The radical judges were put in place to do a job, and they are doing it. Every woman I know is mad as hell, and every man with more understanding than a brick is also. Not to mention that the freshly-packed Trump Supreme Court (TSC) immediately went chipping away at the separation of Church and State, and Thomas has proclaimed they’ll take on Marriage Equality (as in attack) and contraception later. Everyone knew this was coming, and I’m only surprised it took this long, and that’s all I’ll say on the matter…for now.

I want to talk about happier things, or at least something else. The Seventh Law of Power is going along fine (new character(s) coming in soon), and I bought myself a late birthday present: a 3D Printer.

I always thought one of the coolest things in later Star Trek was the notion of the Replicator. More magic than technological so far as I was concerned. A thing in the wall and you ask it for precisely what you want, and if you get the request in the proper form (Earl Grey, Hot), you get it…mostly. Tell me that’s not a Genie granting wishes, though I’m a little surprised the thing didn’t try to create Earl Grey on fire. It was very literal.

Those of you who have experience with 3D Printers already know they have a lot in common with the Replicator, if far less capable. You have to know what you want, express it precisely enough that a slicer app can turn the image into g-code instructions the device understands, and the thing makes it for you…if nothing goes wrong. Though calling it a printer is a bit of a misnomer. It’s more of a mini additive manufacturing device in this context, though I have seen versions large enough to make a house.

Anyway, once I had it assembled (which is another story. Supposed to take an hour. Took most of the day), I took my first stab at it just to see if I had put the thing together right, using an existing file for the test. You can see the result above. Not bad for a first attempt, if a little fuzzy around the ears.

Next I’m going to get my feet wet in CAD software so I can make my own designs. Because.