Gotta Get Dat

Good Evening Bitches,

This weekend was pretty fuckin' busy. I'm pretty sure I did more in any given hour than I have all summer. Which isn't saying much...

The mission was to convince Wolfgang to move to Portland with me and get an apartment. Part two of the mission was to rock the party for the Ton Ton Nuzzles. Elliot and Josh also came up because, party.

That's right, I saved the Snapchat.
What're you going to do about it?

Here is a list of things I learned this weekend:

• The Hot Suppa is the only thing you need to fix your mechanical problems.
• Do not get into fights with art made from shards of broken glass.
• Fireworks can't hurt you if you have had enough beers.
• 2/$3 Monster's at the Westbrook liquor shop.
• #yoloswag is an acceptable Wi-Fi name.
• I don't think we made a very good impression on Tony's roommates.
• Try and deny it and I will show you 43 mental images of dirty looks.
• I don't blame them, even slightly. We dropped full fledged college on your house.
• I should party with George Cooper more often.
• Tents on a hot summer's day are like hangover intensification chambers.
• Elliot likes rocky coastlines, like more than a friend. I'm telling his girlfriend.
• When giving someone a birthday ass beating with a large foam hammer, do not let Sean Lynch step in.
• Sorry about your butthole Tony.
• Vegetables can be put on pizza. (This bit may be a bit more of an epiphany than you realize)

As far as it being a mission to get Wolfgang to move to Maine, I'm dubious on the effects. That being said I think we accidentally sold Elliot hook, line and sinker. His inner caucasian was losing its shit at the LL Bean store. 

When it comes to me moving down to Portland, I literally got offered a job at Nature's Classroom while on the highway driving back home. They provide me with housing and food so I'm just going to go do that. Actually can't wait, should be a good time. Get to teach the sixth grade types about the science. Good stuff.

In the meantime I'm applying for a job cleaning the county fairgrounds on Monday. So that'll be work for a week or so. Good, I need the gas to get to Nature's Classroom. Don't know which of the 13 locations I'll be assigned to yet. 

Also, I found this picture on my computer and it needs to happen again soon. It was labeled beer.png

I'll have to go get some beer I guess.

See you guys soon.

Nickel-Free Belt Buckle

So, I've been meaning to hit up Portland Greendrinks ever since I heard about it last summer. It happens once a month and is held at a different non-profit location each time, $5 and your own cup gets you two glasses of good beer and as much as you want after they announce an open bar. This time it was at the Maine Yacht Center, I went with a couple of friends. It's supposed to be a "networking" thing but from what I hear it is more of a young person meet up.
There was some lady who spoke about cleaning up the ocean and there is this boat they used with a tiny ROV that goes around the ocean. They find unclaimed lobster traps (usually because their buoys got cut) and other ocean debris. Kind of cool actually the boat they use was originally built specifically for Dodge Morgan to be the first man to sail across the world with no stops, which he did. More on the boat here. They let us climb into the boat and check it out too. I will definitely be going to another greendrinks when it comes up, it was full of people in our age range who are either doing cool things or like good beer so it seems like the place to be.

All my yachts

Don't worry I know the confused looking girl, it's cool. 

In other news, weeks go by fast when you work full-time. Yikes.... 

Also possibly Tyler soon?

Bluff-Day!

Well today is/was my birthday which was pretty cool. Went to Litchfield for a bit and ate some grilled goodies with the family. Also worked on my motorcycle for a bit, hoping to nail that down very soon maybe more on this later.

Anyways, had a pretty busy week last week. Including a trip to Bethel at the site of one of our alpha installations. It was a beautiful scenic spot and an alright wind site for Maine. We went up to upgrade the electronics and show me the place too. 

There is a beautiful view of this mountain/bluff from where the tower is installed.

Life in Bethel

Saw the fireworks show in Portland, watched it from this sweet lighthouse rock peninsula which was pretty cool. The place is apparently called Budlight Park, no joke. A friend of mine from the internship program I was in last year went with me and her friend who... as luck would have it was a recent (class of 2012) MSSM alum, it turned out to be a fun adventure. Glad that place is still producing high quality folks. Also apparently senior parade is a thing now... Guess we're trendsetters?...

Also because my sister is such a high quality sibling she had pizza and cupcakes delivered to work on Friday because she is just the cool. 

Damn good cupcakes

Went to the beach and a potluck the other day at Andrea's house. My sister (god she is such a fucking pro) suggested this vegan recipe which I made because it mostly consisted of chopping things and putting them in a bowl. It actually turned out awesomely, much better than I expected and I am highly considering making myself another batch and just bringing it for lunch for a week or something. Honestly, try this stuff it's delicious. Disclaimer: I am not a vegan, I am just a fan of delicious food. 

I've got some plans brewing for this week, we'll see what comes of it.

Coolest Kid in Town...

Ran across this suave machine in the Old Port the other day, clearly belongs to the hippest of the hipsters.

Sex-Machine

Had a good weekend, I re-installed the carbs on my motorcycle Saturday but it is idling very, very high. I've been trying to adjust the throttle cable and the idle screw but haven't quite gotten it all to jive together yet. I probably would've been able to get it today but didn't want to be the neighbor who is literally revving an engine for half an hour trying to adjust stuff. I will probably just have to suck it up and do that soon so I can safely ride the thing. Hoping I don't have to uninstall the carbs again just to readjust stuff. We'll see... Good news is I am fairly certain that I fixed the original problem, but I've just created a new one in the process.

Made my way downstate today to catch up with Sean, Doug, their associated compadres and the one and only Joe Durgs. That's right folks, he's back from the dead and working full-time at Unum in South Portland. Joe is just as slick as ever and is the proud owner/operator/commander? of a herd/gaggle/flock of bees. I guess he plans to make some honey from them eventually. Either way I'm planning on giving him a tour of Pika (which is only a couple miles from Unum) and then hopefully incorporating him in a completely stacked Trivia team consisting of James and Josh Scrip. Hoping to hang out with Joe more actually though. In all honesty I haven't seen him in a long time, I really enjoy him and I was happy to learn he is in the area.

Hoping to start a regular regiment of rowing this week. We'll see how that goes. Also trying to acquire a cheap grill on craigslist, I've been seeing inexpensive grills that need replacement grates/ignitors. My dad just ordered some for his grill online, so it can't be THAT hard. Finally got a charger for the laptop I got from David a while back only to find out there is a login password. Hoping David has a good guess on what it is, either that or I'll be spending some time bashing around with a linux Live CD trying to break into it somehow.

Also one of our cats peed on my bed this weekend when I accidentally shut her in my room. I am taking this as a good omen for the week. SSSSSHHH Don't ruin my optimism.

More 'Stralia

Neighbors Dog

Refracting waves off the sea wall

New Roommate... he was on sale!

Plaque is a photograph taken in the same place 131 years prior

Great Ocean Road

Tall Tree is Tall

Cantilevered viewing area

My Dad running back when he realized it was swaying

Chief export of Australia, cute fuzzy stuffed marsupials

Craigslist for life!

The other day we moved the Bridgeport to Pika. I took one picture of it fully assembled next to our awesome new lather but it came out like crap, so instead I will show you an epic picture of it being unloaded.

And that was the last time the bottom of the milling machine ever looked that way again.

Just kidding, the move went pretty well. In all honesty I didn't have much to do with it.... I wonder if there is a correlation there. While I was taking pictures I figured you guys might like to see some of the stuff I do. This is the wind turbine dyno we have at work. Basically, we spin the turbine with an electric motor to simulate different wind conditions and then do a bunch of debugging and reliability testing with it. The power from the turbine is actually fed back through to the grid with our inverter too.

Givin' windymills the hot suppah! 

Ended up getting a pretty good deal on this rowing machine from craigslist. $75 for a rowing machine that is about $600 new, I didn't even haggle with the guy on the price because I'm fairly certain I could throw it right back up and sell it for twice what I bought it.

I'm currently thinking about some modifications to make it into a more legitimate rowing machine. Basically there is this one machine that all the gyms have that is super legit and like $1700. All the big rowing enthusiasts/snobs on the internet love it and stuff. After rowing on this one just once I can tell it is different from the one I used at Umaine. Also, tentative plans to hack into it and make it grid tied... more on this in THE FUTURE.

Checked out some garage space today that is about 2 miles from my place. Looked pretty good, not huge but big enough and seems to be the right price. If I can get this other fellow to go in on it with me it might become the bus' new home. This guy used to run a car detailing shop out of it, seemed like it was kinda under the table. Anyways, it's even insulated and the guy had a pellet stove in there for the winter. 

Only problem is it is kind of in a ghettoish area of Westbrook, but I think it would be fine. When I say Ghetto, I just mean weirdos mostly a lot of harmless weirdos. 

Looks like more rain coming up for the weekend... I will need to find a way to play this to my advantage somehow... 

Don't Lathe Me Bro

So, this arrived at work today.

Brand new lathe! It's like Christmas for dorks!

Had a fun time getting it uncrated and slowly lowering it to the ground using our ancient egyptian wooden lever arm techniques. The lathe is a Grizzly G0709 Gunsmith Lathe with 14" swing and 40" working length. It's fresh off the boat from China where all quality products are made. Hopefully we'll get someone (possibly me) on wiring it later this week, we also need to put in 7 liters of oil (that's a lot of oil). Basically it will be sweet when we get this thing up and running. We're also moving in the Bridgeport tomorrow morning. Hopefully no one is harmed in the moving of that behemoth. 

These machine tools are making me want to build a battle bot this year. I've got a 2.4Ghz radio I picked up from hobbyking a while back and I've recently found the old McCartney bot motors and wheels. I'm going to keep my eyes open and slowly accumulate some parts, maybe learn solidworks along the way. Either way, I basically have access to a lathe and milling machine now so.... uhhh... hell yes?!?!?! 

Struck out on buying a rowing machine on craislist today only to find an even better deal that was just posted today.... More on this soon, I hope. 

Waiting on some gaskets for my motorcycle before I can get it back on the road. Hopefully will be in by the end of the week, but that's no biggie because the weather is calling for thunderstorms all week. Go go gadget Maine June!