ReDecorating

I had made mention of a couple of items recently. One was that I would likely be replacing my printer in the near future. The other was the lack of content I've had recently.

Well, I took care of both of them today!!! I was going to try and scan a form the other day, and I couldn't get my printer to get past the “Print Head Not Installed” portion. I messed with it for a few minutes, then called it, and ordered a new one!!!

I stuck with Canon, since I've been happy with the one I had, present experience excluded. Got a Canon Pixima G6020, another all in one with print, scan, and copy functions. Since it's a much newer model, it's also wirelessly connected, and since ink has been a major expense with my previous printer, this one is an ink tank model with big reservoirs. Oh yea, I can also scan and print from my phone now, as well.

As a side note, I had long ago mentioned the artwork on my file cabinet upon which my desktop computer tower and printer have always sat. Never had an actual picture here, only a link to a page on a long gone Geocities site. When we were living in Long Beach, my wife had saved up and bought a set of chairs and a love seat that were black with blue and maroon pattern shapes all over them, and when I got a 2-drawer file cabinet, I painted it black, and hand painted similar blue and maroon pattern shapes to match. The chairs and love seat are long gone, but the file cabinet remains, so I've included it in the picture here!!!

A little over 12 years ago, I had painted the bathroom in a black and white theme. My dad made up the custom painted toilet seat that has been the base for many of the pictures posted on this blog, and when I'd painted it up, I picked up three black 5”x7” picture frames, with the idea that I could rotate in various black and white pictures. (The only picture that actually shows much of the black and white was the third on this post) The first three, I printed out pictures of Mochi sleeping on the top of the cat tree, Leo relaxing in the sink, and a vertical picture of both their paws. I'd added the picture frame effect in Paint Shop Pro, and had them printed at WalMart. Well, those pictures have stayed there since that day, until today!!!

After setting up my new printer and printing the test page and a test picture, I printed out these pictures to replace the old ones. The first two are from out Texas trip from a few years ago, both taken in Galveston. The first was looking out from the window of the Best Western (second picture from the end of this post). The next was on the beach on the Gulf of America (the final picture on this post). When I saw both of these pictures, I knew they'd work great for the theme I was using in there!!!

For the third, I kept with the theme of having a cat picture. I used Sid's X-ray showing the repair!!! Hey, it cost me a lot of money!!!

Looking Back: Ultra Beasts

Back in November, on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, there was another Pokemon GO local event. We had gone to Stufful Community Day, and it was a great event, with tons of players, and had gone out to another, Litwick Community Day, that was also supposed to have brand ambassadors in attendance. There were no brand ambassadors, and it wasn't nearly as well attended, but it was good.

This was the Ultra Beasts Arrival event, and it was held in Hollywood, in the evening. The amount of people admitted was supposedly limited, I think to 1,500, so we showed up early to try and get in. We find the place and get in line. As we are waiting, a guy comes along with the Ultra Beasts newspapers! Pictured along with the newspaper was my current buddy, a shiny shadow Pineco, which I have named Shineco.

At 7 PM the line starts moving, and soon enough, we've been given cards with the promo code, a wristband, and a WiFi log in. After entering the code (and restarting GO) all these densely packed gyms appear!!!

They had a couple of actual physical representation of a stop there, with a line if you wanted to take a picture with it, and not much else. Around 15 minutes before 8, they began projecting the countdown on the arch, synchronized with raid countdowns on all the gyms.

Once it reaches zero, they project an ultra beast up on the arch, and the gyms all have that ultra beast. Of course, the place is fairly packed with trainers, so the raids fill up quick, and go pretty quick once they start.

The raids are shorter than usual, and every 10 minutes there's a new ultra beast!!!

We caught 'em all!!!

Go Update

I know everyone has been wondering. Here's an update on my Pokemon Go play!!!

Since it's summertime, I've changed my outfit. Got myself a Team Aqua 'do rag, and changed into a t-shirt.

Just this week, they've added Team Rocket Go balloons, as well as Jessie and James in their Meowth balloon. When you battle Jessie and James, you end up having to do two battles. Interesting.

From a while back, I had the challenge to defeat Giovanni. Kept running into regular grunts disguised as him, that's what this was.

Finally had the showdown with him, and just today ran into him again!!!

Caught a wild shiny eevee. My boy was jealous. Just the other day, finished a task that got me another shiny eevee, and he messed up on the same task. It had two components to it, take a picture of a dratini, and evolve a dratini. He evolved it, and then didn't have it to take a picture of!!!

Evolved it into an Umbreon. Looks real nice!!!

Speaking of shinies, here's a couple more I've caught. Caught two swinubs, so I've named them as a set!!!

Caught a shiny roselia!!!

And a purple wurmple!!! Mostly it's included for the alliteration. I evolved it, and it came out as the less impressive looking dustox. I'd have kept it as a wurmple, had I known.

And finally, some funny pictures I've taken. Rhyperior, looking as huge as you'd expect!!!

Ride that eevee, boy!!!

And, right in the middle of a dugtrio!!!

Changing Gears

It's been almost 14 years I've been at my job, and for the most part I've been doing pretty much the same thing. The work is fairly straightforward, but is pretty physical. Four or five years back, I finally got on the weekend shift, which is nice in that there's less people around, so it's easier in that regard, less drive time traffic, and there's a little bit of a bump in pay for it. A few times I've been asked by supervisors if there is another department or position I'd like to be in, but nothing has ever materialized. I even had tested for some electronic correspondence customer service at one point.

A month or so back, (we are an essential service, so there's been no stop at my work, although almost all of the sales and support staff are working from home) there was a meeting time blocked out on my daily schedule. Hmmm... I meet with one of the heads above my department, who I've never had any interaction with, and she tells me that they have combed the employee bios, and saw that I had been formally trained in Surfcam, as well as having self-taught AutoCad, BobCad, and Solidworks. For a while, I did a ton of work in Solidworks, because it renders very realistic looking designs, and once you've created them, you can make a pretty good drawing of the part fairly easily. Turns out, Solidworks skill is just the sort of thing they're looking for!!!

They set me up with a couple of the technologies they use, and gave me a half day or so to mess around in Solidworks, to get a feel for it again. A couple days later, they gave me a couple test parts to design and generate drawings for. Apparently, I did well enough for them to offer me a position on the team coming up with the files. The down side is I'd be off weekends, the up side is I'll be working from home!!! I'll be saving money on gas, and saving an hour to an hour and a half of commute time a day, so I'm good with it, as well as being able to use some long dormant skills. Last week they gave me the equipment to bring home, and a day to set it up. The project is supposed to go for around 9 months to a year.

This has been my first week, learning how the process will go. There's a lot of new stuff, which I don't think will be too tough, but I've been on Central Time for the learning, so I don't care for the hours, but that will get better. First time I've ever had a dual monitor set up. I used my old desk I had my home desktop set up on (which I mostly only use for the printer connected) and cleared out a spot in the corner, by the windows. Using the suddenly very popular Zoom any time but early on, I'm terribly back lit, but apparently it's not a big deal. Since I'm much more sedentary, I've been walking a couple miles every afternoon.

Oh, and the design there is something I did in the practice day. It's a rough representation of one of those Saturn Ion rims.

Scruffy Gets 'Skinned

Happy Birthday to ME!!!

Yeah, my birthday. 50 years old!!! That's like, 89 in bin filler years!!! So what did I do for my birthday??? It was a little low key, actually, but it was good. I'd scheduled it as a day off, like I often do, at the end of last year. I'll usually go to the beach or something, but the week before my wife got her new hip!!! The first few days were some of the worst post operation days (physically, at least, the one before she had a tough mental time from the pain medicine they had her on) and our home is one of the worst arrangements for having a new hip in. Consequently, we didn't do much. My younger boy and I went to the 99 cent store to refill my candy drawer, I bought a Little Caesar Extra Most Bestest pizza and breadsticks, and got an Unbound energy drink and two $2 lottery scratchers from the AM/PM (one winner, another ticket, as yet not changed, YAY!!!)

I bought myself a radio for Scruffy. That shortcoming had been honestly one of the more annoying parts of driving her. Since it's the same arrangement as in Saturn 3, I was going to get the same one, or at least the same style, as the one I've got in there. Found the newer models of it for a reasonable price, then started looking for the double DIN install kit to fit it in. For basically a flat rectangle of plastic, they wanted over $20!!! At my previous job, I would have just made one up in around 10 minutes, but since I'm not there any longer, I just looked for comparable ones in the single DIN size instead!!! The one I got has the same features, but in a size that fits the install kit already in there, for about $11 less. I made up a side-by-side picture of before and after, since that's not all I did!!!

Since I already had the dash board apart, I was giving everything that could be got at a good wiping down. Under the fuel gauge there was still a lot of glass fragments from the windshield incident!!! Several months back I'd gotten another dashcam-back-up cam mirror from Woot, and a 12v to USB converter to run it. Installed the converter and ran the wires up to the mirror, as well as pulling the cable for the back camera to the rear. I still have to come up with where that's going to mount and connect the reverse signal wire to it.

Remember when I got the console to put in Jade??? One unforeseen issue, the window switches have a different arrangement in the new style. Next time I hit the junkyard I'll check to see if the connector looks the same, and pick up one of those if it does. Anyway, I swapped the new black one into Scruffy, and the tan one will go better with the interior of Jade. Tightened up the parking brake a bit while I had things apart, but went overboard and when I tried to drive it to work the next morning, it was tight to where it wouldn't start rolling with just your foot off the brake. Put that back where it was after work that day. In the before and after, you can see four things: the new radio, the black center console, a USB port added right below the temperature control, and the microphone mounted in the slot under the radio. Oh, and it's a lot cleaner.

A couple weeks before, Woot had a bunch of shirts in purple. I have three purple shirts, but one is getting a hole in it, so one of these will replace it!!! Several were previous designs (including one he'd had for Christmas 7 years ago), only with a different shirt color behind them. My younger son had a tree design he liked, and I found the "My cat went to Space Camp" (apparently the best loser in the Sci-Fi Kawaii derby) design I liked. I'd made mention of the date they were on sale until to the boy, and he remembered right before it ended, and I hit the "Buy" button on both of them before it ended. Showed up the day after my birthday!!!

Some weeks back I'd gone to Wal Mart, and happened to be by the locked up spray paint while there was an employee there. I asked how long to get it unlocked, and he replied, "Not too long", so I ended up buying three 16-oz. cans of Krylon satin black. Over the next few weeks I finally got the body panels for Scruffy painted. At first I'd scuffed them up with some sandpaper, and it was too coarse, all the scratches showed through. Not to mention, I'd laid it on too thick and it came out with several runs. Sanded it down with progressively finer paper and shot it again. This time it came out splotchy, flat in some areas and glossy in others. More sanding, and a final attempt before I ran out of paint. Third time is a charm!!! Finally got all the door and quarter panel skins put on after work yesterday!!! I'm not sure if the sub structure of the drivers' door is tweaked or what, but it has a big gap to the outside on the back and to the inside on the front. Didn't look damaged, and functions fine. Guess I'll just have to make it gull wing to fix that!!!

Oh, and apparently having the dash all apart caused at least one of the instrument lights to burn out, as well as the odometer, so that's all got to come apart again. Even though I never had that area taken apart. Sigh. Gave me an excuse to order some LED lights for it.

Hinkey

Since my last post, I've managed to get a couple things taken care of. I took her to an alignment shop and got that taken care of. I also disconnected the idle control valve and sprayed the connector with some contact cleaner, and that seems to have fixed that problem. When I was getting the steelie out of the shed, I'd discovered a BF Goodrich tire I'd saved when I'd bought tires last for Scruffy, because it was in great condition. Another project altogether, the back tires on the Falcon have been going flat again for a while. I had one off already, so I jacked up the other side to pull the other one. I was using the jack from the Camaro, which is like a horizontal bumper jack with a cantilevered arm at the end. As soon as I got the tire off and was going to set it down on a jack stand, it tipped the jack up and slid about a half a foot over, onto the floor pan!!!

Took the Falcon wheels and the oldie but goodie BF Goodrich over to a tire shop while I was getting the alignment done and had it mounted on the back right that kept going flat, and bought a new pair of tires for the Falcon. With that steelie on the front left and the BF on the rear right, I've got a half decent set of tires on Scruffy!!!

The new tires for the Falcon were largely so I could move her around some, and have some driveway room opened up!!! Not to mention, it pretty much gets it back to road ready at any point, only other things would be going through the exhaust hangers and replacing them. As previously mentioned, 3 is up for a smog check, and preparatory to that I was doing an oil change and piston soak. We went on a quest for Shamrock Shakes and Szechuan Sauce on Monday in the Falcon, and parked her on the street. Tuesday I drove 3 to work, and backed her into the driveway when I got home. After I'd eaten, I pulled the plugs and started the piston soak procedure. Wednesday I cranked all the oil out, and did round two on the soak. Friday I cranked the oil out again, did the oil change, and rotated the tires for the first time in a while. I'd been hoping to get the 17's onto Scruffy, but ran out of time. This morning I went out to drive her, and hitting the remote to unlock her did nothing. Huh. Used the key on the door like a caveman, and discovered why the remote wasn't working!!! The battery was completely dead!!! I've got the charger on her now, and discovered that I'd popped the trunk, probably Friday afternoon, so it was likely the trunk light did the deed.

Anyway, I've been rolling more miles than usual on Scruffy this week. Mostly she's been doing fine, but there's one thing. Long ago, I'd bought a replacement radio for Scruffy (can't remember, or find a post if I did one, may even have been for Janice) that seemed pretty sweet. It's "mechless", meaning it has no physical drives, but has input for Aux cord, an SD card slot, and a USB jack you can play music through, as well as AM/FM tuner. Also was a bit before Bluetooth connectivity was much of a thing for car radios. It seemed pretty good, but it doesn't tune AM very well at all, and the display is pretty dim. Recently it has gotten to where the display will go out completely. Another thing she's doing is sometimes the fuel gauge won't work. The last couple weeks, if one is working, the other doesn't!!!

Another Cat Post

Started off today trying to get this shot of a cool looking back cat. He was perfectly framed in the gable of the roof, pointed the right way and everything. Practically posing!!! Of course, by the time I got my camera at the ready, he was showing me nothing but cat butt.

So, while I'm on the subject of cats, here's a shot I got of the grandkittens' tail I took a few weeks back. He has the curliest tail!!! Too bad the floor was a mess when I took the picture. Ha, well.

Got home this afternoon, and what do you know, "Oh, we found this little cat, he's SOOOO CUTE!!!" Huh. Thought I'd specifically said, "No more pets, one is enough!!!"

He's still a teenager. Super chill and super people cat already. He came with the bell collar, so obviously he's someone's pet. Gave him a neck-check to see if it felt like he was chipped, and I wasn't feeling it.

The boy calls him Khoshekh, the name of the cat from Welcome to Night Vale, even though he seems to not float in the air at all. Others call him Shamu or Fred. The grandkitten and I both call him Interloper.

So I tried to get a few good shots of him anyway, before we take him back to the area from whence he came. I guess it was a little dim, as none of the shots came out real clear. I turn on my comp to make this post, and what is one of the first banner ads that comes up??? Big brother is watching...

Design-A-Chime

You may recall WAYYYYY back I made reference to the design contest at my work yet again. Once again, it's an artwork design contest using industrial supplies sourced from the company. Finally, just today, I've gotten to the completion point on my design. A little late.

I'll start off sharing the other four entrants' creations. The copper wire "love" picture framed sampler was first, and I thought it was a good look and a worthy entrant.

Next up is this very fancy lantern. Other than mine, I thought it was the nicest example.

Then there was... this... A miniature set of monkey bars made of PVC pipe painted gold. My vote for least practical. I guess you could re-purpose it as a rack of some kind, or a plant rack or mini trellis... I don't know.

Then there was this kid's activity board. Pretty good, but I think some better colors would improve the aesthetic quite a bit. Paint, we sell that.

So, here's what I came up with. It's actually a redesign of something I made up probably close to 20 years or so ago. I had seen large, tubular wind chimes, and around that time somehow my then job had come into several lengths of surplus copper pipe. How hard can it be??? I cut three different lengths of 1" diameter, and three of 1/2". A disc of aluminum with some holes drilled in it, a small disc for a clapper, and a flat diamond shaped plate for a wind sail. Easy, huh??? Well, it turns out there's a bit more to wind chime design than just that!!! First, the different lengths caused a weight differential, and that caused it to hang lopsided. Furthermore, just cutting random lengths didn't make for an especially melodic tone!!!

My redesign was fairly complete!!! I ditched the different diameters, and mounted them linear. The lengths were adjusted to provide a proper chord. I also put the hanging holes a a proper location (who knew there was such a thing???). I used one rectangle of wood to hang them from, and another to make a clapper, with a series of holes cut in them lining the tubes up. That is how it was set up when I entered it.

Once again, I think everyone who entered won some category. They asked me what I would like for winning, and some time back I had seen a car with a SpaceX license plate frame. We do a fair amount of business with them, so I asked if we could get in touch with them and see about getting me one. I don't know if they ever actually got in touch, or if they just checked out their catalog pages, but they said they had no luck getting me one. They asked if I wanted one of the T-shirts they have, so I picked out the design I liked. Just checking back now, and I see they NOW have the license plate frame I'd wanted in their store!!!

All this was around nine months back, so I don't remember exactly. I liked the way it looked, but there was an issue. The clapper has little cross section to catch the breeze. A redesign is still in order. I cut the clapper into segments, and put them at closer proximity to the ends of the tubes, mounted to a couple of pieces of plexiglass. I liked the was it looked, but it still needed a little tweaking. The holes were just a little too big, so I added in a couple of tabs on either side. That took care of it pretty well!!! Finally had it where I wanted it, so just today, I finally hung it up.

It's Getting Manny Down Here

My older boy has a group of friends who get together usually monthly or so for a sleepover. Around ten of them. Don't know how much sleeping goes on, they snack & game & watch DVDs & such. He wanted to host next weekend, but I heard how many and nixed that.

He persisted, if he could get the basement somewhat cleared out, could they hold it down there??? Well, two birds with one stone, get some clearing out done and have an area capable of holding 'em all!!! So, he had a few of the guys come over & I bought 'em a giant pizza. Probably can't tell so well, but the first picture is the pizza box pretty much taking up my trunk from wall to wall!!!

The back story on the basement pretty much is that if you have an empty space, you end up storing all kinds of things, things too good to just toss. In other words, of dubious value. I'd always kind of had the idea of cleaning it up and setting it up as the man cave down there.

On the other hand, a lot of the stuff end up damaged or totally obsolete, and aren't much worth anything anymore. Case in point, that sweet super 8 camera down there. Can you even get film for that anymore??? If so, have you got a projector??? Or you could just record & edit it with compact flash memory!!!

I liked the guys who were cleaning out!!! They had an appreciation & love for much of the vintage stuff down there!!! They found my long missing Super Mario Brothers 3 cartridge, then took an hour break to play it on the NES I'd pulled out & hooked up a few months back.

Personally, I wouldn't call it anywhere near useable yet, but it's a start. We've got many cool decorations set up now!!!!

My old Ferrari wall art....

My old lava lamp...

The TV case I'd had the old tube TV mounted in, with a vintage 70's knob tuner TV on top of it, and a old CRT monitor in it...

And a couple of old computer cases on a high shelf...

Not really so useable, but there's a cool built in desk, made back in the 60's probably, but like it was made to set up a desktop computer on!!!

And, finally, a thermoformed plastic head!!! Looks a bit like a mannequin, doesn't it??? Told you it was getting manny down there!!!