Back from St. John Virgin Islands

The theme song for last week can be found on youtube here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-aCYULkegY


We had a good week with our son Jeff at St. John in the Virgin Islands. It's a different way of life to be sure. In many ways I wish we lived there also because of the culture of the people. People are more polite and have much more respect for one another. In a small island like that, your reputation and character follow you and if you're rude or dishonest it will haunt you. Conversely, if you're friendly, outgoing and helpful that also will follow you.

The primary method of transportation in that area is hitchhiking. Everyone hitchhikes and most people driving don't think twice about picking people up. Even when your car is jammed, there's room for one more. Once we stopped and picked up a 10 year old boy on the other side of the island hitching to his school bus stop. You wouldn't think of doing that in the states.

A bunch of Jeff's friends met at his place on Thanksgiving and Jeff cooked up a storm to celebrate all we had to be thankful for. It was a great time and the only thing missing was our Paul ... who we miss more than you can ever imagine.

Barber hauler

It was one of those beautiful sunny Florida weekends that would have been perfect except for the fact there wasn't any wind (for sailing). So I decided to get on the water anyway and paddle around thinking there may be a slight breeze at least on the water. It was almost zero wind so it got me thinking about making a barber hauler for my AI. The weakness of the hobie Adventure island sailing kayak is the sail doesn't have a boom (but the advantage of not having a boom is it won't hit you in the head). When sailing downwind, the sail doesn't open up quite as well as it could. A barber hauler pulls the sail outward and keeps the sail in a better position to catch the wind. If the sail is bent then it's not efficient.

So after spending a few hours paddling around (with another family of dolphins I might add), I returned to design a budget barber hauler system. I bought a set of oar locks (that clamp on a 1.5" pipe) that attached to the ends of my akas with a ring to pull the line through. At the end of the line is a clip that I can reel in or pull the sail outward. I haven't tried other than in my driveway but I'm pretty happy with the design.

The Festivus pole was also built so let the festivities begin !

Tis the season

Yes, it's that time of year again when the holidays are once again upon us. And I'm talking about the grand old holiday of Festivus. "Festivus for the rest of us". If you haven't heard of Festivus then I'll assume that you never were a big Seinfeld fan. Click here for information about Festivus

Yvonne and I won't be doing anything special for Thanksgiving and Christmas this year because we're just not ready for that since Paul won't be with us. So Festivus will be our holiday for 2007. Maybe next year we'll be able to deal with Christmas and Thanksgiving again.

So out in the workshop the making of the traditional festivus pole has officially begun. Actually I'm building it as a joke for a friend and we will set it up in his office with some nice festivus goodies. And it's a lot easier than building a robot.

I know .... another excuse why I'm not getting much robot building accomplished. Oh well, after the holidays I'll get back into it for sure. The bus stop robots are so close and my aluminum R2 frame should be here around the first of the year.

Why do men build robots?

Why guys build robots is a complicated and delicate subject that is hard to put into words. So I'll let my mentor and inspiration from the Red/Green show explain it on a video he recently did.

Since I haven't been building much lately due to 10 bazillion home projects I'm resorting to these kind of blog entries until I get back in the building groove so please be patient.

Why men build robots:
http://www.ilaugh.com/shows/series.php?series=9/&ep=339

My favorite website

I'm not doing much building these days and tying up loose ends in my life so I thought I'd share my favorite website that can benefit everybody in some way. I also was cleaning out drawers and found a piece of paper with unusual but simple tips to live your life by.

Be sure to check out http://www.johnplaceonline.com/ and peruse the archives. It will make you a better person.

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Have a dog or Cat
Keep it simple
Call your mother
say "please" a lot
Stop blaming others
Avoid negative people
have a firm handshake
Learn 3 good jokes
Don't expect life to be fair
Return all things you borrow
Plant a tree on your birthday
Never refuse homemade brownies
Keep your promise no matter what
Remember other people's birthdays
Compliment even small improvements
Drink champagne for no reason at all
Always accept an outstretched hand
Commit yourself to constant improvement
Don't be afraid to say "I made a mistake"
Leave everything a little better than you found it
Live your life as an exclamation, not an explanation
Never waste an opportunity to tell someone you love them
Buy whatever kids are selling on card tables in their front yards
Become the most positive and enthusiastic person you know
Treat everyone you meet like you want to be treated
Take responsibility for every aspect of your life
Make new friends but cherish the old ones
Never underestimate the power of love
Watch a sunrise at least once a year
Don't be afraid to say "I don't know"
Strive for excellence, not perfection
Be forgiving of yourself and others
Compliment three people every day
Carry jumper cables in your car
Overtip breakfast waitresses
Be the first to say "Hello"
Plant flowers every spring
Rekindle old friendships
Look people in the eye
Say "thank you" a lot
Count your blessings
Sing in the shower
Floss your teeth
Sing in a choir
Keep secrets

Seeing Red

A little more progress has happened in mounting the heads so the motors will be able to turn them. I got some bearings on EBAY that will hopefully shoulder the weight of the heads so the motors will just be responsible for movement. We shall see.

But as the robots are nearing completion, I started thinking about their placement on the front entrance to our home. The area needed sprucing up and paint so I came up with a lamebrained idea to paint the one wall that the robots will be sitting against a deep Red color. Testing a splotch of paint on the wall looked pretty interesting so I spent last week painting 3 coats over the area. Now that it's up, I can appreciate what a tremendous mistake I made. It looks horrible and the red reflects off it to everything in the area. And at night with the porchlight it's just plain ugly. So tonight I'll drag out the paint again and go over it completely. Probably another 3 coater. Oh well ... it was worth a try.

On another note, Our older son Jeff is doing pretty good down in the islands as the picture shows. He's starting to get his smile back. His girlfriend recently moved down there with him.