BX-01 Mk.I on the left (shoddy photo), and a cleaner shot of the revised and improved Mk.II on the right.

And that’s pretty much my plans for 2010 right there. This is the first of hopefully many modular test and prototyping boards. This one provides simple I/O — yes, simple, despite the tangled myriad of wires sprouting out of its frame. BX-02 will likely be a control board with TTL ICs to provide a cleaner interface for large projects.

If I ever become some kind of mad scientist — complete with evil lair and henchmen — I fully intend to include this board at some central location in my world-crushing doomsday device, purely as a homage to my humble beginnings.

That, and I think it’d be kinda funny.

I read a comic once when I was a kid, where this guy’s body was controlled from inside by all these tiny versions of himself, like some warped kind of Matryoshka doll marionette. I presume it was intended as light-hearted humour, though in retrospect there’s an oddly sinister edge to the concept.

I thought about that while I was shaving; the gel I use is oddly similar in appearance and texture to a male bodily fluid that I care not to think too much about.

How many hairs? one of them would say, staring in wonder through from the back of my mechanical eyeballs, watching the sink fill up with discarded hair. It’s like a little Vietnam in that sink. Body hair instead of trees, but smells about the same.

Many, sir, the other would reply from within the tangled mass of rusting cables inside my brain.

Many.