ASET’s 2019 Capstone Project of the Year Award

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Congratulations, Tyson Baldrey and Randy Holmberg, on our selection as recipients for ASET’s 2019 Capstone Project of the Year Award! Thank you for your dedication, hard work, and professionalism! I am part of the best team in Alberta!

We were chosen to represent Lethbridge College at Association of Science and Engineering Technology Professionals of Alberta (ASET) for their Capstone Project of the Year Award.  Our nomination put us in competition with other institutions across Alberta for this year’s Award.

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seeking new employment

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I’ve been seeking new employment the past few weeks.  ISP did not work out.  They need someone with more experience who can work without an Engineer, and I need a place with more than just one guy (me), with engineering guidance and mentorship.  I think professional development cannot happen on my own, without an Engineer present.  The Engineer stamping ISP‘s work left for another company; ISP emailed him my drawings, and he emailed them back; but there was no two-way communication, nobody for me to ask questions.  I didn’t meet their learning curve expectations.  Yes, a new Engineer was hired, but a) he didn’t have experience in this type of work, and b) he had no authorization to stamp at ISP.

I’ve been seeking other Engineering Technologist / drafting / designing work.  There are a few places hiring.  I’ve had two offers.  Unsure what I will do.  Aizlynn believes I should branch out on my own and follow my dreams of simple living architecture (i.e. “tiny homes”, to use a blanket description).  This is intriguing, but I still feel I need the mentoring and expertise of professionals.

Once a teacher, always a teacher.  I continue to do sideline work in that.  Not a lot of money in it though.  More just a time-user while I seek other employment.  However, all my students show greatness, so I will not give them up.

More as it comes.

21 cards (or Ace to Queen)

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Mom asked me to play cards with her and Floyd last night.  I haven’t done that in ages.  “Sure,” I said.  I put on some music, and Floyd dealt the cards.

The object of the game is to get rid of a stack of 21 cards by playing them, each person in turn, on stacks from A to Q in the middle of the table.  Sometimes we move one, two, or more cards during our turns, but most times we just take turns around the table and accomplish nothing – take a card to start, try to play, and finally discard a card.

We went around and around for 20 minutes without much action.  Mom & Floyd played several cards from their stack of 21.  Mine stood still.  I couldn’t move any.  I pointed this out to them.  “You haven’t moved any?”  “Not yet,” I replied.

I think Floyd took pity on me and played two As on the table.  My turn came around, and I used my first card.  Then another.  Then two As came up.  I used them to start two new stacks and built on them – A, 2, 3 … up to Q.  I kept playing.  Six or seven stacks were started on the table.  The cards just kept lining up, and I played them.

Why make an ongoing letter entry on this?  Not only did I win the game when M&F were miles ahead of me, but this is the first time in my life I used up the entire stack of 21 cards in one hand.

spiders in the keyboard

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It was apparently cleaning day at work today.  T moved some desks and debris out of the office as it was a slow work flow day.  I got into the kick of it later as well and finally tackled my computer keyboard, which was covered in … whatever the stuff is that collects on keyboards and the bottoms of computer mice.  I tipped it up-side-down and gave it a few good whacks.  What came out was surprising – not just the volume of grot but something else – a spider!  I nudged it with my finger, and, sure enough, it was alive!  All this time I’ve been using a keyboard with spiders in it.

server hardware upgrade – SSD

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It seems my server is getting old.  It typically runs Windows 7 64-bit with a non-raid cloned (redundant) OS disc, 1.5TB storage disc (pics, videos, teaching material, etc.), and 3TB redundant backup of everything.  Just tonight I switched over to a Solid State Drive (SSD) for the OS.  Can you notice any speed difference?  Hope so.  Been eating up HDDs the past year – 3 in total.  So hopefully this will help.

broke my G-string

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Just to be clear, I’m talking about the G-string, string number 3, on my guitar.  I was tuning it and adding a bit of lubricant to the nut of the guitar when so it didn’t make a popping sound and glided smoothly, when

POP!

the string broke.  Oh, so sad.  I rummaged around in my “household” box of stuff to find a replacement string.  No such luck.  I had several other strings but not the one that was needed.  Luckily there was a music shop downtown.  Unluckily, it was in Park Place Mall, and it was Boxing Day.  Ughhh – crowds.  I park at the far end of the parking lot and hiked in with my guitar.  $15 later, I had a new package of strings.

But … I discovered that any similar string will do.  I used a spare B-string (#2 string), and it works fine!  In fact, it tunes better now than it ever has.

In the process, I learned (apparently I have learned to read within the past 7 years) that I have a George Washburn.  Good name, I think.  Except that this was a $150 Costco guitar.  Just the same, it’s a whole lot better than my previous W30,000 (about $30) guitar bought overseas.

Anybody want an unopened package of guitar strings?

Surface Pro 4 replacement parts

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I had to replace the pen on my Surface Pro 4.  I lost it.  Don’t ask me where.  Somewhere between here and the college, I suspect.  I’m a boo-foo.  $120 for a pen.  Wow.

Then came the power supply.  It packed it in somewhere in Manitoba.  The only way to charge it was with the car charger.  Luckily, the machine works on 12VDC, not some weird number like 18 volts or 21 like one of my old laptops.  Why not make 12 volts a standards?  Oh, wait, it already is.  Then why not use that standard?  I tried ordering a new one from a computer shop.  No go.  Online only – that is, if I didn’t want to pay double.  Finally, long after returning from Manitoba, it came.

Then … the machine quit.  Well, it didn’t really quit.  The keyboard (Type Cover, they call it) stopped working.  Several hours over several days chatting and talking with Microsoft later (once actually being transferred between and chatting with seven different people), they found out several things were physically damaged on it, making the type cover and USB useless.

So, the long and the short of it is, everything but the keyboard is actually replaced.  <sigh>  What a world we live in.

To combat the idea of disposable electronics and dwindling world resources, I made a cover out of jeans.  I can see that I am winning the war against waste.  Yay.  …  Yes, that was tongue-in-cheek. 

goodbye Firefox, or on Edge

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I’ve given up on something I’ve used for … a long time.

Firefox.

I have my replacement Surface Pro 4 tablet and am setting it up the way I want it.  I installed Firefox ver. 64.x.  It stole half an hour yesterday and 45 minutes of this morning’s time out of my life to figure out why Ctrl + Tab and Ctrl + Shift + Tab was not working.  I went through the web trying things like nVidia / GForce, antivirus, and other software that this tablet does not have.  I finally found a blog somewhere that said I needed to go back to an older version of Firefox to get this feature back.

Well why the hell did they change it in the first place?

Good bye, Firefox.  Last straw.  I’m on Edge now.

Christmas

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This is the Christmas break.  I’ve got 10 days off work.  Now at a movie theatre.  We’ve got a turkey for this coming Tuesday.  Typing on my phone in a movie theatre.  Probably shouldn’t do that.