Year: 2012

  • Career hop

    There are hunters and there are gatherers.  I’m more the latter, my wife the former.  I like to settle down and dig my roots in.  What can I say, I don’t like change. The same goes with my job choices.  My first job post-college lasted 10+ years.  It basically fell into my lap — a…

  • Prometheus vs. Avatar

    Prometheus vs. Avatar

    The planet Pandora has nothing — and I mean nothing — on the little moon SC-223. This place scared the (R-rated expletives) out of me; it was unnerving, frightening, dreadful, in all the ways that Pandora was not.

  • Oma’s cleaning skills

    Oma’s cleaning skills

    Mom and Dad came to visit this past week. It was a really great time with family and Iris loved the attention. Iris has called my dad “Papa” since she was 8 months or so, and my Mom reserved the name “Oma” (German for grandmother). While they were here, Oma attacked the kitchen and cleaned…

  • Iris, Olympian

    Iris, Olympian

    Iris took her first gymnastics class today.  Next stop: African Games of 2028. Check out how much fun this kid is having!

  • Dyson vaccum fix

    Dyson vaccum fix

    Is your Dyson Animal vacuum cleaner sucking, like mine was?  There’s a good chance you can fix it cheaply. In my case, the vacuum head — in Dyson speak, it’s the “soleplate” — was not seating down fully on the floor.   Because the soleplate wasn’t fully flush with the contact surface, the suction was…

  • OS X Mountain Lion

    OS X Mountain Lion

    So I finally got around to updating my iMac from Lion to Mountain Lion last night.  Wow, I am pleasantly surprised! For the past year, this was a regular occurrence: systemic memory rot. https://twitter.com/ElectroLund/status/221733275373289474 It was ridiculous.  I felt like I was using a Windows machine.  No offense, 95% of the world.  But seriously, it…

  • Aurora Mass Shootings

    There’s an article at The Good Men Project worth reading called “Not a Joke: Why Do Our Boys Keep Up the Mass Shootings?” in light of the mass murder this morning in Colorado.  I left a comment there that I wanted to explore some more here. This is a risky comment, because it is perhaps…

  • Firebeard, the Phoenix

    Firebeard, the Phoenix

    A few weeks ago, the worst fire in Colorado’s history broke out.  In my town.  It was like Armageddon raining fire down upon us.  A bunch of people lost their homes, a few people died.  It was definitely a scary few days. After the very professional firefighters and city government folks began to gain control,…

  • Sacred Bluegrass

    Sacred Bluegrass

    Is this a mashup made in heaven? I think it was. Sarah and Iris and I all went to this concert a few weeks ago titled, “The World Beloved: A Bluegrass Mass” with text by Marisha Chamberlain and music by Carol Barnett.  The Colorado Springs Chorale’s Chamber Singers performed the piece . The idea is…

  • Parody Circuits

    I ran across this most excellent xkcd comic the other day: It’s just so funny on so many levels, if you’re a EE.  Let’s just go clockwise around the page, starting at the top left. I love that the battery voltage is a square root.  Just so obscure and mathematically nerdy. Gluing open the switch? …