I hope everyone is having a nice weekend, and that you have been able to dig out of the snow--all of you who are dealing with snow. No snow here. No water, either.

It has been a busy week, with one thing or another. Yesterday was the Lightwriters Photography Group photo contest, and I had to put eight works together in mattes so that I could submit them on turn-in day, which was Thursday--which happened to be Mary's birthday, as well. So I had a lot of things I was trying to get taken care of in the week. Then on Friday, I needed to perform a banking transaction that required my driving 85 miles, so that was an adventure.

Firstly, the photo contest was fun, and I managed to win 3rd place in the black&white landscape division! I figure for my first ever photography contest, it is a good start and something to build on for the future. I am considering entering a few more pieces in the Dixon May fair, which takes place not far from here. (The photo I won with is one I believe I have shown in chat--it is of a livestock corral in the fog).

As for Mary's birthday, I managed to find some DVDs she has been wanting, including Grand Budapest Hotel, so we shall get to see that one soon. It did fairly well at the Oscars, so I am curious to see what the fuss was about. For Mary's night out, I took her to see "The Kingsmen." A light-hearted little film, so it was just what we were in the mood for. It was fun to go out for a movie again! Seeing as we only managed to get out to two films all of last year, I would say we are off to a better start in 2015.

My banking trip was interesting. I needed to cash out of one of my old IRAs from back in my software engineering days--to help get on top of some bills. This required my signing paperwork and all, so I decided to go to the branch. Back when I got out of school and moved to the Silicon Valley, I got an account at Valley Credit Union, because the company I worked for (Singer-Link Flight Simulation) had a direct-deposit arrangement there. Well, Link went away, and then I moved away from the San Jose area, I just never bothered to close the account. This was partially because I had a small IRA there, and I just left it alone. Well, trying to bank remotely from that distance has made for some real inconveniences over the years. So that's why I decided to go ahead and close the account. It made me a little sad to do so--I was always very fond of my years working in the tech industry, and this was one of my very last ties to the area. (Valley Credit Union got bought in 2006 by a credit union based in Illinois, called CEFCU)

Well, the drive down was more fun for me than I thought it was going to be. For one thing, it gave me time away from the computer and work projects, so that I could do some deep thinking and planning. What's more, it gave me an excuse to go down to Sunnyvale, a place I hadn't been to in probably at least a decade. My, how that place has changed! Some places I used to frequent are no longer there, but some places are. Sunnyvale was where Link was, and that's the town I moved to when I first got out of college. In fact, I went by my old house and took some photos of it. Still there, even after almost 30 years! I drove around the town and looked for some of my old hangouts, and it was fun taking a look back. Literally every time I drove around a corner, I found another spot that had been significant to me in some way. I even went to my old work building, which is now a Fry's Electronics store. Given that Radio Shack has gone away, Fry's is now my best bet for walk-in stores that sell electronic components. I bought some power connectors for a lighting/video project I have been working on.

That video project is the time-lapse shots I have been wanting to make of the 3D Printing. I did some test runs yesterday, and everything looks good. Today I am going for the main event--to shoot a time-lapse video of the printing of my Nimoy/Spock tribute statue. It is very tall, so the printing session should photograph well. Speaking of the printing, I enjoyed getting a chance to chat a bit about that last weekend, but I could tell from the chat screen that there were a lot of questions raised that I didn't get a chance to address. So I am hoping to get a chance to sit down in front of the camera and do that. Perhaps this week.

Now, regarding this newest contest that XYZprinting is hosting. I have devised a strategy that I think shall give me at least a fighting chance of winning it. My plan is to enter my Spock statue model into the contest. I think I could possibly round up a lot of votes in the Star Trek/Space fan groups on Facebook. (The contest requires Facebook membership of anyone voting.) So here is the strategy I am going to try. The last day for submitting models is Monday (tomorrow). Then the last day for voting is the following Sunday (the 15th). So I am going to enter the Spock model in as close to the deadline as I feel is safe. The reason is that the voting page is showing the entries in order of submission, with most recently submitted being on the top of the first page. So I am hoping to be among the last submissions, so that it stays visible as the first thing one sees when they go to vote. (However, I suspect I am not alone in this strategy, so I'm anticipating a rush at the end tomorrow.) Then a bit later in the week, I will send out reminders in the owl groups showing where to go to vote. The voting is different from the last time, which allowed everyone to vote for the same entry once per day throughout the voting period. This time, any given person can vote for any given model ONE TIME. (I'm guessing the company changed that because they didn't want to have to verify almost a thousand votes like they did last time!) The odd thing about this is that it means I can enter multiple models and anyone can vote for any of them, but only once per model. So I'm hoping to make a push toward the end of the week to try to rack up votes. So look for an e-mailing at that time, as a reminder.

At first I wasn't going to try for this one, but the more I thought about it, the better it sounded. For one thing, this is giving away a AiO printer, which stands for All-In-One. It has a 3D scanner built into it, so it is a bigger brother to the printer I have been using on loan here. And yes, the money was raised for the purchase of a printer, but if I could manage to win one instead, that money could go toward buying consumables such as filament and casting materials, and for other tools for facilitating the casting process (like a vacuum chamber).

So anyway, that is what has been going on here. Lots of busy time, but the 3D printing is coming along swimmingly, and I am getting close to having a working bobblehead prototype! Things are progressing at the Casa de Vaca.

I hope you all have a great week coming up.