Lately I've been feeling my nature is working against me a bit. People have mentioned that my blog doesn't look like a blog, I was even told by someone that I was a commercial blog. I assure you, there is not a single piece of paid content or advertising in this entire site.

To be more blog-like, I am going to subject you to home movies of my nephews. I am responsible for them and I am doing everything I can to build a bridge between The Philippines and Silicon Valley so they can attend a good University and build robots for the company that I haven't started yet. That bridge, of course, starts with their minds.

Brandon and Grey

This is a video of my nephews, Brandon and Grey, explaining object relational mapping (though they might not know engineers call it that).

When my custom dry-erase system arrived they asked "what's that for?" I said "let me show you" and made up a game:

1. On the opaque board, draw every item from the anime series "Dennou Coil" that you think is important and a map of the area most of the show takes place. This will be called the media board.

2. On another board, write a numbered list containing all the items, places and characters in the show. Make sure each row is unique and there are no duplicates. This will be called the list board.

3. Roll one of the clear dry erase boards over the opaque board with the drawings. This will be our relational layer.

4. Starting with the first item on the list board, write the item's number on the relational layer over each image that the item has interacted with. If the item is a place, write the number on the map of the area the show takes place in.

5. Roll the relational layer away from the media board. Circle the 3 largest groups of numbers. Roll the layer back over the media board. The three circled items are the critical elements of the show.

When they were done I had them explain it in this video. Though they argue over the quality of the data, they understood the exercise and completed it without effort.

They are brilliant, and like me, they can write forwards and backwards with both hands. Though I'm the only one who can simultaneously write with both hands. (for now)

The Observatory

That is the future site of my observatory. A lab that will enable me to work and manage my efforts from The Philippines. A laptop isn't sufficient for the work I do. I swing a heavy bat. I'll use as much processor power, bandwidth and [quiet] as I can get. Having a lab there will enable me to continue to build that bridge, while I help raise Brandon and Grey.

The College

The free community college the mayor has sponsored plays the all important role of having a place to go other than the lab, and also a key role in the bridge.

This is the computer department. I taught an intro to Java class last time I was there. 5 teachers, 2 admins and 1 student. It was fun, a flash in the pan. I'm eager to return and get some real work done. These guys could generate at peak 1k developers a year. If the buildings would stay still.

The Roadmap

It's a multidimensional problem. I'm good at those. The answer takes 10 years and looks generally like this:

1 Develop a business that facilitates living part time in the Philippines and Silicon Valley.

2 Use my time in the Philippines to support the community college and cultivate a valuable means of production for next generation technologies. Use the value in the means of production to attract sponsors for the school.

3 Build a relationship with a University in Silicon Valley enabling the best and brightest in the community college in The Philippines to transfer to an undergraduate program in Silicon Valley.

4 Tend the bridge for 6 years.

5 Buy a home in the Santa Cruz mountains

6 Watch Brandon and Grey walk across the bridge in their own right. The benefit of 6 years of study.

7 Have them live with me while they finish their education.

8 Use year 6 through 10 of the business mentioned in step 1 to spin off a scrappy robotics division that if run right could do pretty well.

9 Give them a shot at their dreams.

That's the plan. Everything I have done since August has been in the service of this roadmap. It is flexible, yet I am not. You'll rarely find me working on anything else.