Heat 1 Races Disappointing - C02 Cars

Engineering III Students from Nazareth Area High School began racing their dragsters today as tensions rose high with excitement and some worry. Students set up the track to the races, and cars could be heard across the hall in the cafeteria zooming down the lanes. Checking out the times and the racing, students were overall disappointed with the performance of the class as a whole.


Three cars managed to score "Class A" scores, two being shell cars and one being a hybrid. The "bullet" design has become a cliche, originally designed by Tyler Marshall of Bloomsburg Area High School as the TSA 2006 champion. Those cars did not do too well, the fastest "bullet" reproduction clocking in at an average speed of 41.14mph (km/h) with a time of 1.102 seconds (B class). The fastest car by far in the races clocked in at a speed of 44.24mph (km/h) at a time of 1.025 seconds. While some students were disappointed with a slow score, others could not get their cars to properly race down the track, earning a DNF (Did Not Finish) for multiple reasons, including extreme wheel friction or snagging of the line. The races could not be finished, so students will race again Thursday.


"Im going to fix my car" a student said after I offered suggestions on enlarging the axel hole inside the wheels. "I can get this to work down the track by Thursday". Students (many times) have been given loopholes, and taking advantage of this one is no different. I commented "remember guys, performance is not the end of the road. There is a construction and drawing grade".


Our heat will be racing tomorrow during the same block. Rage of Firebird is planned to be against Revenge of Firebird, who took second place last year and has been enhanced (legally) for a faster time this time around. If there is an even number, Rage of Firebird will face a rival C02 Car in the race, which is of the "bullet" cliche design. May the best dragster win!

A Look back at Star Wars Galaxies

What made the game truly great was the Star Wars feel to the game, that your character was part of a larger world, a community at large living in the same galaxy, fighting the Galactic Empire or eliminating the rebels. That was Star Wars Galaxies.

I fell in love with the original game, it was so unique and so deep that I could customize my character any way I wished, and I had a blast doing it. Living hard in the galaxy was a lot of fun to me, and I grew to meet many friends and do many things. In the old days sitting in the cantina chatting was fun, PVP was massive for control of cities, and the GCW was at it's hottest. SWG did have a lot of content, but it majorly lacked for the veterans of the game torwards the recent additions to the game (NGE "New Game Enhancements"). Developers have been quick to respond, but slow to add content to their game as they scramble to finish all of the professions and complete the NGE cycle.

Right now I have had a lot of time not to play galaxies, so I did actually cancel my account so I can focus on real life issues, like getting prepared to go off to Penn State and the like. I would definatly reconsider and resubscribe if the concept "beast master" was put into the game. My favorite profession throughout the entire game was "Master Creature Handler". Instead of fixing the profession fully, they released a patch to solve some of the problems, then totally removed Creature Handler because it was not Star Wars enough (which I will debate to death until their ear's bleed). I am trying to get back into the game but have not found a suitable time to do so yet. I won't blast and critisize the game because it was so amazing. If there were people to play with, and things to do I would definatly resubscribe.

Rage of Firebird: Final

Looks like I am about 2 steps done with Rage! I need to repaint over the nose area with some gold and add screw eyes, and that's it. I plan on adding laquer after the races when I have time to add it. Check out Revenge and Rage:

Rage of Firebird
Length: 241mm
Wood Type: Balsa
Weight (Body): 14.6 grams
Weight (Car): N/A
Wheel Type: GT-F and GT-R Models
Wheel Design: 4-Wheeled Car
Wheel Placement: Shell Wheels, Revealed
Body Interior: Hollow at Wheels
Body Width: 41mm
Nose Design: "Pronged" Firebird I Design Incarnate
Recorded Time: N/A
Actual Speed: N/A
Launch 1: N/A
Launch 2: N/A
Body Color: Gold
Wheel Color: not painted
Axel: Steel
Pin Stripe Color: Royal Red

Revenge of Firebird Refurbish

I've gone back and repainted Revenge of Firebird (III) into Firebird colors. When I send down C02 cars from college, I will paint them in Penn State colors. Take a look at this nice paint job! Rage of Firebird is 2 steps from the same completion as well, let the final paint coat dry then attach screw eyes. I'll post pics ASAP.

Wii Update: Everybody Votes Channel Launch

I yet again woke up the other morning to find my Nintendo Wii blinking blue again. Now I went to see what's up and I learned that another channel is available from the Wii Ware portion of the shop channel, the "Everybody Votes" channel. The program encorporates your existing Miis and allows 6 voters to participate in regional and worldwide polls. You get data such as the results to each poll, your patterns and tendencies as a voter, your prediction accuracy, and how far of a distance you are from popular opinion (It's been since 7th grade since I have even remembered the imagery of the guy and the city??).


You have two choices on which side to vote, but you can predict either. Your predictions matter more on who will win; your actual vote does not harm your score in anyway, but helps to develop your Mii's persona. Polls run from just 1 day, to 3 days, to a week, to two weeks. It is free to download, and if you would like to see what popular opinion is (or submit your own question!) head to the Wii Shop Channel and see what the Everybody Votes Channel is all about.

Site Navigation Edits

I have been playing around a bit with the site navigation to make it slightly easer to get around. The archives were really big and got in the way of letting you folks easily access other features of the blog. The quick link is a list of categories that are the most often viewed and posted about, so if you want to see the latest post about that subject, use one of the links there.

The picture galleries has remained the same, I am constantly updating it almost daily, at the absoloute latest weekly. You have your major anime reviews listed as well (because if I removed them, that's taking the purpose away of creating the blog!!) Along with suggested links of tech and other anime blogs, along with a quick link to my C02 Car series, which I will probably remove when the projects are over, but are still viewable by searching out engineering posts.

A new feature I am working on is getting game reviews and opinions out, then you have the library at the very bottom. I hope it is somewhat easier to move around! I have been trying to balance posting about certain topics (IE not too much Engineering over Anime) so expect a mix for a while to come. Again if one particular topic does not interest you, skip it or use the quick link.

CNC Made C02 Car

I was browsing a few google results and I found something absoloutly spectacular. I've known for ages that C02 Cars can be made completely by computer, but I have never seen the process or seen it in great detail for that matter. Here is what Mier Plastics has come up with for a C02 Model. Designed in CAM, and the CNC machine is told what and where to cut (HINT- The car is TSA Illegal). Amazing. This totally beats hand carving and sanding by a mile (although this is tradition). If you want to see more pictures, see my Galleries section to the right, the pictures are under "MIERSDRAGSTER".

Speaking of Bridges...

I finally got the conviction to rebuild my toothpick bridge again during this nice break we have from classes. Along with my C02 Cars I am going to finish the other truss to the bridge, then connect them.

Races Pushed Back Due to Snow, New Glasses Get!

Man have we had so much snow! I went out back yesterday to a flat part of the backyard, and we accumulated about 5.3 inches of the schtuff... The roads are good enough to drive on now, but ice patches still exist, and some people are still stuck and are not able to move their cars.

With a four day weekend coming up, and all of the snow delays race time for the C02 Dragsters is being pushed back, it looks like to the 26th of February. Sorry folks can't control mother nature =/. However, this gives me more quality time to do more work to my dragsters, and get the synopsis and drawings done. I also got some new glasses this evening, check em.

Hint- (In Japan, a direct translation reveals when you say you "got" something in Japanese, the text is such as "Digital Camera Get!" Im not grumpy in the photo, just tired heh ^^).

F-22 Raptors Prepare for Journey to Pacific

F-22 Raptors are being sent over from the United States to Okinawa, Japan as part of an effort to demonstrate the reliability of the United States to it's allies in the Pacific Theatre. Kadena Air Force Base in Okinawa, Japan will accept 12 F-22 Raptors as part of a defense force for the Pacific. The Raptors had to turn around to Hawaii due to a software glitch, but intend to continue to Kadena AFB once Engineers update the navigational software. Lieutenant-General Bruce Wright, a US/Japan forces commander stationed at the base has commented that the deployment of the F-22's to Kadena AFB have absoloutly nothing to do with the recent political talks to disarm North Korea and it's Nuclear Program.









"What the F-22 deployment does is ... make the (U.S.-Japan) alliance stronger, and that is a factor for dealing with the complexities of North Korea."









Wright also commented that the F-22 Raptor is the most costly US fighter plane, but is designed to take down threats before it is even detected by radar. A few hundred residents showed up outside the Okinawa Base to protest the Raptor's arrival, citing crime, noise and pollution from the AFB to the surrounding perfecture.






Source information provided by (Reuters)
Images Provided by the United States Air Force Website

FUNimation to sell Anime through Itunes

FUNimation has taken the next step to reach new anime fans and to give current Otaku a reason to celebrate: Anime will be released by funimation through Apple's Itunes music program. Some of the titles for immediate release will be Samurai 7, Speed Grapher and Desert Punk. Each episode is available for legal download for $1.99 an episode. As Mr Gen Fukunaga stated,

"Our anime series will be the first offered on iTunes and will expose a wider audience to the unique storytelling and graceful animation inherent in this Japanese style of entertainment"

And this truly is a first step to a larger world. Ever since Napster started their music downloads in the late 90's, the government has been after companies that are P2P Programs. Apple has agreed with the music industry and other producers to distribute their media by purchasing a license (the producers and artists probably make some money off of downloads, too). If you are into anime and you want to check this out, head to your Itunes store and download away (legally, of course).

Article from: http://www.ipodnn.com/articles/07/02/13/japanese.anime.via.itunes/

Revenge of Firebird and Rage of Firebird: Paint

I have Revenge of Firebird back in paint now to give it a matching paint scheme to Rage of Firebird, a red pin stripe (as with all firebirds) but a gold color. Rage of Firebird is about 85% covered with its first coat, and I will be adding final touches to it to make sure it will be ready for raceday next Tuesday (this date may change, with all of the snowdays). Revenge will also be given another coat just like Rage, with all of the platinum paint covered in gold and the blue pinstripes in red pinstripes. Rage of Firebird and Revenge of Firebird will be racing each other on raceday to see who will reign supreme.

Developers Pushing it with Vanguard

Vanguard SOH is the newest MMORPG to be released, only about 2 weeks old and it has plenty of it's own problems. That is not my problem though with Vanguard, my problem is with next generation developers.


I tried running Vanguard this afternoon and I could not because my Radeon 9200 is far out of date. It seems every MONTH the previous card goes out of date, and I am sick of shelling hundreds of dollars to upgrade my machine just to play a game that EXPLODES polygons at me. I was browsing BestBuy.com to find a suitable card, but they cost $300 plus, and that is money I do not have. So what is my problem again?

I feel developers are setting the minimum requirements for their games way too high, either this is a marketing ploy to support hardware manufacturers, or they are playing the guessing game where they believe everyone will upgrade to play the next best game. The average person cannot afford to upgrade their computers; it's too laborious of a process and it is costly. When I go back to work this year I can afford one no problem, and it's probably my best intentions to upgrade at least by the fall of next year, maybe add another Gig of RAM or so to really get the games running smooth. For now, I won't be purchasing Vanguard because it wants me to upgrade with a $400 card.

C02 Dragster Races: What's coming

Here's whats coming in 8 days, I am so pumped.

Rage of Firebird: Paint

Now I have been a REALLY lazy bum about this but it's time to go finish Rage of Firebird today and get some paint on it. Among other things I want to get Rage of Firebird done so I have room for physics study. Yeah and that english paper too.... better finish that before Tuesday.

Two Missionaries Downed in Alaska Found

Two church workers were found by searchers after their single-engine Aero Commander crashed into a snowy mountain. A helicopter rescue crew spotted Pilot Jim Bingman, 69, and passenger Gavin Thompson, 54, Friday morning, a day after the crash, waving clothing and jumping up and down. The two had walked away from the crash and spent the night in a makeshift shelter more than a mile (1.6 kilometer) away. The plane went down above tree line on a mountain about 10 miles (16 kilometers) west of Manokotak, a village in the Togiak National Wildlife Refuge. Bingman and Thompson, a South African who moved to Dillingham less than a year ago from New Zealand, had been building a Seventh-day Adventist church in Togiak and had left Thursday afternoon on a planned 45-minute flight to Dillingham, Alaska.

Article by the Associated Press

Wii: Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam

Activision has released their next Tony Hawk skateboarding game with the release of the Nintendo Wii. This series has always given me an appreciation for skateboarding, although I don't do it myself. Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam (Jam for short) is a solid addition to the series with a few unlockable characters, gear and boards for them, and many many levels to beat and races to win. The game is a skateboarding game no doubt; but it IS a downhill race game, not a free for all skate.


One thing I liked in the past about the games was that you could get free roam of the levels and do basically what you want when you wanted to (Tony Hawk's Underground). You're not going to get that here. From playing it through for a while, you have to complete objectives such as mass destruction, pedestrian abuse, hitting checkpoints to add time, and of couse races with other boarders.


For a Wii game I expect the graphics to be good; and the game actually has pretty decent graphics. The intro cinematic was done well, and the characters were modeled well. I also loved right before a race, there would be a brief "MTV Style" interview with what they thought of skateboarding, themselves, the location they are racing in or about the other boarders. The graphics could have been a lot better, but that it just my opinion. What matters is gameplay here.


Controls are very easy to pick up but it takes a few runs just to get a hang of the game. You can push people, objects, and other boarders out of your way. Like the title suggests, every single race is downhill. There are multiple shortcuts and they will be handy when your up against other boarders in single races. Once you beat them, they are unlocked for you to use to further your progress in 1st player mode.


I have not played the game with other people, but I have heard reports (and I have seen) that the multiplayer is indeed lacking and suffering. Now it's a lot of fun for three or four players, but that's really about it. There is something about the game that does not make it the Tony Hawk game I am used to. It's not a bad addition by any means, but I did not like the "forced" gameplay options of battling my way up the skateboarding ladder. The levels were fun, the tricks were fun but could have been mapped better, and the soundtrack was pretty good. I'm a picky gamer but thats a trait you get after playing games your entire life. The game is good, it's a lot of fun if your into the Tony Hawk series, and it's worth a guranteed rental (I rented it, only 5 Wii games there!). Giving this game a rating, it deserves a 3 out of 5. Mediocre game, and it's worth the rent.

Mario was an Anime??

Im just as shocked! found this on youtube and it looked kind of neat. Mario was apparantly made into an anime at some time, too bad there are no subs.

Invitation to the Science Olympiad

I was talking with my Physics instructor this afternoon and I was invited to participate in the science olympia. As far as I know this is a huge regional event and I will be representing my school in 1 of 3 teams. We are building a model car (much like the flatulator) to carry an egg as fast as our team can about 8 to 12 meters across a track, then STOP before it hits a wall and still have the egg intact. More on this when I can get the info in.

The Truth about Excel Saga.

MASTERPIECE. XD

Just.... Awesome. A Word on the Growing Web Community of the World

Asateaque Island

Is an island right outside the DelMarVa area and is right outside of Ocean City, Md. The place is great and has its own natural beach. You can see horses running the beaches freely at night when the electric fences are turned off. Wild horses and ponies do live here, so driveby and you will probably see a few. Other life lives there too including deer and the such. Its a must see if you go down to Ocean City MD.

WARNING.
To help the Park Rangers Im putting this disclaimer in. Do NOT FEED or PET the wild horses. Don't get out of your car either. You not only get a citation and a fine, my dad got nipped in the back of the butt by a horse that had a sense of humor. It's better to keep the horses out of the road so they don't get hit by stupid tourists (us).

Wii Sports Scores

Im doing a lot better! The best I can do is a 25: my current score. Quite an improvement. I havn't figured out how to flip the numbers yet so I added an equation to the Y-Axis.

Dunes Manor Hotel: Ocean City

Im thinking about the beach in -18 degree weather heh ^_^


Last year I took a trip to Ocean City Md. We stayed at the Dunes Manor hotel, located (I think) on 35th street in Ocean City, Maryland. Ocean City is a big tourist destination for lots of people during the summer, and especially this summer- Senior Beach Week. If you are looking at going to the Dunes Manor for a stay, allow me to provide some input.


The hotel is Victorian, definatly. As you walk in the ceiling is high and there are two stairwells up to the next floor with a genuine Victorian piano and the main desk. We stayed on the 4th floor, but I have a thing where I love to be on the top floor of the building, as high as I can go to see the farthest I can. We stayed in a double room, I think it was a normal sized one it may have been a Queen. The room is victorian, but its more sandy/beachy in a way. Clear gloss/glass tables, a kitchen, TV and an old cable box (I LOVE the older cable boxes). The carpet is well kept and the rooms are very clean. I would recommend NOT sleeping on the cots they bring in; the cots are fine and I can sleep on them, but they are not the best things. If you're into the sort of detail, the maids are a mix of foreign/local, 50/50. There are local maids that can talk to you and give you good information.


There are only two elevators, but the time isnt bad. It can get kind of packed if you are sharing an elevator with a group moving in. The hallways are all exactly the same. If I were to go on the 3rd floor and see a soda/ice machine, one is directly above and below it in the near exact place. They are all very pretty, and there are mirrors and comfortable chairs by the elevator. I don't know if this is me, but hotels like this always smell nice and fresh. I don't know why, but its different and very comfortable.


You can literally walk off of the deck onto the beach. There are rocking chairs on the main deck and you can fall asleep very easily. There are signs posted not to feed the gulls though, so if one does drop a bomb on you complain about peeps upstairs feeding gulls. Nightly there will be someone playing the Victorian piano, usually a lady (I am not sure of her name). People do sing a long and have a good time, but this is for the older crowd. There is a small gift shop selling cameras, batteries, tylenol etc, and porcelin clowns. I HATE CLOWNS. If you go down past the bar torwards the pool, you will see that the walls have a lot of pictures of the hotel and Ocean City in the 1900s, the old old old days. Feel free to ask anyone who has been working here about the history of the hotel =).


Now the all important topic: the bathrooms. Bathrooms and maid service I think comes in twice a day to clean up and make the place nice and spiffy. The restroom for all guests is by the pool past the bar, and let me tell you the bathroom is the 2nd best bathroom I've ever been in (YES I count). Clean bathroom, plenty of soap, sinks are great, its like an actual outdoor shack type of bathroom. Ventilation is good and the toilet paper is quality, so don't worry about them going cheap on you. Again, great bathrooms.


They have a "gourmet" restaurant that has great prices and good food. I had breakfast lunch and dinner there over my 5 day stay. Their pancakes are pretty good, and their hashbrowns (home fries) ROCK. Bacon is delicious. One night for dinner I had Mozerella Sticks there and they were ok. There burgers are pretty good as well. I like it well done and the burger was indeed pretty good. Eatable of course and good but not the best I have ever had.


We have been here before when I was 4 or 5 so my family are frequent customers. The prices are pretty good I hear but GET THOSE RESERVATIONS IN BEFORE SENIOR BEACH WEEK. The entire point of this post was to warn of that. Once senior beach week hits, there goes reservation across the city. Have fun! Ill update this post with more information when I remember it =) The Dunes Manor hotel is a great place to stay.

Rage of Firebird: Final Sanding Preparation

Rage is coming along very well now. I've left no room for screw eyes, so I'm going to have the screw eyes stick out from the sides. Presto! were back in business.

It's a good thing I chose the heavier block: Rage of Firebird weighed in at 14.7 grams as a body, the lightest I have ever given any Firebird to date. With wheels and axels she ways in at 36.5 grams, so we need to add some weight. I have axel bushels on the way to reduce friction, and also picked up a bottle of graphite, a dry lubricant that is legal for the races. I will add steel axels and washers for weight just as I did with Revenge. Not too many, but enough to just hit 50 gram, the minimum weight. I had a preminition the other day, that Rage of Firebird will do extremely well in the races. The car will break 1.000 seconds. It has been final sanded, and I will add coats of sanding sealer as soon as I build the rear power plant back up to meet the 3mm thickness rule. The car should be done and painted by about Tuesday or Wednesday.

I've also began a Wiki on LSRAV if anyone is interested. Head over to Wikipedia.org and type in search "LSRAV" to see what I have started. Enjoy! (PS, for these races I have another ACE up my sleeve....)

Revisiting Boohoo Moneybags

Sheesh, I am getting lazy with posting. Sorry folks, your old pal XYZPDQ has been REAL busy in the real world with Physics (especially) Calculus Engineering and a Term Paper.... ouch. Long overdue for some posting.

Revisiting the boohoo moneybags post, I was p!ssed off for not getting my Nintendo Wii and I was frustrated. Well its about 3 months since I posted that post. Guess what? Your chances are STILL slim to none for finding a Nintendo Wii or Playstation 3. Nintendo has been cracking on this by introducing more games while the PS3 forcast is not looking very good right now. Xbox is doing swell, and the recent release of Windows Vista (horrible) has taken minds of of gaming consoles- if only for a little while.

Keep getting dates to hunt down that Nintendo Wii! Persistance will pay off in the long run. See my past tips to see if they can help you out.

~XYZPDQ

Rage of Firebird: WHEELS!!!

Wheels have a perfect fit. I am cutting it so close! 3-4mm from the power plant. Check em out! Just need to final sand with 150 to 300 grit, apply some sanding sealer, sand with 400 lightly, rinse, repeat, and paint. Then laquer the paint!

Rage of Firebird: Shaping

Final shaping of Rage. Did some carving and Rage is looking NICE right about now. Needs some final prep and sanding but she is doing good. I got bored in Calculus so I took photos "on desk" =D

Rage of Firebird: Final Construction

Just got done Rage's construction. Here are a few pics =D. I moved the rear axel forward to give the wheels more room.