Hollywood Prop

Last weekend Linda, as she often is, was watching a bad movie called Babylon AD starring Vin Diesel. Not to be confused with the excellent TV series Babylon 5. I found myself watching it with her when suddenly I noticed a prop that the evil Doctor was using while trying to read Diesel's mind. The shape of it looked awfully familiar to me. A few beats later in the scene and, sure enough, it's an obsolete Guidant product that I helped design back in 1997. The Zoom programmer was used to monitor and program the pacemakers and defibrillator we sell.



Here he is proudly showing off the Zoom programmer.



They modified the flip up display to cover the original touch screen. The original screen was much bigger then this one so I'd say this was a bad upgrade. They also added cables to what was the floppy drive bay - which is probably a better upgrade.



And lastly we have the evil Doctor in his classic 'I have you now!' moment with his trusty Zoom programmer by his side. From this angle you can see that they added a block to the back of the screen to most likely hide the product and company logos.

I'm not sure how a Hollywood prop department would obtain a programmer. I thought they were supposed to be returned to the company. It was fun to spot something I had a hand it, even if it was in a terrible movie. Why couldn't it have been the Matrix or Star Wars!

Little League All-star Game

My one and only nephew, Mathew, was named to the Farmington All-star team. I made sure to get to the game. It started out looking like a blow out by the other team. Something like 8-0 after the 2nd inning. It was painful. But then Farmington started to come back and they were holding on defensively. Truth be told I was not convinced. But I'll be damned if in the last inning, as the sun was already fading on the horizon, Farmington was only down 1 run. Matt was up to the plate with 2 outs, and 2 on the bases. We could barely see the ball and just knew they were going to call the game soon. My sister was freaking out and wishing that it wasn't Matt that had to face this pressure. She had to walk away.



Whack!! He hit the ball just fair enough to get to first and drive in the tying run. It was then that the coaches decided to call the game. A tie was a perfect end to that All-star game. It turned out to be a really fun game. My nephew played really well and I was very proud of him. Let's hope he has a better career in baseball then his uncle.

A tip To All Rebel Fighters

The best time to make your escape from stormtroopers is when someone asks to take their pictures. They can't resist hamming it up for the camera. Simply bust free of their grip and sock them with a upper cross. Works every time.




More stormtroopers photos and other pics from Siggraph are on Flicker. Siggraph is the big annual conference for all things computer graphics. On Thursday night they had a special showing of the new Star Wars: Clone Wars movie.

HIstorical Crap #1: Vintage Video Games

For a long time I've been meaning to go through some very old boxes. As my wife can attest to, I'm a pack rat. I could argue that I'm nostalgic and a collector - but Linda is probably more right then I am. As I go through these boxes I plan to photograph and share some of my favorite things or those with stories. We'll call it The Historical Blog Archive of Robbie's Crap. Or simply Historical Crap.

The first box yielded 4 electronic games from the 70s. These were some of the first hand held video games made by Mattel. Because I was a collector, wink wink, I kept the boxes that the games came in. I even found the sales slips! I did a quick look on ebay and found a ton of them for sale. The boxed ones go for a lot more then the loose ones so thank you very much to the 12 year old me. I could potentially get $100+ for at least one of them because I have all the games, boxes, manuals, and packing material in excellent condition. And yes, they are all for sale.

Mattel Electronics Football
I got the first one at the K Mart store in Grand Forks, ND. The game was huge back in 1977. Every boy either had one or spent their time begging to play their friends. I remember teachers in Jr High taking them away from us in class when we accidentally pushed a button that would made that distinctive tackle sound.



Mattel Electronics Battlestar Galactic Space Alert
Space Alert was my next favorite. It was sort of a simpler space invaders but it was still hard to play. Obviously it was the theme that hooked me since it was 1978 and I was a huge Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica fan. I remember that I ordered this from the Montgomery Wards catalog. One vintage seller on ebay is selling this for $275.



Mattel Electronics Baseball
Mattel Electronics Basketball
The other 2 games I had, baseball and basketball, were not my favorites. I believe I got them as either birthday or Christmas gifts. I played them but I just wasn't a big fan of either sport. To this day sport games aren't that interesting to me.

Paper Making Class

In honor of our 6th wedding anniversary, Linda and I took a Japanese paper making class at MCAD. As with a lot of Japanese things, there is a long history and tradition in paper making. We learned how to beat the fibers and screen out the gossamer thin sheets. We then explored various techniques of dying and coloring the sheets we made.




We made a lot of paper in the five Saturdays we attended. We also made a giant 4x6 foot sheet which took the help of the 6 people.



Probably the most interesting thing I learned is that rice paper is a complete myth. Rice actually is not fibrous enough to produce paper. Most all Japaneses paper is made from a few different plants similar to cat tails or reeds.

20 Years Ago Today...

Today is my birthday. Big deal, everyone has one. But what is neat is that I had recently discovered that a piece of artwork I've had since college was actually a birthday gift. It's hard to make out but in the upper part of this photo is the date 04/10/88. It was given to me by my dear friend Jackie while I was in my senior year at UND. We used to call her 'Bunnie'.



And this is the artwork itself. Jackie is still making art that can be seen here.

My Web Anniversary

Today I had to check to see when a few DVDs from Amazon order would arrive. They make it very easy to do. The information is all very accessible and always a breeze to use. I love Amazon but I had no I idea just how long my love affair has been.

I found an area of my account that had a record of every purchase I've made. Curiosity sent me to the very first purchase which amazingly was 10 years ago today, March 19, 2008. What are the odds of finding that when I did!!



According to the order I bought a book on Sumo. But my memory is that the first thing I bought was a CD. More then likely this database was created around 1998. Amazon was founded in 1994 and went public the next year.

Japanese Food in St Paul

Seems like Sushi resturants are popping up everywhere in the Twin Cities. Recently a new one named Giapponese opened in Woodbury near our home and I'm told another one named Akita Sushi and Hibachi is on the way. These two join Sushi Tango which opened last Summer in Woodbury. What is going on?

For the last year Linda and I have been very happy with Murasaki in Stillwater, MN or would make the trip into downtown St Paul to Sakura or the St Paul location of the long time favorite, Fujiya. I don't really consider myself a huge sushi lover. I'd rather have a bowl Japanese noodles or Tempura if given the choice. But I will also happily eat sushi from Target for a fast lunch so I'm no sushi snob.

We've already eliminated Sushi Tango from our list. The service was terrible 2 of the 3 times we've been there. There was nothing spectacular about the sushi or the courses like tempura to over come the apathy of the wait staff. Too bad as it's the closest to our house.

As I said before we really like Murasaki. It's a no thrills restaurant with a good selection of Japanese dishes and good sushi. It reminds me a lot of typical family owned restaurants in Japan. Although I'm pretty sure no one there is Japanese. Hey, that's ok.

The new kid on the block is Giapponese. We went there a week ago and have already been back. I love this place already! It's a hip place with a mod decor. They don't have a big selection of Japanese hot dishes (not as in Minnesota hotdish silly!) but the sushi is excellent. Monday we sat at the sushi bar which is something we never do. I guess we like to look at each other when we eat. Well this time we sat at the bar and got to interact with the sushi chef who, yes, is actually Japanese! But the best part about Giapponese is that they serve Japanese beers on tap! I've never seen that anywhere in North America let alone Minnesota. BTW they also have Fat Tire on tap which is also something you don't find around here. I'm really pulling for Giapponese to make it.

Although technically in Minneapolis there is also a new sushi spot just north of the U of M campus called Obento ya. I met a few friends there for dinner. The unagi was cold and they had no beer license. That place is dead to me.

If you haven't been to a sushi resturant you may want to learn a little from this video before you go. If you've every been to a real Japanese restaurant you will find it very funny.

Elephant Seals

Linda and I are in San Jose, CA for Christmas. We are staying with Linda's sister and her family. On Christmas Eve we spent the day out on the Pacific coast at Ano Nuevo State Park checking out the elephant seals. The seals are there for mating season. It was a bit of luck for us because they are only there for a short time. I guess we were also lucky in that it was unusually sunny and clear. We had reserve tickets for a guided hike out into the park reserve. I was surprised how close we were able to get to all the lounging animals. All of them were mostly just sunning themselves and not doing much. But they were still impressive to see.

First Snow Caught with New Camera

Today we are getting our first real snow and it's really whipping around. A good old fashioned Minnesota snow storm.

The video is from my new Canon G9 camera. It's a point and shot but has some nice pro-sumer level features. Most importantly is that it shots RAW photos, something that, right now anyway, you can only find in the Digital SLR cameras. I'm also excited about having some limited video capability. Now that Blogger suports video uploads (hosted by Google Video) I should be able to shot just enough video for blog sort of content.

Dave Badman

My old friend Dave Badman was in town to install a piece of artwork at a financial office in Arden Hills. Dave asked me to help him because some of the parts were very heavy. There are about 8 parts that needed to be mounted on the wall and bolted all together. Dave and his welder Mark did an amazing job of engineering to get everything to fit. The photo doesn't do it justice. The grinder markings give the panels a shimmering quality that is almost 3D and seems to be in constant motion.

Ever since we finished art school at the University of North Dakota, Dave has run a very successful jewelery design business in our hometown of Grand Forks, ND. In more recent years he has gotten into large metal installations like the one above. Last year he designed a stainless steel and copper fireplace front for our basement.

Weekend; Lumberjacks

Linda and I spent the weekend in northern Minnesota near the town of Fergus Falls. We were at our friends cabin to help the take down some trees. It's an abandoned tree farm of pines. All in nice neat rows. The trees are generally unhealthy because they are overgrown. So every 3rd row has to go to save the rest.

Some of the pines will be used in the floor of a new cabin to be built. So Jon hired a guy with a portable saw mill to come and cut the trees down to planks. The whole process was fascinating to watch. The machine would take a length up to 20 fee long. Then itwould cut down four sides with a bandsaw to square it up into a beam. After that it was a matter of cutting 1 inch planks from the beam. It took a bit of time to do - about 4 logs per hour.


More Flickr Photos

The Springfield Halvorsons

This is Linda and I as we would appear on The Simpsons.

Over at the official Simpsons movie website, anyone can create there own likeness (or a loved one) using their neat little flash app. Very cool!

Garmin GPS

I bought a new training tool, a Garmin 305 GPS. It is able to track my pace, location, as well as heart rate and some other stuff. I have a 2 year old Timex GPS but it doesn't have nearly the features and is not all in one.

I took it to the TT last weekend but I couldn't set it up in time for the race so I decide to not let it distract me. There will be other races to use it on.

The following image is a screen capture of the computer graph downloaded from the unit. It shows where on earth I was, my speed, and in this case the altitude. Look closely at those numbers. Yup, I was going 400 mph at around 20,000 feet! On the way back from a trip to California, I turned on the unit while we were in a holding pattern for 45 minutes. I was bored. The oval in the bottom corner (yellow) is where we did 5-6 turns before heading north then south again to the MSP airport.

Best Wife Ever?

Thursday and Friday we got a good old fashion Minnesota snow storm. It was great! I think at home we got about 18 inches of snow in two waves. Just enough in each case to force us to blow out the driveway twice. But that's ok because the snowblower is one of the funnest things about winter - if not the funnest! I've been a little disappointed in the last few year with the lack of blowable snow. Here is a shot of Linda getting in on the fun.