5 Thoughts for December 13, 2015

1. 3D Printing: I got my shipment from Shapeways, and everything came out spectacular...well, except one tiny issue over dimensional stability. I got too cute and tried a very small (i.e. under 1 mm) detail on two pieces that were meant to fit within each other, but the heat apparently deformed one piece, such that it would not allow for the other piece to slide in. I just need to take a file and take a little off the other piece, and it should fit. I'll make a separate post on it.
2. Fallout Shelter: The last time I wrote about this subject, I had trashed my last vault after hitting the 200-occupant limit; of course a week earlier I had set up a new vault, initially just as a means to demonstrate to some folks on how to start the game. I've been keeping this current vault well below the 200-occupant limit while strengthening it to the max. Today, Bethesda Softworks released a major update which introduces pets, a Christmas theme, and some new tools and objectives for people who've already hit the 200-occupant ceiling and are well-experienced in vault building. I think I mentioned this before, but I'm certain that I know why they have a 200-occupant limit: The higher the number of occupants, the more taxing it is for your mobile device; if you think about it, 200 occupants with a weapon, clothing, levels of experience and levels of SPECIAL attributes, rads and stimpak levels, and now pets, means that your device is keeping tabs on 2800+ variables, simultaneously, not including various vault and room level variables.
3. Conservative Bias: Perhaps you hadn't noticed, that when there is a mass-shooting event, there are calls by conservatives to not publish the images and names of the perpetrators, so as to not grant these people the infamy they were searching for. They are terrorists, by the very definition of the word. However when a Muslim is involved in a mass-shooting event, these same conservatives rush to get out the names and photos of these perps. Are they not one and the same?
4. Provincial fashion: I passed a mixed-use townhome being used as a commercial space, last night. They appeared to be software developers, all tapping away around a conference table. What struck me about the group, was their clothing. Of the 8 seated, 7 were all wearing flannel shirts or wool sweaters, and a beanie hat. Indoors and wearing beanies...it must be Portland.
5. Seattle Seahawks: With a blowout win at the Baltimore Ravens it's clear now, the Seahawks are surging on all sides of the ball. Before Thomas Rawls sprained his ankle and left in the 1st quarter, he was gashing the Ravens for over 7 yards a rush, and looked good. With Rawls out, Russell Wilson was explosive in the air and the offensive line performed fabulously, allowing Wilson to stand in the pocket for nearly 5 seconds, to throw a touchdown to Tyler Lockett. The clear difference on the offensive side has been the replacement of Drew Nowak at center, with Patrick Lewis. With Patrick Lewis at center, the Seahawks have scored 30+ points on offense in three of five games. In the last four games, they've been lights out on 3rd down efficiency at 61.5%, blowing away the entire NFL by 12 percentage points. OC Darrell Bevell has definitely earned job security, with the offense going red-hot, hotter than it has ever been, under Pete Carroll.