2018-12-28:

Fri:

Except I didn't do that at all.

I was going to sit down and watch a movie, but then I remembered I needed to call someone that had emailed me. 

For an hour and 15 minutes I tried to figure out why a program would show, on the screen, the task bar icon. But no window. 

She casually mentioned she could see it.

I seem to recall finding this out about the brother utilities before, but I forgot. I left myself a note on her desktop to remind me, in case this happens again. Yay.

So no movie. I just watched a few episodes of Ladybug. That was of course Thursday night.

Anyway, got up, it was somewhat sunny! 

I worked on repairing my dragonfly box I got at the goodwill. Probably not worth it. 

 [[image file="2018-12/brokenbox.jpg" alt="take_these_broken_wings" ]]

As you can see, one wing is gone. I had shapeways print a new set of wings. Metal would have looked way better but would have been $40. Even the white plastic was $16.00. With the $2.00 I spent buying it, can I get $20 at the shops for a slight profit? I suppose that's not the point, the point is making it whole again so someone would consider it rather than just chucking it. I got just white, maybe I'll try painting them or maybe I'll just leave them. I'll update you with a picture when they come in.

I just hope I got the size right. I scanned both the body and the old wing and the measurements seem to work for the very start, which has never happened before. I always have to scale it, in shapeways at least. But they said it was 30mm across and about 3 thick so… yeah.

Got the iPod touch in that I ordered. $15! Set that up and put an episode on it. Seems to be working out just fine.

Ate lunch and went out do to chores. Bank, shopping, took the filters back that were too small. Whoops. Got the right ones this time. They're all the same number apparently. How did I originally write down the wrong size anyway? Weird.

Sun went away but it's still "fair."

Watched some Ladybug.

Left for Sean's. We discussed and mostly made our Monster Mash characters, opened gifts, and started the "alternate world" version of the tower. 

Didn't even get to the first encounter though, as immediately upon trying to teleport Mizzy across the chasm he triggered a very unfortunate side effect which almost brought their adventure to a tragic end. Luckily, some rules were tweaked and Neil managed to put the situation to rights with a bit of soul swapping and Mizzy using his body to enact the solution because her luck was higher. (We like very simple plans, no complexities.) 

Also played with a pup all night. Akira is obsessed with fetch, and once you throw a ball, you are throwing that ball… FOREVER. At least I only got a moment of barking, she's getting better.

Sat:

Got up and watched the movies I had tried to watch earlier. 

Both quite good, no troubles there.

Bought a new shaver, as mine won't charge any more. *double sadface*

Amazon price, $284.99. 

Ebay price, looks new the power cord was never taken out of the wrapper, $85.

That I can get behind.

Checked my sites.

Ordered an SSD enclosure DVD drive replacement for the iMac downstairs. It's a perfectly serviceable machine but my goodness is it slow. The HD has some weird temperature sensor in it so it can't easily be replaced. I would have to buy the whole SSD replacement kit just to get the little cable they sell to tell it "everything is fine" they don't sell it separately. So this is the next best thing. This way I can use the SSD that came out of the MacPro, so it isn't just sitting around. Recycle!

Cleaned up down there a little too, got the new space ready for next year.

Cleaned a little in general. 

Worked on Ladybug, I decided to try printing it with the color, we'll see how it goes.

 Original picture

[[image file="2018-12/ladybugoriginal.jpg" alt="colors" ]]

My ladybug. 

[[image file="2018-12/ladybugtraced.jpg" alt="my ladybug" ]]

I just have to figure out the layer structure I want to use. I think three layers for each person, with Cat Noir having 4 total because he's one higher than her. (He's standing in front, just like a cat.) So he would have an "empty" layer 1, only having stuff on layers 2-4. Though maybe his bell would be on a 5th layer, that could work.

Sun:

Put it together. I think it came out pretty good. With certain caveats. 

[[image file="2018-12/ladybugandcat.jpg" alt="Nior" ]]

1) I should have put Adrian's face on layer 2, not layer 1. it looks too far back given he's actually in front of Marinette.  

2) Paper is 3 dimensional. If I had used colored paper this would have been fine. If I had used an inkjet it might have been fine because it might have soaked in a little more. But with the laser it just sits on the top so you can see the white "edge" of the sheet.

3) I'll have to glue a sheet to the sheet and make it double thick. You can see where the posts are the paper sits on.

Otherwise it's pretty good. I like how Ladybug came out at least.

Other things done today: Watched a movie, took apart a million tiny hard drives

[[image file="2018-12/pileofdrives.jpg" alt="junk" ]]

Made a pie.

Looked into what I could make with all the circuit boards I now have, rather than just tossing them. Started gluing some, maybe a pencil box?

Ate pie. Tasty.

Glued the plastic stuff wrapped around the ring, it kept unraveling probably because the ring is rather thick. Would plastic tubing work? I don't think so it's too round. I need something in an oval shape. But maybe the glue will hold, we'll see.

Mon:

Say, did you know tomorrow is Christmas? Oh, it's already over by the time you read this?

Huh.

Anyway, with the glue dry I got to work completing my recycled circuit board pencil box. I don't know how the base will hold up, there's a very small surface area to glue.

[[image file="2018-12/circuit.png" alt="holders" ]]

Found a spot for my picture.

Cleaned the kitchen up from making the pie.

The first circuit board pencil holder worked out so well I made another. I have enough parts for, uh, 1/4 of another one. The larger HD boards all seem totally different shapes, they're not going to be as useful.

Put hot glue around the bottom of the units, because hot glue is the crafter's best friend.

Checked sites, watched a christmas video, glared at the snow (it stopped).

Watched an episode of Lost Girl to make some notes for when I get back to writing The Lysanias Chronicles again. 

Went over to my parent's house for Eve.

Tues:

It was Christmas, of course. Spent the day with my family, hope everyone liked all their gifts.

Wed:

Started the day taking Christmas away. Put everything but the tree back in the boxes for next year, see you all then.

That and finding a home for things took a surprisingly long time, it was almost lunch time by the time I was satisfied everything was where it should be.

Put in a Brandless order, got my mother more of the cranberry crisps.

Went to Target, got some 50% off Christmas stuff.

Pulled the lights off the top tiny portion of tree. Took me an hour. Ugh. The rest of the tree is going to take days.

Worked on the little plastic tree for my mother's Santas.

Watched another episode of Lost Girl, then read notes on the following episodes. Can I even save this mess? I jumped in too early, the Wanderer stuff is really only introduced here, but it takes another two seasons to play out. And Rainer isn't the wanderer, it's Hades? I mean that explains his powers I guess but even the person writing the notes was confused. Huh. I guess I'll just have to do a Harry Potter Half Blood Prince and just take anything that was set up in season 2, cross it off, and go my own way to my wanderer and shadow avatar.

Thurs:

Back to work, it was inevitable, Mr. Anderson.

Or is your name Neo?

Had the long morning meeting so that took up part of the day. Before that I loaded the latest remoteUI stuff and made sure they hadn't broken it. They hadn't so it was fine.

After lunch I got into my assignment, updating test cases. The print ones were totally worthless to update. It was a typo and maybe she removed one duplicate tag. But I did them.

I then worked on the Localization one, which had more changes than she had made note of at the top, where one makes note of changes. So I had to start at the top again and read every line carefully so as to not miss anything.

Then I picked another one from the list and finished it up. 

Had a little more than an hour at that point so I just wrote some notes down for book ideas I had. 

Then I came home. 

Checked my sites, but first I finished up the christmas tree and seal on the Dark One's prison I'm going to set next to my Accepted doll. 

[[image file="2018-12/newdoll.png" alt="doll" ]]

It's a shrine to the wheel of time!

No calls, so that's fine.

Ate dinner, checked sites.

Looking forward no parents tomorrow but it'll be a busy day. The "gang" is going out to lunch so I'm joining them. Then heading to Sean's for more of my test game.

Then Saturday back over there to do that weird RPG board game thing.

Let's see, one day of work on Monday and then Tuesday off, then no time off until May. 

It's been a fairly strange week, hasn't it? Can't believe it's almost over already! 

See you all next time, take all precautions on New Year's Eve.