Archive for the 'Uncategorized' Category

blogging from Emeryville, California

May 21, 2008

Disclaimer:  I’m having a great time - the snarkiness that follows is the result of 8 hours in my seat on a plane, a memorable shuttle van ride, 2 drinks, no food, and it’s 3 a.m.
Flight from RDU through Philly to SFO.   The control tower at the Philly airport resembles a KFC bucket of chicken [...]

Week of May 19th

May 17, 2008

I suppose my blogging is evolving, and I would hope for the better but it isn’t always the case.   In the past, I thought my approach would be to construct posts that were a mix of things going on in my life, which mattered to me, with a bit of philosophy thrown in.  I fear [...]

Perseverance

April 24, 2008

Last August I optimistically dug footers and made plans to start my workshop in earnest, a project that has been a dream of mine for almost a decade.  Building my house took almost two years, and enough time had passed that I conveniently forgot the early months of hard slogging just to get out of the [...]

Should we bail or should we row?

January 24, 2008

  
Imagine this as a training scenario: 
You are the captain of a small boat out in the middle of a deep lake.   There are ten people on the boat with you and ten sets of oars and ten buckets.   The boat has suddenly developed a large hole in the bottom and is taking on water fast and [...]

Clean it up before sending it in for service

August 1, 2007

  Whether it’s your car or your laptop computer, be sure to clean it up before taking it in for service.   What?   Shouldn’t the dealer or manufacturer clean it up before they send it back to you?   Sure,  that would be a hallmark of good service, but it’s the way your car or computer arrives at [...]

Is cardboard Atkins approved?

July 13, 2007

Usually, I don’t do these kind of blog entries, but it’s Friday, and I saw this come accross the screen and I just can’t resist.   
Food made of cardboard waste. 
“…Squares of cardboard picked from the ground are first soaked to a pulp in a plastic basin of caustic soda — a chemical base commonly used in [...]

ER - for cats

March 26, 2007

  My inside cat of 13 years developed a growth between the toes of her left hind foot.  In just several months time, it grew to the size of a grape and began to splay out out the toes.  I took her in to have it removed and get her checked out by the Vet [...]

Creativity in the work place

March 2, 2007

Great post here on board game inspired furniture in the workplace.  There are many schools of thought on how to unlock creativity, and certainly this is indicative of one way.  Often these sorts of things are reserved for a particular area, say a design lab, and therefore only influence a small group of people.   I [...]

shockingly simple

January 26, 2007

 This simple inductive tester is really helpful in debugging home wiring problems, and doubles as a quick safety check to ensure no power is present on a wire or fixture before putting tools to it.  The stock picture above shows the tool working (lights up and sounds a tone when it detects electricity) by being stuck into [...]

Happy Birthday!

January 3, 2007

  I turned 37 today, and I have to say it was easier than turning 28, 29, or 30 when I was preoccupied with where I was going and whether or not I was on track.   At the time, I felt I was falling behind in life.
In my late teens and early 20’s, time seemed to [...]