Thursday, August 09, 2007

That's just, your opinion, man

My job title may no longer refer to me as an engineer, but at my heart I'm still a problem-solver.

Last night, I decided I could afford to buy some new speakers for my living room. But I was smart, and before I pulled the trigger online, I decided to take some measurements. It turns out, they weren't going to fit where I wanted them.

I had trouble visualizing where they would fit, so I did what any good engineer would do -- I built a prototype. I sat down with some paper, made some folds, taped a few things together, and had a flimsy box that would let me see what the speakers I wanted would look like in various locations.

As it turns out, places I thought they would fit, they wouldn't. Places where they did fit, they looked too big. My wife patiently watched as I brainstormed different ideas.

I don't have an answer yet (I may just get smaller speakers), but it was strangely satisfying to perform the analysis.

In other news, the eighth day of my exercise marathon, I did an upper body workout with some walking thrown in to keep the heart moving. It wasn't that aggressive of a workout, and my body is thanking me for that (and the longer night of sleep) right now. So, 5 sets of (5 push ups, 10 sit ups, 5 minutes walking). The Big Lebowski was on the TV, and let me tell you, cracking up laughing is not exactly what you want to do while you're struggling to finish those last few sit ups!

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