What made you happy today?

[Trojan Horse]

Being alive.

I took my car to my mechanic yesterday. The reason: I needed a smog check. The plan was for my mechanic to do a "pre-test" first, and if all looked okay, then he would take my car to an official smog check place (one he trusted), and he'd get the car smog checked for me.

While he was doing the pre-test, the radiator blew up.

Yes, blew up. As in, "kaboom". Coolant went everywhere. Good thing my mechanic was in the car at the time, and not in front of it; otherwise, it could have killed him.

Long story short, he cleaned everything up, got me a new radiator, installed it, and then took care of the smog check for me. I just got the car back. I'm out a ton of cash, but everything seems to be fine.

Just think. If I hadn't taken the car over to my mechanic yesterday, my radiator would probably have blown up while I was on the road. I most likely would've wrecked my car, and I could've been injured or killed. So today, I'm happy to be alive.

The most annoying thing about all this is not the money I had to spend; it's that I now owe a debt of gratitude to the state government. Basically, if they didn't make me get my car smog checked, I might have been killed. And I hate being grateful to the government for anything.

[LordKinbote]

[TGC*]

Hopefully made a good impression on a prospective employer. They were really friendly during the application and interview process. Now I just hope they call back when they say they will (I've been fooled before )

But ultimately a pleasant application process which has been a rarity so far. I'm hoping for the best. *crosses fingers*

[Zag]

Hey, grats, TGC. What sort of position are you looking for? I've done a fair bit of hiring, so if you'd like to do a practice phone interview with me critiquing, I'd be glad to give you advice. Or, what would be better still if I can convince her to do it, have my wife give you a practice interview. She has been a director and done a ton of hiring, and I'm sure would have valuable feedback. Email me at zag@zag.net if you're interested.

[Hitchhiker]

Ran a puzzle hunt -- this puzzle hunt -- for kids at the library, and everyone had a great time.

[Jedo the Jedi]

Internet.

I do love using my own computer.
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Paragon Tally: 18 mafia, 3 SKs (1 twice), 1 cultist, numerous chat scum...and counting.

[The Potter]

Me too! It is a bit slow but that is fine.

I am back to being stable. I was in the hospital for about 2 weeks-- it felt like 5 days. I can share the story with people who are interested.

And I think I will leave MatthewV behind and be a Potter now. Even though I am not making pottery these days. But I was and I will have some pictures to share at some point!

[Thok]

[LordKinbote]

[Zag]

[Jedo the Jedi]

Consider me as one wanting to know too. I would just make a thread telling us about it, if I were you, but maybe it will be just as easy to write one account and PM all curious parties.
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Paragon Tally: 18 mafia, 3 SKs (1 twice), 1 cultist, numerous chat scum...and counting.

[MNOWAX]

I agree there are a lot of people that are interested in how you are feeling and what happened. We were all worried about you, if that wasn't quite apparent.
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The Man The Myth The Legend
MNOWAX

[The Potter]

I will make a thread a some point soonish and be happy to answer any questions. Someone could also bump the thread I started in Off Topic that was a hot seat of sorts.

Right now I need to be asleep

[3iff]

Good to see you back. Take it easy.

[Suspence]

Great to have you back, and even better to hear that all is well.
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I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature.

[Jack_Ian]

[The Potter]

Actually, it is interesting to talk about. I feel like I am going on an adventure as I try to figure out what actually happened!

So far I have learned that I have some really really excellent friends.

And the fact that I did little aside from embarrass myself is really good to know.

[Dragon Phoenix]

Bambi insisted that we use the shop window of our gallery not only for her paintings, but also for my photographs.
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My photography:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/artrock2006/

[Dented Ford]

1) that Dragon Phoenix is the poster immediately above
2) that, among all her other subjects, my daughter passed her Art GCSE, not least thanks to DP for the inspiration and kind permission to submit references to those works of his.

Thank you Hennie!

[Dragon Phoenix]

Congrats! I did not want to ask in case things had gone wrong.
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My photography:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/artrock2006/

[The Potter]

By the way, I am really looking forward to a vase I painted being finished. It has swans / reflection on the water based on one your photos. The unfinished piece looks good. Pottery takes too long sometimes; it is the only piece of greenware that I wanted to complete. sigh.
I did have fun destroying all my other half-finished work!

[Jedo the Jedi]

Finishing Duke Divinity School Orientation.

Now if only my classes would begin...you'll probably see the opposite message in another thread in a few weeks.
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Paragon Tally: 18 mafia, 3 SKs (1 twice), 1 cultist, numerous chat scum...and counting.

[Zag]

Matt, do you ever do any raku* work? Back when my wife was still doing pottery, she did a lot of raku'ed porcelain, and we used to have these marvelous raku parties, with plenty of fire and alcohol. One would think that porcelain, being as fragile as it is, would not survive the raku process well, but because she would throw it so thin, it hardly ever had a problem.


* For the non-potters, raku is a process where you take pottery out of the kiln hot, like 3000 degrees F, and put it into an enclosed space with some combustibles (paper, straw, wood chips). The combustibles do the obvious thing when suddenly in the presence of a 3000 degree object, but when you close it up, you mostly just get a lot of smoke.

You get two interesting effects: First, the glazes that count on oxidation to make their color -- especially green glazes which are typically copper-based -- cool quickly in an oxygen-less environment. Therefore, you get "flashing" where you see the shiny copper that never got a chance to oxidize. The second effect is that as the air trapped in the tiny pores in clay cools, it shrinks, causing it to suck in the smoke and giving a real black to the piece in any place that the potter left unglazed. With porcelain, this effect is quite dramatic, especially if you have some areas with clear glaze, so those spots remain stark white.

One of the problems with raku is the pieces often don't survive the process, because of the massive thermal shock from removing them from the kiln at such a high temperature. However, very thin pieces survive better than thick ones, which is more clear if you understand how it is that thermal shock tends to break things.

[LordKinbote]

One month since I decided to take weight loss (and eventual weight maintenance) seriously. I started at 231 and am down to 217. I've decided to take my weight loss goals into the classroom with a big countdown on my bulletin board. Yesterday, a former student showed up to interview me for the school paper about my goals and how I was using them to help students set their goals. It made me happy that even though I'm nowhere close to my eventual goal (170-180) I can start helping other people to make a difference.

[Jedo the Jedi]

Good for you, LordKinbote! Just to get a feel for the whole thing, how tall are you?
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Paragon Tally: 18 mafia, 3 SKs (1 twice), 1 cultist, numerous chat scum...and counting.

[LordKinbote]

[Jedo the Jedi]

Well, best wishes. I hope this was not motivated by the risk of diabetes or heart disease or some other disease. My granddad was about the same weight and height as you and was forced to lose some weight because of diabetes. It's very much better now that he lost a similar amount of weight.
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Paragon Tally: 18 mafia, 3 SKs (1 twice), 1 cultist, numerous chat scum...and counting.

[LordKinbote]

[Pablo]

[The Potter]

an interesting an related health article complete with a link that will only last a week. The internet is moving around too much for me.

Zag-- raku isn't popular at UAF but have done it once long ago. We do an anagama wood fired kiln every spring (only a 48 hour firing, most go in the 60 to 120 hour range). The results from this spring were rather poor-- we didn't have enough dry wood to hold it at temperature long enough. We only touched 2300F and most of the work might have only reached ∆6-8.
The wood-salt and soda kiln also had rather poor results because of over-firing. I had about 10 mugs that were all blistered and bloated.

It is sad but understandable that most people are switching to electric firings. There is something pleasant about consistent results in the week before a show. But I am turning more to pottery-is-a-hobby side of life so I very well may make/design nontraditional kilns! I love the idea of wood kilns and the results are very stunning once the potter knows the kiln after about 2-4 firings.

Copper can also be used to make a bright red if it is cooled in the proper reduced atmosphere.
As I love playing with oxides, I think I will enjoy some raku at some point.

[itisally]

I think that Reku sounds beautiful! I have always enjoyed the uniqueness that comes from hand done pottery. The one piece you sent me has a special place in my home. One of my favorite things about pottery is all the science that goes into making a piece. I have a friend that blows fire and sometimes adds copper to the paraffin to blow green fire. It is stunning; Tastes awful though.

Potter, you should send LIML a pm. I know she is looking for a special bowl and would like something unique and hand done. I told her to ask you, but she hates asking for things.
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I could agree with you, but then we would both be wrong.

[The Potter]

mmmm I will be selling stuff sometime soon. So sharing some pictures seems sound enough.

and MNOWAX-- the drag and drop aspect of glpics is awesome!


Medium bowl with painted boat and float ring that extends to the rim


A soda fired dish with fish and little spots on the inside and a lady wrapping her arms around the outside


A different variation that is much smaller, the lady is inside and the fish are white


Same lady again on the rim with a gentle blue swirl on the inside


A very functional medium bowl with five starfish made in iron oxide. It came out exactly the way I wanted!

I would be willing to part with each of these pieces for about $100. Which will include shipping unless it is too outrageous.

[LordKinbote]

[Pablo]

[Neo]

Despite the fact that we've had three people quit in three days, my job.

On my campus there's this two story building, and on one end is a one story 15'x15' add-on. In this add-on is a really shitty, very old switch.

This switch is not essential; I don't need that switch for our program/clients, so if it goes down, it doesn't affect the reason we're all here. But it does cut off internet access to the staff lounge if it dies, so it's "essential."

Well, somebody unplugged that switch. Since it's a workshop of sorts, I assume it's because somebody needed the outlet. Should be an easy fix, except one of my coworkers locked the only key to that room inside the room, and none of the windows open. Thus internet access to the staff lounge has now been out four days at least. I hear about it several times an hour. So last night, around 8pm, while I'm trying to see if I can pick the lock of the door (there's a few on campus that I can pick. This wasn't one) I notice the skylight. Hop up onto the roof, see that I can remove enough of it to get inside, drop down, and voila! I'm hero IT guy again.

Until somebody else breaks something.
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_{Ad Astra}

[Mackay]

The accounting agency I was applying for a job with evaluates potential employees with an "IQ test". (I have no idea how legit it was as an actual IQ test, but it was really hard and tested pattern recognition, maths, vocab, some kinda spatial stuff, and some stuff that was a kind of combination of two or more of those. I'd love to go back and look at the questions I skipped due to the time limit, because it was actually really fun.)

I'm the first person to beat the score of the guy who owns the company. The head accountant who was my other interviewer was grinning when she walked back into the room with my score and started laughing when he looked at it and reacted, so I think he might have bragged about his score in the past.

Oh and I was hired on the spot.

If they were watching me leave (big glass doors at the front of the building), they saw me run across the road and hug the postal worker who was walking past. Which is a great mental image, so I hope they were. She works at the bar with me and is one of the coolest people ever. She finished her route and then we had celebratory drinks all afternoon. At the bar that I'm gonna quit soon. Hell yeah. If my writing is a little rambling it's because I'm posting this after having consumed alcohol all day, fallen asleep, and woken up again at 3am still excited.

I couldn't stop laughing for about an hour after the interview.

Bartender Accountant. Oh my god.

[Death Mage]

Congrats!
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* These senseless ramblings brought to you by Insanity™. If you just can't figure the dang thing out, it must be Insanity™.
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[Zag]

Much grats, Mackay!! Of course, it's from hanging out here that you nailed the IQ test! (And also being really smart, but the two are connected.)

[Jedo the Jedi]

Sounds like a fair trade-off: discounted alcohol on less pay or more pay to spend on alcohol.

You do what you love. Congrats.
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Paragon Tally: 18 mafia, 3 SKs (1 twice), 1 cultist, numerous chat scum...and counting.

[The Ragin' South Asian]

Let's keep the good job news streak going. Got back from lunch today to an email from my boss asking me to come by. Obviously from the location of this post, it wasn't to fire me. Woooo unexpected raise!