Last Friday, Saturday and Sunday, Formlabs held a company wide hackathon. Employees were encouraged to work on any project that was of interest to them, be it work related or otherwise. Historically this event has produced much of the artwork that graces our campus and the occasional concept for a new product offering or refinement. This year my hands down favorite project was created by one of our talented mechanical engineers. It is a device which displays a red signal when a bathroom stall door is locked (occupied) and a green signal when it is available. This avoids the need to awkwardly peer under the privacy walls to look for feet. For reasons that make no sense, our men’s bathrooms are not equipped with urinals, only stalls. A mechanism attached to the door latch conveys status to the indicator located at the top of the door by way of a stiff wire. A clever and much appreciated innovation.
From our weekend visit to the Providence WaterFire festival, I used a slow shutter speed to capture this fire performer as he whirled a pair of poi (torch at the end of a cable) around his body.
Now that our family dog, Nala, has passed on, the deer that frequent our back yard have little disincentive to dine close to the house. This pair of youngsters were on alert when I stepped out onto the deck to photograph them. Also venturing in closer lately is a gorgeous fox which I have yet to capture in a photo.
Yesterday Kyle was invited by a friend to fly with him from Hanscom Air Force base to JFK to Nantucket and back. His friend pilots chartered flights and thought Kyle would enjoy tagging along as he picked up clients in New York and shuttled them to the island.
Jeanine and I travelled to Providence, RI to join friends Alex and Louanne McKenzie for a wonderful afternoon and evening. We started with a visit to see the Museum of the Moon, a 23ft diameter scale model of the moon featuring detailed NASA imagery of the lunar surface.
Next we dined at Los Andes, a Peruvian restaurant where we enjoyed a truly epic meal. I find myself more often than not disappointed when dining at “fine” restaurants because Jeanine sets such a high bar with the food we eat everyday. Such was not the case this evening. The food was really spectacular. We made our way to the state capitol building where we found free parking and my first opportunity for an aerial photograph.
We walked from here down to the river where we secured seats for the evenings WaterFire performance which included ballet dancers, fire performance artists and numerous exhibits celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. I got to touch a meteorite fragment which landed on Earth after being ejected from the moon when it was struck by an asteroid.
When we put our house on the market it will be important to have nice photos for marketing. This evening, as the sun was setting I did some experimentation with the drone to find the best angle from which to shoot. I am favoring the one shown above but I think it needs to be taken from a slightly lower altitude and earlier in the day to avoid some of the shadows. The actual work of prepping the house for sale has been very slow and I hope to spend some time this weekend taking care of a number of issues.
Nicolai has just been named the New England Revolution Community MVP. With this honor, Major League Soccer will donate $1,000 to the charity of his choice (the American Amputee Soccer Association) and will fly him and a companion to the MLS All-Star game in Orlando, Florida where the National MVP will be announced. Should he win that honor they will donate an additional $25,000 to the AASA. This would have a transformative impact on the organization and allow the US National Amputee Soccer Team to compete and train more frequently in preparation for the next World Cup.
PLEA
Voting for the winner begins today and will end on July 31st at 2PM. Anyone interested in voting for the National MVP may cast three votes per day through the end of the contest.
Vote by tweeting the following (or a version that includes the correct hashtags and handle tags): Nicolai Calabria, captain of the U.S. Men’s Amputee Soccer Team is the @NERevolution’s finalist for the 2019 @MLSWORKS #CommunityMVP contest presented by @WellsFargo for his involvement with @USAmputeeSoccer and work in the adaptive and amputee soccer community. RETWEET this tweet to help win $25K for charity or visit MLSsoccer.com/CommunityMVP to vote.
Vote by retweeting the above tweet.
Every single vote will count and each individual can contribute up to 42 votes. I would be most thankful if you could support Nico and the AASA by voting as often as possible and by spreading this message through your social networks.
My camera-mount shotgun microphone went up for sale this morning. Sony just announced a new camera (order placed) which features a digital audio interface and companion shotgun microphone (also ordered). In addition to the cleaner interface the new microphone can be configured with either a shotgun, uni-directional or omni-directional pickup pattern. The new camera and mike should arrive in September.
Jeanine has planted some very lovely flowers in our planter boxes. They in turn are a magnet for our local pollinators. While investigating damage to one of the boxes, I noticed this little fellow drunk on pollen and was able to grab my camera before he was finished doing his thing.
This automotive salvage yard in Somerville is located across the street from the construction site of a new 11 story, life sciences building near my office. Based on the going rate for commercially zoned land in the area, the owner of this lot could replace every single junked vehicle with a brand new one by selling the lot, probably more than the business has made over its entire life.
I just came across an interview that Nicolai did with Major League Soccer. He did not bother to tell me that he did this piece and I am wondering if even he has seen it yet.
Timed for peak blooming season, Jeanine and I travelled to the Rhododendron State Park in New Hampshire this afternoon. As much an excuse to road trip the new Audi, it was an extremely enjoyable afternoon which included a walk around the park’s loop trail and dinner out.
On the way back we stopped to put up the drone for an aerial view of Mount Monadnock with the Mountain Brook Reservoir in the foreground. This scene really wants morning light and it is only a matter of time before I return for another shot.
Maya has been busy cutting dovetails for the drawers that will go into her tiny house kitchen cabinets. She is working in baltic birch plywood which is dimensionally stable but a bear to machine without getting tear out. By using sacrificial backer boards both front and back she is turning out great pins and tails. I can’t wait to see the finished product.
We bid farewell to my brother Mark and his wife Marie after a delightful home made waffle breakfast. We stopped at the hospital one more time to see my mother before heading for the airport and our return flight to Boston. She was considerably weaker than yesterday but still strong enough to recount some of her childhood stories with us. At age twelve she contracted typhoid fever. At that time there were no antibiotics available to treat the disease; at least not in Ecuador. Several of her classmates died of the disease. Her mother pulled her out of the local medical clinic to care for her at home. She was placed in a cool bath several times a day to keep her body temperature in check. After a month she began to show signs of recovery only to regress to the point where her mother’s last resort was to pray for her recovery. Whether it was the prayers or diligent care, she managed to survive. She had to sit out an entire school year but recovered completely. We are hoping that she will find the strength to cheat death for a second time. When we said our goodbyes, however, we did so assuming it might be our last time to do so in person.
This website is dedicated to sharing, with family and friends, the day-to-day adventures of the Calabria family.
