It's Star Wars day!

(May the 4th be with you!)

so. I have a respirator for work. if "respirator" is too scary of a word, think "gung-ho dust mask", since this is only for "fine particulate matter", effectively. Since we work with powder (plastic, some metals, some amorphous silica, but mostly plastic), airborne dust is a necessary evil. Aaanyway.

So. you can put different filters on it for different hazards. The ones I have are basically just for "non-hazardous, annoying dust".

I'm scanning the warning label, and this is what I read:

only for particulate matter. if you become lightheaded, notice it is hard to breathe, or a delectable odor...

AT WHICH POINT I STOP. Because... seriously?

*facepalm*

Upon review...

detectable odor. Delectable? Was I hungry when I read that?

Harbor Freight sells some weird things. Just sayin'. And the "added feature" totally makes it.

So. I'm sitting in my office, and for the last couple of hours, there's been this 3/4" or 1" diameter spider randomly crawling around on my window. And I understand that overall, spiders perform a valuable biological service, eating bugs and all, but any spider you can hit successfully with a tennis racket is too damn large. Anyway.

Right now, the sun is low enough now that I have a spot where the sun is shining on the wall. My peripheral vision notices this blurry shadow moving in the sun on the wall-- and I look up to see the spider still on the window, but hauling ass in one direction. And just in front of the spider, there's a moth, flapping for all his might, right against the glass.

And the spider is HASSLING THE SHIT out of this moth. Chasing it around the window, and all. On-the-offensive-spider is offensive.

And then the spider gets a bit too close to the moth, who is still flying as HARD AS HE CAN. And the moth's wing grazes the spider, and it falls off the window, and the moth flies away.

I am amused.

work's been kicking ass. I got the microscope camera to work, today, mostly. Which isn't a big deal, except that coupling a microscope from 1975, and a camera from last month that runs off USB... not as easy as it sounds on a small budget. Anyway. I can take pictures of stuff that's 20 microns wide, now.

(That'd be approaching the "gnat's eyeball" range, I think...)

and I got another machine working today, so we can automate another process. This sounds lame, but since I'm gonna be running the powder-sorting-by-size machine, and _I_ don't wanna trickle in powder one ounce a minute for three hours at a stretch... I like this. plus, the machine makes little sand-dune-looking patterns in the powder as it travels down the feeder, due to the vibration. It really is kinda mesmerizing. Orrrr.... maybe I'm easily amused. Likely that I'm easily amused.

I digress.

anyway. It's almost Friday. Awesome.



Aaaaand... here's a picture of a 45-foot foam lion.

Apparently, according to this article it was a fixture to make a giant bronze lion. heh. Gotta love Vegas. That place is gonna confuse the crap out of archaeologists in 10,000 years.

So. If anyone ever walks up to you and asks,

"Hey, (insert your name here), is Rust-Oleum^tm Gray Primer #7582 flammable?"

You can say "Yes, because jspurlin told me so."

Because, yeah, it is. I just checked. This is actually part of my job function.

And every time I do one of these random little experiments, I always need some little random MacGyver part, and I don't have them. Like, this time it'd have been really useful to have some really thin wire. Which I have two different kinds of at the apartment. Which helps me NONE, here.

(cue "hmf" look here)

And it's always the days that I actually need a knife that I forget my pocketknife. what the crap. I need to buy some cheap ones to keep at work.

And this burnt primer residue smells like a cross between carbonized meat and burnt plastic, which is CONFUSING THE CRAP OUT OF MY NOSE.

yes, I brought the pan of residue back to my office. what?

Everyone doin' good?

You know, there are times when I can't help having juvenile moments, even when I know what the link refers to...

"Butt Connector Vinyl" seems like some sort of prank gear, even though I know it's a wire connector, made of vinyl...

I swear, it's still possible for me to run into people I went to college with, even living in lil' ol' Central Texas, as opposed to in Houston. Ran into Boggs, a guy I had some engineering classes with, in... 1999-2000. At Fuddrucker's. In Temple. Still baffles me how this happens.

(my people, they surround you. Stay alert. bwahahaa.)

---

I'm trying to spec out some stuff for work, and, in grand fashion, finding the materials we need is proving difficult. Beh. I suppose I'll look some more. This is what I get when we try to do new, different things for work. whoop.

The wedding was awesome. Couldn't have asked for it to go better.

Jamaica was really cool. There'll be a monumentally huge post on all that stuff like, tomorrow, after I get the pictures loaded on my computer.

And our wedding rings look awesome, too.

I love this job. Every day, there's something different to work on. And it's all using the things I found interesting in my coursework.

I've finally gotten good at CAD modeling again... it's strange, the "wahaha, I got it to work" feeling I get from this. It's an achievable challenge. Not always simple, but it's something that progress can be made on.

(I fixed one issue that I'd been working on for several days, earlier today. Amazing, how sometimes one checkbox can fix things...

I'm so much happier with this type of job-- it doesn't feel like smashing my head into a wall, like my old job. My old job, it was the "look, this is what you need to fix, and that will solve (insert particular problem)." And no one would ever fix the issues, even when problems were clearly identified.

Really weird, the "wahaha, this rules" feeling, repeatedly, at work. I'm not used to it. I'm loving it, but it's not something I'm used to...

---

And in a week and a half, we have an apartment... I can't wait. Nicole'll be here soon, and that rules.

(Yep, I'm in a pretty consistent good mood, lately.

This is something I've always meant to post, and it's something that this thread on Metafilter reminded me of.

My grandparents' house is about a mile-and-a-half from my parents' house. My grandfather passed away in May 2003 - the 1st, actually - it was his birthday. I had a tough time with it. Still miss him, something fierce.

I was over there really often growing up, and so I have memories in that house from my entire life. And one day, sometime in late '03, I guess, I was over there visiting my grandma.

She had to leave to go somewhere, so I'm just sitting there in the kitchen, since that's where Granddad always sat. I'm sitting in his chair (it's a really-pretty-awesome 60s-70's swiveling fiberglass set of chairs, but anyway) and something occurs to me.

There's a closet directly behind this chair. And when I was little, things were set up exactly as they are now. This closet is maybe two feet by two-and-a-half, and has a regular door on it.

And there's an invisible bulldog in it.

I remember this from being very young, when I'd go over there, periodically I asked him what was in that closet. And he would craaaack open the door and I'd strain to see inside, and he'd shut it real quick, "so the invisible bulldog didn't get out". I guess I never thought about feeding him...

And this must have happened several times, because I remember this as well as I do.

Fast-forward to seventeen, maybe nineteen years later. It's late 2003.

It occurs to me I'd never known what was actually in that closet.

I look, and, lo and behold...

a gas-fired water heater.

Dangerous to a kid? you bet. Was I better off for not having played around right there? Yep. No doubt that whatever was in that closet (unless it had been a teleporter, or the secret to flight, maybe) wasn't something I was gonna be excited by as an adult.

But the sudden realization that there was that one little thing, at least, that the mystery surrounded until I was 22?

Magic.

So. periodically someone says something so back-asswards I have to share it with y'all.

I'm looking at some folder here at work, and I comment to... no one in particular, really, but there's a woman in here-- that King of Prussia, Pennsylvania is a weird town name. It is. Seriously, I've never understood that one. anyway.

She makes the comment that "ooo, that scares me when you say Pennsylvania."
"why, exactly...? It's Pennsylvania..."
"It makes me think of werewolves."
"...werewolves?"
"Oh, I meant vampires"
"did you mean Transylvania?"
"oh, yeah, either way-- still scares me when you say Pennsylvania."

and she leaves. And this woman is responsible for security, during her shift.

THIS BOTHERS ME. IMMENSELY.

edited to add: this woman has a [VOID] tattoo over the top of another one on her wrist. strange cover-up, 'f you ask me...

Interesting people, these...

today it seems my brain is in "phonetic fk-up" mode. It's not that I can't type, see. It's that when I screw up, I screw up with something that is phonetically equivalent, but TOTALLY WRONG.

bellows? correct.
b-e-l-l-o-s-e? well, read out loud, maaaaybe. in print? not so much.

removal? correct.
r-e-m-o-v-e-l? WRONG. DAMMIT. STUPID FINGERS.

I spell REALLY WELL. today, I can't type FOR NOTHIN'.

at least it's friday and there's a long weekend ahead. WHOOP.

SO. Like some of you know, I take stuff apart to diagnose problems at work. This is, however, my actual job. Lately, I've been taking apart shit from when one plant was all *HRGK* -solidify- and all this shit that should be liquid, it ain't, no more, see.

BUT TODAY, OH SHIT, did today take the cake. I did this last week, too, on one part from the plant that did this. And it was *go get propane torch* *HEAT THE BEJEEZUS OUT OF IT, someplace very specific* -find and catch spill of tarry liquid- *repeat*, while removing screws coated in tar and try not to burn myself.

THE STUFF TODAY. OH MAN, not funny. TWO HOURS APIECE to disassemble these things. And it's neat, the previous stuff was easily liquefiable (i'm almost positive that isn't a bona fide word, but pff, y'get it). This stuff today... NO SIR. "Coker Charge" means "super high carbon with lots of water and apparently this shit doesn't actually burn", as best I can tell.

These parts were completely covered in this stuff.

EVIL MODELING CLAY, I tell you. Oily (like, crude oil, not baby oil), twinkly, black rather-decidedly-toxic-if-you-eat-it shit that catches on fire, the consistency of that happy, primary color, g'head-n'-eat-it modeling clay from your youth.

I molded some of it into a ball. It goes thwack on a table. It was very slightly liquid-- it'd get a flat spot on it if you left it alone for a while... and like I said, I had plenty of time.

So aaaanyway. I'm trying to cook this stuff off, and i'm using a propane torch to heat a set-screw (one of the lil' allen-head-socket, no-head-havin' screws that are down in a hole and covered with crap, on this part) and I'm twisting on this Allen wrench. I've been heating on this part for quite a while, really, with a propane torch. I'm twisting on the allen wrench, thinking that the screw is being removed.

I was wrong.

I had heated this wrench past the red-hot point. I was twisting the wrench-- granted, this is a small wrench-- 3/16". but I put something like five twists in it before I noticed I was deforming the wrench... I was actually quite surprised that the wrench didn't get hot all thw way up the shaft of the tool... only a couple inches worth, out of 6 or 7" of wrench...

(I did, eventually, get the parts disassembled. BAH. NO FUN. but now I don't have that to do first thing tomorrow... Wheee.)

How're y'all?

When your middle school is called "do-it" middle school...

(ok, fine, "Dueitt", but you see my point...)

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5255409.html
-----------start article paste----------
Spring, TX teacher accused of having sex with student

By DALE LEZON
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle

A 33-year-old history teacher at Dueitt Middle School in the Spring school district faces criminal charges after prosecutors accused her having had a sexual relationship with one of her students.

Alison Mosbeck is charged with three cases of sexual assault of a child and one case of an improper relationship between an educator and a student, said Harris County Assistant District Attorney Denise Oncken. She was arrested Friday.

She was in court Monday and ordered to have no contact with children 17 and younger, court staff said. She is free on $80,000 bail. Her next court date is scheduled for Nov. 29, court records show.

Mosbeck, who has been with the school district since 2005, resigned Monday. She's been on paid administrative leave since the district received the complaint the week of Oct. 8.

The mother of one of the students' friends saw text messages on the student's cellphone from Mosbeck, Oncken said, and alerted authorities.

If convicted, Mosbeck, a mother of two children, faces a possible sentence ranging from two years to 20 years for each case, Oncken said. She also is eligible for probation, Oncken added.

"At this point in the investigation," said Robert Scardino, Mosbeck's attorney, "there is a presumption of innocence and we'll have to see what the facts reveal."

Oncken said Mosbeck allegedly had a sexual relationship with a 14-year-old student between fall 2006 and March 2007. They had intercourse at least three times, prosecutors said.

"We certainly don't want to put any of our children in harm's way," Spring ISD spokeswoman Regina Curry said . "We take matters like this very seriously."
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