I’m too busy doing stuff lately to spend much time writing about it.

Projects under way this week:
– groovik’s cube: helped finish up the sewing, minor fix to the dimmer board
– playa trike: bought tires & tubes, and a cool pair of black-and-white star pattern hand grips
– Tanya’s wedding dress: wedding is Saturday, sewing still under way! Helped cut some replacement ruffle strip material, sewed & trimmed the skirt and bodice
– DJ machine: applied last coat of polyurethane, cut holes and installed power & audio sockets, mounted handle
– motorcycle: cut & glued acrylic panels to repair broken taillight lens (smashed by some inconsiderate or inebriated person while parked on Broadway)
– art studio at Sunrise: more unpacking and setup

remaining this weekend: more work on the playa trike; Pat & Tanya’s wedding; initial round of cleaning, sorting, and repacking burning man bins; alterations to playa tent.

Nothing is ever finished; completion is a state of the imagination, which is unbounded. Things exist; things change; one can draw satisfaction from doing work to accomplish a change, but satisfaction drawn from completion, or arrival, is forever elusive.

I’ve been roaring away on various projects this week, chief among them of course the groovik’s cube. I’ve made a couple of minor changes to the dimmer code, but mostly I’ve been helping sew fabric panels. We’re using white ripstop nylon squares for the projection screens, with long strips of black lycra to divide them. As with anything on this project, each individual piece may not be a big deal but when you have to cut, pin, and sew forty or fifty of them even something simple takes a long time. And this isn’t really simple: we are sewing heavy-duty velcro onto ripstop nylon and spandex! This could only be more annoying if we had somehow involved silk or faux-fur.

Also finished re-engineering my bed frame. It’s a simple platform bed; I picked up a headboard a while back which has been sitting between the bed frame and the wall, looking pretty but not actually attached to the bed at all. This is awkward, because the bed frame tends to slide away from the wall if you sit up and lean against the headboard, and because there’s a large gap which eats pillows. I finally decided to do something about this. The bed frame’s bolt pattern is not even close to compatible with the headboard, so I cut a 1×6 oak plank to match the frame’s width, finished it to match the headboard, drilled some holes and installed T-nuts, then bolted the whole thing together. Simple project, but satisfying, and now I can use the headboard as a back rest when reading in bed.

Today I am reorganizing my studio space – I picked up a third work table. This one will become my “dirty bench”, and the current (slightly smaller) table it replaces will move over by the window and become a music station, holding my keyboard and DJ rig.

I happened to see a pair of carved teak panels at a garage sale, and mentioned them to Cat and Sam when I got home. Moments later, the three of us plus our houseguest Glenn were in my car heading back to the spot. A little browsing, a little haggling, and away we went. Of course there happened to be another sale around the corner – a spectacularly large one, clearing out fifty years’ worth of basement junk – and our little expedition ended up lasting a couple of hours.

I picked up another typewriter: a Royal, “Quiet De Luxe” model. I hadn’t realized I was in the market for another typewriter, but it’s a classic design and the machine is in excellent condition. I’m not sure of its age, but these were popular in the late forties, and that seems reasonable for a relic from Grandma’s basement.

Another find was a cute little Brownie Reflex 20, probably mid-sixties, a Kodak mass-market TLR. I’ve had an idea kicking around the back of my brain for a few years, and I think this might be a good testbed. I want to build a digital camera which uses a prism, multiple CCDs, and neutral density filters to simultaneously capture several renderings of the same image at different brightness levels. Storage is cheap – instead of carefully measuring light levels and trying to get the right aperture/shutter settings up front, why not just collect a lot of data for every exposure and fix it later in software? Well, it’s worth a try, anyway. Removing the film cassette leaves the Brownie completely empty; whenever I get around to this project, I’ll probably just cut down a spare film cassette and build the electronics in, then slide the whole assembly into the unmodified
Brownie case.

Last find: five bucks, a cute little kid’s bike with giant chopper-style handle bars, spray-painted red. Tires are flat and it’s missing a seat, but I got the sellers to throw in a banana seat and a spare wheel. If I have time before the burn, I’m going to turn this into my “inline tricycle” – it’ll be a super-laid-back cruiser bike with the seat resting on two independently-suspended rear wheels.

No backpacking for me. My foot isn’t broken, but it is sprained badly enough to get a chuckle out of the doctor when I mentioned that I was about to leave on a week-long hike in the Sierra.

Bummer.

Travels have yet to begin. Forty minutes on the bike yesterday and I was dizzy, nauseous, and headachey, classic symptoms of heatstroke. Well, okay, I guess I’m not making it out of Seattle. I spent the afternoon sitting in a tub under a cold shower with a fan blowing, drinking beer and then mimosas, feeling decreasingly grouchy.

I think I’m going to skip the motorcycle trip and fly down tomorrow. I’m distinctly unenthused about the prospect of a week-long backpacking trip in this heat, though, and it’s increasingly tempting just to bag the whole trip and spend a week asleep in the basement.

fabricate: way better than make. Well, that isn’t saying much.

I had a lot of plans for all the work I was going to do today getting ready for my upcoming travels. Instead I am just trying to survive the heat: I don’t know what the temperature is, since it’s beyond the upper limit of my thermometer, but it is Definitely Not Fun.

I celebrated my birthday yesterday with a backyard barbecue at Sunrise. It was fun; people started showing up around six-thirty and the last few left at two. We drank beer, margaritas, and even some champagne; lazed around on blankets, sat around a fire, talked, caught up, enjoyed life. It was comfortable and fun, and I felt happy and grateful for the company of so many good friends.

Inspired by a backyard party at Divide & Jacqueline’s house last year, I decided to install a firepit. People will happily sit around a fire for hours doing nothing but talk and relax; a fire turns any random patch of ground into the center of a social space. So I dug out part of our sloping back yard, packed the dirt level, and built a three-foot circular brick platform, on which I placed one of those metal fire dish things. It was hard, dirty, sweaty labor – I can’t remember when I last got myself covered in so much dirt! It always feels good to build something tangible, though. And, sure enough, once we set up a bunch of folding chairs, people sat around the fire til the end of the evening, talking and drinking and laughing and enjoying the night.

Today’s project, after cleaning up from last night, was a work party for the groovik’s cube. I took my sewing machine over to G-haus and sewed strips of velcro onto white ripstop squares (the faces of the cube) and black lycra strips (covering the gaps between the faces). It was a lot of work – we have about half of the lycra strips done now, but only seven of the fifty-four ripstop panels. There will be another couple of days at it for sure. The project is going well overall, though – the power boards are all done as of yesterday, which I’d been worried about. It’s going to work.

I’m leaving Wednesday morning for a big trip to California. I’m going to ride my FJ600 down the coast to San Francisco, then hang a left on Friday and take I-80 to Sacramento. Saturday morning, my brother Andrew will fly me and his friend DJ up to Bishop, where we’ll pick up a car and drive to a trailhead, from which we’ll hike up to meet the John Muir Trail. Later that day, or the next, we’ll meet my mother, who’s been hiking down the trail for a few weeks now along with my four youngest siblings. The three of us will unload our packs to resupply theirs; then Andrew and DJ will hike back home, while I’ll continue along for the last week of the trail. At the end, we’ll climb Mt. Whitney – 14,500 feet, the tallest peak in California – and then trek back down to civilization. A day or two to rest, and I’ll get back on the bike and head home, probably the faster I-5 route this time.

I can’t wait.

Hello, world.

This tutorial describes the implementation of a simple compiler using LLVM, an increasingly robust code generation library which is rapidly becoming the obvious solution for any compiler targeting x86.

Fascinating long-form email post called my evolution as a programmer: mostly about the author’s progress through programming concepts and the process by which he developed abstract thinking about software development.

It has been a challenging year, and I feel drained. I’m glad to have friends who can support me through rough times, but it’s time I got my life back to a more peaceful state; time for a change in focus.

I moved to a new house last weekend. It’s a pretty, comfortable, welcoming little place, a 1910-era Craftsman on the eastern side of Capitol Hill – not far from where I’ve been living, but closer to shops and friends and activity. Cat moved in a couple of weeks ago, and Sam will be joining us at the end of the month; the house is maybe half the size of the one I’ve been living in, but there’s plenty of room for three.

The upper floor of this house was designed as a master suite; it’s a sprawling big room with two closets and funky ceiling angles. I’m going to cozy off a little nook to use as a bedroom and turn the rest into an art studio. I feel good when I make things, even more so when I can share them with people who will enjoy them, so I want to arrange my living space around that. I imagine a “clean” work table for sewing, a “dirty” workbench for electronics and general fabrication, a desk with computer and electronic music hardware, cabinets full of tools, a whole closet full of materials and stored projects…

I’ve also given notice at Microsoft. This job has been a frustrating, difficult experience from beginning to end; I kept on struggling through, at first because I thought it was just an unusually difficult adaptation period, then because I couldn’t imagine where else my career could go, and ultimately because I simply didn’t want to abandon an unfinished project. The project is almost over now, and I still don’t know exactly what my next career step will be, but I’ve seen enough to be certain that this job will never offer the kind of work I need – nor, it is clear, are my skills or temperament particularly well suited to the group’s needs. I’ll spend the next couple of weeks wrapping up a few last bugs, writing some design documents, and passing on what little there is to know about the feature I’ve been grinding my way through – then I’m out of here, glad to be done with the Eastside and ready to enjoy the summer.

I don’t know what I’ll do next, but there are a handful of options in the air already, and I have a good long while to figure it out. I’d like to find something a bit more low-key – perhaps another telecommuting position – something I can do well without having to pour all of my free time into it. In the meantime I will probably spend a fair bit of time working on the Groovik’s Cube and riding around on my motorcycle, enjoying the sunshine.

I went in to work late today so I could pick up my FJ600 as soon as Felony Flyers opened. I dropped it off just before going to California, hoping it’d be finished by the time I got back, but finding a valve cover gasket for a 25-year-old bike apparently takes a while. The bike is grubby-looking as ever, underside all coated in oil and road grime, but for the first time ever it left no drips on the floor when I rode away. I’ve been topping up the oil every month or two since I got it, which is kind of embarrassing, but I’ve finally worked my way far enough down the to-do list that the leaks became the top priority.

While he was at it, Steg also tightened up the chain, synced the carbs, adjusted the valves, replaced the brake pads & fluid, and even wrapped some insulation around the exhaust joint underneath the peg, apparently just because he felt like it. Unfortunately the carburetor still isn’t set quite right; the bike is running smoother and quieter than ever, but it’s missing some power, and has a weird new tendency to hover around 2500 rpm for 20-30 seconds before dropping down to idle. Ah, well, it’s perfectly rideable, and I’ll bring it by again next week to have him readjust it.

I’m really happy to have this work done, since I’ve now reached the end of my mechanical to-do list. There will always be more maintenance work, and the bike can certainly use plenty of cleaning and cosmetic work, but aside from the carb adjustment issue it is now in perfect mechanical condition.

This bike was only supposed to be a temporary commuter while I got the Maxim fixed up, but a year of 100-200 mile weeks has made me rather fond of it. It’s not the sexy beast I was originally looking for, but it’s fast, nimble, reliable, and even graceful, in its chunky mid-80s way. It’s a big old slug by modern sportbike standards, but what they called a sportbike in ’84 actually comes off pretty well in ’09 if you think of it as a light touring bike. I might still upgrade to something like a Honda 919 or a Speed Triple next season, but for now my plan is to clean it up, make it pretty, and keep on riding.

I have a pretty clear cosmetic plan now, actually. The unique taillight lens shape is a key part of the FJ600’s look, so I want to preserve it, but I want to get rid of the side blinkers, and I am tired of dealing with incandescent bulbs. Sometime this fall I want to replace the whole taillight assembly with a custom LED board, incorporating wide-angle red LEDs for running lights, high-intensity 20-degree red LEDs for brake lights, and two strips of yellow LEDs for turn signals. I will probably even grind off the existing turn signal mounts, just to make the body line that much sleeker; the new turn signals will be hidden behind a red lens, so you’ll only see them when I’m actually using them, but the yellow color should still punch through clearly, and they should be substantially more noticeable than the current system.

I’ll need to repaint the fairing after I repair its various cracks and scrapes, but instead of duplicating the existing color scheme, I want to simplify it. I am definitely going to give the engine and exhaust a nice clean coat of flat black; but I just can’t see this bike as a rat or streetfighter. Instead of flat black I plan to strip off the 80s-fabulous decals and redo the silver & red bodywork in semi-flat grey, then give it a clearcoat. It’ll look a little cleaner, a bit more functional, but it’s really more of a happy bike than a bad-ass, so I want to keep it light. Buff up the aluminum accents, replace the windshield with some new lexan, and I think it’ll be great.