TNSC, CNC and U

1.4.2018

So through some grace I found myself with a 3D printer and after a bit of futzing around with it, I got it to work.  Yay futzing!  I printed up a few dinguses I found on the web, modeled a few others and then printed them with success.  My little robot progeny was designing a game and needed a spinner and so I printed him one.  It worked well and he liked it.

He and his pals are into making games and he asked if he could take the spinner to school to demo it for them (and use it in the game they were making).  He asked if we could make more spinners for his friends.  I asked if he wanted to give them away ... or sell them?  Yay Capitalism!

So we piled a bunch of rolls of PLA filament into an online cart, hit the Place Order button and got a mail prize a few days later.  We got busy printing spinners and started to pile them into a box.  When the box was full, he took it to school and "didn't come home until the box was empty."  Actually, the spinners sold themselves and he was quickly out (he did float some kids on collecting the price (they said they'd bring it in the next day) - so I think he and I need to have a conversation about interest on a loan and collection "techniques.")

Perhaps the best part of the spinner design is the blank face of it:  It is without any numbers, letters, symbols or anything else the spinning pointer would point to when finished spinning.  That part of the unit is - as they say these days - an "add on purchase."  We have cardstock and a compass with a cutting end.  We make and sell the inserts!!  Yay New Economy!



Tonight - The Homestead.


bye-ee!
whrr ... clik!

Penny-stealing ... Wanna-Be ... Criminal ... Man (REDUX)

1.3.2018  (first posted this week 2005)

A Christmas tradition that had taken a backseat to getting smashed on NOG for me was enjoying the Christmas Stocking. My Ma was a champion at stuffing the thing with really great stuff back when I was a wee little Robot. And I ain't talkin' about "fillers" like oranges and such. Everything was precious and well thought out.

This past Xmas the small circle of Fam and Friends and I resurrected the tradition in Grand Style! We went as far as decorating our own homemade stockings (the 'blanks' deftly crafted by a crafty Delp) by cutting up bits of felt and glueing them on. This Robot, looking for inspiration thought of the things he liked most ... and came up w/ Nachos and Margaritas! Both rendered in felt quite well, if I do say so myownself.

So on Xmas morning I dissassemble the bloated stocking and much to my delight I find little booze bottles and cigarettes, a false moustache (and spirit gum), some lottery tickets, a Daily Racing Form, a bottle of dishwashing liquid, a pad of Post-Its and a small round pin - some folks call them buttons - that said in a crazy typeface: COFFEE SLUT.

I affixed the COFFEE SLUT button to my fleecy, warm sweatshirt and proudly wore it, as I am, indeed, a COFFEE SLUT. There the button remains and whenever I don the fleecy, warm sweatshirt I remember the joy of the Xmas stocking.

FAST FORWARD to last Saturday when the grrrrrrrl and I are on our way to a weekend in Yosemite and we stop in a grocery store. I'm again wearing the fleecy, warm sweatshirt and it indeed still has the COFFEE SLUT button on it but I don't really see it anymore because it's always there. All at once, in line to check out, I see the COFFEE SLUT button and laugh quietly to myself. Then the nice lady starts ringing up the beer, beef jerky, dry-roasted peanuts and, without looking up, says, "So ... you're a COFFEE SLUT." I said, "heh, okay." She said, "Your button. It says COFFEE SLUT." I looked down at the button and said, "Oh! That’s, uh, that’s uh, my piece of flair. I'm, you know, required to wear a certain amount of flair. ... uh ... I didn’t actually choose this. I, uh, I just grabbed a button and, uh, I don’t even know what it says! Y’know, I don’t really care. I don’t really like talking about my flair."

The nice lady looked me with sad eyes and said, "okay, fine. Sorry." I paid and left.

Tonight - Bar 821  (by request)
You never know who will show up there.

bye-ee!

whrr ... clik!

The Red Neck Scrapper

1.2.2018

I'm sure you all have seen the things people leave out on sidewalks for other people to take if they are interested.  SF had a "trash day" where people could leave the big items that they no longer wanted in piles.  Folks had "trash day" on their calendars and were ready to go out and scrounge a new laundry basket, oscillating fan, microwave oven or printer.  Most of the discarded stuff was junk, but we all know one man's junk is another man's treasure.  That man lives down here in LA, and he's a neighbor of mine.

His house is behind mine and one over.  It's a dilapidated old dump with a dirt yard, a dead palm tree and a junker on blocks hogging the drive.  He drives a yellow and white 1978 Ford F-150 pickup.  It has plywood sides installed in the bed for hauling shit and he parks it in the dirt yard 'cause of the junker hogging the drive.  He has two scrappy-looking teenage daughters that go to the nearby high school.  They should be scrappy-looking - their daddy's The Redneck Scrapper!

I first saw the Redneck Scrapper a few years ago when I noticed his truck.  It's hard to miss as it clatters and coughs and backfires down the road.  One day I put a small piece of furniture out on the corner and happened to be outside when he pulled up.  He asked if the thing was up-for-grabs and I said, yes.  He chucked it into his pickup and off he went.  I happened to walk past his place the next Saturday and there was a yard sale in his dirt yard.  And yep, there was the thing I put out on the corner - for sale.  Lots of other stuff in the dirt yard had price tags on them.  I hadn't noticed before, but the junker hogging the drive had a "For Sale" sign on its windshield.  

Over the next weeks I heard the pickup chugging past throughout the days.  And when the weekend came, there was a yard sale.  He picked up shit during the week and sold it on the weekends.  He was a rather enterprising chap.  A neighbor put an old grill out on the side of the road.  Redneck Scrapper pulled up and asked if he could have it.  The neighbor said sure.  Redneck Scrapper picked up the grill, tipped it over and dumped the ashes on the ground at their feet.  He said thanks, winked and was away.  My neighbor said he just stood there a while looking at the ash pile on the ground and the trash bin two steps away.  He had just encountered The Redneck Scrapper.

From where our two houses are situated, I can just see the lights in his back yard at night.  I can see his bonfires, I can hear his hootin' and hollerin' for the Lakers, Dodgers, Trojans or whatever sporting event he's watching on the TV he's dragged out there.  He's sometimes loud, sometimes obnoxious and when his daughters have friends over, the noise lasts long into the night.  

As his kids got older, the parties got more frequent and while not always loud, I could hear them.  Sometimes it was just talking.  Talking long into the night.  After a while I came to think that Redneck Scrapper was holding court, teaching his daughters the ways of redneck scrapping.  What to look for.  What to leave.  How much to charge for a toaster or a box full of clothes hangers.  I suspect that some day, rattling down the street in a dented tan and brown 1993 Ford F-150 will be a couple of scrappy-looking women, stopping to pick up junk to sell on the upcoming Saturday.

Tonight - Club Deluxe  (by request)
** CASH ONLY**

In our continued "artist series", tonight's TNSC features Burlesque and Variety by Little Minsky's.

Show starts at 10pm / $7 cover at the door.

bye-ee!
whrr ... clik!

Happy New Year, 2018!!

1.1.2018

No fancy, long-winded diatribe today.  Have too much to do to get ready for tonight!!!

Starting off the new year with a new venue!!

Tonight - Stookie's Club Moderne  (by request)

Live entertainment by Mr. Lucky and the (small) Cocktail Party - Honoring the passing of the legendary Ralph Carney.  They hit the... well, there isn't really a stage, so... "floor" at 7:30pm.

No Cover / Bitcoin Accepted / Prohibition attire not required

We've been to this space once years ago when it was the Royal Tug and Yacht Club, and have been meaning to visit here in it's new incarnation, with new owners, for quite some time.

bye-ee!
whrr ... clik!