I took the week off from work this week to burn up some excess PTO time, and I’ve been working on the truck and doing some small house projects to relax. On Wednesday, Jen and I signed up to be chaperones for a class trip Finn’s school was taking to the local community college and then to the NSA’s National Cryptologic Museum. I wasn’t expecting much out of the college visit, but because this trip was organized by the graphic design/IT/CompSci teachers, they took us through the fabrication labs first and then up to the CompSci classrooms. I was thrilled to learn they’ve got an entire program focused on machine tool training.
The first room they took us through was lined with CNC machines, and the professor explained how they start with the math and programming, then move up to training on the machines. We then entered a second lab lined with Bridgeport lathes—there were maybe 15 of them—where they do hands-on training.
Down the hall is another lab with 3D printing machines—not the consumer grade stuff I’ve played with, but multi-process industrial units that do resin, powder, and plastic. And they mentioned that they’re putting in another lab in the summer to do more 3D processes.
It’s not cheap; I’d love be able to go through the entire course for a certificate, but that would cost many dollars. Individually, though, some of the courses are very affordable and are offered at convenient times after work hours.
The Cryptological Museum was fascinating. There’s a ton of stuff there to look through, including the machine that used to make and decode the nuclear launch codes, several Cray supercomputers, and a pair of original Enigma machines you can actually use to decode messages. I read a lot about Enigma when I went through my Neil Stephenson phase, and vaguely understood how the machines worked through his descriptions, but it was another thing entirely to be in front of them, see some of the rotors disassembled, and to see the American version of the Bombe, designed by Alan Turing and built to break the code on a daily basis. The math is mind-boggling but the physical machinery made it much more understandable. We were also happy to see they’re still highlighting the unsung women and people of color who were instrumental in breaking codes up to and during WWII.
I’ve mentioned this song on here before, but it’s made a comeback in my brain this week: True Widow, Theurgist. Something about the groove has been stuck in my head since Friday. I’m waiting for them to release new music—it’s been nine years since they put out their last proper album. They’re still touring, but there’s no news about new songs.
Over on the Scout site, I recapped the weekend trip Bennett and I made up to Cumberland to wake up our departed friend Alan’s napping Scout and sort through his parts stash to prep it all for sale.
I stopped into the orthodontist yesterday for a test fitting of new Invisalign trays. I was alarmed to learn I’ve been doing this for almost three full years. I’m probably the poster boy for the extreme edge of what is possible with Invisalign. It’s been a long road, but my teeth have made major improvements. I have noticed that changes have slowed down in the last six months; I wasn’t sure if I was imagining it or not. Meanwhile, our orthodontist recently retired, sold his practice to a new guy, and this new guy is taking a different tack with my final series of trays. He actually re-scanned my teeth and moved a couple of the nubs on my teeth around to better hold the trays to push my front teeth out. The new trays fit my teeth better now than they ever have in the past. I’ve probably got another six months before there’s any chance of me being done, but I will say that I’ve gotten my money’s worth out of this process.
The ladies took me out for dinner last night to the always excellent Clavel, where we sampled the tacos and drank fancy drinks. Finn had a non-alcoholic beet-based drink, Jen had a mezcal-based cocktail with vermouth, rose and honey, and I had one of the best margaritas I’ve ever tried. The tacos were delicious, and we capped things off with two slices of flan.
In the interest of making more room in the garage, I’ve been thinking about how I can set up a shelter out behind the structure where I can get steel parts and other things out of the rain and snow. The cheapest and easiest solution would be a lean-to or covered roof with open sides, so I started sketching out what something like that might look like.
The basic plan would be to build a basic frame from 2×4’s and extend it off a ledge below the existing roofline. I’m thinking 4′ deep by 16′ wide would offer me ~64 square feet of space. I’d cover it with clear corrugated plastic so there’s light underneath, and scrounge up a couple more pallets to get things up off the ground. That should be enough to cover the hood and tailgate that’s out there already, along with other bulky sheet metal taking up space on the floor. As of last count, I’ve got three C-series fenders and two C-series grille assemblies in the way, along with a Scout 80 windshield frame, a Scout tailgate, and a Scout hood that take up a ton of space. There’s also a spare tire I’d love to get out of there.
The first thing I have to do, however, is pull the ladders off the far and back walls, scrape any flaking white paint, and spray them the same blue as the house. Doing some quick back-of-the-envelope math, I figure this might cost around $250 all in, and perhaps a full day to install everything.
The resin I ordered a week and a half ago appears to be shipping from an address in Great Britain by a guy with a Russian surname. A shipping label was created and then canceled and then re-created last week, but apparently it hasn’t left the facility it’s being manufactured at yet. I have no idea when it’s going to get here, but I’d love to take the next step with that project. In this day and age of Amazon and overnight shipping, I’ve gotten very spoiled.
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This article hit my LinkedIn feed on Friday, and it answers a question I’ve had rattling around my head for a couple of months: How the cuts in foreign aid affecting my old employers at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health? The answer is: scorched earth. Hopkins will have to lay off 2,000 people across the globe, with a large percentage here in Baltimore. My program was called the Center for Communication Programs, which was focused on teaching family planning in the global south, with a focus on educating and empowering women. We did a ton of partnerships with USAID, which is where I developed my intense hatred for their current logo, which I still have to deal with to this day. At that time our program was focused on preventative measures (we did not advocate or promote for the A-Word) but I’m sure whatever shape the program has taken now, it’s directly in the crosshairs of the right-wing christians. It was good work and it raised women up in places where they desperately needed it. I hope there is a way those programs can be kept alive.
In the meantime, one of the main offices for Social Security is about three miles north of here, and apparently the stooges are already there poking around.
I had grand plans to get lots of long-standing house projects accomplished on Saturday, but was ony able to finish one of them. I’d finished hanging all of the under-cabinet lights last weekend but still had to do the four cans in our glassed cabinets on either side of the sink and the facing wall. I’d used plastic-friendly spray paint to paint them black and after a week of curing, the paint was ready to handle. With all the practice I’d had with the other lights this went pretty quickly, and within an hour or so the lights were in place.
Next up was the bathroom heater, which has been suffering from a faulty thermostat for years. I got the oscillating saw out and trimmed out the edges to make it easy to remove, then unboxed the replacement I’d gotten at Lowe’s only to realize it was 1″ smaller in each dimension (the measurements were for the cover, not for the box). After a trip to the internet I learned the original manufacturer isn’t carried by the big box stores anymore so I’d have to spend $180 plus shipping on a new one, or $80 for a replacement thermostat from Amazon. Wisely I chose the latter. It won’t be here until next week, which sucks.
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Sunday we got dressed up and walked across the street to the church, which was hosting an Iftar dinner at the end of the Ramadan fast. This is the third Iftar dinner we’ve attended; they are organized by a local mosque and Turkish cultural organization who promote interfaith events. We met a nice woman during the opening remarks who sat on the pew next to us, and I invited her to sit with us at the table we’d staked out. She and her husband lived in China for 15 years before moving to the US; both have a PhD in linguistics. We were fascinated to hear of their time in China; her husband wrote the first Turkish to Chinese dictionary. I was seated across from a nice man who came to America and taught STEM in middle and high schools until COVID hit, and then pivoted to his own business laser-engraving headstones. It was lovely to meet new people and learn about their lives, as well as Muslim tradition, and it’s something I look forward to every year.
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Meanwhile, my ribs are almost back to normal. I can walk stairs two at a time again, lift most objects, and get out of bed without feeling like I’ve been shocked with a car battery. I spent most of Sunday crawling through a couple of cars in a junkyard, and with the exception of yanking the dashboard cover out of a Nissan Versa with my hands, I didn’t feel it at all. Even standing up from under the car wasn’t hard—I felt it more in my knees than my ribs, which was a nice change.
I’m not sad to have this one going through my head this week: Beck’s Dreams, from the 2017 album Colors. Beck’s catalogue has always been pretty reliably good stuff, especially after Sea Change, and this album has more standout tracks than clunkers. No Distraction and Seventh Heaven are also fantastic tunes. This video is a live recording; I’m told his concerts are fantastic to attend and he puts on an excellent show.
If you’re a US citizen, “you have the right to say no” to a search, “and they are not allowed to bar you from the country,” Hussain said. But if you refuse, CBP can still take your phone, laptop, or other devices and hold onto them.
File this under Things I Learned today: my work MacBook Pro and personal MacBook Air can charge from both the MagSafe port and one of the two USB-C ports on the side. I found this out quite accidentally at work when I plugged my work machine in and it made the happy “I’m charging” ping when it was connected to a Dell power brick/port extender.
I’ve got two sets of Apple Airpods Pro: my original set, which I bought in 2020, and a Pro 2 set, which I bought in the middle of 2024 to upgrade the first set after the microphone started failing. I had the originals replaced under warranty in 2022 when one side went bad and started clicking constantly, and they returned to faithful service. I use the good ones for everything but working in the garage, and I relegate the first set for getting dirty under the truck or painting a bedroom. They’ve been crackling in my ear for several weeks now, and I finally took the time to look up a solution: the noise cancelling circuitry is going bad, apparently. Turning it off solved the problem immediately, but leaves me without a cocoon.
Blind elevated their ethereal sound into a more mature exploration of the imperatives of existence. It’s more subdued, at least from a production standpoint, but finds its niche in luminant melodies and the band’s elegant yet spare musical arrangements.
I’ve written about The Sundays before; they are one of my favorite bands of my college years. This is a thoughtful retrospective of their second album, which came out in 1992 with a different vibe from their first record. Melancholy, yes, but still beautiful and inspiring. I wish they’d continued making music together, but we have three excellent albums to look back on.