I created the image above, not with a camera, but with a keyboard. I typed the phrase “baby otter snuggled inside the shirt of a young girl” into an artificial intelligence image synthesizer. I am left to wonder how this technology is going to transform the “art” of “photography”. I am curious to know who will hold the copyright for images generated in this fashion.

Using cherry wood harvested from the bunk beds I built for the boys when they were young, I made legs for an oval glass coffee table top. Jeanine is not a big fan of the design feeling that the components should have been built of thicker stock. I tend to agree with her and therefore will need to revisit this project when time permits. Ideally, we would like the base to have an organic form. I will keep my eyes open for an appropriate tree root ball.

With great regret, I posted listings to sell my remaining Sonos gear today. Although I regard the company and equipment as some of the best in the industry, there is simply no need for it in the new house because of the sound systems connected to our TVs and the open floor plan. I worked at Sonos as the head of engineering during the development of the Play5, pictured above. Of the 100+ products I helped to develop, this is one of my top five favorites.

While moving boxes into my new office, I have been systematically going through each one and digitizing anything I wish to save for posterity and disposing of the rest. I attended the Technical Program at Mont Pleasant High School and lettered in three sports; wrestling, tennis, and cross country. I have kept these letterman patches for over four decades and have never seen the light of day. Today they made their last appearance in physical form posing for this picture. Below is a picture of my wrestling in a match against the Jr. National champion from Poland. Children please note that your fat old father was once ripped!

Maya traveled to the Sunday River Resort in Maine with friends from work for a bit of skiing. If you do not get cold enough on the slopes you can enjoy an ice-cold beer in an igloo afterwards. I think Kyle may have made the wiser choice heading for the warmth of Austin Texas where he also has a nice cat to warm his belly.

Nicolai has been one of the wrestling coaches at Concord Academy for several years now. Today he drove to Lehigh University for the National Prep School Championships with the only wrestler on the squad who qualified for the tournament. Laura wrestles in the 100-pound weight class and placed third in the country. I am not sure who had the bigger smile.

For a nice break from building closet furnishings, I treated myself to a furniture project. Pictured above is my new office desk that I built in less than 4 hours including finishing with a 2-part hard wax oil. Now begins the more time-consuming task of organizing all of my office supplies and financial records.

I noticed that the performance of my woodshop dust collection system has been gradually declining over recent weeks. I figured it was time for some filter maintenance. I was shocked by the amount of dust that had accumulated within the fabric folds of the filter media. I estimate the pile of dust could easily fill a pair of 2-liter soda bottles. Predictably, when I returned the cleaned filter to service the dust collection performance was back to peak levels. Going forward, I think more frequent filter maintenance will be warranted.

I recently purchased a 5.1-channel AV receiver to complete our 2-person theater in the River House. Paired with some high-quality speakers that I used with my last surround sound system I am quite pleased with the fidelity and sound stage. Jeanine and I rented Oppenheimer which proved to be a perfect choice for testing the system and an incredible movie. Eventually, however, l noticed distinctly audible white noise during times when the soundtrack got very quiet. I grabbed my signal generator and oscilloscope to verify the issue. The oscillograph above shows a fairly significant noise component superimposed on what should be a pure sine wave. It should be noted that this is most perceptible only when the volume is turned up quite high. Even so, I must now decide if I will return the receiver because of this issue. It would be a no-brainer if the system did not sound so good otherwise. I have just under thirty days to decide.

UPDATED: This post initially misidentified the above bird as a Bufflehead. Fortunately, followers of the blog include avid birders who care enough to help me get my facts straight.

Like the Wood Duck, the Hooded Merganser is closely associated with forested wetland habitats. In breeding season, this bird is especially common around the Great Lakes, although it is widespread in many other regions as well. Year-round populations occur in two ranges: The first, in the East, extends from Nova Scotia south and west to eastern Oklahoma and northern Louisiana. A second, smaller year-round range includes parts of coastal and southern British Columbia, Washington state, and patches in Oregon and western Montana. The Hooded Merganser is a short-distance migrant, moving south to avoid harsh weathers. The majority winter along the Mississippi Flyway in the south-central U.S.

I copied the description above from a birding site to ensure no further errors.

After my mother died, I discovered a folder she kept containing press clippings covering my time in high school, college, and my early business career. I found several items that I had never seen before. My scrapbook contained the photo above but not the article. Reading it brought back many memories. I had forgotten that I trained under US Olympic wrestling coach Jim Peckman alongside future Olympic super heavyweight champion Jeff Blatnik. I often wonder, how far I could have taken my wrestling career had I focused on athletics over academics. I am sure I made the right choice, but I still like to ponder what might have been. The digitizing project I started yesterday was in full swing today as I captured dozens of news and magazine clippings.

Having moved our entire household three times in the last three years, I have decided to digitize all memorabilia that will be stored rather than displayed. This is for the benefit of our kids who will not have to sort through it all when we pass away. Instead, each will receive a thumb drive containing all of these items and all the photos I have taken over the years. Pictured above is my senior class photo from Union College. Of my classmates, Richard Templeton was famously successful. He eventually became the CEO of Texas Instruments and recently made a $51M donation to the college. He married classmate Mary Haanen pictured immediately to his right.

Jeanine is staying with friends on Martha’s Vineyard this weekend. It has become an annual trek in celebration of Irene’s birthday (front left). The crew spent the evening at the Black Fog competing in Trivia Night. Despite considerable Harry Potter knowledge, they were not able to secure a top 3 finish but enjoyed a spectacular evening nonetheless.

Kyle is headed to Austin, Texas later this month where he will be cat-sitting for Gypsy, a gregarious 8 year old Tabby cat. This is part of his strategy for spending the winter months in warm places. He has enrolled in a service that matches him with people from around the globe in need of pet or house sitting. In exchange for the supervision provided, he enjoys free lodging and access to the household amenities (in this case a pool). His job allows him the flexibility to work from anywhere that has electricity and internet access.

Maya has offered to help Jeanine organize her spices in our new kitchen. She takes after her father when it comes to this obsession. The spice bottles that she ordered arrived today and the extent of my involvement in this project was to unpack them and place them in the designated drawer. Jeanine and Maya will do the filling, organizing, and labeling. They estimate that the collection will have 90 spices which means that the last 4 rows of bottles will be spares.

The third bedroom closet in our new house is tiny by comparison to the others, but no less deserving of custom shelving. Today, I completed the pictured built-in that features a high rod, low rod, shoe and boot shelves for 10 pairs, and three general-purpose shelves. The sliding mirrored doors provide access to either side of the closet. Interestingly, the bedroom itself is larger than the other two, this by design to accommodate a dresser or desk.