Personal Projects & Interests is my sandbox for life outside the office—where spreadsheets, sensors, and code tackle real-world chores and passions. Here you’ll see data models guiding gear buys, DIY automations that make the house (and gate) smarter, endurance training logged like an experiment, and reflections that tie it all together.
First I installed tim@Lincoln:~$ sudo apt-get install envyng-qt with all its crazy dependencies. Then I ran lspci | grep VGA to find my video driver. 00:0a.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV34 [GeForce FX 5200] (rev a1) With envyng, I took their recommendation of: 173.14.12-0ubuntu5.1 and installed, restarted. On restart I had access to the […] read more
In order to do more workouts at home, I decided to put a chin-up bar in my basement. I looked around at amazon and saw three real options: over the door mount, on the ceiling mount or wall mount. Three examples shown below: Chin-up bar examples Wall mount Wall Mount Ceiling Mount In a pull-up […] read more
The first thing we considered, was the different functions we wanted out of our lighting and how different layers combine in an overall lighting plan. First, we wanted general downlighting with the flexibility to be in full-clean/bible study/game mode (I want to see everything in the room), but also wanted a dimmer discussion mode and […] read more
After noticing lots of loose mortar in our front retaining wall, I decided to try and tuck-point with the mortar repair kits sold at the local home store. I found the work tricky and knew my work was a little sloppy, so I hired a local handyman to do the job. I removed all of […] read more
1976-Born to two 25 year olds, a teacher and an accountant who planned and dreamed about me. 1978-Moved to Tennessee when Dad was transferred. 1979-My sister was born. 1980-Transferred back to Ohio, I was within fifteen miles of both sets of grandparents. I took gymnastics, ice skating, and played soccer and T-ball. 1982-Began kindergarten. I […] read more
I had stored this away in the depths of my old web-site. I find it interesting. Thoughts? Warning signs of a love-lacking heart: Prayer ceases to be vital part of your life. The quest for biblical truth ceases and you grow content with the knowledge of eternal things already acquired. The biblical knowledge possessed or […] read more
Played around today with digital drawing. I used five minutes to draw my hand. Lauren (age 4) drew a ‘happy person’. Then she drew a picture of her lifting weights. I drew a picture of ellie (this took about 40 minutes). read more
what is the fundamental anchor which helps us get up the mountain? read more
Well, we didn’t expect this to happen today (Chrissy was scheduled to be induced tomorrow), but we are proud to announce the birth of our baby boy. He was born this morning at 5:15 weighing 8 lb 10 oz. Some initial pictures below, if the link below doesn’t work, click the direct link here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/23298466@N06/ […] read more
As you can see here, the room that David was going to move into had significant problems. There is no insulation inside our brick and block constructed walls, and there’s a thin layer of plaster on the surface that causes some excessive flaking when a nail pops out. When we tried to paint David’s room, […] read more