Archive for category: Uncategorized

I apologize for the last couple of post being late. My main computer died. Hard. I got the new blue screen of death with the frowny face. The computer tech had to wipe the computer and re-install windows.

Decades of work has to be re-installed. I did not lose much except playlists for music and the bookmarks in the browser. The computer died in the middle of a back up. I keep several back ups. It just takes time to re-install all the programs. Thank goodness I had a recent copy of the password vault data base.

How did someone in the Steampunk era solve problems. You may joke that they hit it with a hammer.

Having done some blacksmithing it’s not that easy. There are many different type of hammers. Some with very special uses that an ordinary straight peen hammer will not do well. Think of trying to make a shoe with a sledge hammer.

Also a blacksmith does not hit the metal he is working on as hard as he can. What he is trying to do determines how hard he has to hit the work. If you hit it too hard you can undo a weld you are trying to make, destroy a bend you are making in a piece.

Before a blacksmith hits the work he heats the work to the right temperature. It looks so easy, but the old style black smith shop had a shade roof with sides where the boards had gaps between them. The boards provided shade while the gaps let air in to cool the the smith, and the door was on the shady side of the building and was always left open. That is why I never believed in a dwarf smith working in a cave. It would get so hot he couldn’t work and the coal smoke would choke him. The same goes for an elven smith working out in an open glade.

Besides the fire hazard with the sparks the elven smith needs the shade to see the slight changes in the temperature as shown by the change in color of the metal. Red hot glow for bending wrought iron, straw yellow for working a steel sword blade, white hot for forge welding. The straw yellow is the hardest one. There are a thousand shades of straw yellow, but only one shade will work best for that piece of metal.

That’s why a blacksmith never worried about a farmer watching him work. He knew that the farmer would go back to his farm and take the biggest hammer he had and beat the piece he was trying to fix as hard as he could and turn the piece into a managed mess that the blacksmith would have to repair for a higher price.

But every now and then I want to treat this computer like an Orc and take my biggest hammer and beat the living c@#! out of it.

Stay strong, write on, and hammer it. Professor Hyram Voltage

On new year’s day there was a comic that said that it was the first of 52 Mondays. Something set off an alarm in the back of my mind. I went to the calendar and counted. Yes, there are 53 Mondays this year.

The good news is that two of those Mondays are holidays, the first Monday is New Years Day and the last Monday is New Years Eve, so there are only 50 working Mondays this year.

So cheer up.

Now if your retired and self employed every day is a Monday.

Stay strong, write on, is it Friday yet? Professor Hyram Voltage.

In a Gray Lensman story by E. E. “Doc” Smith the main characters attend a Year End Day celebration. I like the idea. The idea of celebrating the good things of the past year.

We seem to focus on the bad things in life. We should also recognize and celebrate the good things too. I do not mean to ignore the passing of friends and family. I have lost both this year. But I have gained new friends this year. New friends will not replace the memory of friends lost, but they will open the future to a world of new memories.

There were adventures this year. I went to see the eclipse in Oregon. While doing that I got to see a lot of Oregon I normally would never have seen and met people I would have never met other wise. I went to conventions and saw things most people will never get to see. A fire that happened months after one convention destroyed some art work that was prominently displayed there.

Nothing will replace my friends home that was destroyed by the big fire in California. But my friend is alive and is rebuilding. It won’t be the same, but I’m sure it will be better. It will take time and it will be sad.

From my friends sad experience of not knowing what he had, the small things, the things he used every day, so he could claim them on his insurance forms I am doing a photo inventory of by belonging. It’s a lot of work, I got a lot of stuff. It’s also a treasure hunt. You never know what you’ll find in the back of a drawer or closet. I’m also getting rid of stuff I forgot I had. It’s a time of memories and sadness as I go through some of the old stuff. It’s also a time of renewal and of planning to do better. And it’s a time of sitting back and thinking about what I’ve accomplished this year and past years. Many of those things no one will ever get to do again. Hey, I survived Y2K. That’s not going to happen again.

So here’s to a good year, past. Some people thought the country would fall apart. This old country got its problems, but it is a long way from coming apart. Some people thought the world was going to end, over and over again they changed the date. They’ve been saying that the end of the world is coming for over 3000 years.

I got the back yard looking better than its looked in years. Not that I don’t still have a lot too do in the back yard. I have a new access door into the garage so when the main door fails to open again I won’t have to call in specialist to get into the garage. I have helped friends, it made me feel good to help. I still have a lot of cleaning and reorganizing to do, but that’s for next year, but then that’s tomorrow.

I got plans for next year. World con (science fiction convention), conventions in San Diego, Kansas, who knows where else. I completed plans I had for 2017. I didn’t get all the plans completed, but I made progress.

Intermingled with the sadness of last year I had fun, I did things.

May you remember and celebrate the good things of last year. May you pause and reflect on the sadness of last year. And may your new year be prosperous, bountiful and joyous.

Happy Year End Day.

Stay strong, write on. Happy New Year. Professor Hyram Voltage

And I say this after spending all new years eve morning and most of the day in the emergency room of the hospital.

You might have an Obsessive Christmas Decorating problem if;

You try blowing your own glass Christmas ornaments on the kitchen stove. Take it from me, you’re gonna have problems if it’s an electric stove.

You really might have a problem if you order Christmas ornaments from Europe.

You might really, really have a problem if you visit Kathe Wohlfaht store/Christmas village in Rothenburg Ob der Tauber, Germany, every year.

You might have gone to far if you bought a 3D printer to make your own Christmas ornaments.

You might have a problem if you buy Elf-on-a-Shelf by the case.

You might have a problem if you have one set of ornaments for even numbered years and another for odd numbered years, and you buy so many new ornaments every year that you never have room on the tree to put the old ones.

You might really have a problem if you contracted with the Goodyear company (blimp division) to make your next Christmas inflatable yard decoration.

You really, really might have a problem if you need a pilot license to take delivery of your inflatable Christmas yard decoration.

Stay strong, write on. Professor Hyram Voltage

You might have an Obsessive Christmas Decorating problem if;

If your Christmas stocking is so big, a small kid could use it for a sleeping bag.

If your Christmas stocking is so big, you could use it for a sleeping bag.

You might really have a problem if your Christmas stocking is so big, you use it to covers your car at night because the garage is full of half completed Christmas decorations.

If you have the whole Mannheim Steamroller Christmas song collection playing in an endless loop on the stereo all day and night.

If you can sing white Christmas backwards.

You have a real problem if you have the Doctor Demento Christmas CD playing in an endless loop on the stereo all day and night.

If you broadcast the music your Christmas lights dance to over the FM radio so people driving by can tune the music in on the car radio.

You have a problem if you bought an illegal amplifier for the FM radio music transmitter so it’s louder than your neighbor.

You have a real problem if you have your Christmas lights dancing to the local, all Christmas music, radio station and you bought the station so you could control the music it plays.

If you hire someone to write Christmas music just for you.

If you hire a live band to play in your front yard among the displays.

Stay strong, write on. Professor Hyram Voltage