nocturnalvagrant's Xanga

Arduino: Arrival

Sat, 13 Jun 2009 12:06:58 GMT

Copied this from my other blog: thought somebody might enjoy it!

The Arduino, as described by the Arduino Homepage, is "an open-source electronics prototyping platform based on flexible, easy-to-use hardware and software." What that means to you may differ with your experience, but to me the Arduino is a little chunk of Italian-made circuit board that can make LEDs blink, can tell how bright the ambient light is, can run motors and mechanisms, and otherwise make electronic components do cool stuff.

There seems to be no limit to what people are capable of doing with one of these, with the addition of the right components. Just search YouTube for Arduino and you'll see what I mean. LED cubes dancing to music, robots that seek out the light – one of the guys from our LUG used his to have his dehumidifier tweet whenever it's full, and again to thank him for emptying it. If you would like to follow his dehumidifier, you can do so: Mark's Dehumidifier.

So, as a step towards building my Linux-powered robot to satisfy a New Years resolution, I picked one up. I also bought a couple wires, LEDs and other random components to test with. It arrived yesterday, and pictures will follow (once I get my camera some batteries).

So far I haven't gotten too much accomplished. I've caused a single LED to blink on a schedule, and to react to the light level of the room using a photoresistor. I've also realized that I don't remember anything from Digital in high school – big suprise. Most of last night was spent looking up resistor color codes and re-learning the basics of electronics.

All things considered, I'm very optimistic about how it's going. I'll keep posting progress here for anyone that's interested!

...Windy Windy

Sun, 26 Apr 2009 02:51:19 GMT

The past week or so has been really nice in our area. We were getting up to the mid fifties temperature-wise, which was just lovely for this time of year.

Today, I was walking around in shorts and a tee shirt wishing I had less on. I think the high was around eighty-five. I can't explain how strange it felt walking around in balmy weather just after tentatively putting the winter coats away. It was surreal, to say the least.

As I type this, all the windows are open on the top floor of Glashaus. One of my favorite parts of warm weather is how the breeze tosses everything around when I open things up. It appeases the destructive side of me a little, I suppose. In my cluttered computer room, anything not pinned down is fair game - and anything that is pinned down still gets flipped about for my amusement.

It also makes me think. I think best when I'm alone, at night, outside. Pleasant weather outside always makes me start thinking, probably because of some conditioned, Pavlovian response. That, and a very "introspective" movie has my mind going.

Unfortunately, introspection doesn't make for a good blog. Now you see why I opened with the weather.

Oh well. I'm going to go to sleep, enjoying the breeze if I can. Maybe even think a little more - but not if I can avoid it.

Nasty Virus

Fri, 10 Apr 2009 11:40:32 GMT

Hello everyone,

I haven't written in some time, yes? Well, this warrants it. I just wanted to let everyone know that there is a very nasty virus out there on the web. It's only popped up on a couple web sites, but once you visit certain web sites, it immediately infects you and makes you feel like you're seven years old again.

Sounds crazy, right? Well, I speak from experience. I've already caught it from the following web site: http://www.iwatchstuff.com/2009/03/where_the_wild_things_are_trai.php.

But really, in all seriousness, this movie looks fantastic. I was terribly worried when I heard they were going to be making a movie out of one of my favorite childhood stories, Where the Wild Things Are, but the trailer set me at ease. Everything is live action, no cheesy computer graphics, and they have The Polyphonic Spree playing the music for the trailer. Frickin' sold.

I can't wait until this comes out.

It's Over

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 12:26:58 GMT

I think a local newspaper put it best.

Political Preference

Sun, 07 Sep 2008 12:10:01 GMT

I am going to vote for Barack Obama, because I agree with his ideals and what he plans to do for this country and I disagree with John McCain on most of his, especially his plan to stay in Iraq until we've "won".

If anyone tell me that Barack Obama should not be president because he will be assassinated, I will be required by my belief in the theory of evolution to kick you, in whatever genitals you may possess, hard enough to assure that you will be the end of your genetic line. This may require repeated kickings, steel-toed boots, etc.

In addition, it will really lower my opinion of you as a person.

The Latest Buzz

Sun, 10 Aug 2008 15:45:56 GMT

One of my neighbors waved hello, and we struck up a conversation. Not an out-of-the-ordinary occurance, but soon the topic swerved to something strange.

"Oh, by the way," she started, "my kids mentioned that they saw a lot of bees around your house when they were getting into their car."

I was rather intrigued - I hadn't seen any bees around, and I tend to notice them pretty quickly. Bees aren't my favorite creature, and I get pretty nervous around them. I asked her if she could point to where they were, and she led me to one of my basement windows. Then she dropped the bomb; "Yeah, they said they've never seen so many bees."

This was not what I wanted to hear, especially not associated with my house. Upon closer investigation, there was a small hole in my foundation, right where the stone met the wood of the house, and every second or so a bee or two would fly in and out. They weren't wasps, and they weren't the angry yellow jackets I'd encountered in the past. They were little brownish bees, that didn't seem to mind that I was standing a couple feet away from them. They looked almost like honey bees... but what did I know?

Not a week later, my apiary ambassador blogged about how she had just gotten a call from someone who had a load of bees in a hollowed-out tree near them. She and a couple others had gone and hauled it off to her house. Since I've heard about how the bee population is on the decline, and gassing the little guys seemed a bit harsh because they had done so little to me, I sent her a message asking if she knew of anyone in my area that did a similar deed.

She responded back with a list of names, and I gave the closest guy - Dan - a call. We discussed the details of what I had, and he concluded that I had a decent-sized hive of honey bees living in my walls. He also let me know that it was important that they pulled out the honeycombs with the hive, because if you killed the bees you'd still have a bunch of dead bees and honey rotting and fermenting in the walls. Not a good idea. He said he'd have to cut open the wall, and that he could be there the next day. He also mentioned that if he said to 'get out' while they were doing their thing, that I shouldn't ask questions. Like he'd have to tell me twice.

That morning, Dan pulled up in a pickup with another beekeeper in the passenger seat. They took a look at the bees coming in and out, and started drilling holes in the siding to see if they could locate the hive. Luckily, the bees had kept pretty close to a single area, so it wasn't too hard. They put on some gear, and started cutting.

Immediately there was a cloud of bees surrounding the guy with the saw, and immediately I was twenty feet away. Like I said, not overly fond of bees, and there were quite a few of them. The picture doesn't really show how many bees were flying around at one time. He started by removing the siding, then a chunk of the exterior wall, and then he started pulling out honeycombs.

Dan brought me over one to show me what they were pulling out. He actually gave me one to keep for myself, so I could get some honey out of this whole operation. This one in particular he rubber-banded into one of his frames for the bees to use. Dan's plan was to set most of the honeycomb into a frame, and let my bees make him some honey over where he lives.

After they pulled out all of the honeycombs, they brought out their - I kid you not - bee vaccum. They sucked up a bunch of them lining the cavity where the hive was, and left it to suck up most of the rest of them while they had a glass of water. Did I mention that this all happened in ninety degree heat?

After they were done vaccuming up most of the bees, they took off the black exterior of their vaccum and revealed a little cage on the inside, filled with bees. "How many do you think are in there?" I asked Dan. "Oh, I dunno, looks to be about ten thousand," he replied cooly.

Holy shiiiit. I had ten thousand honeybees in a two by one foot chunk of my wall, and I didn't notice at all.

With that, they drove off to Sandy's Clam Bar with ten thousand bees in the back of their pickup. I was left with a hole in my wall, and a honeycomb full of honey. Not too bad for a Saturday afternoon.

Elwin Hops Aboard His Incan Raft

Sat, 21 Jun 2008 13:17:14 GMT

What's more exciting than having a friend from Michigan over?

Having a friend from Michigan over while you have a week off. Woo!

*Note: This is kinda a cop-out post. I will try to post something substantial later.*

House Projects: 2008/05/26 Update

Mon, 26 May 2008 23:47:41 GMT

Okay, one more project taken down! We joined in a block-wide garage sale, and I was able to get rid of the vast majority of the crap room crap. There are still a few items I'd like to put on eBay, since they might be valuable, but other than that the rooms are just about clear. Fantastic!

I was also able to get rid of a bed, which means I'm down to two single beds to deal with. One of them will be saved until late June, for our honoured guest, but the other one's up for grabs if anybody wishes to have it. If not... we may have a bed in our living room. Still deciding what we could possibly do with it. Any ideas?

Jake's Home Improvement List

~~Get Dryer, hook it up~~
~~Build box for compost pile~~
~~Tear down wall in bathroom~~
~~Clean out crap rooms~~
Move washer/dryer into bathroom
Tear up carpet, replace w. hardwood/bamboo floors
- living room
- "tea room"
- Computer room
- Upstairs hall
- Upstairs bath
Tear down walls/wallpaper/paneling
- Upstairs hall
- living room
- "tea room"
- dining room
- kitchen
- bathroom
Get solar panels installed
Run new electrical circuits where needed (Computer room)
Create garden, plant stuff
Get driveway from LaRose St. that fits more than one car
Put in new counter tops in Kitchen
Replace toilets with high-efficiency models
Install tankless water heater
Switch house to electric heat of some kind
Get a front-porch light installed
Add support beams to straighten out portions of the house that sag
Expand upstairs bathroom to full bath, get sink out of my room
Strip doors, molding, kitchen ceiling down to natural wood

Of course, I'm sure I'll have more to add as well. I'll try to keep this updated, as a record of my progress - check back for updates.

Recurring Dream, Moving Along

Sun, 18 May 2008 13:00:54 GMT

Dreams fascinate me. The ability they have to completely envelop the dreamer, no matter how absurd the idea, makes for some very interesting situations. For instance, I've just realized this morning that I have a recurring theme in my dreams.

I'm not sure at all what it means, or if it means anything, but in several of my dreams recently I've been running. You know, just running somewhere. Nothing too scary behind me, not really a dire situation – just running. But, as I'm running along, I begin to slow down. A little while later, I'm going even slower. Eventually, I get so bogged down with something or other that, no matter how hard I push or try, I'm really just "walking dramatically" at that point. Oh well, I'm sure Freud would have an answer, but I'm also sure that I'd like it not to apply to me.

Oh yeah, house stuff! Since my last entry was kinda whiny and bitchy about all the crap I needed to get done, I'm happy to report that I finished tearing down a wall in the bathroom. That's my second project in the house that I've completed, and it's really encouraging. The next project I have to look forward to is cleaning out the "crap rooms".

Since this house has been inhabited by my family for close to 100 years or so, it has a lot of their crap in it. When we moved in, it was basically fully furnished. While it was nice not having to fill the house with furniture right after moving in, it also means we're going to have to figure out what to do with three generations of crap. Linens and blankets, cookware, some furniture, and a recent adventure into the loft above the garage found some very very old stuff that probably hasn't seen the light of day since the '20s. Depression-era ice skates, anyone?

So, our short-term solution was to cram all of the extra crap into two rooms of the house. The latest project is to clean those out, and take as much as possible to the block-wide garage sale that's happening next weekend. Unless, of course, I can give it away ahead of time. If anybody out there needs cookware, dishes, blankets, lacy curtains, or anything else, check with me and I'd be happy to mail out some packages.

Halfway House

Thu, 15 May 2008 01:56:28 GMT

Have you ever had everything in your life stuck halfway through? You know, living in some sort of really damn annoying limbo?

Yep, everything I have going on seems to be stuck somewhere between the kickoff and completion - especially with the house. I've started a couple projects around the house, and none of them seem to be going anywhere. Web stuff happens to be the same way; I've got a bunch of sites, all of them need work, and I work on them sporadically without getting anything done. In fact, I probably shouldn't be blogging right now. After all, what exemplifies procrastination more than wasting time talking about what you should be doing?

This trend's carried over to my personal life as well. I've planned on writing to and visiting my Aunt and Uncle in Alaska ever since we got into the house, and have done neither. I really wanted to get in shape and to stop drinking so much soda, and have barely made any effort in either area. Then there's my "love life", which consists of neither.

But now I'm just bitching, and that's never where I wanted this blog to go. So, instead of just being annoying and complaining about how much I suck, how about some questions: how do you get yourself out of a procrastination rut?