Sky Dive

Today, due to the overcast skies and cool weather, I was allowed to sit through the Skydive Fort Wayne training video and found it interesting but not tempting. During the course of the conversation with the owner he said that the return rate after the first jump at his school was three times higher than the national average. FYI-the national average is 3%. Another interesting link is here.

Learning on-line via Uncle Sam

I just stumbled across a great site sponsored by the US Government. The name of the site is Gov Online Learning Center. Over the last year 100,000 registered users have completed 60,000 courses. A lot of these classes are free. I looked over the classes and some are pretty good plus it would look good on the resume’.

Pet peeve

I started out this morning at 0430 and found a link to the Top High Schools in the USA. Since I am an education advocate and live in a school district that was “in the top 20″ a few years ago, I expected to see “my” school on the list. However, in 700+ schools around the USA AHS did not get a spot on the list. Based on my experience and listening to students at the school, I am not surprised since no one seems to be pushing AP testing or for that matter science fairs or careers. What happened? Was AHS so focused on one particular objective they lost site of the real purpose of education? Don’t want to believe it then how about Washington Technology magazine’s take on the situation in general.

Planimeter

From my long time friend and early days programming buddy “Z” comes this obscure piece of information: The Planimeter. For those of you that might remember the Sliderule comes this gem. You can see for yourself at these sites.

http://www.leinweb.com/snackbar/planimtr/
http://baen.tamu.edu/users/munster/agen_468_99/planimeter/planimeter.htm
http://abel.math.harvard.edu/~knill/math21a2001/22-green/planimeter/
http://www.mathematik.com/Planimeter/explanation.html

Squash blossoms

I have not eaten squash blossoms for a long time and this article reminded me of happy times and good food. So here you go and now you can run out and try some.

Avionics day

Boy, I felt a little stiff this morning. Installing the wireless internet radio yesterday must have called upon some muscles I have not used for a while. I was up and at them by 0600 and jumped out of bed and ran for the teapot – SAM made a two bagger of green tea - and poured myself one and another and another until the pot was empty. I hit the road for the internet company but the antenna change did not materialize so I went home and painted the sliding door. I took the KX155 that has a failed transmitter to Mid America Avionics at KFWA and hopefully it will not be too expensive to repair

Yesterday – Yesterday

What a day yesterday. I installed a wireless internet feed at an aluminimum recycling plant – everything was dusty and mildly corrosive – but it was a fun job and the people were great. To get up to the mounting point I borrowed the customer man lift with in bucket controls. I installed the RJ45 and ran the coax down the building and into the telco room ( as usual very small and cramped filled with millions of unkempt wires). When I finished at 1830 we could ping it from outside the LAN. It was a great day and a fun install – what could anyone ask for?

Bad Breath

For sufferers of bad breath here is some new news. Tea fights bad breath…..

The day in review -Memorial Day

Today – Memorial Day – was spent by going to the school for the short but passionate speaches and the band playing music. Then to sisters house for lunch ( or dinner around here) and a traditional afternoon with family and friends. An very nice day and evening walk. I have an .avi of the band and later when I get some time I will add a link here.

late to bed, late to rise

This morning happened too early – or one could say late to bed late to rise – and got up at 0900. Wow, the day is half over. Anyway, I mowed the grass and dusted a bit and cleaned off my desk. All this to prepare for the arriving Memorial Day company. Mostly it is family, but with the young ladies getting older the suitors make their appearance and this year is no exception – except there are more than usual this year: We always say the mo(o)re the merrier. Our tradition is to have a noon meal at the old homestead and to go to the cemetary to be with our departed but first it is the MD ceremony at the school where we honor the War Dead and recognize the sacrifices they made for our freedom and stability. Now I am taking the time to blog in case I cannot get close to the computer this evening.