morrowlife

Here’s yet another in my famous bird series. These two fellas are Alcatraz residents. Photo courtesy of Loyal Reader Number One.

Happy Independence Day! Yesterday! We had a nice, quiet day, culminating in Loyal Reader Number Three and I going to see the fireworks at the neighborhood community college. We got out a little bit late and arrived at the grandstand just as the fireworks were starting. Perfect timing. Loyal Readers Numbers Five and Twelve were with us, and LRN12 definitely would not have enjoyed the fireworks, so bunches of people stayed home and watched a movie (link warning: movie-related music) on TV.

Anyway, the fireworks show was quite good and we were only out of the house for a few minutes or so.

Went to see my brother and nephew in Tucson this afternoon and evening – we just got home a few minutes ago. We went out to dinner at a fairly nice Mexican restaurant. The food was good but the service was pathetically slow. I complained and they gave us a bunch of money off along with numerous apologies. No problem.

While we were at my brother’s house, I had occasion to exercise the zipper on the brand-new pair of shorts I was wearing. It turns out that the zipper was sewn in defectively and it chose that moment to come apart. It took several minutes and Loyal Reader Number Four’s help to get the wardrobe malfunction put back together. In the meantime, my brother was wondering what was taking me so long. Dumb old shorts.

And now it’s time for bed. See you tomorrow, on the last day of our visit to Mesa.

Here are Loyal Readers Numbers Six and Twelve just hanging out. Isn’t she cute? Photo courtesy of Loyal Reader Number Five, who will be joining us tomorrow.

Greetings from hot, sunny Mesa, Arizona! We got here this afternoon, after a pleasant afternoon and evening at my cousin’s house in hot, sunny Southern California. They’re having a heat wave both here and there, so we’ve been uncomfortably warm from time to time. Loyal Readers Numbers Three and Fifteen’s apartment is comfortably cool, fortunately. It was 113 degrees here today, and it apparently doesn’t get much cooler overnight.

No post yesterday – no connection available.

The trip has been comfortable and easy so far. Poor LRN3 had car trouble today and his hot rod was stuck at the local 7-11 when we got here. He and I went over there to try to either figure its problem out (it would crank but wouldn’t start) or get it towed somewhere. We had tried just about everything we could think of. Finally, I unplugged the coil wire from the distributor and tested it for spark, which was good. I plugged it back in and asked LRN3 to crank it again to test a plug wire, which I had unplugged. He cranked it for a moment and it started immediately. I plugged the wire back in and it’s been running perfectly ever since. My guess is that the coil wire’s connection inside the distributor cap had gotten oxidized and the removal and reinsertion cleaned up the connection. We were certainly surprised when it started.

Lots more to talk about, but I’ll wait until tomorrow for that. XBox 360 is waiting for me. See you tomorrow.

Here’s a cave out in the water right by the beach at Big Sur. Picture left over from our last camping trip. We need to take another camping trip Real Soon Now.

But our trip to Arizona this week will do just fine in the meantime. We got word this afternoon that Scout camp is open again (apparently, the water is once more fit to drink, but I’m not encouraging the Loyal Readers to go overboard on it), so the boys are going and Loyal Reader Number Four and I will go to Arizona alone.

Great day today. I stayed home and only worked a little bit. Instead, all four of us (no help from any of the Loyal Pets) built the Big Screen. It looks great, in my objective opinion. It will certainly shield us from the pool equipment, and there will be grape vines growing on it soon. We also poured concrete for the posts of the screen for the air conditioning equipment. We hope to install that one tomorrow. It will be on a much smaller scale than the Big Screen.

I’m sore tonight, as I imagine all the Loyal Readers around here are. I also have a sunburned neck. Pity me.

By the way, I’ve never mixed or poured concrete before. It seemed to go pretty well, and it doesn’t appear that we’ve done any permanent damage to anything. Two of the three tubes we poured seem to have pretty much hardened by now, and the last one is probably an hour or so away from being that way. Cool.

Otherwise, not much happened around here. Loyal Reader Number One trimmed the carpet around the water softener, a task that had needed doing for months. It’s really nice to finally have it done. And that’s our day.

The game development plans continue to percolate. It looks like Wii software development kits are about $2000, and they don’t seem to be distributed to just anybody who asks for one. However, the WiiWare initiative mentioned the other day by Loyal Reader Number Three may result in a different, more affordable SDK. We can only hope. I’m still wondering what the development platform is.

In any case, we need to start moving on the iPhone game. Time’s a-wasting.

And so am I. Time for bed. See you on Monday (or more likely Tuesday, as web access may be limited for a day or two, but we’ll definitely have it when we get to Loyal Readers Numbers Three and Fifteen’s house, so there definitely will be blogging next week, so drop in).

Here’s Loyal Reader Number Twelve grabbing a quick bite. I would have guessed the photo was courtesy of Loyal Reader Number Five (and indeed it was sent to me by her), but if that’s the case, whose hand is featured prominently holding the apple? Hmmm? The world may never know. Let’s just say it’s the Mystery Photographer. Or maybe Loyal Reader Number Six.

I’m off work for ten days! Tomorrow’s Big Screen Construction Day (note: Loyal Reader Number Twenty appears to have taken me a bit too literally – I wish it was a gigantic movie screen in a way but, alas, it is more of a big wall), Saturday’s Everything Else day, Sunday’s Church Day, and then we’re off to Arizona! We still have no idea whether the boys are coming with us, though. We’ll try finding out tomorrow. The Boy Scouts need to make up their minds. And tell the rest of us about it.

I’m still working on my software company’s Great Idea. One of my coworkers suggested a rather elementary game called Critical Mass. You have a three-by-three grid and players take turns putting tokens on the spaces. A player can only put tokens on empty spaces or spaces he already controls. When a space has the same number of tokens as it has adjacent spaces, it “explodes” and its tokens move to all the adjacent spaces, taking control of spaces it doesn’t already own. If that explosion causes any of the adjacent spaces to explode, they do. The game is over when the board reaches “critical mass,” meaning that the explosions continue infinitely. It’s pretty simplistic – more of a programming beginner’s program than something really sellable. On the other hand, I’m thinking open-source iPhone application. Or maybe even open-source iPod game. What do the Loyal Readers think?

See you tomorrow.

Here’s Loyal Reader Number Twelve engaging in a case of mistaken identity. Photo courtesy of Loyal Reader Number Five.

Ultra short shrift today. I worked until 9:00 tonight, meaning I got home a little after ten. No time to do anything but grab a quick dinner and go to bed. And blog for a couple of minutes.

Nice to hear from Loyal Reader Number Seven. That’s a lot of new computers all at once! What kind of machine did you get?

I had an idea for a slight refinement of the blimp video game concept. There could be three versions – Blimp Pilot for realism lovers, Blimp Racer for aerosports lovers, and Combat Blimp for violence fans. The latter version would feature head-to-head competitions between two (separately) licensed owners of the game, or computer-generated opponents for solo play. Once in a while, the game would use a Zeppelin, which would blow sky-high when hit. Oh, the humanity!

One more work day before my ten-day vacation! We’re going to see my cousin in Los Angeles, Loyal Readers Numbers Three and Fifteen, and Loyal Readers Numbers Five and Twelve. And Maybe Loyal Reader Number Six, depending on whether he’s available or not. What fun!

Oh, and we’re also building the big screen in the backyard on Friday and Saturday. Wish us luck.

See you tomorrow.