5-12-13 at 6:14 MDT
I went to the NMT graduation yesterday to watch many of my students and friends graduate. It's hard to beleive that it has been eight years since I graduated. NMT is so nerdy that the professors exit the ceremony to the Imperial March from Star Wars.
After graduation, I hung out with my roommates and their friends and family that were in town for graduation. I ended up taking a nap for an hour or so (I worked the night before graduation), and then we had dinner together before I returned to Rio Rancho to see my family.
This morning, I will work in the garden and shed and try to knock out as much as I can. Right now, I have daily, weekly and ongoing to do lists. I typically hit the ongoing to do list hard at the beginning of the week and then the weekly to do list near the end of the week, but I'm trying to balance everything out.
My last day at NMT for the semester will be Wednesday. I have a lot to do before then- I need to release another version of the NMT website and update some software for the ultrasound project before disappearing fo two months. I'll still stop into campus once every two weeks or so, but the long hours there will end until July 15.
Now that it is the end ot he semester, I'll begin a new news page in the next week or so.
5-10-13 at 22:05 MDT
I'm in the factory tonight, one of my last nights in this particular task before I switch to my new job. There's a lot I will miss about switching to a new department and shift, but it will be worthwhile.
This weekend is NMT Graduation. I will go down and watch a few of my friends/students graduate after work this morning. It will be a long day, but congratulations to the new graduates.
I started reading a series of books by Elmore Leonard. The books are the premise of the TV series 'Justified'. I like the TV series, so I figured I would read the books, too. I find that the more I read, the more easily I can write.
5-9-13 at 23:56 MDT
Spring fever is in full force for me. I watch the weather any time I can, and am looking forward to the storm chase in a few weeks, even if the pattern looks like it might be garbage for storm chasing.
5-7-13 at 23:50 MDT
I've been working on the chemical engineering department webpage exclusively. I'm trying to add some of the whole web 2.0 type stuff, and modernize the look of the page. It's taking quite a while to learn some of this new-fangled stuff.
The semester is over. I turned in my final grades yesterday, and received final grades for the classes I am taking at Mississippi State. I got A's in both of them. I'm trying to decide whether or not to go for the full meteorology degree, or just get the broadcast degree certificate. I like the sound of "Operational Meteorlogy" better than "Broadcast Meteorology", and I have some of the prerequisites (calculus, physics, etc.) for the full degree. I just don't yet know how many freshman level courses I'll have to retake. I know they want six credits of foreign language, and who knows what else. I'm not super thrilled about taking English 101 again, if that is required.
It will be nice to get off the night shift. I like all of my coworkers on the night shift, but I am an early morning person. My most productive time is early in the morning, and three or four times a week, I have to force myself to go to sleep during that time. I also have to force myself to stay awake on Tuesday nights so that I will sleep in a few hours on Wednesday morning in preparation for working Wednesday night. The last few weeks, I've gone to bed at sunup, and then been out and about again an hour or two later.
5-6-13 at 0:00 MDT
The long week at Intel has finally come to a close. Tomorrow, it's off to NMT for a few days, and I'm up late getting ready. Sunday is my housework day. I do all of my grocery shopping, cooking for the week, cleaning, laundry, and outdoor stuff on Sunday, typically after having no sleep. If I sit down at my desk chair, I fall asleep.
I worked in the garden today, and it just made me depressed. I'm not sure why, but I don't think the soaker hoses will work as well this year. I even replaced them, so I'm not sure what is wrong. Part of me says to go with a more permanent irrigation route, but I'm not sure what that will entail- and if it is going to crap out each year, it is not worth it. Most of the summer, I'll be able to water by hand, but starting in July, I'll go back down to NMT Monday-Wednesday, so I won't be able to hand water then. It only takes a few hours of inadequate moisture to kill things here in the desert southwest.
I played around in several of the ham radio contests this weekend while I ran errands. This weekend was the New England QSO party, IN QSO Party, and 7 QSO Party, and I worked stations in each of them. The New England QSO Party was a longer event, so I made many more contacts in it than in the other contests.
I was listening to these lectures about personality type with my girlfriend. A simplified version is that there are four colors: yellow, blue, red, and green. Yellows are emotional, introverted, caring, put others needs first, etc. Blues are outgoing, fun loving, jump to conclusions types. Reds are boss people, extroverted, but they want the bottom line, and often take charge. Greens are the logical, Spock-type. I took an online test and it said that I was blue. I asked my girlfriend and she agreed. I never wanted to be blue, I always wanted to be green. I guess it's not relevant, you can't change it anyway. The more I read about it, the more blue I sounded. From Phil Cicio's website, blues are typically: "They almost always late and they go off track during meetings and make things go over time," and other scatterbrained activites.
My girlfriend also picked ENFP for my more detailed personality type and showed me CelebrityTypes.com Half of these (supposedly ENFP) people are really annoying as well (Che Gueverra, Ralph Nader, Arianna Huffington of Huffington Post fame, and Rachael Maddow). Of the people I consider at least slightly respectable from the ENFP list were Nathaniel Branden, Mark Twain, and Walt Disney. Even so, that didn't make me feel any better.
Now, the strange thing is that I can't get these stupid tests out of my mind. Now, if I mess something up, it's like I was destined to do so based on my personality type. After all, blues don't think things through all the way, and often do things sloppily. Greens don't do that. Every hero I've held in my head was green. It's like the cast of Gilligan's Island: Gilligan was a blue and he always messed things up. The professor was green. I never wanted to be Gilligan, but I can never be anything else.
5-3-13 at 21:00 MDT
I'm in the cleanroom tonight, but getting ready to head out to break.
Today, I went and exchanged my stupid workbench leg for the correct one. It only set me back about an hour, but it is still frustrating.
I spent some time working in the garden today. I planted marigolds, squash and zucchini. Next will be eggplant and asparagus. I also need to reroute the soaker hoses and perhaps even replace a few of them that aren't working so well. I should develop a better watering system, but one thing at a time. As it is, I have a garden to plant, grapes to rip out (one plant is dead), a fence to tear out, and a dead plum tree to remove. I'll be busy every time I'm home.
I worked on my TinyTrak3 in hopes of getting the APRS tracking running in time for storm chasing. No luck yet- though it might be the GPS. The display has been dying for ages, so I don't know if the display is bad or the GPS is bad at this point. I was able to reprogram the tracker, so I'll have to try using a different GPS and see if that fixes the problem.
5-2-13 at 23:49 MDT
Onto my second day of Intel for the week. Last night, I was in a clean room suit, tonight I am not. Each place has its advantages and disadvantages- if I'm feeling good, I'm happy about either place.
Tomorrow, I'll work in the garden. I have asparagus, squash, zucchinis, eggplants, watermelon and maybe more that needs planting. Also, my grape arbor blew down in the wind. That particular grape is dead, so I'm not too worried about it, other than the mess it made. I think my plum tree is dead as well, so I have no fruit trees anymore.
It has been unseasonably cold the last day or two. I brought a jacket to work for the first time in several weeks. I'm not happy about that!
My laptop motherboard is officially dead. I have other computers that I use frequently, so I just had the repair people put the hard drive in an external case and traded the remnants of my laptop for the external case. This marks the second time I've had a laptop motherboard die. I don't think I'll replace the laptop, as I have several others, including my netbook, which will do everything I need. The laptop made it three or four years- I bought it at a hamfest when I still lived in Socorro (though the hamfest was in Albuquerque). I think I paid $200 for it, so I think I got my money's worth.
5-1-13 at 23:54 MDT
I learned today that Stevie's Grill, a restaurant of great sentimental value to me, is closed. Steve is an old friend of mine- we bought our RV from him. He opened shop about the same time seven years ago that my girlfriend and I started dating. In our early days, we frequented his restaurant, sometimes the only customers there. He used to come out and chat with us, play with our son, and so on. I spilled a soda in there one time and he pretended like he was going to beat me up. I'm sad to see his restaurant closed. I hope he is closing because he is going to do something else he enjoys.
I can't believe the month of April is already over. Time for a monthly update:
Books read: 2; Beowulf, Geronimo - Wolf on the Warpath (Ralph Moody)
Books of the Bible Read: 0 - working through Ezekiel
Periodicals Read: 19
HF Contacts made: 83
VHF Contacts made: 13
Monthly average: 55.2%
Miles Biked: 0
Farthest Distance Traveled: Roswell, NM
Biggest Accomplishment: officially getting the engineering position (paperwork and a start date)
4-30-13 at 8:45 MDT
I can't believe it is the last day of April. In less than a month, I'll have been storm chasing and returned. All year I wait for the month of May, and it is upon us. I don't know how this storm chase will shape up. It looks like I have approximately five days to chase, which isn't all that long. That's a little frustrating, but I will have every weekend in June to chase as well, so maybe that will make up the difference.
Later today, I'll take my water resources and climatology finals. I'm not sure when I'll take them- just sometime before 10 am tomorrow. I toyed with taking the water resources final now, but I'd rather do the open book exam somewhere that I can use a large monitor instead of my netbook screen.
Also on the agenda today is to work on the chemical engineering department's website. The current one is terribly out of date, and so I'm trying to modernize both content and appearance. I don't know css very well, so it has been an uphill battle.
I'm in a strange funk today and I'm not sure why. I'm sure I ate something that is causing it. I couldn't stay awake for Boston Legal at my brother's house, falling asleep with my netbook on my lap. This morning, I woke up around 5:30, but didn't get out of bed until 7:00. Lazy.
4-28-13 at 23:03 MDT
Under the category of 'things that make me angry', my next entry is the fact that the workbench I bought a few months back was supplied with two left sides and no right sides. I finally get around to assembling it, only to find that the parts have been tampered with, including placing two of the identical sides in the box. I don't know how I'll replace it, but I'll call Craftsman tomorrow and complain.
My weather station is only mediocre. It keeps having issues communicating with the computer, so I went ahead and disconnected it for now. I mounted the display on the wall, and I will try dumping the data maybe once a week and see if that helps. So far, I'm not impressed with AmbientWeather or the EasyWeather software.
I am slowly getting the house organized. I feel like I have so much more to do though. It's a neverending battle, I guess. Also, with the split lives of Socorro and Rio Rancho, it's hard sorting out which thing goes with which part of my life, and thus where it belongs.
I finished watching Season 2 of Justified. It's a really good show. I picked up Season 3 today at Walmart. Justified and Jericho have been the two most addicting shows I've ever watched. House, Boston Legal- both good, but not addicting.
4-26-13 at 1:32 MDT
Under the category of 'things that make me angry', I would like to address the photos that somehow got deleted from my pogoplug drive. I had uploaded photos from my computer onto the pogoplug drive from my Portland, OR trip last summer. A very large chunk of those are now missing. I'm really angry about it, because I took some pretty cool pictures, especially on the coast at the Peter Iredale Shipwreck.
My semester is winding down. My students are sending their final projects to me, and I'm beginning to tie up some of their final grades. Tomorrow is senior and junior design presentations. It's so strange thinking that I've known these kids throughout their college experience, and now they are more like associates than students. Next year will be even more strange, as I was much more heavily involved with the freshman class of 2010, meaning the class that graduates next year.
It's also strange to think about how my college experience was different than most. I think about how much longer I was there, how many more classes I took, and all of the different jobs I worked during my six years as an undergraduate and five years as a master's student. I guess you could say I never really left school, seeing as I still teach, and I am still taking classes (albeit at a different university). Some days, I think I messed up badly to have been in school so long. Other days, I draw from the experience and the extra classes I took, and I don't regret it.
Somewhere along the way, I decided I was bad at math. I don't know when. I didn't do well in calculus in high school, and then struggled with linear algebra and differential equations in college. For years, I've stopped when I've determined something was calculus, and it's stupid. I recently started relearning calculus, and it hasn't been so bad. I guess I never was terrible at it, but somehow convinced myself that I was. I now notice my son does the same thing when it comes to long division- he'll do it, as long as it doesn't look like division. If you have a clear division problem (I have 64 seeds, how many rows of 8 can I plant?) he can figure it out, but if you tell him 'I need you to divide 64 by 8' he will say he doesn't know how to divide. Anyway, I'm relearning calculus, and maybe I'll be able to teach him division at the same time. It's time to stop hiding behind 'I can't do it' and just start doing it.
My laptop died, and it looks like it is the motherboard. I need to find a replacement, or at least capture my data from that computer. I need to have a computer or hard drive that I can access from anywhere, copy any file structure to that I want, and, it would be exceptionally nice if I could run programs from it remotely. Ideally, I'd have a remote desktop interface that I could access from any laptop, netbook, etc that I use throughout my daily life. I haven't found such a solution yet, but I need to get cracking on it.
4-20-13 at 23:43 MDT
I'm getting good at posting at the last minute. I figure the deadline of midnight inspires me to post when I otherwise might have skipped.
I've spent the last few minutes looking for a wireless signal. I don't understand why I don't have connection anymore. I'm on my break at work and I was just connected a minute ago. I'll probably have to restart the system, which is irritating.
I was relatively busy today. I woke up around 1pm and worked in the garden. I shoveled half a ton of dirt and goatheads into the trashcan. We'll see how many are left.
I started reading Sun Tzo's Art of War. It is interesting to think about how hard it is to protect a manuscript for that long, both from physical damage and from corruption and forgery. I read Beowulf earlier this month, and the same thing applies. Also, getting the translation right, including words that have been lost throughout the years- that's pretty neat too.
4-18-13 at 23:43 MDT
Once again, another late night post.
I updated my to do list. I'm not completely satisfied, but it is enough to keep me motivated moving things along. Today, well, I didn't do much towards my to do list, but knocked a bunch out of my daily and weekly to do lists.
I find that I need checklists to check off to feel like I've accomplished something. If I can't get the satisfaction of checking items off a list, I tend not to bother. I keep refining what this means, but during each revision, I get more productive.
My allergies have been killing me this year. Last year, I was down for a week. This year, it's been almost a month. I took off work one day about a month ago for an NI event, only to sleep through most of it due to the lack of sleep I got from my allergies. It was pretty miserable.
Today has been exceptionally cold. I'm just as glad I didn't plant much last weekend, as it would all be dead today anyway. It was cold and windy all day, and I used a jacket for the first time in almost a month. Sorry to all of you who planted tomatoes...
4-16-13 at 23:15 MDT
I am still working through my logs for the NM QSO party. I have a long ways to go. Furthermore, I am without DX4Win thanks to my laptop dying. Hopefully, I'll get it back soon, and can catch up. I was still logging contacts from my January trip to TX in DX4Win. In another month, I'll go storm chasing and pick up even more contacts. It is a busy time of the year for me.
Today was the anniversary of the VT shooting. It has been six years. It's hard to believe.
I am trying to develop a better way to track my to do tasks. Right now, I have an Excel spreadsheet with filters. I can select a category and see what needs to be done. Each entry has a category, details, a due date and a completed date. When I complete it, I highlight it in green, and then eventually filter it out. I don't want to delete it, as I'd like to keep the task and completion date, just in case I need to figure out when I did something. I do need to track things where I miss the deadline, or don't complete at all- but I also have to figure out what to do about arbitrary deadlines I set personally. For example, if I don't sand down a rifle stock I'm refinishing today, it's not a big deal. I'd like to do it, but my arbitrary deadlines are arbitrary, and I know it. Now, I'm to a point where I have tons of self-imposed goals, way behind schedule, and many of them are not as step-by-step or specific as I'd like them to be. For example, I had 'install ChemCAD on the lab computers' as a goal- but each computer takes approximately 30 minutes to do this- and I have like 20 of them to do. It might seem tedious, but it might have been better to set it up as installing ChemCAD on each computer as a separate goal. I'm not sure. I'm migrating towards more checklists for most activities that I do. I changed my lab computer maintenance over to a checklist for each computer so that I can keep track of which maintenance tasks I need to do. It helps somewhat.
4-15-13 at 7:23 MDT
This weekend, I particpated in the NM QSO party (amateur radio). I have not yet tallied my contacts, but I operated from 10 New Mexico Counties (Bernalillo, Valencia, Santa Fe, Torrance, San Miguel, De Baca, Guadalupe, Lincoln, Chaves, and Socorro). I was not able to make one from Sandoval, my home county, which was a little disappointing.
After the contest, I spent some time in Socorro with my brother and his family, and the Socorro roommates.
This week will be busy- long week at Intel, and lots to do at NMT as well. I also need to catch up in my online classes, as I completely spaced a quiz last week.
My WX: 49.8°F, 23.4°F dewpoint, 29.90 in Hg and steady, 4.5 mph SSW wind, supposedly 0.08 in rain in the past 24 hours and sunny.
NWS Says: 37°F, 14°F dewpoint, 29.81 in Hg, 6 mph SW wind and clear.
4-11-13 at 23:31 MDT
On Sunday, we took a family drive out to Belen to watch trains. We found a pretty neat spot and watched them for about two hours before having to return to Rio Rancho for work. Always a fun time! My girlfriend and I first started hanging out by watching trains, seven years ago.
My metalcasting furnace arrived on Tuesday and I started assembling it today. It is pretty easy to set up, and now all I need to pick up a tank of propane. Soon, I'll be melting bronze and aluminum. They have not yet shipped my bronze, aluminum or sand, however, so I cannot start yet.
I'm still waiting on some official paperwork for the new job. I haven't heard anything else about it. I've heard that I was selected, but still have not signed anything.
My weather station is not working properly. It might have had more to do with the computer it was attached to instead of the weather station itself. Maybe I should invest in a super desktop machine to run everything and then use remote desktop to access everything. I'm not sure.
4-5-13 at 23:34 MDT
I wonder if anyone ever goes to this page. I probably lost most of my readership when I stopped updating often. That and when the whole web 2.0/Facebook/blog thing took off- too many new ways to keep track of what I'm doing.
I was thinking about all of the cool stuff that I don't take advantage of (but should). For example, Intel has a free piece of fruit per shift. I've picked up my free piece of fruit a handful of times- mostly because oranges are my favorite, and they are messy. That's a lame excuse though. Other examples- there are tons of coupons that I receive and trash, even though they are for things that I buy, tons of free classes and such that I never take advantage of, etc. We sure do live in a society with many luxuries.
On an unrelated note, I wrote an editorial for El Defensor Chieftain, the Socorro newspaper. I have another one drafted for Modern Casting, and I'll submit it in the next few days.
4-4-13 at 0:26 MDT
It is hard to believe it is already April. In a little over 6 weeks, I'll leave for my annual storm chase. For anyone who doesn't know, my entire year revolves around the last few weeks of May where I take time to chase storms in the plains. Chances are you already knew that.
4-1-13 at 23:59 MDT
I added a link for Christmas 2012. I took almost no photos last year, and it is most disappointing. This year, I will do better!
Time for a monthly summary:
Books read: 3; Principles of Water Resources, (Thomas Cech); Call of the Wild (Jack London); Where the Red Fern Grows (Wilson Rawls)
Books of the Bible Read: 2 - Jeremiah, Lamentations
Periodicals Read: 20
HF Contacts made: 50
VHF Contacts made: 12
Monthly average: 55.3%
Miles Biked: 2.244
Farthest Distance Traveled: Anaheim, CA
Biggest Accomplishment: unofficially getting the engineering position (waiting on paperwork...)
My WX: 47.3°F, dewpoint N/A, 30.14 in Hg and steady, no wind and sunny.
NWS Says: 41°F, 18°F, 30.09 in Hg, calm winds and fair.
3-31-13 at 23:59 MDT
Can't be much more of a 'last post of the month' than this!
Today was beautiful. I took full advantage of it. I hid Easter Eggs for my son, and even though he is a little old for Easter Eggs, he had fun. He is allergic to candy (well, wheat, soy, milk, and corn in particular), so I had to find other things to put in them instead. Toy cars, brussel sprout seeds (which, he is not allergic to and loves), toy soldiers, a small compass, etc fit the bill. After that, I worked in the garden and managed to put new bricks around one of the grapes, put manure on most of the garden beds, water everything well, and plant a blackberry plant (I hesitate to call it a bush, as it is just one twig). Then I turned to working on vehicles, replacing the PCV and cleaning out the air filter in the Malibu. I also replaced the front tire on my bicycle and put a luggage shelf over the back fender for a ham radio project I am scheming. I then assembled a rack for storing my garden tools in the shed. After that, my son and I went for a bike ride around the neighborhood, just over 2 miles or so. After all of this, the sun began to set, so I went grocery shopping and cooked meals for the week. We'll be having lots of stir fry this week. I updated my ham blog, my storm chasing blog, and my car blog, as well as cleaned up some electonic components I had spread around th kitchen. 'And I didn't even have to use my AK, today was a good day...'
My main laptop continues to power down without warning. It acts as though nothing is wrong when it boots back up- but it does power down, you have to manually start it again. I first suspected that it was overheating, so I took it apart and blasted it with canned air. I reassembled it and placed it in a position where the vent and intake were both facing open space. It didn't help. I also have a red line down the right side of the screen, but because I use an external monitor, I had not noticed this, and have no idea when that started. Anyway, I will likely have to take it somewhere for repairs this week.
I have been feeding my turtles live food instead of pellets. The tank is much cleaner, and the turtles are much more active. Today, I put 30 minnows in the tank. I was letting them get acclimated to the temperature of the tank, but the turtles would have none of it. They bit through the bag and and I removed an empty bag a half hour later. I think there is still one survivor, hiding in a cave in the tank.
My WX: 54.0°F, dewpoint N/A, 30.14 in Hg and steady, 0.7 mph N wind, mostly clear.
NWS Says: 50°F, 18°F dewpoint, 30.05 in Hg, 6 mph N wind, fair.
3-25-13 at 7:30 MDT
My laptop keeps randomly powering down. I'm not what is causing it to do so- the only thing I've changed is to install Garmin Express. I may uninstall it from this machine and see what happens.
I have started working in my gardens getting ready for spring. Yes, it is getting close to being spring again. I am able to leave work in the morning and only be slightly chilly in a t-shirt.
I switched my turtles over to eating live food instead of pellets. I think the tank is cleaner and the turtles are more active. They are making a dent in the feeder minnow population though.
My WX: 78.6°F, dewpoint n/a, 30.14 in Hg, 3.1 mph SSW wind, and partly sunny.
NWS Says: 66°F, 16°F dewpoint, 30.13 in Hg, 8 mph S winds and mostly cloudy.
3-25-13 at 7:30 MDT
Another long week down. Now it's time to work around the house and try to get a few things done before I leave for Socorro. The biggest items on the agenda are to grocery shop, cook meals for the week, clean the cat box, clean the turtle tank, run some laundry, put liners in the drawers of my tool cabinet, and get a few more QSOs logged in DX4Win. We'll see how many of them I get done before it is time for bed.
And I need to go to bed by midnight instead of 3am. I'm trying to transition to a more regular schedule. When I start as an engineer (at some point in the next two months), I'll no longer be working nights, and might as well start transitioning some of my schedule to that time frame.
My WX: 52.2°F, -12.8°F dewpoint, 30.14 in Hg and steady, 0.7 mph NW wind, no precipitation, and sunny.
NWS says: 55.0°F, -5°F dewpoint, 29.97 in Hg, 8 mph S winds and fair.
3-23-13 at 16:33 MDT
It has been a long time since I posted. I saved my news file on my netbook, and I haven't done much with my netbook in the past few days.
I am having all sorts of troubles updating my GPS. When I plug it into my laptop, the laptop powers down. GarminExpress crashes on my backup laptop. I'll try the netbook next, and perhaps one of my work computers. It's incredibly frustrating- right now, I have the map set from Christmas, which doesn't even include New Mexico. As far as the GPS is concerned, Albuquerque doesn't exist. I've since added a micro-SD card for holding larger maps.
Well, Hurricane March has arrived in New Mexico, and the wind is crazy.
My WX: 43.2°F, 9.0°F dewpoint, 30.03 in Hg and rising, 8.3 mph NW wind with gusts much higher than the 12.1 mph listed on the weather station, 0.09 in precipitation, lots of blowing dust.
NWS Says: 37°F, dewpoint -18°F, 29.92 in Hg, 33 mph NW wind, gusting to 46 mph, blowing dust and windy.
3-12-13 at 16:32 PDT
We went to the California Adventure Park, which is part of Disney somehow. We had a good time and rode several of the rides, particularly in Carsland. Anyone who knows my son will understand that one.
Today was a tour of my son's (potential) school for next year. He seemed to have a good time and learn a lot for just one day of class.
Tonight begins our trek back to NM. I think we'll go as far as Kingman, AZ, and then complete the drive tomorrow. I have to work at Intel tomorrow night, so we'll need to be home by then.
Our van has held up pretty well. I put a new alternator in it this weekend before we left, and, once we'd burned out the gas that had sat in the tank since mid-August, it started right up. We added air to the driver's side tires, and three quarts of oil, which is busienss as usual for that van.
There's a lot of things up in the air this week, and so hopefully, they'll start getting nailed down over the next few days. More about those things as I know more....
3-11-13 at 12:10 PDT
Fun in the sun. We are in sunny southern California for a day or two. Today, we'll go to one of the Disney theme parks. I did run Cibola county, NM yesterday on 20 meters.
Anyway, off to the park, we can walk there from our hotel.
3-10-13 at 9:35 MDT
The time change went on without a hitch at work last night. Hooray for a shortened long week.
Going on some adventures today! More about this later.
My WX: 36.7°F, 31.3°F dewpoint, 30.16 in Hg and rising, 0.7 mph N wind, 0.01 in precipitation, mostly cloudy.
NWS Says: 30°F, dewpoint N/A, 30.10 in Hg, light snow falling.
3-8-13 at 18:25 MST
I'm a terrible liar. I've done no better about posting this week.
My weather station is not working properly again. We didn't get 15 inches of rain yesterday, and we didn't get 102 mph winds. I'm not sure what is happening- but if it managed to pull a bad data point, the tipping bucket rain gauge will keep adding to the bad data point. Same with the wind- nothing but a manual reset was going to erase the 'maximum' wind speed measurement.
3-4-13 at 8:34 MST
I forgot to post what the NWS said yesterday. Oh well.
I'm headed to Socorro for a few days. I'm looking forward to getting a few things done while I'm there. I'll get last week's lab graded, get this week's lab set up, and hopefully finish installing LabVIEW on several computers. Once that is finished, I can start working on new unit ops programs. The heat exchanger program won't take long to write, and the swamp cooler one will take a while to calibrate, but the program won't be difficult.
I worked on the van yesterday and got the new alternator installed. I was not able to get the belt back in place, however. That will take a little more time.
My WX Station says: 52.5°F, dewpoint 19.6°F, 29.99 in Hg and falling, 4.5 mph NNW wind (G 6.9 mph), and partly cloudy.
NWS Says: 46°F, dewpoint 14°F, 29.93 in Hg, 8 mph SW winds, and partly cloudy.
3-3-13 at 13:32 MST
I've been terrible about posting here in the past week. I'll do better this week, I promise!
I udpated my weather blog, car blog, and ham blogs this week. And now it's time for a monthly update on this site:
Books read: 2; Fundamentals of Hydrology, (Tim Davie); For the New Intellectual (Ayn Rand)
Books of the Bible Read: 1 - Isaiah
Periodicals Read: 20
HF Contacts made: 36
VHF Contacts made: 8
Monthly average: 60.0%
Miles Biked: 0, but the weather is turning nicer, so I'll replace my tire
Farthest Distance Traveled: Socorro, NM
Biggest Accomplishment: interviewing for an engineering position at Intel
My WX: 65.7°F, 24.6°F, 30.04 in Hg and falling, 6.0 mph W wind (G 9.2 mph), overcast and 0.07 in of precipitation has fallen in the past 24 hours.
NWS Says:
2-25-13 at 6:30 MST
I think I accomplished less yesterday than I ever have on the Sunday of my long week. I did practically nothing, and now I need to finish up a lot of things before heading to Socorro.
I did test out my latest toy, a Colt Police Positive in .32-20 WCF, at the indoor pistol range. I like it, and may become a collector of Police Positives. There is a fair amount of blast from the rear of the gun, so I was glad to be wearing safety glasses.
My WX: 21.6°F, 8.6°F dewpoint, 30.06 in Hg and rising, 1.6 mph NW wind, and clear. We received 0.08 in of snow last night- enough to make the typical New Mexican freak out on I-25.
NWS Says: 23°F, 9°F dewpoint, 29.95 in Hg, 20 mph NW wind (G 24 mph), and fair.
2-23-13 at 13:25 MST
Last week, we bought an annual membership to the natural history museum here in town. We go there frequently enough that it practically pays for itself, and we get half off the 3D movies that rotate through there regularly. We saw Flying Monsters last week, and this week, we'll see a movie about meercats.
My son's science fair was a success. He did a good job on his project and spent a lot of time explaining it to other students, parents and teachers. I think he had a pretty good time.
Work was long last night, even though I was out for the first four hours to attend my son's science fair.
My WX: 48.6°F, 14.4°F dewpoint, 29.96 in Hg and falling, 2.2 mph SW wind, and sunny. We received 0.08 in of precipitation last night.
NWS Says: 37°F, 5°F dewpoint, 29.93 in Hg, Calm winds and clear. 20% chance of snow for tonight.
2-22-13 at 17:25 MST
Getting ready for my son's science fair. He did a project on roller coasters, building several K'nex roller coasters. I wrote some software in LabVIEW to measure the speed of the cars using an NI-6008 Data Acquisition device.
After that, it's off to work. I'll hear about the engineering position in the next week.
My WX: 39.6°F, 9.9°F Dewpoint, 29.99 in Hg and rising, 3.8 mph NW wind, partly cloudy. We also received 0.25 in of precipitation in the past 24 hours.
NWS Says: 37°F, 9°F Dewpoint, 29.90 in Hg, 20 mph W wind, mostly cloudy. They are calling for a 30% chance of snow (less than 1/2 in) tonight.
2-21-13 at 18:19 MST
Blech, it has been a long day. I stayed awake to go to a National Instruments event- one which had always met at a restaurant on central. I double checked the time in the email, but then drove to the restaurant without double checking the location. As it turns out, the lunch was held 5 miles from my house in NW Albuquerque, but I drove all the way down to SE. By the time I got there, it was too late to turn around and make the lunch, practically at home.
My WX: 39.2°F, 21.2°F Dewpoint, 29.91 in Hg and rising, 0.7 mph SW wind and mostly cloudy. We didn't get any measurable snow.
NWS Says: 36°F Dewpoint, 29.79 in Hg, 23 mph W wind, mostly cloudy and breezy.
2-20-13 at 6:56 MST
Today is my interview with Intel for the Hitachi Process Engineer position. Wish me luck. I feel funny walking into work wearing a coat and tie- in the cleanroom, most people wear shorts and t-shirts.
I'm trying to get things knocked out of my to do list, but this week has been going slower than normal. My brain also thinks it is Thursday morning instead of Wednesday morning, because I'm not typically at home on Wednesday morning. Even so, I managed to get a few lectures watched and a few lab maintenance goals accomplished when I was down at NMT. Once I get back from the interview, I have a few things to do, but I should probably go straight to bed to prepare for my regularly scheduled night at work.
My WX:39.0°F, 33.6°F DP, 29.78 in Hg and falling, 6.0 mph SW wind and mostly cloudy.
NWS Says: 36°F, 32°F DP, 29.67 in Hg, 16 mph S wind and mostly cloudy.
2-17-13 at 23:56 MST
I did a bunch of house cleaning today, and I still have much more to do. I guess it's a never-ending battle. I also need to finish logging the several hundred QSOs from my TX trip a few weeks ago. I'm terribly behind on that project as well.
I think I need to reset my weather station, as it has been reading the same 29.86 in Hg for a really long time, and the dew point does not register. I'm not impressed with this thing so far.
2-16-13 at 23:33 MST
I got to spend a fair amount of time with my family today! We went and saw Flying Monsters 3D, a National Geographic film about dinosaurs. It was pretty neat- we always have a good time at the Science and Natural History Museum here in Albuquerque. After that, we went to some batting cages. I haven't played baseball in forever, but I didn't do too horribly. We picked up some Viet Taste after the batting cages, rounding out a good day of fun.
I managed to get a few things done today as well. Most notably, I finally rented a truck and picked up my tool box and work bench. I put together the tool box, and will hopefully start on the work bench soon.
My WX: 33.1°F, DP unavailable, 29.86 in Hg and steady, 1.6 mph NW wind and clear.
NWS Says: 36°F, -2°F DP, 30.17 in Hg, 5 mph W wind, mostly clear.
2-15-13 at 14:50 MST
Wish me luck. I have an interview next week for an engineering position at Intel. If I got this, a lot of good things would change, including my schedule. I know a lot of folks have applied for it, so we'll see how it goes.
I have a ton of stuff to do this afternoon, but I'm taking a break to update this website. I clearly have my priorities correct. It's already 3pm, and I need to start the roast, clean out a storage unit, go to the post office and the bank before work.
My WX: 53.6°F, (unavailable) DP, 29.86 in Hg, and falling, 9.2 mph N wind, and sunny.
NWS Says: 46°F, 1°F, 30.25 in Hg, 23 mph N wind, sunny and windy.
2-12-13 at 8:21 MST
Off to Socorro for the day! I have a bunch of things to do there, but I did get the LabVIEW roller coaster program running here at home.
My WX: 25.3°F, DP 11.8°F, 29.88 in Hg and rising, 4.5 mph N wind, and sunny.
NWS Says: 19.0°F, DP 10°F, 30.07 in Hg, 23.0 mph NW wind, and sunny.
2-11-13 at 23:57 MST
It's late Monday night, but I've been busy. I managed to get the remaining programs uploaded for ES405L. I also posted lecture notes and another prelab. In other words, I'm over halfway done preparing for the semester. I am ahead in my meteorology classes as well.
The LabVIEW program is about finished. I need to clean it up a bit, but it works, and I've tested two Kinex roller coasters with it so far.
My WX: 26.1°F, DP 17.6°F, 29.78 in Hg and steady, 1.6 mph N wind, and partly cloudy.
NWS Says: 25.0°F, DP 118°F, 29.96 in Hg, 13.0 mph N wind, and partly cloudy.
2-9-13 at 11:02 MST
The LabVIEW program is coming along. I still have a long ways to go, however. Right now, I've given up trying to wire the bright LEDs in the system, and am just using ambient light. I think rather than using an absolute value from the sensors as my trigger, I will use a comparison to previous values as a trigger. This way, I capture the change in light as the car passes over the sensor, rather than the absolute change in voltage from the sensor, which will be dependent upon ambient light in the room. Using the voltage from the sensor will require calibration often, whereas the change in light will be a little less sensitive to the ambient light, as it is being subtracted out from the beginning.
...And I forgot to post the weather yesterday, even though that was the reason I transferred the news file to this computer instead of the one I was using...
My WX: 41.7°F, DP 20.8°F, 29.53 in Hg and falling, 24.4 mph SW wind, overcast and windy
NWS Says: 43.0°F, DP 10°F, 29.66 in Hg, 30.0 SW wind, overcast, windy, showers in vicinity.
2-8-13 at 18:07 MST
There's some sort of strong front passing through. The wind is up, and the pressure is falling. We'll see what the next few days holds for us.
My son's science fair project has turned into quite the experiment. He wanted to figure out how roller coasters work, and what gravity was all about. He built several Kinex roller coasters (btw, these are not trivial to construct!) and figured he would measure speed in several places with a stopwatch. As it turns out, the cars move too fast for stopwatch measurements- which is where I come in. Instead, we will measure speed by breaking light curtains and monitoring the voltage change in LabVIEW using a NI-6008. I'm working on the software end of it, and it will be up to him to analyze the data.
Anyway, off to work. I think I've had about four hours of sleep in the past 72 hours, so it should be a blast.
2-6-13 at 20:21 MST
I found the missing monthly update and posted it back on 2/1. I knew I've been doing better about posting on this thing!
I spent several days in Socorro working, and I also managed to get a lot of work done for my meteorology classes. I'll get a few more things done on those tonight as well.
I've been using these Genesis products for about a month now, and I feel pretty good. I've had a super productive week, and I was relatively productive last week as well.
2-4-13 at 7:04 MST
I'm going to have to find my monthly update that is missing. It must be saved on another computer.
I updated my politics blog and my ham radio blog. I'm trying to update all of my blogs once a week, and I'll probably transfer some content from here (not the news!) onto my blogs.
My WX: 34.3°F, DP 25°F, 29.73 in Hg and falling, 5.4 mph WNW wind.
NWS Says: 32°F, DP 25°F, 30.06 in Hg, 14.0 N wind. (as of 4:35am)
2-1-13 at 21:05 MST
Time for a monthly update:
Books read: 2; Best of Zane Grey, Outdoorsman, (George Reiger); Woodsong (Gary Paulsen)
Books of the Bible Read: 3; Proverbs, Ecclesiasties, Song of Solomon
Periodicals Read: 16
HF Contacts made: 685
VHF Contacts made: 18
Monthly average: 62.7%
Miles Biked: 0, between surgery, travel and extreme cold
Farthest Distance Traveled: outskirts of Brownsville, TX
Biggest Accomplishment: braving up and getting the oral surgery I needed
1-30-13 at 12:27 MST
I knew I had made an update or two somewhere, but couldn't find the news file. Therefore I didn't make any more updates so that I did not lose those updates when I found the old file. Or, I could have just merged them, but I was being lazy.
The last few weeks have been hectic. I spent some more time recovering from the surgery after I got back from TX. TX was a lot of fun until the end- I overdid it and wasn't actually ready to travel. I ended up pretty sick by Monday night/Tuesday morning, but was doing a lot better later in the week.
Today, I'm back in Socorro putting out fires at NMT, and will head back up to Intel this evening. I got to talk to my parents on Monday, had lunch with my friend, Ben, yesterday, saw my pseudo roommates yesterday evening, and spent the rest of the time after work with my brother and his family. I'll try to call Ian tonight on my way back up to Intel.
I applied for an engineering job at Intel. It would be nice to be selected, but we'll see.
1-19-13 at 5:46 MST
Wow, in spite of sitting at home for several days due to the surgery, I did not update this news file regularly. I updated lots of things, but not this.
For the long weekend, I am going on a small county hunting trip across Texas. I have a little under half of the counties in that state, and I will pursue the ones in the south that I won't likely see on a storm chase. Right now, I'm packing up from my hotel from Las Cruces, NM and will head east on I-10 once we get on the road.
1-14-13 at 23:52 MST
I went under the knife this morning (wisdom tooth and one other tooth) and am still in recovery mode. My family is the best, texts from Mom, milk shakes and Jello from my girlfriend, and my son has been delivering me the proper meds at the proper times all night.
And...finally... that same stupid survey I've done for a million years or so (plus my more useful questions at the beginning)
Miles Biked: 39.29
Books read: 9
Books of the Bible Read: 9
Periodicals Read: 165
HF Contacts made: 1388
Conferences Attended: 1
Publications: 0
Farthest Distance Traveled: Philadelphia, PA
Trips: FL in January; CA in April; storm chasing in May (KS, OK, TX); OR, WA in July; AZ in October; PA, DE, MD, VA, WV, TX, OK, AR, TN, MS, AL, GA, SC, NC, VA, OH, IN, IL, MO in December. New States: OR
1. What did you do in 2012 that you’d never done before? not sure...
2. Did you keep your new years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year? Kinda sorta
3. Did anyone close to you give birth? No
4. Did anyone close to you die? No
5. What countries did you visit? a good part of the USA
6. What would you like to have in 2012 that you lacked in 2011? A billion dollars?
7. What date from 2012 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? none in particular
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? Reenrolling at MS State for my meteorology degree, or getting my operations certification at Intel
9. What was your biggest failure? not inventing the anal bum cover (SNL reference haha)
10. Did you suffer illness or injury? Needing a cane off and on
11. What was the best thing you bought? Shed, though it is still waiting to be delivered, another AR-15.
12. Whose behaviour merited celebration? All of my friends.
13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed? Everyone else.
14. Where did most of your money go? Tuition, rent, utilities, credit cards.
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? Chasing, travel, house
16. What song will always remind you of 2012? Lacuna Coil (any song)
17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. happier or sadder? happier.
ii. thinner or fatter? thinner
iii. richer or poorer? richer, bling bling.
18. What do you wish you’d done more of? Reading
19. What do you wish you’d done less of? Sleeping
20. How will you be spending Christmas? Road trip!
22. Did you fall in love in 2012? yep
23. How many one-night stands? ask your mom
24. What was your favorite TV program? Justified
25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year? I don’t think so?
26. What was the best book you read? Atlas Shrugged again.
27. What was your greatest musical discovery? Lacuna Coil
28. What did you want and get? A shed, another AR-15 lower
30. What was your favorite film of this year? Atlas Shrugged II, Red Tails
31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I turned 31 and had a mild case of food posioning
32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? Lots o’ money
33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2010? Still jeans, more button up shirts
34. What kept you sane? Reading
35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? None.
36. What political issue stirred you the most? Collectivism in our government.
37. Who did you miss? everyone back east, particularly my family.
38. Who were the best new people you met? My students in Chem E
39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2012: You can work two full time jobs, if you are awesome.
40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year: Not sure there is one.
1-13-13 at 7:15 MST
It was 0 degrees when I looked at the weather this morning. Move to New Mexico, they said. It's warm, they said.
I just finished a long week at work, and it will be nice to go home and relax for a while. I have plenty to do, but sleeping is on that list.
I have been slightly disappointed with the latest book I have been reading. It is called 'Woodsong' and it's by Gary Paulsen, who I typically like. I liked 'The River' and 'Hatchet', but this book is mostly an ode to environmentalism, and I'm not as happy about it. It does talk about his first Iditarod though, so that is neat.
1-12-13 at 3:21 MST
Blech, long day at Intel today. Just lots of frustration, mostly unnecessary.
The fence guy showed up and measured for our fence and says he can get the old posts out probably Tuesday. Could we have a new shed by Wednesday? I hope so!
1-10-13 at 22:59 MST
It is a long week at Intel, though it is moving fast. There is so that needs to be done and time keeps ticking by, and in spite of how fast I feel like I am working, my to do list now exceeds 300 items. I actually track it in Excel to keep up to date.
B
1-7-13 at 23:30 MST
I spent some time today down in Socorro getting the computers cleaned up for the upcoming semester. I brought my son with me, just for some company before he starts back to school tomorrow.
I have some massive updates to my to do list, so much so that I considered updates of my to do list as part of my to do list. I need to learn to slow down sometimes, but there is so much I want to do...
1-6-13 at 23:49 MST
I've been working hard to update my radio logs on DX4Win. I have dozens of QSL cards to send out, and I can't verify them properly until both my paper log and DX4Win are up to date. I am also planning to create a few new graphics for posting on my radio page. Stay tuned!
Mississippi State classes start tomorrow, and for all practical purposes, my schedule resumes at NMT. I have a lot to get done before the start of the semester next week, so I hope I can plow through it.
I posted on my storm chase/meteorology blog today.
1-4-13 at 14:47 MST
Last night of work at Intel for the week! I've been doing well there, and having a good time. They've moved me to the remote operations center, so I'm not in the clean room very often. The suit was hot, and sometimes it was boring in the cleanroom. Outside, there always seems to be things to do, and I like most of my coworkers.
Today, I'll finish getting dressed, change the cat boxes, stop by the bank, perhaps take some cans to be recycled, and whatever else I can think of before going to work. I'm trying to get as many errands done as I can before the weekend, and then again before school starts.
Mississippi State starts on Monday, but I still can't get into the course material. I have started reading one of the text books. Last semester, the course content was open early and many people got a large head start on the course. I did not, as I got registered for class the day before classes started.
1-3-13 at 17:19 MST
Almost 24 hours since my last post. That's probably a several year record, as I have been really sloppy about posting here. I played around thinking the blogs would be a better outlet, but I like having my own website too. I need to update this site for Web 2.0, however.
I have been a little more faithful on my daily and weekly to do lists since the beginning of the new year. I always am. I guess other folks make resolutions to go to the gym, and are done by February. I just start over trying to do the stuff I already said I'd do.
I just finished baking some chicken, and I have some reading I'd like to do before heading into work, so I'll go ahead and stop typing here. Don't worry, I have a few big posts coming in the next week or so, complete with yearly summaries, photos, etc. Stay tuned.
1-2-13 at 17:21 MST
Happy New Year! I'll do my traditional new year's post when I finish tallying up my amateur radio contacts.
I will go to work in a few minutes. So far today, I've run some laundry, had the chimney cleaned, scheduled some fence work, and done some housecleaning, though I have much more of that to do.
This week, I've updated my radio blog, car blog, and my garden blog. I will eventually change the format of this page to reflect all of the blogs I have running at other ends of the internet.