propagator's Journal
[Most Recent Entries]
[Calendar View]
[Friends]
Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in
propagator's LiveJournal:
[ << Previous 20 ]
| Tuesday, August 11th, 2009 | | 12:07 am |
Where Things Stand
So, the first week was kind of a waste. But now, things seem to be moving at an acceptable pace. The Exploder is smogged, and therefore able to be sold. The Jeep even runs now. William's buying the latter for a trip to the playa, and I'm posting the former on craigslist. The house is clean, probably clean enough to show potential buyers. My room's almost cleared out. We even made progress (of a sort) on the boat this weekend. Technically, finding out what doesn't work constitutes progress. Also, my camera is working. Which means it's time for craigslist posting. Also new pics up on Facebook, which is fun too. | | Wednesday, July 15th, 2009 | | 12:10 am |
| | Saturday, July 11th, 2009 | | 2:39 am |
10-4, over and out
Okay, so no one cares, but this just happened at it was cool. I'm volunteering for Gate, Perimeter, Exodus (GPE) this year. Signups started last week, and your login name is your playa name, it's what people call you and what it says on your badge. I couldn't think of anything, so I was asking around. I finally settled on Socrates, but that's not the point. The point is that I dicked around for 4 days or so, and missed out on a lot of top-notch spots. For example, I wanted to do two perimeter shifts, but I can really only swing Noon-6 shifts, and they were all full except Thursday, so I only got 1. The coolest shift, by far, to work is the Gate shift when they open the playa. The playa opens at 12:01am Monday, so that's the Midnight-6am shift at Gate. I didn't take that shift, thinking it would throw my schedule too far out of whack, something I don't want to repeat. So I signed up for the 6pm-Midnight shift, thinking maybe I could hang out a bit after the gates opened and do cool stuff. I lamented not registering earlier, because they have a special 10pm-4am shift (all other shifts are on a 12-6 or 6-12 schedule) for opening night. That would have been awesome, since it's right when the burn begins, but not SO late that I couldn't swing it. But I was too busy screwing around with names to get into one of the (very few) slots. I'd been checking the scheduling page every day to see if different things had opened, to see if I was approved to work an early shift, etc. Today I found I was finally approved to work 6-12 on Sunday, and went to check the scheduling page, just in case. w00t! A bunch of slots are suddenly open for 10-4! YOINK! I'm guessing some people didn't have early arrival passes coming some other way and got bumped? Whatever, TEN TO FOUR, BITCHES! I'm working 6 shifts for GPE this year, coming out to 34 hours. I was originally planning on doing 9am-12pm shifts at Arctica, but they effectively overlap with GPE...bummer. So I'll probably get one or two in, but not enough to keep us rolling in ice. May have to enlist some camp mates to pitch in... | | Tuesday, July 7th, 2009 | | 7:38 pm |
Exodus
So it's been a weird couple of days. I've been lurking on a Portland real estate site, spying on houses for sale for over a year now. I did a similar thing when I was moving to Seattle. Anyway, I found a place 5 blocks from where Dee and her friends are currently living for a disgustingly low price ($200k for 5bd). I mentioned it to Dee, and she mentioned that their lease is almost up, and they have to move. Wouldn't it be great if they could stay in the same location and have a sweet place without a rental agency constantly all over their shit? At the same time, I'm getting word from the boss that the startup is going away in less than 3 months. It's either started or stopped by that point, which means I'm either fired or rich. At the same time, one of my friends from TechShop was here for the weekend, doing a really good job of reminding me of all the really cool shit I could be doing with my life if I weren't so bogged down by bills and other commitments. So I made up my mind, I was going to try to dump this place, even if it meant a loss, and grab the house in Portland outright. That would likely mean all my outstanding debt wiped away, $1600/mo income (regardless of employment status), and I'd still have a room to sleep in. I could use the new-found freedom to work on projects at TechShop in Portland, help out with Watershed, start teaching part-time at community colleges, etc. Of course, it didn't work out (the place is basically already sold), and that wasn't a surprise. But really getting into the nuts and bolts of things, it will take 2-3 months to sell this place, even if it's a fire-sale. And since I'm going to (probably) be unemployed and unable to pay bills in 2-3 months, that means it's time to go. At the very least, it's time for the house to go. If the startup starts up (which honestly, is a distinct possibility), I can always just get an apartment and stay here, working. But an hour after the startup goes under, I want to be south of Olympia. I've been talking about doing this for a while now (every summer, it seems) and I've always held off on it because of financial reasons (like the house would get $50k more if I did $10k worth of work on it, but I don't have $10k). Now though, the cost of not-selling-now is approaching parity with the cost of selling-now, and I'm trying to head it off. | | Sunday, July 5th, 2009 | | 2:39 am |
Progress
So, it was kind of a disaster, but we cleaned out the garage on Friday. There is now room for a boat to be built. At the same time, three independent groups of friends called me out of the blue to see if they could hang out in Seattle this weekend. Which was perfect, since we were already planning on Beerfest and grilling. Beerfest was awesome, the BBQ was hectic, but good. We now have shit-tons of food. Tomorrow, we'll eat reheated steak, brats, beans, potatoes and begin work on Draumr. As far as work goes, we moved into the new space on Wednesday. We're still getting set-up, and the internet doesn't work, but it's nice to have a location that feels like it belongs to us. The motors got "made", by which I mean they got 75% made, with the rest having to be done half-assedly and by hand. The boss was driving me nuts the other day. Communication and coordination are all kinds of fucked up. It's annoying. The pay cut sucks, but it probably won't matter in practice, since I'll have a lot more hours now. Anyway, bedtime, we have megatons of shit to do tomorrow. | | Wednesday, June 17th, 2009 | | 4:10 pm |
Homebound
So, talked to the boss today, and it looks like I should head back to Seattle. The only question exactly is when. There's a Burner BBQ thing this on Saturday that I wanted to go to, but there's also ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) galith 's BBQ in Seattle on Saturday. There's also loads of stuff to do at the house, and Portland is always fun, so I'm inclined to leave earlier rather than later. I should probably just plan on bailing tomorrow. Hopefully the Jetta will make it back in one piece... | | Friday, May 22nd, 2009 | | 5:27 pm |
Back to the Land of Milk and Honey
So, it looks like we're going to California tomorrow. We're leaving late, but since we can share driving, it should be fine. I just need to get my shit together before we go. I don't know how long I'll be down there this time, probably about a month. Since I'm not bringing any projects down, I'm hoping it's not too long. I do still have a boat to put together. The garage needs to get cleaned out, and I'm probably moving downstairs to make room for Jack and Jason. So here's hoping I'm back in time for that. | | Tuesday, May 12th, 2009 | | 7:02 pm |
Back in Seattle
Title says it all really. Plane didn't crash or anything. Virgin is still the best airline I've ever flown. They had fucking Text Twist on the plane! I mean, they called it something else, but I know Text Twist when I see it. Within about 5 minutes of everyone taking their seat, I could see about 40% of the plane playing it . Good times. | | Friday, May 8th, 2009 | | 1:01 am |
Still sick, but that's what I get for a weekend of sleep-dep and drinking. Though, the sleep-dep wasn't entirely my fault, as I had precious few adequate places to sleep. I did go to my first show in San Francisco, so that's cool. Got a few more parking tickets, but I'm not worried. Eventually they'll go into collection and charge me 10-20 cents on the dollar. Still, it's more or less permanently discouraged me from hanging out with Paul and Amy, which sucks. Anyway, my post was mostly to say that I'll be heading back to Seattle on Monday night. Going to grab some shit and haul it down to San Jose, with a stop in Salem for a minis tournament. Should be fun, especially if I win. Heading down to Portland/Salem for that on Friday, so it'll be a short trip. | | Friday, April 24th, 2009 | | 1:26 am |
R.I.P. Taco Bell
As of about an hour ago, the Taco Bell at 1546 Camden Ave. is no more. I think a moment of silence is in order. . . . . . . . . . . Seriously, I've probably spent more money at that Taco Bell than I did on my first car. Senior year, that place was basically my kitchen. Sure, they've built a new one half a block down the road with a drive-thru. But it won't be the same. Man. | | Thursday, April 23rd, 2009 | | 12:44 pm |
God Dammit...
The good news is I got the motor up and running the other day. And everything works, if not as well as it should. Need to finish some stuff up, test and refit. yay. I just can't be too stoked about that right now, though. I got an email from the boss the other day with a really good idea. Better than my idea. Much better, actually. It's just...kinda perfect. I'm not upset because it means that all the stuff I've been working on is just a waste, or because I have to start a whole new project. It's that it wasn't my idea. God dammit. I hate it when other people are right. In other news, I reaped about $400 from the prizes at the minis tourney last month. That'll help with bills, etc. Also, I'm heading back to Seattle next month. I need to get some clothes, tools, and parts for the boat. With all the facilities available at TechShop, there's no excuse for me to show up to the playa this year without a boat. So expect me in Seattle from about May 12-15. There's also talk of re-re-locating (is that just locating?) back to the machine shop in Seattle. The machinist is back (or so it is said) and the boss kinda wants to get everyone back together in an office for 40-hour weeks. I'm against the idea, but we'll see what happens. | | Monday, March 16th, 2009 | | 12:10 am |
This Weekend
A couple of friends of mine have gotten me into a new game, WoW minis: http://entertainment.upperdeck.com/wowmi nis/en/default.aspx It's kinda like playing magic in a lot of ways, but easier. Instead of decks having 60 cards, parties have 3 (or even sometimes just 2) members, each of which gets 2 spells. Also, it just came out, so instead of there being 10,000 cards around to keep track of, there's only about 70 so far. So building parties is easier, and playing the game is easier. I went to a huge tournament in SF a couple of weeks ago and lost just about every game. This last weekend, there was another tournament, with a grand prize of about $1000 and they were holding one in Roseville, which gave me an excuse to go up and see Dad. There's no way I could do as badly as I did in SF. Right? Uh, actually, yeah. That is right. I fucking wrecked fools. I shut out about half the teams I faced, and I wasn't even rolling that well. (Okay, one game, I kinda rolled like a demon) The tournament format was retarded (I won't go into it) but I ended up 6-0 and the only undefeated. They cut to a top 8, and after one round, 3 of the last 4 people were me and my friends. The final ended up being me and one of them, and it was the only game I lost all day. It didn't really matter as we'd already agreed to a prize split. Oh, and along the way, there was a random drawing for a $100 prize and I got that too. So, all in all, it was a pretty good haul for $20 plus diesel. I like the game, and I'm looking forward to the new set. Never did get to see Dad though, as I couldn't get in touch with him all week. Ended up spending the rest of the weekend having fun in SF (again). At this point, I think I've spent every weekend in SF since I've been here. Now though, I'm off to finish some work. | | Saturday, February 28th, 2009 | | 12:03 am |
R.I.P. Zeitgeist
Okay, I finally made it to my all-time favorite bar Evar(TM). I've spent 6 of the last 7 nights in The City and still hadn't made it to Zeitgeist, so we got mediterranean food and hit the bar. Fuck. First off, it was crowded. Wall-to-wall, unable to walk, even outside a the beer garden. WTF? Bartender was frantic, couldn't get a pitcher, and nowhere to sit. WTF? Then I looked around: no piercings, no biker boots, no camo. WTF? I even saw some motherfucker in there wearing a sweater over a dress shirt. WHAT THE FUCK?! Girls wearing hats that match their skirts? Guys in black silk camp shirts with the top button undone? Blond guys in blazers doing frat-boy high-five-finger-snap-fist-bump-knee-kic k-handshakes? People drinking Bud Light? THEY HAVE FUCKING FRANZISKANER ON TAP! AND RADEBURGER! AND TRUMER! THEY HAVE RACER 5, GUINNESS, PROHIBITION, LAGUNITAS, AND MIRROR POND AND YOU'RE DRINKING BUD LIGHT? OUT OF A BOTTLE?! I damn near had a stroke. Now I know how people feel when the hipsters take over their bar. Shittiness. In other news, I started in the shop today, and things are going great. Current Mood:  furiousCurrent Music: Muse - Knights of Cydonia | | Monday, February 16th, 2009 | | 1:18 pm |
I'm not here right now...
Meant to do this before I left, but whatever. So, yeah, I'm in California right now. Menlo Park, to be specific. I have temporarily (?) relocated to the Bay Area, this time for business rather than pleasure. I should be here for a month or so, trying to finish up our prototyping phase. Wish me luck. | | Saturday, December 20th, 2008 | | 2:30 pm |
Knowing is half the battle
So during my meeting today, I had a bit of an epiphany. I know what I'm going to get for my next tattoo. If this design gets patented, as it should, I'm going to get the patent number tattooed on myself. Probably not just the patent number, but maybe have the number as part of a bigger piece. Or maybe a barcode of the number. But something like that. I think your first patented invention is worth a tat. If that happens this year, I'll have even knocked out a new years resolution. Though, I suspect it will take more than 8 months to get a patent approved, especially if we haven't even started yet. | | Friday, December 12th, 2008 | | 4:26 pm |
FYI
I'm a fuckin' genius. That is all. | | Wednesday, December 10th, 2008 | | 4:41 pm |
Holy Crap!
Dude, Steven Chu is going to be Energy Secretary?! I love this guy! This is a nobel-prize winning physicist, who left atomic physics to go run LBL, which is doing (among other things), some really ambitious renewable energy research. I got a chance to hear him speak about exactly this when he gave a colloquium at UW a couple years ago. It's still the best colloquium I've heard, and I left it thinking (I shit you not) "Why isn't this guy in charge of stuff?". Well, now he is! Or will be, in any event. OMG, I'm such an Obama fanboy right now. I can't believe we're putting a physicist in charge of the Department of Energy. Normally, it would be the governor of Michigan or something. This could be the smartest thing the U.S. government has done since...um. Hrm. Give me a few days (and a history text) and I'm sure I'll think of something. I hesitate to say it, but it's change I can believe in. | | Tuesday, November 4th, 2008 | | 6:23 pm |
Savage Beatings
Okay, they just called mothafuckin' O- hi-o for Obama. Can we call it yet. Can we end it? Is it over? Can you motherfuckers just say it? SAY IT! | | 5:17 pm |
Nail in the coffin
They just called PA for Obama. At 5pm. So, like I've been saying, it's going to be an early night. This justifies my anger at some of the writing. People have been talking a lot about how McCain was trying to win PA and how this election was in doubt, and "you never know". Never know what? That literally every poll taken in PA in the last month was off? By at least 10? What was it exactly that you never knew? What was out there that was a 10-15 point systematic? And if you thought it was out there, and it's not, it should be a huge fucking story. I'm still waiting for my Santorum moment. For those of you unfamiliar with it, that's when a candidate is on TV telling the screen that he thinks he's going to win and they end the interview and bring up a graphic that shows he lost. That shit was awesome. | | 5:05 pm |
Not Crazy
So, the networks aren't saying it, so I will. Early results from Indiana, Georgia seem to indicate that those states are close. McCain wins them probably, but that's not the point. The point is that it wasn't obvious that they would be, and we only found out they were close through polling. Therefore, the polling does not seem to be bat-shit insane. In order for McCain to win, some (or many) of the polls needed to be bat-shit insane. The only hold out for McCain was that 159 polls were wrong. They do not seem to be. Congrats President-elect Obama. Edit: I'm taking another look at the Indiana data, and um, holy shit. Obama is breaking even on men and winning women. He's within 2 points, and they haven't counted Lake county or Indianapolis. So I'm thinking that maybe Obama wins Indiana. Which probably means a motherfucking landslide. |
[ << Previous 20 ]
|
