Found In the Woods

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.

I have been trying out a Jedi Mind Trick on George Lucas for the last several years or so, hoping to get him to release the first three Star Wars films (New Hope, Empire & Jedi) in their ORIGINAL format on DVD. Well, finally it worked. Get 'em while they're hot!

Episode iV: A New Hope

Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back

Episode VI: Return of the Jedi

* I think it's funny that the Original, unedited theatrical versions of the movies are on the "Extras" disc in these releases. Silly George. Well, at least we got 'em! 

Kids, This is one of my fav animations. It's set to some audio from a World of Warcraft raid leader who goes NUTS when his raid falls apart. It's really funny. CAUTION – contains expletives and coarse imagery.

Click to Play!

I read a recent post in LifeHacker.com about this really nice, simple VPN client called HamachiX . I have played with it a little bit and so far I'm impressed. I can access files remotely and more importantly, access my iTunes library from anywhere! This is especially great at work when I'm in the mood for different music all day long and get frustrated when I forgot to load something on my iPod. This is something that I've wanted to do for a long time. I just hope that I don't kill all the bandwith at work. 🙂 So, I recommend you check this out! There is a PC version as well as others.  

Don't you forget, ye scallywags, today be the day !

Has it realy come to this?!

Slimming filter for HP cameras makes people skinnier (via Boing Boing)

A week ago Saturday night vandals destroyed a $50,000 electric billboard type sign out in front of Rockville High school which is near our house. This comes as no surprise to me. About two years ago the sign was installed in front of the newly renovated and expanded high school on Baltimore Rd. One day, on our way to church, I saw the sign and immediately turned to Kris and said "oh, that's a mistake. That thing will be destroyed in a couple years, I guarantee it." Many kids have no respect for personal property, and something so public and well known is a great target for some trouble making kids. Trust me, I know.

But my real beef is … $50,000 sign!? Did you just say fifty thousand dollars?! Who is the genius that had the brilliant idea that a HIGH SCHOOL needs a $50k sign out front to tell us when the next PTA meeting is and that kids have off next Monday for Columbus day? A High School is not a moneymaking venture. This is needless spending at its worst. I'm glad that sign is busted. The folks up in arms about it need a reality check. There's no need for something so extravagant and it was a total waste of money, no matter where it came from. Sorry folks, next time try brick and mortar – it lasts a lot longer. At least they could have covered it with a protective plastic case!? Come on! $50 grand and you can't do it right.

Here is the response from a community group: 

From:
Subject: Vandalism at Rockville High School Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2006 14:29:46 +0000
Elementary school reps: Please send this to your listserve moderators.
We want the entire community to know about this and to be involved in it.
Thanks! 

Dear RHS Community,

This past Saturday night, vandals destroyed the electronic sign in front of the school. Dr. Munk has said that initial estimates put the cost of repair well in excess of $30,000.

This thoughtless act harms all members of our community, but most of all, it hurts our children. The electronic sign, like the building itself, just a little more than two years old, was a great source of pride for our students.

I am sure everyone will agree that whoever perpetrated this act needs to be brought to justice. The sooner this happens, the better. We can ill afford having criminal acts such as this repeated in our neighbor, to our school, where it affects the ones we love the most.

In all likelihood, if the perpetrators are students, they will brag of their exploits to friends, and word soon will spread among the student body concerning who is responsible for this despicable act. Accordingly, I encourage every parent in our community to speak with your children tonight and ask if they have heard anything about who may be responsible. If they know of anything, please call Dr. Munk or the Montgomery County Police and let them know.

Thank you.

I'm not too familiar with Keith Olbermann, but I thought this commentary was passionate and well put. I voted for Bush. Twice. I'm not a huge Bush-hater, but I'm not enamored with him either.

A year ago I stumbled on a collection of color photos from the 1940s. My primary interests are in the Railroad related images , which are simply amazing. They are some of the most wonderful photos I have ever seen. The clarity and quality of the images are outstanding. The subject matter is incredibly varied. I spent a half hour just trying to remember what the URL was and why I hadn't jotted it down. So, I'm posting it here in an effort to maintain it for the future. Enjoy!

The color photographs of the Farm Security Administration-Office of War Information Collection
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/fsachtml/fsowhome.html 

Its funny to listen to bono go on about the poor dying and then to read in the paper about dark matter. " the researchers said yesterday that visible and detectable matter, the atoms in everything from gases to stars and elephants, makes up only 5 percent of the matter in the universe. Another estimated 20 percent is subatomic dark matter, which has no discernable qualities except the ability to create gravitational fields and pass through any object without leaving a trace. The rest they said, is the even more mysterious dark energy which fills empty space with a force that appears to negate gravity and push the universe to expand ever faster." When you consider how big the universe is and how long it has been around, and then think about the millions of years that dinosaurs ruled this planet only to be wiped out with no one intelligent enough to mourn them and then contemplate the million years or so that early hominids tried to master fire, stones and other elements only to wiped out 30,000 years ago by homo sapiens who continued to wander the globe aimlessly before establishing a semblance of culture in the last five to six thousand years. Now in the last hundred years we have exploded in population and technological advancement and are finally intellectually evolved to mourn loosing a fraction of our 6.5 billion people. Just 80 years ago this world had 4.5 billion people less.

1 billion was reached in 1802.
2 billion was reached 125 years later in 1927.
3 billion was reached 34 years later in 1961.
4 billion was reached 13 years later in 1974.
5 billion was reached 13 years later in 1987.
6 billion was reached 12 years later in 1999.

The scientific perspective kind of makes you question the whole endeavor. Its not like we are going to become extinct or anything. when I contemplate the true nature of this universe I feel very fatalilistic but I think that this is the beginnings of true faith. To understand how truly insignificant we are and our lives are and yet to believe that God has made them significant in his choice to incarnate in our paltry history. But we should not be mistaken into thinking that God's purpose was to cure our recent and self defined poverty.

Thanks Kevin!