Posted 12:40 PM by Tim
Ok. I've used up 60m of wire. I've got another 30 that needs winding. The chainmail patch is huge! Well, not huge, huge, just big. And it's heavy feeling. At least, depending on how you carry it. It's difficult to explain.

It's working out pretty well though.

Posted 8:00 PM by Tim
I've been working on the chainmail, and doing some reading. To be completely correct, as I've read, I'm supposed to refer to it as just maille. I think I'll skip that though, and go with either chainmail, or mail. I've been working on a big section of 4-in-1 european. That's classic stuff, used a whole bunch in historical times. Eventually, I'm going to make, or help in the making of, a full mail shirt. There's some tricky bits in there, which I'll have to sort out eventually.

In addition to this heavy sheet of mail I've been making, I've tried out a few different things. I've made a necklace (custom request from Mark), and I've tried a few different weaves of mail. I gave a japanese weave a try, which took some time, but eventually worked out. I also tried something called dragonscale. Very cool looking, but also very techincally difficult to do. I had to create a few larger rings just to make a little patch of it. It's nice looking, and seems to be freakishly solid if stressed one way, yet cruples into a ball if stressed the other. It's neat.

When Robert and I went out to get supplies, we picked up 60 meters of wire for me, and the same for him. He showed me a patch he had made and said that was about 30 meters worth. Admittedly, I was skeptical, but who am I to know? He's right. 30 meters makes remarkably little chainmail in a sheet - at least, using the weave and ring size we're using. I noticed that I was running shy of rings, so I got myself some extra metal. I just need to get myself a rod to wind the springs, and then I can cut more for myself. That's the big holdback right now, I've got the tools and the wire, I'm just shy of a rod that I can use to make more rings. I'll have to ask to borrow it again.

Its been about 5 days that I've been working on the mail, and I've not gotten very far. Given the amount I'd need to do this myself, even a simple shirt will take me a lot of time. I hope this goes off better than the other projects I've got on the go already.

Posted 10:29 AM by Tim
Updates on the chainmail. I got a bunch of work in yesterday, and built a square of mail. Not too bad really. A day's work = 1 square. I dunno how many squares I'd need for a full shirt, but I'm figuring that its probably a lot.

I took a little bit of time and read a few things on the internet. Several places suggested that nice round rings look better than ones that are a little less rounded. I'm in agreement there. So, I took a look at all the rings that I had already closed. Most of them needed just a little bit of adjustment to get round. But, they do look like I really care about what I'm doing. Which I do. I want to give this project the effort that it requires. A little bit of care and time will make the whole project look better for it.

I'd say that I'm probably a lot slower than theother people that I know that are doing mail, but I'm not doing too badly. After all, I've got a family and such to look after, and they're not really bogged with the same commitments. No chance that I'll be able to devote 8 hours a day to this kind of work, but I figure that I can get at least a few hours of solid work in.

Posted 10:42 AM by Tim
So, my friend was over last night, and we got started on the chainmail stuff. What Bren and I needed to do was get a length of wire, and then convert that into chainmail. Simple, right? Actually, it is. There's steps to it though.

First, you gotta get yourself some wire. It needs to be strong enough to hold it's shape under a little bit of pressure, but not so strong that you can't manipulate it. We're using 18 gauge, though you could go with 20 or 16. 20 will be weaker, so you might need to use smaller loops. 16 is going to be pretty tough though, so you'd need some extra hand strength. The Home Depot around us sells 30 meters of 18 gauge galvanized steel (you need the galvanized so that it doesn't rust) for about $3. That's only $0.10 per meter, not a bad price really.

The first step is to wind the steel wire into a spring-like shape. We used a metal rod and a drill to coil up the wire. This gives us springs which are about 1/4 inch in diameter. Once all the wire was wound, we got a pair of cutters (needle nose ones), which we used to snip through the springs.

Snipping the springs leaves us with a ton of open rings. You close up the rings with a pair of pliers (which takes only a few seconds for each ring, but a lot of time for the huge number of rings that get made from the springs.

Once you have the rings (or some rings, anyway) you can start making the chainmail. There's a number of ways to do this, which I'm not about to get into. I've been working on the 4-in-1 mail, or peasant mail (I think it's called that).

The method of construction I've been using is very discordian. At least, so I've noticed. 4-in-1, means you get 5 rings joined. I make 4 of these, and then join them together. In total, that gives you 25 rings joined. I make 4 of the 25 and join them, to give me 112 linked. Not 100, but still, based on 5's, so that's good. I've drifted a little, eh? Ok, back to subject.

The idea is to make 4 of these 100ish blocks and link them. Then make 4 of the bigger blocks and link them too. Continue this process, shaping it eventually into a shirt.

We've made an estimate of the amount of wire needed to make a fairly large mail shirt. About 900 meters. That's about $90 worth of material, and an unknown number of hours of work. Assuming that we sell that shirt, we're looking a sales price around $200 I'd think. Maybe somewhat less. Have to take a look at the market. There's only one place that I've seen chainmail sold, so I'll have to run out there sometime soon. I'll be headed that direction in about 2 weeks, so I'll have to take a look at it then.

I've got some time this week, so I'm hoping to get some chunks done. I'll keep you informed.

Posted 5:58 PM by Tim
Here's a little tale for ya. See, a little while ago, some researcher discovered that agricultured fish seem to have about 3 times the amount of PCBs as non-agricultured fish. This has caused people, especially businesses, to not want to buy these fish. This means that the aquaculture businesses are in a bit of a crunch for cash until they can disprove this statement.

Brenda works for a company that sells products to aquaculture farms. So, they're not getting much revenue from them. In turn, they can't keep paying Brenda. So, they've laid her off, until the market improves.

Not a problem, we can go on EI, and my job will keep the family running like it's supposed to. Except - today at work, they just told me that I'm laid off for at least 2 weeks. So, now we're both unemployed. At least temporarily.

As an upside, looks like we'll have time to do some chainmail after all.

Posted 1:18 AM by Tim
Tomorrow is the first day of classes again. I'm taking an online database course. Should be interesting. It'll cover ASP, and a few other programming skills that I don't yet have. I wonder if I could parley these classes into some kind of diploma. I'll have to look into that.

Posted 1:10 AM by Tim
Interesting day today. Friend of mine came by and showed us his new hobby. Making chainmail. Very cool. He even let me give it a try. I've considered it more than once as a hobby, but I've never thought that I'd have the hand strength for it. It seems that my worries were unfounded.

Making chainmail is very cool. I'd get into it (and I know that my mind has started thinking about just that) but I'm pretty heavy on projects right now. Maybe if I can get rid of three or four of them, I can consider starting this one. Still. Cool though.

Posted 11:38 AM by Tim
Its the weekend again. I've been thinking about putting together a list of all the different projects that I have on the go, so that I can start prioritizing them, and getting things out of the way. Of course, this makes the list a sort of project in itself, which leads to some circular thinking. We'll assume that we can skip that though.

I've got to start getting focused on my projects, and finishing things off as quick as I'm able. There's a lot of wasted time in my day, and I really should be focusing on getting some of the many many things out of the way. It'd leave me more time to do new things. I've pretty much barred myself from picking up any new projects or hobbies while I've been deadlocked like this. Guess its been close to a year now. Not that I haven't managed to get some things done. Just that there's so much to work on.

And now, for a brief babble about my writing again. What I don't understand is, why people are so keen to read my second novel, and not my first. Sure, the second has a ton more human interaction, and it is a little simpler to read - but it sure is confused. The plot goes around in circles in a few places, and you pretty much have to be willing to just say "yeah, ok, so this needs to happen so that the story moves forward," in a couple of spots. But the first one suffers from less of that. At least, that's my opinion.

Seems like everyone that I've sent the second novel to has read it completely. While the first novel languishes around New York. Or about 2/3rds done for most people. Take a look at the numbers. I'm sure that the first novel was sent to at least 8 people. Only 2 have read the whole thing. That's 25% readership. The second novel was sent to maybe 15 people, and I've gotten feedback from 5 people. 33% readership. Yeah, so it's not like "everyone" has read either, I just seem to be getting more commentary on the second one. I suppose I'll have to just keep writing more novels, and they'll eventually become so popular that everyone reads them.

Sounds like a plan. BTW, I'm getting close to starting on Mindy Max and the Missing Money, which I'm going to try to write entirely in about a 6 week period. I'm shooting for about 20 to 25 thousand words. I know I can crank out about 51K in 30 days, so 25K in 45 days should be a cakewalk. Gotta get some editing in too.

That's all for now. It's time to work on that list.

Posted 10:48 AM by Tim
There are some days when I wonder whether my children actually are intelligent. Today is one of those days. Let me lay out the deal for you, so you're all in the loop, k?

My wife, Brenda, goes to work by 7:30 each morning. This way, she gets there more or less on time, and doesn't get fired. She's been doing this for over a year now. Still, however, every morning, she gets great tearful goodbyes at the door from one or both children. Now, I've nothing against this. They want to be sad when she leaves, fine. No worries there. The trouble comes from when they want to go with her. They know that they can't. We've told them that countless times.

Occasionally, one of them will stand outside and shout for her once she's left. She'll keep up the shouting until someone comes to get her - usually mom - back from the car to yell at her to get back into the house. Today (and it's not the first time, but I hope it's the last), she went out to the car to get her. Not such a bad thing in summer, but not great in winter. Especially in sock feet. Really, what is she thinking. Gah.

Posted 10:14 AM by Tim
So, I've got this store thing to do. I've got internal conflict on it.

On the one hand, I need to have it done quickly (before the 18th if I can), so that I can start using it right away. That means I need to leave the frills off, and work on the heart of the application. Nothing fancy, nothing cool, nothing that's going to take too much time to do. Even the interface should be left to the bare minimum functionality.

On the other hand, this will be the first VB project I've done for myself (not for work or a class) in a while. I'll want to make it look good - if only to prove to myself that I can. I'll want to do cool things so that I can show off the application to friends and family. I want to make the application really solid, so that I could leverage it in an interview - really show the interviewer who they're dealing with as a programmer.

Also, there's the internal struggle of planning and starting. I know that if I want it done right, I've got to plan it. And I also know that if I plan it like I'm supposed to, it won't be started by the time the 18th rolls in. I'm usually able to make a compromise there. I plan the basics, and make up the hard stuff as I go. Weighs a little here and a little there.

I suppose the best plan is just to stop writing about doing it, and do it.

Posted 2:29 PM by Tim
It's taken me too many days to get into this recap thing, so let's get right to it. Most of 2003 is a blur in my mind, so I'm lucky to have a nice archived blog :)

January - I was unemployed almost 3 months here. It sucked. Really. I started the Sweater Project, intending to be done by around February, probably. No luck whatsoever there. I'm still working on it.

February - I actually have a blog post about when I started running monthly tourneys in Midland. January sometime. Not a bad time to get a project started. February, though, is the month I got the "monthly" idea started. So, I'm going to have to think about an anniversary tourney. :)

March - The Invitational was on the end of this month. We're planning another one for this year too. Late March again. Definately going to be an event. Money is still a worry, and I'm 5 months unemployed here.

April - I was supposed to write, or at least edit this month. Didn't happen. Did start talking about making the monthly tourney into a business though. I'm still puttering that idea about.

May - I join LARP. We're dinged by taxes. We still haven't managed to pay them off.

June - A bit of a depressed month if my archives are to be believed. Worried about money, 7 months unemployment, no progress on the novelling, or on fitness, or programming, or the dozen other started-yet-unfinished projects I've got going.

July - Almost no posts for this month. I'm back in Detroit again, this time for an interview. Nothing comes of it though. I suppose nothing else interesting happened either.

August - There's a single post in August. About the 70's-style Batman (which I rented this weekend and did not get to watch). I figure that by now, I'm pretty desperate for work, so I'm down to doing whatever I can to try to scrape some cash together. I'm 9 months unemployed now, but I get a week long job (which turns out to be about 1.5 days of work), and then get a new job in Paris, ON.

September - School starts. The job is eating my days and nights to try to get some money into the house again. We buy a standard car, and I start learning how to drive it. I've got it all figured out in a few weeks though.

October - I pop out to Danvers, Mass for a friend's wedding. Spend most of a day in Salem too. Hallowe'en is nice.

November - NaNoWriMo Month. I start in writing like a good boy, get interviewed for the paper (the article ends up being unflattering to say the least), and then promptly forget to write for 2 weeks. I sprint the novel home after a short visit back east for another friend's wedding. Depression was pretty heavy in this month, but I start to pull out of it in December.

December - I build a database for the store (remember me saying that I'm gonna start a business in April? This is how long it took me to get that really started). Christmas comes and goes with no sign of real Christmas spirit. I'm still figuring it'll show around mid summer. This winter is especially warm, the weather witches in the area must have really wanted spring. As an example of the warmth, I actually had to swat a mosquito. In December. Maybe that'll kill a healthy portion with the snap freeze.

Well, that was 2003. At the start of 2000, I had some pretty big expecations for this decade. We're just starting the 4th year in, and I'm still waiting for something big to happen. Any minute now.

Plans for the future. Lemme think. Well, I've got several projects that I want to get started, but I've already got so many on the go that my brain keeps telling me to start finishing things off before getting new ones going. I've got a few things that are so far behind now, that just getting them finished will be an earth-shaking relief. One of these days (months, years) I'm gonna have to figure out how to get really organized. That'll last about a minute or so.

All in all, I figure I was more depressed in 2003 than I had been in the year before it. So, it looks like I'm moving into a bit of a slump as far as personal satisfaction goes. We'll see if that trend holds (and I hope that it doesn't).

Posted 11:03 AM by Tim
I meant to post something yesterday, about the new year and all that. Didn't quite get to it. I've realized that it's finally time to get on with the store - if I'm going to get anything done with it at all. I've got the database worked out, and I've been entering the store's inventory into it. It'll be much easier to enter if you get started with it right away. That way you don't have thousands of entries that need to be made. Just a few hundred at a time.

I've got to sort out the old binder, and update it with all the good stuff that the store has. Get rid of the personal stuff that won't sell, and push that into a "cheap grabs" box or something.

Also, the store needs a name. Something to refer to it instead of "the store." I really don't know what... but I kinda want to put it under my "Ugly Monkey" label. Like: Ugly Monkey Games. Who knows.

I'll probably put up a little more about the whole new year thing later. A little reminiscing. Until then, my new year's resolution is 1024 x 768.