Making a cheap two stage dust collector!

This just published and "JUST" being the keyword. It took over a year to get all the parts filmed and then refilmed after a stupid brain fart that had me formatting the wrong disk and erasing the second half of the build.

So all grousing aside, here it is. Be Well.

Good-bye to a not-so-old friend

 

Not so very long ago, I was presented with a gift of a computer tablet.  But this was not just any tablet it was a new Microsoft "SURFACE".  More than just a tablet, it ran WINDOWS RT, had a removable keyboard (of sorts), a magnificent screen in a similar aspect ratio as a laptop monitor, and 16 gigabytes of RAM.

Windows RT was a new and experimental version of the Windows operating system. It had the look and "feel" of a Windows platform, it had a touch-me screen, but also a rubber coated keyboard covered with little squares with letters and numbers silk screened on them. Imagine the joy of opening the box and seeing the safety film coated screen. The charger was connected with a magnetic (cant buy one of these anywhere) coupler, that fell off anytime you brushed against it or one of the dogs walked past wagging their tails.

But it was new, experimental, and most important... it was a gift.

I had no idea what to do with it.

You see Windows RT looked like Windows, but it came with a few restrictions.  You needed a Microsoft account to turn it on.  It came with abridged, albeit free, versions of MS Office and Internet Explorer. And your Microsoft account got you into the Microsoft store where you could download approved software. Some for free, some cost money which they made easy by constantly asking you for a credit card to keep safely on file for your convenience.

But there was a hook.  If the software you wanted to run was not not approved or not specifically designed for the new ARM chip-set, you would politely be told that it would not run on this computer.  I'm sure it was Microsoft ecstasy.  NO Firefox, no Google Chrome, Opera, no professional photo editing programs, drawing programs, CAD, no major games, no competition.  Your only bidirectional window to the outside world was Internet Explorer and the store.

Imagine Microsoft's surprise when it didn't sell well. 

Then hope came on the horizon.  Microsoft was going to port Windows 8 to the Surface computers. But it was all dashed as the Windows 8 version was crippled the same as RT had been.  No unauthorized software and no incentive for companies to port their programs to operate with the ARM chip-set. Even the eventual upgrade to Windows 8.1 changed nothing.

Imagine Microsoft's surprise when it still didn't sell well. 

So NOW what do I do with it?

Perhaps it was too slow?  MS came out with a version 2, but it was just the same.  Although thousands of us now owned versions one and two of this experimental device, Microsoft decided to cut and run.  So for the past few years we have gotten just the legally required security updates.

There are a lot of smart people on the internet.  As time went by, some of them found ways to crack or bypass the lock that held our poor Surface tablets in chains. But one by one, update by update the vindictive minds at Microsoft changed the keys to the locks and shut them down.

While all this was going on, I paid little attention.  My personal animosity toward Microsoft goes way, way back.  All the way to Windows with Work Groups. I was not "afraid" that they (Microsoft) were going to screw us... I was sure of it.  (That history is for another blog)

Once the keyboard stopped working, and what few programs I was using loaded its storage with so much crap that I eventually reset the whole machine back to factory once or twice, I just gave up.  But I didn't stop using my little tablet. I found its niche.  I took it into my work shop. Because it had no fans, it was more or less impervious to the sawdust and dirt that woodworking creates and spreads all over regardless of the amount of dust collection you install. I set it up on my workbench and clicked on Internet Explorer (IE) and found my way to YouTube.

At YouTube and searching the internet, the Surface excelled.  Over time the WiFi connection became a little slow. But then they gave us an upgrade from IE 10 to IE 11 and that helped for a bit.

But Surface worked fine to help me find parts I needed, keeping me abreast of my favorite YouTubers, and that marvelous screen gave me a wide angle, full-screen view that I didn't need my glasses to watch.

And then it started.  YouTube and other web sites started warning me that I needed to upgrade my web browser. They would stop supporting it "soon".  For the past six months I scoured the Microsoft web site about possible updates.  For a while there was a rumor of a special version of Windows 10 in the offing to save my little tablet.  But the word officially finally came out:

"Microsoft has officially abandoned any plans for further upgrades for the Surface 1 and 2. "

As I expected. They finally got me.  It took 5 years... I'm Microsoft screwed again.

On July 1st 2020, Internet Explorer 11 finally effectively ceased to function on YouTube and most everywhere else.  If I wanted to wait for 15 to 20 minutes for each video to load, I can still see them.  The "upgrade your browser" warnings are gone. My little tablet is finally a paper weight.

So NOW what do I do with it?

It was a good little computer, betrayed by it's creators. For want of a browser, it could have lived on for years.  I'll pack it up in a box and stuff it in some crevice in the house for my children to find after I'm gone.  They can open the box and look at the little Surface and its wide screen and tape covered power connector and marvel;

"What the hell did he keep this for?"

Life Interrupted

I had it all planned.  My Social Security was two months away, I would work until June or July, build up a little extra money in the bank, and then retire. I had my woodworking workshop nearly finished and would, perhaps even turn a couple of bucks selling stuff I made.

My wife, of just over a year, had her side planned.  Chickens, milking goats, gardening and all the fun that goes with them. Fresh produce, milk, cheeses, and blue egger chickens, and perhaps later, honey bees.

We have been looking for a place in the southern part of Arizona. Phoenix has become too hot and congested. Sierra Vista. Cooler weather (relatively), cheaper (also relatively), and lots of ranchettes.  We've been looking for a place with 4 -10 acres, a workshop, a guest house, preferably on the power grid.

Making our house in Phoenix ready for sale to maximize the market price has been problematic since the arrival of the pandemic. However, the economic impact of "stay at home" does not seem to have affected the estimated value of the property thus far. Our local big and little box store hours of operation and availability of materials has been a crapshoot for a couple of months.

Additionally, the "stay at home" order came post-layoff for myself and my brother and sister stagehands as theatrical, exhibition, concert, television, and film work canceled or otherwise screeched to a halt weeks before.  The one poor advantage was to put me on the unemployment rolls a few days earlier than most other people.  Small dispensation at best.  I don't care how much federally assisted unemployment is, how much stimulus they throw at me,  I'd rather be working.

I used to say "After I retire, I'll be keeping my schedule as much as possible.  Taking care of animals.  Working in my woodshop. Making Youtube videos. Marketing, budgeting, purchasing, and all the ranch work." I would go on to say, "I know exactly when that magic word "retire" is going to engage down to the day."

But now with the shutdown, who knows.

How has the shutdown affected your plans?

Be Well.

Nothing is constant but change

Okay, so its a colloquialism and it's kind of quaint.  But truer words were never said, at least in my life. especially in the last 3 years.

In the past few years I was divorced, my sons grew up and moved out, I retired from one job and was fired from another, I remodeled my house, refound and married my high school sweetheart, worked as a stagehand, rediscovered my love of creating and woodworking, and now I'm planning to retire again - to a farm and workshop in the south of my state.


I don't know how your life has been, but that seems busy even without the details.

This is a kick-restart to this blog and a new chapter in my life. To adventure!

Be Well and take care of those you love in this time of great sacrifice and pandemic trials.

I Used To Blog Here

When you start a blog like this, or at least when I started this blog, I was filled with ideas. This was going to be the best blog ever. Anyone who read it would be awestruck by my wordsmithing, tickled by my turn of phrase, and laughing out loud at my humor and dry wit.

Not exactly what happened.

It started at the old Yahoo blog site, even before it became 360 and was finally destroyed by changes and censorship with an overactive moderating system. A fine community of writers and artist grew there. Poets, artists, photographers, bloggers, and people like me, still trying to find my voice.

All of a sudden everything had to be written so as not to unduly harm the sensitive mind of a child who just might get access. My part of the site was supposed to be 18 and over. The answer that came was that some kid had logged in on his parent's account and saw “dirty pictures”.

There were no “dirty pictures” there as art. Great art. Contemporary, new, even cutting edge, but it was art. As a test I posted something classical such as the La Fornarina by Raphael pictured above. When it was removed by the moderator, I was done.

And I came here. But there was a problem with here. The missing community. It might have been me. I might have been too lazy to start all over again. But I did a few posts and went about commenting on other blogs to introduce myself, but unlike the community, at Yahoo (360 by then) there were little to no views and nearly no comments. No interest.

It was about that time I found animation. What I mean is I began creating animations and posting them on Youtube. I tried posting them here as well, as links to my Youtube pages. That went on for a while.

Life happens and I dropped away from Youtube and about everywhere else in late 2012.

So now after a few false starts, perhaps this one will do it. I turn 63 in a few days and it's time for me to slow down and think about what I want to be when I grow up.

So s my 36th blog here (my age backward, huh.) I'm posting this with no promises, not even to myself. I have oodles to say, but most are history, and I'm done (I hope) commiserating over the past. I have an idea of what may be next, but it's still too early to say.

So I'll just leave it at, “Hello”.

Can you make a Thanksgiving at a restaurant?

It may be a silly thought. I’m sure that people do make a happy Thanksgiving at restaurants every year. And probably have for as long as there have been restaurants and Thanksgiving.

In my case, I have been luckier.  Ever since before I was born, my family has held Thanksgiving dinner at home.  For the past 59 years, at my mothers home. Sometimes it was just a few of us, other times there were tables set up all over the house. But it was always at my mother’s house.

And although this delighted me, it was not always a hit with my former wives.  But still it was tradition that reached back into my past much farther than they did. And I was inflexible.

Other holidays have fallen.  Mother’s day, Easter, and last year even Christmas, all home cooked meals that were outsourced, not to carry in, but to dine out. I didn’t complain.  I realized that if I was in my late 50’s that put my mother in her early 80’s.  Cleaning and cooking for holidays is hard work.  It doesn’t matter if it’s for five or thirty family and a dozen or so strays and their families that my mother would befriend and, for a day, make them feel as at home and as much a part of the family as I did. 

We all pitched in to help cook and prepare. But it just got to be too much. So one at a time the holidays fell.  But no matter what happened I still had Thanksgiving.

Until today.

Now I realize that thanksgiving is celebrated across the United States.  And everybody SAYS that it is a day to reflect on friends and family and the few or many gifts life had bestowed on you. People SAY that, but I felt it.  I didn’t realize just how much I felt it until my Mother told me about two weeks ago that she and my youngest brother were looking for a restaurant to make thanksgiving reservations.

I smiled.  I don’t know why I smiled. I certainly didn’t feel like smiling, I felt like running around the room like a spoiled three year old, smashing thing indiscriminately and screaming “No, no, no, no, no!!! “ 

But I smiled.  I offered other alternative and the discussion was long, but in the end fruitless.  Today my mother, my brothers, our sons, and even a new great grandson ate thanksgiving dinner… out.

It took me a while to wrap my head around it.  And I am not a good enough actor to hide my displeasure in the entire affair.  We had eaten many meals at this particular restaurant before and the food had always been good. 

Today I didn’t like a bite of it. However, I couldn’t tell you if it was any good.  I didn’t taste it. I did my best to make light of everything that I was hating, but I’m not sure I fooled anyone.  It wasn’t a tantrum, It wasn’t moping. My thanksgiving was broken and I was realizing that it wasn’t the food.

Since I was nine or so, my brothers and I had been living in a true matriarchy.  My mother was the head of the family.  You just didn’t say no, because you never wanted to disappoint her.  My middle brother traveled from across country to see her.  His eldest son and my eldest son brought their families from states away to see her too.  And my mother was now eighty-three. 

The three hundred pound gorilla sitting in my lap was not about loosing a home cooked meal.  It was about loosing my mother and perhaps my family. Would we still gather in years to come after my mother was gone. Or would we, like so many other families be relegated to seeing each other only during some five or ten year reunion. 

These are questions to which I have no answer. I cannot answer. It’s not just up to me.

So the next gathering is Christmas.  And we will be eating out.  But my attitude will be different. I won’t be secretly grousing about the food.  Because the food won’t matter.  The place will not matter.  Only holding my family close for as long as I can will matter.  And marking every moment we share together.

And that will matter most.

Be Well.

The New Look and New Name

Saguaro Cactus, Mesquite and Turpentine bushes

So I figured that it was time that I stop lying to myself (not about anything important), but about this Blog.  It was never going to be any kind of serious discussion of animation. Thus far there is hardly any reference to animation at all.

So as Google again changed the format of Blogger, I thought it was a good time to change the format of my Blog as well.

I have no idea what I'm doing, but that never stopped me before.

The background picture is my first lie.  Titled "backyard" or something, it's actually about a mile or so north of my house.  If you'd like to see more, just Google "phoenix mountain preserve saguaro" and select images.  They are outrageous cactus and grow in a very limited area. I intend to change the picture occasionally if I get out with my camera.

If you are reading this Blog and you are not ON Blogger, then you probably are not seeing the pictures anyway.

The only thing I regret about changing the Blog is that I lost the pendulum clock that told visitors the time in Arizona, which doesn't change (we don't need no stinking daylight savings). I miss the ticking and the chimes on the hour and half hour.  It was a nice reminder of just how much time I was wasting.  But I cannot seem to get Blogger to accept the gadget again.

As for the entries, they will be whatever comes to mind, I suppose.  I have no great plan.  No mission.  And no agenda.  

I hope these changes find you well.  And I hope you stop by the Blog, the real one...
http://distorteddogma.blogspot.com/  and leave me a reply or comment.

I'm also working on some new cartoons for my YouTube channel http://www.youtube.com/user/distorteddogma 

So, enough.  Time to move on to something more interesting.  Whatever that will be.

Be Well.