The S2H blog

The one where people in Huntington Beach do a 180

2011-09-29T22:31:00.001-05:00

The one after moving ...again

2011-06-20T22:25:00.002-05:00

Life has been hectic lately - moving cross country twice, changing jobs... you know... the basic stuff. Here's a little tour of our new rental home. It feels so good to be somewhat settled. Thanks to all for your love and support!

The one with the Force

2011-03-21T19:10:00.002-05:00

This morning, I came across one of those hilarious videos that only sincere fans can truly enjoy and appreciate. It inspired me to find more, so I looked around on Youtube for a while during lunch. There's not much to say about these other than this - if a fan you are, enjoy these you will.

These are some of my favorite spoofs/spinoffs/et cetera...

Ladies and gentlemen, Star Wars: A New Hope, as told by a 3yr old...

To those of us, who are "realistic

Lego Star Wars, Episodes IV thru VI. (This is an awesome Lego collection, I'm just sayin'...)

This is a well-done "COPS" spoof that was done way back '97.

And the video that triggered this post and collection...

Again, another for those of us who dare question the "realistic nature" of movies...

The finale: hands down, the best Superbowl commercial ever, courtesy of Volkswagon

The one with God's immutability

2011-03-21T00:16:00.005-05:00

Pastor Kent gave another passionate sermon today on the immutability of God, part of the Knowing God series (you can listen or join the Podcast here). In it, Kent discusses 8 key characteristics of God's unchangeable, perfect nature.

Earlier this week, my heart broke for the Jasper family after hearing about their son, Cooper. Their story has been the inspiration for another film from the same folks that have brought us Facing the Giants & Fireproof. For those of you who don't know of the Jasper family's story, please, take a look at their story in this in-depth video interview (go ahead and "sign up" - it doesn't have to be a "real" email address - there's a link to watch the video immediately after).

I cannot imagine the pain that they have endured and pray that I never have the ability to sympathize with it. But even through their struggle's, J.J.'s words of encouragement give surreal understanding to faith. There are many struggles and terrible things encompassing our globe the last few weeks (Libya, Egypt's corruption (with a recent positive voting result!), Japan's earthquake, remaining Afghanistan & Iraq conflicts....). God's Creation alone is a brief window to His magnificence and genius - and a perfect example of how little we humans can possibly understand amidst it's complexity. Our primitive minds will never be able to understand but a glimpse of His sovereignty, nor how and why all things happen. The Jasper family's story is another horrific example of struggle that escapes our human understanding, but, thankfully, they've been willing to share their story for us to benefit from.

In my reflection this week on the Jasper family, one thing stuck out and resonated with me today as I was hearing Pastor Kent's sermon.

"There are no words to describe how we hurt... But God's sovereignty and His character do not change. He is still a good God. We knew that intellectually, and now we know it experientially." - J.J. Jasper

Flame on!

⁶ For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. ⁷ For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline. ⁸ So do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner. Rather, join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God. ⁹ He has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. - 2 Timothy 1: 6-9 (NIV 2011)

The one where Creation calls

2011-03-09T20:31:00.003-06:00

I came across a phenomenal video production put on by The Branch church, down in Dallas, TX. The video clips are from BBC's "Planet Earth" series (recently produced by Discovery Channel), put to music from Brian Doerksen.

In Romans 1:19-20, Paul tells us:

...what may be known about God is plain to them [everyone!], because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—His eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made [CREATION!], so that people are without excuse. (NIV 2011)

I challenge you to hear God's call to you through His amazing Creation!

I think Rich Mullins said it best, "Our God is an AWESOME God!"

The one that's littoral

2010-08-11T19:59:00.005-05:00

My awesome cuz told me about this awesome video today. Meet your tax dollars at work (as opposed to paying for illegal aliens' health care, the welfare system, or state lawyers getting paid to commute TO work)...

Here's a few photos, courtesy of General Dynamics.

That's 137 m (450 ft) long

A little profile view

Can I drive...???

The one during takeoff.

2010-07-19T18:04:00.000-05:00

Awesome.

The one on a battle ship (OK, technically a destroyer)

2010-07-13T00:43:00.007-05:00

Christina and I toured the USS Gridley, one of the latest and greatest destroyers in our Naval fleet. The Navy brought her into Seal Beach for a brief publicity stunt, and I was all about it. Thanks to my wife for finding out about it! The Gridley was christened in February of '06... not that long ago. It employs the latest in ship stealth technology, and touts an incredible arsenal of missiles. Here's an abridged version of our tour...

Hard to believe, I know, that our majestic flag is still allowed to fly free in this state...

From the dock, identifying her namesake and sporting that massive artillery.

An M777 Howitzer, with it's Oshkosh Truck towing truck.

It was a looooooooooong line - free admission. Cool. Finally, got something for my tax dollars...

This jolly veteran was very enthused to talk a little shop with the soldiers on staff. He really wanted to try out that AR-15... In all seriousness, thanks to all you veterans and active duty soldiers out there. We are blessed by your sacrifices, and I pray that God blesses you and your families!

Front ISO view...

Rear ISO view...

Aforementioned missiles shoot out of these doors. The sailors were trying to get all the kids to jump on on the doors and put their hands up as if they were missiles shooting out. It was cute, but also a bit creepy. The reality of the ships abilities started to set in.

Ever wonder what a modern sailor is packin'?

Don't look up... yup there were more on the upper deck.

I couldn't NOT take this photo op... it's very empowering, isn't it?

Gotta' end with the shot of the "newly weds" enjoying an afternoon in the sun.

The one with wrong conclusions

2010-04-29T19:52:00.011-05:00

Don't you just love it when someone "reputable" does a "formal" study, and documents it? And then ignorant (no judgments, perhaps even well-intentioned!) people with much power (a loud voice, fancy column, their own TV show, celebrity status, etc...) proclaim the study as the real deal... the cats pajamas... sheer genius... mind-blowing... something worthy of thoughtful consideration in all following discussions on the subject?!?

Well, it drives me nuts.

Many of you are probably wondering, "Is he talking about the latest 'global warming evidence'?" "Or, Pelosi's brainwashed analysts that proclaim the 'accurate' costs of Obamacare?" "Or perhaps relying on one of those folks on Mythbusters as the be-all, end-all of doers of scientific methods determining the ultimate legitimacy of any experiment?"

In some cases, yes. But, in this case, no.

Today, I'm going to take you into the world of an audiophile. Yes, even when it comes to geeks that tweak speakers for fun, things can get very political. On that note, to keep it fun, here are a few shots from some of the speaker geek gatherings over the years...

Friend & host of DIY Iowa 2003, Jim Holtz

A group of guys talking shop after lunch at DIY Iowa 2004

The guys scoping out their "competition" at DIY Iowa 2007

One of the cool things about audio equipment is that perception is everything. And with the surreal complexity of our ears, it's signal processor (our brain), and the issue of subjectivity, everybody has their very own opinion of what is "good" and "bad."

The real subject at hand here is an article I discovered the other day. Since my comments are still being "reviewed" before submittal on the page (I was just a "guest" posting), I'm going to have to post my comments elsewhere so I make sure that the world can know what is wrong with this picture.

The article covers a study that was published in an AES paper, entitled "Audibility of a CD-Standard A/D/A Loop Inserted Into High-Resolution Audio Playback." In short, they were hypothesising and experimenting to find out why the "high resolution" formats (see SACD and DVD-Audio) that have been released in the last few years have not been successful in the mainstream commercial music world.

In essence, they decided to do a double blind test to compare SACD to Redbook CD (your standard CD - 16 bits of resolution, 44.1kHz sampling rate). SACD uses a Delta-Sigma DSP scheme that equates to 1 bit of resoultion at a very high sampling rate (roughly 2.8MHz). In DSP theory, when you digitize something you end up with the "signal" and "noise." And basically, with Delta-Sigma processing, the recovered quantization noise becomes the "signal."

Nowadays, just about all CD players use Delta-Sigma processing to "recover" the 16 bit signal on your CD's into an analog signal. Remember like 10 years ago when you'd go to buy a CD player and you'd commonly see a fancy thing on the spec sheet that said "8x Oversampling" or "16x Oversampling"? Yeah, all that means is that it uses Delta-Sigma processing - for it to work well, it has to be a very high sampling rate. Quite frankly, it's just a much more economical way to make a D/A converter. The traditional D/A conversion process using R2R resistor ladder technique gets very complicated when you require 65,000+ resistors that are EXACTLY the same resistance with a switch in front of each and every one. There are a few very expensive R2R type DACs still on the market today (such as the AD1866), but they are very rare and used in only the best of the best of equipment. That said, some of the best audio DACs in the world are Delta-Sigma type, such as the CS4396.

For the sake of comparison:
8x oversampling Delta-Sigma D/A converter for CD players sampling rate: 352.8 kHz
SACD sampling rate: 2,822.4 kHz

OK - I've lost most of you. But, that's OK.

And then there's PCM - Pulse Code Modulation, which is the method that CD's use for data storage.

So, some folks decided that they wanted to make a format better than CD's. Instead of 16 bits @ 44.1kHz, they created a format of 24 bits @ 192kHz. "Is there really that big of a difference between 16 bits and 24 bits?" Yes.

Imagine sheets of paper. If you took 65,536 sheets, representing the decimal number of 2^16 power, you'd have a stack of paper about 22' tall. Now, if you took enough sheets to make 24 bits worth of slices, you would have a stack over 1 MILE high! (2^24 is 16,777,216) That's A LOT of paper.

But, of course, with resolution the signal that's being converted doesn't change - the number of possibilities that analog signal can be divided into is just increased with a "higher resolution" signal. Its like the difference between watching a DVD (480 vertical lines) and HDTV (1080 vertical lines) broadcast on your screen. The size of your TV doesn't change, but you get a much better picture with more resolution.

For the sake of comparison, resolution of:
Standard CD (16 bit): a stack of paper 22 feet tall
DVD-Audio (24 bit): a stack of paper over 1 mile high

For the sake of comparison, sampling rate of:
Standard CD: 44.1 kHz
DVD-Audio: 192 kHz
Basically, for each time a CD takes a data sample, DVD-Audio takes 4 (roughly speaking).

So, between the huge resolution increase (8 more bits) and taking more than 4 times the amount of data samples, DVD-Audio is clearly (on paper) a better representation of the original analog signal.

Now, let's look at DSD. What is DSD? Direct Stream Digital. Basically, this is the hype with SACD. SACD uses DSD format as CDs and DVD-Audio use PCM format. With DSDS, an analog source from the recording studio is sent into a DSD encoder. This takes the analog signal and performs the aforementioned Delta-Sigma 1 bit sampling process @ ~2.8MHz. This signal is then captured digitally and stored as 1 bit data words (as opposed to PCM that has 16 bit data words). While taking a PCM signal and performing a digital to analog conversion of that through Delta-Sigma processing works quite well (as noted earlier), DSD is the first time that Delta-Sigma has been used through A/D and D/A realms.

And now, back to the article and subject matter.

The gripe I have is the way in which the test was performed. They took a DSD source from an SACD and played it on an SACD player. They then took the analog recovered output from the SACD player and put it into an HHB CD recorder. The recorder contains PCM 16-bit 44.1kHz A/D converters to be able to burn the analog input onto a CD and subsequent 16-bit 44.1kHz D/A converters sending the analog output.

There are several problems with this:
1) The HHB CD player uses "average" D/A and A/D converters.
2) The HHB CD player uses sub-par NJR (New Japan Radio) opamps in the input and output analog signal paths, which are the absolute bottom barrel garbage. So bad, in fact, they are notably worse than the NJM4580 model used in a competitive product (noted here). As a geek that makes a part-time living upgrading "top of the line" DVD and CD players, quite frankly, these types of opamps plague the "audiophile" market and destroy much of the wonders of what the fancy digital electronics produce for us. That's another rant for another day...
3) The ultimate error - they have self-righteously proclaimed that the SACD (DSD) format is superior to PCM in the way that they set up the experiment. The have a DSD source that they decode and then encode the SACD analog output into PCM through the CD burner. To have done this properly, they should have taken an analog source (either from old "analog masters" or from a new live studio master mix) and then split that into a DSD encoder and a PCM encoder. Then, they can compare the DSD "high resolution" to PCM 16 bit. This way, both formats have the same master input, rather than a series path of master mix to DSD digital to analog to PCM digital to analog.

For an analogy that an everyday person can relate to, this is what they did.
The object is to see if people can tell the difference between AM and FM radio signals.
The signal is taken from the output of a CD player; the master source.
From here it is put into an AM modulator, transmitted across the room, and then demodulated. The output of the recovered AM signal is then put into an FM modulator and broadcast across the room again. The FM gets demodulated in another radio receiver. The A and B comparison is between the output of the recovered AM signal and the output of the recovered FM signal.
And here inlies the error. The FM signal was created from the AM signal.
The correct method would have been to send the output of the CD player to both the AM and FM modulators and then compare the outputs of the recovered AM and FM outputs on the other side of the room.

Do you now see the ridiculousness that they tried to pull off?!?!

4) Because the listeners statistically didn't do very well in determining the difference of the two test parameters, they erroneously (and arrogantly) come to the false conclusion that people can't tell the difference between "Redbook CD" and "high resolution audio." The fallacy here is that they're assuming that because they can't tell the difference between SACD and SACD converted into Redbook standard PCM, that they also wouldn't be able to tell the difference between SACD and DVD-Audio (high resolution PCM). That really grinds my gears!

In fact, I think that this study actually proves that SACD is equal to or worse than Redbook standard PCM. Why? Because they put "high resoultion SACD signal" and converted that into Redbook PCM and people couldn't tell the difference. That means, that Redbook PCM didn't do much to "damage" or reduce the perceived quality of the signal. To make an even worse case for SACD, they didn't even use "high quality" D/A and A/D converters or opamps in the chosen CD burner (PCM converter) they tested with.

This confirms what my two respected and well-referenced friends' and my ears have told us for years... Don't get me wrong, there are "good" and "bad" SACDs. There are "good" and "bad" Redbook CDs. There are "good" and "bad" DVD-Audios. It all comes down to the mix and how it was mastered. DVD-Audios that are created from upconverted Redbook CD PCM masters obviously don' t sound much different than the Redbook CD. But DVD-Audios created from the original analog masters of old recordings can be flat-out phenomenol (if the mix was good in the first place).

Well, you may have guessed through various subtleties that I believe that SACD isn't a good format. That's not true - it's just not as good as DVD-Audio. In some ways, I beleive it's better than Redbook CD, but the destruction of the last couple upper octaves gives it away every time. For that reason, I would prefer a well-mixed and recorded Redbook CD over the same SACD of the album. You can just trust me - a well produced DVD-Audio is the best quality audio media you'll get (of a produced album).

The end.

The one where it took me almost a year

2010-04-27T18:03:00.010-05:00

Well, I did it - barely. A day short of a year from the last post. To my loyal followers, I apologize. To my loyal antagonists, consider it grace.

Much of the cause of this delay has been due to the declining state of our great nation; a nation created to be under the covering of God, designed to operate in conjunction with the Ten Commandments and God's plan for His children. As I see our nation's righteous freedoms and liberties continue to be stripped away, it grows difficult to even bother commenting. And at the same time, it's difficult to avoid it as it is always on my mind.

That said (heavy start), not everything I have to share is profoundly deep nor life-changing; just look at the Heineken commercial I posted... last year. Rest assured, fun and amusing tidbits are sure to find their way into my fingers as a type.

Speaking of which, I am watching parts of Short Circuit 2 as I type.
This iconic picture of Number 5 just screams, "More Input!" While many disagree with my sentiments, the Short Circuit 2 is clearly a superior movie to its predecessor. And as big of a fan as I am, I don't think anyone can compare to this guy...

To segue into some amusing statistics, here are the results from a CBS poll after I submitted my votes on Obama's first year in office. Granted, this is from back in January - but, I still thought it disgustingly amusing.

The Economy

A:
4.77%

B:
4.56%

C:
5.27%

D:
17.80%

F:
67.60%

Foreign Policy

A:
6.80%

B:
4.19%

C:
7.67%

D:
21.66%

F:
59.68%

Health Care

A:
7.14%

B:
3.01%

C:
2.87%

D:
8.31%

F:
78.67%

Afghanistan

A:
5.67%

B:
13.60%

C:
25.96%

D:
22.84%

F:
31.93%

Iraq

A:
5.79%

B:
10.08%

C:
24.39%

D:
23.77%

F:
35.96%

Threat of Terrorism

A:
6.63%

B:
4.92%

C:
9.74%

D:
21.19%

F:
57.52%

Energy and the Environment

A:
5.66%

B:
5.56%

C:
12.70%

D:
21.03%

F:
55.04%

Social Issues

A:
6.71%

B:
4.69%

C:
10.82%

D:
18.95%

F:
58.84%

Bipartisanship

A:
6.60%

B:
3.12%

C:
4.00%

D:
8.08%

F:
78.20%

Obama's Overall Job as President

A:
6.28%

B:
4.03%

C:
3.69%

D:
22.25%

F:
63.76%

In short, that summarizes to less than 14% of America giving him a "passing grade" (C).

In stark contrast, here is a a clip from a speech in which Allen West (retired Lieutenant Colonel and Commander in Iraq) offers his direct and accurate assertions of the current state of terrorism and Islam and its effects on America. If you haven't seen this, you need to!

And here he is again speaking on the ideals of America... fabulous stuff.

Despite our recent transition out to California, I'm still a Wisconsinite at heart. Thank goodness Mark Neumann has been caught in the act. With respect to the governor's race back home, a great blogger posted a column in the paper that packs a great punch, summarizing some of Feingold's upcoming competition. Stay informed!

And in a final effort to encourage your return, here's a little fun to sign off. We traveled the great journey of 14 miles to Anaheim, CA... yes, we went to Disneyland!

Here is a very excited wife, ready to cash in on her birthday present!

Of course, gotta' get the castle shot.

And what visit to Disneyland would be complete without meeting Mickey!?!?!

The one with one-sided coverage

2009-04-28T09:47:00.003-05:00

Wait - hold it. Are you saying that the media favors one over another? "Shocker."

A study from the Center for Media and Public Affairs and Chapman University was released yesterday (4/27/09), showing the gross indulgence of the liberal media in their favorite socialist President (and associated cabinet... and House Speaker... and majority Congress). Yikes, that's scary. OK, that's not ALL the study showed...

So, the CMPA documents the differences between coverage on Clinton, G.W. Bush, and Obama.
Comparison of 1st 50 days in office.
Obama: 28hrs
Bush: 8hrs

ABC, NBC, CBS opinions:
Clinton: 44% positive
Bush: 33% positive
Obama: 58% positive

New York Times opinions:
Obama: 73% positive on their front page spreads

Another study put out 10/30/08 on the election coverage shows another disgusting contrast. This covers ABC, NBC, CBS, and FOX evening news casts (combined average).
Obama/Biden: 65% positive, 35% negative
McCain/Palin: 31% positive, 69% negative

Doesn't it just make you sick? I thought "journalism" is supposed to be unbiased. It's a free country - favor who you choose to favor - but don't call it journalism... don't put it out there as unbiased news.

The one where I'm not part of Obama's "we."

2009-04-09T16:33:00.002-05:00

Nancy Morgan writes a terrifying article on the status of our country. The money-talks liberals are just steamrolling the value system this country was founded on.

Americans continue to cry out "Why would God let that happen?!?!" to events like 9/11... school shootings... Iran getting nukes... Korea setting off missiles for pre-nuke tests... the socialism creeping into and steadily taking over our economy... setups for a "One World Government" (and economy)... etc, etc, etc. Meanwhile, America consistently denounces her reliance on and any association with God. Removing God from the classroom in 1962 really got the ball rolling. And here we stand with Rick Warren caving into worldly fear and oppression in denouncing his support for Proposition 8.

Many American's are happy to wipe the 10 Commandments from the halls of courts, but then wonder why God won't protect us and give us His favor. Ironic.

America was successful and land of the free because of the commitment of our founding fathers and earlier government officials to fight for and provision for the righteous things of God to make their way into the very fiber of our society and laws. Then came the love of money to buy liberals' way.

I for one am NOT one of Obama's "we" (reference aforementioned article). I do consider America a Christian nation, and I will fight for that to return in full force. God bless you all!

The one where America has an ARTIFICIAL energy crisis.

2009-04-06T09:56:00.005-05:00

This article was featured in Newsweek on April 4th, 2009.

By: Newt Gingrich, for Newsweek (Gingrich is the former Speaker of the House and the chairman of American Solutions for Winning the Future)
Published Apr 4, 2009

From the magazine issue dated Apr 13, 2009

For the past 30 years, America has grown increasingly dependent upon foreign sources of energy, sending American dollars to countries that are hostile to American interests and leaving us vulnerable to wild fluctuations in energy prices.

This energy crisis has not gone unnoticed in Washington. Every U.S. president since Richard Nixon has spoken about the need to make America more energy-independent. Despite their strong words, no rational strategy has been implemented for achieving that goal. In fact, where government has acted, it has usually made the problem worse.
Let's be clear: our energy crisis is not due to a lack of American energy resources. We have more coal than any other country in the world. There are 86 billion barrels of oil and 420 trillion cubic feet of natural gas lying undeveloped offshore. Shale-oil reservoirs in parts of Colorado and Utah could hold upwards of 1 trillion barrels of oil—more than three times the proven reserves in Saudi Arabia. Nuclear power is a clean source of energy that produces zero carbon emissions. It generates 20 percent of America's electric power today, and with the right investment could generate far more.

Instead, America is suffering from an artificial energy crisis, one that is the product of our government's policies, not despite them. For example, until September 2008, Congress had made it illegal to drill for oil and natural gas in most areas off our coasts. Congress still forbids the development of the vast shale-oil reserves in the Rocky Mountains even though there are promising technologies that could make extracting oil from shale economically competitive. In addition, laws passed in the 1970s banning the recycling of spent nuclear fuel forced nuclear-power plants to invest in techniques to dispose of the fuel; the long-running feud over where to store the spent fuel has helped prevent the construction of more plants.

And now, in 2009, instead of making energy cheaper—which would help create jobs and save Americans money—President Obama wants to impose a cap-and-trade regime. Such a plan would have the effect of an across-the-board energy tax on every American. That will make our artificial energy crisis even worse—and raising taxes during a deep economic recession will only accelerate American job losses.

The Obama administration's own budget director is on record predicting an increase of about $1,300 in the price of energy for the average American from this type of energy tax. As a candidate, Obama himself recognized the pain this would cause every American: "Under my plan … electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket."

What America needs is a rational energy policy that utilizes all our homegrown energy resources while protecting the environment. For instance, in addition to opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve and the shale-oil deposits in Colorado and Utah for drilling, we should change our federal law to give all states with offshore oil and gas the same share of federal royalties that other states get for land-based resources. Revenue generated from these royalties could help many cash-strapped states address their budget problems, in addition to funding alternative- and renewable-energy research. In addition, we should allow companies to write off 100 percent of their expenses in the first year if their refineries considerably expand America's oil-refining capacity.

The federal government should also develop a package of incentives to encourage clean-energy innovation. This should include a series of tax-free prizes to accelerate innovation in developing clean-coal technologies, as well as a $1 billion tax-free prize for the first hydrogen car that can be mass-produced at a reasonable price. We should make the wind- and solar-power tax credits permanent to provide long-term stability to these growing industries and develop long-distance transmission lines to move the massive amounts of wind power in the Great Plains to urban areas. We should also pass an open-fuel standard for 95 percent of the new cars sold in the United States, allowing the construction of flex-fuel vehicles (FFVs) that can run on a variety of fuels, including ethanol. Finally, America should implement a loser-pays rule for lawsuits against any energy company. This would guarantee that any lawsuit brought against an energy developer was not done solely to slow down the process through the courts.
These are the beginning steps of a rational strategy that fully utilizes our vast energy reserves to lower the cost of energy for every American and help create cleaner and renewable energy sources. It's time for America to end its artificial energy crisis.

Amen, brother.

The one with the "Snow-bike"

2009-03-11T00:15:00.006-05:00

So... it's been a while. Welcome back to my regular readers :-)

A few things have been going on in my life recently - like 3 weddings. :-) Enough with the excuses... I promise - I'm gonna try to catch up on things.

So, in January, my wife (still weird to say that) and I met up with Nate and Bekah in Hartford, WI at the Wisconsin Auto Museum. "Why," you ask? I got a tip from a friend that they had a real-life Sno-Runner on display. So what? Well, my dad was lead project engineer on it at Chrysler outboard.

Yup, that's Steve Quick. This was Dad's pride and joy of his engineering career, and he was lucky enough to be able to take charge of it very early in his career. To summarize, Chrysler outboard (of Hartford, WI) was very close to closing its doors. And to expand markets, they decided to develop and sell the "Snow bike," as Dad lovingly referred to it, to compete in the snowmobile market.

Above, is the real deal. You can also see some of the outboards from Chrysler with the "hoods removed." Sweeeeeeeet. [Insert Tim Taylor grunt]

And much to my surprise, there was one we could actually touch in another room, tucked away with the "small engine" section of the auto museum. I almost pooped my pants. You see, all the stories and number of times that Dad talked about it, I never saw one in real life. It was a really emotional experience for me...

Then I got brave - why not sit on it?

For anyone interested the least bit in cars, this is a great museum. They have all sorts of unique stuff - obviously.

After roaming around the room of very early automobiles from the end of the 19th century... some Model T's, we were taking note on all the horsepower ratings of the various small engined beasts of the early years. Nate walked up to this one and said, "I don't even have to read the sign for this one - it's one horsepower." We all had a good laugh...

Bekah stepped up to this old mechanic garage timing light station. For the first time in the boring man-cave of cars, engines, and associated toys, she had a smile on her face - they had hairdryers!!

This is a BEAUTIFUL Tucker. Very unique rear-engined car. And VERY fast. The owners still come to the museum a few times a year to take it out and drive it. It'd be a shame to let this beauty dry rot all the seals!

And then, we came across this LEGENDARY automobile. The DeLorean DMC-12. Unfortunately, Steven Spielberg deceived us into thinking the little 2.8L Renault-made V6 (that put out a pathetic 130HP) sounded like a heavily-loped V8. Such a cool car... too bad for Mr. DeLorean...

Some other bit hits (for me) were a pair of Nash Ramblers ("Beep, Beep... beep, beep... his horn goes beep, beep, beep.") and 1913 steam locomotive made by the American Locomotive Company. Yup - still fully functional. They make runs with it on special occassions. Also, of particular fascination, a C3 Corvette Stingray - man, that's a beautiful car - and the only generation that GM got right...

Anyway. It's time for bed!

Stay tuned for more.

The one with the Heineken commercial

2009-01-09T18:59:00.000-06:00

The one where we said, "Yes, I do."

2009-01-04T09:44:00.002-06:00

It's been a while again. Lots of preparations for the wedding, moving, Christmas, etc... been a few things on my plate. So, hope you can forgive the delay...

We did it! Christina and I swore our vows during Friday's sunset, with one of the most beautiful backdrops God could have possibly provided.

Please feel free to check out some pictures that our photographer put together for us in a slideshow online. It takes a while to load... so if you click on the arrow on the bottom right of the slide show, it'll give you a menu so that you can select to browse thumbnails (select "Browse Gallery View"). This will give you an option to go through them one by one without music loading... and at your own pace.

Click here to see our wedding photos!

or here's the direct address:
http://www.rebeccadavidsonslideshows.com/WEDDINGS/ChristinaandScott/

...time to get back to honeymooning...

The one with a lot of snow.

2008-12-19T12:10:00.004-06:00

So, it's been a while. Welcome back to the coolest blog page ever!

Last night we were greeted by a bazillion (technical term) tons of snow. It was so bad that I couldn't even move my car out of the "parking area" at the farm. Enter the landlord's Explorer. Bad idea. Decision was made to get the Versatile out and start "plowing..." or rather, pushing snow out of the way. Thanks Dill.

Here's a few pics of the events that transpired.

The pics don't really do it justice. The snow surrounding the Intrepid was over my knees... lots of wind blowing, as can be recognized by the "DeLorean" profile the snow created. I always wanted the car from Back to the Future. I was sooooo excited this morning.

OK - so, this one isn't that obvious...

See it now?

Here's the real deal for comparison... Man, that thing is SWEET. Cheers to the Flux Capacitor.

This helps to get a better idea of the amount of snow surrounding my car. See how far up the Versatile's tire it is???

Sweet shot. Versatile, the new John Deere 8430 tractor for Cedar Home Farms, and the JD 9500 series combine tucked away in the barn above.

Like I said - LOTS of snow.

Here's a shot out my window, going down the path that Dill made with the Versatile. Note the height of the snow relative to my window. It's not an illusion.

Yes, I did have to come into work today. I hate being responsible and dependable sometimes.

I pray God's covering over all those who brave the elements in the next few days of storms.

The one about overcompression...

2008-12-05T14:56:00.003-06:00

OK, I've been saying this for years. Modern music, "today's music" is missing the "magic" of dynamics. They do it to everything from The Crystal Method to Mahler's 5th Symphony. It's degrading to us audiophiles. Here's a "simple," not-so-technical explanation.

This is one reason why there are still a lot of "record junkies" listening to vinyl. Ah, the good old days...

The one with the cute French girl

2008-11-11T19:46:00.002-06:00

Courtesy of Bekah on her Facebook profile today... Holy crumb this kid is cute...

She tells us a story from her imagination. Just click play. You'll laugh.

Once upon a time... from Capucha on Vimeo.

The one that already impedes our 1st Ammendment rights.

2008-11-10T13:41:00.003-06:00

This is the beginning of the relinquishing of our rights...

This is the belief of Obama's supporters - arrest those who resist. In the words of the Borg, "...resistance is futile...you will be assimilated..."

The one where the socialists win.

2008-11-04T22:40:00.003-06:00

It's unofficial, as of 10pm, the socialists have won - 297 electoral votes. [sigh]

Prayer - heavy intercessory prayer is required. Get on your knees.

The one with Obama's reduced tax threshold

2008-10-31T23:38:00.001-05:00

Obama starts with $250,000

...then he says $200,000...

And Biden moves it down to $150,000...

And Richardson bringing it down to $120,000...

The one with a message for Obama

2008-10-31T23:25:00.000-05:00

The one where Obama talks about his support for baby killing.

2008-10-30T02:07:00.002-05:00

Here's a great little video I found. Notice in the first clip "...if they [my two daughters] make a mistake...I don't want them punished with a baby!" - right after he says he's going to teach them "values and morals."

Ugh - "morals?" Yeah, I question his - darn right. Well, I guess when you serve and believe the doctrines of Jeremiah Wright, what can you expect?

Yeah, yeah, yeah - "old news." But it's 20yrs of Obama's "spiritual leadership." Yikes.

So, back to the first video on abortion - NOTE - Obama calls "it" a "baby." Yup. A baby. Not a "fetus." Not a "conglomeration of cells." Not an "it." If his daughters make a mistake, he wouldn't want them to be responsible for their mistake... to take ownership of the consequences. No, no, no - he would just get rid of the problem - kill the baby. Nevermind the baby. They don't want the baby - and since the baby isn't born yet, educated with lingual ability to voice his or her case to protect his or her RIGHT TO LIFE (you ever read the Declaration of Independence?!?!?!?), there's nobody to make a federal case out of it. Nobody, except YOU and ME... oh - and his conscience, which he apparently chooses to ignore. He doesn't want his precious little girls to have to make sacrifices or suffer the consequences of their actions.

I guarantee you - if some crazy person came into the hospital room while Michelle was in labor with either of them and shot Michelle in the stomach, KILLING THE BABY... then, all of a sudden he's upset - and we have a "death" on our hands. But when he doesn't want his precious daughters to "suffer" the pains of raising a child, then all of a sudden "it" is just something we can discard. Double standards!!

My heart breaks. [Tear]

Lord, I lift up this man's heart to You. Only You have the power to correct this. Please, we beg you, help us, as a nation, to not proliferate the evil any longer.

The one with Obama's "redistribution of wealth."

2008-10-29T23:40:00.002-05:00

Let's set the record straight here... let's end the double-speak, cover-up garbage from Obama's campaign. He's not "kidding" about his desire and plan for redistribution of wealth. He DID mean what he said with...

..."Joe the plumber"...
and
...his conversation with Charlie Gibson from an earlier Democratic nominee debate about capital gains taxes. Obama concedes that the cut of capital gains tax actually increased revenues (and thus helped the economy), but says having the tax is the "fairness". (Not to mention the other great issues Charlie points out).

It's about FAIRNESS people...!! Come on! Geeeeeeez!

....and the Socialist group he's a member of...
Chicago Democratic Socialists of America - yup, you read that correctly - he's a member, and contributing speaker. In 1996, the March-April Edition of "New Ground" (the Chicago DSA newsletter), a story written by Bob Roman, he quotes comments made at a convention by Obama - he talks about Obama's plan "The state government can also play a role in redistribution, the allocation of wages and jobs." Seems pretty cut and dry to me.

...and then there's his 2001 interview about Socialism and the redistribution of wealth on Chicago's PUBLIC RADIO station [GAG], WBEZ FM. When are we going to quench the government funding of the proliferation of the liberal garbage that is constantly spewed from the mouths of these NPR personalities!?!?

Friends - good choices.

He sought out campus activists for Marxism (whom were black) [from his book]... for people to be around, people he needed to be around. He needed those people to support his fundamental ideology. Good choice in friends...

More Socialism - Obama's ties to Tony Rezko in the dirty real-estate deals, and questionable campaign contributions... while Rezko is linked to Saddam Hussein (indirectly, yes). But the money flow is obvious and well documented. Good choice in friends...

Obama supported Raila Odinga's campaign. Odinga is from Kenya - an anti-American, Marxist, pro-Jihadist (not generic, but the Islamic radical kind). Odinga was there trying to undercut the pro-American movement. He's promised control of the country to the Jihadists he's friends with. Here's a well documented layout for you.

And then there's Bill Ayres. Good grief. Thank goodness Steve Diamond has taken the time to document and collect all the facts for us... thanks, Steve, for saving me the time.

Obama's Tax Plan:

Retired people: a lot of their income is capital gains --> in Obama's plan, their taxes are going up, and they're middle income families.

The benchmark Obama is working from is from 2002 - the "tax cut expiration" is his reference. You and I are working from the current tax percentages... the cuts from President Bush. If you're a dual income family, making between $50k-$100k a year, your taxes are going to go up between $2,000 - $5,000.

Not uncommon for most "professional" graduates to be making 40-50 grand a piece. Marries couple, say they're bringing in $100,000 combined. With Obama's reform, they're going to be giving up another $200 to taxes every paycheck (bi-monthly), or nearly $400/month LESS income. Holy Shneikes Batman.

Fine, let's take a couple bringing in $60k/yr. They loose almost $200/month to taxes. That's real. That's the car payment. Or maybe the gas budget. Nope, can't drive to work anymore.

Wake up people.

The one with Obama racist voters.

2008-10-27T14:50:00.002-05:00

Scary scary scary scary scary scary scary scary scary scary scary scary scary scary scary scary scary scary scary scary.

Howard Stern's crew interviews some black Americans on who they're going to vote for in the upcoming election. They were asked about Obama and "his policies" when in actuality the policies discussed were McCain's stances on the issues. These people apparently don't care what the policies are, only that Obama is "black."

Here's the reference article from NewsBusters (courtesy of Unk). And here's another commenting story.

Have a listen to what these liberal media-blasted suckers have been duped into. For the record, I'm NOT implying that all blacks voting for Obama are racist. The sad reality is that racism is real - STILL - from all sides of the fence, all races. Let's pray for some healing and reconciliation!

This is support for the argument to have a basic interview process to even be able to cast your vote. What a bloody crock. If you don't know what you're voting for, do yourself and our country a favor - STAY HOME!

The one with some MLK perspective

2008-10-21T14:46:00.002-05:00

Here's a great article by Marcia Segelstein, depicting the lifestyle of the church in which Obama congregates.

The candidacy of Barack Obama cast a spotlight on his pastor and mentor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Seeing and hearing some of what Rev. Wright preached from his pulpit was a revelation of sorts to me. Call me naïve, but I was unaware of the undercurrent of anti-white sentiment that ran through churches like Trinity, and found voice in ministers like Wright.

Throughout history, much evil has been perpetrated in the name of Christianity. And there is no denying the racism and hatred that black people have suffered at the hands of whites in the past and in my lifetime. Nonetheless I was shocked that in 21st-century America people who called themselves Christians could act in such a way and expect to get away with it. White racists like David Duke are duly villified by the media. Black racists – well, there aren't any I guess.

In Denver this year, we watched as a black man accepted the Democratic Party's nomination for the presidency. And while I don't agree with Senator Obama's political views or his stand on virtually every social issue, it was a moment of historic significance. It was a moment that should have made all Americans – black and white – proud.

Denver was host to another historic convention back in 1956. That year, the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered a sermon at the National Baptist Convention there which, according to eyewitness accounts, gripped the crowd of thousands.

The sermon was called "Paul's Letter to American Christians," and King would deliver it again a few months later from his pulpit at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church nine days before the Supreme Court declared Alabama bus segregation unconstitutional. In this sermon, King reads an imaginary letter from the Apostle Paul written to Christians in America.

Here is a portion of it:

"There is another thing that disturbs me to no end about the American church. You have a white church and you have a Negro church. You have allowed segregation to creep into the doors of the church. How can such a division exist in the true Body of Christ? You must face the tragic fact that when you stand at eleven o'clock on Sunday morning to sing 'All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name' and 'Dear Lord and Father of All Mankind,' you stand in the most segregated hour of Christian America. They tell me that there is more integration in the entertaining world and other secular agencies than there is in the Christian church. How appalling that is."

He goes on:

"So I would urge each of you to plead patiently with your brothers, and tell them this isn't the way. With understanding goodwill, you are obligated to seek to change their attitudes....Always be sure that you struggle with Christian methods and Christian weapons. Never succumb to the temptation of becoming bitter. As you press on for justice, be sure to move with dignity and discipline, using only the weapon of love. Let no man pull you so low as to hate him."

The Rev. Jeremiah Wright's preaching bears little resemblance to the Christian message King was preaching during much more difficult times for blacks in this country. Wright preaches that "white man's greed runs a world in need." Wright preaches that "the government gives them [blacks] the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law [and] then wants us to sing 'God Bless America.' No, no, no. Not God Bless America, God d--- America!" Wright declares from the pulpit, "Who cares about what a poor black man has to face every day in a country and a culture controlled by rich white people....Jesus was a poor black man who lived in a country and who lived in a culture that was controlled by rich white people. The Romans were rich. The Romans were Italians, which means they were European which means they were white!" After the attacks of September 11, Wright preached that "America's chickens are coming home to roost," because "we have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans" and "the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back into our own front yard." We brought it on ourselves. Wright gives a lifetime achievement award to Louis Farrakhan, who openly proclaims his anti-Semitism, calling Judaism a "gutter religion" and Hitler "a very great man."

Martin Luther King stood up for blacks, fought against racism and segregation, and ultimately gave his life for those causes. He also preached the gospel of Jesus Christ, not a gospel of victimhood and hatred.

I cannot say what he might think of Jeremiah Wright. But there is no denying what he preached. This is from one of King's sermons called "Rediscovering Lost Values":

"[W]e have adopted a sort of pragmatic test for right and wrong – whatever works is right....No matter what you do, just do it with a bit of finesse. You know, a sort of attitude of the survival of the slickest....It's all right to lie, but lie with dignity. It's all right to steal and to rob and extort, but do it with a bit of finesse. It's even all right to hate, but just dress your hate up in the garments of love and make it appear that you are loving when you are actually hating."

After ten years as a producer for CBS News, forty-something years as an Episcopalian, and fifteen years as a mother, Marcia Segelstein (mvsegelstein@optonline.net) considers herself a reluctant rebel against the mainstream media, the Episcopal Church (and others which make up the rules instead of obeying them), and the decaying culture her children witness every day. Her pieces have been published in "First Things," "Touchstone: A Journal of Mere Christianity," and "BreakpointOnline," and she is a contributing editor for Salvo magazine.

Opinions expressed in 'Perspectives' columns published by OneNewsNow.com are the sole responsibility of the article's author(s), or of the person(s) or organization(s) quoted therein, and do not necessarily represent those of the staff or management of, or advertisers who support the American Family News Network, OneNewsNow.com, our parent organization or its other affiliates.

The one about Obama's 95% tax cut illusion

2008-10-13T16:22:00.002-05:00

Check out some insight on the tax cuts that Obama says he's going to give to 95% of American workers. It's from an editorial in the Wall Street Journal, Dated 10/13/08.

Obama's 95% Illusion

It depends on what the meaning of 'tax cut' is.

One of Barack Obama's most potent campaign claims is that he'll cut taxes for no less than 95% of "working families." He's even promising to cut taxes enough that the government's tax share of GDP will be no more than 18.2% -- which is lower than it is today.

It's a clever pitch, because it lets him pose as a middle-class tax cutter while disguising that he's also proposing one of the largest tax increases ever on the other 5%. But how does he conjure this miracle, especially since more than a third of all Americans already pay no income taxes at all? There are several sleights of hand, but the most creative is to redefine the meaning of "tax cut."

For the Obama Democrats, a tax cut is no longer letting you keep more of what you earn. In their lexicon, a tax cut includes tens of billions of dollars in government handouts that are disguised by the phrase "tax credit." Mr. Obama is proposing to create or expand no fewer than seven such credits for individuals:

- A $500 tax credit ($1,000 a couple) to "make work pay" that phases out at income of $75,000 for individuals and $150,000 per couple.

- A $4,000 tax credit for college tuition.

- A 10% mortgage interest tax credit (on top of the existing mortgage interest deduction and other housing subsidies).

- A "savings" tax credit of 50% up to $1,000.

- An expansion of the earned-income tax credit that would allow single workers to receive as much as $555 a year, up from $175 now, and give these workers up to $1,110 if they are paying child support.

- A child care credit of 50% up to $6,000 of expenses a year.

- A "clean car" tax credit of up to $7,000 on the purchase of certain vehicles.

Here's the political catch. All but the clean car credit would be "refundable," which is Washington-speak for the fact that you can receive these checks even if you have no income-tax liability. In other words, they are an income transfer -- a federal check -- from taxpayers to nontaxpayers. Once upon a time we called this "welfare," or in George McGovern's 1972 campaign a "Demogrant." Mr. Obama's genius is to call it a tax cut.

The Tax Foundation estimates that under the Obama plan 63 million Americans, or 44% of all tax filers, would have no income tax liability and most of those would get a check from the IRS each year. The Heritage Foundation's Center for Data Analysis estimates that by 2011, under the Obama plan, an additional 10 million filers would pay zero taxes while cashing checks from the IRS.

The total annual expenditures on refundable "tax credits" would rise over the next 10 years by $647 billion to $1.054 trillion, according to the Tax Policy Center. This means that the tax-credit welfare state would soon cost four times actual cash welfare. By redefining such income payments as "tax credits," the Obama campaign also redefines them away as a tax share of GDP. Presto, the federal tax burden looks much smaller than it really is.

The political left defends "refundability" on grounds that these payments help to offset the payroll tax. And that was at least plausible when the only major refundable credit was the earned-income tax credit. Taken together, however, these tax credit payments would exceed payroll levies for most low-income workers.

It is also true that John McCain proposes a refundable tax credit -- his $5,000 to help individuals buy health insurance. We've written before that we prefer a tax deduction for individual health care, rather than a credit. But the big difference with Mr. Obama is that Mr. McCain's proposal replaces the tax subsidy for employer-sponsored health insurance that individuals don't now receive if they buy on their own. It merely changes the nature of the tax subsidy; it doesn't create a new one.

There's another catch: Because Mr. Obama's tax credits are phased out as incomes rise, they impose a huge "marginal" tax rate increase on low-income workers. The marginal tax rate refers to the rate on the next dollar of income earned. As the nearby chart illustrates, the marginal rate for millions of low- and middle-income workers would spike as they earn more income.

Some families with an income of $40,000 could lose up to 40 cents in vanishing credits for every additional dollar earned from working overtime or taking a new job. As public policy, this is contradictory. The tax credits are sold in the name of "making work pay," but in practice they can be a disincentive to working harder, especially if you're a lower-income couple getting raises of $1,000 or $2,000 a year. One mystery -- among many -- of the McCain campaign is why it has allowed Mr. Obama's 95% illusion to go unanswered.

_______________________________________________

There's some more on it here.

The one with some good quotes

2008-10-12T22:47:00.003-05:00

Huckabee Show, FOX, 10/12/08: Interview with David Oreck of Oreck Vacuums.
David (my approximate summary) "...you know, I was around during the Great Depression. And in that time, people went around looking for a job, not a handout - and that's a big difference. [applause ensues]"

Check out Huckabee's wisdom. Mike's website. Huck PAC website.
Speaking of great quotes... Mr. Huckabee during one of the debates.

And more of the great Mike Huckabee.

Some random quote from Chad tonight during the Packer party at Mom's -
"You know why they have twice as many people at Obama rallies than at McCain rallies? Because the McCain supporters are all at work." LOL.

The one where she said yes - AGAIN.

2008-10-12T21:37:00.004-05:00

After weeks of agonizing waiting, the ring was finally finished, courtesy of the craftsmanship available at Barnes Jewelers of Oconomowoc. For those of you that don't know the whole story... In short, it took longer than expected for the ring to get done, and due to extenuating circumstances, I couldn't wait any longer. Barnes was nice enough to lend us a loaner until they finished (thanks, John!).

Christina came up Saturday after a meeting she had for work. She was patient in watching me reassemble the clutch and later helped bleed the brakes on the Venture. I had a little something up my sleeve.

Mid week, she had called, very excited that the weather was going to be so nice this weekend - a beautiful 80 degrees. Wow. Strange October. Unbeknownst to her, I had just gotten off the phone with Barnes, getting the exciting news that the ring would be done Friday. We talked a bit, and decided it'd be a great time to go check out Lapham Peak, one of the numerous stops on our first date, back on November 17th (yur Mom). I was super excited to have another excuse to ride around on the Venture and enjoy the beautiful weather while enjoying the beauty of my home state.

I got up bright and early Saturday to start the project on the Venture - replacing the clutch. I knew there was no chance we could make another "2 up" ride for a day on that old clutch. I got new pads and upgraded springs for the pressure plate. It's like a dream now.

Half way through, I cleaned up as best I could to run across town to pick up the ring. It was stunning. I was speechless - hopefully, they don't think I wasn't impressed due to my lack of words and praise. I called up Mom and met her and OC to show them - I was very excited :-).

So, Christina arrives and was very patient in waiting for me to finish up getting the bike ready. I knew that it was entirely likely that it wouldn't get finished - it's just the way things work when us Quick boys get going on a project. "It'll only take 2 hours or so." By golly, I think this one was actually right about on par with the plan. I spent some time working on the brakes and wiping down the engine with Engine Degreaser too since there was still plenty of time and daylight left.

So, I took a quick shower, and sneakily threw the ring box in a little carry on bag. In honorary tradition, I packed a bottle of wine for us to drink there at the park (as we did on our first date). This was the "cover" for the bag. I'm so sneaky.

Since it was so beautiful, I took us on a very roundabout way to get there... lounging around the beautiful highways of Washington, Dodge, and Waukesha Counties. The colors aren't all quite out yet for fall, but it was still stunning. God's hand in the beauty of the Creation He's given us is simply incredible.

After arriving to the park, we climbed the top of the tower. Looking out over Nagawica Lake, standing behind her, I clumsily swept my hand back into the bag to dig out the ring. And again, got down on one knee and asked her to be my wife. Had there not been a dozen other people on the tower with us, it probably would have been a bit more romantic... oh well.

After we got back home...

These were supposed to be some "better" shots with my "good" camera. Well, they're more detailed anyway...

This is a design that I came up with after browsing around a few stores with Christina back in May. I took some of the basic concepts from a few that she really liked and ran with it. Barnes took my ideas to 3D CAD and had custom castings made for this. It's a work of art - thanks to John @ Barnes for helping my ideas come to reality.

So - what's it like? There's a round, Brilliant cut stone in the center, set in a pendant style perimeter (top and outer edge) of melee stones. The top sides of the four bands are lined with the same melee stones. The side "cross" bands are lined with alternating standard clear/white and a "Caribbean blue" melee diamonds. The pictures just don't do it justice. Or her, obviously. Duh.

The one with the maize maze.

2008-10-12T21:14:00.003-05:00

I'm a bit behind on the blogging, so I'm going to steal soon-to-be-family's work on the Lewis family blog. There are some other great pics on from the Crowley blog, but it's VIP access only. Christina has a great album posted on her Facebook page, if you're cool enough to be one of her friends.

Mike used his fancy iPhone to shoot a picture of the maze map (shown to us at the entrance to the maze). After sufficiently humoring ourselves getting lost after 5 minutes, it was time to break out the phone and map. It was decided to hand the phone to me. After finally figuring out where we were, getting us out was easy. It was a pretty impressive maze - I think they said over 5 miles in paths. And even cooler, the maze was made in the shape of a vintage row crop tractor. Check out the image on the Lewis blog above - it's hard to see, but I'm sure the die hards can make it out.

Here are a few pics that I snagged on my camera phone.

The family in awe of a Farmall H. You'd think they'd never seen one before - wierd.

Tyler trying out the driver's seat. Tori is not impressed.

Here's the three little dumplings.... eeeehhheeemm... pumpkins.

Dude - this kid is 5 years old. OK, going on 6 soon, but still. The apple does not fall far from the tree at the orchard.

Miles and Andrea trying out the ag lifestyle.

The one with a big fire - got Bush?

2008-10-12T21:00:00.003-05:00

Last Friday, the brothers' Bush hosted a bonfire extravaganza. There were times where fire hit more than 25ft in the air. Despite being a brisk 40 degrees, we were all PLENTY warm.

Friends gathering around the flames, rotating face to butt so as not to burn our clothes in the radiant heat.

Rob sharing a tale of terror. Hats off to a great salesman.

Dill with Rob's fiance, Katie. He's not normally that friendly - he just wanted one of her Marb's...

Jimmy and Dill sharing in mans' excitement of the power of fire. This is just before it started rolling... they were gritting their teeth shouting at me to take the picture faster. She was HOT.

No, no, no... we'd never burn a tire.

The one where Biden instills his ignorance... LOL

2008-10-08T23:00:00.003-05:00

This guy... Oh man...

Check out the video - see if anything strikes you

Yeah, that's right, right around 1:50 where he says how he has to instill confidence in the American people that he knows what he's talking about... 1:54 when he says he knows what he's talking about. LOL. PLEEEEEASE. "...listen to me and follow what I'm suggesting, we can fix this..."

1:59... this is great... "...when the stock market crashed, Franklin Roosevelt got on television..."

First off, the President of the USA in 1929 when the stock market crashed was Herbert Hoover, not Franklin Roosevelt (Wikipedia on Hoover) (Market crash of 1929) (Whitehouse back-up Reference) .

Secondly, the standard for broadcast TV (NTSC) wasn't developed until 1941, delivered via NBC (owned by RCA) and CBS. (Reference) (Reference 2) And it was largely put on hold due to Hitler and his ridiculous notions. TV wasn't largely available in the US until the ealry '50s - approximately 50% of households had TV by 1955. FYI. Just in case you were wondering.

Too bad Al Gore didn't invent the TV earlier! LOL!!! Thanks to Chad for that great comment!!

The one picking on prison guard Katie Couric

2008-10-08T22:56:00.000-05:00

Awesome article.

The one where McCain's health plan DOESN'Ttax health care insurance benefits - read it

2008-10-08T22:51:00.002-05:00

Wall Street Journal, my friends... believe it.

Read the article and do the thinking for yourself.

The one where Barney Frank can't admit he's in the wrong

2008-10-08T22:36:00.002-05:00

The one to stay tuned to what's going on...

2008-10-08T22:33:00.001-05:00

Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress.
--I Timothy 4:15

Message from the PPT again today. Good word. Live it. Pray it. Know it. Seek it.

The one with God's desires for Godly leaders

2008-09-30T09:32:00.002-05:00

I'm part of a commitment of daily prayer for the upcoming November 5th election through the Presidential Prayer Team (PPT) website. Today's scripture note from them is Exodus 18:21.

Moses' father-in-law is giving him some guidance in how to govern his people. The many "small" questions and issues could not all be settled by Moses alone. He was to select Godly men (people) of character, that fear God, that hate covetousness and unrighteous gain. These people were selected to hold judgment over groups of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, of tens. Just like our court system is set up by our founding fathers - our CHRISTIAN founding fathers. As things get more and more complicated, they are to be sent up the food chain to the most righteous of judges.

That should indicate to you how important the choice of our supreme court judges is - and the President is responsible for choosing those seats. Keep this in mind in your prayers and who stands to rule as the "ultimate, righteous judge" over our country. This is the prayer I submit to you. May the Lord God convict your heart to see who He would choose to lead this nation's hierarchy of judgment.

Also, keep in mind, our great President Abraham Lincoln's quote:
"The philosophy of the classroom of one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next." This was indeed prophetic wisdom... and something President Lincoln fought for - that our country's past unrighteous embrace of slavery and racism would be cast from the schoolroom. Our current battle has far greater consequence - God was removed from America's classroom in a New York Supreme Court decision on June 25th, 1962. Justice Hugo Black, from Alabama, was a staunch liberal, the justice that made the judgement in the Engel v. Vitale (1962) case. This "leader" judge was called out early on, in Newsweek magazine, on his membership to the KKK. (Reference) Not exactly a guy who had his head wrapped around God's righteousness. Lesson learned?

Here's the prayer from PPT for today...

Awesome, God: You are awesome and mighty, lifting up those who You desire to lift up and putting down those You desire to put down. You love it when Your people come to You with longing for righteousness and godliness.
As our nation looks to the elections this fall, I ask that You will move among the people of our country, causing us to desire righteous, godly leaders. May we yearn for godly leaders and, desiring that, may we vote in such a way that we elect at every level those who will honor and obey You in godliness and wisdom. I pray this, honoring the holy name of Jesus, amen.

Be blessed, be courageous, be filled with passion for righteousness. DON'T be lukewarm... (Rev 3:14-22)

The one where I started getting political

2008-09-24T23:57:00.005-05:00

Here's an interesting test... no, it's not slanted to confuse you at all. ABC would never do that.

For the record, I'm neither a Democrat or Republican. I beleive in choosing the best man for the job, not a party. My "party" is that of the righteous laws and views of my Lord and Savior. And unfortunately, I usually feel the pressure to choose the "lesser of two evils" rather than the most qualified and best man for the job. I still like Mike! Now, Huck and Palin (or Palin and Huck) - that's a team!

First off, there is no way that you and I should be paying for Fanny and Freddie screw ups while their crummy management make out like bandits, receiving "compensation" for a job-crappily-done. Of course, we're lead to believe by the Clinton News Network (CNN), ABC, NBC, etc. that this is all recent and a result of Bush's poor economics. Right. Here's a little history lesson for you...

And lets not forget to mention Senator Obama's compensation...

Fanny and Freddie put themselves into these situations. They went off buying tons and tons of high risk mortgages. High-risk. That's right. Identified back in 2001 by President Bush's informants, and pushed hard for regulation by Senator McCain. But, that's not covered on "network TV" - what's interesting is that people are obviously il-informed, based on the polls taken regarding this specific question (Reference): When asked...
"Who do you think is most to blame for the current financial crisis?
1. Greedy corporate and Wall Street executives
2. Incompetent government regulators who let things get out of control
3. Congress not minding the store
4. The Bush administration not minding the store
5. All of above equally
6. Other
7. Don't know
Democrats: Execs-15%, Regs-9%, Congress-6%, Bush admin-32%, All-33%, Other-2%, DK-3%
Republicans: Execs-25%, Regs-14%, Congress-26%, Bush admin-2%, All-27%, Other-1%, DK-2%
Independents: Execs-21%, Regs-9%, Congress-12%, Bush admin-12%, All-41%, Other-2%, DK-2%

Interesting how much liberal media has misconstrued things for us. Notice how the Dem's don't want to blame their Congress of the last 2 years... or the regulatotions that were violantly lacking - nope, to the Dem's, it's largely Bush's fault - despite his announced fears of Fanny and Freddie explicitly back in 2001!
And of course, the Rep's want to put more blame toward the (now) Democratic Congress of the last 2 years... and have the tendency to blame the real people at fault - the executives. Interesting how things play out.

At least they were trying to prevent the problem, rather than lining their pockets with dirty money. I don't agree with the Government bail-outs at all. Let Fanny and Freddie go under. Hold their CEO's and upper management accountable!

Believe this: Dan Mudd, CEO of Fannie Mae, is getting $9.3 million of severance for running his company into the ground... and while doing it, he's received $12.4 million in pay and stock option GAINS since 2004 while the company's been on a steady decline assuming the risk that they were so eager to absorb. (Reference)

Believe this: Richard Syron, the CEO of Freddie Mac, is slated for $14.1 million in his severance package, largely in part because of a clause he added to his employment contract last November, when, ALREADY, it was clear Freddie was following the path of poopy in a toilet. He has already received $17.1 million in pay and stock option GAINS since 2003 when he took over as CEO. (Reference)

Here's the crux - YOU AND I are paying for their severance packages. How do you like them apples?

If the superintendant of your schools implemented changes and curriculum that reduced your districts test scores drastically to the point of dismal state funding, would you concede to offering them a HUGE dismissal severance package? Yeah, I kinda' doubt that'd make the next referrendum funding sheet. So why is government effectively buying out Fannie and Freddie losses to the point of paying these guys off for creating the problem in the first place?

If you and I make a gamble on an investment, does Uncle Sam come to our rescue? Do they pull us out of bankruptcy? What the heck are these guys in Washington doing???

Next topic: Obama's brother
Denesh D'Souza reports the real story (Reference) Obama has a half brother (same father) living in Nairobi, making $1 per day, despite CNN's attempt at a cover up (Reference). They met in 2006, and while Obama exploits this as his "African-American" blood, he makes no attempt to help sustain or enable a self-starting, hard-working, driven individual who happens to be his brother.

In 2nd Thessalonians, Chapter 3, Paul tells us that a man that doesn't work, shouldn't eat. But this is not the case with Obama's brother. He's working as a mechanic, and helping leading youth groups in his home area. I know, I know - easy to point fingers. Here's my rub - Barack and Michelle raked in $4.2 million in 2007, $3.9 million of which was from the Senator's book... a lofty increase from their 2006 return filing of $996k. They dumped $50k into the United Negro College Fund, but not a penny to his own blood. (Reference)

I'm in no place to judge, but it seems a bit odd.

Next topic: Lies in Obama ads...
WI Governor Doyle used the same woman, Jody Montgomery, in an ad in 2006 when competing against Mark Green for the seat. Jody's daughter, Maddy, was diagnosed with early onset diabetes and has to be tested 6 times a day. I offer compassion and prayer to the Montgomery's in dealing with such a terrible circumstance. (Reference) The problem is that the ad quoted Jody as stating that Mark Green was against stem cell research, repeatedly voting against it. This is largely false. There is a distinction - Green voted against EMBRYONIC stem cell research, not the common adult stem cell research that has been done for years and years. Here's the BOGUS ad...

And here we go again. Obama's campaign is up to the same dirty tricks. The SCRIPT for the new BOGUS "Obama Understands" ad broadcasting in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania is below:

Jody Montgomery: My name is Jody Montgomery and my daughter Maddy was diagnosed with Type I Juvenile Diabetes at age 3. Six times a day, I take her blood. Six times a day, I pray for a cure. Researchers are working hard to do just that. Our best hope is stem cell research, and that's why we support Barack Obama.

Announcer: Stem cell research could unlock cures for diabetes, cancer and Alzheimer's too. But John McCain has stood in the way...he's opposed stem cell research. Picked a running mate who's against it...And he's running on a platform even more extreme than George Bush's on this vital research. John McCain doesn't understand that medical research benefiting millions shouldn't be held hostage by the political views of a few.

Jody Montgomery: For Maddy and millions of others, stem cell research can unlock cures. Barack Obama understands that. But John McCain just doesn't.

And what's even worse, is that McCain has proven track record for promoting and voting for embryonic stem cell research. I personally do not agree with this approach, but the Obama campaign ads stating blatant lies really get my goat. (Reference) The utter nerve of these guys...

Next topic: Even Clinton isn't interested in supporting Obama?
OK, maybe I'm reading into this... here's an interview on The View with former President Bill Clinton, commenting on Senator Hilary Clinton's potential request to serve as the Dem's VP on the ticket this November. Here's a condensed version. The full length can be found in Part 1 and Part 2.

So, she'd do it out of "duty" for her country, or perhaps her party... but she's not interested in going as VP under his wing... interesting.

Next topic: When guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns.
Great article from Fox News talking about the NRA's findings against Obama...
It seems as though the "unbiased" FactCheck.org may be leaning one direction... "shocker"
And here's a link to the NRA's site for some ads documenting the Obama/Biden stance... thanks for doing the research, guys.

Next topic:
It is now time for bed. Focker, out.

The One That's Going to Make the Left Upset

2008-09-15T23:37:00.004-05:00

October 3rd.

The one where my Facebook status got upraded

2008-09-09T11:41:00.003-05:00

She said yes! :-)

I lured Christina to the Oconomowoc Lake Club for a "meeting" with the event coordinator for our upcoming reception there on February 14, 2009. Thanks to Sue, Angela, Rick and the rest of the gang that helped set everything up for us at the Club!!

After presenting her with the evening's program, I played a few pieces on the piano for her, and then asked her to sing her favorite Sara Groves song, Awakening, while I accompanied her. I finished the program with my 3 favorite Yanni tunes. Turns out, much to her dismay, Christina DOES like Yanni. LOL.

Here's the program... (FYI, "Yiannis Hrysomallis" is Yanni's birthname)

Following the recital, there were some "closing remarks." Christina and I talked about some things that we want for our lives down the road. After telling her a few things I wanted to do to manage proper health of our relationship, I got down on one knee... and, well... turns out she's in. Her face says it all...

Isn't she adorable? (Say no, or "I'll KEEEEEEELLLL UUUUUU!!!")

Below are a couple shots of the ring. Its a loaner from Barnes Jewelers. They're custom designing a ring for me (OK, for her). But, this is, in some generic ways, similar. For those good coworker friends... "It's exactly the same as, EXCEPT..." mine's so cool they wanna' add it to they're permanent portfolio :-) This one is beautiful in it's own right, so we felt it worthy of a few pictures.

Here's a couple pics of the setup of the beautiful piano and ballroom at the Lake Club. Christina sat in the chair next to the fireplace as I played...

The one with T. Boone Pickens - This Man Has it Together!!!

2008-08-26T21:31:00.002-05:00

The one where it comes alive!

2008-07-23T02:18:00.005-05:00

"The Beast" has risen. It may be considered a geriatric recovery by most computer nerds, but I am ecstatic. This was quite the feat!

Monday night, I got a call from cousin Chad: "Wanna' LAN it up?" How do you turn down an offer like that? My first instinct was "Let me see if I can revive 'the beast.'"
As you may recall, my RAID array went haywire a few months ago. Over the passing time, I've slowly been trying to monkey with the box, here and there. I figured out my BIOS processor problem - BIOS thought it was an Athlon XP 1500... but the chip is an XP 1900. Change a few settings, and back in business. No more CPU check errors. And it seems as though the memory testing I've done indicates that the 3 1GB Crucial modules I have are all good. There were some indications to the contrary earlier on.

In addition, it seems as though only one of the 2 drives in the RAID array went south. I actually almost recovered it, but just has too many bad sectors... and is now making that fabulous seeking clunking sound.

I'm hoping that with the old installation of Windows on there it just had too many unorganized corruptions to keep track of, and eventually just went south. So far, I've had no blue screens in the setup tonight after getting home from date night with Christina in Kenosha.

So, anyway, last night was a long story. I can't express the frustration I was running into with my Windows installation. In a nutshell, the disk was corrupted. Chad was nice enough to hang a new disk on my door knob tonight for me. So, tonight, I went to town right away when I got in the door.

I pulled all the drives out and did some diagnostic scans. I pulled out my old 60GB Seagate Barracudas that used to be my RAID array in this machine when I first built it in summer of '02. 6 years is a pretty good run for a gaming rig. And, it seems as though it has some more life left in it.

So, I've finally learned my lesson. I setup a RAID 1 array, "mirrored," with the two Seagates. That's going to be my important files backup. I'll sync up my laptop to backup here on my network as well seeing as the Western Digital 250GB "my book" I bought for this purpose decided not to even power up on it's 3rd use in May. If you could have seen the steam pour out my ears as DJ S2H was preparing for a show. It's very difficult to pull songs from your library of 150GB of MP3s when the drive won't even turn on. Turns out, the early generation was rifled with crappy power supplies. With a little creative debugging with the help of Nate during my DJ gig, we were able to narrow down that the power supply was the problem, not the drive. So, I picked up a replacement supply on eBay for a bargain $6.99. Gotta love those mass qty Chinese suppliers. Upon inspection when it arrived, it seems like a pretty decent unit...for consumer grade stuff. I look forward to getting the drive going again...

Anyway, yeah, so the Seagates are going to be my "important" data for backup. It will actually be duplicate backup because of the RAID Mirrored array.

So, I also did some reorganizing. Moved some cards around (to redistribute PCI bus loading), pulled out the dead drive, added Seagates, removed an old CD-ROM, put a new TV tuner card in (from another computer), and cleaned out the dust bunnies - doesn't look like I cleaned from the pictures, but there was a 1/4 of dust layered throughout the case. I also rerouted some cables to help improve airflow. There are 4 case fans for this beast to help keep the drives cool... and the proc and video card, course.

So, why try so hard to resurrect this beast? Well, for one thing, I'm cheap. Hoping I don't have to invest in a new desktop for a while now. It seems there's another major financial obligation I'm saving for (hmmmmmm). That, and my laptop (while a thunderous gaming laptop in it's day of 2004), is horrifically slow. Laptops are all about comprimise. Here is a beautiful example...
I started a fresh install of Battlefield 2 on my emachines M6802 laptop last night at Chad's. It took 1hr 20 minutes to install the game off of 3 CDs. Following that, there is a major patch update over 500MB in size. The patch took an additional 2 1/2 hours. 3hrs 50mins total.
Tonight, I installed all 3 discs on "The Beast" in about 23 minutes while I've been typing up this post. The patch update is 50% complete or so, with a grand total of 13 minutes on the clock. Now, I'm sure a new gaming rig would smoke past these times, but you can see that this is a major improvement. Imagine the improvement in game play! We're looking at about 45 mins total for the Beast.

Well that said, here are a few pictures of it while I was screaming in the background... "It's.... aaa aaa -aaallliiiiiiiiiiivvvvvveee!!!! IT'S ALIIIVE!!! [Muuuuuuuwwwwwaaaaahahahahahaaaa]"

The one where they forgot to put the cap on

2008-07-21T14:16:00.003-05:00

"Don't take it to those fly by night shops. They use crappy oil, crappy filters, and who knows what they'll forget."

You'll notice a few things in this one. Yes, this is Christina's car, Foxy Vanilla. Yes, that's my my Venture in the background. Yes, this is in a parking garage downtown Milwaukee. Yes, it's on the 10th floor on the parking garage. Yes, that is oil on the ground in front of Foxy Vanilla. Yes, that is oil from Foxy Vanilla's engine.

Closer inspection...

What you can't see is that the hood liner is SOAKED with oil... some spray is evident in other areas.

And the problem... anybody notice the cap missing? I peeked in the hole, and there's a rocker arm almost directly underneath the hole... perfect for spraying oil out the top and into the engine compartment.

Apparently, the car was running fine until just before Milwaukee. The oil light would come on here and there, car still running fine. Pulling into the garage (about 20 degree incline), the car reportedly started shaking pretty bad.

Intuition tells us that eventually the oil got so low in level that the oil pump started not being able to pull it out of the reservoir, thus the oil pressure would occasionally drop down in curves as the oil would slosh to one side of the pan, and thus turning on the oil pressure light occasionally. As she started heading up hill in the garage, there was no hope of the pump getting any oil from the pan... and by some miracle had enough lube in the engine to run it all the way up 10 floors in the parking garage. The oil you see on the ground in the first picture is what eventually dripped out of the hood liner, onto the engine fan, and eventually the ground.

So, knight in shining armor arrives (that's me). On the way to meet her, I picked up a 5 quart bottle of oil, oil filter, adjustable wrench, filter wrench, and bag of shop rags from Wal-mart. As I was crawling under the car, I actually had to lift the car up with my hands for me to fit my head between the ground and the frame. I was inspecting to make sure they managed to get the pan plug and filter on properly and tight enough.

All of a sudden, the car drops and smashes my head. Yup, I pooped my pants. I scream, kicking my legs and trying to get my oily, slippery hands back under the frame to lift it up again. My head happened to be looking out the drivers side. I was screaming for Christina, but she was apparently on the phone... IN THE CAR. I peered out with now blurred vision from smashed temples, and see some vaguely adorable feet dangling out of the side of the car. (Picture a little kid with his legs hanging over the edge of a pier/warf on a lake... real cute, right?) It took about 3 microseconds to figure out what happened. Christina had plopped down into the driver's seat while talking on the phone. As kindly as I could, "GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP!" I don't know if you can picture what it was like for me under the car to see those legs dangling out the side... if you do it right, you'll be laughing a lot.

Lesson: use jack stands.

Anyway, as I was fumbling around underneath the car, following the near-death experience above, I was feeling around for the oil filter. All of a sudden the cap for the valve cover plops to the ground. Somehow, it managed to fall onto a frame member and wedged next to a plastic panel for about 70 miles. Thank God He worked that into our favor - good luck finding an auto parts store for a replacement in downtown Milwaukee.

While pouring the new oil into the engine, I kindly said something like this to Christina, "You realize that you're NEVER going to one of these Jiffy-lube type places again, right?" "Yeeeeesss, I know."

The one with the noisy rotors

2008-07-21T13:59:00.003-05:00

So, in an effort to make the Intrepid more appealing to a buyer, I figured I should probably get rid of the sound of a G-65xtz warp drive winding down while braking. About 60,000 miles ago, I put on a set of cross-drilled and slotted rotors. They were a really big boost in braking performance, but as I came to find out, most of the performance gains were in the new pads I was using more than the upgraded rotors.

Back in January, my good friend Ben was up visiting from Uruguay and I let him borrow my car (...one of the extra 7 vehicles I have sitting around...). He called me the day after I dropped it off for him and commented saying that the brakes were totally worn out and down to metal on metal. I chuckled. "No, Ben, that's just the way those performance rotors sound when you get on 'em hard."

In all fairness, the noise has gotten significantly worse in the last year. When replacing them a few weeks ago, I realized that the slots had gotten packed with salty rusty goo. it filled them up and no longer allowed proper function of the slots (to excrete the build-up of gas during heavy braking - i.e. eliminating "fade"). It got so bad that there was enough consistent friction that it was heating up the entire disc, bearing, hub, through the wheel and into the tire. That's a lot of heat transfer... the last few times, it got the tires so warm, they smelled like burnt rubber. Not good. I'm amazed the rotors didn't warp under such extreme heat...

So, I was able to trade in a pair of old struts at NAPA that I bought about 4 years ago and exchanged for a new set of rotors for the front.

Here's the old (left) and standard new (right).

Ever wonder what the strut and arm assembly look like on the LH series of cars? Here you go. This is with the wheel, brake caliper, and brake rotor removed. The signs of 8 years in the salt belt are evident...

This is my "workspace," not my "office."

And the finished product... aren't they perrrrty? This was taken after "break in," involving numerous 60mph to 0mph hard stops in immediate succession.

Rawley Benefit - Rev 01

2008-06-30T00:37:00.007-05:00

A friend and coworker is supporting his wife as she battles cancer a second time. Some friends of theirs threw a huge benefit party for them a few weeks ago. A couple coworkers joined in on donating a speaker package for the live auction that I designed - and now, built :-) No worries - I quoted the job to be complete mid-late June. [whew]

I decided to buy the cabinets for this project - one of my suppliers donated to the Rawley's as well and gave me some nice discounts on the cabinets. I had seen the new cabinets that they carry in person last fall at the most recent speaker nerd gathering in Iowa.

I chose the shaped/curved cherry finish. It's real wood veneer, so it looks really nice - not like those crummy vinyl "wood grained" overlays. Originally, the plan was to use different drivers. I talked to some other speaker nerd friends, and one of them was going to donate some nice ribbon tweeters. One thing lead to another, and I discovered that they wouldn't fit with the midbass driver I was planning to use - both physically and acoustically. I guess acoustically is physically too. Hmmm. Anyway. They were too big and they also turned out to required too high of a crossover frequency (the midbass just couldn't fill in the gap). So, I dug around my stash and found a pair of Seas aluminum dome tweeters.

Here, you can see the baffles all taped up (thank you, 3M for the most wonderful tape in the world). The tape prevents chipping from when I router out the holes for the drivers. The panels have a really nice finish to them that I didn't want to risk chipping. The other baffle is flipped over; I was laying out the driver positioning, exploring my options. "But Scott, those look like they're on top of each other..." - Patience, my young Padawan. "But... but..." Silence!

Here you can see the holes that I've routered out; one with tape, one with the tape peeled off. You'll notice the tweeter has a beveled step in it for flush mounting. When the face of the tweeter flange is flush with the baffle face, this helps to keep the frequency response nice and flat. Normally, this would be done for the midbass driver as well. But, well, you'll see...

There - now do you get it? The midbass actually overlaps the tweeter - they use the same hole for the screw. This allowed me to leave a little bit of flat edge left for the tweeter on top, and more importantly, allowed me to reduce the center-to-center spacing. Ideally, the center of the tweeter and midbass should be right on the same axis. Obviously, that creates great difficulty when it comes to multiple things occupying the same space. That said, typically, "rule of thumb" is to keep the spacing less than 1/2 the wavelength of the crossover frequency. There I go, giving away those marvelous nerdy secrets.

This one's a bit more on top for better understanding. The drivers were just dropped in for a fit check, so the midbass isn't quite centered.

And this is the "Table-o-fun." (Thanks for the naming idea, Christina). Parts parts parts parts parts... and that glorious bottle of blue Mountain Dew. I'm a fan of this new flavor; hopefully, it stays around for a while. It's a little sweet for normal drinking, but I was working and sweating my tail off today. The extra sugar was earned. So, here, I was just laying out some parts, trying to see what I had in my bin for testing. These are just test sample boards for listening - us audio geeks are never done tweaking...

So, here's Rev 01 of the crossover. Prior to desiging this, I made a rather drastic design change last minute. I decided that the aluminum dome tweeter I had planned on using might not be the best for this project. In analyzing the numbers and sound timbre in my memory, I didn't think it'd match well with the sonic signature of the midbass and sub. So, I decided to change to a soft dome tweeter from Seas. I'm so glad I did - great move, Scott.

Here's the cabinets with the baffles removed. You can't see it, but there's acoustic "stuffing" in the back half of the boxes. This helps to eliminate standing waves and reduce distortion. It also affects the acoustic properties of the box "alignment" in how the midbass plays low frequencies.

Here's the back side, prior to the binding posts being installed. If you look closely, you can see the holes about a third of the way up on the back face for them.

And here's the beginning of assembly, the preliminary crossover mounted (temporarily) to the middle brace. There's a ring of closed cell foam used as gasket material to help seal the cabinet - NO AIR LEAKS.

And the final assembly...

Here's a picture of them playing one of my favorites, Alison Krauss. I know, I know - it's a totally sweet TV. Yes, my center channel is bigger than the sub I just built for these speakers (see left side)... FYI, my center channel weighs in at ~80 lbs.

Right, back to the Rawley Benefit speakers.

Yes, that's my socks - the left stand has a bolt that sticks up a bit past the surface of the stand shelf. I didn't want to risk scratching these new pretty cabinets.

I wasn't able to play much other some "light" female vocals tonight - downstairs neighbors are sleeping. I'll be sure to give them a good run in the morning while I get ready for work. In a word, they are remarkable. I'm really pleased with them - this one might not go much beyond Rev 03 for the crossover. I almost nailed it the first time. I'll have to have those that helped make these possible over for a night to listen to them a bit before we have to give them away. These speaker projects are really hard to let go of, even when I get paid for a set. Lots of blood and sweat go into these little buggars, even when I don't make the cabinets.

Stay tuned for more. Time for me to collapse into bed.

Men of honor - prayer for this nation

2008-06-29T02:32:00.007-05:00

I toured the Billy Graham Museum at Wheaton College today with Christina after spending a little family time with her brother's family before they head down to Cayman for month. You guys totally ... stink. Hopefully, that's not "penguins" territory. Here's a shot of Tori on our stroll to the French Market after breakfast.

In any case, I saw one of my favorite quotes strewn across a wall, and had to take a photo. Now, I want you to seriously take in all that this is - the important part is WHO this is. Not the man, but his title. The President. The most powerful man in the world. At one time, this kind of thing was EXPECTED of a President - today, it is shunned - about the only remaining recognition is our "National Day of Prayer," something the Anti-Christ Liberties Union [cough cough], I mean ACLU, and the New York Times are perpetually trying to destroy. As a result of seeing this today, and meditating on it as I type, I have been moved this evening to lift up our downward spiraling country in prayer. Hopefully, you'll do the same.

Read and envision it 3 times, and tell me you're not in tears.

This has to be worthy of a Dilbert comic...

2008-06-29T02:22:00.005-05:00

Officially, I have no idea where this came from. What I can tell you is that the person whom sits here can thumb down any one of those piles and within 7 seconds and get you the exact email (hard copy printed out) or spec sheet you're referring to. It's really quite amazing. And shockingly organized.

Yes, all those file cabinets are full. Yes, there are the same kinds of piles under the desk. Just one hole for his feet.

What a pair...

2008-06-29T02:08:00.003-05:00

Alison Krauss and Robert Plant. And a deaf sound tech. Seriously, are they everywhere?!?!?

Christina treated me to pavilion seats at Ravinia for the dynamic duo. It was an awesome concert. Alison was definitely out of her element... but the arrangements were quite well done. They did some of the old Zeppelin tunes and some of Alison's - but, each were arranged to the other spectrum. Classic rock and bluegrass turn out to be a really great mix. Christina and I were shocked how good Robert Plant sounded - his chops were still in great shape.

There I go again, sneaking a kiss. I'm so sneaky.

Seriously - look at that smile. I take it back - I don't want to have to hurt you.

This is the best shot I could get with my phone... not bad, considering it was pitch black and they were moving on stage... and that my big, fat, wavering man-hands did the picture taking.

The organizer of the whole concept, producer, singer, musician, T. Bone Burnett.

If you can catch these guys on tour, go now. Really great. I hope, for your sake, the guy we had running the sound board is on vacation that day.

The one where the water came

2008-06-29T01:40:00.003-05:00

The morning began with breakfast with the gang for the reunion (see previous post). Continually, things went out of my favor in trying to get to the west side of Madison by 1pm. I-94 road closures due to flooding forced a bypass that was slow as molasses. I had to get to the bank, but the bank is on the south side of town (where the freeway is)... but I couldn't get on the freeway at that point. So I had to waste 25 minutes driving to the south side of town and back, because I wasn't sure if I could make it to the branch in the next town by the time they closed. And then of course I had to fill up the car with gas. And had to spend 20 minutes looking up maps on how to get to the wedding, because the rest of the family left without me in anticipation of longer travel time due to the road closures. Somehow, I got there just 15 minutes late. It was a different red Magnum that you saw going 95mph... trust me.

On the bright side, I finally got meet Dill's girl, Amanda. It was a pleasure :-) I look forward to spending lots more time with her in the future.

Come on, Susie!

There we go :-)

Diane and Matt

This is me trying to take a picture of Mom and me...

That's much better.

And the happy couple (Kristina and Andrew). The reception was held at the Dorf Haus. It was family style grub, and very yummy. Andrew is also a beer snob - they had a keg of Miller Lite for the rejects and a keg of Ultimator (sp??) Dunkel. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm. First time for me, and won't be the last.

Whose facial hair is this?

And this?

Congrats, Kristina!

These two were just flippin' hilariously adorable all night long. Trust me, the picture doesn't do them justice.

And here's Andrew and the best man (his brother) racing on the mini-bikes.

Andrew smoked him. I'm holding out a verdict on the game being rigged.

And the highlight of the evening... mother of bride, O.C., and another good friend of the mother of the bride... Y.M.C.A. - on the chairs.

Congratulations Kristina and Andrew - I pray that the Lord will bless you guys with open hearts, patience, and continued honest and open communication.

The reunion tour

2008-06-29T01:23:00.004-05:00

Back on the weekend of the 14th of June, I got to spend some time with "the girls" during their reunion. Christina's two very good friends from Wheaton College days made the journey back to Chicagoland. Currently, Tara is in Phoenix area, while Dayspring is out in SeaTac area.

I hung out with Dayspring and Nate on Friday night at Ravinia. Afterward, we went to the Ravinia Bar for a night cap, and then back to Christina's place for another night cap. Yum.

Saturday morning, Tara and Adam drove up to meet us at Walker's pancake house for an early breakfast. I had to be out of town by 9am to get back up to Madison by 1pm for a wedding (more on that in the next post...)

The gang (left to right): baby Shea, Christina, Scott, Adam, Tara, Nate, Dayspring.

Is that mistletoe up there? (Like we need an excuse to kiss...) Oh yeah, watch out - I've got connections (see shirt). Can you tell I went to bed at 1:30am and got up at 6:45am?

Monday night, I got to spend some more time with Tara and Adam (and Shea). Christina made "the easy chicken" recipe. It was yummy. We all ate in great jubilee.

To the gang: thanks so much for making the trek out east again. It meant the world to Christina for the six of us to be together, and I can't wait until we see each other on that one day we're doing that thing in January. Peace.

Happy 6 month Anniversary

2008-06-29T00:41:00.003-05:00

I know, I know... all you old, married people just want to gag when we youngin's get all googly ooogly moogly poochy wuchy over our 6 month anniversary. Well, here's the tongue depressor [hands you tongue depreesor].

The date was May 17th... I know, deal with it - I've been busy. Anyway, Christina set us up with reservations at Carlos' Restaurant. I don't often rave about restaurants - this, my friends, is one of the best I have EVER been to. "Horray!" for Christina's connections - she knows Carlos himself from her dealings with him at Ravinia. I think my favorite course (I think... I think we had 6 courses) was my appetizer plate of asparagus - 3 different preprations of it, and the favorite of the three was the asparagus soup. Ouy Vay! YUM. We had a bottle of Santa Margharita Pinot Grigio to entertain our taste buds, and finished off the evening with molten chocolate lava cake (and of course a glass of whole milk for me). I most HIGHLY recommend this restaurant if you're ever in the northern 'burbs of Chicago. FYI, prepare for singing if you mention a birthday or anniversary celebration (let's just call that experience talking).

Before we zipped out of the house after quick showers and spiffing up, I gave Christina her present, a matching pendant and earrings set. Just look at that smile! LOVE IT.

Anybody got a pair of sunglasses?

Crappy camera phone, later that night. This turned out pretty well to get a shot of the earrings.

This is a shot we took about 37 seconds after we walked in the door after dinner. We had to get a pic documenting that we spiff it up pretty darn well. I wasn't quite ready for the timer to go off, but our smiles say it all - we're in love.

I thank the Lord every day for making this person so precisely to complement my weaknesses, lift me up, and make me laugh. Thank you, Baby, for loving me! Happy 7 months, 1 week, and 5 days.

Noah's Ark Recreation

2008-06-24T15:40:00.001-05:00

Check it out! Cool beans!

Noah's Ark

The Knack

2008-06-17T14:50:00.000-05:00

Yes, ladies and germs - I do have... "The Knack."

My first Ravinia experience...

2008-06-13T14:36:00.002-05:00

OK, so it's been a while since I posted last. Get over it. They're worth the wait, and you know it.

So, June 6th, was a big day. My first time at the park, being part of what Ravinia is all about. James Taylor was performing that night. Christina's parents treated me to a wonderful dinner in one of the restaurants at the park. I think we might have connections (cough, cough), cuz our table was right at the window, overlooking the entire park. It was beautiful, and the weather turned out to be fantastic after the sun set.

So, while Christina was working her magic, shaking hands and smiling with the donors, we gorged ourselves on some great food and fantastic wine (mmmmmmm.... that Pinot Grigio is really growing on me...).

Periodically Christina came to find a hug as she was finishing up for the evening. Her parents had pavilion seats for the concert, and her dad was quite excited to be there. I was quite satisfied, chilling on the lawn in my Coleman chair. This is me working hard at hardly working.

A couple other shots of the park... and the people...

"...chillin' max, relaxin' all cool..."

The luckiest guy on Earth... oh, yeah, and Christina too.

Saturday, I got to meet cousin Lani, currently living in Twin Cities, but happened to be down in Chicagoland for a friend's wedding. After lunch with the whole family, Christina headed off to work. I spent some more time with the fam at Andrea and Mike's, putting off the work I'm supposed to be doing on speakers for a customer. Oh well. Sunday, we came down to Wheaton again to spend time with the family. I'm not sure what I was trying to take a picture of here - all I know is that the intent of the main subject was Miles being adorable. Hm. Shocker. Check out Miles' vocal debut here.

I GOT HITCHED!!!!

2008-05-16T13:31:00.002-05:00

Eheheheheheheehe - my car got a hitch. Tricked ya.

So, catching up on things - this is the story from back on May 4th. I realized my May blog posts are dwindling... so, time to play a little catch-up. Right, so, the Magnum got a car hitch installed... Before....

Before...

When I crawled under the car to start, first thing I noticed is that the pesky exhaust was in the way on both sides. So, time to pull those mufflers down. Grrrrrrrrr

Left rear muffler (looking aft)...

Right rear muffler (looking aft)...

So, get the exhaust pipes and rear resonators (kind of like muffler) moved out of the way on each side. Then comes the part where I get to hold a 50lb hitch above me while I try to screw in bolts on two sides of the car. That was interesting. "Thank you, thank you." (holds up arms, addressing and kisses big bicep muscles on each arm).

So, there's 6 bolts to mount the hitch receiver to the frame. 3 of the 6 had nuts that were pre-welded into the frame from the factory. The other three holes were just pass-through holes and you have to manually put a loose nut on from the inside of the car (bolt goes in through the bottom). Sounds easy enough. No big deal...

So, I pull out the rear removable floor to get at the spare tire storage area. Crap - not far enough to the sides - have to take off the side panels on each side of the car. Fast forward 43 scrapes to hands from sharp plastic edges, approximately 38 eruptions of aggravation due to previous owner mistreating the car (breaking plastic tabs, wrong screws used, rusted holes
that were put in for mounting ground cables for his stereo, etc, etc). So, an hour later, I'm finally inside the car, with the entire back end (behind the seats) exposed to bare metal/paint. No holes can be seen where they are supposed to be. [Look under car - holes are there. Look from inside cars where holes are supposed to be - holes not there] [repeat] [scratch head] [repeat] [look again] [look again]. Son of a Gunderson!! Another panel was welded over the top, closing off the cavity space I needed to get at.

Enter HUGE power drill + 3" hole saw [Tim Taylor man grunt] Uuuuhhh uuuuhhh uuuuhhh - more power!

Yup, I had to drill a hole in the frame on each side of the car. It was closed off to prevent water spray coming through the lower holes and getting into the interior of the car. Normally, when a towing package is ordered for a car, it's put on at the factory on the assembly line. These cover panels would have been added on the assembly line for a car with the towing package too, but the hitch would have been put on before the cover plate was welded on. Oh well.

And the results... See that little hole down inside the big hole? Yup, that's where the hitch bolts are supposed to go. This is looking down, slightly right, slightly forward on the floor behind the right rear wheel. Love those metal filings...

And the end result after messing with the wiring harness install for another 2 hours.

Isn't she peeeeerrrrrty?

Then it's time for a few beers with the neighbors and cousin Chad (+Alissa + Ky) and the neighbors fearsome dogs.

Time to break out the steaks, burgers, and hot dogs for the grill! It's a beautiful night!

Coworkers Bonding

2008-05-14T10:21:00.003-05:00

So, last night, got a call from the customer just as I was about to leave... basically railroading me into getting some dwgs updated before I left. Yeah - another late night. It interrupted plans to chill out with some guys from work. But, when I left work, they were still going strong... so, I stopped by.

For some reason, Joe and Andy thought it was a good plan to ride small dirt bikes around the (wet) yard at 9:30pm. Hmmm

Joe takes off one way out of the garage, Andy takes off another. Dan pipes up, "I'm not sure if that's a good idea. I see a head on collision coming." [Dan temporarily departs around other side of garage to take a leak]. ...45 seconds pass by... [CRACK!] ...and Chris and I look out the back of the garage to see Joe's butt in mid air as he flies over the handlebars with Andy laying in the dirt.

Dan comes back... "What's going on?!?" as we're all laughing. "Dan, you called it - head on collision." Chris chimes in with his fatherly voice, "All right guys... time to put 'em away."

Andy's bike took the brunt of the damage... the handlebars took the impact from Joe's bike. A little twisting with a pipe wrench, and the 50cc Yamaha is back in business. Oh, wait. The rear brake handle is busted.

Here's Chris testing out the straightness of the re-bent bars [roll eyes]

And here's Andy tightening up the bolts that hold the bars on. "Where's my 5/8" wrench?!?!?"

The red Honda 70cc here is the culprit - or was it Joe?

The only damage sustained by the Honda was the "sod" that was dug up from the right foot peg - Chris displays it for us...

Uh oh - time to display our manly strength... the idea is to slowly let the sledge down to your lips to give it a kiss. But then, you have to bring it back up to the straight vertical position.

So, that looks easy eh? Go grab your 12 pound sledge in the garage and try it... that's a 36" moment arm for all you engineers out there...

Don't pick on Chris here for choking up the handle a few inches - this is the 4th or 5th time he did it already.

There it is.

And Joe's butt leaked (Pete's too). There's no word in the dictionary bad enough to describe the stench. Wow. Andy's face says it all... Chris pulls out the turpentine to sniff it and mask the smell.

Why is an axe a better idea than a sledge? Man card points here.

And Andy tries to give Joe a little punch for encouragement... (or is that more of a grab?)

Joe's retry attempt... this time he's prepared for surprise attacks. Oh boy.

And if that's not enough for man card points, time for pull-ups - a solid 3 pull-ups.

Andy's attempt... 10 strong.

Good times (thanks gents), good beer - "Horny Goat" wheat beer was my favorite of the evening... Mmmmmm

Warehouse Sale

2008-04-30T23:49:00.007-05:00

I'm offering the following drivers for sale. Prices do not include shipping. I accept Paypal, cashiers check/money order, personal check (shipping to await check to clear). I have a good reputation on Madisound and PE boards, as well as eBay - my user ID is the_original_speakerman if you'd like to see my feedback rating (44 - 100% positive)
NIB = New In Box

Pair of NIB Dayton 10" DVC Subwoofer, 295-485. See here for more info.
$30 for the pair

Pair of NIB Dayton PT2 Planar Tweeter, 275-085. See here for more info.
$35 for the pair
**SOLD**

Pair of NIB Dayton 7" Aluminum midbass/woofer, 295-335. See here for more info.
$20 for the pair ($15/pair if you buy both pairs)
**SOLD**
Second pair of same 295-335 above.
$20 for the pair ($15/pair if you buy both pairs)
**SOLD**

(1) Vifa XT18WO09-08, 7" XT paper pulp cone midrange/midbass/woofer. See here for more info. The outside edge of the frame has been cracked (about 3/4" long x 1/16" wide). The pieces are still there due to the adhesive bead that's part of the basket construction. With some "Goop" glue and careful hands it could be repaired. The damage is purely cosmetic. Pics to come. These are now sold under the Peerless label from Madisound for $82 each. You can have this one for a bargain $25.
**SOLD**

(1) Peerless 831724 10" CC series woofer. I found the below information here. This driver used to sell for around $40 new from Madisound. Poly cone, rubber surround. It'd make a great little sub... 47Hz from a sealed 1.8cuft enclosure - not bad. This was used for testing (like on a Woofer Tester) only, and has been sitting for many years on my shelf. Yours for $10.

F3	F10	Vb	Cf3	Fb	Port Length	Driver Name	Fs	Xmax	Vas	Re	Qts
Hz		Ltr	cf^3	Hz	3"				Ltr

1.8

Sealed

Peerless 831724 WR 250 33 10"

5.5

127

6.3

0.43

(1) Clarion OEM 10" Sub, 2ohm, 1 1/2" voice coil, 125 Wrms, butyl rubber surround, poly dust cap, poly MICA cone, 30 oz. magnet, vented voice coil
Re: 1.5 ohm
Vas: 21 liters
Fs: 31.5 Hz
Qms: 9.256
Qes: 0.339
Qts: 0.327
BL: 8.27
Sd: 0.213 m^2
Cms: 325.91 uM/N
SPL: 91.8db @ 2.83V
Le: 1.62 mH @ 1kHz
Mms: 78.2 gr
Yours for a bargain $20 - reduced price

Pair of Hi-Vi Research SK8R 8" Kevlar woofers
60Wrms
SPL: 89dB/W/m
Fs: 40Hz
Re: 4.8 ohm
Qts: 0.50
Mms: 24g
These are shielded, with a vented voice coil. These are used - no damage other than a few screw-hole mounting scratches. These work great with a Morel MDT-30, 2nd order (electrical) Bessel network at 3kHz. They have very deep, tight, musical bass in a about a 1 cuft stuffed sealed box. The pair is yours for $50.

Pair of Eton 8-472 hexacone. See here for more info. These sell for $222/ea new at Madisound. This pair is NEW, unused, but no boxes. These use Eton's innovative honeycomb cone structure design. They'll be wrapped with great care and love for shipping. The pair is yours for $250.
**PENDING SALE**

Pair of NIB Scan Speak 8" 21W/8555-01 woofers. See here for more info. These sell for $195/ea new at Madisound. The pair is yours for $270.
**PENDING SALE**

Sucks to be you.

2008-04-30T09:59:00.009-05:00

So, I got this great deal on eBay last night! WOOHOO! I’ve been looking for a new amp for my DJ service for the last 6 months or so (I’ve got another gig the end of May). So, that’s the background – and here’s the story…

I’ve been looking at Crown amps. Crown is pretty much has the best PA amps you can buy – robust, dependable, good sound, lots of power, great protection features, upgradeable filter options… the works. You know those crazy Metallica and “Fitty-cent” concerts where the music is so loud that the speakers thumping suck the air right out of your lungs? Yeah, you can bet it’s Crown MacroTec amps making those speakers thump – entire racks of them, we’re talking probably 50,000 Watts of REAL power (not the 100W rating you see from Pioneer receiver at Best Buy that only puts out 12 Watts) running those speakers in a setting like that. Go to your local THX Ultrascreen cinema – it’s probably Crown XLS amps running the system. Olympic stadiums… ball parks… churches… auditoriums… the best all use Crown.

One of the great things about them is that they’re all made right here in the USA – Elkhart, IN. [enter in “God Bless the USA” background music]. I actually had a job lined up there out of school as a design engineer (thank you MSOE for being on my resume). Unfortunately, Crown suffered from 9/11 just like everybody else and lost a bunch of funding. Well, technically, Crown was doing pretty well – but the mothership “Harmon Industries” (i.e. Harmon Kardon, JBL, dbx, AKG, lexicon, etc) was doing poorly as a whole – and Harmon had just recently acquired Crown. Anyway, budget reductions… They killed my position (that was pending the budget update), another entry level position, as well as “letting go” of a few people. Hard times. It’s disappointing that I didn’t get my dream job out of school… but who knows what my life would be like now if I were in Elkhart, IN. Let’s hope I still would have met the girl of my dreams on eHarmony… I’m pretty sure God would have worked that out somehow again. He’s cool like that.

Anyway, I have been watching prices for months… and was just about to make a purchase last night. I had decided on the XLS-602 for subwoofer duty on my DJ rig. I have two other mono amps that currently run the subs, but was going to move those to the main full-range cabinets in the interim until I got another gig to pay for an XLS-402 amp to run the mains. I found a good deal (not incredible) and was going to “Buy It Now” on eBay… but I just got this notion – “What the heck, let’s see if they have any Parasounds up for sale…”

I currently am using a Parasound HCA-1500A to run my main stereo pair of speakers. I have fallen in love with Parasound amps. I also have an HCA-855A on my rack that runs the center and surround channels. When I got the 1500A, I had always planned to find a mate for it. The 1500A can be bridged into mono operation… giving a much better sound quality – and boost the power rating to 600W (from 200W/ch). I don’t need the power at all, but just wanted the better sound from bridged mode. It produces a much wider sound stage and reduces distortion considerably… a wonderful thing.

One of the reasons I love the 1500A is because it was designed by legendary audio designer John Curl. I’ve had the privilege to pick his brain online a few times on various audio forums that I frequent. I’ve read a lot of his posts and find his design philosophies to be ingenious. And it’s all backed up with the incredible sound quality that comes out of Parasound’s amps. Granted, Parasound “tweaks” things from his proposed designs to reduce cost on a few components, but the heart of the matter remains.

That said, as I scrolled through my search query, I came across a 1500A with an incredible “Buy It Now” price on eBay. I was stunned. It was meant to be. 1500A’s are rarely for sale because everybody that owns one wants to keep it. It’s perfect. Now I can use the two 1500A’s in bridged mode at home for audio nirvana… and be able to use the bridged mode “on the road” for DJ gigs to take advantage of the incredible power. Boo ya!

This also means I don’t have to make a new crossover circuit for the DJ setup (which I would have had to do if I would have gone the other route). The downfall is that I do’t have dedicated gear for the DJ setup… but if I keep getting gigs, I’ll be able to afford some dedicated gear for that that’s better suited to the task. Crown will definitely come into play if that road is in my future.

Check out the Parsound HCA-1500A specs here.

And in case you didn't get a clear message with the booked airline ticket post a few weeks ago...
This is me next Wednesday...

This is you next Wednesday - love those spring days in Wisconsin.

OK, fine - best case, this is you next Wednsday...

Yup - pretty sure it sucks to be you...

Busy week

2008-04-25T16:20:00.005-05:00

Lazy bum all week for blogging... well, I've been busy - so there.

Tuesday I had a meeting with the customer in IL again this week, so I got to see Christina a little bit extra - which is always good :-). While I was waiting for her Tuesday evening to get done from work, I made my way into Borders and managed to find Berlin Philharmonic's recording on Deutsche Grammephone label doing the Holst Planets. I have a copy that I picked up in Germany in 1997, but it got damaged about 2 years ago, and I haven't been able to enjoy it since. This was the first place I've seen it in those two years... I was VERY excited.

And I finally got to meet up with my "core group" member from church on Wednesday. We've had some scheduling difficulties the last few weeks. We kind of just got to know each other a little bit and discussed some future plans for the men's ministry leadership team, which I am now a part of (he's in charge of the ministry). And we managed to pick out a book to use for studying on a weekly basis. Don't ask me what it is - I still have to pick that up this weekend...

Thursday was another world class hosting of a party to watch this week's episode of The Office. It was a really good one this week. And we had good company to match. Afterwards, we settled in to watch the Jackal.

My Denon DVD-2900 DVD player was on the fritz last night. I actually said a prayer for it last night... and this morning. Heck, why not? God can handle it - total confidence.

This player produces the most beautiful picture known (via analog component outputs) for standard DVD's... and it plays both DVD-Audio discs and SACD discs - pretty rare. It's a little upsetting to see it suffering. Hopefully, it just didn't like the disc last night. It didn't seem to be a dirty disc problem, or dirty lens problem. Although, there may be something on the lens yet after the cleaning - never know. I'm wondering if it was an overheating/over-usage issue, cuz it was running for about 5hrs straight yesterday (in the background). Perhaps all it needs is a power off reboot - no, wait - it doesn't run on Windows. Hm.

So, with it constantly locking up, I had to switch to a "standard" DVD player, my Sony DVP-NC650V (which has lots of sentimental value as it was one of the first players I ever upgraded the audio outputs for). I was grumbling and mumbling about switching DVD players, anticipating the change in video quality. The amusing part was when the guests realized - "You have more than one DVD player?!?!?" Which was followed up with, "Of course - this is Scott we're talking about here!" So great. (Shhhhh - don't tell them about the Pioneer DV-565A-S I'm lending Mom... or the Panasonic RP-62 I'm lending Christina... or the Panasonic F-85 in the storage room... or....) Anyway - everyone kind of was like "Wow - that's a lot worse!" when I made the switch. It was almost a nightmare for me [shudder, shake]

Anyway - speaking of movies, GO SEE "EXPELLED" this weekend!

And here's the acheivement of the last 10 months at work - the In-Flight Entertainment Rack #1 for Air France's A380 fleet. These racks are linefit assemblies, going directly to the aircraft assembly line in Hamburg, Germany. Cool.

Time to finish up a few things before heading down to see my girl this weekend... Peace out.

"Whoa - that's heavy..."

2008-04-18T11:07:00.003-05:00

Thinking about the upcoming weekend, makes me think of Marty McFly in the movie, Back to the Future:
Marty: "Whoa - that's heavy."
1955's Doc Brown: "There's that word again...'heavy' - why is everything heavy in the future? Is there something wrong with the Earth's gravitational pull?"

Or is there just some really great translation of life's experiences into great music? Well, that's the case for this weekend.

On the docket for tonight, is "Grande Messe des morts," by Hector Berlioz. Loosely translated (a little rusty on my French...) it means: Grand Mass for the Dead. (Yeah for Latin to help decode...) "Mass" refers to Roman Catholic Mass - and this work is referred to as a requiem.

While having limited exposure to his works, I am a huge fan of Berlioz. In Wind Symphony (high school days), we performed a concert band arrangement of his work called "Damnation of Faust," a musical translation of Goethe's poem, Faust. It is considered a "dramatic legend" as opposed to an opera or symphony. Whatever that means... who cares - it's good music.

So, back to Grande Messe des morts. This piece is the real deal - scored for 4 sections of antiphonal brass, 12 french horns, over 100 strings, over 200 vocalists in the choir... we're talking "heavy" equipment. In the premier performance, there were over 400 vocalists. Wow. Within 6 months of each other, Berlioz had also composed an opera, Benvenuto Cellini, drastically different in style and taste. The gift that God has bestowed upon our history's composers over time just absolutely blows my mind.

The French Minister of Interior asked Berlioz to compose a piece in remembrance of the souls whom perished during the French Revolution (1830s). Interestingly, Berlioz had received partial commission for the work upfront in March of 1837 from the Minister of the Interior. Berlioz and the Minister had to fight against a more profound and well known French composer with political connections to earn the commission for the piece. There was so much tension created that the government eventually canceled the event. The left Berlioz in a world of financial trouble, as he had already used the partial payment given to pay musicians during the early stages of development and practice of the work. The capture of the city of Constantine in October of 1837 inspired the French Minister of War to hold a memorial service for the men who had fallen in that battle. So, the Minister of War pursued Berlioz again. The work was finally premiered on December 5th. Eventually, Berlioz received payment in full for his efforts from the government.

An interesting event took place during this performance, from Berlioz's memoirs:

There are, perhaps, one thousand bars in my Requiem. Precisely in that of which I have just been speaking, when the movement broadens out, and the bras burst in which their terribloe fanfare; in fact, just in the one bar where the conductor's direction is absoluttely indispensable, Habeneck puts down his baton, quietly takes out his snuff-box, and procees to take a pinch of snuff. I had never taken my eyes off him: instantly... springing forward before him, I stretched out myt arm and marked the four great beats of the new movement. The orchestras followed me... I conducted the piece to the end, and the effect which I had dreamed of was produced.

Then comes Saturday. We're catching the MSO's (Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra) , accompanied by MSO Women's Choir) performance of Gustavus von Holst's orchestral work called, "The Planets." They're also featuring a couple works by Richard Strauss. Holst is (partially) a man after my own heart. Holst conducted the LSO (London Symphony Orchestra) in the works' first electrical recording in 1926. Holst was frustrated with the inadequacies of the recording and playback equipment to reproduce the dynamic range that he required. He ended up messing with the levels of the LSO and chorus enough so that something other than nothing could be heard upon playback. Nonetheless, it was a great discouragement for him.

While Holst himself was raised in England, his paternal family was from Latvia... escaping by pilgrimage through Sweden. "Gustav" was named after his grandfather Gustavus von Holst, a famous harpist and composer. His father Adolph von Holst was an organist, pianist, and choirmaster; his mother was an immensely talented (apparently) vocalist. That's quite the gene pool. And out comes Gustavus von Holst. Initially, a quite talented pianist, he developed some nerve damage in his hand making it quite difficult to play. He gave it up for the trombone. Gustavus began composing at age 12. Wow.

So, "The name doesn't match up to what's on my CD" you say? A noted patriot, Gustavus applied for military service in WWI. He was denied for service due to bad eyes, bad lungs and bad congestion. This brought upon his already prominent name - he was pursuaded to drop the "von" from his name, and shorten his first name to Gustav. The government believed that it aroused suspicion. So, there you have it.

History lesson over, and so is lunch break... I'm SOOOO excited for these performances this weekend :-)

It's finally posted

2008-04-16T00:40:00.000-05:00

Anyone interested in a Rumble Bee?

Click here.

The Drousy Chaperone

2008-04-09T12:26:00.003-05:00

Christina scored some free tickets (holy good seats, Batman) to The Drowsy Chaperone (musical) performance at the Cadillac Palace Theater in Chicago last night. Turns out Tuesday is date night anyway :-) Traffic was a bear, but we made it down town by a little after 7pm somehow... early (well - on time, really) for the 7:30pm showing. It was pretty entertaining... lots of laughs... and enjoyably something different in concept.

Here's a link to some more info on the show...

And here's a shot of the theater as we came into town last night! :-)

3 years later...

2008-04-09T12:16:00.002-05:00

So, I got these wine glass racks for a birthday present 3 years ago. They're supposed to hang under a cabinet, but my counter space is filled (or regularly used) under my cabinets, so I never had a place for them. The last 8 or 10 months I've been putting more effort towards some major cleaning and organizing. I was sick of these things sitting on top of my fridge. It was either throw them in the bin for Good Will or give them a place in my home.

............beeep buuuuup BUP blupe beep krreeeeep blaaaaaahhh eeeeeek aahhh bluuuup eh wwaaaaaaaauuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhh........ kshhhhhhhhhhhh.... (that's supposed to be an onomatopoeia for a modem dial-up - oh stop laughing, say it out loud - it kinda works) [engineer brain dial-up to central processor unit]

And here's what my brain came up with. Turns out there's lots of room on the ceiling. :-) Check out those gorgeous Riedel wine glasses! (Thanks Unc & OC!)

Nancy's home!

2008-04-09T11:56:00.004-05:00

Nancy and Joy arrived 10 minutes early at O'Hare on Friday. Christina was nice enough to pick them up on her way (sorta, roundabout kinda' way) up here for the weekend. First stop - Culver's. We met at the one near my business park, which is kind of a half-way point on the way home from O'Hare. And since we were in the neighborhood, I gave the three girls a tour of ECS after our custard treats. Mmmmmm. Poor Christina had to suffer as it was her second tour ...

While Joy was out doing some errands and getting a manicure on Saturday, Nancy, Christina and myself took off for some quality time. Yummy bagels and the ONLY chai (at least as far as Christina and I are concerned)... Oregon Chai. So yummy. We had some great discussion and I was so glad for these two important gals in my life to have a chance to spend some more time with each other - And me, of course :-)

On Sunday, Christina and I went to a presentation that Joy and Nancy did for some ministry partners in Mequon (technically it was Thiensville according to Google Maps - a cause of some frustration in trying to get directions...). So, yeah. What an amazing experience. I love seeing the faces of all these people that have been touched by God's grace. Before we left, several of us gathered around Christina for healing prayer. It was quite an experience - Lord, we believe in Your healing power and we believe that You are working and have worked in Christina's body already. Thank You!

So, Monday night, Nancy (and Joy ;-) ) did an abbreviated presentation for the family (Mom, Kenny, OC, Chad, Dill). I really think they were blessed in seeing all that God's doing through their beloved Nancy. Here's a couple crummy pics from my phone in night mode (sorry, room was dark).

That's my story. Lord, please continue to protect and bless Joy and Nancy as they continue sharing this week. Give them Your energy as their bodies are recuperating and recharging; give them Your protection as they travel! Amen!

Cell phones during flight...

2008-04-07T11:27:00.003-05:00

So, another one of my projects finally made it into the public domain.

Air France started flying and Airbus A318 aircraft in European airspace with the ability to use cell phones during flight. My company did the design for the system, particularly the "business end" -- the rack. My mechanical counterpart and I developed this rack to fit in one of the overhead bagbins of the aircraft... all within very explicit, tight restrictions and requirements from Airbus. With this system, we are actually certified to be placed on the aircraft on the assembly line - so our rack and the system is delivered to the customer (Air France, in this case) directly from Airbus. It's now an option when ordering planes from Airbus... kind of like the checkbox for a sunroof when ordering a car nowadays... OK - a so it's a million dollar sunroof option.

Of note, my primary achievement was developing a new smoke detection system for our company. It's pretty sophisticated, if I do say so myself. [pat on back]

Here's a link to a video of the first flight on Air France's plane that initiated the use of this system on the aircraft.

And, here's a few pictures. of the rack!

Johnny 5 still alive!!!

2008-04-07T10:28:00.002-05:00

Woo hoo!!! Short Circuit remake!!! Check out this link.

P.S. Thanks for the update, Al...

EXPELLED - fallacies of Darwinism finally coming to light?

2008-04-04T01:08:00.002-05:00

Check out the super trailer for Ben Stein's new movie, EXPELLED. Click here to see the movie's website.

Uh oh! Still binking!!

2008-03-24T00:25:00.002-05:00

An abridged version of the original prank I heard a few years ago, but here it is. I was talking about this with somebody last week...

VCR Blinking 12 Prank Call

Weekend in a nutshell

2008-03-23T22:41:00.012-05:00

"Good Friday" was a free-bee day off from ECS. Thank you! Thursday night was spent doing laundry - woohoo. Slept in Friday a bit, and then packed up to head down to Christina's. This pretty much sums it up.

That's right - more snow. Snow snow snow. Started at midnight Thursday night and continued 'til about 8pm. There was about 8" on the ground by the time I left home at noon Friday. The roads weren't plowed, which is bad, but there was plenty of traffic that cleared the main drag tire track lanes just from all the cars.

Nonetheless, I spent 4.5hrs in the truck, averaging 25mph to get to Christina's. I had no idea it was going to be that slow. I kinda figured I'd be the only one on the road, but I guess not. The idiots on the road were the problem... not the snow.

When I finally got there around 4pm, Christina and I watched some movies on TV and cooked dinner (translation: turned on oven and heated corn dogs). The highlight of the evening was "Sound of Music" :-)

Saturday, we slept in. Shocker. After some yummy breakfast, we cleaned up the Rumble Bee, prep'ing it for sale. Nephew, Ty, helped out. He did a great job rubbing in the plastic protectant on the doors.

Isn't she peeeeerrttty?

And off to Mile's 1yr birthday party! Aunt Tina and the man of the hour...

He likes to make noises when you squeeze his tummy. So stinkin' cute.

Aunt Al is tired after a long car ride from the Carolina's... "But, Mom, I'm so cute :-D"

And Tor demonstrates "Roll Tide!!"

Present opening time! Birthday boy had lots of help from his two cousins.

"Stop singing!! You're all out off pitch!" Poor little man didn't like all the singing... :-(

I asked big cousin Ty to help me out and take some photos of the birthday boy. Most everything was really fuzzy and didn't turn out, but this one is a keeper. We called it his "artistic photography." He learned the zoom function pretty quick after I showed him - this is Aunt Tina's eyebrow.

Moving on to Sunday. After Resurrection Day service at her church, we headed to her brother's house for the family get-together. I wonder if there was a basketball game on, eh guys?

Christina seems to capture my interesting side...

It's a bit fuzzy, but she's cute enough to make up for it (and LOTS more). ;-)

Tori and Grandpa - I wish I could be that entertained with a spoon...

Roads back to normal, I made the trek back home. OC was hosting events for our family. Mmmmmm..... SUCH YUMMY FOOD. I stuffed myself - oh, man. Still bloated...

I managed to corner our family's Tyler in the laundry room. He thinks he's pretty sneaky. He's short, but that helium balloon clipped to his arm sure helps to seek him out.

Mom and Tyler. It was sooooo cute. Like 10 seconds before this picture, he looked up at Mom, and put his arms up in the air with this little whimper... "[whimper] {translation: pick me up and hold me!}"

Kisses good night from Tyler!

And then back to the smelly bachelor pad to my precious kitties. Toe Jam has been warming my lap for the last hour. They missed me :-) OK - fiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnee. I missed them too. You happy?

So, yeah - exciting - paid a couple bills, sorted through some mail, filed some papers. Boring. Hopefully, I can get my darn loan check tomorrow so I can get my car this weekend. [Crossing fingers.]

Over and out.

Last week

2008-03-20T22:48:00.006-05:00

As indicated by my posting from last week, I was out in Atlanta and Tulsa for work. While in Atlanta, I had an opportunity one evening to do some sightseeing... with and at the request of the customer. He wanted to go to tour the CNN headquarters there (I'm spewing excitement).

On the way, we walked through the Olympic square/mall - remember the 1996 Olympics? They had a big torch and bricks with names of all sorts of people... don't ask me who they were. Donors? Past athletes? No idea.

....up... up.... there's the torch.

And then there's the CNN building. Originally, it was just a hotel. Over time, the building got added to, and now it's a big commercial complex, mostly containing CNN. There's a big internal mall that links various buildings together. Later on in the tour of CNN, they point out that the tiles on the floor of the mall area are arranged in the shape of the map of the world (vague outlines of continents are visible).

Here's the old hotel portion...

The entrance to the CNN portion of the building.

Inside, you walk into the big central mall area. The building contains the largest escalator in the world - 8 stories high. And even more unique, it's the longest free-standing unsupported one. It goes from the floor of the mall area to the globe up top. Yes, I went up it - the inside of the globe is the start of the tour.

On the tour, we were exposed to your standard Contorted Network News... I mean Cable News Network [supposed meaning] mumbo jumbo that they broadcast incessantly during the tour on no less than 100 flat screens. They showed us the screens the editors/producers are viewing and two broadcast rooms they have. The tour guide was pointing out...

"This is where the data gathers receive information for stories live-time. They sort through what is applicable for broadcast and forward it to writers. The writers then write up short stories based on what comes to them. They then forward their copy to the editors. The editors then check the writers work. They look for difficult names to pronounce and may ask the writers to ad phonetic pronunciations for difficult names. In addition, the editors diligently check the stories for accuracy and to ensure an unbiased view is presented..." At this point, S2H proceeds to break out in open laughter and interrupt the tour guide... Oh the twisted web of lies that we weave. She wasn't impressed with my outburst. Go ahead an "Shhhh" me - I dare you.

LOL - I know. I'm laughing again too. Good thing the customer dude didn't want me to tour NBC or ABC with him... ROFL...

Well, that was the excitement for last week...

And in other news...

2008-03-12T23:58:00.006-05:00

The mighty Rumble Bee will soon be leaving the S2H stable, along with the Intrepid. I have decided there are other priorities in my life... [cough, cough...] and am really trying to cut down on unnecessary spending.

Ever since the Magnum came out in 2004 (model year 2005), I have had my eye on it. In consolidating down to one vehicle, I've been looking all over for something big enough to haul some large speakers and/or equipment, gas mileage in the mid-20's or higher on the freeway, and enough towing capacity for S2H's newly refurbished Bayliner (go ahead and drool - 350HP 19ft ski boat is pretty freekin' sweet). The Magnum is the only thing I've been able to find that meets these requirements. I have had a few car aficionado friends, as well as YASA, involved in this search for such a vehicle the last few months. Nobody could find something else that met all 3 requirements. There were a couple other options that had more cargo room and far better towing capacity, but gas mileage suffered... and of course, I want it all for $nothing$. Budget was obviously a concern since that's the whole motivation for this move in the first place.

On Monday, I put a down payment on a 2006 Dodge Magnum RT, with All-wheel-drive [Tim Taylor "more power" grunt]. I found an INCREDIBLE deal on eBay - it's not perfect... a few dings and scrapes in the rear cargo area, and some elbow grease required in a few spots... but, I got it for $12k under Blue Book. "...the car I've always wanted, and now I have it. I RULE!" [American Beauty, copyright 1999]

"Hey! That thing got a HEMI?!?" Come on, you gotta' watch the commercial...

"Yeah!" "Sweeeet"

Yup, I'm gonna miss the Rumble Bee... :-(

The Magnum is located in Dearborn, MI. It's not too far to be a nuisance for pickup... but far enough to be a nuisance [scratching head]. Still working out how and where to finance this thing, but insurance has turned out to be a lot cheaper than expected - SWEET. Now, just need to find that 0% financing for a used vehicle... [pinky to mouth in contemplation] for one meeeeeellion dollars.

So, anyone interested in a 2004 Rumble Bee (#3322 - of the original 3500 limited production units built) and/or decked out 2001 Intrepid ES???

The daily grind

2008-03-12T22:26:00.004-05:00

Trickery. Those of you wondering why on Earth I'd be in Tulsa, surveying an MD80 for Delta would be right on track. Brain fart. Yeah - it was for American Airlines. Sheesh. I was getting all confused with this weeks activities.

So, last week, I got to check out a McDonnell Douglas MD82... the series of aircraft was originally was released into service in 1980. American has the largest fleet of MD80 Series aircraft; close to 300. OK, enough with the history lesson.

It was really nice last week because we were told that we'd just be seeing a plane that was down for overnight scheduled maintenance. To our pleasant surprise, the host at American was able to get us onto an aircraft that was in the midst of a "heavy check." This takes place every 4-5 years on A/C (aircraft) and basically means everything is removed from the A/C. Yes, everything. ceiling panels, bag bins, galley monuments, lavatories, carpet, seats... everything. It's part of the requirements to check for corrosion and other structural safety issues to make sure the plane is still "airworthy." Seeing a plane in this state is pretty cool - I'd love to show more detailed pictures, but I'd probably get fired :-S

Over the weekend, I again got to spend some time with Christina. The poor thing had to work most of Saturday, but she was able to make it up to the northern tundra in time for cousin Chad's birthday party. Good times had by all. And he got lots of things to play with his Wii Wii.

I just grabbed my Dew to take a sip in the hotel room. I was just thinking how much I miss my Scan Speak Revelators at home... [sigh]

As I type, I'm back in Tulsa. Monday night I flew out to Atlanta (i.e. "hot-lanta" according to YASA). I woke up at 4am to start planning out this week's trip plans with our customer. We spent the morning surveying an MD88 that was down for overnight maintenance for Delta.

The A/C needed to be back in service by 2pm, so they got us out of there by lunch time so they could start buttoning things up. We were basically checking to see how similar their A/C fleet was to the American fleet that we scouted last week. For the most part, I think we're in good standing. But we didn't get to really see as much detail since the plane was in it's normal "ready for flight" configuration. There were some maintenance personnel there to help us remove ceiling panels and floor panels, but it was very hard to get the "full picture." Hopefully, we'll get a chance to see one of their fleet in more detail later on.

Today we had a meeting with Delta and our customer for the system that we've been contracted to design the installation for. Was that vague enough? And this afternoon, I caught a flight to Tulsa to prepare for doing essentially the same thing with American tomorrow.

Other than being sick of hotel beds and restaurant food, things are going well. Looking forward to getting home tomorrow night...

Signing off,
~S2H

Mein Computer ist schliesslich tot... :-(

2008-03-05T00:02:00.005-06:00

I've been kind of avoiding attempting restoration of my desktop... one of the hard drives in my striped RAID array kicked the bucket a few weeks ago. Somehow I managed to boot it up shortly after and back up some of my important files to my backup data drive. [whew]

Tonight, I attempted to do a full restore. I had Windows run a few scans, and was trying to get it to the point where I could run the Western Digital diagnostics tool so the drive could just identify and omit all the bad sectors that seem to be coming out of the woodwork.

As the evening progressed, things went from bad...

To worse...

Yup, the primary master drive won't even initialize for boot-up in the RAID BOIS utility. Can you say screwed?

Between a pseudo operational northbridge chipset (heatsink fell of about 15 months ago and partially fried it), rapidly failing memory controller (down to 1 of 4 DIMM slots that work), and a now failed EIDE hard drive... I think it's finally time to throw in the towel and cut our losses.

And in other news, I guess I'm heading out to Tulsa to survey an MD-80 for Delta tomorrow...

Time to go get the last load of laundry...! And off to bed! SWEEET.

OK, OK - just one more.....

2008-03-03T23:51:00.001-06:00

Oil Change instructions for Women :

1) Pull up to Jiffy Lube when the mileage reaches 3000 miles since the last oil change.

2) Drink a cup of coffee from Starbucks in the same mini-mall while you wait.

3) 15 minutes later, write a check and leave with a properly maintained vehicle.

Money spent:

Oil Change $25.00
Coffee $4.00

Total -- $29.00

==========================================================

Oil Change instructions for Men :

1) Wait until Saturday, drive to auto parts store and buy a case of
oil, filter, kitty litter, hand cleaner and a scented tree, write a check for $50.00.

2) Stop by 7/11 and buy a case of beer, write a check for $20, drive home.

3) Open a beer and drink it.

4) Jack car up. Spend 30 minutes looking for jack stands.

5) Find jack stands under kid's pedal car.

6) In frustration, open another beer and drink it.

7) Place drain pan under engine.

8) Look for 9/16 box end wrench.

9) Give up and use crescent wrench.

10) Unscrew drain plug.

11) Drop drain plug in pan of hot oil: splash hot oil on you in process. Cuss

12) Crawl out from under car to wipe hot oil off of face and arms. Throw kitty litter on spilled oil.

13) Have another beer while watching oil drain.

14) Spend 30 minutes looking for oil filter wrench.

15) Give up; crawl under car and hammer a screwdriver through oil filter and twist off.

16) Crawl out from under car with dripping oil filter splashing oil everywhere from holes. Cleverly hide old oil filter among trash in trash can to avoid environmental penalties. Drink a beer.

17) Install new oil filter making sure to apply a thin coat of oil to gasket surface.

18) Dump first quart of fresh oil into engine.

19) Remember drain plug from step 11.

20) Hurry to find drain plug in drain pan.

21) Drink beer.

22) Discover that first quart of fresh oil is now on the floor. Throw kitty litter on oil spill.

23) Get drain plug back in with only a minor spill. Drink beer.

24) Crawl under car getting kitty litter into eyes. Wipe eyes with oily rag used to clean drain plug. Slip with stupid crescent wrench tightening drain plug and bang knuckles on frame removing any excess skin between knuckles and frame.

25) Begin cussing fit.

26) Throw stupid crescent wrench.

27) Cuss for additional 5 minutes because wrench hit bowling trophy.

28) Beer.

29) Clean up hands and bandage as required to stop blood flow.

30) Beer.

31) Dump in five fresh quarts of oil.

32) Beer.

33) Lower car from jack stands.

34) Move car back to apply more kitty litter to fresh oil spilled during any missed steps.

35) Beer.

36) Test drive car.

37) Get pulled over: arrested for driving under the influence.

38) Car gets impounded.

39) Call loving wife, make bail.

40) 12 hours later, get car from impound yard.

Money spent:

Parts $50.00
DUI $2500.00
Impound fee $75.00
Bail $1500.00
Beer $20.00

Total -- $4,145.00

But you know the job was done right!

ROFL

2008-03-03T23:24:00.002-06:00

This is what happens when you wade through funny emails late at night.

OK, I thought it's been way too long for me to remember the utter Hell on Earth that I suffered through at MSOE for 4 years of my life. This brings back some fond memories of frustration during exams...

Come on, we've all been there - right?

Problem 1:

Problem 2:

Problem 3:

Problem 4:
LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL. I can particularly relate to the first one. I can't tell you how incredibly close that is to reality for me... (don't ask how I know that big splotch is from a pen exploding on paper).

eh eh eh eh eh... :-)

2008-03-03T23:10:00.002-06:00

I was reading through some of Christina's old blog posts. I like this one. And I quote, "... and has a great boyfriend who I wanna spend every minute possible with...." [GINORMOUS SMILEY]

Awwwwwweeee...

LOL... so, I'm on the phone with her as she was pulling into BW3's for our date night (I know - soooo romantic), and in the middle of a sentence, she blurts out "Oh, Sweet Action!" She got a parking spot right in front of the main door. LOL I just love your outbursts, Baby.

And one more thing - I love your "magpo," Baby. So great. [eyes roll back into head]

And everyone lived happily ever after. The end.

Sickly weekend

2008-03-02T22:39:00.005-06:00

I was packing up my stuff on Thursday night, getting ready to make the journey down to Christina's for the weekend. Just before going to bed, Toe Jam was making it clear to me that she was not happy I was going away again. She misses me :-) I came into the kitchen to put a few more things in my bag, and she was sacked out on my dress shirt and tie. Aweee...

I left work a little early on Friday to catch a wedding for one of Christina's coworkers (hence, the shirt/tie above). I got to meet some of Christina's coworkers and eat some yummy food :-) And, I even got to pick on the DJ (cuz I'm the best DJ ever). Unfortunately, I started coming down with a cold Friday, so I wasn't exactly up to par. But, I did get to dance a little with Christina. I warned her. Thankfully, she stuck around after seeing me dance...

On Saturday, Christina and I both caught up on a little sleep in the morning. Being the doll she is, she went out to get some coffee products for us in the morning from Caribou. Mmmmmmm. After downing my Chai, I started passing out on the couch again. My body was definitely in need of recuperation time to fight the cold. Chrstina made the mistake of asking me if I wanted to put my head on her lap since I was sleepy... 4hrs and her numb legs later...

That night, Christina and her sister had plans to go to the opera. While they were out on the town, I got to hang out with her niece and nephews at her brothers' house. Apparently, this little gal has a new talent - karaoke. Dad's warming up the machine for her here, big brother clamping his ears in anticipation in the background...

And here she is, "aaahhh ahahh ahhh ahhh." LOL. Words cannot describe how stinkin' cute it is.

So after getting the kids + 1 family friend kid fed for dinner, and getting them all ready for bed, the adults sat down to watch a movie. I somehow managed to talk them into watching Short Circuit 2. It was one of the free on-demand movies on cable. Holy sweet movie, Batman. Comments from the peanut gallery aside, they all loved it. I'm totally picking up the DVD on Amazon this week.

Sunday, I was feeling much better. After a really great sermon at church, we headed down to visit Christina's sister's family. I got retain some of my man card points by troubleshooting some problems with their Pathfinder. We took a nice long walk with her sister and their dog. The weather was perfect today - 55 degrees. The fresh air and exercise really helped me recover from my cold. I'm not 100% by any means, but feel much better :-)

Upon making it back home, I came to find the cat food and water dishes empty. :-( SORRY guys! I filled up the food for them, and got to see their jealousy live-time. They won't eat out of the dish at the same time. Toe Jam is so funny. She reaches over and pulls some of the food out of the dish onto the floor and then eats it. Such temperamental princesses... Hm, I guess I have a thing for princesses... :-)

And the big excitement for the weekend was getting 19.0 MPG @ 75mph in the Rumble Bee on the way back from Christina's. Seriously?! Awesome. Welcome back warm weather! :-) It's a welcomed return following the standard winter mileage of 13.7 MPG I've had since early December... UGH.

Uh oh - time for bed.

LOL "Mom, the meatloaf!!" LOL... OK, maybe when Wedding Crashers is over...

What else can I say?

2008-02-28T23:40:00.003-06:00

Are you jealous yet?

MMMMMMMMUUUUUUUUUWWWWWWAAAAAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAA [Vincent Price voice]

Beaner at the Bean

2008-02-24T22:28:00.008-06:00

Friday night, I got to watch my Baby sing. Yeah :-) Thank You, Lord for her gift. The theme was love. Oh, darn. Happy February. Brahms is just sooo good. And how can you deny a chick running around with a "smoothing iron?" Oh, Alan...

This weekend, Christina's connections came through - AGAIN. Her good friend got us free tickets to the Joffrey Ballet's performance this weekend at Roosevelt University Theater. Holy awesome seats, Batman. I went to the website, and this pretty well summarizes our view. Thank you Maria.

The first two shows were a bit hard to watch... depressing. The first piece was about an arranged marriage with two people that were totally in love with other people. Seriously - arranged marriages?!?!? TOTALLY 18th century... (or 21st century India). And then there was the whole dead baby and suffering village scenario. The third was great - well choreographed and great music. I love Mahler (second piece), but the choreography lacked substance and drama, despite it's incredibly serious tone.

Right, the title of the post. Sorry folks, we're reaching climax here already. So, there's this ginormous metal artistic bean in a park in downtown Chicago. Christina showed it to me in the dark after the ballet. It was sweet. I'm such an engineer. I totally was more fascinated by the feat of engineering to get it to balance on those two points than the artistic accomplishments. Isn't engineering artistic? Thought for the day...

So, yeah. It's reflective. Even at 9pm with a crappy phone camera. Here's Christina and I "reflecting" on the moment. Yup, I got lessons from Dave Letterman on my humor.

And here's a shot of the luckiest guy Earth with the most amazing gal in the world in the park next to the bean. Sucks to be you. Yup, I got the best catch. Don't even try - she's totally mine.

Sunday morning, we went to Christina's church. Afterwards we made an order of mochas and Mint Conditions from Caribou. Mmmmmmmmm. We dropped off the yummy creations at her sisters place prior to lunch. After some conversation about the movies up for Oscars, we went with their family and her brothers family (minus Mom) to Chili's for lunch.

Did I mention Christina has some stinkin' adorable kids in her family? Here's some shots of her niece and nephew(s).

Well, I'm totally working on a 1.75 of Evan Williams with Dill. CHEERS! Time to finish off researching DVD player upgrades. One must love terribly awesome sci-fi action flicks from 1990 (i.e. Total Recall).

L8erg8er

Motivation

2008-02-21T10:58:00.007-06:00

Thanks to Chad's recent comment, I've been motivated to provide some "new content" today. Thanks for the nudge, dude.

So, last Wednesday I forgot to mention that I went to a Mike Huckabee rally that was held in Pewaukee. The man says the right things and has performed well in the past as former governor - I'm a HUGE fan. Unfortunately, that loser McCain keeps getting the votes. My heart breaks for our nation because of the people that pay no attention to "politics" until "the final two" have been chosen to battle it off. Ticks me off. We need to get support out so we can get our favorites through the primaries! OK, dismounting from soap box.

Anyway, yeah for this little gals parents to get her involved at such a young age :-) I would have shot one of her face, but didn't want the parents thinking I was some freaky stalker. She was pretty adorable though, sitting up on Daddy's shoulders... :-)

Here's a closeup digital zoom with the phone again - not real impressed... but it's the best shot I have of him. Behind Huck is his wife, and in the back left is Oconomowoc local, Tim Michels, heading up the Huckabee campaign in Wisconsin.

Here's a nice one I stole from someone else's blog.

And here's a shot from Valentine's Day at Christina's place... again, from the new phone. Isn't she adorable?

So yeah - she came up Saturday, arriving mid afternoon. We hung out at my place and I made her Mom's recipe for grilled cheese sandwiches, with a side of tomato soup. Mmmmm. Soup, greasy toast, and melted cheese goo. Awesome.

Saturday night, we met up with Chad & Alissa, Dill, and friends Josh and Amanda. We all met out in the high rolling town of Lebanon for dinner at a new revision of an old restaurant, the Home Plate. We had a bunch of fried goodness for appetizers, namely deep fried pickles. Holy crumb, those are amazing. Our friend, Jedd, was just starting at the "new" restaurant as a waiter part-time. He's the real reason we went, but I think we may actually be back for some good food :-)

Afterwards, we all met back at Chad's place to play the Wii... until "wee" hours of the morning. Oh my gosh, I'm so funny.

Sunday morning, Christina and I planned to go to church. The weather was horrific - rain turning into sheets of ice. On my way to get coffee and bagels for breakfast, Christina called from Mom's house to inform me that church was canceled. That gave us a chance to spend a little time with Mom in the morning. The major roads weren't too bad yet, so we got Christina out right away to keep her safe before things got any worse.

Sunday, Chad & Alissa, Dill, and myself had an eventful afternoon. We met up for a bloody mary at Tom & Di's - sooo good. Then we made our way to Best Buy (why not?). I saw the new Xbox 360 Elite package there, and my jaw dropped. Microsoft stole Nate's patented phrase - "Go Big, or Go Home." We're already in talks with lawyers...

Afterwards, we went back to Chad's house for some more Wii action. Eventually, we ordered some pizza and watched a disc of the new season of "Curb Your Enthusiasm." Larry David - good grief, the things he comes up with. LOL

Alright, lunch break is over. Get back to work.

"...You're a slacker!..."

2008-02-16T12:32:00.003-06:00

Mr. Strickland: "You've got a real attitude problem, McFly. You're a slacker! You remind me of your father when he went here. He was a slacker, too."

Yup, I've been slacking on my blog posting...

Last Friday night, I made the journey down to Christina's. We went to a recital that her old vocal teacher from college was in. Though not his best performance (her words), I really enjoyed it. Two other vocal professors performed as well, one of whom's husband was the accompanist. Christina was meeting a friend of hers she knows through Chicago Master Singers for the recital, who also happened to be a friend of Christina's sister from college. The three of us went to Christina's sister's place afterwards to hang out for a while.

Saturday, Christina and I slept in - it was everything we thought it could be. We've both not been getting as much sleep as we'd like, due to a variety of things. In any case, we got to play a little bit of catch up. In the afternoon, Christina gave me a more detailed tour of Ravinia, where she works. I got to see the whole park again, and this time, got a tour of a couple buildings. I even got to see her cubicle - how exciting! :-) It's much neater than mine....

Following the tour, we made our way to Di Pescara restaurant for dinner before heading up to Milwaukee for my college roommate's girlfriend's birthday party celebration. It was flippin' cold. Our 3 block hike to the car felt like we were at the farthest reaches of the solar system. And the wind. Holy crumb. INTENSE. I believe the weather man was saying -40 degrees windchill. Yup, it was cold.

While there, I got to introduce Christina to several college friends. My schedule has been rather full since dating Christina, so it was good to see them again. Here's a picture of some of us at the bar... unfortunately, I don't have one of the birthday girl... :-(

And here's one of Christina and I at the party. YASA, Baby.

This week, I finally got my new phone! :-) I decided on the Motorola Q 9h from AT&T. LOVE IT. It is hugely wide, and that was pretty weird the first few days to get used while holding against my ear. Other than that, no complaints so far...

Thursday, Christina and I spent Valentine's Day together... mmmmm .... I love you, Baby!

Friday, I attended a wine tasting, hosted by friends Rob and Katie. The wine could have been better, but I scheduled a tasting to be hosted at my place in a few weeks. Yeah!

OK - time to go. Bye.

YASA

2008-02-10T23:30:00.000-06:00

After spending another wonderful weekend with Christina, she headed home for the long drive. But, I couldn't let her go out in the cold without a hat on, could I? Turns out, I had an extra hat. Yeah! She's being indoctrinated by MOPAR (note, the Dodge symbol and logo)!!!

... isn't she adorable? Yup - that's a loaded question... If you agree with me, I'll hurt you [protective boyfriend]; if you don't agree with me, I'll hurt you [biased boyfriend]. Good luck on your decision.

Happy (belated) Birthday to me

2008-02-06T20:03:00.000-06:00

Good news today - the phone prices at AT&T dropped significantly. I'm down to the Motorola Q 9h, Pantech Duo, and Samsung Blackjack II. So excited to get rid of this stinkin' phone. Christina and I have made plans to run it over with my truck when I get the new phone. AWESOME.

Introducing the Moto Q 9h...

Introducing the Pantech Duo...

Introducing the Samsung BlackJack II...

What an eventful several days...

Friday night, Christina and I met up in the rockin' town of Kenosha. We saw Juno, the movie and made our way back to Starbucks afterwards - "shocker."

Saturday, I began the horrific process of cleaning up the house in preparation for having Christina's parents come for a quick visit to check out my pad. Yikes - it was bad. I managed to get some errands and shopping for miscellaneous items done in the morning, as well as helping Mom out with a few "son jobs."

Mom hosted a party on Saturday night to celebrate my birthday with the family. The Rosenows, Chad & Alissa, Dill, Christina, and Christina's parents all joined in for the fun. Yes, it was the meeting of the parents. Aside from the obviously anticipated nervousness, I think things went pretty well. Her parents got to hear my Wisconsin accent in full swing. And Mom had wonderful food, as always. So yummy :-) After the party, we headed down the road to my place so I could show Christina's parents my place ... hopefully, they weren't too scared.

Sunday, I headed down to spend the day with Christina's niece for her birthday celebration. I got to spend a little time playing with her and her cousin :-) Sooo cute.

And, if it's possible, somebody even cuter is holding the birthday girl.

Monday was my birthday, and Christina was able to spend it with me since her choir practice was moved to Tuesday this week. That worked out pretty darn well for me :-) Christina had her inauguration of beer brats. Mmmmmmmmm.

I even got a surprise phone call from sister Nancy from Africa. That was quite a treat! We didn't get to talk much, but God is using Joy quite a bit in her teachings. I can't wait to hear more and am looking forward to getting an email update from them soon. Christina got me a B

Today was absolutely horrific. Snow, snow, snow. Drifts filling up my wheel well on the Rumble Bee on my way home. It was quite an experience. Unfortunately, I had to brave the storm today due to some customer guests that were in visiting to do some more testing - similar to that which I was doing last week out in Arizona. We were at least able to achieve some political progress, even if there wasn't any technical benefit. [Sigh]

Well, it's after 9pm and my Baby can talk to me for free on night time cell minutes. Once I switch to AT&T, we'll be good all the time. Sweet. So, this post is being terminated. The end.

"...he put my stapler in Jell-O again!"

2008-02-01T12:29:00.000-06:00

An entire website, dedicated to this topic... and I was the brunt of the joke today :-) I am honored!

From my fellow coworkers who love The Office as much as I do...

I want, I want, I want... Can't wait, can't wait, can't wait!!!

2008-01-31T00:01:00.000-06:00

I've been researching wireless phones a lot in the last few weeks, as my contract is almost up with U.S. Cellular (Feb 11th...). I'm getting antsy. My LG phone is on it's last legs. Oh, yeah. It sucks too. It's just old and beat up and the battery doesn't last. Oh well, just a couple more weeks.

God bless the fabulous men and women who have put forth their combined effort to create Android. It's the open source operating system for PDA phones that Google has helped to fund. They are actually putting up $10million of their own money to promote the development of the system, shelling out money to developers that create the best programs for the platform. Now that's commitment. Thank you Google. Check out a demo of the software in this link.

The problem is, there won't likely be any phones to use this fabulous platform until 3rd or 4th quarter of '08. I just can't wait that long... [sigh]

Pantech Duo? Moto Q 9? Blackjack II? HTC Tilt? Blackberry 8820? Decisions, decisions.

Carry On My Wayward Son

2008-01-30T18:48:00.000-06:00

Check this out... Got a link sent to me in an email today :-) It's some kid gettin' her Kansas groove on using a synthesizer organ with sequenced drums and presets. Nice work :-)

After a long day of cleaning and testing fiber optic cables ([in a droaning voice] ... wooo hooo... this is so much fun...), I'm just relaxing a bit in the hotel before getting a chance to meet Christina's good friends, Tara and Adam. We're heading out to In N Out Burger - I've never been, and I am SOO stoked!

Well, time to head out - more to update later...

Masonry uncovered

2008-01-29T23:27:00.001-06:00

This morning, not knowing whether or not I'd be going, I packed my suitcase in anticipation for a trip to Arizona. Yup, I'm here. Management has been debating for almost a week on who to send out here. While I do have tons of work to do back at the office, I really did needed to be the one to go - I'm just glad they made the right decision.

Wording things carefully so as to avoid lawsuits and protect my job... Over the last several weeks, I've been troubleshooting an issue that reared its head with some fiber optic assemblies. LOTS of testing in the lab. Debug, debug, debug. This is a major deal, potentially affecting an entire standard of fiber optics. Woo hoo... I have opened an incredibly large can of worms. ;-)

I'll be out here until Thursday... Tomorrow is going to be spent in the lab, reviewing the techniques in which we've been performing out tests... more or less to validate what we've discovered. Sounds exciting, eh?

And on the plane today, after about 30 cat naps between getting bumped by passers by in the isle, waking from the aroma of Midwest Airlines' fresh baked chocolate chip cookies, asked if I want a soda from the flight attendants, sniffing the pungent stench of "old lady perfume"... I finally gave up on "sleeping" and pulled out the book I brought with me.

"Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above , or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me"
Exodus 20:4-5

Everyone knows of this commandment regarding idolatry, right? And you've probably read Moses' account a dozen times in Exodus. But, reading this quote in the context of Bill Schnoebelen's book, "Masonry: Beyond The Light," really opened my eyes today. (Check out Bill's ministry online.)

I remember Dad discussing his discovery of this book back in college. I also remember my desire to read it upon him sharing a few details that he had read with me. I found it referenced in Dr. Kent Hovind's online store one day while surfing (GREAT resource, by the way), and threw it on my Christmas list last year. Nancy knew Dad had it, remembering him talk about it it too. She dug around Dad's GINORMOUS collection of books last year (now in her care) after seeing it on my list, but didn't find it. Dad had so many books, that they're categorized into entire cabinets of shelves. "That's a lot of books," you say. Yup. Dad was incredibly diligent in his studies of God, praise God! Anyway, it apparently was in the wrong set of shelves, misplaced. Nancy ran across it later on and gave it to me for Christmas this year.

Right - back to the book. Go back, and reread that passage. Reread that last sentence. Yup. Zing. God gets so angry that he threatens to punish our lineage, down to our great-grandchildren. Wow. That really convicted me today as I was reading this book. How much do we hurt God... every single day? It has actually brought me to tears tonight... And the impact that my actions have. Yikes.

So, I only got through 6 chapters on the plane today, but it sure does suck you in. This one is a page turner, ladies and gents. I highly recommend it. Dad had shared some crazy things with me when he was talking about reading it, and I had remembered some of those juicy details. Because of that, the first couple chapters were a bit... long to get through. I wanted to get into the juicy details right away. But, I completely understand why Bill wrote the introduction and lead in with the first several chapters. Quite honestly, it's too much for someone to take in at face value. And he offers lots of Biblical references throughout what he shares - awesome.

It's late, but I want to share some of this information to get it out in the world. Let me first preface this all by stating that I don't believe that Masons are intentionally getting themselves into the situation they're in. Satan is the Father of Lies (John 8:44)... he's a tricky one. He lures us in. Temptation is the perfect example... if he came right out and told us what we're thinking of doing is wrong and sinful, it'd seem rather unappealing to us - but, rather, he tricks us. Our discernment ability aside... the point is, that he makes things seem different than reality. "Ye shall not surely die [if you eat of the tree]" he tells Eve (Gen3:4). He twists it into making Eve think it's a physical death... but, we all know God was really speaking of her spiritual death in that she would be disobeying God's law - the first Covenant. Eve fell for it, of course... as we do in our walks every day. My point here is that not every Mason is of a high degree, fully partaking in the occult. And I dare even say Masons may be ignorant to that which they serve. I am not condemning, just hoping that this information will open peoples' eyes.

Since it's late, I don't know how far into this I'll be able to get... but, let's see...

The devil has planned this organization out incredibly well. Essentially, there are varying degrees of membership. The higher the degree, the higher up the food chain you are. Essentially, for participation in most things of the Masonic lodge, you must obtain the 3rd degree level (Master Mason). The highest level is 33rd degree.

When initiating interest in pursuing higher orders (above Master Mason), you are "guided" into one of two different Rites - the Scottish or the York. Upon early initiation, you are "felt out" as to whether you're a Christian or not. Those of a "Christian" background are taken down the York Rite path. If the Mason is more secular or "motivated" to hurry through the training, "...he is advised to go the route of the Scottish Rite, which rockets you through 29 degrees in a couple of weekends, and enables you to go on and join the Shrine."

The Knights Templar (KT) is the crown achievement of the York Rite. Throughout your process of varying degrees, you've been lead to believe you will eventually be exposed to the "true name of God." As you progress, you are required to take blood oaths committing to have your ear sliced off, tongue split from tip to root, heart ripped out and placed on a dunghill to rot, or your skull smote off and brains exposed to the rays of the noon day sun, should you ever violate the oaths by which you swear.

The highpoint of the initiation into the KT is a "grim mockery" to the Last Supper. You are "brought before a large, triangular table covered in black velvet illuminated by candles and containing eleven silver goblets and a human skull enthroned on the Bible." "The candidate is asked to partake of five libations, (toasts). The first three libations are given, respectively, to the memory of Masonic heroes King Solomon, Hiram, King of Tyre, and Hiram Abif. The fourth libation is to the memory of Simon of Cyrene..." "The candidate is never told to whom the fifth libation is drunk (it is 'sealed'), and it is offered to hi out of a human skull! He is told by the "Eminent Commander" to repeat a short oath which says, in part:

as the sins of the whole world were once visited upon the head of our Saviour, so may all the sins of the person whose skull this once was, in addition to my own, be heaped upon my head, and may this libation appear in judgement against me, should I ever knowingly or willingly violate my most solemn vow of a Knight Templar, so help me God..."

WOW. That's some serious stuff.

As Bill points out in his book, the wage of just one sin is spiritual death for eternity. And the grace of God has given us our Savior, Jesus Christ. Here, these men are rescinding their belief and admonition of Christ's death on Calvary... and BLINDLY accepting to be held accountable for the sin of some dead guy. Bill also explains how and what the definition of "God" is changed to within the Masonic Lodge and their teachings. Scary stuff.

Now, the above is just the juicy guts. Bill goes into great detail describing the entangled web that is woven to deceive Masons as they progress through the various degrees... gradually beginning to serve a second master (Mathew 6:24), which is eloquently told us to be impossible by Jesus himself. Bill uncovers the dirty details and their roots... there's lots of meat to this juice.

So, yeah. That's just a taste of this book. Call it a "teaser trailer." I'm only about 25% through it, and can't wait to learn more.

For authenticity's sake to your readers out there, Bill has violated a lot of sacred oaths... a former 32nd degree Mason. Thank You, Holy Spirit, for convicting his heart to discern the truth of what has happened. Thank You for using him as a megaphone of the truth.

Lord... Jesus... You are my Savior - You are the one and only Master of the Universe, the Creator of all things. Thank You, Lord. Holy Spirit, please convict readers of this blog to see the true and only pure source of light. Lord, I ask spiritual and physical protection over me in an effort to uncover the secrets of darkness and bring them to light by Your command through Paul (Eph 5:11-13). Lord, I again ask for your protection over Bill, and honor him for his commitment to this same task. Amen!!

Martini Night!

2008-01-25T00:49:00.000-06:00

In grand tradition, Wednesday was a night of greatness. I hosted a long overdue "martini night." They used to be called "Office Parties" - not because friends from the office joined, but because we watched "The Office." And, eventually, my famous (or is it infamous? ...the morning after) Lemon Drop Martini recipe became the real reason for the group getting together. Thus, "martini night."

Since The Office, like most other shows, isn't being filmed due to the writer strikes in Hollywood, I proposed to watch the old episodes. We started with Season 1 last night, and got through 4 episodes. It was outstanding... like a farmer in his field. ;-)

Then came time for Guitar Hero. Below are a few pictures of the last standing souls before the evening's end.

Star Power!! I'm not sure if I was early or late on this one...

Here's Pete and Dill choosing their instruments of destruction. Um, the beer bottles... yeah... um, that's after "cleaning up the table."

Experimental photography. Pete and Dill are ripping up some GNR.

Moving on, tonight, coworker friend Jeff hosted movie night at his place. He recently "finished" his home theater, a project that's been couple years in the making. Looks great... even has stadium seating - I approve :-) We started off the evening with Shoot 'Em Up. LOL. Holy gunfire, Batman. The title is entirely appropriate... in a more humerous and ridiculous way, rather than vile and oppressive. It was actually quite entertaining. Although, it made its successor, Live Free or Die Hard, seem like Sleepless In Seattle. That's quite an accomplishment.

That said, it's a late night. Crap. I have to pack. I'm going on a men's retreat this weekend in Lake Geneva through Christina's brother's church. I'm really looking forward to it. Cannot wait for what God has in store for us... sooo stinkin' excited! :-)

Off to pack!
~S2H

Goodbyes are so hard [tear]

2008-01-22T00:22:00.000-06:00

Good friend, Ben, spent his last night in Wisconsin on this visit with me -woo hoo - I rule! :-) We spent the evening chatting while listening to some incredible tunes since I had just finished my new speakers. As I eluded to yesterday, I've got a few pictures. They contain 5" Revelators and 9500's taking over the highs. Nice? Nope. Good? Nope. Incredible? YES. Word of warning to Tymphany (mothership corporate over Scan Speak) - If you do anything to decimate the beauty that is Scan Speak, I will end you. You've been warned! [Crazy Eyes]

Currently playing as I type: Alison Krauss, "Now That I've Found You: A Collection"

So, here's a shot of the boxes in their current, rough state. They're constructed of 3/4" MDF, using 3/4" marine grade plywood as inner dampening for the secondary baffle and rear diffusion panel. This one shows them just after getting the acoustic foam [cough, cough... mattress pad... cough, cough] lined on the walls (I'm resourceful, what can I say?).

And a top view that shows a bit more detail of the foam and the counter sunk lip for the drivers to they sit flush with the baffle after being mounted. [Yoda voice] Mad router skillz, I have.

Here's the masterpieces after having the drivers mounted. Yes, the 5" on the left is glossy finish and the right is matte finish. Deal with it. That's what happens when you find deals at the Madisound sale. Yes, they have slightly different timbre of sound. Yes, they have slightly different parameters. If you can point out to me the difference in a listening test, you win a prize. [Jeopardy theme begins...]

Ben knocked on the door as I was preparing to tie in my last bypass wire on the crossovers. The crossovers are something I "threw together" just to get them up and running. I must say, I'm good (head inflating). I'm sitting in bliss... Alison is in my living room... aaahhhhhhhhhhhhh. I can't wait to tweak these crossovers when I get my software key for back from Nate (hint, hint).

Here's a shot of Ben and I listening to Diana Krall on DVD-Audio. No, it's not the same as audio on DVD or a DVD concert - it's DVD-Audio. I'm too tired to expound, so go read about it here - though, I didn't read anything in the text, so I hold no responsibility for its accuracy.

Here's Ben giving Peanut some much needed attention. She just never gets any from me [roll eyes].

And this is Ben demonstrating playing fart sounds on his Blackjack phone through the leadpipe of my Bach Strad #37. A fart never sounded so projected. This is apparently what he and his orchestra buddies do when they're bored listening to retarded guest conductors...

Another one of Ben...

Well, good sir, I miss you already dearly! It was sooooo good to spend some time with you over the last few weeks! :-) I'm praying for safe travels in the snow tomorrow morning to the airport. Lord, please put Your hand of protection over Ben, Vir, Alex, and Victoria as they make their way home tomorrow. Thank You, Lord, for bringing such a wonderful friend into my life! I can't wait to see you again, buddy...

I bid you all a fine farewell this evening.
~S2H

Busy busy busy

2008-01-21T00:13:00.000-06:00

Friday night Christina and I met up in Kenosha again - kind of a half way point between where we work. We went to Fazoli's for a quick dinner and then caught a flick - The Bucket List. Sooo good. How can you go wrong with Morgan Freeman? It was great - definitely got a little teary. Afterwards, we hung out at Starbucks for a bit before hitting the road.

Saturday morning I was hoping to meet up with my friend Ben who's in town visiting from Uruguay. But, he got tied up with the kids. Instead, I got to spend a little time working on some speakers.

The speakers were a project that were started back in April or so of last year. Friends Matt, Nate, and Spencer were part of the ordeal. We made a day of cutting wood for speaker cabinets. Three of us were all interested in doing basically the same thing - small two-way "bookshelf" speakers. Of course, the way I do things, they end up weighing in at 20lbs a piece, just the wood. ;-) That day was a myriad of struggles with tools at Spencer's house, starting from square one. So, by day's end, we were only able to get the wood cut. The plan, at the time, was to meet up again and finish everything up. Spencer, over the next few weeks, spent some time assembling the cabinets for Matt and me. And I just finally got them this last week (Wednesday) from him.

SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO EXCITED. I have been living in pain for the last couple months due to a veneer process gone horribly, horribly wrong with my main 3way cabinets. I just haven't had the tenacity or patience to figure out how to fix the problem... and have been suffering listening through some B.I.C. America speakers I had just laying around. They are great commercial offerings... but good grief, they're just not up to my snob level of excellence. Hopefully, I'll get a chance to get some pictures up of the new project tomorrow... just don't expect to see the 3way towers up and running any time soon. [pouty face]

While working on the new speakers, I did a bunch of laundry -- oh, the excitement of my Saturday. But just wait...

I met up with Christina around 4 at her place. We then headed down to Rivers in Chicago for dinner. And following we indulged in box seat tickets that Christina scored to Doctor Atomic, the opera, showing at the Lyric Opera House. It's a contemporary work about the Trinity Program and the impact it had on the men and women that developed and manufactured the bombs. It focused a lot on the internal conflicts of creating such a powerful weapon and its potential destructive nature. While one sided in it's portrayal, it is most certainly a very serious subject and certainly not something to be overlooked. I only wish I could have appreciated it's contemporary style of music more. It was such a treat... I'm so glad Christina asked me to go with her. :-) Thanks, Baby!

Sunday morning, Christina, Ann (Christina's roomy) and I all went to Christina's church, Harvest Bible Chapel. It was my first time there, and was so great to be able to partake in that with Christina. I got to meet her small group members too. God is really doing great things there - thank You, Lord. I look forward to spending lots more Sunday's there in the future with her. Thank You, Lord, for giving her such an abundance of spiritual food and source of companionship.

After church, Christina and I went to visit her brother's family. We spent the afternoon hanging out and playing with baby Tori and watching the AFC championship game. And then we met back up with Ann to catch a chick flick, 27 Dresses. It was pretty decent, but then again, I'm a fan of chick flicks ;-)

Regarding the Packer playoff for NFC championship today, I must say that I'm not all that surprised they lost. In fact, had I had the opportunity, I would have bet against them. While they've made some great strides this year, they are lacking consistency - something they haven't had since the '96 season. And they were really riding and hyping up the cold weather a bit too much. I just hope Favre sticks it out a while longer... with some more discipline and training, the current roster could be quite devastating to it's opponents in the next couple years.

Well, I need to hit the sack. Let me leave you with 2 Timothy 2:15...
"Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth."

Bis dann,
S2H

Happy Anniversary!! :-)

2008-01-17T12:24:00.000-06:00

So, today... "Wow..."

Yeah, that's what Christina and I said on the phone to each other this morning as we reflected on today's date - our 2 month anniversary of meeting each other. We just can't believe it's only been 2 months. When we were just a couple dates into this endeavor, we were already thinking back then that it felt like we had been dating like 6 months. The level of intimacy that was reached in our email conversations before ever meeting made a really incredible connection between us. So awesome - I totally recommend eHarmony if you're looking for a new approach to dating.

For many reasons, it has been an emotional ride in the time that Christina and I first started communicating via the world wide web back in October. As a result, we've had the opportunity to really connect and grow in our spiritual walks - both as individuals and as a couple.

Since Christmas, I initiated a devotional study book with Christina for every time we meet (thank you, Santa ). It gives us an opportunity to read and study God's Word together every time we see each other. I've really enjoyed it. There are times we look at each other, wondering what the author is smoking, but it at least gets us active in studying and discussions together. It's really important to us that God remain our focal point, rather than each other. And of course, it's important to God too ;-)

In short, I just want to say that I'm so blessed to have been lead to such an incredible person. Thank you, Christina, for who you are - I pray that God would use us to honor His kingdom, and continue to ask for discernment in the path He has for us. Love you, baby.

Here's a picture of us - there aren't many. Many of you may recognize the outfits and background from my inaugural post for the blog... but since it's a special day, I had to put up our picture :-) Christina's nephew, Tyler, is joining in the fun :-)