I’ve always valued this quote: “Happiness is always a by-product. It is probably a matter of temperament, and for anything I know it may be glandular. But it is not something that can be demanded from life, and if you are not happy you had better stop worrying about it and see what treasures you can pluck from your own brand of unhappiness.” - Robertson Davies
I’m poking around on my disk finding some blasts from the past and came across this. It is a sympathy card our vet made when our first dog passed many years ago. It was lovely and we were really touched she would make this because we didn’t know her well: “Hold My Heart”.❤️
I just discovered I have the source files from the old Path social media network. It is an index.html file with css, media files and associated HTML. Is there a way to import this to my micro.blog ⁇
I’m finding a complex Lego build to be a great distraction. I pop in my Airpods Pro and the world fades away.
This is one of the most awesome videos I’ve seen. Yeah for physics.
Bag set 2 and the first 156 pages of the manual for the Lego BMW Motorrad are complete. I should complete it this weekend. Onward!
At the wine bar happy hour celebrating our new found freedom. I.e. our daughter can drive her damn self now 😂
First set of bags of the Lego BMW Motorrad are complete, 4 sets remain. 86 pages of the manual complete, 300 left to go. Engine parts seem to move as expected. Really like this kit so far😃
A momentous day. Our daughter passed her driver’s license road test today with a 91. She has an appointment tomorrow morning to make it all official. I think the parental taxi drivers are more excited about this than she is. 🚗
And so it begins… bag 1 of Lego Motorrad
In today’s episode of “homeowner bliss” I cleaned our dryer vent pipe. First time in 15 years here. The path from inside was easy. Unfortunately the outdoor outlet for the vent is on the roof and as I feared some lint clogged up the screen on that vent. Roof in 100F heat is no bueno🔥
Today I learned, the hard way, that the official WSJT-X binary for Raspberry Pi can’t be used on the Bullseye version. I say hard way because the error was about an obscure library dependency. You have to compile it yourself instead of using the download. Would it kill them to note this on the download page?
Finished the build of the Qrp-Labs QDX digital transceiver kit. I must say the instructions are fantastic. And the best part is no magic smoke and both the send and receive sides worked right away on both Mac and RPi. Heard as far as 3,600 miles today via FT8.
Lounging on the back patio to start my day. 75F, sunny. Listening to the music of lawn mowers and enjoying the sweet smell of freshly mowed grass. 👍🏻
Today’s progress included installing 4 transistors, winding a transformer and winding 8 inductors.I think about 150 turns total. I caught a mistake on one inductor and fixed it. Hopefully my only mistake… Could be a bit neater but looks ok so far.
Some things to keep in mind… The post-Roe data privacy nightmare is way bigger than period tracking apps
QDX circuit board day 1: 16 capacitors, 6 diodes and 4 inductors soldered so far. It’s gonna be awhile before I know if I made any mistakes.
My desk setup to start the QDX transceiver build. It soon got a lot messier…
My next project is to build a QDX low power digital transceiver from a kit. This is going to require a lot of soldering and provide ample opportunities for me to screw things up.
Lovely sky for this morning’s exercise.
Had to go with a slow, low impact, pace. My knees have not forgiven me for last week’s fall. I fear it will take weeks to really recover.
I primarily use D-Star for world wide digital transmission but there are 2 other popular protocols: DMR and C4FM/Fusion. I got a openSPOT 4 Pro hotspot yesterday which enables my D-Star radios to talk seamlessly with the others. Pretty nifty and the audio reports are all solid.
In our hotel and the difference is clear: our kids sleep silently. Us parents make all kinds of rumbly snoring sounds most of the night. Of course the kids complain but in reality they get their sleep regardless of the noise.
Follow the bouncing ball. Aka a bit of very casual ping pong after consuming s’mores. 🏓
Generally I enjoy being the early riser in our family. But I gotta admit when we are all sharing a hotel room on a trip it kinda sucks 🚙
We’ve been coming to this resort off and on for 15 years. It is a very chill experience for us and the kids started waxing nostalgic ever since we left home to come here. But they’re teens now and I suspect this will be our last visit here.🚙
