Monthly Archives: January 2010

Monday night – Engineering paradies

Friends,
    I need your help. My work is sponsoring a do-it-yourself video contest to help get kids more interested in engineering. Technically, I can’t enter.. since I’m one of the organizers, but i felt like it would be good for me to create something that showed folks what we were looking for. The idea is to make some short youtubable (is that a word ? ) videos that portray some aspect of engineering as appealing to a kid in middle or high school. 
   I decied ot do a parody on Coolio’s Gangsta’s Paradise.. (Wierd Al did a take of on it called Amish Paradise)   I was trying to make soemthing that was over the top goofy.. not ‘pathetic old guy trying to relate to kids’ .. Did I get there ? WHat do I need ot do to make this more fun and appealing to kids ?

Let me know what it needs.. I want this to be really fun
..
Eeeek my battery’s going.. so I’ll sign off..
More tomorrow
nite all, nite Sam
-me

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0DxmthvkKU

Sunday night – Dishtowels I have known

I spent the whole day hanging out inside . still feeling a bit under the weather .. I took advantage of the down time to some video editing for a work project.. I also did some laundry . What’s it say when laundry is the high point of your day ? Actually it’s kind of fun. I just finished reading a book called ‘Change by Design’ by Time Brown of Ideo.
He recommends taking time to look at the ‘super-ordinary’.. the stuff you do every day.. and find the extraordinary in it. Today my ‘super ordinary’ was dishtowels.

Not just any dishtowels.. my dishtowels..

Some of them are .. admittedly pretty  boring.. they’re brand new.

Others have a story.. this one.. used to be a bath towel.. washed each and every one of us at one time or another… I wonder if there’s any way to test and see who a towel has touched.

This one has always been a dish towel.. I call this one my ‘ward cleaver’.. it seems I always use it when we’re at the sink talking. just lieke on Leave it to Beaver.

Ah.. this one used to be a place mat.. a wedding gift, I think.. Did one of you give it to us ? If so.. know that it’s been well loved.

This one.. I think.. has been in our joint pssession since Diane and I met..   Though I can’t be sure.. I never kept a registry of my dishtowels.

This one was a giveaway somewhere ..  a lacrosse game ? a soccer game ?

This one .. welll. It was always a dish towel.. who made it ? where’d it come from ?

Ah/ these are ancient.. I think we used htem for .. errrr…. diaper work…   How’s htat for a thought.

THis one was a wedding gift.. it’s a napkin.. I even knwo who gave it to us..

This one is only 3/4 the size it used to be..

So .. that was my big adventure today..

Eventually I managed to get outside.. Diane and I took a short snowshoe with the dogs.. The snow was slushy and deep… I took advantage of te brush being packed down to hke a bit off the trail and visit this old car. I think it’s a Model A.. . I really wonder how it came to be there..

OK.. that’s abotu it for my day.. not too exciting.. but perfectly peaceful.

Nite all Nite Sam
-me

Saturday night – Waterville Valley / Haiti

A warm, bluebird day.. bright sky and near 30.. couldn’t ask for better. Gabe had a snowboard meet in New Hampshire again.. so we all piled in the car at 5:30 this AM. I’m still sick.. but I figured I could be sick out there on the mountain.. or hanging out at home.. at least there I’d be outside.

Today’s event was the Peanut Butter and Rail Jam.. there were about 100 kids.. three t simple rails. Pretty standard competition.

Gabe had a good day.. he made it into the final! I love watching him compete. You can tell he’s having fun..

He had some great runs. very smooth….

The competition was over about 2:30..   so we pile in the car and drove the 2.5 hours home.. through beautful contryside..  

After dinner, Gab and I finished his split board.. he may use it tomorrow.. though I think he may have the bug that I’m just shaking..

(Yikes !.. just heard a ton of snow and ice  come off the roof.. hope it didn’t hit anything. one time it came down and smashed both of our cars so that neither were drivable… )

After dinner we were all sitting around tlaking about the terrible earthquake in Haiti. Marie and Garret went to the store today and bought a bunch of medical supplies using some Friends of Sam funds.. they dropped them of at Amy’s for the Vermont Haiti Project. The Haiti project has been going long before last weeks earthquake.. but they’re now focusing all their efforts on relief for the folks in Port Au Prince. One of Amy’s friends, a nurse, is heading down to Haiti to aid in the rescue effort. If you have medical supplies , clothes, other goods..to donate  or want to make a cash donation, Please check out The Vermont Haiti Project. Please help out if you can.

Well.. that’s it for now.. I’m going to get soem sleep and try to shake this cold..
Nite Folks, Nite Sam
-me

Friday night – My Brother Sam

Tongiht Gabe told  that he’d dreamed about Sam on Wed night . It wa a strange dream, he told me.. The next day. his teacher walked in with the book ‘My Brother Sam is Dead’ .   It’s an award winning  book about the revolutionary war.. The kid who narrates the story’s brother has died in the war. . Gabe’s teacher hd  written us a letter asking us if it was ok if they brought the book into the class. We thought she was so sweet for asking..  She took a few minutes before the class to talk to the class about Our Sam.. and the sensitivity to the books title. Gabe was fine with the book title.. we talked about it at dinner.

I think it’s so interesting how even years later people sometimes don’t knwo what to say or do.. but are always looking out for us..

I think I’ll read the book

Nite All, nite Sam

-me