Doug's Daze

Fridge of the Future

2011-02-21T06:43:00.000-08:00

There's an internet enabled device designed for just about every room of the house. You can even have music streaming to you in the bathroom while you get ready for the day on various devices available today. But the device for the kitchen either hasn't quite caught on yet or it hasn't been invented.

At its basic functions, some tech savvy cooks might like to be able to search for & follow recipes online. Someone might want to check e-mails or update their schedules (or Facebook) while waiting for the pasta to soften in the boiling water. Maybe someone getting ready for work might want to catch the traffic & weather in the morning while they get their breakfast. Whatever the reason, the desire (and sometimes need) for information and/or entertainment is undeniable. People will always crave more information and/or entertainment regardless of the method of delivery.

Perhaps an iPad or even an inexpensive laptop with wireless networking functionality could suffice for these basic functions. And while I'm sure there are some who probably utilize these devices for these purposes in the kitchen, it hasn't widely caught on. The kitchen has always been a place for storing & preparing food and hasn't traditionally been a place thought of to go to for performing internet or tech related activities.

This is why I think that while the kitchen may not NEED the internet anymore than most other rooms in a home, I do believe there are definitely some ways it could be made very useful especially if these functions are incorporated into a device that just about every kitchen already has...the fridge. Perhaps you've been to Best Buy or Fry's and seen the fridge that has it's own little tv screen with cable hookup on the door. To me, getting a cable hookup installed for your fridge right next to the water connection for the ice maker seems a little much. But since internet connections in our homes have become so commonplace and easy, no additional hardware would be required.

But my idea of this internet enabled fridge would take the concept much further than what you'd typically do on a laptop. It would have simplistic touch screen menus designed for specific functions making it easy to access the information you frequently visit (recipes, traffic, weather, news, stocks, RSS feeds, e-mail, online music, pictures, etc). But the coolest feature would be in how it handles the contents of the fridge. How about if your fridge could keep track of what is in the fridge for you? Not sure if you have any cream cheese for that bagel? Or what if you know you have sour cream but you can't find it? What if the fridge could tell you which shelf to look on to find your desired food product? What if it could tell you when you're getting low on a particular item, build a shopping list for you, and help you purchase those items?

This is the idea of my fridge of the future. Just about every item you purchase at a store today has a barcode (produce being the major exception). (RFID tags would provide much better functionality but are both more expensive and are generally not currently associated with items at the grocery store.) The fridge can have a built in barcode reader that reads the barcode and first tries to find a match either from barcodes you've previously scanned or matches it finds on an internet database (several already exist). If it finds no match, you can define the product manually. When you place it in the fridge, each shelf and drawer will have individual pressure sensors that will measure the weight of each item and keep track of where the last scanned item was placed. The item gets scanned when it is taken out of the fridge and when it is put back and recognizes the difference in weight to let you know when you are running low on an item. It would then start building a grocery list for you that you. You could organize this list into separate lists for different stores or other categories. You could add/remove items manually. You could send the list to a shared network printer. You can even save the list online for viewing from your mobile device. If you don't want to make a trip to the store, you could place your order online with services like Safeway.com or other similar offerings.

One last feature could be the integration of recipes with the contents of your fridge. Say you're looking at a recipe and you want to know if you have the required ingredients. For at least the refrigerated items, it can tell you which items you have & which items you'd still need to purchase.

This is the fridge of the future coming to kitchens and appliance stores...someday. At least this is my vision anyway, now I just need to find a manufacturer to pitch the idea to.

Corporate partnerships for innovations

2011-01-14T08:29:00.000-08:00

Recently there have been ads regarding a cell phone that also has Dolby Digital surround sound which, to me, seems really kind of silly given the size and quality of the speakers they can cram in to cell phones. Pretty much anyone that wants a halfway decent sound from a portable device either uses headphones (thank you for not forcing us to listen to your "music") or they plug them in to something that is designed to accomodate external input like a set of powered speakers or even a nice sound system.

But I digress, the point of this is that there are companies that make great products & technologies that don't compete with other companies products or technologies where they could join forces to make a great product. The first one that came to mind was if they can jam some "surround sound" speakers into a phone, why don't they take it a step further and work with a company that has been focused on speaker technology like Bose or Harmon Kardon for example and integrate that into the phone.

Better yet, why not have a cell phone that has worked with Canon or Nikon to finally put a decent camera into a phone. We typically carry our phones with us everywhere and there's great shots to be had or memories to be recorded anywhere you go. I can't count the number of times I wished I had my Canon camera with me to take a picture because the quality of most cell phone pictures are typically so horrible and/or the charge you to send the picture off your phone to a computer (if your phone doesn't have a USB cable for data transfer or a memory card or other such technology) that I just choose to not take the picture altogether.

One such product I looked at this week where two or more companies have gotten together to create a neat consumer product is Google Tv. They've partnered with several other companies to provide content but for the hardware it's either Sony in the form of an internet enabled TV or Blue-Ray player or, probably more accessible and less expensive, the Logitech Revue. I don't own this technology but it certainly looks interesting and promising with some great potential to be a great consumer media center device.

I think if more companies would work on partnering with other companies on new & different ways to utilize & implement their technologies, the world would see some really interesting and amazing inovations that would go way beyond the entertainment examples I've referenced above. Just think what could be accomplished in fields of communication, security, health & medical, education, etc. Honda for example is one such company developing technologies that go beyond their traditional motor vehicle applications. They have a walking assist technology that is designed to help people with weakened muscles. And perhaps you've seen Toyota's "Ideas For Good" commercials where they actually advertise how the technologies they develop can be used in other applications with the idea in mind of making the world a better place. They have a website at http://www.toyota.com/ideas-for-good/ where you can see many other technologies Toyota developed and applied to other uses than what they were originally designed for (making better cars).

Many would agree that the introduction of chocolate and peanut butter many years ago has forever since been a great combination. We've come a long way since then and some great and even more complex ideas have been mashed together to create some amazing end results with a wide array of uses and applications. Think of how many different fields have benefited from the iPhone for example with doctors able to access patient medical data, or merchants able to use it to swipe your credit card for transactions, or even for consumers to use it as a type of barcode reader to get product information or check prices. What technologies, products, services, etc would you like to see joined together?

Secret Santa

2010-12-09T06:02:00.000-08:00

Everyone has heard of the concept of the Secret Santa. It's basically where someone anonymously gives you a gift. For the last few years I have had a Secret Santa and the gift is always the same, always delivered the same, and always presented the same. This year it was on Thanksgiving day that the gift was delivered. I should have looked out the window when I heard the dog growling as he usually does when someone approaches the door. I was home all day except for the couple hours in the morning that I took our turkey to be deep fried (awesome by the way). The gift was delivered after the guests had departed from our holiday meal but before my brother Chris came home from his time he spent with his wife's family that evening.

The gift is simply this. A classic red Santa hat delivered in a plain manilla envelope with my first name written largely in big black marker and left on my front porch. I have always appreciated this gift every year because whoever this person is, they know me well enough to know that usually every year we pull out the holiday items, I can never seem to find the Santa hat I wore the previous year. Well, as it turns out this year, it seems that all the other hats magically popped up in various places as we opened the different containers. One was even packed with our Christmas tree. So now I think we might even have enough for everyone in my family to wear one. I've also deduced that it is probably someone who lives close to me as the roads were somewhat snowy & icy this year and since we live on a hill, it's either someone who lives near by or someone really dedicated. Knowing how much my Mom hates to be on the roads in the snow, I think I can pretty safely eliminate it being a family member.

Besides being a fashionable accessory to wear for the holiday season, it's also a functional item to keep the head and ears warm (assuming it's big enough to cover the ears too). Whoever my Secret Santa is, I want to thank them for the blessing they bring to my life every year. I appreciate their kindness and dedication and the time, money, & effort they put in to helping me to feel the holiday spirit. Thank you Secret Santa.

Father's Day 2010

2010-06-21T08:35:00.000-07:00

Preface / Looking back: I can't believe it's been since January that I've posted here. My blog has wilted and all but died. I don't know if I'm going to get back into the habit of doing regular postings but this one is evidence that I'll post something about a memorable day that I had. I'll warn you right now, I'm only 3 sentences into this but I know that with the amount of stuff I have on my mind, this will probably be a longer than necessary posting possibly worthy of a table of contents, but I digress.

Morning: I actually got to sleep in. I got up with the kids the day before around 6:30am and let Mandy sleep. Since I normally get up for work around 4am it was somewhere around 7ish that my youngest daughter Anna came in to give me the Father's Day gift she made for me. It was a card she made, a monkey face made of colored foam shapes, and a coaster with her picture in it. It was obvious she made these things at her preschool and that she had help from her teachers. She gave me a hug and wished me a happy Father's Day.

Next, the older two came in to present their gifts. Sara had made a card for me and Jennifer had decorated / colored on a cover for a post-it note pad. Both were detailed for their age and all the gifts from my kids showed they spent time, put thought into it, and was created with the intention of making me feel loved, which I did. (Mission accomplished). Then, they wanted to take my breakfast order. So I handed Jennifer the post-it notes and she got a pen. I tailored my order to something I knew they could handle and delivered my order to Sara, who in turn repeated it back to Jennifer, who then wrote down my order on the notes. I normally don't do cereal but as it was one of the few things they are capable of making I placed my order as follows:
large bowl of Lucky Charms, regular sized chocolate milk - extra chocloatey, banana, box of raisins, and 2 pieces of toast. Mom helped by getting the tv tray out and set up by the bed.

Breakfast: First came the cereal in a bowl normally reserved for mixing or small dinner salads. There was twice as much milk as there was cereal. Next came the banana followed a few minutes later by the chocolate milk. I was eating the cereal, and as I was slicing up and adding the banana to the bowl, the box of raisins was brought in (Sara was doing most of the delivery while Jennifer was preparing in the kitchen). I decided to add the raisins to the bowl as well and began to wonder if they forgot about the toast so naturally I inquired of my server who informed me the cook was applying the butter spread.

I finished my awesome breakfast, waited a bit while I watched some of Man Caves on the DIY channel then took my dishes downstairs to the kitchen and intended to inquire about the missing toast and here's what I found:

You can see one piece of the toast buttered and on the plate. To the left of the plate you see the chocolate syrup, the milk, the butter and behind that is the bread. On the other side of the sink in the background of the picture is the bowl and cereal box I just brought down and on the counter next to that you can just barely see the other piece of toast. Two questions: 1. Why is the toast separated like that? Did they have an argument or some kind of falling out? Did they repel each other? and 2. Where are my kids, since they're obviously not in the kitchen nor are they on their way to bring me said toast as expected. I don't know how much time passed between the toast being finished and getting buttered but none of the butter is melted and now the toast is cold and hard. I turned around to find my kids:

Here they are playing with the large cardboard boxes that our new sectional came in. I'm sure the boxes came into the kitchen and dragged my daughters out into the living room. How else would they get so distracted by inanimate objects so as to leave the rest of my breakfast alone and cold on the counter with me waiting upstairs. (I really didn't mind that much and was already happy with what they'd done so far.) I sat there for a moment wondering how long it would take for them to not only notice me but to realize that they had forgot my toast. Jennifer recognized that I was sitting there watching them after a few minutes probably only because I was emphasizing a dramatic sad look on my face (only because I knew I'd be invisible to them if I didn't do something to get their attention besides just stare at them). She asked what was wrong and I replied with, "What do you think?" and she thought it was because of the mess in the kitchen so she quickly got up and cleaned up the stuff they left out. When she finished I inquired about the toast again and without missing a beat she just put the other piece on the plate and handed it to me in a nonchalant way saying, "Oh, here you go." and was about to quickly go back to playing when I offered the observation that it was cold and hard. I think she either didn't hear the last word or didn't understand because her immediate solution was to put the toast in the microwave for 30 seconds. Anyone who has tried to reheat toasted baked goods will know that doing this for anything longer than 10 seconds or so does nothing more than to make the bread harder. She set the timer for 30 seconds but I had her pull it out after 15 but it was already too late. I didn't say anything to my girls who were watching me "enjoy my breakfast" and gnawed down most of it until they left the room back to playing in the boxes and didn't hurt their feelings by tossing it immediately.

Church: All in all it was a great morning really and I even got ready for (and made it on time to) church. Even though Anna was in rare form with her rambunctiousness, I actually enjoyed church overall more than usual. After sacrament meeting they handed out little bags with fortune cookies and a few Hershey's kisses accompanied with a couple quotes on paper. After church while I was doing my calling (counting & recording the donations), I got a "cake pop". I didn't know what that was at first but it is exactly what it sounds like. Chocolate cake ball atop a sucker type stick covered in a glaze type frosting that hardens like that magic shell you put on ice cream (probably was the same stuff now that I think about it). The cake was super moist and delicious it almost felt like it was melting in my mouth. It was like a donut hole but made of moist cake and even though it was the size of a walnut, it was the best treat I'd had all week. It was great.

The Roll Over: On the way home from church it was raining, and about 60 degrees. I know, here we are on Father's Day, June 20th, the day before the official start of summer, and it's cold and raining. I still have my coat in the car. On the way up the hill to my house, there's a winding part as the road makes its way up the hill. As I come around one corner, there's this other vehicle coming down the hill around another corner up ahead and it begins to fishtail and swerve into my lane ahead of me. It quickly corrects and swerves back into it's own lane just long enough for us to pass each other. However, still not quite in control, the vehicle swerves back in to my lane right behind me and I watch in my mirror as the vehicle runs off the road into the muddy hillside before toppling over and rolling onto its roof.

I immediately stop, put on my flashers, and get out to help. Already another car has stopped behind me and I tell them to call 911. As I approach the upturned vehicle, a young woman about 17 or so is crawling out of the car, now with mud and a little blood on her hands. I think the blood came as a result of scratching her hand when she crawled out because she was otherwise physically not hurt and nobody else was in the vehicle. I got into the emergency kit in my car and brought her a towel to wipe her hands off with. She was obviously very shaken and distraught as one would expect but otherwise not wounded. Immediately after she crawled out of the vehicle she asked if I could get her purse. It was stuck to the rear view mirror and so I had to kneel on the wet muddy road to get it out and unhook the strap from the mirror (still in my church clothes with white shirt and tie and khaki pants mind you). I got her purse but found out later that the stuff she really needed like drivers license, etc. that the police needed were still in the glove box. I had the back trunk of my car opened and had her sit there while myself and the driver of the car that stopped behind me helped to slow and direct traffic around the accident scene coming up and going down the hill since we knew they couldn't see the accident until they were almost on top of it with the way the corners of the road were. A third driver stopped and I asked him to be with the driver of the overturned vehicle and to just talk to her take care of her until police arrived. It was about 20 minutes or so between the accident and police getting the road closed. I left my cell phone at home since I didn't expect to use it at church so I borrowed a phone from the young woman's mom who arrived on the scene with her sister and I called my wife to let her know where I was, what I was doing and when to expect me. I was wet from the rain and had mud on the knee of my pants but was otherwise fine and was glad I could be there to help and was happy that these random strangers did the good Samaritan thing like it was the normal thing to do. They could have drove off and taken the chance that someone else would stop and help but they / we were the first on the scene and this time, we were the someone else. I was there about 30 minutes or so, the police talked to the driver and she explained what happened. Then they got my drivers license for ID, asked me what happened and got my phone number, then I went home.

Dinner: I got home, related my experience, and changed my clothes while my wife was making dinner. She was making a chicken dish in pasta sauce and cheese to be served over noodles with mashed potatoes. When Mandy asked what I wanted for Father's Day dinner, I thought about it and decided that while a nice piece of beef from the BBQ grill would be nice, I'd have to cook it myself to get it the way I want and I opted not to cook on Father's Day. I thought since it's Father's Day and I get to pick what I want, I'd pick something I would normally not get. Since Mandy is gluten intolerant (can't have anything with wheat, rye, or barley) I usually don't get Chinese food which is one thing I enjoy. So, to prevent having to spend money on Sunday, we placed the order and picked it up after dinner Saturday night. Have you ever had reheated Chinese food that wasn't just as good as the day before? No, it's like pizza. Usually can't go wrong there. So the order was for 2 dinners but it looked like more. It's amazing how much food they can cram into those little white boxes. The order included the following:

Barbecued Pork

Egg Roll

Sub Gum Almond Chicken Chow Mein

Almond Chicken

Deep Fried Prawns

Sweet and Sour Pork

Pork Fried Rice

And there was plenty left over after I got done. Perhaps our exchange student from Hong Kong will enjoy some later. She was gone at dinner time and came in late. I had Mandy invite her Dad over for dinner so she could enjoy Father's Day with her dad too and then later around 7pm my parents were coming over for ice cream and so I could get a haircut.

Dessert & gift exchange: Well, my mom, a licensed beautician by the way, forgot to bring the haircutting supplies over so I didn't get one. She did bring me a Father's Day gift and, since they were going to be in Long Beach, WA on my birthday (July 1st), she brought my birthday present over too. I wanted to wait until my birthday to unwrap the present she brought since I figured I wouldn't have much else to unwrap but she wanted me to open it now. The birthday present was a pillow case she made and embroidered with Winnie The Pooh. The Father's Day gift was a leather encased magnetic money clip. She mentioned she knew I don't carry cash but it could also be used as a bookmark. My brother Scott mentioned it was pretty thick to be used as a bookmark but that's ok since I rarely read paper books anyway. Most of my reading material is either online or downloaded to my iPod Touch. I had a small amount of the peach cobbler my mom made & brought over and was no longer in the mood for the ice cream I picked out at Cold Stone the previous day.

Since it was my Dad's birthday the day before and this was Father's Day, I had wanted to give my Dad a case of Thomas Kemper's variety pack of sodas (great gift by the way) but I learned that he's trying to stay away from sugar because he needs to keep his blood sugar levels down as he's diabetic and trying to improve per Dr's orders. So instead the case went to Chris (whose birthday is the day before my Dad's) and I got my dad an assortment of sugar free candies. Chocolate covered coconut almond (like Almond Joy), peanut butter cups, Applets & Cotlets (a made-in-Washington treat based on Turkish delight), Werthers Originals, and these Dove Chocolate Raspberry candies (which I wouldn't have gotten had I noticed that they were dark chocolate since I know we both don't like dark chocolate). In any case, he'll at least get to sample several sugar free treats and then he'll know what he likes in the future should he want a sugar free treat.

I know I was too blunt when I told my brother Scott that his haircut looked bad (I think I may even have used the word horrible). It was short and spiky and sticked out all over. He said it was the style or something but he's been trying out this "style" now for several months and I'm just not used to it. The biggest thing I didn't understand though was why he was paying $35 to get this look when, as I said before, my mom is a licensed beautician and historically we've always gotten our free haircuts from her. Now for someone like my brother who doesn't have a job, I'd think this would be a really great deal. Heck, it's a great deal even for me who does have a job. I did apologize to him if I offended him or hurt his feelings however he didn't show any signs that was the case. But I told him I was confused as to why, when he didn't have an income, he would pay for a haircut he could be getting for free, instead of getting his own Dad a Father's Day present (or me a birthday present several years in a row). My Dad would of course never make a comment like that and I'm sure I can easily be accused of being too blunt and perhaps even insensitive at times, however my Dad laughed out loud at my comment. My brother on the other hand, unfortunately didn't respond.

Prologue: My parents & brother left around 8:30 and I went to bed around 9pm after hugging my kids and telling them goodnight. So it was a pretty memorable day and a long weekend altogether. In fact the entire week was pretty eventful but so as not to bore you with additional details the highlights included the following:

Mandy's brother & his family visiting from Missouri, having family pictures taken (both at my house and Mandy's mom's house), getting rid of our large couch, getting a new 7 piece Home Theater sectional with 5 rocking recliners, borrowing a pickup truck to get a yard of gravel for a yard project, going to Seattle with the relatives to Ride the Duck around Seattle and into Lake Union, Mandy finishing up her supervisor job with the U.S. Census and spending time at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle to help a family friend through a crisis, spent the night at Mandy's Mom's Friday night, saw Iron Man 2 Saturday morning at Lincoln Center while the rest of the fam. saw Toy Story 3 at Crossroads, and had a birthday celebration dinner at Red Robin for Chris & my Dad Saturday evening. I'm hoping this week will be less eventful but there's already something on the calendar for every day except Wednesday. Wish me luck.

Hello Two-Thousand Ten

2010-01-10T20:06:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the new year 2010 which, as far as I'm concerned, should be pronounced two thousand ten. I have chosen to reject the "twenty ten" moniker because it just doesn't seem right to follow that type of phrasing until that little digit behind the 2 has a value meaning starting with 2100 and on. Sure that will be after my lifetime but I'm ok with that, really.

It doesn't take much effort to say two thousand ten and saying twenty ten just feels like the person is just too lazy to add that one extra syllable.

I know Wikipedia has it's own two cents worth to say on the topic stating "Among experts and the general public, there is a debate as to how specific years of the 21st century should be pronounced in English. The year 2010 is pronounced either "twenty ten" or "two thousand (and) ten".^[1]

The sequel to the film 2001: A Space Odyssey was called 2010 and though it was released December 1984, I don't recall ever hearing anyone since then refer to it as twenty ten. If someone were to ask me if I ever saw the movie Twenty Ten, I would reply that there never was one called that but there was one with a similar name called Two Thousand Ten titled as 2010.

My point in writing this isn't so much as to persuade anyone who reads it to adopt my view as much as it is more just to communicate my perspective. I mean if you choose to use twenty ten then I won't say I don't know you anymore. But if you do choose to use two thousand ten, then I think we'll just be closer friends that share a common idea who choose not to acknowledge anyone when they pronounce the year incorrectly. We may or may not have a motivating desire to correct them every time but in our minds we'll know what they really mean.

Reference

^ Siegel, Robert (2009-11-16). "How Do You Say 2010?". All Things Considered (National Public Radio). Retrieved 2009-11-16.

Goodbye 2009

2009-12-30T06:13:00.000-08:00

I don't often write blog posts in response to another blog posts. And the number of blogs I do read can probably be counted on one hand. However a recent posting I read got me to thinking and I realized that I probably had enough thoughts & comments about this to warrant a blog posting of my own rather than just posting a few lines in response under the original.

As the author of the previously mentioned posting points out, it's been a rough economic year for everyone. This has brought some unique challenges and obstacles in my workplace that have probably culminated into a large scary monster of negative feelings & emotions within me that all too often carries over into my personal & family life. Since my office closed back in May, not only do I not get face time with my co-workers & manager who are going through the same career difficulties (absence of a regular quasi-support group), but I also don't have the commute time between work & home that would be roughly an hour or so to unwind and transition from work to family mode.

One of the quotes from the posting I wanted to comment on was this:
"We didn’t send out Christmas cards this year. We handed out few gifts to neighbors. We didn’t hang lights around our home. We didn’t give as much service as we had planned. Home and auto repairs seemed to drop out of nowhere. Our three oldest kids needed glasses and dental work done.
Nothing major. Just many small expenditures that add up over time during a year when my bonus was slashed."

That's kind of how it was around our house too. Normally I put up our 12ft tall Christmas tree with a 9ft diameter base in our front room with vaulted ceiling. This year, I only put up the top half. It still looked great at 6ft tall with the pre-lit white lights and the decorations my wife & kids put on but it felt like a representation of my Christmas spirit this year like it too was only half there. Our exterior Christmas lights were never put up, and the smaller tree helped hide the fact that there were a smaller number of presents under the tree this year.

As there were no bonuses or raises handed out this year, what we were able to put under the tree basically came from the income my wife was able to provide with the 5 hours a week she works, commission only, for a small non-profit organization. While I was thankful for that, at the same time I was left frustrated that I couldn't provide for my family like I wanted to...Like I felt like it was my obligation and responsibility to and regardless of how hard I worked through the challenges of layoffs, furlough time, increased issues of customer escalations and unhappy customers and still raising our customer satisfaction scores, there was no monetary thanks from the company. (Though they still had funds to acquire a portion of Nortel business solutions.) So we delay the dental work my wife & I need, see how long we can drive with that annoying blinking light on the dashboard of the car (we had it checked, it's minor & ok), and reschedule some of the plans we had slated for this year.

But after reading the blog post further, it made me reflect back on the year and remember some of the more positive highlights and that it's important to have and show gratitude for some of the more simple pleasures like time spent with family. I was able to take my family to Disneyland this year for a week. That was awesome. I spent a few days at the beach 4 times this year, twice in Seaside, OR and twice in Long Beach, WA. I made new friends working a temp job first at an event in Seattle and then later in the year at another event in Atlanta. While it was hot in Atlanta, I enjoyed the rare opportunity to visit there and work with such a great team of people. This year we also got an addition to the people in our home in the form of a college exchange student from Hong Kong and she has helped us learn and try new things that we probably otherwise would not have done. And possibly a blessing I keep overlooking is that while there have been stressful challenges at work, I am thankful I have the opportunity to tackle those challenges rather than the unemployment line and job hunting market.

These are only a few of the things that are unique to me this year that I have to be thankful for. While I'm glad that 2009 brought these wonderful experiences, I hope that 2010 brings better economic times for everyone. But until then, I hope I can continue to remember what's truly important and show gratitude for what I do have instead of misery & negative attitude I've been giving off for the focus I've been placing on all the things that just don't go right.

My Hardest Job

2009-12-13T19:29:00.001-08:00

I recently participated in a gospel discussion with missionaries from my church who were teaching a friend who is investigating the church and preparing to be baptized.

After the missionaries left we continued talking and since my 3 brothers and I each served on missions, the talk turned to what the life of a missionary is like. I commented that I probably got more sleep then because they're in bed from around 9pm to 6am whereas now I get to bed around the same time but I get up for work around 4am.

My Mom commented that being a missionary has got to be the most difficult job. I started thinking about the various responsibilities I've had during my life and decided that while I know my Mom was referring to a profession, being a full time Dad has definately been the the most challenging and demanding job of my life.

It makes me appreciate the help and support my wife has been in this monumentous task and awesome responsibility we have been blessed with.

When my Wife was recently out of town for a week, I gained a greater appreciation for all this when I worked half days from home then played Mr, Mom sarting at 8am. However the first day was Sunday and that afternoon after church we were to be hosting my sister in-law's son's birthday celebration. Well I woke at 5am with the 8 yr. old sick in the bathroom. I took care of her and we both went back to bed. So of course we couldn't go to church so we overslept and I missed the opportunity to inform my sister in-law about my sick child since they were already at church.

So around 10am or so my 6yr. old got sick but she did so leaving a trail from her bed to the bathroom that I had to clean up. Well I finished that task about 10 minutes before guests were to arrive at which time I was informed that my 6 yr. old made another deposit on the hardwood dining room floor downstairs. I was just finishing cleaning up that mess whe people started to arrive.

So. 2 of my 3 kids were confined to their room while guests were downstairs and I was glad that my 3 yr.old had not gotten sick too. I had just sat down with my plate of food and my 3 yr. old came to sit on my lap. I figured she would eat off my plate. Instead she added to my plate the contents of her stomach. So not only did I have 3 sick kids, another mess to clean up, and no wife to help, but I got my food last so the food was gone except for a few morsels left on the veggie tray.

So yes, fatherhood is the hardest job I'll ever have but it gives rewards that I could never get any other way and I wouldn't trade it for anything.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPod Touch

The price of technology

2009-12-10T13:30:00.000-08:00

I realized some time ago that, despite my efforts, I'm not going to be able to stay current or up to date on all the technology advancements as I'd like to. I'm not going to be able to interact with new hardware that comes out for a variety of reasons. Some of the reasons are personal choices such as wanting to try to have a balance between attention given to "toys" and time spent with family, volunteering, etc. Or the personal choice regarding what line of work I'm in which has an impact on not only what technology I get to work with through my job but also how much I'm paid to do so. Sure, some people have jobs where they're paid to play with new stuff and then write a review on it or something but that's not the line of work I'm in currently (though that would be kind of cool) and I'm not certain I have the refined writing skills that someone would pay me for.

Which brings me to my main point which is that even if I did have time to interact with the technology that I'm interested in, I just don't have funds required to do so. And when I talk about technology, I'm not just talking about computers (though I've been wanting a Mac for some time now to replace my 4yr old Dell), other technology interests I have are related to multimedia as well. I'd love to be able to play with video editing which would also include some audio editing to add tracks to the video, record HD video onto flash media, photography related technology (I could use a SpeedLite flash for example), mobile technology such as Netbooks or smart phones, etc.

My current video camera is several years old and records to miniDV tapes and has a firewire port for transferring video to a computer. My Dell doesn't have a firewire port, my old computer that was given to the kids does and it currently doesn't work. Even firewire has become a slow technology compared to some other current options and it seems to be just about on its way out the door. I mean in order to transfer the video, I still have to play every minute of what I recorded because it's still a tape media and I can't just copy a digital file to a disk.

The Mac is probably the first and main big obstacle. I mean I don't want to shoot video anymore until I have a decent system for editing the video. I've refrained from doing too much with photo editing because my Dell only has 2gb of ram and has a 4gb limit. Sure I could put an inexpensive firewire card in there or upgrade the memory, but at this point it's like an old car to me and I just don't want to invest anymore money in it. Sure it works fine for what I use it for now (mostly internet stuff like e-mail & online social networking, etc). But I can't even play games on it anymore because the games today require technology that my current video card doesn't support and things like that. (I know, what a hardship I have that I'm not able to play video games on my computer. I guess that's why we have the Wii.)

(Warning: Abrupt segue to follow) Recently Verizon released the Droid phone which runs Google technologies natively. I'm a fan of Google because so much consumer product is free and it works as well, if not better than some consumer products that aren't free and since it's mainly developed to store / access all your data online, you can get to it from any internet enabled device that supports web pages. I got the Verizon LG Voyager phone when it first came out and in my opinion, until the Droid, there hasn't been a compelling reason for me to consider getting a different phone with Verizon. While the iPhone is indeed very nifty, fun to play with, and probably even very convenient, I can't bring myself to switch to a carrier that has worse coverage and customer support than what I've been having for the last 10+ years (rated highest by Consumer Reports surveys year after year too).

As I looked into the Droid phone more, I found that even with my "new every two" discount, the phone would still be $150, I'd be locked in to another 2 year agreement (hasn't really been an issue anyway), AND I'd have to get a mandatory data plan that would tack on another $30/mo. to my already outrageous cell bill which is only a 2 phone family share plan at 700 min./mo (and I added the $5 text messaging plan to my phone mostly for SMS data). I didn't really like the idea of investing more money in something that was going to increase my monthly bills and since I started working from home full time back in April, I'm finding that I don't even use my cell phone as much as I used to anyway. I figure I'm probably home 85% of my time anyway so I wouldn't even use the mobile features enough to make it worth it. The maps feature looked really cool but for the number of times I go somewhere where I'd need a map, I can usually get my directions before I leave home and even then if I get lost or the route changes because of traffic or road closures, etc, I can still activate my VZ Navigator for $3 for 24 hours or $10/mo. Even with the price of GPS devices coming down, I'd have to use the VZ Navigator for a full year to come close to the average low end price of what GPS devices are selling for. Plus my phone is typically always with me and I wouldn't have to carry another device.

Therefore I decided that as cool as the Droid is, and as much fun as it would be to have a GPS (which, unlike the Droid, typically doesn't have a monthly cost associated with it), given the amount of time I'm actually away from home, it probably wouldn't be a good investment. After sharing some of these thoughts with my Dad & brother who have similar tastes in technology as I do, my brother gave me the idea of the iPod Touch. It gives you just about all the features of an iPhone (without the actual phone features of course) and you only have to pay for the device once without a monthly bill. Given that I can use it with my (or any free wi-fi), I can still be away from the computer but still be at least somewhat connected to the technologies.

As I looked into the options for the iTouch, I found there's currently an 8gb which hasn't changed along with the newer 32 & 64gb 3GS models that apparently run about twice as fast. Anyway, since the 8gb model is being sold concurrently with the "3rd Generation" 32 & 64gb models, there were some who thought the 8gb model was also a 3rd gen. When I chatted online with the helpful Apple sales rep, they basically confirmed there's no difference except for a $5 software version upgrade. Armed with that knowledge I found that Amazon had two prices listed for the 8gb model. One was sold as a 2nd gen. product & the other a 3rd gen. with a $40 price difference between them. I opted of course for the 2nd gen. model then added the $5 upgrade.

So I can't afford the Mac yet, but the iTouch makes me feel like I kind of got a little closer and I don't have to walk away empty as it were or settle for something that both has an increased monthly fee and that'd only benefit from during that short time that I'm NOT at home. And a good portion of that time is while I'm at church which may not be the best place for me to be playing with my cell phone. However I've already downloaded scriptures and hymn book to the iTouch so it's already a winner.

(I recognize this posting was very materialistic in nature. Having said that, just know that I'm dealing with it and would like to promote that I am a fan of keeping a balanced life which includes having a focus on putting the family and people in general ahead of some screen to stare at or some other toy to play with. Perhaps that's something for another post. This one is already long enough as it is. I can't even keep the disclaimer note at the bottom short.)

Love / Hate relationship

2009-11-09T06:45:00.000-08:00

Perhaps love & hate are too strong of words but I have this relationship with this blog that kind of feels that way but maybe to a lesser degree. I like writing a blog but I get so wrapped up in the rest of life that this year it has fallen sadly by the wayside and put on the back burner taking a backseat to other things like the volunteer work I've been doing for the city of Auburn. Well, both my wife Mandy & I have but her more I think.

Just last month, Mandy took advantage of some training that the city paid for to fly her to Baltimore, MD to get some hands on training with FEMA in a class labeled "E900 - IEMC: All Hazards Preparation and Response". So she was gone for a week and I worked half days and played Mr. Mom. The Hazard they did drills for, their practice scenarios, revolved around a fictitious city getting flooded due to an issue with a dam up river. How much more closer to home can you get? If you're reading this and aren't local to western Washington or the Seattle area, the Green River Valley (Auburn, Kent, Renton, Tukwila) is preparing to face this exact scenario. Get the details here and even more details and resources can be found on the City of Auburn website.

Mandy has also been volunteering in the Emergency Management office (which I've done once so far), and has helped do other things like fold blankets and organize their moulage kits for CERT drills. Lately I've been helping to manage the city sand bagging site Tuesday & Thursday afternoons & Saturdays from 10am-2pm. Mandy & I are also authorized to drive city vehicles so that also helps in events like this where I can pick up a truck with supplies or whatever.

So in addition to those volunteer efforts, I also am trying to work on creating a web site for the Auburn Emergency Communications Team of which I'm a part of as well providing ham radio communications. So I'm learning a few new technologies as part of that project trying to figure out which tools to use and what-not. I want there to be a public calendar, a forums section, news, training, contacts, etc. I may be biting off more than I can chew with this project alone but it can be done in phases. I'm still in the planning stage in figuring out layout of the site and look & feel of the pages.

I've also been trying to learn some photography ever since I took my first step into the DSLR world when I got a Canon Xsi almost a year ago. Once I can get an appreciation and understanding of how to use the camera and its features, I want to take the next step and learn digital photo editing.

And at some point down the road, I also want to learn more about database management. With the software available today, you don't have to learn with training wheels like Microsoft Access anymore nor do you have to shell out big bucks to run Microsoft SQL Server either. There's free software like MySQL and there's even a free version of Oracle for download.

So much I want to learn and so little time, or at least lots of time and poor self-management of it. Because after a day of work, then volunteering or taking care of my 3 kids, there comes a time when I want to just quit using my brain as much and sit down to enjoy some time on the drums with Rock Band on the Wii. Yeah, I should just probably focus on one hobby or special interest at a time but then again, sometimes it nice to diversify. I mean I'm still learning some of this ham radio stuff. In fact I have a D-Star conference I'm going to in 2 weeks so I can learn more about that technology. I mean I just recently accepted invites for Google Wave & Google Voice so I'm going to try to learn those too. They look fun and they're free and all about communications which is really what all of this is about. Communicating via blogs, twitter, facebook, photography, radio, internet, e-mail, and even using databases to store and retrieve information to communicate with someone some data.

So with all that, my enjoyment for keeping my blog updated has turned into a small amount of self-dissapointment that I seem to only update this maybe once a month lately, if that. But then again, there's always my Twitter updates which also get posted to Facebook so if you follow me there, you get more current info. If you only follow me here, you may be missing out on some really important stuff.

Some Great Deals (most under $10)

2009-10-12T05:13:00.001-07:00

My wife says I don't need any more toys and I need to quit spending money all the time...Oh yeah? Then how do you explain all this stuff?

Shop4Tech.com offers the 32-Piece Mini Screwdriver Set for $9.99 with free shipping. Coupon code "CD15" cuts it to $8.49. That's $2 under our July mention and the lowest total price we've seen for such a set. It features a 4-1/2" screwdriver, 4-1/2" extension, three bit holders, and slotted, Phillips, Torx, Hex, and PZ bits.

n-store only, Home Depot offers the Brinkmann 6-LED Flashlight 10-Packbundled with 30 AAA Batteries for $9.97. (To find it, click "Weekly Ad" in top-right corner, enter your ZIP code, click on this week's ad, and search for "Brinkmann".) That's $50 less than the best price we could find for a similar flashlight in this quantity; and that's without the batteries. Sales tax is added where applicable. Deal ends October 14.

Amazon.com offers the DeWalt Heavy Duty 50-Piece MAC Container Accessory Set, model no. DW2582, for $21.36. Pad your order over $25 to qualify for free shipping; otherwise, shipping costs $7.47. Even with shipping, it's a $13 drop and the lowest total price we could find. This set includes bits to fit most sockets, a rapid load holder, and magnetic tray.

Cabela's Women's Early-Season Nylon Parka for $10 + $6 s&h

Cabela's offers its Cabela's Women's Early-Season Nylon Parka in six colors for$9.88. Shipping adds $5.95, or opt for free in-store pickup. Even with shipping, that's $20 off list and ties our mention from a week ago as the lowest total price we could find. Sales tax is added where applicable. This jacket includes a fleece lining and comes in sizes L to XXL, although not all size/color combinations are available.

Meritline.com offers the LED Credit Card Pocket Light for $4.99. Apply coupon code "MLC400440101050A" to trim it to $1.99. With free shipping, that's tied with our mention from a month ago as the lowest total price we've seen for such an item. This credit card-sized LED light folds down flat and can be stored inside a wallet. Deal ends after 200 coupon redemptions.

7-Port USB 2.0 "Squid" Hub w/ built-in cables for $8 + free shipping
Shop4Tech.com offers this 7-Port "Squid" USB 2.0 Hub in Black for $9.99. Add coupon code "CD15" to your cart to cut it to $8.49. With free shipping, that's the lowest total price we've seen for a 7-port "squid" (or "octopus") hub since August when it was $1 less.

Dialogue with my 8 yr. old daugter

2009-08-05T08:37:00.001-07:00

Ok, so first an acknoledgement that I never finished posting a detailed log of our Disneyland trip AND that it's been about 4 months since my last post. I think I've already gotten over it and somehow I'll find a way to live with myself and move on. I hope you can too.

Anyway, this posting is a result of a conversation I had with Jennifer, my 8 yr. old daughter this week and since it's a little too long for a Twitter or Facebook posting, I thought that I should share it here.

Me: Jennifer, What do you want for dinner?

Jennifer: I don't know.

Me: So you want some "I don't know" for dinner? Ok, I'll open the pantry and pull out some "I don't know" for you for dinner. Do you want ketchup with that?

Jennifer: No.

Me: Do you want your "I don't know" with Salt?

Jennifer: No

Me: Would you like it with peanut butter?

Jennifer: No...But I would like it warmed up.

When did my daughter start being such a smart alec?

Disneyland Day 2

2009-04-05T09:16:00.000-07:00

We spent the morning together in Disneyland and then took the kids back to the room in the afternoon to spend time at the resort pool & with their cousin Dawson. Mandy's sister Jessica flew in today and in exchange for staying with us it was agreed that since she wasn't going in to the park until the next day, she would watch the kids while Mandy & I did a few things in the park ourselves that would be better to do without kids.

We got to the gates before the park opened so that when we were let in we could go straight to Tomorrowland and be among the first in line for the Finding Nemo submarines. I think we were the first ones on that submarine that morning. There was only room for 2 people to get on after I did, the seats were still cold. I didn't take pictures of the part of the ride that included animated sequences of Nemo & friends because it was so dark & on most of the dark parts of rides I didn't want to use the flash because it kind of detracts from the ride for everyone.

We got off Nemo & the plan was to get a fastpass for Autopia but the sign said the wait was 5-10 minutes so we just got in line. Apparently the engines were still cold because we noticed them having some trouble starting the engines and the wait was more like 20 minutes or so. It was still fun and I let Jennifer sit in the drivers seat while I helped with the gas pedal for her. I took a few pics trying to reduce the awkwardness of how close up a shot it was. However, she "drove" as awkwardly as expected but still had loads of fun.

After we got a fastpass for Space Mountain, we did the Buzz Lightyear ride where 2 riders sit in a pod and get control of a "laser gun" to shoot "Z" targets. The unique thing about this is that since there were targets in every direction, there was a center joystick that let you control the direction you faced. Mandy let Anna control that and somehow she scored higher than I did.

There are several attractions where Anna and sometimes Sara are too short to go on the ride. There were only a small few that Jennifer was too short for. Star Tours was one that Mandy & I had to split up to go on with a "switch rider" pass. Jennifer & I went on Star Tours first then Mandy could go on with Sara if she was tall enough or Jennifer again if she wasn't. Sometimes Mandy would go first on these types of attractions. Last time I was at Disneyland, Star Tours was relatively new. And where they did the 3-D attraction "Honey We Shrunk the Audience" was the relatively new and somewhat popular 3-D "Captain E.O." that was a Sci-Fi type short film staring Michael Jackson.

I went on Space Mountain with Jennifer and there was born the worlds newest roller coaster freak. I think from that point on, Jennifer loved roller coasters and every other fast ride the park had to offer. 98% of the ride is in almost total darkness. We sat in the very back so it was even harder to see what was coming, we might as well have been blindfolded. I think this is probably the scariest ride. Jennifer was super excited when the ride was done and anxious to do it again. It was all I could do to hide from her that I was about ready to pass out and throw up, not exactly in that order.

Jennifer was super excited and looking forward to the Jedi Training Academy because she learned that they take kids from the crowd and teach them how to be a Jedi which she was very interested in because Uncle Chris claimed to be a ninja and admited that a Jedi could beat a ninja. She really wanted to beat Uncle Chris as a Jedi because if she can beat Darth Vader, she knew Uncle Chris was afraid of Darth Vader. We got to the appropriate location for this event early and she was among the first of about 30 kids to be chosen from the audience. She was given a padawan jedi robe and was issued a "training lightsaber" to learn the basic moves of a jedi in the ways of the lightsaber. When some basic training was complete, a couple storm troopers paid the a visit apparently paving the way for Darth Vader. The Sith Darth Maul followed in after Darth Vader looking all menacing with his double edged light saber, horns on his head, and those yellow eyes. The Jedi Masters were confident of their new padawans and sent them up against these villans. Jennifer had on her birthday button she acquired the day before and while all the kids "fought" either Darth Maul or Darth Vader, she was the only one who got to fight both of them. The Jedi trainer joked that it was her big smile that confused Darth Vader and allowed her to "defeat" him in battle. After it was over, she got a certificate as a rememberance of the event. We all had a great time but especially Jennifer.

We spent a little time at Innoventions checking out what was basically "Microsoft Home" with most of the technologies powered with HP hardware and Microsoft Software. One of the neatest thing is still the Microsoft Surface. I'd seen it in video before but it was fun to play with it first hand finally. I probably spent too much time downstairs because we only had maybe 20 minutes or so upstairs before we had to go. Not enough time to catch the Asimo show. There was a person on a Segway. First time I'd seen one that close before. Most of the rest of the top floor was a collection of video games brought to you from Xbox 360 & Playstation (mostly Xbox). Mandy & I returned later that evening to take a closer look upstairs when we had more time and were kid free.

We had to get over to the Plaza Inn on Main Street for Jennifer's Birthday celebration with Mickey, Minnie & Pat E. Cake where we each got hats, cups with lemonade, & cakes to decorate. Then each kid got to get their picture taken with Mickey & Minnie.

We dropped the kids back off at the resort with their Aunt Jessica who immediately took them down to the pool. When Mandy & I got back to the resort, she took two of our 4 park hopper tickets & got fastpasses for Big Thunder Mountain and I took the other two and got fastpasses for the Indana Jones ride. We met for dinner at the Blue Bayou having made "priority seating" reservations the week before. This place is inside the Pirates of the Caribean ride and shares a kitchen with Club 33. The back wall of this restaraunt displays the first part of the ride where riders are going through a backwoods bayou replica. Food was great. I had a nice medium well prepared steak with potatoes.

We immediately got in line for Pirates of the Caribean & the line moved quick. Then we went on The Haunted Mansion next. Both are always a classic though Pirates was redone after the movies. Mandy & I used our fastpass tickets to walk right on to Big Thunder Mountain and got to sit right up front. It was great. We were able to time it just right to walk right on to the Mark Twain riverboat to take a trip around Tom Sawyers Island on the "Rivers of America". Without kids we were able to get things done at a faster pace & made our way to the Indiana Jones ride between the Jungle Cruise & Tarzans Treehouse, formerly home of Swiss Family Robinson and apparently not changed much physically but for the addition of some props, statues, & signs.

We were able to get right on Indiana Jones right and went straight to the front of the line with only about a 10 minute wait. A couple points during the path there are signs that say do not touch, pull, press, etc some object like a rope or a lever. I wanted to but Mandy raced ahead. Luckily, the guy behind me took the opportunity to trigger the event such as spikes popping out or whatever. This is the guy who does the opposite of what any sign says NOT to do. During the preshow, a video says not to look into the eyes of the statue. I looked at this guy and said, "You're going to look into the eyes aren't you?" Of course he did but if he didn't, I sure was going to.

Disneyland Day 1

2009-03-22T20:44:00.000-07:00

So I took my kids into Disneyland & Disney California Adventure for the first time today. We spent all day there & I just wanted to give a quick run down of what we did. We walked in to Disneyland when it first opened at 8am & just planned to do Main St. & ride the train once around but once we got in we immediately saw Mickey with Pluto, Donald, Minnie, Goofy, Alice & Mad Hatter, and Cruella deVille. Later on in DCA we saw other characters, mostly at Disney Animation which included Mickey in Sorcerers Apprentice outfit, Woody, Mr. Incredible with Elastigirl, Cinderella with Jasmine, Chip & Dale, Koda & Kenai from Brother Bear.

From Disneyland 2009

Anyway, we rode the train around Disneyland, walked up & down Main St. USA, checked out Sleeping Beauty's Castle, and headed over to DCA for it's opening (it opens at 10am). We got a fastpass for Soarin' Over California then made our way to Monster's Inc. ride. We were the second car on the ride that morning. Then we did Tower of Terror which Jennifer just loved especially since she got to go on it twice in a row. For all the rides with height requirements where Anna and/or Sara are too short, one of us would go on the ride with Jennifer who's tall enough for just about all the rides and then the other would stay with Anna then we'd swap & the second adult rider would just take the switch off pass down the "Fastpass" line almost right up to the front bypassing most of the people waiting in line.

We did Soarin', then while one of us did Grizzly River Run, the other let the kids play at Redwood Creek Challenge Trail. We all got nice & wet on GRR and Sara especially loved flying at Soarin'. We had lunch and spent time in Bugs Land where the kids had fun on Heimlich's Chew Chew Train (very short for the 15 minute wait), Tuck & Roll's Drive 'Em Buggies (same as last one and it's only slow moving bumper cars), Flik's Flyers, and the 3-D show "It's Tough to Be a Bug!" that had more effects & sensory elements to it than just visual, the seats sprayed you & made you feel things during the show related to bugs, fog machines, spiders dropping from the ceiling, etc

Finally we did Muppet Vision 3-D, another show like the last one but Muppet themed but funnier and no scary parts at all. All your favorite Muppets are represented except for a lack of characters from Dr. Teeth & the Electric Mayhem which meant no Animal but Janice rides by on the back of a bicycle with Scooter at one point. After this show we sat in line for a Broadway type showing of Aladdin with real actors & nice effects, sets, etc. We sat down in line & had dinner since we arrived to the show early enough to do so, about 25 minutes or so and there were already people there before us. We called it a day after that & now we're all tired. We did a bunch today, tomorrow we'll take it a little slower.

New Design / First Compliment

2009-03-18T04:30:00.000-07:00

First off, if you come to my actual web page to read my blog vs. getting updates via RSS feed you'll notice I picked a new design template for my blog and have chosen to "go green" so to speak. The layout is still the same so you can still access all the features and fun stuff as before but I thought it was time for a change. At some point in the future down the road I may eventually go to a hosted site & start using something like Wordpress so I can have more flexibility in my design but for now this offers very low maintenance, easy startup, and best of all, it's free.

And now for something completely different.

In the last few months my 2yr old daughter Anna has just been exploding with how much she's talking, the words she's using, the sentences she's making, and in general just how much she's communicating and showing us how much she understands things. This has also started to define her personality more as she's able to communicate what she's thinking, how she's feeling, her wants, etc.

This past week as I was coming upstairs, she was standing at the top of the stairs waiting for me and holding out a bracelet for me to take while saying "Reach Dad, reach." When I got to the top of the stairs and took it from her she gave me possibly the first genuine compliment she's given me by simply saying, "Good reach Dad, good reach." The next day I had just finished helping her in the bathroom and while she did most of the actual "work", as we were finishing up she told me, "Good job Dad, good job."

I can't remember the last time I got a compliment that was as meaningful. It reminded me that genuine compliments between adults seem to come way too infrequently and are usually "scheduled" events that involve a boss or manager at review time. At the same time, it also taught me that perhaps we should be more casual in giving compliments to each other so long as it's sincere and not trite or repetitive.

"... and a little child shall lead them." Isaiah 11:6

New feature added

2009-02-19T06:18:00.001-08:00

In case you haven't noticed before, or you're using an RSS reader to read my blog updates, on the right side bar of my blog I've had a little widget that allows you to Instant Message me directly from the page.

Now I've gone one step further and added a mini chatroom for everyone to post messages to. I believe these messages are stored on the web so even if nobody is in the room, they can be seen by people joining the room later similar to a discussion board or forum. I just thought I'd try it out for awhile so check it out & tell me what you think. Is it worthwhile or should it be removed because it's pointless? I'm interested in your opinions on this one.

You'll notice it will automatically assign you a guest name but you can change it by clicking on "edit nickname", how clever. Looking forward to hearing from anyone that reads this. Thanks, enjoy.

Growing Up

2009-02-17T08:30:00.000-08:00

In finding old friends on Facebook it's hard not to reminisce about the times spent together during those days long ago from past periods of our lives. Of course one of the first things we do when we discover a friend we haven't had communication with for quite some time is to attempt to make up for lost time and catch up with the current status of our lives since then.

I find myself now communicating with people that I haven't seen in 10-15 years or so and it makes me think what's changed in my life over the last decade. This is a good thing to because it reminds me that I celebrate my 10 year anniversarry with my wife this year and that while I haven't planned a single thing, I've got until May 1st to figure it out.

I think about the schooling I've done, the kids I've had, the places I've lived, the jobs I've had, and the friends I've made in the last 10 years. As I recall these things with people that knew me during the earlier pre-marriage years, I still feel hesitant to accept a title my kids might bestow upon me as "grown up".

When we were younger, we asked each other and thought about what you want to be when you grow up. Part of me is still trying to figure that out. I enjoy some of the benefits of "adulthood" like having a home & family of my own but there are times when I wish I could also enjoy some of the things I did when I was younger. To some degree I haven't stopped some of those activities from my younger years like video games & cartoons but even those types of things have changed and decreased.

Recently I had to have the discussion with my wife about "an allowance" for our kids if they accomplished certain household chores and what-not. She initiated the conversation and I initially told her I didn't want to have that conversation because doing so meant that I had to take another step closer to assuming the role of an "adult" with "responsibilities" and making decisions for these young lives I'm in charge of. Even though I'm 33, I'd like to believe that there's still a care free kid inside me and having this conversation mean admitting to myself that I am a grown-up and I am responsible.

I never answered the question, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" with the answer, "I want to be a responsible adult with a wife, 3 kids, and a mortgage." But now I find that it comes with the package called "The American Dream" and apparently I'm living it and I wouldn't change it for the world. (Though I would like to travel with my family more.) ;)

drutherford | Twitter Grader

2009-02-17T08:08:00.001-08:00

drutherford | Twitter Grader
So I was graded 92 out of 100 on Twitter Grader. Woo Hoo!
Posted using ShareThis

Internet Hotel Amenities

2009-02-02T13:52:00.000-08:00

First of all I want to say that I rarely stay in hotels. When I go on vacation someplace, it's usually somewhere where I can stay at one of the units that's part of Trendwest membership because I know what to expect as far as quality and because since I'm usually on vacation with my family, having a full kitchen & washer / dryer with dining room & living room along with separate bedrooms is very nice. However the few times I have stayed at a hotel, I'm usually too frugal to get anything more than a non-smoking room that's just going to be a bed for the night. I stayed at a couple different hotels on my road trip to & from Yellowstone last September and again it was on my way to or from one of the resorts I mentioned.

Having said that, staying at the less expensive hotels must have spoiled me. I guess I've come to expect certain things from hotels. I don't expect much, if there's a continental breakfast included in the morning, bonus. But even the less expensive hotels I stayed at had free internet like it was just as standard as water, electricity, & toilet paper. So I was unpleasantly suprised to find that places like the Hyatt or the Sheraton in downtown Seattle didn't offer such fancy things. Oh sure you can get it for a daily fee, but I'm not sure I understand how / why the smaller hotels I've stayed at can offer such a simple thing and the larger chains still charge for it even after the room rates they charge you.

For example, a sample room rate per night at the Sheraton where I'm staying is $140. A local hotel near my home has room rates ranging from $50-70. Now of course the quality of rooms is substantially different but I think I'd rather have a lower quality room with internet access than a higher quality room without. Heck, even the public library has free internet for its patrons.

Hear me now downtown city hotel chain establishments, it's time to step up and get with the program. You may be convenient as a downtown location for events and such, but if you're going to charge me an additional fee on top of the room rate you already charge me, so long as I have options, I'll be sleeping elsewhere.

15 Seconds of Fame

2009-01-26T13:23:00.000-08:00

One of the videos I shot for a video project last year was selected for a clip for Vehix.com. This particular clip just happens to be one that Mandy volunteered for.

2008 reflection

2009-01-25T16:06:00.000-08:00

Taking a page from LaDawn's blog, I shall attempt to answer some questions that take a look back at the last year.

1. What did you do in 2008 that you’d never done before?

Got my Technicians Ham radio license then upgraded to General

2. Did you keep your New Year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

I've never really hopped on this bandwagon and subscribed to this though I try to continue to learn new things, go to new places, and be better than I was before.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?

My cousin Lynelle had her first baby.

4. Did anyone close to you die?

No, I think I would have remembered that.

5. Where did you travel?

Besides going to Seaside, Oregon and some camping trips, the big one was driving to Yellowstone National Park.

6. What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?

More patience, understanding, positive attitude, and wisdom.

7. What was your biggest personal achievement of the year?

Probably the answers to 1 and 5 above.

8. What was the best thing you bought?

My camera, Canon Xsi DSLR

9. Whose accomplishments merited celebration?

Sara for starting Kindergarten, Jennifer for reading many books, being a great speller, & loving math problems, and Anna for graduating from diapers to underwear.

10. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?

I'm going to side with LaDawn on this one and reference many of the political ads.

11. Where did most of your money go?

I ask myself this all the time. Mandy does the finances.

12. What song will always remind you of 2008?

I don't think I associate a specific song with a year.

13. Compared to this time last year, are you: a) happier or sadder? b) thinner or fatter? c) richer or poorer?

a) happier because we don't have to carry around a diaper bag

b) fatter despite my attempts

c) richer in some areas, poorer in others

14. What do you wish you’d done more of?

Exercising, eating better, and spending more time with my kids doing things they'll remember.

15. What do you wish you’d done less of?

Wasting time

16. What books did you read?

Non-Fiction this year: ARRL Book for Technicians License then ARRL Book for General License

17. Did you fall in love in 2008?

Every day all over again with my wife.

18. What was your favorite TV program?

Either Heros or Smallville

19. What was your greatest musical discovery?

Pandora.com

20. Who are the most interesting people you met this year?

New friends made in Seaside.

21. What did you want and get?

A new camera, The Nightmare Before Christmas and The Dark Knight DVDs.

22. What did you want and not get?

Some countertop speakers for the bathroom to play music when getting ready in the morning.

23. What was your favorite film of this year?

Easily, The Dark Knight. Now hereafter known as the favorite film of any year.

24. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

Turned 33 this past year and probably went to dinner somewhere. Obviously it was extremely memorable.

25. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

I hate to keep going back to material things but having a gas grill would have made the summer more fun for grilling. Hard to beat a nicely done steak.

26. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008?

Sadly, probably Wal-Mart.

27. What kept you sane?

The breaks, the vacations, getting out & enjoying the world, enjoying life, and being able to look back and identify things I have accomplished. Oh yeah, also video games and digital photography.

Microsoft, Not Cool

2009-01-13T09:52:00.000-08:00

In a recent IM session with Akula...

Doug : Tell me, is Windows 7 a compelling upgrade so far?
Akula: Nope.
Akula: maybe if you're running XP.
Akula: But if Vista runs well for you, there are very few changes.
Akula: MS should give it away for free to Vista users
Doug : yeah, as an apology recompence
Akula: Vista, since SP1, is quite decent.
Akula: Pre SP1 it was horrible.
Doug : For all those people who say "I'm a PC", isn't a Mac really just a type of PC?
Akula: I don't get that campaign at all.
Akula: I'm a PC? It's likesaying, "I'm not cool"
Doug  : me either, and it's longer than most commercials too
Doug  : Yeah, it's getting to be like saying "I'm a PC" is synonymous with those people that say "I still use postage stamps", "I don't know how to set the time on my VCR (What's a DVR?)", "I only shop at brick & mortar stores", "I use 35mm film for everyday photos", "I play all my music from original cd's", "Velcro shoes are awesome."
Akula: LOL
Akula: Very true. You'd have a good blog post there.
Doug  : let it be done

Now tell me why a company ran by an excited, sweaty, bald man who apparently doesn't know anything more about Facebook than what he's been told, wouldn't be cool.

Successful Holiday Season

2009-01-02T11:29:00.000-08:00

Everyone has their own definition of what a successful holiday season is to them. I think this one for me certainly qualifies but it took planning immediately after the last one.

Last year we started telling everyone that the Christmas Family get together was going to be held at our house. We continued making these arrangements as we hit December this year and it worked out that, even for New Years Eve, relatives converged on my house and I didn't have to go anywhere.

I like going places, it just gets exponentially harder to manage young kids in an environment they're not used to and may not have any toys because no kids actually live there. Ever since shortly after I got married I've been trying to orchestrate the idea that "If you want to see me for Christmas, I'll be right here. Feel free to come on over."

Sure we played host to several social gatherings but for the most part we were able to set things up for the first party and then just leave the table & chair configuration, etc until the last event was done. This year, that's how I'm defining a successful holiday season. So I suppose next holiday season, I'll be more open to going to other people's homes to visit.

However, I've always tossed the idea around that one year I just want to do all the immediate family gift exchanges either before or after Christmas and just go out of town for the actual holiday. Not to visit someone or anything, just the opposite. Just spend some time with my wife & kids for Christmas without having to worry about going anywhere or seeing anyone else. Limited decorating, and the only thing we'd have scheduled is flight times.

Here's to 2009.

Hangin' Around

2008-12-17T11:49:00.000-08:00

For any parent or anyone who has ever had to use the restroom in a public place where they were responsible for a child that they couldn't leave alone, you can appreciate what an awesome invention this handy little device is. It's similar to those baby changing stations but it's smaller, actually inside the stall, and designed for children toddler age and up. Probably mostly for children who are still required to use a car seat when in a car.

For the kids a little bit older like my 5 yr old, I just have her stand in the corner. This may sound mean at first but she doesn't mind because she understands being considerate of others in regards to privacy.

If she doesn't want to stand in the corner (which is rare) I just hand over my cell phone (Verizon LG Voyager with external touch screen and flip open full qwerty keyboard) with the calculator function open and all of a sudden they have many buttons to play with.

Frozen Angel Silouettes

2008-12-15T06:20:00.000-08:00

So we had our first snowfall this weekend and of course what kid doesn't want to go right out and play in the snow. My kids are no different and I believe it must be some natural born instinct to need to make snow angels as a kid. This picture was taken around 9am and since it was the weekend I hadn't really gotten ready for the day so I was ill prepared to be outside for more than a few minutes at a time.

It's kind of funny to see them all bundled up trying to survive the cold long enough to enjoy the snow with their red cheeks and noses.

Then afterwards there seems to be some unwritten law that states any kid coming in out of the cold snow environment into the house to warm up must do so via a cup of hot chocolate.

Helping the giver

2008-11-25T05:06:00.000-08:00

This year I've decided to do something a little unconventional and uncharacteristic for me. It's actually part for me and part for others. There's a part of me who thinks everyone should do something similar and I don't mind telling you why but first let me tell you what. I started a list of things that I would like to own which is basically a wish list. Now this may seem at first to be materialistic but follow my thought process on this. The list is online and viewable by anyone that wants to see it. Not only does it help anyone that wants to get me a gift and cares to know what I actually might want vs. picking some gift at random, at the very least it gives some insight into what some of my interests are.

Some of these things are of course what I consider big ticket items that if I actually want to own them, I would indeed be saving to make the purchase myself since I'm not part of some charity that people donate large sums of money to in order to fulfill my personal wants. But I've also put some things on the list that don't cost so much either. Now, having the pessimistic outlook on this, in reality I don't expect anyone but me to really use this list so I'd be pleasantly surprised if anyone else did.

While having the list can immediately give someone the impression that I may be a materialistic person, I look at it with a different perspective. I go to work every day, I have bills to pay and a family to support and I'm glad I can provide for their needs. You have to admit that life is more fulfilling when you can also supply some wants and it's a great feeling anytime you can give your family some of the things you did not have growing up. But for me the list represents exactly what the title of it is, a wish list. What that means to me and why it's really important is part of what keeps me going back to a job that I've been doing for 9 years and isn't always fulfilling and some days can be somewhat boring. It's important to have goals and things to look forward to. If I ever got everything on my wish list, I think I'd have less motivation and determination to work harder and be better. Don't get me wrong, that's not entirely what drives me alone. I am self-motivated to be better & do better than I have in the past because I like to improve myself and it gives me a healthy self-esteem to see the things I've accomplished. (Don't worry, my wife keeps my ego in check by helping me realize my flaws while also telling me how proud she is of the things I do right. Thank you wife.)

Anyway, the point of the "wish list" for me is to always be working for something that can be called a personal reward even if it's something simple. Speaking of which, in looking for possible Christmas gifts for those people that might not know what they want or only have more expensive items on their wish list, there's a wide variety of fun toys, gadgets & things over at Think Geek (hint, hint). It's great to have dreams and to keep dreaming. They make life more enjoyable. And if you can fulfill some of those dreams, even better.

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pxILMfqp1MQA35IXjP10vEw

Mini Makeshift Bunk Bed

2008-11-16T19:53:00.000-08:00

The beauty of having different people look at things is that everyone has their own perspectives. As we get older it seems harder to have an original perspective or one that hasn't been jaded by our experiences. Sometimes this makes us less creative, at times it can also make us more creative. In any case, children seem to have the most unique and simple ideas of all that make us look at things from perspectives we hadn't thought about.

One story that represents this example is one of a moving truck that got stuck under an overpass because it was just barely too tall to pass under the bridge above. This incident blocked traffic behind it and presented a problem as to how to get the wedged in truck pulled out from it's precarious predicament. Of course there were several people standing around scratching their heads, engineers, tow-truck drivers, Department of Transportation, etc. A man walked up with his grandson to see what the backup was all about and they were informed of the situation. The boy looked at the scene and asked wondering, "Why don't they just let the air out of the tires?"

This unique perspective from a boy who just happened upon this accident freed the truck from its place and got traffic once again moving on its way.

Recently my 2 year old daughter Anna had a unique perspective on our shoe rack we have by our front door. Evidently she didn't see it as a shoe rack so much as a neat place to crawl into once all those annoying shoes were removed out of the way.

It reminds me when I was a kid and we would move in to a new house, there was all kinds of empty space and the plethora of room under sinks and in linen closets provided neat little hiding places. As a side note, we seemed to move around a bunch having moved an average of every 1.5 years until my junior year of high school. My brother & I would joke with friends that we might be in the witness protection program. I had a different school every year from 6th grade on to 11th.

Customer Request Vizualization

2008-11-11T10:53:00.001-08:00

I saw this posted at the desk of someone at work and found it hilarious because it seems grossly true and accurate. Those of you in a job where you're involved to responding to customer requests or something similar will know what this picture is about.

2008 Election Results

2008-11-05T06:47:00.000-08:00

Probably the one of the only things I'll post regarding the 2008 elections FYI:

Beat It

2008-11-03T07:39:00.000-08:00

This weekend I visited a local retail store and found, somewhat hidden and seemingly out of place amongst the jeans and mens shirts, a demo display for Rock Band 2 with 2 Guitars and a set of drums. The actual set comes with a microphone instead of 2 guitars but this setup allowed someone to play bass as well at the same time. I decided to try it out since I'd heard about it and I wanted to see what all the madness was all about. I never really liked the way the guitar felt when I held it & tried to use it so I thought I'd give the drums a try. I only played through the first 2 easy songs when my wife found me and let me know it was time to go as we had a birthday party for my niece we needed to get to.

Well surprisingly enough I really enjoyed playing Rock Band and the songs weren't some random band or song that nobody knew either, these were songs that are / were popular and most people know at least some of them. I decided that not only did I have to go back but I had to bring my brother Chris who told me about his adventures with Guitar Hero and how much fun that was. So, during the birthday party arrangements and plans were made to go and so we went.

We played a few songs and even had someone walk up (a boy about 12) and play Bass Guitar on Expert mode with us and he did really well. I did take a turn at Bass Guitar on easy but did little better than 60%. Chris took a turn at drums for the first time as well and found it was a little more complicated than he thought but I watched as he quickly got the hang of it and he still did better than 80%. Afterwards though he still preferred the guitar and I still preferred the drums so it's a good combination. We spent about an hour an a half playing through some of the songs before going over to the electronics section to see how much it was and what was included.

We found that there were many more songs than what was on the demo and several songs that we'd be interested to try out also. In addition to the songs included with the disc, you could also import songs from Rock Band into Rock Band 2 and you can download over 500 other songs from the Rock Band online store. Seems like a game that has decent replay value. And while it may not teach you how to read music or how to play these instruments for real, it does take a step in giving you an opportunity to make you feel like you could do something you never dreamt possible. For the younger crowd, it can also certainly open doors for music appreciation and maybe even give them a desire to learn to play an instrument for real.

Wall-E

2008-11-03T04:11:00.001-08:00

A widget I found via Meebo.com

This or That

2008-10-30T17:00:00.000-07:00

I think indecision might be one of my areas that I need to focus on for improvement. Or more plainly put, one of my big flaws. When it comes to my job I don't have this issue as much as other areas of my life. My job is technical support and generally speaking the systems I support have a logic to them that can be looked at with reason (contrary to what some people believe like "computers just do what they want").

Most other areas of my life aren't always so logical where the results of a decision can be determined somewhat closely. When a choice is presented there may be a number of options and optimally you want to make the choice that provides the best outcome. With computers, you execute a command or action and should be able to get an expected result. When you can expect the result of an action, it makes the decision somewhat easier. But when your decisons involve the futures of others and variables that include social interactions, emotions, and all that human stuff as it does when raising kids and taking care of a family, the decisions don't always come as easy.

These decisions affect and shape peoples lives. Maybe not a single decison but a pattern of decisions perhaps that defines how you react to situations. I believe this has the most impact in the lives of my kids but it also applies to my wife, other relationships that I have with family & friends, and anyone I interact with. Sometimes it's like the Butterfly Effect. Nonetheless, it's still a learning process for me as well and I use my best judgement and hopefully I can learn from my mistakes and be open to constructive criticism without getting defensive.

Canon with a big BOOM

2008-10-13T06:57:00.000-07:00

I thought I was going to write more about my trip to Yellowstone but I now feel there are reasons not to. 1. The time for it may have passed. The post wouldn't be timely. 2. In addition it might be too close to the last Yellowstone post I did so I'm sure you don't want to hear more about the same topic. 3. I have another somewhat related topic that I want to discuss that kind of stems off my experience at Yellowstone.
Any time I went to take pictures at Yellowstone, along with all the other people that stopped to take pictures, I felt like a total noob. Also known as someone inexperienced or doing something for the first time.

Everyone else had these nice cameras with lenses that were even more expensive (and usually bigger) than the camera body itself. Many of them looked like they had professional equipment to take these beautiful pictures of wildlife, landscapes, and natural wonders. While here I am with this little 7 year old pocket PowerShot A75 that only has a 3x optical zoom and takes pictures at 3.2 mega pixel. I felt like a one-legged man showing up an Olympic race. So it was a big slap in the face that told me that I really need a newer camera, especially when trying to get pictures of wildlife and the animals are so far away that my dinky zoom hardly does anything.
Well this weekend I attended a Digital Photo Expo with experts from Nikon & Canon, the two top brands for professional photo equipment. The presentation that was most beneficial to me was the one on all the new PowerShot cameras. Sure I attended the one on the new Canon EOS 50D Digital SLR and how it compares to their previous models, but after attending both of those sessions and seeing what they both have to offer (including prices), I decided that I may not be ready for all that SLR has to offer. I still have much to learn about photography like aperture, composition, lighting, shutter speeds, ISO settings, etc. And for the price of the SLRs ranging from several hundred to a few thousand on average (the 50D MSRP is $1399 for example while the Rebel Xsi is $800) I'm not sure I can justify that right now without generating some income from it.
While I would really like many of the features of the SLRs, I think it might be too much for my limited experience and funds right now. Besides, I still want something a little smaller that's easier to carry around. After listening to the presentation about all the PowerShot cameras, the one that impressed me the most was the SX10 IS because it has a 20x optical zoom and yet can do the 28mm wide shots as well. That gives it a 35mm film equivalent: 28-560mm which is a huge range for any camera. That means for example you can have a range demonstrated by the following example:
That doesn't even count the additional 4x digital zoom and up to 10 Mega Pixels. This also has Canon's newest Digic 4 Image Processor for high-performance face & motion detection with faster & quieter image processing than the Digic 3. This also means that you'll be able to take more shots with the same amount of battery life than before. 340 shots (AA-size Alkaline Battery), approx. 600 shots (AA-size Ni-MH Battery). They've also gone from recording movies in .avi to .mov which means the movie size is smaller giving way to longer videos with the same amount of space previously.

You can read all about it via the link I provided above or other review sites but those are some of the highlights that grabbed me and made it stand out from other cameras. That and the fact that the price range for it is in the $350 range +/- $25 or so depending on where you look.

By the way, some of the reasons I chose Canon over anyone else was because I've liked my current PowerShot for the time I've had it, my Dad & brother has had some great results with their Digital Rebel, if I get an SLR I can swap lenses with them, and most importantly...if you go to a professional sporting event you'll see 50 private individual photographers taking pictures with one of them using Nikon and the rest using Canon. (*source Jim Dececco- Professional photographer and Canon educator.)

Look at me!

2008-10-06T11:02:00.001-07:00

Ok, I was curious so I thought (hoped) other people might be as well. Here's a snapshot of my blog counter statistics for the recent past:

Small World After All

2008-09-29T06:02:00.000-07:00

We spent last week in West Yellowstone, MT. It was an awesome trip overall. We drove 750 miles to get there. My parents went in their vehicle as well so we traveled more or less together but separately. Of course we stopped to take tons of pictures. I had my Canon Powershot along with my Panasonic video camera that records on mini-DV tapes. My cameras are several years old as I got them before my kids were born. My little Canon took hundreds of pictures, over 500MB worth. That's nothing compared to what my brother took with my Dad's Canon Digital Rebel. My Dad also filmed a few hours worth of video on his new HD camcorder that saves to flash memory cards. Their photos took 3.6 GB, the video took 207 GB.

We took the north loop in Yellowstone on the first trip into the park. Shortly after going in through the west gate, you can still see by the tall blackened tree remnants just how close the fires of '88 came to West Yellowstone, within 1/2 mile. The park is pretty huge and there's not what I would consider anything like heavy traffic within the park for the most part. However the park does have many visitors every day. Last year, Yellowstone had 3,151,343 recreational visits.

Stay with me, I'm getting somewhere with all this.

We learned quick that if we saw a group of cars pulled over somewhere, especially where people had their cameras out, you'd probably be interested in what they're all taking pictures of too. We happened to be following one of the popular yellow tour busses when in abruptly turned into a large pullout overlooking a large meadow. We found there was a herd of elk feeding there and I got this picture (edited for this post) of the bull elk.

We stayed there for a bit taking pictures and eventually moved on down the road taking pictures of scenery, waterfalls, thermals (hot springs, etc) along the way. Shortly before getting to Norris Geyser Basin we saw this lone Bison / Buffalo chowing down in a large open area beside a narrow river or small creek. We stopped of course, excited to see a real Buffalo and walked down a short path towards the water where we took pictures of the Buffalo on the other side of the water less than 50 yards away. I took this picture (unedited) while standing there.

Initially I felt somewhat safe that this large animal was on the other side of the water and confident that he wouldn't trudge through to charge at me or my family so we didn't feel like we were in any kind of danger. He was alone and not acting any way hostile any way. However, just before I started back up the trail to my vehicle I took a better look and found that the water was probably not even a foot deep. I didn't say anything at the time but got my family calmly back to our vehicle.

My parents and brother had already left in their vehicle to the next spot on the map we had planned to stop while I was getting my kids loaded in the car. This was fine as we were using our handheld transceiver ham radios to keep in contact with each other.

So just as we're putting the kids back in the car, my wife is suprised from behind by my Aunt Nancy asking if we come here often. With her is my Uncle Cal (my Dad's brother) and his daughter (my cousin, born the day or two after me) Kristin, with her two young babies in their car. They're from Marysville, WA. So here we are, over 750 miles from home, and my relatives show up out of nowhere. I get on the radio and let my Dad know I'm talking with his brother & his family and on top of all that, for the last couple days, they had been staying in the cabins right next to where we were staying.

They were actually on their way out of the north entrance of the park and happened to see us on the side of the road. It's one of those situations that makes me ask myself, "What are the chances of something like that happening?" I guess it truly is a small world after all and, no matter where you go, your relatives will find you.

True Price of Ammenities

2008-09-23T11:56:00.000-07:00

I think this picture I took during a recent hotel stay says it all. I found it particularily amusing that they found a need for just such a sign.

Non-Emergency Assistance

2008-09-17T07:25:00.000-07:00

Well, you learn something new every day. I guess I was unaware that there was a non-emergency number to call in place of 911.
There's 311 for stuff you might need to talk to local authorities about but may not be considered an "emergency" per se.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3-1-1
Burning building? Call 9-1-1. Burning Question? Call 3-1-1.
Wikipedia has this to say:

3-1-1 service is generally implemented at the local level, and in some cities it is also used for various municipal calls.

Examples of calls intended for 3-1-1:

illegal burning
suspicious persons
debris in roadway
minor injuries
non-working streetlamps & parking meters, etc.
noise complaints
local government inquiries

However it also says that it's not available in all areas and, according to this website at least, it's not available in the Seattle / King County area though further investigation might yield different results and/or other non-emergency numbers for your local area. Perhaps that's why I've never heard of it.

Dream Job

2008-09-12T04:59:00.001-07:00

Whenever I meet someone new, sometime in the course of conversation in attempt to get to know them better, I will ask "So what do you do?" with the assumption that they actually are doing something of course and the added inferrence that the so-called "do" refers to a job or how they spend most of their time. They could be a full time student and that would suffice for an appropriate answer.

However, regardless of what they answer, I listen more closely to how they answer. I find it interesting that I rarely get a response that indicates the person is excited or enthusiastic about what they do. So my follow up question eventually leads to, "What do you really want to do?". This line of questioning tells me what they're doing now of course but most people seem to not be doing what they'd love to be doing. I suppose to some degree, I may be no exception.

Don't get me wrong, I like what I do and if you ask me or any of the people I work with or used to work with what they would miss most about going to another job, I can almost guarantee they would tell you it would be the people they worked with. I have a great team that I have the pleasure of working with. Generally speaking we work great together, we support each other, we share each others loads & responsibilities, we communicate regularly via bi-weekly team meetings and daily via our Instant Messager and hosted conference room where we can all post questions and get immediate responses from everyone else on the team. There's also lots of playful banter even with the new people that have recently joined the team.

Yesterday marked my 8th year anniversary with Avaya. I'm in the same role now as I was when I started too. Part of me is ok with that only because other related groups that I might have had the opportunity to move to have had more layoffs than my group. I've had several co-workers move to other groups only to be eventually let go. So I guess I've remained because I do the job well and as such there's a level of expected security. As predicted, my 8th year anniversary came and went without anyone knowing besides my co-worker who sits next to me that I mentioned it to that it happened just as predicted. No recognition whatsoever.

But I digress, the point is that I too would be doing something different if I thought I could get paid anything close to what I'm making now. Because while I would love to "live the dream", I have a deeper rooted sense of responsibility to my family than to my dream job. I guess I actually have 2 different dream jobs I would enjoy.

The first dream job is one where I work for a company that offers goods & services for technical solutions to internal or external customers. My role would be to research new technology. When a request comes in for a technical solution, I would come back with solution A & solution B that meets their requests. A full solution would include cost breakdowns of time & materials, how long it would take to implement, what it would take to support & maintain, relevant dependancies, etc. Then I would work with a team of resources to implement the solution. Being paid to research and play with new technology sounds really fun to me.

The second dream job would be one where I get paid to do multimedia editing. I would like to be able to spend more time on audio & video editing (mostly video) but I have various obstacles. I really enjoy some of my so-called obstacles though like my family, vacationing, etc. One of my main obstacles is getting video to work with. This has 2 main sub obstacles in itself.

1. I don't particularly enjoy doing the filming most of the time. I don't have anything to film anyone would really find of much interest in the first place and my hand isn't the perfect camera stabilizer so there's too much shakiness in the videos.

2. Part of the reason I don't really enjoy filming is because the video camera I have now doesn't put out the video quality I want. I'm so used to viewing things in HD now that everything else looks grainy and if I can't produce something I can be proud to show others, I'd almost rather not to it at all. The video camera I have was bought this century and records on mini-DV tapes with a firewire port, can film decent in very low lighting with the built in filters, and can zoom in pretty far. But since I've been spoiled by HD quality tv & movies, the picture to me now looks almost like it's one step above the old reel-to-reel home movie films like they mimicked for the opening sequence for the Wonder Years tv show.

I do enjoy video editing and I've done some simple audio editing in conjunction with that to make audio tracks the exact right length or to make my own ringtones from .mp3 files. I just don't have a good source of video files to work with. I've tried all kinds of software packages that do video & DVD editing for creating my own fancy home movies. I haven't had much exposure to playing with these features on a Mac yet but that's on my wish list. Windows Movie Maker is suprisingly easy yet can have features flexible enough to make a decent video. See my Father's Day tribute. I've been trying to learn Adobe Premiere off & on over the last several years but it's got so many complex features that make it incredibly flexible, it comes with a huge learning curve. To make it a little easier on learning and the pocketbook, Adobe presented Premiere Elements which has all the most commonly used features an interested amateur hobbyist might use.

I know my wife has already said she'd be supportive of me switching careers. She said we'd find a way to make it work. That might mean moving to a smaller house and doing without some of the amenities we currently enjoy too. I know she'd even be willing to move out of state or possibly even out of country if needed. I think I'm holding myself back because of how it would negatively affect my family, the added stress it would bring to their lives and such. For me to do that just seems too selfish and I'm not sure I can bring myself to do it. Perhaps one day, maybe if I ever get laid off or whatever, who knows. Until then, it will be a minor hobby.

Making Memories

2008-09-01T20:12:00.000-07:00

Labor Day, the last 3 day weekend for summer, brings for many people the last great opportunity for the year to do something fun and have a break from work or school before getting back into the routine of things that we're used to the other 9 months of the year. For parents like me, it means a last little mini-vacation with the kids and/or friends & relatives before everyone gets back to school schedules and other activities that come during the school year.

In my case, besides a daughter starting 2nd grade, another daughter starting Kindergarten, and the youngest starting pre pre-school play groups, it also means the older 2 daughters having schedules during the month for dance class and girl scouts. This in addition to the activities Mandy has been doing for the Gluten Intolerance Group.

This Labor Day we returned for the 2nd year in a row to a camping location we have come to appreciate and love. As a matter of fact, this was my 4th time camping out at Zion's Camp this year. I stayed in 2 different long houses, a tent, and one of the cinder block cabins. It's funny, I had my 2 older kids with me 3 of the 4 times (the one time was a father / son thing I did with my Dad & brothers.) However, it was only the 2nd time Mandy had been here and the first time was this time last year.

This year we invited Mandy's Mom, Janeen & Step dad, Ken who brought their (his) 16 year old son, Brook. Brook also brought a friend so he could have a buddy since there was nobody else his age. We also invited the rest of Ken's kids (they're all older and living on their own, some of which have kids of their own.) While Janeen's other daughter Jessica came again this year with her husband John and son Dawson (who also brought a friend), only Ken's daughter Heather accepted our invitation and brought her 2 young daughters Lucy & Ellie. Her daughters along with Dawson & his friend were about the same age as my kids, enough such that they had fun playing together anyway.

Yesterday I took one of the canoes out on the lake with John, my 5 year old daughter Sara, Dawson & his friend. The canoe is faster than the row boats and easier than the pedal boats here.
While I've always had this fear of going under water, the instability of the canoe was exciting, exhilarating, and yet scary at times when the small boat would rock. I initiated the activity as it's part of my self-motivated plan to overcome my lifelong fear and after paddling down to the other end of Coon Lake and back, I had my fix and the kids had a blast as well.

This camping was part of Mandy's plan inspired by an article she read in The Ensign that I wrote about earlier this year and so here we are, me without an internet connection and barely any cell service, making memories with our family and me typing this post into wordpad on my laptop since I've refused to install Microsoft Office and haven't had a need to install Open Office yet. Perhaps I'll do that when I get home, back to broadband land, and after I upload this post.

Retail Opposites

2008-08-25T08:53:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine recently published this post regarding a recent trip to Sears where he recalls the poor customer service he had there. When you go to an establishment, it's not unreasonable to expect a certain level of service and when that expectation is not met, it leaves a bad taste in your mouth and a negative emotion associated with that store that you remember for the next time you want to shop for an item that store sells.

I would like to submit that, in general, our customer service experiences are either on par or moderately sub par with our expectations and this decline in good customer service has made it such that while we still expect the same level of customer service we always have, we may not be as surprised or disappointed when our expectations are not met since it has happened so many times before. Perhaps this is partially my fault when, to get lower prices, I shop at stores that probably hire people that don't require high wages or high skills & experience and are usually somewhat easy to replace.

Having said that, I think that when we get exceptional customer service it also leaves an impression on us. This is what reminds us that price isn't everything and neither is location. I say this in reference to my recent drive down to Lacey, WA where the only Cabela's store on the west coast is. That's a 40 mile drive for me. Every time I pass by it on I-5, I am always on my way to somewhere else like Oregon and I have the wife & kids with me who just want to get to where we're going and get out of the car.

We took the drive down there and it didn't take nearly as long as I thought it would to get there. First of all let me say this store is huge. It looks like it should be a warehouse store from the outside but is very much like a department store on the inside. As far as what's in the store and what it looks like I'll just say that it's amazing, there's lots to choose from, and many things I didn't even know existed. There's even an artificial mountain as the centerpiece for the store that displays all kids of taxidermy animals and birds from small marmots to Elk, Antelope, and Mountain Goats. Underneath even has an aquarium with real fish. Large salmon, halibut, trout, etc. There's even a section for African animals like Lions and Elephants. If you enjoy outdoor activities, there's something there for everyone.

Ok, back on topic and getting to the point of this whole post. The people there were very visible, made their presence known to the customers, and were not shy about stopping whatever they were doing to ask if you needed any assistance. They're the type of people that seem to have an eye for that look on customers faces that just says, "I could use some help please." My Dad was looking for a specific watch and while he was looking in the glass case he was asked if he would like to look at anything in particular. He replied that he hadn't found what he was looking for and was directed to another section of the display cases to where the item was located. He had questions about the item and the employee was able to answer what they knew about it and on specifics regarding how the item worked or how to use a particular feature, when they didn't know they opened it up, let my Dad handle the watch and check out the manual that came with it.

Ok not overly impressive so far but later when we were in an entirely different part of the store this same employee happened to be there as well. It wasn't even on the same floor (there's two floors). And again my Dad had that look and so again this employee approached and inquired if assistance was needed. This is the part that is unusual because typically an employee is trained on how to work in a specific section of the store and outside that section they are lost and try to not make eye contact with customers. Not so in this case. This person was knowledgable in this area of the store as well and was happy to help.

I've been in so many large stores like this that employ people that have no idea about other areas of the store and sometimes you're lucky if they even know anything about how to do their job in the area of the store they are assigned to. It becomes frustrating when you go into a store looking for assistance on an item they sell and you know more about it than they do so, like my Dad, you end up teaching them about it but still leave without your questions answered due to a lack of knowledgeable staff even if you can get someone to engage you. I will purposefully and obviously look around like I'm lost in the hopes that an employee walking by will ask if I need assistance rather than simply walk by without acknowledging my presence with a hello, eye, contact, etc.

For a great overall retail experience that includes a great selection, helpful & friendly staff, with a delicious variety of meats (like buffalo, wild boar, ostrich, etc) served at the deli & grill, visit Cabela's. It's worth the drive.

The Mountain!

2008-08-19T18:48:00.000-07:00

Every clear day in the Puget Sound area the weather is neither sunny, nor cloudy. I mean technically it is in meteorological terms but to us natives the weather is judged great if "the Mountain is out". This, in the south Sound anyway, is of course Mt. Rainier. Any time I have my kids in the car and I can see the mountain I shout out "The Mountain!".

After the first several times of no response eventually my 7 year old Jennifer responded letting us know that she both heard me and was somewhat tired of me saying it by repeating my exclamation in a very bored tone as if I had just told a very cheesy joke, the kind our high school history teachers would tell.

Jennifer's middle name is Eden which meaning is translated as something meaning Paradise. When Jennifer sounded bored with my exclamation of The Mountain, I decided I needed to instill some excitement and memories of the beauty and majesty of Mt. Rainier in her and my other children. The main visitors center, located at 5400 feet is at the location on the mountain called Paradise. When I told Jennifer this and that I was going to take her there she was suddenly excited at the prospect of going to the place that represents the meaning of her name.

So after planning and scheduling we finally went up the mountain this week. My parents & brother Chris came along in their vehicle as well. It had been hot & muggy all week and this was a nice break from the heat of the house & was a little cooler at the higher elevation or so at least it felt that way. Entrance was $15 for our car and $10 lifetime pass for any National Park now that he's of qualifying age. We drove to Kautz creek where there was a hiking trail, picnic tables made of recycled material, and overly smelly "bathrooms". I didn't go in as I could smell it as I drew near the door. It was 1pm by this time and everyone was hungry so we stopped here for a picnic lunch that we had packed.

We drove on 3 miles up the road and stopped at Longmire which is about 7 miles from the Nisqually park entrance at the southwest corner of the park. We heard on the parks AM broadcast station that there was a free tram that ran every 30 minutes on the weekend that would take passengers from Longmire to Paradise with a stop in between at Cougar Rock. We all boarded the next bus which saved both our vehicles 22 miles worth of gas round trip. Good thing too as the Paradise parking log sign said "Full" when we got there.

We were dropped off right in front of the Henry M. Jackson visitors center. I explained to Jennifer that this is where I proposed to her mom almost exactly 10 years ago at the very top observation deck while she was on one of the center benches relaxing. It is also the building where my dad proposed to my Mom.

There was a bucket of snow right inside that was put there for people to touch. As I started exploring the visitors center, I found that what I had hoped to share with Jennifer was noticeably absent. She had been to a couple free presentations at the library having to do with stuff they can experience outside like watershed areas, insects, etc. I figured since she enjoyed that, she would love the displays of the animals and wildlife they had at the visitors center.

To my dismay the displays I remembered from the last time I was there a few years ago had been changed as part of a centenial celebration and the theater exhibit was entirely closed in preparation for being moved to the new visitors center opening this fall.

At least we got to view people at Camp Muir with my Dad's optical toy he brought along.

I didn't know there was going to be a new visitors center but there's a poster about it downstairs and how the new building will be extremely more energy effecient and able to withstand all the snowfall, melting the snow on the roof, keeping the place warm, etc. The existing Henry M. Jackson building was opened in 1966 and will be torn down next spring which I was dissapointed to find out as I will never get to share those memories with my daughters but at least we got to visit it one last time before it's gone forever.

It is The Mountain and I got a collectors patch that I'll put on my backpack and a Mount Rainier National Park spinning keychain to add to my growing collection of keychains from places I've visited (and some I haven't from my brother like Germany and Iceland). We'll try to return again in Feb. when the beautiful snow should be covering the area and then visit the new visitors center and recently redecorated Paradise Inn lodge.

Spending a day on Vashon

2008-08-11T09:31:00.001-07:00

Spending a day on Vashon Island and making a short quick post from my cell phone. Didn't bring the laptop, no internet.

Going Solo

2008-07-29T06:12:00.000-07:00

This is from a comment I made to someone else's blog post but when I got done making the "comment" it was longer than I had anticipated originally writing and decided it warranted posting here.

[My Daughter Sara]...Loves to play with friends but content most of the time in her own world playing by herself. Last night I spent a couple minutes trying to make contacts using the handheld ham radio while standing at the window in my room. To do this I say something like, “Good evening this is KE7UTN (my call sign) checking the repeater. Is anyone listening tonight?” Sara must have watched and several minutes later my wife came to tell me Sara was wandering around her room by herself with a toy flip phone to her ear saying things like, “Hello, this is GFCO (the group Mandy is involved in) is anyone out there listening?” It is not uncommon to walk by her room to see her in there by herself playing with toys and talking to them or acting as the voice for them so they can talk to each other. Sometimes she has her toys argue with each other and sometimes they do something where she has to discipline them. It’s funny to watch & listen sometimes.

A job well done

2008-07-28T07:14:00.000-07:00

My Dad taught me that if you're going to do something, do your best at it and always finish what you start.

For the last couple years I was reminded of this anytime I drove through a neighborhood not far from mine. There is this house on the main street in this neighborhood where the front yard is divided somewhat in half by the cement walkway going from the street up to the house. What I found odd about this, and the thing that reminded me of my Dad's teachings was that only one side of the front yard had a lawn put in and the other side was just dirt. For many months before this I remember both sides were just black plastic held down by rocks to prevent weeds from growing. Then came the week when there was topsoil spread out and it was like that for several more months, and finally the one side had seeds planted and green started to pop up. It remained like this for quite some time and the sight reminded me of another saying that sounded very similar to one my Dad used when I wouldn't complete a job such as taking the trash out but not putting a new bag in the can or doing yard work but not putting the tools away.

This is...wait for the punchline...

...A Half Grass Job

The price of health

2008-07-27T19:21:00.000-07:00

My wife & 5 year old daughter spent 7 hours at the Auburn Regional Medical Center today. When my wife relayed the status of our daughters condition to the nurses staffed on the Urgent Care help line (103 degree temperature and climbing since the night before with vomiting through the night), they recommended taking her in to the Emergency Room at the hospital.

My wife sat & waited for 3 hours to be seen. When the time came that my daughters Motrin had worn off and she could have another dose, my wife asked to get something to help reduce the fever. After an hour there was nothing and she was told just a few more minutes. After 3 hours someone came in to discharge her and my wife indicated they had still gotten nothing of the sort. Her request was finally fulfilled on the way out the door but she was still sent home with 104 degree temperature which was worse than when she got there.

I'm no doctor but that makes no sense to me. The other thing I don't understand is what the heck I'm paying these medical expenses for. When my daughter leaves the hospital worse than when she went in, having spent several hours there, and received only a few minutes of attention during that time, I am unable to comprehend what awesome service I'm paying for.

Delayed Humor Response

2008-07-22T04:59:00.000-07:00

When we took our trip to Missouri back in May, we took our kids by this dam that created the Lake of the Ozarks. It was not far from the resort we were staying at so we thought we'd check it out. Taking a cue from National Lampoon's Vegas Vacation, we followed suit and made jokes about not seeing any dam gift shop where we could get start a dam tour with a dam tour guide or buy some dam pictures so we took our own dam pictures, etc. My wife & I thought it was kind of funny and yet appropriate for the scenario this went on for a few minutes and our kids had no comment or reaction to our play on words.

Fast forward to this week when we drive by a fenced yard not far from our house that has a donkey in it. I notice it and, in the same light and humor as reflected on above, I say "ass" in a tone that suggests I'm calling someone a jerk. My wife & kids are in the car at the time and my wife, who obviously didn't see the donkey surprisingly shocked asks, "What did you just say?" I explained the situation and, since our kids were in the car (at least for our 7 year old), turned in to a teaching moment about how sometimes words can have 2 different meanings and that this particular word is another name for a donkey as referenced in the Bible but today we more commonly just say donkey since we don't want to mistakenly swear (as kids sometimes call each other names of animals when pretending or just being mean ie; chicken, cow, pig, etc)

This of course led to how two words that sound the same can also have different meanings and one can be a swear word. So we asked the 7 year old, "What do you call that thing that beavers make that holds back lots of water?" Having recently learned about beavers at the library she knew the answer right away and answered, "Dam." We pointed out how it sounds like a swear word but it's not when used in the right context and then of course recounted our dam jokes from Missouri. We paused and several seconds passed and I looked back at my daughter with a look that seemed to indicate concentration and that the gears were spinning in her head. After a few moments we hear her say calmly but like she just figured something out, "Hey, that's funny. You should turn that into a joke."

My wife & I busted out with laughter at the delayed humor response from our wonderfully intelligent child. We had made these same jokes 2 months ago and she just now gets it. She didn't laugh though, it was just a response of sudden understanding. Perhaps she regarded it as the same kind and level of funny as the joke she recently read to me off of a Popsicle stick..."What is the most important thing to remember when going skateboarding?...A skateboard." Of course I didn't know it was supposed to be a joke when she asked me so I answered "helmet" as expected. I saw the Popsicle stick in her hand as she read the answer to me. She's going to love it when she gets that history or science teacher in school that thinks they're funny because they memorize jokes from the Laffy Taffy candy wrappers. (We'll always remember you Mr. Swanson who dressed like and saluted Mr. Rogers.)

Life After Beach

2008-07-20T20:27:00.000-07:00

I don't consider myself any kind of fabulous photographer. In fact I'm using a digital camera that's several years old. It's a Canon PowerShot A75 that's a whopping 3.2 mega pixels. Heck, the common cell phone today is just about up to that.

Anyway, I went walking on the beach early on the morning of my birthday this year while vacationing at Seaside, OR. I took several pictures of random, seemingly innocent shots. After reviewing them I decided they had a loose theme attached to them besides "gloomy cloudy morning on the beach".

For your consideration, amusement, and criticism, I offer to you a small collection I have appropriately dubbed, "Death's A Beach".

Some say, "Life's A Beach". I say there's opposition in all things and this is my photographic evidence.

Growing pains

2008-07-14T19:28:00.000-07:00

They say time flies when you're having fun. They reminisce and say "I remember when..." And they say "You'll never get those years back." Some of those years were hard, very challenging times and, while I appreciate how they've helped me become the person I am today, a part of me doesn't want some of those years back.

I have 3 daughters. Jennifer is 7, Sara is 5, and Anna just turned 2 this week. Anna has been starting to tell us when her diaper is no longer clean and fresh so we took this as a good sign that she's ready to start down the challenging road or potty training adventures. (Note the heavy sarcasm here.) Mandy has played the primary key role in this endeavor for each of our kids and previously for the 3 kids she helped raise when she was a nanny. So while I have played a supportive role, I am no stranger to "getting my hands dirty" so to speak in this task.

Jennifer was already potty trained when Sara was 18 months old and she, like many siblings, wanted to follow the example of her older sister, do what she does, go where she goes, and be grown up like her. Sara took the lead on initiating this process and did a fairly good job of ridding herself of diapers after about 3 days of practice.

While Anna has been giving signs that she's ready to take that leap from diapers to underwear, she's not as accepting of change and has difficulty letting it go in the scary water hole 2 feet off the ground where her legs dangle loosely. Even time spent on the training potty at her level that played a tune each time there was a deposit invoked a reaction that made you think the seat was made of ice cold razor blades that each rotated in place whilst at the same time alternating going up and down. (Yeah, it was that loud and that much of a fight as she struggled to run as far away as possible.) I can gladly say though that after one full week, only pull-ups go on at night, underwear stays on during the day, she typically lets us know when she needs to "go", and she's fairly comfortable sitting on "the big potty".

The whole point of this is that ever since Jennifer was born, we've almost always had to carry around this oversized bag that was meant to allow anyone to contend with any type of situation that could arise when away from the house, even if it was just a simple trip to the store. You've seen them, large enough to fit 2-3 adult human heads inside (don't ask how I know this). But what they really contain is something like 5 different outfits with even more diapers to for various times of the day, accidental messes (are there any other kind?), various items and methods for feeding and cleaning up after feeding the baby, etc. It's like a travel bag for a baby and if it were for an adult it would be good for a weeks vacation.

When Anna learned to walk that meant the end of always having to carry someone anyplace we went. Now that potty training is becoming a reality and it seems an end is in sight, the potty chairs can be disposed of and there's almost an end to the dreaded "diaper bag".

Licensed Technician

2008-06-29T12:47:00.000-07:00

I've been taking classes for the past several weeks and studying to pass the exam for becoming a licensed ham radio operator. There are 3 levels of licenses and the first level is called Technician. There are 35 test questions chosen out of a pool of over 300 possible questions. We left for Seaside, OR yesterday and on the way down my wife quizzed me. I had previously been taking practice tests online at qrz.com. I was doing pretty well and was pretty confident in myself. Local Amateur Radio clubs around the world held their annual Field Day event this weekend and it is not uncommon for there to be testing sessions available at this time. It requires 3 licensed hams of General license or higher (General is the second level, Extra is the third) who are certified by a VEC (Volunteer Examiner Coordinator). Basically this means that they are allowed to administer the exams and have passed training for FCC regulations and what-not.

Anyway, we found where the club in the Seaside area was holding their Field Day event and stopped by to pay them a visit. We actually missed our exit off the freeway because Mandy was asking me test questions. She's been studying along with me as well since she thought it would be a good addition to compliment her previously obtained CERT training. We were about 15 miles past our exit by the time we realized we had missed our turn off that we pulled out the laptop, fired up Microsoft Streets & Trips, and recalculated a new route which took us through Portland where we stopped for lunch.

Field Day events were being held at a restaurant/gift shop/museum at mile marker 18 on Hwy 26 called Camp 18. We found the club & got ourselves set up for a test. They had actually just finished a testing session when we arrived but they were happy to get us set up. Mandy finished first and missed only one. I was a little concerned because many of the questions I was answering seemed foreign to me as I had not seen several of them on the practice tests I had taken. The tests we took were different sets of questions from each other. My test was graded and I was surprised to hear that I too only missed one. I was glad as well because if I had done worse than Mandy, I would have never heard the end of it. The examiner said he did worse than his wife 15 years ago and he's never heard the end of it.

In fact one of the examiners had actually moved to Oregon from Bonney Lake, WA and were originally certified as hams at the same place we have been taking our classes (Maple Valley fire station). And if that wasn't coincidence enough, just as we were about to leave they asked just one more question. "Are you L.D.S.?" I said yes and they said they were as well and that they could just tell. Kind of funny how that happens and yet it somehow doesn't surprise me any more.

Now we'll be researching what kind of radio to start with so I can be able to transmit at something higher than .5 watts which is what you get without a license from the 2 way radios you can get at many retail stores.

Unexpected Motivation

2008-06-23T05:49:00.000-07:00

Sometimes in life we have people that say or do things that motivate us. Often this can be a coach, a parent, or some other role model. There are times though when this source of motivation comes from someone or something that we didn't expect. In some cases it not only motivates us but also teaches us that our preconceived ideas or thoughts about that someone or something could have been misconstrued and way off base in the first place. Like when a truck gets stuck under an overpass because it's too tall and didn't make the clearing so it's wedged in pretty tight so it can't move on its own power...Tow trucks can't budge it and city engineers are scratching their heads and a little kid comes up and asks, "Why don't you just let the air out of the tires?" and at first nobody even listens to "a kid" but then everyone has that "DUH" moment and all of a sudden there's a new found humility.

Well, as silly as it may sound, the advice I pass along comes from a 1989 movie called UHF. Before Michael Richards was ever known as Kramer, he was an unsuspecting janitor named Stanley Spadowski. In the clip below, he teaches us never to quit and to stand up for yourself.

And if that's not motivational and inspiring, I don't know what is. God bless America!

Tribute to Dad

2008-06-13T12:01:00.000-07:00

A few years ago, 2004, I decided I wanted to utilize my amateur video making skills and create something for my Dad for Fathers Day. I actually started planning months in advance. I noticed that there was this large stack of photos my Dad had been planning on having scanned so he can have a digital library. Most of the photos, if not all of them, starred him and they went back as far as him being 1 month old. I'd seen these photos several times when I would come to visit lying in a clear plastic bag waiting for something to be done with them and always in the same spot.

I went over to their house one day (probably sometime in March) and had my Mom gather all the pictures she could that had my Dad in them and I took most of them with me. At this time I didn't have a scanner at home but my Mother-In-Law had a pretty nice one. I arranged with her to come over after work for several days to scan photos. I scanned about 300 photos in the best resolution possible and saved them to my portable hard drive then later burned them to a DVD when I got them home. All the pictures I scanned in high resolution were pretty large and took up a few gigabytes worth of space. This was the first part of the Father's Day present.

I sifted through all these photos and found themes amongst groups of them and started by putting them in a somewhat chronological order for presentation. I included transitions between each one and a few effects to add to the feeling I was trying to impress. I put them together, added music that I had to do a little bit of editing too as well (mostly for appropriate length) and made the pictures fit with the words.

The very last group of photos was put together to go along with a song I had found a year or so before and had played for my Dad the previous Fathers Day. It's by a group called 2NU or now 2NU2 and it's appropriately called "A Father's Day". They are actually a band local to here and had a song on the radio in the 80's called "This Is Ponderous" that was unique and catchy. Along with most of their "songs", it's more like a story told to music as it's not really sung and doesn't always have a "chorus" so to speak.

Anyway, I consider this one of the best pieces of work I've done so far and it doesn't contain 1 second of actual video as it's just a somewhat slightly fancy slideshow. It may not be great to many others but it was a custom bit of work that means alot to me and is quite moving to my immediate family. I think it almost made my Dad cry and when I watched it again recently, it's not hard for me to understand why. I give most of the credit to the music artists because as George Lucas once said, "The sound and music are 50% of the entertainment in a movie," (qtd., IMDb). This is very true in this short 14 and a half minute video and even more so for this clip if you know my Dad or our family very well.

After presenting this to my Dad and the rest of my family, they were impressed. I don't think it was the quality of the work that was so great but that this little clip seemed to capture my Dad's life so well. I don't mean to present this to you as a method for "tooting my own horn" so to speak but so that you may share in some of the enjoyment others have as they've watched this. My brothers claimed that this is what we'll be playing at his funeral, which I hope is many years from in the future.

So without furuther ado, Father's Day:
Google Video:

Documentaries I didn't fall asleep watching

2008-06-06T04:20:00.000-07:00

Looks like I'm not the only one who may have watched the documentary, "Who Killed the Electric Car?". The author at OzTech posted an appropriate blog about GM and their Hybrid mistakes. Oh, the error of their ways. Actually this film actually did quite well for being a documentary. It came out back in 2006, only made $45k it's first weekend but ultimately grossed $1,764,304 worldwide (95% domestically). You can read more about it's statistics here or check out the IMDB listing for more details on the film.

As of this posting, you can watch the entire 92 minutes at Google Video
Or, for your viewing pleasure, here:

To digress a little bit, this might be a good segue to another documentary I just got done watching. My brother really wanted me to watch this one and it's the reason he won't shop at Walmart anymore. Perhaps you have heard of or seen on tv the documentary called Walmart - High Cost of Low Prices
The official website for it is here where you can read about it, see the trailer, "join the revolution", and get additional info. It's really amazing the stuff you don't know and the lengths big companies go to in order to squash, hide, cover up, or eliminate anything that's not in their interest. After watching this, I kind of felt like, among other things, that Walmart was a mafia ran organization. Another real eye opener and a well put together film. It even got some great reviews by the big film critics.

While everyone else is watching the latest superhero movie of 2008 (Ironman, The Dark Knight, The Incredible Hulk, Hellboy II, Hancock) I recomend watching these documentaries (from the comfort of your own home even or anywhere you can get an internet connection). I won't say these movies are necessarily better than those out this summer but once you get done watching those already released, run out of money for the theater, or have some downtime waiting for the next big hit to come out, click on the links above & discover the truth about these behemoth companies.

Speed testing

2008-06-05T13:14:00.000-07:00

Ok, so my last post was an attempt at publishing a document from Google Docs directly to a blog site. Obviously it's not perfect but if the document was originally created with Google Docs and/or it was a more simply formatted document, I'm sure it would have been fine.

Anyway I ran some speed tests today and the results were better than I expected. You can run a speed test that will show the ping result along with your upload & download speeds then you can click on a tab to show how you relate to others in the area and the world and your ISP, your city, state, region, etc. Here's my best results today so far:

Like I said, the results were surprising. Apparently my country rank is faster than 94% of and my global rank is faster than 96% of connections. As you can see, I'm using Comcast for my internet. (Though I have Dish Network for my channels.) I've been using Voip.com for my home phone service ever since Sunrocket went out of business last year. The problem with the whole concept is that the quality of service is based on available bandwidth. Now, I'd think that with results like above I should have no problem however that's just not the case. The voip.com hardware connects to my router vs. directly to my cable modem so not only does that use up one of my ports, it also makes it subject to the network traffic on my local home network. (The Sunrocket hardware connected directly to the cable modem and then to my network router.)

Long story short, my wife is pretty sick and tired of this service that is less than 100% reliable when she, apparently frequently enough, experiences no dial tone, can't get incoming calls, can't make outgoing calls, other end can't hear you, etc which makes her hang up and use her cell phone and/or turn on call forwarding online to automatically forward all calls to her cell phone. My experience has not been so frustrating and seems worth it for all the features we get for $16.66/mo. and being able to be free from Qwest (Qworst).

So last week she called me letting me know that someone representing Comcast was going around in our neighborhood door-to-door offering their Digital Voice service for just $5 more per month to our internet bill. (Introductory offer for 12 months.) It seems to have all the same features I already use, they can port my number, and I'm told I won't have a loss or interruption of service. When my wife asked me what I thought I left the final decision up to her and she didn't hesitate one bit. I'm sure she feels glad to be soon rid of the frustrations she's had for the past several months.

I don't use the phone much at home unless I'm working VO. I try to do most of my communication over the internet (e-mail, IM, Blog, and social networking sites). We'll see how it turns out when they set us up later this month. Until then, at least I have fast, reliable internet.

2008-06-04T12:25:00.000-07:00

Douglas Rutherford

11041 SE 304^th Pl.

Auburn, WA 98092

Technical Support Engineer Home: 253-887-1348

Cell: 253-740-9585

doug.rutherford@gmail.com

PROFESSIONAL SUMMARY

Ten years experience in IT/IS with an emphasis in the areas of network and server administration as well as hardware and software support. In addition, performed troubleshooting in a mixed Windows and Unix environment. Built, configured, and implemented servers for mail, databases, internet, storage, backups, host applications, as well as other network services. Includes 7 years experience using and supporting Unix and associated scripts, binaries, and client applications. Seeking to work in an organization that will challenge me while taking advantage of my knowledge, skills, and experience.

TECHNICAL SKILLS

Windows XP & 2000 as well as previous Microsoft operating systems, Unix. Networking. Microsoft Exchange, MS Office applications. Strong troubleshooting skills in hardware and software (Intel based workstations and servers, Unix, telephony). Phone switch experience with T1 and ISDN line testing and configuration on Avaya Predictive Dialer. Some exposure to Oracle and SQL databases running queries and client applications.

EDUCATION

Bachelors IT Network Administration 2006 American Intercontinental University Hoffman Estates, IL

Recognized on the Dean's List for the entire duration of study with a 4.0 GPA through all classes.

Focused on key areas of Business, Computer Networking, Software Development, and Database Administration. Curriculum based on current industry needs to ensure exposure to real world technical challenges. Studied the business side of the IT industry that requires project management and leadership skills. Developed business and programming skills. Studied the use of networks, education in data administration, as well as the design, management, and completion of IT projects.

AA -Computer Information Systems 2000 Highline Community College Des Moines, WA

MCSE -Training 2000 Micro Learning Center Tukwila, WA

CERTIFICATIONS-

Microsoft Certified Professional 2000

PROFESSIONAL WORK EXPERIENCE

9/2000 To Present Post Sales Support Engineer 2 and 3

Avaya Redmond, WA

Responsible for providing remote post-sales support of hardware systems, sub-systems and/or applications for customers or field personnel utilizing telephone and remote diagnostic capabilities. Supports end-user installations, configurations, upgrades and migrations. Supports 3rd party products and occasional on-site support. Provides solutions to a diverse range of complex problems including hardware, software, telephony, networking & shell scripts in a mixed Unix and Windows environment. Responsible for providing troubleshooting and corrective action technical support to Implementation, Operations and Customer Support. Assesses and responds to situations where routine procedures have failed in isolating and correcting problems. May direct the work of small teams formed to resolve technical problems. Reports design, reliability, and maintenance problems to Product Development; Communicates same to other groups in the company. Assists Product Development in resolving product problems. Worked on project teams and delivered training for globalization efforts. Participated in internal and external audits for ISO-9001 compliance. Delivered training of new product release with hardware details and a focus on software features, changes and capabilities.

8/1997 To 9/2000 Computer & Systems Consultant

Shannon & Associates Kent, WA

Administrator for Local Area NT and Novell Network. Designed, performed, and maintained company wide backup systems. Performed client backups for work with SQL databases. Migrated existing network from 10baseT Coax to 10/100 Fast Ethernet network using CAT5. Migrated e-mail system from Lotus cc:Mail to Microsoft Exchange. Maintained Exchange Servers, e-mail accounts and other Exchange related resources. Trained company staff and management on Microsoft Outlook and e-mail procedures and policies. Built, upgraded and maintained all company computers including servers, hardware, software, and other technical equipment as needed. Set up high speed internet access and proxy server, VPN, anonymous and restricted FTP server, and provided web access to e-mail. Updated and modified company web site. Worked on team projects to meet company and customers needs.

ok so the photo post

2008-05-29T05:42:00.001-07:00

ok so the photo post added a bunch of garbage pimping verizon & quicktime. I wonder if there's a way to avoid that.

photo post test

2008-05-29T05:37:00.001-07:00

testing making a blog post from my cell with a picture added

This message was sent using the Picture and Video Messaging service from Verizon Wireless!

To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture.

To play video messages sent to email, QuickTime� 6.5 or higher is required. Visit www.apple.com/quicktime/download to download the free player or upgrade your existing QuickTime� Player. Note: During the download process when asked to choose an installation type (Minimum, Recommended or Custom), select Minimum for faster download.

Computer Spring Cleaning

2008-05-28T06:21:00.000-07:00

I got this e-mail from one of the Microsoft newsletters I subscribe to that talked about cleaning up your PC. I expected it would just be about organizing files & icons, uninstalling old software, and backing up & archiving old data. (Find out if you're a "Digital Packrat" here.) While I did find that type of information with links like this one, I followed another link that had some pleasantly surprising results.

Microsoft posted an article written by Alyson Munroe that details instructions for physically cleaning your computer. It tells you what materials you'll need and how to clean your computer components like keyboard, monitor and mouse. However, it also talks about how to clean your computer case, inside and out. Anytime I open my case, I usually take a can of compressed air to it to get rid of all the little dust bunnies inside. This helps the fans (that helped to create the mess in the first place) perform their designed function of cooling the computers internal components better.

The average computer user seems to be more reluctant to open their computer than the hood of their car believing that if they can figure out how to open the case and succeed in doing so that it won't work right afterwards or won't be able to figure out how to close the case again so better to just not mess with it if it's working.

Well, my car continues to work with little to no hassle because I have regular maintenance performed on it so I don't have to shell out unexpected large amounts of cash for repairs down the road or even worse, have to be forced into getting a new car before I planned to. These types of maintenance steps outlined for your computer hardware will prolong the life of you computer and can increase your computers performance.

Speaking of performance, especially if you don't have Windows Vista or don't use the widgets bar, I've been running a free utility called Winbar and I can use it to see my cpu & memory utilization, adjust volume, monitor network traffic, and a variety of other options. It's small and unintrusive yet easily accessible. If the computer starts running slow, I can see quickly if my cpu or memory resources are getting used up then check task manager to find which process is the culprit. The reason I bring this up is after you clean the dust out of the computer and clear the fans, your computer should be able to run cooler thus providing better performance for your cpu. This is one reason some people choose to run liquid cooled computers.

Following basic maintenance steps for keeping your computer running well is easier than trying to fix a tv or kitchen appliance and harder to screw up than you might think. Keep your computer clean to have it run at peak performance and you could prevent a costly upgrade or replacement.

Suburbanite Child

2008-05-22T12:15:00.000-07:00

As we were driving through the middle of Missouri yesterday, my wife was commenting on how beautiful the scenery was and how there are other places that can have green landscapes. I like green landscapes myself but almost all my life I've grown up within somewhat close proximity to major cities, moderately populated areas, and places that were centers of business & technology.

Ok, so even out here in Podunk, Missouri (also known as Lake of the Ozarks) I do have decent internet access and Digital Satellite tv can be had almost anywhere so I have to give it that. But when I was younger the standard for whether or not a place was civilized or not was based on if the town had a McDonald's. These days my standards have really been raised allot and you can find McDonald's, Starbucks, and Subway just about everywhere. So when my wife asked me about things that needed to be considered for places I would live, I had to think for a moment. Then after some thought about what qualities need to be in an area before I move there (all of about 10 seconds of deep analysis) I told her I couldn't move anywhere that didn't have a Best Buy or something similar (not Circuit City, they have terrible customer service and I'm ashamed to even use those words in the same sentence) within 10-15 miles of my front door. 20 miles was just too far away. I didn't say it at the time but I think I would also like to stay the same distance from a major airport as well given how much I'd like to travel and/or have relatives visit.

Now that I've taken the time to check, there's actually more Best Buy stores around than I thought. On the way to Osage Beach, MO. we passed through the capitol of Missouri, Jefferson City (still about 50 miles away). Come to find out there's a Best Buy there. When we got off the plane in St. Louis, we drove about 90 minutes west to Columbia and there's a Best Buy there. Of course the University is also there (where my wife's brother is an ENT doctor.) So Best Buy's are not too far away but I'm not driving more than an hour to go to the airport in order to get from one major city to another.

Despite the amount of online purchases I make, it's not the fact that I shop at places like Best Buy a great deal either. I just know that if there's that kind of place around, it's going to be surrounded by several other places I like to go. Not only that, it's not that I do go to those places, there's some comfort in just knowing that the option is there and I can go if I want to.

Endless Activities

2008-05-12T18:47:00.000-07:00

There's really so much to do and so little time. Many things I want to do but I try to make sure I get the things done I need to do. Things at the top of my list I need to do include family time and that's a big one that I try to make more of yet it struggles with the side of me that wants to do other things that are solo. Most if of those solo activities are centered around the computer, the internet, and online technologies. Still offline I'm trying to learn SQL (as I've mentioned before) and get back into digital video editing.

Perhaps one day I'll post the early video I did for my Dad for Father's Day a few years ago. It was just basically a slide show set to music with some nifty transitions and a few effects but it kind of depicted my Dad's life in chronological order and the pictures and music really went together well, especially the last song. If you haven't heard it (and most people haven't) click on the link above. It's by a local artist called 2NU.

There's also a part of me that hasn't entirely moved away from playing console and computer games and I haven't even played (let alone beaten) all the original Xbox games I have, nevermind thinking about a 360 even though a part of me would like to play the rest of the Halo story. I stopped playing WoW because the whole thing is just too time consuming taking away from many of the other above activities I'd like to do.

I haven't beaten Crysis yet partially because it's a resource hog and I know a better $200 video card would make it look so much better (and right now I'd like my funds to go elsewhere, like 2-way radios and other camping equipment). The game is fun but I went back to trying to finish F.E.A.R. One of the few games I haven't tried using cheats on yet. I'll play maybe once or twice a week when I need a stress reliever but generally speaking I know that a better use of my time is going to be activities that either teach me something, create memories, or helps someone. If I can get myself involved in an activity that does all of those things, then I'm doing pretty good and I feel happy about what I'm doing. So, the search continues for finding a balance and on that note, I'm off to Tai Chi.

E-Mail Chain Validation

2008-05-08T07:10:00.000-07:00

I'm still surprised at times when I get an e-mail forwarded to me that claims something is true without anyone having checked the validity of the contents. I recently got an e-mail regarding this Dr. Dobson Petition and there were almost 3000 names on it already when it came to me. To me it should be common practice to people to do a quick & simple internet search to find out more information before blindly forwarding stuff to everyone on your contacts list. Even if the e-mail already has a link attempting to validate the information, I'm going to want more than one source reporting the same thing. One person forwarding an e-mail with 0-1 sources does not validate the contents.

I will usually copy/paste some main part of the text into Google and I'll typically quickly find several resources that discuss the origin and validity of the information in the e-mail. Then I will reply to all on the e-mail I got and post a few of those links letting them know where to find more information and encouraging them to do likewise in the future when they get e-mails like this and are tempted to forward them to people. I would like to encourage your circle of contacts (friends, relatives, community, etc) to squash useless e-mail chains instead of fueling them. What the world needs now is more useful information and less useless information to fill up our in-boxes, bog down the mail servers, and waste our time reading the garbage.

Embracing Online Technology

2008-05-05T18:22:00.000-07:00

The other day I was helping my brother with his computer issues. He had reinstalled his OS because of some buggy virus like problems. So we began to reinstall things and I took the opportunity to show him some nifty tools many people know about but still are new to some.

Since we were planning our end of the month camping trip, I wanted to show him the benefits of Google Docs to create and share text, spreadsheets, and presentations. That led to a tangent of documenting things online and I directed his attention to the Google Toolbar Beta 5 which has a button for Google Notebook which lets you make notes without leaving your current web page, clip links, and copy sections of the web page kind of like creating an online Favorites that you can share with others. Then of course we had to install Adobe Air (so we could install Twhirl), Acrobat Reader, and Shockwave. I then directed him to install Quicktime followed by Divx and Firefox.

He sat there thinking for a moment wondering what else he was forgetting to update his computer with so it would run with the technologies and programs he was used to using. With all these online tools and technologies available to us today, it's easy to forget what's working in the background to make everything work everyday so we can enjoy our online lives of business, entertainment, and a wide variety of other purposes.

As an offline tool for on the go, I showed them GOOG-411 and the competing free service from Microsoft, Live Search at 800-225-5411. I hadn't played with Live Search too much before but we liked how they would send you text messages about business you were trying to find and connect you for free to that business. Live search also let you find movies, weather, and other services for free from any phone by responding to your voice commands.

We agreed that we look forward to using these existing tools and waiting to see what these great minds will be bringing us in the future.

Google vs. Microsoft

2008-04-28T20:04:00.000-07:00

From a regular Joe's perspective with a common awareness of tech & business news, it's not hard to see why Microsoft seems to loathe Google. Here's a company that showed up on the internet scene with a search engine like so many others and have grown and expanded into many other areas. Microsoft too has expanded into many different areas but they did it by developing and SELLING software.

Now while Google may have software or other technology that they sell, we don't see their products on the shelves at stores on the same aisle as Microsoft Office. Google drew in crowds worldwide not by selling software but by giving it away FREE. What a novel concept. You mean people are interested in free software that works really well and have most of it web based applications? Yes, people are moving away from Microsoft Office and turning to Gmail, Google Docs, and Google Calendar as replacements. Heck, my Dad used Google Calendar to invite me to an event and when my Outlook picked up the invite from my Gmail, it showed it on my Outlook Calendar. (Too bad I can't have my Outlook items auto populate into Google Calendar.) These web based applications are helping many to move away from the Microsoft operating systems they've grown tired of and are more frequently unimpressed with what the software giant has to offer and what they expect you to do to get it wether it be by controlling the market price of software and operating systems or simply bundling it with their OS or your next new PC. Many people are discovering a world outside the realm of Microsoft with Macs and a wide variety of Linux options. I posed the question recently on Twitter asking people if they thought there was really any piece of Microsoft software they couldn't do without. For me, I could do without most of it and it's making the decision of swaying me and many others to quit investing money in Microsoft products. It was a good ride while it lasted but it's gone downhill. I mean there really hasn't been a motivating reason to upgrade from Office 2003 or perhaps even earlier. I know I won't be installing it on any PC I own anymore but that's another story about my frustration with Word and it's hooks into Outlook.

Polishing the floor

2008-04-25T10:28:00.000-07:00

I was looking through the media I had saved to my cell phone and came across a couple clips I had recorded last year. They show that there are alternative methods to cleaning your hardwood floor and that it can be fun for the whole family.

Along a similar vein is the home version of Shuffleboard for kids:

Great ways to save money on expensive games and cleaning supplies.

Timex Sloagan Made True

2008-04-23T05:35:00.000-07:00

Some time ago Timex had ads that stated their watches "takes a licken and keeps on ticken". I have a personal experience with this in a way. My brother gave me one of those digital calculator watches around 1991 or so. It was great especially given my aptitude for math. The amazing part of the story is that I wore this watch up until last month when it finally died. When I say that I mean that the battery and all its functionality lasted me 17 years. I have never had the battery replaced. The watch has never been opened since it's been given to me. During this time I've replaced the watch band several times, perhaps every year or so. I tried genuine leather, imitation leather, velcro, basic plastic / rubber, etc;

This watch was great for me. I had it in -40 degree temperatures in central Canada. It's been in the clear blue waters of the Bahamas and the warm ocean waters of Maui beaches. I've worn the watch swimming, snorkeling, camping, biking, hiking, and many other activities during all kinds of weather. This watch from the early 90's didn't have many of the newer features of todays watches such as Indiglo backlight and didn't have any kind of fancy display where it showed anything more than the time without pressing another button to show the date or anything else. It served me well for those many years and I found myself in a unique situation, I've never had to go shopping for a new watch in my adult life and I probably never will open that watch to replace the battery. It's done it's job extremely well, been through a great many experiences for a watch, and I believe it's way past its time to retire.

Rest in peace Timex calculator watch from the early 90's.

Updated Profile

2008-04-21T20:37:00.000-07:00

Well, not much of a posting today. Just wanted to throw a note out there that I put some time in to creating / updating my user profile so I wanted to draw attention to that for people that are interested in finding out a little more about me. Of course the real meat of who I am will come as I make more posts which will really reflect my personality, interests, writing style, opinions, etc. I also read a little bit about Google AdSense and still figuring out what the options are for blogger.com and would love to hear back any comments on my posts or suggestions of things you'd like to hear about. I'm pretty open to a wide variety of topics. Hope to hear from you and get more readers soon. Pass along the word about this up and coming new blog.

Camping & Service

2008-04-20T10:07:00.000-07:00

Camping is usually a novelty given the frequency at which I get to do it. I don't know why I choose to put myself through it as it is actually quite a bit of work. This time I went with only my 2 older daughters (Jennifer, 7 & Sara 5 in ten days). So I had to take care of them solo this time, make sure they're fed, safe, decent sleeping arrangements, change of clothes, etc. Basic parenting stuff that seems to come naturally to my wife but for me I fumble through it and somehow manage.

There is a novelty to getting to spend a night in a different environment, making fires, full day picnic for meals, etc. When we can go camping and have something to sleep in other than a tent that will shield us from the elements, it's much nicer. Don't get me wrong, my tent can be set up in less than 5 minutes and sleeps 5 people but not having to worry about making sure it's clean inside & out before putting it away and making sure its rolled up just the right way so it fits back in that tiny storage back all neat and compact is a nice burden to be rid of occasionally when going camping.

This time we had a cinder block cabin to stay in. It's about 20 x40 foot room with 8 bunk beds, a wood burning stove, a long table and some chairs inside with lights, electricity, and even a smoke detector. Outside there was a covered fire pit, small covered porch with another long table, hose with running water, and 2 picnic tables.

The main reason for going was to do some maintenance and improvements on the property. One thing we did was shovel gravel from a tractor bucket into wheelbarrows and spread it around the outside edge of the cabins. Someone brought the tractor to where we were, turned it off, then went elsewhere to do other work. In our group there was 4 or 5 adults and about as many young men. The first cabin we worked on was on a slight slope and after a few seveal minutes of shoveling, the tractor started to roll towards the cabin. I yelled so everyone would be aware and not get hurt. One adult quickly jumped in the tractor and put his foot on the break to hold it in place. The next thing I did was look to see where everyone else was. I saw the rest of the adults 5-10 feet out of the path the tractor and the youth trying to hold or push back the tractor. When the danger was over, the result was a blatant and somewhat humorous demonstration showing the experience and wisdom of those involved. The naive youth thinking they could prevent the tractor from rolling with their own strength and the adults knowing full well that the best thing to do was to just get the heck out of the way and the one adult who had the quick thinking and reflexes to jump in and apply the foot brake. We found out later that the parking brake didn't work and the bucket should have been all the way down on the ground lifting the front wheels up to serve as the brake.

Who thought that giving volunteer service could have such excitement. Too bad there weren't more people that could come to be part of such an event. Now when I return in August with my family, I can show them what we accomplished and where these events took place.

So I decided to start a blog

2008-04-18T12:36:00.000-07:00

With all the momentum behind social networking and this blog thing not really turning out to be just a fad, I was persuaded to start a blog of my own. I started using Twitter recently and figured that if I could post comments to that on a regular basis, then the next evolutionary step is blogging. My main concern was that I didn't want to be one of those people that start a blog and then have infrequent and intermittent posts once every few months or so. I've been using e-mail since before any of my friends in high school even had the internet (around 1992) and my Hotmail account was created before they were bought by Microsoft. Back then there weren't alot of web pages compared to what there is now and there was actually a book called Internet Yellow Pages which surprisingly enough they still sell today. I have 7 e-mail accounts and use 5 different IM services.

On the horizon for my upcoming technology considerations and/or learning are Mac (haven't jumped on the bandwagon yet), Network Attached Storage device, SQL (Oracle & MySQL), PHP, and Apache (not necessarily in that order). So this is my first blog posting. I'm going camping with my 2 older daughters for one night without Mom then perhaps I'll have more to blog about tomorrow.