Year: 2004 Page 6 of 8

Kelly and Christian are up to their eyeballs in the events celebrating the end of the school year, so we have not been doing much other than final projects, work around the house and yard, and the reading of Around the World in Eighty Days. The kittens, Kiwi and Rubiks are in the middle of everything just being very cute.

Tonight is the last piano lesson of the year as well as our Wednesday night bible study so we will all probably run over to Jefferson for the piano lesson, try out the Mexican food place, and then go on to the bible study at the Meyer’s place. Lorena is going to try to find a place for Kelly and Christian to take swimming lessons for the summer today, too.

Last night, I put some insect killer on the lawn which required doing a little bit of watering, too. We are going to get some dirt tomorrow to fill in the area between the sidewalk and the street curb. If we get the dirt put in OK, we will try to put in barkdust on Saturday. The sad part is that we missed out on getting some trees in this spring so we now hope to do that this fall.||Kelly and Christian are up to their eyeballs in the events celebrating the end of the school year, so we have not been doing much other than final projects, work around the house and yard, and the reading of Around the World in Eighty Days.

We had quite a nice Memorial Day weekend. A highlight was Sunday dinner at the Ramsdell’s house where we meet with their church and shared with each other about some of those who have now passed on that meant a lot to us. We actually got started making Christian’s pinhole camera and made plans for Hectorin to come and visit us along with Grandpa Lauro and Grandma Conchita.

Planning: Nancy Ramsdell mentioned that she was looking at the Calvert Homeschool package, so I went to their website and took a look. It really looked pretty good. I think we will probably stick with the Sonlight program because it appears to have more books that look interesting to me in Kelly’s grade five curriculum and in Christian’s grade three curriculum. It might be very worthwhile to take a look at Calvert again when Kelly and Christian are a little older.

One thing that looked like an issue is there are several books in the curriculum that either the kids have read themselves or I have read to them. What I might do when we get to those materials is select something else as a substitute. We read so much that that was bound to happen.

I am going to keep looking for materials until the last moment. I think I will test the kids for math toward the end of June and then send for the materials in early July.

Last night, before and after our bible study, I spent the time to get our Linux computer up and running. It was amazingly easy. I installed the Fedora Core 2 version of linux and setup up a dialup connection to the internet. I even set up the Gaim chat software so we can talk to Laurin and Rigo. I tried to get the Ogle DVD software to work, too and I got it partially right, but something is missing because I can hear the sound, but not see the picture. I am using the Yum updater/installer software and it is just awesome.

With the bible study and the computer going on last night, we really did not get much else done. Steve Meyer’s folks were out from Louisiana and his mom had made an excellent desert that we all ate after meeting. The Ramsdell’s invited us over to their house after Sunday morning meeting this weekend, so we are looking forward to that.||Last night, before and after our bible study, I spent the time to get our Linux computer up and running. It was amazingly easy. I installed the Fedora Core 2 version of linux and setup up a dialup connection to the internet. I even set up the Gaim chat software so we can talk to Laurin and Rigo.

Christian, Lorena, and Kelly all had miserable hay fever yesterday. Christian had it the worst. They all went to the doctor and got medicine, but Christian especially did not look that much better this morning. All three of them are going back into the doctor again today. I hope that helps. Even more than that, I hope I can find some way to avoid being in Oregon from mid-May to mid-July from now on.

The kittens are getting less shy and spend all their time playing and fighting with each other. The funny thing is that Rubik, who seemed to be the most fearful is now the most playful. Both of them purr now when we pick them up and pet them. At times they run and bounce around so much they sound like a herd of wild horses. They surely are a lot of fun.

Linux: Last night, while everyone else was still at the doctors office, I tried to get the linux computer to dialup to Earthlink, but I did not have much luck. I tried it first with Fedora Core 2, but eventually switched back to Mandrake 10 (Cooker). What a hassle. I got the system to perform the dial-up, but the system would not connect. I think I have the username and password okay, because I stay connected, so my thinking is that I have something wrong with pppd. It really would like to learn about this.||Christian, Lorena, and Kelly all had miserable hay fever yesterday. Christian had it the worst. They all went to the doctor and got medicine, but Christian especially did not look that much better this morning. All three of them are going back into the doctor again today.

As we move into the summer, I have started reading Jules Verne’s Around the World in Eighty Days to the kids. I had forgotten what a fun book it is. The kids are getting to the end of their school year, Lorena is finishing up on her first class at Linn-Benton Community college (pottery), we are having our yearly struggle with hay fever, and we are looking forward to the kids starting into swimming lessons.

Last night, while Lorena took the kids to piano lessons, I stayed home to mow the lawn and move some dirt around in the yard. We are probably still a month away from the yard looking halfway decent, but Dad said he would probably be able to come here next week to finish pouring the patio. Hopefully, Cayatano will be able to stay and build our fence for us, too. I spent my 36 minutes on the NordicTrack again last night and I am down to under 194 pounds now, so that is encouraging.

Planning: I still have not had much chance to work on the homeschool program, but I have been reading the Sonlight catalog some more. I think that we are going to go ahead and stick with them almost exclusively next year. We can change from there if we want, but they have such an organized program that, whether or not we use it in the future, it will help us to start off in a very organized way.

For a weekend when we were not going to do much, a lot of stuff happened and most of it was good. We started off by working on the lawn Saturday morning. Later on Saturday morning we went to the Humane Society and got two beautiful new kittens. On Saturday night we had pizza with the Ramsdell family and then went to watch Jordan’s violin recital. Also the Sonlight catalog came! Pictures follow…

Christian did such an excellent job helping in the yard that Lorena took a couple of pictures of him working:

Christian helping in the yard

More of Christian helping in the yard

Here are the kitty pictures:

Kiwi and Rubiks (Kiwi has the green color)

Kelly and Kiwi

Christian and Rubiks

We had a wonderful time with the Ramsdell’s at Jordan’s recital. Jordan is a pretty amazing violinist and he has only been at it for two and a half years. It sounds like Jordan is going to homeschool next year. That seems like a great option for him and we are excited to have a third family in our area deciding to try it out.

The kittens are very cool. We got a two for one special at the Humane Society in Corvallis. I guess they are having that because this is a huge time of year for kittens. These kittens seem to be much calmer than our old cat, Ivy. It took them a little while but they are really coming out of their shells. We learned a lot about how to treat the kittens with Ivy, so we are hoping Kiwi and Rubiks will be a little more gentle; not that Ivy was bad, just not that affectionate.

Yesterday afternoon, Joe Layman and Ryan and Jeannie Harris showed up at our house, so we went out for an icecream cone. Christian was off with Lorena getting a new pair of tennis shoes, so Kelly and I went with them. We were very glad that they stopped in. I did not realize it, but it was Ryan’s 33rd birthday!

Planning: I have been looking at the homeschool curricula more and will have a few more comments on that over the next few days.

The yard is really starting to look a little different and I am down a total of eight pounds to 192. I really have not had much time to do anything other than talk to Ron about Quality Corners, do my exercises, and work in the yard over the last few days. I hope that changes a little this weekend. I called Grandma Sarah and Grandpa Milo had not yet been able to get any trees for the yard so I am hoping to just work in the yard and do things with the kids this weekend.

After our bible study in Jefferson on Wednesday evening we dropped the Caravan off at Crabtree Auto so we could get a new timing belt installed. That meant we did not have a car for most of the day yesterday. Lorena took me to work in the morning and then picked me up after work so we could run down to pick up the car. Lorena and the kids then went down to see if any kittens were available at the Humane Society shelter. There are some there, but they have to be eight weeks old before they can be taken, so we will have to wait a little bit longer.

There is really not much we can do to prepare for homeschool until more materials arrive. I am chomping at the bit to get it all organized, but really I need to be doing some other things as the summer approaches. Mostly, I need to get the yard whipped into shape so it does not look like a construction zone. Hopefully, Grandpa Milo will come down in the next week or two to finish the patio and have Cayatano put up a fence. Then we will really be pretty well set except for barkdust, mowing, and general puttering around.

The rain that came yesterday and the continued work in the yard is starting to pay off. It appears that we will be getting seven trees from Grandpa Milo to plant between the street and the sidewalk this Saturday. I will take pictures to post here as soon as I get them put in. There is still a lot of work to do, but the whole place is starting to look quite different now than when we first moved in.

Last night, I moved some dirt around in the yard and spent 36 minutes on the NordicTrack so I was expecting to get on the scale and see that I had lost a little more weight. Someone had played with the scale and when I reset it, my weight showed that I had gained a couple of pounds. I think the scale spring has a memory that changes and setting of the scale depends on temperature and humidty. When I got up this morning, the zero setting had moved just a little bit, so I reset it, weighed myself and I was down to 194 pounds, a one pound loss from before. From now on, I am going to do my official measurement at the same time after I get up each morning and I am going to have everyone avoid setting the zero adjustment on the scale.

Our Wednesday evening gospel meetings have ended for the next month or so. We will be having bible studies at the Meyer’s house in Jefferson instead. That will be a nice change. The Sunday evening gospel meetings have been cancelled, too for the time being. We have been taking my cousin Tim with us to those meetings, so we will miss seeing him so much until the meetings start again later this summer. We will have to make the point to drop in on him now and again.||The rain that came yesterday and the continued work in the yard is starting to pay off. It appears that we will be getting seven trees from Grandpa Milo to plant between the street and the sidewalk this Saturday. I will take pictures to post here as soon as I get them put in.

Usually Lorena and I drop the kids off at their piano lesson on Monday nights and then go out to dinner together so we can have a chance to be alone together and talk about what is going on in our life. Last night, I got home late, so Lorena, Kelly, and Christian were already gone, so I mowed the lawn just before it rained. Our neighbors, Hank and Sue had a little sod left over from putting in their lawn, so they gave that to us. They have decided to sell their house. They have been great neighbors so it is hard to see them go.

I have been getting a lot of exercise working on the lawn and I have been faithful in using the NordicTrack ski machine, so my weight is really starting to drop. I just finished my second week of exercise and I am already down six pounds to 194. I am hoping to get down under 160 before the end of the summer. That might be too low. I will just have to wait to see how I feel after I get down to 170 to decide where I really want to be. It is very nice to be on a program that is working. I watch what I eat a little, but the exercise appears to be doing most of the work.

Planning: The Sonlight catalog is still not here, but I have been going to their website and I believe it is going serve us best just to follow all of their program as it is written for a little while so that we can get our feet under us. Maybe we will make some changes after we have been in it for awhile, but in looking at the list of books provided, it looks really super. I do not want to make homeschool and odious task for either Lorena or the kids.||Usually Lorena and I drop the kids off at their piano lesson on Monday nights and then go out to dinner together so we can have a chance to be alone together and talk about what is going on in our life. Last night, I got home late, so Lorena, Kelly, and Christian were already gone.

My brother-in-law, Rigoberto and his bride of less than a year, Minerva (Minita) have both been working for 7-Eleven in Mexico for the last few years. Rigo was recently laid off and was thinking of immediately getting a new job near their home in Monterrey where they recently bought a house. I talked to him several times this weekend and we think we have figured out a way that we can get his work papers because of her degrees in Mexico so that she can work while Rigo gets his Masters Degree.

Minita has degrees in Linguistics with a specialization in teaching English as a second language and Elementary Education. Our friend Susan Rodriguez is the principal at a public bi-lingual elementary school in the town of Cornelius where Lorena and I used to live. She thinks there is a good chance, Minita can get the paperwork to work in the United States and a job at her school while Rigo studies for his Masters Degree at Oregon State U., the U. of Oregon, Oregon Graduate Institute, George Fox University, or Portland State Universtiy.

It would be a super opportunity for both of them. They could keep their new house by renting it out, Minita could make enough money to pay expenses and allow them to go back and forth between the Monterrey and Portland at vacation time, and Rigo could get his Masters Degree. With their improved English and Rigo’s new degree, they would be in SUPER shape to get jobs in the Mexico when they return. I hope it all works out.

This weekend, we had Joe Laymand and Kevin Wilson stay with us. They are our ministers and we had a super time with them. We got Christian a Rubik’s Cube that Kevin and Christian both worked on for quite awhile. I need to get Christian a book on how to solve it. I think he would really enjoy it. Lorena and I worked on the yard by moving dirt around all Saturday morning. I did not use the exercise machine at all this weekend, but I got a good shot of exercise that kept me from gaining weight with all the dirt shoveling.

We are making progress on lots of things, most of which do not have much to do with homeschool. The yard, the robot, and the pinhole camera projects are moving right along, but the Sonlight catalog has still not arrived, so I went back to the website to ask for another. I hope it gets here before to long, or I am going to give up and start looking for other options. How long can it take to stick a catalog in the mail?

Robot: On the robot front, I am starting to make some progress. I just about have the python (software) object written that takes out of the serial port of a computer to the circuit board that controls the motors that will power the robot arm. I now have a game plan for how to configure the arm using oak structure, a lazy susan style base, and bearings, timing belts, and pulleys. I have not yet picked out the mechanical hardware. I think I have a good chance of find off-the-shelf parts that do not cost too much.

There is lots of work still left on the yard. Last night, I got the anti-clover spray put down and will need to start preparing the area between the sidewalk and curb for the new trees we expect to get in over the next week or so. I also need to get the anti-insect stuff down on the lawn and then I am sure it will be ready for mowing again. This is all good exercise and coupled with workouts on our new NordicTrack ski machine, I am starting to drop some weight; I am down to 195 from 200 in about a week.

When I got home yesterday and told Kelly to guess what book I bought her, her first guess was Flatland. I had talked to Kelly and Christian about Edwin A. Abbott’s Flatland and how it was considered to be a very good way to introduce people to and understanding of the fourth dimension. They were excited and wanted to read the book right away. So this morning, I ordered the book from Amazon. I am looking forward to reading it to them.

Last night Christian started gathering items for his pinhole camera. He is checking off the need items on the list and as soon as we have all the items accumulated and all the oatmeal is eaten out of the box, we will start building the pinhole camera.

Planning: I have been giving some additional thought about what to put in my little homeschool robotics class. Like before, I believe it is a very important idea to introduce one concept at a time to the students. The problem is that I never considered that it might be a great idea to have continuity between projects with to complementary goals in mind. First, all the material needs to be well understood. Second, the final product of the class would be a single, relatively complex robotic application.

Here is a preliminary idea of such a concept with a description of each chapter in the book, the concept described, and the part that the resultant device described in the chapter will play in the completed robotic applicaton:

Chapter	Concept	System Element
1	Introduction Describe the big picture	N/A
2	Programming conveyors, buttons, switches and lights with Python	Give the computer the ability to read the state of the buttons and switches and the ability to turn the lights and conveyor on and off.
3	Building the buttons, lights, switches, and conveyor into a working subsystem	Recognizing when the chess clock button has been pushed by one side or the other and turning on a light to show whose turn it is to move. Moving the chess board on a conveyor from in front of the robot to a position in front of the opponent
4	Programming a stepper motor	Give the ability of the robot arm to move one of its joints.
5	Programming stepper motors to move together	Give the robot the ability to move all of its joints in unison to put the robot hand over a desired location.

Yard work looks like it is going to be my lot in life for the next month or so. I have to get everything into shape around the house while the weather is good before I can spend too much more time on homeschool preparation. Here is what I have to do:

Spray the lawn for clover and other weeds.

Spray the lawn for ticks, grubs, and other bugs.

Get rid of all the weeds in the unimproved part of our lot.

Move the dirt mound beside the driveway over to the low areas between the sidewalk and the street curb.

Bring in additional dirt to fill in the remaining low areas.

Dig holes and plant 18 trees in the area between the sidewalk and the curb and inside the electrical services from the street.

Dig a buffer area between the sidewalk and the yard where we will put barkdust and flowers.

Help Grandpa Milo and Cayatano put in the exposed aggregate part of the back patio.

Help Grandpa Milo and Cayatano put in a cedar fence along the back of the property and the new patio.

Planning

Last night Christian found a website that shows how to make a pinhole camera out of an oatmeal box. Today at lunch time, I went to Safeway and bought a box so we can try and do that together. The thing that is great about this website is that it not only explains how to make the camera, it also explains how to take and develop photographs using the camera. We will try to start gathering the materials to make the camera. When we have all the instructions accumulated, we will write out our own instructions, build the camera and post the results here.

Kelly is excited about doing a formal dinner for the older ladies who are members of our church here in Albany. I told her I would get a book on how to do that. I ordered a book today from Amazon that does just that. In addition I ordered two books by Jules Verne: 1) Around the World in Eighty Days and The Mysterious Island. Both of them are very cool and I want to read them as bedtime stories for the kids.

We had a very nice weekend at Depoe Bay. We stayed in the WorldMark resort at Depoe Bay with Grandpa Milo and Grandma Sarah in a time share that Doug put together for the whole family. THANKS DOUG! We were there on Friday and Saturday nights. Doug and Sheila stayed in another room at Otter Crest.

Julia, Jean, and all their kids showed up early on Sunday morning to go to brunch with Grandpa Milo and Grandma Sarah for Mothers Day, but Lorena, the kids, and I headed back early on Sunday morning to get back to our Sunday morning meeting. We had a very nice time and I got some great pictures. The view from our time share was absolutely stunning. I got some panorama pictures that do not do justice to the view when they are seen in such a small format.

Panorama view from our room

Grandpa Milo and Lorena

Uncle Doug and Aunt Sheila

Lorena, Kelly, and Christian

It looks like it will be a rainy day on the coast this weekend, but it should still be fun. We are staying at the WorldMark Resort at Depoe bay which is a very nice facility. We will take Kelly’s Yamaha keyboard with us so the kids can practice (and show off a little bit for Grandma and Grandpa).

I will try to post some pictures here when I get back on Monday. I still have hope that the Sonlight catalog will get here and I can spend some time on that while the kids are playing on the beach.

This morning, Lorena is taking Kelly out of school to run up for the last appointment with Dr. Chapman in Sherwood. She will get a little wire retainer behind her bottom teeth that will stay there until all of her teeth come in and we do the second (and hopefully final) pass with braces. She really looks beautiful with her teeth in the right place and free of braces!

We are still waiting for the Sonlight catalog and I do not know whether there is much hope of it arriving by the weekend. I probably will not get a chance to look at it anyway as we will be spending the weekend celebrating Mothers Day at Depoe Bay on the coast with Grandpa Milo, Grandma Sarah, Uncle Doug, and Aunts Julia, Jean, and Shiela. Cousins Charlie, Amy, Julia, and Kylee might make it, too.

There is a renniesance festival at South Beach State Park south of Newport this weekend, too. It starts at 10:00 on Saturday. We might make it and we might not.

At gospel meeting last night, Kevin Wilson and Joe Layman told us they would be going to our house to spend the night on Friday and Saturday nights of next week. That should be great. After that, they are off to convention rounds probably for the rest of the summer.

Dr. Chapman, Kelly’s orthodontist in Sherwood, took Kelly’s braces off yesterday. She looks great and we have a couple of before and after pictures today. I also have a picture of some neighbor kids who are staying with their grandparents across the field from us this summer. Hannah is the oldest girl who is Christian’s age. Jacob is the boy. I think he is five. The little girl is three, but I do not know her name. The Sonlight catalog still has not arrived so I am spending what time I have working on the stepper motor control program.

Kelly with her braces

Kelly without her braces

Neighborhood kids

Looking great with braces

We are waiting for the Sonlight catalog and the StepperControl.com controller and stepper motors. I will be very busy because of work for the next few weeks, so posting might be a little light.

Just a couple of non-school items for today. Kelly gets her braces off today, so I will try to post a couple of before and after pictures tomorrow. I need to buy tickets for Lorena and the kids to go to Houston to Lilly’s wedding at the end of July. Grandpa Lauro and Grandma Conchita will be coming back to Oregon with them to stay with us for two or three weeks. We are going to be staying with Grandpa Milo and Grandma Sarah at the Depoe Bay over Mothers Day weekend. That really should be a lot of fun.

Lorena and I dropped the kids off at the Hickenlooper’s house in Jefferson for their piano lesson last night and then ran down to Home Depot to buy a carpet and a pedestal fan. The carpet is for our new NordicTrack ski machine and the fan is to keep us cool during our workouts. I had done about five minutes a couple of nights ago, but started in earnest last night. I want only 18 minutes and burnt 106 calories according to the machine. My goal is to go for 36 minutes and burn 500 calories.

An old friend from my days working at Intelledex is willing to collaborate with me on writing a book on Beginning Robotic Programming with Projects. It is time to start putting down some goals and scope for the project. This is my first pass. Nina is a published author (a book and a good number of magazine articles). She is a technical writer at ATS where I am currently employed and a wonderful friend.

Automation Controller: The automation controller project really needs to be broken up into three main sub-projects and a plethora of sub-sub-projects. I am just going to try to describe what I believe to be the sub-projects today. This can certainly change, but it is good to have it written down so we can have something from which to work. The three main sub-projects as I see them now are 1) A book describing how to buy, assemble, and program all the readily available elements of a robotic automation system, 2) a hardware kit containing all of the items used in the book, and 3) a home learning curriculum for homeschool students with timelines, additional explanatory materials, visual aids, knowledge worksheets, exams, and other appropriate materials.

The purpose of the book is to describe how to program a number of standard automation devices that can be controlled throught he serial port of a computer. It should be noted that robotic guidance and other machine vision tasks would be a great topic for volume two of this series. The following devices have been identified as being important to this project:

Stepper motors

Digital inputs

Digital outputs

Analog inputs

Analog outputs

After all the basics are covered, the accumulation of these devices into working subsystems is covered in the following way:

Conveyor controller

Temperature controller

Robotic aquarium w/fish feeder

Linear axis control

An XY table

Adding a z-axis

Supporting text file motion programs

A CNC dremel tool router

Robotic gripper

Robot arm

Supporting text file robot programs

Automatic hot chocolate maker/pourer