Before taking delivery of my Audi e-tron, I moved the EVSE (Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment; white box in background) to the front left of my parking bay. It had been located at the right rear position for my BMW i3 which had its charging port in that location. Today, I extended the charging cable to a support column in the garage to make it even easier to plug and unplug the car. It is a micro-optimization but will make the daily connection and disconnection process just a little bit faster. I estimate this will shave 40 seconds off my daily commute.
The entire family was home today and made short work of obtaining and decorating our Christmas tree. There were only 4 or 5 trees left at our local farm stand and we were surprised to find such a beautiful tree. Earlier in the day, Maya assisted me with the last task needed to complete a faucet replacement project on our Jacuzzi tub that I started last week. I needed someone small enough to enter the access hole and squirm under the tub to install the small hole cover in the foreground of the photo below. This is the same opening that I stuffed myself into for the faucet replacement work but could not maneuver my way far enough under the tub to finish the job. It is nice to have children in three sizes; small, medium, and large for various different tasks. Kyle was the perfect height to throw the Christmas tree over his shoulder as he carried it into the house while Nico was our go-to guy for high ornament placement.
The picture above represents a major technical milestone for my new company and a significant point of pride for me personally. While I thoroughly enjoyed my time at Formlabs, I never became deeply involved with the technology. My responsibilities were more focused on team management. At Digital Alloys, I am neck-deep in technology and frequently find myself unable to sleep because my head is bursting with new ideas. To celebrate the achievement or perhaps just because it was Friday evening, members of my team broke out an RC car and racing drone for what appeared to be a game of high-speed cat and mouse.
This week Open Table sent out their annual appeal which is appended below. If you have enjoyed good fortune this year, please consider supporting a cause that makes a dramatic difference in the lives of people in our community. Follow the link to the actual fundraising page. I enjoyed photographing Svetlana and her family for this project and being able to lend my time to something that is so important to Jeanine.
Nicolai shared the news that he will be teaching History at Concord Carlisle High School come January. This is a big increase in responsibility and a major milestone for him. We are all extremely proud of him. He is pictured above practicing classroom discipline or perhaps this is the only photo of him that I could work into this blog posting.
When I decided to leave Formlabs, I gave two months’ notice to facilitate a smooth transition. During that time, my boss allowed me to work at Digital Alloys for two days in exchange for two make up days to be “paid back” after my start date. Today I spent the first of these IOU days back in Somerville on a day featuring relentless snow and sleet. Pictured above is a picture I took back in August when we had just started shipping the Form3 printer. Since then the company has shipped many thousands of printers that have been well received in the market. My day was consumed in back to back meetings and I very much enjoyed spending time with my former teammates. Over the lunch hour, I met with the COO at Superpedstrian and learned of his plans to take a new position in NYC in January. I will truly miss our sporadic lunch dates.
I established a new record time for my morning commute. I managed to shave 2 minutes off my previous personal best for a door to door time of 20 minutes. The early hour helped my cause but one really long stoplight worked against me. I believe I will drop into the high teens as I fine-tune my route.
My sister, Alissa, is putting together a book of my mother’s sculptures and paintings. This evening my mom asked if I would update one of the photos of a sculpture that currently resides with us. She requested that it be photographed where it is displayed on our sunporch. To do so would require actual sunlight to look natural. Realizing that I have been leaving and returning from work every day in the dark, I thought it best to bring it into the studio. This sculpture was carved from laminated sheets of plywood and stands about 4 feet tall. My father was an avid classical and flamenco guitar player.
Yesterday morning, Jeanine and I both received a text from our cleaning lady who reported that the faucet in our master bathroom would not shut off. Jeanine was the first to return at 6 pm and was quite proud of her resourcefulness in using a big crescent wrench to turn off the stubborn supply valve. I am not looking forward to our next water bill after a full day of watering the septic tank. Today, I set about to replace the faucet with a more modern looking one which also necessitated changing out the drain flange (because it was of a different finish). By the end of the day and after two trips to Lowe’s, I replaced the faucets and drains in two other locations. The effort left me with sore muscles everywhere from contorting my body into the various small workspaces I had to navigate.
On her last day as an intern for Blue Origin, Maya was required to give a major presentation covering the work she completed. Despite her anxiety leading up to it, she reports it went very well. She received much positive feedback and an offer to return as a full-time employee after she graduates. She is pictured above with her cohort of interns. We are really looking forward to her return.
I am not at liberty to share details about this photograph other than to say that it represents a major breakthrough for my new company, Digital Alloys. At Formlabs, I really enjoyed the non-technical challenges of my job. There were far smarter people than I already working the technical issues. At my new company, I have hit the ground running and already feel I am making significant technical contributions to the team.
I am now pictured as part of the management team on the Digital Alloys website. I took great pains to match my self-portrait with the ones already in use by the company. I decided to stop short of scaling horizontally to create the head in a vice appearance of my colleagues. Either that or I have a really big head. Last week the company issued a press release announcing my addition to the team and it was picked up by a number of internet publications.
Jeanine hosted her book group at our home this evening and I was the beneficiary, helping myself to shrimp cocktail, a lovely cheese plate and a delightful stew. I had another very productive day at work, meeting for the first time with a customer. It was nice to get a first-hand acknowledgment of the need in the industry for what our technology can deliver. I am not at liberty to disclose the customer but their revenue last year was close to $4B.
This is a tensile test coupon printed in titanium on a Digital Alloys 3D printer. It will be machined into a standard shape for destructive testing (we pull it apart with a machined designed to measure tensile strength). The bottom plate and first 20mm or so of the tower will be cut off in preparation for machining. It is not a particularly creative photograph but I was only willing to invest five minutes for setup after a 14 hour day in the office. The print is also rather old and shows some discoloration so I will wait for a more beautiful part before pulling out all the stops.
This website is dedicated to sharing, with family and friends, the day-to-day adventures of the Calabria family.
