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Wednesday, November 29, 2006

May the Force be with you and yours

Stardate 60112.9
Thanksgiving was good. We got together to eat, after a mix up with my dad driving out here when I told him I would pick him up. We did the turkey in the grill this year. It turned out very well. This also left the oven free for other things. Patrick was insistent that we have pumpkin pie, so the night before he, Thomas, and Rachel helped me make two. Thomas was also sure that one of the traditions was to watch football, because 'that's what you do on Thanksgiving'.

The next day we started putting up Christmas decorations. I had a lot of trouble with the outside lights. For the life of me, I can't figure out why sections decide to just not light. Even after checking all the bulbs, it still didn't work. On top of that, they were multicolor icicle lights. I searched a number of stores, but could not find replacements. It was not until Sunday that April found a KMart ad for some. It actually looks good this year.

Saturday Thomas ran down the stairs to check his stocking by the fireplace. Apparently he was under the impression it would get filled after he hung it up. We explained that it only got filled on Christmas Eve. He was ok with that. Patrick had two games that day. The first they won 4-2. The highlights of that game was the other teams coach yelling that her team needed to listen to her, and not our coach. I also saw Patrick's friend Trey step in front of another player as he and Patrick were chasing after the ball. It was a nice pick play. The second game was 14-2. The highlights were that most of the team scored some goals. Patrick scored 3; one kicked in from mid-air over the keepers head. Trey and Josh A. both scored 1. Another highlight was the keeper kicking it away up in the air. Patrick caught it on his knee after one bounce, and juggled it for a while before popping to a teammate. The other team was at a loss to what to do.

April had the cubmaster bring me up front at the end of the Cub Scout pack meeting, and he lead the pack in singing Happy Birthday to me. That was very touching.

My new job is good. I have not done much yet, other than grin as the inclement weather snarled traffic in south Davis and Salt Lake City.

End of Entry

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Pronounced

Stardate 60112.2
Did anyone go stand in line to to buy a Wii (pronounced 'We')? I'm curious about the user manual (pronounced 'man-u-L'). Everywhere I read about the gaming console, it's always accompanied by a helpful pronounciation. Is this also in the usage for the Wii (pronounced 'Whee')? There was a piece on NPR, where they spelled AND pronounced it, that said Nintendo was going after the casual gamers with this console. I don't think I fit into the 'hard-core' gamer category, so I must be, by process of elimination, a casual gamer. I don't know if there is a no-gamer category, but since I do play console and computer games, I don't fit that one either. Yet I don't feel like buying one (pronounced '1'). I can't get past the need to tell me over and over how to pronounce the name. Why not spell it 'We' (pronounced 'Wii') and get it over with?

If an exclamation point is added, is it then pronounced Wii! (pronounced 'Wheeeeee!')?

End of Entry

Monday, November 20, 2006

Oracle Developer Tools for Visual Studio

Stardate 60112.0
I found this, and decided to download and install it. The first download was 24Mb, and when I ran it, it complained that VS 2003 was not installed (I have VS 2005). Back to the Oracle site, and I found the version for 2005 bundled with a bunch of other stuff. 283Mb all told. It took 2 hours to download, and about 5 minutes to install. I launched VS 2005, and tried to access the Oracle Explorer from the menu. It came back with 'Package Load Failure, do you want to disable loading this in the future?'. Silly me, I clicked yet. Searching on the net, I found a site describing the problem and solution. An install bug puts the .NET 1.1 assembly in for the .NET 2.0, so VS doesn't understand it. Running the command
gacutil /l Oracle.DataAccess
from the Visual Studio command prompt, and shore 'enuf:
Microsoft (R) .NET Global Assembly Cache Utility. Version 2.0.50727.42
Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

The Global Assembly Cache contains the following assemblies:
Oracle.DataAccess, Version=2.102.2.20, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=89b483f
429c47342, processorArchitecture=x86
Oracle.DataAccess, Version=1.102.2.20, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=89b483f
429c47342

Number of items = 2

two versions installed. Ok, run
gacutil /u Oracle.DataAccess
and both are removed. Search the hard disk for Oracle.DataAccess.dll, and find the 2.102.2.20 version. Use
gacutil /i (Oracle Home)/Oracle.DataAccess.dll, and it installs the proper one.
Launch VS 2005 again, but the problem now is I told it to skip loading the Oracle Explorer package. Run devenv /ResetSkipPkgs and it at least opens a window with Oracle Explorer. However, I can't connect to a database. I tried copying the TNSNAMES.ORA to the new , but no go. Ok, time to do this the old-fashioned way, and use the Net Configuration Utility that comes with Oracle. It seems to create the same TNSNAMES.ORA, but at least now I can connect.

End of Entry

Sunday, November 19, 2006

Soccer

Stardate 60111.9
Patrick is on a soccer team, put together by the PE coach at school. Two games a week, Thursday night at Ultimate Indoor in West Haven and Saturday morning at 12th Street, plus practices. He is enjoying it though. April went the game Saturday morning, and was surprised by how good he has become. The team is losing (one win against a girls team because there are not enough teams, the rest losses). I see a number of good players besides him, and a few underutilized ones. The team as a whole does ok. I disagree with the coaches letting the defenders go all the way down the field. But I will let it go and assume he knows what he is doing.

The games at Utimate seem rigged against us. One game I swear we got a penalty every time a kid on the other team fell down, but nothing when one of ours did. Well, like I said, he is having fun, so I don't care.

End of Entry

Thursday, November 16, 2006

New Job

Stardate 60111.6
The secret is generally out, so I can talk about it here. On November 27, I start working at Flying J corporate in Ogden. After almost a year of searching, I finally found something else. My big mistake before was getting complacent. I just assumed that my skills would be useful, but I found out otherwise. It took a long time to get going on new languages, and employers are always looking at past experience. Lesson learned. I will keep learning and looking at the job market.

The commute will be much better. The office is 2 minutes from where I drop the kids off at school. The dress code is more strict, and I will need to wear ties and dress shirts.

End of Entry

Monday, November 13, 2006

Long time between

Stardate 60111.3
Another long time between posts. There is a lot to catch up on. Halloween went well. Rachel was a little disappointed with a friend she went trick-or-treating with. She was more interested in visiting than getting candy. Patrick did not want to hang with his brother and sister, so we pawned him off on a friend. Thomas made out like a bandit. He went with Rachel's friends' brother. They get along very well. Rachel was a corpse bride, Patrick was a death, and Thomas was an Indian. This was the first year I did not carve a jack-o-lantern for myself. By the time I finished with Thomas and Patrick's, my hand hurt to bad to do another one. Rachel did hers all by herself. It turned out pretty good, considering she chose a complex design.

Well, got to run. More to come...

End of Entry

Friday, November 03, 2006

Faye

Congrats to Kevin and Dani on the birth of baby Faye on November 1.