Midlife Sooner

2011-03-16T05:00:00.001-07:00

the old curricula vitai

2008-11-10T04:50:00.000-08:00

not even sure I spelled that right, why can't they call it something like "expanded pain in the rear resume that I doubt anyone reads!" maybe too long....

any way I am currently writing my CV, to start applying for jobs. I will do a blanket approach and apply any where I have an address for! so if you get one in the mail and you don't have a job opening, pass it on.

still trying to finish by May, not sure though. Some things have to happen and I have to figure out a model for my project.

Glad to be an american

2008-11-06T03:22:00.000-08:00

A guy I know from college wrote this on my facebook wall in response to my saying that I was grateful that I got to vote, I thought it was really good perspective.

Jay Goodwin at 10:49am November 5
And without any riots, coups, and insurrections. It always amazes me how we take the transition of power for granted here when you look at the difficulties other countries have in doing so peacefully.
Sure you'll have loons that claim BUSHITLER is going to suspend the Constitution with the Patriot Act and become dictator for life, but they are an insignificant minority. Almost the entirety of the populace just takes for granted the fact that a transition from one leader to another will be peaceful and that the newly elected President, whether from our party or not, is _our_ President.

As I thought last night while watching the Obama speech... I'm awfully proud that once again America puts paid to the lie that we are a racist country, but d*** I wish we would've elected someone that agrees with me. ;)

Really true, my guy lost but I am grateful for the chance to vote and disagree. I voted now for the next four years I will disagree. :) but that is different than complaining. I have a right to complain and disagree, but complaining won't help this country.

One commentator posed an interesting question, if they would have tied then the congress would have voted with Cheney giving the last vote, and he thought it would be Obama with Palin as VP. That would be an interesting team, the fights they would have. She would have to get out her gun.

Wee America

2008-11-05T07:18:00.000-08:00

for my democratic family members you may not want to read this since it will probably make you mad at me and cause me to lose out on christmas presents.

Well the guy I voted against won, I am really afraid for our country but more than that I am proud of it. Angie has a friend from China that Angie was able to share with about voting and electing our leaders, made us proud that we get to vote and be a part of what direction our nation takes. I really do wish Obama the best because now he is the leader of my nation.

Matt and I were discussing that we will probably have to go back to school again since there will be no jobs out there and welfare will pay well!

Here are some predictions that I really hope that I am wrong about:

If we show a weak hand in world affairs North Korea will attack South Korea, China will finally take over Taiwan that they have been eyeing for the last 50 years. Israel will be attacked by Iran and Russia (but they will hold their own).

If the tax rates go into effect we will see double digit unemployment and inflation.

Plans are underway for the government to take over our 401k's at a pre August level with a proposed 3% return and replace it with social security.

The deficit will continue to rise (this would have happened under McCain as well)

Again I hope I am wrong. We shall see, good news is that the campaign is over and people can take down all their signs. I would be happy to say I was wrong about all this if Obama turns out to be a good leader, I don't envy him right now I think anyone who wants to be president is nuts.

If the next 4 years are bad... well then Hello Madam President Palin!

Tired of their Gimmick!

2008-10-30T14:30:00.000-07:00

So I have owned two Sonicare tooth brushes. I really like these things, cause they really do clean better. One problem though is that their little Ni-Cad batteries wear out. Are they replaceable ...No. They are even glued in, inside a case that is glued. This is a gimmick!

My second SC tooth brush just went, so I took matters into my highly technical fiscally responsible brain. I did surgery on the little device and added two new ni cad batteries on the outside. I like to call this "artificial battery enhancement" or in slang "A battery job". The reasons are more than cosmetic in this case, although I am thinking of putting more batteries on there so that I can brush for a month without charging, although I might have to use two hands when using it. I have to admit I haven't charged it yet or tried it, nor has Angie seen it. Her objections won't stand up to the 80$ price tag of a new one, but I have to ready myself for her cosmetic caveats and paper bullets of the brain.

More good news is that Aunt Silvi has found yet another roomba for us, this makes 3 so far. I only have two batteries though, but soon I will have a whole fleet of them much like the scouring bubbles! We named this one Dirty Harry to go with the other one named Dirty Harriet. I may attach magic markers on them and the boys and I can play "don't marked on by the robot bad guys".

I am learning how to program serial communication, which means I can have my computer talk to a circuit and have it do stuff, like reprogram my roombas! I am not there yet but soon.

I will also be sending out resumes soon, if you get one go ahead and hire me or pass it onto someone that can.

Politically I have been forming views and keeping up, this is a first for me:

If you are a liberal and get mad easily, don't read this.

McCain-don't like him, (ok so liberal wont get mad here.)

Palin-Love her, excited that she is coming into the picture. Wish she was the president. This whole lack of experience is a bit baffling to me, Wasn't Clinton a gov?, bush, carter, reagan? did they have foreign experience? does Obama? She has more executive experience and energy experience than any of them, as well as a higher security clearance for being the governor of Alaska (sit in on early warning briefings). She doesn't have Washington experience, this is also a plus to me. I am not happy with our washington crowd.

Obama-He is slick, I don't like the socialist views nor that he could very easily take us there with a super majority. He is untouchable, Ayers, Acorn, Wright, and this new character that was the voice of the PLO still can't bring him down. Maybe Joe the plumber can?

Joe the Plumber-who cares that he has paid his child support? he asked a good question. Now he might have a recording contract. what a country. Quite the opportunist, but that is not why he asked the question.

Biden-I kind of like him, not as a president but as a guy that places his foot in his mouth often.

Credit Crisis-Community Restoration (?) act in the 70's and then with amendments in 94 to give the government power to make banks make bad loans(which Acorn was involved in). As far as blame, who knows. every president since Carter, every congress and senate since then as well, but bush is not the only one. The economy is really helping Obama, but the redistribution thing might make things more interesting.

Hollywood-they have really come out to play with this election, but there are a few conservatives that I didn't know about that are hitting it hard. The lady from everyone loves raymond, Robert Davi (profiler), I think gary sinease, and there was some others also that I can't remember.

At least that is my take on things, and it might change, or probably will.

That's doctoral candidate to you!

2008-10-21T08:00:00.000-07:00

Yep I just got finished with the General Exams for my degree, mainly it is a presentation trying to con your committee into buying your research. they ask a lot of questions to make sure they aren't condoning a nit wit but other than that it went really well I think. Now I am sitting here wondering which direction to take with all these things I have put off until this was over!

I was scheduled to take the test last Friday but my advisor was a no show, he got messed up with the times. It has been nice cause he has been working off his guilt ever since!

thanks Angie for supporting me through this, you always see better than I do.

just checking in

2008-10-05T09:40:00.000-07:00

pics of boys, zeke with girlfriend (nt serious) clara, I am typing with one hand still, hand swollen. I am about ready to take off splint and get back to two armed life. flossing my teeth is an adventure. can't play guitar, can't ride bike (real well), can't do dishes...... maybe I shuld keep it on.

deadly penguins, all nighter, oh yeah and I think I broke my arm

2008-10-03T20:32:00.000-07:00

This arabic student of mine drew me a little picture on his quiz the other day, not a bad likeness of a sword wielding penguin I would judge, also doc came to me monday morning and offered to teach my class if I would write up a 2-6 page paper on my machine and an experiment that I did, so I stayed up till 5:30 and then went home. I still have that in me even though it takes a lot longer to recoop after that.

I watched the vp debate, first debate that I have ever watched, I like the barracuda. Biden didn't say anything stupid. she is not the average washington politician, which I like. we need leaders not politicians.

so today I was zipping along n my bike excited that I was going to go riding tomorrow, when a car pulled out from a pking lot (that I couldn't see) and I had to slam on my brakes. my bikes front brake caught and locked up slinging me over the top while my bike followed. I hit hard but didn't think there was anything other than my pride hurt. I went back to work and my elbow started to really hurt (I am typing one handed) and I couldn't extend my arm. so i went to the health center. they said that it had all the signs of being broke but they couldn't tell from the x ray. so they gave me a cast/splint and told me to come back next week. so here I am, my family is in kansas and I m here trying to use the hook on the wall to help me floss my teeth. This morning I pulled the soap dish off the wall trying to get out of the bathtub.

pillow tent, neighbors, apple

2008-09-17T10:40:00.000-07:00

one of the skills that I have honed in being a father is pillow tent making. It has to be roomy (unless it is a pillow tunnel which is different) strong (boys are not that careful) and different every time. I hate to boast but I have done some amazing things with pillows!

Our Neighbor Joy and her husband left, she was our favorite. She went and got a real job after she finished her PhD, Dr Joy now.

The boys got good haircuts, because Zeke kept moving and jerking he got a military buzz cut which I really like, Judah just screamed the whole time so that wasn't much fun either.

I am grading all day today, not really looking forward to it, maybe I will go somewhere to grade?

come see my band web site

2008-09-16T19:24:00.000-07:00

check out my band!

ok so it is not really me, but how cool it is to have a dan flippo band out there!

I think that I want these guys to play at my graduation party!

must be fair

2008-09-12T12:01:00.000-07:00

I got this email today, I wonder if they saw my Palin blog?

TO: All Students, Faculty, and Staff

Dear Faculty, Staff and Students,

With the political season in full swing, the University wishes to remind you of certain regulations affecting state agencies and the use of the University's email/network systems for political campaigns. As a state agency, the University must ensure it respects the rights of all political candidates, their representatives and others. In furtherance of this, the University may not endorse or oppose a particular candidate for office. This includes the use by its faculty, staff and students of its email and network systems. Please be mindful that University email/network systems may not be used to endorse or oppose a candidate, including the forwarding of political humor/commentary. The University's email/network system is a state resource and must be used for educational and business purposes, recognizing a limited personal use. This personal use may not include political issues outside of the educational context as it places the University at risk of losing its tax exempt status. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.

Nick Hathaway
Executive Vice President and
Vice President Administration and Finance

I wonder what they will think of me putting this email online?

Sarah the Barracuda

2008-09-09T06:31:00.000-07:00

I must point out to you my blog readers that I am finally excited to vote for McCain, due to his VP Sarah the Barracuda. She is a very conservative republican, which are getting harder to find. I don't really like McCain, but now I will vote for him. My problem with Obama is his tax increases (which will increase the national debt just like McCain decreases without government decreases) scare me and make me think of Carter. Also his ties to George Soros and the one world government and not good thoughts either. The barracuda sold the Alaskan private jet on ebay, as well as fired her personal chef (against her kids wishes). Maybe she will make the government smaller? She is the only one to me that doesn't seem so ......... political. She has come out popular with the attacks from the media while making them look bad, which is always fun. Laura Bush was able to do that as well. The left Obama campaign is scared of Palin and are attacking her experience, which is funny cause she has the only executive experience out of all four of them.

Her daughter is pregnant out of wedlock, which is sad. I feel sorry for the daughter, many feel that should be off limits as far as a campaign, I think that is naive to expect that especially with the media. I hope that Palin wins and starts selling off government on ebay. I think that NASA should go and become just a regulatory agency for all the less expensive companies that do things faster, I think that the post office should scale back and just do letters and let the companies handle packages. We are a capitalist country let the companies do things cheaper and better. I think that the government should stay out of health care, and charity, that if you are not looking for a job then you should not get money. The bad thing is that McCain is not a small government guy, he is more democrat than republican. I don't often talk of political things but I felt I must today. If McCain wins it will be because of Palin, no doubt. He is now ahead of Obama in the polls due to her alone. I heard a rumor that Obama should drop biden and pick up hillary for VP... just a rumor I doubt he would do that.

Foiled

2008-09-08T07:17:00.000-07:00

Well this is new! Brandon Mills came into town, he has always been jealous of my office. I wonder how long it took him to do this? I think that I will keep the foil as long as I can, it will show me what stuff I use and what I don't. After a few months if it is still wrapped in foil then I don't really need it. it is a little like christmas. I pick something up and wonder "what is it?". Matt of course denies everything, but he will get the brunt of my revenge. I went over early Sunday to rouse them both out of bed only to find that Brandon already left. I will have my day BM, I may have to come to national instruments where you work, but I will have my day. I don't think that I get as good cell phone signal, but on the good side I know that aliens cannot see inside my desk, or know what books I have anymore!

Zeke's school and lightening tree

2008-09-04T06:15:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures of Zeke going to his preschool. He seems to like it so far but he won't tell us anything of what they do, he says they sit on the rug all day while the teacher says "be quiet". The other pictures are of the tree next to our apartment (about 35 ft) that got hit by lightening. It was really loud!

blood bus

2008-09-03T10:59:00.000-07:00

I found one of the coveted blood buses that my bus driving friend Calvin suggested. I need to ride the bus again to ask him some more questions about Engines and such.

If I bought this bus I would have to leave the exterior as is, cause how cool is that! The blood bus! I can see me driving this red and white jewel down the inlaws drive way honking as I go! Or parking in my sisters classy neighborhoods, who knows maybe I could score a couple of pints from people along the way. I think that if I had this bus I would rig up some sort of tank with red liquid that I could let out when ever I wanted to make it seem like a blood leak! So when I park somewhere my kids and I (Angie would not engage) could sit inside and watch people point to the red liquid coming from our blood bus. The boys and I could scream from inside to make the effect more realistic. Man that would be a good family memory.

I wonder if I could get places toll free with a bus like this? or at least free burgers (I would need a nurse outfit!) I could have a bag of old syringes and red gauze to trash in plain site, just to make people uncomfortable.

I keep thinking of new ideas, my 20 year high school reunion is coming up next year..... I think the class of 89' would be impressed with what Dan Flippo had become if I came tooling up in the blood bus!

Thinking of buses again

2008-09-02T05:43:00.000-07:00

So on our way back from an OU pep rally (very lame) we took the bus and talked with the driver, his name is Calvin. I talked shop with him about buses, he was an experienced and avid lover of the 40 foot palaces! He said that he has owed several and that the red cross buses were the best to overhaul because of how they are made. That made my day and got me to thinking about buses again, that whole conversation is one that Angie wishes never happened. She hasn't quite caught the vision yet, or at least doesn't want to admit it. Zeke and I talk regularly about bus ideas, his ideas usually are some variation of missile defense or lasers. There was talk about giving mommy some space for sewing on the bus, but it didn't go anywhere. We think it would be fun to go pick up our families to go on vacation. Calvin said that depending on how you drive them you get from 7-13 mpg, this is better than I thought. Angie is still not impressed, but she will be when I drive that second home in the driveway and show her the missiles, hammocks, and woodburning stove! by the way the bus pictured is at 2500$ right now.

A specialized job!

2008-08-27T13:48:00.001-07:00

On a whim today I sent my soon to be Dr Flippo resume to the specialized mountain bike company. Now wouldn't that make a few people, who have too many bikes of their own, a little jealous! The company is in California, and I don't really share those people's world view on much of anything but it would be cool to work with specialized wherever I teach as research sponsors! That means that I would have to ride my bike more often on the trails... you know to do research. and don't worry mother I checked for misspellings and I think they will be adequately impressed with the included picture of my amazing lego set.

shots from the summer

2008-08-24T13:11:00.000-07:00

Here are more pictures from this last summer, the last two are in some old wagon that Grammi has been waiting to take pictures in for years. Just on eof those things I guess. Zeke is now in school and doing well, he has a silly friend named Max and another named Wesly. Judah is mad that he doesn't get to go to school but that is the breaks. I for one know that being a younger sibling is not its all cracked up to be (at least according to the older siblings).

New Roomba family member

2008-08-20T05:11:00.000-07:00

We are calling her Dirty Harriet. She is the little sister to Dusty who is now enjoying retirement, maybe to be rebuilt someday. D Harriet picks up dirt really nice and it is good to have a robotic slave again. She will get a bath in stickers soon, so as to make her ours.

back to norman... again

2008-08-18T05:27:00.000-07:00

here are a couple pictures from the summer, The boys and I went to see the M-60 tank at the McPherson Armory. We all got a kick out of it, we could not get in it though, it was welded shut and the wheels were welded to the body, but we had a good time. We dreamed of having one of these darlings at our country estates to help papa clear trees and move cattle.

The trailer is one that I made over the summer from a 65 Ford truck that Zeke and I dismantled. Vince is going to use it for his generator and possibly for a freezer for his meat when he cooks at fairs.

We still haven't sold the Jeep, I have resolved to keeping it but I have lowered the price to 2k$. No one wants a huge gas guzzler anymore.

Our dear friends gave us another roomba that was at their garage sale. I put the battery from dusty in it and it cleaned well last night. We are having trouble coming up with a name though. I suggested Mrs Rodregez, Zeke wants Sweeper, but this morning I came up with Dirty Harry! I guess we should figure out its gender first, (looking between the wheels?). Dusty is still having some problems, she has some sort of roomba dimensia, turning from walls that are not there curving when she should be going straight. Thanks Rick and Kendra for the new roomba, someday I would like to have a whole fleet of them buzzing around my house, programming them to follow kids around.

back to school

2008-08-13T09:10:00.000-07:00

Well we are back in Norman now, drove in yesterday. The boys were excited to play with their old toys again. We had more mold in the place, so we put in our summer/monthly call to maintenance to come clean it up. It has been a great summer on the farm, we love the country. Zeke has his open house party tonight at his preschool to meet the teacher and see his room. He will go 2.5 hours daily in the afternoon while his brother naps and mommy rests.

I finally rode a little the other day at Coronado heights, I rode there (11 miles) and did a lap then rode back. it was a little more than I should have but that happens. I have lost weight this summer (about 12 lbs) which helped in riding but my muscles were not there. I am still dreaming about a race course on my inlaws land. maybe someday. Also my sister loaned me the first 3 seasons of arrested development and I must say it is pretty funny. I have always like Jason Batemen since his silver spoons days, and then when he had his own show.
By the way the cat in the bottom picture is named pretty tool.

We also saw two crash up derbys this summer, the boys and I are big fans of the demolishing arts and I think that it will be a annual event.

pyro

2008-07-31T08:12:00.000-07:00

We had a great time on the 4th of July, Zeke is turning into quite a pyro. We blew up some flour bags and powder sugar (smells like cotton candy) both of which flamed up quite nicely.

Jeep for sale

2008-07-28T13:19:00.001-07:00

very sad but the Jeep is for sale, I put it on ebay we will see I doubt it sells there.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=002&sspagename=STRK%3AMESE%3AIT&viewitem=&item=120288522187&rd=1

Crash up Derby

2008-07-28T11:31:00.000-07:00

We went to the McPherson county fair crash up derby, talk about fun! This was the boy's first CUD and they liked it, we were on the wrong side of the arena so the sun was in our eyes but it was still fun. I think that we will someday be a part of this type of event, I think maybe I will have some students working on how to refit the car (legally) so that I can win! Oh yeah Judah is again picking his nose, we have given up stopping this (other than at the table).

Clarification

2008-07-09T17:38:00.000-07:00

Yes I did hang out my shorts of the truck. On a dump truck the mirrors are big and stick out at least 2 feet. I was very pleased with the results of hanging them. I thought about hanging the underwear out there also, but was afraid of getting pulled over. It was a good idea and I would do it again if need be, but rather not spill my water in the first place. Zeke and I are taking apart an old farm truck, Vince wants a trailer made from the bed for his generator. The rest will go to scrap.

Working hard on the farm

2008-07-07T10:57:00.000-07:00

Not sure where the fake cow milking picture was taken? the other is Zeke making something in the kitchen, he is pretty good at making pies.

I took a load of scrap iron this morning to Salina and made almost 400$ from it. of course I had to drive the old dump truck, while listening to the GPS device bossing me around, trying to get me to go on the highway where I didn't want to take a 40 mph sanford and sons farming machine. I bet the the old farm has about 3-4 more loads like that of scrap. I may have to start going covertly to the neighbors to clean up their farms. My mug of water spilled on the seat and soaked my shorts as I was driving, I stopped and stripped and hung the shorts by the belt on the mirror to dry in the breeze. it worked pretty well, although it didn't help my thirst. I also cleared out a fence row yesterday to put up a fence, I had to use the wench on the 4 wheeler which is always fun while listening to a book on tape with my new ipod!

I got stung by a wasp on the junk pile over the weekend, since then I have given no quarter to the little pain givers. I bought a whole box of bug bombs that I lit off in the shop all at once. I was hoping to look out and see the fog coming out of the vents but that didn't happen. I may have to revert to the diesel in the carburetor while parked in the shop method that my dad so much favors. I also have carried around a fog bottle to shoot down any bogies I see, which I must admit is hard but therapeutic when I down one. my inlaws are convinced that I am going to keel over from a reaction to the stings even though I have no swelling now, so I have been faking fainting spells and incoherency to give them something to be concerned about. All in all it has been a good summer here I have the shop about half cleaned, every one is impressed that they can actually walk to the workbench. Vince now comes to me to ask where things are, not sure what he thinks of that. He is pretty patient with me, if I can just keep him from pulling items out my scrap iron to save!

on the farm

2008-06-27T07:35:00.000-07:00

Here are some more pictures of the boys. Left one is at Lindsborg after a very cold outdoor shower with the hose. We take a lot of those this summer, it keeps the bathroom cleaner. The other picture is the boys in Oklahoma which they haven't seen in a month. It will be hard to move back to the small place and no tractors. I have spent my time writing my dissertation 56 pages now, draft 3 and knocking down chicken houses (on purpose) fixing the skid steer (my inheritance) and now I am cutting up old farming equipment to take to the scrap metal yard. Last night I started on the old pull behind combine. It had a flathead four cylinder Jeep Willys engine on it that we saved, there is also a lot of good metal that we will get off of it. There is a lot of metal around here to scrap, and they give you almost twice the amount when you cut it up into 3X2X2 foot sections. Last night I cut off a wheel and it fell and landed on my father in law. I didn't see him down there, there was blood and I immediately blamed it on my brother in law(that is in new orleans) which I think they are wondering if he did do it. I am also designing a outdoor wood burning heater for the farm house. Using an old fuel tank (empty) silo stones and metal from the old combine. They have an abundant wood resource here, and a hard time finding where to put the felled trees.

boys

2008-06-17T08:22:00.000-07:00

not much to comment on. I am still in Lindsborg but tonight I will leave for OU again to stay the rest of the week. Next weekend we will probably try out the Douglass city garage sale, my brother is selling a bunch of stuff, I need to make sure he is not selling anything of mine. Several pictures of the boys, they are taking apart a computer, our indian neighbor gives us old computers to take apart. Judah is into it jsut as much as we are. Yesterday at the farm we took apart an old dryer. That was fun. Don't pay attention to the dates on the pictures, our camers is about 5 years behind.

coffee shop

2008-06-13T09:58:00.000-07:00

Here is another picture of he SWEET test foot. This one is actually going into the dissertation, unless something gets changed. I am still in Lindsborg at a coffee shop writing. up to 44 pages now, I need more pictures and graphs! I am trying to write now about my hypothesis and why these 5 professors should pass me into their carefully guarded realm of the doctoral club.

The other picture is of Zeke this last Feb, Uncle Russ took this. We have our mini van now, it is a dodge grand caravan 2003. Some kind of blue, important things are the DVD player (no more laptop) and better gas mileage. We are trying to sell the manly Jeep. KPS you want it? a good school car for your boys, they can park wherever they want with this bad boy. I am excited about the mpg savings and a new car, but I still think mini vans are ugly and not that manly.... maybe those things aren't as important. Just remember that mini van doesn't mean mini man. I may have to put a gun rack or bike rack on it just to prove that.

Summer of writing

2008-06-11T09:15:00.000-07:00

Here is another picture from our little photo shoot, as you can see Judah is at least not picking his nose but he is busy sucking his thumb and playing with his ear. What can I say, we are a good looking bunch.

I am in Kansas now, trying to get motivated to write more of my dissertation. I am not a great writer, I do have a dictionary and thesaurus on my compute which is nice. I will start having mock presentations with my co workers as the audience to drill me, and my professor to ask me questions that are designed to fluster people. He is really good at that. This summer I hope to do my qualifying exams, which is trying to convince your committee that what I am doing is worth while. I am up to almost 40 pages in my paper, it will probably be about 10 times that amount in the end after I add all the schematics,drawings ,and code. My professor told me that the bigger the dissertation the less likely my committee will actually read it and the easier they will be on me! Good advice.

I picked a winner

2008-06-05T14:49:00.000-07:00

We had a lot of family pics done by a guy here in Norman, he did a great job. He also edited these for us, including this one that he highlighted Judah in. It turned out to be my favorite.

Here in Lindsborg

2008-06-03T07:18:00.001-07:00

We are here in Lindsborg now, On the farm. I already made a huge mud hole with the skid steer.

MiniVan

2008-05-27T05:17:00.000-07:00

Not sure if I have mentioned this or not but we are getting a mini van, Yes I am giving away the last of my manlyness in the name of convenience and practicality, and actually looking forward to it. Some very dear friends of ours are giving us their van! They have been praying about it for a while and thought this is what God was leading them to do. Yeah God! now if only Matt Roman would listen to God and hand over his bike to me!
We will be selling the Jeep so if anyone wants it, it is a great car and real macho but gets about 17mpg highway.
We are also getting Angie's little car going (read the below poem) and paying to have the AC installed, I will be driving this little 35 mpg jewel all summer back and forth to Kansas. Angie and the boys will stay mostly in Kansas while I go back and forth. Some would call this quality time with family, I just call it mooching!
The SWEET machine is going well, I go through times of thinking "this thing will never work and I will never graduate" to "hey this is not bad I could be out of here soon" if all things go well I could graduate next May. This date keeps getting pushed back farther and farther. If we get the X prize project (we build the rover that will hopefully go to the moon) then I will be here longer most likely. I have switched my emphasis of my dissertation to the machine now, which will save a lot of time and work. Some of my committee might not like it that I have done this, but maybe they won't ask as many questions when I defend.
The other picture is our little contraption to watch movies on the wall outside. Yes it is a ironing board, but who really uses these anymore really! we are a big hit with our neighbors. Good way to meet people. We have this gang of Asian little girls that roam the apartments, cheeky little women they are. They will walk in and pretty much demand snacks, which bothers me. I have been ordered around by enough Chinese women to be sick of it. Zeke likes them of course. He is getting old enough to play with other kids, I am starting to realize this and missing him some. We are having to start to protect time just with our family.

Zeke playing in the mud and coming over to mommy "I need some more dam sticks"

Another Ballad about broken cars

2008-05-22T07:12:00.000-07:00

The ballad of the electric car

Times are hard
Gas is not cheap
and there is this sucking sound
coming from my jeep

14 miles per gallon
Is not good for the budget
time to open the barn door
and go with the eagle summit

Angie's car
not much to look at
been hit by a jeep
on both front and back

The AC compressor
locked up 5 years ago
took the power steering with it
they share the same belt you know

I tell my friend matt
good thing I have these guns
as I make show of my muscles
trying to execute some turns

but I digress
and I shouldn't skip ahead
this is another long story
anther Flippo ballad

So I try to get the thing started
replaced filters, fuel pumps, and paid the fees
All that work and it
turns out it just needs a battery

Monday morning
I drive the car with a new battery installed from Autozone
To get the oil changed at wall mart
then to head back home (to oklahoma)

I have had a lot of bad experiences
at the place we call wall mart
lost keys, lost dipstick
keys locked in car

So I always ask myself
why do I always go back
it is the money I know
so sad alack alack alack

Anyway I try to keep an eye
on the yeah whos working on the eagle
I notice they are jumping the thing
with battery cables

He came in to give the diagnosis
much like a doctor after a rough surgery
"I am afraid" he said
"you have a bad battery"

"I just got it yesterday"
was my curt reply
"I know" he said
"but its fried"

So mr Rex from wall mart
kept my car running
as I paid the lady
doing some fuming

I take the thing
back to autozone to check with their machine
sure enough, it held a charge
about as well as my spleen

So it is at this time
I start to hypothesize
was it the battery, or my car
I bet it was those wall mart guys

I stop in Wichita
to have it looked at by Jeff Baxter
no electrical drains
and 14 volts from the alternator (which is good)

So I jump back in and head to norman
stopping a few times for errands
the thing ran great
30 mpg into the head wind

I was feeling good about the deal
till I got in the next morning and it was dead
I sat there a long time
running the car off the cliff in my head

I call matt
he takes me and the battery back to autozone
Yep another blown electric potential device
who would have known

At this point
the car was left to blame
I can't pin it on the wall mart guys anymore
this has cleared their name

I ask around
I get some advice
check the fusable link they say
no dice

Another guy says to have
the alternator checked
sure enough
it is suspect

I leave battery number 2
unhooked from the car
I didn't want to stretch that warranty
too far

I did drive it to my lab
where I have some tools
and I am close
to the toilet stool

I proceed to dismatle
this little Japanese battery killer
having to use a big pipe
as a wrench cheater

I get it off
try to new one on
oh no
something is wrong

the old and new pulleys
are a different size
I look at them a while
trying to change them with my mind

the belt is too big
the thing just slides to the right
anymore things like this
don't surprise

it is hard to fight
without the right gun
what to do now
the car won't run

I call autozone
to see about delivery
the guy said no
and laughed at me

Matt didn't have his car
and my bike was at home
All I had was this old bike in the lab
that this guy named Al owned

two flat tires
and no air chuck
I ask around
and am in luck

I stick both alternators
in my bag
also the old belt
man what a drag

Al's bike
is the kind old men ride
you sit straight up
and kind of glide

I was headed down the hill
by a city lake
when I realized
Al didn't have real good brakes

Arrived at AZ not stopping much
but almost ran over a lady egressing
I left the bike outside
no one will want it I am guessing

Gave them the alternators
"can you switch the pulleys guys?"
why was I not surprised
when the shafts were a different size

I wondered
what to do now!
so I took two smaller belts
and headed back out

It was around this time
I was challenged to choose my mind
to see the this as a adventure
and not a waste of time

I rode a little higher
on Al's dorky bike
I enjoyed the day
out for a nice hike

Got back to the lab
tried both belts with a snort
wasn't that surprised
that they were both too short

On Al's bike again
thinking of the poem I will compose
trying not to careen into cars
on my way to autozone

Give me another belt I belt
not expecting much from it
ride back to the car
what do you know it fits

The car gets 35 mpg
but you have to account for the battery
it is more of a hybrid I think
needing gas and batteries to drink

As for Al's bike
it sets in the bin
I look at it with a smile
and hope I never ride it again

general exams

2008-05-05T13:43:00.000-07:00

This is matt in his general exams, this is kind of a pre-defense where your committee judges whether or not your research is worth doing. I watched from the back as they grilled him for long time thinking that this was going to be me someday. not a happy place to be.

Man meal

2008-04-30T08:38:00.000-07:00

So my small accountability group got together to eat. We had some major cow meat to eat. It was a great time, one which my colon is still working to get over! Tonight we are going to the OU baseball game and I will be taking Zeke to enjoy some cheap hotdogs.

globes

2008-04-29T11:24:00.000-07:00

Here is another cool little item I would like to have. This is on display at the meteorological building at OU. It had four projectors placed around it to show whatever they wanted. The globe was cool, they also did a night one that was neat. I would like to have one to spot all the places live that visit my blog.... pretty much Douglass KS and St Louis (sister). It would be cool to have a whole solar system like this in a big room. Maybe someday!

I have recently gotten back my affinity for the british sci fi show "Dr Who" man that is entertainment!

backwater science

2008-04-28T13:06:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures from the little unknown Kansas science treasure, the Hutchinson Cosmosphere. If you grew up anywhere near this place you where made to go yearly. Coming back though, especially after studying this material, it is a pretty impressive place. The SR-71 blackbird hanging at a angle is always an emotional experience. Next to it is a AirForce trainer hanging as well.

Also they have a Lunokhod (made by the same company that made the real ones) The Lunokhod is a Russian Moon rover that was sent in 1970 and another in 1971. The thing is the size of a VW bug and looks alot like a toilet bowl. The Hutch cosmosphere also has the odyssey command module that was famous because of the Apollo 13 mission. People here that care about such things are shocked to learn that such treasures are in Kansas. Maybe I will drag them there sometime.

old pics

2008-04-21T13:06:00.000-07:00

Here is Judah and Zeke with Nan Nan (one of our Chinese neighbors) carving out pumpkins last October, seems like a different lifetime ago. The other picture is Zeke and I playing with the camera feature on my computer, Zeke looks a little like jay leno and I look like that guy from the Who. Man that is big nose. I bet a guy with that size of nose could really smell well, and look at all the room in that nostril! That is the size of two or three fingers!

ahhhh!!

2008-04-18T07:48:00.000-07:00

I thought that this picture was funny, I am not sure what my brother was so freaked out about in this picture, maybe there was something in my beautiful wife's hair that scared him? This was at my brothers wedding reception a couple months ago.

Out for a blog

2008-04-17T13:32:00.000-07:00

Still here in Oklahoma, been a long time since I blogged. Here is an update.

-not graduated

-have hair

-not riding much

-2 kids, same kids

-1 wife, same wife

-thinking of taking of cattle ranching, once I get past my hatred of cows.

-the SWEET testing apparatus is working and testing, still got a lot to do

I was in a grad student poster session a couple weeks ago and got second, I was all excited for 2 weeks cause I thought I was invited to a luncheon and maybe inline for some cash reward. well the day of the lunch I got an email saying that it was only for the 1st place winners (as opposed to us losers) and that my certificate was in the mail (I am now contemplating placing it in the trash) ... no money... no free lunch. Maybe I should have my own lunch and give myself some money. I could come up with a nice speech also.

Right now I am in lab babysitting, I should be working on the project that they are working so that I could be of better use to them. All I can think is "when are they going home for the summer?" I didn't think I was so bitter...... must have been wrong about that. my present mood could be affected by my throbbing leg that I smacked on my bike peddle doing a sweet jump, my whole shin bone is sore.

I just challenged the machine shop director and his assistant to a summer long tournament of washers. Washers is a poor mans horse shoe game, except without the big holes in the ground that OU landscaping would not appreciate. I have never played washers, but I think it would be a good lunch time affair this summer.... when all the pesky students are gone.

embedded systems

2008-03-11T07:33:00.000-07:00

So I am Ta'ing for a class called Embedded Systems and I am not helping much. Many factors have led to this.

-The prof was given high recommendations for me, and so had high expectations.

-No time, ES takes a lot of time to TA.

-No prior experience with the Atmel Mega8 chip, which is what we are using.

-Not real great at programming.

right now I am ok with all this and am just doing the best I can, I am only obligated to help 10 hrs a week. So if I can't get all done in that time.....

Our funding runs out this summer, so I am on my own after that. I will be TA'ing again next semester but this summer I am hoping to teach Statics again to make money. if that doesn't happen then Angie and the boys will have to get jobs!

I tested a couple wheels yesterday so now I have some data to play with and show that this machine is not a waste of time. but one of the strain gages in my force torque sensor came loose so I have to do about a days work on that. It might mean a week's worth if I find what caused the problem and have to refit the whole thing. It is cause we saved money and I made my own FT sensor that this happened, but I would not have wanted any other way. At least now I can fix it, if I had burned out a purchased one we would be stuck.

I had a talk with my prof, there is no way to do my qualifying exams his semester. Maybe over the summer and then maybe defend in Dec? that will God to do some miracles, such as the FT sensor being fixed. Matt on the other hand will most likely finish 2-3 doctorates before I am done, what a punk!

quotes

2008-03-06T13:34:00.000-08:00

"I need to start my own meth lab" Matt Roman

"I am going to make my own robot girlfriend" Matt Roman

back again

2008-03-06T07:25:00.001-08:00

Zeke was in a talkative mood the other day and this is a little monologue he performed in the car:

"I was thinking that son not only means a boy, but also the sun in the sky. So if Daddy says hey son! I am like are you talking to me, or that shiny thing?"

Angie is feeling better the last few days, but keep praying. We are learning a lot about life and what we think of God.

on my way to burbank

2008-02-25T13:30:00.000-08:00

here in Phoenix, at the airport. Waiting. Oh yeah I have the stomach flu. I bought a 10$ sandwich but cannot eat much of it. I will be in Cali till Thursday and then back to OK then drive back to KS to pick up the family. I plan on sleeping in my hotel room alot and yacking their trash can!

build build build

2008-02-15T07:04:00.000-08:00

So I took from college several skills, bunk bed making is one of the most useful. Pictured is Zeke's new bunk bed. We are hoping that the added floor space will move the toys into their room. Notice the Legos (we have a killer set of Legos). Judah still sleeps in the crib but it is tucked under Zeke's bed. We are having a hard time keeping Judah off the ladder and Zeke out of Judahs bed (he drops in every once in a while to wake up his brother and drink his milk bottle!) We do need more light in there and are working on that.

Angie is still feeling kind of crappy, we are not sure what it is. Keep praying for us

पस्त life

2008-02-07T08:30:00.000-08:00

Haven't been riding in a long time, so shameful. I do miss it, but there is just too much going on to work at it and get back in that shape. maybe when it gets warmer I can drag mat out of bed and we'll go. I would still like to go to horizon and meet all the wichita people there.

All Flippo

2008-02-05T18:29:00.000-08:00

Here is a onesie Angie made for Judah. It has the words to the Flippo song on it as well, I have been working on this song and it should be up to recording shape soon. Be on the lookout at the next church talent show.

60 ft of mobile action

2008-02-04T11:40:00.000-08:00

OK so I have moved on from just normal touring buses to articulating buses! from the mere 40 footers to the less constrictive 60 footers! Yup this bus is so big it bends in the middle! I wonder if you can back these babies up? These jewels are pretty rare so I am thinking that I can do this mod to a normal 40 ft touring bus, it would be like a trailer except "attached". Anybody seen the 70's movie "the big bus"? well you should and you will see a lot of similarities, except the movie version had a big jet engine in the back, nuclear power, bowling alley, and swimming pool. Give me time and I think that I could compare!

an extra 20 ft would be nice, maybe for a massage parlor, or a machine shop! lets see 60 ft minus 5 ft to get livable space would be 55 ft * 8 ft across = 440 square feet... which is more than half of where we live now, park this bad boy out in the parking lot and make it the home edition we have always wanted!

could you imagine getting pulled over by a cop and watching him walk 60 ft to get to the front of the bus! he would be pretty mad and out of breathe by the time he got there!

2008-02-04T10:52:00.000-08:00

So I am now babysitting students in lab. Kind of caught in a political mess here. The Fluids lab teacher is scared that the embedded systems students are going to mess up their experiments, so I am here babysitting making sure no one touches the hot ovens? Anyway my computer is running out of juice and I forgot my plugin at home! so I will have to start making loud obnoxious noises till these guys leave! it is 73 degrees outside today, and I am here making noises!

sleepless night

2008-02-01T05:54:00.000-08:00

Keep praying for us, Angie didn't sleep well last night. Kind of discouraging after doing so well for so long.

not much else going on around here, KSU beat KU in basketball which is really cool even though I hate basketball. All of Angie's Aunts and Uncles went to KSU along with her Mom and Dad. it is fun to hear KState stories from them. Angie's uncle called after the game and was very excited. I would love to teach at KSU someday but who knows. Living in or near Manhattan and owning a Jeep collection and a huge 40 ft Bus, man that is heaven on earth.

smoothie

2008-01-30T05:58:00.000-08:00

I have been calling Matt in the morning to get him out of bed. He wants to get on a more normal schedule. I have to pretty much yell at him till I hear him turn on the shower, and even then there is a 60% chance he will go back to bed.

My mom used to bang on the piano at home to get me up.... I need some sort of remote device that gets mat out of bed? any ideas. I will look for comments and some input.

Aunt Silvi is still here and making smoothies like a mad person, that is if a mad person made smoothies.

Casanova

2008-01-29T10:59:00.000-08:00

So the other day we take the boys to the mall to play at the play place. Zeke makes a couple friends, one is a boy, one a girl. He plays well and burns off the required amount of energy. We get in the car and he tells us that the girl gave him a kiss... on the lips! I am thinking that I am going to have to watch a little closer. So then we were at church and we were leaving, he turns around and kisses his friend Clara goodbye! We had to have a little talk about kissing and how it should be a family thing for now.

Judah on the other leaves everyone else alone and does his own thing, unless his brother is sleeping and the Judah will tackle him.

relief

2008-01-28T05:26:00.000-08:00

OK so I fixed the errors in the poster that were pointed out, thanks Aaron. I am surprised my sister didn't jump on that as well, she usually likes to make fun of my English unfaithfulness. Angie is back from her weekend (all the women in her family reunion), she brought aunt Silvi with her. Aunt Silvi makes really good fruit smoothies. I call her aunt smoothie. She will be staying till tomorrow.

Over the weekend I watched several season 10 stargates while the boys were in bed as well as the great race (with Zeke). Zeke loved that movie, which makes me smile. I had a hard time figuring out what to feed these kids over the weekend! I am glad that Angie is back for many reasons, one is her cooking!

I am still looking online at buses, I like to sign up to watch them so that I can see how much they went for. I am talking Angie into slowly "honey you can decorate it" "we could go see the Ann of Green Gables hall of fame in it" (such a thing?). I envision it as our family vacation mega ship. We won't spend money on hotels or food, jsut live in the bus. And if a lot of family comes over to stay at our house, They can stay in the bus (with all the kids). I need it painted so that our neighbors think we are a rock and roll band, and maybe when we stop anywhere we could sign autographs!

poster child

2008-01-27T05:04:00.000-08:00

Here is my poster for the conference next month in California. My prof made fun of me for taking so long on it, not sure if that is his way of telling me to do other stuff or just relate? Anyway here it is, I have a few more things to do on it and then have it printed. I also have a powercat in it but it is currently turned off. I am thinking of sticking a little powercat somewhere for later generations to find, much like the recipes and gospel message I used to implant in my Cessna aircraft drawings.

Cant stop thinking about buses!

2008-01-25T09:12:00.000-08:00

Forget school buses! those are junior high, I am now into old touring buses. I am thinking of many ways to refurb it! I can't stop thinking about it.

Check out this bus, I wonder how hard it is to get a title for a bus? Seems this one use to belong to a tehano band! but they left it cause it wouldn't start. Today, when I took a break from my rigorous schedule, I looked at more buses and even bid on some. If I end up winning one I will have to let my wife go cloth shopping alot more. One of these babies might be my graduation present! I need to graduate first of course. So if anyone out there is looking for a present for me, look on ebay under the category of bus!

One of my life dreams.

2008-01-24T06:15:00.000-08:00

Here are some pictures of some busses that are on Ebay, I really want one. and I am planning on purchasing one after we graduate and get a job. The 56' GMC bus is a wonderful piece of moving art for 6500$. I do like the idea though of refurbing my own school bus and going camping with the family (no wonder Angie has trouble sleeping sometimes) the one pictured is listed at 1600$(below reserve). The red one is cool but a little pricey at 12k$, and I defiantly would keep the stars on it! My father in law mentioned that he wanted one to haul cattle with, I like that guy more and more. I probably shouldn't look to much or watching will turn into buying, and where would I park it? Mom can you see any of these marvels in your driveway? Big sisters I could roll to your house and dump my sewage right down your gutter!

I think my refurbs would include hammocks, deck on top w/grill, awning, bike racks with workbench, a george bush 04 bumper sticker, lots of fog lights, big big horn, mig welder, brush guard bumpers, winch, GPS, marvin the martian bobble head doll on the dash, underneath neon accent lights, biomass diesel converter (so that I could fill up my tank at the McDonalds dumpster), deployable wet banana (for the kids), and the optional cow catcher front end.

feed the babysitters!

2008-01-23T05:38:00.000-08:00

Here are two of the girls that we have over weekly for dinner and who babysit for us, that has really worked out well and is a Godsend. Lisa gave Zeke a Cambodian headband and Holly is holding Zeke. We are so thankful for these girls.

I am at Denny's right now reading my Bible and planning out my day, Grammy is in town until Friday so I left early this morning. We all slept all night until Judah got up at 5:40. Which is good for us. I like Denny's, I saying in front of coffee snobs "I love Denny's coffee" and seeing them cringe. There are a lot of snobs in this world, I guess I am a computer/mountain bike/car snob. I only want Macs, high end bikes, and Jeeps or nothing at all. Really everything else I take pride in using the low end and then telling people about it.

Cold here, can't wait for spring

2008-01-19T11:35:00.001-08:00

We are not enjoying the cold weather, used to before kids we could jsut sleep the dreary days away, now we have to make sure our kids don't destroy our house.
I dropped my class, the prof said I had to use JAVA to program so I said forget it! I will take the other machine learning class next fall that doesn't make you use just JAVA. So now I find myself with more time to work on my degree.
One of our college girls is coming over to babysit this afternoon while we go relax somewhere. Probably Barnes and Noble, I have a gift certificate to spend!

christmas card tries

2008-01-17T15:10:00.000-08:00

2008-01-16T17:19:00.000-08:00

Thought this picture was funny. The boys are doing well. Zeke was riding his bike inside today (we are worn down parents) and did a power slide in the front room on the carpet and left a skid mark any 4 year old would be proud of..... take that housing!

2008-01-15T04:18:00.001-08:00

This is a pic of us and our most favorite neighbor, joy. her real name is jyrushya but she has found that is too hard for people to say. She comes over alot just to play with the kids, and is a micro biologist so we get a lot of lectures on washing our hands. She is from India so we like to talk about Indian movies that we have seen. She is heading back to India in Feb to get married and then will come back to finish her doctorate without her husband.

Tacky is as Tacky does

2008-01-14T15:13:00.000-08:00

In my father-in-laws stocking I placed a sheet of stickers that said:

We would like Dan and Angie to have this when we pass away

and I also went around their farm placing some more of these stickers on my future inheritance. They are the kind of family that thinks this is funny which says a lot about them as well.

Time to go back to school.

2008-01-14T07:22:00.000-08:00

Here is Judah playing with Mathew (neighbor) in the leaves, also is a pic of the girls that Angie cooks for every Thursday. We are having a cookout in the grill. I burned a lot of sticks laying around. You can see that Zeke is enjoying the fire.

Finally the last picture is Zeke chawing down on a carrot. He is eating a little better and Judah is not eating as well. I don't know what to think.

We are learning alot about blood sugar and god diets. I am trying to make sure we have a big breakfast every morning, cause that is what Ma used to do!

School starts this week and I a not ready. I have to take a class, Artificial Intelligence, that subject appeals to me cause if I can't have intelligence naturally might as well go for the artificial kind.

Because I can.

2008-01-11T12:46:00.000-08:00

Here is a picture of Angie hiding her face as we walk back to the car that I parked on the sidewalk. I do this not only to embarrass my beautiful wife but because I drive a Jeep, I can.I also like to park on the big piles of snow in the Wal Mart parking lot after they scoop it all to one place, it is kind of like a dog peeing and marking his territory.

Also posted is a placard on my machine, I thought everyone would like to see.

day two of back in action

2008-01-11T04:47:00.000-08:00

Just a few pics here as a token blog entry. Judah didn't take a nap yesterday and is still asleep this morning (6:52) I am up by myself enjoying the quiet. I have a lot to do at work today so I got to get going.

I got to play the piano at the Union yesterday morning (when only the cleaning crew was there) it was nice to play again. Maybe someday I will have a grand P in our home and the boys can drive their tonka trucks into it.... Maybe it should go in the master bedroom.

been a while

2008-01-10T07:47:00.001-08:00

sorry, not doing real well with this blog thing.
found a cool gadget for my static personality problem here.

I also found a functional scarf that I might give out next christmas here. or the sumo table.

And a gadget for Angie here!

We are headed back to Kansas this weekend for yet another Christmas, more stuff for the boys to bring home and me to play with.

the Machine (SWEET) is mostly done and now I am trying to learn object oriented C to program my learning program. A long slow process.

Cold and dreary

2007-12-18T06:01:00.001-08:00

I am here at the George Street lab starting work. My family is in Kansas in Hutch enjoying the country life, I will join them hopefully soon. A little depressing here.

I got done grading the finals for my intro to computing class. Turns out Doc and I uncovered a cheating ring of at least 4 students. It was almost entertaining to see how little they did to change their homework from each other. One guy even forgot to change the name and left another name on the HW he submitted. Doc didn't enjoy the thought of prosecuting them and all the paperwork to fill out. I think he decided to give them all 0's for those hws. He sent out the email yesterday, I am curious if any of them object.

It seems to me that it would pay to not be lazy if you are not going to be honest. If they would have changed just a little more on the hws it would have been so much harder to catch. Maybe laziness and dishonesty go together? I am constantly overestimating students these days, just when I think they can't get any more flaky they do something new that shocks me and makes me shake my head. Was I this way back at KSU? Maybe I just dont remember it right. I do know that all these kids have jobs before they are out of school, jobs with signing bonuses.

Published author

2007-12-06T07:24:00.000-08:00

Well You are now reading the blog of a published author. I know pretty amazing, and I know there are still those who doubt it (my sister) but it is true. I finished the paper and turned it in, I will be showing off my poster (much like a fifth grade science fair) at a conference. The important thing is that I have at least one published paper under my belt. Here is the link.
http://coecs.ou.edu/Daniel.K.Flippo/Flippo_ISAIRAS_2008.pdf but I must warn you it is not as interesting as many might think. I am thinking about wearing wool cardigans and drinking lattes like real authors do.

Can't stand the English language

2007-11-30T12:31:00.000-08:00

for the last few weeks I have been writing a paper for a conference in California in Feb. It is a paper about my machine. I am not that great at writing so I have been to visit the writing resource room here at OU. They edit and discuss your writing. The young gal that checked my paper tried really hard to understand what I was trying to say. Turns out I need to start using commas. Anyway I have the paper done now and I am waiting on approval of a name for my machine from my advisor. The name I came up with was:

Suspension and Wheel Evaluation and Experimentation Testbed (S.W.E.E.T.)

Matt and I actually came up with some more:

Suspension and Wheel Evaluation and Experimentation Platform(SWEEP)
Device for Engineers to Get Rover Evaluation Engine (DEGREE)
Suspension and Wheel Evaluation platform (SWEDe)
Suspension and Wheel Evaluation Apparatus for Rovers (SWEAR)
SR2 Testing Utility Device (STUD)

I like S.W.E.E.T. best cause I can say things like S.W.E.E.T.design ad S.W.E.E.T. results and Dan Flippo the designer of the S.W.E.E.T. machine.
Then again Dr Miller may squash that name for something bland and easy. Such is acedemia.
if anyone come up with a good name let me know.

thanksgiving was a hard week. The boys both got sick, Angie and I got the stomach flu. I did have fun playing guitar hero at my brothers house. We are glad to be home in our own bed though.

2007-11-13T07:23:00.000-08:00

This sign was posted at Barnes and Noble, thought it was funny. The other pictures are of our family friend Matt who plays well with the kids. Notice the one picture he is playing by himself.

Judah got up at 5:20 this morning, I am considering some sort of intervention. Maybe sending him off to the grandparents! We have been keeping him up through his morning nap so he only sleeps in the afternoon. He does go to sleep fast and well, but he doesn't sleep long enough.

Beautiful and 75

2007-11-12T06:19:00.000-08:00

The weather here has been phenomenal.
Not much to say.
I am scheduled to go to California in Feb to present (poster presentation not oral) my machine. Which means I need to finish a paper on it by the end of this month. to be a professor you need to publish as much as possible. Schools may say that they care about teaching ability but really they only care about publications. This little fact is evident in some of the teachers I have had over the years. A school needs to survive financially and unfortunately the quality of teaching is something they brag about but not look for when hiring.
So anyway I need to write a paper, first I need to learn how to write. I will fill it with pictures to pad it a little maybe put some recipes in it.
The weather here has been phenomenal.
Not much to say.
I am scheduled to go to California in Feb to present (poster presentation not oral) my machine. Which means I need to finish a paper on it by the end of this month. to be a professor you need to publish as much as possible. Schools may say that they care about teaching ability but really they only care about publications. This little fact is evident in some of the teachers I have had over the years. A school needs to survive financially and unfortunately the quality of teaching is something they brag about but not look for when hiring.
So anyway I need to write a paper, first I need to learn how to write. I will fill it with pictures to pad it a little maybe put some recipes in it.

Still here but can't talk righ......

2007-11-07T14:21:00.000-08:00

Judah has a fever and what a bad sick person he is, what a crank.
We are tired.
Grading day today, makes me tired and sick, what a crank

Some of these students just can't remember to put their name on a program, It is 10% of their grade.

I hosted a make up exam for 7 students, most of which forgot their computers (after 2 weeks of us telling them to bring it) during the real test. One kid was a no show, and 2 forgot their computers. One of these has been sick so.... but the other??? I try to thnk back to my undergrad years and ask would I forget a computer to a make up exam that I had to take cause I forgot my computer?
I saved their tests on a USB drive and lost that over the weekend, what a bad monday that was. Here I was feeling jsutified about making fun of these undergrads and I do something like lose their tests. Anyway I got the tests back from them so no hard done except for my new USB drive was lost. Maybe Mat Roman took it.... he was very jealous when I showed it to him....maybe he couldn't help himself. I feel that I must go through his stuff yet again to make sure he didn't take it. Tough love.

went riding again this last Sunday, Matt thougholy thrashed me again. Makes me want to kick his spokes in... again.

2007-10-25T07:01:00.000-07:00

Well Yesterday was Zeke's BD and it was fun. He got some of those magnetic bulding things, I really hope Judah doesn't find them tasty. Also a huge styrofoam airplane that he said was boring when we took it outside. I am thinking that he was worried that it would fly off. Anyway it was fun, we watched a movie on the wall last night and went out for slushies. Angie made him a really cool little Jeep cake. On Tuesday we went out to a place that had a huge jungle gym and played on it till Judah was laying down in it trying to go to sleep. We are sick of candy and junk food, ready to get on with normal life, although yesterday was fun.

For some reason the blog site is not uploading pictures right now, sorry.

Cold Rainy and KU is winning the big 12 north

2007-10-22T06:24:00.000-07:00

It is monday, I am back at the office after a chaotic but fulfilling weekend with my family. We went garage saleing on Saturday, G.S. is different for me with a family, usually I drive and sit with kids while Angie checks out the boring sales (clothes etc). We did manage to pick up another small bike for the boys, this one is a lot lighter than the one he has we got it for 3$......nice. We took it and the trailer to the lake to ride. The trailer hitch didn't work real well, Judah screamed most of the time. My tire went flat, but other than that it was a beautiful day, my beautiful wife was there with me and we went out to eat at this really cool rib joint out in the country. We gave Zeke his first full can of 7 up, we won't be doing that again anytime soon. The booth we were sitting in was not enough to hold him in! Good eating though, so any faily of friends that come to visit we have a new joint to take you to.
I went riding on Sunday while te boy slept. The trails were a little better than last time but still not like they were before the rains. I did manage to crash and get a big goose egg on my knee. and about 3/4 ways through my back tire went flat so I had to push/jog with it to get back in time for church. still a good workout. Need to buy a pump.
There is about a 5-10% chance we might try the X prize and send a rover to the moon. if that does happen I hope to graduate first and use that as a post doctorate topic. Maybe then I could get hired later on. I only mention it cause it is a cool thought, my prof has bee trying to get money for the last 10 years to do it, the google X prize has kind of gotten the alumni excited a little more, but there are still some miracles that need to happen.
the machine is going well, finally. I am programming Labview for PID control and data collection. I think this week I should be moving all this over to George street lab and putting the whole machine together. I will have to buy some dirt soon to test on and some rocks! red ones.

2007-10-18T06:22:00.000-07:00

I am having trouble doing this blog thing anymore, I am getting wrapped up in engineering and raising boys. I apologize for the no news.
Pictures are of Zeke's 4th BD party, he got an ice cream cone with candles in it. He got a marble set for his BD which he has not stopped playing with since. One of the pics is a marble machine that we made. I fashioned a top of a 2 liter bottle for a funnel to incorporate into his designs. He also got one of those books that tells you how things are made, He loves those. that has been our book of choice ever since.
We had a good time in Lindsborg, Angie's new york family came to visit and we made fun of their accent all weekend. Zeke does a good new yorker. I spent some time in the car grading student programs, I sat at the red coach inn to partake in their wi-fi (the coffee shop closed.)
There is talk here of pursueing the X prize and sending one of Matt's rovers to the moon, crazy talk. The best thing would be for me to graduate then do that as a post doc. Who knows what will happen. I would need to figure out how to contribute to the affair, maybe I could do paint scheme? .....flames.
Well gotta get.
oh yeah the bird in the pictures was let in by mat and it flew around the lab for a while.

tired and on drugs.

2007-10-11T11:29:00.000-07:00

Angie's back went ou ton Friday, she couldn't stand up straight. So now my back is hurting, not sure why. I took one of her muscle relaxers last night and I am still high. I am never doin that again. Angie and I now stretch together at night, very romantic. we are getting old I guess.

Just isn't fair!

2007-09-28T10:54:00.000-07:00

I have ordered a new Macbook Pro laptop using some account money from me teaching (I can't use that money to eat on but I can use it for school stuff). So my prof talks me out of getting the best one 2.4 Ghrz, because he wanted me to save some money for conference travel sometime. Like that will ever happen.
So OK I don't need the best one I get the 2.2 Ghz (it was a struggle not getting the best one). I order it then Matt (using the same kind of account money) orders himself one a week and a half later, but knowing that I got a 2.2 Ghz he intentionally gets the 2.4Ghz just to have better stuff than me! Also he got the same bluetooth wireless mouse that I did for that same reason. This is a regular pattern with him, and a reason that I continually borrow his stuff to make him use mine.
Well turns out that since he ordered a week and half later he got a discount on it and he got his delivered today! While I am still waiting because his was already here. I did manage to get to it before he did and hide it. I told the secretary to tell him that he won't get it until I get mine which she nervously did.
Well as you can tell from the picture he is enjoying it as I type this vitriol, he is even smiling.... I am thinking about doing things to it when he leavers for lunch. It is too bad our skunk is no longer outside I could give his laptop a nice smell.
The other pictures are of Zeke and Judah writing on the dry erase board in the lab, and Tim the new guy's bike after Zeke and I got through with it using mommy's girly stickers.

2007-09-24T10:27:00.001-07:00

Here are some piccs from our travels, The first is at home depot where we always have to drive the lawnmowers around. second is Judah after he got in a fight after drawing a powercat on the OU campus, don't feel bad for him you should see the other guy! (actually he was driving his dump truck and it took off without him and he skidded on his face). the 3rd picture is me and the boys playing with Tim's wheelchair (he is a grad student working a thesis about wheelchairs) this thing goes pretty fast, fast enough to scare us anyway.

fighting for colors

2007-09-19T07:43:00.001-07:00

Pictured here is my newest garage sale find, yep it is a official shriners hat. Apparently of the Abu Behr clan. Angie was against investing 2 dollars (they started at 3) in such a find but I held out. That night I had a dream that the shriners were coming after me and beating me up because I had one of their hats. turns out you can purchase them easily on ebay, so I have nothing to worry about. I haven't taken a picture yet of Angie with it yet, it might be hard to get her to wear it.
I also put up a picture of Judah practicing his powercat symbol. We see it as very important that the boys learn how to do the powercat before reading or writing and in Norman it is important to write it fast and then run.

X prize

2007-09-14T07:39:00.001-07:00

http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/09/lunar-rover-mak.html?cid=82758863#comment-82758863

visit this website and you will see a picture of Matt's rover that he built for the X prize people. He called me yesterday saying he just shook hands with the google founder and that buzz aldren was 50 fifty feet away from him.... punk.

our professor has been beating the bushes for funding to send a rover to the moon for years, I wonder if he is thinking about trying this challenge? If that happens I might as well give on graduating for several years.

Mud

2007-09-12T17:18:00.001-07:00

The other day I was in charge of the kids for the morning and so I shoved them outside with some water and they made mud with it. I had to put them in the bucket and give them an outside shower before I took them inside.

Remember that analogy about the Christian life where they talk about coming to God as you are and not try to get clean on your own. it goes "you don't clean yourself to take a shower do you" well you do when you are a little boy that is so muddy that going inside would defile the tabernacle. What can I say every analogy breaks down at some point. With kids in mind the analogy should go "your really dirty and Christ has a fire hose, take off your diaper and get washed, it is time to go in to the AC and Popsicles".

The other pictures are of my testing leg, the motor turns the wheel while the Force Torque sensor measures the forces and torques, the circuit board is the amp for the signals from the FT sensor. It works pretty good I think. I have some more stuff to make and get shipped to me.

Buffalo, basement, blimp

2007-09-06T06:13:00.001-07:00

So I am digging through my pictures to find ones for the blog, sorry these are the best I have right now. the ones of my new shriners hat (garage sale) are on the other camera.
The buffalo was taken near Lawton OK, the basement is this hole in the floor in our lab with some interesting things down there, we think this is where the cats are coming in from to our lab.
The last is a one man blimp that we spotted while we were garage saleing, it was an enclosed cabin and everything, really cool. I wish I had one.

USS Batfish

2007-09-04T06:35:00.001-07:00

I think Angie looks really good in one of those redneck cowgirl hats, I might have to buy her one.

The rest of the pictures are of our trip through muskogee OK to see the USS Batfish WWII submarine. I must say that it was really cool. We walked through for about an hour and marveled at how people lived in there, how they slept with the torpedoes and a air tank 4 inches above their head. Judah and Zeke both really enjoyed pushing all the buttons and grabbing the wheels.

The proprietor met us in the parking lot (not many people there) and gave a us a little talk out in the 100 degree heat, kind of a prerequisite pep talk before we were inundated with all the WWII memorabilia inside the museum building. After the museum we went out back and went into the sub which was really cool. I was impressed with the 4 - 9000 cubic inch diesel engines that charged the batteries, man what a monster truck I could build with that! It was a great lesson for Zeke in history, we look to do a lot more of this for homeschooling.

I always wanted to make a submarine out of a refrigerator, but the people that care for me throughout the years have always discouraged it. I also think that if we ever get past this antigravity thing we should just outfit old submarines for space travel and send them up for the first wave.
They could be missile ready and everything! that is in case we needed it.

new pics

2007-08-31T11:30:00.000-07:00

Here are a few pictures of me with my feet up while other people work, for some reason I just think its hilarious! The first one is my brother in law mowing, the next is my son washing the car. The last picture is me in the Jeep dealership bathroom posing in front of a poster.

I like to go through the junk in my lab on occasion and I find some really cool stuff, I just found a scandisk memory card reader which will let me read in pictures off of a card much easier.

2007-08-29T07:34:00.000-07:00

Here are some pics from the family. There was one with my mother in law next to the donkey, out of wisdom I decided not to post that one, it is taking great restraint.

Judah was up several times last night.

Zeke: after Judah had spread around "poopy" all over the living room and touched Zeke with it "Judah that is Nasty!"

still here

2007-08-24T06:23:00.000-07:00

Mat's laptop went down in flames yesterday with a noise that sounded like a dying bird. He is still trying to get the data back but a black day indeed. Doc went out and bought us a 500 Gig backup hard drive for us to back up everything weekly. I am trying that now, but it keeps giving me errors. And 50 gigs of memory takes a while to go through a USB port!
I brought in "it's a mad mad mad mad mad world" today for us to start watching over lunch everyday, I think mat and Tim would like it.
Spent all yesterday morning looking for bevel gears the right size, kind of gave up and looked on ebay and found some for 20$ what a time to be alive. Maybe I will buy our next kid on ebay?
Angie's back is hurting again, she is going to try to start cross training a little and bike in lieu of run somedays. She biked about 10 miles this morning, which is pretty good for someone not used to a bike I would say.

Zeke and I had a dart gun fight before everyone came over last night and I scored a good crotch shot on him which we thought was funny, I don't know why guys think that is so funny? but we laughed about it and then when all the guests came over for thursday night dinner zeke said "Daddy shot me in the pee pee". Angie wanted me to do something, but I couldn't the comment was already made. Good one Zeke, your day is coming my friend may your kids bring you such joy.

new place to work

2007-08-23T06:38:00.000-07:00

So I get this email from Dr P (the grad student adviser) who is in charge of placing people in offices.

"During a walk-through to allocate offices for
new graduate students, we noticed that you are
occupying all three desks in Room 141 FH.
My understanding is that Faculty members with lab space
will use the lab space to house all their computers/research equipment and
the offices such as 141 FH will be used by GTAs for office hour
interaction with undergraduate students.

We have had an increase in the number of incoming graduate students,
and need space to seat them. Room 141 has three desks and we
will be allocating two more students to this office.
Please move the materials on the other two desks so that the
office can accomodate two more students.

Thank you for your cooperation in this matter.

Dr. P
Graduate Liaison, AME"

actually my office was getting too small for me and my stuff, let alone two more people! So I moved everything in with Mat Roman, which is working out well the only bad part is that I have to listen to his boom-de-boom music. My desk in the other room I will use for storage for all my junk, this is needed even after I threw away a whole bin full of stuff.
I have been praying for a new laptop (the one Doc gave me can't be moved or else it starts to chatter). Doc came in the other day and said that if I volunteer as a tutor the department will put 2500$ in an account to use for such things as laptops. So I will be ordering my new mac powerbook next week. This is good news and really cool, if God would have given me 2500$ I would not have used it on a laptop, but this way I have no choice,

robert is your uncle Fanny is your aunt, everything is shiny.

I also asked to be out of debt before we leave here, that is harder to trust for but we shall see what glorifies him the most.

Mat and I went riding last week and the trail out at the lake is awful, overgrown and eroded with lots of spider webs. I am sure they will work on it soon but it was disappointing. Mat did crash though which is always an upper.

Zai Jian Dr Wang

2007-08-21T07:30:00.000-07:00

Dr Wang, my english tutoring student (I teach him, not the other way around) is leaving to go back to China this Saturday. I will miss him, he is a pretty funny guy. He took the Flippo's out for dinner at the White Swan Chinese place last night. It was a good time with some really good food. it is nice to have a Chinese guy with you when you eat in these places cause I think they go the extra mile for you. The kids were good for the most part with a few hiccups. Judah was covered in fried rice by the time we were done and Zeke was in rare form with his comments. Here are a few.

Daddy "Zeke stop picking your nose"
Zeke "it has to come out!"

Zeke after getting his first Chinese dish yells "This smells awful!"

Zeke half way through dinner "how about we get out of here"

at this point the waitress handed Zeke some chop sticks and a bowl of crunchy chips, his mood changed.

Zeke "why do they call them chop sticks"

Zeke "these are really good!" "this tastes like heaven"

Dr wang also said that he could set up several lecture gigs for me in China if we come visit and we could get free lodging. We were excited about that, maybe someday. We will leave this kids at home!

God's speed Dr Wang, may you prosper and find joy.

Zeke quotes

2007-08-17T08:56:00.000-07:00

We had some good Zeke quotes while on vacation

"can we come out of here (gas station) with slushies in our hands?"

"the tornado has already been here" Zeke after visiting aunt kathy's bedroom

"nice glasses daddy" after seeing my retro chips glasses

mommy "Zeke do not put you feet on the table"
Zeke "short term memory loss"

I am now working on an amp for my sensor, I get to use a circuit board printer available to us in a different lab. it is turning out pretty well, I still have a lot to learn about soldering nice neat joints. I have a huge amount of little things to get done on the machine, we shall see. On monday I start TA'ing for intro to computing class, I am not real excited about this. It means I have to run two help sessions and grade 80 homeworks a week. blah blah blah, but you know it is still better than cessna!

sorry,, bad blogger

2007-08-15T09:35:00.000-07:00

I have been away, long away.
We went to wisconsin, it was a long way to go but the boys did well and anytime with the Flippo's is entertaining. We rented a car for the trip (Ford Fusion) for gas mileage and no worries, it worked out well. Especially since when we returned the ac went out on the Jeep (fixed now), would have been really hot coming home without AC.
We got home to a house of mold, we left the AC on to prevent this but that was not enough. We called maintenance and they came and cleaned part of it up (not real motivated, that comes with a government run establishment) so Angie and I took everything out and Angie bleached it all and then we washed everything (in the kitchen) and put it back. We were a little disappointed in housings lack of effort in this, but like I said it is government run. It is this concept which makes me cringe at the sound of government run health care.
Also when we got back my laptop (really my bosses old mac) starting acting up, it now sits in my office not able to move. it is on permanent bed rest due to its dimensia when handled and bent. So we are praying for a new laptop. There is new hope for the MSC contracting position, it is still a maybe. We are hoping for that, it would be 10-20 hours extra a week for a whole lotta moola and good resume filler.
Judah is now walking, still not sleeping real well.
Zeke is starting to read. "Zeke sat on Cat" it is neat to watch his mind sound out the words. I am looking forward to the day when he can read to me while I drink a bottle!
The students are back and really pesky. traffic is bad again. Maybe I will talk matt into calling in a bomb scare so that I can ride home without running into anyone.
We have a new guy in our group, his name is Tim. not to be confused with old Tim. new tim is working on wheelchairs designs, I got to ride one the other day and it had some real pick up, I smashed my knee into the table.
more later, better get this out before the computer crashes.

I did get a chance to take my family to a water park and got to ride the lazy river, I love lazy rivers and hope to have one around my house in the country someday. you could take bb guns with you and shoot at tagets slong the way, also have a dinner tube for dinner on the river and a TV tube for watching movies on the river. Maybe I will make it go past a parking lot sothat any visitors have to take the LZR to my house.

cafe plaid

2007-07-30T13:49:00.000-07:00

I am sitting here at cafe plaid, the coolest spot next to campus. I think I fit right in.
I just got done rewriting an abstract for a conference in February in California. My writing skills are not exemplary, as you all know. so it takes me a while of reading and rereading. I have noticed that I am a more aggressive typer when I have some cafe plaid coffee in me (faster more mistakes).
My professor came back today from his 2 month vacation in hawaii and the west coast(nice career choice). I asked if he had decided on any career changes. (hawaii can do that to a person) and he said that he and his wife looked at houses on the island of kuai. I don't think that he is headed there very soon, but I would not be surprised if he retires there soon after I am gone, which explains the deep desire for me to get done.
I am officially on vacation although I had a lot of loose ends to get done, like the abstract. I also have yet another appointment with the dentist tomorrow, yep another cavity. I think this one is from too many sunflower seeds. I will ask if she can put some sort of sunflower seed shield in the one spot. The lady on the phone asked what type of pain, I dismissed this question knowing full well what a cavity feels like. She didn't know she was dealing with an expert.
Zeke and I are proud owners of some nerf dart guns and 36 nerf darts. We have been shooting each other constantly for the last few days. We had to make a rule today "no shooting mommy" because Zeke grazed her along the cheek. One bad shot ruins it for all of us. Judah on the other hand has yet to get hit, he seems to dodge them well maybe cause he rushes whoever has a gun and starts chewing on the darts. We might bring them to Wisconsin to shoot my brothers but I am afraid they will find there way in the car and I will be driving and getting pelted my darts. We also take target practice and have set a target on dusty to facilitate moving target practice, this was an especially good idea since I am vacuuming the floor at the same time.

today is Finals day

2007-07-27T10:55:00.001-07:00

I am standing here watching my class suffer while they take their final, I will look for cheating of course. If that happens then it will happen toward the end of class when people are desperate. I have not had to deal with that yet. The final is pretty hard, I took it and actually couldn't do one of the problems that I had on there. No I didn't give them that problem I switched it my hypocrisy has some bounds. I should walk around and say hmmmm or hmm mm or uh ohhh.

Angie and the boys are coming home tonight, I am looking forward to that. I really miss them, single life is fun for a little while but becomes old really fast when you are used to living such a deep life with kids ... albeit chaotic. We will rest this weekend and play play play then next week I have to meet with my boss and finish up an abstract for a conference he wanted me to try out for. We will see if that happens, I really need to publish some papers if I will ever have a job at a larger college.

Matt and I went to Tim's last night and set on the back porch talking, Tim is leaving on Sunday for a real paying job. God's speed Tim..... sucker!

Trail rated.

2007-07-26T07:09:00.000-07:00

Dr Wang just left, he is the Chinese visiting Dr in MEchanical Engineering that I am helping in English. Today he read to me from the Jeep Commander sales brochure that I picked up the other day at the dealership. Interesting experience.

Angie and the boys are still in Branson, I get a call from them everynight and I talk to Zeke before he goes to bed. He tells me all about his day and usually he throws in a lot of sound effects with it. I really miss them and I am looking forward to taking off a couple of weeks in August to spend with them. Zeke likes to talk about the hotel that they are staying in, we have theorized that a machine comes in everyday and cleans and makes the beds for them. we agree we need one of those at home.

Monday my prof comes home after two months of travel and we are to have a "chat". not sure what that means, not sure if he has decided to go some other direction with his career or not. Anymore I don't care as much what he thinks of me, I guess that is progress.

Today is review day for the final that is tomorrow in the class that I am teaching, I am thinking about doing the Dave Mitchel (preacher from wichita) thing and throwing out candy for the right answers to my review questions, if nothing else it will give me a chance to throw things at a few of the students. So it is therapeutic for everyone. I still have to write the test but shouldn't take too long, it will be hard for them but I think they will do fine, most will anyway.

All alone again.

2007-07-24T06:49:00.000-07:00

Angie and the kids are in Branson with my sister. I think Angie is going to need some time alone after that trip for sure. You know that it is bad when your wife calls to ask that you pray for her and you hear kids screaming in the background. On the way they ran into some rain and had to pull over, Zeke melted and was scared. I wonder if my sister has regretted asking them to come along yet. I talked to Zeke last night and he really liked the fireworks they had and the rides he had been on already. I couldn't understand all of it but there were several exploding sounds that he made.

Matt and I went over to Oner's house last night to watch "the shooter" pretty good movie, pretty clean other than violence.
I took the Jeep in this morning to get the front end looked at and several other things, I am expecting a pretty big bill. I did happen to pick up some brochures of the new jeeps out, really cool. I didn't stand around long cause you know how the salesmen smell people like me and hone in.

Zeke "God bless slushies"

buhler...buhler....

2007-07-18T06:36:00.000-07:00

So Angie spent the day at work with me, and even went to class with me. Show commented on how lifeless my students are and how they just sit there with looks of painful boredom etched into there faces. I don't know what to do different, maybe yell at the top of my lungs every 20 seconds or so. I don't think that the boredom thing is all my fault since they showed no signs of life during the silo video either and we all know how exciting that is.
The summer class is almost over with the Final being next Friday. I will write the final next week and I plan on it being a hard test for them.
I passed a Chinese guy riding the other night and I hear him say
"ohhh soo strong" I laughed and thought that I had better get to know such a wise individual. His name is Ai Fa, I translate his name as "loves umbrellas" but probably it means something else since my Chinese is not that great. I told him that I live in 114-C and he says "oh this world is so small I also live in 114" turns out this guy is my new neighbor living upstairs and across the breezeway. He has a daughter that is 2 years old, we met her last night. There are alos other neighbors upstairs that are not as friendly, we will wear them down though.
Angie will head back to Kansas thursday night and then back on Friday. I will see them over the weekend then they will head back out on Monday to go to Branson with my sister Kathy. I hope that that is not a bad week for them all.

long time no blog

2007-07-13T10:23:00.001-07:00

Sorry I have not been a real good blogger lately. Here are some pictures to make up for it. The tree that fell down is from the storm we had not long ago and the bike tire in the water is a part of my daily experience coming home from work. I had to ride in shorts today and change when I got to work.

There is also a picture of the FT sensor that I am working on, I have constructed a calibration table for it and have taken lots of data, so scientific of me. I need to make a 6 channel amp for it and then hit my boss up for 3500$ for a interface board for the computer. We shall see if that happens.

Teaching is going alright, if I can get my class to show up that is. There will be some who don't move on after this class. I have begged them to come to my office, I am even having a help session everyday after class for them. One guy came yesterday to it. I can't make them work I guess. My professor says that the world might be better off not having them as engineers. Today I will give them the evaluation for me, we shall see if it is therapeutic for them or not.

The boys will be staying with Grammy this coming week while Angie and I relax and enjoy life without kids. We are planning on going to the coffee store every night and watching a lot of stargate season 9.

We pretty much ran the tread off of dusty, actually her tread did fall off and I had to order new ones. I had to use the normal vacuum last night and it was a pain in the dirt bag. That little piece of sucking techno goodness has spoiled us and we miss her. Got to get her back in the family and back to work!

Looks like flying to Wisconsin is out so we will be driving, I don't really want to drive our gas eating Jeep there so we are thinking about renting a small car and driving full tilt with the movies playing for Zeke and benadryl for Judah (I am kidding). Maybe we will just turn the radio up when he starts crying.

The sticks are a the stick forest that Zeke and I made as a protest to taking our sandbox. I call it stick henge.
well gotta go.

what is that bright thing in the sky

2007-07-09T09:33:00.000-07:00

Well it has been sunny the last few days, there are still several puddles and some really nasty large black skeeters but the rainy season is over for a while at least. Judah just had his 1st birthday (2 parties so far, one to go), he and Zeke are doing well. Both are talking alot and making a lot of noise. Yesterday Zeke and Judah crashed down pillow walls that I made, Zeke would run into them and then Judah would follow crawling.
We are trying to figure out how to get to Wisconsin for our family reunion. Planes trains or Jeeps. We don't really want to drive with the two kids. We are considering the plane idea but we have to get a ride from Madison.
Kids have not been sleeping well at all, we are wearing down.
It rained again tonight, really blew. Several trees had large limbs blown down, pretty cool. if it is going to rain why not blow down some limbs along the way.

first exam

2007-07-02T11:59:00.001-07:00

I held my first exam in Statics last friday, I like giving exams except for the people who attempt to come garner answers from me in a desperate effort at understanding. The average was 71% which is not bad, but there are several who are failing my course, today I begged them to come in for help which is something they will not get from a professor. I know that many will not come in for help, nor ask questions in class. I can't make them, I should get their parents email address and hold a parent teacher conference. Maybe that will help. The troubled youth of today.

While the young ones take a quiz

2007-06-26T10:52:00.000-07:00

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.