How Geeks Scrapbook...

OK, so I can't speak for all geeks, only myself! My wife is an incredible scrapbooker, and I wish I were nearly as creative as she is. It's not just about putting pictures on pages; it's about weaving an entire story, and telling that story not only with the pictures, but also with the words, papers, textures, and other embellishments that bring her pages to life. Yeah, I can't do that.

It's not that I have nothing to scrapbook, though, because I do. And I recently had an idea that's, well, if not uniquely mine, then at least uniquely geeky.

Specifically, I'm an embedded systems geek, both hardware and software. Not only is that my day job, but it also weaves its way into my hobbies. My hobbies take me in various directions, be it Steampunk, model rocketry, Halloween gadgetry, toys for my little cousins, whatever.

One of the side-effects of working with embedded systems is that I sometimes design printed circuit boards to help bring some of my creations to life. One important rule that I learned early on is to always have spares handy. My inner Boy Scout agrees, and likes to be prepared. It's a terrible thing when things go south, as they sometimes do, and have a project grind to a halt because you have to wait for replacement parts, boards, etc.

Of course, things don't always go south, with the side effect that the spares tend to accumulate over time. Not a big deal with parts - I can always find a use for extra LEDs, Arduinos, and what-not. Spare circuit boards, though, that's another issue. Mostly, my spare boards sat on a shelf gathering dust.

And that's where my wife inspired me (it's a pity she doesn't read my blog; I could get a few brownie points here). Years and years ago, she bought me a cool little 3-ring binder made out of recycled circuit boards.

The trouble was, I didn't have anything really worthy to put in it. It sat empty for a long time. Then I realized, hey, why can't I scrapbook circuit boards the way she does pictures? And so I did.

I use top-loading page protectors to hold my scrapbook pages, rather than just punching holes in the pages themselves. It makes the pages a little wider than my binder, but it keeps the PCB edges from snagging on things, and should (hopefully) catch any boards that separate from the pages.

Instead of buying paper from a craft or scrapbooking store, I use Google Images to find pictures of cool circuit boards that I then print (borderless) on matte brochure paper.

I avoid water-marked images, which typically mean they're from a stock image vendor and ought to be paid for. There are plenty out there that aren't, usually from other folks' personal projects.

I use double-sided tape to mount the really small boards, and foam mounting tape for the bigger ones. Sometimes I'll keep it simple and just mount the boards with the briefest description of what they are.

 

Sometimes I'll get more creative, especially if the boards are small, or are part of an exceptionally cool project.

 



I'm not going to claim that my scrapbook is anything as awesome as the ones my wife can make, but I'm pretty happy with the way it's coming together. And I've got plenty more space in that binder!

 

 

The Good Creative: 18 ways to make better art

I just finished reading the book, "The Good Creative: 18 ways to make better art," by Paul Jarvis. I downloaded it for my Kindle from Amazon, and it was a very quick read, only a couple of hours. It was worth every second!

I originally downloaded it for my teenage daughter, who's very artistic but doesn't seem to have a lot of confidence in her work. I read it myself first, and instantly became a fan of Paul Jarvis. His writing is so down-to-earth that reading his book is like sitting down and talking to a friend. His tips seem so right, so reasonable, so obvious that you have to wonder why no one ever wrote this stuff down before. And it's not just a testament to his own success or brilliance, like so many other self-help books out there. It's not a sales pitch, either. More than anything else, it's just a collection of tips/habits/attitudes that have worked for him (and others) in his work. Your mileage may vary, and he tells you so right up front.

In real life, I'm an engineer. I'm a creative guy, a problem solver by nature. I also have an artistic side, leaning towards Steampunk-inspired gadgetry. I've done work for various Steampunk artists before, mostly enabling technologies that add some pizzazz to their work, but never felt that my own work was worth putting out there. This book has made me re-think that notion. And hey, I might be wrong, but I'm all jazzed up and I'm going to go for it anyway. And in the meantime, I'm going to download some of his other books....

Check it out at Amazon.com

When It Rains, It Pours

I'm a bit late getting this entry posted. I've been busy. Despite the best of intentions, I once again didn't get my taxes done until April 14th. Well, I've finished later, so it's not really last minute after all!

It's tough to get enthusiastic about taxes when you know you're going to have to pay. Oh, I had high hopes that maybe this year would be different. After an epic miscalculation last year, and having to pay Uncle Sam through the nose, I made some adjustments to my W-4 and thought I'd be fine this year. Especially with my son starting college, I thought for sure that the IRS would cut me some slack.

Not so much. It seems that the IRS considers me far wealthier than I really am - certainly wealthier than I feel, especially when I'm living paycheck-to-paycheck! All of those great deductions for paying college tuition and all? Yeah, we make too much for them to apply to us! We try so hard to do the right thing, living within our means, saving for retirement, saving for college - sometimes I think my kids would be better off if I were unemployed. At least they might get some financial aid out of the deal!

I shouldn't complain too loudly, though. We were better off this year than last (by which I mean we owed much less tax). I am ready to throw in the towel and hire an accountant to handle it from now on, though.

I've been using Intuit TurboTax for years and years now. It's good, don't get me wrong, but I've really gotten sick and tired of getting nickel and dimed to death. It's like every few minutes they're trying to get me to upgrade to a more expensive version of the product, or buy some other service. Now, the version of TurboTax that I always use doesn't include Self Employment support like it always has. Sure, this year (because I'm such a great customer) they upgraded me for free. Next year, though, it'll cost me. Sounds kinda like a drug dealer, no?

And this: I live in Massachusetts but work in New Hampshire. I earn only my salary in NH and with no personal income tax, I don't need to file taxes there. TurboTax doesn't understand that, and every year wants me to buy that State package in addition to Massachusetts.

The final straw: This year, both my teenagers had part-time jobs. They didn't make much money. In Massachusetts, if you make under $8,000 and don't have certain other types of income, you don't have to file at all. The only reason to file under those circumstances is if you're expecting a refund. Neither had state taxes withheld, so neither needed to file. Not according to TurboTax, though. They would have been happy to accept $30 each to eFile state taxes unnecessarily.

Likewise with their Federal taxes. Both kids had Medicare & Social Security taxes withheld, but only my son had Federal withholding. Not sure what that's about; someone in Payroll goofed, I think.... Anyway, My daughter, not expecting a refund and making less than $6,200, didn't need to file Federal taxes at all. My son made less than that, but was expecting refund so filed a return. Intuit doesn't charge to file your Federal returns, which is good, but would have been happy to have me file a return for my daughter unnecessarily. Sheesh! As if I don't spend enough time on my taxes as it is!

I hadn't intended to rant about doing my taxes, but TurboTax just pushed me over the edge this year - sorry! Mostly I was going to talk about my vehicle woes. The detour was merely to demonstrate that I already feel especially poor at this time of year. And that brings me to my car...

I have - had - a gold 2006 Dodge Grand Caravan with about 249,500 miles on it. My daughter named it the Golden Bullet.

I was really hoping to hit the quarter-of-a-million mile mark before I had to retire it, but I fell just short. It was pretty beat up, but served me faithfully for almost 10 years. Shortly before I brought it in to get inspected, the Check Engine light went on. I figured at worst, it would be another catalytic converter. If only! The front tie rod was shot and the engine was misfiring badly. That could mean all sorts of things, including a new catalytic converter, valves, seals, whatever.

Let me back up for a second. A bunch of years ago, a buddy of mine at work turned me on to Moschetto Brothers Auto Sales, on Merrimack Street in Methuen, MA. They sell used cars, but are (more importantly to me at the time) a full-service repair shop. Not only are their prices much more reasonable than a dealership, they are, in my opinion and experience, scrupulously honest. There have been times when they've come in below their estimate because the problem turned out to be less severe than they originally thought. In contrast, every single time I've brought a vehicle to a dealership for brake work, I've always needed a complete brake job. Go figure! They've always done right by me, and I'm happy to give them a plug whenever possible.

Moschetto Brothers Auto Sales

So, the score so far: I needed a front tie rod replaced and a front-end alignment ($325) and new spark plugs and wires and a tune-up ($300 - my plugs were very old and very difficult to remove). Only after replacing the spark plugs could they diagnose other problems associated with the misfiring engine.

Other shops could have - would have - done the front end alignment and the tune-up anyway, costing me $625,  and then delivered the bad news about everything else that was wrong with my engine. They didn't. They did the bare minimum (new plugs & wires, $169) required to diagnose the other problems, reasoning that it's a waste of time and money to do any more on a terminally ill vehicle. And terminal it was. The engine needed thousands of dollars worth of work. A used engine would have still cost about $2,400. It was just too much money for a minivan that was close to end-of-life anyway.

Ah, misery. I definitely got my money's worth out of my minivan. And I paid for it with Broadcom stock options way back when, so I'd really gotten used not having a car payment. Now, here I was, needing a new vehicle, knowing I'd need to pay taxes, and dreading taking on a car payment. Oy!

Well, I knew I'd be replacing my minivan soon anyway (I was hoping for later rather than sooner), and was planning on looking at Moschetto's used cars. I checked out their inventory online, and they actually had a decent looking one available. It was a 2010 VW Routan with only 27,000 miles on it, a clean CarFax report, and only a single previous owner. I checked a variety of sources and found that their price ($16,800-ish) was very reasonable, so we (my wife & I) took it for a test drive, and liked it. My wife especially like the heated seats (it was a long, cold winter). I liked the NAV system. We decided to go for it, and after a couple of weeks of driving it, I can report that I'm very happy with the choice. Though I hate having a car payment, it's manageable. And it's really nice having a new car (well, new to me) again. I just hope it serves me as long as my Grand Caravan did!

My daughter has once again claimed naming rights, but hasn't come up with anything yet. Apparently, she has to get to know it first!

The Battle Rages On...

I've struggled with my weight for most of my life. In recent months, I've been trying really hard to address that. Getting down to a reasonable weight should help with a variety of issues, large and small, that get in the way of my living a fabulously enjoyable life:

• My karate should improve when I have less mass to move around.
• I'll probably snore less - or not at all - if I drop the extra weight. This will both let me sleep better and make my wife much happier.
• It will improve my blood pressure.
• It will decrease the wear and tear on my knees.
• My clothes will fit better.

This past July, I was laid up following a rotator cuff repair. The injury occurred while I was testing for my 3rd degree black belt (I passed, injury and all). Injuries during training are rare; in my 22 years at the dojo, the only other injury I had was a dislocated pinky finger I got while sparring (my bad).

Anyway, I wasn't able to work out at all for a couple of months, and it wasn't until fairly recently that I could work out without restrictions. My range of motion is close to 100%, but my strength is still only at about 80%, so I still struggle with some things. Unfortunately, not working out let my weight creep up ever higher.

A couple of months ago, I finally got my butt in gear. I started forcing myself to go to the gym again. We have a small gym at work that suits my needs, but the trick was getting there. I used to go every day at lunch, but fell out of the habit long ago when my workload got especially hectic. So I force myself to go to the gym almost every day I'm at work, usually spending a half hour on an elliptical or cross-ramp elliptical and another 20 minutes or so strengthening my shoulder. One nice side effect of going to the gym at lunch is that I usually brown bag it these days, and save a little (or a lot of) money not going out for lunch.

I recently started weighing myself on a regular basis. Every morning after I get out of the shower, I hop on the scale. It's a Withings WS-50 Smart Body Analyzer, which is connected via Wi-Fi to my home network, and my weight (among other things) is logged into my Withings Health Mate account. Otherwise, I'd probably never write it down! This scale also calculates BMI, lean muscle mass, and body fat percentage. The biggest problem I have with this gadget is that it seems erratic. My weight fluctuates by 5 pounds or more day-to-day sometimes. This is much more than the usual couple of pounds a human being fluctuates normally, and I can't help but wonder if it's because I don't necessarily place it in the exact same spot on the floor every day. Or maybe I'm not perfectly centered on the platform - though the scale is smart enough to tell you if you're leaning too far in any direction. So I try not to worry about daily differences in my weight, as long as the trend is generally downward.

I also got a Withings Wireless Blood Pressure Monitor about a month ago, since my BP is a bit high and my doctor wants me to monitor it. I use it every morning at about the same time, and it connects via Bluetooth to my iPad Mini. So far, it's more consistent than the scale - though I'm still trying to find just the right position in which to hold my arm while it's doing it's thing. The iPad app is ok, with only a couple of annoying quirks, and it syncs with my Health Mate account pretty seamlessly, so my weights and BP readings end up in the same log.

So, how's it going? I had a doctor's appointment yesterday, and I've dropped 11 pounds since I was last there. Woo Hoo! On the down side, my blood pressure was up a little bit. Not enough to worry him too much, and we hope that continued weight loss will correct it soon enough. It's a drag, but I feel good that my time in the gym is paying off with my weight. Now I've just got to keep slogging and hit the milestones I've set for myself.

Withings Smart Body Analyzer

Withings Wireless Blood Pressure Monitor

Back at last...

Well, it's been an embarrassing 5 years since my last blog post. It's not that I haven't had anything to say, and I won't pretend that I haven't had the time, it's just that I haven't gotten around to it. I hope to change that now.

I won't promise to post daily, or even weekly. I'll simply promise to post occasionally, when there's something on my mind. That, at least, should be more often than every 5 years. In truth, more and more recently I've wished to be in the habit of keeping a journal. Lots of stuff has been going on in my life, and I wish I'd write it down while it's still fresh, rather than try to wrack my brain for the details after the fact. Well, this is my journal from here on out.

I hope that I can find the time and inspiration for a brain dump of the stuff that's been rattling around my skull. That may result in a flurry of posts in the near future, followed, hopefully, by regular posts thereafter. We'll see!