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Tuesday, June 22, 2004

Mt Con

Stardate 57062.2 (06-22-2004)

Another while between blogs, but at least it wasn't a month. I think of all sorts of things to write about during the day, but when I get to the blog, it all goes away. And it doesn’t help that I have been very busy at work and home, and don’t feel like getting in front of a computer at night, not even to play games after sitting in front of one at work all day.

The MountainCon meeting last month was tense, to say the least. The mailing list exploded Much of it was irrelevant to the goal of getting a regular Sci-Fi convention in Utah, and it caused at least one person to drop out. On the brighter side, I added a new blog to the list of ones I check up on.

Last Tuesday was a Primary Election day. I got a call about a week before asking if I intended to vote. I told them no. I had thought that it was a Republican primary, and only those registered with the party could vote. I wondered after the call if I misunderstood. It turns out that no, I did not, but if I wanted to affiliate with them, I could vote. No thanks. I also noted on my new registration card that my party affiliation changed from independent to “UNAFFILIATED”. Personally, I liked independent better.

I am now a registered developer with Microsoft Developer Network (aka MSDN). I refer to it as I am now a minion of Microsoft (to borrow a phrase from the recently deceased ex-Pres, "the evil empire"). I'm not an MS basher, but they do some annoying things. For example, they take a known programming concept (iterators) and give it a new name. Bad, but common for market-driods. But then they use a name close to another existing concept (enumerators, where the existing concept is enumerated constants). It's kind of like Ford or GM making a new mini-van, and insisting on calling it an SUV.

Rachel has expressed a desire to see Hillary Duff in concert. Blink, and everything changes. Not really, but it seems that way. I noticed in the last six months she is no longer interested in cartoons, and instead watches “Lizzy Mcquire” and “Even Stevens”.  She is spending a lot of time in her room listening to her boom box. Pre-teen, here we come.

I took the kids fishing Sunday. We didn’t catch anything, not that I expected to. I can’t get the kids out early enough. Patrick did pick up casting after about one half hour of practice, and he could send the lures just about anywhere he wanted. Rachel got bored after about an hour and a half. She didn’t throw a tantrum, though, but just expressed a desire to go home.

We have also learned that Patrick is allergic to dog and cat hair, as well as grass. All of which we have in abundance. I am not sure what we are going to do at this point. Patrick has suggested we get rid of the older female cat, Smoky. I explained that it wouldn’t help. He may just have to live with it.

Rachel in Mexico, Air Show

Stardate 57062.2 (06-22-2004)

Rachel is back from Mexico, several shades darker. She had a great time. I was a little disappointed she did not practice her Spanish.

Almost finished the deck out front. It has a few flaws, but not a bad effort. I am annoyed because I have been using composite materials for the deck. Home Depot has now pulled the stuff in favor of vinyl decking. I can see where this stuff would be even less maintenance, but it looks plastic, and it comes in brown, and I like the gray color of the composite. So the railing materials will need to be special ordered, which leaves no room for experimenting. Aside from that, it's been fun.

250,000 people showed up for the air show on that Saturday, and another 200,000 on Sunday, according to the papers. The weather was about perfect, 75 degrees and a light breeze. The Thunderbirds were impressive as usual. We watched them again from the house on Sunday. That was a closer view, but you couldn't see what maneuvers they were doing. I didn't get around to touring the planes because of the long lines, but the only one I was really interesting in seeing inside was the AWACS plane. The WWII planes interested me, but you don't get to see inside of one, so I was not unhappy to miss them. Years ago, the Confederate Air Force did a small show at Layton Hills Mall. There was not many people there, so one of the guys let me sit in the cockpit of an ME-109 (primary fighter for the Germans in WWII). I was amazed at how small it was (and I was much thinner then), and that you could not see over the engine.




I finally got Visual Studio .NET at work. The thing took five days and reading of hundreds of messages in Google groups to install. I had to clean things out of the temp directory, shut down the virus and personal firewall software (which is tricky and of course, AGAINST corporate policy), and uninstall and reinstall several OS components. Definitely the most touchy install I have ever done (including a Linux 6.2 install).

We took my dad out for dinner on Father's Day. I spent some time talking to him while the kids played with my sister. I don't get a chance to do that very often.

This morning I got a short adrenaline boost. There was an accident near the I-215 interchange. I saw some smoke and everyone was suddenly shifting over to the right. I was far back and to the right enough to easily avoid running into anyone. Not sure what happened.

I just caught up with the FanConCom messages. A strange realization came to me as I read them. I am thinking a lot more in business terms than I used to. Terms like ROI and IOI kept popping into my mind. Eek, I am falling into the dark side. 

End of Entry

Wednesday, June 09, 2004

Disease, First Communion

Stardate 57060.9 (06-09-2004)

Almost a month since the last entry. Not good.

Disease ran through the family. Wednesday the 19th May I felt terrible, so I took a few days to recover. Rachel came down with strep next. I missed the campout because of it. It was a cold weekend, however, so I am not too disappointed.

The problem with taking days off is that work piles up when I am gone. And lately there has been more work than normal, which compounds the problem. A meeting was held to discuss one particular issue, but it turned into a frustration venting session for the management team. Everyone is not happy with the amount of time I spend on client issues (myself included). Some of them suspect the product specialists are falling back into the 'hand it to Tim to solve' mode again. The VP is going to look at getting another FTE to help, but I doubt that will happen. There is also a pretty heavy learning curve on the system.

This was interesting. I agree that consultants never bothered with much research, but I disagree that they produced code that internal programmers could not understand. I would say could not maintain.

Continuing on with the endless languages discussion, there is this.

I got into an argument with the department manager a while ago about software tools. I have been asking about getting an upgrade to Visual Studio (I am on version 6, which is not supported anymore). I was told it was on order for all the developers in the department, but it was held up with red tape. The rest of the developers had moved to the third floor, and they told me they got it at the start of the year. I email the manager about this, and got a response back that no, they did not have it. After a couple of exchanges, I called her over to one of the developers desk. He was not very happy about that. I realized after I called that I had invited the bosses' boss over, and she was not in a good mood. I get somewhat single minded when I know I am right, and someone tells me I am not. I also realized that most of the other people in the department are a little afraid of the manager. I am not sure why. She is a nice person, and not unreasonable to deal with.

Rachel's first communion went well. My mother in law and brother in law came up for it. There were only a couple of arguments between my wife and mother in law. I had a bad time with the digital camera. For some reason I could not take any clear pictures. I took my brother in law to a Stingers game, and we all went to Lagoon on Saturday. Ultimately, though, Rachel had a great time, and it was very important to here that Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Ric, and Aunt Susan were there.













One of the premises I thought would be good about Enterprise is that we would get to see how and more importantly WHY the Federation was formed. What makes a group of different species work together? Season three has wrapped up, and they are nowhere close to this. We get to see that Archer is a key figure in the formation of the Federation, but again, WHY? The original series did some development on Vulcan culture, and the next generation did the same for Klingon culture. They are doing a little with the Andorians, but we have seen Tellarites only once. I think the show would to better if it could comment on how the differences in cultures were overcome to form the Federation. I disagree with those who think the show should reflect the times. Instead, it should come up with what ifs, as in what if the nations and peoples of the world worked around the differences that divide us. That would be interesting. TOS was about hope, Enterprise should be as well.

Ronald Reagan passed away last Saturday, so the week has been filled with stories about his life. He was the first president I voted for. His were the only State of the Union addresses I liked to listen to. Thinking back on his administration, I remembered the Bloom County comic because they used to make fun of him.  I will have to see if I can dig up some of the comics.

The other reason for the long time between log entries is I have started on some yard projects. I am building a deck in front, and this is turning out to be fun. It's a little stop and start, and a lot of experiments.

End of Entry