Science!

We signed Zoe up to do a project for the science fair, and since I'm the science-y guy in the family, it's my job to help out with it. We played around today trying to figure out what our experiment would be. We poked around in a book Stef picked up, talked about a few things, and decided to try making our own battery.
Cleaning pennies to make into the battery:

We pasted some old pennies together with some nickles with paper towels soaked in an electrolyte to make a series of cells. It made a voltage we could measure, but I don't think this really grabbed Zoe's imagination, so we moved on to other ideas.

We banged together some quartz crystals in the dark to show the piezoelectric effect. It turned out that her geodes made the brightest flashes of light. It was fun, but hard to document.

Then we played with a pile of iron filings and some magnets for a while. I was thinking maybe we could map out the magnetic fields, but it was a little too abstract for Zoe. She did manage to make the iron filings walk end over end over the card stock which was pretty cool.

We settled back on the idea of making little things dance with static electricity. The experiment uses a plexi-glass sheet on little feet, rubbed with wool.

Zoe sawing wooden feet for out experiment:


Zoe drilling holes in the plexi-glass sheet and the feet we made:


Zoe took this picture while we were washing up after the garage portion of our work. No idea where she gets her hammish nature...


Zoe charging up the plexi-glass plate with one of my wool socks:


Watching bits of paper dance in the static electricity. They really move around on their own more than I expected they would.

Attic stairs installed!

These make me deliriously happy:


The thing is solid as a rock, particularly compared to the rickety ladder I climbed up and down on a million times to build this. In the final steps I had some very welcome help from Michelle who helped hold the step ladder and her husband Scott who nailed in the temporary straps in the attic while I held the permanent ladder assembly up over my head. I finished up the last of the nails and basked in the glory of a completed project. Well, at least the really hard stuff is done. There's still a nice frame to go around the edges, and the floor boards in the attic to nail down.

I found something neat at Home Depot: it's a motion detector that screws into the light bulb socket. I used that in the attic to save a little wiring work, and it makes a better solution. I stumbled across an odd frustration though. In the attic there was a little plastic junction box, apparently unused. I check on the nice bare wires that were sitting in it. Of course they were live. Seriously, the electricians who worked on this house need to be kicked in the jibblets.

Attic excavation

This is the space I'm doing all this work to claim:

Here you can see the original timber which blocks the new attic stairs from fitting. The little boards to the left and right are there to keep it from falling through and clonking me on the head when I cut through the dry wall that it's nailed to. The jagged scar in the dry wall just south of that is between the original timber and the beam I'm replacing it with.

I've also had a nice bike ride and watched Shrek 2 with Zoe today. With that and leftover Thanksgiving stuff and raspberry dunkelwiesen for lunch, it's been a good day!

Building an attic

So yesterday I had my first major foray into really changing the landscape of my house. I've been trying to excavate the space over the garage and create an attic out of it since there's about 300 square feet of usable storage up there. The builders didn't think we needed access to any of that, though they timbered it like it had to be bomb proof, so it can support enough weight. There's not much wiring or HVAC to get in the way over the garage so the space you get is far more open and usable than the upstairs attic.
I picked up an attic stair kit at Home Depot, and went for the beefier one, since the light weight ones could barely hold me, and the point of this is for me to be able to carry things up there. Unfortunately the beefy stairs are wider than the space between the beams, so I spent a lot of time yesterday sistering up one of the beams and holding my breath while I cut the original out. It worked great.
The flooring I picked out was chip board, and it comes in 3/4in X 5ft X 6ft. I tried to lift that up into the attic on my own but the sheets are too heavy and too long- they hit the roof timbers before you can get them all the way in. It took me a lot of grunting and straining and some of Stef's help to figure that out.

The rest of this Thanksgiving weekend will be pretty busy. Things to do: build a floor for the attic, take a bike ride, wire in a new switch and lights in the attic and the garage, write a paper of the Knowne World Handbook, help Zoe with her science experiment, polish my leg armour and mount brass on the edges.

Speeding

People who don't drive at least the speed limit under normal conditions really bug me. Like it's physically painful for me to drive near them. I'll cut a little old lady some slack if she's doing 60 in the slow lane, but if she's doing 65 in the fast lane it drives me nuts. My blood pressure goes up and I start spinning crazy stories in my head about how she must sleep with goats. I've been using my cruise control a lot lately, and it makes me more sensitive to the speeds other folks drive, since if they're not consistent I have to do more to adjust, rather than just move my foot a little differently. I'm not really a speed demon myself- haven't gotten a speeding ticket since about 1994, and I generally don't go much more than 10MPH over the limit (unless it's a stupidly low limit). But that 10MPH difference means a lot to me. Really, why would you only drive 65? Is there a warrant out for your arrest? Dead hooker in the trunk?

Zoe reading

According to the public school system Zoe should just be starting kindergarten this year. We were just hanging out this morning when she read one of Stef's medical texts to me.

Random idea

I was driving to lunch this morning when I decided it would be cool to name your band "Rock Slide." It sounds all hard, and you'd have a ton of signs all over advertising your band.

TV

We got a DVR about a year ago, and it's totally changed how we watch TV for the better. It's been great for Zoe since it lets us line up educational TV for her to watch whenever we let her have a little tube time. We can watch what we want to watch whenever we want to watch it. I know my family aren't early adopters of technology, and at this point they wouldn't be for this one either. But seriously- go get one. They're easy to use and really nice.
So I've been taping all kinds of things because it's so easy and have found some interesting things. Mostly I've found that Saturday Night Live is in a death spiral. It can make pretty much any band sound like crap. I liked Kelly Clarkson through her American Idol days, and I like her on the radio. On SNL she was awful. It was like she didn't want to be there. I just watched U2. They're a good band. On SNL, they made me want to die. They put some heart into the performance, but the sound quality was like an 8 track.
I have been enjoying Sons of Anarchy. If the trend of gangster shows set in places I've lived (the Sopranos was the first one) continues expect the next one to be set in central Texas.
My Name is Earl is my other favorite. I don't think karma is as simple as they depict, but the characters are likable.

September goal conclusions

In September I managed to do:
870 push ups
905 crunches
810 squeezes with my hand grippie thingie
51.1 miles on the bike
With the getting to work earlier goal I ended with a deficit of 33 minutes. Not awful.

The bike was probably the easiest and most fun, which led to finishing the target goal a week early. Finding the time and energy to do a lot of the tasks was tough. It was easy to leave the hand grip thing at work and then I wouldn't be able to work on it over the weekend. It squeaks so it was distracting to do at work even with my door closed, but it was good stress relief in long phone meetings.

One weird side effect of these goals was that I put on 4-5 pounds. I'd like to think that some of it is muscle- my legs are bigger, my abs are more defined and my arms are definitely stronger. But I've also been eating too much fried food and fat. I need to scale those down in October, and maintain the muscle.

My birthday was nice this year. Zoe had play practice and I had war company practice on the actual day so Stef and Zoe did presents and cake for me the day before. I got a bunch of great books, a metronome/tuner I've been wanting, a couple early music CDs (which I forgot to thank my aunt for, so Thanks, Mary!), and a computer game called Spore which I'm loving. War company practice was fun, and good exercise. My buddy Michelle gave me a cookie the size of a pizza, and after practice almost 20 of us went to the Dog and Duck for dinner.

September goals

1000 push ups
1000 crunches
1000 squeezes on my hand grip trainer (rehabbing a bad thumb mostly)
50 miles on the bike
Leave for work no later than 9:15. Time has to be made up.

So far I've finished 280 push ups, 280 crunches, 285 grips, 13.6 miles, and I'm 30min positive in my departure time over all. So I'm on track.

Cookies?

Is it possible to be addicted to cookies? It took me a real force of will not to stop at the grocery store last night and by a small crate of them.

Slaying an IRS dragon

I got a happy little note from the IRS a couple months ago saying they thought I owed them about $7000. Fun, right? It had a whole packet of forms encouraging me to just go along with their findings, roll over and give them a wad of cash. It sounded wrong, so I did some hunting, called one of my brokerages and got a 1099 from 2007 which should have made the IRS leave me alone. I sent it off, assuming their humble apology letter would soon be on its way. Then I got another note from them that they couldn't calculate the cost basis of the stock based simply on a 1099, and I must immediately give them $1600 or be shipped off for water boarding camp. Could this tale get more riveting? I think not! I still have no idea how they came up with that number, but I had a secret weapon- a very friendly clerk at a brokerage firm clued me in to the mighty schedule D form. It had the full cost basis in black and white for the stock option exercise. I sent that, and a back up copy of the 1099 off to the IRS. Is the IRS dragon slain? Tune in next week when our intrepid hero refills his red Swingline stapler... of Death!

Bike update

I did a nice 10 mile ride on Sunday, which brings me up to 47 out of the 50 miles I'd planned for this month. The weird thing is, I'm putting on weight. It might all be in leg muscle.

Biking goal

I set myself a goal of 50 miles on the bike this month, and so far I'm well ahead of schedule. I've done 30 miles so far. Friday I bought a new set of wheels which makes the goal WAY easier to hit. It's sort of an old man bike maybe, since it's not quite a road bike, not quite a mountain bike, but a hybrid between the two. It should let me ride on all the trails around here, hop off a curb if need be, but still be light enough to get some serious speed. I managed to keep up with some of the hard core guys with the fancy-schamcy $1000 bikes without working too hard.

Brilliance

I hope my colleague doesn't mind me quoting him here, but the statement was too amazing not to share:
"Some people are so smart and know so much that they know things that aren't true." John Watters.

Jerks and decisions

My brother sent me a link to this. It's not particularly scientific, but it's food for thought.

Ants and a summer cold

Zoe and I went to the pool yesterday, and as I was quietly watching her do her goofy jumps off the diving board a fire ant just walked up and stung me on the toe. What kind of random evil is that? At least a mosquito gets some personal gain from stinging you, but the ants don't. I wasn't threatening its nest, or stealing its food. Now my foot is all swollen and itchy. So today I spread ant killing bait all around our yard.
I'm working from home today because I have a steady stream of mucus down my throat. It's unpleasant enough to not want to share it with coworkers.

I have to go to a meeting on Wednesday because someone at work is transitioning from living as a man to living as a woman. More power to her, and I hope she's happier in her new role. I really just want to tell anyone who has a problem with it to get over it. I just have trouble figuring out why anyone else would really care.

Just Can't Wait to be King

This is a pretty tricky song to do with a bunch of kids, and they pulled it off very well. Zoe managed to keep all the dialogue straight and stay with her lines. We were very proud:


Sorry the video quality on these is low. Blogspot doesn't seem to want me to publish anything larger. Even these are taking multiple tries and some time consuming re-rendering.

Hakuna Matata

Zoe had the role of Simba in the Lion King. Here she's singing with Timon and Pumba:

Zoe does Sing Sing Sing

My daughter is going to be a king

She's going to be a king. The lion king to be precise. She's doing drama camp this week, and she's in a batch of kids with the oldest kids going into 6th grade. We've been working for a few days to keep her from getting her hopes up on the role she gets cast with, but she came home with the lead role of Simba. We did a read through of the script this evening, and I expect this is going to be a pretty good performance. The best part- I get Friday off this week, and that's the day of her show.

Fitness update

I mostly did OK on the no fried food kick until Father's day hit. We went out for Indian food, and I had some veggie fritters and galub jamun. Yummy, but fried. There was cake after dinner too, which wasn't strictly verboten, but did have a lot of calories.
Exercise has gone well. Stef's trying to reclaim her bike, so I've been jogging more. I put in two miles this morning (OK, I walked some of it), and managed to get up early every day last week to put in some kind of exercise. I'm going to make Saturday and Thursday weight lifting days, and the rest are cardio.

Bad family news

My mother in law just got admitted to the hospital with pneumonia. The doctor called to iron out exactly what her DNR meant.

Friday dinners

Had a great dinner tonight at Roy's with Stef and Zoe. The kiddo had some ribs she was OK with, and enjoyed my trout and Stef's salmon. Desert was a molten chocolate affair with raspberry sauce and ice cream. The service was outstanding. Stef made reservations on line which solicited Zoe's name. The hostesses greeted her at the door by name and her desert plate even had her "Aloha Zoe" written on it in chocolate sauce.
I think I may have cheated a little on my diet since I had one of Stef's pot stickers, which may have been fried. It wasn't fried like an onion ring, but, it was probably cooked in oil, which was kind of the idea to avoid.

Goals on target

I've managed to wake up early and exercise since I set my goal. I've cut out fried food. I even got down to 194lbs Wednesday morning. It was brief, mostly due to dehydration from practice the night before. Mowing the lawn counts as exercise, right? It's not a riding mower, and I'm breaking a serious sweat so I'm going to count it. I've also done crunches, fought a lot, took a bike ride, and done push ups. I've felt more focused and energetic at work, which has been great. Over all work is going pretty well. It seems like a lot of stuff gets in the way of doing a bigger work out- like anything can distract me from it if I let it. I scanned some pictures one morning for my buddy Scot. I had to get gas for the mower. Oh, there's email to catch up on... The down side of getting outdoors- a fire ant bit me. I'm pretty sure I'm allergic to those bastards now. It's like I have two calf muscles on my left leg. It aches and itches so badly it woke me up twice last night.

Health goals

I have eaten way too much fried food lately. I'm doing OK weight wise, it's just not a healthy choice, and I have to write something down, like here, to change my habits. It's like prayer or something. Anyway, no fried food for two weeks! I mean it! Even tortilla chips count.
I want to get up earlier and exercise regularly too. So up by 8 and exercise every week day! This sleeping in stuff is no good for me.

Buddha

Heard a neat quote Saturday: "If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him."

Things I'd wished I'd learned about myself earlier

I'm sensitive to sugar. My mom's doctor thinks she has diabetes and my body reacts like I have similar issues. All the blood sugar tests I've had came back normal, but a candy bar or a slab of white bread can put me to sleep. That's not normal.

I'm a little compulsive. I have a hard time leaving work before 6:15, even when there are great reasons to head home, and no obvious reason to stay at work. I imagine my employers don't mind so much, but it's kind of strange to not have as much control over that as I'd like.

I really need 8 hours of regular sleep. 8.5 is better, and 9 is better still.

Exercise is great for my stress level. Weight lifting is OK, but cardio is what my body responds to best. I like biking.

A lot of my reactions to situations are automatic- conflict, questions, stress, etc. I don't think I'm unusual in this respect at all, but it's kind of annoying to have this pre-programmed set of routines that you just do, even when they don't make sense. For this to be a recent revelation I guess I haven't been as self aware as I'd like to believe. My mother-in-law and her decline with Alzheimer's showed me how predictable people can be, and I'm guilty of it too. I'd like to override the negative or unproductive reactions I have.

If I write stuff down it happens. A written checklist of goals has a lot of power for me.

I learn and absorb information far faster in written form than aural, so even scribbling notes in a meeting helps me to retain info.

Abstract art and music without melody

If art doesn't get me thinking, or move me I don't have much use for it. I can get something out of Klimt, I like Bosch, but Pollack? Why would anyone pay to own that? I can see why people might like Monet, though his work is pretty bland to me. This stuff is technically a bit of a challenge, but it just does nothing for me. It feels like a movement based on the bluff that you have to be very sophisticated to really appreciate art, and if you don't get something so avant guard you must be culturally base. A lot of modern jazz seems to be based on the same bluff, and it bugs me. I respect the heck out of Wynton Marsalis for what he can do with a trumpet- but when he's free to just play whatever jazz he chooses? Some of that is just random notes. His "Crescent City Christmas Card" album is difficult to tolerate even as background noise. If you can't whistle it or dance to it, you really should consider if you're making music or just masturbating in public.

Spurlock and Lee

I like "My Name is Earl" but Morgan Spurlock and Jason Lee seem to occupy the same space in my brain. It's kind of distracting.

Theft and itching

My wife's wallet got stolen yesterday. It sounds like it was taken right out of her purse while she was looking for games to rent at Hollywood video. So they probably have surveillance tapes of the crime, and of the guys who stole it trying to use it at an ATM and a gas station. It seems like it should be pretty easy to prosecute if you can find the guy. She canceled all the cards pretty fast so she didn't really loose anything but some cash and the time it takes to get a new driver's license. It sucks though.

My shoulders are all itchy from sun burn. I don't really know how it happened since I've been religiously slathering myself with sun block every time I go out in the sun. It's like one of my shirts doesn't block UV rays.

Just finished Emergency by Neil Strauss. It reminded me a lot of my buddy Collin, and not just because he gave me a copy of another one of Strauss' works. It's not a bad read over all.

Being too close

I'd like everything in my life to go perfectly. Smooth. No bad surprises. It just doesn't happen that way very often. So I had a big training thing I've been working to arrange since March that I thought I had all ironed out until yesterday when one of our finance folks said I have to file something that will take a couple days. It felt like my world was collapsing. All the little things I'd arranged were just undone, and I ended up having to postpone the class at the very last minute. It was hard not being frustrated and embarrassed, but it seemed like the whole thing was no big deal to anyone else. I think most people realize that stuff happens, plans change, and they're pretty forgiving as long as you're not trying to jerk them around. I was just too close to all of this to see it earlier.

Science, evolution, debate

Last week my friends Clare and Roger took me to a debate between these folks and Michael Schermer. Listening to the logical contortions the Reasons to Believe folks went through to try to explain their case was physically painful. It was like watching someone try to explain a geocentric universe. They threw in a little crappy math and some very fuzzy bible references to try to complete the snow job. Schermer for the most part was straight forward, simple, and consistent. He had a few moments of smugness and grandstanding, and he tried to connect some disparate ideas which just don't belong in the same bucket. But he just made more sense.
Don't get me wrong, I respect folks with faith- my wife's Catholic, and I have friends who are Mormons, Jews, Anglicans etc. But subverting the bible and using junk science to try to deny evolution is deplorable. Questioning is good- especially questioning scientific data. Making up crap and passing it off as truth, not so much.
I used to believe that having the right facts was all that mattered. If you're right, you're just right and the debate should end. For things that can't be proven I don't see a lot of reason for debate- speculating over a beer and a camp fire maybe, but there aren't any concrete points to argue. But it seems that there are lot of folks who just believe what they want to believe about the universe and people. There are a lot of methods of argument that don't rely on truth- they just bulldoze their way through and beat you into submission by repetition, confusion, volume, anger, or plain wearing you down. The funny thing is, if you have to use any of those to make your point it almost seems like an implicit admission that you're wrong, or that your audience isn't listening.

Numbers

How we tell time pisses me off, and not just because Zoe's in the midst of learning it. If you think about it, the system is insanely complicated and despite me being an engineer I'm constantly tripping on the stupidity of the system. Let's look at time: 12:35. The first digit is base ten. I like that. Most numbers most people work with are base ten. The 3 is really a base 6 number, since when we get to 59 it rolls over to 00. The next number is base 3, and the highest number is binary, or base 2. So there are four numbers and each of them has a different base? Seriously what the hell were they thinking? Then there's the 24 hour system- in some ways it's easier since there's less wrapping and carrying numbers to figure out what time it is in other zones during the day but it uses a base 3 number in a new position and brings in a base 5 number.

How about this: we have 100, or maybe 10 hours in a day with 100 minutes each in them. Each minute has 100 seconds. The length of a second would have to adjust to make that fit into a day and a night. It would take some getting used to for sure, but you could still divide up hours into half hours, or convenient 10ths of an hour. Decimals are just easier than the fractions the 24 hour system seems to be all about. I'd like to see the 24 hour clock go the way of the British shilling/tuppence debacle. Their whole imperial measurement system is also on my list to be destroyed. It's antiquated, bad, and makes me have way more wrenches than anyone needs to own.
It feels better getting that off my chest.

Purpose

I've created this to store things that don't fit into my Burgundian hours blog. I want to keep that focused on making stuff and research and uncluttered with my random thoughts, goals and personal life.