Work, Bonnie Doon, Downtown, Swimming

Howdy everyone! This last week was a fun, if very busy week. At work, I just finished my 2nd prototype for Dexter, and though I didn't push it quite as far as I was hoping, the model did meet all of my goals, but I kinda ran out of time to get everything I wanted into the GUI (graphical user interface). Lots of good progress and extra capabilities going into that, and I'll post some cool pics when I can.

Other than work, there were a few other goings on in my life which I thought I would share some pics of... First of all, I did little bit of house-sitting for a fellow that Scott and I carpool with. They live in a little area called Bonnie Doon. Below is a pic of some of the road that gets me to his house. It was a magnificent drive, and hopefully this first pic can capture some of that beauty. It did add about 50 minutes to my drive, but it is a fun excursion to change up some of the monotony.



This second pic is of the house that I "sat" in. Or is that sat on... I don't know, but anyway this is a very picturesque place, and surrounded by a big redwood forest. They have a very affectionate cat named tom, and he kept me company, or maybe more accurately, I kept him company because he was definitely the master of the house. ;)



After a tough week at work, I slept in 'til about 10am and Sharon and I went on a little trek in downtown Santa Cruz. That was pretty cool because she got to point out some interesting landmarks and architectural things as well as do a bit of shopping. This pic (below) is of the Holy Cross chuch which is right next to the original Santa Cruz mission. I took some pictures of both, but the church has more interesting architecture, so I included that pic here.




Then we continued to do some shopping and did a little downtown exploring and sightseeing. Below is looking down Pacific Avenue (so named 'cause it leads to the pacific ocean). You can see the Marquee of Santa Cruz Cinema 9. I have to say that felt a little like a poodle going in and out of shops like Bunny's shoes (okay, I didn't go into Bunny's... but I dutifully stayed outside). I did follow here around in Macy's, so I think that counts. Anyhow, it was a fun trip to see what was there.





One of the shops that we needed to go into to get Sharon's watch fixed was this little watch shop that had some not-so-little furniture. I sat in a chair that was from the Land of the Giants!




So that was Saturday. That evening, we got some round table pizza (the ulti-meat, it was super good), and watched Stargate Atlantis, which I am starting to get into a little bit, but that was the end of this season. On Sunday, I went to church with Sharon and Scott, and then went to an early lunch with cousin David Lundberg and then went to his house and went for a fun hike in the San Lorenzo Valley along the San Lorenzo river. Here a few pics of that journey..




The end of the journey was at a fun swimming hole called "The Garden of Eden" which, as the name might suggest, was super relaxing and actually a very popular place considering how long the hike was to get there... (about 2.5 miles one way). So we spent some time basking in the sun and getting some swimming in, and then hiked back out. Very fun.




I guess that brings me to now, when I am just kicking back and relaxing before another week of workin' hard. Lots of fun here, but gettin' lots of work done too. Kinda missin' home and family back in Orland, but gotta keep on track. I hope everyone reading this is havin' a good one.

It been long... too long... now to summarize! ;)

Long time no talky, folks... My bad there. I found out that I can't publish some of the work photos I've been taking due to security issues (that's kinda fun, huh?), which sorta set me back in how I was going to organize the blog entries, but that is really no excuse. My public needs me, and I now understand that I must give the public what they want! So, without further ado, and with little chronological order, I give you some snapshots of my life lately!

First off, last night Scott, Sharon and I all went to a muscial production called, "I love you, you perfect... now change." Very funny production basically making fun of (and celebrating too) relationships and the whole idea of dating, love and various thing associated with them. I was laughing the whole time! ;)


Several days ago, (I think it was Thursday night actually) I went with Barry (a fellow we carpool with) and Scott to a Jazz band performance at a club called Kuumbwa Jazz (http://www.kuumbwajazz.org/index.php) I didn't know it was such a big deal, but apparently it is a big name in the small jazz club circuit, and we saw a great show from the Gillian Harwin Band... very cool stuff. The pic below is not of that band, more of just how the inside and stage look since we weren't allowed to take pics when we were there.



Ah yes, lest you think that all I do is work on groovy electronics, hob nob with NASA scientists and go to jazz and theater performances, this is my weekend job! As I mentioned, these pics are not in very good chronological order, because I don't like the way blogger uploads them and orders them and i refuse to bow to their methods! (and i'm lazy). Anyway, the pic below is showing the bark that we moved from one end of the property to the other. I didn't realize that my cousin/aunt were quite so hardcore... some people recycle cans and paper, we are litterally building a mountain out of the wood chips that were pruned from trees surrounding the house! very cool stuff, more specs a little later!





Here is another pic of the part of the hill that we were building up. you can see how many loads of chips we brought to build up the hill compared to what was there before...



This, of course is my amazingly hardworking family that I am living with... taken a few weeks ago when we working on the same thing. They make good farmers, eh? :P

This is yesterday (Saturday), and a recap on some of the things we accomplished. we are sitting on a pile of wood that Scott and I gathered from all over the property. I think I hurt my back a little 'cause I was throwing wood up to him from lower parts of the hill, and then throwing wood down to him from higher parts: lots of wood throwing going on. Then, if you look to the other side of the pic, you will see part of the pile of wood chips that we moved. This was not particularly exciting work, so we decided to keep track of statistics so we could brag about what we got done, so here ya go: it took us 61 wheel barrow loads to move the pile. each wheels barrow load took an average of 16 pitch fork scoops to fill. Every round trip with the wheel barrow averaged about 140 paces (up-hill and then down-hill). In summary, Scott scooped 976 pitch forks full of wood chips. I pushed that wheel barrow 8,540 paces in the process of moving things, and Sharon spread 366 cubic feet of wood chips! We were all pretty tired when that was done, but we felt accomplished!

So that is the update for now. I am doing well with my summer project, and last week marked the finishing of my first prototype system. My sponsor was pleased with it, and next week hopefully I can make at least one more prototype to get things really cookin'! It is definitely a lot of fun learning the intricacies of MATLAB, Simulink, xPC and the graphical user interface constructs associated with those packages. Maybe soon I'll get my blackbelt in MATLAB! ;)

Until next time, gadget!