Here is the end result of my customization. Not too shabby, if I say so myself. Kate and I are going to take off and get married. Catch you all in 10 days or so.

I put together a little sketch while I was horsing around with the Arduino serial monitor… …pretty stupid, huh? Especially, since it repeats this horrible haiku every five seconds. Forever. This is, oddly enough, the first thing I have taken the required 10 seconds to add comments to my code, which ought to be worth at least a +1

/* * Awful Haiku * * This useless thing prints an aweful haiku * repeatedly, for no particular reason * * courtesy of your friends @ swantron.com * https://swantron.com */ void setup() // reset { Serial.begin(9600); // set serial baud } void loop() // loop area { Serial.println(“Haiku “); // start of haiku crap Serial.println("~~~~~”); Serial.println(” “); Serial.println(“Arduinos are neat.”); Serial.println(“You can do a bunch of crap;”); Serial.println(“Like print a haiku.”); Serial.println(” “); Serial.println(” “); delay(5000); // 5 second delay }

• 1 Haiku - 1 Awful Haiku + 1 Comments in Code - 1 Useless Program - 1 No LEDs ____________________ -1 Total. Sorry for wasting your time.

I suppose I am picky when it comes to sinks. Not bad picky, but picky enough to know what I want. I spent the better part of a decade with double sink set-ups, between my restaurant and bar work experience. I may not be much of a doer of dishes, but set me up with two sinks, and I’ll do my thing. Being a minimalist of sorts, I basically have two choices; granite sinks or stainless steel sinks. I’m leaning towards the former, after seeing some sweet, black granite Mr Direct brand sinks. I was under the false assumption that all granite sinks were speckled and dirty looking. Not the case. Pair that sink with a clean looking faucet apparatus like this… …and all of a sudden, I guess I am a granite sink guy. Hit one of those links above for the details. I most surely will when it is time to remodel our place.

My ethernet shield is here…I haven’t talked to it yet. This could be awesome.

I think what I fondly refer to as my laboratory might not classify as a true lab, per se. I have some sweet stuff going for me in my garage workspace…but the lack of lab equipment might leave me with more of a nerd fortress, and less of a lab. Here is a quick pic: While most of my projects are electronic in nature, I still get down and dirty with some mechanical projects. Woodworking, too, and of course programming. I would for sure benefit from a laboratory apparatus or two, in order to establish some lab credibility. Those above links are to Lab Planet…which I stumbled across while looking for some equipment. I was looking into a dry ice machine, which they have, and saw that they have scores of sweet equipment. Centrifuges, microscopes, furnaces…even mass spec stuff. How sweet would my Arduino projects be with a touch of chemistry?

1) Get this stuff 2) Put it like this 3) Smash the crap out of the metal thing with the framing hammer, until stuck 4) Remove metal thing and ring with vice grips, awl, 2x4, and framing hammer…throw thumbs up.

Worst idea I’ve had in quite some time…hot dog sandwich. Here is how you make a retarded hot dog sandwich, in case you feel a need to wreck your guts, feed a prisoner, lose your job, etc.

1. Halve some h dogs.
2. Pan fry said h dogs.
3. Assemble sandwich. I went for pickles and spicy brown mustard on my stupid sandwich. Feel free to dump whatever you have in the fridge on that sonofabitch…I don’t think it really matters. Wrap-up: h dog sandwiches taste like fail.

Times are still tough. Our economy is still a wreck. Foreclosures are still rampant; however, there is no need to give up your livelihood. When push comes to shove, why take a hit and declare bankruptcy, when you can just as easily do a little home loan modification and get your expenditures back in line with your income. Enter American Residential Law Group. This is their bread and butter. Regardless of how unlikely it seems that you will keep your home, these guys will go to bat for you. Experience goes a long ways…especially when things are in flux as they are currently. Give them a shot…it will work out.

I snapped this pic from work (in Four Corners) about twenty minutes before hell wrought down fury upon Bozeman, Montana in the form of large hail. Hail dents the size of Matzah Balls. Details will follow.

So there I find myself, shopping for watches. Granted, my cellphone has been my primary time keeping device for well over a decade, but every once in a while I find myself looking to accesorize. Watches, why not? Don’t judge me. Function plus style. Multitasking? You cannot go wrong with a watch. So, I have been poking around a bit, and at first, I had my eye on this jacques lemans watch I found online at bluedial.com: Right? Pretty minimal…sleek…bling-ish? Well, hold your breath. I then stumbled across this guy, also by Jacque Lemans Tell me that doesn’t look like a robot head. I dare you…tell me. Regardless, bluedial has all sorts of brands, if robot head watches aren’t your thing. If they aren’t, you are completely out of your mind, for what it is worth. Most likely, I will continue to use the smartphone as my timepiece. Still waiting on my Droid Incredible, which should have the most awesome time app in the histories of both apps and time. There still exists a soft spot in my heart for a good, old fashioned watch…maybe if the Incredible looked more robotic, that would cease to be the case.