Why not retire a Shuttle in orbit?

This photo of Endeavor, taken from a Soyuz capsule departing the ISS is all the evidence needed to make a case for something I thought made sense from the moment I heard they were retiring the Shuttles.

The International Space Station and the Docked Space Shuttle Endeavour | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Retire a Shuttle in place. It costs astronomical amounts of money to lift anything into orbit. The bigger, the heavier, the more fuel/money. Take a look at that picture of Endeavor. It's huge. Further up the structure of the ISS there are two small Soyuz capsules docked.

• The amount of crew space available on the ISS would more than double.
• It has all of the life support equipment already tested and functioning.
• It has three honking big engines that could be used (as they have in the past) to put the station on a higher orbit.
• It can be sealed and separated to be used as a life boat in a catastrophic emergency

It just makes sense to leave it up there. Even if we had to pay for an additional Soyuz launch to return the crew to earth, this would be cheaper than the recovery and decommissioning of Shuttle Atlantis.

Emergency Management

I have been interested in emergency management for few years. Recently things have been happening in my world that make me want to do it even more. Coming from the background of an 8404, Field Med Corpsman, I know I have it in me. So I'm looking into training in incident response and emergency management.

A possibility for further education and training. Emergency Management Institute - FEMA Independent Study Program

Left Brain Right Brain Aspects of Photography - The Photoletariat

Left Brain Right Brain Aspects of Photography - The Photoletariat: "However, there’s only so much analytical brain power and money you can throw into photography before you hit a dead end. Unless you learn to open that door to your creative, intuitive, emotional side, you’re going to have a hard time making anything other than boring, run of the mill pictures."

My favorite bit from the article is:
"However, there’s only so much analytical brain power and money you can throw into photography before you hit a dead end. Unless you learn to open that door to your creative, intuitive, emotional side, you’re going to have a hard time making anything other than boring, run of the mill pictures."

On Saturday, I shot pictures at a brew fest. I am normally not very good at shooting pictures of people. It being a brew fest, I had been drinking. I think the alcohol may have suppressed my normally dominant left brain logic leaving me open to compose some very good photographs of people.

I'll have to do some experimentation on this topic.

Here's a link to the photos

More on Charlieplexing

UziMonkey's blog: Charlieplexing on the Arduino

I've been doing more research on Charlieplexing. So far all I can find is output from pins. I may need to do a little extra work to Charlieplex input. Hrmph.

Charlieplexing LEDs and buttons

Arduino playground - Charlieplex Library

I'm working on another new project. This one is an interval timer for the shutter release on my camera.

In order to do that I need to work out how to Charlieplex input from buttons. The obvious path is by starting with Charlieplexing the output to LEDs.

I'll keep posting the progress here.

A new project

Rusting Sign Post, a photo by chuckularone on Flickr.

I'm starting a photo group on Flickr. The idea is to have a place where we can create photo assignments and get critiqued by other members.

Currently I have an annual, monthly and weekly assignment laid out. See: http://mckenna.tv/u/assignments for details.

Go to http://flickr.com/groups/groupassignments/ and select join this group or just let me know. The idea is that there is no pressure to do a particular photo assignment. It's more to give you a place to start if you are looking for an idea and allow you to compare your work with others.

Feel free to invite others that you know would be interested in something like this.

I have a few ideas about assignments, but if you have any ideas I'm happy to put them in the line up.

Coming next to my kitchen, Low budget Sous-vide

Time to get back into the micro controller world. I plan on blending micro-controllers with temperature sensors, heaters and pumps to COOK!

Sous-vide

French for under vacuum. The process basically consists of vacuum packing food in a plastic bag and immersing it in water bath at a constant temperature (typically the temperature of the food when it's considered "done") for a long enough period of time to let it reach that heat all the way through and kill any possible pathogens in the food.

Most food, when cooked sous-vide requires "finishing" or a quick trip into the frying pan or under the broiler to give it the appearance of having been cooked by that method.

Two of the biggest benefits of sous-vide are that the food is extremely moist since all of the moisture is trapped in the bag with the food and the food can rest at the "done" temperature for many hours without becoming overdone, allowing for wide flexibility in serving times.

There will be much more to come on this topic.

Time to make the Doughnuts

Something I've always wanted to try is to making doughnuts. I've been making a lot of interesting baked goods lately, so Why Not?

They're not exactly "baked" but the dough is not far from bread dough.

The Ingredients

2 (.25 ounce) envelopes active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water (105 to 115 degrees)
1 1/2 cups lukewarm milk
1/2 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1/3 cup shortening (63 grams)
5 cups all-purpose flour
1 quart vegetable oil for frying

1/3 cup butter
2 cups confectioners' sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
4 tablespoons hot water or as needed

The Process

• Sprinkle the yeast over the warm water, and let stand for 5 minutes, or until foamy.


• In a large bowl, mix together the yeast mixture, milk, sugar, salt, eggs, shortening, and 2 cups of the flour. Mix for a few minutes at low speed, or stirring with a wooden spoon. Beat in remaining flour 1/2 cup at a time, until the dough no longer sticks to the bowl. Knead for about 5 minutes, or until smooth and elastic. Place the dough into a greased bowl, and cover. Set in a warm place to rise until double.


• Turn the dough out onto a floured surface, and gently roll out to 1/2 inch thickness. Cut with a floured doughnut cutter. Let doughnuts sit out to rise again until double. Cover loosely with a cloth.


• Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir in confectioners' sugar and vanilla until smooth. Remove from heat, and stir in hot water one tablespoon at a time until the icing is somewhat thin, but not watery. Set aside.


• Heat oil in a deep-fryer or large heavy skillet to 350 degrees F. Slide doughnuts into the hot oil using a wide spatula. Turn doughnuts over as they rise to the surface. Fry doughnuts on each side until golden brown. Remove from hot oil, to drain on a wire rack. Dip doughnuts into the glaze while still hot, and set onto wire racks to drain off excess. Keep a cookie sheet or tray under racks for easier clean up.

I made the dough last night. After a 2 hour rise, I punched it down and put it in the fridge. This morning it had risen tremendously. (Yikes!)

Mason and I rolled out the dough and Maddie cut out the doughnuts.

Rise!

Boiling in 350F oil:

Enjoy!

Welding

I didn't get any pictures of this project, but I beefed up and re-welded the license plate/tail light bracket on the trailer. I love being able to just break out the welder and whip something up that needs whipping.

Now I need to figure out where the problem is in the wiring for the lights so I can get that working again.

Maddie made a hat.

After I made a hat for Mason, Maddie decided that she needed to make a hat of her own. She worked diligently for hours and burned through an entire roll of tape, but the results were cute. It looks a bit like a chef's hat and has a butterfly on the front.

A "Cat in the Hat" hat for Dr. Suess' birthday

Making a hat

My son's school is celebrating Dr. Suess' 107th birthday on Monday. The parents were asked to make something Suessian for the kids to wear to school. Being an over-achiever I decided to make a red and white striped hat. This is actually not the first hat I've made, but I am amazed at how well it came out.

It started with 3 pieces of red felt and 4 pieces of white. I edged stitched along the short side two pieces of red and two pieces of white for the stripes. Mason's head is 20 1/2" around so I needed 21 1/2" with seam allowances. I also edge stitched two pieces of white along the long edge to use for the brim.

Edge stitching:

Then I flattened the seams to make the rest of the process easier.

I cut two 3" x 21 1/2" strips of white felt and 1 of red felt. The other red felt strip was more of a art than measurement. I sewed them wrong sides out and then flipped them over and satin stitched them from the outside. This was mostly to give the hat a little structural integrity, but it also looks good.

Satin stitching:

I didn't get a picture of the top red strip and I wish I had. It was 21 1/2" across the bottom, 24" across the top, 3" tall at the center and 4 1/2" tall at each end.

After stitching that together, I sewed the opposite seam of the hat making it a tube. I flipped it over and shaped the top edge the way I wanted it and traced and cut a piece for the top.

Top piece:

I sewed the top and the brim on (sorry, no pictures) and then trimmed the brim, freehand, flipped it over and sewed a bead around the edge of the brim.

Finished hat:

First batch of the year

I just brewed my first batch of the year. It's another round of Farmhouse Ale. I'm not kidding when I say I love this beer!

Cinnamon Rolls - Feb 21 is National Sticky Bun Day!

Ingredients

Dough:

• 4 large egg yolks, room temperature
• 1 large whole egg, room temperature
• 2 ounces sugar, approximately 1/4 cup
• 3 ounces unsalted butter, melted, approximately 6 tablespoons
• 6 ounces buttermilk, room temperature
• 20 ounces all-purpose flour, approximately 4 cups, plus additional for dusting
• 1 package instant dry yeast, approximately 2 1/4 teaspoons
• 1 1/4 teaspoons kosher salt
• Vegetable oil

Filling:

• 8 ounces light brown sugar, approximately 1 cup packed
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger (Shhh... Don't tell anyone)
• Pinch salt
• 3/4-ounce unsalted butter, melted, approximately 1 1/2 tablespoons

Icing:

• 2 1/2 ounces cream cheese, softened, approximately 1/4 cup
• 3 tablespoons milk
• 5 1/2 ounces powdered sugar, approximately 1 1/2 cups

Making The Dough:

The wet stuff:

I used leftover whey (4 oz) from the ricotta I made earlier today and heavy cream (2 oz) instead of buttermilk, 4 yolks, 1 whole egg and 6 Tbsp of melted butter

Dry Stuff:

Yeast and salt

20 oz flour (by weight) & 2 oz sugar

Eggs, butter, sugar and dairy before:

Eggs, butter, sugar and dairy after:

Added the dry goods:

About half the flour, the salt and the yeast. Whipped into a batter

Mixed in the balance of the flour and ready to rise:

The Filling:

Filling:

mixed the light brown-sugar with the cinnamon, salt and ginger using a fork.

Rolling out the dough:

Ready to roll:

Rolling out:

Roughly 18" x 24"

Buttering:

Adding the filling:

Rolled up:

Cut:

Ready to chill:

Baking:

Put the rolls into the oven for 30 minutes to proof. Place them on the top rack and place a pan filled with boiling water on the rack below. This makes a bit of a sauna for the yeast to wake up and enjoy. We should treat them nicely like this since were about to murder them.

Looking a bit puffy from the second rise:

Placed in the middle of a 350F oven for 30 minutes:

The Icing:

A simple matter of whisking together 2.5 oz of softened cream-cheese, 5.5 oz of sifted powdered sugar and 3 tablespoons of milk until it looks like icing.

Making a maker.

Making my daughter into a maker.

Maddie wanted to do something special for her class for Valentine's day. I suggested making candies. Just pouring chocolate into molds was a little mundane for me. After all, with a moniker like "Maker and Fixer of Things," I had to go the extra mile. I knew we'd be make something cool, but what I didn't expect was to make a maker.

We started with a lump of scrap polymer clay and a foam heart as a guide.

Then I helped her a little to add an embellishment she made.

The finished form, after baking. I had to add a little clay to the bottom to flare it out so that when we made molds the finished candies would be easy to unmold.

Next the original art went onto the vacu-former and we pulled four molds by heating plastic from gallon water jugs until they were nearly transparent and then placing them over the vacu-former and Maddie turned on the vacuum. It takes less than a second to suck the air out, cool and harden the mold.

I melted some white (pink and red) chocolate Witman's candy melts and let Maddie fill the molds.

The first batch and the rest! Now we just need to wrap them in foil.

A red heart still in the mold.

She was so excited to make something from scratch that she can share with her friends. I was very happy to see the excitement and energy in her eyes. So of course, Mason had to get in on the action too. :-)