Mac Pro Studio Case
It's been a bummer of a week.
But in between job applications, I've finally had time to publish a 3D printing project I've been working on for a while now: the Mac Studio Pro Case.
I'm really proud of this thing. There were a few major challenges between "huh, maybe I could do this" and a physical object. First, the holes in the front were kind of weird to model, but I eventually got it. Then, my first few attempts involved one very large piece that surrounded almost the whole Mac Studio, which turned out to be way too unwieldy to print. Eventually I broke it down into small enough parts to print individually. But then, these things wanted to warp really badly. Glue stick helped, but the biggest parts actually lifted my PEI build surface off of its magnetic mount! I had to use some binder clips to hold everything together.
I'm not sure it will get widely printed – especially since I used some bolts from McMaster for assembly, which most people won't have. But I really like it, and it prompts a little bit of joy every time I look at it on my desk.
Now, to get back to those job applications.
Leaning on the Scales
The Indy Eleven season came to a close this afternoon. They lost 2-3 against Rhode Island FC in the USL quarterfinals at home. I was there, and although it's a huge bummer to lose and have the season end, it was made way more frustrating by the referees leaning on the scales.
Earlier this season, we faced Tampa Bay at home with this same referee crew, and we lost. The same thing happened. A really lopsided threshold on what constituted a foul for each side. A yellow card in a situation where I have video of the "offending" Eleven player not even touching the Tampa player. Et cetera. This ref crew has a thing against Indy, for some reason.
If Indy was going to win today, there were going to have to win by a lot for the final score to actually reflect that.
But then, this afternoon, it was the same story. Blown calls that heavily favored RIFC. Nonsense yellow cards against Indy. A goal that was taken off the books due to supposed offsides that was immediately contradicted by the video replay. Tons of flops by the other team that killed time that didn't seem to be reflected in the extra time at the end. The final score was 2-3, but in any reasonably fair contest it would have gone to PK's.
Winning today would have required an overwhelming win in order to overcome an inherently unfair situation.
Anyway, the election is on Tuesday. It's hard not to see parallels.
Edit, 2024-11-06: well, crap.
My Work PC's CPU Cycle Budget
- Outlook 6%
- Teams 8%
- Chemdraw 2%
- Corporate IT background software 80%
- Excel 4%
someone who is good at the economy please help me budget this. my work PC is dying
Crossroads
It's good to be back in Indiana. New job, old friends. Living in the city rocks.
Getting to Indiana was bad.
No direct flights from San Jose, so we flew through Denver. A two and a half long layover would be rough, but it would give the cats a chance to stretch their legs in an animal relief room. And Denver isn't so bad as airports go. Decent food options, and it wouldn't be busy on a random Wednesday.
But wow, is Denver windy.
It was when we were circling for longer than usual that I started realizing there might be an issue. We actually made one attempt at a runway but pulled up while still a few thousand feet up. As it turned out, wind shear at ground level was grounding all flights out and preventing any flights from landing.
The captain, with an apologetic tone, told us we were running out of fuel and would divert to a nowheresville airport in Nebraska to refuel and wait for the wind to calm down. It took about two hours. By the time we made it back to Denver, our connecting flight to Indy had just left.
So now we have two nauseated cats, and one nauseated Lucas, from the turbulance. No flights to Indy until the next morning. And a customer service line that wound through the whole airport, since everyone else had missed their connections too. But I managed to get ahold of an agent using the fancy iMessage customer service thingy, and proposed an option to him: we flew to Chicago.
The in-laws let us stay at their place in the Chicagoland area for the night. Taylor drove all the way up from Indy and picked us up the next morning. Hailey let us borrow pillows and blankets. Taylor helped me retrieve our luggage, some of which had made it as far as Montana, that had eventually been delivered to the Indy airport a day later. Then he let us borrow some plates and bowls and stuff as we wait for our household stuff to be delivered. We were tired, but we made it.
We had a very bad time getting here. But that experience reminded me of one of the biggest reasons I wanted to be in Indy: the people. There are good people here. I've missed them very badly.