Sort of epiphany today. Not a Big deal, but it came to me while I was trying to multitask as I was getting out of the house for an early meeting which I ended up not actually making it to. The Insight was this. I have crammed my mind so full of small things that I'm not making any time to think. It's like the old saw from the Stephen Covey books that if you try to fit big rocks into a jar that's already full of sand you can't do it but if you put the rocks in first then fill the Sand in and you can. … Only here Its with thinking.

I meditated on this again as I was supposed to be listening to phone calls and working on presentations. Yet another example of being permanently distracted. I know this might seem obvious to other people but I think I have been a major denial about the degree to which I seek out distraction. What's not to like about something new and exciting. It always is more appealing than the thing you really need to get done.

So, note to self. I'm going to try to do fewer things and do them better. I know that kind of resolution sometime sounds hollow, but I have a good track record of changing my life once I've committed to something like that. For example in January 2012 I committed, along with son Max, to build more things, and talk less about them until they are done. I redirected my energy and time around that idea I've been on a Very Productive making/building kick since. . In 2009 I committed myself to do in education outreach on a more international scale. Since that day I've been over 20 countries with a message of bringing more people to engineering and science.

So… Now I'm committing to trying to do fewer things and try to do them better. The nice thing about blogging like this, it's a great record of commitments I need to myself. Here's to me in the future looking back at keeping that pledge

Nite all, nite sam

-me

Posted with Blogsy

Late this afternoon i learned that the floorish exhibit at the firehouse gallery was attacked by a rogue band of musicians last night. There was a concert at the gallery last night and without asking, the band set up right over our piece. They didn't intend to cause damage, but they unplugged a bunch of our stuff. And in so doing seem to a corrupt our raspberry pi's memory.

Normally, that would mean a couple of hours of reinstallation, unfortunately the gallery has a demo tomorrow for the airport and they want to show our piece iSo……

It's midnight and Collin and I are trying to figure out what to do. Wish us luck.

Nite all, nite sam

-me

Posted with Blogsy

This weekend was pretty funny. I had a rare weekend ‘off’ with nothing I had to do and many projects I wanted to finish. As fate would have it, I got co-oped into helping Max on a project as part of the Red bull challenge. The goal was to put an animated light up mouth behind the grill of the 1970 10 wheel diesel army truck that he and Jac picked up in Wisconsin last week

As always, it was great collaborating with max.. it was fun trying to put this together while he was in NY and I was up here. All weekend I was sending him code and he was helping me debug it.. In the end it was not a ton of code.. but a little tricky.. It reads an  analog value from a microphone or sound source, converts that to a small range of numbers and uses that to pick one of several image frames of talking lips which max drew for me in photoshop.  I then take the selected image and output it to the LED strips. The effect is that the lips s move as someone  is talking or singing. It’s much creeper and more realistic than it sounds.. if a talking truck can be said to be realistic..

Again.. not a big effect.. but I’m hoping this will be well appreciated on the playa at burning man.

I’ll get soem more pics/moives tonight as max posts them…

speaking of pics.. I can’t help posting a few of our friend Joannes wonderful  pics from our canoe trip last night. Joanne. you have such a nice eye !

thats it for tonight.. more tomorrow.

nite all, nite sam

-me