All posts by johncohn

Thursday night – free day !

Thelow point of today was also the high point. My favoiret Geek emporium in the whole world.. Sparkfun Electronics  was having there annual ‘free day’   . The guys planned to give away $100.000 dollars of merchandise toay.. It was pretty wimple. eeach person could get up to $100 of stuff free.. The only catch is you had to get your order in befor ethe $100.,ooo was used up. They do this as pure altruistic giveback. They have a rabid fan base (me included0  in teh geek maker community> this company is the onel place oyu can find cutting edge stuff to make amazing things.. Most of the cool stuff I build starts in one o ftheir part bins..

Anyway.. the free day event stared at 11AM EST today.. I’d carfully chosen the three  itms I’d like to get in my free stash.. A blood alchohol sensor, an etherenet bridge and a speech chip. My idea was to dreat a talking, networked blood alchohol meeter.. it would swear at folks who were too intoicated to drive…  My whol order was only $75.. I wasn’t going to be greedy.

Anyway   I had my order all set to go at 11..

The trouble is.. there were 10’s of thousand of folks

trying to push the button at the same time I was.. I spent exactly 1

hour and 44 minutes trying to get my order into the system..   It kept timing out due to the huge amount of trafic..

at 1 hour and 52 minuts in, my order fnally processed.. but the $100,000 k limit had just been reached.. I lost out   despite my best andm most dilligent efforts !!!!!

Initially I ws SO dissapointed. I’d alreaty bult my project in my mind.. I was mad and frustrated that despinte doing everythign wright, I hadn’t gotten my ‘fari share’..

 Then….

I realize..’ wait..’.. this wanst semthign I’d lost.. I’d never had it.. t owuld only have been a windfall.  My dissapoinment and frustration instanly got replaces with admiration and appreiation of the company that woud share such love (and it really is that) wiht their clients..

So.. I wrote the a longish letter.thanksing them so much for supportng our community (even if I lost out !) ”  DOig that compeltey reframed my feelings..

try it soemtime..

>> Aywa.. the reat of the day was busy and interesting.. Got home in time to get a vist from good grind Seth, his GF. Katie and tha few of their freinds from WPI.  They are all such geeks (anI mean that in the most complimentary way !)..  Seth  and I have collaborated on the giant pumpin guy and the bunrning man vehicle. He’s a top noch techical guy.. and a great guy as is Kate. thoghh she’s not a guy.

We had a good time showing them around the lab and messing with lasers, lights, and tesla coils. It was very good to see them.

OK. it’s getting close to 1:30/. time to sleep. More tomorrow !
night folks.. nite Sam
-me

Wednesday night – Glasses – half full

I worked at home today .. Had a great productive day.. As I worked, for some reason I started to fixate on my glasses.. not sure why.. maybe it’s because I  basically sat in one place for the entire day. Dunno..

One thing I kept noticing is that looking through glasses is like watching the world on TV.   The world gets framed by your glasses.  The world happens ‘out there’ on these two screens not in your head.. if you knwo what I mean..

Then I noticed that I could ‘watch my breathing.. maybe it’s because it was in the mid 50’s in my office.. my glasses would fog with every breath .. kinda cool.. made me feel like I was outside..

Then there’s the pushing piece.. every 3 minutes I have to shove my glasses back on.. How to do it ? finger ? wrist ? table.  I’ve experimented with an indirect method.. slamming my head backwards against something.. nothing seems right. it always seems like the making..

Here’s the other thing that’s weird.. they become less and less clear as the day goes on. here’s here I ended up by day’s end.

How do people make this work.. ?

Anywho…

Not much else to report.. one cool mini-milestone .. i hit 1500 freinds in Face book today. and I love/like them all.

OK gotta help Gabe with his snowboard !  We cut it in half last weekend.. to make a splitboard. now we gotta make the clamps to hold it together.

talk to you tomorrow !
Nigt folks, night sam !
-me

ps.  isn’t this sweet ?

Tuesday night – dog party !

Today is our younger dog, Satori’s 2nd birthday !. guess that makes her 14.. same as Gabe.. !   She’s the one on the left.. shes a Labradoodle-doodle.. A lab/poodle crossed with a poodle.. She’s got the personality of a teenage girl.. I think..

.   I  The girls celebrated by getting their winter haircuts. As counter intuitive as it may seem. we need to keep their coats a little shorter in the winter because they get so much snow and ice stuck in their fur when we’re out running/walking/snowshoeing


Here’s Satori with her Fall ‘fro

And older ‘sister’ Chai looking a little wooly-mamothy

I couldn’t get the girls to pose for an after haircut shot.. but you get the idea.. they look  so diffent. I’m not used to seeing Satori’s eyes !

Granddog Reptar, he’s maxs aprtment dog up visiting from NYC…  idn’t seem to mind the lady’s new ‘Dos

Diane whopped up a birthday surprise for all the dogs.. Steak !.. Not something you usually see in a household of mostly vegetarians. 

She doled out some for each of the dogs.. The birthday girl. Satori, bg sister Chai, grand-dog Reptar.. and a Wicker, our friend Dan’s dog.. the smell of meat had them all in a frenzy !

Diane put the bowls done and the stuf was g-o-n-e in a flash.

This is Wicker

It was fun having a party for Satori. These dogs have brought so much love into our lives, it’s nice to thank them..

Please give our best wishes to all of your dogs….

Arf, arf folks,
Arf Sam
-me

Monday night – one of those itsonethirtyandiamtootiredtolog nights

Gentle reader.. I did it again.. it’s 1.:30 in the morning and I’m just sitting down to blog.. A sI sat, I realized that my first meeting of the moring is 6AM .. (ugh).   That’s what you get when your work friends are in weird corners of the globe.    Still.. I can’t complain.. I like the projects I have going now..

   It was actually fun being back in the office today after working at home for a week and a half.  My plants were definitely happy to see me.. they looked more dehydrated than we were on the colony.    One thing I was excited to do today as to install one of my cool xmas gifts.. Gabe and Diane had found me these cool inserts that convert your yucky ald florescent light bezels into nice pictures of the sky.. I had been looking for a way to brighten up my 40 year old ceiling.. I had to do some cutting and bending, but I got them in.. It’s a completely different room now.. instead of staring up at the ugly blue white lights.. I get a view.. albeit and illusionary view.. of the sky.



  Hey..Vishnu teaches us that  all things are illusion or Maya… .Since Sam’s passing  I’ve learned that things are not always quite what they seem.. the ordinary can be changed forever in a day.. or … the must extraordinary.. and difficult circumstances can somehow become commonplace and ordinary. Unbelievable..
     I gotta sleep.. now.. more coherent tomorrow.. .. or at least more tomorrow. Night folks, nite Sam

-me

ps. Here’s a quick sexine experiemnt that Max and I did tonight as we were working on my movie.. I thight it looked cool