FIRST Robotics 2025 starts now.

Really good teams are built in the off season.  So for the FIRST time in team history we have continued meeting through the summer on a small scale but focused basis.  We've run the fall pre-season differently too, with the high school team working on a few specific projects while putting major effort into our "farm club", Robot School.

But with that concluded, and with the last of the Thanksgiving left overs consumed, 5826 has started "regular" meetings twice a week in December.  We think we know the roster, although there will always be some add-ons and drop offs as the lives of young people can be complicated.  It should be a strong team this year.

Lots going on.  In no particular order....

In the background, Jeffery the middle school project bot is being taken apart.  In the foreground, various foam samples.  New rules this year allow different options.  And as robots have started taking and dispensing harder hits, they'd better be good.

Our secret weapon?  Foam from a cut up "Cheesehead" hat.  Hey, they saved a plane crash victim from serious injury once!

Some bits left over for stylin'

Software doing software things.  Some of them may have gone beyond the coach's comprehension levels.  I am both pleased and moderately concerned by this....

One month to kickoff.  Until then its practice, test, ponder.....

Tree Shaped Tombstones - Also Cylons!

 Driving down an unfamiliar rural Wisconsin road just as the light was changing from "great for photography" to "watch out for deer".  I have a keenly tuned sense of where small rural cemeteries should be, and when I spot one its time to pull off for a quick peek.  Any "Tree Shaped Tombstones"?

Yep.  A rather nice "Tree and Book" specimen.  Its unusual in that it has a really big book, so honking large it needs a special little cross piece to hold it up.  

I suppose unusual thing number two is the long interval between the husband and wife being reunited at the foot of this tree.  1892 to 1932.  Forty years.

Oddness is not uniformly distributed in the world.  And this location had more than its share.  Check out the name of the cemetery!

I remember Cylons from the cheesy Battlestar Galactica show.  Malevolent tin cans....

Of course the name comes from elsewhere.  Cylon Township was presumably named for Cylon of Athens.  We used to live in a far more literate country.

And the weirdness keeps coming.  There is of course a nice little church adjacent to the cemetery.  Well kept up, there was smoke coming from the chimney so it is not abandoned.

But hey, what's that sign......

Rather nice lighting for the last picture of the day.  The area out back of the church is some kind of dog obstacle course.  Not sure if the hounds have taken over the building too, but as I saw no sign indicating a two legged congregation was still using it one must assume so....  If you have a naughty pup in the general vicinity of New Richmond Wisconsin you might want to check 'em out.

A. I. gets all chatty....

I've been tapping the keyboard here for many years.  Mostly of course just me sending thoughts out into the cluttered void that is the internet.  But I do get the occasional message back.  I have a link where people can send an email.  Usually of course it's just spam, but every few weeks somebody with similar interests drops a line.  Sometimes it is to say one of their relatives was involved in some local history topic I cover.  Back when I started deer hunting there was a vigorous discussion on what I should purchase for a rifle.  That sort of thing.

Mostly you can separate the wheat from the chaff with a quick look before either approving for publication or deep sixing it off into the spam folder.  But lately I've started to see far sneakier things.  Below is an example.  In part it is stealthy because the second line is "below the fold".  It sure seems like somebody with a similar interest in medicine, travel and ancient Egypt.....

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"It's interesting how the Waiting Room experience has evolved over time. From my days in the clinic, I remember the efforts to keep things neutral and avoid the clutter of biased pharmaceutical ads. The idea was to provide a calm and distraction-free environment, but even in places as historic as the Egyptian temple of Kom Ombo, where patients awaited healing, there are traces of this waiting culture. It's a reminder of how medical spaces, whether ancient or modern, share a common purpose: to offer healing, albeit with different approaches."

"########## offers a great opportunity, while those looking to optimize space can consider a ############ to make the most of their area."

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I of course have defaced and disabled the link, which was for some sort of office storage cabinets.  Or really, for Osiris only knows what.....

Clearly this and similar offerings are generated by an AI program that can analyze text, connect the dots regards context, and cook up a response that is clear, concise and well reasoned.  I have to study a few more specimens, but I suspect it is even copying some of my writing quirks.  It is synthesizing the perspective of a slightly nostalgic retired physician who was never fond of pharmaceutical company propaganda.  

If that is what AI can do today, what can it do in a few years?  I already know some smart people - OK, they are engineers - who advocate using this technology for business and other formal communications.

I disapprove.  

I've worked pretty hard to become adept at short form communication.  I find it carries over from written to spoken formats, as it is all just a matter of organizing ideas.  I'd like to think that I have a few distinctive touches....to compensate for my haphazard punctuation.  I'm not about to let some damned machine take over for me.

In Star Trek Captain Kirk went up against Artificial Intelligences pretty often.  Usually with a good talkin' to, supplemented with a phaser blast when necessary, they were defeated.

Deer....

 The youngest hunter in the family gets his second deer!

Those not in the hunting community might wonder how this is possible.  Well, without explaining the byzantine rules in detail, you can basically always get a permit to take a buck, as seen above.  There is an over supply of these harem collecting guys, especially during gun season when The Party is Over regards next year's fawns.  I guess it makes sense from a "don't have babies during the short rations season", but there's only about two weeks where bucks and does have much interest in each other.  As mentioned in my bow hunting reports, this is the brief spell of time where they act with the decorum and sense of college students on spring break.

Also, the DNR keeps a close eye on deer numbers, and issues greater or lesser numbers of "antlerless" permits - does and this year's punk teens - with an eye to reducing winter starvation, car-deer interactions and crop loss.  The deer seen above was taken on an "Ag-Tag", but honestly the DNR wants new hunters badly and youth hunters get a whole bunch of extra opportunities.

Writing on Thanksgiving morning there are still a few days of gun season left.  Oh, and you can still hunt with a bow until the end of the year.  And, there is a short second chance gun season for any unfilled anterless tags.  But if you are keeping score at home here's the tally since we started a family hunt in 2020.

2020 3 Hunters 3 deer

2021 5 Hunters, 3 deer

2022 4 Hunters 5 deer (see above regards multiple opportunities)

2023 4 Hunters 1 deer.  This was a bad year after a punishing winter

2024 (so far) 6 Hunters, 3 deer.

We have gained hunters over the years despite one early regular having a new baby and staying close to home the last two seasons.  This year we have all three of our boys hunting, plus a grandson and one of the daughter in laws.

Our overall "success rate" is 15/22 or 68%.  This compares favorably to the state wide 50% rate.  To be fair some hunters, both in our group and in the larger community, are more serious than others.  Last year our dtr in law had a perfect shot at a doe with two cute fawns.  The deer knew she was a sitting duck, so she just looked up and made cute/guilt inducing eyes....so of course she and her brood were allowed to pass in safety.

I'll update the numbers if necessary when final reports from our "satellite locations" drift in.   

But there will be venison in at least most of our freezers for the long winter ahead.

There's something you don't see every day.....

My deer hunting trips to my son's Homestead had me sitting in a tree stand for a few hours in the morning and a few in the evening.  So what to do in between?  Well, the occasional side trip is called for.  And on occasion you just run across odd things.  Such as:

As the old saying went: "Now there's something you don't see every day..."  Especially when you get closer and find out that it is on the National Registry of Historic Places!

This is the Silverdome Ballroom.   If you are curious about its history and construction HERE is a brief summary.  If you want a whole bunch more, here's the info from the National Registery.

If you are just casually interested....it was built during the Great Depression by a family that had earlier built a sort of "supper club" on the site that was actually a speakeasy.  It is btw still there and is called, logically, The Speakeasy Saloon.  The name Silverdome comes from the unusual use of aluminum elements to support the dome.  The Keller brothers who did the construction paid a $1000 royalty to the German patent holders for this process.  This is remarkable because A) that was a lot of money during the Depression and B) one suspects the German engineers got good at this stuff by building zeppelins.

Over the years the Silverdome has done pretty well.  It is in fact a going concern.  There are some odd businesses next door to it that also caught my eye....

This seems to have been a carpentry shop of some sort, the sign indicating a Mill Works.  But it is now a CBD joint and a barber shop!  I guess the slightly illegal business doings that started with the speakeasy (seen in the distance in this picture) are ongoing.  As I have not much hair and even less interest in quasi legal marijuana I did not stop in.

The Silverdome has seen quite a few known acts over its long years.  Duke Ellington, Johnny Cash, The Bellamy Brothers, Buffalo Springfield and Cheap Trick.  Also, and nearer to my heart, Whoopee John.  Or if you want to be formal, Whoopee John Wilfahrt.

Whoopee John was from New Ulm Minnesota, so it should not surprise any of you that his musical genre was Polka.  He toured extensively and was still a moderately well known name when I was a young lad.  

When I was a bit older, but arguably no wiser, I'd occasionally turn up to help dispatch a keg of beer at our friend Markie's house.  One of his housemates was a young man whose name I either never knew or can't recall.  Everyone just called him Wilfahrt.  Over a red plastic cup of some sort of affordable to the impoverished brew he told me he was a descendent of Whoopee and that the band's tour bus had on the back:

WHOOPEE JOHN WILFAHRT

           AND HIS BAND WILL PLAY 

 

Opening Weekend 2024

Slow start to opening weekend of deer hunting.  The family takes a while to collect itself from various locations, and there is a general shortage of tags for our immediate around the cabin area.  Two hunters out at first light.  Some deer seen, none brought home.

Having gotten a deer earlier I stayed behind.  When it got light enough I did take Hank out for a walk.  As he is a small brown creature who likes to carry big branches around he had to be decked out for the occasion.

I heard exactly one gunshot in our 45 minute walk.  He might have heard a few more distant ones because he was pulling like crazy to get back to the safety of the cabin by the end of the walk.  He fears the Great Thunder Dogs.....

We started the Family Deer Camp four years ago.  In the first year it was just three of us gathering in a dreary Covid limited time.  One of our party in fact shot a deer but was too fatigued by a recent bout to drag it out unassisted.  But we went 3-3 with enough time and effort, all within walking distance of home base.

Fast forward.  No longer just guys eating junk food, the gathering is now our defacto Thanksgiving with all the kids, their wives, their dogs.  We eat better.  But the area around the cabin yielded zero deer.  In fact I was the only one who even tried to hunt in walking distance.  A tough winter two years ago clobbered the herd, so "antlerless" tags were cut way back.  But that does not seem to have deterred others, and areas we had all to ourselves until recently now have multiple hunters working them.  Hey, public land, so its fine.  But less productive and not conducive to doing the occasional drive to move deer along.

The two deer bagged thus far were:  my grandson getting one on a friend's property an hour south of here during Youth Hunt weekend, and my bow hunting success far to the south.  No deer hanging in the garage.

When I went out for a few hours on Saturday evening I encountered pleasant weather but saw nothing larger than a squirrel.*

Oh well.  Lots of good family time which is tastier than venison.  And as the weekend concludes various branches of the tribe head out to other places, in some of which there are still deer and permits.......

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* peculiar highlight of the weekend:  Somehow a flying squirrel made it inside and drowned in a toilet.  Zombie Toilet Squirrel.  Nobody had that on their bingo card.  Now Family Lore....

Shifting Gears

I've been doing this since 2011.  Almost 2500 posts.  Sometimes they are abundant.  When I'm off on fun travels they almost write themselves.  Other times the ready to go inventory is minimal.  

Off the cuff writing is like riding a bike (something I actually seldom do).  There is a sort of "muscle memory" to each activity.  I'm very glad I was the only guy in typing class back in High School.  I can sit at the keyboard - which is much handier than the old IBM Selectric - stare into the middle distance and think.  The fingers just produce a sort of live stream.

Writing is also like riding a bike in that it is hard to stop.  If you don't keep up a certain momentum you'll wobble and tip over.  Is it reasonable to post three times a week, with more on special occasions?  Of course not.  But I think if I reduced frequency it would be the first wobble, the first sign that Detritus of Empire would become, well, detritus.  Blogging was just past its peak of popularity when I started.  Most who were active then ran out of things to say.  

Well that would be a major change, and I think its not time for that yet.  But the seasons do come and go.  

Looking back on the most frequent topics over the years, I see some that will keep rolling, others not so much.

Archaeology at 390 posts leads the way.  I figure to have a few more digs in me.  Americana is second at 309.  Lots to think about there. FIRST Robotics (210) will keep going too, although I'm in more of an emeritus role.  That should actually give me time to better chronical the mad journey.  Generations (198) is a big topic but I'm mindful of the privacy of family members, so I've never done more than the surface of that great story.  

But some categories are just in eclipse.  Sure I did 138 posts on the arcane subject Forgotten Brewery Caves, but there are few opportunities to expand on that one without considerable travel.  And even then, I won't visit or publicize sites that might lead to an arrest report or worse.

Well it is change of seasons time.  Robot School is done, the main FIRST build and competition season is still a ways off.  Deer hunting is less of an event this year, the shortage of local tags has the more serious members of the tribe looking elsewhere and scoring earlier.  Other fun stuff is over the horizon, but in the cold months ahead I will be thinking of warm, green England.

And perhaps there will be some new adventures.  No idea what just yet.  See you along the way.