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So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.

Author: ken Page 1 of 11

Feeling my age (in a good way)

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On September 20, 2026

In Projects, Reading, Work

I have a birthday coming up and something has change with regard to how I think about that age and what I “ought” to be doing at this time of life. I have had grandiose ideas I have thought I might take on. It has dawned on me, though, that I probably do not have the time and might not have the energy in a few years to see those through to the end. That idea is new enough to me that I know I need to give myself some time to figure out some tractable projects worth of my efforts in the time I have life. That time could be as much as 30 years, but I am sure that only maybe 10-15 could be actually productive time when I am able to work well. Maybe less. So, God willing, I am going to give myself some time, work on the GRIME’s, get our new house build, continue on our Mexico projects, continue my day job for a few more years, and work toward the point where I only work half time or fully retire to do more stuff with Lorena, Kelly, and Christian. But I am going to try to walk and read more while a think about it all for a month or two.

Never not going to be odd times?

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On September 19, 2026

In God

Our family has been in transition for years now. Over a decade. That we were in transition became much more apparent when COVID hit. For a lot of people in our old church, a big transition took place when depravity in the leadership manifested itself, but for us, it started way earlier than that manifestation. I am grateful to have been reading through the Bible daily with maybe a handful of misses over a twenty year period. It became evident that many around us were more devoted to tradition and willing to use their authority to enforce tradition than they were interested in following Jesus. The realization of that truth, while definitely a phenomena on my radar for a long time, became the elephant in the room when I was forced to evaluate what I was doing and with whom I was doing it. Our move away from that was precipitous. Just one Sunday, I realized I could not follow Jesus and remain a part of a group with the fruits manifested by the authoritarian leadership of the group and the exclusivity and gatekeeping of the group elites in policing who they let in and who they disdained.

We find great joy in being out of that, but even greater joy and gratitude for what it has brought us into. The concept of Christ Alone is engraved in us in a way it could never have been had we not gone through this. Still, and I do not think it is just our big transition and literal epiphany, the world is a very different place than it was 15-20 years ago and appears to be getting stranger and more foreboding by the minute.

Blasting away at GRIME 3

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On September 17, 2026

In GaugeCam

I failed to post here for several days for what seems like a pretty good reason. I have been working aggressively on the GRIME3 software to support new opportunities in both GRIME Lab research and its usage by some of our collaborators. We have reworked the research and development road map with an end to the main GRIME3 functionality work in sight, followed by new research and development on a completely new package we are currently calling GRIME4.

GRIME 3 and life choices

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On September 13, 2026

In GaugeCam, God

I spent the entire weekend working on improving the new GRIME 3 water level measurement software so it is usable by a collaborator in Idaho. I think I got it into a workable state, but will have to wait to hear back from Troy at UNL when he gets a chance to test it. It was a good time to reflect on what I want to do next now that I have pretty much kicked the idea of a second PhD to the curb. I am not sure what I will do, but going through the exercise of figuring it out has been healthy for me. I hope to spend the next few weeks avoiding making hard choices and doing more reflecting.

No more PhD’s?

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On September 12, 2026

In Education and scholarship, God

I had a very interesting talk to do with my PhD adviser, Troy. After finding several PhD programs interested in my background and wanting me to participate with them, it started to dawn on me that the bulk of the opportunities available to me were not particularly focused on scholarship, science, and academic camaraderie. Rather, there was what seemed to be a very transactional aspect to the whole enterprise. It became more and more clear that the environment of my department at University of Nebraska was exceptionally benign and well meaning relative to any of these other programs I was evaluating. I was offering 50 years of experience and a proven track record to people who, generally, were only interested in what advantage they could obtain rather than how the community could be served. I am very much less disposed to continue down this path after this discussion and, especially, after my discussions about this whole topic with Troy and my son, Christian who is an MIT research scientist.

I am beginning to think I did this as a result of the great experience I had in community at University of Nebraska after losing the church community of the first 67 years of my life. It turns out that even though the stakes are much lower and do not include eternal life, realizing the community that seemed to provide meaning really never existed in the first place. The thing that I am most thankful for in all this is that it pushed me away from unrealistic expectations about mere human institutions to the only ones that have any meaning–those that are found in Jesus Christ.

Disappointing PhD interview

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On September 9, 2026

In Education and scholarship

I had an interview with a Texas A&M professor yesterday that was genuinely disappointing. The professor represented himself as someone who was highly knowledgeable about ML/AI and image processing in an agriculture related domain when he obviously did not know the language nor the technology at all. He runs a big lab with many PhD students and I shudder when I think about what they have to endure to get through his program. It has me rethinking how I want to go about all this and realize how spectacular were my professors, committee, and the entire program for my first PhD at University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

The new house work started today

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On September 8, 2026

In Texas house

Lorena just took this picture of the excavator digging the wine cellar in our new house. We are very excited to see the project finally in progress!!! It is a day to celebrate!!!

GRIME3 release candidate #1

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On September 7, 2026

In GaugeCam

I spent the bulk of the weekend finishing up the first release candidate for the web browser based GRIME 3 water level measurement software release candidate. It really is a nice piece of software which we will be testing with one of our users in Idaho. You can download it here: GRIME 3 download.

GRIME3 progress

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On September 6, 2026

In GaugeCam

The main functionality of the GaugeCam GRIME3 software is now running in a browser. It was a long weekend and I am sure I will need two or three more similar ones to get it to the point where I can focus on other things. It just feels great that it is working better than ever and I think both its precision and robustness are imporved.

Philosophy of Science

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On September 5, 2026

In Education and scholarship

I am well into the second half of my introductory (lay level) book on the philosophy of mind titled The Soul by J.P. Moreland, so the timely arrival of Science and Its Limits by Del Ratzsch in the mail was greatly appreciated. I expect to start in on it at the same slow pace am taking to read The Soul.

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