Yesterday I’d thought of writing about how Spring had apparently arrived in central Texas. The weather was 80 degrees for a couple of days, we saw a gecko, and the last leaves finally fell off the trees in the back yard. And then today it was 45 degrees and windy. We headed for a “hike” anyway.
Mat recommended we head up to Mount Bonnell. A peak that is commonly believed to be the highest point inside the Austin City limits. At 785 feet above see level it is actually much lower than the Jolleyville Plateau (1100ft). The difference is that Jollyville doesn’t feel high. It’s just a large flat area coverd in houses and strip malls. Bonnell on the otherhand has a 200 foot cliff overlooking Lake Austin. It gives the impression of being up high mostly because it is dramatically higher than the lake below.
We parked near the top and “hiked” up several flights of rock steps that lead to the top.
From the top you can see the lake, the relatively well known bridge over Loop 360 and the skyscrapers of downtown. All along the lake are crazy expensive houses like this one:
It was windy on top and more hazy than usual. Wesley led us around the many trails in the woods surrounding the peak. He was sure he had found a shortcut. In the end we were just walking in circles, but still had fun.
After working up an appetite hiking we went to dinner with the Godfreys. We went to the Tokyo Steak House in Round Rock. Chris and Tiah had been there before and thought it was lots of fun. My understanding is that it is a lot like Benihana. It is teppanyaki style where you are seated around a grill and the chef prepares your meal while making a great deal of noise and show. It is kind of spendy, $70 for the two of us (the kids shared our food) and we don’t drink alcohol, but fun. All the kids had a good time and were pretty enthralled by the cooking.
I wouldn’t say that I’d go on a regular basis, it was too loud and too spread out to have much of a conversation, but it was definitely entertaining. The food all kind of tasted the same (which I guess makes sense since it is all cooked together), but it was still pretty tasty. We were also a mellow group. I think this is the kind of experience that is improved by a rowdy crowd that’s been drinking a bit.
Here is a video of Wesley’s reaction to the chef lighting a bit of oil on fire. He also really got into the onion volcano turned steam train.
– “That made me laugh!”" –
Tags: Amber, Austin, Godfrey, Jillian, Mount Bonnell, Tokyo Steak House, Wesley
Not too long ago I wrote about how we had 25,000 photos on Flickr (we are approaching 30,000 now). Even more impressive to me is that we have now reached more than 100,000 views of our pictures and videos. Most of these, I’m sure, are from my mom. But let’s take a look at the stats Flickr provides.
Our most popular pictures by far are those we took a few years ago of the Summer Solstice Parade in Fremont. In fact the top ten pictures are all from that event and between them have more than 25,000 views. The number one picture is below. Nice I guess, but worth 8000+ views?
Tags: flickr
When I tell people that I got a soldering iron as a Christmas gift they usually give me the “I’m sorry for you” look. And when I tell them it was exactly what I wanted they tend to tilt their head to the side and squint there eyes a little in that “I’m slightly confused” look. I think I have yet to convince anyone that this is a great present and that they should want one too, but I’ll keep trying.
A soldering iron, you see, fits in with a list of other items you, in my opinion, really should have and know how to use: sewing machine, dremel roto tool, router (wood kind, not network kind though you should have one of those too), welding equipment, multimeter, and various and sundry hand tools. These are the kinds of things that you need to fix things. To build things. To invent things. These are the kinds of things most people have no use for. They think “why would I build it when I can buy it in a shiny case for half the price/the same price/twice as much?”. It isn’t really about the money, its about the instant gratification coupled with the idea that “they” (large companies) can do it all better than “we” (normal, dumb people) can. It seems either people get it or they don’t so I won’t push the issue too hard, but here is why I wanted a soldering iron.
A soldering iron is the most critical tool when working with electronics. I wanted to be able to open them up, fix them, break them, assemble and dissamble them. I wanted to build things that don’t exist commercially and make the things that do exist commercially “better”. Before a few weeks ago I’d never soldered before. Heck I don’t think I’d even seen anyone solder. So I got on the internet. I watched this great video from Make and then read some how-tos online and got to work. In addition to the iron I’ve picked up: lead-based solder, lead-free solder, desoldering wick, and a desoldering pump. My first project was a stop-light kit (instructions here). I picked it for two reasons. One, I saw it and thought this would go great with Wesley’s train table and two, it was the cheapest kit they had on the racks. An added benefit is that it had a high number of pieces to solder and this being practice, more is better.
Please note the ton of little parts and of course the safety glasses (which I always wear, mom!). After soldering on the first resistor I had a minor epiphany. This isn’t that hard. It’s harder than they make it look on the video, but not as bad as I thought. The solder doesn’t stick to the green parts of the circuit board only to the metal. So my fear of everything running together wasn’t so bad after all. But after two minutes of being happy I realized I had made a big mistake. I had purchased lead-based solder. This is the traditional type, but recently laws have changed (for commercially produced products) and new lead-free solder has been introduced. The benefits of lead-free solder are that it is lead-free. The drawbacks are that it melts at a higher temp (which means you have to heat components longer and hotter which can damage them) and that it is prone to tin whiskers (which should be the name of a punk band). This project, as I mentioned was for Wesley. So being a good parent I realized that I needed to de-solder this and redo it with lead-free solder. This is what happens when you pick out your solder first and your project second.
And then I screwed it up. Somehow when desoldering the first component I took the copper off the board. It got caught I think on the a bit of solder on the post of the resistor and peeled up. Maybe it’s a cheap PCB, maybe it’s my total and complete lack of experience or maybe I just need a small vise to hold everything so I have enough hands to do it properly. Whatever the case, I knew I had killed it. But did that stop me? No, I kept right on soldering each and every piece in place. I figured it was for practice anyway and knowing it wasn’t going to work took the pressure off. And then when I put in the battery, do you know what happened? Nothing. Even though it was the outcome I expected I’ll admit to being a little disappointed. It looks cool though.
On a more practical note: I have an mp3 player. That mp3 player had a little problem. Namely it didn’t play mp3s any more. I found this out while driving down with Dave in the moving truck to Austin. I’d plan to play the roughly 15gb of music on the trip. I wish I had checked ahead of time as I got really tired of the 25 songs I had on my other little mp3 player. After we moved down here I just put it in a box and periodically thought longingly of the days past when I could play my music away from home. And finally a few months ago I disassembled it to see what was the matter. From the behavior I figured it was the battery. A quick look inside didn’t show any blown components or burnt circuitry so I figured a failed battery was a likely candidate. Last week I found one online and ordered for $15 including shipping. A bit of quick soldering (and one burn through my fingernail) and I have a working mp3 player again. If I’d replaced it with a new one I’d have shelled out a couple of hundred dollars.
I’ll probably pick up another one of these kits and try again. I’d still like to see the lights blink (the timing is adjustable and everything). The one I have now will become desoldering practice and some of the components will probably get used for other projects. For now I need to learn a bit more about electronic circuits (pretty much all of my college physics has melted away by now). Once really I get the hang of this I can build an arduino and have some real fun.
Over the last week the the following two commercials have come to my attention. They are both remarkable for their sheer WTF? value.
The first is for a piece of software by Microsoft, Songsmith. The whole thing comes off so fake that I keep hoping that it must be tongue-in-cheek, but I don’t see any wink-wink anywhere to make me think it is anything, but genuine. The product might even be fun, though I doubt it will ever save your job (unless you work at Apple). Hopefully it is better done than the commercial. Oh, and by the way, as has been pointed out several places online, that little girl’s laptop is a Mac.
The second is for a product that really shouldn’t exist. Bumpits are basically breast implants for your hair. “Sara’s hair isn’t so great, she stuffs”. “No sir, I’m not smuggling drugs, its Bumpits!” If they weren’t actually taking orders for the thing I’d say it was fake. If only Ron Popeil were involved, then at least then I’d be able to get a free set of steak knives with my purchase.
I’ll be the first to admit I’m out of touch with fashion (yes I know you were thinking “reality”, but that’s a different story). I’d never seen anyone with hair this high that wasn’t the victim of some terrible accident. Normal heads are not shaped this way. But then I couldn’t sleep last night and I watch TMZ. There were several skinny women in fancy outfits wearing hair similar to this. So apparently this really is going on. Which only leaves the question, Why?
both via BoingBoing
Tags: bumpits, Commercials, songsmith