December 31st

As I was off work, I played Warcraft for a while, then went out and tinkered with the van.  When I replaced the headlights, I gained a little blue bulb at the bottom of the housing that I'd quickly tried to wire up to the high beams (but they hadn't worked because the earth I'd used wasn't great).  I've taken those out, and put in some little white 3W LEDs, and wired those to the side lights (that are in the indicators).  The last time I was sitting in traffic, I noticed how much of a load the headlights put on the battery (it's about 1V lower voltage when the lights are on), so hopefully this'll let me use the side lights in that situation.

In the evening, we went and saw "The Hobbit 3" with Jen.  Who knew Billy Connolly was in it?

December 28th

After the usual Warcraft session in the morning, Tilly and I went out and did a little thinning of the pomegranate tree, then I went to the airfield and took the Flightstar out for some circuits.

December 27th

It wasn't as windy today, so I went to the airfield and installed new EGT probes on the plane - one of the old ones had stopped working.  I tested them with a lighter, only to find that both worked.  I discovered that it reads OK up to ~180F, and then goes back to 0.  Which is great, except the exhaust should be ~1100F.  When I wired the new probe in, I went red -> white, black to black and they didn't work.  Wiring black -> white and red -> black worked, and I have a feeling I've done this before.  By the time I was done, the wind was blowing directly across the runway (people were taking off and landing both ways, which also cheers me up no end), and I just wasn't feeling it, so I went home.

December 26th

I was still off work, so I wasted the day playing around on the computer.  I now have a DHCP server running on the Raspberry Pi.  I'm toying with turning off the one on the router, so I can point to my own choice of DNS servers - Comcast's seem to be... problematic quite often.

I've dumped sold some stuff on eBay, and I had just finished boxing it up when I heard the posty arrive, so I managed to get those shipped out.  Yay.

December 25th

Happy Saturnalia!

After playing Warcraft for a while, we went out and found a restaurant open for lunch.  The traditional English Xmas meal of fish and chips.

Jen came over to play with Tilly and drop off some ginger cookies.

December 24th

I had the day off (I only realised this on Monday), so I wasted the day pottering around tidying stuff in the garage and playing Warcraft.

December 21st

I played yet more Warcraft, and played about with the time lapse controller Raspberry Pi.  I now have it sorted out to the point where it'll control the camera, so it's an intervalometer.  Yay.

I did some tidying in the garage (and managed to dump my remaining fluorescent tubes on Fred, now I have LED strips everywhere), and cut the grass.  Poor grass has been flooded out for a while, but at least the trees seem to have run out of leaves for the moment.

December 20th

I played a bit of Warcraft, and dinked about with the time lapse controller stuff on the 2nd Raspberry Pi.  No real progress there though.

December 18th

Vic's joined the Roseville Fine Arts Society, so we went to their Xmas meeting.

December 17th

We went to the EAA Xmas party.  A fun time was had by all, and the entertainment was provided by Danny, an ex-Doobie Brother.

December 16th

I got up stupid early to go to the office in San Francisco, and waited around 45 minutes to get on to the Bay Bridge.  I hate the fact that this is cheerfully due to the toll booths, rather than anything wrong with the bridge itself, and that even Fastpass doesn't help.

I got stuck on a long teleconference (long in that my bluetooth headset battery died, charged, then almost died again), so I didn't get away until almost 19:00.  And the traffic in the city was still terrible - it took almost 30 minutes just to get to the bridge.  People can't drive like normal human beings when it's raining, it seems.

December 14th

I wasted the day playing Warcraft.  Hit level 100 with my Death Knight though.

December 13th

I wasted the morning playing Warcraft (level 98!) and working (it's my weekend on call).  I also got out into the garage and got a few minor tasks done on the van, and converted the remaining fluorescent fixtures to run LED lights.  Now I just need to get rid of the old bulbs.

December 7th

After playing Warcraft for a while, I packed up all the recycling in the van and went and dropped it off, then went to the airport for an hour of circuits.  My last landing wasn't great, probably because of the sudden 8mph crosswind, so I parked it then.  On the way home I stopped in at the Petsmart in Lincoln on my way to Home Depot, and managed to pick up some guinea pig treats that we have to order as Roseville no longer carry them.  And a really big biscuit for Tilly - it was as big as her fat head.  Home Depot in Lincoln didn't have the bench grinder I wanted, but the one in Roseville did.  Now I just need to clear up the junk all over the bench so I have somewhere to put it.

December 6th

The weather was... odd, so while it wasn't "about to rain", I went out and cut the leaves and grass and filled the green bin.

I've got Warlord of Draenor, the new Warcraft expansion, so I spent a bunch of time playing that.  The new quests seem fairly easy, and the Garrison stuff looks like the old Warcraft II and III stuff.

December 3rd

It was the last EAA chapter board meeting of the year, so I went over to Lincoln in the rain for it.

November 30th

It was another rainy day, so I wasted time on my new desktop, and playing around a bit with a remote shutter release for my DSLR, that I'll use for the time lapse project.