This Blog has Moved!!!

If you are linked to this blog, or, if you have this blog RSS feeding somewhere on your start page, please update it with the new address: http://john96021.wordpress.com

Once again, this is the last entry in this blog, all of the entries in this blog should have been transferred over to my new one and most of the comments as well. I'm only leaving this one up for traffic.

John Hunt
JohnsWritings.com

So, I stumbled in to an armed robbery last night !!!

Last night, after work, I decided to gas up at Valero. I know the guy that works graveyard in there because I go in there a lot to pick up a beer or two after work. Today was a serious case of bad timing, or good timing, depending on how you look at it. Our local 7-11 was just robbed the other night, only the robber got away.. That time!
I turned on to main street to see a male running as fast as he could from the store, he was wearing all dark clothing and possibly a ski mask, or pantyhose on his head, I'm not absolutely sure. He ran in between two churches and he was moving so fast that I knew exactly what was going on without question. I took a quick look through the windows of the gas station and I didn't see the clerk and that made me worry, I hoped he didn't get shot. I turned the corner and hit my bright lights to find this guy.
I know what your thinking, it is dumb to chase after someone that just robbed a store, but what if the clerk would have been shot and I would have just drove on. The police never would have found this guy because nobody had a description of the car, or that he was even driving a car because he fled on foot. I would have had a guilty conscience for not doing anything in that situation.
It didn't take long to spot the guy because I had noticed the dome light come on in his car parked in the alley way behind the church, it was a small white car. I drove towards him and he to me, as he passed I looked right at him and he looked away and drove at a normal speed as if he was just another driver in the night. I drove around the block not to make it too obvious that I was watching him and I ended up in front of him. I drove at a normal speed to avoid raising his suspicion.
I knew that he didn't know that I was on to him until I made a sharp left and slid in to the police dept parking lot as I saw a cop running to his shiny black and white explorer. I already knew what he was in a hurry for so I slid up beside him and pointed.... that's the car, he knew exactly what I was referring to so he said thanks as he jumped back in and took off.
By the time he jumped in and took off the car had turned on a side street, luckily I shot straight through the alley and just happened to turn right behind the car again. By this time I wasn't going to lose him so I was right up on his bumper. My 35" tires were screeching as I rounded the corner and I think this might have tipped off the PD because they came up behind me out of nowhere and I pulled out of the way and pointed as they flew bye me, flipped on the sirens and the race was on. The bad guy is behind bars, that's all I can say at this time, it will make the news tomorrow I'm sure.
Enough said for now, until it becomes public news sometime tomorrow.

Scams-o-matic Transmission shop in Chico, Ca.

Two weeks ago, my transmission started lightly slipping and I observed that it was leaking fluid from the space between the transmission and the transfer case (2000 F-150). I took it in to my local repair shop (Corning Auto Center) because they have a pretty good reputation, myself and several of my friends have been going there for years and they have always done us right. I'm a firm believer in talking good about local businesses when they treat you right.

Well, after Corning Auto checked it out, they had determined that I was correct and that the seal just needed replaced. Unfortunately, they didn't have a certain tool that was needed that had something to do with dropping the torsion bars, I don't know the exact tool or it's use so I won't try to quote it. Non the less they didn't charge me a dime for looking at it, and they even added a couple of courts of fluid to it and didn't charge me for that either. (good guy's I'd say)

Since they were unable to do the job they recommended that I take it to a transmission shop in Chico that rhymes with scams-o-matic. I called and talked to one of them on the phone and told him that the seal needed replaced and I told him everything that Corning Auto had told me. He instantly started off bad mouthing them and saying that it was a very simple job, he then told me that he's not surprised that they couldn't fix it bla bla bla...

He said that it should only cost a couple hundred bucks to replace that seal, I said wow, only a couple hundred bucks, I'll bring it over right now. <-- I wasn't being sarcastic at all, I really did think that was a good price, I still think it would have been. Let's move on... So I dropped the truck off and drove back to Corning. The next day I called them and the male receptionist said that it's going to be 2400.00 to fix the truck.

HUH!?!? 2400 to replace a seal?

No, we have to replace the transmission.

What's wrong with the transmission? It was shifting and operating smooth.

You ran it low on fluid and it needs replaced.

Needs replaced? It was a little low on fluid because of the leaky seal, not way low, just a little, it was operating and shifting just fine, it just needs a new seal, can't you just install a new seal?

We can do a patch job on it and replace the seal, but you are going to need a new transmission and the replacing the seal is going to run you 300.00 plus parts so you might as well replace the transmission if you plan on keeping it, specially since your truck has so many miles on it. I'm on lunch right now, will you call me back at 1:15?

Sure.

So, I thought about that for a few minutes and called up an older friend (who is not a transmission specialist) but did do this line of work for many years for local large dealers. I told him what I was told on the phone and he said let's drive over there and fill it full of fluid and drive it around the block a few times and see how it feels, sounds, and shifts. 2400 is a lot of money to replace something that we arrent sure is even broken.

We drove over there and he waited in the parking lot and I walked in to the office, I was not mad or even in a bad mood, I'm a pretty mellow person that hates drama and I was very polite and not even slightly sarcastic in any way. I told the male receptionist that I wanted to fill the truck with tranny fluid and drive it around the block a few times and listen to it, that way I can make up my mind if I want to pay $2400.00 to replace the transmission, or just pay the $300.00 + parts to replace the seal.

Was there anything wrong with the above statement? I don't see anything wrong with it, they certainly should not have been offended by any of that. One would think that it is perfectly okay to want to test drive the truck before paying a shop 2400.00 for a new transmission, I mean after all, I brought it in because of a leak, not direct transmission problems.

The guy said no problem and walks through the door and tells the mechanic that the owner wants to make sure that it is topped off with fluid and test drive it in order to determined as to whether he wants us to replace the transmission, or just the seal.

Here is where my mood is about to change, I heard the piece of shit mechanic yell, “Why?!?” and them make a loud CCHHHHAAAAA!!!!! sound. As if the owner (that's me) is a total idiot because I didn't just whip out my wallet and pay them 2400.00 for a transmission but instead, how dare I question them that it is bad.

But guess what? I'm still not pissed off.... I knew that he didn't know that I heard him do that and who knows, maybe he's just having a bad day or something. So I walked around to the side of the shop and I saw the mechanic walking towards my truck, apparently he didn't know that the guy standing in the lot was my friend that had came with me, because my friend walked over to me and said that right before I came out, this mechanic came walking out with his head down and he said very rudely, “This guy is fucking with us!”, and he was referring to me being “this guy”.

First off, it's very unprofessional to get an attitude with your customers. Second, I wasn't fucking with anybody, I was just wanting to make sure that I needed a new transmission before forking out 2400.00. I lifted my hood and my friend (who didn't even know what was going on other then the fact that a rude mechanic was talking crap about me) reached in to pull my out the dipstick and see how low I was on tranny fluid. It turns out I wasn't that low, but this apparently really pissed off the mechanic with a stick up his arse so he threw his hands up in the air like a little bitch and walked back in to his shop. How dare we get in his way.

My friend and I has decided to go get our own fluid from Wally world and add it ourself, no big woop, so I locked up my truck and we started to drive away in my other vehicle when another guy comes out with a piece of paper and says, “Here is our estimate for the transmission.” I told him that I don't need it because I'm done doing business here and you can tell your rude mechanic to fuck off! <--That was the redneck in me. By this time I had that trembling adrenaline feeling going on and really wanted to open up a can. I realize that's a very immature thing to say, but sometimes it's easy to lose control of your maturity when your really angry.

We went to wally world and picked up two courts of transmission fluid, came back to their parking lot and added a quart and drove the truck home. When we arrived home we were short a half quart. It has a simple leak, the transmission is fine, it is shifting fine, there is no burnt smell it discoloration on the dipstick. I have a freaking leak, and they were going to install a transmission and charge me 2400.00 for it.

You know, it wasn't the fact that they were trying to sell me a 2400.00 part that I didn't need that really torques my shorts, it's that rude fat guy that claims to be a mechanic came out of there bad mouthing me when Idid nothing to deserve it.
There, I feel better now!

Careful where you shop..... for transmission work. .02

An 80-year-old man went to his doctor...

An 80-year-old man went to his doctor for his quarterly check-up. The doctor asked him how he was feeling and the 80-year-old said, "Things are great and I've never felt better. I now have a 20 year-old bride who is pregnant with my child. So what do you think about that?"

The doctor considered his question for a minute and then began. "I have an older friend, much like you, who is an avid hunter and never misses a season. One day when he was setting off hunting, he was in a bit of a hurry and accidentally picked up his walking cane instead of his gun. As he neared a lake he came across a very large male beaver sitting at the water's edge. He realized he'd left his gun at home and so couldn't shoot the magnificent creature but out of habit he raised his cane, aimed it at the animal as if it were his favorite hunting rifle and went 'bang,bang'. Miraculously, two shots rang out and the beaver fell over dead. Now, what do you think of that?" asked the doctor.

The 80-year-old said, "If you ask me, I'd say somebody else pumped a couple of rounds into that beaver."

The doctor replied, "My point exactly".

I don't care who ya are.. That's funny Right there!

I haven't written very much in my blog lately. I mainly blame my absence of blog entries on my laziness and the weather. It has been so nice here in Northern California that I have been spending most of my time outdoors. It's not that exciting things haven't been happening around here, I just haven't taken the time to write about them.

Just for kicks; I will pretend that you are all interested in what's going on in my life and I will give you a quick update on some of my many personalities.

THE NERD ME:
I've been building a PLC Trainer. I'm creating a Working demonstration model of a Modicon Compact a984-145 Programmable Logic Controller. I will use this to teach people how to setup, install, and program PLC's. I will also teach people whom are interested how to write programs in Ladder Logic. I'm not going to bore you with the details of what PLC's Are. I'll just say that they play a very important rule in Industrial Automation and Controls. If you want to know more... just ask, and I doubt that you will :-)

THE REDNECK ME:
So, Wednesday, I took my wife out to Dinner and we played some slots at the casino. Thursday morning the weather was so nice that I spent the first half of the day playing around outside, drinking beer and cleaning up the yard and so on.
Well, then I get a call, and a few friends want me to meet them at the casino. I told them that I didn't really want to go because I had just spent several hours out there last night and I've been drinking beer all day so I've already polished off a 12 pack. I do not like to go out with friends after drinking all day because they always try to bring on a drinking contest and I have a major disadvantage when I'm already drunk before we get there. See my logic?
Several hours later...
So there we are, seven or eight of us piled around a table in the bar at the casino. We have been cut off several times (Casino's don't like loud drunks). I've now consumed the 12 pack at home plus four more beers, three coma cozies, one alabama slammer, one strait shot of tequila , and then... I don't remember what I had after that.
I didn't get a hangover, and I didn't get sick, but I still have some regrets. One of them being that I whipped it out in the parking lot and took a leak, um... and apparently this was spotted on surveillance, because we were approached by a security officer with no since of humor what so ever. We handled the situation in a professional matter, we told him "were sorry and we won't do it again ossifur" as we piled in the car and drove away. NO I WASN'T DRIVING!

THE MR. NICE GUY ME:
I have a CB friend whom lives in a small place a few miles away. He uses wood heat, and he had mentioned that he was running low on wood. Actually, he had plenty of wood because I gave him a bunch and dropped it off at his place, oh, and I stacked it for him too. But he told me that some of it was cut too long to fit in his wood stove. Poor guy!
Being the "nice guy" that I am, I loaded the chainsaw in to the back of my Jeep and went over and cut some wood for him. Now, just as I had finished the job, he comes trotting out of his house with a chainsaw just like mine and fires it up! Umm, and he needed me because?
I didn't say anything, but I had a chuckle on the way home, for some reason I find that incredibly funny, if you knew this guy then you would too!
BTW: (If you travel with a chainsaw... You might be a redneck) <--Not so funny, but fact!

THE MR. NICE GUY ME: X2
Last night, a friend of mine called me up at 1:36 in the morning and asked me if I would help him pull his daughters car out of a ditch. No problem, I said. When I arrived at the scene it turned out that she had totaled the car, it wasn't stuck in the mud, it was stuck nose first in the side of an embankment, ha!
Nobody was hurt, other then some scuffs and scrapes, the duel airbags fired like a charm.
So, here it comes again... Being the "nice guy" that I am, I towed it back to my place and it is sitting on the back side of my property. Actually, it's setting very close to my redneck burn pile. I'm not sure what he plans on doing with it yet, anybody want a totaled Honda?
Maybe I'll post a picture of it here in the blog.

Well, it's 5:30 in the morning. I haven't been to sleep yet and I'm falling asleep at the keyboard. I've already written too much, so much that you will not likely read this far down anyway so I can probably say anything that I want about your mother and you would never know it because you probably stopped reading way back at the first few lines of PLC talk.

I'm out!

John

Prejudiced people..

Ya know the Jeff Foxworthy jokes "If you.....Bla bla bla... You might be a redneck"?
Well, I'm a redneck, I'm not ashamed of that. I fit right in to most of those redneck jokes. I should have taken a picture of my Jeep Wrangler up on blocks under my carport a while back. It was when my ring and pinion went out. It was surrounded by Beer cans and a BBQ grill in arms reach.. Oh, and I had a freezer next to that BBQ full of meat that I had butchered from right here on my property. But wait, there's more! I also keep a burn barrel out there so that when friends come over we can sit around that burn barrel to keep warm while we talk about random redneck things, and of course CB radio. After a few brews some of those friends stories get so big that you just have to nod your head to prevent hurting their feelings. Are you convinced that I'm a redneck yet? I could go on... Would I make this stuff up?

Part of being a redneck is talking on a CB radio. I'm also a licensed Ham Radio operator, but I mostly prefer to talk on the 11 meter band (Citizens Band) radio. When you talk on the CB radio the odds that you will be talking to 'other rednecks' are about as likely as finding a fly on a cow turd in the summertime.
I listen to the CB while playing on the computer several hours a day. Between the two, I find myself fully entertained. One major problem that I have with the CB is that some of my redneck friends are prejudiced. I can't stand hearing people judging people by the color of their skin. It just bothers me. I was not raised this way and when I hear them rambling on 'niggers' this, and 'niggers' that, it makes me embarrassed for them. I usually just turn the radio off.
I'm really surprised how many prejudiced people there are out there. I hear it all the time at work, at the store, it's hard to avoid the crap, here is my .02 on the matter...

CAN'T WE ALL JUST GET ALONG?

Thank you,
That's my rant for the day... Am I right or am I just being too sensitive? You decide!


BTW: I have completed my refresh course on controls. Now I'm ready to drop in to the nearest nuclear plant and re-write the ladder logic for their PLC's (Programmable Logic Controllers).

-John

Donny is now censoring my comments in his blog?

Well?


Enough said for now!

Trouble on the Hunt Ranch!

My son and his friends are always doing something stupid and getting themselves in to trouble. Why, why, why? I understand that (at his age) it is normal to do things like the things that I'm about to mention. I occasionally did smiler things myself, but after getting in trouble I learned from my mistakes and moved on. My son, however, doesn't seem to learn from his mistakes and he is building a history of repeating the same mistakes over and over again. I'm debating as to weather I need to come up with a new form of punishment. It appears that what I'm doing just doesn't work with him. I may need some help on this one.

A short while back, I took a walk around the property and found that my kids had took the pruning sheers and made an attempt at pruning some trees, about 20 of them. They must have worked for a couple hours at it judging by the amount of brush that they left all over the ground. My poor trees did nothing to deserve this. It wasn't the attempt at pruning the trees that made me so angry, it was the hitting them with hammers and scaring them up for no reason that angered me. Oh, and cutting a 4 foot hole in the hedges so that they can walk through them... ERRRR!!!! I made the kids take all that brush and walk it around to the burn pile a couple acres away, all of it! There was two weeks of groundation to follow, with no video games, no computer, and no company.
Here's the problem, I felt bad for (my son) after a week, so I decided to let him work off his other week by hauling wood and stacking it. That's my fault!

A week or so after that incident, I had discovered that my wife had let my son buy a BB gun from wal-mart. I informed her that I feel that he is not mature enough for a BB Gun yet, and that I don't think he should have one, "he'll put somebody's eye out" I said. My wife gave me the "he's 12 years old", give him some credit, "he isn't a baby anymore" lecture.
I cringed my teeth and said you'll see, I have a bad feeling about this one.

Two days later I had discovered that he had shot the window out of one of our out buildings. I was so ticked off that I couldn't talk. I was so mad that, in fact, that I didn't talk. I decided to wait a day or so before telling anybody that I had noticed the window so that I would have time to cool off and handle the situation in a non aggressive way. I called him outside and told him the story about how I wanted to confiscate the gun, but mom said that I shouldn't do it. I told him that I'm not mad about the window because I knew that it was doing to happen and so by letting it happen, I feel just as responsible for it happening as he is for doing it. He said it was an accident and promised to be more careful and I believed him.

Two days ago I found a hammer on the ground outside. I hate it when the kids use my tools and leave them all over the property. I find tools clear out in the field when I'm on the tractor. Why would a kid need a damn pair of vice grips out in an open field? Anyway, I look at the closest tree next to the hammer and my son had hammered a bunch of nails in to it for no reason, not to make a tree fort, or anything like that, but just for the hell of it. I brought him outside and told him how disappointed I was that he didn't learn his lesson about defacing the property out here. I explained to him that I work full time in order for us to afford to live here and he is being totally disrespectful to me by doing things like this. "Sorry dad"

Well, last night I has a visit from my neighbor. Guess what! My son and his friend went over to my closest neighbors property and shot the windows out of his cars. Not one, but two of them. Two cars that is, several windows. I guess the groundation thing isn't working out very well, I don't think my son is learning his lesson. I'm so angry right now you would not believe.

For the record, my closest neighbor is many acres away, he doesn't actually live there, he has a shop there on his property where he repairs race cars and tinkers. The two cars were not his every day cars, they were two cars that have been sitting for a year or so, but they were nun the less his cars on his property and they has no broken windows a few days ago. Oh, and one was a truck, now you have the facts.

I'm holding off with punishment long enough to get some advice and opinions from others... What do you all think? The redneck side of me wants to spank some ass right now, but the softer side just think that I need to find a creative and intelligent way of dealing with this parenting problem that I'm facing.

I'm open to suggestions!

The Apple iPod is the 'Best Foods' of Mayonnaise!

John,

I have a question for you on ipods. I want to know how to download and hear music. (without ITunes) is that possible?

Troy

--------------------------

Troy,

First off, iPods are gods gift to music. I could not live without one, it is as handy as a microwave oven. The iPod is the 'Firefox' of web browsers, it is the 'Best Foods' of Mayonnaise, it is the 'Snap-On' of tools, are you picking up what I'm laying down?

Now, with that being said...

You will likely need iTunes in order to sync with your iPod. There may be some iTunes clones out there, but I don't know of them. However, You don't have to pay for your music. There are two ways to import music in to iTunes without buying it.

1. Take all of your music CD's and insert them in to your computer one at a time, with in minutes iTunes will rip them and turn them in to MP3's and then send them to your iPod as well.

2. Download MP3's via other software such as limewire, and then just highlight them and drag them in to the iTunes window. iTunes will add them as if they were downloaded.

If you do buy music through iTunes then it will only let you burn a certain amount of Music CD's with each song because the songs are encrypted. The work around for this is to Burn the purchased songs to a CD, delete the original purchased files, then, put the burned CD back in and iTunes will think it is an original music CD from your collection and thus it will import it into iTunes with no encryption.

Better try that with only one song at first to make sure that they didn't fix that on a recent iTunes update.

Another handy hack is called Copypod. Copypod is a handy little program that will allow you to export all of your music from iTunes, and then save it as a backup, or share it with a friend that recently bought an iPod and doesn't have any music, he can import your entire music collection to his iTunes and then of course it will sync with his new iPod and he will have a ton of music.

If I were you I wouldn't try to avoid iTunes, it is a very handy program. Like everything else with the apple name on it, it is quality. Of course some of what I mentioned above is considered illegal but I wouldn't feel too guilty about doing it considering that I suffered a hard drive crash a while back and I called apple and told them what happened and asked them how I could take the songs off from my iPod and put them back in my newly installed iTunes on my new hard drive. There answer was that "it can't be done". I said I legitimately paid for hundreds of songs and now they are lost forever? "yep", I said nope, I will find a way around it, and I did.

Actually, I found two ways around it but I will only give one of those ways as I'm probably begging for a law suit already. This email is also going to be posted in my blog. The work around for transferring the songs from your iPod back to your hard drive is by plugging in and accessing your iPod via windows explorer, it will appear as a hard drive. Click on that folder or drive and highlight it, now click on 'tools' in windows explorer, then select 'folder options' and then 'view'. Now put a check mark next to show hidden files and folders. Now when you click on your iPod in windows explorer and explore the contents in the folders you will find your music. I prefer the Copypod method however, because copypod remembers all of the data that goes along with your music, your rating, the artist title, and so on.

Hope this helps. I will also post this email in my blog which can be found at www.johnswritings.com

Things sure aren't the same without you in the work environment, let me tell yah!

Talk to you later,

John

Chuck E Cheeses... Save the Robots!

This blog entry will not get many comments.. and it will bore the hell out of nearly everyone who reads it. Don't say that you haven't been warned.
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My personality is strongly characterized in to two categories... The Redneck category and the Nerd category. For the past several days I have been in 'nerd' mode.
Let me explain...
When I was kid, around age 10 or so, I would love to go to Chuck E Cheeses Pizza Time Theater in Chico, Ca. It wasn't the Pizza that I enjoyed so much, it was the animatronics. I love robotics, controls, automation, and industrial machinery. That is why I love my job as a "Industrial Mechanic" today; because I love working on that stuff. Oops, I leaped to the present, OK! Back to age 10.

At age 10, I would sit and stair at those animatronic puppets for hours while my friends were all off playing video games. I was fascinated by them. I wanted to know what was under those costumes. I wanted to know what the control systems looked like in the back room. It would have made my week if I could have been taken on a quick tour to the control room back then to see what made those boogers tick.
The Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theater was founded in 1977 by Atari founder Nolan Bushnell. It's not doing so well today, in fact, I'm sorry to say that I don't believe that there are too many of them left in existence. Up here in northern California there is still one in Chico, and one in Redding that I know of.

As of the last time I visited the Chico store it didn't look very busy. I'm surprised that it is still open and I will be even more surprised if it stays that way very much longer. The Chico store used to sport what I believed was a 2nd generation stage of The Pizza Time Players, it could have been first gen, I'm not sure. They were some nice vintage animatronics. It has been a while since I have visited that store and they may have converted to the more modern Rock-afire Explosion stage of animatronics which I believe was made by "Aaron Fechter" a true animatronic guru. I spoke with him earlier today via email. Talk about a dream job.

I spent some time in the Redding store tonight after hearing a rumor from a friend. Rumor had it that the Redding store was closing and selling everything in the building because they were opening a brand new store with modern animatronics across town somewhere. I'm guessing that when they said "modern" animatronics that they were referring to the Rock-afire Explosion stage.
I also talked to the owner of that store tonight and confirmed the rumor, however, he is not aloud to sell any of the animatronics because of some contract with CEC. He said that he will likely destroy them... EEEK! I tried talking him out of it but he apparently isn't hurting for money and he must fear the CEC people will chop off his arm if he were to let them go to a good home, such as my home!
RIP robots :-(
If I could, I would find the dumpster and salvage the parts :-(

You think I'm crazy huh? Well there are many more just like me. There are clubs and millionaires that buy out these animatronic stages and set them up in their houses. One man owns like 8 different complete stages with the lighting, curtains and all. Check out THIS WEB SITE full of nerds just like me.

One of my favorite machines was a 8 foot tall singing, guitar playing Elvis impersonator called "The King". This scary looking beast could be found in the Chico store many years ago, but disappeared and was replaced by a big screen TV. The Elvis character was pretty cool because as the machine was dead and lifeless in between shows it would pop open one eye and look around for a second and then go back to sleep. I thought that was the coolest. I'm guessing that was an intentional tone in the programming, but it could have been a pneumatic problem also. Those machines were ran by air and the valves would often stick, I could hear the air compressor running in the back room between shows. Aaron Fechter created the control system for that machine also.

I found one on eBay about 8 months ago and it only went for about two grand. It was complete and in fully working condition. Identical to the one that used to be in the Chico store. I wish I would have bought it, but my wife wasn't so happy about the idea of spending that kind of money on a 8 foot animated teddy bear. I should have done it anyway.

In the early 80's, these pneumatic machines were ran by valves opening and closing, control boards, and reel to reel players for the music. I think they may have been upgraded to a bank of 8 track tapes that started on que, but don't quote me on it.
Today, I believe that the more modern Rock-afire Explosion puppets are controlled by a controller called the "Chris Thrash controller" or "Thrash Controller". Again, don't quote me. This controller consists of a control board for each puppet in the show, a power supply, and an iPod. That's right, they are controlled by an iPod. Aaron Fechter has created a way to put both the music, and the motion programming in to a MP3 player format that loads on to the iPod. Much more modern then a reel to reel or a bank of 8 track tapes. Very cool indeed!

So today I emailed Aaron and asked him why he chose not to create a pc software based controller in a time line format. This would make it easy to program the shows by just about anybody. I'm referring to software similar to the LOR (Light-o-rama) software that is used to produce modern xmas light shows.
His reply was that it is all about cost and reliability and specs. After all, his controller has two boards in it, why add a computer to that?
I guess that makes perfect since. Computers aren't yet stable enough for most industrial applications anyway, that's why we use plc's (programmable logic controllers) instead. PLC's are capable of performing the same task repeatedly day in and day out for years and years without a single error. They are reliable work horses and you can count on them. If you have ever visited a theme park then you have counted on them. Could you imagine running the drop zone on a pc running windows... EEEEK!!! You might as well jump. (lol)

Here are my last words..
SAVE THE ROBOTS IN REDDING... THEY DON'T DESERVE TO BE DESTROYED! They are vintage, they are history, they are cool.

-----------

I told you that you would be bored to death. Maybe next time you will listen!

John

"Letters from a Skeptic" -by Gregory & Edward Boyd

Last night, at midnight to be exact, My friend Donny showed up to my door with a brand new hard copy of a book called "Letters from a Skeptic". This book was purchased for me, and mailed to Donny to bring to me. With the thought in mind that someone that I have never met took the time and money to purchase this book and mail it out just for me was pretty flattering.
Because of this effort that was put fourth by a total stranger, I dove in to this book with the determination to read the entire book weather or not I believe any of it's content, or weather or not I feel that it is a total waste of words.
Nearly three hours later.. I had to put the book down knowing that I had to go to work the next day (today). I had already read half of the book. I'm devouring this book like candy, I can't get enough of it. I can't get over the fact that the very same questions that Edward Boyd has written are the exact questions that I had asked earlier in my blog. And the majority of the answers that were given by his son Gregory Boyd are satisfactory to me. I have to work for the next four days, so I won't have time to finish it until Wednesday, but I'm looking forward to continue reading where I had left off.
I take pride in the fact that I call it as I see it. If I didn't care too much for this book then I would have not hesitated in saying so. I believe that honesty is a virtue, even to non believers. This book is like an early Christmas present. I can't say enough how much I'm getting out of it.
I want to thank 'John Smulo' for sending it to me.
I highly recommend this book to people as myself that are agnostic. You will get logical answers to your questions. I will keep you posted on my final thoughts on this book when I finish it. So far, at half way point, it is fantastic.
Here is a fact that you will find hard to believe. Even though I'm a good reader, I have only read 2 books in my entire life. I read web pages, I read magazines, but I can only read things that I'm strongly interested in or my eyes keep following along with the words and my mind changes channels without even notifying me. Next thing I know, I'm half way down the page and have no clue even as to where I had left off.
I do not have that problem with this book due to my strong interest in it's content.
Thanks again John for sending this book to a total stranger.

I may have some more questions at the end of this book, I'll have to wait and see.

John