A day to relax

So I took at trip to Bainbridge island today with Sabrina. It was quite pleasant. We went to the streamliner diner which was very tasty - I will have to go back for a waffle sometime soon :) We visited a couple stores, and walked down by the waterfront. Something about life there is very appealing. I have this idea of starting an online company of some sort and have some property where I can work on projects, start a garden and enjoy both the small community and also the city just a short ferry ride away. I had thought that I could never get away from the city, but maybe this is an acceptable alternative.

One of the most peaceful things for me is falling asleep outside, hearing the dull passing of people in the quad, or hearing the leaves blowing in the wind. Today while riding the ferry back to Seattle I fell asleep in the car listening to Nora Jones while we slowly rocked back and forth and made our way across the water. This for me, was very calming. I think it is notable being able to feel comfortable enough with someone to fall asleep in such a way in their presence.

It's alive!

So we finally got it driving. It is sexy, silent, robust and has the lowest cg of any chassis I have been a part of. I am tired, but things are moving along.

Inching along...

So we are officially 6 days behind. This is not to say that we are not ahead of every other season, but we are still behind schedule. This has been a year of doing things right, and having the time to do so (this makes me happy)

For example:

This is the beginnings of our new control board. Things are well organized, and it wont end up being the lowest priority and therefore a huge rat's nest of wires.

I am working again tonight (up to 4 days a week now). I have generally been getting to bed at midnight, and waking up at 4am. I wonder when I will crash. I seriously need a day off to clean and get things back in order since the whistler trip, not to mention catching up in the sleep department. I don't want to give anything up, but it is going to get harder to keep up with all of this and still consider my sanity and my sleep.

Back from Whistler

I went to Whistler for the annual IUGA ski trip. It was a blast. I made some friends, drank too much, got beat up on the slopes, and broke in my new board. I am amazed that I can have like 9 drinks in a couple hours and be almost completely sober. I swear, in touristy Canada they have perfected watering down their drinks.



I can't say the trip was overly eventful. I mean sure there was random strangers, drunken debauchery, and having our bus get sideswiped by a stupid minivan in Canada (we had to wait for the mounties lol)

Trips like this are generally stressful for me, but this one ended up fairly well. I decided that I would just do what I wanted and not get caught up in trying to tag along with anyone's specific plans. I still suck at snowboarding so breaking off from the group was exactly what I needed. No pressure, and some time for some peaceful self reflection of sorts. The mountains are beautiful and pushing myself physically is a rush.

I really need to get in better shape. Boarding killed me, and I think my difficulty is maybe 75% fitness. By the end of the day I was more confident and was getting better, but not till after some decent crashes, bumps and bruises. It's all good though.

I feel like there are big thoughts going on for me now, but it is hard to verbalize. Maybe it is just that I always get this way after trips. It is an escape from your normal day to day, and they are usually accompanied by some sort of marked exit from, and entry back into your life. Riding the bus for 5 or so hours back from Canada gives you plenty of time to sit and look at your life as something external, something you are for some reason now able to look at from the outside. I do the same thing flying back from Michigan, or wherever I am visiting.

It is also a very nice feeling when you have friends you can call on, even if it is for a ride home after a long weekend.

Either way it seems like my life is changing at an accelerated rate, and it feels like finally I am in a position to take advantage of the opportunity.

And so now for a random quote that I hope someone will get: back to life, back to reality

Believe in me as I believe in you, tonight

Life of course remains hectic.

FIRST is going well - the game is interesting and heavily relies on strategy which is my strong suit. We are actually holding ourselves to our off season advice and planning ahead and leaving ourselves some time to get stuff done.

Socially, things have gotten better. I am much appreciative of this new group of people that I hopefully will soon be calling friends. I feel it is not frequent that you meet people like this, and I plan on taking advantage.

It is so nice not being in school. Generally I wish I was more productive at work, but I think for some reason this is my being burnt out week or something.

Having about 2o hours of free time a week is a little stressful, and I am pretty sure my sleeping habits are suffering, but that is okay.

Some things are harder to put into words.

I have once again been swept into the beauty and complexity that is life. I am not afraid, and will not turn away.

So It Begins...

Cool Project Idea

This guy took a flatbed scanner and made it into a digital panoramic imager. [Link]


There is another person that is attempting to link the progression of the scanning element in the scanner to a rotating lens directly, so when you ran the scan, you would get an instant panorama image. [Link]

Retro

I want one of these!



The score is the actual time. I think I would spend way too much time staring at it though. I would always know what time it was!

Michigan Roots...

Unprecedented court ruling in Detroit, Michigan

Detroit , MI (AP) - A seven-year-old boy was at the center of a Detroit courtroom drama yesterday when he challenged a court ruling over who should have custody of him. The boy has a history of being beaten by his parents and the judge initially awarded custody to his aunt, in keeping with child custody law and regulations requiring that family unity be maintained to the degree possible.

The boy surprised the court when he proclaimed that his aunt beat him more than his parents and he adamantly refused to live with her. When the judge then suggested that he live with his grandparents, the boy cried out that they also beat him. After considering the remainder of the immediate family and learning that domestic violence was apparently a way of life among them, the judge took the unprecedented step of allowing the boy to propose who should have custody of him.


After two recesses to check legal references and confer with child welfare officials, the judge granted temporary custody to the Detroit Lions, whom the boy and the court firmly believe are not capable of beating anyone.

Decisions

Will this:


Or this:


Or this:














Be my new baby?!

Yes! Almost done with school...

So they basically approved my capstone for spring, with the stipulation that it might need some tweaking. Also they approved 8 of my credits, with the possibility of approving another 5. That means I am officially at most 15 credits and one quarter away from graduating! It also means that I am not taking classes this quarter, can save some money, and go all out for FIRST.

I am so relieved. You can't imagine. There is ALWAYS a stress in my life, usually school or work. Now is there NOTHING big? Quite possibly. Ahhhhhhhhhhh!

UW love hate relationship

Seriously, I am trying not to hate UW, or college, or education in this state in general. I seriously think they have forgotten about me, not having been notified about my capstone project yet which could potentially be starting today. There are people registered for the class, so it seems that I am officially out of the loop. Is this the second department that I have for some reason unknown to me, alienated at UW? WTF! I know I haven't been actively seeking a resolution over break, but before I left I was told that it would be a matter of days until we were told. Days turned into weeks and sorry, no, I didn't want to deal with this crap over the holidays.

... Last night I went to Snooze Junction pizza in Ballard. The rumor was free pizza - which was kind of true. Sabrina's coworker knows someone that works at this place and sent out notification for people to come. When we got there, there was a private party sign on the door :( But the lack of social anxiety by Sabrina payed off! We crashed the party, or something like that. Turns out they were really nice and talkative to us complete strangers about their pizza. They are putting the finishing touches on their business before opening in a few days. Overall the pizza was tasty, and you couldn't beat the atmosphere (well and the fact that it was free). Hopefully they stick around for a while.

In my future I resolve to attend more parks, bon fires and camping expeditions. Golden Gardens was pleasant last evening, despite it being a little cold. I was reminiscing about our kamikaze camping trip.

I am starting to like work again. It is challenging enough not to get frustrated but to feel a sense of accomplishment. They scoffed at me when I said implementing a certain feature would be easy, and I finished it yesterday. They were pleasantly surprised :)

God, with FIRST, work, school, and new social activities I am all flustered. There are too many things on my list to stay in this state for very long. Once school is resolved (did I mention, the only real stress in my life?!!!) I think things should fall into place nicely. I am going to try hard not to disappear this six weeks like what usually happens.

One of the funniest things I have ever seen:

New Years Resolutions

Not that I ever do any myself, but I found many of these to be along with my general interests and inspiration:
MAKE: New Years' Resolutions

Particularly interesting,
Learn something new from a child or teenager, especially in your area of greatest expertise. I find the perspective of innocent novices to be most refreshing and enlightening.

I have been thinking lately about the community. I have always taken for granted my participation in FIRST, and I should really strive to make the most out of that experience for everyone. It seems unfair to hold it up to some more conventional means of community service, but that shouldn't be the case. I guess I need to make a promise to myself, my new years resolution, to make a change, to live up to my own standards and abilities.

And for some robotic hotness:

To Start the New Year

New Years Eve

I had a great new years.

I had very little idea what I would be doing on New Years this year. There were a number of possibilities, parties, bars, clubs etc. I met Sabrina and she was already going to the Chapel Bar in capitol hill, and that sounded like a good idea. It is a little pricey, but its nice, there is almost always seating, and it added a little class to my celebration. We did a little prefunking at my place, and of course I bought way too much to eat and drink but that was okay.

Chapel was fun. There were no shortage of friends, friends of friends, and interesting strangers to be with. I had a fabulous shot of tequila and I think for the first time had champagne at midnight. 6$ a glass, not a bottle ;)

I was the central person to a number of friends that I was attempting to hang out with on new years. I ended up trying, and generally failing at coordinating everyone. It is not something that I should even have attempted that late in the game, but it worked out okay.

We finished at chapel and we walked up the hill looking for a place to go dancing. RPlace had a line of maybe 20 people and a significant wait to get in (a very cold wait) so we moved on to neighbors. Plenty of dancing, a bit more drinking and a lot of fun.

Sabrina forgot her coat at chapel so that was the last stop out for the evening. She found it without incident and we met some very funny guys hanging out in front of chapel. There was discussion about meeting people on craigslist with a guy demonstrating on his web enabled phone how forthcoming people can be on the personals page with their pictures!

Next stop, sleep! I started new years day with a tasty breakfast at B&O with Sabrina, and eventually Adam, and enjoyable discussion about relationships and video games. Who could ask for anything more?