WARNING! This discourse may contain high levels of Techy-ness, please avoid if you don't like gadgets, legal hacking, and Italian words!!

So, after dealing with destruction for the past week, I decided it was time to sit back and do what I liked for a minute or two. That involved getting a glass of milk, a chocolate chip pumpkin muffin top, and messing with my computer. Several weeks ago, I ordered a small circuit board off the internet called the arduino (Pronounced "Hardwin") board. The name is an Italian first name that means "strong friend." (WIKI, 2011) This unique little board is an open source platform built just for programmers like me. It is a computer-independent board that can be used in all sorts of projects involving motors, servos, sensors, etc. It is the "Programmer's" ultimate tool because it allows us to extend our virtual knowledge into a real environment. I must admit that my first program was a little underwhelming. I made one LED light blink to a rhythm. However, I got a bit better at it. I made a 5 minute timer with a buzzer, and currently I am playing around with computer communications. I am using my favorite programming language "perl" to set up a connection with the device, and send little bits of text back and forth. Its like one of those copycat parrots you can buy at any self respecting toy store, but without an annoying voice. I plan to use it to build a 4-rotor quad-copter that I can control over Bluetooth using my phone, or a wii remote. Sorry for burdening you all with my insane technical ravings! lol

~ttgrules

Clothes Shopping...... uggghhhh?

So... to get one thing straight... While I enjoy shopping in general, I hate shopping for clothes and shoes!!! However, ill make an exception for today... While out shopping, I noticed two signs that brought me great joy... The first was the sign for the Dress Barn... Tim Hawkins anyone? That will be 25 buck buck buck bucks... The second one was the sale sign at a shoe store... it listed the brands on sale... and right next to some regular brand names.... was Cat... the company that manufactures backhoes dumptrucks and bulldozers... what are they doing in the shoe business... hope you enjoy the pics as much as I did... took them myself... and added the speech bubble with my phone...