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The rumours of my demise are greatly exaggerated.

Well, sorta.

Not long after my birthday, I suffered from some severe gall bladder issues which have since been remedied. It was by far not the most amusing set of circumstances, but I am alive and that is a good start.

I really don't feel up to discussing the situation publicly beyond the vague acknowledgement above. It's not necessarily that I'm chicken about it, just that I'm not entirely sure of how I feel about life, the universe and everything at the moment.

Perhaps as time goes by and I've had more of a chance to contemplate the events of the past few weeks, I'll be able to address this with more clarity and reason. For now, I shall move onward!

Thanks to all who've passed along their well wishes, you are all a bunch of awesome wrapped into packages of coolness! :)

Rising From The Ashes...

Been rather underground last month.

Always dread February as many of you know, so forgive me my usual "Duck and Cover" of late. Fortunately, it was a quiet one for myself this year and hopefully that means the rest of the year will follow suit! *crossing fingers*

So, SitRep:

1) QTV

I FINALLY got a working copy of Dreamweaver at work and while I haven't attempted to ask if I can have a copy at home, I am allowed to work on my old site in the interests of "education, experimentation and exploration" during my breaks and lunch time. This is a good step in the right direction because I really miss working on my own stuff and if this opportunity develops into a rebirth of a favourite creative outlet, then I welcome the potential awesome with open arms.

Since the impromptu move from the old ISP has made sure to nuke the existing internal site links from orbit, I've got a TON of cleanup to do. You can now point and laugh all you like at all the broken links, missing images and Flash file (.swf) links to nowhere, how fun is that?

I believe that the main issue we're going to see is that all the internal links in the .swf webshows and shorts are going to be very difficult to repair. HTML links = easy, Flash movie links that I no longer have the original .fla files for = not so much.

I have no idea how I can go about repairing those. D and I lost touch over a year ago now and thanks to a hard drive failure wiping out my contact info last year, all that contact info is long gone. If an opportunity arises where I can re-connect, I'll see if ol' D still has those files knocking around. We shall see.

In the meantime, I'm simply going to have to figure out new things to do. I've lost contact with pretty much 75% of the site's usual contributors, barring Wonko, Dr. P and myself, so it's now a question whether I want to do something solo or attempt to find new co-conspirators. Anything is possible in the realm of possibilities, but for now I'm focusing on fixing what is before contemplating what can be.

Common theme with things I do, it seems. Heh. We'll see how things go indeed.

2) Project: BoozeTunes

As Summer slowly approaches, my mind is turning once again to thoughts of the River and of Schlitterbahn. I was toying with this idea last year of constructing my own ice chest stereo system.

If you've ever tubed the Guadalupe over the past several years, it's likely that you've seen (or rather heard) what I'm talking about. Essentially, I propose to literally build an ice chest that not only contains favoured icy beverages but also a marine stereo sound system as well.

For an example, there's this one, designed by RadioRaft. While awesome in execution, it's rather damned small. After one adds in the hardware and battery, there isn't much room for anything else.

I would almost say that this model is meant for music alone and not for the ideal dual purpose I would ideally utilize it for.

Here's a DIY model from Reggie Smith, webmaster of Toobing dot net His approach is to hard bolt speakers and the receiver on the lid of the chest itself, with the wiring and battery tucked into the ice chest itself.

I believe that a more traditional rectangular ice chest would allow more room, I'm currently dealing with the following issues:

A. Heat

Putting a receiver inside as well as speakers adds heat to the interior of the chest. While one could open and close the unit occasionally to allow reasonable heat/air exchange, condensation is also another concern especially on those humid Texas days.

B. Condensation/waterproofing

I decided to go with marine equipment because that provides greater protection against condensation and water splashing issues, however, there is a concern with keeping the exposed wiring free and clear.

C. Battery

Probably going to go with glass pane, closed system marine batteries. Lead acid batteries on the water make the Law a bit fussy. Problem is with the closed batteries is the higher cost, between $70 to $200 depending on size and rating.

D. Design

I admit, I am not the most mechanically inclined individual for the job. I have a ton of theories and some wild ass hopes and dreams, but I envision building the speakers into the front side wall of the chest and tucking the battery in on one side of the chest, leaving the other side free for frosty beverages.

My quandary is in building this so that it allows for ample beverage storage, proper ventilation, waterproofing and be reasonably aesthetically pleasing.

Two and a half months until the season starts and I'm open to suggestions! :)