What a beautiful fall day..I worked at home in hopes of making some progress on a paper I’m writing.. but  the wonderful weather made me take an unintended mental health day.. I worked all day.. but my mind and heart were outside. Diane and I took a great walk up honey hollow during my lunch break..  the colors were amazing or this early in the season..bright reds , oranges and yellows miced in with lots of dark green hold outs. I’s more colorful for this time of year than I can remember it being for years !..   .. and wouldn’t you know I forgot my camera !

You can just feel fall everywhere.. in the colors, in the smells .. in the animals.. ike this guy.. I’m sue he’s just trying to top off his reserves before the snow hits.

Aroudn 4 I took another break and went and watched Gabe’s soccer game.. He’s really getting good.. It was nice just lying in the grass as they tried chasing the ball around.. I defintely prefer the spectator role ..

Diane and I hpkanned to work on the house painting project tongiht I’d suggested ordering Pizza.. but Diane offered to cook instead.. and what emerge was the perfect cohn-mariano pizza.. one pizza, three different types of topping.. !

Cheese and suteed onions for Gabe..

Onins, olives and cheese for beutiful Diane..

And the random condiment , no cheese vegan model for me !

After dinner we spent  few hours working on the painting prep. I managed to cut myself pretty badly with a coping saw (can you believe that ?!) fixing a piece of molding . After the project I was covered with blood and caulk !.

After prepping for a bit, Gabe came down and asked for some help with the audio editor.. He’s   getting very good with this remix software that we found.. Right now he’s helping me build up a science based musical thing for my show. It’s really fun working with him on this..

OK.. change of gears.. I’m participating in a study at work on innovation.. they’ve asked me to keep a journal about innovation for a complete week. I’m not interested in taking on another writing project like that.. so I agreed to do it  only if I could include my entries in this blog as well. ..As such, I’ll keept this on the topic of non-work related innovation.  So here goes:

 

–1. What, if anything related to innovating occurred for you today?

I did not have a particularly innovative day.. I did spend some time thinking about the Project-x robot monster. I debated rebuilding it’s arduino-based control board to clean it up. in the end I opted not to do  that given time constraints.  I did some experimentation with the creatures jaw.. but I couldn’t find a way to improve it’s electronic bite.My main concerns wrt. innovation at this moment are related to how we cna make the three basic power supplies for the beast (24vdc,6vdc, 9 vdc) tight, robust and waterproof. ….I had some ideas on how I could do the whole thing off a  single24vdc supply.

2. Who else was involved (knowingly or not!) in what happened for you on that effort today? (Please don’t forget to include STchats, email exchanges, etc.)         

Diane helped me out by taking the monster’s head into Williston to give it to jana. jana in turn took the thing to Sara and Becca. Homer helped me.. but he didn’t know it.. I  talked an idea over with him in my own mind. .. I never called him to discuss it though.

3. In general, do you feel more optimistic or more concerned about the potential / likely success of this effort today than yesterday?  Why?

 Uhhhhh.. I’m till scared about our deadline.for Project-X. so I’d guess I’d say I’m the same level of concern . It’s an insane project with insane constraints.. that’s part of what makes it fun !

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)…

Can’t be much more suggestive than this !
 

 

 

 

5. ..Did anything hinder your innovativeness today? 

Loaded question.. the fact that I have a day job got in my way f innovating today.. but I did actually innovate a bit there as well.. just not in a way that I can share here.. My stumbling blocks at home are always lack of time..at work it’s often much more complicates. .. it is a combination of lack of time., fighting established agendas, scarcity of funds.. and my own shyness.

 

6. Add anything else you think pertinent to your day. 

 I hope thiat doing this survey daily in this bog will be fun and useful..

I also hope to get some sleep tonoght.. so nite all. Night Sam !

-me