What Are You Up To?

[Jade Sinapu]

WOOF!

I need to drive into the next county on Saturday to join in my CAP squadron preparations for an upcoming inspection. Gotta bring in a base station transceiver and power source so it can be tallied when the actual inspection occurs.

Does that include an  antenna!?

I'm shoveling 5" new snow. 

[cause the rat]

Awesome fursuit Jade!

Took the week off. Sitting at home. Turns out my 'easy fix' wasn't the problem this time. Car is sitting at the shop now. It'll take about $400 of windshield wiper goodness to get it all back to working again. Three parts went bad. The arm that connects both wipers, the wiper transmission itself and the plate that goes under it. Wont have the car back until after 2:00 tomorrow.

[Jade Sinapu]

Working from home.  listening to a monthly meeting for my department.

[Amducious]

Studying for for my upcoming quiz on chapters 1-4 of my Fire Technology class. So far been learning a lot in a short amount of time.

[cause the rat]

Spent some time watching cheese making videos. I'm a big fan of Italian and other white cheeses. So I watched one maker make different white cheeses. I did not know this. But cheese is a lot like bread. With bread you can use water, salt, flour and yeast and get totally different flavors and styles of bread. Buy using the same ingredients. With slightly different measurements, temperatures and times you get different cheese. If I were to make any of them it would have to be the Mozzarella and his Grana Padano. or as he had to call it, his 'cease and desist' cheese. If you follow the link below you can find both the video of him getting the cease and desist email and then getting an apology email. Plus a lot of well done cheese making videos.

https://www.youtube.com/c/GavinWebber/videos

[cause the rat]

When it rains in pores. Well, not all the time. But this time it's a bit stormy. Last Monday my break fluid light comes on as soon as I pull into works parking lot. So I got some fluid and filled it back up. Today, wile pulling into my driveway, the light comes back on. Checked it and it's at the same low level it was last Monday. So I just got my windshield wipers fixed. Drove the car home to find now my breaks are leaking fluid. Car goes back into the shop tomorrow. Good thing i took the week off.  But not the vacation I was hoping fore.

[Jade Sinapu]

Hi Cause, do you know what wheel is leaking fluid?  Auto parts stores may have the whole caliper for an ok price, and replacing it is easy-ish.  Purging air out of line is harder than the replacement work.  Well at least for me it was this way.

I am working from home last half of today, and hope to take dog on walk.

[cause the rat]

Thanks for the heads up and confidence in my mechanic abilities Jade. But I'm far from any kind of mechanic. I'm the reason why there are auto shops. And I'm more than happy there's people I can go to. From past experience it's cheaper for me to drop a car off than it is for me to do any real kind of work on it. I've stripped, bent and cracked things in the past. The reason I was able to fix the wipers before is because it's an easy fix. With not much more skill than changing the wiper blades. I know the breaks could just be a loos fitting. All the way up to a line that needs to be replaced. Rather have someone who knows what they're doing than make it worst myself. Years ago a friend came out and change all my break shoes. The only thing I was able to help with was breaking the bolts and nuts loose. Muscles I have in abundance. My mechanical abilities are just above bending a screw driver. I have tools. Because other people bought them for me. 

[Jade Sinapu]

 Hi cause! I wasn't sure of your mechanic skills or inclination to do the work.  I just default to doing  my own work when I think I can.  I totally get having the pros do it! 

I'm listening to it rain here.  And lots of wind.  So I'm relaxing after work.

[cause the rat]

I know I should be painting. But something else has caught my eye. Italian cartapesta. It's the art of bending home made paper to look like fabric. They simply call it paper mache. But it's different in it's application.  To get really good results you have to make your own paper. The paper has to be thick. Without a grain. All modern paper can be torn straight in one direction. News paper and junk mail are way to thin. And even if you pasted sheets together in different directions you sill have to deal with the grain.

Right now I'm experimenting. Trying to find a good ratio of pulp per square inch. Plus I'm adding old blue jean material cut into 1/4 by 1/4 squares. These are blended to a pulp along with the paper. This will help add strength and bulk to the finished product.

Right now I have two experiments being pressed under a full five gallon bucked of water. Each with the same amount of pulp per square inch. With different amounts of blue jean material.

If you do a search make sure you type in Italian cartapesta. If you don't Google will translate cartapesta into paper mache.

[Loc]

I've been experimenting with my hair lately, with spikes, cuffs, and now ribbons and uh, weaponry.

[Jade Sinapu]

Hair weaponry?
Like little hidden daggers?

I'm boiling half dozen chicken ovulations till firm.
Because I like to hear them scream.

[Jade Sinapu]

Installing a 3500 lumen outdoor light fixture.
Been some "things" happening at night...I want to see what.

[cause the rat]

Draining my hot water heater. Got to drive a bit to get new rods. Think I'll buy a second pair to have on hand. When you have hard water changing out the heating rods is a fact of life.

[Jade Sinapu]

I'm "digging out" from the highly over exaggerated winter storm here.  Well at least here where I am at, it is only 4" of snow.
Who cares?!

[Amducious]

Getting ready to go into work and also studying for my midterm.

[Firelight]

Watching Jacksepiceye play the Escapist.

[Foxpup]

Finally setting up my new PC after having procrastinated for almost a month because I got highly annoyed at the state in which it arrived and temporarily lost the will to deal with it any more. (It turns out they do secretly judge absurd hardware choices, and express their judgement by only properly installing half of it. )

(Also, having very reluctantly upgraded to Windows 10 straight from 7 (the last half-decent version of Windows), I am almost entirely unprepared for its level of dark UI patterns. "You must create a Microsoft account or play Where's Wally to find the button to opt out." "No thanks." "Okay, I'll remind you 3 seconds later." Seriously, I already gave it an allegedly valid activation key and the customary sacrifice to Azazel; what more does it want? Good thing I only need Windows for gaming and use Linux for all serious work.)

[Firelight]

Watching 8-bit Ryan play At dead of night. Later I'm going to watch Brave as it's the day that Nacho was put down a few years ago.

[cause the rat]

Trying to find someone local or in the area to do work on my house. I need parts of the soffits repaired and all the fascia and guttering replaced. $$$ The only folks I can find right now are all an hour or better east of me in ST Louis.

[Kobuk]

Kong got beat down. Yeah, baby!    Godzilla vs. Kong. Awesome movie!    Went with a friend today to see it at the UltraScreen for just $5 for the each of us.
I don't care what anybody else says. Godzilla is the apex predator. Godzilla is king! Kong got his butt kicked twice.    Anyway, I give this movie 4 1/2 stars out of 5. I could give it more, but some of the characters were a bit "shallow" and not well developed.

[cause the rat]

Found someone to look at the house. I think they looked and ran. Haven't heard from them yet. Got my first shot today! My next shot is already set up. Taking that weekend off. Going to see some old friends I haven't seen for almost two years. Also going to finally be able to spend some time with my mom and brother.

[cause the rat]

Getting back into painting. Sort of. I chose acrylics because I can't use the chemicals associated with oil paints. But ran into problems. Regular acrylics dry really fast. So fast trying to properly mix colors can leave me with little to no time to paint. End up with blobs of plastic. So I got the 'open' acrylics. I have a lot of time now to mix colors. But now I'm left with a paint that can't be applied thick. Can only be a 1/16 (2 mm) thick or the paint wont dry properly.  So I can't paint the way I really want to. This is my solution. I'm using my regular acrylics to practice the style of painting I want to do. I'll be using the open acrylics to practice color mixing and value studies. I'll be using both to practice brush control and drawing.  So I'll have paintings with overly bright glaring colors but with the effects that can only be achieved by using thick brush strokes. Then I'll have paintings with proper colors but without the look I want to achieve. Going to use all these paints up before I try something else. Water mixable oils. Had I known about these I would have never tried water color or acrylics. I have a small fortune invested in quality acrylic paints. Not going to let thees waste away. The good news is I can use the same brushes for acrylic and water mixable oils. Unlike when I went form water color to acrylic. Had to buy all new brushes. The down side is I still wont be able to use natural hair bristle brushes. They swell up and get wonky if dipped in water. I'll have to buy quality synthetic brushes and modify them to mimic the wear and tare that happens to hog hair brushes.

[Rocket T. Coyote]

Completed another online course for my job place re-certification. Just one more to go before the June deadline.

[Jade Sinapu]

 Was listening to the APRS.net on ham radio.  Maybe I should join.
Was interesting.