It's been a long time!

I forgot I even had this blog. I will try to keep it updated more frequently. As this is mostly about my hobby...here is the latest & greatest: I recently bid on, and won, a couple of DLP projectors. Just wanted a new, fun, project different than the normal arcade stuff I work on. Got these for less than $50 for the pair. They were advertised as "non working" so I expected the worst. When they arrived, I plugged one in and it came right up. Sweet! I plugged in the 2nd one and the power and lamp lights came on. Nothing else. I swapped the lamp with the good unit and it tested ok. That tells me that something else electrically was wrong. So, naturally, I tore into the unit looking to see if the power supply was good and if anything else looked bad. I had parts all over the place. Could not find anything wrong. I attempted to put it all back together. Luckily, everything was back in its proper place. Still had the same issue when plugged in. My next step was to do research on the web (probably should have done that first!) I found a forum where someone suggested resetting the lamp timer. I figured that would be fine if I had just replaced a lamp...after all, it's only a timer to let folks know when to replace the lamp. I found the service manual for the unit online and downloaded it. It mentioned that if the lamp light was on and a known good lamp was in the unit, then there was a lamp circuit failure and the unit should be sent in for service. It also mentioned that you should reset the lamp timer. I figured, what have I got to lose. I reset the lamp timer and I'll be darned if the thing didn't fire up. Perfect picture...nice and bright! So now I have two working projectors with great pictures. I tested it with my cable box to see how nice the pic would look on a wall. It filled up an 8 foot by 10 foot section of the wall with a fantastic pic. Once again...sweet!!! I love it when things work out! I will most likely keep one and sell the other on ebay. Hopefully, I can get some good $$$ for it. A new lamp alone runs $150. On to the next project.

New Member of the Family

Welcome Joshua to the family! He is a 4 year old rust and tan doberman pinscher. He was adopted by me from the Doberman Rescue of Nebraska group. Same group we got Shine from. He is a sweetheart that also does not have a mean bone in his body. Loves everyone! I found that after Shine's passing I really missed having a dog around the house. So, after a month, I caved and adopted Joshua.

Joshua was rescued from the Humane Society somewhere in Arkansas. He was scheduled to be put to sleep but, at the last minute, was saved by a Doberman Rescue group member. He was then transported here to Nebraska and was kindly fostered by a local resident until I saw him at one of the stores I was volunteering time at. Took me all of five minutes to fall in love with him and adopt him. It was a great choice!

-- The passing of Shine --

My dog Shine passed away, due to old age and failing health, on May 30th 2010....Memorial Day. Not a happy day for me. However, I feel blessed to have had him be a part of my family for 9 years. His estimated age was about 13. Kris picked him out from the Doberman Rescue Society and has never let me forget about it! He was such a great dog. Smart and loved everybody. Kept the rif-raf away from the house as most are scared of Dobies. If ever you want a great family pet, please consider a Doberman. They are called "velcro dogs" cause they always stick by your side. Check out the current adoptable Dobies at Doberman Rescue of Nebraska. I am volunteering some of my time with them now. Those people really work with the dogs on their socialization and obedience skills. They don't have to work too hard cause they are naturally sociable and easy to train.

Let the fun times roll....

The company I work for is moving data centers from Denver to Omaha. We have been doing dry runs this week on some of the equipment I help maintain. Been quite a few late nights. Should be a nice weekend though. Plan on going over to Kid Guzzi's house early Saturday morning to help troubleshoot some electronic issues with Robert's (Kid's brother in law) Moto Guzzi. Hope I will be able to help fix the issues.

I haven't been able to do any arcade work lately so no news there. Hopefully, soon.

Fun week.....

On call for work and trying to get taxes done.... where does the time go? Apparently, I sold some stocks last year (I don't remember doing that...) and I don't have the documentation for tax purposes. I closed my etrade account and now they claim they can't get in and retrieve my old records. This should be fun....

Haven't posted for a bit.....

I've been very busy with work related issues. I should have some new arcade repairs to blog about soon!

Early Morning at Work

Happy Valentines Day!!

I had a dozen roses sent to my mom and to my daughter. Both did not expect it and were happily surprised when they arrived Saturday morning and afternoon. I am now a #1 son and a #1 dad.

I am here at work at 2:30 in the very dark AM. I am a Distributed Network Engineer for our company. Today we get to move all of our data circuits from our site in Denver to a new Omaha site. Fun stuff!! Very big move. Hopefully, all will go ok and I will be home and back in bed around 7 AM.