Ian & Allie & Morgan & Some Dude Named Chris see the Spruce Goose & Climb Mount St. Helens

Yep.  Going to Portland this weekend.  Will hopefully climb a Volcano, see the Spruce Goose, and visit the world's largest book store.

Please see this picture I found creepin' on facebook.

Wolfram Alpha Does Facebook

http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=my+facebook

Do this.  Right now.  DID YOU KNOW from Ian's facebook career:

Most liked status:

Normal People: "It's not rocket science..."
Engineers: "It's not talking to the opposite sex..."

My friend Dan Finigan has commented on roughly 1/4 of the things I've posted to the facebook.

Anthony Charles Nuzzo has shared my posts more often than any other friend.

I rarely post things on facebook between midnight and 6AM (except for Tuesdays.  Trying to figure out why I have been posting late at night on Tuesdays for the past several years and drawing a blank)

My most liked photo is the "We do it for the lulz" MSSM picture.

70% of my facebook friends are male.

47% of my female fb friends are single. (As are 56% of my male friends).  Although only half my friends have a relationship status listed.

The most common first name among my friends is James (with 11).  In second is Alex with 8, and third Brian and Justin with 7.  Most common last name is Curtis, in 2nd is Entwistle with 4 (because of all the Noah's I'm friends with I think)

I have the most Mutual Friends with Tony (187), 2nd is Tyler with 173, third is Skeating with 171, 4th is Chenley and Marfl with 157, and 5th is Mike McC and Sammy J.

It also shows your interconnected your friends are... weird to see people who you didn't know knew each other!

Also tonight I made tacos and drank beer.  And it was delicious.  I even made my own quacamole, and it was surprisingly easy and delicious.

New Shack, New Stack.

So, I've had a pretty busy couple of days. Loaded up the truck and trailer and moved into the house in Milford which is AWESOME and ENORMOUS. We have so much room and I don't know how to fill it with enough stuff. I have a feeling I will be very willing to accept large free things this year, even more so than normal. Sam's truck broke down once we made it into Orono and successfully caused a traffic jam for a little while. He got it towed and then the truck started once it got to our place in Milford. We are pretty sure it is an electrical issue with the wiring harness, something is loose but we had a lot to move in so we didn't end up hunting it out. Also we were lacking any sort of electrical test equipment *gasp* more on this later. 

To give you an idea of just how awesome our house, affectionately called "The MILF" is here is a picture of Chris Hatch wearing his custom made jorts. Yes. Jean Shorts. Jorts. 

WOAH!

Since we just moved in, there is no internet and a general lack of things. We did however move in a stereo system and neglected to bring any CDs and realized there was no antenna for the radio. Luckily I did have my soldering iron and some of my random electrical parts.... which happens to include a 3.5mm headphone jack. I also brought up my small radio which I had previously hacked the cassette player with another 3.5mm headphone jack. The radio was good but didn't have enough bass and the songs became distorted after a certain volume but it did work pretty well. Long story short, I hacked together this cable to use the auxiliary port on the stereo because we actually had an Ipod. 

Now this is where the lack of electrical test equipment comes into play. I didn't have a way to check continuity, so out of necessity I did probably the nerdiest thing of my life. I used to batteries out of my TI-89, an LED and a breadboard to rig up a very ghetto continuity test. It worked.

Go Go Gadget sketchy cable!

Other features of our house so far include a cool outdoor fireplace, a time out chair, beer (oops that's gone now), a basketball hoop, a whiteboard and a picnic table. Also the entire town of Milford is completely full of rednecks. The guy next door builds race cars, there is a convenience store down the street doesn't sell gas, they sell beer, cigarettes, chips and sub sandwiches almost exclusively (probably in that order). 

Same table from A103, still keeping my electrical crap and tools off the floor.

Anyways, I came home today and then stacked two more cords of wood. A busy couple of days and more to come. I will be heading back to the milf tomorrow evening and so I will probably be out of internet contact for the weekend. Maybe I'll man up and post from my phone. Saturday I'll be occupied trying to kick the T-shirt Launcher back into shape so we can show it off to incoming students. 

Also I came to the realization that I think I really need Tyler's input on the republican national convention. I do not consider myself politically informed until I have heard a full range of political quips and satire from Tyler Beaulieu. 

POST MORE!

I heard back from the glider club the other day, sounds like it'll be a month or two before I get to go gliding again as they need more instructors to match how many students they have.  Ah well.

In other news, working 40 hours a week really starts to wear on you after a while.  I'm hoping to break the cycle and finally get in early for once, because honestly when I get home at 6 I'm basically drained and the day is done.  I have to hit up Walmart for a new tube for my bike (or a patch kit).  Been talking with some people at work about cameras more, going to a local store to check out some used ones tomorrow maybe... Depends when I get out of work.  I need to make more checklists at home, because it feels awesome when I check things off my todo list at work.  Also really need to buy furniture. I think I would sleep better on a real bed which might make it easier to get up for work.

And start building cool stuff.  I was reading about glider pilots last night, cool stuff.

It just fell off...

So I've been running around doing a bunch of moving/fixing stuff errands. Cleaned out the bus which was full of stuff, fixing a trailer kind of and moving heavy objects for my mom. I also made it over to the junkyard to reclaim the windshield from the bus that is there, finally. I've been saying I would do this for probably over a year now. While I was there it was so easy to remove the windshield that I figured I should take the rest of the glass out of the bus too, except the drivers/passengers side windows because they are a little more difficult to remove. Anyways, I got 5 big pieces of glass (including the windshield for $50 and they were all in pretty good condition. I can't use all of them but hopefully I'll find someone who needs them and $50 for a good windshield is pretty damn good.

Checkout this terrible picture of all the glass I got.. who would think that photographing something transparent is difficult?

We have a trailer I am planning to use to move into the house in Milford but one tire is a bit sketchy. So, we'll see what happens there. I think I'm gonna bring an air tank and blow it up if it gets low, it has a slow leak. God I hope it doesn't blow out.

Speaking of automobile related failures, I got the two-door caddy home from the shop last week. I figured I would drive it around a bit seeing as it has been at the shop literally since early May. Actually while the car was there it developed issues that it didn't have when I dropped it off and then also repaired before I got it back. Yup, it was there wayyyyy too long. Anyways, I was driving up a hill and it started making a nice low tone... uh oh. I turned into Sam's driveway and the exhaust was dragging on the ground.

I tried backing up and moving around a bit to see if the whole thing would just fall off but no dice. I parked it at Sam's and got a jack from home to remove it so I could take it back to the shop. I literally drove it twice. The exhaust broke off up near the catalytic converter and then broke again at the tailpipe. Wow is that thing loud with no exhaust, I basically blasted the entire town on the way back to the shop with it.

Anyways, I basically need a new car but we are getting the exhaust fixed for now... did I mention the radio doesn't work anymore? Also the fans that do any sort of temperature control only come on in good weather? The car also has auto ride leveling suspension which hasn't worked since I've owned it but causes a compressor to turn on and off while the car is shut off... which just freaks people out. The power windows work.... but only just barely if you put the window down all the way on either side it is essentially a coordinated effort between two people to try and rescue it from within the depths of the door. The dash dims to an almost unreadable amount whenever the headlights are on. The truck doesn't open sometimes in cold weather.... other times it doesn't close. Same with the doors. Other than these things though, the car stars and runs great. Pretty sure one of two things will happen either it will blow up or I will completely destroy it due to prolonged frustrations associated with it's many quirks. I'll be sure to keep you posted.

So, we just got a bunch of wood delivered and I'll be moving stuff up tomorrow. Apparently I need to stack that shit and pack other shit. Let's do this shit!

Back in Alfred

So the madness that is school is now in full swing. Just got out of my first classes which gave me far more homework than the first day of class has any right, then I went to Karate (phys ed requirement) and learned just how impressively flat my feet are. The sensei kept telling me to stand on the balls of my feet and it was hard to explain how the balls of my feet just sort of blend in to the dull completely flat almost totally level surface known as the bottom of my feet. Another interesting thing I learned about my feet (I know you're dying to know) is that when barefoot in the dojo, they have a tendency to suction cup to the floor and fuck up whatever maneuver they are doing.

Moral of the story, don't have flat feet. Then again when WWIII breaks out, guess who has two thumbs and isn't getting drafted for shit. This flat-footed asthmatic right here.

Good news though. Saturday was the block party where new students sign up for clubs and Boffer Club raked in a solid 40 signatures. Pretty happy with that. We'll see how many actually show up on Saturday. In the mean time I have to make the club look as professional as I made them think it was at the block party.

That's so Chad

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10101332348425152

The best part about Chad talking about Angus King having integrity is that Chad definitely framed his comments such that they'd post it online even if they don't line up with his actual thoughts.

Lulz @ Tony

Excellent story, would read again Tony.

This weekend was pretty lazy.  Friday night, I don't think I did anything.  Saturday I got up, went for a 28 mile bike ride, and then went to the grocery store and was otherwise too shot to do anything else.  Today I got up late, and did some laundry and then went to CWB.  The clouds were really really pretty, but not a lot of customers at the livery so I whipped a bunch of ropes.  I asked Allie if she wanted to go to IKEA but in typical Allie fashion got a response much much later, so we'll probably do that sometime this week.

Cram in all the stuff weekend!

So this weekend was pretty sweet and involved me riding up and down the road a lot. Saturday I went to Crescent beach with some college pals (mostly from Bangor high) and then hit the old port. The beach was awesome, great weather and not too crowded. The water was actually even kind of warm, I was pretty amazed by that. Anyways, got a small sunburn on my back.... clearly where my hands couldn't reach to spread sunscreen.... rookie mistake. *shakes head*


Anyways, so we ended up eating at Dimillo's restaurant which is a supposedly floating. It probably is but I was all ready for it to be obviously floating, but it felt very very stable which was a little lame. Anyways, the night got pretty hilarious after that. The restaurant took a long time and was cutting into the bar hopping time. I rode down with my friend Josh and we could stay at Kevin's house in portland but Josh wanted to drive back home (to Bangor) that night (he was not drinking at all). I was cool with riding back with Josh and figured it would be pretty fun actually. Essentially, Josh has been driving like mad ever since he bought this Jetta. He works in Mattawaska and has been putting some serious miles on by driving down to Bangor/Portland on the weekends. I guess he is just in driving mode now, which I was cool with.

So we leave the restaurant and it is about 10:30 PM and Josh had actually planned on leaving at 11PM. We compromise and decide to leave just after midnight. We go to Gritty's first and it is fairly packed and I am quickly realizing that the clock is fucking ticking here. I grab a beer and basically just slug it before anyone even has their drinks really. We hang out for a few minutes and then decide that Josh and I should just go rogue, leave the group and hit as many places as possible before we have to leave. Everyone thought we were a little crazy for doing this but whatevs.

So, we got to this other place called Spread, I get a mixed drink (keep in mind that Josh is stone cold sober) which was pretty awesome but I just drink it really fast in order to go to more places. Basically, we hit another bar for literally about 2 minutes (didn't get anything to drink) then another where I got a beer and we watched people on the streets and made fun of them. Then we went to this bar/dance place where apparently our original group was but we didn't see them. Basically we just power teamed the old port and went to 5 bars in about an hour, we were almost literally running to them. I didn't get the drunk or anything but it was just really fun to see how many places you could go to. It definitely made me want to do it again with a couple more people and just get a beer at every place in the old port. The thing is though, large groups slow you down it would have to be just like 3 people who are super focused on getting the job done..... Gents, we must do this. This mission was made for us.

Basically we leave the old port and start driving North. We get to the Gardiner service plaza (about an hour away) and pull over to go to the bathroom/bring me to Litchfield. When I get back in the car I realize something is poking me in the bum..... "Oh hey it's Alex's keys to his car.... which is parked in Portland at Kevin's house..... Oh boy." It is pretty late by this point too probably around 1:30AM but we basically have no choice but to ride back to Portland to get these keys back. Josh was basically a fucking champion and we both grabbed a large fry at BK and headed back to Portland, the whole time being basically un-phased by the fact that we were substantially backtracking. Also, I was essentially home hahahha. We returned the keys and I ended up staying in Portland for the night because I was just a little drunk and tired and basically there was a soft place to lay so... yeah. Josh however drove all the way back to Bangor from Portland at about 2:15AM without caffeine or any real stimulant. I don't know how this man works.
TL;DR-I went to as many places as I could in the Old Port in an hour ish, then drove to Gardiner and back to Portland again very late at night. It was a lot of fun actually.

Today, I caught a ride home with the kid whose keys we delivered and then grabbed the truck and headed to Hollis to bring back the bus. Cleaned up the mess I made in front of the Havu's garage and loaded my bike. Dad was a champ and came along to drive. Then when we unloaded it at home we kind of rolled it off the trailer and hit the shed... whoops... no damage to the bus and only minor damage to the shed thankfully.

Home again, now with 7% less rust!

Not about Neil Armstrong

I feel like Tyler can wax on the passing of Mr. Armstrong far better than I, so I'm just going to leave this book that someone should definitely buy for Mama Havu.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ridiculous/ninety-nine-shades-of-grey?ref=discover_rec

Hilarity

American politics needs more of this.  If you can laugh at yourself it makes it harder for someone else to use it as ammunition.  Didn't go on a bike ride tonight, gonna do like a 40 miler tomorrow to make up for it.  And go buy furniture or something... I should check with Allie to see if she wants to go.  Maybe go sailing.  I don' know.  I've got to clean and stuff too.

Also bitchtits commented unprovoked on my status 4 times, so I just posted on hers.  How widely is this blag read?

Moving Like a Boss

So, Mythbusters did a show a while ago about common gender misconceptions mostly surrounding cars. Basically they found that men and women were equal in a battery of tests they subjected them to. Test like driving and reaction times and a bunch of stuff. Anyways, the one thing that men came out on top was in packing a car. Ever since I've seen that episode I feel like it is my absolute duty as a man to pack everything as efficiently as humanly possible. So, I packed the truck pretty damn throughly. Took a long time. Moving is kind of pain in the nuts.

Anyways, I also put a few more tacks on the battery tray on the bus. Really trying to make use of that welder while it was available. Special thanks to the Havus for letting me use all their stuff this summer, what nice folks they are! I also picked 9 tomatoes from my plants, unfortunately there are still about 24 still on the vine but won't be ready for another week or two. Guess Liz and Dwight will have plenty of tomatoes.

So, I meant to take a picture of the epic truckload of stuff I had which was essentially everything I own but I didn't.... fuck me right?! Fret not my boys, it will happen once again in only a few days so there will be more photo opportunities of all my stuff in one pile to be had!

Tomorrow, we hit the beach and the old port too. Oh and my good buddy Dave just got a full time position at Texas Instruments (in Portland) for next year! Go Dave!

Don't want to slack

Not to be a slacker, but been pretty low key here.  Working a lot, some very interesting stuff going on that I'm getting to take part in.  Wednesday night went to Red Robin with friends and found out that yes, you can get rum in your milkshake, and tonight went to Buffalo Wild Wings with some other friends.  Having skipped my bike ride the last two days to eat junk I now feel fat.  Last night I went to bed at 8PM and didn't set an alarm thinking I'd wake up early... and then I woke up at 7.  Whoops.

Maybe this weekend I'll finally go buy furniture?  Also my sister is now officially a college freshman -- feels old man.  And I've got a delightfully ironic facebook post for Monday where I post a picture of my car with the caption "Schoolbus!  What?  You mean I'm going to work like every other day for the next 40 years?"

Heading Back To Alfred

Packing up my computer before heading back to Alfred. Should be online by Saturday night though whether I'll squeeze a post in midst the myriad of inebriating beverages that have been promised on move in night, only time will tell. In the mean time I really need to get this computer in pieces and in my car.

Though in an effort not to have a totally terrible post. I decided to quickly try and photoshop you both to have smaller faces. I did this in less than 5 minutes so expect no quality control...

So thats a thing now.

Fuck It! We'll move tomorrow!

Woke up and was pretty motivated to work on the bus. Weather forecast looked solid, so I figured I had the whole day to try and put on my rocker panel and make it not look too terrible. Anyone can do that if they have an entire day, right? Well it took most of the day. One sunburn, one just plain burn (on my shoulder ouch!) and a lot of welding wire....

Lots of time getting the hole on the bus to fit the panel nicely, still could've been a little better but I am pretty happy with where it ended up. I had a bit of a gap, maybe an 1/8th of an inch for about 8 inches on the top side, so I saved that for last thinking it would be the hardest part. Held the piece in place with some tack welds and then started going at it. It was difficult on the top side to not blow through the sheet metal, which I did several times. I have gotten much better at fixing my screw ups and also identifying when I might be pushing the limits of the metal.

Fit panel in place

Tacked in place and started on the right side

All welded in (1hr 12min after previous picture)

Ground down and primed

This was what it did look like without a rocker panel

It was a lot of work, took longer than anticipated for sure. Doing stuff "right" takes a long time. Also, I'm not that good at welding so I was learning as I went. As you can see, there is still a pretty obvious seem there still but the panel was welded so the original body metal kind of overlaps it slightly. This was done so it would shed water and also so I can use some body filler to smooth out this seem and maintain the pseudo-original body line of the car. Hopefully by the time it is all repainted the line will be more or less invisible to everyone except type A car geeks. If it is really good, even the type A car geeks won't notice!

Glad I did it, the whole process took probably about 4-5 hours. I won't have good access to a MIG welder for the next few months after I bring the bus home so I figured I ought to do it now. Oh, also I got burned in three places on my shoulder while I was trying to weld the bottom lip (not visible in the pictures). Basically some weld splatter flew back and burned through my shirt and it kind of sucked. I still need to more firmly attach the battery tray that is tacked in place. Maybe will get to this before I move out.

Tonight I went to Sebago lake where Dave (one of my roommates from last year) has a camp. Visited with him and saw his awesome boats but didn't get any pictures of them. They were mostly undercover though and none were in the water. They have a ski boat with a 427 in it which is pretty cool and basically all of their boats are immaculate. I think there were 5 boats and 2 empty boat trailers in their yard... they have a boating problem.

Anyways, heading back to Litchfield hopefully with a truck load of all my hollis crap tomorrow. Lots to cleanup here, especially the mess outside around the bus... eeeee....

Last Day At Pika

It was my last day of work today which was kind of cool but I definitely felt like I was leaving a group of friends which was kind of weird. I'm happy to get back to school with friends but I plan on keeping in touch with the dudes at Pika because they're bosses.

Anyways, came home a little early because I literally ran out of things to do completely. Got back to work finishing what I start the other day, fabricating and welding a little replacement piece on the bus. It is a non-cosmetic piece that won't be seen by anyone so I figured it would be good practice. Took a long time to get the metal to fit the way I wanted it to. This type of work is really all about making the piece fit right before you weld. It took longer than you'd expect.

Fit this curved piece in there, welded and ground down

Clamped down the second piece before welding. Took my time making this fit right.

Everything in place

I tried to grind down the welds where I could but I couldn't get my grinding wheel up in the corner of the piece.... eventually I just said fuck it and sprayed primer on it. No one will see it anyways so it really isn't needed just trying to get better at this stuff. Doesn't look bad with primer on it, should've snapped a quick picture.

The Havus invited me up for dinner. Awesome! I'm going to start packing stuff .......... tomorrow. Might move home tomorrow. Might not. Depends on motivation/weather/how much I want to work on the bus. If it is nice, maybe I'll just get going in the morning and weld the rocker panel on which would be bitchin. We'll see what shakes out.

I've been in a google hangout tonight with some college (bangor) friends. I feel like I'm cheating on you guys, got I feel dirty.

Completing the Trifecta

Today I changed the tires on my bike, which was significantly more difficult than I thought it was going to be. I now understand why the Wright brothers were able to invent the airplane...

I didn't wake up on time today, so I left work around 4:30, and then slogged through traffic to get to the bike store to buy new tires and the necessary tools to remove the wheel.  Then I went on like an 18 mile ride.  I've been using this app called Strava Cycling to record my rides using my phone's GPS.  It's actually pretty neat, since you can watch your improvements vs. yourself and other people using the app and all you have to do is have your phone on in a pocket.  Now I really have to do laundry and sleep.

Non-standard Compilers and Non-standard Pizza

Did some programmin' at work today, lada dee lada dum. I'm hacking one of these, so it actually does what we want it to do. C'mon APRS World, no one wants instantaneous wind data every 10 seconds.... honestly that is the fastest you can go? But yeah, basically 10 second instantaneous data is pretty inaccurate so we're making it better. Sssshhh corporate secrets and stuff.

Anyways, had a craving for pizza so I made one with summer squash, spinach, pesto, red pepper and a butt load of cheese. It was mint. I need to learn how to make pizza crust and just start churning out awesome custom pizzas. I also came to the realization today that my new place has a dishwasher. I am looking forward to this, oh yes, yes I am.

Started making a little piece for the bus tonight until it got real dark. Also I got my first tomatoes from the garden today. I messed up and didn't use tomato cages early on so I am probably gonna loose a lot of tomatoes to well ..... the ground basically, but I planted way too many anyways.

Been putting off packing anything yet, but I'll probably just do it live like I do every other time I move. I'd like to get that rocker panel on before I move out... hrmmmm......


OH! And here is the link to the video I meant for you guys to see the other day.... BOOM!

My Weekly Post (Also, I'm a bag of dicks)

I would like to start by saying that I suck.

Happy?

Alright so I got done last time when I left for wings. Well I went and I ate those wings. They were good. Than I drank lots of Coca-Cola because it's free at the bar. Alcohol be damned, my wallet enjoyed those 8 glasses of Coca-Cola.

The next day was summed up by my brother and I striving to be the shittiest human beings we could be. We got out of bed at 1:30 PM and crawled to the living room. There we sat spread out in a pile of our own odor trying to figure out what to do with our day. A KFC commercial came on, so we decided to drive to Presque Isle to get fast food, because that is the point we had reached in our lives. We found our way to the Jeep and actually had to stop at the Gulf station.

You see the Gulf station is where you go when you realize what a piece of shit you have become. This is because it is a convenience store with a drive thru. Because walking in and buying something is too difficult for your lazy good for nothing waste of space self. We pulled up and asked for two Monster energy drinks, because at 2:30 in the afternoon we were too tired to continue the 10 minute drive to Presque Isle without a laboratory abomination of carbonated sugar water, taurine and caffeine. This is always proceeded by a five minute conversation describing to the store clerk what the can looks like, how big we want it, how many, do we want the green one or the blue one, which cooler is it in and other such questions that aren't asked when you use your fucking legs. My self esteem was sky rocketing.

Then we arrived in Presque Isle and pulled through the drive thru and ordered our fried chicken parts and then ate them in the Sears parking lot because nobody's in the Sears parking lot and we did not want to be seen trying to find extra cupholders so our large Pepsi's and Monster energy drinks could coexist in the vinyl box of shame my Jeep had become. Afterwards we drove home and assumed our former position of being a worthless sack of potatoes on a couch watching Cribs for two hours before we got exhausted again and drove into town for more energy drinks.

When we arrived home my mother heard of our legendary sloth she rewarded us the only way she knew how. A complete steak and lobster dinner.

IN AMERICA!

I consider the day a flawless victory and yes, that is what I was doing that was so damned important that I forgot to post. I know, fuck me right?

Tomorrow I explain the near biblical importance of the new Caribou Connector. I will start writing it now so I have minimal excuses.

F&!#' Tires

Today I was going for a 30 mile bike ride, until around mile 14.5 when I oversped these annoying little dimples that WA puts in the road everywhere and popped both my tires.  I knew right away, luckily didn't get thrown from the bike or anything.  I walked a couple of miles before calling my friend Helen, who came and picked up.  If I had to walk back it was going to take the entire evening (also could've called a cab), but luckily it didn't come to that.  Had quite an experience trying to put down the back seats in Helen's new Legacy so we could fit the bike in.  There were very clearly labeled seat releases in the trunk, but we were so fixated everywhere else that we missed them until we looked it up in the owners manuals, found the actual latches, and traced the cables back to the very clearly labeled handles. #engineeringproblems

On the subject of chill modes of air transportation, I'd be worried in a hot air balloon of getting forced down in a bad place, like over water, or in a forest or something.  They definitely can't be that expensive though, because Karl owns one.

So tomorrow, the plan is to go buy new tubes for my bike, get a new drivers license, and hopefully actually get in a reasonably long ride.  Oh, and go to work.

Hot Air Balloons and other technical interests

Went to Ariel's house today for a bit, she lives out on Sabattus lake. The Great Falls Balloon festival was this weekend and takes place out in Lewiston. We saw about 10 balloons from her dock tonight which was pretty sweet. Hot air ballooning is basically the chillest form of flying available (correct me if I'm wrong here Ian). Made me wonder how much it takes to become a balloon pilot... besides the almost certainly obnoxious costs of a balloon. It basically sounds like unless you are pretty loaded or have a good reason to get your balloon certification (like to make money) then it probably isn't a worthy pursuit. It would be sweet to help out on a balloon crew though just to check it out.

Picked up the Lindsay Technical Books catalog today and browsed through it again. Kind of want to place an order for like 5 books. After playing with the bus this summer I'm more interested in sheet metal tooling. I really want to check out the Dave Gingery books on how to work sheet metal with minimal available tools and also how to build a sheet metal brake cause that is awesome and sounds like it would be a sweet project. Also it would be awesome to have a sheet metal brake. Apparently Lindsay books is on vacation until the 27th.... So I think my order will be delayed a little until I verify that I can get packages sent to my new place.

My days in Hollis are numbered, three more days of work and then I'll pack up my stuff and hit the dusty trail.

Also, you both should watch this. It is hilarious and gets pretty laugh out loud during the second half.

SIX DAYS...

Since Tyler posted something? :(

Anyways, Brian & Lisa's wedding was awesome.  For one, the ceremony lasted all of 20 minutes, which is basically just about the perfect length for a wedding.  It was on the steps of their house, which was absolutely beautiful.  So much old stuff (is it kosher to have Pepsi and Coke memorabilia in the same house?), and the house itself was built around 1900.  And they had sandwiches, chips, beer, soda in glass bottles, and generally an awesome little shindig.

Afterwards, me and some coworkers headed down to Belltown.  Saw some extremely drunk people playing beergolf.  Had a very brief sojourn into a club, going to say I've checked that box and not going to do it again. Also had a Seattle Dog --  which is a hot dog, cream cheese, and sauteed onions and it was actually really really good.  And I wasn't even that drunk because I had to drive home that night.

Now groceries, cleaning, bills (seriously they taking all my money), and biking.

Hair Cuts All Around

Came home Friday and went to get a hair cut with Sam at this place he wanted to try out. Basically it was run by this really nice lady who is basically a mail order bride. No joke. She is like 29 and lives with her 70 year old husband. It's weird. Anyways, she was great and we had fun talking with her and getting her laughing and stuff.

I've got three more days left at work but basically no one will be there for various reasons, so I had to exchange some hearty handshakes and good-byes. It will actually be me and the other MSSM alum holding down the fort which will be kind of cool. One of our guys is headed on a trip to Intertek where we will be attempting to certify our inverter for the first time. The testing includes a variety of stuff from a rain test to the epically hilarious reverse DC polarity test. The way you pass the latter is by not having molten metal dripping from the box at any point during the test. Yes, you literally just have to make sure the device doesn't melt.... completely. They basically do EXACTLY the wrong thing to your device and sit back and watch them fail. Did I mention a few of theses tests are destructive?

Anyways, I hit a couple of garage sales today and picked up a table for our house at school as well as a $2 pull-up bar, score. Talked cars for a while with my uncle Karl today, what a boss. Also helped Sam split a bunch of wood for his folks, we got pretty sweaty but some beers and a dip in the pool helped that. Sam's parents collected a bunch of monarch caterpillars and have been watching them build cocoons and stuff. It was actually pretty neat to seem them in various stages of transformation. The cool thing about monarch butterflies is there awesome migration. They fly from as far North as Canada down to Mexico and they're actually capable of trans-atlantic journeys. Typically though no one butterfly will make migration down to Mexico and back, they usually lay eggs for the next generation of badasses. This kind of blew my mind a little bit because they're just so small and fragile. It is pretty amazing they can fly and navigate that far.

Also, I second Ian's observation. What is this, amateur hour Tyler?

Slackin'

All right Tyler, pick up the pace.  I see you've got a draft going, post that stuff!

Anyways, got up today and went for a ~22 mile ride.  I've got an app for my phone that will track both my route and my speed, but since I'm so smart I keep forgetting to charge my phone so I leave it off so it'll have juice if I fall or something and need to call someone.  Then I went and got a haircut, it made it apparent my hairline is receding somewhat... awesome.  Since then I've been cleaning my apartment, about to head out to my bosses wedding soon.

Human Powered Airplanes

Holy freakin' crap.  I've been looking for this video clip for like three years.  This is a test hop of Gabriel Poulain's flying bicycle which Morton Grosser describes in Gossamer Odyssey.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZjHcjyLprw&t=6m27s

WELDING!!!!

So I came home early and met up with Bart to tackle the rear corner of the bus today. A tiny bit more time was spent fitting the battery tray in place and then we tacked it in place. Fitting the outside panel was more time consuming and grinding/welding on it took most of the time but it went really quickly with Bart's help. The panel didn't fit quite as well as factory stuff does and it was missing some minor features of the stock panel. 

Bart Being A Boss

The best we could get it to fit.

I know this looks like we royally effed up, but it actually isn't that bad. I'll work on it more and get it so the hole for the taillight looks straight and once the light is installed, it won't show anyways...

BOOM New Battery Tray

Welded in place, ground flush and primed

The battery tray looks rusty, but there is just some dirt on it. We ran out of time and didn't get the finish welding in the tray completely so it still isn't quite battery worthy yet. It may just get tack welded into place which will be plenty strong enough. 

I didn't actually do most of the welding, I did the short bit on the rear of the bus and it went fine. I got some helpful hints from Bart of course but I definitely feel more confident welding thin metal now. The weld may not look perfect at first but I can get a good bead in so when it is ground down it looks good and will hold well. Not going to lie, I was absolutely pumped that we got this stuff in place today. I've been waiting a long time to do it and it was just sweet. I hope to get the rocker panel in place before I have to take the bus home. Welding is super satisfying in many ways, firstly the process is awesome you basically are just playing with an arc of electricity. Welding technique is really cool too and also it is just awesome to make stuff that is more or less "permanent". It is cool to think that the panels I weld in will stay for years and years of normal use. I'm ranting here, but welding is just awesome. 

Had an awesome steak dinner courtesy of mama Havu, living in Hollis definitely has its perks!

Bike outfit

Awww yeah.

Factory Tour

So, my body is still getting used to this whole physical exercise thing, but I finally dragged my but out of bed at 7 and made it to work by 8.  A bunch of work I did got presented to some people way above my pay grade, so that was kind of neat.  Then it was a long slog through the rest of the day.  I went on yet another factory tour, and once again my mind was totally blown by just how much about airplanes people here know.  I've been on four factory tours all over 2 hours in length and basically have yet to hear the same thing twice.  The rest of the world has a lot of catching up to do before they know how to make big airplanes.  This really crammed up my day though, so I didn't get home until after 7 which meant it was a race against daylight to go for a bike ride.  Like a bau5 I hopped on my bike and snuck in a 12.6 mile ride before dark.

On the plus side my legs are now getting used to it and they don't hurt as much.  On the downside, they don't hurt as much and I wonder if I could be doing more.  Also form fitting bike shorts and jersey are surprisingly comfortable.

I Swear Guys, I will actually weld something soon.

So everything exploded at work today, kind of literally. Essentially we are pretty busy though and running around like chickens with our heads cut off most of the time assembling stuff, fixing stuff, hacking stuff and trying to explain the wonders of the high-pot tester. Anyways, crisis were avoided and happened today but it was good.

Came home and got a call from Liz who asked if I wanted to hang out with Bart and work on the bus. I has just gotten my foot in the door so I shoved a peanut butter sandwich in my face and went out the door. First we had to find out how to get the electricity back on in the garage, Bart blew a REALLY old style fuse when he tried to turn on his abrasive cutter. We also had to get the garage door to catch on this little piece that holds it to the chain.... anyways after all that we got going again.

My two repair panels came in the mail today, the battery tray definitely looks different and after a few minutes of grinding on it I was able to get it to fit very well. The other piece I got looks great but is missing a lip on the bottom of it, to be honest it isn't essential but I would like to keep it. I think I'll leave the lip from the old piece in place and weld on the new piece from there up. The panel does look nice though and fits well.

Battery tray in place, not welded yet though.

I'm coming home early from work tomorrow so I can move the bus around and get some stuff welded with Bart before supper. Liz is feeding us because James and Dwight are gone, so she has an empty nest or something.... I dunno... STEAK. 

Also, did you guys see this: Awesome Internet Effort to try and purchase the land where Tesla's Wardenclyffe tower used to be located and turn it into a sweet museum!

Awesome.

A New Day

So I woke up today... and everything hurt.  Which was not unexpected being that I'm normally pretty lazy and I rode like 12 miles on a bike.  I finally dragged myself out of bed around 7, and made it to work around 8.  Everything stopped hurting around 2, and when I got out of work I headed to REI to pick up some biking shorts, a biking jersey, and an inflatable lifejacket.  Speaking of which, REI does this awesome thing where you get 10% store credit for all the stuff you bought in March, and I've spent like $500, so inevitably I'm going to spend even more money their in the future... great business model.  Anyways, I got home, but the biking stuff on, and immediately felt like an athlete.  So like a boss I got on Tobais and rode past where I did last time.  All told it was a 16 mile ride.  Now my butt really hurts, and getting off the bike my legs were like "Uh... WTF is going on?!"

Also talked to my Uncle about free plane tickets, looks like I'll be flying out of here Thursday AM, arriving in Maine late Thursday (like I get into Boston at 8PM late), Friday is free, Saturday is my cousin's wedding, Sunday is an OHTM event, Monday is free/have to be in Boston at 3PM to fly back to Seattle. (all the third weekend in September)

An Ice Cream Send-off Complete with Porcupines

James and Dwight take off tomorrow morning in his grandma's impala headed for FIT. It will be a long trip but after reviewing the armful of expired Delorme maps, I am pretty sure James has it under control. Anyways, I went over to wish him well and one of his dogs came back with a face full of porcupine quills.... ouch! We had to hold her down and yank them out with needle nose pliers, it was pretty obvious that the entire experienced sucked for the dog. We got them all out though and she is doing fine. We went and grabbed some ice cream with mama Havu and then called it a night. It's been fun having James so close this summer, always a good buddy right next door.

Anyways, I've been doing my fair share of being pretty boring lately. Tomorrow looks like rain, so we'll see if anything cool happens. Should be getting more bus panels in the mail tomorrow. There may be a haircut in my not too distance future too. Apparently my roommate Katie went to go see Linkin Park in concert tonight in Mansfield, MA. She'll be getting back around 3AM, so I hope she doesn't fall asleep on her way back.

Rode Tobias Hard

Today I went for a bike ride.  Got on the bike, and started riding down the Interurban trail, which is basically a walking/bike path that runs along I5.  I went for a while, got pretty tired, and was like "Well damn.  I've gotta ride back so I better turn around."  So I did, and the return trip actually went really fast.  Which was surprising because I felt like I did a lot of coasting on the way down.  Anyways, turns out I rode Tobias like 12 miles.  Honestly, I felt pretty good until I tried to get off the bike at which point my legs turned into jelly.

But yeah.  Road bikes are awesome.  You just go so much faster than the hybrid or mountain bikes I had as a kid, and cornering is really really fun.

Also I got smoked by a pair of old guys.  Felt like David Dougan laughing in my face.  Gotta keep riding to beat their times. (got me thinking about doing a triathalon one day... I wonder if he's done one of those?)

Motor Controllers and Humidity

So, we have definitely discussed modifying powerwheels before and I think at one point we threw those thoughts into google and found this. Well, here are the folks that won that. It's pretty awesome because they technically water cooled their motors but all they really did was install a button you push when you smell smoke and it squirts water onto the motor.... god that is terrifying and awesome. You should checkout their build though, it is funny to think that $300 of their $500 budget went to batteries. Here is a hilarious video from the races.

Anyways, today was humid and went very quickly. What we thought was a catastrophic failure that would lead to a lot of back tracking and maybe some redesign turned out to be a pinched wire. I can honestly say I have never been more happy to find some singed wires in my life. Crisis averted. I got home late tonight and made a grilled squash sandwich.... I know guys I sounds like a vegetarian. Do not worry. I got this weird looking squash from a coworker and it is called a Pattypan Squash. Basically, I cut the middle part out of it and grilled it like a burger, threw some mustard on that shit... not bad, not bad at all.

New (correct vintage) battery tray will be here Wednesday. Nice. Realizing it is my last full week of work and I actually think I will miss it a little. The windymills, they get me every time.

The County is Distracting

Hey guys, sorry I haven't posted since I got home. Been kind of soaking in home life and haven't been at my computer for long spouts like I was in Alfred. It's a little harder to post when you're not doing much, but that is the entire idea of these three weeks at home. Relaxation. I did march in the Acadian Festival Parade in Madawaska yesterday for the Angus King campaign, which was fun and I got a chance to convince a kid that that the space program is a good use of state funds. I don't think he realized what he was getting himself into when he asked me my opinion on the matter. The Valley is still beautiful as ever anyway, even when it's raining on the parade quite literally.

Going to wing night at Bou's tonight (the new bar in Presque Isle). There should be more hangouts, I put a proper light bulb in.

Tobias & Sailing

Today I headed down to Bike Works to pick up a bike today.  Got myself a nice Motobecane Jubilee Sport, looks to have been manufactured in the late 1970s or early 1980s.  It's awesome.  It's also extremely blue, which makes the Arrested Development joke easy picking.  I went to volunteer at CWB and buy groceries though, so I haven't really gotten to ride it yet.  Learned some more about boats at CWB (particularly how to rig a Gaff rigged Beetlecat)

I got groceries, for dinner I had lamb because it was 50% on sale.  I forgot how much I liked lamb.

Sandblasting my Face off

So it stayed dry in Hollis for a good portion of Saturday, I got up made a sweet breakfast and then got down to business. It is funny how after you go from using a sandblaster that needs to be refilled every 5 minutes to one that needs a refill basically never, you find all kinds of new little spots to hit just because you can. I basically spent the morning blasting away rust with a vengeance. The face shield I've been using is quickly being sanded into a non-transparent piece of plastic, this is an issue for actually seeing what I am doing. Also, my face is actually a little irritated by all the sand.

This thing is starting to look like a real project now

Hit the metal behind the bumper while I was at it

 I primed all the spots that I hit but i did find some small holes in the door which was a little concerning.  I was hoping that I wouldn't have to do any real repair work on them, but overall they are actually very solid. The second picture shows a lot more holes I found and I don't really know what I'm going to do about them yet. Bending sheet metal the correct way takes tools or skill that I don't really have so making replacement panels for the exterior seems a little sketchy. I just found this piece which is apparently called the "Rear Valance" for $35 on Busdepot, so it might just get cut off and replaced. There is a dent in it too that I don't have the tools to fix.

This is really the issue with things I want to buy, in order to justify buying them I essentially have to be in business with them. Examples: milling machine, lathe, metal brake and MIG welder. Do you see what I mean here? Basically the expense of these items is enough that I would feel like I needed to make money using them to help offset their costs. Unless I was just loaded, which I would be alright with.

Oh, also I have the wrong battery tray and it doesn't fit. Bart and I discussed some ways to make it fit but they were all a little sketchy and it will be easier to just get the correct one. We started messing with stuff but then it started raining so we'll hopefully get back at it when I get the correct battery tray which will be soon.... I hope. I only have a week and a half left in Hollis, which is strange so I will probably start moving things back next weekend.

I forgot to mention that Renee and Toby came over for James' last saturday in Maine party. It was awesome to see them and it was hilarious to get Renee drunk. Yes. Renee. Drunk. Awesome. We had a campfire and lots of food thanks to the Havus which was sweet.

The Internet is for Porn

So I just saw this, and I figured the blog could use some more posts to liven it up.  This guy's youtube channel is basically just him fixing up old broken machinery.... freakin' cool man.

Scroll through the channel to see the next videos where he fixes it up.  Babbitt bearings are awesome.

L@@K ALL THE POSTING I'M DOING!

Oh yeah, writing post titles like it's 1998 on eBay.

Anyways, today was pretty sweet.  I was going to go to the DMV in the morning, but I chose sleep over sitting in a chair being bored out of my mind.  So I will have to go the DMV another day.  I did however, take my first glider lesson, and that was awesome.  No one really showed up except me and the instructor and two other guys, so I got to do the whole thing.  We did a preflight, towed the glider up, went for a flight, and then put it back.  Took about 3 hours, and it was awesome.  I now have a logbook with real logged time, .3 hrs baby!  Also in stereotypical fashion, all the glider pilots were old white guys... but honestly what else would you expect.

Then I went back to CWB to help out as a livery volunteer.  There is a steady stream of people going through.  I'm honestly surprised at how many rowboats they rent.  Granted they are nice looking rowboats... but if I'm shelling out cash I'd be 100x happier in a sailboat.  Except I get to do both of them for free in exchange for volunteering... so it doesn't really matter.  The girl who runs the livery is pretty awesome, she clearly knows what she's doing so every time I go I learn something new.  And renting rowboats to people who've never rowed is always fun because watching them try and steer is hilarious.  And the view off the livery dock is phenomenal.

Tomorrow I'm gonna go buy a bicycle and stand on the dock some more.  Whooo!

I should probably post more

On Tuesday I attended a mentor meeting for FIRST Robotics Team 1778, looks like I will be a mentor there next season.  Great group of people, with a pretty great sounding school.  Looking forward to building some robots.  They run a couple FTC teams as well, and it sounds like I'll get to help out with those too. (Also they had their mentor meeting at a Microbrewery in Lynnwood A+++, would attend again)

On Thursday I attended livery attendent training at the Center for Wooden Boats.  Basically this means you stand on a dock and rent people boats, and for every three hours you do this you earn an hour of free boating time.  I'm not going to complain about standing on a dock, plus you get to help people rig their sailboats, teach people knots, and meet new people.  The other volunteer manning the shift was an executive at some semiconductor manufacturer, but quit and is now just going around volunteering and working minimum wage jobs.  Cool that someone would do that.

Also our intern built a human powered plane.  And I met a guy at work who built a replica Chanute glider.  And there is a guy in Seattle who has built a half dozen human powered airplanes.  And I'm going to fly a glider tomorrow and signed up to try hydroplaning.

Rained Out

So I finally gave in and bought a bigger sandblaster.... to be real, it is essentially just a bucket on wheels with a tube on it. I bought it at Tractor supply Co. and it was the last one they had (the display model). Grabbed a couple of bags of sand too and extra nozzles. I think these nozzles fit the gun for the blaster we have at home too, hellz yeah. Anyways, I was hoping to spend an evening blasting the living crap out of the bus with this rig but a huge storm rolled in across new england and it actually started raining the very minute I left work.

I'm under that green part somewhere.

Hopefully we don't get rained out for welding stuff tomorrow.... hrmmm..

ONWARD!

Sands of Time

So, I'm out of sand blasting sand. Legitimately. I've really got to find some very soon. I blasted away the rest of my sand today and was actually even able to scrap a little up off the driveway and reuse it.  Saturday Bart is officially coming out to help me weld stuff and I'm going to give him a hand with a bunch of stuff he is doing too. That will be pretty sweet and it will happen right before James' party shindig thingy because it is his last saturday in Maine for a while. He actually hits the road Wednesday to drive down to Florida.

I stopped in to visit the Havu's today for a bit and it turned into a bit of an adventure. We went to visit Bart and see where he is building his new welding shop. A little back story on this Bart guy, he is a welder and owned this shop in an old barn. Long story short, the barn burned down from an electrical fire and he lost his whole business and all the tools in it.... with no insurance. However Bart is in fact a boss and has been working like a crazy person ever since his shop burned down to dispose of the wreckage and put up a new shop. Basically he is one really ambitious dude whose hobbies include: welding, motorcycle racing, machining and helping me learn to weld..... Naturally I'm a fan. Oh and did I mention he has a wicked sweet airstream trailer?

Bart's Motorcycle Racing Team Logo

Looking like I might kick it in Hollis this weekend and try to wear out James' dad's air compressor with the sandblaster. Seems appropriate.

Midnight City is the new Owl City

So Tuesday night I went to see M83 at the State theater with some folks I had kind of just met. I knew a bunch of people at the concert, so it was pretty legitimate. I had heard exactly two of their songs before I went and even then I had only heard them a handful of times... by handful I mean like twice. Anyways, it was pretty awesome and I'm glad I went listening to the real thing was way cooler than the songs I had heard and they had this one guitar guy who was basically an electronic modern Jimmy Page. That guy went nuts and definitely made the show.

Anyways, tonight I made ziti with pesto, chicken and red pepper. It was awesome. Just typing that made me hungry again. Luckily I made a metric ass load of it, so I can eat it for lunch tomorrow... and the next day.... and the next day.

After cooking and consuming an awesome dinner I tried to get some more sandblasting done on the bus. I was distracted by my neighbor and his buddy who came over and shot the breeze with me for a while. My neighbor is a mechanic (and a damn smart one) and he just opened his own shop so he has been very busy. He said he would bring home a set of EZ out tools for me to use so I can get my stripped allen head bolt out of the rear axle. Hopefully he remembers to grab it because it is pretty difficult to get out. Anyways, I eventually got to blasting a tiny bit more but I'm nearly out of blasting sand now. I'm ready to get welding though and I called the welder guy today and left him a message so hopefully he calls me back and brings his welder over ASAP so we can get down to business.

Oh and here are some pictures of the stuff I did Monday.

Cut the rest of the rusty rocker panel out

Sand blasted. 

Painted (primer)

Made a replacement panel for the floor

You can see, the panel doesn't quite fit the hole yet but you get the idea. 

Basically, I kind of need a better sandblaster because that way I am doing it takes a lot of time.... but to do that I need a bigger compressor which I don't have access to right now. Either way, I need more sand so hopefully I can find some tomorrow or something. I would really like to do inside the engine compartment. Basically I need an entire weeks worth of sand blasting done on this thing.... hrmmmm.

I got 99 problems but a squished spacecraft ain't one

Friday night, I slept.  Saturday night, booze cruise that I will recap during a hangout.  Sunday, making my way back to my car because I slept on my friend's couch.  Tonight, Museum of Flight/Planetary Resources Mars landing party.  Off the cook, hands down one of the most magical places I've been.  Watching engineers flip their shit as their handiwork landed a freakin' rover on mars was just magical.  Also the Planetary Resources guys clearly dig the shit out of their jobs, their Chief Asteroid Hunter clearly takes great pleasure in his title.

Reserved (or not)

I just noticed that this is the 100th post. Tony and I were going to do a joint blog post recap of last nights shenanigans but tonight I am beyond exhausted and am concentrating my small amount of energy to staying up for the Mars Rover landing. So I'm reserving post 100 for that and we'll just edit it tomorrow.

Happy 100 everybody.

Edit: This is actually the 98th post, there were a couple of empty drafts. So Ian post something before tomorrow night. So now I have to put something here.

Well when I got home my mom got me this sweet welcome home present:

So yeah. Happy Mars Rover Landing.

Blasted.

Well, that was awesome.

Basically, I'm wiped from all the activity this weekend and just had an absolute blast. I've got a handful of kind of hilarious pictures taken by a drunken Conlan. It might be better to show them in a G+ hangout or something.

Anyways, I will recap the awesomeness probably tomorrow after a good night's sleep.