Mock-tober

Henry started pre-school last week. He enjoys it. Tempus Fugit, blah, blah.

Max says "I can wear a soup bowl as a hat!"

"See! I don't care that it has soup in it, it still works!"

"I am one stylish dude in my soup hat!"

Henry shows a collage he made in pre-school

"I was cleverly hiding this stick behind my collage"

So life continues.

Felice started a much better blog last month, she writes more and is much funnier than I am.
It's part of her "build a buzz about me on Etsy" campaign and has paid off in two pairs of earrings being sold...

I finally spent some of the money lavished on my for my birthday. I bought the Lego Mindstorms NXT. I could lie and say I bought it for Henry and Max, but you would see right through that gossamer excuse.

The plan for today is to build the "Start Here" robot, so called because there is a box labelled "Start Here" that contains the parts for the fist simple robot. We'll see whether Henry can focus enough on it to withstand the boredom of a complex assembly.
Here is the boring Mindstorms official blog and here is another robot blog.

I spent some time last week perusing Corvallis blogs, here's one with lovely nature pictures from around the area.

Here are "Gary's Clocks", PDF downloads of wooden clock plans. Looks like another fun to build project to add to my list.

Lest you think the Continostat is no longer on my mind, I was sent a link to an Ebay auction of a Nupubest, which is a similar contraivance from the same era. I may bid on it...but not too much.

The previous week has been spent milling parts of the secret device, let's just say that 100 arrayed 1.25mm holes would be difficult to drill without a CNC mill. I have again learned a lot through practice. I'm getting closer to being happy with a "Nick will model parts in Rhino for you" page, but I plan on changing many things before I put a link from my main site. Any comments about this first draft of a site would be appreciated. I think the whisk model is terrible. I'm working on an animation of the steam engine model that will be posted as well, if I ever finish it.

Finally, has anyone visited an Ikea store and checked out this chair? It looks good, but I am loath to buy a chair without some sort of review/feedback, and our local Ikea is about 300 miles away.

That's all for now...

Well here are some more pictures from my parents visit.

I express an emotion while opening a card.

Max shows us where his nose is.

Here's a cake picture for James, even if Felice hates it.

Total chaos while arranging a family picture. I like this better anyway.

Henry says, "No More Pictures!"

Max explores the fascinating world of geometry with a pair of tongs.

Henry peels and cores an apple. For pie. Mmmm. pie....

I added a bunch more pictures to the (insane) Continostat page. Not much left to do other than organize, muse and track down a couple of journal articles at the OSU library.

I have been looking for a better computer chair, since it seems that all I do is sit all day. Any recommendations? I could use a good chair at a cheap price. While surfing I found this anti-Aeron page.

Via Boing-Boing, comes this list of exclaimations used by Captain Haddock.

Here is a French model engineering site.

The Sightseer's guide to Engineering.

Solid Edge now has a free 2D drafting program.

Another great timewaster from Google. (via a Chequer Board of Nights and Days)

Did You Forget My Birthday?

It is my birthday today, I'm 40. Felice is working and my folks are visiting, they're out picking up some food and a cake right now.

Max isn't sure about Tofu.

Henry sticks something on my mom's nose.

It's great for the kids to have the grandparent visits back to back.
Other than my parents visit, nothing much else is happening.

I do have a beginning to my Continostat page up now. Researching an obscure instrument is fun. Once I go through the patents I'll revamp the page and make it more coherent.

McGill University's Biomedical Engineering Dept. has an online guide to their machine shop (McGill didn't accept me as a student way back in 1984, which was probably a good decision on their part)

Just a Lazy Summer & A Mystery Object

Henry and Max wash the car.

"I think you missed a spot, Max."

Henry's new bike (yikes!)

Max goes through his blue period.

Fran and Joe left, and now Nick and June (my parents, odd to write their names) are coming for a few weeks tomorrow. It's great for the kids to see their grandparents! Nothing new to report, things just continue along.


This is Gottschalk's Continostat. I bought it for $45.00 yesterday at the local university surplus sale. I thought it was a drafting instrument, but it is used in Large Displacement Spline Modelling, for Structural Analysis...In other words I have no idea what it is. This page mentions it, and this book would be good to find...but the only copy seems to be at MIT. Only two pages on the whole internet even mention it! So it's rare...and I am again showing how nuts I am.

In other news, Oregon has banned wired glass. So many of my school memories feature this stuff, in doors and windows.

Here is some free gear software

Pictures of a Chinese machine tool trade show and technical school.

A french Brio train blog.

Shop Class as Soulcraft (via Siris)

Fran and Joe

Grandma Fran yucks it up with the boys.

Henry and Joe compare teeth.

Henry and his Grandparents

Fran and Joe (Mr. Grandpa) are visiting for the week. Today we went for a short walk at Findlay (Preserve, Park, I don't know what it's called, there is absolutely no information about it on the internet). Yesterday Joe stayed home with me and the boys. We went out for a short trip to the thrift stores (I bought a bunch of old engineering texts!). On the way back I stopped at an estate sale and Joe volunteered to stay in the car with the kids. I went insane and bought a rhinestone "IKE" campaign pin. I also bought a few old Life magazines, I'm happy because one has a Shell Oil ad drawn by Artzybasheff that I'll cut out and frame at some point.

I made a keyring for the Etsycraft contest. It's very heavy. I milled the letters and the profile on the Taig CNC mill, then used a unitized wheel to put a soft polish on it and break all the sharp edges.

Last week we watched "Kamikaze Girls" which was hilarious and hip. It was a wonderful escape from our normal life. I also watched "Orde Wingate", which was a well done tele-play about, well, Orde Wingate. Because it was a play the production values were terrible. There was a bonus roundtable discussion (from the BBC in 1976) with a few of the actual persons portrayed in the play.

Felice and I had a short argument about the proper spelling of "Dalmatian", which led me to this wonderful blog.

Very lazy, I am.

What can I say, I've been busy...

Max enjoys fresh plums.

Henry fends off axe wielding Max.

Henry brushes a stuffed dog.

Henry thinks we need to mow the lawn.

I have been somewhat busy lately, nothing exciting but some more Rhino modelling, and a little side-blogging at Toolmonger, where I have been blogging about tool-centric TV.
Our old friends (not that they are old...) Beth and Kevin stopped by last night, Kevin just had a book published. They brought a bunch of old kids toys, but I managed to give them an electronics project kit that was surplus to our needs. Kent helped clear out his ex-father-in-law's estate last week, which meant that Henry received a vintage 1968 Hoppity-Hop.

I stayed up too late last night watching the first half of "Pretty Maids All in a Row" on TCM. I finally turned it off halfway through, thinking it would be available on Netflix, but it isn't...It was a perfectly odd movie.

I worked today on a bracelet for the Etsy-Craft contest and through a series of events was recommended this "What the Font" page...stay tuned for the bracelet link (I mean that obviously the bracelet has links, but there will be a link to the bracelet on Etsy soon)
Update: Here's the bracelet...

Steaming, steam up.

The mess on my bench - I need to clean my shop...

Henry vacuums the couch.

Henry imitates daddy.

Large numbers of children and parents seeking air conditioned relief in our house last week.

Max at the Steam Up.

Henry and Daddy and a big caterpillar.

Madonna, child, stationary engine.

Driving a fire truck. See all the Steam Up pictures here.

Earlier in the week Kent and I went to an auction. It wasn't that interesting but on the way back we had a nice view of Mount Adams as we took the scenic route. All I bought were a few vises and some Pomalux.

Links:
Museum of Retro Technology

A German Watchmakers Shop

A mobile machine shop

Pickle Lickers

Henry and Max engage in some pickle licking. Max ate his pickle, but Henry just licked the juice off of his, and then asked for another.

Patty cake?

Halloween in July. Henry likes to dress up sometimes, especially in his halloween costumes.

Frankenmax.

Very little going on in the doldrums. Felice is trying to decide whether to sell at the market this weekend, the temperature is forecast to be 103...

I received the August/September issue of "Machinist's Workshop" (Vol 19, #4), which has my article "1-2-3...Nuts!" inside. Yay. For those who read this and subscribe, let me know what you think.

We managed to watch 2 DVDs this week, "The Matador" and "Shopgirl".
The Matador was a good, quirky little conversation movie about a washed up assassin. I would recommend it, and the characters seemed realistic, I found the amorality of the Pierce Brosnan character on the mark (his language was terrible!) and Greg Kinnear was (intentionally) boring without being condescendingly written as such.
I liked Shopgirl better when it was called "Lost in Translation". Ok, it was pretty well done, but I had little interest in the vapid characters. Do people in LA not have hobbies or interests? Beyond "art" or whatever. Here's a tip for scriptwriters - give your characters some depth beyond being "rich" or "artists", sometimes they might have budgeregars, or collect spoons or something. People talk about things, they don't just sort of stammer and immediately talk about their relationships...

Some links:
Images, Artwork and Historical Objects at the US Naval Observatory

3D Anaglyph Maker I have been making some anaglyphs from my Rhino renders.
And Stereomoviemaker for 3D animations...fun.

Rockler Woodworking Blog

The NIST Rotating-Wheel Based Refreshable Braille Display
And Choosing a Refreshable Braille Display

The 1871 US Korea conflict.

Storm Large is now on the CBS show Rockstar

Time to post some more cute!

I have time to post some more cute pictures.

Gardening with Max.

I'm not really sure what he's trying to express here.

Max & daddy before bedtime.

Henry shows off his cool dance moves.

Henry painting a picture for his new cousin Harold. Like all good artists he has an assistant in Max, to do the filler.

Henry says it's a painting of a rainstorm.

We are off to a potluck adoptive families picnic this late afternoon. The week was uneventful.
For the potluck I am going to make Gye ran mal ee, or rolled egg. I found a few different recipes:
Gye ran mal ee #1
Gye ran mal ee #2
Gye ran mal ee #3
A also tried out Google's translate this page, and while this recipe makes great surrealist poetry in the translated version, I was not able to understand it enough to follow the recipe.

While searching I also came across a new english language Korean food blog.

My other discovery this week was an intriguing tape I bought for 25 cents at the local thrift store. I am too lazy and poor to follow music much, or to buy many CDs, so when I see something cheap and odd I do buy it on the off chance it will lead me into something I like. The tape is "Systeme D" by Les Rita Mitsouko. As is the case with most odd french artists, I love the music and now want to buy all of their CD's (when I can find them used & cheap). The tape is unfortunately decomposing with each play, so I will need to replace it.

Finally, this is the kind of story I find fascinating. I do hope they make a movie of it.

A Henry-fest

Here are some pictures of Henry from the past week...

Fallen asleep at the computer.

Swimming at the Philomath pool

Playing with real Legos, for the first time

Pitting cherries

This is the cherry crisp I made last night from the cherries Henry pitted. All of our cherry trees are covered in fruit this year, which is great. There are few desserts better than a warm cherry crisp with vanilla ice cream. Speaking of cherries, check out the taiwanese ad from the link...

As for the rest of us, not much going on, we had a boring 4th (except for the cherry crisp) as it rained most of the day.

Here are some links:
180 wrapped tubes

The Rothschild Petersen Patent Model Museum
(you can buy some models on Ebay)

An engineering challenge

An interesting lathe follow rest

The local organic farm, about a mile away.

Mainichi News has Manglish - Manga in English

What Canadians think about everything - quiz