It might take me a while but I think the time has come to create some change. I have not been blogging much as of late, bogged down in the day to day routine of things. Now that routine is completely upended due to the company I work for being shut down by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company had at one time nearly 300 people on staff and as contractors. Today there are are six of us holding things together – preserving information so the investors have a shot at getting some of their money back. Yeah, fun times.
So now it is time to chart a new course. To find that which has been missing. It was a fun ride but now we must sail onward. Look for some the site to evolve over the next few weeks.
No matter what the world throws at you, the only constant is change. I have many changes coming up due to several back to back surprises. I stopped following the basic motto of ‘prepare for the worst and hope for the best’ and well, it bit me.
Now I need to work a bit harder to achieve my goals. At least I think they are still achievable. Time will tell.
Yesterday my wife noticed three little critters running around the back yard. When she approached, they ducked under the Studio. Now the studio is on a concrete pad so this was pretty serious. I decided to investigate.
Sure enough, we have a groundhog nest under the Studio. And momma groundhog had given birth to three healthy pups. Those pups are now big enough to venture out on their own. I was able to get two of them on film. I used my iPhone for the shots so I had to get close. To my surprise, both of my subjects let me get to within a foot of them when I snapped these images. I also was able to pet both of them before sending them scurrying back to their home. Once they are grown, I will patch up the holes under the Studio but for now, we will enjoy their antics a bit.
I have been working on getting a Kickstarter together for a while now and after a lot of hard work, it has finally gone live. Now the really hard work kicks in as I try to get this funded. Check it out and please consider donating. It is an all or nothing format so if I miss the target, there is no funding.
Today I have been working on servers at work. So I decided that tonight, I would take some time and migrate my personal site to a new server as well. It didn’t go as smoothly as I wanted, but it is working. Yay!
A couple days ago I managed to build up my new 3D printer. It is a Creality Ender 3. So far the machine is a good addition to the studio. I have printed a few test parts and have it tuned pretty much the way I want it. Hopefully I can train it to do some of the crazy printing I need to get done.
So I had a great idea for a satirical site and social media interaction. Too bad the internet is so upside down on what and cannot be done that even mentioning the site name in a twitter bio gets the account locked. So much for fun in the 21st century.
So yesterday I fought my health issues to go and attend the first annual East Coast RepRap Festival in Bell Air, Maryland. It was a change from the work I have been doing. The entire conference was very enlightening. I talked with experts and hobbyists alike, learning how to improve my skills, what were the latest trends, etc and so forth. It was a struggle to stay on my feet that long but I managed with a few breaks tossed in.
I hope the show was a success for the sponsors and the creative team behind it. If they do it again next year, I’m game to go back.
Lately I have been having some health issues that have caused me to miss several deadlines, not only for myself but for others. Until the doctors actually figure out what is wrong with me (it’s complicated) it looks like I will need to just focus on the day job, home, and a couple side projects.
I love photography but really have not picked up my camera in a long while to just go and take pictures. The desire is there but the energy is fleeting. The same goes for rocketry. I have not launched a bird in a couple years now, although that will be changing when my friend Joel comes down from New York in a couple weeks. We plan to put a few up then. Of course, I need to get things in order for that to happen. Check gear, make sure paperwork is in order, and verify the launch site. Should be fun if I can manage it.
As for everything else, well, we will see what God has planned. Perhaps there is a direction I have not looked at yet.
A couple weeks ago, Tracey and I attended the 2018 PocketQube Workshop in Delft, The Netherlands. At the conference we met nearly 70 people from 17 countries all working on these small yet powerful satellites. It was wonderful to be involved on the cutting edge of science and engineering. The future looks to be a bright place.
