Burnout 2006:  Well, the weather did not want to cooperate one bit...well, the night started out looking GREAT, then the front moved thru and it rained like crazy.  Oh well...at least we got two good flare-ups of the fire (good ol' sodium nitrate) and had PLENTY of food...bit much actually.   LOL, guess we should pot luck from now on.  Sorry,  no pics.

Rednecks:  I thought I'd mention that a few days ago I ran into an annoying little redneck.  I was sitting at the stop light, at the front...in my own little world. Then I heard a honk and someone pulled out into the intersection in front of me to wait for the light.  Hmmmm, this annoyed me a bit...so when the light changed I went around them, signaling as I went and passed them...at which point they jerked out into the other lane, floored it and swerved back in front of me.  Hmmmm, guess he's a bit more annoyed (at what I have no idea) than me sooooo no biggie, I let him get some distance in but as I was about to turn I thought...hey, I'll just wait until this idiot is an unsafe distance from MY turn (which he probably isn't going to be taking) but, when I put on my turn signal he slamed on breaks and turned (a VERY unsafe maneuver given how close he was to the turn).  Anyway, long story short (too late) he pulled in, got out and started bitching at me asking what my problem was.  I pointed out his pulling in front of me at the intersection but he informed me he had ASKED me if he could pull up...oh, and even honked (how nice).  I apologized for the misunderstanding and he kept on talking shit *sigh* pointed out that he probably shouldn't keep bitching at people that apologize to him when it's his fault in the first place and he said some crap about not starting stuff with him.

WOOT! It's on. This Saturday (the 11th). Invitation or previous attendees (guests are fine). Need directions...use this link to google maps.  Best wishes to those that couldn't make the rather hastily settled upon schedule (especially Brian).

Actually I forgot, forgot, the 5th of November (Guy Fawkes day).  Wouldn't have even been aware if I came to my own website and saw the logo 

In other news...I'd originally given up on the burnout this year but I think I'll call some people tomorrow and ask if people could make it friday.  It would be a good time.  Supposed to rain wed/thurs, so I wouldn't have as much to worry about with the fire...it won't be too cold (not that I have a problem with that) and it's the normal night we do movie night.  Maybe, maybe not.

Also, getting sick and freaking tired of seeing assholes walking thru the grocery store, cellphone in hand, pulling their cart from BESIDE IT!!!  Stupid fucks paying no attention, walking at a snail's pace, taking up the whole walkway.  Aaaaaaaaaaaaaurgh, pay attention to the world people!!!  I think I'm going to stand with my arms blocking them from now on and face the other way...Oh, I'm sorry...I was just being an asshat like you...ignoring everyone and trying to take up as much space as possible.

A friend of mine has been working...and working...and working on a film.  It's actually quite good, especially considering there's essentially no funding involved.  The plot's good, camera work is pretty good.  I'll be honest, the acting is a little rough, but again, considering the type of production, it's unusually good.  Anyway, he finally made it available on Google Video.

Also, there's a blooper reel 

Just thought I'd point out something I read on slashdot.  If you search for profanity in google's code search, you find lots of amusing comments.  For instance...damn, shit and fuck.

On a totally different note...the air cannon.  After trying it (and it does work) I've come to the decision that I don't want a handheld one using a bottle.  I just don't trust it enough to have it in my hands.  I'll make another that's more...the standard cannon format (little platform mounted so it can swivel up/down).

OK...the tank is glued together.  You've got to love polyurethane glue. At the moment it lacks a release mechanism AND a way to pressurize it.  HOWEVER, I have tested it by using one of the water rocket launch heads to inflate it.  Then as a trigger all I have to do is pull out the launcher head.  I've only tested it at 20psi since I'm not 100% sure of the glue yet.  I'll try to get it up to about 100 PSI so I can be sure it won't break when I'm using it at 60ish.  Tests at 20 psi were just enough to throw projectiles about as far as I can.  Keep in mind, this is just barely enough air to displace all the air in the barrel...not much force.  At 40psi or more it will be FAR more powerful.  Another "unfinished" bit is...the barrel.  I haven't glued it in...just in case I want to test it with a longer barrel.  Hopefully that won't cause any...issues.

Thrill of thrills, I have a cold today.  Oh well.  A couple days ago I finished up the plaster form I'm using to heat-shrink the end of a 2 liter bottle down to the point that it fits on a 2 inch PVC coupler.  Today I shrank the bottle down.  In a moment of absent mindedness I pondered the idea of installing a valve stem in a bottle cap to give the bottle end enough pressure to pop it off the form...then I remembered I have about a dozen water rocket launcher heads just laying around...problem solved.  Finally, just a bit ago, after roughing up the surfaces I covered the affected areas of the 2 inch coupler and reformed bottle with glue and pressed them together.  I'd actually be able to finish it up tonight were it not for the fact that I don't have any freaking PVC cement (it's dried up).  Anyway, here's the picture of the form and bottle section with coupler (in case you weren't aware, I'm going to be using a couple pieces off a 2liter bottle to form the air tank on my air cannon.

Saw a bunch of air cannon and spud gun footage on youtube. I really need to put together another air cannon...and maybe that hybrid I've always wanted to make. It shouldn't actually be all that difficult to do really...since I already have the valve (that's the hard part) done...but then again I've been planning to do it for a long time now and haven't.  Such is the life of a lazy person.

Hmmm, what else is going on...Finally got off my ass and played Halo.  It's been sitting around the house since last christmas.  LOL, in a way it's nice to have waited since I've got a graphics card that hardly even notices the load and a great processor.  It think I have about 8X more CPU time, memory, and WAY more graphics processing capability than Halo needs.  Enjoyed the game but I really hated the "checkpoint" based save games.  Especially that one time it saved the checkpoint right as an enemy was rounding the corner with a rocket launcher.

There was a loud snap, some smoke...and my computer went dead.  Turns out YET ANOTHER power supply went dead.  I'd been PLANNING to put together a dual rail PSU but, now I need to get another anyway so I might as well get an extra beefy PSU (and what the heck, throw together a 2 rail PSU of my own).

And yes, I opened up the PSU.  There was copper/solder deposited on the PCB (ie, it was vaporized off the coil) and the fuse had also blown.  Oh well.

Defensive Driving:  I forgot to mention earlier this week that I took the defensive driving course.  Sometimes I really wonder about people.  Apparently they're starting to issue tickets for "running" YELLOW lights.  The guy said it was considered "failing to yield the right of way" but TO WHO, Ghost pirates?!?!?  What the hell is the point of having a three state light if one's not a warning?  There was another bullshit thing the guy was talking about that I can't remember *shrug* all the rest of it is pretty straight forward stuff.