New!

The long hiatus doesn't actually mean cool stuff stopped happening. It actually means that I went from being generally bored at work (on account of having little to do) to being very, very busy. I am now on 3 projects plus spearheading a SBIR (Small-Business Innovative Research) proposal for the OSD (Office of the Secretary of Defense). It's been busy. Not that busy is bad - it's much, much better than sitting around bored.

I did, however, do cool stuff. For instance, I went to Little Washington (also known as Washington, VA, and the home of one of the best restaurants in the world) with my family and took some mediocre photos (example above). No, we didn't eat at the Inn. That was three weekends ago.I went kayaking a bunch two weekends ago with various people. That was fun and the weather was spectacular. And this past weekend, I built a new rack for my tandem kayak and modded and moved the rack my dad and I had built for the other boats. Check out the picture of my setup.

And I bought a helicopter. I'd been toying with the idea, voiced it on Friday, did some research with a friend of mine who flies helicopters (big little ones - on the order of several feet and able to lift several pounds) and discovered 1) they are far from simple to get set up and 2) they are quite expensive. 1 is because they're aimed at hobbyists and therefore come in as many pieces as is possible. The battery's separate from the cell balancer which is separate from the temperature probe/protection circuit which is separate from the charger; the servos and the receiver and the transmitter might be packaged together, but need not be, and anyhow each typically uses a special battery that needs a special charger; the chassis might or might not include main and tail rotor blades, the engine is separate.... You get the idea. Lots of pieces. Lots of money. Great once you have a setup, 'cause you can grow it a piece or two at a time. And great when you crash, 'cause you can easily replace whatever's broken. But daunting for someone who wants to start. And more expensive than if I bought another polyurethane boat.

So I bought a little one. A really little one. Like 8 oz. kind of really little. And it was much, much cheaper than the alternative (cost less than the transmitter I was looking at) and came in a box with everything I needed. And I'm really, really bad at flying it and have crashed a lot and, consequently, am really, really glad I got a cheap one. Oh - and this one has coaxial counter-rotating blades and hence is supposed to be easier to fly than a single-rotor heli with a tail rotor.

But it's fun. Lots of fun.