Being a pen geek and needing to practice on some new 3D design software I need for my new J-O-B (another post about that later), I decided to build some small parts that held my interest, one of them being a pen case for my Kaweco Lilliput pens and my Fisher Space Pens that would fit in one of the tin boxes that the Kawecos come in. I spent a little time in CREO and used an over-worked and not well loved/cleaned 3D printer (not my personal printer) with some REALLY old PLA, which you can see by the gaps and gobs in the printed pieces – not perfect, but they will do. I spent about 40 minutes drawing the two versions and spent maybe $4.00 in electricity and material. At the end of it all, I know where all the needed tools are in CREO, I have a new pen case, and I have leveled up in my nerdiness.
Category: Tech
Film Friday – 3D Printing Projects
I have been doing some medium-serious designing, borrowing, appropriating, and just plain stealing some 3D designs and printing useful stuff this winter in between shop time, my J-O-B, building projects, and remodel projects. The video below details the printing and use of a couple of safety razor cases, SD card holders, and GoPro Session4 case.
Film Friday – An Update and a Little Ranting
A quick update about why I have not posted here on my blog or been on YouTube for a few weeks and how I have been spending my time: Roadtrippin’, some slight ranting, obscene gestures, naughty words, snowboarding, beer, some boats, a little 3D printing, and a sneak peak at the Jeep’s homecoming after 12 weeks in the body shop are all to follow.
YouTube Partnership Program Rule Change Rant
So, I am going to rant for just a bit, bear with me…
-Mounts Soapbox –
“Ahem… I set a goal to be a better filmmaker, content provider, and maker five months ago. Part of that goal was to reach the 10,000 view threshold to monetize my YouTube account. I did not plan to quit my J-O-B, or be internet famous, I just wanted to use it as a milestone for progress toward the goal and I nailed it on January 4th! 10,000 views!! I was so stoked that I woke my wife up way too late one night to tell her. My account was under review for 2 weeks and I was finally officially monetized for two days – two WHOLE days – before BAM!! I was demonetized with a huge group of small and smaller content providers. Son of a…
While this was a while in coming, it looks like the process/decision was sped up when a guy with 15+ million subscribers named Logan Paul posted a video of a suicide victim. 1st, what a fucking privileged asshat. WTF is wrong with people?! He should be forever ashamed, and spend a great deal of his YouTube revenue on suicide prevention and advocacy. What should’ve happened following the public and advertiser outrage was YouTube suspending or deleting his channel, but that dude generates SERIOUS ad revenue, so… What happened instead was that YouTube took him off the top-tier ad group and YouTube punished the SHIT out of the small folks by demonetizing channels with less than 4000 hours of watch-time AND less than1000 subscribers to ‘protect their core values’? Makes zero sense and this guy will continue to post and earn $$$ even at the lower tier.
OK, fine, fuck’em. I was not doing this for some mythical pot of gold. This setback is just going to make me dig deeper. I am 10% to the new threshold and I will keep slogging on. Keep making and doing. Post better and better content. This will make me leaner, stronger, bigger, better, more… A better speaker, better filmmaker, I will get lighting and sound for my videos dialed, have awesome content, and be a better person from it all. Success doesn’t teach half as much as adversity.
To all effected by the YouTube demonetization BS: Don’t quit! Keep slogging on. Keep making and doing. You too will be all the better for it. Send me your channel and I will follow you and help with the watch hour threshold. As I said, I had just hit the monetization before all of this and we will get there again. It will take some hard work but, we can all help each other out.”
– Dismount Soapbox –
Film Friday – Double Feature
I had a found (fly-away issue) DJI Phantom 3Pro sent to me as a gift by an awesome buddy – a SERIOUSLY awesome friend! I took a look and decided to rebuild the thing and see if I could get it back in the air. Here is that process:
From my second You Tube Channel – the one I use to share vacation videos and miscellaneous stuff – I present for your viewing pleasure: Snowboarding at Loveland and Winterpark in Colorado with great friends on MLK weekend 2018
As always, PLEASE hit the subscribe button if you like my content on YouTube. Thank you!
Amazon is my friend.
Amazon makes me happy. I need a tool or a book or a part and a few clicks and 24-48 hours later I have the stuff I need. In the last month I have purchased the following and help make Jeff Bazos officially the worlds richest man:
1-3/16-Inch Combination Wrench
1/2″ drive 6 PT STD Socket 1 3/16
Book: The Orphan Master’s Son: A Novel (Pulitzer Prize for Fiction)
Valvoline SynPower Synthetic Automotive Grease – 14.1oz
Conan The Barbarian Thulsa Doom Iron/Sew On Embroidered Patch
Winter is Coming / Stark Wolf / Game of Thrones 2×3 Patch
Dropping F Bomb WW 2 Style Tactical morale 3.5 X 1.25 Hook Patch
1 $25 gift Card
Book: The Weight of Ink
Dickies Men’s Short Sleeve Shirt, Blue Chambray, Medium
Book: The Adventure of English: The Biography of a Language
DCDEAL Large Size 24 Compartments Adjustable Plastic Electronics Parts Gadgets Tool Storage Box
Biotics Research – CoQ-Zyme 30mg 60 Tabs
Book: Spoonbenders: A novel
Book: South Pole Station: A Novel
Microsoft Wireless Mobile Mouse
Pampers Swaddlers Disposable Diapers Size 2, 204 Count
Baqua Spa Metal Control (1 pt)
Crosman Squirrel Reset Target, Metal
2 of Philips 416131 Clear Appliance 15-Watt T7 Intermediate Base Light Bulb
A Court of Thorns and Roses Coloring Book
Smittybilt 2733 Tire Plug and Seal Kit
all Mighty Pacs Laundry Detergent with OXI Stain Removers and Whiteners, Free Clear, Pouch, 38 Count
Echo Dot (2nd Generation) – Black
Westmark Germany Vegetable and Salad Spinner with Pouring Spout (Red)
Thieving Bastards…
My neighbor, who is remodeling his just purchased home had his garage and house broken into and a bunch of tools and supplies were taken – mostly hand tools. He and his family thankfully live elsewhere right now, until construction is complete. The thieving bastards were on foot and left the larger tools and job box. There was lots of damage to the newly installed wooden doors that required hours of labor for patches and repair. It was all a huge pain in the ass for him and to add insult they came back a week later in the middle of the night with a u-haul truck to get the bigger stuff. This time they cut through the newly installed deadbolt on the garage with a sawzall, but my neighbor had already moved his tools out, so they left empty-handed.
The thieves were caught on camera both times, but who knows if the police are looking really hard at this. This super sucks for my neighbor and the neighborhood. For me, it heightened my level of worry. I already have an alarm on our house and garage, but haven’t installed the POE cameras yet. They will be going on this weekend and I am also installing an external siren capable of damaging someone the next state’s hearing. I hate that it has come to this and that we all have to be so paranoid, but I have already lost tools to a thief once and I REALLY don’t want it happening again.
More G-Mail Woes.
A Little rant:
My G-mail that is linked to my site stopped working due to some sort of host/server issue last week-ish. I use a G-Mail proxy through my domain and I called and chatted and e-mailed for days before a resolution was found. After the server issue was fixed, I then had a Tucows registration issue and I had to prove that I was me and that I owned my site. I have had limited access for a few days and just now got full access back. Very frustrating and time consuming. Looks to be all fixed now, but I hope I didn’t piss off too many folks by not answering their mail. I am wading through it all today and tonight.
Sometimes tech makes life harder and I long for a small A-frame cabin in the woods near water, a pantry full of good coffee, my wife reading with the puppies on the couch, a fully stocked shop, lots of firewood, a source of independent wealth, and no wireless connection.
Dreams..
One year plan…
So, I have a One Year Plan to make my site and web content better and at the very least self-supporting. I have had this site for 16 years and it is not free. I would like for it to at least generate enough income to pay for the software updates, registration fees, equipment, and hosting costs. A Great Leap Forward without the Maoist philosophy, mass-starvation, mass-migration, and such. It is multi-pronged and here it is:
Shop:
- Stop eschewing progress for perfection.
- Get it set and start working and building and doing!
- Finish current Jeep projects
Website:
- More regular updates
- Split my personal BLOG/website and my “commercial” one
- More video content for this site and commercial site (trying REALLY hard to buy Matt of Many Trades from its current owner – see blurb below)
- Use as a funnel to increase my YouTube traffic
YouTube:
- Monetize Account
- Branding
- Change the page name
- Focus on specific content – craft and making stuff
- Split art, travel, family, cycling and kayaking videos onto second YouTube channel
- Become a better filmmaker
- Spend time in front of the camera
- Use better tools
- Lenses
- Lighting!
- Microphones
- Drones/software
- Camera Mounts
- Make better videos
- Make some of my own music for videos
To kick this off right and so to as not to make plans without follow through, I have now re-branded my YouTube Channel from “matt talley” to “Matt of Many Trades” to match my Instagram User Name. I have used the name for about 25 years and even considered it for a company name (I was building decks, doing some trim carpentry, concrete forming, wiring HVAC systems, residential electrical, welding on red steel, and doing some light remodeling) while in college to pay tuition/groceries/rent. I even have an OLD shirt I had silk screened with a hammer and cutting torch crossed with the name in an arch above. It is about accurate branding and I do/make/build/fix/break a bunch of random crap 🙂 and it is time to embrace accurate branding.
2017 New Year’s Resolutions:
Stuff I will do in 2017:
Eat my veggies
Lose weight – back to 175!
Go to the gym regularly
Box more
Write more: Blog, letters, notes, fiction, non-fiction
Take a lunch at least 4 days a week at work
Show up to yoga at least once a week
Take a pottery class
Take a Blacksmithing class at the Pratt
Read 1 book every 2 weeks – minimum
Play my uke, banjo, and guitar with others
build a skin-on-frame canoe
Run and bike
Start a guitar building class
Pay off all credit cards
Go Sailing
Give lots of $$ to Heifer and MFS
Make movies and post: Adventure, craftsmanship, and family.
Lessen my Social Media presence (Blog doesn’t count)
See my kids and granddaughter more
Be involved in popitics more: financally and time wise
Work on my Genealogy database a little
Finish the house remodel
Finish the garage/shop/GROP build
Make Stuff!!
Ride my skateboard because I am not too old or too fat
Road trip in WA more
Have two hives of healthy, happy bees
Kayak lots!
See my friends more
Take my wife on vacation
Plant a spring garden
Fix up the front and back yards
Climb more inside and outside
Have an awesome Griswald-like Christmas light display!
Film Friday – Tattoo Machine
I NEED a Lister Diesel Engine
I have a big ol’ crush in Lister single-cylinder diesel engines. These stationary work horses were made from 1926 to about 1985 and were used for pumping water, power generation, inboard flat-water boat engines, and all manner of other uses. They came in 1.5-12 horsepower and would/will burn Diesel, paraffin, kerosene (as a mix), waste motor oil (WMO) fresh or waste veggie oil (WVO), bio Diesel, etc… They were and are so reliable that many of the originals are still running today after 90+ years of just regular maintenance.
After the parent company stopped making them, Indian firms started making clones for Asian and Southeast Asian use due to their inherent long life, simplicity, and ease of maintenance. These are called Listeriods, and they are fairly plentiful, but the quality swings widely.
Why do I want or need a Lister? Reasons. Why did I need a Millennium Falcon in the second grade? Why did I need all those Legos? I just did. Just like I just need a small Lister (or two) in my garage to tinker with and run various other machines that I just need as well.
I have been thwarted in my attempt while living in the US due to EPA regulations making importation verboten. There are some, both original and clones, around, but they command top dollar as they are VERY popular with the off-grid/prepper folks. I like “The Grid” just fine. I am not building a bunker, planning for any sort of societal collapse or EMP weapon defense, I just need a Lister.
I have found a couple here in France, but either the owner has been unwilling to sell or the logistics in getting it have proved difficult – hauling it 30 vertical feet up and 2km down a mountain path sort of daunting. I still haven’t given up. We know a British couple that have been here long term and the husband is a classic car/truck guy – he has a 1962 Unimog fire truck as a daily driver… I spoke to him this weekend about my need and he might know a guy who knows a guy sort of thing. I have my fingers crossed.
Enjoy a few videos of Listers in action below:
10/7/2015 Update
So, I found an engine here in France that was the right size and type, with an outstanding price tag – basically free. But, there is NO way I can bring it back to the US with me. We are bringing home Wine and other stuff that are customs red flags and they are going to go through our shipment container with a microscope. I think I might have a way to get an Indian import once we are back in Seattle, so I will deal with it there.
HACKED…
Son of a… My site got hacked. I thought that I was safe: A host provider I trust, back-doors closed, a random generated password, all the stuff you are supposed to do. I was talking on the phone last night and I noticed a “payday Loan” link just under my site name on my home page. Son of a…
This is a BIG deal. Aside from some ass-hat having a BS ad on my site, it meant that my corner of the web was compromised and the second that Google gets a whiff of it, your site is no longer searchable and you get put into website purgatory. It happened to me in 2005 and it took me YEARS to get it all fixed and to be back in Google’s and all the web filters good standing
I immediately put my site to sleep, scoured my site code for the offending link, and then searched the inter-web forums. It looks like the link was added via a .php server backdoor and was somehow attached directly to my WordPress Theme, so I deleted the existing theme and rebuilt the my main page and widgets. That seems to have done it for now, but I contacted my Web Host to see what they were doing about any possible breach and got the “We are experiencing a large call volume… longer than usual wait times…” message. No luck with live chat or e-mail either. Super pissed. I have been with them since 2002 and have never had a server-based security breach.
New Cell Phone Blues
My J-O-B issued cell phone was on its last legs: broken internal WiFi antenna, if I switched on “Airplane Mode” than I would have to power the phone down to get it to come out again. At the end, it wouldn’t text and I could receive calls, but not make them. It was a sad day when I turned her in to our IT department.
My iPhone was 3 years old; she lived a good life and was as good to me as a phone could be: We traveled the world together, took pictures in exotic locations, drunk texted my wife and friends, sent e-mail sealing $100K+ deals, jammed together on Seasick Steve and Hillbilly music, searched Wiki at the drop of a hat, we ran/biked/lifted together. I had the unlocked version and she took SIM cards from China, the US, Japan, France, Germany, and Morocco like a champ – nary a hiccup. She was my connection to the 21st century. I think her undoing was one to many drops while running and then I used her as a tether for 3 weeks while my home and office internet were down. It was more then her little chip-set could handle.
I was given an “upgrade” and a new Samsung Galaxy S5 showed up at my door. “Ummm, this isn’t an iPhone…” I uttered into the phone at my IT rep who sat in an office 5,000 miles and 7 time zones away. Don’t worry she said, smooth transition she said… Maybe Android will grow on me, maybe, but setting this thing up to be usable makes me feel like a semi-literate 5th grader taking the SATs. It only took 2 hours and two support calls to configure my three mail accounts, my contacts are floating around in the ether somewhere, I had to buy a couple Android apps to replace the Apple ones that I have come to depend on: Turbo Scanner and Photo Toaster. I use a budget/expense app that is not available in Android and my awesome classic pocket watch app, according to the developers, is forever to remain Apple only. Where the Hell is the flashlight function?!?!
My new phone also has the misfortune of being locked – both SIM and region. I had a wonderful experience with AT&T Customer Service, 4 calls actually, where I was finally informed that the only way that AT&T will unlock this bad boy is if my J-O-B buys the phone and the remainder of my contract outright and then pays them a substantial “fee” to unlock it 7-15 days later. OK, small semi-legal Turkish phone shop on a side street in Toulouse, I will soon be on my way to see you with 40 Euros in hand and let you settle this unlock business. Side Rant: I would like to mash the customer service groups of AT&T and Comcast together in Thunderdome and let them battle to the last. Really, really.
I will say that the screen resolution and processor speed are bad-ass! The thing is huge though. I am going to have to start buying pants and suits with bigger pockets.
Apple, why wont you just take my MONEY?!?!?
Statement displayed of the MacRumors website today:
“Apple’s “iWatch” is a smart watch project that Apple is reportedly aiming to launch with a special event in October of this year. Expect a ‘fashionable’ device running iOS with biometrics and other features providing integration with other iOS devices.”
I have been waiting for FIVE years for an iWatch. I held off buying the nano with a Lunatic band/case, because the iWatch was “coming out in the Fall…” every Fall comes and goes and my hunger grows for this bit of techie opulence. I never jump on board when stuff first comes out. I always wait until the 2nd or 3rd Gen, but I NEED an iWatch. Need….. Apple, please just take my money and the damn thing to me already.
9/9/2014 UPDATE:
Oh Apple you sly dog… you snuck my new watch out a month early. I need the stainless bezel, the stainless & black rubber bands. I pray the things it is waterproof – that is all I need before I drink the Kool-Aid. As soon as I get my grubby hands on it I will be drafting up and machining a pocket watch bezel cover, just because I am that nerdy. Let it begin, Let it begin…
9/22/2014 Update:
OK, I have come down from my initial Apple-Crack rush and have had time to look at the facts as they stand today…. Apple wants me to buy a watch that is not a stand alone device, I have to carry my phone for it to be “optimized.” It has a 24hr-ish battery life, is not waterproof, costs $379.00 minimum and probably $450+ for the Stainless model with Stainless band, has ANOTHER new type of plug, and is new tech… Dammit, I should have bought the Nano with the Lunatic case and beat the shit out of it for the last three years. I think that instead of becoming an “early adoptee,” I will keep my Seiko 5 for the foreseeable future. It is Stainless, Shockproof, has a Day/Date display, NEVER needs a battery, glows in the dark, has 12 and 24hr indications, and keeps time just fine with a proven 23 jewel movement. Stupid apple. Stupid me for drinking the Kool-Aid…
No More Facebooking at the breakfast table
I quit Facebook.
My wife drug me into it after years of refusal and I turned very quickly into one of those constant status checkers that everyone hates, but just couldn’t stop…
It is the data mining that finally got me. I had to get pissed off before I could put it down. Products were suggested because I went to a website 9 months ago, books were suggested “out of the blue” (Mahogany: The Costs of Luxury in Early America is on EVERYONE’S top pick list… Sure…) from my Amazon wish list, a friend suggestion was made for the cop that sends out monthly neighborhood safety bulletins for our neighborhood in Seattle. The friend thing was the final straw…
A couple of years ago my shop was broken into and a ton of irreplaceable (father’s and Grandfather’s) tools were taken. The guy who did it was a contractor we used. Facebook has gone through my e-mails and can see some e-mail traffic with the douchebag and BOOM! Facebook thinks we should be friends and keeps reminding me. Nope. It makes me mad every time I look at my phone now.
I have a large enough social media presence even without Facebook and if you REALLY want to see what I had for dinner, cute pictures of my dogs, travel shots, or some forwarded rant you can find me on Instagram, Tumblr, or here on my own site – which celebrates its 12th year in September.
~Matt
I hate my internet provider…
Our internet provider here in France is a company called SFR.
I hate them.
My access has been down for over ten days. I call everyday. Have had French colleagues call in case I am missing something and am given a new reason for the outage every single day: cut fiber line, bad modem, crossed lines at central hub, etc…
I stayed home from a J-O-B meeting today because I was specifically told that a “senior technician” would call me between 8-12. No call! rassin…frassin’… I called them and flipped out of a customer service rep in French when she asked me why it had taken so long to call them about the issue. She transferred me to her boss who started our conversation with “what lights are visible on your modem?” I flipped my shit!
After giving him a passionate history of the issue, making him shush when he tried to interrupt, and explaining how to telnet into their SFR modem as the administrator, he seemed to finally listen.
After checking the account history, and prior notes, he started apologizing profusely. It seems that no work order HAD EVER BEEN WRITTEN?!?!? Son of a bitch!!!!
They gave me 5 days before the issue will be resolved.
I!HATE!THEM!
UPDATE:
France TelComm came by on the 17th – almost three weeks after it went down – and finally got our network up. They disconnected someone else’s on the street in the process…
Insert unhappy face and wet cat noise here.
Organization: a fine line between obsession and useful
Tools rolls are awesome at organizing and keeping what you need readily at hand, they make moving them safely from place to place a breeze, and you know I instantly when an item is missing.
I have a tool roll problem. I have rolls for wrenches & auger bits, rolls for bike tools, my carving chisels live in a new canvas roll, assorted lathe chisels, carving knives, bench chisels, mortise chisels, road-side emergency tools in my truck, computer cables, and even my fountain pens live in a snazzy canvas roll.
If you add the 3 parachute nail bags full of screws and nails and bolts, I have an entire shipping crate full of lumpy canvas bundles that we are moving to France: it makes the OCD part of my brain giddy.
Film Friday – Waiting Out Winter
I feel exactly like this: keeping busy, waiting on the rain to stop and the sun to come.
WAITING OUT WINTER from Andrew David Watson on Vimeo.
Stupid Pinterest…
I am an admitted cyber-hoarder. I have gigs and gigs of image files across 5-6 hard drives: Images of furniture, vacations, design details, machines, demotivational posters, LOL cats, etc… that I will someday get around to looking at again or using for some future unnamed and unknown project. The few times I have gone looking for something, it has taken forever to find the wanted file.
I was introduced to Pinterest and I thought that this was the solution to my hoarding problem: a cleared up hard drive, organized files, I would be able to add comments to pictures, etc… Nope. Wrong. Stupid Pinterest solved nothing. Now I save files to my hard drives AND link to Pinterest. I have said many times that I don’t use Facebook because it is the black hole of time management. Now I will “glance” at my Pinterest account and BAM!! it is 2:30 am, I have 2% battery left on my iPad, and I have been repinning pictures for seven hours. This is really cutting into the time I have allocated to plotting my scheme for world domination… Dammit!
Film Friday – Doing what you love – what speaks to your heart
Don’t aim for success if you want it; just do what you love and believe in, and it will come naturally.
-David Frost
SILVER & LIGHT from Ian Ruhter / Alchemist on Vimeo.
The Alaska Airlines iPhone App is the Shiz-nit!
I have been out of touch and away from my blog for a month or so: lots of travel including a 48hr trip to Ireland, a climbing vacation with the boys, a couple short trips to SoCal, and 5 days in the English countryside on a tour of round-a-bouts and concrete cows…
In the process of racking up a large hump of air-miles I have flown on 11 different airlines and I can say without a doubt that Alaska Airlines has been the carrier that has provided the fasted check-in, slickest and most useful App, and all my flights were somewhat on-time. The Alaska App was the clincher. I checked in on the way to the airport, chose my seat, fast-tracked through security, and the QR bar code on my iPhone was scanned at the gate for my boarding pass. From Taxi to assigned seat in the aircraft it took me a total of 23 minutes! Really, I timed it. Now, I still had to remove my shoes (fvck you very much asshat shoe-bombing terrorists!!) and take my laptop out of my bag, but that is just par for the course. If every flight check-in and trip to the gate was this great, then I wouldn’t complain at all about air travel.
The Things They Carried…
You don’t really own anything you can’t carry on your back at a dead run.
– Daniel Keys Moran
In 2004 there was a Flickr thread entitled “What’s in your bag?” that immediately captured a voyeuristic nerve with the denizens of the Web and since then about a gamillion people have posted pictures of all the crap they carry with them through their daily lives. You can see it all: packs, purses, pencil cases, hello kitty, descriptions, puppies (!?!), the entire Moleskine collection, pens, sunglasses, pistols, retainers, pocket knives, Apple products, and enough bike inner tubes to encircle the earth 12 times. Hours of my life have been lost peeping into other peoples lives through the contents of their purse/messenger bag/pockets. The phenomena has been around long enough now that there are subsets of bags and contents: Camera equipment, writers, hipsters, journalists, students, bike messengers, everyday carry (EDC), diaper bags, etc…
I came in after a recent craptastic day and started emptying my pockets and satchel. It seems I carry what professional organizers call “a lot of shit.” I was amazed to see, all stacked in one spot, how many different individual items I tote around all day. I took a picture and added it to the growing online show & tell/confessional.
Starbucks gum
2 dollar coins and a quarter
16GB USB with former puppy’s tag attached
Steel LAMY fountain pen – medium nib, brown ink
Moleskine work notebook – filled with sketches and task lists
iPad with case – pic shot from city wall in Essaouira, Morocco
iPhone, no case – pic of driftwood carving found at beach near the house
Truck/car/house keys with old dog tag
Silver bracelets (copies of John Wayne’s – google it)
Wedding ring – milled from and aircraft bearing
Kershaw – Ken Onion pocket knife
Eddie Bauer slim wallet and money clip – that’s right, big money: one WHOLE dollar
Milt Sparks knock-off IWB holster
Magazine loaded with 7 Gold Dots
Para Ordnance Black Watch .45 – some custom work
Ray-Ban birth control glasses
Bag: heavily modified US Army OD green map satchel
I sometimes carry a small flashlight in my satchel, a couple of other Moleskines, a roll of fountain pens, a spare magazine, sunglasses, my ORCA card, a kindle, a cheapo Bic lighter, and a small folding knife on my keychain. I forgot the light this morning and I flew recently and haven’t put the TSA-offending Victorinox back on my keys.
What do you carry with you during your day? Below are a representational photos of the phenomena including mine.
An iPad worthy of Gene Rodenberry
Someday I will have a phaser and a tricorder, but for now my iPad is a real close second. This baby let’s me get stuff done! The third morning that she (my white lovely has to be a girl as she is smooth, helpful, and sexy) came to live with me I hopped on first thing that morning while in my bath robe and with a cup of coffee in my hand. I got my daily news fix, sent seven e-mails to customers, corrected a drawing on my work machine via remote access, looked to see if my bus was on time, checked that week’s weather forecast, looked at the traffic on the bridge, made a quick Skype call, and for good measure updated a spreadsheet – all before that first cup of coffee was gone.
Below are the apps that I have loaded and that I have found most useful. Before loading anything, I had tried all out on others’ iPads or used the iPhone version. This is not an end all, be all review/recommendation, just a list of what I use and find really helpful. note: I am not a big gamer, but I have a couple that I will resort to on long flights.
Pages: Word processing that I import and export Word files from.
Numbers: I can edit any spread sheet I have in it – home or work.
Currency: Great when I am haggling over prices at the Souks in Morocco, buying a hoodie in Belfast, or for filling out my J-O-B’s crazy over-complicated expense report forms…
Kindle: Knowledge is power. If my Kindle dies, I have a back up and if Stamps-With-Foot is reading the same book that I want to read on my Kindle, then I can access it on the Kindle App and we can both read the same book at the same time.
Word Press: For updating my ego blog during lunch or while flying from here to yonder
Convert Units: How many rods are in a league?
NPR: My day starts with coffee, NPR, and cereal
Photo Studio HD: Nice compact foto editor
Notes Plus: Hand writing recognition that lets me organize all my meeting notes and doodles – I doodle a lot, it helps me organize my ideas into something workable.
Skype: Awesome. I can talk to my wife and see her face from ½ around the globe.
Jump: Remote desktop access. Probably the most powerful App in my arsenal. It helps me get a huge amount of shit done!
One Edit: Batch photo conversion, resizing, and renaming
Ukulele Tabs: For my Bad-ass Koa axe!
Zombie Gunship: Because shooting Zombies and saving civilians from behind a 105 in a C130 is just good clean fun.
Angry Birds: I have no excuse – it is addictive
Hulu+ : I hate to miss an episode of Archer
Netflix: Loved Netflix more two months ago before they screwed with billing, but I will still watch a movie lying in bed
Drop Box: Absolutely the best thing I have found to move and back up files on my iPad.
One Bus Away: Up to date/minute bus information for Seattle
eWallet: A really handy and secure password safe that I first used in 2002 on my Handspring Palm Pilot.
My Kindle no longer has library cooties.
Finally! Amazon has followed through with their promise and I can now check out books from the library on my Kindle! Oh, the cash I will now save… I have been longing for this to happen since the day I chose the Kindle over the Nook (and spent the next month worrying that i had made the wrong decision) and mostly-patiently waiting since Amazon’s initial announcement that this was in the works back in June. I have a shelf full of books that are in line waiting for my attention, but I am planning to surf over to the SPL site tomorrow at lunch and upload a book just because I can.
On a side note – though still kindle related – I recently turned 103 and for my birthday, my lovely wife presented my with an iPad2, on which I immediately loaded the Kindle app. It doesn’t have the battery life that I am now used to and my head would feel like it were clamped in a vise if I spent an 8 hour flight reading a book on it, as I prefer reading on the eInk of my Kindle2, but it will do in a pinch.
What I want Thursday:
- More time with my children. No one ends this life with the thought – ‘Man, I should of spent more time working...’
- The Longines 2011 24hr watch. Unveiled at Basel World 2011 and is an update of the Classic Swiss Air pilots watch custom made for the airline in the 1950s. It has a half-hunter case that NEEDS a picture of my wife and kids in it.
- A great sport coat that looks as good with jeans as it does with a tie and slacks.
- For my birthday to finally arrive so that I do not feel bad about buying an iPad2. I both need and want a new computer and I figured out that I can do 95% of what I need to do on a daily basis on a pad. As soon as I can open and edit CAD file reliably, then it will be 100%. I have started lusting.
My Kindle e-reader is about to be even more awesome!
I was reading the Seattle Times on my Kindle saturday morning while having my coffee and croissant and what appears before me: “Owners of the Kindle from Amazon will be able to download e-books from 11,000 U.S. libraries later this year, the company said Wednesday.” This is HUGE. The one reason that I ever even give the Nook a passing glance is because I could use it at the library. Living a few houses from my local branch has saved us some cash, but my wife mentioned last week that my e-book shopping is getting spendy. Problem solved! Man, I want to hop up from my bench, drop my oar and dance in the bilge, err I mean push away from my keyboard, leave my perfectly 5S’ed cubicle, and see the sun outside.
Seattle Bike Expo 2011 – Sights
Sunday before last, my Father-in-Law, the Chatty Buddha, and I trekked over to the 2011 Seattle Bicycle Expo. We got a late start, make later still by the whole Spring Forward thing. We arrived at the show a little after 3:00 (show ended at 4:00), snagged free parking, and talked the two young ladies at the door into letting us in for free! We spent some time looking at the classic bikes (Where I drooled some and my pants got a little tight), made a quick walk of the show floor, and the circled back to the booths that were most interesting: the $70 cycling Jerseys going for an end-of-show-special for $30 were particularly attractive. We picked up a couple and a conned the vendor into giving us two caps that matched the jerseys for the price of one. J
I walked through the Bamboo Getto and took a few shots, talked to the gents at Co-Motion cycles, Eben Oliver Weiss, AKA Bike Snob, gave a talk that I wanted to see, but my packed weekend schedule prevented it. He Blogged about his trip here.
F-ing Auto-complete!!!
The auto-complete function on my iPhone is making me crazy. I keep sending inappropriate e-mails to friends, the dog walker and now a big-wig at my company… My greatest hits include:
Boiling customer issue:
What I meant to say: This is going to get ugly, I feel it in my bones
Auto-complete: This is going to get ugly, I feel it in my boner
Discussing an author with friend:
What I meant to say: I bought a couple of her books on Amazon, It was just too good a deal to pass up.
Auto-complete: I bought a couple of her boobs on Amazon, It was just too good a deal to pass up.
My ex asking me what my son can buy me for Christmas:
What I meant to say: Hmmm… Smart wool socks?
Auto-complete: Hmmm… Smart wool dicks?
The latest incident was sent to a director concerning a document package:
What I meant to say: I put it in your office.
Auto-complete: I put tit in young office.
His Reply: Thanks buddy!
My reply: Not an issue. Oh damn…
Since this “feature” is making me seem even more inappropriate than usual, I hopped onto in inter-webs to figure out how to turn it off. I ran smack into a site listing MANY more examples of auto-evilness. Thought I would share.
~Matt
The Sights of Steamcon 2010
“Steampunk is for Goths that have discovered brown.” – I love that quote and it makes me giggle every time I think about it. While I can really get into the Victorian Zeitgeist, making your own cool stuff, recycling old gears into art, bargain hunting at flea markets, and retro-fying 21st century gadgets – I think that it is the roll playing sub-set that has kept me away from embracing the movement. Well, that and I already have WAY too much crap going on and not enough time/money to do any of it that well. I can’t add another hobby, but like I said, I can appreciate some of the aspects of the movement/genre/fashion/cult/trend/??/….
Anyway, when I saw that the largest Steampunk show in the US was going to be held in Seattle this year, my interest was piqued. When I later read that Gail Carriger was going to be signing her books and meeting fans, well that sealed the deal. Don’t judge me! I picked up her first book, Soulless, at an airport bookstore on a trip and that tiny little woman’s writing is so God damn good that she hooked me (qwerky, well built characters and she uses English as an offensive weapon…). I will drink some beer later, burp and scratch while watching some football or hockey as my man-penitence.
Stamps-With-Foot and I got up early on Saturday, I proptly forgot the camera, and we headed off to the wilds of the SeaTac Airport Marriott for our chance to say hello and gush at Ms. Carriger. We did just that and found her to be very approachable, genuine, funny, and sincere – all that you could ever want an author that you meet to be. Buy her books! We then decided to take a walk and look at what and who there was to see. HOLY CRAP! we stepped into a mess of nerdy, techy, historically inaccurate stew! All ages, races and genders were present and I was shocked to see that the male/female ratio was 50/50ish. It may be profiling, but… at most tech, comic, or game conventions there are significantly more males of the species and the few ladies in attendance have their pick of which Spiderman loving, +2343 hit-point having, IT professional they will be going so be spending time with. Steamcon seemed to appeal to both sexes equally and there were some truly beautiful people walking around in costume, shopping, flirting, and having a great time. The costumes were interesting and for the most part very well done: Victorian fantasy accessories, sexy boots, tiny hats, spats, ray gvns, a steampunk Geisha jet packs, a saddle(?!), parasols, wings, accoutrements that looked like they took months to build, some really good art, pith helmets aplenty, monocles galore, and some characters of questionable lucidity. The people watching was A++. I would wager that more nerd-nooky was had this weekend at that hotel than the combined amount in all of the western US up to this point in 2010. I took a few pictures with the iPhone and below are the best of them. Sorry for the pixilization.
