Sorry that I haven't been here for a while, Judah is still not sleeping well and things at work have ramped up some. I am still working on the J box and have designed and milled my own circuit board. A first for me. I am really enjoying it. Church is going well also, we really love our new community. I am going to the 12 miles of hell race this sunday morning (our church meets on Sunday night) with Matt. he has never raced before so that should be fun. I am looking forward to having a 2-3 ride if nothing else. I really doubt that I will be competition for anyone, I may race Matt. I was thinking about bringing a rope along so that he could pull me through it. There is a 6 hour race in Norman on April 1st that I think everyone from Wichita should come for. We will tailgate and have a good time. The other day we were eating at a restaurant with my sister and her family and Zeke out of nowhere says (very loudly) "We don't play paintball naked", I am not sure where he got this, but my sister sure got a kick out of it. well will try harder, I don't want to lose any of my loyal fans. Dan
I am currently designing a H bridge for my machine, a H bridge is a electronic circuit that can control large motors (direction and speed) by using a simple 2 line signal from a computer. The software that is used by my peers here is called Protel, but it is a questionable copy so I don't feel right about using it. So I went online and got a similar program called diptrace. Well I spent a lot of time making a beautiful circuit board and this morning just found out that I have to buy it to get the right file from it to run the circuit board milling machine here on campus. This is distressing to me, but I know it is part of the experience. I just emailed them and asked what their educational discount is. I think the "free educational copy" hope is a long shot. Judah slept pretty well last night, he got up at 10:30 and then at 6:00. So I am not so much of a Zombie right now. I did go for my appointment at the oral surgeon yesterday and I have a surgery appointment for the 9th to get that tooth cut out. They will put me under for that and then Angie will have to take care of me for several days. I might as well stay up as much as I can before then to get stuff done cause I will be sleeping for 2-3 days. I forgot to ask if he could save the tooth for me. it probably comes out in pieces, I could make a puzzle out of it for the coffee table.
Supposed to be 68 degrees today, That is good news even if I am stuck in my hole in the basement of Felger hall. Right now I am working on a Junction Box that will house all the power supplies and Control boards for my machine, the idea is that I can unhook it from the machine and take it back to my office to test and play with.... or fix. I really enjoy things like this and have taken it upon myself to create a J box that is unrivaled. Here are some pictures so far. As you can see it is a tool box that I got from Home Depot. I put a little, what we call in the engineering field, bling into the name plate. I did this with the NC milling machine, which it turned out better than I thought. I really had to consider whether to put the OU symbol on there or not, If I would have had a KSU powercat font handy that might have been different. On one of the ends is a connector plate with several lockable cable connectors. I am a big fan of these, don't know why, maybe cause growing up we used duct tape and had to always be careful not to jiggle them. I remember my father stepping on an open wire and jumping two feet after saying that he was surprised we hadn't shocked ourselves yet. Since there will be a lot of heat generated in this little J box there are two fans nicely located in the two top concealable drawers. I am having trouble with the H bridges we aquired from the wheel chairs, they are so overprotected (insurance I guess) that they are hard to work with. I am going to try to make my own if the boss will go for it. That will give me a good chance to learn about digital electronics. One more tool in my arsenal to take over the world, or maybe get a job. it will help with both. I had thought about putting a stereo and subwoofer as well inside this jewel, that may still happen, right now I have to convince the boss that the work put into this is worth it.
Here I am sitting in the Dental Chair taking a floride treatment. I don't know if your dentist does this or not but they spray this foam nasty on a piece of plastic and make you gag on it for a minute. come to think of it this is the most pleasant part of the time in the chair. I have to go back today to fix a filling that fell out (I need to talk to the better business people) in tooth #2, I am starting to know my teeth pretty well. #2 resides in the upper right side far back. The filling coming out is why I can't have any cold/heat back there or sugar, but it is the other side of my mouth that I can't chew on (due to #19 cracking). When I eat it is a mental exercise trying to figure out where the food goes to not cause pain. I have an aunt that drove down to Mexico one year and paid 600$ to have the dentallios grind all her teeth down and put caps on. I think I had rather get put out and have them pulled. Then get some dentures installed with a radio, maybe I could get Wi-Fi on my tooth and have it read brail email to my tongue? All good ideas. Anyone getting tired of me talking about my teeth? Angie and I are giving cards to each other for Valentines day, I made mine in the machine shop. and it will be one to remember! Well I need to do alot of things today, I worked out this morning and feel pretty good. I am back down to o162 which I haven't seen since China.
Our littlest darling has been staying up at night, we think because of constipation or maybe teething? So we feed him prunes and ambisol to cover both. Zeke is now choosing to sleep on the floor for some reason? Any child psychologist out there that can tell us why? He seems to sleep better, maybe I should take his bed away? it is cold here and it is raining. I got my new BMX helmet in the mail, it is deep red and fairly obnoxious. I was wearing it around the house last night, angie couldn't take it and took it off. I should be saving for these bike races coming up. Not really much to write about.....
"You shouldn't overspend at the moment. Frugality is important" Fortune Cookie
This doesn't make any mention of dental bills? I go next week for another appointment at the oral surgeon to talk about getting a tooth pulled, a very expensive tooth. I am trying hard to have a good attitude about this, I mean there are several guys I know that deal with cerebral palsy and M.S. so really things could be a lot worse. but at the same time I think about the items I could have purchased with the money that I spent on that tooth that is coming out. Angie says it is God's money and if that is the way he wants to spend it then amen...... That is a good perspective but one that I pass in and out of on my way to thinking "I could have gotten a really cool bike for that money!" Oh well, maybe I can get them to save it for me and I will put it on a ring or necklace or something. Maybe I will install it on my thumbdrive!! or maybe my bike to remind me how I spent that money. Judah was up a lot last night, Zeke got up early with a fever. We are dragging but not doing bad. Stay tuned, more dental stories to come I am sure.
Here is Zeke inside our bike trailer that Angie's mom got at a yard sale for us, I must say that I am quite impressed with this little contraption. It hooks to the back of my bike allowing me to turn without any problems, it is light and roomy, and it folds up to nothing. Zeke and I went for about an hour ride on Saturday. He had a blanket, snacks, toys, and a book back there. there is a fold down plastic wind shield or you can go with just the net. There is also a place in the back for groceries. I thought that it would be a good workout, but really I didn't notice it behind me other than any big hills I went on it trails really well. He had fun, we stopped at the park and played also. Judah is still a little small for the ride but I think next month he will be going as well, maybe that will be a better workout. One thing that I would change would be the suspension, it needs one. Angie read on the back something about no modifications, I said that was just for people who are not engineers. I think that I could add a swing arm with a shock without any problem, it would be more comfortable and safer (less tipping). Pretty cool to have independent suspension on my boys bike trailer, who knows I could take it on the trail! There is a race here the beginning of April that is a 6 hour as many laps as you can race. The Wichita people should come and participate but it is around 40$ to ride in it. I don't know if I can afford this (personal money) what I need is a sponsor. Angie and I went out to a restaurant in Noble that we like, they are famous for their chicken fried steaks. This is the small plate in the picture, Angie even looks really beautiful eating chicken fried steak! Valentines day is coming up, I got a scoff the other day when I asked what day it was on, apparently I should have known that. We are making cards for each other this year. I am not sure what to do, maybe something out of metal? Something that will last a while!! Well I have some writing to do on my new Macintosh. Dan
It is icy again here, the ten day forecast calls for 50-60 degree temps next week, that is where I am living right now. My sister Gail once told me not to wish my life away.... sorry sis I am not living in reality right now but at least it is 50-60 degrees where I am at.
"hello dan" Chinese neighbor that I can't remember his name. "hello" Dan as I get on my bike on the ice "you ride you bike today?" "yup" "you crazy" as he walked off.
I am currently typing on my new laptop that my professor loaned me, it is his old one but still pretty nice. It is a mac powerbook. My boss is a big mac guy and I think that he wants to prostilitize his beliefs. That is alright to me, as long as I get free stuff. I just finished a letter to Michelin tire company asking them several questions about their tread design process and inviting them to join in my research (asking for money). I think that I am getting better at writing, or at least I think that until Angie rips through it with her head in her hand all the time wondering how I got this far in engineering writing like a 3 year old. I say CAD drawings are worth a thousand words, at least until I want to show them to someone that is not an engineer. The English language is so inefficient and wordy. Angie has been very encouraging but I still get tired of trying. We had our first leaders meeting for our new church last night it went well. we are reading a book called home cell group explosion so far it is really good. I also started to reread "the insider" which is a good book on workplace relationships from a christian perspective. Here is a video of my machine so far. I think that I will use my old toolbox as a junction box for all of the electronics. Brandon thinks that I am crazy. crazy like a fox!!
