Studio711.com – Ben Martens

Black Friday

I don’t go much for Black Friday sales, but there was a time that I tried to survive the mob and I realized that story hasn’t appeared on this site before…

I believe it was my junior year of college (Nov 2000) when I decided I wanted to buy a sound system, DVD player and TV for our dorm room. All of it was pretty entry level stuff but it was going to be a major upgrade! I went shopping at Best Buy and figured out what I wanted. The sales guy hinted that there were going to be some big sales on Black Friday so I decided I’d wait and save some money.

Dad kindly waited with me that morning. I don’t remember the specifics but I think we got there around 5am and it was below 20 degrees. We were about 10th or so in line and we waited for hours for the store to open. As the doors open, everyone mobbed the doors and pushed their way in so we probably weren’t the 10th people to get in. Dad and I had a plan so we went directly for the stuff we wanted, grabbed it and reconvened. That maybe took 60 seconds, but the store was already completely full. It took forever (half an hour?) to make it back to the cash registers.

As the cashier rang up my total, I happily said, “How much did I save?” … “Save? Nothing. None of this was on sale.”

Yep, we waited in the freezing cold for hours to save… nothing. The TV and DVD player are long gone, but that sound system has traveled all over the country with me and is currently in our theater room (complete with birdseed and a mouse carcass inside the subwoofer but that’s a story for another day.) I think about that Black Friday regularly when I flip on the sound system. Thank you, Dad, for suffering through that with me and not giving me grief.

benmartens November 16, 2018 Commentary

Fantasy Football – Week 10

The Seahawks are now 4-5 and are looking like they have a pretty good chance of hitting my 8-8 prediction. That might even be a stretch. If they can beat the Packers after this short week then that will be a big help because you hope they can beat the 49ers twice and the Cardinals. They kept this last game interesting but the magic isn’t there. I loved seeing Russell running more. I wonder where that’s been all season?

Our league was kuh-razy. It was the most total points for our league this season and there were two huge upsets as Luke took down Tyler and Nick squeezed out a high-scoring win over Andy. Those games were crazy too as Luke’s Monday night player scored just enough to beat Tyler before leaving the game early and Nick was one fumble away from losing his game on Monday night too.

Everyone has over 1000 points for the season now but there’s a pretty big separation between positions 1-4 and 5-8. The playoffs are far from a lock though. Andy and Logan should be feeling pretty good about their chances but there are still 4 games left before we start our playoffs and crazier things have happened. Next week’s key matchup is Andy vs Tyler in a battle of #2 and #3.

After putting up 350 points in two weeks, Logan is obviously on top of the power rankings:

1. Logan (Goat Roapers) +2
2. Ben (Kool Aid Kid)
3. Andy (RAAAWWWRRRRR!!!) +1
4. Tyler (Krazy Kanuck) -3

On to the weekly records:

This Week This Season All Time
Highest Team Score Logan had 177.67 Tyler had 191.89 (Week 8) Tim 200.51 (2015)
Lowest Team Score Tim had 72.47 Was: Luke had 81.52 (Week 9) Andy had 41.29 (2015)
Biggest Blowout Dad beat Tim by 57.92 Tyler beat Dad by 90.22 (Week 8) Luke beat Andy by 113.02 (2010)
Closest Win Nick beat Andy by 2.21. Tyler beat Ben by 1.55 (Week 6) Jim beat Ben by 0.12 (2012)
Highest Scoring Player Ben Roethlisberger had 45.82 on Ben’s bench Mitchell Trubisky had 55.46 as a free agent (Week 4) Drew Brees had 60.54 on Tim’s bench (2015)
Longest Active Winning Streak Nick has a 3 game winning streak Andy, Logan and Tyler had 5 game winning streaks. Micah (2011) and Ben (2015) had 8 game winning streaks
Longest Active Losing Streak Tim has a 3 game losing streak. Dad has a 5 game losing streak. (Week 9) Kyle had a 14 game losing streak (2011)
benmartens November 14, 2018 Fantasy Sports

R2-E2

Elijah has been watching reviews of Lego Star Wars sets and decided he wanted to be “R2-E2” for Halloween. He came up with that all on his own! Instead of buying a costume, I decided to make one with him.

We bought some cardboard boxes from Home Depot. They sell some heavy duty boxes which thought would work well for the body to keep it from falling apart so quickly. We kind of made it up as we went and eventually we ended up with a body that had arm holes and a head hole. I fashioned a box for the front to hold his candy and also gave him a head. We covered the whole thing with a metallic silver spray paint.

Then came the fun part! I bought some inexpensive electroluminescent wire and an Adafruit Audio FX Sound Board. I wired the sound board up to some arcade buttons and placed those on the front of his costume. He ended up with 6 buttons that he could press to make various sounds. For a speaker, we used a battery powered bluetooth speaker that we already had (it also had a line-in) and I powered the circuit board with a USB battery pack.

The end result was a fun looking costume that lit up and made sounds. It was a quite a hit and he loved showing it off. That excitement was tempered a bit by the fact that it was hard to walk up and down steps and a couple times he got overwhelmed by kids mobbing him trying to push the buttons. All in all, I’d call it a win but he said he wanted to have a simpler costume next year.

benmartens November 9, 2018 Family, Maker

Fantasy Football – Week 9

The Seahawks game sure ended dramatically but they were lucky it was even that close. Dropped touchdown passes, multiple missed throws by Wilson, numerous penalties, and a pick six interception put them in a big hole that they couldn’t dig out of. Next week isn’t going to be any easier as they face the seemingly unstoppable Rams who usually give the Seahawks trouble even when the roles were reversed.

In our league, Logan finally put a decisive end to Tyler’s winning streak. But menwhile, Andy has quietly been getting his own five game winning streak going and he’s alone out front. Nick is the next one to get a crack at taking him down. Tim and Nick both had 0’s in their roster but it looks like most of them were late scratches. Nick ended up winning that one with a great last minute defense signing.

The power rankings are relatively stable this week.

1. Tyler (Krazy Kanuck)
2. Ben (Kool Aid Kid)
3. Logan (Goat Roapers) +1
4. Andy (RAAAWWWRRRRR!!!) -1

On to the weekly records:

This Week This Season All Time
Highest Team Score Logan had 173.11 Tyler had 191.89 (Week 8) Tim 200.51 (2015)
Lowest Team Score Luke had 81.52 Nick had 86.99 (Week 6) Andy had 41.29 (2015)
Biggest Blowout Ben beat Dad by 50.59 Tyler beat Dad by 90.22 (Week 8) Luke beat Andy by 113.02 (2010)
Closest Win Nick beat Tim by 4.58 Tyler beat Ben by 1.55 (Week 6) Jim beat Ben by 0.12 (2012)
Highest Scoring Player Drew Brees had 39.44 for Logan. Mitchell Trubisky had 55.46 as a free agent (Week 4) Drew Brees had 60.54 on Tim’s bench (2015)
Longest Active Winning Streak Andy has a 5 game winning streak Was: Logan and Tyler had 5 game winning streaks. Micah (2011) and Ben (2015) had 8 game winning streaks
Longest Active Losing Streak Dad has a 5 game losing streak. Was: Dad, Nick and Luke had 4 game losing streaks Kyle had a 14 game losing streak (2011)
benmartens November 7, 2018 Fantasy Sports

Name Puzzle

Tim and Chelsea’s daughter had her first birthday and Tyla had the idea of a wooden name puzzle. I decided to give it a shot. I found a font that I liked, printed out her name and then used spray glue to stick it to a piece of pine. That was cut out on the bandsaw and sanded. For the paint, I went with a spray enamel which I hadn’t used before. It worked well but the weather was cool and rainy so it was hard to get the coats to pile up. In the end I left it with the top looking great and the other sides looking passable. For the bottom, I grabbed a scrap of sapele and routered out space around the letters. It might be a bit too challenging of a gift for her to do at this point but it was fun to make and she seemed to enjoy moving the pieces around.

benmartens November 2, 2018 Woodworking

Fantasy Football – Week 8

The Seahawks looked like a reasonably good team on Sunday. The wide receivers were pulling down everything in sight (and then some). The Rams seem like a lock to win the division, but right now the Seahawks are only half a game out of the final wild card spot. They have a long way to go, but if they keep playing like they did yesterday, there’s a chance that my early prediction of them not making the playoffs will be wrong. I’ll stick with my prediction though. One game does not a season make. (Here is a good website for playoff odds if you’re interested.)

Our league witnessed another dominating performance by Tyler. He broken the season high score (which he set previously) and flirted with the all-time record. And that game between 7th and 8th place (Luke and Nick)? They put up a lot of points, but Nick came out victorious. Every week I think about saying that you need to be making lots of roster moves to win in this league, but then I see Andy up there tied for first place with the fewest moves in the league!

Tyler has shot up to the top of the power rankings chart. He had some lower scores the previous weeks which held him down but the 191 point performance is hard to deny.

1. Tyler (Krazy Kanuck) +4
2. Ben (Kool Aid Kid)
3. Andy (RAAAWWWRRRRR!!!) -2
4. Logan (Goat Roapers) -1

On to the weekly records:

This Week This Season All Time
Highest Team Score Tyler had 191.89 Was: Tyler had 183.70 (Week 2) Tim 200.51 (2015)
Lowest Team Score Tim had 99.95 Nick had 86.99 (Week 6) Andy had 41.29 (2015)
Biggest Blowout Tyler beat Dad by 90.22 Was: Logan beat Nick by 75.81 (Week 6) Luke beat Andy by 113.02 (2010)
Closest Win Andy beat Logan by 8.9 Tyler beat Ben by 1.55 (Week 6) Jim beat Ben by 0.12 (2012)
Highest Scoring Player Deshaun Watson had 40.96 for Nick Mitchell Trubisky had 55.46 as a free agent (Week 4) Drew Brees had 60.54 on Tim’s bench (2015)
Longest Active Winning Streak Andy has a 4 game winning streak. Logan and Tyler had 5 game winning streaks. Micah (2011) and Ben (2015) had an 8 game winning streak
Longest Active Losing Streak Dad has a 4 game losing streak. Was: Nick and Luke had 4 game losing streaks Kyle had a 14 game losing streak (2011)
benmartens October 31, 2018 Fantasy Sports

255 Life

Aside from the campus bus service while I was at Purdue, I’ve never lived close to convenient public transport until I moved into our current house. All I have to do is walk up to the stop light and I can hop on the 255 bus that takes me all the way, non-stop, to downtown Seattle. It’s like the bus route was designed for us. It stops at the Kirkland waterfront and the Kirkland train store before making its way across I-90 to Pike Place Market and and Pioneer Square. We don’t use the bus a lot, but wow, that’s a pretty convenient one.

Unfortunately it sounds like that’s going to change when they redesign the bus routes. If you live on the east side, there’s a survey to fill out so you can share your thoughts on the changes.

Thankfully I already have a general ban on going into Seattle and this helps to enforce it.

benmartens October 26, 2018 Commentary

Fantasy Football – Week 7

There wasn’t a Seahawks game this week. Next week they play the Lions and it looks like they’re underdogs at that game which is probably fair. We’ll see what they can do on the road in Detroit.

In our league, Tim ended Tyler’s five game winning streak. Tyler now falls back into the clutches of Logan and Andy in a three way tie for first place. Tim has 4th place to himself, I’m in 5th and everyone else is tied for 6th. This marks the halfway point to the playoffs for our league since weeks 15 and 16 of the NFL regular season are our playoffs. The top four teams will make it into the playoffs so it’s still anybody’s game. Here are what the power rankings think will happen…

1. Andy (RAAAWWWRRRRR!!!) +2
2. Ben (Kool Aid Kid) +2
3. Logan (Goat Roapers) -2
4. Tyler (Krazy Kanuck) -2

Lots of new records this week…

This Week This Season All Time
Highest Team Score Ben had 157.94 Tyler had 183.70 (Week 2) Tim 200.51 (2015)
Lowest Team Score Nick had 93.55 Nick had 86.99 (Week 6) Andy had 41.29 (2015)
Biggest Blowout Ben beat Nick by 64.39 Logan beat Nick by 75.81 (Week 6) Luke beat Andy by 113.02 (2010)
Closest Win Tim beat Tyler by 6.33 Was: Nick beat Andy by 1.89 (Week 6) Jim beat Ben by 0.12 (2012)
Highest Scoring Player Patrick Mahomes had 40.82 for Ben. Mitchell Trubisky had 55.46 as a free agent (Week 4) Drew Brees had 60.54 on Tim’s bench (2015)
Longest Active Winning Streak Logan has a 5 game winning streak Was: Tyler has a 5 game winning streak.(Week 6) Micah (2011) and Ben (2015) had an 8 game winning streak
Longest Active Losing Streak Nick has a 4 game losing streak Was: Luke has a 4 game losing streak (Week 5) Kyle had a 14 game losing streak (2011)
benmartens October 24, 2018 Fantasy Sports

Fantasy Football – Week 6

Both the Seattle offense and defense had their act together on Sunday, despite some painful penalties, but then again, the Radiers can make a lot of teams look good. I had fun watching Marshawn Lynch’s ineffectiveness. Sports radio around here was gushing over how great he is and maybe that’s true, but I thought his last year here was a mess. It appeared to me that he just didn’t want to play and I have no respect for that even though I liked him a lot before that. I ended up throwing away my Lynch shirt (ok, actually I donated it.) I have similar feelings about Earl Thomas. Thanks for all you did. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out and don’t expect me to cheer for you when you play against the Seahawks.

Tyler continued his dominating streak with a close win over me. To add insult to injury, he did that with one player scoring negative points. Logan is nipping right on his heels. Andy and Tim round out the top four while the rest of us are tied with 2-4 records. Looking at points for/against gets interesting around this point of the season. Logan and Tyler have the most points by a pretty wide margin. Nick and I have the most points scored against us but Nick also has the least points scored which is a tough combination.

On to the weekly power rankings:

1. Logan (Goat Roapers) +1
2. Tyler (Krazy Kanuck) -1
3. Andy (RAAAWWWRRRRR!!!) +1
4. Ben (Kool Aid Kid) -1

Lots of new records this week…

This Week This Season All Time
Highest Team Score Andy had 162.87 Tyler had 183.70 (Week 2) Tim 200.51 (2015)
Lowest Team Score Nick had 86.99 Was: Nick had 93.70 (Week 1) Andy had 41.29 (2015)
Biggest Blowout Logan beat Nick by 75.81 Was: Ben beat Luke by 50.20 (Week 4) Luke beat Andy by 113.02 (2010)
Closest Win Tyler beat Ben by 1.55 Was: Nick beat Andy by 1.89 (Week 3) Jim beat Ben by 0.12 (2012)
Highest Scoring Player Jameis Winston had 38.90 for Logan. Mitchell Trubisky had 55.46 as a free agent (Week 4) Drew Brees had 60.54 on Tim’s bench (2015)
Longest Active Winning Streak Tyler has a 5 game winning streak. Was: Tyler has a 4 game winning streak (Week 5) Micah (2011) and Ben (2015) had an 8 game winning streak
Longest Active Losing Streak Nick has a 3 game losing streak. Luke has a 4 game losing streak (Week 5) Kyle had a 14 game losing streak (2011)
benmartens October 17, 2018 Fantasy Sports

Truck Stats

Last year, Tyla got me an OBDII data logger (Automatic) for my birthday and, of course, I ended up writing an app to download my trip data so I could analyze it. I still get those analysis reports twice per day and they continue to be interesting. For example, I don’t know why, but the last two weeks have had some of the worst traffic on my way home from work in the last year. Now that I have over a year of data, there’s enough to calculate some semi-interesting stats on my drives in our 2016 F150 3.5L Ecoboost:

    • The average trip to work takes me 26.3 minutes.
    • The average trip home takes me 33.9 minutes.
    • It feels like if I leave work a couple minutes early, I’ll avoid the worst of the traffic. Here’s my average commute time based on when I leave. (The x-axis is in 24 hour time so 17 is 5pm.) The y-axis is my average commute home in minutes. It does look like if I leave about 10 minutes before 5 my commute is generally 5-10 minutes faster.
    • My most fuel efficient trip was a 43.7mpg drive along the 3.5 mile route from my house to Home Depot. Not bad for a 5000 pound truck! (A lot of it is downhill and I like to see how little gas I can use on that route…)
      • Best fuel mileage for a trip over 10 miles: Church to Totem Lake AutoZone 28.0mpg
      • Best fuel mileage for a trip over 50 miles: Crystal Mountain to our house 24.7mpg
    • My worst gas mileage is going from Work to the butcher. It’s a short trip and when it’s really cold, my truck spends the whole time idling at stop lights and trying to warm up. I’ve gotten 3.5mpg on that route a couple times!
    • Of the days that I drive the truck, I spend an average of 69.3 minute driving.
    • The most driving in one day was 366 minutes. That was May 25, 2018 when we drove down to Ocean Park for Memorial Day.

I love having all this data! I could do this all night but I should probably cut it off here and go to bed. By the way, all of these charts and stats were created with public preview of Azure Data Explorer. We’ve been using that product internally for a couple years and it makes stuff like the stats above ridiculously fast and easy. If you’re at all involved in data engineering or data analysis, you need to get familiar with Azure Data Explorer!

benmartens October 12, 2018 Gadgets, Geek