Sensory Notions

Every once in a while, I get the urge to use some sort of app to manage my parts: something open source and linux friendly. However, all I seem to find are projects that require you to set up a database and a web based app engine. Wonderful! Fantastic! Complicated. Seriously. Parts management web applications are sufficiently complicated that you might as well pay for someone else to manage it.

So I’m building a desktop application that I can run in linux.

These design goals are meant to keep me on track. I don’t want to build the perfect app. Just something that I can use.

• Make it a tool for a single person.
• Don’t speculate. Design for immediate needs.
• Aim for simple, useable, and good enough.
• Use a well defined format for data storage. That’s the part that needs to last.

Whatever I build is going to look rather underpowered compared to the average ERP/MRP (Enterprise Resource Planning/Materials Requirements Planning) style application. It should. A tool meant to be used by a single person shouldn’t be too complicated. Besides. Sophistication takes time.

Time to scratch that itch.

I spent tonight hanging out with one of my friends who’s part of a circle of friends that is more than just friends. They’re a lesson in the art of being a friend. So as we were hanging out, we enjoyed the waning afternoon and aired our most immediate insecurities. Then we settled on to catch up on a few favored shows. Nothing much to say about that. You don’t do much when you’re watching a few shows. However, afterwards as I mused upon our conversation, I realized that my very insecurities about myself were a detriment to some of my friendships. For that insecurity had bred a form of envy. It now seems to me that, if you admire and envy and perhaps even feel insecure around a person with a quality you feel you lack, perhaps you should shore up that quality within yourself.

Seriously. It’s been about 2-1/2 years since my last post. Almost makes me wonder why I keep this site running. Time to fix that. I set this site up as a public place to share what I’m thinking and what I’m working on. Time to revive that goal and make this site a place worth coming back to.

…at least for my own self.

“You can only live three lives.”

Maybe that’s not the precise quote. But it’s something I think about. Between work and a rather demanding hobby, I had just about forgotten about this site. There was just too much going on for me to keep track.

Here I am again, changed and unrecognizable from even the last time I posted. Instead of resolving to do something big, I’m going to focus on little things, like organizing my time, bit by bit. There’s no reason you have to be so busy that you can’t say, “I’m going to start the morning by looking at what I have to do for the day.” And at the end of the night, there’s no reason I can’t spend a few moments to just let my thoughts flow.

So there it is, a resolution to do a few small things every day to get myself back on track

Hello there. I know it’s been a while. But I’ve been busy. Life does get in the way sometimes.

Here they are, a quick array of canes. The top two are examples of my everyday fire canes. Starting with the top, you see a fire that has been undressed. Where the wick was, the wood is entirely intact. However, the foot end of the cane has burned down a bit. Also notice the black section just above where the wick was. While the fiberglass cloth did not prevent charring, it did keep the head from burning through the wood.

Just below the bare cane is my present working cane. You can tell it gets some use because of the hints of white on the kevlar.

The bottom cane is a novelty cane I picked up because it was half off and sometimes you just want a big flame. You cane tell I don’t pull it out very often. The wick’s still yellow.

Here’s a close-up. I’d comment further, but there’s a burlesque to attend.