get back in there

Somewhere a grindstone is spinning and my nose hurts just thinking about it.
It has been a good solid 2 months of non-stop home renovation, code sprint, client support, and acclimatization.
We finally have a working kitchen, a bedroom above ground, and a sense of where things are in the neighborhood.
I have been really enjoying the process.
I think.
Perhaps I am just numb.
In either case I am looking forward to some new developments.
I made contact with the good folks at 911 media arts center (http://www.911media.org/) and we are going to be offering an Arduino class in November. They did an introductory class a few months ago and it apparently went very well.
So my goal is to push one of my favorite agendas and get some creative re-use into the mix.
We are going to be tearing down old printers and using the guts to build our projects.
I think I will order motor shields from adafruit.com and supplement the parts kit with a few extra sensors.

Over the next few weeks I need to start testing bits and pieces of printers to get a toolkit of code/method for folks to use as a starting point.
I am especially interested in using the optical sensors that provide linear and rotational position sensing in most ink jets.
The sensor spits out a quadruature encoded signal from a very accurately ruled piece of film (either round or a long strip).
I am hoping we can use it to make some interesting feedback mechanisms.
I really can't wait to get going on it but I need to clear off a little corner of the garage.
That alone could take a while...