{"id":1281,"date":"2010-09-06T00:08:00","date_gmt":"2010-09-06T04:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johncohn.org\/base\/2010\/09\/06\/sunday-night-repetitive-motion\/"},"modified":"2010-09-06T00:08:00","modified_gmt":"2010-09-06T04:08:00","slug":"sunday-night-repetitive-motion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/johncohn.org\/base\/2010\/09\/06\/sunday-night-repetitive-motion\/","title":{"rendered":"Sunday night – repetitive motion"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\t\t\t\t\t\t I’m sitting right at the best spot in the Labor Day vacation.. far enough from last week that I’ve relxed from it.. and far enough from next week that I’m not yet stressing.. Maybe every weekend needs three days for that.. <\/p>\n

After Diane and I ran honey hollow, I spent the day puttering around the house.. .. well not so much puttering as working on a project. My buddy Scott and I are buildign a new Tesla coil for my traveling show. If all goes well this one ill be lighter, more powerful and more rugged for travel. I’ll also dance to misic. Scott came over this mornign to talk about the project. He’s helping me with the mechanical. It was great seeing himn.. He’s one of my best geek freinds.. yet I see him so seldom.. I would like to make more time for hanging out with other nerds and geekign out. In fact Scott and I have been talking about getting a local Maker Space going where nerds, geeks, artists can come together to work on high tech gizomos and tech assisted art.. Any interest out there readers ? <\/p>\n

When Scott left I dug back into the electronics for the coils. I bought some plans,\u00a0 circuit boards and components from a guy who designs this new bread of tesla coil. It’s a zillion tims more complex than the other 5 Ive built.. so it’ll take me a bit to work through it. I spent the day soldering components to the boards.. It’s a tedious process.. but somehow meditative as all repetitive things are.. It’s like chopping wood.. or running.. the rhythm of it actually quiets your mind.. something I always need. <\/p>\n

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One interesting effect of getting older is that the print on these components keeps getting smaller..\u00a0 Even with trifocals I can’t read the @#$^$% specs.\u00a0\u00a0 I often have to resort to my blog camer on macro to figure out what I’m looking at.. This critter is a 1000pF mylar capacitor (if memory serves) <\/div>\n

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They come together like little cities .. btw.. this picture shows me that I need to reseat soem of those diodes in the back. <\/div>\n

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Around 4:30 I broke form the project and went in to pick up Gabe at Mexicali.. this is his second week there.. and he loves it..\u00a0 \u00a0 I know the guys in the kitchen there and they tell me Gabe’s a really hard worker.. that I know. but, here’s a kid who’s never much demonstrated his love of dishwashing. enjoying the repetitive process of scrubbing..\u00a0 We talked about it.. and it’s the same thing.. repetitive process == mental peace.. \u00a0\u00a0 Pretty cool !……..Slide 2….<\/p>\n