Busy... but...

I haven't done any work on any of my projects since the last post and probably will not be able to until Sunday night at the least.  I didn't even hit the wine that hard...

However, I did go off and order one of these:

...off of our favorite spot to buy stuff that "normal people" wouldn't buy*...  e-bay... For $140 shipped, how bad can it be?  60W iron, and a hot air reflow tool (which I've been lusting after for quite some time).  Coming from Omaha it's practically in my back yard to start off with.. :O)

I suppose I need to slow down on the toys.. but hopefully this will be a long term investment in the hobby.  My soldering irons have all been surplus up until now, and even though the Edsyn is a good second iron-- its UGLY... I mean UGLY... RE-F-UGLY..  So I'm hoping the iron on this is at least as good as the Edsyn is...

I've been deep in the insides of Microsoft Windows at work trying to put a square peg into a round hole in a triangular box that needs to be encased in a parallelogram.  So I've been doing late nights this week.  Maybe I'll start another blog about what I've learned about Windows Messaging in the future.. but probably not.  I usually reserve the Software Engineering for stuff I have to do for a living.  I rarely code for fun anymore.

I also managed to get control over my website, so when I actually complete some of these projects I'll do formal write-ups there.  I had not touched it in over five years... shame on me.. I guess that is what long hours at work, earning a MBA with Honors while working 40-60 hrs/week, having four young kids and having a gastric bypass and losing 150 lbs will do to ya...

Hopefully early next week I'll be blowing IC's off of old boards.  One can only hope.  If anything else it will be a good stress relief!

* I define "normal people" as people who can go into a shopping mall and be excited by all of the shoe stores there (and little else.. maybe an "Orange Julius")... I, on the other hand wonder why "normal people" need so many damned shoes....Or, as an alternate definition, "Normal people" are people who like watching sports exclusively as a hobby rather than doing something!  (I'd say something about athlete's and support... but I might offend...)