Prototype A: Arthur

Confucius said "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." The same goes for my android project. Today, that first step has been taken. Back on the 16th, I ordered the half-height model skeleton for Prototype A, also known as Arthur, and it arrived today.

I have no plans to turn this first skeleton into anything resembling a completed android, it's only purpose is to test a number of technologies. I'll wire up a single leg with a chosen muscle type and see how is functions. After that I'll do the other leg, applying what I learned from the first. I'll try different glues and types of rubber. I'll try different ways of running cable over the skeleton. The pace will be slow: I'm still collecting the materials for the first test.

Each experiment will be documented, with photos. Depending on how successful these experiments are, Prototype B will be a full scale skeleton and eventually look more like a true android. However, even Prototype B will be extremely primative and incomplete. I expect to go through approximately 20 prototype platforms before I even begin to approach my final goal.

The conclusion of this project is still a thousand miles away but today I am one step closer to my goal than I was yesterday.

I share my name with this jackass?

I got bored the other day and decided to google a few variations of my name. A search for "Alexander K. Gunkel" predictably yielded great results: the top three were about me. "Alexander Gunkel" also performed well.

The problems started when I got to "Alex Gunkel", which returned my retarded doppelganger as the top hit. Check out this dipshit's profile!

This shit is simply unbelievable:

Interests: MUSIC!!! Playing guitar and hanging out with Kylee b/c we are all BMF's!! aND HANGING OUT WITH PIMPS AND PIMPETTES! SINGING SONGS!!! 4WHEELERS!!! FO SHO!!
Expertise: BEING A PIMP/GANGSTER.. IT COMES NATRAL. EATING!!!!!,CHILLIN OUT WITH FRIENDS, pLAYING bass gUITAR

Now, you could say "hey, he's only sixteen years old and therefore permitted to be a fucking retard." Normally, I'd agree. However, he's got my name! His mere existence on the internet borders on defamation!

Even when I was 16, I was never this idiotic. "Being a pimp/gangster" -- What the fuck? I'm sure the "pimpettes" are falling all over each other to suck this junior rock star off.

Alex Gunkel, I may not blast your pimp/gangster ass off the internet but I'm going to bury you in Google's index. Do a search for "Alex Gunkel" and you'll be on page 23. However, thanks to this post, your ranking as "retarded doppelganger" has probably gone up a few notches.

My Amazon.com Wish List

I've added a link to my Amazon.com wish list over on the right. This is mostly because my relatives often tell me how difficult I am to choose gifts for on those various gift giving holidays. So, if you're one of my relatives, you no longer need to suffer on those occasions.

If you're not one of my relatives but you enjoy reading my little website, you may enjoy perusing my wish list. You just might find something we'd both like to have.

2006 Resolution: Make Website "Not Suck"

Most people make resolutions for the new year and I even made a few for myself this year. I almost never do this and haven't done it for many years, but considering how crappy 2005 was, I figured what the hell... Anyway, one of my New Year's Resolutions is to make my website "not suck".

This, admittedly, is a rather high goal but I'll do the best I can. One of the first steps is to integrate all my old stuff from my mac.com website into this one. I've been putting that off since I first moved over to akgunkel.com. Today, I finally got started on that part of the project.

Once completed, my website should have a consistent layout across all of its pages and all of my old content will be accessible. The only downside will be that deep links and bookmarks to the depths of my site will likely become broken. I'm counting on the fact that, at most, only one person in the world has linked to any of the stupid shit I've written, and thus this change will not be a significant inconvenience.

If you look at some of the links under "Projects & Writings" you will already see the fruits of my labors. In particular, keep an eye on the "More..." page, the number of items there will grow over the next few weeks.