For those who do not know there is a great website for watching TV shows and movies call Hulu. I have been visiting this site since it was in it's private earily beta mode. The reason I am mentioning it now is because they have just added the first season of Jackie Chan Adventures to their very large libary of shows. The JCA shows can be found here http://www.hulu.com/jackie-chan-adventures Hulu has other great series such as Firefly, American Dad, American Gothic and many more. What seperates Hulu from other video sites is the ability to offer many of their TV shows and Movies in 480p (high res) quality.

Eek, that summer weather is... well... HOT!
Ride Review Time:
Recently the Disneyland Resort added an all new attraction to the Disney's California Adventure park, Toy Story Midway Mania (not to be confused with Florida's Toy Story Mania, only difference is queue, a bit longer track, and the name). This last weekend the girl and I took a trek to the park to experience the ride. One word, addictive! Seriously this ride is highly addictive. I honestly think that this is got to be the future of all solid "D" ticket rides. The 3D effects were very well done and thankfully lacking the "Cheesy 3D Ticks" that many 3D movies resort to. One aspect of the ride that I have seen lacking in other peoples reviews is the fact that the Spinning of the ride vehicles is rather thrilling (not extreme) in a family fun way.

As many people have pointed out the facade is brilliant, the Victorian theme so loved on Main Street USA caries over wonderfully over on the Pier and will offer a great backdrop to the Wonderful World of Color show that will be seen in 18 months. <- it has been reported that we can expect to see new (major) additions coming to DCA in a schedule of aprox 18 month gaps.

I have to say that this is the first new thing to come to the DLR since TOT that I feel is in the quality of themeing of Tokyo DisneySEAs' attractions and full family fun factor of well... 20,000 leagues at DisneySEA.

Back in November I purchased an additional external USB hard drive, over the weekend it decided to start just randomly dropping off line. Silly me, it was not backed up and fearing that I was going to loose many (very many) files (and memories) I tried to back it up... too late, the hard drive would not stay on line for more than 5 seconds before dropping off for a minute or two. Solution! I had heard the forum rumors of putting a hard drive in the freezer and then it would work for awhile. I tried this and it worked for a little while but not long enough to collect my files off of it. The next step was only logical. put the hard drive in the freezer... plugged in! That is correct, after letting the drive chill for a few minuets, I plugged it in closed the door and copied 360GB of data flawlessly.

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On a side note, two weekends back the girl and I went up to Las Vegas to watch the Cirque do Soleil show "O". This is by far the most beautiful theater and show known to the modern man. If ever in Las Vegas and can afford, a better use of money than a slot machine or card game, go see "O" and as always I also highly recommend Mystere.

I know I already have a compact desktop CNC mill but I want this one

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For most of us machinist at this size it is not the most practical machine, low horse power and light weight for machining stuff of that size, but either smaller (ability to crawl into for example electronic cases and machine out silicon or plastics) or larger (offering the capability to move to a remote location where the item can not be brought to a machine shop).

for people that are interested the company that made this is Micro Magic Systems. They also make many of the animatronic characters seen in big budget films such as Harry Potter.

Thanks Dave for sending me this.

Yea, I know it has been a while... well we have been rather busy.
Even though the girl and I have been out and very about I have neglected to post any themepark reviews, trip reports or tech tips. Sorry :-P

As a side note, Ubuntu seriously rocks. I knew that they had the philosophy that it should "just work"... well a lot of things say that and it is not always true. Ubuntu really does! Even on the odd hardware that I have been using it works flawlessly. On one of my systems I have a very odd USB based WiFi receiver that is barely supported by windows (no 95, 98, 2000 or vista support only XP?!?) this system I could never run Linux on because of the lack of network connectivity, Ubuntu saw the hardware and asked if I would like to connect to the network through it!


The other thing I wanted to do is mention how this article http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/odd_lighthouse_located got me remembering how much I love this song/movie. Pete's Dragon is just such a wonderful piece of Disney heritage that should be enjoyed for all generations.

Superman: Doomsday
If you are a fan of both the classic 1940's and the 1990's Superman Cartoons this is a must see. An added bonus is the addition of little nods to both series throughout the movie including one of the Mechanical Monsters all the way up to Brainiac 1.0 skull and other "memoribillia". My only complaint is that at times Superman looks like he has a Mullet.

pic121307_1

Winter Break... well it has broke. Time for everyone to get back to work!

Kombawa from Disneyland.

Some time back I reported about dualcores and dos Programs conflicting and the resolution of using dosbox. The problem with dosbox O. 7O was that it would mess up the colors on the screen and it the Emulator was full screend it would Seriously mess up synchroneyes. As with all good software there ore con+inious upgrades and improvements. Dosbox Version 0.72 fixes every problem we have yet to have using the tadal Emulator in a dos emulator On windows XP.

Batsday Recoil...
here are some more pictures of Ba+sday that other people took, I will link to the galerys where these photos can be found and not just direct link to the pictures.


here is a good picture of pumpkin and jmyself.

The Disneyland Park yesterday featured an aura of foreboding, almost as though it sensed a disquieting metamorphosis. Could it be that this haunted park is actually stretching or is it BATSDAY!

Once again I have to say a great big thanks to Noah for another amazing event. Miah, thanks for the great time, we all need to go back to the park again some time and I can't wait to see the photos on your camera.

Speaking of cameras there were a lot of people to take my picture this year and when they post the pics in there portfolios I will post links here.

Here are some of the pics I took:
http://www.flickr.com/gp/9063982@N04/568N9Z

It had been a while since I had done a quiz.

Which Onegai (Teacher and Twins) Character are U?

You are like Maiku. You are not very sociable, and also you're a bit shy, introvert and quiet. Since you are more mature than others, you are also more serene and take thing calmly and seriously. People can trust in you. For you, the family is really important, so you protect it. U may like computers and things like that.
Take this quiz!






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This happened the other night and I didn't get a chance to post it here until now.

Being that I go to the Zoo rather frequently seeing new critters happens every so often later that evening was something I had never seen before at the Zoo. During the pre-show for Talamasca, Rachael (the Quetzal bird) throws out beads and randomly picks people out of the audience to pull up on the stage to do silly acts. The first act is usually get a kid to dance or something, second is get a grown man to juggle handkerchiefs, usually the third is another kid stunt involving the kid tumbling. Last night however Rachael brought two adults, a man and a woman, onto the stage. They ended up doing a ring toss where the girl threw a ring (looked like duct tape) onto a pole the guy was holding while kneeling. The started off close, then with each successful catch they moved further apart. About six feet apart she successfully trows the ring, as the girl prepares to trow again the guy scoots across the floor and opens up a box in his hand! She said yes!

In all the years that I have been going to the Zoo, or any park, I have never seen a proposal like this. (especially outside of a Disney park) So I assume that a Giraffe birth is a good sign for the future of a marriage.

BTW, they both got beads and a plush spider (Talamasca).

_______________________________________________
Now for now

I just want to say thank you to everyone yesterday at the SDRF for such a great time. Funny how many people noticed me, I guess I did stand out. And Sarah thank you, it was a pleasure to see you dance. See you all soon. (I'll be looking for the Tower)

Just returned from the San Diego ComicCon. This year was beyond insane the nomber of people in attandance. The queue to enter, with per-registeration, streched over 1/2 way around the convention center. This was hampered by confused Convention Center employees telling many individuals that they did no have to wait in the pre-reg line like everyone else. This was occuring much too often, causing the line to back-up even further. Ironically the queue for at the door tickets were a fraction of the length and faster moving than for us whom bought their tickets online months ago. This is just bad show. Interesting the parking situation was about the same where officers were "looking the othr way" while people line jumped and even were switching lanes in the intersection, this is not good show to all of our out of town guests. Otherwise Comic Con was the same over crouded mess it always is. It's only redeemer is one stop christmas shopping and free stuff, that I will probably throw out anyway with the morning trash. Question does anyonestill play those rediculus card games(ie pokemon, you-gi-o etc.) and the role playin nonsence.

The other saving facto is the girls, enough said.

I have also learned that to save time when headed southbound from downtown LA instead of the I-5 (duh the worst interstate in america) take the 605 to the 91 and the best part is that by doing so you pass Knott's and when you rejoin theI-5 in Anaheim it's where the I-5 has more lanes than you know what to do with.

I still hate Vista, at work to switch over to the great Vista, for awhile anyway is mor hassle than it is worth.

The General staring Buster Keton is by far one of the best movies ever made. Anyone who has not seen this movie is not a friend of mine!

Speaking of film... I have found that when filming in digital there is a look (artifacts and stuff) that lack the look of true film. duh and the lack of filters does not help. I have found a fix so my "films" look better, magic bullet. the only problem is it is just so expensive, but aren't all video products.

enough talk and stuff
later all

the San Diego Zoo has begun there summer shows, this years Big! show is called Talamasca and features some aspects that we have grown to enjoy at the Zoo plus features.

OK I wrote this weeks ago But could not figure out how to post it from Windows mobile... opera was the answer. To post froma windows mobile device you must use the Opera Browser. I am still getting used to the Transcriber so there are some serious typo's.
.


hello all This is the third time that i have wote this message. last week I was in an eppisode of Veronica Mars in fact the haas and shop/ classroom has never looked so good (except when the govenor was there

yesterday was of graduation and i had the honor of being one of the readers. this means that i was the one people who reads the names of the graduates as they cross the Stage this is one of the greatest honers that i have ever recired

if i totaly Butchered your name i am so sorry and promise to do better next time

New Ring Design

I just threw this together to show to the students an example of WCS in MastercamX2.

I will admit that sometimes the WCS will wrap my brain around a blender. Speaking of Blender, this model was actualy rendered in E-drawings not Blender like I normaly do.

Taking a little time away from midterms, budgets, etc. to just say,

Hello World

and, um that's it...


No, actually yesterday I went to the Westec show , representing my self and MACT@SDCC, at the LA convention center. I was rather sorrowed by the fact of how slow the show was. The obvious exceptions were Fadal, HAAS, and Mori Seki. The CAD/CAM companies just did not seem to be pulling in the crowds like in some years past.

Later that day, due to how quickly the show went by so quickly, I stopped by the DLR for some food (and most notably COFFEE). I have to say that the changes that Lasster has implemented are pushing through very rapidly.

Ok, now something serious-er. Intel has released the core2duo processor chip set. Through much head pounding we have learned that this processor when combined with Windows XP will not allow certain DOS based programs to operated, at all! Most notably for me was the use of the DOS based Fadal Emulator we use here at work. This program was written in the golden days of DOS and will not function at all under the current XP environment. This led to a difficult challenge due to the fact that the software is used for the verification of Fadal based subroutine's. So far the only fix that I have been able to implement is the use of DosBox to emulate the DOS environment. I know that in XP DOS is emulated any way, this has still been an uncomfortable transition. Up until DosBox release 0.70 the 0.65 release caused the emulator to sometimes display the Bolt Pattern Sub to not represent itself properly graphically. Also a problem with 0.65 was that all drive letters A through Z were always displayed. Release 0.70 has seemed to fix this issue however it is no longer compatible with the SynchronEye's software.

As I learn more on this issue I will post the results.

Yea Yea I know it has been a while since my last posting. I am currently totally exhaustedly and a bit bored right now waiting for the wrap crew to finish up. "Wrap Crew"? If you didn't know all day yesterday and into the midnight hour the crew from Veronica Mars were filming some scenes in the lab and the classroom. I do think that the four guys that I picked as technical extras had a great time, I know I did, even with the bouncing from one question to another. Actually it was termendious (sp?) fun! I got to meet a great group of people and eat some incredible food (the catering company is amazing)!

Just want to say Thank You to all of you at Veronica Mars who were here yesterday.
(BTW I finally got to see that Flash up close this morning, that will look so cool in the show)

Well it's been great posting again, but over the past 84 hours I have had as little as 14 hours of sleep and over the past 48 only 8 hours. I forgot how much work goes into TV. So trucks are about to leave and so am I.

Good night everyone.

The Wrong Side
At Batsday this year, well the Nightmare Before Batsday to be exact, a band by the name of Abney Park played. Well a long story short, I am so digging them so I thought that I would mention them here. Abney Park Website <-- Such a neat looking website. Lately I just can not stop listing to there music, or singing it in my head. ( ヘッド痛み )
Even though I am not always the biggest fan of embeded videos on blogs I had to put their live Batsday performance on here




Ok enough about Abney Park. Well today was my second day at my new job (Position), it feels good to be the boss. Talk to everyone later. Bye!

Big day!

Today was an awesome/amazing/thrilling/great day. I have finally signed my FULL contract with the state of California with all the plusses (ie. pay increase, full benifets, etc.) that anyone could ever want. And to add to it my new Faculity ID card photo is actualy good looking, wish that my drivers lincence was just as good.


Below are two images that I took at the Mouse House the weekend before last.
The First Image above is a setup (display) in one of the Main Street Shops on the inside
The Image Below was taken with the nightshot my camera of one of the most famious paintings from Disneyland from the Pirates of the Caribeen, however this image was taken at the window of the Worlds of Disney shop in Downtown Disney.

I have been posting to this blog for a little over a year now. It has been enjoyable for me to look back on what has transpired. With that said "stuff" happens that change everything. Tomorrow is the day that will determine if this blog will continue for another day or not. If tomorrow goes in a direction that could be considered well this message will disapear and will be replaced with a picture of a bunny I took the other day, if not... Thank you for reading this blog.

Well looks like everything in my life is almost perfect and great! And is set for the rest of my life! :)

Oh and here is the bunny that has been hanging out just out side my classroom door.


I promised that I would post a trip report of my trek to Japan with Invader Hime. Due to everything... it will most likely not be completed but I will post what I have writen thus far. It is raw and unedited but here it is:
Japan Trip 2006 on www.writely.com

Good night everyone.

Japan!
Yes I am back from Japan and I am already wanting to go back.





Hopefully more pictures to be comming soon! Additional Teaser shots can be found at JAPAN_Teaser_2006

It's been a busy past few months with my machine making things, classes, and work I have posted very little here. This is quite a shame since so much has gone on.

In no standard order:

• Went to Invader Hime's College graduation in Orlando (stayed at the beautiful Pacific Royal @ Universal)
  
• Easter Break in Orlando, rode Everest @ DAK, stayed at Port Orleans Riverside at WDW, and saw Madi Gras at USF
• Saw the new attic in the Haunted Mansion at DL
• etc. etc. etc. etc......... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Get the idea.

So before I get a chance to post any pics here is a random quiz result, Oh before I forget I did a test where using a photo they will tell you who you look the most like... 1st result - Sinead O'Connor. Ok back to the other result.

What breed of dog are you?

Golden RetrieverThe Golden Retriever is a beautiful, sturdy, well-proportioned dog with a feathered, medium-length, cream to golden-colored coat. These are lovable, well-mannered, intelligent dogs with a great charm, they are easily trained, and always patient and gentle with children. The Golden Retriever is loyal, confident, sweet and eager to please. Golden Retrievers enjoy pleasing their masters, so obedience training can be fun. Golden Retriever may become mischievous when alone for long periods and they love to swim.
Take this quiz!








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Well at least I have a fuzzy tail.

Ok Back to the other Face thing-a-ma-jig thingie it can be found at http://www.myheritage.com

Here are how the results turned out:
First pic I used was the image me at Bats Day down on Aug 30.
the results:

1. Namie Amuro
2. Song Hey-kyo
3. Nora Jones
4. Hillary Rodham Clinton
5. Zhang Ziyi
6. Susan Sarandon
7. Lisa Kudrow
8. Michael Jackson

As you can clearly see all women, weird?

Second pic I used was the image of me under the heading Disney Does Halloween.
the results:

1. Sinead O'Connor
2. Michelle Rodriguez
3. Henry Fonda (finaly a guy)
4. Kajol
5. Holly Marie Combs (I'm sad to see Charmed end)
6. Billie Joe Armstrong
7. Michael Owen
8. Rani Mukherjee
9. Gemma Ward
10. Natalie Wood

The company says to use mutiple pictures and compare the repeats, so far I can't find any.

For the last Test I used the image of myself in my full Halloween garb, here were the frighting results.

1. Rani Mukherjee
2. Nadia Comaneci
3. Katherine Hepburn (that's just MEAN!)
4. Peter Jackson
5. Wim Wenders
6. Michelle Pfeiffer (Ha ha)
7. John Lennon (actuly I have been told often that I do look like him)
8. Sid Vicious
9. Helmut Kohl
10. Rutger Hauer

By the way, speaking of halloween and all Disneyland has already put on sale the tickets for this years Halloween even. Yes I have already purchased them.

One last thing related to the Halloween and Disney thing:

XxThe Best and Most Challenging Quiz of The Nightmare Before ChristmasxX

You know so much about the nightmare before christmas. You must research and study it as much as I do. I have loved this movie since I was a kid and studied it very hard. Congratulations.Please Please Please vote for my quiz.
Take this quiz!

I'll possibly be posting later this evening but if I don't that means I had way too much to do before class and will try to post more later. Till then.

My machine finally arrived. It was just like Christmas morning. As I was unpacking the box and saw the blue anoized body I turned into a little kid. The machine is a MaxNC OL 10, not the best machine that they make but just what I needed. The design is setup in such a way that at anytime in the future I can upgrade the machine to have a higher RPM and more horsepower, add on a 4th axis, add coolant, and expand the machine work area. With a work area of 8"X, 5"Y, and 6"Z I have more space than what I am going to need for some time. Considering that the parts that I will be making at this moment, the largest only being 6" x 4" x 0.25" this is perfect. Some of my students were telling me that I should make some belt buckles with the northwest designs on them, maybe the week after spring break I get to work on some designs.






On a completely unrelated note... Last weekend Invader Hime and I went out to the San Diego Wild Animal Park. So much fun. The day started of somewhat rainy so the crowds were nonexistent. We were able to see from the Wagasa Bushline the new stuff that was added including the new path for the tram. Another new item was the new balloon ride that will rise you high above the park. Some time back I had posted on Demonbird some pics of the construction of this new attraction.





More side notes. Next week is Spring Break and I will be flying to Orlando to spend some time with Invader Hime. I still find it somewhat funny how my Spring Break and hers were so far apart. Come on at least have them in the same month. Oh well, it's well make the best of it, after all for me their is only less than 9 weeks left in this semester.

I just wanted to share a couple of pictures from the last few weeks that make me happy.


The photo on the left was taken at disneyland right after a little rain. The image on the right was taken the next day at the Hillcrest Farmers Market. If you day was down well look at these pictures and turn that frown upside down. Before :( => :) After

Here is another piece of jewelery that I am working on. This one I have already cut out a prototype and so far the responce has been great.








And there is another one still a work in progress, but should be completed soon. I hope [:(]

Like I said last time I would be posting pictures of the items rendered before I cut them out. This one might or might not go into production, most likely many changes will occur to the design before final production. The image above was generated from a two step process. The first step was to save the "cut" model in MasterCam X as a STL file. This STL file was then imported into Blender where it was photo rendered.

It is amazing how much publicity the Govenor's visit provided for the Machine Tech department. Seems companies in San Diego now know that City College and MACT really do exist. ( I do believe in MACT, I do, I do...) Over the past few days I have answered phone calls from all over the county from companies and individuals who either read about, the visit and the MACT program, in the newspaper or saw it on the TV. This is great for our students who are always looking for good job placement and also great for the companies looking for skilled/trained labor.

Having recently read the latest Miceage.com article about the changes coming to the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland, all I can say is WOW. These changes just sound amazing and in my opinion will be a great addition to the ride. I will be sorry to see the Master Gracey story die off but the change sounds for the better. Who I feel sorry for are the folks over at Slave Labor Graphics with their Haunted Mansion comic who have been explaining the whole Master Gracey/Captain Blood storyline that has been very popular among the Disneyland enthusiasts. Guess it is all AU anyway. I guess that it could be explained that maybe the bride is the second owner of the house after Master Gracey? Oh yea, fan fiction here I come.

Like I have the time for that :P

- On a random side note I have begun work on a new set of projects. These projects are dual purpose, first to make some side money and second to possibly win the MasterCam Wildest Part Contest (instructor division). These new projects are focused on creating both jewelery and architechal embelishments (ie. door knobs, darw pulls, plaques, etc) in a combiniation of modern and "Arts and Crafts" styles. So far the process is going well explectly with the help of the great research materials provided thanks to a subscription to American Bungalow, thanks Invader Hime. Once I get the inital designs done I will post some pictures of the CAD models. -

WOW it does not seem like it has been a month since my last post, but time flies when your your having fun. Here is what you all have missed in my time of non posting.
First some stuff happened, then more stuff, this was followed by a little more stuff and then the Govenor of California came by...

Yes, the Termenator himself came by Machine Technologies, don't belive me take a gander at the offical website Govenor's Office. So far this is the only picture with me in it that I have found in the media but hopefuly I will be finding more soon.

On another note I finaly got to ride the new Monsters Inc. ride at DCA. This is a great ride in the style of the old ways of disney prior to the time of ultra cheep. True, not all the AA are the most complex but it is far better than it's predicessor Super Star Limo. In fact it is hard to belive that this is the same ride.

It's silly little quiz time again, this one was to find out witch Wolf's Rain character I am the most like. If you do not know what Wolf's Rain is, right now go and rent the entire series, too good!

Well here is the result:

Hige, ok is that a good thing? Albiet he does look alot like my dog Bella, and he does have a hot girlfriend. To take the quiz here is the link.