Not Sure Where to Post This --> My Formal Goodbye

Scope

Hello,

I'd just like to say thanks to everyone here who helped me so much during my introduction to real robotics. Today I shipped out virtually all of my remaining Parallax-related items and I was surprised how sad this made me feel. I learned some amazing things and was fortunate enough to have a lot of fun in the process. I am involved with work, family and two totally fun hobbies (sport touring motorcycling, and radio controlled helicopters) so I don't really have as much time as I'd like to continue my robotic adventures.

I hope some day in the future I'll be returning, and picking up where I left off, going much further and creating the mega-bot that presides over (not rules) the universe. The robot that helps make sure all the mean people sit in the corner until they can play nice while teaching everyone else how to insure everyone has plenty of food, clothing, shelter, health care and educational resources.

And lots of robot kits are involved, of course.

Too many names to mention, so, thank you everyone!

Have a really great future & good bye! (snif)
Brad

Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)

Brad, 'so sorry to see you go, man! But I understand that one must follow his passions wherever they take him. Yet I'm sure that, at some point, your RC helicopter hobby will intersect with Propellers and other things Parallax, so we can enjoy your presence in the forums once more. Until then, good luck! We'll miss you. (And Browser will miss seeing your great avatar on my monitor!)

-Phil

Oldbitcollector (Jeff)

@Brad,

You'll be missed! Take a break and enjoy all the good stuff around you, and hopefully we'll see you return.
This stuff is a hard addiction to break, so we'll be looking for you in the future.

OBC

potatohead

Just make sure you are having fun. Take care.

erco

Brad: I too have a lot of hobbies and family duties, so I understand that "something's gotta give". Many times my activities wax & wane, so (to my wife's chagrin) I never get rid of anything; I still have my original Heathkit ham shack frrom 35 years ago! You definitely cut the cord when you got rid of your Parallax stuff, but as OBC noted previously, you may have good reasons to check back in periodically. You know you won't find a more helpful group of people anywhere. Good luck with all your activities!

Eric

potatohead

Besides, there will probably be better stuff!!!

So then, it's shopping time right?

Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)

I do admire people who can get rid of stuff. By contrast, I'm such a packrat. Although I don't still have my ham radio equipment from the '60s, I do have my first computers from the late '70s (a Poly88 and a TRS80). Something was definitely lost when I could no longer pack my life's possessions into a '66 Rambler American and just hit the road whenever I felt like moving on. Regrets, though? Never! Life is good!

-Phil

potatohead

Well, I would basically keep all of it, but... life tends to deal cards, so I've purged a time or two. Mostly that's been a good thing. Painful at times though. The easiest give away are those where I can expand my circle of hobby friends. That's generally a net gain. Just getting rid of it, because... kind of sucks. Don't blame you there.

Ravenkallen

Good luck man!!!

lardom

Gosh, I feel kind of sad and I don't recall seeing a post by scope. I understand his dilemna because I also have two great hobbies. I've played music all my life then decided I wanted to make 3D pictures. Then I wanted to make a machine to make the process easier and discovered I could program a micro. I was hooked. As a result I have ignored my music synthesizer for two years. My brother has used it for the past several months. There simply isn't enough time. Sleep, it seems, is a distraction. This time of my life has been a whole lot of fun so this forum is stuck with me at least for a while.

zoopydogsit

Scope, I agonize with you!

We've been renovating, my wife has been sick, and with work there's been no free time except to lurk in the forum and dream the dreams of endless possibility through technology. I get so excited when I walk past my hobby desk, glipsing the opportunities in little boxes, and get frustrated when I go to the shed and see the mountains of possibilities that are awaiting the most precious of commodities - TIME. Instead of grabbing some delay lines and optical housing from a laser printer to put into the next sensor I'm building, I grab a chissle, paint brush, etc, to return to my seemingly endless toil. Sigh.

Though I live in hope that we'll finish renovating soon so that I can steal a few hours on a weekend to etch & build a board to program in hour between when my wife falls asleep and when I can't struggle to keep my eyes open.

I feel your agony, understand your dilema. Your always welcome to come back if you find the time.

Meanwhile make sure you spend quality time with your loved ones, and have fun :-)

ElectricAye

Scope,

thanks for your insights on using SketchUp (back in June). I'm sure we'll see you again sooner than you think. You know, it only takes some little idea to pop into your head late one night, some little thing that you'd like to try out and, Well, you know I bet I could wire together something like that in no time...

LoopyByteloose

Of recent, I was somewhat inactive for a year or so. The topic of digital technology is so vast and time consuming that it is hard to keep up and periods away from it might even be healthy.

But the bottomline is that everything I've learned is too the good regardless of whether I keep the hardware on hand to play with. I certainly could use a housecleaning to get rid of clutter (more books and paperwork than hardware). For some of us, it works out; for others, we regret having to buy back into a hobby.

At least I don't have to maintain an R/C helicopter. That is a rather expensive mistress.

Robert T

Don't kid yourself, you are never going to get away from this stuff. Arducopter is in the process of modifying their hardware/software for the TRex 450 RC helicopter.

http://code.google.com/p/arducopter/wiki/ArduCopter_TradHeli

Enjoy!!

erco

I agree with Robert T; it's hard to walk away from all this. The mere fact that you entered Bump's Penguin Giveaway and promised to keep it tells us where your true heart is!

Bean

Brad, I too am amazed at your ability to purge things from your life. I really need to learn that skill.
I have so much STUFF that I will never get to, but I can't seem to let it go.
Maybe after xmas I'll give most of it away on the forum. Much of it has been given to me by Parallax and it deserves to be used and just stashed away in a bin.

Bean

WBA Consulting

Good luck with your other hobbies, but as others have said, we will look forward to your return....

@zoopydogsit: Very well put as I am in the same boat as you. Several interesting things on my plate, but alas, free time is not one of them. I have maybe had about 3 hours of Propeller time in the last month (other than tracking the forums), and most of the non-forum work is reading also. I did finally spend some time last night on one of my projects aimed for a January release, so it still has hope!

Scope

Thanks everyone!

I have a few "ideas" for some really fun future projects that I've never seen done, so as long as those ideas don't fade away, then yeah, I'll be back.

Happy roboting,

Brad
:thumbsup:

RobotWorkshop

We'll miss your avatar too...