Bear with us – blogging is entirely new to our family; we’re totally just groping around in the dark! Despite our inexperience, we are going to give this the old college try. So here goes…
About Us
I guess introductions are in order. My name is Rich Wickstrom, and this is a site that I’ve created for my family and me.
The actual catalyst for creating this site was the completion of a xylophone that my son, Jack, and I built. I’ve always taken advantage of the vast information available on the internet. I am, however, guilty of not really giving back. Our xylophone project was extremely unique but had a very limited audience. It seemed to me, however, that maybe,just maybe, there was at least one person out there who could make use of my highly-specific information. But before jumping in to the xylophone project, let me take a moment to introduce my family.
Here’s we are:
From left to right, that’s Jack, Rich, Lily and Lynette.
We don’t always dress up as cartoon superheros. Here’s a photo to prove it:
Our Site Name
Oh yeah, why supermediocre.org?
One day, my daughter, Lily, and I were brainstorming name ideas; we were gravitating towards names that were quirky and sort of self-deprecating. The mashup “super mediocre” eventually came up. We liked that it was an oxymoron and sort of off-balance; it fit our family in some twisted way. I checked if the domain was available – it was (big shocker).
In the end, we thought the name supermediocre was, um…perfectly OK.
Nice website. I got here from the Speedy Metals newsletter. I suspect you will make a lot of new “friends” this way. 🙂
The xylophone is amazing! I made some simple wind chimes following Lee Hite’s info (www.leehite.org). Pretty simple compared to the xylophone…
I live in NC, but I am a transplant from the Southwest. I grew up in Phoenix, but lived in Santa Fe for a few years when I was a kid. I like seeing the background in some of your pictures. NM is a beautiful place.
I also have chickens and I’m working on an automatic door using a motorized car antenna. Your design is clever.
Thanks for sharing this information.
Brian
Thanks for the kind words Brian. The project was challenging, but was a blast to build. This is the first time I’ve really added anything to the web – always been an internet taker. But there really wasn’t much info out there; at least not end-to-end.
Yeah, NM is the best. I grew up in Indiana, but love the Southwest.
Thanks for commenting!
Rich
I enjoyed reading your posts about the xylophone project. I also found this in the Speedy Metals newsletter, and they are a good source for most metals, although sometimes http://www.McMaster.com is cheaper and their shipping is fast and cheap. I’m impressed by your woodworking skills, but I am more into metalworking and electronics. Many of my projects are documented in another website, http://www.enginuitysystems.com, as well as the HomeShopMachinist forum, and https://www.youtube.com/user/PaulAndMuttley. BTW, when did you get ice and snow in NM, as in your home page image?
Hi Paul – Glad you liked the xylophone build. There was a lot of woodworking in there, but most of the work was figuring out how to compute the bar shapes and writing/refining software. It was cool to see the physics accurately predict (mostly) the empirical data.
You metal working guys are making me jealous – I’ve got to get some machines :-). I’ve bought stuff from McMaster, but didn’t realize they sold stock. That’s a good tip.
Yeah, we get snow in Albuquerque a few times a winter. I want to say that photo was taken in early December. It’s usually just a dusting, but this was a good 4 inches. We ended up using it for our Christmas card. My daughter insisted on dressing like it was summer, and froze her butt off taking the picture!
Rich