A dissa-Pierring act

What a difference (checks notes) 8 months of dietary changes can make.
May 14, 2021 [left] vs. March 5, 2022 [right]

Time for an effort post. 

It has been 8 months since I was diagnosed with type-2 diabetes with an A1C level of 9.4%. For those of you not familiar, A1C is a measure of average blood sugar levels over the past 3 months. A normal A1C is 5.7% or below, prediabetes is defined as A1C level between 5.7% to 6.4% and anything above 6.4% indicates full blown diabetes. The diagnosis happened 3 months after my 40th birthday and was simultaneously a surprise and not a surprise. Not a surprise because I had been classified as having blood glucose levels in the prediabetic range at my prior medical checkup three years prior (annual visits delayed due to birth of two kids and pandemic) and a surprise because my mental model of life didn’t include having a major metabolic disease at age 40.

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All the way down the genealogical rabbit hole

It was 12:45am on July 12, 2017 and I was lying awake in bed, scrolling through the last vestiges of Amazon’s Prime Day sale. I managed to resist the urge to buy unnecessary junk all day, but my brain decided that there had to be some great deal that I just had not found yet and it was not going to let me sleep until I found it. Then, there it was: 50% off the 23andMe DNA test. Jackpot. I had been curious about 23andMe’s test for some time, interested to know how the testing really worked. Was it junk science? Was it real? 50% off was the excuse I needed to try it and find out.

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A 3D printed organizer for Splendor

A weeks ago I spotted a /r/boardgames/ post about a foamcore minimalist organizer for the fantastic tabletop game called Splendor. I thought this was pretty awesome and was inspired to create a 3D printable variant of this design since I’m lazy and cutting/gluing foamcore sounds like work (but CAD design apparently isn’t? ::boggle::). I’m quite happy with the result, as the new box is much more compact and portable!

Designing the Splendor box in TinkerCAD

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Creating a customized robot bottle opener

While browsing a recent issue of Make magazine, I found a list of CNC projects that caught my eye. In particular, the wood and aluminum bottle opener appeared to be ripe for customization with a bit of laser etching. The first step was to determine what art to use for the laser etching. With the approaching departure of a longtime colleague, I decided to go for a bit of robot art to make the opener into a personalized going away gift.

Make magazine CNC projects

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2014 Palm Beach Maker Camp at the South Florida Science Center and Aquarium

We are very happy to report a second successful year of Maker Camp in Palm Beach! In 2013, Palm Beach LED held the first and only Maker Camp in Florida and nearly in the entire Southeastern United States. In 2014, there was an explosion of Maker Camps across the state, and we were thrilled to see such an increase in local Maker activity!

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Palm Beach Maker Camp featured in Palm Beach Post!

Featured in the Palm Beach Post was the third week of Maker Camp at the South Florida Science Center, co-sponsored by the Science center and Palm Beach LED Makerspace. This camp session featured Introduction to Robotics with LEGO Mindstorms where campers created robotic vehicle to simulate the Mars Rover and the self driving Google Car. The full writeup can be found on the Palm Beach Post’s website here (subscription required): http://www.palmbeachpost.com/videos/news/maker-camp-at-sf-science-center/vCjqrz/
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Hovership – a quadrotor experiment

The past few years have seen impressive changes in the quadrotor field, both in availability of powerful and sophisticated components for hobbyists and in the quality of research at various universities. After recently discovering an interesting looking 3D printable quadrotor frame on Thingiverse called Hovership, I decided it was high time to have a go at building my own. Continue reading…

3D printed selfies, lithopanes and chocolate molds

After a year or so of tinkering with and learning about 3D printing, there are a few applications I have come across which stood out as being particularly unique or interesting. I have included a brief description of each below along with links where you can find more information if you are interested in trying them for yourself. Continue reading…