Happy Birthday, Mason (Next Mile Ahead)

Five minutes after Mason was born, I had emailed pictures of him to my coworkers and my family. That was quite a feat sixteen years ago, back in 2001. First I had to transfer the pictures from my digital camera to my laptop using a special cable. Next I had to resize the pictures, because emailing pictures 1MB in size was unheard of. Then I had to connect my laptop to a spare phone jack in the hospital room, and dial up to connect to the internet. While the pictures uploaded, I killed time playing my brand new Gameboy Advance.… (read more)

RobOHara

Another Semester in the Books

Sunday, while Susan and the kids were at the mall finishing up some Christmas shopping, I submitted my final paper of the year, bringing the end to another semester of school. This semester I “only” took six credit hours in the form of three classes, compared to the spring semester when I took 10 credit hours. I still wonder how I managed to pull that off. This semester I took Autobiography in Adult Education, Independent Study (essay/short story writing), and Project, in which I wrote 40,000 words of a novel. Last spring I finally hit that magical 2:1 ratio by… (read more)

RobOHara

Star Wednesday: R2D2 Ceramic Bank

I told myself I wasn’t going to buy any Star Wars collectibles in 2017 and for the most part I haven’t. Then, last week, I saw this for sale at Dollar General and caved. This R2 unit is, in fact, a ceramic piggy bank. It’s all one piece, so there’s no articulation. His legs don’t move and his head doesn’t swivel. He just stands there at attention, waiting to accept your spare change. In the 1970s pottery and ceramics were all the rage, which led to a lot of bootleg Star Wars items. Garage sales were full of misshapen Vaders,… (read more)

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Cold Bones

The high yesterday afternoon was 74 degrees. Right now at 6 a.m. it’s 38, but the weatherman says it feels closer to 30. “It’s going to be cold on the motorcycle this morning,” I say. “Sure you don’t want to ride the bus to school?” I’m not sure he answered me with anything but a look. The Fonz does not ride the bus to school. I can’t remember exactly when or why — that happens a lot these days — but I rode a motorcycle to school during the winter of either my junior or senior year. Maybe it was… (read more)

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3D Printer Back Up and Running

My foray into 3D printing got off to a rocky start. I originally unboxed and assembled my printer on the dining room table. Everything worked great until I moved the printer upstairs. During that process, a wire that controlled a critical cooling fan failed. When the fan failed, a pretty important part of the printer cooked itself. Fortunately, instead of buying the printer directly from China, I purchased it from TinyMachines3D, who priority shipped me a replacement part. When that didn’t fix the issue, Chris, the owner of the company, worked with me over the phone until we got the… (read more)

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Charles Manson (1934-2017)

When I think of Charles Manson, the word that comes to mind is “fascinating.” I became aware of Charles Manson after viewing Helter Skelter as a kid, the 1976 made-for-television movie (based on the best-selling paperback) that frequently aired on late night television. The fictionalized version of “Charlie” in Helter Skelter was a caricature of the real Manson. In the film he was presented as guy with hypnotic powers over the members of his Family. In real life, he was just a criminal and a con man. People my age (mid-40s) and younger grew up aware of Charles Manson, but… (read more)

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Guns N’ Roses LIVE in Tulsa, OK

Last night, 25 years after seeing them perform live for the first time, I got to see Guns N’ Roses perform once again, this time in Tulsa, Oklahoma. My friend Tim is a big Guns N’ Roses fan. He and his wife Dawn along with Susan and I have seen the band live three times — in Norman, back in 2011; in Las Vegas in 2012, for Tim’s 40th birthday; and Tuesday night, November 17, in Tulsa. Additionally, even though we hadn’t met yet, Tim and I were both at the Oklahoma City Guns N’ Roses show back in 1992.… (read more)

RobOHara

Star Wednesday: LEGO Biker Scouts

The Biker Scout is arguably my favorite Star Wars action figure. Introduced in Return of the Jedi, the Biker Scouts (at least at first) came off as more elite than the typical bumbling Stormtrooper. Everything about these guys, from their helmets and armor to their unique pistols, was simply cool. To top it off they had super fast Speeder Bikes, on which they raced at break-neck speeds (sometimes literally) through the forest moon of Endor. Unfortunately, the Biker Scouts (along with the rest of the Empire) were overtaken by a small group of Rebel Commandos with help from an army… (read more)

RobOHara

The Purple Star

This semester, along with two other classes, I began work on my senior project — a fiction novel. Each week, I write a new chapter for my novel and present it to the head of my committee. During our weekly sessions, my professor reads the chapter and provides me with immediate feedback. Project is the intersection where form meets art. For two years I’ve been reading and learning about story structure, plotting, character development, and pacing. Project is where students write their own stories, applying the structures lessons we’ve (hopefully) learned. Next semester, after my novel is finished, I’ll present… (read more)

RobOHara

Star Wednesday: 3D Printed Weapons

Toy guns have been a staple in the lives of young boys for many generations. As a kid I owned army guns, cap guns, dart guns, Nerf guns, and even a rubber band gun, but I never owned any of Kenner’s official Star Wars guns. There were three different guns in Kenner’s Star Wars line: Han Solo’s blaster, the Stormtrooper rifle, and later, the Biker Scout pistol. All three guns resembled the versions that appeared in the movies, and made electronic sounds that did not resemble the versions that appeared in the movies. So while I didn’t have the life-size… (read more)

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