Uncategorized – Page 26 – onvural.net – melih

SCUBA – my old man hobby

As I dive deeper into being too old to play soccer, I’m trying to find a new sport to fall in love with. I’m pretty sure it’s going to be an individual sport (a.k.a not tennis), and I’m trying to find something that isn’t going to destroy my body (a.k.a running).

I tried to run a triathlon September 2012. The swimming part was awesome; the biking part was awesome; but my body just couldn’t keep up. It’s also a sport where I’d be competing, or just comparing myself, too much to others. I just don’t have the mental capacity to do that.

I tried golf. I love it. I just don’t have the money to play, or the time to get better. It’s a shame really because there’s something fascinating about the competition between me and the ball. It’s such a darn bastard that golf ball, but those few swings where you can get the ball to sing to your tune is just amazing. Once or twice every 50 strokes is tough though 🙂

So I think it’s going to be SCUBA diving.

I love the feeling of visiting an alien world, and the completely laid back culture of everyone who I’ve met who SCUBA dives. Combine that with interesting locations, ever changing scenery, and… photography, and I’m all set.

I’m going to be an old man SCUBA diver, and I’m going to love it. Check out some photos below:

: A sea anemone nested in the coral

: A really cool nudibranch attached to some kelp

: An octopus that we ran into

Fatherhood, Uncategorized 0

Balancing the moment

The natural order for me for a long time has been to avoid the present, and focus on the future. The promotion I’ve wanted so badly, and how good it was going to feel. The start up I’ve wanted so badly, and how much fun it was going to be. The dice I was going to throw, and how much money I would win.

But when it comes to Amelia and Luka, all of that has changed.

It is definitely possible to take for granted them being 2 and 1 year old respectively, and jump to 4, 10, 16, and beyond. And every now and then there are moments where I let myself do that. Take for example earlier today – Amelia and a new friend she made Eli were playing together wonderfully. They were bouncing on his bed, in the sandbox, banging on the drums, and just generally enjoying each other. And I found myself thinking, “So this is how father’s let their daughters marry someone. They make sure it’s someone who their daughter becomes better with.” And somehow it made that distant moment seem very close.

But then the rest of the day was spent in the extreme present. Playing in fountains, swimming in the pool, creating obstacle courses around the house. We got Amelia a play kitchen set, and we made play eggs and had afternoon tea. Luka ate kofte for the first time, and loved it. He gives kisses now, and then hugs you when he wants to let you know that he appreciates you’re there.

In those moments, there is no future. There’s no worry about broken hearts or SATs. There is simply an us.

And because of Amelia and Luka, I’ve started to apply this same philosophy elsewhere to try to help put things into perspective. I don’t know that it’s working yet, but I think it will definitely help me focus on the journey more and the destination less.

That’s something that I know now will work out in the future.

Life Updates, Uncategorized 1

It’s a real thing now!

I’m really excited because with the help of eMinutes I’ve been able to formally incorporate Big Fish, Big Pond.

With the paperwork finished, the game plan is to really spend some time exploring my favorite non-video chat problem space – organizing people – which ranges from helping the individual build a better calendar all the way to helping the masses get where they’re going with less friction.

The problem is a new one – born from an ever-more demanding pace without the tools that help us cope with these demands. Being more digital has forced all of us to update our ability to process. However, that transition, in the context of how we organize, has tended to be extremely literal. Our calendars look just like the ones from our mother’s kitchen wall. To figure out where to be, we’re constantly shuffling through emails, text messages, or desperately calling the one person who has the information. Finding time to meet with friends is hard, and even our own neighborhoods seem foreign when we don’t know where to get a hair cut or an ice cream sandwich.

I’m going to really enjoy figuring out these problems. Stay tuned at the Big Fish, Big Pond blogto see the output.

Fatherhood, just thinking out loud, Uncategorized 2

The simple things

Amelia and Luka love the simple things.

We’re in the Grand Canyon, and they chase the elk around the camp site. We’re at home, and they just want to run around in a circle around the kitchen island for the next hour. And when it’s bed time they just a bottle of milk, a story, and a kiss goodnight.

I’ve gotten so good at worrying about big things, complicated things, stressful things. And these kids just force me to get back to the basics – what interests me? what excites me? what inspires me? That’s the foundation that I should start my day from.

The rest is really just noise.

Amelia's Piano, Uncategorized 0

A working speaker system

It’s been a long time with no progress on the piano. The reason is simple really. I’ve been doing a bunch of research, ordering a bunch of parts, and everything is finally ready to go.

And so the last few nights have been all about soldering, programming, editing, searching, and finally uploading. It all started with a PCB board, and a bunch of parts.

Components of the Adafruit Waveshield being built for Amelia's piano — Components of the Adafruit Waveshield being built for Amelia’s piano

The PCB board ini the vise as I get ready to build out the speaker

This is probably the first time I’ve done any soldering since the Golden Solder project I did in ECE200. Now those were the good old days. And yet, as I was working through each component, and getting it on the board, it felt like I really knew what I was doing. I didn’t, but at least the ego is still in tact. Resistor bands were read, and placed appropriately. Chips were put in based on the etching on the board. And the wiring I copied from the directions. But in the end, everything looked exactly as it was supposed to, and I was quite confident that it was going to work when I tried it.

The finished Adafruit Waveshield with an SD card slot, a potentiometer, a speaker jack, and a really excited guy taking the photo

Then, on to finding the notes!

Turns out that there’s a fantastic projectÂ out of the University of Iowa that has sound files of notes on an instrument. So I hopped on over there, grabbed the files for the piano, and got to editing.

It was a bit frustrating because there is about 3 seconds of track, but only 0.75 seconds (on average) of a note being played. Audacity came to the rescue! I edited up the files, saved them as WAV, and uploaded them to the SD card reader. I was ready to rock and roll.

Last step was getting the library installed, and the music playing. As for that, I’ll let this video do the talking…

Up next is getting it to work with 11 buttons, and having the Arduino component of things finished. And then… 3D printing 🙂

Fatherhood, Uncategorized 2

Amelia says, “I love you”

This post is really meant to act as a historical marker.

Amelia has heard, “I love you” since the day she was born. I would like to think that all children do, but I know better than that. When she was about three months old, you’d say, “Amelia. I love you!” and she would squeal in delight. Since she’s been talking both Micky and I have tried to get her to say I love you back at us, and…

today it finally happened 🙂

I said to her, “Amelia, say I love you to daddy”, and she said, “I love you”, and then immediately was quite proud of herself. She had a big smile on her face, and I immediately bear hugged and kissie monstered her to pieces.

And that’s why it’s all worth it.

Life Updates, Uncategorized 3

Back in the grind

This real world thing is tough!

It’s really amazing how quickly we got used to not having a schedule, demands on our time (outside the babies), and responsibility. But we’re back, and it’s full steam ahead.

We’ve run the numbers (and boy are they big numbers), and realized that we’re going to have to rent for one more year. That’s quite tough for me as I’m really looking forward to a permanent place. I’m very much over renting from folks. But, without a good idea of how much school is going to cost, and how much we can really afford, it would be really foolhardy to just jump at the first thing on our radar. Patience and common sense prevails.

Amelia is doing really well. She’s started art lessons, a weekly indoor gym class, continues music and swimming, and is also massively in love with running around and being chased. I wonder when I’ll ever be able to keep up with her energy most times.

Luka is growing bigger and bigger. At their last check up we learned that he’s only a few inches shorter, and a few pounds lighter than his sister. Poor Amelia. When Luka gets bigger, I’m sure he’ll get his revenge. I’m just really excited that they’re both tall. Luka is trying to stand up now with no interest in crawling. Hates being on his stomach, but loves being up on his feet. He’s quite strong too in the legs. It all happens way too quickly.

Played soccer again for the first time in a long time. My knee feels good. My play didn’t suck. It’s the little things these days 🙂

I’ve also become a fitness nut. I got a FitBit from my mom as a Christmas present, and I’ve hooked it up with MyFitnessPal, and when we get the scale back I’ll hook it up with my Withings, and I’ll have this epic digital health tracking system going. Calorie conscious decisions are going to help me get down to 175 by May. Gotta look good in those bathing suits now!

That’s all for tonight then. Until the next one, keep smiling.

Amelia's Piano, Uncategorized 1

Introducing Amelia’s Piano

For her 2nd birthday, I’m going to build Amelia a digital piano. It will highlight the keys as it plays songs, and then let her play it back by highlighting the next note, and waiting for her to hit it. I’m probably more excited about building it then she will be receiving it, but so it goes at this age 🙂

I’ll be building it using a bunch of fun technologies that I haven’t had a chance to play with yet. The microprocessor will be an Arduino. I’m really excited to play with the Arduino as the breadboard was my favorite part of undergrad EE. If you don’t know much about Arduino, then I’d check out this TED talk from the guy who I think is the founder of the project.

To make the actual piano, I’ll be using a 3D printer. I’ve been scouring the web for open source CAD software, and hopefully (the goal for this week) I’ll have the piano laid out this week. Then, I’m going to have to find a 3D printing company to rent some time and/or order the parts. I’m thinking a baby grand that hides the Arduino, and has 2 octaves worth of keys surrounding middle-C, but we’ll see 🙂

I want to document as I build it so that one day Amelia can see how it was all done, and maybe someone else will pick it up, and build their own. And hopefully you guys will enjoy seeing it go along the way.

Life Updates, Uncategorized 2

And we’re back!

So I’ve decided to be much more vigorous in writing on my blog mainly because it’s a channel for many things, a practice pad for many more, and a chance to dump my thoughts out of my head and onto the proverbial pad. As a result, Sunday’s will become life update days, Monday’s will be Amelia’s Piano update days, and then I’ll figure out the rest as it comes.

We’re back in San Francisco!

We’re living in Noe Valley, which is an amazing little spot in San Francisco. We walk to Whole Foods, one of a million coffee shops, restaurants, or bars, two different parks, a library, and the highway is just minutes away. It’s ideal. This is where we’ve decided to start to look for housing, and I think Micky and I are both really excited about it.

It has taken from Tuesday to Saturday for the kids to adjust to the jet lag. I have to give both of them massive credit as I think they did a wonderful job. It helped that we’re such awesome parents, but no need to rag on myself :-p

(Oh, I just thought that Wednesday should be Weight Update Wednesday… good one)

Work is going well, and opportunities are definitely there to be grabbed. Simultaneously, my personal project, Amplifize.com, has a strong community, and is a really great place to hang out if you like talking about cool web content with a group of self-labeled smart people 🙂

My uncle Aydin Yardim from my dad’s side came to visit this weekend, and we had a great time. He came Friday night, and Micky had cooked lasagna, and we ate fancy dessert from Whole Foods. I made a Winter Squash Penne with Mint Salad from Jamie Oliver’s “15 minute Recipes” cookbook. It took us an hour :-/ with 2 of us doing it :-/ :-/

Another interesting first this week… Miss Amelia fell flat on her face and got a nasty bloody nose. Mr. Luka has 2 bottom teeth.

Oh, and NC State beat #1 Duke to go tops of the ACC!

So I’ll leave you with a bit of a slide show, a big smile, and a lot of optimism for the year ahead. I have new year resolutions to write up, a cool project for Amelia’s birthday to work on, and a secret, new project that I hope to launch in February to look forward to. It’s going to be a great 2013!

Life Updates, Uncategorized 0

Lots of shit is going on – Week “I have lost count”

Holy smokes has a lot happened since the last update. And to think, I thought I was going to pull off a weekly update 🙂

First thing first, Amelia has got to be one of the unluckiest little girls when it comes to health. Both times she has been in the UK, she’s had a really nasty bug, and this one just wiped her out. She even became lactose intolerant for 10 days. Everyone ended up being sick except for Micky who was a complete rockstar of a nurse! That’s when you know you’re the lucky one…

We have in the time since I last updated:

Celebrated many birthdays – My birthday. Micky’s Aunt Monica’s birthday. It’s been a really good month of getting wiser if not older to go with it :-p

Visitors and new countries – James Kellermann visited from Creedmoor, NC. We got him up to London for a day, and then over to Lisbon. Photos coming soon, but that darned camera, and its darn cable 🙁 However, this was James’ first trip out of the country, but it won’t be his last… especially since they have pizza everywhere

Paris, I love youÂ – Micky and I did a child-less trip to Paris. It was fantastic. We stayed on Ile St. Louis with the Notre Dame in our front yard just 500 yards away. We ate a lot of food, and it was delicious. We walked for miles, and it was breathtaking.
For my birthday, Micky got me a cooking lesson at a school in Paris. It was so much fun, and I learned to make scallops. Pictures forthcoming once I get that damn wire. We also made pumpkin soup, an almond tart, and had cheese to top it all off. Quite fancy I’d have to say 🙂

We also went on the ferris wheel in Tuillery Gardens, which I’ve never done, and climbed to the first floor of the Eiffel Tower.

At the end of the three days, we arrived back at the car to realize that we had lost the car keys, and waited at the train station for 6 hours while the car got towed, and we got a new car to head home in 🙁

Oh well, it was a wonderful trip anyway

We’re now home for a bit before we head off to Turkey. Oh, and here are the photosÂ from Bonfire night in Rye. Thanks James for helping me download them 🙂