Bryan Echo

Commitment

Haha! :)

From xdcd

YouTube Tuesday!

I stole this idea from my Mom but its Tuesday so here's a cool video.  Its a cool song by a new band I like called Spoon.  I lived in Japan for five years and it makes me very nostalgic. Enjoy!

Great Weekend

Its Sunday after a great weekend.  I'm feeling thankful for the friends and family that I've spent time with.  This is the first time I've had to myself all weekend.  I'm recharging my batteries kicking back with a margarita. :)

I went out dancing Friday night with lots of friends.  I was invited by a group of people that I didn't know well.  I also saw some old friends that I hadn't seen in a while.  I was surprised to see an ex-girlfriend that I didn't expect to be there.  But it was a late night and I had fun.

Saturday night I went out dancing again.  A few of the same friends came out.  I was a social butterfly talking with everyone.  It was 80's night and the DJ played lots of old favorites. 

Today I woke up really tired still made it out to my dad's house to see the family.  We played pool and had a big lunch. 

I had a really good conversation with my step-mom's brother about a new business idea.  I can't go into too much detail yet but I'm really excited.  We talked about business plans and the potential market for the idea.  I'd like to work on something that I really own and this could finally be it.

I haven't had a lot of time to catch my breath all weekend but it was exactly what I wanted.  I just wanted to write a post to remember these good times. Thanks for reading.

Project C.U.R.E

I had a really good night.  I went with a group of friends to volunteer for a group called Project C.U.R.E.  It was an interesting night. 

When I heard about it last week I didn't get much details but I wanted to get out and do something new.  Lately I've been trying to meet new people and put myself in new situations.  Project Cure is a group that collects donations of medical supplies and distributes them to hospitals in developing countries.  Its a very successful group.  I was impressed that they deliver $400K worth of medical supplies in each shipment for a cost of only around $20,000.  Much of what is donated would have otherwise just been thrown out. 

Our job tonight was to open boxes of unsorted medical items and sort them into different categories.  The items were completely random and often undecipherable.  I remember seeing boxes of sutures of all different sizes, crazy drill bits, and cranial surgery kits.  We had to look each item up in a binder but it was frustrating.  Its hard to know what to look up when the name of the item is complete gibberish. 

I don't know if I want to volunteer to sort supplies for them again as I'm not really good at it.  It was humbling and I treated as an excuse to laugh at myself.  So I did have a really good time.  I'll probably donate money as it seems to be a well run organization and a very worthy cause.      

"Encrypted" Vodka

Yesterday my room mate Neil bought a large bottle of vodka at the grocery store.  When he got home he found that the store had forgotten to take the anti theft device off.  Its a black cylinder over the top of the bottle that prevents it from being opened and illicitly consumed.

Being an engineer my mind totally latched on to this problem.  Of course we needed to get it off to drink the vodka but I really wanted to take it apart and understand how it worked.  It felt like real world encryption.  The bottle cap was trying to prevent us from getting the vodka out of the bottle. 

Around the top of the cylinder were four slots that are used to remove the device with a special tool at the store.  We first tried to insert things in duplicate whatever tool they used.  But of course it wasn't that simple.

So next I used brute force to pry off the outside cover.  I just used pliers to remove the plastic along one side.  Once the cover was off it was both illuminating and frustrating.  Of course it still wouldn't come off but now I could see some of the locking mechanism. 

One piece on the bottom came off rather easily.  But it was still locked.  Pried apart the four arms on the top.  Still locked. Finally found the two main pieces were held together by two tabs on either side.  Pushing both in finally freed the vodka.

I'm writing this because I wanted to remind myself of the experience.  Even after it was unlocked I was still interested in how it would be properly unlocked.  I pieced it back together and pictured how it should work.  Total I probably spent an hour and a half on the anti theft device.  My room mate and I traded theories, made jokes, and laughed a lot.  Its not something most people would enjoy but it stimulated my brain in just the right way. 

I just wish I would've taken pictures as it was coming apart. :-)