Finding bugs

As a software engineer, I am often faced with the responsibility that when bugs are found to hunt out the source of the bugs and eradicate them. My wife wishes I could do the same for the ants in the kitchen, but no such luck yet.

When I was a kid, I loved trash day. My friends and I would hop on our bikes and troll the neighborhood to see what we could find. It's amazing what perfectly good junk you could find. As an adult, I still enjoy trash days and drive a little slower to see what I can pick up. Usually the professional scavengers have picked up anything worthwhile, but I have stumbled on a few things that I have even managed to convince my wife to let me keep. I'll have to share some of what I have created with this stuff later.

Last week, I peered in a trash bin in a lab at work and stumbled across a couple of gems that I had to recycle. One is kept safely tucked away for next year's white elephant exchange with my cousins. The other was a simple 8 screw terminal block. I figured I could use that for something in my work shop and proceeded to cut off the attached wires (mainly because I was lazy and didn't want to loosen all of the screws). When I got back to my desk inspiration struck.

After bringing in a camera to snap a picture of this creation, it wasn't until I got home that inspiration struck again and I realized that the bug was not complete. This post would have to wait for a second picture. Last year at a Christamas grab bag gift exchange my wife landed a tic-tac-toe game where two different color sets of stone heads were used to play. As an office toy, it is quite amusing. Too bad that the only thing that tic-tac-toe is good for is to avert global thermonuclear war. The head was perfect for my bug.

My bug creation is fairly small. If you want to see some big bugs, check out the current exhibit at the Morton Arboretum.
It's a good thing I'm not trying to evict those ants from my kitchen.