Experiment 1: Traffic Light

These days, I'm very interested in automating things.

As my friend Vic would say, I haven't the foggiest when it comes to electronics. Putting on a positive spin on my relative cluelessness, it's a great opportunity for my girlfriend and I to learn something awesome together. One hour in, I think we are — just look at that focus!

For our first experiment, we needed three things:

• Arduino Uno microcontroller
• breadboard & jumper wires
• LEDs (lights) & resistors

30 minutes later, with the help of this makeuseof article for beginners, we had our completed our mini traffic light!

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note A breadboard is a way to connect circuits without having to solder.

Timesheets: Travel

In two years I've come to learn the United terminals in a handful of airports like the back of my hand. Curious as to how much time that took, I knocked a spreadsheet together and found myself bewildered. I've missed a few weeks here and there in my timesheet, but I'd say about 90% of the data is there.

Project Location	Recorded Weeks with Travel	Total Travel Hours	Hours/Week Recorded
Los Angeles, CA	40	462.00	11.55
Little Rock, AR	19	127.75	6.72
San Francisco, CA	33	128.75	3.90
Total	92	718.50	7.81

The overall average of 7.81 is, of course, awfully close to an extra full working day per week.