While the young ones take a quiz
I am standing at the podium in my classroom right now as my students take a quiz, I got this idea to make them struggle with an example problem before I go over it in class, I will give them full credit for their attempts but I want them to think about it first. We will see if this idea works or not. One nice thing is that I don't have to lecture while they take the quiz, I justify it by saying they are teaching themselves, and if they don't listen to themselves then they have more problems at hand.
10 out of 13 students are here today which is much better than usual, I don't know how to make them come to class, I am not their father so I guess that is not up to me..... but they are missing out on an easy quiz.
life is pretty good, I am very happy to have my family back home, it is still raining here and will all week. I am thinking about putting pontoons on my bike to float to work, I need some sort of umbrella that covers all of me. I would get mudflaps if they didn't make a bike look so dorky (apologies to all of you that have mudflaps).
I tested one axis of my force torque sensor yesterday and it works pretty well. using a nice DAQ board (computer interface) I will be able to measure changes in force of .03 lbs. This is much better than .23 lbs in the last one. I am still wondering if I could make it better? I am encouraged by the results though, I think Doc will be also. I have not told him yet cause I might try to make it better and I know he would say it is good enough move on, which is not bad advice. I get the impression sometimes that he is more intent on me graduating so that he can move on than making sure I learn as much as possible.
We did sell a rover to one of the X prize companies, Matt has to have it built by september. He figured up it costs 4 grand just for parts not to mention his labor (which is very cheap cause we are grad students, we resemble those guys on the side of the road wearing orange jump suits picking up trash).
We are headed home this weekend for a BD party for Judah (1 year) and the 4th of July party at my sisters house. I am trying to get punk Roman to come home with us to experience the Flippos but we shall see.
Well quiz time is almost over, I have milked it for all I can.
tired and looking forward to tomorrow
Tomorrow I will ride with some friends to Wichita and Angie will pick me up, we will go to medicine lodge for a birthday party then back to Oklahoma. I really miss them.
I showed the silo video in class the other day, they weren't as entertained with it as I had hoped. one international student asked what a silo was. it was a stretch but I tied the video into the lecture that day (equilibrium of forces in a static body). I was disappointed at their lack of response..... kids these days ... no soul.
Class is going well, the week is almost over. I am post cooking my strain gages right now and will wire them up later on to test to see if this force torque sensor will work or not. if it works that will be good progress for the week.
Matt and I went to see Oceans 13 last night, really good. I never saw the 2nd one but I liked this one.
Right now as my gages are cooking I am working on a web site for my church, I would to make it all one FLASH program, we will see. I am realizing that it is more difficult than I thought I may have to scale down my ideas.
Dusty has been working her little motors off, I have her vacuuming twice a day. I either will have really clean carpets or all the strands will be sucked out in which case it will resemble my bald head.
living on Punk time
I was up until 5:00 am in the machine shop this morning, Matt is very pleased that I have been influenced by him. Really as I think about it, I feel about the same now as I do when my kids don't sleep well. I went home through the rain and slept till 10:00 came back and Matt was still here. I think that he a vampire, I know that is not a nice thing to say about anyone. I love the guy to death but if he had sharp teeth and got his steaks rare I would not be surprised. That may be the reason the ticks really like him more than me?
Speaking of Punk Roman, he didn't pay his gas bill and they shut him off. he is now taking cold showers and it will be a total of 4 days until they turn it back on. I was telling him that they could turn it on in minutes but they were punishing him for not paying. ahh utilities can't live with them without paying and you can't live without them and still be married.
I am a little tired right now. I did get my part milled last night, so the next few days I will hand finish it and sand it, I am lucky in that there is a Star Gate marathon going on this week that I can watch while I work.
I miss my family, single life is fun for a day then it just gets sad. They are my deep joy.
I might take a nap on the couch in the lab but I am afraid what Matt would do to me, maybe I should get some garlic.
Blues and BBQ
For fathers day angie packed us up and didn't tell us where we were going, we ended up in bricktown (downtown OKC) for the Blues and BBQ festival, it was really fun. The boys danced and we ate some good meat. I heard "she caught the katy" and sang along, the Blues Brothers did this song. Good time, good job mom. We left there and went to a coffee shop close by where Zeke and I played four square and judah chewed on chess pieces. The next morning I got a card and a really cool Flippo shirt that Angie had made, I am wearing it now. Angie and the boys are in Kansas for the week while she goes to a couple classes to keep her certificate up. Maybe I will wear this shirt everyday? no one here to stop me!
I went jogging this morning and had a good QT. All of the furniture is up so that dusty can clean when I am gone, I love that little vacuuming gift of God. my hope one day is to have like 10 of them all going at once around the house, like bees busy in the hive. That would make for a good party, having all those vacuums buzzing around and you have to dodge them. maybe I would attach blow up people on top of them so it looks like there are a bunch of people milling around. they could hold snack and drink trays...... There is no off position for the genius switch.
Zeke "Thats what I'm talking about!"
Riding with the ticks
Matt and I went riding on Sunday morning. It was kind of weedy and a lot of bugs. I had a tick on me and Matt had 3-4 of them, I said that he was a tick magnet! Man I thought that was so funny. Matt didn't, Angie gave me a obligatory I am your wife so I gotta laugh laugh. He came over afterwards and ate breakfast with us, he blew bubbles with Zeke and played with magnets under the table. We teased him about his lunch date the other day with "Anna", be sure to ask him about it those of you that know him.
The other pictures are at the wedding we went to on Saturday, the odd pictures are Zeke's, I let him take a few. There were more but he took them of people's wastes and legs?
there are 2 pictures of me and Angie in my new 80's mirrored highway patrol sunglasses. I needed something to go over my glasses and the gas station didn't have any of those old people glasses that wrap your whole head in UV protection.
Zeke is holding a huge cabbage in one picture, Aunt Van likes to grow unnaturally large produce. She once grew a tomato that she could barely hold it was so big.
Today I am starting chapter 4 in class, cross products and moments. Should be interesting. Class is going well so far, takes a lot of time though.
anniversary
Saturday was our 6th year of being married, it was a very crazy day. here is was in a time line.
4:45 Judah awake, eat back to sleep
6:00 Judah awake again along with Daddy
7:30 Zeke awake
8:00 we get ready for trip to Vinetta OK to attend wedding.
9:00 out the door
9:10 realize keys are still inside apartment and we are not
9:15 call housing to have them open it up.
9:35 director gets there gives me a key to open up apartment
9:40 Angie takes key and opens up apartment while kids and I sit in car
9:55 Angie calls and says that she cannot find spare key that director gave us
10:00 I look for key while Angie sits in the car, director calls wondering where I am. I am too embarrassed to say we lost his key he just gave us.
10:02 Angie calls and jokingly says to look in dusty, I look in dusty and there was the key. Angie dropped it and dusty picked it up. stinking robot!
10:05 give key back to director, he didn't buy the robotic vacuum sucking it up story. I sign the paperwork saying that I will pay the exorbitant fees to be let into my own apartment.
10:15 on the road
12:00 stop in Sapulpa to visit Aunt Van and cousin Randy. Van makes us eat lunch, didn't take much convincing. but it makes us late for wedding.
3:30 get to vanitta for reception, missed the wedding altogether. Actually this is how I like to go to weddings, skip the boring part and go to the party.
5:30 on the road home after Zeke danced and judah ate. This is how the boys like to celebrate weddings.
6:20 stop in Brisco OK for a bite to eat, choose a place called "steak and eggs".
6:55 walk out of steak and eggs a little disgusted at the place. The boys ate alot but we didn't. Lipstick on the mugs etc.
7:00 on the road, raining.
9:30 home put boys to sleep.
happy anniversary darling.
I deal in cookies.
Here are my three new wheels and tires. The tires are WTB weiwolfs and the wheels are Vuelta and Alexrims. I recently brokered a deal acquiring these little jewels from Billy Mays, our machine shop guy. It turns out that the human powered project team, that makes a recumbent bike for a race, didn't use all the parts they bought so Billy said he wanted 2 dozen cookies for the wheels which I gladly said yes to, the condition was that Angie bake them not me.
He also asked me if I could sell a bunch of other tires and 2 BMX wheels for him so that they could buy pizza for the shop personnel. So I put the BMX stuff on ebay to see how it goes.
I also dug out of the trash several more bike items that Billy threw away including a bo
ttom bracket, bike computer, cheap lights, chains, etc. and to sweeten the deal Billy threw in a disk brake caliper and cable assy. I dig things out of the trash on a continual basis. One time I dug out a box of textbooks that I have been selling on ebay ever since, I have made about 200$ off that so far.
It was a good feeling I had all day from the bike part trade blessed event. I almost have enough parts to make a new bike, I really want to make my own frame but the shop doesn't allow home projects. I may have to make it educational somehow? Here is a picture of all the wheels and tires I have for sale. The tires shown are all 26" let me know if you are interested.
On a different note, we let dusty clean the house while we were gone last night and she (we finally agreed upon a gender, I guess someone finally looked between her wheels) did a great job cleaning the house, although she did shut herself in our bedroom somehow? sulking?
I am telling you this thing works well. We will pack dusty up and take her with us to Kansas to see if either parents like this little bit of techy goodness and think it would be something that would make their lives better.
As we left this morning, Zeke is now going to VBS in the mornings, we let dusty at it again. I think the boys like to order at least something around. Zeke will tell dusty to get to work on a regular basis which she does. I think that the hospital should hand these things out when you have a baby delivered there. Kind of a personal maid for that kid, much like in the day of old when a daughter was given in marriage there came several maids as well with her.
carpe eatem
I tested the x axis of my force torque sensor yesterday and it looks pretty good although it is not as sensative as I would have wanted.
The graph above shows that it is pretty linear but for every quarter pound I will get one step of resolution, which is not good. I think that I over built it. I went up to 20 lbs and was still only reading .3 V on a 12 V scale. If you are wondering why I put a graph in my blog it is because I have no pictures to post.
I got permission to build another one so I will order parts for that. I am glad that I get to try again, I think that I could do a better job this time.
Judah got up at 4:45 and wouldn't go back to bed until 6:00 and then only for 45 minutes.
Angie "It just feels so good to have dusty (our roomba) going"
History is so...... old
We went to the Yukon Chisolm Trail festival yesterday, it was a good time. The boys rode horses, miniature ones. Zeke and I rode a homemade train which was ok. We did get to talk to a civil war rein-actor about cannons and things, He and his "bride" let us take a picture. He is worried about people being less and less enthusiasm for history. Not a bad day. at least it wasn't raining.
today I start teaching my class, I went to see my room and it is really cool. it has the painted walls that I can dry erase mark on and a full electronics package. I was thinking about showing the silo video... just to let them know who they are dealing with.
Z "daddy you are the man!"
Z "Stinkin Pinnera"
quite the dancer
Here is a picture of my son dancing with my mom, so sweet. you know he is quite the dancer! the older women to the left is Aunt Van, who will live to be 130 years old out of spite and shear will. The younger woman on the right is my second cousin Elli whom I haven't seen since she was a baby. I really need to spend more time with these people, maybe we will go see them soon they have a lot of good stories to tell.
I am working on some example problems for class on Monday, converting from one unit to another. It seems very simple but I know that I had problems with it when I was that age also.I won't tell them that though.
