Archive for December, 2015

Been busy recently

Tuesday, December 22nd, 2015

At work, we’ve been trying to get a new product out. We’ve got the design and layout done, and are in the process of getting prototypes set up. We’re also working on an add-on board for it, and that’s still in the schematics stage. Even though I’m not a hardware engineer, I’ve been heavily involved in reviewing the schematics and suggesting changes. One of the reasons I’m useful at it is because I’m familiar with what we’ve done in the past, so I know what worked and what didn’t in our previous designs, so I have some ideas about what to watch out for.

For various reasons, I had to have my Christmas dinner yesterday. I fixed a rib roast, roasted root vegetables, Yorkshire pudding, and homemade bread. For dessert, I’d made mince pie and chocolate rum balls, and one of the guests brought a steamed chocolate pudding with hard sauce. I had a nice cabernet and some non-alcoholic sparkling cider available.

A good time was had by all. Particularly my daughter, when we passed presents around during the lull between the main meal and dessert. I gave her two presents. The first was a cookbook. I recently bought a copy of the cookbook for myself, and I knew she’d enjoy it. The second, though, had her gasping in excitement – it was my set of Samurai Cat art prints, which I had bought at the 1984 Worldcon from Mark E. Rogers at his booth. They’re in good shape, but I had never framed and hung any of them, so, since she’d been threatening to kill me for them since she was 7, I figured it was time to let her have them.

Tonight, as the second part of her present to me, we watched Star Wars: The Force Awakens. It was a good movie, and I enjoyed the sly references to earlier movies that I caught (my daughter caught more, but she’s seen the animated series and I haven’t), but there were a few things that offended me. As they’re spoilers involving physics, engineering, and common sense, I won’t say anything (yet), because it’s just past opening weekend. Maybe later.

A good time was had by all

Thursday, December 3rd, 2015

It was my daughter’s birthday recently, and she got her present last night: I took her to dinner, following which we went to see the Mythbusters farewell tour Denver show: Jamie & Adam Unleashed! We had pretty good seats, about half-way back and just left of center. Photography and recording during the show weren’t allowed (although this was widely ignored). The only photo I took was this one to show our view of the stage.

Mythbusters Stage

We’d not seen them on any prior tours, so I had looked up the show reviews a couple of days earlier. I only saw one negative review, from someone who felt they showed too many videos. I disagree, personally. I had no problem with the number of videos shown, especially because several of them were provided with running commentary by Adam. One of them (a supercut of explosions with enhanced audio so that you could feel the explosions) was my daughter’s favorite part of the show.

Personally, I thought the question and answer sessions (they each did one) were interesting, particularly finding out that Jamie has a degree in Russian linguistics with a minor in library science, and that Adam is a high school graduate. If I’d had the opportunity to ask a question (we were too far back to be chosen), I’d have asked one of two things: either what proportion of their research they did on their own compared to bringing in experts, or, given that Adam noted that he had been hired by Jamie a few years before the Mythbusters shows started, how he ended up as Jamie’s business partner.

In any case, it was a very informative and enjoyable show. I’m glad we went.