Edwin Wise

Update

Let's see... busy busy!

Last weekend I worked on some teeth Saturday (added the pics to this Flickr set: http://tinyurl.com/dbdx6q ) and ended up roughing out a half-dozen sets, including a new experimental one on my (new) duplicate that goes over the gums, to give me more control.

Sunday, then, I built up some sculpting turntables and armatures and generally fiddled around, and then did some actual sculpting (with Beth, whose work isn't online yet)... pics of the little guy I call Elmo, who has an hour of work or so in him, here: http://tinyurl.com/njsbpc He looks kind of ragged because he is... an hour doesn't give much time to clean up!

Then, later in the week, I worked up a fairly comprehensive project list for Scare 2009 (which will kick ASS) -- it clocks in at 148 entries right now... not ALL of which are for me to do, but still, the core group is about a dozen of us, we are gonna be BUSY.

Working off of THAT list, I worked up a shopping list and then went shopping!

I bought a metric buttload of materials from Smooth-On, then scattered my cash across another half dozen or so local stores.

Used the shiny new tubing bender (three-roller variety from Harbor Freight, model #99736) to do trial bends on some 1/2" square pipe, 1" EMT (which is actually an inch and an eight OD), and 3/4" EMT. Got some excellent results, some iffy results, one bad result. Overall, an excellent tool, and for $160 it's a HECK of a lot cheaper than the next cheapest which clocks in at $1,200 (or did I see one for $800? The overpriced stuff all runs together after a while).

An interesting result of crushing the 1.25" OD pipe into the 1" dies is that it forces it into an oval shape that is strong in the direction of curvature. I don't know if I care or not, but there it is. It also requires slow adjustments or the tube will squirrel out of plane, which is bad. To get a full quarter circle uses a lot of effort! And I have sixteen of these to make! Well, 15 now.

I'm also testing a variety of (cheap-ish) wheels and casters to use as supports for the pipes, which are destined to become a middle-sized vortex tunnel.

Worked up a design for a vacuum table with companion radiant oven, so I can do a lot of efficient molding work on THAT; bought the supplies to build it of course. Got the heater wire online last week, not to bad for price, hope it behaves! Also, have a query in to Regal on cheap thermoform plastic.

Worked up a design for massive chunk-tolerant blood pumps, using 4" PVC schedule 40 pipe, some miscellaneous other PVC fittings, weather stripping for O-Ring sealing, and racket balls for check valves. So far, the O-Ring test has been VERY promising, I'm quite encouraged. May get some leakage at the edges of the ring, but overall I expect the backing material to keep most stress off the seal, and with a 4" ID pipe I'm moving a LOT of blood. I'm going to use some 6" stroke pneumatic cylinders I have laying around to drive dual 4" PVC blood pumps with alternate cycles to get nearly continuous flow.

Did some research and found a company selling water-soluble skull caps... and then did some MORE research because their prices hurt my sensibilities and decided that they were using PVA to make these; and also using PVA to make prosthetic appliances for cuts and stuff. Which is AWESOME, because I'm about to order a HUGE amount of both PVA and Methylcellulose for my fancy-shmancy slime needs. Very neat; if this works, I'll be a happy camper. Oh, had to run out to Sally Beauty to get a few foam heads, to try to make skull caps on. May have to build those up some so they are big enough.

Almost forgot; bought and reviewed relevant chapters in "Clinical Aspects of Dental Materials: Theory, Practice, and Cases"... good book! Though not as good as the one we found at Half Price books, whose name escapes me.

Okay, have to do more shopping. Then, coming up; tooth work, sculpting, and more experiments. Next weekend, life-casting! With any luck.

Core, Fundamental Problems with Responsibility

"It's not my fault, I didn't mean to!"

Need I say more?

Probably. Okay, think about it; these two statements DO NOT GO TOGETHER.

"I didn't mean to!" is a statement of intent, of will. But whether you MEANT to or NOT, if your dog bites the man, your camp fire or flicked cigarette butt burns down the forest, or you drunkenly run into a school bus full of children...

... it may still be YOUR FAULT. Own up to it, learn from it, and move on.

In fact, if you never own up to fault, you won't learn or grow, you'll be stuck as an irresponsible, useless person; a child in adult skin. That does nobody any favors.

Fault and Intent are not dependent conditions.

You wish your horrible gym teacher were dead and... he gets run over by a school bus full of drunken football players. Was it your fault? You meant for it to happen! But if you didn't drive the bus, or push the teacher, then no... the causality between wishing and events is a form of magical thinking that, sadly or fortunately, is not true.

Likewise, the disavowal of fault because of intent is the reverse form. Your intent may be as pure as the driven snow, but still, when your game of William Tell puts an arrow through your little brother's eye... it's your fault. Sucks, doesn't it?

And, of course, sometimes it is nobody's fault, but that is a different discussion about our crazy, litigation-happy society, where people think it has to be someone's, anyone's, fault... but their own.

Because, after all, they didn't "mean to".

Core, Fundamental Problems with Responsibility

"It's not my fault, I didn't mean to!"

Need I say more?

Probably. Okay, think about it; these two statements DO NOT GO TOGETHER.

"I didn't mean to!" is a statement of intent, of will. But whether you MEANT to or NOT, if your dog bites the man, your camp fire or flicked cigarette butt burns down the forest, or you drunkenly run into a school bus full of children...

... it may still be YOUR FAULT. Own up to it, learn from it, and move on.

In fact, if you never own up to fault, you won't learn or grow, you'll be stuck as an irresponsible, useless person; a child in adult skin. That does nobody any favors.

Fault and Intent are not dependent conditions.

You wish your horrible gym teacher were dead and... he gets run over by a school bus full of drunken football players. Was it your fault? You meant for it to happen! But if you didn't drive the bus, or push the teacher, then no... the causality between wishing and events is a form of magical thinking that, sadly or fortunately, is not true.

Likewise, the disavowal of fault because of intent is the reverse form. Your intent may be as pure as the driven snow, but still, when your game of William Tell puts an arrow through your little brother's eye... it's your fault. Sucks, doesn't it?

And, of course, sometimes it is nobody's fault, but that is a different discussion about our crazy, litigation-happy society, where people think it has to be someone's, anyone's, fault... but their own.

Because, after all, they didn't "mean to".