Who Killed the Desktop Applcation?

Stardate 60061.1
Jeff Atwood had a post about Who killed the desktop? Google is a pretty innovative company, but sometimes they do things I don't care for. The Google themes are not very imaginative, and take up a lot of screen real estate. I've never used Trips and Streets because I feel that should be an online application because the information is constantly changing. I also think this is a back burner application as far as Microsoft is concerned. Office undergoes changes in user interface every few years. I used Visual Source Safe for almost 8 years, and the user interface didn't change at all. Visual Studio made changes that surprised me from version 6 to 2003 to 2005.

I haven't found a good IDE Web app (or any IDE on the web for that matter). During my job search last year, I did keep track of all the interviews and submissions on Google Docs, but I've never tried to put a large amount of text in to the word processor. I have a few 40,000+ word novels I could try, though.

Google does a good job with Web apps, but that's their domain. Microsoft is still the king of desktop apps.

End of Entry

Signs

I'm a New Testament - Revelations type of guy. I keep looking for signs of apocalypse.
Jericho fans win show renewal. (Ok, this HAS happened before. Cagney and Lacey got canceled, then renewed by fan protest, and went on for four more seasons.)
Patient bleeds green blood. New one on me.
US Beats Guatemala 1-0 in Gold Cup Ok, not really new either. But I watched the match. USA has a long way to go.

And then there are the same old arguments.

My brother sent me the picture.

Favorite quote: "Syntactic sugar causes cancer of the semi-colons."

End of Entry

va'aq

About a month ago, there was a thread on comp.lang.java titled 'I hate Java'. The poster wanted to know after Googling that phrase why so many people didn't like Java. I thought he could substitute any language and get pretty much the same thing. At various times I can hate Java, Javascript, C#, CSS, HTML, and what ever else is giving me problems at the moment. Wandering through Wikipedia, I found a Klingon programming language, va'aq. Then again, I hate RPN.

End of Entry

Schedule Updates

Stardate 60060.5
On the heels of the last post is a this one. AYSO soccer is over, and we did not register again. Rachel does not want to play, and Thomas got frustrated that members of his team (which I coached) are not willing to put forth any effort. After the second to last game, he asked if he could play OFC instead. More on that in a second. Patrick wanted to keep going with AYSO, but both April and I feel he is not getting much out of it. Only twice during the fall and spring did they play a complete other team without having to loan players. I think he likes to play because he is one of the better players, and enjoys that position.

Back to OFC, I talked to the head of coaching, and yes, they are looking for more U8 players, and a coach. Sigh. I volunteered. Only 4 players showed up for tryouts, 3 of which happened to be on my AYSO team. The flyer's where a bit confusing on the minimum age. The 4 will be playing with the U9 team for the time being. A concern April had with the tryouts is that the head coach made it know he would be making two U10 teams, a premiere and a state, and that Patrick would be on the state team. I kind of knew that he was happy with the way Patrick was playing, and it turned out that only three players were removed from the existing team to the state team, and Patrick was not one of them. One was moved down simply because he needed to develop skills, one because of attitude and because he played only occasionally, and the last because he played only occasionally.

Rachel was approached many times to play on the girls team, but she does not want to, and we are not going to make her.

Thomas will be playing his last baseball game next Monday. School ends on Friday, so the kids will be mostly free for the summer. Just a once a week soccer practice.

End of Entry

Overscheduled

Stardate 60060.5
An email exchange with Carl brought up some concerns that my kids are possibly over scheduled. I don't think so at this point, but it's a concern. Here is the text of my reply:

How would you get that impression? :)
I get concerned about it. They do not get to do more than two activities at any one time, but then that gets multiplied by three. The ones that don't have something to do that day go home with one parent, usually April since I am already out here. The particular blog entry you are probably thinking of reflects April being out of town, and then they didn't get that luxury. They handled it better than I did.

Tomorrow they go home with April; nothing is scheduled. I, however, go down to Bountiful to take my dad out to eat. Friday they are going home after practice, I have SOM. One reason they only get to do two activities is so they don't get over scheduled, and the other is that I don't. They also have to want to do it, I don't like dragged crying kids to something. Next, schoolwork needs to be kept up with. Rachel's lowest GPA in the last two years is 3.95. Patrick and Thomas don't get GPAs yet, but Patrick has to be the best at everything, and gets upset with a score lower that 95%. Thomas struggled the most, due in some part to older siblings BLURTING OUT ANSWERS when we tried to study (stopped when I would put them to immediate chores when they did so), but he now parades 100% on spelling and math in his brother's face. I look at what happens when they don't have an activity. It's a problem if they can't find anything to do. It's a problem if they don't ask me to play; that means they've given up on me. Dinner together with no TV is important, and they need engage in conversation (last night's subject was who shot Abraham Lincoln, John and some name with a W, best guess was John Williams. Nope, he writes music, including the Star Wars theme, the correct answer is John Wilkes Booth).

I try to make sure they have free time. Sundays are usually spent at home and with nothing scheduled to do. Homework for the weekend needs to be taken care of as much as possible on Friday to help with this goal.

End of Entry

TV Over

The season is over. The lost finale was ok (actually better than most of the season), Medium was ok, Ghost Whisper ok. Heroes was disappointing.

Fans are up in arms to get Jericho back on. I myself have never watched it. I agree with comments on Screen Rant about how fans would react if American Idol went on a four month hiatus in the middle of the show. I think the effort has as much chance as reviving Enterprise, especially since some of the same names are involved. But to not try at all guarantees failure. It's not a ratings gatherer, and to the network types, that's where the money is.

There is the inevitable criticism of the ratings system, known as Nielsons. I did a little digging on this. Nielson Media Research acknowledges the technical challenges and has some interesting solutions. They encode audio signals in the broadcast so that the box can tell what you are watching when (assuming you are one of the sampling families). So even if the show is taped or DVR'ed, the box records that you did watch it. That leads me to wonder how much of a stats blip would occur if you recorded shows and watched at 1 AM.

There are advantages to not being top rated show. April and Rachel watch American Idol and Dancing with the Stars. Without commercial skip, April would go crazy. Dancing with the Stars is really bad, it seems to go "one of these couples will be eliminated, commercials, recap, narrow the selection, commercial, recap, narrow more, commercial, recap, ...". They need to fill an hour, but most of it is repeats the last show. So lower rated shows actually have more content that the higher ones.

End of Entry

Thomas on the News Again!

Stardate 60051.8
Big Buddha was at Union Station yesterday for Fox 13. Thanks to the Buttschardts of Roosters, the first and second grades of St. Josephs were there. We have it on the DVR. There were several cuts to Buddha. The first you can just see him at the end of the crowd of kids. The second shot has all the kids sitting on the lawn, and Thomas is right in the middle. It's fun to watch and name off all the kids I know: Jack (who was in the middle of every camera shot), Sam, Phillip, Orlando, Conner, etc. I had to drop Thomas off at school by 7:30 that day (he normally goes at 10 to 8). I knew Fox 13 was going to be there, and that he would probably be on TV. Patrick asked why Thomas gets all the chances. I don't know, just lucky, I guess.

End of Entry

Uh-huh

An interesting exchange yesterday between Rachel and April, as April goes up to take a bath:
Rachel: "You can't leave. Then I have no one to talk to."
April: "Your dad's right here."
Rachel: "But all dad says is 'uh-huh'. Right, dad?"
Me: "Uh-huh." (What the heck, might as well play along.)
Rachel: "See?"
In the end, April stayed. I was left wondering if what Rachel said was really true. I know I am not a chatty person.

End of Entry

Genesis

Stardate 60051.1
This morning I was in the half awake, half asleep state, and this was going through my head:

public class Genesis
{
Universe universe = new Universe(new Heaven(), new Earth())
}

I don't know why this came up I have not read the Bible in a while, and not Issac Asimov's "The Last Question" in some time. I kept processing it in the shower. Should I use enumerated constants for the six days? Nah, it's a one time execution, just use a for loop. What are the operations? Separate night from day, earth from sea, etc?

May 5th was the first Friday of the month, which means free dress, no uniforms. Thursday was also free dress (for a dollar fund raiser). One of the problems with wearing uniforms is that when they don't have to, they don't know what to wear, more or less. What's even stranger is th my pre-teen daughter is pretty quick about choosing clothes, but my two boys can't decide. Growing up, I remember just grabbing what was on top of the dresser drawer. Thomas is just lazy. He got mad at me because I would not let him wear the same set of clothes for three days in a row. The I added insult to injury by making him take a jacket. Patrick now does not not want to wear anything with printing, which eliminates most everything.

End of Entry

Yes!

Stardate 60050.1
April is back home again. She got back today (Saturday afternoon). Patrick had a 9 AM soccer game, so we got to sleep in a little bit. Rachel stayed by a friends house again, and they took her to soccer. She and Thomas had a game at the same time. So poor Rachel had to be shuffled around by other people. Patrick was supposed to do a tournament in Centerville , but the assistant coach called to say that not enough players had committed to it. He called after we had left, though. He sent out emails as well, and fortunately I can get GMail on my cell phone. So Patrick went to his second double-header game.

End of Entry

Quitter!

Stardate 60050.2
Monday the baseball coach handed out to the schedules. There are games Mondays and Wednesdays for the next month and a half

Tuesday I managed to get Rachel with the tennis lessons fifteen minutes late again. I retrieve the boys from day care headed back to pick up Rachel. Then we grab something to eat and went to Mount Ogden Park for Patrick’s game. When we got there, I discovered that I had two pairs of shorts, a pair of socks, and a pair of shinguards. No cleats, no shirt, and not enough time to go home and get them. (There might have been, due to a bad accident on highway 89, but I can’t say for sure. ) at that point I said forget it and we headed home. I called one of the guys at scouts to say we wouldn’t make it. I had no idea what Patrick was going to do. We talked about bowling ones, although I thought that was on May 9. April called one of the other mothers, only to find out she was at the mortuary us are mother had suddenly passed away.

I guess the game was a moot point anyway. I talked to the parents tonight, and one of the coaches is out of town with a high school team the other was caught up at work and couldn’t make it to the game. They tried to convince the referee that one of the parents could coach but since he wasn’t registered they wouldn’t let him . We ended up forfeiting the game but played for the fun of it. The team won six to nothing. Tonight little different the other team five to four, but the last goal really didn’t count because they were offsides. We’ll really kind of bothered me was the other parents were yelling at the referee and yelling in Spanish. Patrick got hit in the face with the ball, and broke his glasses were the screw goes in to hold the lens. He played the second half with only one lens, but still managed to almost get a goal.

End of entry

One week down, one to go...

Log Entry Stardate 60043.0
The kids are feeling the long week. Monday was supposed to be soccer practice for Thomas only. However, I got a call from his baseball coach. He scheduled a practice after soccer practice. Thomas did pretty well at baseball. It’s machine pitch, and he managed to hit a few of them. After we got home he and I threw a ball around for a little while.

Tuesday was the most difficult. I dropped Rachel off at tennis fifteen minutes late. The instructor called April in L. A., even though we told her to call my cell phone. I picked up Thomas after running home to get Patrick’s soccer uniform. Patrick himself was picked up by a friend. Then I picked Rachel up and headed to Roy for Patrick’s soccer game. He was not there yet, so I dumped the uniform on a fellow parent (Thanks Bonnie). Well I ran to get Rachel and Thomas something to eat. The boys played kind of lazily, and the game ended in a tie. Then it was hurried to the scout meeting. I was not mentally prepared for the meeting, especially when the new scoutmaster called me up as den leader for the Tigers. They got their badges, though, and so did the Bears. Next month is the graduation to the next level.

Wednesday was much easier. Just a soccer game at mount Ogden park. The boys played better this time, but lost three to two. I should mention that we are down our starter keeper and one for word. The keeper was hit in the face with a baseball, which broke his nose bee in three places. The forward is out for hernia surgery.
Friday Rachel and Patrick Soccer practice. Rachel had also been invited to a birthday party/sleep over. I stayed late after her practice to talk to them all know about picking her up early because Thomas had a game the same time I was supposed to drop her off. Hence, we missed most of Patrick’s practice.

Thursday was pet day at saint bens. Thomas had been talking about it all week. I put it on the calendar, and he was counting down the dates. On the day, Leo was pretty popular. Someone brought some sort of baby birds, and another brought a small python. Dogs were the most common pet to be shown.

Volleyball was late on Friday. The first game started at 9:00 PM. We lost that game, but managed to win one set of the second game at 945. Unfortunately, we lost the next game and were forced to play a third tiebreaker. This game didn’t end until 1030, meaning we did not get home until after eleven. Thomas had baseball practice the next day at 8:00 AM.

Saturday we were up by 7:00 AM and out the door by 7:30. We made it to Thomas's baseball practice in plenty of time, but left a little early to get Patrick to his game at nine. Once again, the other team didn’t have enough players so Patrick played on the other side. He didn’t have breakfast that morning and had a breakdown at the quarter. I’m not sure what’s going on, but none of the games has he played another full team. Every game so far this spring season we have needed to lend players to the other team. Rachel’s game was next at 10:00, a friend brought their new puppy and Patrick spent the rest of the game playing with it. Rachel then went with her birthday friend. The boys and I got something to eat and then went to play Thomas’s game. His team is improving, although there are only three games left. Then we did a little bit of grocery shopping where I picked up a new toy that I will get to later.
Rachel has been doing homework until eleven PM a couple of nights. One night she had to pick out a news item from the newspaper. That was a lot of trouble for her, because she was looking for a positive piece to report on. Most of the news was negative as you can probably imagine.

Sunday I had plans on catching up on some things I needed to get done, but after running around picking up or dropping off kids, I didn’t get to it. We did go see “meet the Robinsons”, because one of Patrick’s friends called and wanted him to go. Thomas and Rachel told me they wanted to see it as well. So I took them. The movie was OK, I was just expecting a little more humor. I did manage to get most of the line mode and a few plants in to the ground.

While picking and groceries, I bought a cheap microphone for my computer. I installed speech recognition on word and am now dictating this log entry, which is why it gets so long. It's much like a original Battlestar Galactica episode where Lorne Green is dictating to a computer with a large microphone (this is much smaller), and you see the pauses and then the text show up on the computer screen. Similar, but Word seems to get things wrong more than they did.

(the title, by the way, is a quote from Patrick. Rachel was apologetic "Not that we don't like you Dad, but we miss Mom." I miss my wife.)

End of entry

Single Parent Mode

Stardate 60042.5
April is in L.A. for two weeks. She left on Saturday. So I am in Single Parent Mode (SPM). It's not too bad, but it can get tiring. There is a lot of coordination to do with other parents. This makes it worrisome if another parent does not show to an activity. Saturday was one case. Patrick has soccer practice at 9 AM. I needed to get April to the airport by 10, so I was looking for one parent to keep him. She forgot about practice, so April worked out something with another one. As I thought about it, the other parent's kid would play the AYSO game later in the day with Patrick, so it worked out much better.

The one I feel a little sorry for is Thomas's baseball coach. He has been trying to schedule practice, and I keep going nope, I have something else going. I think I am driving the guy crazy.

Started and finished Tyrannosaur Canyon, by Douglas Preston.

End of Entry

Boise, the Next Day

Stardate 60041.7
The team won the game at 7 on Saturday easily, and won the semi-final on Sunday morning. The championship was at 1 PM. I was amused that we were in Idaho, and the teams in both the U9 and U11 boys championship games were from Salt Lake and Ogden soccer clubs. Patrick had been running around all morning, so the coach asked if he could play. I told him fine, but I didn't bring his shoes or shin guards. One of the mothers suggested going to the First Aid station to tape his ankle. Suddenly the whole team was involved in getting him ready to play. This was my favorite part of the whole weekend. One offered an extra pair of shin guards, and everyone offered other pieces of uniform. Jordi, who has never said a word to us before (he seems shy), asked me what size shoes Patrick wore. I told him, and he said he wore the same and had an extra pair. We cobbled Patrick together, and as I walked him to where the rest of the team the assistant coach asked if we had everything. I told him yes, and who gave what. When I got to the shoes, he had a strange look on his face. He then told me Jordi had a $100 pair of shoes he had not worn yet, and was very careful about. Patrick did well, although not at his best. The Salt Lake team won, though. Ogden got second place. Not bad for a first tournament.

Favorite Quote: "That was a fun vacation." - Thomas, upon getting back from Boise.

Finished Dark Lord, The Rise of Darth Vader.

End of Entry

Boise Tournament

Stardate 60041.4
Patrick, Thomas, and I are in Boise for a soccer tournament. It would be really fun, but Patrick landing wrong on the trampoline and sprained his ankle Monday. So he can't play. He did want to come up and cheer on his team. He came out to the game on Wednesday, just after we picked up a pair of crutches. It takes a little bit to learn how to use them, and going over grass is harder. I went slightly ahead to talk to one of the other parents, and turned around to see him flat on his back, arms and legs waving. Sorry to say, I burst out laughing.

The team won it's first match this morning, and plays the second at 7 tonight. We then play up to two championship games tomorrow.


Finished Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader.

End Of Entry

Out of the closet

Stardate 59070.1
Now I've done it. On Monday I could not find the plain brown jacket to wear to work, so I opted to wear my 5th season Star Trek TNG jacket. This, put together with the micro-machine NCC-1701 (no bloody A, B, C, or D), pewter NX-01 model, and various ship wallpapers, alerted coworkers that I am a fan. So I been getting the standard questions; Do you speak Klingon, go to conventions, wear strange costumes, etc. I think it makes some people nervous. I've never quite figured out why, but I guess it's just not what would be considered normal. I don't treat fandom as a religion, just something fun to do. Ah, well, they just have to get used to it.

Finished Teeth of the Tiger and Voyager: End Game. Started reading Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader.

End of Entry

Volleyball wins

Stardate 60040.2
Our team, "Who Cares?" won our first set Friday. The first set of games went as always, although we did take the lead for a about a minute. The second set started out like the first, we lost the first game. We managed to win the second game by one point, so forced a third. The third was also won by one point. I was pretty tired by that point, but everyone was congratulating me at the end. I guess the other team tried to spike it for the win and I popped it back over to their side. I don't remember. All a know for sure is we managed to win over a team called "Older than dirt". Win or lose, it's still fun.

Saturday was filled with soccer. Patrick had a practice with OFC, then Rachel had a game. She played a little lethargic, and we were to find out why on Sunday. Thomas then had his first of a double -header AYSO game. The team still has a long way to go, but there was some aggressiveness there. Patrick then had his AYSO game, except the other team didn't show. Someone said the coach had moved away. So Patrick's team played a scrimmage. April was amazed at how much better Patrick plays. A couple of parents volunteered to be keepers, and he scored two of the three goals in the game. Thomas had his second game next, against some second graders from St. Joe's. The bigger kids handed them a loss, although the coach had them slow way down. Like I said, they have a long way to go.

Sunday Rachel had a 101 degree temperature, thus explaining her lackluster game Saturday. We made her stay home Monday, over her protests of ruining a perfect attendance.

The hard disk on the DVR died, so DISH Network is sending us a new DVR. Rats, due to a lull in network programming, it had recorded a few Decisive Battles. Oh, well.

Finished "Heretic!". I haven't decided yet whether I want to reread "Star Trek Voyager: Endgame" or Tom Clancy's "Teeth of the Tiger". Right now I am reading both.

End of Entry

There are days...

Stardate 60032.9
Pretty much a sight I didn't want to see and would pass on seeing again. The police chased a man and woman from West Haven and managed to stop them in front of St Joseph. The man ran into a house and kicked the occupants out with a gun. I hear about this in a frantic call from my wife. I head down there and park up the street looking at all the cop cars around the school my older kids are in. I asked what I needed to do to get my kids, and went around back and picked them up from the gym. Patrick was excited over the events, but Rachel was shaken. Later I found out that the third grade was in the library and just told to go to the auditorium, but the fifth grade was in the classroom, which is at the end of the building closest to where the guy was hiding. So the staff burst in to the class and rushed them all out.

Rachel was upset because she tried to call me, but got two of the numbers mixed up. The school did call, but I was already on my way there. So I need to work with the kids so that they don't even need to think about my number.

Fortunately the guy surrendered without a fight.

End of Entry

5 seconds of Fame

Stardate 60032.7
Cool! I took the Tiger Scouts to a channel 4 weather school. We met Marti Skold, Ross Becker, and Dana Greene. They showed the scouts how the weather was done, and the green screen used to display the graphics in back of Marti. She let the kids try it all out. Dana the sportscaster stole the spotlight from her, though, after he said he had talked to people like Michael Jordan and Yuo Ming among others. The kids had a great time, and channel 4 ran a short clip of us just before the weather. You can see Thomas and myself with the rest of the scouts very clearly. I have it on the DVR; now I need to transfer it to DVD. The clip of the scout in the red jacket was also shown. I don't know who he was, but he did a good job with the weather.

End of Entry

One more note....

Stardate 60032.6 Supplemental

I would be remiss to mention that I am on a three game losing streak against Matt in chess. Not doing very well against Robert, either.

End of Supplemental Entry

The week in Review

Stardate 60032.6
Here's last weeks planner, excluding work and Orthodontist.

Monday: Dinner with Dad. I took him to an IHOP in West Valley. He hasn't been down there in years, and I have not been there for months. He had a great time. The week before I drove him by the old houses. He didn't recognize either one, and if I didn't know where I was, I would not have either.

Tuesday: Scout Hike. I went with Patrick's Bear troop up Beus trail. Well, most of it. I was out of breath within the first few minutes, and sat down about three quarters of the way up and waited for the kids to come back down. I have had a cold for the last few days, and I am out of shape.

Wednesday: Patrick had soccer practice at St. Joseph High School. After that April and I went to a meeting at the elementary school. They made an announcement that they will be closing the St. Benedict campus at the end of the year. I was a little sad, it's a much better looking school than St. Joe's. But the roof is leaking, and it will cost a ton to fix. They are not seeing the enrollment necessary to justify keeping it open. After thinking about it, it won't make much difference to me. Thomas would have had one more year there. I was not happy with having to drop Rachel and Patrick off before they closed the gates (a security procedure after the school shooting back east), and then going to St. Ben's and waiting for the teachers to come out for the kids there. Thomas does not want to wait in the car. So next year I can drop them all off at the same place. It's also inconvenient to have to pick one up there, then go get the other two. The one point I wanted to get out was Patrick's complaint about the playground. It's too small for the number of kids. They stopped going over the the park after a child was killed by a stray bullet from a gang shootout. The meeting then devolved into a discussion of school vouchers. That doesn't have much effect on us. Our kids are already in private school

Thursday: April and Rachel had a Girl Scout activity, so I picked up the boys and went grocery shopping. Cooked some burgers on the grill (the kids prefer that to getting take out).

Friday: The Ticonderoga senior officers meeting, where I did a quick report and then heading to Mount Ogden Middle School for volleyball. We had three best of three games. In other words, we played six games because for each set of best of three, we lose the first two obviating the need for a third. Got home at 11. Rachel's friend Audra stayed the night.

Saturday: Another soccer training at nine in the morning at Mount Ogden park. I took the dog along because I felt guilty that we had been gone for most of the week. He dragged me around the park for a half hour and I now know every nook and cranny. He then wanted to leave. The practice ran for two hours. The parent/teacher group had a skating party that morning. Rachel, Audra, and Thomas went to that. Patrick went to a friends house after practice.

At two, I sat down on the bed to change clothes, laid back for a minute, and glanced at the clock; 4:30 PM. I had fallen asleep for two and a half hours. Sorry, Carl, I didn't mean to miss Command School. At least you didn't hear me snore.

Sunday: Took advantage of the good weather by cleaning the sprouting weeds and grass from the garden. I planted some pumpkins, peas, carrots, onions, and various flowers in pots to plant outside later. The pumpkins and peas are growing out of the pots already, and the rest have sprouted. The weather is supposed to turn cold this week, so I can't plant anything outside year.

So that's last week. This week looks to be the same, except AYSO soccer occupies all of Saturday.

BTW: I finished The Winter King, and The Pale Horseman, and am halfway through Heretic!. I think I might find some Star Trek novels to read next.

End Of Entry

Humor: Statistics and Nutrition

A coworker who also teaches statistics sent this around. He said one of his students turned it in a few years ago.

For those of you who watch what you eat, here's the final word on
nutrition and health. It's a relief to know the truth after all those
conflicting nutritional studies.


STUDY PARAMETERS
1. The Japanese eat very little fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.
2. The Mexicans eat a lot of fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.
3. The Chinese drink very little red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.
4. The Italians drink a lot of red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.
5. The Germans drink a lot of beers and eat lots of sausages and fats and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.

CONCLUSION
Eat and drink what you like. Speaking English is apparently what kills you.

Beware the Ides of March

Stardate 60031.5
Yesterday was PI day (3.14), and today is the Ides. Not really sure what that means except that was the day Julius Caesar was assassinated. March does have a lot of special days, it seems. The Ides, PI, Ash Wednesday, St. Patrick's Day. Wait, Ash Wednesday was in February.

I finally did my achievement for the Bear scouts Tuesday. Not all of it, though. The den leader wants to do more electives, so I was told to 'just to the computer part'. That was a small part of the achievement, because it's boring. And I was right. But I did the airplane elective at the end, and brought balsa wood planes for the scouts to build. That was a hit.

Patrick started outdoor soccer training on Wednesday nights. He is still having fun with it. We are going to Boise in April for a tournament, and I guess the coach wants to spend as much time as possible getting them ready.

My dad finally managed to get rid of his van. He lost his license last December because he can't read the eye chart anymore. He also could not find the title to the van, so it took a while to deal with that.

End of Entry

Pets

Stardate 60031.1
We had a discussion on pets Thursday night. We have toads, fish, a cat, and a dog. Thomas wants a lizard, Rachel wants a turtle, and Patrick wants a puppy. My question to the kids is who cleans the aquarium the toads and fish live in? There were six fish originally that Thomas brought home last spring, only two are left. I think I spaced feeding them a couple of days and they ate each other. Anyway, who feeds the cat and dog, and takes the dog for walks? But the other pets they want would be fun, they say. My counter-argument was that you can't hold the toads or fish (the toads can pick up diseases from you, and are poisonous. Not enough to kill you, although you can get very sick if you eat them, but if you touch them and then rub your eye, it can burn.) We already have a dog, and Patrick is allergic to cats.

The dog is named Leonardo, or Leo for short. I pointed out he is always willing to play, lets any kid pile on him, or pull his tail. Pull out the leash, and he leaps a couple of feet in the air in excitement. Grab a ball, and he is right there waiting for you to throw it. Patrick and I both have R/C cars, and he loves to chase them. I wonder why we need any other pets? The novelty of new pets wears off, and the pet lives on.

End of Entry

Short Game

Stardate 60031.1
One o the shortest chess games I've had against Matt. Congratulations.


Game complete: white wins

You're playing black against m0smith from UT

1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6
3. e3 Nf6 4. Bd3 Bg4
5. Nf3 Na6 6. h3 Be6
7. c5 b6 8. Bxa6 g6
9. Nc3 bxc5 10. dxc5 Qa5
11. Bb7 Rb8 12. Bxc6+ Bd7
13. Qa4 Qc7 14. Nxd5 Nxd5
15. Ne5 Rb4 16. Bxd7+ Kd8
17. Nxf7#


It's Your Turn

End of Turn (oops, Entry)

Why didn't you just send email?

Stardate 60030.8
Picked this up on Wil Wheaton's blog. I've had similar conversations with my own kids.
http://blog.cleverly.com/permalinks/283.html

"We had to get up to change the channel." (You had TV back then? Actually, it took less time than searching for the remote does now.)
"We only had three channels. And no, one was not Disney."
"We did not have DVD players in cars on long trips."
"We had to use encyclopedias on printed books to find information." (One of my annoyances growing up was that we had an encyclopedia published in the late '50s or early '60s. It did not mention moon landings or space exploration in general. I don't think Sputnik was in there. There were a growing number of omissions as time went on.)

Usually I end up quoting Bill Cosby, "We walked 10 miles to school. Through 8 feet of snow. Uphill. BOTH WAYS!"

End of Entry

Update 60031.1 (03-12-2007)
I didn't get this from Wil Wheaton's blog, but from one of Matt's.
Romantic Tips for Married Couples

Scott Adams Dilbert

Stardate 60030.7
Scott Adams set up a Google Alert to message him on these key words. I'll be one of 25 people to try.

too frickin cool




End Of Entry

Stardate 60030.4
Thomas had his birthday party at Lazer Zone last Friday. It went pretty good. The guests played three rounds of laser tag, did their own pixie stick with colored sugar sand, and bugged me for quarters to play the video games.

Saturday I overslept and so Patrick missed the last indoor soccer game. There was supposed to be a practice after the game, but it got canceled due to all the snow. The soccer ball just doesn't move very well in it. I took Rachel to a friend's house so she could practice a P.E. dance with them. We all then went to the Cathedral of the Madeline to see Thomas and Patrick get Catholic scouting awards. We were hoping the new bishop would be there (or bishop to be, or bishop in waiting? As Rachel kept reminding us, he doesn't officially take office until the 14th), but he was not.

I am now reading 'The Winter King' by Bernard Cornwell.

End of Entry

Blue and Gold

Stardate 60022.7
Blue and gold banquet was tonight. It was a lot of fun. The usual Hawaiian theme, with Subway sandwiches and the cake auction. In previous years our cake fetched $35 or $40, so this year I wanted to do better. April came up with the idea for a pirate ship, It took two attempts, but the end result was pretty good. It was sold for $185, and when I thanked the family that bought it, the guy said he was willing to pay up to $500 for it. It didn't get the highest bid, $230, but it was third highest and easily beat the previous years combined.

Last week the Tigers went to the Ott Planetarium, and the Bears went bowling. Patrick scored the highest at 175. He bowled three spares in a row, and four total. The week before April ran a music belt loop achievement. The idea is to show the kids various types of music, like rock, country and western, classical, etc. She put Rossini's 'William Tell Overture', a track from 'Pirates of the Carribean: Curse of the Black Pearl', Billy Ray Cyrus, and quite a few more. The main theme from Star Wars not only grabbed the Tigers interest, every cub scout in the room came rushing over. It got them excited, but the sad part is one mother told me that's why she doesn't allow that music in her home. Another mother told me a little later that that was the point of the music. I'd have to agree.

End of Entry

Star Trek Light Dimmer

Stardate 60022.3
"Computer, lights off."

http://www.vossystems.com/productstartrek.htm

This is an almost useful product. It makes more sense than the Clapper.

End of Entry

Supplemental 60022.6: I found a PC mod to make your system look like a NX-01 warp core...
Meet the PC mod that looks like a Star Trek warp core

Mardi Gras

Stardate 60022.0
Today is Fat Tuesday, or in French Mardi Gras, otherwise known as Shrove Tuesday or Pancake Tuesday. There are various traditions such as eating King Cake, or pancakes. This is so that you get rid of the 'rich' ingredients such as sugar and butter. King Cake is a New Orleans tradition, and I am sure most of you have not heard of it. It is basically a ring of bread (similar to the bread in cinnamon rolls) with sugar on top colored yellow, purple, and gold.

I've always wondered if there are any local traditions?

End of Entry

Reality.sys not found. Universe halted.

Stardate 60021.5
Anyone remembering the days of MS-DOS will get a chuckle out of the title.

Monday was the shooting at Trolley Square. I worked there as a teenager in the early eighties at Hickory Farms. My mother worked there until the store closed. I have not been there in years. It's a tragic event. But I have a little issue with the coverage, and with coverage of any event of this type. It just seems that there is more coverage than actual information to cover. Jon Stewart of the Daily Show was making fun of the hours long broadcasts on the death of Anna Nichol Smith, even showing a clip of Lou Dobbs saying he would not mention her on his show. It just seems overkill. I went on the local TV web sites for information on it Tuesday morning. There was a little more information, but not enough to fill two hours of TV broadcasts. The local NBC and CBS affiliates had links to the pre-empted shows. I clicked on the CBS one, Innertube. It took me to Innertube.com, which is the site for Countrywide Tire and Rubber. Oops. They meant CBS.com/Innertube, but that link doesn't worl.

Tuesday I was supposed to do the Scout achievement, but we found out Sunday Patrick's championship game was the same time. The den leader was ok with switching. This was good, because the game was intense. Patrick was nervous going in. The other team was undefeated, and they were the only team to beat our team. Both teams played their hearts out. The refereeing was not well done. Patrick and one other player got one minute suspensions, and Patrick was out for another minute after getting slammed into the wall. Needless to say, he's got a few bruises. The other team got the final goal with twenty seconds left in sudden death overtime. Most of our team came off with tears streaming down their faces. That gives the idea of how hard they tried. The coach of the other team made a point of telling them how well they did, which I appreciated.

I was having trouble with my neck Monday and Tuesday, and by the end of the game the spasms were almost unbearable. I took Wednesday off to go to the doctor and get some muscle relaxants. April made me stay away from the computer. So I caught up on some re-mastered TOS Trek on the DVR, and took Thomas to the dentist for a cleaning. His baby tooth fell out during the cleaning. Not the way I would have wanted to spend Valentine's Day. I did get M&M candy and plush dolls for the kids, and a card, candles, and massage oil for April. The oil may be as much for me as her.

Currently Reading: "The 7^th Guest" (I think I read this before)

End Of Entry

2 pound math

Stardate 60020.8
Rachel dropped out of advanced math. She sort of gets it, but twenty minutes one day a week just is not enough. She does have the basic idea of how to solve for x.

Patrick is upset after he got on the scale the other day. Thomas saw him, and of course did likewise. Thomas is 2 lbs lighter than Patrick. This does not make Patrick happy. He takes after me in that respect; I was always light. In college I weighed somewhere between 135 and 140 lbs. He constantly sneaks candy, so I am surprised he does not gain a lot of weight.

End of Entry

SAINTS WIN SUPERBOWL!

Stardate 60020.5
The Colts won, I know, and the Saints were knocked out two weeks ago. That's one I was glad I was not there. The rain looked bad. It was a good game, and I was rooting for the Colts.

Playing Barbarian Invasion again. I am the Romans now. It's a strategy game, so you get to build things like walls and buildings. You get confirmation when the building is complete. I like the one for aqueducts; it simply says 'What did the Romans ever do for us?' The Romans are the only ones in the game who can build them.

Currently reading: "The Last Kingdom" by Bernard Cornwall.
Weight: 210 lbs

End of Entry

Books

Stardate 60020.1
Erica is reading 'The Winter King' by Bernard Cornwall. It looks interesting, so I might pick it up at the library. I've read almost all of his 'Richard Sharpe' series (although I have yet to watch the BBC movie that I have), and I really liked them. It's a little ironic that we do a Jeopardy game at work, and the final jeopardy question a week ago was about Aurthur. I didn't get it. The clue had references to a story written in 600 AD, and Monty Python starts in 932 AD, so I over-analyzed and missed. The Battle of Baden Hill is on Barbarian Invasion, and it took place in 399 AD, so I had plenty of information to get it right.

End of Entry

Smog

Stardate 60013.0
Weather usually does not bother me. Yeah, I don't like getting caught in a cold rain, but a good coat and hat will help. The smog does bother me. What sort of clothing does one wear to guard against the brown air? I heard the story that the Indians called this the Valley of the Smokes. When we got to 12^th street for Patrick's 7 AM game Saturday, you could not see the edge of the road on either side. It's a good thing I'd been there more than a dozen times and knew the landmarks well. That was just fog, but I can look up at the mountains and see the brown against the white of the snow. Patrick had been confined indoors as much as possible because he has had asthma symptoms in the past. Thomas and Rachel are staying in as well.

Basically there's been a lot of TV watching and video game playing. Rachel got Karaoke: American Idol for the PS/2. Paula Abdul evidently did not lend her name to it, because the judges are Randy, Simon, and Laura. The songs are kind of fun, although I keep confusing 'Do I Make You Proud' with Weird Al's 'Do I Creep You Out'.

We did get out to the Pinewood Derby. It was held in the gym this year instead of the cafeteria which made for a lot more room. Patrick's car passed inspection pretty easily, but I spent a good 30 minutes and two drills trying to get Thomas's car light enough. It was 2 tenths of an ounce over. This is the first time I've ever seen a car overweight without any extras. Both cars were slow. One of these years I need to research how to make the cars go better. The same person wins fastest car every year, and he says he did a lot of research.

End of Entry

Orthodontist

Stardate 60012.8
Visiting the dentist with Rachel, he found an impacted tooth. It’s growing
in about 45 degrees under her other teeth. I think it’s pretty cool that he
noticed. You can only see it in an X-ray. He just saw a baby tooth were she
should have lost it, and decided to check further. Off to an orthodontist.
That was a little less impressive. It seemed to me to be more of a show off
of what could be done. I get what needs to be done, but I could have used
less of the show off.

So she will need braces. She was not excited about the prospect, but the
technology has changed. They showed us braces that have a wire which tries to pull itself back into into shape, and forces the teeth into place in the process. It's supposed to be less painful. I am not sure if this is true or not.

End of Entry

Scouts

Stardate 60012.4
The Pack meeting went well. The tigers had a skit to do, and they did it well. The theme this month was 'Poles Apart'. April asked me to come up with an idea for the skit, but I could not come up with anything to fit. They dressed up in various costumes and gave facts for each of the Earth's poles. Thomas got to dress in an explorers jacket and my 'Tennessee Tim' hat. I need to get a picture of him in this. The boys were nervous and therefore very quiet reading the parts.

We also had the Pinewood Derby cars weighed for Patrick and Thomas. Patrick did his like a roller coaster car, and cut a lot of wood off of it. The cars need to be as close to 5 oz. without going over as possible. Patrick's was maybe 2 oz. I was surprised by Thomas's car. We cut it to look like a race car, but with the wheels it weighs 5.2 oz. Leaving off the wheels will slow it down too much. So we have some sanding to do.

End Of Entry

Various and Sundry

Stardate 60011.2
Saturday was soccer practice for Patrick. The coach kept going as long as we had the field, or about two and a half hours. I was recruited as the keeper for one team during the scrimmage. Patrick scored three goals on me, which made him very happy, and the coach thought it was funny. I did get the last laugh because Patrick's team lost and had to do 25 push ups.

Most of the snow has been skidding around us and dumping on Denver. We did get some last week and some more today. It was enough to go sledding on Sunday, and I hope we get enough to go again next Sunday. I have to admit that I love not having to commute to Salt Lake now.

The Cub Scouts met for the first time this year on Tuesday. They had a power sander and bandsaw there to cut the designs for the derby cars. Patrick is making a roller coaster car, and Thomas is making a basic racer. There was a good crowd there, so it took a while. It did not help that the bandsaw kept getting locked up.

My weight on Monday was 207.5 lbs.

End of Entry

DVR Catchup

Stardate 60010.7
We spent the last couple of days catching up on the DVR recordings. Because of the holidays, there were no new shows for it to record. It actually got to recording some Decisive Battles, it was so far down the list of stuff. Usually that gets bumped by higher priority items. It was a former Star Trek actors run on 'Without A Trace'. John DeLancie was on one show, and the last was a double treat. Conner Trinneer and Marina Sirtis. What was amusing is that while I caught John and Conner in the opening credits, I was looking somewhere else, and it was April who spotted Marina's name.

My weight was 212 lbs on January 1. Got to get that done.

End of Entry

Some odds and ends

Stardate 60123.0
Just catching up on some things. Rachel had a slumber party for her
birthday; although it was on the 22nd instead of the 21st. April was in
charge of that, as I was taking my dad out to dinner for HIS birthday. We
managed to get the boys to stay with friends of theirs. The party therefore
went well.

Rachel’s actual birthday was overshadowed by school and Patrick having a
double-header in soccer. We managed to go to Cracker Barrel before he
needed to head up to Ogden. Rachel was thrilled to be delivering treats to
school on her ‘real’ birthday. To this point, she has always been out of
school by this time. April had planned on those candy-cane bagel
look-alikes, but someone else beat us to it. She was still happy to be able
to do something on the day.

There were two soccer games on Thursday, one Saturday morning, and one on
Tuesday night. The team has won them all. Patrick scored the winning goal
from defense Saturday, running up to kick back one from the other teams’
defense and keeping it to score with. That was with 40 seconds left in the
game. If there had been 43 seconds, the other team would have tied the
game; they were so intent on getting another goal. There are two new
players, Geordi (not sure if that’s how his name is spelled) started
Saturday and Carlos started Tuesday. Good players, but what impresses me is
they get a good passing game going with the whole team.

Christmas Eve we went to the Ogden city lights. I think we need to find another place to go, because the kids kept telling us they saw all of this last year. I hear Roy has an impressive set.

End of Entry

Christmas 2006

Stardate 60122.7
Christmas 2006 was one of the better ones in recent years. We told the kids they could not open or touch any presents until 6:30 AM. They laughed about it, and kept coming up with 'what-if' scenarios, but they listened. Patrick came bounding into our room at exactly 6:30, but it's much better than 3. Apparently he had been awake since 2. I remember doing the same thing as a kid, and looking at the clock every 10 to 15 minutes.

Then there is the 'put the stuff together' phase. I kind of get upset  in this one because the kids want everything done immediately, and each construction takes time. Patrick is getting good at construction, and likes to spend the time doing that. He was tired from being up all night, though, and started to get frustrated. Thomas got a huge Black Pearl ship from Pirates of The Caribbean, and he tried to assemble it, but could not. After I got it together, he took delight in making Thomas mad by taking in apart again.

End Of Entry

Long division is easy

Stardate 60121.8

Long division is easy, according to Rachel. That's what she told use tonight. We started her in an advanced math class, with complex fractions, decimals, and basic algebra. She objected at first, but we made here try it. It was a struggle for the first week, but she has the hang of it now. It took a bit of a refresher for me as well. I didn't remember how to add or multiply fractions. I had to look it up on the web. Now when she goes to do her normal math homework, it's easy. Gee, maybe mom and dad were right...


End of Entry.

Journey to Bethlehem

Stardate 60121.6
Patrick had a busy Saturday. There was a 7:45 AM soccer game, which they lost. They don’t seem to be playing as aggressively as they were in the beginning. I think they are getting tired again. There was also a game at 8 PM on Thursday, with much the same results. After the game, he went to Salt Lake for two birthday parties, one at Laser Quest, and the other at Chuck E. Cheeses in Sandy. The Laser Quest place was pretty cool, better than most places I have been to.

Sunday we went to Journey to Bethlehem at the Baptist Church off highway 193 in Layton. I was expecting something you just walked through on your own, but it was a full fledged play. You are guided through sets inside and outside the church as part of a ‘family’ traveling to Bethlehem. There are people Hebrew and Roman costumes. Everyone going through is given a passport with a period name, and they must show it to various Roman authorities. It was snowing pretty good by the time we went, but that did not detract from the fun.

End Of Entry

Stole this from John who stole it from Carl...

1.WHAT CURSE WORD DO YOU USE THE MOST?
Shoot.

2. DO YOU OWN AN IPOD?
Yes.

3. WHAT PERSON ON YOUR FLIST DO YOU TALK TO THE MOST?
N/A

4. WHAT TIME IS Y0UR ALARM CLOCK SET TO?
5 AM. I can usually get out of bed by 20 to 6.

5. DO YOU STILL REMEMBER THE FIRST PERSON YOU KISSED?
No.

6. DO YOU REMEMBER WHERE YOU WERE ON 9/11/01?
I had just dropped Rachel off at school, and April called on the cell to tell me a plane had hit the WTC.

7. WOULD YOU RATHER TAKE THE PICTURE OR BE IN THE PICTURE?
Take the picture.

8. WHAT WAS THE LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED?
"Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause"

9. DO ANY OF YOUR FRIENDS HAVE CHILDREN?
Yes.

10. HAS ANYONE EVER CALLED YOU LAZY?
Yes.

11. DO YOU EVER TAKE MEDICATION TO HELP YOU FALL ASLEEP?
Rarely, since I then have a hard time getting up.

12. WHAT CD IS CURRENTLY IN YOUR CD PLAYER?
Spamalot.

13. DO YOU PREFER REGULAR OR CHOCOLATE MILK?
Chocolate.

14. HAS ANYONE TOLD YOU A SECRET THIS WEEK?
Yes.

15. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU HAD STARBUCKS?
About three weeks ago.

16. CAN YOU WHISTLE?
Yes.

17. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT THE OPPOSITE SEX?
Take the Fifth on that one.

18. WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO?
Learning about my new job, coaching, Christmas, summer, vacations, not commuting, getting some certifications, ...

19. DID YOU WATCH CARTOONS AS A CHILD?
Yes, still do.

20. DO YOU OWN ANY BAND T-SHIRTS?
No.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Faye

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

White and Nerdy

Stardate 60103.0
Not surprised.


How White and Nerdy Are You?

Halloween Party

Stardate 60103.0
We had a Halloween Party last Saturday. Rachel and Patrick got to invite friends from school. Thomas had one friend over. It was strange because after sending out the invitations, everyone wanted to know if it was a birthday party. Most of the people invited had been to our kids parties before, and they know we don't have anyone born in October. It seems to be a weird idea to have a party just to have a party.

There were 26 kids altogether. It was out on the back patio. We had a mumy race, where teams of two wrapped each other in toilet paper and tried to run to a finish line. We went to the cornmaze in Syracuse, and let them run around for about an hour and a half. I found out Friday night that the Ticonderoga was going there as well, but we did not see them. After that, we came back to the house and ate. I had made some mummy dogs (hog dogs wrapped in pastry dough) which disappeared in minutes. We also had chili and bread shaped like a pumpkin. Then there was a candy relay. It was between the fifth and third graders. I think the fifth won. They dropped quite a bit on the lawn, much the the delight of Leonardo the dog. I know the stuff is not good for him, but he can find it better and faster than I can. Then it was a free for all. Most of the kids were gone by 8, and April went to an adult party with a friend. She went as Captain Hook, and her friend went as Tiger Lily (you need to watch Disney's Peter Pan for the reference).

Thanks to Jennifer, Mary, and Elaine for helping with transport.

There were five soccer games on Saturday as well. Thomas and Rachel had one, and Patrick had three; an AYSO double header and an indoor game. The cub scouts had a trip to Fort Beunaventura planned, although the times kept changing, so we were never sure when it was. Patrick played well, although he lost to games. The first at 9 AM he scored three goals in quick sucession. The combination of Josh, Tommy, and Patrick as forwards is pretty potent. The last game you could tell they were getting tired (all three had three games).

Thomas's team played ok. Last week they were on fire, and we actually won. This week they played as before. Phillip has come a long way from the whining child to a good goalie and fair forward. Chandler, having missed much of the games, started getting into it. Hunter tried, but he really didn't get into the games. Riley did very well in practice, but seems lost during the games. Sam, urged on by his father, had some good games and was another good goalie. Luke is a natural player, if a bit too agressive. Cooper did well, just a little issue with always having to play with Luke. Thomas kicks well, but has a tendency to run to the goal instead of at the ball. A good team, if they can concentrate on the game. That was the last game for the fall.

End of Entry

Everything Must Go!

Stardate 60102.7
Often, I drive by the Shag-Rug-La store on 35th South and Bangerter. They are or already have moved, and there is a sign that says "Moving, Everything Must Go!". My brain latches on to that for some reason. I know it means they want as much sold as possible before they move. But a voice in my head insists that's not what it says. So this list of possible meanings runs through my head.

1. They are moving everything, and asking for help.
2. Everything is moving, and therefore it has to go.
3. Alternate meaning for go: They have to use the bathroom before moving.
4. They are in motion, and everthing is on the go.

Then I wonder if this thought process is a result of my profession (software development), or my profession is a result of my having thought processes like this.

I know, strange.

Computer programs do what they are told to do, not what they are supposed to do or what you want them to do.

End of Entry

Politics

Stardate 60102.6
Carl wrote about politics. One of two topics you are forbidden to discuss at FreeMason activities because it is so derisive. I've looked at the Constitution party www.cputah.org, and I found pretty much the same thing. No to this and no to that.
Isn't there a clause in the Constitution that says any powers not specfically outlined here are the domain of the states? They kind of go overboard with the pro-life stuff, and I have problems with parties that refer to the evil New World Order (with the capitals). I will agree with Carl that the Constitution is a living document, and it was intended to be changed. Changing it is not easy, and this was also intended. I also love the way they trot out the "Founding Fathers". The ideas of these gentlemen were all over the place, and rarely did they agree on anything. Edmund Randolph, the man who proposed the plan that was to become the Constitution (Madison is generally believed to be the author, but Randolph introduced it), refused to sign or endorse the final document. Patrick Henry ("Give me liberty or give me death") believed it was evil. They wish to abolish the FDA, to which the drug Thalidomide comes to mind. Labeling of ingredients. At least they don't want healthcare run by the government. I'd like to see universal coverage, but if the government does it then that's one more they can hold over the heads of voters.

There are a ton of topics: Energy, Copyright, Economy, Education, Environment, Privacy, Technology, Social Security, Taxation. I've already spent too much time revising and trying to sort out my opinions, all to no avail. Maybe I should take one topic at a time.

End of Entry

Auto replies

Stardate 60101.9
I found these on a Monster blog. Their source is a podcast, so I can't exactly credit it. I'd love to use them at least once for my out of office auto replies.

* I am currently out a job interview and will reply to you if I fail to get the position. Be prepared for my mood.

* You're receiving this automatic notification, because I'm out of the office. If I were in, chances are you wouldn't have received anything at all.

* I will be unable to delete all the unread worthless emails you sent me until I return from holiday on the 4th of April. Please be patient, and your mail will be deleted in the order it was received.

* Thank you for your email. Your credit card has been charged $4 for the first 10 words and $1.95 for each additional word in your message.

* Thank you for your message, which has been added to a queuing system. Your email is important to me, and you're currently in 352nd place. You can expect to receive a reply in approximately 19 weeks.

End of Entry

Indoor Soccer

Stardate 60101.7
Patrick is on an indoor soccer team. I was going to coach a team if there were no other volunteers, but the St. Joes PE teacher set up a team. It's a little more money, but I think he's beyond amateur coaching, which is all I can provide. The team will go competitive in the spring.

The try-outs were last Saturday. Apparently they were just short enough players that everyone got in. I think he would have made it anyway. It'll be interesting to see where this goes.

End of Entry

Gospel according to Star Trek

Stardate 60101.6
Futurama had a fourth season episode called “Where No Fan Has Gone Before”. This has to be my favorite Star Trek and Star Trek Fan parody. In it, Star Trek became a religion, and was banned after the Star Trek Wars (not to be confused with the fan pilgrimage known as the Star Wars Trek). Some seem to want TV to be reality.
'STAR TREK GOSPELS' REACH OUT TO WORLD

You can read about the church here. And before any asks, no, I am not converting.

End of Entry

Kid's Rooms

Stardate 60101.3
Thomas had his new bed installed yesterday. He slept there last night. Now all the kids have their own rooms. We have gone from a purple room to green, and from blue to olive green. The bunk bed went to Patrick’s room. His room is smaller than the one he shared with Thomas, but the shear fact he doesn’t need to share it makes up for it.

Rachel is complaining that she has to go upstairs to use the bathroom. We warned her about it, but at the time she was too excited about a new room to care. It won’t change, so she needs to accept it.

Favorite Music at the moment: “Wheel of Fortune” – Hans Zimmer, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest Soundtrack

End of Entry

SQL Joins

Stardate 60101.2
Got a phone interview on Tuesday night. I really prefer face to face, and that I know ahead of time. This one also came in the middle of getting the boys ready for scouts. Needless to say, I didn’t do well. But I did get a succinct definition of the difference between an inner and outer join. An inner join is the standard

SELECT TABLE_A.COLUMN1, TABLE_A.COLUMN2, TABLE_B.COLUMN3
FROM TABLE_A, TABLE_B
WHERE TABLE_A.COLUMN1 = TABLE_B.COLUMN1

This will only return rows where COLUMN1 matches in TABLE_A and TABLE_B. If there are entries in TABLE_A that do not have a match in TABLE_B, these rows are not returned. This is where an outer join comes in.

(ORACLE Syntax)
SELECT TABLE_A.COLUMN1, TABLEA.COLUMN2, TABLEB.COLUMN3
FROM TABLE_A, TABLE_B
WHERE TABLE_A.COLUMN1 = TABLE_B.COLUMN1(+)

This will return COLUMN1 and COLUMN2 in all rows from TABLE_A, and any matches from TABLE_B COLUMN3.

So an inner join only gets rows where the tables have matches, and the outer join will return rows from TABLE_A whether a match exists with TABLE_B or not. I know it, but this is a nice, simple explanation. I gotta remember it.

End of Entry

IIS Problems

Stardate 60092.7
Warning!!! Technical entry. I am keeping a note about this here because I can't think of a better place for it.

I got my new laptop, and installed Internet Information Services on it. I then installed Visual Studio 2005. I ran a simple web page, and got a Server Application error, please check the event log for more details. The application event log recorded the message “the sever failed to load application ‘/LM/W3SVC – The specified metadata was not found.’ The event id was 36. Lots of stuff on the web about this; apparently it’s a common error. It took a while to find the specific fix, and I am not sure how some of the steps were done.

The first problem was that the Distributed Transaction Coordinator was not running, and was not even listed in the Service Control Manager. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling IIS, which was a mistake. This is where I am not sure. I mucked around with msdtc.exe on the command line, and after a while it showed up in services, although it was not running. I set it to start automatically. Tried again, got the same page error, but the event log showed ‘/LM/W3SVC – Class not registered.” I went to the Component Manager and per another web page deleted IIS In-Process Applications, IIS Out-of-Process Pooled Applications, and IIS Utilities. I needed to shutdown IIS before I did this, but I could not remember the shell command. Another Google search reminded me it was IISRESET. I tried IISRESET STOP, and was greeted by ‘The RPC server is unavailable.’ It took another hour before I discovered the command was IISRESET /STOP. Then I went to %windir%\system32\inetsrv, and typed:
rundll32 wamreg.dll,CreateIISPackage
Then
regsvr32 asptxn.dll

I tried the web page again. This time I got an ‘XML Parsing Error: Not well-formed’ on the first line of the page. Another quick search revealed my problem, I had uninstalled IIS, and it no longer knew about ASP.NET. I ran the Visual Studio command prompt (the same as the normal command prompt, except it adds a few more directories to the PATH), and typed:
aspnet_regiis –i

I tried the page again, and again, the same error. Further down the same Google search was a question about running under Firefox, and how it caches the page. I did a Ctrl-F5, and lo, it worked. And there was much rejoicing.

End of Entry

Updates plus M-CII

Stardate 60192.5
Mike Gibby wanna-be, that’s me. It’s been a few weeks since the last entry. Scouts, soccer, TV season, convention, and a host of other things have kept me busy.

Thomas and some of his friends are Tiger Scouts now, and Patrick is a Bear, scout that is. They are enjoying it so far. Some of the new parents are asking when the camping starts. Unless you are a Weblos, day camps are it.

Soccer is fun, although Thomas’s team is a challenge. They get distracted very easily. The second Saturday we played it rained and hailed, so the fields were a mess. They stopped in the middle of a game to pick up the hail. It was also a double-header for both Patrick and Thomas. Patrick did well, and I put him on Thomas’s team for their second game, because we were playing Patrick’s old team (he moved to an older age group), and to show Thomas and his team how to play better. The other coach was telling his kids to hold back, but I told him Patrick thinks he’s ready to turn pro, so pour it on. It didn’t help. Patrick blocked all the goal shots, even one kicked high in the air. There is also interest in doing indoor soccer again, and I told some of the parents I’d be willing to coach. That will start at the end of October.

The TV season took April and I by surprise. All of the sudden, new shows are appearing on the DVR.

Mountain-Con II was a success. Kudos to Carl, Justin, Rex, Dani, Kevin, Jani, and dozens of others for a great con. I was also pleased to see Brian and Jeremy of Done The Impossible. Yes, I will have to watch Firefly now. I have known both of them for about 20 years, and unfortunately it’s been almost that long since I saw Jeremy.

End Of Entry.

The Crocodile Hunter

Stardate 60190.7
Crikey! As you have already read about, Steve Irwin, whose sobriquet is The Crocodile Hunter, was killed by a stingray last week. I think that some animal killed him is not a big shock to most people, but the circumstances were bizarre. It’s still sad to lose a famous environmentalist and entertainer.

The kids are all back in school. No problems, no kid getting lost. They don’t like the earlier bedtimes, although Rachel admits she is not as tired as she was over the summer. I thought Thomas would have a problem with Patrick now going to St. Joseph instead of St. Benedicts, but he was fine with it. One exception was the second day of school, when they needed to go to Extended Daycare Program. They need to type a number into a computer to check in and out. Patrick did this last year for both him and Thomas. Thomas started to panic because he did not know how to do this. He calmed down quickly when I told him just to ask for help if he had a problem. He knows the teachers there, so he should be comfortable with asking.

I went to the Northern Utah .Net Users Group meeting Tuesday. They demoed a JavaScript tool called Mochikit. It looks fun, but I’d still like to find a tool that I can use to draw the elements on a website. Visual Studio does that, but it wants things done with IIS. The asp.net module for Apache is no longer supported.

So Wednesday ordered a new laptop from HP. I was going to get a Gateway Tablet PC from Office Depot, but April talked me out of it. I use the computer for games and software development, so it does not make sense. Tablet does not come with IIS, and as I said, VS wants that. Office Depot’s only solution was to buy the machine, and then spend $200 extra on the XP Professional upgrade. HP has the option to customize a machine, although it’s a little off. They give you options for different processors (Celeron, Dual Core) and graphics, and then tell you it won’t work. I settled on an AMD processor and added XP professional for $50 extra. I hope the graphics will be good enough to play games with.

Speaking of games, I installed Barbarian Invasion. It’s not too different from the original. There are different factions such as Huns, Goths, Saxons, etc. There are new formations, such as spearmen can hedgehog (form a circle with spears facing out), which makes them invulnerable to cavalry but bad against archers. Mounted troops are more important now. There are only two historical battles, Teutoburg Wald and Chalons (you can look those up on Wikipedia for descriptions). I played both, lost the first (ran out of time), and won the second (although Atilla was killed). I am in the middle of a campaign now as the Vandals. The goals are to capture and hold 10 cities, and three have to be Cordova, Rome, and Carthage. The Roman Empire is divided into Western and Eastern, and the west currently holds all three cities. I sent an envoy to Constantinople to appeal for help, only to find the Huns had taken the city. The western empire has sent four large armies to stop my invasion and each was handed a decisive defeat. The computers strategy seems to be attrition. The three armies I had with over a thousand men each are down below two hundred each. My stupid spies can’t seem to determine if they have more to throw at me.

Wednesday was another visit to the dentist. I had a few fillings done. The only problem is that as he started to drill, and I told him it hurt. He gave me another shot of anesthesia, and tried again. More anesthesia. It still hurt a little, but my jaw was numb, so I didn’t say anything more. He wants to try a different anesthesia next time.

The boys and I went to a Real game on Saturday. The boys got bored, but I had fun. Real lost, although I am not sure why. They didn’t count one goal, I guess for a penalty.

End of Entry

Jobs

Stardate 60090.2
It’s been a little rough this week. I got two ‘sorry, you don’t have the skills we need’ rejects from job interviews in one day, and a co-worker who has been with the company for almost as long as I have left. It’s frustrating. Years ago, I asked to be replaced on the project I was on. It took a year and a half to find someone, another year to get someone up to speed. In the meantime, a replacement is being worked on. I’ve asked to be part of it, but the answer was that I could not be spared from the other project. Now that I can, I am told the replacement is almost done and they don’t have any place for me on it.

The kids started school again. Thomas goes to one campus by himself now. I thought that would be a problem, but he seems to like it. The exception was Tuesday, when he had to go to Extended Daycare Program. The kids need to check in by typing there number in on a computer. Patrick always did that last year, so Thomas got upset because he didn’t know how. He got through it. He and Thomas aren’t happy about having to go to bed at a set time, but they have to accept that. So far, they have been getting up ok, although Thomas complained he wanted to take a nap in school.

We had the downstairs painted this week. The guy prepped on Monday, and by Wednesday he was done. It looks great, except the color we picked for the fireplace wall looks pinkish in the light of the lamps. We tried rearranging the front room, but most of the furniture needs to stay where it is.

I bought the Barbarian Invasion expansion pack for Rome: Total War. I have not installed it yet. It looks pretty cool. I’ve been playing Rome again.

End Of Entry

Software Development

Stardate 60082.3
Picked this up on the web:

Werner Vogels: Yep, the best way to completely automate operations is to have to developers be responsible for running the software they develop. It is painful at times, but also means considerable creativity gets applied to a very important aspect of the software stack. It also brings developers into direct contact with customers and a very effective feedback loop starts. There is no separate operations department at Amazon: you build it; you run it.

This statement has generated a few comments. Some say, yeah, that’s a great Idea, and others reply, no, the compartmental organization is the only way to go. Me, I can see both points of view. I’ve sometimes dreamed of being locked away from all distractions and just CODING. But there were situations where this just went overboard. One in particular was with a new client. They needed a feature, so a group was formed to write documentation on how it needed to be done. I was called to give time estimates. The feature was that when a database field was set to a value, they needed another field in the same table set to ‘Y’. Could this be done as part of the server application? I replied that yes, it could, and it would be a few hours to code and a day to test. They could have it in a couple of weeks as part of the normal development cycle. OR, a trigger could be put on the table to do the same thing. If they didn’t have the knowledge to do that, one of several database admins we had could write it and send it to them this afternoon. The group was a little shocked by the simple solution.

The organization into separate departments is ok, but not when the communication is always formal. Informal chats can sometimes reveal simple and elegant solutions.

End of Entry

Public Transit

Stardate 60082.2
I received an email last week from UTA. About six months ago I decided to submit a rideshare request, just for fun. The email told me there were no matches for my request. No big surprise there. It went on to tell me that I was spending about $500 a month in gas, and added almost a 1000 miles on the car. I read through it and though, ok, wonderful info, but what’s the solution. Taking the bus requires 3 and a half hours one way. FastTrack, the commuter rail, does not offer any resolution either. I could move closer to work, but April works up here. I’d like to do the same, but there is not much here.

Rachel sprained her wrist in Pennsylvania (or New Jersey, I’m not sure exactly where she was). April said they tried to get on TV for the Today show, but President Bush held a news conference while they were there. Everything else seems to be going fine. They fly back tonight.

The kids all start school next week. I don’t think they are too excited about it.

The swim instructor called Friday to say she had an emergency, and had to cancel. I can understand, but it seems like every time we have a lesson scheduled, she has a problem and reschedules. She wanted to reschedule for Monday at 2, but I am still at work, so we pushed it back to 4. She does good work. Patrick is swimming underwater and Thomas can now float face down. Thomas told me he thinks the water is fun now.

End of Entry

Star Trek XI

Stardate 60081.8
Upset, I am. At least a little bit. April and Rachel are in Pennsylvania for the weekend. It’s a long flight, but it looks like they will be staying close to Trenton, where George Washington crossed the Delaware River and surprised the Hessians, and numerous other historical sites. At least I think so, I’d have to check Mapquest to Google Maps. Ah, well, the boys would hate it, so I can wait.

What has me in a tiff is a rumor going around about a source at Paramount. The source says the JJ Abrams Star Trek will be a reboot. This is in itself not bad, but the source goes on to say if long time fans are not happy, too bad. They failed to save Enterprise and Trek itself has been going downhill for the last 10 years. Another in the long list of executives blaming the fans. It’s strange. I’ve been indoctrinated in the mantra that keeping existing customers happy is far cheaper for the most part than losing the customers and trying to gain new ones. There was a big fan effort that offered to pay for a fifth season of Enterprise. They bring Manny Coto in for the fourth and best season yet, and it gets cancelled. I can’t see why the failure is with the fans.

I had an interview Monday. It was really fun, and almost across the street from where my company used to be. The ironic part is that I meet with a recruiter later that same day, and her husband worked with the same company I just interviewed with. Another long time employee quit this week, and another was let go. I despair at finding another job. I did apply at the IRS, but it will probably be months before I here anything.

End Of Entry

Grant Imahara

Stardate 60081.2
Grant Imahara will not be attending Mountain-Con this year. That really disappoints me, because in reading about him on the web, he sounds like a fascinating guy. He created an account on the Mountain-Con forum just to explain why he could not come. That was very nice of him.

The Mountain-Con web site has been moved, for the most part, to a new host. It was supposed to be only temporarily on my account. The message forum and registration are still located here. It was kind of fun to have hit stats so high, but resetting the access log every month to conserve space was getting to be a pain. The new host allows better access for updates.

Thomas went to a friend’s house for a play date Thursday, and came home that evening with a jar of live fish. They are small, only a quarter of an inch or so. I put them in with the toads, and they seem to be doing fine. It adds to the menagerie; dog, cat, hamster, toads, and now fish.

Patrick has been involved with a soccer tournament this last week. It’s the same team as the last tournament, and much the same results. They played one game each on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. They lost all the games, although the last one was close. Patrick managed to score a goal in that one.

I received a new copy of my book on web development in C#. It’s a study guide to help pass the Microsoft exams. I copied the ebook PDF, so I should not lose it this time. I keep expected to find the other copy now that I have a replacement, but it hasn’t turned up yet. One point that occurred to me is this is the only coding I am doing. All of my work is documentation. I don’t feel very productive that way.

John pointed out the stardate is wrong on my blog. I'd fix it, but I guess it would mess up the calendar.

End of Entry

Roman Golf

Stardate 60080.8
Romans played a game with a bent stick and a feather ball that may have been a source to the game of golf, according to the Encarta ‘Fun Fact’ feed I subscribed to a few days ago. There’s no mention of holes, sand traps, or water hazards; but I can picture Julius Caesar crossing the Rubicon because of a bad slice and creating the metaphor for passing a point of no return. You can look it up on Wikipedia. I’ve never played the game except for the mini-golf version. I’ve thought about taking it up just to smooze with execs and get corporate scuttlebutt, but I never did.

John Barnes created a new blog on Yahoo for his position as chief engineer of the Ticonderoga. I think he may be letting the power go to his head, LOL. His old blog went under the sobriquet of KlingonWriter. This prompted a bad idea. What would happen if I blogged to my Windows Live Space in Klingon? How long would it take for someone to figure it out?

April and Rachel are out of town on a Girl Scout trip. They left yesterday morning. I picked up some fried chicken for dinner last night. I took the sitter home, and after dropping him off (and admiring his brother’s new car, an Eclipse. It’s a replacement for the Altima he brought from us), I realized I had left the bag sitting on the kitchen counter. Add in a yellow Lab who can easily reach it, and you get the picture. Sure enough, there were only a few shredded remains of the bag, and the dog was trying to hide behind the couch.

Matt Smith invited me to play chess with him on ItsYourTurn.com. We are only two moves in. It’ll be interesting to see how the game progresses.

“What did the Romans ever do for us?” - Reg
“The aquaduct? The roads? Public heatlh?”
Monty Python’s Life of Brian

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