CD Burn Speed

As I am burning CD's I thought this was interesting to note:

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/nov04/articles/qa1104-3.htm

Ace Wonder!

Ace Wonder Movie - Teaser Trailer HD #2

Visit http://www.acewondermovie.com for information

From the producers of The Widow's Might.

Slim Jim?

I'm going to stop trying to embed the MP3's in the blog and just post links. I'm spending more time trying to get the stupid embed code to work than mixing down tracks.

Joke (This really happened)

Someone is locked out of their car; they go over to a guy nearby and ask if he has a slim jim. (to get into their car of course) He replies "no, but I have cookies!"

Let's try again...

O.K., let's see if this works...



I've stopped using google for hosting MP3's, except for download.

Trouble Embedding audio.

O.K., Google has changed the way things work again, and the old way I used to embed audio no longer works. Very annoying.
I will have to find a more complex way.
In the meantime, I will post links to the MP3 files to download.
First one:

https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B3AzOhkYNoUUZWFjM2Y0M2QtMjM1Mi00MTJjLWFlYTMtNDJlZWVlN2NjZGU5&hl=en_US

History

Here is a fascinating history of silicon valley:


I don't usually have a strong interest in history, but every once in a while something comes by that really catches my attention, like this.

Bi-Amping

Here is a good explanation of bi-amping.
http://sound.westhost.com/bi-amp.htm

More Blender object tracking!

So many possibilities!

Object tracking

I can't wait until Blender 2.61 comes out!

Video

This video shows some neat video editing. I hope I can get to this level!


AsylumArtists.com Show Reel 2010 from Asylum Artists on Vimeo.

Curiosity

Top ten in 200 fly!

At the November open meet I placed in the top ten with a final time of 2:17.19! Here is the final result with my split times;


Zachary Yarashus  (15)  M
2:17.19Y BB F #  30B Male 15 & Over 200 Fly  place: 9 with a drop of 7.63 seconds from last swum time.
Splits:
29.49   34.77   36.05   36.88

Blender release logs

I found the release logs for blender, and it's rather interesting going through and seeing when they added what features. It's really an amazing program. It seems to be able to do anything you can think of if you can just figure out how. Here's a link;

The current version is 2.60a.

http://www.blender.org/development/release-logs/

Note; the picture and the link below are not the same link.

Jupiter and three moons with binoculars!

Last night Jupiter was so bright that even right next to a very bright moon I could see not only Jupiter but three of its moons with binoculars! Two were reasonably clear, but the third was on the other side of Jupiter, and was very faint. I was using these binoculars just handheld from our front porch. As the person who sent out an e-mail about it said, it would have been nice to have a decent telescope, but it was still amazing that it was so close to the moon, and was still so bright.

Banjo update

I am making progress again on the banjos. I think I have a way to make the banjo head without all that hardware, which while it may look interesting is harder to get right and adds more complication (which I could really do without) It was suggested to my by one of my friends from church, and the way it works is simply to fasten/glue a plastic skin to the metal ring, and then bake it to shrink the plastic to tighten it. It of course requires that the plastic you are using shrink when it is heated, and that it is heated more or less evenly. I have tried it, and it works very well so far, now all I need to do is to see if it can hold the tension of the bridge when it is tuned.
Here is a sound sample of me tapping the head to see how tight it is.

I have my doubts whether it will hold up under strain, the reason being that the two head pieces are metal and plastic, and are glued with wood glue. I wasn't trying to make a permanant version, just to test, but it is holding much better than I thought it would.

Photos will come later.

Swim meet results

2011 PVS November Open - Meet Sheet

Event Info for Zachary Yarashus	Seed Time	Heat	Lane	Official Time	Change	Standard Met	Goal Cut
Event 30B Boys 200 Fly SCY Indiv Timed Finals	2:24.82	4	2	2:17.19	-7.63	BB	2:24.49 for BB
Event 34B Boys 50 Free SCY Indiv Timed Finals	0:26.50	8	8	0:26.15	-0.35	BB	0:27.39 for BB
Event 36B Boys 200 Medley SCY Indiv Timed Finals	2:33.38	5	4	2:19.99	-13.39	BB	2:26.39 for BB
Event 38B Boys 100 Back SCY Indiv Timed Finals	1:08.17	6	6	1:04.04	-4.13	BB	1:06.19 for BB

Created by iSwimTimes • The iPhone Swim Log App • http://www.go2telecom.net

I think I need to work on the formatting before posting it to my blog...

I was hoping to make an A time in something, but I think this is still pretty good.

Now that is a rocket!

http://ddeville.com/derek/Qu8k.html

Top ten in 1000 SCY free!

Tonight I made the top ten in the 1000 free!
It was my first time swimming it, and my time was 11:44.0.
It's 2315, and I'm getting up at 0500 tomorrow to go swim again!

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory play is now on YouTube!

SawStop

Now just how do they do that?
Stopping the blade is one problem, when to stop the blade is a whole different matter!

Video Editing

Well, since I have access to two HDSLR's with a manfrotto video tripod/head, and a 24bit/96KHz four channel audio recorder, I figure that if I'm going to be putting them to good use I needed some better software. I can use apple's imovie, which is pretty good for most basic things, but if I wanted to do chroma keying, DVD menus without the imovie logo, 3D transform, etc. I needed something else. I've looked around for a good free video editior, Linux or Windows, but without much luck. I found a few that look promising for linux, but either they are too hard to use, or don't have enough features. One works nicely, but puts a running timestamp over the top quarter of the video. I decided to just buy a video editor for windows. The one I bought was from Magix. The software was their Movie edit Pro MX Premium bundle with Red Giant Magic Bullet Quick Looks, NewBlue FX light blends, and ProDad Vitascene 2. The Red giant and ProDad effects work great, but I'm having trouble activating the NewBlue FX. The rest of the program is working very nicely, and the simple addition of chroma keying adds so many more possibilities! Another program that looks like it would be worth getting is their Reallusion iClone 4 Standard + Virtual Studio Vol.1. (FYI not happening anytime soon) I think I can do all the same things in Blender, but it will probably be a lot more work. If I remember I will post more about blender later. It's an amazing program.

Courageous, the movie

Mozart makes kids smart

I know this piano piece!

Audio Mixing

I've been pretty busy lately. One of the things I've been doing is mixing down the recordings for the Strawberry/Harvest Festivals. I've got it set up so that I'm using Reaper  on windows 7 as my software, my HD16CD as the control surface, and it makes a pretty nice DAW setup. One of the problems I have is that I could spend hours on mixing a single track! As I have about six hours of audio to go through, I can't do that! I have to spend a minimum of time to get the maximum out of the raw audio tracks that I have. The nice thing is that usually once I have the effects set, (say the piano mic needs a low cut filter) it's a  one time set. (for the most part, I might have to tweak it a little). Below is one of the tracks that I recorded live.

For effects I've been using EQ, compression, and reverb.

The main problem I'm having is the background noise. People talking in the background, and white noise. The mics I was using were dynamic mics sent through about 75 feet of cable, except for one studio condenser, but it still had to go through about 75 feet of cable as well. Still, considering the situation, I think it's sounding pretty good.

Hunter ed class

Right now it is break time of a hunter education class. We got up at 0430 this morning to leave because it is two hours away. It runs from 0800 to 1800. We get five minutes break on the hour and a half hour for lunch. The attendance is pretty good, I guess we might have around 100 people. I was starting to get sleepy from getting up so early, but we have a while to go yet. We are now going to lunch at wendys. The instructor seems to be pretty good, though he's not always correct

Essay 01

I now have to write essays to practice for the SAT on October 1st. Writing is not my strong point, but I am going to post my essays on here so that I will have a record of them in case I lose the papers. This one (and probably all of the others will be digitized as written, with all misspellings and punctuation errors. The only thing I can't transfer very well is my handwriting, unless I scan it, but I'm just going to type them for now.

Here is what I had to go off of:

Prompt:
"That which we obtain too easily, we esteem too lightly. It is dearness only which gives everything its value."
Thomas Paine

Assignment:
Do we value only what we struggle for? Plan your response, and then write an essay to explain your views on this issue. Be sure to support your position with specific points and examples. (You may use personal examples or examples from your reading, observations, or, knowledge of subjects such as history, literature, science.)

Here is what I was able to write in 25 minutes:

That which we obtain too easily we esteem too lightly. -Thomas Paine
In many cases this is true; take for example electricity. In many parts of the world there is no electrical supply available, and furthermore, it were, they would have no use for it, and quite probably not understand it. However, if they were to visit a modern city, and see what use we made of it, and we were to reciprocate by visiting a place without electricity, both parties would probably be shocked, it in different ways. There are many things that we take for granted, and yet if we lose something, say continuing on the topic of electricity, it suddenly becomes the center of our attention, when, while it is functioning normally we give no thought to it. Therefore it is obvious that we value more lightly those things which we have not experienced a loss of, or have not had to struggle to obtain. This is also demonstrated by many other things which, while commonplace here, might be unheard of in other places Take for example; cars. Many people here own cars, and do not give them a second thought, unless they cease to function normally. However, those same people might value them much more highly when the only available method of transportation was a horse, or even worse, on foot! All things considered, there is much to be said for the theory that "you must struggle for a goal to truly appriciate it" -John Sineder

Yes, I know, appriciate is spelled wrong, but I only had 22 seconds left, and I decided to skim over the whole for easily fixable problems. It's not as easy as it might seem, writing. It took 25 minutes to write this, and took up a page and two thirds, instead of the short text box on this blog. If I remember right, it was around 300 words. 

P.S. The John Sineder reference is made up. On the SAT they do not count facts against you (!?!?!) Really!

Sermon Audio

I know why we use MP3's for recording sermons now. A .WAV file was about 400 + MB, and took about a half hour to upload!
From now on, if I have to upload a file and it's in .WAV format, I'll convert it first!

Soap dish progress

I'm slowly making progress. I started out with a 48" board. I now have about 24" worth of scrap red oak strips, one promising soap dish, and a little more than 12" of good wood still left. The reason for so much scrap wood is that the wood bits I had were very coarse, as wood bits tend to be. I would start drilling, and it would be fine until the very end, when it would catch and mangle the piece or just tear it in half. I tried different speeds, fast, slow, and speeds in between, but it always caught. A drill press would have helped I think. (And could have drilled the holes straight the first time!) Here is a photo of some of the mangled wood:

I finally managed to figure out how to drill a 1/2" hole without splitting: Drill a pilot hole, and then just use a stepped metal bit. The metal bit is for a much harder material, so it shaves off material much more gradually, so the wood doesn't split. The problem that I had was that the step was not quite long enough for the piece of wood that I was using, so I had to drill from both sides, which I'm sure didn't help the hole to be straight. Be that as it may, Here is the dish while gluing, before finishing.

And with soap...

I'm not sure how I should seal it, but I have some shellac I will try, and see how that works.

Soap dish

I am now also making wooden soap dishes for Stitches and Sticks. Below is the image that mine are based off of.

Here are some photos of mine, just to get an idea, as it's still a work in progress.

The calipers are set to 6"

1" chisel, wood pieces, calipers set at 1", and bar of soap for size comparison

I'm using red oak, and it seems to be working well, but for the next step it would really help to have a drill press, however, not having one I'm just going use a hand drill and see how it comes out. It should be fine, but it's certainly harder.

Banjo photos

Well, I said a post or two ago that I would post photos at some point, so here they are! 

Below is a photo of the red oak from Home Depot

Detail of the red oak. The knot looks rather interesting.

Bolivian Rosewood from Bell forest Products.com

Below are two photos for texture / colour comparison
I couldn't decide which photo I liked better, so I uploaded both.
Bottom: Bolivian Rosewood with clear shellac
Left: Red oak with clear shellac
Right: Red oak with oil based finish
The tops of the red oak pieces are unfinished.

The camera tended to give these a slightly warmer than natural look, but they give a good idea of what they look like.
I really enjoy working with nice wood, which this is. I hope I can do a good job with it!

Swimming

I note in passing that I have had three primary winter swim coaches in three years. (Four if you count CY's temporary replacement, I can't remember her name)

Listed from first to current:

Coach Brolin, George Mason Makos
Coach CY, Potomac Marlins
Coach Bill Marlin, Potomac Marlins

Maybe things will start slowing down some now that I'm at the fastest level group.  ;)

Banjo

I now have the wood for the neck of the banjo. I'm using red oak from home depot. The fretboard wood is some nice bolivian rosewood from http://www.bellforestproducts.com/. I'm planning to finish it with clear shellac. I say clear because they have amber shellac too. I may post photos at some point also.

I'm still working on the tone head. For me this is the hardest part, but a friend of mine had a really good idea which was to simply secure the plastic onto one ring, and then heat it, and see if it will shrink enough not to need any more tensioning, so that's what's in progress right now. The main problem seems to be how to glue or attach the plastic sheet to the metal ring.

Vacation photos

I never actually got around to editing the photo set, so I'm just going to make them public, and maybe delete the bad photos when I remember and have some more time.

Vacation 2011 Aug

Meters

Duncanamps.com seems to have a preference on digital multimeters; quote:

"A *good* quality DMM is required for this measurement. (When it comes to good DMMs, you have three choices...Fluke, Fluke, and Fluke.)"


That's not far off either!
They do seem to have a pretty good reputation. 
I have a Fluke clamp-on ammeter that will do Ohms and DC/AC volts with probes, and it's a nice tool. The one problem with clamp-on meters is that it will only measure properly when clamped onto one conductor. If you try to clamp it onto two wires, you will only measure a little bit of phase shift because the magnetic fields are cancelling each other. This can be quite a problem if you can't get to individual conductors. I can sort of get around that in a makeshift way, but only really for comparison, A vs. B.


One of my projects is to modify a spare circuit breaker with a current sense wire for the clamp meter, so that I can just pull a circuit breaker module out of the electrical panel and insert my module to measure current draw.

Much Ado About Very Little

Hurricane Irene has come and gone. Where we were it didn't amount to much, I've seen worse thunderstorms, but it did flood several small to major roads. Right now we are in the middle of a week of rain. Thankfully the weather at the Harvest Festival was good. (More about the Harvest Festival later.)

At some point I might go down to our local stream and see how flooded it is. It's fun to go watch it when it's raining hard. At one point there is a three foot drainage pipe. When it fills up it's really impressive to watch. It will shoot that three foot jet of water probably 10 feet!

Hurricane Irene

Well, it looks like this might be pretty major. It's supposed to have slowed down to about 100 MPH and be category 2 by the time it hits us, if it does hit us; which for the most part I'm hoping it doesn't. Here is what www.weather.com is saying:
(http://www.weather.com/weather/hurricanecentral/article/irene-rare-dangerous-hurricane_2011-08-25)

Heed the Warnings, Irene a Rare but Dangerous Hurricane

Updated: August 25, 2011 11:25 am ET

- Irene is a hurricane that poses an extraordinary threat and is one that no one has yet experienced in North Carolina to the mid-Atlantic to the Northeast and New England.

- We can now narrow the projected path corridor. Confidence is growing that locations from eastern North Carolina and the eastern Mid-Atlantic states to Long Island to southern New England are all in the potential path of Hurricane Irene.

- It is becoming clear that Irene's future track will NOT be a Hurricane Earl (2010) scenario where a hurricane barely brushes the Outer Banks of North Carolina then stays well offshore.

- History tells us that no category 4 hurricane has made landfall north of the South Carolina/North Carolina border. That said, some computer guidance indicates a category 4 landfall over eastern North Carolina and this solution can NOT be ruled out.

- There is historical precedence for a hurricane impacting the major metropolitan areas of the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast but these hurricanes are rare.

- However, with a population explosion along coastal areas of the Northeast during the past several decades, there is little to no precedence for a hurricane of this potential magnitude making landfall over highly populated metropolitan areas such as New York City.

- Regardless of track and intensity, confidence is growing that Hurricane Irene will cause extensive tree and power line damage. Electricity infrastructure will be greatly compromised for millions if not tens of millions of Americans.

- Recent heavy rains over parts of the Northeast, especially New Jersey, have made tree root systems highly vulnerable.  Flooding rains combined with high winds will add to tree destruction.

- Extent of water level rise (surge) for local bays, inlets and sounds is dependent on the local geography however suffice to say new high water marks could be set.

- Severity of Irene's impacts are dependent on the final track.

- Please begin to think about and act on your hurricane preparations. Now is the time.

Here is what they are saying for Virginia:
(http://www.weather.com/weather/hurricanecentral/article/united-states-irene-preparations_2011-08-22)

Virginia 

• State Level Emergency Responders: FEMA says it has sent incident management assistance teams to staging areas in Virginia, in anticipation of further deployment to potential hurricane impact areas along the coast.
• Old Dominion University: Announced that the campus will be closed this weekend and the start of classes for the fall semester will be delayed by three days. Residence halls will close at 7 p.m. on Thursday and the rest of campus will close at 5 p.m. Friday. The university will help find shelter for students with no other accomodations.
• Tolls Open: Northbound tolls on the Chesapeake Expressway have been lifted as of 8 a.m. today.
• U.S. Navy: The U.S. Navy has ordered the second fleet to leave Norfolk Naval Station, out to sea, to keep the ships safe.
• Read More: See what people in Norfolk are saying about Irene on TWC Social
  
  

First earthquakes, and now hurricanes! What next!

Earthquake

On Tuesday I experienced my first major earthquake, maybe not major where I was, but still quite exciting. The bench I was sitting on started vibrating, getting harder. I stood up, and looked at the van and it was rocking back and forth, and when I looked back at the bench, it was twisting! By that time everything was shaking, and then it just quieted down and stopped. Later I turned on the radio (several hours later) and they were doing nothing but talking about the earthquake. For all I know they are still talking about it! Apparently it was a 5.9 magnitude earthquake that caused some minor damage. Luckily none the damage seems to be major.
 Anyway, it was very interesting, and I'm glad we don't have very many earthquakes around here.

Trip

On the trip we went to a reenenactment of a french and indian battle. I have a couple videos and photos that I will be posting shortly. One of the things I saw was a table with a sign that read "Undertakers Table. Please keep off" Another thing of interest was that the train went over a bridge, exclusively for the train and bikers labeled "10 Ton limit" the coal car said on the back "18 Ton."  !!

Movies and setup on trip

Before we left on this trip, I was told that we would be watching a movie. The obvious resonse as the movie setter~upper (Yes I know, the kindle doesn't have proper dashes. Very annoying) was to figure out how to set up a reasonably good movie without taking up too much space. My solution was to pack various movie equipments in several places. The giveaway was the projector. I couldn't fit it in my backpack, and just put it behind the suits so it showed up when we started unpacking. The main potential glitch was that while I had packed everything required to watch a movie except a movie! I had heard that we were watching a movie, and so I naturally assumed that they would be bringing the movie. When we got there, and I found out that we didn't have a movie I was a little bit worried, because I didn't know how fast their network was. Luckly it was fast enough to stream SD video and we enjoyed watching the Lone Ranger. The nxt day we went to walmart and got 'the Fox and the Hound'. I would have preferred ether Gods and Generals, or Narnia, but Narnia really needs to be watched with my whole speaker system, and I only brought one of mama's Bose speakers in my duffle bag. You probably haven't seen my duffle bag, but it's like six feet long, and I might as well put it to good use¡ (No, my kindle doesn't have proper exclamation marks, but inverting it makes it much more exclamitory don't you think¿
-computer-
We wouldn't have gotten a movie at walmart, but I mentioned that I just happened to have a Blu-Ray player in my backpack.
 What I want to know is why my mom laughed so hard when I mentioned that I happened to have a Blu-Ray player in my backpack? Can anyone tell me?
Comments are at the bottom of this post

Sent partly from my kindle

August 20

We had a busy day. We saw a reenenctment of a french and indian battle, went to an indentured servent auction, dipped some candles, watced the indias trade with the store, and lots more. I have quite a few good photos, but they will probably have to wait untill I get home.
I also have a few videos that will probably be posted to youtube.

Kindle test and trip status

This probably won't be too long, because while the keyboard on my kindle works, it's not very quick or effecient. It also does not have a spell checker.

We are in if not mountians, large foothills. We just went about _ _ . . .  5 for a long straight downhill, and have been holding _ _ . . . 0 for quite a while.

The other disadvantage of the kindle is that it can't post photos, however being able to post at all is nice.

Last night we got to the hotel around 2300, and got to bed sometime after 2330. As our trips often go that is rather mild. Sometimes we arrive around 1 or 2! We got up at 7, so it wasn' too bad though.

posted from my kindle

Front panel

Here is an unfinished front panel layout. This is just to get a rough idea, but the layout will be similar to this  when it is finished.

As I mentioned, it is not finished, but 7 is a 1/4" mic jack, and 8's are the RX notch filter. 9 will probably be frequency lock.

Ammo can radio status 01

Here is how I am currently planning to make the ammo can radio.

Oops, I accidentally posted between this and the other ammo can radio post. Oh well,

Again, this is a modular design.

Batteries: 1 or 2, (two if I have space) 7AH 12V gel cells 

Voltage regulator: http://futurlec.com/Linear/L4970A.shtml or similar

Voltage protection: each module will be individually fused, and probably include something similar to one of these. If a module requires an odd voltage (that is, not 12 or 5 VDC) it must internally convert it.
RX: HF will probably be This general coverage receiver
TX: I will probably use this amp from Ramsey Electronics

VHF RX: I would like this radio to cover 2 meters, but may not actually be able to get that to happen. If I can, I am thinking that I will probably use a MC3362 or the newer version, the MC13135.
VFO: I am currently thinking that I would use a SI570 chip, because it works up to about 160 MHz which gives me a little bit more expandability if I wanted to add in 2M later.
Controller: I am planning to use an Arduino Diecimila because I have one, and I think it has enough capability and would do a good job.
Everything must use nuts and bolts, not screws, or glues, and as little plastic as possible
The radio will have a mainframe within the ammo can. Everything will be mounted to the mainframe, not the case (possible exception would be soldering a ground wire on the inside), and the frame will be mounted in the case magnetically. The front panel might include a few rubber bumpers in case it gets tipped upside down, so instead of the knobs, toggles, or meters hitting the rubber bumpers will absorb the shock.

Front panel design coming soon!

Country Music joke

Something I heard recently:

Question: What happens when you play a country music record backwards?
Answer:  You get your wife, kids, money, dog and truck back!

Ammo can radio

I don't think I have posted on this subject before. I have written about it by hand, but this may be the first online summary. What this will be is a design for a fully functional and self-contained HAM radio covering most if not all of HF, and preferably 6M and 2M too. 220 would be a bonus, but I don't really use 440 much. Anyway, here are the minimum design requirements:

The entire radio must fit in an ammo can with the lid shut
TX frequency range: HAM bands only, 80M-10M, 60M excluded
RX frequency range: Same as TX
TX modes: AM, CW
RX modes: AM, USB, LSB, CW
Power: 120VAC, 12VDC, internal batteries
RF output power: 15W
Built-in antenna tuner
When a cable is plugged into the audio out jack, it must mute the internal speaker
Design must be modular for easy repair, maintenance, and upgrade
Backlit LCD for frequency display
Analog meters for; Battery/VCC (0-15VDC), Current (0-10ADC), SWR, modulation(TX), and S-meter (RX)
No external battery charging equipment necessary
1/4" audio out jack, not 1/8"
1/4" key jack
If I remember anything else I will add it, but I think that about covers it.

Next Post: current design summary

AC power

Here I am again, unplugging the subwoofer from the extension cord so that I can use the jigsaw outside.
I really need to find a good place to put it. The first place was beside the desk, and that worked well because there were plugs right next to it, and it could hook right to the speaker, but the way the acoustics work out, it's louder in the other room than where I usually listen. Right now I have it in the middle of the floor pointing at me, and that works well except I have to use an extension cord to plug it in, and it blocks the rack mount.

youtube embed test

Banjo neck

I had another idea; we have a lot of oak, some white and some red. If I could age/dry some of that, I could save about $30 for wood. I'm not sure if I will actually be able to do that, as that usually involves a kiln, and the closest thing that we have is an oven that we aren't using, but I'm not sure that one, I would be allowed to use it for that, and two, that a 3 foot piece of wood would fit in it.

Banjos

Well, as I mentioned earlier I am building banjos. I am making one at a time, and if it works that's all I need it to do. I will then improve upon that in my second, which should be much nicer. I am somewhat undecided what wood to use for the neck. I am using red oak for the body, and I want it not to clash with that. So far I am considering using: Bubinga, Osage Orange (Argentine), or Padauk. Just for fun, here are their
corresponding Latin names:
Guibourtia demeusei (Bubinga)
Maclura tinctoria (Osage Orange Argentine)
Pterocarpus soyauxii (Padauk)

I am considering getting one of each, but they are about $20 each currently, plus shipping. That actually seems to be a reasonable price, but it's still a lot, unless I sell some things soon. I am planning on using East Indian Rosewood (Dalbergia latifolia) for the fretboard. I might also do some fretboard inlay work, probably the diamonds.

More some other time,

73, DE KJ4BXT K

Audio

I am just now hooking up our Bose speakers as subwoofers in the lab. My Polk speakers are fed through my push-pull tube amp which is fed from the rec out of a JVC amp which is powering the Bose, with the EQ as: 63 +10, 160 +8, 400 +6, 1K -10, 2.5K -10, 6.3K -10, 16K -10. It is rather interesting, it does add more bass, but it's drawn out, sort of sustained; it sounds like it needs a higher damping amp. Or, maybe it's just a sloppy driver.

Audio

I am just now hooking up our Bose speakers as subwoofers in the lab. My Polk speakers are fed through my push-pull tube amp which is fed from the rec out of a JVC amp which is powering the Bose, with the EQ as: 63 +10, 160 +8, 400 +6, 1K -10, 2.5K -10, 6.3K -10, 16K -10. It is rather interesting, it does add more bass, but it's drawn out, sort of sustained; it sounds like it needs a higher damping amp. Or, maybe it's just a sloppy driver.

Update

This didn't work too well. I sort of forgot about this website, and haven't done anything with it for a long time. Right now my main project in woodworking is building two banjos. (That may have been the secret project mentioned earlier, but I've forgotten!) We are doing the bible bee right now, and that takes up a lot of time. I never knew was so bad at memorizing. It seems like my brothers and sisters can just read a card once or twice and have memorized it. Right now the lab is also very cluttered; I just got about 50 years worth of the Proceedings of the IRE (now IEEE), plus about the same number of years of Radio magazine, and am trying to find places for all of them. I just got back from a swim meet. I swam 50m backstroke and butterfly. I only have to drop .08 seconds in my fly to break 30, which is one of my swimming goals for this summer. (I placed second, the the winning time was 30.00s) I have been doing winter swim, and am currently swimming with coaches Bill and Bob at Camelot, (SCM) and Audry Moore, (LCM). 

 I am also busy with some of the new equipment we got down in Florida. The lab has been expanded to the entire sunroom, with a woodworking space.

More later

We've arrived!

(Actually we arrived yesterday)
I haven't updated this for the entire trip down, but I'm finally getting to it. I'll see if I can post photos later, but I didn't get as many on the way down as I would have liked. I'm currently eating lunch and typing, but
since we didn't pack utensils the keyboard is lucky we aren't having anything very sticky! (bread & butter and salad) I must remember to add to my notes not to go on long trips during spring break, especially without reservations! (what were we thinking?) Anyway, we got here, the weather is nice (supposed to be 85 and sunny all week), we've done one practice, and my birthday is soon.
The practices are hard. I'm still sore from the morning practice, and we have another one this afternoon!

Must go now,

Zachary

Spring

I love spring, everything is growing, color is returning to the world. I'm going to miss watching things turn green, but I took a few photos today, and I'll add them if it doesn't take too long to upload.

-Edit-

Here they are: (It took almost 10 minutes to upload! Next time I'll use my Picasa web albums and compress them some)

Enjoy!

Zachary

Why am I still awake?

I am going to bed after this, we have been packing, and it is tomorrow. That's too late.
I hope we can leave quickly tomorrow, but just waking up will be enough of a challenge! Us children can sleep in the van, and Mama and Papa will alternate driving.

Hava's birthday was today, she mostly got cooking things, like mixing bowls. Girls (in our family) are very hard to get presents for, but I think that she had been wanting some of those things.

I'll see about posting photos later today (essentially tomorrow)

Goodnight,

Zachary

DE KJ4BXT K

First Post

Alright, here is my first post. I intend this blog to be frequently updated, but it may or may not actually be. Here you will find out what I am doing, what my family is doing, and general facts of interest.

At the time of this writing I am 14, 15 in a week and a day, we are leaving on a trip to Florida tomorrow, 
One of the things I want to do is custom wood inlaying/engraving. I would sell it here. I also have a couple secret projects that will probably be revealed in about a month.

I started this blog so that I could try to upload photos and reports of our trip to Florida, so I'll see what I can to do to upload photos while we are down there.

73, DE KJ4BXT K

Zachary