Throw the Mind [dot] Com

2010 — It’s Over

Nathan — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 03:52:15 +0000

Wow, I’m doing another one of these. Seems like it wasn’t that long ago I was looking back on the year. Last year I had hoped that 2010 was going to be a better year for me. I was looking for better relationships, better things happening at work, and just overall a better year.

Here is a look at things that did happen this year.

I was laid off work at the end of the year. Luckily I have found a job that is more laid back and interesting. It’s still new, so I don’t have much to say about it.
Relationships where fun, but not lasting. That’s how you learn though, so not all bad.
Saw at least 14 movies this year.
Went to the Last HOPE and a road trip with good friends.
I learned how to use a Maker Bot.
Made my first electronics kit. A brain machine.
I went to El Paso a couple of times for work.
I also went to Hawaii again for work.
Road tripped to St. Louis for the opening of Arch Reactor another US hackerspace.

Overall I would say the year was average. Nothing terrible happen, but nothing great happen either. I hope the next year will bring many changes. I have goals in mind, that I really want to make happen. From personal projects to projects with friends. I need to work on making these a reality because in turn they will changed my life.

Resolutions for 2011:

Get a tattoo
Go skydiving.
More blogging.
Work on projects!
Go on more road trips.

It’s Kind of a Funny Story

Nathan — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 02:58:00 +0000

Boring!! I would skip it if giving the chance.

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

Tags: Movie, Rating

Red – The Movie

Nathan — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 02:51:30 +0000

I like this movie simply because it was a shoot’em up. I like these types of action films. Grab the DVD you won’t hate it.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Tags: Movie, Rating

Tron 2 – aka Tron Legacy

Nathan — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 02:24:15 +0000

Awesome, watch the first one before seeing this one.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Tags: Movie, Rating

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

Nathan — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 21:03:20 +0000

Holy crap, it’s been like a month since I have seen this movie. I’m such a lazy blogger. I really liked the movie. It was action packed as well as fairly funny. If you want to see it, I believe it’s still playing in the dollar theaters around Huntsville.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Tags: Movie, Rating

I want to be Sara Neale

Nathan — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 22:15:32 +0000

A (dead to me) friend wrote a post where she looked up the results of “I want to be x” in Google. Reading this post I noticed that she searched for herself. So I thought I would make her feel good and have at least one result come up.

I want to be Sara Neale

You’re Welcome

Tags: Friends, Google

The Expendables

Nathan — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 17:19:41 +0000

It was a Friday afternoon, and I was sitting at work wondering what my night was going to bring. Was Jason going to come out and try to kill me since it was Friday the 13th? Or was I going to go to the shop and hang out all night. Turns out neither happen. What did happen was Tandy giving me a call and asking me to go see The Expendables. I convinced her after seeing The Expendables we would go see Scott Pilgram. This is exactly what we did, well with a visit to Waffle House baked in the middle.

The Expendables looked ridiculous from the first time I saw a preview. But also from the preview I knew it was a movie I had to see. With Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Steve Austin, and Terry Crews how could I not see the movie. Yep all those action stars in one movie. Can you believe it? So many action starts how could this movie be bad?

The movie wasn’t so far as bad, as it was just ridiculous. It was a mid 90′s action film. You know the ones with tons of killing, helicopters exploding and a plot that came from the back of a cereal box. That was exactly what this movie was. There were some great comedic lines, don’t get me wrong, but really the movie was kill kill kill, take short break, kill kill kill. I still liked the movie, but only because I love Mid 90′s action films.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

P.S. Sadly no Steven Seagal

Tags: Movie, Rating, Tandy

Playing with a Maker Bot

Nathan — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 15:28:42 +0000

A couple of nights ago, Bob and I started playing with a Maker Bot one of the Makers Local 256 members left at the shop. I asked the member who owns it if I could try to get it working while he was gone on work travel. Of course he said “Yes”. He had been trying to get it to make a shot glass for a while. Bob and I started playing around. We installed the latest version of ReplicatorG and some new firmware. Bob then determined that the head needed to be about .6mm off the printing service. After he tagged me in, and I started playing with laying down a raft. After a few failed attempts where the head didn’t seem like it was moving up the Z-axis enough, I learned to set the Flow Rate of the plastic to 230 instead of 250 in skeinforge. Along with Bob’s findings we seemed to have found a very nice solution. I was able to make a coin, most of a shot glass (something happen 3/4 the way through), and a companion cube.

Tags: CupCake CNC, MakerBot, MakersLocal

Inception

Nathan — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 18:31:02 +0000

This movie was awesome. One of my top favorite movies of all time. The story was perfect, the visuals were perfect, and my lack of knowledge about the movie was perfect. I knew nothing about the movie before seeing it and I’m glad. I was surprised by everything including Ellen Page. I don’t want to spoil anything about the movie, so I’m not going into detail here. I just wanted to give it my star rating and tell everyone to watch it.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars +1 for being that awesome.

Tags: Movie, Rating

My First Kit – The Brain Machine

Nathan — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 22:12:10 +0000

When at The Next HOPE I bought The Brian Machine electronic kit for $20. It’s a product I have heard lots about and really wanted one. I figured I would spend the money and actually make it myself rather than buying a pre-made one.

The kit went together fairly easily once I figured out how to do it with a little help from other Makers Local 256 members. It took me a couple of hours to complete the project. I had a ton of fun making it and think I’m going to make more kits.

Tags: Electronic Kit, HOPE, MakersLocal