to paint. Season and weather and the like mean the 23/32 pressure treated ply is actually more like 0.8" More for your money you say? I say my slots are 0.750" Press fit is nice though.

The router BLAZES through the stuff. 66 minutes to cut the whole sheet in two passes and I imagine I probably could have doubled the feed rate. But when you only have one bit you tend to be a little more conservative.

Assembly went fairly well. Here again we discover a few economies of scale we lose when doing a larger version. A couple of things that really don't want to be square, one or two things that probably don't want to be flat, but overall a very smooth process. I barely used any glue, only stapled two joints, and only broke one piece which was easily mended.

Assembly complete, I load up the truck and try to make the drive home without wrecking my creation. On the way I have thoughts in my head of selling the piece to someone that sees it in the bed of the truck and never even getting it home. Briefly I contemplate what a good price point would be and what URL would be good for a sales website. One woman does shout at me while we're stopped at a red light: "Did you make that? Neat!"

Home with no disasters, I unload and try to find the best spot compositionwise. I think it looks pretty good.
So, spread the word. I think I am taking orders. I have the trike drafting and debugged. I know I can also do a Tyrannosaurus, Stegosaurus, and a Spinosaurus. Those will just mean more drafting. I've also seen a pterodactyl, which might look cool hanging from a tree - but I don't have that kit. I've also thought about how it might be possible to work a child's desk into one of these, which I think might more justify the required price tag. Also I wouldn't mind trying to do one out of clear acrylic, but that would require some kind of commission and there are some flexi/bendy advantages from the plywood I would lose.

Anyway, seems to be a success, and not at all a bad way to spend a day.

GTZ Update

I haven't been writing a lot. I guess I really am on vacation. Speaking of, anyone want to guest blog while I am on my actual vacation? Send me an email and I'll hook you up.

The GTZ project continues apace. As of today I have two clean inboxes and only six messages left in the "todo" box. I've got my eye on them. I don't think they will finish out the week, meaning this TGIF will also be TGIGTZ!

Woohoo.

If you are playing along at home, I have had to create two helper folders to make this really go. The first one is "followup." This is stuff that I guess would previously have been in my "deeptodo" folder; things I don't have to answer anytime soon, but that also don't really want to get filed where I won't see them. Historically I would just let this stuff accumulate in the to do folder for months and then clear it out at a binge. I think a seperate folder for this isn't cheating.

The other new folder is "reference." This is for other flotsam that used to clutter my inbox and todo box. I've created this folder for messages that don't go anywhere in my filing, don't need answers, and cannot be lost under any circumstances. What's that you say? Shipping notifications, travel confirmations, reservation confirmations; all things that are ephemeral, they only matter until the event passes and can then be deleted but they still might be around for up to a month.

Perhaps I should have called these folders "flotsam & jetsam." With the reference stuff being flotsam, as it is floating at the surface, current and the followup stuff being jetsam, sinking beneath the surface. That works as an organizational tool AND would have made a much better title for this post.

Proof? No Fair!

Welcome to the Campaign for America's Future: "For anyone interested in where the American public really stands on the big issues that distinguish progressives from conservatives -- including the issues at the forefront of today’s political debates -- “The Progressive Majority: Why a Conservative America Is a Myth” offers hard facts and analysis based on decades of data from some of the nation’s most respected and nonpartisan public opinion researchers. This is the evidence that political leaders have a mandate to pursue bold, progressive policies."

Just Wrong

Boing Boing: President's office says FOIA request will take 200 years!: "'The White House 'anti-drug' office told me today that it would take 200 years(!) for them to respond to a Freedom of Information Act request I recently filed.'"