Knight Kiting

Mondays aren't a great day for Ben and I to do stuff. I work all morning, then go to class all afternoon, and then he goes to class in the evening. So generally, We don't do anything, but today, we had to make an exception. The weather is still nice, but not so nice that my entire awful neighborhood is outside. Also, the moon is near full, and most importantly, it's fairly windy. Not as windy as it was earlier today, when I was tempted to bust out my kite fisher in the middle of the FCC parking lot. I didn't but I totally could have. So we were forced to laugh in the face of the pigs who told us we can't fly kites at night, and we went Night Kite Fishing.

An awesome exposure shot.

These shots weren't easy to capture, by any means. Getting a kite to cooperate, and find it, in the scope of a camera in the dark is no easy task. Ben and I (mostly Ben) are just awesome enough to make it work.

On the downside, I lost yet another kite. The upside, I guess, is that I will now have a different kite than Ben's. I might make a real Frankenkite, literally taping broken parts of other kites together. I don't know, I'll have to look through my trunk, which might permanently become a kite graveyard. Also, while I'm at it, somehow attaching glow sticks, or even painting it with glow in the dark paint, seems like a wonderful idea.

Transformers, Robots In Da Skies

So, Ben and I are geniuses (clearly), and this time, we finally outdid ourselves. We took a relatively boring activity, fishing, and combined it with the thrill of possibly the best recreational past time ever, kite flying, and created an even bigger thrill.

Kite Fishing

It was inevitable, really. For as much as Ben and I fly kites, eventually, we had to find a way to make the process more efficient. Nobody likes to wind in a kite, but people actually seem to enjoy reeling in a fish, so much so that it is a televised sport. So we figured, why not reel in a kite. It's faster, more fun, and more satisfying. And it's so much easier to get a kite up in the air when all you have to do is release a little button to let string out, and push it down again to stop it, and with the flick of the wrist, you can direct your kite into drafts.

This, admittedly, wasn't the first time we went kite fishing. Unfortunately, Ben didn't bring his camera the first time, and this story is better told with pictures to illustrate the sheer awesomeness of what we have stumbled upon. And it's a mixed blessing that we didn't have a camera that first test flight, as kite fishing is more complicated than it seems. Gizmo's trunk is full of the corpses of kites that have fallen in the line of duty, failed trials in our attempts to touch the heavens with thin sheets of plastic. In fact, the reason we both have the same kite is that Ben's is actually a Frankenkite, a poor, miserable creature fused from the bodies of lesser kites.

From left to right, Frankenkite, Optimus Prime


Frankenkite in your face!

Ben's first Kite of the day, Cars, was nearly cut in half, by my 10 lb fishing line kite string. That is one of the more unfortunate things about using fishing line rather than kite string. The other, is that, once you loose sight of it, you will most likely never find it again. In addition to Cars, two Ironmans, like, three Spidermans, Elmo, and Nemo all fell or were lost in in our efforts to perfect this, as well as two whole fishing rods and one reel were ruined. Biggest problem was that you can't let fishing line out all the way, or it will come off, and your kite will just fly away, if you're lucky, to get stuck in a tree, or worse, it just is lost, never to be found again. And then then, the whole reattaching it gave us near infinite troubles.

"You attach the string, and then you reel it in." -wisdom of Ben, the wise old sea captain.

In our first attempt, I had managed to find my first kite after it had gotten free, stuck up in a tree. I realized how odd a scene it must have been, for one of my neighbors to look out the window, and see some young guy standing in your backyard, just reeling in a fishing line. Naturally, they called the cops, and for the first time, we were doing nothing wrong. By the time the cops showed, we were back on public property, successfully flying kites. So they sat there for a few minutes, and then left, defeated, without even getting out of their pigmobile. Victory was was almost as sweet as the success of our kite flying.

"I'm standing on the most ineffective dam in the world, flying the most bad ass kite in the world, and somehow, I am breaking no laws. And I'm not wearing shoes!"

Still though, the sacrifices were worth it. By the time today that we had everything ready, and a camera, we had no problems flying our kites in the best way possible. Well, that's not entirely true. I think I suck at flying kites, but Ben is the best in the world. Even though he had an awful frankenkite, he still managed to fly it. I don't know, I guess I am just a giant douche. Something like that. It was pretty funny though. I had little difficulty getting Optimus to his optimal range in minimal wind, and then had time to sit back, tool around with Owlybird, my little, Jewish owl kite, and let Optimus just do his own thing whilst Ben rocked the entire world for the better part of a half hour, maybe more.

Owlybird, wearing his purple yamika.


My kite, doing a wonderful job of flying, unattended.


"I would rather have E. Coli than this kite."

Now, for those of you who wish to try this at home, and you all know you do, as of yet, we have not copyrighted the kite fisher, so we're all right with you making your own. Patent it yourself, and their will be hell to pay. Consider yourselves forewarned. Anyways, some advice. don't waste your time buying the cheapest thing available. It's not an expensive toy, but, you get what you pay for, so be prepared to buy the second least expensive thing and save yourself a second trip to Walmart. The first trip was bad enough. I'd stay away from kits. Again, you might think you're saving yourself a few bucks, but really, your costing yourself enough frustration to cause real actual stress, and that's not what kite flying is all about. We've been kind enough to endure the stress so you don't have to. At Walmart, we were able to get a cheap reel for around seven dollars, and with rods, I'm reasonably sure you can't go wrong. We recommend taking off the top half of the rod anyways. True, you may get a bit more control, but it didn't seem to be worth the extra hassle. It's up to you though.

"Buy a Zebco reel. Avoid anything named after famous playwright Bill Shakespeare. He had nothing to do with fishing"

As far as kites go, don't waste your time with the little diamond ones. Again in this situation, cheaper is not to your advantage. They work fine, provided you have a strong wind. And your kite fisher is something you should be able to enjoy in even the most minimal amount of wind. The bigger, delta shaped kites generally run around $3 to $3.50, which isn't terribly expensive, cheap enough so you won't be hurting if you only lose one. And it does happen.

"If I didn't get it right on the first try, who are you to think you might do better? Just remember, god hates a coward."

Last but not least, you're going to need to some cool shades. Staring up on a sunny day is inconvenient at best. You should probably own these, but if you don't, don't be afraid to go cheap. Ben found these in the car door loose junk holder of his Paseo.

"I usually don't wear sunglasses, because my face is crooked."

All in all, you're looking to spend around $17 on your kite fisher, provided you have to buy everything, less if you have on old fishing rod lying around in your garage or a trunk full of kites.

We's Makin' Ice Cream!

Not really. We're eating it, a lot of it, to be precise. That's actually why we decided that we must be in the ice cream making business.

I think I may have had Ben and Jerry's ice cream a total of once. So, despite the fact that H loves the stuff, I was relatively unaware of their wonderful flavor selection. That may be their only redeeming quality, as it was ridiculously expensive, too expensive too justify buying, despite Barrack Obama telling us that, "Yes, Pecan".

As wonderful as that was, it was more than twice as expensive as some other, less colorfully named ice cream brands. But still, it was enough to get us thinking, if these guys can have ice cream flavors, why not us.

So, just tossing it out there, we may have to make Ben and Taylor's Mount Airy's Finest Ice Cream. At the very least, we demand our own flavors of Ben and Jerry's. We are at the very least as famous as anyone else who has their own flavor of ice cream. And if not as famous, then twice as awesome. Try these on for size:

Ben's Apple Sauce
(picture may or may not be forthcoming)

Taylor's Purple, Green, and Orange Sherbet

So yeah, look for it.

Electronix.

First thing is first, naturally. Obligatory music appreciation:

So the fingerprint reader on my parents laptop stopped working. After the typical troubleshooting I determined it was a hardware issue. In order to fix it I had to do some "research." That, of course, means I got to tear something apart. Tearing things apart is something I quite enjoy. Whether today or when I was twelve if I own something there is a decent chance I have pulled it apart and figured where everything is. And typically I have replaced something.

Click on this picture, if you don't mind.^

The most interesting thing about newer laptops is either the space efficiency or the heat transfer. Simple dissipation mixed with heat pipes and fans, well it's interesting for me anyway. I pretty much have nothing more to say on the subject, just enjoy the intricacies of electronics and the music it has helped create.

Oh, and in case you cared, which I know you did not, the fingerprint reader is hooked up to a usb hub behind the LCD screen, along with the webcam.

Do You Ever Question Your Life?

So I heard this song today on the radio on the way home from work today, and it took me back, oh, I want to say four years, time is funny, to a time when every Tuesday, was Techno Tuesday.

I'd like to salute man who was, well, he made enough of an impact on me that I can remember him, and I associate no bad memories with this man, or fake memories.

Mark Lastova. He taught, and as far as I know still does, the technical drawing classes at Linganore High School. I had him one semester for some engineering class, and it was definitely one of the best classes I took at that school.

First off, anyone who bases his decisions purely off a Magic Eightball clearly has clearly got it all together. Any time someone had a question, be it could they use the restroom, or could they turn in an assignment late, his response was the same. "Ask the Eightball. I don't make those kinds of decisions." The only time I didn't ask the Eightball for permission to do something, I was feeling pretty sick, and I didn't want to risk having the Eightball deny me the ability to go to the bathroom to vomit. Of course, as karma, and the awful administration of LHS, would have it, the door to the restroom in the basement was locked, so I ended up going outside and ralphing in a bush. So I guess there really was one negative memory associated with Mr. Lastova, but it's forgivable, as it wasn't his fault I was sick and they didn't trust the students enough to leave the bathrooms unlocked.

And then, there was the music. Tuesdays of course, being what has made me remember all of this, were the best. I mean, it can't get any better than Techno Tuesday. I don't remember what the rest of the days were; they might not have even had names, or strict themes. I do remember we weren't allowed to touch the radio that. That was forbidden. Unlike mundane decisions that he left up to fate, when it concerned the music, be it the selection, volume, or even whether or not we even had it, his word was law.

The class itself was pretty awesome, too. For the most part, we just tooled around on this pretty cool design software, though there was definitely some playing with blocks, some coloring, and for one project, we built something out of Legos, and then built each individual piece on the computer, and then rebuilt the entire model. Best project ever!

Point being, Mark Lastova, I salute you. You are, more or less, what I want to be. Not a teacher, not a cool guy, just, someone, who could, after any amount of time, be forcefully remembered like that. He left an impact, and managed to create a hole of truth in the irreality that was my youth. Someone who defied my ability to invent my life, and just let me live it. Thank you, for that. Thank you so much.

We Got "This" Much Snow

It's hard to say just how much we had, here in Mount Airy. I actually didn't think it had snowed this morning, as when I woke up and looked out the window, the roof outside my window was clear. further inspection revealed that it had indeed snowed, but it did not appear to be snowing, so I got up and got ready for work.

It had started snowing again, but unfortunately, I didn't decide that trying to go in was a bad idea until I was already about halfway there, and turning back would have been just as foolish as going on. And there was no way I was going to pull over and sleep it out on the side of the road. I couldn't even tell where the side of the road was, most of the time.

Anyways, Giz and I made it to Target, and only five minutes late. And I beat everyone else with their SUV's and their four wheel drive enabled vehicles. 'Cause Gizmo and I are that awesome!

As I was saying, I have no idea how much snow we actually got, reason being some ferocious wind. It would have been an opportune time for kiting, and the gloves wouldn't have been a huge hindrance due to Ben's and my new innovation in kite flying (more on that at a later date). But I didn't, because glove accessible or not, I have discovered that my parent's closet eats left handed gloves. So I rocked a right glove, and a left mitten. Admittedly, the mitten was warmer, but the left handed glove eating closet might also be a right handed mitten eating closet. I'll need to see it eat at least two more mittens to be sure.



So I trekked out into the snow, with my father, who I believe had been wanting someone to go out with him all afternoon. He wouldn't say it, but he wouldn't let me sleep. I guess, until I stop being lazy and find my own place, this is something I'm going to have to live with. The folks, my father in particular, have a problem with letting me sleep. Last night, my mother woke me up to inform me that it was supposed to snow, saying she didn't want me to not notice in the morning. I'm pretty sure I would have noticed when I went out to my car if by some reason I forgot over the night and didn't notice when I woke up. Then, my father, who has always had a problem with me sleeping, woke me from my nap at least three times today. I can't remeber why he woke me up the first time, but the second time, he asked me if I wanted a french fry. Just one. He told me later he would have let me have more than one. I of course, was unpleased at being woken up from my nap, something I love, to see if I wanted food, something I don't particularly enjoy, so much in fact that I will sleep to conserve energy rather than refueling my body by eating. Then later, he woke me again, to let me know that he had eaten the offered french fry. By then, I realized that he wasn't going to let me sleep, so I had to get up, and take some aspirin (I was sleeping off a headache, B T Dub).

Now, finally, the original point of this Blost, which I guess was moot from the start, seeing as I lack the pictures of what I wanted to show everyone. Hopefully, it isn't supposed to get that warm, and I should be able to go out and get some pictures, but usually, snow that's been chillaxing around for a couple of days isn't as beautiful as a freshly fallen snow. It's quite nice, what with all the drifting. I was walking with my father around the dam of the drainage pond, where the grass was visible, and if I walked two feet to the left or right, I was standing in a two feet deep drift.

God, I wish my camera worked.