Am I My Brother’s (Fish tank’s) Keeper? (yes)

   So earlier last week I began to beg my mom for a cat.  Long story short, she said no… a lot.  But it’s really boring at home when all you do all day long is study.  That’s when I remember that we had an aging fish tank up in the office at my house.  I thought to myself, “Hey, that tank has everything you need for a fish tank but the fish and water.  I should totally bust it out.”

I was surprised to find it wasn’t as… complete as I would have thought.  The air pump was long gone, as was one of the under gravel filter tubes (the under gravel filter keeps fish waste from accumulating in the rocks… or so I’m told), the heater, the fish net, the water treatment stuff, the thermometer, and all the tubing for the air pump.  $20 dollars later (thanks to dad paying for the heater, thanks dad!), I again had everything needed for a fish tank except the fish.

A quick trip to Pet Smart fixed that problem.  Here’s what I got

3 Neon Tetras

2 Black Mollies

3 Guppies (1 Fancy tail, 1 Turquoise, and 1… yellow one)

2 Algae eaters of some kind of variety (I was going to get one, but the store lady informed me the one I wanted to get could grow up to 2 feet in length.  So I had to get a smaller one, but since I was worried that little guy wouldn’t be able to handle 8 other fish, I got two)

For a total of 10 fish in my (brother’s) 1o gallon fish tank.  If they play nice, that’s a gallon for each of them.

My dad has just informed that the algae eaters don’t eat the stuff off the bottom (half the reason I bought them), I might be going back for an 11th fish to make sure the bottom stays clean… I wonder if Pet Smart will let me exchange a fish.

Here’s a picture

 

(Daniel I guess I owe you a fish tank if you want this one before they all die)

Am I My Brother’s (Fish tank’s) Keeper? (yes)

The Big Move

The Big Move

Last Saturday I moved into my own apartment. Well, I have a female roommate but we aren’t really there much at the same time. I want to give a big thanks to all those who were able to help me move. I know it was a long way to drive and I really appreciate your time and effort. Here are a few pictures from the day:

The Big Move

Shogi Board Part 2

First of all, I made a slight edit to the materials needed. I realized that I needed 3 - 1/2" x 2" x 3' Pine boards, not 2. The reason being that since the boards are ultimately going to fold in half, I need the 1/2” board on all four sides and not three, as this photo depicts.

The missing side is right where the hinges need to go. If I don’t add the fourth side then the hinges would attach to the top of the board itself and wouldn’t close properly.

The next part of the project was to make the print outs that I’m going to iron to the pieces. I decided that I want people to easily pick up and play this game. For that reason I chose to not use the traditional Japanese characters for the individual pieces. Instead, I have a single letter (or a picture of a crown for the king) to indicate what the piece is and what moves are legal for the piece to make directly under it.

The lines with no arrows indicate that it can only move one space in that direction, while the lines with arrows mean it can move any number of spaces in that direction. I did manage to find a website that gave the proper angles to make a shogi piece (but I can’t find it again) such that I could make the above pieces. Once the shape was made, I optimized the size for something I thought would fit nicely in a 1.5”x1.5” square. You know, something large enough to grab on to, but not so large that it’s impossible to grip it without messing up the pieces in adjacent squares. From that base size, it was just some simple math to find the right size ratio for the smaller pieces (as in chess, the different pieces are different sizes).

Additionally, I think I’m going to label the board itself with the starting location of the pieces (haven’t decided yet).

Again, the idea isn’t so much for authenticity, as much as it is for ease of a first time player. Ideally, I’ll be playing this game with people who have never seen or perhaps even heard of shogi before. The game will be much more fun if you can set it up easily and not have to worry about remembering how each piece can move and which word in a non-Latin alphabet foreign language means what.

Here are the two excel files I made. The file for the shogi pieces includes a second sheet for their promoted side. We’ll how well I do in affixing the promoted side after I affix the non-promoted side. The Shogi Board file has some garbage at the bottom of the page. I’m using that garbage to iron it own to some scrap wood to get the technique down before using it on the real deal. It’s there for you to do the same. If you do use these, remember that you need to print them as mirror images to affix it to the wood.

Here’s the file I used for the shogi pieces

Here’s the file I used for the shogi board

These are both saved in a Excel 2007 format. You might need this patch from Microsoft to open 2007 documents in older versions of Office (assuming you don’t already have it, of course)

The next step is ironing the pieces on. We’ll see when I can do it.

Shogi Board Part 2

Shogi is Japanese Chess

First of all, my Network+ certification training at Techskills is going extremely well. We’re hoping that I’ll be able to take the exam on Monday, but we’re not sure if they’ll let me schedule it that soon.

Now, on with the post!

For a VERY long time, I have desired a shogi board. Shogi, as the title says, is Japanese chess. It’s played on a 9x9 board with 20 pieces per side with similar(ish) rules. But, any time I’ve found a shogi board, it’s cost has been at least 30 dollars and usually was going to cost me another 10 dollars in shipping as well.

So, I decided, quite suddenly, that I should just build my own. I tried to look online to find some form of instructions for building your own shogi board. Much to my surprise, there’s none. Even finding information on what size to make your pieces is non-existent. So here are my instructions that I will be updating as I go (I’ll just add a new post, instead of adding on to this post specifically).

It should be noted that my skill in wood workings is novice (beginner if you’re feeling generous with me). I know how to cut and measure, but I’ve never tried anything like this.

First of all, here’s my list of needed materials.

1 - 1"x8"x4' Pine board

3 - 1/2" x 2" x 3' Pine boards

2 - 3/8" x 2" x 2' Pine boards

1 - Pack of small hinges

1 – 3 pack (at least) of transferable wax paper (the kind you use to make custom t-shirts)

1 - latch

1 - foam pad

1 – fine grit sand paper

Black paint

varnish (color of your choosing)

Here’s the 4-foot pine board. I chose pine because I like the color of it. It’s a nice light color that stains to many colors well (in my opinion).

I wanted to make a 1’x 1’ shogi board, but I realized that 1’ wide planks are very expensive. So, I chose to change the size of my board to 16”x16”. To accomplish this, I selected a 1”x8”x4’ plank and made my cuts at 16”, leaving me with three 1”x8”x16” lengths.

Of course, no plank is ever really the width it claims to the actual dimensions were closer to .75”x7”x16” planks. Even though I knew this from the start, I left it a little extra wide for the next step.

If you look closely, you’ll see that my cuts weren’t exactly 16” their width is slightly different. Since I plan on putting hinges on this so they fold on top of each other when not in use, I want them to be perfectly (or at least very close to it) flushed. The extra width let me shave off the length until I got them to the correct size.

The next step is setting up the 9x9 boxes. I' decided that 1.5”x1.5” squares would be a nice size (making the playing area 13.5”x13.5”)

The best way I found to measure this distance was to come in 1.25 inches from the sides (while your board is 16” of course) and 6.75 inches DOWN from where the two side will join together. The reason for coming from the “middle” of the board is simple. Since the board is 9x9 squares, that means each side will be 9x4.5. Or to put it another way, the middle row will be divided on either side. To make sure the boxes stay the same size and to avoid having a middle row that is either a lot wider or thinner than the rest of the boxes, it’s imperative to measure from the middle to the bottom on each board. I messed up a lot on getting the measurements right and had to do a lot of erasing and remeasuring to get it right. Don’t worry about leaving behind pencil marks, we’ll get them out when we sand.

If you look closely you can see all the lines I tried to erase on the top board (the one I did first). To make sure the lines met up right on both sides, I marked where each line would go on the border and then placed each board flush against the other. I lined up both hash marks with a straight edge and made one continuous line from top to bottom. The 4 dots you see (located on the third intersection as you move in from each corner diagonally) indicate the promotion zones in shogi.

Now that the lines are made, it’s time to make some grooves! Rather than just paint the lines I just made with pencil, I thought it would look really nice if I took my brother’s dremel (thanks for letting me borrow it Andrew!) and use the dremel attachment #192 to make some nice clean rows. In the photo above I had already made the top to bottom grooves (the one that spans both pieces of the board) by placing the two sides together and making one continuous cut.

However, I made two grave miscalculations. The first was that I didn’t make sure that the attachment was completely tight and the depth changed on me in the middle of the cut. I was able to fix it, but it shows at one spot. The second is in the middle of cutting, I discovered that the surface I was using was not level. The table in the picture can come together but the side on the left is higher than the right. It made for some… shallow grooves in the middle.

To make sure the cuts went straight I used a long piece of wood as a guide to push the dremel against (a tip I got from my brother).

Here’s the end result after making the grooves. If you look at the first row down from the top on the left side you’ll notice it looks different than the rest of the cuts. I took a break in the middle of making the grooves. I set the dremel tool down without taking out the attachment or changing any setting. But, when I came back, I was horrified to discover it cutting MUCH deeper into the wood. I ran it over a scrap piece of wood, and after a second it was back at the right depth. I have no idea why it did this. I could go back and use the third 16” segment, but I think it’s good for some of your mistakes to stick around. It keeps you humble and reminds you not to make them again the next time around.

Here’s the same piece after I sanded it. It looks a lot nicer and prepared it for affixing the wax paper to it as well as the varnish. (If you want to see what I’m talking about with the wax paper, check this out.

Here’s both sides sanded and put together for your viewing pleasure, they aren’t lined up right so the lines looked eschewed.

Here’s a little peek into what I’m planning for this project.

Once I varnish the wood, I’m going to attach the 1/2” wood to the bottom of the board to make a storage area for the shogi pieces. I’ve bought some foam that will be glued into the shown area with. The foam will have cut out spots for the shogi pieces to fit into. Well… at least that’s the idea. We’ll see how it goes.

Shogi is Japanese Chess

Yearly Vine

Each year Matthew likes to take a picture by the vine outside his house. This year it turned out very nice so I thought I'd (Amy) share it. Doesn't Matt look spiffy? I sure think so! :)

Thanks to our yearly photographer -- Carol Bennett !!

Yearly Vine

April Fool’s Day Joke? (no, no it wasn’t)

So, a lot of people have been wondering if me leaving DBU was one giant April Fool’s Day Joke. The short answer is no. It wasn’t a joke, I have left DBU for good.

For those who wonder why, here’s the brief answer. I have never gotten along well with DBU (as those close to me will readily testify). I went there with high hopes of a Christian College and those hopes were quickly dashed by immature dorm students, unprofessional administrations, and mandatory, pep-talk “chapels”.

My zeal for the school was further deteriorated with the realization that the head of my (Computer Science) department was an aged, old woman who’s degree was in biology. Additionally, what momentum I had to get through school was worn down by a degree plan which forbade summer or winter classes. Indeed, the course descriptions usually had the phrase “offered in spring semesters of odd numbered years”.

But there was a bright spot in all this. A young woman by the name of Amy showed up on the scene and I found a renewed desire to remain at this school that was perfect for the liberal arts, but not so much for the sciences.

Due to her refreshing presence I attempted to stick it out at DBU despite her pleas that I transfer to a college that was more reputable for a Comp Sci major. My parents, sister, and maybe even Jessica (who went to DBU with Amy, Emily, and myself) also all wondered why I didn’t just go somewhere else.

However, this semester brought to my attention that I might have been ignoring several warning signs God had placed in my path back when I was trying to get back into UTD. Back then every class I tried to take just went horribly wrong. It wasn’t until I pursued DBU that things started going right.

But, with each passing semester here, it has become harder and harder to get registered for my classes. This past semester was the worst of all and I actually had to sit down with the dean of my college TWICE in order to get permission to take one of my classes.

I tried to fit an 18 hour course load with a 15 hour a week job. While that normally shouldn’t have proved difficult, the reality of the hours the classes and work took resulted in me having almost no time to study or do homework. I stubbornly tried to shove through, and after finding that (surprise) things were going horribly here at midterms, I realized it was time to stop fighting for something God obviously didn’t want me pursuing and walk away with my nice GPA while it was till above a 3.0.

Future plans included getting a job, maybe taking some courses designed to get me some (additional) computer certifications first (or after I get a job, we’ll see how it goes), and researching some colleges/degree options that will fit my personality.

My brother Andrew was much the same way. We don’t do well in traditional college settings, but give us a self motivated class and we blaze through it in no time flat!

And for anyone who doesn’t yet believe me that this isn’t some elaborate joke:

Edit: As a quick side note I would like to point out that despite all the things I genuinely loathed about DBU, I had a great respect for the teachers and faculty. While it is true that an aged woman with a biology is in charge of the Computer (and other math and natural science departments), she has a DOCTORATE in biology and she is a very sweet and caring aged woman who did a lot of nice things for me (like employing me in the computer science lab). While I can't stand DBU for myself, it is a great school for others full of helpful and kind professors. When I left I talked to each of my teachers to let them know I was leaving and each took the time to pray with me (as did the affore mentioned aged woman)

April Fool’s Day Joke? (no, no it wasn’t)

Last cake update

Well, I am happy to announce that cake decorating class has come to a close. It is a LOT of work, but I learned a lot. Now I can do basic cakes, mostly on the kid side of the arena. Nothing fancy, just fun stuff. Below you will find a few pictures from my third cake, the clown cake. This was a very easy and fun cake. I ran out of time in class and decided to leave it very simple. The cake was consumed that night while at Scott’s Movie Night.

Last cake update