GS Camping

Stardate 57072.4 (07-24-2004)

Rachel and April went to camp this week. It wasn't as much fun as they had hoped. The main activity is horse riding. The stable is about a mile hike from the campground. When they got there, they found out you had to be at least nine years old, which cuts out about half the troop.

I and the other developers met with the new team. Of course, we went around doing introductions, and one guy mentions he has been there 8 years. This sets a precedent, and I am put upon to mention I have been there 16 years. One guy in the group kept after me the rest of the day: "You've been here 16 years?", "16 years, really?", and "I would think you should be a VP by now." It's not a union job, so seniority doesn't count for much. I am pretty high on the list of people who have been there the longest (in the top five).

Moving to the new team, even part time, has caused some tension. People are not happy about it. The least happy is the guy who is taking on much of my old responsibilities. I think he will do fine. I was thrown in the fire with no help several times. I did hear that a number of the developers on the new team quit recently, and I wonder if this has anything to do with performance reviews have been handed out lately. Someone else told me it was because the three of us were assigned, and they quit because we would take all the credit for their hard work. Credit is usually reserved for executive level, so I don't see how this could be.

I have had a reoccurrence of sciatica. My right knee is weak, and I have difficulty flexing my right foot out without pain. It resolves itself in a few weeks, but it does dampen my ability to do things (sleep, for one, since it is hard to do when I have pain shooting down the back of my leg that gets worse when I lie down). There are many causes, but I suspect it's due to my sitting for long periods of time. I normally get up and walk around every hour at work, but have been intent on a number of things, so this has fallen off. I did start doing it again this week. I've also been out pulling weeds, and I have gained some weight. I have been relatively inactive after being busy building the deck. It's been more than a year since the last occurrence, so I am writing this down to try and find out why it occurs.

The deck is still waiting on the railing, which is a special order.

The 35th anniversary of Neil Armstrong landing on the moon was last July 16th. I really did not see to much about it, although I did read a "where are they now" about Micheal Collins, 'Buzz' Aldrin, and Neil Armstrong.

I saw this in the paper, and it struck me for some odd reason :).

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Rachel ACT Up Plsy

Stardate 57072.0 (07-20-2004)

I am one of three to be chosen to help out with the project that will eventually replace what I am doing now. Three of three would be my designation, along with the department manager and another senior developer. We joked about it with "you will be assimilated, resistance is futile". I did find out there were a few others assigned, but these are the two who are best suited for pulled off what they want to do.

Chuck's training went well, for the time that we had. I think he wanted the group to be more impressed by the C++ standard library. They were kind of quiet. I liked the things he showed, but now I wonder if I will get a chance to use them. I did download the Digital Mars compiler (formerly Symantec, formerly Zortech). I hope to have a little time to play with C++. One project that should be easy is to do a word count on the logs, and see how many words I used over and over. The hard part is getting rid of the HTML tags.

Patrick has been accident prone lately. He fell getting out of the pool, and has a nasty bruise on his chin. There are other bruises and cuts on his arms and knees. One set of scrapes came when he tried to ride through a puddle, swerved to miss a garbage can, slipped, and smashed into it. I told him that water can make tires slip like that. Friday we headed to the staff meeting for the Ticonderoga. It had rained just before, and it was wet. Patrick asked me why cars don't slip in water the way his bicycle did. I told him they do, and when it is raining, you need to drive more carefully. I was impressed he made the connection.

Rachel was in acting camp all last week. We went on Saturday to see the play they worked on (parts of the Wizard of Oz). I was wowed by the acting. All the kids spoke clearly, and it was fun to watch. Rachel had a good time. She has good artistic qualities. She likes to act, draw, and make up stories. Patrick is more like me, in that he has mechanical aptitude.

End of Entry

Performance

Stardate 57071.2 (07-12-2004)

Got my performance review last week. It went about as expected. I do well at my job. It's been busier than normal the last few months, so I can't complain of being bored. Installing VS .NET has given me something new to play with. I am still trying to figure out the COM interface to automate creating projects. I had serviceable macros for this in version 6, but they are not supported in .NET. The documentation is a little lacking on the interface. 

I replace the battery in the van over the weekend. It seems like we go through a battery about every three years.

Friday was a farewell lunch for a fellow employee. He's not leaving the company, just moving to Minneapolis. He's a good guy, smart, and he came up with a lot of good ideas and different ways of looking at things. During lunch the conversation turned to work, and of several people who were being let go. Their jobs are moving to Minneapolis as well. There was also discussion of the large corporation attitude and the mixed messages you get about how well a company is doing, but there is a limited amount of money for raises, tools, etc.

I was told after the last Mountain Con meeting that I don't speak up enough. I know, but the problem is I tend to analyze to death what I want to say. Therefore I don't say much of anything. I read an article in the Reader's Digest about Donald Trump. He says he rarely uses the 'You're fired' in real life. He gave ten tips about being successful, and one is to make your accomplishments known, because no one else will. It must be bothering me, because I dreamed I was on 'The Apprentice' last night. I don't usually remember my dreams, and this was strange since I know I wouldn't last on that show. I was doing ok just by not being noticed. The dream ended like that as I had to get up for work.

Frisky goes back to the people to gave him to us. It's sad, and Patrick has now realized what this means. But there isn't any real choice. The medication is not working as well as it did, and he is waking up coughing in the night.

I don't think it was as hot this year as the last few years, and the weather report tonight confirmed it. It's been in the low 90's, but I remember it being in the triple digits in June of last year.

Chuck Allison is up to do some training this week. It's good to see him again.

End of Entry

Fireworks, The Tree in the backyard

Stardate 57070.8 (07-8-2004)

We went on a hike Sunday, and then to a Stingers game. The game was really crowded, but I guess that would be so since it was about the only place where you could see fireworks on the Fourth. I did my traditional watching of BYU's "A More Perfect Union".

Monday, Patrick, Rachel, and I rode our bikes to Layton Commons Park. There were a lot of booths, but most of them were selling food. Patrick won a live fish. We went later to see the fireworks. The fireworks were louder this year, and there were a bigger variety. The fish, Timmy, died yesterday.

I watched some of the pre-race interviews of the contestants of "The Amazing Race 5". The rules have changed a little, and there are angry cries on the message boards. So long as the show does not degenerate into a bunch of backstabbing, changes are ok. Thinking of all the shows that are about schemes to get others off, I am reminded of "The Kobayashi Maru" by Julie Ecklar. It describes some of the academy adventures of Scotty, Chekov, and Sulu have before and after the 'no-win' test, as well as Kirk's solution. Chekov's story revolve around a class being dropped in an abandoned moon base for a night, and told to survive when one of them is an assassin. All of the cadets work hard to undermine each other with traps and such. The briefing after was scathing. They were told that James Kirk saw the intent of the test, and established a safe zone, where the price of entrance was disarming and sitting out the test in the middle of a room. No one was 'killed', and the class was given high marks. It's not real, I know, but how many people would have thought of that?

Taldren, the maker of Starfleet Command games, closed it's doors last week.

The big tree in the back gets cut down today. It hasn't bloomed, and is getting dangerous. Still, it's the only tree we have at the moment.

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Patrick Learned to Ride a Bike

Stardate 57070.2 (07-2-2004)

Patrick learned to ride two wheels tonight. After about a couple of weeks of my teaching him, April had him doing it in about ten minutes. After that, he would not get off the bike.

We are in a quandary over the cats. Patrick is allergic, and the doctor suggested we get rid of them. The dog is tolerable. The problem is one of the cats, Smokey, is almost 15 years old. She does not get around much anymore. The other, Frisky, could go back to the people that gave him to us. At the time, they were living in an apartment, but they have since moved into a house. Smokey is also very attached to Frisky, and would probably go bananas without him.

I took a little time to wander the web this week, and found this site. I study history for fun, and Pre-Imperial and Imperial Rome are a favorite time period. Anyway, what struck me was the SPQR. A line from one of my favorite books, "Lest Darkness Fall" by L. Spague De Camp, came to mind. The book is about an archeologist who falls from the 1930's Rome to the 5th century. He spends his time making a new life, and becomes involved in preventing the Dark Ages, and gets embroiled in the politics of the time. He is observing the invading Byzantine army, and notices the banner, SPQR. The line is "An army of Huns, Goths, and Greeks, commanded by a Macedonian who works for a Thracian Slav who doesn't even rule the city of Rome, calls itself the army of the Senate and People of Rome, and sees nothing funny about it". Good book, if you can find a copy, I recommend it.

Cassini is in orbit around Saturn. The images are blowing the minds at NASA. It's good to see a successful mission. NASA has been taking a lot of heat for failures.

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Mt Con

Stardate 57062.2 (06-22-2004)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Rachel in Mexico, Air Show

Stardate 57062.2 (06-22-2004)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

End of Entry

Disease, First Communion

Stardate 57060.9 (06-09-2004)

Almost a month since the last entry. Not good.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

End of Entry

Sprinklers, Soccer

Stardate 57051.1 (05-11-2004)

Thomas ran crying into the arms of the day care teacher Monday. He still doesn’t want to go. I don’t think it is because he doesn’t like the place, he just doesn’t like to be made to go. He hasn’t had much regimentation in his life so far, so what little he gets he resents.

I went to turn on the sprinkler valve Sunday. It’s a biannual event I dread. I finally got the valve turned, or so I thought. Testing the system, I noticed a small lake forming. I shut off all the water, and dug out the valve, which is about 4 feet underground. I didn’t turn it all the way on, and the little overpressure hole was leaking. I turned on the water, and turned the valve all the way on. So far, the pool of water remains constant. I did break the pipe that gives access to the valve, so that will have to be replaced. By the time I was done, I was covered head to foot in mud.

The main reason for dreading the sprinklers is I can never get the valve turned on or off. It’s deep in the ground, and the device to turn it does not fit very well. So, I was thinking today about how I could put a similar device leading from the valve to the surface. Then I could see if I am turning it. I am going to have to look into it.

Rachel’s first communion is next Sunday, so we have been busy getting the house ready for relatives.

Working ten-hour days consumes a lot of each day, so I was looking forward to Friday and getting some things done around the house. It didn’t happen because I ended up working the Friday and a good share of the free time I did have that weekend.

Soccer is almost over. I am still deciding if I want to coach again next year. I had trouble reaching one of the fall players. I left a message on her voice mail. She called a few weeks later wondering if I was going to contact her. I called back, and left another message. She went to the commissioner, and he asked me to call again. I did, and again left a message. She is mad at me now. I feel bad for her daughter. She didn’t have much natural skill, but she tried hard, did everything I said, and wanted to do well. I did hear the commissioner also left message she said she never got. I find it strange, though. I handed out two phone numbers (home and cell), two email addresses (home and work), and she can’t get a hold of me?

One other mother was screaming at her daughter during one of the games. After a minute or so, I asked her to calm down. She told me that her daughter was missing some easy goals, and she needed to get them. I replied that no, she needed to enjoy playing first, and the rest would come much easier. I couldn’t decipher the look she gave me, but she stopped yelling.

On the flip side, a few of the mothers of the kids I coached this year have asked I am going to continue. They said their kids really liked me. We played a team with one of the boys I coached last year. After the game he ran up and gave me a hug, and told me he missed playing on my team. It’s incredible that a four and half year old remembers me from only a couple of hours a week a year ago. These are some of the intangible benefits that make me want to continue.

The new commissioner is going to redo the construction of teams. He wants to go back to teams with kids from the same school and grade. This might get Patrick more enthusiastic about going to practice. He doesn’t look forward to it, and I don’t like to fight with him about it.

The coach of my kids school wants Rachel to try out for the competitive soccer team. She enjoys the game, so we probably will let her. She also wants to try volleyball. There is a clinic over the summer, but she already has something planned for that time.

The scandal with the prisoners in Iraq is all over the news. The situation is bad enough over there, and now this makes it worse. I was not a big supporter of going there in the first place, although Colin Powell had me convinced. Not sure how this will all end, or if it ever will.

On a brighter note, The Amazing Race is coming back this summer. This is less a reality show than a game show. There is not a lot of backstabbing. When a team gets eliminated, it is usually because they made a mistake, or ran into some bad luck, or took a risk that didn't pan out. I still need to wait another couple of months for it to start.

End of Entry

I can't remember

Stardate 57050.4 (05-04-2004)

Been busy the last week or so, but I really can't remember with what. There are just a lot of things all jumbled together. Things have changed, as they always do. I moved to the third floor at work last Thursday. All I had to do was pack things in a box, and someone came to move it. I worked from home that day, and when I came in the next day, the guy who had my cube before what frantically packing. No one had told him he was moving, although it was posted on the wall in the breakroom. The new space is claustrophobic and noisy compared to the old place. In talking with a couple of guys tonight, most people have moved 4 to 6 times since they have been there. I moved into the building in 2000, and this is the first move so far.

I have spent far more time than I would like trying to convince some clients that not all problems they have are the server engines' fault. They want to believe the problem is there, despite my presenting a chain of logic that points somewhere else. I have the same problem with developers. The symptoms say there is a bug in a set of routines, but some refuse to believe it unless I walk them though the lines one at a time.

April has started day shifts now, and I started with 4 ten hour days. It's been nice to have the extra time to complete tasks, instead of hurrying with them. Thomas has been going to daycare for the last week. Most of that time, he has been crying his eyes out. Today, April told me the people there told her that he had been laughing and playing all day, and he didn't want to go. I hope this is a turnaround for him.

Saturday was a killer. Out of the house by nine, we had a soccer game, soccer pictures, another soccer game, more pictures, and more games. The kids and I never even had time to stop for food. They did great, especially Rachel, who subbed for some missing kids and played games the whole day. We got home again around six.

The power went out last week, and the router refused to respond. After a few days dinking around with it, it started working again. The wireless network card still refused to connect to the Internet, but I can see the desktop shared folders. I am going to try and reinstall the drivers on the laptop. The best part is I can connect my work laptop to the router, and go through the VPN to work. Much faster than dialup.

The Simpsons:Hit and Run is popular with the family. I reached level 2. There is a race with Comic Book Guy, where he says "We don't have deflector shields, you know" when you hit something, and "Full impulse!".

As I said, the impression is that I did a lot this week, but I can't remember right now.

End of Entry