It's been a very, very long time since I've posted anything here. I'm still around, though.

Today I came across a real gem of a find for artists who need some reference material for sword fighting, 16th century style!

May I present the scanned entirety of Joachim Meyer's 1561 fight book manuscript. Full color, available in two compressed archives of about 40MB each.

Link to the material on Acta Periodica Duellatorum

So.... uhm. Yeah.

It's been a while since I've posted anything. Guess I've been really busy! Yeah. That's my story and sticking to it.

If you're a fan of the quirky steampunk group Steam Powered Giraffe, then you should go get yourself a copy of their newest album, MK-III.

Go. NOW!

If you don't know who Steam Powered Giraffe is, give this a watch...

https://youtu.be/ojYK6CW8gdw

Here's a pair of superb animated shorts to help start the weekend!

1) Disney's "Paperman." Love the style, love the story, makes me smile every time I watch it.

https://youtu.be/Qj4cDhppNis

2) A totally independent, non-studio film by Minkyu Lee, called "Adam and Dog." Some nudity, but considering the setting that's to be expected. Great animation, story and design. And yeah, I got choked up at the end.

https://youtu.be/hq0-i8GQbgw

Just a quick update. I'm still alive, just stupid-busy as a result of transitioning employment and state of residence. I'll be up and running again in a few weeks.

One of the greatest of us has passed.

Neil Armstrong, first man on the moon and the personification of the term "quiet professional," has crossed over at the age of 82.

Godspeed, Neil.

How would you like to see a pair of these critters approach your front door on Halloween?

https://youtu.be/wB2HTAcbmck

Very cool concept, and even better designs!

By now you've probably heard the news: the Curiosity rover made a picture-perfect landing on Mars. Well done to JPL and all the engineering teams, fabricators and personnel that were involved! This is indeed a great day for Mars science!

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/ has data, but their poor servers may be slammed with traffic.

Expect a wealth of imagery and data from this magnificent machine.

Right. First off, James Gurney is one of my favorite artists. He has a blog, too. You should read it. Seriously.

Mr. Gurney posted a "Survival Guide for Art Students" this past Sunday. In it he identifies 10 key instructional books that he finds the most useful, plus a quick blurb about each.

Here's the link to his post: http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/2.....-students.html

Worth a read, and please do read through the comments for additional recommendations!

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/s.....30e179621.html

Reminds me of something John Harris might paint, only this is the real thing. A view from the ISS of a European automated cargo vessel approaching to deliver its payload of oxygen, water, fuel and other equipment.

If you've never heard of this man, that's no surprise. But you might be surprised at what this little man, born on April 9, 1806, managed to do during his life: He made the modern world.

https://youtu.be/_K00xt_cxbI

I've been working on a series of "Tools for Writers" entries in my spare time, partly because I'm so used to writing working documents as part of my job and partly to get comfortable behind the keyboard for tasks other than engineering documents. Once I feel the time is right I'll begin crafting some anthropological sci-fi for ya'll to read (or not).

Lord, it's been so long since The Spiral Crisis.

Now that the weather is starting to warm up the purple martins are coming back from their South American wintering grounds.

It's fun to watch them arrive and explore the upgraded housing I installed. Should be a welcome improvement over last season. Morning socialization and singing is a sure sign that spring has sprung here in Texas.

More info on the purple martin is here: http://purplemartin.org/

[13-March Update]

It would seem word is spreading. My martin housing is crawling with the birds now. They definitely appreciate the upgrades I made!

Completed a full mechanical test run of the remote operated yard tug over the weekend. After manually mowing the perimeter of the yard I powered up the unit (ROmow-X, as it is still experimental) and hitched the reel mower to it, then used it to mow the rest of the lawn. Note to self: people are not used to seeing something like ROmow scooting around the yard; damn near had a traffic accident right in front of the house. Eyes on the road, folks.

Cut quality exceeds my expectations. The reel mower's weight, combined with the roller bar that's at the rear and speed of ROmow, all add up to a clean cut with no tire depressions left behind. Looks like a putting green. Shit yeah.

Took longer than I expected, but I chalk that up to developing new cutting routes as the job progressed. Have to keep the unit moving in order to have the reel spin at the right RPM, so doing sharp 180 turns is out; gradual sweeping turns is the way to go.

Did notice that the battery drain on the #1 battery (there are two linked in series for 24V) was a lot higher than #2. I attribute that to the always-on cooling fan that I've installed into the electronics bay. That fan is powered off the #1 battery. I'll have to look into a smaller, separate battery for the fan, or break the job into different days for different parts of the yard (front yard and back yard) to keep the effect of battery drain to a minimum.

Presently waiting for my Li-Pos to arrive for the little 5.8GHz 200mW camera system that will live on the roll bar over the drive motors. Once installed and debugged (there's always debugging with this stuff) I should be able to run ROmow-X remotely from inside the house, driving it like a little tank through my TV.

Typical weekend. Even the dog is used to it by now.

I spent a good two hours of last night hunched over my electronics bench trying to coax the dark secrets out of my 4-yr-old iPoo Classic, in an effort to replace its ailing Li-Ion battery. This followed a very careful procedure wherein thin metal "spudger" tools were inserted into the miniscule panel line between the front face of the vile machine and its chrome-plated body. A hairline gap forms between the two when the thin, spade-like spudger is deflected down, and it is into this gap that you are to insert a sharpened 1.5" putty knife, jam it (gently?) firmly downwards, and then begin wiggling it around. The idea is that the razor-sharp putty knife acts as a countermeasure to the 52 million retention clips that the engineers at "that fruit company" designed to keep the device held together.

Once you've overcome the clips on one side of the device, you then move on to the top, then the other side, and finally the bottom. Only then can you (maybe) open the device up and gain access to the battery.

The process of changing the battery is simple. 2-minutes, tops. Then you spend another 20 bending back any metal clips you managed to mangle during your struggle to open the damned thing. And finally you press the two halves together, hear everything click back into place, throw the switch, and see the fruit logo pop up to signal all is well with the internals.

Congratulations! Your iPoo has a new battery. It's shiny chrome ass is also scratched to hell, warped outward ever so slightly on one side, and is speckled with dried blood.

That blood is going to stay on there as a reminder to me of how a personal entertainment device should NOT be designed. If you cannot easily change out the battery of a product that you paid good money for then I'm sorry: you don't really own that device, you're just renting it for several years.

Between graduate school and my job it's been years (literally) since I've been able to scribble down anything approaching what one might call a "story." Whenever I think I've got that spark, just have to jot down the scene that's playing in my mind, something invariably pops up to distract me: managers freaking out over nothing; final examinations to prepare for; my thesis to write. The list goes on and on. Sucks.