Santa Matt's ramblings

I love Chinese food, especially Cantonese. So, one year, many years ago, my mother bought me Chinese cooking classes. I loved it, making my own dishes. My sister was getting married shortly after I completed my cooking class. The reception would have dishes prepared by the members of her gourmet cooking club. I asked her if there   was a Chinese dish that she wanted and she asked for Crab Rangoon also known as fried crab cheese. I made four dozen and they were all gone after the reception. So I pursued my cooking hobby more. My children bought me cooking equipment for Christmas and birthday and I learned even more. So after my daughter-in-law and son-in-law both published books on Amazon, I decided to make and publish a cook book.  Many people have had problems locating my cookbook on Amazon. I mean how many cookbooks are there by Santa? Oh, that many. Maybe I should help with a link? I am shortly going to publish volume 2 so I guess a little self advertising might be useful. ...

Back in 2009 I posted an early form of "My Rules" along with some background on how they came to be. At a breakfast prayer meeting I said something and Mike mentioned Rule #1. I nodded and agreed. The Deacon immediately wanted to know about "My Rules". I explained to him the background and how my life is simpler and happier when I follow the rules and I showed him a copy. He asked me to write up some of my rules and how I apply them to everyday life to make my life less stressful. He says he wants to make a tri-fold that he can hand out to people. So as I wrote up rules I thought I should share them with you too (in case you don't meet the Deacon). So here is what I handed to him. Rules for a happy life. Here are the main rules of how I live my life. I won't tell you that they will solve all of your problems. But following them in your everyday life will reduce your stress and allow you to be happier. Ultimately, you control your happiness. think of the rich...

 Today I'm going to do something here in my blog I've never done before. I'm going to rant! First some background. I spent the last thirty years of my career writing software. The first 10 of those years I still worked for Midnight Burglar Alarm. When the upper management found out I could write software the stopped using their expensive consultant and I took over hardware maintenance and software development. We had 3 mini mainframe computers based on the Data General Nova series. No graphics just accessed via ASCII dumb terminals. I wrote accounting AR and AP systems, Inventory and CSM systems. Eventually we transitions to a PC network (which I engineered) and purchased software from a development company. In my personal life I worked with Timex Sinclairs, Atari personal computers and eventually PC's, Building, modifying and programing them. When ADT bought Midnight Burglar Alarm I was let go. I immediately got a job with the development company that had provided MBA...

Due to changes in my Christmas schedule I was finally available to appear as Santa at the "YMCA Santa Run". So on the appointed day and time I found myself with Mrs. Claus posing for pictures and talking with the runners as I moved to the area the Y had setup for me. Families would come and get pictures with Santa and Mrs. Claus. One of the people that came for pictures was a grandma and three grand children, a brother and sister around 5 years old and their cousin a girls about 7 or 8. It was immediately apparent that the brother and sister were her favorites. She seemed to only want pictures of them with Santa. At one point when the older child tried to be in a picture grandma told her "Get out of the picture. You're ruining the picture." After several minutes of this the little girl was in the corner crying and I was seething but I held my temper in check. When grandma finished getting her pictures she took the two younger children aside to look at the pictur...

 Recently I have had many requests for a how to document to make Pixel Goggles. A couple of years back I made three videos for Factory 2 and they are posted on YouTube. Here is a list of what's available and a link to the videos. Pixel Goggles 1 : The original Pixel Goggles based on welding goggles. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pl1PMHbrlPg&t=52s Pixel Goggles 2 : A physically smaller set of Pixel Goggles based on sun glasaases or eye glasses, also called Pixel Glasses. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHIWygxoNXM&t=6s Soldering 101 : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bc7v1sXJXE&t=10s I hope these links help you in your own DIY adventures.

Recently I went through some serious medical issues. While I was teaching at a software conference in San Francisco, I became very sick. For over 15 years I have had a problem with fluid build up in my legs. While I was at the conference my left leg became infected. I had a fever of 103 and bouts of hallucinations. I was so sick that I didn't even know I was seriously sick. My wife nursed me and kept me going. My company said I should go home. But between my not realizing how sick I was and my "Get it done" philosophy, I taught all of my classes. My company did rent one of those powered scooter chairs. When we left San Francisco to come back to Michigan, the airline went above and beyond to help me get home. But I was so tired when we got home, I told my wife I needed a couple of hours of sleep before we went to the emergency room. Being of advancing years I went to the hospital that is supposed to be the local specialists in seniors. They immediately started me on an ant...

Simple Pixel Watch (Update to version 6) This is a simple watch using two pixel rings, a Flora and a real time clock (RTC). I wanted a less expensive and lower power consumption alternative to the NeoGeo watch. So I dropped the GPS and positioning boards in favor of a RTC. Construction is easy and fairly quick. You should have some soldering and leather working skills but this is definitely a beginner's level project. Parts List Flora (Adafruit PRODUCT ID: 659) NeoPixel Ring - 12 x 5050 RGBW LEDs (Adafruit any variant) NeoPixel Jewel - 7 x 5050 RGB LED (Adafruit any variant but it is best to match the pixel ring. IE. they should both be cool white or both be natural white.) Real time clock (Adafruit PCF8523 Real Time Clock Assembled Breakout Board) Battery and charger (Adafruit Micro Lipo w/MicroUSB Jack - USB LiIon/LiPoly charger - v1) Assorted leather strips 2 ¼  to 2 ½ inches wide. (One will need to be long enough to go around your wrist and overlap 2-3 ...