The Largest Column

Tonight we went to hear the holiday concert at Duke Chapel with our dear friend, Mrs. Aagaard, my daughter's braillist who retired after her Kindergarten year. 

My son had so much to see as far as the chapel goes.  It is a marvel of architecture and a style he has never seen before.   My daughter, on the other hand, had to suffice with sounds more than anything. 

I did have her feel how large one of the columns was.  They are massive, massive, huge.   She got a sense of how big the building was from the column size, I hope. 

Oddly, her stomach was bothering her very much after we picked Mrs. Aagaard up.   I hoped against hope that she didn't have COVID-19 again with sudden symptoms when she had been without any symptoms of any kind.   

She got better, and we made it to our seats and then enjoyed the different carols and songs, some with meanings from other cultures and parts of the world.  We got to walk up to the front and add our canned goods to the collection at one point in the night. 

My son was embarrassed by any and everything his father and I did.  I had no idea how incredibly cringeworthy we were.   We're going to have to up our cool factor. 

We headed home, dropped Mrs. Aagaard off and then got some fast food.   We had been so tight on time there was no time for dinner so we all ate after nine o'clock.  

I'm tired and going to bed now. 

At The End of The Day

Does it count that you got some things done if you didn't get anything done with the one thing you really need to get things done on?  I had a conference call today and got the great advice that I should pick an hour a day to work on that thing that is hard to get done.   He kindly suggested a good time for me to work on it.

He then asked me later how things went.   He asked so he heard all about the things that happened during that time.   He said, "Ah, I forgot,  you have children."

Still, it was a good day on a lot of fronts.  Tomorrow maybe will be a good day on that one other front.

Early Morning Choir:  My daughter and I left early and got her to school in time for early chorus at school.   After school she went to choir.   She loves to sing but Mondays are busy for her. 

The Son Who Is Nearly Twelve:  My son is going to a school visit at the one school he wants to attend.  There aren't many spots available, we'll see how it goes and if he's really interested in going there or if he's up for other schools as a backup plan.

Collab

When you work with someone, you can collaborate on ideas or styles, etc.   When you're a content creator, and you're going to do a video with another content creator, it's called a "collab" because we don't have time to say all those extra syllables.  

Richard and I recorded a potential video we'll put out on our channel about some 3D printing we did together.   He's going to do something on his channel.   Hopefully the videos will work out.   It was fun making them. 

The 3D printing was an evolution though.  The design that was just perfect turned out to be completely useless because of a flaw with printed layer lines and stresses on how the case was attached.   But that's something easy to fix. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter is good at negotiating.   She convinced me to let her buy an audiobook with her money.  She was convincing. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son is playing online games with his friends and saying words that are a sleight bit off from swear words.   I'm not sure how to handle this.  

It Is Busy Here

We have lots of people in our house.   It's rather exciting.   I have been working on getting the printers printing and my husband has been working on getting a model designed and it has been a lot of fun.   I am tired and will write more tomorrow.   The printers are now printing so I'm heading to bed. 

The Children: are growing up.  My son is very interested in being social some of the time and my daughter is the same, but only some of the time.

Jolly Time

What a delightful day we had for Thanksgiving today.  I hope everyone had a good day there.  We missed having my parents with us, but we were so glad Uncle Bob and Uncle Brian could be here along with my in-laws.  

The food was all delicious with the winning dish sweet potatoes my mother-in-law made for me but everyone loved them. She said it was the best sweet potatoes she'd ever made.  Uncle Bob's apple pie was delightful.  We always love his pies.  My husband's turkey was juicy and just right.  Even the cranberry thwock (uncle Dale's term for canned cranberry sauce named for the sound it makes coming out of the can) was good.

All around the food was too good and I became uncomfortably stuffed.  Which is just as it should be on thanksgiving.

The Big Boy Update:  my son almost ruined thanksgiving by throwing a fit because he didn’t get an adult knife.  His punishment is delayed.  He will find out about it tomorrow. He ended up having a nice meal and joining in the conversation.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  my daughter let me do her hair today. Well, I said it had to be done, but she was amenable to having it blow dried.  It was starting to head into dreadlocks land with a lack of brushing lately. She looked so nice with her hair clean and brushed.  

Too Much Time In Bed

For two days I've wanted to stay in bed.  I felt bad, pain more than illness.  I don't think I'm sick, I don't know if I overdid it in Frankfurt, I don't think I did, but something was bothering me and I just wasn't functioning well.  This morning I'm up, dressed, and ready to face the Thanksgiving Day joys with family. 

We'll all miss my parents today.  We're hoping we can see them for Christmas this year if it works out. 

Lagged Out

Yesterday I lay down around five o'clock because I was tired.   I fell quickly and the next thing I knew, my husband was asking me if I wanted to come to dinner.   I woke up and headed blearily to the kitchen, where Uncle Bob was standing, having arrived for the Thanksgiving holiday.  

We had a very nice dinner together of meat sauce pasta made by my husband.  Dessert was a bit of a funny surprise from Uncle Bob: gummy body parts Costco had on such a dramatic sale he couldn't pass on the opportunity to bring us a funny present to share together. 

After dinner I went back to the bedroom and fell asleep, rolling over once at two in the morning and then not moving until after six in the morning.   I was tired or jet lagged or both.   Hopefully I've caught up on sleep at this point. 

The Big Boy Update:  my son hates eating at the table with us.  He always wants to eat at the bar seats in the kitchen.   The difference in location is six feet, but he resists every time.  

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter guessed every single gummy body part without being given any information, including what the options were.   She never ceases to amaze me.

The Last Minute Costume

My son is Ghengis Khan for Mystery History tomorrow.  He's been working on his presentation for a long time.   He needs to be in period costume for the presentation, but when we tried to show him options for available costumes, none of them would do.   We warned him, but he was not satisfied with any of the options. 

We were going out of town, and Nana is a master seamstress (or at least she is to me because there is nothing she can't sew or knit or crochet).  We told him to talk to her about options.   He didn't think to do so, which meant that last night, he remembered and went into a panic because we had one day left to come up with a costume for him. 

He went to sleep, and my husband and I did everything we could to find something that would be "delivered tomorrow."  There was virtually nothing.  Halloween, has passed and there was no costume store in town anymore with all the online ordering.  Party City had almost nothing, perhaps a beard in white.   

My husband found a hat we could modify with some 3D printed adornments and I found a toga (that we neglected to tell my son the name of) and my husband also found a black stole.   I had a furry jacket, and a friend I was on a business call with suggested the fabric store, which my mother-in-law went to and found another fur-like material that we've used to replicate full-length fur boots.  

It came together, but it would have been a lot easier if he'd gone with something less than the perfect image he had in his mind from the start. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter got in trouble today in Choir.   She is getting in trouble lately and is upset about it when it happens.   She's starting to stand up for herself when she can't understand something and needs to self-advocate.   She's not doing a good job of handling how she lets people know that and is coming across more as frustrated defiant.   She's standing up for herself though.   It's just going to take time. 

Fighting To The Death

My son loves screens.  This is the one thing we can take away that he cares about deeply.   However it is very frustrating to both him and us that when bad behavior starts, he can get warned and he ignores the warning, he will, for instance, keep bothering his sister with no regard to the warning.  We take away screens at that point, typically for a day and my son goes into a rage of anger. 

But does he stop at that point?  Or does he keep on?  He doesn't stop, because they would be reasonable.  He keeps on and sometimes accelerates his behavior in the negative direction.  So he loses screens for another day.   This sometimes continues until he's lost screens for a week or the whole weekend. 

We had a conversation with him about it tonight.  He's not sure what to suggest other than we not take away screens.   It does work in that he avoids bad behavior because he doesn't want the consequence, but when he's in the middle of things he has almost no impulse control and a whole lot of anger that goes unmanaged. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles; My daughter has a lot of reading to do.  I'm not sure why she has so much because this is in addition to the work she has as a sighted student.  I'm going to ask tomorrow and see why she has so much additional work from her VI teacher.  It is possible I'm not getting the whole story from my daughter.  She does feel like it's not fair that she has extra work.  She told me tonight she hates being blind sometimes. 

Hot and Cool Welcome Home

We're home from our week trip to Germany to attend Formnext 2022.   My daughter missed us very much for some reason.   She wanted us to come home early and even had a difficult week at school she was so our of her normal mental routine.  

She was in the best of hands, which is always the case when our children are with any of their grandparents.  Grandparents are experts with children, and we're so grateful we have them, and they're interested in helping.   

My daughter wanted to come to the airport to pick us up and insisted I hug her the entire way home.   She was so excited when we got in and wanted our attention in many ways, especially to see how the excavation of the dinosaur eggs she got for her birthday from Aunt A.

My son was in the middle of playing a video game whilst watching a YouTube video at the same time.  He didn't come see us when we arrived; he called down and said, "hi, mom and dad."  We had to ask him to pause the game to give us a hug hello.   He has had his times of insecurity, but this trip wasn't one of them.  

I'm tired.   Sitting in a plane all day is, for some reason, completely unrestful.  Travel is nice but I always am glad to be home.   

All Good Things...

It's been a very exciting week here in Frankfurt, Germany.  I've met some really wonderful friends I had from online already and made some new friends I met once I arrived here.   It's so odd to meet someone for the first time that you know well and then feel as though you've known them for much, much longer than four days when it's time to say goodbye to return to our various countries. 

This was a common thread among the attendees I spent time with this week.   That and we all hope to reunite again next year at a maker faire or conference again soon. 

An aside that is related is one of the content creators wants to coordinate a ski trip in Austria next year.   He wants to rent a large villa and have other content creators in 3D printing get together there.   Most of us are older and have children that are grown or aren't in diapers anymore.  Most people have said they want to come if things work out when the date is decided. 

But as much fun as I've had here, I'm ready to go home.  I love being home.  I love my children, and I miss the dog as well.  I'm looking forward to seeing Nana and Papa as well.   And soon, I look forward to seeing my parents as the holidays grow closer.   Hopefully, we will all be together for Christmas.   I have the best family. 

The Snow Child:  My daughter was worried about school and was missing us a little bit, but when I called yesterday, she was just fine.   She had made some snow from a powder she got for her birthday and was much more interested in playing with the snow than talking with me.   Which is good.   I can't blame her; snow is pretty exciting, even when it's faux snow.

I Missed My Son:  I'm not sure if my son misses us, but he was off playing Magic the Gathering with the Code Ninjas group he goes to after school.   He is really getting the hang of MTG.  It's a lot to remember, but that's one of his specialties,   I'm looking forward to playing him soon and seeing how his skill has progressed. 

Windows Galore (and No Keychain)

We had two missions to accomplish today: go see the factory and showroom of a German window company and get a keychain for my daughter.   We accomplished the hard task and were unable to find anything on the second.

The German windows were amazing.   We saw the process from the materials as they came into the facility to the final product at the end.   The windows were impressively made, but what was more interesting to me was how their day's work across the entire factory was organized ahead of time by computer for the most efficient route.  That means that window components weren't built and assembled all at once.  Each part would be made when it would make the best utilisation of materials from a remnant perspective.  Or perhaps it was based on one workstation being overloaded while another had very few things to do.   

Every step of the way, there was optimisation.   It was like our very own How It's Made show.   I love the windows.  My husband is thinking about them as they are different from what he's accustomed to.   

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter missed us a lot.   She said she was having behavioral problems at school and started to cry.   She said she was trying so hard but she would be concentrating and when they asked her something she didn't say, "yes ma'am" and that she was saying yes, but that she was having to ger used to the new addition of ma'am and she was trying and then she just started crying.   I'm not sure what's going on, but she said she wasn't trying to be difficult, it had just been hard.   I told her I would call her again tonight and talk to her.   She was upset we hadn't called her the night before and Nana said she couldn't call us.   I told her and Nana that she could call us any time.   She seemed to be a lot better today. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son was happy to talk to us last night, but only for about a minute.  He was engaged and gave us a rather nice brush off answer saying he loved us and thanks for calling and he'd see us soon.  His timing and intonation were perfect. 

Without End

There are so many companies exhibiting at Formnext.   We've made it through three of the large halls of exhibitors.  We're actively trying not to go to booths that have interesting things because if you approach them they want to talk to you about their products or process.   We're not customers for almost all of the companies, but they all like to talk to us about their technology. 

I'm glad we decided to stay in the hotel we did.  Some of the content creators we know that have very large followings and are highly respected in the industry are here.  We've been spending time with them.  Some of the time the companies will know one or more of us.   It's always interesting when they know one of us but not the other.   None of us mind that, though, there are so many people working in the industry one way or another that it's not possible for everyone to know everyone.   

None of the people we're with have egos that need to be stroked or are easily bruised.  We're all one happy family, introducing each other when someone new comes over.   

The one downside is that we are being given too much filament.  I like filament, but we only have so much room to take things home.   Companies also want to give us small things with their branding on them, but we don't do giveaways.  Perhaps we will someday but it's not something I want to get into.   Collecting addresses safely, doing polls or determining who would win something isn't without complexity and then there's the mailing and shipping costs and it's just a mess I don't want to get into.

I miss the children and our dog. 

Tiny Tip Of The Iceberg

Okay, imagine everything you know about 3D printing.  Then imagine going and seeing things in one day that make you realize what you know is only the very tip of the iceberg when it comes to additive manufacturing.   The industry side of things is just amazing.  I knew that it was, but you can't understand it until you see company after company doing things so far beyond what you can do or even knew that could be done. 

I met content creators, company owners and so many interesting people today.  We have been fortunate to be with some very large content creators and have as a result had an opportunity to meet people we might otherwise not have had a chance to meet. 

I was recognized by people, some companies, but some had no idea who we were.  Specifically the industry companies, whom we had to explain again and again that we did content creation for consumer-grade printers.  We were known by some very nice filament companies.  Overall it was a great day that went on very long due to a dinner hosted by Prusa that had a lot of great people included. It went way past my bedtime. 

I miss my children. 

Familiar Unfamiliarity

This morning I woke up in Frankfurt saw it was after nine o'clock and realized the breakfast we'd paid for was going to be over shortly if I didn't get downstairs.   I made it in time and tried a little bit of most things with the exception of baked beans.   Baked beans go well with bacon and hot dogs, both things I eat but baked beans just isn't a breakfast food.  Or so my mind tells me. 

My husband joined me in time before they closed, and then we went back to the room.  We weren't ready to go out and do things yet because we were still tired.  Perhaps it was lack of sleep at the proper times or lack of good sleep on the plane, but we both agreed we weren't ready to go exploring or shopping yet. 

My husband fell asleep and I got some messages from friends I knew would be here.  We had all elected on staying in the same hotel.   They were going out and I said I would meet the two brothers in the lobby.    When I saw them I gave them both a hug and then we headed off to get on a train to head to the city center. 

It was when I got on the train that I though of how absurd a thing I'd just done, and yet not one.   I had met two people I'd never met before in a foreign country and went off with them.  And I hadn't even told my husband other than saying so in a text message.   Historically and even potentially today that could be a dangerous thing to do.   

I did know these two people though and more to the point, I knew people who knew them personally.   So it wasn't that much of a risk.   I knew them both fairly well from the past few years, it was just that bit of meeting them actually face to face that had yet to happen. 

Speaking of, I have more people to meet (for the first time in person) in the lobby.  I'd better get my jacket on and head out to dinner. 

I hope the children are having a good time and are behaving for Nana and Papa while we're gone.

Weiner Schnitzel

I'm not sure how to spell Weiner Schnitzel, but I hope it's close enough for you to get a good idea about what we had for dinner.   My husband and I arrived in Frankfurt after an overnight flight.   We slept in bits and pieces, resulting in us neither being rested nor completely awake by the time we arrived at the hotel. 

My husband fell asleep immediately while I unpacked and then fell asleep.   We woke up in time for dinner and had a very nice German meal with the recommended apple wine which is alcoholic.   I don't drink much, but I thought one little glass of apple wine/cider couldn't be that bad—or so I thought. 

The waiter suggested a flagon to share between us as the price was more agreeable.   It was, but the pitcher was huge.  The only thing that saved us from complete and utter intoxication was the fact that it was only mildly alcoholic.  

Dinner was fabulous, served to us at a big picnic table long enough for ten people to sit at it.  They seated us right in the middle.  It was communal dining, but it was delicious.  Tomorrow we'll meet up with some of the other content creators.  For now, I'm going to bed and trying not to wake up too early. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter called us earlier from the park she was at with Papa.   I talked to her about being respectful of Nana and Papa and doing what they said to do, as well as *not* fighting with her brother.  She said she'd try.  We just talked to Nana, and they've already gotten into an argument.  

The Big Boy Cares A Tiny Bit:  My son got on the phone for only a brief moment to make sure we were alive.   Then he said, "Bye" and left.

A Day Late and A Euro Short

Yet again, I'm post-dating this blog post.   Yesterday was a whirlwind of getting ready to go to Germany for Formnext, a large additive manufacturing conference.   We know a lot of people who will be attending, both from Europe as well as the US.  I was behind schedule and barely made it out of the house at 5:30PM when we needed to leave for the airport. 

Surely I would have time to write a blog post at the airport, right?  I forgot.  And when I groggily woke up to change planes in Iceland, we had no time as our connecting flight was already boarding when we got to the gate.   Now we're in Frankfurt at our hotel, and the sun is shining.   It's a beautiful day.  My husband is snoring.   I think I'm going to join him.

Two Children and A Dog:  The children weren't overly upset that we were leaving them for a week, which I think can only be a good thing.   They were a bit worried when it was finally time to go, but they'll be with Nana and Papa all week so they know they'll be fine.   The dog, on the other hand, got wind of the packing and became agitated.  When Nana was packing the bags in the car, the dog got into the back seat and wouldn't get out.   She, too, will have a fine week while we're away.   Grandparents are wonderful things.  We are grateful to them for giving us this opportunity to go to the conference.  

Not Packed

My daughter hopefully had a good birthday today.  She got some presents that she was very happy about, and we had her requested dinner: Boston Market.   She spent most of the day playing with her new ice cream truck (for the American Girl-sized dolls) and watching TV. 

That's right, she watched television all day.   She's been watching the Airbender series with audio descriptions for visually impaired people.   She said as she went to sleep to night that she understands now how her brother feels when he's watched a lot of screens in a day. 

I still haven't packed.  We leave for Germany tomorrow.   I suppose I should start getting ready sometime soon.  Fortunately, our flight isn't until tomorrow evening. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son is having some extreme anger problems.  When he gets mad, he's furious.   Then he loses privileges, and he gets more angry.   He has to calm down and be polite and apologize before we even consider letting him have screens or whatever else back.   It's hard for him but he has got to get his anger under control. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter is worried she's fat.   She has gained some weight, but she's also growing up quite a bit.  I'm not sure if she's really overweight or not, but eating less sweets would still be a good thing to do. 

Birthday Dinner Request

My daughter will be eleven in the morning.  And so will my son.   We're leaving on Saturday to go to Germany, and my in-laws are going to stay at our house and manage the brood.   

We have been trying to get prepared for everything and caught up on things, and working ahead and we're sort of caught up and kind of ahead and I hope we can get the rest done in time. 

So, for my daughter's birthday tomorrow, what does she want?  Dinner from Boston Market!  And some ice cream truck thing for the American Girl sized dolls.   The dinner will be inexpensive, the ice cream truck won't be 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  I can't believe my little tiny girl is not so little and tiny anymore.  I think she might even be taller than her brother.  We'll get her yearly measurements on the wall in the bedroom closet tomorrow and find out. 

The Big Boy Update:  For a whole month my son and daughter will be eleven together.  He was upset about it a few years ago.  I wonder what he'll think about it this year?

Slept Right Through It

Pretend like it's last night.  Pretend also that I didn't fall asleep at eight o'clock and slept pretty much until morning.   Actually, you don't have to pretend that second bit because it happened.   But I did forget to write a post.  

Forgotten Again

There is a blog post I want to write.  I've been wanting to write it for a while now.  The problem is, I remember during the day and think, "oh, of course, how could I have forgotten again? I'll remember tonight."   And, of course it's tonight again, and I have forgotten yet again. 

Tomorrow I shall try to remember to write it down. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter is coming home tomorrow.  I don't know why, but I have missed her quite a lot these past two days.  Maybe it's because she told me about how sad her last five years have been and how anxious she was about the trip because she didn't think there would be much VI support there.   I really hope she had an okay time.

The Big Boy Update:  My son didn't want to go see the big train table my mother-in-law won yesterday that now fills the entire living room at the house over at the new property.   But our architect and his son wanted to see it!  The four of us spent a good bit of time figuring out how the two engines moved around the big tracks.   I'm not a train person, but this set my mother-in-law won is truly amazingly done. 

One of Those Dreams

I lay down this afternoon for "a few minutes" and I think I fell asleep before a single minute had passed.   I then proceeded to have the most surreal dream about, well, I'm not sure what it was about, but it was important or I was important or what had or was about to happen was important.   

As you can tell, I remember a lot about this dream.   I don't know what the dream was about, but I do know that when I woke up it was eight o'clock and I was startled and worried and confused and I didn't even know who I was.   

Sometimes dreams are intense.   I wish I remembered some of the dream, though.

The Big Boy Update:  My son is home with us today and we had a nice time.   He was calm and there were no conflicts.   Sometimes I think about how much simpler things would be with only one child.   But then I can't imagine having only one child.  

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter headed off happily this morning to camp with her classmates.  If she was nervous, I would have never known.

Anxious About Camp

My daughter goes to camp with her fellow fifth graders tomorrow.  It's at a 4H camp facility just a few hours away that is heavily used by schools around here for bonding activities and lessons working together.  My son's school goes there for multiple years, starting in third grade.  My daughter is going for the first time this year—and she's worried. 

She's worried for two reasons.  The first is very valid and that is that there will be no VI teacher or assistant present for any of the time.  Her teacher this year admits she is not very experienced with VI children.   They will be in the woods.  There are roots and branches and it could be quite dangerous for my daughter and her VI friend in their class. 

The second reason is overnight-related.  My daughter finds comfort in wearing a pull-up to sleep.  Does she need it?  Not really, but she sleeps very soundly and she has wet the bed and after lots of investigation by doctors from pediatric urology to specialists beyond and then on to infectious disease because when they can't figure it out, you take that next step.   And everything was coming back negative.   It wasn't until we got her in with a urological therapist that we found out it was behavioral.  

My daughter hadn't learned some things correctly, which is interesting, but she wasn't emptying her bladder all the way.   She also wasn't going when she needed to go.   Some changes in behavior and it all went away.   But from ,time to time my daughter will still wet the bed because she forgets to go before getting in bed.   And she hates that.   Wearing a pull-up makes her feel safe, and with all that's going on in her life, safe is a good thing to have. 

So camp...how do you keep people from knowing about the pull-up?   My daughter can't even tell when people are looking at her so she can't be sneaky.   We have a plan, though for her to put the pull-up on while she's in the sleeping bag and take it off in the morning.  She has zip-close bags to put the pull-up in if it's wet and an opaque bag to put the closed, clear bag in.   She can keep it all hidden and yet still feel safe.   She went from not wanting to go at all to being ready to go in the morning. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son got so angry at me today.   He was extremely nasty to me when the one thing I was doing was what he asked me to have him do when I picked him up on Friday from school.   I told him he had to write a two-page apology.  And he did.  It was well-thought-out and sincere.   He knows what he's doing, he just can't control his anger. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter took me down a long and winding path of discussion tonight.   I will spare you the details and give you the summary.   She thinks sight is a gift and it is just a gift she wasn't given.  She went through stages starting when she was four and lost her vision.  Each phase was two years.  She was confused, then sad, then mad, and now accepting.   The time before she lost her sight she was happy.   Afterward, it has all been sad.  Her life is a series of sadnesses.   Some days she is very thoughtful on how the blindness has affected her. 

Overly Helpful

I have a new printer that had a very successful Kickstarter.   It's an impressive printer and the people who have had them really love them to the point of reserving a second one before they're even on sale for general purchase.  

They've done a lot of things right, with one of those things being support.  The logs from the printer can be pulled by the manufacturer—similar to how Tesla cars can have logs pulled to help with servicing the cars.   In this case, I had an error the printer was giving and a fan that was making a dying sound.  I was able to easily create a help ticket from the phone app based off the error the printer was giving about the LIDAR. 

I mentioned in the ticket that a fan was making a loud noise as well.   They got back to me quickly and we figured out the situation that was causing the error and thankfully it was a software issue and not the hardware so my printer was working correctly (until they got a patch added).   The loud fan was still not resolved. 

It was a fan and it was loud sometimes, but not always.   They were so diligent about finding out more about this fan and when I couldn't get it to reproduce regularly, they were just going to send me the fan for a potential replacement.   They were so on top of the service.   I felt badly that I wasn't getting back to them fast enough with my problem!

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Today the peach cobbler was made by my daughter and husband.  I love cobbler.  But for some reason, my daughter didn't want any after making it.   I had seconds. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son did a lot of work on his Mystery History project today.   He didn't want to stop watching screens, but he knew he had to work.  And he worked well for several hours in the craft room with some white noise playing in the next room to help him focus.  Tomorrow, he has a lot more work to do to be ready for Monday at school.   This is work he is electing to do, not work that has been assigned by his teachers.   He wants his project to be outstanding. 

Fits and Spurts

Social media is stagnant a lot of the time.  You have people who follow or subscribe to you who may or may not watch your latest videos, then you have people who see one or two of your videos from time to time but don't want to commit to seeing your videos regularly.   Within this regular and incidental audience, your subscribership stays about stagnant.   You get a few more and lose a few but things largely stay the same. 

Then, every so often, something will happen and a video will do well. Maybe you know why, but commonly you have no idea why ,it happens, but when it does, suddenly you get a lot more people interested in what you're doing. 

Two days ago we put up a rather hastily made video on 3D printing on fabric.  And it went crazy on TikTok.  Within twenty-four hours it was over three million views and people were messaging other content creators about "this new thing where you can print on fabric."   

It's not new, people just haven't seen it who are relatively new to 3D printing. It's been around since 2018 at least.  But people got excited about it.  I said the magic word, "cosplay" which always tends to get views, so that was a factor as well.

We gained about thirty thousand new followers from the video we put out two days ago.  Today, we're working on a follow-up video to address some of the over two thousand comments on the video that now has over 3.5 million views.  

I don't know how people deal with millions of views all the time.   I'm really glad people were interested in the fabric printing though, it's definitely exciting.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter and husband walked the dog tonight after ten o'clock.  I'm not sure why they decided to walk her, but the dog loved it.

The Big Boy Update:  My son has a lot of work to do this weekend on his Mystery History project.  He asked me on the way home from school to help him schedule his time, set alarms, remind him to take some Adderall as a short-acting for the work he needs to do each day—and to make sure he gets it done.   He said he knew he'd get involved with screens and he wants help to make sure he gets the time he needs to work on his project.  

Printing On Fabric

I met someone at the recent festival that specialized in printing on fabric.  I talked to him about it a lot and it wasn’t that hard. So I came home, got some fabric and printed on it. He said videos showing this go crazy in views.  

And he was right!  I put a quick video together, not even that great a video and TikTok has gone crazy with over three million views in twenty-four hours.  Other content creators I’m friends with are now making videos about it as well, which is great.  I hope more people try it because it's perfect for cosplay. 

The Big Boy Update: I got Risk, the board game, and my son has been reading the instructions and wanting to play.  Tonight he and his father played for a good long while.  My son and I are playing Stratego.  He really loves board games, especially strategy games where you conquer things. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles: my daughter wanted to “snuggle” as she calls it, on the bed, but also, could I read more of Coraline to her?  She and I had a nice little time together before she wandered off to do her own things.  

Pachinko

When I was young, my father found a Pachinko machine at a yard sale or flea market.  It worked, but there were almost no balls with it.   To have it work properly, you needed the exact size metal balls or they would get caught.  He found a place to order them from (how did people find out these things prior to the World Wide Web?) and then we had a working machine. 

I'm not sure what the goal was overall because we just played again and again and there was no real win or lose.   It was fun though.   Years later I went to Japan and went into a Pachinko parlor.  I got some tokens or put in some Yen and tried to find a machine that wasn't that expensive, something that was futile because there wasn't a thing I could understand on any of the machines. 

I must have picked poorly though because instead of having an opportunity to understand how the machine worked, my money was gone only a few balls later.   Thus ended my experience with Japanese Pachinko machines. 

The Children and Dinner time: We used to have to eat very early for the children.   These days they can wait until later for dinner or they can eat early.   I remember the days when we had to eat dinner by 5:00 because the children would be in bed two hours later.  

Ladies Can Talk

I was a guest tonight on a podcast with a very nice lady I met who goes by the name of SithLordBrit.   She is not a Sith Lord from Star Wars in an evil or bad way, she is a good sith lord, who uses the light and dark sides of the Force in balance.   In theory of course, this is all from a movie and is fiction.  But it is good fun.   After all, I am someone who tells stories about spools of plastic being printed through little robots who print the plastic into various shapes. 

But we're tired now. It was a successful stream. I think there were a lot more people than usually come to her streams.  There was a gentleman whom I met at ERRF who has known of me since we started FIlament Stories.  He likes us and what we do with the vidoes and he seems to have a soft spot for me because I also work with one of his close friends on his model designs.   I can't explain it I suppose without making it seem inappropriate, which is is not.  

 

It is odd though that there are people who are well known in the community come to a show where I am and want to hear what I have to say.  I know I've said these kinds of things before.  I suppose it isn't any different than what anyone else has ever experienced.   It's the imposter syndrome.  The "This can't be me" feeling.  And I know I keep talking about it, but it's just oddly disconcerting.   You're a place and suddenly people you don't know are happy to see you.   That kind of odd.   It's nice that people are happy to see you, but was that what you expected?  Or wanted? 

And then you remember, "ah yes, I signed up for this and any other strangeness that might happen when I started putting my face, voice, and personality on the Internet."  So there you have it.  People so far have been very friendly and I haven't had any negativity to speak of, but that follows with how I present things for the most part.  I'm not contentious and I try to be as positive and inclusive whenever I can. 

A strange thing happened tonight.  A name I recognized was in the chat.  This was way off-topic from this person being in this particular stream on a platform other than the one I met him on.   He tried to get in contact with me several times on TikTok, which is difficult if you aren't also following the person back: they aren't allowed to send you a private message.  I friended him, one of the first accounts after starting Filament Stories.  He was going through gender reassignment surgery and had had multiple jaw surgeries. He had rather extensive scans of his skull and wanted to know if I could 3D print his skull.   I told him if he could get me printable files I'd be glad to. 

Since then, his videos pop up in my feed from time to time.  He has never done anything related to 3D printing, so when he was in the stream tonight I called out his name and told him I was still up for printing his skull if he could get it in a printable format.   And he remembered me and said he hadn't forgotten, but it had been challenging to get the scans formatted correctly.   What a wild thing to have to happen in a stream.  I do hope he gets me something I can print.  It would be really interesting to print someone's actual skull shape.  

The Children Wrastling:  My children are getting more and more physical lately.  They both like being rough with the each other some of the time.  The rest of the time only one wants to be bounced on or say on or whatever and things end in angry words.   But at least my daughter wants to play rough some of the time, which is better than her zero interest last year.