Archives October 2025

When I got serious about 3D printers I started buying Prusa’s. They were some of the most expensive printers in the space but they also were well known to be workhorses and easily repairable. I loved my Prusa printers, so much so that at one point I owned six or seven of them. They were the backbone of my print farm when I was printing and selling 3D EUC stands at a high rate.

Before I moved I started getting rid of printers but I did hold onto most of my Prusa printers despite a lack of use as stand sales declined. I have since given away or sold all of them except two. Last night those were sold as well. The buyer was a young kid from the Tampa area. He made the long trip because I was selling them incredibly cheap, basically 10% of what they cost new. It felt a bit weird seeing my last Prusas head up the road but the reality is I can print stands on my Bambu Lab printers as needed. There was no reason to keep the Prusa’s around.

I gave him a box of spare Prusa parts I had laying around as well. As I pulled them from the shelves in the garage it reminded me that I still need to do a secondary sweep of pretty much everything I have to assess it’s need to be under my roof. When I moved I did a massive purge. However since moving there are a number of things that have not been touched/used as well which I need to rid myself of. I think because I had space for these items I did not pay much attention to them once I got settled into the house. I am paying more attention now and will be trying to do a fresh culling of unneeded items over the next few weeks.

I bought an app and special phone mounting poll from a company named Swing Vision. I have been recording our lunch time pickleball sessions for a few weeks as my friends enjoy watching it back. The special stick allows the phone to be mounted high on the fence so the entire court is visible. It then tracks and analyzes the games and can keep score with an assist from me on my Apple watch. It even has the ability to assist on close line calls, supposedly. Today will be my first attempt to use the app to record the matches. Hopefully it goes smoothly.

This weekend I hope to take advantage of the lower temperatures that have rolled in to get some stuff done outside I have been procrastinating on. I also took several days off around Veterans Day where I can tackle a bunch of to do’s as needed.

Last night pumpkin carving occurred for the first time ever since I moved to the new house. It was the first time I was involved in pumpkin carving at all for at least 5 years if not longer. My pumpkin carving skills are still basic at best but the end result was ok. Doing this was like entering into a time machine where life was much simpler as a child. I enjoyed the process more than I thought I would. Elsa approved of the end result.

Man I feel for Jamaica and the other islands that are in the path of Hurricane Melissa, that storm is a beast. The impact previous hurricanes have had where I live was horrible enough. I can’t imagine what has happened to a place like Jamaica that has a ton of low lying structures that are not built to withstand wind like this. We have been very lucky in Florida so far this hurricane season. I am crossing my fingers that luck does not run out.

I hopped into Sora and gave it a prompt to make a video combining pickleball and electric unicycle riding. I typically give the app very minimal direction and for the most part what it comes up with is pretty damn good first try.

Last night I finished up another stand printed on the Bambu Lab H2S. I used the painting ability in the slicer to color the center of the “wheel”. I could do up to 4 different colors per stand if I wanted to. Unfortunately the sales of my stands has slowed to a trickle nowadays. All unicycles come with kickstands now so the need for a stand has been minimized but I personally think visually a wheel looks best when it’s not being used on a stand.

You know every person goes through life bouncing off obstacles that come up along the way. Some of these obstacles are placed there by others, some are of your own creation. How you deal with them varies with the situation and the type of person you are. Every individual has that imaginary line they are not willing to cross based on their own morals and principles.

I find myself surprised and/or disappointed with where that line is for some people. When I was younger it bothered me more. I have come to realize that people are ultimately responsible/accountable for how they handle situations they find themselves in whether they are self originating or not. I also now realize that placing expectations onto others behavior is the quickest way to be disappointed so I try not to do so wherever possible. Despite this effort disappointment manages to find it’s way into my mind on a regular basis. I’ll worry about managing my line, you worry about yours.

I had a pretty relaxed weekend. Stuff got accomplished but very little needed to be. I printed and assembled my first complete EUC stand on the H2S. It turned out well which negates any need I have for my two remaining Prusa printers. Based on my prior experience trying to sell used 3D printers on FB I might skip that step. Instead I may just take them to the local recycle center despite my investment in the two printers was a couple thousand dollars originally.

Saturday evening my girlfriend and I took in another beautiful sunset. The moderating temperatures have made spending time on the beach really enjoyable. The picture above was taken a few minutes after the sun dipped below the horizon. I loved the rays of color that appeared. I applied a silly cartoon filter to the picture of us, the first of any that have made it onto the internet. Unlike some of my prior relationships where my significant other was a regular guest in my social media content, that won’t be the case now and I think it might be better that way.

Sunday morning after doing a self physical assessment I determined I was in good enough condition to go play some pickleball. In total I played somewhere in the neighborhood of 7 or 8 games, losing only once. It was another fun session and I walked away feeling very happy that playing pickleball is no longer as painful as it had been for the majority of the last year. I plan to just keep doing what I have been doing to hopefully keep that as the status quo.

I listened to the Eagles/Giants game yesterday. The Birds were embarrassed by the Giants a couple weeks ago, I was hoping that would motivate them on Sunday. It appeared to do so with the team rolling to a 38-20 win. Saquon had his first big rushing day of of the season which was good to see. The Eagles are 6-2 with a big lead in their division yet I still carry very little confidence in their ability to play consistent winning football which is a weird headspace to be in. They have a BYE week coming up so they have a couple weeks to hopefully get healthy and push for a second half where they start to dominate teams instead of narrowly escape.

Ever since Cindy and I split up in 2021 I have been going through rough waters as far as relationships go. Hell if I am being honest the 2-3 years prior to that split with Cindy were no picnic either. I have been on a roller coaster that I just did not seem to be able to get off of for most of that time. I made plenty of mistakes and bad decisions during that time period that contributed to those situations.

One consistent theme has always been being mostly involved with people where there always seemed to be a large inequity of effort. I also found myself involved with individuals that were selfish, materialistic, liars, mentally unstable or needed saving in one way or another. Apparently that is my “type” based on my track record of the last 15 years or so. I don’t have the time or desire to dig into exactly why that is here but I can tell you it is a recipe for not being happy or at peace within a relationship.

Finally in 2025 I have found that peace in a relationship. When I was younger I thought there were a bunch of things needed in a partner to be happy but at the ripe age of 57 I have simplified it down to one thing. Treat that person like you would want to be treated. If they reflect that back onto you, you have a foundation to build upon. If that is missing you will never find true peace and happiness, in my opinion. I feel appreciative and fortunate nowadays. My only wish is I could have done so many years prior.

Last night I washed the Tesla. It was very dirty. It’s dark blue color looks good when clean but shows dirt very easily. I should wash it more than a once a month I suppose. This weekend has no milestone events on the calendar. I am awaiting the arrival of truly moderate weather to tackle a few outdoor projects around the house. As long as my body feels up to it I hope to get a pickleball session thrown in the mix as well.

Yesterday I got a call back from the dermatologist office about the three spots they biopsied during my exam last week. Two of the three spots were not cancer but the one on my neck came back as basal cell. This spot is actually a mole I have had for years that started to behave badly the last year or so. It’s not in a spot that will be much fun to be cut on as it’s right near the base where there is a lot of movement potentially. The surgery is scheduled for the first week of November, can’t wait.

Last night I posted two videos, one about my latest Halloween print on the H2S and another recapping my experience playing in my first pickleball tournament.

I have had access to Sora for a week or so, the app from OpenAI that allows you to make 10 second videos of just about any scenario you can imagine. I have made some pretty silly clips as you will see below. Yes this is the fun and playful side of AI. However have no disillusion about the dark side of the coin as well. Depending on the person pulling the strings AI can be harnessed for much more nefarious tasks. Hell imagine if a sitting president posted an AI video of him flying a jet while wearing a kings crown dumping feces on a crowd of people below that are protesting his actions? Oh wait……that already happened. We are doomed.

I had a great weekend. Friday after work I got to take in another sunset at the beach, something that will be much more difficult to do once the clocks change in a couple weeks. The weather was near perfect, the water looked like a lake and all seemed right with the world for a few minutes.

I kept myself busy on Saturday doing a bunch of different tasks. I had been having some annoying issues while doing video editing. I decided to throw a new video card into my computer which is now over four years old, probably closer to five. The card has a significant horsepower boost although since I don’t do cutting edge gaming I don’t know I will notice that much of a difference. I just want these long pickleball videos I have been editing lately to go smoother.

Saturday night I went to see the Halloween lights at Victoria Park, something I had not done in a year or two. It seemed like there were fewer houses decorated than I remembered but the ones that were were pretty cool. I wonder how these people store all of these Halloween and Christmas decorations on an annual basis.

Sunday morning was my first ever pickleball tournament. My partner Brian and I had never played one before. This was a “mini” tournament where the only divisions were skill level which were gender and age blind. We played the 3.5 skill level. The division only had a total of six teams including three female teams.

We won pretty easily all of our pool games except the last one. It was against two women whom probably would play 4.0 in a female only bracket. They had good hands and made a lot of smart plays. If we made a mistake they more often than not made us pay for it. We were barely ahead 8-7 when one of the women had a very bad looking ankle injury where it got turned 90 degrees. She was down on the court for awhile while people attended to her. She got wheeled off the court so we wound up winning that match by forfeit.

In the playoffs we played two mens teams we had beaten pretty easily in pool play. Both playoff games were much closer. Brian and I were getting a bit tired and the other teams played better than the first go round. I believe the scores of the two playoff games was 11-7 and 11-8 in our favor. It was a fun morning and made me more interested in playing more tournaments in the future, something I have not done in many years since my old beach vb days. I recorded all of the games but one.

I had lunch with Brian and his wife afterward which was nice. It felt good to escape the heat and replenish my energy with some quesadillas. I watched the beginning of the Eagles/Vikings game at the bar and listened to the rest at home. I did not realize former Eagles QB Carson Wentz was playing for the Vikings right now. Hell I didn’t think he was still in the league. He had a very Carson style day where he made some great and awful plays.

Jalen Hurts had a big day statistically and the Birds managed to escape Minnesota with a win that they were fortunate to have. In many ways the Vikings outplayed the Eagles IMO. I am not quite sure why the offense can no longer run the ball. Barkley had over 2000 yards last year and seven games into the season he hasn’t even had a single 100 yard rushing game. It seems the offensive line is the problem but maybe all of the fame and fortune that came after Saquons monster year last year has taken a little edge off his game. It’s clear that this team is still struggling to find any sort of consistency, despite a 5-2 record.

Earlier this week I received a Flipper Zero a device that has “interesting” capabilities. I had seen these advertised for awhile and I found them to be pricey but cool. It’s basically a small piece of tech that has the ability to clone/emulate a number of electronic security devices/remotes, easily. In the wrong hands it could be used for malicious activities. I don’t have such intent but I was curious about what it could do. It was not a cheap toy as it costs a couple hundred dollars.

I have only scratched the surface so far but I have been able to emulate an infrared remote very easily. I also was able to clone my RFID employee badge and use the Flipper to get into a badge protected area successfully. It was very simple to do. It has antennae / chip sets to read/emulate a number of things. I am looking forward to seeing what else I can do. My hacking hat will remain red, not black.

On Sunday I will be playing in my first pickleball tournament ever. I have always wanted to play a tournament ever since I started 3-4 years ago but it just never happened. It will be my first competitive tournament of any type I have played in well over a decade since I played my last beach VB tourney. I am looking forward to the event and am curious how it will compare to how I felt when I was playing volleyball. I used to really invest a lot of myself emotionally into how well I did in a tournament. We will see how much of that remains at 57 years old. I am playing 3.5 doubles with a buddy of mine whom I also play volleyball with. He is easy going yet competitive so I think it should be a good mix.

I got out to see the new Tron movie last night, a sequel to the original that came out some 42 years prior. I vaguely remember details about the original other than it being weird as my then 15 year old brain would interpret things. I was actually much more a fan of the Tron video games the movie inspired. I remember playing one of the immersive arcade games that you sat inside of as you zipped around on light cycles.

The modern day version jumped on the AI bandwagon and depicted the internet, network hacks and anything related to it in a manner that would make any IT person laugh. Still I found the movie entertaining mostly as long as you didn’t care about compelling plots or academy award level acting. To be honest the main reason I went to see it was I had not been to the movies in a couple months. There just has been nothing in theaters that interested me enough to do so. I’d give Tron a B-.

Yesterday I had my normal 6 month check up with the dermatologist although I just got through the mess associated with my forehead skin cancer surgery a month or so ago. Part of the reason my last surgery was on as big of a spot as it was was because I put it off. I recognized I had a problem area for awhile and ignored it, resulting in the spot of basal cell getting larger, resulting in a nearly 3 inch incision on my head that was difficult to heal. I don’t want to replicate that going forward.

I have a spot on my neck that again has been a problem that I have not addressed. I also have a mole on my abdomen that became raised which can be potentially bad. Instead of telling the dermatologist I had no spots of concern I fessed up and had them look at them. He numbed and took a knife to both of them to get tested as well as a spot on my back. The absolute last thing I want is more skin cancer surgery but I would rather be safe than sorry. The doctor said they may just be keratosis which is basically just annoying and ugly skin growths that happen as you get older. I will have results next week.