Father's Day Fail

I don't usually do posts when I'm on vacation, but for this one I'll make an exception. Truth, I haven't been doing a lot of posts at all recently. While we are on vacation this year, we were going to be in the Chicago area. A bit north of there is a Six Flags park, Six Flags Great America. Like the local Six Flags, they've got a bunch of sweet looking roller coasters. One is billed as the tallest, steepest, fastest wooden coaster, and of course I wanted to give that one a go!!! Additionally, Six Flags Magic Mountain just recently opened their re-done Twisted Colossus, which looks amazing, and a day pass at either park isn't much price difference from a season pass. The clincher is that the pass is good at all Six Flags parks. Of course, I went ahead and got those for the family!!!

Made the mistake of taking it to activate at Magic Mountain on Memorial Day. Headed up at what should have got us there around a half hour before the park opened, only to discover everyone else had the same idea!!! It was an hour later before we got parked, then another hour before we got through the security check (VERY poorly organized!!!) and into the park. By then it was already a three hour line for Twisted Colossus. Nope. Saw Full Throttle (also new since my last visit) had what looked like a reasonably short line, so got in line for that instead. Not long after, it breaks down. We wait, and it gets going again after around 10 minutes... then breaks again. Another 10 minutes and it's up again... for one cycle. I think it broke down a third time before we gave up on that. Seems like I remember it being 2 hours in the park before we got on our first ride... the Orient Express to the top of the hill!!!

Anyway, yesterday we hit Great America. Working our way in, we see Vertical Velocity, a magnetic linear induction launch coaster that pretty much just goes straight up, with a twist, falls back down, and goes up the other end backwards. Rinse and repeat. We ride that, and it's as awesome as it looks, probably better than I described.

Goliath, the tallest fastest, steepest wooden coaster was our target, but we get back where it is only to discover it's closed and won't open all day!!! Huge fail!!! A big part of the reason I was making the stop!!!

After that we go on a kiddie coaster, the little dipper. Meh, about what you'd expect. In the same area they've got the go-carts, and the younger is finally tall enough to go solo. One of those additional fee rides, but they're a blast!!!

American Eagle, a side by side wooden coaster that's REALLY long (you drive through it on the way into the parking lot) was next. Nice size drop (nowhere near the tallest, fastest or steepest, though). Really rough. Feels like it's got square wheels. Probably just all the bearings on the cars are shot.

Another kiddy coaster, Spaceley Sprocket's Rockets. Gotta love a cartoon reference that probably none of the kids today get!!!

By this time the rest of the family has had enough, so we decide to hit the Sky Trek Tower on the way out as our last ride. Usually not much line on rides of that sort, and they're pretty mellow. Off we go. Up the tower, we're enjoying the view, snapping pictures, spotting our rental in the parking lot.

We get to the top, and it starts coming down, and I have the feeling that things are going awry. As it's rotating and coming down, it feels wrong, kind of a rachetey feeling three times, like it was turning but not coming down, then it would drop some and turn but not go down. About this time the idea enters my head, "What happens if this thing comes undone??? If it were to fall from here, I don't think it's survivable!!! Surely it's got some kind of braking system..." Right??? Well, not long after that, it stops completely. Maybe ten feet from the very top.

Of course, there's a ride operator on board, but he doesn't seem to have any information. Ten to fifteen minutes later it starts down again, but without any rotation, then it stops again, maybe a third of the way down.

Parents are trying to keep their kids calm, with varying degrees of success.

Of course, we're on the side that the sun is shining in on. Oh yeah, added bonus, most of the time the air conditioning hasn't been going. It's like a sauna in there. I try calling the park, but you can't seem to get a live person without an extension, and even if you do have an extension, you still can't seem to find a live person.

One of the passengers a few over finally calls 911, and he's on the phone with them for the next little part. Close to an hour later it starts down again... but it seems to be a bit faster than normal, not falling or anything, but quick enough that hitting the bottom at that speed seems like it'd be trouble. Not to worry, though, seconds later it slams HARD to a stop!!! Interestingly, it shakes a bunch of water off the top of the cabin. Also sends the frazzled nerves of the kids (& probably more than a couple of adults) over the edge, and there's a few minutes of crying and screaming that can probably be heard on the 911 recording!!!

FINALLY, I'd say an hour and a half after things came off the rails, they announce that they're going to evacuate down stairs in the middle of the tower. REALLY??? This was an option THIS WHOLE TIME and you wait that long before you do it???

Of course, most everyone has to pee, and our good luck to be some of the last people out. Another brilliant move, they sent up a bunch of bottled water. Just what you need when you've already got to whiz. I had a bottle I'd brought up with me that was mostly empty, which I drained out the door holes, then refilled with my own urine (only half-draining myself, but taking much needed pressure off) once the bulk of the passengers were off and I could get a little privacy around the other side.

Through the hatch in the back of the seats into an open area between the cabin and the post, then up a ladder into a small access hatch, then down the stairs.

There were a couple of amusing bits of graffiti on the inside, "Fuck me damn flag!" that I got a shot of, and "Fuck me this sucks damn gorilla" that came out blurry on my shot. I have no idea what they even mean with the gorilla comment.

Oh yeah, it was grubby inside the tower. Maybe if you clean your damn tower it won't be breaking down!!!

How long altogether??? It was a bit tricky to determine as no one caught exactly what time, but my pictures of the panorama were time stamped at 5:51, and the first one out of the hole at the bottom was at 8:15, so close to 2 1/2 hours.

So what did they want to buy us off with? $25 of park vouchers, a complimentary drink voucher, a pass to come back, and a front of the line pass. ONE Front of the line pass, for ONE ride. Weak. I really don't have time to make it back, and the main one I'd wanted to ride wasn't even going!!!

Ever since then, the boy gets quite anxious when he has to ride in an elevator. Most of the time, not much of an issue, but when you're on vacation and your room is on the 15th floor, it's a thing. I'm fairly sure most any psychiatrist would deem that PTSD.

Final shot: That's as far down as it made it.

Quantum Cup

"We demonstrate that a black hole remnant exists for Schwarzschild black holes in higher dimensions using gravity's rainbow. The mass of this remnant is found to be greater than the energy scale at which experiments were performed at the Large Hadron Collider."

I had something in mind to put on the side of my cup (previously I'd had "Phones, fax machines, bottled water, television... They're ALL instruments of the DEVIL!!! (and ought to be encouraged)" from Love/Hate's "Black Iguana" on it, everyone at work got a kick out of that one!!!) when I read this line that I ended up putting on instead. The story it was quoted in was that scientists at the Large Hadron Collider were saying that, because of this, it points towards there being multiple parallel universes, that holy grail of Sci Fi authors. I think they have made a quantum leap of a conclusion that Scott Bakula would be proud of.

Work bowling night was last month. I went, as I usually do, and actually had a better score on my second game than my first. Usually I start out good, and go downhill from there. I think I start analyzing my game more as I go along. My game was not stellar, but good enough for me, I had fun. Come to find out the next week, our team had the 2nd highest score!!! I think it was likely due to the one guy on our team who was at least a semi-serious bowler (he had his OWN BALL!!!) starting off his game rolling a turkey. Think he ended up with 207 that game, I think the highest I've ever actually seen up close. Anyway, this water bottle was the 2nd place prize, & I thought was pretty cool.

The setting for these shots is on the toilet seat that my dad custom painted up for us for Christmas a couple ago, that I didn't post much about the Christmas itself (except to mention the breakdown on the way there!!!) It's rad, and makes for a good background!!!

Farewell

Much has happened I haven't blogged of. I should do more of that, it helps chronicle things.

The older boy and his lady split up, I want to say around the end of last summer. I don't know what happened, and he hasn't been forthcoming with any information, so guess it's none of my business.

Sometime just a bit prior to that, while both of them had been out job hunting, he'd stopped in at the Navy recruiter's office. Good move, those guys are always hiring!!! They told him signing bonus this and hazard pay that and maybe even G.I. Bill, and he was all like, "Where do I sign???"

He scored quite high on the Asvab test, and they always like that!!! I'm writing this one the eve of his departure. He's signed up for a 4 year hitch, and 4 years of reserves. I have a feeling once they get him trained they'll make him good offers to stay active duty after the first 4 years.

A couple weeks back we had a get-together with my parents and sister & her kids. Last chance to get everyone together before he leaves, and he'll be gone on his birthday, so an early celebration. Went to John's Incredible Pizza. Good times.

It was on Good Friday, so the younger was out of school. He wanted to do SOMETHING since he had the day off. I suggested going to the beach for a bit before we met up with everyone. It was a good day for it, albeit the surf was tiny.

Make note of all that hair. It's as good as gone. Actually, he 'skinned himself tonight.

Every time we go to the beach, we end up digging a fairly epic hole.

It's gonna be strange without him around. He's been here for almost 19 years now. He came out pretty good in spite of our haphazard parenting. I took him out for dinner last night, just the two of us. Gave him what little fatherly advice I could come up with before he goes. I don't think he needs that much.

Anchors aweigh, my boy!!!

I Like Turtles

As mentioned back in the elephant post, another supervisor had made a request for a label creation. She's from Hawaii, and turtles are quite prominent there. That's what she wanted, if I could, a turtle.

For an interesting construction, I started out by making the shell and belly plate, then I made a separate body.

The whole time I was doing the body, I was picturing the cartoons where a turtle is stripped of it's shell, and covers up it's nether regions.

Of course, once I finished it off, I had to make a GIF of it swimming!!!

A Clue???

Some time back I made mention of the 512 address at Disney's California Adventure. I had no idea how it came to be, but today I may have stumbled on a clue...

I happen to know the address of a nuts & bolts location of Disney's Imaganeering operations. Today I checked out the street view (hence the low quality graininess), and the opposite end of that address happens to have the address 512!!! Sounds like just the sort of inside inspiration those guys would use!!!

So much more to blog about, one of these days...

The Viral Elephant

I've gotten a small degree of fame about the workplace for my various creations of labels. Since the label killing goes on in the last couple hours of the work day, this is primarily limited to the second and third shift crews.

Having done nothing great since my construction of the Firefly, I was up for any fresh ideas. I was just making up squares one night while killing labels, and several people were inquiring what I was making now. Didn't really know what, so I was open for suggestions.

One of the girls suggested an elephant. Hmmm, I could probably do that!!! Started off just making an oblong into a body. Actually it looked quite a bit like a peanut while it was being done, proving the old adage "you are what you eat". At one point I was going up a level after one of the supervisors and dropped it. He asked what it was, and I told him "It's an elephant!!! See all the wrinkles???" Then onto a pair of ears, a head, and the legs, tail, and of course a trunk. then put it all together. Came out pretty good.

I showed it to the supervisor previously cited. He was amazed, and took a couple pictures. I gave it to the girl who'd suggested it. She was thrilled, said how cute it was. She tells me the next day I see her that her dog wanted to get his paws on it. Seems like he thinks there's something delicious on the inside!!!

Here's where it goes viral. She posts a few shots of it to her instagram, cites me as a genius. The next day a bunch of people are going on about it when they see me!!! Several from the early shift, who I'd never really though about not having seen my creations. The next time I was killing labels, the latest department head comes up to me and tells me she saw the elephant, asks me how I did it (a question I get asked a lot) and if I ever take requests (hint hint). How can I turn her down???

The Post-Halloween Tradition Continues

Here it is, a month later, and here's the post-Halloween destruction video!!! For this year, I had the idea to get a big round pumpkin, cut it (almost) in half, then paint it up like a pokeball. Then, I had a much smaller pumpkin that I was going to carve the likeness of Charmander into, hopefully to make his tail into the candle part. Alas, I ran out of time, so that didn't end up happening. Oh well, it smashed up nicely!!!

This year I had two cameras rolling, so here you're getting two different views.

The other pumpkins I'd bought never got carved, either. A big, time consuming part of carving them is hollowing them out, so that is a big part of the reason they didn't get carved. We left them out on the porch railing.

Apparently, if you wait long enough, they hollow themselves out!!! One of the neighborhood squirrels gnawed a hole in the side of one, and took all the seeds out!!! Afterwards we threw it down, too. I cut a hole in the side of the next one to cut down on the gnaw time.

What if...

What if instead of Nathan Fillion being cast as Malcolm Reynolds, they went with Patrick Stewart instead???

Ain't My First Dodecahedron

They did the design contest at my work that they have had the last couple years again. I had an idea to make a water dish for the cat with a pump that would activate a water stream when the cat would approach. I picked up a drill motor driven pump (because the actual full on pumps are pretty spendy) with the idea of using an old drill with a bad chuck I have. A couple weeks before, I finally got to trying putting things together, and found out it doesn't have the juice to get the water flowing with that one. OK, time for plan B...

As is well documented here, I've made a couple dodecahedrons. Making them is fairly easy, relatively speaking. Since we're kind of working on making the basement into a nerd cave, and all the light fixtures have bare bulbs, I had the idea to make up an acrylic dodecahedron. It took some doing, but the results are pretty cool!!! I'm thinking of trying a light sand blast to see if I can give it a frosted effect, as well as adding the numbers to the faces to give it a real D-12 look.

So, how did the competition stack up this year??? Considerably less so than last year!!! There was one other entrant!!!

They made up a board with the company name made of various things we sell.

My company doesn't like us saying stuff about 'em, positive of negative, on social media sites, so I don't make mention of them, and thusly I don't have a full shot of the other project, just a few of the characters.

With only two entrants, I figured my odds were better than last year. I was a lock for first or second place, I thought!!! A minor minus, they're doing a bit of construction (you can compare last year's shots with this year and see the carnage in the background) so the break room they held it in doesn't get much traffic these days from our department.

The next week they congratulated me, I got first place!!! I went to see the HR girl who was running it for my prize. She had a bag of hair products, some $10 gift cards, a pair of passes to Knotts Berry Farm (which, unposted as of yet, we've been to twice this year!!!) and this: A signed Dodgers jersey!!! She didn't know who'd signed it, but I figured it was pretty cool, and possibly worth some money (not that I'm planning on selling it). Also, I could make up a display frame for it and put it up in the basement to possibly counteract some of the geek!!!

Just one thing left to do, figure out who's signature that is!!!

Skulled!!!

It's been a while since I've posted anything Runescape related. Yes, I still play at least a bit almost every day. My levels keep going up. One more level & I'll get my first 99, not surprisingly in mining. Got recruited into a clan that's actually pretty active, which is something of a tie in to how this post came to be. One of my mates messages me, would I like some construction & herblore experience? Yea, sure. OK, meet me in Edgeville & kill me off in wildy. Huh. I almost never go into wildy, but OK. He's got the supplies from Wilderness Warbands, & they're mine just for offing him!!!

And that's how I got my first skull!!!

Done The Impossible

It's been a while since I've done a completed bar code sculpture. Not for the reason that I haven't been doing anything in this vein, but because I'd undertaken what so far has been my most ambitious undertaking!!!

Another of those things where I wondered to myself if it could actually be done. I set out to make a spaceship (what I primarily told my co-workers when they'd ask what I was making this time).

More specifically, I set out to make a mid-bulk transport ship, classcode 03-K64 Firefly!!! Being as it was done almost entirely from memory, I think it came out pretty good!!!

I made it all in parts to be assembled at the completion. The part I started with was the main engine. I tried three times before I came up with a satisfactory result. The first two came out as cones instead of bulbous. Next I made the side engines, then cargo hold (in flat form, to be folded up at the end).

Next I did the front deck and finally the main deck. The final day, yesterday, I peeled the labels & stuck them down to wax paper to bring the whole rig home for assembly!!! It was coming out way too big to store in my locker. One of the failed main engine cones found a new home in the cargo hold, keeping the top from caving in!!!

I like the way the walls go out. Gives you an open feeling. Firefly’s a good design. People don’t appreciate the substance of things. Objects in space. People miss out on what’s solid.

They're having the design contest at my work again this year. I was considering seeing if I could put this and the dodecahedron in as non-judged entries, just to show them off!!! If I do, my son was saying I should get a couple dinosaurs to put in the cargo hold!!!

Spider, Man!!!

As promised, here's a second post in one day!!!

Last Wednesday at work I headed out to break with some of my co-workers. Three were already out there, and as I rolled up, they were talking about having a seat by my buddy there, indicating the planter wall. I checked it out, and say, "Hey, it's a daring jumping spider!!!" Recalling the first one I saw, and take out my pen and start trying to get him to put up his dukes in the fighting stance. This one wasn't quite as bold, only raising one foreleg in a blocking gesture. I'd never seen one with the white striped legs before. I snapped a couple pictures, and one of the girls took a few, too. Paparazzi!!!

Self Portrait II

OK, Mr. always behind on posting stuff here with a quick update!!! Back in August I showed my work in progress. Couldn't have that on my tray this long and not have made progress, right??? I actually finished it around the 26th, and even had the picture and edited it.

I'm mostly pleased with the way it came out. The wheel and tire are a bit small (one of my co-workers, also a Ford guy... even though I'm not a REAL, hardcore Ford guy... made the comment that I have 13" wheels in the pic!!!) and my son's girl thought my left arm was freakishly long. Gets several comments and a good amount of attention. The moon is based on a tattoo one of the girls at work has on her belly button, but her moon is blue & looks a lot grumpier.

I've got at least one more instant post I may do soon...

Aztec Falls Revisited

Finally getting some more pics from Aztec Falls up. Once again, I've got a ton more I could do, but for now you get this.

You start off at a place called Splinter's Cabin. There's not much of a cabin there, but just a bit down the trail from there is a pretty cool bridge.

I'm not a fan of graffiti out in nature, but I actually kinda liked the addition to these rocks!!!

As you make your way down, the upstream part has a wide, shallower area. I call it the kiddie pool.

A nice little jump off point. It's about as deep as it is tall, so be sure to bend your knees on the way down!!!

Farther down is the big jump off points. I used the boy's height and checked the high jump against it in Paint Shop Pro. Looks like I was real close with my estimation of 35 to 40 feet up. You can see there's something of a pillar to the left side, which could be climbed to pick up that much more height, but it's a little tricky.

I like the splash down shot that looks like the shape of a body.

On the far side, near the base of the 20 foot jump, there's even a natural rock ramp to climb out on!!! You can see that in the bottom left of the last shot. I'm sure we'll be back next time!!!

I've got the idea to share how I stretched my birthday out to a week, perhaps that'll be next...

Work in Progress

So my self portrait I did a while ago is starting to get a bit worn. I had the idea to do another self portrait of me reclined on the hood of my Falcon, playing my son's guitar.

Since it sounded a bit involved, I figured I'd do a sketch of it on some paper first to see how things come out and try & get my perspectives right. It came out semi-OK, with the laying back on the windshield & the car itself being the biggest points I slated for improvement.

So I made up a new card & started in. I pretty much on all three so far have started with the guitar & the hands thereon and worked my way out. The guitar came out good enough, and as I continued on is where I screwed it up. Ended up with my neck way offset to the right, so I scrapped that one and started again.

Pictured is the third time, a charm. I got the reclining angle pretty good (better than the 2nd attempt) and the positioning of the guitar is a bit lower on my body. I've got the fender and body line roughed in, and will be continuing on from here. As you can see, it's still a work in progress!!!

Aztec Falls

Usually when we head up to the mountains, we've headed up to Deep Creek. Unfortunately, there were some heavy rains a few years back, and it washed so much sand and sediment downstream, so the last few years it hasn't been much in the deep department.

This year, my older looked up to see if he could find any other places. He came across Aztec Falls, probably a little more than a mile downstream. I wasn't holding out much hope for it, being as it's rained less and less the last couple years. Turned out to be far beyond what I might even have hoped for!!! May have to make another trip up there again this year, and definitely we'll be back next time!!!

The close side was about 20 feet up, the far side around 35 to 40 feet. The boy did the biggest cannon ball ever from the far side. I jumped probably half a dozen times from the lower side, and once (since I was there) from the far side.

I didn't take a ton of pictures (I was wet most the time) but I've got a few I may share later on. Only took this one video, and things went awry!!! A guy from another group jumped from the other side at almost the same time!!! Everything came out OK, but you can tell I was troubled!!!