Monthly Archives: June 2017

Building a puzzle

I was able to find time over several nights to assemble a metal puzzle.  In a Google+ posting, Linus Torvalds mentioned working on a Star Wars model, and I was curious to see what other models were available by Fascinations.  I eventually ordered this:[amazon_link asins=’B00S5V98HC’ template=’ProductCarousel’ store=’winte0db-20′ marketplace=’CA’ link_id=’e615e664-5424-11e7-b003-f119972d5e31′]

It sat, unopened, on my desk for a few months, but I finally tore open the packaging and started putting it together.  After about 15 minutes, I realized I wasn’t going to be able to do it with just fingernails, I needed a proper tool, very fine needle-nosed pliers.  So, I ordered those, and waited a few days.[amazon_link asins=’B009DFK1TS’ template=’ProductCarousel’ store=’winte0db-20′ marketplace=’CA’ link_id=’4439c833-5425-11e7-84b7-93844903fcf8′]

Some of the tabs were very hard to place, I needed to borrow a magnifying visor to get the tabs into the slots, but things went relatively smoothly.  I broke three pieces.  Two of the breaks aren’t noticeable, there were enough tabs to hold everything together.  The last piece broke when I was trying to remove it from the metal sheets, you can see a gap near the front of the upper cupola on the model where some of the length of that piece broke off.  Here’s the final version:

Overall, it was a fun experience.  Not frustrating, but it did require patience.

Poking head up for a moment

So, turns out that the birth of a new baby does reduce the amount of time available to other activities.  With the baby turning 2 years old soon, and starting to do things on her own, I might be able to get back to writing here again in a while.

So, what have I been up to?  My stack of books to be read continues to grow much more quickly than I can possibly read them.  Right now, I’m reading [amazon_link asins=’B00842H6HQ’ template=’ProductCarousel’ store=’winte0db-20′ marketplace=’CA’ link_id=’978552b9-52d8-11e7-b016-9b62e35134b9′]

I’ve had to cut my list of authors to read down quite a bit recently, just to keep my stack of books from growing too much.  I still prefer physical books to e-books, though there are many times I’ve wished that I could continue a book on my phone while waiting for something.  I’m not willing to pay twice for the same book for that privilege, and the Amazon Unlimited books don’t seem to have much overlap with my reading list, so I haven’t signed up for that.

Meanwhile, Chin Yi and I managed to watch a movie this week, [amazon_link asins=’B00ZGDIGZ2′ template=’ProductCarousel’ store=’winte0db-20′ marketplace=’CA’ link_id=’2d901f36-52d9-11e7-a269-47cd4eaa8b08′].

With the baby going to sleep around 10:00, and various chores to finish off after that, it can take a few nights to get through a movie.

I’m posting now mostly because I want to continue using my Amazon API account when running the tellico program to keep track of books and movies that I own.  They changed their terms today, and so I had to sign up as an Associate, to put in advertising links to their products.