It's 3:30 in the morning... do you know where your geek is?

Sorry for the delay in posting. Yesterday, I worked from 7:00AM to 5:30AM, with very few breaks for eating, etc. I slept from 5:45AM until 10:00AM and have worked straight until now... 3:30AM. I don't write this to complain. In fact, I'm having a great time. It's been a little stressful with some of our preparations going awry, but everything seems to be falling in place. The light at the end of the tunnel is due, in no small part, to the amazingly diverse and flat-out brilliant peeps I work with. It's been a great ride so far, and we haven't even opened the doors to public yet.

Currently, I'm sitting in the server-room of the Adler Planetarium waiting for a cohort to return with a license dongle to activate a server we have here. I will write more about this nifty piece of hardware, but only after its unveiled. Imagine the announcement of the G3 iPhone, except for planetarium nerds. It's going to be that cool.

I have been taking lots of pics (some actually are pretty good) with my new lens, and will posting them once I've had more than 18 minutes to sleep. All is well in the Chi-Town. Peace n' love!

IPS Update 1

I think I'm going to try to do video updates while I'm here. I have the camera and I'm way too tired to do much typing, so here it is. Peace n' love from the windy city.

(Tired Matt rambling about domes and whatnot in Chicago)

On the Move

Everyone's on the move. This next month is going be crazy for all of us. Here's a quick breakdown of our travels. While reaching us here in Denver will be ny-on impossible, you can still reach us on our cells, email, text messages, twitter accounts, and blog posts. With the various modes of communication available to us now, there's no excuse to not get in touch.

I am going to bring my web cam with me. Time-permitting, I will post a few video updates on IPS in Chicago, the integration in San Francisco, and the festivities back in Grand Rapids.

Matt
San Francisco - June 22 - June 25
Chicago - June 25 - July 3
Grand Rapids - July 3 - 9
San Francisco - July 9 - 18

Mandy
On the road between Denver and Grand Rapids - June 25 - June 26
June 27 - 28
Grand Rapids - June 26 - July 14
On the road between Denver and Grand Rapids - July 14-16

Mandy's Mom
Flying from Grand Rapids to Denver - June 24th
Denver - June 24 - June 25
June 24 - 27
On the road between Denver and Grand Rapids - June 25 - June 26
June 27 - 28
Grand Rapids - June 26 - July 14
On the road between Denver and Grand Rapids - July 14-16

Jess and Mike
Flying from Denver to Grand Rapids - June 23

On the road again... just can't wait to get on the road again...

VIDEO - Surgeon Uses Robot to fold Origami

Impressive. The wingspan of the bird is less than the length of a penny. The robot arms move so fluidly, it looks like the doc is right there. Actually, he was on the other side of the country, controling the robot from over the internet. Impressive.

This is quite the toolset

This is a 1,470 piece tool set available at Sears. Insanity.

Simple Post - Pic

BBQ: Hell. Yes.

This guy knows how to BBQ. Like a pro, he's even using implements of torture.

I love BBQ'ing. There's something so immediate and primal about reducing cooking to the basics: Gather food, apply heat, eat. I love it. It's simple, it involves things on fire, bits of animal flesh, and, of course, eating.

The BBQ'ing season is upon us. This summer, I plan to smoke, cook, and consume my own bacon. No, not bacon made out of Matt, just regular bacon made by me out of pork. As much as I'd love to eat Matt Bacon... mmm... Matt Bacon.

It turns out that it's not that complicated a process. To do it, a person needs a smoker, some raw pork belly (complete with piggy hair that needs to be shaved prior to smoking), plastic bags, and curring agents (mostly salt and sugar).

Here are few links that suggest different methods of preparing the bacon.

• The origional bacon blog that got me thinking about it
  
• Basic Bacon (this is the Meat Man... bad name)
  

I am going to check with the butcher down the road about procuring the necessary pork stomach lining this weekend, and report back with pricing and some pics.

Francis Bacon. Known as the catalyst of the scientific revolution in England. Also: First mayor of Baconsville.

School Lesson: Never trust authority figures

A school in California shocked the students by telling them that 20 students were killed in a drunk driving accident. The fifth-graders (yes, they were in 5th grade) High school students obviously went crazy, cried, some went hysterical.

Then they told the students no one had died, and they better not drink and drive.

A teacher is quoted as saying, "We wanted them traumatized." I guess they succeeded.

What person, in what twisted version of reality would think this is a good idea? Unbelievable. I hope they did learn their lesson: Never trust authority figures.

It's all coming together....

The past weekend was strictly working time. Saturday we spent the day cleaning and organizing the loft. It is amazing how much crap you can accumulate over the years....what am I a saying, we just moved into this place last December! Anyhow, we had many things that we moved that we were going to "deal with when we get there"....Saturday was the day.

Sunday we took a drive over to an unmentionable large store. Although we felt very dirty walking through it we had no other choice as they were the only place in town that carried the items that we liked and needed: end table, small dresser, and wardrobe. We assembled the wardrobe and end table last night while we watched Henry VIII on Masterpiece Theater.

The next three weeks will be busy as we are having people visit from Michigan. The Valentine's will be in Denver this week - we plan to spend Wednesday and Thursday with them. Jess and Mike are coming out next Tuesday and staying for about atweek. Mom will be coming out the day after they leave and staying for almost a week. Then her and I hit the road (with Nikki in the back seat) and drive back to Michigan for the 4th of July festivities. I will be in GR the first couple of weeks in July. If you want to hang out you can either write me email or call my cell phone (or my parent's phone after June 29th).

Matt has bestowed upon me luscious gifts for our Anniversary: KitchenAid mixer and a Cuisinart Food Processor. We made pizza last night. I used the mixer to make the dough and Matt use the Food Processor to make the sauce. The pizza turned out fantastic and we had a lot of fun creating it. More info to come on the creations from the new appliances!!!

(Nikki's feet don't even touch the bottom of the fountain.)