Posted on May 9, 2007
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Cool video by my boss and his daughter. Making an Earth Sandwich during his recent trip to China.
Posted on March 7, 2006
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I just came across this story on Defense Industry Daily about the Bombot. This robot was the primary design target for the GC-205, one of the projects I’ve been working on at Nomadio for the past year or so.
When I get some pictures of these things in-theatre I’ll post them here.
Posted on October 6, 2005
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My grandmother passed away Monday morning after several weeks in the hospital. I had the honor of giving the eulogy at her funeral today:
Virginia Szczerba was many things to those gathered here: Sister, Aunt, Godmother, Wife, Friend. To 25 of us she was Mom, Grandma, or Great-Grandma; even more when you consider the spouses she loved as her own.
The one thing she wanted each of you to know is she loves you and will continue to love you. It didn’t matter if you were a prince or a pauper; if you were giving your all and doing what you needed to do, she was proud and made sure you knew it.
She kept track of every accomplishment of every member of her family. When she asked how someone was doing she didn’t want to hear the automatic “fine” most respond with. She wanted to know in detail, and she would remember those details and pass them on to everyone she talked with.
She prayed for each and every member of her family by name every day. Her room was covered in family pictures. Every night she would look at each picture, one-by-one, and pray for that person, for every concern until she knew that prayer was answered. She said it took over an hour-and-a-half everyday. Every year as we gave her new pictures she added them to her wall and spent that much more time praying for her family.
One week a few years ago she waited for four babies to be born each two days apart. Two of those children were nothing less than miracles who sit here today healthy, energetic three year olds. She was a part of those miracles. She had a personal relationship with a living Savior Jesus, and as each crisis was past she gave Him thanks. Now she is a part of our great cloud of witnesses who are praying from heaven and cheering us on.
I remember spending hours at grandma’s making ceramics when I was little, then for years we would spend time together around Thanksgiving making holiday candies. When she moved in next to my parents the little ones would walk up to visit her whenever they were around. She kept a “dessert bowl” by the door with different snacks and treats and told the kids to take something as they left, even if they had just been there 10 minutes before. If one of the kids took a few extra brownies, she would just smile and laugh about it, because that’s what kids are supposed to do.
Last night I noticed a small Precious Moments figure someone put with her at the funeral home. The figure shows three little angels in prayer. Two have their eyes closed, heads bowed, and halos on straight. The third was peaking out and had a crooked halo. I pointed it out to Susan, and commented that I could see the family resemblance in the ornery one, but wasn’t sure who the other two were supposed to be. Even in her last days in the hospital she was happier with eight people in the room all talking over each other than with one or two sitting quietly.
We got together at Lori’s for the Fourth of July this year, and I had a great conversation with her. When I was driving out to visit her in the hospital, I thought back on that day and took comfort in the fact that I had that chance to see her as I’ll always remember her: laughing and joking with her family. When I got out here I heard that grandma called Lori the day after that party and talked about all of the kids playing together, the little ones on the swings and in the water, and the not-so-little ones playing horseshoes and setting off fireworks. She said it was the “best day of her life,” and often talked about it in her last days.
Grandma worked hard all her life, from growing up during the Depression and WWII, to raising five children, and on through her adult life, yet she was not rich by worldly measures. She has a far greater wealth in the family that she loves so much, and it’s clear that she passed that wealth on to every one of us. To me, grandma will always mean love.
She went on to heaven the way she lived here on earth, surrounded by the family she loved so dearly. That’s why there is no doubt in my mind that every day she will be looking in on every one of us… cheering on our successes, crying with us in our moments of sorrow, smiling when we take an extra brownie or three from the dessert bowl, and telling anyone who will listen about her beautiful family.
Posted on August 5, 2005
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Straight from Stanford: the benefits of procrastination. See? I haven’t been updating this page because I had nothing more important to do… or something….
Posted on July 27, 2005
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I stumbled across this today in a GNU manual page:
Our units of temporal measurement, from seconds on up to months, are so complicated, asymmetrical and disjunctive so as to make coherent mental reckoning in time all but impossible. Indeed, had some tyrannical god contrived to enslave our minds to time, to make it all but impossible for us to escape subjection to sodden routines and unpleasant surprises, he could hardly have done better than handing down our present system. It is like a set of trapezoidal building blocks, with no vertical or horizontal surfaces, like a language in which the simplest thought demands ornate constructions, useless particles and lengthy circumlocutions. Unlike the more successful patterns of language and science, which enable us to face experience boldly or at least level-headedly, our system of temporal calculation silently and persistently encourages our terror of time.
… It is as though architects had to measure length in feet, width in meters and height in ells; as though basic instruction manuals demanded a knowledge of five different languages. It is no wonder then that we often look into our own immediate past or future, last Tuesday or a week from Sunday, with feelings of helpless confusion. …
– Robert Grudin, `Time and the Art of Living’.
It seemed worth saving, so I put it here, and in the process discovered that I haven’t updated this page in quite a while. I guess I just haven’t had the time….