WARNING! This discourse may contain high levels of Techy-ness, please avoid if you don't like gadgets, legal hacking, and Italian words!!

So, after dealing with destruction for the past week, I decided it was time to sit back and do what I liked for a minute or two. That involved getting a glass of milk, a chocolate chip pumpkin muffin top, and messing with my computer. Several weeks ago, I ordered a small circuit board off the internet called the arduino (Pronounced "Hardwin") board. The name is an Italian first name that means "strong friend." (WIKI, 2011) This unique little board is an open source platform built just for programmers like me. It is a computer-independent board that can be used in all sorts of projects involving motors, servos, sensors, etc. It is the "Programmer's" ultimate tool because it allows us to extend our virtual knowledge into a real environment. I must admit that my first program was a little underwhelming. I made one LED light blink to a rhythm. However, I got a bit better at it. I made a 5 minute timer with a buzzer, and currently I am playing around with computer communications. I am using my favorite programming language "perl" to set up a connection with the device, and send little bits of text back and forth. Its like one of those copycat parrots you can buy at any self respecting toy store, but without an annoying voice. I plan to use it to build a 4-rotor quad-copter that I can control over Bluetooth using my phone, or a wii remote. Sorry for burdening you all with my insane technical ravings! lol

~ttgrules

Cut, thats a wrap!

Well, After working all week digging junk out from underneath more junk, I finally have 10 minutes to sit down and update my blog. For anyone who didn't hear what happened, the same storm cell that hit Tuscaloosa hit our 2nd house in Northwest Ga. It was a direct hit, and didn't leave a tree standing in a quarter-mile radius. The house itself was lifted off its foundation by about 4-5 feet, and the garage and 150 year-old barn are leveled to the ground. Providentially, we were not there during the storm, and our neighbor (whose house is worse than ours) was not home either. There was a lot of property damage in our area, but all the people who were there emerged with only minor scratches. All this happened Wednesday, so we have spend the last several days cleaning up the mess. We haven't been able to get into the house much because it is unstable due to the weakened state of its foundation. We were able to get most of our equipment to start, albeit with some minor frame damage to 2 go-karts. We keep finding random things like tools or toys laying around in the yard. The power company finally restored power to our gate, but it is impossible to get it run to the house in its present condition. Thanks for all the prayers! Its been a whole lot easier with great friends and family supporting us! All this to say, I praise the Lord that no one was hurt, and that there's actually a house still left to try to salvage.

~ttg

P.S. We are working on the farm today due to the whole "Ox in a ditch" thing. Our ox didn't fall in a ditch, but most everything else did. That was a little poetic license. We don't have an ox.