German Observations

Here are a few observations I have about Germany:

Things I Like

• Bakeries - There are tons of them and they're uber delicious. They have this cream monstrosity that is oh-so-yummy it makes me want to go into convulsions and die.
• Ivy - It's everywhere and is really pretty. (Not the poison variety!)
• Cobblestones - Quaint and practical (but reportedly difficult to walk on in heels). Because cobblestone streets are just a bunch of little pieces you can put back together, after they tear up a cobblestone street for sewer work it looks like nothing ever happened! Cobblestone streets are also viscous, so they'll move to adapt to changing ground levels.
• Consonants - It seems like speaking Deutsche is hard work - so many consonants! Their mouth is going crazy. Fun to listen to, watch out for spit.
• Universal Functional Windows - They're all the same and swing open wide, or pop open at the top. (No screens though.)

What was I thinking about just now?: Ode to Nickolas Pickolas

My first wife published a review of my personality on her blog. Enjoy:

Ode to Nickolas Pickolas: "Well, today my Old Man got even older. That's right friends, Nickolas Pickolas has reached the ripe old age of six and twenty. In honor of..."

*Jenna is my first, current, and only wife.

Exploring Jena

Because we have no money, we haven't really gone anywhere. At the beginning of the summer we had big plans to visit Prague, Vienna, Switzerland, London, as well as a bunch of German places: Munich, Berlin, Neuschwanstein Castle, and Oberammergau. (Of course if we had lots of money I really want to go to Rome and Istanbul, but I kind of always knew we would get those in on this trip.)

But, since we're poor, we've been seeing a lot of Jena and tagging along with members of the ward to other cities whenever we can. A couple of weeks ago we visited the Freiberg Germany Temple, which was the first temple behind the Iron Curtain. We found mostly American temple workers there but the services were in German - so we had to wear headphones (that used an infrared receiver that you could wear under your clothes! I admit, I was distracted by this...). The temple is very small - smaller even than the "small temples" the church has been building the last 15 years or so.

Freiberg Germany LDS Temple

Lobdeburg Castle

Here are a bunch of pictures from my latest adventures in Germany.

Since we're so poor and work all day we really don't have the ability to travel outside of our town (at least for now). So lately we've been exploring the sights around Jena. Luckily, as is the case with pretty much everywhere outside of the USA, there's all kinds of history right here in our valley.

For instance, here are a few facts about this small city that you probably have never heard of. Jena has Luther's original tombstone and the world's first planetarium. It was a frequent stomping ground for Geothe and Napoleon marched through. Coolest of all: the Carl Zeiss company was founded here.

There's also a medieval town center and castles or towers on almost every hill surrounding the city.

The closest old-stone-thing to our house is the Friedensberg WWI memorial. We found it quite by accident - we wandered up the hill and I saw a tiny trail going into a clump of trees at the top. I jokingly said, "I wonder if there's a castle in there?" So we went in (with Jenna gagging and screaming because plants were brushing against her legs and there might be bugs). We found a huge round stone wall! Circling round we found the entrance and it turned out to be a WWI memorial by the name of Friedensberg.

The gate to Friedensberg memorial

Adventures

I got hitched! The wedding was in California at the Newport Beach LDS Temple and the reception was in Fountain Valley. It was epic - we had a New Orleans Jazz Band, awesome food, and much fun was had by all.

The next day Jenna (my wife) and I left for Miami to catch a big-ass boat across the ocean! The Norwegian Epic is the world's 3rd largest cruise ship.

Norwegian Epic docked in Miami

How to Thoroughly Vaporize a Multimeter

Sorry it's been awhile since I've posted. I've been busy getting engaged (almost married!) and trying to get through school. Here's my latest adventure:

1950s Vacuum Tube Tesla Coil (vacuum tube not pictured)

A 1950s vacuum tube tesla coil based around a Hartley radio frequency oscillator. My uncle gave it to me over thanksgiving. He got his hands on it from the scientific instrument shop of the Los Angeles County School District. Apparently, they gave it to him because he asked nicely and it didn't work (it's ancient).

The last week or so I've been trying to get it working, with limited success. So far I've got the smaller transformer working - providing 6.3 VAC to the base of the vacuum tube so that it lights up nicely.

This evening I was testing the large transformer, which is supposed to convert 120 VAC to +/- 600 VAC (I think). It supposedly puts out -600 volts on one lead and +600 on the other, for a total of 1200 volts. My multimeter says it can handle 600 V, so I decided to try each lead individually.

I disconnected the leads from the large red capacitor shown in front of the large transformer (you can see the leads detached in the picture) and tested each individually with reference to ground. The first (attached to the right side of the cap) came out at about 40 VAC. The second came out as 340 VAC.

Puzzled and assuming I had found the problem, I decided to test both transformer leads at once. I hooked up each lead from the transformer to a cable from my multimeter and turned the thing on. There was a flash of light and a loud buzzing sound as the insides of my multimeter vaporized under what definitely was not 380 VAC. I quickly hit the switch on my power strip and opened up my multimeter to examine the damage. Here's what I found:

Back side of the board of my vaporized multimeter

Front side of the board and underside of the dial of my vaporized multimeter

So, I'm down one multimeter. This was after last week vaporizing my oscilloscope probe by touching it to the large red capacitor while charged.

Tesla coil:   2     Nick:   0

How to Pay LDS Tithing Online

Here's how to pay tithing online for members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (aka Mormons or Latter-day Saints [LDS]).

If you're anything like me then you almost never use checks. The only day-to-day uses for these dinosaurs of the financial world are to pay rent and tithing. But more often than not I forget my checkbook when I go to church. After all, I don't carry it with me anywhere else! This habit has resulted in sporadic donations in which I try to figure out how many paychecks have come in since I last paid and then try to catch up.

(For those who may not know, Mormons usually pay 10% of their income to the church in the form of tithing. These funds support the growth of the church, building construction and maintenance, and other managerial things. They don't support a paid clergy (the LDS church has none at the local level) or humanitarian relief - there are separate donation avenues for helping the poor, victims of disaster, etc. Tithing does pay the administration costs of humanitarian aid so that 100% of money "given to the poor" actually goes to help the poor.)

Well I've finally found a solution. I heard a rumor that members can pay their tithing online somehow, so I fired up google and figured it out last night.

Here are directions to set up online tithing payment:

1. Download the necessary form from this website: The Bill Payment Service Electronic Donation Information Form. (The version dated 21 May 2010 doesn't work, download and use the one dated 21 August 2008.) Fill it out on your computer and e-mail it to donations@ldschurch.org. You'll need to know your membership number, which you can get off of your temple recommend or from your ward clerk.

2. After you have e-mailed the form you'll receive a detailed response on how to set up your electronic bill payment through your bank. You'll need to figure out how exactly to configure bill pay for your bank. I use Bank of America and it was relatively easy to set up.

The e-mail you receive will provide information on how to set up separate bill payments for the following:

• Tithing
  
• Fast offerings
• General missionary fund
• Book of Mormon fund
  
• Perpetual education fund
• Other

Each bill payment you set up will use a different biller name. These names must be entered exactly as shown below and are case sensitive.

• LDS-Tithing
• LDS-Fast Offering
• LDS-Missionary (General)
• LDS-Book of Mormon
• LDS-PEF
• LDS-Other
  

You will be identified by your membership ID which you enter as the account number on your banking website.


Lastly, take care to enter the Pay To address and phone number correctly as shown.

A few notes on donating tithes and offerings electronically:

• Any donations you send will go to church headquarters and will not be seen by your ward clerks or bishop - for good or for bad.
• You can't donate to your ward missionary fund online, only to the general missionary fund.
• The donations office can't accommodate special requests towards ward fast offerings or ward missionary funds.
• You will receive monthly statements to verify that your payments have been successful as well as yearly tax receipts. You can receive these statements via snail mail or e-mail. If you choose to receive them via e-mail, this is what they look like:

Good luck! Hopefully this will be useful to folks like me who always forget the checkbook before church.

ORIGINAL: 3/15/10
UPDATE: 7/27/10 Updated directions to download the working Bill Payment Service Electronic Donation Information Form. Also mentioned the new ability to receive statements electronically.
UPDATE: 11/9/10 Added example image of a monthly electronic donations statement. Re-published with today's date.