From 62aa29df213abc01b4d2f64e94a0cbad0ea10739 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Blaise Thompson <blaise@untzag.com>
Date: Thu, 9 Dec 2021 14:22:25 -0600
Subject: letter

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 letter/letter.tex | 76 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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+% document
+\documentclass{letter}
+\usepackage[margin=0.5in]{geometry}
+\usepackage{multicol}
+
+% text
+\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
+\renewcommand{\familydefault}{\sfdefault}
+
+% graphics
+\usepackage{graphicx}
+\usepackage{wrapfig}
+
+% signature environment
+\newenvironment{sig}[1]%
+ {\begin{list}{}%
+         {\setlength{\leftmargin}{300pt}}%
+         \item[]%
+ }
+ {\end{list}}
+
+\begin{document}
+
+\pagenumbering{gobble}
+
+\large{\textbf{Happy Holidays Ornament \hfill 2021}}
+
+\begingroup
+\setlength{\intextsep}{0pt}%
+\setlength{\columnsep}{10pt}%
+
+This year I decided to design and construct a special ornament in celebration of the holiday season.
+I was inspired by the trip I took to the Porcupine Mountains in northern Michigan with my friends Claire and Ralph Till.
+While camping on the shores of Lake Superior we enjoyed a wonderful sunset spoiled by just one negative: mosquitoes.
+
+We rooted for the dragonflies that evening.
+We saw dragonflies flying in ``jetstream'' patterns high above the tree line.
+We saw them swoop down to the shore and engage in aerial combat with fast, intricate maneuvers.
+We saw them perch, at times, so beautiful when still enough to see.
+
+\begin{center}
+  \includegraphics[width=0.49\textwidth]{"./real.jpg"}
+  \hfill
+  \includegraphics[width=0.49\textwidth]{"./fake.jpg"}
+\end{center}
+
+My ornament is constructed very simply, mainly from one dragonfly-shaped circuit board printed by OSH Park.
+The circuit is my version of the ``Joule Thief'', a self-oscillating voltage booster which is capable of continuing to drain a battery even as the voltage drops.
+In this way, the ornament will stay lit as long as possible.
+You may find that you get light even out of ``dead'' batteries.
+
+Briefly, a transformer (small black box) is used to store energy from the battery until there is enough to light the LEDs.
+The transistor (very small component with three legs) then shunts the energy through the LEDs, and the process begins again.
+Although they appear to be continuously lit, the eight LEDs are actually blinking thousands of times per second.
+As the AA battery discharges, the LEDs will gradually dim.
+However they will stay lit much longer due to the voltage boosting nature of the oscillator.
+Read more on Wikipedia: search ``Joule thief''.
+
+Please use the ornament in whatever way you wish.
+I included ``eye holes'' which could be used to hang the ornament with a piece of string.
+The legs can be bent into any shape to ``grab'' or simply sit on a horizontal surface.
+In celebration of the dragonfly, happy holidays.
+
+\vfill
+\raggedleft
+
+Blaise Jonathan Thompson \\*
+\hspace{0pt} \\
+725 W Washington Ave. Apt 306 \\*
+Madison, Wisconsin 53715 \\*
+\hspace{0pt} \\
+1-424-225-2493 \\*
+blaise@untzag.com \\*
+https://blaise.zone
+
+\end{document}
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