This is a tale of getting lost. I get lost quite a bit, it seems, and the thing is that it’s always the exact same story… so I’ll give you a brief outline, then tell you my latest tale. Here’s the outline:

• I am in a hurry/late for something
• I need to quick head somewhere.
• I, [believing that I am] knowing where I am, think I can save a little bit of time by taking some sort of shortcut.
• Around the time that I ought to have arrived at my destination had I not taken this “shortcut”, I realize I am lost, and then either:
  1. Admit defeat, backtrack to the point of getting lost, and proceed the known way back to my destination, arriving very, very late.
  2. I, [believing that I am] knowing where I am, think I can save a little bit of time by taking some sort of shortcut. Repeat Cycle.

So that’s the pattern. Easy enough to understand… it would explain how I could:

• End up at Van Andel Arena when headed from Eastown to Calvin College.
• End up well on my way to Ann Arbor when heading from Grandville to Plainfield and 4 Mile.
• End up in a some crazy subdivision when driving from my house to work… twice.

The fact that I’m an idiot doesn’t seem to help much… Anyway, here’s the latest story:

It was Monday.. Our softball games for the Fall season are on Mondays, and today’s game was at 8:15.. which means I’d want to show up around 7:15. I made it home from work around 6:30, and there was a note on my front door that UPS had tried to deliver a package. I had ordered one of those USB to PS/2 adapters so I could use an external mouse and keyboard with my work laptop, which had no PS/2 ports, but did have USB. I had borrowed one of those adapters from Joel at Andy‘s LAN, and it worked quite well, so I had ordered one for myself. Now, I wanted to be able to bring the dealie in to work, so I was hoping to get it on Monday to bring it in Tuesday, so I was a little annoyed that the UPS guy hadn’t left it. Checking the note, it said he has left it at the “Comm(?) Center” ["?" indicated his penmanship was less than good.] I eventually decided it meant “Community Center”… but I didn’t know where the Community Center was, so I consulted the guide we were given when we moved in. The part I noticed was that the Community Center had pools and tennis courts, so I headed over to the Health and Fitness Center right by my house, as they had pools and tennis courts [at the very least, they'd tell me where the Community Center was]. So I get in there, and they let know know that the community center is right next to the Leasing Center.. and since I knew where that was, I was all set. Now, it was getting close to 7 already, so the game was starting soon.. or at least I wanted to be there soon. It would have made sense for me to drive my car, in order to get there very soon.. but 2 things awoke in my brain at the same time. First was that I always seemed to play a bit better when I had already been fairly active for a while before the game started. (e.g. I play better the second game of a double header, or when I used to play basketball with Josh and his family before a softball game in Zeeland… also one of the reasons I want to show up to a game so early.) The second thing that struck me was something my Ethics professor had said my Senior year of College. My Ethics professor was Prof. Hare, a man I very much liked and respected. He was from England, and mad a remark once about how Americans are far more likely to use their cars when other cultures would just walk. It seems true enough, and I’ve tried to, as a result, walk or run rather than drive whenever possible. So here I am, not all that far away from the Community Center, and wanting to be active… so I decided I would run there.

Aside: I should note that my knee has been bothering me this week a bit. Nothing major, just every once in a while I wake up, and my knee feels a bit weak, and occasionally a step will feel really off, and my knee seems to give out, and I stumble a bit, get a sharp pain, then all is back to normal. It’s annoying, but not terribly unexpected. I’ve been trying to do stretches and exercises to get rid of it. I’ll mention it to the Doctor next time I see him (Dec. 7th), but I’m assuming that when you have an entire section of cartilage ripped out of your knee, some occasional pain is the price you pay. (Well, that, and 10′s of thousands of dollars.)

So I started running. I was wearing a nice pair of jeans, a kind of crappy T-shirt, my favorite socks, and my newer shoes (the ones that slip on.. I like not tying shoes) I ran through the woods by my parking lot, and ended up in a parking of another set of Ramblewood apartments. I followed the road around for a while, and after a ways of running, I hit more parking lots, and followed the street for a while longer. Eventually I got my bearings, and knew where I was at (Note the outline here, folks.) I had to follow another road around, and eventually made a bit of a loop back (think of the shape of a shark’s fin, and you pretty much have the path that I ran). I turned the corner, ran and walked a bit, and made it to the Leasing Center.. and a ways past that was the Community Center. Not bad, I thought, A few more minutes, and I could cut my hair, take a shower, and head off to the game.

I headed in to the Community Center, presented my slip, and the lady lead me to a room filled with packages, and told me to find mine. Once I had, I left. Here’s a note: I could have taken any one of those packages, and she never would have checked. I could have looked for one from some place that looked expensive, and taken it, and I would have been good to go. That seems less than good. Okay, so now I have my package in hand (think 6 inches by 4 inches by 2 inches)[joke averted]. I begin running, but knowing where I am, I believe I can cut straight back towards my parking lot, and skip the shark’s fin path. I run past two parking lots, and follow a road for a bit, then hit a forest. I head right in to th forest, seeing what I believed to be a small path. Well, it was not a path so much as a thick forest filled with pricker weeds and small trees. I struggled through there for a while, and do eventually make it through to the other side, where I am greeted by another Ramblewood parking lot and apartment cluster. So far so good, I think. I run a bit more, and hit another small forest. Odd, I think, but since I knew which direction I was heading, all was good. I work my way through this forest a bit more easily, and there are obvious paths in it, and so I emerge on the other side, and see a main road. Very good. Wait.. no… it’s 44th Street, and a ways ahead I see the sign for the leasing office. Wow do I seriously suck at this.

So I start running down 44th street, but it’s starting to get kinda late, so I need to make up some time, so I head back in toward Ramblewood, and cut down a street. I know I’m heading in the right direction now, so as long as I continue in this direction all is well. I run down one street, then down another, and recognize the area as part of the shark’s fin path, and cut into a parking lot the direction of my parking lot. At the end of this parking lot is another forest. Thinking it to be the original forest I past through, I head on in. There are no paths. I have to cut and duck my way through small trees, weeds, vines, and various other roadblocks. I head further and further in, and it’s not getting any better… I hear the creek in the distance, and people’s voices, and engine sounds, so I know I’m heading in the right direction. A few more minutes work, and I’m close to the creek.. then I reach a fence. Um.. WTF?

I can’t quite see the fence from where I’m at, but I can see the fence… So I followed the fence for a while and get closer to the creek, until I can see it. The creek looks more like a river.. and across it is another fence, and then a subdivision. Again, WTF? This seems bad. So now, even if I could get across, it doesn’t seem to be where I want to go anyway. I follow the fence for a little while, then hit another fence, and then I knew it was time to backtrack. I was now getting annoyed.. also, I was getting covered with those small green burrs, and that further annoyed me. I started heading back, and after cutting and ducking through thick forest for a while, I hit a small clearing. Score. There were no trees for a while, and just open dirt and some small grassy areas. I take a step in, and my foot sunk in a little bit. The ground seemed a bit soft. I took another step and *whoosh* my “bad” leg sank in up to the knee. Coupled with this unfortunate sinking was the most wretched smell I’ve experienced in a long time.. perhaps ever. Quickly I yanked my leg back out and struggled for balance.. just in time to notice that my foot had made it out, but my shoe hadn’t joined it on the journey. A quick step down was enough to foul that sock up nicely. I quick reached down and grabbed my shoe, and slipped it back on. Now my shoe was filled with this brown squishy evil, my sock was covered in it, and my hand up to my elbow was coated in it. I scrambled out of the clearing of evil, and made back into the forest. Now I was not pleased. I was dirty, I smelled awful, and I was late. I worked my way out of that forest into another clearing, where I found a dirt path set up for bikes. There were ramps, jumps, and in the distance, 3 little kids on bikes. I followed the bike path for a while, growing steadily closer to the bike kids. Eventually the bike path made a turn back towards where I had come from, and I did not want to go back there, so I stopped, looked around, and finally called out to the kids.

Me: Hey, guys. Happen to know where the closest road is?

Kids: What?

Me: A road. Do you know where the closest road is?

Kids: [quiet murmurs amongst themselves] Kent Trails is that way.[points to my left]

Me: Alright. Thanks, guys. [I start heading that direction]

I made it about 20 feet that direction before I walked into the fence. It successfully guarded that direction for what appeared to be quite a ways. So I followed the fence for a small ways, until I found a weak spot (i.e. a small hole in the fence that I could squeeze through.) Making it past the fence, I made my way through the rest of the forest, and out to the road. From the road, I could see the path and recognized where I was.. I seriously suck at this. I tucked my UPS delivery in my clean arm, and began to run down the street. A few minutes later I was at Spartan Industrial. My journey through the forest had taken me far past my home, and now I had to backtrack to get there. I was not going to tempt fate again, I was sticking to the roads. I ran back to the Health and Fitness club, then had to run all the way around the tennis courts, and made it back to my parking lot.

I made it up to my house, took off my soiled show and sock, and hopped on one foot to my bathroom, where I threw my shoes, pants, shirt, and socks into the bathtub, and just turned on the water full blast. I cleaned off my arm and foot as best I could, and got the clumps off my clothes. I gathered all of it up, shoes includes, in an old towel, and threw the whole mess in the washing machine, took a quick but very hot shower, then sped off to the softball game in time to get a quick warm up in before we started. On the way to the game I noticed that I had really tweaked my knee (yanking it from the “mud” I’m guessing.). In closing, Ramblewood is a land of contrast amidst a sea of troubles.

Cleveland Indians
Cleveland, Ohio

You Are Very Great. One Hundred Thousand Pesos To Go To Playoffs. Put On Show Stop
The Infamous Yankees.

According to a number of online video game sites, an email was sent out from Perrin Kaplan, VP of Marketing and Corporate Affairs at Nintendo of America, officially stating that Zelda: Twilight Princess will be delayed until sometime after March 31, 2006.

The email reads:

“After much discussion, the Zelda development team has requested extra time to add new levels, more depth and even higher quality to Zelda: Twilight Princess. Consequently, we’re announcing a new global launch in 2006, after the conclusion of this fiscal year (March 31). We’ll provide a specific date at a later point in time. While this may come as a disappointment to many eager fans, it will absolutely enrich the game and make it a multi-million seller.”

In a related note, I’m going to kill everything.

This is just another R.C. Update. I’ve added more pictures that you can check out, but there’s a rather funny story that goes along with the latest batch. First of all, this is what the cars currently look like:

So far so good, eh? Okay, well shortly after purchasing the cars we had picked out, I was doing some research, and ran across what I considered to be one of the most beautiful cars I had ever seen in my life [Lamborghini Murcielago]. I was a bit disappointed that I hadn’t found this kit first, or I likely would have chosen to make it instead… Future research showed that the actual chassis/car I had chosen was a fair bit more reliable/durable, so I am now pleased with my choice, but opting to have best of both worlds, I found a shell for the car I liked, and purchased that, which can be then used as a replacement shell for my current chassis. So here’s the car, and the shell:

Okay, so now I have two shells to paint, and painting them both black seems kinda dumb, so I’ve gone back and decided to paint the Raybrig NSX 2000 the original colors shown on the box… which will be a little tricky, but if it turns out, I think it’ll look really cool. It’s a blue-violet top fading into a silver bottom. Rachel has decided to paint hers a dark metallic blue with a solid white top. I’ll shorten the adventure(s) to get paint story to this brief snippet: We got the colors we wanted (especially Rachel, who found a lovely Deep Metallic Blue), only to find it was the wrong kind of paint (they were in a misleading section of the Hobby Store, I was not pleased.) So we returned those paints, and I found the black paint I needed, and the paint for the rear view mirrors of the Raybrig, but that was all they had. So we went online, and I found all the colors I needed (White, Silver, and Blue-Violet) online, and after much searching on my part, I found I place that made custom paint colors, including a lovely Midnight Metallic Blue that was very close to what Rachel had picked out before. So we order those shortly before heading out on our trips (Oscon and West Virginia serve project). While I was in Portland I got an email from the company that made Rachel’s special customized paint. Turns out they were in England (Which I knew) and even though they allowed you to select U.S.A. as the shipping address (they had a dropdown of maybe 5 countries to choose from) they didn’t actually allow shipments to the United States… so again, Rachel was without a paint. We’ve finally decided to just purchase some bottles of Metallic Blue and Metallic Black, mix them as she likes, and paint her car with a brush. It’ll give her a bit more control over her color, and not require a trip into London to smuggle out some special paints.

Now finally, the “I’m a Moron” part. After getting the cars fully assembled, I decided to give my car a test drive. You’ve got to be kinda careful, because you aren’t really supposed to drive these things without the shell one, as the exposed parts can be damaged, and that would blow. So I thought I’d just make sure it would run and turn, and call it good. I took the charged batter pack and the rechargeable batteries for the controller, and plugged everything in, and when I powered it on, the car when racing off the desk (It had been sitting about half to 3/4s of the way on at that point, with a pair of wheels hanging over the side.). I caught it in time to save it from damage, but needless to say, it frightened me. So I checked the car for the problem, as it shouldn’t be just running without me hitting the trigger. Turns out the mechanical speed controller was a bit off, so I manually fixed that, and all appeared well. I hit the trigger, and the tires spun nicely. Reverse, the tires spun. Left and Right: Everything checked out. So I set it on the ground and gave it a little “go”. Tires spun, and nothing. A less than thrilling debut. So I picked it up, and the tires began spinning like crazy again. I turned it off, and the tires continued to spin. Apparently my manual correction to the mechanical speed controller wasn’t quite the answer. I knew these things (the Mechanical Speed Controllers [MSC], that is) could be a bit unreliable, as I had done some research on them, and their superior counterparts, the Electronic Speed Controller [ESC]). Well, I thought I’d give it another shot, but this time on some non-carpeted floor, so I could see it actually move a bit (thinking the carpeting might’ve been causing it some trouble.) So I went to the kitchen floor, set down the car, and turned everything on. I gave it some “gas”, and the car shot forward about half a foot, then jetted back an equal distance, then sat there. I gave it a bit more, and turned slightly, and it jumped forward, and to the side, then jumped backwards. After a few more attempts forward and back, I got it moving a few feet, but its movements were spastic and frightening at best. I returned to my room, and tried it again on carpeting, with even less success, and then noticed the resister was smoking a bit. I decided that was enough, and picking it up, I was forced to manually fix that speed controller again. That was enough for me. I decided we needed some Electronic Speed Controllers.

A week and a half later or so (after Portland) the ESCs arrived, and I was pleased. I, and later Rachel, took out our Manual Speed Controllers, and the servos connected to them, and added these new ESCs, which were quite nice. That process was kinda fun, as it required some rewiring, and some moving around of internal parts:

Still so far so good.. With everything installed, I decided to test out my car again, both to check out how the new ESC worked, and to verify that now the car ran correctly. I turned on the controller and the car, and it didn’t try to run away. So far, so good. I quickly set the ESC (“Max Forward” -> press button. “Max Reverse” -> press button, All set.) So I set it on the ground, hit the “gas”, and… it skipped forward and inch, back an inch, and shut down. After a long sigh, and a few more tries, we took it to the kitchen, where it did no differently, then I decided to just take it outside to the sidewalk, where it was supposed to run.. (Meanwhile, we had tested Rachel’s car the other day on the carpet, and it ran just fine… well, as well as can be expected with a driver hellbent on crashing it, I suppose. I foolishly advised Rachel to “Be careful not to run in to anything.” so I guess it was my bad.) Anyway, back to my car. We took it outside, and to no one’s surprise, it did no better out there. It was weird, because when you held the car up, everything appeared to work just fine.. I wasn’t sure if the tires weren’t tightened enough to overcome the friction, or if the slick tires were just spinning then quitting, or if I had a bum motor, or what… then Rachel noticed something. We headed back inside, and made this quick video to document the problem. You should watch it. We’ve added some visual aids to make the problem a bit more noticeable:

Yeah… sigh. So in my defense, the directions didn’t really make it clear how the gear was supposed to be placed in both wheel assemblies, but then again, looking back, they did seem to suggest they were both supposed to be made the exact same way. So with the front wheels spinning one way, and the rear wheels spinning the other way, I knew I had to flip one of the gears. Since the front wheel assembly also had the steering assembly attached, I oped to go with the rear. I had to remove the whole assembly, disconnect a portion of it, then take off a cover in order to flip the drive gear. It didn’t take too long, really, and I thought it was kinda kewl that once you knew what the problem was, you instantly knew where and how to fix it. The advantages of building the thing yourself, I suppose:

With the gear flipped, I put the thing back together, powered it up, and drove it around my room, out the door, and to the bathroom.. Then the battery died. Next, Painting!