Way Better than John Mayer

I got my own personalized copy (thanks Fun Bobby!) of Bremsstrahlung Live this week, and I've been listening to it a lot at work. As Ronnie mentioned a while back (here on July 6, in fact)), it was a simpler time, "a carefree time of unlimited potential in my life, though I had no idea at the time". Truer words have rarely been spoken of my time at 'Tech. I can definitely remember that show; both Max and Ronnie spoke to me (in the audience), and several times you can hear me ("restless native", "rabid fan") screaming between songs, and even Chan is audible at one point towards the end. I miss those times.

Anyway, I wondered if I could find something in cyberspace about Bremsstrahlung, perhaps a picture or something that someone posted, but alas "bremsstrahlung ron dollete" returned a rare null set from Google. Searching "ron dollete" of course returned hundreds of matches, tens of which were "real", but one (a hit from the Caltech Music Lab!) that led me to www.brigitteroth.net, and, most interestingly, www.jiwarecords.com. Apparantley Brigitte has released a CD, and, if Track 2 ("I am an Artist", available for MP3 download from her site) is any indication, she makes a decent folk singer.

In-Focus Imagery

So I promised these a couple of weeks ago.






Our payment is now about $30/month more than for the 4Runner, but we save $20/month on our insurance premium, and we've realized 50% better gas mileage (22 to 33); with regular unleaded at Chevron in NM sitting at a national-average $2.59, that's pretty nice. We had been putting about 15k/year on the Toyota since moving here; assuming gas prices stay here, that's a savings of $588/year, or $49/month. I'll take it.

I'm still not sure quite how I feel about the color; it's "Grabber Green", a somewhat rare color (according to the Official Green Focus Thread on FocusFanatics.com. Don't get me wrong, I think it looks great, but using the name "Grabber ____" on anything other than a '69-'71 Boss Mustang (or other muscle Ford of said era) just doesn't feel right, not just because it's the wrong era... The Focus, while sporty and fun to drive, still isn't a grossly-overpowered rear-wheel-drive sports car.


Oh, yeah, the other car in the pictures is pretty fun too. Um, anyone wanna be a sponsor for the upgrades to that one? Just $700 will get your name on stickers in one side window and the rear windscreen, and "thanks" when I get into the Reader's Rides section of Car Craft and/or Mustang & Fords.

Wish List, Rev A

Ok, I've been looking at these combo lathe/mill machines from Smithy for quite some time now, and I would still love one. Of course, I doubt that I would do enough work with one to warrant purchase, but then, I won't know how much I'll use it until I have it....

And then I saw this 50ft x 20ft x 8ft, 5 axis mill at Scaled Composites... I don't know what I'd do with it, but there's no question: I need one!

I was thinking about submitting a resume and application to either Scaled or Virgin Galactic, especially after today's news that the Scaled/Virgin-partnership has received the DDTC's approval regarding any possible ITAR restrictions. What do you think, Honey? We could live about 2 hours from Mammoth...

ND-Day

A week-and-a-half ago, Ronnie said this:

"For me it's the large undefended border. I don't trust North Dakotans. They could invade Saskatchewan or Manitoba at any time."

What do you know: instead of using troops, we're using the contaminated water we've been "storing" for the last several years...

Once we crush their lucrative fish-farming industry, they'll be ours. The only question that remains is, what are they gonna call it? ND-2? Manidakota, or better, Manikota?

Roughly Translated to "super" in German

Back when I converted my 1.0GHz Athlon into a frisbee, I gave Chan my ergonomic keyboard. So since I rebuilt the machine (700MHz PIII from the auction house) and named it "Phoenix" I have been using the Compaq piece of crap that came with her machine. I need a new keyboard.

When I first saw it, I thought "Cool, it'll be cheaper because of all the $$$ they'll save on ink, not to mention the overhead of maintain 104 different pieces; by my count, they only need ten distinct pieces now! And no more Dilbertarian uality issues!"

Instead, it will be sold for about $80. So it's on my wish list; Christmas is coming soon!

Apparently, I've got Crabs

So I had a pretty shitty week of work trying to put together my Controls piece for PDR this week. In our team status meeting on Tuesday the Lead Investigator for this project informed me that our customer was hoping for a performance simulation. No problem, we said, we've got one. No, LI said, we need one for the system. Sonofabitch.

Because this PDR and its content is ITAR-controlled, I'll explain his request this way. Say you are doing a simulation of a car. The main component of the car, from a performance standpoint, is the engine. Yet there are many other components that affect the performance, including the transmission (manual, automatic, # of gears, torque rating), the suspension (all independent? live axle? coilover or leaf?), the selection of drive wheels (front, rear, full-time AWD, ?) etc.
So, basically, I had a rough simulation of the engine (hp, torque, and powerband estimates with reasonable confidence) and he just asked me (at noon Tuesday) to estimate performance of the vehicle at Pikes Peak. Oh, yeah, and have those slides by 7:30 a.m. Friday.

Oh, right, and after the meeting on Tuesday, I asked the LI whether the controls architecture really made sense, because it seemed to me that the "turbo" (still using the automobile analogy) wasn't really doing anything; it was pressurizing air, but just blowing it out the back instead of forcing it through the engine. He agreed, and I got to spend the next two days inventing a "new" turbo, which I would then get to simulate.

So, at about 9 pm Thursday, when it was fourth and long (7 slides including title and 2 backups) I decided to forego the normal set of "fluff" PDR slides -- you know, the ones with words? Thursday night I got about 3 hours sleep after reviewing my slides over a dinner of peanut butter and jelly.

Friday rolls around, I get to work around 6:30 a.m. with 7 very marked-up slides. I edited and edited and finally cut it at 7:50 a.m. -- about 5 minutes after the LI created the "Final" version of the presentation. DOH!

So, around 9:30 my turn rolls around; pretty early in the day, really. I've never had a PDR slot scheduled before lunch before, and it's different. People are still paying attention.

The audience consists of the seven team members, two in-house critical reviewers, and two to three (they kind of came and went) reviewers via Webex/telecon from St. Louis. I tossed up my slides which should not have been in the least bit controversial; alas, I had not rehearsed the "talking" part of the presentation enough (just one run through while pacing in my living room), and I stumbled a bit. Apparently, the St. Louis guys smelled blood in the water. Every piece of the controls architecture was picked to pieces, and, even though no problems were found, and in fact this new architecture was lauded as very clever, the guys left the discussion by saying "Yeah, ok, I guess that'll work."

So the nice thing was that I got to come home early Friday, around 2:30. Chan and I had a nice evening, celebrating Mike and her mom's 5th anniversary at the Olive Garden. Then we went over to their place and played cards until after midnight... at which point, as you might imagine, I was a bit tired.

Which brings us to this morning. I was awakened by the dogs (read: Luna) at about 6:30 a.m. as she demanded her breakfast. I got up, let them out, let them in, and fed them -- and fell asleep on the Love Sac for two hours. At some point I got up and gave the dogs their after-breakfast treats and went back to bed. Around 11:30a.m. Chantel announced that she was going to go hike the 10k Trail, and that she'd see me later. Uh-uh, it don't work like that.

So two hours later we're hiking (after eating breakfast burritos on the way up), and I'm grumpy but I don't really know why. I guess she picked up on it:

"You're crabbier than imitation crab-cake at a crab farm, you crabby crabberson."

I'm really not sure what that means, but it made me laugh. I'm glad I've got her around; when I'm feeling especially poop-headed, she knows just what to say to make me go "I'm sorry, WHAT?" I love my wife.

But They've Got Universal Health Care!

Americans Didn't Flock to Canada After Bush Win

Now, really, who's surprised?

Maybe they finally realized that, when the government spends money, either the deficit increases or you pay more taxes.
Can't have lower taxes, lower deficit, and more government-sponsored benefits.