More Digital Design

I made progress on some file manipulations that I'm doing for Katie today. Also, after working with my digital design professor David "Digital Dave" Russell, (I just had to say that.) I finally figured out how to properly modulate and demodulate the clock signal and data that I'm sending. More to come when I build. As for now, I'm trying (unsuccessfully) to get to bed early so I can get to school early and work on Discrete Structures review for my test on Friday. Yeesh!

In the Last Week...

In the last week, I've definitely been busier than I've been since the beginning of the semester, or maybe even since the beginning of this school year. At the same time, I've been making a lot of stuff. I've been working on the experimental setup for my independent study, composing some new music, and creating a lot of interesting circuits for my digital design class.
I also have to make myself ready, this week, for two tests: Discrete Structures and Multivariable Calculus.
In other news, the quote that started a new game was put up by my friend Pete Oliver as an away message:
You're driving down the road, and you stop at a red light. The archbishop pulls up beside you, and rolls down his window. He asks: "Pardon me, do you have any Grey Poupon?" You hand him a jar from your glove compartment, and he spreads some on a communion wafer. As he bites into it, you wake up screaming, and your pillow is missing.
My friend Pete HDP (the OTHER Pete) and I started making this into a very weird Mad-Libs. He said he'd post some of the ones he came up with, so a link will be up shortly to that.

Teodorian Natural Philosophy

I'm in the process of trying to revive the physics club at school which, unfortunately, has been ailing of late. I got defaulted into the position of VP late last semester. So far, we've got an ambitious list of people we'd like to bring to speak, and a slowly growing new set of by-laws. So, that's what I've made today, other than a proposal to create a unique area at school for the science majors to hang out in. More to come as my insane schedule allows.

Oooh! Shiny!

Wow. Check this out. Multi-Touch Interaction is quite a neat field. Now I'm working on something similar: on the proto board I have for my digital design class, I'm working out a simple LED/photodiode switch to use instead of the on-board buttons we have. Pictures to follow.

Finally I Get Back...

Well, I'm back in the saddle again. This past week has been quite a whirlwind. I had quite a bit to do for school, and also some extraneous projects such as certain musical ones. I had Valentine's Day gifts to get for Katie... In short, quite a lot to do.
As for music, I'll put up a post on that soon. Needless to say, most of the things I've been making are assignments for school.
Also, I've made a change at Campmor: I'm now working in tents most of the time, as of this past wednesday.
In other news, this past tuesday I had an interesting hydrogen-roadmap fuel cell-related symposium to sit in and take notes on. More news and a link on that later, though.
And now back to schoolwork.

Nrrr... Nrrr... Chili

Pete's Chili Fresca

2-2.5 lbs. ground turkey (or ground beef)
.5 lbs. sliced turkey
3 Holland peppers
2 frying peppers
3 Carib Chili Peppers
2-5 Habañero or Jalapeño Peppers to taste
2 tbsp. olive oil
1 can (19 oz.) black beans (drained)
1 can (15 oz.) red kidney beans (drained)
2 cans (16 oz. each) diced tomatoes (drained)
3 limes
4 cloves garlic
2 tsp. Cumin
3 tsp. Paprika
2 tsp. Oregano
2 tsp. fresh ground Pepper
4 tsp. chopped Cilantro (optional)

First wash and chop all peppers. Put these in a large bowl and mix. Juice 2 of the 3 limes over this mixture. Peel the garlic, and crush it under a fork. Place this in with the peppers. Juice the remaining lime over the pepper mixture. Chop 1 of the 3 onions and combine with the peppers. Mix thoroughly with clean hands, squeezing together all peppers and coating all of the mixture with the lime juice. Chop the remaining two onions finely, and add with the olive oil and ground turkey to a large pan. Brown the turkey, then add tomatoes, red kidney beans, and black beans. Slice sliced turkey into small strips and add to meat. Now add the pepper mixture. If using Cilantro, add it now. Mix Cumin, Paprika, ground Pepper, and Oregano in a small bowl, and add to the full mix. Simmer for 10 minutes, stirring every 2.5 minutes. After 10-15 minutes, transfer mixture to a crock pot. Cook on high for 30 minutes. Turn heat to low, and simmer for 7.5-8 hours.

I brought this to church this morning for the Chili Cook-Off, and wound up winning a bottle of Merlot. That I gave to my parents: I don't drink.

TTL

Here's the diagram of that XOR design I was talking about. Note also that the two not gates (the single-transistor ones) in the bottom left corner are slightly reversed, as the output lead should be on the top, rather than the bottom, of the gate.
Otherwise, yesterday was work, work, work. Then I fell asleep watching Grizzly Man on the Discovery Channel. Great film if you get the chance to see it.
Well, today's work, work, work again, and then make chili in the evening.

School Begins

Well, I may have to tune down my expectations for what I can do postwise during the semester. As for what I've made:
Monday I composed a new piece for the piano amidst the first day of classes.
Tuesday I was the first person to make a counter chip work in my digital electronics class.
Wednesday I made an even better counter on my off-class time, and got two of them working in parallel.
Today I figured out and planned an NPN-transistor only version of an XOR gate. Talk about using what you know! I used my knowledge from my discrete structures class to figure the logic, and I used my electronics knowledge to create the real design.
I don't know when I'll be able to post next, but hopefully it'll be tomorrow.