She's not stupid, she's just dumb
It's Monday. I'm working on this thing at work that is almost done now. The meat of the program is done, and I'm just adding on the dressing to make it a little easier to plug it in and go. Its its a pretty cool little security system that makes sure people aren't editing their memory while the program is running, to prevent hacking. Its neat :)
This weekend I went out with Jennifer and her work friends, and then over to meet my friend Julie and some other people we work with. I had a pretty good time. Saturday morning I got up early so Jennifer and I could go grab some breakfast at Richard Walker's Pancake House. It was fantastic! Very delicious, even worth getting up at 7:30am. On Sunday I went out with Bonnie and some of her friends to the Hillcrest CityFest thing that was going on. I didn't realize it, but its basically Gay Pride 2.0. I'd never seen big burley manly men pinching each others nipples in public before. We grabbed lunch at Arrevaderci, I got spaghetti and meatballs and it was GREAT. Awesome meatballs. I havn't run once since the marathon in June, so I figured I should get back on it, so I went down to Mission Bay and ran 6 miles. It was one of the most difficult runs ever. :P My ankle muscles and legs hurt and I ran slowly. After the run I grabbed a bite to eat with Jen so we could discuss the date she went on and then I went and saw American Teen. Its a good movie, I recommend it. I'm also in love with Hannah Bailey. :)
I should probably try and run 3 miles a day, and then 6 miles twice a week, and then bump that 6 miles up a bit until I'm able to run 12 miles without stopping. I really really really want to do the marathon in under 5 hours. 4 hours would be amazing, but I dont think its in the cards for me. I was doing 6 miles in just over an hour on a good day, if I could run like that for 4 hours my time would rock!!
As far as girls have been going... well, its not been going great. I hadn't talked to Emily for a few days, so I called her and after being on the phone for a few minutes she said she had to go but would call me back later. She didn't. The next day I got a text message saying "Sorry I didn't call you, I feel asleep", but she didn't bother ever actually calling me back, and that was about a week ago. Blah. I've met a couple of interesting girls recently, but they've all got boyfriends. *sigh* Stupid girls!
I've got most of my observatory designed out. I think I can do it for about $5000, but I havn't worked out a real estimate yet (I'm just going on the cost of other observatories I can find online). Basically I'll be digging a hole 3' deep, with additional 4' deep areas (7 feet underground total) for telescope piers. There will be 3 telescope piers. Two 4x2x4, one on the north and one on the south, and a 2x2x4 pier right in the middle. The hole will be circular and will be ~12.5' in diameter. The hole will have 4" of concrete laid in it, so that the foundation is about half an inch below the level of the telescope piers. On top of the foundation will be concrete blocks that go up to about 1.5' above ground level (that is 4.5' high) and will be in a circle without an outside diameter of 12'. On top of this will be a series of plywood rings and bolts, and on the top will be 16 sets of skateboard trucks & wheels. The bolts & plywood rings will give me the ability to level the skateboard wheels if the foundation/wall isn't perfectly level or in the event that over time it shifts. On top of the wheels will sit more plywood rings, and on those plywood rings will be 1/2 circle plywood rings to make a dome with a 4' shutter opening. In total, the top of the dome should be 8' from ground level, and 11' from the floor (which is 3 feet under ground). The shutter will be two pieces, the top piece will be slide over the top and back on rails, giving full visibility straight up, and the other shutter piece will 'fall' forward and stick out when opened. The bottom shutter will close first, and the top shutter will shut on top of it, creating a water tight seal. Its a big project. I am also not sure if the SDAA board will allow me to make a structure this big on the site. There is some loophole in building codes that allows us to make structures smaller than 10x10 without a permit, but a 6' radius dome has ~113 square feet. BUT if you take into account that there is only a 5.5' internal radius that is useable, thats only 95 square feet. Anyway... I've got a bunch of 3d design files, theres only a couple of things left to do, but they dont work well in 3d studio max. One is how I'm going to get power to the top part of the dome (which rotates), I'm thinking of building my own slip ring system using 1/8 copper pipe and brushes from dead motors. Also the shutter system is going to be electrically operated, so I need to figure out a way of doing that. Mostly its just the top shutter that will give me troubles, as the bottom shutter just 'falls'.
Okay, time for me to get back to work. I hope everyone had a good weekend!
This weekend I went out with Jennifer and her work friends, and then over to meet my friend Julie and some other people we work with. I had a pretty good time. Saturday morning I got up early so Jennifer and I could go grab some breakfast at Richard Walker's Pancake House. It was fantastic! Very delicious, even worth getting up at 7:30am. On Sunday I went out with Bonnie and some of her friends to the Hillcrest CityFest thing that was going on. I didn't realize it, but its basically Gay Pride 2.0. I'd never seen big burley manly men pinching each others nipples in public before. We grabbed lunch at Arrevaderci, I got spaghetti and meatballs and it was GREAT. Awesome meatballs. I havn't run once since the marathon in June, so I figured I should get back on it, so I went down to Mission Bay and ran 6 miles. It was one of the most difficult runs ever. :P My ankle muscles and legs hurt and I ran slowly. After the run I grabbed a bite to eat with Jen so we could discuss the date she went on and then I went and saw American Teen. Its a good movie, I recommend it. I'm also in love with Hannah Bailey. :)
I should probably try and run 3 miles a day, and then 6 miles twice a week, and then bump that 6 miles up a bit until I'm able to run 12 miles without stopping. I really really really want to do the marathon in under 5 hours. 4 hours would be amazing, but I dont think its in the cards for me. I was doing 6 miles in just over an hour on a good day, if I could run like that for 4 hours my time would rock!!
As far as girls have been going... well, its not been going great. I hadn't talked to Emily for a few days, so I called her and after being on the phone for a few minutes she said she had to go but would call me back later. She didn't. The next day I got a text message saying "Sorry I didn't call you, I feel asleep", but she didn't bother ever actually calling me back, and that was about a week ago. Blah. I've met a couple of interesting girls recently, but they've all got boyfriends. *sigh* Stupid girls!
I've got most of my observatory designed out. I think I can do it for about $5000, but I havn't worked out a real estimate yet (I'm just going on the cost of other observatories I can find online). Basically I'll be digging a hole 3' deep, with additional 4' deep areas (7 feet underground total) for telescope piers. There will be 3 telescope piers. Two 4x2x4, one on the north and one on the south, and a 2x2x4 pier right in the middle. The hole will be circular and will be ~12.5' in diameter. The hole will have 4" of concrete laid in it, so that the foundation is about half an inch below the level of the telescope piers. On top of the foundation will be concrete blocks that go up to about 1.5' above ground level (that is 4.5' high) and will be in a circle without an outside diameter of 12'. On top of this will be a series of plywood rings and bolts, and on the top will be 16 sets of skateboard trucks & wheels. The bolts & plywood rings will give me the ability to level the skateboard wheels if the foundation/wall isn't perfectly level or in the event that over time it shifts. On top of the wheels will sit more plywood rings, and on those plywood rings will be 1/2 circle plywood rings to make a dome with a 4' shutter opening. In total, the top of the dome should be 8' from ground level, and 11' from the floor (which is 3 feet under ground). The shutter will be two pieces, the top piece will be slide over the top and back on rails, giving full visibility straight up, and the other shutter piece will 'fall' forward and stick out when opened. The bottom shutter will close first, and the top shutter will shut on top of it, creating a water tight seal. Its a big project. I am also not sure if the SDAA board will allow me to make a structure this big on the site. There is some loophole in building codes that allows us to make structures smaller than 10x10 without a permit, but a 6' radius dome has ~113 square feet. BUT if you take into account that there is only a 5.5' internal radius that is useable, thats only 95 square feet. Anyway... I've got a bunch of 3d design files, theres only a couple of things left to do, but they dont work well in 3d studio max. One is how I'm going to get power to the top part of the dome (which rotates), I'm thinking of building my own slip ring system using 1/8 copper pipe and brushes from dead motors. Also the shutter system is going to be electrically operated, so I need to figure out a way of doing that. Mostly its just the top shutter that will give me troubles, as the bottom shutter just 'falls'.
Okay, time for me to get back to work. I hope everyone had a good weekend!