Making toys

Edit: Sooo... anyone with a basic electronics knowledge and about 30 seconds of actually studying the circuit below would be able to tell why it's a bad idea. For those of you not so inclined, connecting the negative side of the battery to the positive side with only a resistor in between is a recipe for two things - a lot of heat and a dead battery. That's what you get for blindly trusting circuit diagrams you find on the internet. So, if you want to build this circuit, don't do it this way.

Making toys, or specifically game pieces is pretty much my entire business now. I love it. I get to come up with cool designs for existing (or sometimes prototype) games and then create them from raw materials using a laser. Not many people get to sit around at their job and think "how can I make Settlers of Catan even more fun?" That's what I do, and it's awesome. And since I spend so much of my time thinking about making and modifying games, it's only natural that my attention occasionally turns to The Child's™ toys as well. Especially the annoying ones. 

Last year, The Child™ got a pair of monster trucks. They're pretty cool. At about 8" long and 5" high, they also have a flywheel and gearing so when you push them they'll keep the wheels going and actually climb over small obstacles. But, they are sadly, super annoying. They have giant buttons right on top that are nearly impossible not to press when you pick them up, and if God forbid you do hit them, you're treated to flashing red headlights and 30 seconds of loud engine noises. The noises had to go. But that was really no big deal. 3 screws on the bottom and a quick snip with some wire cutters and no more speaker. Now you press the button and there's no sound, just flashing red LED headlights. 

I tried to let it go. I really did "It's just a kid's toy" I would tell myself. "It can have red headlights…"

No. So during The Child's™ nap today I grabbed one, took it down to my office and started to experiment. I had initially hoped it would just be a matter of drilling a couple new holes in back, and hooking up some white LEDs parallel to the red ones. Unfortunately, the circuit driving the red LEDs wasn't providing enough voltage to light up the white LEDs. Drat. Oh hey, there's a second unused circuit labeled L2. Will that…? No. But wait a minute here… I wonder what happens if I hook the white LEDs up to the speaker circuit? Jackpot. Drill some holes, tiny bit of soldering, a bit of dremeling so the red LEDs are flush, lots of superglue and we're in business. I put it all back together and showed The Child™ after he woke up. He was thrilled and spent the entire time until dinner flashing the walls in his room, or the couch, or the dog. I noticed though that the LEDs were only about half as bright as they should be. Sometimes when it would get to a really loud part of the sound file, they would get to maybe 2/3 brightness, but that just won't do. On top of that, I can tell that it's draining the batteries relatively quickly. Since these things run off 3 of some obscure button cell, I wasn't really looking forward to trying to replace those batteries any time soon.

So in light of that, and the fact that he literally begged me to "fix the other one" I started thinking about the problem a bit deeper. And then I remembered by box full of random electronic components and got to thinking I could probably build something that would fit in there, tie in to the existing buttons, and use a battery I wouldn't have to travel to China to find. So I start digging. Grab bag of capacitors. Box of resistors. Bag of transistors. Variable pots. LCD displays. Input jacks. Power jacks. Voltage controller chips from an old USB hub. Wait, what's this? Oh yeah, a tube full of brand new 555 timer chips. Those are handy. The nice thing about 555s is they can be run in either monostable mode or astable mode. In monostable mode, you activate it and when it times out it shuts itself off. In astable mode, the output of the chip constantly oscillates between high and low output. If you attach an LED from the output to ground, it flashes on and off. If you attach another LED from the output to the positive rail, the lights flash back and forth like a police car. Obviously this is way cooler, and only 2 more solder connections, and clearly the route we want to take. Now the cool thing is if you take 1 chip wired up each way, you can use the monostable chip to turn on the astable chip for a certain period of time, and then shut of. Just like all the cool kids toys. So after some (ok, a lot) of tinkering, I came up with the design below. There are probably much better and easier ways to do this, but I'm no electrical engineer and I don't know them.

Most designs I've found online say to use a .01uf capacitor between pin 5 and ground on both designs, but I didn't have any. These seem to work. The chip on the left is the monostable chip. The 1000uf capacitor will keep the circuit on for 9-10 seconds and then shut off. It's one I had left over from when I replaced all the caps in our TV and I was hesitant to use it, but anything less than 10 seconds seems too short and I don't really want to go bigger. I tried a 1500uf cap and the circuit stayed on for about 16 seconds. Upping the resistance on the 10k resistor to about 220k allowed me to use a 47uf capacitor, but it seemed to kill the battery almost immediately.

In the video I'm pushing down on the 220uf capacitor because it has really short leads and doesn't stick in the breadboard. And apparently Blogger runs uploaded videos through the "recorded with a potato" compression, so sorry about the bad quality. It's totally 100% Blogger's fault. The original looks ok.

So what's left is to create a board for it all, figure out the right resistors to use for the lower voltage red LEDs, tie the trigger into the existing circuit board, mount a 9v battery holder inside the truck, and then figure out how to make a police siren circuit. 

Wait, scratch that last part.

Racism

A hot topic, for sure. I won't pretend to have any answers, but I just wanted to share my observation and maybe ask some questions of my own.

It is not terribly often that I have witnessed, first hand, racism. It's even more rare that I have been the person discriminated against. Yesterday the whole family spent the whole morning in Minneapolis at the only eye clinic that could fit Lori in right away. Robbie had accidentally scratched her eye and she was in so much pain that she was completely unable to function or even open her eyes for more than a couple seconds. In this particular clinic, there were two waiting rooms. The first was for people who had checked in or were filling out paperwork. The second was for people who had been into an examination room and been seen initially by someone who took down basic information about the problem and in Lori's case, gave her some pain-relieving eye drops to help her wait until the doctor was ready.

So we are in the second waiting room, which is pretty full when we arrive. A man got up and moved to another seat just so that we would all be able to sit together. My main focus was on keeping Robbie distracted so Lori can try to stay still and rest. But, as is often the case, our little ham had the attention of almost everybody in the room. So I was having him practice greeting people, be polite with please and thank you, and to be respectful of other people's space. As a natural consequence of this, I was paying very close attention to the other people in the room. Watching their words and body language to make sure that Robbie wasn't bothering them. There were a couple construction workers, a white woman and her teenage daughter, a white couple in their late 30s- early 40s with what appeared to be a set of their parents, a young black girl, an older white couple and several groups of Muslim women.

So I'm watching the people. The white woman with her daughter kept trying to wave to Robbie, but he would be shy and hide behind my leg. The two Muslim women closest to us were also smiling at him, but not terribly interested. The middle aged couple with their parents were very engaged and were good about helping Robbie practice his manners when I sent him across the room to throw away a granola bar wrapper. When he did that, I noticed that an older Muslim woman on the far side of the room saw him coming and put her head scarf up over her mouth. While he was over there, the older white couple came in and sat down 3 or 4 seats away from her. I watched as she glanced over and kept her hand at her mouth. I'm the kind of person who really tends to give people the benefit of the doubt. I thought that maybe she was just concerned about germs. Little kids are often cesspools of disease, and you never know what kind of bug someone else is carrying around. So I let it go. But when the older white couple that was sitting near her got up and left, the look of contempt on her face as she took her hand away from her mouth was unmistakable. Shortly after, another Muslim woman came and sat near her, an act which she did not respond to. But when I got up to take Robbie outside to look at the fountain outside, again her hand clamped over her mouth.

I'm not mad at her for treating me, my kid and that other couple like smelly barnyard animals. I'm just sad. Sad that my kid is growing up in a world where things like this still happen. Sad that I'm going to need to explain to him when he's older that some people hate other people for looking or believing differently. Sad that instead of allowing my son to brighten her day, she chose contempt at being in the same room.

I've seen it from all kinds of people in my life. I've seen white people using racial slurs against blacks, Asians and Middle-Easterners. I've witnessed mistrust directed at my Iranian classmate and my Egyptian friend. I've witnessed a group of young black men shouting profanities at white people who dared to have business in their neighborhood. I've seen people roll their eyes as I walked past them with Hispanic friends. I've witnessed many different people of different nationalities saying horrible things about Jews. I've even been accused of disliking someone because of the color of their skin (when in truth, I really didn't want to be around ANYONE that day). Like I said, I don't have any answers. Just a deep sadness in my heart that this is a problem we still deal with on an ongoing basis. I don't know how to cure our world of this plague. I'm sad that I have to teach my son that racism is an ongoing part of our culture instead of a sad chapter of our history. But for my part, I will also teach him to look at each person as a person, not a color or religion. That there are beautiful people and there are truly ugly people. To appreciate kindness, empathy and justice and to pray for the sadness, anger and brokenness of our world. To stick up for the downtrodden, to believe in liberty and justice, to help those in need and to stand up to those who would take from someone else to serve their own desires. I'll teach him that he alone is responsible for every word, action and feeling he has. That it's ok to be angry at injustice, but not because someone hurt his feelings. To be passionate about standing up for truth. To be wise when deciding who to allow himself to be influenced by. To hold everything to the moral standard of God, who ate with tax collectors and prostitutes, but also drove out the money changers and rebuked the Pharisees. Those are the things I want to teach my kid, not that he's unclean for breathing the same air as someone else.

A few days ago on May 20, a young man died. This isn't unusual. Thousands of young men die every day. A large number die from cancer and other terminal diseases. But this particular young man has gained a lot of national attention due in part to his condition - osteosarcoma, but mainly due to his attitude towards life and death. Zach Sobiech was diagnosed with his cancer as a teenager. After failed treatment after failed treatment, he decided he wanted to live the rest of his life, however long that may be, with all the verve possible. He took to writing songs to his friends and family as his own way of saying goodbye. He was never likely to be a big star, but his songs are catchy and fairly well written.

A documentary was produced about him and released on YouTube just a couple weeks before his death, and has been making the rounds on social media for the past couple days. The vast majority of comments are supportive - offering condolences and prayers to his family, saying they love his music, asking who's been cutting onions, etc. But as with anything online that goes viral and has a comments section, there are detractors as well. Most of these comments can be shrugged off as coming from insensitive jerks who don't seem to realize that what they view on the internet is often a huge part of someone else's real life. There's a detachment from reality that some people have when they sit at a keyboard or watch something on the screen of their phone. A feeling of everything existing for their entertainment. That's sad, but a topic for another rant.

The one comment (now deleted) that really got to me was in response to another, more positive comment. Someone had said something about how brave Zach was. So this other person decided that was a perfect opportunity to go into a long, multi-post rant about his perception of bravery. The part that really caught my attention said "you don't have to be brave to die from a disease, you just have to die."

My initial thought was anger at the disrespect shown for a family who just lost their son, and disgust at the kind of human slime that would insult a dead kid who isn't even buried yet, but as I thought about the comment, I had to agree. It takes no bravery at all to die from something you can't control.

But Zach was brave. I've known quite a few people who have died from terminal illnesses. Some become bitter and angry at their situation. Some go on pretending nothing has changed. Some resolutely accept their fate and eventually just fade away. But some, a very small some, take those words from the doctors, the words that tell them they only have weeks or months to live, and turn them around to make the most of the time they have left. These people are brave. Not for staring down the corridor of death at their own mortality, but for determining that when they go, the world will be a better place because they lived. They love, they advocate, they raise awareness. They create. Through those actions, they inspire. They cause people to stop for a moment, and consider the value of their own life. They force the question: if I died tomorrow, would the world be better because I had lived?

There are two kinds of self improvement. The first is the kind you find shelves upon shelves of books about. How to lose weight, how to be more organized, how to be a better manager, how to be better at being you. This kind of self improvement, while there's nothing inherently wrong with it, is selfish. You want to improve because it benefits you in some way. The second kind of self improvement is the kind people like Zach inspire. The kind that says I don't want to be a better person because it will make my life better. I want to be a better person because it will make the lives of other people better. I want to use my energy to make this world a better place for everyone else. So no, Zach was not brave because he got cancer and died from it. Zach was brave because he dared to live his life in a way that made the whole world sit up and take notice. He lived what little was left of his life making sure that those around him were learning, loving, and growing. That is bravery.

Why gun control advocates scare me

I should clarify. SOME gun control advocates scare the willies out of me. There are many who simply do not understand much about guns, or realize just how many of their friends and neighbors are safe and responsible gun owners. Their problem is mainly a lack of understanding. They're also the kind of people who actually start to like guns (or at least think they're not so bad) if someone takes them out to the range and shows them how to safely use one. Because it's fun to shoot.

Then there are people like Des Moines Register columnist Donald Kaul, who in one breath in a recent editorial decry the lack of reasonable debate on important issues, and in the next advocate for extreme violence against those who disagree with them. This is sadly not an uncommon characteristic among liberals. And to be fair, there are many conservatives that fall prey as well. You can find the editorial here, but I have reprinted it below with my comments interspersed.

Kaul: Nation needs a new agenda on guns

This time, the debate has to be about more than not offending the NRA's sensibilities.

I’m glad I retired five months ago.

Think of it: I was spared writing about the presidential election, an event so vacuous it made reality TV seem interesting. If there was any serious discussion of an important national issue — global warming, obesity, transportation policy, the morality of drone attacks on civilian populations, the environmental consequences of fracking, existential implications of the designated hitter — I missed it.

We agree here. The presidential race was particularly vacuous this go around. The democrats stuck to their status quo, and the republicans scrambled to find someone they thought could beat it. As I've said before, it's just our dumb luck that the worst president in history won re-election because the other party failed to nominate a candidate worth voting for. We seem to disagree on what should be considered important national issues. There are a few dozen issues higher up on my list than most of those he mentioned.

Instead, we got a campaign of misrepresentations, exaggerations and outright lies. The Republicans were by far the worst offenders, but President Barack Obama didn’t cover himself in glory either.

Glad to see he's not just outright kissing Obama's boots, but I'd say both major parties were pretty much equally terrible. I didn't vote for either of those clowns, and for once, my conscience is clear about my vote.

I was happy with the result of the presidential election, but I didn’t regret not covering it. And I was entirely content to go on not writing about things. (If I could make a living at that, life would be perfect.)

Oh, but you can! It's called getting a different job. I tried it once when I could no longer stand doing what I was doing. So far it's working out great.

But then Newtown happened. A misanthropic young man who never seemed particularly violent killed his mother then broke into an elementary school and massacred little kids, teachers and the principal.

Terrible tragedy

And the very air changed. The holiday season suddenly turned somber. You looked at the small children around you differently, as fragile, precious gifts to be cherished and, above all, protected.
Obama struck that note in his moving speech at the memorial service. Speaking for us all, he said: “We can’t tolerate this anymore. These tragedies must end. And to end them, we must change.”
Nice words, but somehow not enough. Not nearly enough.

Nice words, but not particularly moving either. 

That’s when I figured I should write a column about it. During my 50-year career, every time some demented soul would take a semiautomatic gun and clean out a post office, a school or a picnic, I’d get up on my soap box and let loose with a withering diatribe about guns, the National Rifle Association and weak-kneed politicians. Did it about 75 times, give or take.

... I just don't have much response to this, other than to say that blaming a gun for creating a lunatic is about equivalent to blaming a scalpel for creating a surgeon. Both are tools that save lives when used properly by people with training, or do great damage when used by someone with ill intent.

And in every case the main effect was a spike in gun sales.

I doubt your little editorials had any effect on gun sales. I think most of those people went out and bought guns because they a) feared people like you deciding they should not be allowed to buy tools to protect themselves (aka, get it while the getting's good) or b) didn't have a means to protect themselves and woke up to the reality that they are responsible for their own safety. No one else is going to protect them. The job of the police is to investigate crime after it has happened. They have absolutely no duty to protect you as an individual. At least, that's what the Supreme Court has ruled a couple times.

Still, I thought I’d give it one more shot ... er, chance.

Obama’s speech was fine as far as it went, but it didn’t go very far. Neither have any of the other responses I’ve heard.

I've heard some pretty outrageous suggestions, starting in 3... 2.. 1...

California Sen. Dianne Feinstein said she was going to introduce a bill to ban the sale and importation of assault weapons. Great, but the bill wouldn’t apply to weapons already out there, and in defining illegal weapons, it listed more than 900 exceptions.

Nine hundred!

Feinstein's original 1994 ban by all accounts had no measurable impact on crime. Namely because the weapons it banned were used in less than 2% of all firearm related homicides. Combine that with the knowledge that firearm crime only accounts for a portion of all violent crime, and it's easy to see why it was worthless. The studies she claims on her website only show increases because they redefined the terms of what qualifies as an "assault weapon". Her new bill is much more restrictive, and those 900 exceptions seem to be its only saving grace. It calls for the registration of all semi-automatic guns as class II NFA items. A process which requires extensive background checks (some 36 pages of paperwork, including mug sho... er, photos and fingerprints), a $200 tax per firearm and registering the serial number in a national database. The NFA system is already in place, and currently for the relatively insignificant number of applications it processes, it takes anywhere between 3 months to over a year to get approval. To process the hundreds of millions of firearms already legally owned as NFA items would necessitate the extreme expansion of the FBI and BATFE just to hire enough people to sift through the paperwork. Add in the extra manpower needed by local and state law enforcement due to the need for their signature on every single application, and you're looking at massive tax increases across the board. Combine that with the loss in revenue and jobs by gun manufacturers laying off large parts of their workforce, and on an economic scale alone, this bill is worthless. 

Feinstein's bill (according to her website) 

Bans the sale, transfer, importation, or manufacturing of:

• 120 specifically-named firearms;
• Certain other semiautomatic rifles, handguns, shotguns that can accept a detachable magazine and have one or more military characteristics; and
• Semiautomatic rifles and handguns with a fixed magazine that can accept more than 10 rounds.

The last bullet point there basically means "any semiautomatic rifle or handgun" as most have magazines manufactured either by the maker or 3rd party that exceed the 10 round limit. The second bullet point includes things like hand guards, pistol grips, and likely rails for mounting those ever dangerous flashlights and laser sights. Things that are do not effect the function of the gun in any way.

Strengthens the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban and various state bans by:

• Moving from a 2-characteristic test to a 1-characteristic test;
• Eliminating the easy-to-remove bayonet mounts and flash suppressors from the characteristics test; and
• Banning firearms with “thumbhole stocks” and “bullet buttons” to address attempts to “work around” prior bans.

We knew she was going to try to close the work-around loopholes this time around. Again, thumbhole stocks have no effect on the function of the firearm. Bullet buttons were a workaround for the previous ban that said you needed to have a tool to remove the magazine from a gun. I have yet to hear of a mass bayoneting happening since the Civil War or so. 

Bans large-capacity ammunition feeding devices capable of accepting more than 10 rounds. 

A 10 round limit is a completely arbitrary number. It has no basis in any statistical analysis. It's just a number someone made up. Because 12 rounds is scary.

Protects legitimate hunters and the rights of existing gun owners by:

• Grandfathering weapons legally possessed on the date of enactment;
• Exempting over 900 specifically-named weapons used for hunting or sporting purposes; and
• Exempting antique, manually-operated, and permanently disabled weapons.

Grandfathering, but preventing the transfer of. Meaning, because my wife's .22 semi-automatic rifle can accept a 25 round magazine, she won't be able to give it to any of our children or grandchildren in her old age. Meaning this bill is a plan to effectively give a way for the government to legally take away your guns. You just have to die first. That could never be abused, right?

Requires that grandfathered weapons be registered under the National Firearms Act, to include:

• Background check of owner and any transferee;
• Type and serial number of the firearm;
• Positive identification, including photograph and fingerprint;
• Certification from local law enforcement of identity and that possession would not violate State or local law; and
• Dedicated funding for ATF to implement registration.

I've already covered this part, so back to Mr. Kaul

The thing missing from the debate so far is anger — anger that we live in a society where something like the Sandy Hook Elementary massacre can happen and our main concern is not offending the NRA’s sensibilities.

Oh no, I'm angry. Believe me, I'm outraged that things like this happen. But banning one tool out of a whole garden shed full of tools is not going to make a difference. The NRA is not just some organization that magically gets its funding and power from nowhere. Millions upon millions of gun owners belong to the NRA and similar organizations because they stand up and speak for them. I know it's hard to believe, Mr. Kaul, but the stance of the NRA comes from its members, not a few people at the top dictating down. People who do not believe in the NRA's mission don't support it. People who do believe in what they do, join. It's that simple. 

That’s obscene. Here, then, is my “madder-than-hell-and-I’m-not-going-to-take-it-anymore” program for ending gun violence in America:

• Repeal the Second Amendment, the part about guns anyway. It’s badly written, confusing and more trouble than it’s worth. It offers an absolute right to gun ownership, but it puts it in the context of the need for a “well-regulated militia.” We don’t make our militia bring their own guns to battles. And surely the Founders couldn’t have envisioned weapons like those used in the Newtown shooting when they guaranteed gun rights. Owning a gun should be a privilege, not a right.

Now you're making me madder-than-hell. The 2A is not hard to understand at all if you take a minute to think about when and why it was written. The framers of the Constitution had just fought a war for their freedom, and won because everyone had the same weapons as the national army they were fighting against. The 2A is not about muskets or even a National Guard. It is about the people having equal force to oppose anyone who would try to forcibly remove their liberty. I'll say it again. Equal force. If those who would steal liberty from us were coming at us with muskets, then muskets might be a suitable option. As it is, they are prepared to come at us with M16s and the power of the pen. It is amazing to me how to people like Mr Kaul, the rest of the Bill of Rights is about personal liberty, but when it comes to the 2A, it's all about a government controlled army. That's not what it says, and probably why he's so confused by it. If you understand the militia to be as George Mason said "I ask sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people except for a few public officials." Or perhaps if James Madison is more your style: "A well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained in arms, is the best most natural defense of a free country." So what is a "well regulated militia"? If you understand the saying within context, it would mean a well disciplined fighting force under the command of a leader. It says nothing about an army or national guard (not that I have anything against our armed services). But the simple fact is, if I get together with a few friends who are dedicated to protecting liberty, practice the use of my weapons, and have some semblance of group structure, we qualify as a well-regulated militia. It doesn't take bureaucracy on top of bureaucracy, just the people being willing to take up arms against oppressors in an organized fashion.

• Declare the NRA a terrorist organization and make membership illegal. Hey! We did it to the Communist Party, and the NRA has led to the deaths of more of us than American Commies ever did. (I would also raze the organization’s headquarters, clear the rubble and salt the earth, but that’s optional.) Make ownership of unlicensed assault rifles a felony. If some people refused to give up their guns, that “prying the guns from their cold, dead hands” thing works for me.

I've noticed, especially during this last election, that the Communist Party is alive and kicking in America. The NRA is not a terrorist organization. If they were advocating for violence against the public, I could see how that could be thought of as a terrorist organization. Now let's see... who do I know of that's advocating for the slaughter of civilians... hmm... oh yes, Mr. Kaul. In his call to forcibly remove legally held property from people and slaughter them if they don't comply. That sounds a little terroristic to me. And for the record, ownership (heck, even possession without owner present) of unregistered assault rifles IS a felony. Punishable by 10 years in federal prison and up to a $250,000 fine for an individual. Assault rifle being of course the technical term of a rifle capable of selective (fully automatic) fire. Perhaps Mr. Kaul should take some time to actually learn something about what he's so adamantly against before spouting off on his "diatribes". 

• Then I would tie Mitch McConnell and John Boehner, our esteemed Republican leaders, to the back of a Chevy pickup truck and drag them around a parking lot until they saw the light on gun control.
And if that didn’t work, I’d adopt radical measures. None of that is going to happen, of course. But I’ll bet gun sales will rise.

And again we come to the (suggested) murder of people who have committed the terrible crime of disagreeing with you. But you're right, Mr. Kaul. Gun sales will rise. They will rise because as I stated before, rational thinking people see the path you and those like you are on, and see a day coming when those guns may be the only thing left to save their lives. We live in a free state, Mr. Kaul. But it seems as though you would like it to be otherwise. Perhaps you should think about how much freedom of the press is available to those who do not live in a free state before you write articles like this advocating for its destruction. 

How to make a workable copy of a copy-protected CD or DVD using Mac OS X and Terminal

I was digging around looking for an old CD to install in a Windows Virtual machine, and I noticed that some of my older disks were starting to degrade. Since I have plenty of drive space to do so, I decided to make backups of all my old disks as disk images. So I started out where I always have, in OS X's Disk Utility program, which will let you make .dmg files from your disks. I noticed though that certain disks would error out. So I tried several other programs, including the ever-popular Toast. Every program I tried would either hang or error out. So I did some investigating. Here are my results.

Please only use this method to make legal backups of disks that you own. I won't be held responsible for your piracy.

After a lot of reading and experimenting, I believe I've found a good method. The first thing to understand is why certain disks error out and others don't. It seems that game manufacturers will actually intentionally create disks with bad blocks. The bad blocks don't effect the actual operation of the disk, but when an imaging program comes across them, it throws up its arms and decides it can't go on. So clearly the need arises to find a program that will see the errors, take note of them, and soldier on anyway. This is where Terminal comes in. I only have a basic understanding of Terminal and the underlying Unix of OS X, so if you have at least that, then you should be ok following these directions.

Step 1.
Insert the disk. If I really have to tell you any more in this step, you should stop now and ask a techie friend to do this for you.


Step 2. 
Fire up Terminal. It's found in your Utilities folder inside your Applications folder. A faster way to get to it is using Spotlight. Cmd + Space will bring up the search dialog, and then you just start typing. I usually only get to a about "term" before it's popped up at the top of the list. Hit enter and the program will open.

Step 3.
Use the df command to find out the right path for your disk. It should look something like this:


Mini:~ adam$ df

Filesystem     512-blocks       Used   Available Capacity  Mounted on
/dev/disk0s2    975093952  529044976   445536976    55%    /
devfs                 390        390           0   100%    /dev
map -hosts              0          0           0   100%    /net
map auto_home           0          0           0   100%    /home
/dev/disk2s2  34359066544 6882880376 27476186168    21%    /Volumes/Drobo
/dev/disk1s3    976510944  783246128   193264816    81%    /Volumes/Time Machine
/dev/disk3s0      1235568    1235568           0   100%    /Volumes/SC3

Take note of the path of your CD drive and the disk in it. In this case, /dev/disk3s0 (that's a zero)

Step 4.

Unmount your disk 

Mini:~ adam$ diskutil unmountDisk disk3s0

Unmount of all volumes on disk3 was successful

Step 5.

Use dd to clone your disk to a disk image. For copy protected disks, add the conv=noerror flag. If the disk image still won't work right, you may need to add they sync and notrunc flags as well, but all of the disks I've cloned so far haven't needed them. The noerror flag takes note of the errors on the disk, but continues with the cloning process in spite of them. I always name the resulting iso the same as the original volume name. I don't think it matters, but it helps me keep track of them. I've also found that if you just use /dev/disk3 instead of /dev/disk3s0 (or whatever it is for your system), the resulting image may not be usable. One disk I've cloned had no session information attached, and for that I just used /dev/disk3.

Mini:~ adam$ dd conv=noerror if=/dev/disk3s0 of=SC3.iso

With sync and notrunc:

Mini:~ adam$ dd conv=noerror,sync,notrunc if=/dev/disk3s0 of=SC3.iso

This part may take anywhere from a couple minutes, to potentially days, depending on the speed of your computer, your drive, and how many errors are on the disk. SC3, which is the 3rd disk of the original Splinter Cell game, took about 18 hours on my Mac Mini with 8GB Ram and a USB DVD drive, and had thousands of errors. My clone of Jedi Knight disk had 3 errors, and took about 5 minutes.

This is what an error will look like when dd comes across it:

dd: /dev/disk3s0: Input/output error

222870+0 records in

222870+0 records out

456437760 bytes transferred in 388.041972 secs (1176259 bytes/sec)

Step 6.

Mount the image in your virtual machine and test it. If it works, awesome! If it doesn't, go back and try using the sync and notrunc flags. (If it still doesn't work after that, I'm tapped for ideas, sorry.) From the man page for dd, here are descriptions of what each flag does. 

noerror  Do not stop processing on an input error.  When an input error occurs, a diagnostic message followed by the current input and output block counts will be written to the standard error output in the same format as the standard completion message.  If the sync conversion is also specified, any missing input data will be replaced with NUL bytes (or with spaces if a block oriented conversion value was specified) and processed as a normal input buffer.  If the sync conversion is not specified, the input block is omitted from the output.  On input files which are not tapes or pipes, the file offset will be positioned past the block in which the error occurred using lseek(2).

notrunc  Do not truncate the output file.  This will preserve any blocks in the output file not explicitly written by dd.  The notrunc value is not supported for tapes.

sync     Pad every input block to the input buffer size.  Spaces are used for pad bytes if a block oriented conversion value is specified, otherwise NUL bytes are used.

The general idea behind this method is to create a byte for byte, error for error copy of the disk. Many other methods of creating disk images (from what I've read) don't make an exact copy, but a copy reformatted to a certain image format. Some games won't work using these other methods, because they look for certain structures on the disk. I've even come across games that don't contain disk errors that won't work unless cloned using this method.

I hope this is helpful to someone. It is a conglomeration of information taken from a dozen other sites and forums, as well as some independent research and testing. I've tried to be as comprehensive as possible, but if you're still having trouble after following these steps, dig deeper, read man pages, perform very specific Google searches... everything you can to figure out your problem. It's the best way to learn. And hey, if you do find a different way, leave a comment and let me know.

In response to the YouTube video "Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus"

First, watch the video here.

Then, if you're feeling adventurous, watch some of the reply videos. My post is more in reply to them than the original video. Specifically, the responses by TheAmazingAtheist (language warning there) and topsouljas1, who are an atheist and a Christian, respectively. I think the problem comes with how people are defining religion. So let's define religion. Here's Webster's take on it:

re·li·gion

   [ri-lij-uhn]  

noun

1.

a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purposeof the universe, especially when considered as the creationof a superhuman agency or agencies, usually involvingdevotional and ritual observances, and often containing amoral code governing the conduct of human affairs.

2.

a specific fundamental set of beliefs and practices generallyagreed upon by a number of persons or sects: the Christian religion; the Buddhist religion.

3.

the body of persons adhering to a particular set of beliefsand practices: a world council of religions.

4.

the life or state of a monk, nun, etc.: to enter religion.

5.

the practice of religious  beliefs; ritual observance of faith.

So I believe what the original video says is true. But here's the problem - people who are railing against this video are defining religion as #2 above. A specific set of beliefs. Nothing wrong with that, it's a valid definition, and by that definition, the original video does indeed make absolutely no sense. But if you view the video through the lens of definition #5 as its creator intended, the video really does make a lot of sense. It's actually something the topsouljas guy commented on - that the rituals and practice of religion won't save you. It's not that I or this Jeff from the original video believe that what we practice is not religion, but that what we do and why is not relevant to the definition that many people think of when they hear the word religion, which is #5 up there. Many people in our world, and these are the people that my church is dedicated to reaching out to, have been burned by religion. They were forced to go to church as a kid by parents who didn't do what they heard. They saw a lot of do-this, do-that, stand up, sit down, kneel, sing this, chant that, but not very much practical, day to day, living out a love of Jesus. They saw the Holy Communion as anything BUT communion with a loving god who wants more than anything to bring us into his family. They saw the practicing of religion, but not the need for it.

At about 7:37 into his video, TheAmazingAtheist starts on a little rant after a clip from the original video. "He took what we all deserve? We all deserve to be beaten and nailed to some sticks? We all deserve to burn in hell for all eternity? We all deserve that? Who the f*** deserves that?" At this point in his video, I was sitting in my office, actually just saying "YES" to every question he asked. Yes. We all deserve to be beaten and nailed up until we suffocate on our own blood. Yes. We all deserve to burn in hell for all eternity. From Romans: 21 But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22 This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
He talks about how according to the video, helping an old lady cross the street or serving at a soup kitchen don't mean anything. How all your good acts are worthless if you don't have Jesus. He said it in a sarcastic way, but the answer really is "yes". The reason there are so many religious laws, specifically in the Old Testament, is to show not how much more righteous one person is than another, but as an illustration that no matter what we do, no matter how many rules we obey, no matter who we help cross the street, we can never live up to God's perfect standard. This is the basic premise of Christianity. This is the very meaning of grace. If we could somehow earn our way into heaven, or more to the point, out of hell, then the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross would be meaningless. If I could do it on my own, Jesus didn't need to die. But that's the whole point. Your good deeds, no matter how good, cannot measure up to perfection, and God's standard, the minimum he will accept, is perfection. Jason Gray wrote about it in his song "Everything I Own" which is in turn based on a passage in the Bible that says essentially the same thing.

Isaiah 64:6 - All of us have become like one who is unclean, 
and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; 
we all shrivel up like a leaf, 
and like the wind our sins sweep us away.

Here are a couple verses of Jason's song:
All I’ve accomplished, the titles I hold
My passions, position, possessions and gold
To God they must look like a thimble of foam
And it’s everything that I own
Dirty rags are all that I own

So I stand before God with my stubble and hay
He just laughs, but says there’s still a way
Because “Father, Forgive” are the words Jesus moaned
When He gave everything that He owned.


If you want to learn more about the concept of Jesus vs. Religion, I invite you to check out www.religionisalie.com. The videos there are all people I know personally, who I can say with confidence live their lives in a way that desperately seeks God. They are not people who dilute the truth in order to appeal to anyone. It's not marketing. It's a belief that a relationship with Jesus is the only way to heaven.


-Adam

What impacted you?

5 am. The Child™ wakes up hungry. As I'm standing there changing his diaper while he's sucking down his first bottle of the day, I began thinking about who I am as a father, and who I want him to become. Then I thought about my own father, and how I was raised. And really, as far as truly impactful moments of my childhood go, there are two that stand out in my mind in regards to my father. Two where I can go back to a specific point in time and remember what happened, what was said, and how it changed my perspective at the time.

One of those times was at my paternal grandpa's funeral. I was very young. He died in March of 1990, so I would have only been 6 years old. But despite my young age, and the fact that we didn't really see any of my grandparents more than a couple times a year since we all lived in different states, my grandpa had become my absolute, hands down, favorite person in the world. I loved him in a way that was so different than anyone else, and it was reciprocated. My grandmother often told me of his love for me. How out of all his grandkids, he and I had a special bond. Even a week before her own death 18 years later, she told me again about the twinkle in his eye when he was with me or talking about me. It's hard to handle the death of someone you love so much at only 6 years old. I remember standing there at the funeral, beside my dad and my uncle, and my dad reciting a poem. I don't remember what poem it was, but I remember standing there and knowing that we shared the same hurt. As much as my little world was crushed, and seemingly everything I knew was going to be different, I knew that my dad understood.

That was important.

So today, as I was sitting in the recliner in Robbie's room, feeding him a bottle. I told him about his great grandpa, the man he was named after. I told him about what a kind and patient man he was, and how much he loved me. And I told him that I'm really looking forward to a day when I can introduce him and say "Grandpa, this is my son, named after you. He is kind, and gentle, and a man of God."

-Adam

Stepping into the future

There's a scene in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade where he's looking at a chasm, and across from him is a cave where he knows the Holy Grail lies. Following the instructions his father left in his journal, he takes a step out into the abyss, and much to his surprise, doesn't fall to his death. Instead, a stone ledge that blends in perfectly with the background of the chasm stretches all the way across to the mouth of the cave.

Sometimes that's what it feels like. Moving forward, uncertain, but trusting your father. 

I recently got a new computer. It's a slight bump in speed from what I had, but more importantly, it allows me to sell my old one off and actually make a little bit of money. A new computer is an excellent excuse to clean your office, so I tackled that today and yesterday. In doing so, I found a blog post I had printed off. It is written by a girl who interned for Dave Kellett, whose comic Sheldon I read on a daily basis, and who I generally look up to for being able to consistently write jokes that are both funny and clean.

Here's what she wrote:

So the first blog post was a warm up, and I hope this one isn’t nearly as cheeky as the last one, although if it’s cheesy I apologize and again reiterate that I’m being sincere. 

I’ve always dreamed of being a writer. I didn’t know what kind of publication or what type of writing, but I liked the idea of sitting at a desk, looking out onto the ocean and writing all day. And at times I scribble, but I never took the initiative to get it off paper and into print, let alone someone else’s hands. One day my grandpa asked me to share with him what I’ve written. I refused and then took a second to laugh at myself. How can I claim to be a future writer when I’ve never shared anything I’ve written? 

Which brings me to my internship. People have dreams, and they have talents that complement those dreams, but too many times fear and perhaps even laziness tends to hinder their ability to create. Dave shared with me his story of how he created Sheldon; of his move from a safe corporate job toward trying to make a living off of what he really loved to do. Eventually, he had to take that leap. Although Dave has been teaching me the ways of his business, I can’t imagine what it was like eight years ago for him. Starting a self-owned publishing company that is now on its 7th book; attempting to master Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, InDesign, Quickbooks; and 10,000 other programs; learning to deal with quirks of day-to-day business…and all because he just wanted to draw some comics! I asked Dave how he figured it all out, how he had the drive to continue trying to create what is now a smooth business process, and he responded, “…I guess I just did. When you really, really want something, you figure out a way”. 

With that in mind, whatever your dream is, just start doing it, even in its simplest form. And then when you feel more confident, share. The artist always just wants to create art, but sometimes they have to power through the kinks behind the business to make it successful. If we quit trying to share our art because of technological difficulties, or shyness, or business difficulties, or because we couldn’t find the email address to our local newspaper, or because we didn’t know what to say to that band manager or gallery owner… then we’ll never show our art to the world. To create art is great, to take the time and energy to share it, despite how hard that may be, is even more “awesome sauce”. 

The reason I printed it out (3 years ago now) was that I found it inspiring and motivating. So much of the time you hear people telling you to follow your dreams and decide who you want to be and be that person. For years now, I have been pursuing my dream of being a professional fine art photographer. I have been moderately successful, in that I have built up a portfolio I'm proud of and I've sold a few prints here and there. But it hasn't taken off like I'd hoped. I've had endless encouragement, but little practical knowledge on how to actually sell my product. I've had great ideas for other things I can make on the side, like decorative light switch covers, or leather journals, but both are extremely time and labor intensive.

Since I found out I was going to be a father, and especially since Robbie was born, I've felt an ever pressing urge to get out of what I'm doing. Find some way to support my family while staying at home. Now that Lori's maternity leave is over, and it's my turn to stay home with Robbie for 3 months, I feel like I've been given an opportunity. I have 3 months to find a way that I can make enough money working from home to support my family. Last week, I may have found just that. For my birthday tomorrow, I will head up to Plymouth to get a demo of a laser engraving machine. After researching it extensively and talking to my mother, who has experience using one, I have determined that it is worth considering. The demo tomorrow should answer some of my remaining questions, and from there it's just sitting down with Lori, a calculator and a Bible to determine if this is the right thing to pursue. This is different from other things I've looked at. With my photography, I can create beautiful pictures with equipment I already own. With the light switch covers, I can go to Menards and get a 10 pack for a few dollars, spray paint for a few more, and get my templates cut in vinyl for not very much. With the journals, again, it's really only a few dollars for materials to try it out. Not so with the laser. Entry level machines start at $8,000. And that's without any of the attachments or ducting or air supply or software you need. High end machines with large work beds and powerful lasers cost upwards of $40,000. And that's just for the machine. After that, you need something to engrave. Stone tablets, wine glasses, zippos, trophies, plaques... all of the things one would normally engrave also cost a fair bit of money. It's not something I can just pick up and then put down if it doesn't pan out.


So there have been questions. Lori asked me if this business was something I thought I could stay passionate about. Something that I could do for the rest of my life. The answer to that is yes, I believe it is. The cool thing about lasers is, you can put whatever design you want, into practically any material you want. I've even seen laser etched microfiber and linen. The possibilities are literally endless. Everyone I talk to seems to have a new idea for how it could be used. Flame decals on your engine valve cover? Sure. Absolutely that can be done. It would even take a lot of the time intensive labor out of my light switch covers if I can etch the pattern right into the metal. It's not just simple patterns or text either. Using some pretty incredible software, you can etch photographs into materials with astounding results. Want your wedding photo engraved in marble? It can do that. Another question was brought up by my friend Dan. Dan has been pursuing his own business for years now too. He's had significantly more success than I have, but after much soul searching, and some wise counsel, he has decided to put that business on the back burner. He's not quitting, but he realized that he had spent so much time and energy pursuing the business that it had drained the joy from everything else in his life. Here's where I think I have an edge over him. His pursuit was his dream of having this company where he could follow his creative passions and do for a living what he enjoys. His goal was the business. My goal is not my business. I don't care if what I'm doing for a living fulfills my artistic passions, as long as I'm still able to in other ways. My goal, my desire, is my family. I desire to help raise my son. When I was young, my dad worked in a very stressful job that kept him away from the family. He spent long hours at work, and when he came home, was too exhausted and frustrated to be the kind of father he really wanted to be. I know it's one of his great regrets in life. I don't want that. I don't want it for me, and I don't want it for Robbie, or any of his future brothers or sisters. My dad did what everyone said he should do. He worked hard to provide for his family. And there is certainly nothing wrong with that. But he did it at the expense of the relationships with the very family he was working for. He nearly lost some of us. There is still damage to relationships that will take a very long time to heal.


So my question to myself is "what drives you?" Is it making sure that your kids have a comfortable life? Or is it making sure your kids know what's important in life? I will work hard to make sure my kids eat, have clothes and a safe place to sleep. There is no question of that. But I can't justify losing my family at any cost. So more than working hard for the sake of making money, I'm going to be working hard for the sake of their souls.


“…I guess I just did. When you really, really want something, you figure out a way”. 

So I had this conversation today...

Person speaking to me: "What the heck did you do to your face?"
Me: "I got in a fight with a hammer, and won. "




-- Adam

A week with a newborn is a week of... more sleep?

Saturday, April 23, my wife gave birth to a son. Robert Leonard Potts came screaming into our world at 1:37 pm, and since then, I've gotten the best sleep I've had in months. Months of overwork and exhaustion came to a head with the arrival of a 7 lb, 2 oz little boy.

(For just information about the kid and how he was born, skip the italics)

For probably the past 8 or 9 weeks, I've been working in one way or another 16-20 hours a day, 6 1/2 days a week. I would wake up and get to work at the paper in the morning, come home at night, stop briefly for dinner and then get back to work, often staying up until 2, 3 or even 4 am. There have been a couple projects that have been consuming so much of my time. The first is our basement. With our deadline of early May looming, I've been in a rush to get everything finished. Most nights I would stay down there painting, sanding, staining, screwing, installing fixtures, etc. until my body gave out from exhaustion and I just couldn't lift whatever tool off the ground anymore. At that point I would drag myself upstairs and sit down here at the computer, and work for a few more hours. What has been taking all my time here is my (quasi) new business venture. 

I've been taking and selling fine art photographs for years. Mostly landscapes and old, abandoned vehicles. I started out with just my website as a photo gallery, taking the occasional order from a friend and hand delivering it to them after I had the print made. Then, a couple years ago, I was able to get some of my art in a store in Burnsville Center called Minnesota Art & More. The proprietors, Jim and Lisa, have really been wonderful to me and I could not be more thankful for what they've done for my business. The problem with my arrangement there is the initial financial outlay. They do not buy my prints from me, they just sell (and frame) them for me and then take a cut for the wall space and the frame. This means that at any given time, I may have hundreds of dollars tied up in artwork that may not sell for months (or years). While I fully plan to continue selling my photos there, making it my main source of income from photography is just not practical for someone on a very limited budget.


Enter Zenfolio. I've known about it for a while, but never really paid it too much attention because I really didn't have my portfolio to the place where I thought I could justify the expense. What they do is partner with a couple different print shops (including the one where I make all my prints anyway) and handle all the ordering, taxing, printing, shipping, etc. for you. All you have to do as an artist is create the content, make it available and market it - stuff I was already doing anyway. The catch is there is a yearly fee, and a per item percentage that they keep. Let me tell you, for someone with a schedule like mine, this is a God send. In the old days, a customer or Lisa would tell me what they wanted, I would go online, get the print made, wait for it to be shipped, and when I got a chance, deliver it and collect payment. Now, I don't have to do any of that. If you want a certain picture, you can go online, order securely and have the finished piece sent right to your door. This is huge.

So back to Robbie. The Friday before he was born, Lori and I skipped going to church. She was tired, and with a 9 month pregnant wife, you do everything you can to make her comfortable. So we stayed home. I put a playlist of worship music on and we had church in my office, singing and listening and praying together. Afterwards, she went to bed and I stayed right here, working on photos. At about 2:30, she came out of the bedroom to go to the bathroom and said "You should probably get some sleep. I'm feeling a little... different... tonight." I said ok, finished what I was doing and was in bed by 3. Before I got in bed, I popped a couple benedryl because my eyes were itching like crazy. Benedryl is a killer for me. It has put me to sleep in the middle of typing text for ads at work. It's put me to sleep in the middle of watching TV or playing video games. I wouldn't be surprised if someday it puts me to sleep face down in my dinner. In short, when I take benedryl, it is pretty much impossible for me to be awake. This is why when Lori shook me awake at 4:30 saying "my water broke" my only thought was not "awesome" or even "oh, not now" but "nnyeeaarrggh?" So we got dressed, packed up the car and made our way to the hospital. One thing I am thankful for: there really isn't much traffic on 35W at 5am on a Saturday.

When we got to the hospital, they got us all checked in and put us in a room. Thankfully, the contractions hadn't really started to be too strong yet, and Lori and I were both able to sleep for a few more interrupted hours. As the day progressed, the contractions got stronger and more painful, and Lori's temper got shorter. She was able to sit in a tub for about 20 minutes, which helped a lot with the pain until she just got too hot and had to get out. More contractions, more pain. At about 1, the staff started to get a bit concerned. Lori was in extreme pain, and actually asking for pain meds. They started to prepare the drugs, but never got a chance to give them to her. By the time the drugs were in the room and the IV was prepped, she was already pushing. The actual delivery got rushed. With a doctor, midwife and 4 nurses in the room, gathered around watching and coaching, it felt really hectic. The doctor became concerned when Robbie's heart rate would drop significantly during contractions, and only come back up if she reached in and stimulated his scalp. This led to the decision to use the vacuum pump and give Lori an episiotomy. After 20-30 minutes of pushing, pulling and cutting, we had a healthy, 7 lb baby boy who peed all over everything as soon as they set him down on the warmer to towel him off.

We are very thankful for the delivery and staff that we had. Compared to some other people we know, 9 hours from broken water to delivery is really not too bad at all. All the nurses at Abbott were extremely helpful and kind. Our midwife Lois was phenomenal. Everyone was extremely supportive. I am really glad that we chose the hospital we did. We have heard some horror stories from other families about staff that was cold and mean, but we had the exact opposite experience.

So because of the way the delivery happened, and because Lori is in the 20% of women that are carriers for a certain virus, they kept us in the hospital until Monday afternoon just to make sure that Robbie was ok. He has been great at all the things he's supposed to be doing. He knew right away what boobs are for and once Lori got a little bit of coaching, he had no problem getting everything all lined up and working.

We took him to the pediatrician on Wednesday, and they were concerned about his bilirubin levels. In the hospital they had put him in the "low risk" category for jaundice, because when they measured his levels, he was at a 4. By the time we got to the pediatrician, he was all the way up over 19 and pretty yellow. They told us to supplement his feedings with formula, because it appears that he wasn't getting enough to eat. Once we did that, he became a lot more content. They sent a medical service out with a bili-blanket. This thing is awesome. It's a baby sized fiber optic blanket attached to a box that sits on the floor. The box sends blue light up to the blanket and makes him look like one of those creepy gloworm toys from the 80s. After a couple days on that, and getting pooping again, he is doing great, and even spends some of his awake time just looking around instead of crying and moving his head around trying to find the food.

So things are good. I've taken the past week off from working on the basement and my website. I've caught up on a little bit of the sleep I've missed over the past couple months. As I type, my parents are on their way from Illinois to spend a week with us. Lori's mom was here for a couple days while I went back to work, and she'll be here again sporadically once my parents head home as well. We have an amazing group of friends who have given us tons of support (and dinner). But the future is uncertain. With Lori on maternity leave, we have significantly less income coming in. My salary at the paper really can't pay all our bills. So once I'm finished with the basement, either I need a second job, or my business needs to take off. After spending a few days at home with my son and wife, I have really found that I enjoy working from home. It's really hard to be away so much of the time. So of my two options, I would greatly prefer for my photography business to take off, and be able to supplement my income with that. This is where you come in. I need your help. I need as much word of mouth advertising I can get, so go visit my store. Tell your coworkers. Tell your friends. Tell your mom. Tell your mom's friends and your friend's moms. I know people like my work. I just need them to remember it when they are in the mood to decorate. The best way you can support us as a family right now is to give my work some exposure. So if you see something you like, go ahead and buy it. Even an 8x10 helps us out a lot. I will continue working hard to bring more options to the store. Every print, puzzle or stampbook puts food on our table. If you want to tell people about it, most of the photos on my website, appliedperspective.com, have a "Buy this print" link underneath them. I'm working on getting more photos on the website, and in the store as well.

And what would a post about my son be without pictures?

Just minutes old.

Robbie

Robbie with his godparents, uncle Kurt and auntie Gina

Serene (I love this one)

How can you not love this kid?