• Lego Carousel

    Posted on by Wells Comment

    Set 10196 has been released, or at least announced. It is a power functions carousel, about the size of Cafe Corners.

    There is discussion on Brickset.com: http://www.brickset.com/news/article/?ID=290

    There is also a nice set of pictures of it here: http://www.mybricks.de/treffen/obernau/fotos/index.php?action=showgallery&pfad=2009-Sets

    From what I have seen of it so far, there are only a couple of things that I don’t necessarily like about it:

    • Stickers. Stickers are the bane of existence for serious Lego collectors, particularly when they span more than one brick. Over time, they lose their stickiness and start to fall off, and they pretty much set that particular brick for only one usage… that particular set.
    • The power functions elements (motor and battery box) should be better concealed… particularly the battery box. I think that some sort of switching mechanism for the battery box, like what they did with the AT-AT walker, would be really nice. I am seriously thinking of getting this set and dumping the battery box for the rechargeable Lithium Ion battery that is now available.

    Overall a nice looking set that I think I will be adding to my collection.


    📂This entry was posted in Lego

  • Navy Memories

    Posted on by Wells Comment

    The best memory I have of alcohol doing strange things to people was when my ship was pulled into Sandog, and one of my buddies had just received a Dear John letter. He wrote out a big letter back calling his ex all kinds of nasty things, put it in the mail box, then went out on the town to get rip-roaring drunk.

    He came back later that night completely gone, and decides that he really doesn’t want to say all of those things to his ex, so he tries to break into the post office and retrieve the letter.

    Shore Patrol picked him up trying to scale a barbed wire fence at 2am, returned him to the ship, where he then spent the next 45 days on restriction and lost a chevron.

    The kicker? It turns out he had put the letter in the ships mailbox, and it had yet to actually get transferred to the base’s postal system, so even if he had managed to get into the post office on base, he would never have found the letter.


    📂This entry was posted in Navy

  • Intrepid Fallen Heroes Ride

    Posted on by Wells Comment

    So today I rode for the Intrepid Fallen Heroes, a fund to benefit veterans and their families who have either been injured or been killed. The ride left from Gainesville HD and went out to a number of different bars in the area: Newberry, Fanning Springs, High Springs, then finally the Eagles Club in Gainesville.

    It was escorted by the Enforcers MC, which appears to be a good group. I was there with the Legion Riders, but it really appears to me that our group, at least to some extent, really doesn’t know much about group riding. They also seem to want to always stick to the main roads, not having any sort of adventurous spirit or desire to go out onto the back roads of the area to get to different places. I won’t even go into the mileage that these guys go, because it isn’t all that much. I have yet to go on a ride with these guys where I have had a need to fill up the tank on my bike, and I can only go about 100 miles before going to the reserve.

    Really, I think my problem is that I truly “Live to Ride”, whereas most of these other riders do it more for the bar hopping and stuff like that. I like nothing more than to be out there on the open road, riding and seeing the countryside.


    📂This entry was posted in Uncategorized 📎and tagged

  • Star Wars X-Wing Fighter

    Posted on by Wells Comment

    So, a couple of weeks ago, I picked up a Lego X-Wing fighter (set 6212). I hadn’t built it until tonight because of schedule and stuff, but tonight I sat down and put it together.

    Box
    Really it is a quick build, only taking me about 90 minutes while watching an episode of Scrubs on the Tivo and a couple of other things.

    The first thing you build is the X-Wing mechanical section. The only time I have ever seen one of these center gear pieces is when I built the ferris wheel (Set 4957), which was a real pain in the butt to build because of the fragility of the structure. My cat later destroyed it by knocking it over on a table.

    Mechanical Core

    After this you build the four wings for the craft. Easy portion of the build, and a bit repetitious. It is interesting how they are going to have the wings expand out, however.

    Wings Attached

    The next step is to build the nose of the craft, which is pretty straightforward, really. Once that is done, you simply snap it onto the front of the core of the aircraft and everything is done!

    X-Wing Extended


    📂This entry was posted in Lego

  • Too much…

    Posted on by Wells Comment

    OK… just had a very odd dream…

    Basically, imagine a hostage situation in a middle-eastern country (unspecified) where a single male is taken hostage in a religious building by terrorists. He stalls them, etc. from killing him, there is a bit of a fire bomb thrown around, etc. but in the end he is being dragged somewhere to be executed as an infidel when *thump* the terrorist falls over dead from a silenced round.

    A pair of special forces types walk up, and one of them says to the other “You get the hostage… he’s BoP. You shot the terrorist, the hostage is yours.”

    Yes… he really said this in my dream. Either too much John Ringo, too much WoW, or both.


    📂This entry was posted in Books Gaming

  • Spring Break day 1

    Posted on by Wells Comment

    So, took off yesterday morning and headed east out to Palatka. No big deal there, though there were a larger number of bikes on the road than usual because of bike week. On  the east side of Palatka I had decided to take a different way out to the coast, which included going through a place called Dinner Island. What the map didn’t mention is that most of this road happens to be a dirt bog, which is kind of hard on the bike.

    After wasting a good hour trying to figure out which way to go, I gave up and headed back to route 100 and went the normal way. The rest of the trip was relatively uneventful, except that getting through Daytona took about three hours. That plus the mud bog set me back so far in time that I got a room just south of Ft. Pierce on the beach.

    Had dinner at a place called High Tides on the beach. While the clam chowder was good, the fish and chips left something to be desired. The fish breading was thick and salty, and I just couldn’t bring myself to finish it all. I don’t really recommend going to this place ever again.


    📂This entry was posted in Uncategorized 📎and tagged

  • Software specifications suck

    Posted on by Wells Comment

    OK, so a class I am taking right now is going through the whole software specification thing. This is the full-blown deal, with a specification being written up by committee, etc. I just got done writing the data design portion of the specification, which was the only thing that I had to write.

    Of course, what they don’t mention is that in order for someone to write this particular section, you have to know just about everything else about the specification first. Why the hell this is part 2 of an eight part section is beyond me, because it is probably the last thing you really want to do in the specification, at least when it comes to finalizing the specification.

    Anyway, it is nice to know that this portion is just about done. For this class we all have to give an oral presentation on parts of it. I already did my presentation about a month ago on a portion of it, so I am completely done in that regard. Makes life nice and easy for me now, because all I have to do now is run around and look busy and stuff.

    Coding this beast is going to be interesting, I should mention. I am not a java programmer by any means, so learning how to program this thing should be different and an experience for me. At least I’ll be able to take this thing and eventually play with it in other ways once the class is over.


    📂This entry was posted in School

  • No Title

    Posted on by Wells Comment

    Just woke up from a nap, and I think I have finally broken the cold. Woke up sweating profusely, etc.

    Had a dream earlier in which I was in some sort of boot camp, but there was flooding or something. It was odd. I was in a position where I already knew everything that they were going to teach, but just going through the motions until graduation or something. I wonder if this is telling me something.


    📂This entry was posted in Me Navy

  • Weekend

    Posted on by Wells Comment

    So the plan today is to get on the bike and ride down to a pizza place I know of down the road and have lunch there. Once I am done with that and have a nice full belly, I’ll head down to mom’s place and check on the cat, and perhaps take a look in the Harley dealership… I need a leather vest so that I can attach the Legion patches that I have ordered.

    Still suffering from a cold, which is a bit annoying. Will have to bundle up a bit for the ride, I guess.

    Next weekend is MegaCon, which I am hoping to go to. A lot depends on who else I know that will be going, because quite frankly going to a con like that for just a little while does not really appeal to me, though I guess I could also go hit the Lego store.  🙂


    📂This entry was posted in Uncategorized 📎and tagged

  • Sick

    Posted on by Wells Comment

    Looks like I have come down with a cold. Just a standard cold, but a cold nonetheless. Coughing which is causing a sore throat, that sort of thing. I have been taking aspirin, and it does seem to help somewhat, but I need to hit the store and get something a bit stronger and more targeted, I think.

    Also, getting next to no sleep because I stayed up all night reading a book probably isn’t helping all that much. The book was just so good!


    📂This entry was posted in Me