CFTRCC

CFTRCC = Coal-Fired Two Rivers Canoeing and Camping

That was the official trip name of this past long weekend.  A few of us went to the Ozarks in Missouri for - guess what?  Some canoeing and camping.  The coal-fired part came about because the other three got a tour of a coal power plant.  Unfortunately, I had to work and miss out on that fascinating part.  They even got to go 500 feet up to the top of the stack.  Mr. P. must have thought Bex and I weren't too bad to travel with, so he invited us on this trip he planned, and we invited The Nip along as well.  It was a very nice mellow, relaxing time.  A few highlights:

1. Best breakfast pizza ever.  Mr. P. brought his dutch oven and made a bunch of stuff in it like pineapple upside-down cake and cinnamon rolls.  But the breakfast pizza was definitely the best thing that came out of the dutch oven.  Crust, black bean salsa, pork sausage, eggs, and cheese.  A great combination.
2. Two awesome days of canoeing.  We did the Current River (18 miles) the first day and Jack's Fork the second day (14 miles).  The water is spring fed and was very clear.  The weather was glorious with very little rain and temperatures in the 80's every day.
3. There was only one incident of canoe tipping, and it was Bex and I who accidentally tipped ourselves trying to go on the "challenge" route around a sand bar.  That gets your adrenaline pumping as you try to rescue all the loose stuff that starts floating away.  I think I did manage to get it all.
4. We saw lots of wildlife.  Lots of blue herons and all kinds of turtles (large and small) were probably the most plentiful.  But there were some other things to see as well including a few birds we couldn't identify.  There were an amazing number of turtles crossing the roads too.
5. We had some nice clear nights that were great for seeing the stars.  It reminded me of this song.  We didn't see the northern lights, but the stars were clear as a bell.
6. A good car ride conversation with Uncle Bex about life in general.
7. Mr. P. read us a few short stories he had written back in his college days.  The one about the poolshark was the better one I thought.  One of the morals of the story was, "Never trust a unicorn."
8. We had some other good food, most of it cooked over the campfire, but a little bit of it not cooked on the campfire - trail mix, Cheetos, homemade bread/toast with jam, ham steak, bacon, marinated pork loin medallions, asparagus, summer squash, s'mores, potatoes, onions, juicy deluxe lunch sandwiches, Juusto.....we ate high on the hog for sure.
9. Tent camping.  It's not the most comfortable, but there is still something very nice about it.  Getting back to nature and all that.  Waking up to the alarm bird and cardinals blasting their morning songs.  And to the neighbors yelling about how good Kyle's coffee was.  Sometimes diphenhydramine helps with the sleeping.
10. We were having a discussion about introverts, and I thought a very interesting point was made.  You might think that because an introvert likes to spend some time alone that he or she would like to go on vacation by himself/herself.  However, you would likely be incorrect.  Because introverts are often shy and don't always make friends easily, they like to travel with someone they know because they're not as likely to just strike up a conversation with a stranger.  As opposed to extroverts, who are often excited to meet new people and would strike up a conversation with lots of people they randomly met.

That's probably enough on all of that.  Here are some pictures.  I think Bex has one of all four of us, but I don't have one.  Oh well.  Maybe I'll update it later if I get it from her.

Selfie as we get ready to launch the boats.

One of the many blue herons we saw.

Paddling on the river.

Ozark scenery on the Current River.

The Nip cutting down a windfall with a machete so we could have some firewood.

 

Mr. P. supervising the Dutch oven.

Dutch oven breakfast pizza.

 
At her request, the list of things that made Bex cackle uncontrollably on the trip:

1. We had just finished collecting ourselves after our canoe tipping, and I was joking about how we didn't want to get our head stuck in a fallen tree like Absalom.  And probably within 10 minutes, we accidentally got a little close to a fallen tree, nearly tipped again, and I almost did get hung up in a tree.  I could have been scalped if my hair had gotten caught!  Comedy is all about timing.
2. Over supper on Saturday we had a fairly lengthy conversation about introverts.  As the conversation finished, Mr. P. stood up and said, "I think I need to go back to my tent to have some alone time."  It doesn't sound so funny as I type this, but again, it was the timing and how he said it that made it so funny.
3. Telling Bex about "diapering up and getting to work" during the car ride.  It's a long story.  Ask me about it some time and I'll tell you.
4. Doing some pre-breakfast burpees while we waited for the food to cook.

Bex did deliver a picture of all four of us.

This might almost be a candidate for awkward family photos if we were a family.

New Shoes Triple Feature

In the last two weeks I've been on a crazy shoe buying streak.  I bought three - that's right three - pairs of shoes!  It seemed like it was time.  Here are the stats:

Black shoes:
Age: 18 months
Brand:  Keen
Use:  Heavy - worn 4 or 5 times per week
Replaced by:  Dansko clog style
Travel History:  Nothing exotic if I remember correctly....mostly just within the lower 48 states.
Other comments:  The life seemed a little bit short - possibly shortened by being worn so heavily and the fact that the shoes were very hot (didn't seem to breathe well).  This resulted in my feet sweating a lot, which doesn't help a shoe last for a long time either. Mostly this pair is being relegated to my new garden shoes because of their smell.  And because a lot of the padding on the inside is worn out.

Brown shoes:

Age:  2.5 years
Brand:  Born
Use:  Medium - maybe 1 or 2 times per week
Replaced by:  Born shoe with laces
Travel History:  Traveled to Mexico twice if I remember correctly.  And lots of places within the U.S.  Maybe went to Saipan?  I can't really remember.
Other comments:  Similar to the black shoes, partly being retired due to smell and the inside padding being worn.  And because one of the leather straps is partially broken.  Because they're slip-ons, they may be used occasionally for tenting at convention or going down to the basement or out to the garage.  I'm still undecided on that.

Black sandals:
I've had this pair of black sandals for so long that I may have bought them before I started blogging.  I honestly can't remember.
Age:  Unknown - likely 8-10 years
Brand:  Dansko
Use:  Sporadic (only worn in the summer maybe once every two weeks except for when traveling to warm climates)
Replaced by:  Dansko sandals
Travel History:  Been to lots of places - a few that I can remember are Brazil, Mexico, Puerto Rico, all over the U.S., and likely some other places I can't remember.
Other comments:  A great pair of shoes.  If they still made this model, I would have bought them again.  They were comfortable, had a leather foot bed that helped keep the odor down and kept the blisters to a minimum.  Being retired due to odor and the straps being in danger of breaking.  Now if only I had an international trip planned where I could give them a proper shoe send-off.  ;-)  I was told the new sandals look less grandma-like when they're on my feet.  :-)  Hey, I was going for comfort and ruggedness.  maybe that's what grandmas want too.

Various Stuff

In some ways it has been life as usual around here.  In some ways not.  A few things going on:

• We handily won both games of our doubleheader in softball this evening.
• Last week one of my softball teammates broke her nose in two places and broke her eye socket when a fly ball missed her glove and hit her face.  Ouch!  I think that's worse than a dislocated finger.
• The week before that was our first softball game of the season.  Most of the trees didn't even have leaves yet.  I think that was a first since I've been playing.
• It feels great to walk outside at lunch time and not need a coat!
• I ran over a garter snake with the lawn mower a week or so ago.
• I knocked down a robin nest they built on the house.  And of course it had a couple eggs in it that cracked open.
• I've been doing some quality yard work.  Mowing grass, weeding flower beds, raking, re-planting a little bit of grass, washing the skylights, etc.
• It's amazing how nice it is to look out a newly cleaned kitchen window.  It doesn't really bother me to look out a dirty window, but I definitely notice how clear a clean window is.
• I trapped and killed a mouse in the house.  I'm not sure exactly how they're getting in, but maybe through the attached garage?
• Work has had a bit of a shake-up.  I was unexpectedly pulled off the project I had been working on for almost two years.  Right now I'm on "special assignment" for the launch of a new tool I've been helping to launch, and soon a new project will be arriving I'm told.
• It's hard to transition off a project you spent two years on without getting to finish it.  But....it's always exciting to get a new project too.  In some ways it's good to be off that other project because it was sucking some of the life out of me (lots of stress).
• The stuff at work has caused me to focus more on my future career plans.  It's still not super clear and of course we know everything is subject to change.  It doesn't hurt to think a little bit about it occasionally.
• Getting two other internal job offers also makes you think about career plans.   But.....I think I have at least one more circuit board design left in me.  We'll see.
• To answer the question about whether I'm going to Brazil.  I'm not planning to in the near future.  I'm just learning Portuguese because I work with a lot of Brazilians and don't always like being at a language disadvantage.
• Other than that, I've been working like a crazy person, exercising when I can, and that's about it.

And so life goes on......I'm looking forward to summer.  I have lots of exciting plans!

2014 Bushel Basket List, Weeks 15 & 16

Checked off the list - #21 - Learn Portuguese - OK, it's not like I'm fully fluent yet.  But I have gone through eight lessons twice and know how to ask where the bathroom is, say I speak a little Portuguese, I don't understand, and I know how to ask if the restaurant is located here or there.  And I have purchased Lessons 1-30, so I'm pretty sure by the end of the year I will have gone through all of them and will be able to speak about the basics.

I thought about doing the Rosetta stone thing, but I understand that you have to do a lot of that at the computer, and I really don't need any more hobbies or work that require me to sit at the computer.  Instead, I decided to give the Pimsleur course a try.  It's mostly an audio course, so I can do a lesson any time I take an extended drive in the car alone (which is quite often).  Those lessons make 30 minutes fly by in the car.

2014 Bushel Basket List, Weeks 17 & 18

Checked off the list:  #1 - Go kayaking on a river or lake I've never been on before.  On Saturday May 10th, I went kayaking on the Rock River / in the Horicon Marsh in the cheesy state.

P.S.  I know I skipped weeks 15 & 16.  I'll come back to them in a different post soon.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Respect:  High or special regard.

Pride:  Inordinate self-esteem; conceit; a reasonable or justifiable self-respect
Humble:  Not proud or haughty; not arrogant or assertive

Some events at work the last several months got me thinking about these words.  Is there a difference between thinking you're worthy of respect and having pride?  It seems like there is a difference, but the line to cross from one to the other can often be difficult to identify for our human nature I think.

Related to this, here are a few verses for thought.
Proverbs 16:18 says, "Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall."

Proverbs 16:19, "Better it is to be of an humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud.

God is no respecter of persons"

Psalm 138:6, "Though the Lord be high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly: but the proud he knoweth afar off."

 

I Peter 5:5, "Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble."

 

Romans 2:11, "For there is no respect of persons with God."

 

So there is definitely a difference between respect and pride.  And God is not a respecter of persons, but he is most definitely a respecter of spirits/attitudes.  And I've learned the hard way the last few months that there is more pride hiding in my heart than I thought.


At a workshop at the last Society of Women Engineers Convention I attended, I went to a session on how to influence people.  One thing the speaker mentioned is that one of the oldest concepts for humans is the concept of respect.  It's supposedly one of those things that's in the reptilian part of our brain.  We are constantly assessing if people are respecting us, and many times we might become angry or irritated when we feel we are not being respected.  For example, road rage:  one of the reasons we often get road rage when people cut us off in traffic is because we feel that person just disrespected us by cutting us off.

Does this need for respect come from pride?  Or do we need to feel worthy of a certain amount of respect to have proper self esteem?

It seems we need to have enough respect for ourselves and our soul to believe that God would be willing to send His son to the earth to die for us.  Yet, we don't want to feel inordinately good enough as we are that we don't need the redemption His son gives us.

Now to live humbly.....

Robotics Competition Season 2014

Ahhhhh.....it feels good to relax on a Friday evening.  I think it's the first time I've done that in about two months, possibly more like five months if you don't count when I was on vacation (out of town/coutnry) two Fridays.

Which means that I have time to update you on the robotics competition season.  We went to two district competitions, one regional competition, a state competition, and the world competition!  We only got one second place medal out of all of them, but we made it into the elimination matches every time except at the state competition.

It's probably a bit boring to go into all the nitty-gritty details on what rank we were and whether we were the captain or not.  If you want to see our season record details, go here.  Overall the robot did well.  We had a few break-downs at unfortunate moments, but our robot was feared enough in most matches that they had to double team us to play good defense on us.

To answer Eva's question about qualification matches vs elimination matches, I'll give you the general overview of a competition.  Depending on the size of the competition, there are 40-100 teams assigned to one field.  Each match has two alliances of three teams each that play against each other.  After some practice matches, the qualification matches begin.  Teams are randomly assigned to the matches and have different alliance partners for each match they play in.  Enough qualification matches are usually played such that each team plays in 10-12 qualification matches.

At the end of the qualification matches, rankings are given for the teams.  The rankings are based on a point system published at the beginning of the build season.  Once the rankings are known, the alliance selection begins.  The top eight teams start out as team captains and get to pick other teams to join their alliance for the elimination matches.  Teams can pick other team captains if they want to.  The only rule is if a team captain declines that invitation to join an alliance, they cannot accept any other invitations, but they still maintain their right to form their own alliance.

After all the alliance selection is done, a double elimination tournament is played among those eight alliances that were formed.  The elimination matches are always the most exciting part of the competition in my opinion.  New game play strategies emerge because teams know much more about each alliance that is in the elimination matches.

Here are the various competitions in pictures.

Our pit.  That's Brandon, my master wiring student this year, in the back of the pit.

At the first district competition that we went to.

Alliance selection in process at the Purdue Regional competition.

Setting up the robot during one of the elimination matches.

Fancy awards ceremony in the auditorium.

Cool light/laser show before the awards ceremony.

The master programming student at the local district competition.

State competition!

Opening ceremonies at the world competition.  One of the inspirational speakers was Reggie Showers.  He was very interesting - someone who has definitely benefited from the marvels of engineering.

Archimedes field at the world competition.

If you're interested, here's a link to one of the finals matches on the Einstein field at the world championship.  The audio isn't great, but the vantage point gives you a good view of the field.  And yes, there are truly some teams from other countries including but not limited to The Netherlands, Israel, Australia, Chile, Mexico, and Canada.

Sunday Advice

Hello readers,
I think I will be back soon with more exciting posts.  Work has been very busy and stressful.  Weekend travel has been excessive.  However, there may be a lessening in the pace this week when I'll get back on the bloggin' wagon.  Until tomorrow, my advice is to have a lovely Monday.  Don't get a case of the Mondays!

Best regards,
MelBMarvis

Slacker

I'm sure all my readers are getting kind of tired of my neglect of this blog.  But, you probably don't want to hear excuses, you just want to see results.  What's happening with robotics?  Where have I been traveling to on the weekends?  Don't I have any new original thoughts to share?

Sadly, work has been super busy.  And I've been busy doing stuff on the weekends.  And almost missing SM due to miscommunication.  And stuff and things.  No guarantees that next week will see much improvement on that situation.  But, possibly the week after will be better.  One can always hope.

And that's it for now.  If you get extra days off for Easter this weekend, enjoy them!

2014 Bushel Basket List, Weeks 13 & 14

Checked off the list:  #6 -Play Volleyball.  I played in the company indoor league in January and February, and this picture was taken when I was playing volleyball in Cozumel.  That Cozumel trip really helped me check things off the list!  I also anticipate playing this summer on the beach here, but I better not count my chickens before they hatch.

You're An Expert

I wasn't going to post anything today, but then I saw a link to this video posted on Facebook about what it's like to be an engineer in the corporate world.  Yep, pretty much.

Mex-I-Can

Hey guys!  Marvis finally took the gag off and let me write a post for once.  You see, she's been taking me lots of places......Colorado...Idaho....Wisconsin.....but she hasn't been letting me out of my shell to get some fresh air.  Thankfully she took me to see Cozumel, Mexico, and let me go out and about.  Marvis went to Cozumel with the usual suspect (Bex) and two others you may not have heard of before:  Knute and Mr. P.  A good time was had by all.

Here are some of the highlights of the trip that they said were most memorable:

1. Some super delicious food was eaten:  pastor tacos, whole chicken slow roasted and made into tacos, fresh squeezed lime juice, and peach juice from the box.  And of course some chips, salsa, and guacamole.
2. Overheard in the airport:  We got schooled by a herd of fish.
3. It was observed that experienced scuba diver guys know how to change from their swimming suit into a wet suit underneath a towel while in plain view.  And they can also reverse that process too.  David, the scuba instructor/guide could do it no problem, but he has over 5,000 dives logged.  Knute and Mr. P, who aren't as experienced, chose to use the head to change.
4. Mex and Bex did a little bit of snorkeling - enough for Mex to get stung by a jellyfish anyway.  If you don't want someone to pee on it to reduce the sting/itching, then vinegar is a good substitute.
5. Knute and Mr. P kept very busy getting scuba certified.
6. One day while Knute and Mr. P were scuba training, Mex and Bex went over to the nearby yoga studio and accidentally got in on an "energy yoga" training session.  Interesting.....to say the least.  Also interesting that we saw that same yoga instructor at the airport as we were leaving.
7.  Speaking of yoga, all four of the vacationers went over to the same yoga studio one evening to do yoga.  Mr. P said he had never done yoga before, and he wasn't too sure about how vulnerable he felt at the end of the yoga session.
8. Mex and Bex tried to go to a Sunday AM meeting, but there were some crossed wires in communication or something about when they would be picked up at the ferry dock, so they had their own little meeting on the beach in Playa del Carmen.  Wherever two or three are gathered together....sometimes a small meeting of two is good for a heart-to-heart talk.
9. One of the other guests at the rented lodging location was Clara - a spunky Canadian 67-year-old lady who loves scuba diving and still has her own advertising business.  A favorite quote from her:  "Some privacy please!"  Both in reference to hanging out by the side of the boat taking a pee and when she found the toilet in the wreck we dove.
10. Another interesting character was JoAnn...mother of the guy who owned the rental lodging (Steve)....and permanent fixture near the table by the gate playing computer games, coughing up a lung, and smoking Pall Malls.  And playing the occasional game of Backgammon with Dan.
11. The scuba diving was awesome - all four of them liked the sea turtles, coral, giant lobsters, big grouper, and all the other underwater stuff they saw.  Including the submarine, the wreck diving, and the drift diving.
12. Mr. P is just as big of an air hog as Marvis.  And maybe engineers are wound a little too tight and tend to breathe too much.
13. A dune buggy was rented for a tour around the island one evening.
14. Seen at a restaurant:  a yard of beer.  Don't picture lovely greenery with the occasional beer bottle strewn about.  Instead, picture a clear vertical tube that is three feet long and filled with beer.  It was an interesting sight for sure.
15. Several games were played....Carcassonne!, Texas Hold-Em, Fluxx, Rage, Rummy....
16. For entertainment on the plane, all four of the vacationers took the "Gifted adult quiz".  And yes, Marvis graphed the results upon returning to the U.S.
17. When a discussion on ice scuba diving started, Bex posed the question, "What happens when your ice hole freezes over?"  Ummm.....let's just hope that never happens.
18. Anna should also be mentioned - she came along on the dives to be the scuba guide for Mex and Bex.  They liked the personalized attention - one benefit of not diving with the dive shops at a big resort.
19. Eve and Dan.....they were also gracious hosts I guess you could say.  They gave tips on where the good food was and took Mex, Bex, Knute, and Mr. P to the beach on the other side.  And Dan showed Bex and Mr. P. a cenote and a sweat lodge when they went for a morning walk.
20. This was the official theme song from the trip (isolation!), and Knute spent a lot of time talking about the movie Life Aquatic.  Apparently there were some parallels.  I've never seen it, so can't really say for sure.

There's a reason it's called a jellyfish "sting".

An electrical engineer nightmare seen at the local carnival.  Do you think that's up to code?

Delicious taco breakfast at a local stand.

Why pay to go inside this......

.....when you can do this?

Beautiful Cozumel coral.

One of the favorite pictures from the trip - Mex and Bex all geared up to dive.

Bex, Mex, Knute, and Mr. P hanging out doing their safety stop.

This makes me want to relax just looking at it.

Washed up coral and coconut on the beach.

Bex and the rental dune buggy.

Waiting for food to arrive.

Mex left quite a big of stuff there that had reached the end of its life.  A pair of socks, a jean skirt, a shirt, and the sandals that she bought in Cozumel in 2010.

Characters encountered on the trip - JoAnn and Clara.

Taxing Work

It's still March, and that means it's tax time.  I did my taxes today, and since I had a salary increase and a much better bonus in 2013 compared to 2012, my taxable income increased a large amount.  This greatly increased my income tax at both the federal and state level.  Let's just say that I paid many thousands more in income tax, but I am only receiving $300 more of a federal income tax refund.  And of course the social security withholding rate has increased from last year.  My total net salary was still higher, but as a percentage of my income, the taxes increased significantly.  See the chart below that illustrates this.

As one might suppose, my effective tax rate also increased.  I graphed a little history of that.

And, to see if Obamacare has really decreased my insurance premiums, I also graphed the history of that.  I didn't go all the way back to when I started working - only as far back as when we started being paid once a month since that was the easiest to calculate.  As you can see in the graph below, my insurance premiums have continued to increase.

If Obamacare were going to truly decrease my premiums, there should be negative percentages, not positive percentages in this graph.

In summary:  I like making more money, and the government likes it too!  As a side note, if I don't have health insurance this year (2014), the tax software estimates that I would have to pay another $1000 in taxes for that.  Good thing I do have health insurance!

2014 Bushel Basket List, Weeks 11 & 12

Checked off the list:  #4 -Visit a foreign country.  It kind of feels like cheating to use the same trip to fulfill the scuba diving and foreign travel requirement, but I'll take it.  Maybe when/if I travel more this year I will have to update a few of these bucket list items.  I went to Cozumel, Mexico, March 7-12.

2014 Bushel Basket List, Weeks 9 & 10

Checked off the list:  #11 - Go scuba diving at least once.  I went scuba diving in Cozumel, Mexico on March 10th and 11th.

Robotics Update

I was in such a rush to be on vacation, I didn't have time to tell you about the robotics build season.  By the time we bagged the robot it was working fairly well, but it was a bit of a rocky start and nerve-wracking finish.  The mechanical design and build team took a little bit longer than usual to get everything going, so we wired most of the robot in about two days.  And then we had one or two days to refine the program.  The last evening we had maybe one hour to practice, and then into the bag it went.  Overall I think it will give us pretty good results, but the proof will be in the competitions.

Our prototype shooter was shooting beautifully, and for the first couple days of shooting on the real robot it was looking good.  But then it lost its mojo.  We struggled for at least two days trying to get it back. And finally on the day we had to bag it, we discovered the key to getting the mojo back was some good old WD-40 to prevent binding in the launch mechanism.

Prototype shooter

Prototype "bling with a purpose".  Our final solution is much different, but this was one concept we tried.

A peek at some of the wiring.

Robot nearly complete - some pneumatic hoses were missing, so we used last year's robot to fire the ball.

Nearly complete - ready to be bagged.

Bagged with about ten minutes to spare before the deadline.

 Cocking the shooting mechanism:

Shooting the ball!

We go to our first competition in a little bit over a week......good times!

2014 Bushel Basket List, Weeks 7 & 8

Checked off the list:  #3 - Go snowboarding - I actually have done that a couple times this year.  The first time was January 1st when Bex and I went sledding on a small hill near my house.  I also took my snowboard and tried out the hill that way.  The picture on the left is that instance.  It looks more exciting than it was.  And of course the picture on the right is from Vail, Colorado when I went snowboarding three days.