The Heavyside Lair II
[Most Recent Entries]
[Calendar View]
[Friends]
Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in
Stephen E's LiveJournal:
[ << Previous 20 ]
| Wednesday, July 8th, 2009 | | 8:40 am |
| | Monday, June 29th, 2009 | | 8:49 am |
David Hough is awesome
David Hough will be inducted into the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame this December at the Hard Rock in Vegas. I can't think of someone more deserving. | | Monday, June 15th, 2009 | | 2:13 pm |
quick updates
We sold the Sentra, and fast. After posting it on craigslist, there were 12 replies within a few hours, with varying degrees of seriousness. We responded to the only one that replied using complete sentences and punctuation. She picked up the car the next day, paid cash and the Sentra drove out of our lives. My bike continues to be absent from my life. It's in the shop with a broken bolt, excess engine vibration continues to be an issue. These days, every time I'm driving and I see a motorcyclist riding in this beautiful weather I get a stab of resentment. I hope to get it back soon, by optimistic estimates it'll be back by this weekend. At least I have a spiffy new car to get used to in the mean time. I shot a bunch of pictures two weekends ago, then spent this weekend sorting through them for the ones I liked. This one is by far my favorite. It's actually a crop from a much bigger picture. I took it from the 16 percent view I had been using up to a 100 percent view, which is basically what you see here. I then cropped everything else out. I had the easiest Team Oregon class ever this last weekend. Due to a bunch of drop outs, we ended up with a grand total of seven students. The weather was nice, overcast, but not wet. The students were all great. One needed attention due to being brand new, one just plain needed attention. Everybody comfortably passed the test. It was as easy as these weekends get. | | Tuesday, June 9th, 2009 | | 1:09 pm |
1995 Nissan Sentra, well loved, $500
Crossposted this to Craigslist :) http://portland.craigslist.org/mlt/cto/1213969061.html---- Where by "well loved" we mean "beat up but still runs". We are the original owners. It has gotten all the recommended dealer services done at Beaverton Nissan. It passed the DEQ last month and the plates are good for two more years. The odometer says 120080 miles. For a 15 year old car that’d be great, if it were true. However, the odometer stopped working 5 years ago. We figure the car knew its days were numbered when we got the motorcycles. The engine runs fine; it has a minor coolant leak that we’ve not been able to track down. We just carry coolant with us, now you can too! We’ll throw in a gallon. We’ll also throw in a set of tire chains. They got some good use last winter. They’re the heavy-duty, easy-install-and-remove style. If we have another snowpocalypse you’ll be prepared. The radio works, the tape deck does not. If you need the tape deck to work, I suspect you’ve got bigger problems than I am qualified to help with. It is missing the passenger side mirror. My wife saw fit to remove it by means of our garage door to make room for mounting a targeting laser. Sadly we never got around to mounting the laser, but the car is extra fuel-efficient as it is missing that superfluous mirror. It has never been in a collision while we were in it. However, there’s an old dent in the rear quarter panel courtesy of some jerk in a parking lot. Hence the inspiration for the targeting laser. It comes with some bitchin’ purple fairy car seat covers. Nothing says badass like fairies. The windshield is cracked. I can’t think of something funny to say about that, cracked windshields just suck. There is a decorative “airbag” light. It blinks constantly. You can use it as a metronome if you like or just put some electric tape over it. I suppose if you are feeling saucy you could just get the airbag serviced instead. It has a keyless entry system. That is to say, back when the car was worth something, someone tried to break in to the car, and now the passenger side door lock is loose. We’ll teach you the special trick you can use to open the door without a key. You’ll never lock your keys in the car again! All that said it’s a running car for 500 bucks. What more do you want for 500 bucks? | | Thursday, May 14th, 2009 | | 1:39 pm |
| | 10:39 am |
National Film Board of Canada
The National Film Board of Canada has brought some really great stuff to the world, and I'm really excited to see they've emerged int othe digital age. Do not click the link unless you have an hour or so to spend :) | | Sunday, May 10th, 2009 | | 5:52 pm |
biker weekend
It is a bike-themed weekend. Spent the weekend teaching, one of the better classes I've had. Everyone understood counter-steering (by the end of the swerve maneuver) and the slow speed corner went really well. They were really a good group. I suspect a few people didn't pass*, but that was mostly nerves. The skills that were required were learned, they just weren't solid enough to survive the stress of a test. Which is fine, if a test stresses a student out enough to forget fundamentals, they're not street-ready. We also gifted some cycle gear to a new rider, ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) sauciwench, earning ourselves some good biker karma. We're glad it could find a good home, and get her on her way easier. Tomorrow cee_gee and I will be taking the ART class. Although it looks like we're going to be a little damp, I'm still excited. I've taken an abbreviated version of the course (a Team Oregon instructor perk) and am very excited to see what it is like in it's entirety. It's a morning of classroom instruction and an afternoon on this track. Finally there was a biker on the wet-leather mailing list also taking the class, and we'll be hosting him for the evening. He's got a bit of a ride in and didn't want to do several hours of riding on either end of this class. * I was the secondary instructor, and never got to look at the tallied scoresheet. Didn't care to either, that's not the point (for me). | | Friday, May 1st, 2009 | | 9:54 am |
TYSADTWD
We recently had "Take your sons and Daughters to work Day" here at work. I was engaged to take both candid shots throughout the day and to do portraits of any of the kids who their parents brought to our little "studio". Most of the kids were pretty good in front of the camera, although a good portion of that was posing with the dogs. The kids would give this big genuine smiles because they got to pose with their choice of the dogs that happened to be at work that day. ( Cut for adorable veterinary cuteness )Hrm, I might need a photography icon. | | Thursday, April 30th, 2009 | | 10:22 am |
Back in Black
It is really nice to be back on the bike. It is a little disconcerting too. As the bike had more and more obviously needed a trip to the shop, I had been babying it. I just got it back and it certainly doesn't need that anymore. I am reacquainting myself with 80 or so ft.lbs of torque. I am also really glad our ART class is coming up to help me better understand how to effectively use that power. Watching the head of Team Oregon ride as part of the research I’m doing on the weekends has reinforced my need to learn more about riding. He makes it look so easy, so smooth. When we were watching a rather exceptional subject practice the RSP course last weekend we were talking about people starting riding and learning to ride. He commented that riding was addictive. I made a minor correction and commented that riding well is addictive. He accepted that correction. | | Monday, April 27th, 2009 | | 9:29 am |
google ad weirdness
We're having a gmail discussion about gaming, trying to get as far into the session as we can, before we actually sit at the table. I just took a look at the context-sensitive ads on the side of my gmail page: Spirit Entity Removal 100% Effective and Remote.Discreet. Internationally renowned expert. www.spiritentityremoval.com Voodoo by Papa Jorge Specializing in love problems. Reuniting lovers. 1-800-958-6636 www.papajorgevoodoo.com Free Magic Spells Whatever you need, my powerful spells can help. All free. www.sara-freder.com/ Venus Love Spells Ancient rituals. Magic spells with Rapid results. Love, money, power! www.venuslovespells.com Extra Power Magic Spells Guaranteed Faster Working Spells plus Free Psychic Reading today. www.Wizards-Magic-Spells.com Current Mood:  amused | | Monday, April 20th, 2009 | | 2:29 pm |
Victoriana Theatre
cee_gee and julrosec and I are planning on visiting the theat-ah on May 2nd. We're going to see a local collective do their interpretation of "Alice in Wonderland". I am expecting a very loose interpretation, but some fun. We're also planning on wearing our victorian finest. Anyone else game? Information and tickets are here: http://www.bossanovaballroom.com/( Event Details ) | | Monday, April 13th, 2009 | | 5:17 pm |
Norwescon 32
Oh, Norwescon, how I love thee. Lemme count the ways: The dances. My favorite part of Norwescon. This year, for the first time, I actually took some time and tried to get good pictures of the dancers. It was then I noticed why I like Norwescon dances so much. Everyone is having a really good time. I often have to hunt around to find pictures of people who are really smiling. Not posed, but actually smiling because they are genuinely happy. At the dance everyone seemed genuinely happy. With the lighting it was still hard to get good pictures, but I did manage this one: http://www.geekslair.com/nor09/Pages/40.htmlPlaying dress up is fun. We had a few fun costumes. When people took the time to notice what I was carrying, they appreciated the wonderflonium security guard. Most people didn’t understand our group “Marsh refining company” costume: http://www.geekslair.com/nor09/Pages/8.html . And finally, we had a steampunkish costume based on a gaslamp-era Torchwood: http://www.geekslair.com/nor09/Pages/29.html . I think year was our year of the subtle costume, we didn’t get a lot of immediate recognition. Still, it was fun. I find it kinda ironic that the costume that took the least amount of effort or planning, the rock Band band, got the most recognition. There was a small but rabid crowd to be played for at the dance, and a special performance at one of the parties. Additionally it was fun to go play rock band, although I was extremely disappointed that I forgot to bring the connector cable for the light and smoke kit. Bad Roadie! Generally we’re having fun looking into steampunk costuming. There’s just a lot of options and given the relative lack of source material, there’s few constraints on what you can do. Here’s a crowd of them: http://www.geekslair.com/nor09/Pages/1.htmlThere were a number of great costumes, the best of which was a couple doing “Legend”: http://www.geekslair.com/nor09/Pages/10.html. However, I’d want to give some sort of medal to the guy who did Wash: http://www.geekslair.com/nor09/Pages/5.htmlThe Parties were a lot of fun. I enjoyed introducing my sister to vodka-infused cinnamon-cherries. More pictures available at: http://www.geekslair.com/nor09/I enjoyed the new panelists this year. As much as we enjoyed previous gaming tracks, this year had very new people going in very new directions. It was fun exploring these new places. I also got a fair amount out of the first half of the comics panel. | | Sunday, February 22nd, 2009 | | 12:07 pm |
The endless setlist
Wow, what a day. The rocking started just after noon and continued well into the night. Those of you who were there know what was up, the rest . . . . well, you seriously missed out. There was drinking, screaming, lights, smoke, costumes, contests (with real prizes!) and RAWK! Web smallified pictures at: http://www.geekslair.com/endlesssetlist | | Thursday, February 5th, 2009 | | 9:20 am |
| | Monday, February 2nd, 2009 | | 10:28 am |
Let there be Blood . . .
. . . . BOWL! http://www.bloodbowl-game.com/I am so very excited. A game I loved in high-school/collage, turning into what looks to be a very polished video game. The players even look like the old games workshops figurines. Current Mood: excited | | Monday, December 8th, 2008 | | 12:00 pm |
Ink and the Doctor
Spent the weekend watching Doctor Who and making geeky tee-shirts. It was time well spent. Our silk-screen process has 6, 45 minute mandatory breaks built in (most of them being drying time). That ends up being just about perfect for watching half a season of Doctor Who. Thanks to Jules for doing this with me, and thanks to everyone else who showed up, both for making it more fun, and for being patient while we stopped watching Tennant to actually do some of the tee-shirt making process. Today I'm going to be spending the whole day doing photo processing on pictures of kids with Santa. It would seem that this has something to do with being part of the education tech team here. I have an odd job sometimes. | | Tuesday, November 18th, 2008 | | 1:41 pm |
Quick update and a meme
So many things since my last post. Things have been busy! I suspect if I wait to write a 'good post' or until i get pictures posted from all these things, I may never post again, so here's a quick summary: Symposium happened. It was a week away from everything, sequestered in the Marriott. The big news is that we will not be doing these in Portland come next year. It's funny, I was planning on finally making a trip to Vegas next year, now it looks like I will be going three times a year on the company dime. I think the best picture from this year is this one. Directly following symposium there were layoffs on the education team and new management moving in. It's probably a healthy thing overall but hard in the short run. It feels like the required blood sacrifice to get us from 'pariah' status back to 'reasonably important department'. On the good news front, the new management is more technically ept than old management, so I'm reviewing all my old tech proposals to see if any might want to be re-floated. Went to the Team Oregon Banquet for the first time this year. It was fun. I expect it will be a very fun time when I know more people and know them better, but even as a bit of an outsider it was still an interesting presentation with good prizes. At home, I have been completely consumed by Fallout 3. I have not loved a game like this in quite a while. It is nearing Rolemaster proportions. I am really impressed with the amount of content they have in the game. I've been playing mainly near the starting town and I am still finding new things. There's a lot of content to be plumbed and most doesn't all have big flags over it's head signaling 'look at me!'. There's lots of little touches like found diaries and radio messages. Well placed skeletons, tragic tableaus. They've also captured my heart through some great moral ambiguity. I tried to do the white hat thing early on and an NPC ended up conning me. I was so pleased with the game developers, making the 'good' path harder and possibly unrewarded. My other favorite moment was sneaking down a rubble-choked avenue and seeing some cars at the intersection ahead. Cars are very explosive, so I was thinking about laying some landmines near them, should I need to retreat in this direction. As I am pondering this, I just happen to look up and notice something hanging from the overhead walkway above the intersection. Zooming in with my sniper scope I see it is a grenade-cluster trap, just waiting for me to stumble across the tripwire. Evil, evil developers, I love them. ( One of theme meme things, music-based ) Current Mood:  busy | | Tuesday, October 28th, 2008 | | 12:21 pm |
Wow, what a weekend
Friday night I went to go see Nightmare Before christmas in 3D at Cinetopia. I had some excellent company in the form of katlyn. We had dinner beforehand at their restaurant. I had the best meatloaf I've ever had. I mean, that's not exactly setting the bar high, but it was really very good. When we went to the movie, it was a little trippy to get the 3D glasses upon entering the theatre. I was also a little surprised to discover that half the trailers were also in 3D. I'd read that the industry was going to push 3D movies as a way to combat ticket sales losses to people like me (with impressive home theatre setups). I guess I didn't realize how serious some of them were. It was interesting to see the movie in 3D, but not revolutionary. The restaurant at Cinetopia is far more of a draw for me than 3D presentations. Saturday I was engaged with making props for the Halloween bash at work. Banfield takes Halloween very seriously. julrosec designed the patterns and katlyn provided some terribly applicable music. All three of us spent the day shaping foamboard. Painting went into the evening. Because of a late start, J and I missed out on what sounded like a fantastically fun haunted house crawl. However, I have learned a new skill and expect it will come up in future super-secret projects :) As we were washing out the brushes, we started getting calls from people who were done with the haunted house crawl. The evening turned into a late night of Rock Band excess. Sunday I headed to my darling wife's horse show for a bit and took some pictures. Sunday evening was dinner and a show, however I think that's another story and will require some pictures. | | Tuesday, October 21st, 2008 | | 11:15 am |
The three R's: resting, reading and rockband
I should have taken today off. I did not get any decompression time and I now have the bends. When I woke up this morning, I thought I was still in the Dalles. I was quite unimpressed when I realized otherwise. I wanted to see this view from my breakfast table. Instead I saw a living and dining room full of boxes, bags and suitcases. We had many new people at the Halloween party this year, and I was very impressed with how well everyone got along. Most people spent their time resting, resting or really resting. Rock Band featured prominently in the Theatre, however, I was happy to see that it was also broken down and movies were also watched. However, Jules may have been better off with Rock Band, the movies she ended up seeing were regrettable. One of my favorite parts of the weekend was getting the crowd to sing in the theatre. We were playing rock band, and I was singing. There is a part of "This ain't a scene" that had the lead singer getting the crowd to sing. And they did, lustfully! It was fun to have everyone in the theatre in on the experience, instead of just those of us holding fake instruments. We had some awesome giveaways. The packaging was very pretty. I was happy to see everyone in their tee shirts. For some reason I had doubts as to people appreciating the shirts. Gene built one hell of a bonfire this year. It was easily twice the size of previous years, perhaps 3-4 times the volume of wood. When it was lit it was kind of amazing. There were some awesome costumes this year. I'm going to have to work on getting a better picture of the group. Perhaps break down and actually use the built in flash. Another year down, the next year well into planning stages. So far six spots have been reserved for Halloween 2009 :) | | Monday, October 6th, 2008 | | 1:07 pm |
Another year of the HP Lovecraft film festival
If you need to prioritize what you want to see at the film festival I strongly suggest the short blocks. There are a lot of cool things to do and see at the festival, but in the short blocks you'll find these little gems that you'll never see otherwise. This last weekend we saw all the short (well, nearly all) films. There were some really amazing ones. "AM1200" and "Eel Girl" quite justly won awards. "Casting Call of Cuthulhu" and "Screw-on Head" were very funny. I'm happy to have seen them, I wish there was some way to _own_ all of them, but several of the good ones are festival-only movies. We also saw the feature "The Dunwich Horror". Jeffery Combs was great, playing very against type as Wilbur Whatley. Dean Stockwell gave me my favorite moment of the festival as Henry Armitage. He's got a shotgun pointed at an unarmed insane cultist. She says something like "Awww geeze mister, you wouldn't shoot little old me, would you?" The then proceeds to blow the top of her head off without a moment of hestitation. The crowd cheered. The film did have some technical limitations. I wish they could have afforded film stock and some better special effects. It was still good fun. |
[ << Previous 20 ]
|
