Favorite Links

I thought I should start warming up with something easy, so today I'm going to share a few of the links that I tend to listen to a lot. All the songs mean something to me (OK, the one with the baby is just funny), and I know you'll listen to them and think... what is so special about this? Good luck figuring it out. :-)

I ran across this one a year or so ago. The music is a bit hard to understand.
http://clairvoyance.game-server.cc/nc_catastrophe.html

For some reason, this song makes me want to cry and work out at the same time. I wish I could remember why this song was so special to me.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=QjA5faZF1A8

This one was also on my brother's wedding CD if I remember right. Friends and family would give a few favorites for inclusion on a CD, and this is the one I put forward.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=322035153655719879

This one is just very exciting. I've watched all previous 154 episodes, but everyone else hasn't, so a lot of what's going on in the credits won't really be noticeable. The only one of these top four which doesn't get me teary eyed.
http://www.stage6.com/Bleach-Fan/video/1624091/Bleach-Ending-3-11th-Division

fluff:

I enjoy watching breakdancing, and this guy does a magnificent impressions of breakdancing with just his hands.
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/967401/finger_break_dance_very_cool/

Wrong... and cute. The part with dog is fantastic.
http://www.ffk-wilkinson.com/

I Bought A New Car

Yes it's true! I have a new car!

I went back to the dealer this afternoon, test drove a car or two, looked at a few more, and decided to buy the saturn after all. I drove my boss's truck over there originally, so I had to leave it at the dealer until my boss could come with me to get the car. On the way we picked up a repair manual and a front right motor mount. It looks like my weekend just got filled! I drove the Saturn around town after I picked up the motor mount and I must say that it handles rather well. I'm satisfied with it.

Thanksgiving Pictures

No new car today. I tried out several cars yesterday, and settled on a bare bones 1998 Saturn LS1 with 124K miles logged. It has no power steering and is a 5 speed manual. It isn't a great deal, but it is reliable, simple, and not very expensive; all of which are pluses... at least until I find a Spyder. :-)

Well, I had a WONDERFUL visit home during Thanksgiving. 5 days was far too short. And as a treat to y'all, I have some pictures! Click on them to see bigger versions.

Three Weeks in Three Minutes

I've been late, and since I just wrote a brief e-mail detailing what I've done the last three weeks, I though I would co-opt part of the e-mail and at least get something up so that my Mom (she is wonderful!) would have something to read when she checks in the morning.

Let's see, giving a brief mention to what I do while down here.

• Three weeks ago I drove 5 1/2 hours to visit my Uncle, Aunt, and two friends from Switzerland.That had a NICE room rented for the week (I only stayed two days) and it was nice visiting with family and friends. I had some loverly conversations with Aunt Angie and the hottub was wonderful. I actually went to sleep in it briefly.
  

• The week after I went scuba diving and found 54 sharks teeth, lots of shells, and spent way too much money buying junk. Having little fish nibble on my ears was an experience.

• Last week I went snorkelling to try out a shorty wetsuit. It was boring, dark, and raining so I quit early.

• Now? I'm taking a break this weekend and recovering from Aikido. I bruised my thumb muscles Saturday morning from giving too many wristlocks. Wristlocks are tricky... I really have to grab and sqeeze and I bruised my thumb muscles from too much pressure. Being gentle is NOT an option or our Sensei will spot it and demonstrate a proper wristlock to the failing individual. No one wants that. :-)
  

Picture Intensive Day

Same old-same old for this week. I was tempted to put up pictures of my Aikido bruises, but my mom worries enough. :-)

I took my camera down while snorkelling this time, and I managed to take some better pictures this time. Some trivia: in aquatic lingo, a cavern system is a cave system that contains native life and a cave system is/are cave/caves that doesn't contain life. Blue springs is both a cavern and cave system. It's considered a cavern to at least 90 feet down, past that... the spring probably starts to turn into a cave system. So without much more delay, picture time!

The water was the best I've seen. Very few people were around to disturb the silt and sand.


The sign at 60 feet.



Underwater pictures with snorkels NEVER turn out right. This was a bear to position properly. By swimming down then facing up, I go too high for a nice picture. After 10 seconds of twisting, I just give up, swim down with my back down, hit the sign, allow time for floating up, and snap! Oooo. Red chest hair.



There were two other freedivers diving, and this is a picture of the wife, about 25 feet down - I'm a little lower. I kept waiting for someone to come down so I could try an upwards picture and I think it turned out well. The husband was a fantastic diver, but I was never down at the same time... actually I was. The husband dove down first, the 15 seconds later I dove down, and headed straight down to the "death sign" to take a picture of another diver that deep (the water is very clear, but without ambient light, it's hard to see )... and... he's nowhere around. He took a light with him, but I didn't see anything farther down. I'm guessing he was at a minimum of 90 feet if I couldn't see his light. On the way up, I looked around in the crannies, but he wasn't to be found. By the time he came up, I would have had time to swim down and up another time.



Random fish shots. Notice the teeth of the fish in the last picture. Margaret remembers those fish. >:-) That particular fish was just under 3 feet... average. I saw a really big one that barely veered out of the way as I came through. I was within 6 inches of him as I glided by the fish. I guess he was pretty comfortable with his weight.



Algae art in the cavern. The first picture has "JESSE", a tic-tac-toe game, and a figure of a spiky haired person.


And the geo-cache picture I said I would get posted for everyone. I dropped of the nail trimmers and picked up the baseball key chain. The paper on the left is 10 sheet stapled together with signatures filling up the first page. An officer left her card there. She came earlier that day and beat me to the geo-cache.

Titleless (not hyphenated)

I am so close to tossing XP and picking up another operating system. I would have done it last week, but I can't get my wireless card to be recognized, so I would be off the internet, which is just not acceptable!

Nobody wants to hear about my computer frustrations though, so lets go onto a more pleasant subject. The pain from the 5k is at manageable levels at this point. I haven't been into the gym since last week, but tomorrow I've planned a nice long jump rope session.

There isn't much more news to give. The only other activity I've done this week is give blood to a local blood bank down here. In the three hours they were stationed in Tavares, I was there only donor. :-( At least they go one donation though!

I'll try to put some pictures of my geo-cache I found in my next post.

Quickie News

Time for an update

1. My computer is still not on the internet, so I need to blog/check e-mail at work
2. I went out Firday night to downtown orlando with some friends. It was a lot of fun, so I hope R&D enjoyed themselves too. The pizza was nice (but the crust was a bit thin for my taste.
3. After having 2.2 drinks Friday night and getting home after 1:00 AM Saturday morning, I proceeded to get up at 6:30 and run a 5K the next morning.... then 3 tought hours of tennis... and the hardest Aikido session workout I've had since I started. It was a monumental struggle just to stand up to exit the car.
4. I'm off geocaching. There are two new ones nearby that were posted recently, so I'm going to find them!

YMCA

I went to the YMCA again today. I found that jump roping in air conditioning is vastly easier than jumping rope outside in the heat and humidity. Today I brought my jump rope, but all the areas were full. Apparently, something called 'Boot Camp' was going on and all the auditoriums were in use. I just worked my legs and came home. I'll try again tomorrow.

SeaWorld Again

Yes, I went to Sea World today - and I only stayed four hours. It was just too hot today. But don't worry, half way home, I stopped at a light and a breeze came sideways through the open windows and it was cool (as in cold). I had been sweating all day, and finally, a bit of fresh air. Five minutes later, when I passed a bank with a clock and temperature guage, I realized I had almost acclimated to the summer temperature. That refreshing breeze, the cool air as I drove... 85 degrees out. Must have been 98 while I was walking around, and a 85 degree breeze was wonderful!

Tomorrow is Blue Springs!

A Brief Review of "War"

Warning - A very short review with plot spoilers is below. Don't look any further that point one if you wish to remain surprised.

War, the new movie with Jet Li and some other actor (I'm a bit biased) was a big disappointment. Two actors great at karate, fighting each other - how could that not be a great movie! But alas, it did fall down.

First problem - I didn't check the rating. R for violence and partial nudity, which was shocking for a movie with Jet Li. He always has very clean movies (other than the martial art violence) and I had assumed this one would be the same.

Problem two - Very little fighting that was a pleasure to watch. It was all over too fast with camera angles too close to the actors. The sword fights were decent, but it look very well rehearsed.

Slight Problem three - everyone dies.

Redeeming quality- the bad guy wins. Really! It is the redeeming quality of the movie, and the only way it could end once the plot twist was revealed.

Jason Statham and his parter are tracking down "Rogue". Rogue traps Statham but his partner shoots him in the head. Someone snitches to the Yakuza on the cop that hurt Rogue, so Rogue (who didn't die) comes back and kills Statham's partner, wife, and child. The FBI agent, Statham, swears revenge and spends the next three years tracking down Rogue. At the end, Statham succeeds in tracking down Rogue, and the Triad and the Yakuza are wiped out in the process but Rogue kills the FBI agent in the end.

The plot twist. Rogue failed to kill Statham's betrayed partner John, but did kill the wife and child before dying. John swears revenge against the Yakuza who ordered the hit on him and his family and takes the place of Rogue (who needed major facial reconstruction anyway) to get close to the Yakuza boss who ordered the hit. Rogue manages to destroy both gangs branches in San Fransico but finally finds that the one who snitched and caused his wife and child to be killed was FBI agent Statham. Statham and 'Rogue' fight and Rogue kills Statham and decides to become Rogue since the only person he trusted was the one that betrayed him.

Because of Statham's betrayal, he loses his marriage, eventually his wife and kids are killed, his partner's wife and kids are killed, all but one of the FBI agents are killed, the gangs in SF are killed, long standing friends kill each other, and Statham's whole quest for revenge circles back to himself. Result and effect were all put together quite well and believably, and left me sad that innocents got caught in the crossfire, but satisfied that the mill of justice ground exceedingly fine for those who crossed any line. I was almost upbeat when I left!

End of a busy/happy week

Whew, it has been a hectic two weeks, but now I think it has calmed down enough to blog again. So expect daily updates for a few weeks!

Last Monday I went out with a friend I met during snorkeling and one her friends and we put together a snorkelling trip to... Blue Springs! This will make the third weekend in a row I'll have been there. As much as I enjoy Blue Springs, I think I'll need to take a break from it after this weekend. Maybe I'll go wander through SeaWorld next weekend.

My mom and sister came down this last weekend, and it was wonderful! I'm so glad that my family sees where I work and live and play. When I refer to Subway, Taco Johns, Wal-Mart, or directions, my mom will know what I'm doing now.

My sister and I went swimming on Sunday. We started swimming at the beach for... two hours, maybe three. My sister did a really good job of putting sunscreen on my back, but I still have a sunburn on the places I was responsible: shoulders, upper arms, and crazy patterns on the top of my feet where I was a bit haphazard with the lotion. My sister says that her back is pretty sunburned, so I must have missed quite a bit when spreading lotion. I get two chances to put on sunscreen right and what do I do? Miss both times. :-)

Then, we went to the springs to swim some. My sister was still getting used to the snorkel and fins and the cold of the spring, so she swam a lot more than I did. I ended up diving into the spring more than snorkeling along the surface. The only thing really missing from the snorkeling was the schools of fish that I usually see. Those were the best fish to swim through, and maybe M will have a chance next time.

Clean Up and Snorkel

Today is the day I prepare for my mom and sister's visit. I'm straightening all the books, arranging the movies, hiding the my video games section so it doesn't 'disappear' after my mom sees them ;-), vacuum the floor, clean up papers, collapse cardboard boxes for storage, arrange my dresser surface, and make sure all my clothes are properly folded. In short - everything I should have done for myself already! Except for the hiding of the computer games.

I went snorkelling for four hours today (2000 Calories), and I was pleasantly shocked and surprised to see snorkelling on the shapefit.com site I mentioned yesterday. You know it has everything when it has a listing for horse grooming. Let's see... pogo stick... pogo stick... pogo stick... no. Doesn't have quite everything. Maybe I'll E-mail and request to have it added.

I tried out a new snorkel today. I bought the snorkel so my sister would have something to use when we go swimming. The new snorkel has a feature where a tab will keep water from coming in once I enter the water. The only problems with that feature is that as I go 30, 50 feet down, the water is trying to press into the snorkel and the only flexible entrance to the snorkel is my mouth. So as I go down, I not only need to equalize pressure in my mask to prevent mask squeeze, I also need to equalize the pressure in the snorkel to prevent, ah, snorkel squeeze? The short story? The new snorkel removes useful air from my lungs to use in the snorkel. Fortunately, after my intake of air going down, I can just remove the snorkel from my mouth and not worry about it. Problem solved!

Calorie Burn

I had a long weekend in Florida when I came back from home in PA and I had very little I needed to get finished. Most of my projects had been completed or shelved neatly for a nebulous later, so I decided I would take the time to try out a few different activities. I went jump roping, jogging, biking, heavy Aikido session, and tennis. Between those four activities, spread out over four days, I managed to burn approximately 7000 calories just in exersize. The chart I use is at shapefit.com - the largest list I've seen and very similar to other estimates for burning calories that I've seen.

Try picking an exercise you think you would/want to do and find out how long it would take to burn 7K calories. You might be surprised!

I have a few goals in mind for this exercising, and they are listed in order of current imporance.

• Snorkeling - A healthy heart and aerobic system can increase the amount of time a person can hold his breath.
• Better shape for outdoor activities
• I plan on biking to Orlando in a month or two to try out Couch Surfing before I depend on it in other countries.
• When I go hiking (hopefully for a long period; that would be fun) I want to be in shape before I go hiking - not afterwards.
• Lose weight - an obvious advantage with exercise
• Get really good at jump roping. I have a long way to go - I've jump roped for over 7 hours total since I bought my jump rope and I just now figured out how to cross my rope when jumping.
  
• Look incredibly handsome... but there isn't much more to improve so I put this goal low on the list. :-)

Back Again!

This long hiatus was due to my being on vacation, and having no incentive to spend time blogging when I could spend time doing other useful help around the house. The craft show I went home for was a good one. We sold out of our really good sellers in the first day, and the next day people kept coming back to pick up the "pole we saw yesterday"! If you are going to buy a pole, why don't you buy it the day you see it? Some ladies had a good excuse... they changed their mind, but other ladies decided to wait a day. Hmmm. I bet that saves a lot on spur-of-the-moment buying. Maybe they are onto something.

While visiting home ( at my parents house, not the craft show ), I managed to get a lot of weed-eating accomplished. Weed-eating isn't too tough, but it takes time, and it is hard on the back, so my mom and dad save the job for us "young and spry" children to do. :-) On the last day I was there, I got about half way done with a bank but had to clean up before the job was finished; so Dad takes the weed-eater and says he'll finish the job. In the time it took to take a quick bath and get dressed, MY dad had already finished the rest of the job. It was a section of the bank I wasn't looking forward to because of the steepness and the amount of long grass on that particular side of the bank that gets tangled up in the weed-eater - yet my dad did it in under 20 minutes! Just before I entered the shower, I looked out a window to see how the weed-eating was going, and I saw, halfway up this 15 foot tall bank, Dad with his right leg outstretched for grip, his left knee digging into the ground (it is a very steep bank... 80 degree slope I would guess) whacking away... quite the feat for those who know how difficult it is. :-) Go dad!

But what about my mom you say? We had a very nice visit... there isn't much better I can say that would portray the joy of visiting. I caught up on all the news happening in the family, and my mom got a list of plans and ideas for the future from me. 20 minute phone calls don't cover all the fun nitty gritty issues that families have to deal with, but long drives and working together gives enough time for a wonderful visit. I would come back and do a "working vacation" in a moment. I would say more of what we discussed and did, but once I start, I would couldn't stop for 2o or 30 pages. :-) Lots of fun stuff, maybe to come.

Margaret is doing well it seems. I think all that lifting and stacking she does so wholeheartedly is ruining our wrestling sessions. I try to demonstrate a simple Aikido move for her, and what does she do! She refuses to cooperate! If I try to twist her hand, she is supposed to lose her grip and fall down. What happens? I tried to twist, and Margaret's hand didn't budge. There I am, in a chokelock, trying to show how effective Aikido is, and it fails miserably, and I just keep gasping for air and pulling while Margaret just keeps holding my neck. :-) Oh well, we had a good wrestling session. Maybe when I see Jesse next, I can get him to cooperate. :-)

I didn't get to visit with Katie and Ryan as long as I did the others. Mom, Dad, and Margaret I see at home while working, but I only got to see the other three members of the family after getting off the plane and before heading home again. It wasn't nearly long enough. I'm hoping Thanksgiving or Christmas will have a better visit. Christina is as lovely as aways and walking short distances which was very exciting. She wasn't quite sure if she was willing to trust this stranger (me) to hold her though. I'll just have to visit more often! Ryan's foot is still holding up his job, and the doctor won't release him to go back. I think he is seeing the specialist again today to get the go-ahead for working.


The last thing I wanted to mention today was the friends I saw and some plans that are solidifying as something I definitely want to do. I managed to visit some with Ben, Dan, Mark, Stacy, and another Mark. Ben came down for a whole day, and we spend most of the day lounging about, waiting for people to get off work. Ben also offered to room with me if I moved to Ohio. A very tempting offer. Very tempting. As for plans - after work I want to spend a month/a few months/a year traveling. I've very recently started heavy duty exercising to get into shape for hiking/walking/biking and checking out programs that let you stay nights at houses across the world. I'll get more into that tomorrow. No time for spell checking. It's off to bed!

Less than a week to go

I'm going to be seeing most of my family in just under a week. I found out that my boss won't be coming in to work until the day after I get back... so... there was only one conclusion I could reach: I just changed my ticket to stay an extra day at home. Home sweet home.

Yo-Yo

Just a fun post for yo-yos. He is the current world freestyle champion and this is his performance.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXFTdBqi7jg&mode=related&search=

Snorkelling Pictures

I finally managed to bring my camera to a snorkeling dive. Unfortunately, the first 3 or 4 pictures I took at the springs didn't print. Not all is lost, because the spring was extremely cloudy, even when I first got there - at that point only three scuba divers and I were in the pool. I don't know why it was so bad, but after seeing how the more or less well lit pictures turned out, I'm sure the pictures I took while 40 feet down were almost solid black. Next time, when I'm pretty deep where it is clearer, I'll use the flash and see how that works. Even when the sun was shining directly overhead, I could only see two or three feet farther down at sixty. Oh well.

Here are four of the better pictures I got of the fish as I swam along. Keep in mind that there were only a foot in front of the camera, and I still got the aim off. Live and learn. I saw some bigger fish this time, but I couldn't get withing 2 feet of them.


And here are four obligatory pictures of ME! I didn't want to waste the filem, so I took a few pictures of me, the equipment, the car, a parking lot.

Plans Plans Plans

Not much of one. I'm planning to go snorkeling tomorrow again. This time I will be taking my underwater camera, so hopefully I'll be able to share the view from sixty feet down... hopefully I can go lower though now that I feel a bit more comfortable diving. Going that deep also depends on the scuba divers around. So far I don't cut things close enough to be too concerned about problems, but as my mom says, "Accidents happen." If there are scuba divers around that would notice me passed out and sinking, it gives a person an extra bit of confidence for dangerous and insane stunts!

In other personal news: jump roping is fun! Especially now that I've gotten used to it and have the skill to do more than ten at a time (go ahead and laugh. You try it!). At a very slow rate, I've been able to jump rope more than 20 minutes at a time. I was going to opt for running, but apparently jump roping isn't as hard on the joints as running. That makes a certain amount of sense I guess... jump rope jumping may be constant ups and downs, but it is always on the balls of my feet. While running, I'm landing on my heal at every step.

Training-wise, I am being a little more careful about the 'how' of my training. I started looking into exercise routines to improve my heart health, but mostly just news on what I can do to lower my heart rate (for longer snorkel dives!) I put my current resting heart rate is 54. Oddly enough, I only get that rate while working. While sitting in my room, upstairs, outside, or in the car, my resting hear rate is 60. It's like clockwork. I can do push-ups and curls in the morning, take a shower, go to work and sit in my chair, wait ten minutes, and I only count 54. Just before I go to lunch? Still 54. Walk upstairs, sit a half hour and read, and my heart rate is at 60. It just doesn't make sense.

Someone is Happy!

1st Timothy

There is a lot of information and insight available in the tiniest pieces of the Bible. While I was jumping rope today, I was trying to memorize a verse of 1st Timothy. Since I'm just starting, I am still on verses one and two. In those two verses are an incredible amount of information, and I wanted to share my thoughts on those two verses.

vs 1. Paul. The first thing he says is that he is an apostle by command. It wasn't his choice, he was going his own way, when boom! Jesus Christ stepped in and blinded him and told him what he wanted done. I find that reassuring. In all of our weakness and failures and sin, God can still step in and redeem us and put us back on the right path.

vs 2. Paul says an odd thing to Timothy, and it's something that I'm going to look into further tomorrow: "grace, mercy, and peace." What didn't occur to me until about minute 30 of jumping (at that point, the brain starts loosing focus and going onto tangents) was Paul's repetition. I always considered grace and mercy to be identical. If someone is merciful, he is showing grace. Likewise if someone is showing grace, he is being merciful. I can't see the difference between the two concepts - yet Paul, in wishing three good things upon Timothy repeats himself with "grace" and "mercy". Such basic concepts, and yet my understanding about the simplest?/greatest of God's gifts is lacking.

vs 1 and 2: In order, Paul refers to God as God our Saviour, Jesus Christ our Hope, God the Father, and Jesus Christ our Lord. In those four phrases is a great layout of who God is. For Christians, He is a savior, a hope and our lord - but he is everyone's father. Everything and everyone around us had our source in God. Those that follow Him have even more though: they can count look to god as a savior, a hope, and a lord. I find that a very comforting thought.

Parents and Philosophy

My parents are at a craft show right now, unloading, unwrapping, painting, organizing, and tarping their work, just to name a few of the things they need to do before Saturday comes around. I think this is the first year that Mom and Dad have done all the setup by themselves. They've usually had me or one of the other kids to help out with the work. I hope everything goes well for them - four days of setup may sound like a lot, but the time flies while setting up.

I'm readying a book right now "Voyage From Yesteryear". It's a pretty good book portraying how the author sees a near-perfect human world operating. There are problems that come in from the outside, but by the end of the book, you see that the "Chironians" (residents of the planet Chiron) had everything well in had, and there wasn't even much worry about the final outcome from the Chironian side. I would like to quote from the book, a line I think is pretty accurate describing man and his capabilities.

I said the mind was an infinite resource, but only if you don't squander it. Don't you think that makes an interesting paradox?

My lunch break is almost over, so I need to get prepared for work again. I hope everyone has a good weekend. I'm planning to go snorkelling again this Saturday. Remember I said I had some friends down here, just not my own age? Well, it looks like there is an outside possibility one of those friends would go snorkeling next weekend/July 4th - around that time. Time will tell. Now I must go exercise my brain cell through work.

The Unplanned Life

I've been down in Florida for five months (almost). I can't say that is has been anything special, but there are a few things that I've learned/grown used to.

• I've gotten used to washing my own clothes on a regular basis. I don't go home weekends any more, so I can't give my mom the joy of doing something for her kids. :-)
• Sandals have become a new love in my life. I had to wear them after I had my surgery, and I found I really like wearing sandals. Getting used to the sandals was a three day process, but after breaking them in, I wear sandals all the time now.
• Excess weight keeps stalking my every move. If only I could give up Taco Johns. It is still a work in progress.
• Gave up cable TV. TV just sucks up all the free time in an evening, and I enjoy working on my hobbies far more than sitting in front of a TV - so I gave TV up. I still watch movies though.
  
• Web sites are tougher than I thought. I tried designing one for my sister, but I just couldn't keep slogging through it. I tried designing one for myself - that didn't even get off the ground. I assumed it would be like programming, but I can't keep up website design like I do programming. Maybe I just need to get better at HTML and CSS.
• Programming is enjoyable. I've found that I really do enjoy the challenge of programming. I especially enjoy moving from topic to programming topic - I don't master any of them, but I do learn enough to be satisfied before I move on. Example: My IO language kick earlier moved into some OpenGL push which is moving into a vector graphics format interest (all done within the framework of the cool IO language). Why are there no general purpose vector graphic formats available?
• I found that I enjoyed scuba diving and snorkelling. I'm planning to go snorkelling again this weekend if anyone wants to join me.
• Without constant extemp pressure, I don't keep up on current events nearly as well as I should.
• It is definitely lonely without someone to accompany me on weekends or evenings. I have made a few friends, but none my age with my interests, so the friendships are more a "I'll say hi and ask what's going on, then leave". After mulling it over this weekend, I'm going to go swing dancing to meet people my age. At least conversation won't center around what work is like... and hopefully conversation won't center around sports either.
  

Snorkeling or Snorkelling

I went snorkeling ( spelling can also be snorkelling ) at Blue Springs this weekend and found it to be a blast! When I was doing my training dives, I did some snorkelling then, but with the wetsuit, I could barely go 15 feet. Without the wetsuit, it was quite easy to dive down deep. In fact, I go lower than I did scuba diving. 60 feet down to be exact. Getting down that far though didn't give any time to look around though, so usually I tried to hang out about 50 feet. There were some rock ledges that I could hold onto so I didn't start floating up. There really isn't much to see at that depth other than the rock formations the spring carves.

If I ever go snorkeling with a scuba diving buddy, I want to try a cave that is thirty feet down. I don't know how long it is, but it took the scuba instructors about 3o seconds to do it with scuba equipment. At only thirty feet down, I figure a 30 second jaunt through the cave is definitely doable, but I would want someone to be able to rescue me if I didn't come out!

For those of you who thing snorkeling might be fun - some warnings.

1. Don't hyperventilate to hold your breath longer and stay under. Hyperventilating fools your body into thinking there is more oxygen than there really is. When you reach the point that 11 percent of the air in your lungs is oxygen, your body realizes that it got out of sync with your brain, so it knocks you out so you don't keep trying to do crazy stuff like hold your breath too long: unfortunately for you, you're underwater at that point, and the body's technique fails. This usually happens about 15 feet, because divers tend to cut the dive close, and 15 feet is where your brain and body happen to catch up.
2. Don't accept air from a scuba diver. The air at 60 feet down is under 3 atmospheres. If you hold your breath at all coming up, your lung can be damaged from expanding air. While scuba diving, we're told not to hold our air at all, because even while we're floating, waves on the surface can be changing our effective pressure. Even 4 foot differences is enough for small damage. It takes years for that much to be a problem, but snorkelers can cover 15 coming up within a second. (The rate you rise continues to increase as you float towards the surface)
3. For the same reason as number two, don't use air pockets you find underwater. The cave I want to dive through has an air pocket. If desperate, I would use it, but then again, I already know what to do if I'm rising to the surface with compressed air in my lungs (blow small bubbles out constantly.) This year, a kid had a problem because he used that air pocket at blue springs and didn't know what scuba divers know.

There are some advantages that you get while snorkeling, that you don't get above the surface. When you put your face under the surface, a few survival features your body has kicks into gear

1. Bradycardia - a 20 percent drop in heart rate occurs while under water - nice!
2. Vasoconstriction - your blood vessels start supplying the vital parts of your body by constricting the vessels in your arms and legs. If you're in and emergency and in cold water a long time, this can save your life (at the cost of your appendiges possibly.) While snorkeling, it just means your oxygen consumption drops.
3. Splenic contraction - One function of your spleen is to hold oxygenated red blood cells in reserve until needed. Diving underwater triggers this mechanism and boom! You have even more oxygen saturated blood cells than you did before! Apparently in seals, the spleen has been seen to contract to 16% of it's original size. I have no idea how much contraction occurs in humans
4. Blood shift - occurs because of the pressure drop. blood plasma fills up the vessels in the lungs to reduce volume. This keeps your lungs from collapsing in on itself at depths greater than 30 feet. Doesn't help you stay under longer, but it does mean you can have a fun experience if you go beneath 30 feet!
   

That is all folks! Hope it was an informative lesson on snorkeling. If you have any questions, just ask in comments. I'm sure Wikipedia also has something very informative and better arranged than my lists.

Fun fact: Umberto Peliazari's heart rate drops to 8 beats a minute while diving.

IO Language - Open GL

I've been experimenting with the OpenGL addon for IO and my result is below.
There is no actual code behind this to enter text or anything. This was just a test program to see if I could get IO's implementation of OpenGL running. I don't know the problem was before, but the last version of IO I had was a bit buggy when importing addons. Last week I downloaded a new version, and everything in OpenGL was working wonderfully.








Here is my IO code for those who are interested.

Planned Parenthood Problems

I've never been a fan of Planned Parenthood. Their whole philosophy is against what I believe as a Christian. Their "birth control" options include emergency contraceptives and abortion, both of which happen after conception. They go so far as to say that "Today, abortion is legal nationwide and is one of the safest of all available medical procedures.

This is hardly a newly acquired dislike of Planned Parenthood, but yesterday I came across some more information on Planned Parenthood that was chilling - the operators on the phone were willingly ignoring rape and doing all they could not to know about it and telling the person on the phone to not tell anyone about it. This wasn't just one or two instances; apparently over 800 operators country wide were found to ignore statutory rape AFTER they knew about it (and told the reporter how to not get their boyfriend in trouble) . The setup was a 13 year old girl getting pregnant with a 22 year old boyfriend.

Widespread corruption and dismissal of laws by Planned Parenthood. Never a good situation, especially in an organization dealing with human life.

Hate Crimes

I've been following/catching up on news lately and there were a few issues that I thought I would share with readers.

The first issue is that of hate crimes. I've always had a strong dislike for hate crime laws because of the principle involved: the government mandates different punishments based solely on what you are thinking. I don't have a problem with differing punishments for the same crime... maybe I should elucidate a few of my philosophies and beliefs first.

beliefs:
1) Sin deserves punishment.
2) Mercy is quality man can show

Personal idea (as far as I can tell it is based on the Bible)
1) The mortal punishment for sin is based on actual action.
2) The punishment for an action may be based on the belief
behind an action, but we're only given physical actions to
judge.
3) Government has never been shown or told to be merciful
4) Man should be merciful (and wise, don't forget that part)

Conclusion ( short at this point, since I spent so long on the first part ):
1) Government should mandate punishment based only on physical action
2) Government can mandate a range of punishment so that the implementors of the law (men such as judges and juries) are able to show mercy.
3) Governments role is not to differentiate punishment for the same actions through the thought, which is the definition of what hate crime laws do.

A general overview of the issue
Overview according to HSLDA
The text of the law at issue - HR 1592 RFS
The definition of a hate crime the above law uses - H.R. 3355

Whew - OK. its getting late now, I'll post the next issue tomorrow. Let me know if I made some huge flubs or if my conclusions or basis don't flow together well

Family Visit Plans

Another big program done for my boss. It still needs to be tested, but I managed to finish it in four days - and that includes a new feature my boss wanted added - user defined pictures displayed on the dialogs. That took a full day. The good thing about it is that features that I would have said were impossible without a big program are now able to be found and implemented by me! Six months back, I had tried the same project of adding pictures and spent three or four days on it before my boss told me to move onto something more productive. Six months later? One day to find, implement, and test!

I know most of you aren't interested in my slowly advancing programming skills, so I'll move onto something a bit more family oriented.... MY SISTER IS COMING DOWN!!!! She is planning to visit sometime in August, and M seems set to come down. It's going to be cool! I guess she just can't get enough teasing from mom and dad - it's up to the master to properly tease and poke her! (Maybe not poke... she's can catch up to me and poke me back. Must be all that lifting at work... or I'm out of shape? Or both! )

I just hope that she has enough fun and see enough sites and enjoys my sophisticated and calm company enough that she is glad she came down. It's a bit nerve racking thinking that she would come all this way to visit and not have fun. :-(

But! Margaret is Margaret and she will do what she wants, and I hope you have fun! I'll see you in August!

And as official notice - Blue Springs this weekend. I am going to try snorkeling, and if my sister likes it enough, maybe she'll want to try it at a spring or the ocean.


A picture of me preparing to scuba dive, I wasn't quite ready for a picture, or I would have shown off my sculpted body a bit better. ;0)

Zoom

I watched "Zoom: Academy for Superheroes" tonight, and I have to say, I'm putting it up there just above "Shark Boy and Lava Girl." In case of mistake, I did want to mention that "Shark Boy..." was high on my enjoyment radar. What I found impressive about "Zoom" was the fact that the producers didn't skimp on special effects when needed. I don't remember seeing any wimpy special effects during the whole thing.

And for a final update on the car... perfect! It has been a full week since I repaired the brakes and wheel cylinder and I don't see any leaks at this point. Whoo hoo!

Workwise, I've spent about sixteen hours working on a big inventory program, and I'll guess another few days before finishing. For a big master program, a week. That portends good things for smaller programs!

Car Repair - Part Two

'Tis done! I had to disassemble the brakes a few more times during the test phase of the tires - but I think I fixed all of my brake fluid leaks. It is extremely nice to be able to pull up to a stop light and push on the breaks and not have to keep pushing the brakes over and over to push more break fluid into the lines. It does make me pay a lot more attention to the small sounds the car makes... "Is that small knocking sound every time the wheel goes around from changes I've made these last two days or was it there before and I never noticed it?"

I have a new life's ambition - daredevil gymnastics

When I saw the Chinese gymnastics at the boat races a month or two back, I saw some of the kids practicing, and they did some moves just as neat as these, but nothing quite as risky. My favorite move I saw a few months back was seeing the boy lay on the ground on his back with his elbows on the ground and his hands up, and the girl do a hand stand on his hands. At this point, the boy would roll over and over, keeping the girl on his hands. At this point, I can't remember exactly how he managed to do that while on his stomach? I don't even have a video of it. I'll bring a camera next year though!

Car Repair - Part One

Today I took the first big steps of becomeing self-sufficient: I tried to repair my car. Specifically, my back brakes were leaking, so I'm replacing the back wheel cylinders and brake pads. Starting about eleven, and going until 7:30, I managed to do one back wheel. In the process, I stripped screw and broke a break line. The last two, I'm not going to count against my car repair ability, since my overseer was 99% certain the last car repair place I took my car to did it to make it harder for me ( long story, maybe I'll elucidate one day ).

lessons learned from this experience?
1) Estimations on time are always short
2) You can't repair a car and keep your hands clean
3) Even the cleaning materials get your hands dirty
4) Thank my boss over and over for having me get a car repair manual first
5) A car repair manual for a complicated job like this is VERY useful
6) Not having all the tools makes car repair extremely hard
7) I now know how my back braking system works
8) I have a car repair manual for other fixes ( such as air conditioning fan )
9) I still have a long way to go tomorrow for the other side's repair
10) I feel confident that I could repair something if I needed to do so

Debit, Credits, and Calculator Troubles

The debits and credits aren't so much trouble, but setting up the file access protocol for my program is a bear. I think a solid day would be a big step forward - unfortunately I don't have day.

For work, I've spend the last 12 hours programming a calculator. It's a lot harder than it looks. Most of the time was just trying to figure out how things were supposed to work together. Simple you say? Only a calculator you say? Let me share but one of the problems I had. I STARTED with a simple order of operation, on 3 separate calculators, along with their results. I posted my final version at the bottom.

# - is any number you enter - I tend to use nine because it is the easiest for me to reach.
() - between the parenthesis is the result of the buttons pressed. Try it out on your calculator. See what format you get into. My second boss was also following along on a second calculator and had a different format than listed, but I didn't bother to catalog it, since my boss had already decided on a general format by then.

Casio Calculator
#= (#)
#/= (1/#)
#*= (#*#)
#+= (#)
#-= (#-#)

Window Calculator
#= (#)
#/= (#/#)
#*= (#*#)
#+= (#+#)
#-= (#-#)

Adv Calculator - our old software's calculator
#= (0)
#/= (#/0)(Divide by zero error)
#*= (#*0)
#+= (#+0)
#-= (#-0)

The calculator format my boss chose and I programmed
#= (#)
#/= (#)
#*= (#)
#+= (#)
#-= (#)

Such simple operations vary so much. The more involved such as a double equals, square root, percentage, varied drastically. The "%" especially was loco - though the button looked the same on different calculators, they didn't even do close to the same operations.

Keeping is Lazy

I'm staying lazy involuntarily. I had a hang nail and went to a podiatrist to get it removed, thus I now have to stay away from strenuous activities that involve toes. Fortunately, by carefully ignoring doctor's orders, I managed to bike six miles yesterday... and walked three today. I did make one small concession to the doctor and wore sandles for both activities. Unfortunately, I had to cancel my trip to blue springs this weekend and skip pain class. This coming weekend, I really want to go to SeaWorld, so I'm going to move my trip to Blue Springs back two weeks. I can't wait to try out my underwater camera in clear water - my earlier pictures were too dark.

In other exciting news: I now know the difference between a credit and a debit without a doubt. Very useful - especially since my job is programming accounting software!

Random Plans

I've officially started my new workout regamin. I was thinking about switching my home workout routine around a bit, making the workout more structured. After a week of mulling it over, I decided to try a new format - compound interest! Every week I'm going to increase the numbers involved by 3% and see how long I can keep up the exercises, but I'm cheating some because I'm starting with an easy 20 of everything: 20 push ups, 20 leg lifts, 20 setups, 20 second handstand, and whatever I can get for curls. This isn't close to a full or balance workout, but I think it will be good enough for an experiment.

What started me thinking about switching my workout was when I learned when I would be going home. I have a little over a month to get in shape for my homecoming. The vacation this time will be for over a week! I want to get my airline reservations finished before the week is out, but it may get put off a bit longer. :-)

I don't have many more random plans to share - I'm heading to WalMart after work to get a CD of some pictures from my camera so I can send them off to a friend. The pictures are of the Cinco de Mayo party... Oooo. I never posted about that. Maybe another day.

One final bit of news to remind my readers that I am a law abiding (cough), honest citizen.
During my last trip to WalMart, I bought StarCraft. I didn't buy it because I wanted to play the game more, but because I have played the *free* versions of the game a lot and I wanted to make restitution.

Scuba Diving 101

Ta-Da!

I've completed my first open water dive. My class went to Blue Springs and went
down the into the spring... but I get ahead of myself.

The class met at our lovely diving shop at the dreadful hour of 7:00 AM Sunday morning and I carpooled with another person and we all drove down to the spring together. When we got to the entrance, we stood in line to sign a release that we wouldn't take anything, disturb the environment, dive safely, etc. The park only lets in 35 divers at a time so the spring doesn't get too crowded. Of course, if you are a snorkeler or a swimmer, you can walk straight in. We parked at the entrance to the spring, got suited up, learned how to use an underwater compass, and walked a tenth of a mile to the source of the stream. The walk was the hardest part of the whole trip. We're suited up in 5 mil two-piece wet suits, with all of our equipment and extra
weight, and we walked... and walked... The wet suits are meant to conserve warmth in cold water, not in a warm May day in Florida. Everyone was happy to step into the cold spring water.

We got our masks and flippers on and did our skills testing in a shallow area of the spring, only 6 or 7 feet deep. Then we got to suit up and go into the spring depths!

Diving into the spring was an experience. The opening was 6 feet by 20, looking like a big scar in the ground, and we had to swim down against the spring water coming up to reach our desired depth. We swam facing down, and as we went down, it just kept getting darker and darker. There is NO way I would go down a black cavern with black hidden recesses unless I knew it was safe like this one. As we got near our lower limits for this dive, we could continue to look down into the spring openings and we could see other divers practicing their caving skills. More accurately, I could see the beams from their headlights shining around and moving. My description does the experience little justice, suffice it to say, it was great to watch and also highly tempting to drop a small, loose stone to see I could hit the invisible divers below.

I would have loved to have gone deeper, but 55 feet was the limit for this class. We held onto the side ledges or swam around so we didn't continue our free fall into the depths. When we came up, there were quite a few more divers arriving and snorkelers galore! The water was freezing and I have no idea how the snorkelers handled the cold without wet suits. It was pretty cool to see a snorkeler come down 40 feet into the spring and turn around about face level and wave just as he goes up again. :-) I just read this morning, that the deepest unaided dive record (no snorkel or fins ) was just set at 82 feet. At that point, it would be completely black. Along with contortion, hip hop, and Aikido, deep snorkeling is my new goal!

One unexpected problem was when I had a full wet suit on, snorkeling was very hard. The wet suit is mostly small pockets of air, and it was hard getting down the 15 feet necessary to meet the course snorkeling requirements, but the effort of swimming down was worth it. You could swim really fast towards a catfish, and if you coasted the last foot down or so, I could occasionally touch the catfish before he swam off. While scuba diving, I also saw two big crabs. The shell was probably 8 inches across. He was just sitting on a ledge about 25 feet down, just watching us pass him up and down. The swim back to the cars was pretty neat also. I saw two more big crabs and 3 schools a fish. Two of the schools were in the distance to the side and hard to see, but just seeing a wall of silver flashing was pretty cool. I swam towards a third one and got close and saw all the fish. It was a fun trip.

This Saturday we'll be diving a reef in the ocean. Whoo hoo!

Cinco de Mayo Party

Today is Cinco De Mayo! The fifth of May is a big celebration of Mexico's victory over Napoleon III's army. American helped out and let any serviceman leave the army if they wanted to help in the Mexico's fight against the French.

Actually, it's only the fourth, but I moved the time ahead on this post so my history lesson would be relevant for the day. Since I've moved the post date ahead, I'll stay in the future and tell you what's happening at 10:00 AM on Cinco De Mayo!

I've just gotten back from pain class. Except for the one week we worked on wrist locks, it hasn't be too painful, but I enjoy using that name for the class. I'm taking a book on scuba diving down to south-east Orlando. I need to read a chapter and turn in homework at my next scuba diving class. So far, I've met my snorkeling requirement, and I've put on the diving equipment and stayed under for over 20 minutes in the deep end of a pool. Very cool. Some lessons I've learned from my class so far: A wet suit is way, way cool, Being able to clear out a facemask full of water, while still under the water is wonderful, and fins are hard to use.

I'm off to visit a friend in another half hour. I've just finished with my post-Aikido shower and will reach the destination by 12:00 hopefully. Her older sister is holding a large Cinco de Mayo party and we're all going to go out to eat at a Mexican restaurant and stay the rest of the day and overnight at their "party house". From McM's description, the house is huge and has all sorts of water equipment - boats, sailboats, skis, canoes... and stuff. I'm looking forward to the visit/party.

10/29/05

Here is an old post that was in my "drafts" folder for my blog. I remember this day. I'll add one little detail, every time we've played the arcade at the theater, he has always won. And this day was no exception. :-) I'm proud of you Dad.

--------------
Earlier today, as I went to see Zorro on the big screen, and in the car ride with my dad, I was asking about what work he was doing at the moment and I started thinking of all the years and long hours. There were times that he had to stay up very late and get up very early and when we couldn't help him much during those long hours. I'm sure that comes in all businesses, but I was listening to some music tonight and one of the songs recalled this afternoon with my dad, and I hope that one day I have the courage and patience of Dad to stand up and keep working even though I am weary and the work is tiring.

The lyrics are below... My translation: "I said I would avoid trouble, but sometimes trouble can't be avoided, soI'll stand up and meet it head on without flinching, and I know you understand - I remember what you've said"

"I walk away from trouble when I can.
Now please don’t think I’m weak,
I didn’t turn the other cheek,And papa,
I sure hope you understand:
Sometimes you gotta fight when you’re a man. "

IO Language

I have been living this last week in a pleasant fiction: I live in a world populated by regular updates, intelligent conversation, educated topics, and unlimited ice-cream. This pleasant fiction sustained me for a whole day, then I blew the rest of the week in learning a new programming language and researching what makes good language design vs bad language design, pros and cons of programming languages, and compilers for making my own language. You may be saying "Boring!", and in truth I often wonder why I find it so fascinating, but I still keep going back to the internet night after night trying to compile, learn, and educate myself about a language that will probably have no real application in ANY job I have, but leaning an entirely new language is quite informative.

In fact, for the last month, I've been growing frustrated with the rigidity of C++ and was looking for something similar to Squeak without the big footprint. The only languages I had heard about that might be able to help were dolphin (smalltalk variant) and Self. Neither of which are currently freely available for the windows system. My conclusion: develop my own programming language. I've had been making quite good progress until I ran across the IO programming language, and everything I was planning had been implemented and then some!

Warning: The following post will be technical and boring to those un-initiated into the world of computer programming. I also don't hold out much hope if this being interesting to those who are interested in programming.

IO Language: How is it different from C++ and Java? Let's do a quick comparison. C++ and Java are class based languages using function calls as the main process of execution. The IO language is completely different. The closest similarity I've seen is the language Self. (Javascript is also a similar language, but I don't know enough about it to vouch for that). IO is a prototypical, message based language. Everything is an object, and a message is required to do anything. There are no function calls - which makes for a very powerful threading pardigm. Hello world is an example of the language; just keep in mind that this is an interpreted language that a virtual machine translates (like Java).

"Hello World!" println

prints: Hello World!
Wasn't that cool? Let's try a larger, more typical example using obvious procreate a generic object we can use. the clone message create an exact copy

Hat := Object clone // create a "Hat" object
Hat size := 8 // size & 8 are Number classes
Hat refit := method( newSize, // we create a function here
Hat size = 9
)
"Hat size started out at " print
Hat size println

"Hat size after refit is " print
Hat refit
Hat size println

The output:

Hat size started out at 8
Hat size after refit is 9

Remember - even though the code looks like it uses function calls it doesn't. Let's take a look at the last line: Hat size println. Hat is an Object. size is a message sent to Hat which has a result of evaluating the code in the "size" slot which has a final value of the Number object 9. println is a message sent to Number which prints a number on the screen. You may say, "What does it matter? function calls and methods end up do the same thing." Ha. You've never worked with threads in MFC then. :-)

I would have given up on this language except for two breakthroughs. My first breakthrough came around hour six in trying to get IO to do things beyond simple assignments and methods: I managed to get the addons (like OpenGL) working! 3 hours later, I was ready to give up. I really, really, really wanted to be able to do a simple console application. And I found it. I'll post the answer below, but first I just have to explain my genius ( random luck) in figuring it out. I'm looking at the online reference for IO, and I see a core prototype called CLI. It was undocumented and I didn't have the source in the download I had, but no worries! The IO language provides self inspections. I can print ANY io code used/declared in the current object. I'm looking through the various functions and I see about 5 lines of code that composes the main loop to the entire program. Turns out that CLI is the main window! I quickly copied the CLI code and made my own, simple, easy, short console application template that does not depend on any addons! The cumulative effort of 9 solid hours of research and grunt work:

//Do the prototype creation and setup here
stdout := File clone standardOutput
stdin := File clone standardInput
while(true,
write("Your next wish? ")
line := stdin readLine
if(stdin isAtEnd, writeln; Lobby exit)
// Do actions here depending on user's typing
)

My next goal: implement Legends11. Legends11 is an unpublished game that my brother got for me about 10 years ago. It was text based, short (under 4 hours), simple, and fun. I've played it though 5-10 times and I still enjoy playing it.

Hint: doFile("filename.io") is a lifesaver if you decide to try out IO

Back and Caught Up

This is my final act to catch up with being away. I keep my room barely clean, refrigerator slightly stock with water, and bed always made. The first thing I did was make my bed. My rush to leave early Wednesday morning meant I didn't give myself time to make my bed or put any clothes away from the packing I did the night before. My room looked like someone had searched it and hadn't put anything back.. The second thing I do is to take everything off the floor and put it on the bed. Third third major project was to fill up the refrigerator with water. With the warm temperature here, I go through 3/4 a gallon a day. I still haven't cleaned off my bed, but the floor is a good friend.

My sister wants to redesign her website, so I was volunteered by my mom to do the redesign. The refresher on HTML has been worth it. Before yesterday, I didn't remember how to start a new light or how to make a table. Today I do, and I sent off a sample to sister M be examined for quality. She had already given me some rough drawings, but before I spent too much time implementing rough ideas, I wanted sister M to see and to change the design to suit her.

It looks as though I won't finish everything I wanted to finish tonight. I wanted to share some thoughts about the hypothetical questions I posed last post. After an hour on the phone with brother J, mulling over the issues myself for a while, and hearing mom's rationals in person with longer/more in-depth explanations, I've changed my opinion for my first response, and it shed a bit of light on how I see the world. :-) It is likely of little interest to anyone except family, but the best way to know and understand what I believe is to have myself be able to explain my beliefs to someone, and hopefully I'll be able to do that tomorrow evening. Maybe I'll even explain clearly! That would be a refreshing change!

2 Days Until Home

Whooo hooo! Home in 2 days. 36 hours and I'll be on the plane!

The real reason for this post is an article I read today in Discovery magazine. It made me think quite a bit about the moral judgments I make. These questions are NOT trick questions, and don't spend time on either one, because in real life you wouldn't have time to carefully decide.

Question one: A train is chugging down a traintrack ( big surprise ). If it continues, 5 people on a track farther down will die. If you throw the track switch right now, 1 person will die on the other route? What do you do?

Question two: 4 critically injured patients just came into the hospital and won't live much longer. They all need different and unavailable transplants to survive, but they would survive if they had transplants. A person that matches all five donors is about to walk out the doors. (Talk about long odds!) Do you take the healthy person and kill him to save all the others?

Now for the humdinger. Why did you choose what you chose?

Early Bird Gets The Worm

I don't normally bog about work, but I think today would be a good day to make an exception. Rarely does time just "fly by" while working. Time usually passes, meanders, and sometimes plods while working. It doesn't seem to matter what type of work I'm doing or if I enjoy it, the passage of time is something I can't judge very well while working. Last Thursday, I was working hard, didn't check the time and didn't look for lunch since I didn't feel too hungry. Eventually, I pull back, spread my arms, and give a wide long yawn. I tried to guess the time... 12:00? 1:00? 3:00? It seemed as though I had been working forever. 9:30. I couldn't believe it. I was ready for the day to be about done and the clocks only said 9:30. Ugh.

Today though, I started at my normal 8:00 time. I started working, researching, tracking down bugs. Things I would consider fairly routine or even boring. I check the time after a little bit and it was already 11:30! I hadn't done much work, very little productive programming and it was already 9:30. I went for lunch, came back and worked on the exact same issues and the clock yet again jumped forward to 4:00.

My net productivity for those seven hours: I commented out 10 lines of code. The code I commented out were lines of code spread throughout a single file that I had added about 7 months ago. Not only did I get rid of the progress I thought I had made back then, but I also didn't add any features to the program. Essentially, I cut the cost that I myself produced, and got paid for it. :-)

Fortunately, most days I'm a little more beneficial to the company.

I had a nice talk with my mom today. We chatted for a half hour about movies, websites, nephews, and vacations. Based on my mom's recommendation, I am planning to see "Meet Joe Black" whenever I get a card to the local video rental store.

Time to do a little clean up of my paperwork and then an early bedtime.

9 more days until I go home!

Tennis and Biking

Ah, another lovely Saturday comes to visit. Later this evening, I may be going to visit my cousins who are down here for vacation time. They said they would call me and let me know when a good time to visit popped up. My guess is I'm not going to get a call today: they are getting in today, and after an early start, a long drive, a long wait at the airport, flying, getting baggage, driving to their hotel, unpacking, and planning, the last thing they want is MORE things to do. :-) I hope they enjoy their time in Orlando.

I hope everyone enjoyed my pictures of SeaWorld. I was going to go back this Sunday after church, but when I realized it would be Easter weekend and prime vacation time, I decided it wasn't worth the crowds. Instead, I'm going to play tennis this afternoon and read a book. Don't know what book yet, but any book will do. Any suggestions? My living room has close to 2500 books and the library is just down the street, so if I can't find it in time for this weekend, I'll try it for next weekend.

I may go bicycling tomorrow. Depending on the weather and what I feel like, I may take a ride on the "nature" trail near my house. I don't know why it is called a nature trail. The 10 or so miles of it I've driven by are all by the road and next to housing developments. Not very naturish.

Weekend Adventures

The weekend is done, and it was great. I'll start where I left off: Saturday. I went to the Regatta, arriving 10 minutes late. By then I had missed the karate/tai chi demo. Next was yoga dancers... all under 10 I'm guessing. No wonder they could stretch! But the next show was by far the best, the Chinese Acrobats - or the Dragon Legend Acrobats as they are billed in the Epcot center.

It was by far the neatest part of the day. In the Epcot center, I'm sure I would be sitting 50-100 feet away. At the regatta, I was only 10 feet away. I didn't get any pictures. I thought it was just a local group - I was really wrong. In a way, I was happy I didn't have my camera. It meant I could just watch without worrying about my video moving or losing track of the action - I had a thoroughly enjoyable time. My favorite part of the show were the twin contortionists. They weren't as flexible as others I've seen, but they did their whole routine on one hand! They had a five minute routine, and it was all done standing on their hands. I didn't see them waver or look like they lost their balance in the slightest.

Sunday: I went to Aikido class on Sunday morning (so early... why so early!), then headed off towards Seaworld. I enjoyed my time there. From the other times I've been there, I've figured out which of the up-close 'wet zones' get the least water, and then positioned myself there. I got some nice pictures, which are below, along with my geo-caching pictures on the way home. I found one geo-cache. The other one was in a park, off a trail, and I couldn't find it anywhere. As you can see in the picture of the one I found, the caches can be quite small.

Saturday Plans

I'll start with todays activities and then state Saturday's plans.

Today - I covered the software support department by myself today. The two others who normally cover that area went out of town. I only called them twice during the day for questions... I only had three calls, one of which was already expected and planned for.

After work, I went to "Meet The Robinsons". It is a Disney production, all computer animated, and it was very good. The hero goes forward in time to regain his confidence as an inventor and as a result has to fix the time stream because of his actions. It was a standard plot outline, but some of the smaller quirks were hilareous. The singing/mobster frogs were extremely funny, but the T-Rex would have been my favorite if he had been given more screen time. A big spoiler ahead: The main focus of the story, the kid, never finds his mom.

The River Regatta start was this evening, and the movie finished early enough that I could see the last few activities: a fire dancer and Polynesian dancers. It was very enjoyable to sit back and watch and listen. In fact, the picture on this blog is the opening ceremony.

I was going to go to Sea World Saturday, but the Regataa's entertainment tomorrow looks far too fun: Martial Arts/Tai Chi Demo, Yoga Dance, Chinese Acrobats, Para Jumpers, Jazz/Moder Dance, and Belly Dancing - all lined up from 10:00 to 1:00. With all that going on, I'll go to Sea World tomorrow.

Going To *Bed* Early

I had to get the title right. I didn't notice I had mispelled the last post until I was ready to post this one.

Now that I've corrected a vital detail, I'm going to let you in on a non-secret: I'm going home! I bought the airline tickets today and will be heading home near the end of April. I'm going to be seeing my whole family; with the exception of my brother... but don't worry, it just means I'll be able to flip him farther when I see him - or I miss a block and lose a tooth. But no worries, I'm sure my brother would never injure my beautiful teeth. ;-)

Time to read some proverbs and go to b-e-d.

Going To Be Early

I've found a geocache! I signed in the log and now I just need to visit geocaching.com and post my visit. The contents of the container were pretty neat. There was a spool of thread, and odd shaped paper clip, a weird quarter, plastic frog, plastic ring, mechanical pencil, and an Olympic medal (a souvenir). If I'm still down here in a month, I want to go back and put something of my own in it.

Any ideas of what would make a good trademark item? It should be unique, small, under 2 dollars, and memorable - just as a rough guideline. Feel free to ignore any of the guideline, so please suggest something! I can't think of anything.

Three Lessons Learned: GPS Style

Three Lessons To Live By:
1. A GPS is dangerous when driving - I tried to help, but the GPS just couldn't reach the gas pedals.
2. Geocaches are dangerous - right by a restaurant with an open meat freezer. Uhg. Apparently vultures like to hang around that spot.
3. Enter coordinates EXACTLY. Being a mile off isn't fun, especially when walking.

I received my GPS this evening. UPS delivered about 6:00. It's been fun to use so far. Wednesday, I plan to make a good day of it. I'll work extra tomorrow and get off early Tuesday and go bicycling. With a 10 mile route, I think I can get 5 caches. There aren't any major hills to speak of in Florida, so it won't be too hot. (The weather yesterday was in the 80's )

I'm off to be soon. I'll try to read another 30 pages of "The Bourne Identity" before I go to bed. Have a good evening!

Weekend Activities

I've gone to Aikido class twice at this point. I don't think I've been quite this sore since I last did a hard weightlifting session; but instead of biceps or quads, it's my shoulders, hips, gastrocnemius', toes, wrist, elbows, neck..... they were GOOD classes.

Playing tennis didn't help the soreness factor much. At least I put up a better fight against my boss this time. I actually won a sets. It's a little harder on the joints than racquetball I think - but I haven't had much experience for comparison yet.