2012-12-27:

Guess we'll take it in order, last Friday I saw Boris at 11:00 and got him once again straightened out with his Yiddish phrasebook. Barbara came here and picked up her new Mac. Odd wireless bug there, didn't like connecting to my router unless I specifically "Join Other Network". Went over to Sean's and saw Neil for the first time in months. He got me two pony things, which I love infinitely. He knows me too well I guess.

See if you can spot the first:

[[image:neilgift1.jpg:Pony Thing 1:center:0]]

Is that not the best?

The second I hung above another Neil gift, and needs a better picture taken. But you can see

[[image:neilgift2.jpg:Pony Picuture:center:0]]

And he got to open my gift to him. Here it is complete and in the box:

[[image:neilpainted.jpg:What's in the BOX?:center:0]]

Here's a little better picture of the items themselves:

[[image:betterirriduim.jpg:Bars:center:0]]

You'll see some other stuff in the back I'll come to later.

Anyway, it's a small model of 4 Eridium stack, a health injector and a shield booster. And of course the Vault symbol. What are they made of, I hear you asking? I'll get to that.

Then we had a good but not great Demongate session. Just didn't seem to have the magic of the last time. 

Saturday I dropped off the new system. What a short VGA cable comes with monitors, sheesh. Don't put it under a table or anything. They wanted it wireless but didn't tell me. Thanks. Learned a new way Windows8 sucks! When you turn it on, the default person it logs in is the last person to log in. Rather then, you know, showing the total users for the machine like every other OS on the planet? But don't worry, you can change it! You just have to modify a bunch of registry settings, and then change the permissions on them so Win8 doesn't change them back! So simple!

Worked on the meta game for this year, then over to help Mom pack up her craft show stuff. When I arrived, however, it was all done! Sigh. I wanted to help… *sadface* Went to dinner, give Mom her gifts, then over to Sean's again. Played Cards against Humanity with Sean/Stan/Sean/Mizzy/Whitney. Neil declined, because he has some sort of "moral fiber" the rest of us lack. I salute him for not being a horrible person along with the rest of us.

To make up for it we had a great Demongate session! Very tense, and a great use of limited resources/skills. Lots more to write in the book now. Left there at 2:30. Worth it. Sean and Mizzy opened their gifts and got:

[[image:mizzypainted.jpg:Talismans:center:0]]

[[image:seandemongate.jpg:Model of the island:center:0]]

Here's a good shot of the necklaces unpainted:

[[image:mizzyunpainted.jpg:Unpainted Amulets:center:0]]

Here's basically everything I made as gifts this year with my new Makerbot:

[[image:allunpainted.jpg:Makerbot Output:center:0]] 

And what a tale of woe I have to tell you about that. I'll try to shorten it. In October I ordered a Makerbot Replicator to make stuff out of plastic. Because it's what all the cool kids are doing. Because I couldn't use my Debit Card (daily limit or some much I expect) I sent a check. While waiting for it to clear, Hurricane Sandy happened and of course Makerbot is based in Brooklyn.  So I waited three weeks before I finally mailed them saying "are you guys dead?" They sent it right after that. Ground. I suppose air would be a lot, but I had waited a month at that point… Anyway, got it in, read the book on how to set it up. Very carefully followed all directions. Plugged it in. Doesn't work. After more delays they send me a new power supply and finally I get it working. Mostly. So instead of having a month and a half to try stuff out and learn to airbrush things I had two weeks instead. Thanks Makerbot! But they got done, and look at least okay, I guess?

It has developed some other faults. The LED panel is all screwed up. It prints way off center with the left nozzle, so I have to keep things far to the right or they'll fall off. It won't calibrate because the platform doesn't raise. Not sure what I'm going to do about that.

But I do have a Makerbot now, and I've made some strides learning how to use it. So many settings, and no real guide "if you're printing this sort of object, use these settings". When I get a spare minute I'm going to put together a page on my site. 

Sunday I finished up the meta-game and made Mom's candy. Went to Heather's house for Dad's retirement party. You made it dad, well done.

Hoped to have jobs for Monday but did not. As I had not reached two people the day before and the one I did reach wanted Wednesday. Instead I farmed Hunter Hellquist and finally managed to get a Bee shield. Used it to win the game a second time and get Jack's facemask. Which is kind of creepy on Zer0. 

This effort was also worth it. So there. Started writing. Some snow by this time.

Tuesday we had Christmas.  

Wednes- oh wait.

Most gifts I gave were not picture worthy, but there was one. I had a master sword made by shapeways for Heather, along with a base, which you can see:

[[image:heathersmastersword.jpg:Master Sword:center:0]]

They were from two different sellers, because I liked the one sword better then the one that went with the base. So I had to do a little drilling to make it work. Still, it came out okay. 

James has a kidney stone, so his 2012 christmas was not the best. But we saw him and exchanged gifts. I got some games, cat toys, books. The usual. Tinker is enjoying his a lot.

[[image:tinkertoy.jpg:It's a Tinker Toy:center:0]]

I have so many games to play now, what with the latest Humble Bundle having Legend of Grimrock, something I've been looking forward to playing for months. (It just came out for the Mac). Plus some other games I want to check out. StarCraft 2 I had to put on my *shudder* PC because they apparently changed the requirements after it launched. It says 10.6.2 or later on the box, but the website says 10.6.8 which I can't update to. Thanks fellows. Doesn't matter I guess, it plays the same. I do now understand why PC gaming is in trouble. That install process was horrible! Mass Effect 3 I just popped in and started playing. This I waited for like 2 hours for it to install! Really? And then it still needs to "stream" game content on the fly? Okay...

Plus writing. Plus printing plastic stuff. Plus a project or two I thought of recently… yeah, I'm going to be busy the next few… months.

Yesterday I did a bit of work. Hopefully I'll get paid by the outreach center this time, and a slow machine I did what I could for. Played some games, hoped it wouldn't snow. Took the tree down, packed up Christmas.

In the evening hours we got our first major snow of the year. Like, a months worth, I think?

[[image:ughsnow.jpg:Hate Snow:center:0]]

Yes folks, we went from nothing to this in one night. Just how much did we get?

[[image:smallamount.jpg:Not TOO much:center:0]]

Just a bit.

Regardless, I did a ton of jobs! After snowblowing the driveway a stupid amount I called a guy I made an appointment with Friday in case and said "want me to come now?" It had stopped snowing (basically) at that point, so he said yes. So I did. Got his machines working again.

That was 20 minutes to Fairport. Then back to Webster for someone just down the street. She deleted her printer and was trying to put it back with the wrong CD. A CD for windows 3.1 I might add, making it the oldest thing I've ever seen, ever. I got it set, but then she called almost immediately afterword and said it wasn't working again. AARG WHAT DID YOU DO LADY?

So I have to go back there, for free, tomorrow. Joy.

My 3:30 was off Latta road, just a cleanout. Weird video card issue there, but putting it to sleep brings it back, which is good enough until she buys a new one.

With a lot of time to go before my 5:30, I brought out my backup plan. A Fan. A fan to replace near where I needed to go next, and she was there! Hurray. So that didn't take too long, and I was off to set up a new laptop for a very cute, and polite young girl. At least to me, she still was fighting with her brother, which is a sister's prerogative. When I got her Skype working someone immediately tried calling her, and she was all "Oh that's my boyfriend." I was thinking, "Are you even 13 yet? How do you have a boyfriend?" Maybe she was younger then she looked.

And it 6:30 I was released back into the wild to come home.

So weekend plans? Couple of jobs tomorrow. Possibly starting the new Wanderers game Friday.  Then something with Stan/Sean on Saturday. 

Sunday: writing. That's the plan, anyway.

Hope you all had a good holiday, didn't pig out too much, and are thinking about those New Year's Resolutions you're going to break this year. It'll be 2013 when we speak again, be good to each other out there.