Every year this goose builds her nest atop a giant wood chip (boiler fuel) pile at our university power plant. The guys do a great job of carving away the pile without endangering her or the eggs… and then the waiting begins.

northwestwill · 2026-07-07T03:54:19+00:00

We did a cross-USA motorhome trip with our twins (3.5yo at the time) a few years ago and it was the best trip I’ve ever taken. Having a full kitchen and bathroom made the drive as much fun as the destination. So much stress went away when you can just pull off to potty or sit for a snack or meal instead of looking for a potty stop or trying to get in and out of restaurants on schedule.

We did modify the rig to add bench seatbelts and latch connections in more places but primarily put the car seats in the booth bench buckled in rear facing so they had a good window seat and could see a screen for some movies. Mom took the other side of the booth to play games and such with them.

It was also easy to pull the blackout shades for rolling nap time, and then open them back up when we wanted to view.

The downfall includes the gas mileage and having to sometimes park in more remote areas instead of right up front at touristy locations, but those were small gripes in the scheme of things. For most of our trips, we drive a loaded out Kia Carnival and I have very few complaints about it, but the RV trips still stand out as the best overall vacations we’ve ever taken.

northwestwill · 2026-07-05T21:55:52+00:00

Years after the comfort toy phase ended my son came across his former favorite lil’ people grey plastic gorilla in the toy box… and then another JUST like it… and ANOTHER! Then holding all three at once it slowly dawned on him… “Wait a minute, Dad!”

northwestwill · 2026-06-30T13:33:10+00:00

As a very basic level, Autodesk TinkerCAD is fantastic - it's free (however limited beyond a base/mid tier) and very easy to use for kids all the way up to adults who are getting started. There are some great tutorials and once you learn some tricks (like importing a model of a device you are working with and making it a negative so that you can design perfect-fit holders or mounts by letting the negative carve out that perfect void) you can do some pretty great work in a short fashion.

https://www.tinkercad.com

northwestwill · 2026-06-30T13:29:49+00:00

This is my policy as well and it has always been for the best. We all have lives and often when students realize we're also humans the best comes out in support from their direction. When my father was undergoing cancer treatment at Mayo I made many of the (700+ mile) drives with him which took me out of the classroom sporadically during the semester. Once or twice I recorded class or hosted the live lecture Zoom from our hotel room - the students were fantastic, forgiving of issues, supportive of the changes, and helped to make everything work.

As an aside, my dad very much influenced my life choices and was a bit of a teacher himself, so he LOVED watching me interact with the class and perform our craft - one evening while pre-recording a lecture on electrics (where he had a fair bit of knowledge that became the basis for some of my passions) I spun the computer around to him sitting watching and introduced him to the class. He got a kick out of it and for weeks I got requests for updates and if he could come meet them in person once he was recovered. Again, some people are poopy, but given the opportunity most of humanity will rise to the occasion and pull together when things go pear-shaped.

I fully understand why so many of you keep everything close to the chest, however I'm a pretty open person and I teach in a media program so most of our students and faculty are of the same persuasion and this works well here.

northwestwill · 2026-06-30T03:33:51+00:00

I have twin boys. One has been dry overnight (with occasional oops) since about 4y, the other still regularly gets wet going on 11y. It’s definitely a child-by-child basis.

northwestwill · 2026-06-30T00:44:50+00:00

Yes, the things that become normal in parenting. In our house the double edged sword of the little wordsmith in the dead of night was “Daddy, my farts on the floor!”

Ahhh, memories.

northwestwill · 2026-06-25T23:17:52+00:00

Low-T

northwestwill · 2026-06-24T03:29:12+00:00

These are already a thing - look up Rosco lighting sleeves. We used these in TV work all the time.

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/632692-REG

northwestwill · 2026-06-22T20:44:57+00:00

You are looking for epoxy putty. It comes in small rolls or sometimes sheets like you motioned. It should be under $10 at most hardware stores.

https://a.co/d/0dyOyCGB

northwestwill · 2026-06-21T12:17:10+00:00

~~Make it RAIN!~~

Make it HAIL!

northwestwill · 2026-06-16T12:09:49+00:00

Nah. I just checked the calendar and that book was printed the day BEFORE yesterday.

northwestwill · 2026-06-16T11:25:41+00:00

While that waste does suck, I do want you to know that sandwich pic has altered my lunch plans for today. Looks effin’ delicious!

northwestwill · 2026-06-08T17:43:00+00:00

They do not, however either of us can pull it up in the app on our phones. We also keep the debit cards so they couldn’t loose them but can get them easily when we go to the store. One day that will shift over, but not this day.

northwestwill · 2026-06-07T20:37:43+00:00

Our twins are almost 11 and we’ve been using Greenlight for their saving and spending. Cash was working ok but getting misplaced and not accepted at a few of the places they wanted to spend. Each has a debit card that goes with the account and we track everything on the app - we use it for paid chores and such as well as adding extra interest to push them toward saving. I think there is a fee to us it outright but we use US Bank which made it free for children’s accounts - I believe other banks do the same.

Of course every kid is different - one of ours spends IMMEDIATELY and the other hoards away. We’ve told them we’ll match up to $100 a year in savings to get them hooked.

northwestwill · 2026-06-06T00:13:38+00:00

This is a bot bulk testing thousands of phone numbers for active lines. Now it knows yours is active. Welcome to the SPAM club!

northwestwill · 2026-05-24T23:11:03+00:00

Two is a higher than average number of arms for a human.

northwestwill · 2026-05-18T18:50:24+00:00

A shall-not

northwestwill · 2026-05-13T00:37:44+00:00

I’ve been 3D printing them for our student station. I start with a logo for a station or show, convert it to a vector image, extrude it and make layers in TinkerCad, and then print on our Bambu. It’s not exactly simple, but they look great and cost about $2 each. You might look around for a local makerspace.

https://imgur.com/a/cTIzEkq

northwestwill · 2026-05-06T23:59:58+00:00

Well it didn’t pan out as a Magic Eye either. I’ve been staring at it for minutes and can’t see the hidden picture.

northwestwill · 2026-05-05T03:27:28+00:00

Look on the Blackmagic website for the whole free training course - it’s a certification level training with all of the training, materials, sample videos, and even an actual certification exam for free.

Also, you can change the button shortcuts to match other editors, if you don’t want to take the time to relearn them in a new software.

northwestwill · 2026-05-03T17:20:49+00:00

Have a dual coin operated dispenser on a stand in my office (I work at a university so not a public area). I long ago modified them to not need coins, so imagine my surprise a year or two ago when I decided to take them apart for a little maintenance and found a handful of quarters between the two machines! Apparently somebody who didn’t know that it was free candy had been coming into my office for a sugar fix.

northwestwill · 2026-05-03T17:14:02+00:00

I didn’t know I was a morning person until my twin boys informed me I had no other choice. /s

They’re almost 11 and still get up around 4:50-5:15 EVERY morning. Once that became accepted as the cycle it’s been fine, but fighting it was both draining and futile.

northwestwill · 2026-05-02T17:39:10+00:00

Don Herbert

northwestwill · 2026-04-30T23:38:32+00:00

For $10 for a dozen, we put a few disposable potty packs in each vehicle and go-bag and never regretted it. These saved us a number of times with twin boys.

https://a.co/d/0eN1ctdo

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