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Just a short update today.

I have been a bit ill today. Leftovers from the migraine and having to check in with India for work on our project at 1AM. I have been given support from India. In the current world of IT, you end up working crazy hours.

Today was meetings and more video meetings. I was also having issues with the system I need to upgrade. It took all day to get those under control, and I was still getting requests at 6PM.

My headache came back, so I rested and woke to dinner made by Corwin. Excellent meal!

I am finishing the day working on my electronic project. I finally finished the circuit using supercapacitors to run a microcontroller. It works as I designed for five seconds. I have all the boost and regulators working, and with a row of very expensive supercapacitors, I could extend the run time. That would also then extend the charge time, or I would have to increase the amps. Physics cannot be denied, and a capacitor is not a battery. I will have to return to older designs using batteries. My scale is too small to have substantial charging circuits. 

The circuit, while not usable for my purposes, is really cool. I never had anything like this before. A no battery 5-second delay to no power without distortion.

Today’s lunch was ordered from Gyro House and delivered on time. The food is always a dream of the Middle East and Turkey. I ate too much.

My neighbors are building a chicken coop. We talked that we should set-up an exchange rate. So many eggs for a roll of toilet paper.

I am very tired tonight.

The stock market went down today. Not really a crash. It seems that folks are rushing to buy all the cheap debt now backed my The Fed and Central Banks and backed by the American taxpayer. Let’s go with this one, Tiny Bubble.

Today it is reported that more than one-thousand three-hundred people lost their battle with the virus today in the USA. The song for our loss: Rock of Ages.

 

Today was another Thursday in lockdown here in Oregon. It ended with a Migraine that just stopped. I had full-blown vision issues, dizziness, and pain. I get these maybe once a year, and this one was particularly bad. I just have to stop and find a dark place and sleep for an hour. Sleep does some form of a reset that brings everything back to normal.

Today was another day of video conferences with more and more alignment happening on the project. I also joined a video meeting from Europe about revising some accounting data (sorry details cannot be shared) by a friend who lived in the USA before returning to Holland. We had another conference to just check-in with each other and as a substitute for the usual dinner we have. The travel restrictions mean that his intention of introducing the changes in person is not possible. He asked me how things are in the USA. I smiled and showed him my horde of toilet paper using my laptop camera. This got a laugh.

I have some more short deadlines and the folks assigned to help me work in India. It looks like I may work India hours today. I will get up at 1AM and see if they can get started.

Lunch I ordered from BJ’s Brewhouse. I had spice soba noodles and chicken, and I ordered a full rack of ribs for Susie to share. I had this delivered supporting our local drivers and restaurants. I tried to do Red Robin, but they could not deliver to me today. Not sure what happened there.

After work, I started back on my supercapacitor circuit. Pololu parts were delivered by the USA Postal Service. I was able to make the wireless and boost regulator work. The new part works perfectly, cutting off when there is not enough power to get 3.3V. I could not get the supercapacitor working before the migraine stopped me. Closer.

I found in my unstarted models the fictional Seaview submarine. This is from a 1960s show, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, that I still watch once in a while. This might be my shell for that submarine I want to make with all of these electronics.

The theme songs for this show was a classic: Theme Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. All the Irwin Allen TV shows had amazing themes. And none is as crazy at this one: Lost in Space Original Theme.

I did get a Python-based microcontroller to run off the breadboard circuit. I have to rearrange the supercapacitor placement in the circuit to get enough power to the microcontroller. I will also need more voltage to run a small motor and servo.

Right about then everything stopped for the migraine. I will try to work this over the weekend.

While trying to recover from the migraine, we held a practice meeting for church. More Zoom video conferences. We wanted to work music into our Sunday video worship service. The church now meets on Sunday in small Zoom meetings. Multiple groups meet on Sunday, with everyone offered one to attend. We will now have a pause where each of us online will mute and play music on a supplied link. The local play does not have the distortion. Our church music director, Howard, is supplying the links. We will then unmute and continue. We give this a try this Sunday.

Today the stock market was all over the map. There is now a huge move into bonds with so many companies now issues debt to keep going. The days of stock buy-backs and companies keep no reserved cash appear to be over. The Fed and Central Banks have put in so much money into the markets you can almost hear Wall Street singing, Good Times Are Here Again, even fiscal conservatives. I heard one bond trading saying, “bubbles are fun on the way up–there will be a lot of fun.” My 401K is showing a -14% return YTD. This is not really that bad, last year was +27% growth for the year.

Despite the headache, for the stock market and bubble bond market: Mr. Blue Sky

It is reported that there are more than nine-hundred sixty deaths attributed to the virus here in the USA. This is less than the day before, but that could be a reporting issue, but let’s hope for a further reduction in deaths on Friday for the USA.

The hymn for today is We Shall Overcome.

 

Just a short note today.

I managed to get my wireless recharge circuit to work tonight. I started that after work. I have some induction coil recharging devices I purchased from Adafruit. Adafruit is a DIY supply shop based in NYC and building machines to help with the emergency now. I came up with an idea to use the supercapacitors to be wirelessly recharged instead of LiPo batteries. I picked up an old fashioned wire meter device a few years ago from a Hong Kong-based company, it was on discount, and that looks really funny connected by alligator jumpers to a modern looking supercapacitor and copper coils for wireless charging.

I believe the boost regulators are being delivered from Pololu, one of the best sources for DIY robot parts, on Thursday. I plan to attach those on the other side of the supercapacitor. That should get me a stable 3.3V, and I should be able to run a small Python device and run some basic LEDs tricks from the device. I think I will keep the needle meter, so retro! Wireless pretty lights!

So today’s song is I Robot.

Today was another work day in video meetings on and off all day. More panic as resource issues continue, and deadlines are not changed. We are slowly aligning to solutions, and I think we can deliver late, but not fatally late. Panic and meetings, endless, will continue.

I ordered from Happy Panda for my lunch. I got an appetizer of crab and cream cheese stuffed wontons for Susie. I had it delivered to support our local drivers. You pay with a credit card on delivery for Happy Panda, ugh. Today was the first time I washed a credit card and my hands!

I took a walk after work closed out. More people were out. We all passed each other with lots of space, but we all smiled at each other, and I said I was happy to see them. Most folks responded in kind.

I made tacos for dinner.

The stock market started to crash again. This time the sales of equities are flight-to-treasuries not so much to US dollars, better. The market is seeing bankruptcies beginning at the 2008 pace already. Liquidity issues that remain, and there are many, are mostly imbalances in The Fed and Central Bank interventions. Bonds are starting to sell again as good quality bonds are going at a discount. Some new issues of debt are actually overselling!

Yesterday the number of those slain by the virus in the USA jumped more than 200 people while I was writing the summary to 900 death. Today, more than a thousand people fell to the virus in the USA.

Hymn today: On Eagle’s Wings.

 

Today was another chance to get up and log on and work from home. The day spiked my blood pressure only a little bit as the project starts to approach hard deadlines, and the usual panic happens.

I had a few meetings and then slipped out between sessions and went grocery shopping. We are running out of milk and eggs; I put together a list and mostly stuck to it. I brought my bags and then was told they are not using customer bags anymore. Well, that does make sense.

I started soaking beans last night and started cooking bean soup while listening to meetings (this consists mostly of two minutes of assembly and then turn the heat on).

We ordered again lunch from La Provence. I want to help them as much as I can. This time Corwin and I both ordered the tuna melt. We both got soup as the side. Susie got my French Onion Soup. I ordered some cookies too. It was delivered perfectly.

I took a walk after eating as I get stiff from all the sitting. I changed my chair back to the good chair–don’t ask. My back is back to normal. During my walk, I pass Reedville Elementary. The school was built in the Great Depression by the work programs. We have kept the old building and just added on to the school here in Oregon.

Watching the difficulties we have now and seeing the plate on the school gives me hope that everything will work out soon. The old school even has an old cupola where the flag used to fly. They now use a pole out in front of the school. They have kept the original look with a few safety upgrades.

I also walked by the Reedville Presbyterian Church that shares its parking lot with the school. The building is a bit square for an American church. That is because the church building burned during World War 2, and they could not rebuild it due to the emergency. When the war ended, they purchased a portable church, yes the army had such things and had it delivered. The end of the building is still that WW2 chapel. The Presbyterians have a pipe organ and invite the neighbors to the concerts–The sound is amazing.

It is reassuring to me as I walk by our shared history here. In the past, events happened. We are changed by them in unexpected ways. I can see that everything worked out even with all the changes. The Presbyterian even spelled it out for us: Hope.

By-the-way, Reedville is mostly gone. Another event, the Columbus Day Storm, flattened much of the small buildings of Reedville. The name has faded to mostly a name on a map. The church and the school survived the storm and kept the name. The newest housing development is called Reed’s Crossing remembering the past.

Work finished with more than forty of us from Nike SAPAE (call us Nike IT) calling into a video meeting and singing happy birthday to one of our colleagues, Kate. It was dreadful and fun. I put on the light-up tophat that I built. Others provided other festive views both real and virtual.

I finished up the bean soup and added veggies and ham. It was good.

I found an article on 1920s books. Those fiction books that one would have read in the 1920s. I liked the list and while tempted by Lady Chatterley’s Lover, I went with two others that fit more my thinking: Cheri and The Last of Cheri and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes -and- But Gentlemen Marry Brunettes: The Illuminating Diary of a Professional Lady. I ordered them online from AbeBooks from various used book stores across the country. I figure they need some business. None cost more than five bucks delivered. Supporting my habit of reading 1920s material for Call of Cthulhu and reading, from the reviews, some fun stories.

Which of course takes us to today’s song: Gentlemen Prefer Blonds (Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend)

I am tired and took a nap and then started on the dishes and the clean-up.

I then noticed the cover of ChessLife. I see I should have been locked down in the Cayman Islands with a chessboard! It was a typical day of rain, sleet (yes ice bouncing off the roof), sun, and clouds all at the same time here in Oregon. Spring is here.

Today the press reports more than seven hundred forty people lost their battle with the virus just in the USA this Tuesday. More than four thousand deaths are now reported in the USA.

Today’s song is not a formal hymn, but it works that way too: Mercy Now.

 

 

 

A short update today.

Back to working from home. Many video conferences and status updates and even some thanks are given. Not a bad Monday.

I was disappointed that Krispy Kreme now does not deliver here. So I could not have their donuts this morning. They changed this–we were able to get them delivered last week.

I made my lunch instead of ordering it. I started baking some potatoes while listening to meetings online. I had a baked potato with the fixing and Beef Vegetable soup for lunch. Susie had the same when she got going.

Usually, Susie has a hair appointment and nails on Monday. Oregon closed down all hair places. Susie’s nails look good still. I will do them later in the week, instead. I got the supplies last time Susie was ill and did her nails.

I took a walk. I get stiff from sitting in front of computers.

My last meeting was a project Zoom meeting; more than three hundred people.

So today’s song is a crazy song: Veteran Cosmic Rocker.

We made dinner, the first day when I ordered nothing from outside. We made grilled teriyaki chicken fettuccini. Corwin grilled the chicken, and I made the pasta and sauce from a jar. It was good.

Monday is Dungeons and Dragon Fifth Edition on Roll20. Bill, Cory, Corwin, and Mike logged in, and we played from 6:30 until 8:30 local time. Bill is in Central Time. Again, the challenges were difficult. The fire elementals hit pretty hard. They finally defeated all the cultists and drove off an evil Ginni to reach the final nexus of power and evil. Only to be stopped by a dragon! It seems the dragon want to negotiate. We will pick up there next time. This is all part of the content you buy to play from Roll20 and the makers of Dungeons and Dragons.

I also ordered some more electronics from Denver. I received a nice note from Pololu that my order is on the way. They thanked me for asking for no rush and for supporting their business. They make very useful robot parts and electronics. I am decided to build a flashy device that is supercapacitor powered. I ordered parts from Sparkfun too. No rush.

I built some hats for the Portland Makerfaire two years ago. I helped run a booth that year (in the rain).

(Here is my rechargeable top hat with lights that detect sound and change colors. The hat is showing a level three sound–loud).

The financial news contains more panic about liquidity, but the stock market went up again. The flight to dollars has stopped. Gold is becoming quite popular again. It appears that the actions from all The Fed and other Central Banks worked so far.

Today more than five hundred seventy people are reported to have perished from the virus. Today’s hymn: God Bless America.