Junk Yard Wars Revenge

The best day I have had in a long time (that was only about me) was the day I spent at the Santa Cruz R/C flying field. I’ve been asking myself why I need to go to Bolivia to have a good time. I mean, we DO have flying fields here. I even have my own. So why am I never at them? Chuck, my oldest friend (at least in terms of number of years we’ve known each other), has been very good at continually inviting me to the field, but I seem to be “busy” all the time. But here’s the thing: I’M NOT WORKING ANY MORE!

There is really no reason I can’t spend an entire day flying right here in my own backyard. I did go flying last Saturday and had a blast, but I am not there yet; I only managed two-and-a-half hours and couldn’t go for coffee after the races. But I did get to the field, at least. I managed seven consecutive hours of flying in Bolivia and never once thought about having to rush away afterwards, but this two-and-a-half hour block is a start. I didn’t have enough time to test fly my Micron (electric racer), so I had to fall back on my 3-year-old twin built during “Junk Yard Wars: the Brunswick Farm Edition”—a plane that Murray T., Bev B., my daughter and I built in three hours. The plane was never meant to last more than a day, but it is still one of the sweetest little electrics I have. I am so comfortable with the plane; I flew the last lap of the race inverted, just for fun.

I got thinking about the “Junk Yard Wars” we hosted here on the farm for a number of years and why we stopped. To host “JYW” is a family effort: set-up, clean-up, site prep, food, food, food (I like to eat), trophies and advertising. I think we just decided that we were too busy. But here’s the thing: I’M NOT WORKING ANY MORE! I love “JYW”! It is everything I am attracted to: competition, problem solving, camaraderie, cheap and…Did I mention food?

One of the best moments of “JYW” was watching the Brown family compete—all three generations—an enthusiastic grandson leading a patient and supportive father and a beaming grandfather. I don’t remember how they placed, but they won more than a trophy. Since then we have had many three-generation teams, and we always had a good time.

So, on that note, we will be hosting the “2009 Ken Brown Memorial E-junkyard Wars” in the last part of September. Dates and rules to follow in the next few weeks; so stay tuned. In honor of my newfound Bolivian flying friends, we will have a Bolivia/Canada theme, so start to do a little research and planning on how you may incorporate Bolivian colors or flags or something. This year we will do more flying and less building, but I promise, just as much eating! We are not here for a long time so we better have a good time! Everyone is welcome, so get ready to mark your calendar.

But I Love to Read!

When I was in grade 6, my mother was called into the school to discuss the possibility that I might be underachieving. They wanted to do some testing, including testing to determine if I had a reading disability. Upon hearing this, my mother uttered the now classic line, “Reading disability? Not possible; I love to read!” And she did. My mother did not get much time to read, but she truly loved to read.

History is destined to repeat itself: We were having a family discussion about where to go this summer and the comment was made that my son had never been to Banff. Stymied, I uttered the first words that came to mind, “How can that be? I have been to Banff hundreds of times!” And I have, but he hasn’t. Suddenly, I heard echoes of my mother… “Reading disability? Not possible; I love to read!” I took a great cosmic whack, and I think I even heard my mother chuckle, but perhaps it was just thunder.

The experience did start me thinking about how this could have happened, and what effect it might have on my son. We see life through the filters of our experience firstly, and then through our understanding of the experiences of others. What filters were added from my mountain experiences? In about grade 6, my school in Calgary took us students out to Banff, and I remember the science teacher talking about Pots and Kettles, and glacial till and fault mountains. The cool thing is that all of those features are still there, exactly like they were when I saw them many, many years ago.

Geology is interesting, but I learned many life lessons in the mountains as well. At a young age I learned that “if something seems too good to be true, it probably is!” If there is an empty campsite right beside the lake in an otherwise full campground, there might just be a good reason. At 2 a.m., I awoke thinking that I’d wet the sleeping bag only to discover that the whole tent was under water. The lake tends to rise when they close the flood gates; perhaps it was not a camp site after all.

So on my summer outing, as my son and I drove out the old highway to Banff, I heard all the old monologues from my science teacher in my head and repeated them. We stopped at many of the roadside POIs to read the plaques, something that we had never taken time to do when I was young. We stopped at the Seebee Dam, Lake Miniwanka, Toojack Lake, and Buffalo Mountain all before getting to Banff. My son was amazed as we drove past mount Yamnuska’s shear face and more amazed when I told him I had climbed to the top.

The two best things to do in the town of Banff is the hot springs and the candy store, and we did both of those. We went to Bow falls, and I told him about Bob, (not his real name) the tourist who tried to go over the falls in a raft. He succeeded in going over the falls, but did not live to tell about it. We spent the rest of that summer looking for Bob every time we flew from Banff to the heliport in Canmore where I worked.

I talked pretty much non-stop the whole day, and it occurred to me that my mountain experiences did have significant impact on the way I view life. My son has not had those experiences yet, but he could if I made it possible. I, on the other hand, never experienced first person shooter games in HD. Our children can never experience all that we did and will experience things we can not. Each generation experiences some of the old and some of the new, and I believe that is the way it should be. I do not want my son to be a carbon copy of me; I want him to be the new improved model. Better mileage, better for the environment, better for the future. He does not see through my eyes or hear though my ears, but he does love to read, mom.

Graduation, X 2

This weekend my daughter graduated, and on Monday I graduated, too. She has been going to school for 13 years and now must get a job. I have been going to school for 13 years as my job, and now I have to do something else. Interesting that we are so far apart in age but are now in very similar situations. She has a good ideas about what she wants to do and is planning how she might get there. I have no idea what I want, but I can bet the year won't be dull. I have 426 days to figure it out.

Day 426/425/424: Pick up grandkids to stay with us for a few days. My daughter and son-in-law seem to like this new career choice of mine but will only want to employ me on a part-time basis, I am sure. The best part of having grandkids is that you can spoil them, then send them back hopped up on sugar. I love having them around, but babysitting is not a new full-time career for me. I do plan on it being my parttime job, though. I do love those boys.

After I returned the grandkids today, I took my son to buy saftey glasses. He is not getting a construction job or anything; it is for play. He has an obsession with first-person shooter games, an odd trait coming from a house that is more pacifist than warrior. It disturbs me how much glee he takes in making someone's head explode with an automatic rifle on screen, so I am trying a new approach: over the summer, there is a new 'no screens during the day' policy (a necessary measure or the PS3 would never turn off).

We bought airsoft pistols and 11,000 rounds of ammo at Walmart (cheaper than a first person shooter game by the way), and spent a couple of hours stalking each other. It turns out that when you get hit in the real world, it hurts! There is no reboot button, and there is no way to pause the action when your dad is sliding across the hood of the truck you are desperately trying to close the window and lock the door of. It also did not occur to him that I might kick-in the door of the shed he was hiding in. War is hell! It is also kinda fun. I am not as young as I used to be, though. Right now I still have the upper hand, but if he ever wises up, I will definitely lose my advantage!

Well, the week will end by playing mover for the inlaws and handyman in the house next door. Maybe, if I get my shop cleaned up, I can even find a plane or two to fly. So far no one has said the words "data," "curriculum reform," or even "Daily Lesson Plan" to me this week, and it feels good. Until next week, keep the trenches warm. I expect to see you again in 423 days.

Bolivia Photo Night

The group that traveled to Bolivia in May met on Sunday to have a photo night. Everyone was able to attend, and even some who did not go on the trip showed up. Each person was asked to show their favourite 20 pictures they took. For the most part, people used their own photos, but there was some poaching of those classic shots. Even though some of the pictures were the same, often the stories behind the pictures were different. Below are a few of the group favorites:

Wilma strategically arranged more than one photo on a power point slide calling it one picture. Sneaky, but technically correct. Lyle, on the other hand, blatantly disregarded the rules and just went quickly through his top 65. One the other side, Neil and Alicia only showed 20 pictures between them. I guess this is the true sign that they are a team. They also brought some beautiful prints for us to look at between presentations. It is obvious the difference a good camera and operator make! Many of the pictures chosen were not great quality, but it has been my experience that the picture is really a symbol or a reminder for a memory.

OK, enough of the polite stuff. The real reason for the evening was to eat and have fun. This was a big theme on the trip too--eat and have a laugh. We had a dessert potluck with the pictures. That meant that every time we had a break to load another set of pictures, we got to sample another dessert! I managed to trade my 20th picture for a pair of socks (ask Corinne to add a comment to this blog to explain), and I got to roast Lyle! Poor Lyle seemed to have a series of bad...sorry, make that 'unique'--pictures taken of him. As I was going through the combined set, I kept coming across pictures of Lyle that were dying for a witty caption. I packaged the pictures up in a little video and added captions (notice I didn’t say "witty"). Please click on this link to view. I thank Lyle for laughing almost as loudly as I was. But don’t think I don’t know that he will get even with me! Thanks for a great trip. Who is coming with me next May?

Paintball

I hosted a trip to the local paintball range last weekend--my first attempt at paintballing. Four teenagers and the old guy headed out to the site on a beautiful Saturday afternoon. I wore big, baggy sweat pants and a baggy long-sleeved shirt because I suspected that being hit by a paintball would hurt and that the more padding I had the better off I would be. My extra clothing proved unnecessary and extremely hot, but more about that later. What I didn’t wear was a hat compatible with the mandatory face shields, so my balding head took more sun than it has seen in a long time!

There was talk about how they were going to destroy the old man, gang up on me and take me down. One of my favorite sayings is “Confidence is the feeling you have before you fully understand the situation”. I truly don’t know if I made this up or heard it somewhere, but Google can’t attribute it to anyone, so I will claim it for my own. I have found it to be true far too often in my life! I had a great time, as did the kids with me.

It turns out that I still don’t know what it feels like to be hit by a paint ball, after a 1000 rounds, none of them hit me! This leads to my second favorite saying “It is far better to be lucky, than good!” I did manage to inflict quit a bit of pain on them however with a number of hits leaving manly welts to show off during the post war BBQ.

Paintball is not what I want to tell you about, although I had a great time, what I learned is that I would be no good in war. Why, you ask? I did very well at the game; I happily, and without guilt, shot the enemy and I strategized to avoid getting shot in the process. Sounds like a good candidate for war to me. It turns out I am just too cheap! I found myself saying things like “why are you shooting, you don’t even have a target” or “aim before you shoot”. I also spent a great deal of time picking up paintballs that had been shot at me, but missed and fell on the grass. I wondered if, perhaps, this was a deep, dark side of me that liked the irony of killing my enemy with their own bullet, but I think it was just the Scotchman in me saying “look, 8 cent, just lying there to be picked up”.

I envision myself in Vietnam (yes, I know this dates me) walking through the jungle going “look, another unexploded hand grenade” or digging out unexploded bombs for reuse, bent fins and all. Can you imagine how irritating it would be to have someone in your platoon forever yelling at you for wasting bullets ever time you fired blindly into the jungle! Economizing does not seem to show up near the top of the list of traits when describing a good soldier. There are times, like trying to save your life, when you should not have to worry about adding up the dollar value of the bullets you just fired. I suspect that if I found myself in a war, I might just “cheap” myself right into and early grave, so I will stick to paintball, were losing means the game, not my life. Thanks to the boys for trying to take me out, better luck next time!

Destination Desktop 2009

The 10th anniversary of Destination Desktop happened at Olds College last week in conjunction with the 25^th anniversary of Autodraft. (It disturbs me somewhat that I can remember when AutoCAD was released, and I wasn’t a kid!) The event went very smoothly from my perspective, and it was due to many hours of hard work from many people. Kelly and his team started to organize right after last year’s DD; Claire and her husband were wonderful hosts; and between Autodraft IT and Olds College IT, the labs ran very smoothly! My job was to put out fires, so I had it pretty easy this year. Thanks!

I always look forward to the evening design-and-build event. Last year, Murray and I organized it. Without going into details that may get me fired, it involved flames, smoke, high speed, breaking things and blowing out tiki torches. The event went off without incident. This year Kelly toned things down a little and opted for an event involving soft tennis balls and bungee cord. It turns out that a tennis ball traveling at high speed can do a fair bit of damage. A good time was had by all—even the injured. Thanks Kelly!

I always enjoy the corporate goody bag you receive at most conventions. I remember from many years ago a mint tin with a pop lid. I don’t know how else to describe it: you pop the top of the lid in, and the tabs release around the edges. To close it, you squeeze the edges and the top pops back up. Very cool for my twisted mind, and I continued to pop the lid long after the mints were gone. I got another one this year!

Better than that, though, was the coolest little flashlight I’ve ever seen. It is hand cranked and LED powered. When I saw it in the swag bag, my very first thought was, “that would be perfect for finding your way to the outhouse and checking for elephants.” This might seem like an odd thought as few of us have an outhouse or need to worry about elephants in the backyard, however I have many friends who do need to worry about such things. This would be the perfect little light to show them the value of LED lighting while also being very portable and very inexpensive. I think of it as a technology lost leader: get them hooked on the idea first, then they can sell a sheep to get larger, better quality lighting. I approached Claire Botkin, the owner of Autodraft, to find out where she got the lights, and she gave me 100 to take abroad! From party favour to life saver! You got to love it! Thanks, Claire!

I do love being around the tech-y crowd, and I will miss it next year as I will soon leave the College for a 14 month holiday. Thanks to Autodraft, I-Design and Olds College for organizing this event to feed my mind and the minds of about 150 other people, too!

Micro Mapping

I have mapped a lot of things in my day but never an ankle! In the Fall, I wrote a blog entry about the value of being a generalist, a jack-of-all-trades; about the worth of the ability to use knowledge acquired in one situation to help solve a seemingly unrelated problem. The events of this past week re-confirm my position in favour of having a jack-of-all-trades as part of every team.

Some of you may know that my daughter has had an ongoing issue with an ankle and that we have been working on finding solutions for many years now. The latest approach is to try to track a couple of nerves that seem to be causing the majority of the pain (we think) and, when we have found them, block them and thereby relieve her pain. We are working with an amazing doctor who is creative and caring, innovative and practical. He has access to some great tools, such as ultrasound, for locating nerves.

One of the problems, however, is keeping track of what has happened during past treatments. I am a visual guy, so I like to work with pictures and drawings. I also like things to be to scale. In the past, I’ve worked with air photos and have sometimes drawn on the photo those features that are not visible. I realized lately that the ankle situation was no different. We were trying to locate things (nerves) we could not easily see and then record their location for future reference. So what if I’d only previously done this with irrigation lines? Same thing, right?

So, I took a camera to this last treatment, and we photographed my daughter’s ankle before they started poking. She was able to define the edges of the effected area with colored pens, and we recorded which injection sites corresponded to the effected areas. A few more pictures and the raw data collection was complete.

Back at home, the data processing began. Many times I have used Autodesk software in ways the programmers never intended, and this was another instance. There are many programs that let you work with photos, but I wanted the results to be to scale, not merely a pretty picture with lines drawn on it. I wanted the doctor to be able to measure on paper and locate a needle-stick site on the ankle, for instance. By scaling the photo by reference length (the length of the scar; that won’t ever change) I had a drawing that is real-world size. Overlay the marked up photos onto the ankle and…voila!...an “as built” map of the effects of that session’s treatment.

With CAD, each treatment can be recorded on a unique layer, and a composite image can be viewed over time. I want to take a few more referencing pictures so the curvature of the leg can be accounted for with variable grid spacing. In other words, I want to create my own projection: the HAP (Heather’s Ankle Projection) Coordinated System. Okay, I have to quit writing now, because I think I just bent the needle on the geek meter!