Statistical Rant

Stardate 59052.6
One of those things I was going to post a while back. You’ve seen something like this a few times, I imagine. They interview 510 people for the results. Not to derogate the article, but 510 is not a statistical sample, and I would judge the results otiose.

My commentary on some of the ‘findings’:

“One-third of respondents couldn’t pinpoint Louisiana on a map and 48 percent were unable to locate Mississippi.”

The obvious follow up question is, which group is larger? I hate when the notation changes. What map was shown? A world map, a US map, a street map of L.A.? I’ll admit to having trouble finding either state on the last one. Is Louisiana a more popular state than Mississippi? Which would they find easier to spell? Can those same 510 respondents pick out Taylor Hicks’ home state?

“Fewer than three in 10 think it important to know the locations of countries in the news and just 14 percent believe speaking another language is a necessary skill.”

There’s another notation change again. Has geography ever been a popular subject? What percentage of US citizens speak another language? Si habla Espanol? Sprechen sie Deustch? thlingon Hol da’ja’a? Perhaps the networks should broadcast news in a different language each day. Monday is English, Tuesday is Spanish, Wednesday is Hindi, Thursday is Mandarin Chinese, and Friday is Russian. Or the language of the broadcast is done in the language of the news story, i.e. Farsi for Iraq stories, English with a Texan drawl for President Bush.

“Six in 10 could not find Iraq on a map of the Middle East.”

”While the outsourcing of jobs to India has been a major U.S. business story, 47 percent could not find the Indian subcontinent on a map of Asia.”

”While Israeli-Palestinian strife has been in the news for the entire lives of the respondents, 75 percent were unable to locate Israel on a map of the Middle East.”

Was the response “I don’t know”, or did they miss by some small margin? Is no one listening to news? CNN does show maps.

“Nearly three-quarters incorrectly named English as the most widely spoken native language.”

The fourth quarter didn’t speak English natively. I would expect bias toward the language you speak. I also suspect if you had them rank the most widely spoken native languages, English would be first, followed by Spanish.

“Six in 10 did not know the border between North and South Korea is the most heavily fortified in the world. Thirty percent thought the most heavily fortified border was between the United States and Mexico.”

Ok, before this, my designation would have been one of the six, and I don’t exactly fill out a catsuit like Seven of Nine. My first answer would have been Sino-Russian, or maybe India-Pakistan. Are they sure the thirty percent were not expressing a wish?

So what’s the answer? Is our educational system broken? I’d answer yes, but I don’t have a better one in mind. Mass dumping of information on a group will ALWAYS leave some of the group out. That’s one of the problems with individualism, no two learn the same way or at the same rate. I can see incontrovertible evidence of this in my own children.

End Of Entry

Favorties Challenge

Stardate 59052.4
Carl issued a challenge on his blog for a list of local Favorites. Here is my list:

Favorite Radio Station: KUER. I listen to NPR on the commute. I occasionally listen to Doug Fabezio (sp?) with podcasts.
Favorite TV station: KSL has Mark Eubank, indisputably the best weatherman.
Favorite Grocery: Albertsons is the one I frequent the most, followed by Smiths.
Favorite Home Improvement Store: Despite the problems, I still go to Home Depot. Especially now that there is one 2 minutes from my house.
Favorite Newspaper: Standard-Examiner. Ok, I read the comics and the editorials, and little else.
Favorite Local Personality: Charles Trentelman, the Wasatch Rambler. I guess I do read more in the newspaper.

The list is more multifarious than that, but that’s all I can come up with at the moment. It’s also protean. Things change, and sometimes I am not happy with the new form.

Tuesday Patrick had a First Communion luncheon at school. The priest was strange. He didn’t seem to know what he was doing, was rather torpid, and rambled on quite a bit. I don’t think kids from 5-8 are really interested in a complete history of the Eucharist, and when the explanation wandered from the Last Supper in one sentence to a Papal decision a hundred years ago in the next, the point gets lost.

That evening was the last Youth Religious Education class before his First Communion. Patrick, April, and I are all happy to see it over with. We still have Thomas, but that’s a couple of years yet. He then had to race to Cub Scouts to bridge from a Wolf to a Bear. I guy was there from the BSA council, and he went on and on about fundraising and donations. That would have been fine, and he made it pretty fun, but Patrick also had a softball game. We had to cut out of scouts early to get to it. We still missed the first inning. Patrick wanted to do this game because the other team had a lot of his classmates on it. The teams played by slightly different rules. For example, we played with the standard three strikes and you are out, they kept pitching until the batter hit the ball. It got straightened out, but there was some resentment from some of the parents on our team. I was of the same opinion as the guy who is the husband of Rachel’s soccer coach; it’s a game, and as long as they are having fun, it’s good. Patrick did well, getting hits each time at bat. He was a little disappointed about being tagged out at second the first time he was up, but since the batter behind him hit the ball to the base, there was little he could do.

Rachel wrapped up her bowling league that night. By the accounts I received, she has improved. When she started, she was scoring 20-25 per game, mostly getting gutter balls. She won’t tell me what she scored the last game, but I heard it was in the 60s.

There was a piece on MSN science about research into lawns that do not have to be mowed. This was just after getting my new lawn mower, I thought that was a good idea, and if they can make it so you don’t have to water it, then it would just about be perfect. Then it occurred to me that this would be Astroturf.

End Of Entry

Rash

Stardate 59052.2
Ok, I had planned on a few more entries, but as per usual, the plans were messed up. Tuesday night was futility spent trying to get some sleep. My skin had broken out in a rash that itched like crazy. I tried a number of creams, lotions, and such to no effect. Thursday I gave in and went to the doctor. By then my fingers and toes had small blisters, and each one felt like something was just under the skin. In addition, exposure to sunlight felt as though I was over a fire. The doctor gave me some super-Cordisole and a steroid prescription. He also advised me to stay dry and cool for the next couple of days, no baths or showers, and avoid sweating. We are getting record heat, and I start to sweat at 70 degrees. I’m the one who can walk around the house in shorts and no shirt while the rest of the family is huddled under blankets. Friday was a little better, but I stayed in a dark house. By Saturday most of the hives were gone, and the blisters were feeling much better.

April went to Denver Thursday and Friday for a demonstration on a new analyzer for the lab. It was an exhausting trip. No new word on the asst. director who had a stroke.

The boys have started softball and T-ball, with games twice a week on Tuesday (in addition to YRE and Cub Scouts) and Thursday. It’s only for three weeks. Thomas is having a good time with it, although they just hit the ball off the tee and run the bases. No outs, and they trade batting with the other team when the each member has batted. Patrick is doing well with his team, and can hit a ball very well. He also caught a pop fly in his first game.

AYSO soccer is done for the season. Thomas has begun to get aggressive, and did pretty well. We signed all three kids up for next year. One of the mothers at school heard I was coaching this year, and asked April if I would help next year. She wants a St. Joe’s team, although I don’t think AYSO rules will allow that. Rachel has become enthusiastic about soccer again, due in a large part to the coach she had. We hope to get her again, and again, I don’t know if it will happen.

Both Rachel and Patrick were picked by their coaches to go to a tournament in Richmond (north of Logan). April and I were not sure Rachel should go, but she wanted to, so we let her. It proved to be a case were we were expecting on thing, and it turned into something opposite. We thought Patrick’s team would do well. They lost all their games. April said they were playing mostly second graders, and he was the only second grader on his team due to the others having First Communion activities (his is next weekend). We didn’t think Rachel would do well, and by noon her team was still undefeated and waiting on the championship game. That game they lost, due to a couple of players needing to leave which left the team with no substitutes, waiting in the heat for three hours, and the initial defender not understanding what the position was. She let the other team get past her for a couple of goals, and they threaded another one in. The coach switched her and Rachel, and the other team did not get any more goals. Her team scored one. Second place is pretty good considering our expectations.

I found the interview last week with Patrick Stewart interesting. I did get the impression after Nemesis TPTB were not interested in doing anything more with Star Trek. The new group at Paramount looks to be seeing the light, and trying some fresh brains.

End of Entry

San Diego

Stardate 59051.5
The trip to San Diego went well. We stayed at a brand new hotel in Carlsbad. This was a little freaky, because we were the only guests, and the staff was overly solicitous. The kept asking how everything was, where we were planning to go that day. The lady doing the breakfast was worried we went someplace else Saturday morning after we slept in. Anyway, Thursday I took Thomas to Legoland, and April, Rachel, and Patrick went to the Wild Animal Park. It’s a little sad, but this is probably the last trip to Legoland. The kids have pretty much outgrown it. Thomas had fun, but he’s a different child from his brother. Patrick could have stayed all day building and testing racers, but Thomas was bored in about 15 minutes. Thomas was fascinated with Lego miniland, were I thing Patrick would have been very bored.

Friday we went to the Maritime Museum and the USS Midway. I thought the Midway was fun, but the kids were mainly thrilled with the simulators of fighter jets. Patrick got upset at his sister’s teasing when he didn’t make any landings (I made two landing at an airbase, two on a carrier at day and at night). April liked the sickbay, complete with surgery, ICU, and lab. We then went about the Star of India, a sailing ship, and the HMS Surprise, which was the ship used in the filming of Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. The boys loved that. Then there was an old Soviet submarine. We spent the rest of the day at the beach. All of us except April played in the cold Pacific.

Saturday was spent at Seaworld. The weather to that point had been overcast and cool, but it warmed up around noon. This was a good thing, because the boys and I got thoroughly soaked by a pilot whale at the dolphin show. April went out to get dinner, and I had the kids make the Mother’s day gifts.

Sunday morning we stopped in Balboa Park and then headed home.

End of Entry

Muddle

Stardate 59050.8
JJ Abrams is taking the helm of the next Star Trek film. There were news reports all over the place in the last week or so, stating not only that he was directing it but what the movie would be about (Kirk and Spock at Starfleet Academy). He quickly replied that yes, he had agreed to produce the picture, but not direct and he did not have a script or plan for the movie yet. The other news that came out is that Rick Berman is being shut out of the project. I hold the opinion that this is a good thing. Mr. Berman has not had a good track record of late, and worse, he blames the fan base for the failures and has made a number of aspersions about them. He will not change policies, and seems tired of the whole thing.

The assistant lab director at April’s work had a bad stroke on Friday. He is better today, although he cannot move anything on his left side. There are doubts about when, if ever, he will be able to return to work. April’s mother has been in the hospital for the last week with back problems and possibly a broken vertebra. April can’t get down there to help. We are trying to convince my brother-in-law to help out, and he might yet. She is still in the hospital, so there is not much to do.

This weekend was something of a muddle. Patrick needed to be at Friendship Park at 10 Saturday morning. I looked up the park on Google, and got a map and directions from it. They turned out to be wrong. We wandered around, and I even broke down and asked, but I was unable to find it. I left a message for the coach, who called back that evening. The next practice is on Tuesday. Of course, this is the day we already have YRE, scouts, and bowling, all within the same two hours.

Thomas did very well at his soccer game. He went after the ball aggressively, and took four or five shots at the goal. Patrick had a bye. Rachel had Derby Day with the Girl Scouts. April and I were bad about getting her a car, and bought one that morning. There were more cars there than at the Cub Scout derby. She did win one race, and was happy with that. By the tie the racing was done, she has to go to soccer. She was tired and hungry during the game, so she did not play as well as she could. She was goalie the last quarter, and the other team did a penalty kick. The first kick was blocked, but the ref called it a hand foul, and redid it. The second kick went over her head and in the goal. She was upset about it, but I didn’t think there was anything she could have done to block it. Her team won anyway.

Sunday we were going to a friend’s daughter’s First Communion in Eden. I let April sleep in, and we missed the service. We went up to the party after, but could not find it. It was at a park, and there is only on in Eden. Both of us left our cell phones behind. We wandered around for an hour, then gave up and went home. We got in touch with them later, and found out the party was at a park in Huntsville, not Eden. Lesson one is to get the details, and lesson two is to bring cell phones, whether you think you need them or not.

Zacarias Moussaoui, the only man accused in the 9/11 attacks, was sentenced to life in prison. He had the temerity to claim a victory, and gave a pablum about how he would be set free. Martyrdom and the 72 virgins will have to wait 50 or so years.

The new lawn mower works well. The battery lasts for a little more than half the yard, and this is enough. It’s a bit more work to push it.

End of Entry

New Lawn Mower

Stardate 59050.2
Figure this one out: The lawn mower is dying, so I am looking for a new one. I am kind of tired of keeping gas containers around that seem to run out when I need to fill the tank and can’t get to a station. I also seem to spill some in the car when I do fill the can (another good reason for not smoking). I find a good battery powered one on the net. It has a lead-acid battery like the one that powers my trimmer. I am a little skeptical that it will handle the job, but willing to give it a try. Lowes sells them, at least on their website. I go down to the local store, but nope, they don’t carry them in stock. I try the one in Riverdale, same story. Because it’s on the way, I try Home Depot. The guy launches into a big spiel on getting a Home Depot card, even though I keep telling him I don’t want one. They have one gas mower with an electric start (another complaint is that no one but me as been able to start the old mower). The guy says without even looking that they don’t have any in stock, but if I wanted to get a Home Depot card, he’d sell me a tractor. No, I don’t want a card and I don’t have anyplace to put a tractor. He tried to sell me a shed with the tractor and a card. Shut up about the card. I said thanks and walked out, pretty mad. About 9 last night I went to Lowes website and ordered the mower I wanted, to be delivered to the local store. At 10:05 (I had just sat down to watch the DS9 episode “Dramatis Personae” ), the local store called to say my order was ready to be picked up first thing in the morning. This is really great service, I admit, but it’s the same store I was in 5 hours earlier that didn’t stock them. To top it off, I picked it up this morning with the idea I would charge the battery today. I get it home, but no charger. I call the store, and they will pull a charger out of another one. So they had them, but I can’t walk in and buy one. Best I can figure it’s like Walmart’s ‘Online Only’ items; just not marked that way.

Soccer goes well, except both April and I got sunburned last Saturday. Rachel went with a friend after her game to the SLC Reale game. We dropped Patrick and Thomas off at one of April’s coworkers. We were going to cancel because both of us were so tired, but Patrick begged us not to. So we went to dinner, and I picked the boys up a few hours later. Patrick had caught a small frog, about the size of my thumbnail. He put in his bug container, and named it Joey the third (the first was a grasshopper he caught last fall, and the second was a lizard he ‘almost’ caught at Mesa Verde). That was cracked, though, and would not hold water. I thought I told him to put the frog in water, and him saying that the frog would drown, but I was so tired I can be sure. Anyway, Sunday morning the frog was a dead, dried out husk. To calm Patrick down (he’s very sensitive to animals) we said he could go to Petsmart to get another frog. So now we have two fire-bellied toads (they were free, but the aquarium and various paraphernalia cost). They go by a variety of names, Joey the fourth and fifth, Spongebob, and Todd and Tina, which were the original owners names.

Without the news coverage, ‘A day without immigrants’ would have passed unnoticed by me. I don’t understand what rights they can claim if they are not here legally. I know it’s in reaction to proposed laws to make them criminals and to show how they affect the US economy. I disagree with the proposals, since I don’t see them making much of an impact. They come here because they can make a better living, and stiffing the penalties won’t halt that. I’m not a luminary on this, I don’t know what a solution would be.

This ‘urban legend’ gave me a chuckle. It reminds me of a math story problem. It’s just convoluted enough to make you forget that the pattern of buying has little effect on the supply. The author is daedal. I thought of a better analogy, though. I am given $50 to spend for Monday through Friday (five days keeps the math a little more simple). I can spend the $50 on Tuesday, or $25 on Monday and Wednesday, or $10 on each day. Regardless of the pattern, I don’t have any money leftover at the end of the day on Friday. Unless I don’t spend all the $50, I don’t have anything left. So unless we all find some way of buying less gas, putting less in the tank but doing it more often does nothing, or worse, makes us spend more because we stop more often to buy.

Times are changing. Revenue of digital music players outpaced traditional stereo sales. CDs will be going the way of audio cassettes and eight-tracks. A microcosm of life.

End of Entry

Questions

Stardate 59042.8
Log entries have been sporadic. I just have not been in the mood, and also busy. I will be pretty busy for a while yet.

Patrick has a music program Thursday. It was a rock version of Mother Goose. It was pretty fun. His teacher told me Wednesday he passed out during rehearsal. We think is was due to dehydration and just being tired. Rachel went with the Girl Scouts to Ogden Nature Center.

Thomas woke up Tuesday running from the bottom. It cleared up, but we kept him home Wednesday just in case.

Tuesday evening was the Cub Scout pack meeting. Patrick and his den all got the Bear badges. The bridging ceremony is in May. One of the members is leaving because his father is taking command of air wing in Spokane.

I’ve been playing with Google Calendar for the past week or so. It’s pretty good. I like the fact I can access it from wherever I have web access, although it won’t work with the mobile browser on my phone. It also interfaces with SMS, so I can get reminders on my cell. That didn’t initially work, which was a little rebarbative. I sent a message to Google Help on it, and they sent a generic reply to check settings. A few days later it started to work, and I noticed a couple of changes in the setup. It also accepts iCal format, so I can forward appointments from work.

I stole this from Matt Smith. Not sure where the provenance is, though.

* Where did you go on your very first date? What did you do?

A girl in my German class asked my to a school dance. The bad part now is I can’t remember which dance or what her name was.

* Where did you go on your first date with your sweetie? What did you do?

We went to a Mexican restaurant in Orlando. I was there for a developer conference. A co-worker (Sheila Clark, the person the new Salt Lake planetarium is named for) had a niece living there. She maintained to her last day she was not trying to set us up.

* At what age did you start dating?

17 as a senior in high school.

* How long did you and your sweetheart date before getting married?

About 12 months.

* When did you know you were going to get married?

About two months after meeting her.

* What would you like to do on a date that you have never done before?

We went to Hawaii for our honeymoon, and went to the beach in Florida when we were dating. Boston or New York City, maybe? Someplace fancy.

Yes, I’ve been using words from Dictionary.com’s Word of the Day. I’ve also been using Google’s Reader as my RSS aggregator. I installed Gregarius, but I was not happy with it. Google’s is cleaner, although it failed to load once or twice.

Favorite Quote:In blackest sight, or suit too tight, blah, blah, blah - The Green Loontern

End of Entry

Mesa Verde

Stardate 59041.9
Pretty good. Money’s Top Jobs. I could go around saying ‘I’m number 1’, but that would be crass.

We are back from a trip to Mesa Verde and the Four Corners. It was a good vacation, no major problems. It was the first time Mapquest did not work out well. I was a little suspicious with the ‘hwy 491 becomes Pinon Dr’. We missed a turn to the hotel and had to backtrack a mile. The hotel was supposed to have a high-speed internet connection, but we could not find it. I did get on the wireless net for the hotel down the street. It was a spotty connection, though.

Easter morning the kids got up and inspect what the bunny brought. Patrick had given up candy for Lent and was anxious to start eating. Thomas got King Kong, and asked about once or twice a day the rest of the time when he could watch it.

Four Corners was what I expected, a monument surrounded by a flea market. Patrick got himself an arrowhead and an arrow, and Thomas picked up a small spear. Rachel found a feather hair pin. She and her friend Audra, whose family drove down with us, watch a woman do tile painting with colored sand. She wanted to try it. We then went to Hovenweep, a small collection of Pueblo ruins. Thomas didn’t like the hike down, and he and April turned around. That turned out to be a good thing. April talked with the ranger there, and he told her Mesa Verde hikes were all much steeper. We decided then that April would stay behind with Thomas while I went with Patrick and Rachel. Patrick spent much of his time at Hovenweep looking for lizards. I told him he could keep one if he could catch it. A gamble on my part, but I only caught one in all my trips to desert country, and that was because it was almost freezing and the lizard I found could not move.

Patrick wanted to collect some rocks, so we stopped on the way back. Rachel and Thomas stayed in the car watching videos, and April stayed with them. I went with Patrick. That was cool. There was a field of black rocks, and five feet away the sand and rock were green. Across the road it was red. There was some white further up. All in all, very impressive.

So Monday I went on a hike to Cliff Palace. The trail was not bad, but we were right, Thomas would have refused to budge. I had always thought the people lived in the buildings, but the ranger guide said they lived on the mesa above and only certain people lived below. The University of Chicago did some temperature studies, and it stays cold in the cliffs most of the time. We also did a short walk to the Balcony overlook. The tour for it does not open until the end of May.

Tuesday we went back home.

Weight: 194 lbs
Favorite Quote: In theory there is no difference between theory and practice, in practice there is.

End Of Entry

Birthdays

Stardate 59041.2
April’s birthday was Sunday. She’s 28 (hint: I’m not using the decimal system). The kids made gifts for her. Patrick made a card, and Rachel organized a treasure hunt. The kids helped me make brunch. We went out to Mimi’s Café for dinner. April and I went out earlier in the week to buy a PDA for her. The selection is not that great, but she found a HP iPAQ that runs Windows Mobile 5. It also has built in wireless. I played around with it, and tried to install Microsoft Reader. It runs, but when you try and activate it per their instructions, it says the OS is not recognized. I didn’t pursue the problem. I might think about a PDA for myself, but I’d like reader to run on it.

Soccer on Saturday ran better. The park was still wet, but not too bad. I have a new player that is doing well. It was good to have a full team so I could sub tired kids out. There’s still some confusion, because the other team for Patrick’s game didn’t show until fifteen minutes after the game was supposed to start, and then only three players were there. So Patrick’s team essentially played themselves. Patrick proudly told everyone he scored goals for both teams. Rachel did well, and she enjoyed playing. Her best friends mother told me her daughter will only play next year if they can play for the same coach. AYSO doesn’t allow that, so this may be the last year for Rachel.

Friday we got a new patio door delivered, and a new pantry door. The installer called on Monday to schedule the install in response to Home Depot calling them that the door was in. April called Home Depot to schedule the delivery of the door, and they basically said ‘What door?’ It took some searching, but they found the door in Salt Lake. It’s a nice door, but big. The delivery van had one lady. When I got home, she and April were trying to figure out how to get the door and pallet, 300 lbs, into the garage. The boss of the lady said it would be fine in the driveway, but I reminded them we gave them specific instructions to put it in the garage. It’s wood, and I did not want it getting wet. The delivery lady and I got it loose from the pallet, and with April’s help we carried it in. The lady was very nice about it.

Also Friday: I came down in the morning to hear a drip, drip, drip. I tracked it down to the bay window in the dining room. The guy installing the patio overhang left holes in my outside wall, and with the rain and snow, water got in. The insulation is soaked, and the drywall on the ceiling is mush. The guy worked half of one day doing the overhang, and left it for a week. He is now going to have to fix the ceiling.

Flash forward to Monday. The installer was told about the pantry door only; he did not know about installing a patio door. He was pretty flexible about it, and spent most of the day on it. He even had his boss get more siding for the outside because the door is smaller than the old one. We should have known about it, so that was good of him.

Tuesday the guy finally comes back to work on the patio overhang. It’ll look good when it is done. I just wonder how long that will take.

Rachel went bowling with the Girl Scout league that night. I joked with her that some time during the two games she had she might want to hit a pin. Her final score at the end was 17 total for both games.

Thomas lost a tooth. It was loose, and apparently he got hit in the face with a basketball, and it fell out. I told him to put it under his pillow, but he wants to show it around first.

Frustrations and tempers are flaring with Mountain Con. There is a problem with communication. This is a pretty common problem, compounded by the volunteer nature of the organization. I begin to see why companies don’t think fans can do these sort of things. I don’t think the issues are bad, but some dissemination of information would help things out. My being unable to attend meetings recently has not helped either. I was surprised by a few things.

The DVR missed DS9’s ‘Extreme Measures’, or Spike didn’t broadcast it. I think the first is more likely, because ‘The Dogs of War’ was corrupted so that only the last 20 minutes was viewable. So I go from Odo laying near death on the floor of the Jem’Hadar ship to him getting ready to join the attack on Cardassia. I don’t remember a lot of the scenes, but I did see them because I do remember other parts. Odo’s cure is not one of the things I remember, so I was looking forward to seeing it again. Oh, well, there’s next time around. The DVR already has the first few episodes of season 1.

Oh, and the scale says 188 lbs.

End of Entry

DVR

Stardate 59040.6
Yelled at Rachel this morning. I hate to do that; it makes me feel as though I’ve failed. She has been staying in bed until it’s time to leave for school. The purpose it to avoid going, I know, but that’s not an option. Avoiding issues does not make them go away, and often makes them worse. I know at least part of the issues, but she won’t talk about it with me. Not yet, anyway.

We got a DVR for the satellite, so I’ve been watching more TV. April has scheduled her shows, and I added Deep Space Nine on Spike TV. I caught ‘Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges’ (In times of war, the law is silent – Cicero). It seems kind of poignant in light of the controversy over prisoners at Guantanmo Bay. This was broadcast in 1999, so it’s a good comment on how little we learn even over 2100 years. (Wikipedia reports ‘The Practice’ used it again in 2001, but that doesn’t count as much.) I also am watching The Amazing Race and Supernanny. The last is kind of interesting, albeit repetitive. Most of the shows revolve around consistent discipline and spending time with your kids. Combine this with a post by a friend of mine, Matt, about scheduling time with your family. (The comment about Matt being a Keeper was amusing to me). So I start to wonder if I should be scheduling time. The thought doesn’t sync right. Scheduled fun never seems to be all that fun. What works for me is when I am asked to play by my kids, think hard about what I am doing now before giving the kneejerk ‘no, not right now’ response. Is it all that important? Sometimes the answer is Yes, and sometimes it’s No. If it is Yes, I tell them I need to finish what I am doing now, and then I can join them. They accept that pretty well, although Patrick can annoy me with “Are you done? How much longer?” The trick is to follow through. And sometimes the answer is a flat no. That one gets used for things I just can’t do. For example, I’ve tried the trampoline with them. The problem with it is that after about 2 minutes, I am gasping for breath. It’s a good workout, but not much in the way of quality time. Another suggestion is to find a common interest. Patrick and I have a running competition to see how many baskets we can make from the edge of the driveway. Rachel likes to play horse with the hoop. Things like that I have fun with.

It snowed again this morning. I am getting tired of it. I’d like to get to work in under an hour more than once a week.

End of Entry

Telecommute

Stardate 59040.4
April went to LA Thursday and Friday for an equipment demo. Patrick was nervous about it, because dad gets mad a lot lately. Kids are great at noticing and pointing out things like that. I suppose he is right. I am feeling frustrated and adrift in my career, and I don’t care for it. Not that I am in danger of losing the job. I am still able to step in on crisis situations and solve them. I also have a lot of domain knowledge that I know is very hard to find. But I don’t think the company makes use of it as they could. I’m continuing to do CBT on my own.

I have also been working from home far more than before. A lot of this is problems with the commute. Weather has caused some of it. Yesterday the freeway shut down due to a truck dumping a porti-potty on I-15 in North Salt Lake. I spent an hour on the freeway going 10 miles, and decided to turn around at Farmington and go home. I read in Justin’s blog that he saw the accident and called 911. This is the fourth freeway closure or near closure in the last month. It generates the same comments on KSL every time; “if we had the Legacy highway”, and “better mass transit”. Valid, but not the whole problem. Commuter rail would get me to downtown, but then I need to go to South Salt Lake to get back north to West Valley. Not a really good answer and I still need to get the kids to school. Another problem is Davis cities apparently planned for urban housing, but not for industrial development. So the jobs are in Salt Lake City, and there is a rush hour each morning and afternoon. It’s strange that fifteen years ago leaders were saying we need to learn from and avoid the problems of Southern California, but they missed.

Wednesday I participated in the company blood drive. I tried at the kids school back in December with a company called MountainStar. They stuck a needle in both arms, but failed to find a vein. Red Cross phlebotomists gave one quick stab and got a vein no problem. They are sending me a donor card to make future donations much easier. I’m type O, which means I am a universal donor (what is given in an emergency if they don’t know your type), so they are after me to donate as often as I can.

Report cards came home Friday. The kids are doing well. Thomas has the most trouble. There are still a few things he has not mastered (tying his shoes, his home address, etc.). Patrick has some behavior problems. He likes to goof and joke around. It’s hard to correct since his friends find it funny, and that’s what he’s looking for. Rachel has been having emotional issues. Unfortunately she takes after me and won’t talk about it. We set up a session with the school councilor. If nothing else, it gives her someone to unburden on. The councilor told me she is having the typical pre-teen problems, and she feels over scheduled, and that she does not have any free time. Part of that is a result that she complains she has nothing to do when she does have free time.

The first AYSO soccer games were on Saturday. This was also April Fool’s Day, which seems appropriate. When I got there for Thomas’s game, the other coach told me the times had been changed. He only just found out about it. So we set up our own field and played. I only had two players, so Patrick filled in. It has been raining frequently, so the fields were soaked. My shoes quickly became the same way.

The Girl Scouts had a kidnap breakfast that morning, but Rachel and her friend Audra (coincidentally the name of the Red Cross phlebotomist) thought April was playing a joke and refused to go. She got upset when April came back with the rest of the troop to get her. Both girls had a soccer game at 10. Rachel was so distressed she would not play. The team played in a field that was half lake. A ball kicked down the field would stop cold when it hit the water. Audra’s mother was surprised that I stayed with her daughter. I was waiting to pick up another player for Patrick’s game, so I didn’t think it was a big deal. The team still won the game through rain and hail. Patrick’s game was cancelled. No reason was given, but I think it was because they could not get the fields redone in time. They are trying to not play in the Pit, which on that day would have been a disaster. But the games for the U-8 teams have been moved to the U-6 fields, so they have to reset to a different size. That evening we went to Layton Fun Center with the school.

Monday evening was the first fishing class. Rachel told us she does not want to fish ever again. Thomas and Patrick went with me to Clinton Pond. I bought some new poles for them to use. The class was basic safety, and then the boys cast the lines into the water for an hour. Nobody caught anything, but the boys had a good time. Next week is knot tying, so it should be fun. I might break down and get a license for the year. They handed out a book listing the ponds and lakes all along the Wasatch Front. There are plenty of places nearby to go. If someone catches a fish, then I should have an easy time convincing the kids to go.

Weight : 190 lbs

End of Entry

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.


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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.

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