When I checked my shop today, I found that I had two new folks who "heart" me. Reehaw (part 2)! And then I checked out their shops, and sites, and YouTube videos. It is so freakin' cool. First, you have to go to Special Electric. I am definitely going to have to purchase one of these beauties when payday rolls around. IT COMES WITH A SCHEMATIC AND PARTS LIST! I can't wait to make one myself... I'm already wondering how much of a charge a 9v battery would put out for the old iPod...

Next, there was Middle Creek Merchants. I may not be a huge fan of the jewelery thing, but their robots are pretty darn cool. Yes, that is solder envy you here in my text. I know what I will be asking the birthday faeries for... You can check out the videos of these cool little creations at their web site, and I'm sure you'll be as enthralled as I was.

Oh, and for those of you who have been victim of those ransomeware trojans...

I was asked to fill in running the video recording and PowerPoint/multimedia stuff at church this morning as the regular guy was gone on vacation. I got there an hour early, because I was worried about screwing it up during the service and having all of those worshipping church-goers mad at me, and had the PowerPoint presentation set and the SongShow Plus list populated and ready when "bing!" guess what decided to infect the Lord's PC?

You guessed it - one of those programs.

Now, I've been a victim of these folks before, and it was a pain in this pirate's booty, but it was just me. These unsavories have taken it a step further, intentionally or not: They're messing with Him. I would not want to be in their digital shoes. Or literal ones, for that matter.

Outcome: No magic words to the worship songs on the bigscreen, and PowerPoint presentation in safe mode for the message. And I get to cleanse the computer of this iniquity sometime during the week when I have a chance. Share in the suffering, if you will.

I put a new torch in the shop, and people are still looking, but that is all I have to report, i.e. still no sales. One of these days...