There is no shortage of projects I’m working on. It’s too bad they’re not related to our adopted children…..
I received all four of the lighting controller boards. Now, I’m waiting for the electronic components needed for populating the boards. If I don’t watch it, these could end up consuming a small fortune. The boards and components aren’t going to be outrageously expensive. There are also wood, wire, metal, plastic and other parts to build displays for over 100 strings of Christmas lights that will be controlled by these boards. If I do it right, the supplies needed will be scrounged up from the twincitiesfreemarket org or craigslist.com websites. This project is going to be fun to do, and hopefully worth it in the end. For an example of what it ‘may’ look like:
Click on the link above to go Richard Holdman’s other videos. You’ll be impressed. I like the 2007 videos, when the lights were on his house better than the 2008, when he put them up at a vacant lot in town.
OK, so this guy has 80 more channels of lights than I will have, his house is nicer and he is obviously more experienced at this than I am – but you get the idea. I’m also going to try to build an FM transmitter to get the music out in the airwaves around our house. The FM transmitter may be the tricky part. I’ve heard that they can be finicky when it comes to staying locked exactly on a frequency, without drifting. I may have to buy one if I can’t build a satisfactory home-made version.
Other projects include building guitar effects pedals. So far, finished is a digital delay and a mild distortion. I’m currently working on a chorus pedal. After the chorus, I’ll work on a tremolo and a couple more. I’ve been trying to get a depth of field adaptor made for my video camera for some time. There hasn’t been a lot of work done on it because I’m waiting for a friend to get a CNC machine finished so I can get a part milled for the adaptor. I’ve also been building remote controllers (LANC on a pro video camera) for the Canon HV20 video camera and selling them. I’m trying to get Mitch to help out building them, but I’ve still been in the designing and tweaking stage. The design should be fixed now, so he can help build them and make some money. We’ve sold a few so far.
I think I’ve bitten off more than I can chew! This remote control thing is getting bigger than I thought. We’ve sold a few of them, but now we’re offering options (which means more parts to have on hand). Now, you can get the original (permanent LED mount, single length cable) or a removable LED (which I recommend for most people) and either the permanent or removable LED mount with an extendable cable. The remotes are on backorder from Canon right now, though we should get a few within a week. Hopefully Mitch will show some more interest in making these things (maybe making the money is more of an incentive) and this venture will be worthwhile (profitable).
Holly and Mitch have started in another play that our homeschool group is putting on. Wayne Matthews is directing again. The play is The Adventures of Mottel which is a comedy about Jewish immigration from Russia to USA. I haven’t seen the script, but I guess it’s supposed to be pretty funny.
Yes, I’m still thinking about Jessica and Erika a lot. Yes, I still ask God for a miracle, that they return home to us. We still don’t talk about them at home. I still miss them and cry.
I’m ashamed to admit that I’m already forgetting things about Jessica and Erika. My mind is getting fuzzy about memories of them. I used to remember more detail about most things. Memories are not so clear now.
Friday and today is the Mache homeschool convention. Holly and Mitch both went to Generation Joshua this year. Erika is too young, but Jessica could have gone. I miss the girls and still think of them (or maybe more accurately, the lack of them in the family) every hour of every day. I still love them – the same as Holly and Mitch – and always will. I still pray for them daily, including that burning, deep-down heartfelt request to God for Him to do a miracle and send them back to us.
I did go to a session at the Mache conference by Steve Demme, who talked about “Wise Fathers, Wise Sons.” He talked about some things that I needed to hear, things about how I am towards my family, things that I need to change.
I made a remote control thingy for the Canon HV20 video camera that Holly and Mitch are going to help build and sell for some income. They’ve sold 2 of them so far. It’s a device that allows someone to control their Canon video camera by remote from behind the camera. The real, professional version of this is called a LANC controller, and is built-in to high-end video cameras. We are selling it for $30, plus $5 shipping. If you’d like one, let us know.
