Chad and Christine

3.31.05

There is a whole gallery of transparent screens on Flickr and they are pure, unadulterated AWESOME. I just had to add mine to the bunch. With Philip’s help (although I don’t think he knew what he was doing at the time) I made mine in about 5 minutes. What you do is open your laptop, frame up your screen with your camera, have someone close your laptop, take picture. Then, set said picture as wall paper. Presto! Insantato transparento screeno.

Check out the whole Flickr transparent screen gallery.

The 12th of March my father-in-law Harold and I went to the local Ham Fest in Charlotte. We go every year; this year was our 4th or 5th year in a row. For you poser Nerds that don’t know what Ham Fest is, it’s like a huge swap meet for HAM radio/General Radio/Computer enthusiasts. I go because it’s the only place locally that you can find such rare components as a 1959 GE vantage vacuum tube (don’t ask). I also like it because I get to spend some time with Harold doing some of things we like to do best, like look at nerdy computer components and complain about the prices, the, crowds, the people, etc. –But its all in good fun and we always find something we want and swear that were not going back the next year but we know we will. Ham Fest is divided into two camps. Half real vendors set up selling the newest nerd toys and half old men trying to unload old radio parts and other miscellaneous junk. The best part about Ham Fest for me is rummaging around in the junk for hours looking for cool stuff. This year I found a Geiger counter, endless rows of vacuum tubes, and a vantage radio station console among other things.

Here are some pics from Ham Fest Charlotte.

Harold Inspecting Parts	Radio Station console
Old Men Selling JUNK	The Swap Meet Camp
The Crowd	The Vendor Camp