I havent written for awhile, even though a lot has been on my mind. Tyrell finally got a job. Its work-study, but its doing what he loves; making maps. Hopefully, this will bring him some joy. As for me, I am struggling to decide on what to do for next semester. I signed up for classes, but I dont know, I might change them all at this point. The last few weeks has been a test of my many friendships, we shall see where the cards lie soon enough.

Happy Birthday Gare Bear!

My cousin Gary Jentink is 19 today. I am sad, but honored because he isnt here for me to tell him Happy Birthday, but, he is at Boot Camp training to protect our country. Love you, and miss you Gare Bear, Happy Birthday <3

Birthday stuffs!

OMG yay! I am already starting to get Birthday gifts <3 (Thank you George!)

I got an Ansel Adams book, which I am most excited about, I can finally dig out the camera and start playing around with it again, it will give me a hobby to distract me a bit from school. :)


<3

the best thing about online classes...

is that they dont observe holidays or weekends....I have stuff due Monday (Labor Day) and on Sunday (My Birthday) :(


.lamesauce.

First day back at school

God what a long day... I almost feel like i bit off more than I can chew... but I think ill manage. It doesn't help that my car is having problems and will be in the shop till Thursday...which puts me doing my training for Kohls, and the first week of school w/o a car. so excited. I managed it pretty well today and tomorrow shouldn't be too awful, luckily Wednesday I don't have my Art class so I can spend a few hours working on my other subjects, and of course next Monday is a holiday as well. I can have a relaxed birthday on Sunday :)

EDU 204 - Should be fairly easy if the teacher can just post the assignments early.

ENV 100- Lots of reading, and a fair amount of studying, but it seems like a intense review of my NRES class I took last year, so the concepts shouldnt be too hard.

PSC 211-Lots, and Lots of reading, and more reading, and writing, and more writing, I know its a 200 level class, but wow.

ART 100 - Tyrell took the class last Spring, I know what the basic stuff is in the class, I might struggle a bit with the weekly vocab tests, but we shall see.

CH 201- Havent had this yet (tomorrow), but I have Tyrell, my roommate, and another friend (all whom are straight A students) taking the class. How do I not get an A?

I have a hard time with reading and taking notes, it takes time for me. But I think, no, I know, I can do this :)

Wooden Boat Classic coming to South Lake Tahoe

Wooden Boat Classic coming to South Lake Tahoe: "The fourth annual South Tahoe Wooden Boat Classic charity event will be held July 29-30 at the Tahoe Keys Marina and Yacht Club in South Lake Tahoe. The event will include more than 65 antique boats on display."

No iPad? Just Make Your Own!

No iPad? Just Make Your Own!: "

Admittedly, this isn’t the most practical solution for getting your hands on a tablet computer, but it’s impressive to watch this timelapse video wherein Liu Xinying builds his own iPad clone from computer parts. Here’s part 2, where he shows the finished build. It appears as though the tablet is running Windows XP, skinned to look like Mac OS X. Liu demos the tablet with web browsing, Google Earth, and a iBooks-like application. It’s a slick build, but I think I have a lot to learn before I could possibly attempt an endeavor like this. [via Dale]

"

Using Google+ Hangout Video Chat for “Maker Show-and-Tell”

Using Google+ Hangout Video Chat for “Maker Show-and-Tell”: "

I helped ladyada set up the first ever DIY electronics show-and-tell using google+ hangout video chat, it was fantastic. Here’s a brief write up.

The first ever electronics show-and-tell over google+ hangout was a success! We’re going to do this again, next time we’re going to start at 9:30pm ET on Saturday nights. That’s 30 minutes before “Ask an engineer“. We might have a recording of this first ever, but check out some of the screenshots (above).

Here are some quickie thoughts about what worked, features we’d like to see and more:

• The show-and-tell is so much fun, no one wants to leave. So we’re going to do it 9:30pm and the first 10 people who are in are in for the full 30 minutes to show-and-tell. We were able to do about 10 in 30 minutes, that’s a perfect amount of time for us before the show without fatigue from the show-and-tellers or us.






• The agenda driven video chat with a moderator asking questions and moving things along (us) worked great.






• We’ll likely be able to record these and post them later (working on the first one now).






• Watching a YouTube video didn’t work for everyone.






• The text chat was handy for URLs for later and for folks talking to each other during the show-and-tell.






• We are researching the best way to live stream the 10 people in the google+ hangout on Ustream at the same time, it’s all messy and complicated but we have some ideas that hopefully will not add a board, a 3rd computer and 3rd net connection :)






• There are not any admin tools yet, we didn’t need any and hopefully never will. There’s just “mute” and “report abuse”. Since you can manage things with circles and blocking, that might be enough.






• We loved it, it was like a mini Maker Faire!…

We’d like to thank the first folks who showed up with their projects and we look forward to the next group next week, see you then! Add us to google+ (http:///gplus.to/adafruit) to stay tuned for the next one!

I’m pretty sure google would like to see more of this – people sharing their creations using one of their new services. It’s one of the best uses I can think of for google+ hangouts. I think this tool is a winner for people who create and share.

Not really related, but worth mentioning since it will come up in the comments – (personal opinion) — I realize this might just be a shiny new toy for now, but for me Facebook is the “RealPlayer” of social networks, they took more value than they gave back for far too long.

I’m glad there’s an alternative for sharing and collaboration now with more features that seem to be interesting to makers. Historically Facebook hasn’t done much in the Maker community, I’ve tried to get them to participate in Maker Faire each year (and would still love to have them, there are a lot great ideas for Facebook + Maker Faire). While it would be impossible to be a fan of everything google does, they’ve been part of Maker Faire many many times, they’re doing a Science Fair, they have a hacker space for employees, they’ve adopted Arduino for Android, lots of good OSS efforts and the tools they’re creating with more control and ownership seems to fit the maker mindset better – it does feel like they’re listening, I hope they keep it up.

"

Im Home

On July 10,  I quit my job at camp. I wanted to have the few weeks before school to get better. On Saturday night I had another PTSD breakdown and I realized that it is severely affecting my life and I need to get help.

So I am home now...


I am still planning on going to school this semester. I think with the ongoing counseling I should be able to do this.

Camp let me have the experience of a lifetime, and I will never forget it. Thank you to everyone who made me laugh, and who gave me that experience.