Wow

Going to be at NAU next month. I've discovered David Lynch, pretty awesome guy. Got to DJ at a burner party, pretty freaking fun. Been hosting campfire parties in my backyard, my mom is happy that I'm leaving :)

Sold my bass guitar. Met some people with interest in chiptunes last night.

Bah humbug! ;)

TA, GC

We're computers! Matter, energy computers! Thought stuff computers! E = MC^2
So now I'm all signed up for classes, just need to apply for a residence.

Check it out: 3,513,583 NP

haha

Update

I've been accepted into NAU!
I bought a harddrive camcorder off craigslist:



I've been writing a rough draft of ideas/narrative for a screen play.

Freedom

So you want to be free? You feel that oppressors exist inside your mind as well as in the shared reality… We are going to use the human experience to demonstrate the true essence of freedom. The eternal quest for truth, beauty, and knowledge require freedom, but how much?

We have a shared reality that has rules, physical laws that govern the motion of galaxies and protons, these laws are so reliable that we are able to bounce them off one another and complete amazing technological feats that would look like magic to someone who was experiencing the shared reality just 100 years ago. Our bodies and arguably our minds are complex machines that have been built using the reliability of those physical laws.

When were these laws created? Are there other universes with different laws? Have the laws always been and always will be? Are the laws truly constant or are we such small being experiencing time in a relatively accelerated manner in comparison to the change of the physical laws of our universe? At this moment in time, with the tools of knowledge that we have acquired, we can only ask these questions and speculate.

++++++++++

We are all born into some sort of human generated system; these systems in turn generate many of your basic beliefs about the world and construct your worldview during early childhood along with language development. In the United States and many other developed counties they have public schooling systems voted into place, with a majority decided curriculum about what is important during that era. Religious institutions also have a large influence on world view.

We live with layers upon layers of rules and regulations, self discipline, responsibility, and moral law all generated out of the geometry that arises out of physical law of our universe.

YAH YAH YAH YAH

Dot matrix waterfall display hax

Something interesting! My friend was like omg dude someone is printing something out on the waterfall display on 80 meters and I was like no way I wanted to do that and went to the website SDR thing where I could see the text: http://websdr.ewi.utwente.nl:8901/

Then I email'd the dude and was like are you using an SDR? And he was like Of course, and he liked my song eternity at the zoo haha, detective.

I've been wanting a USRP for a while, but its 700 dollars + price of daughter boards. So maybe, just maybe it's time to figure out how to build one myself.

Anyway that's my excitement.

Shed

I spent the last couple days raising a shed for my grandparents, woo!

Going to first Friday's tonight.

Going to get new glasses tomorrow.

Peace!

Decline in posts vs Decline in productivity

Yes. It's true.
Check out this PHP photogallery:
http://wetwarehacks.com/ckgallery/

I beta-tested that mother effer and worked out a bugs.

On halloween we roasted some hot dogs over a fire.

On the day after halloween, I hung out with logan and his friends at night.

I am about 1/4 done with atlas shrugged, pretty good book if you can get to about page 5, it just rolls from there.

F#A#∞ is such a good album ;-;

Santarchy is on Dec. 20th, Dan Deacon is also coming to town in December!

I've been playing too much neopets, I don't know why I logged back in, but the account password and the password for the keykatcher that I forgot the password on was the same, so it was worth it... now I am just trying to make lots of neopoints for no reason besides being super rich on neopets, I'm thinking of doing that in real life too... not sure if that's a good idea or not.

Voting is tomorrow, the presidential vote is least of my worries, the president really doesn't have much power to back up what he says (unless of course he declares a state of emergency, thanks Bush administration), the propositions are what we have power over (with votes).

Well, I really need to get off my ass and move out or something. I feel like I am stagnating :(

lol

My dad had a satellite dish on his roof that came with the house and he gave it to me, check it out, now I've got sweet directional wifi antenna.


Went out to the last burners Fat Tuesdays thingy in tempe, it was pretty fun.

http://www.neopets.com/games/conundrum.phtml

lolol ;3;

Roofing all week

I was roofing all week, or more like helping a my aunt's friend re-roof my dad's house. If you take rophynol recreationally it should be called roofing.

I stayed out way too late last night, until 4 am crazy night, went back to my Dad's house got 3 hours of sleep and was up on the roof again at 7 in the morning.

I've started reading Atlas Shrugged at my Dad's house, pretty cool book so far, I am pumped to read it some more.

I need to go back tomorrow or day after and help return a bunch of packages of shingles that we didn't use.

My brain feels... crusty, like your eyes in the morning sometimes or like when you get pink eye sorta... ick, not that bad.

I have an idea for a toy, it's pretty tight, maybe I should make it or something :)

Dan Deacon rules, I finally found his name again after about a year or 2 of not knowing~!! Legit musical artist man.

Well I'm probably going to hang out for a little bit and then come home to sleep.

Ebaying some more stuff

Selling my magstripe reader/writer on ebay right now and an old milk bottle for my dad. Alright! I gave WWOOF-USA 20 bucks and they should be sending me the directory in the mail soon, I already have access to their online directory.

Did a couple arts.Today I went to some block watch party in the park, was sort of fun, Kassie was making balloon animals and there was cotton candy and hot dogs.

FFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

... My bike was jacked last night.

Also saw this advertisement. What? Does the tea induce labor or something? What the fffffffffffuuuuuuuuuuuuu

UNF UFN UFNUNFUNF

I made a song today and did some parallel resistor circuit problems w/ferd. Listening to some happy hardcore unce right now. Hanged out with Joe (evil1) yesterday, we set a fire tried making some mesquite seed tea and watched some internet videos.

"Southwestern Mesquite Dark Brew", I'll make that beer some day, and then drink it and smile because it's great... maybe.

I had a chat with Micheal in cali yesterday, showing off his keyboard, he really liked flipping off the camera.

I've been feeling a little sickly lately after the sudden drop in temperature, did the nasal pot rinse thingy, maybe it helped.

Might be breaking the law some more by buying ethyl alcohol for a minor, goddamn kids.

Tour de Fat

On Saturday I borrowed my dad's truck (I was expecting to be hauling a couple other bikes besides my own down to Tempe) and drove down to Tim's apartment, Zach was there I guess they partied too hard to head out to the tour that early. Went out and got my arm band, and signed a release form or something, I saw Nils first when doing that. Then Krina, then the rest of the PV crew Jo, Joel, Dr.Chris, Chromatest etc etc. Tim showed up a little later, but just got to see him right before I had to volunteer. Also saw a couple peoples from high school, Johnny and Kyle S.

My volunteer shirt was jacked and I gave away 1 token and 1 beer I split with Ass^trid and gotta talk with her about stuffs, pretty fun.

I got out with a nice sun burn on my face, a little dehydrated so a headache was coming along quite nicely. Went back to Tim's apt. and migrated to Ben's house to get a party started... we went around passing out fliers trying to get people to come on over. I left as soon as we finished doing that, I was very tired. I got lost on my way back home from Tempe, I should study some maps...

Well that's that!

[11:48] Penguin2600: I think my PENIS needs recalibrated, its drifting right wtf
[11:48] uberscientist: hmmm
[11:49] uberscientist: its the weather
[11:49] Penguin2600: you think?
[11:50] uberscientist: barometer penis
[11:50] Penguin2600: hmm
[11:50] Penguin2600: I have a theory
[11:50] Penguin2600: the right side is closer to the open window
[11:50] Penguin2600: which is colder
[11:50] Penguin2600: maybe thers more shrinkage on that side
[11:50] uberscientist: lol
[11:50] Penguin2600: causing a bend towards the window

Soup

Sup, I broke my optoelectronics scout... I need to order a tiny voltage regulator, transistor and capacitor. I used my korg power supply, which has the tip as - and the ground as +... sdflkajdk!

But it looks like I can order the parts (or close enough) pretty easy from digikey, too bad I just recieved my order yesterday. I was ready to do some cool experiments too. HACK NATURE! It likes it.

So tomorrow morning going down to tempe and tour de fatting till 4:00pm

No computer day

Yesterday I decided to not use the computer, partly because I felt very empty and wasn't doing much with my time.

So... instead I cut up a bunch of tree branches that fell down during the big storm when I was at BM. I have only 1 more pile to do (lost sunlight yesterday, started late afternoon).

I also hung out with zach, logan, micheal and brandon for a little bit, and ferd and kassie for a few while I helped him with his maths... kassie was all sick :(

Last night when I was drifting to sleep I thought of a funny cover for a book so I got up and drew it. The title is "Another Look at the Universe Big Bang -- Science, Sex, Drugs and METAL" and there's a picture of this guy sticking his finger in his other hand smiling mischievously with a joint in his mouth and wearing a metal band shirt with arrows pointing to different parts of the picture with science formulas related (friction, force, chemical formula for THC). Too bad I don't have my camera. NYC bestseller? Maybe lol it's got all the interesting things in life on the cover.

I don't even listen to metal that often, I have listened to TOOL and the Mars Volta, but that's really about it. Ferd likes Gojira, maybe I should check them out. I've been listening to a lot of Tuvan throat singing albums by Huun-Huur-Tu.

And I DID volunteer for the tour de fat on saturday, I am going to a training session today to get my alcohol servers license (good for 3 years) and a free din-din :3

I am thinking about doing no-computer-days every other day, it was pretty fun, and I used the ham radio to talk to charlie wooo woo!

Lack of posts

28 posts first full month, then 13, then 11 last month... and this is post 2 for October. I made an astable multivibrator out of a couple transistors, 2 capacitors and a few resistors and recorded it. I burned out a 4017 yesterday when I was working on my ~4 bit analog synth~ idea lol. I ordered a few more from digikey along with some other ICs... 555 timers, lm386s... I think that's it.
Got to talk to Carl a little today on AIM, sounds like he's having a pretty good time in Hawaii. I'm keeping my eyes open for a wwoofing girlfriend, I think I'll wait and see what NAU has to say. University seems crazy, I don't know... over inflated price for education especially since the internet is here, but I guess I am not going for an education, I would be paying to become brainwashed. Blegh!

Maybe start my own school where we don't sell entries on resumes, instead we sell knowledge.

Lost my pipe and smokeables recently too, greaaaat. Camera and pipe missing.

Tour de Fat is on the 11th of this month, my dad said it was ok for me to borrow his truck to haul bikes to Tempe. I should volunteer!

Crackin'

Yeah, so I've been cracking that software suite (=SuperStar= 6.5) the last few days, the implementation of the hardware key was pretty easy to get around, the software checks with FlexLM a lot though, so it keeps throwing up errors.

It's been fixed enough so my gramps can do his hardware reversing, just can't save files or use some features of the program. Getting sort of bored with cracking again...

I've also been applying to coconino community college and NAU, move up and live with eric, theoretically, after his other roommates move out.

Just made this schematic for the VM meter (pictured).

Cheers

HASP hardware key and FlexLM license file

I think it's been cracked, just need to see what grandpa says...

Kite

Today I flew a kite after I rode around looking for a nice place to fly. It was surprisingly easy to get the kite up in the air. I flew it around for about 10-15 minutes then the wind died down and the kite fell to the earth.

My grandpa came over and we tried to get his software working on my computer, but it turns out the hardware key (yeah this software is expensive and protected) ran out of battery power. I'm working on cracking it right now.

Riding Bikes

Yay, friends like to ride bikes now. :)
Yay, friend has a ham radio now. :)

So I applied at NAU. Physics-Astronomy combined BS. I've also been looking at WWOOF seems pretty cool. My friend Carl and his girlfriend Meghan are in Hawaii doing that right now.

Thanks, bye!

Hiya

I still haven't found my camera, so no neat pictures.
Charlie got his 2M rig yesterday, it has been pretty fun so far.
I have also been turning an antenna around and around for my grandpa again, testing front to back, here's some old footage:


I laugh at the end with the pit-patter of the footsteps.

I also made a mouth bow a few days ago, my sister let me use her camera:

Hi

Today I shipped off my defcon badge, sold it on ebay for ~56 dollars. I also went to bashas, got some cereal straws, pop tarts, whole milk and crispex.

I also ordered a new harddrive for about 55 dollars yesterday, a nice even trade for the badge.

Sorry about the long time feeling low yesterday, my grandmother gave me shit... she is so self-righteous that she doesn't even realize she is hurting her kin, and she is so dense she does not realize why her daughter/granddaughter don't even try and communicate with her anymore. I realize that she is basically drunk on her GABA, It's all based on old farts brain chemistry. But it's like you are at a party and some drunk guy comes up to you and starts giving you shit, alluding by requesting less government and more freedom that you (I don't know where she pulled this one lol) support hardcore child pornography, it's like bro, shut your mouth... I know you are drunk right now, but you are getting really annoying, I'm going to sock you!

So I did, I've socked my grandmother's brain with words (I like fucking with people's heads too much) just started talking non-sense, because thats all you can counter non-sense with... more non-sense.

She did make me think about what to do with my life, I guess it is time to pick some other goal to achieve. How about going to NAU and study forestry? Time to research that.

at the minimum...

Yeah, I'm at the minimum of the sine wave again. I guess bipolar people have more of a squarewave shape to their mood, I guess as long as you realize its a waveform you can hope that you are at the bottom and the only way to go is up. The maximum is great, ultimate slack. If only other delusional people were nicer, if only I were nicer in an honest way... nicesty through lies is horrible, you destroy yourself.

The schools train people in deceit, it's disgusting. Our water supply is full of second hand antidepressants, it's horrible. Ideas change the world. I don't know what to do, "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and wisdom always to tell the difference"

If I could cure the world with a joke, I would, I am a prankster, a joker. I wish I could give everyone the little bit of happiness I have called wonder. Everyone is so brainwashed, I don't know who I can talk to, "crazy" people make the most sense. The wackos, nutjobs, everyone who is looked down upon are the one's that see.

Hahahahahahahaha :) Who knows who is telling the truth, my personality isn't transparent, I've created it to protect myself, I HAD TO. IT'S WHAT I'VE LEARNED TO SURVIVE, TO EXIST WITHOUT BEING TORTURED. But now instead of outsiders torturing me, the balance of power has become internal. This is why PUNK ROCK, exists.

Crying tears and laughter live next door to each other on my wheel of emotion. My grandmother asks me "WHAT ARE YOU ON?" when I explain hastily the church of the subgenius. She thinks I do nothing, just leave me alone. I wish for people to leave me alone, I am not lonely, just alone, one is a feeling a state of your wheel of emotion. Alone is a state of physical being.

I witnissed a young man 'freak out' tonight, wasn't me, but I felt for him so much. I know the strain, the desires, the social awkwardness all these things feed dark wolves in our heads.

My grandmother has tempted me to sell all my things for money, use the money to travel around the country. My father won't approve of that activity. Everyone is such a hippocrit, I wish they would concern themselves WITH themselves, other than ME. HOW DARE YOU TELL ME WHAT TO DO WITH MY LIFE, WHEN YOU DON'T KNOW ANYTHING YOURSELF. NOTHING ZERO.

1. Fact: some observer is experiencing this right now, I can't call the observer me, I can't call him by my legal name. He is something that has been constructed by a creator, stimulus if ... then statements.

That's all, anything else is a construct of something. Evolution, God, what the fuck ever. Doesn't matter... all that exsists is THIS MOMENT, anything else is an construct of the left hemisphere. Or will the left hemisphere say say the exact opposite, this is a left hemi. world we live in. People using the RIGHT to control the LEFT which DESTROYS us. Right as in emotions such as FEAR and LOVE. Fear of DEATH, the UNKNOWN which are one... LOVE for LIFE, SEX, MONEY, CHOCOLATE ahhhhhh YES.

Conculsion: My head sort of hurts, I am wearing a half-smirk on my face, and it's 12:05AM Tuesday, beautiful Tuesday.
"I've been there before, it's not very fun, between this and that isn't very fun"

4.99 Large 1 topping pizza

From papa john's. It should be here soon, I'm ready for it. If you like good beer try Fat Tire - 1554. It's a black ale, it's like drinking a dark chocolate beer, absolutely great.

YES, I ate it.

My camera has been missing for about a week now, it may be gone forever.

My back

Dear Blog,
My back hurts, I slept with an extra pillow and it destroyed my upper back. I went for a bike ride, broke the law, and enjoyed the clouds, rain and lightning. I've also been reading a few pages of slaughterhouse five between procrastinating. I've been thinking of starting a religion (I said that last post) but I really haven't been on a quest yet, so I believe that will be the first step, a quest, I don't have forever so I should really get on that.

ARGH, I don't know. This is so ridiculous, why do we have the machinery to torture ourselves? Why can we ask "WHY?"?! Where does that question lead us? To suicide? To God? To humanity? This is nuts. We can distract ourselves from that huge WHY, by figuring out HOWS and WHATS and WHENS, scheduling, dissecting, destroying, creating, meeting, loving, hating, warring... but that motherfucker is always going to be there when the dust settles and you are between this and that, the WHY comes up... WHY do the next thing.

For money?
To survive?
For sex? For love?

Is there a goal that needs to be completed? What's my part? How can I help? I want to know! BUT NO ONE SEEMS TO KNOW.

Maybe we are little gods and goddesses, and there are no answers, we can choose to buy into other's universes or we can create our own (that's where the desire to create a religion comes in) and by creating our own universe we can become the most powerful beings the WHYS are answered because WE WROTE THE ANSWERS in this little book here, we got to CHOOSE the answers, if you don't want to make answers up yourself, there are plenty of people doing that already... pick a philosophy! Or maybe pick two! or SEVEN, one for each day of the week.

I'm going to sleep now. Sleep at work, awake. Sleep at school, awake. Sleep while dying, now.

There he is with his shit eating grin, thinking he's got it all figured out... there was always a time, and always be a time because moments don't disappear, like something to nothing, they last an eternity, little folds of material...

...then my internet connection drops, I'm feeling much less crazy today. I pee'd this morning and saw how dehydrated I was. Being dehydrated can make you a little crazy.

An Eternity at the Zoo

Haven't been doing much besides keeping the party going, making music on my gameboy, reading slaughterhouse five, spinning the antenna on my grandfather's roof.

Right now I am listening to the beginnings of a song I'm working on ... "An Eternity at the Zoo", I like it. It uses a scale like this: C5 D# A# C in an arpeggio for the bass line, the lead is done on the WAV channel, it's tight. I am planning on starting a religion, it will be good.

Thanks for playing (Click to hear the song)

BRC Pics posted on picasa

http://picasaweb.google.com/uberscientist/BurningMan2008#

Just some of the better pictures from the burn!

May upload some video sometime

Back from the burn

Yep, survived ,had a crazy (read excellent) time. Got to see Sasha and Anne Shulgin! (pictured) Met many interesting people, partied for 24 hours and watched the sunrise once, saw some Bismuth crystals, did some vocal chanting healing, drank a variety of mixed drinks and tried scotch for the first time, danced my butt off, painted some picture, formatted one of my camera's memory cards by accident (recovering media right now) , fought in the THUNDERDOME and did many other things that have probably slipped my mind for the moment... one hell of a "arts and crafts show" as my grandma kept calling it, I should just show her the list of events, haha! More pics coming probably.

Time for a little rest.

Pictures of things for burning man

This is what my packing looks like right now, hmmm gonna take inventory and get a meal plan!







Got some ruffles on my coat and added an Albert Hoffman stencil (Thanks to http://artsycrap.deviantart.com/)

Shopping, building for the burn

I got the VU meter on a piece of PCB, the picture on the veroboard before wasn't a functioning unit, I made a mistake going straight to soldering the unit, without breadboarding it first. The pictures is of the unit when it was almost done, I strapped a 9v battery on with a zip tie and added a switch for on/off. I then zip tied it to the front wheel of my bike, it looks pretty cool, I tried taking some video but you really can't see much.

I also took a trip to savers and got some playa clothings, went to target and spent the rest of my giftcard on medicines (like tums and tylenol and pepto) also went to walgreens and got a 3 pack of rubbers, just in case something AWESOME happens and a box of top so I can roll some party cigs :)

Leaving on Saturday!

Show video and playa bike update

I borrowed my dad's dremel tool and got the PVC elbow's inside diameter to fit the bike's handle bars (which will be epoxied) I will drill a little hole in the elbow and run the wire out to the solar panel in the middle of the handlebars which will be secured with zip ties and probably duct tape :-P

The show last night went very well, met Chris of yatagarasu, very cool fellow really enjoyed his highly energetic performance! Talked to the coitus and got to look at some of his instruments, I really liked his strobe + squarewave oscillator instrument that had a photocell resistor on it, it was build into a flashlight casing, very nice! Melted cassettes broke my eardrum (not really) but that's not a bad thing, manzareeeta~ cool UV patterns all over.

Well here's the video my sister took of my performance:



I also got a large chunk of PCB board from the shack today, going to be soldering up the VU meter on that for spoke mounting :)

SUCCESS

Slack has been attained

LIVE ACTION Show Tomorrow!

So yes, tomorrow is IT.

Another project

I was thinking of attaching a microphone stimulated VU meter to the spokes of my playa bike, so I ordered the parts a few days ago, and got them in the mail today.

I started putting one together, I'm not following any instructions in particular, I sure hope it works :-/

I guess it will be an experiment! Also put together another LSDJ-MC2, I'll only be using it in sync mode in the show...since I only have 1 gameboy.
I don't know why the pics are sideways.

Defcon 16 Video and a few pics

Hi,
I think I am going to concentrate on constructing better sentences, I've noticed my blog has gone downhill in quality of writing!

Here we have a video of some Defcon 16 happenings:


I was really impressed with this guy, pic taken as we were leaving Vegas on Sunday.Too funny... "Build the perfect dirty bomb", only at Defcon.
Censored license plate, probably could find another photo w/plate #

... And back from Vegas!

Pics/Video/Stories coming soon.

Heading out to Vegas...

Defcon 16 -- 2008 LET'S DO THIS!

Gameboys

Here are my babies, I bought the green/black one on ebay as non-working, got them today, cleaned up the cartridge contacts and the battery contacts and the PCBs, and ta-da! They work! The green one was harder to get working, as it involved getting a cartridge saturated with isopropyl alcohol and jamming it in and out a few times, but now it works consistently.

The LSDJ-MC2 sold today for $184.50.

Now I am just waiting for my Weller soldering iron to get here, I would like to start working on some projects!!!

I also got "Six Easy Pieces" by Richard Feynman, I'll probably ram my way through that tomorrow and get packed up for DEFCON 16! Leaving Thursday for that.

I took my sis to school to get her a new bus pass, they are using RFID now!! This is so exciting, I want to hack it!11 Time to sell the magstripe writer and get some RFID equipment XD...

I'm also waiting on a memory card reader for smart media cards so I can load custom samples from my computer to my Korg ES-1, as well as some cheap ($1.18) red laser modules to hook up to that light chaser box... just imagine that running with lasers in a dusty/rainy environment, omgomgomg.

ARGH!! I want that soldering iron soooooo bad ;3; piri piri piri!

LED Chaser/Follower: Video

Enjoy! Today I moped around,helped people with homework, recovered from the party, the heat is killer.

*edit*: Pics from the bender

Just rambling, but oh yeah FUN rambling

Heck yea its SATURDAY!


I cut soldered and recorded the building of the rest of the light chaser thing this morning, then I danced around it to some CD I got at a rave I went to with my IT security professor, then after that I went to a burning man rebar bender party until like 9ish and it was pretty great, bought some sam adams and drank some of them and some margaritas and some cherry vodka and some other beer that was really good. My light chaser thing decided to die on me so I was like darn, until a guy showed up to the party with a really nice weller soldering iron, I was jealous, and I fixed it. Then we talked about atmel stuff and his monkey electric POV bike light mods 'n stuff. I met a lot of people. At the beginning of the party we were trying to figure out a way to power a pump, so we went to goodwill to find a power supply 12vdc at 2.5A, but there were none to be found UNTIL I found a computer at 1/2 price 19.99/2 = 10. We used the 10 dollar computers power supply for the pump, it was pretty fantastic and fun doing that. At first I used the 5 volt output and I was like shit... I forgot the yellow wire was 12 volts. But all ended well with the pump working, it was tiiiiiight.

I'm drinking a lot of water right now in order to hydrate myself before I go to sleep so I don't ever have to experience a hangover, ALRIGHT, this is GREAT.

Light Chaser

So I got my All electronics order today and got a lot of the light chaser project done (It's in the picture). The yellow wires go to 1/8" mono jacks. It's 'my own design' but it's pretty simple, just a 555 timer hooked to a 4017 decade counter with some resistors for the LEDs and a pot to control the rate, that was the hardest part, I tried a few different combinations of components until I thought of adding a ~1k resistor in series with the pot and making that R1, that make it sexy and awesome, I had 3 LEDs hooked up at one point to test the circuit.

It also looks like I'll be playing on the 19th again, minds changed, plans were made... so... yay! Here's the lineup:
Coitus*
Yatagarasu*
Melted Cassettes*
Geiger Retort
NaK (me)
Ok Cool (couldn't find a myspace)
(*linked in previous post)

I also got my prophet64 cartridge in the mail, I think my C64 has the older crappier SID in it, I guess the newer ones got SIDs with better filters. I played around with that a little, but didn't get very far.

Tomorrow is another local burning man party (rebar bender), hopefully I can get my LED project thing done, or even work on it there.

Here's a link to my attempt at throat singing. I said I would post it!

Hot Bike Ride

Today I took a long, hot (112º F) bike ride to Michael's to get some sticker letters to label my lsdj-mc2, which is on e-bay right now.

I painted my LSDJ cart grey yesterday, but after I took the casing off the SRAM was cleared, thank goodness I had a backup, but ever since it's been pretty finicky, working then it will glitch up. I'm afraid to compose on it because I dont know if it will save or not. I wrote a really tight melody last night but lost it :(

Got another gret DMG in the mail today, also bought a couple broken ones (black and green), maybe I can fix them.

I bought a weller soldering iron on ebay today, the price was $.99 + 15 bucks shipping lol, yeahhh rigght :-P... must be hand delivered or something, pony express, but they usually go for $35 retail online, so I can't complain.

I've also been practicing throat/overtone singing. I might post a video on youtube, I'll link it tomorrow if I decide.

Speaking of youtube, I was watching this:


I really like the last thing and the vibrating dead bird. I thought it was so great when she said "If they were alive... I know that can't happen but..." haha! Great stuff.

Blah Blah

I uploaded a new song today, been sitting on it for a while... not too happy with it, probably work on it some more. Check it out here!

So I ordered parts for a 10 led chaser with 100 feet of wire and some parts to do the pro-sound mod on my gameboys.

I also decided to pickup one of those Saw III recorders, I'll probably start working on my super bend sound box soon, it will have the echo killer in it along with this Buddhist song player and the saw III recorder + some more random circuitry. It will be amazing :)

Days just sort of melt by without me doing much besides sitting around listening to music and making weird noises on my equipment... I think tomorrow should be a no computer day, or low computer usage, limit time.

I'm going to sign out for now, adios.

Planning things

Last night I checked out Zach's sister's place and hung out with Zach and Tim and the dogs, pretty cool, got to watch some Tim and Eric.

The August 19th show @ The trunk space, seems to be off, we'll hang in there :)

This morning I made a list of additional components needed for my burning man art project, but then I imagined how bulky this is going to get, I really need to figure out a good thing to do. The wiring will be the most expensive part of the project, I was thinking 10 feet of wire per LED, and there will be 20 LEDs, 200 feet of 2 conductor wire... then I was thinking of daisy chaining the ground between the units to use single conductor wire, 200 feet + ??? for ground. Sigh, I don't even know if this would be cool at BM, I have NO IDEA!

I also need to borrow/buy a p-touch machine to make labels for that LSDJ-MC2. It would be cool to get one of those old school ones.

Maybe I should drop the current project idea, and start from scratch, maybe do just 10 LEDs... so 100 feet of wire would be around 11 bucks. Originally I would have 2 sets of 10 LEDs chasing at different speeds in different directions and you could control the speed with a couple pots.

Well, I'll keep figuring things, and keep this blog updated.

Icosahedron Stencil

Yep, That's about it!

LSDJ-MC2 w/LEDs

So I guess I need to make some labels for what the buttons/LEDs mean, but other than that, it's done!

I have 1 question about it performance which I asked on the LSDJ-MC2 mailing list, I'll see what they have to say, its just about the MIDI clock stop signal.

I need to get a new soldering iron, my radioshack POS is getting a little annoying, I'm thinking weller.

Anyway might post some more updates later, peace!

Wiring LSDJ-MC2

Today I drilled a few more holes in the box, soldered the circuit board to all the switches and connectors (minus the green LEDs, waiting for them in the mail... I'm going to have 36 green LEDs lol)

I think the next one I'm going to make will use a header for all the button/LED/connector connections and just use a wire wrapping tool to connect everything up that way.

I need to look into the "pro-sound" mod for gameboys.

Stencil

Test spray of my dodecahedron stencil. I woke up and took a shower outside today, it was sorta cold at first, sorta breezy, a few clouds happily being in the sky.

My mom is outside weed whacking, I think I'll go bring her a cup of ice water.

First Show in a Venue

WOOHOO Aweseome! It looks like it's going to be on August 19th at The Trunk Space. Yatagarasu, The Coitus and Melted Cassettes are going to be playing as well it looks like (got the invite from Yatagarasu, all the way from TEXAS).

I also went to radioshack and got some stuff (I mentioned the kind of stuff in my last post), a 12 dollar rape! I guess it will come out to about the same price with shipping if I ordered online.

I also started work on the diagram on the left there. I got a piezo element out of a cheap toy my friend bought me from KB Toys (where he works) but instead of making sounds it will be acting as a MICROPHONE, for the little legs/bodies of the MEAL WORMS... oh god yesssss...In my first song ever made in fruity loops 3.something "Roach Call" (CLICK IT FOR A LISTEN) I sampled some science guy's website where he was listening to meal worms with a piezo element, its the squishy sorta noise, very organic and sexy. My mom was like omg, no meal worms in the house, you can't have meal worm pets.

I've got to start making money again somehow. I want a spot welder, freaking homemade welder fail'd. I want to make some custom jaw harps, and do some experiments with piezo transducers and jawharps as well as make small ones to gift at burning man.

Painted and Drilled

So I painted and drilled a few holes for the LSDJ-MC2 today, installed the MIDI jack and the switches. I ordered a few green LEDs for the indicator lights (I was using the red ones I had laying around) I might get a panel mount power jack and/or a 9v battery clip for power, I also want to add a toggle switch for power.
I also did some vector art of a dodecahedron, I haven't tried cutting it out... probably do that now. I want to do the other 4 platonic solids as well, tetrahedron, cube, octahedron and icosahedron. COOL!

Stroke of Insight

I read the last ~150 pages of My Stroke of Insight by Jill Bolte Taylor. Pretty great book, if you liked the video then you will probably like the book. Even being a fairly scientific mind interested in brain science, it was difficult getting through the 2nd - 3rd chapter because of all the new scientific words and I was trying to get them memorized, I think I remembered gyres or gyrus or something... I forget what it means hehe.

I would recommend chapter 18 if you've ever had a bought with manic psychosis, or have issues with 'day dreaming' or as I always described it, 'playing random scenarios through your mind', she describes the left brain chatter and how to hush it up, by literally talking to your brain, even waving your finger saying "No no! I can't have this right now!" but always acknowledge the power for your brain to make stuff up, say "Thank you, that's very nice how you can make up stories like that, but not right now". Before I read that chapter I would find myself falling really deep in my mind and I would realize how far away from reality I was and throw my hands up and say "WOAH! Not that again!"... so it's good to see I'm not the only one :-)

Besides reading the book, I called my dad a couple times talked for a bit. Also went to radioshack and got another PCB and a couple project enclosures for LSDJ-MC2s, maybe I'll put another one together tomorrow (or even start tonight) to sell on e-bay. No one bought that USB capslocker! Oh well, maybe in march 2009 before april!

Dodecahedron

Check it out, I finished painting and gluing this dodeca together today. It started floating around, pretty crazy (jk I don't wanna get charged with scientific misconduct)

It makes a weird orbing noise (WoOWOwooooo WEeooOOowoooo)

I think it went to where we go when we die, goodbye dodeca!

Grapefruit Trees

Today I went up into my dad's grapefruit trees and cut some branches off and pulled a bunch of old grapefruits down. Then I took a nap, then we went to tokyo express, then I got home and drew/traced this: Sex with robots cover

Then some other dude was like I got a friend thats a pro, so its like oh ok cool, I'm going to stop!

Now my brain hurts.

Another day

I made and uploaded 3 videos to youtube today. 2 about LSDJ-MC2, demonstrating the sync and keyboard mode. The other was about a card I received today from Michael in California... I know 2 Michael's in Cali, both are Asian but this one is younger, that video was a little over 9 minutes long.

LSDJ-MC2 Vids!:


And Full Midi mode:


The V-LOG about the card:


I think that's it for this post.

And, today...

BORING CRAP:

I went to the stores with my mum, got some things, I remember 2 bottles of wine, some sour dough bread, some ice, buns and other food items. Then I got home salvaged the slow AC motor from the microwave before throwing it in the trash. Then Charlie picked me up and took me to Jon's house, I watched some people play pandemic 2 I also played for a little bit. Then we saw 'The Dark Knight', it was a good movie, I really liked what the joker had to say, smart fellow. When he was in the hospital with 2face guy I was like "oh my, I can see forever". Pretty awesome. The joker was pretty violent sometimes, but I guess that can sorta grow on you, like drinking alcohol or smoking... its like EWW at first, but then it sorta draws you back in each time a little further until you are making pencils disappear.

After the movie I had some grilled cheese and tomato soup from Jon's mom, it was good. Then I went home for 3 minutes and then Fernando called me, so I went and helped him with his homework. Then I went home again and made some blog post and watched some internet videos, woooooooooooooooo

LSDJ-Midi Converter

Did you know that I automatically spell converter converTOR, just sounds cooler, but it's wrong. Well, these are some catch up posts, after the microwave transformer welder died, I went inside and started soldering up a LSDJ to MIDI converter. I ordered half the parts from mouser, then realized I ordered the wrong 7414 IC and so I ordered the right IC and the resistors and MIDI female from digikey.

I got it all together in an afternoon, but I couldn't figure out why it wasn't working, so I tried again the next day, all day until 8 at night, my link cable between the gameboy and the circuit was farts (or I had the female connector soldered up wrong, which I doubt)! I took half a link cable from a DMG-07 and soldered the corresponding pins directly to the points on the circuit and it worked! yay!

I got both sync and keyboard mode working, I should make a video, but for now have this crappy picture!You can see the link cable plugged into the LSDJ-MC2 and gameboy, this picture was during troubleshooting.

MOT Welder: 03

I finally got the welder working thanks to stasterisk of instructables telling me HOW to weld ;P... unfortunately the 10 gauge wire on the secondary decided to start melting... and smoking...

I got a few welds that looked like this:
From the machine that looks like this, you can see how the secondary is sorta gooey looking :-/
That's it for the MOT welder, I'm not sure what to do next, I do have another 50+ feet of 10 gauge wire, I don't know if rewinding would be a good idea.

Oh yeah, here's the first test (and failure!)

MOT Welder: 02

Here we go again, I wound the 10 gauge wire around the transformers. With one of the transformers I was able to wind 20 turns, the other I could only fit around 17 turns. The odd thing is that the 20 turn transformer put out around 15 VAC versus the 18 VAC from the 17 turn one.

I wired both of the transformers together and got 33.8 VAC. The next step will be getting my dad's welding equipment, an electrode holder, a case, and some pieces of scrap metal to practice welding on.

Here is a video of the very first test, I believe the multimeter's leads weren't touching the copper wire and it arced and scared me. Notice how I automatically cover my crotch.

MOT Welder: 01

Captain's log:
Build a Microwave Transformer Homemade Stick/Arc Welder

Today I received my 10 gauge wire and I popped the secondary windings out of a couple microwave oven transformers (MOT).

Tomorrow I will wind the new secondary. Wish me luck.

* END TRANSMISSION *

Charlie's new apartment

Today helped Charlie move into his new apartment, it was pretty fun, Chris, Matt, Sam, John also came along and hung out/helped out. Had some brews, some pizza, it was good. I also got to check out his compound microscope for the first time, found some "nasty" water and brought it back for inspection, swimming with life!

Also went to savers with him to stock up on pots/pans/other kitchen stuffs ... and I got some great deals, a couple steel bowls for 99 cents each, a nice shirt for 99 cents and a Talking Whiz Kid Plus, for 99 cents... for a total of $3.22 after tax. I've circuit bent a whiz kid before:


It lost all original functioning though. :)

The steel bowls are to be turned into a waterphone:


Pretty cool huh?

Roof Top Exploration

Tim had a great plan to get up on top of a "cafetorium" roof. We executed it a couple nights ago. It was a success. :)

He took some cool time exposures with his digital camera. Hey! There's one up there!

Here's the crew, L to R: Me, Carl, Tim, Patrick

Virgin Burners Meeting

So I got a ride to the virgin burners meeting, for burning man (thanks Lynne!). It was pretty cool, got me exposed to the burning man community (in more way than one :D ) and got to shake hands drink a few brews, get some heart burn from some spicy salsa. It was great to see so many confident people, just chilling out, pretty great.

Pretty good day today, not sure what else to say :)

What I did YESTERDAY

I rode my bike to the post office, I am really hating the compression on my youtube videos. They com out of the camera as AVI, I edit them, save as AVI, convert to FLV in SUPER and it turns out like this:






I think editing then rendering to a WMV then uploading had better results than my current method...
----
Now this morning I made a cool song: Happysad It's just a start, I had an idea, played it on the keyboard and transfered it to LSDJ, then ran the gameboy through the filter on my keyboard. It'll get even better, trust me!

Got capslocker working today + more

I set the fuses in avrdude finally thanks to keen101 from lady ada's tea party. What a help! Anyway the usb capslocker is finished and working! Wooo, also on ebay. Also I made a video of the echo killer my grandpa gave me, I guess he got it from hong kong or Malaysia or something. Also ordered a screwdriver to open up Nintendo stuff (small triwing) and the parts to make a MIDI -> Gameboy from mouser. That's going to be awesome, I also emailed the admin from 8 bit collective because he was supposed to making these in mass, and I was wondering about whether I could just order a PCB from him, if not then fuck it, I'll make my own. IM HARD EX CORE EX EX!! I also downloaded Henry Homesweet's album "Pocket Monster" it's pretty sick, I really like the song pocket monster, just has that darkish/happy mad scientist mechanical dance feel, which is hard to do in music imho. You can download the album here: THIRD ON THE LIST. and he actually talked to me on myspace after I added him - *swooon*

I made that pink black white thing up there in context free, inspired by the invader fractal set, except its not mirrored, I can't think of a way to mirror in context free.

USB CAPSLOCKER BELOWWWW

YOUTUBE VIDEO OF ECHO KILLAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

4th of July

The audio got messed up somehow, darn it!, anyway:

Away from computer

Today I spent most of the day away from the computer helping my dad paint his doors. It was good, got to make breakfast with him and dinner and have a few glasses of wine and talked about life and I got some more details on his stories.

Last night I cut up a bunch of mushrooms and sauteed them, then put them on a couple pieces of toasted sourdough bread with butter, it was pretty delish.

Anyway, not much creation besides memories today.

Game of Go

Game of Go,
originally uploaded by uberscientist.

The game of go draws many parallels with life, it rewards walking the fine line, a balance in everything. Many many pro games are won by just a point or 2, even half a point for making the 2nd move.

Yep, I created another picture with context free!

I also took a break from checking forums, posting, youtube and playing with context free to make a song in LSDJ. This is my first "full" LSDJ song, yay! I also watched the tail end of an anime called black cat or something, it had to do with nanobots and mutants and sweepers or something.

I also made a huge version of the go game and made a "song" and put it to the animation exported from context free:



I've been trying to think of a way to make a SOIC to 8-pin DIP adapter (ZIF type) But the leads are so close to eachother, I cant think of much , maybe some melty plastic that hardens with some really fine wires? I might be able to think of something... if they idea gods are appeased.

Also if you want the grammar file for the go, I've now uploaded to the CFA gallery, so check out my stuff here: nak's CFA gallery!

galaxies

galaxies,
originally uploaded by uberscientist.

I went to apache reclamation with my friend Charles from blast wave labs. It's a really fun place to go, a ton of old dusty test equipment, labware, electronic components, tubing wire, high voltage stuffs, etc! I was looking for some 10 AWG wire to build a welder out of a couple old microwave oven transformers, but all I could find was 6 and 8 gauge. I did pick up a couple quarter inch plugs and a 5 pin DIN plug just so the trip wasn't for nothing. I was planning on using those to make a cable that went from the C64 to my mixer, but the A/V port is an 8 pin DIN and the 5 pin wont even fit :(

I've also been working on more context free art:


//Use ASM as the random seed to get the same image

startshape FINAL

background { b -1}

rule SPIRAL {
CIRCLE { y -1 s .05 }
SPIRAL { y .1 x .9 r 70 size .99 b .99 h 15 }
}

rule GALAXY {
SPIRAL { }
GALAXY { x 1.5 y 1.5 size -.99 r 17 skew 5 10 }
}

rule NEB {
CIRCLE { s 5 sat .5 h 10 a .5 }
NEB { y 1 r 30 s -.90 b .01 h .5 }
}

rule NEB {
CIRCLE { s 5 sat .5 h 278 a .5 }
NEB { y 1 r 30 s -.90 b .03 h .5 }
}

rule STARFIELD {
CIRCLE { s .1 b 1 }
STARFIELD { s .90 x 8 y 4 r 70 }
}

rule STARFIELD {
CIRCLE { s .15 b 1 }
STARFIELD { s .90 x 4 y 8 r 34 }
}

rule ANOTHER{
GALAXY { }
NEB { z -1 x -2 y 4 s .5 }
ANOTHER { x 2 y 15 size -.75 r 17 }
}

rule ANOTHER{
GALAXY { }
ANOTHER { x -1 y 20 size .90 r 30 }
}

rule ALL {
ANOTHER { }
ANOTHER { x 5 y -4 r 95 }
STARFIELD { z -2 x -2.5 }
}

rule FINAL {
ALL { r 90 }
}


Context Free

So it's 8PM, I didn't sleep in my bed last night because it was hot, right now it's 91.4º F inside (not that I'm complaining...) and 97.9º F outside. I shipped off some packages for eBay. I must've just goofed away a bunch of time on the internet because I don't really recall doing anything much until I decided to open up "Context Free", I downloaded the program yesterday, but it looked too complex to learn at 12:00AM.

It takes very little time to pick up on if you are familiar with C syntax (you don't have to know C, I sure don't) it probably won't take much longer if you aren't familiar. Anyway, first thing I made was 2 circles a square and another circle in the configuration of mammalian male anatomy, how mature. Then I began to work on colors and making a tear drop shape, I learned how to do recursion, if you decide to download context free, I recommend going to the "Examples" menu and doing lesson one, I can't speak for lesson 2 yet!

Anyway, I made that image up there with this 'code' (I call it lollipop, remove the comment on square to make actual lollipops!) :

startshape FINAL

background { b -1}

rule LOLLIPOP{
CIRCLE { x 0 y 0 size 1 sat 1 }
//SQUARE { y -1 s .95 .05 z 1 r 90 b 1. }
}
rule OG {
LOLLIPOP {}
OG { y .6 x .9 r 20 size .95 b .07 h 15 }
}

rule OTHER {
OG { }
OTHER { x .8 y .7 size -.95 r 17 }
}

rule ANOTHER{
OTHER { }
ANOTHER { x 2 y 15 size -.75 r 17 b .01}
}

rule FINAL {
ANOTHER { r 90 }
ANOTHER {r 180 x -5 y 10} //take this out for just a horizontal shape
}

The language is really simple and logical, I can see this being loads of fun! I really need to eat something though, also when I go to sleep I have thoughts of picking up my calculus book and doing all the work in it. I really don't want to go back to school though, I'd rather just be an autodidact, but I need to make sure I'm not being a poopy head and just playing with context free or playing TF2 all day.

I also remembered that I made a song in the morning, when I turned on the computer to get the addresses for the ebayers, you can listen here. I used my microkorg and a little FM radio to phaser the audio coming from a spanish radio station. I also used a program called MEAP to chop up the beat and synth sounds at the end there.

Blogs

I used to update a blog on xanga.com, thats was back in high school (and a little after until February 2006). I tried starting blogs again, but something would get messed up, changing domain names or something happened with technosafari and wetwarehacks, I forgot the password. I should really get back to working on those CES kits now that I think about it!

I recently signed up for a blogging place called 'insane journal' to try and keep in touch with Laulina A. , possible burning man travel mate if I go. I made a couple really disconnected stream of consciousness posts, just completely letting go, I figure that would be a good place to do it, its called insane journal for a reason, no?

Also, on myspace.com I made a blog post about my musical adventures, since it's a music myspace, for my musical creations.

So, I figure, this place will be my new xanga. I called it naked proof because I was thinking of just calling it "Proof", just a proof that I was here in the 4th dimension and I was actively doing "things". I added naked because of my handle "nak" and I thought naked proof sounded cool, all in the nude.

Well wish me luck, I hope to keep this as updated as my xanga in the year or so that it was up.