Author Archives: joel

Sean’s Favorite Place to Be…

Posted on March 25, 2006 by joel
The kitchen.

Notice the yoga position he's been working on - 'downward dog'. He does that constantly, all over the house. Sometimes I stand over him and do the same thing, so we can see each other through our legs. It cracks him up every time.


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Scenes from Space #25

Posted on March 24, 2006 by joel
Scientists may have found evidence for another liquid ocean in our solar system. They have long suspected that Jupiter's moon Europa harbors a liquid ocean beneath its icy crust, and recent data from the Cassini spacecraft has given tantalizing hints that a similar ocean might lie beneath the surface of Saturn's moon Enceladus.

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Atmel AVR Microcontroller

Posted on March 12, 2006 by joel
I just got an Atmel AVR microcontroller development board in the mail, and have started playing around with it. Hobbyists use these for all kinds of things - from robotics, to data acquisition devices, to lighting modules, etc. Just Google "AVR projects", and you will see what I mean. I've been interested in learning about using microcontrollers for quite a while (ever since Dirk starting building a robot with them in 2001), but for some reason I just haven't buckled down and -tried- them yet. Last night I managed to write code and wire up a circuit to light a single LED. This would be the equivalent of a "Hello World" program in another programming language. It's a humble beginning, but I've already got ideas for lots of cool projects I can build with this thing!


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Scenes from Space #24

Posted on March 10, 2006 by joel
Is the Antartic ice sheet melting? Climatologists think global warming may be melting the ice that encases our southernmost continent. The orbiting GRACE satellite has taken extremely sensitive measurements of the Earth's gravity, and the data suggests that Antartica may have lost a significant amount of ice between 2002 and 2005. While they calculate that this ice would only have raised the world's oceans by a fraction of an inch, that it a LOT more water than it sounds like - almost 40 trillion gallons. In the image below is a picture of one of the icebergs along the Antartic coast.

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Fun in the Sun

Posted on March 8, 2006 by joel
This past Sunday, we went to the playground with Grammy. Sean spent all of his time in the sandbox, exploring.



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Band-Saw Box #1

Posted on February 25, 2006 by joel
This is the first (of hopefully several) band-saw boxes that I've made. I really like the organic nature of these boxes, and they give me a chance to use some of the sculptural experience I got in high school. I can't wait to get started on another of these! The box is made of curly maple, and the finish is two coats of boiled linseed oil and 1 coat of paste wax.


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Scenes from Space #23

Posted on February 24, 2006 by joel
Don't worry - HAL didn't try to cut him loose. What you are seeing was a novel satellite idea. This unneeded Russian Orlan spacesuit was pushed out of the International Space Station earlier this month. Dubbed Suitsat-1, it was filled mostly with old clothes, and a radio transmitter. Suitsat-1 will orbit the Earth once every 90 minutes until it burns up in the Earth's atmosphere - which should happen within a few weeks.

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Gues Who’s Walking?

Posted on February 18, 2006 by joel
Last weekend, Sean could walk about three steps before falling down. This weekend, he can walk about thirty. It's amazing how fast they learn something new once they set their mind to it!

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Guy Smiley

Posted on February 12, 2006 by joel
This is just a small collection of pictures we took recently. Sean is smiling in all of them. And as most of you know, Sean is not usually one to smile for the camera. So these are quite a treat for us.



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Morris Chair Almost Finished!

Posted on February 12, 2006 by joel
The Morris chair I've told some of you about - and posted pictures of here - is nearly finished! Today I made the seat cushion for it. All that's left to do is make a back cushion. We are currently substituting one of our couch cushions for the back cushion, because we couldn't wait to try it out. The chair is made of solid black walnut. The finish is 3 coats of boiled linseed oil and 3 coats of water-based satin polyurethane.


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