Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in stickmaker's LiveJournal:

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Tuesday, June 30th, 2009
6:03 pm	Magnets and Guns A semi-serious discussion of how very strong magnets might affect guns got silly when someone suggested implanting one of the super strong rare-earth magnets in your hip so you'd never need a holster. I can think of a few drawbacks (cars, filing cabinets, knives...) but you could even carry at a nudist colony! :-^) Current Mood: amused Current Music: "Dare to be Stupid" by Weird Al (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, June 29th, 2009
12:07 am	Incredibles I've been watching _The Incredibles_ again. I think my favorite scene is where Violet realizes that for the first time in her life she has clothes which work with her powers. Current Mood: cheerful Current Music: "I Am Superman" by R. E. M. (Comment on this)
Sunday, June 28th, 2009
1:24 pm	M1 Carbine Okay, just finished installing a bolt tune-up kit. This was a new firing pin, extractor, ejector, ejector spring and extractor spring. I had some minor misadventures - one of which drew a minor amount of blood when I dropped something heavy and sharp on my foot - but eventually got everything back together. Testing with a fired and resized cartridge showed very positive ejection. Yay! Hope to test this tomorrow. Current Mood: accomplished Current Music: None, currently. (Comment on this)
Saturday, June 27th, 2009
8:12 pm	Well, I Tried... We were supposed to start a new game tonight. I even left MidWestCon early to participate. Unfortunately, by the time I got home I was feeling a bit poorly. I took a nap while the laundry ran, felt a little better, but soon was feeling even worse. Fortunately, a couple of hours and another nap later I'm feeling better. I don't think this was anything infectious. Rather, rather it was the result of not getting enough sleep for several days (keep waking early), a strenuous couple of days and an over-seasoned hamburger for lunch. I'm still not fully recovered. Even if I were, it's too late to get to gaming. Added Sunday: Okay, feeling much better today. I think the problem was a combination of too little sleep (all week, I've been waking early) and some overseasoned food. Current Mood: sick Current Music: None, currently. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, June 24th, 2009
11:58 pm	Novel Excerpt Excerpt from a hard SF novel in progress: "All I've heard from you and the others about how this drive works are vague analogies," said Waide. "What's the math like?" "Difficult," said Bailey, with a grimace. "To get a straight plot of a particular function, we had to use a base-e logarithmic scale on one leg and a base two-point-eight logarithmic scale on the other." "That's... more than I want to take on," said Waide, looking stunned. "It gets worse," said Bailey, with a slight tic in his left eye. "The field strength is measured in cubic Watts." Current Mood: accomplished Current Music: None, currently. (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, June 21st, 2009
1:56 pm	MarCon 2009 Images Posted At: http://www.rodsmith.onthisnet.com/images/MarCon2009/ Current Mood: accomplished Current Music: None, currently. (Comment on this)
10:23 am	Surprise Egoboo! While Googling for additional info on Johansson gauge blocks I found a new site which has a link to my Joy of High Tech article on measurement. http://www.dcr.net/~stickmak/JOHT/joht18measure.htm Current Mood: accomplished Current Music: None, currently. (Comment on this)
Friday, June 19th, 2009
2:34 pm	Consumer and Provider I like orange juice with pulp in it. Minute Maid used to make a Country Style which I really liked. Now, I can't find it. In fact, the only Minute Maid orange juice (besides specialty blends like High Calcium) I can get is specifically marked Low Pulp. It was around for years. Now it's either discontinued, or Kroger's simply isn't stocking it. Pulp adds texture, flavor and fiber. Why would it be discontinued?! And none of the other brands seem to produce anything equivalent. I get this over and over. A product I like - maybe new, maybe old - is no longer available, and people either don't know why or the reason they give doesn't make sense. "Well, nobody bought it." Yeah? They why was it always either not in stock or you only had a few? I think this is like the reason _Gilligan's Island_ got taken off the air, when everyone expected a fourth season, due to the ratings. (The network head's wife liked _Gunsmoke_.) Current Mood: irritated Current Music: "Crazy Train" by Ozzy Osbourne (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Saturday, June 13th, 2009
6:42 pm	Back Trouble Got over to Lexington, made a couple of stops, realized my back wasn't getting better and may have been getting worse. Reluctantly, I decided not to even make all my stops before gaming, and went home. So, a Saturday night at home alone. *Sigh* Current Mood: annoyed Current Music: None, currently. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
2:56 pm	Geological Processes Someone recently asked me why, in one of my stories, I had an alien species which has the habit of sneaking onto inhabited worlds and stealing mineral resources. They wanted to know why they didn't just process asteroids. The answer is in two words: differentiation and metamorphosis. Only the largest asteroids - such as Ceres - are large enough for a significant amount of gravitational differentiation. That is, denser materials settling to the core. Metamorphosis is the chemical alteration of minerals through geologic processes. Remember how excited scientists were over the discovery of olivine by one of the Mars rovers? Olivine requires water to form. Which means Mars at some time had significant amounts of water. You're not likely to have much water on an asteroid. Differentiation also takes place on a smaller scale. Materials which don't combine with the rock around them tend to form nodules and veins. Hence gold and silver mines. Aliens with advanced sensor and excavation technology could find and efficiently remove such concentrated minerals. So, yeah. It could happen, especially if the operation was planned as a short-term, high-return project, rather than a long mission. Current Mood: accomplished Current Music: "Working in the Coal Mine" (2 Comments |Comment on this)
11:45 am	Woo-Hoo! Life-size Gundam! http://www.engadget.com/photos/life-sized-gundam/2079973/ Worksafe Current Mood: bouncy Current Music: "Mr. Roboto" by Styx (Comment on this)
Friday, June 12th, 2009
10:46 am	Fantasy Novel Excerpt Very much just getting started, but I already have this: The girl gave Bergen a long, elaborating look. "You're little," she said, not quite making an accusation of it. "I'm an elf," said Bergen, grinning. "Oh," she said. She took a moment to integrate this information into her worldview, then resumed her flight. "Alicia! Alicia!" the leader of the woman chasing her cried out. "Stop, dear, before you get hurt!" Given the flushed faces of those plump matrons, Bergen decided they were at far higher risk than the child. "The King's great-granddaughter," said Magda, with a rueful laugh. "Affectionately known as Princess Handful." "Alicia Nantes," said another plump matron, this one even more elegantly dressed and not even offering to exert herself. "My daughter. Who someday will be the terror of an allied court." Current Mood: amused Current Music: "It's the End of the World as We Know It" by R. E. M. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, June 10th, 2009
2:27 pm	Oog... Had a brief bout of vertigo last night, more severe than usual but otherwise nothing unusual. This is one of the symptoms of my irritable bowl syndrome, though an uncommon one. I noticed another two or three episodes during the night, which was unusual, though weather fronts moving in can sometimes add to what is already happening in my gut. However, when I got out of bed this morning the vertigo was severe. My gut was also acting up pretty badly. I took some meclizine hydrochloride for the dizziness and my usual stomach remedies. No appetite, of course. I spent about two hours lying in my recliner before finally managing to get downstairs to feed the cats. I was a bit less dizzy by then, but still went down step-by-step on my rump. Fortunately, coming back up was easier. It's mid-afternoon, now, and the dizziness and gut troubles are easing. Finally eating something. Hopefully, I'll be okay in another few hours. This is both the most intense and longest-lasting attack I've had in years. And I'm wondering if the stomach crunches I did last night were a contributing factor. I only did a hundred - not even sore today - though. Current Mood: sick Current Music: None, currently. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009
3:51 pm	Reloading .45 Colt I may have mentioned here before a load I tried which was supposed to give medium velocities, but was barely more than a squib, with lots of unburned powder. I tried that load again today, but adding an old trick. I put a 1 grain tuft of polyester pillow filling in over the powder, to hold it at the primer. Supposedly, the loose fibers are completely consumed, and have no effect on ballistics or pressures. I certainly never saw any of the fiber after shooting. The trick worked like a dream. First shot nicked the center dot at 25 meters. Out of five, three were in the large diamond, two in the small diamond, and two were low and to the right. I really regret not loading more, now. Of course, I can do that for next time. :-) Current Mood: accomplished Current Music: None, currently. (Comment on this)
Sunday, May 31st, 2009
12:20 am	Rain, Rain, Go Away... The drive home from gaming tonight was not boring. Current Mood: relieved Current Music: "It's the End of the World as We Know It" by R. E. M. (Comment on this)
Friday, May 29th, 2009
12:31 pm	Interesting Music Just been listening to a modern version of "Sing, Sing, Sing" with surf music elements. Works pretty well. It has surf-style guitar replacing the horn and clarinet solos. The drumming is pretty much identical. The band's name is Los Straitjackets. Current Mood: bouncy Current Music: Guess. :-) (Comment on this)
Thursday, May 28th, 2009
6:19 pm	Emergency Supplies The conventional wisdom is that when picking a firearm for emergencies, choose one chambered in a common military or police cartridge. In the US that would primarily be .45 ACP, 9X19, .40 S&W, 5.56X45 and 7.62X51 these days. The idea being that stocking up on ammo ahead of time would be cheap and easy, and that even if all else failed, those cartridges would still be available, since they are in such common use and stocked by police agencies and military bases. However, due to a combination of having two wars going on and some conservative panic over the election of a Democrat, millions of people in this country have heeded that advice. Now, when you can find ammunition in one of those calibers it is about twice what it was two years ago. This is rather like the Great Johnny Carson Toilet Paper Shortage, of several years ago. Carson, during one of his monologues, mentioned a minor shortage of one brand, due to some technical glitch. The next day shelves all over the US emptied of all brands of toilet paper. Government pleas that the only shortage was being caused by hoarding and that even the company mentioned was still producing *some* toilet paper and the others were producing at full volume were obviously lies, since there was no toilet paper on the shelves. I would imagine that some people still have a closet or basement shelf full of old toilet paper from this episode. Keeping proficient with a handgun requires a lot of practice. The amount of ammunition required surprises people not aware of the difficulty in maintaining this skill. I have a small stash, and I reload, so I'm not currently hurting, but this hoarding has actually cut into even primer and bullet supplies. I figure I'm good for a while, though. In a couple of years I'll be watching for yard sales where the now precious ammunition is selling four a fraction of the current price. Current Mood: aggravated Current Music: "Dare to be Stupid" by Weird Al (Comment on this)
Monday, May 25th, 2009
11:01 am	More on That Story Background World Ran into an old gaming buddy the last day of MarCon. When I described the concept behind the characters and my need for something they would call themselves, he pointed out that by my timeline the first documentation of their existence was in the late Sixties/early Seventies. He postulated that the hippies would hear about them, and embrace these "Star Children." Okay, that gave me Star Child as a favorable term early on. Later that could be shortened to Stars, or maybe Starz. I've also thought of Bronzes, which has multiple connotations (Man of Bronze, the Bronze Saints from _Saint Seia_, etc.). Any other suggestions? I'm also looking for a name for this universes. Current Mood: thoughtful Current Music: "Puttin' on the Ritz" by Taco (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, May 20th, 2009
1:42 pm	New Story Posted The sixth Masks story is now posted: http://www.dcr.net/~stickmak/Stories/MasksVII.html Current Mood: accomplished Current Music: None, currently. (Comment on this)
Sunday, May 17th, 2009
4:12 pm	Reloading Due in large part to a lot of rainy weather, the past couple of months I've done a lot of reloading. Mostly for .40 S&W. I've produced around 1300 rounds in that caliber, plus a much smaller amount in a few others. This is probably a good thing. Even practice ammo for the more common centerfire cartridges is currently ~$1 per shot. Considering that just target shooting practice can easily consume a hundred rounds in an hour, this is getting to be an expensive hobby. There are signs the high demand (originally caused by US military consumption and exacerbated by panic buying by people who couldn't immediately get exactly what they wanted) is finally tapering off. Prices most likely won't be dropping for at least a few more months, though. Current Mood: accomplished Current Music: "What's Up Doc?" by B. Bunny (Comment on this)