Cyber City Circuits

hahaha found this in my DMs. it’s a great question.

Happy birthday, my brothers. Semper Fi.

Can’t believe the ‘90s was almost 40 years ago.

“Makerspaces” aren’t really makerspaces, they’re like intro to engineering classes. It’s a huge pain. I went to one today to get a some filament for a calibration print on my portable printer. They couldn’t give me new filament because of some “policy.” After a manager got involved, they sold me a morsel of recycled stuff for $1. That comes out to about $100/kg, roughly 10x bulk filament cost. You also can’t take anything out of the lab. To use a hot glue gun or even a screwdriver, you have to hand over your student ID, they register a second card, you scan both. You get logged for trying to glue something 😂There are like 3 safety courses before you can use a soldering iron. Half the space is cutesy textile and fabric printing machines. The other half has a filament recycling line that costs several times more to run than just buying filament in bulk. It’s the same attitude from the student “supervisors” at every lab on campus. They explain things you never asked about. I went for some filament and got a completely irrelevant explanation of PLA vs PETG vs ABS, and was told several times it would probably get tangled without a spool. Even a total beginner just asking for filament doesn’t need to be lectured. Answer the question, and offer more if someone wants it. Every question turns into some sort of knowledge dump, and everything needs approval from someone with a title. These spaces are a fine place to learn what a 3D printer is, but completely useless for projects. I was going to put some machines in a campus lab and donate some filament, but the rule is any equipment you bring in is university property, and you’d have to ask permission to use your own machine, so they can get lost. UIUC is probably the school most fixated on getting students jobs, so you’d think they’d make it easy to work on the thing employers care about most, which is projects.

I have 32 articles published through Digikey on a range of history topics, and I guarantee each one tells a story you have never read or heard before. cybercitycircuits.com/2025/1…

New office sign is finally up. We're now officially moved in 🦾

I just realized I never really told a story from when I served in Iraq. I lived just outside the city Fallujah, Iraq, in a small Iraqi Army Base called the ‘EFIC’ - East Fallujah Iraqi Camp. There were four Marines that managed the Iraqi camp. Think of us like the camp’s facility managers and I was the lowest ranked person out of the four. I slept in a "supply closet" in a big circus tent. It was wild, looking back. Twice a day I would lead a convoy of Sudanese Truck drivers with tanker trucks. We went to a place called Camp Baharia. (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_B…) It use to be Ud*ay and Qu*say Hus*sein’s vacation resort before the invasion. Think of the resort that the last president lives at. It was kinda like that. Hunting grounds. I heard there use to be a golf course, but I never saw it. I would lead these trucks, a handful of miles outside the wire every day, then they would get refilled with water. Afterwards, I would lead them back to the EFIC. While the Marines at the water point refilled the trucks, there was a Turkish guy there with a shop inside of a shipping container. Pirated DVDs. Anything you wanted. New releases, full TV series, anything. I remember seeing Bruce Campbell’s “Man with the Screaming Brain” that way. (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_wi…) At one point, my truck broke down and needed to get repairs. The Colonel said 'Go to Camp Fallujah and drop it off for repair and then you can go to the North Gate. They get stolen Iraqi police trucks turned in all the time.’ So, I drove my truck to Camp Fallujah for repair and got someone at the shop to drop me off at the North Gate. No radio. No cell phone. They live in a whole other camp, the 'EFIC'. Only a couple Marines knew that it existed, much less how to contact it. It was a total ClusterFrak. Anyway, I talked myself into taking a truck, so I could continue my twice-daily route, but I couldn't go through the north gate of the camp. It had to get inspected at the South Gate first. Iraqi Police trucks only use the South Gate. In fact, they wish that the IP would stop leaving the trucks at the North Gate, because it is causing serious issues. The truck needs to get inspected before I start using it. I don't know, it could have an IED in it or something. We looked through it, but the truck 'has to get inspected'. The issue was that nobody can just drive the trucks to the South Gate outside of a convoy. They’re not allowed, it’s outside of SOP, IYKTYK. I drive outside the wire all the time. It is not outside of my Operation Procedure. I can do it and nobody would care, it would not be a problem at all. I am a stupid man. I said ‘yea sure’. I'll take this stolen Iraqi Police truck, that could possible hold a bomb on it, to the South Gate, how do I get there? They say go out that way for a while and take the right. Then It's around five ten miles. Can't miss it. About twenty minutes into this drive, I run into a small village. I didn’t realize the village was there. I knew there was something out in the south of the EFIC, because we had issues with them involving the camp’s perimeters, but I had never been there. This village was the reason why Marines were not allowed to drive outside the wire without a convoy. This was less than a year after the ‘Second Battle of Fallujah’ (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second…) It was the front line for the local Al-Qaeda operating positions. These were very poor directions. They didn’t know anything. Like I said, total Clusterfrak. So, there I was alone, in a manual transmission Chevy S-10 with Iraqi Police markings, that could possibly have a bomb in it, lost, driving through a village in Fallujah. Eventually it got dark and I could see the lights in Camp Fallujah. The place lit up the sky like a small city. Now, I am pulling up to the South Gate of Camp Faallujah. After hours. In the dark of night. Alone. In a stolen Iraqi Police truck. Nobody could believe that this madness was going on. Such a wild night. #WarStory #WarStories

I wish there was a way to know you're in the good old days before you've actually left them.