Category: General Page 45 of 116

Christian has a good amount of knowledge about computers.  Last year, in seventh grade, he set up a computer that is currently in use at North Carolina State University for a research project in the Agricultural Engineering department.  You can see the web page it serves here.  The server features not only a web page, but also a blog, a Subversion Version Control System server, and ftp site, and a number of other things.  He is currently working on improvements to the backup system and the addition of the Trac Software Project Management System.  He will serve as our systems administrator for the duration for the project.

As we move into the new school year, I have decided it is time for him to take on a “real” programming project.  Christian has worked to learn C# and C++ over the last couple of years by working through several books such as C++ Primer Plus, but has had now reasonable way to apply what he has learned.  Now though, there are several programming tasks of about the right size with which he could be a real help.  We have identified one project in particular that we will have him use as his first formal project.  I have started using QT Creator, an open source IDE (Integrated Development Environment), so that is what we will set up for him to program.  We will keep you posted on his progress.

We are not trying to do something big like Troy and Youngin.  All we are trying to do is finish a silly cat tower.  We got most of the stuff we needed, but found we are lacking one more part, a long nut so we can connect to pieces of threaded rod so it will be long enough pass all the way through the number three tower.  Towers one, two, and four are complete.  The number four tower which is the tallest has the biggest platform on it is now in place so you can see what the thing will look like.  Towers one, two, and three are stair steps leading to the big platform.  The pathetic part is that even though the thing is almost done, the missing third step makes it impossible for the cats to get up on the top platform, so they cannot even use it yet unless we lift them up.  So, today, Lorena and the kids will head over to Home Depot–Lowes did not have the right kind of nut nor the rope we need.

When we hit a brick wall on the cat tower, I spent some time working on our GaugeCam project.  I made some great progress there.  I struggled with a way to work with the images giving the new cross platform development environment we decided to use, but I have worked past that now and can get on with the real serious part of the project that involves the measurement of the water levels in images of lakes, streams, and that sort of thing.

I think we are going to lay out next years homeschool program this afternoon.  All the family is coming from Mexico next week, most of us are leaving for Oregon shortly after that and it dawned on me that we need to start school as soon as the kids arrive back to North Carolina.  That consists of digging out the books for Christian’s program–he is doing US History this year.  He should finish up Geometry pretty early in the year, then move on into Precalculus.  He will do Apologia Biology.  The plan is for him to do the Biology, US History I,  US History II, and Spanish CLEP tests this year.  If we work really hard, he might get one more (Precalculus), but that might be pushing it a little.  Kelly’s is going to require a little more thought.  We have to decide which CLEP tests she will take next year and the order in which she will take them.  She should finish up Precalculus early in the year, take the CLEP test, then move on into Calculus.  She will also do Apologia Chemistry with the idea that she will study the REA CLEP Chemistry preparation book and take that test at the end of the year.

We are just about finished with the cat tower–all we need is a little bit more rope and five nuts.

To my highly esteemed and greatly treasured 97 Betty Blonde subscribers:

We have one whole year’s worth of Betty Blonde comic strips behind us! One whole year’s worth!  One year of no skipped days, lots of cheesy jokes, a good chunk of character development, puffy hair, rockin’ neighbors, mysterious closet dwellers and the occasional morbid observation! One year that would never have been what it is if it weren’t for the following people:

• Dad! Dad is the magic behind the puffy hair. He has scanned and erased and suggested and pushed and pulled and programmed for an entire year, all for Betty Blonde.  He was the one who suggested I start drawing a comic strip in the first place, he was the one who organized the layout of the strip, he created BLEAX (Betty bLondE Accumulator of Comix– it’s a software program that puts together my comic strip), he was behind many of the jokes, he erased countless of inked drawings and did dozens of other things for Betty Blonde.  It literally would NOT be here today if it weren’t for dad!
• Christian.  The voice of reason, or lack thereof.  He knows my style, and even more importantly, he knows when a joke is really rotten and never hesitates to tell me so, something for which I am very very grateful.  Christian also was a major help with the t-shirt.
• MOM. For being mom. Only my family would understand.
• The inspirations for my favorite and best characters, Hannah (for Betty), Cousin Julia and cousin Kylee (for helping me find Bart and for Mr. Nobody most of all), Coach (for Coach), Christian again(for Quirk of course! who else!), male knitters and American soldiers (Hank) and all of my super-smart homeschooled friends (Faith, Hope and Charity)
• Bill Amend, Stephen Pastis, Bill Watterson, Herge, Johnny Hart and Scott Adams.  These cartoonists are my inspirations.  By studying their work (studying… mostly comprised of sitting around in Borders on Saturday afternoons laughing at The Simpsons comic books) I have learned a lot, and I hope to learn even more!
• Most of all, a thousand thanks and more to my 97 subscribers! I honestly would not have kept it up for a year if it weren’t for your comments, support, and suggestions.  Thank you thank you thank you and thank you again for everything!!!

For the very special 97 subscribers who thought Betty Blonde was cool enough to read every day in their inbox, I am starting a BETTY BLONDE T-SHIRT GIVEAWAY. Here’s what the design looks like:

If you signed up to receive Betty Blonde every day through e-mail, then you are automatically entered into a monthly drawing to win this special t-shirt! Only e-mail subscribers will be entered into the drawing. The first drawing will be held this August. Stay tuned and do tell your friends!
Or don’t. It will increase your chances of winnning. 😉

You can subscribe to Betty Blonde here.    If you don’t win a t-shirt, then you can still purchase one here. Unfortunately they are a bit pricey, but it’s totally worth it to be able to sport a picture of Spike (and friends, but mostly SPIKE!) on yourself.  Comments, suggestions, criticisms (of the constructive sort), and new subscribers are very welcome! You can e-mail me about Betty Blonde at bettyblonde@chapmankids.net.

Thanks to everyone for being supportive and helping me out!! Here’s to another great year of Betty Blonde!  Tell your friends!

Love,

Kelly Chapman
Betty Blonde
Big Wilma
Quirk
Mr. Nobody
Spike
Wolf

We did not finish the cat tower, but we got the first two towers up.  The cats were so pleased we thought we would put up a picture anyway.  We are getting close, but we ran out of rope for the tall tower so we will have to wait until next week.  My weekend was mostly a programming weekend.  I had some stuff I need to complete from my day job and some additional infrastructure stuff for the GaugeCam project.  The GaugeCam project is quite a lot of work.  It is one of those kinds of projects where you do not realize how much stuff you have to do until you get there and they are revealed one at a time.  The good thing about the project is that I am learning a lot about cross platform programming.  The good thing is that the kids had a swim meet in Cary on Saturday where I am not particularly needed.

The big event this week is the arrival of Grandma Conchita, Uncle Jorge, Aunt Mari, and Cousins Jorgito, Valeria, and Brandon for a week of vacation.  We are very excited they are coming.

Christian participated in the Duke Talent Identification Program for students in the seventh grade.  He got high enough scores on virtual every section of the test to qualify him for state honors.  Here is the link I wrote right after he took the test.  Good job Christian!!!

The project Troy, Christian, and I are working on at the NCSU Ag Engineering lab with Dr. François Birgand now has a blog.  We will discuss the project and track its progress over there.  Kelly will have an important Betty Blonde post for us here tomorrow.  Also, hopefully, I will have a great new picture to post here by early afternoon of Christian with award for which all of us are quite pleased.

We did not met our goal to finish the cat tower last weekend, but we did make some good progress.  We have the carpet on all the platforms,* but we have a little more finish work and quite a bit more assembly to do.  We are getting close, so are excited to see it complete.  I will put pictures up as soon as we are done.

Kelly has finished the drawing for the great Betty Blonde t-shirt give-away.  It is a super drawing.  I scanned it in for them last night and got it to Christian for addition of color and touch-up.  Kelly will reveal the plan for all this on Friday.

We receive two big boxes from Sonlight yesterday.  This year it was only science programs because we have all the literature, history, and math stuff we need for awhile.  Still, they are magnificent science programs–Apologia Chemistry and a reload kit and new microscope for Apologia Biology; the microscope was a particularly good deal–so we are very excited to get started and we are a month and a half away!

Christian got loaded up with guitar practice for the next six weeks because he had his last lesson yesterday before his new teacher goes on tour.  Kelly and her piano teacher had what appeared to be quite a good discussion about Korean soap operas.  The kids music teachers have turned into one of the major blessings of our time here in North Carolina.

Vacation visits and visiting are rapidly coming up.  Lorena’s brother, Jorge and his family are coming at the end of next week.  The kids are excited to see their cousins Jorgito (age 7), the glamourous and talkative Valeria (age 4), and the new toddler Brandon (age 1).  After that, everyone heads out to Oregon to see Grandpa Milo, Grandma Sarah, and our many other friends there.  They will also be going to a convention.

Yesterday I started working out again after having pulled a muscle two weeks ago.  I am up over two pounds, but am back on track.

*Note to Deanne:  We ended up using both glue and staples.  It all came out great, but was something that for people like us, requires practice.  I am sure the next one we do will be even better!

My cousin Neil sent me some articles today.  The first four images contain a description of our grandfather’s grandfather, Stephen Jenkins, who was the scout on the first wagon train that took the really rough southern route of the Oregon Trail.  When he was in his 40’s, he became a Baptist minister.  This describes a little of his history, his conversion experience, and how he lead his life as a preacher. The last document is a newspaper article from the June 21, 1929 issue of the Eugene Register Guard. That would have been just a couple of months before when both Neil’s father Roy and my father Grandpa Milo were born.

Cover

Copyright Page

Stephen Jenkins Part 1

Stephen Jenkins Part 2

Shelton Jenkins Article

I spent more time with my cousin Neil, my mom’s twin sisters second boy, than any of my other cousins.  We spent countless hours at our Grandma Jenkins house on Mosby Creek, not too far from Cottage Grove, Oregon.  We swam and explored and just hung out together making plans for many, many fondly remembered days.  I spoke to Neil for a good amount of time on Saturday.  We talked about a lot of very interesting things, but one of them was about the family genealogy he is putting together.  I will try to talk a little more about that as he progresses and he gets more information–he has over 800 names on the list right now, one of which I saw went all the way back to 1572 (a 10th great grandfather).  One of our most interesting things we talked about was that our great, great grandfather, Steve Jenkins was involved in the establishing of the Palestine, Oregon Baptist Church in the 1850’s.  I looked it up on Google Maps and found out that the center of Palestine is only 2.2 miles from our old house in Albany.  Neil promised to send me some pages from an old book he has about some of the old Oregon preachers that has a chapter on Steve Jenkins.  I will report anything interesting I find here.  It was great to get back in touch with Neil and his family.  One of his wife, Carol’s, best friends lives out here in North Carolina, so we hope to see them out here before too long!

I have been looking forward to this weekend for about three weeks because we have no parties, picnics, swim meets, concerts, or any other planned event on the schedule.  We surely have a lot to do during this “free” weekend.  My main goal for the weekend is to finish the cat tower.  I think we have everything we need so, with any luck at all, we should have some pictures to show on Monday.  We plan to go to the library on Saturday morning because Kelly has identified three new books from three new authors she really wants to read.  We want to go see Christian’s guitar teacher to look at and talk about classical guitars.  Christian has a nice steel string Takamine, but he really needs a better, nylon string guitar to continue his studies.  We hope to finish the design of the t-shirt for the first annual Betty Blonde t-shirt give-away.  Betty Blonde’s first anniversary is coming up on July 17.

Christian and I continue to work with Troy on the GaugeCam project at NCSU.  Christian is the system administrator, but he has the server up and running with only a few more small items left to complete and then continued maintenance on that part of the project.  He will switch over to develop one of the program module for the image processing and control program.  I will continue to work on the actual machine vision algorithms for the program while Christian will program the image management and display part of the program.  We use QT Creator IDE for cross platform (Windows and Linux) development of the program in C++.  We have the environment set up and the program development started.  We hope to put a plan together for Christian’s part of the development this weekend.

We will always be grateful to XXXXXX XXXXXX*, one of the teachers at Kelly’s last government school.  She and the principal of the school, XXXX XXXXXXXX* (recently retired), are the ones who finally convinced us that it would be good for us to homeschool our children.  I have a couple of links to the teacher that are enlightening.*

*I got rid of the names and links because, after I read the post again, I recognized that I would not like someone to do this to me, even if it WERE true.  Indeed, we really ARE thankful that we were motivated, no matter how difficult the circumstances, to homeschool our children.  Beside that, with the links, this was a very snarky post and I do not like snarky.

I sent in our order to Sonlight for next years curricula this morning.  I fell a little nostalgic because this is our seventh year and the first when I did not have to buy a core curriculum.  The cores are great because they include a pile of novels and biographies that all of us just love to read.  I had to make a hard and fast rule that the kids could not even touch the books until is was time to read them during the year.  I always weakened a little though and let them read the back cover just so long as they did not open the books.  This year, we bought the Apologia Chemistry program for Kelly, some consumable supplies, and a microscope for Christian’s Apologia Biology.  We will have both Kelly and Christian do the microscope work this year because we really had a pretty lousy microscope last year.  I will buy the REA Analyzing and Interpreting Literature CLEP study book today.  A little later this year we will have to buy Thinkwell Calculus for Kelly and another seat of Thinkwell Precalculus for Christian and a few more CLEP study materials, but that will be it.  I think the only thing we will have to buy this time next year will be some consumable science materials for Christian and an online subscription or two for math and CLEP study.  The plan is for Kelly to start at the community college at that time.  Boy does time fly.

• One of the coolest things happened yesterday.  I found out that two people (Deanne and Ruthie) who comment on this blog and live about 3000 miles from here, having found my blog independent of each other, have known each other all their lives.  It is truly a small world!
• Charlene sent me a link to a lady who makes tamales at one of the local farmers markets.  Lorena has been thinking about doing something like that.  I think it would be very cool and a good way for the kids to make some money even if it is a lot of hard work.
• We got the camera in the lab at NCSU up and running yesterday, transmitting images to the server on the internet.  There are still plenty of bugs and not too much functionality, but it was still exciting.  We will put up some links to the blog, images, and website where the research is described in the next few weeks.
• I got a new (to me) computer at work that is MUCH more powerful than my previous computer.  That is always fun, but somewhat of a pain to transfer all the stuff over from the old computer.
• Ciara, the lady from the Johnston Community College Testing Services who administers the CLEP tests the kids have been taking called yesterday.  She wanted to know if we would show up for a test this month.  She has been great in the way she has helped us with the testing.  We were not scheduled for a test, but we are such regulars there, she called us up just to make sure.  She is really a pro at her job.
• The cat tower is still moving along, although we are stuck until we get some more carpet glue.  This one weekend project is now in its second year, but it will be cool when it is done.  Lorea, please remember to pick up a couple of tubes of glue for us today when you go to Christian’s guitar lesson!
• The great Betty Blonde one year anniversary T-shirt giveaway will start as soon as Kelly and Christian finish the T-shirt design and we get them ordered.  They promised to work on the design today.

Our Fourth of July weekend was wonderful.  We went to the Mathias home for a swimming party and barbecue and then to the fireworks at Lake Benson afterward.  The event there was amazing; not just because of the fireworks, but also because the North Carolina Symphony was there.  Christian took some pretty amazing fireworks pictures and we had a very nice time sitting around talking while the crowd dispersed a little before we left.  The Thursday before, Kelly’s friend Danielle came to Raleigh from Statesville (her dad came for an appointment here), so she spent the weekend with us.  Danielle’s mom, Terrie, brought two skirts she had made for the girls out of Goodwill ties when we meet so they could pick her up in Greensboro at a beautiful park there.  The skirt went perfect with the Fourth of July blouse Kelly stitched for hereself.  Of course, the kids all have a good time when they get together. Finally, we had our monthly potluck after our meeting on Sunday at the Steppes.  All in all, it was a great weekend.

That being said, I spent way too much time working on computers over the weekend.  I dragged an old computer downstairs to use in place of the USGS computer.  I bought a gig of memory to get that going at a reasonable pace, loaded (almost) all of the software I need on it and then, after reading the series of comments from last week about backing my stuff up and getting scared that I was going to lose stuff again!  I went ahead, bit the bullet, and bought three years of Carbonite, the online backup service.  I have decided to do a hybrid version of Troy’s backup plan.  His plan is to buy SD cards for his camera, then never erase them, just keep adding images to them.  He puts them on his computer in addition to keeping them on his SD card.  He only erases the pictures he does not want on the SD card and, when it gets full, he just stores it away as his backup.  I am going to do that, then store them on Carbonite and a terabyte hard drive, too.  At any rate, I am almost back to where I was when the computer broke a few days back.

I just called Lorena to tell her to pick up some carpet glue when she goes to Costco.  We need it to finish the cat tower.  Even though one of our computers broke, it is not going to slow me down much in terms of our computer project, it is only going to cause me to have to do more work.  Nevertheless, the computer breaking and all these comments about what to do with the time gained from not programming for two hours per night has gotten me to thinking about what it would be cool to try to accomplish this summer OFF the computer.  The FIRST thing that came to mind was the cat tower.  Of course we read our book every night, too, and that counts, but I was thinking more about manual projects.  So, one of my bride’s biggest complaints is that we have a massive number of books on the floor in the bonus room from six years of homeschool.  Now, the thing we have to decide is whether to buy something old and nasty from Craig’s list to refinish or to try to do something from scratch.  I am inclined to try to find something to refinish because I have done that before and very much enjoyed it.  I will negotiate with the boss on that idea this weekend.

I went right to work on the Oregon USGS water particle inspection program right after I read aloud to the kids when I got home yesterday afternoon.  I fixed a few problems, added a little functionality to the program, and then sat down for dinner with the family.  I left the computer running while we ate and during a long talk with the one of the scientists in the USGS lab.  When I returned to my computer, it was completely locked up.  The computer is a nice Dell laptop that is only two years, so I was at a little bit of a loss as to why this happened.  I fooled around with it for quite a long time, but could never really get it going right, so I switched over to the home computer to scan in Betty Blonde and send it up to our server.  I found that our scanner was so old, it did not work with the new computer, so I had to get out our old printer-scanner with the printer that no longer works (an ugly sight that takes up too much room on the desk) so I could scan in a comic.  After that, I had to download Python, GIMP, and the BleAX (Betty Blonde Accumlator of Comix) program I had written and get that running, too.

By the time I had that all finished, it was after 11:00.  Then I had to start trying to figure out what to do about the broken computer.  All my water inspection (the Oregon part) programming work is performed with that computer.  Fortunately, Christian had figured out that there is a defective graphics chip/motherboard in that particular computer for which Dell extended the warranty.  It is something that has happened to lots of people.  So, even though I have a good backup, it is a day old and I will have to rewrite the code again if I cannot get it off the system before it gets fixed.  I did not get much sleep last night, but maybe this is a sign that I should just stay off the computer through the Fourth of July holiday.  It is a pretty good excuse to concentrate on eating hot dogs and watching fireworks, so I am going to take it as a sign even if it is not.

The lesson I learned is KEEP DOING MY BACKUPS!

Last night was another night of programming on my water projects after Christian spent the day working at NCSU to get our experimental camera running in the Ag Engineering lab there.  Troy made some slow progress and believe they now have the camera in a state where they will be able to access it from the internet sometime today.  If that happens, I will try to put an image up here.  We are all looking forward to the long Fourth of July weekend.

Even though I worked (programmed) most of the the time, we had quite a nice weekend.  The kids went to their swim meet on Saturday and played with the neighbor kids some yesterday.  Kelly also got some time in on some craft, reading, and drawing projects while Christian worked on putting a new hard drive in his laptop and getting all his software installed.  My posting will continue to be a little bit light here for another week or two, but expect Kelly will have an interesting post or two in the meantime.