Fun with the heater.

02.04.2014

At 3:30 yesterday morning I awoke to the smell of something burning. Not an inferno that was burning everything out to get me, but a smell more akin to when the heating unit comes on that first time in the winter and singes whatever has been sitting there for 9 months. I got up and investigated the house but found no fire. I turned off the heater (it was 70° inside) and investigatedonce more, even checking the attic. Nothing.

As I got ready for work 4 hours later I turned the heater back on and everything seemed normal. I went off to work and came back home a little early to try and get my walk for the day in while the weather was cooperating. As I walked into the kitchen from the garage I was greeted by that same singed smell again. I turned off the heater (which was running) and double checked for fiery death. Fiery death was avoided.

The only thing I could think to do before calling a professional was to change out the air filter. I've been meaning to do this for months so I had the spare filter sitting in the closet. I took out the old, well clogged filter and put in a new one. Then I went for my walk.

When I got back 2 hours later I turned the heating unit back on. After half an hour I noticed no evil smell, so maybe the heater was over heating due to the old, clogged filter? I could hope it would be that easy. Around 8:00 I took a nap, since being up since 3:30 in the morning was catching up to me. After 2 hours I awoke to that damned, singed smell again. I went to turn the heat off but paid more attention to the thermostat this time. It was again 70°. When the heater came on after I changed the filter the AUX light was on (and there was no smell). Now the AUX light was off (and there was a smell). That's the only lead I've got.

From there I left the heat off and stayed of at Gina's. When I returned home this morning it was 61° inside so I turned the heat back on just to see what would happen. After 45 minutes, the heat hasn't come on at all. Maybe the heating unit is broke? Maybe it's dead?

Gina & family have switched to a new heating/air-conditioning guy, so I'll give him a call later today and see if he'll come out and tell me what's going on. Luckily, I fare cold weather a lot better than hot weather, so I'm not too worried in the interim. I just don't like having broken parts of the house that are potentially super expensive to fix. That part makes me nervous.

Afternoon Update


The new heating/air-conditioning guy found the house on his first try (he's one of the few, or maybe my directions are getting better). He crawled up into the attic and waved his magic wand, and 15 minutes later I had non-burnt scented air moving through the ductwork.

It seems the motor in the unit was getting stuck and not able to move the air, thus circulating the heat. The heat was building up and technically overheating, so that's where my burnt smell was coming from. He had to replace a capacitor and after that everything checked out all right.

I do have a candle burning to get rid of the left-over burnt smell. It's a sugar cookie scented candle. Now that I've been assured the heater's not going to burn down the house, I feel safe covering up the old burnt smell. With sugar cookie scent.


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Carcassonne & Qwirkle

01.25.2014

The first game of the 2014 Widgey Season was a double header of Carcassonne and Qwirkle, both of which have been featured on Wil Wheaton's TableTop YouTube show (or is it a channel?). While Carcassonne has been sitting in the gaming closet for a year or two, Qwirkle was a purchase due solely to how much fun is looked when Wil Wheaton played, along with how simple it looked to learn and speed of playing a game. As such, I picked up a copy before Christmas and have played it a couple of times.

Qwirkle

Carcassonne has been popular for the majority of the last 10 years and is one of those "games every board gamer should play", so it was only fitting that if nothing else we should play it so as to mark it off the gaming bucket list. There's a lot of strategy involved for what seems like a simlpe game on the surface - lots of ways to score, play offensively and defensivley. Not as fast a game to play (or learn) as Qwirkle, but variety is part of what makes gaming fun.

Carcassonne


boardgames

3D Printed Fun

01.17.2014

One of my Christmas presents to myself was a batch of 3D printed models which I could (hopefully) use for gaming. My goal has long been to integrate some type of GI Joe Comic Book/Cartoon inspired element into a game, and someone made a few of the Gi Joe & Cobra vehicles in 28mm scale on Shapeways. Last year Jerry ordered a couple of space ships from Shapeways, mainly to test out the quality ofwhat they are able to print. The ships he ordered had a nice amount of detail for how small they were. Thanks to a Black Friday sale, I finally placed my order for a helicopter, tank, and trio of jeeps.

The jeeps were based on the VAMP jeep. One was a basic jeep, the second had a machine gun to mount, and the third a missile rack. I probably should have just ordered one to see if these vehicles would work for what I wanted to use them, but they were on sale and buying them had been on my mind since I discovered them almost a year ago.

It took almost a month for my order to ship. 3D printing is a slow process, and Jerry pointed out I might have been the first person to ever order these models so there was a good chance some quality assurance checking was going on with a better than average chance included that something wasn't going right. That's fine, I wasn't in a hurry. I told myself this a couple of times each day.

After my order arrived I looked through everything. Helicopter, tank, jeeps. While looking at the jeeps something wasn't right. 1 of the jeeps had a part missing - the back 1/5 was missing. I looked in the back in which it was packed - there wasn't a trunk to glue on. Nothing had broken off. The open back end of the jeep was just... open. Normally I would think something has cleanly sliced the back end off, but in this case it was like the 3D printer had just run out of plastic when it was printing the jeep.

I sent exchanged emails with Gary at Shapeways Customer Service, including the above pictures. I like Gary, he has a good sense of humor and could tell I wasn't an irate customer wanting an immediate solution. Basically they'll look into it and let me know what to do next. That's the answer I was looking for.

I can figure out how to use 4/5 of a jeep. I can work up something to close the big hole in the back - the rear axle is there so I can still make a 4-wheeled vehicle. More fun would to make a wrecked vehicle objective marker out of it. I bet that's what will eventually happen. Now my mind gets to wander around all the different ways to make it less than 4/5 of a vehicle. And on fire.


gaming miniatures

I still want a Helicarrier

01.08.2014

I had an idea for something today that would amuse Jerry since he's been amused the past couple of days, but I've waited to long and have forgotten whatever it was.

Instead, here's a bonus feature about the SHIELD Helicarrier from the Avengers movie.


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I need to watch more cartoons

01.07.2014

Two things I'm supposed to know about, especially when quizzed by Jerry, are movies and comics. Jer was telling me about watching the Avengers movie with Alice over the weekend and how she enjoyed it, which led to how she watches most of the Marvel cartoons, one of which features teenage versions of Iron Fist and some other guys. While Jerry was trying to describe the other guys, I wasn't real sure who they were. That bothered me, so of course I had to track it down.

The cartoon in question is Ultimate Spider-Man. The character I had never heard of was White Tiger. The character that messed me up because his costume and personality is so different is Power Man, but given that the description I had to go on was "some black guy who's powers are forgettable" I give myself a little leeway.

From the Ultimate Spider-Man wiki, from L. to R.

White Tiger - (real name Ava Ayala) is a S.H.I.E.L.D. trainee and the current successor in her family's legacy to bear the name. Originally a lone hero, she joined S.H.I.E.L.D. in an effort to become a right-hand woman to Nick Fury. With the rest of her group, she embarked on many missions and developed further as a hero. Throughout her time with the rest of the group, she rediscovered her hatred for Kraven the Hunter for the murders of her father and grandfather and overcame her desire to kill him herself with the aid of Spider-Man. She controls herself naturally and helps the others with that too.

Nova - (real name Sam Alexander) is a super-hero with cosmic-energy abilities. Ever since being inducted into the Nova Corps, Sam has developed quite the cocky attitude. He believes himself to be a natural leader, despite not seeing the limitations of his powers and his "fight now, talk later" strategy, which ends up, not being the best choice.

Power Man - (real name Luke Cage) is the muscle and "street-smart" man of a S.H.I.E.L.D.-sanctioned superhero team. He is Iron Fist's best friend. It is revealed that Luke received his powers from a S.H.I.E.L.D. version of the Super Soldier Formula developed by his parents.

Iron Fist - (Daniel "Danny" Rand) is a master of K'un Lun's martial arts. Wealth, awesome kung fu skills, head of a company, Danny has it all. Always calm, always in control, always there to aid and assist. Despite his laid-back personality, Danny takes himself very seriously but always keeps his cool. He loves to meditate and does it whenever possible to practice his Zen.

He provides his S.H.I.E.L.D.-sanctioned team insightful advice and teachings from his past experiences in K'un-Lun. Iron Fist is the glue that holds the team together.


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