Pet Debate

Off and on I wish that I owned a dog.  Then I go somewhere for the weekend and realize again why I don't have one.  It's because they're too much maintenance, and I'm not ready for that kind of commitment yet.  I saw in a movie once (I think it was "28 Days") where this therapist told a person in rehab that they needed to get a plant.  If the plant was still alive after six months, then get a pet.  If the plant and pet were both still alive after a year, then they were ready for a relationship.  I'm still searching for a plant, so I guess it'll be a while.

My other favorite quote about pets is from the movie "Meet the Parents."  It's not that I necessarily agree with what is said in the conversation, but I think it poses some interesting theories.  Go to the link in this sentence for the quote on preferring an emotionally shallow animal.

That's my deep thoughts for the day.  It turns out I don't have many deep thoughts - I just steal them from movies.

Mr. Roboto: Part 2

I tried to promise myself that I wouldn't go overboard with all the robot pictures from this past weekend, but I'm not sure I succeeded.  We went to our second district robot competition on Friday and Saturday.  We didn't do as well as the one earlier this month, but it was good enough to get us into the quarterfinals of the competition.  We fought hard, but were defeated in our first "best 2 of 3" set of matches.  We'll know for sure in a week if it was good enough to get us a spot in the state competition.  The robot was being a little more finicky this weekend, and some of the teams at the competition were better.  Here's the competition in pictures.

Our team was part of a triple double balance.

The team supervises as Dave lays down on the job.  (Actually, we were troubleshooting our ball shooting mechanism with a high speed camera.)

Robot carnage.  It's not shown in this picture, but we took a header into the ground during one match.  Luckily there weren't any extremely serious issues with it afterward.

The only triple balance I've seen in person.

While waiting for the robots to all start communicating with the wireless field system, they play music and some of the students get up and dance.  This was either the macarena or cotton-eyed Joe.

  

Safety FIRST! (pun intended)  Even robot parts need to wear their seat belts.

Gratitude Photojournal 2012, Week #12

Things I'm thankful for this week:

1.  Friends who genuinely care.  (I shamelessly stole their pictures from facebook)

2.  Game night friends.  They're not quite as special as the friends from #1, but I'm still thankful for them too.  I laughed like crazy playing Scribblish.  If you're wondering, it was the mom's birthday, not the little girl's birthday.

3.  New blooms.  At least two weeks ahead of schedule.

Thoughts on the Day

Today (well, technically yesterday) when I got dressed for work, I was feeling like spring and put on my bright green shirt.  At the team meeting that morning, someone complimented me on it, and when I looked around at everybody else's shirt, I started to notice a pattern.  Gray, gray, navy blue, gray, light blue, tan, gray with horizontal stripes, gray, light blue, gray, dark red plaid, light blue, gray, dark red plaid, light blue, muted yellow with gray flowers, muted green with vertical stripes, gray, tan, navy blue with vertical stripes, tan.  Hmmm..... I'm sensing a pattern here.  I didn't get the memo apparently.

Tomorrow (well, technically today) is the start of another robotics competition.  We had to do a small emergency surgery this evening when we didn't fully pass inspection because we were driving a certain motor with a relay instead of a motor control.  So we had to switch that out (luckily we had the parts we needed).  Other than that, things are looking pretty good.  We'll see what the next two days bring.  We've done our homework for a good design and done good practicing, but I believe there's still a little bit of serendipity in every design where God manipulates all the noise factors you didn't take into account or didn't even know about.

Starved Rock Trek

Some of you may remember a post from last fall where I went hiking with a group of people at Starved Rock State Park in Illinois.  It was a great adventure, and some of us said we needed to come back in the spring to see if the waterfalls were better then (had more water running).  When Melanaway commented on that old post recently, I remembered our purpose and messaged Bex that we needed to make arrangements for a hike.  Arrangements were made, and we went on Saturday.  It was a small group - just Bex, myself, and a new friend from work.  I don't have a nickname for the new friend yet.  She-who-shall-not-be-named seems too dramatic and not correctly descriptive.  Ms. Dormant?  K-Corner?  Krix?  Hmmm.....Krix has a ring to it.  I guess I'll go with that until something better comes along.  Here are the highlights of the trip:

1. Homemade granola bars from Bex.
2. Hanging out with Bex again.
3. Chocolate covered bacon.  There's a chocolate shop in Utica, IL that sells it, so I tried some.  It's better than it might sound, but I thought it needed a little less chocolate so the bacon flavor could come through more.
4. Krix has a dog, so he came along on the trip.  He was off his leash for a bit and ended up falling off a 40-foot cliff and lived to tell about it.  He had no apparent injuries and walked another 6 or 7 miles with us (on his leash after that).  I think he was helped by hitting a tree about halfway down that kind of broke his fall, but still....that's amazing.  I was thankful for multiple reasons that he survived without incident.  That's a terrible thing to watch as a living thing plunges off a cliff without a sail or parachute.
5. Getting to know Krix.  Six hours in a car together makes for some bonding time, which is one of the beauties of road trips.  Guess who did most of the talking.
6. Saturday was St. Patrick's day.  We had forgotten our green shirts at home, so we had to eat in the restaurant that evening all out of place in our blue/non-green shirts without any green bead necklaces.
7. Temperatures in the 80's.
8. Krix was telling a story about how some of her engineering friends tried to "debug" her life when she was trying to figure out some things in life.  That expression made me laugh because I'd never heard that word used in quite that way before, but she has a point.  Engineers like to debug everything.
9. Lunch in the sun at an overlook.
10. Only one small blister on one pinky toe after five hours of hiking in my new boots.

A few scenic views we saw.

The hardy hikers.  It's not the best picture of any of us, but it'll have to do.  I forgot to mention that Bex has already taught Krix some bad habits (like giving me a hard time).

 

Gratitude Photojournal 2012, Week #11

Things I'm thankful for this week:

1.  Unseasonably warm spring days - I even caught myself complaining about being hot because it was 80 degrees in the middle of March.  Like my niece says, I tried to change my attitude into gratitude.

2.  Beautiful sunrises and sunsets - one of the bonuses of daylight savings is that it's easier to see both of them in one day now.

 

3. Hiking with friends - what a great combination of two things I like individually that also go well in combinations.

Giving Me The Boot

Yesterday evening I talked to two different people on the phone, which is a rare occasion in and of itself.  Even more rare was that they were both named Rebecca.

Check out the new hiking boots I purchased.  If you look closely, you can see that the heel in the old ones was splitting open.  They were starting to get a little uncomfortable and needed to be replaced.  Stats on the old shoes:

Purchased:  Fall 2001
Location purchased:  Reno, Nevada
Reason for purchase:  About to hike up Mount Whitney in CA - the highest point in the lower 48 states
Retired:  Spring 2012
Brand:  Vasque

New shoes:
Purchased:  Spring 2012
Location purchased:  South Bend, Indiana
Reason for purchase:  About to hike in Starved Rock State Park, Illinois - one of the seven wonders of Illinois
Brand:  Keen

Let me just say that Tradehome Shoes is an awesome shoe store.  They have my favorite brand (Born).  Plus, they carry Keen, Merrell, and a couple other really nice brands.  What more do you need?  Maybe you need a Macy's to purchase your Sunday best shoes in, but that's about it.  I also like the fact that Tradehome employs more mature employees who know their shoes and can converse about technical shoe parts like the "toe box."  If you like quality and not quantity in shoes, go to Tradehome.

Before I went to Tradehome, I went to a sporting goods store to try to buy some boots and was not impressed.  Their men's hiking shoe section was at least twice as big as the women's section, and they only had one pair of hiking boots in my size.  Plus, the shoe section employees were young high school kids (at least they looked like it to me) who didn't know all that much about providing good service.

P.S.  I did throw the old pair of boots in the garbage already.  I think 10+ years of service (even though I don't hike all that much) is honorable and deserving of being completely retired.

Life's Funny That Way

The brain is a funny thing, huh?  When I was eating supper with a friend the other week, I was asked, "Did you see any deer driving over here?"  I'm sure I gave her the "two-headed" look for a couple seconds as my brain formed a picture of a pair of deer driving down the road in their sedan with hoofs on the steering wheel (like The Far Side) until I realized that didn't make any sense.  I eventually figured out she was asking if I had seen any deer (out of their cars, possibly in the ditch) while I was driving!

Yesterday as I was relaxing in the recliner after a big Sunday dinner at Gerry and Babs' house and watching the five or six year old who was also there play with one of the other ladies, she (the girl, not the other lady) walked past my chair to go to the kitchen.  As she walked past, she paused to give me a kiss on my forehead kind of like a mom usually does to their kid.  That made me smile.

I think I kind of made a kid's day today.  I went to do my usual Monday reading tutoring at lunch, but the student I usually help was absent today, so I tutored Lawrence instead.  He had just come in from recess and was feeling blue because some kid kicked and got mud on his brand new jeans.  I don't remember everything I told him, and I don't know what exactly it was that I did that cheered him up, but by the end of the half hour he was smiling and wanted the teacher to take a picture of me with him.  That made my day too.

Gratitude Photojournal 2012, Week #10

Things I'm thankful for this week:

1. Saturday Morning Sunshine - This one is self explanatory.

2. Mom's Cooking Lessons - She taught me how to cook so I can eat some good tasting, nutritious food without having to go to a restaurant.  It wasn't really formal training, just more of an osmosis thing.

3. Absence Of a Passenger - It's not that I don't like having some company on the way to or from meeting.  Don't worry, nothing bad happened to Meeting Man.  He just caught a ride home with somebody else.  Since I've been staying home so much because of robotics the last couple months, I haven't been doing much driving.  It was nice to have some driving time where I could be alone and think and sing robustly along with the hymns playing on the CD.  Sometime I miss that from the old days of a couple years ago.

Shameless

This story makes me kind of depressed and ashamed to be associated with this state.  What in the world is wrong with people?

I forgot to tell you one of the slogans that I really like that I found on the FIRST robotics website.  "The only varsity sport where every participant can turn pro."  So true, so true.  We need more professional engineers and fewer professional sports players.  By the way, we're ranked #8 in the state in robotics at the moment.  We'll where we are after other teams go to competition this weekend.  Check out this video where an alliance managed to get all three of their robots to balance on a ramp.

I thought I had some other things, but they escape me at the moment.  Have a good night.

Thought Documentation

This is an eclectic collection (properly bulleted) of thoughts from the last few days.

• At the robotics competition when we went up to shake the judges' hands, one of the judges said "Congratulations Mom".  I guess my five gray hairs must be saying "not a teenager anymore."  Oh well.  My only consolation is that one of the mentors who is in his 20's (and looks it) got called "Dad".
• When we were growing up, sometimes I would get peeved that my brother got to go out to the field more than I did.  When I would complain to Mom, she would say, "Well, he's the one who waits around in the yard looking for a ride to the field, so that's why he gets to go more."  I realized this was true because I would get bored with waiting and go read a book or something.  What brought this to mind is a kid on the robotics team.  I was told he has slight autistic tendencies, which might explain some of his behavior.  But anyway, he usually comes to robotics at least a couple times a week, but when he comes he doesn't really participate all that much.  Mostly he sits on his computer with his headphones on and creates his own software programs that are only partially relevant to the task at hand, or else he plays video games or something.  He's really good at driving the robot, but even when he was chosen to be one of the three drivers, he would come to practice and then sit by the wall on his computer totally oblivious until somebody would tell him it was his turn to drive.  It's just a weird combination of seeming to be interested, yet not really getting engaged at the same time.  Needless to say, he's the #3 driver, I would say partially because of this.  He misses a lot of the key learnings when he doesn't pay attention.  The kids who get to do more stuff are the ones who hang around looking for something to do.  I can't decide whether to try to get him be more engaged or whether to leave him be.  I might have to consult with some teacher friends on this one.
• Understanding Engineers #1.  Two engineering students were biking across a university campus when one said, "Where did you get such a great bike?" The second engineer replied, "Well, I was walking along yesterday, minding my own business, when a beautiful woman rode up on this bike, threw it to the ground, took off all her clothes and said, "Take what you want."  The first engineer nodded approvingly and said, "Good choice, The clothes probably wouldn't have fit you anyway."
• Understanding Engineers #2.  A priest, an ophthalmologist, and an engineer were golfing one morning behind a particularly slow group of golfers.  The engineer fumed, "What's with those guys?  We must have been waiting for fifteen minutes!"  The doctor chimed in, "I don't know, but I've never seen such inept golf!"  The priest said, "Here comes the greens keeper. Let's have a word with him." He said, "Hello, George. What's wrong with that group ahead of us?  They're rather slow, aren't they?"  The greens keeper replied, "Oh, yes. That's a group of blind firemen.  They lost their sight saving our clubhouse from a fire last year, so we let them play for free anytime."  The group fell silent for a moment. Then the priest said, "That's so sad. I think I'll say a special prayer for them."  The ophthalmologist added, "Good idea. And maybe I could examine them to see if there's anything I can do for them."  They were silent for a moment.  Then the engineer said, "Why can't they play at night?"
• Understanding Engineers #3.  An engineer was crossing a road one day, when a frog called out to him and said, "If you kiss me, I'll turn into a beautiful princess." He bent over, picked up the frog, and put it in his pocket. The frog spoke up again and said, "If you kiss me, I'll turn back into a beautiful princess and stay with you for one week." The engineer took the frog out of his pocket, smiled at it and returned it to the pocket.  The frog then cried out, "If you kiss me and turn me back into a princess, I'll stay with you for one week and do anything you want."   Again, the engineer took the frog out, smiled at it and put it back into his pocket.  Finally, the frog asked, "What is the matter? I've told you I'm a beautiful princess and that I'll stay with you for one week and do anything you want. Why won't you kiss me?" The engineer said, "Look, I'm a busy engineer. I don't have time for a girlfriend. But a talking frog, now that's cool!"
• I went and attempted Zumba tonight.  I'm terrible at the salsa.  Some of the other ones I could kinda-sorta catch on to.  I'm sure it wasn't pretty.
• I had pork ribs at Chili's last night, but it was very disappointing.  They didn't hold a candle to my crock pot ribs despite the menu saying they were smoked for 18 hours.  They didn't fall off the bone as promised.  In fact, I had to gnaw them off the bone.
• On the weekend more than a week ago, I sorted through the mountain of mail on my kitchen counter.  After I was done, I saw a portion of my counter that I probably hadn't seen for more than a year.
• A couple weeks ago I went to Target for the first time in so long that I could barely remember the last time I was there.  I think it was a couple weeks before Christmas.  I don't have a disagreement with Target at all, I've just been busy and doing my must-have shopping when I got groceries or at Walgreens on the way home from the Y.
• No robotics this week (we're taking a breather), so I've been enjoying more leisurely lunches this week.  This is in comparison to eating lunch at my desk while working so I can leave earlier to help with robotics.

I think that's about all the details and drivel you guys can handle.  Have a good night!

Gratitude Photojournal 2012, Week #9

I may have to remove the "photojournal" part of the title and start calling them simply gratitude journals since I seem to have difficulty taking pictures of the things I'm thankful for.

Things I'm thankful for this week:

1.  An understanding boss - He let me take off work for robotics without taking a vacation day.  I didn't actually take this picture, I just stole it off the company directory.  In person, he doesn't look so stiff and formal.

2.  Kindness of Friends - they let me stay at their house because it was a closer to the robotics competition, and they also made some delicious eggs for breakfast one morning.

3.  Signs of spring.  In addition to the daffodils blooming, the cardinal is back and singing in the mornings.

Mr. Roboto

You're probably wondering what was so important that I've been neglecting the blog this week.  It wasn't a vacation, that's for sure.  Quite the opposite in fact.  I was gearing up for the regional robotics competition that just finished.  The team I mentor ended up in 2nd place, which we were pretty happy with.  Here's a link that shows a smattering of various stuff that happened and gives a good flavor for the field, the pits, the dancing, the cheering, etc.  You can even see me in the video for a brief second if you keep your eagle eyes on.  Also, you can see the pit area of my team right at the beginning.  They're the team shown immediately after the Code Red pit (my team has black shirts).

Here's a link to a video I took of one of the matches.  It's not the most exciting match ever as this was one of the competitions from the first day and not the finals from the second day, but it gives you a flavor for how they work.  My team isn't in the match; mostly because I didn't want to spoil my viewing experience of one of our matches by trying to video it.

Here's a couple pictures I took.

The kid on the right is one of two who were on my subsystem team.  They did most of the wiring, and I supervised and lent a hand here and there.  Behind him you can just make out my schematic handiwork.

Yeah, that's us balanced on the bridge during the semifinals with one of our alliance partners! 20 points!