All posts by johncohn

Monday night – lovehate

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Eggplant.. can’t live without it.. can’t live with it.. I can eat the worlds hottest peppers without flinching.. but give me a piece of roasted eggplant.. like I just had..  and my mouth is on fire.. Same is true for strawberries.. I love the way they taste.. but just one bite and my skin turns raw.. even bleeds… Pineapple i really love, but it does the exact same thing..  and don’t even bring up chocolate milk.. I used to love a nice tall cold glass of chocolate milk.. but i often ended up doubled over on the floor with cramps..

When I think about it.. i have that some sort of lovehate thing going on with other facets of life.. I love going to concerts or movies.. but I hate sitting still .. I just hate sitting still. I love finding free time in my day.. but I hate not being busy ed.. I love travel, but I hate being away from home. I love country western music, but I hate knowing that I like country western music.

h,,,,.. something to meditate on for tonight, I think

nite all, nite sam

-me

Sunday night – supermoon

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Good peaceful day.. Last night we had a houseful of kids over for the night.. One of the high points was watching our neighbor, Robert  compete in the NCAA wrestling final on ESPN ..We’ve known Robert and his family forever.. he’s a great kid, smart, funny and a really good athlete.. One of the kids figured out how we could watch it on the computer.. so we all gathered round the screen to watch Robert compete in the final for the 184 pound weight class. They even mentioned that he was from Jonesville Vermont..!

We were so proud that he made it that far.. In the end ,. he didn’t win the match.. but to think a kid from our corner of the world made it to the finals and is now the 2nd best wrestler in the country is so very cool. We’re very proud of you Robert.

Around 10PM I went over to friend Gary’s and he, his friend Duncan and I hiked up to the Richmond cliffs.. to see the full ‘supermoon’ ./ Supposedly the moon was closer to earth than it has been in years.. It was very bright.. we hardly needed flashlights.. even so , we got  good and lost  both going up and coming down.. It was pretty funny.. the snow was deep and there were many trees down after the storms last fall.. but we still made it to the top..

It was beautiful and bright up there. You could hear the flooded Huntington river roaring below. It was so peaceful as we looked across the  valley.

I used to coem up to these cliffs and yell Sams name from here.. just after he died.. I did it several times.. No yelling last night.. ThoughI did throw a SamStone from the top ..

I also stuck one in our favorite spooky tree

It felt good to go up there … here are Gary and Duncan on our way down.

No pics from today.. Hung out and worked for a bit.. Saw my friends Bob and Bart briefly.. Ten Gabe and I went for a run.. I jumped in Huntington’ gorge (cold !).. and Gabe stuck his head all the way in.. On the way back we met Diane and the dogs.. so I ran again with her.. Nice 6 miles.. now time to get out for some longer runs..

OK.. I gotta end here.. I have a TON of work still to dotongiht.. i don’t like being this busy..

OK.. hapy last night of winter folks..

nite all, nite sam

-me

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Spring is in the air .. almost, at least.. It’s prime sugaring time.. nights are still cold.. in the teens or twenties.. but it’s starching to crack freezing by midday.. yesterday morning it was actually in the 40’s. when we got to Bromont..

I spotted this license plate as we were waiting to ross the border back in to the US. Probably not the right place to snap a picture.. but I couldn’t resist.

Woke today to a breezy and relatively warm day.. 30 degrees, windy, sunny with clouds . You could hear birds singing.. not a sound we’ve heard for many months

the yard is about 1/4 free of snow.. but it’s still piled up high in places..

Another sign of spring is the start of Lacrosse season.. That means a bottle drive. Gabe, Will and I spent a couple of hours knocking on doors collecting returnable bottles to help fund the team.. it was  like Halloween .. only with bottles.

We had to turn around in one neighborhood.. the roads were really bad. It’s definitely mud season.. Diane and I went  running on Dugway rd. a little later in the afternoon and you could just feel how deep the mud is.. there’s just no bottom. The school buses actually were rerouted yesterday to avoid places where the roads were bad.. Al l the kids on Stage road and notch road had to walk home..

All of these were signs of Spring.. but nothing said Spring to me like the  sign of Diane’s Daffodil’s  deciding to make an early showing..    I loved seeing them pocking up around the snow.. Soon it will be warm and green..   it’s been a nice long winter.. I’m ready..

OK.. that’s it for now ,,, More tomorrow !

note all.. nite sam

-me

ps. Check out the moon tonight..it’s a ‘supermoon’ !  it’s closer than it’s been in 18 years !

Friday night – Naches

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I had a great trip to visit my friends in IBM Bromont Quebec today. I promised to go back up there this month.. and today worked out toe be the day. My friends Brent and Marian joined me for the 1.5 hour ride up through southern Quebec. The forks up there are so warm and welcoming. They’re also really energizing and fun to hang out with.  We got to hear what they were working on.. and where they were going. I came away really inspired..   I have a few pictures.. but they’re up in our room and Diane’s already asleep.. so the pictures will have to wait.

The other topic I wanted to write about tonight is “naches’.. (pronounced ‘nach-ess’).. It’s a yiddish word that roughly translates  taking pride in something.. usually your kids.. When you kids do something good. it brings you naches..   It’s a word my dad loves to use.. I picked it up from him..

I have many occasions to think about naches as I watch my boys grow up to be realty, really  good guys.. I had a real sample of it last night when Max helped me unsnarl a computer hw/sw system I was writing. I’m trying to interface a set of sensors and lights to my laptop using a system called Max-Msp.. Max-Msp is the most amazing system deisgn tool.. you write programs by instantiating small function blacks that you wire up point to point on the screen. it’s incredibly powerful.. and .. it turns out.. incredibly complex..

I was trying to figure out how to trigger a synthesizer note when one of the systems sensers was touched.. and was havign a nasty prblem.. all the notes were firing and I coouldn’t figure out why..

I finally gave up and sent the example to Max.. he’s a realty whiz at this type of visual programing..

Here’s my annotated example of the problem I sent Max

Less than an hour later he sent me the corrected program.. along with detailed notes of why it worked.. and why my example did not.

I am so impressed and proud of the way max though, remapped the problem.. and ost of all.. explained it to me in a way that I learned something new.. adn I didn’t feel like a dummy..

It’s amazing and fun to work with Max ..I’m so proud of all the skills he’s picked up in his 22 years.  I think he can now make or build anything.. I’m so glad we made him. !

It’s the same kind of nachesI get when I make something cool and artistic with  Gabe.. Here are some pictures form a few month back with Gabe and I  using  the homemade forege we made out of an old car wheel.. Gabe did all of the welding for that.. here he is forging our first throwing knife. I also love watching him work with stone at ChrisesGabe is learnign to make so many things with his hands..

So there you have it.. the word for the day : naches..

hope you have some too !

nite all, nite sam.. proud of you too, my boy !

-me