The General Mish Mash

Insomnia and blogging

2008-12-29T03:40:00.003-07:00

It's been a really long time since I've blogged. Blog is a weird word, no doubt about it.

I wonder if it's been so long because I'm busier, or less self interested, or sleeping more consistently. I'm sorry for the non-existent online stalkers I have, because I've been terribly boring. I don't update pictures, post much on MySpace or Facebook or LinkedIn or here.

Plenty of interesting things have happened, I just haven't made an effort to keep this thing up to date. For example, there was all the election craziness, which seems to have resulted in a small resurgence of hope in America. We are desperately in need of hope, and our economy and energy situation needs to change drastically.

Let's see, other interesting things that have happened: took the girlfriend on a glider flight for her first time ever a few months back. She screamed a lot, but seemed to thoroughly enjoy it.

A few months later, we went to a friend's wedding in Michigan the day after my girlfriend's last day as a teacher, and then found out the company I worked for had been bought out by a larger competitor. I was one of about 1/3rd of the employees that were immediately terminated. Shortly after that, her grandfather died and I went to NJ with her family for a week of hanging out with her family up there and memorial services.

I got a new job and am learning lots of cool technologies that most people won't know about: magnetic stripe readers, point of sale hardware/software, ASP.NET, LINQ, XML, SOAP, and AJAX. I'm optimistic this broadening of my skillset will make finding jobs far easier in the future... looks like this internet thing is here to stay. ;)

Other randomness: my house is worth about 100k less than what I owe, according to Zillow. Crap. I have a laptop, that's cool. The one major thing my phone is missing is GPS. That would make it almost 100% awesome. My office was actually clean for a few days. My garage is now clean. I have an awesome dog, his name is Murphy. I have no idea what I will be doing for work in two months... hopefully I'll be working on a credit card processing project.

I haven't played soccer since November 1st and I thought I injured my knee that game. Luckily, it turned out to be insanely tight muscles around the knee which have since relaxed a bit. I'm really looking forward to snowboarding, and I'm hungry right this second. I'm going to go try to relax for the couple hours that are left until I have to get ready for work. (I told her that going to bed so early was a bad idea!)

Farmers' Almanac from Quotes of the Day "To err is human, but to really foul things up requires a computer."

2008-04-16T20:09:00.003-07:00

So, it's been approximately forever since I wrote anything in here. I'll do a quick recap of what's happened since I last wrote in here 6 months and 13 days ago.

I've been thoroughly enjoying my new job. I work mainly with C#, and occasionally with SQL, XML, and C++, in that order. I feel like I picked everything with the project up faster than I expected, which was nice and surprising. I also got the opportunity to attend the Microsoft 2008 product launch event in Phoenix. I learned about some cool features in the Visual Studio Team Suite Development Edition, like code metrics, and how exactly to design WPF, as well as some inspiring examples of LINQ usage. I really like the idea of code metrics; a nice easy way to evaluate how comprehensible a method or class is.

I've been to Colorado a few times since I wrote in here last. I went snowboarding in Vail for a week. That was awesome, and also the first time I've ever seen anybody with frostbite. I didn't get any frostbite because, as much as I love snow, I like staying warm more, so I always had a facemask on when it was 20 below. I also went a couple weeks ago to visit Jenny and Dave and their new baby in Loveland. I even managed to sneak in a day of snowboarding. I'm getting a lot better, especially at the small jumps. It was a good time, and a much needed break.

On the less exciting side of things, I've been taking care of the house. Broken things are stressful and expensive, and I wish it just wouldn't happen.

I got a bunch of money back from the government, so I need to adjust my deductions upward somehow.

I haven't played any soccer lately, and that's a bummer. I'm hoping to get a lot of time in at the pool in my backyard, and hopefully go wakeboarding at least 5 or 6 times this summer.

My girlfriend and I have joined a rock gym and love climbing like monkeys. I need to get my own harness so I don't have to borrow my new roommate's gear all the time.

I'm kind of toying around with the idea of renting out the place I live in and buying another house, but I haven't really run the numbers and seen if I could do it comfortably. House prices have dropped so much and rent hasn't as far as I know, so it could be a good opportunity.

I doubt it will be another 6 months before the next post, but you never know. If you've got questions, post them, or email me. Hope everything's going well for you.

Randy Pausch

2007-10-03T22:50:00.000-07:00

The Video

Randy Pausch's Homepage

So, I just spent an hour and 44 minutes watching the video linked to above. I could have been productive with that time by cleaning my office, the rest of the house, dealing with laundry or getting into bed at a reasonable hour.

However, I believe that watching the video was a much better use of my time. I highly recommend you watch it as well.

26 on the 26, retirement, etc

2007-09-26T07:31:00.000-07:00

Today, September 26th is my 26th birthday. For my birthday, I decided to get myself a nice improvement in quality of life, so I got a new job (promotion) with a nice raise and a shorter commute. Today is my last day of work at the old job.

Tomorrow, I leave for Colorado to visit friends from high school, and then Tuesday I start my new job. Sweet!

Who Runs the Human Body?

2007-06-14T20:51:00.000-07:00

In the human body, which organ is in charge?

All the organs of the body were having a meeting, trying to decide who was in charge.

The brain said: "I should be in charge, because I run all the body's systems, so without me nothing would happen."

"I should be in charge," said the heart, "because I pump the blood and circulate oxygen all over the body, so without me you'd all waste away."

"I should be in charge," said the stomach, "because I process food and give all of you energy."

"I should be in charge," said the rectum, "because I'm responsible for waste removal."

All the other body parts laughed at the rectum and insulted him, so in a huff, he shut down tight. Within a few days, the brain had a terrible headache, the stomach was bloated, and the blood was toxic. Eventually the other organs gave in. They all agreed that the rectum should be the boss.

The moral of the story?

You don't have to be smart or important to be in charge... just an *sshole.

On privacy:

2007-05-23T06:14:00.000-07:00

Let me tell you a story
(Score:5, Insightful)
by Moraelin (679338) on Wednesday May 23, @06:00AM (#19233759)
(Last Journal: Monday June 21, @05:25PM)
Let me tell you a story. An "in Soviet Russia" kind of story. A true one at that. The story of how the state kept all those people in line and not fighting oppression.

Short story: lack of privacy. And literally FUD. Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt over what they'll do about your words and deeds.

The side of the story everyone knows is the KGB and GULAG part. Those are true, and were especially true in Stalin's times. But then it evolved into something that worked cheaper and better: thinking that Big Brother knows everything you do. So people started to avoid doing or saying anything that could bite them in the ass.

The illusion was that the secret police has dossiers (the dead tree kind) on anyone and everyone, and that it _will_ come back to bite you in the ass sooner or later.

Even if you realized that in such a low tech setting they can't know _everything_, you didn't know exactly _what_ they know, and exactly _what_ and _when_ they'll use it against you. Maybe they'll do nothing. Maybe they'll send you to Siberia. Maybe you just won't be allowed to travel abroad any more. Maybe your kid won't ever get a high paying job because his dumbass father got drunk once and complained about the party.

Worse yet, this naturally killed support for any dissidents. If comrade Piotr speaks against the party, egads, you don't want it on your dossier that you sat, listened and nodded. Do you really know if Piotr isn't an agent provocateur? Or if he's just a dumbass, who else in your circle of friends will run to tell the authorities about that talk? Better avoid Piotr entirely from now on. Better safe than sorry.

_That_ is what privacy is supposed to help against.

And that is what "privacy is just a religion" and "if you're not doing anything wrong, you have nothing to fear" lemmings just don't get. Sometime, at some point, it may become _necessary_ to do something "wrong" to just freakin' keep your _other_ liberties. If you gave up privacy, then you might as well give up everything else, because you won't have any means left to defend them. If it ever becomes necessary to resist the government, lack of privacy means you'll never get more than 1-2 disidents which are quickly removed or isolated. As soon as someone does speak out, everyone else just makes themselves scarce, if they think the government will know where they are.

If everyone's life was public, the USA still would be a British colony, because everyone would be affraid to even be seen anywhere around those Jefferson and Hancock guys. India would still be a British colony too, because people would be affraid to be seen anywhere near that Gandhi guy. Etc.

A month plus...

2007-04-29T13:32:00.000-07:00

So, I haven't been writing very much in here. Life's a little insanely busy recently.

In the past month and 5 days, I've been to Tucson, Green Valley, and all over Phoenix.

I've jumped out of a perfectly good airplane over 11,500 feet above Marana.

I've had the mufflers replaced on my car. It sounds so much better than it did even before the old mufflers had problems.

I celebrated Alejandra's 25th Birthday and cracked up quite a bit. It's definitely strange to be in the minority as a straight male, but her friends are cool anyway. I've lost a roommate.

I've mowed the lawn, gotten a flat tire that needs to be fixed, and installed a ceiling fan.

I've troubleshot Windows Vista's little issues. I've bought $6,000 of furniture. I've played in my pool for the first time ever.

I've ridden in the backseat of a Ford Escape. They're surprisingly large back there. I've hung out with Nascar fans.

I've bought a new 22" monitor. I've changed the majority of my checking activities over to ING because they pay 4% interest and my paychecks are available the second they are deposited.

I've dedicated my old roommate's room to a massage room. I have completely taken over the room my home office is in. I've started using Google Calendar and Google Docs. They're helpful.

And now, I've written a random posting with a big block of text that nobody would actually read through. And now I've at least made small blocks.

I also attended a Business Writing Class during working hours. I learned that you should always be friendly, and always, always put what you want people to do and when as the very first thing. You can explain the details later.

This makes a lot of sense, even though a lot of technical people, myself included, tend to want to explain why first. If they trust you, or they're those really busy important people, they're not even going to really want to know all the details most of the time anyway.

Let's see... more random stuff... I also ran a couple miles yesterday and totally ditched my girlfriend. That was fun. I've watered roses, weeded, used the weed wacker and organized a lot. I've discovered a hard drive I forgot I had.

Unfortunately, I do have to do some more of that organization stuff. I still have to clean up the massage room where I installed the new ceiling fan, organize my office, clean a lot of crap out of my car, etc etc.

Well, that's what's going on. I'm sure I'll have some pictures and the video up of my skydiving at some point somewhere. Maybe later this week. Ok, time to go to work. Later yall.

Crazy cool

2007-03-24T07:53:00.000-07:00

This is an example of something I will never do.
It's also awesome.

Darwin on God

2007-03-04T21:16:00.001-07:00

I haven't had a chance to read the whole NYT article, but it looks like a good read for anybody interested in religion.

American Ingenuity

2007-02-10T10:06:00.000-07:00

Snowboarding

2007-01-28T10:27:00.000-07:00

So far this year I've spent nine days snowboarding. I've been to Telluride, CO, Whistler, B.C. and Snowbowl in Flagstaff, AZ.

Whistler was by far the best. I got to hang out with a lot of friends from Seattle and college. The snow was amazing... snowboarding in fresh powder is such a blast. And it was beautiful when we weren't in the middle of clouds.

Telluride was good too. The mountains are amazing and a lot of the runs are much steeper than the other places, so it's a good chance to push yourself and really learn a lot. Unfortunately, we don't have the best luck when it comes to getting snow in Telluride, but there was a pretty good amount on the ground when we got there.

Snowbowl... is the best resort in Arizona. Arizona doesn't have much snow the majority of the time. Snowbowl has only 4 lifts, and only one of them is worth riding if you're any good at all. Surprisingly, there was enough snow that I didn't complete shred my board. It was quite scary driving up and seeing all that dirt on the mountain... luckily the resort is on the shady side and they had considerably more snow. Another surprising thing is that the lines weren't completely abominable. I think I waited 5 minutes in line, at most.

I am addicted to snowboarding. I just might have to go to Whistler again this season. Either that or Mammoth, or Big Bear, or...

I wonder how good I'll be next year. I think I should be able to do some pretty decent jumps by then. I might have to get a new, lighter board though. (See, addicted, I told you.)

An Elephant Crackup

2007-01-07T15:44:00.000-07:00

An Elephant Crackup is an interesting article I read a ways back in the New York Times. If you have any thoughts after reading this story, feel free to comment here.

Personally, I thought there were a lot of parallels between the problems elephants are having and the problems people have when families are destroyed.

Xrez

2006-12-27T18:01:00.000-07:00

These pictures are awesome.

How long until I can fit a camera that takes those kind of pictures in my pocket?? How much longer until it's image stabilization is good enough that I don't need to put it on a tripod to get that clarity? How long until I can afford it?

I'm thinking I've got a while left. Bummer.

Blogs...

2006-12-26T21:08:00.000-07:00

Blogs aren't dead. It just feels like it sometimes. (Especially if you happen to read mine on occasion.)

It's been almost 3 weeks since I updated mine. Those past three weeks have seen higher than usual levels of stress, and higher than usual levels of rewards/opportunities.

Gotta love how those things go together.

I'm still waiting to see what my mom got me for Christmas. I honestly have no clue.

I ended up going to three different houses for significant chunks of time this Christmas. It's good to get presents from more than one house, but it's quite difficult to buy gifts for more than three people. It's especially difficult when you don't hang out very much with the majority of those people very much. I'm in the situation of vaguely knowing where their interests lie, but not knowing how much of the equipment necessary to pursue those interests they possess. And of course, they could be incredibly picky individuals like myself, which would make them nearly impossible to shop for.

In other news... the business I wanted to start in February has taken off already. However, you must strike while the iron is hot. (This is especially true when it comes to buying houses or starting businesses, I think.) I love how you must make snap decisions on the most important aspects of life.

All in all, I feel very fortunate today. Despite the extra stress, there are a lot of good people in my life, and most of them seem to like me as well.

Hope all is well for you strangers out there. Remember to breathe.

Winners and losers

2006-12-06T20:57:00.000-07:00

People who don't step outside of their box are losers. I think it's hugely important to try new things. Otherwise, how are you supposed to know what you like and what you're capable of?

Plumbing problems in my house are losers so far. (I win!) I'm really glad I had the confidence to tackle the couple issues that have come up so far. No failures yet, and I've probably saved myself at least $500.

That's part of what's been keeping me busy. I also watched my old high school's football team do some serious winning during their first state football championship game. It was awesome to see them play at the Arizona Cardinals' stadium. Our seats were two rows from the field, right around the forty yard line. It was more fun to watch than pro ball because my brother actually knew all the players personally... and they do crazy things that NFL players don't usually do. For example, they basically only used one receiver and one rusher. They had the quarterback smash through the defensive line when we just needed a couple of yards for a first down or a touch down. And our receiver was an absolute GIANT compared to the defender assigned to him. It was funny watching him aim straight for the defender and plowing him over after he caught the ball. It was awesome. Playing at that stadium, live on tv, in front of a crowd of 10,000+ was a great way to win that last game of the perfect season.

Hope your cold season is starting well and you get to play in snow soon if you like that sort of thing!

House and Visual Studio 2005

2006-11-22T06:49:00.000-07:00

House and Visual Studio 2005 both go in the cool things category in my book.

House is very interesting to me. I like the writers' style and all the medical minutiae they throw in helps draw me in more. Yes, I'm a nerd. And the dichotomy between how it looks like House is really just a complete jerk and how he takes such excellent care of his patients, no matter what is fascinating as well.

Visual Studio 2005 is pretty sweet, especially when you compare it to 2003. I like being able to pause what I'm running and change the code without restarting it. There are plenty of other good features, but that one alone is HUGE!

Olympic Bloopers - stolen from Matt

2006-11-15T21:41:00.000-07:00

Here are the top nine comments made by NBC sports commentators during the [2004] Summer Olympics that they would like to take back

1. Weightlifting commentator: "This is Gregoriava from Bulgaria. I saw her snatch this morning during her warm up and it was amazing."

2. Dressage commentator: "This is really a lovely horse and I speak from personal experience since I once mounted her mother."

3. Paul Hamm, Gymnast: "I owe a lot to my parents, especially my mother and father."

4. Boxing Analyst: "Sure there have been injuries,and even some deaths in boxing, but none of them really that serious."

5. Softball announcer: "If history repeats itself, I should think we can expect the same thing again."

6. Basketball analyst: "He dribbles a lot and the opposition doesn't like it. In fact you can see it all over their faces."

7. At the rowing medal ceremony: "Ah, isn't that nice, the wife of the IOC president is hugging the cox of the British crew."

8. Soccer commentator: "Julian Dicks is everywhere. It's like they've got eleven Dicks on the field."

9. Tennis commentator: "One of the reasons Andy is playing so well is that, before the final round, his wife takes out his balls and kisses them . . . Oh my God, what have I just said?"

(The above was blatantly stolen from the profile of Matt S, a friend I lost contact with 10 years ago.)

I can see!!

2006-11-13T06:51:00.000-07:00

After 17 years of depending on glasses to see well enough to do pretty much anything, a five minute surgical procedure has rid me of that dependency.

It's pretty damn sweet.

Damn disease!

2006-11-06T21:10:00.000-07:00

Being sick is pretty miserable, and I'm not even that sick. Nothing makes appreciating good health easier than not having it.

Stupid sickness prevented me from getting the surgery done last Friday as I had planned. And then there's the misery of having my sinuses full of nasty stuff, trying to push my brain (and ego) right out of my skull.

Oh well, I think I'm most of the way over this dread disease. Hopefully this Friday will be the last day I wear glasses!

Moving in! (and surgery...)

2006-11-01T18:36:00.000-07:00

I'm most of the way moved in to my new house! I've got bedrooms all set up and the kitchen is 100% as well. Next on the agenda is conquering the office, the backyard, and the living room.

Pictures will probably be coming in a week or two.

Oh, and I'm getting LASIK done this Friday afternoon as well.

Life's busy... and particularly expensive at the moment. Hope all is good and interesting for you!

Slaughter of Unarmed Travelers

2006-10-25T23:34:00.000-07:00

I hate to hear about these things, but I hate even more to think that these atrocities will probably continue forever if nobody does anything. And to do something about it, as many people as possible should know about it.

Cool things

2006-10-17T18:28:00.000-07:00

5% cash back on groceries and gas (my biggest monthly expenses up until now)
16.5% return on my 401k annualized for this year

Google earth (especially with the 3d buildings enabled)

PostSecret

White and nerdy

Being really interested in what I'm doing at work and actually using a bit of my education is pretty cool as well.

Maybe I'll manage to continue steering that work thing towards the kind of stuff I enjoy doing. That would rock.

It's amazing how quickly and slowly time goes on, all at the same time.

Security

2006-10-12T20:35:00.000-07:00

Security is a pretty gigantic topic. After playing with ASP.net, SQL, Windows user security, local and group policy, user impersonation and a few other types of security related topics in the past week or two, I have truly come to appreciate what a pain it is, as things are now.

That said, the way things are now is a tad ridiculous. Maybe I just need the right book..

If there were 100 people

2006-10-03T20:06:00.001-07:00

http://www.miniature-earth.com/

241

2006-10-02T20:49:00.000-07:00

This is post 241. I am spending a lot of money these days. It's odd. (New video card, cable modem, router (well, I'm thinking pretty hard about it), new house, new car(again, thinking about it)...)

Last week I had a training class in C# and basic HTML and CSS. I was already fairly dangerous in C#... and I used to do web design work in the late 90s. (It was pretty terrible, but that is neither here nor there.)

I love the new editing environments. Everything is so much easier than it used to be, back in my day when I had to walk uphill to school in the snow, both ways, barefoot. haha

It's much nicer to be paid to go to school than to pay your own way. I find that I am tempted to use "haha" to end paragraphs. I'm just weird that way I guess.

I'm very busy at work but not stressed. There are a lot of big changes there coming up as well. It'll be interesting. I look forward to more of the mundane tasks that my group currently has to do being transferred to IT.

I've had so much on my mind that I've been having trouble falling asleep, or I've woken up too early. This is very annoying, and could probably be avoided by getting more exercise... but I've had to use a lot of the time I normally used for that for house related chores.

Well, the good news is that I might have finally written myself to sleep. Maybe I should make this more of a habit again.

25!

2006-09-26T07:35:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that today is my 25th birthday!

Mythbusters

2006-09-10T17:00:00.000-07:00

Mythbusters is the coolest TV show I've seen. I am incredibly jealous of the people who work on that show.

They blow stuff up all day long and get paid for it!

It's very nice to have a day to just chill out and watch Mythbusters while playing dominoes on Yahoo.

I never did get the hang of Thursdays...

2006-08-31T21:50:00.000-07:00

Today, I signed a contract on the house I loved out of the seven I looked at this weekend. It's pretty awesome. It's a corner lot with four bedrooms, 2 baths, vaulted ceilings, classy tile, a pool, a koi pond, grass and pavers in the monster backyard, a trampoline, a little garden alcove, RV/Boat parking, 2 car garage, very nice kitchen, and a perfect sized great room.

There's a lot of stuff to do when you're buying a house. I'm going to post the spreadsheet I used to compare mortgage offers. It's usually pretty easy to tell which mortgage is going to cost you more money over a set period of time, but if you're dealing with multiple loans and/or interest only and/or ARMs, it becomes more difficult. My philosophy with this has been that I want the mortgage that reduces equity the most per payment.

I can afford to do this because I'm making pretty good money and I will have at least one roommate. Hopefully, once I have another person or two contributing, I'll be able to make extra payments to make an even bigger dent on the equity for the more expensive loan.

I'm really, really excited! It's going to be awesome to have my own space. And having a consistent base of operations that's closer to work is going to give me more time too. And hopefully the value of the house will continue along a trajectory similar to the one it has followed the last seven years, and it will be worth well over a half million in a few years.

Not a bad present to give yourself to commemorate the quarter century mark.

The answer

2006-08-29T18:06:00.001-07:00

Time is the most important thing in the world.

(Note: this is my opinion, not a statement of fact.)

The most important thing ever!

2006-08-21T19:59:00.000-07:00

What is the most important thing ever?

Starting the house search

2006-08-14T20:21:00.000-07:00

There are a lot of awesome houses out there. There are even a couple that look like places I want to live that I might be able to afford on my current salary.

Of course, my income should continue to increase pretty significantly in the next few years, which will just make me want an even nicer place. And a shiny new car. And vacations in some of those highly desirable places: Yellowstone, Hawaii, Alaska, Michigan, Italy, and Colorado come to mind.

Well, I haven't even been checking to see who visits this thing lately. Not that I don't care what you think... I'm just busier than I'm used to. I'll rebalance and work this and some of the other things I haven't been doing lately back into my schedule soon after I get this house thing straightened out.

Have a good one, and don't be a stranger! (But feel free to stay strange, as long as you don't hurt people or animals I might like.)

ahhh

2006-08-10T21:39:00.000-07:00

Finally, some chill time.

I feel like I need a vacation again.

Holy Moly

2006-08-02T19:07:00.000-07:00

So, it's been a long time since I've sat down and written something.

I've been busy. I'm starting to look for houses. That's a bit of a time eater. I've been insanely busy at work. We had a major software release on Monday, and it seems to be going very well so far

I finally got around to installing a spiffy new hard drive. Of course, just installing a new hard drive wasn't enough for me. No, I had to install a clean copy of Windows XP Pro and transfer all the info off my now archaic 120 GB IBM Deskstar. (It still works pretty well, amazingly enough.)

And then I thought I'd lost my checkbook. Of course the day after I put a hold on the account, I find the checkbook, exactly where I'd originally thought it had been. Damn that Murphy anyway! Of course, it just got more complicated from there. I discovered the bank had put a hard inquiry onto my credit report, which is retarded. It's retarded because I've been a good customer there for 8 years and I already had all the features they were approving me for on my existing account. I think I'll have to try to push again to get the hard inquiry changed to a soft... that way my credit score won't be affected the way it is.

My desk is a mess. I'll write again sometime after I've cleaned it. Adios!

Slackernerny

2006-07-24T17:51:00.000-07:00

I like that word. I particularly like the root of the word: slack, defined by wikipedia as follows:

The term slacker, in contemporary western culture, applies generally to young people who underachieve at school, work or both.

I unfortunately, have been a slacker when it comes to updating this meandering blog of mine. Lately, I've been feeling a bit too much like Alice and ignoring my natural Wally tendencies. This does not always make me happy.

Spaghetti does make me happy though. And so does reading funny books. I might have to go do both. Later.

Cancun Pictures!

2006-07-15T14:19:00.000-07:00

Who is the bomb digity.... and Mexican time.

2006-07-14T18:09:00.000-07:00

I have a retarded boyfriend named Aeren (ps this is his awesome girlfriend)! He thinks he is the coolest cat around but I have told him more than once that I am the only bomb digity there is!! So there!!!
----------------------------------------
And now you have a little idea of what I have to put up with. ;-) As you can tell, it's pretty hard to take.

Anyway, I was just writing a little bit. The video and pictures from Mexico are coming in Mexican time. (I finally have the DVD in my hot little hands.)

Tomorrow. Seriously. Later dudes.

Coming soon...!

2006-07-05T20:32:00.000-07:00

Scandalous Cancun video and pictures!!

Vacation! Cancún 2006!

2006-06-25T11:54:00.000-07:00

I'll be in Cancún, Mexico from Monday June 26th until July 3rd.

I'm thinking it will be pretty awesome, but I'll be sure to let you know one way or another. There should be some pictures coming as well. I've got a new Picasa web account I'd like to try out... and I've also got a boatload of my own personal internet space that needs using.

I hope you all are having a good summer. (And yes, I do mean all three of you who might happen to read this while I'm gone.) You are invited to leave a comment with some of your summer plans or things you'd be interested in doing this summer. (I'm always glad to hear about good places to go, good things to eat, music, movies, books, cars to test drive, etc.)

Could a Low-Carb Diet Slow Alzheimer's?

2006-06-23T20:57:00.000-07:00

Sadly, there is yet more evidence that cookies, crackers, and bread really aren't that good for you.

Luckily for me, I'm kind of sick of eating in general. I haven't tasted much of anything that seemed new in quite some time. And that makes me want to eat less. (Which is just fine... the low calorie diet seems to be pretty good for your body, once you're done with your vertical growth.)

Mish Mashed Bits of Wisdom

2006-06-20T21:12:00.000-07:00

"Never assume the obvious is true."
--William Safire

"If you believe everything you read, you better not read."
--Japanese proverb

"Great things are done by a series of small things brought together."
--Vincent van Gogh

Thoughts on Marriage (and Money)

2006-06-10T01:21:00.000-07:00

First, I want to make it clear that I don't have any desire to get married soon. Please, comment if you have any thoughts on the matter. I want to finalize my opinions somewhat, and if you think of some good points I haven't addressed yet or disagree with what I have stated, let me know.

That said, I am starting to understand what I want my marriage to be, should such a thing come to pass.

Marriage should be a partnership. That means that both people should be responsible adults. To me, being a responsible adult means handling all the little crap that needs doing without needing to be reminded of it or getting bent out of shape about it.

Here are some things that I think fall under the category of responsibility.
1. Wearing your seatbelt
2. Flossing
3. Paying your bills
4. Restraint when eating
5. Diligence regarding exercise
6. Attempts to empathize with others... especially regarding relative values of time or money

Of course, this is only a partial list.

Regarding the whole money issue, I feel very strongly that both parties should maintain separate accounts. I also feel that there should be a combined account that handles things that benefit the family significantly. For example, mortgage payments, insurance, family vacations, groceries, child care and utilities should be paid from this account.

In the simplest form, each person would contribute nearly equally into this pot. However, if one party makes significantly more than the other, the party that makes more should probably contribute a larger share into the pot. Hopefully this practice will minimize disparities in disposable income.

If relative equity in disposable income is one of the goals, why not just have a single account with all the money in it?

One of the partners may spend more than their fair share. If this were to happen, there would certainly be much rending of garments and gnashing of teeth. (Well, hopefully not, but I can certainly see how that could increase the stress level.)
Having separate accounts seems likely to encourage more responsible spending than having one big bucket of money.
Fewer communication issues. For example, if somebody wants to surprise their partner with an expensive gift, it could be tricky to time it so that they don't find out about it and/or there is enough money in the big bucket.
Convenience: Sometimes independence is a good thing. I don't want to spend $150 on hair and makeup for my partner. Personally, I don't spend much money on anything clothing or appearance related. I don't buy new clothes every season... I think I've gone a year or two without buying anything but some socks and underwear. Hell, I don't even buy that much for my computer or car (and these are two of my favorite ways to spend money, as long as it's voluntary.) I could also purchase a lot of super cool power tools, guns, flashlights and licensing tests, but I don't. In the event that I do decide to spend some of my money that way, I should not need to discuss it with you first. And the street definitely goes both ways.

I don't know if you've noticed, but I am very independent. I am unwilling to completely compromise my independence and have no desire to be with someone who is completely dependent on me.

I'm sorry this wasn't better written. Unfortunately, I am both tired and out of practice. Well, I'm off to sleep to handle the first problem. I think I might start taking a few minutes at work and hand writing my blog posts. Then I have only to type and post in order to share some thoughts and stories... and hopefully they will improve with a bit of practice.

bleeding from the ear

2006-06-05T22:47:00.000-07:00

I went to Apache Lake for the first time this weekend.

It was awesome. Of course, your results may vary, and are in no way guaranteed.

Take, for example, one of the guys who went on the trip. He wiped out pretty hard riding the Rage'n Cobra, a kite shaped instrument of death and destruction.

It started out as fun and games. He was getting flung across the lake behind my friend's boat, holding on quite admirably. The next minute, he decided it would be even more fun to kneel on the Rage'n Cobra. He ended up flipping over while still holding onto the handles. He hit the water at somewhere around 30 miles an hour with his temple at roughly a 45 degree angle. It was gruesome.

Then he got into the boat. He couldn't hear out of one ear and just wanted to lay down. A short time later, he had some yellowish-greenish stuff leaking out of his right ear... followed by blood.

It seems extremely likely that he burst his tympanic membrane. While he is definitely a hurting unit, it seemed likely that he would heal up without surgical intervention the last that I heard.

So, if you think you play hard... and you haven't bled from the ear, I have to disagree.

Kilimanjaro

2006-05-30T21:30:00.000-07:00

I'm thinking of climbing Kilimanjaro next August. Who else is in?

It sounds like fun, right? hehe

Followup: Mexican immigration policies

2006-05-22T22:05:00.000-07:00

The Mercury News - Mexico works to bar non-natives from jobs

Talk about your double standards.

Cosby: Blacks Should Fix Own Communities - Yahoo! News

2006-05-16T21:16:00.000-07:00

Cosby: Blacks Should Fix Own Communities - Yahoo! News

Regardless of what else Bill Cosby has done in his life, he's got some good ideas he is expressing here. Even better than just having the good ideas, he's actually doing something about it. And because he's a relatively famous person, a lot of people are paying attention.

I really hope all communities will do all that they can to heal thesmelves. In particular, I would love to see the Latin American countries turn themselves around. I love people from that part of the world. In fact, my first girlfriend was from El Salvador.

However, I have no love for the corruption in their governments. I have no love for the double standards that exist between how they say they should be treated and how they treat other people. (I'll try to find a good link for this later, if people are interested.) I have no love for the people who came over here illegally and are further disrespecting my country by breaking additional laws.

Today, I saw a car driven by someone who was almost certainly an illegal immigrant pass a woman who was driving at least the speed limit. No big deal you say. Well, there was a double stripe down the center of the road, and he crossed it, on a very steep hill in a residential area. That really pisses me off. The woman followed him to his workplace and had words with his employer. On a note that is probably related, drug paraphernalia was also found at a restroom at his employer's site today.

I consider these acts as an indication of a mindset, a mindset that does not demonstrate the proper degree of respect for themselves and those around them. By no means do I believe that all illegal immigrants have this mindset. Hell, there are plenty of citizens and legal immigrants with this mindset. But I think people who don't demonstrate the proper respect for life and law are a larger portion of the illegal population. And that's part of why this world would be a better place if our borders were more secure. And hey... maybe if they couldn't pop up here for opportunities, they could put some of that energy into fixing their countries.

There's a thought.

Proof sunscreen works

2006-05-07T18:39:00.000-07:00

I have definitive proof that Banana Boat SPF 50 sunscreen works.

I missed a spot on my left shoulder yesterday before I went wakeboarding. It's now very bright red. Whoops.

Oh, and rope burn around your ankle really sucks.

Do Some Good

2006-04-30T09:15:00.000-07:00

http://www.bikeforbj.org/ is a website by a few of my girlfriend's close friends from college. They have a big dream and a worthy goal. Check out the site.

Good idea... at first glance

2006-04-14T17:35:00.000-07:00

The article I want you to read supports an idea I don't recall hearing before: "environmental tax shifting".

I like this idea quite a bit, for a few reasons.
1. It would reduce the income tax.
2. It would almost certainly decrease the environmental impact industry has.
... to be continued.

Employers should offer healthy living bonuses. I think it's important to give an incentive for people to shape up. At the same time, it is probably counterproductive to explicitly punish them for unhealthy behavior as they probably feel quite bad enough already... and some people counteract feeling bad with unhealthy behavior. (Such as eating tons of candy or wasting hours watching tv.)

Household power generation... reselling to power companies.

... I have a lot more to say on these things. But... I don't want to go over a week without posting, so I present the very incomplete skeleton of what I want to say here.

I'd like to know what you think of what's there so far though.

Oy

2006-04-10T20:14:00.000-07:00

9 days. What a slacker I am!

Just kidding. I've been working full time. And I went to Tucson, climbed a mountain, went to the gym, bla bla bla.

I'm now a full admin on my work computer. Sweet. I <3 TextPad. If you made me choose to live the rest of my life without either beer or TextPad, I would definitely keep TextPad... even though it doesn't go as well with cheese and crackers.

Umm... let's see what else. I got paid. That was good. Very good. As I expected, I almost bought a computer today. haha. (I really think I should have... but I'll wait.) Other news: the CompUSA brand wireless router I bought is starting to have problems. It still uploads as fast as cable will let it. The download is a different story. It's somehow causing the download process to only work at 10% of its rated speed. Lame. But that's why you should buy hardware with a brand name on it, I guess. Whatever. They'll replace it or refund my money, whether they like it or not. I'm going to buy a new router tomorrow. (It's a NetGear... and only $20 AR.)

I noticed the leather on my driver's seat is getting worn. I guess that's what happens when you actually use your car. Bummer.

Time to run. Sorry for the sporadic updates of late!

Spoiledness

2006-04-01T11:30:00.000-07:00

I'm so spoiled when it comes to technology. It's not always easy, but I usually end up with really good stuff with just a little effort.

So, at work, I've gotten used to being a full administrator on pretty much everything I use. The place I work at now operates much more like a traditional corporation, in that the computers are extremely locked down. They have all kinds of filters on their firewall that block "personal" sites, streaming media, and even the download of Firefox. I'm not a fan of Internet Explorer. Grr. And I can't even install the only decent text editor I've ever found! Textpad owns for ease of use and great support for regular expressions. I'm pretty sure I don't have rights to install Yahoo! Music Engine there either. I might get fired if I try. hahaha.

So this is what it feels like to be a regular business computer user. Lame. Of course, they have very good reasons for all those restrictions and the monitoring software and whatnot... but I don't need the restrictions. I don't really mind the monitoring software. It makes it easier to not check my email a billion times a day when I know there's a good chance somebody will notice and/or read my stuff.

The computer at work doesn't even have support for dual monitors. I love dualview. Nothing like being able to have room for your messager, a game of Yahoo! Pool, your blogger, and your media player all completely visible at once. Of course it comes in handy for work as well. You can have your reference document open on the left and the piece you're modifying on the left. Or keep a remote session live on one screen and your email and some other stuff on the other screen.

I think that's the biggest bummer, as far as I'm concerned. The computer I'm on at work is pretty fast though. A 3.4 ghz Pentium IV with hyperthreading and a gig of memory is still respectable as I write this. Unfortunately, it's only running Windows 2000. So sad.

Of course, this means that I am going to have to fight the temptation to take one of my next paychecks and get myself a ridiculously fast computer. This one is fast enough. (Maybe it will feel true if I just keep telling myself that.)

Oh yeah. This has been up for a while with all that stuff written above. I suppose I could post it. haha.

No updates in forever... for me

2006-03-29T20:53:00.000-07:00

So, my days are even more full now that I am gainfully employed. No surprise there. The surprise was how busy I was when I was just looking for work.

The new job is going very well. I'm in charge of bringing a plan that pays out about $3 billion in benefits a year into their data warehouse, potentially doubling the number of records. I'm glad they started me out with a small, unimportant project. haha

Umm... other news. I've started working out pretty frequently again. I feel good. I beat a newer Jag V8 convertible on the way home after my workout today. That was kinda fun.

I think I should post some more pictures. I'll get around to it soonish. Things are just a lot busier than I'm used to these days.

I hope you're enjoying your lives out there.

P. S. I need to play some basketball and soccer soon too.

Rollin...

2006-03-24T18:47:00.000-07:00

I just started my new job today. I like it, especially the part where they give me little green pieces of paper.

The commute this afternoon was pretty miserable though. Today was a long day. I got in at around 7:45 and left at 5. Then I didn't get home until about 6:25. Ouch.

I think my normal schedule is going to be about 8 am until 4:30ish. I'm probably going to have to do some experimenting to see what will work.

It's kind of crazy to think that Monday I was unemployed and Friday I had my first day of work... and I made a lot more today than somebody would if they had worked all week at minimum wage. Education really can be empowering.

like winning the lottery... twice

2006-03-20T22:22:00.000-07:00

I am very tempted to start my own business. I have a lot of ideas and some people I would like to work with who are available if I can get them a bit to do.

The trip to New Jersey was quite enjoyable. I'll elaborate later.

Tomorrow... I now have two interviews scheduled. The first is at 9 AM in downtown Tempe with a company that does some work that overlaps with what I did. The second is for a contract position with American Express. *grins*

All this is happening very quickly. I'm still working on some of the skills that I think will be very important for me in the near future. I can't imagine what the response might be once I have all that nailed down.

Well, now it's time to get off of here. I've still got to take a shower, research the companies I'm interviewing with tomorrow, put another computer together, clean my room, set my alarms, charge my phone, mow the lawn...

It's only 10:30 PM. It's not a big deal, since I've been up since about 3 AM. Oh well, time to start being productive. Later strangers.

Upcoming Events

2006-03-09T10:06:00.000-07:00

Tonight: discuss starting business with a few friends from high school.

This weekend: climbing a bit south of Tucson.

Next week: flying to New Jersey to meet Coral's extended family.

March 21stish: follow up with a couple people about work stuff.

Self-discipline

2006-03-04T14:52:00.000-07:00

Self-discipline is when your conscience tells you to do something and you don't talk back.

-- W. K. Hope

where'd that week go?

2006-02-28T20:56:00.000-07:00

Holy cow. Time flies when you're unemployed.

Last week I had an interview on Wednesday. It went pretty well, but I didn't really have all the background they were looking for... and I wasn't terribly interested in working there.

On Thursday I took my car in to the body shop. $750 to get the bowling ball dent removed. Glad my deductible is only $100 and it wasn't my fault.

I should get the car back all nice and shiny tomorrow.

Thursday night, I went and saw Dat Phan at PVCC with Audrey Hernandez, a friend from high school. He was pretty darn funny, but I think Craig Shoemaker put on a better show.

Friday night I partied with Dflip and Brian Westfall. I ended up talking to the highschool valedictorian on Westfall's phone. That prankster wound up at Harvard Medical School. I can't believe he settled.... I'm sure he could have done so much better.

Saturday I had dinner with the lovely Ms. Coral and her dad and stepmother. We had chicken paprikash, which is pretty tasty, and apparently becomes irresistible after repeated exposures.

Sunday, I removed my desk and computers from my bedroom. I relocated them to an underutilized corner of the dining room. I know it sounds like a bad move... but it had to be done. I was incredibly cramped in the bedroom.

On Monday, I dropped my little monster off at the body shop. Then I hung out at Earthcare's office and filled out rebates and such. It was thrilling.

Tuesday was a bit more time at Earthcare, this time focusing more on learning ASP, XML, and XSLT. Hurray for TLAs! I am going to ship out some more rebates tomorrow and probably start building a website for Earthcare to give me a practical outlet in order to apply my new knowledge.

In the near future:

The cell phone number transfer craziness should theoretically be over tomorrow. We'll just see about that.

I've been messing around with hardware a lot lately. My wireless at home has been driving me batty. Sometimes, when you buy an inexpensive wireless adapter, it is also cheap. I've also become a pro at installing memory, which is about as hard as falling off a log. And then there's the dual monitor issue that's irking me. So in the near future, I may be acquiring a new wireless adapter, installing even more memory, and hassling my video card vendor about this issue (assuming my normal troubleshooting methods prove ineffective).

Surprisingly, I haven't spent much time keeping this thing updated or pissing away my life on MySpace. I'm not even playing very much pool or poker (for me).

Well, it's time to brush my teeth and get ready for bed. Take it easy world. Feel free to drop a comment. Oh, and keep your blogs updated and make sure I know about them!

PVP

2006-02-21T00:08:00.000-07:00

Scott Kurtz is hilarious. If you don't think the above strip is funny, there's something seriously wrong with you.

Arizona!

2006-02-16T08:18:00.000-07:00

I am back home in Arizona. It's nice outside!

I have a few dozen things to do, which is why I haven't updated this thing in a while.

If you're not reading Dr. McNinja (in my comics section), then you are definitely missing out.

I hope you're having an awesome week! And I hope you're making the week awesome for others as well.

Hasta la vista.

CALVIN AND HOBBES -- AND MUHAMMAD

2006-02-09T08:00:00.000-07:00

In order to express their displeasure with the idea that Muslims are violent, thousands of Muslims around the world engaged in rioting, arson, mob savagery, flag-burning, murder and mayhem, among other peaceful acts of nonviolence.

Muslims are the only people who make feminists seem laid-back.

Ann Coulter has a point. I think she's a bit out there at times, but she's got the guts to say some things that really need to be said and the brains to express those things well. Read the article and watch the coverage about the insanity out there.

Imagine if people took the energy that went into creating all that havoc and actually tried to make things better.

Much better

2006-02-08T12:15:00.000-07:00

My car situation is much better, which has significantly reduced my stress level. Daniel did almost all the work of replacing my radiator and the damn oil cooler lines. I managed to clip a clip he couldn't quite get done, but that was about all I did. He's a really good friend.

So, my car isn't leaking anything anymore, not even a little, as far as I can see. And I managed to get the low coolant sensor unstuck by flushing the reservoir, so that's happy. You don't really appreciate how nice it is to have a working car until you don't have one for a little while. haha

I have a new cell phone, but I'm keeping the 602 number. There's a little drama that's ongoing with that. At this point, I can't receive calls to that number, but I can make them from the right number. I need to call up Vonage and hassle their number portability department to make that work. I just want to keep my damn number, even though I haven't really talked to many people on it in a while.

I have to say I enjoyed the going away party on Saturday quite a bit. Then on Sunday I watched the Superbowl. I was a bit disappointed with the officiating, which definitely helped the Steelers much more than the Seahawks, but it's still awesome the Seahawks made it there. And it was a pretty close game, despite some questionable calls that cost the Seahawks a ton of yardage and at least one touchdown. And then there was Roethlisberger's touchdown. That was questionable, although I'm pretty sure the Steelers would have gotten a touchdown eventualy anyway because they were so damn close.

Well, I guess I should try to get some work done. It's kinda cool knowing people like me. I'm getting a lot of supportive messages from my friends, and while it's not a complete shock or anything, it's definitely more than expected. THANK YOU!

I love hypocrisy

2006-02-05T22:11:00.000-07:00

Ahh... those wacky muslim extremists. Do they do anything sensible?

At the same time that they are violently protesting Western intolerance of their religion, many of them are also calling for Israel to be wiped off the map. That doesn't seem very tolerant to me.

Somebody should teach them the golden rule.

(You should read the Time article I've linked in the title of this post.)

Murphy's law is constant

2006-02-04T18:25:00.000-07:00

"If anything can go wrong, it will."

So, I'm cruising along last week, thinking life is going pretty well.

Then I pay off my car. That very afternoon, when I get into it to go home from work, the low coolant light comes on. Rutroh.

I put some more coolant into it when I get home. I knew I had a small leak somewhere, but it had stayed small forever. Well, things changed on Friday afternoon. I found the leak finally. My radiator has a small crack in it. Then I decided to purchase a new radiator, since the old one is really old. (I know it is at least ten years old, and probably a bit older than that.)

While disconnecting the old radiator, an oil cooler line broke. So in addition to the $340 radiator, $50 in coolant, and the labor I had already anticipated, there is now an additional $86 dealer only part that I'm going to have to wait until Monday to purchase and install.

Awesome.

I'm special

2006-01-29T14:20:00.000-07:00

Seriously. I had no idea I could be so animated.

This is my second to last weekend in Seattle. I've been having a good time with it, as you can see.

I'm gonna miss a lot of people when I'm not here anymore. But I am looking forward to being in Arizona too.

Border Craziness

2006-01-25T23:49:00.000-07:00

The borders with Mexico and Canada had a lot more than their normal share of craziness on Tuesday.

In the Mexico border story, heavily armed men dressed as Mexican army soldiers with machine guns helped suspected drug runners escape from American law enforcement officials. This is an example of pure insanity, as far as I'm concerned. Especially if the officials who believe they spotted a Mexican military humvee are correct. Stories like that are one reason I am strongly in favor of more thorough control of our borders. (And I think the Mexican government may be more corrupt than Congress.)

The Canadian story featured suspects wanted for a murder in California who were stopped by the Whatcom County Sheriff's Office. Of course, there was the obligatory high speed chase and one of the suspects was shot.

What the hell is wrong with people?

Repercussions

2006-01-23T23:16:00.000-07:00

I read a seemingly innocuous comment not so long ago.

"I'm going to be an uncle soon! I really hope my sister has a baby boy!"

No big deal, right? It shouldn't be. People should just forget about it, especially if the sister happens to have a daughter.

Well, because that comment was made on the internet, and the internet has a particularly long memory, there is a very real possibility that his sister's child could eventually find that comment.

It's an odd thing, that wacky old internet. Not only are people intentionally creating new information at an astounding rate, there is an unimaginably vast amount of data that is automatically collected and aggregated about you and your habits.

For example, I use a visitor tracker on this site. It doesn't tell me a whole lot, mainly because there's not a whole lot on here and I don't have any sort of secure areas. But it does tell me some interesting things. For instance, I had a visitor that got here by clicking the next button on http://www.johnlittle.org/ He has
some pretty crazy videos on there.

I know when my friends visit, which pages, what kind of computer they use, who their internet provider is, and usually, exactly who is visiting. And I'm not that smart, not that obsessed, and certainly not using any tools that would cost me money.

Now try to imagine the heaps and heaps of information that AOL, MSN, Yahoo and Google have, combined with the New York Times, your insurance websites, shopping records, financial sites, email and chat history. Combine that with well written categorization software and powerful hardware and you have the potential to make world changing discoveries. Crimes could be solved, diseases could be diagnosed by analysis of searches based on users searching for symptoms, insurance costs could be more evenly distributed based on the risks people take, and the best jobs might be awarded only to people with spotless "lifestyle profiles".

It could be happening already on a much wider scale than you imagine. *evil chuckle*

Most of the possible consequences of such a system are positive. However, the prospect is disturbing for several reasons. Knowledge is power. That kind of power must not be wielded carelessly because the consequences are potentially life ending. Additionally, there is no such thing as perfect information. Just because a computer I own is used to look for something does not mean that I am looking for that thing. It merely means that somebody used my computer to look for it. That is one of the many ways that the information flowing into a lifestyle analysis engine could be misinterpreted. Perhaps the most interesting problem is that users currently have no idea what their lifestyle profile looks like and therefore have no way to try to fix inaccuracies.

Whistler Pics

2006-01-20T20:13:00.000-07:00

Here are most of the pictures. Once again, I've used my magical powers to avoid being in the 99% of the pictures. Don't ask how I do it, I'm just good like that.

Whistler was great fun. Once we were in Canada, it felt like we were flying very low to the ground. The mountains and wilderness were beautiful. It's a lot like Colorado, except it didn't rain the whole time we were in Colorado.

Once we got to the condo, there was massive chaos. I had ordered my gear online and had chosen a pickup location rather blindly. I ended up having an extra 10 minute walk to go get my gear, and then another 8 minutes back to the lift. That's a lot when you're in full gear. I stuck with the beginner group on Saturday. It was a pretty good time, although the snow there is weird.

The bottom of the mountain was skiied off. There was more brown showing through than I'd seen at Telluride. The snow on top was a bit like soft serve ice cream. It was strange, but fun.

I took it easy Saturday night, despite the fact that just about everyone else wanted to go out. I really couldn't have had too much fun then since I'd been up for 40 hours straight by the time I went to bed. Of course, going to bed early then had a few more advantages. I actually got to sleep in a bed. At least five people did not end up sleeping on a real bed. And I was a lot better rested Sunday and able to go a lot harder than I would have if I hadn't knocked out when I did.

I was pretty adventurous on Sunday. Of course, it was a lot easier because I had 4 functional bindings all day long. Saturday, I snapped my right front toe strap. I still took 4 or 5 runs, and I don't think I crashed much more than my normal rate. So I had to go back and get new equipment, hiking all the way back over to my rental facility. They did hook me up with a better board too. Justin's board, which I borrowed in Telluride, was still a lot faster, and it felt more responsive.

Sunday I rolled with Tom, Brad, Marcy, and Ryan. They were all pretty good. They were trying jumps all over the place and going through the woods. Then we split up at lunch time. Too late, we discovered we weren't high enough on the mountain to get over to the lodge. We decided to board as close to the lodge as we could and hike up. BAD IDEA. lol

Tom went through a big bowl of powder trying to get to the lodge. I followed. He ended up running out of go about 150 feet from a trail. I ran out of go about 180 feet from the trail. Ryan, who was pretty much as sick as a dog the whole time, ended up running out of go at least 3 times as far out as Tom did. We were in hip deep powder the whole time. That hike was definitely the most difficult part of the whole trip.

We all had a good time eating at the Old Spaghetti Factory that night and pretty much took it easy from there on out. The Whistler 2k6 trip should definitely be the first in a long series.

... and I don't even have to try

2006-01-17T21:26:00.000-07:00

Sometimes you've just gotta take the leap.

I went snowboarding this weekend with a group of 10 awesome people.

My roommate Daniel, his cousin Carina, his brother Paul, his high school friend Frannie, his buddy Brad from work, Brad's girlfriend Marcy, Tom and John from Kettering, Tom's friend Ryan from work, John's brother Sam and I all went up to Whistler. It was amazing. Then again, 321 cm of snow since January 1st is pretty amazing pretty much anywhere, especially when January is just half over. Surprisingly, the amazingness started well before we got to the mountain.

We got lost on the way there but still ended up getting to a border crossing at about 6:45 AM. (This is possible when you leave Seattle at about 4 AM. haha) Unfortunately the border crossing we went to didn't even open until 8 AM. So we had to truck on back to I5. Getting into Canada was hilariously easy. I don't think the guy even looked at our driver's licenses. He just asked "Why are you going to Canada?" and then said "have a nice time" when we told him we were going to Whistler.

I'll write more about the goings on later. I'm sure you'll be close to wearing out the edge of your seats soon, so I'll try to hurry.

Notice

2006-01-12T00:32:00.000-07:00

I put in my notice that I was done working in Seattle on Monday. It was surprisingly easy to take that step.

I need to be in Arizona. My brother is going to be grown up in next to no time. My mom misses me. I miss both of them.

My girlfriend happens to live there too. And so do a lot of friends I haven't really gotten the chance to hang out with in far too long.

My last day working in Seattle is February 9th. On the 10th, my mom is flying in and we're rolling on outta here.

Things Learned

2006-01-08T22:53:00.000-07:00

I am crazy. There is no surer way to test your sanity than to spend a week in a condo with a menagerie of strangers. I spent 12/26/2005 thru 01/03/2006 in Telluride, CO and snowboarded Tuesday through Monday, skipping only Wednesday.

Here are a few of the things I learned:
1. Catwalks can really suck for snowboarders.
2. I can turn on my toe edge. (No, really, I can.)
3. Always always always fall up the mountain.
4. I can handle a mess in a room if it's just my room (for a while anyway). Shared rooms are a different story.
5. I can be condescending. Even to people I like and respect. This is something I'm really going to make sure I watch about myself. I don't like that I've done that.
6. Driving takes a lot longer when somebody else is doing it. Even if they're speeding.
7. Sometimes landline phones don't have cords that you can plug into your laptop.
8. Snowboarding in powder is probably better than staying out late on New Year's Eve running up a big tab at the bar and feeling like crap the first day of the new year. (I'm just going on my New Year's Day experience in the powder vs. all the people I knew who didn't feel good enough to play in the best snow we got.)

So, one of the cool things about keeping up with a blog is that you can easily go back and find out exactly what you wrote for last New Year's Resolutions.
Here is that list. I'll write my comments/thoughts in bold next to each of them.

1. Make more lists. (Easy enough) I did a better job with this, especially at work. There is still room for improvement though, so I am going to make it a practice to have at least 5 things listed and checked off every day.
2. Check more things off the lists. (Also easy) Putting on them the lists is the first step.
3. Become more obsessive compulsive. (OCD is an extremely powerful thing, if you can make it work for you.) I did get better about cleaning. It was a little strange how wound up I get in Telluride about cleanliness... although I will have to claim that there were extenuating circumstances.
4. Read more. I did read more for fun in 2005 than I had in years. In 2006 I will read even more for fun and throw in more technical stuff so that I have more skills that can make money.
5. Write more. Thank you blog. I think I did pretty well with that goal in 2005, but as always, there is plenty of room for opportunity.
6. Do it ahead of time. I'm usually pretty good at this. Unfortunately, getting things done ahead of time usually requires other people to make changes, and very few people are willing to make changes, even when you clearly explain the benefits of those changes.
7. Focus more at work. Ehh... I'd say that didn't change a whole, whole lot, but there was some slight improvement.
8. Wake up no later than 7 AM every day. (If it's the weekend and I'm tired later, I'll take a nap.) Yeah right. I like to stay up way too late for that to work. I'm not even gonna try any of that noise this year.
9. Stretch and floss everyday. These should probably go on the list. haha
10. Relax. Overall, I am still probably one of the most relaxed people I'm aware of. However, I've caught my shoulders hunching up. That needs to stop, so I'm working on it.

So, I've looked at the resolutions I made last year. I think I should work on almost all of them again this year. I have added a new goal to work on: be nicer to people.

I think everybody should try to be nicer. If you've never met my family's dog Sport, you're missing out. He sets the gold standard for niceness.

Of course, Sport has a few advantages that help him be nice. He doesn't speak much English. It's easier to be nice when the majority of words you understand are closely related to food and going outside. He doesn't have a job. I think jobs tend to make people less friendly. Look at homeless people, for example. Most of the ones you'll run across seem pretty friendly. Granted, they're probably trying to scheme money off you, but nobody yells at them about showing up late or forgetting the cover sheet on a TPS report.

Well, it's now 11:15. It's time for nappers. Or a little Burnout 3, a shower, and putting away of clothes, as the case the may be.

I hope you're having a good one buddy. Let me know if you have any unusual resolutions you made or can think of something I should put on my list. Gracias!

Stuff coming

2006-01-06T09:05:00.000-07:00

I see people are still reading this thing. Good!

I'm gonna write some stuff in it soon. The past few weeks have been very good for me and taught me a few things. I'll write some of the stuff down in the next couple days. Expect something Monday, at the latest.

Anything you say

2005-12-21T22:08:00.000-07:00

... can and will be used against you in a court of law.

The actions that boy took are completely inexcusable. I see no situation where it would ever be a funny to yank the wheel from a driver.

*sigh* Death would be a merciful release for that one. (Please note that I am not condoning his murder or suicide.) I simply can not imagine living with the guilt of killing one friend and maiming another when I could have avoided it somehow. The guilt he experiences knowing he caused that terrible tragedy must be unbearable if he has any conscience at all.

Don't be a drunken idiot, and have a Happy Holidays!

Awesome day

2005-12-15T11:08:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a pretty awesome day. I finally got paid a good chunk of the money I've been earning all year. (We didn't get the checks until 4:35 though, so most people would have already left by then on a normal day.)

Then I got my PTO for the holidays. I'm going home to AZ on the 23rd, spending Christmas with my family and Ms. Coral and her family, and then going to Telluride to go snowboarding on the 26th! And I don't have to be back to work until the 5th!

But wait... it gets better. I am almost certainly going to Whistler in Canada to go snowboarding just over a week after I get back to work. And I get to see old buddies I haven't seen in a long time.

It's gonna be awesome.

The Purpose of Life

2005-12-12T00:24:00.000-07:00

The Purpose of Life is to live a purposeful life.

It is not to piss away entire days at a time playing pool and poker.

Of course, I'm playing pool as I write this.

This has been a very boring weekend. The only things remotely worth mentioning are the annual company holiday party (tame this year) and watching I <3 Huckabees for the first time. Pretty sad for a 24 year old with a car and some money he could be wasting on typical weekend activities. I guess everybody has times like that, it just seems that I let it happen more often than many others do.

"Who's that lounging in my chair?... Who's that casting devious stares in my direction?"

I've won 2 in a row. Yes! A streak!!

I'm slightly annoyed with how disconnected things are. My writing certainly reflects disconnected thoughts. Or maybe the threads that connect all the pieces would completely drown what little I feel is worth saying.

I feel really disconnected here. I'm not sure that the environment is completely to blame for the sense of disconnection I feel. (or even mainly)

My life and my thoughts have very distinct chapters. It's something like a DVD thrown together by an amateur editor... with the help of some controlled substances.

Let's see a random sampling of a few of them:
1. Life without electricity in the desert
2. Elementary school with tv, computers, and gifted teachers
3. Alta ski resort in Utah
4. Southwick, Massachusetts
5. Counselor's offices
6. high school
7. soccer
8. scholarship weekend
9. college and life in the fraternity
10. work
11. family
12. the lovely girlfriend
13. snowboarding
14. flying a cessna
15. reading Atlas Shrugged
16. enjoying right now
17. how things work logically
18. how things work physically at the macro level
19. how things work physically at the micro level
20. law and politics

So, there's a small sample of the things that may be competing for attention in my brain at any given moment. It gets to me that everything isn't connected better... or that I lack the ability to keep more than two or three of these things in my poor inadequate head at once.

Maybe it's the same for everybody else and I'm the only one that's gotten annoyed enough to write about it. (As far as I know, anyway.)

Being a super criminal...

2005-12-07T13:53:00.000-07:00

Being a super criminal wouldn't be very hard. I recently discovered that I can sear off my fingerprints quite easily and that it doesn't even hurt that much.

Of course, not being a super criminal is even easier. hehe

Romperstomped

2005-12-04T21:55:00.000-07:00

I've definitely beaten on my body a bit lately.

Firstly, I sliced the outside of my left index finger a few days ago. (I dropped a bottle in the shower and caught it... by the open bottle top.)

Yesterday, I went to Stevens Pass and went snowboarding. It was my third time snowboarding, but I am still a long, long walk from competent on a snowboard. I still haven't managed to master turning on my toes. Anybody who's snowboarded at all knows that's almost half the game. I was working on turning on my toes a bit, and I fell a lot. I'm a little sore all over, but not nearly as bad as I thought I would be.

I've got just a few short weeks until I'm back in Arizona. I can't wait.

Over a week

2005-12-01T00:42:00.000-07:00

It's been a long time since I wrote anything in here.

Strangely enough, I feel like I have a pretty good reason I haven't written until now. Normally it's just because I've forgotten. These days I'm really not very busy at all compared to what life was like back in college.

So, what have I been doing for the last week and change?

Last Tuesday afternoon I flew to Arizona. My girlfriend came and picked me up from the airport, we had a romantic dinner at Taco Bell, and then we went home. Wednesday I worked a half day and then went over to her gram's house and helped her cook a little. (I chopped stuff, very slowly... the fingers are pretty important and the knives weren't sharp enough to chop quickly.) Then we went over to my mom's house and had some chicken alfredo for dinner. Thursday Coral was incredibly domestic and handled the majority of Thanksgiving dinner duty. Anyone who has known her for a while knows how unbelievable it is that she was domestic. (She really really liked it too. haha) Surprisingly enough, I didn't eat all that much of the actual Thanksgiving dinner. I think I filled up on shrimp and cheese and crackers before dinner, but everything I tasted was excellent.

Friday we went to the lake and went wakeboarding. They actually have a fast enough boat to pull a complete 205 lb novice up out of the water. I'd tried a few times before back in Michigan, but the boat my friend had back there just didn't have the guts to actually pull me up. (Of course, somebody who kinda knew what they were doing could still get up, but I am definitely far from knowing thing 2 about wakeboarding just yet.) It was awesome. Coral's brother Justin pulled some pretty unreal tricks on the wakeboard even though he was being a real wimp about the cold. (He had a dry suit on and the air temperature was up in the 70s... and even I got in with a wet suit.)

Saturday I hung out and talked with my family a bit, ate some more, and watched some old episodes of Kung Fu. It was good times. I've noticed that eating is mentioned in almost every paragraph in this post so far. No wonder I've got a little belly going. Of course, it doesn't help that I haven't really been getting any aerobic exercise either.

Sunday we went to Tucson and met some more of Coral's friends, then we had some pretty good Indian food at Indian Oven. After consumption of mass quantities, we took in the new Warren Miller movie at the U of A. It was pretty amazing... and quite the setup for advertisers. It's hard to think of a better way to reach well off youth than the Warren Miller movies. Cynicism aside, there were plenty of funny moments, breathtaking scenes, and truly interesting people in the movie to make it well worth watching, even if you're not a complete ski/snowboard fanatic. The most amazing part was the 85 year old guy doing a backflip on the ski jump. If I ever land a backflip... on anything... I'm buying a lottery ticket that day.

Tuesday night I had to come back to the frozen north. My flight ended up delayed almost an hour and a half, which did not make for a very good night. I had a decent day at work on Wednesday. It was rather amusing and surprising that one of the assistants emailed me and asked me about my holiday party reservation. I hadn't gotten around to making it yet, and they had already closed the reservation database. Luckily for me, lots of people wanted to sit next to me so the assistant managed to make a reservation for me and my guest (if I have one), despite the fact that the database was "closed". I'm not sure I believe that hoopla about "lots of people" wanting to sit next to me. I can believe two might want to, but that does not count as "lots" in my book. haha

Anyway, that's enough of a torrent of text for one evening. It's sleepy time. Send a message my way.

Dr. McNinja

2005-11-21T20:13:00.000-07:00

This is the best idea for a comic I've seen since... well, I don't remember that far back. Read it. Unless you're not cool.

Wait, if you're not cool, how the hell do I know you? And if I don't know you, how the hell did you get here??

So, I'm becoming a blogger slacker

2005-11-18T12:39:00.000-07:00

It happens to everyone now and then I suppose.

Assorted randomness:
1. My car is much more powerful when the engine is cold. (I just need to figure out how to keep the block colder without hurting anything.) I've noticed this because pushing the accelerator with the same force is a lot more likely to produce burnouts the first 5 minutes of driving. In fact, I needed to get ahead of the car next to me last night right after getting out of the garage downtown, so I just jabbed the accelerator... and the back end slid to the left about 18 inches. whoops. I really wanted to go forward, honest! (But I do like burnouts. hehe)

2. Having big disc brakes on all four wheels results in unbelievable stopping power. I can stop a lot more quickly than most people would believe.

3. I did start a post about the stupidity of a post somewhere else in favor of socialism, but I haven't gotten a chance to finish it up yet. Soon.

4. I'm going to Arizona for a week starting next Tuesday!! I'll be spending lots and lots of time with the lovely Ms. Coral, who happens to be crazy about me. (It's hard to believe, but it's true. hehe) I'll also be hanging out with my family a good bit, and seeing a couple of old buddies. I'm looking forward to it, to say the least.

5. We're having a big party at my house this Saturday night. It should be very good times. My roommate is celebrating the end of a quarter century of life and the purchase of a new house. I want a new house dammit! *grin*

That's all the randomness I feel like burdening your overloaded brain with today. Glad you stopped by, and have a kick ass weekend!

What The Bleep Do We Know!?

2005-11-13T23:21:00.000-07:00

I watched this movie on Saturday night. I was being a loser and hanging out at home because I've had a bit of a cough for a while, and it was an interesting title.

It was pretty cool, completely unlike any film I'd seen before. I enjoyed watching it in a lot of ways because it really illustrated some concepts I've thought are real for a very long time. You should watch it.

Of course, some of the stuff in the movie still seems completely insane to me. But maybe that's just conditioning that I haven't quite broken free of yet.

Here is the most important part of the film, in my opinion:

You create your future.

That's right, you're in charge. Of course, you're not in charge of everything in your life. You choose your actions, which admittedly do not seem to matter much at times... but the truth is they make all the difference in the world to your future. And your actions ripple outward and affect everyone around you.

(Not that any of this should be news to anyone reading this... just something to remind yourself of now and then.)

I'm a happy dude. If you're not happy, just change what makes you unhappy. Seriously.

Kansas School Board of Education

2005-11-09T23:47:00.000-07:00

Many thanks to my good friend Jason G, who sent me the link in the title. You will be very amused by it, unless you are a fervent creationist, in which case the link'll probably get your panties in a twist. (Of course, so would almost anything worth reading.)

What's going on in my life? I'm on MySpace all the damn time. It's ridiculous. But not quite as severe as other addictions I've had. I have a persistent, wet cough that's annoying as hell at the moment... I've had it for a while. It seems to be getting better, but who can tell? It's really strange because it's the only symptom I have as far as I can tell.

Work is trying to ship me off to Nebraska for a few days in the middle of winter. Needless to say, I am not a fan of this plan. (Luckily the timeline wasn't established by our people... and it seems somewhat likely that it will be delayed until after the holidays.)

I am looking forward to going home to AZ for almost a week for Thanksgiving. SWEET!

Lame post, I know. Sorry. (But what the hell else would you expect from me? Honestly now folks.)

Anyway, back to MySpace... it's pretty cool being able to look up old friends so easily. Looking up new friends is also easy. And it's unbelievable just how many people are on there... and who you can find looking through peoples' friends' lists.

It's 11:15 and I should be conking out, but I'm all fired up. I'd really like ... well, I guess I'd have to settle for video games. At least I have good games. But I really shouldn't play them. I should just go to sleep.

I'll be there before midnight... just a few games of omaha and a little more chatting with Aubrey... then sleepy time, honest.

Work, wait, work, wait

2005-11-04T11:12:00.000-07:00

Wow. I did terrible at bowling last night. That's ok though, I was doing pretty good for a while before last night. We went to Shari's for a little bit after bowling.

It's kinda weird right now... I'm not all riled up about anything. Just mellow. It's nice.

Somebody's reading my blog from the UW. I think I know who it is... but I'm going to have to check. (I'm really curious about who actually reads what I write.)

Dude. It's Friday. Sweet.

Spam, spim, and malware...

2005-11-01T14:01:00.000-07:00

I wonder just how much money people are making off all the popups and crap that so many people tolerate on their computers. I just read an article about a new piece of malware that acts as a conduit into people's computers after they click on a link in AIM. This is one reason I don't use the official AOL version of AIM... and I have it set to allow messages only from people on my buddy list... and I never click on links without first carefully examining the entire link. (This is definitely a good practice, especially when it's the first message you receive from someone.)

Now, back to work. Only 65 years till retirement...

Of course, retirement may no longer be a relevant concept then. There's a nice scary thought to cuddle up with as you're trying to fall asleep at night. hahaha

Rain, Rain, go away

2005-10-30T15:22:00.000-07:00

So, today the clocks rolled backward. I love getting an extra hour in the day. It's kinda grey and miserable out... but it's not really going to get much better any time soon. I think it's time to wash the car.

I have started on my menu of links on the right. If you're using Firefox, they're supereasy to open in multiple tabs, and everyone of the comics is worth reading as often as they're updated. (In my humble opinion of course.)

I hope you've had an excellent weekend and I'll talk to you later. Sooner if you drop me an email or call or something. (Probably)

what's that in the middle of my candy bar?

2005-10-28T13:51:00.000-07:00

Oh, that's right... it's a BASTARDIZATION of nougat and marshmallow!! (I'm not a fan of Three Musketeers bars.)

You know what I like in a candy bar? Toffee, chocolate, caramel and nuts all make very tasty candy bars.

It was funnier when I said it out loud at work. Especially because everybody is just now discovering that I have an aggressive side. I'm good at keeping it under control, but sometimes that side of my personality has some really amusing things to say. hehe

By the way, I have decided to stop being such a lazy piece. I am going to work out on Mondays and Thursdays, consistently. I am also going to add a lot more links to this blog so that I can use it as a decent start page for me as well.

Anyway, there's a little blurb for the people who occasionally read this thing and wonder what the hell is going on in my head. Back to work. Is it 5 yet?

Now THIS is a sea horse

2005-10-24T22:31:00.000-07:00

Image Courtesy of Wikipedia.org

And this is a sea dragon:

People are amazing

2005-10-22T12:26:00.000-07:00

Look at this video. It's unreal. The most amazing part is it looks like it was all filmed in one take.

Absolutely insane. That would take me at least a thousand tries to get my part right.

And then there's this news story. Very cool... I'm not a fan of light bulbs. hehe

I'm gonna go play with some more evidence people are amazing. (Gran Turismo 4)

Better pictures... and randomness, as usual

2005-10-19T21:53:00.000-07:00

What, you want this one?
Or this one?

(Everybody likes to look up people's noses, it's a fact.)

I actually have a picture of Coral's reaction to seeing these pictures up here:

hahahaha

And in other random news, I had an article of clothing on backwards today... and didn't notice till I got to work. That was funny.

I fly to SLC on a 7:30 AM flight tomorrow. That is not so funny. At least I don't have to stay the night there... I'll be back in time for bowling Thursday night.

It's definitely time to get a parking pass. I've had enough of this bus madness.

Good night world.

Sometimes...

2005-10-17T22:25:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, pictures are just more fun. I have been enjoying a little relaxation time at work after entirely too much craziness. Of course, the relaxation isn't going to last very long at all.

I'm flying to UT for a project kick off meeting on Thursday morning and flying back that night. Gross. Oh well, I am definitely going to take advantage of that massage the lovely Miss Coral bought me for my birthday soon. *grins* She is an awesome girlfriend, and an amazing person in general. Here's a picture of her in Sea-Tac, when she was acting super goofy just before her flight back to Arizona.

And now... time for just a little bit more Gran Turismo before bed. (I actually had Daniel beat one of the license tests for me because I the closest I could get was .013 seconds too slow. I can't believe that crap!)

Refraction is cool!

2005-10-17T22:24:00.000-07:00

Guess What This Is?

2005-10-16T15:51:00.000-07:00

Somebody can take damn good pictures

2005-10-14T19:06:00.000-07:00

(and no, it's not me... but I was there when she took it.)

I am a peer review stud!

2005-10-11T22:01:00.000-07:00

I am a peer review stud! That's what the owner of the practice said today. I buried him in deliverables and I got damn near everything perfect. (I know, I was pretty surprised too.)

Randomness:

I'm getting over a minor cold. Being sick sucks, even if it is just a little cough and .
I cleaned out my keyboard. It's somewhat tricky, but quite manageable. Here are the steps I took (your mileage may vary, I can take no responsibility for any trauma you may experience trying ):

Pop off the square shaped keys with a butterknife. (Do not remove the long keys ie 'Enter', the space bar, or shift keys. These keys frequently have additional mechanical linkages that could break.)
Soak the keys you popped off in soap and water overnight. Carefully clean the keys that are left on your keyboard with a slightly moist paper towel or cleaning paper.
Vaccuum out the interior of the keyboard.
Set the keys out to drain on a towel during the day.
Return the keys to their homes. (This part was more fun than the rest, because I got to test my mental image of the keyboard... I got everything right on the first try, although I hadn't noticed how big the difference in elevation was between the up and down arrow keys before, so that sort of threw me.

My car drifts pretty easily. Of course, having cold tires, rear wheel drive, and a big ol' V8 make it pretty easy. (Don't worry, it's all under the speed limit
I am addicted to Gran Turismo 4. Sometimes the addiction is worse than others, but I think it will always be there under the surface. I am trying to get all gold licenses for the A-license now, just so that I can say I've done it on one of the GT series games. I have 10 of the 16 golds I need to accomplish that pointless human trick.

If you don't have a blog, you should get one. Not because people will read it (99% of them are read by a tiny number of people), but because it's good for you. It's one way of getting your daily mental exercise.

And if you have a blog, you should write in it. Right now.

And that's how we do it.

total waste

2005-10-09T22:28:00.000-07:00

My weekend was a total waste. I did nothing worthwhile. And I'm quite happy about it. That's what weekends are for!

What else is a total waste? Probably writing in this blog, but on my list of habits, this one ain't that bad. Playing pool, listening to music, playing Gran Turismo, and eating pizza is not a bad way
to spend a couple days, especially after all the insanity I've dealt with the past few weeks.

I'm feeling slightly rested, which is a lot better than the burnt out feeling I had from Tuesday onward. Dishes need doing, but I'm gonna give myself a couple more minutes here. I can take a frozen DiGiorno spicy chicken pizza and an oven and make something damn tasty. I just had the second to last slice.

I am amazed how many people are on myspace. It's growing like cancer. If you're interested in seeing my profile, it's here: myspace.com/aerenr. It's kind of amusing how rumors and urban legends spread so quickly on this site. Outta time. Dishes are getting done.

boy, are my wings tired...

2005-10-05T21:17:00.000-07:00

So, I'm writing this during the one night pause in 8 nights of craziness.

From last Thursday night through this Friday night, I will have traveled well over 7,000 miles.

So, this has been a hectic week, just as far as actually making sure that I have everything I need with me. Friday I am theoretically leading my first client training session. (I've attended more than I care to remember, so it shouldn't be too bad, especially because I know their systems all too well.)

Saturday is game two of my coed flag football team's season. I'm looking forward to it.

I had an amazing weekend in Arizona. It definitely makes me want to go back even sooner.

I wanna write more, but my butt is already kicked and I have got too much crap left to do.

Get off your butt and do something. Especially you. Yeah, I'm talking to you, that person who's feeling a little depressed or funky. Physical exercise promotes internal discipline and that is a very important part of happiness and being successful. That's my two cents on the subject anyway.

What gets you up when you're down? I'm interested to see what other people do besides exercise, clean, and watch funny movies.

Did I mention...?

2005-09-27T01:52:00.000-07:00

Did I mention I was moving? That's why there wasn't a post this weekend, I moved on Sunday. My ex-roommate oh-so-thoughtfully disconnected the internet bright and early Friday morning. You don't do that to someone. Especially someone who uses the internet for everything. Especially right before the weekend, when there's no internet at work, because I'll be damned if I'm going in to work in on the weekend, even if I don't have the internet at home.

Anyway, I'm moved in with Daniel now. (A half-truth... I'm moved in, he's working on it.). It's a different kind of neighborhood. The good news: Daniel's way cooler than the old roommate, this house has a garage, and things are going to be distributed across the house better. The bad news: the surrounding area isn't quite as nice (ie not rich wonderbread neighbors, lakes, and parks as far as the eye can see) and the commute was downright hellish today.

I also turned 24 on the 26th. Crazy beans. For my birthday, I went to Jane's going away party, which was out in Sammamish, aka the middle of nowhere. It was kind of odd in that it was a real loosely scheduled thing and extremely relaxed. Oh, and it was also odd that for the second time in a few months somebody brought up that I apparently talk crap. I am sure I say things that can be taken the wrong way, but everything is open to interpretation, so it's impossible to say what's on your mind while it's relevant if you try to protect everyone's feelings. One of her boyfriend's friends took me aside and told me this. I guess sometimes everyone is a bit like bowling ball, and the people within earshot are pins, just waiting to be knocked down. I feel a bit bad that I caused a little discomfort on their parts, but hell, they should have told me. Me, I'm pretty happy-go-lucky and I have a short memory for slights from everybody but close friends and those higher in the food chain. I'm gonna try and watch my mouth a bit more, even though I think I'm pretty well behaved in general.

It was really good to see Jane and her friends again. She gave me a very nice card, a Superman t-shirt, and pictures of me transforming from mild-mannered Clark Kent into Superman. It's hilarious, if I do say so myself. I'll post them on here in a week or two, once I'm done with all my travel insanity. (Phoenix, AZ Thursday-Monday night/Tuesday morning; Long Beach, CA - Tuesday; Seattle, WA - Wednesday/Thursday; Troy, MI - Thursday night/Friday) Looks like I'm going to be somewhere in the neighborhood of 5,000 miles in an 8 day period. Oy.

I made sure I had a few things to give to Jane, regardless of the fact that it was my birthday. She really wanted me to make her a shirt that said "How about no", because that was one of the first things that she thought she could say well in English. Unfortunately, I didn't have time, what with the move, and my rather insane schedule. So, I gave her the shirt and told her I would email her the design and get her feedback on it if she was still gung ho about the iron on design. Secondly, I had gone out with her and a couple of her friends a couple weeks ago and I won a huge Seattle Seahawks sign. She made a big fuss about wanting it and even tried to steal it from me. (I decided it would be fun to pretend like I really wanted it, so I took it home and said I was gonna put it on my wall and stuff, but then I gave it to her tonight. It was a lot of fun to give it to her after making her think she was not going to ever see it again.)

My lovely girlfriend Coral gave me a very sweet card and gift certificates for massage for my birthday. How awesome is that?! I'm going home and getting a massage or two from her, and then I have a certificate for one when I get back to the daily grind up here. Then my mom tells me they have a gift for me, but it's big... so I have something waiting for me at home. I have no clue what it is. Not one. (It better not be putting Billy's computer together though. hahaha)

Anyway, it's just about 2 AM, and I have to get up for work in less than five hours. I should sleep. It's just such a relief to have internet access somewhere other than work. I can't wait till our broadband is hooked up. I think Vonage should work a lot better with a service that's capable of higher upload speeds. (Comcast was pretty sweet in the download department... I was getting up 8 mb/s. The upload was not so sweet... a measly 384k. Note to future self: I predicted you might read this some day and laugh your ass off at these teeny transfer rates.)

Holy crap. Seriously, I'm making myself go to sleep now. Send a comment or somethin! (Yes, I know it's a pain in the ass, but it stopped my comment spam, for now.)

Past performance...

2005-09-22T20:05:00.000-07:00

"The mere fact that people have past criminal records in and of itself doesn't say anything about harm to the community."
-Steve Brown, executive director of the Rhode Island ACLU.

How are you supposed to evaluate what people might do without evaluating their records? Note that I am not saying that past performance is a guarantee of future performance, but it is frequently a good indicator.

Oy. Some people.

The credit belongs...

2005-09-19T20:23:00.000-07:00

"It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of good deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause, who, at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement; and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat." -- Theodore Roosevelt

Time

2005-09-19T18:13:00.000-07:00

Time is all you really have. And it's pretty damn hard to tell how much you have left.

Unfortunately, no one person can use their time exactly how they should. I feel trapped where I am, but time is running out on my trap. The trap's days are numbered.

I am just about done with this stage of my life, about to get out, and change things for myself. This is the longest I've had to do anything consistently, the longest I've stayed in a single place since high school, and one of the most frustrating times I can remember. Lots of things are changing very quickly: my good friend Jane is returning to Germany, I'll be moving (at least once in the next 3-5 months, probably twice), Paul is moving, I'm traveling over 5,000 miles during the beginning of October (as opposed to my normal habit of not traveling for work), supposedly implementing two new major data warehouses, leading classes training people to use our product, and on and on. There is definitely a lot going on that's outside my comfort range.

Oy. I needed to get that off my chest. Sorry if I polluted your worry-free, stress-free day. haha

It's really really annoying that gas prices have gone up so much."The current nationwide average price of $2.956 per gallon is $1.115 more expensive than it was one year ago and 51.6 cents higher than one month ago." This is seriously bad news for my mental health. Driving used to be a good release for me. Not anymore. I'm not paying that kind of money for a little therapy. Screw that. I can write in here for free. Of course, this isn't as satisfying, and I'm a lot less likely to see someplace cool I might want to go when I'm hanging out in my room.

Anyway, I've thought it over, and I'm ready for retirement. Puttering around in the garage, hiking, swimming, wandering around, and doing whatever I feel like whenever sounds pretty damn good. Come to think of it, those things sounded pretty good when I was four. On the other hand, I do like feeling needed, and I bet most retired people don't get that feeling as often as active workers. Oh, and there's that "wealth" issue. I don't have any.

I wish I could just fast forward a few months. I think a lot of things are going to be much better in 2006. *sigh*

Today's list of Three Things That Suck:
1. finding out that the escalator grimed your pantlegs
2. broken routers
3. waiting for things in the mail.

Get the cool shoe shine.

Today's list of Three Things That Don't Suck:
1. having an awesome girlfriend
2. being able to vent
3. This picture of a cala lily I took

I can't believe I'm 24 in 7 days. Craziness.

Something happier

2005-09-14T20:05:00.000-07:00

Don't drink and make signs.

Hurricane Katrina

2005-09-12T18:57:00.000-07:00

Hurricane Katrina
It’s one of those things. You knew I would eventually post about this, although everyone and their brother has heard way too much about this incomprehensible tragedy.

Katrina revealed a lot of things that really piss a lot of people off, now that they’re out in the open. Let me list some of the disturbing things that Katrina showed me:

Able bodied people refused to leave New Orleans and help others who needed assistance to escape.

The post hurricane response (which only should have had to focus on repairing the city and cleaning up the streets) was unacceptably slow.

Some jerks decided that since all hell had already broken loose, it was an ideal time to take things that they had not earned and did not need to stay alive.

The levees were under engineered. I do not engineer physical devices or barriers of any kind, but I always attempt to design everything to be far more robust than foreseeable conditions demand. A hurricane of Katrina’s scale was certainly foreseeable in that region.

… more to come on this.