morrowlife

Here’s LRN2 sitting at the organ in a Protestant church in Modesto a few months ago.  He was playing in the annual spring recital and did an outstanding job, as usual.  Of course.  Since there’s an organ in the picture, and organs are quite complex, beautiful machines, this is officially part of my famous Machinery series.

Another normal day.  Had a one- or two-dollar day at work.  Morning was extremely busy, but I could have accomplished more in the afternoon, I think.

Can’t take too much time tonight.  I want to do a bit of work on the church iPhone project, and it’s already a bit past 8:30.  Need my beauty rest.

Not much else to report.  I don’t remember whether I mentioned the radio antenna on my beloved pickup was stolen the other day.  Or night, I suspect.  Who steals a cheapo radio antenna?  I ask you.  I can get the whole antenna, including the cable, for about ten bucks, so the mast itself must be about five.  Who steals a five-dollar antenna?

Probably someone who had somebody else steal their antenna, I guess.  Well, I’ll buy mine, thanks.  But still, I ask you.

Off to work on the iPhone project.  I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this important toilet news: look before you sit.

See you tomorrow.

Here’s the completed SD Logger board hooked up to my other Arduino Pro Mini, immediately following the final test.  It works!  Bwaah hah hah!  Soft focus Great Art courtesy of the famous iPhone-cam.  Part of my famous Machinery series.

It turns out that slightly out of focus Great Art is the perfect medium for my electronics projects – can’t see the bad soldering job quite as well that way.

Anyway, I’m hoping to genericize the software tomorrow before stake conference meetings start and then get the whole thing photographed a bit better and publish it on g’ville.  Then it’s on to the accelerometer and trying to make it work.  Lots to do.

Nice off Friday today.  The weather was warm and sunny – just about perfect, in fact.  Didn’t do much besides work on the Arduino project.  We installed LRN2’s new bedroom ceiling fan this afternoon – it looks great and should add some badly-needed air motion in his room.  LRN4 put some badly-needed new finish on our teak bench and table out on the deck.  And that’s about all I can remember.

Here’s a link to an article on one of my favorite subjects: celebrity loudmouths.  I hadn’t been paying enough attention to realize that Paul McCartney is an idiot.  I guess he thinks being an ex-Beatle makes his opinions count more than those of people who actually know anything.  Shut up and sing, Paul.

I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this exciting combined job opportunity and toilet news: flush-apalooza!

See you on Monday.

Here’s my protoboard for the SD Logger project.  What a thing of beauty.  And far be it from me to point out any of its obvious defects.  Just bask in the glory.  I wrote a little post about it at the Gardenville website this evening.  Check it out!  Tell a friend!  Buy all our playsets and toys!  I really need to put some Blatant Commerce on that site, don’t I?  Part of my famous Machinery series.

No post yesterday.  As predicted, I had a church meeting that required me to go directly from work and return home just in time to eat a bit of dinner and go to bed.  So, no post.  I have no idea how my Loyal Readers survived.

Busy weekend planned.  I have to prepare a talk on Saturday morning, attend a youth dance on Saturday evening, and have my adoring family gather around me and heap praises – and gifts – upon me all day Sunday.  Gonna be stressful.

Plus, I hope to find some time to get some more soldering done on the Arduino SD Logger.  I really want to get that done so I can clean up and update its software, write a bit about it and publish it on the Gardenville website, and start working on the accelerometer navigator.

Still have to decide whether to design a board and have a couple built.  I really want to do it, so I guess I might just as well.  Probably should have skipped the breadboard step and gone right for the custom boards.  If I had it to do over, that’s what I’d do.  Mainly because I had no idea how hard it would be to build that stupid breadboard.  It’s too late now, though – the Arduino and SD card reader are both soldered to the thing and way too hard to get back off.  So I’ll make the best of it and finish it.

And the most important question of all – what color should I choose for my company’s boards?  I’m thinking of yellow or orange – they’re kind of gardenish colors, don’t you think?  Other suggestions?  I need a corporate identity, and I might as well get started right.

I also need to practice my C++ and get ready to start learning Qt, as discussed earlier.  Also need to finish the Mitt Romney book.  Only a few pages to go, and I’m still enjoying it.  Recommended conservative thinker reading.

I decided to register with the church’s community software development project.  They’ve had an invitation out for quite some time and I’ve been wanting to do it.  It only took a couple of minutes yesterday, and I’ve already received a couple of specific invitations to do things.  I offered my services to help manage a new project they’re just getting started on.  Sent them a bit of a resume this afternoon and we’ll see whether they’re interested in what help I have to offer.

I attended an interesting discussion group this afternoon on my company’s advanced engineering think-tank-type work.  They’re working on some very interesting long-term research.  That’s the kind of work I would absolutely love to be involved in.  Sometimes I wish I had stayed in school and gotten a PhD and spent my career teaching and doing research.  I don’t know if I would have really enjoyed that, but it seems attractive.  I kind of doubt that’s a feasible thing at this point, but I’ve been puzzling over how I could do some part-time research projects – maybe get onto the cutting edge of software thought in some area.  My friend Grant is self-employed and does that kind of stuff.  I think the biggest problem with trying to start my own software R&D company is that I can’t think of a business model for it.  That’s the kind of stuff that’s done by grant-supported institutions like universities and well-established labs, neither of which am I.  I also have gotten used to making a bunch of money.  Must think harder.  Can it be done part-time?  Would some additional formal education be a good way to start?  Do I have time for that?  Am I interested enough in it to make the sacrifices necessary?  Can I skip that and just start reading some of the journals and doing a bit of work on my own?  Why am I asking you?

Anyway.  Sounds like a lot of fun to me.  In the meantime, I’ll stick with my Arduino project and try to get it working, self-publish the results, and see if I can get anybody interested in it.  Navigating via a single accelerometer with a very low powered computer isn’t exactly cutting-edge stuff, but it’s interesting and challenging, and that’s a step in the right direction.

Got this month’s issue of Imprimis, the interesting and free monthly newsletter from Hillsdale College in Michigan, today.  They’re a very conservative and constitutionalist institution, and their newsletters generally consist of a reprint of a recent speech given either on their campus or at their think tank in Washington.  Highly recommended reading for conservative thinkers.  Interested Loyal Readers can sign up here.  Fair warning – each issue contains a pitch for money.  They’re not obnoxious, though.  Not nearly as obnoxious as the ones I get from Texas A&M every year, or that LRN4 gets from BYU.

My liberal thinker Loyal Readers are welcome to give their reading suggestions in the comments.  Let’s be fair about this, after all.

And that’s about it for tonight.  More information on my software think tank to come.

I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this shocking food news: funeral food fraud.

See you on Monday.

Here’s my new transportation. I’ll definitely be stylin’ on that thing. Part of my famous Machinery series.

Wow. Is it Thursday already? The long, long weekend has begun. And not a moment too soon, says I. There’s tons of stuff to do. I need to do the filters, get new tires for the Miata (and that will be the last car to get new tires for quite some time, fortunately – I can’t afford such an expensive habit), do a bunch of stuff for my church job, get some laundry done, and a whole bunch of other things. Fortunately, they’re all written down in my beloved iPhone.

Besides, I’m ready for five days off. Really. I’m also ready to get together with LRN4 and LRN2 and other family members in Las Vegas on Sunday. I’ve truly enjoyed the solitude, but it’s also been a bit lonely around here all by myself.

Nothing much else for tonight, so I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this exciting, soon-to-be-a-major-motion-picture toilet news: toilets in space (link warning: autoplaying video)!

See you tomorrow.

Here’s something I’d love to have – a Model T-era drill press. Great Art taken on Christmas Eve at the Sacramento automotive museum and part of both my famous Workbench and Machinery series.

Another Extreme Short Shrift evening. My brother-in-law Ken was here this evening for dinner, which was a treat, as always. He’s heading back for Las Vegas tomorrow morning.

LRN2 went to work with me today, as planned. We didn’t do a whole lot of the activities they had – pretty much just went to meetings and did normal work stuff. The one fun thing we did do was fly an airplane simulator. It was just like Flight Simulator software, but there was a simulated airplane cockpit. LRN2 thought that was cool and so did I.

Otherwise, a normal day. It was fairly sunny again after a couple of rainy days, which was nice. Should be sunny and warm for the next five days or so, after which we’re expecting rain again. It’s been an interesting spring around here – much more frequent rain than we’ve become used to. Can’t complain about it, though.

And I’ll leave you with this surprisingly good food news: chocolate saves!

See you tomorrow.