Tuesday night – Thursdayish

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For the second week in a row i made the subconscious decision to skip Wednesday .. I’m not sure why.. or for that mater.. how.. But i lay down and did all my days prep for Thursday.. Checked my calendar,  planned Gabes car pool.. sent some Thursday-ish  email  Same thing  happened last week.. …I removed Wednesday from my week plans and actually showed up for work thinking it was Thursday..  Now I have nothing really against Wednesdays.. in fact.. I’m kind of partial to them.. I sometimes try to work at home on Wednesdays.. but that hasn’t been working out that way in the past couple of months.

I guess I shouldn’t view it as a bad thing if one of the weekdays wants to skip out every so often.. I’m just wondering what will happen if they start moving around on me.. Imagine a Sunday shoeing up right in the middle of the week.. or a friday night appears where everyone else is on Monday morning.

I’m going to sleep now.. I guess I’ll let it be a surprise what day tomorrow really is..

nite all, nite Sam

-me

 

Monday night – a question of balance

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I had a day thinking of balance.. I’m sorely out of balance these past few days.. and I’m and seeking my way back I made some good choices in that regard today.. I said no to a few things, I relaxed a little when I could have chosen to stress.. I picked up my phone every third call.. I only answered half my email

and I did impromptu balance stunts with my friend steve in the cafeteria..

I can see my way back to more balance.. but never perfect balance..

what fun would that be ?
nite all, nite sam
-me

ps. Max’s timelapse is featured on the Makeblog !!!! I’m such a proud papa !

Sunday night – so much to do

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Hellllllllllllllllllp .. My good intentions are getting the best of me again !  Between my job and side projects, I’ve run out of hours in the day. .I think I’m working about 18 hours a day now.. most of it on stuff I really liked and volunteered for.. but it’s starting to eat in to stuff I should do for myself.. like spending time with my family.. sleeping.. eating.. etc.

Today started at 7:15 with a run.. then 8AM with a land trust stewardship meeting here at the house..

then.. a coupel of hours of painting in the belltowwer..

 

Then a quick run into town to meet freind Murali .. who’s in for a day from our lab in India.. we had good meeting and lunch..

 

I had a ton o do.. but the weateher was so nice I punted on work for a while and went back home to take a ike with Diane and the dogs.My freind Seth from WPI was up for the weekend so he joined us.. Gabe had to stay home for homework..

 

 

 

We went up Honey hollow to check out the damage after the last flood.  We wanted to see if it had gotten any worse (or better) during the flooding from Irene…. it was worse !

 

 

 

 

This culvert was completely ripped out by the surging water.. it was now in a ten foot trench dug by the water.

Turn out it was worse !

I got down at 5.. then headed to homers to see if we  could finish the pumpkin robot..   In two hours I managed to get the new remote control interface working while Homer and Ethan re-attached the monsters arms. . I had a scare when nothing worked at first.. but.. I soon realized it was a simple switch settign on the remote control transmitter.. . The F.U.F. strikes again. !

the RC unit is over my right shoulder..   right next to the the spacey wonderful artist genius guy

(that’s you, homer)

 

OK.. tgotta get to work. this is gonna be a verypacked and exciting week.. I nede ot go charge up for it..

wish me luck this week

nite all, nite sam

-me

 

 

Saturday night – the F.U.F.

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Hi friends.. sitting here in the bathroom.. waiting for the tub to fill. I’m covered with white paint.. a misadventure with the paint sprayer.. but   the bell tower is getting close to being painted..!

I had a good day of manual effort… . not much abstract thinking.. just.. how do i DO X’. i LOVE THE CONCRETENESS OF A REAL PROBLEM. NOT A STRATEGY.. NOT A VISION.. JUST.. A SIMPLE QUESTION OF HOW TO DO A complex TASK WITHOUT THE TOOLS, MONEY OR TIME REQUIRED.. NOW THATS A CHALLENGE.

aCTUALLY.. THE MISTAKE HERE WITH CAPS.. REMINDS ME OF THE TOPIC ON MY MIND

 

i started the day at homers.. I love working with him.. he’s one of the few folks (my brother  and my kids  .. my friends scott f, mike r and bill p  .. probably the only others) that I can work with without having to think too much.. a simple rhythm of combining things to make working machines.. it’s a real joy.. Today Homer and I were working on two projects together.. one was ‘project-x;.. the pumpkin robot and the other is an art project for another friend.. I so enjoy just puttering together in his shop.. designing, drilling, cutting,

Today we talked aout the F.U.F. (the F**k up fairy) .. the malevolent creative spirit that punishes creative thinkers that don’t know when to stop.. i.e. you design a cool new gadget.. but don’t know when to stop refining .. The F.U. F. will come in to get you to stop.. you’re 99% complete.. the last thing you try will destroy the project and put you back to square one.. It’s not just  ‘murphys law’ >. ‘Murphy is a blind application of chance. ‘anything that can go wrong ,.. will go wrong:.. while the F.U.F>  is more mindful.. it finds the most dreaded logical gap in a design and homes right in..   Homer was telling me about the F.U.F’s intersecting  with his new metal landscapes.. causing massive ‘paint failures’


I met the F/U/F on the interactive device I was building.. with sensors that appeared by turns too sensitive.. and not sensitive enough.   (fixed now.. I hope !)

The F.U.F was lying in wait for today’s big project, the resurrection of /project x. the giant pumpkin robot for the haunted forest..    It’ had been lying outside in homers yard.. and needed a major rewiring.. it’s now on its 4th year of service…. wwhich hcih is well beyond its designed life..

right in front of it  was a rotting skunk homer had found.. lovely

 

we dragged the beast out of its resting place..

how the heck did this thing work again ? Who designed this ? How did it EVER work ?

oh yeah.. it was us..


well.. despite the F.U.F> we made progress today.. hopefully tomorrow we can re-finsih the design.. I’m installign a radio control option to simplify  the rats nest of 20 foot cables.. .

 

I sure hope it works..


I’lll make an offering to the F.U.F tonight to ensure it goes somoothly..

ok.. I need my beauty rest.. more tomorrow.

nite all nite sam

-me