Progress on Spaceball 1

It took a full two weeks for the US Postal Service to deliver the bill of sale and title we needed to register the van, and to make sure it was really genuinely legally ours before starting our build. I laid the groundwork for our future YouTube channel, and posted a van tour video of […]

The Salty Van

The Pirate Van is no more. Considering how many repairs it’s needed this year plus the breakdown after the RallySprint, I decided that this particular van is not suitable for extended travel, which is exactly what I want to start doing. So I sold it to someone who will continue to use it as a […]

That Time I Talked To a Space Station

I’ve told this story a few times recently in my Facebook groups. It reminded me that the average person doesn’t ordinarily make radio contact with cosmonauts in orbit around the earth. In light of my recent discussion of space and ham radio as they relate to Arecibo (Rust In Pieces), I figure I’ll share that […]

So Long, Arecibo

When we decided to take our honeymoon at a resort in Puerto Rico, I hoped beyond hope that I could convince my wife to indulge my nerdery for me. The Arecibo Observatory wasn’t far from where staying (nothing is on Puerto Rico), and I very much wanted to visit. Amazingly, she went along with me, […]

Oppositelock, Rust In Pieces

Oppositelock was a Jalopnik user community on the Kinja platform for many years. It’s where I got my start as an automotive journalist. From time to time back in the day, particularly good content from Oppositelock would get reposted to the Jalopnik front page. I decided to try my hand at writing something good enough to qualify for this, just on the […]