Saturday night – Chris’s party

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Before I start on today’s post.. I need to report that our friend Eric was in a serious motorcycle accident this morning. He’s banged up pretty badly,  but it looks like he’s goign to be OK. I don’t know much more.. but we’ll go see him tomorrow and I’ll fill everyone in. For now.. let’s all keep Eric and his family in our hearts.
For the mean time. let me report on the day.. It was  nice and slow..   lots of ‘fix-it’ projects aroudn the house. Midday I went and picked up Jim (Dylan’s dad) and took him to the hardware store and out for a beer. I remember how hard it was for me to get out of the house after Sam died.. so I want to help Jim get out in the world as much as he feels up to doing.   It was really good hanging out with him..he’s such a great guy.. it’s hard to see him hurting so much..  we taked about how hard it is to work .. or to care about work.. when you are graving.. it still happens to me sometimes..

Around 7 tonight I loaded my pyrotechnics stuff and my flamethrower in the car and headed over to Chris’s for his birthday.

It’s Chris’s 35th.. he and Homer had built this beautiful burning man in honor of that milestone.. I just love the face and other features of this guy.. He’s filled with kindling, paper, xmas tree boughs and other combustibles.. his clock was loaded with  pyrodex.

I mIt’s

I made a potassium permanganate and glycering timed reaction to set him on fire.. that was on a bed of zinc dust. sulfer and potassium perchlorate for a nice intense green flash..

It took a few min to react.. but when it did, it was beautiful. I wasn’t fast enough on my camera to catch it  catching.

I also had my flame thrower set up. it was working a little anemically.. until I noticed that the valve to the accumulator was shut.. then it sparkled ..

It was great hanging out with Chris’s friends.. such an eclectic and cool group of people.  .. and not people.. Here’s the piece I helped CHris with this past week. it uses ultrasonic distance measuring to detect folks coming near.. when soemone approaches, it blinks her eyes and starts a recording of a ticking time bomb.. very cool.. if I do say so myself..

OK.. time for bed.. more on Eric as we learn it.. let’s keep him in our thoughts tonight.

lnite all, nite sam

-me

Friday night – other people’s pictures

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Long, hard, fun week… The trip to Minnesota came at a difficult time for my work, but it was so worth it from a personal level.. .. I got a few cool pictures from other folks this week related to this trip

These two come from my friend Tony who I got to see in Rochester.. He and I have been friends for close to 20 years.. He’s a skilled magician.. I now am finding out he’s a skilled photographer.. He took these the night before last.. I love them !

I also found that Tony is a great writes.  I just found his blog and saw that he wrote a really nice post about the importance of pictures based on a photo of Sam that I posted here some time ago.  (Thanks Tony.. very. very good seeing you !)

I also saw this  funny picture that appears in an article  in today’s Rochester Post Bulletin.. I can’t read the article, since I’m not a subscriber.. but I do think the picture is cool

Finally.. I got a nice surprise from my friends in Japan today.. Hiromi-san and her friends just completed a remake of the Engineering Paradise video complete with Japanese subtitles and pictures and video from my last trip there

I particularly like this picture I grabbed from the movie

OK.. .. three days this week with less than 4 hours sleep each .. it’s catching up with me.. gotta sleep now.. more tomorrow

nite all, nite sam !

-me

Thursday night – way back machine

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Sitting at the BTV airport waiting for my bag,,,,   Great trip to Rochester.. It was like going back in time.. I saw  so friends I’ve known for almost 30 years !

This morning was the 2nd day of the centennial celebration.. ..   both of Minnesota’s US Senators and the Governor were on hand to say happy birthday IBM.. The senators both gave great talks.. the Sr. Senator.. Sen Amy  Klobuchar.Was particularly wonderful. She gave a really good talk on innovation and the need for more inspiring Science and Engineering (STEM) training for kids.. We had a GREAT talk about it..  … and I offered my help in any way I could.. She also is cosponsoring Sen Leahy’s patent bill.. which makes me a double big fan.. She was just awesome.

Sen Frankin was hilarious.. as he is required to be. Though he left before I could meet him.

The Gov was nice too.. He’d been a science teacher.. Who knew.. ?!  We talked for a bit, too.

My good buddy  Brad was in town as well.. and he did a good talk… He ‘s the VP/Fellow in charge of our Unix systems.. including those used in Watson.. he proposed Watson as the worlds best dating service… maybe we’ll be playing the Dating Game next with it 🙂

mid day I gave another talk on my time in the Colony.. (our stay in the warehouse ended 2 years ago today !!).. We had so many people interested we had to move the talk to the cafeteria.. it was fun to give that talk with so many friends in the house..

the high point of the day, however.. was a visit to the old graphics lab where I used to work when visiting here.. I could still remember the phone number (x-5285). .. Many of my friends were still in there as I last saw them more than 20 years ago (ok.. so I’ve seen some of them scince.. but others not !.. ).. it was liek a trip through the way back machine..

I just love these folks.. connie, bob. julio (aka carl). ray.. You can go home again !

That plus seeing my good freinds jeff and karen last night..

and seeing freinds like lance, brad, jeff etc, etc, etc.. did my heart so much good…

OK. back to work.. got lots to make up.. Ahh the luggage is finally coming.. gotta go.

nite all, nite sam

-me

Wednesday night – old friends

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Greetings from Rochester Vermont.. A town I used to visit often.. but one I haven’t visited in about 5 years.

I left Mary and John’s house about 6L15 this morning.. and only got there about 10 PM last night.. Their kids were all in bed .. I had to look at them as they slept.  I was sadly that I hadn’t worked out a way to spend more time with everyone.. I did have a great time talking with John and Mary until way too late at night..

The drive down from MPLS to Rochester was pretty easy..  I got to the IBM site about 8. I spent the day doing talks and roundtables among lots of old friends.. It was both  scary and comforting to have to present in front of all these familiar faces.. Some of these folks are the first group of people I worked with back in 1981.. While we all have changed externally.. internally I feel the same strong bond to these folks that I had nearly 3 decades before.. I still even remember some of their phone numbers !

It was a really energizing day.. I saw so much energy and innovation.. Much more than I’ve seen anywhere for a very long time. I think the good folks in Rochester have a great balance between ego and ability..  They’re so damn smart.. and so damn nice that they’re close to teh perfect set of collaborators

After work we all headed to Whistle Binkey’s .. a bar I’ve been coming to for years. It was a great time to catch up with lots of old friends.. I never have enough time to catch up with folks enough on these short visits.. .. Even so.. It’s so nice to get to see them.

Now I’m at feibd Karen ad Jeffs.. strugglign to stay awake to write.. I better sign off here before I stop makign sense..

too late !

nite all, nite sam

-me