Weekly Wednesday Update #5

Goal Update

The January numbers are in! It was a good start to the year; a little upset I didn’t look at my milage yesterday and run 7 more miles to hit 100 this month! Not sure what to think about eating more tacos than running miles… I’ll let you be the judge. February I am determined to get in the water (even if it's ice/snow outside) - can’t believe I said that either. I just bought the Total Immersion: The Revolutionary Way To Swim Better, Faster, and Easier (affiliate link) and Total Immersion Swimming: Perpetual Motion Freestyle in Ten Lessons DVD (affiliate link) per the recommendation from Tim Ferriss to help with my swimming technique.

Miles Swam: 0 [-22.93]

Miles Run: 93.04 [+8.11]

Tacos Ate: 102 [+17.07]

Miles Biked: 197.08 [+25.77]

Weekly update - Note: this past week was a ‘recovery’ week. I did try to reduce mileage and/or time by 10-20% and slowed down the pace (keep HR <145) quite a bit to let my body recover.

Miles Swam: 0 [0]

Miles Run: 22.8 [96.64]

Tacos Ate: 22 [105]

Miles Biked: 51.12 [212.23]

Things I worked on

I regret to inform you, I am a chronic optimist that believes he can watch paint to make it dry faster and that all plans will proceed without error or failure. Unfortunately, I did not finish my Z-Carve workbench, the electronics case, nor transforming my X-Carve into the 1800mm upgraded Z-Carve. Maybe this weekend? Well, that is the plan. The good news is I am currently covered in paint from finishing the electronics case, have started soldering the components, and have the diagram drawn out on paper (for the most part).

Primed Z-Carve Electronics Case

Over this past weekend I called an audible and designed, built and finished a laundry basket holder to regain some floor space in my room. Made from 1x3’s, stained with ebony stain, and sealed with polyurethane. Not a bad cheap and easy project; just need to add a nice top to it… Any suggestions? Comment below. I am leaning towards a nice burnt wood top.

Laundry Basket Holder

I also tried my hand at milling aluminum. Well, I cut half of a support for the 1800mm length makerslide before I broke the bit. Probably should do some of those highly recommended chip load calculations so I don’t throw out another $15 in 3 minutes.

Milling Aluminum on X-Carve (moments before bit breaks)

Line up remains the same, few things moved around:

• Aluminum Supports for 1800mm axis
• Work bench with enclosure
• Electronics case for Z-Carve
• Dust Shoe version 2 (version 1 post here)

Favorite Podcast of the Week

The Tim Ferriss Show: Arnold Schwarzenegger Part 2! Bodybuilding, Investing, and Online Battles

This is part 2 where the fans of the Tim Ferriss show submitted and voted for the most popular questions to ask the Terminator - if you haven’t heard part 1, do it, do it now! I knew Arnold was a bad ass, but I didn’t realize to what level until hearing part 1. Part 2 just adds to it! He is a machine. Really.

Favorite Quote(s) of the Week

“Part of being successful is to give something back.” – Arnold Schwarzenegger

Random of the Week

This week I have been very interested in Raspberry Pi projects. Currently, I have two model B’s (one I am pretty sure I blew up), one B+, one version 2 and one version 3. Here is a list of what they are currently in use as:

• Raspi B - smart garage door opener
• Raspi B - broken?
• Raspi B+ - smart bed stand/wake up lights (not in use)
• Raspi 2 - JSON, GPIO server for X-Carve
• Raspi 3 - still in box :(

There have been some recent posts (like this and this and this) that have hit my news feed [I use feedly - great app, review for another time] and caused a desire to re-evaluate the uses of my awesome mini-computers. I am currently working on adding buttons for the JSON server for my Z-Carve [all tested, just need to assemble] which I will then add one more awesome feature to so stay tuned! Next, I want to combine the Raspi Echo with my smart bed stand, which will be awesome - think wake up lights controlled by saying ‘Alexa - wake me up an hour before sunrise.’ Then, I need to fix/convert my smart garage door opener so it doesn’t drop wifi each week, or convert it to an ESP8266. And finally, I need to build a photo booth for a few weddings this fall.

After this lovely ramble, seriously people go out and buy a Raspberry Pi 3 Model B Motherboard (affiliate link) for $35, take it out of its box and start making stuff. All the instructions are online (I will add my builds as I finish them), the worst case scenario is you blow it up (which is fun!) and you are only out $35 but learned what not to do for the next time.

Time to write post: 35 minutes