andy reagan only the interesting stuff

The New Site, Basketball in the Rain, and Summer Projects

This is my first entry using the new webpage, and there's a lot going on. I'm editing the html for the page and just typing in the code as I go to update it, but this should work pretty well. This page is not actually hosted from my own server, but I do now have complete control over it, unlike before when I was using the free "easy site" that came with my domain name registration. I can edit the content however I want, and even add new pages if I feel like. I guess my only limit is 30MB of content, and that's going to be the only thing pushing me to still try to get a server running. So shoot me and email (upper right) if you have any suggestions for the page!

Notice, I just added a new link at the very bottom which points to a currently non-existent page, but will point to a blog archive when it's time for that. Just to keep this page from getting light-years long I guess. I think that all the pages have some use, the sample work being perhaps the only one that could be cut, perhaps folded under resume, but I see no reason to do that. I'm actually having a lot of fun editing the content on all these pages and stuff. Someday, I'll publish a blog or write something about how I ended up with this site the way it is, from it's very beginnings. So other people can have just as much fun as I do with their own web pages! We (the page and I) are only about 6 months in, so it is probably to early to start writing the chronology anyway. The server will be the most challenging part after all, at least I think it will be, and I haven't even finished that yet. When I get around to it, I think I'll convert all of the documents on here to .pdf, they open so nicely in the browser with a download button and all. And, I'll need to figure out how to make external links open in a seperate page. The problem right now is that it still looks like you're in andyreagan.com when you're not. And internet explorer 6 doesn't like my logo at the top, but it works with the lastest IE, firefox, and chrome so I don't think I'm going to bother to fix it. I also removed my phone number for like 5 minutes, but I like it there.

Last Night

I wanted to just get in a light bike ride as a recovery ride from riding 50 miles on Sunday, which was an awesome ride btw. But, Del and Fox were trying to get bball together at the park, and Del forced me to come even though it looked like it was gonna rain. Sure enough, as we're driving down there it starts raining, so there we were sitting in the Sarah's car in the pouring rain, 15 minutes early to boot, and thinking what the hell Del lol. But as, we were leaving after waiting around for 5 minutes, we saw Fox driving in, and he said everyone else was still coming. Jeff Watson showed up, he brought Mark Rudy and Fiacchi showed up, so we had enough for 3 on 3. It was still raining, and Mark was sure that someone was going to break an ankle, but we didn't melt and I was actually the only one to lose so skin on my knee from slipping. The court was what I pictured it would be like playing "broomball," some game my Mom told me that they used to play at Potsdam on the hockey rink, using brooms to hit a ball around. We played for a long time, and it was a lot of fun, I played pretty well. It was funny one time when I went to drive on Del, I faked and he slipped a little on the wet court, so I went right by him to score on him for the second time and Jeff was giving him the hardest time lol. Maybe you had to be there. I did end up riding the rollers for like 30 min and then rolling out my legs with the foam roller, painful to say the least.

Summer Projects

I don't have all the time in the world, but as for my two projects this summer, the website and the bike toaster, I think that website is coming right along. Part of that was going to be getting my server up and running, but seeing as how easy this to update, I might pass on that. I actually opened up my Dad's old electrical theory book from back in the day when he was in college, to read about alternators and generators for the toaster. I think I'm definitely learning something, namely that voltage won't matter for resistance heating and that alternators are superior to dc generators because they don't need brushings. I thought about trying to step up the competition between me and David Henry to build the best toaster by saying that we should have to make our own generators, but on second thought...probably not gonna want to do that. The concept really isn't that complicated, we would have to buy some insulated copper wire, and "rare earth" magnets. The latter can be scrapped from old hard drives, apparently. And the wire wouldn't be very expensive either. The site that gave me the inspiration to even think about building it myself is otherpower.com. But getting those magnets to spin freely perpendicular to the longer side of the coils (which is the idea I think) is kinda more than I really feel like doing. I ran into a problem when looking at the RPM-Amp output curves for typical car alternators...basically it's way to steep. If it's too steep, then I'll basically have to create the full power of the alternator (for an 80A alternator, 80amps X ~13V = 1000W) to generate any power at all. Assuming that the alternator is about 60% efficient, which I think I saw somewhere, and that I'll lose at 10% to the drivetrain of my bike, resistance of the rollers, and belt transfer to the alternator, I would have to generate 2000W to make that alternator go. Ain't gonna happen. Since I don't think anybody is still reading (not giving my secrets to Dave), my thought was to use a weaker motorcycle alternator, only capable of 30-40 amps and with a more linear output curve. But the pick-n-pull in Auburn only has one motorcycle, and it is lacking an alternator (I called).

(Today)

So today, we're (the interns here at OBG) are going to get to meet with Terry Brown, the CEO, and get a free lunch outta the deal. Also, I set up a laptop for this guy working at the Westcott resevoir, and I think I'll get to go out the jobsite to get it to him, should be good. And tonight, there are two cycling events going on (as there are every Tuesday apparently), the TNTS, Tuesday Night Training Series, and a time trial. I brought my bike, and aerobars, in the car in hopes to go to the time trial tonight, so hopefully the rain holds. I'm gonna stay a little later at work and go straight there too, since it's in Clay and it would dumb to drive home and then drive right back up here. But it may work out that way, we'll see.

That's all for now folks!