Alice Chegwidden

Jesse-Dean Fernandes

Lorenzo David Fernandez

Hey Kids,

Happy New Year, and may good things come to all.  Specially to families with new babies, here are three additions: Alice Chegwidden, to my most excellent friends (family) Vicky & Scott Chegwidden; to the Fernandez(s) family tree: Jesse-Dean Fernandes, mother Amber Fernandes, and Grand parents: Henk Fernandes (cousin) and Gina Cohen; and Lorenzo David Fernandez, mother Ethel Mercedes Garcia, grand parents: Jacques Gerardus Fernandez (oldest brother) and Irma Yolanda Fernandez.  2007 was a good old year.

On to other things, someone asked me, so now that you are retired, what do you do with your time? Answer, anything I want to do.

Really, 7 month into retirement, still I feel like am on vacation. Basically this is what I do: 

Spend lots time restoring old family pictures and slides (one pic can take 1 to 20 hrs). A sample of this you can see on my website: (http://web.mac.com/iamrouelf/Site/Welcome.html). Exercise by walking or cycling. More walking in the winter than cycling, in other seasons, reverse. About 1 to 2 hrs walking, 3 to 4 hrs cycling at a time. Spend allot of time reading. Read the news paper every day, 1 to 2 hours per day.

However, Most of the reading is done online (5 to 6 hrs/day). They call it surfing. So what do I read on Line? Here are the links where I currently spend time, no particular order:

Popular Mechanics: http://www.popularmechanics.com/

Popular Science: http://www.popsci.com/popsci/

National Institute of Standards and Tests: http://www.nist.gov/

How Stuff Works: http://www.howstuffworks.com/

Physics Stuff: http://www.ac.wwu.edu/~vawter/PhysicsNet/HomePage/NavigatingMain.html

MIT Online Course Materials: http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/courses/courses/index.htm

Scientific American: http://www.sciam.com/

Itunes University

Various links in "Your Virtual Ph.D." - Popular Science: http://www.popsci.com/popsci/technology/49d9e79d0fa64110vgnvcm1000004eecbccdrcrd.html

I can spend many, many hours a day in the above sites, specially on the physics stuff, the Itunes University, and the free podcasts and lectures to accredited distance-learning programs from major universities from the Popular Science link. It is amazing what you can learn online, if you have a mind to.

Have been toying with the idea of a project to create a physics problem solving environment (application), probably based in Microsoft Excel. However, lots of college level physics stuff can be found in the internet. I kind of see my self as a tool maker based on my experience in my second professional career as a change agent for Continuous Improvement, which is an ongoing effort to improve, services or processes for the company I worked for. These efforts can seek “incremental” improvement over time or “breakthrough” improvement all at once. I was good a creating tools to support continuous improvement activities. If I find it worthwhile, I will spend a couple of hundred hrs on this project, maybe more. Otherwise will think up another project, to tinker with making a toy/tool using some of the modern sensors to measure heart electric activity, or, brain wave electrical activity. Or applying motion sensors and/or radio controlled (RC) devises using the technology in RC airplanes/toys on something different.

Later kids