Next Year I Will ....

Ride my bike.

Go to Monterey with Becky.

Find out if I passed the F.E. exam (Cuz then next year I can take an even harder test!).

Celebrate the 2nd annual Robot Independence Day (March 1).

Slide down a mountain on a couple of planks shouting Wooo-motherfucking-Hooooo the whole way down!!

Party down on my 33 1/3 birthday (It is a record year).

Pull a prank.

Prepare Beer Bash for his 5th tournament.

Cry when the 4000 soldier is killed in Iraq for a lie.

Adapt BearScore for UC Open.

Fight at UC Open.

Congratulate a friend.

Drive a car so fast that I will never be caught!

Test for my 1st Kup in Tae Kwon Do.

Cheer the Non-(modern)Republican president elect.
Or shake my head in sorrow and tremble in fear at the continuing stupidity of many Americans.

Run a sub 6:30 Mile.

Offer a shoulder to cry on.

Cry on a shoulder.

Travel to India to visit a friend and eat many things that where cooked in a tandoori oven.

Make a woman laugh.

Make a man cry.

Tell Rebecca I love her more than anything in this life.

This year I...

Sent my robot to India, where Susan and Beer Bash kicked ass and became celebrities (Seriously autographs on the street, strangers insisting that Susan attend there wedding, front page articles in the paper, the whole nine yards).

Started Capoeria.

Went to Alaska on a cruse.

Started running. Took my mile down from 8 min, to 7 min

Started riding my bike to work.

Attended the wedding of people I introduced.

Went on three business trips, in three weeks.

Quit Capoeria, for now.

Got a new bike.

Went backpacking with a dear friend.

Started SeaMonkeys.

Started SeaMonkeys.

Gave up on SeaMonkeys. Sniff, sob, cry.

Wrote scoring software for an international martial arts competition.

TOOK THE EIT!!!!!!

Had my sister stay with me while her 2 year old son was having surgery. Twice.

Went to a $200/plate dinner.

Gave Anthony Bourdain shit for being associated with a shitty $200/plate dinner.

Helped in a very small way to try to save the planet.

Saw a friend preform at the Great American Music Hall.

Saw a different friend preform at the Great American Music Hall.

Things I am still planning to do:
Laugh.

Cry.

Make love to a beautiful woman.

Damned Big Truck

So, on Sunday after I finished with my run, I get out of the car (Yeah, I am one of those idiots who drives to go running) and sneeze.
Then I sneeze again, and again.
Then my sinus fills up so fast that my ears pop.
I sneeze again.
This is how I spend the next few days.
I take Clariten, Benedrill, Vodka, nothing works.
Finally on Tuesday, I am sitting on the couch feeling miserable and just as fast as it came on, boom, gone.

6 Minuets, 53 Seconds

On my mile, and I can now throw off a 1 Minuet, 30 Second lap pretty much at will.
Getting better. And I only vomited a little bit!

Smuggling Razers

Saw the new cut of Blade Runner last night.
I would recommend it cuz it is a fantastic flick and it is very nice to see it on the big screen all cleaned up of the pops and cuts
However I did not really notice anything that set it apart from the Directors cut, but perhaps somebody who has seen it more that I have can enlighten me.

49 Minutes

Is how long I ran straight today. Becky ran for 21 minutes straight. For both of us shattering previous records (Post high school).
And to top it off, neither of us vomited!!

I swear it was an accident

But Susan pointed out that the way I arraned the file server, it looks like a robot:


Oh, and I got a new phone with a crappy camera.

Becky got an iPhone

So, now we have to go to a bar with a bunch of people and see if she spends the whole evining playing with it.

Skippy is on the lose again

People keep telling me that they saw me places. Places that I have not been.

Damn, I thought I tied him up good this time.

The onward march of technology

Many years ago I wanted to put my photos online (I still have not digitised the great bulk of them) So, being the only thing to do at that point I wrote my own software to get the job done. It is clunky and awkward, but gets the job done.
That was in the 90's.
Now, there are many free, good photosharing sites up. I don't have to cut my own thumbnail, the user can download the full picture, the organization matches the organization on my computer... etc, etc, etc.
So anyway here it is
http://picasaweb.google.com/eel.josh/

I have wasted the last 17 years of my life

I have spend a good amount the last 17 years learning how to use a darkroom.
Now I have to re-learn everey thing I knew about photography, but this time digital.
Oh, well at least I don't have to worry about the darkroom chemicals eating my brain.

Speaking of Solar

I finally got off of my duff and finished Bok's birthday present (From May (06 (I am a bad man)))


1 Watt a solar Pannle


A battery big enough to not get over charged.


My charging "Circut".


Put it all in a case with some radome wires.


Add in a 1 watt white LED, and let there be light.

Now, I have to go to her office and install the damned thing.
That was never part of the deal.

Hi Ho...

So, I do not write too much about my job, this is cuz most of the work I do is no so much secret as confidential.
But don't take that as I don't like my work, I enjoy it tremendously. One of the only things about it that I don't like so much is that I don't really feel like I am contributing to this whole collapsing environment thing (I do do some off the clock).
So this makes me very exited when I do get to work in that sort of warm fuzzy project, and this week I get to go and help out in a very small way at a very exiting solar cell manufacturing plant that is being built.

Go Solar!

I am not very good at the bloging thing

From the start I have written these entries as a stream of conchishenss, witch I think is kinda cool, but it does tend to highlight my bad grammar and atrocious spealing. It also means that I do share a lot about myself is a public forum.
But I forget that this is indeed a public forum, and that is why I am doing it.
Being a public forum I am open to public ridicule and disdain, so be it.
Or it should be anyway.
If somebody that I have never met wants to get mad at me for some supposed injury that I have done to somebody else (that did not seem too upset himself) I should just say so be it.
But I don't. I seethe and get defensive and start responding and tacking on addendums.
Any way, I am not apologising for my behavior, I still think that asking Mr. Bourdain what he thought of dinner at the opening of his new book about food was not a bad thing to do,,
there I go being defensive again. So be it.

I guess I just need to relax.

$200/Plate Diner. Or a littel vomit in my mouth.

So last night me, Paula and Rebbeca (Yes, that is proper English. Thanks Mr. Bye) went to Anthony Bourdain's "No Reservations" book premiere. The event was a $200 a plate dinner. The service was bland, the meal was not very good, nor was there very much of it and the wine was poor at best.
After dinner there was a question/answer session with Tony. People were surrounding him asking him the sort of question that one asks celebrities "So, what does it feel like to be soooo cool?".
I was grumpy about the "meal" so I went up to ask him about it. As I walk up, the crowd dissipated and let me in. Mr. Bourdain looks right at me and everybody else shuts up, so I ask him:
"I am sorry if somebody else has already asked you this, but I have not been able to hear anything, but what did you think of tonight's meal?"

"It was good" Was his response.

"That's it?" I question.

"What did you think of it" says he.

At this point I was fully prepared to talk about how food in SF is about the simple preparation of quality local ingredient. And crafting meals that go well together, not about random sea foods that sound like they might be local (Dungeness crab after the season was put on hold due to the oil spill. That was either not local, or almost a year old and it tasted like it). I was going to go on about presenting a menu that consisted of nothing but fish and pork. It was going to be dazzling.

Instead I said "Rotten fish, I threw up a little in my mouth."

He told me that I need to relax, and the crowd closed up on me.


--------------------------------------------------------------------
P.S.
Ok, people,
Do you seriously think that I was trying to impress yall with a story about my urbain wit? Or that I was holding this up as a shining example of how to politely deal with things??

No, I was expressing my outrage at being served rotten food for $200. And telling a funny story about the simi-intentional things that come out of our mouths from time to time.

--------------------------------------------------------------------
P.P.S.
Giving me shit for giving somebody shit sounds more than a little silly.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
P.P.P.S
For the record not all of the dishes where bad, some of them where in fact exquisite.

33

Here it is, 8 AM on my 33rd birthday, and so far nobody has given me so much as a single 1950's sports car.
What the fuck is up with that????

Tomorow, I get my life back

But first, today, I have to take an 8 hour enginnering exam.

OK, it is just not that complicated

If Cuba can afford natinal helth care, so can we.
If Pakistan is ready for a female leader so are we.

And they say nothing good is on TV

Picked up by over 50 national stations

We will see what happens when it is actually released.

Dear Anybody who Objects to Gay Marriage

Mind your own fucking business.

Carrot

Put a cute girl on a $6,000 bike in front of me on the bottom of a hill, and watch how fast I climb.

See, I am not the only one

http://www.dyndns.com/news/newsletters/08.html

Sending fail notices are fucking other people up too.

I massively disagree with them though. Modern e-mail systems are very much not more reliable. This is due to the very spam in question, and people will always make mistakes. It is a sad truth that e-mail is no longer a gimme, and also a game that only the big boys can play now. Sigh.

What???? Which ones did I get wrong??????

From The Rantings

I Want to Ride My Bicycle

After almost 10 years of disappointment in my buying a mountain bike, I finally got a new road bike!



It is a thing of beauty. All carbon fiberie. It has a much softer ride than my last bike but when I stand on the pedals, it just goes.

Blaming the Victim

Ok, first of all. I am not mad at any person.
Second, I am mad as hell at people.
I am tired of defending my actions.

"Wow, what a tail of woe. But Josh is a reasonably intelligent person, and he is working at a company that has been doing this for over 20 years, this must be one of those unfortunate incidences that are why insurance was invented."

Not
"Josh, you dumbass, this is what you should have done."

I have had to defend my actions far to often. Every TSA person on the phone, JetBlue on the phone and in person. Now my Friends and family.

This is the last time, after this you will either assume that I acted reasonably, or you won't. But I will not defend my actions any more.




Monday, I left on a plain back to NY to to the job that I already did.
I landed at JFK at 10:00 PM
Got to my hotel at 12:00 AM
Left my hotel at 8:00 AM
Got to the job site at 8:30 AM
Worked till 3:00 PM :(
Got to JFK at 4:30 in time for the early flight :), but it was full :(
Got to OAK at 12:00 AM
Got back to work at 1:00 AM
Got the data off of the laptop and the equipment ready for a coworker to use today 1:30 AM
Got to bet 2:00 AM

Now, where was I supposed to wait for a FedEx Shipment? Like the one that had my repair part in it?


That is all, I will not spend anymore time defending the victim.

Yeah, I know, I am tired and cranky and need my napies. But I don't get them I have to go to work and rush out this report that is now 5 days behind.

Make the bad man stop

Now, my mail server died catostrphicly and I can not fix it.
Wimper.

... and back

So, I leave for NY city last Monday, and my plane was 1.5h late to board.
No problem, I can have some tea at the airport.
Then my plane sat on the runway for another hour.
Not a worry, traffic will be so light from NYC to NJ at that time that I will get to my hotel and still get a good night sleep.
The renal car company rented my car out from under me and told me "sucks" leaving me to stand there at 1:30 AM in 90 deg heat with 300lb of luggage.
But after a few calls to the company in which the clerk and the people on the phone spend most of the time lieing to me and echother I finally get a car.

OK, you know, if there where lines painted on the roads in NY, then driving in it would not be that bad.

So, I get to the hotel at about 2:30 and checked in at 2:45 which sucked for my 9AM site visit.
But my GF had a 6-pack waiting in the fridge for me. She rocks.

Get to work, get set up and everything is going smooth in 4h I finish the first of 3 room. "Hay I may be able to get out on a flight tonight!!!"

Unplug my equipment go to the next room and all my box will do is beep at me.
Talk to the people who make it and they ship me a part FedEx that will get to my hotel first thing in the morning.
OK, more like 6 in the evening after spending all freaking day waiting by the phone.
Put the part in drive to the site and do the second room.
Great, I will do the 3rd in the morning and only be one day late.

Can't sleep at night, but whatever, I am all set up and ready to go. I have the 3rd room done by 10:30.
Pack up and head to JFK.
OK, midtown traffic is NUTS. Once you figure it out it is kind of fun. I made a game out of it.
One point for cutting somebody off, -1 for getting cut off.
2 points either way for a reversal (they where going to cut you off, but you get it first, or they cut you off, but you get them back, and -2 for them doing you)
Anytime you score on a taxi that is a one point bonus.

But I still get to the airport and have a nice flight back (except the woman who wanted my to close my shutter so her kid in the next isle could see here TV better, sigh. And the 40 year old woman who would kick my seat if I reclined it)
Pick up my luggage, taxi it back to the office, haul it upstairs and start to unpack it.


THE LAPTOP IS NOT THERE!!!!!!!!!!!

Just a TSA slip saying they inspected the bag and a very poorly packed (I packed it well) piece of very expensive equipment.
Broken equipment.
Not too bad, I was able to fix it today.

So, I of course immediately call TSA and tell them what happend.
They say, "My gosh sir, that is horrible, we will immediately look into it."
No they say fill out a form and in 30 days we MAY get back to you. But in the meantime you should contact the airport lost and found they might have the item that "you lost"

The number they gave me said quite clearly that this was for items LEFT IN THE AIRPORT PROPER, NOT for checked items.
The form they sent me to download is called
"CLAIM FOR DAMAGE, INJURY, OR DEATH"
And in fact has not a single space for missing items. But it does have spaces for lots of things that are immaterial, none of there business like my marital status and some are items that I do not have access to right now like the resibet for the laptop, and insurance info which counts for both.

So, now I have to go back and take the data again.
Sigh, sob, cry.

P.S. I wrote this post on hold with TSA.

P.P.S. OK, yes I checed my laptop (works actualy) I also checed 300lb of stuff, most of it WAY more valuble than the laptop. I travle with a LOT of stuff, so I check it.

Never, ever, ever,

EVER rent a car from Dollar.
Good god, I can't even get hold of them to extend my rental.

My Girlfrend is WAY Cooler Than Yours

My flight was delayed by over 2 hours. The rental car company would not honor my reservation. They finaly relented and gave me a convertable (not so nice for my 300 lbs of gear) and finding my way from JFK to New Jersy at 2 AM is as dificult as it sounds (love the GPS).
Anyway, I get to my hotel, get a text message that says "Check the fridge" and find a 6 pack in there!!!!!
That girl just plain ROCKS.

Why are People Such Jackasses

So, in my stupid F.E. review corse when the moronic (and most of them are) students don't understand something that a male teacher says they ask him what they are doing wrong.
If it is a female teacher they try to explain to her what she is doing wrong.

Sigh.

Hot, hot, sun

You know, it is realy uncomfortable to work out side in Pasadina during Summer.

The French Countryside

I started to watch the Tour de' France a few years ago to see Lance Armstrong. Not so much out of nationalistic pride, but rather to see somebody who is that good at something preform. He did not let me down. He was amazing to watch. But then I started to notice that the French countryside was in itself worth watching. And finally I started to enjoy watching the race itself. It is quite a thing top see somebody stand up on his petals and just walk away from the rest of the riders as he flyies up a massive mountain.

It is another thing entirely to read the news the next day about how that rider was in violation of doping.

God help me I am just not that bright.

For some reason I have decided to get my P.E. and the next step in this process is to get my F.E.
This means taking a big test on October, which means that I spend my Saturdays in a class room and my Sundays (and weekday evenings) studying.

Why am I doing this?
P.S. It is way to hot for this shit.

P.P.S:
P.E. Professional Engineer. Initials at the end of your name. You can sign and seal enginnering documents.
F.E. Used to be called E.I.T (Engineer In Training), Fundamentals of Engineering. Kind of the Bar for Engineers. Usually Civil Engineers and People wanting to get a P.E. Take it. Not so nessisary for mechanical.

My girl frend is cooler than yours

Her latest project at work made the front page of the SF Chron.

More of this stupid getting into shape crap

Dist to work: 9.0 mi
Time to get there: 55 min
Average speed: 9.6 mi/h
Max speed: 32 mi/h


Now how do I get home?

Gee, I only got lost 3 times on the way home.

Highschool:

Weight - 110lb
Mile - 6 min flat
Then go out and party

Today:
Weight - 155lb
Mile - 7:30
Then go home and vomit.

North to Alaska

More to folow, but I am motherfucking tired.

All of the pix

I realy don't mind losing...

But losing to a bad call sucks.

The arena is NOT a hazard.
We got stuck on the wall, and then unexplicably counted out.

Oh well, life goes on. I am off to Alaska. C-ya.

RoboGames so far

Got a bye in the first round. Lost to "Pipe Wench" (very good bot) in about 30 sec in the second (I was driving). We got thrown clean out of the ring (and about 4 feet in the air). But we took zero damage so we will be good to go for the losers tree (double elimination).
Our next fight is against "Carnivorous Bunny".

But I am flat out tore up, so off to bed.


Pipe Wench. Note the green paint on the arm. That is ours:

Holy Fucking Crap!!!

Beer Bash will ride again!!!!!!
After spending 15 straight hours in the shop (got home at 2:30) we will be ready for the fight next weekend.
So swing by and watch us get creemed.

I like the Berkeley Rose Garden

Beer Bash Vs. Piranha 3

Still trying to find footage of a fight where we win. But this one is the first time we ever went the distance.

Beer Bash's Last Match at Combots 07

Ouch! I am glad it was the "B" frame, cuz it is a total loss.

I feal like I have been in a fight.

We where the first fight on the second day, they needed a croud pleaser to get the audiance up (and that is us). After spending most of the night working like crazy to repair the dammage done on Saturday, we got in the ring, and got torn apart.

Oh on saturday we entered a little version of BB in a fight.

What a day

We won two fights and lost one. We are in the final 4!!
Beer Bash took some of the biggest hits I have seen in middle weight and kept going.
We had to go to the "B" frame for tomorows fight and I don't know how we are going to get ready for RoboGames, which is in a month.
But who cares, we are going to fight tomorow.

Priceless

Speed Controllers: $180 each
Motors: $280 each
Keg: $200 + beer
Labor: Hundreds of hours

Riding a flaming beer keg down the halls of a major university......

Fight Day

My robot is fighting next weekend at Maker Faire. There, now you have all of the info I do.
Ok, not all. The robots in my divison are listed here. And the world famous Toad will have an art bot entry.
Oh, and we have added a flame thrower to Beer Bash, so we will be spurting fire. Right now we are working like hell to try and spurt fire out of the nozzle and ONLY the nozzle.

A little better.

The cool thing about digital, is the learning curve it very short. I can play with it and immediatly see what I am going to get.

P.S. The buds are about 1/8" across

Late

Why is it that no matter when I get up I always get into work at the same time?

First Light

I finaly bit the bullit and got a digital camera.
I don't think I have it quite figured out.
More to follow.

Best dancing robot ever

What is this shit?

Ok, I don't know much about plumbing, but I do know that it is suposed to be a sealed system.
Apparnetly the hammering that I heard was my manager trying to get the cap off, but it was stuck. Finaly it broke off. That was Sunday.

Well, we where comming home from dinner (very nice, Italian, I had the raviole with pesto, Bok had a mushroom and linguinee (sp) concoction and lots of the house red) when we noticed that the carport under us was wet, and had all of this paper... Oh YUCK!!!

He did not fix the pipe, or tell us that is was broken. Think of how many showers you have taken synce sunday night. Now think of how many times you flushed the John.

#1?
#2?

A shitty evining.

There are some advantages to renting. On sunday I was getting some work done (Ok I was taking a nap on the sofa), when I was woken up by a strange noise that turned out to be Rebecca plunging the bathtub. Well, as we where working on it, we discovered that the bathtub and the toilet outlets are connected rather soon, as thing started to back into the tub. Fortunitly at this point we could just pick up the phone. Unfortunilty it took the apartment manager till 11 PM to deal with it.

Bravery

So, Rebecca and I are taking Capoeira and I am feeling like a beginer martial artist. All ackward, shy, uncomfortable, and hurting in ways I am not used to (I don't think I have any skin left on my feet). Then I started to think of Rebecca who has got t0 be the shyest person I know. She has got to also be the bravest person I know. She is hanging in, turning bright red whenenver she is called on, but throwing in and trying her heart out.
Go Bok!

Driving me Crazy

Ok people, it is not that complicatated. When merging it is every other. Find where the car in front of you went in and go in BEHIND the car it is in front of. If you fight for space and try to muscle your way you will go slower, not faster.
While we are at it, if you tailgate me I will drive slow.
Finaly, I will never drive into an intersection that I can not get out of no matter how much you honk.

I always forget

The north coast of California is Fucking unbelivably pritty.

Spamers One Josh Zero

So, due to massive spamming I have moved, my new weblog is:
http://eellog.blogspot.com/

Why are people so fucking nasty?

I have a very strange job.

IPA

Some video of Beer Bash's fights in India:
BB's fights combined into one. We won one of them lost the other
Some other fights and Susan turning a robot on.

I have been synce informed that we won both.

Quoting from Susan Reno

last night was awesome. we started setting everything up at about 5:45 for our
630ish show.they put us on a stage for our pit and built a ramp down to the
16x16' arena. they had fireworks, flame throwers and confetti cannons set up
all around the outside of the arena as well as the stage. BB fought twice. both
times with joe's 60 lbers.


now before i tell you what happened in the ring i will need to preface it with
what joe told me yesterday morning. remember when speed bump backed off of
enouch and we tapped out?? well... speed bump was dead. he had no movement. he
wasnt giving us a chance to survive. he was bluffing. joe looked over at us in
hopes that we would tap out.

this made my blood boil a bit, but i kept my composure and took my revenge
knowing full well we are a good 10 lbs overweight.

i creamed him.

the matches went way more then 3 minutes and there was no timer... bb has
alllllot of battery power so i decided to use most of it up on showing him whos
boss.. im not vengeful at all.

because i spent most of my power in the first match i lost the second just cause
i ran out of batts.

BB's first fight needed to be a crowd pleaser anyway. we got off to a really
slow start. the first 2 robots hit liek twice then played dead. not a good sign.
i thought the crowd was bored.

andrew, the guy from austrailia won hands down. he has two POWERFUL pneumatic
30lbers. they are awesome. i hope he can come to robogames sometime.

so, the last fight was a grudge match with 3 30 lbers... Andrew just killed
everything then did a victory dance, it was great. (during all the fights the
pyrotechnics, fire and confetti are all randomly scaring us with their loud booms)

the crowd seemed pleased, but i didnt theink they were that into it until the
fights were over and everyone rushed the stage. i was signing autographs,
andwering questions and taking pictures with people (see also: MOB SCENE)...

we were totally rockstars.
we were escorted out cause people kept stopping us.
it was insane. the crowd was NOT bored.
we had dinner at the on campus resturant and then to sleep.
twas a busy day.

--susan

Off to India

No me, but my robot is going to India, all expenses paid.
Beer Bash is getting transportation, housing and food paid for it and one assistant.
Susan is the assistant, cuz she is still a student.

0 for 1000

Great, I get my first comment in ages and I acedentaly delete it while trying to deal with the deludge of fukcing spam that I am now getting.

Ooops

Not that it effected that number of coments that I get, but for some time the coments have been broken. I shuld have noticed that I was not getting much spam.
Is fixed now.