Today I introduced a new approach to Performance and Compensation Management to the Engineering organization at Formlabs.  I did so in a series of four one-hour meetings with groups of approximately 30. I am most comfortable addressing audiences of this size and they are also more comfortable asking questions.  By the end of the sessions, I was seriously exhausted and was beginning to lose my voice. Afterward, I received a good bit of positive feedback which made the effort completely worthwhile.

Maya is headed to Boca Raton to join several friends from Olin College for a week of fun in the sun.  I dropped her off at about 6:30 am before heading into the office.  I have encouraged her to make a return visit to the Kennedy Space Center.  It has been 14 years since we took the family there after visiting Disney World.

For me, a tent represents an escape from my daily routine, an opportunity to enjoy nature, and something I look forward to very much.  I am wondering how my perspective would change if it represented my permanent home in an urban setting?  A stark reminder of my good fortune.

Several weeks ago I listed our custom-made king-size bed on Craig’s List as we continue to prepare to move into a smaller home. As I thought more about it, I decided that it made more sense to simply downsize the bed. In total, I spent about 6 hours on the project and am pleased with the outcome. I was even able to salvage the box springs. Pictured here are the after and before.

No picture today.  Instead the text of an interview with Jeanine published by the Concord Journal.

As the federal government shutdown continues, local food pantries have stepped in to help furloughed employees make ends meet.

Open Table, a nonprofit organization that offers community dinners in Concord and Maynard and food pantry services in Maynard, has been preparing for an increase in families seeking support, according to Executive Director Jeanine Calabria.

Calabria said she had started to see an increase in families attending the organization’s community dinners at their Jan. 3 dinner at First Parish Church in Concord.

“We did have a couple families in anticipation of (missed federal paychecks) come Thursday night,” Calabria said. “And they let us know that there are more families planning to come.”

Calabria said before the shutdown, the nonprofit had prepared for a decrease in attendance due to a newly defined service area. While community dinners are still open to all, pantry services were reduced to 23 municipalities surrounding Maynard and Concord.

“Initially we were expecting 20 percent fewer customers, but now we haven’t seen that,” Calabria said.

During the shutdown, roughly 800,000 federal employees nationwide have either been sent home or made to work without pay.

Calabria said that Open Table expects demand for its services to increase after the first missed paycheck, Jan. 10.

“We’ve actually reached out to Hanscom and have been working with people there to get the word out and let employees there know that our services are available,” Calabria said, referencing Hanscom Field, one of the larger federal employers in the region.

With funding for most military personnel secured through 2019, Calabria said the anticipated increase in attendees was from civilian employees of Hanscom Field and their families.

In addition to their dinners and food pantry services, Calabria said that Open Table would be holding a special pantry service for federal employees on Jan. 19, should the shutdown still be ongoing at that time.

“We want everyone who needs us to know we’re available,” Calabria said.

“A wise man named Confucius Berg once said. A team that eats Chinese food together, builds a better 3D printer together.”  So started the e-mail reminding members of one of our product teams of their annual team Chinatown dinner.  The food and ambiance were both wonderful. I had to leave at the two-hour mark just as our CEO and his wife arrived and the real party seemed to be getting started.  The drive home proved to be an exercise in careful battery management.  The cold temperature and extra trip into Chinatown left me with only one mile of range when I finally pulled into our drive.  I was tempted to take a lap around the neighborhood to discover what happens when the range reaches zero but thought this unwise given how cold it was.

Pictured is one of three boats which caught on fire late Tuesday night.  The other two sank.  My morning walk took me to the Charlestown Marina where I paused to capture the scene.  Fortunately, there are no reports of injury.  Property loss is reported to be $1,000,000.

All new Formlabs employees must attend Print School, a half day intensive course that teaches the proper way to utilize our 3D printers.  Because my start date did not line up with the normal on-boarding period, I missed the November cohort of new hires and instead joined the December cohort.  I believe we hired something like 25 new employees last month so 4 different classes were required to accommodate all the students.  Even though, I started printing on my own several weeks ago, I learned a great deal in class and enjoyed the opportunity to mingle with other new hires.

Some images speak for themselves.

Nala is now 11.5 years old, which is roughly 77 years old in people years.  Today she refused to eat and has been limping badly.  I am afraid she is approaching the end of her life and that our family will soon be faced with some difficult decisions and grief. As she was resting in her “dog house,” an antique Japanese palanquin, I decided to take what may be one of her last photos.  It was very dark and I did not want to disturb her by turning the lights on or using a flash.  Instead, I took a 15-second exposure on a tripod.  Just as I tripped the shutter, she decided to get up and investigate which resulted in this ghost-like image.  It is hard for me not to read into the unlikely coincidence.

Few residents of Concord ever discuss the medium-security men’s prison that is part of our community.  Its presence here is quite incongruous with virtually everything else. I have been told that it is a significant contributor to our tax base and the reason we can afford to leave so much of the town’s land undeveloped.  I took time this morning to explore a new section of the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail which goes right past the prison and ends (current construction phase) a short distance later. I continued on along the undeveloped part of the train corridor over Nashoba Brook and across Route 2 until further progress was blocked by water and/or vegetation..

Several of Nicolai’s close friends from Colorado College have been visiting with us over the past several days.  Time seems to be spent equally between watching sports, playing games (console-based and old-fashioned), searching for or making food, and eating.  I took advantage of all this brawn to help move the king-size bed in our master bedroom in preparation for its sale early next week.

Jeanine, Maya, and Kyle all traveled to Minnesota this weekend to visit with my brother’s family.  Pictured above is my niece Sophia as photographed by Jeanine wearing a new pair of jeans that were a gift from her aunt.  Work commitments prevented me from joining them and probably just as well.  Nicolai is hosting four of his college friends here in Concord and it probably does not hurt to have some adult supervision on the home front.

A bit of bit organization was the theme for the day.  Customized tool storage is one of my favorite personal applications for 3D printing.  The two holders on the left have narrow column spacing to maximize density and wide row spacing to facilitate finger access.  The one on the right was design specifically for the nut driver set taking into account the individual size of each bit.  I spent less than an hour designing all three of these bit holders and am sure that investment will pay dividends over a lifetime of quick access to the tools I need.  Pictured below is a CAD view from the underside.  The holders are designed to use a minimum of material and to prevent wood dust from accumulating at the bottom of each cavity.

Little surprise that I have designed and 3D printed yet another tripod to add to my collection.  This small tabletop model is constructed of 5 plastic components and uses a single cap bolt to simultaneously capture the leg pivots and secure the ball head to the apex.  The legs have positive stops for both the open and closed positions. 

Jeanine and I enjoyed a nice walk along a recently opened section of the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail which passes near our home. We turned around at Concord Junction (memorialized by the installation pictured above) where 120 trains a day would pass during the time of the Industrial Revolution.  Quite a stark contrast to today. Now, one of the intersecting lines has been turned into a 25-mile linear park open for all but motorized activities.  We crossed over the Assabet River on a newly constructed pedestrian bridge which reflects the railroad heritage of the trail .  We are very lucky to live in a place with such easy access to nature and a commitment to historical preservation.

On the last day of the year, I like to look back at all the photos I have taken during that time.  In this case, the number of images I chose to keep is 5,267.    That works out to an average of 14 per day.  In reality, I shoot only 2 or 3 on any given day but occasionally shoot hundreds at a time while on vacation or during special events.  I should also note that for every photo I keep, I usually discard 3 or 4.  Just viewing the collection is a four-hour project (@ 3 seconds per).  Regular followers of this blog will have already seen ~10% of them (generally speaking, the better ones).  Here is one that did not make the cut but I think is deserving of a spot in the 2018 lineup.

Jeanine and I spent some time house-hunting after a late breakfast at the Blackbird Cafe.  While driving through Arlington Heights, we came across this most impressive water tower. It was constructed between 1921 and 1924 (the year my father was born) in the Classical Revival style, to provide water storage for Lexington and the higher elevations of Belmont and Arlington. The design is said to have been inspired by the rotunda from the Samothrace temple complex in Greece. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.

With the approach of the new year, I always seem to want to better organize my life and the things in it.  This morning I spent some time optimizing my tripod collection.  Yes, that is a thing.  I am now down to seven. A small, medium and large table top model, the camera stand in my studio and another table top version I use for supporting cameras being photographed, and my two main travel tripods, a small one and a medium one.  I switched ball heads between a few and made a couple of weight reductions on my travel gear.  In the afternoon, I turned my attention to my shop.  Among other things, I made a caddy for my metric and SAE Allen wrenches.  Designing it took three times longer than making it.  Not illustrated in the photo is the different ways the blocks can be nested front-to-front or back-to-back for more space-efficient storage.

As someone who does not drink coffee, I have little appreciation for the fine art of brewing the perfect cup.  Not so Maya.  She is an aficionado of the brewing process, more so than the drinking part I would venture to say.   The process to me seems quite straightforward.  Grind some beans, put them in a filter, and pour in hot water.  Done.  I was only listening with one ear as Maya explained the proper technique and offered this filter as an example of what it should look like when the water has been introduced in the perfect spiral pattern at the proper rate.

Until now, I have been too busy with organizational and product schedule issues that I have not had time to do any 3D printing.  With most people on vacation this week, I have had time to design and print a number of parts.  First up was a small tool caddy used to store an assortment of bits within a section of the tool tray in my toolbox.  A close examination of the photo below will reveal a number of 3D-printed items used for the same purpose.  I take pleasure in having my tools well organized so this was a great application for my first print.  The part turned out dimensionally perfect and was put into immediate use.

I am looking forward to doing some 3D printing at work this week. I prefer designing my own parts rather than downloading something from the internet. It has been a while since I used a 3D CAD program so I spent a few hours re-familiarizing myself with the one I use most. I designed a number of useful items that I will print tomorrow including the one pictured. Try and guess what it is. The answer is below the photo.

Right angle bracket to hold the inductive charger for an Apple Watch

As is our tradition, we start Christmas Day by removing the stockings from their hanging spots on the fireplace mantle and taking a seat on the couch. Each person in turn extracts a single item and tries to guess who it is from. This usually lasts for an hour or two and then we sit down to breakfast featuring from scratch popovers. Every year Jeanine worries that they will not come out just right and every year they do. Fully nourished, we return to the living room and begin the serious business of the present opening. We use a Secret Santa system (each adult is assigned one person to gift) which in theory should cut down on the number of presents to be opened. Even so, we manage to stretch things out for a couple of hours after which most of us are ready for a nap. This year Nicolai took the lead on adding a late afternoon charcuterie course to the dining menu which had the net effect of delaying dinner until 8 pm and even rounder bellies.

I suggested a nature walk this afternoon and quickly had three willing participants.  Consensus built for a hike out to the Devil’s Staircase, so named for the rock formation leading to the top of Fairhaven Hill.

Once to the top we posed for a dronie after which Nicolai did a bit of rock climbing while Maya and Kyle took turns flying my quadcopter.

On the way back, Maya announced, out of the blue, that she could carry me out of the woods if I ever became injured.  Fifteen seconds later I turned my ankle and thought it might be necessary to test her theory.  Even though I had no trouble continuing under my own power, the kids deemed it necessary to test who could carry whom to safety. Kyle was able to run uphill with Nico over his shoulders.  Maya scooped up Kyle like she was throwing on a shawl. Nicolai was more than strong enough to pick up Maya but they never managed to achieve a satisfactory state of balance.  Nicolai had better luck with Kyle hanging on to his back but that combination ended quickly when it began to look more like a mating act than a rescue effort. Suffice it to say, we returned from our walk convinced that all family members could be extracted from the wilderness should the need arise.  I would venture to say that no other family on the planet spent Christmas Eve in this way.

All three kids have picked up their mother’s passion for cooking and good food.  Nicolai is particularly good at breakfast dishes, seen here preparing something wonderful that his father did not get to sample. The family spent most of the day relaxing, eating, and playing games.  Jeanine’s sister, Susan, arrived from Burlington and among other things got us hooked on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.

Nicolai suggested the entire family go out for an afternoon of wall climbing.  We packed up the crew and headed down to Brooklyn Boulders, an excellent climbing facility very close to my office.  Nico has the most experience and coached his siblings who demonstrated remarkably good innate skills.  Jeanine did a cardio workout while I handled the photography.  I have a slight case of carpal tunnel syndrome and thought it best to give my wrists a break. Everyone had a great time and I am hoping this becomes a holiday tradition.

Karuna, Nico’s girlfriend, has been creating some amazing images which combine her athleticism and photographic flare into what I am calling Karunart.  These are truly amazing self-portraits and I think she has a future both as a model and a photographer.

Cengage, the company Kyle works for will be moving to a new office in May of 2019.  It is located across the street from his apartment, literally. He and his colleagues had a chance to tour the 14th-floor offices with a commanding view of Boston Harbor. Photo courtesy of Kyle.

When I worked near Central Square, street art could be found everywhere.  Somerville does not have as much, but this recently completed wall mural is quite interesting and can be found along my commute less than a half mile from the office.

Maya returned home from Olin for the holiday break.  She promptly fell asleep on the couch to begin recuperating from the demands of her sophomore fall semester.  Maya has been thriving at school and we love to hear about her many projects.  She will be joined by Nico tomorrow and Kyle at the end of the week.  Jeanine and I are looking forward to having a full house again.

Roughly once a month, Formlabs has a Town Hall meeting during which the entire company (close to 500 employees now) assembles in person and by video conference for an update on varying topics of general interest. Today the meeting focused on our 2018 financial performance and a new printing material for the dentistry market. I was also introduced and spoke briefly about my background and objectives. One of my slides included a collection of the logos of the companies I have worked for (not including Formlabs). This is my 38th year working in high tech and my 32nd managing engineering teams. I started my career wearing a lab coat over a suit, using a slide ruler for calculations. Today I am dressed ready to climb a mountain, wearing a watch that will answer any question I ask of it including what is a slide ruler. When I pause to think about all the technical and cultural changes that have occurred during my working life it is almost incomprehensible. I feel fortunate to have lived at this time in history and am proud of my journey.