Had a great day!

Just wanted to post what a great day I had today. I didn't try to do too much on my day off, instead, I concentrated on what I enjoy doing. Did laundry, cleaned and organized the bedroom, washed the dishes in the kitchen sink...yes, these things make me happy. I turned on comcast internet radio and blasted the 70's station, listening to classics from Elton John's "Rocket-man", to E.L.O.'s "It's magic".

I wanted to go ahead and try and have a nice day today since tomorrow I've got to go out to the grocery store, and that's always a trip to HELL anymore! It'll take me at least two hours just to wind down after that. I don't know what's happened to the world that makes going to the grocery store such a horrible experience anymore. I remember trips to the grocery store with my mom when I was growing up as a wonderful time. It just seems like these days you're just as likely to have someone run over you with their cart as to say hello to you.

Confessions of a gadget geek...

Well, I've posted before about my gadgets...problem is I'm afraid I'm a compulsive gadget buyer! I've always been attracted to buying gadgets, you know, those shiny, inventive little things that promise to make life easier, or more fun? I've been trying lately to curb my spending, unfortunately, all I've really done is demote myself to buying cheap gadgets!

Case in point...today I stopped into my local walgreens to buy a couple of necessities, when what did my wandering eyes lite upon, but a keychain digital camera for only $10. Now, the price alone should have been a warning sign to me...and normally it would have been, but since I'd been being good for a couple of weeks, I relented and purchased it. Needless to say, I was quite disappointed with the results! The packaging claimed it had 16mb internal memory and held up to 243 photos. Well, it actually only holds 20 photos at the impressive high quality setting of 320 x288! Talk about grainy little photos! And if the subject isn't sitting perfectly still for at least 2 seconds, it's nothing but a blur!

Have I learned my lesson? Probably not, if anything I now just have the desire to go out and buy something quality!! I'm taking that intense internal pressure and releasing it here in this blog...maybe that will keep me from going out and spending money I don't have! Although I spent the last hour watching YouTube videos of the Lego Mindstorms robotic kit in action...something I've been wanting for several years....I just haven't had an extra $200 to blow on something only the child in me needs :) Well, I'll keep my mini digital camera on my keychain and maybe someday that UFO I've been waiting for will happen by and I'll snap it's picture...small, blurry and grainy as it may be. But then most photos like that usually are!

Anyone else out there suffering from this same horrible affliction? If so let me know how you're coping with it, or how it's taking over your life if that's the way it is!

Stumbling...

Just wanted to advocate something I've just recently discovered which has transformed my internet experience. First of all, you've got to be using Mozilla's Firefox, (which you should be doing anyway, I might add ;) ), and I've discovered the most wonderful extension for it. It's called "Stumble upon".

After installing the extension, it takes you to the stumbleupon website where you have to register an account, which is totally free. You pick a username, upload an avatar and pick out of a large list of interests what it is you like to look at on the internet. Pretty simple and quick. You'll now notice an icon in your browser header with an "SU" on it. Simply click this icon and you'll be taken to a random website with content that other users of stumbleupon with like interests have flagged as being interesting. There are also icons along side the "SU" icon which allow you to mark a website as being interesting or not interesting yourself, which adds to the stumbleupon database for users with like interests.

I found myself stumbling from website to website that I'd have never known existed, and probably 90% of them were totally fascinating! This has re-invigorated my web-surfing experience. I'd gotten to the point where I was only visiting about ten websites over and over again and was getting jaded. Last night I sat in front of the computer and stumbled for probably three straight hours (hmmm, maybe that's not such a great thing! ), but then again, it was fun, which the internet hasn't been for months! So if you've got firefox check out stumbleupon...if you don't, then get it and try it out!

Technologically disadvantaged!

A nifty, cheap gotta have gadget!

Recently I found this at my local walgreens, and purchased it for a measely $4.99. What's great about a flashlight, you ask? Well, for one thing it uses no batteries! That's right, no batteries. Just shake it back and forth for 30 seconds and you get 20 minutes of bright light from it's L.E.D. bulb. It's only 7 inches long, so keep it anywhere...a drawer, your car's glove compartment, your purse...anywhere you might need an emergency light and you don't want to have to worry about whether or not the batteries are any good.

I know for a fact that it works great, the night after I bought it, we had a power outage that started at 9 pm, and lasted about three hours...I used this little baby to sit in the living room and read Stephen King's "Cell", which I'd just started reading. And believe me, sitting in the dark reading that book by flashlight is a real kick! The light it produces is surprisingly bright and easy on the eyes. Just make sure you don't shake it too hard like my son did with my first one and managed to break it! So make sure and pick up one of these, they're one of the best buys you'll find!

biazrre "monster" found in Maine...

Here is a story this morning on comcast, that shows why we rarely find out about strange things that exist in this world!

I'm hoping some intrepid reporter type will follow up on this and try and contact some of the people mentioned in the story that took pictures of the creature before vultures were allowed to pick it clean. How many times over the years have there been similar stories...something strange and unusual is found dead, people in authority never want to come and examine the body, it's then destroyed by nature or residents burn it fearing that it's somehow "evil".

I for one, whole-heartedly believe that there are still hundreds, if not thousands of creatures on this planet that we have yet to identify. As a race, we humans are insufferably smug in the belief that "we've seen it all, catalogued it all...there's nothing out there that we don't know about." Believe me, there's plenty out there we don't know about...and new creatures and plants are being born into this world every day. A little thing called evolution doesn't just come along when it's convenient you know!

leg troubles!

Well, working on my project, I found that there were several key pieces of my mechs legs that had mesh errors that were keeping me from being able to texture them properly, so I rebuilt them. Of course doing that screwed up the way I had everything glued together, so I had to unglue everything on the leg and start putting it back together from scratch. Each leg is made up of about a hundred seperate objects! Each one has to be glued to the other in certain groups, and each group has to be glued in a different way to each other. Needless to say it's a nightmare, so it may be a couple of days before I get this step "re-done", before I can move on to something else.

My newest project...

At the moment, I'm working on a mech for an alternate universe I've been working on for awhile. In this universe, it's the mid-1940's and W.W. II is still being waged. History has progressed a little differently in this world though, and technology is both more advanced, and stranger. The mech I'm working on pictured above is the first one that has been fielded by the Nazi's, who hold a technical advantage over the the Allies. It's not so much used on the battlefield at this point, as it is used to police and intimidate conquered urban areas. I'm still working on textures at this time, I'm pretty happy with what I've got done so far, I just need to finish the texturing of the legs. I'll post an update as soon as I've gotten some more done!

Comments turned back on!

I've turned comments back on...I learned that there was an option I could turn on to keep "bots" from putting random ads and links on my blog. Now, if you want to leave a comment on one of my blog posts, you'll just be asked to type in a "verification" word to make sure you're a real person. So go ahead and let me know if you've got something to say!

Re-living childhood....

Last night, I had nothing to do and started looking up at a set of shelves in my living room where I keep books that have had specail meaning to me. I started going through them, and pulled down one of my favorite Hardy Boys mysteries from my childhood. I started reading and find myself now on chapter 5. I think there were about 53 of the original Hardy Boys books written, I've got about twenty of them. I've always wanted to collect all the originals, and when I say "originals", I'm talking about the hardcover editions published in the mid-60's.

Every once in awhile I'll find some of them being sold, usually at flea markets. It's been awhile since I've actively looked for any. I think it's about time I get serious and try to get the rest of them. I'm even going to read them...they're actually very well written and I still find them enjoyable today.

And now for something completely different...

Back from the dead...sort of

Wow! I feel like I'm back from the dead. For the last 24 hours I've done practically nothing but sleep, and when I was awake, I might as well have been a zombie for all the life I showed. I don't know what I had, but it was awful, and didn't even seem to have any real symptoms that would tell me what was wrong with me. I'm hoping that when I wake up tomorrow morning, everything will still seem fine with me healthwise...I don't think I could stand to go through another day feeling like I did.