Its great to be able to think

Its great to get paid to think, not just do. I'm lucky in that part of my job is to think out of the box. Think of new ways to do things. Push the edge.

Not everyone has that luxury... or at least that is their perception. Some times developer's don't take time to think about "what is right", they are to focused on "getting it done" or "getting it to work".

Following those thoughts (is this really the best way, could we improve this, what does this effect down the road), and concentrating less on how to just make it work; is great. We always try to emphasize, "Yes... it works - that's a given, that's what you get paid for - to make things work... but did you do it correctly?"

I know many people don't get what I do. So - to move it from computers to something more general... the above statement is kind of like building a house (This analogy seem s to work for most people). If you tell someone to build you a new house, and that you want it to have 2 doors, and 10 windows, and 6 rooms, etc... they could do that. But they could do it in a million different ways. They could use poor materials, poor techniques, etc. Even if it all "looks right" and "meets the specs". Many times people say "Its got windows, and I put them where they are supposed to go." - but I ask, "But do they all look the same, the ones you installed and the ones the other guy installed - so the house looks "consistent". And did you use good materials on the south side, so that they don't warp and have to be replaced in 2 years. And are they using the latest "patterns" such that they are easy to maintain, work on, etc." And some times the answers are NO.

• I do it the way I do it, I don't care how someone else does it,
• No, I didn't look at the latest ways of doing it, this is how I've always done it
• It will work for now, I need to get it done, it will take longer to make it last forever

So in a general, comparing software to building a house, that is what I do. Look at the overall, try to figure out the best (or better) way of doing things, and then try to insure that is what people are doing.

Some times its frustruating, but its also cool to see pepole "get it", to see the software improve. To see things move forward.

Wow... lots of rambling today. Thats what I get for getting up at 4:00 and working for a bit but then deciding to blog instead of do more work... :) Well - guess I should get back to it and give your eyes a rest of reading my stuff. :)

Agile vs Waterfall - blowing some steam

The Agile Manifesto states:

We are uncovering better ways of developing
software by doing it and helping others do it.
Through this work we have come to value:

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan

That is, while there is value in the items on
the right, we value the items on the left more.

The main group that I've worked on for the last 10 years tries to follow that manifesto. We may not be truly an "agile" team, and we may not be 100% "XP" (or even 50%)... but we are moving there, and we believe in the above. Lately I've been working with some other people. Mostly doing architecture, participating in some design thoughts, did some prototyping, etc. Helping out and trying to guide... but its their team and they are all forced to follow the standard waterfall process. Which is an extermely rigid. Nothing agile about it.

AND ITS DRIVING ME NUTS.

It is so against the manifesto.

• Process over interactions - no we can't do any coding until the design is 100% complete. And when it is all done, we'll have to manually verify that all interfaces are in sync.
  • Or you could just take the Agile approach and hook some code into the framework and insure that all the tests still work. Not worrying about whether the interfaces work or not, cuz they obviously do since everything compiled and is still working.
  
  
• Comprehensive documentation over working software. Don't make changes as better ways are discovered - instead lets just document it, review it, and then make it later.
  
  • Or you could just updating the code that currently works, make sure it still pasts the tests, and move on. Thus having one less thing to do later, and being able to see how it actually effects the system, and letting people code against the change.
  
  
• Following a plan over responding to change - Don't modify the system based upon user requests, but follow what was originally scoped, no matter what - for fear of scope creep. We can always change it in a later release
  • Or you could make the update right now, be responsive, and see how it effects things, rather than designing and building upon things that you know will eventually change

The manifesto is a great thing, a great way to think, and is trying to move us in the right direction.

I was talking to someone about all of this - and how from a "true" Agile/XP group - they may look at what we do and think "you aren't even close". But as this person said "You don't know how far you've come, until you are forced to look back at where you've been."

How true. I didn't realize how far we've come, until I was forced to work in the old way.

Now, not only working the new way (agile), but having the oppurtunity to compare it to the old way (waterfall) in a real environement, man... I can't ever imagine going back. Its just way too painful.

And a cool thing about process improvement, and new techniques, is that people (at least some people) are starting to realize that there is no "correct" answer. There is only a "better" answer. I believe, as do many others, that Agile/XP is the better answer... right here, right now. (To quote VanHalen). But that doesn't mean 10 years from now it will be. And that is something some people find so hard to understand and work with. "Tell me the correct process, and the one we will use forever. Tell me what it is and then never change it." We (the architects on my projects) keep trying to tell people - things will always change... if we are working towards making them better. Its not that they are bad now, just that they could be better.

Well... guess I should climb down off my soap-box now...

A great Hacker

I've posted about "Norm" before, and lately I posted some stuff about great hackers. Norm is a great hacker. Yesterday at work, we were having a problem, found the defect in the code, and discussed in which releases we'd fix it, when it would be available to our production sites, etc. This caused Tim to post on irc:

Maybe we should just get Norm to patch it in the running executable in production

This based upon a story I told Tim about Norm a long time ago, and that we still occasionally tell. There was this production system that had an issue. Development got involved but could not figure it out. So Norm took a look. He didn't actually work on the system any longer, but had for a point in time. He figured out what was wrong, and also figured out how to patch the running executable in memory - while it was running, in production. He was in his cube right next to mine... All of a sudden he stands up, looks towards some cubes a few rows away and says "They must be all at lunch", sits back down and "patches" the exe.

All of a sudden the user's are saying "Hey... its working now." Support gets back from lunch and some folks are kind of mad - "Hey... did you patch production?" - Norm had this great little kid look, "Who me? Nope. BTW: You might want to fix the code in CM a this line."

Some folks were pretty upset that the customer's problem was fixed... cuz it was done "the wrong way" and it was done "in production".

Norm was (well and I'm sure still is - I just don't work with him any longer to know of his latest exploits) a great hacker because

• He knew his stuff..., extremely well
  
• He almost always cared about "what was right" and hardly ever cared about the red-tape, process, etc. that got in the way of doing the right thing
  
• He evaluated risk vs reward and based his decisions accordingly

Yeah... we could have made the change, and then tested it, and reviewed it, and made a new kit, and deployed it, and taken a system outage... or he could fix it in 30 seconds and have the customer's back up and running.

Way too often, process, management and fear of the unknown (by people who just don't know) gets in the way of "doing the right thing" - to me, hackers hate that.

Anyway, since it came up yesterday, I sent mail to Norm, telling him his legend lives on and why. He responded with:

we all did foolish things in our youth :-)
now I do them as an adult!

Another great hacker attitude. :)

Another reason Great Hackers want to work with other Great Hackers - they make you better. Not only in how they code, but how they think. It infects you. It causes you to think about the "right" thing, rather than the "proper" thing... Many times they are the same, but not always.

Sis is gone

Came down stairs this morning to work. There is an empty table sitting where Arthur's cage was with a loud talking bird. He's gone. Which means Tif is gone. :(

But she called last night and was at her new home, in Tucson, with Brian. Cool for her. It was great having her around for 3 months. But she is back where she belongs. We definately have to go down and see her there. Its been ages since I've been there. Back in... probably '75 or '76 we played in Sierra Vista for 2 weeks. Except for all the bugs, it was a fun time.

PC Advisor - Advertiser sues Google over click fraud

I mentioned this a while back, but figured it was worth posting again. Someone will always figure out how to commit fraud against something. One reason we'll always be in business.

Independence Day

Jaime and I were up before anybody else, so we decided (after I went and got the macaroni and McDonalds) to watch Independence Day. We originally say it, with Tif, at the Centennial in Denver. I think it opened on the 2nd (same as the first day of the movie) and we headed up, figuring we'd maybe have to wait in line and go to a later shown. People just laughed at us, thinking we'd get tickets for THAT day... the line had been several blocks long the day before. But we stayed in line, got tickets for the next day, and went and say it on the 3rd.

We then got it on video and I've seen it several times since then, but Jaime had only seen it that one time. Brought back some "childhood" memories... although to me it was "just a little while ago". I guess that's the difference between a 46 year old looking back 9 years, and an 18 year old. Half her life - wow, goes by so fast.

Anyway, we watched it and I said, "You know, we should do this every year. You can bring the kids over and we can all watch the movie" (I'm a BIG fan of tradition), she just kind of looked at me, "I don't have kids" - "Well you know, some day!" :)

Tif eventually got up and watched the last half with us. It was a good day. Yeah... I think we'll do it every year, us, the kids, the grandkids, macaroni salad, Grandpa (that would be me) telling the "Yeeesss... Macaroni for the 4th of July" story for the 100th time, the grandkids rolling their eyes and giggling, corn on the cob, steaks. Yup... I like my life and where it is going. :)

Police Chase

Heading down Woodmen, where it is a pretty good hill, heading down towards Austin Bluffs, (returning with my bag of macaroni). There is a guy on a cafe racer screaming up the hill, wide open, going fast. Laying fairly flat, glancing back over his arm down hill. I glance down hill, and there is a cop coming up the hill, lights and sirens, kind of stuck behind two cars. I glance in my mirror and the bike is already crested the hill and gone, and the cop isn't making too much ground. The bike has at least a 1/4 mile on the guy.

As I get to the bottom of the hill, here comes another cop, lights and sirens, turning off Austin Bluffs onto Woodmen, a good 1/4 mile behind the first cop - helping in the pursuit I presume.

I get home about 3 minutes later, and as I'm getting out of the Jeep, I can still hear the sirens going.

I'd say he had about a 50/50 chance of getting away, depending on how quick he hit a side street, how much traffic there was, how many other cops joined in the prusuit.

What a way to spend the 4th... for all of them. High speed prusuit, lots of traffic out, etc. Having been in that kind of situation before when I was MUCH younger, I don't envy any of them. Sent up a prayer, hope nobody got hurt.

A Napoleon Dynamite moment

Yesterday Tina wanted Macaroni Salad for breakfast - and Jaime wanted McDonalds. We didn't have any macaroni, so I figured I'd just dash into King Soopers, grab a bag (they have a FMV brand that is only 99 cents, and it just as good as any of the other), then hit McDonalds. That way I wouldn't be gone too long.

So I go in, get the bag, get in line and wait for the person in front of me to get checked out. The cashier is a girl about 19 or so. She finishes with the person in front of me...

C: Looks up at me, "Did you find everything you were looking for?"
M: Yes
C: Looks down at the ledge where you can sit your groceries, picks up the one bag of macaroni, then looks back at me, "Is this it?"
M: Yes
C: In a great Napoleon Dynamite voice, "Yeeesss. Macaroni for the 4th of July", and then with a little bit of pity in her voice, "Well... some days are just like that".

Aside from the missing arm pump, it was a great ND phrase. The "Yes" was perfect. I thought about explaining the whole thing, 'cuz I figured she thought maybe that was all I could afford, etc... But then I decided it would ruin the whole ND moment... and it was just too priceless to ruin. So I just kind of grinned at her, said, "Yup", took my macaroni and headed out.

Just cracked me up. I get sooo many ND moments from Jaime and her friends, but not from a total stranger. I'm still laughing about it.

Great Hackers

Great Hackers: "If you want to get real work done in an office with cubicles, you have two options: work at home, or come in early or late or on a weekend, when no one else is there."

Hmm... and I get most of my work done early in the morning or on the weekend, when I can work from home. In fact, some times I'm getting so much work done at home that I don't even get to the office until 11:00. That used to tick people off, until they realized that making me come into work by 9:00 just caused me to do less "real" work.

Great Hackers

Ordinary programmers write code to pay the bills. Great hackers think of it as something they do for fun, and which they're delighted to find people will pay them for.

I don't know if I'm a great hacker, but I'm a good hacker. And I love that I get paid for what I do... which is why I was up at 4:45 this morning and worked for about 3 hours. Not because I was getting paid for it... since I've already got in way too many hours this week. And not because someone asked me to do it... since the problem I was working on was something that no one asked me to do, but just something I thought needed to be done. And besides... it was a cool thing. Someone did a transactions per second comparison between a home-grown query system and Oracle, and they had brushed aside MySQL. I had heard it was good, light-weight and fast. I've never done any MySQL programming from C++... but how hard code it be? So I wrote a program to create 10 million rows of data, and another program to do 10 thousand random queires. Then I loaded it all up and tested it. I got some impressive numbers. In any case, the point being, it wasn't that I was getting paid for it, or that someone asked me to do it... it was just a cool problem and something that sounded fun. So I did it :)

And I just got a promotion recently... which goes to prove, find something you really love, that you are good at, and start solving problems. Eventually someone will notice, and you'll start getting paid, fairly well - for something you'd do for free if you didn't have to earn a living.

One final note - I know I've posted stuff from Paul Graham before - probably this article. But if you are into programming at all, or want to know what makes them tick, you should read Great Hackers. And if you've read it before... go read it again. I consider myself a hacker - as it defines hacker. And I consider the best people I work with hackers as well. If you're going to program, be a hacker. Doing it as a job is just a drag - and anyway, it really drives the hackers nuts.

What?

In case I never mentioned it, I hate answering the phone. Its usually not for me, and I'm not a real "small talk" kind of person.

Anyway - it Saturday morning. Jaime is already gone and Tif and Tina are sleeping. I've been up for hours. The phone rings. I need to get it because I don't want it to wake up Tina.

It rings
I jump up, grab it and hit the on button
I hear, "Hello" - oh... someone must be up and answered it
I start to set it down and it rings again
What?? - I push the button again, so it won't ring again, and then I realize

IT WAS ARTHUR - the bird. Yeah... when the phone rings, he says, "Hello?"

Cracked me up. I should have known, he's been talking to me all morning. I just didn't expect it. :) Maybe next time I'll just let him talk to whoever is on the phone. ;)

Kids - how amazing

Jaime left a comment on one of my blog entries - which automatically gets mailed to me. Nothing special, just kind of a tease. I saw she had sent something, opened it and read it, and got all warm feeling inside. Wow... its just kind of amazing how much you can love your kids that just having them blog something back to you makes your heart warm.

I'm so lucky to have some a wonderful family. Love you girls!

AT&T to drop third-party security for its own software - Computerworld

Make sense to me.

My Philosophy of Worship

When I was starting out, my dad, who was a musician told me, that "You should play each night as if it was your last, knowing you'll be playing forever." Alex VanHalen

Yeah... that pretty much sums it up.

Overheard Conversation

Someone at work was in his boss' office talking about a stolen credit card. He lent the card to his daughter, someone stole it from her, and Friday night charged $800 on it.

If it had been stolen from him, the bank would have covered it. But he gave it to his daughter and it was stolen from her, so its not covered...

Something to keep in mind.

Justices reject Ten Commandments at courthouses

Sigh

Robert J. Lang Origami

That's pretty cool.

L.A. Times Suspends 'Wikitorials' - Yahoo! News

This rocks. Not that they had to suspend it because of all the inappropriate use, but that they tried it at all. And that many people used it appropriately. It will happen. I love to see this kind of thing.

WSJ.com - Portals

"Explanations about the source of the Internet's phishing epidemic often involve exotic tales of Asian gangs or the Russian Mafia. It turns out, though, that your average phisher is much more likely to be someone like 'C-Power,' who is probably a teenager somewhere overseas with a computer in his bedroom and a lot of alarming friends in his buddy lists."

iWon

Wow... I signed up for this in the beginning, when there were all kinds of giveaway sites. Then I forgot all about it. The winner for today is a friend of mine! I'll have to check this out and see if I'm still there somewhere...

Science & Technology at Scientific American.com: Inconstant Constants -- [ COSMOLOGY ] -- Do the inner workings of nature change with time?

"One ratio of particular interest combines the velocity of light, c, the electric charge on a single electron, e, Planck's constant, h, and the so-called vacuum permittivity, 0. This famous quantity, = e2/20hc, called the fine-structure constant, was first introduced in 1916 by Arnold Sommerfeld, a pioneer in applying the theory of quantum mechanics to electromagnetism. It quantifies the relativistic (c) and quantum (h) qualities of electromagnetic (e) interactions involving charged particles in empty space (0). Measured to be equal to 1/137.03599976, or approximately 1/137, has endowed the number 137 with a legendary status among physicists (it usually opens the combination locks on their briefcases)."

Just kind of funny what numbers have meaning to different people, and that a whole class of people would pick some number like this as a password. I'm sure its true in other fields as well, I've just never heard of it before or stopped to think about it. You think IRS people use some combination of 1040 for their passwords?

Michael Jackson Is Acquitted on All Counts in Molestation Case - New York Times

"Michael Jackson was acquitted today of all charges in connection with accusations that he molested a 13-year-old boy he had befriended as the youth was recovering from cancer in 2003."

In case you hadn't heard...

The Techgurus Blog ? Blog Archive ? First time with the Acrylic Beta from Microsoft

Ran across this. Acrylic is Microsofts answer to Photoshop. I don't use Photoshop, but I know some readers do, so figured I'd post this. This is just one person's prespective, but its always good to see what others think. I didn't read the entire article. It is beta, so some bugs should be expected... but it should be close to being done.

BBC NEWS | Technology | Jackson suicide spam hides virus

The message hopes to catch people's attention because of the huge interest in the on-going child abuse trial.
The fake message contains a web link that supposedly links to Mr Jackson's suicide note.
But anyone clicking on the link will have their PC invaded by a virus that gives others access to that machine.

komo news | 'This Is Not Right'

"DES MOINES - Cecilia Beaman is a 57-year-old grandmother, a principal at Pacific Middle School in Des Moines, and as of Sunday is also a suspected terrorist."

So much for common sense...

Wired News: Hollywood Orders: Apple Wed Intel

More on Apple's running on Intel

Apple to Use Intel Microprocessors Beginning in 2006

"Apple announced plans to deliver models of its Macintosh computers using Intel microprocessors by this time next year, and to transition all of its Macs to using Intel microprocessors by the end of 2007."

Gears of War - Xbox 360 Screenshot Gallery - TIME Magazine

Some very cool shots and commentary on the new Xbox 360 console and games. Available around Thanksgiving of this year - in time for Xmas purchasing.

I'm such a geek

In addition to my normal tasks, I'm now a part of another team as well. I'm serving in the role of architect on a new project. One we hope to get a patent on (which would be cool). For now we are meeting to discuss the application, interfaces, etc.

The task that Terry and I have for this week is to flesh out the API and create the initial collaboration diagrams. So I've been mostly holed up in a conference room all day yesterday (and probably most of today), doing Object Modeling with Rational Rose, focusing on class diagrams and collaboration diagrams. I moved my monitor and keyboard down to the room instead of just using my laptop. Anyway, modeling, drawing things on the whiteboards, recording this on the wiki, and creating jpg files for the diagrams and uploading them to the wiki as well. Using the wiki so that we can post fairly real-time progress, and get feedback as quick as possible.

Why am I a geek? Because I'm LOVING this. Its been a while since I've done any modeling, and its just so cool. And last time I did it, most of it was communicated via Word... and now we're using the wiki. It is just that cool. I'm happy.

CNN.com - Microsoft: MSN site hacked in South Korea - Jun 2, 2005

"WASHINGTON (AP) -- Microsoft acknowledges that hackers booby-trapped its MSN Web site in South Korea to steal passwords from visitors. The company says it was unclear how many Internet users might have been victimized."

Blogger - thanks again

And thanks go out again to Blogger for their "system upgrades". I'm just loving how fast posting is.

For someone who worked on a 300 baud transport into the company databases, its just mind blowing to be sitting in my dinning room, not hooked to any wires, and be adding articles to the internet at this kind of speed. One of the nice things about getting old, you really appreciate advances in technology. And the speed of the computer, transport, etc. is only going to increase. How cool.

[ISN] BT Turns Sheriff On Lawbreakers To Stop Fraud

"'MCI is still cooperating on many aspects of Sheriff,' said Cooper, adding that the company is still expected to deploy the system this year."

Yeah... "still cooperating". For legal reasons (even though this is my personal, non-company related, disclaimer, disclaimer, disclaimer, blog) I'll avoid saying anything else.

But it is an article that has been released and is out there for anyone to read. Gives more details on the system than most google hits.

MCI NL

"Beginning next month, MCI will deliver an anti-fraud solution for its Remote Access customers that allows for the proactive identification, notification and termination of fraudulent customer traffic, which occurs when an end user's account is compromised by an unauthorized user. This unique MCI network enhancement provides customers with 24/7 protection via the company's patented and proven anti-fraud system, MCI Sheriff."

And another annoucement, from the company web site.

MCI aims to make remote access more secure

"MCI says by midyear it will make fraud protection available as a standard part of its dial-up and Wi-Fi-based remote-access services. The new MCI Sheriff technology has been designed to spot fraudulent traffic, such as simultaneous sign-ons, users who are over their traffic limit or traffic originating from certain countries."

And another article. :) - Hey... its my blog. I can be self-promoting if I want. :)

MCI adds SSL VPN, boosts secure remote access - Computerworld

"In May, the company plans to begin offering antifraud protection for Remote Access customers. The new features will use patented antifraud technology called 'MCI Sheriff' to spot fraudulent traffic generated when a user's account is hijacked by an unauthorized user, MCI said."

'MCI Sheriff', yup, that's the system I've worked on for 10 years. It makes the news. How cool! :)

TIME.com: It's a Wiki, Wiki World -- Jun. 06, 2005

"Inspired by Wikipedia, a Silicon Valley start-up called Socialtext has helped set up wikis at a hundred companies, including Nokia and Kodak."

And I've been using a wiki for a number of years. Yup, they are definately cool.

The ugliness has to go somewhere

"The ugliness has to go somewhere" - one of our standard design principles. Given there is some complex (or ugly) code that has to be done... do you put it in the client or in the supplier? If you put it in the supplier, then every client gets it for free. If you don't put it in the supplier, so that your class, function, etc. can remain "pretty" and simple, then every client needs to do it. Overall, putting the ugliness in the supplier makes the overall system easier to understand. For some reason not everyone gets this. But its something we pretty much live by.

I had someone ask me yesterday, who had been working on a class for a couple of weeks. "Was all of this that much easier than just the 15 lines of code that I could have hardcoded to accomplish this?" - In other words - was this worth all the effort, given it would replace 15 lines of code with a couple?

And in almost all cases, the answer to that is Yes. For one thing, it took the person a couple of weeks because they are new to OO design and to using COOL (CLIPS' OO language). So it was a good learning experience. But in addition to that

• The functionality is now encapsulated in one place, so can be maintained and performance tuned in that one place. This is better, even if the code is more complex because it is generic and meets several needs.
• The functionality, which is complex at times, is now encapsulated in an interface. Therefore, people that want to use the functionality only need to use the simple interface, they don't need to solve the problem or figure out how someone else solved it and copy/paste the code. This serves as a form of documentation as well, which is also a very good thing.

I've heard it said before, "A programmer is someone who will spend 2 hours coding sometihng that will save them 15 minutes." - To some extent that is true - and if that is all it was, it would be a waste of time. But factor in learning, reuse and maintainability, and it is often times the way to go.

WSJ.com - Blogging Becomes A Corporate Job; Digital 'Handshake'?

Paid to be a blogger. That's cool. :)

Private records discovered on server

More and more, protecting private information is becoming a hot topic. At least in the circles I move in.

05.24.2005 - Dainty pink Mt. Diablo buckwheat rediscovered

"BERKELEY – A petite pink flower that hasn't been seen in 70 years has been rediscovered on the flanks of Mount Diablo in Contra Costa County by a University of California, Berkeley, graduate student."

That's kind of cool.

Minnesota court takes dim view of encryption | CNET News.com

A Minnesota appeals court has ruled that the presence of encryption software on a computer may be viewed as evidence of criminal intent.

Well that's just stupid...

Hatter Tea

Elizabeth Sharp has a picture site. There are pictures of Alan and Melissa's wedding, as well as pictures of the BABY! Wow... he is so cute.

And then there is a great picture of Melissa and Aiden. Yeah... she really looks like she just had a baby huh?

Way to go Alan and Melissa. Congrats!

Emily Terbush: Uuuuuuupdate

The following is via email from Emily. She is in YWAM in Lakeside, MT on staff for a production of Peace Child. This letter is so Emily, as are all her letters. So I just had to post it. :)

Hello everyone!

Can you tell by the subject that this keyboard has
issues?

So here is the latest on me and my fun YWAM existance!

Yesterday, I made lunch for 200 people! And some of
you may say "but Emily, I know you can't cook! How did
this come about?" And to that I would say "I have no
clue but apparently no one died and that's all that
matters!" Hee hee!

But, I shall soon be leavng the kitchen and my title
as salad bar queen to be in what is known as
housekeeping! I actually do like this job though! Some
people may think that scrubbing toilets is a very
unglamorous job but, when you do it everyday it really
isn't that gross! I have been a part of housekeeping
for every school that I have been a student in! And
now it has come full circle! I shall be in charge and
instructing fun summer students in the way of "if you
can't kiss it, it ain't clean!" Oh the joy of it all!
Exciting!

I finally have a roommate! Her name is Megan Chase!
She is tall and has very short red hair! She is quiet
yet talkative, enjoys reading, singing, skipping and
cool walks on the beach! :) She is very fun and I
enjoy her thoroughly! Although, her bed is almost as
tall as I am and sadly that is no exageration! Funny!

I am countng down the days till my dear
friend/co-worker/swinging in the park buddy Amber
leaves! Only 24 days left! Nooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Please pray for sanity for both of us as we have not
really been separated for the past 2 years! Very sad!

Our directors, Chris and Cara, have only one more
month before their baby girl is born so please keep
them in prayer as their lives will become completely
different! In the mean time please pray for Me, Anne,
Amber and Kirsten as we are planning a fun, out of the
ordinary baby shower/luau/limbo competition!

My dance training is going well! As I may have told
some of you, we take 4 dance classes a week, one of
them being tumbling! I am now able to stay in a
handstand for up to 6 seconds (results not common) and
I can do a front walkover (but only on the grass! The
wood floor in the gym scares me!) Hooray!

My 3-5 year old's are starting to learn their dance
for the recital in July! They are going to be tigers!
YAY! So that should be very cute! As they can not
remember a thing though, I have to be in their dance
as well! I am their tiger trainer so I will guide them
as they do fun tricks and try to scare all of the
audience! Fun times!

My job as dance recruiter is going alright as well! I
have 9 dancers who are interested so we'll see what
happens with them!

Also, drum roll please . . . we have our 1st booking
for our 2006 tour! YAY! Somewhere called Baker,
Montana! North east so I have been told! Exciting! If
you or anyone you know would like to have Peace Child
come to your city, let me know!!!! I would love to
come visit you all! We are trying very hard to go east
this year so pray for favor for that too!

So that's pretty much it! Life is good! God is good!
The grass is green and there's lots of rain which
makes me happy! YAY! Thanks for your prayers and
support!

Emily

Wired News: Wright Hopes to Spore Another Hit

The whole concept was dependent upon this technology that did not exist, what I'm calling procedural animation. The fact that the player can create any creature, and then we figure out how it would walk and move and behave.

I think I've played one Sim game since the original. I may have to check this out.

Wired News: Want a Coke With That Railgun?

In-game ads in 2003 were worth a mere $30 million, compared to roughly $8.5 billion spent on internet advertising, Goodman said. But this year, that number will rise to $71.9 million, and by 2009 it will skyrocket to $562.5 million, he said.

BlogThis is very fast today

I've blogged a number of articles today, using BlogThis in my toolbar. Usually it takes a little while to come up, and then publishing it takes some time. Today publishing has take a few seconds... I don't know if Blogger did something or not... but if they did - Thanks!

Ah... after looking around found:

---

Scheduled Good Times

Blogger feeling snappier? The previously scheduled maintenance has resulted in a faster, better blogging experience for you, your friends, your relatives, your coworkers, and your fellow bloggers so post away my friends. Post away!

– Biz [5/16/2005 05:33:00 PM]

---

Cound't easily find where to send "Thanks" - there was troubleshooting, but I didn't want to send a bug report... So I'll just say it here again. Thanks :)

CNN.com - Reid: 'I am at war with your country' - Jan. 31, 2003

Sent a copy of this around in mail. This is the actual transcript as repoted on CNN.com.

heraldsun.com: IBM, colleges: More top students needed

With a critical shortage of Information Technology workers projected in the coming years, it's crucial that university computer science departments do all they can to attract top students to the field, a local IBM official said Tuesday.

That seems like it would be good news for those of us in IT. Well... bittersweet perhaps. Supply and demand would suggest that our salaries will go up. On the other hand, not having fresh new people come into an organization is always a drag.

I don't fully understand though how this all aligns with the whole off-shore/outsourcing strategies. But maybe it is driving part of it. As demand increases and supply decreases, it drives salaries up, and thus drives companies to look elsewhere to fill the demand.

But as it has been suggested in numerous articles, that just means that you stay in demand by increasing your skills, such that you can't easily be replaced by off-shore/outsourcing.

OK... back to work.

About Google's Schmidt - Part 2 :: AO

Schmidt: Well, I think the evidence is that more information is almost always the right answer to every question. My view is that the cure to the problem of free speech is more free speech, not less. And Google exists in order to further that outcome, which is more communication.
This was from part 2 - you should start with part 1, but I liked the above quote.

Google Labs - Personalize Your Hompage

New from Google Labs, the ability to personalize your homepage. Similar to homepages on Yahoo and other portals.

Yeah - that was easy and pretty cool. :)

Google CEO defends privacy policies | CNET News.com

Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt acknowledged that his company's search engine can ruffle privacy feathers, but said the company's technology doesn't violate the company's founding motto, "Don't be evil."

No, I'm not crazy

One of the pitfalls of working at home is that there is no one to talk to. So sometimes you just talk to yourself... But then you get in the habit of doing it.

So I'm sitting in my cube, "Hmm... bug 306? Yeah, I think it was bug 306" and realize that I'm saying that outloud and the people around me may think that is weird.

I just have to repeat to myself - "I'm at work not home, I'm at work not home." ;)

Google window-shops for VoIP | CNET News.com

Rumors of Google entering the Voice over IP arena.

Mars Rover Still Stuck in Sand, May Start Inching Out

Drag. Hopefully it will get out!

Key-loggers the new phisherman's friend - vnunet.com

Yet another thing to watch out for on your computer.

Click Fraud: State of the Industry, Part I - Pay Per Click Analyst |PPCA|

A "new" form of fraud. Who would have thought... I'm too busy helping fight fraud to think about new ways of actually committing it. :) Interesting stuff.

My baby is back

I know that stress is a bad thing and all that, but I never realized how much.

Tina stepped down as Associate Pastor... what, 2 or 3 weeks ago? She is like a whole new person. I think I blogged how the kids thought she looked younger. But its more than that. She has stepped back in time. I got my wife back and I'm so happy. I never realized the extent to which she had changed. She smiles now and her eyes twinkle and she just looks at me like... like she used to. I'm so incredibly happy and glad to see her again. And I never even realized she had left.

Who would have thought. Work (and that is what being a pastor is much of the time, but its more than that because "its for God" and because "you can't hurt the people", etc., etc. So the stress is even more than a "normal" job) can eat you up and change you. I'm also glad that with all the stress that is in my job, I still really enjoy it and can find pleasure it in much of the time.

Anyway... welcome back babe, glad to see you again.

Profile change

Had to change my profile because:

• Tina stepped down as Associate Pastor
  
• Jaime decided not to move out so is back home. Yay!
  
• Tiffany is home now (and has been for a month. Yay!

Worship - you have to Lose Yourself

So I think about worship alot, as you've probably gatered if you follow this blog at all. And as I've said before, its all about passion and going for it. Sometimes I have that reinforced in the strangest ways. :)

So I'm listening to Lose Yourself by Eminem, and I start thinking, "Man, the chorus so applies to worship!

You better lose yourself in the music, the moment
You own it, you better never let it go
You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow
This opportunity comes once in a lifetime yo

You better lose yourself in the music, the moment
You own it, you better never let it go
You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow
This opportunity comes once in a lifetime you better,

You can do anything you set your mind to, man

So... how does that apply to workship?

• You better lose yourself in the music, the moment - you have to be able to block out everything around you and just go for it. There's no congregation, there's no issues at work, home, church, wherever. There's no - what's for lunch, what's the service going to be about, what are we doing later. There's just now. That's it. The music, the team, and God.
  
• You own it, you better never let it go. You don't worry if you are doing good enough, the right thing, whatever. Its you, and you are worshipping God and you just follow the Holy Spirit and go where he says.
  
• You only get one shot, do not miss your change to blow Life and circumstances are fragile. This moment will never happen again. Don't pass it up. Who knows if everyone on the team will be here next week. Who knows if you'll ever play with these people again? This may be your last shot to worship like this, so go all out.
  
• This opportunity comes once in a lifetime you better. Again, you never know. This moment, this leading of the Holy Spirit, each time is different. You better take advantage of it.
• You can do anything you set your mind to, man. And that is always true with worship.

You can do anything when it is you and God. The team matters, in that you are flowing with them. And the congregation matters, to the extent you let them. Eminem said something like, "Its all about the battle. And you can't lose it. Folks will say "If you lose, just go back and try again." But that's not it. If you lose, its over. You've failed. It doesn't matter if you are playing for 20 people or 200 people, its all the same."

And that can apply to worship. You live in the moment. It doesn't matter if you are doing worship and there are 20 people there or 200... because they shouldn't matter. What matters is you and God. And he's always there.

So you never think, "Today doesn't feel good - but I'll make it up some other time." You ALWAYS live in the moment and Lose Yourself in it, with Him.

InformationWeek > Software Quality > IT Execs To Vendors: Your Software Stinks > April 28, 2005

A panel of IT execs at Sand Hill Group's Software 2005 conference in Santa Clara, Calif., said the software industry needs to build higher-quality software and closer relationships with customers.

And yet there is still a disturbing focus on just "getting it to work" vs "doing it right". An issue, imo, is that "getting it to work", especially in complex systems can be very hard to quantify. Just because a test case passes doesn't mean the entire system is clean, it just means that one test worked. On the other hand "doing it right" often provides you with a simplier system doing a complex task, and makes it easier to spot issues, find defects later, etc. But many people just don't get it.

Military Photo album

Some cool military photos

Hard-Working Mars Rovers: On the Scent Of Science

Very cool. A nice up-close shot of the surface.

Top Thrill Dragster

420 feet and 120 MPH roller coaster. Yikes.

ABC News: Constantine Knocked Off 'American Idol'

"Abdul, who had been Maroulis' biggest supporter, was even shown crying, tears streaming down her face. She had earlier proclaimed him 'the one to beat.'"

And she's not the only one. Jaime was sobbing.

"I was stunned too. I thought he did pretty back last night, but I can't believe he got voted off. I thought he was going to at least make it into the final three....

Maroulis' exit came less than a week after Koch Records announced that the label would release his old band's pre-`Idol' album."

Well that's cool anyway.

Pair float idea to send jobs offshore

Park a boat just off the shore and hire developer's to work "offshore". Hmm...

IM virus

There are some IM viruses going around right now. Don't have time to find actual links to articles... but if you are using IM or MS Messenger, and you get a message with a link "Hey check this out" or "rofl: is this you", etc. (I would avoid any links) - don't click on it.

The virus looks like it comes from someone you know, and if you click it then not only do you get the virus but it starts impersonating you to other people.

I have second-hand knowledge of this actually occuring (I only use irc so don't have this problem). Just passing this along because I know several of my readers us IM extensively - and hopefully my daughter reads this before infecting our home computer...)

Batching it

I'm home along, unless Jaimer comes over to hang out and watch TiVo. So... this means amoung other things that I'm not getting much sleep, and I'm eating whatever I want.

Last night it was "Philly Cheese Steak Saugsage Tacos". :) Yum.

And this morning I'm sitting in the living room, working, and Arthur is chatting up a storm. He cracks me up. Usually he just contact calls and says a few things... but he is talking non-stop. Most of it I can't understand. Kind of like having a little kid sitting in the room, talking away in a language you can't understand. But he did the clearest "Whatcha doing?" that I'ver heard so far. He is so cute. :)

And sometimes I'll say "What?" And he'll repeat the same phrase, like "duh... what did you think I said?" ;)

Ok.... back to work.

The Dark Side

Jumped into Tif's car to move it, since she isn't here right now, and her satellite radio starting blaring Country/Western music.

Its a sad day when you find out your child has gone to the dark side...

Hopefully it was just a glitch and it was supposed to be on a ROCK station.

C creator upbeat on its future | CNET News.com

"C++ is bigger than ever," Stroustrup said. "There are more than 3 million C++ programmers. Everywhere I look there has been an uprising--more and more projects are using C++. A lot of teaching was going to Java, but more are teaching C++ again. There has been a backlash."

I'm a C++ developer, and proud of it. :)

Timeless Friends

I've send this before, but whenever it happens I mention it again.

In life you have a few friends that are just always there. You may not speak to them all the time (especially if you are like me, busy, caught up on things, not a great letter writer, etc.), but you know they are there. And every now and then you reach out, and you know they'll be there. Lunch, coffee, and email, whatever.

Some of them read your blog (if you are a blogger) and every now and then drop a "Hey, thinking of you, prayer for you", etc.

Its a very cool thing. I'm very glad I'm blessed with friends like that. (And thanks! You know who you are!)

Worship - Facedown

Worship practice the last few weeks have been awesome... I can't remember if I blogged some of this or not. Lately I've been thinking about blogging certain things but then never get around to it. I skimmed my last few posts and didn't see anything, so forgive me if I missed it. :)

Like I was saying, worship practice has been awesome. For one, its sooo cool to have Jaime on the team. We ride together and so its always cool to talk about on the way home. Because we've been having such great "presence of God" times of worship, its been cool to just talk about worship, free praise, what worship (in a musical sense) is, etc.

We've been working on Matt Redman's (I think) Facedown. An *awesome* soul wrenching (as Jaime would say) worship song. It just *grabs* you. We'll start working on it, and then its 45 minutes later, people have been in the presence of God, words have been giving, new songs have been sung. Its just what its all about. Those times just rock.

I love this quote from Jaime, "Its one of those songs that just causes you to immediately start worshipping. We'll start it and I'll be off worshipping and then Miss Teresa will stop the song to work on something and I'll be like, 'Oh yeah - we are practicing'". When you can go *there*, that quick, and forget where you are or what you are doing... Yeah, that's an awesome thing.

Anyway, with everything else that is going on in life, it has been an awesome time. And that is how it is supposed to be. Spending time with God and just worshipping him - that's where we are supposed to go when we have troubles or are down. That's what David was talking about when he was speaking of a refuge, shadow of his wing, secret place, etc.

ABC News: Controversial German Cardinal Elected Pope

Wow... he's 78.

Because that is who she is

So... haven't blogged much (any?) about this, because I don't like blogging about difficult things, but Tina has stepped down as Associate Pastor. Her last day was yesterday. Rough decision, lots of crying, stress, etc. - hard times once the decision was made, clearing out her office, etc. But it was all for the best. Had to set that context...

So, even though Tina is "no longer a pastor" - well she just is. This morning I heard her on the phone ministering to someone and I thought, "Hey... you don't do that any more." - some of the issue was boundries, working days off, etc.; so I'm protective of her still being in that role. Anyway, as I caught part of it I realized it was a relative - not someone from church.

Then I remembered something Tom and Jennifer have talked about before. Tina is a pastor because... she just is. That is who she is. It has nothing to do with job title, or stepping down, etc. Its who God made her to be and who she is. She's always ministered to her family, walked them through biblical issues, discussions, counseled, lent her wisdom to situations, etc. And the fact that she has "stepped down", isn't going to change any of that.

She won't have the stress, politics, etc. of it being "her job" - but its still her calling. And that's a cool thing - even if it is still 24 x 7.

Ted Nugent to Fellow NRAers; Get Hardcore

Ted would have fit will in the Wild West.

CNN.com - MIT students pull prank on conference - Apr 14, 2005

Research paper generator :)

It's impressive, scary to see what a Zaba search can do

ZabaSearch - the more the internet grows, the easier it becomes to find information.

CBS News | Live Leech Hid In Woman's Sinus | April 8, 2005 11:00:04

ok... that was really gross.

Cancellations.com - Weather Closings

Found cancellations.com this morning while trying to see if I could post a cancellation for the church - since it is blizzarding and church was closed. I couldn't, becuase you have to register ahead of time. But a very cool thing. I'm going to get the church to set it up then we can use it for cancellations and even announcements. If you've got an ogranization, try it out!

Oh My Gosh

Its 7AM, Tif and I are working on our computers... and "the kids" are all rambunctiously playing... Belle and Tink are playing, Belle whining and Tink growling, and now Belle is chewing on her squeaky toy, which is making noise. And Aurthur is in the other room imitating the microwave, so he is making a high picthed tone every minute or so.

Welcome to the menagerie - Belle and Tink are minature schnauzers and Aurther is a brown-headed poicephalus.

Yahoo! News - Software Firm Has Fun on April Fool's

Geek humor. :)

Qwest raises bid for MCI to $8.9B - Mar. 31, 2005

And the bidding war continues...

Excite News: Like Something Out of a Cartoon...

You've just got to love what they are doing with AI and computers these days. :)

Quote of the day

Seen on a quotes on standards page:

If the idiots hate you, it proves you're not one of them! Ted Nugent

Yup... just one of those kind of days.

Quote of the day

Seen on a quotes on standards page:

If the idiots hate you, it proves you're not one of them! Ted Nugent

Yup... just one of those kind of days.

Food is good due to taste, not always because its fancy

Tina and Jaime were cracking up at me last night because I was going on and on about dinner. We had meatloaf. I love Tina's meatloaf. I mean, really love it.

They just thought it was funny because a few days ago I was eating baked Camembert(sp?) Cheese and Roasted Chilean Sea Bass, and now I'm going on and on about meatloaf.

Hey.. I don't care if its fancy or plain. I like what I life beacuase of ingredients, taste, texture, etc. And Tina's meatloaf just rocks my world. :)

Had it for dinner, sandwhich for breakfast, and am about to go make another for lunch. Yeah... its THAT good. :)

Love ya babe!

Catching up

So... as commented on numerous times on this blog, I have been very busy for quite some time now, and am just not blogging like I used to. Neither writting blogs nro reading blogs. And Mozilla/Blogger are acting a bit weird today. (Caching or something... not sure).

Anyway, took some time off from working to write a few blogs and then figured I'd go read a few. Clicked on my Links and they didn't expand. Kind of freaked me out for a second... but I know some of the urls by heart, so just went and read some. The result:

• Something weird was up, because they are actually there... once I refreshed my page. But I should list them somewhere just in case they do go away some day,
• And I realized how much I miss some people. And again it struck me how weird it is to miss someone I don't really know, but whose life I have shared by reading their blog. And even weirder, they aren't somebody who holds my own beliefs, values (perhaps), etc... but I still really like them. Kind of like family, long time friends or something. Maybe that's just me being intraverted. "Close" to someone I don't really know, and how doesn't know me at all.

Regardless, it was cool to get caught up... even if it was only partially and even if I had to cut it short and get back to work. Still cool and reminds me that I really need to do this more.

Is that pile of clothes talking to me?

I usually get up early in the morning and start working. My eyes aren't too focused yet... I think its part of having my eyes lasered. Sometimes it takes a while for my brain to interpret what my eyes are seeing. I just stumble down, log in (which takes a while do to whatever software they run on our laptops, plus bringing up VPN, etc.) and by then my eyes/brain is working and I check to see what has happened since the last time I was on.

Anyway, this morning I step out of our room and into the hall. Right across the hall is Jaime's bathroom. She has the door open and is working on her hair. There is a pile of clothes right outside her door which makes it kind of hard for me to step into the hall. I don't find this unusual, as a) she tends to pile things all over (something she gets from her dad... :) ), and b) she'll sometimes have stuff there she is taking downstairs.

I mumble good morning or something and start to walk when she says something back.

Jamie: [something that doesn't register with my brain]
Me: Huh?
Jaime: We are just talking about my curls

Now the thoughts start running through my head... "We?" and my mind does that thing where it can't make sense of things so it starts making up things... which are just as equally implausible...

"We?" - there are only the two of us standing there, so who is "We?"
a. Her and her curlying iron, which she is looking at... no, that doesn't make sense she wouldn't refer to her curlying iron in terms of "we".
b. Is she talking to Tif? No - because Tif isn't getting here till next week
And then all of a sudden I hear another voice, which kind of sounds like Jaime, but isn't... because her mouth isn't moving.

OK... so this is getting really weird now. Maybe it is Tif and I just don't see her, so I kind of peer into the bathroom and Jaime just gives me a weird look. No Tif... besides... SHE ISN'T HERE YET.

And then I kind of notice that the pile of clothes is looking up at me and talking. Which totally freaks me out for a second, and that is when my sleepy brain finally realizes that the "pile of clothes" is actually Erika propped up against the wall with a blanket wrapped around her.

Me: "Oh hey, I didn't see you there. Wondered who Jaime was talking too. Guess I'm still asleep."

And they both kind of laugh in that "Yeah dad" kind of way.

All that in about 5 seconds. Just kind of weird. But makes for good blogging... I think. :)

A different world

A number of homeless people hanging out along the 16th Street Mall in Denver. Not something we see that much where we live/work/play.

We were in Radio Shake looking for something and they had a boom box on display. I noticed it for some reason. We wandered around the store a bit and then headed out. I noticed there was a homeless guy in front of us walking along carrying what looked to be that exact boom box. All of a sudden one of the store workers briskly walks past us, walks up next to the guy, leans over to him as they are walking and says something like , "That's ours, you can't take it", takes it from him, turns around and heads back to the store. And he just keeps walking and steps up onto the bus and off they go.

Tina was like, "What just happened? Did he just take that from the store?"

Seemed like it was an every day kind of thing. No fuss. No calling the cops. Just go get it from the guy and return it. I don't think he was "stealing" it, I think it just looked cool so he picked it up.

And there was another guy sitting on the sidewalk, up against the building, just mumbling, "That's one crazy guy. Yup, one crazy guy."

Just stuff we don't see every day in our world.

Kicking back

Tina and I left for Denver on Friday around noon and returned home Sunday mid-afternoon. It was great. Steve and Lana had gotten us a one-night stay at the Brown Palace for our anniversary, back in Nov, and we had just now gotten around to using it. It was so fun that on Saturday morning we decided to stay another day!

It was a blast. The Brown Palace is downtown and just a block away from the 16th Street Mall. We were able to just hang out. Watched some movies in the room, went to see a movie, ate in some sidewalk cafes. Just relaxed. No phones (hardly), no work (except for me in the morning waiting for Tina to wake up... but that isn't streesful for me). Good food, good fun, great company. It was really needed.

Bagels, Close Calls, God and Passion

A million thoughts, images, and voices running through my head, all in a short period of time.

Took Jaime to Panera again this morning. Heather wasn't there yet, so we decided to go in and get a bagel (Napolian Dynomite "Sweet!"). Since I was just "dropping her off", all I did was get up from my laptop, throw on some clothes and head out. So my hair is a terrible mess.

Me: "My hair looks terrible. I'll just through on my headband."
Jaime: (In her Paris Hilton voice) - "Come on gorgeous, you look great. Besides, when do you care about how you look?"
Me: "Contrary to popular opinion, I *do* care how I look. Its just how I think I look isn't how other people always think I look" - yeah... its rough being a fashion question, but somebody has to do it. ;)

Get the bagels, Heather arrvies, Jaime leaves, I head home. Crank up the stero (is there ANY other way to listen to music) and sitting at a long light singing at the top of my lungs, "My Glorious" by Delerious. Picking up some trash from the console and putting in into an empty cup when I notice a flash of light out of the side of my eye. And whoa... there is a car pointed right at me, about a 2 feet away. I was second in line, there is a small left turn lane medium next to me and this car was coming down the road, made the right hand turn, and since it was icy out and he was going to fast, just slide on an angle up onto the medium and stopped... about 2 feet from my door. Good thing the medium was there... and the angles. Yeah, "My Glorious" - He certainly is. Thanks God!

Light turns green, and I head off. Fast forward to Refugee... Song starts, music is pumping and Martin Smith says, "Come on"... Its not part of the song, he just says it in the intro. I can just see him in my mind... Flashes of Mac Powell from Third Day on the Live Wire DVD at the beginning of Come back to me where he is bouncing across the stage. And Nichole Rudder at youth worship. You can feel it. The presence of God is so strong, and the worship is so good... and you just have to MOVE... bounce, do something. Cuz if you don't your heart is just going to rip right out of your body and you are going to explode. So yeah, Martin Smith... Refugee is SUCH a cool song, so much passion, and he's got to be boucing... "Come on" - lets go... lets worship, lets do this thing.

Its a dangerous thing to listen to worship music when you are driving. It consumes you and you just want to go fast... and on icy roads that isn't always good. And I'm bouncing, and singing, and this car is going slow in front of me so I just have to slow down. Image of Jacque last Sunday, worshipping in her car on the way to work and signing at the top of her lungs - doing two 360s up onto the medium and almost flipping her car. But hey... some times you just have to worship... cause if you don't, well your just going to explode. :)

Passion... that's what worship is all about. That is why David danced. He just had too. And he got it. It wasn't about how he looked, it wasn't about what others thought. It was just him and God... in the midst of all those people. It was just the two of them, and he just had to.

I've walked down roads where the devils been
Where the kids have seen things they should never see
Where the ancient stone knows a deeper tale
About a bloody game they call the Holy War...
... that's where I wanna be

Heaven is my home...
Refugee

Jesus won the war, but there are battles all the time. And for me worship is one of those battles. Not every one agrees. Is it a Love Song, or a battle? I don't know for sure... But its a place of passion... and its where I wanna be.

Well... time to fix a build, write some code, check on some process... back to the "real world" - the sometimes frusturating, often times lackluster, "real world" - how can people not be caught up in worship and passion... its so much more alive. So much more real than where we live every day. Yup... its "where I wanna be" - Worship Practice Wed night. Can't wait. Hopefully we'll get a chance to worship, and just not practice.

later... (goes off humming Refugee in his head... :))

Free WiFi - yeah, its cool

Got some snow today, which is normally pretty usual, but this year it isn't. I was standing at work today looking at the mountains all covered in snow. Pretty cool.

Anyway... because it snowed I had to drive Jaime to Panera Bread so that she could catch a ride with Heather. Tonight I'm leaving work, have logged out and am heading out of the building when Tina calls to say Jaime needs picked up at Panera. Great... I'm already heading home, so I don't want to go back to work, but by the time I get home, I'll just have to leave to come back. So... what to do for 20 minutes while I wait?

I decide to pick up some shampoo... and still have plenty of time. Hey... how about a Chai Tea Latte and some free WiFi. Yeah... very cool. :) So, instead of just sitting here hanging out, I'm actually blogging. For free... over a 11M connection. Cool stuff... Think I'll go fill out there "How was the service" survey. Maybe I'll win $25K !

Boston.com / News / Boston Globe / Opinion / Op-ed / Let's jolt the electric companies

I don't agree with a lot of the MA politics, at least when I lived there, but this sounds like a good idea. I think this is basically how things work in the Springs.

Click2Houston.com - News - Man Dead On Futon For Nearly 10 Years Before Family Notices

You'd think they would have noticed... seeing he was in the family room.

Bittersweet

So its cool to watch your kids grow up.

Jaime is moving some of her things over to her new apartment today. I'm making breakfast for Tina and I, and Jaime is directing Michael and Zack on what to bring up from the basement and load into their trucks.

Brings back memories of Tina and I moving. In our first two years together, in Big Timber MT, we moved 12 times. "The gang" always helped us move. Guys coming over and loading stuff into trucks, girls moving it into the new house.

And now I'm watching it happen with my kid. Joking around, goofing, making dumb comments as they load stuff up. Its very cool seeing her become and adult and her own person, own friends, just... taking care of stuff.

And then "bye daddy" and their off to go move it into the new place. But she isn't actually moving for a few weeks. Tif left very fast when she moved out, although I did spend a day driving her to OK, which was cool. But I'm liking this slow transition, and just watching it all.

Saturday morning

Saturday morning thoughts:

• Got to sleep in some!
  
• Didn't do too much work, so cleaned up some email and posted some pics
  
• Noticed that BlogThis has posted some "normal" postings to my pics blog. Need to watch that in the future
  
• Jaime is moving some of her and Heather's stuff this morning. :(
  
• But she'll be here for a few more weeks :)
  
• Tif will be coming soon!
  
• Thursday night coming home from practiced Jaime and I talked about how much we are alike as intraverts and cracked up. :)
  
• Need to work on taxes today. :|
  
• Got a little time to blog :)
  

Well that's my morning/thoughts in a nutshell... Should probably get around and get ready for the day.

Google Maps

And here is google's version. Very nice scrolling abilities - and other google type features.

National Atlas home page

Online national atlas. Pretty cool.

Yahoo! News - Greenspan Touts Idea of a Consumption Tax

'A simpler tax code would reduce the considerable resources devoted to complying with current tax laws, and the freed up resources could be used for more productive purposes,' Greespan said.

Yeah, that is why I'd be in favor of it. No more tax returns. Woo hoo... but then it goes on to say that getting a consumption only tax passed is probably not possible, so it would have to be a combination of both. And given that, I'm not sure of the point. May make things simplier at first, but if you still have an income tax, whose to say that over time it won't just grow back to what we have now...

Yahoo! News - Qwest-MCI Merger May Cost 15,000 Jobs

Well that's a drag. For more than just this, I hope the deal with Verizon goes through, rather than with Qwest. No one that I know thinks the Qwest deal will be good for us. Its just not a good fit.

Self-righteousness and grace

Watching Andrew Wommack this morning while working from home. A great Andrew quote, "He'll eat your lunch and pop the bag." Made me laugh.

Anyway, great grace message. He was talking about self-righteousness and how you can't use that in your relationship with God... because it has nothing to do with what WE DO, it has to do with what Jesus did for us. In our own strength, we can never be righteousness enough.

HOWEVER (and this is the good part), He was also talking about how we have grace in our relationship with God. Sin is not the issue. God has already forgiven us. BUT... that isn't how we relate to other people. I can't walk into work and tell my boss, "Righteousness isn't an issue... I have grace and can do whatever I want. So... I won't be coming into work this week." That isn't exactly what he said, but along those lines. So many people have an issue with grace because they go to the extreme. But there are consequences... not in our relationship with God, but in our relationship with others. In how our co-workers look at us, collegues, family and friends, and those we go to church with.

Yes, sin is not an issue with God. Jesus already paid the price. And yes, what is a sin to another may not be a sin to me... But do I flaunt that? Do I "shove grace" in other people's faces? No. And Paul addressed that. Paul was *so* into grace, it was the foundation of everything he preached. And yet he said not to stumble your brother. That doesn't mean you do what everyone wants... but it means to use some common sense. So even though sin is not an issue with God... it is an issue with those around me. And to do what God asked me to do (to preach the gospel, to be a light), I have to have integrity, a good work ethic, treat others right, etc. Or I'll just be a person on the way to heaven, having a great relationship with God... and not making a bit of difference to anyone in the world. And that isn't what God wants.