In Which Pussy Rescues Himself Without Requiring the Fire Brigade

I got home and found our cat Timo stuck on the roof again! I tweeted the picture:

I love the idea of kindly fire brigade officers running around rescuing helpless & hapless kittens.

But pussy rescued himself in the end:

Technic Lego Programmable Vehicle Prototype Stage #2 (WITHOUT Mindstorms)

"Mindstorms" lego contains electronics and computer chips to control functions.

But you can program a lego vehicle without any electronics except for a basic motor.

Here is Stage #2 of the prototype I'm working on - I say prototype because I think even when I've finished it I'll rebuild a better version.

My vehicle can be programmed (using a mechanical card that you feed into it) to steer left and right and move forward and backward. Stage #3 will have other functions too.

I have to laugh at how loud it sounds - I heard that noise is a sign of poor engineering! But I'm a French teacher, not an engineer! I have an ARTS degree!

In the video you'll see the vehicle in action for a minute and then an explanation and some close ups of the mechanisms.

Technic Lego Programmable Vehicle Prototype #1

Proof of concept prototype for a programmable vehicle, controlled via a card which you'll be able to change/customize to change the timing of the vehicle functions.



For this prototype I just wanted to make sure I could get the card going backwards and forwards indefinitely in a loop, and still remove/place the card easily. The card hits the motor switch which puts the motor into reverse.

The two switches are connected so hitting the one resets the other. One of the switches is under tension with a hair elastic, so the motor just has to push it past its tipping point (this is a real issue because to reverse the switch you have to go via the 'off' position - my fear was the card would nudge the switch to the 'off' position and no further, thus stalling it. The hair elastic pushes the switch further, meaning there is no off position possible.

Next phase is to make it look nicer (not my strong point) add steering, forward/backwards movement, and some kind of crane device on the top. These will all be driven via the card, by other ratchet thingies (as you can see in this video along one edge of the card. The hope is I'll be able to change the movement sequences really easy by taking out the card and rearranging the ratchet thingies.

Stay tuned if this is your kind of thing! Subscribe to my youtube channel www.youtube.com/lestep! (I also post education videos to this channel, BTW). Also come say hello to me on Twitter - @steve_collis - www.twitter.com/steve_collis

A cat, a rat, and a technic lego buggy.

Self-explanatory. For your viewing pleasure below:

Steve (& his Cat) Sing Some Covers...

Once again I've put my singing up on YouTube. YouTube is God's gift to guitar bozos like me. I take great pleasure thinking that a few people will find my videos and listen, just like I love stumbling on other Joe Bloggses (blogs? lol) who have posted their backyard performances.

The first song is 'Not Perfect', by the comedian Tim Minchin, although this song is not comedy. My cat wandered in just before I hit 'record' so I let it go, and frankly he steals the show for most of the song until he runs off (knowing our kitten, he's imagined there is a bit of fluff in the living room that needs chasing).



Our kitten came back in a while later and went to sleep on my other computer chair. So... I deliberately set the camera on him while attempting 'Edible Flowers' by The Finn Brothers. Another sweet, melancholy song, like Not Perfect. It seems to be about growing older and dying, and just the whole perspective you get when you're old enough to realise this is where life leads.



I'm much happier with the sound on these songs than my attempts over the last couple of years. I've realised I have to video from my laptop, while running the mic through my desktop, and then blending the two together in MovieMaker. It only takes a minute to synch the audio to the video.

The other thing I realised is that I can sing really softly, and get Audacity to amplify the sound, and still get a nice sound. This is a great discovery because I always strain when I sing. I am a try hard at everything in life, but when you sing, if you try hard, you inject tension, and that's when you murder a note. You have to chill to sing well, and I am not, by nature, chilled. I come to music with loud threats and a whip, and the music had better obey, or else. This is not the way to do it.

It's the Easter holidays now, and school is a couple of weeks off, so it's the perfect time to try singing without trying too hard.

No Burger Needs This Many Patties

Four patties, four slices of cheese. This is absolutely real, I took this photo today. This is not a parody, this is a legitimate product from Hungry Jacks.

I have nothing to say.

'Spore', and the Borg from Star Trek

After waiting for ages for it to be released, I raced to the shops on Thursday to grab a copy of 'Spore'.

Spore is the creation of Will Wright, who made SimCity and The Sims.

In a way, he is a murderer. Let me explain why: I can remember many years ago when I was in High School in the early 90s, playing SimCity for hours on end. I can remember, many years ago, when I was just back from France, playing The Sims for hours on end. And I remember just a couple of years ago playing The Sims 2 for hours and hours and hours on end.

Now this time is hardly productive is it? Let's say I live to the age of 80, and by that time have spent 500 hours on Will Wright's games. Now, I have perhaps 2 hours a day of free time. So that's 250 days he has robbed me of. That's almost a year.

Steve Collis - would have lived to 90. Life cut short by brutal murderer Will Wright.

In a way, he is my benefactor. By providing me with a mentally stimulating, relaxing passtime he has helped me flourish during stressful periods of life. (Nothing like bossing some Sims around to satiate that ancient and fundamental need to maintain the preposterous schema that we have some measure of control).

ANYWAY! Will Wright has been working on 'Spore' for years and I've been looking forward to it. I played it a bit Thursday and Friday, and A LOT today. You get to control a cell, that evolves into an animal, then into a tribe, then a civilisation, and then to space.

Talk about CONTROL! You get to design everything!

When the spaceship designer screen came up (after I'd progressed that far, which took about 10 hours), a thought hit me: I WONDER IF I COULD DESIGN A BORG CUBE AS A SHIP!!!



You know the Borg? From Star Trek? Some of the best space villains in science fiction history!

I did make a ship, and then I used the video option to take footage of me flying about in it.

It is now exactly midnight on Saturday, and I feel a mixture of annoyance at Will Wright for once again hypnotising me, and a mixture of delight that after a few hours sleep I can play it again.

In the meantime, here is my Borg video. My favourite bit is just after the one-minute mark: