Two New Blood Types Were Identified by University of Vermont biologist Bryan Ballif and colleagues.
February 25, 2012
February 15, 2012
random events
Life has been insane. Busy and stressful. We’re thinking and talking about big, real life goals and it’s not easy.
I’m working with the FIRST robotics team at Albany High. It’s not as amazing as last year but I think that’s because it’s not the first time any more. Still, they learn things and I learn things. I wish I could be there more often but since I’m new at my current job, I don’t have a lot of brownie points to spend yet. Maybe next year.
Saturday is the warmup practice day for robotics and Sunday we’re doing a public exhibition. Let me know if you’re interested in checking it out and I’ll get ya directions. Last year that event was ADD-ferret disjointed but it was fun to run from problem to problem, helping out.
Two coworkers invited me to go shooting with them. It’s been a really, really long time. My grouping was pretty good and my little 22 rifle was mostly a pleasure. My eyesight is far worse than I remember. 
I tagged the bulls-eye a couple/three times at 50 yards. I learned that 13 degrees F is too cold to go target shooting. Fingers should not tingle when they warm back up. And I still don’t understand why people with large caliber guns don’t have shock absorbing pads on the stock.
Skyrim is The big adventure video game right now and it’s eating up my free time. I could talk at length about it but I’m sure no one cares. The visuals are really impressive though. They are pretty darned amazing.
My brothers and I started actually working on a little side project that might turn into a sell-able product someday. I’ll be happy if we sell a dozen to hobbyists.
The turbocharged car is still a lot of fun to drive and I’m still looking for interesting roads which are empty enough to enjoy. Age, apparently, has a way of making other people’s safety more important than my own fun. Maybe I can join the parking lot racing club in the spring. 40 m.p.h. is fast there and the courses are apparently tough and fun. It’s possible that I need a new clutch but I’m not telling anyone that. (shhh)
The ham radio came out of the Element at Jenny’s request and hasn’t mounted itself in the Subaru yet. It looks like I’ll have to do that myself. I got the Haynes repair manual for the car so I should be able to take apart the dashboard without breaking anything. The current plan is to fabricate a sheet metal mount for the radio faceplate and squeeze that through the trim to an imagined (but not located) bolt.
Work is letting me borrow a couple of handheld infrared cameras tonight. They might be useful for search and rescue but I don’t have high hopes. It’s still an expensive, limited technology but one of them is only $2K and about the size of a beefy flashlight.
Still climbing at the gym but only once a week due to time constraints. EMS had a sale and I got the climbing helmet and grigri belay device that I wanted. Real rock this year!
And work is still an amazing challenge. We’re hiring programmers and interns.
January 27, 2012
Stuff
Went climbing tonight and did okay. Was not able to make time to help out the FIRST robotics team though. Work is stressful because I’m not making as much progress as I need to. Yesterday evening I had an hour that wasn’t accounted for and went out for a drive. I kinda miss zooming through the hills with some good music.
January 26, 2012
Dell!
I bought a Dell! And paid extra for fast shipping so I could have it this past weekend. It took them three weeks to get it to FedEx and it arrived on Tuesday.
I called Dell customer support and complained. They upgraded my 2nd day shipping to next-day-shipping-that-still-takes-2-full-days for free! Then they asked about calling me with up dates. I said no. They said, “We’ll make a note in your file to not call you.” Then they very politely called me three times to give me the updates that I asked to not get. Dell hired the best outsourced phone team possible to ignore my preference.
Still though, touchscreen laptop! 
January 16, 2012
Grr VB
Of course Visual basic has Arrays and arrays and they’re different things! <sarcasm>Who in their right mind would design a langauge with unambigous names? That would be silly!</sarcasm>
January 8, 2012
FIRST robotics begins again
Today was the kickoff for the FIRST Robotics Competition. I’d forgotten how much chaos there can be. In RPI’s DCC we had half a dozen teams doing quick builds to provide a feel for the work ahead of them. After the Albany team was sorted out, I bounced around to the other teams to make sure that they were making good progress. That’s when the real chaos began. Ever try to teach 10 kids you don’t know a dozen different skills interchangeably? Wow! I was really just paying bouncing. One kid looks bored, give him a task, show him how to do it, ask for more, move on, repeat. Chaotic, but fun. One bored looking father was milling about the edges and with a little coaxing turned out to be an electrician with tools in his pocket. Without an invitation, he never would have chipped in.
This year’s contest is basically basketball, with robots. Here’s the quick animation showing how to play:
January 5, 2012
Little Falls
This weekend, Kailey and I scouted out the climbing at Little Falls, NY. It looks like a lot of fun.
It’s about 1h15m from Albany to exit 29A off I-90.
View Climbing Little Falls in a larger map
I hope you don’t mind steel decked bridges where you can see through down to the water. This isn’t required, you can also climb some steel decked stairs that look down 20 feet to some solid ground.
This shot is just to show the elevation that we’re working with.
One climbable cliff face
There are two anchor styles, these old iron “U” in the rock style. (By the way, hello Lock 17 on the Erie Canal.)
And there are the new style steal plate bolted to the rock. Notice that we’re up above the lamp post. You can walk up to the anchor points then go down and climb up with the relaxed safety of a top-rope.
It does look like there are some climbs that are not protect-able. There’s one piece of cliff that doesn’t have any trees and doesn’t have any very trustworthy rock. This is most of the nook that people climb in. There are lots of picnic tables and benches. Hopefully that doesn’t mean the place gets swamped with climbers in the summer. That’s the city of Little Falls in the background.
January 1, 2012
December 22, 2011
Today’s victory

I added a hose clamp to the hanger rod in the laundry nook. This will prevent the rod from getting bumped the quarter inch that lets it drop all my hangers and clothes on the floor.
