The pot of coffee is always on [even after 2 years have passed]. Come on in. Sweet ice tea too.

[FJ and G]

test

[FJ and G]

Tom,

Thanks for showing me how to post my ugly picture. Now I just gotta figure out how to put my name there too.

Jim Duda,

Now that you've got my picture, pass it around to some of the lawn mowing gals in Austin, please.

BTW, when I look at myself in the mirror I look about 200% better than in that photo. I think it's time to get a different camera.

:-)

[Jim Duda]

Dave - put this as part of your signature:

"I mow grass for free
As long as you'll be
Kind and Loving and Regal.
It helps if you're pretty,
But please keep your kitty
Away from BB, my beagle!"

[Anonymous]

Tom's the man

[laz 57]

Morning GANG,
35 degrees here this morning suppose to get a clipper system tonight?
Long Parent teacher day yesterday and no one came to see their kids shop teacher.
Felt like I never left trhis place.
Hope all is well, have a good one and lets be safe out there.
laz57

[Anonymous]

hey guys this is one of the many strutures with in a stones throw from my house

[cnw1995]

Aww, I would've come visited you, laz. Cold and snowy today. Today will be a better day than yesterday on all fronts! Nice to see your mug, Dave! - in Your Profile, you can add a signature line.

[jonadel]

Laz--

The reason no one came to see you is because you are doing to good of a job! Be happy, you probably got to catch up on paper work. My last principal required every h.s. teacher to have 25 conferences, we crossed kids off of a master list, I always tried to grab that list first and get all the honor roll kids in band, then when they came in and whined about an A- in a Physic's class I'd just send them to that teacher!!!!

Jon

[ChiefEagles]

Feel real sorry for you YANKS. Sunny and warm here. Off to the pond to do some work and maybe wet a hook. [:p][:D] Beautiful day here. Have a good one and don't W--K too hard [except Jon who is a bum like me [;)]]. [:D] God bless all.

[1688torpedo]

Jim Duda is our Man,If he cannot make a rhymn.No one can![:)].Have a nice day everyone!.........Keith

[jonadel]

I LOVE being a bum, if I had known about this life style earlier and I would have worked a 3rd job[:D]

I just got back from a meeting whereby the business powers in our county want the taxpayers to pay for a $50 million dollar regional airport (corporate jets and private air craft) or at least under write what the FAA won't pay for. Things got pretty hot for a few minutes but the board of supervisors went ahead and voted to proceed to the next step. The sad part for us is that we live about 1 mile from where it would be, I don't think it will happen but then you never know. Now if it was light rail I'd be leading the parade[:)]

Jon

[Anonymous]

10 inches of snow mad me a bum for the last 2 days[:D]

[laz 57]

Thanks DOUG and JON at least I know that people still remember there shop classes when they went to school.
laz57

[Anonymous]

hey laz the only class I like the the best and did the best in was shop straight A'zzz

[cnw1995]

Good luck, Jon. I live under the flight path for an airport that over the past 15 years of our living here has morphed from a quasi-grass strip to a 24 hr crossed runways for light jets - and now they want to move roads to make it bigger under the umbrella of making it 'safer' - a Cessna hit the roof of a semi on approach years ago and boy do they flog that - I knew this was going to happen - after studying the county plats years back - and can live with the constant buzz and occasional screech on good weather days. But I get a kick out of the new neighbors who move in and then are shocked! shocked! at the planes overhead - you'd think they'd do a bit 'o research before spending $300,000.

It was even funnier when the airport belatedly realized a gigantic gas station complex was set to be built right at the end of the runway - they got the FAA (and state) to condemn it. Felt a tad sorry for the developer. Wild west land development going on here.

[Buckeye Riveter]

For my birthday, I received something so appropriate, the Lionel Road Construction Sign Set and the matching orange barrels. I can't wait to close some roads, dig something up and put a big bumpy patch in the roadway.

I wish my layout was big enough that I could design a road system that just went in circles because the other roads out of town were closed.

Chief, there is still ice on many of the lakes. Too cold to think much about fishing. Saw a bunch of ice fishing this weekend. Lake Erie is not completely iced over so big snow squalls are still possible.

Laz, in shop class there were two of us that Aced the class because we sanded,sanded, sanded, sanded, sanded, sanded, sanded, sanded, sanded, sanded, and sanded some more. If I could do it again, I would be enrolled in shop class, drafting class, auto shop, aviation, and phys ed. My after school activity would be fishing club and model train club and I would drive a Hummer to school with a gun rack in the back.

Tom, and the score is Buckeyes 11, North Carolina Wanks 1.

[FJ and G]

Scratch b.

Send 10" snow my way. Would close DC for at least a week.

Jim D,

Woe them with poetry!

Is that how you met your sweety?

[Jim Duda]

Dave - any idea what a well composed and executed, extemporaneous, Shakespearean Sonnet, written on a dinner napkin during a candle light dinner interlude will do to your date...(wink)?

You couldn't buy enough lawnmowers to keep up with the demand. HA!

[wrmcclellan]

Wow Buckeye!

Talk about throwing down the gauntlet! Chief will have you boys waist deep in snow for the rest of the year!

Laz - I volunteer each week in our schools (teach Lego Robotics) and I agree - the parent attendance/support is pathetic. When I was a kid - you couldn't maneuver through the crowds on parent/teacher meeting night. Shop class was a place where you could actually demo some real accomplishments to your folks! (They certainly did not see that in my Social Studies class!).

As others said - shop class is one thing that sticks in every kid's mind for a lifetime. I took wood shop, drafting, and small engine repair (You were especially dedicated when you got to build the paddle the teachers used on you!). I took 2 semesters of heavy machine shop in college. All things that helped me for a lifetime. Keep up the good work! I admire you for what you do. It is important!

Vocational stuff is no longer taught in our school district although there is some talk of bringing it back. Someone finally realized that a lot of kids do not go on to college, instead going to a tech school with no preparatory schooling.

Supposed to be 72 today with some clouds and maybe some rain later.

Have a great day all!
Roy

[Jim Duda]

QUOTE: Laz - I volunteer each week in our schools (teach Lego Robotics) and I agree - the parent attendance/support is pathetic. Roy

Roy...are you familiar with the Mindstorms RCS Brick that can control the Lego-Dacta robots? National Instruments (Austin) makes the LabVIEW s/w that is downloaded into the control system - been employed at NI for 18 years. Just curious...

[FJ and G]

Jim D,

Well, I tried but couldn't add my signature so I stuck my name in the photo place along with a poem I stole from Bartlett's quotations that should woe women in droves.

I haven't figured out the meaning of the poem, but it sounds impressive.

[laz 57]

THANKS GUYS you all still remember your fun times in SHOP CLASS. Like everybody always say SHOP is the fun class. I do like to push my kids in eighth grade to use their minds a little. I give them 2 real good assignments the first is they receive a block of wood about 200 grams and have to make a dragster out of it. This will have a hole in it about 3 inches deep, size to be between 8.5 to 10inches long, no less the 1.25 inches where the axles go through and the object is to have a drag race between the rest of the class, fastest car wins. Teaches the kids cutting and drill accuracy along with good sound sanding to make it areodynamically fast. They try and get the wood down to about 10 grams,BTW that is the record minus tires and axles. Lots of fun with this after its all done the kids usually will make a ramp to see how far they can ramp their cars.
Their second assignment is that I give each kid a mouse trap. Their job is to make a vehicle out of it to go as far as possible only by use of the spring in the mousetrap. Lots of fun with this usually the girls do alittle better on this one. School record is 207 feet by a girl using 2 mousetraps. For asingle MT it is 144feet 10inches set by a boy. Then we resume the regular IA class with simple cabinet making the next marking period.
BUCKEYE every shop teacher preaches sand sand sand and sand some more. That is why you got an A because you did listen to the man and he was stating about details.
Hint TURBOTIM. BUCKEYE sounds like my high school schedule when I was a senior.
ROY you are absolutly right there are lots of kids that are not college material out there and the trades are screaming for good smart people. I salute you for your volunteer work at the school. It would be nice to have someone like you here.
Thanks again guys,
laz57

[Anonymous]

Well, pooh on modelling!

I just got an aerial photo of the warehouse my father ran while I was growing up, and a couple of photographs of him from which to take background detail. Sat down with the calculator, and now I know why everyone who models does "N" scale. The building is 3.75 inches tall (15 feet) but over seventeen feet long! Twelve sections (or four long ones) in Realtrax just for the siding. More table space than the wife is going to let me have. If I give up, I won't have to figure out where to get inch high bales of cotton. Or little guys with hand trucks to move them around the warehouse.

[Jim Duda]

QUOTE: David Vergun

Women on trains
have a life
that is exactly livable
the precision of days flashing past

Better buy LOTS of lawn equipment, dude! Lot's o' Texuss girlies will be headed east...!!!

[wrmcclellan]

Jim,

We use the standard Lego MindStorms 2.0 Robotics kit that is based on the RCX brick, two motor blocks, one light sensor, two touch sensors, various wheels, tractor tracks, etc. The kit includes a very simple PC based object oriented programming languauge for S/W development and downloading into the RCX. I am working with 4th - 6th graders, so we are not doing any of the really sophisticated development that some are doing (I saw an article where some college students built a pretty powerful parallel processor from a couple hundred RCXs).

I am not familiar with Lego-Dacta. I tried a quick Google on it and did not find much to explain what the "Dacta" part of Lego is about. Do you have any useful links?

I get a real kick out of what the kids design and how they solve problems "out of the box" as they say. When we have the district competition, the rules generation gets real interesting to ensure the teams use the robotics kits and programming as intended.

Laz - way to go. Looks like you are teaching a lot more than just shop techiniques.

Regards,
Roy

[Jim Duda]

Roy - if the programming consists of icons you drag and drop instead of text based code, that's LabVIEW from NI. I always thought Lego-Dacta was the complete corporate entity...I admire you folks that can teach - what a priceless gift!

[wrmcclellan]

Jim,

Yes the S/W consists of programming icons that you drag and drop into a chain or branches to build a program. Pretty neat and well suited for the kids.

One of my favorite poems (author unknown to me) and makes perfect sense:

In youth it was the way I had
To do my best to please
And change with every passing lad
To suit his theories.
But now I know the things I know
And do the things I do,
And if you do not like me so,
To h*ll my love with you!

Regards,
Roy

[FJ and G]

Roy,

I hope legos structures like cranes and stuff makes a comeback.

Jim D, Tom and others,

Thanks for helping me on the Mac stuff.

Here's some track that's awaiting the center wire to be installed on my layout.

[Roger Bielen]

Boy, you all have been talkative since I signed off last night, had to go back two pages to pick up where I left off.

What a night. The winds blew, the thunder roared, the hail fell, and the skies opened and released a deluge. And we didn't get the brunt of it. Toward Atlanta it was worse. This afternoon it's bright and sunny with the temp. currently at 74.

Time to go figure what I'm going to make for supper.

[Anonymous]

Boy, you all have been talkative since I signed off last night, had to go back two pages to pick up where I left off.<<<<

No offense, I just read here now, dont make sense to me!?