I built this. At the Goodwill Computer Museum where I volunteer twice a week, I’m in charge of learning and perfecting our tabletop CNC router. We’ve been having trouble holding stuff in place while still allowing clearance for the cutter arm to come over the board. Solution? Vacuum table! I drew up the designs on …
Author Archives: Stephen
FormSpring: What would you call the best night of your life (so far)?
November 1st, 2008. I woke up at about 4 in the morning and joined my friends in line at “RaiderVille,” camping out for the TTU vs. UT game. We waited the whole day in line with thousands of other students, got into the stadium around 4pm, then watched the epic match where we won right …
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Step Into “The Expanse”
About seven years ago I started another major fan fiction series, unrelated (at least in my mind) to Star Trek. This one has gone through a lot of stages, starting with fantasies inspired by the game “Stargunner” combined with my own delusions of grandeur and ideas for epic sci-fi story arcs. This slightly more mature …
FormSpring: Why CaptainValor?????
Now that’s actually a semi-interesting story. Back about 10 years ago I started a Star Trek fan fiction called “Star Trek: The Elite,” and in this story the main character was Captain Smith. His ship was the USS Valor. Now, when it came time for me to pick a better handle than my first Internet …
Portals to Knowledge
Flickr Album. A photo diary of all the classrooms I could access where I had courses over my time at Texas Tech University.
My Life in Red and Black
This article ran as on Op-Ed in The Daily Toreador on May 5, 2010 I came to Texas Tech in the fall of 2006. Four years, 89 papers, 96 tests, hundreds of quizzes, dozens of professors, thousands of study hours, thousands of reading pages, two sleepless nights, three laptop batteries, dozens of parties, thousands of …
FormSpring: What inspires you to sign a song?
Usually getting it so stuck in my head that I can’t get it out. Making it into a video ensures that I never get it stuck in my head again. Ask me anything
Data Control is the 21st-Century Nuclear Arms Race
(This post also ran as an Op-Ed in the Daily Toreador.) Imagine a world without the Internet. Scary, right? Even though it was a mere 30 years ago that we lived in a world virtually devoid of large-scale computer networks, it is almost impossible to imagine living a comfortable modern life without the Internet. Networked …
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FormSpring: When did you feel the most alive?
Summer of last year (2009) I spent about an hour standing on the roof of a 7-story building in Lubbock as a massive thunderstorm engulfed the city. There was lightning all around and I played a mix of Nightwish and Explosions in the Sky on my iPod. When the pouring rain finally came I sprinted …
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Apple’s Drunken FAIL of the Year
(This post also ran as an Op-Ed in the Daily Toreador on April 21st, 2010) Apple got a chink in its brushed aluminum armor this week. First, a brief summary of the story as it stands (according to Gizmodo.com). On March 18th, Apple software designer Gray Powell decided to have some drinks at a local …