CoffeeSig

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

Category: Projects Page 1 of 6

About page

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On September 2, 2026

In Education and scholarship, Projects, Work

I have an ongoing need to describe my professional qualifications and have never had an easy way to do that. Right now I am talking to several universities about a possible future PhD, people in the orbit of the GRIME3 water level measurement project, and in the near future, if I do not return to school and semi-retire, I will hope to do some contracting for which a page like this would be useful. So I created an about page here on the blog with a bunch of videos, a few images, and some succinct descriptions of some of the things I have done. It is not about some things I have done to show that I know how to do those things. It was pretty fun to put together and I hope to be able to add new things to the page every now and then.

Working with AI

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On August 31, 2026

In Education and scholarship

I spend a great deal of time these days either using Artificial Intelligence to figure stuff out about health, finances, educational pursuits, and all kinds of trivia or literally building AI framework for my day job as tools for cell culture instrument work. Side-by-side with that, I have started reading about Philosophy of Mind and consciousness, maybe partially because of the AI work, but mostly because it has been an interesting topic to me since long before AI was on my radar. Right now I am firmly in the camp of non-believers in AI ever arriving at consciousness. That does not seem to be a rational position to me.

A great (but hot) weekend

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On August 30, 2026

In Family, GaugeCam, God

It was at or near 100° Fahrenheit all weekend long, but we had the best and most relaxing weekend in a long time. Saturday morning we ran down to Stephenville to see a little of the very beautiful Tarleton State University campus. Today, after our worship meeting, we ran down to the Kroger grocery store (founded in 1955, the year of my birth) and had a piece of fried chicken–the best in town and way cheaper than a restaurant. After lunch, I drank a couple glasses of Bread and Butter Pinot Noir and worked on the GRIME3 water level measurement software package that now has a couple of places waiting on it in both Nebraska and Idaho. Then I took a nap and now I am waiting for the steak Lorena is cooking for me. Life is good today.

Visit to Tarleton State U.

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On August 29, 2026

In Education and scholarship

I started a conversation with an experimental psychology professor at Tarleton State University in Stephenville yesterday. It is about the possibility to collaborate on one of her research questions and possibly consider starting another PhD there if we are a fit personally and the tool set I bring can add value in her work. Lorena and I drove down there this morning and were stunned with the beauty and size of the campus. It is bigger and more beautiful than we expected. We are also investigating whether it makes sense for Lorena to finish a bachelor’s degree there and it looks like it might work out if enough of the college credits from her associate degree transfer cleanly.

Jessica’s defense (GRIME2)

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On August 26, 2026

In GaugeCam

I got to watch a PhD dissertation defense for a University of Kansas student who used our GRIME2 software for one of her dissertation chapters. She did a GREAT job. Troy, Mary, and I all worked with her on her project to measure stage in non-perennial streams.

Working on the inmuebles website

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On August 24, 2026

In Mexico houses

I have been having fun building up the inmuebles section of the coffeesig.com website. I have roughed in the first apartment building we are selling and put this cool picture of Lynn and I together for the “team” biographies. We need a ton more images and information, but I think it will look pretty cool and be helpful if I maintain it will. I plan to do that.

Mexico house publicity

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On August 23, 2026

In Mexico houses

I have been working on a web site and a document to help us start selling one of our properties in Mexico. Our hope is to use the money to finish our property high on the hill in San Pedro, do the next project, and help pay for our new house build here in Texas. I made huge progress today, finishing the basic infrastructure of a website and a document to give to potential buyers/investors. It was a blast doing these and I think they will be a huge help.

Buying new house “stuff”

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On August 21, 2026

In Texas house

The new house build here in Texas is on the verge of beginning in earnest. Brad has another big project that kicked off this week that is keeping him busy while we finish up the permitting from the city and he continues to negotiate scheduling and pricing with subcontractors. In the meantime, I have been working around the edges of some cost reduction. We were able to find some plumbing fixtures we liked a lot better than what Brad’s regular supplier had available. They are of good quality and the price is a good bit lower, too, so we have made arrangements for Brad to buy them at another place with his contractor discount. I am in the middle of doing the same thing with the appliances we want and have found some significant cost reductions there, too.

Fighting over plumbing fixtures

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On August 19, 2026

In Texas house

Our builder has suppliers with whom he works to provide flooring, plumbing fixtures, drawer and cupboard pulls, etc., etc. These suppliers also provide logistic support in case a kit has a missing or damaged part, to assure parts arrive on the contractor’s schedule and to deal with whatever issue comes up. That has value and is worth some extra cost. That being said, when we met with the plumbing fixture supplier, the design choices he gave us were no where close to what we really wanted. When Lorena and I got home after the meeting, I looked up what we had purchased for our house in Centralia, Washington that we really loved, we found that a package would replaced most or all of what the supplier recommended cost over $3000 less. For that amount of money, we can certainly handle some of the logistics.

PhD solicitation responses

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On August 18, 2026

In Education and scholarship

I am starting to hear back from the emails I sent to a bunch of particular professors at universities in the region to see if they might entertain the idea of me providing volunteer work on a research question or data set they have as a way to explore whether it would make sense for me to start a PhD program with them. I have heard back from one good prospect at Texas A&M University in College Station who completely got the concept and understood my unusual skill set and proposed educational path. I also heard back from two who were not really interested–I really did appreciate the responses. Finally, there was one from UNT in Denton who said he really did not have a PhD slot for me, but he had a grad student that might be able to use the skills I brought to bear for her dissertation and he would be willing to talk to me about collaborating on that. He did not say anything about using that as a way for us to determine whether I might be a good PhD candidate for him in the future, just that he would be willing to collaborate if the project was right. He either did not read the email closely or was looking for a free resources so I marked that one off my list.

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