Still Alive
Well, that was a bit of an insane shift. It was really slow at first, only had 6 skids done by 7:15, and then they bring a lot of shafts in, and they NEEDED 11 skids done ASAP. So basically, it got really busy. They called another Lorco guy from Vehcom to help out, he was a bit slow but the help was definitely appreciated, we managed to get the required skids done with 40 minutes before the truck got there, though it was a bit hectic for the forklift driver/shipper.
Deanne didn't go to school today, since she didn't get almost any sleep all morning, she said she was too tired to go to school and needed her rest for work, and that nothing was due or to be handed out that day. I wasn't altogether happy about it, I mean, sometimes missing a day can lose you a few percentage points on your final mark (I would know!!) but I agree that she wouldn't have been able to stay awake in class, plus then work would've been absolutely miserable, and I've done work on next to no sleep, and it's not fun, so I wouldn't want her to have to go through if it it can be avoided.
We came to a comprimise about Friday, that I'll pick her up after my shift. I think spending that much time with her friends should be plenty, anyway, plus she'll be going on no sleep, and she's a big baby (lol you're gonna kill me for that one, hun) when she's lacking sleep. That's no sleep from around 4 pm on Thursday until Friday midnight-ish. Yeah, she'll have fun with that one.
I made a doctors appointment for Thursday at 10:15 am on Thursday, finally get that cist (sp?) checked out for good. And I should have plenty of money from my pay at work on Friday to get the car fixed. I'm wondering what store to go to to get a good price on a digital camera - I don't really want to go to Staples since they can be a bit overpriced, but I worry about going to, say, Walmart for example because all electronics I've bought at stores like that haven't been exactly of the highest quality. Deanne bought an MP3/CD Player there, and it worked fine for a while, but now it won't read one of her CD's. She prefers a small mini-radio she bought for a buck at a dollar store, hehehe.
Kelly phoned us today, one of the reasons we didn't get to sleep (or well, Deanne didn't get to sleep till later, I didn't get to sleep at all!!). She lost her job and needed a copy of her resume, of which only I have remaining copies. She also talked to Deanne for like, TWO hours! Man, I love how people only phone us for support or help! My friends phone for rides, mostly. We only hang out if I phone them. And Deanne seems to only get phonecalls for emotional support, like if something goes wrong then they turn to her. I guess it's nice being needed, but I'd rather, you know, get a phonecall to go out for a coffee with a friend, rather than a phonecall to get a ride to Kitchener so they can spend whatever amount of money they make more than me on a big screen TV that they'll never invite me over to watch with them! Dah! DAH I say!
Something just fell off my monitor, and I don't know what it was. I think further investigation might be required, after I finish this post.
Deanne just phoned me, looks like I'm picking her up at 3:30. Meh, that's alright, I'm not feeling too tired. Somehow, the 7 hours of sleep was enough! Though I can't say I'm not a BIT tired, but I think it's mostly due to the adrenaline from working so fuckin hard the past few hours. I'm also in a better mood - I was really cranky this morning. I guess waking up to sad/bad news doesn't start the day off on the most cheery possible side.
My dad hooked Deanne up with our family hairdresser - she's Hungarian, and she does people's hair really cheap on her own time. Normally, she works at Sears hair salon. I can get a haircut for $5, only problem is time. I work afternoons, and that's when she's at home doing people's haircuts! So blah! I'm pretty sure Deanne's gonna save a whole bunch of money, I'm curious how much. I'll have to ask her later. I know my mom gets perms for $40, and Deanne said, back in the days she permed her hair, that she knew a hairdresser who did it for a great deal - $100! I laughed when I asked my mom how much and she told me. It's a friend of the family type deal, though, so don't you people starting phoning me up asking for great deals on hair styling/cutting! Not gonna happen!!
Well, I think that's all I have to write for now. I have to remember to set the coffee machine before I go to sleep...can't wait to hop into the shower, oh my, that's going to feel nice. And food. Mmmmmmm, food. I like food, it's good. Though I don't like eating - yes, I'm that lazy, eating takes up too much time. That's one reason I eat so fast, but then again, maybe I'm just not taking the time I should to enjoy the simple pleasures - meh, fuck it. I got shit to do!
Oh, yeah, and I had about an hour to sit there doing nothing today, before it got busy, so I did some planning for a device I want to build. Also of which I just thought of a problem for my solution to. Ok, basically I want to make a computer controlled device that can turn on or off any object. The main problem presents itself in the mechanism to actually turn the power off. I was thinking of using an amplifier to amplify digital signals, but most devices work off of AC power, or at least they expect it, so that wouldn't really work. Then I thought of an idea to use stepper motors and mechanically seperate or touch leads that would close the various circuits. But then I thought of sparking - if the leads are close but not touching, this might cause sparking, especially at such a high power as the wall outlet. So that couldn't be too safe, unless I did rigorous mathematics and physics and involved the use of transformers or complex voltage dividers and adders. I guess I could do that, but then I had a third idea - build my own transformer, which conducts electricity through the use of the magnetic fields that electricity causes around a wire, but now I just realized that, since I want to be able to control 8 or so output devices at once, the magnetic fields might interfere with eachother. So there might be current running through an open path, which would be no gouda! No gouda at all! It would be like sending a very little electricity to something you plug into a wall socket, like maybe plugging a battery with wires to the plug, isntead of to the wall. I'm not exactly sure what this would do, but I want my device to be foolproof.
If anybody has any idea's as to how I can do this, please do share. I'd prefer to do it fully digitally but I don't see how I can do this without using an amplifier, unless there's a complex component I have yet to meet. I don't like having to use mechanical devices because they can wear out, for one thing, and thus require more fixing, have more chance to go wrong, and it would be much harder to build. I'm also not sure what material I should use for the contacts, if I do it mechanically. Heat dissipation is an issue. I was thinking of maybe attaching heat sinks, or small fans, but those take up power, too, so now not only do I have to power digital circuitry, but a bunch of small devices - I want to make the device as simple and robust as possible. Last thing I want is to build something comparable to a friggin fridge power usage.
Also, if I can make an application that works with the remote that came with my audio card, omg that would be so sweet! I could turn my lamp on by using the remote, or turn fans on...heh, I could even go all out and make it so as soon as you open the door, fans start. Of course, this would require a lot of tweeking and wiring around the room, but it would be cool. Heh, theoretically, I could also create an alarm if I did something like that. Somebody opens the door, breaks a connection, computer notices the lost connection and starts sirenning. Heh, then lamps could turn off and on, omg that would be cool! But then again, how do you disarm it if it's you. Bah, plan failed. And if what if the person is scared and jets - or they could just come in and close the door and them they're good. Bah, good try Rob, good try. I'm going to eat now. Any comments on my personal computer controlled power adapter thingie, please do share! Or if you have no clue wtf I'm talking about...meh. I'm sorry. I'm a computer/electronics geek, that's why Deanne wants me to go with her to buy the camera on Friday, that, plus i'm paying half so it's only fair I get some sort of say. Heh, I actually what they're talking about when they explain to me the features and whatnot. Sad. Well, ok, seriously, this is too long, I'm off. Adios, amigo's and amiga's!
Deanne didn't go to school today, since she didn't get almost any sleep all morning, she said she was too tired to go to school and needed her rest for work, and that nothing was due or to be handed out that day. I wasn't altogether happy about it, I mean, sometimes missing a day can lose you a few percentage points on your final mark (I would know!!) but I agree that she wouldn't have been able to stay awake in class, plus then work would've been absolutely miserable, and I've done work on next to no sleep, and it's not fun, so I wouldn't want her to have to go through if it it can be avoided.
We came to a comprimise about Friday, that I'll pick her up after my shift. I think spending that much time with her friends should be plenty, anyway, plus she'll be going on no sleep, and she's a big baby (lol you're gonna kill me for that one, hun) when she's lacking sleep. That's no sleep from around 4 pm on Thursday until Friday midnight-ish. Yeah, she'll have fun with that one.
I made a doctors appointment for Thursday at 10:15 am on Thursday, finally get that cist (sp?) checked out for good. And I should have plenty of money from my pay at work on Friday to get the car fixed. I'm wondering what store to go to to get a good price on a digital camera - I don't really want to go to Staples since they can be a bit overpriced, but I worry about going to, say, Walmart for example because all electronics I've bought at stores like that haven't been exactly of the highest quality. Deanne bought an MP3/CD Player there, and it worked fine for a while, but now it won't read one of her CD's. She prefers a small mini-radio she bought for a buck at a dollar store, hehehe.
Kelly phoned us today, one of the reasons we didn't get to sleep (or well, Deanne didn't get to sleep till later, I didn't get to sleep at all!!). She lost her job and needed a copy of her resume, of which only I have remaining copies. She also talked to Deanne for like, TWO hours! Man, I love how people only phone us for support or help! My friends phone for rides, mostly. We only hang out if I phone them. And Deanne seems to only get phonecalls for emotional support, like if something goes wrong then they turn to her. I guess it's nice being needed, but I'd rather, you know, get a phonecall to go out for a coffee with a friend, rather than a phonecall to get a ride to Kitchener so they can spend whatever amount of money they make more than me on a big screen TV that they'll never invite me over to watch with them! Dah! DAH I say!
Something just fell off my monitor, and I don't know what it was. I think further investigation might be required, after I finish this post.
Deanne just phoned me, looks like I'm picking her up at 3:30. Meh, that's alright, I'm not feeling too tired. Somehow, the 7 hours of sleep was enough! Though I can't say I'm not a BIT tired, but I think it's mostly due to the adrenaline from working so fuckin hard the past few hours. I'm also in a better mood - I was really cranky this morning. I guess waking up to sad/bad news doesn't start the day off on the most cheery possible side.
My dad hooked Deanne up with our family hairdresser - she's Hungarian, and she does people's hair really cheap on her own time. Normally, she works at Sears hair salon. I can get a haircut for $5, only problem is time. I work afternoons, and that's when she's at home doing people's haircuts! So blah! I'm pretty sure Deanne's gonna save a whole bunch of money, I'm curious how much. I'll have to ask her later. I know my mom gets perms for $40, and Deanne said, back in the days she permed her hair, that she knew a hairdresser who did it for a great deal - $100! I laughed when I asked my mom how much and she told me. It's a friend of the family type deal, though, so don't you people starting phoning me up asking for great deals on hair styling/cutting! Not gonna happen!!
Well, I think that's all I have to write for now. I have to remember to set the coffee machine before I go to sleep...can't wait to hop into the shower, oh my, that's going to feel nice. And food. Mmmmmmm, food. I like food, it's good. Though I don't like eating - yes, I'm that lazy, eating takes up too much time. That's one reason I eat so fast, but then again, maybe I'm just not taking the time I should to enjoy the simple pleasures - meh, fuck it. I got shit to do!
Oh, yeah, and I had about an hour to sit there doing nothing today, before it got busy, so I did some planning for a device I want to build. Also of which I just thought of a problem for my solution to. Ok, basically I want to make a computer controlled device that can turn on or off any object. The main problem presents itself in the mechanism to actually turn the power off. I was thinking of using an amplifier to amplify digital signals, but most devices work off of AC power, or at least they expect it, so that wouldn't really work. Then I thought of an idea to use stepper motors and mechanically seperate or touch leads that would close the various circuits. But then I thought of sparking - if the leads are close but not touching, this might cause sparking, especially at such a high power as the wall outlet. So that couldn't be too safe, unless I did rigorous mathematics and physics and involved the use of transformers or complex voltage dividers and adders. I guess I could do that, but then I had a third idea - build my own transformer, which conducts electricity through the use of the magnetic fields that electricity causes around a wire, but now I just realized that, since I want to be able to control 8 or so output devices at once, the magnetic fields might interfere with eachother. So there might be current running through an open path, which would be no gouda! No gouda at all! It would be like sending a very little electricity to something you plug into a wall socket, like maybe plugging a battery with wires to the plug, isntead of to the wall. I'm not exactly sure what this would do, but I want my device to be foolproof.
If anybody has any idea's as to how I can do this, please do share. I'd prefer to do it fully digitally but I don't see how I can do this without using an amplifier, unless there's a complex component I have yet to meet. I don't like having to use mechanical devices because they can wear out, for one thing, and thus require more fixing, have more chance to go wrong, and it would be much harder to build. I'm also not sure what material I should use for the contacts, if I do it mechanically. Heat dissipation is an issue. I was thinking of maybe attaching heat sinks, or small fans, but those take up power, too, so now not only do I have to power digital circuitry, but a bunch of small devices - I want to make the device as simple and robust as possible. Last thing I want is to build something comparable to a friggin fridge power usage.
Also, if I can make an application that works with the remote that came with my audio card, omg that would be so sweet! I could turn my lamp on by using the remote, or turn fans on...heh, I could even go all out and make it so as soon as you open the door, fans start. Of course, this would require a lot of tweeking and wiring around the room, but it would be cool. Heh, theoretically, I could also create an alarm if I did something like that. Somebody opens the door, breaks a connection, computer notices the lost connection and starts sirenning. Heh, then lamps could turn off and on, omg that would be cool! But then again, how do you disarm it if it's you. Bah, plan failed. And if what if the person is scared and jets - or they could just come in and close the door and them they're good. Bah, good try Rob, good try. I'm going to eat now. Any comments on my personal computer controlled power adapter thingie, please do share! Or if you have no clue wtf I'm talking about...meh. I'm sorry. I'm a computer/electronics geek, that's why Deanne wants me to go with her to buy the camera on Friday, that, plus i'm paying half so it's only fair I get some sort of say. Heh, I actually what they're talking about when they explain to me the features and whatnot. Sad. Well, ok, seriously, this is too long, I'm off. Adios, amigo's and amiga's!