Memorial Day Weekend kicks off tonight for me !

Where to start? Ok!  My PC is back up save for my pcie video card my 1 gig card is dead! But I am surviving off the onboard video for the time being. I am looking at a Zoltac 2gig pcie NVidia chipset which will take care of a lot of issues development and gaming and video rendering.  I’m selling off a few items of my own on eBay to help raise the means to purchase said part.

In lighter news The Cool Kids Club podcasts are done and over there is not more CKC, however we do have now, The Cybernauts Podcast now, featured on here on WP, and soon a mirror at jp-studios as well. I think our kick off episode is going to come out quite nicely once the editing is done.  We also have now on the cast Amanda, Dustin, Josh, and Jon plus me.  We’ve also got a number of guest spots on the show as well, no name dropping just know that it’s going to be an extreme honor and pleasure to be able to talk with our guests in these upcoming episodes.

CONduit is this weekend and I’m not going due to some of the way the convention and events were handled from what I have been told and I just decided that this year I’m not even going sweat piss or moan about not going. I do wish the SLC ERT-GB well on their volunteer staffing this year at CONduit and we’ll see them live and direct at Anime Banzi in Oct! WOO! Which I hope I can maybe get a word in edge wise on getting a possible headliner artist to show up at Anime banzi this year and if not maybe next year.

I finally got a hard drive replacement for the family PC it is an IDE not sata which I would have preferred but I won’t complain 320 Gig ide is a great thing especially when I am getting the hit F1 to resume of death error message on boot up of that PC. I have pet project I am working on with a Dell SX270 and getting Linux installed on it rather than Xp which is slower than dog dirt on it with only 512 of ram on it. If anyone does read this and has 2 sticks of 512 PC 2700 333 or 400 MHz please let me know what we could try to work out as a deal? I can try to work something out.

Also I know this might be old news but I just discovered Hellgate the MMO and I’m having a blast on this game. Although it is pretty lonely out here with my sword and armor just keeping me company. So if there is anyone out there that would like to come along and slaughter and dice demon meat together?  My Character’s name is Ryu Haruanobu of The house of The Jade Phoenix and a Knight Templar, so hit me up and lets go what do you say ?

Well just about time for me to start the 4 day weekend. Hope your memorial day Week end will be as awesome as mine will hopefully be.

Monday an hour ahead makes the day seem short

Currently at work, on break so don’t get up in my grill. Weekend “sucked” 250 gig Sata Hard drive died just after doing an image backup of it, thank god I was able to do that much at least this time. So, I worked on it had about 4+ hours of sleep since Friday IM’d a few peeps on tech support *off the click* to maybe see about getting an extra pair of hands to help guide me where I might be going wrong on the restore.

Restore wasn’t restoring as it should have been. No reason either to explain the incident. Image verified as clean, BCD/Bootable according to the hard drive after restore, I even went to the bios and told it that it was safe to boot from the hard drive again. Still Disk Failure insert a system disk press enter. After about 7 hours of testing and diagnosing I placed in a support ticket out of frustration and sheer stupidity on my part. But Darren was cool about it and just said bring in today and we’ll test it out to see what is going on with it.

So, currently while I’m at the front desk, the OS backup image is being re-verified so I don’t look like some crazy nut that is off his rocker. Maybe the logs will show tier 2 something that I didn’t see or had passed up not seeing it for what it was? In either way I am hoping that the system will be restored and operational by the time I get off work to take care of the house and other daily duties that await my after work hours as well.

Monday again….

Well it’s Monday and I survived age 45. Not too much to talk about though. Went to my mother-in-law’s house had very nice dinner and we watched “Mars needs moms” with the kids. Had some cake and went home. I did however get some $ to get myself some new levis and I think I “might” have some left over to purchase the ping back sensor I need for the Omnibot, but that’s about all I can get for it at the moment.

Still have the PC on ksl and craigslist, and I’m prepping items for eBay as well. Maybe if I sell those I might be able to have enough to gather the cash to buy the ez-builder module needed and a few sensors I might need for the 2-d mapping. Anyone wanting to donate *Open hands of allstate* (j/king). I might even have to sell off parts of the comic collection to gather the extra funds as well, as possibility. I don’t know any more just got a few mixed feelings on a quite # of issues and people.

My Monday

Hey, what’s up? So I’m my Facebook and I check out the robotics group I belong to, and I see this post about Roombas, so I think to myself “Hmmm I wonder if I can get one to work on w/o paying a cent?” I go to one the green sites I know of and post up “Anyone has a Roomba working or not, I’d like one.” Thinking I’m not going to get anyone that’s just willing to give one away. Guess what, I was wrong! This nice elderly has one she’s giving me one with the power pack and all. I’m pretty confident that I can repair this without going into any budget. I am hopeful on this.

Since the girls are at camp, that gives me and the wife a chance to get some of the rooms cleaned up a bit more, as well as getting the lace Drapes repaired and rehung after the bills are taken care of. We’re also Sunday will be our 16th year being married, which I know a few said it won’t have lasted 2 years, so “IN YOUR FACE!” (J/king). The only things I’d have changed would have been being able to have said with MSN and progress the way I was.

I pretty sure I’d had my own team by now and had my mscna paid for as well. But I wouldn’t change anything else, the house, the kids, none of it, I’m truly lucky in that regard. Still no word or nibbles on the server. I got the power pack for the iCybie so that’s going on eBay here next week so is the Akira collectible. I am hoping I’ll be able to sell enough to get one the module kits from ez-builder.com before my birthday this month. I’m however not holding my breath; I usually don’t get what I’d like when it comes to personal project wants.

Anyways, I’m back to work TTYL.

July 24th Holiday Weekend:Terrorism, Fireworks and Comicon

Ok, so last night fireworks! Set them off last for a full hour of fun for the neighborhood. Afterwards and I can’t believe this but 11:30 pm the kids want to go out back and do smores. I didn’t want to go, to be honest I was tired and a bit of grouch, I think what I needed was a good 8 hrs of decent solid sleep. This obviously helped because I do feel better after waking up at 9 am this morning.

Well with the terrorist attack in Norway was a shock. My heart goes out those that lost loved ones in those senseless acts of terrorism. With this being marking the 10th anniversary of 9/11 I’m wondering if something is going to happen or not. It’s makes you wonder, I still get angry just thinking about it, and all the lives that were lost and makes me a bit paranoid that they might try something again to mark the event themselves to hammer in that final nail to coin a phrase.

Enough of that for now, still don’t have the old server sold yet. I’m hoping soon though, I’d like to be able to get the (EZ-Builder) kit soon and start actually fitting and re-assembling the Omnibot and getting it ready to program and leaving some room till I can acquire a wifi mini cam off eBay. My I-dog was a total loss, it’s servo motor finally died and there was no way to resurrect it so I’ve just salvaged some the parts from it to go towards the omnibot project. The speaker and mic, for voice recon and communication with the family when I’m not at the house and for fun.

In the game scene TF2 when freeware a few weeks ago and looks like I might have some new team mates to go help me stomp some Nikes into the ground. Can’t wait till Rusty Hearts comes out to the public for open play 4th Quarter, the game clips look excellent and the gameplay doesn’t seem to look that bad either. Then again looks are not all what they seem to be. Time will tell if this will be another cool MMO like Guild Wars or just another knock off that will go freeware for a few months and then failure and fade to dust.

This is the 16th Comicon I’ve missed and well, I swear I will be at the 45th one if the world doesn’t end this year or next. (LOL). Taking my overtime pay and squirreling that way towards just that event and then IF I am still kicking and walking this green earth, I will also hit the 50th Comicon. Lot of cool stuff being said there, like that there is going to be a Dr. Horrible II and other cool if not cheesy Media being released. I really wanted to get my hands on the Fanboys VS Zombies at The SDCC Graphic novel; it looks like campy cheese reading and over goodness.

My friends Robert and Sean and Ali all went and I have to say I am envious of them for being local enough to be able to drive or even just take the trolley down to the convention center. I hope they at least were able to acquire and score the deals they wanted today as known by most fans and con goers the best deals are at the last day of the con. I know, because I still have my dominion tank police VHS set from 93 and Captain Tylor VHS OVA set from 94 both cost me like 15.00 for the sets.

Well that’s it from me for now take care and remember If the women don’t find you handsome, they should at least find you handy! Keep you stick on the ice and I’ll post up a bit later

Updates and a New Movie from Studio Ghibli

Hey all, yea I’m on staycation at the house while my wife and the girls are off on their Girl Scout water adventure! Great thing about it is I’m spending it with My BBF Gary Howe who I spend a good portion of my early to mid teens with back home and high school. We’re checking out some of the local sights like the Olympic oval, maybe Kennecott and few other places. Would do more but the car rental place he rented is car from raped his bank account 300$ for a deposit, which is a “Southern California only policy” according to the rental company.

Which cut his vacations funds at the kneecaps with no pot to piss in? SO, we’re doing the poor man’s vacation instead. Watched “Bad teacher” yesterday afternoon after he got here and the girls took off for the trip till Sunday. Gives me some time to get some much needed small house repairs done.

Got the Omnibot Wednesday “YAY” for that! So a few more servos to get and then the EZ-B programmable module to replace the Omnibot’s rudimentary CPU functions and a mini wifi cam and Arudino ultra sonic sensors and I’ll finish the unit off, but before that I’ll keep you up to date on the process goes.

Now I got something even cooler than my Omnibot hack project!
Studio Ghibli’s latest Movie based on the 1980 two-volume manga written by Tetsurō Sayama and drawn by Chizuru Takahashi,”From Up on Poppy Hill” is a bit off the beaten path of the usual features from the company known for blending the fantastical with the emotional. The adaptation which is a father/son collaboration between Hayao Miyazaki, who did the screenplay and his son, Gorō, who did the directing.

The Movie explores some of the common themes found in the studio’s work, hitting home on children being forced to develop their minds to match that of a adult since their parental units are not their to help guide them on them on their road to maturity. In this instance, it’s Umi Komatsuzaki, a high school student in 1963 who has to fend for herself out of necessity after her sailor father goes missing in Yokohama. Her mother a known photographer also ends up MIA, she has to take up the mantle of keeping the family’s boarding house up to date while dealing with her emotional feelings for two local boys.

With “From up on Poppy Hill” is be released in Japan on July 16th; currently, no word on the U.S. release, but come on! It’s Disney; we’ll more or less see this late fall mid-winter, if Disney plays the cards properly. I’m personally looking for it thanksgiving or near Christmas.

My Wednesday *Tilting of head* and an Aching back

Status on robotics project “Omniuino”: Nothing as of yet as the unit has not been delivered as of yet. I am hoping it should be by the end of the week though. It’s going to cost me 120.00 $ USD to get the EZ-B Module kit and start building and programming with the help of some of the more seasoned robotists out there lending a hand. I must have done something while I worked and cleaned up the front yard last night because my lower back is killing me 9 1200 mg Ibu’s is not even phasing the pain, so I’ve been very careful on how I walk and move.

Wife wanted me to cut the grass out front as soon as I got home last night, which for me was like 6:30 since I’m covering for my superior while he’s on vacation for the week. So I’m working like 10 hour days this week THANK GOD for OT! I was however out there till about 9:30 last night before I just gave up on the weeds and decided to relax on some PC time and ended up asleep in my chair till 2 am this morning.

It seems like we’ll be selling the Saturn to the repair shop since they could use the Saturn parts. We might get 650 to 700 for it, which may go to the purchase of a different car that won’t be placed out of business anytime soon. I’ve also been studying up on the auto maintenance of the ford, since it has a tiny leak on the undercarriage. Oil gauge was going nuts the past 2 weeks because it was down a quart. SO I’ve bought 5 quarts and a filter 32.00 on sale at AutoZone and saved about 35.00 in the process. That will keep the dang thing running better for a small while.

I scored some cool pc electronics again. Found a micro innovations ic825c and a 1.3 MP Webcam as well. I also found a 5 port HDMI switch and a few cords and plugs for it and a 8 Port KVM switch too as well as 4 512 mgs 266 Sticks of memory. Not so sure what to do with them but I think I know where I might be able to make a profitable return on it. Finally got Bruce’s birthday/Christmas present off to him as well with the words “Prints, art, do not bend, do not damage” on the back of it. I was going to insure it but didn’t have the money enough for that. So I hope he is very careful on opening it. I’ll say this much one of those prints, costs about 125 to 130$ on eBay and I sent him the entire set. I think it should be to him by Friday/Saturday.

Anyways, I’m back to work after my break and to the front desk since I am working as receptionist this afternoon.

It’s friday and its 12:35 AM

Holy Dingle berries, I finally won a bid on one the omnibots I’ve been looking for. One of the bids I made a few weeks back finally ended and no one but I won it. Now mind you this one doesn’t have the remote, the power adapter and all that cool jazz. But it is the omnibot I have been looking for I have some of the servos already, and now I need to work some OT to not only pay for the twin’s braces, but for a EZ-Robot module and a pair of ultrasonic sensors.

I might just get a replacement power adapter for the gold I-Cybie I have and place it on eBay to help pay for the parts. I also just found out that the Akira toy motorcycle kaneda has in the anime movie is worth about 50/60 w/o the decal sheet but everything else. I might even place that up as well. Some of you laugh, go ahead laugh. But I’ll be the one laughing when the project is built and I have myself a very cool and chic security bot for my house, complete with wifi remote surveillance on video and audio thru bluetooth.

Wensday entry

Hello and welcome to my Wednesday. As some of you know I’m attempting a robotics project, (provided I can get the right casing and get enough scratch to afford the ez-b module for programming) based off the designs and machinations of this gentleman http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdV3zfvbF5Q&feature=player_embedded and his Wall-E project or his Omnibot project. So far so good on the Omnibot, found 2 to bid on. I’m waiting on the wall-e I bid on and won, just awaiting delivery at this point. I also got the servos needed and a replacement servo for my daughter’s robotic cat.

Laptop battery replacement for the wife finally arrived, will get that taken care of and will do an overnight charging test tonight after work. Attempting to repair a circuit board for my PC case since the faceplate itself doesn’t light up as it did before but when bypassed with a 6v. Battery they work fine, so have to do some testing there day.

Have to get ready for the trip down to southern Utah this weekend. Gear is assembled, tested and sound. Kids want a cabin this time, so we are going to afford the extra to rent a cabin this time. We don’t have to be too concerned with flooding in the area where will be at, the rivers are just slightly above the normal level but not so high that they’ve been marked as dangerous or a flood risk.
Had a small shower overnight and this time no leak, so the patch/flashing replacement seems to have done its job nicely.

Discussing the possibility of how to hack a furby I found at one the thrift shops I used to pass by a few years back and came across while cleaning the garage. A fellow hobbyist suggested hacking the EPROM and creating my own samples for it. Which should be fun it will allow me to apply some of the knowledge I received from the online tutorials I’ve been watching.

Thought I’d just post a post.

Updates, hmm… what to say? The we got snow, after I got the backyard cleanup and ready for a BBQ that we’ve been wanting to have for 3 weeks now. My mother in law sold us the explorer and I got registered on friday, just replaced the air filter cleaned up the tapedeck which still remarkably works, so I can jam to some of 20 yr old tapes now…

Why did that comment make me feel old? Is that how dad felt when I told him 8-tracks were old hat? Heh anyways, the explorer looks good and now I might be able to expand the employment horizon. I don’t like sitting at home cleaning and doing the yardwork and laundry and such for 14 hrs a day. it get rather old. Don’t get me wrong it keeps me busy, but I liked being on the phones helping people and their PC or internet issues. I just have to keep looking is all. Anyways thats it for now TTYL.