Weekly Notes 2023 W14

Last Week (2023W14)

I realized after publishing my last week’s note that I have completed one month of weekly notes.

I am writing this on a Tuesday evening because on Sunday, I worked the whole day on a side project.

The first half of last week was mostly productive, but also a bit of a struggle.

I walked every day for the first half of the week for about 20 minutes, but I dropped it during the second half.

I have also been mostly sleeping in the office, but this week I want to slowly work towards getting healthy sleep. My sleep cycle has changed significantly, and I have been sleeping almost at dawn.

I have been capturing my photos once a day. Here is how it looks for last few days (Inspiration - Noah’s project).

Week 1 of capturing my face everyday

Week 1 of capturing my face everyday

I found out a hack on how to center my face using the gridlines that the mobile camera app has. (My nose goes on the center marker, and my two eyes should be touching the two side grid lines.)

On Thursday, one of my coworkers remembered an anecdote or a study which claimed that it is difficult to stand on one leg with eyes closed than with eyes open. We tried to conduct a fun experiment with some of our other colleagues to see if it was true. We made a few of our colleagues stand on one leg with eyes open, and timed them, and then repeated with eyes closed. We repeated this a few times.

Our experiment had a lot of issues, including biases - and we cannot confidently say this is true. We messed up with the stats, but ended up laughing a lot. But I do see a trend in numbers where this can be true. More experimentation needed :P

I also ordered some glassware for our Chemistry lab of the Makerspace. They should be arriving this week. Nothing fancy, some basic beakers, flasks, and things like that.

I have started reading Ooru Keri by Siddalingaiah and Every Tool’s a Hammer by Adam Savage. Maybe I should add a page to track what I am reading?

I had lunch with my sister at Taiki On Saturday. We had some Ramen, and Bao buns. Food was average.

Lunch at Taiki

Lunch at Taiki

Most of the week, along with work, I have been thinking about woodworking. I have been binging on woodworking videos and tools. This is because I want to build my UV exposure box for making my PCBs.

On Saturday evening, I visited New Thippsandra Market. I went around exploring, and purchased a plank of MDF and some other hardware stuff I needed. I found a really helpful shop. These shops mostly cater professionals, so it is really rare for them to deal with amateurs like me who don’t know what they don’t know, which usually frustrates them. But the shop employees were super patient with me.

I have never worked on wood before, so this one was new. I binged a lot online on how to get started, and one of the pieces of advice was to sketch out what you plan to do.

I sketched a layout

I sketched a layout

So Sunday afternoon, I started working on the sketch and wanted to empirically find out the dimensions before I cut the MDF. The main issue was to know the distance between UV tubelight and the glass exposure window.

So I resorted to cardboard boxes and made a bare bone prototype, adjusted the lengths to understand what an ideal dimension of this box would be.

Used this to get some idea about the dimensions

Used this to get some idea about the dimensions

It was night by the time I got some clear picture about the dimensions. I didn’t want to start cutting the MDF now because it was too late in the evening for loud noise, and also I realized I didn’t have proper tools. I ended up modelling the box in fusion 360, as that was another advice I got from youtube videos (Make your mistakes in software, rather than IRL)

This week I plan to order some protective gear (Thank you Thej for the recommendations) and a woodworking router.

Sunday was really a special day because I enjoyed building after a long time. I was in flow. Earlier, because of my clumsy self and ADHD, it used to be very frustrating because I would misplace tools regularly while working, and also it would get very frustrating when things didn’t work out or get messed up because of a lack of tool or some preplanning on my end. But this time I wore an apron I had ordered earlier. This one held all my tools and was really helpful in reducing my frustration. I also gave myself some time when things didn’t work out and spent a lot of time thinking and planning before getting on to things.

I was really happy, even though I did not end up completing the project, but I was able to stop myself at night and didn’t get obsessed with it in an unhealthy way such that I would mess everything up.

I want to do more of these - where I spend weekends building things and enjoying the process instead of once in a while getting unhealthily obsessed with ideas.

I also see the value of a well-stocked Makerspace where there are tools for the job.

Interesting Internet

Orangey Orange

Orangey Orange