I’ve got it. After a little walk outside (an attempt to find my tennis shoes) I went down to the real lab, fired up the Sun Ultra 80 turned on some music and cranked out something that should work. There are a lot more parts and it won’t hold together quite as nicely but the point is it will do what it is supposed to do (unlike the other idea). Cool.
In other news, a few of us are heading over to AuTrain to Ed’s cabin. That should be a nice escape from the house which might I add is coming together quite nicely. I know I promised some pictures like a month ago so I’m ditching out of here at 3 and we’re not leaving until 4 so I’ll try and put at least something up.

Yep, I’m working. Really hard too. Well, sort of. I had my new design all planned out in my head and I was starting to pour it into the computer when I looked at it, and it told me “Hello dumbass, I’m a solid object, you can’t put the hunk of metal in me”. Confused, I turned on the solid modeling (wireframe isn’t too useful to see what’s going on) and yes, that most definatly NOT work. Dammit. So, now I’m staring at the wall, out the window, over at the elevator, the microwave, other people looking for some new inspiration (read: an idea to shamelessly incorperate). Hmmmm, I guess there’s a reason that I have until January to get this done.

So this weekend, the final one until school starts, has been an interesting lesson in the “human experience”. I had two people bail on me within 24-hours of each other (I’ll withhold names to protect the innocent[?]). One on Friday, and another on Saturday. One, was circumstances beyond my control (former landlord and an offer that “couldn’t be refused”) but the second was something a bit deeper.
Allow me to expound upon the second. As you’ve no doubt gathered, to live in this house at this point takes a certain kind of person. You have to have vision (of what is coming) and some patience (it can’t get there instantly). Without those two things, I image this place would seem like a hellhole. And I think that is what turned away the second person. They happened to catch the house at pretty much the all time low. Unfortunately, my whole research group was on an excursion up north so I wasn’t here to do damage control. Anyway, after a few somewhat insulting phone calls from her boyfriend (although they’re both friends of mine), I agreed that she shouldn’t live here. I’m not going to tolerate that kind of shit anyway. Its funny though, a few of the major sticking points have already been resolved (ie some drywall) but in the end, her decision to live alone in an apartment is really up to her. I’ll only suffer a bit financially. On the plus side though, I now have a room to live in. I’m not nearly as pissed as I thought I would be. I knew that these two people were a potential liability. I sort of know them both along with their personality types; plus I can read peoples’ minds too.

In other news, I did some pretty kick ass work this weekend. The hallway is looking about a million times better, Amy has a new wall, and Phil’s room has new drywall. I’ve pulled 6 data lines throughout the house as well and when the punch-down tool shows up on Wednesday the house will be pretty well set for wired and wireless access. Ok, we’ll I have class tomorrow at 9 so I’ll hop down off my soapbox . . . for now.

What a day. Between graduate school orientation today and throwing up drywall, I’m sort of tired. Phil and I have spent a considerable amount of time preping his room. I decided to rip off all the old plaster and there, pull electricity and Cat5, then put up new drywall. In retrospect, I still think it was a good idea, but as always, it still takes about 3 times longer then I though.

In other news, the wiring in the remainder of the house is finally winding down. I have all of the major runs completed and stowed away to thier respective junction boxes. At the moment, it comes down to the last mile problem: how do I install new outlets without a) destroying the exsisting walls and b) destroying the 3rd floor more by drilling though the top plates of the walls. I still haven’t come up with a good solution to that. At the moment, it seems that a total rip down and recover is the best option. Although it seems to take a room (not to mention me) offline for about three days. It was nice though, pulling wire today only took about 45 minutes instead of the 10 hours I was originally planning.

The 2nd floor hallway is still a mess. It is pending the install of a switch, three outlets and two Cat5 runs. All told, that represents about 4 hours of work. After that, the walls are ready to be covered. With any luck, the hall way should be back to respectable condition by Friday.

So far as the structure goes, I’ve made great progress. Two nights ago, I went into the basement with the sole purpose of not returning until I raised the floor an inch (one of the three). I cut many different size shims (from 1/2″ to 1 1/2″) and pounded them into place. The house feels better now but I can’t wait to set the entire thing on the brick wall. The extra regidity gained should be fantastic. Anyway, time for some sleep so I can wake up and do it all again tomorrow.

All I can say is that we kicked ass this weekend in Utah. I mean, we totally blew the other 12 Universities out of the water. It was almost sad to see people all wrapped up in project that is so fundamentally flawed that no one would consider it for a second.

In any case though, our presentation was absolutely perfect. Every little bit of information we wished to convey, was done so. The reviewers even claimed that we made their job difficult since we had no glaring flaws. That was nice.

Ok, Utah is officially on my ?never go there again list?. That place is so boring and so devoid on any kind of interesting life that it really isn?t funny. I mean, there were only four places that severed alcohol in the town of Logan (11,000 + 20,000 college students). I mean, I look around at the 14 bars in the Houghton/Hancock area and I really start to wonder. Anyway, don?t vacation there unless you absolutely have to.

T-Minus 8 hours and counting to my departure to Utah for the AIAA/USU Conference on Small Satellites. The crappy part of the deal is that our flight is leaving from Milwaukee so we have to drive down there in the morning (about 6 hours). Also, since we ended up with the cheapest tickets possible, we go from Milwaukee to Cincinnati to Denver to Salt Lake City and then make the 100 mile drive up to Logan. The way back on Saturday isn?t much better: Salt Lake City to Atlanta to Milwaukee. Oh well, it should be a great trip nonetheless.

The only down side to leaving is haven?t been able to get the house into decent shape yet. Its getting close, but I really needed about another week. I know a few people are going to be moving in while I?m away and hopefully they don?t go non-linear when they find out only about half of the outlets in the house work. That been said, I?m about 35% done with the house rewire job. As always, it?s a bigger job then one thinks. Well, I should go do some more cleaning and maybe(?) pack some stuff for the weekend.

A few weeks ago, I skipped out and did some “research” with Ed on Lake Superior using Tech?s new boat. It was a great day. In the morning, the lake was pretty choppy and we were getting tossed about like tin cans. The afternoon yielded nothing sort of a prefect day. I must say, this was almost better then being locked in the basement of the MEEM. Here’s the pictures.

Code. Such an elusive beast. Everyone knows what it is, but no one actually knows what it is. You see, my lovely local (and perhaps not so local) government does not freely publish the ?code? for anything. Obviously this makes it rather difficult for just about anyone to know if they are doing things correctly.

So, the pictures illustrate my installation of a new bathroom. I?m almost certain that the clay pipe + rubber + concrete + PVC doesn?t meet code for one reason or another, but I decided it will never be subject to inspection anyway. I know that my drains have the correct slope and will be properly ventilated so I?m not sure what the big deal is. If it doesn?t work, and shit sprays all over the basement, then I guess its my problem, not the county?s. Enough ranting, here we go: The Bathroom ? Part I.

It would seem that I’ve been a bit of a derelict with respect to the website. Guilty. Allow me then to fill you in on what?s been going down (and up).

• The plumbing in the basement bathroom is about 70% done; with any luck we?ll be pouring concrete in the next two days.
• Last night I started the ?Urban Renewal? program in the house, which basically means, I put my pet projects aside (like the sauna) and work on higher visibility things. For instance, in an effort to get decent lighting in the entryway (I killed that a looooong time ago), Drew and I pulled bunch of wire and discovered all sorts of interesting things about the existing setup.
• Also under that program, Katie began stripping the exterior door. It already looks about 500 times better.
• Amy and Paul continue to work on Amy?s ill fated bathtub. They?ve located the problem to within a few inches so we?ll see what happens.
• I?m also trying to get outside lights because I know I?m going to fall down those steps one of these times.

That?s about it for that. I have a ton of pictures to post, but no time to post them. Maybe I should hire a webmaster . . .