alan j quinn

October 13, 2012October 14, 2012

Kids Day at work

I brought GMan to Kids Day at work last Monday. In the morning he did an activity with a bunch of other 4th graders that involved a story board. This is a typical way of developing and refining a piece of software.

The words that made up the story board were Whale and Wizard. The kids took the words, made up a story, refined it and drew out the results. Below us a snap shot of what they came up with.

After lunch GMan played video games on a $10k PC I’m testing. It was the fastest processor Angry Birds was ever on! Zoom zoom!!

October 13, 2012October 13, 2012

Vanity Plate

Another score by Brad.

October 13, 2012October 13, 2012

Sukkah

Out annual trip to MC home to celebrate Sukkot.

Jess, JMan and mysterious headless boy.

Hmmm not there all hiding!

October 13, 2012October 13, 2012

JMan builds a fire truck

While visiting Home Depot in Leominster last weekend we discovered their monthly activity. All kids big and small could build and paint wooden fire trucks.

October 6, 2012October 6, 2012

Vanity Plate

“oenophile” license plate. An oenophile (pronounced as “EE-no-file”) is a wine lover. Thanks Brad for sharing.

October 5, 2012October 5, 2012

Bullseye training tool

I was thinking of how to combine two sports the other day. One that I really like, bullseye shooting, and one that I don’t much care for, strength training.

The result I call the “DotWeight” ©
Basically it’s my old reddot, a 5lb weight and a few elastic bands.

I made up some 1/2 scale targets that I place at one end of the room, from the other end I strike my best bullseye pose and try and keep the dot in the black for a 20 count. Rest for a few minutes and repeat. Simply and effective.

Here’s one of the targets. Its form core with the 1/2 scale target glue on. I created the target in a drafting application and simple printed it out 1/2 scale. Its 6″ tall and 5 1/4″ wide .

PS don’t seal this one, be nice and ask first!

DotWeight ©
LaserWeight ©
SightWeight ©
BullseyeWeight ©

October 3, 2012

Sighting in

I finally got down to the club to sight in my new Ultradot Matchdot ll. The fixture I made proved more work than it was worth, but it will make a nice stand for my M41.

Here’s the end results of 10 shots, two handed supported at 50′. It’s a tad low and left, but 10 is 10!

October 2, 2012October 2, 2012

New road!

7 years later we finally got new paving on our street. If all goes well they will offer town sewer in a few weeks and dig it up again!

October 1, 2012October 2, 2012

What am I

More to the point what will I be?

Close up.

More pictures.

If you said gun rest you’d be right.

October 1, 2012October 1, 2012

See Science Center Manchester NH

Yesterday was a great day for hanging out indoors. While my better 1/2 was at work (yes on Sunday) I took the kids and headed north.

The See Science Center has many interesting exhibits for kids and adults alike. It has a really nice Lego display of the mills in Manchester as there were at the turn of the century (1900’s that is). Cool to think that folks still work in them today.