Mad, Mad Scientist

I wish I were a mad scientist. Is that enough to constitute a blog post? One wishful sentence. Probably not, but that doesn't mean it's any less true.

Part of the problem is that I don't have a laboratory. I have access to a space that could be a lab, but no one has given me permission to clean the space up and transform it. Sad. Like a hermit crab without a soda can.

What would I do in this imaginary laboratory? Research, develop, and build computers, robots, and (oh yeah) hack and modify video game consoles. This seems like a phase I go through: it gets cold and dark out in the world and I desire to take things apart and build something better.

Things have flared up again with the original Xbox. I found a pretty sweet and thorough video about the soft-modding process and swapping out hard drives. The original Xbox has an 8 GB hard drive (which seemed like a lot at the height of its console days) that can be easily upgraded to 320 GB or even 500 GB. Considering that I have 8 GB SD cards spilling out my ears now, upgrading doesn't seem like a bad idea.

Finding the right kind of hard drive might be a challenge. In the video, the guy pulled one out of an old computer. I'm not sure I will be able to do that. The computer stuff is always a little complicated. I've successfully soft-modded a Nintendo Wii and completely bricked a Phat PSP. So, despite some success, I'm always a little nervous about this sort of thing.

I'll have to take inventory of older computers that I have around and see what I've got for hard drives. My biggest problem with this stuff is that if I do it (or attempt it) then I stop messing with it for some time, I'll forget all about it and how I did it.

My Wii is probably my best excursion in this realm because I kept track of everything that I did step-by-step and I have a folder with all the set-up files, channels, emulators, and everything else that I downloaded still on my computer. I also use this modded Wii enough that I remember everything. That's important too.

Shopping: Yoda's Christmas Miracle

I love Amazon. Totally free advertising right there. You are welcome Amazon (though it probably makes little difference to you).

Online shopping is the only reason that I have gifts to give around Christmas time. I hate shopping. I really do. All kinds. Even grocery shopping pisses me off.

It started with just a couple things from online venues and the rest from brick and mortar stores. Not anymore. No brick and mortar. Ever again. Yep, that's right. I basically do all of my Christmas shopping online.

With only a couple of days before Thanksgiving, I still have gifts to order. My nephews get nerf guns and Legos; they're the most fun, which is where Yoda enters this story.

Christmas shouldn't be about winning or losing, but I won Christmas last year with my sister and her two boys. I gave them a Lego Advent calendar. Every day of Advent they opened that day on the calendar and they found a new thing to build. Usually a ship or Lego man. Lego Yoda was the last one on Christmas Eve, I think.

Apparently, it was so much fun that the boys have requested another one. I think I can make that happen, but this year's calendar comes with a Christmas Darth Maul. I don't think he's as festive as Yoda. Christmas Yoda could kick Christmas Darth Maul's ass any day of the week.