What did you do today?

[craigbru]

I didn’t see a thread like this already started, so I thought I’d go ahead and remedy that. We all have places we go and things that we do beyond the scope of computing or SFF. Our AFK world, so to speak. I thought it would be interesting to see how we keep ourselves busy or entertained on a daily basis. So, what did you do today?


So, a little bit of quick backstory. A lot of guys from the Losias crew are well aware that I love to work on things beyond computers. Jeeps are a particular addiction of mine, going all the way back to my first CJ5 in high school. It was a beautiful black Golden Hawk edition, that I unfortunately rolled before I had time to truly enjoy it. A few years later, I bought a 1998 TJ Wrangler, and still have it to this day. My wife has a 2011 JKU Rubicon, and I’ve now got a 2007 Grand Cherokee. The latter has been getting most of my time lately. We’ve got a Moab trip planned in June, and off road trails will be a huge part of that. I’ve been doing lots of prep in order to get ready. There are still a few things on the list, but here is the GC as it sits now.



Over the weekend I was working on a new rear cargo area storage system with integrated shallow mount subs. Fun times!

 

[Phuncz]

I have the week off and I'm already trying to efficiently stuff what I want to do in the time I have.

First I started with getting my two RPi's running with Ubuntu Mate, I can't get down with Raspbian and how dumbed-down it is to the point I have to look how I can turn off network interfaces. This all to learn, test and configure the Ubiquiti EdgeRouter Lite I got recently.

Later I returned an item from Amazon, the first in dozens of purchases I made, because it was the wrong product shipped. Prepaid printable label, bring to the nearest post office and they'll refund me later. When I got back I received my order from HDPlex and started planning my evil scheme.

For our LAN parties, we used long networking cables (10-30m) for our large venues, but for our smaller events we have the need for 5m cables. We had some cables with the plugs missing so I terminated about 7 cables at 5m each and 3 at 1m, all passed the test (one needed a second try).

 

[confusis]

not ss much today as the past 7-8 days;
-split up with my partner of 3 years (we kind of drifted apart) and had to move asap
-packed everything that myself and my two children own
-organised moving into my sister's house
-un-enrolled my kids from their school
-had a job interview with another government agency
-worked 3 days
-changed ownership of the car out of my name to the ex (i now have no car -_-)
-moved everything to my sisters house
-unpacked the kids stuff and most of mine
-enrolled kids in new school (they start today)
-enrolled kids in afterschool supervision
-sorted out my budget
-organised getting adsl connected to the house today


today's to do list;
-try and buy a car on finance
-meet the kids teachers
-buy school uniforms
-set up a network cable so i can podcast this weekend
-figure out the public transport network so I can get to work tomorrow
-sort out my bank automatic payments so things are paid on time
-figure out how i am going to be able to pick up the kids stationery and whatnot from their old school

 

[craigbru]

Man, that’s been a hell of a week for you John. I’m sure you’ll get it all sorted out, but that doesn’t mean you might not sprout a few gray hairs in the process. It’s never easy when your kids are young. Best of luck to you!

 

[QinX]

I finally fixed my front yard and have started attempting CPR to the backyard.

Can you see how I hate doing gardening? Although now I'm slowly starting to like it because I'm seeing progress

 

[craigbru]

That's looking great! You may not have liked it when you started, but the work is paying off!

 

[GuilleAcoustic]

... snip ...

Dammit, I'm very sorry to read that. My thoughts are with you my friend.

 

[confusis]

i suppose a positive of my situation is now i can buy computer parts without having to consult anyone

 

[Phuncz]

not ss much today as the past 7-8 days;

Damn confusis, that's awful. I wish you the best of success and I wish I could be of help.

I finally fixed my front yard and have started attempting CPR to the backyard.

Eurgh, I hate gardens when it comes to maintenance, I love gardens when it comes to enjoying. I envy people that enjoy both aspects.

 

[iFreilicht]

@confusis man I'm sorry for that, but you can handle it. At the very least, you've already discovered some good sides to the single life! Also, having a family to help you in hard times like that is more valuable than anything else.

 

[craigbru]

Although not exciting in its own right, I managed to break my lawnmower last night. It’s a self-propelled walk behind, or at least it was. At some point about halfway through the yard, it became a standard push mower. Hey, I’m all for a little exercise, but the remaining yard is all hill, and wasn’t fun to finish in the least. I’m sure it’s just a broken cable or rather simple fix. However, that’s not what I told the wife. So, guess who’s going mower shopping tonight? I know I’m getting old when this excites me…

 

[iFreilicht]

Get one of those mower robots, those things are so cool! I think you can even buy them with integrated water reservoirs now, so you can set them up to mow and water the lawn.

 

[craigbru]

Ha, those are pretty cool. I’m pretty sure they would be more than I’d want to spend. So, I’m settling for a nice Toro variable pace mower. That’s still a step up from what I was using.

 

[jtd871]

I've been modding my Lego 42006 excavator model to run on the PF parts I got with the recent crawler crane (which I modded a bit to run via manual operation so I could use the PF parts for other purposes like this) and some other Technic bits in my inventory. It now has simultaneously operable (and independently controllable) boom and dipper arms and claw grapple, inspired by this:http://rebrickable.com/mocs/yannmar/motorized-hydraulic-excavator , but with a different gearing layout more in keeping with the stock model. Figuring out how to mount the levers for the old-style 2-stud length transmission rings (which have to be placed at 1/2-stud offset from the gearing) is a bit kludgy yet. I may opt to rebuild the gearing with half-bushings to alleviate this problem...but that will affect the mounting for the battery box "counterweight" which is not as nice as the MOC inspiriation.

 

[jeshikat]

As mentioned in the last podcast, today I flew out to California to visit my sister:

About to board the connecting flight from Houston.

On approach to LAX. It's tiny, but you can see another plane on approach ahead of us just above the wing

At the hotel, testing out a 60D she had just bought by doing my best hipster impression

 

[IntoxicatedPuma]

I moved to a new apartment! Other than that, just work work work. New projects coming in soon so maybe I will work on a AAA title this fall.

 

[jeshikat]

So today was more interesting, first thing on the agenda was getting a tour of where my sister worked:

Like many hip companies, they have lots of employee perks including a gaming area.

And relevant to our interests, the PCs hiding under the desks are SFF

It's a Digital Storm Eclipse with an i5 4590, 8GB RAM, and a GTX 970 housed in a SilverStone RVZ01 with custom red paint. The power supply is some SFX, likely a FSP unit going by the fan grill and bare metal.

After the tour we had a delicious lunch in Little Osaka at Hurry Curry of Tokyo. If any of you get the chance to eat there, I recommend the chicken cutlet curry.

On the walk from the parking garage to the restaurant I spotted a BMW i3:

It looks better in person than I would have thought but it's still a weird looking car.

After that we headed up the coast on Highway 1 towards Santa Barbara. Along the way I noticed that Californians must have some burning hatred for people who pull into the wrong side of the entrance to beach parking lots:

Those are one-way tire spikes and the sign reads "Wrong Way | STOP | Severe Tire Damage"

After a nice drive up the coast we got to where we were staying for the night:

It has a flat roof which makes for a great viewpoint to look out over the ocean.

Once the sun started to set I walked down to the beach to play around with the aforementioned Canon 60D:

And if things work out tomorrow I may have some pics of something that will be of interest to those who liked the featured thread from ep7 of the podcast

BTW, if you guys get tired of me posting all these pics just let me know.

 

[Phuncz]

Very nice trip you made ! The BMW i3 seems to be much narrower than standard cars, making it look funny. It reminds me of the Audi A2. The i8 couldn't be any further apart, with it's low and very wide shape.

 

[IntoxicatedPuma]

Where does your sister work? Thats way nicer than my work, although generally we just use our workstations to play games.

 

[jØrd]

i had a drug fucked schizophrenic wake me up at 6am crawling around my front yard apparently looking for their passport. today the cops contacted me looking for him. if i see him tomorrow im ruining his fucking day.