3-25-13 at 7:30 MDT
My laptop keeps randomly powering down. I’m not what is causing it to do so- the only thing I’ve changed is to install Garmin Express. I may uninstall it from this machine and see what happens.
I have started working in my gardens getting ready for spring. Yes, it is getting close to being spring again. I am able to leave work in the morning and only be slightly chilly in a t-shirt.
I switched my turtles over to eating live food instead of pellets. I think the tank is cleaner and the turtles are more active. They are making a dent in the feeder minnow population though.
My WX: 78.6°F, dewpoint n/a, 30.14 in Hg, 3.1 mph SSW wind, and partly sunny.
NWS Says: 66°F, 16°F dewpoint, 30.13 in Hg, 8 mph S winds and mostly cloudy.
3-25-13 at 7:30 MDT
Another long week down. Now it’s time to work around the house and try to get a few things done before I leave for Socorro. The biggest items on the agenda are to grocery shop, cook meals for the week, clean the cat box, clean the turtle tank, run some laundry, put liners in the drawers of my tool cabinet, and get a few more QSOs logged in DX4Win. We’ll see how many of them I get done before it is time for bed.
And I need to go to bed by midnight instead of 3am. I’m trying to transition to a more regular schedule. When I start as an engineer (at some point in the next two months), I’ll no longer be working nights, and might as well start transitioning some of my schedule to that time frame.
My WX: 52.2°F, -12.8°F dewpoint, 30.14 in Hg and steady, 0.7 mph NW wind, no precipitation, and sunny.
NWS says: 55.0°F, -5°F dewpoint, 29.97 in Hg, 8 mph S winds and fair.
3-23-13 at 16:33 MDT
It has been a long time since I posted. I saved my news file on my netbook, and I haven’t done much with my netbook in the past few days.
I am having all sorts of troubles updating my GPS. When I plug it into my laptop, the laptop powers down. GarminExpress crashes on my backup laptop. I’ll try the netbook next, and perhaps one of my work computers. It’s incredibly frustrating- right now, I have the map set from Christmas, which doesn’t even include New Mexico. As far as the GPS is concerned, Albuquerque doesn’t exist. I’ve since added a micro-SD card for holding larger maps.
Well, Hurricane March has arrived in New Mexico, and the wind is crazy.
My WX: 43.2°F, 9.0°F dewpoint, 30.03 in Hg and rising, 8.3 mph NW wind with gusts much higher than the 12.1 mph listed on the weather station, 0.09 in precipitation, lots of blowing dust.
NWS Says: 37°F, dewpoint -18°F, 29.92 in Hg, 33 mph NW wind, gusting to 46 mph, blowing dust and windy.
3-12-13 at 16:32 PDT
We went to the California Adventure Park, which is part of Disney somehow. We had a good time and rode several of the rides, particularly in Carsland. Anyone who knows my son will understand that one.
Today was a tour of my son’s (potential) school for next year. He seemed to have a good time and learn a lot for just one day of class.
Tonight begins our trek back to NM. I think we’ll go as far as Kingman, AZ, and then complete the drive tomorrow. I have to work at Intel tomorrow night, so we’ll need to be home by then.
Our van has held up pretty well. I put a new alternator in it this weekend before we left, and, once we’d burned out the gas that had sat in the tank since mid-August, it started right up. We added air to the driver’s side tires, and three quarts of oil, which is busienss as usual for that van.
There’s a lot of things up in the air this week, and so hopefully, they’ll start getting nailed down over the next few days. More about those things as I know more….
3-11-13 at 12:10 PDT
Fun in the sun. We are in sunny southern California for a day or two. Today, we’ll go to one of the Disney theme parks. I did run Cibola county, NM yesterday on 20 meters.
Anyway, off to the park, we can walk there from our hotel.
3-10-13 at 9:35 MDT
The time change went on without a hitch at work last night. Hooray for a shortened long week.
Going on some adventures today! More about this later.
My WX: 36.7°F, 31.3°F dewpoint, 30.16 in Hg and rising, 0.7 mph N wind, 0.01 in precipitation, mostly cloudy.
NWS Says: 30°F, dewpoint N/A, 30.10 in Hg, light snow falling.
3-8-13 at 18:25 MST
I’m a terrible liar. I’ve done no better about posting this week.
My weather station is not working properly again. We didn’t get 15 inches of rain yesterday, and we didn’t get 102 mph winds. I’m not sure what is happening- but if it managed to pull a bad data point, the tipping bucket rain gauge will keep adding to the bad data point. Same with the wind- nothing but a manual reset was going to erase the ‘maximum’ wind speed measurement.
3-4-13 at 8:34 MST
I forgot to post what the NWS said yesterday. Oh well.
I’m headed to Socorro for a few days. I’m looking forward to getting a few things done while I’m there. I’ll get last week’s lab graded, get this week’s lab set up, and hopefully finish installing LabVIEW on several computers. Once that is finished, I can start working on new unit ops programs. The heat exchanger program won’t take long to write, and the swamp cooler one will take a while to calibrate, but the program won’t be difficult.
I worked on the van yesterday and got the new alternator installed. I was not able to get the belt back in place, however. That will take a little more time.
My WX Station says: 52.5°F, dewpoint 19.6°F, 29.99 in Hg and falling, 4.5 mph NNW wind (G 6.9 mph), and partly cloudy.
NWS Says: 46°F, dewpoint 14°F, 29.93 in Hg, 8 mph SW winds, and partly cloudy.
3-3-13 at 13:32 MST
I’ve been terrible about posting here in the past week. I’ll do better this week, I promise!
I updated my weather blog, car blog, and ham blogs this week. And now it’s time for a
monthly update on this site:
Books read: 2; Fundamentals of Hydrology, (Tim Davie); For the New Intellectual (Ayn Rand)
Books of the Bible Read: 1 – Isaiah
Periodicals Read: 20
HF Contacts made: 36
VHF Contacts made: 8
Monthly average: 60.0%
Miles Biked: 0, but the weather is turning nicer, so I’ll replace my tire
Farthest Distance Traveled: Socorro, NM
Biggest Accomplishment: interviewing for an engineering position at Intel
My WX: 65.7°F, 24.6°F, 30.04 in Hg and falling, 6.0 mph W wind (G 9.2 mph), overcast and 0.07 in of precipitation has fallen in the past 24 hours.
NWS Says:
2-25-13 at 6:30 MST
I think I accomplished less yesterday than I ever have on the Sunday of my long week. I did practically nothing, and now I need to finish up a lot of things before heading to Socorro.
I did test out my latest toy, a Colt Police Positive in .32-20 WCF, at the indoor pistol range. I like it, and may become a collector of Police Positives. There is a fair amount of blast from the rear of the gun, so I was glad to be wearing safety glasses.
My WX: 21.6°F, 8.6°F dewpoint, 30.06 in Hg and rising, 1.6 mph NW wind, and clear. We received 0.08 in of snow last night- enough to make the typical New Mexican freak out on I-25.
NWS Says: 23°F, 9°F dewpoint, 29.95 in Hg, 20 mph NW wind (G 24 mph), and fair.
2-23-13 at 13:25 MST
Last week, we bought an annual membership to the natural history museum here in town. We go there frequently enough that it practically pays for itself, and we get half off the 3D movies that rotate through there regularly. We saw Flying Monsters last week, and this week, we’ll see a movie about meercats.
My son’s science fair was a success. He did a good job on his project and spent a lot of time explaining it to other students, parents and teachers. I think he had a pretty good time.
Work was long last night, even though I was out for the first four hours to attend my son’s science fair.
My WX: 48.6°F, 14.4°F dewpoint, 29.96 in Hg and falling, 2.2 mph SW wind, and sunny. We received 0.08 in of precipitation last night.
NWS Says: 37°F, 5°F dewpoint, 29.93 in Hg, Calm winds and clear. 20% chance of snow for tonight.
2-22-13 at 17:25 MST
Getting ready for my son’s science fair. He did a project on roller coasters, building several K’nex roller coasters. I wrote some software in LabVIEW to measure the speed of the cars using an NI-6008 Data Acquisition device.
After that, it’s off to work. I’ll hear about the engineering position in the next week.
My WX: 39.6°F, 9.9°F Dewpoint, 29.99 in Hg and rising, 3.8 mph NW wind, partly cloudy. We also received 0.25 in of precipitation in the past 24 hours.
NWS Says: 37°F, 9°F Dewpoint, 29.90 in Hg, 20 mph W wind, mostly cloudy. They are calling for a 30% chance of snow (less than 1/2 in) tonight.
2-21-13 at 18:19 MST
Blech, it has been a long day. I stayed awake to go to a National Instruments event- one which had always met at a restaurant on central. I double checked the time in the email, but then drove to the restaurant without double checking the location. As it turns out, the lunch was held 5 miles from my house in NW Albuquerque, but I drove all the way down to SE. By the time I got there, it was too late to turn around and make the lunch, practically at home.
My WX: 39.2°F, 21.2°F Dewpoint, 29.91 in Hg and rising, 0.7 mph SW wind and mostly cloudy. We didn’t get any measurable snow.
NWS Says: 36°F Dewpoint, 29.79 in Hg, 23 mph W wind, mostly cloudy and breezy.
2-20-13 at 6:56 MST
Today is my interview with Intel for the Hitachi Process Engineer position. Wish me luck. I feel funny walking into work wearing a coat and tie- in the cleanroom, most people wear shorts and t-shirts.
I’m trying to get things knocked out of my to do list, but this week has been going slower than normal. My brain also thinks it is Thursday morning instead of Wednesday morning, because I’m not typically at home on Wednesday morning. Even so, I managed to get a few lectures watched and a few lab maintenance goals accomplished when I was down at NMT. Once I get back from the interview, I have a few things to do, but I should probably go straight to bed to prepare for my regularly scheduled night at work.
My WX:39.0°F, 33.6°F DP, 29.78 in Hg and falling, 6.0 mph SW wind and mostly cloudy.
NWS Says: 36°F, 32°F DP, 29.67 in Hg, 16 mph S wind and mostly cloudy.
2-17-13 at 23:56 MST
I did a bunch of house cleaning today, and I still have much more to do. I guess it’s a never-ending battle. I also need to finish logging the several hundred QSOs from my TX trip a few weeks ago. I’m terribly behind on that project as well.
I think I need to reset my weather station, as it has been reading the same 29.86 in Hg for a really long time, and the dew point does not register. I’m not impressed with this thing so far.
2-16-13 at 23:33 MST
I got to spend a fair amount of time with my family today! We went and saw Flying Monsters 3D, a National Geographic film about dinosaurs. It was pretty neat- we always have a good time at the Science and Natural History Museum here in Albuquerque. After that, we went to some batting cages. I haven’t played baseball in forever, but I didn’t do too horribly. We picked up some Viet Taste after the batting cages, rounding out a good day of fun.
I managed to get a few things done today as well. Most notably, I finally rented a truck and picked up my tool box and work bench. I put together the tool box, and will hopefully start on the work bench soon.
My WX: 33.1°F, DP unavailable, 29.86 in Hg and steady, 1.6 mph NW wind and clear.
NWS Says: 36°F, -2°F DP, 30.17 in Hg, 5 mph W wind, mostly clear.
2-15-13 at 14:50 MST
Wish me luck. I have an interview next week for an engineering position at Intel. If I got this, a lot of good things would change, including my schedule. I know a lot of folks have applied for it, so we’ll see how it goes.
I have a ton of stuff to do this afternoon, but I’m taking a break to update this website. I clearly have my priorities correct. It’s already 3pm, and I need to start the roast, clean out a storage unit, go to the post office and the bank before work.
My WX: 53.6°F, (unavailable) DP, 29.86 in Hg, and falling, 9.2 mph N wind, and sunny.
NWS Says: 46°F, 1°F, 30.25 in Hg, 23 mph N wind, sunny and windy.
2-12-13 at 8:21 MST
Off to Socorro for the day! I have a bunch of things to do there, but I did get the LabVIEW roller coaster program running here at home.
My WX: 25.3°F, DP 11.8°F, 29.88 in Hg and rising, 4.5 mph N wind, and sunny.
NWS Says: 19.0°F, DP 10°F, 30.07 in Hg, 23.0 mph NW wind, and sunny.
2-11-13 at 23:57 MST
It’s late Monday night, but I’ve been busy. I managed to get the remaining programs uploaded for ES405L. I also posted lecture notes and another prelab. In other words, I’m over halfway done preparing for the semester. I am ahead in my meteorology classes as well.
The LabVIEW program is about finished. I need to clean it up a bit, but it works, and I’ve tested two Kinex roller coasters with it so far.
My WX: 26.1°F, DP 17.6°F, 29.78 in Hg and steady, 1.6 mph N wind, and partly cloudy.
NWS Says: 25.0°F, DP 118°F, 29.96 in Hg, 13.0 mph N wind, and partly cloudy.
2-9-13 at 11:02 MST
The LabVIEW program is coming along. I still have a long ways to go, however. Right now, I’ve given up trying to wire the bright LEDs in the system, and am just using ambient light. I think rather than using an absolute value from the sensors as my trigger, I will use a comparison to previous values as a trigger. This way, I capture the change in light as the car passes over the sensor, rather than the absolute change in voltage from the sensor, which will be dependent upon ambient light in the room. Using the voltage from the sensor will require calibration often, whereas the change in light will be a little less sensitive to the ambient light, as it is being subtracted out from the beginning.
…And I forgot to post the weather yesterday, even though that was the reason I transferred the news file to this computer instead of the one I was using…
My WX: 41.7°F, DP 20.8°F, 29.53 in Hg and falling, 24.4 mph SW wind, overcast and windy
NWS Says: 43.0°F, DP 10°F, 29.66 in Hg, 30.0 SW wind, overcast, windy, showers in vicinity.
2-8-13 at 18:07 MST
There’s some sort of strong front passing through. The wind is up, and the pressure is falling. We’ll see what the next few days holds for us.
My son’s science fair project has turned into quite the experiment. He wanted to figure out how roller coasters work, and what gravity was all about. He built several Kinex roller coasters (btw, these are not trivial to construct!) and figured he would measure speed in several places with a stopwatch. As it turns out, the cars move too fast for stopwatch measurements- which is where I come in. Instead, we will measure speed by breaking light curtains and monitoring the voltage change in LabVIEW using a NI-6008. I’m working on the software end of it, and it will be up to him to analyze the data.
Anyway, off to work. I think I’ve had about four hours of sleep in the past 72 hours, so it should be a blast.
2-6-13 at 20:21 MST
I found the missing monthly update and posted it back on 2/1. I knew I’ve been doing better about posting on this thing!
I spent several days in Socorro working, and I also managed to get a lot of work done for my meteorology classes. I’ll get a few more things done on those tonight as well.
I’ve been using these Genesis products for about a month now, and I feel pretty good. I’ve had a super productive week, and I was relatively productive last week as well.
2-4-13 at 7:04 MST
I’m going to have to find my monthly update that is missing. It must be saved on another computer.
I updated my politics blog and my ham radio blog. I’m trying to update all of my blogs once a week, and I’ll probably transfer some content from here (not the news!) onto my blogs.
My WX: 34.3°F, DP 25°F, 29.73 in Hg and falling, 5.4 mph WNW wind.
NWS Says: 32°F, DP 25°F, 30.06 in Hg, 14.0 N wind. (as of 4:35am)
2-1-13 at 21:05 MST
Time for a monthly update:
Books read: 2; Best of Zane Grey, Outdoorsman, (George Reiger); Woodsong (Gary Paulsen)
Books of the Bible Read: 3; Proverbs, Ecclesiasties, Song of Solomon
Periodicals Read: 16
HF Contacts made: 685
VHF Contacts made: 18
Monthly average: 62.7%
Miles Biked: 0, between surgery, travel and extreme cold
Farthest Distance Traveled: outskirts of Brownsville, TX
Biggest Accomplishment: braving up and getting the oral surgery I needed
1-30-13 at 12:27 MST
I knew I had made an update or two somewhere, but couldn’t find the news file. Therefore I didn’t make any more updates so that I did not lose those updates when I found the old file. Or, I could have just merged them, but I was being lazy.
The last few weeks have been hectic. I spent some more time recovering from the surgery after I got back from TX. TX was a lot of fun until the end- I overdid it and wasn’t actually ready to travel. I ended up pretty sick by Monday night/Tuesday morning, but was doing a lot better later in the week.
Today, I’m back in Socorro putting out fires at NMT, and will head back up to Intel this evening. I got to talk to my parents on Monday, had lunch with my friend, Ben, yesterday, saw my pseudo roommates yesterday evening, and spent the rest of the time after work with my brother and his family. I’ll try to call Ian tonight on my way back up to Intel.
I applied for an engineering job at Intel. It would be nice to be selected, but we’ll see.
1-19-13 at 5:46 MST
Wow, in spite of sitting at home for several days due to the surgery, I did not update this news file regularly. I updated lots of things, but not this.
For the long weekend, I am going on a small county hunting trip across Texas. I have a little under half of the counties in that state, and I will pursue the ones in the south that I won’t likely see on a storm chase. Right now, I’m packing up from my hotel from Las Cruces, NM and will head east on I-10 once we get on the road.
1-14-13 at 23:52 MST
I went under the knife this morning (wisdom tooth and one other tooth) and am still in recovery mode. My family is the best, texts from Mom, milk shakes and Jello from my girlfriend, and my son has been delivering me the proper meds at the proper times all night.
And…finally… that same stupid survey I’ve done for a million years or so (plus my more useful questions at the beginning)
Miles Biked: 39.29
Books read: 9
Books of the Bible Read: 9
Periodicals Read: 165
HF Contacts made: 1388
Conferences Attended: 1
Publications: 0
Farthest Distance Traveled: Philadelphia, PA
Trips: FL in January; CA in April; storm chasing in May (KS, OK, TX); OR, WA in July; AZ in October; PA, DE, MD, VA, WV, TX, OK, AR, TN, MS, AL, GA, SC, NC, VA, OH, IN, IL, MO in December. New States: OR
1. What did you do in 2012 that you’d never done before? not sure…
2. Did you keep your new years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year? Kinda sorta
3. Did anyone close to you give birth? No
4. Did anyone close to you die? No
5. What countries did you visit? a good part of the USA
6. What would you like to have in 2012 that you lacked in 2011? A billion dollars?
7. What date from 2012 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? none in particular
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? Reenrolling at MS State for my meteorology degree, or getting my operations certification at Intel
9. What was your biggest failure? not inventing the anal bum cover (SNL reference haha)
10. Did you suffer illness or injury? Needing a cane off and on
11. What was the best thing you bought? Shed, though it is still waiting to be delivered, another AR-15.
12. Whose behavior merited celebration? All of my friends.
13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? Everyone else.
14. Where did most of your money go? Tuition, rent, utilities, credit cards.
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? Chasing, travel, house
16. What song will always remind you of 2012? Lacuna Coil (any song)
17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. happier or sadder? happier.
ii. thinner or fatter? thinner
iii. richer or poorer? richer, bling bling.
18. What do you wish you’d done more of? Reading
19. What do you wish you’d done less of? Sleeping
20. How will you be spending Christmas? Road trip!
22. Did you fall in love in 2012? yep
23. How many one-night stands? ask your mom
24. What was your favorite TV program? Justified
25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year? I don’t think so?
26. What was the best book you read? Atlas Shrugged again.
27. What was your greatest musical discovery? Lacuna Coil
28. What did you want and get? A shed, another AR-15 lower
30. What was your favorite film of this year? Atlas Shrugged II, Red Tails
31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I turned 31 and had a mild case of food poisoning
32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? Lots o’ money
33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2010? Still jeans, more button up shirts
34. What kept you sane? Reading
35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? None.
36. What political issue stirred you the most? Collectivism in our government.
37. Who did you miss? everyone back east, particularly my family.
38. Who were the best new people you met? My students in Chem E
39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2012: You can work two full time jobs, if you are awesome.
40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year: Not sure there is one.
1-13-13 at 7:15 MST
It was 0 degrees when I looked at the weather this morning. Move to New Mexico, they said. It’s warm, they said.
I just finished a long week at work, and it will be nice to go home and relax for a while. I have plenty to do, but sleeping is on that list.
I have been slightly disappointed with the latest book I have been reading. It is called ‘Woodsong’ and it’s by Gary Paulsen, who I typically like. I liked ‘The River’ and ‘Hatchet’, but this book is mostly an ode to environmentalism, and I’m not as happy about it. It does talk about his first Iditarod though, so that is neat.
1-12-13 at 3:21 MST
Blech, long day at Intel today. Just lots of frustration, mostly unnecessary.
The fence guy showed up and measured for our fence and says he can get the old posts out probably Tuesday. Could we have a new shed by Wednesday? I hope so!
1-10-13 at 22:59 MST
It is a long week at Intel, though it is moving fast. There is so that needs to be done and time keeps ticking by, and in spite of how fast I feel like I am working, my to do list now exceeds 300 items. I actually track it in Excel to keep up to date.
Next week is a week of no fun. I have some oral surgery on Monday, Obama starts executive order-ing away guns on Tuesday, and for the rest of the week- who knows.
1-7-13 at 23:30 MST
I spent some time today down in Socorro getting the computers cleaned up for the upcoming semester. I brought my son with me, just for some company before he starts back to school tomorrow.
I have some massive updates to my to do list, so much so that I considered updates of my to do list as part of my to do list. I need to learn to slow down sometimes, but there is so much I want to do…
1-6-13 at 23:49 MST
I’ve been working hard to update my radio logs on DX4Win. I have dozens of QSL cards to send out, and I can’t verify them properly until both my paper log and DX4Win are up to date. I am also planning to create a few new graphics for posting on my radio page. Stay tuned!
Mississippi State classes start tomorrow, and for all practical purposes, my schedule resumes at NMT. I have a lot to get done before the start of the semester next week, so I hope I can plow through it.
I posted on my storm chase/meteorology blog today.
1-4-13 at 14:47 MST
Last night of work at Intel for the week! I’ve been doing well there, and having a good time. They’ve moved me to the remote operations center, so I’m not in the clean room very often. The suit was hot, and sometimes it was boring in the cleanroom. Outside, there always seems to be things to do, and I like most of my coworkers.
Today, I’ll finish getting dressed, change the cat boxes, stop by the bank, perhaps take some cans to be recycled, and whatever else I can think of before going to work. I’m trying to get as many errands done as I can before the weekend, and then again before school starts.
Mississippi State starts on Monday, but I still can’t get into the course material. I have started reading one of the text books. Last semester, the course content was open early and many people got a large head start on the course. I did not, as I got registered for class the day before classes started.
1-3-13 at 17:19 MST
Almost 24 hours since my last post. That’s probably a several year record, as I have been really sloppy about posting here. I played around thinking the blogs would be a better outlet, but I like having my own website too. I need to update this site for Web 2.0, however.
I have been a little more faithful on my daily and weekly to do lists since the beginning of the new year. I always am. I guess other folks make resolutions to go to the gym, and are done by February. I just start over trying to do the stuff I already said I’d do.
I just finished baking some chicken, and I have some reading I’d like to do before heading into work, so I’ll go ahead and stop typing here. Don’t worry, I have a few big posts coming in the next week or so, complete with yearly summaries, photos, etc. Stay tuned.
1-2-13 at 17:21 MST
Happy New Year! I’ll do my traditional new year’s post when I finish tallying up my amateur radio contacts.
I will go to work in a few minutes. So far today, I’ve run some laundry, had the chimney cleaned, scheduled some fence work, and done some housecleaning, though I have much more of that to do.
This week, I’ve updated my radio blog, car blog, and my garden blog. I will eventually change the format of this page to reflect all of the blogs I have running at other ends of the internet.
An Engineer in the World 