Evilmatt's blog

So I tried this thing called Meetup on saturday. It’s a site for organizing get togethers for people on the interweb.

Still having issues with the makerbot after dismantling and reassembling the extruder I did get some decent results out of it but after I left it and came back the thing jammed up again. I suspect the hot end is to blame perhaps the ptfe thermal barrier has a gap or maybe has swelled while heated and the melted plastic is jamming once it all cools down.

So I was supposed to take my driving test practical today the website stated I couldn’t use my car because it had no licence plates. So I sorted a rental car out. When I turned up for the test I was then informed despite what it said on the website I needed special permision to use a rental car in a test from the DMV that required some separate lengthy application.

So I was scheduled to go to Portland Oregon (well actually a place called Hillboro which is about 40 minuted outside Portland). For some reason (I suspect convenience) I was tapped to go to Intel and help with certification work we were doing on a  product.

So I went to a concert lastnight, Heuy Lewis and the news it was at this place called Mountain Winery in Saratoga. Which I discovered was not just a pretty name it’s up on the top of the mountains looking down on the whole bay the drive up was slow and steep. When I got up there the view was fantastic basically almost the whole bay laid out bellow me.

yesterday I discovered the local safeway’s has what I will term a british section with several favourites like real baked beans proper types of tea and assorted essentials like marmite and salad cream. They didn’t have any branston pickle tho and their selection of teas though better than most was restricted to PG tips and Typhoo.

So I discovered this morning I’m supposed to fly off to Oregon next week unfortunately it’s the day after the concert I booked in to see and already paid for. As far as I can tell I’m supposed to fly down there to hold someone’s hand while they do something (details are sketchy) and help if some undefined event happens that it’s within my power to correct.

Picked up a copy of Starcraft 2 at the weekend played some of the missions and so far it’s been pretty good some light rpg elements to the campaign ala Dawn of War 2 and a good solid RTS game. They may have taken their sweet time making the thing but it seems to have paid off.

So it’s been a weekend of ups and downs for me, it started with a very big down when I found some scum bag has stolen my bike. Friday, intending on taking a ride, I wandered down to the garage (which is supposed to be residents only and is behind an access controlled door) and discovered my bike was not where I left it.