17 years

Stardate 59032.9
For 17 years, since March 29th, 1989, I have worked for essentially the same company. It seems weird if I think about it. I never applied for a job there, and I didn’t do an interview. I was working for a local game developer when a high school friend called me. He wanted to know if I would do some consulting work in the evenings; mainly wiring new terminals and printers. After about a month and a half, the manager was waiting for me one evening. He asked if I wanted to come to work for them as a full time employee. I didn’t even think about it. So here are a few items I have for memories.

First Job: Wiring new Wyse 50 character terminals for an Alpha Micro minicomputer. IBM AT personal computers with 80386 processors were still a novelty, although most of the ones I set up had Turbo switches.

First Technical Coup: We sold medical payment guideline data, distributed on 9 track reel to reel tapes. These are the big tapes often seen in old movies spinning back and forth when a director wants to show a computer in operation. We had two formats: our own, which was five relational files, and one used by a competitor that used one file where the information was repeated over and over. The first format could fit on a 720K floppy, but the second was 177 Mb. That’s not large today, but huge at the time. A new tape machine that ran off of a PC and did not require us to manually thread tape was a major improvement. My manager wrote a program to write out the second format from the first. It took three days to run in a language called Foxbase. I took a look at it, and found that he has a loop to look at each of the 1.4 million rows, and a loop inside of that to look at each of the 133 bytes of each row to determine if a zero was needed. I added a string to preset the zeros (the positions didn’t change), and fill in the amounts over the zeros as needed. That eliminated the need for the inner loop, which meant the program looped 1.4 million times, instead of 186.2 million times (1.4 million rows times 133 times for each row). It ran in hours instead of days. I still refer to Larsen Loops from time to time, although nobody is left that remembers this.

Employee when I started: 30
Employees now: ~ 34,000 (Parent company as a whole)

Number of Managers: 18

Number of CEOs: 8

Number of different names for company: 7

Highest pressure day: One morning around 6, I got a call that the accounting server was down. I found that the hard drive had crashed, and needed to be replaced. I can’t remember where I found a replacement, but I did. I reinstalled the SCO UNIX OS, and restored the accounting software and data from a tape backup. Payroll was due the next day, and I am sure to this day most of the 150 employees came by that day to see if they were getting paychecks the next day. I got it operational around 8 that night, and the HR manager was done with payroll around 2 AM. I feel more pressure about letting down friends than people I don’t really know.

Least favorite airport: Atlanta. There is nothing wrong with it, but every time I have been through it, I have had problems. One time on my way to Tampa to do a conversion for a new client, I was held up for 6 hours there as they located a new aircraft because the one we were taking had ‘mechanical problems’. I arrived at the client site about 4 AM the next day. Another time we went in for the landing, only to bank and go back up again. The pilot came on and explained that another plane was in the runway and he thought it best to abort and try again. I don’t think anyone on board disagreed. Kansas City comes in second, but I’ve only been there once. A storm was going on, and it was a roller coaster all the way in. I don’t like roller coasters.

Technical Achievements: I’ve written a couple of TSRs (Terminate and Stay Resident, for those of you who remember the MS-DOS 5 and 6 days) that did database lookups. I wrote scripts to automatically rebuild and deploy updates to a test environment as soon as an updated was checked it. This was a few years before I heard the terms Continuous Integration and eXtreme Programming (XP).

Graphs are the way to go: A client complained of slow performance in a server application. I wanted to be able to demonstrate improvements to both the client and the executives, so I spent a day or so putting together a group of programs and macros to read the server logs, collate the information, import it into Excel, and generate page with graphs and totals showing the gains. This was so persuasive that I spent the next few months generating graphs for various clients before crying uncle. The main reason I couldn’t keep it up is that the logs were coming to me compressed via email. For security, Outlook would not automate saving and decompressing the data. I did learn a lot about Excel and Visual Basic for Applications. The process was used for years after by various tech support personnel.

Fun times: I had an office next to the systems admin for about a year. He’s a LotR fan. We get along very well. Several times, he would come over and have me shut down unapproved services (FTP, Telnet servers, snoopers, etc), because corporate was coming. I set up some tripwire programs, and when they were set off, I would shoot an email off to him asking what day the audit was because he had run a port scanner.

Frustrations: Years ago, we were looking for a new technology platform. I spent about a week working with a vendor, and one day demonstrating the technology to the executive staff. The next day I found out the decision had already been made some weeks before, and a consulting company had started work on it. I’ve never understood why I was allowed to waste time on something that didn’t have a chance.

I also had a VP who called a staff meeting for input on an ‘important’ decision. The issue was what file cabinet drawer the floppies should be stored in. The staff was very irritated.

Worries: I am always concerned when I fill out job applications, and I come to the part about listing your job history for the last 5, 7, or 10 years. They provide 4-6 boxes, but I can only fill in the top one.

The obvious final question is how long will I stay. My final answer is: I don’t know. I didn’t anticipate staying this long. I do not subscribe to the grass is greener theory, and my employer does give me a lot of leeway and flexibility. There are a few other reasons to keep on going. However, if someone was to offer the same pay with a significantly reduced commute and a good technical challenge, I’d seriously consider it.

End of Entry

Soccer

Stardate 59032.7
Last week seemed to go by in a flash. I just can’t remember much. Tuesday was the indoor soccer playoff. Patrick’s team lost. Defensively they made a lot of mistakes. The other team was good. Where our team chased the ball, they had a player in the middle, and passed to him. I yelled at them to cover the guy, and Patrick moved over when he could, but it just didn’t sink in. I did notice that Patrick played the whole game, and every other kid was subbed out. Tonight is the last game. The coach has gotten a little intense, so we are glad it is over.

After the game Patrick and Thomas went with the Cub Scouts to the mini-golf and bowling place in Roy. This is the place that has blacklight painting, and if you wear white, you glow. Thomas did better than Patrick. They were loud, but there was no one else there, so we let them go.

Outdoor soccer starts on Saturday. No schedule yet, which does not make the coaches happy. I did manage get all the practices on Friday at 5 for Rachel, Patrick, and Thomas. This means I only need to drive out to Ogden once. The commissioner wants to move games out of one area they call ‘The Pit”. I’ll applaud that decision because the fields there are a swamp. He also wants to post the schedule and playing fields on a bulletin board. I’m following the gondola thing in the paper, because they all practice and play at Mount Ogden Park. There is talk about doing away with the golf course, and the public recreation there. I’m not sure what the plans are, or if anyone really knows, but I don’t know of another park big enough to handle all the games. I was looking at the mountain last Friday, and I don’t see where a west facing ski slope would fit. I’m sure someone has an idea, otherwise they would not be considering it.

Thursday and Friday Patrick was sick. April and I were questioning if he was actually sick on Thursday, but we gave him the benefit of the doubt. Friday he was pasty, but insisted he could go to school. I told him he was stuck home after he threw up in the kitchen. I went to school to pick up Thomas, and talked to his teacher about homework. She thought he wasn’t that sick, and wondered what happened. After I told her, she said “Thank you for not sending him here”.

I worked from home Friday, basically working on a CBT for Microsoft Solutions Framework. The CBT was structured in a strange way. It did a pre-assessment, then a quick tutorial, then back to testing again. It won’t let past the first module, even though I answered all the questions correctly.

Saturday was the first in a long time where we did not need to go anywhere. At least that’s what I thought. It wasn’t until Sunday morning we remembered Thomas was supposed to go to a birthday party. Rachel did go to a schoolmate’s birthday party at Layton Fun Center Saturday night. The parents rented the whole place.

Sunday I bought a portable basketball hoop. Patrick played with it for hours, and only gave up after it got dark. I am looking forward to warmer weather, although the forecast doesn’t have much hope for the next couple of weeks. Cabin fever is setting in, or maybe spring fever.

So much for ‘real life’, as Erica put it on the Tico message board. As for the Mountain-Con site, things have been vague about what everyone wants done. There have been a few emails, but there needs to be a get-together about it. It doesn’t help that I am occupied most nights.

Next Monday the kids and I start a fishing course in Clearfield, so dinners with my dad will move to Thursdays. Fencing is on hold for a while. We feel that Patrick is a little overscheduled. I hope to pick it up again in the summer.

I didn’t get on the scale yet, so I don’t know how much I weigh.

Music: “Get your head in the game” from Disney’s High School Musical.

End of Entry

Master Bath

Stardate 59032.0
The master bath is once again mostly functional. The shower needs a lot of work, but that requires breaking up the mud bed and getting down to the bare floor. We are not sure how all this is supposed to go together. A guy at Home Depot said the shower pan is supposed to be right underneath the tile, but it is not. I am confused as to what goes where in here. The bathroom itself has been repainted, and a new set of towel racks installed. The toilet is back in place.

Friday Thomas spent his allowance on a Lego Slave 1. I was out at the Senior Officers Meeting, and it was left to me on Saturday morning to build it. It had 537 pieces. Four hours later I completed it. Patrick bought the Darth Vader Voice Changer; something April conceded is kind of neat. The changer does not make you sound like James Earl Jones, something that kind of disappointed me.

The kids have discovered the games on the EyeToy for the Playstation. These are pretty good in that you don’t sit there wearing out your thumbs on a controller. You need to get up and move. And with some of them, you move a lot. This was a good investment from my point of view, especially since it’s been raining or snowing much of the week.

Saturday was the Girl Scout Cookie booth. The weather was tolerable; at least it didn’t rain until they were almost done. The good part is all the boxes of cookies have been sold.

The downside to the weekend is that I didn’t check some of the blogs. Scott Adams wanted examples of mob rule where the majority did not think the rule was moral. That’s kind of a conflict. When I thought it over, I can’t think of that many laws or rules that are a result of a majority. Most of the ‘majority’ rules are a minority with the majority being apathetic. It’s a little late to comment on his blog now, but I think Scott’s parameters were vague, and his conclusions based on the absence of information.

Weight: 190 lbs (I put a new battery in the scale)

End of Entry

Renovations

Stardate 59031.7
XO, move over! Monday we had the linoleum replaced in both upstairs bathrooms. The one in the kids bathroom was cracked and protruding up at the edges. The installer would not move the toilets because that was plumbing and intruded on union lines. So Sunday I removed the bolts with a cutter because they were stuck, and moved two toilets out of the way. The one in the kids bathroom has been put back, but I also needed to remove some of the baseboards in our bathroom which took some paint with it. That meant repainting. April put the first coat on Wednesday; the next coat should go on soon.

Wednesday as well we had a washer and stove delivered. The washer was making noises and not spinning well. The repair guy said it was the control broad, and showed me why. To repair that would cost $300, so we decided to just buy a new one to match the dryer. The stove was fine, but as long as they were delivering a washer, they might as well bring a stove. Why wait for that to die?

The D.I. came that day, and picked up my 3 foot tall speakers, our old bed frame, a bunch of old clothes, a TV stand, and some stuffed animals (Thomas had 50 in his collection on the bottom half of his bed according to Rachel). They were a little surprised at the amount of stuff. I helped them load it, which they said I didn’t have to, but I explained that I wanted to put the van back in the garage. Rachel was home sick that day with stomach problems.

I drew the ‘Duty to God’ achievement for Scouts on Tuesday. I find it ironic because I am not particularly religious. I did ok with it. I also did Talking . This was a lot more fun. I gave them a Japanese phrase and counting from one to ten in French, German, Italian, and Spanish. This showed them about using the same language to get the message across. I showed them the Cyrillic alphabet, and had them draw maps and give directions. Patrick told April later that she doesn’t need to take him to scouts anymore, I’m more fun. Patrick and I also talked about Klingon on the way home, and he wants to learn to count in that language.

Saturday was busy, busy, busy. Almost everything I went to started late and ran late. The last basketball games ran over, the Scout Sunday, and the movie started late. It was The Shaggy Dog, the remake of The Shaggy D.A. The boys loved it, but I was bored. The last event, the Ticonderoga Tenth Anniversary BBQ started on time, at least as far as I know. That was fun. I spent the night talking computer games and about the closing of Totally Awesome Computers. It’s been a while since I’ve been able to geek out.

Turning the clock forward to Thursday, Thomas stayed home sick. This is the first time this school year. April and I were a little disappointed that he would not get perfect attendance. Oh, well.

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day! Patrick puts today up there with Halloween and Easter for holidays. He doesn’t understand why everyone else is not as excited about it as he is. He got up at 5:30 AM to look for gold coins left by the leprechauns. It was raining this morning, so they didn’t leave any yet. Maybe later today.

End of Entry

TAC No More

Stardate 59030.6
Totally Awesome Computers is no more? I just read about this on Carl Stark’s blog. It’s about time. I’ve read a few blog entries about how the store treated it’s employees, all not complementary. I went into one several years ago when I was shopping for a new computer. I already had a configuration in mind, but they didn’t have what I wanted. They attempted to sell me what they did have. This is the job of sales, but two of TAC’s salesmen went about it the wrong way by telling me I was mistaken. When I asked if they had any systems with Windows ME installed, they proceeded to tell me no, it would not run any of the current software. I disagreed and told them ME was Windows 98 with some enhancements and UI tweaks. (I had a system with ME on it for years. I found one program that would not run, other than some that the hardware did not meet specs. The program failed because I had DirectX 8 installed, and a patch fixed that.) The discussion went on for about ten minutes in the same vein, each time they tried to get me to buy a system I didn’t want. I said thanks and left. I called my wife and told her we were never buying anything from them.

Rachel played her last basketball game Saturday. Actually it was a double-header, although I didn’t find out until after the first game. She made an impressive shot off a quick in, and was jumping all over the court after. She played very aggressively, and actually fouled twice. The coach told her a couple of times that she played a great game. I wish this had come about sooner. Patrick had a hard game, and lost by a single basket. It was a little disappointing, because he was driving for the basket in the last few seconds when the defender slapped his arm, but the foul was not called. He dropped the ball because of it, and saved it from going out of bounds right in front of where we were sitting. The referee called it out, and gave the ball to the other team. Time ran out before we got another chance. Oh well, it’s only a game.

Thomas’s birthday party went well on Friday night. He and his friends played on the inflatables at Layton Fun Center. We paid extra for a room, which was kind of a waste. It was a room with a space theme. The boys climbed over the console and kept slapping all the buttons. It was more of a distraction from the party then a help. But everyone had fun, and Thomas was happy.

The boss asked my coworkers if everything was worked out with the new systems. I didn’t get the original, but I was CC’ed on reply, where I was credited with fixing the issues. I appreciated that.

The battery is out on the scale again. No idea how much I weigh.

End of Entry

March again

Stardate 59030.1
March again. Seems like it was only March this time last year. You are supposed to laugh. It is also the first day of Lent, Ash Wednesday, and for some, a time to sacrifice. For the next 47 (yes, its 40 days, but I read David-Morgan Mar’s explanation, and the 40 days does not count Sundays) days I am sacrificing beef, poultry, and pork. Meat is off the food list. I am not sure why seafood is not considered meat. I might do some research if I remember to. The other reason for sacrificing the meat is my weight is still going up, and I am looking to change my diet to turn the trend around. This is the practical and efficient use of resource view that on occasion annoys April.

It snowed again last week, and Rachel, Patrick, and I went sledding again. The little embankment in Kaysville is slippery, and Rachel has a hard time climbing it. Someone had made a rope climb, but she refused to use that. So in the time it took her to do one run, Patrick did four by using the rope. He found a small jump someone had made, and went over it and flying for a few feet. He loved it. A woman suggested getting the foam sleds for that, though, because the plastic ones have no padding. I went over one of the jumps a few weeks earlier, and my back and hips hurt the rest of the day, so I can’t agree more. My legs were sore for a few days following, so I consider it good exercise.

Thomas is now six. His birthday was yesterday. The down side is that Patrick had a soccer game, a First Communion tour of the church, and the Cub Scout Blue and Gold Banquet. And Thomas had to go to school, which he was not happy about. Patrick took the opposite view; he wishes he could go to school on his birthday, which is always on Christmas break. The grass is always greener syndrome. His party is Friday evening at the Layton Fun Center, and he is really looking forward to that. One of his classmates is having another birthday party there on Saturday. I suppose they won’t mind going two days in a row.

The banquet was fun. We let the kids bid on one cake each. The CubMaster was delighted with that, and I got several thank yous for the wonderful support (this is the only fundraiser for the pack). Thomas got a cake with King Kong figures, Patrick one with pirate stuff and walkie talkies, and Rachel got one shaped like a pig (it was a Hawaiian Luau theme).

Patrick had his friend Trey stay the night last Friday, and April worked Saturday, so I skipped Thomas’s basketball game. Not that I would have heard a complaint from Trey, the kid is very polite and accommodating. But it’s not much fun to be dragged out of bed and up to Ogden for a couple hours. We dropped Trey off at his home on the way to Patrick’s game. He played well, and his team won. The lady sitting behind me on the bleachers during the game was a mom for one of the kids on the other team. She started talking to me about how the kids on Patrick’s team could not be eight years old. Most of the kids on his team go to St. Benedict’s, and I know they are all seven or eight, and I told her that. She huffed, and said the boys were all really big, and that I said she might be right, but that’s the way the team was put together. She made a good suggestion that maybe they should include height on the forms. It may not make a difference, though, there are some relatively short kids who play really well.

Rachel’s game went pretty much the same as the rest, with her standing on one end of the court or the other. Then the girl who never passes to anyone but her friend passed the ball to Rachel, who took a shot. She didn’t make it, but I said maybe a little too loudly, “OMG, did she get a pass?” She got fouled, and had two free throw attempts. She made the second one, which made the game worthwhile for her.

Monday my Dad and I went to Denny’s instead of Sizzler for dinner. That was a little frustrating for me because the server messed up my order, and the kid just could not get it straightened out. The manager came over twice to fix it. Later my dad launched into the story about why my grandfather (his father) never would go to church, except for friends funerals. My great grandfather (first name John) was a womanizer, and my great-grandmother finally divorced him over it. The minister of the Methodist church they attended did a sermon not long after about how women who divorced were no better than whores. It was all my great-grandmother could do to keep my grandfather (he was a teenager then) from giving the minister a beating. From then on he refused to go to any church.

It occurs to me that when people ask me if I am related to John Madden, I could tell them he’s my great grandfather, provided they are not specific about the sportscaster. That would be interesting to see the reaction. I had that question last week.

April picked up a book called Marly & Me, about a dog owner and his slightly demented Labrador Retriever. It’s a good book. I started reading it Saturday afternoon, and finished it Monday night. I can relate to the antics of the dog in the book, our dog Leo has done some of the same things. Leo, however, has calmed down in the last couple of years. The author was surprised when his dog was frightened by thunder, and that this was common in dogs. Every dog I have had has cowered and shivered at the sound. Leo is ok so long as he can have contact with someone when it happens.

April bought a new bed for us yesterday from RC Willey. The salesman said the headboard was backordered, and it would be a week before it could be delivered. This morning, just as we were leaving, the delivery driver called to say the bed would be there in about 30 minutes. This was good, I guess, but some more warning would have been nice.

Monday was the day the databases were moved to a new server at work. I thought I had prepared the development staff for it, but I was mistaken. Panic was pushed to the group. Development stopped because the virtual machines (VM) could not see the new servers. I asked what was being done and what they had found. Nothing on both questions. I logged into one of the VMs and pinged the servers. No response. I pinged the IP addresses for the servers. That worked. This leads me to check the Domain Name Servers (DNS) in the TCP/IP setup. Yup, there are a couple of missing entries. Things worked after I added them to each of the VMs. This should not frustrate me, but I wonder why I get the task of diagnosing and solving the problem. A DNS problem is pretty simple to find and fix, at least in my mind. It’s probably because this follows a review last week were I rated average, and I don’t ‘step up’ enough.

Music for the Moment: The Ballad of Davy Crockett – Mannheim Steamroller Meets the Mouse
Weight: 205 lbs

End of Entry

Star Trek Personality

Stardate 59021.8
Star Trek Personality Test Results: INTJ

This test says you are an INTJ (Introvert, Intuitive, Thinker, Judger).* In Star Trek, you share a basic personality configuration with the characters of Jean-Luc Picard, Seven of Nine, and
T'Pol.

"Things are only impossible until they're not." - Picard

Qualities

People like you are generally autonomous, reserved (perceived by others as "aloof"), and intellectual. You sometimes give the impression you have no need of others, but you're intensely curious and driven to learn. You're cautious with others socially and respond best to people who don't push you to be friendly or affectionate. You appreciate when others follow your lead and accept your advice in the helpful spirit in which it is intended. You're calm by nature and feel off-balance when confronted by highly emotional people.

You're highly organized and expect the same of others. You analyze automatically and enjoy seeing patterns and trends. When your mind is made up, that's it, which means that while you're definitive and strong, you can be stubborn and arrogant. You live in a world of ideas.

You respond best to other people's needs when they tell you about them clearly. You value honesty greatly and you're excellent at employing constructive criticism. You prize people who listen to you and respect your ideals. You are somewhat contemptuous of those who don't pay attention to what you say and extremely contemptuous of those who can't do their jobs well.

Goals

Your primary goal in life is achieving independence and being able to live according to your own standards. Your reward is continual expansion of your competence and knowledge.

Work

You are almost completely project-driven. Though you won't work against your fundamental principles, the current job before you can consume pretty much all other considerations. You will perform
all-out for a superior you respect, but you have a sometimes unfortunate tendency to let bosses know when they've lost your admiration, or when you disagree with them.

You lead and follow equally well, as long as you believe that what you're doing will work. Perceived futility can make you shut down, and you will suffer intense feelings of failure if your end product is not "perfect." A good supervisor will give you praise for all successes. A bad one will only add to your stress by pointing out problems you already know about for which you are probably already punishing yourself. When stressed, you may deny blame out of self-preservation.

Make sure you market yourself and your ideas at work, or you may be taken for granted. All too often, the logic of your strategy can be lost on others, so don't resent it when asked to explain
your actions.

Relationships

Social skills may be your undoing, especially making small talk at parties or flirting with strangers. You feel everything very deeply, so you've learned to keep what you feel to yourself. This combination can alienate people instantly and even make stubborn suitors give up in frustration.

On the flip side, you can learn to interpret others' visual and vocal signals with expertise if you're willing to make the effort. You're better at understanding people than you may think, and you work hard at relationships you care about. But beware answering someone's request for emotional support with advice and solutions.

Jobs

Good careers for your type include being a starship captain, intellectual property attorney, news analyst, design engineer, software developer, inventor, Webmaster, architect, and ex-Borg.

ENIAC Storm

Stardate 59021.6
Whoa, for a little storm, it sure messed things up. Yesterday it started to snow. And snow. And snow. After watching the traffic reports, I decided that a phone wire would be a less slippery way of working. It turned out to be a good decision. On the way to pick up the Rachel from school, there were lots of slid offs and accidents. I did manage to get Rachel to her piano lesson. That was interesting because they had about 50 Star Trek and Star Wars micro machines. Her son’s valentine box was a paper Mache’ Enterprise-A. Later I found out whole sections of I-15 in Bountiful and Centerville were closed.
James at fencing was surprised we showed up. He said few came when there was a lot of snow. Patrick went through the motions, but didn’t suit up this time.
This morning was a repeat of yesterday. I dropped the kids off at school, and when I headed back, the freeway was slow, and stopped completely at Layton. So back to telecommuting. The snow stopped and the sun came out, and the streets cleared.

Happy 60th birthday, ENIAC.

End of Entry

Flowers

Stardate 59021.4
Bit of a bug fix for the calendar code. Actually, it was in the function that builds the star date from the date. I have to manipuulate the day to get the filename, since for the most part I can't have a file with a dot and them a dot htm. So for 2/13/2006, it would take the 13 and divide by 10, store the integer value (1), then strip that off (0.3), multiply by 10 to get 3, then use PHP's sprintf to put all the pieces together to get the log file name, sd59021_3.htm. Unfortunately, if I did the same with 2/14/2006, sprintf says the .4 times 10 is reeealllyyy close to 3, so make it 3 (the floor() function, for anyone familiar with programming). The calendar then showed the log entry for the 13th on both the 13th and 14th. I went about splitting the day without doing the times ten step.

I ordered a dozen roses to be sent to April's work for Valentines today. FTD states on the site that they cannot guarentee a delivery time, and sure enough, they arrive after she left. Oh, well, it is the thought that counts. FTD also has some nice wine baskets, but Utah law says you cannot deliver alcoholic beverages, so that was a no go.

I watched "Sharpe's Company". I thought these were a BBC TV series, but each is about 90 minutes, so they are more like a full movie. It was good, except I had some trouble with accents. I added the rest of the movies to the queue. The weird thing is that I sent it back to Blockbuster, and the next movie in the queue is "Cool Runnings" with John Candy. They sent us "Corpse Bride", which was third on the list. Maybe the other movie was not available, but it usually says as much. "Alien vs. Predator" had a short wait status for a couple of weeks, and April put "The Best of American Idol" in the queue, and it has had the "short wait" status for the last couple of months.

I hope everyone has a happy Valentine's Day.

End of Entry

No Fencing

Stardate 59021.3
Patrick decided he did not want to do fencing last Wednesday, so I was free to go to a Ticonderoga meeting. That was fun, and I like having it on Wednesday. That was also the day a few contractors were scheduled to come out. One is for building an overhang for the patio in back. He’s anxious to start, but we are still thinking about it. Another came to look at the door in back. We haven’t heard back from him.

I got pulled in to help another project at the end of the week. I didn’t do much other than to point out the tests were being run in Salt Lake against a server in Minnesota. That’s why they were taking 10+ hours to run. I managed to find some alternatives, and it got done. I met my new boss as well. I think he’s a little nervous that the team is averaging a new manager every three months lately. I guess we are a lot like herding cats.

Saturday Thomas’s game wasn’t until 9:45 AM, so I got to sleep in a bit. We were going to miss Rachel’s game, but a friend offered to take her to the Weber State Women’s basketball game, so she played. I missed Patrick’s game to go and get her. She was not happy about playing, but I heard she did much better, and was in a good mood by the end of her game. She spent the evening with her friends, which helped her mood. She talked non-stop after I picked her up. She had a few disappointments over the week, and I think some of them bother her more than she wants to admit. Unfortunately, she is like me, and refuses to talk about it.

We also had a guy come out to give an estimate on the kids’ bathroom floor. The laminate is cracking and coming up around the edges. I thought it was amusing that I need to remove the toilet. The flooring guys are not allowed to do that, since that would be plumbing and requires a different contractor. No big deal unless the bolts are rusted on, which after ten years is a good possibility.

Patrick also figured out that the laptop can play Battlefield: 1942, so he, Thomas, and I can play at the same time. LAN parties with his friends can't be far off.

Sunday I took the kids to see “The Pink Panther” remake/prequel. It was pretty faithful to the original, with much of the same slapstick comedy. I was pleased they kept the Mancini theme. Cartoon Network ran the Pink Panther cartoons on Saturday, and one announcement said this was the cartoon with the coolest theme music. I’ve always liked it. Steve Martin did a good job, as the trailers show. The pacing changed toward the end and Clouseau become almost competent, although he started bumbling at the end. Kevin Kline seems a very evil Dreyfus, and Thomas asked me several times if he was the bad guy. No, but his motives were not as good as Clouseau. I thought it was a good movie, and if you liked the Blake Edwards/Peter Sellers version, you should like this.

Weight: 195 lbs. Not good. I need to eat better.

End of Entry

Super Bowl

Stardate 59020.6
Everyone has weighed in on the Super Bowl, so I might as well. My initial reaction was that the Seahawks got the short end. Yeah, some of the penalties were ticky-tack, and on some key plays. But Hasselbeck got a fumble reversed. I watched replay after replay of Roethlisberger’s touchdown, but I can’t say for sure if the ball broke the plane. Hasselbeck personal foul on a block was a bad call. The referees are human, and there is a lot of pressure in this game. Not every one of the Seahawks drives were stopped by a penalty, and the last drive in the fourth quarter was dismal. John Madden said it time and again during the game; the Seahawks played well, and dominated the offense, but were unable to turn that domination into points. If the Steelers had played better, there would not be so much chatter. The Bus has retired with a ring, and the Seahawks can be happy with being removed from the list of teams who have not made it to the big game. Speaking of the list, the Saints are returning to the Superdome. I had thought someone said the dome had to be demolished. April and I, and a lot of friends, would be happy to have that team also removed from the list.

In other sports news, Patrick played his first game in the next set. His team lost the playoff game. They are still moved up to the A list (although this is more because the B-list teams play on Saturdays, and most of the team has basketball or ski team). This means the last set of indoor games will be hard. From what April is telling me, I think the boys are burning out a little.

The basketball games went well on Saturday. Thomas has fun, and is trying hard. Patrick got to take the ball out a number of times, and is now trying to drive in to the basket. He got screened out each time, but at least he tries. Rachel played two games. This is the problem one. The coach’s daughter continues to ignore all but one of the players. Rachel has pretty much given up. She and the coach ignore each other. Most of the other parents are just waiting out the last four games.

Oh, yes, I’ve done some re-arranging. I decided there was no need for a separate blog page. I sent a day redoing the calendar on the right in PHP instead of Perl. I like the PHP code better.

End of Entry

Basketball

Stardate 59020.2
Basketball has been something of a pain, especially when you add other activities to the same day. Last Saturday, all three kids had a game, Patrick had the Pinewood Derby with Cub Scouts, and Thomas was invited to a birthday party. The day did not go as long I had originally thought, though. Thomas did well with his basketball game. Patrick also did well in his game, although some of his teammates have not picked up the idea there is more than one person you can pass the ball to. Right after Patrick’s game we rushed over to St. Paul’s church for the derby. I had thought this would go about 3 hours, but there were only 18 cars entered. Apparently not as many Cub Scout packs came this time. The derby ran an hour, which was just the right amount of time to get Thomas to his friend’s birthday party. We killed some time at Home Depot. It started to snow pretty good, so I got Thomas a little early.

Rachel’s game got April mad. The coach’s daughter is under the impression she is the team, and won’t pass the ball to anyone but her friend. Her friend does get the ball to who ever is open. At practice Wednesday, I saw the same thing in a skirmish between Rachel’s team and the other team that was practicing. I talked to the coach afterwards. The guy is not happy with this league. I tried to point out that his kid is getting mobbed because she won’t pass, and if she would spread the ball around she could get open a lot more. I don’t know if I did any good, but I guess we will see.

Patrick’s team lost their soccer playoff. I didn’t see the game, but April said they did well the first half, but started to come apart the second, and made some bad mistakes. I think that after 8 weeks of games, they are getting a little burned out. These are 8 year old kids, not adult professionals. I am wondering if they need a little break. Patrick and some of the other players also play basketball, and Patrick does fencing, so that’s a lot. Tuesdays are especially grueling; the kids go to school at 7 AM, to religious ed after school, and to either cub scouts or basketball practice. They don’t get home until after 8 PM. It’s only for a few months, though, and a little suffering is good.

Favorite Quote: “When Googling for information on zeppelins, it really pays to add "-led" to your search terms. Trust me.” – David Morgan-Mar, Irregular Webcomic
Actually, the official site for Led Zeppelin was the first on the list, but the next two were sites on airships.

Weight: 190 lbs I finally replaced the battery in the bathroom scale. I was thinking I would be closed to 200, so this is a pleasant surprise.

End Of Entry

Challenger

Stardate 59012.9
Where was I on January 28, 1986? I was in the North Salt Lake industrial park. I has just finished maintenance on a client’s equipment, and called into the office for the next job. They told me the shuttle had exploded. I thought, yeah, right, that’s not a very good joke. I turned on KSL radio in my truck to find that it was no joke. I was shocked. This was the flight that teacher was on. It would be weeks before they found a cause. A lot of stories went around during that time. Some were true, others didn’t pan out. The one I thought was the worst is that the occupants were still alive as the cabin fell for two minutes to the Atlantic.

It’s been snowing the last couple of days, so I took advantage of it. Rachel and I went sledding in Kaysville. I took the dog along, but he quickly got tired of running up and down a hill. Someone had constructed a small jump. I went over it once, and only once. The impact on my back was very painful. It doesn’t hurt now, so there’s no permanent damage.

We also went back to Clearfield to practice basketball again. The baskets were higher than before, and Thomas could not reach them. I asked if they could be lowered, but the manager wasn’t too happy with the idea. She lowered it a bit. I found another one, and ask the guy there if he minded that Thomas played on the same basket. He didn’t, and his son and Thomas started to play together after a couple of minutes. I guess things work out.

Warning, another political rant. Senator Howard Stephenson and others in the state Senate want to do away with the 17 th amendment. This is the one that removed the ability of the state senate to elect the states senators to the national congress. Worse, they were surprised that voters didn’t like that idea. Every year around the Fourth of July, I watch a BYU production called “A More Perfect Union”. It’s about the Constitutional Convention in 1787. In it, the argument over how the president and congress should be elected is running hot. James Wilson tells James Madison that if state senators are allowed to elect national senators, and those senators are allowed to elect the President (yes, that was considered one of the best ways), then each will get the idea they are important on their own, and they don’t need the people. I disagree with Senator Buttars about his views on gay rights, and his push to amend the teaching of evolution, but at least I comprehend his point of view. This, however, seems to be nothing more than we don’t like the way the people decide things, so we want control. I often don’t agree with the voters in Utah, but I think they should get the right to vote that way.

End Of Entry

Stock Market Manipulation

Stardate 59012.7
Stock market heads down, and it’s all my fault At least that’s one person at work’s opinion. When the company stock went down by a dollar a share, he asked me if I had sold any stock. I told him I did, and that I had to or I would lose it. If I had known I had that kind of influence over world and national markets, I would have been having a lot of fun. Bin Laden audio tape, Abarmoff scandal, oil going back to $70 a barrel, NSA wiretapping, Google denying a government request, none of those things matter. But I can make it go up or down by buying or selling a few shares. Amusing.

I dropped the car off to have the damage fixed. It’s done now, and it looks much better. I rented a car from Budget. I got on the freeway to work and noticed a wallet on the floor. I went through it at work trying to find a phone number for the owner. Budget called in about another hour, and I gave them my cell number so that the owner could call me. This poor woman has every possible piece of ID in the wallet, military, UT drivers license, social security card, birth certificate, plus some cash and credit cards. I think I would be on the edge of panic to lose all that. The wallet was reclaimed by the owner Monday night. I kind of wondered how I would have had her prove who she was, considering every acceptable ID was in my hands.

I finally caught the RadioWest interview with Senator Chris Buttars done a couple of weeks ago. I am sorry I could not listen to it live. It would have been fun to ask a couple of questions on his positions. He pushed a resolution that requires teachers to state that not all scientists agree on evolution. He wanted that because they don’t know how life started. That’s true, but it’s also true for most areas of science. Scientists carry their morals and biases with them. To my knowledge, nobody understands gravity, so should it be taught as a simple theory, and Newton’s formulas may not work? Einstein’s theories of general and special relativity threw out some common assumptions in Newtonian physics, and to this day there are detractors. Einstein refused to accept quantum theory, famously quoted as saying he could not believe God played dice with the universe. So should we teach that E=MC2 should not be accepted as fact? I don’t understand why evolution is singled out, other than it does not agree with the Biblical accounts of creation. Why not teach that all of science fact is up to interpretation? That could have some interesting long term consequences. How many inventions were done because the inventor was never told something was impossible? Some kid today could wind up creating a real Heisenberg compensator.

Ford announced a restructuring plan this week that involving huge layoffs and idling plants in many places in the US. Ford blames a lack of sales in gas guzzling SUVs and higher fuel prices. It’s a big topic for NPR, and I have been thinking about it and the similar GM announcement last year during my commute. I wonder if they were among the companies lobbying against better gasoline mileage in cars, and a bigger investment in alternate fuels Congress had in a bill last year. According to another NPR report, GM went out of its way to recall and destroy all EV1s. Ford only reluctantly developed a hybrid engine vehicle. Granted, some of the plants Ford has were built post World War II, and are not easy to change for new types of cars. But it does seem like they stayed on a collision course to sell high profit SUV’s until too late. It worries me that American companies give a inordinate emphasis on short term profit and stock price over long term investments and innovations.

On a similar note, UPN and WB will soon be replaced by a single network to be called CW. I laughed at Leslie Moonves assertion the new network would have hit shows every night of the week. He hasn’t done this with UPN, what changes in CW give him this magical ability? I admit to being bitter that he was in charge when Star Trek: Enterprise was cancelled, but the fact remains that the track record does not back up his claim.

I read most of the books in Bernard Cornwell’s Richard Sharpe series a couple of years ago. It’s about a Napoleon era British soldier. Wandering on Amazon, I found out the BBC had made the books into a television series staring Sean Bean. I remembered him as the crazy IRA terrorist in Patriot Games, and he played Boromir in the Lord of the Rings. Last week I found that the series was available for rent from Blockbuster Online. I put the first few episodes in the queue. I am looking forward to seeing it. IMDB indicates there are more Sharpe episodes being made.

End of Entry

Flu

Stardate 59011.7
I caught the flu last Friday, and spent most of the weekend on the couch alternately freezing or sweating. I did take the kids to their first basketball games. As I said, Saturdays are now spent at St. James Church in Ogden. Thomas’s team lost, mainly due to the one kid on the other team who seemed to know what he was doing. Patrick’s team won, but I don’t remember much of the details of that game. Rachel’s team won their game as well, mainly due to the coach’s daughter who has lay-ups mastered. April suggested I take the kids to Clearfield and practice with them.

Patrick’s game Monday ended in a tie. This was a pleasant surprise to most of the parents because this team wiped the field with us the last go around. Two goals were scored against the goalie the team could not get anything past before. April and I talked about the change that has happened over the last couple of months. Not only has Patrick become an excellent goalie, every player on the team has improved. The other team had some talented players, and I watched them get handled very well. One item the other team did not do well that Patrick’s team does is cover the goal if the goalie moves off of it. This cost them one goal, and almost another.

We used some Best Buy gift cards to get a DVD recorder. It took most of the evening to set up. That was last week, and after a week I’ve come to appreciate the features. All of the VCRs we have support VCRPlus, but I’ve never used it until now. I wasted too much time setting up the system and then trying to find out what was on each tape to make it worthwhile. The recorder can put each program right after the other, and since it is a DVD there is no rewinding and fast forwarding to get to the show. It shows a menu of all the shows on the disc. The only complaint I had is that it warned us that the machine needed to be off for VCRPlus to work. I didn’t think this was a big deal until I realized there was no power light, and the display showed something on or off. It took several tries to find out the OFF meant the current time is in the display and ON shows you the time left to record on the disc. The discs need to be ‘finalized’ to work in any other DVD player (including the computer DVD players), and then erased and formatted to record again. The only missing feature is the ability to record two shows on different channels at the same time. I may actually start watching a few more shows this season because of this machine.

Nope, Carl, I didn’t intend for blog entries to be a means of communicating. I was making an observation and no insult or innuendo was implied. Communication via blog is too slow, especially when there's no comment section.

End of Entry

MS View

Stardate 59011.2
Microsoft has an interesting view of the world sometimes. I installed Visual Studio 2005 on my work computer, and then loaded an old version of a common project (old in terms of it was worked on in September 2005). Rebuilding it resulted in thousands of C4996 warnings. Apparently much of the C standard library functions have been deprecated. In software development, deprecated means the feature is slated to be removed at some unspecified time in the future, so don’t use it. Now, I call attention to the word STANDARD. These have been part of the library for longer than Microsoft has existed as a company. Granted, not understanding them or misusing them opens security holes, and has led to many a critical update or patch. But these are common to millions of programs. MS does provide ‘safe’ alternates, but for projects such as mine and many others that need to port to operating systems besides Windows, these are not an option. My opinion is that this is the same as telling people that driving cars is not recommended because you might get in an accident, and you need to find an alternative because we will be taking them away in the next five years. There needs to be a better solution.

I took Patrick to his first fencing lesson. He loves it. The instructor was nice and very patient. We will see how long his interest holds, but now I have one more thing to do.

Rachel and Thomas have started basketball practices. Rachel’s coach is a little reserved, and seemed to favor his daughter over everyone else. I could be wrong, though, but we shall see. Cub Scouts is the same time as Thomas’s basketball practice, so I didn’t get to see it. I’m told his coach is good. Thomas’s games are all 8 or 9 on Saturday, and Rachel’s is 1 or 2, so I’ll be spending a few Saturdays in Ogden.

April took the car to Young Chevrolet for an estimate. $849 was the total. I figured about $1000. I pay the $250 deductible; the insurance company gets the rest. The other issue is that it will take three days. I’ll need to get a rental since I need a car.

2006 is turning out good so far, in a strange way. The printer started flashing all the lights on Monday and would not print. I checked HP support website, and it said the printer has a hardware failure. April called support, and found out the warranty expires at the end of the month. HP is shipping us a new one. I’ve been pleased with their support, if not the products. We seem to go through printers very fast.

I updated my resume on Monster.com after getting an email that said I’d be entered in a contest. I figured it could not hurt. I’ve had calls from a bunch of headhunters…er, recruiters to use the new century term. Nothing they’ve offered is outstanding yet.

I got message from SmithBarney. They wanted to verify my mailing address. I was a little puzzled since I don’t have an account with them. I called them and gave them my address. They had tried to mail me a check for $3.50, but it was returned. My guess would be it got delivered to the wrong house, since that happens a lot. It turns out they are managing some stock options I was granted in the mid nineties. I had forgotten about it. I checked on them, and found out one grant of more than a thousand shares would expire on the 18 of January. So I exercised them at $61.41 a share. I am in a little bit of shock.

Mood: uncomprehending
Music of the Moment: Rossini’s Overture for William Tell. Besides reminding me of the Lone Ranger, this also conjures Daffy Duck. It was the background music for many a Looney Tune.


End Of Entry

A New Year

Stardate 59010.3
News Years Eve was fun, if a little subdued from previous years. I¡¦d like to thank Carl and Erica from hosting. I know the work that goes into it and after it. I'd like to offer one small suggestion, parties like that are not a good venue for videos. You have to turn the volume way up to hear, and that then drowns out the conversation, which is the main reason for attending. We had to leave early because Thomas started to get cranky. That was anticipated. The Bajoran Renewal Scrolls were a great idea.

Patrick¡¦s birthday party on the 30th went well. We went to Davis Lanes for bowling, pizza, and cake. The one thing I did wrong was to take the establishments suggestion that all eight kids could bowl on the same lane. There¡¦s too much time between turns this way, and they all started to get bored. Patrick had his friend Hans stay over for three days. He got his much desired Battlefront II for the PS/2. So they spent the next few days on the game system. I kicked them off a few times, especially when Hans complained of blisters forming.

The family started one of those 3-D holographic puzzles before Christmas, and we finally finished it the night of the 30th. It was one of the more difficult ones I have done. The pieces were a lot alike, and changed color when you tried to fit it somewhere. Once it was done, we put puzzle glue on it.

During Patrick¡¦s party, it started to snow. It snowed pretty well, so I thought I¡¦d take the kids sledding the next morning. During the evening it turned to rain, and by the next morning the snow was gone. It rained all day. A bonfire was planned for the party, but it was too wet. The sun came out on the first, but the second it started to rain again. I don¡¦t like rain in December/January. Snow is much more fun, especially when I don¡¦t have to commute through it.

Monday we took done the tree and the Christmas decorations. The house is back to normal. April took apart the vacuum, and replaced the broken belt. It seems to pick up the dog hair much better now.

I went to dinner with my Dad on Monday. Actually, we stayed at his place and ate the salmon my brother sends to him every year. He had a bad spell last Tuesday. Apparently he could not get his legs or arms to work, and lost his vision for a few minutes. He went to the doctor the next day, but they didn¡¦t find anything. From what he tells me, they mainly checked his heart. The symptoms sound more like a stroke. He is going back to the doctor next week for more extensive testing.

When I walked to my car afterwards, there was a dent in the back bumper. It was not there when I arrived, so someone backed into my car. No note, either. The fiberglass is broken, so the bumper will need to be replaced. I am angrier that no one at least left a contact number or even an apology.

Patrick was so caught up playing the PS/2 he didn¡¦t want to go to soccer. After making him go, he was glad he did. Apparently, the other team was very good. He was not supposed to play goalie, but he was pushed to do it in the second half, and turned in an amazing game with some goal line saves. April told me one kid on the other team was ejected because he got frustrated with his shots being blocked and shoved some of Patrick¡¦s teammates into the wall. Patrick also got some assists in the first half, and April said his teammate Trey also had a good game, scoring a number of goals. Patrick¡¦s team won.

End of Entry

Christmas 2005

Stardate 59123.1
Christmas was good, and I hope friends also had a good Christmas. This year was spent putting electronic gadgets together instead of LEGOs and ImagiNext toys. The better part of the day was spent getting things up and going. One failure was a cheap WinTV USB tuner I got for April. I got the idea because she’s been watching DVDs on the laptop, and I thought this would help with the finding a tape to record on and then finding the show after getting it on tape. I could not get any audio, and the video ended up as a tiny 320 by 200 screen. I had my doubts about it when I brought it. It’s still a good idea, but I need to put more research into it. There are dedicated PVRs and DVD recorders, but that’s one more piece of equipment with remote and hookups and finding a receiver.

I got Patrick his own joystick, which he was thrilled with. I also bought a jet fighter program because he had fun with the F-16 Falcon game when his Cub Scout troop went to the Hill Museum. He got frustrated with the game, though, and hasn’t played it since. He also got a Jedi Lightsaber game you hook up to the TV. This took a little time to figure out that you sweep the lightsaber vertically across the screen for yes, and horizontally for no. He has gotten up a few levels on it, but he commented that it made him tired. Having to stand up and swing your arms is a little different from pressing buttons on a controller.

Rachel got a Dance Dance Revolution for the PS/2 with an EyeToy camera. I watched her play with some similar (but less versatile) games in the store, so I was pretty sure she would have fun with it. I have fun with it. Mike Gibby mentioned playing this one and how physically demanding it is. I have to admit having a lot of fun with it, although I lack rhythm to make it very far. But that’s something I can practice on.

Rachel also got a Disney MP3 player. It only had enough memory for a few songs, but it has an SD slot to expand that. MP3 players are ok, but so far I have not seen one that can fast forward and rewind. Sometimes I like to listen to a particular part of a song. I imagine the more expensive ones would, but I don’t think I need to spend that much.

Thomas finally got his Star Wars: Episode III DVD. He also got a ImagiNext ship, and most importantly for him, LEGO people and Star Wars action figures. He is less into building than putting everyone into one or more vehicles. Patrick is the builder, and he is now enrolled in the LEGO Brickmaster program. He gets small sets and plans for building all sorts of things.

We watched Star Wars: Clone Wars Volume II. I missed some parts of it, but I finally understand why Grevious is wheezing and coughing in Episode III.

Christmas Eve we went to a small party at the Howertons. Janet is the co-leader with April for the girl scout troop, and her youngest son watches our kids a lot. I played some pool and got to socialize. After that we went to see the lights and displays in Ogden’s city park. We went earlier in the week to Layton’s display. Both were good. Layton has added a few new light sculptures.

I found Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert, has a blog. It’s somewhat cynical for my tastes, but that’s where he gets his material for the comic. Besides, I knew this after reading The Dilbert Future.

In the end, 2005 was pretty eventful. A tsunami in Southeast Asia (ok technically that was 2004, but the effects went well into 2006). My sister Susan lost her job, and didn’t find another one for six months. My Dad fell and cracked his hip, which he still has not fully recovered from. Ray Graham suddenly passed away, to the great loss of his family, friends, and the world. Star Trek: Enterprise was cancelled, leaving me with no new Star Trek episodes to watch. Hurricane Katrina went through New Orleans at the end of August, which meant having my mother-in-law here for a couple of months. I got a call from a friend there last week. She and her family are in a trailer in front of their house now, which she says is a step up from being crowded in with her cousin. There is still a lot of damage to be worked out. There was a devastating earthquake in Pakistan.

Some things have remained constant, like my job. I am still doing the same thing for the last eight years. I have been actively looking for a new job. I had an interview with ATK Space Systems, which would have been cool, but I didn’t get it. I’ve only had one other interview so far, with a company at the mouth of Big Cottonwood canyon. That’s even further to drive than I do now, so I was not too disappointed that I didn’t get that job.

I’ve been reading some of the blogs about jobs on Monster.com. The job situation is a source of anger and many posts. This is a little ironic considering the cases of people being fired for blogging about work. The account of one guy who was fired for being a smoker (not smoking on the job) also makes a lot of employees upset. Personally, I think this is backlash for holding companies accountable. I don’t know, it all seems messed up.

There was an article in the Standard Examiner about how most of the people in Davis County don’t work there, and the trend will triple that number in the coming decades. My attention was also caught by a letter to the editor stating that the Ogden mayor’s plan to make the city into a recreation hub would leave the city with low paying service jobs. That’s not a good thing.

I have started reading books in electronic form, and I enjoy it. I am surprised that they are not cheaper than the paper ones. It seems like they should be, considering there is no shipping or printing. I suppose the printing is so down pat that there is not much to save by not printing. Some books, like the S.C.E. series I have become addicted to, are almost all only available in e-book form. The only downsides to reading this way is that it takes more time to boot a computer than open a paper book, and it’s not a good idea to read in the bathtub.

So, for 2006 (sheesh, we are already halfway through the decade), what can I do? One new employee thought our company did not give enough feedback, and I agree. So I think I need to work on doing more feedback for both my job and personal life. It needs to be constructive, though. I need to keep working on my job search. I’ve started working on a Microsoft Certified Applications Developer (MCAD) and Microsoft Certified Solutions Developer (MCSD), but each of the study guides is 1,000 pages long. This might not get done in 2006.

Other things, such as getting in shape and losing weight, are goals I work on all the time. One of the things that I read somewhere is that it’s a bad sign when you do something because you want to do it, but soon it becomes something you have to do. That takes the fun and interest out of it. There are dozens if not hundreds of things you have to do all the time. The trick is to find some way of turning them back into the category of want to do, like find a new way of doing the task, or changing the task into something else.

And finally,
End of Entry

Rachel is 10

Stardate 59122.2
Rachel is 10. Wow, I’ve been a dad for a whole decade now. We joked about her being double digits or two handfuls now. As our first child, I think we made more mistakes with her, especially being over protective and wanting to have exact control over everything in her life. Over the last ten years I’ve learned to loosen up, much to the relief of both of us. We have involved conversations on diverse subjects including George Washington, governments, and the latest, static electricity. The next ten years will probably be far more interesting and challenging.

Rachel’s birthday party was described by her as the best ever. April organized an American Girl Hawaiian party. Six other girls came over to our house: Audra, Shelby, Sara, Fiona, Liz, and Rachel S. They did a treasure hunt, limbo, had pizza with pineapple, and made monkey tails (bananas with pudding). My only job was to take her brothers away. Patrick wanted to see “Yours, Mine, and Ours”, but the only show time in Layton was 11:40 A.M., which was too early to go and keep them out of the way. So we went to the Nickelcade. This gave me a sense of deja-vu, and another reason for doing blogs. See the 1/4/2004 entry, third paragraph. I thought I was simply repeating what I did last year, but this was TWO years ago. Patrick is not as interested in the arcade anymore, more than likely because he has better games on the P/S2 at home. Nobody was interested in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game.

After a few weeks of temperatures in the teens and single digits, it snowed last weekend. The snow did not stay, because it warmed up into the 40’s and 50’s. After that kind of cold, it seems almost balmy now. Rachel went to stay with her Aunt Susan, and the boys and I went to Kaysville’s Ponds Park to sled. They had fun, but in about an hour both of them were huffing climbing the hill. They’ve been playing a lot of P/S2 lately, but since the neighborhood kids are still in school, they can’t think of what else to do. They did go out and build snowmen, and we’ve had a couple of snowball fights. Rachel and her aunt went to see the Chronicles of Narnia, which they both liked. Rachel had read the book already. She told us she saw the trailer for the sequel to Pirates of the Caribbean.

The van went into the dealers on Monday to check out a squeal in the braking system as you back up. April talked to them over the phone, and they told us it was a bad hose, and it was covered under the warranty. When we got it there, they tried to tell us it was the pads, and not under warranty. They called in the afternoon to tell me it was a cracked seal, and that was covered. I thought it was strange one guy was adamant the problem was the pads. It didn’t fit from what I was seeing.

Christmas is almost here. The arguments over how to greet people seem silly to me. Yes, Merry Christmas is Christian in origin, but I think most mean it more as a have a good time, without the religious overtone. Christmas itself is based on replacing pagan rituals, and many of the traditions are borrows from pagan time, or recent commercial inventions. Happy Holidays is more generic. Personally, use whatever greeting you would like, I’ll take it as wishing me well.

Favorite quote: “Only you would remember the band Quiet Riot” - April

End of Entry

Slow Commute

Stardate 59121.2
Last Tuesday it took about 2 1/2 hours to get home. I'm not really complaining, because going any faster than 5 miles an hour on I-215 would have been bad. As it was, I skidded twice. But it's times like these I wished I worked closer to home. Okay, I could MOVE closer to work, but that means April has to commute further. Besides, I went to a Microsoft launch for Visual Studio 2005 in Sandy. It got out at 5:15 PM. It took another 30 minutes to get to the freeway. The entrance is about the same distance from my home, maybe a little more. The amount of traffic was horrendous. I got out of there thinking I would NOT want to live down here. Anyway, I plodded along I-215, lazily thinking about having a job close enough to walk to work. Maybe about a 20 or 30 minute walk. Enough to get some good excercise without taking too much time. There are a number of businesses that close, but none hiring for what I do. Still, it's a pleasant dream.

I missing Patrick's Cub Scout meeting, since I did not get home in time. His soccer team placed 6th, and plays a tournament tonight. He's Star of the Week for his class this week, which means he had to put a poster together of his favorite things, and tell about his family. I printed out a bunch of pictures for him to choose from. Oddly, I could not find one of the dog, or at least him and the dog. I took one last week of the dog and cat curled up together in the sun, but I haven't gotten it off the camera yet.

Christmas means lots of shipments. Not a big deal normally, but UPS will no longer just leave packages if we are not home. A shipment was lost early this year, so apparently we are required to sign for all packages they deliver. Again, not a big deal. Except they deliver only when we are not home. Someone has been here the majority of the time last week, except at 3 PM to pick up the kids from school. This is the time they try to deliver things. We requested they do not deliver during this time, and also to not deliver at all, but instead notify us to pick it up. So far, neither request has been heard.

April and I went out for our 11th anniversary. The plan was to do nothing much, because we always need to be somewhere or do something. We succeeded, which made for a great weekend. Carl Stark stopped by Sunday with the stocking makings for my kids, and an anniversary card from the crew of the Ticonderoga. Thanks, guys, that was great!

Favorite quote: "I like the Borg. They make the best bad guys." - Patrick, watching me play the Elite Force Demo

The battery is out on the scale, so I have no idea how much I weigh.

End of Entry

Aargh!

Stardate 59120.6
Aargh! (I still can hear "No, that's a different game". It's an inside joke I'll get to in a minute.) It's getting hard to be a Star Trek fan. Star Trek Enterprise is cancelled after only four seasons. Now Star Trek: Communicator has ceased publications. And this! No new TV series, no new movies, no publications, and possibly no official web site? What do I do online now?

Now to explain. It not all that funny, as retold stories often are. Back in 1987, I worked at a small games company doing all sorts of odd jobs. I list it on my resume' as 'Assistant Manager'. I burned EEPROMs for Nintendo and Atari ST, copied artwork for the game developers, and occasionally got to test games. When I messed up on something, I would always say 'Arrrgh!'. Not sure where I got it, probably from Charlie Brown or Monty Python (no, no, back of the throat). The company was finishing up a Rampage clone called Arrrgh! So everytime I said it, my manager Hal would say, 'No, that's a different game". See, I warned you it was not all that funny. Enough about my past, we now return you to the present, already in progress.

I went out to dinner at Sizzler with my dad on Monday. Service at the Bountiful location is getting poor. I have to ask at least twice for refills or A-1 steak sauce. Not sure where else to go, though.

End of Entry

Rats

Stardate 59120.5
Rats, I messed up. The last entry was done offline with a text editor because the online version does not handle cascading style sheets. It puts a font directive in front of every line, which disables the style tag. Well, it's fixed now. Thanks to Carl Stark for pointing it out to me.

The Amazing Race had a pit stop at the downtown library in Salt Lake City. It was interesting seeing places I've been to many times on a network show. It was funny that the teams went from Heber City to Park City. All but one team took hwy 42. The Florida team, who complain and whine alot, and didn't like southern Utah, took hwy 92. If memory serves, this goes through the Alpine Loop. They are in a big SUV towing a RV trailer. That must have been fun to navigate.

There's a lot going on, but at the moment I can't remember it. Last Thursday I got a new boss. It's unclear whether the previous one quit or was let go. My opinion is that he quit. The evidence I have is that he came in two weeks ago and cleared his desk out, and the job he had would drive anyone insane. He was in Phoenix the last week, and was crowing about it being 72 degrees. I lived there a couple of years. It's 72 in the winter, but 115 in the summer. I remember watching weather reports that gave the next days' LOW as 101. The lower temperature was still three digits.

This has been making it's way around the net. I might as well do it to.
That's no moon..., wait, my mistake, it is a moon...

Yes, it's the moon Mimas. The full description is here.

End of Entry

Goblet of Fire

Stardate 59113.0
We went to see Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire on Sunday. It was good. Thomas covered his eyes at the more scary parts. The question on my mind is if Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint will go for the next three movies. Rupert especially looks eighteen or nineteen now. One idea April has is to do a Peter Jackson and film all three at once. It would still need to wait for J.K Rowling’s last book.

Brannon Braga’s Threshold was cancelled by CBS last week. One review wondered tongue in cheek if he was going to blame viewer fatigue. I personally am getting that with Lost. The series seems to go nowhere, but adds new plotlines.

I loaded the log4net test project with the intention of figuring out what was wrong. I ran it to see where I was at, and it worked just fine. I changed some settings in the config file, and it picked them up. Weird. My guess is VS.NET was not copying the .config file I added until I restarted. This would not be the first time I found that sort of problem. I also played around with Craig Andera’s DirectX tutorial. The C# samples that Microsoft put out with DirectX 9a have a few problems with methods that don’t exist.

55 public bool InitializeGraphics()
56 {
57 try
58 {
59  presentParams.Windowed=true; // We don't want to run fullscreen

60  presentParams.SwapEffect = SwapEffect.Discard; // Discard the frames
61  presentParams.EnableAutoDepthStencil = true; // Turn on a Depth stencil
62  presentParams.AutoDepthStencilFormat = DepthFormat.D16; // And the stencil format

63  device = new Device(0, DeviceType.Hardware, this,
64   CreateFlags.SoftwareVertexProcessing, presentParams); //Create a device
65  device.DeviceCreated += new System.EventHandler(this.OnCreateDevice);
  Error 1 'Microsoft.DirectX.Direct3D.Device' does not contain a definition for 'DeviceCreated'
  \Tutorial5\texture.cs 65 12 Tutorial5

66  device.DeviceReset += new System.EventHandler(this.OnResetDevice);
67  this.OnCreateDevice(device, null);
68  this.OnResetDevice(device, null);

69  pause = false;
70  return true;
71 }
72 catch (DirectXException)

73 {
74  // Catch any errors and return a failure
75  return false;
76 }
77 }

Ok, and I wanted to show off some more improvements in the style sheets. I like the spiral notepad on the left. This is strange, since I don't the real thing. Writing left-handed, I end up bending the wire because I lean my hand on it.

At least with his I can get a spinning triangle. Ok, it’s not much, but learning something new is best started with basics.

End of Entry

Happy 41st Birthday

Stardate 59112.8
Happy Birthday to Me!
End of Entry

Stardate 59112.7
One thing I forgot from the last entry. Patrick and I went to see Zathura about a week and a half ago. The movie is along the same lines as Jumanji, just set in space. I think the bigger difference is that there is not a big name star, which is something of a plus. For a show that takes place entirely within a house, it was pretty good. I liked the message of the show, although it could have used a bit more humor.

We had Thanksgiving dinner on Wednesday night, due to April working on Thanksgiving. This made the next day pretty relaxed, which is nice. Patrick had a soccer game Wednesday afternoon. He played goalie for a big part of the game. He was not too happy about it, but everyone talks about how good he is at it. We will have to talk to the coach and see if he can play the last part of the game as goalie, and other positions earlier in the game.

Thanksgiving day, as I said, was relaxed. The kids got bored pretty quickly, so I dug out all the Imaginext castle parts, and built a three story one. This occupied the boys for the rest of the afternoon. We made a bridge, too. I also put up the Christmas lights. This year the icicle lights actually make it all the way around the front of the garage, and I bought a snowman for out front. All in all, it’s the most elaborate display I have done.

Rachel received an early Christmas present in the form of a clock/radio/CD player. The alarm has been going off at 8 AM every morning, but at least it is getting her out of bed.

We bought an artificial tree Saturday. After 10 years of real trees, we decided to change. This one is also pre-lit. The kids, especially Rachel, were against the idea, but once we got it up, they warmed up to it. I grew up with one, but they have changed. Instead of the colored stems of branches that you plug into the pole, you fold out the branches. The tree was a little more expensive than what we have paid for a real one, but the fact we can use it year after year makes up for that. The ornaments give a history of Christmas past. Mulan, Harry Potter, Buzz Lightyear, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Mike from Monsters, Inc, Scooby Doo, Anakin and Luke Skywalker, Yoda, Worf from Deep Space Nine (whom Rachel referred to as the bad guy when I got it), and Captain Archer. My Scorpion from Star Trek: Nemesis again does not fit the light socket for the tree. This year Thomas got a Clone Trooper and Darth Vader, Patrick Anakin’s starfighter, and Rachel got a polar bear. The Star Trek ornaments this year are Khan from the TOS episode Space Seed, Locutus of Borg, and the Enterprise –A. The Hallmark site lists Locutus as from First Contact, but Locutus was not in the movie.

It snowed a few inches Saturday night, so the kids and I went out to play. The paper says the snowfall is showing drought again. It seems early in the year to predict that.

End of Entry

Puzzles

Stardate 59112.2 (11-22-2005)

The fun part about the Internet is that you can find solutions to things when you are not looking for them. I had a bad time formatting the code solution to a puzzle I was given a month ago. I stole some CSS from Phil Haack as I was looking at his code for a class factory from a description in an app.config file. The solution is at the bottom so you don’t have to scroll past it to read the rest of the entry. Config files have been a big source of frustration this last week or so. I have been working with log4net and NHibernate. I can get log4net working with a default configuration, but if I add setting to the config file, I don’t get anything. Same with NHibernate. I am feeling rather stupid at this point.

This last Sunday morning I woke up with a bad stomachache. Most of the day and Monday I spent running to the bathroom every hour or so. I was also running a fever. It’s passed now, much to my relief. Since I didn’t eat anything those days, you would think I might lose a little weight, but no such luck. It’s been sneaking up slowly but surely.

Patrick’s indoor soccer team has been doing well. They lost their game on Monday, but he played really well. I go out to dinner with my dad on Mondays, so I don’t get to see the games. I cancelled last Monday since I could not eat anyway, and took the opportunity to see a game. Patrick was on offense most of the time, and I was impressed. He can control and handle a soccer ball as good as any player on his team. Several times I saw him take the ball away from an opponent. He seems a long way from the five year old I coached.

Patrick has also taken an interest in playing catch with some baseballs we got at a game in Ohio. He is pretty good with throwing and catching, but he needs more practice with a bat. Even more interesting, the first time we played catch, it ended with my throwing one to him that bounced out of hit mitt and off his upper lip, cutting and bruising it. He wanted to go back out and do it again the next day.

On Mondays, as I said, dad and I usually go to Sizzler for dinner. It’s cheap, fast, and pretty good. He won’t go to many other places, and seems to think the only thing I want is steak. There’s a restaurant called El Matador opening up just outside of where he lives. It’s an established name, but Costco bought the land the old place was on. It looks like they got a good deal out of it, the new place is elaborate. It’s Mexican, as I keep pointing out to my dad as we pass. He has said he’ll try it. Anyway, last Monday, the server at Sizzler told us she hadn’t seen us there is a long time. We got a confused look, and told her we had been here every Monday for the last month or so. I guess it’s good that someone remembers us, but I don’t remember her, and I have seen the same faces.

Rachel was honored with a Student of the Month award. Her GPA is 3.95. She is doing very well in school this year. April and I went to Parent-Teacher conferences two weeks ago. Everyone is doing well in school. Thomas is having a little trouble paying attention and stop talking when he needs to, but Mrs. Platz says he fine otherwise. Apparently he is now comfortable with school. Patrick isn’t pulling the wool over his teacher’s eyes like I thought might. Mrs. Fenton is also the Vice Principal for the campus and I imagine she has seen his tricks before. He has also admitted he can’t see the board very well, and he has started wearing his glasses again. Rachel seems to like Mrs. Key. She not frustrated this year as she was last year. Not that Mrs. Higgs is bad, but her style of teaching did not work with Rachel.

Bob Allen’s fiftieth birthday was celebrated at the last Senior Officers Meeting for the Ticonderoga. Lori got the blame, but it was more Tonya’s idea. Next year the business meetings will move from Saturday afternoon to Wednesday night. This leaves us free to play activities for different days and times. The 3 PM time on Saturday left us with no time to do some things such as go swimming or to a museum.

Speaking of museums, Patrick went to the Hill Air Force Base Museum the Saturday before last with his Cub Scout troop. He was not too excited since he has been there before. This time the flight simulators were open, and the boys were fascinated with the F-16 cockpits attached to an F-16 Falcon software.http://beta.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=35868783

That’s about all I can remember for the last couple of weeks. I am sure there is much more, but this is long enough.

Music: The Pink Panther Theme by Henry Mancini
Mood: Ambidextrous (Latin for hopelessly confused)
Favorite Quote: “Agile programming does not just mean doing more work with fewer people” Scott Adams/Dilbert

using System;

namespace MissingValue
{
   public class MissingValue
   {
     private int[] n;
     private int[] a;
     private int sum_n;
     private int sum_a;

     // No default constructor
     private MissingValue()
     {}

     public MissingValue(int array_length)
     {
 // Allocate array of ints to requested length
 n = new int[array_length];
 // Allocate 'missing' array as one less
 a = new int[array_length - 1];

 // Fill array with unique values from 0
        // to length of array
 for (int x = 0; x < n.Length; ++x)
 {
    n[x] = x;
 }

 // Seed a random value
 DateTime d1 = DateTime.Now;
 Random rand = new Random(d1.Millisecond);
 // Get a random value in the range from 0
        // to array length
 int num = rand.Next(0, a.Length);
 for (int x = 0; x < a.Length; ++x)
 {
    if (x < num)
       a[x] = x;
    else
       a[x] = x + 1;
 }
     }

     public int FindMissingValue()
     {
        sum_n = sumArray(n);
 sum_a = sumArray(a);

 return sum_n - sum_a;
     }

     private int sumArray(int[] a)
     {
        int sum = 0;
 foreach (int x in a)
 {
    sum += x;
 }
 return sum;
     }

     /// 
     /// The main entry point for the application.
     /// 
     [STAThread]
     static void Main(string[] args)
     {
 MissingValue mv = new MissingValue(100);

 Console.WriteLine("the missing element is {0}", 
             mv.FindMissingValue());
     }
  }
}

// Output:
// the missing element is 35

What Action Hero Would You Be?

Stardate 59110.8

You scored as Indiana Jones. Indiana Jones is an archaeologist/adventurer with an unquenchable love for danger and excitement. He travels the globe in search of historical relics. He loves travel, excitement, and a good archaeological discovery. He hates Nazis and snakes, perhaps to the same degree. He always brings along his trusty whip and fedora. He's tough, cool, and dedicated. He relies on both brains and brawn to get him out of trouble and into it.

William Wallace

Indiana Jones		63%
Batman, the Dark Knight		58%
Maximus		54%
Lara Croft		46%
	46%
Captain Jack Sparrow		46%
The Terminator		42%
Neo, the "One"		38%
James Bond, Agent 007		38%
El Zorro		25%
The Amazing Spider-Man		25%

Which Action Hero Would You Be? v. 2.0
created with QuizFarm.com
I like the results, although I would wish Captain Jack Sparrow were higher. It's probably due to the fact I don't have to have flamboyant clothing.

Members of the Ticonderoga, Kelly, and others went to the Space Education simulator last Saturday. I brought along the CD for Spamalot, the Broadway play with Tim Curry and David Hyde-Pierce with roots in Monty Python. My passengers enjoyed it. I'd love to see the whole play. I hope they make it on DVD.

The simulator was fun, although I think we would have done better if we understood the controls and who did what. I was wishing for a stop button, or some feedback from the computer when I hit the thruster controls. But that's beside the point. I was impressed by how well we worked together, and the acting on the part of the people running it was great. I felt like it was real. The options given at the end were perfecty valid, although I admit they did not occur to me. That's a little embarassing, but it was a good learning experience.

I have watched a few movies over the last few weeks. Wallace and Grommit was good, although I was a little bored. Thomas loved it. Chicken Little was better, I got a few laughs out of it. I tried to watch Bewitched with Will Farrell on DVD, but stopped about halfway through. I.Robot was interesting, but I think Issac Asimov's original stories were better.

Yes, I have not posted the solution to the problem. Formatting code for a web page has turned out to be difficult.

End of Entry

Halloween

Stardate 59110.1
Gotta get going on pictures and such. But Halloween was good. We went the same place as last year. Lots of kids running around, lots of costumes. Rachel was a gossomer ghost, Patrick was Darth Vader, and Thomas was Anakin the padawan. The sitter commented that the boys costume reflected their personalities. Patrick and his friend ran from house to house, with Thomas close behind. Rachel and her friend tagged behind.

Back in our neighborhood, all but a couple of houses were dark. We were actually invited to the trunk or treat this year, but I favor the traditional Halloween of going house to house. The other way seems boring.

The kids and I carved pumpkins on Sunday. Thomas's was the most elaborate, although I craved it. I roasted the seeds, and they turned out to be pretty good. Rachel carved her own design (well, it was from a pattern, but she did the holes and the saw). Mine was really simple this year, mainly because by the time I got to it, I had a splitting headache. It's muscle spasmed where my neck muscles enter the skull, which cause pain to shoot across my head. The doctor put it down to tension. A little heat, and it's better.

Yeah, the array puzzle. I have a solution, but it is sitting on my work 'puter, and I just don't want to go get it. I did make another small discovery: it's pretty hard to make a random set of unique numbers.

Gas is down by almost thirty cents a gallon. This is still nowhere close to what it was last year. The positive point of view is that it puts pressure on the administration to fund alternate energy. I've never been a fan of increasing the supply of oil to lower the cost. I'd like to move to a more environment friendly transportation source.

End of Entry