Bogieblog

Glimmers of Hope

After working on lab 2 in class last night, there may be hope for this numbskull after all. After laying wire for 5 simple circuits, the penlight of understanding is gleaming in the distance. I will have to re-build the 5 circuits at least a couple of times this weekend, but by then the penlight should become a flashlight (hopefully to a fullblown halogen 500000000 watt stadium light by the time this is over.

Two areas of good news; the homework I turned in last week was all correct (and I believe this week's homework is correct as well - the advantage of two early arrivers comparing answers), and the truth tables with predictions for the circuits I built last night were spot-on.

Mr. Knows Everything has chosen to remain at the same table with me during labs, so I am learning (foot by dragging foot - my fault, not his) from him. He is delighted to have someone dependant upon his knowledge and I am delighted to have someone with the knowledge to share.

Now I just have to write up the gazillion page report on the lab, draw the schematics for the 5 circuits and include the truth tables with predictions and actual results.

Lab three is being skipped (although I will probably try to muddle my way thru it for practice) and the next lab will use resistors and a 7 segment display.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Weekend Pudit for his offer of help. If I had walked out of lab as clueless as I had walked in (or anywhere close), I definitely would have taken him up on that. It is great to know that there is someone willing to explain things from a different perspective. There are still plenty of labs to go, so I could still need to yell for help, but so far Mr. Knows Everything has come thru as I had hoped (and by the way, MKIA is a nice enough guy so don't thinking that I have to put up with a jerk).

There might be hope for me after all.

One More Month

32 more days.

Homework for Week 2

After much wailing and gnashing of teeth (well, telling the dogs to go lay down - several times, and convincing the cats that they didn't need to be on my books or papers), I completed my homework.

I went thru the practice problems and self-tests before going back to the homework. Today, I just need to write it down neatly. I broke it up on purpose; that way I make sure I can get the same answer two days in a row. I am starting to grasp the fact that A + AB = A and a few other things that aren't quite the same as normal algebra. I am still slow to recognize when I can use the new rules, (geeze, how long did I stare at part of a problem that said C + CD before I realized that it equaled C  - just because the letters were different?), but I am getting there.

As you can tell, I am not naturally brilliant - I have to beat my head against a wall for a while before things start to sink in. When I was taking classes for my Bachelor's degree, I would spend 6-8 hours a week on homework (for 1 class) while some of my classmates spent a lot less time on it (and did just as well).

Ah well, it keeps me off the streets at night anyway.

Chilly House

Since the cold weather started a several weeks ago, the heater has gone out twice. The first time was the day after the ice storms. When WS got home the house was so cold that both of the thermostat thermometers were bottomed out. He hit the restart on the heater and it started right up. We figured that a power flicker had occurred just as the heater was trying to start up, which would cause it to just sit there mindlessly.

Yesterday morning, we woke up and it was 59 degrees in the basement (where we sleep). Just a tad cooler thatn the 68 we keep it at! It was -1 (at that time) and poor WS had to go out and remove the filter from the oil line so that the fuel could flow (this cannot be done with gloves on). I started a fire in the woodstove so that the heater could concentrate all it's heating power to the basement (the upstairs and downstairs are seperate zones). The upstairs was still warm from the fire the night before, so the woodstove was just maintenance.

At 7 AM, the outside temp, according to 2 thermometers, was -6, and the basement had actually dropped to 57 degrees. Forced hot water heat is really good and efficient, until something like this happens. The boiler will only heat up the water so hot before it shuts off, the water circulates until it cools off a certain amount, then the boiler does it's thing agian. I would think that a forced hot air unit would stay going until the temp is to the set point.

So, I did whatever I could to force the heater to run continuously (the basement receives a lot of heat just from the flames themselves), which meant running the hot water. I did the dishes, I took a shower (downstairs - adding that heat to the basement), washing the shower curtain.

By the time I left at 9:30 to take Shadow in for his 3,000 mile checkup (he is in great shape by the way), the basement was up to 62 degrees. By 11, when I got back from the vet, the outside temp was 0 and the basement was to 65 degrees.

65 degrees is the point where water lines along outside walls should be okay and not freeze, so I relaxed and started in on homework. The heater has been working fine since, although WS needs to put in a new filter (he picked one up yesterday after work).

This morning was supposed to be colder than yesterday morning, but it is only 0 right now. With only an hour or so left to cool down, I don't think it will reach much less than -1 or -2. The day is supposed to be a lot warmer - in the 20's; yesterday it got up to a whopping 6 or 7 degrees.

Hopefully the heater woes are gone for this season!

Class 2

Class 2 is over and I know no more than I did before class 1. During lab we made a counter that will be useful for the rest of the labs; I made one but with so much help I might as well have bought it. I never did understand any part of the schematic.

Now that we are into week 2 homework, I find that I am somewhat stymied by boolean algebra. Not all of it of course, but just enough of it that I have to do all practice problems and any problems I can find where I can look up the answers (this book does have a lot of those anyway). I spent a good chunk of yesterday on homework and will spend most of the weekend on it (not to mention the lunches at work I have used up). The first practice problem I did yesterday, I got right; the second one wrong (okay, technically it wasn't srong, I just never "finished" the problem). So it looks like I will have to go over each problem several times.

Oh, and I still have to do Lab 2 - which I still don't understand. I hope there is an "aha" moment at some time in the near future or else I have just spent a whole lot of money to flunk a class.

Maybe I should have picked something like knitting - although I think I would have a tough time figuring out how that would further my career!

Flowery Sweets

I think one can get fat just looking at these creations!

Link sent by one of the S-I-L's

Pretty Pictures

Check out these lovely Morning Colors. While you are at it, check out other pictures on Gardenpath.

Links via Garden Djinn.

Records and Recordings

WS has been recording albums onto CD for me. I made a list of 15 or so albums that I wanted recorded and he has been working on them for the last month or so. He finally got far enough down the list to reach Queen's The Game (from 1980). The very first track, although not ripped to shreds, is full of loud pops - so loud that you can tell that the needle is on the verge of skipping, but is obstinately staying in the groove.

I told him to hold off on recording that one an I would see if I could find it on CD. Although I wasn't amazed that I found it, I was rather surprised that I found it as easily as I did - and then as cheaply; hey, even with a bonus track no less.

I then proceeded to order other oldies but goodies: Queen's A Day at the Races, Rick Deranger's All American Boy and Nazareth's Expect No Mercy. I also picked up a 2-CD compilation By Def Leppard and the same band's latest disc Yeah! If you remember, we went to the Def Leppard concert a couple of months ago and they did a killer rendition of David Essex's Rock On, and that is on the new CD. I listened to the sample and the live version was better, but the recorded version will do.

WS's next recording project is the sound track from Star War's (the original). It is a 2 album set so it will keep him busy for a while.

Class 1

After the first night of class I am already the odd-man out. Everyone in the class works with electronics and has a clue. Me, I know nothing, which is why I am taking a class designed for those "with little to no knowledge" of electronics. The "no knowledge" part would fit me.

Unfortunately, someone forgot to tell the instructor about the "no knowledge" part. We didn't have the correct materials for Lab 1, so the instructor sent us home saying we could work on Lab 2 and get as far as we can. I can't even start because I have no clue how to read the schematic - it makes no sense to me.

On the bright side, I am doing fairly well (so far) on the theory part. I can count in base 2, 3, 8, 10 and 16 (and could fake it in other bases), can convert from hex to decimal to binary as well as directly from hex to binary (and vica versa). I even have a grip on gates (AND, OR and reversal). I'm still working on pulses, but I think I will do okay there.

Hopefully the guy that knows everything will help me out. I was the first person at class and he was the second. He made a big deal about letting me how much he knows (and later had to make a big deal about getting his Leatherman out for a small job). He probably does know as much as he makes it seem; he calibrates digital meters for a living . And , before tongues start wagging, he made a big deal about letting me know he was married too (with kids), so there is nothing on his mind other than stroking his ego. That's fine, maybe he'll help me get up to speed.

Next class should be interesting, and hopefully informative.

Winter Sowing

Hmmm, this looks interesting. Maybe I'll try it for some winterberries I have in the freezer. I also have snapdragon and other seed mentioned in my fridge. Only problem is that we just took the recyclables to the transfer station yesterday. Guess I'll have to look around and see what I can find - I have plenty of pots that have their own drainage holes, maybe I could cover them with plastic. Maybe I could even try starting a planter that way.

Read the first couple of chapters of my textbook or try winter sowing - hmmm, decisions, decisions, decisions!

Link from Garden Djinn.