Real Genius 2?!?!?!

I brought home a few of the nerf guns from work for the holiday week. I'm doing to be modifying them to shoot some of the other darts that we have at the office..

We ended up have a short battle, and there was an innocent war casualty..

As many of you know, I'm a Syracuse University Basketball fan.. I go out of my way to watch SU BBall games.. Unfortunately I'm in Phoenix, AZ... So I have signed up for SU's 'AllAccess' service to watch a few of the games online.. Then I signed up for ESPN's FullCourt package for a few more games.. Then I tried to figure out how I could get the rest of the games.. This search has driven me over the edge... And of course, I have ESPN on my DirectTv package..

I hate ESPN. They have my money right now. They will no longer get anymore money from me, until they change their practices..

Now in order to get a few more games, I need to have ESPNU. For 3 games. In order to get this, I need to sign up for yet another package... This is $45 more than I've already spent.. Then, the final straw, is ESPN360.. Only customers of ISPs who have signed up for ESPN360 can watch it.. They want me, who has paid $100 for FullCourt, $ to get ESPN from DirectTv, and if I decide to sign up for it, $ for ESPNU, They want me, after all that money, to sell ESPN360 for them, to my ISP... Even people in Syracuse can't watch this game, as TW hasn't bowed down to ESPNs crap.

This is the last straw. No more ESPN.. I will settle for just reading about SU online, and watching them on the major networks.. ESPN has just gotten money hungry, trying to get as much money from their customers, by nickel and dime-ing them..

I suppose SU is just as much at fault.. They are the ones that sign for ESPN to have exclusive access.. But now I'm going to become less of a fan, because of these agreements..

What needs to happen is for universities and colleges to take over distribution of their teams games.. Do not give out exclusive access.. I know this is a tall order, with the amount of money that the networks are throwing around.. If the schools want to keep their fans, especially as they spread over the country. Charge one price, in one place to watch the games. The otehr possibility is for ESPN to have packages for teams.. Again, all the games in a single place.. Something.. Having to sign up for "SU's allaccess", ESPN, ESPNU, ESPN FullCourt, and ESPN 360 is insane.. I could buy season tickets for the cost of all those.

A bit on the pricey side, but how freaking cool..

I've had my old printers sitting around in the "front room" (diningroom really..) since shortly after we moved here (I bought a new printer to replace them..)...

I posted them on Craigslist back in May... Not one hit... But since we're getting ready for the garage sale (finally.. Only been planning it a year..), I decided to try again... Not 10 minutes after I post, I get a hit.. And in 30 minutes, I had 6... In the end, I was pushing 20 hits.. Finally gave up and left them in the driveway, and said first come first serve.. Printers were gone 3.5 hours after posting.. Whee!

Rollin' & Tumblin' from the album "The Blues: Eric Clapton" by Eric Clapton

(I apologize for the crap cell phone pics.. The normal camera was otherwise occupied in Vegas (literally)..

A little back story.... A friend at work, Jose, was preparing for an "all day meeting".. His prep included large amounts of Coke.. On his way into the meeting, he declared that he was going to do a line of Coke in the meeting... Pause.. Sudden laugher as everyone realizes (including himself) realizes what he just said... Here's an image of Jose drinking his line of coke..

Fast forward a few weeks, months.. I was having a rather sleepless night, which is when I come up with my strangest ideas in life.. And was borne, the CokeCane.. The next day, I searched the web for anything similar.. Nothing. A few mentions of "that would be cool" but no real product.. This is my attempt at it..
First I needed Coke.. I'm not a huge fan of it, but I drink it.. In this case, it was on sale, so I ended up with 2 12 packs of the stuff.. Coke problem solved.. Now I needed a way to make a cane out them..

First.. I drank the Coke.. Duh..

Now I had a dozen empty cans of Coke.. I decided that for a good weight feel to the cane, I would fill them with expanding foam.. This didn't work out as well as I wanted.. The cans are filled, but the foam is too forgiving for me.. Maybe next time, I won't buy the cheapest stuff.. (sorry, no pictures of this..)

Next up, I drilled holes into the bottom of the cans.. I started with a small bit, then a larger one, then finally to the size that I needed..

Next, I collapsed the tops of the cans...

My theory was to use threaded rod to provide support, and then use pressure from washers and nuts on the rod to hold the cans together.

I put the cans onto the rod, and the washer, then the nut..

The top can also had one on top.. With a bit extra thread showing for later.

And I continued along adding cans washers and threads..

But how to top it off.. I decided to use a 16oz platsic Coke bottle.. I was going to fill it with some sort of gel, or candle to make it look full, but a few trips to Michael's, Target, and WalFart proved fruitless. Its Halloween time, so I probably could have found a black candle to melt down.. But I'm lazy.. When I didn't see what I wanted in the crafts section, I bailed.

So how did I attach the bottle to the cans? Butterfly nut..Drill a hole, push it through, and poof, instant attached bottle..

Finally... To finish the bottom.. I wanted something rubber down there, to prevent the damage to floors and the bottom can.. I found some rubber "caster cups".. I drilled a hole in it.. I then placed a washer, the caster cup, and a nut on the bottom.. I made sure that the nut was recessed inside the cup.. I then marked the spot where the nut ended on the threads.. Took off the nut, cup, washer and can.. Whipped out the Dremel with a cut off tool.. Cut the rod.. Then put the can and other hardware on.. My cut wasn't perfect, so I got the Dremel again, with a grinder bit.. A few seconds of careful grinding, and now its nice and smooth...

And finally, a pic of the finished product..

The cane came out almost as I had imagined it... My only problem with it is the topper.. I definitely would have liked to get the bottle filled with something like Coke.. Plus the bottle became somewhat squished as I was pushing the butterfly into (next time, make a bigger hole!)..

Yes. I occasionally have too much time on my hands..

A week or so ago, Teri and I were in my car driving home. We were suddenly passed by a whining car.. I looked over and sure enough it was a Yugo.. Something I hadn;t seen in many years... And this thing was tweaked out... I down geared, and floored it... And I couldn't catch it..

Please.. revoke my license... I was beaten by a Yugo.

What we've been up to recently.. Well. Teri and I have been back to Syracuse for a visit.. This is much more relaxed than the last one.. Partially because we stayed at a hotel, instead of with family.. Gives us a break from the smoke.. We stayed at MicroTel over by Carrier Circle.. Nice and cheap, with free wifi internet.. Even with a full week, I still didn't get a chance to fit everyone in.. I never got to see my buddy Dave at all, so now it make over a year since I've hung with him.. Oh well.

Other stuff.. Not much.. Teri's off to another baby shower (this is like the 3rd this year.. *sigh*..) this weekend.. We're finally getting ready to have that garage sale we've been meaning to.. Hopefully sometime in Oct.. Then I'll finally be able to get the garage straighten out..

I've been working on some of my own software recently, learning OSX programming.. Its slightly different than Windows or Unix, but easy enough.. I'm working on an upload app for iPhoto to Gallery, which is the software I use to handle online photos.. I have the code to do the uploading, but I want GUI so Teri can use it easily..

I've bought a peice of software for "brain dumping".. Basicly, its a freeform application for me to take notes in. I us eit to document my ideas for software/websites, how stuff works at work, recipes, etc. Its helping me get my stuff in order.. I figure since I've moved cross country that i've become far far more organized. I only have to clean my office desk off once every couple months, and there's no real mess in my office.. Teri's office is messier than mine (most of the time..).. Who would believe that of me..

If anyone reading this needs a set of snow tires that fit an Audi A4, let me know.. It looks like i'm getting them shipped to Syracuse soon, so they will be more likely to sell.. I'll post up to AudiWorld again once they are in 'Cuse, and see if they sell then.. If not, then I'll attempt eBay..

Don't they know that they are supposed to use biological weapons for the offensive?

The Polish are unique in history as the only ones to use biological weapons as a defensive measure.

Read more here.

Just too damn cool.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5nmspVOz_Y