Stardate 58012.8 (1-28-2005)
Fog, smog, or inversion. I can't really tell which this is, but I miss the sun. I think it's been about a week since I last saw it. I don't mind cold, and in fact I love to sleep under a couple of heavy blankets, which is something that doesn't work very well in the summer. But growing up in the desert means I get a lot of sun, and I miss it when I don't see it in a week.
Thanks to Carl Stark and Mike Gibby, I spent much of Wednesday night/Thurday morning reading PvP archives. I had to be up anyway, because the third grade newspaper had to be printed. 60 pages, double sided, time 3 pages, takes time to print. They had a source for printing it in color, but the source lost access to the printer.
Most of my nights I have something to do and somewhere to go. I have basketball practice on Wednesday night for both Rachel and Patrick. The boys on my team got a little rough. I think I need to get some armbands so that I can enforce the one on one defense. I see why the league insists on it. The tendency is to follow the person with the ball. Now if the other team learns to pass, this could be a problem. But the bigger issue is that the person with the ball gets trapped, and since most of the time they won't pass it, everyone starts to grab and claw for it. Eventually someone gets hurt. So I see the point of one on one, aside from the tactical.
Lori and Bolo, the married wrestlers, were eliminated from the Amazing Race. They were my favorites this season. The common theme this season for getting eliminated is missing a detail. Last week the team to go out missed one, and it happened again this week. I also watched SuperNanny, because someone at April's work told her she needed to see it. It was interesting, and this episode had a child that took three hours to go to bed at night. That bought a few memories back. Rachel was the same way (still is, but she generally sits in her bed and reads now). There was also a boy that talked back and acted up. I would have to agree with the nanny, the parents are treating the kids as adults. Nice show, but I am not sure I want to bother with catching it every week.
The last thing is that I read in the paper Thursday that a group supporting family values is up in arms over Spongebob Squarepants, because he lives a homosexual lifestyle. Gee, all the times I have watched it with my kids, and that NEVER OCCURRED TO ME. People see so many demons in everyday life.
End of Entry
Friday, January 28, 2005
Monday, January 24, 2005
His Excellency
Stardate 58012.4 (1-24-2005)
I finished "His Excellency" Saturday. It was a pretty good book. The author seemed to have a pretty good analysis of George Washington, and explained it well. I'd recommend it to anyone with an interest in history and the man himself.
End of Entry
I finished "His Excellency" Saturday. It was a pretty good book. The author seemed to have a pretty good analysis of George Washington, and explained it well. I'd recommend it to anyone with an interest in history and the man himself.
End of Entry
Sunday, January 23, 2005
Basketball
Stardate 58012.3 (1-23-2005)
Basketball Saturday went well. The boys didn't win, but they had a good time. Patrick complained that the guy I had him guard some of the better players, but he does still to them well, so he gets the job. Rachel's team did well in the first half, but the passing in the second half ended up in the hands of the other team. Thomas was invited to a birthday party at the same time. I think the parents were a little puzzled that we drop him off and leave. Thomas had a good time, though.
Rachel went to ski lessons today. She gets to go with her best friend. She had a good time, but it was harder than she thought.
Well, I'm tired, so I think this one will be short. I need to catch up on the Enterprise reviews, and a host of other things.
End of Entry
Basketball Saturday went well. The boys didn't win, but they had a good time. Patrick complained that the guy I had him guard some of the better players, but he does still to them well, so he gets the job. Rachel's team did well in the first half, but the passing in the second half ended up in the hands of the other team. Thomas was invited to a birthday party at the same time. I think the parents were a little puzzled that we drop him off and leave. Thomas had a good time, though.
Rachel went to ski lessons today. She gets to go with her best friend. She had a good time, but it was harder than she thought.
Well, I'm tired, so I think this one will be short. I need to catch up on the Enterprise reviews, and a host of other things.
End of Entry
Monday, January 17, 2005
National Treasure
Stardate 58011.7 (1-17-2005)
Been a busy week and weekend. I can't go into much detail, sufficed to say that adding a feature after a software development cycle is done, and not expanding the development and testing is asking for trouble. It's not bad as far as the product release goes, but there was a lot of extra work put in for it. So the last two weekend were high stress.
I've also discovered that .NET 1.1 is very stingy about resources when you try and run multiple copies of the same program. It seems like Microsoft is not exactly clear on multi-tasking yet. I might try a few things in 2.0 to see if the same issue exists.
Basketball went well, although there is a lot of work to do with the boys there. It was the first game, so I don't expect that they can absorb everything about playing the game, much less as a team. One boy is pretty good, and I noticed the other team was getting a little rough with him toward the end of the game. I did laugh when my team finally got a basket, and then were so busy congratulating each other that they failed to notice the other team running to score again.
We went to see National Treasure Sunday. It was an ok movie. I sat next to Thomas, who was bored with the movie, so I didn't get into it. It seemed to stretch the envelope of belief for me. Patrick wants to see Star Wars: Episode III now (and I mean today) after seeing the posters. I keep trying to explain that it is not out yet. It's hard to tell if he just does not understand, or he is trying to annoy me. I am thinking the latter.
End of Entry
Been a busy week and weekend. I can't go into much detail, sufficed to say that adding a feature after a software development cycle is done, and not expanding the development and testing is asking for trouble. It's not bad as far as the product release goes, but there was a lot of extra work put in for it. So the last two weekend were high stress.
I've also discovered that .NET 1.1 is very stingy about resources when you try and run multiple copies of the same program. It seems like Microsoft is not exactly clear on multi-tasking yet. I might try a few things in 2.0 to see if the same issue exists.
Basketball went well, although there is a lot of work to do with the boys there. It was the first game, so I don't expect that they can absorb everything about playing the game, much less as a team. One boy is pretty good, and I noticed the other team was getting a little rough with him toward the end of the game. I did laugh when my team finally got a basket, and then were so busy congratulating each other that they failed to notice the other team running to score again.
We went to see National Treasure Sunday. It was an ok movie. I sat next to Thomas, who was bored with the movie, so I didn't get into it. It seemed to stretch the envelope of belief for me. Patrick wants to see Star Wars: Episode III now (and I mean today) after seeing the posters. I keep trying to explain that it is not out yet. It's hard to tell if he just does not understand, or he is trying to annoy me. I am thinking the latter.
End of Entry
Wednesday, January 12, 2005
Sid Meier's Pirates
Stardate 58011.2 (1-12-2005)
Last Friday I purchased Sid Meier's Pirates!, using some money I got for my birthday. The gameplay is very simliar to the original release a decade ago. You are a 17th century buccaneer captain, and you plunder ships and towns in the Caribbean. The graphics are, of course, much better than the original. One of the complaints I do have is that the graphic sequences as you board a ship and fight the captain are repetitive. The updates and changes are not significant. You now have to do a series of keystrokes to follow the governor's daughter around a dance floor (Patrick was very concerned that I could not master this and get married). And in the original, you had to align yourself with either the English, French, Dutch, or Spanish to survive. Now they have "Pirate Havens" so that you can be a pure pirate and plunder everyone. I have not tried that yet, but it sounds interesting. I will say that if you did not like the original, this version will bore you.
Basketball starts Saturday. The games are later in the morning, so at least we don't have to get up at seven. I am not sure how long Patrick is willing to play. Last year he got pretty frustrated that no one would give him the ball. Practices go from 6:30 to 8:30 on Wednesdays, so the day gets long. Good thing Enterprise was moved to Fridays.
I had a meeting at work on Tuesday to set up a timeline to move to web development. It's not as aggressive as I would have hoped, but it's not bad. Possibly by September half of my time will be on that. Not that what I do now is bad, but after 8 years it would be good to do other things. I have to fight the tunnel vision and look at different techologies. It doesn't help that with software development the rate of change is high. I've tried to branch out and still keep doing what I am doing, but learning new things takes concentration, and I have to keep going back and complete tasks, which breaks up my line of thought. It's kind of like a TV show that gives you two minutes of the show, and switches to something else for a half hour, and then puts on a bit more (I am reminded of Cartoon Network's Star Wars: The Clone Wars five minute episodes). You loose track of what was going on, or I do anyway. But it does feel like a weight is lifting.
End of Entry
Last Friday I purchased Sid Meier's Pirates!, using some money I got for my birthday. The gameplay is very simliar to the original release a decade ago. You are a 17th century buccaneer captain, and you plunder ships and towns in the Caribbean. The graphics are, of course, much better than the original. One of the complaints I do have is that the graphic sequences as you board a ship and fight the captain are repetitive. The updates and changes are not significant. You now have to do a series of keystrokes to follow the governor's daughter around a dance floor (Patrick was very concerned that I could not master this and get married). And in the original, you had to align yourself with either the English, French, Dutch, or Spanish to survive. Now they have "Pirate Havens" so that you can be a pure pirate and plunder everyone. I have not tried that yet, but it sounds interesting. I will say that if you did not like the original, this version will bore you.
Basketball starts Saturday. The games are later in the morning, so at least we don't have to get up at seven. I am not sure how long Patrick is willing to play. Last year he got pretty frustrated that no one would give him the ball. Practices go from 6:30 to 8:30 on Wednesdays, so the day gets long. Good thing Enterprise was moved to Fridays.
I had a meeting at work on Tuesday to set up a timeline to move to web development. It's not as aggressive as I would have hoped, but it's not bad. Possibly by September half of my time will be on that. Not that what I do now is bad, but after 8 years it would be good to do other things. I have to fight the tunnel vision and look at different techologies. It doesn't help that with software development the rate of change is high. I've tried to branch out and still keep doing what I am doing, but learning new things takes concentration, and I have to keep going back and complete tasks, which breaks up my line of thought. It's kind of like a TV show that gives you two minutes of the show, and switches to something else for a half hour, and then puts on a bit more (I am reminded of Cartoon Network's Star Wars: The Clone Wars five minute episodes). You loose track of what was going on, or I do anyway. But it does feel like a weight is lifting.
End of Entry
Wednesday, January 05, 2005
Cognitive Overload
Stardate 58010.5 (1-5-2005)
Bet you didn't know all the highlights for 2004 in math. Well, neither did I. I readily admit to not understanding what a lot of it is about, and I didn't even know Bobby Fischer was a wanted criminal.
If you hadn't heard about these, you might be suffering from Cognitive Overload. I'd agree with some of it. Nowadays, you can't go anywhere that is not connected by cell phone, email, IM, and a host of other ways to stay in contact. I heard on NPR that internet access is now available in the nations parks. Generally, it's a good thing, especially when you get into trouble. And I am old enough to remember the little drawers of cards at the library, and spending sometimes hours searching for the book I was looking for. But at other times it would be nice to get away from it all. I personally have times were concentration on a task is necessary to get it done, so email, IM, and cell get shut off. It probably annoys people, but it needs to be, at least for me.
End of Entry
Bet you didn't know all the highlights for 2004 in math. Well, neither did I. I readily admit to not understanding what a lot of it is about, and I didn't even know Bobby Fischer was a wanted criminal.
If you hadn't heard about these, you might be suffering from Cognitive Overload. I'd agree with some of it. Nowadays, you can't go anywhere that is not connected by cell phone, email, IM, and a host of other ways to stay in contact. I heard on NPR that internet access is now available in the nations parks. Generally, it's a good thing, especially when you get into trouble. And I am old enough to remember the little drawers of cards at the library, and spending sometimes hours searching for the book I was looking for. But at other times it would be nice to get away from it all. I personally have times were concentration on a task is necessary to get it done, so email, IM, and cell get shut off. It probably annoys people, but it needs to be, at least for me.
End of Entry
Tuesday, January 04, 2005
Now I remember
Stardate 58010.4 (1-4-2005)
Now I remember why I needed to update the menu for each log entry. The calendar script picked up the entry for 12/29/04 as the last one. Since I am a little more comfortable with Perl now, I went in and wrote a custom sort routine. I agree with Bruce Eckel on the point of learning different programming languages. It's good to do so, just to see how things are approached for issues such as this. With Perl, the sort algorithm can be changed within the call to sort, which I thought was pretty cool. Most other languages require you to implement an override method, or supply a function. It took about 30 minutes, 15 of which was trying to figure out why 12 is greater than 110 (think lexical comparisons).
Today I had a reminder of how the Dilbert comic is based in reality. I can't go into details online, and it was just funny as opposed to being bad.
End of Entry
Now I remember why I needed to update the menu for each log entry. The calendar script picked up the entry for 12/29/04 as the last one. Since I am a little more comfortable with Perl now, I went in and wrote a custom sort routine. I agree with Bruce Eckel on the point of learning different programming languages. It's good to do so, just to see how things are approached for issues such as this. With Perl, the sort algorithm can be changed within the call to sort, which I thought was pretty cool. Most other languages require you to implement an override method, or supply a function. It took about 30 minutes, 15 of which was trying to figure out why 12 is greater than 110 (think lexical comparisons).
Today I had a reminder of how the Dilbert comic is based in reality. I can't go into details online, and it was just funny as opposed to being bad.
End of Entry
Monday, January 03, 2005
New Year
Stardate 58010.3 (1-3-2005)
Old year out, new year in. I hope everyone had fun at the Mid-Winter BBQ. The house stayed cleaner than before I started to clean. The morning after Rachel and Patrick slept until after 12.
Patrick's birhday party went pretty well. We rented the Ogden Indoor soccer place for a couple of hours. One boy did not like the way the game was conducted, another was more interested in video games, but other than that, everyone had fun. We ended up with an extra pizza due to some of the people having other plans.
I think Rachel is getting burned out on soccer. The indoor season completed on her birthday, and the new season starts tomorrow. She is not interested.
Sunday April and I cleaned out the office. We gave a boxload of books to the library, and threw out (or will throw out, since the garbage cans are full) a ton of other stuff. The playroom was repainted before the party, and cleaned. This leaves the storeroom. We are a little burned out on cleaning, so that will wait until the end of the month. I will need to build shelves for it.
Other projects that are on the list: Finish the railing and front of the deck, remove the swing set and build a new one, put new bark down, and buy a trampoline. Our next door neighbors are selling thier house to move closer to her parents, and I assume they are taking their tramp with them.
I fixed another problem with the online log entry. The month portion of the stardate left off the leading zero. It was a simple fix.
End of Entry
Old year out, new year in. I hope everyone had fun at the Mid-Winter BBQ. The house stayed cleaner than before I started to clean. The morning after Rachel and Patrick slept until after 12.
Patrick's birhday party went pretty well. We rented the Ogden Indoor soccer place for a couple of hours. One boy did not like the way the game was conducted, another was more interested in video games, but other than that, everyone had fun. We ended up with an extra pizza due to some of the people having other plans.
I think Rachel is getting burned out on soccer. The indoor season completed on her birthday, and the new season starts tomorrow. She is not interested.
Sunday April and I cleaned out the office. We gave a boxload of books to the library, and threw out (or will throw out, since the garbage cans are full) a ton of other stuff. The playroom was repainted before the party, and cleaned. This leaves the storeroom. We are a little burned out on cleaning, so that will wait until the end of the month. I will need to build shelves for it.
Other projects that are on the list: Finish the railing and front of the deck, remove the swing set and build a new one, put new bark down, and buy a trampoline. Our next door neighbors are selling thier house to move closer to her parents, and I assume they are taking their tramp with them.
I fixed another problem with the online log entry. The month portion of the stardate left off the leading zero. It was a simple fix.
End of Entry
Wednesday, December 29, 2004
Jenny the Hamster
Stardate 58122.9 (12-29-2004)
Rachel finally got the hamster (who she calls Jenny) out of the cage and into her little ball. I have to admit Rachel is taking good care of it. The little thing likes to run around a lot. She was getting a little bored in the cage, I guess. I have no experience with hamsters, so I have no idea what they like to do. She does seem to like confined spaces. It must be a need to hide. She is also not bothered by the cat, which surprised me.
Work has been busy, which is surprising for this week. Usually it's a little boring. The are a lot of issues still in my queue. Some of them are a complex, and are taking time.
Carl Stark sent me a link to a Sci-Fi story that says Arthur C. Clarke and his family are ok. I finally sent him some stuff he has been asking for.
The toll in South Asia for the tsunamis is staggering. News reports are saying this might be the largest natural disaster ever. One 11 year old girl from Utah is missing in Thailand. There were a few amateur videos posted that showed the waves. It was incredible. For me, it's hard to imagine what that was like, or what they are going though now. I feel sorry for them.
End of Entry
Rachel finally got the hamster (who she calls Jenny) out of the cage and into her little ball. I have to admit Rachel is taking good care of it. The little thing likes to run around a lot. She was getting a little bored in the cage, I guess. I have no experience with hamsters, so I have no idea what they like to do. She does seem to like confined spaces. It must be a need to hide. She is also not bothered by the cat, which surprised me. Work has been busy, which is surprising for this week. Usually it's a little boring. The are a lot of issues still in my queue. Some of them are a complex, and are taking time.
Carl Stark sent me a link to a Sci-Fi story that says Arthur C. Clarke and his family are ok. I finally sent him some stuff he has been asking for.
The toll in South Asia for the tsunamis is staggering. News reports are saying this might be the largest natural disaster ever. One 11 year old girl from Utah is missing in Thailand. There were a few amateur videos posted that showed the waves. It was incredible. For me, it's hard to imagine what that was like, or what they are going though now. I feel sorry for them.
End of Entry
Monday, December 27, 2004
Stardate 58122.7 (12-27-2004)
Natural disasters tax aid and relief agencies. I wonder how good the response will be for the scope of the quake and tsunamis in Southeast Asia and India. Sri Lanka was the hardest hit from the reports I have seen. I have only heard of the island as the home of Arthur C. Clarke (2001: A Space Odyssey among many other achievement s) With the toll at 23,000 at the time I write, and likely to go higher, I wonder if he survived.
I work with a few Indians. I have not heard of anyone with family in the affected areas. I thought one of them told me his family was closer to the west.
I returned to work after having the week before Christmas off. Not much has happened, but as expected, the place is pretty much deserted. The cubes around me are all occupied, however.
End of Entry
Natural disasters tax aid and relief agencies. I wonder how good the response will be for the scope of the quake and tsunamis in Southeast Asia and India. Sri Lanka was the hardest hit from the reports I have seen. I have only heard of the island as the home of Arthur C. Clarke (2001: A Space Odyssey among many other achievement s) With the toll at 23,000 at the time I write, and likely to go higher, I wonder if he survived.
I work with a few Indians. I have not heard of anyone with family in the affected areas. I thought one of them told me his family was closer to the west.
I returned to work after having the week before Christmas off. Not much has happened, but as expected, the place is pretty much deserted. The cubes around me are all occupied, however.
End of Entry
Sunday, December 26, 2004
Christmas 2004
Stardate 58122.6 (12-26-2004)
Pretty accurate, in my opinion.
Your Christmas is Most Like: A Christmas Story
Loving, fun, and totally crazy.
Don't shoot your eye out!
What Movie is Your Christmas Like?
I hope everyone had a good Christmas. Ours was good, if a little sad. Rachel, who for almost all her life could not sleep Christmas Eve, figured out the secret behind Santa. Rumors had already been going around class. I suppose I am not ready for my little girl to be a young woman. But the choice is not up to me, and she is doing great. The bright side is that next Christmas Eve will not be so stressfull, since the boys have no problem sleeping.
Christmas Eve day we went to the Hardware Ranch near Logan to ride a wagon and see the elk. Rachel and Patrick got to sit up front with the driver, which they thought was pretty cool. Patrick was his usual animated self, asking lots of questions. Thomas initially didn't want to go, but once on the wagon, he thought it was great. We had planned to go see the lights in Ogden, but the wagon ride was cold, and everyone wanted to get warmed up.
Christmas morning the kids did not get up until 7! This has to be the latest since Rachel was a toddler. Rachel received Zodiac Girl dolls, Polly Pocket, and music CDs. The boys presents were more Imaginext castle sets, GI Joe action figures, and Poke'mon figures and cards. I followed April's advice from last year and got her some impractical gifts: perfume and the like. I got The Return of the King and TNG season 5 on DVD, and a laser level. I'm not much of a handyman, but I have learned the value of tools over the last ten years. I use the old bubble level a lot, but the laser one has hands free mode (it can stick to a wall), and it can be as long as I need.
The kids all received new personalized banks. Rachel, however, may need to open a bank account. She takes after my side of the family in the respect that she saves and saves.
I also received a few letters with the cards this year. It's good to catch up on what friends are doing, especially those that I have not talked to in a while.
The season is past the halfway point. One more birthday and a New Year's Eve party are left. If anyone wonders why I sometimes seem to disappear, it's because there are six birthdays as well as the holidays between Thanksgiving and New Years. This keeps us busy.
End of Entry
Pretty accurate, in my opinion.
Your Christmas is Most Like: A Christmas Story |
 Loving, fun, and totally crazy. Don't shoot your eye out! |
Your Christmas is Most Like: A Christmas Story
Loving, fun, and totally crazy.
Don't shoot your eye out!
What Movie is Your Christmas Like?
I hope everyone had a good Christmas. Ours was good, if a little sad. Rachel, who for almost all her life could not sleep Christmas Eve, figured out the secret behind Santa. Rumors had already been going around class. I suppose I am not ready for my little girl to be a young woman. But the choice is not up to me, and she is doing great. The bright side is that next Christmas Eve will not be so stressfull, since the boys have no problem sleeping.
Christmas Eve day we went to the Hardware Ranch near Logan to ride a wagon and see the elk. Rachel and Patrick got to sit up front with the driver, which they thought was pretty cool. Patrick was his usual animated self, asking lots of questions. Thomas initially didn't want to go, but once on the wagon, he thought it was great. We had planned to go see the lights in Ogden, but the wagon ride was cold, and everyone wanted to get warmed up.
Christmas morning the kids did not get up until 7! This has to be the latest since Rachel was a toddler. Rachel received Zodiac Girl dolls, Polly Pocket, and music CDs. The boys presents were more Imaginext castle sets, GI Joe action figures, and Poke'mon figures and cards. I followed April's advice from last year and got her some impractical gifts: perfume and the like. I got The Return of the King and TNG season 5 on DVD, and a laser level. I'm not much of a handyman, but I have learned the value of tools over the last ten years. I use the old bubble level a lot, but the laser one has hands free mode (it can stick to a wall), and it can be as long as I need.
The kids all received new personalized banks. Rachel, however, may need to open a bank account. She takes after my side of the family in the respect that she saves and saves.
I also received a few letters with the cards this year. It's good to catch up on what friends are doing, especially those that I have not talked to in a while.
The season is past the halfway point. One more birthday and a New Year's Eve party are left. If anyone wonders why I sometimes seem to disappear, it's because there are six birthdays as well as the holidays between Thanksgiving and New Years. This keeps us busy.
End of Entry
Thursday, December 23, 2004
Changes
Stardate 58122.4 (12-24-2004)
Changes, changes. I fixed a few things on the blogs page. Bruce Eckel moved his blogs, as did Ahoyhoy. I added Dani Hancock along with her RSS feed. I am a bit puzzled by LiveJournal. The blogs have an RSS feed, but there is no link or graphic to tell you. Firefox detects it, however, and I can grab the link from there.
Thomas and I watched the animated version of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas". I've probably mentioned this before, but I always liked it. I figured out a few years ago that I liked most of the cartoons that Chuck Jones had done. He always did the expressions very well.
Christmas shopping is almost done. I did a few deliveries tonight, and I have one more tomorrow.
End of Entry
Changes, changes. I fixed a few things on the blogs page. Bruce Eckel moved his blogs, as did Ahoyhoy. I added Dani Hancock along with her RSS feed. I am a bit puzzled by LiveJournal. The blogs have an RSS feed, but there is no link or graphic to tell you. Firefox detects it, however, and I can grab the link from there.
Thomas and I watched the animated version of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas". I've probably mentioned this before, but I always liked it. I figured out a few years ago that I liked most of the cartoons that Chuck Jones had done. He always did the expressions very well.
Christmas shopping is almost done. I did a few deliveries tonight, and I have one more tomorrow.
End of Entry
Wednesday, December 22, 2004
How the Grinch Stole Christmas
Stardate 58122.4 (12-24-2004)
Changes, changes. I fixed a few things on the blogs page. Bruce Eckel moved his blogs, as did Ahoyhoy. I added Dani Hancock along with her RSS feed. I am a bit puzzled by LiveJournal. The blogs have an RSS feed, but there is no link or graphic to tell you. Firefox detects it, however, and I can grab the link from there.
Thomas and I watched the animated version of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas". I've probably mentioned this before, but I always liked it. I figured out a few years ago that I liked most of the cartoons that Chuck Jones had done. He always did the expressions very well.
Christmas shopping is almost done. I did a few deliveries tonight, and I have one more tomorrow.
End of Entry
Thomas and I watched the animated version of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas". I've probably mentioned this before, but I always liked it. I figured out a few years ago that I liked most of the cartoons that Chuck Jones had done. He always did the expressions very well.
Christmas shopping is almost done. I did a few deliveries tonight, and I have one more tomorrow.
End of Entry
Amazing Race, The Polar Express Movie
Stardate 58122.2 (12-22-2004)
Kind of a strange Amazing Race. The teams did not reach a pit stop. The videos on the web site promised they would talk about it, but didn't. It was intentional, though. The team from Utah was eliminated a couple of weeks ago, and my next favorite, the pro wrestlers, are way behind.
We went to see "The Polar Express" today. It was a good movie, with some action and a nice storyline. Obviously, there was far more than the book. Tom Hanks did a great job. The animation was top of the line. I think in a short while it will be impossible to tell live actors from animated ones.
I'm still waiting in line to read "His Excellency". I am trying to decide if I really want to read the book. George Washington is one of my favorite historical figures. He is the only one who walked away from power. A comment in one blog I read complained that all sorts of books keep coming out about famous people and the dirt associated with them. Lewis Carrol was a pedophile. Others were gay, or slavers, or something else. I guess we forget they were human. I would think you don't want to know about the bad, but just try to emulate the good. Isn't that the purpose of heros? To give the rest of us a standard to reach for?
End of Entry
We went to see "The Polar Express" today. It was a good movie, with some action and a nice storyline. Obviously, there was far more than the book. Tom Hanks did a great job. The animation was top of the line. I think in a short while it will be impossible to tell live actors from animated ones.
I'm still waiting in line to read "His Excellency". I am trying to decide if I really want to read the book. George Washington is one of my favorite historical figures. He is the only one who walked away from power. A comment in one blog I read complained that all sorts of books keep coming out about famous people and the dirt associated with them. Lewis Carrol was a pedophile. Others were gay, or slavers, or something else. I guess we forget they were human. I would think you don't want to know about the bad, but just try to emulate the good. Isn't that the purpose of heros? To give the rest of us a standard to reach for?
End of Entry
Tuesday, December 21, 2004
Rachel's birthday Age 8
Stardate 58122.1 (12-21-2004)
I finished reading the the predecessor to "The DaVinci Code", "Angels and Demons". This is also a good book. So far, I have liked every book I have read written by Dan Brown. The guy sitting next to me on the plane was reading "Digital Fortress". There is one more book of his that I know about and have not read. It will have to be next on my list.
Fixed a bug in the Perl script that was generating these pages. Perl, like a lot of languages, counts the months starting with January = 0 instead of 1. I knew that, I just forgot to add one when it wrote the standard date.
End of Entry
Rachel, Thomas, and I went out last night to get Rachel's birthday present: a hamster. We bought the cage and accessories a few weeks back so that everything was ready. Rachel was excited; she has been looking forward to this for months. Events kind of conspire to work out for the good, I think. We have a cat and dog. We used to have another cat, but we had to give him away because Patrick is allergic to cat hair. The other one is old and spends most of her time sleeping. Rachel would not have been able to get the hamster if we had both cats because the male was an accomplished hunter. I've see the female try to catch mice the male brought home, but she has no clue about what to do. She took a couple of looks at the cage, but apparently she decided it's too much effort. The dog could care less.
I took Rachel and her friends to Park City to go snow tubing. It was very cold, but they loved it. I don't mind cold that much, but I was thankful I remembered to bring a cap. No gloves, but I just stuck my hands in my pockets. The cold helped the tubing, because people were zooming down the slope. I kind of understand why they require a wavier. Sometimes someone didn't quite make it to the end, and sometimes they got slammed by someone behind them. On little boy got whacked hard by his father.
I took Rachel and her friends to Park City to go snow tubing. It was very cold, but they loved it. I don't mind cold that much, but I was thankful I remembered to bring a cap. No gloves, but I just stuck my hands in my pockets. The cold helped the tubing, because people were zooming down the slope. I kind of understand why they require a wavier. Sometimes someone didn't quite make it to the end, and sometimes they got slammed by someone behind them. On little boy got whacked hard by his father.
We had cake and presents in the warming yurt. Rachel had a soccer game at 4:15, but it started to snow as we left. It took about 50 minutes to get to Park City, and about 100 to get back. She missed the game, but I think she would rather have the party anyway.
 |
| Rachel on the left, Cortnee in the black and yellow coat, right of her is Melissa Benjamen and her mother, Britnee, Audra, and Liz. |
I finished reading the the predecessor to "The DaVinci Code", "Angels and Demons". This is also a good book. So far, I have liked every book I have read written by Dan Brown. The guy sitting next to me on the plane was reading "Digital Fortress". There is one more book of his that I know about and have not read. It will have to be next on my list.
Fixed a bug in the Perl script that was generating these pages. Perl, like a lot of languages, counts the months starting with January = 0 instead of 1. I knew that, I just forgot to add one when it wrote the standard date.
End of Entry
Monday, December 20, 2004
Christmas Train
Stardate 58122.0 (12-20-2004)
In front of the engine.
 |
| Add caption |
Catching up on things, slowly but surely. We been working on some refinancing, and a person came over to our house yesterday to sign the final papers. We got a better interest rate on the loan than what we had, so the monthly payments are less. We will need to refinance again in three years, but experts say you should do that anyway.
Last Wednesday, Rachel, Thomas, and I went on the Heber Valley Railroad’s Christmas Train. April and Patrick came down with a cold, and couldn’t go. We got to the station just as the train pulled up. We’ve ridden it in the past, and my kids were always scared of the noise and steam. Thomas was fascinated this time. They served cookies and hot chocolate, sung Christmas carols, and they read “The Polar Express”. The train only goes a few miles now. Back when it was the Heber Creeper, I remember it used to go all the way to Bridal Veil Falls. My understanding is that much of that track has become unsafe, and it is too expensive to maintain it.
I personally have always loved steam engines. My grandfather worked for the Great Northern Railroad, and he was an engineer for a while. I had a model railroad as a kid. I worked for hours at a time on the track layout, electrical systems, and town. It wasn’t as good as the ones you see in the magazines, but it was mine. The hobby has dropped in popularity due to video games. On the other hand, the Internet had made far more resources available. I don’t have room in my house, and I don’t have the time, but maybe someday I’ll build one again.
End of Entry
Last Wednesday, Rachel, Thomas, and I went on the Heber Valley Railroad’s Christmas Train. April and Patrick came down with a cold, and couldn’t go. We got to the station just as the train pulled up. We’ve ridden it in the past, and my kids were always scared of the noise and steam. Thomas was fascinated this time. They served cookies and hot chocolate, sung Christmas carols, and they read “The Polar Express”. The train only goes a few miles now. Back when it was the Heber Creeper, I remember it used to go all the way to Bridal Veil Falls. My understanding is that much of that track has become unsafe, and it is too expensive to maintain it.
I personally have always loved steam engines. My grandfather worked for the Great Northern Railroad, and he was an engineer for a while. I had a model railroad as a kid. I worked for hours at a time on the track layout, electrical systems, and town. It wasn’t as good as the ones you see in the magazines, but it was mine. The hobby has dropped in popularity due to video games. On the other hand, the Internet had made far more resources available. I don’t have room in my house, and I don’t have the time, but maybe someday I’ll build one again.
End of Entry
Saturday, December 18, 2004
Java Log
Stardate 58121.8 (12-18-2004)
Reading an entry from The Bitter Villager about Java-Log, the first thought that came to mind is this is another online programming site. That was followed up by the fact that this person is not a programmer, so it could not be. Indeed, it's a fireplace log. I just found it interesting that I tend to look at the word Java, and immediately think of the language, and not coffee.
I made a few more fixes in the log entry. The return characters needed to be translated into HTML. I will need to do some other translations as well, but for now I just won't use the characters. Carl Stark wrote in his blog that he thought some people put too much effort into blogging. Since I had detailed the process I went through, I figured that one was about me. A quick email confirmed it. Not that I mind, as I have encountered that opinion before. I love to construct new things, be they programs, castles with my boys, or changes to the house. I could just blog to one of the free bloggers, but they don't do exactly what I want to do, and I have fun doing things this way.
I also discovered through Carl that some friends are now blogging, so my list of frequently read is growing.
End of Entry
I made a few more fixes in the log entry. The return characters needed to be translated into HTML. I will need to do some other translations as well, but for now I just won't use the characters. Carl Stark wrote in his blog that he thought some people put too much effort into blogging. Since I had detailed the process I went through, I figured that one was about me. A quick email confirmed it. Not that I mind, as I have encountered that opinion before. I love to construct new things, be they programs, castles with my boys, or changes to the house. I could just blog to one of the free bloggers, but they don't do exactly what I want to do, and I have fun doing things this way.
I also discovered through Carl that some friends are now blogging, so my list of frequently read is growing.
End of Entry
Friday, December 17, 2004
Updates
Stardate 58121.7 (12-17-2004)
During all this, I read a few blog entries about how much time some people are spending in front of the computer. It always seems ironic to me. The computer was supposed to free you, not chain you to it. I try to combat this by setting up script files to automatically take care of routine tasks. For example, as soon as I am done with a change for a program at work, the server is updated, programs are recompiled, and the tester environment is updated. I spend almost no time transfering files and compiling.
Speaking of the job, I talked to a number of people, and I will be moving to web development. I need a replacement, though, so if you have C programming experience, UNIX experience, Oracle SQL experience, and Visual Studio experience, there is a job opening. I am involved in the hiring process, so I don't think I am eligible for the referral fee.
April went to Anahiem last week to train on an instrument. The end of the week was our tenth wedding anniversary. So she arranged for someone to take the kids, and I flew down on Friday. There was no agenda, we did whatever came to mind, and we slept in. It was great.
End of Entry
Apologies for the long time between entries. Pressure from work and holiday events have conspired to eat away all my time. I have, however, made some progress. The web based log entry system is up and running (except for updating the RSS feed, but I am close on that). The Welcome page has been redone, although there is no visible difference. The change is that the recent list of updates and the Updates page come from the same source, which frees me from having to move stuff from page to page. The log entry page will add itself to the list on the Welcome page. It adds the font and style sheet markers automatically. There remains quite a bit I could do, and I will, but at least I have the basic stuff in.
Speaking of the job, I talked to a number of people, and I will be moving to web development. I need a replacement, though, so if you have C programming experience, UNIX experience, Oracle SQL experience, and Visual Studio experience, there is a job opening. I am involved in the hiring process, so I don't think I am eligible for the referral fee.
April went to Anahiem last week to train on an instrument. The end of the week was our tenth wedding anniversary. So she arranged for someone to take the kids, and I flew down on Friday. There was no agenda, we did whatever came to mind, and we slept in. It was great.
End of Entry
Sunday, November 28, 2004
Busy Time
Stardate 58112.8 (11-28-2004)
Another issue with this is that I could only update from my desktop. When I get home from work, more and more often I don't want to head to the basement and get back on the computer. I do have some free time at work, so doing log entries from the web makes more sense. I am still working on this one.
Next, I installed Firefox. I like the tabs, especially the fact I can set the Home page to multiple tabs. It also has RSS integrated. The problem here is that it does not recognize mine. I am still working on why. This has slowed the web based log entry, since I want that page to update the feed for each new entry. Perl has a module to build RSS files. I have all the old entries converted. I have not yet abandoned IE, because there are a couple of areas where Firefox does not work yet. The Real video segments on the Amazing Race pages are one. It won't let me select anything but the pre-race interviews.
Another reason is that I have been sick on and off for the last few weeks. Nothing much, just a stuffy head or sore throat. It does exhaust me, though.
Yet another reason is that work has been busy. We have a few new clients, so that means some custom work to do. Because of this, the number of issues is at an all time high. Last Monday was reorganization again. The guy who was assisting me is now my boss. I don't mind that. I didn't go for the job, because it would be in conflict with my goal of putting my family first. The last guy who had it described it as going to one meeting and getting beat up about one issue, then going to the next to get beat up about something else. When I am put under that type of stress I tend to get short with my wife and kids, and regret it. I do wonder, however, if this is the right thing to do. You're supposed to climb the corporate ladder, right? I read a long time ago that software developers who did not were eventually left behind by new technology and younger employees. That does worry me.
The reorg did upset me. I had a number of conversations with the last guy about doing web work, and he kept telling me everyone on the team would get to do it. The reorg split the web developers into their own group, so my chances of doing anything with the web are zero. I did go to the head of the group to ask to be considered for any open positions. It's worth a shot.
Today I am 40 years old. I had thought about doing a bit about things I have learned, or some sort of retrospective. The past, however, is done. I see no point in rehashing it. The flaws I see in myself in years past are still there. I don't see making any changes that would cure them. I don't have a desire for a two seat sports car, or quitting my job and taking off to the tropics, or any other dramatic change. I am the same as I was.
Which, to be honest with myself, is where I have always wanted to be.
End of Entry
Yeah, yeah. It's been exactly twenty days since the last entry. There have been a number of reasons. The first is that I decided the process has become complex and time consuming, so I am changing it. From the user point of view nothing will change. The way it used to work is that I would type an entry, update the welcome page, update the menu to refer to the new entry, update the RSS feed, and possibly update the Updates page. Each new entry requires cutting and pasting of formatting code. I did fix the need to update the menu. The problem was that it didn't like not having a file name passed to it, because I was initializing a variable to an empty string instead of undefined. Then I changed the script to sort the list of entries from lowest to highest, and if a specific file is not passed to the script, it loads the last one from the list. (Using a stardate as the name helps with sorting, as standard date formats require more complex sort algorithms.) Now there is no need to update the menu unless I add an item to it. The welcome page is a little more complicated, since there are a few elements mixed in that get changed. The plan is to put a PHP script in it, which will read from the updates file, and grab the first ten items. The favorites list is also a trick, but I also have an idea about how to get it working.
Next, I installed Firefox. I like the tabs, especially the fact I can set the Home page to multiple tabs. It also has RSS integrated. The problem here is that it does not recognize mine. I am still working on why. This has slowed the web based log entry, since I want that page to update the feed for each new entry. Perl has a module to build RSS files. I have all the old entries converted. I have not yet abandoned IE, because there are a couple of areas where Firefox does not work yet. The Real video segments on the Amazing Race pages are one. It won't let me select anything but the pre-race interviews.
Another reason is that I have been sick on and off for the last few weeks. Nothing much, just a stuffy head or sore throat. It does exhaust me, though.
Yet another reason is that work has been busy. We have a few new clients, so that means some custom work to do. Because of this, the number of issues is at an all time high. Last Monday was reorganization again. The guy who was assisting me is now my boss. I don't mind that. I didn't go for the job, because it would be in conflict with my goal of putting my family first. The last guy who had it described it as going to one meeting and getting beat up about one issue, then going to the next to get beat up about something else. When I am put under that type of stress I tend to get short with my wife and kids, and regret it. I do wonder, however, if this is the right thing to do. You're supposed to climb the corporate ladder, right? I read a long time ago that software developers who did not were eventually left behind by new technology and younger employees. That does worry me.
The reorg did upset me. I had a number of conversations with the last guy about doing web work, and he kept telling me everyone on the team would get to do it. The reorg split the web developers into their own group, so my chances of doing anything with the web are zero. I did go to the head of the group to ask to be considered for any open positions. It's worth a shot.
Today I am 40 years old. I had thought about doing a bit about things I have learned, or some sort of retrospective. The past, however, is done. I see no point in rehashing it. The flaws I see in myself in years past are still there. I don't see making any changes that would cure them. I don't have a desire for a two seat sports car, or quitting my job and taking off to the tropics, or any other dramatic change. I am the same as I was.
Which, to be honest with myself, is where I have always wanted to be.
End of Entry
Tuesday, November 09, 2004
Visual Studio Express, The Incredibles
Stardate 58110.8 (11-08-2004)
Being able to program a computer has advantages. I have been entering data into a database for some research I am doing. In the last three weeks, I managed to get a quarter of the way through gathering it off the web. I decided this was taking much too long, so I put a webbot together to grab the pages I needed. This took all of fifteen minutes. Another two hours was needed to find the common elements of the data I wanted, and have the bot sift for them. In less than 10 minutes it had gathered the other three quarters of the info, and updated the database. The effort was quick and dirty, and could have been done better (using regular expressions to do the parsing, and automatic updating of the pages to retrieve are a couple of things that come to mind). However, it saved a lot of time and effort in entering the data by hand.
This was my first serious foray with Visual Studio C# Express. The environment is not bad, but I am annoyed that the key mappings for things like compiling and going to errors are different from the C++ edition. I also tried to have it generate the database update statements, which it claimed it did, but I could not find where it put them. It’s a beta product, so I am not sure if this is a bug, or just ignorance on my part. I am thinking the latter.
The family went to see The Incredibles Friday. It was an ok movie; something of a mix of James Bond, the movies where the guy is looking everywhere but his family for fulfillment (sorry, can’t think of any titles), and various superhero movies. Pixar was of course impressive with the animation. Some of the social commentary was unusual for animated films (“When everybody is special, no one will be”). I found myself wondering when it would be over, so it was not that compelling. The kids loved it.
The string of daily entries came to an end Friday as well. There are just too many other things going on to keep it up.
End of Entry
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)