Journal2003June
From Simreal
03 Jun 2003
Dancing Saturday was fun, but it left me feeling groggy most of Sunday. Stayed up past my bedtime, got up early... oh well! We should be doing it again NEXT Saturday! I suck, but hey, I'll get better!
Got a contract in the mail from McGraw-Hill today... they are all excited about my doing another robotics book. Not a "gee-whiz" type exploration like the Applied books, but a more practical, grounded, and beginner-type book that really teaches. Walk in naked, walk out with a practical understanding of at least beginning robotics.
The catch is, they want it by 1 July of next year. Starting in, ummm, November (because of my October committments, duh) that gives me eight months, two of which are during the holidays. Argh! I really want to do it! But then, my wife may kill me....
We'll see.
04 Jun 2003
Funky websites for today:
Happy Tree Friends
Michael Nesmith's Videoranch
09 Jun 2003
Bah!
Bah! I say. Humbug.
Wednesday at about 2:00 or so, my phone and Internet went away... a shell-like humm replacing the normal joyous humm of the dial tone, an orange light on the router where cheerful green once held reign.
So I called Southwest Bell. Sure, they said! We'll get right on it! If, well, "right on it" means sometime in the next thirty-one hours. Thirty hours later they leave a message on the NON-WORKING PHONE, thank you very much, that nope, it's not their fault.
Okay, so I'm in an apartment complex that has some internal equipment that is managed by Grande Communications. I call them first thing the next day, since it's almost 9:00 by now. They say, sure! We'll get right on it! It will be done today!
Great!
About 2:00 I called to confirm and, perhaps, get a better estimate of "today". Apparently, "today" includes any time from 8:00 am to 10:00 pm. Lovely. Can't go anywhere today then. But yes, it will be fixed.
Of course, no, they did not fix it. Calling that night I find out that my problem was silently dropped from the job ticket, thank you very much. But they will fix it tomorrow, really!
Yes they did fix it that Saturday, by 6:30 pm. That's a long time -- Wed. 2:00 to Sat 6:30 -- to be without a phone or Internet. The cell phone doesn't count, since the reception is so horrible out here in the boonies.
Needless to say, I'm not happy. But what can I do? Are there any real choices in phone service? And they don't really care, because they don't have to.
15 Jun 2003
Dancing is Fun! Except it does keep me way up past my bedtime....
Weird website for today:
Check out #96...
20 Jun 2003
This week I made a hand.
It was great! Heavy, soft, flexible, but with an interior boney structure.
Last weekend, I took an alginate cast of my left hand, with a plaster positive. I also made one of my hand up to my elbow, but I haven't used that one yet.
Then I built a latex and plaster two-part mold off the hand positive.
In my garage I colored and heated up some PVC hot-pour plastic. The stuff they make wriggly artificial bait out of. It's great stuff!
I painted a thin layer of this on both halves of the mold, to catch the details.
Then, on the half of the mold that describes the back of my hand, I blobbed in PVC a little bit at a time. In this blobs, I embedded plastic hand-bones from a handy skeleton.
Yeah, I have STACKS of handy plastic skeletons in my garage. Very handy. Never know when you can use one.
Once all the bones were stuck in place, I poured the remaining hot-melt into the two mold haves and slapped them together. Then I toppped off the mold with more melt.
Eventually it cooled.
And the hand is great! Only the fingers are too floppy, and they bend backwards as easily as forwards.
But I have plans for that. The next one will have stiffer fingers that won't bend back. And I'll reinforce the PVC with some latex sheet or spandex to give it more strength.
28 Jun 2003
Smart Products for Smart People:
