Sunday, June 25, 2006

News from MN, 6/25/2006

Happy Summer Solstice+3!

A fun weekend was has here, blowing bubbles and writing chess programs.
We were going to play tennis with Nick on Sat. and go autocross racing
with Zack on Sun., but it rained, so we stayed home and enjoyed the
raindrops.

Rainy days are good for bubbles, as the high humidity lets them last
longer. We took 300+ photos trying to capture bubbles with cool
reflections (gotta love digital cameras). A few of them were in focus
(first 3 pics).

Nick took over the lead in the summer chess tournament, 19 wins to 13
losses. Yesterday he got this crazy idea that we both write programs to
play chess, then have our programs battle each other. So we each pick
our sharpest swords (programing languages, his is Lisp, mine is Perl)
and we went into battle. Happily I report my program is the current
victor, mainly because mine is finished and his is not. I cheated by
leveraging a building block I found on the net, whereas he is diligently
building his from the ground, up I think. My code is silly, fat, and
slow and will surely be sliced to bits once his learns to stand up. But
for now, I cluck about proudly with temporary victory.

Zach continues working on any car that moves. Actually, more often on
those cars that don't move. This week it was our neighbor's classic
Pontiac GTO. He tore the inside out of it, replaced a rusted floorboard
and refurbished the seats. Friday night he got a call at 11 pm from a
guy who was stuck 2 hours south of here. His car had broke down at a
race track in Iowa, so, parts and tools in hand, Zach went on a late
night rescue mission. He got back in time for his day job at 7:30 am
Saturday. He also bought himself a monster tool chest last week, on
which he resides in kingly fashion in the 4th pic.

Mom/Dad, I got my birthday package, thanks! I hid it from myself so I
won't be tempted to open it till my birthday. Zack, Jessy, and Nick
treated me to a Father's day breakfast. Some of the best food ever
invented: Baker's square Pie and Oatmeal (5th pic).

The 6th picture is of an art structure I made last weekend. Yep, Bruce
can do art, but mainly because it was more engineering than art.
Something called a tensegrity tower, which was coined by Buckminster
Fuller to describe how you can use TENSion to build a structure with
intEGRITY. You can build towers with sticks that don't touch each
other! Strong enough to withstand an attack by fridge robots and
Australian koala bears.

The hole is now at 17 feet deep, which is about the limit of my camera's
flash, as you can see by the barely viable shovel. It would likely have
been at infinite depth, but fortunately digging was slowed by rain an a
sore foot attached to Nick's right shovel leg. That last picture is of
Nick building a rope ladder. Kindof. I helped. Now anyone can climb
down the hole on the ladder, but N & Z usually stick to chiminy climbing
on the dirt walls, I think so they can keep their cloths the proper
brown color.

Bruce

Sunday, June 11, 2006

News from MN, 6/11/2006

Hello with Jello,

Speaking of jello, did you know that egg yolks, when left on the counter
for 2 days, turn into yellow jello. And into something a bit less
appealing after 4+ days.

We had nice visits from both brother Mal and N/Z cousins Crystal and
Hedi Gates. Malcolm dropped by for an overnight stay on his way to a
conference and we drove and walked around some of his old haunts. C&H
hitched a ride back with Laurie the end of last week, then drove back
with her on her way to Texas early this week. On their way out, they
hit a raccoon at 1 am in the morning about 3 hours north of here. Then,
after patching up the car, they hit a deer 6 minutes later. That they
could not patch. So she is driving an insurance sponsored rental while
her Vibe gets fixed. We (mostly Zach) introduced C&H to not only Roch,
but also the mighty Mississippi, Wisconsin, paint balls, giant bubble
blowing, 1/4 mile racing, and lots of other sports car stuff.

Nick and I started jogging a couple weeks ago. Usually around the
neighborhood in the evening. Nothing monster serious, just 1/2 hour
tours of the neighborhood. I thought I'd have to wait up for him, but
seems that boy has been sprinting around campus, as it is he who waits
for me.

But for once (since junior high) the tables have turned in our chess
tournament! I am the current leader at 7 wins, 6 losses, and 2 ties.

Lots of pics this week.

Pic 1: Nick proving that you can indeed flip 2 pancakes at once. I'll
spare you the picture of me proving you can not flip 3 pancakes at once.

Pic 2: The Gates girls proving you can fit 2 (trim) girls in one RX8
back seat. 5 of us went to the race track in my 4 seater.

Pic 3: Zack about to set the days best time in the Rex. He got 15.5
seconds, beating my 15.6.

Pic 4: Zack trying to man handle 2 Montana cowgirls. Not possible.

Pic 5: Zack and cousins built that box to ship his DeSol engine off to
California for uber engine work.

Pic 6: This is what you get when you ignite a bunch of bubbles filled
with propane gas.

Pic 7: Chefs Z&J, making a nummy pasta dinner.

Pic 8: Nick starting to dig a hole. He digs a bit each morning before
we head to IBM.

Pic 9: Nick and I got back from jogging Friday and found the voice of
Zack coming from the hole. That boy can dig. After 1-2 hours, he was
down past 8 feet!

Don't ask me what the hole is for. I'm simply the cameraman.

Bruce