I think it's time to start a blog

As the title implies, I am starting a blog, this blog! I am fairly convinced that not blogging is ultimately detrimental to my mental health. I constantly work on all sorts of cool things that I share with no-one, or just close friends and colleagues, or my family. I've kept most everything I do a secret as most of my work has historically either been for an employer or part of an attempt to make something of/for myself by means of productization of an idea, thus sharing with people could possibly sabotage that dream. As I have come to understand, though, I will have hundreds, possibly thousands of fantastic ideas in my lifetime. I cannot possibly monetize them all. In fact, I may never get any of my product ideas to market. So, with 2023 being an opportunity to do things differently, I'm changing my communication paradigm and starting this blog.

As nobody knows who I am or what I do, I suppose it would behoove me to give a brief overview of my background and, generically speaking, what this blog will be about. Explaining this will likely create the most boring blog post I commit here.

I, Kaleb Reinhart, have been learning about science, technology, and engineering all my life. As a child I would tear everything apart to gain an understanding of how it worked. Toys would last mere moments before I was searching for a screwdriver to open it up. My father recognized this was a pattern of behavior and did his best to help me. He built me a work surface from the top of our old console TV and stuck me in the corner of his workshop (where I desired to be all the time, as he had the coolest stuff in there) with a bunch of tools and my old baby food jars to sort screws and such. He'd pick up electronics whenever he could so I had things to tear apart; VCRs, old computers, printers, stereos. You name it. I was in heaven down there, at my very first workbench. 

A lot has changed in the 30+ years since I sat at that bench, I still tear my toys apart, but now I can usually put it back together (only if necessary!). ;-p 

Today I am a freelance engineer with a skillset that is crazy broad: 

• I am fluent in 3D stuffs; CAD, rendering, scanning, printing, etc. (Solidworks, Fusion360)
• I can write code, (albeit shitty code, but it compiles!) primarily with Python, but also C, C++, Swift, and JavaScript as needed. Also spent an unbelievable amount of time in FileMaker Pro. Also of course, shell scripting. <-skript kiddie
• I know a lot about Electrical Engineering (which means I know very little)
• Basics; I can identify or speculate what most things are on a PCB, solder up my own circuits for whatever I want, have familiarity with diagnosing and troubleshooting circuits. 
• Rudimentary RF work, primarily with load matching circuits, RFID, and antennas
• Microcontrollers are magic, I've learned to work with PIC, ATMEL, ARM, etc.
• I can dump firmware and pretend I know how to use Ghidra, IDA Pro, or the likes
• (Usually a binwalk of the dump is all I need to do)
• I recently (past few years) started working with automotive products, CAN networks, etc.
• I have or have access to about any type of instrument for measuring electrical signals
• Oscilloscopes, lots of meters, vector network analyzers/TDRs, spectrum analyzers, lots of various types of "analyzers".
• I'm pretty mechanically adept
• I rarely pay anyone to fix anything for me
• I can operate large machinery (manually or with code)
• I can use a mill and lathe
• Generally I can design something that stays together under stress. 
• Industrial Design
• I can make very pretty and functional industrial designs. Some of which have been productized by companies I've contracted for. 
• AV, IT and Networking
• Extensive IT experience, both enterprise and consumer levels. 
• Loads of experience configuring, deploying, and managing devices
• Structured cabling installation to the tune of thousands of various wires ran, terminated, and validated. 
• I am quite versed in all things AV
• INTERNET WIZARD
• Here I will brag. Here I am more than adequate. I can find almost anything I require to accomplish my goals. I grew up in a time where most households did not have a computer, let alone a globally connected one. At the age of 13 we got a PC and the Internet, I had very few friends after that, well, friends IRL. I was fairly popular in my mIRC and ICQ circles. 37 years later, I can browse with the best of them, manually or autonomously.
• REVERSE ENGINEERING
• Remember that kid that tore everything apart? Well he graduated to being capable of extracting valuable information from existing designs; how things were done, why one product works better than another, secrets embedded in the product "no one would ever have access to" XD. I love it. Love making things do what they were not intended to do, or to make them do what they WERE intended to do when they lack other vital components to tell them what to do. I live to reverse engineer things.

Personally speaking I am a father of three young men, been with my wife for 20+ years, and have two dogs. I play the drums, make funny parodies, sing a little, and made electronic music with Ableton. I guess that about catches you up. Next post will be something nerdy and less about me. ;)