IPhone Fun

Yesterday Jill and I went to the local AT&T store and picked her up a spiffy new IPhone 3G. I played with the device for quite sometime and actually had a hard time putting it down. I know this is not anything new, but I was intrigued.


The new GPS receiver with integrated Google Maps was down right amazing. I have set up some stuff like that on laptops for work and on my Blackberry, but having it just work out of the box like that is phenomenal. What it does is (seems like it has a 1 second refresh rate) update your position in Google Maps on your phone, which doesn't seem all that cool because almost everyone has a GPS unit these days. However, the great part is that all of your way points are looked up through the phone's data connection (to Google's Servers) and not permanently stored on a data card. This means that all of your way point data (restaurants, shopping centers, etc.) is up to date, as well as allowing a Satellite view and live traffic updates for congested areas. Pretty phenomenal.
My phone is not nearly as cool, but it was on CNet's top 5 AT&T Phones of the year: The Sony Ericson W760a. It has a ton of cool features, being a small 3G slider phone with a 3.2 MP Camera, MP3 Player, and FM Radio. It seems very well built and has great built in speakers and a very clear screen. I just forgot that I hated all of the proprietary crap that Sony does to thier products... Like having to use a Sony Memory Stick (M2), an a proprietary headphone jack. Not cool Sony, not cool.

Back to Work / Fallout 3

I am going back to work tomorrow (really, later this morning). I am pretty happy about this, these two weeks off were restful (and accomplished) but very long. I am ready to become a functioning member of society once again. Some people say that if they won the lottery today, they would never work another day in their lives; I think that would be the beginning of the end for me. Vacation is good, retirement is not.


I have bought and started to play Fallout 3 for XBox 360, and have found it fantastic! This is the best game I have played since BioShock. I think it may even be better. I am a huge fan that you get to pick everything that happens to you, even which "quests" to take on. A "quest" seems to me like a branch to the story, very reminicant of those choose your own adventure books (The Hardy Boys). You even get to choose how to act towards people, and how you act will influence how they treat you. As a matter of fact if you happen to kill a person who is detrimental to a town (i.e. the guy in Megaton who is trying to convice you to blow it up), you will gain "good" karma, trust me I just shot him in the face and gained "Good Karma."

Bishop and Adelyn went with me today to H. H. Gregg to buy a "dorm" fridge to replace the wine cooler in our dining room. I gave the wine cooler to Nick and Christina, they seem to drink more wine than us anyhow. This "dorm" fridge will be our new beverage center to keep all of our drinks cold, rather than at the temperature of the garage. They also stayed for dinner with Jill's grandpa, Pete, at our house afterwards.

After everyone left, we watched the movie Eagle Eye. Parts of this film were ridiculous:

1. The huge "IR Robot Computer' that can make desicions on its own
2. The vibration of water to speech translator (you may have to watch it to get what I am saying, it was a small part, but the differential analysis needed to do this doesn't exist)
3. The Predator UAV flying through the tunnel

But, the rest of the film seemed pretty feasable. I think that doing a google/wikipeadia search on the technologies that were showcased in the film will provide you with some enlightening results. The part that doesn't seem to exist is the advanced data fusion. If they set this film 25+ years in the future, it would have been more realistic. I still don't like the big stupid "robot computer".

Bored.

Jill and I are at home today, both feeling bored and worthless after 2 weeks with no work. So we are planning on watching a movie / playing Lego Indiana Jones on XBox and drinking booze. If you read this anytime tonight and want something to do give us a call.

Science Central Visit Today

Today Jill and I took my nephew (Eric James) to Science Central for the day (that is Eric in the middle, the photo from when my family took him to the circus).

I have been volunteering on a committee at Science Central for a couple for months now; and was tasked with observing the displays and how well they worked / what was broken. So watching him run around and figure out "Science" was great, but eye opening. Great because I remember when S.C. first opened when I was in late elementary school (Go Perry Hill Cougars!), and they have many of the same exhibits from when I was first there. However, this was also eye opening for the same reason: Many of the displays and exhibits are in disrepair and need to be replaced. I guess I now have my cannon fodder for the next meeting.

New Year's Eve / Day - Getting Older by the Minute

Short Post Tonight.

Apparently I am aging prematurely with respect to the rest of my friends on Facebook...

New Year's Eve for Jill and I consisted of going to a Komet's game with Bishop and Heather and then back to our house for a few drinks, pizza and bed shortly after Midnight. Today (New Years Day) consisted of sleeping in and going to Nick and Christina's for dinner.

While most of my friends on Facebook went to huge parties or bars and got wasted. It appears that Jill and I are going from late 20s to late 70s instantaneously.

Happy New Year.

2 Week "Vacation" / Why Sleeping Late is Important

So, I know that the few people that read this may hate me more for what I am about to say, but... I am on the second (consecutive) week of vacation from work. My workplace has a "plant shutdown", even though we aren't really a plant, from December 24th to January 5th.

During this glorious chunk of time off work and school (yeah, no classes right now either, it is like I am retired for 2 weeks) I have been revisiting my old habits of staying up late, and waking up *really* late. But according to the latest issue of WIRED magazine this is good for you and more natural. Let me explain (I am simply copying what Daniel Dumas had already written, here):

1 // You may need more sleep than you think.
Research by Henry Ford Hospital Sleep Disorders Center found that people who slept eight hours and then claimed they were "well rested" actually performed better and were more alert if they slept another two hours. That figures. Until the invention of the lightbulb (damn you, Edison!), the average person slumbered 10 hours a night.

2 // Night owls are more creative.
Artists, writers, and coders typically fire on all cylinders by crashing near dawn and awakening at the crack of noon. In one study, "evening people" almost universally slam-dunked a standardized creativity test. Their early-bird brethren struggled for passing scores.

3 // Rising early is stressful.
The stress hormone cortisol peaks in your blood around 7 am. So if you get up then, you may experience tension. Grab some extra Zs! You'll wake up feeling less like Bert, more like Ernie.

Thanks for the info WIRED! I feel like less of a slacker. You may ask yourself what I have been doing with all of this free time, wonder no more my friend, the list follows:

• Cleaned up my work area in the garage.
• Worked on my model airplanes / practiced on my new flight simulator (Phoenix Flight Sim)
• Read (Angels and Demons, by Dan Brown)
• Went out to lunch at Paula's with David Kirk (a colleague of Jill's)
• Watched "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" (not to shabby, 3 hours long though)
• Cleaning my office area
• Started posting on my blog again! Need Bishop to help me get my website online again
• Visited my parents (a couple of times)
• Saw friends that I haven't seen in a long time
• Played Gears of War on XBox 360

It has been some of the most relaxing time I have had all year (except for Jill and I's Puerto Rico Trip).

I forgot to mention that my old boss who bought my Jeep sent me a picture of the old girl with her new snow plow.

Long Time, Bad Depressed Grad Student...

It has been a very long time since my last post. I took two grad classes (at Purdue) this last semester with a full time work load. This was possibly a mistake, as I have let many things in my personal life falter (including my website and blog) because I was too busy trying to keep my head above water. But, I did do okay (sort of, work pays for A's and B's and at $2,725 a class I had better not be paying) in my classes.

• ECE 538 - Digital Signal Processing (http://cobweb.ecn.purdue.edu/~ee538/) -> A-
• IE 577 - Human Factors in Engineering -> B

I know, that seems pretty bad (a B in grad school means you aren't doing so hot), but I got through it. I should have done better in my DSP class, I just bombed the hell out of the final. I think that I got a 50% on it, while I was in the A range for all of the other exams and projects. Anyhow, I became burnt out (completely) the last two weeks, as well as having personal and work life (sort of) explode, so I didn't prepare as well as I should have.

Next Semester is looking up though! I am taking only ONE class, and it is one I have been wanting to take since I started:

• ECE 637 - Digital Image Processing (https://engineering.purdue.edu/~bouman/ece637/)

I am only taking the one, so I should be able to be a little more focused...

It should be noted, that I am now *OFFICIALLY* 16/30th's done with my Master's Degree! (Just trying to keep up with the rest of the world.)

Also, last but not least, Bishop Brown just got his P.E. license in Indiana! (I will be hitting him up for a letter of recognition when it becomes my time to follow the trail of tears.)

In California, Taking a Matlab Class

Today, I am in Cali-forn-ia... Home of the Governator. I am currently sitting in a Matlab class for "Control Design Acceleration." This class had the potential to be excellent, but it is turning to shit. There are 4 people in the class, Tim and I and two people I don't know, the people I don't know seem to be holding class up with hoping to have the instructor help them solve their individual problems (not class related, simply work related).

On the brighter side, when I landed in Orange County, I had an opportunity to shop at the Hobby People store and purchase a bunch of crap that I didn't need. Also the weather here is phenominal, as it always is in Southern California. There is also quite a bit to see, I went to Fry's Electronics for the first time in my life. That was an amazing experience (I even bought Jill a gift there).

We are staying at the Ayres Hotel, it has to be one of the nicest hotels I have ever been at. This hotel is only trumped by the Hotel in DC that Jill and I stayed at for our honeymoon.
For my birthday my parents bought me a Saito 0.72 4-Stroke engine to use in my plane that Jill bought me for my Birthday: a Hangar 9 Super Stick 40. I cannot wait to get home to start working on this. I have completed the construction of the airframe, I just need to finish installing the control linkages and break the engine in. It will be in the air soon.
My classes are going well. I am currently taking ECE 538 - Digital Signal Processing and PSY/IE 577 - Human Factors in Engineering. Both of the courses are interesting and I am doing fairly well in both of them. I thought I failed the last PSY exam, but I did not do as poorly as I initally thought. I also did very well in my ECE exam, I am pretty excited about that class...
My sister has undergone another round of in-vitro fertilization. Unfortunately, as my brother-in-law stated to me, "It didn't take." It is too bad, as they have tried very hard to have a child, and they are still not yet sucessful... I feel very bad for the both of them, and wish them the best of luck in the future. It will happen, there will be a little Andrew or Grace in the near future.

-Adam

Flipping Model Airplanes

There is a very fine line between “hobby” and “mental illness.” - D. Barry

I have again returned to talk about my model airplanes (what I have been getting myself into for the last few months, in my "spare" time)... I crashed my modified F27C Stryker, again. This time it was straight into the ground at 80+ MPH, not much is left of the poor little guy. It does seem like all of the electronics and the motor made it through. This time the body is completely in disrepair, every other wreck I can simply mix up a little epoxy and 30 minutes later I am good to go... Not this time.

I have some good pictures of my Stryker, pre-crash and post crash (in the trash bag). I will be posting them tomorrow (with a little luck). I have also obtained from my boss at work a GWS Pico Tiger Moth (Video)! It does fly pretty nice (until I took it to my parents and got it stuck in a tree, I broke a wing getting it down, but fixed it shortly after).

I also had my first exam in ECE 538 - Digital Signal Processing on Friday. I think that it went well, the Professor was pretty awesome about posting all of this old exams with solutions to go over before the exam. I do however have an exam this Friday in PSY 577 - Human Factors in Engineering. I am not looking forward to this exam, as it is not math or science based, it is 50 multiple choice questions (which means no partial credit).

Life other than that is good, I started to do some contract work with Excellon Technologies again. I guess I just like overloading myself. Although we could use the extra money.

Holy Crap!

I guess it is time to post, since my posting frequency has fallen from once-a-day to once a month...

I am such crappy entertainment...

I have been in Matlab/Simulink Training in Milwaukee, WI trying to learn how to properly do all those things I have been doing wrong since college. I decided to drive my car (not my truck, more on that in a minute) instead of flying or renting a car, simply because I thought it would be more fun to roll down the highway for 5+ hours with the top down. I was sadly mistaken. I no more than reached Etna Green, IN when I pulled over an put the top up.
My list of problems:

1. At 70 MPH I cannot hear the Diggnation Video Podcast I have on.
2. With the top down and winds coming in even 70 deg is cold, because of all the wind buffeting
   
3. While I was freezing from the wind, my face was also getting sun burned
4. To keep from getting burned I put a hat on, which nearly got blown off at 70 MPH

Those are the main issues with driving 250 miles with the top down. Once the problem was corrected (the top was up), the drive was wonderful. Boring, but wonderful.

Over the past month Jill and I have had quite the adventures which I will have to post pictures of later since I don't have my camera at the moment. I will however try to list a few of them:

• We attended the wedding of Ryan Forish in Atwood, OH. It was probably one of the most fun weddings I have been to (besides ours).
• We went to Cleveland with Eric Thomas and his girlfriend Becca to see the Blue Angels on Labor Day.
• I bought a new winter vehicle, a Blue 1996 Chevy Z71 4x4 Pick-up (similar to this). A few issues because of high mileage, but I have patched most of those up.
• Our neighbors (and Friends) the Tom and Allison Delicati (and their dog Motts) have officially decided to move on to Dallas, TX to kind of start things over and get new jobs.
• Jill and I finally spent an evening with Nick and Christina Johnson. This was a big step, we couldn't wait for them to move back to Fort Wayne from Purdue, yet when they did ~2 years ago we hadn't seen them but once every 6 months. I am hoping that this will be a trend we continue.
• I have started to delve heavily into the world of Model Aircraft (like remote control ones). My "hangar" now consists of three very modest planes (Aerobird 3, F-27C Stryker, and a Firebird Freedom) , but will hopefully grow this winter.
• My Sister has started down the path of in-vitro fertilization again. Good luck to her and her husband with this.

Again, pictures will come, hopefully sooner than later.

One last thing: CERN's LHC is now functioning and the world has not ended! Hallelujah! :)

(a nice tool for getting a uTube video on your hard drive: http://keepvid.com)

Been On Travel for The Past Two Weeks

As was posted in my last blog entry, I was in San Clemente, CA for a week (July 7th to the 11th) working with the an engineering team. I had a pretty good time in CA, and got some really good work done.

"View of San Clemente, CA from my Hotel Room Balcony"

I was home from July 12th - 20th. I didn't post because I don't like telling the world that my wife is at home alone and I will be gone for the next two weeks. I also didn't want to waste any time that I had at home before I had to go.

"Why I Didn't Post Durring my Week Off"

I have been gone the past two weeks (July 21st - August 2nd) at Forked River, NJ.. I didn't post any from here because we worked 12-14 hour days, and I slept instead of playing on the internet during my down time. We stayed at a Bed and Breakfast on Tom's River, the Inn at River's Edge Marina. Captain Bob, who owned the B&B was awesome, he had a gourmet breakfast for us every morning and hung out with us on the river at night (when time afforded).

"Inn at River's Edge"

"Captain Bob - Owner of the Inn"

I really missed my family and friends since I have been away. If any of you are reading this, give me a call so we can hang out before I travel again.

Things I Have Discovered Since I Have Been Away:

Hulu.com :
(From Their Website)

Hulu is an online video service that offers hit TV shows, movies and clips at Hulu.com and other online destination sites — all for free, anytime in the U.S. For more details on Hulu's service, check out the Hulu product tour.

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog:
Starring Neil Patrick Harris (of "Doogie Houser, MD" and "How I Met Your Mother" fame). Apparently this is what Joss Whedon does when he is bored. Absolutely hilarious, I wish there was more than just one episode. All three acts of episode one are available on the above mentioned Hulu.com.

Wow, It Has Been A Long Time...

I give my sincere apologies for not posting in the recent past. It has been a crazy month. I am going to briefly cover some of the most recent events that have gone by in an effort to "catch up."

June 28, 2008:

Jill's "Golden" (she turned 28, on the 28th this year) Birthday! We had an awesome day of celebrating. We spent an entire day doing exactly and only what she wanted to do. It was awesome. I bought her some clothes and an antique amethyst ring, as well as the above cake.

June 30, 2008:

Our 1st anniversary! This day was uneventful, however we did spend it together (even though it was mostly spent at the bank and the car insurance company). I was supposed to be in El Centro (America's Asscrack), CA, but I got a reprieve until July 1st...

July 1st - July 4th, 2008:

Spent a lot of time testing "work stuff" in the desert of El Centro, CA. This may have been the most miserable work experience in my life. We got to do some really cool stuff, but it was an awful environment.
I has never seen an actual border patrol check point before, so I took a picture. We were only 8 miles from Mexico.

It was 105-120 Degrees (F) with 50% humidity the last day we were there ( That was the day I got sick).

So apparently the range that we were at was home of the "Blue Angels Desert Resort & Oasis." This consisted of nothing more than the deck you see in the background... A deck, in the middle of the desert... From what I gather, when a new pilot gets inducted into the Blue Angels Flight Team, this is where they are initiated. We took the liberty of setting up some equipment on their deck (which was a few miles away from the "camp").

Currently:

I am in San Clemente, CA. Doing some work. Needless to say, San Clemente is way better than El Centro. I took this evening and went to a nice dinner (ended up costing way more than I expected) and bought some stuff for Jill. It was a good day, but a long morning of Flights.

I am going to take some pictures of where I am at now and post them when I get the time.

Pictures From (at some least parts) of My Life

I decided to post some pictures from my camera phone to give a glimpse of what my phone has seen (in the past year and a half)...

All of the pictures can be viewed here:

http://www.adambrososky.com/Photos/?dir=.%2FphonePics06_19_2008%2F

A business trip to Baltimore:
I have had to go to Baltimore for work quite a few times, and apparently I decided it was important to take pictures at the hotel I was staying at.


The party (at Cobo Joe's Bar) after a Detroit Redwings game Thomas, Skin, Lit and I went to last season:

Skinner Dancing with our waitress (Above).

Thomas singing Drunken Karaoke.

A picture of an open beer I saw in someones cup holder:

Dennis and Skinner wearing the "Asshole" sweater:
We have been known to play a drinking card game called "Asshole", it just so happens that the Asshole (losing player) had to wear this stupidly small sweater vest in addition to drinking way too much...
Skippy's 21st Birthday Party:

A large group of us at Skippy's 21st...

The Cake Jill and I made Skippy...

Skippy... Yes, this cat turned 21, and we had a party for it.

St. Patrick's Day at "The Fox and Hound":
Jill and I got really drunk at the Fox and Hound on St. Patties Day (don't remember if it was this past one or two ago) and we had to call Thomas to come pick us up...

Jill and Thomas.

Drunken Me (looks like I am giving out advise).

Thomas with all of the cheap toilet paper Kroger had to offer.
We cleaned out Kroger of all the cheap TP they had before we decorated someone's home not too long ago.

My Parent's Dog (Sammy, the Yorkie).

Annabell.

First Anniversary Gift(s)

So, on June 30th 2008 Jill and I will have been married for a year. Jill's gift to me was tickets to the Jack Johnson concert at the Verizon Music Center in Noblesville (Indy), on Friday. I would like to thank Tom for letting Annabell out before he left for Detroit. The Concert was awesome, we were on the lawn, and there were something like 20,000 people there.

Jill didn't know a lot of his music, but I did. It was probably the best gift I can think of given the circumstances. Jack Johnson also probably has the most diverse fan base I have ever witnessed. There were little kids there (presumably because of his Curious George Soundtrack), older adults, and a ton of potheads. For example: Where we were sitting, there was a family directly in front of us (with a 10 year old boy), a large group of maybe 18 year old girls beside us, and a group of 20-somethings smoking pot right behind us. It was entertaining just to people watch.


Jill and I also decided to be somewhat responsible and buy a gift for the house... A new LAWNMOWER! I know this may not be exciting to most, but if you see what I had to work with (below) you would be excited as well.

Old Lawnmower (1): A $30 yard sale purchase, mowed the lawn fine but was a pain in the ass to use. It now lives at the Good Will, looking for a new home.

Old Lawnmower (2): Was given to us by Bishop Brown in exchange for beer. The electric starter motor had fallen off and there were various other problems when we received it. I thought I would take it all apart and repair it back to new. A year later, and all I had done was remove the engine and realize it was going to cost me over $100 in new parts. It now resides (in multiple pieces) in our recycling bin waiting to become something else (I figured it I cut it up with the Sawzall, and stuffed it in the bin, it would find itself to the recycling center).


New Lawnmower: A Cub Cadet, electric start, self propelled, mulching machine of doom. I am so proud.