Ski jumper

Here's a freestyle ski jumper practicing. In the summer. In a pool. Odd.

Before I forget, I need to make the following Special Morrowlife Announcement: No blogging tomorrow or Friday. We're going camping and don't expect to have internet access. I realize this is a major disappointment to many of my Loyal Readers, but just think of how much you'll appreciate it when The Blog returns on Monday. And how energized I'll be from my vacation time off.

As mentioned before (I think) we're going to be camping at Anthony Chabot Regional Park - the same place we stayed over the Thanksgiving holiday. We enjoyed it then and are looking forward to a summertime stay.

In other news, progress is being made on the MARV front. LRN1 got the two Arduinos talking to each other and is close to getting the accelerometer hooked up and sending data. We've decided to do a lot more documentation on the Gardenville website - updates on a nearly-daily basis, with more detailed posts as appropriate. Our first tech spinoff of the program is the LCD board. LRN1 is getting the prototype finished today, hopefully, and we're designing a circuit board and will have a few made up. We're trying to decide whether to try to sell kits, completed boards (may cost too much to produce), or just bare boards with parts lists. Need to do a little research to see what's already available. I'm thinking the easiest way is to release the schematic, PCB layout files, and software as open-source and offer to sell bare boards to people who want them. That keeps the price low to undercut whatever prebuilt competition is out there. I think it may also maximize our profits, although kits might end up making more money. Either way, I see this as a great way to monetize open-source design. If we sold kits, we could also pre-load the software onto the chip. Could also just sell pre-programmed chips, for that matter.

Anyway, check out the Gardenville website for project status on an ongoing basis.

LRN2 is also working on his writing for the HRVA and, in an important new development, Spinfo. We're going to get the latter site going with reviews and news on free and open-source games. Still need to do a little web research and see who else is doing the same thing so we can find a way to differentiate ourselves. Also need to figure out where we ultimately want to take those sites and how to monetize them, if possible.

Loyal Reader ideas are welcome. I guess if there's no direct money to be made, we can at least hope to contribute to the community in a meaningful way and get our work in front of a few eyes.

Otherwise, the situation is stable and everybody's happy and healthy. Looking forward to hearing from LRN3 on his new job.

Weekend camping plans include geocaching, hiking, and some business strategy meetings. Also some good meals, campfires, and lots of relaxation.

I'll leave my Loyal Readers with some unfortunate criminal toilet news: stay out of the elevator.

See you on Monday, with lots of news.

Wedding day

Here are LRN3 and LRN15 getting married. A few years old, but still a good picture.

No post yesterday. Holiday. Plus, I was busy goofing around. I trust my Loyal Readers somehow survived. Thanks to Anon for missing me.

And we're going to have Extreme Short Shrift today - it's Massive Meeting Tuesday. I'll be there from 7:00 until at least 10:00. And I'm already sleepy here on the train. So I took a nice, long nap.

Nice weekend. We bought a new antique dresser for me. It was in pretty good shape but needed refinishing, which LRN4 has already started to do. She had just finished her desk chair (which looks great), and she was going to start some upholstery projects, but they're on hold for a while. My old dresser is pretty rickety, although it still looks pretty good. I think it's going into the guest room when my new one is ready.

Spent a lot of time getting a bunch of new TV shows for Larry and Joe the AppleTV. I selected a bunch of podcasts and started them downloading. Had to pause them with about a hundred left to go when Larry's hard disk filled up. I'm relocating Larry's iTunes library to the terabyte disk and will let it resume the download when that's done (i.e. when I have a few minutes free). When it's all done, Larry will have a thousand podcast episodes for our viewing convenience. Should last a little while.

Any toilet news today? Why, yes: stay out of my pool.

And for any Loyal Readers still looking for that special summer work opportunity: Go to Maine.

See you tomorrow.

Island

Here's a nice little island at Chabot park. Part of my famous Camping series.

Well, another work week comes to an end. Spent the evening quietly at home. Enjoyed every quiet minute of it. We skipped adult dance instruction at the church this evening. Turns out we preferred a quiet evening at home.

LRN1 has decided to change the development system for the MARV from the Arduino's IDE to Cocoa, using some libraries provided by the Arduino people and a toolkit called Crosspack, which is an AVR cross-compiler provided by some third party. I'm probably going to get my machine set up to do the same thing, just so I can keep up with events. I'll probably drop my Arduino simulator in favor of a native Mac or Linux navigation program that can be recompiled for the Arduino. Must remain flexible.

In today's food violence news, the gorillas are getting restless. Keep your bananas locked up.

Still no winners in my Dollar Movie Challenge. Still no entrants, for that matter. What's up, Loyal Readers?

Monday is Memorial Day - three-day weekend! See you then.

Penguin TV

Here's a screenshot of Tux sitting on an AppleTV, part of the wonder that is the AppleTV Boxee installation. Part of my famous Machinery series.

Lame Great Art, I know. It's late and I need to get to bed. So no searching my voluminous archives for actual Great Art tonight.

Well. It appears the Comcast people employ a web crawler to search for negative comments about their service. Check out yesterday's comments. Kind of creepy, no? As if that guy just happened to be reading my blog on the day I happened to discuss a problem I had with Comcast's service. Can we at least give the guy credit for trying to be polite and helpful? Possibly, but I must say I'm a little put off by the friendly act. And by the fact that they're looking in the first place. Loyal Reader comments? Creepy or nice?

Work went well. Sadly, it appears there was a T-38 crash on the base today. I haven't heard any details yet, other than what's on the public internet. I hope the crew was rescued. We were grounded this evening for a day or two while they do whatever they have to do.

Attended a Stake scout Court of Honor. It was sparsely attended (we were the only ones from our ward other than a member of the Stake YM presidency) but nice. We were glad to be there.

Also got Moe set up properly again as a Linux server. I got a JBOD-like setup going, using a product called LVM. It was a little complex to do, but there was a great online tutorial, and it's working great. I now have a 200GB virtual root partition made out of a 40GB, an 80GB, and a 100Gb disk. Yes, I know there are 20GB missing, but that's taken up in the additional partitions and in some extra space in each of the disks for buffering. Or something like that. Don't bother me with details.

I also set up Moe so I can connect to its X server directly from my Mac, which means I can execute programs on Moe from Curly's desktop, without dealing with the excessive overhead of VNC. Plus, they look just like Mac programs, which is pretty cool. I'm moving development of the Arduino simulator over to Moe. At least that's the plan right now.

Now here's a cause I think my Loyal Readers can get behind. Remember: Just because nothing really happened, doesn't mean you shouldn't do something. We're all Roanoakians now.

In today's toilet news, the internet comes to our rescue once again: we no longer have to worry about missing the best part of the movie to answer the call of nature. What will they think of next?

I've offered a dollar to the first of LRN1 and LRN2 who can figure out a movie quote. So far, nobody has claimed the prize. So I'm opening it up to all my Loyal Readers (except for LRN4, to whom I already revealed the answer). What movie does this line come from:

"The remuneration at first will be small; we're a growing concern."

See you tomorrow.

Spectral reader

Here's the spectral image of LRN2, haunting the camera at the Miller house ruins at Mt. Madonna County Park. Part of my famous Camping series. Pretty spooky.

Nice day. We had a few unfortunate discoveries at work today, but that's why we test things. And at least we found them in our testing and not on our aircraft. So it was a nice day. Also sunny and pleasantly warm.

The internet died for us this evening for about half an hour. It finally came back up just as I reached the person at Comcast who could help me. Typical. Dumb old Comcast. I wish there were a reasonable alternative. And they are well aware there isn't. The most aggravating thing was that as soon as I was finished complaining about the poor service, she tried to sell me more. Unbelievable.

Anyway. I went to the branch's Elders Quorum presidency meeting this evening, only to find out they held it two hours earlier. Oh well. It gave me some time to go home and fight with Comcast. Also to change me clothes and relax at home a little. No complaint. I'll meet with the presidency again next week.

There's important toilet news today: Keep your arms out of the toilet. Let the tooth go. Actually, I can't think of any toilet I would want to stick my arm in less than one at the ballpark.

I subscribed to a bunch of new podcasts yesterday. The church has started an internet radio station called the Mormon Channel. They have some original programming and are getting some other stuff from BYU, Bonneville Media, Deseret Book, and various other LDS-related sources. Their original shows are also available as podcasts. So I subscribed. Haven't heard any of them yet, but I'm positive I'll enjoy them. Recommended, sight unseen. Or sound unheard, I guess.

They're also releasing an iPhone app Real Soon Now that streams Mormon Radio live. Very cool. Plus, you can embed it on your Facebook page or elsewhere, like this:



Give it a listen!

Anyway. Time for other things. See you tomorrow.

Family portrait

Here's a nice family portrait of LRNs 5, 6, and 12. Taken several months ago when LRN12 had substantially less hair. And wasn't quite as cute as she is now.

Slight correction from yesterday: the Great Art should have been credited to LRN1's roommate. Or somebody. Nice photo.

Three days of Morrowlife goodness and no comments. Sigh. Speaking of which, the financial juggernaut is up to $14.77. But no clicks yet this month. Double sigh. Riches are so close, yet just out of my reach.

Busy day. I had my quarterly PPI with my leader. Had to leave for the church a few minutes after my (early) arrival home. Fortunately, the visit was short. And pleasant. Also had a very nice dinner in those ten minutes at home.

Day otherwise normal. Much cooler weather than the weekend, but absolutely pleasant. No complaints.

Took the late train this morning. Got up a bit early for it, so I had a little time. I fixed the bug in the Arduino simulator and implemented another instruction. Daily small progress is probably the best I can hope for. Fast and steady wins the race, but slow and steady gets there too. I really want to get this program working and published. Need to spend some train time documenting requirements and conceptual design.

Speaking of which, I need to expand the MARV documentation a little too. We're making some changes for economic and experiential reasons. Also learning more and making decisons that need to be written down.

Also spent a few minutes looking at web writing style guides with an eye towards making it easier for LRN2 and LRN1 to create some new content for Gardenville and the HRVA. Found a good one at A List Apart, which I think we'll use as the basis.

Also made a financial proposal to my writers. I'm hoping to get something settled soon and get some content up.

Let's check for today's food violence news: No violence has actually broken out yet, but there's certainly potential.

See you tomorrow.

Standing reader

Here's LRN1 standing on a rock. A big rock.

No Friday post. I got busy.

Nice weekend. We celebrated LRN4's birthday in a low-key-but-dignified way. Happy Birthday, LRN4!

Had the family get-together on Saturday because of our busy Sunday (her actual birthday) plans. The Loyal Readers came over and we had a nice day.

LRN1 and I have been working on our MARV project and making some progress. We have the accelerometer and the SD card holder. LRN1's working on reading and writing files on the card - can't do anything with the accel yet because we need another little board to convert 5-volt electricity to 3.3 volts. That should be here Any Day Now.

Meanwhile, I'm working on my Arduino simulator. It will run under Linux. So far, I have the basic framework set up and can process two of the unique Arduino library functions and can nearly do a third. From here, it's pretty much a matter of cranking through the library routines.

Still don't know how I'm going to allow the user to plug in virtual devices to the sim. I'll try to provide virtual LEDs and other common devices, but the users need to be able to define their own too. I have some ideas but need to let them percolate a little.

Hot, hot weekend. It was well over 100 Sunday and just about as hot on Saturday. Strangely, we never got in the pool. It was still quite warm this morning and during the day, but I was surprised to discover that it had cooled way off when I left the office, and some clouds had rolled in. We even had a few large raindrops at the platform just before the train arrived.

My father reported they had frost on the ground in Michigan this weekend. I expect they'll get our heat wave within a few days.

Let's see . . . what else is going on? My talk in church on Sunday went pretty well. Two members of the Stake Presidency were there, so they had an opportunity to judge my abilities, for better or worse. Fortunately, I'm more interested in doing my best as long as I'm needed than in keeping my "job."

Also spent plenty of time working on Young Women camp and other YW topics.

We have some important food violence news today: if the bank robbery doesn't work out, you can always eat the evidence while you wait for the cops to come.

Plus, this just in: if ever there was a vegetable not to fight over, it's this.

See you tomorrow.

Spaceman

Here's LRN2 getting ready for his upcoming trip into space. Need to get a less casual spacesuit to go with that helmet. Taken at the Chabot Science Center and part of my famous Camping (we were on a camping trip, after all) and Machinery series.

Normal day at work. Busy evening last night, making YW camp phone calls. Many more phone calls tonight. I'm making progress, though.

The work week's over! Lots of stuff on the agenda - birthday shopping for LRN4 (highest priority), washing one or more of my many cars, attending a camp-related meeting on Saturday morning, setting up tables and chairs for that meeting, writing a talk (also a high priority), celebrating LRN4's birthday, working on my Arduino simulator, working on the robot, and . . . umm . . . a bunch of other things. Ought to be a busy weekend.

It's supposed to be quite hot this weekend, with temperatures in the 90's on Saturday and hitting 100 on Sunday. We might want to spend a little time in the pool. And crank down the A/C. I'm looking forward to it.

Let's check today's food violence news: Finally, there's some good news.

See you tomorrow.

Cache finder

Here's LRN4 finding a cache at Mt. Madonna. Part of my famous Camping series.

No post yesterday. Didn't get out of Massive Meeting Tuesday until about 10:00 and then had to write several Camp-related emails and make a phone call before I could go to bed. No time for blogging, especially when we consider the fact that I drove to work today, so there was no time for writing.

LRN5 seems to think I should expand my current events horizon beyond food violence and toilet news. I don't know - there's so much going on in the FV&TN world. However, when my Loyal Readers cry out, I must respond. I will find an additional topic Real Soon Now.

More Camp phone calls tonight. A lot more. I got several additional names last night, and we need to have as many people as possible ready to start serving by Saturday morning. Fortunately, I enjoy making the calls.

Today's food violence news: Don't send your waffle back. The great thing about this incident is that the perp is already back at work. Now that's a tough restaurant.

See you tomorrow.

Big tree

Here's a fairly large redwood, spotted on Mt. Madonna. Part of my famous Camping series.

I have lots of Great Art in the queue, but not in my Great Art folder on Curly the Computer's desktop. So I can't use it yet. Need to get that done soon.

Went home way early from work today to go to the dentist's office. I got two fillings replaced. They tried to talk me into spending more money to get non-amalgam fillings, right up to the time they started drilling. I stood my ground. Spent the afternoon with a numb face (insert your joke here) and feel fine now, with a slightly sore jaw. Next set of fillings: May 28.

The weekend was nice. Weather was beautiful and warm, we got some things done on Saturday (full-service lawn care, washed LRN4's car, cleaned filthy pool and pond filters, did a bunch of programming) and had a nice peaceful Mother's Day on Sunday. The Loyal Readers came over for the afternoon, which was pleasant.

LRN1 is ready to order a few supplies for the MARV, so it's time for me to go. Food violence and/or toilet news tomorrow. See you tomorrow.

Swinging around

Here's one more look at that nauseating spinning swing ride at Great America. I tried to get one with a Loyal Reader or two in it, but don't think I succeeded.

Beautiful, sunny day, and beautiful, moonlit night. Couldn't be prettier. I took the Miata to work and enjoyed it, in spite of an exceptionally long evening commute.

Went to the Stake dinner and talent show this evening. I enjoyed it every bit as much as I expected. Maybe even more. It was nice to be out, anyway.

And it's too late for much else. See you tomorrow.

Small cache

Here's LRN2 finding a geocache in front of the grocery store near Dos Reis. Incredibly, part of my famous Camping series. Given where the cache was, I think we'll call it part of my famous Machinery series too.

Another warm, sunny day. I didn't see much of it. Had customers in from 9:00 until about 2:30, then a meeting from 2:30 until 3:00, then a meeting from 3:00 until about 4:00, then about 20 minutes of work. Then the trip home.

Fortunately, the meetings went well. Our customers were pleased with the presentation we gave them and I think it was a success.

I haven't heard from LRN3 yet. Let's hope his music job turned out to be what he hoped for. Drop a note, LRN3!

I'm hoping to have a few minutes this evening to do a little more work on Shemp, the downstairs TV. Need to reinstall the video codecs so it can play the content stored on Larry. I was disappointed to discover that iTunes refuses to allow the user to share video content across the LAN. Music, yes; video, no. Stupid iTunes. I may have to copy some or all of the content to Shemp. Sheesh.

Anyway. No other plans tonight except for Young Women phone calls and reading. Should be pleasant.

Today's food violence news: Sometimes you just have to get the job done. And who better to do it?

See you tomorrow.

Dream show

Here's the first ever Boxee-based TV show played by Joe, my beloved AppleTV. Jeannie, of course. Featuring cameo appearances by Loyal Readers Numbers One, Three, Five, and Fifteen.

Happy Seis de Mayo! I plan to celebrate the same way as I did yesterday. Not much. Not anything, in fact.

Decent day. The rain has stopped again, possibly for good this summer. Did I mention I drove the convertible to my short stay at work yesterday? Got drizzled on for a while. The windshield wipers ran but I stayed dry. It was actually pretty nice - kept it from being too warm and was kind of pleasant.

Anyway. I was informed last night that LRN3 has scored a part-time music gig, working on recording, mixing, and playing the guitar in the recording studio. From the sound of things, they do some kind of religious music, which isn't a bad thing at all. Good luck, LRN3! When the part-time jobs clouds start raining, they sometimes pour.

LRN3 was planning to start the music gig last night. How did it work out, LRN3? Was it what you expected?

Anyway. I had an interesting experience on the train this morning. There's a woman who frequently rides her power chair onto my favorite car. She was there this morning. I overheard her telling the fare inspector she had forgotten her snack this morning and she needed to eat right away (turns out she's diabetic). The inspector had no food, so I dug my delicious peanut butter granola bar out and offered it to her. She accepted it.

The inspector offered to pay me for the bar, which I declined. She offered to buy me a sandwich at the Fremont station, which I also declined. I was just happy to help somebody in need. A little later, the inspector brought me a free pass for this afternoon's ride. I accepted it with thanks. What a pleasant way to start the day!

Going to the branch's Elders Quorum presidency meeting this evening. I haven't been in a while, and they seem to have changed the time to accommodate my schedule, so I'd better go. I'm responsible for helping them, so I want to be there anyway.

Today's part-time job opportunity: Hold the world's best Odd Day celebration. There's easy money.

LRN1 has suggested a novel way to get my long-sought-after glowing snake: have LPN2 eat a glowing puppy. Might be a little expensive, but it's an idea. LRN4 fears it might just end up as glowing snake poop, though. That would be cool too, of course.

See you tomorrow.

Another horse

Here's yet another gallant steed on the Great America Carousel. Part of both my famous statue and machinery series.

Went home early from work today - feeling sick. I don't know if I'm coming down with something or I'm having a stronger than usual reaction to pollen and dust in the air. But I do know I haven't been feeling well. Sigh.

Otherwise, nothing going on. I started reading Mark Levin's Liberty and Tyranny this afternoon, right before my nap. So far so good, although I suppose it did help me with the nap. I think it'll turn out to be a good book, though.

Made a few more callings for Young Women camp this evening. These last few callings are the tough ones. I'm getting some refusals and a whole lot of people who have to think about it. Most of the callings until now have been accepted immediately. Which I like. We'll get it staffed, though . . . somehow.

Today's toilet news: they're getting easier to find.

See you tomorrow.

Madonna amphitheater

Here's the amphitheater at Mt. Madonna. Part of my famous Camping series.

The blog is back! Due to unfortunate technical problems beyond my control (stupid old Blogger), Thursday's post didn't make it here until sometime today, and I didn't even bother trying on Friday. Thanks very much to good old Anon for noticing. Twice.

The weekend went pretty much as planned, except that it rained pretty much the whole time (yea for the farmers), so yard work was limited, no pool or pond filters got cleaned, and LRN4's car wash was delayed to next weekend. On the upside, LRN4's brake rotors got changed, the Honda's oil got changed, and the brakes on the Honda and the Miata were inspected (and passed). Lots of other stuff too, none of which comes to mind.

Oh yeah, I also installed Linux back on Shemp after MediaPortal didn't survive installation of the new monitor. Linux didn't work either - jumpy, unviewable video playback - so Windows went back on. Sigh. There's still a bunch of configuration to finish. Again. Let's hope I get it working once and for all Real Soon Now. On the other hand, at least it's an entertaining hobby.

LRN1 and I did some work on the Robotic car. Well . . . he did most of the work, but I provided backup. It now drives itself, following a pre-programmed sequence of events. Pretty cool, but not nearly enough. Oh, no. It must have sensors. And brains. Well, simulated brains, anyway. I spent some time on the way home from work this afternoon jotting down a few notes on an inertial navigation system. Need to buy a two-axis accelerometer and start programming it up. I'm also thinking of a simple simulation of the system, probably on my Linux virtual machine. Or maybe on my phone - it would be way slower, but I could work on it on the train. We'll have to see how it goes.

The Loyal Readers were here for the weekend. Always nice to have them here. LRN6's back is bothering him - stay healthy there, LRN6!

Otherwise, slept, commuted, worked, commuted, ate, and had home evening.

Started listening to the April General Conference on the iPod this weekend. I usually get much more out of it the second time. I'm into the Saturday afternoon session already, having heard both the Young Women and last October's Relief Society meetings in addition to Saturday morning. Should finish it up within a couple of days.

There's highly important toilet news today: they're lifesavers! Recommendation to airport managers everywhere: pile up the porta-potties at the end of every runway.

See you tomorrow.