Incredibly busy day at work and out.. It’s really late (1:30 ish).. and I’m too tired to do it justice. So I’ll make this short.
I began the day really early because I needed to load my show equipment .. here I am in my storeroom down stairs.. quite a mess…
And I needed get to the welding store before 8:30 to get my liquid nitrogen dewer filled. I ran into my buddy Yolk there… Yolk was the guy that hosted the iron pour back in July. Turns out that he and Christine are getting married on Friday !!! .. and our mutual friend Elijah will be up for the weeding. I hope I get to see him.
I then got to work and had a really insane day.. once again.. no work talk here.. but suffice it to say the day was rich with surprises and challenges.
One bright spot, my good freind Jason came buy with a suprise for me.. he’d consipred with a freind in Bonn to find me a 100 dinar note from Serbia with a picture of my hero Nikola Tesla . (there’s a one man show about Tesla this saturday at UVM .. thanks to the many folks who sent me notes about it !)
Over lunch I zoomed to Gabes school to do a special show. The whole school had been doing standarized test (NECAP’s) for the whole week.. they needed a break.. I did abotu 45 minutes of electrical madness…
Then .. in the last 20 minutes we switched gears and made liquid nitrogen icecream.. for just about 400 students, faculty and staff. It was wonderfully chaotic and messy !
Man did we make a mess… It was a great time but I had to get on a work call the moment the show was over.. so I had to pack and help celan up while talking with work folks.
A couple of hours later I went to south Burlignton.. to watch Gabe ‘s soccer team play .. Once again I had a (very good) work call.. but I was still able to watch.. ..
and take picture of the soccer mom and dad bumper stickers.
OK.. now .. second to last day on innovation journal..
1. What, if anything related to innovating occurred for you today?
Well.. I think my show with the ice cream was pretty innovative.. but my realy work began around 7 tonight at Homers.. we had our first integration meeting for the porject x monster.. . This was the first time the animatronics .. pnuematic body mechanics and head and hand artwork all came together for assembly. It was a lng hard night.. with lots of metal cutting, drilling, grinding to make things fit.. In the end it all came together… and I gotta say.. it’s really nice.
2. Who else was involved (knowingly or not!) in what happened for you on that effort today? (Please don’t forget to include ST chats, email exchanges, etc.)
On the sciene show, Diane and Gabe helped me plan the show, The CHMS principal. Mark., helped me buy all the ice cream ingrediants.. a bunch of the teachers and staff helped me set up and Rogine handeld the very massive cleanup
On the Project-x thing tonight it was me, homer. Sara G. and seth..
3. In general, do you feel more optimistic or more concerned about the potential / likely success of this effort today than yesterday?Why?
I feel much more optimistic because I was able to see all the elements come together and work for the first time.
4. Please take a picture of something (anything) that is suggestive of this effort in any way that is meaningful to you…. (or draw one).
OK.. I have quite a few pictures.. here are the hands that Sara and Becca made.. they’re wood, PVC pipe and urethane foam.. pretty amazing !
.. and here’s the painted head…
We had to make soem major adjustments in the creatures reach to accomodate the longer and heavier hands.
Seth helped me on the mounh program.. We made a breakthrough by adding a sprign to counter balance gravity.. it made all the difference !
Fianlly we had all the elements combined, spooky head, talking mouth, flashing eyes, rising body and flailing arms.. and .. beleive me.. it’s pretty cool !!!!!
and quite scary.. this thing is big !
I’m particulalry proud of the voice tracking servos in the jaw.. we still have a bunch of fine tuning.. but it’s cool that we can make soemthign this big ‘talk’
..
And here’s the whole creature assembled.. Keep in mind.. he’s now about 17 feet tall when fully standing.. Let me know what you think !
..
5. Did anything hinder your innovativeness today ?
my tough day job.. need for sleep..
6. Add anything else you think pertinent to your day.
Yes.. it’s over.. time to sleep. Nite all.. Nite Sam !
Happy almost new year folks.. tonight is the eve of the jewish new year.. erev rosh hashona… At this time of year we say Shana Tova … ! שנה טובה A good new year.
I found this picture of people spelling out ‘shana tova’.. using there bodies which is proof that people from all over the world, regardless of religion or culture, have too much time on their hands
My work day was pretty bleak.. I woke wth an unneasy feeling that I can’t possibly do all that I’m supposed to be getting done this week .. .. and I was not dissapointed.. I basically struck out at everything I tried today.. It seemed like every thing I’ve been working on had started to unravel a little. By abotu 4 I’d had enough.. and took off for an hour to watch Gabe’s soccer gane.. that helped a bit. It’s fun watching him play.. Today was an interestinf cool but muggy/buggy day..
The guys got beat but they had a great set of fans.. the girls team that was waiting for the field cheered them on. … Note that these young women decided to sit queitly in this nice straight row without any instrcution from adults.. sometim sI wonder if we’re all really the same species.
It was nice to see Jay come walkig across the feild in a Sam shirt.. that always makes me feel good.
The game was over around 5:30.. I took Gabe hme.. as I walked through the CHMS parking lot I spied these gems.
and my pereneal favorite
I dropped gabe at home through on my sjacket and headed out to Rosh Hashona services.. I had told myself that I wsan’t goign to go tonight.. but the historical urge proved overpowering. I decided to givce the Hillel congregation at UVM a try.. it’s been nice neough ver the past few years.. I used to love Beth Jacob in Montpellier. but the service leaders changed.. and the new style just didn’t work for me…
On the way there I stopped for a few minutes in Shelburne to say hi to Dave, Hanna, Adah and Senyah at their friend Toby’s house.
It wasreally nice meeting Hannah and Daves freinds.. they were wonderfull.. Here’s Hannah with her Sam pin.
Me and Senyah hanging out on the floor.
We all had the tradtional apples and honey to bring in a sweet new year.
Then I zoomed over to UVM for the service..
unfrotueanly.. I thought the services were in a different building… It took me about 20 minutes to figre out where I
was supposed to be . Ieventually found the place and was able to cath the last part of the service… I was theri for the mourners kkaddish.. which is really what I nedeed to do. I brought out my picture of Sam and dsaid the acient prayer abotu our everlasting souls and really had a good cry.. I think that’s what I was lookign for all day. I miss you so much Sam..
I saw a few freinds there Hannah B’s dad and Jake and family.. I said goodbye and headed home.
That was my day.. tough but not remarkable.
Now.. day 4 (?) of this innoavation journal.. pretty easy tonight since I didn’t innovate much
1. What, if anything related to innovating occurred for you today?
I hoensly can’t think of anything innovative I did today.. which might explain why I was so down.. or my lake of innovativeness might be because I was feeling down.. All I know is that inventing cheers me u…
Oh wait.. I guess I did do something innovatiish.. I brainstormed with Scott by email on how toimplement the Project-x mosnters powere supplies.. That was fun.. I’m trying to find soemthing that supplies just the right voltages and currents.
2.
Who else was involved (knowingly or not!) in what happened for you on
that effort today? (Please don’t forget to include ST chats, email
exchanges, etc.)
Well… Scott.. I guess.. see above. We wewnt back and forth on several poswer supplies.. unfortunealy, we still haven’t found one that will work for what we need.
3.
In general, do you feel more optimistic or more concerned about the
potential / likely success of this effort today than yesterday?Why?
Clocks ticking.. my energy is low.. I’m doooooooomed I tell you.. dooooooooooooooomed, dooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooomed
4. Please take a picture of something (anything) that is suggestive of this effort in any way that is meaningful to you…. (or draw one).
Well. I dont have anything really.. I guess I’ll drop in theis block diagram for a switching poser suply like the ones I’ve been discussing with Scott
5. Did anything hinder your innovativeness today ?
severe apathy, religion, chance
6. Add anything else you think pertinent to your day.
I think ‘good night’ would be about right..’good night’ Sam..
today is the day before the day before the Jewish new year… and I’m trying to figure out what that means to me now. I’m certainly more spirtual since Sam died.. but I don’t think I’, as religious. Not sure I’ll do anything to mark the year.. Not sure waht I would do if I did..
Today was a cool and rainy day.. Diane painted the whole day.. I dropped in and out of painting assignments. I also took some time working on the monster project and got a good start on a paper I have due in two weeks.. Here’s an interesting set of stats that I found during my research .. Why aren’t more women entering engineering ? Any ideas.. please let me know !
all in all a pretty good.. if dreary day.
Diane and I managed to get out for a walk this morning. the air was heavy and wet.. the leaves looked pretty cool in the misty air. I think thta was the only time I was out of the house.. no wait, I di drop gabe at a movie this afternoon.. Spotted this tree on the drive back
I also found this poor bird who must have hit one of the garage windiws.. I picked him up and buried him and did a small verimony thing for him.. Everything has such significance to me now.
This is goign to be a very busy week.. so I better get soem sleep. before I do, here’s installment 4 on the innovation diary I’m supposed to keep until wednesday..
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I took a few hours this morning to try and make a little more progrss on the Project-x maonster. It’s too bad that we didn’t get the head this weekend.. this was to have been our main integration weekend. i’m not sure when I’m going to have enough time to devote to it for the rst of the month. That may be a big problem.
I chose to spend my time this morning rebuilding the arduino board that handles the mouth and the eyes. The current board had been built by sequentially adding new features.. at this point many of the features.. eg. eyebrow motor control, computer control of the air solenoids were no longer needed… but their circuitry was still clogging up the board. There was so much old stuff on there that it would be hard to extend, hand hard to debug.
Here’s the old board..
Here’s me building up the new board.. with the help of the magnifier I now have to use.. @^$ eyesite’s shot.
Here’s the new alonsite the old.. May not look much differnt, but beleive me it’s much simpler and claaner .
2. Who else was involved (knowingly or not!) in what happened for you on that effort today? (Please don’t forget to include ST chats, email exchanges, etc.)
Hmmm .. I spoke with Homer about not getting together today.. without the head, there wasn’t much we could do… We’re goign to have to do soem late nights this week I guess. I also spoke with my good friend Scott today about life, inventing etc. He has been doing some really cool stuff with lasers.. He’s got his C02 laser running and burning stuff… and now he’s messing around with blue/uv diode lasers salvaged from fast DVD writers. Here’s a picture he took today of the UV laser causing a uranium glass marble to glow… beautiful !
3. In general, do you feel more optimistic or more concerned about the potential / likely success of this effort today than yesterday?Why?
I’m starting to panic a bit with the work stuff I have. my paper and project-x.. It used to be that panic helped me get stuff done.. now it just makes me…. panic.
4. Please take a picture of something (anything) that is suggestive of this effort in any way that is meaningful to you…. (or draw one).
Here’s somethign that I think most folks can relate to:.. you start a project.. find a piece of equipment that you need.. notice it needs soem repair.. so you start working on that.. find that you need a tool to fix it.. look for the tool and find that it needs repair… etc, etc.. Here I am takign apart an old bench supply I need to run the monster’s servo jaw.. it had a broken terminal.. so here I am doing surgery on it.. that was an hour I hadn’t planned on spending..
5. Did anything hinder your innovativeness today ?
Mismatch of schedule, . buckets of paint, heaviness of heart.
6. Add anything else you think pertinent to your day.It’s over so off to bed.. Nite all.. nite Sam !
Diane and I spent the entire day painting the ceiling downstairs.. it was a big job, but satisfying.. we now have a white ceiling.. but it’s a different white than we had.. it actually looks really good.. We haven’t painted the ceiling in 13 years… and the windows in 17.. It feels new in there again.. or as new as a 140 year old building can feel.
I did manage to slip out of the house once to go for a run with the dogs. I ran the upper honey hollow loop. The foliage is even more beautiful up there than it was 2 days ago.. here’s a picture of Ken W’s place at the top of the hill you can see the mix of reds and greens in the background.
I love this loop.. there’s lots of uphill which I helps me clear my head and my longs. the dogs love it because of all the streams to play in..
I checked and found one of the samstones we placed at the ford in one of the creeks is still standing guard.
I have this thing for walking/running broad empty dirt roads in the fall.. it doesn’t get any prettier than this.
This is the same day, but different woods.. this is the view out towards mansfiled form tim and jen’s house form later in the day.
By the time I got home, Diane was back with the paint and we started in… like all jobs.. it took much longer than I imagined.. we started at 11 and ended around 6.
Friend Lee lent us a big 18″ roller which made things a ton easier.. Despite our best efforts we spattered soem paint on things including this chunk of steel.. this is one of the first things I did the week after Sam died.. I went out and welded his name into a bunch of scrap like this.. The paint actually brings out his name…
Around 6L30 we all headed up to Tim and Jens for dinner and to meet their friend Niko from Belize. niko is up touring the northeast for a few months. Hes a tour guid and EMT near Belmopan in central Belize. He told us some amazing stories abotu things he’s foudn in the jungle down there. He told us abotu a cave a freind of his had found accidentally that icontaind obsidian tools, old pottery and some fosilized human bones.. the center of one of the chambers had an alter with four human schools that were later dated to 200 CE,! The Discovery channel just made a movie about the find.
Deb’s parents were also in town. It was great meeting them after hearing about them for so long !
Well that was the day.. nothing special… now.. on to this innoavation blog.. only 4 more days.
1. What, if anything related to innovating occurred for you today? I pretty much took the day off from inventing.. I concentrated on the mindless/mindfull act of painting.. i used it to claear my mind.. I have so much on my plate right now that thinking of nothing for that long was rejuvinating.
2. Who else was involved (knowingly or not!) in what happened for you on that effort today? (Please don’t forget to include ST chats, email exchanges, etc.)
Oh, wait.. I did do a little work on Project-X today.. Becca called with some dimensions for the modified skull.. Tomorrow we need to measure to make sure that the big guys knees don’t take out his jaw when he’s in a full squatting position.
3. In general, do you feel more optimistic or more concerned about the potential / likely success of this effort today than yesterday? Why?
Still very nervous abotu the dtes. I have soem reqork of the processor board to clean it up and add some variable audio attenuatuation so I can run it off the speaker output. Hope I can find time tomorrow morning.
4. Please take a picture of something (anything) that is suggestive of this effort in any way that is meaningful to you…. (or draw one).
Here is the drawing I made of the skull from the dimensions Becca gave me over the phone.. The monsters jaw is longer and wider than we originally intended.. we may have to make soem adjustments..
5. Did anything hinder your innovativeness today ?
Well.. this painting exercise has just reinforced soemthing I’m learnign (again) about myself through some recent work experinces.. I realize that I don’t like things to change out from under me.. or maybe I don’t like to cause change ? E.g. I realize instantly what I don’t like in the wall colors we chose , but I am really struggling to help Diane choose other paint colors.. It’s weird because I always tell myself that I like new situations and new things.. Maybe I don’t like being behind the changes ? I don’t know.. but it seems to relate some how to the ways I prefere to invent…
OK.. All for now.. I’m exhausted.. more tomorrow.. Nite all.. nite Sam.
