08:11 – With Barbara’s mom and dad both in the hospital, she and Frances are even busier than usual. They expect Dutch to be discharged late this week, and are looking at assisted-living facilities to decide which are acceptable to have Dutch transferred to. Their mom is being treated for a lung infection, and they’re not sure at this point how long she’ll be in the hospital or whether she’ll be going home to the apartment or will need to go to an assisted-living facility for at least a while. We’re hoping that Sankie’s outlook will improve sufficiently that she’ll be able to return directly to their apartment.
I’m busy putting together subassemblies for a first batch of thirty LK01 Life Science Kits. At this point, it’s all a matter of assembly except that we’re out of stock on bottles of methyl cellulose. I have two liters of that made up, but none bottled. The second bottle-top dispenser I ordered arrived yesterday, so I just need to get some bottles filled. We announced that the LK01 kits would begin shipping the week of 26 May, but we may in fact have them ready to start shipping as early as next Monday.
11:00 – One thing I didn’t think about when we decided to start building and selling science kits is the amount of physical labor involved, particularly as our sales ramp up. I just hauled four cases of goggles downstairs and stacked them. On the return trips upstairs, I’m hauling up finished kits, five at a time. I have about four dozen kits to haul up and more stuff to haul down. And UPS should show up today with a couple cases of 144 glass beakers and several cases of 100 mL graduated cylinders. If I catch Don as he pulls up, I’ll ask him to roll those crates around back to save me having to carry them downstairs.
I tend to think of components as small, light items, which is true individually. How much can a stainless-steel spatula or a glass stirring rod weigh, after all? But put a case of 700 of each of them in a large box along with similar quantities of two or three other “small, light” items, and the mass adds up quickly. At 30, I wouldn’t have thought twice about any of this stuff; at nearly 60, it becomes an aerobic workout. Between hauling components and kits up and down the stairs and walking Colin, I probably get more exercise than most guys my age.
14:56 – Urk. Now that’s embarrassing. I’m starting to clean off my main desk to make room for the new system. I’m going to run it side-by-side with the current system until I’m sure everything I need is migrated over. So, as I was moving piles of stuff off my desk, what did I notice but a stack of five hard drives in those clear plastic form-fitted cases. I looked at the first one: “Oh, well, it’s only 160 GB, not big enough to worry about.” At the second: “Oh, well, it’s only 500 GB.” At the third: “Oh, well, it’s only 1.5 TB.” At the fourth: “Oh, well, it’s only, uh, 2 TB.” At the fifth: “Oh, shit. Another 2 TB drive.” Both 2 TB drives, as best I remember, have never been used other than briefly to test a RAID system. Oh, well. One can never have too many hard drives. I’d completely forgotten I had these. I’ll probably just stick them in an external eSATA drive carrier and use them for portable backup.
16:20 – With Europe already turning into a smoking pile of rubble, I sometimes wonder if Comrade Barroso has been inhaling too much of that smoke: Federal Europe will be ‘a reality in a few years’, says Jose Manuel Barroso
Federated, hell. They’ll be lucky if the EU still exists. The euro certainly won’t, unless it’s a Southern-tier euro, with the protestant Northern tier returning to their own currencies, or perhaps, if they haven’t learned their lesson from this catastrophe, a shared Deutsche Mark under whatever name. I’ve known for years that Barroso, that “former” Marxist, is delusional, but he keeps coming up with even more impressive castles in the sky. Barroso, who defines the term True Believer, no doubt actually believes that not just the eurozone but the EU 27 will fall in with his ridiculous plans. Even now, the UK is teetering on the edge of withdrawing from the EU, and with prominent defections among even his own Tories, Cameron may not be able to hold things together for another year, let alone until the proposed referendum on EU membership four years from now. And what are the chances that Germany, Finland, and Holland will agree to pay not just the Southern tier’s outstanding debts but to continue to subsidize them forever and without limit? I’d say the probability is slightly more than zero. Maybe 0.000001.
They expect Dutch to be discharged late this week, and are looking at assisted-living facilities to decide which are acceptable to have Dutch transferred to.
Good to hear that he is accepting this (I assume). Probably should have happened several months ago unfortunately but this is all art, no rocket science.
Between hauling components and kits up and down the stairs and walking Colin, I probably get more exercise than most guys my age.
Good for you as long as your knees can take it. My left knee has had 35 internal stitches and 65 external stitches putting it back together after a close encounter with a glass door. I really have to be careful with it on stairs.
You may want to think about a dumbwaiter system though.
So much for that New Year’s resolution.
Agreed with what Lynn said about a dumbwaiter or similar. How about a stair lift with the seat replaced by a fold-up 2×2′ shelf?
Actually, I’m thinking about training Colin to carry stuff up and down for me. The problem is that he requires a lot of supervision. I’ll say “go downstairs and bring me up three boxes of thermometers.” But when he comes back, he’ll have two boxes of scalpels or four boxes of spatulas or something.
Actually, I’m thinking about training Colin to carry stuff up and down for me. The problem is that he requires a lot of supervision. I’ll say “go downstairs and bring me up three boxes of thermometers.” But when he comes back, he’ll have two boxes of scalpels or four boxes of spatulas or something.
OK, that is funny and believable – somewhat.
I love what Jerry Pournelle says, “You don’t know how smart people are until you have to program a robotic milling machine”.
Judas H. Priest:
http://www.wavy.com/dpp/news/local_news/suffolk/boy-who-held-pencil-like-gun-suspended
I’ll probably just stick them in an external eSATA drive carrier and use them for portable backup.
USB3 is faster and is backwards compatible with USB2.
Somewhat? You’ve obviously never spent any time around Border Collies. Ask a farmer who has one. The dog learns to identify specific animals. So if the farmer wants the BC to go get a particular cow, he just tells the BC which one he wants and it’ll bring the correct one. I am not making this up.
RBT, I’m not questioning a border collie’s ability to identify specific cows and recognize detailed commands and such, but I do question their ability to count. I wouldn’t doubt you if you said you could send Bowser after a box of beakers, say, if the box had a mouthable handle and some dog-recognizable marking on the side. I’d want video proof if you told him to fetch three boxes and he brought back exactly three.
Well, Border Collies can count better than Big Chuck.
“Urk. Now that’s embarrassing. I’m starting to clean off my main desk to make room for the new system. I’m going to run it side-by-side with the current system until I’m sure everything I need is migrated over. So, as I was moving piles of stuff off my desk, what did I notice but a stack of five hard drives in those clear plastic form-fitted cases. (snip) Oh, well. One can never have too many hard drives. I’d completely forgotten I had these. I’ll probably just stick them in an external eSATA drive carrier and use them for portable backup.”
Heh, I hereby confer upon you the the Order of the Hoarder, First Class.
I’ve got unopened stuff too. About half of the DVDs in my collection are still in their shrink wrap. And I have unused monitors and drives lying around too.
Youse guys have 2 B RUTHLESS in getting rid of stuff. See Lynn on that; he has recent experience.
You have to find the time and motivation to be ruthless. I managed to clean out a room about every two years. I’m pretty sure the stuff stacks up faster than I get rid of it…
“I’m pretty sure the stuff stacks up faster than I get rid of it…”
There it is.
Youse guys have 2 B RUTHLESS in getting rid of stuff. See Lynn on that; he has recent experience.
We were not RUTHLESS. There are boxes everywhere in the new house. I have to be careful in the study as some of the stacks are five high.
I have decided to rip out the builtins in the study before unpacking. It is going to be fun … not.
Re boxes having taken over the house, would it make sense to either rent a small conex or put up a small shed outside and store the boxes there while you’re doing whatever you need to do in the house? Or would that make things worse because then you’d never have incentive to go through the junk and toss what you should have tossed before the move? Or, related to that last point, is that a meaningless question because “stuff you should have tossed” is an empty set?
Failing any of the above, you can make stacks of boxes less unstable by putting up two columns of boxes with a 1×4 between them and lashing them together. Hardly a great solution, but better than having a stack of boxes come down because you had the temerity to walk past.
Longer term, if you have a tall garage, look at putting in hanging shelves. I just put in six 45×45 racks suspended about 24″ from the ceiling. They hold a lot of stuff.
Yeah, but what about the chance of your garage developing a moon roof?
Re boxes having taken over the house, would it make sense to either rent a small conex or put up a small shed outside and store the boxes there while you’re doing whatever you need to do in the house?
We’ve just been too busy fixing and selling the old home to finish unpacking. And I am going to rip the builtins out of my study (an entire wall, see picture #8 of http://www.har.com/HomeValue/dispSoldDetail.cfm?MLNUM=77484442# ) before I unpack anything in there.
And we do have a 15×30 storage building next to our office building. And some precious “stuff” probably needs to go there. Downsizing is tough.
I’m not sure what you’re getting at. If you mean the weight of the racks pulling down or warping the joists, I’d rate that as low likelihood. The total weight isn’t that great and the racks are spread across multiple joists in a large garage. I’m using them mainly to hold bulky, odd-shaped things like my wet saw, the table router, and toys that the older kids outgrew but which the youngest hasn’t grown into.
Ah, I figured you were storing your anvil collection.
No, the anvil is over the front door in case any SWAT teams or other criminals break it down. It’s designed to knock people through the specially weakened section of floor that opens into the alligator pit. Unfortunately, there’s no alligator at the moment, but I make up for it by having the pit serve as a septic tank.
Lynn wrote:
“And I am going to rip the builtins out of my study (an entire wall, see picture #8 of http://www.har.com/HomeValue/dispSoldDetail.cfm?MLNUM=77484442# ) before I unpack anything in there.”
That’s a study? It’s about 4x the size of my study.
Hell of a nice place you’ve got there Lynn. I’d need a map to find my way around.
When I bought my place in 1985 the neighbors were amazed that a single guy was buying a 4 BR, 15 square (1500 sq ft) house. I’m guessing my house could fit in your garage.
EDIT. When I stayed with friends in Fairfax County, Va, their house was about 30 squares, twice the size of mine. And they said it was small by American standards.
Our house could fit in his garage, too; they like things big in the great Lone Star State! But there’s only the two of us now; I call this place the Hobbit House because I have to duck in doorways and coming down the stairs; basement is kind of undoable, as is the attic. People in 1830 were wicked short.
Shortness…
I stayed with friends of the family in Cornwall in 1990, and the door to the bedroom assigned to me was *very* low. I saw it coming, knew I had to duck, but didn’t duck low enough and hit my head. I think that room and door was built with Frodo Baggins in mind.
I imagine buildings in Europe that are older than ones here have a lot of that; the colonial-era houses I’ve gone through in Nova Anglia over the last fifty years have all clearly had much shorter residents in their day. Washington and Jefferson must have been considered gigantic freaks of nature. And I’m taller than either of them, so life is hahd.
When I bought my place in 1985 the neighbors were amazed that a single guy was buying a 4 BR, 15 square (1500 sq ft) house. I’m guessing my house could fit in your garage.
Nope, my garage is about 700 ft2 at most. The extra 10 foot at the back of the garage is like a basement and workshop combined. Except I need to add a door and a window to the back as there is no ventilation in there whatsoever. Especially since I moved the clothes dryer out there last week due to the noise of the vent blower in the attic.
I’ve got the wife and the daughter living in my home also. 1,000 ft2 each by that logic. Especially since my daughter has two of the bedrooms.
I do not know what moron designed the upper cabinets in my study. The middle section sticks out 4 inches and has a very nice point that I have nailed my head on when getting up from the desk. Twice now.
My paternal grandparents were 5 foot (her) and 5’4″ (him). They had two sons, both 6’2″ and a daughter, 5’1″. My grandfather claimed it was eating only potatoes for six months out of the year while growing up that stunted his growth.
My wife’s entire generation is stunted, presumably by the famines caused by that douchenozzle Mao. She and many of her friends are shorter than their parents. The good news is, their American-born children are much taller, like, daughters taller than their mothers by age ten and with better teeth and eyesight.
This is something really strange and fascinating about heredity: one would think that environmental factors would not affect DNA, however they clearly do, apparently for multiple generations into the future.
I am reminded of the dwarf mammoths found on various islands: an adaptation that happened over just a few generations, and hence not evolution in the usual sense. Shows just how little we understand about how heredity really works!
People confuse natural selection, which is (only) one of the mechanisms by which evolution occurs, with evolution itself. Wikipedia has a pretty good article about Island Dwarfism.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Island_dwarfism
SteveF wrote:
“The good news is, their American-born children are much taller, like, daughters taller than their mothers by age ten and with better teeth and eyesight.”
I used to work with a lot of Asians, especially Vietnamese boat people, and many of them still have skin that looks in very poor condition. Their kids, born here, have very well conditioned skin.
Good nutrition is the reason Aussies (and Americans, I guess) were at such an advantage over Europeans in the tennis for some time after WWII.
Yeah, but it isn’t only natural selection. There was an article a while back – I’m too lazy to hunt it down – where they studied Northern European grandchildren of people who had-or-had-not suffered from famines around the turn of the last century. There was a clear correlation in height: people who’s grandparents were in famine areas were significantly shorter than people whose grandparents were unaffected.
I’m not even a decent amateur biologist, but as I understand it, genetic researchers are finding that environmental conditions influence the expression of DNA – not the sequence, but the activation/deactivation of different areas. This apparently in a way that can be passed on to the next generation.
The evolution of dwarf mammoths may have been partially natural selection, but it went very fast: as I understand it, in some cases, the change had to happen in just a handful of generations. These new factors are likely part of the explanation…
I think the genes aren’t changed but depending on environmental conditions the genes are expressed or not. So people living in famine times are short, skinny, pockmarked, etc but their children, if well fed, don’t have those problems.
@Miles: That was the strange thing about the study: The people’s *grandchildren* were statistically much shorter, if the grandparents had suffered famine. IIRC there were other differences as well. So the expression of the DNA crosses generations, which is not what I learned in high school biology!
When a woman is pregnant with a girl, if she’s starved it affects herself, the foetus in her womb, and the gametes in the foetus’s ovaries.
I’m not sure about a male foetus. Sperm are continually produced. I don’t know if malnutrition in the womb affects sperm production decades later.