Welcome to the Fantasy Factory

It’s been a busy couple of weeks – School is done for this term; I should have an A for this one. The wife is out of town visiting family, so I’m playing Mr. Mom for a few days. It’s been kinda cool, taking the kids to their afterschool activities, helping with homework, and cooking dinner. I might actually get used to this kind of domesticity. And I miss cooking so much! I’m thinking of taking a few classes (cooking classes, that is) after I’ve finished my degree. Sounds like more school, doesn’t it? I resigned myself long ago to the fact that I’ll be a student of something for the rest of my life.

I gave in and purchased a Barnes and Noble nook a few weeks back, and I absolutely love it! It’s very easy to read on, but the content itself could use a boost (c’mon, release ALL of Parker’s work already!). I’ve been making regular donations to the community book pool at work as a pare down my DTB (dead tree book) pile at home.

With a little extra time on my hands, I’ve done a little more work on the Big-E, namely the Hanger Bay. As I mentioned before, it’s almost a kit in itself. I started by trimming all the little detailing pieces from the brass photo-etch fret, and using cyanoacrylate (a.k.a Super Glue) to attach the pieces to the model parts.

This is looking at the starboard side of the bay; the left looks identical, just reversed (duh!). I figured that I’d skip taking pictures of that. Off to the painting booth for a coat of primer.

Well, the holidays treated the family and I well. Lots of good times with family and friends, waaay to much good food, and not too much family drama. I think everyone with a family knows what I’m talking about with that last comment. I’ve always assumed that the drama is always there, under the surface, and that the stress of the holidays simply brings it out.

I was saddened to hear that my favorite author, Robert B. Parker, passed away on January 18th. He was apparently found at his writing desk, the victim of a sudden heart-attack. I began reading his works since my early teenage years, and thoroughly enjoyed everything he’s published, especially his Spenser novels. The writing is spare and witty, and the characters pretty well formed; there’s little room, or need, for origin stories or background. Growing up, I was a pretty rebellious and directionless kid, and his novels struck a chord in me; Spenser (or Parker, undeniably the Boston detective’s alter ego) had many qualities that I tried to emulate. Sort of like trying on clothes, in that you see what fits or looks good, and discard what doesn’t. They weren’t  bad role models, all things considered. I’m gonna miss the joy he brought with each new release. Further details about the man and his craft can be found here, and pretty much all over the ‘Net.

A coworker of mine was demonstrating his Amazon Kindle e-reader the other day, and I have to say that I’m hooked! Of course, the recent Consumer Electronic Show showcased some 20 plus e-readers, not to mention the forthcoming iPad from Apple. I almost pulled the trigger on a Kindle, but then read about battles between Amazon the major publishing houses. That, coupled with Amazon only supporting a proprietary format/DRM scheme on the device, has given me pause. Maybe a Nook, with its industry de facto format and DRM?

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. I cooked a turducken for family, and a Cajun-style deep-fried turkey for a friend. The turducken turned out wonderful, after 10 hours of slow roasting in the oven. The stuffing (a cornbread, and an onion and sage) were a perfect complement to the layers of roasted birds. Hats off to Don at Great Lakes Butcher Supply for putting it all together. 

Unfortunately, the deep-fried bird was a little…well, extra crispy. One of my dogs slipped her collar right after I dunked the bird into the oil, and it got a little extra heat (temperature-wise) while I chased the dog down. I was really embarrassed to deliver the bird to my friend, but assured him that the meat itself was just fine. He later told me that the meat was just fine, but that his family was looking forward to the crunchy, peanut-flavor infused skin. Maybe I’ll get a chance to redeem myself at Christmas…

In between school and the holiday, I managed to finish some pieces of the Big-E. I’m still wrestling with the best way to handle the bigger assemblies, so I thought it would be best to work on some of the smaller stuff.

I’m actually pretty proud of how this all turned out. Handling the tiny details that these pieces brought to the table has really bolstered my confidence about this whole idea. Hopefully, that translates to faster progress!

RMW

Does anybody remember this scene from “Bull Durham”? The one where Kevin Costner lists the things that he believes in? I pulled something very similar just the other day…

It’s October 31st, around 3 or 4pm. The TV is busy showing an advertisement for holiday-themed pancakes at IHOP, followed by an ad for a creepy motion-capture Disney version of “A Christmas Carol”. WTF?

I gave up hope, long ago, that the Christmas advertising blitz could be held off until Thanksgiving. But Halloween afternoon? My kids were just starting to get their costumes on, and you want to peddle eggnog pancakes?

Needless to say, I launched into a rant of the things that I believe in. A lot of it fell under the category of “When I was a kid”, and my daughters responded with the predictable “Dad, you are SO old school!” comments. Whatever…I’m used to it. Anyways, in no particular order: 

• School shouldn’t start until after Labor Day (and I mean nationally)
• Regular-season football shouldn’t start until the weekend after Labor Day (greedy NFL)
• Christmas decorations should stay “in the back” until after Halloween (Thanksgiving centerpieces need respect, too)
• Ditto for Christmas-themed TV ads (umm…can’t remember any Thanksgiving-specific ads)
• Keep the Valentine’s Day cards off the shelves until after New Year’s Day (do I really need to buy these while I’m returning gifts?)

Anything that I’m missing?

RMW

My last post was July 19th? Oi, I have to do better than that. It’s been a busy summer, what with my classes and regular summer-type activities. No excuse, however!

The family and I took a trip to Arkansas over the summer, to see some extended family. It was our first road-tripsince moving back to Michigan, and we all did pretty well. I loath road-trip vacations as a general rule, but this one wasn’t so bad…sort of. The trip there and back was weather and traffic free, and we got to see a ton of sights. We stopped at the junction of the Ohio and Mississippi, where Lewis and Clark began their push into the West. You could feel the history.

We spent a day or so on the Spring River, picnicing and swimming. My oldest daughter got caught in the rapids, so I got to find out how good of a swimmer I still was (pretty good, actually). She ended up a mile downstream, in some shallows, and pretty darn scared. I got her calmed down, and we slowly made our way back to the beach. Somewhere along the way I lost my wedding band, which when she found out, sent her into tears. We explained to her that it was just an object, easily replaceable, and the important thing was that she was OK. Other than that episode, it was good times and good eats with family.

I wrestled with a stubborn server for the better part of August. We’ve had problems with this particular piece of hardware since it was deployed; three others exactly like it run fine. We asked the vendor to replace it at least twice, and as a result of the latest issue, it just might happen. Long story short, I was installing some routine hardware updates the the server decided that it didn’t like. I got tech support on the phone, and after several hours of troubleshooting, I was advised that I needed to physcially move some internal components around.

Now, I live about an hour away from this particular server, it was about 7am, and I’d already been up since 6am the day before. Nevertheless, I drove on in, and performed the swap as requested. This resolved the initial issue, but caused a cascade effect that brought down the application running on that server. I called the app’s tech support line, and spent the next 12 hours online with them. We FINALLY resolved the cascade problem, only to have it reoccur two days later. Several more support sessions brought us back to the hardware as being the culprit, in particular a intermittent network connection. The pieces involved have been replaced, and the server has been solid for almost a month. We’re still lobbying for a a total swap-out; the previous issues, as well as this latest round of fun, have left us with little confidence in it.

The kids went back this last Tuesday, and I’m looking at the final week of my current class. For those playing the home game, that leaves 4 classes left! I’ll try and find the pictures from Arkansas, as well as update my progress on the Big E, very soon!

RMW

When I announced to my lovely wife that I wanted to start a blog, I was greeted with a moment of silence, followed by the statement above. I told her it would be a way to reconnect and keep in touch with family and friends. I mentioned that writing about myself and my interests and experiences would be an excellent way to overcome the “writers block” that I always seems to get while doing my college work. Finally, and almost lamely, I mentioned that a lot of my co-workers had one. Needless to say, that reasoning scored extremely low on the WAF scale.

Now, those of you that know my wife know she is a sweet and gentle soul. You also know that I’m a pretty big kid at heart. And if you didn’t know these things, now you do. Needless to say, these two attitudes conflict with each other at times. More than once has she had to put up with a crazy scheme of mine. In her mind, I’m sure that this was one of those. Anyway, I cast around for something to to inspire me, and then it hit me. “I’ll blog about my Big-E Refit”, I told her.

Now, I’m a sci-fi geek in general, but I’ve always had a soft spot for Star Trek. My grandpa and I used to watch the reruns every Saturday night on Channel 50 in Detroit, and if you came into the living room making noise during the show, you were in BIG trouble. I’m just able to remember them, but I recall those times as good ones. Anyway, a couple of years ago, a company called Polar Lights released a model of the Enterprise as it looked in the first couple of movies. BTW, this was supposedly the same ship from the TV series, updated and refurbished, hence the term refit. The model clocked in at almost 3 feet long, and was extremely detailed. I was sorely tempted, but it would have taken months to properly build and paint the thing. In the end I chickened out, Polar Lights went under, and the remaining kits became highly sought-after and expensive items on eBay.

I was looking for a hobby to fill in the blanks during the long, cold Michigan winters, and started to look at building a model of a F-16, the airframe I worked on in the USAF. While slumming at the local hobby store, I ran across a Polar Lights Enterprise Refit, still in the shrink rap…and at the original selling price. I paused, blinked, and ran for the register with the thing in my hands. I was gonna do this, and I was going to go completely type A in building it. Reality is still setting in over my decision; it’s not just a big task, it’s gonna be HUGE! But through the magic of the Internet, we’ll build it together.

RMW

Classes started again for me on Monday evening. I’m attending Capella University, working towards my Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology (yes, I’m going for a BS in IT!).  My class this term is System Assurance Security. Our ”final exam” is a paper that incorporates the course concepts, with a dash of role playing thrown in.

In this particular scenario, I’m a consultant for a security company. My paper will be in the form of a security assessment performed against another fictitious company. This company is riddled with security problems (backup tapes in desks, unsecured wireless access points, and so on). I need to highlight these and other problems, point out why they’re problems, and provide a means to remediate them. I think I’m going to have fun with this one!

After this, I’ll have four more classes until I’m awarded my degree. It’s been a long time coming…

RMW

OK, I’ll admit it…I like Michael Jackson’s music. In the early to mid 80′s, his songs were everywhere on the radio. Jackson’s videos filled the screen on MTV almost hourly, or so it seemed. ”Thriller” was actually the second cassette I ever owned (the first was Billy Joel’s “Glass Houses”). Those were magical times, and Jackson truly became a force in the music business. As the years passed, however, I changed, as did my musical tastes…and so did Michael. The Moonwalk was replaced with bizarre plastic surgeries, and hyperbaric chambers. It was like the talent and energy he had became lost, or buried deep by the excesses and pressures of fame.

The details of this sad transformation have been rehashed quite well over the last few weeks, so I don’t dwell there. Nevertheless, on the day of his memorial service, I did want mark his passing. Michael Jackson changed the face of music forever, and I’m glad I was there to witness it. Thanks for the music and the memories, Michael…it was a helluva ride.

RMW

Welcome to the inaugural post on www.ronwojnar.net! This blog is an attempt to chronicle the happenings in my life, both personal and professional. It’s also intended to share my love of movies, music, hobbies, and most of all, family.

I’m not sure if this will bore, offend, or befuddle my readers… A viewpoint in a post may not be to your liking, or you may think a project of mine is off-the-wall nuts (you’d be in good company with my wife in most circumstances!). It’s not my plan to deliberately put you to sleep, or rile you beyond measure, but hey, it may happen. I’m just letting you know ahead of time. I have pretty strong views on certain topics. But do speak up! Healthy debate is good for the mind as well as the soul!

More content will appear in the days and weeks ahead, but for now, sit down, strap in, and enjoy the ride!

RMW