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Kopaka's Ice Engineering

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  1. Kopaka's Ice Engineering
    Nope. I wasn't in an accident or anything.
     
    I got an interesting piece of email the other day. It's funny, but in a tongue-in-cheek, Toaraga's finest dry wit, way. Double-dose of funny email...I gotta do something to perpetuate the Blog of the Week XXVII traffic. I shall not yield my fame so easily!
     
     
    It's also worth reading and taking to heart. Because, y'know, there's truth there.
     

     
    -KIE, whose bracket is riding on Butler upsetting Florida and Southern California NOT upsetting North Carolina tonight.
  2. Kopaka's Ice Engineering
    Well, it's 7:45 PDT, and my flight leaves in about, hrm... 9 hours.
     
    What am I doing still up?
     
    Can't sleep.
     
     
    I didn't get everything done on the model. I'm not officially in limbo, as I discovered two things.
    Jefferson Parish marked the wrong drawings as record drawings, and left off a vital piece of information in a semi-inconsequential lift station in Bucktown. Net result is that I have to design pump controls on the fly when I get back.

    I forgot to import some lines from the G5-7 lift station area from the database before going gung-ho on initial flows. All that said, that's about a day's work (It's ALWAYS "a day's work". AUGH.) more and then I'm just waiting on pump data. 
    Translation: Bryan, if you're reading this, I was *hoping* to run dry calibrations while I'm gone, but that's not going to happen now. This is gonna get ugly.
     
     
    The rest of youse guys, well, be glad you're not in my situation.
     
     
    I've been browsing for a motherboard as the next Vital Component of the "tower of the gods" I'm building.
    I see this one, and I wonder if anyone has any thoughts they'd be willing to share on it.
     
     
     
    -KIE, who will now attempt to get some sleep.
  3. Kopaka's Ice Engineering
    201¾ lb., 24.7% body fat
     
    An award, hurrah.
    I'm such a bandwagonner.
     
    I finished the preliminary flow input for Helios/Galleria. It took about 3 weeks of coming in every day to get it done, but I got it done.
    And then I discovered I still had wet well GPS and pump controls left to do.
     
    I HAVE to get this done today, so I can actually leave Thursday morning.
     
    Thus I give you the random award.
    Award #1 goes to....Albequr...Albaque... uh, a city in New Mexico notorious for eliciting wrong turns from Bugs Bunny.
     

     
    -KIE
     
    P.S. 'Raga, why, of all things, SHREDDED PAPER?! *cries* I hate you.
  4. Kopaka's Ice Engineering
    The title is from a sound bite in Red Alert 2.
     
    I figure, since everyone is doing it, I ought to have a Q&A entry in my blog. That is, in case anyone wants to know more about me.
     
     
    If no one asks any questions, I'll know I've scared everyone off. Either that, or I have overexposed myself here.
     
    With that said, ask away! Every question will get a response, and most will have answers.
     
    -KIE
  5. Kopaka's Ice Engineering
    New category!
     
    The computer case arrived today. It's ÜBER-freakin'-spiffy.
    It's a Cooler Master Ammo 533 RC-533-SWN1. I bought it off of NewEgg.com.
     
    This thing is going to rock once it's all been put together.
     
    I could break down each angle of it, or I could just link you to a Maj gallery. In any case (), the company takes better photos than I do.
     
    OS, check
    Case, check
    >minimum 600 W power supply
    >Motherboard
    >Dual processor (Not dual core. Two processors)
    >2 GB RAM
    >sound card
    >video card
    >hard disks
    >new keyboard
    >flat panel monitor
    >CD/DVD drive
    >network card
    >additional fans & interior lighting
     
    Like I said, this thing is going to rock. Eventually.
     
     
    Now if you'd excuse me, I've got an RA2 channel to open up for Turakii & Traku.
     
    -KIE
  7. Kopaka's Ice Engineering
    Blog of the Week XXVII celebrations continue below, and will resume tomorrow, but now we interrupt to bring you this headline, ripped from this morning's Times-Picayune.... :wakeup2:
     

    I have to admit: it's never a dull moment when Nagin opens his mouth. Again, while this might do more harm than good, what's Louisiana politics without a good conspiracy theory or five?
     
    -KIE, whose bracket would still be intact were it not for Louisville choking on Aggie crunch.
  8. Kopaka's Ice Engineering
    Welcome!
    ahm, beh, cah, lum, mu, om, ra, summ....
     
    Okay, so I can't pass myself off as a gypsy in Austin City Park. I definitely don't have the right tarot deck.
    Come to think of it, I don't have any tarot decks.
     
    </obscure reference>
     
    Before anyone jumps down my throat, I was making a reference to Ultima IX: Ascension, a single player RPG published a few years ago by Electronic Arts & Origin Systems. The tarot in question are only 8 cards for the eight in-game virtues, not the typical tarot deck.
     
    Anyway welcome to my blog.
    To the left, you can read the reason why I borrowed the title "Chocolate City". While the reference is nigh a year old, and more or less a footnote in local history, the name struck me as so catchy at the time, I've persisted with it. By "outskirts", I mean that I don't live in New Orleans proper, but unless you're familiar with the area, you'll won't recognize anything more specific than "New Orleans".
     
    I am what one could call an AFOB, Adult Fan of Bionicle. It is to say, unless you have kids, I'm older than you.
    I live in southeast Louisiana, effectively New Orleans. I am a civil engineer, which means I design stuff that typically doesn't move, or shouldn't anyway. Mostly, I'm working with wastewater in Jefferson Parish. Modeling, not physically interacting.
    I've been on staff at BZP since before it was BZP. I'm currently the longest-tenured moderator, though it seems I rarely have time for moderating per se. However, I like to think the staff wants to keep my perspective. I hope so, because it's not like I've got any sort of blackmail material on them with which to keep that Hau next to my name on the boards.
     
    I feel I should give a little roadmap to my blog. I rarely post more than one entry per day, so while I will strive to stay current, I tend to lump a day's events into one big entry. However, some entries take on certain tones, so I divide them into categories, as follows:
    Local Goings On is where I lump some local news, weather, elections, et cetera. It says "politics," but it really should be "news". If you only read 2 categories, read this one second.
    From KIE's laboratory is where I post the odd recipe. I like to cook. I'm not very good at it, but I do like to cook.
    Oversized Eyes is a collection of anime posts. Oh come on, doesn't every blog here have an anime section?
    Office Hijinks: I am an engineer, though not of the locomotive variety. I work in an office most of the time, and sometimes the chatter is too much for me not to share with you. Consider it another take on the comic strip "Dilbert", but without the sarcastic, futility-of-it-all edge, and far less frequent.
    Required Reading is the category that, if you take anything away from my blog, it should be this. Inside these entries are little life lessons that I have learned, and want very much to pass on to you, so that you don't have to relive these mistakes I have made, or nearly made.
    the saga of KIE's computer: I built a computer during the spring/summer of 2007. It cost $2,400, spread out over 5 months. I'm very proud of it, as not only did I save about $1,000 in the process, but I know how to construct a computer now, and can now moonlight a new career.
    Lyrically speaking: because music is good, and good lyrics that already say what I wanted to say are better
    Catharsis & Rhetoric: Sometimes I need to vent too.
    Life in general is everything else that is relevant.
     
    For those of you who have heard about the funny email, yes, I do get some pretty funny email, and I love to post the safe-for-BZP stuff here. It's in there, but you'll have to go hunting for it.
     
    Hikari-tsuzuke yo
    ano hoshi no you hi!
     
     
    I feel so....validated.
     
    -KIE
  9. Kopaka's Ice Engineering
    The KexPod arrived yesterday.
    After about 5 months of waiting (Okay, you can scratch all of that before January: I was holding hope that I'd get one for Christmas.), several PMs and hint-dropping blog entries, the KexPod has arrived.
     
    Yeah, it was only 4 business days, but what it took to get it mailed was ridiculous.
    (By the way, I still owe Kex $50 (or lifetime premier membership) for the iPod, but that's on hold until his PayPal account is un-hung-up.)
     
    Kex left me a smattering of hits on the playlist before sending it, and, I must say I'm very behind the times, rock music-wise. The only song I recognized was "Kryptonite", by Three Doors Down. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be any nice way to take the songs off the iPod and into iTunes, so many of them will probably be given a token listen-to, and deleted: I rip my mp3s at 160 instead of 128, so space is marginally more an issue.
     
    One of the CDs I was holding off on ripping: Devotion by the Newsboys, wouldn't read on my computer. That makes me sad. I'm going to have to find someone else to rip tracks 1 & 2 for me now, or buy a new CD.
     
    Also on the "to get" list: something by Shawn McDonald ("Take my hand"), and MuteMath.
     
     
    ANYWAY, work trudges along. The pace I kept yesterday was disturbingly slow, and will not cut it henceforth.
     
    -KIE
  10. Kopaka's Ice Engineering
    For the record, this entry was supposed to be made 3 weeks ago, but Michael had me busy playing Red Alert 2.
     

    Yet another image borrowed from Wikipedia.
    An anime that lampoons anime.
    Genius.
     
     
    That is all.
     
    -KIE
     
    Another edit for clarification: The above image is of 4 of the 9 or so major characters in the anime/manga Bo-BoBo BoBoBo-Bo, a japanese cartoon that basically gives the Scary Movie or Epic Movie treatment (mishmashing the stereotype to the point of absurdity) to anime/manga.
  11. Kopaka's Ice Engineering
    201¾ lb.
    24.1% body fat
     
    I have three sets of picks this year. My best set is 14-2, and my worst is 12-4, but I didn't lose a single Sweet 16 team.
     
    However, the first Friday has always been the ends of my runs, not the first Thursday. How I do today will determine if this is a banner year or a "same-old-story" year.
     
    In other news, my inbox has been popping lately. Not my PM box but my real, email inbox.
    Lots of messages RE: BrickFest '07, since we've hit the last 2 weeks before the show in Portland (and I'm on staff, remember?), and the usual share of "cheap pharmaceuticals" spam. One thing that's been noticeably absent, however, has been stock tip spam. Oh, I still get one or two, but not the heavy hitters like, um, GDKI, CGDC, and others that wonderfully escape my memory.
     
    And Tuesday, I found out why:
     
    The Securities & Exchange Commission shut 'em down.
     
    Read more in Press Release 2007-34, as the article itself is too long to actually copy & paste.
     
    This is a victory for everyone who has an orange & purple sticker on their blog (and I know I'm not the only one, just the first B) ).
     
    Glasses of sparkling white grape juice to my friends on BZP whose blogs fight spam!
     
    -KIE
  12. Kopaka's Ice Engineering
    I'm tucking this away in this category because I was offered tickets to a basketball game tomorrow morning: University of North Texas vs. University of Memphis.
     
    Yeah, baby. March Madness will hit the Big Easy tomorrow & Sunday.
    I'm not going because I'm holed up with all this work.
     
     
     
    But, that doesn't stop me from filling out a few Sheets of Integrity.
    ("Sheet of Integrity" is a euphism for a completed prognostication of events of the tournament, the outcome of all 63 games.)
     
    It's a 1 in 5+ billion chance of getting all 63 games correct, but hey, I've liked brackets since middle school.
     
    It's been difficult to reduce the overt amount of calcium carbonate visible on my sheet, but I'm kinda happy with where it is. If Butler upsets Florida in the Sweet 16, I'm in a very good position. If not, well, my brackets have always been about damage control more than being correct.
     
     
    Whatever.
    May the best filled bracket win.
     
    -KIE
  13. Kopaka's Ice Engineering
    Sadly, it's a view still obscured by work on this sewer model. I got next to nothing done yesterday.
     
    I need a new computer. I don't want a Mac or Microsoft Vista, because I still have some 16-bit applications (read: games from the turn of the millenium) I still like to run.
    Thus, it would appear that I need to buy the computer *now*, or get an operating system while I can.
     
    But, an operating system means I'd more-or-less be building the box by hand. This scares me, as I have said before.
     
    Enter a book of faces.
     
    Obscure reference, sure, but I found a friend from high school, whom I'd not seen for nearly 10 years, on a social networking site yesterday. He is currently a student at Tulane Law. He lives 20 minutes (okay, more like 30 minutes, 90 if you factor in this morning's traffic) away.
    BEFORE he went to law school, he was working for Dell.
     
    He's volunteered to help me build my computer. I just need to get an XP box, and get one fast.
     
    Thanks, Earnest.
     
     
    He's also taken me up on my offer to play Red Alert 2. As have Turakii & Traku. Played a 70 minute 3-on-5 battle last night. Kinda protracted, as I'm sure I could've moved sooner. But, I got to see some teamwork in action. Nighthawk Transport helicopters are great like that.
    That was fun, guys. Let's do it again sometime.
     
     
    -KIE
  14. Kopaka's Ice Engineering
    My little brother turns 25 today.
    They grow up so fast... *sniffle*
     

     
    I'm making plans to go to a baseball game.
    Astros vs. Phillies
    Wednesday, July 4, 2007. 1:05 PM CDT start.
    Heck, I might even get back to the apartment for midnight and go to work on Thursday, thus not taking a day of vacation! It's a win!
    Gonna get some good seats, too, if I can get the plans settled quickly.
     
    (If anyone else is in Houston, and is going to go to that game, let me know.)
     
     
    I'll leave you with an article I got via email:
     

     
    Next thing you know, they'll have "transparent aluminum."
     
    -KIE
  15. Kopaka's Ice Engineering
    Work has gotten snarky this week.
     
    Someone didn't follow instructions when filling out a database 7 months ago, so now I have to go over the entire database to fix it, all but recreating the entire thing, before I'll be able to compile it and import it.
     
    Snag? Yes.
    Minor? Not really.
    Life threatening? Er, *gnashes teeth* no, not today. Check back later in the week.
     
    *mutters something that seems to include the words "disrespect" and "moocher"*
     
     
     
    Just letting you all know I'm still within earshot, I guess.
     
     
    I've got surprises in store for BrickFest. Some things not even Omi knows about.
    Shanny, I need something from you.
     
     
    -KIE, who, uh, lost his power bill for this month
  16. Kopaka's Ice Engineering
    201¾ lb., 25.1% fat
     
    I said there would be no offseason for softball. I lost too many steps and had gotten a bit porky. I was sucking wind too quickly.
     
    Okay, I may not have said it in those words, but I did allude to it here.
     
     
    FBC-K softball practice starts tomorrow, and I'm going to miss it for a wedding. Worse things have happened, though.
     
    I kind of like where I am right now, as some weight training has added a little zip to my starts at the plate (I did some test running last weekend at the field where we play.), and I've done 25 20-lb. dumbbell curls 6 days a week (each arm; that's a lot of weight for someone who got such a late start in bulking up). I'd want that body fat number to be under 24%, not above 25%. But hey, I can't have everything now.
     
    I've been thinking about a BowFlex, but I neither have the money nor the space in the apartment right now.
     
     
    Anyway, back to softball. By my count, we have 9 players, which is bad, because that means no rover and no bench. That may be solved in short order, or it might be the second week of the season before that gets rectified. We're just here to play, and play well. Winning is secondary to a Christ-like attitude, unlike a couple of players on other teams.
     
     
    Oh, and I'm officially retracting my offer to drive and pick up your MOCs for BrickFest. No one has taken up the offer, and I need the time from here on out.
    You can still send me your MOCs for BrickFest, however. PM me for details.
    (That includes you, ChocolateFrogs. )
     
     
    -KIE, more or less signing off until Monday
  17. Kopaka's Ice Engineering
    Or, a case study in meeting deadlines.
    Bah, who am I kidding. It's not a case study; it's just a rant.
     
    The elevator in the office was fixed today. Well, the repairs were completed, in any case. The hydraulic pumps had given out, which meant, well, I've never worked for Otto, so I don't know what work that entailed. All I know is that the original scheduled completion date was February 5.
    Then February 19.
     
    Then we started joking that it was sometime in June.
     
    But, my office building now has a working elevator for the first time in 3 months. While it doesn't mean I won't take the stairs, it does mean that a supply run to Sam's Club can finally take place. Among the needed supplies, mixed nuts, and cases of Coca Cola products is a new refrigerator, because the one on this side of the office gave out about 5 weeks ago.
     
    Still no word about the high school acquaintance in the hospital, though I doubt I'll not have heard anything by mid-day Sunday, as I will have the opportunity to go home this weekend for Kyle's wedding. (Kyle was in Michael & Brandy's wedding party; he's Michael's best buddy, as it were.)
     
    Looks like I'm going to get that breathing room after all. Too bad the air is filled with the odor of carpet glue. *hack*
     
    -KIE
  18. Kopaka's Ice Engineering
    Nah, nothing to do with my 401(k), despite the hit it took with the Chinese stock exchange falling back.
     
     
    The saying goes "Do one thing, and do it well."
    Thus, I rue today, as today was the day I went into the International House of Pancakes, and found spinach on the menu, yet failed to find boysenberry, butter pecan, or warm maple syrups on the table.
     
    I died a little inside, let me tell you.
     
     
    That is all.
     
    -KIE
    EDIT for clarification: Spinach is now an omelette topping. Truth be told, I'm more upset about the syrup than Popeye's green leafy vegetable.
  19. Kopaka's Ice Engineering
    Not caught up yet, but, with a little good fortune, I might have some breathing room depending on how much gets done by Friday.
     
    The KexPod is still in transit to New Orleans.
     
    Got a phone call during my lunch break: April D., one of a pair of identical twin sisters with whom I graduated high school, had a brain aneurism rupture over the weekend, and is in a hospital in Shreveport (*pokes Makutaman654*). She still has motor skills, but it's still dicey. She's either in surgery now, or will go under the knife 80 minutes after the posting time.
     
    Anyone inclined to call upon a Higher Power, it would be appreciated.
     
    -KIE
  20. Kopaka's Ice Engineering
    shadowpirakafan, I'm doing better, although I do have half a mind to take off the last hour of work and go take a nap.
    Though if I do that, I should go work on my MOC for BrickFest.
    I might even be able to take some pictures before BrickFest, depending on what I can get my hands on and when.
     
     
    In the interim, an email I got all of 35 minutes ago:
     

     
    Tasty. *twitch*
     
    -KIE, who after a week still hasn't gotten the KexPod
  21. Kopaka's Ice Engineering
    Ugh.
    Why oh why did yesterday have to happen?
     
     
    I may or may not have mentioned I'm much further behind on the sewer model than I need to be. To top it off, the Regional Planning Commission is not renewing their JP sewer modeling contract with HEI, a firm we're subbed under. This means the sewer modeling must be done by the end of April.
     
    This means I kind of need to be working on this seven days a week now, if I'm to have any hope of finishing it.
    If you want me to pick up your MOC for BrickFest, you'd better let me know RIGHT NOW, because I may have to retract that offer very soon.
     
    Well, I didn't get to it yesterday, because I was holed up in my apartment all day long, sicker than a dog.
     
    Splitting headache, check.
    Nausea, check.
    Diarrhea, check.
    Fever, check.
     
    That had to be 24 of the worst self-contained hours in my life to date. I got nothing but moaning & groaning done.
     
    I'm okay now, more or less. The fever has broken, and the nausea has been soothed. I'm not where I think someone might have to take me to the hospital anymore.
     
    Tomorrow is Fat Tuesday, the end of Mardi Gras. Lots of parades running today & tomorrow, so I'm probably going to be MIA until Wednesday, except for BrickFest PMs.
     
    -KIE, whose equilibrium is still a little off.
  22. Kopaka's Ice Engineering
    So much to talk about.
    So little time. *sigh*
     
    I want to encourage everyone able to attend BrickFest '07. Yes, there are the usual reasons, but I've got one bit of news that will be utterly mind-blowing:
     
    *dramatic pause*
     
     
     
    *extended dramatic pause*
     
     
     
    I'm bringing a MOC.
    Not just any MOC, though. My first MOC in about 16 years.
     
    It will combine elements from sets 8556, 8729, 8920, 8929, 8930, and 8935, and will have a green/black family theme.
     
    I was struck with inspiration at the thought of using Hordika chest plates as hand weapons, and once inspiration gets hold of me, it won't let go.
     
    Tufi, it won't be posted in the Empire until it makes its debut at BrickFest '07, as I will have to borrow a digital camera once there.
     
     
    In other news, there was apparently a shortage of white roses across Monroe, LA, over the past 7 days, as without my prior knowledge, the flower shop I ordered from substituted colored roses into Amanda's arrangement. She was surprised and absolutely thrilled by them, however. They caused a bit of a stir at the athletic store where she works. We were both blushing as she relayed the events of her 9-9 shift over her lunch break.
     
    As Dan Shanoff (prior author of "Page 2's Daily Quickie") might quip: "Tracking..."
     
    Time to do something worthwhile at work.
     
    -KIE
  23. Kopaka's Ice Engineering
    As I left the apartment to come to work this morning, I was approached by the husband of the elderly couple that lives in A303, two doors down from my apartment.
    We both have our differences with the tenant between us, namely the late night entertaining she does, and the chihuahua-esque dog(s?) she's keeping there. However, he's more upset, as his front room is the only room between his bedroom and her apartment, whereas my bed is tucked further away.
     
    Over the course of conversation (admittedly hurried: I ended up being late for work), he used an archaic form of, yet still not socially acceptable, racial slur in referring to our mutual neighbor.
     
    I didn't cut the conversation right there because I could read it in his face: this was the first word he knew, and there was no racial malice in it.
     
    Still, it bears noting that the world is still not yet perfect, on multiple fronts, like hurtful words and inconsiderate neighbors.
     
    Word to the wise: no matter where you live, be it an inner-city project, a mid-range apartment complex, an upscale townhouse, or an 80-acre ranch, try not be a nuisance to your neighbors. Patience wears thin where loud carryings-on happen at 12:30 at night, every night.
     
    For those of you thinking this entry was about the movie of the same name, well, it is..sort of.
    Check out the news I picked up on Wired.com this morning.

     
    Happy Valentine's Day, everyone.
     
    -KIE
  24. Kopaka's Ice Engineering
    Today is a happy day in the world of KIE.

    I have my office back, after a new paint job. Not only am I back in it, I had the plan racks that were left in my old office near the front installed in my current office. (The plan racks are nothing more than a ripped (cut lengthwise) 2×4, with holes drilled and 6 dowels sticking out.)
    I'm starting to get more feedback about BrickFest 2007. AND
    I start waiting on pins & needles for the mailman, because today is the day Kex finally mails the old KexPod to me. Right Kex?
     
    I've got an office to redecorate. Here's hoping I don't pass out for the still-fresh-ish paint fumes.
     
    -KIE
  25. Kopaka's Ice Engineering
    No, this entry has nothing to do with my Haloween 2006 entry.
     
     

    Image screencaptured from the Epilogue of Outlaw Star episode 26, "Return to Space"
    I should mention I finished watching Outlaw Star last Friday, but I got so tied up with the model, and now that Huntwyck is back (Did it ever really go away?), I haven't had time to say as much.
     
    Out of 26 episodes, only episode 19 "Law & Lawlessness" can be omitted from the storyline.
    Which means episode 23 "Hot Springs Planet Tenrei" is important to the storyline.
     
    *heavy sigh*
     
    I realize there's a difference in culture between the US and Japan, and what is scandalous here may not be so much so over there. But come on, ...Tenrei was gratuitous.
    And I can see why Cartoon Network culled the episode entirely: there is too much to edit out.
     
    Kids: just skip that episode. Or what's more, watch the prologue, and ONLY the prologue, PM me, and I'll tell you what you need to know.
     
    More mature individuals: wait until your mind has been sufficiently corrupted.
     
    It does make me sick to say it, though, that I've watched it.
     
    By the way, "Law and Lawlessness" is the jump point for an spinoff series called Angel Links. Since I missed Ep. 19 when it was broadcast on Cartoon Network, I didn't even know Angel Links existed until I hit up the Wikipedia articles on Outlaw Star.
     
     
    Going home this weekend. May the Force be with you all.
     
    -KIE
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