Got a great burrito from El Nabor last night, but they use AMERICAN CHEESE. YUCK.

Stayed up late last night with Wendy, Dennis, Thomas, Pj, Bo, and Alice to watch the Leonid meteor showers. We went out to Montana de Oro where it was cold and windy but the skies were very clear. We got a great view of the Milky Way, and a few good shooting stars while we were out there from midnight - 1am.

Working on a gearing/deployment solution.
Prototyped some gears out of foamcore today, they seem to work pretty well.
Access to a laser cutter would be really sweet.

In the first days of the spring time
made you a prince with a thousand enemies
made a trail of a thousand tears
made your prisioner inside your own secrecy

There's a ghost in me
who wants to say "I'm sorry"
Doesn't mean I'm sorry.

At the first hour of the spring time
made you a prince with a thousand enemies
now I see you from the corner
clock strikes and I know you will be drinking alone

There's a ghost in me
who wants to say "I'm sorry"
Doesn't mean I'm sorry.

My car has really gotten a lot of love this week. Hitting 115,000 on the Odometer prompted me to change the oil. On my way to the autoparts store on a warm summer day I heard the front brakes screeching, a clear sign that they needed to be replaced. Conveniently the front tire needs to be removed to get to the oil filter, so I figured I'd do a two for one. I acquired new brake pads and 4 quarts of synthetic oil from the parts store and headed to my parents house where there are tools and workspace and few other parts such as oil filters. While loosening the wheel nuts I noticed one was a little tighter than the others, but though it could just be the weight of the car on the tire... Jacking the car so the wheel was off the ground I notice that the nut is actually seized. Needing to do the work regardless I pulled out a 5 food metal pipe and slid it onto the handle of my wrench, and turned. The bolt sheared off just short enough to be useless. I proceeded to do the rest of the work and worry about the lug later, as the wheel has four other lug bolts.

The next day I picked up parts from the auto store and went back to my parents house. This time my father was there and he's pretty much an expert at DIY auto repairs. We pulled the wheel off and hammered out the old lug, which is just pressed in from the back, and then attempted to insert the new lug... Just a 16th of an inch too long to fit. Having done a bit of web research I saw that some others had this problem and just ground down the side of the bolt to give it just enough space to slip in. No problem we've got a few grinders around. Grinding one side of the back of the bolt flat gave us a little more room, but not quite enough. A few taps with a hammer however encouraged the bolt to slip past the impediment and into the hole occupied but the old lug.

As I'm using a nut and wrench to pull the lug bolt through my father looks at the brake rotors. "Well these are all worn down! You need new ones!", "They're fine," I say, "they'll still last a while." "Here, I'll pay for them," he says. So I go back to the parts store in his truck and pick up a set of new brake rotors.

As I'm installing the rotors now too, he checks the old ones with a pair of calipers. There's a problem though as his calipers are in thousandths of an inch and the rotors are measured in millimeters. Turns out the old rotors were 18.8 or so millimeters, which it above the minimum, but he had read it out in thousandths of an inch and well... I dunno, compensated for it being totally wrong.

So now I have a backup set of rotors, but I don't think I'll be wearing the new ones down anytime soon. My car I think, is about as ready as it's going to be to go to Burningman, besides a spare air filter to put in once I'm off the playa, and some extra fluids and a new set of FUNCTIONAL jumper cables.

They're making a movie of Fallout 3, and it's called The Book of Eli.

Foil####: I peer over her shoulder and point at the little "forward" symbol
Foil####: I could know /meaningful/ information
Foil####: instead, I recognize a forward symbol from 4 feet away
PsychoEli: uuuuhhh
Foil####: she's just not good at extrapolating
PsychoEli: ...
PsychoEli: neither are ferrets.
PsychoEli: that's why they don't get jobs.
PsychoEli: ^_^
Foil####: HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAH
PsychoEli: XD
Foil####: you /really/ just compared my coworker to a ferret

Ah, ok, so I've got a paid account again because otherwise LJ steals my pictures and hides them away where no one can see. Mean.

I'm happily thinking about the BFCT, excited to be helping a few newbies get their stuff together so they'll thrive.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-10209580-92.html

Well that's pretty cool... Also they apparently DO run their own shipping container data centers. Seems last time I mentioned that to some Google employees they laughed at me and said that was never gonna happen.

"Most people buy computers one at a time, but Google thinks on a very different scale. Jimmy Clidaras revealed that the core of the company's data centers are composed of standard 1AAA shipping containers packed with 1,160 servers each, with many containers in each data center."

Leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember. Don't send a message, leave a comment here. Next, if you like, re-post this in your LJ and so people can leave a memory they have about you.

mike: The book-banners are now using the fact that book ink contains lead to get books banned.
mike: Or they're trying to.
mike: http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/wo/woissues/governmentinfo/cpsia/index.cfm
psychoeli: Who the fuck eats books?

Seems there is a bug in the system, or the person in front of me got the last $210 tickets for Burningman because it was an option when I loaded the page, but I got an error. Ah well, instead I have 2 $240 tickets, but as least I have them. ^_^

Get down to 180lbs, I'm feeling a little too padded since living in SF.

Do Yoga at least 4 times a week.

I quit smoking in 2008, I'd like to keep it that way.

Received a non-functioning Xbox 360 from a co-worker who had grown frustrated with it and went out and bought a new one. Seems it wasn't reading games anymore. He detailed the steps he went through trying to get it to work, and he felt he had exhausted the easy options.

( Read more... )
Time spent trouble shooting, about 5 hours. Cost of parts $12. Now I've got a working xbox 360!

Steam Punk Ghost Busters with working backpacks (one had some sort of electrical arc tube in it).
Really cool vendors who were passionate about their crafts.
Ballroom dancing when I had no idea what I was doing, but had fun anyway.
Denny's at 1am with the lead singer of Platform One.
Really tasty scotch one of the vendors shared with me.
Holly, Chelsea, Carrie, Devon, Rachel, Ben, Tim, Neil, Candice, Carol, Catherine, Andrea, Jake von Slatt, and a few others I met.
Abney Park being totally accessible to everyone.
Abney Park playing five notes and the crowd erupting in cheering. Robert says, "You guys recognized that?"
Robert from Abney Park pulling off a full set with walking pnuemonia. (Get well soon!)
Tim from Platform One jumping off stage and running around with the crowd during one of their songs.
Everyone crammed against the stage dancing when Abney Park was playing.
Getting to eavesdrop on the band while on stage.
Everyone was SO friendly, it was like burning man.
Meeting a bunch of burners into steampunk.
Meeting someone from Death Guild who's good friends with Kurt from Information Society.
Getting to preview the new game Redemption, looks freaking sweet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3I3L34ipacE

Have met many people, seen a few familiar faces, and went to Denny's with some really cool people and two members of Platform 1. At a small con you run into the same people over and over.

Went to a few good panels, and Jake von Saltt's presentation. He's a really nice guy, and funny too.

More later.

Saw a "I'm voting for 'That One'" bumper sticker today.

Woke up at 5:30a for not particular reason, I went to be at midnight, so it wasn't over sleep. Of course when I actually got up I started yawning like mad. Oh well.

Decided to go for a hike, maybe catch the sunrise, but I got distracted by putting more music on my iPod and the sky was brightening by the time I left.

The hike was really nice up Valencia peak at Montana De Oro, and the wind was steady, so I broke out my kite and flew it for a while. Good way to start a Saturday.