For the last week, I’ve been very busy with school work. Between Math, English and Computer class, the homework load has been a little insane. I won’t have a chance to update any web site stuff this weekand because Jessica has dance, and she wants me to go see her. I promised her that tomorrow I will spend the whole day with her and I plan to keep my promise. Enjoy your weekend all.

Well Variety Night was a huge success! There were no explosions and the fire department didn’t have to put out any uncontrollable flames. But really, the whole show went very well with no major problems. Besides bad organization.

There was are comedian to fill in for the major setups between special acts like gymnastics, where we had to set up all matts. The only one that had problems was the rock band, which I have to say it was not very good at all. The bass player went through the whole song, knowing that his amp wasn’t working. When really, all he had to do was turn up the volume on his bass. For act 17 it was a guy that was about four foot nothing and played the bass. His bass solo was better than the whole rock band! The third last act was a class dance and was all done with blacklight. The whole gym was pitch black except for the white glow of the sewn on bones of the dancers. It was probably one of the most creative dances of the whole show. The last act was the teachers dance. It was the most funniest dance there was. It was based on the W.J. Fricker teachers at a retirement home. All the teachers on stage were dressed up as elderly people and it’s was a very good laugh for the audience and students. The show ended early this year, by 8:45 the show was over. Last year show lasted for 3 1/2 hours and the year before that  it was 4 hours. This year I got to bed before 11:30, unlike last year’s 1:00 am.

Of course I’ve been invited back next year to do all the equipment stuff for the annual W.J. Fricker, Variety Night. And I can’t wait!

Well this Thursday is W.J. Firckers Annual Variate Night. Dillon and my self are doing all the tech stuff this year once again. Dillon is running all the sound related equipment and I’m running all the lighting equipment.

On Wednesday were going early after school, around 2:00pm, to setup all the equipment for the dress rehearsal. About a 2 hour job crammed into 1 hour. There are 6 wireless mic’s and 2 wired mic’s that require XLR cables to the mixer. I’m also bring in a amp and speaker for a stage monitor. The sound in the gym is very very bad.

Well I’ll get some pictures and post them up later on enjoy!

I haven’t posted in while, so I thought now would be a good time to inform you of what I’m doing. Most of the time I’ve either been working on the History Project or spending my time outside or spending it with Jess.
The history Project is almost complete. All the group has to do is write a letter to Mr. Brown outlining, more specifically, what we’re doing down at the waterfront. The presentation has been completed. Now we just have to figure out how we are going to teach it to the first and third period classes. We are either going to teach it ourselves to the classes or send it to the teachers of the classes. Finely the clues and questions, that will be on the cards, are completed and will be laminated sometime this week or next. So there’s an update on the history Project.

For the last four days the weather has been outstanding, but the weather’s about to get worse. Late tomorrow afternoon we are expected to get rain all the way through till Sunday morning.

W.J. Fricker’s annual Variety Night is coming up. This year I’m in charge of all the technical equipment, including sound and lighting. I’m hoping to get Dillon in to do the sound because he has done it three years in a row. I’ll be in charge of all lighting. The tech crew at Fricker are to say, clumsy and the teachers don’t want all the new equipment broken. If you would like tickets, feel free to e-mail me at blake@blakemiller.org. The date for the performance is May 4, 2006.

So thats what I’ve been up to for the last few weeks and will be doing for the next couple.

Click on picture for bigger picture. In this tutorial, I will be showing how to make a LED flasher whenever a MSN conversation is open. The program that will be used is called MSN Com Port Flash. Click here to get it. To make the LED com cable, we will need the following:

1. 1.5 volt LED
2. a com port table (female to female)
3. Electrical Tape (any tipe of tape will do)
4. MSN Com Port Flash Program

Befor you Start:

Install the MSN Com Port Flash program befor you start. You may have to download this file and paste it into you C:\windows\system\ after you install the program.
Step 1:

First lets figure out where the LED is going to be on the com port cable. We will be using pins 3 & 4.

Step 2:

On your LED, one of the wires should be longer than the other. Put the longer wire into pin 3 and the shorter one into pin 4.

Step 4:

Wrap some tape around the end of the plug and make sure the LED stays in place.

Step 5:

Now, plug the other end of the cable into the computers com port. IF YOU SEE SPARKS OR YOUR COMPUTER SHUTS DOWN INSTANTLY UNPLUG THE LED AND START THE COMPUTER! Go over the wiring again before plugging in back in. If nothing happens, then continue on to the next step.

Step 6:

Now we are going to run a test program. Go to Start–>All Programs–>MSN Com Port Flash then open Test COM Port Pin Output. Click on the button to tern on and off the LED. Should look like this: (When it’s on)

Step 7:

Now close the test program. Next go to Start–>All Programs–>MSN Com Port Flash then open MSN Com Port Flash. Change the flash rate and what not to your desired settings. I also recommend putting it on the side of your monitor or top I used clear tape to tape up to myn. Thats it, all done. If there is any problems please contact me at blake@blakemiller.org

Thanks to SmashD for the great program!