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.

Geo-caching Preliminary Prep

I have blown through the 100 mark for Wei-Hwa puzzles. Since I have a gmail account, I get to use my Google ID to personalize my homepage. On the homepage, it has a small puzzle, a lot like Sudoku, and during lunch I'll do one or two, if I'm compiling then I will finish one, and during the evening, I'll usually do one or two more. It's taken some time to get this far, but only another 50 more, and I'll have finished the puzzles!

For the big news of the day: I've ordered my GPS! It will be coming to my address down here and then the world will open up! I'm getting a "Magellan Explorist 500 LE North American Handheld Color GPS." I prefer to call it my gps. :-)

And in other minor news: after having the car sitting under a tree with a multitude of birds for 3 weeks, I finally decided to get a car wash. In another three weeks, I'll probably have to do it again, but I won't announce it for you - there can only be so much excitement in a single year!

Bridge to Terabithia

Today's review: Bridge to Terabithia

I found Bridge to Terabithia to be far from what I was expecting. I was expecting a light adventure, with pretty graphics and a happy go lucky storyline. It was far darker than that. To give a brief overview of the dark-side of the movie (minus one big plot device ): the hero's father is extremely poor, shows his love to his youngest daughter all the time but barely a word of thanks for the hero, bullies at school, another father that beats his children, the heroes are unpopular and ignored (usually) by their parents, and bullied at school. It is dark, but the odd thing was, by the end of the show, I had decided that it was a kinda-nice show. Yes it is serious, but you see people overcome their circumstances, and build their own world of joy.

Because I have a big preference for a happy ending, I probably won't see it again when the DVD comes out, but such an ending did show how much the young boy had grown.

Now for the basic plotline which gives away all but one huge plot turn. For those who have read the book, you know the plot already. Mom, you can ask what it is when you call. :-) ..... A boy who is harassed at school becomes friends with a new transfer that no-one wants to be friends with. They go off to play together after school, and they build a tree house which becomes their castle in their imaginary world of Terabithia. They have a few problems getting along (mostly related to the boy's impression of being rejected by his father, which isn't really true), but a tragedy forces the boy to grow up and stand on his own two feet. At the very end, he brings his little sister to the imaginary world to be the princess of Terabithia and future queen.

Next movie review will be "TMNT".

Music and Lyrics

Today's review: Music and Lyrics

I went to see "Music and Lyrics" tonight. It was an assignment given to me by Mom: to go see the movie and to blog about it. I have SO MUCH to do with all my homework. It is rough. :-)

I thought the show was pretty good. Other than the protagonists sleeping together in the middle of the movie, it was pretty clean. Now onto the plot with personal commentary! Hugh Grant is a washed up '80s rock performer. ( The 'POP' band he's acting for was real, and if the movie's examples of their songs are accurate, I'm going to find some other songs and listen to them. They were enjoyable) The current diva of the day loves his music and gives him and 8 others the task (competition) of writing a hit song. He hires a song lyricist but the lady (Drew Barrymore) who waters his plants has a better ear for the lyrics, so Hugh Grant hires the caretaker. They struggle with their personal demons: she lacks confidence and Hugh lacks scruples (get the song out, even if it isn't what is should be). Near the end, Hugh presents the song, the diva ruins the song, Drew refuses to let it happens and gets kicked out, Hugh tries to reason with the diva and Drew.... and the movie ends wonderfully. With Drew confident about her writing ability and Hugh with his composing ability.

The twist at the end isn't a surprise, but I don't want to give everything away.

Smarter This Time

Or not. My boss is planning to ship this coming Tuesday. By Friday night, we fixed all the bugs. The installer is doing what we want, within limits, and we're ready to ship. My boss is testing the installer on several systems and randomly tries to print. Failure. Printing works only on XP. Not on ME or 98. Back to the drawing board. Six hours later (not including Allan's time spent working on the problem ) I figure out that I must be missing an initialization of printing. I create a test to see if this is the case. After taking an hour to code the test, I run it... and it works slightly better - it now prints to one printer. I just need to get it working for the new printer now. Since the test was as simple as I could make it, I need to go back through and go line by line and add in code very carefully. I'm guessing that the coding will proceed at a line ever 2 minutes, which would be an average of one letter every ten seconds. I think the average for software programmers is 20 lines of code per hour.

Does this mean I'm an incredibly fast programmer, to be doing 30 lines of code an hour? No, I've spent (in previous months) two, maybe three weeks, working with this exact same code. My average with the previous time included? 3 lines an hour, maybe 4. A letter every minute. Whew, the rush!!

All the code isn't that slow. Two weeks ago, I used a whole week to create a system manager program in a mere 3300 lines. All but 300 lines of the code was carefully analyzed, changed, moved around, and debugged. Several times, I took a whole hour just sitting back and studying the flow of the program. Understanding the why is 10 times... 100 times more important than knowing the what of the program. I could tell you the "what" of the program 8 months ago. I couldn't have told you the "why". Eight months ago, I couldn't have figure out the program myself if I took two months. Today, that same program took a week.

Oh, one last detail to bring to mind how excruciatingly slow, boring, and frustrating programming can be. My co-worker Dan, spent over a month working to get the installer right. Wednesday, we tossed away that work and started afresh. Could we salvage ANY of the code? No. But by Friday, we had an installer working. That is because Dan didn't give me all the details of HOW the installer works, but WHY the installer does things certain ways.

College taught me how to program, learning the why behind a program is far harder. When I worked at Emerson Process Management as an intern, my boss told me something surprising: They don't expect a new hire to be useful for 6 months. Why? Because it takes them six months to figure out what is going on and to start producing more than than they get paid.

Following the reasoning out, specialists should get paid a lot more.. why? Not because they are better at programming or know the syntax of C++ better than anyone else, but because they figure out the why. At EPM, as part of my project, a guy was hired for 2 1/2 months from Sweden. He could barely speak or read English, yet in those 2 1/2 months, he had a fully integrated Windows application produced. He knew the why behind MFC.

And I'm starting to ramble. I didn't go to Sea World yesterday or today. I'm going to plan for Wednesday... barring more programming problems.

Working Hard... Not Smart?

Ah, the joys of a release. My companies Windows product that I'm working on was scheduled to go out Monday. Everything is testing fine until Friday morning. When we put everything together, the installer explodes, and the Bank Reconciliation programs decide that they prefer a hard crash for every little strcpy. And for the last weekend and Monday and today, we've been working overtime just to figure out what went wrong and how to fix it. Ah, the joys of salaried pay.

Family Blessings

And yet another week goes by without a GPS for hiking or an electric piano for night time enjoyment. Next week.. next week. Actually, next week I'm planning to go to Sea World so I won't need any of those things. It is a rough life down here. :-)

Saturday night, it was 11:00 I had brushed my teeth, and was getting into bed, when I started to listen to the noises. There were a few bullfrogs and some sort of weird twittering insect making noises. It sounded like a hot summer evening in Pennsylvania when all the crickets are going full time.... except I was inside the house here and it still sounded close. It lasted about a minute, and then it went completely quite. I waited 5 minutes and haven't heard a thing for the last 5 minutes... nothing. The house doesn't creek, no bird calls, no wind, no cars from the nearby highway, no neighbors. creepy.

I'm off to bed. I know it is barely nine, but I've been feeling tired lately. It is a vicious circle because I also set my alarm to go off earlier if I get to bed earlier. On a more personal note, I was thinking about home and family. Specifically about this last weekend. Everyone but me was at my parent's house, and I was just thinking how lucky it is to have a mom and dad that's willing to watch the grandchild to give K and R time to relax together, to have a mom and dad that opens home to my older sister so she can live at home while she works and breeds dogs and feed cats, and to have a mom and dad that wants to visit my brother and sister and law even though they live six hours away. That doesn't really stand out to me to much, but then this evening I'm thinking about other families I know and the troubles they go through and it's amazing that us siblings have parents like Mom and Dad and siblings like each other. I wouldn't trade any of them for anyone else I know. I love you guys (and gals). I'm going to call home now. :-)

Sisters, Plots, And Music

I'm so happy. Katie is debating today and she gets to show off the baby at the same time. I was asking her (Katie, not the baby) what the schedule for today was, and she described the schedule to me and she mentioned something about CR and I realized I had completely forgotten about the baby! Wow. I must not be a good uncle! Mom is going to watch CR for the day... wait... this is suspicious...

(1) Mom hears about an open spot for a debater
(2) Mom tells sister
(3) sister accepts
(4) Mom holds baby

Ha! I knew there was a plot to hold the baby somewhere! And I found it. The great mastermind behind this fiendish plan? MOM!

Over last weekend, I played some Beethoven music I brought south with me and tried playing it a bit. Moonlight Sonata and The Pathetic Sonata (Opus 13). At this very moment, I'm reading the company's notes for The Pathetic Sonata... "full of sorrow, with a mingling of love and devotion..." Nowhere does the author mention anything about excitement. Beethoven has a whole measure of 1/64th notes. There is no way that even "Grave" can play those slowly. And the very next movement has the left hand playing at 552 notes a minute. That is 9.2 notes a second. "full of sorrow... love and devotion"???? Did the guy that wrote that line ever hear the music played? How do you get "full of sorrow" from a tempo marking of "Allegro di molto e con brio!"

Related topic - Trans Siberian Orchestra. That band is who I first heard "The Pathetic Sonata" from. i think the actual name of the song was "Mephistopheles." I'll look it up tomorrow. It was such a beautiful, enrapturing part of the band's song (the rest of the song wasn't so enrapturing), that as soon as I first played it for practice I recognized what it was... and after I looked at the temp markings, I also realized the Trans-Siberian Orchestra was playing the song at one third tempo. Bah. I can play it almost at full speed... but only for about 30 seconds... Well, I can only play two pages of the 17 pages song at that speed. After the first two pages, my familiarity with the song goes down rapidly. After hiking this weekend, I'll probably sit down for a hour or two and practice.

50 First Dates - Update One

Ha, I've successfully ripped the DVD to my computer and am now using VirtualDub to modify the movie. I've gotten through the first 20 minutes of the movie. I had to restart a few times until I figured out what would make a good editing. It's moving at a decent rate right now. VirtualDub keeps crashing about 2-3 minutes fairly regularly, so it's going slow - but I am making progress!

But - time for the interesting part of today!

A few days ago, I posted some break-dancing videos that I enjoyed. Today, I'll post some of the comics I enjoy.

First on the list, because it is a completed comic, is the Miracle of Science. Decent comic - drawing isn't great, but the storyline is the second best long running plot I've read in a comic...and the comic is finished! No wondering for three years how a particular story arc will turn out! ( Some webcomics update once a week... very boring... but I still check )

DMFA - Dan and Mab's Furry Adventures - I check this one multiple times throughout the day. Not because I enjoy it that much, but because I have one batch file that opens a whole bunch of my favorite sites and when I want to see one, I see them all, and DMFA is the first on that the batch file opens.

Last but not least is Vexxarr. An interesting read. There isn't much of a plotline, but the dialog is full of sarcasm, thinly veiled threats, and statements of impending doom upon anything non-mechanical.

By admitting the fact that I read webcomics, I have fully shown the world the lack of life I have.

Good luck Friday Kate!

Ghost Rider

For today's post on an incredibly popular and commonly read blog ( I think I hear my brother laughing ) I will do a review on the movie Ghost Rider.

I watched Ghost Rider Friday night. I don't want to give away any of the plotline, so I'll just say the plot is completely predictable, the fights were disappointingly simple, and the special effects are very good. As much as I enjoy watching a whole street of cars flip into store fronts while bursting into flame, I don't think I'll see the movie again. That was a short review. :-)

Almost short - I can't help it, I need to rant a bit more about the boss fights. Sunday, I watched the last two fights of Gorgeous. THAT is a good fight: good choreography, closely matched opponents, good reflexes, speed, humor, character development during the fights and both fights together last 30 minutes if they were put back to back. In Ghost Rider, there were no close fights. Ghost Rider always outpowered his opponents (by a huge amount) and had no finness while doing it. Come on! The movie gave Ghost Rider an unstoppable physical attack and a spiritual attack that is only SUPER EFFECTIVE against any evil. And movie goers are supposed to think that Ghost Rider is ever in trouble? Bah.

Kick Your Heels Up And Dance, Come On Now

I was considering what I should put in my blog today and I was having trouble. When a person has such a fantastic, famous, regularly updated, and popular blog, choosing a good topic i s a challenge. But worry not dear readers, for today I have decided to share the greatness of my blog. I will do this by mentioning a few of my favore websites.

My secret is out - I just want to share some cool websites I know about! OK, today, I'll start with the musical dance. Sorry for those on dial up, but these are big files - Oh, and mom. I've shown you these before.

extreme crew
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Bkk3Um1LkU

extreme break dancing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tyxlaib9UF0

This post is also in premature celebration of finding a hobby while I'm down here - competitive ballroom dancing. The studio is nearby, but I still need to find out what the class schedule is.

Movies And Research

Current project: finding out how to rip a dvd and modify the movie. :-) One of the movies I could watch over and over is "50 First Dates". The only problem though is that the movie is very crude at times. Lovely, touching scenes one moment, and a crude joke the next that has no relation to the scene. Not even close to appropriate for family watching. Right now I just skip forward to my favorite parts, but I miss parts of the plot.

So I hatched my own fiendish plot: modify the movie so I don't accidently skip past the goodness of the movie. I'll keep everyone updated on my progress, and perhaps I'll move onto other movies? As long I keep it for myself, I *think* it's legal. Can anyone double check and let me know if it's valid for personal use?

but for now I really need to start researching for Katie. I have no clue why I'm putting off something I enjoy so much. Ooo. I should call my mom. She'll put me into the mood for research - or Katie! She'll have great ideas also. She's being a partner for team debate (NCFCA) so there are no bye rounds. I'll do some research right now!

Fountain Pens

Today's big activity? I got to write with a proper fountain pen. The desk I recently got for work had office supplies still in drawers from the previous owners. Whoever owned it still had a fountain pen ( still in it's wrapper ), extra parts, and an ink well. It didn't take long to plan an outing. I first had to look up just what to do with the pen. I could take a guess, but the last thing I wanted was to spill ink on my desk. :-)

And now you are probably wondering the outcome of my dangerous experiments? My experiment failed miserably. It looks like the pen is clogged up with old ink. I tried cleaning it, but the pen just has to soak for a while. It's time will come. I will be victorious!

Now, I need to research for Katie a bit. Ah, debate. That's a relaxing way to spend an evening. Use stock issues Katie, use stock issues! Good luck.

Floridian Joy

So far Florida has been a big bust. Two weeks of fun in the sun and my tan hasn't improved!

I've settled in pretty well. Most of my boxes are unpacked and everything is laying in ... organized ... piles on the floor. I've put all of my book on a chest and they are all lined in a row against the wall. My boss actually bought me a good book on hiking across China. ( Don't worry mom, I don't have any plans to do anything like that... for at least a year. ) The book is pretty good. It's more anecdotal with little on the actual traveling.

Subtly moving to a related topic - I went hiking Saturday! I wanted to do a 10 mile route but I wandered into the middle of a military exercises. It looked more like boot camp exercises. The troops didn't have the proper military feel to them. Since I was still on a public and open path ( the bombing range was over 3 miles away ) I went ahead and sat down and watched the gunfire, patrols, maneuvers, and ambush. I'm guessing I got there at a good time, because the last half of the grapefruit I was eating was spent watching troops patrol a perimeter. Unfortunatly, a grunt came over and asked if I needed anything, then politely asked for me to move to 50 feet past the border. Oh well, it was fun watching while I was there.

Ah, the time has gotten late, and I haven't even come close to starting my taxes. Toodles!

Forida and Expectations

Only another two weeks and I will be heading down to Florida. My boss is coming up this Thursday, and then driving back down with extra tables, computers, chairs... all the big things I won't be able to fit into my car.

I'll be taking our BBC (Big Black Car) down. It doesn't have great gas mileage, but since my major driving all year will be down to Florida and back, the total mileage will probably be less than if the BBC stayed at home for the year. Ben, my old apartment-mate, is probably going to come down with me. It will make for a bit less room and a longer trip, but the company will definitely be worth it. To counterbalance the bonus of a driving partner, I found out yesterday that my parents won't be driving down with me. They had been planning to come down for a while, but the closer it got, the less likely it became. Oh well, I guess that means I can come back to visit more often!

Ah, two weeks. Now that the time and date is set to head down, I wish I could head down right now and skip this waiting period, but then I start thinking about friends and family I'll see in the next two weeks and I know the delay is going to be a great blessing.

Two Weeks After The Wedding

J & C's wedding was a wonderful affair. Everything went very well. If you go to my brother's blog, you can see full description of how wonderful it was. :-) I'm torn about my wedding responsibilities, At my younger sister's wedding, I was 'merely' the brother, and didn't need to be concerned for much other than playing the music right. As a groomsman at my brother's wedding, I had extra responsibilities and worries. I needed to pick the right pre-wedding music, keep J's nerves from getting rattled, entertain Jeremiah, and relay orders between people.

Pictures!

On a cute note, half way through the wedding, I was asking Jeremiah if he wanted to be carried.... or I just gave him a friendly pat... I'll have to check the wedding video, and he turns and gives a nice, proper punch in the leg. :-) It was so cute from my perspective, and then I though, "Oh no! What will they think? He was just being playful, but they may think he was being rebellious or something!!!" So I'll tell J and C: he was being playful. :-P

Ah, the end of the week. I'm busy doing finishing up details - one of which is blogging.

Now I must leave, I have a lot of things yet to do on my todo list! I've gotten an exercise ball. I've picked out a domain name for my website, now I need a gps, post pictures, e-mail sappy letters, find an electric piano, find a hiking route, find a karate teacher in FL, learn a desktop automation programming language.... and I'm only a third through my list!

Baptism

Today is the day little Christina gets baptized. We need to leave in another 2 1/2 hours. I'm not sure which church she's getting baptized at - my mom handled all the details. Dad, Mom, Margaret, and I will be heading down in one car, and I'm not sure how long we'll visit. I'm guessing we'll need to get back to the house fairly soon so we can prepare to head to Virginia.

In work related news - my boss came up for the week, and he's explained a little of what needs to be done. In summary: he's really busy in December and January so he can't keep up to us especially if we're a bit slow getting work back to him, the design work is a bit too interdependent on both of us working together and he's guessing it will stay that way permanently, and he needs to have us in Florida to keep this project going.

I'm heading to Florida!

I've given the house owner 90 days notice and I should be out of the house by January. Last summer, Florida was boring. This year, I'm going to do things a little differently. Since I'll be there a whole year, I'm thinking of signing up for karate classes during the week, go swing dancing on the weekend, read in my spare time, and upkeep a site for extempers.

Another Week and a Half

My brother is almost married! I'm heading down (with my mom) to his place until the wedding. After the wedding, my mom and I may stay around a bit, but with my brother and his wife away on their honeymoon, there won't be much to keep us busy.... after the wedding. A lot of family is coming down, so we'll be quite busy visiting until the big day. Almost all my aunts and uncles on my mom's side will be coming down... kind of a mini-reunion.

I'm looking forward to the visit and seeing Jesse... and seeing him married. I can't think of a good best man speech, so I probably won't give one. It would be nice, and I'll keep at it. Maybe I'll ask my dad for ideas.

Thursday is a Work Day... maybe?

Nothing special about today. Work is going really slowly though. I had a total of 3 hours of work yesterday. Hopefully, he'll get the next assignment to me and I can get a full day of work finished. I haven't had a full day this week. :-( As much as I like the job, if I can't get 25 hours in a week, I'm not sure I can stay. My boss is coming up near Christmas, and he has a few things to talk about - some of which are hopefully 1) the next big projects for work and 2) going down to the main business to work; both of which would be VERY beneficial for hours worked.

I'm sitting here waiting for an e-mail for today's work, and I thought I would post my current thoughts on work. I tend to spread out work throughout the day - perhaps if I put in more effort to getting work done earlier in the day, my boss could get back to me faster. I'll try that today.

Quick update

It's late but I wanted to get a short update completed. I had a wonderful weekend at home. My mom and I chatted a lot, dad showed me his bikes and magic tricks for the upcoming new year, and Margaret and I beat upon each other mercilessly... yes, it was a good weekend. I finished it off by coming back to the apartment and watching "Big Trouble in Little China". Oddly enough, I've seen it before - probably at a motel during a craft show. Think of a script put together in an afternoon, cast that evening and filmed the next day... that's the type of movie it was. Nothing made sense. It was a blast to poke fun at the movie!

Almost done

Whew! I've been busy the last few days. My boss leaves tomorrow, so I should be able to slow down just a little. Unfortunately, all the steam I've built up will die Wednesday as I spend most of the day in Butler. I have two appointments, maybe three. I'll be debating with Olivia and I need to get together with her to figure out the case, who's doing what speech, evidence... there is a lot to cover.

Today in 30 seconds

Work is moving well again - I'm working more hours. Goofing off is taking priority too often. School work is going well. I was accused of being a stacker by someone I haven't seen in almost 6 months. My contacts hurt. Toe is healing well. My Jackie Chan impression isn't going so well - but I'm getting better. Had a VERY nice conversation tonight... more like relaxation with some serious subjects of conversation. I broke down and bought a veggie wrap for dinner. Worked out tonight. Haven't watched "Raising Helen" yet. The band Aqua is great. I have "Forces of Corruption."

Ah. My life in 30 seconds.

Fridays are wonderful

I'm on my way home today. Weekends are the best part of the week. It's where I get to go home, do chores, mow the lawn, weed-eat, help my dad, do hebrew, go over finances.... ah. Heaven.

I can't believe the amount of time since I last blogged. Time has flown! I was guessing early last week, but no! Almost three weeks ago! I'll try to make up for lost time now that I know how poorly I'm keeping my blog updated. At least I'll try to blog more often. :-)

Dan, one of my apartment-mates is moving out today or tomorrow. He's moving to a cheaper place and a college student is moving in through December. Plans after that will depend on whether the college student (Ben) get's a full time job or not. Brandon, my other apartment-mate is moving out at the end of October here, and in December, I start to be the renter for the house. So... I start renting the house in December, I'm subletting the workspace for part of the rent, and hopefully I'll be able to find two others to help offset the rent. The likelyhood is good I would say. Ben *might* stay on, Lauren and Stew could be staying, Someone else I haven't met may be looking for an apartment, and Mark is looking for a place. Ah, the joy of planning.

Brief update

I just wanted to post a quick blog. My mom left today for YP craft show. I decided against attending the Grove City speech team at the tournament this weekend and instead decided to help my parents at the craft show.

I know my parents can't actually check this blog until they get home Monday, so I'm going to let the rest of the readers in on a small surprise I have for them! It's not a big present, but the car I'm driving (It's the one my parents usually drive for business) has part of the felt on the roof loose (227000 miles. The car has served us well!) We've tried all sorts of products to re-attach the felt, but nothing has worked. Today, I bought some pins and pined up the felt. Hopefully the pins will hold. All it took was time to figure out what positions would keep the pins from falling out. It's not anything big, just a bit of felt and time, but I am inordinately pleased and looking forward to showing Mom and Dad!

Best songs heard today (both have been favorites for the last two months):
When the Broken Hearted Love Again
Be a Man

Back in Action

It's been two weeks and quite a bit has happened, so it's a bit hard to know where to start. I'll go in chronological order, which means the big events are not the first events

I came back to GC and am slowly catching up to what I should be doing. In essence, after getting back from Florida I took a week and a half off of work. I am just now starting to get into the habit of working full time again.

My parents have a big craft-show for three weekends this month and I've been pretty busy helping them. Mom and dad could get it all done themselves, but if I'm in town then I'll help because just one more person can make things go a lot smoother. There isn't so much rushing around or worry. After a month and a half hiatus, going to craft shows and spending time with family again is a lot of fun.

I'm also attending classes at gcc again.

But the biggest news is that KATIE had her baby! Christina entered the world healthy and well. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures to put up, but that is on the to-do list for today. When I get a picture or two and actually see the niece for myself, I'll give a more complete update.

Final tidbit about myself for today - I did my first hard workout yesterday and I had a small moment of panic when I tried to get into my car to go home. I couldn't get my backpack off! I know it's not quite the most glamorous fear to have. Fear of heights or fear of flying is so much more popular, but some of my biggest fears is not being able to get my backpack off, wearing a shirt far too small, or getting stuck in a snowtunnel. None of them are very dangerous. :-) The problem yesterday was, that after a workout, my muscles are swollen and the muscles are tighter than normal and can't stretch as far, so I can't touch my shoulders and I couldn't reach the strap on my shoulder. I also couldn't bend enough to push my left strap off my shoulder with my right hand. Quite a predicament.

Airporting

This is a hobby, created just for airport aficionados. If you wish to start enjoying this hobby, there are a few rules which must be followed in order to get the maximum effect from "airporting".

1st: Arrive at the airport earlier than any person in their right mind would.
2nd: Check your bags. But wait! You're too early to check bags. You should have arrived early enough to wait at least an hour before bags can be checked.
3rd: You must plan your trip around high terror alerts. Anything less than level orange doesn't let the X-ray line pile up enough to be a proper airporting line.
4th: Go to your gate to wait at least four hours until your plane takes off. Notice I said "wait." Wait does not include sitting in the cushioned chairs provided... because the previous flight using the gate hasn't left yet and all the seats should be filled.
5th: If you can find a power outlet within 50 feet of the gate, you can still be an airporting hobbyist, but only if the first two outlets you found were unavailable for productive use... i.e. they don't work.

If you carefully follow these steps, you too can be an airporting hobbyist.


Three friars opened up a flower shop. The local florists were outraged because their customers were buying flowers from the friars. Complaint after complaint failed to change the friar's minds, so the florists hired "Hugh's Friendly Removal Service" to take care of their problem. That evening, amid broken pots and a sea of flowers, Hugh convinced the friars that the town could not support an extra florist shop - proving, yet again, that only Hugh can prevent florist friars.

It's Monday! I don't have time to put out a full post on my trip to SeaWorld, but here are two pictures I thought you might enjoy




















I didn't zoom in for this picture so I had to do a lot of trimming. For some reason the picture came out almost perfect and the guy doesn't look blurry at all. I think he's doing a flifus. (I think that is how it is spelled). This was the end of the day at the pearl diving exhibit. You could buy your own oyster with a pearl for just $14.95! (But small. I saw a few and they were very small )
















The one and only picture of me at SeaWorld. There were four divers at the pearl diving exhibit and I asked someone to take my picture. This diver (Celeste from Texas I think) was by far the most entertaining. Kids would go up to the glass and put their hands on the glass and she would come down and put her hands matching, or play patty-cake with them. Quite the showman... but what do you expect - she is smiling in chlorine water... that must taste terrible! eww. :-)

A Busy and Fun Sunday

Two more days until home sweet home!

All of Sunday will be spent at Seaworld. It was my last chance this summer to do something fun and I didn't want to miss anything.I've already gone to Seaworld but I have season tickets so it's hard to pass up a second time especially when I didn't see everything the first time.

I'm heading home Monday evening and then classes will be starting the following day. I still haven't officially signed up for classes. I'm having a little trouble getting ahold of the admissions office. I could call and e-mail more, but since I'll be nearby in three days time, I decided it would be easier for me to just walk into the office and see what I can do.

One of the classes I wanted to take conflicts with another class, so it looks like Hebrew III will be my main class this semester.

Since I've been here in Florida, I've had the opportunity to go swing dancing a few time and I am hoping to keep it up once college starts, because there is a swing group on campus. I guess fencing is going to be too much, escpecially since I am planning to continue helping the speech clubs around this side of the state.

I need my sleep. I'm looking forward to seeing family soon. For those of you with a high speed internet connection, I found this video of breakdancing very fun and impressive to watch. A lot of the enjoyment comes from the music. I wish I could find out what the accompanying musing is. Oh well! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAMTEJfmLyY

I had already taken off my contact by the time I started blogging, so I have NO idea how many words are misspelled. Good night!

A Normal Day

I managed to sleep a lot this morning. The pace of life picked up as I reach the middle of the day. I rebelled from work for an hour and a half and ate a bean burrito. Started back to work until I was too old and tired to see the screen at which point I went to my computer and did whatever struck my fancy. Now it's off to sleep.

If the schedule for today is accurate for my life span... then in a few years I should start globe hopping trying various restaurants selling Mexican food. Cool.

A bit better today

After last week, I was more determined than ever to get a few more hours work per day than I did last week. And how did I start... I managed to sleep in a bit this morning. So it wasn't a great start, but I managed to work pretty steadily throughout the day and at this point, I'm doing pretty well.

I'm going to attempt an early morning tomorrow, so it's off to sleep again.

UPS finally came for my camera and video card... and although it was sent to me in two boxes, the UPS delivery man only had one pickup ticket for the two of them. I was upstairs when the man came so my boss unpacked the boxes and put them into one box and sent it off. It makes me slightly nervous to have Amazon pick up one return box... does that mean I should put both in the same box or did I goof and is another pickup going to happen tomorrow? I don't know.

I did get about a dozen pictures with the camera while I was here.

Here is one of my coworker D with his red fedora - red fedora's rule!. Just in case you're interested in pure coolness embodied in a hat - go see RedHat Linux or http://www.trickswithhats.org/tricks

Time flies when having fun but...

Work has been going pretty well this week. There has been no major delays, no sleeping past the normal start hour. I can't quite figure it out though. I'm still averaging just under 9 hours a day. I'm POSITIVE that I'm doing more than that, but I've been pretty careful to keep track of hours this week... and under 9 hours a day is what the hours show. I just can't figure it out. It makes work less satisfying when you put in what I thought to be a long day for every day during the week, pushing yourself every day, and finding it to be only a little over what was already being done... I just can't figure it out. The only conclusion that I can come up with is that I'm not trying as hard as I think I am. :-)

I'm also going to return my camera I bought. I did want a nice camera I can use, but that is the sticking point - "camera I can use." The camera is just too large and heavy to carry around everywhere I go. There is also a problem with shots without the flash - they usually blur slightly (no anti-shake option in the camera). The battery life is great ( part of what makes it too heavy ) but the video the camera takes is not very good. I suppose the original video it takes is fine, but the video encoding into a format I can watch on my computer is terrible. I can plainly see the color squares that make up the image. The final straw that broke the camel's back was the camera is very unreliable about reading the memory card. I've lost several pictures and two videos because of errors writing data. One of those videos was over an hour and a half long. And it is not something that can be redone.

The camera is very good with a tripod and it isn't designed to be a video taking masterpiece, so I knew to expect some design issues that wasn't what I was hoping for, but I don't want a tripod. I was hoping that the camera could take pictures just fine without a tripod and I was expecting much better quality from the video....

Whine, whine, whine... That is what it sounds like I'm doing! As I heard recently, "Whining is a poorly understood form of prayer." Maybe by other people, but I know that God understand perfectly... and says no. :-)

Count up is at day 2.

As one more side note, after I wrote this, I put it through a spell checker... and there were no spelling errors! That doesn't happen very oftn with bihg postts.

Movie Hour

For work today and tomorrow, were making up a mock project and video-taping, but not quite. Because we need to see the computer screen and the text being entered, the computer is making a video of the screen as we do the presentation/walkthough, and then we're using my camera to record the audio to interlace later. I may add the camera's video into a smaller window in the corner with us working at the computer at the same time - two videos at once. It will be cool! :-) The camera did come in useful for something other than pictures... and if I have a tripod, it looks professional. Still, the camera is a bit on the larger size, but how can you compete with an 8 gig picture card!

I had some late night conversation recently that were a lot of fun. Catching up with friends and family is ALWAYS good. It's not always fun, because heartache can be involved, but it is always good to learn about each other and be there to support each other. And though it be good, it is not something I do naturally, but I'm working on it.

Camera Mayhem

Lunch hour!

My camera came at 4:50 yesterday and I started working with it and seeing what the camera's capabilities are.

Pro: Good zoom, nice images, video with some poor sound, highly customizable, lot of options, very fast pictures, and good picture card (8 gigs), and I can hook it up to the TV and use that instead of the camera screen.

Con: It is BIG - 9 1/2 inches when fully zoomed out, the manual is thicker than most car manuals I see. The combinations available with all the options is a little too much to grasp, and I still can't turn off the flash.

Commies - a great word for those of us who haven't given in to peer pressure at a slightly homogenous college.

In other news/musing (Don't worry, my musings will come to an end today - at least for a while), I've been talking to some friends online in the recent evenings and I've been wondering what they are up to. D has written some nice articles, C is doing well but the conversation ended before much news was shared, I keep trying to talk with A, but after 5 minutes, one or the other of us needs to go do something and not much gets said. I even saw Mr. Miller Time himself (inside joke for bowling commies). I guess I'm just repeating what I said three posts ago, but still, I'm looking forward to seeing friends again - especially commies - I guess that includes the honorary commies too. :-D

Recent Musings

My summer has been going great. The people I work with are a blast. Funny, intelligent, and laid back. I enjoy my work and there isn't much I can't do here if I put some effort into it. Weekends at the beach, swing dancing, volleyball, playing piano, free arcade games, or hours and hours free to just read ( of which I've taken advantage ), and I'm feeling great physically (a bit overweight, but I'm rather pleased anyway). There are some definite downsides to Florida: I am not near my family and able to visit or help, I don't have my family nearby, I can only talk to most of my friends online by typing, and work is consuming as the time here draws to an end... I think those are the only 3 disadvantages, but they are huge.

When I go back to Pennsylvania, I'm going to be taking classes I'm looking forward to, and almost all the downsides to the summer will go away. I've never believed that happiness comes from comfort, money, or friends, and this summer really seems to show it, because with all of it's benefits, I am not looking forward to returning to Grove City - or to staying here. Both ways look a bit bland to me. Staying here, going home, or doing something else doesn't appeal much to me. Certainly, whatever I do will lead to something new and I do look forward to that, but there doesn't seem to be much puprose to it if I start weighing things like how much free time will I have, will I be able to visit friends and family, will I make enough to be able to spend?

There is a path that leads to peace and joy - it is only when I turn to my Savior that things start to look up. The more I focus on Christ, the less important my current circumstances are to my outlook on life. I know that Christ does a reforming work in us if we allow him, but I really can't discern what the difference is in my outlook, just that there is a difference. I suppose it's because I can rest in Christ and he gives the peace that passes understanding. Part of what Christ seems to be doing is reminding me of the good times, in the past, present, and time to come. He reminds me of the endless awe and rejoicing that fellowship with him will bring... and I'm happy. It's not that my circumstances improve or I sin less - I'm happy because He reminds me that this is not my final home, and even it's greatest happinesses are pale next to being in Him. How I look forward to the day I see my savior face to face. Wow.

Topic Three.

Three: I'm getting a camera! I am sooooo excited! It is going to arrive here late tomorrow and then I can take pictures of this place in Florida. Who knows! I may even be able to post a video or two so people can see what life is like near Orlando. The camera is a Samsung Pro 815. It is fairly expensive for cameras for people who don't know how to properly use a camera, but if I keep it for 6 or 7 years, I think the price is pretty good. Oooo. Almost midnight. Blogging, talking with friends, researching extemp... it all takes up time.

28 More Days Until Home Sweet Home

Let's hear it for the title "Days Until Home Sweet Home"!

I've used that title for so long, I just couldn't quite give it up quite yet. :-) There really isn't much new information to share, so I'll just start going through the 3 or 4 things that have happened since the last blog.

One: I went home last weekend (surprise!). While in Tonawanda, I had a good visit with Ryan and Katie for a few days. Since I live almost 2 hours away from them, seeing them was a blessing and something I hope is repeated. If you could pray for Katie and Ryan, I would appreciate it. Things seem to be going well for them, but they are coming up to a busy tie in their life: they are newly married, expecting a baby in a month, and Ryan is looking for a new job. Since we were within 5 minutes of Niagara Falls, Ryan and Katie when and saw the Falls both evenings up there. They took several pictures and came back with quite a few stories of Canada, the falls, and Canadians. I think my favorite story is their coming back into the US, after the light show on the falls. *.... I'll tell everyone about it later as soon as I remember the details better. I got half way through and couldn't remember the questions the US agent asked .... *

Two: I went swing dancing at OSU last Friday. It was a blast. When I visited Jesse's swing dance lessons a while back, there was a advanced swing dancing demonstration, and it was really cool. The leading couple at OSU blew it away. It wasn't that it was so much better, but the couple made it look smooth and refined while doing a lot of different combinations fast. They looked like they would be just as comfortable on a ballroom floor. I was impressed. Almost 3/4 of the group was new and everyone leaned new steps each week. I'm planning on going back this Friday and dancing. The dance floor composition was a little odd: guys outnumbered girls!

Four and beyond: Saved for later. I need to get back to work.

Random information/feelings: I'm really looking forward to going back to PA. Not only do I have great college classes lined up, but it looks like the local speech and debate teams are really working hard on extemp. I'm also looking forward to seeing friends. One big downside of being in Florida is not seeing friends at home. I'm looking forward to seeing what's going on with G, how BF is doing, if A and J bloomed over the summer, and just talking to C and the commies. (No, I do not expect anyone to actually know who I'm talking about. If you want to know who the initials are, you'll have to talk to me. :-D )

2 More Days Until Home Sweet Home

Only two more days left to go and I can start to put up a different title again. :-)

Sunday, I decided to go to the church that Dan has been going to these last few weeks. It does mean that I lose most of the day with driving and staying for other activities, but I think it is worth the cost. I don't have anything against the church I was attending before, but I think it is too big. I couldn't meet the same people every week. Every time I attended, it was like walking into a new church where I didn't know anyone and no-one remembered me.

Perhaps this is just a reaction to the last sermon I heard at the larger church: it was a "support your Emergency Service People day".... or something like that. At the church service, God was hardly mention. It was all about the strength of some emergency workers, and how this emergency worker had opportunities to share Christ, and emergency workers had a high calling.
Other than the singing, prayer requests, and the occasional mention of the opportunity it was to share Christ to other worker.... the service felt like a community event celebrating emergency service personnel.

Ah, I'm probably ranting too much, but that one service did offend me. I just think that they could have still celebrated a noble activity, but done it in a way that didn't leave Christ out of most of it. So it was that I decided to see what the church Dan is attending is like.

Your thoughts? Did I go overboard?

6 More Days Until Home Sweet Home

Ah, six more day. I am looking forward to the trip home. I was thinking while working, "Uhg, I could be driving with mom or dad, talking, relaxing, and catching up with family news." Not everything can go the way I was hoping, but in this case it will be only delayed a week. Whoo hoo! Less than a week and I' on my way home!

Enough chitchat, down to serious work. I'm getting ready to watch Stargate, Stargate Atlantis, and any of the funny commercials that comes on. Half the fun of TV is watching it in a group and making fun of everything and anything that comes onscreen. A few nights ago, we all sat down and watch "Aquamarine". I don't think we've had as much fun since watching Mystery Theatre 3000! Stargate is almost as fun to make fun of, but the story is a little too well told. Mostly we make fun of the contradictions and ignorance of the "advanced" races. Phhht. If you're so advanced, why are humans the only ones that are capable of handling the problems of the galaxy?

At the moment, I'm watching a "documentary" on the search for Atlantis, which are all theorized to be Neanderthals, aliens, Germans.... without a shred of physical proof. Over and over, the searchers were all trying to be the FIRST one to ever find physical evidence of Atlantis. Spending a lifetime chasing a dream just for a place in the history books. They need a new hobby.

7 More Days Until Home Sweet Home

Oh, I was so close. As I approached ZERO day I was getting some things ready, looking forward to going home (even if it was a working vacation), and just pleased at the prospect of seeing my family again. And then wham! The trip was mis-scheduled. I had made the airline reservations one week earlier than was needed, and I managed to get the shuttle service and airline reservations rescheduled for only $16. :-) Not bad for last minute change - I think I like Southwest Airlines.

1 More Day Until Home Sweet Home

I finished the book I was reading, "Starship Troopers" by Robert Heinlein. It was a compelling book. The book is not so much an adventure (as the movie made it out to be) but a social commentary on what is wrong with the current world and he puts forth his idea of a good system - not ideal but good.In fact, that is where Heinlein fall down in his vision.

He has no idea of a final truth or the right way; merely that which has worked. He declares man to be a amoral species. His argument is that if we were a moral species then the appeals to a higher standard we use today would work. That the higher moral standard would be followed. The fact that we don't seem to follow a higher standard leads him to conclude that there is no such standard and that humans are amoral, neither good nor bad.

I assume that Heinlein is not a Christian, because there is another option that explains the failures of the appeal to the Higher Standard. That option is that humans are immoral. Not amoral or moral, but actively opposed to good, and because Heinlein rejects our moral nature, he reaches a conclusion which he explains about a third of the way through the book: We respond to punishment and reward, exactly like any Pavlovlovian experiment. He does say that it doesn't always work, because not everyone's brains are wired correctly, but in general, use the proper stick and carrot and mankind can go to maximum long term survivability, which he holds up as the only standard in the universe. It is Darwin's survival of the fittest applied.

Yes, he believes we are machines, but the next 2/3rd of the book is explaining how wonderful that is once we find the proper carrot and stick and that everything will be wonderful. Heinlein puts a lot of philosophical questions put into his conversations in which he develops a high standard of correct action based on amorality. But though the book kept my attention, at the end all I could think is, "For what? The main character found his position in life, being a solder dedicated to the group." What a terrible final hope. That is nothing. In a few years, life is done and no one remembers. How much better it is to have a hope beyond being a 'good' machine - to go into a life where the joy is unimaginable and everlasting. Where we will not be tired, have physical pains, be grumpy in the morning, or have any of the problems that we live with right now.

I thought it was a great book. It made me think hard as I read; though I ended up rejecting almost every premise and conclusion Heinlein came up with, it still made me think and become more settled in my own Christian beliefs.

2 More Days Until Home Sweet Home

Oh no! I can't believe I missed a day in the countdown! Last night I was SURE I had made a post in the morning, but I must have been quite... wrong.

I was drinking some Gatorade yesterday morning and looking at the bottle while I sipped it. I was looking at the various vitamins and chemicals they put in it and I noticed that it had an extremely low calorie count. All the other sports drinks (at least they are advertised as such) and 'energy booster' are so packed with sugar (and caffeine sometimes) that they only reason you feel good afterward is the high you are on. Thus it is that Gatorade was a happy surprise to be an exception to the rest of the world's sugar boosts. Not having a lot of sugar would explain why it tastes so watery today.

I watched the tail end of "30 First Dates". I'm not sure that is the name of the movie, but it is close. It's about a lady who is in an accident and can only remember one day at a time. Adam Sandler plays the man who falls in love with her. (he meets her after the accident) Every day he works hard to help her through the day and makes her fall in love with him day after day, only to not remember who Adam is in the morning. I won't spoil the ending, but it didn't quite end like I was expecting and that it was a very nice but sad ending. Whenever I get the chance, I'm planning on renting it and seeing it from beginning to end. Warning - the TV channel I watched it on is a clean channel, and anything over a PG13 would probably have been removed. I would suggest you check the rating before renting - Adam Sandler movies aren't my favorites usually and they are often not clean.

Ah, my time to start work has come. The countUP continues with no ill effects. If anything, I feel great. I'm also farther along "Starship Troopers" but have not finished yet.

4 More Days Until Home Sweet Home

The thing that most shocks me about going to the beach on Tuesday is the sticking power of the sea shell fragments that the beach was made of. Even now, I found two more near my right ankle and one near my right Achilles tendon. I guess it is sticking on by suction, but wow, how does it to manage to stay on through socks, pant legs and showers where I know I rubbed my ankles. Maybe, when I get to heaven, I'll make that my first question, "How did those shell pieces stay on so long?", because I've been finding a few every day for the last week, and I'm guessing I'll still find a few for the next week. What could possible make them stay on so long?

But as fascinating as the shells are, I can't imagine anyone else being interested though. As far as Sunday's go, this one was pretty nice. I organized some of my clothes so I know what to take back Thursday and what to leave here. I've decided that over half my books won't be getting read and will come home with me. Part of the reason I'm not reading the books I brought is that there are good books here I'm reading. I've reread part of Perilandra by CS Lewis and I'm in the middle of reading Starship Troopers. I had seen the movie based off the book and didn't think too much of it. The book is much better. It's mostly describing a system where responsibility and duty is the highest ideal - where they will "make a solder of you or kill you trying". It's an interesting book. I'll let you know my final thoughts when I finish it.

5 More Days Until Home Sweet Home

The countdown to home continues! I just learned today that Dan will also be making a weekend trip back to his home, but for him, it will be near the beginning of August. But me!... I get to go back within the week! In other fascinating, but useless news: it took four days after my beach adventure, but I am finally starting to peel from the sunburn I got at the beach. Yeah, yeah, it is a bit ‘unrefined’ to talk about peeling skin, but hey! Jesse would agree with me that it’s cool. Next time I'll save one spot without sunscreen and see what a real burn look like. :-) Or maybe not.

I’ll stop grossing people out with the details of my personal hygiene, but since I’m finished talking about that, I'm afraid there isn't much more to report.... How about some details of things around the house?!! We usually have one meal a day out at Taco Johns or perhaps Checkers. I usually go for two SUPER BURITTOS. In case you're wondering, they are burritos - but super. My boss makes great meals. Usually he's too busy, but he makes a great spaghetti sauce, wonderful chicken, and good beans. That's only once or twice a week, but it's nice to sit down and have a quite meal, because no one talks during lunch, breakfast, or dinner. Somehow, it's an unspoken agreement that meals are off limits for conversations. One little piece of information – apparently last week was the first time they’ve made cookies since they both got married and move into the house…. we’re such a bad influence!

And my other count-up is at day 3. Beat that Mom!

Stay tuned for the next installment where I reveal more shocking details of the day to day life of the recently made beardless redhead!

6 More Days Until Home Sweet Home

The weekend is coming up. I don't think I'll do anything as exciting (or painful) as going to the beach again. In fact, I'll probably end up working Saturday since I took most of the 4th off. Going to the beach was nice to do once, but going to the beach on the 4th of July is not the brightest idea I had. It took almost 45 minutes to find a good spot to park along a 7 mile beach. The beach was a lot of fun when we (again, my programmers in crime were along) finally found a spot on the beach and spread out our towels. I put sun-lotion on, but I definitely missed sections. Along my left should is a spot of sunburn and in the middle of the spot is a streak of white where the sunblock got put on by one finger.

The beach was different than the others I saw. Most beaches I see are sand and waves. On this beach, the sand was broken up sea-shells. It looked like sand, but far more colorful. I dug down about a foot, but all I found were more pieces of finely broken shells. I spent at least 15 minutes just playing with the sea-shell sand. Most sand I play with is... sand. The sea shells changed the whole feel of the sand, and when I played with it, it moved a lot like water when pushing it around. Pushing my index finger into the sand and then moving it was like pushing a finger through water - the shell pieces would flow right around my finger and the trail the finger left was barely visible.

My other favorite part were the waves. After seeing the waves, I was slightly disappointed that I hadn't brought a body board, but the waves were large enough that if I timed one right, I could ride one for 5-10 seconds by just letting it push me along. The key was to push away from the wave, just before the wall of water hit you; that way, the inertia the water imparted gave me enough speed to stay abreast of the wave. Until it finally crashed down around me. :-)

I plan on going to the beach at least one more time this summer and it will be on a easy going, non-holiday date. Don't worry Mom, now that I know what spots I tend to miss, I can make sure to cover them with sunscreen!

To Infinity and Beyond!

Well, maybe not infinity, but the shuttle launch here in Florida was quite an impressive site. After sunning at the beach, my programming associates (ooooo. Sounds impressive!) and I, started driving toward the launch site to see how close we could come before the launch.

We had considered stopping near the beach to watch the launch, because there was a HUGE bridge - at least... 50 feet off the ground. Although it sounds low, I'm guessing it was the highest point around for 40 miles around. We decided to bypass that and go for a closer launch site. We're driving on I-95 (at least I think we were), and there were trees as far as we could see to our left and right with no breaks and high spots. We went for 20 miles without a break in the trees or a hill in sight. Finally, we take a small right turn and see a small, arched bridge about a mile ahead of us. The bridge was 20 feet high or so at the highest point, but it was enough for that area. So we start driving towards the bridge and an announcer comes on the radio saying the launch will be in 31 seconds, and that it had already been delayed a minute. Well... we made it to the bridge in time. :-D

Just as the we heard NASA finish the countdown and say launch, we finished parking... about 3 seconds later we saw the rocket climb above the tree. We were still 20 miles away from the launch site, but the rocket was bright enough that you couldn't look at it with your bare eyes. It was like stepping out into the snow on a sunny day... It's not so bright you need to close you're eyes, but still bright enough that you need to look away until you eyes adjust.... but then there are people like me - with sunglasses! Without them, I would have missed a lot of the details.

I got to see the booster rockets get released and fall off and fall towards the earth, and I saw the secondary power boost appear, and I even got to see the shuttle turn that off and start it's thrusting rockets to oriented it towards it's destination... I'm estimating I lost sight of it about 50 miles up.... After I lost sight of it, I finally looked back at where it came out of the trees and the smoke from the fuel was firm enough and large enough that it looked like a small cumulonimbous cloud that hadn't yet developed it's anvil. :-) It was quite a trail of smoke.

It lasted under 5 minutes, but it was a cool five minutes.

High Bid, Low Bid.

I know, I know. It may be shocking to see two posts go up within one day of each other. Try not to get too worried; it won't happen too often. :-)

I went to an auction yesterday. The auction lasted about 4 hours, though I didn't stay the whole time. It is a weekly event, but there isn't much I'm interested in at the moment. It's mostly glassware, furniture, pictures, silverware, tables, and anything else that could be seen as an ornament for a house. 45 seconds per auction, $30 average price, lasting four hours.... = ((60 * 4) * 30)/ (3/4) = $9266.66 dollars spent that evening. It is just an estimate. We were only there during the early hours, where they spent a lot of time getting rid of the small bookends, glassware.... The final number could be a lot higher.

Hmmm. Redoing the math again in my head... $9600. Which is right? Are either right? I'll leave it up to someone else to do the double check.

Last night I stumbled across gidol, where videos people put online compete against each other to be "The Best". I've seen it before, but I've never really looked through the videos much. Of what I saw, nothing was outstanding. My favorite section was the webcam competition, where people mouth the words to popular songs. The expressions on people's faces are extreme. The people who make the best videos are the people with the best and most variety of facial expressions. The high bandwidth required does mean I can't watch (aka skip) through them as fast as I might like, but I still enjoy browsing it. If you do look at the webcam section, vote for Lynne & Tessa!

Same Old, Same Old

One definite improvement over last week is the heavy rain. About every other day, we get a strong show, and there are two big windows by my workstation. Every time I look up or to someone else, my eyes pass over and out the windows. At the moment, I'm looking out the window to my left, looking at the at the garage roof. All along the top of the roof it's like a blurry whiteness from the rain hitting it. The window ahead of me is right in front where water tends to drain off the roof, so I have a heavy sheet of drops. The only downside is that there isn't much lightning... but that really should be a plus, since lightning isn't safe for human contact. :-)

Dan and I will try to go play racquetball again today. We've found a place that has 2 courts, and we'll go and see how full they are. As it turns out, neither one of us called the YMCA, so it is possible there will be courts there when we call, if this place doesn't work out.

I spent most of last week learning about threads and implementing them. Although this exact implementation of threads may not be useful when I get another job, it will definitely help me on any big projects with which I'll work. Ah, my time has run out. I had to clean and rebuild the project... and it took as long to compile as it did to type this. It's no small program at this point

Doing some work in Florida

The sun is shining, the humidity isn't too bad, and the temperature isn't as hot as it could be. I couldn't ask for a much better climate.

The plane arrived at Orlando's airport around 10:00. Everything went smoothly. We got our bags... except one of mine. Apparently one of my suitcases was left in Pittsburgh and I had to fill out a form. The traveling bag was sent to me the next day and I received it around 3:00.

Things have started settling into a rhythm. I aim to start working around 8:30 and try to end around 5:00. Some mornings I sleep past my wake up time and don't get down until 9:15. Allan and Judy have been pretty understanding so far, but I don't think I'll try for a 10:00 arrival. :-)

Two days ago, Judy walked us around the neighborhood for 2-3 miles, showing us the local fauna and where to see the alligators if we feel like getting up at 6:00. Yesterday, they took us to their aerobic workout gym and it's challenging enough that I will be becoming a member for the next 2 1/2 months.

There is not much else to say. I and my workmates are still settling in and haven't done or planned any major activities. I'll try to keep updates coming though. We're not too far out of Orlando, so there should be lots of activities to do in the evening... hopefully a shuttle launch in July - assuming it doesn't get delayed again.

Everying is Going (almost) Great

As I sit here, my mom and dad are sleeping. My nephew is sleeping. Even the Victoria is sleeping. But yet I sit here and blog - I need a life.

The weekend has gone well. I just came home from the family reunion (future blog - I promise) and a day and a half later, I'm off to help my parents at a craft show. All and all it is a wonderful way to spend the weekend - except for one little problem. I have a bad cold. The headaches aren't too bad (except at this moment) and the sore throat isn't too dreadfully painfull, and I'm not increadibly tired, and I'm not too low on energy, and the sunburn doesn't hurt too badly... :-) Add it all together, and it makes for a hard way to spend the days, even with family and friends.

Check out Victorias blog in the link on the left. She is due to have a baby girl or boy any day now! Go Vic!

Here is one picture from the reunion. We'll call this one a picture of "Cousin It".