Friday, October 31, 2008

Halloween 2008

This Halloween I had a great idea for a costume, and it took a considerable amount of work. This year I discovered the awesomeness of Iron Man. And as soon as I read this Instructable on how to make your own Iron Man arc reactor, I just knew this was a project I had to take on. More pictures on that below. First, the kids... (As usual, click any picture to see a larger version.)

David was a headless man this year. He rigged up a very clever skeleton system to hold the shirt up and to simulate shoulders. It was working great for most of the night, but by the end he was complaining that it was hurting him, but toughed it until we were all done.



Rachel and Machika, the Japanese student staying with us this week, dressed up as Mulan and an American Indian. This was Machika's first time going trick-or-treating and she had the best time. I think she liked it more than any of the other kids there.



Adam was a ghost. He wore the costume to school yesterday, but then he wanted to be a vampire today. After we figured out how we were going to put a vampire costume together at the last minute, he changed his mind and decided to go back to being a ghost. Not sure what changed his mind, but we're glad he decided to go with his first choice.



Tammie was a witch and got to stay home to pass out the candy. We don't get too many trick-or-treaters. Our street just seems to be out of the way. And in the past few years we've always had way too much left over. This year though we bought less, and had just a few more trick-or-treaters and we actually gave it all away.



I usually don't even bother to put together a costume. But, as I mentioned above, I got bit by the Iron Man bug. So I had to do this just for the geek factor. And there was no way I could stay home. I had to get out and let my light shine. So I made the rounds with the kids to all the neighborhoods. I even had my own headlight.



Some assembly required.



Tuesday, October 28, 2008

I'm "It"

Well, it appears that I've been tagged. One thing you should know about me: if I get one of those "forward this email to 10 of your friends if you [want money from Bill Gates/love Jesus/are patriotic/really think there's something to these stupid emails]" emails I will absolutely, positively, without hesitation delete it and not not not pass it on. I feel such things are a bane to email and are worse than the most hideous of spam. (Okay...maybe not that bad. But I do hate them.)

Given that then, how do I feel about blog tagging? Meh. It's cute, but not my thang. It's certainly not as heinous as those chain emails that only make servers more busy than necessary, clog the tubes, and propagate stupidity. (breathe...calm...go to your happy place...) Seeing as one of the rules is to tag someone else I get a little bit of a twinge at the thought. So I'll play along. But please excuse me if I don't tag anyone else. :-)

5 Things I was doing 10 years ago...
1. Graduating college.
2. Looking for a job.
3. Moving in with my parents (thanks Mom & Dad).
4. Found a job for 2 months (went out of business).
5. Looking for a job.

5 Things on my "To-Do" list today...
1. Work.
2. Work.
3. Make dinner.
4. Finish Halloween costume.
5. Install Japanese language support in Windows.

5 Snacks I enjoy...
1. Pie
2. Sourdough toast with butter
3. PB&J sandwich with milk
4. Cottage cheese on canned pears
5. Pickles

5 Things I'd do if I were a Millionaire...
1. Retire
2. Build robots and destroy them in glorious battle
3. Finally install the home theater of my dreams
4. Tour the world
5. Go off-the-grid

(Gah! I'm editing this to add... 6. Go into orbit!)

5 Places I've Lived...
1. Utah (American Fork, Provo)
2. California (Simi Valley, Antioch)
3. Taiwan (Beitou, Sinchu, Panchou, Junan, Yunghe, Jungli)
4. Oregon (Beaverton)
5. I already listed more than 5

5 Jobs I've Had...
1. Lifeguard
2. Chicken frier
3. T-shirt printer
4. Computer support tech
5. Mechanical engineer

Monday, October 13, 2008

Pet update

Well, we decided keeping Lance wasn't going to work for us. He just wasn't compatible with the other pets we had. He almost ate one of our cockatiels and loved to chase the cat. Since it was going to be way too much work to keep him from attacking the birds and even from escaping out the front door, we returned him to our neighbors. Other than that though he was a great dog. Very friendly, hardly barked at all, and my allergies didn't act up. If we were to get a dog in the future I'm sure that would be the type of dog we'd get.

So now he's actually living across the street from us.