Projects – progress report

We have made a concerted effort to not add new projects until we finish old ones, but that is kind of hard when we find something interesting.  I thought, since the holidays are now over and we back into a more normal routine, that it would be good to describe the state of some of our projects.  Some of them are a little bit pathetic, but, unless I am forgetting something, we have not completely given up on any of them yet.  Here is a list:

• Video podcasting – Two of the three books we ordered came in.  The the ones we have, Broadcast Voice Handbook and Sound and Look Professional on TV and the Internet have arrived and well be plenty good enough for us to get started.  We have decided to put this off until this summer because it looks like it might take a bigger effort, at least to get started, than we have available now with all our other commitments.
• Volcano camera computer – This is still in the works.  I talked to my buddy at the USGS a couple of days ago and he does not have an immediate need for the computer as Mt. St. Helens is currently very quiet and there will be too much snow in the volcano to install the thing until spring.  He said he planned to talk to the people at Yellowstone with all the recent volcanic activity there and mention what we are doing.
• Cat tower – This is just one or two Saturdays from completion.  We are going to bump this back up higher on our list and try to get it done within the next month or so.  Christian and I love working on stuff like this together.  We have a plan for completion.  Now, we just need to take the time to do it.
• BleAx – The Betty Blonde Aggregator of Comix is working very, very well for both accumulating the comic strip and uploading it to our webpage.  I have had some great ideas about how to make it better by adding the ability to print pages with a specific format that the program can scan automatically with a scanner or a webcam.  I want to GPL this program someday, but it is a program on which I work only when I am in the mood and have a some spare time.  Above all though, it has saved enough time for us already in terms of how long it takes us to prepare the Betty Blonde comic for publication that it was well worth the development time.
• Ham radio construction project – Christian and I are working on this for an hour or two every week.  We should have the radio completed by the end of February at our current rate.
• Radio licensing – We have evaluated the read aloud books we have on our plate for homeschool and realized that we have about a month or so more of reading to do before we can move on to read The Electronics of Radio aloud to help prepare us to take the Technician Class Amatuer Radio lisence test.  I figure we sould be able to start in on that at about the same time we finish the construction of the radio.  We have both the ARRL Ham Radio License Manual and a CD titled Your Introduction to Morse Code that we plan to complete as part of our radio licensing plan.  Of course, the long-term plan is to try to get a General Radio Operators License for commercial radio stations, but first things first.

Special Note:  As an antidote to the truly sinful German pancakes Troy and Youngin made last Saturday, I would like to point out a point to a post that describes a recipe that looks very similar to something in our Flat Belly Diet book.  While Lorena is making pancakes this Saturday, I am going to try to talk my diet partner, Kelly into making these olive oil, paprika, and ground paper sprinkled delights.  It probably will not help my lack of discipline, but it is good to at least have a plan with an alternative.

Note to Eric: I am starting in on Wendell Berry’s Life is a Miracle: An Essay Against Modern Superstition lent to me by my buddy, Andrew, recently from work and originally from Kentucky.  You recommended a non-fiction book next.  I hope this one fills the bill.