Lots Of Thinking This Weekend

Song: “Washington Square” by The Village Stompers

Mood: 6.5

Nightmares: 0

Ghosts: Several

The last few days have been pretty decent, but I have to admit that I’m feeling bummed that the weekend is over.

FA came by on Friday for lunch and conversation and board games and playing with the printer. That was the plan anyway, but after we finished our delicious burritos, we got caught up in another really good conversation and talked for the next four hours. It was wonderful to catch up and FA has a seemingly endless supply of neat stories, interesting topics, and fascinating ideas and plans. I always enjoy hanging out with her and I hope she knows how much I appreciate her time and visits (and the frog tape measure is awesome, thanks!!!)! I hope we can get together again soon!

This past week actually went better than both J and I had expected. J had a ton of stuff going on at work including some important meetings with big clients and several of her overlords, but for some reason neither of us have been able to figure out, it all went quite well. It was nice being able to walk into the weekend, instead of slowly dragging ourselves across the ground toward it.

I have been working on making a medal with my nephew’s team logo on it, and after hours and hours and hours (actually, we’re probably getting close to a full 24 hour day’s worth of time) of fighting with JPEG compression artifacts, crazy high mesh counts, trying to get meshes and solids to play together, trying to do Boolean subtracts that never quite worked the way I’d planned, and software that either crapped out whenever I thought I was making progress (I’m looking at you, FreeCAD), or took so long that I would be dead and dust long before they finished (yeah you, MeshLab). I have 16GB of RAM in my laptop and it was SWAPPING today. Jeebus. BUT!! I somehow finally got it to work, using an assortment of, let’s see… eleven different pieces of software.

And… I didn’t take notes – I distinctly remember thinking to myself about nine hours in that I should be jotting things down, but the part of my brain that was puzzling over what I was working on just shooed me away with a wave without even turning his head away from his screen. So I kind of don’t know what I did. I can remember a few things that didn’t work at all (sorry, FreeCAD and MeshLab – I’m sure you’re perfectly great at your jobs. Let’s just say it’s me, not you) but beyond that I just remember looking at the medal when it finished printing and thinking “HOLY CRAP IT WORKED!”

So anyway, I send my sister the picture of the medal with the team logo embossed into it, and I get a text back saying that they got a great deal on trophies so they’re not going to want the medals, although my sister would really like my nephew to have one. So… all that work to figure out how to do what I did, and… that’s perfectly fine! I need to think hard once in a while. Kind of like giving my frontal lobe an Italian tuneup. I enjoy the feeling of accomplishment when I figure something out. Plus, all of the stuff I print up or design and print for people comes with no requirements or catches. If I give you something and you like it, that’s great. If you don’t, that’s fine too – feel free to give it to someone else, give it back to me, or toss it out (if it’s PLA, it’ll compost in a couple of years).

I enjoy learning new things, and I also enjoy the process of creating new things. If others can get enjoyment out of it too, then that’s wonderful – I like the thought of making something that someone can use.

J’s mom is in town this weekend, so J went to see her on Saturday and was out for a while. Along with working on the medal, I also worked on the stuff I discussed with Dr C on Thursday. The good news is that I made a fair amount of progress, but the bad news is that it left me feeling angry and more than a little ill. I will work on it again some more tomorrow, maybe get it finished. The sooner, the better – I don’t want this stuff hanging over my head.

J and I have been watching a lot of The Good Place, and just finished the first season and started in on the second. Neither of us were expecting THAT. Oh, and the whole cast is good but Janet is the best character on that show. Speaking of Janet, if you’re ever curious what it’s like in the boundless void that she “lives” in, this video has got you covered:

Yep, that’s FIVE HOURS of Janet chilling in the void until someone needs her and she boops away. Check out the action at 1:15:00, and then the incredible followup at 4:19:15.

My mother-in-law is going to stop by tomorrow to pick some stuff up on her way home. It will be great to see her again and I hope she has a bit of time to come in for a bit and chat. We shall see.

Only one appointment this week, and it’s with Dr W at his new location. I think I’m going to ask if we can bump back to every three weeks or every month so we (and by “we”, I mean J) don’t have to fight through downtown traffic and construction as often. I’m not sure if that’s a really good idea, but Dr W has a good policy where if something comes up he’s fine with us calling and arranging another, sooner appointment.

I have several goals for things I want to do. I want to go to the local dollar store and pick up the cheapest paper towels I can find and some more glue sticks (I think they have the brand I’ve been using). J has agreed to take me. We’re not sure what day it’ll happen yet but I think anything other than Wednesday would be good, and preferably when the dollar store is quiet.

I also want to get the rest of that documentation together that I’m working on. I’m not sure yet but I may need to run it by someone before I submit it. I’m not sure who would be the best person for that. Just something else to figure out, I guess.

So that was Friday and my weekend. Like I said, not too bad.

Stay safe.

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