Zatnikitelman
Addon Developer
- Joined
- Jan 13, 2008
- Messages
- 2,302
- Reaction score
- 6
- Points
- 38
- Location
- Atlanta, GA, USA, North America
Some of you know my story (mostly the IRC regulars) and I won't rehash it, but suffice to say, the past five years have been pretty bad for me in all kinds of ways personally. Until tonight, 2014 was shaping up to be no different. But things started falling into place for some reason this afternoon. If you look in the Math forum for the "Scissors Mechanism" topic, you'll see I kind of struggled with it. This afternoon heading to Chick-fila and flipping through my railfan notebook, the solution started to take shape. I come home and after getting a stark reminder of how rusty my math skills were, nailed it. Then came the next challenge, sun-tracking. I had already accomplished sun-tracking with my Pressurized Logistics Vehicle last year, but only on one-axis. Tonight, I copied over my old code, updated things to the proper names, and nailed phase 1. Then I set out to do the second axis. Things were a tad wonky, then 22 minutes till midnight, nailed it. As of right now, I have a solar array truss, with full, automatic sun-tracking capability. Things didn't stop there, and I did scare myself. I discovered I had accidentally developed the solar truss across the Z-axis instead of the X-axis like the rest of the trusses. Fortunately, the fix wasn't insurmountable as I had feared. Tonight on the Rockin New Years Eve show (formerly with Dick Clark), two awesome bands, played the two songs I hoped they would. Throughout the last five years, it has seemed that I couldn't turn around without a new insurmountable problem. The truss system had already had one with the pallet docks not being handled right by Orbiter. Fortunately though, Izack came through and suggested a fix which is working beautifully. But tonight's issue I plowed right through and now the solar truss is oriented correctly. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/8017682/Orbiter/YEEHAA.jpg
What does all this mean to me though and why did I feel the need to share my thoughts? Let me preface this by saying that I am Christian and I most definitely believe in God. If you don't, that's fine, I will not try to persuade you otherwise, and only ask the same in return. But suffice to say, I do believe in a higher power and his influence on my life. With all that's been going wrong for me, it's seemed like I've been left out in the cold almost. But tonight has seemed different. I know the Bible says not to look for signs, but I personally interpret that as not to look for them, but also not to discount them either since the Old Testament in particular includes prophets, and visions etc. So with 2014 starting off so much better than I ever expected, and 2013 finishing on a far higher note than I expected, I'm hoping that this is an indication that I will be ok this year. With the rotation problem, sure I'll have to work, but so far my work has paid off, which is in stark contrast to previously. Sure, one night isn't necessarily indicative of anything particularly special, I have had small good things occur over the past five years, but never so many so close together.
What does all this mean to me though and why did I feel the need to share my thoughts? Let me preface this by saying that I am Christian and I most definitely believe in God. If you don't, that's fine, I will not try to persuade you otherwise, and only ask the same in return. But suffice to say, I do believe in a higher power and his influence on my life. With all that's been going wrong for me, it's seemed like I've been left out in the cold almost. But tonight has seemed different. I know the Bible says not to look for signs, but I personally interpret that as not to look for them, but also not to discount them either since the Old Testament in particular includes prophets, and visions etc. So with 2014 starting off so much better than I ever expected, and 2013 finishing on a far higher note than I expected, I'm hoping that this is an indication that I will be ok this year. With the rotation problem, sure I'll have to work, but so far my work has paid off, which is in stark contrast to previously. Sure, one night isn't necessarily indicative of anything particularly special, I have had small good things occur over the past five years, but never so many so close together.
