Google Leave Day 15: June 15, 2009

I started the day by paying bills and handling accumulated paperwork. It took more than 4 hours, and I handled only 2/3 of the pile. It is a distressing to think that this pile accumulated in about 10 days.

I helped Dan to submit his Stokes counselor application after school. I notarized it and he gave it in the last minute to the responsible teacher in the middle school. Then the we took the train to Manhattan to our appointment with Dr. Positano. Dan will get his new walking orthotic insert just before we go to Japan.

When we came back Dorit told me that Shirley hit her small toe. It looked so bad that Dorit took Shirley to the Overlook Hospital emergency room around 9pm. Shirley lost the toe nail, and she will need to change bandages every day until it heals. The toe is expected to grow in a few months. I hope that Shirley could wear shoes for our trip to Japan. It is likely that she could not wear boots for her horse-riding camp.

I assembled a wooden frame for Shirley's planter, so she could cover the planter with a net that is hanging from the frame. I still need to pain the frame.

I ordered a Samsung N110 netbook for Dan from J&R Music. It should arrive in 3-4 days. I also ordered extra memory for it (Crucial DDR2 PC2-6400 2GB SODIMM module) and a protective sleeve.

I was thinking about methods for building a racing robot from VEX Robotics parts using a high gear ratio. The problem with the design is low torque, which means that the robot will have difficulty to start moving. The challenge is that I must use only standard VEX parts. I have an idea how to provide the initial push to start the robot moving with a linear rack pushed a short way by a motor.