LIFESUIT LS15: Walking Gift Around the Corner, Hip 4                    BLOG by Monty K Reed

Imagine reading a sci fi novel and deciding you would take the fi out.  How would you do it?  Many folks would spend hours, days, weeks or months analyzing and thinking about it.  I just jumped in with both feet.  To me it was like the grade school experience with the diving board or a high dive of some kind.  You know, the one kid, (it may have been your best friend or another kid) who would say "on the count of three I am going to do it, One .... Two..... Three......    .......     ...... ah...... um...... One , Two ..... um ...... One, Two. .... Ah. ..... Three....... Um.......   On Three I really am going to jump...... One .....  

Well if you dealt with this like I did you know what happened next...  More of the same 

I was the kind of guy who would usually just jump in.  Many times I did not even find out if someone was watching.  For others they need everyone watching and then they need everyone rooting for them and then they need them rooting even louder and encouraging them etc.... etc.... etc.....  and it goes on and on. 

When I read the book I imagined it was real.  You may have found yourself into a sci fi book or movie and you were really into it.  Then you have to pinch yourself to see this is not real.

When I talked to a doctor who said "It will be over a hundred years before you make that thing (refering to the LIFESUIT) real.  I had ot respectfully bite my tongue and thank him for his time.  He did not know I had already built the thing. 

Some things we do are a little different in the lab.  Many times the CAD ( Computer Aided Design) is done after the prototype has been built. 

So in the lab sometime I have a vision for stuff that is not really possible yet.  Sometimes I can see what it looks like in my vision but I do not see the process it took to make it happen so I have to invent a lot of bits and parts as we go.  Sometimes I hit a brick wall and have to work around something. 

Other times, like this las couple of weeks I have some great vollunteers who step up to the plate and help me do whatever it takes to get the job done.  David 3 (three because there were two other Davids who have been with us longer than a year) and Tim (I guess you could call him Tim 1 if you wanted to) have been really great in the Mechanical E section of our lab (the machine shop) They have worked so well I have been able to work on other things at the same time in the lab with very little hands on control.  I have been able to describe or draw what we need and David 3 and Tim have been able to make it happen. 

Sometime you just need to get the grinder out.

Over the last couple of weeks I have been able to work with the ME, EE, CSE and Office Admin Teams during the lab sessions.  They have all worked together like a living organizm.  I have been able to spend five or ten minutes with one team and then move onto the next.  Sometime the ME team has needed to interup and ask a quesiton or two and then get back to it. 

I must say it has been very refreshing having this new bunch of volunteers on hand. 

Thank you all so much for the work you have been doing. 

David 3, Doug, Monty in LIFESUIT 15, Tim, and Aaron...