Hello from Phil

AussiePhil

Dedicated elf
Administrator
Joined
Jun 20, 2009
Messages
1,606
Location
Canberra, ACT, Australia
Duplicate of the Announcement post



Hello to all,

I've written this a number of times over the last week................


Firstly to business at hand. Not in any particular order.

- My thanks to Eddie and Tabor as Moderators for all the hard work
- My thanks to all the forum members for continuing to be part of the forum and progress forward.
- To all the new members, I am actually real not a mythical person
- In discussions with Eddie it has been proposed to appoint a new Moderator and whilst I have yet to action this, it is a good idea. A second name is also floating in my head but I have to catch up with the member first.
- Domain Names have been renewed for another couple of years and should in future auto-renew as long as the credit card is valid.
- The hosting of the forum will continue regardless of my direct involvement on a daily basis.


Now if you have read the above it may be all you wish to know, the following is a bit of a ramble about me and why I have not been around and what the future holds.

2010 was an absolutely manic year were this hobby took over just about my entire life and most of my waking time. I had a significant heart scare towards the end of the year that now requires constant tablet taking as part of my daily life. Christmas day seen me at the doctors and diagnosed with Bronchial Pneumonia and it was this that made me start to take it as another sign to slow down. A had another dose of this around late March from memory though it seems years ago already.

The other thing messing with my mind was the seemingly endless HoHoHoing and baiting that was going on between a number of members, this is something I no longer deal with very well and I was at a point of completely throwing the towel into the ring and closing the forum which would have been seriously wrong thing to do so I decided to have a couple of weeks of working in the yard, digging gardens and spending time with my very understanding better half.

This turned into a re-finding of an older hobby of woodwork and the pleasure of working with my hands to make things used around the house. A new TV stand stereo unit, new bookcases, new speaker cabinets have all been done with a couple of projects still underway.

A few weeks ago was the first time the soldering iron had been turned on since Dec and then just to join some wires.

What started as a few weeks turned into a couple months has turned into half the year and I am completely unsure of how to bring myself up to speed again........

For those attending the Melbourne Mini, I was looking forward to attending and catching up with friends but sadly the time to travel on the Friday just was not available nor was the bank balance looking all that great right at that time.

That brings me to the topic of my daily work, this has increased in both actual workload and in responsibility to the point that the time i used to find at lunch times etc is just no longer available with more time required to the job as it should be done.

Now you have read all that and wonder what is the future of the Tiger controllers, the honest answer to that is.... I'm not 100% sure at this time.
I always said that if I was leaving the hobby I would open source the controllers and code, but at this stage I'm not planning to leave the hobby but my absence makes me feel like I should do it anyway. As for the Pixel Controllers without confirming by reading the forum first I am expecting that the hole I have left has been plugged. As for the 48ch Boards i have last years boards available to be built but have not completed this years expected revision.

Now if someone would like to raise their hand and commit to a full write up of construction details and manual then I would be interested to hear from them.

Will I be back? YES, just need to finish a couple projects around the house.

Finally I would like to give a personal thanks to Members of the forum you have gone out of their way to find out what is happening or to prepare for the worst in case I had just dropped out.

Oh David-AVD, if you read this I haven't been ignoring you, my phone went out of service on Friday and I have since misplaced it today which is proving very very frustrating.

Lastly, this has again taken all day to write up so it may give you an idea of how busy I have become and why it is likely a little dis-jointed :)

Cheers
Phil
 

kevr

Full time elf
Generous elf
Joined
May 2, 2010
Messages
373
Location
Kaiapoi, New Zealand
Good to hear from you Phil!

You look after yourself first mate and once again a big thank you for all the happy faces (young and old) that you and your site bring, your blood's worth bottling.

The kids faces at Christmas made all the work and effort and stress for that matter worth it.

Kev :)
 

AAH

I love blinky lights :)
Community project designer
Joined
Dec 27, 2010
Messages
4,188
Location
Eaglehawk
Good to here that you are okay Phil.
You need to look after your health and head as i know myself. I think that all that any of us could want is that you keep in touch and turn on some blinky blinky come Christmas time.
 

chilloutdocdoc

Full time elf
Joined
Jun 5, 2010
Messages
114
Location
Central Florida
Welcome back Phil, It's great to hear that you're doing alright. Definitely will be keeping your health in my prayers, and glad to see things working out for you :)
 

Pyrotech

New elf
Joined
Nov 9, 2010
Messages
41
Location
Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire
As somebody who has had to completely change my life due to health, I think i can appreciate what you may be going through. All I can say is self and family first but If I'd know that this simple hobby could be as dangerous to ones health as this, I'd have gone for the lace making option.

Stay well, I know your in the hands of a good pom woman.
 

mschell

Full time elf
Joined
May 17, 2010
Messages
155
Location
Southeast US
Glad to see you are still with us, Phil.

I, too, went thru a scary heart situation last March, which resulted in some lifestyle changes, job changes, a new piece of hardware in my shoulder and yes, a daily tablet regimen that is slowly reducing as things get better (over 1 year since the "event").

Striving to keep the "balance" between the things we must do or just would like to do is something that needs to be remembered. Family is the most precious commodity we have.

Stay the course, and visit when you can...
 
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