A Dragon in Rebel Country

Messing with Santa's brain.

2009-12-19T15:17:12Z

Want to screw up Santa's child-organization scheme?

Ask for coal for Christmas.

It's Turkey Day!

2008-11-27T15:14:41Z

Gobble Gobble!!

...and to quote a certain dracosaur friend of mine:

"OM-NOM-NOM!!"

Thank you....

2008-02-23T14:47:49Z

Dad's tests came back negative for anything cardiac, so we're all breathing a sigh of relief. They still don't know what caused the pains, and it seems that they haven't gone away. So, they are scheduling more test to see if they can find the cause.

For all those who offered prayers, candles, animal sacrifices, etc.; Thank you. Whatever you did seems to have helped a great deal and I appreciate it.

More news as it comes. And for those who will be there (and if I don't post again before that) I'll see whomever I can at SakuraCon in Seattle on the last weekend in March.

Light a candle...

2008-02-19T15:28:09Z

I know no-one reads this thing anymore, as I post on it about as often as Hally's Comet comes around...

Mom took Dad into the hospital this morning...chest pains. So far, the bloodtests are negative for cardiac enzimes. They're taking him for a stress test here shortly to finish ruling out cardiac problems.

The only worry is that, when they first brought him in, they gave him nitro and it calmed the pains down.

If anyone still bothers to read this, please light a candle, say a prayer, or whatever you do. If nothing else, Mom needs all the support she can get.

Thanks.

kelvandor @ 2008-02-04T10:22:00

2008-02-04T15:26:39Z

Only one thing can be said about last night.

18 and 1

Wow.....

2007-06-12T04:56:57Z

Has it really been that long since I've posted anything??

What a lazy, scaley bastard I am!

Not much to report, really. Too much leatherwork stuff done, and I promise I'll get pictures up and listed.

AX in 16 days! Guess I'll be seeing whoever in Long Beach :)

kelvandor @ 2007-02-14T00:49:00

2007-02-14T05:52:47Z

Happy Hallmark Day!!

....no, wait...

Happy Whitman's Day!!

....no, that's not right either...

Happy FTD Day?

....no...

Happy Mafia Mass-Murder Day?

...aw heck...

Have a happy one anyway....

You've got to be kidding...

2007-01-24T15:38:09Z

Ever seen anyone wearing that T-shirt that says: "stupidity should hurt" ?

http://www.compfused.com/directlink/4409/

...wish granted.

...And thus, the days start getting longer.

2006-12-22T14:48:00Z

Hope everyone had a happy Solstice.

Y'all be safe for the holidays

Hopefully, I'll have something actually interesting to post soon.

kelvandor @ 2006-11-23T10:15:00

2006-11-23T14:15:40Z

Happy Thanksgiving, all.

Be safe out there.

Things that occupy my time...

2006-11-16T15:20:25Z

For those wondering what I've been doing for the last while, I'll just give you some pics:

Click Here

Those are one of a few projects kicking me for time...

Rants...

2006-11-13T14:52:21Z

I know nobody reads this thing....

Should it bother me that 'pure water' bought from the store has an expiration date? I mean, it's pure water....what's there to go bad? "Oh no, Billy, don't drink THAT water....it's expired and could be spoiled".

The grinch was a wimp......he caved.

I hate this time of year. Why can't it be January already?

Geek brain...

2006-10-18T05:17:08Z

That must be it....

I just have a geek brain.....

....and sometimes it goes off on these weird tangents without me. Take the other day:

I'm surfing around on Wikipedia at work, just for something to pass the time, and I run across an entry for Stirling Engines.

Now, for those of you who don't know what a Stirling engine is, I'll include a link here to the article I found, and let you read all the hoary details about it: Here

In a simple description, it's a piston engine that uses an enclosed gas (air, helium, nitrogen), and takes advantage of the fact that when you heat a gas it expands, and when you cool a gas it contracts. These engines use a difference in temperature to run. Some models they have out there don't need a big difference in temp. Heck, a few of the models will run by simply sitting in your open hand: your hand supplies enough heat to the one side to set up the difference, and away it goes. On the other side; the bigger the difference in temp., the more power you get out of the engine.

Well, I'm not a mechanical engineer. I can understand machinery, but I'm not really great at designing and building them. You want an absolute genius with that stuff? Go talk to grevydude. Which is what I want to do.....and I'll tell you why!

I do know a good bit about computer hardware. I also know about a little device they've had out in the computer hardware world for awhile called a Peltzier Cooler. These things are wonders! Thin little wafer-looking things that you can use to chill a CPU in a computer. You apply a small voltage to the wires, and one side gets HOT, and the other side gets COLD. You apply the COLD side to your CPU and the heatsink to the HOT side, and it will litteraly force the heat off of the CPU and into the heatsink. More than just what natural thermal transfer would do. Great for all you over-clockers out there that don't want to deal with water-cooling your computer......

Well, here's where the geek part hit me.....

Most model Stirling motors that folks have build out there have all (or almost all) been run by applying some sort of heat to the 'hot' side by combustion. That makes sense, as these are known as 'External Combustion Engines'. But I noticed right away that these engines don't need to have the 'hot' side "HOT". What the engine needs is a difference in temperature between the hot side and the cool side. Well, a Peltzier Cooler creates a difference in temperature between it's sides when you apply a small voltage (most of the ones that you put in a computer are only 5V DC). Like, a 180 deg. F difference between the sides! So, if I set up the 'hot' piston and the 'cold' piston of a Stirling motor to face each other, and sandwich a Peltzier Cooler between them, then the Peltzier will FORCE the existing heat energy that's already there from the 'cold' cylinder to the 'hot' cylinder. 180 deg. is way more than enough temp. difference to get a Stirling to run (if built right), and you wouldn't have to have any sort of combustion to run the model; you would just need a small battery.

....thus my needing to talk to someone who has more practical experience ( like grevydude ) in building mechanical models. I know generally what this model should look like, and I believe it would run like a champ; I just don't have the skills, let alone the tools, to put something like this together.

This all makes my geek brain hurt! I hate myself for this $h!t sometimes...

......maybe I should just stick to tatting.....

And remember, folks...

2006-09-28T04:26:06Z

360 / 5 = 72

Too much Geek.....

2006-09-27T04:06:55Z

....not enough time.

it kills me sometimes when I think back on all the little projects and hobby things I have going on, and realize not only how many there are, but how long it's going to take to get them all done.

With all the leatherwork projects on the bench, the tatting projects I've set up to do, the one or two woodworking projects, the misc. computer things that need doing/want to do.....

Not to mention Project Dragonfly; of which I haven't even looked at since the move....

It's not that most of them would take up any real time to do. Well, maybe some of the tatting projects, as that stuff can eat hours like nothing else.

I just have this thing about wanting to do all of them right now.

This on top of all the stuff I need to do to keep the new house up and running....

....speaking of which: fire ants suck.

Well, I need to get back at it. I think I can get this edging done for Herself's hanky by the end of the week. I think she'll like it. Then it's off to the next project....

Ponderments

2006-08-09T05:03:10Z

I wonder if anyone else even reads this thing....

Probably not....

of scales and string...

2006-08-03T14:23:09Z

I knew this would happen....

I'm usually not one that updates and writes in a journal that often. Then I end up feeling like I've wasted something even starting one.

Maybe I just feel like events in my life aren't 'profound' enough to worry about putting down in some sort of record. You want profound? go talk to grevydude.

Me? I'm just sitting here wondering if I want to chance heat-stroke and go mow the lawn. Sorry. No life-changing, awe-inspiring moments here.

Oh yeah, the string part. Here: check this out. That should make a nice gift for some family of mine.

kelvandor @ 2006-07-08T17:24:00

2006-07-08T21:38:54Z

Well, I suppose I should be happy that all the stuff is out of the old place and into the new house......

There's still a lot of it to go through and sort. It's gonna take awhile to get it all unpacked and put where it's gonna live.

Once I get most of the general stuff sorted out and put away, then I can start working on some of the projects that kinda went on hold for the move. I already have some leather projects that need to be done, and I know I'll have a few more hitting me within the next month or so. Between the woodworking stuff, and the leatherwork, I'm getting antsy to get the shop sorted out and get started on some of this stuff.

Of course, I had to have the secondary harddrive in the system go dead, taking alot of pictures and such with it. Figures. I hadn't had the chance to back all that stuff off to a DVD before it took the powder. Maybe I can convince it to come back one more time and get that stuff off of it before it's totally dead.

Yeah, right....

The Migration continues...

2006-06-27T02:09:09Z

...and yet, there is still more stuff.

I was hoping that we would be just about done with the Stuff Migration by now. Heh, what was I thinking? Hopefully, over the next two days, we'll be able to get the last of the stuff over to the new house and get the old place cleaned up.

As for the new house...

I found out over the last few nights that there are an abundance of critters that live on or around the place; most of them amphibian or reptile.

There are a multitude of small, green tree frogs all over the place. Several of them were out last night; stuck to the windows, the screen-door, the porch walls. One even lost NO time getting up on my car hood after I had parked in the driveway. You suppose he wanded a ride someplace??

There's also a large toad that lives in the bushes out front. He was out on the porch a couple of nights ago, sitting under the light. I guess it was supper time, eh?

...and of course we have the slew of anolies running about in the bushes, on the house, in the trees, etc. Can't go anyplace without seeing the little scalies around here.

No, I have no plans on naming any of them.....

Migrating Stuff

2006-06-23T03:28:34Z

St. Bovine.....

(holy cow)

It's amazing how much stuff you can discover you have when you attempt to move the lot of it.

We managed to get maybe a third of it moved to the new house today, despite the heat and such. Again, it's past 11pm, and it's still 82 outside (bleah).

More stuff to get moved tomorrow. Hopefully the beds will get moved on Saturday.

I'm not looking forward to getting my "shop" moved....

Too much stuff....

Signing my life away

2006-06-22T03:18:23Z

Well, this morning we signed the final paperwork on the new house.

We were all set to start the Great Migration of Stuff, and realized that the heat was beyond oppressive. We figured it was somewhere in the low 1000's, with the humidity varying between Elmer's and Gorilla. I had to sharpen the machete' twice during the day to cut through it all just to get to the car.

It's almost 11:00pm, and the temp. reads low 80's. The muggy-ness is still in fine form, too.

We'll try again to get the Migration started tomorrow morning.

suckered in....

2006-06-20T23:09:15Z

...and I swore that I would never give in to these things. Chalk another one up for me being a spineless jellyfish of a scaley.