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| Seabright to Main Beach Pano off the Point. |
So I thought it would be a good idea to try and capture some of my thoughts on turning 50.
First off, I strongly feel like people shouldn't EVER have to use a sick day to not work on their birthday and it should be a paid holiday for everyone. If it occurs on a weekend then an extra day of pay. I think it is silly that I have to pretend to be sick but what the fuck ever because I can't focus on work.
First off, the goodies.
I wasn't overly indulgent for my birthday but I have upgraded and replaced a few things that needed to get replaced. My first 3d printer, a Monoprice Select Mini, has now been replaced with a Creality Ender 3 that I got a great deal on and have had to rebuild and fix up. As of yesterday (now a couple of weeks ago), it is now running well and printing very well! It isn't quite perfect yet but the quality of prints I'm now pulling off it are light years ahead of where they were last week.
Second was to use some savings and finally bite the bullet and buy a Nintendo Switch. My kids have been dying for one for ages and I got a good deal on a bundle with a second set of controllers AND it came with Super Smash Brothers AND, extra bonus, a 128 gig micro sd card that the seller wasn't aware of (a pawn shop selling stock on Ebay).
The third was an impulse purchase as the price had dropped sharply from $60+ to under $40 and is a larger instant tent that'll sleep the three of us pretty comfortably. I'm also in the process of converting the beach tent into a pop up shelter with an adjustable shade area.
I took the day off, slept in, puttered around, got the mail when it was delivered and put in some work on the printer to get the new bed leveled and try it out. The short of it is I have no idea why Creality ships with the bed they do, they'd have MUCH happier customers if they shipped with a rigid plate or glass. The frustration of trying to get the printer working on that shit bed was dumb. I did have to work through a good number of issues with the printer and haven't gotten them all sorted out just yet but most of them are done and the printer is currently engaged in a 6 - 7 hour print job at home while I am at work right now!
I am planning on getting some carbon fiber reinforced PLA or filament for this printer and seeing about printing out some custom fins for my surfboard. I've also got an idea for a tow behind camera rig to get some underwater video footage.
The school year is well under way now. I have a freshman in high school now and I'm still wrapping my head around it. I'm also still wrapping my head around 5 years of dealing with the nightmare that is Aptos High School's access by road. Anyone who's been there knows exactyly what I'm talking about, it is one of the most ridiculously shittily designed schools ever. One road in and out and around 1500 students AND on a major commute route means there are, literally, hundreds of idling cars stuck waiting to drop off kids every single morning. It is an environment disaster happening every single morning and it makes me really annoyed.
