Roy City

Vw cars

2010-03-18T10:47:00.001-05:00

Lol

Houston Health Museum

2009-11-04T19:35:00.000-06:00

The Houston health museum has a lot of interactive exhibits. In the picture above, Kim is pointing at her small intestine in a "Body Scanner" that projects 3D models of organs on to the user's body.

Rowlf the Dog Skateboarding!

2009-10-02T22:27:00.001-05:00

Skateboarding Dog Gets Served from Rizzo The Rat on Vimeo.

Ninjas!

2009-09-22T23:25:00.001-05:00

Barenaked Ladies - Snacktime - The Ninjas

Best exercise device for ladies:

2009-09-13T16:03:00.001-05:00

This is the truth:

2009-08-24T17:37:00.001-05:00

This is the most helpful XKCD ever. Use it everybody

New GTI!!!

2009-08-18T22:36:00.001-05:00

It drives very smooth and feels like a sturdy machine that is connected to the road. Definitely a huge improvement coming from a mk3. The stats are:

2007 Candy White GTI mk5 with DSG (automatic-manual transmission)
28k miles
18" Huff wheels
Votex skirting kit

It was originally a leased vehicle so I got it as a certified used car with a warranty. Here are a few photos to document its newness.

First Day:

Now the photos in the sunset:

Snuggie Dog !! So awesome.... I would wear one

2009-08-02T12:39:00.001-05:00

Snuggie Dog Blue Moon Studios

My apartment weight room = CRAP

2009-07-13T21:37:00.001-05:00

RANT:
My apartment, The Mandolin in Houston, is letting their weight room fall apart to crap. I blame it on the kids that like to hang around the weight room like its their playground... climbing on the machines... forcing the treadmill to move while its off... watching BET on max volume (or NFL network)... throwing water bottles.

Here is a list of the crap that is broken or just messed up.

   1. One of the newer treadmills - motor doesn't spin and it displays "ERROR"
   2. An older treadmill is missing a magnetic safety clip and can't start... if it does start its probably broken.
   3. All three of the treadmills are missing their safety clips.
   4. The weight machine that works out your legs - very loose and doesn't stay straight.
   5. Missing pin for the weight machines - there are only 2 of 3.
   6. The stationary bike will skip and clunk when you are pedaling.
   7. Eliptical makes loud squeaky noise.

    8. No ladies.
( i am sure this lady is happy using this machine that works.. i would be too)

Cobra Fence

2009-06-01T13:14:00.001-05:00

Just got finished with power washing my parents fence. I tried not to kill all the plants :P
I am going to stain the fence if the weather is good for the next couple of days. There is a lot of gunk on a fence that is 25 years old.
I also worked on my Cobra Radar detector. I used to use it in the past but i put it away since the volume knob was broken and the silver paint on it was flaking off. I spray painted the body and re soldered the volume knob and speaker. So far everything seems perfect. I also made a new 12v wire for it, the old one was starting to fall apart too. Yay

Oh yeah. I am stuck in my house since they are tearing up the street again.

List of things on my mind

2009-05-05T23:34:00.004-05:00

Currently, I am working on some Controls homework that is due friday. This week is not a dead week.. but hopefully i can get it done soon. I will have to stop watching Leo Laporte.

Working on installing OSX on my acer aspire. I have always wanted to play with OSX again.. i haven't done this since 2005.
Listening to Terminator music. That stuff is good
Eating too much from my snack box I got from my parents.
Playing Left 4 Dead occasionally
Writing a paper for nanophotonics

Dad's Website

2009-04-30T23:15:00.000-05:00

I finally got www.roelpalacios.com
It has my dad's paper mache masks and other art stuff that he has made.

trying out squarespace

2009-04-27T00:43:00.001-05:00

I am trying out squarespace easy editing to make a website for my dad and his art. Http://palart.squarespace.com
Roy P

bush family

2009-04-21T11:41:00.001-05:00

I am pretty sure that I jogged like 6 feet away from president Bush, and Barbara letting their dog pee while a secret service guy watched them. This was infront of George Bush Library... Closest I have possibly been to a president ever.
Roy P

cool tattoo

2009-03-31T18:12:00.001-05:00

this is hot... I wonder who was the poor artist.

Steve Vai Radio!

2009-03-29T14:46:00.001-05:00

Listen to Steve Vai and people that sound like him on Pandora. Great study music :P

broken window

2009-03-12T10:45:00.001-05:00

gayyyy
Roy P
#On Centro smartphone

Ideas

2009-03-11T21:25:00.003-05:00

Spring break is almost here and I am ready to relax and see my family and dog again. I hope that I can fix my car's gauge cluster by then. Right now I am driving with no speedometer or tachometer. It comes on sometimes but so far in the cold weather it is stuck off. I suppose I can always rely on my tomtom to tell me how fast I am going.

I started working on my Arduino robot again after listening to one of the creators of the Arduino platform on Leo Laporte's Twit live show. Since I recently aquired more desk space, I might have the robot run around on the table top with a webcam watching it and have it publicly controlled via a php app or twitter. It has probabaly been done before but it seems fun to do and hopefully I will learn more about the arduino.

Since I like videos... here is a fun one

norton virus

2009-03-10T11:48:00.001-05:00

Supposedly there is a new update for norton antivirus that includes a program that sends your history and cached files to someplace online. The file is called pifts.exe. The update was issued without warning so all the nerds are getting mad.... We shall see what happens
R

roommate pee

2009-03-05T19:02:00.001-06:00

My roommate peed on the floor. Wtf how can you miss like this?
Roy P
#On Centro smartphone

Kamen Riders

2009-03-02T19:20:00.001-06:00

Kamen Rider is awesome. I have been watching it on the CW kids show in the mornings. Its about guys that drive motorcycles that wear suits and have powers. Its kind of like power rangers but for a slightly older audience. The Japanese Kamen rider is just as good if not more mysterious than the USA Kamen Rider Dragon Knight. Here is Kamen Rider Decade Episode 1 Subbed

TealOS - PalmOS fancy gui

2009-02-22T17:31:00.003-06:00

So far so awesome awesome. it is what i am using now on my centro.
I used to used initiate laucher but this is more visually appealing. There is a little bit of a lag between changing apps.
great for having the Palm Pre feel and for updating the centro to a nice touch interface. I will see how it works since i have only played with it for a day. When i get calls/texts we will see how it acts.

House of the dead overkill

2009-02-20T14:14:00.000-06:00

I want to try thiissss

Blogging from cellphone

2009-02-12T14:19:00.001-06:00

I am back in the world of palm with my new to me centro. Chineese night tonight. Controls test at 355... I feel like I shlould do good.

-Roy P
On a Palm Centro

Britney Spears wants you to if you seek amy

2009-02-01T23:59:00.002-06:00

I have always been interested in songs that have some sort of hidden message or weird thingsin them that you hear when you play them backwards. In Britney's new song "If you Seek Amy" she is pretty blatant with her message. If you hear her sing those lines in the song..it sounds like -F -u -cee -kay -mee. Here is the video.

I saw it on diggnation while i was doign laundry.. so its been known for a while but i guess i didnt see the article :P
Sleep noowww I have to wake up early for "1st day of work" with my new project.

Playing with camera.

2009-01-29T18:57:00.001-06:00

Just testing macro pictures in low light. Not very good :P

Pee on the toilet

2009-01-28T00:40:00.001-06:00

I finally told my roommate to stop peeing on the toilet seat and floor. It was getting blatantly gross and the pee was going everywhere since he was peeing in the dark at night.

School Time

2009-01-25T23:06:00.003-06:00

I am back at school again. I think this semester will be somewhat easy. Career fair is next week and I have to talk to a lot of companies and actually GET A JOB :O. This is on tuesday.

I am starting a new research project. I will only be there a semester so I hope I can be a valuable asset to the team. I will be the most senior member and such. first meeting this friday!

Just a side rant: The network admins incharge of the dorm networks are limiting the bandwith based on the time of day. Its tough.. I can only download @ 275k max during the day. This isnt even enough to stream Techlive. I have to listen to audio only.. oh noo :P.. or revision3 stuff. Sometimes hulu and youtube take time to buffer. Its horrible, and I cringe everytime it has to buffer. EFFFFff. Oh well, its still fast after midnight.

I have been running windows 7 on both my Acer Aspire One and my Desktop. Its very quick feeling. Definately faster than Vista on the AAO.

I have some new pics of my pc:

From new computer cold cathode

Windows 7

2009-01-08T20:15:00.002-06:00

Tomorrow The windows 7 beta is released to the public. the first 2.5 million people can get the beta with an activation code that will be good until august 2009.

Check out the official windows blog http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/windows7/archive/2009/01/07/information-on-downloading-and-installing-windows-7-beta.aspx

I dont know when it will come out though midnight Seattle time? ahhhh i don't know

Holidays .. NEW PC

2008-12-29T12:41:00.002-06:00

I got a new acer aspire one battery .. its a six cell i got from ebay
5 hrs of battery life. Its nice not having to worry about being next to a plug all the time.

I also got parts to build a new pc. its a intel Quad core Q9300 in an antec 300 case. Its pretty sweet .. i have it overclocked from the stock 2.5 ghz to 3 for now. I suppose i could up it higher but I odnt want to make my pc unreliable.

Wtf i am watching mama mia right now.. i will sit here on the pc and work on other stuff... wtf this is messed up and the girls are getting all giddy and singing songs about now one girls mom banged three guys in three monnths. I dont like this girly girl crap. crappp. ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

O watch this.. Its Cutey Honey anime.

School - Interviews - Dr. Dick

2008-10-17T01:37:00.002-05:00

School has been crazy this year. So far so good in my classes though. I have also been doing the whole resume dropping careerfair thing. Hopefully one of the companies that I interviewed with will make me an offer. Seems like I always leave an interview with a good feeling. Strangely though, the only interview that I left with a bad feeling was the one I got an offer for last semester. I suppose it all depends on the mood of the interviewer.

Oh, I need to show everyone this. Do not watch if you don't like cartoon boobs.

Acer Aspire One

2008-10-01T15:13:00.002-05:00

I got my new laptop in! Its the Acer Apire One A150, 120 gig hd and 1 gig o- ram.

It has windows XP home on it which I am using now. I installed ubuntu but it was very slow and would freeze on some of the hiberate cycles. I am thinking of upgrading to Vista, but I am not sure if it is worth the effort :P. So far I have found it to be an excellent laptop. The only complaint i have is that after using it for a while, my eyes start to strain to read the text on the screen.

I hope i don't need glasses :P
la

Hamlet 2, Sexy Jesus

2008-08-31T23:08:00.003-05:00

I took a trip to Houston with Kim to get my VW back from the dealer and we decided to make a day out of it while we were there in Houston.

We ate at Yia Yia Mary's Greek restaurant off of Westheimer www.yiayiamarys.com . Ordered a Lamb Gyro and it was sex. Kept me and my girlfriend full for the rest of the day. I love the flatbread / tortialla thing that the Gyro comes in. I wonder if College Station has any of this food. Also had a chicken/ beef kabob thing that was great. The Orzo side dish was excellent and had good sauce. The highlight of the day was when the waitress gave us a free baklava for dessert. The baklava was drenched in syrup *om nom nom*.

We got on the road and stopped at a gas station which just so happened to be near a theatre, so we went in and saw Hamlet2. Hamlet 2 was a little too serious twoard the middle of the movie than I was anticipating. The play at the end well made up for the downfalls of the strange and depressing main character. I would recomend seeing it if it is showing near you.

Tossed Salad Man

2008-08-28T16:07:00.001-05:00

Just watch.. and get freaked out @_@

tossed salad man

Back Home

2008-08-11T11:04:00.003-05:00

I am finally back in CC and out of Houston. I forget how simple it is to get around town here in CC and how nice it is here. Right now the olympics are on, enjoying some Kim, and I got my new camera.

Speaking of olympics <---- see pic on left. :P
Bush is happy.

New Golf mk6 Leaked!

2008-08-04T10:58:00.003-05:00

Source http://www.worldcarfans.com/9080804.001/new-vw-golf-vi-photos-leaked

New Golf VI is leaked to the public!!!
The style of the new Golf 6 is reminiscent of the mk3. The droop of the front end isnt as bad as the mk5 <> . I do like the mk5 however.. I might be looking at getting an mk5 in the next 5 years.
It is a little unfortunate that the Golf seems to be getting larger. I suppose I am just accustomed to the size of my mk3 which is pretty small compared to the mk4 and mk5. Seems like the mk6 is'nt going to be tooo different from the mk5. No word on release date yet.

UPDATE: Looks like the mk6 will be released late 2009, making the mk5 the obsolete.. such a short life it had :O making mkV a rare car in the future.

Wanted Weekend

2008-07-27T22:47:00.003-05:00

I saw wanted. It was a decent action movie but not very memorable or thought provoking. Angelina Jolie isnt hot and hasn't been hot since "Hackers" in the mid 90's. Pic on left.. and her lips are weird. Oh, and she shoots a bullet in a circle. makes no sense.

Jolie Circa 1995

I noticed that I have been getting less constructive as the summer goes on. I suppose I need a vacation :P

I am excited about Tron2 and Terminator4. I am skeptical about Xmen origins.

Oh and this girl is great: You must watch this.. true anime fan.

Zoo day!

2008-07-21T11:56:00.001-05:00

I went to the Houston Zoo this weekend. It was fun and I got to take a lot of pics using Kim's camera :P. I have my own new camera coming soon.

Here is a small slideshow of pics I took while @ the Houston zoo this weekend.

Picasa good or should i use flickr?

Waxing Weekend

2008-07-14T11:00:00.002-05:00

golfwax08s2
Originally uploaded by Lroy12

So This weekend I decided that I needed to wax and claybar my car (Volkswagen Golf mk3). l knew that my car was feeling a little gritty even after washing, so I decided to claybar it and take off all the dirt. The claybar is a sticky blob of putty that you can rub on your car with some spray polish lubricant. It made my car smooth and glassy but not gassy. It also takes off a lot of wax.

Claybarring the car probably takes all of an hour to an hour and a half. Waxing (in this case two coats) takes about 1.5 hrs to 2 hrs. I would recommend using an iPod Shuffle or other mp3 player for listening to some music or else you might go crazy.
I bought Mother's California Gold Claybar Kit.
.
It comes with the claybar, some sample wax and the spray on polish used as claybar lubricant. I used Dupont Teflon car wax. This stuff makes my very smooth. I decided to do two coats of wax to get a really deep shine. I am not sure that two coats made a big difference, but after claybarring and waxing my paint is alive again :D

The Teflon wax seemed to be a little less abrasive than the cleaner wax that came with the bottle. Next time I will use a non abrasive glaze wax like Meguiar's Pure polish.

Fridayy

2008-07-12T00:31:00.001-05:00

It's finally the weekend. F'n Make believe!

Goodluck wheelchair people.

Wall-e and Hancock.

2008-07-07T14:36:00.003-05:00

so I saw Wall-e and Hancock this weekend. I loved wall-e a lot but its too touchy feely to watch again any time soon. Hancock was a decent film that had a strange disconnected story. I have a feeling that if you like TV dramas and crap you will think that it was good. The movie felt a little cheap and corny.
I think my sister is in love with him :

I am still looking forward to seeing batman.. and i have been since the last movie came out and commissioner Gordo showed the joker card.

Wishlist PC

2008-06-30T15:42:00.004-05:00

I have been sorta thinking about getting a new pc.. but right now its all just in the dream phase and I shouldnt get one.. it would be very unnecessary and expensive now.

Camera to buy

2008-06-26T12:37:00.001-05:00

I think I need to get a camera like this one:

It runs on 8-9v so this should be perfect for the robot.. going to start looking @ openCV. I should be getting my parallax ping today or tomorrow in the mail.

Wireless Color 6 LEDs Infrared Spy Pinhole CCTV Camera - eBay (item 110264835598 end time Jun-27-08 02:30:00 PDT)

Camera

2008-06-24T13:31:00.001-05:00

I am running into some issues with my wireless camera. When it is mounted on the robot, the Xbee module responds slowly and I am assuming is loosing packets and not getting a strong signal. I will run a test by outputting the alphabet to the robot and see if the robot can display all the characters. If the robot fails to receive the entire alphabet, then i know that there are dropped packets caused by the camera. The camera is a cheap ebay wireless security camera with night vision. I used to use it in my car from the 12v plug.. which brings up the issue of lack of power to run the camera on the robot.
My Power setup:
Currently I am using 6xAA Nimh batteries that have 2300mah of operating time. They will give me 8.75 volts. I am using a battery charging circuit I pulled off another robot. I need to get a smaller security cam that can run off of a 9v battery and has night vision and is wireless :P

Pyro TF2

2008-06-18T16:39:00.001-05:00

I am really looking forward to the Pyro update on TF2. The pyro is my favorite class so this is great news. valve is introducing three new weapons for the pyro along with an air compressor option for the flame thrower that can blow back enemies and projectiles. Enough talking (@ work).. Here is the original link.

Team Fortress 2 - Pyro Update

Robot works! + video

2008-06-15T21:07:00.004-05:00

Got my Robot to talk to my pc with a Xbee module and wrote a python script to control it with the WASD keys. The overall programming so far has been relatively simple. I am commanding one servo to move 45 degrees and 135 degrees (since one serve is flipped and 90 degrees is dead center). The code can be found here : Robot Work Dir.

Here is the latest video :D

On a personal note. My parents came up to to visit for father's day and it was pretty fun. We did a lot of shopping and saw Indiana Jones 3.

Robot: Xbee, Zigbee

2008-06-10T23:41:00.003-05:00

With some minor driver issues (I havent had driver issues in a loooong time) I was able to setup my usb xbee module I got from http://www.serialcontrols.com . Its a nice little usb Zigbee usb adapter that is just about as big as the Xbee itself. It was relatively easy getting the wireless serial link to the arduino.. no new software on the arduino end.. just the Xbee 'sheild' that I soldered tonight. I will post pics in a gallery soon.
I also built the scooterbot II I got from budgetrobotics.com
I should have a review of that soon.

Robot : Plans, Goals and Parts

2008-06-10T11:40:00.012-05:00

My current goal is to have the robot be able to drive around via remote control over the internet via the Xbee module. There will be a wireless camera (already own) on the robot that can stream the current position of the robot to me via some sort of webcam interface (stickam maybe?). The in the near future, I will program object avoidance using the Parallax "Ping)))" module and the Ir sensor. Once the robot can avoid objects, I will let drive around autonomously and chase after IR.. like my dog.

Self charging is also a concern of mine. I am planning on building a self charging station that the robot can drive into. The robot will have protruding connectors to the battery circuitry and the garage will have something to make contact with these connectors. This should allow me to self charge relatively easily. I will probably drive the robot to the charging station at first, however I will need to create some sort of automated system to dock with the garage.

Parts List and Costs for my robot

I didnt buy the Ping ))) yet since I don't need it in development currently. Overall the robot is a little pricey but it will be a good learning experience and it will keep me busy during the weekends.

Robot and food

2008-06-01T23:21:00.000-05:00

Today I bougt the first parts to my robot. I will post the specs later but i plan on having a remote controlled/ autonomously controlled robot that can roam around the house when i am gone and I can watch though its eyes via the wireless camera. I am thinking or putting on a little lcd screen so i can display text and the camera should have a microphone so there can be two way interaction. Maybe solar panels for self charging.. or some sort of self docking system ala roomba.

I made couscous with ground meat and tomatoe sauce and some peppers and onion and it was decent. Too much bellpepper I think. Couscous is sex though.
Started to watch some of "crank" but didnt like it so much. Saw The Onion movie thoug.. lolcity.

Thats all. should be going to bed for work tomorrow.

study

2008-04-26T20:04:00.000-05:00

so she got mad at me studying at her appartment for 3hrs because she had to sit there.. guess it was a little selfish of me.

Digg - First official pictures from Speed Racer film PICS

2007-12-06T13:26:00.000-06:00

Digg - First official pictures from Speed Racer film *PICS*
Fyeah

Hello

2007-12-06T11:30:00.000-06:00

Hello world! Blog time.. I should be studying... 5 finals next week X_X