| RE: All |
[Nov. 16th, 2007|08:00 am] |
Impressed am I that this continues to get use =)
Just a quick shout out to the high school gang. If y'all are in the cities between Xmas/new year we can perhaps have an annual meet up.
Work has been getting better, though due to being short staffed, I do more button pushing and less programming than I would like =( but it's the nature of work that you don't do what you want to do so thats not big deal yet.
The kids have been taking swimming lessons which is basically like being in an oversized bathtub with a bunch of infants & toddlers. They have fun so that's all that matters. In order to protest Apple falling in line with the DRM goons, I have purchased SanDisk sansa Mp3 players for both Megs and myself (the $30 price tag on woot helped a bit) - Merry Xmas to both of us. Speaking of woot, John if you ever want another roomba, they seem to have tons of them...
In the mortal sins category I have reinstalled WoW. This better not last because I'm wasting all my free time on the computer and I don't have anything to show for it. Thankfully after two weeks the game is already losing it's appeal so I should be able to get back outside and start biking again. Bring on the snow!
If anyone wants a good game of Pirates of the Carribean (Settlers of Catan)
games.asobrain.com send me an IM and I'll jump on and give you a lesson =) |
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| Response to External Stimuli |
[Aug. 3rd, 2007|09:52 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  contemplative | ] |
So the ol I-35W bridge hit the water and thankfully I know no-one who was involved. However it did shake up in my mind that I haven't spoken to anyone from Minney-soda (except the family) in a good long while.
Well I really don't have a ton to say, life goes on, there are good parts (tennis tournament, family, chess, parts of my job) and there are bad parts (repetition of job functions, money, being someones boss, power struggles with a 2-year old and a general lack of time) but after reading Dan's rant about philosphizing, jobs, and the sorry state of affairs in the US of A I thought I would type an essay. An exercise which I have not indulged in since college ended:
[b] I Am an Optimist, why?[/b]
Yes, I have blogged about this before, but I'm narcissistic and self-indulgent.
I wake up every morning, hop out of bead and hit the shower to start my brain up. I start organizing the tons of mundane tasks left on my todo list, the majority of which, inevitably deal with work. Bleh! What I never remember is why I am doing these things, the end result is that most days I could crawl back into bed and sleep for another two hours or play hookey from work without too much bother from my conscience (which not too long ago was the predominant driving force in my life).
On a given day, I could think, hey I'm going to perform task A, i.e. 'testing' for the 15th day in a row. I'll probably find a minor flaw, and log it. At this point project managers will review it, assign it to a developer with minor significance, and it will never be thought of again. My day will drag, and I will head home to sink onto the couch
OR
(Enter willful ignorance & self-delusion, aka Optimism)
I can think I'm going going to perform task A, Joe Schmoe will complete his portion of the job as well, we'll compare notes, shoot the breeze, log some issues and spend the rest of the day demonstrating the flaws to unbelievers who insist the unit "functions as designed" (no, it functions as coded, but that's another issue). After weeks of this, we will release a new OS which will be much more stable than the previous, and the number of customer complaints will drop. Perhaps, I'll be recognized by my boss, maybe not. I'll head home knowing that I "done good" and have energy to play with my kids, flirt with my wife, do some minor chores around the house and play some chess.
FULL DISCLOSURE
What I envision myself doing is certainly more sweeping, more heroic than finding small gui failures. It's more of a saving the company billions of dollars type thing (and implementing the brilliant fix as well as finding the flaw), but you don't need to know that.
In the end, I have some days like the former, some like the latter and most are in between. In the end, it's personal choice. Will I put in the effort to do something useful today, or won't I? Frankly, that statement applies to a hell of a lot more than how my work-day goes. |
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| Hi from MEDC |
[May. 3rd, 2007|12:37 pm] |
So I've been in Vegas at Microsoft Mobile and Embedded DevCon for three days now. Other than free booze making this morning living hell, I've been having a blast. WMTF looks awesome, especially with the UIAL and should give me some good tools for test automation.
I actually don't think I can cram anymore knoledge into my noggin right now, so I'm going to go have lunch and try and score some freebes from the booths. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jan. 12th, 2007|01:23 pm] |
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Ahoy me laddies I be postin over on the mespace nowadays (once). |
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| Spooky |
[Oct. 26th, 2006|07:47 am] |
Check out this page. The first picture is Judit Polgar the second picture is .... Franky V??
In other news, sports radio sucks. Let me describe what it's like trying to get last nights scores on my morning commute.
Flip to sports channel
- commercial
- 5 min later they break commercials to play another commercial for their radio which I'm already listening to!
- 1 more commercial
- A brief CNN/FOX/CBS (differs by station) local news update
- commercial
- A brief CNN/FOX/CBS (differs by station) global news update
- Commercial for their station! argg, you're driving me insane.
- commercial
- Commercial for their station! Damnit, I just want to know if the Wild won.
- Show starts, they let me know that the world series has been rained out and move directly into the show.
Conclusion?
NPR + www
FTW (I can't believe I just typed that) |
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| .99999999... = 1 |
[Oct. 25th, 2006|03:52 pm] |
Dweeker, this is for you. Since you don't buy the argument that since there is no number between them, their differnce is 0 and hence the same number, try this one (... is used to indicate infinite repitition).
.99999... = .3333... + .666.... = (1/3) + (2/3) = 3/3 = 1
In other news, I'll be home around turkey day to celebrate my Grandma's 80th birthday. I'll catch up with any of you who are around. |
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| Chess Club! |
[Oct. 17th, 2006|12:45 pm] |
For you Edward Nortan Fans, her's a nice You Tube parody that most of the CDH gang should be able to empathize with..
http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=3431
In other news, 3.5 months until the birth of my second kid... just wow. I'm not sure if we announced it yet, but ultra sounds show it to be a boy!
In Chess news, I am playing in the final round of the Iowa Correspondence Championship due to the guy who beat me withdrawing. Thats not the best way to get in, but I'll take it. I am playing Senior International Master John C. Knudsen as well as 3 others for a grand total of 8 concurrent games (thats a heck of a lot of work). I actually have one cheap win in the bag because my opponent sent 6. Nf3 instead of 6. Nc3 in a benko gambit.
For those not in the know, GM Vladamir Kramnik is now the uncontested (unified) Chess Champion of the World! Many congratulations to him on his victory over FIDE World Champion Topalov who resorted to off the board confrontations during the match to secure 1 point by forfeit and still lost... (so I'm prejudiced against bad sportsmanship, sue me).
Work is crazy right now. A project I was on for 10 months just got cancelled (bad for job security). But another system I have been maintaining for 3 years just reared it's ugly head again... Add 3 new small projects to that and I'm a busy guy. The down side is that Intermec (IN) announced a $50 mil revenue shortfall on their 3rd quarter forcast. Is it time to polish the resume?
Soliciting Responses
I figure my time is at a premium right now, so if yo ucare to, cast a vote on which of these 3 items I should most focus my time one.
1. Become a Tournament director and run some tournaments here in IA (now through the end of the year, there are only scholastic tournaments and I intend to rectify that.
2. Get involved with my local political party.
3. Volunteer some time at a charity (to bring my actions in line with my values).
Finaly, if you could do one spontaneous thing today, what would it be? I think I would take Brenna canoeing. |
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| Lazy River |
[Aug. 7th, 2006|07:35 am] |
I was home all weekend which is a first this summer. There were no door-to-door salesmen this time for which I am grateful =) There were two highlights and lots of work. Brenna and I walked to the park yesterday which is about 3/4 of a mile away and had a great time going down the slides (yar.. I be a father now). Megs and I also managed to get to the comedy club for a "free show" with a 2 drink minimum. Anyway, the "Midnight Swinger" was funny as can be and the opening act was pretty darn good too. They both worked some Intermec and CR specific stuff into their act which really hit home. Other than that work was the name of the game. I did go for a run on saturday and while it felt great at the time, I paid for it on sunday. Ahh well, good to know I'm not so far out of shape that the endorphins won't kick in.
To the CDH crew..
I'm going to be up next weekend. Lets hit up Khans for saturday lunch. |
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| Happenings Book! |
[Aug. 4th, 2006|02:42 pm] |
Wow, so being in a home, you really get hit up by the door to door folk. The girl scout cookies are good, and I feel like I need to support the boy scouts as well, but I just want to punch all the magazine salesmen. Actually it's rather odd, the thing I have been thinking about more than anything else lately is money, money and money. I would love to have a decent amount of savings, but looking at my pathetic balances just hurts. $275 worth of bonds, < $100 in ING? Bleh, then we have to replace the furnace... just wow.
A quick update on the job front, my cousin Nicole got a new job and I was thinking about looking around, but my dreaded Co-op project ended and I am now working almost as a BTS & c# architect. It won't last beyond the planning phases of this project but it's been fun. The only real problem is that MS still doesn't know how to provide decent documentation for their applications.
Brenna has been running a 102 fever and not sleeping. This makes her crabby to say the least. Megan and I have been getting up so often in the night, it is almost like having a newborn. Megs and I have tickets to Penguins comedy club for tonight, but already canceled w/ our baby sitter due to Brenna being so unhappy. Grandma & Grandpa might give us a respite though (many thanks for being there yesterday and letting us get some sleep).
Chess
I played an unrated chess tournament a couple weekends ago an really sucked it up. Just WOW... I was beat by a 1200 and the unrated 8 year old I beat looked like he was ready to cry.
The Iowa Open is coming up if anyone is interested in playing see http://www.iowachess.org/tournaments.html
for details.
/Chess
In good news, my cell phone (which had coffee dumped all over it) only has a bad battery. I got one shipped for $15, which is a decent price all things considered. Then again, getting that back just means that work can reach me 24/7/365... My last 2 vacations have involved working so that's a serious concern.
Gaelic Storm's new CD is out, and a good one it is. We'll be seeing them live Aug. 12 at the Irish Fair w/ Nate & Anne Marie (anyone of you CDH grads are welcome to join us).
In books, I have been reading Marvel 1602. A comic book by Neil Gaiman (author of Sandman) where he takes many Marvel characters back to the 15th century. As always, I love his story telling. For full length novels, I just re-read Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson (book 1 of the Malazan Book of the Fallen) as the next installment is due out in the US shortly. He and GRRM are clearly the best 2 fantasy writers writing today. The method in which the story is parceled out, awesome characters, and great interweaving of multiple plots makes for an excellent read. I tried to read some political books on the thought that it's good to branch out but that failed. The people I disagree with piss me off with their sensationalism and incomplete arguments and the people I agree with bore me (and piss me off with their sensationalism and incomplete arguments).
I saw Batman Begins a second time and it was as good as the first. Quite a stellar work.
Finally, after all this rambling, I leave you with a quote I enjoy..
"When I am white I win because I am white. When I am black I win because I am Bogoljubov" |
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| What's your favorite colour of your favorite car? |
[Jul. 6th, 2006|08:13 am] |
So I had a lovely (uneventful) 4 day weekend.We dropped some insect bombs and headed over to Newton to stay with the in-laws. I spent the better part of the first two days on the deck in sunny weather studying chess. I als omanaged to get in two tennis matches, one against my father in law, and another against a guy he knew named Bob. Bob happens to be the #1 ranked guy over the age of 65 in Iowa, and he's still good enough to beat me 3-6, 6-4, 4-6. Amazingly enough he knew most of the people I play tennis with in CR from tournaments, so we chatted it up for awhile.
The highlight of the weekend was taking Brenna to the Blank Park Zoo (Des Moines) on monday (oh how life changes). Mostof it was routine, but they had a nice little petting zoo and Brenna was initially timid, but when she found a little goat sitting down, she ran up to it and started "petting" it (bopping it reapeatedly in a fashion that would have most animals teaching her a lesson).
I got back home on tuesday, aired out the house and cleaned the gutters. I suppose you're not supposed to have trees growing in them huh? I also mowed 3/4 of the lawn. It would have been the full lawn, but a wheel fell off - DOH. I have to go buy a grenade pin as the stainless steel wire I jury-rigged last time the wheel fell off doesn't seem to cut it.
So it was back to work yesterday and the only notable thing was my 15 minute status meeting with some UK folk took 30 minutes because they were all lamenting their loss to Italy (World Cup action). They then cheerfully let me know that since it was 5:00 their time (11 AM here) they were off to the pub to enjoy some beer.
I got back on the bicycle this morning and my it was a perfect morning. about 50 degrees with a soft breeze, I averaged 19 mph and didn't even break a sweat. Theres nothing like getting the blood pumping at 6 AM. Even better was the huge bowl of oatmeal and bananna I consumed afterwords - the breakfast of champions.
In upcoming news, there is a $5 unrated chess toournament in CR this saturday, so I think I'll have some fun. Play some openings I don't usually play and relax a little (assuming the wife lets me =) |
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zebano's journal