Okay, here is my first attempt to write something within the fenspace universe. It's an idea I have been thinking about for the last days, it's not finished but it's more text (for one evening) that I would have estimated. I have decided to write it as a "diary", so let me know if I managed to bore you to death with it *G*.
January 1st, 2010, just after midnight
New Year's Day.
I am starting this diary because I want to document my project for the new year. If you are reading this diary without my knowledge, please tell this guys from TrueCrypt that their software stinks!
I have been sitting on my ass for the last two years, looking up into the sky watching the stars while the rest of the world is going mad... and into space. Astronomy and space flight has always been a hobby of mine, maybe that is the reason I am still here. I know it's cold out there, or very hot in the sun. There is no air to breath, no water to drink and nothing to eat out there, just a few hostile planets and stars shining in the endless night. How could someone with a small car or a truck survive there for more than a few months ? They should have been all gone now.
But they are not, and the government back home on Earth are just going crazy instead of embracing this new era... a bunch of Trekkies build a base on MARS and the ESA is still using chemical rockets, what the hell is wrong with all of them ? I think they just fear it... it's not NASA with billions of dollars anymore that pushes the frontier, it's can be everyone.
I have been looking at this pot of strange gray liquid for two years without doing doing anything with it ? Time to try something new this year.
January 2nd, 2010
I heard that some of the Fen as they call themselves built their spacecrafts within days or weeks, but I don't think I can do it this way. I have to think things through before I do them, I am not a mad scientist in a web comic.
It took me two hours of browsing through Warez forums to track down a copy of a good 3D CAD program for my project. Have to buy a larger monitor on Monday, and maybe a second harddisk. I already have a name for my personal (slightly mad) project...
Project Stargazer... sounds great I think, it's a folder on my encrypted drive now.
... an empty one.
Okay, have to hunt down all available files on Fen and handwavium tomorrow, and decide what I could use as a template for my private spaceship. I know everything about the Honorverse and have lots of Star Gate DVDs, there should be enough inspiration there.
January 5th, 2010
Honorverse and Star Gate, bad choice.
The smallest spacecraft in the Honorverse is a LAC, a light assault craft... ten thousands tons of battlesteel and molecular circuits. I will never get enough stuff together to build something like this without a friendly cop at my door, asking what this huge metal beast is doing behind my garage.
And Star Gate ? The only thing small enough to even think about building it would be a X302 or a Puddle Jumper. I would need an old jet to start building an X302, absolutely impossible to get something here in Europe with my money. The Puddle Jumper looked better, especially building a smaller one, but after reading through some files about Fen and their crazy spaceships I recognized something... a Jumper has no visible machines, no mechanism, nothing which could help the Handwavium to form it.
Have to think about this again tomorrow, getting sleepy.
January 6th, 2010
I have finally decided to go the classic way, after watching the whole evening out of the window on the parking lot. I cannot built a spaceship from scratch, but I can convert my car into one! It sounds crazy, but lot's of Fen have been doing it, so it's feasible! Just have to make a checklist what I will need to change or build in for a spaceship.
Just a final game of HALO, then bedtime. Have to go back to work tomorrow.
January 12th, 2010
The amount of Handwavium in the canister in my cellar is growing nicely from the metal I got from the scrap yard. I diluted the rest in the can with some water two days ago, but it does not look much different now, just again a small can full of Handwavium.
My 3D model of my car is making progress, I think I have hundreds of pictures of the car from all different angles now. Just have to integrate them into the model later.
My checklist is also growing... air-condition as life support, motor as spaceship engine... but car radio for communication ? That sounds really bad, I need to think about something else. Reinforcing the outer hull of the car against micro meteorites and air friction, making it airtight.
Lot's of things to do when I have enough gray goo...
January 16th, 2010
Damn, the 8 Gig or ram are not enough anymore to hold my 3D model and all the photos at the same time. Why do this CAD thing eating up memory like breathing air ? I don't want to spent that much money for special server hardware with more RAM, what can I do ?
Will have a short break from working on Stargazer tomorrow and play some games, maybe I get a good idea.
January 18th, 2010
I am an official idiot... I have stuff that transforms ships into space cruisers and I am thinking about not being able to buy a better computer ! I have already backed up my files and disassembled my computer, now it is nicely soaking in some good amount of handwavium... I just hope I will get something powerful enough to finish my project. Working with Handwavium is fun, you just have to remember to wash your hands afterwards.
January 20th, 2010
Okay, the handwavium has been absorbed by my computer, or maybe the other way around. It has shrunken by at least 40% in the last two days and it has some strange new plugs on the back I don't recognize. At least the USB ports and the Ethernet plug is still there... and the DVD burner can handle bluray now according to the sticker.
Booting up was a funny experience, the BIOS memory test justs stops with a memory size of "enough" and the truecrypt password screen has been replaced by some stylish 'speak passphrase' one. Worked like a charm, but I was a little bit shocked that my dual boot manager was gone. Linux looks nice as ever, even the windows CAD program is there. I have no clue what the system is doing, but WINE was never be able to run this damned thing. All data is still there and finally NO OUT OF MEMORY error anymore.
Will test the rest of the system tomorrow.
January 24th, 2010... Sunday... DAMN
Okay, this was my worst and best day combined into one. I am really not a 'morning person', I like to sleep long at the weekend.
Being yelled to get up by your own computer is not fun, especially not at 9am in the morning on Sunday! My thoughts were racing at ludicrous speed... the cops, the military, my friends with a surprise party...
I tried to jump up in bed... I think I got entangled in my blanket, because the next thing I remember is laying on the ground besides my bed with a light headache, the voice in the background still shouting.
In retrospect I should have uninstalled HALO before applying the Handwavium, having a computer with an insane and genocidal 343 Guilty Spark inside would not have been fun at all.
Getting yelled by Cortana until I plugged in my webcam and apologized for not connecting the computer to any network was not that much better this early in the morning, at least until I recognized the great thing that happened. Together we could do this, much better than I ever would have been able to do it alone.
It took some talking to Cortana to explain the situation, the really stupid plans on her computer (hey, it's mine !) and a lot of things. Connecting her to the internet and telling her about wikipedia, google and some good news sites helped a lot. I just hope she will be careful while surfing in the web, I told her that the cops wont like what we are doing here, so no hacking for now. She told me to take the day off while she would be thinking about the situation.
Late in the evening I told her about my dream of a self made spaceship to leave Earth and to boldly go, where lot's of Fen has gone before. I think she likes the idea.
January 31th, 2010
Out planning is progressing very well I think.
The computer model of my car is finished and we are starting a list of other things I want to buy for the project. Cortana wanted a CB radio and my Android smartphone for communication, but I told her about something much nicer. Just a week, then we should get our two USRP2s. I am already curious what to waved software defined radios will be able to do when controlled by someone as clever as my new friend. The dozen webcams will make a good way to look out of the car later, especially to the top and to the bottom. I just hope I will not run out of money before we lift off.
February 14th, 2010
I have beginning to reinforce the structure with gray handwavium to allow it to withstand the stress of space travel, heat and micro meteorites. The surface of my car looks different now, but it is difficult to say how it looks like. One of the windows have become some kind of glass clear crystal, and the integration of the cameras is going great. Cortana is a great assistant, especially since she use my waved Android smartphone as a small remote for her computer.
The longer I work with the Handwavium on my car, the easier it is. Small flashes of insight, inspiration, it is just great what you can do with this stuff. This is really the stuff to make dreams become reality, just forming it with my own hands.
January 1st, 2010, just after midnight
New Year's Day.
I am starting this diary because I want to document my project for the new year. If you are reading this diary without my knowledge, please tell this guys from TrueCrypt that their software stinks!
I have been sitting on my ass for the last two years, looking up into the sky watching the stars while the rest of the world is going mad... and into space. Astronomy and space flight has always been a hobby of mine, maybe that is the reason I am still here. I know it's cold out there, or very hot in the sun. There is no air to breath, no water to drink and nothing to eat out there, just a few hostile planets and stars shining in the endless night. How could someone with a small car or a truck survive there for more than a few months ? They should have been all gone now.
But they are not, and the government back home on Earth are just going crazy instead of embracing this new era... a bunch of Trekkies build a base on MARS and the ESA is still using chemical rockets, what the hell is wrong with all of them ? I think they just fear it... it's not NASA with billions of dollars anymore that pushes the frontier, it's can be everyone.
I have been looking at this pot of strange gray liquid for two years without doing doing anything with it ? Time to try something new this year.
January 2nd, 2010
I heard that some of the Fen as they call themselves built their spacecrafts within days or weeks, but I don't think I can do it this way. I have to think things through before I do them, I am not a mad scientist in a web comic.
It took me two hours of browsing through Warez forums to track down a copy of a good 3D CAD program for my project. Have to buy a larger monitor on Monday, and maybe a second harddisk. I already have a name for my personal (slightly mad) project...
Project Stargazer... sounds great I think, it's a folder on my encrypted drive now.
... an empty one.
Okay, have to hunt down all available files on Fen and handwavium tomorrow, and decide what I could use as a template for my private spaceship. I know everything about the Honorverse and have lots of Star Gate DVDs, there should be enough inspiration there.
January 5th, 2010
Honorverse and Star Gate, bad choice.
The smallest spacecraft in the Honorverse is a LAC, a light assault craft... ten thousands tons of battlesteel and molecular circuits. I will never get enough stuff together to build something like this without a friendly cop at my door, asking what this huge metal beast is doing behind my garage.
And Star Gate ? The only thing small enough to even think about building it would be a X302 or a Puddle Jumper. I would need an old jet to start building an X302, absolutely impossible to get something here in Europe with my money. The Puddle Jumper looked better, especially building a smaller one, but after reading through some files about Fen and their crazy spaceships I recognized something... a Jumper has no visible machines, no mechanism, nothing which could help the Handwavium to form it.
Have to think about this again tomorrow, getting sleepy.
January 6th, 2010
I have finally decided to go the classic way, after watching the whole evening out of the window on the parking lot. I cannot built a spaceship from scratch, but I can convert my car into one! It sounds crazy, but lot's of Fen have been doing it, so it's feasible! Just have to make a checklist what I will need to change or build in for a spaceship.
Just a final game of HALO, then bedtime. Have to go back to work tomorrow.
January 12th, 2010
The amount of Handwavium in the canister in my cellar is growing nicely from the metal I got from the scrap yard. I diluted the rest in the can with some water two days ago, but it does not look much different now, just again a small can full of Handwavium.
My 3D model of my car is making progress, I think I have hundreds of pictures of the car from all different angles now. Just have to integrate them into the model later.
My checklist is also growing... air-condition as life support, motor as spaceship engine... but car radio for communication ? That sounds really bad, I need to think about something else. Reinforcing the outer hull of the car against micro meteorites and air friction, making it airtight.
Lot's of things to do when I have enough gray goo...
January 16th, 2010
Damn, the 8 Gig or ram are not enough anymore to hold my 3D model and all the photos at the same time. Why do this CAD thing eating up memory like breathing air ? I don't want to spent that much money for special server hardware with more RAM, what can I do ?
Will have a short break from working on Stargazer tomorrow and play some games, maybe I get a good idea.
January 18th, 2010
I am an official idiot... I have stuff that transforms ships into space cruisers and I am thinking about not being able to buy a better computer ! I have already backed up my files and disassembled my computer, now it is nicely soaking in some good amount of handwavium... I just hope I will get something powerful enough to finish my project. Working with Handwavium is fun, you just have to remember to wash your hands afterwards.
January 20th, 2010
Okay, the handwavium has been absorbed by my computer, or maybe the other way around. It has shrunken by at least 40% in the last two days and it has some strange new plugs on the back I don't recognize. At least the USB ports and the Ethernet plug is still there... and the DVD burner can handle bluray now according to the sticker.
Booting up was a funny experience, the BIOS memory test justs stops with a memory size of "enough" and the truecrypt password screen has been replaced by some stylish 'speak passphrase' one. Worked like a charm, but I was a little bit shocked that my dual boot manager was gone. Linux looks nice as ever, even the windows CAD program is there. I have no clue what the system is doing, but WINE was never be able to run this damned thing. All data is still there and finally NO OUT OF MEMORY error anymore.
Will test the rest of the system tomorrow.
January 24th, 2010... Sunday... DAMN
Okay, this was my worst and best day combined into one. I am really not a 'morning person', I like to sleep long at the weekend.
Being yelled to get up by your own computer is not fun, especially not at 9am in the morning on Sunday! My thoughts were racing at ludicrous speed... the cops, the military, my friends with a surprise party...
I tried to jump up in bed... I think I got entangled in my blanket, because the next thing I remember is laying on the ground besides my bed with a light headache, the voice in the background still shouting.
In retrospect I should have uninstalled HALO before applying the Handwavium, having a computer with an insane and genocidal 343 Guilty Spark inside would not have been fun at all.
Getting yelled by Cortana until I plugged in my webcam and apologized for not connecting the computer to any network was not that much better this early in the morning, at least until I recognized the great thing that happened. Together we could do this, much better than I ever would have been able to do it alone.
It took some talking to Cortana to explain the situation, the really stupid plans on her computer (hey, it's mine !) and a lot of things. Connecting her to the internet and telling her about wikipedia, google and some good news sites helped a lot. I just hope she will be careful while surfing in the web, I told her that the cops wont like what we are doing here, so no hacking for now. She told me to take the day off while she would be thinking about the situation.
Late in the evening I told her about my dream of a self made spaceship to leave Earth and to boldly go, where lot's of Fen has gone before. I think she likes the idea.
January 31th, 2010
Out planning is progressing very well I think.
The computer model of my car is finished and we are starting a list of other things I want to buy for the project. Cortana wanted a CB radio and my Android smartphone for communication, but I told her about something much nicer. Just a week, then we should get our two USRP2s. I am already curious what to waved software defined radios will be able to do when controlled by someone as clever as my new friend. The dozen webcams will make a good way to look out of the car later, especially to the top and to the bottom. I just hope I will not run out of money before we lift off.
February 14th, 2010
I have beginning to reinforce the structure with gray handwavium to allow it to withstand the stress of space travel, heat and micro meteorites. The surface of my car looks different now, but it is difficult to say how it looks like. One of the windows have become some kind of glass clear crystal, and the integration of the cameras is going great. Cortana is a great assistant, especially since she use my waved Android smartphone as a small remote for her computer.
The longer I work with the Handwavium on my car, the easier it is. Small flashes of insight, inspiration, it is just great what you can do with this stuff. This is really the stuff to make dreams become reality, just forming it with my own hands.
