Hallowe'en Hello

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A ghostly "hello" to all The DEB Log readers. It's a gusty, cold, snowy night in Ann Arbor, just perfect for all those ballerinas and princesses to wear their winter coats. The pumpkins, which usually like a cool, fall evening, are already asking to be brought back inside.

Dad's Next Project - Table!
My first reaction when I saw some of these tables was how much I like them. My next thought was that dad's next project should be a table. Weld some legs, find or buy a table top (the more rustic or interesting the better) and - poof! - instant table. Tables are nice to look at and useful at the same time, always a winning combination.

Without further ado...

How could you NOT want this table - it has a crank! When it's time to clear the dishes, you just turn the crank and pretty soon the table's clear.

A table with nice clean lines.

I love the gears in the base of this one. (check out all of Bruce Gray's sculptures here).

I really like this one and these.


A Few Non-Table Related Things
I would always know what time it was if I had this watch and was willing to wear it out of the house (it might get scratched or stolen or breathed upon).

All you need is a Sharpie or two. How hard could it be?

Get started with wood carving. Or finish that project you started three years ago that's sitting in a box under your workbench.

Who doesn't need an ejector seat every now and then? This one is available.

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I Toad You

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I toad this guy to stop hanging out on the sidewalk. He toad me to get lost.

Lots of Links
If I lived on a lake, I'd cash in the kids' college funds and buy one of these.

I bought this notebook and I really like it. I have the one with the graph paper pages.

Fun on the beach with STRANDBEEST. (You can buy kits of miniature beasts!)

Wow. Just Wow. I saw a TV show that was partly about this Miniatur Wunderland, and it is truly amazing.

A Stirling engine, but not made out of coffee cans, like the ones I often see on maker sites.

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I wish all The DEB Log readers a happy and healthy day for Tuesday, October 21, 2014. Not only is it Mary's birthday, but it's a big day for dad as well! Take care, all.

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Gershwin's Piano Lives! Plus: Cat Picture

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Mesko stares down a chipmunk, who is not afraid of her in the least.

Gershwin Lives
I've run into mom and dad a few times in the last week, and the first time we were together, dad mentioned he had been in a piano bar and had requested Gershwin. The piano player then played a long session of Gershwin. (I don't remember where the bar was - I think he said it was in a run-down section of New York where they sell drugs.)

A few days later, Jennifer and I went to a concert of all Gershwin music at Hill Auditorium. The occasion kicked off the Gershwin Initiative at the University of Michigan.

The piano on stage, played with every song, was George's personal Steinway A3, which was recently restored. Speakers between the songs and dances told the story of the piano's restoration and history, and U of M students in the Performing Arts school sang, played, danced, and otherwise did the Gershwins proud.

Older Child Update
M has been occasionally attending meetings of Pioneer High's Innovative Vehicle Design (IVD) group. See the IVD website for more details.

He came home after the first meeting and said "I might get to learn how to weld!" Good! M has always loved building things, I hope his interest in this keeps going.

Pictures

I took M to one of his Ultimate Frisbee games in Northville a few weeks ago. I snapped this clandestine photo while I hid behind the trees so he wouldn't have to acknowledge my presence. If you zoom in and focus your eyes, you can see the game in the distance.


K is playing soccer somewhere in this picture.

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Some Pretty Good Books By a Great Author

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I was at a small private school building in Ann Arbor today. The school rents out space to a local music school in the evenings, and M was there for his sax lesson. I saw this book on the shelves there: "FORTRAN from Pascal".


Which made me wonder: why would I want to go to "FORTRAN from Pascal" when I could go "From BASIC to FORTRAN"?


And if you don't know BASIC, you could start with this book.


Last but not least, if you're looking for some good poetry, you could open one of these and relax for a while. In the immortal words of Alfred J. Bruey: "Wherever you go, there you are".

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Post-conference Musings

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What's Going on?


K serves up a winner

K has been playing tennis after a few weeks off. He played in some instructional matches over the weekend, where they don’t keep score of the games, they’re just to give the students practice. He's going to practice weekly with a group consisting of other students 14 and under.

He also got a new violin not too long ago. Shar Music allowed us to borrow some to try at home before buying, and K picked out the one he liked best. Violin cases are very, very light these days, so taking it to school doesn’t strain his muscles much more than his backpack already strains them. Whether my wallet is strained is another question.


The mysterious sport of Ultimate Frisbee is partially depicted here. Parents are not allowed to know the rules or why it's played.

M is doing more Ultimate Frisbee and scoring points and it’s all still a great secret to his parents who aren’t really welcome at his games. But that’s OK - when he’s out playing Frisbee with his friends, we’re at home going through his room to make sure he’s not hiding anything from us.


The schedule for the conference at which I spoke

I spoke at a conference on Monday, the first time I’ve done that. The conference was sponsored by my company, and I was on the committee that organized it and picked the speakers. And volunteering to do it filled in an empty space in the schedule, so the committee (including me) were clearly not employing high standards in filling the slot. But - it counts. So there.

The talk was titled “C is for Cookie: Web Development Concepts for Analysts and Managers”. Before the class began, we watched this video. The “cookie” in my talk wasn’t an edible cookie, but rather the kind of cookie that your computer might store when you’re browsing the web. The point of the class was to introduce technical concepts to non-technical members of our development staff. It went well: the audience laughed when I hoped they would, my rehearsals in front of other people paid off, and it was a fun experience for me.

Book Nook
I read the book "Divergent" which is very popular with the kids these days and is also a movie. It was a pretty decent book until the end, which was quite unsatisfying. I'm not the only one who feels that way. Divergent belongs to a genre that has been very popular: books set in dystopian societies. "The Hunger Games" and "The Giver" are two more examples. Doesn't anyone write books about talking pigs and spider webs anymore?

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Back To School

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I know that guy.

Update: K and M Edition
It's September, so that means it's back to school for the boys.

K is in seventh grade, taking eighth-grade algebra, playing violin in the orchestra, taking piano lessons, and going to try out for the soccer team. He's continuing his tennis lessons and will play some matches this fall. I guess you could say he has a few things on his plate. When I think about it all, I have to go take a nap.

M is starting ninth grade with a bang - on his second day of school, he trekked to a park near Pioneer with a lot of other students (most of whom he didn't know) for the first Ultimate Frisbee team practice. They had their first game this morning, and Mark scored a, um, well, actually, I don't know what it is called when you score in Ultimate Frisbee? Touchdown? Ultimatum? I'll have to go look that up.

After enduring what sounded like a very tough week at band camp at Interlochen last month, M is playing sax in the Varsity band. He's still taking piano lessons, and has to rest his eyes often from marathon girl-watching. Don't tell him I said that.


Not me, but I have the same racket! (It's Andy Murray)

Update on Me
As you can see from the picture at the top of this post, I am presenting a class at an upcoming conference in Ann Arbor. The conference is sponsored by my company, and I am on the committee to organize it, invite speakers, make sure the conference site is set up correctly, and so on. It's been a lot of work, but fun to go through the process.

I finished the tennis class I was taking, and am on a waiting list for taking another in the fall (I waited too long to sign up - some of the classes are really popular). I got a lot better during the class, and also bought a new tennis racket. The racket I bought is one that some pros use, and it was a bitter disappointment when I discovered that merely using it did not make me play like a pro.

Family Picture

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August 16, 2014