Yes... I'm blogging again

Its 5:26 AM, Tina is asleep (and probably will be for 2 more hours), I'm working, and so while stuff builds, I'm blogging. :)

I'll try and post at least during the trip. Maybe upload some pictures too. We have one when we left CO. I think I'll get Tif to take one when we hit AZ.

Well - enough rambling. Later...

At least we aren't wimps. ;)

So like I was saying, by the time we hit Colorado City, I was really questioning if taking the bike was a good idea. Cold, tired, a little wet. Then the rain stopped and it was great. "Well of course we should be on the bike. This is awesome." Prespective and all that. :)

Checked into the hotel and there were a couple of long-haired guys checking in. Loud, rock looking t-shirts. Dude looks over at me,

"Where you coming from?"
"Colorado Springs"
"How was the ride"
"A little wet at first, but then it turned Ok and now to bad since Raton"
"Yeah... we almost rode, but then we wimped out."

Well cool - at least I'm not a wimp... Almost chicked out, but not quite. :) LOL

Like Tina says, "Its all about the adventure."

She was pretty tired and sore when we got in. Hopefully today is a good day and she's ready for the adventure again!

Ride to AZ - Day 1

Left the Springs about 8:30 AM. Plan was to head south to Walsenburg, then west to Fort Garland, south to Taos, Santa Fe, and then Albuquerque. Cloudy when we left, but wasn't raining. That was no longer true by about the time we got to the south ead of town... Not so much what I'd consider "rain" as it was "splatter". Pretty much when cars turn on their wipers every once in a while. So we didn't put on rain gear. We were hoping it wouldn't actually come down much.

By the time we hit PPIR or so, it was was raining. Stayed that way all the way through Pueblo. We had thought about stopping in Pueblo for breakfast, but I wanted to just keep going - hoping to drive out of it. By the time we hit Colorado City, we were cold and I was stressed enough, that we stopped at a diner there. Lots of locals. Talked to a waitress that did a similar trip one year.

"Headed north out of Red River and it was beautiful in the valley. By the time we came up into the mountains it was sleeting, and stayed that way all the way to Denver. Bought a rain suit after that - best investment ever."

Yup... we have rain suits so are staying dry. Folks said we'd probably come out of this after hitting Raton... about 100 miles south. Good and bad news. I didn't want to stay in it that long, but at least we'd come out of it. Talked to a rancher on the porch.

"Man, bad day to be riding. Hey", he said with a twinkle in his eyes, "I'll make you a deal. I'm heading to Phoneix this afternoon. Leaving around 5:00. I've got a 28 foot trailer. You can put the bike in it, ride in the truck and stay nice and warm."

I almost took him up on it. I was NOT having fun in this... but then he just smiled, said good luck, shook my hand and left. We got suited back up and hit the road. About 10 miles south and the rain stopped. Thank you Jesus! By the time we hit the pass, we could see blue sky (or at least lighter sky) on the other side, and there were bits of sun.

Stayed that way most of the way south. Would hit some splatter once in a while, but nothing bad. God was watching over us. Dark skies, light skies and a patch of blue. Where the best spot was, that was the way the road turned. This helped us make time, as my avg speed in the rain is about 60 - whereas I'll do 75 if it is nice out.

Hit Albuquerque about 5:15. Tina was exhaused. I gave her one bag, and by the time I got everything else off the bike, she was asleep. So I called the kids, told them where we were, and called Alan and told him we weren't going to be able to make dinner.

I went and got dinner from Cracker Barrel - about the worst customer service experience of my life - especailly after riding all day. The brought my food out, I didn't hear them call my name, and they never called it again. I asked 3 times if they could check on my food - and after about 30 minutes they were like, "Oh, its been sitting here the whole time." Sigh. And then they ripped me off and didn't give me the soda I ordered and I was too ticked to notice it till I got back to the room.

Oh well - did talk to a guy from Boston while I was waiting. Discussed Digital, the No Name, etc. Typical Boston guy. It was fun. :)

Logged in and checked work... I was up till 11:30 on Thur trying to get a kit done. Close but no cigar - couldn't tell from status if it was out or not. Guess I'll go look around. It really needs to get out Monday.

Guess that's about it... Tif said it was 91 yesterday and "not a cloud in sight". Today's ride should be great. The plan is to head through Silver City - which we'll do depending on the sun. When we get to the fork in the road... totally depends on the weather. We follow the sun. :)

New template

Yes, I've updated my template. I haven't gone and pulled my old list of sites I read, etc. I'll do that eventually. Luckily when you upgrade from templates to layouts, they keep your old template, so you can always go look at it. In any case, layouts are supposed to be easier to use, easier to customize, etc. We'll see. At least this one stretches, which I like. I hate when things hard fixed in size and you can't make use of your whole screen.

Beta Blogger

I've switched over to the Blogger beta version. I don't have time to figure out all that it will give me yet, but the fact that it will give me lables is cool. Defective Yeti has had labels on his site forever, and I always thought it was cool. Now a way to label posts for food, HOG, whatever. We'll see how it works. :)

I've added two labels so far: Admin (for notes like this) and HOG (for stuff about the motorcycle, etc.) And now that I've added 2, turns out they can be lists, which is cool. So I could do something like HOG,Vacation.

Wired News: Play FarCry, Earn $300K

Craig Levine, 23, owner and manager of Team 3D, said there are now more than a dozen U.S. players who make as much as $70,000 a year. This year, Team 3D will likely see more than $500,000 in revenues from winnings and sponsorships.

Wow... maybe I need to hone my game playing skills. ;)

Harley - conversation magnet

I've talked to more people since we got the Harley... I mean total strangers... like at stop lights and stuff. Unbelieveable.

• 2 guys in a station wagon roll down their window and start telling me all about their bike, when the one guy got a ticket for laying his down, etc. The light turned green and I had to move and they were still talking to me
  
• A guy in a service truck starts telling me about his bike
  
• A kid (about 10) yell's out his window at me "Sweet bike" and gives me the thumbs up, with a big grin on his face.

And then there is the two couples, probably a good 10 years older than us, at the Katmandu in Nederland who start asking if the bike is comfortable... and the one woman comes over and pushes on the seat "Oh...". They were riding softails.

And the waitresses that talk to you differently when you have your Harley gear on. Must scream blue-collar and anti-establishment. "Hey... hows it going. Welcome to my Hell. Don't get the scrambled eggs... the cook has made enough today." All kinds of things like that.

Kind of cool really. Riding the bike itself is an adventure. Seeing a cross section of Colorado (and soon AZ and NM). But not only the country, but actual the people too. Surprising how many people have bikes. "What you riding. Yeah, I had one of those once".

The trip should be cool. Interesting to see who we meet. :)

Don't mess with me when you're boxing my food

I stop at the grocery store on my bike. I'm riding a rental (cuz the bike is in the shop) and so I've got a helmet on. I take it in with me and I set it down at the end of the checkout counter while I'm getting ready to pay.

BoxBoy: That is one nice helmet... We'll be taking real good care of you. turns to the cashier And you know why right?
Cashier: Looks at meBecause we better!
BB: 'Cuz he rides a Harley
C: Yeah, I know, that's what I meant.

Yeah... that's me. Mister mean biker dude. ;)

Short-timer's disease

We leave next Friday for AZ. We both can't wait. Its really getting hard to concentrate and focus... short-timer's disease big time...

But I've got a very important release that has to go out before then. Major code complete by this Friday, cleanup and kit turned in before I leave next Thur... and I'm sending email to Tina and blogging this morning instead of working...

As someone said, "Boy, that motorcycle has really corrupted you. You have a life now and aren't getting all kinds of work done on the weekend." Yeah... sucks for the company not to get all kinds of free work out of me, but probably much better off for me. :) And winter is coming soon - less bike riding. :(

Oh yeah... I need to get around, get ready for work, and go to work... that's right. ;)

later...

Quote of the day

We should be taught not to wait for inspiration to start a thing. Action always generates inspiration. Inspiration seldom generates action. Frank Tibolt

Getting ready for the trip

Went into PPHD yesterday and picked up a Dekker Supreme. In terms of luggage - not all that big. In terms of luggage for a motorcycle, outstanding. It will dobule the amount of stuff we can carry on the back, and it looks nice as well. Saw some T-Bags at the Rally last weekend, so visited their web-site. Turns out that PPHD carrys them, and had the DS in stock. Cool.

Now just praying that the weather is nice that week. Tif said the monsoons should be gone by then and it should be in the 90s... 90s in AZ and we are just praying we don't hit snow on the way back. Weird huh.

It will be very cool to see Tif and Brian again, and the riding should be excellent. NM HOG State Rally is going on right when we go through Taos and Santa Fe, so we might stop there for a bit. Should be an excellent trip.

Goodbye Croc Hunter

For those that haven't heard - a report on how the Croc Hunter died. The video that is discussed has now been destroyed at the request of the family. A good thing I think.

Beautiful yesterday

What a great day it was yesterday! We decided to stay another night, and it was a great choice. The day was so beautiful. Sunny and warm, but not too warm. There are some *great* roads up here. We went into Estes on 34 and then down to Lyons on 36. Different route than most of the poker run on Saturday. Between the two of them, some great country.

Given the weather is nice today (/me goes to look out the window) and it looks like it is going to be, no clouds yet; we are going to probably go home via the poker run route (into Lyons, Nederland, down to Boulder), and then into Golden and down C-470. When we hit I-25 we'll decide if we'll shoot straight home, or maybe cross over Lincoln to Parker and down SH-83. Should be a really nice trip. Have to be home by around 4:00, but that should be easily doable, if we don't get too late a start.

Our first really Rally experience, and it was great. (Cripple Creek's POW/MIA ride was at a rally as well, but we only hung out for a few hours. This time we stayed 3 days of the 4 day event!)

Our next rally might be the NM state rally - at least stopping by. We are planning on hitting Santa Fe on the 2nd day of the Rally, when it is in Red River. If nothing else, it would be cool to go the HOG pin stop. We'll see...

Oh... and those wondering - production systems all seem find. Just had to squeeze in fixing them between coming back from a ride through the Rockies and heading to a comedy show. :) Yeah... life is good. Riding down the road, Tina on the back of the bike, wind in our faces, winding through the mountains.

Now that's a waitress for you!

The Bill Engvall concert last night wsa awesome. Both Tina and I were laughing so hard we had tears coming down our face. Great stuff! :)

After the concert we drove around looking for someone to eat. We decided to go to the I*Hop. They had a "Funnel Cake" special.

Me: What's the special
Waitress: I really don't know. I haven't bothered to look today.
M: Oh. I think its something to do with funnel cakes?
W: Oh yeah. Its that funnel cake thing.
M: Well what is that?
W: Its just a special promotion that we had going on that is over but we still have some of the funnel cakes left, so we are trying to get rid of them.
M: So, what is a funnel cake? Since I wasn't sure if it was the funnel cakes they sell at street fairs. I wanted to make sure
W: I don't know... Ummm. Deeeep-friiiied stuff... Maybe pancake dough or something.
M: OK. I'll have that.
W: Stares at me in disbelief. OK. What size?
M: What zize is there?
W: Regular, Large and Sampler
M: What's the difference?
W: More stuff
M: ok... I'll have the Regular

later...

W: So how did you like those.
M: They were good.
W: Oh. I think they are disgusting. Just like most our soup. People ask me, "What is the soup today" and I tell them, "Don't even bother ordering it."

Life of a HOG Software Architect

Thunder in the Rockies is awesome. Ride yesterday was pretty cloudy and somewhat wet, but still fun. We pulled in this morning and there was just row after row after row of motorcycles, as far as the eye could see. Cool stuff.

I *finally* got a network cable from the hotel and got looged on; only to find out a system has been having problems for the last 5 hours and no one fixed it. So, I'm fixing that, and then heading back over to the event center to see Bill Engvall (sp?) at 7:30.

So - some work, lots of fun. Will blog more and put up a few pictures later.

now... back to checking the system, then back on the bike.

Helmets

And yes, like many HOGs we don't ride with helmets most of the time. But we take them with us, just in case we hit weather or something.

So, when we hit rain today, we pulled off and "geared up". But since it looked blue ahead, and since the rain wasn't coming down *that* hard, and since my rain coat has a hood... I just went with that.

Yes, rain at 60MPH, even if it is coming down "not *that* hard" still hurts! Note to self... next time, put on the helmet.

Good thing though, I did wear the hood and found out that it really is good for keeping the water from running down my back (duh) which is very nice. So next time, put the hood on, but then put the helmet over it.

Oh... and turns out, once you buy a helmet, you can't return it; which we knew. But might was fitted pretty tight... and turns out too tight. So... $275 for a helmet, kind of wasted unless I can mess with it some. It fits tight, which is good, but after I get my com stuff (mike and headphones) on, and a dew-rag or hood from a rain suit - it is just WAY to tight and not comfortable - which is one reason I don't wear it. Better to spend the $$$ to get one that fits right, then to have it uncomfortable and not wear it. So - guess I'll be messing with it this week to see what I can do, and if I can't do much, will have to order a bigger one... Although I would have *thought* that XXL would have been big enough. Looks like I might have to go for a 4x. :0

Good intentions and all that...

I will seriously try and get some pictures posted. :) - Yeah, I keep saying that - and it only takes 10 minutes or so... but I'm just a "I'll do it later" kind of guy.

But just to keep folks up-to-date...

We did go to the sand dunes last weekend. It was a great trip OUT, not so much fun BACK - although it was an adventure. Tina had never seen them, so that was very cool. We only spent a few minutes there... On the way there we saw clouds in the sky ahead of us. "Should we turn back", she asks. "Of course not", I reply. Hey, who knows, maybe we'll miss the rain. So we went, and it was cool. Then on into Alamosa for a late lunch. This was about 2:00. We were stopping at every little town to take a picture by their town sign, for the "2006 ABC Rally". Where we get pins/patches/etc. if we send in pictures of us in different towns/states/counties that start with different letters. Anyhow... so we stopped in Alamosa at a pub for lunch - where we ran into 4 other bikers who were going on a big ride.

Heading back towards the mountains and the pass that gets us from the Alamosa side of the mountains to "our" side of the mountains, we saw rain. So we put on our gear and road on. A detailed story for another time, but just picture us coming down out of the mountains, on a long road, hard rain, much water, hypergliding at the bottom of toward the guard-rail and me yelling "TURN!" at the bike (yes, I talk to the bike) and finally sticking my foot out as we slowed down from 60 to about 30, catching the pavement enough to get the bike to grab, and then going merrily on our way. Yeah, it was an adventure! :)

Pretty much every time we've ridden since then we have hit rain. Both yesterday on our way up to Jaime's office, and then today coming back down "the pass" - from Woodland Park to home. We did a quick ride up to Cripple Creek just to see what it was like on the bike.

Next weekend - POW/MIA ride from PPHD (our Harley Dealer) up to Woodland Park, and then on into Cripple Creek. We'll go up to Woodland in groups of about 20. I'm not sure how many on the "procession" from WP to Cripple Creek. I heard there will be about 40,000 bikes. Yes, 40K. I'm just not sure how many ride together. It should be pretty cool!

And then Sept 3 a ride up to Loveland to sponser MDA. I'll be posting more on that later.

And we went to the PP HOG meeting last night. Cool stuff.

And I still have to get up to Castle Rock and Denver to see some friends. Busy, busy.

Intend to write more on the sand dunes ride later, and post some pictures - but we'll see. If nothing else, I will post about how the Cripple Creek ride went.

Later

Wired News: Hackers Clone E-Passports

Wired News: Hackers Clone E-Passports: "The controversial e-passports contain radio frequency ID, or RFID, chips that the U.S. State Department and others say will help thwart document forgery. But Lukas Grunwald, a security consultant with DN-Systems in Germany and an RFID expert, says the data in the chips is easy to copy.

'The whole passport design is totally brain damaged,' Grunwald says. 'From my point of view all of these RFID passports are a huge waste of money. They're not increasing security at all.'"

Sanddunes maybe?

Might try a day trip down to the Sanddunes. The entire round-trip would be close to what we'd do for a single day ride down to Tif's - so it would be good practice, dry-run, etc. Let us know how it went.

Then there is a HOG pin-stop in Loveland in a couple of weeks. We might try that. We need to stop by some folks in CR and Denver and show them the bike - so this would be a way to get a ride in, get a pin, and do such catching up that is sorely needed.

Speaking of rides. Found out that Billings, MT has a great rally. The "Iron Pony Ride". Bilings to Cody - through some great areas. Many HOG rallys require registration *way* in advance, so although it isn't until Aug 24th, its already closed. Its registration opened in Feb! In any case - looks cool. We are going to have to keep our eyes open for rallys/rides for next year so we can get signed up in time. That ride sounds great because we'd be able to get with friends on both ends! Hopefully next year!

corporate vs startup

A while back I was talking to Tif on the phone and she said "You haven't updated your blog in a while". Turns out she reads it regularly to see what is going on in my life. So... figured I would start updating it more - even if it isn't that relative to anyone but me. :)

Went to an internal customer site last week. Not an external customer, but a group who we build tools for. Jack was leaving the company and he was our main interface, so we needed to go meet his replacement, talk about future work, etc.

It was such a drag. Jack, and his team, have requested some really cool stuff from us, and its made the job really interesting lately. Given I helped start Sheriff, and its been 10 years, things can get stale after a bit. But here was someone who really got it, had a clue, etc. A real "hacker" - given Paul Graham's definitionl. And has he said, great hackers like to work with other great hackers. Although I'm not sure I'm a "great hacker" - I'm pretty good and really enjoyed working with Jack.

But Jack came out of a startup where they could do what it took to get the job done, and worked with other folks with a clue. Now they've been swallowed up by the "big corporation." That has its advantages and disadvantages, but in this case it seems the disadvantages were too much and so he is going elsewhere.

Just a drag. We lost a great guy. Had me upset for a number of days, and I'm talking to my boss about it etc. See if things can be improved in general - but meanwhile, have schedules to make, things to do, etc. so life goes on.

So - thats one aspect of work lately... speaking of which, I guess I should get to work. So - more on how work is going later.

LOH

Went to an LOH (Ladies of Harley) meeting last night. Our first HOG meeting. :) As you can tell by the name, its a ladies thing, bug they "drag the guys along so they can bond". So Tina went to the meeting and I went and had dinner with a few of the guys. Started out with just one, but by the end there were probably 7 other guys there. The director of the chapter as well as the lead road captain where there, so that was cool. Some good stories, etc. We plan on going to the chapter meeting on the 11th.

Turns out that the PikesPeak chapter is the largest HOG chapter in the US. Kewl. :)

Birthday Ride

Yesterday was my birthday. Tina and I decided to do a trip up to Estes Park. We left Friday and got back Saturday at 5:00. I didn't want to be gone all day, because I wanted to spend some time with Jaime on my birthday.

It was a beautiful trip. We took 105, to Santa Fe, hit 470 and then 70 for a bit up to the Black Hawk turn (went past the EMF camp), and then up to Estes. Pretty much the "back way" - off-road. We really like riding the small/back roads and staying off the interstate. Much more relaxing, scenary is better, hit some small stores/places-to-eat.

Hot afternoon, walk into a small general store, golden lab laying on a piece of carpet right in front of the door, looks up with one eye, acknowledges your presence and then closes the eye. We step over him and walk in. Yeah, its just that kind of lazy day. As we head toward the 2 soda display cases, the owner says, "We just installed the 2nd one, soda probably isn't cold yet, you might want to try the other". He's right, so I look at the display of Stewarts - picking a lime. "Hey Tina, what do you want?" - "Whatever". Owner's wife says, "The Black Cherry seems to be our most popular". So, grabbing two cold Stewarts and the obiligatory cinnamon roll that Tina grabs at every stop, we head out and sit on a couple of milk crates. Watching the few travellers and locals heading in and out. Just gazing around at the mountains and watching a dog in a far off pasture chasing something only he sees back and forth. Its a great day.

That kind of thing is great about back-roads and not something you usually find on the main highway!

Anyway - it was a beautiful trip. Ate at the Big Horn Restaurant. We headed west out of town a bit, say a place to stay that looked not too expensive (it wasn't cheap - but when they said they had a room with a hot-tub - well my back was hurting a bit and I just had to do it!). We asked where was a good place to eat and the owner said "Right next door". "What kind of food do they have?" - "Well the smoker is going, so they will have BBQ today" - and she could have stopped talking right then, because I was sold. But they also had Italian and Salad Bar. I got the ribs (ate 1/2 of them - I'm less hungry when traveling) and Tina got fish and chips and we both had salad bar. Their sign outside said "Grits" and inside they had a review of "Voted best breakfast in Estes Park" - Yup - we were back the next morning for breakfast. The grits were probably the best I've had. Yum.

Went to the Safeway to get some soda and snacks. Long line. Woman behind me (maybe in her mid 50s or so?) asks me, "So what model to you ride?" - "Excuse me?" - "What model of Harley do you ride?" - Guess the dew rag, vest, t-shirt and chaps - all with Harley Davidson plasterd all over them was a dead give away. ;) We ended up having about a 15 minute conversation about how her and her husband used to live in the Springs, built customer Harleys, her son races high performance bikes for Harley now. Very cool stuff. Like they say "Its a brotherhood". :)

Next morning we headed into the park, taking the road across to Grand Lake, Granby and back to Idaho Springs, were we hit I-70 and back the way we came. It was awesome. I have a picture (which I'll post later) that shows Tina and I on the bike with a 12,750 ft peak in the background. Tina was pretty nervous. We are both nervous on high Mt roads (yes, the kids can tell you great stories of us going up to Pikes Peak) - but I'm not so nervous when I'm on the inside and on a bike. Much better a bike than a car! In any case, it was a great ride - really beautiful country.

We were pretty spent when we got home. We plan on probably going down and seeing Tif in AZ in the fall... But so far we've only covered about 200 miles in one day. We tend to just enjoy riding - and stop very seldom, and then only for a few minutes. Because I had a head-ache (I think I need to do some glasses adjustments) - we stopped at Starbucks when we hit I-70 and sat there for probably 15 minutes, watching the Big Horn Sheep. I think we need to do that more. I think the trick is to stop more often, and more longer periods of time. I can usually feel pretty fatigued, and after 30 minutes I'm ready to go again. We usually eat breakfast before we hit the road. I think riding for an hour or so, then doing breakfast, then riding, do lunch, etc. will let us go further in a day. But we haven't gotten into the swing of that yet. Usually we are a) excited to go and just want to grab something and hit the road, b) love to ride and so don't stop often or for long, c) not all that hungry when we are riding. But I think if we can make this adjustment it will really work out for us.

Plus last night I was watching a few Food TV shows about guys on the road looking for the cool dinner, backroads place to eat, etc. Yeah... I need to do that. Not just hit the fast-food joint, eat the same-ol/same-ol food, and hit the road... But make it an adventure. Look for the small town place with good reviews, lots of cars, whatever. A "Hey - hows it going. Where you heading" type place. That will make trips more of an adventure and more fun. And should break up the ride some.

Anyway - it was a great birthday and one I won't forget. And I wore my new vest (birthday present) - as it was way to hot for the jacket. And when I got home I put my first pin on in - a HOG pin. :)

So its all good... now just have to figure out where we are going next weekend... There's always Sturgis. ;) - Nah, not this year... but maybe next. :)

There are a couple of Pikes Peak Chapter or just HOG in general rides this coming month. Some folks have said the Cripple Creek run is a bit of a pain. 40K bikes riding to Cripple Creek. Lots of stop and go... but we might do it anyway. Just to do it.

Anyway - its an adventure and one we are totally into. We've literally seen more of CO in the past month than we've seen the entire time we've been here. 365 miles this weekend, and 1635 total this month. :)

See ya on the rode! :)

Tri-Lakes Poker Run update

The Poker run was great. Our first poker run! I think the best part of the run, from a motorcycle ride point of view, was the first part. We left and there were probably 50 bikes all together. Pretty cool.

Because a poker run has multiple stops - and because those stops are very organized, at least on this run, folks pretty much leave when they want to. So at each stop the "group" gets smaller and smaller, until the last leg there was just our party of about 4 bikes. This was still fun, especially riding with Steve and Robert, but it didn't have the whole "run" feel.

Tina asked later what I liked best, doing a group ride or going "lone wolf". I like them both - they are just very different. In a group ride you ride in staggered formation. Reading one of the HOG newsletters they have definte rules about this - how far apart, handle signals, etc. It has the "thrill" of being in a large pack, which is very cool, but I'm new enough to it that I'm really paying attention to the people in front of me and concentrating more than just riding. So pros and cons. But I think most of the cons will go away as I get more used to it.

All in all, it was a great day. Great company, great ride - just a real fun time.

Our first "run"

Today is the Tri-Lakes Fire Department Poker Run. A Poker Run is an organized ride where you stop at 5 different locations and pick up a playing-card. When you get to the final destination, you play Texas Holdem with the 5 cards. Someone wins - something. Its not really about the cards, its about the ride. But it gives you a goal. And besides, as they say "Its not the destination, its the journey".

We really don't know much about it. Steve went before and said it was fun, so we are going with him and a few of his friends. It should be a blast. Its our first organized ride with a group, and we are totally psyched. We were both up off and on all night. Like Tina said, "Its like Christmas". "Is it morning yet?". :)

Looks like the weather should be good for it.

All we know at this point is that registration starts at 8:00, first bike out at 9:30, last at 10:30. Steve said he thinks it finishes between 4:00 and 5:00. You get a map, your 5 destinations, and how long you can stop at each. Last year it went up through Evergreen. So - some mountain riding, having to make 5 stops (so not all straight riding). We plan on leaving here about 8 - so we aren't the first ones there. Get there about 8:30 - plenty of time to get registered and eat free breakfast, and then leave hopefully in one of the earlier groups. There is a BBQ when we return - not sure how late we'll be staying... we like to kind of avoid the late afternoon storms that are happening this time of the year - but we'll see.

Will post on how it went. Hopefully with some pictures. You can see the 3 of us: me, Tina and Cap'n Jack. :)

Cap'n Jack

Tina has named the bike. Since its color is Black Perl, she decided to name "him" Captain Jack. It seems to fit.

He was in the shop for 3 days for the 1000 mile tuneup. Not that it takes that long, but the shop was heavily booked and squeezed it in where possible. He came back in great shape. The loaner bike I had was a single-seat. More of a street bike. It was fun... but it wasn't Cap'n Jack. I've ridden to work every day this week - some coming home in slight rain. I just like big ol' Cap'n Jack. I like the feel of riding a bigger bike through the rain. (Picture "us" on a ship riding the storm out... yeah something like that :)). It just sturdy and already "my" bike. I know the feel. I'm really happy we decided to get the Ultra. Its a great bike.

Work

Just journalling...

Work is going well. Agile/XP is working very well for us. When we were in Vail, Bec asked how work was going and I talked to her about XP some. She was very interested. I need to pursue that - would help bring XP into another organization.

Anyway... I worked as the lead on an implementation for 3 releases now. Whereas there were quite a few defects, slips, etc. under the waterfall process; we have been able to use XP and have minimal defects (maybe 2 - 4) come out of system test. The releases have been on time as well, and I have done some major refactoring. One that allowed me to suggest a better algorithm for fraud detection to the user. They liked the idea and it took me less than a few hours to implement. Excellent. :)

Going out to DC Monday/Tuesday. A *very* fast trip. Leave here at 6 in the morning, get to DC around 2 - head to work, do some catching up and go over a few things; then out for dinner. One of our customers there is leaving Verizon so we are going out to do a brain dump, say good-bye, etc. So - may be out late for dinner. Than start at 7 the next morning, meetings all day with aout 10 people (the participants are expanding as folks learn we are coming out and meeting with the customer), and then make Dulles around 6:30. Back home around 10:30 or so. Will make for a long two days... and no Harley. But its all good stuff.

So - all good stuff at work. Interesting, getting things fixed, etc.

Time for 1000 mile tune-up

First tune-up on the bike is 1000 miles - and we are at 997 right now. :)

Went up to Vail on Friday (going over 3 mountain passes), then round-trip to Grand Junction on Saturday, and then back from Vail on Sunday.

Grand Junction was very brown and HOT. It was 103 there. We *thought* about checking out the area, but by the time we got there we just went to GJHD, bought some shirts, and headed back to the cooler mountains.

It was a great trip. Stopped in Breck for lunch with the Ts and Jaime, then hung out with Becky and Rich on Saturday night. Ate at an AWESOME place. The Duck Confit was my favorite.

All the riding was great. No rain. Nice rides. And we found out we can do that much traveling and not get sore, still wake up the next day with a "lets go!" attitude, etc. Now have to start looking into Cody, WY and Tuscon, AZ for our next big trips. :)

Patrick's Two-bit ride

Patrick posted this as a comment to one of my posts, but because of its length or content, it "broke" my blog - nothing displayed after it. I deleted it and am reposting it here as a normal entry

---

James,

You made the wise decision on not attending the rally.

The rally in a word was: WET! It was just a 6 hour, 230'ish mile (thus the name Two-Bit) Rally, that went from Morrison CO. to Frisco via Pine->Manitou Springs->Buena Vista->Leadville.

I don't know if it was tenacity, or stupidity, when I made the decision to go ahead and run this. It rained the entire 290+ miles (this included the trip from Frisco back to Morrison).

It started out as a comfortable ride, as I had waterproof gear on, until I got to Fairplay, and realized that my water proof pants had a single spot that was not water proof. The water had pooled on the seat, and had leaked in thru the crotch area of the pants and had gathered in all the loose spots, and when I stood up, all that water went into ... you guessed it ... my water proof boots.

At this point, I was done. The problem was that it was raining hard, and I was just shy of what I thought was the mid point of the trip (I need to learn to read maps better :) ).

Well, being the trooper that I am, I decided to continue to the finish. Not a wise decision, but it was the one that I made.

The ride continued on through Buena Vista (interesting folk live there), and went on up to Leadville. You don't want to speed in Leadville... trust me. Almost all of the 30+ bikers that I saw there were observing the posted limits.

From Leadville, the ride continued on into Frisco via 91. This was probably the worst part of it, as I had to bring the speed back to around 45-50 and even 30 at some points because of water pooling on the highway. The water had found it's way into the liner of my helmet and I was unable to keep warm at all.. Frequent stopping to squeeze the water out of my gloves did not help much, but it was enough :)

When I finally reached Frisco, to meet the very concerned rally organizer and his wife, I had discovered that I had posted dead last in my very first rally, but not by much :)

I was able to get phone service in Frisco, so I called Elizabeth to let her know that I was wet, but alive. I spent a little time getting myself warm, and had considered getting a room to spend the night there as it was still raining. I had a good 60+ miles still to go before I got home, and decided that since I was already soaked through, that I might as well continue on home.

I have to say, that even with the rain issue, I had a blast. I saw at least 200+ bikers that day, and of the ones that I had conversations with, nobody ever complained much about the rain. Comments ranged from "It's a scosh wet" to "Man we really need this rain"! These people are hard core.

I will very definitly do this rally again next year, but will be much better prepaired for weather. Kenosha Pass was very cold. One addition to the bike that I will be making, even though it looks silly on a crusier, is a full police style windscreen. I believe that this is an absolute must when riding in rain.

I'm still a beginning rider, but have learned a lot about riding in the rain. I have also discovered a way to really appreciate what God has given us who live here in Colorado :)

For anybody who would be interested in going on a shorter rally... take a look at TwoBits for more information about this annual rally. Pay special attention to the logo that they are using this year. I know the designer of this, and she is one awesome lady!

---

Patrick,

Although wet - it *does* sound like a blast. I haven't ridden much for 10 years, so consider myself a "beginner" at this point as well. We weren't really up for the weather or for mountain roads in a group. But we'll probably do it next year!

BTW: Palmer Lake FD is doing a Poker Run on the 22nd and we plan on doing that. We are going with several folks that we know. Should be fun. Our first "organized" outting with a group of bikers. :)

Corn Chowder

Yesterday was pretty raining and just kind of drery out.

So, after I got done shopping, I came home and threw some corn chowder together. Then put it in the crock pot to keep it warm.

Tina and I went riding for about an hour. A little cold and a little rain here and there, but still very fun.

And then we got home and had rolls and hot corn chowder waiting for us.

YUM. :)

I'm thinking its not that big of a deal

Backround: I'm at the store doing some grocery shopping. There is a mom there with two little kids. One pretty small. We are going up and down the same aisles, but in opposite directions, so pass each other every now and then. The little one is staring to cry and she says something to it about getting tired of shopping or something. All in all pretty good kids; but obviously not having that fun of a time.

Anyway - I get all done and head up front to check out. There are about 4 cashiers, but I notice only two have lights on (meaning that the other two are going on break or whatever). I notice the mom is standing in the line with the light off, and figure she must have been the last person in line before the light went off. I look at the two available cashiers and pick the one with the hopefully shortest line. I'm about two checkout stands away from the mom.

Cashier: finishes with a customer, starts to checkout the next one, the one in front of the mom, and looks up noticing the mom. Excuse me mame, but I'm closed.
Mom: in a very irritated and loud voice. Well you could have told me that before I spent all this time waiting in line! by my accounts, all of 3 minutes or so
C: Oh, I'm sorry. I'll go ahead and take you.
M: NO. THATS OK. and turns and moves to another line
...
M: now on the other side of me, and mumbling to self. She picks her kids up out of the cart If there is one thing I hate... come on

AND THEY LEAVE THE STORE.

Lady behind me: What was she so upset about?
Me: The cashiers light was off and she got in line and the cashier told her she was closed so she went to the other line.
Lady: Yeah I know... but I mean, what was she so mad about?
Me: That was it!
Lady: Just looks at me and shakes her head Oh...
Me: Yeah, some folks. Doesn't take much

And so it rains every day

Buy a motorcycle and it rains every day. :( - Oh well, the lawn is very green and I'm not having to water, which is saving some $$.

We have been able to ride it a bit. I took it to work on Friday and left a little early to beat the storms. Was still ok when I got home, so took Jaime for a ride. They got me a Harley "Ride" CD - which has some cool tunes on it, so that was very fun.

Then yesterday Tina and I took it out for an hour or so. Hit a few drizzles, but not bad. And we managed to miss some good rain storms, judging by all the water on the road. We were going to go do a rally with Patrick, but it was raining when we got up, and we just aren't into doing that kind of thing in the rain yet.

All it all its very fun, but just not the right weather right now. Hoping for some good weather next weekend, because Tina has off starting Thur afternoon and I might take Friday off - so we'd get a good 3 day weekend. Maybe go up to the mountains or something.

We did it

Thur: Tried out 3 Harleys. Several folks said to look at some other brands, but I just kind of had my heart set on a Harley. If you're going to do it... do it. :)

Heritage Softail Classic: Sits low. Nice handlebar placement. Very nice ride. Went up to Tina's work, then down through Garden of the Gods, up 24 to I-25, Fillmore back to the dealer. Nice.

Road King: Didn't really like how it sat or the handlebar placement. Was definately sold on the Softail. Took it to Tina's work. As I pulled in, two other bikes pulled in behind me. One of the guys was a client of Tina's and one was his friend up from San Fransico. We probably talked for 30 minutes. All kind of info, how they love their bikes, how great Harleys are, etc. One had a Softail and a Electra or Ultra Glide. Said if we were going to tour (and we are) then a touring bike is the way to go. One had a Road King - about $1500 to $2000 cheaper than the other bike, but had thousands of upgrades in it. Said if he had it to do over, he'd go for the dressed out bike.

Electra Glide: Based on their recommendation, I took out an Electra Glide. I liked the ride. Took it up to Castle Rock to show Jaime. Pretty sweet.

Fri: We already had a Heritage Softail Classic reserved. Would have liked to take out a touring bike, but like the one guy said, "Take out the Softail. You'll end up getting a touring bike - but at least you'll know and not wonder - did I make the right choice, what if, etc."

We had a blast.

Fri: Left at 4:00, up the pass to Woodland Park and out to Buena Vista. Hit a bit of rain on the way, but not bad. Got to Buena Vista pretty early. Checked into a motel and got dinner. Cyrgio (? - something like that). Excellent food. Very good. Then headed north and then west toward Cottonwood pass. Got back and went to bed pretty early.

Sat: Up early and back riding. We were going to go up to Aspen, Carbondale and then down to Gunnison, but we were worried about the weather. So went south to Gunnison and over Monarch Pass. Fun ride and got into Gunnison by about 10:30 or so. Wandered around for a bit and were going to go to Salida, but we had reservations and couldn't cancel them. So headed west for a ride. Down towards Lake City for about 20 miles, then back and out to Blue Mesa Dam. Very cool area and nice ride. Then back to the hotel at 2:00 and checked in. Took a nap and then out for dinner and to bed early.

Sun: Up early, out to Salida, then on to Canyon City and up 115 back home. Home by 2:00. Another beautiful ride.

Getting the feel of the bike. Tina's butt was very sore, so definately need a touring bike - but still a great ride. We both loved it. So peaceful. Didn't want to stop. Just touring w/o hotel reservations would be great. Ride till the weather gets bad or we get tired and stop for the night. Just hard to do on 4th of July weekend.

I'm still going pretty slow on corners and a bit worried about rain, but getting the feel for it.

Monday, returned the bike first thing in the morning... and went back to buy one that night. :) Got an Ultra Classic. Yup - the one with everything. Cost a pretty penny, but it will be worth it. Its something that both of us really enjoy... and we really don't do anything else. So we figure we'll do a lot of day trips, I'll ride it to work, and we plan on doing some tours. Probably down to AZ to see Tif, etc. Maybe out to MI in 2009.

Today put about 100 miles on it. Just mostly riding around. Went up to Larkspur to show Steve and Lana. Robert was working so he came over. Told us about the Palmer Lake Poker Run on the 22nd (something like that - a week from Saturday). We might do that. It would be fun.

Also reading the manual, the HOG member's manual, etc. Some cool stuff.

So anyway... mid-life crisis or whatever. We now have a Harley and are HOG members. :)

Its Black Pearl. Very sweet. :)

1 in 3 chance...

I drink quite a bit of Diet Mt Dew at work. So they have this contest where you enter the code from your bottle cap and you have a 1 in 3 chance of winning a ring tone. I have no ring tones on my phone, I drink a lot of Mt Dew. So... I've been throwing the lids in my laptop bad and figured I'd enter them at some point.

Been messing around not working this morning (taking the day off), and figured I'd do it. I've got 15 lids... so I should win about 5 ring tones. Cool.

So I have to sign up for Yahoo (who runs this) because I've forgotten all my yahoo info. Then I have to register with Pepsi. I get all that done, and how many ringtones do I win, given there is a 1 in 3 chance and I have 15 chances...

New math. Zero. :(

Fla. restaurant sells $100 hamburger - Yahoo! News

Boca Raton Mayor Steven Abrams could barely speak between bites as he devoured the 20-ounce, $100 hamburger billed as the 'beluga caviar of sandwiches.'

Wow... maybe its time to get back into the food biz. :)

Its time to get a Harley

Its not uncommon for someone to ask me, "Did you ride your bike in today?" or "Do you have a Harley?". So, after not having a bike for about 10 years, we've decided its about time. Tina and I have been talking about it, and we both think its a good time. Not just because it would be really fun to ride back and forth to work, and not just because it would save on gas (you have to save a LOT on gas to pay for a Harley), but because we BOTH think it would be fun. Since I started talking about it, Tina has gotten really excited about doing day or weekend trips, and maybe even taking it down to AZ to see Tif. So - its something we'd both enjoy, and would get us out of the house and town.

So - I may take a day off work this week and try a few out. Then maybe get one this weekend. I move kind of slow on big decisions like this, but we're already into summer and if I'm going to do it, the sooner the better. And we have been talking about it for a few weeks.

The only I'm thinking of getting is the Softail Heritage Classic. A little more expensive than a Road King, and the Road King has a *little* nicer ride when touring... but we both just think the Softail is a cooler looking bike.

I'm not sure how long it would take to order one, and they have some in stock. Not the cherry/black that I'd like - but the straight black is pretty cool too.

This picture of it is cool too. Looks like its on the shores of a lake in MI. That might be fun... A road trip to MI. :)

Mowing

Mowing the backyard yesterday. Not one of my funniest tasks, but since I got on some allergy meds this year, it hasn't been too bad. Anyway, out there mowing when all of a sudden I feel something "jab" me in the side. I didn't know if I got shocked, bit or what. Figured it must have been bit and slapped at it incase there was something there. Never found out what it was... but whatever it was, it certainly nailed me. Tina put some ice on it, and I finished mowing, but it hurt the rest of the day and into the night. Seems to have mostly gone away now.

I guess something was pretty upset that I was mowing its house down or something...

DenverPost.com - Whose property is at risk?

Think about this for a moment: I own the DVD, which was given to me by its producer. I own the computer with a DVD drive. And yet, on account of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, I can't watch the DVD that I own on a computer that I own? Isn't this my property, to use as I wish?

Apparently not. :(

My new bumper sticker ;)

I DRIVE WAY TOO FAST TO WORRY ABOUT CHOLESTEROL.

A Sixth Sense for a Wired World

What if, seconds before your laptop began stalling, you could feel the hard drive spin up under the load? Or you could tell if an electrical cord was live before you touched it? For the few people who have rare earth magnets implanted in their fingers, these are among the reported effects -- a finger that feels electromagnetic fields along with the normal sense of touch.

Step 1 in becoming a Borg. ;)

Hacker Said to Resell Internet Phone Service

The case, one of the first involving this kind of elaborate Internet phone hacking, illustrated how Internet-based communications may be criminally exploited, and raised fresh questions about the security of phone traffic over largely unregulated networks.

There will always be hackers... keeps us busy monitoring all kinds of things. :)

Automatic Mashed Potatoe Maker... I'm all over that!

On Woot today I saw a WESTINGHOUSE, ELECTRIC, AUTOMATIC MASHED POTATO MAKER. Just the thought of it was very cool. Hey, I already have a food steamer and rice maker... so yeah, I just HAVE to have a Mashed Potatoe maker! Tina, of course, makes the best mashed potatoes ever... but when there isn't enough time...

And then I saw that it normally sells for $94.99, and the Westinghouse "Super Sale Price" is $61.89. Woot is selling it for $29.99. Up, that closed the deal.

Its ordered and on its way. How cool. :)

Yeah, I'm still around

Haven't posted for quite some time... yeah, I'm still here. Just been really busy at work, and not into doing much computing when I'm not working. But I'm still around and will probably do some blogging soon.

Q&A: Sun's Radia Perlman speaks out on being stuck with IP, new life for spanning tree and her answer to data security: the ephemerizer - Network Worl

"Now, bridging was never intended to do that: it was kind of a hack because people at the time were all confused about what Layer 3 was and they thought Ethernet was a competitor to DECnet. With bridges we did such a good job and it was so plug-and-play that you didn’t have to think about them, so people are still taking large networks and doing bridges. As it turns out people kind of believed IP must have been the best protocol ever because it just took over the world (just like English must be the best language ever because it's going to take over the world, but no, it has nothing to do with how good a language it is).

DECnet would have been a much better protocol for the world to have adopted. It had a lot of advantages, like a larger address space (We're still talking about will IPv6 ever happen and if it does, there's nothing better about it than what we could have had 15 years ago). One of the advantages DECnet had was the ability to have a whole campus that was zero-configuration, that all had the same prefix , and you didn’t have to divvy up your address space for every link like IP does. But given that companies didn't go in that direction they're using bridging, which is inherently more fragile, especially when you take that notion and try to make it more responsive by doing all these things that involve lots of configuration. If you get the configuration wrong things can melt down. You shouldn’t be stressing it really hard."

Yet another DEC thing that was better than what we ended up with...

ABC News: Former Gym Teacher in Fla. Pleads Guilty

"A former gym teacher pleaded guilty to taking $1-a-day bribes from middle school students who didn't want to change their clothes for class."

So how many kids are we talking about here? If its 1 or 2, then he did this for $40 a month? That's just sad that he'd rip kids off for so little. If its 10 or 20 kids, then maybe someone should think about not making kids change their clothes.

Back in College?

We're behind schedule at work, so we had to work the weekend.

It's Saturday, 7:35 PM, I'm eating cold pizza that was brought in at lunch, and on my 3rd 24oz Mt Dew, after having a Triple Venti Starbucks this morning.

Caffine, pizza and programming... Feels like I'm back at the University of Michigan.

Deleting the AutoComplete address

Yes... I use Outlook. I know... why not Mozilla. Well I've used Outlook for a long time and I'm still using it. Had problems deleting old auto complete addresses that I no longer needed (they were getting pretty cluttered). How to do this is pretty simple, it just never occured to me.

Artcile tells how.

Waterfall 2006 - International Conference on Sequential Development

A great satire on the waterfall process. Made me laugh. :)

Kurtosis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I just coded Kurtosis in CLIPS. That was fun. :)

Father of Wiki Speaks Out on Community and Collaborative Development

Essentially, agile programming is about getting developers to work together, he said.

'If you're a manager and you have 12 tasks and 12 people you are going to give each person a task,' Cunningham said. 'And you will tell them you want them to work together, but the message you send is not to work together.'

Moreover, Cunningham said among the benefits of agile development is 'the ability to track radically changing business needs.'

Also, the 'code base becomes a point of strength, not a burden to be ignored,' he said. 'We ask people to embrace the code and that creates a power in developers.'

I'm loving Agile/XP. Seems to be working for us.

Another byproduct of agile development is 'the members of an agile team become expert much faster than in traditional development,' because they take on different roles and work with different parts of the code, Cunningham said. 'It produces senior developers really quickly.'"

Expert Systems Software Development for Macintosh

Another cool use of CLIPS.

CNN.com - Want to get on 'Jeopardy!'? Go online - Mar 22, 2006

Now you can sign up for Jeopardy online and maybe become one of the contestants.

(Paul Graham)

Paul Grahan is now blogging... cool. From his poston the 15th:

The main thing that struck me on reading it, actually, is that lawyers at some point messed up my nice clear writing.

Yeah, been there, had that happen.

A penny saved is a penny earned - or something like that

Standing in line at the cafe to place my order. Two guys in front of me, a guy ordering and a guy waiting.

GO: I'll have a hamburger with a side of cheese
GW: Did you just ask for a burger with a *side* of cheese?
GO: Yeah, its cheaper that way.
GW: What?
GO: Its $1.69 for a hamburger and $1.99 for a cheeseburger, but a side of cheese is only 29 cents.
GW: Ah

Apparel maker Mitchell & Ness uses software to root out counterfeiters

More fraud activities and fraud software

FORTUNE: Trapped in cubicles - Mar. 9, 2006

Propst is the father of the cubicle. More than 30 years after he unleashed it on the world, we are still trying to get out of the box. The cubicle has been called many things in its long and terrible reign. But what it has lacked in beauty and amenity, it has made up for in crabgrass-like persistence.

I hardly ever work in a cube anymore, instead I'm in a walled office with 3 other folks. I actually like it much better.

Malware-Speak Spooks Symantec

Article discussing how script kiddies have been booting people off irc channels by typing in keywords that are usually issued by a worm - and thus causes intrusion prevention features of Symantec's Norton Firewall and Norton Internet Security Suites to knock users offline.

Originally seen in a post to slashdot.

Free Online Graph Paper / Grid Paper PDFs

Dave sent me this link and said, "Some gamers and students will find this useful". I agree. Very cool. Hex paper... what every gamer needs! :)

ABC News: Fast-Food Ice Dirtier Than Toilet Water

Jasmine Roberts never expected her award-winning middle school science project to get so much attention. But the project produced some disturbing results: 70 percent of the time, ice from fast food restaurants was dirtier than toilet water.

Yuck! But I really like the following quote - from her 18 year old brother:

Justus said when Jasmine told him her idea for this project, "I gave her a high five, then said, 'You're a strange little kid.' But I supported her all the way."

Worship - and Areosmith

So I'm watching the Areosmith You Gotta Move DVD, and various band members are talking at various times, and Steven Tyler is talking about being in the zone; and I realize that what he's talking about, that is close to what worship is like for me.

At one point (and I couldn't find it to quote it exactly) he was talking about being on stage and looking over at Joe Perry and just... seeing it on Joe's face. That he gets this look and Steven knows Joe is in the zone, and that its great. He also said he knows he was in the zone when the concert was over and he didn't even know time had passed. Thats the same for me. When you are worshipping and you look up and hours have passed, or the pastor is coming forward to do the sermon, or whatever, and you think "Wow... already. I thought we just started" and its been an hour, or two, or whatever... then you know you've been *there*.

Later Steven said the following:

... I read the review that "Whoops, Typlers back on drugs" or "That show was phenomenal." It doesn't matter. I know I was in the zone and I know I had a good time. And I think thats what transcends to the younger audience. Its very magical... when that happens. But I think all musicians live for it. And its very euphoric. And if those that get it play their cards right, they can ride that wave right into the shore; because the euphoric recall is life giving. Its happy, joyous and free. It transcends all bounderies. Its got no definition, yet it means everything. Its the greatest experience on earth. Its like watching your child be born. Its just something else.

That is so what worship is... only instead of just being an earthly thing, its a super-natural thing as well, because God is in the mix. It doesn't matter if people tell you that it was good or not. Because if you get it, if you were in the zone, if you were there; God was there. You could feel Him. You were speaking to Him and playing for Him - and He told you it was good. And it is very... magical for lack of a better term. Its super-natural. Its non-earthly.

And the euphoric recall is life giving; because He is life-giving. Once you've been there, its somewhere you want to go back to. Its something you live for. Feeling His presence that strong, and just playing for the joy of it - because He joys in it, and it makes Him, and you, happy.

"Its got no definition, yet it means everything." That is so it. It is so hard to explain to someone that hasn't been there. The cool thing, to me, is to hear people that do get it. And what's weird to me, is that the people that explain it best in public, aren't even Christians. Alex Van Halen, Steven Tyler. And yet, they've been somewhere that is a copy of "it". They've been in the secular zone... and being in worship is all that, and more. Because He is there.

Its weird the things that speak to me. That secular things speak to me louder than Christian things at times. But God speaks through all things...

As Steven said, "Its the greatest experience on earth. ... Its just something else."

Worship

It's Sunday afternoon. I went to NCF today, after having not gone to church for a number of weeks... I don't know, 5 maybe? It was very cool. I'm starting to miss corporate worship. Its just one of the things I very much enjoy - if I'm in the band playing or in the congregation just participating. To me, its close to the same thing. A little different being in the band, because then I'm actually pounding on some form of hand drums, rather than my: chest, hands, hips, fronts of my legs, or whatever - but hey, really, that is just all different forms of instruments. So yeah, pretty close to the same thing. The coolest thing about it, is whether or not you really get into worship - and that has very little to do with being on stage, in the band, or whatever. One of my best times of worship was when I was in the congregation, and then some of my other really great - and really bad, times have been when I was on the stage. So, all it all, its just really a heart/God/focus thing, and doesn't have much to do with where I am... other than it seems almost always better when it is congreational rather than all by myself.

I have tomorrow off, so plenty of time to work then. You know you like you job when you find out you have a 3 day weekend and think, "Yes... now I can get some really cool stuff done" - because that means you can work from home without much interruption and do some stuff you've been meaning to get done at work, but were too busy to do because people are interrupting you or you have stuff you really SHOULD get done. But hey, no one can really fault you for what you do on your "time off", right? So - most of Monday with maybe very little to do but "fun work". Cool.

So anyhow, kind of tired, because up early, and everyone is napping - and I've got tomorrow to work and a little too tired to work now anyway, but not tired enough to take a nap - so I decided to read some blogs. So after reading Defective Yeti and sitting in here laughing silenty so hard (because I don't want to wake the kids up who are napping) that I've got tears just RUNNING down my face; I decided maybe I should blog for a bit. Which is mostly made up of me just sitting there thinking about things and writting them down...

[At this point I change my title from "Rambling... perhaps" because I didn't know what I was going to write about, to "Worship"]

So yeah, worship was really good. Jesse Ralph is always great... because he is just so real, and because he is a Passion style of worshipper. So it was great. I'm finally starting to realize, more than I ever did in the past, that there truely are all different kinds of worshippers. Or perhaps another way to say it, some people are born to worship and some are not. Well maybe all are born to worship - but some people get worship, and some do not. Anyway, Jesse is a great worshipper, and so a great worship leader. Worship today was great.

A few thoughts on worship, and worshippers - and hopefully not too crtical - a few thoughts on "yeah, I don't think it should be that way, but it is" or "Yeah, I don't really get that."

You shouldn't do too many new songs, because people can't worship if too many songs are new. Hate it for them. What a drag. People have to actually KNOW the words to songs or they can't worship. That is sad. Today was a great time of worship, and I think I knew 2 of the 6 songs. All in all, most worship songs are fairly repetative. So hey, if you didn't know the 2 sentences the first time the band sang them, you should know them by the 2nd or 3rd time they sing them. After all, if it is a good worship song, it is about pouring your heart out to God, or talking about how great He is. So they should be pretty easy. So your eyes follow along a bit, or you actually listen to the words a bit, repeating them, and pretty soon you heart is just pouring them out, and you don't really have to KNOW them. I mean, by the end of the song you do. So whats the big deal. At least that is how *I* think it should be. And how it is for me. So, even though I didn't know most the songs, it was great. And I think it is just sad that some people can never quite get into worship, because they don't "know the words". Missing the point I think.

Heaven isn't going to be just worshipping God, because hey, that would be boring. Again - someone's not getting it. Or someone doesn't know how to really worship, or understand what it is all about. I used to be kind of concerned about dying and going to heaven. "What am I going to do in Heaven? I heard it was all about worshipping God... ALL THE TIME." Then I got a true revelation about worship, and now I can't wait. I mean litterally... I can't wait. I've been in bible studies before and listened to people discussing death, or being afraid of death. And I'm like, "Yeah, I'm not worried about it at all." I'm truely not. Its going to rawk big time - so whats to be worried about? The only thing that concerns me about death is my family not being taken care of, or missing something with my (hopefully in the future at some time) grandkids. But I figure I'll go when God wants me to, and until then I'll take care of things and play with my (hopefully in the future at some time) grand kids. But anyway, I'm not afraid. Because I've experienced worship. And it has blown me away. And in heaven its going to be way beyond what I can imagine based upon my earthly experience. So what's not to look forward to? Whats to be afraid of? My only fear would be if we weren't worshipping all of the time... and I'm not worried about that at all - because God is all about Love and Worship. And this whole line of thought was brought on because I heard a pastor said something like, "Many people think heaven will be all about worship, but I don't think so; because there are very few of us that could worship all the time." And I heard a few people thought, "Man, I hope not, not if worship is like this." Again, to me, that is very sad. And it made me think about a few things about worship.

• I never confuse worship here on earth with what it will be like in heaven. If worship here on earth is bad... its because we are on earth. We have politics, and emotions, and moods, and just stuff, interfering. But the best time of worship we've ever had on earth - yeah, heaven will be like that, but only better. So I have never once thought "Man, if worship in heaven is like this, its going to be a drag." - Because if I'm feeling bad about worship on earth, I never confuse *that* (whatever it is - because if you are feeling like that - it isn't really worship), with what it will be like in heaven.
  
• I've realized that some people just don't "get" worship. If they did, they wouldn't make comments like the ones above. They would understand it... but they don't. And I don't think any amout of explaining is going to get them to understand it. As much as I think heaven will be all about worship... maybe that is true just for worshippers. Maybe my heaven isn't what other's heaven is. I don't know. But I'm willing to cut people slack and just be content in what I think heaven will be like - for me
  
• Not everyone is a "worshipper". I used to believe everyone was. Deep inside. That they were all built that way. I used to believe that if you could just get people to experience worship - true worship - that they'd "get it". That they'd feel it, they'd get it, and they'd long for it, from that time on. I once had a person tell me that I really got worship. And that I needed to cut people slack. That not everyone got it the way I did, and that most people never would. For a long time I took that to me, "They don't get it now... but given the right exposure, they will." I'm starting to think they some people never will. And that isn't a bad thing, I don't think. I think it just is. But as a person who plays on worship teams - I think it takes some pressure off. I don't have to worry about "Why didn't they get it?", "Why weren't the people moved." I think some people will never be moved, get it, whatever. And it isn't because the team is doing something wrong. Some people just aren't "into" it. For some people, corporate worship is just something you do before the sermon. Its just singing some songs. And they are never going to feel God's presence in worship, like other people do. Its a drag - but I think its just the way it is.
  

Well... that's probably enough about worship for today. Most of that came from the past few weeks. Not from anything really today. Today was just a good day of singing my heart out to God - singing with some people I know and love, grinning at Jesse Ralph being Jesse Ralph, and just basically enjoying being in God's presense with His people - all pouring our hearts out to Him.

And I've been missing that about my worship with Him. How easy it is. How... light. To use a geek term... my worship with him is a light-weight interface. There is nothing heavy, complicated, or complex about it. And that is what I love about it. There are no requirements, no constraints. Its just --- Here I Am. Open you heart and pour it out. And *that* - is very easy to do.

Valentines Day Dinner

Because Michael made dinner for Jaime on Tues, and we were upstairs, I wanted until Thur to make dinner for Tina. Four courses!

Shirmp cocktail stuffed avacados, medium shrimp and celery with cream cheese

Lobster Bisque with Crab Meat

Snow Crab Cakes with a citrus cream sauce
Asparagrus with a lemon cheese sauce
Pine nut couscous

Chocholate covered strawberries, chocholate creme, and miniature pastries.

Yum. :)

Linked from - Madville.com - How to fix your monitor if some idiot puts a magnet on it

Well that was pretty cool. And pretty funny since I believe the person who forwarded this to me had it hapepn to him, from one of his kids. :)

Its been busy

Just a quick update on how things are going. I've been swamped with work lately. Was in DC the week before last, which was a really good trip. (Lots of good ethnic food and good work), then last week was the "ok... we're back now, lets get caught up" week. Tons of stuff going on at work, with possible new implementations (new projects), the possibility that I might be leading up something new, and just tons of new features being requested to go into things. Which is all good. Its nice when people want to use your stuff! So I've been coding, designing, consulting, attending many meetings, etc. Its been kind of crazy, but it goes in cycles like that.

So the weekends have pretty much been just vegging. Hoping this week to get up to NCF. Haven't been to church in... 4 weeks maybe? Didn't go the week before the trip, then of course during the trip, and now been back for a few weeks but just too much going on. Weird when you are involved in a service every week for years, and then not to go for a month. I'm starting to miss playing, but also just corporate worship in general.

Anyhow - for those that were wondering if I dropped off the face of the earth or something (other than the occasional posting to some article or something), that is what is going on with me. And things don't look like they'll be slowing down anytime soon. But hey... that's why God made me the type of person to get up at 4:00 in the morning and start working. :)

later...

Canadian IT Operators Discover Beauty In Spam - Yahoo! News

Building on the idea that people are naturally attuned to sound, the Sheridan College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning has created software that translates network and server activity into music. And, their IT department operators can interpret the music to detect problems in the system.

Pretty cool idea. We have users who look at network traffic graphically (rather than looking at textual statistics, etc.), so this would just add another "sense" to the mix. You see it, and hear it. Cool.

Verizon Business Enhances Voice-Over-IP Suite of Services

Verizon Business is expanding its patented Sheriff anti-fraud expert system to help protect Verizon Business Managed IP Telephony customers from illegitimate use of their IP PBX phone systems. Available only from Verizon Business, Sheriff's round-the-clock proactive monitoring enables early detection and customer notification of suspect or fraudulent calling. Verizon Business now safeguards all Managed IP PBX customers with Sheriff and its experienced Fraud Control Team, while also offering a custom version that lets customers specifically tailor Sheriff to recognize and report irregular activities targeted at a customer's particular business.

Yup, that's the Sheriff system I work on. :)

You're Still Paying for the Spanish-American War: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance

Once a tax, always a tax.

The 1984 Apple Commerical

Some cool behaind the scense info on the commerical. To actually display the commerical you have to allow popups and it appearently takes a while to download (I'm still downloading from the 60 second commerical link as I write this). The page itself takes a bit to come up, because of the images on it - but not too long.

"Joke" Conversation Thread in which the :-) Was Invented

The contents of the 'joke' thread on the CMU CS general bboard that led to Scott Fahlman's invention of the smiley are below. This was retrieved from the spice vax oct-82 backup tape by Jeff Baird on September 10, 2002.

This article, or rather BB contents is so cool (geek cool) on a number of levels:

• It was recorded on a VAX,
• It shows the origination of :-), and
• Its just kind of cool to read geeky conversations. :-)

Too much money to tax - The Other Side - Breaking News 24/7 - NEWS.com.au

MICROSOFT founder Bill Gates, the world's richest man, said today the tax office in the US has to store his financial data on a special computer because his fortune is so vast.

Gee... what a problem to have!

E-Trade Goes into the Great Wide Open

E-Trade moves from Solaris to Linux and Open Source software.

It was in this branch that the team made the adjustments necessary for the code to run properly on Linux. For example, the move from Solaris to Linux also involved moving from the Sun Studio C compiler to GCC, or GNU Compiler Collection, the dominant Linux and open-source compiler, and the team had to sort through syntax errors turned up by the compiler change.

Been there, done that. But it was well worth it.

Google CEO on censoring: 'We did an evil scale' - Computerworld

"'We concluded that although we weren't wild about the restrictions, it was even worse to not try to serve those users at all,' Schmidt said. 'We actually did an evil scale and decided not to serve at all was worse evil,' he said, referring to the company's famous 'don't be evil' creed."

You hate to see that kind of censorship, but as they said, is some capability better than none? Also later it talks about the gov trying to get search records for criminal cases. The larger google gets, and the more "market share" they have, the more the pressure will be applied.

All Headline News - Matthew Perry, 'West Wing' Creator Together Again - January 29, 2006

Matthew Perry is working on a new series. Jaime should be excited about that!

Term-limited 'West Wing' ending in style

I had heard from Jaime that 'West Wing' was ending - but I wasn't sure if it was because it got cancelled or because the series decided to end itself. I'm really surprised it got cancelled; its one of my favorite shows. I've always thought the writting/acting was excellent.

That core audience includes Washington politicians, predictably mostly Democrats. But cast members have discovered that some Republicans watch, even though many share the belief of at least one TV critic that "The West Wing has supplied seven years of liberal propaganda."

While I agree that there was quite a bit of liberal viewpoint on the show (after all, it is a Democrate administration); I thought the overall viewpoint was one of honor, doing the right thing, and fighting for what you believe is right. So althought I didn't always agree with a particular stance they took on some issue, I was all for their passion, loyalty and honor in how they handled it. I guess one of my overriding feelings has been "I wish that is how politicians really acted" - because I don't get a sense this is how they really act.

Anyway - I'll miss it. I was really looking forward to seeing how they would handle a new administration, how they would transition cast members, who would stay on, etc. I think they've done an excellent job lately...

Student who wore Broncos jersey stays out of school all week

Wow.

PersonalAlpha: Alpha Emulated on Windows XP - OSNews.com

Not that I have any VMS apps lying around... but still cool to see it is out there. Yeah, VMS will never die. :)

KKTV | Watching for Mountain Lions

Its not everywhere that you have to watch for Mountain Lions on your way home from school or while out running...

Pasta Sauce

(Yeah - up early before the flight, some last minute things to do - but might as well get some blogging done. I'm in the mooo - in case you couldn't tell. No posts for a while, then 5 this morning. Oh well - pretty normal for me to write in spurts).

I'm really considering not buying any kind of pasta sauce again. Forever I've been the "I can't take the time to let it cook all day. Just grab some 'store-bought' and then spice it up with some meat, extra veggies, etc." kind of person. But over the last few months I've made some by hand rather quickly. And last night kind of tipped the scales with a "Hmm... that was pretty good and only took 15 minutes" sauce.

Inspired by two episodes of Emril where he made a vodka sauce - the main point being the crushed tomatoes and cream, I decided to make Ravioli last night with a tomatoe/cream sauce.

Sautee some shallots, sun-dried tomatoes, and a little bit of proscuitto in olive oil. Then added some organic "chunky tomatoe sauce" and stired it around. Threw in some oregano and basil, salt and pepper. Let it cook for 5 minutes till bubbling, tasting and adding more seasoning as needed. Finished with some 1/2 and 1/2 and let cook a few more minutes.

It turned out pretty good. Nice spices, fresh tomatoe taste due to the chunks of tomatoe and that it hadn't cooked all day and wasn't acidy, due to the cream and the organic tomaote sauce.

Given the freshness, the fact that it was homemade, and how quick and easy it was... Yeah, I'm thinking maybe I'll stick with doing it this way. Plus its easy to play with and adjust as the mood strikes.

Back out to DC

Heading back out to DC today. 9 AM flight to Washington, 3 hour lay over in Cincinnati. Fun. But the tickets were close to 1/2 the price of going on a quick flight, so I guess its worth it. And we get to fly out of the Springs, which is good.

Out there for 4 days. Should be a good trip. More than just a meeting with a customer, this time we are hoping to get some system work done that we can't do without the customer. Two days of development type work, followed by meetings to discuss next steps. Good stuff.

And then of course there is the eating. The big part of a business trip is figuring out where we will eat. :) Sunday - not sure yet. Monday, "adventure" trip into Georgetown with Terry and Joan to see if we can find somewhere cool to eat. May take an hour to get in - but hey, what else are we going to do. Just hang out at the hotel? Might as well make the most of it. Then Tuesday our "whenever you are in town come over and have dinner", dinner with Gregory's. And this time several other folks that used to be on the team but now live in DC are coming over. Should be a great time. Wed hopeuflly Thia or something cool. And then Thursday head home.

Food and work - two ways to measure the trip. :)

Start 'em out young

I slipped going down the stairs yesterday afternoon, right before heading out to do grocery shopping. Didn't fall on my butt (like Tif), but did slide a few steps and kind of jar myself.

By the time I get done at the bank, Sams and King Soopers, my lower back is starting to ache. Sigh. OK... I need a Starbucks something fierce. That first jolt of caffine will surely help with the pain... Or at least make me feel better.

I call home to see if Jaime wants one. Of course she does. :) Cinnamon Dolce Frappuccino.

As I'm waiting in line, I glance up at the Father holding his 4 year old daughter in his arms. Blue eys, long blonde pig tails. The Barista calls out, "Hot Chocolate for Laura" and the little girls eyes light up as her dad leans her forward and she pulls it off the bar.

And for a second I feel a connection with the guy. Two dads at Starbucks, both feeding our little girl's Starbucks habit. ;)

What was that about?

Existing Sam's and the guy who quickly looks at my reciept, then into the basket, and then marks the reciept with an orange marker, is very distracted. This is odd. He is usually right on the ball. Today he keeps looking outside like something, then back into my cart, then outside. Finally he draws the line, then looking at his co-worker on the left side of the door, he says, "She cut around behind you just a minute ago. You missed her."

What and odd statement.

Then I push my cart out the door onto the sidewalk and there is a security guard and 2 or 3 managers, surrounding a mother with one little kid in a stroller and another little kid standing next to the stroller. They all look pretty stern, and she looks quite up-set, rummaging in her purse like she is looking for a reciept.

I continue on my way.

Busted? Shop-lifing some food out of Sam's with her two little kids?

Not sure. But I always wondered what the point of those "reciept makers" were. I mean, its not like they really check to make sure everything in your cart is on the list. Maybe the whole point is to just make sure you *have* a reciept. Hmm.

What a difference a day makes

Snowed in CO on Thursday. Our first really bad during the day snow storm. It took me 2 hours and 15 minutes to get home. Friday things were back to normal and it took me 30 minutes.

Busted by a bird

A computer programmer found out his girlfriend was having an affair when his pet parrot kept repeating her lover's name, British media reported Tuesday.

Software Engineering, Not Computer Science

Today's pervasive reliance on code-and-fix development--and the cost and schedule overruns that go with it--is not the result of a software engineering calculation, but of too little education and training in software engineering practices.

Good article on the difference between the two and the current state of the industry. Although this article has nothing to do with XP, one of the good things that XP is trying to do, is move us away from code-and-fix development and to something better.

Feed my... introvertiveness

I had to make my bi-yearly doctor appointment to get my high blood pressure checked. I pretty much hate going to the doctor. Not because I don't like the doctor (I actually do like her, she's been my doctor for 15 years or something), but just because I: hate the interruption in my routine, think its somewhat a waste of time (yes, I still have high-blood pressue, yes I still need the pills, please right me another 6 month perscription... see you in 6 months). Since she knows this, she only gives me a 6 month prescription, because whatever my presription time period is - that is about how long it will take me to come back. So anyway... Since I'm also a procrastinator, I usually wait until the last minute to call and make my appointment. Which usually deals with things like "If I make my appointment now, I can get in, in time to get a new prescription and order it on-line, thus reducing the amount I have to pay", followed by "Oh - I forgot to call, and now its too late, so I might as well until its almost run out", etc., etc.

Bascially I have to call and make an appointment, but I hate talking on the phone, and so I just keep putting it off.

Well *this* time, at pretty much the last minute, I remememberd that my doctor's office allows you to make appointments via the web. Well *how cool* is taht? I don't even have to talk to anyone. Just click, fill in a few optimal time selections, click again, and a day later you get your appointment via email.

Sweet.

Wired News: Spin Doctors Create Quantum Chip

From an article that Michael sent me a link to (Thanks Michael):

University of Michigan scientists have created the first quantum microchip, which could be a giant stride in the race to produce a new generation of brawny, super-fast computers.

Discusses a new quantum microchip where a "bit" has 3 states: on, off and both. If I'm reading this right, this would give us a Base-3 numeric system, instead of Base-2. Cool stuff.

Paradox?

I realized this morning that there is might be something rather paradoxical about me paying top dollar for meat from Whole Foods, because it has less hormones, is organic, and is better for me and my faimly tht normal "super market" meat; and at the same time eating a left-over, preformed, previously frozen, Stouffer's Meatloaf in Gravy, mini-meatloaf for breakfast.

But they do taste really good, and I guess it isn't that much of a universe exploding paradox... after all, I'm still here to blog about it.

Microsoft vs. Computer Security - Why the software giant still can't get it right. By Adam L. Penenberg

What can you do to protect yourself? Besides avoiding Microsoft products, one way would be to use substitutes whenever possible. If you run Windows or the upcoming Vista, use a different e-mail program, browser, and/or media player than the ones that come in the box.

Which, again, is why I use Firefox. I also use WinAmp most of the time, rather than the windoze media player... Although I must admit I'm still using Outlook. But I'm *thinking* about switching to Mozilla's mail package...

Yeah, I'm a geek

One trait of a geek - at least some of the time - is someone who doesn't have good fashion sense, doesn't really care that much about clothes, etc.

So I'm sitting in a manager's meeting yesterday (5 of us) and I'm listening in on a conversation, and I happen to look down on the left side of my button up shirt (I'm wearing a button up shirt over a t-shirt and the button up shirt is open) and I notice some lint, so I flick it off... But it doesn't come off. "Odd". So I pick at it and realize it is not lint but thread on the back of the button. "OMG - ok... so I have my shirt on inside out." Argh... So I *casually* get up, walk into the break room behind the conference room (like I'm throwing something away - yeah I know... pretty smooth) and take my shirt off and put in on right. Sigh

I really need to start getting dressed BEFORE Tina leaves for work - so she can at least say things like, "New fashion trend... OR DO YOU JUST HAVE YOUR SHIRT ON INSIDE OUT?"

Its why she thinks I'm cute though. :)

OpenVMS.org - OpenVMS Community Portal

According to George Cook of WVNET this cluster has been up for over 10 years.

VMS is so sweet. :)

For those of you not knowing what this means... it means the machine has run for 10 years without being rebooted. In Windows terms - 10 years without a Blue Screen of Death or being shut down. :)

Create an e-annoyance, go to jail | Perspectives | CNET News.com

Annoying someone via the Internet is now a federal crime.

It's no joke. Last Thursday, President Bush signed into law a prohibition on posting annoying Web messages or sending annoying e-mail messages without disclosing your true identity.

Hmm... so now posting annonymous comments is a federal crime and punishable by up to 2 years in jail.

It wasn't bothering me that much... really. ;)

Read it out loud

Just read my "letter to the editor" to Tina. Surprising how it sounds in your head, and how it sounds when you read it out loud. I've always known I'm not the best writter. I are an engineer - as the saying goes. I usually write very informal, and very fast. In speech, and sometimes in writting, I tend to be dyslexic. Typing to fast and spelling one thing when I meant another, switching words. I'm just in too much of a hurry. And even though I know that, I know everyone else knows it too - so I rarely take the type to reread and edit.

So I read my letter to the editor, a few times before sending it. Then I read it again when I saw it in the paper... Then I read it out loud to Tina. Turns out when you have to read it out loud, it slows you down... and you notice things. Like how many times you say "etc" or how you use "than" when you mean "that".

Hmm... lesson learned - maybe. Not that I send many letters to the editor (I believe it is one in almost 50 years). But still, when I'm sending stuff external, I should read it out loud - at least once. Just to catch those things I'd otherwise miss.

Last Holiday

The movie Last Holiday comes out this friday (the 13th). It looked interesting due to the fact that Queen Latifah is in it, and I've always liked here. But then last night I was watching the Food TV channel, and they had a special on it. All about how they did the food for the movie, the "food is like a second character", all kinds of behind the scenes things about how their people did the food, prepared it for shots, etc. Some cool stuff.

One of the things about Queen's character is that she is very into food, and watches the Emril all the time. And how she plates a dish and then takes pictures of it with her digital camera - which is something I do. Just some cool cooking stuff.

Now I really have to see it. :)

I'm in the papers.

In my entry on Holiday movies - the best and worst experiences I wrote about a group of 15 little kids that went to the movies and the three adults that supervised them, and how well they did. I thought about it enough that I wrote a letter to the editor for the Woodmen Edition - and they put it in. :) Kind of cool to see your name in the papers like that. Although a bit of second thinking and "did that sound dorky" or whatever. But hey, still cool. :)

Yellowtail and Curly by Golan Levin

Yellowtail and Curly by Golan Levin

Pretty cool. :)

Wacky Warning Labels A Sign of Litigious Times -- 01/04/2006

The winning label was attached to a heat gun/paint remover that reaches temperatures of 1000 degrees: "Do not use this tool as a hair dryer," the label said.

AP Wire | 01/06/2006 | Verizon completes $8.5B purchase of MCI

The deal is done. I'm working for Verizon now.

Schneier on Security: Internet Explorer Sucks

MSIE was 98% unsafe. There were only 7 days in 2004 without an unpatched publicly disclosed security hole.

As a friend of mine posted, "Not that I havn't said this a thousand times, but IE Sucks." Yeah - no kidding. And here, is yet again, proof. It is 98% "unsafe" and that is "optimistic." Pretty much that means, if you are running IE you are just screaming to get hacked.

And yet again, for all those of you our there running IE... You really should install mozilla. (or firefox). Its safer (on windows it is 7% unsafe as compared to IE's 98%), and its a much better browswer with much more functionality. Again - the *only* time I run IE is when I have to because some site I have to use doesn't support Mozilla. And then, I only bring it up for as long as it takes me to get whatever I need done, and then bring it back down.

Free lance

I updated my profile. It no longer says that I'm a percussion player on the ICC worship team... After much struggle, thought, prayers (of my own and of other people), and having given it some "first of the year" reflection - I've left Impact. Most readers (at least that I know read this) already know - so since I put some of the struggle here, figured I'd post the update as well.

It was a very hard decision, and I'm going to miss folks, but the timing just seemed right and it seemed the right thing to do. To use a common Christian saying, "I just have peace about it." I really do. I went up to NCF last Sunday, and it just felt like home. Some of which is just my own heart.

There is no perfect church, there is no perfect person (except for one). Sometimes you just have to do what you have to do, and what is going to work for you, your family, and your relationship with God.

So - I think I'm in a good place right now. I was able to totally worship at NCF on Sunday. Not think about anything, but just worship. And I went up to Tom and Jennifer's last night, and did some worship with them - and that was awesome too. And people were discussing various scriptures - and it was very cool because the one I posted yesterday morning totally tied in with what folks were talking about. God's just like that.

So... we'll see what happens. God usually surprises me. He moves me slowly, and rarely shows me the big picture. I figure I'll just kick around for a bit - but maybe he's got something right around the corner for me. Right not things seem very focused on work - and on "getting back to that first love" - of just doing free, unencumbered worship without worrying about things.

But who knows. I know you are all dying to know what happens next in my life - so as always... I'll blog it. :)

Well - its been a busy morning of sending emails and now blogging - guess its time to start thinking about work. Later ya'all (yes... I know I'm weird. That's the great thing about a blog. You can say whatever you want :))

BibleGateway.com - Passage?Lookup: 1 john 2:27

An interesting scripture that I came across today:

1 john 2:27: "As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit—just as it has taught you, remain in him."

I do not think this is suggesting we don't need church (where we are taught) - but I do think in means that we have an annoiting of the Holy Spirit, and that we know the truth. Sometimes, as lay people, we don't study, pray, think about scriptural things all that much. So it is good to go to church and be encouraged, enter into discussions, etc. But when we hear things, we can mediate upon them and know the truth of them, based on whether or not the Holy Spirit that is in us agrees with them.

Anyway - that's my thougth this morning. :)

Mooning Deemed 'Disgusting' but No Crime in Md.

Acquitting a Germantown man who exposed his buttocks during an argument with a neighbor, a Montgomery County Circuit Court judge ruled yesterday that mooning, while distasteful, is not illegal in Maryland.

I thought the very last line was great:

James Maxwell, one of McNealy's attorneys, said yesterday's ruling should "bring comfort to all beachgoers and plumbers" in the state.