Found In the Woods

Hey folks. I've been away from the blog for a few weeks now. When Christmas hit everything went into a spin and only recently leveled out. Oozy's server died a couple weeks back and the blog was offline while he waited for some drives to come in. Christmas was fun. Got to see my brother which was really nice – he's only in town once a year. I got a new toy for Christmas; haven't had a chance to spend much time w/ it but I have big plans ahead.

The kids are doing fantastic. Kyle is really starting to become his own man. He's got ups and downs with his attitude just like every two year old and has a tremendous amount of wonder about him. He spends so much time setting things up and taking them apart. His imagination is already really active as he's always telling us about "the elephants" that are coming and what they tell him. He seems to have developed a strange fear of the dark; "it's dark in there!" Anna is starting to get the rollover thing down. She's been transitioned to solid food and just loves it. She just started biter biscuits the other day and it's a riot watching her work on one of those. She's got the most magical full-face smile and I swear she knows how to laugh now. She is great fun and the cutest thing I've ever seen.

I'm still hopelessly addicted to Warcraft. Now I've got Kristin addicted too believe it or not! We even purchased a second computer (A Dell XPS 410, made easier with my Trump Taj poker tourney winnings from last October) so we could play together. I still think it's one of the best games I've ever played – the sheer level of immersion is incredible – you can get lost in that game for hours and hours.

Stay tuned for some posts and photos coming soon to the Gallery.

Three days ago, while driving home I noticed my first glitch. While sitting at a light in neutral w/ clutch disengaged I heard a faint grind for a moment, and it almost seemed the car was going into gear. Nothing more happened that day.

The next morn on the way to work, same thing happened a couple times, again, only for a moment at a time.

On my way HOME from work that day, it all went bad. While performing a three-point-turn, the tranny locked up. I depressed the clutch and went to shift from first into reverse and when I got to neutral the shifter locked me out. If I released the clutch, the car would stall out as if it were in gear. I couldn't move the car, so I eventually just tried letting the clutch out a little and stalling the car. It was enough to move the car (and gears) so that I could then restart the car and engage first gear and drive away.

When I pulled away from the nearby traffic light, while shifting from second to third, the tranny let out a LOUD griiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiind. I clutched and managed to get it into first and into a gas station. Same thing there. I couldn't shift into any gears and had to stall out the car and then I was able to shift into gear and pull away. I didn't feel like having a tow and knew I needed to get it to a dealership. On my way home, this gear-lock-out happened once more, this time at speed. No fun. I did manage to get it to the dealership.

They tell me that they have to remove the transmission to have a look-see b/c something is definitely borked.  And they're replacing the clutch. All in all I'm expected to pay about $660. Luckily the transmission is still covered in the 60k powertrain warranty (I have 55k on the car now) so I'm dodging the bulk of the repair expense. I'm frustrated that my transmission is going bad this soon but pleased that the warranty is still ineffect. Maybe I need to change my driving habits.

I'm a big fan of ABC's show LOST , which most of you will know. The show sucked me in back in the middle of season 1. All of the guys in my group at work would toss theories and ideas about the show all day long, like some crazy obsessed conspiracy theorists. So, after a little looking online and a hot tip I downloaded the first 21 episodes using BitTorrent. Loaded 'em up on the TiBook and using VLC we watched them rapid-fire at home on the TV.

Immediately Kristin and I were hooked. We'd watch 3-5 episodes a night, constantly forming our own theories as the story unfolded. The writers did a wonderful job of opening plot lines and intertwining them back and forth in a complex weave. One theory would open to another, one line crossing into another, joining, then separating, making a hard right turn and into another line. Characters lives intertwined mysteriously laid out in cutaway flash back scenes. Discoveries on the Island had relevance to their history. There was more than meets the eye. So, when we caught up with S1 we were able to jump right into the running with everyone else, forming our own theories, scouring the internet for relevant elements and ideas…

And so here we are, halfway through season 3 and on a hiatus. 72 more days until the next episode. (Last season the creators took a lot of flak for having an off-and-on schedule (show 2 episodes, then 2 reruns… show 3 episodes, then a few reruns; herky jerky) so this season they're doing a chunk of episodes, a long break, then a larger chunk of episodes) LOST has managed to keep me addicted, although I've had my highs and lows, mainly with the aforementioned scheduling. It's tough to keep interest in a show like this when there are so many breaks. Fans of Fox's 24 (of which I am not) laugh at us LOSTies because 24 shows all episodes in a row with no breaks for reruns. This is the way a show should be, but networks have all sorts of sweeps weeks and promos and crap… but I digress.

Now, to my point. With all this, LOST still has it's attraction. There are still theories to conjure up and plot lines to resolve. In fact, there are A LOT of them. IGN did a little exposé on the top 50 (yes 50) plot lines still to be resolved on LOST. This is a little troubling as much as it is exciting. I mean, I know the creators of LOST are trying VERY hard not to go the way of Twin Peaks (once everyone knew who killed Laura Palmer, most folks stopped watching… silly fools!) and give away too much… but come on! Top 50 unfinished plot lines is a mighty big matzo ball.

So, as I count down the days until S3 resumes, in the great words of Monty Python, I call on the LOST creators to GET ON WITH IT!

Goldshire… Westfall… Azeroth… Ironforge… Stormwind… no, it's not some sort of Lord of the Rings reference, rather geographic locations in World of Warcraft ; my latest obsession/interest/hobby. If any of you know me well, you know I'm a HALO junkie. Well, WoW ranks up there with HALO as the best games I've ever played. I have never played a game (an MMORPG in this case) where the immersion is so high, so complex. The folks at Blizzard have built this game so extensively and so comprehensively that it allows you to play for weeks and not have the same (or even remotely similar) experience as you go through it.

You are free to roam wherever you want. You are free to fight whatever monsters you want. You have various races, classes and alignments to choose from. You can customize your character. You can interact with almost anything and the greatest thing about the game is that you're playing with over 7,500,000 other real people! The draw of the MMORPG is that you are actually playing, real time, with other real people from all over the world. You can join forces and fight monsters, go on quests, explore, etc.

When I hear about folks playing this game for days at a time, it comes as no surprise to me. This is because I can relate. After playing this game for a few weeks I can see the draw; it's so darn addictive. For me, I have distractions that keep me from playing; kids, chores, work (sometimes). However, the wife is into it too so we will play together for hours and hours which is nice. What I'm not quite understanding is all of the high level mumbo-jumbo that the really serious players are into. Folks who play this game have their own lingo and processes for in-game play which baffles me. I guess I need to play more to get up to speed.

It's a fun game and worth a try. In January they're releasing an expansion pack so things are about to get even better. If you play, I'm on the server Gurubashi and my current character is Dobrhaltar. And before you start pointing fingers and laughing, yes, I realize how nerdy this is… and I love to bust on it.. but I still love the game!

Some video classics for you on this ever so spooky day…

The Pit Of Ultimate Darkness

Goth Talk

These last several months I've made tremendous progress on my model railroad. I got a large section of the benchwork done and lately I've been focusing on constructing the helix and associated subroadbed. All is moving along well, slowly, but well. It's hard to find large chunks of time with the kids around, but during naptime on weekends I can steal away for 2-4 hours and get some work done. Also, there is definitely a learning curve here. I've never constructed a layout of this complexity and type therefore I'm constantly referring to notes, websites, magazines & books and friends for advice. The process has been really fun and I just hope I can get trains up and running before we move out of this house some day!

This past weekend I spent some time installing a bridge which carries the track from the base of the helix through the wall to the main layout room. This was particularly tricky because I was working in a tiny space under the stairs and had to make a template for the curved roadbed. The solution was to use a piece of masonite about 16"x20" which I drew on and then slid to the side and drew the rest of the template. Then back in the main room where I had more space I recreated the alignment and used some plastic tubing to create a nice curve. I then cut the bridge piece with the jigsaw and it fit like a glove.

I also spent a few hours putting up the risers for the masonite spline subroadbed which I will use in most of the open single track areas of the layout. I have wanted to use the spline method since the beginning and I decided on Masonite after considering pine due to fact that I have a lot of it around and it bends so nicely. There is a really nice Masonite spline HOWTO writeup online at BCSJ.org . Check out the website; there are some fantastic shots and tips on there.

This is like finding a long lost friend. Back in the early 90s MTV ran a show called Exit 57. One of the sketches became an inside joke among some of my friends. Well, it finally made its way to YouTube. It’s just as classic now as it was back then… “CHARLAYYYYYY!”

Ted Stevens continues to amaze us with his understanding of the internets. This time in techno remix format.

This is the funniest thing ever… EVAR!! I was crying after I watched this. What’s right with public access cable television today.

There’s MORRRRRRRRRRE!

After many, many years, I got my airbrush back up and running. A couple years ago I built a booth for it but never got around to spraying anything. Over the last several years I've also been slowly collecting Airbrush parts such as valves, water trap, pressure gauge, hoses, fittings and nozzles. Last night, inspired by some free time I had, I got everything up and running and did some trials on some old HO scale engine shells that I had stripped years ago .

The results were promising. The booth performed pretty well, although when spraying, I had to hold the model up high to allow the spray to vent through the duct. If I held it low, the spray tended to circulate around and exit the booth. Oh well. The good part is that my wife could not smell anything upstairs while I was spraying.

I did a simple coat of Floquil Railroad Colors Primer Gray which I thinned with 25% Dio-Sol. This was a real adventure, as I've never been very precise with my paint mixing before and now I'm totally into it. I used Testors Pipettes to measure and distribute the paint to the spray jar. The paint dried a ilttle "chunky" or "dusty" on the model, and I'm not sure why. It seemed that I could wipe it off the model in some places. I think the air-paint ratio was off, but again, I'm still learning. Overall, I'm super satisfied at just getting it running again.

I am excited to continue painting. I plan on painting the two diesel shells up in B&O livery and the trolley shell in DC Transit livery. The DCT trolley will definitely find its way onto the layout some day. Next up, I hope to do some weathering practice on some rolling stock and engines.