This story begins around five years ago, so settle in and prepare for a personal tale of hardship, pain, healing and reconciliation. But first the last of the scars healing from bone deep puncture wounds.

One day out of the blue my father's dog, Rocky was propositioned to be a new father of a set of fine purebred german shorthaired puppies, as the owner of the sire, the pick of the litter was bestowed upon me, by my father.

Rocky Yawning Looking Cray

Around 60 days later a pup named Teufel Hund was thrust forth into the world. The most bird hating, run loving, butt wiggling, mouse digging little monster that ever lived. I was overjoyed to take my new pup home to Laramie WY and begin rearing him at twelve weeks. He spent half of his early time with a half coyote mutt, and the other half with a blind pitbull during which, he showed he could get along with just about any canine.

Teufel Hund

Shortly thereafter I took a job as a laboratory technician at a confidential research institute which required night shifts about half of the month, this would spell trouble later. This job would also spark my interest in nano-technology as I would spend every last lunch break reading scholarly journals.

After about two months into my job, my parents announced a divorce. This spelled trouble for the stud Rocky as he was no longer welcome at his home in Douglas, as my father was in Kazakhstan mining uranium ore. Rocky was forced to go to a dog trainer in the middle of a nowhere Wyoming prairie and was consequentially no longer given the attention he desired.

Rocky lashed out in anger, at every dog around him feeling supplanted and rejected. Rixus The Undefeated Gaul, he was called, weighing in at only 75lbs among much larger German Shepherds and Labradors. He was miserable and tortured by being away from his family, locked in a small 6 by 10 kennel for most of the day, he routinely broke free. He had broken his upper canines from chewing through locks and prying the lid off the kennel to get out in attempt to escape imprisonment and find his family. The dog trainer took it upon himself to take Rockstar into his home to attempt to give the savage beast some of what he felt he deserved. It was not enough and Rockso the Dog and Roll Clown routinely caused mischief and mayhem, once stealing the Christmas ham to have himself a feast.

I was called upon to assume the leadership role and bring Rocky into my home, and hopefully bring him round to sense, whilst calming hackle. He was used to me in that role as I was his secondary master for a few years whilst I still lived in the same town as my parent's. He had a girlfriend named Piper at the time who was the female companion of my then girlfriend. Thus he respected me and was submissive to my command.

It was a good match having him in Laramie with Tuefel and I, and they got along swimmingly for many months. They would chase each other, play tug, hump each other for dominance, chew from the same bone, drink from the same bowl, and eat from the same meat heap.

Then due to my high stress job, during the middle of graveyards I developed the flu. I was wrecked physically and was unable to take them for four days on their daily hour long run. One day while I was sleepily watching them play in the back yard Tuefel picked up a red pillow they routinely played with, it was then that Rocky snapped and lost all sense. He chased Tuefel under the porch and began to maul him, cries of pain echoed through the neighborhood as Tuefel was at the mercy of Rixus' powerful jaws.

I sprang from my bed which I had positioned on the back porch, to move to seperate the dogs as Rocky was attempting to kill Tuefel who was then at the time still very much a puppy and much weaker than the older Rocky. I quickly seperated them and took a few steps back to catch my wind, and upchuck as I was running a very high fever and was very weak. Rocky sprang again and the two spiraled toward the back of the yard, as Tuefel slipped and fell Rocky was locked around his neck grinding him into the dirt going for the kill.

The fight was much more intense this time and I was bit repeatedly suffering multiple puncture wounds as Tuefel was now fighting for his life. Both dogs unable to distinguish friend from foe, locked in a mortal battle of rage, saw red and fought with every ounce of fury they could muster. I summoned the fire bestowed upon me by my ancestors and at 6'2", 205lbs of raw sinew it was a monumental effort to get them separated throwing Tuefel inside to save his life.

I was bleeding profusely at this point, coughing from overexertion, while my blood pumped battery acid, my body threatened to shut down from shock due to blood loss. I figured by the blood stains on the back porch that I must have lost at least 10 ounces of blood. I moved quickly to secure Rocky inside the garage and jumped in the shower, cranking it to full blast cold. Wrapping my hands in towels and using DE and compression to stop blood loss. I elevated my feet and when I lost shock symptoms, threw on dry clothes and hauled each dog one at a time to the vet for stitches.

They were fine with each other for a month or so after this incident, but then they fought again and again in increasing frequency, I was wise enough to wear gloves for the next incidents, and resolved them with little issues other than Tuefel losing part of an ear and Rocky being covered in scars.

Rocky's Scars

It was then I was forced to keep them seperate at all times as they would fight each other on site. I grew increasingly angry and bitter at my situation. I resented my mother, I seethed about my father, and I loathed my job, as I had pretty much zero free time and was forced to a prison like existence not being allowed company for fear they would let the dogs get to each other and cause me more financial problems in the form of dog stitches, steroids, and anti-biotics. This period of extreme anguish lasted for almost a year and a half.

I lost friendships due to my anger and eventually was fired from my job as my whole world had become this battle between my left hand and right, Freki and Geri, Rocky and Tuefel. Looking back it was as much a battle between the dogs as is it was in my mind to remain sane. The interpersonal conflict had grown to immense proportions and I could no longer take life as the prison it had become.

That spring, I moved to my father's cabin, without his permission, in the middle of the medicine bow mountain range, to rediscover my purpose and listen to the old god's and the wisdom of the wind, rain and trees. I also spent the time working with an axe and muzzling the dog's to bring them to a new compromise, that seemed so elusive the year prior. These two dogs that I love more than anything and would do anything to see them set on the right path towards peace and understanding of each other.

When the summer ended and the Wild Hunt began to make it's presence known it was time to turn over a new leaf. Thus began my journey into the world of nano-technology and a desire to make the world a better place. Almost a year and a half ago that was, and since then I have learned enough to finally make this a reality.

This last November my old-man finally returned from overseas and I was able to hand Rocky's leash back to him. We found ourselves in the prairies of south dakota soon there after having an exceptional pheasant hunt, both dogs working in unison, without an inkling of desire other than to slaughter every rooster in a 10,000 acre radius.

This super-capacitor build will be a symbolic way to place a capstone on this period of my life. The carbonizing of the dog hair and cotton will simulate the crucible of fire I went through to become who I am and will be from this day forth. Half of the cell will come from my father and his dog's hair, while the other half will come from me and my dog. Burned in fire baseless clay will be transformed into something of worth. As I heal my scars, I hope to be able to do that for the rest of the world using technology to bridge the gaps and heal the pain we have in our lifes due to our differences, that can actually make us stronger in the end. It is often hard to say it better than Iron Maiden so I leave you with the lyrics to Rainmaker.

"Rainmaker"

When I was wandering in the desert
And was searching for the truth
I heard a choir of angels calling out my name
I had the feeling that my life would never be the same again
I turned my face towards the barren sun

And I know of the pain that you feel the same as me
And I dream of the rain as it falls upon the leaves
And the cracks in our lives like the cracks upon the ground
They are sealed and are now washed away

[Chorus:]
You tell me we can start the rain
You tell me that we all can change
You tell me we can find something to wash the tears away
You tell me we can start the rain
You tell me that we all can change
You tell me we can find something to wash the tears.....

And I know of the pain that you feel the same as me
And I dream of the rain as it falls upon the leaves
And the cracks in the ground like the cracks are in our lives
They are sealed and now far away

I would like to thank Wocky McCocky (Rocky) and Jeffrey McCheffrey (Teufel Hund) for their german shorthair contribution to this project, I couldn't do it without the little monsters.

This documentation describes Open Hardware and is licensed under the CERN OHL v. 1.2.

You may redistribute and modify this documentation under the terms of the CERN OHL v.1.2. (http://ohwr.org/cernohl). This documentation is distributed WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTY, INCLUDING OF MERCHANTABILITY, SATISFACTORY QUALITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. Please see the CERN OHL v.1.2 for applicable conditions