Thought you guys would get a kick out of these. Isaac and I finally got a good soldering set up. We also had a fun time putting together some more beginning robot parts.
"I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where...
I love you simply, without problems or pride...
I love you because I know no other way of loving but this:
Where there is no I, nor you...So close that your hand upon my chest is my hand, so close that when your eyes close, I fall asleep."
Mark & I put these beautiful words on our wedding invitations. These words will always serve as a kind reminder of what love should always be.......truly unconditional. My husband is my corazon (heart), my mind, and my soul. We are one. Our love is infinite, it is strong, and it joyfully frolics in dance daily. If you listen carefully you can hear the song our love dances to. I am so glad to share this dance with Isaac and the rest of our family.
Listen....ahh yes... there it is. Beautiful isn't it?
I love you Mark.
Understand some may have had difficulty finding the crayon game. We've had so much fun with it, see if you can download this zip file. Extract it, and run the crayon.exe program.
Just found a post mentioning many personal robot projects. These are primarily prebuilt parts which you can put together and program.
Download the game at this site. It is very amazing! The kids will love this one.
We took the potato cannon out again this weekend with great results. However, I found a new and easier project, a ping pong blaster.
Whoa! Definitely, going to require adult supervision with this one.
Denise'sValentinesRoseA
Originally uploaded by mhughen.
This is the first rose from the plant that Isaac and I picked out for Denise for Valentine's Day. She always remindes us that girls are flowers, and we're so glad she's our flower.
First protype of NASA's lunar space rover. We need to find out where in Houston they are practicing so we can go have a look.
This application lets you search for names on the Vietnam memorial. The searches seem to link data from the national archives as well as personal stories and photographs.
Professionally, the application is interesting because it uses a similar linking/tagging technology I'm attempting to implement with my Harris County Historical Document project at work. The theory is if you let users tag documents themselves, the application will get better as people use it more.
Privately, it would be interesting to see the application at work with someone who has a vested interest.
IsaacPEProgramB
Originally uploaded by mhughen.
These are pictures from a PE program that Isaac had the week before his spring break.
He even had a speaking part in the presentation, asking the parents to come do the "chicken dance." I happily obliged, however the music sounded a lot like the macarena.
We showed Isaac that dance afterwards while celebrating in a sushi restraunt with Tia Marie.
I bought a solder gun this weekend, better get practicing.
A sun tracker, would be interesting to build a sun powered motor, and think this is a fairly simple one. Two musical projects, Altoids tin guitar and a home-made amplifier in a can.
Mom's ideas for decorations to show to Isaac and Denise. I also found a new online electronics store for modification parts on our toothbrush robot.
Isaac LOVES You!
Originally uploaded by mhughen.
Isaac's flag football team celebrates their second place finish in the league. And he loves you all.
Interesting project, should teach a little about electric circuits, combining origami and electronics.
This site says, "if its worth doing, its worth doing with power tools." A scrub brush made to fit the drill.
In memory of science fiction writer Arthur C. Clark, here's the quote of the day.
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
Here is a link to Obama's speech addressing racial issues in America.
While it is inevitably political, it is amazing to hear a presidential candidate address these issues directly. During the speech, he both reprimands Reverend Wright's inflammatory comments, and embraces the man whom he obviously respects.
It will be interesting to see the commentary.
Her's an interesting project, Thunderboat racing behind your bike. At first it looked like most of the fun was in painting the boat, until I read to the part about adding a nail in the tail for a stream of sparks as you go around. Sparks and a demolition racing course, who could ask for more?
The second is another robot experiement, this time Linux style. We would need to install Unbutu on our machine first. However, this device does have a wireless input from the computer.
Have a Happy Weekend!
Here's a cool google map of the moon. It shows the various landing spots of the Apollo missions.
Guess some would say this too is part of the conspiracy. However, looks like we'll have more landing places soon!
I thought I would write this one, so Gammy would have fun explaining it to the campers.
3/14 is National Pi Day, in fact to celebrate correctly, you must begin at 1:59 (that is 3.14159).
Pi is a mathmatical constant which describes the ratio of a circle's circumference and its diameter or Pi = circumference/diameter.
Pi is also a special mathmatical expression because it's decimal representation is irrational, that is, it never repeats or ends.
The NY Times article suggests celebrating with a Pi-ku (3-1-4 instead of 5-7-5).
Why is pi
Square
As pie is round?
Open source microcontroller. Guess we might have to learn how to do this, in order to build even better robots.
Here's a scientific answer to the question. A NASA Explorer mission called WMAP, has contructed data which estimates the age of the universe at 13.73 billion years old (plus or minus .12 billion years).
Great Fun! And we didn't break any windows (but we came close).
Our pneumatic potato cannon was a 10 foot PVC pipe cut in half. We put a bicycle valve in one end to add the air from a bike pump, and a valve half way to launch the potatos.
As you can see in the picture set, we broke the fence on our first test in the backyard, so we moved our next testing to the field around the corner from our house. Our longest shot with the wind, and 80 psi was 120 yards.
Conclusions:
Many thanks to our lovely camera person, who doesn't appear in the pictures.
There are many aerosol cannons out there, but this one seems a little safer using a pneumatic firing device. Sounds like another good weekend project.
Here's an interesting quote of the day for our aspiring students.
There are grammatical errors even in his silence. Stanislaw J. Lec
Here's Isaac and my first experiment with building robots. We used the motor from an old PS2 controler, and a 3V watch battery. You will notice that, in the final iteration, we constructed a little errector set box to the setup. Also our first experiment with You Tube.
Great stuff on the MAKE subscription. Isaac and I have to give this one a try with his little guitar. A homemade amp.
Must remeber to show Isaac this cool new gaming site. Someone wrote a Nintendo emulator to their classic 8-bit games. You can now play them online with some help from Java.
Turns out the guys from MAKE, think this simple metal detector video is a fake. The reasoning is fairly complicated, anybody know an electrical engineer?
Seems like the calculator's internal clock (the only thing in the device which would produce a frequency) oscillates at about 450 kHz, where the radio is tuned to broadcast 1610 kHz. The engineers think the two devices would rarely produce a reliable Radio Frequency Interference (RFI).
Even proving the video a fake would make a good science project.
One of my new projects is creating a site to archive historical documents of the Harris County Court. While doing research for the possible user interface designs on such a web site, I found this document on the national archives, and thought it might be interesting.
Apparently, Elvis became interested in joining the war on drugs in America. He delivered this letter personally to president Nixon in hopes becoming a federal agent. While this is just the first page of the document, it seems like there is more here.
Isaac was interested in getting a metal detector after seeing some guy at the basket court with one. I found this article describing how to make your own with a radio and a calculator.
On this MAKE blog, they discuss the project in greater detail, creating your own BFO (beat frequency oscillator). Sounds like a good science fair project.
Not sure about the background music, something about waking up the beast. However, this is a video showing some slow motion shots of an SM3 missle being fired. While this missle was not designed to shoot down potentially dangerous satellites, it best use of this powerful technology I can think of.
Check it out on the left <-----------. Interested to see if it works for you guys.
An interesting article from the New York Times blog regarding future engineering challenges, describes medicine as an information technology. They also comment that, once we move away from fossil fuels, energy will become an information technology.
This certainly made me rethink my definition of the phrase, "information technology." Here's a wikipedia's definition. Once you get past a simple concept of computer software and hardware; and expand into networks (nueral, social, data) and data management. The new definitions from the engineers begin to make more sense.
Speaking of wikipedia and a child's use of information technology, this was the main resource for Isaac's recent research assignment on the platypus. I think he also referenced an encyclopedia just for old time's sake.
IsaacDominoWin
Originally uploaded by mhughen.
We thought we would record Isaac's first unassisted domino win. We even kept the score card.
I thought I was going to catch him in the last game, but he scored a 35 on one play. Watch out Grandma!
Here are the chords to our wedding song, I cry everytime I hear it because of how lucky I am.
I know I don't tell you nearly enough
I couldn't live one day without your loveKenny Chesney
The author of this blog has an interesting theory,
It certainly is interesting to read the author analyzing there own work this way. Also seems a good method to promote more diverse reading.Open the book to page ninety-nine and read, and the quality of the whole will be
revealed to you." --Ford Madox Ford
IsaacFirstGrade2007
Originally uploaded by mhughen.
Finally got around to scanning this. Warning, you may see this picture later this Christmas.
Notice the missing teeth on the bottom row.
How cool would this be? Even more fun than skateboarding downhill. We have to show you this Christian.
Sorry we could make your party yesterday, but Happy Birthday Christian. We hope you had a spectacular time.
We all love you, and I have a love quote for you this morning.
To love and be loved is to feel the sun from both sides
David Viscott
Check out this website. All unsigned artists. I love this song when the Beach Boys sing it, reminds me of my love.
http://www.thesixtyone.com/PetraHaden/collection/collection_item/736/
Here's the video of the Beach Boys singing it.
I have experienced this myself in rugby, and other things. As we've heard, it is the journey, not the destination where all the fun is.
Speaking of journeys, we visited Brazos Bend State Park this weekend. Isaac pet snakes (Gammy loved hearing of that, especially the Mexican Milk snake who looked remarkably similar to a Coral snake), spiders, and even baby alligators. In fact we saw about 5 adult alligators running around (well actually sleeping) in the park. We can't wait to take you there.
The moment of victory is much too short to live for that and nothing
else. Martina Navratilova
Thank you Martin Luther King Jr., somedays I really need this one. Hate is a very strong word isn't it?
Let no man pull you low enough to hate him.
Martin Luther King Jr.
Have you seen this expression, RE
I've preached this to my group frequently, a processor costs more in energy costs than initial purchase costs. However, I had not considered the long term effect of large applications like Second Life. According to this article, a Second Life avatar consumes more energy than an average real Brazilian person.
While I've heard you can do a job interview over Second Life, I doubt they have virtual wind farms, like we have here in Texas.
Getting the family together always seems to have a great affect of stirring the intellectual pot. I love it.
My question, in after dinner discussions, was "how strained is the adoption relationship between the U.S. a democracy and China a communist state." One of our dinner guests suggested that China is, in fact, a republic; suggesting it's name The People's Republic of China. Unfortunately, due to my own lack of research on the subject, I could not argue this suggestion.
While looking for this on the web it seems, despite its name, The People's Republic of China, is in fact a communist state. Thier leader, Hu Jintao while holding one democratic title of President of the People's Republic of China, is also the General Secratary of the Communist Party of China. In fact, the Communist Party of China (CPC) has been the constitutionally gauranteed rulers of China since Mao Zedong.
It seems, while Mao initially baised the CPC on Marxism-Leninism principals, currently, the Chinese economic practice is described as a socialist market economy. This economic principal, while socialist, the "state retained ownership of large enterprises, it does not use this ownership to intervene to change prices which are set by the market."
Of course this just scratches the surface on an interesting after dinner conversation. Love to hear any feedback. Thanks again family for the always stimulating time.
We are so thankful for our family. I found this quote today
What a beautiful, sunny morning. It makes you happy to be alive, doesn't it? We can't let the sun outshine us! We have to beam, too!
Takayuki Ikkaku, Arisa Hosaka and Toshihiro Kawabata
Shine on Family, we love you
You have to check this site out .
Here's the song that Denise and I danced to in our wedding.
I can't listen to this song without cracking up, I'm so lucky. Better head home and see my lover. Manana
Found this new web site that let's you play songs in your web site.
Here's Celine's version
And John Lenon
And Something a little different
I must admit, we definately watch TV, but this list is awesome. Another entry from Michael's No Impact Man suggestion. My favorite is,
We ride aimlessly around on the No Impact Mobile (our tricycle with a back seat
for Isabella), seeing what we can see ...
I love these cool YouTube viewers. Isaac and Christian will love this one.
Mom called and told me about this song. Here's a video from YouTube. I played the original John Lennon version for Isaac as well.
2007HalloweenDarthA
Originally uploaded by mhughen.
Pictures of Isaac's Halloween costume. "Come to the dark side Luke, it is your destiny." Did he say 'destiny'
"There is…nothing to suggest that mothering cannot be shared by several people."
H. R. Schafferfrom
IsaacHeart
Originally uploaded by mhughen.
We're testing a new scanner. Isaac created this piece of art, he calls it, "The Heart Master"
Happy Thursday
Mom and Grandma are helping post this one in the living room. Happy Friday!
Check out the house we are looking at, here's a map.
Happy Tuesday. I never thought of sharing being vulnerable, but it makes sense.
Sort of like this concept that Denise and I learned about the power of admiting fault in a customer service transaction. Even if it's not necessarily your company's fault, saying I'm sorry can completely disarm an otherwise volitle situation.
Share your M&Ms. There are bags and bags of them all over the place. If
you give them one of yours, even one of the green ones, you will not be lacking.
Honust Injun. Now apply this to Time, Concern, Touch, Interest and Being
Vulnerable. Hugh Elliott
Who knew there where so many cool things on the disk golf course. Well we knew, but these are the first pictures. Sorry no snakes this time, but we'll try to keep the camera with us more often.
HughesSnake
Originally uploaded by mhughen.
This man could truly sell anything. If he is able to get Gammy and Denise to the property after sending this picture, he should give classes.
Sweet snake though, Isaac and I are definately in.
Ever notice how cyclical things are if you take the time to notice? We found this quote from the founder of Wikipedia on our Starbucks cup this morning.
"Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet is given free
access to the sum of all human knowledge. Wikis gives us a place where everyone
who is kind, thoughtful and intelligent can come join us in building a better
and more rational world." - Jimmy Wales -Founder of Wikipedia and
Wikia.com
Just to demonstrate the speed of technology, here are some pics of Isaac before his graduation ceremony. We're headed out the door for the festivities. Happy Friday!
I just leafed through the last chapter in Rudy Rucker's book. While each chapter has a dizzying array of advanced mathematics (which I promptly skipped over for the most part) to argue his "the universe is a gnarly computation" theory (universal automatism), the author comes to a very real and understandable conclusion.
Rudy attempts to answer, "the meaning of life" question using this same theory. He suggests that even human emotions can be described in a computationally rich scale.
General McNeil is the current NATO commander in Afghanistan. Although his opinions apparently differ significantly from the outgoing commander British General David Richards, he refuses to give commentary to the interviewer which might be construed as negative toward his ally. Even when pressed by the reporter.
The General also displayed an incredible knowledge of when his expertise stopped, and the policy maker's began. This seems an admiral trait with a man put into such a powerful position.
Oh yes, this and one other surprise. I understand it happened last weekend. Apparently, the tree looked closer to the monkey bars than it appeared in the window.
We were playing with an MP3 player Denise won at the gym, and found it also does recording. After a little research on how to host wav files, I think some of you will certainly appreciate the results.
Our fun trip to Austin and pictures with the Bluebonnets. The Bluebonnets made us remember how lucky we feel to be Texans.
Exciting blue belt test for Isaac's Taekwondo classes. At this rate, he'll be a black belt by 7.
Another new element. Press a video in the navigation and it will play on the page. Cool!! These are currently Rugby Haka's
Testing a new page element on the left navigation bar. This is a feed to my photo hosting service. Whenever I load new photos, they should appear in this feed bar.
I was reading the quote blog, and this one reminded me of an English professor I heard of at West Point.
An English Professor
"I am returning this otherwise good typing paper to you because someone has printed gibberish all over it and put your name at the top."
CodingPhilosophy
Originally uploaded by mhughen.
I found this cartoon blog which covers software development. This one may even be applicable to some who read my blog.
I've found many cool toons on the MashupTown.com site, however, some are not very work or child safe. This one is very safe, and even inspirational. You can turn it up with the family huddled around the computer. Isn't this how you guys listen to music these days?
We finally rolled out our new web application, and I can make time for a post.
I was looking at Rudy's latest post, and he brought up the interesting concept of holyzoism (fascinating how his site outlines his novel writing experience. He asks for user input, and discusses various theories for the novel).
Holyzoism is an ancient philosophy that all or some things posses life. This seems to include plants and animals. However, there seems to be a slight difference with the similar philosophy of panpsychism, the concept that all things have a soul(Maybe Michael can discuss the difference on his site).
After watching Al Gore win an Academy Award for his documentary about global warming, it seems if the world could collectively conceive of holyzoism and panpsychism, they might have an easier time fixing global warming.
Sent this to my team this morning, good words to remember.
I heard this essay coming in to work this morning, after dropping my son off at school. The essential theme of the essay is covered in the quote, “Try to be happy in the context of the life you are currently living.”
Have a good week.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7572601
Wedding Pics
Valentines
Christmas
Thanksgiving
Green Belt Test
Sorry I've been buried under a project the last several months. Here is several groups of pictures including some from this evening. Thanks Gammy for the Valentine's day treats.
Sorry it took me so long to say so, but we enthusiastically welcome you home Michael.
