Well, it's officially happened. After over 4000 pictures, a couple thousand miles of roads traveled, being dropped (more than a few times) and factory repaired, and being whored out to many many people - my camera has died. For no apparent reason, when turned on - it simply turns itself back off. I think it wants to go into retirement. So lets have a moment of peace for the little camera that could - my Nikon Coolpix 2100.


Of course, this leaves me wanting a newer, better camera. Especially since for her birthday, Mandy's parents sent her a beautiful new Nikon SLR. Nice. I'm very jealous. But I'm thinking of blowing my spending money on a Wii or XBox 360 to help entertain my new Little Brother - so I'll wait for Christmas before thinking about cameras. Until then, I'm absolving myself of any photographic responsibility - you people can take your own pictures!

Sweet. I know I have a lot on my plate right now - but I'm thinking about volunteering or something this election. I feel like the nation had a collective "well duh, we're going to win this year" feeling in 2004; and look where that got us. So, this year I say bah to complacency - it's time for action, damn it.




Also, if you're in the mood for some salacious reading, check out this article on wired news. It reminds me heavily of the MC Lars song: "Internet Relationship". Except in this version, someone gets shot.

As always, the whole Danger Room crew has been posting awesome and weirddefense stories. Love it. Radar array network supported by a hive of UAVs tracking every vehicle on the ground and rewinding the tape to find out where terrorists hide? Genius.

Work has been getting really interesting lately. Interesting and hectic. For those of you interested in where my project is located, check out this neat thing I figured out how to use:


View Larger Map


Also, I got started on my clock project (I hope it turns out this well). Using that scroll saw is both fun and a little frightening. It's very quiet (relative to any other power tool), so I'm not afraid of disturbing the neighbors. But man, watching it tear through plywood just gives me visions of it tearing through my fingers. Some of the mechanical parts are kinda small, so I'm taking my time to cut them slowly and keep the fingers away..... I took a cool picture but my camera suddenly forgot how to talk to my computer. So maybe I'll post that later.

In other news: I just finished reading The Fountainhead. The book as a whole is good (not great), except for the last 5 chapters, which are mind-blowingly good. Aspiring Engineers: if you want a great read, just plow through the last tenth of this (!700 page!) book. It provides a neat summary of her interesting philosophy.

Updates. Wow. A ton has happened in the past month or so since I've successfully landed in KC. I'll just start with some sweet pics:

Firstly, here's Stace & I in scenic Spokane, WA at the Glover Mansion (no, not the Glover pictured...). Notice the bide & groom in the background... almost as happy as the two of us. Sarah did look stunning and we had a great time there!


Next: check out my Dad's new wheels. That's right, Professor Gerondale is now running a course for the University of Houston's College of Optometry where he drives this sweet RV to correctional facilities around the Houston area to let students test their chops. He is officially a full-time employee, and no longer working in the private sector! Go Dad! Ask him about ocular parasites sometime...


I was bored one evening here in KC, so I decided to try my hand at my graduation present: a handmade Stave puzzle. Titled: "School's Out", it took me about 2 hours to finish - it's roughly 6" X 6", beautifully hand painted and hand cut. Notice the gaps in between the pieces, and random color changes.... very tricky and interesting to figure out. Thanks, Mom & Dad:


Friday night I went out with Mandy & Nate to hit Westport - to see the Pitch's Music Extravaganza! We started out by having dinner at this Japanese restaurant - and I got my sashimi fix. Wow - their salmon was out of this world. We started out at this Irish bar, then made our way to the Hurricane. Mandy was DD, so Nate & I traded rounds of Newcastle. Mmm. My two favorite bands of the evening: the Rich Boys and the Republic Tigers. I'll keep my eyes peeled for any upcoming local shows featuring either of the two. I spent Saturday morning nursing a hangover - but wow we had a great time!

I spent last night with from guys guys from work doing a "poker night" event. I actually suck ass at Texas 'Hold'em, but out of 8 players in the tourney, I got third place... which means I didn't get any of my damn money back, but I did knock out two people over the course of the evening - a first for Joey. Gambling is way more fun when you actually win once in a while. Also, I beat Sherm at guitar hero on my first time playing the game. It was fun!

Also: I'm making some progress on one of my long-term goals. I applied to BBBS of KC; the chief caseworker is visiting my apartment next Monday to make sure it's a suitable environment for children. Also: I'm sure many of my friends, family members, and co-workers will be getting phone calls soon to make sure I'm a generally swell guy. Wish me luck! I'm excited to see the sights of KC with a new friend!

Finally: work is really getting interesting! I'm being given a lot of new and challenging opportunities - so I really need to t.c.b. these next few weeks to finish of the first bit, and show them I'm ready for whatever they want to throw my way!

For all the big summer blockbusters coming out - I figure it's high time for a little movie review. Last Saturday I saw Ratatouille in Spokane with Stacey.

Animation: 4 out of 5
Stunning. I was blown out of the water with Cars, which represented a huge leap forward in Pixar's abilities to me. So, to get a full 5 this film would have to push the envelope even further. Unfortunately, it doesn't. Unlike Cars, this movie doesnt' have a lot of opportunities to show off its awesome visual stunnery. However - to the film's credit, the blend of stylism and realism is very well done. Villans look like villans and heroes look like heroes; and the surface shading is great. Don't get me wrong - Disney would be sunk in the animation department were it not for these people. I just feel like the next Pexar film had better make that "jump" again.

Plot: 5 out of 5
Cute. Cute cute cute. Honestly, I wasn't suspecting a love interest in this film; but it turned out to be well-woven into the main plot and tastefully done (unlike other Disney movies where the love interest IS the plot). I'd like to tell you that this film was totally original and so craftily written that you have no idea what lies around the next bend; but the truth is that I was too swept up in enjoying myself to try to think ahead. This movie has all your standard Disney themes: importance of family, respecting your friends, and rising to conquer a great challenge. Thankfully, in this film you don't feel like it's a morality tale; you just kind of realize, five minutes from the end what you've been watching.

Voice Acting: 4 out of 5
Peter O'toole, Jeneane Garofolo, and Patton Oswalt all give honest and stunning performances in this movie. O'toole does such a good job at being a villan that I didn't even recognize his voice until I heard him being kind and gentle in the end. He was so grand and moving I was conjuring up mental images of the Lion in Winter. Garofolo does a great french accent, plus she's both cynical and sensitive enough at the same time for the part. Oswalt's timing is good, it's just no different from his regular voice; just listen to any stand-up special of his and the intonations are the same. It's not bad - I just wasn't surprised.

Humor/Embellishments: 5 out of 5
Let's be honest - the real reason it's a joy to watch modern Pixar films is the fact that an army of writers and animators work really hard for years and years to make the final product. The only possible result after so much effort is a rich and lusutrous setting and ambiance for the film. The use of humor is sometimes subtle and somewhat overt.
EX1: In the middle of a press conference, the lead and his gal exit early :"I'm sorry to be
rude....but we're French".
EX2: After the antagonist finally figures out that rats are running the kitchen, they gag ang hog-tie him. Also they throw him in the meat locker.

So overall, I give it 4.5 out of 5. We both had to leave at least once during the film to use the facilities; but that was from drinking earlier. If I could have held it, I know I would have. It was very pleasant, and I'll be looking for it on DVD when it comes out.

Wow. I've been finding it exceptionally difficult to get motivated about anything lately. I have successfully switched from PM workouts to AM workouts; that's cool because I don't feel pressured to do anything important when I get home from work (even when I actually do..). I've been spending the day with DVDs playing the background while I continue to settle in... handing picture frames and stuff, slowly putting everything away. Man I have way too much crap. I've been making a box of stuff to give to Goodwill, but I'm still having a hard time letting go of all my useless stuff.

The clock project is starting to look more difficult than I thought; I'm going to need a drill press, and a lot of time. A TON of the pieces are uncut, so the most important first step is to make many copies of the plans so that when I screw up the first few times - I still have one or two leftover to get it right. But the instructions are easy to follow, and it looks like about the simplest clock one could have - so I think it'll be a cool project. The apartment is starting to look like home; cross your fingers and I might actually finish tonight.

Work is going better and better; I'm slowly getting a grasp on what the job is all about. This should be a nice easy week. Firstly, I get Wednesday off for Independence Day, and I'll be taking Friday off to get to Spokane on time. Unfortunately - I need to make up the 8 hours this week in 3 days. That means a long haul for the few days I'll be there this week. Good news: I'm finally getting paid at the end of this week. First paycheck, here I come :) Also, Sage Francis is playing Tuesday night in Columbia, MO. It's a ways away - so I may or may not go. We'll see.

Gotta be fast, I'm exhausted. I had a really awesome Sunday today. Had a good walk on the treadmill; I made progress on my work benefits information (it should be easy to finish tomorrow); I went grocery shopping; pressed a shirt; and I watched the Great Muppet Caper while I made/ate a sweet breakfast of eggs and pancakes. Finally, I decided to nuke Windows off the face of my hard-drive - and I'm officially using Linux. I tried the dual installation, but it was acting unfriendly, so by making Linux the only available OS I'm forcing myself to get it right. Work is going really well so far; my coworkers are all very relaxed and friendly. I'm working in my mentor's group, so I should get a lot of help on all this work I don't know how to do. Fortunately, the volume of information to learn is so "insurmountable" (according to a 8 year mech engr veteran...) to nobody really "knows" what they're doing. It looks like self-help and learning whenever possible are going to be cornerstones of my work there. For the mean time, I'm working on pollution-removing equipment, so that's cool. Anyway, I'm beat and I need to get up early for work. More updates later.