Church - and yeah, I'm not a hardware guy

First church service in our new location. Loaded ALL my percussion stuff into the Jeep first thing in the morning and then got to the school at 7:20. Was at the wrong doors and realized that when I saw Jacque drive by and head around back. Got back there and everyone was unloading the sound stuff. Got my stuff unloaded and set up in about 45 minutes... Cool. That is how long I figured it would take, and I was maybe a little quicker than that. I've been playing with most the stuff set up for so long, I really wasn't sure how long it would take to unpack it all and position it. (Hmm... how was this boom set up again... ah, move it 1/2 inch this way... no that doesn't feel right, maybe a little over here)... but in the end it was all good. So that is very cool.

Worship was awesome, the sound was great. I've played in a "setup/teardown" situation twice before, but both of them were pretty small. This is our entire (rather large) team and it all came together great. Our sound team ROCKS.

I have to mention that with all the stress and stuff going on at work, and in the "job" part of church, the only time I really feel all that at peace any more is when I'm in worship. Its just a great thing, and I'm very psyched that moving to the school hasn't changed that. If anything, it is better. I have way more room (not scrunched up against the back wall), so I was just having a great time of danching around and worshipping. Great stuff.

So that was all great and then we had to break down, which took about 30 minutes (maybe) so that was good. Took about as long as we had planned. And everyone helped carry my stuff out to the Jeep, which was nice.

So - got all the stuff packed up and then we went and had lunch (which always takes a while with a large group) and then I went to do the deposit. We just moved the offices and the computer was not set up yet. Should only take a few minutes, right? I started it about 2:15 and I think I actually started the deposit and using the computer some time around 5:00 :( I'm not a hardware guy...

First, the computer was sitting where it goes, with the keyboard, mouse and monitor where they go, but nothing was hooked up. Pulled everything out (this will only take a few minutes) and started plugging things in. Hmm... no power cord. Start looking around. None in site. Made a few phone calls. Long and short of it - people knew it was missing but no one had actually moved it, so someone else must have done it. Finally start looking through other people's stuff and found it. Cool. Hooked that up and then went to plug in the mouse. No PS/2 port... must be a serial port. But there is no adapter. So I look all around for a while and nothing. I *seem* to recall one at home, so I head home.

Get home (while I'm here, I might as well unload all my equipment - so I do that). I find an adapter... which I *think* might work. Get back to the office, nope. Not the right kind of adapter. So I head to CompUSA and pick up an adapter. Get it back to the office and hook it up. Great, now things should be working. I boot up the machhine "No mouse detected on your PS/2 port" - Well duh, of course not, there is no PS/2 port. I mess with the mouse, the adapter, and the serial port... for several cycles of rebooting. Nothing.

I then pull the machine all the way out, unhook everything and take a look. Hmm... what is this missing bay on the bottom. So I pick it up and hear something rattling. (Not usually a good sign on a computer). I then take the shell off and see a card that is just rattling around inside the machine with a... yeah, you guessed it, PS/2 port on it. So I get that plugged back into the bay and put the machine back together. Hmm... mouse won't plug into it because the card isn't secure. Pull it all apart again, using a pair of scissors as a fake screwdriver and get it all secure. Put it all back together, attach all the other wires, get everything all put back, and turn it on. WooHoo! It works. Finally... 5:00 and I start the deposit.

Made it home a little after 6:30 (Lucky for me Jacque is dropping the deposit on Monday so I didn't have to drive the extra 30 minutes to get it dropped off).

So... I did better than someone who has NO idea how to hook up a computer, but not all that great. People always say "Oh... you work on computers." I always say "I'm a SOFTWARE architect on mid-range OO systems. I'm not a HARDWARE guy." Kind of like saying to a finish carpenter (or any discipline) "Oh... you work on houses?" ;)

It was a long day, and a bit frusturating at times... but hey, worship was great and everything got done. So all in all, a good day. And we'll be practicing in Teresa and Greg's basement this Thursday, so that is all good too. I'll just be bringing my little djembe - should be enough to practice and avoids hauling all my stuff. Oh, and I'll take one bag of hand stuff as well. Should be very cool.

As Michael would say "Peace out" - not sure why I said that... just popped into my head. :)

My baby is getting ready to move out

2 days till Jaime turns 18. She has a new job, a new apartment, and she's getting ready to move out.

Way too much talk about this lamp, and which couch, and decorating, and all of that. And then last night at practice,

J: "Do you think my seats fold down so I can take my keyboard?"
M: "I'm not sure. But if not, I can just take it in the Jeep."
J: "That worn't work. I have to take it to my house."

:( - oh yeah, she's moving out.

J: "And lug it up 3 flights of stairs"

and turns and pats Michael on the knee, to which someone states, "I see lugging a keyboard around in your future." (Oh... so when did we transition from the dad fixing things to the boy fixing things... oh yeah, when she grew up.) [By the way, Michael is a great "boy" so "the boy" is a term of endearment used by all of us]

Yeah, kids grow up, and its very cool to see her turn into an adult. But yeah, I'm going to miss my baby being around. Even though Tif is coming home for three months and I'm so syched about that, I'm still going to miss Jaimer.

But we've got church, and practice, and her hanging out here to eat, watch TV, etc... so the transition will be slow, but its still a transition.

At least we still have the dog at home. Oh boy. ;) LOL

Merrill Lynch: Linux saves money | CNET News.com

Merrill Lynch: Linux saves money | CNET News.com: "Telecommunications provider Verizon Communications disclosed that it saved nearly $6 million in equipment costs by moving its programmers to Linux from proprietary-Unix and Windows workstations"

Yup. I know that we can save something like $2M a year, on one application, just moving it off of Sun boxes to Linux. Which isn't really a Linux vs Solaris thing, its driven by the maintenance costs we are charged. But stilll... a good reason to move.

But yeah, the boxes are so much cheaper.

Valentines day, the church, and being on staff

So... our church is moving. We've been in a building forever that was costing us way too much money to lease, and we don't have enough funds to buy our own place. So we are going into a school. This is a good thing because it means we can pour more money into ministries, staff, etc. and can start saving for our own building.

This decision just happened, so it means that Tina and I spent our Valentine's Day "date" working at the church. But you know, that is what being a member of a church, and being on staff, is all about. Yeah, Tina worked all day, and so did I, and then we went and worked at the church that night. Her helping organize, etc., Me being a "worker bee" :) - But how could we not do that? Like I said, that is what being on staff is all about. Like you are going to ask people to come spend their night working, and you're going to take off to go have dinner or something? No way. I mean, that attitude is so important in secular life, let alone church life. There are plenty of times I work on the weekend because someone on my team is working and needs my help. Like I'm going to say "you spend your saturady working because it is important - but not important enough for me to come in." Yeah right.

And in the church life, where it is all about serving, supporting, and showing the people you care, it is even more important. And I'm happy to say that everyone on staff showed up and set the good example. And it was awesome. We (the church family) got so much done yesterday. Last time we made a "move", Tina spent 21 days straight working on it, without any time off. This time, its been 1 day and it seems like the majority of the work is done and we should be "good to go" this weekend. How very cool. Talk about committed people. Its great.

So... all in all, not a typical Valentine's Day, and not a typical "date" - but it was very cool. And besides, I'll make it up to her some time. :)

Techworld.com - Linux servers safer than ever

"... an unpatched Linux system lasts, on average, three months before it is compromised.... The average survival time for the systems [windows systems] the ISC tests has declined from about 55 minutes in the autumn of 2003 to just under 20 minutes..."

Just under 20 minutes. Nice to know. That means if you are running a Windows system on the internet, and it doesn't have the latest patches applied, it will get hit within 20 minutes. Actually that number is higher than I've read before. I thought I read something that you'd get hit (not necessairly comprimised, but hit) within seconds.

Verizon agrees to buy MCI for $8.4bn - Business - www.theage.com.au

And I was really liking my T*Mobile phone...

Haven't read the article yet...

Chili Rellano Casserole

Ok sis - you asked for it, here it is. Love ya!

Chicken Marsala

Sitting at my desk, eating leftover Chicken Marsala from last night. Yum. Easy to make - make sure you get a fairly good Marsala - and great tasting!

PC: Age of Empires III -- Designing Empires

I'm a big AOE (Age of Empires) fan. First game I really played real-time, on-line. I've been playing Age of Mythology, lately, but heard the multi-player wasn't that great. AOE::III is coming out the last half of this year (read sometime before Christmas) and should be cool.

Would be fun to get back into playing a game on-line with Dave and Gigs. :)

Adaptive lights organize traffic TRN 012605

Cool type of AI solution. Using patterns found in nature.

Ananova - Man peed way out of avalanche

I guess pouring the beer directly on the snow would have been a waste?

EO Newsroom: New Images - Snow on the Summits of Hawaii

Very cool shot. For those of you who may have known her, probably only Tif and Jaime, Kellee and her husband work at the observatory on this island and live there.

I think it kind of looks like a wolf head

EO Newsroom: New Images - Snow on the Summits of Hawaii

Very cool shot. For those of you who may have known her, probably only Tif and Jaime, Kellee and her husband work at the observatory on this island and live there.

I think it kind of looks like a wolf head

SignOnSanDiego.com > News > North County -- Beachgoers get wireless Web access

Cool... but it costs. It would be nice if it was free... There are getting to be too many providers for this, in different areas. $20 a month to get T*Mobile for Starbucks, $20 a month to SBC for Park access... then what.

Especially when you can go to Panera's and other spots for free. Be interesting to see if it catches on.

But it would be very cool to be sitting on the beach, in the shade, watching the surf, and checking on your email, blogging, etc. At least for geeks like me. The real cool thing isn't "why would you want to work on vacation?" - but "Hey... I'll be telecommuting from the beach, irc me if you need something." Yeah... the good life. :)

CBS News | Violent Drawings Land Boys In Jail | January 26, 2005 08:30:06

I never had to deal with these kinds of issues, as a parent. And when I was in school we never had this kind of stuff going on, at least not at this age. I got terrorized a bit when we moved to ND, but I pretty much dealt with it, and by then I was in 8th grade.

A little different than 8 and 10 year olds.

Should they have been arrested... I don't know. Felony seems a bit overkill... but I know everyone is on edge because of Columbine. I would defaintely not be happy if I was one of the "victims" parents and was told later, "Yeah, there were drawings, but you know kids, we didn't take them seriously." The real issue, imo, isn't whether they should have been arrested or not, the real issue is how we got here, and how we instill in teens (and now pre-teens) that violence isn't the way, that this kind of thing isn't cool, acceptable, funny, etc.

But, getting on my 46 year old soap box for a minute, it isn't like this kind of thing happens over-night. Its a steady "decline". When I was a kid (yeah I know, here goes), you were held responsible for your actions. Not that we never did anything wrong, we did. Yeah, boys will be boys. But you have some "fear of God" in you, when you know that if you are caught you will get in big trouble by your parents, or hassleing old kids gets you beat up, etc. Any more, many adults and parents act like kids are bain dead. "Well you can't hold it against little Johnny that he is: destroying property, acting like and idiot, bring a gun to school", he doesn't know better. I think he does... he just knows he'll get a free ride.

I remember once when we were cursing the drag. We were probably 16 and 17. Some 13 year olds starting throwing rocks at our car. We chased them, and their parents were really ticked. "How dare you frighten my kids!" "They were throwing rocks at our '57 Chevy!" - "So, kids will be kids. Didn't you ever do anything like that?" - "Not really, 'cuz we know if we got caught we'd get beat up, or our parents would ground us." Not that we wanted to actually hurt the kids, but at least put some "fear of God" into them so they didn't do it again. But since their parents basically thought it was just cute, every time we drove by the park and they were around, their they would be, flipping us off and yelling and laughing, because their parents had protected them from any consequences.

No... I don't think a 9 and 10 year old kid should fry or anything, and I don't have answers... but sometime kids have to be taught what is acceptable. And I'm sorry, sometimes explaining it in philosopical and quite terms just doesn't get the point across.

Explain to Mo its wrong, maybe no reaction. Have his older brothers bomp him in the head, and he quites messing with their stuff. ;)

Sun Announces Open Source License for Solaris(TM) Operating System

Interesting strategy. One we knew was coming. I haven't thought about it a lot, but I'm wondering if this will help them. Since so many people have moved over to linux, will open source developer's really start working on Solaris, or just stay with linux? Digital never tried this ploy, and it ended up "killing" VMS, for the most part. Will be interesting to see how this plays out over the next few years.

Sigh... (fondly remembers VMS)

About Google Video

"Our mission is to organize the world's information, and that includes the thousands of programs that play on our TVs every day. Google Video enables you to search a growing archive"

Wow, what will google think of next? Pretty cool, especially in light of me playing with TiVo lately.

It scans the closed caption text, so for instance you could enter Johnny Carson and see all the shows that have mentioned him the last few days, which might be doing tributes, etc.

Cool stuff.

Yahoo! News - 'Survivor' Winner Arraigned on Tax Evasion

"Richard Hatch, who rose to fame as the first winner of the 'Survivor' TV series, was arraigned on charges of tax evasion on Tuesday"

TiVo

The kids (Brian and Tif) got us a TiVo machine for Christmas. I finally went through all the setup stuff Saturday. Recorded some things tonight. Being the TV addict that I am, I think it is going to be very cool.

And I can get a WiFi adapter for it and unplug it from my phone and have it on my home network. Yeah, pretty cool.

Kids

Wow... Its just incredible to watch your kids grown up. Not just get older, but mature and turn into you adults. Jaime just amazes me sometimes, especially her relationship with Michael. They are both awesome. Sometimes they say things, have discussions, etc. that just make me shake my head in wonder. I still think of her of my baby, and sometimes I'm just very amazed at what an adult she is.

I'm a very lucky dad. Love ya babe.

Thanks Johnny

I hope that yesterday Jesus heard, "Here's Johnny!!"

I always really liked Johnny Carson. He had class. I remember watching him as I grew up. And I remember his last show. It was awesome. Still chokes me up even now when I've caught a clip of it a few times.

Leno did a tribute to him. It was pretty good.

Hope he's doing well...

Can Sony reinvent itself as cool? | Newsmakers | CNET News.com

"I think sometimes that if I retire, I'll become a blogger and finally say all the things I've always wanted to say."

Iteresting that I saw this today. The interesting things is, I don't think as a blogger you can "always say what you wanted to say." I mean I guess it depends on who you are, whether your blog identifies you, etc. and your social norms, etc. Another reason I haven't been blogging all that much lately, is my current state of mind. In general, I'm not looking for those funny/witty (at least in my mind) little outlooks on life. The kind of stuff I like to blog. The last year has been pretty hard at church (tons of just junk going on) and hard at work (way more work/responsibility/politics and not so fun stuff at times), and my brain is just always on or off. It doesn't seem to just hit that lazy, look at the world place. Unless I'm worshipping, and then I'm just gone.

Anyway... the thing is, lots of things I think about on a day-to-day basis is stuff I would never blog. Too personal, things that may hurt someone (yes, we all have thoughts about situations, people, etc. that we'd never "say outloud", i.e., never blog.). I just think it is interesting that I've been thinking lately how I'm not blogging some stuff, because it isn't really "fit to print", and then I read this quote.

Church - fun stuff I do

And speaking of "fun" things, if I'm not working or at home vegging, I'm doing church related stuff, which is very cool. The main two fun things I've been doing lately are:

Cooking: We have a cooking "I-Group", (cell group, home group, etc.) where I get to play Emeril. Very fun stuff. We did Cajun the other night and Leslie made a crab dip and bread pudding (yum!) and I made Jambalya. My first time. It was actually a little spicy for me, but not so bad that I couldn't eat it. It was very good. But if I was to make it for the family I would have used less spice and more tomatoe based. We only due this once a month (so not too much of a committment) and it is usually a really good time of cooking and just hanging out and talking. The perfect social occasion for me. 1) I'm doing something (cooking) so don't have to be the center of conversation, 2) If I am talking, its usually about food, which is something I'm very interested in. Anyway, its always a great time and very fun. Leslie buys all the food, preps most of it, and cleans up. I just get there, put on my chef's jacket, and play Emeril. And then we eat. Great time! :)

Worship: I've been drumming the last 2 weeks, and will for two more weeks. This has been awesome. I love percussion and don't want to be a permanent drummer, but being able to do it for the month has been really fun. And worship has been awesome. So its been a great time for me of just being really passionate in worship. Plus it always gives Tina a kick to see me drum. Reminds her of the "old days". :) Michael said it looks like I had a waterfall of cymbals (beacuse I had 6 of them up there), so Monday when I was over doing some accounting, I added two more. So last night I had 8. :) Greg said, "Yeah, I looked over and you weren't playing the drums, you were playing cymbals." But its all good!

As a percussion player, I'm very influenced by my drumming background. But now I think my drumming is also being influenced by my percussion playing. At any rate, I've been having a blast.

This year we are adopting the concept of "understudies" for some of the various positions, so for instance I will be the drummer understudy. Basically I'll still primairly be focused on percussion, but I'll be learning the songs as we go along, on drums as well. That way if Dominick is out for some reason, I'm not coming in cold. And to make sure it isn't "all practice with no play", I'll be drumming once in a while no matter what. So that will be very fun.

And then Teresa preached on Sunday, which totally rocked big time, and just confirmed what a natural speaker/teacher she is and how much she hears from God. It was so incredibly cool. But... enoough blogging for now, I REALLY should get to work.

Hopefully (but no promises), I'll post on a regular basis. I'm starting to catch a trend of posting links reguarly, and then every once in a great while some long post, or sets of posts. I liked it better when I posted something short every few days... but we'll see...

Web/Blog design

One thing that keeps people coming back to web sites, is that they change. Or at least certain types of sites. If the site offers some service that you use, google, Wikipedia, etc., you'll go back because you need them. But other things that are just informational, etc., the theory goes if you change it, offer people something new to look at, they'll keep coming back, just to see what has changed.

So someone told me yesterday, "Man, you really need to update your blogs. Its getting boring." For blogs, this basically means, "You need to start posting stuff, cuz I'm getting tired of checking and nothing ever updates."

Yeah, I'm posting links to stuff, but not really posting any of my own content. Sigh... don't know what to say. Its been a very busy time right now. Tif wants me to get back on Pern, and I haven't event had time for that.

I guess I'm just in a place right now where I'm either working, ore pretty much vegging. There is so much going on at work, and never enough time to get it all done. Not that that is really bad. I mean, job security and all that. Its just someone is always having some problem, or needing something looked at, or whatever. Hopefully (and I've said THIS before here), things will eventually settle down. I'll either find ways of prioritizing, or people will need less or something.

And if I'm not busy at work, then I'm busy with church stuff. Althought that has been great. I do the taxes for the church, and usually getting the year end stuff out is very last minute (based on my time, time of others I need info from, etc.) This year the processes were more in place and I've already gotten all the stuff that needed to go out by the end of the month done, and most of the stuff that has to go out by the end of Feb. So I'm actually ahead and feeling really good about that. Luckily Monday was a holiday so I was off work and able to go in and get some things done.

Anyway... been very busy (some work, some fun) and just not much time for blogging. Like right now, I'd normally be doing work (which I'm sort of doing in the background), but I figured I'd at least post *something* to keep people happy. :)

So that isn't working

I've bought some concert tickets over the internet, now and again over the last few years. They send confirmation via email and then they'll send you monthly notifications of upcoming events. I believe this is supposed to be based on what you've purchased in the past.

So now today I get notified about some Country/Western signer that is coming and some upcoming extreme sports (or something like that) shows... Not sure what changed in my profile, but its not matching my tastes very well...

Congressional Oversight of the Dept of Homeland Security

In case you were wondering why its hard to get things done...

AccuWeather - Tsunami info

Some interesting Tsunami info.

Yahoo! News - Speaker Touts Stripping to 8th Graders

Yahoo! News - Speaker Touts Stripping to 8th Graders: "The principal of a Palo Alto middle school may not invite a popular speaker back to an annual career day after he told girls they could earn a good living as strippers."

FOXNews.com - Denver piple up

Note: Jumping out of your driver door into traffic is not "safer" than just bumping into someone... This lady is lucky she didn't get run into.

I think the "Flintstone" stop approach (dragging your feet) was a good idea... maybe. LOL

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Three largest stars identified

"Astronomers have identified the three biggest stars known to science."

NASA Details Earthquake Effects on the Earth

"They also found the earthquake decreased the length of day by 2.68 microseconds."

I knew there was a reason I couldn't get as much done as I used to!

Cost... savings?

So, in what I'm sure some bean counter thought would be a cost savings measure, the cafe now uses smaller plates for the grill. Smaller than they used to be (maybe an inch in diameter). So now there are two sizes. One at the grill and one at the "entree" area. The entree area has lids for their plates. These lids used to fit all the plates, but now that they are different sizes, they don't.

Since I want a lid (because I'm carrying my food a few blocks back to my desk) to keep my food warm, I just slide the new cost-efficient plate onto one of the other plates and then cover it with a lid. Works great.

But is it really a cost savings now that I'm using two plates every time???

Theory vs practice. Something I (as a software architect) need to keep in mind at all times!

Happy Birthday to my sweetie

Hey, its Tina's birthday today! Happy Birthday honey!

NASA - Get Ready for the Largest Demolition Derby on the Planet

NASA - Get Ready for the Largest Demolition Derby on the Planet
Scientists say Slow-Motion Collision Near Antarctic Research Station Imminent: "Get Ready for the Largest Demolition Derby on the PlanetScientists say Slow-Motion Collision Near Antarctic Research Station Imminent"

The New Zealand Herald

The New Zealand Herald: "With ice retreating, wrangling has already started on the uncovering of wastes and riches of the far north."

Learn something new every day

And speaking of "how cool is that", I just realized that if I'm using BlogThis! and I highlight some text it copies that text into the blog buffer, not just the title and the link! Makes total sense, I just never thought of trying it before today. :)

World Lecture Hall

World Lecture Hall:

"Welcome to World Lecture Hall, your entry point to free online course materials from around the world. Please browse, search, learn and enjoy."

Well how cool is that?

Yup, thats what its all about

I'm going to be drumming the next three weeks for the Sunday service. Dominick has some wrestling stuff, so I'm playing while he is off. I've been very psyched about it.

The drum heads on the church drums were totally trashed, so last week I went and got new heads, a double kick bass pedal (which I've been wanting for a long time, for those occasional times when I drum) and a new cymbal stand and cymbal. I got a boom stand and another boom to add to it. I've got a number of cymbals and I prefer few stands with booms. Lets you get things in closer and take less floor space.

Anyway...

So I went and set up the heads and messed with them on Wed and then got to church early last might and moved all my cymbals intot he cage, along with my blocks, chimes, and cow bell and got it all set. Fun stuff.

Then we had worship practice. IT WAS AWESOME. Probably the best worship I've had at ICC in YEARS. It was just incredible. We had an awesome time of free praise. Kind of like God just reach down, taking you in his arms, giving you a squeeze and telling you he loves you. Man.

The church has had a hard time last year, and as typical happens when there are hard times, the leadership gets very attacked. Personal attacks, persecution, and kinds of stuff. And it hasn't just been the senior leadership, but Teresa has come under attack as well. I think last night was just God's way of telling her, "None of that stuff matters. Remember, THIS is why you do this. To worship me."

Personally, all the pain, all the grief, all the problems... Doesn't matter. I'd go through just about anything to have a night like last night. It so rocked.

And it wasn't a one time thing. Its coming. More and more of it.

I'm happy. :)

Gates taking a seat in your den | Newsmakers | CNET News.com

Gates talking about a number of things. Some discussion on Xenon (code name for the next Xbox), blogging - yeah, I think he is somewhat clueless, FireFox - yes Bill some people really do thing IE is junk and use other browsers, and then other stuff as well.

Google Scholar and Print

Two new beta test programs from google: Google Scholar and Google Print. Cool stuff.

Mozilla's Lightning to strike Outlook? | CNET News.com

After holding out for years, I may have to seriously think about moving off of Outlook and onto a Mozilla based product set...

Netflix on Blockbuster: We're not impressed | CNET News.com

I'll have to check this out. Blockbuster, only $15 a month for online DVD subscriptions.

Blockbuster's monthly subscription entitles customers to unlimited rentals, three movies out at a time, with no due dates, no late fees with postage included. Subscribers also receive two free in-store movie or game rentals a month.

Off I go

I have some last minute Christmas shopping to do (always have to go right before Christmas, its just kind of cool) and food to get for 3 different get togethers. All told, 3 grocery stores and at least 3 other stores. I'm leaving now, figure I'll be lucky to get home before 6:00.

What's Christmas though if you can go out and fight the crowds in the freezing cold? ;)

Actually, its kind of cool to just chill and watch everyone freak on eachother. Cracks me up.

Well... "see ya" later... hopefully not too late...

eCards

Jacquie Lawson has some very cool eCards. You have to subscribe (only $8 a year) to send them on. So I can't post any here, etc. but check out the site.

Mystery Martian 'Carwash' Helps Space Buggy

I think I read this before, although it was posted today. Cool stuff.

Recipes

I'm off work, not much is going on at work so I didn't have to read much logs, reply to much mail, etc. Last night we did Impacting Your Tastebuds and did crepes. Both a dinner and desert one. Very fun. I put the recipes on my blog, and while doing that typed in a beef recipe and then a link to some prosciutto recipes I had seen on TV while typing in the first ones.

I'm hungry now.

Yeah, it IS winter

Me: Do you have a jacket?
Jaime: No. I don't need a jacket.

Later walking out of the Pottery Barn, through the SNOW coming down

Jaime: Why would I need a jacket. Just because it's snowing.

:) I wish I had my camera with me. She's so cute.

Students uncover dozens of Unix software flaws | Tech News on ZDNet

This would be an interesting class. Glad to see they are teaching this kind of stuff.

My Way News

WiFi on planes. Cool

A 'Do Not Call' List for Cell Phone Users? - Netlore Archive

There is quite a bit of hoax mail going out about the cell phone do not call list. As discussed in this article, there is a list, but there is no 15-Dec-2004 deadline and there is no plan to publish lists externally. So not a big deal. But I did put myself on the list anyway.

Style tips

At home, working on the laptop in our room while Jaime watches some judge show:

J: Wow, that girl definately shouldn't have worn pants w/o butt pockets!
Me: What?
J: That girl shouldn't have worn pants w/o butt pockets.
Me: Why?
J: Pants w/o butt pockets always make your butt look big. Unless you are really skinny.

Lucky for me, all my levi's have butt pockets. :)

I'm "off"

I'm "off" work till next year. Woo hoo! That doesn't exactly mean I won't be working, but it does mean I don't have to go in. I'll monitor stuff, do design/code reviews, answer questions, etc. as needed. And also work on some stuff I haven't had time for but want to get done. Just fun stuff. :)

Also, I'm most likely going to be drumming on the worship team during January. That's always stretching for me, but tons of fun. I can't wait.

Well - since I don't *have* to work, time to get back to watching Star Trek. :)

MIT OpenCourseWare | OCW Home

Wow. Free courses from MIT:

Welcome to MIT's OpenCourseWare: a free and open educational resource for faculty, students, and self-learners around the world. OCW supports MIT's mission to advance knowledge and education, and serve the world in the 21st century. It is true to MIT's values of excellence, innovation, and leadership.

Yet another thing I need to check into.

What's my phone number?

Called Tina on a landline today. I almost always use my cell-phone, but I was still at work. On my cell-phone my home phone number is "Tina - House". I had to think for a minute to remember what it actually was. Its been a while since I dialed the actual digits. How weird. :)

I'm going crazy

They are moving the Intel boxes in the lab, upon which the wiki and irc run. I can't do *anything*. Well OK I can do some coding... but my major forms of team collaboration are down. Its a weird feeling... I want my wiki back...

Hopefully any time now. Sigh.

Patent Photo

Go check out my photo blog to see a picture of me received a placque for the last patent our team got for Sheriff. :)

CNN.com - Church shock at Beckham 'Nativity' - Dec 8, 2004

Wax musem uses celebs in nativity scene... Not sure how I feel about it. Off the top of my head, I'm not sure I see the problem.

Ballooning into the Sky

Ever wonder what would happen if one of those clowns selling ballons tried to hold on to too many at once. ;)

0wn3d in 200 seconds | The Register

It pays to run a firewall on your system! There are free ones out there such as ZoneAlarm. And more info on the tests run.

Blogger problems?

Yesterday afternoon and early this morning, I've been able to post to blogger just fine. But there for a while I was having quite a bit of trouble - but I was mostly trying to post during the day. Not sure if blogger (or blogspot) is having bandwidth issues or what...

Philly Wi-Fi clash pits city against telcos | Tech News on ZDNet

Well that's just stupid, imo. I understand the expense - we had to build out the network, issue. But still - the city will provide it to everyone and it will be much less expensive, which is a very cool thing. I'd be thrilled if the Srings would do that as well.

Blazing a new data speed record | CNET News.com

the data transfer speed is equivalent to transmitting the entire Library of Congress in 15 minutes.

Things you don't want to see...

... when you are driving on icy roads - someone blowing off the light and pulling out in front of you.

I'm heading up Austin Bluffs, which is under major construction and is currently two lanes in each direction with no median... and the roads are icy and the middle "divider" (which is about 6 inches) can't be seen in most spots. So I'm traveling in the right lane, to avoid running into someone coming at me and we both get confused as to where the "middle" is.

I notice up the road a ways (at an intersection with a traffic light) that someone is crossing against the red light. Austin Bluffs has the green, but there is one coming in either direction, so they just slowly pull out and then cross the street. No harm, no foul. Sometimes the camera driven traffic lights seem to not work so well in the snow... Anyway, that car comes across, and now there are cars coming toward me (approaching the intersection) and I'm also approaching the intersection.

And the guy behind the car that just crossed against the light starts pulling out.

"Nah... he sees me... He MUST see me."
"Hmm... looks like he is going to pull out. Nah... he must just be slowly edgeing up to the intersection."

And then when I'm about 30 yards from the light... Nope, I guess I'm wrong and he is going to pull out. He has to see me, but I guess he's decided that pulling out into the right lane, when someone is coming down the right lane, at 40MPH, on an icy road, in the snow, yeah... thats an OK thing to do.

So I swerve, well not really swerve, but pull quickly into the left lane (whoo, not too icy, didn't slide - cool), shoot past him, and it all happens so fast I don't even get time to lay on the horn. No idea what just happened.

Yeah... defensive driving is always a good thing. Always keep an eye out. Apprently the traffic lights don't mean that much to some people. And this wasn't a "can I make the yellow" type thing. This was just someone setting at a red, getting tired of sitting there, and pulling out in front of someone else. Sheesh...

Tif and Brian's new puppy

Tif and Brian where here for about a week. They just went home Saturday and today they got a cousin for Belle. I put a picture of the puppy with Tif and Brian on my picture site.

Also there are quite a few pictures from MI on the site.

Warthog Pilot

Brian has been waiting for his slot. (Getting the plane that he will be flying). He's been wanting an A-10. A couple of days ago someone from his base called. There were only 3 A-10 slots open in the US at this point in time, and he got one of them!

Very cool. We are very proud of him!

Putting things in perspective

Friday my good friend Master sergeant Richard "Spanky" Chavez retired from the Air Force, having served 20 years. In addition to serving in Afghanistan and Iran (and who knows where else), he was also the top rated NCO at the Air Force Academy in 2000 and 2002. He is a great guy.

During the ceremony (which was awesome) they did a flag ceremony and presented him with a flag. He took it, saluted and turned and presented it to his father. Very cool stuff.

Later at dinner someone said to him, "Pretty cool when Spanky gave you the flag, huh?" He responded with something to the effect of:,

I live in a pretty small town. Some of our boys are over in Iran. Last week one of my friends received a flag because his boy had been killed over there. I'd much rather receive one this way.

Sometimes I just want to slap people

I'm driving down the road, going downhill. I'm in the left lane and I'm closing the gap between me and the car in front of me. In the right lane is a Semi (big rig truck) and behind it is a station wagon. The left lane is going faster than the right, because the semi isn't going all that fast. All of a sudden the station wagon (as I'm closing the gap on the car in front of me) speeds up a little and swerves over into my lane in front of me. In the back seat (the one at the very back) are two little kids, seating facing me, their faces barely visible over the tailgate, with these "O" looks on their faces. I look and there are actually 4 kids in the car. Two in the middle seat and two in the far back. Little kids, in their car seats.

OK... so where is this lady going in such a hurry that she has to swerve in front of a Jeep with a station wagon full of little kids - just so she doesn't get stuck behind a semi for a bit.

I was seriously irratated at her for the rest of the trip that she was next to me.

5 killed, 3 hurt in Wisconsin hunting dispute - billingsgazette.com

Wow - pretty freaky given I was in MI walking through the woods looking at hunting stands last week.

Wikipedia:Wiki Game - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Being the Wiki fan (and and proponent) that I am, I thought the Wiki Game was cool. :)

Computers - work vs fun

I've noticed lately that I'm rarely on the computer for fun any longer. I'm reading many blogs, not surfing much, not working on MY blog, etc.

We went to MI. I have some trip updates, some pictures to post. I'm also in a cooking home group, where a couple of us are doing an Emril kind of thing. Made three soups which were pretty good. I thought about posting the recpies to my recpie blog. But I just don't seem to be doing it.

I think computers are being where I work more and more, and less where I play. I havn't mushed for weeks... That's kind of sad. Hopefully it is just because there is SO much going on at work.

Could also be because I have Halo II and if I'm "playing", I'm usually playing that. But still... I've got to turn this trend around. I've got a few weeks off at the end of the year, so hopefully I'll get caught up on posting at least!

News: States Ranked - Smartest to Dumbest

Montana is #10 - not too bad. Beats CO which is #21

Election result maps

Here are some pretty interestingelection result maps. Not just the typical ones, but by county and other results. Don't have time to look at them in entirity, but maybe later.

I'm at Herman's Eurpoean Cafe in Cadillac MI. They weren't sure what WiFi was:

Hostess: "Do we have what?"
Me: "WiFi"
H: "I'm not sure. What is it?"
M: "Where you can hook up to the internet?"
H: "Yeah... I think so"

But hey, they do. Very cool. Even if they aren't sure what it is. I'm happy! :)

Aunt Pat and Uncle Ward's

We are up north in MI. Its beautiful here. I'll probably post some pictures, but right now I'm over dial-up so don't want to take the slow bandwidth hit. We are having a GREAT time, just realaxing and hanging out with family we haven't seen for a number of years.

Tina is like a little kid around her relatives. We used to hang out with these guys quite a bit about 20 years ago. Its like we've stepped back in time. She's got her relatives cracking up. (Ed is a great one to get Tina going ;)).

Pat, Ward and I were discussing Pickled Eggs and Beets, Pickled Baloney, and Spare Ribs and Saurkraut this morning. Yup, MI food. :) Love it!

Well that's it for now, just checking in. I do have access to my gmail account, and may go into town and hook up to work via WiFi, but for now I'm just having too much fun not doing anything!

later...

Halo II is pretty cool

Quite the event. Went and picked up Michael around 11:30 then went and stood in line for about an hour. They opened the doors at 12:00, but there was probably a hundred people in line in front of us.

A 16 year old and another "kid" (maybe 20 or so?) were talking to us. What a geek fest. :) "Yeah, I was watching the video game network the other day, 'cuz that's how cool I am" and he laughs. (That was the 16 year old).

Anyway, quite the event. There were some guys that were there since 6:00, drinking soda and eating pizza. We only had to wait an hour, so I think it was worth showing up late.

Lots of talk of playing all night till they beat the game, drinking coffee, not going to school tomorrow. "I bet there will be 200 kids out at Doherty tomorrow, just staying home and playing".

Got home around 12:45. Tina came down stairs to let the dog out. "Are you playing now??", she asked in amazement. "Of course!", I said. Heck, why go and pick it up at midnight!

I played it for 3 hours. Got quite a ways through it. Playing on normal. Its different than the first one. Its taking a little to get used to it. I'm not sure if I like the double weapons or not. I mean they are cool in terms of fire-power, but I'm not used to the display with them yet. The weapons in the other game were second nature.

The story line is pretty cool. Nice video "movies". I've made it up to where I'm now the "Arbitrator"... one of the Elite. How cool to go invisible, weilding the sword that I feard so much in Halo I. I heard the multiplayer games allows one team to be human and one Elite. That should be pretty cool.

Well, that's probably it for now. Don't think I'll have time to play again until after we get back. Was thinking about taking the X-box... but that's probably pushing it. Multiplayer should be cool.

Well... bed time. Up in 3 1/2 hours or so. Have a 9:00 meeting, then last day before vacation is always busy. (Two 2 hour meetings tomorrow). Then home, head up to Steve's to practice for concert on the 20th, come home finish packing (and whatever else I need to do), then up at around 5:30 on Wed to catch the plane. And then sleep. :)

Thanks Teresa and Greg. It was way cool to get it tonight, stand in line, etc. It was "an event". If you're going to live life, might as well do it with passion... In all things. Even playing Halo. :)

Halo II

Halo II comes out in 40 minutes. Going to go get Michael and then get in line.

Yeah, just like that.

So did you see last weeks episode of The OC? You know the scene where Marissa's mom tells her, "Tell me how you feel?" and she replies, "You want to know how I feel? Like this!" and screams for about 2 minutes, then throws the pool furniture into the pool and stomps off.

Yeah, sometimes work can be just like that. But at least I can laugh about it. MI in only 35 hours, 41 minutes and 13 seconds. Cool.

One more day and counting

I start humming
I'm leavin' on a Jet Plane...

Leaving early Wed morning for Aunt Pat and Uncle Wards. 5 days, out of town, not much work (at least at the office), no work for Tina. Just us hanging out and visiting. Can't wait. I'm getting exicited!

BTW: Given the least little bit of motivation (which I may or may not have), I might go into town and get my WiFi fix, checking email, logging into irc and seeing what is going on at work, etc. So... if you need to reach me for some reason, I should be checking my gmail address occasionally.

And given a bit more motivation, I might actually upload some pics to my photoblog! :)

OK - so may its a little messy

I had to push some of the papers on my desk closer to the wall. My mouse pad was starting to creep up on the papers, and it turns out that if you have too many papers under a mouse pad (so that its surface isn't directly on the table and therefore hard underneath), that the mouse starts to lose some traction and isn't as smooth as normal.

Tip of the day for you whose desks might be a little messy. ;)

Mars Rover Get Mystery Power Boost

Opportunity suddently got a power rejuventation.

And the explanation according to User Friendly. :)

Picklist

Haven't been reading blogs for a bit. Went out to Ev's today and noticed that he has a picklist for his archives in his sidebar. If he can do it, so can I. Just need to figure out how. How cool. :) Probably not today, but when I get some time... maybe while on vacation!

Xbox.com :: Halo II Announce

Halo II arrives Nov 9th. Teresa and Greg got me a preordered copy for Pastor Appreciation. How cool! I'll be in line Monday at midnight to pick up my copy. :)

UF SCIENTIST: “BRAIN” IN A DISH ACTS AS AUTOPILOT, LIVING COMPUTER

OK... this just seems a little weird to me. A rat's brain flying a simulated plane?

ABC News: Elections 2004 Coverage

This site has a pretty cool map, that if you hover over a state shows you how many votes each candidate got. This is a little late (seeing as the election was several days ago), but I've been having trouble getting posts via Blogger.

Interesting that for the most part, where Kerry won, he got 50+ percent. But there are a number of states where Bush won by 60+ percent. Bush won Utah with 71%. Kerry only won one state with over 59% and that was his home state of MA with 62%.

Iconwars

Making the rounds. Kind of funny.

SOUTH OF GLORY - HEROES NEVER ASK WHY ep COMING SOON

Web site for Kirby's band. Cool.

El Paso County, Colorado. Clerk and Recorder

I usually try and get an absentee ballot..., but spaced it this year. So I have to go vote at the normal polling place tomorrow. And yeah, I'm not exactly sure where that is.

But looking aound on the web I found this El Paso County Clerk & Recorder Election site. How cool. Fill in some info and it has all my districts, sample ballot, etc. Good stuff! This is a very nice use of the web!

Castle Rock Fire Fighters Local 4116

Hey... maybe I'll win a Harley. That would be cool. :)

Colorado residents: order your free loss-history report

Click on the title to request a free loss-history report. Got mail from my insurance company saying I could request a "free loss-history report" once a year. They gave me a url to http://www.iso.com - but then I had to look around to find out how to get a report.

I still have to download a form, print it, fill it in, and then fax it back. I HATE web sites that are not fully automatted. Sigh. Anyway, might be worth looking into. I'm going to order one, if you are in CO you might want to get one as well.

End of public service announcement. ;)

free wi-fi Michigan hotspots wireless internet access list

Going to Aunt Pat and Uncle Ward's in less than two weeks. I'll be looking for free WiFi access, cause I'm not sure I can deal with dial-up, and I HAVE to be connected. Looks like there some sites just down the road from them!

Also found ConnectedCadillac. Woo hoo. Looking good! :)

free wi-fi Michigan hotspots wireless internet access list

Going to Aunt Pat and Uncle Ward's in less than two weeks. I'll be looking for free WiFi access, cause I'm not sure I can deal with dial-up, and I HAVE to be connected. Looks like there some sites just down the road from them!

Also found ConnectedCadillac. Woo hoo. Looking good! :)

free wi-fi Michigan hotspots wireless internet access list

Going to visit Aunt Pat and Uncle Ward in less than two weeks in MI. Here is a list of free WiFi sites in MI. Some just down the road from them. Woo hoo!

free wi-fi Michigan hotspots wireless internet access list

Woo hoo. Going out to visit Tina's Aunt Pat and Uncle Ward in less than two weeks. Taking my laptop (of course). Worried about high-speed access. (Don't know if I can deal with dial-up any longer). The above site lists free WiFi locations. There are a few in the town just down the road from them. I'm psyched. :)

Sushi and friends pics

Hey, I finally have uploaded some new pictures to my photo blog. We meet on most Sunday nights for food and cards. Spanky suggested we make sushi, so Sunday night I did. Uploaded the pics, thanks to Pastor Joe for taking/sending them! Mostly sushi, but also some people in the background and one of Jamie, Heather and Mac.

I posted a blog entry in the past that told how to post multiple photos at once. I tried it in posting the above and it worked great!

Ballmer: We need a $100 PC | CNET News.com

The Microsoft CEO bristled at the suggestion that Linux is gaining in popularity as a client operating system at the expense of Windows. "There's no appreciable amount of Linux on client systems anywhere in the world," he said.

Just saying it doesn't make it so...

Microsoft Reveals Licensing Plans for Dual-Core Chips

Wow, Microsoft actually does the right thing. Who would have thought?

Morning Thoughts

Thoughts as I sit working in the bedroom, Tina and the dog asleep in the bed next to me:

• Its cool to have WiFi and be able to work anywhere in the house. Even though they she is asleep, it is peaceful to be able to look over and she Tina asleep, her dog laying on the bed next to her.
• Its good to have to think for a living. I remember working manual labor jobs and getting so tired of it and wishing I could have a job that would use my brain. Though it can be stressful at times, it is very cool to get paid to think for a living. Sitting here this morning, writting up design thoughts on a wiki. "What do we need to achive this new functionality. What our our interfaces? How are they consistent with the old interfaces", that kind of stuff. Things I won't actually have to code, but things I'll think up, and then someone else will figure out how to make them work. Its cool.

I've said this many times before, but I'm pretty lucky having multiple "areas of focus" in my life: Family, Work, Church, etc. Usually only one is every having problems at the same time, thus I can always find something "good" to focus on. :)

Have a good day!

Jade

As noted in my previous post, had a few minutes. Did a quick scan of the youth blogs that I follow. Not much posts there lately. So... figured I'd be the first to blog about Jade. :)

Jade played at Murray Street Darts last Friday night. First paying gig. It was a bar, so none of their peers could show up, but there was plenty of us ''older folk'' that did. Parents, friends, etc. It was AWESOME. Sound wasn't great on Michael's vocal, and the bass wasn't loud enough, but it was just cool. Very cool to see them playing. They did a very good job. And they got asked back! Probably because we (those that came to see Jade) made up more than 50% of the crowd. :)

People that didn't know them seemed to like them. They did a few cover tunes and then I think 4 of their own. Anyway, cool stuff. Some very nice guitar work. And Jared is crazy on the drums, which I enjoyed. :)

I don't know at what age you go from "man, this is what I want" to "Hey, I'm so happy for them.", but it was so cool to sit and watch those guys. I felt really proud of them. It was very cool.

Also brought back memories. Been a long time since I've been in a smoke filled bar listening to LOUD music. It was all good.

They are playing again on the 22nd. I'll be there!

viksoe.dk - GMail Drive shell extension

Had a 5 minutes free at lunch, something quite rare lately, and so I decided to surf some blogs. Found this on ev's blog. Wow... what will people think of next. Storing your files as gmail messages. I'd be a bit worried about security (even though I'm not worried about my mail's security... hmm... that doesn't seem right...). But if you've got stuff you just want to store, and aren't too worried if someone else sees it... sounds like a cool idea.

My own web site

I just ordered my own web site... woo hoo. We'll see how it goes. It has a 30 day money back gurantee.

My biggest concern is it only has 50M of space, which seems very small to me (the pack-rat that I am) and it has lots of features I don't need (such as tons of email, sub-domains, etc.). But I figure I'll give it a shot. Mostly I want it to set up my own wiki! And I need some support for that, and they are supposed to have great support. So that is cool.

6 to 12 hours till I get it... I'll be playing with it first thing in the morning. Tina's off on a women's retreat... And I'll be home playing with my new web site. Yeah, I'm a geek. :)

The Seattle Times: Local News: After quakes, steam eruption at Mount St. Helens

"Mount St. Helens belched a roiling plume of white steam and ash today, more than a week after a flurry of earthquakes first warned an eruption was on the way"