The Jackson Family

Happy Birthday to Me

2011-10-04T09:02:00.000-04:00

Today is my birthday.

I was surprised when I brought up Google this morning and the "Google Doodle" showed a cupcake, a present, and ribbon. I thought, "What a coincidence. I wonder which famous person also has my birthday?" After all, Google is known for celebrating birthdays of celebrities.

When I hovered over the doodle, I was taken aback! It said, "Happy Birthday Steve!"

Google knew that it was my birthday and changed my Google homepage in celebration of me!

I have no clue what you other less-important people are seeing on your Google homepages, but for me, I'll take my cupcake and present! :-)

[By the way, if I click on the doodle I'm taken to my Google profile page.]

Merry Christmas Eve Eve

2009-12-23T10:05:00.002-05:00

On this, my last day of work for 2009, I want to say thank you to all of my friends. Those I know in person (IRL), those whom I've met through Twitter and LinkedIn, and those who I know from much earlier in my life on FaceBook. Thank you for what? Well, just for being there. For sharing a little of yourself with me. For allowing me to get to know you better. I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and a safe and prosperous New Year. Let's accomplish greatness in 2010!

SharePoint? No, SwearPoint!

2009-12-04T10:12:00.001-05:00

I’ve been working on a SharePoint project for work for the past few months, and I’m getting close to the “go-live” date. Actually, it’ll go live whenever I’m “done” (whenever that will be…).

But that’s beside the point.

The point is that I’m becoming less and less impressed with SharePoint as a development platform. And I didn’t start out with a great love for it in the first place.

Perhaps it’s because I’m constrained to only using SharePoint Designer. No .NET code allowed on the site I’m working on. That bums me out right there, since I consider myself a great .NET developer.

Most of my work has revolved around customizing SharePoint lists, and using SharePoint Designer to create custom workflows to support the operations of the team I’m developing this for. Not necessarily hard, but the requirements have been challenging to implement, to put it nicely.

One main requirement, as it turns out, isn’t really possible to implement fully in SharePoint, at least in a nice way. There are two groups of people who are responsible for different items (a.k.a. “fields” or “columns”) in a list. One group, let’s call them “Group A”, doesn’t want the other group (“Group B”) to be able to modify Group A’s fields.

Now let me stop right there! I understand that SharePoint is a “collaboration” tool, so preventing users from collaborating just doesn’t jibe with the core of SharePoint. That’s pretty much the crux of the problem.

If it were possible to set permissions on the field level, this blog entry would not be needed. But it is not possible to restrict access to only certain fields in a list to a certain group of people, so I had to think of ways to enable this functionality, and the way I came up with is sub-par at best.

I ended up creating 3 lists: one for Group A, one for Group B, and one which shadows Group B’s list. Then there are workflows which copy Group A’s fields in Group A’s list to Group B’s list, and Group B’s fields in Group B’s list to Group A’s list. The “shadow copy” list is there to prevent the workflows from running in an infinite loop—the items are only copied back to Group A’s list if they are different between Group B’s list and the shadow copy list.

As it turns out, this is not without problems, since if someone in Group A modifies one of Group B’s fields in Group A’s list (did you follow that?) then it will remain out of sync with Group B’s list, since Group B’s fields aren’t copied from Group A’s list to Group B’s list.

As it turned out, thankfully, this wasn’t as big of an issue for this particular solution (whew!).

It was my intent to set permissions on the lists such that people in Group A only had read access to Group B’s list, and vice versa. However, as it turns out, the workflows will fail to copy data since they run as the user who initiates the change to the list. So when a Group A person changes an item in Group A’s list, the workflow tries to copy that change to Group B’s list but can’t because Group A only has read-only access to Group B’s list.

So I thought I could change the permission to allow Group A to edit Group B’s list, but then just set the “Hide from browsers” property on Group B’s list so that Group A couldn’t find it when browsing the site. So instead of preventing a modification of Group B’s list through the use of SharePoint Permissions, I would be preventing the modification of Group B’s list by making it very hard to find the list. Problem solved!

Not.

Once again SwearPoint, er, SharePoint worked against me, and here’s how:

If you set the “Hide from browsers” property on the list, it does, in fact, hide the list from site when you click on the “Lists” or “All Site Content” links in SharePoint. ~~HOWEVER, it also hides the list from workflows!~~

[UPDATE: The list’s name is the only thing hidden from the workflow. The error I was seeing which led me to the previous conclusion was due to a user-error (and, no, I wasn’t the user!). The workflow continues to operate successfully if the referenced list is hidden.]

So my final solution still has three lists, one for each group and a third to ensure that the workflows eventually stop, and each group can see the other group’s lists. Not at all what I set out to accomplish!

It’ll just have to be a training issue to keep each group out of the other’s list.

So much for collaboration (at least in this project).

Not off to a Good Start

2009-08-27T12:39:00.001-04:00

Since I don't have a personal license for Visual Studio, I decided to download and install Visual Studio .NET 2008 Express. Microsoft makes it very easy to install everything you need by downloading the Microsoft Web Platform. That was the route I took to install Visual Web Developer.

It downloaded a small "loader" application which I used to choose which options to install. There were many more options than I really needed, so I just chose the ones I knew I needed, and a couple others that I thought sounded cool.

That overall experience was nice, but required two reboots to complete. One reboot for .NET 3.5 and another for the Microsoft Installer.

Then I started up Visual Web Developer, chose to create a new project, chose "Silverlight Application", gave it a name and folder to put it in.

Then it terminated unexpectedly. No warning whatsoever.

When I started it back up, my project was listed in the "Recent Projects" list, so I clicked on it. The Silverlight application was listed, but the web site to host it was not, so I assume that the crash happened when the web site was being created. Not sure.

Stay tuned as I dig into this problem and try to get this first Silverlight application up and running!

Silverlight Resume Project

2009-08-26T09:09:00.001-04:00

I attended a Silverlight Firestarter event last Saturday at the local Microsoft office, and let me tell you: I'm pumped up about the possibilities.

Monday I went to work only to find out that they didn't need my services any more.

So today I'm going to try my hand at creating my resume, online, using Silverlight. I'll post the progress as I go.

Wish me luck!

Something I Never Thought I Would See

2009-08-26T08:55:00.001-04:00

This morning I noticed that there was a Java update available for my computer. It had been a while since I updated, so I decided to go ahead and update.

Imagine my surprise when I saw this part of the installation:

Isn't that a little like dogs and cats living together? Sun was recommending that I install a Microsoft product.

I think this may be a signal that we're in the "end times", never mind what the Washington politicians are doing!

Twitter

2009-06-05T07:38:00.003-04:00

So I'm on Twitter now. I wasn't expecting to "get it", just like when I joined FaceBook, but this one grew on me faster.

I like the fact that Twitter integrates very easily with FaceBook and some other sites, so that I can send a "Tweet" and my FaceBook status is updated at the same time.

But I think the coolest part of Twitter is that I have a Rockstar following me.

No, really! I have a Rockstar who is following me.

Not that I expect that he reads anything that I post, or would "nudge" me if I haven't sent a Tweet for a while, but still, it's pretty cool. What's even better is that he is the lead singer for one of my all-time favorite bands, Simple Minds: Jim Kerr.

And, no, I'm not ashamed to admit that I love Simple Minds. In fact, I just ordered their latest CD from Amazon.co.uk. It's called "Grafitti Soul". I've heard some snippets from it, and I can't wait to get it. Should be here in another couple of days.

So if you're wondering why I haven't updated this blog for a while, that's why. Blogging takes more time that I have these days, but Tweets are quick, and that's where I focus my "Social Networking Energy" right now.

Flashback...

2009-04-24T08:33:00.003-04:00

Listening to a cassette tape of INXS in the truck while driving around town instantly transports me back to my highschool days. Something about the nuances of the cassette tape sound, not digitally perfect, satisfies me.

Wordle

2008-12-31T08:17:00.002-05:00

This morning I heard about a site that makes pictures out of words, giving larger font sizes to words used more frequently. So I decided to take the Fulton County Elementary School Curriculum and feed it through the tool. Here is the result for the 200 most used words:

Of course, "students" was on the list, and in probably the largest font (that's a good thing!). But I found it interesting that "appropriate" was prominently featured, as well.

Working for Food Again

2008-12-10T22:32:00.001-05:00

Just wanted to let you all know (yeah, like I have throngs of people reading my blog!) that I landed a job at a small company about 10 miles from home. It's a short commute, but at least I don't have to travel on GA 400!

I've been there for a week-and-a-half, now, and it seems to be going fairly well, despite the heavy work load (they warned me about that before I said, "Yes", so I knew what I was getting into).

So don't worry about me.

Oh, and my severance pay from my last job has become the closest thing to a Christmas Bonus that I've ever had!

Happy Holidays!

Will Work For Food

2008-11-12T14:06:00.001-05:00

I got laid off yesterday. I suppose I'll just be another number in next month's unemployment statistics. Actually, probably not, since I got a decent severance package that should last through the end of the year, and I don't think you can file for unemployment until after that runs out.

I'm planning on having another job before that happens!

In the meantime I've been reworking my resume, getting it ready to send out. I've e-mailed several people to see if they know of any openings, either where they work or elsewhere. I already have a few leads, but no interviews lined up. Should be an exciting few weeks while I discover what awaits me out there!

Wish me luck!

Levitation

2008-10-29T13:33:00.001-04:00

I'm teaching my boy to levitate. He's a fast learner. In this picture, he's about 8 feet off the ground. It's pretty easy once you get the hang of it. Really--you just throw yourself at the ground and miss!

Shopping at IKEA

2008-09-08T15:05:00.001-04:00

A new Ikea opened in Atlanta a couple of years ago, but I had not visited until recently. I had been to the store up near Washington D.C., at Tyson's Corner, so I sort of knew what to expect inside.

What I didn't realize until it was too late was that if you pay using a debit card instead of a credit card, you get a voucher for 3% of the sales price that you can use on a later visit. We had bought some bookcases for my home office, and if I had known that I would have gotten a voucher for over $23!

Now I know!

I'm Staying Away From hhgregg: a Review

2008-07-22T14:38:00.002-04:00

[Let me begin this post by stating that what follows may or may not be indicative of hhgregg as a whole, or even the particular store I visited. Maybe it's just me. I just wanted to share the (bad) experience I had.]

Our microwave died. So we wanted to buy a new one. Makes sense, because of the convenience factor of warming things up quickly, like one of the many cups of "hot chocolate" my kids ask for during the course of the day. And when they say "hot chocolate", they just mean milk with Nestle Quick in it, warmed up to slightly above room temperature.

But that's a different story.

We had looked in a few different places around town, and even online, for a new microwave. We put it into our monthly budget, even, to make sure we had the cash available to us for this expense. Basically, we were prepared to buy a microwave. (And fast--we had been without a microwave for nearly a month! Unheard of in this day and age!)

So for whatever reason we decided to buy one at hhgregg. A new store had been built near our house a couple of years ago, and I had purchased a TV from there back then.

As it turned out, the microwave we decided on buying was not in stock, so they had to special order it. This is where things got a little dicey. My wife had talked to a very nice salesman the day before, and when I went to place the order the next day, that same salesman had not started working for the day. So I talked to another salesman, but I mentioned the first salesman's name and showed his card to the second salesman (the card also had information about the microwave we wanted to buy). Well, the man I spoke to put the card in his pocket instead of returning it to me. I believe that hhgregg operates on a commission basis, and my thoughts were that this second salesman wanted to get the full commission so he didn't want me to have the first salesman's name handy. I asked for the card back and he obliged, but it left me with a sour taste in my mouth--and I hadn't even completed the sale.

So this second salesman puts in the order, informs me that it's not in stock and should be about 10 days before it comes in. Same with the trim kit.

[In case you don't know, built-in microwaves are really just counter-top microwaves that are put into a cavity and finished with a "trim kit" which makes it look as if it is flush with your cabinets.]

I pay for the whole thing up front, receive my yellow copy of the receipt (noticing that the salesman had put 7 days instead of 10 days for my order to make it to the store), and I go home, happy that we'll soon have a new microwave. The salesman even assured me that he would call when it arrived.

Fast forward 7 days. No call from the salesman.

Eight days after the sale (I gave them an extra day--is that so wrong?) I called to inquire about my order. One of the options on their phone system is tracking your order, or some similar-sounding name, so I chose that option. It went straight to voice mail, indicating that "that extension is not available". I figured that they were busy with another customer, left my name and number, and waited for a return call. After about an hour (I think--I don't recall exactly) and no return call, I called again, and chose customer service this time.

I got put on hold while they tried to figure out where my stuff was. I held for probably 15 minutes, with various hhgregg advertising blaring into my ear. Occasionally the phone would ring on the other end, followed by what sounded like someone picking up the phone and putting me right back on hold. That didn't sit well with me. I'm a consultant and I needed to get my work done--if I'm not putting in hours toward my project then I don't get paid, after all!

I finally was told that the microwave was in the warehouse, not at the store, and that it should be on the next day's truck. I was instructed to call back the next day after 1 PM, since they should have the inventory there by then.

At 1 PM the next day I called back and was informed that the truck had not arrived. I should call back after 3 or 4 that day.

I think it was about 3:30 when I called back. After another 20 minutes or so of someone "tracking down my order" and listening to the hhgregg commercials instead of hold music (personally I would have preferred music) I was finally told that the microwave and trim kit would not be in the store until Saturday--another 3 days!

Fast forward to Saturday. My wife called the store this time and verified that everything was there, so I drove to the store with my younger two kids, handed over my yellow copy of the receipt, and waited. And waited. And waited. Finally someone was nice enough to come over and tell me that they found the microwave but they were still looking for the trim kit (this was after waiting for about 15 minutes). I asked them if they could go ahead and bring out the microwave so we could get it loaded into the car. "Yes, you can pull your car around," was the reply.

I went to the car, loaded in the kids, got them buckled, folded the stroller and put it in the rear, folded the back seat down so there would be room for the goods, and then pulled to the front of the store, where I sat, with the engine running and air conditioning going (it was hot outside after all) for another 5 to 10 minutes!

Finally they brought not only the microwave but also the trim kit out, I signed for it (by this time I was too annoyed with waiting with small children to worry about actually inspecting the goods like the small print above where I signed my name indicated that I was doing), and drove home, relieved that we finally had our new microwave.

Fast forward a bit more, to after dinner and after the kids went to bed. I started installing the microwave. Long story short: I had the wrong trim kit!

So I took the trim kit back the next day, indicated that it was the wrong one, told them the correct part number (that was on the manufacturer's web page on a link from the microwave's information) and did the exchange. I spoke to yet another person for all of this (the "Operations Manager", whatever that means), and he told me it would be about a month to get the new trim kit, but that I should call to check on my order every few days.

That's when I told him that I absolutely HATED calling the store. I related to him how many times I had held for someone to tell me anything about my order. He didn't seem too concerned. I told him I was at the point where I just wanted my money back and that I would order the trim kit (the correct one, mind you) online.

His reply? "This paper shows your return. This paper shows the order for the new part. Sign here."

I just about lost it, but I decided to remain cool. I went ahead and signed, but I drove home rather perturbed. When I got home, I found an online store which had the same part for sale with no tax and no shipping fees for about $24 less than what I had paid.

I called hhgregg back the next day (it was late by the time I returned home) to cancel my order. I ended up speaking to the same person I had the day before (the "Sign here" guy), and when he asked why I wanted to cancel I told him that I found the same item online for less and that they could get it for me in less than a month. He asked the price, and I told him, thinking that he might match it. Instead, he wanted me to talk to some other person to complete the return, but she was busy right now so could he have my number and she would call me back?

I did that and finally got a call back about an hour later.

Long story short: hhgregg might be OK to buy things at if they have it in stock. If you have to special order something then, based on my experience, I would recommend that you go somewhere else. Way too much hassle for just a microwave and trim kit.

So as it stands now, we have the microwave but I'm waiting for the new trim kit to arrive and I'm waiting for my refund from hhgregg. Hopefully the refund will come before the online store charges me for the trim kit!

Sorry this post was so long, but I expound on things that strike a nerve with me! Thanks for reading, if you made it this far. And if you have any horror stories to share about hhgregg, write a comment to this post.

[UPDATE: hhgregg refunded my money on the same day that the online store charged me for the new, correct trim kit. I received the correct trim kit about a week after I placed the order. I recommend Home Everything for kitchen appliances! They didn't charge me shipping on my order, either.]

Mis-Hearing Commercials

2008-07-08T17:27:00.001-04:00

My oldest daughter was really excited the other day. She heard on the TV that they were holding a contest, the winner of which would be flown with their family to Hollywood to meet the star of Disney's Hannah Montana, Miley Cyrus.

The reason she was so excited? She thought she heard, "Many will enter, you will win."

I had to bring her back down to earth and explain to her that what it really said was "few" will win...

What American Accent Do You Have?

2008-06-11T10:04:00.001-04:00

I came across this quiz, and I thought my results were interesting:

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The West Your accent is the lowest common denominator of American speech. Unless you're a SoCal surfer, no one thinks you have an accent. And really, you may not even be from the West at all, you could easily be from Florida or one of those big Southern cities like Dallas or Atlanta.
The Midland
Boston
North Central
The Inland North
Philadelphia
The South
The Northeast
What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

Why do I think that the results are interesting? Well...

I was born in Southern California
I grew up in Florida
I now live in Atlanta

Animation-ish

2008-06-03T09:12:00.008-04:00

One more quick post for the day...

I just heard about this software and wanted to share. I think it would be something cool for my kids to play around with, though it may be a little over their heads at the moment. Well, over the 3 y.o. and 1 y.o. heads, but maybe not the 6 y.o. and probably not the 9 y.o.

It's called "Animation-ish". It just looks cool. Try it out.

I downloaded the trial and tried one quick "wiggle-ish", but I was on a laptop that didn't have a mouse hooked up to it and had to use the touch pad, which is on its way South... So my result was less-than-desirable, but still kind of fun. Here it is (I hope this works, but if it doesn't then right-click here and save the AVI file to your local disk--be sure to have "repeat" turned on, because the video is only 3 frames long!):

Digital Music Library

2008-06-03T08:04:00.001-04:00

I have almost completed my first phase of going totally digital in my home. I spent a few days last week ripping all of my CDs to MP3 format. Well, like I said, I ripped almost all of my CDs. I haven't gone through the Christmas CDs or my classical collection.

I used Windows Media Player to rip them at 320K, which is the highest setting it supports.

Why not use iTunes, you ask? Well, I do have iTunes installed on the same computer, but I'm only using it to get music on and off of my iPod. I like how WMP organizes the files, especially when it comes to album art. With iTunes I see a file that claims to have the album art, but I don't know what format it's in. With WMP there are actual JPEG files that get set as the folder image when browsing in Windows Explorer in "Thumbnails" view (like you see in the background of the picture above).

Plus, my ultimate goal is to get a Windows Media Center PC and extenders so that I'll have access to my media everywhere in the house, so I want to keep this as an all-Microsoft solution. For the moment, though, I'll wait: the current CableCARD technology doesn't support "On Demand", yet. Someday it will and my home media system will come to fruition.

In the meantime, my entire cabinet of CDs has been compressed down to one 500GB external USB hard drive. It's a funny thing: now that I have my entire collection readily accessible I can't find anything to listen to!

Thank You "Angry Asian"!

2008-05-20T08:29:00.001-04:00

I know that I already sent you an e-mail expressing my thanks for the stuffed animals that you made and sent to my kids, but I thought I would follow up with a blog posting since I saw that you had the animals featured on your blog.

My kids (well, my girls anyway) saw the pictures on your blog and reported back to me, "Our animals are famous! Their picture is on the computer!"

First there's Zack. I picked the horse for him, before his sisters had a chance to pick out any of them for themselves. He's one boy among lots of girls, so I have to look out for him. :-) I tried getting a better shot of him with the horse, but he was having too much fun grabbing it and slinging it down to the floor. Unfortunately, he hasn't taken to it. He's got lots of toys, and has focused on other things that make more noise when they hit the floor. Fortunately, though, that means that he's giving the horse every chance to survive, and keep from getting sent to the glue factory. Or at least the recycled fluff factory.

Next, Ella. I think she was next to pick an animal, but only because she was home and the older two had not returned from school, yet. As you can see, she loves the pink pig. What you can't see is that the pink pig now has a cape on it. I think it fits quite nicely, and is a welcome addition to the pig's wardrobe. The pig thinks so, too.

I don't recall at the moment if any of the animals have gained names, yet. I'll have to write you back to let you know if I find out.

Now for Emmie. She chose the monkey. The picture on the left was taken at the bus stop one morning. Emmie can take a "friend" with her to school for nap time, and I think the monkey has accompanied her each day since his (her?) arrival. Some of the stitching on one, maybe both, of the arms is coming loose--I think I can sew it back up if I can ever get the monkey off her back. Ok, sorry, bad pun. But you know what I mean.

I don't have a picture of my oldest with the cat. But if you would, imagine that there is a picture of the most beautiful 9-year-old girl here with a big smile on her face, similar to Emmie's or Ella's, or Zack's for that matter, holding the stuffed cat. Truth be told, that's a bit contrived--she's more into her American Girl Doll at the moment, but did think it was cool to see pictures on the famous animals on your blog.

And for any of my two other readers of this blog, the story I'm referring to (if you've made it this far) can be found here.

Phun is, well, Fun!

2008-05-13T08:56:00.001-04:00

I first heard about Phun a couple of weeks ago, but finally downloaded and installed it a couple of days ago. Be warned, it is addictive!

I have barely started learning what all it is capable of modeling, but already have created a scene (not the one pictured--that one actually comes as part of the download) with an incline, rolling ball, a platform with a spring, and a few other things.

It's phun to watch thing "come alive" once you click the play button. Sometimes you get unintended effects, like once when I didn't balance a large ramp that I drew freehand. It ended up falling over, when in fact I was expecting the ball I placed on top to roll down its side. (That was easily fixed by "fixing" it in place with one of the controls from the toolbox.)

From reading the web site (link is above) it appears that there is a lot of work planned for this free download.

Take my word for it, download it and start having phun!

Birds (but no Bees)

2008-05-02T13:47:00.004-04:00

These birds have built a nest in a pot we have on our side door for the past several years. Actually, they may have been absent last year, but they're back this year. If you can tell me what kind they are, please do. Oh, and I say "birds", but you only see one in the video (shot with my phone). They take turns--the other one hangs out by the deck railing. I guess he (or she) is the lookout. Anyway, here goes:

This was the third video I shot in a span of about 5 minutes. I stood very still on the inside of the door. In the other two videos you see mostly pot but no bird. As they say, third time's a charm. I guess the bird got a little used to me by this time.

What a Good Friday it Is

2008-03-21T09:03:00.001-04:00

...if for no other reason than I actually got to drive the speed limit (or greater!) on my way in to work this morning.

LICE SUCK!

2008-03-20T17:36:00.001-04:00

My wife called me toward the end of my work day a couple of days ago to tell me that my oldest daughter came home with lice.

First, let me say that I have never had lice. Nor has anyone in my family, that I know of. Yes, there is a stigma about lice--people seem to think that if you have lice then you are a dirty person or at least have poor hygiene habits. That is not the case in our house. My wife is super-anal about keeping not only the house but the kids, too, clean. And I mean eat-off-the-floor clean!

So when I heard that my oldest daughter had lice, I was floored!

We're not sure where they came from, though we had just bought some clothes from a consignment sale and the girls were trying them on before they had a chance to get washed. That's my guess...no telling who had the clothes before the sale.

Of course, school is another option. So is the YMCA. The kids spend a lot of time in both places.

Anyway, we'll probably never know where they came from.

But now that people have heard that we've had lice in our house, there are the stories about how long it has taken people to get rid of them. Hopefully we were extreme enough to prevent them from coming back:

Everything, and I mean everything, that has material/is soft in all of the kids' rooms was bagged, awaiting a deep cleaning by our new washing machine (which has a "Sanitize" setting).
All rugs were rolled up and put in the garage.
Lice spray was sprayed everywhere (mattresses, carpet, rugs, and so on).
Lice-killing hair cream was applied (before we read about all the dangers of this product).
Lice combs were used.
Vaseline was applied to the hair to smother anything that survived the cream.
Tons of Joy disk liquid and Gojo cream was later applied to try to get the Vaseline out!
Pillow cases and sheets were slept in once before being bagged (to be cleaned by said new washer).

Luckily, I escaped un-infected. Somehow. I know that the girls get in my bed while I'm showering in the morning before we all head down for breakfast on school/work days, so I'm surprised that I didn't pick up one or more from that!

Anyway, I just wanted to vent that LICE SUCK! And they are expensive, too! The chemicals we've bought has set us back $150 or more. We also chose this time to replace our existing washer and dryer. Our washer was fine, except that it had lost a few screws and as a result it rattled like crazy during spin cycles. Our dryer was on its last legs, however, and was in desperate need or replacing (and had been for months!). So we got the front loading ones.

No, we technically didn't buy them because of the lice, but we thought it would be a good idea to go ahead and replace them now, since we were planning on it anyway. Thankfully we had the money to do so, too.

Long story short: I'll never think poorly of people who have lice again. It can (and does) happen to anyone!

Salem Lake

2008-03-17T10:17:00.000-04:00

I hinted a while back that I needed to post about Salem Lake, near Winston Salem, North Carolina. It was at this lake that I did many of my training runs for the Chickamauga Marathon, which I ran last November.

What can I say? I pretty much fell in love with the 7-mile dirt and crushed-gravel path which surrounds the lake. I would leave work around 4:30 or 5, change clothes, and then head over to the lake, which was about a 10 minute drive from the office.

The trail has a few hills, but for the most part is flat. The hardest part is by the dam, where you go from 10 - 15 feet above lake level to about 10 - 15 below lake level and then back up to 15 or so feet above lake level again! And with the direction I ran (counter-clockwise) this was always at the end of the run.

The lake trail is also connected to a green-way, which if you ran from the parking lot at the head of the green-way to the lake and back is 9 miles, if I recall correctly. I ran this a couple of times by itself, and I also ran it a couple of times including the loop around the lake. Yes, it was dark by the time I finished, and part of that run goes through some, well, less-desirable areas of Winston Salem. Let's just say I had my phone with me, just in case.

This is what the actual path looks like. What looks like tire tracks actually are...cyclists use the path too, and they tend to "keep to the right" as you would expect on a highway.

It got to the point where I would recognize several of the people on bikes. Several of the joggers and walkers, too. It really is a very popular place for the fitness-oriented folks in the area.

Every so often there are park benches. I'm not quite sure that they get used--I personally never saw anyone sitting any of the times that I was there running. One bench in particular, though, caught my attention. It had a small plaque attached, which had the following inscription:

Brenton Hiroshi Stovall
June 7, 1988 - May 3, 2007
His beat goes on...

Obviously, this was to memorialize a young man who died. I did some Googling to see what I could find out about him, and discovered that he died in a car wreck while running an errand. I'm not sure how long these links will last, but I'll include some links here to some news stories:

Winston-Salem Journal
A neighbor's personal blog
(scroll to the entry at "Friday, 11 May 2007")

Very sad, indeed!

Overall, I attribute my personal success in the Chickamauga Marathon last November to my training here at Salem Lake. If I'm ever back in the area, I'm brining my running shoes (even though I'm not actively training for anything at the moment).

Water-Free Potties

2008-02-29T11:51:00.001-05:00

This is pretty cool. The office building I'm in has installed urinals in the men's bathrooms which do not use water. It has taken some getting used to...

The urinals are made by Sloan, using Falcon Waterfree technology, and the ones installed in this building look like this:

Notice anything different? For one, there are no water pipes! If any women readers of this blog picked that out, then I'll question how you knew! :-)

If you'll look closely, you'll notice a small spec above the ring at the bottom. A close-up view is to the right. Yes, it is a bee.

My first day here, I was instructed that I was supposed to "aim for the bee", to which I replied (though only to myself), "Poor bee!"

Like I said, it has taken some getting used to. I'm fairly accustomed to the sound or rushing water when I step away from a urinal, assuming, of course, that it is equipped with an automatic flusher. The silence after stepping away from one of these is, well, a little foreign to me.

I have no clue what the return on an investment like this would be. Granted, a lot less water is used each day in this building, which is cool, so there is the main cost savings. I don't know what the maintenance cost is like on one of these, but I'll assume that it is less than the cost of flushing water down the drain...

Windows Live Writer

2008-02-25T10:12:00.001-05:00

Yikes! Two posts back-to-back--what is this world coming to?

I just wanted to post a short note to let you know that I switched over to using "Windows Live Writer" to write my posts for this blog. The first entry I published using Windows Live Writer was the last one (Moving Day), but I have one in the works, saved as a draft, about Salem Lake. I mentioned a while back that I needed to write an entry about it, and it's in the works, though it's not progressing very rapidly. I'll publish it one day soon, promise!

Moving Day!

2008-02-25T10:03:00.000-05:00

No, we're not changing addresses. However, I have officially moved into my new office in the basement as of Saturday! There are still a few things that need tidying up--the main things being covers for all of the outlets and light switches. But the office is in a state now where it can be used.

My thanks go out to my good friend Darren for his help (and his hand-truck) on Saturday moving the monster that is my desk. THANKS DARREN! My arms are still a little sore today (Monday--two days later!).

I also (finally) rearranged the new cable/phone modem and wireless router down in the utility room so that they are off the floor. Eventually I'd like to get a nice enclosure to contain all the wiring endpoints--a patch panel of sorts--so that I can more easily configure which network outlets are active. As for now, I still have a mess of cables in the utility room. And I use the term "mess" in its technical definition. :-)

Anyway, as a result of switching over to using the cable modem provided by Comcast (which came into our house after they decided to end their old phone service and we went with their Digital Voice phone service), I now have a spare cable modem. Anyone out there want to buy a relatively new (~18 months old) Linksys cable modem? I can provide a model number if you need it. Make me an offer!

Basement is Nearly Finished

2008-01-02T20:45:00.000-05:00

I had a day to work from home on my current project, and I actually worked a day in the basement for the first time! Granted, it was at our old kitchen table which is down there now, and not in my new office (the desk is still in the master bedroom), but the basement is pretty much usable now. Here's what's missing, in no particular order:

Door knobs
Lots of light bulbs, though I had one over the table to use (!)
Toilet
Bathroom vanity
Network hookup (I had a great connection to my wireless router a couple floors up, though)
Cable hookup
Phone hookup (again--wireless to the rescue!)
Wet bar (water lines and drain line are in place--no sink or counter, yet)
Blinds (only need one for the office and one for the door--no other windows down there, thus the need for all those light bulbs!)

Let's see...that's about it for this phase. Later we'll convert the room Melissa calls the "Playroom" into what I call the "Theater". Much later, though...need to have kids which won't destroy the expensive electronics I'm planning for that room. In the meantime we may install a disco ball, just for fun! Must post pictures someday...I'm bad about that, even though my initial purpose for starting this blog was to "see how Picasa and Hello interact". I haven't used "Hello" for some time, especially since Blogger made it so easy to upload pictures directly to the blog. Happy 2008!

Drought Saying of the Day

2007-11-27T06:35:00.002-05:00

As you may have heard on the news (I know if you've watched the Weather Channel they've mentioned this, and I know that the Weather Channel is national--except for Los Angeles where the weather never changes), we're in the middle of a severe drought in the Southeast. The governor of Georgia called for a mandated 10% reduction of water usage, and we recently got a letter from Fulton County (the county we live in, and the supplier of our drinking water) that if they couldn't acheive the 10% reduction through voluntary measures then they would financially penalize the people who were not achieving the 10% reduction. So we're doing our part--the kids take baths in much less water than they used to, and then we save the water to use on the plants (both inside and outside). But the best thing I've heard for saving water is a saying that I heard my mother-in-law say:

If it's yellow, let it mellow, If it's brown, flush it down!

I laughed out loud when I heard that one! I'm not sure where she heard it, so I can't give the appropriate attribution, so if any of my 3 regular blog readers know, please tell me!

Did it Again: Marathon Man Times 2

2007-11-15T21:33:00.001-05:00

Sorry for the lack of blogging--like it says at the top of the screen, I'm fairly terse. That translates into, "I dont' blog a lot." So for the two people whom I know check in on this blog on occasion, let me just say, "Hey Cat and Wally!" Yeah, you know who you are. Of course, it didn't hurt that I named you. :-)

Anyway, the big news of the evening, actually of the week or month, is that I completed my second marathon, the Chickamauga Battlefield Marathon (sponsored by the Chattanooga Track Club), last Saturday. It was held at, you guessed it, Chickamauga Battlefield National Military Park.

I shaved a full 29 minutes off my previous time back in April (though I didn't blog about it until nearly a month later in May). New marathon record time (for me) is 4:14:24. Yes, that's in hours, minutes, and seconds. That's a lot of running at one time!

Here's the official score for the three of us from the Chattanooga Track Club's site:

MALE AGE GROUP: 35 - 39
Place	O'all	Name	Age	City,St	5mi	Half	2ndhalf	Chiptime	Time
=====	=====	=====================	===	====================	=======	===========	===========	=======	=======
40	230	Steven Jackson	38	Milton GA	49:26	2:07:56.10	2:06:27.75	4:14:24	4:14:36
41	235	Darren Chambers	38	Alpharetta GA	49:27	2:07:57.25	2:09:02.35	4:17:00	4:17:12
58	367	Mark Hildebrandt	35	Alpharetta GA	49:38	2:13:37.20	2:48:40.00	5:02:18	5:02:29

Melissa even brought the kids up the morning of the race, and they made it there in time to see me cross the finish line! That was cool. I had my cell phone with me during the race so I could call and touch base with her while she drove, and again while she was finding her way through the park to the finish line. They got there when I was at about mile 23--just in time!

Here's the breakdown, mile for mile:

Mile	Time	Cumulative Time
1:	9:37	9:37
2:	9:59	19:37
3:	10:02	29:39
4:	9:58	39:37
5:	9:48	49:26
6:	9:30	58:57
7:	10:15	1:09:12
8:	9:44	1:18:56
9:	9:14	1:28:11
10:	8:59	1:37:10
11:	10:17	1:47:27
12:	9:42	1:57:10
13:	9:37	2:06:47
14:	9:44	2:16:32
15:	9:45	2:26:17
16:	10:02	2:36:20
17:	9:32	2:45:53
18:	9:16	2:55:09
19:	9:33	3:04:43
20:	9:40	3:14:23
21:	10:18	3:24:42
22:	10:23	3:35:05
23:	9:43	3:44:49
24:	9:45	3:54:34
25:	9:44	4:04:18
26:	8:19	4:12:38
(Finish) 26.2:	1:46	4:14:24

I'm actually feeling great after this one, unlike the previous marathon. I remember reading in my post from May that my knees hurt for days afterward, but this time around, it was only my thighs which were sore, and only for about a day.

We've already signed up for the Thanksgiving Day Half Marathon, as well.

Darren jokingly asked (at least I think he was joking) if I wanted to do the full marathon on Thanksgiving day, and I just said, "No" right away. But in thinking about it, it would make sense, since we're already in shape to run it. But we're just doing the half marathon--don't want to feel bad (i.e sore) the rest of Turkey Day!

While I've been traveling to Winston Salem, North Carolina, on business, I've been training for this race at Salem Lake. I have a blog post in my head about that place. Hopefully I'll get it written soon... stay tuned.

[Update: I can't do math any more...I shaved off 29 minutes from my first marathon time, not 19 as I had originally stated. The time has been updated above. -Steve]

Blogger Play

2007-09-26T00:13:00.000-04:00

This was posted on Blogger's "dashboard" page: Blogger Play. It's a more-or-less real-time slideshow of images that people from all over the world are uploading to Blogger currently. Disclaimer: I won't be held responsible for the lack of work that you get done because you're watching random images instead of doing what you're supposed to be doing!

Strange Sight in Winston-Salem

2007-09-25T23:54:00.000-04:00

I've been traveling on business to Winston-Salem, North Carolina, for the past, oh I don't remember, number of weeks. Well, a couple weeks ago I noticed that some crews were out marking up the streets--evidently getting ready for some sort of road-tearing-up-and-then-making-better project. Now this is not a doctored image--this really exists on Broad Street in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, in the good ol' USA: Yes, that is a manhole cover in the middle of the road. And I'm supposed to keep it closed. I'm fine with that--they're usually pretty heavy, and I'm usually wearing my business casual attire while walking by, so I'm apt to leave it alone. Leave me a comment with your ideas of why they felt the need to write this in the middle of the road!

"You Know You've Been Traveling too Long When..."

2007-08-23T22:51:00.001-04:00

You know that you've been traveling too long when you no longer feel the same thrill with taking the shampoo, conditioner, and soap that the hotel gives you. I'm leaving it at the hotel this week! [Still in Winston-Salem, NC.]

On The Road Again

2007-08-06T23:32:00.000-04:00

Just like nearly 3 years ago, 7 weeks after my child is born I'm traveling again for business. Last time, after Ella was born, I traveled to Houston on a project. This time I'm in Winston Salem, North Carolina. Not much else to say, other than I'm glad I'm working inside. It has been in the high 90's the past few days here! Oh, and this week's rental car is a Lincoln Towncar. I could get used to it!

Careful What You Wish For!

2007-07-17T15:41:00.000-04:00

I was just going back over some older posts. I really should be careful about what I write on this site... "That much closer to being a diaper-free family." Ha! As it stands, Ella only wears a diaper at night now, but Zack goes through them like they're going out of style!

Emmie's Poem

2007-07-13T08:59:00.000-04:00

The other day, Madeline and Emmie were trying to remember one of their favorite poems from a book that my mom has. The poem is called, "I Went to the Store", and it was written by Jack Prelustsky. This whimsical poem is about a person who goes to the store and gets all sorts of things that he didn't go there for. Here are the opening lines:

I went to the store for a pear and a plum. The fruit was all gone, so they sold me a drum.

The rest of the poem is similar, and like I said, the girls love it.

Well, the girls couldn't remember the poem, so Emmie offered this one:

I went to the store to buy some more. When I got home, I found out I was poor.

Pretty cute and creative, if you ask me!

Kidding Around

2007-07-12T13:36:00.000-04:00

The other week, I was joking with Emmie when she was whining, "Whaaat's for diiiner?". With a smirk on my face, I said, "Food." Emmie whined again, "What kiiind of fooood?" Without missing a beat, Ella replied, "Meat." I think Ella is going to be a comedian when she grows up.

Peachtree Road Race

2007-07-06T13:53:00.000-04:00

I ran my first ever Peachtree Road Race, which is touted as the world's largest 10K. It started out as a great day for a run, with low humidity and temperatures, but I had a number that a neighbor gave to me which was in the 80,000 range, which meant that I didn't actually cross the starting line until 1:05:00 after the race officially started. Yes, that's ONE HOUR and FIVE MINUTES. That meant that it was starting to get pretty warm by the time my race began.

Here is where I lined up (in front of Phipps Plaza)--you can't even see the starting line (which is front of Lenox Square Mall):

In this shot, we're getting close to the starting line:

I felt like since I was in starting group 8 that I would be surrounded by a bunch of walkers, or at least a bunch of slower runners, so I managed to work my way to the front of the pack. Once they said, "Go!" a bunch of people sprinted ahead of me, thus debunking my theory.

I used my new watch that I was given for Father's Day, which has a chronograph with 100 lap memory. Each mile was fairly clearly marked with a big sign, and when I saw "Mile 1" I looked at my watch to see what my time was. I was in disbelief: it read 7:54. I was running a sub-8-minute-mile! I had been training at a 10 minute mile pace, so dropping that down by over 2 minutes per mile meant that I was cruising! It helped that the first 3 miles were either level or downhill, too! At mile two, I remembered that I could use use the "split" feature of my watch to record each mile's cumulative time. Here's the breakdown for the race:

Mile 1: 7:54 (estimated)
Mile 2: 15:53 (7:59 mile)
Mile 3: 24:33 (8:40 mile)
Mile 4: 33:33 (9:00 mile)
Mile 5: 43:07 (9:34 mile)
Mile 6: 52:30 (9:23 mile)
Finish (6.2 miles): 54:28

As I passed Peachtree Battle Shopping Center, where the restaurant "Jalisco's" is, I called my mom on my cell phone. We always like eating there, so I was reminded of her as I jogged past. I could only talk for a minute or two, because just past there is the start of "Cardiac Hill" (or is it "Heartattack Hill"?). I was headed uphill, started breathing heavily, and said goodbye to mom. I slowed way down going up that hill. Partly because the people in front of me all slowed down, and the walkers weren't keeping to the right like they were supposed to. But mostly because I was hot, I was running uphill, and I had already run 3 miles in 24 minutes: I was tired! Getting to the top wasn't too bad--it seemed like a fairly short hill, plus there was water along the way. Then the course leveled out for a little bit to get to the bridge over I-85, then went up a little more. People were handing out ice along the way, which felt great. There was a lot of sun at this point in the race, and it was getting hot! After getting past the High Museum, the course started to level out and then go back down hill. I picked up my pace again, especially when I could see 10th Street ahead. Around the corner would be the finish line, though I wasn't certain just how far around the corner it would be. It was a little farther than expected, but I kept up my pace as best as I could. The street was very crowded at this point! I called home after passing the mile 6 sign and was on the phone with Madeline as I crossed the finish line. I think she got a kick out of that. Can't wait until she can run it with me (she's got to be at least 10 to run the full race).

Here's a shot in Piedmont Park of all the finishers and other spectators: It was a great day for a run!

[Updated on 7/12/07 with pictures!]

"Let Me Be Your Wings" Video

2007-07-02T13:40:00.000-04:00

Here is a video of Emmie, singing "Let me be Your Wings" from the animated movie Thumbelina:

She won't allow other people to watch her, especially if they're smiling at her, so I had to hide upstairs and shoot the video from the second-floor balcony... [She says that if someone is watching her she gets nervous.] In the video, Emmie is looking at Madeline, who is in the next room (kitchen). At the end you can hear them both laughing after Emmie runs off-camera.

Zackary Clayton

2007-06-19T11:36:00.000-04:00

Melissa and I and our daughters have a new addition to our family: Zackary Clayton was born last Tuesday, June 12th, at 6:07 PM. He weighed in at 7 pounds, 8.9 ounces, and was 19 inches long.

The delivery was relatively easy according to Melissa, who was able to pose for a picture shortly afterward: Unlike the previous two deliveries, the epidural actually worked, much to Melissa's delight.

The girls are, so far, happy to have a baby brother. Especially Ella, our youngest daughter. She is becoming the little mommy. Several times we have heard, "Give him to me." She loves holding him in her lap, and helping to give him a bottle.

Emmie, our middle daughter, loved rubbing her face next to his and giving him kisses.

Madeline loved holding him, too, at least until her arms get tired.

Here is a picture of all of my childred shortly after Zack was born. It is also a rare occasion that got caught on digital film: all my daughters are quiet and getting along with each other!

[In honor of Zack's birth, the site has gone blue!]

Marathon Man

2007-05-26T21:11:00.000-04:00

It's been almost a month since I ran my first marathon, so I thought I would finally post a message about it.

First off, I finished! The 2007 Country Music Marathon in Nashville, TN, is in the history books! I crossed the finish line 4 hours 43 minutes 52 seconds after crossing the starting line. What an experience!

I never thought I would even consider running a marathon in my lifetime, but I'm glad I decided to join my friends Mark and Darren in the training and in the marathon itself. My knee hurt for days afterward, but I think it was worth it. People have told me how impressed they are that I ran a marathon, but I didn't do it for glory, or for boasting. I'm not even certain why I did it, in fact, other than I told Darren that if he joined the YMCA then I would run the marathon with them (I had been on the fence about it beforehand).

Anyway, the course had a few more hills than we had trained for, and the weather was warmer than what we had trained for, so the run was quite a bit tougher than what we had prepared our bodies for.

We never did find Scott at the starting line--he was staying at a different hotel with some high school buddies who were also running, so we weren't too worried about him. Mark was the first to show some signs of trouble. He started complaining about difficulty of breathing, and after 11 or 12 miles he told Darren and I not to wait for him. So Darren and I ran the second half of the marathon by ourselves, and Mark was solo.

We had trained by running for 10 minutes and then walking for one minute, but by mile 20 we were needing a walk break every 5 minutes. We had expected this, though, since the same thing happened during our longest training run (which was about 22 miles). However, after mile 23, Darren got a severe cramp in his left hamstring, which reduced us to walking for about 4 minutes and jogging for 30 seconds or so. He finally managed to massage it out and put some ice on it (a first aid station was conveniently located at about mile 24), so we started jogging a little more frequently at that point. [This was the third part of the race course that went out and back, and we were on the back part when we saw Mark and Scott coming toward us on the out part of the leg. Darren and I felt much better about Mark at that point, once we knew that Mark had found someone to run with.]

But instead of watching the clock, we starting finding landmarks and would run to it (the third phone pole, or a car parked on the side of the road, or an overpass, for example), and then walk to the next landmark we picked out.

But we ran the final 1/2 mile to the finish line!

After the race we walked around quite a bit, got some food, stretched, you know--all the usual post-running things. Then went to get lunch at the San Antonio Taco Company. For some reason I wasn't very hungry--must have been all the post-race snacks I ate. We then made our way back to the hotel for some rum drinks and some sitting around. We thought about hopping in the pool or the hot tub, but never made it down there. We had dinner at the Flying Saucer Draught Emporium, which was pretty good.

Overall, like I mentioned above, it was quite an experience. We're already talking about doing another marathon later this year--Mark wants to do better time-wise. I'd do it just because I got used to running and I enjoy Mark's, Darren's, and Scott's company. It's my "guy time" that I never really had before I started running with them.

It's Starting Again...

2007-04-03T16:45:00.000-04:00

The grass is turning green and it's time to start mowing again. Soon it'll be twice a week that I'm out there on the John Deere cutting the grass. Don't get me wrong. I like taking care of the yard. Plus this year we bought a bagging attachment so that when the grass gets too tall to mulch then we can bag it (although my guess is that it'll be too tall to bag, as well--it'll keep clogging up the chute). It's just that I have a basement to finish and I don't need to be spending all that time out in the yard. [Can't wait to get that basement finished! I'll post some pictures when I have some.]

Travel Tip

2007-03-22T13:22:00.000-04:00

I traveled on business last week to Baltimore. It started out as a bad trip, since I got a much later start than I had intended. I knew it was going to be bad when the helpful person at the ticket counter said that it was too late to check my bag. I always check my back, despite what some folks say. (Note: he could have saved me lots of hassle if he had just booked me on the next flight right then and there!) Since I had planned on checking my bag, I hadn't taken the time to make sure that I only have 1 quart-sized plastic bag full of 3oz containers of liquid. In fact, I didn't even have a quart-sized plastic bag. So several of my items were confiscated out of my suitcase. Now here's the kicker, any my travel tip: They didn't look through my laptop bag at all, and I had a few more items in there which technically should have been in plastic bags. I'm not advocating trying to smuggle things onto the plane that you're not supposed to smuggle on to a plane, but I thought it was interesting that my suitcase filled with clothes and toiletries was most definitely targeted over my laptop bag which had two computers, several cables, toothpaste, toothbrush, hand lotion, and so on. In fact, I think the items in my laptop bag were more "dangerous" than anything I had in my suitcase! Go figure. Damn Islamic terrorists!

Out of the Mouths of Two-year-olds

2007-03-22T13:20:00.000-04:00

"Boys have peanuts." -Ella, when describing the difference between boys and girls.

Half-Marathon Man

2007-03-07T15:25:00.000-05:00

I did it. I completed the Alpharetta Half-Marathon in record time! At least that's record time for me: 2:08:34. It was cold and windy and they weren't handing out Gu along the way like they said they were going to, but I had a good running partner and good conversation along the way, so I didn't mind so much.

Place No. Name Age S City St Cou Finish Pace
===== ===== =================== === = =============== == === ======= =====
215 1529 Steve Jackson 37 M Alpharetta GA USA 2:08:34 9:49

I had never run over 9 miles before, so this was an accomplishment for me! I felt great after the race, but the next day my right foot started hurting along the outside bottom edge. I guess the pounding was a bit much for it, or I didn't stretch enough, or maybe it was something else. It's starting to feel better now, but it's still sore when I walk on it.

Spot the Fake Smile

2007-01-16T15:46:00.000-05:00

Here's something I happened across today. I got 15 out of 20 correct. Tell me how you fared: BBC - Science & Nature - Human Body and Mind - Spot The Fake Smile. At the end of the quiz there are tips for how to spot a fake smile, in case you need help.

Another Office Building Sign

2006-12-20T13:52:00.000-05:00

The office building I work in isn't anything out of the ordinary. There's one thing I like about it, and that is the fact that the stairs are not locked. I'm working on the 6th floor, but some of the people I need to talk to during the course of the day work on the 5th floor. It is very easy for me (and usually faster, too) to take the stairs.

Have you ever wondered, though, what the singular form of "stairs" is? Well, here is the answer:

Yes, this is a sign indicating where the "stair" is. I don't use this stair, though. Instead, I use the stairs that go all the way from one floor to the next.

I Switched

2006-12-12T11:10:00.000-05:00

Today I finally started using my new Dell D820 laptop. I've had it since September but I have not had the time to install everything I need to do work on it. It's still not 100% there, yet (I'm missing Visual Studio, for example), but I've got what I need for the project I'm on at the minute. Basically that means I have the latest Office (2007 version) and not much else...

I also loaded Internet Explorer 7, and I'm getting used to it. So far it just seems like the Microsoft version of Firefox.

I'm planning on keeping my 3-year-old Dell D800 around for a while to use as my personal machine, database server, and second monitor (using MaxiVista).

Duh!

2006-12-04T15:21:00.000-05:00

Hmmm...I'm trying to think of something witty to add, but I think the picture says it all!

This was taken in the stairwell of an office building and is on the cover of what I presume is an Emergency Telephone. I didn't feel that it was an emergency to figure out whether there was an actual telephone inside or not, so I didn't open the cover. That would be pretty funny, though, if an emergency happened and there was no phone inside.

I wonder if inspectors actually inspect the phone on occasion, or if an inspection isn't considered an emergency, in which case the case would always remain closed.

Until an emergency happened, of course.

Recovered the Dining Room Chairs

2006-11-21T16:15:00.000-05:00

Last week, maybe the week before, I finished recovering our dining room chairs. Here's what one looks like now:

Part of the fun was figuring out how they were put together in the first place, but that's something I've been curious about most of my life (I used to take stuff apart and then put them back together just for fun--I guess in a way I still do, like when I took Melissa's laptop apart to see if I could figure out why the sound wasn't working).

The seats were the easy part--only one piece of fabric plus some piping or cording (the round part around the edge which gives it that "finished" look). I sewed the piping myself, reusing the piping that came off the original covering so it was all the correct length already. I just cut a new piece of fabric the same size as the piece I took off, and then stapled it to the underside of the seat, being sure to stretch the fabric as much as I could in order to give the final seat a nice smooth finish. After that, I just stapled on the piping and then put the seat back on the chair, fastened with four screws on the bottom of the seat.

The backs were much more difficult. There were two pieces of fabric, one for the front of the chair where the padding is, and one for the back. I put the front piece on first, then the piping, then the back. The back of the back was the most difficult, especially with all the folding of the fabric to give the chair a smooth look (instead of ragged material where the cut was made).

The best part of the whole project, though, was that I got to buy a new tool. I got a Rigid stapler, which I have pictured here on the left. It was an invaluable investment! I started this project using my Black and Decker PowerShot stapler, but it just wouldn't cut it.

This stapler has many nice features, like the swivel connector where the air hose connects, and the trigger which is selectable between single shot and multiple shots. My only complaint is that sometimes it is difficult to see when you're out of staples--there is a small area that shows the last 5 or 7 staples, but I was working in an area that didn't have a lot of light and it wasn't always obvious that I was out...until the staples didn't come out any more!

I'm not sure that I'll have a need for the Rigid stapler any time soon, but I have it if I need it, or if my friends need to borrow it!

(NOTE: I tried looking for the PowerShot stapler on the Black and Decker website, but I couldn't find it.)

New Look

2006-11-15T15:55:00.000-05:00

I decided to update the look of the blog. Let me know what you think.

Dealing with Death

2006-10-23T13:34:00.000-04:00

I was going to title this post, "Preparing for Death", but Granny died early this morning--about 2:15 am according to Melissa's parents. We knew that her days with us were few, but we didn't know how few. We last visited her on her birthday a couple months ago, and Melissa was planning on going back again tomorrow, but now we'll just head to Statesboro or Metter for the funeral later this week. What follows is a speech that Melissa's dad asked her to prepare in order to deliver it at the funeral. I am posting this entirely without her consent, but she sent it to me so I could give her an impression of it, and I think it is beautiful. Candid and beautiful. Let us know what you think:

I’ve thought about this day for quite some time. I knew it was coming, but you’re never really quite prepared. I think about Granny all the time. Especially these last 7 or 8 years. My mind always goes back in time to when Mark and I were little. I always remember certain things about Granny and they always comfort me. I so wish I could go back and relive some of these times. I remember she made the absolute best pancakes in the entire world. I remember the smell of her kitchen. The pancakes cooking and coffee perculating in that old perculator she had. I loved the smells and sounds of her kitchen. She made an endless stack of pancakes whenever we spent the night and I would eat as many as possible. She never complained about cooking more. I remember making endless trips to the laundry mat in her blue dodge. I can remember how that blue dodge smelled…it smelled like Granny , Papa, White Shoulders and her endless supply of trident gum. In the summer, there was also a slight scent of Skin So Soft. We couldn’t go through a visit to Granny without her coating with Skin So Soft. I remember how I loved playing house on the back porch of her trailer. I would sweep that porch all day waiting for Papa to come home. Granny and I would greet him with a big glass of iced tea in those dented glass ice tea mugs they had and he would drink his tea and smoke his Camel cigarettes. I loved his smell. He smelled like sawdust and Camels. I always remember that smell. I remember how I loved when Granny started cooking dinner. It smelled like heaven in that small trailer kitchen. I’d eat whatever she made. Until the day she tried making my mom’s german potato pancakes. Potato pancakes are shredded raw potatoes cooked in a skillet of hot oil. I knew that much. I knew there was going to be trouble that evening when I saw her mixing the pancake mix with potato flakes. I’m quite sure I ate those as well though. You never insult your grandmother’s cooking if you can help it! I remember going through her medicine cabinet and getting into her endless supply of Avon perfumes, lotions and other beauty products that were too tempting for a 10 year old to stay away from. I always remember thinking what does she do with all of this stuff. I think she had the same collection when she lived in The Summit. I was in high school then and remember thinking…what does she do with all of this stuff. I do remember thinking how good she smelled and how put together she always looked. It was my granny that really taught me the important of prayer. I didn’t realize at the time what she was trying to instill in me. She’d visit in Atlanta and that is where I was introduced to devotion. I don’t think as a 10 year old I realized that spending 30 mins on my knees in devotion while my friends were at the door wanting to play was going to influence my adult life. I just thought she was talking to Jesus and forgot were she was and kept starting over. Later on in life, when my Dad traveled for weeks and months, I would pray endlessly at night that he would be safe and come home soon. Sometimes, I would pray until I feel asleep. It wasn’t until several years ago that it occurred to me that Granny is the reason I do pray so much. It was also Granny’s influence that made me love the old hymns. I remember how she loved to hear me play Sweet Hour of Prayer, Rock of Ages and Amazing Grace on the piano. Fortunately, for you, I’m not playing them today. I’m quite out of practice. She sang these songs as long as I can remember and always knew the words. I’m quite sure even though her eyes may have been closed her last days here with us, she was still singing those sweet old hymns in her head and talking to Jesus. She had such a strong faith. I know in my heart that she left this earth knowing she was going home to Jesus. I feel quite sure that he had her wrapped in his arms these last few days and she was beaming on the inside. Her mind and body wouldn’t let her share this wonderful experience with us, but I know she was being comforted. She is where she has always talked about going. Her soul is at home where she belongs and has been yearning to go. She is finally at peace in her heart and her memory has been restored. Granny and Papa have touched all of her lives. I can’t mention one without the other. Now they are both together again. These are my memories of Granny and of Papa that comfort me. I know you all have your own and I hope they offer you comfort as well.

Catching Up...

2006-10-16T09:13:00.000-04:00

There have been so many posts that I have thought about doing, but haven't made the time to do. Work has been crazy busy lately--I even worked 8 hours yesterday (a Sunday). Yikes! But my days on this project are numbered, so hopefully I'll get back to a normal routine soon. Melissa and I had an awesome weekend! Friday night was the John Mayer concert at Chastain Park, an amphitheater in Atlanta. Now I don't have any of his albums, but I've enjoyed what I've heard on the radio. We have some friends who thought it would be a good idea to go to the concert, get a table to sit at (that's one of the attractions of Chastain), have dinner there and then enjoy the show. So that's what we did. You can't really tell any detail from the picture here, but that's John somewhere in the middle. My camera phone works better with up-close pictures... Then we spent the night at the Homewood Suites in Buckhead, a couple miles from the amphitheater. I used some of my many Hilton Honors points for it--the ones I've been collecting while traveling so much over the past 3 or 4 years. Woke up and had a nice big (free) breakfast, and then picked up the girls and headed up to the North Georgia Mountains for our annual fall getaway. We picnicked at Amicalola Falls, which is where the approach trail is that takes you to Springer Mountain, the southern end of the Appalachian Trail. This is at least the 5th year in a row we've gone. (And since we moved to Alpharetta, the drive hasn't been as long, either, which is nice.) Our visit isn't complete until we go to Burt's Pumpkin Farm. I don't have any of the pictures we took there, yet (they're on Melissa's computer), but take a look at the web site, see the pictures of the pumpkins, and then imagine 1,000 all walking around, kicking up a little dust, and you'll get an idea of what our experience at Burt's was like. Reading the first part of this article sounds a little like our Saturday, only in reverse (Burt's Farm came first in the article). A couple of weeks ago I had heard that it was supposed to be peak leaf weekend this past weekend, but I think it is yet to come. The leaves were still pretty green, and only slightly starting to turn. Anyway, that's all for now. I still need to get some pictures up from Ella's second birthday, which was at the beginning of September. Like I said, I've been too busy lately!

The Youngest is now 2

2006-09-11T16:27:00.000-04:00

...and we're that much closer to being a diaper-free family! Ella had her second birthday on Friday, and we celebrated yesterday (Sunday) at the neighborhood pool. The water was freezing, but actually ended up feeling nice after you got used to it. Two out of 4 cousins were in attendance--the Faulkner's couldn't make it due to sickness in the household, and we didn't think it was wise to expose the rest of us to whatever ailment they were sharing over there. Two out of 4 grandparents were in attendance, as well. My parents in Florida are planning a trip up here at the end of the month and so decided to sit this party out. I'll get some pictures online when I get them off the camera.

Spell Checker Poem

2006-08-23T15:08:00.000-04:00

[I'm sure you've seen this pass through your e-mail at one point or another, but I like it so I'm preserving it here... If anyone knows who wrote this, please let me know so I can properly attribute it. Thanks!]

ODE TO SPELL CHECK Eye halve a spelling chequer It came with my pea sea It planely marques four my revue Miss steaks eye kin knot sea. Eye strike a key and tipe a werd And weight four it two say Weather eye am wrong oar write It shows me strait a weigh. As soon as a mist ache is maid It nose bee fore two long And eye can put the error rite Its rare lea ever wrong. Eye have run this poem threw it I am shore your pleased two no Its letter perfect awl the weigh My chequer tolled me sew.

.NET 2.0 Website Conversion: AutoEventWireup Fix

2006-08-10T09:16:00.000-04:00

[I'm going to take a short break from my family blogging and preserve for posterity my findings after converting a web project from .NET 1.1 to .NET 2.0. Pictures of adorable kids will return soon...] At work we recently converted a website from .NET 1.1 to .NET 2.0. This was accomplished by running the conversion wizard which is built in to Visual Studio 2005. After the conversion, however, we noticed that some of our pages were behaving strangely--we would have lists with duplicate items in them. This wasn't the case before the conversion, and it was my task to fix it. What I found out is that in .NET 2.0, the AutoEventWireup page directive is set to true by default. In .NET 1.1 it is set to false. According to the Common ASP.NET 2.0 Conversion Issues and Solutions document, this is a known issue due to events firing twice (Issue 23: Event handlers called multiple times). In this document it explains that the conversion wizard is smart enough to remove the duplicate event wireups, but only if they live in the InitializeComponent() method of your page's codebehind file. In our scenario, we had some event wireups in the OnInit() method (not my fault--it was inherited code!). What I didn't know what how to detect where those duplicate wireups were so I could get rid of them. So I did some more digging. As it turns out, in the online help for Visual Studio.NET 2005 there is a section which explains the AutoEventWireup page directive. (This link will only work if you have VS.NET 2005 help installed on your computer.) It explains that when the AutoEventWireup directive is set to true, ASP.NET performs a lookup using reflection to find the events in your page's codebehind class. The naming convention for the events is "Page_" + event name. So for the "Load" event, ASP.NET looks for the "Page_Load" method in your code, and calls it if it finds it. So this means that only the Page events are automatically wired up, and no others are. That makes sense, since this is a Page directive... Historically, reflection has been considered slow, or at least there's a lot of overhead when loading the assembly and picking out the parts inside of it. However, according to a comment left by Scott Guthrie on this blog:

Event wire-up is done via reflection, but the type-descriptors are cached (so the lookup is one time only).
From a performance measurement perspective, there is no difference between autoeventwireup=true/false. That is one reason we switched to it as the default with VS 2005 Web App Projects.

So now we've got AutoEventWireup set to true by default, and the wizard removed the "Page_*" methods from our InitializeComponent() methods. But we still have events firing twice. The last part of the puzzle is how to remove the remaining page events which are manually wired up. Regular expression searching to the rescue! You can use Visual Studio's "Find in Files" feature (say that 10 time really fast!). Click on Use Regular Expressions in the Find Option section and then paste this in the "Find what" text box:

\+=:b*new:b*System\.EventHandler:b*\(.*\.Page_

This will search for adding a new System.EventHandler for a Page directive, and should take care of most variations in using white space. It will also handle the "this" keyword is in front of the delegate name. I hope this helps someone else out there understand how AutoEventWireups work, and how to fix your web site if you run into the same situation as I did. Please leave a comment if it helped. Thanks! [Update: You'll also want to check to see if the AutoEventWireup @Page attribute is explicitly set to false before you remove the wireup from the InitializeComponent() method, or else the page event won't fire!]

I Rode "Goliath"

2006-07-14T15:11:00.000-04:00

Melissa and I took the kids--well, the older two kids--to Six Flags last Sunday. Had a blast! They removed the "Great Gasp", the ride where you go straight up, hoisted by cables suspended from a big tower, and then drop back down to the earth. In its place is the latest roller coaster: Goliath. It was pretty cool, but I was holding my glasses so that they wouldn't be blown off by 70 MPH winds, so I couldn't see very well (everything was very blurry, though even if I were wearing my glasses thing probably would still be blurry), but I sure could feel the ride. Oh, the picture above is a piece of canvas attached to a tree next to the queue line for the Log Jamboree ride. It's just the thing to do at Six Flags: put your gum on a tree for all to see! I joked with Emmie that maybe they would let her take it home with her at the end of the season... In this picture you mostly see the "Georgia Scorcher". Part of Goliath can be seen in the background (teal support beams and orange track). Most of the Goliath ride is outside of the park. You go over the entry/exit road, do some spins and humps, and then go back into the park to finish up. In fact, this picture shows the cul-de-sac where the parking log tram drops folks off at the ticket counters. Where you see Goliath in the background is actually outside the park. I also got to ride the "Batman". Again, I was holding my glasses, just to be safe. The best part of that ride is the queue line as you wait to get on the train (in which you are suspended from the track). It looks like you're walking into Gotham City, or at least the dump. Well done! Madeline's favorite ride was the "Gotham City Crime Wave", a ride where you're suspended in a swing and they spin you around and then tilt the top of the swing. At the end of the first ride they said you could stay in your seat if you wanted to ride again (the lines were very short at this time of the evening--about 7:30 or 8). She rode it about 7 or 8 times in a row! We got Emmie on the Canyon Blaster--her first roller coaster! This was also Madeline's first roller coaster last year. We also rode the Wheelie--but I don't think any of us liked it! The bumper cars were a hit, though, except Emmie complained that it didn't last long enough. We arrived when the park opened and we left when the park closed. That was a long day, but definitely a fun one!

MaxiVista Update

2006-07-07T13:44:00.000-04:00

I tried the demo of MaxiVista and liked it, and then it expired. I uninstalled it. I forgot about it.

Recently, however, I have wanted to control the information coming at me a little better, and I remembered MaxiVista. So I bought the Pro version. (This version does everything except mirror your desktop on another computer--I don't foresee the need to do that.) Now I have my e-mail client open on the secondary PC and my main work open on the main screen. I can move windows around from screen to screen if I want to change where they are located.

One thing that this version does that the demo version did not do is control the second PC from the first one. So instead of making your desktop span multiple screens, this allows you to use your primary PC's keyboard and mouse on your primary PC and then drag the mouse to the other monitor and start accessing that PC's files and programs--all while still using your primary PC's keyboard and mouse. Pretty neat, though I'll still probably not use that feature all that much. A side effect of this feature is that you can highlight text on one PC, copy it, and then paste it onto the other PC.

MaxiVista also allows up to 4 PCs to be used--the primary plus 3 others. Right now I only have two laptops in use (which I think is enough for now at least).

Configuration: By default, it is configured for "Maximum Speed". This had a noticeable effect on what the desktop looked like on the second PC, so I changed the setting to "High Picture Quality" and that seemed to take care of it (the maximum setting is "Maximum Picture Quality", but "High Picture Quality" seems to give me the best look/speed tradeoff).

I just wanted to follow up on this since I said that I would.

[Update: After browsing through the documents at the MaxiVista web site, I came across this note in the Version History page:

For experts only: To change the MaxiVista behaviour when locking the Viewer PC, you can alter value "2" to "1" in following registry key: [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\MaxiVista\A2\username]"lock_method"=dword:00000002 (video tutorial)

I much prefer the setting set to "1" than "2". In this mode, the monitor program on the second laptop doesn't close when the primary laptop is locked, so I don't have to reposition all the programs back onto the secondary laptop/display once more after logging back into Windows. Note that "username" in the registry key name should be the name you logged in with, not the literal "username".]

I Saw "Sally Carrera"

2006-07-06T09:42:00.000-04:00

My office building also houses the Porsche North American Headquarters. There is always a Porsche on display out front, but the other day there was a slightly different one parked in front of the building. I was coming back from lunch and was walking from the parking deck (shown in the background of the picture) when I saw people looking at the car. One guy was taking a picture of it with his camera phone (or would that be "phone camera"?). I didn't think much of it since, like I mentioned, there's always a Porsche on display. Also, since I was coming up from behind the car it didn't look any different than any other Porsche (except that the roof line looked different--it was bubbled up/more pronounced than other Porsches I've seen). It was only when I got to the front of the car that I noticed what the commotion was about. So I joined the small crowd and took a picture of my own. Here are some links about Sally:

Aerial

2006-05-24T10:44:00.000-04:00

I've been a Kate Bush fan for years, though "The Red Shoes" wasn't one of my favorites, I'll admit. Recently, though, she released a new CD called "Aerial". I bought it from Amazon a couple of weeks ago, and it just showed up on my doorstep yesterday. It is a two CD release, and it's awesome! It has a little bit of jazz in it, but it is distinctively Kate Bush at its core. This one will get a lot of play time in the near and distant future!

Hammock is Fixed

2006-05-22T09:49:00.000-04:00

A while back a friend helped me dig a couple of holes so I could put some 6x6's in them to support our hammock. When we moved into the house 4 years ago, one of the first things we noticed was the lack of trees large enough and appropriately spaced to support our hammock.

Well, as it turned out, the holes were just slightly too close together, and when I first sat in the hammock my posterior touched the ground.

I've been thinking for a while on how to fix this. I've had friends suggest elaborate ways of getting the hammock operational for adults (the kids had no problem with it--Madeline even figured out that if you twist the hammock over and over several times then the ropes get more taught and thus the hammock hangs higher off the ground), but I was pretty sure there was an easy (or at least easier) fix.

Here are the pictures of my simple solution, though with only a 7 1/4" blade on the circular saw I couldn't cut all the way--or even half-way--through the 6x6's. I cut one side, then the other, then finished off with a hand saw (which I discovered was either dull or just couldn't handle pressure-treated wood).

And here is a close-up of the cut I had to make. Note that the hook is now on top of the 6x6 instead of on the side. This has two results: the hooks are further apart so the hammock is more taught, and the hooks are higher off the ground so adults can use it now!

New Paint!

2006-05-18T07:47:00.000-04:00

No, not me--the house! :-)

We've lived here for the past 4 years (my how time flies!), and the house still had the original paint that the painters put on. And it showed!

We had originally gotten quotes about a year and a half ago, but didn't have the money at the time to get-er-done. Well, I don't care what people say about tax refunds being an interest-free loan to the government, but I was happy to receive one large enough this year to be able to get the house painted!

So we changed the colors a bit. The stucco on the front is now more brown (I would call the old color "pinkish", but Melissa would disagree with me), and it is the same color as the siding on the back. (The siding on the back was sort of a taupe color.)

The front door used to be black, but Melissa saw some paint combinations in the paint store and decided that she liked this "cherry" color. I like it, too, but we both think that at least one more coat is needed.

We had our old house painted once while we were there--I had forgotten just how much newer a house looks with a fresh coat of paint!

New Glasses!

2006-05-18T07:45:00.000-04:00

No, not me--Madeline.

Melissa and Madeline had eye appointments on the same day, one after another. The doctor, a friend of ours from church, let them look and see in each other's eyes.

We knew from an appointment earlier in the year that Madeline's vision was getting to the point (already!) where she would need glasses. We decided to wait then, but not this time.

One trip to Costco was all it took pick out a pair--Madeline saw them right away, too. They are light metallic pink (of course!) with little flowers at the edges--you can't really see them too well in this picture.

And already she has come home from school with one of the temples bent at a severe angle. She claimed that she didn't know how it happened. I was able to gently bend them back, though, so they're as good as new again.

I don't think the name calling has started, yet, but four eyes are better than two any day!

Seattle

2006-05-08T15:44:00.000-04:00

I think I mentioned a while back that I was going to Redmond (near Seattle for those of you who are geographically impared) for some training. That was about a month and a half ago. The night before I flew back home I managed to get downtown to the Seattle Center--that's where the Space Needle is. I was there with a co-worker, and the plan was that we were going to eat dinner up there. But after looking at the menu (especially the prices) we decided not to. But I took this cool picture:

Emmie's Soccer Trophy

2006-05-08T15:38:00.000-04:00

We signed Emmie up for soccer. To put it nicely, that was a mistake. She never really got into it. But I'll spare you the details, other than to say that the only way I could convince her to go to her last soccer game on Saturday was to tell her that this was the day that they were handing out trophies. So she's very excited in this picture! :-)

The Number of the Beast

2006-03-20T09:43:00.000-05:00

Isn't it written somewhere in the book of Revelation that everyone will be marked with the number of the beast? I just got to thinking the other day...everyone with a computer on the Internet has an IP address... Coincidence?

Glaucoma! Glaucoma! Glaucoma!

2006-03-13T12:03:00.000-05:00

No, I don't have glaucoma (that I know of), but I just got this link that I couldn't keep to myself. And now, for your pleasure, I present to you, The Association of International Glaucoma Societies. Be sure to turn the volume up so you can hear the Glaucoma Hymn! That is, after all, the whole reason I'm putting this link on my blog. I got the link from a "Worst Designed Web Page Award" list, so be warned! Also, if you have only a dial-up connection be prepared to spend some time waiting for the page to load...

Redmond, WA

2006-03-10T16:56:00.000-05:00

I just got confirmation this week that I will be attending a training class on the Microsoft campus in Redmond the week of April 3rd. That will be cool--I've never been to Redmond or anywhere in the Pacific Northwest, for that matter. I'm going to try to meet a couple of my friends who live out that way while I'm there. Plus, with my new camera phone (phone camera?) I'll be able to take some pictures and post them to the blog in near-real-time. I'm psyched! :-) By the way, on February 28th I thought to myself, "I should post something to the blog so I have at least one entry for the month." And then I got back to work and forgot all about it. So February 2006 will just be missing from this blog.

RSS Popper - Free RSS add-in for Outlook & Outlook Express

2006-01-23T15:54:00.000-05:00

This seems cool... RSS Popper - Free RSS add-in for Outlook & Outlook Express

In Case of Emergency

2006-01-16T11:37:00.000-05:00

First off, a belated "Happy New Year" to the 2 people who read my blog (and one of them is me :-). Anyway, just a tip I heard on the "Clark Howard Show" a while back: If you have a cell phone, put an entry in your phone book that reads "ICE". That stands for "In Case of Emergency". That way, if you're ever in an accident and need medical attention, the EMS folks can call the people on this list to ask about you--for example, if you have any allergies to medicines, any known diseases, etc. I put one in my phone, but I wanted it to be at the top of the list, so I put the number "1" in front of it. However, for some odd Japanese or Swedish reason, it appeared at the end of the list (Sony Ericsson evidently does not sort using normal ASCII rules in their cell phones). So I prefixed it with "AAA", instead.

Fun with Paint.NET

2005-12-18T14:04:00.000-05:00

I downloaded a free program which you can use to do pretty cool image manipulation. It was designed in a college course at Washington State University, and now it is refined by the same folks who created it (i.e. they graduated). The program is called Paint.NET, and it was designed to work similar to Photoshop. I should add that the original programmers now work for Microsoft. Anyway, I found a picture of Emmie from a couple of years ago, and couldn't resist playing around a bit to see what Paint.NET would do. You can see the results here. I claim full copyright protection (Copyright (c) 2005, Steve Jackson)--I'm sharing this because I really like it, but please don't use it yourself unless you have my permission. Thanks!

MARTA General Manager

2005-12-07T09:54:00.000-05:00

I live near Atlanta, GA, and the public transportation in Atlanta is called MARTA. That stands for the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority, in case you were wondering. Recently the general manager of MARTA was offered a job in San Francisco for a sizeable amount more than he makes here in Atlanta (I guess he doesn't realize that the cost of living increase he would experience would offset any increase in compensation, but I digress). Well, I read in the Atlanta Constitution's blog that the MARTA board voted to try to keep him here in Atlanta by presenting a counter offer. While they didn't go into detail what the counter offer was, they did include details about the past year:

MARTA has paid Ford a base salary of $205,000. He also earned nearly $57,000 in benefits last year, including incentive-based bonus pay and an auto allowance.

Is it just me, or is it a bit hypocritical of MARTA to offer their General Manager an auto allowance? Maybe it was an electric car, or one fitted to run on natural gas... [Update: The counter offer wasn't enough to keep him. Look out San Francisco!]

Compact Fluorescent Bulbs

2005-12-07T09:49:00.000-05:00

I noticed something interesting last night as I was on the front porch trying to figure out why the Christmas lights kept causing the GFCI breaker on the outlet to keep tripping... When compact fluorescent light bulbs are very cold (say about freezing or below--it was about 27 degrees out there last night) they are dim. Now that might not be very exciting to you, and frankly I'm not really ecstatic about it, but I just thought it was interesting. They warm themselves up after a minute or so, and in doing so they brighten up as well, so they're still useful. But if you ever need instant bright light from a fluorescent bulb on a cold night, you'll be out of luck. [I'm still not 100% certain why the GFCI breaker kept tripping, but I narrowed it down to one path of cords and lights.]

The Derek Forbes Blog

2005-11-22T18:02:00.000-05:00

I've been a fan of Simple Minds for years--since high school when "Once Upon a Time" came out. Anyway, the main bass player from Simple Minds has his own blog here on Blogspot, and it is aptly named, The Derek Forbes Blog. Seems he's got himself a new band named A Few Good Men and they're touring in the UK. As a side note, Mel Gaynor is their drummer, and Mick MacNeil is their keyboardist: they were both part of Simple Minds, too.

Mississippi Trip

2005-11-14T11:38:00.000-05:00

I took a short trip to Ocean Springs, Mississippi, this past weekend. I'm part of the worship team at my church's contemporary service, and since it was Youth Sunday back at the church, we drove down to St. Paul's United Methodist Church to perform for them. I was thinking that it was going to be a bigger event than it turned out to be, but by the comments that were made to us after the performance Saturday night it sounded like we were greatly appreciated! As far as I know, the show was not recorded so you can't hear just how awesome we were (and me, particularly)! :-)

Halloween Costumes

2005-11-09T21:20:00.000-05:00

OK, so in this picture there are two home made costumes and one store bought costume. Ella's costume was lovingly made by my mother--several years ago for Madeline. It has been used almost every year since on each of the girls (which ever one would fit it). Madeline's witch costume was purchased. Emmie's costume (Jasmine) was made by me. Well, mostly... Melissa told me what she wanted, and I sat down at the sewing machine--the same one that I watched my mom sew on back in Junior High and High School--and sewed it. I started with a pair of sweat pants (it was a cool evening) and cut some shiny fabric out in the same shape as the legs, only bigger (I was going for the "poofy" effect, but didn't quite attain it). Then I sewed one leg, then the other, then sewed them together. Next I sewed them at the ankles, adding the bling (the shiny medallions hanging down), then I sewed them at the waist. Next I cut a waist band, sewed it into a sock, and then sewed it onto the waist (again, adding the bling--you can never have too much bling if you're a 3-year-old!). It turned out really cute, I though (and not a bad freshman effort, IMHO). When we returned from trick or treating, the crotch had split--I guess I didn't add enough wiggle room!

2005-11-09T21:15:00.000-05:00

So Melissa went out and bought new pumpkin carving tools, and they were the fancy kind--the kind that comes with a book of patterns. And then I asked Madeline to pick out a pattern that she liked. She had to pick out the most difficult one! I don't think I've ever taken so long to carve a pumpkin before, but you can see the result above. I thought it was pretty cool, though if you look closely you can see parts breaking off...I didn't even notice until I took a look at the picture. I made a copy of the book's pattern before carving the pumpkin so that it can be reused in the future. However, I think I'll steer Madeline (or Emmie or Ella) away from the most difficult ones next year!

These Shoes are...Evil

2005-09-16T16:53:00.000-04:00

The other morning, my 3-year-old daughter came into my office asking for help putting on her shoes. They were some black shoes that I knew she liked to wear. However, when I told her how beautiful I thought her shoes were, she told me, "They're not beautiful--they're evil!" I'm not sure where that came from, but hopefully we won't have a case like in the Hans Christian Andersen story, The Red Shoes.

Ad Sense

2005-09-09T16:04:00.000-04:00

You may have noticed that I now have ads on my blog. Sorry if this annoys you--I tried to make them as nondescript as possible (i.e. small). I earned 3 cents yesterday, I think because I clicked on a couple of ads. Anyway, I just thought I would try it out to see if anybody wants to help send my kids to college, or pay off my house, or whatever. :-) If you have a website, you too can earn money from it. Just go here.

Inspired...by my Daughter

2005-09-08T10:21:00.000-04:00

I was inspired by my daughter, Madeline, last night. Here's the story. I got home after my girls had gone to bed, so I went in to kiss them good night. Madeline rolled over and said, "We're giving a bunch of our toys to the kids who lost everything in the hurricane." I told her that was great, and that I was very proud of her. After I left the room, I immediately went and got a bunch of my clothes that I felt could be used better by someone who really needed them rather than just sitting in my closet or in my clothes drawer. I had been "meaning to" do that for some time, but it wasn't until my daughter told me about giving some of her toys that I actually did it. Thank you, Madeline, for being my inspiration for helping the victims of Hurricane Katrina!

My Company

2005-08-19T14:41:00.000-04:00

I've often thought how it would be cool that my answer, when someone asked me where I worked, would be recognizable. People recognize companies such as HP, Sun, Microsoft. The list goes on. Some people might even attach some sort of rank--"Oooh. He works for Cisco--he must be smart!" The company that I work for is not large, but we're very good at what we do. I much prefer to work with a great group of not only competent but exceptional people than to work for a large, globally-recognized company. The company that I work for is called RDA, and here is an example of the exceptional work that some of my colleagues have done: mms://wm.microsoft.com/ms/windowsserversystem/facts/videos/Independence_Air_email.wmv [If that link doesn't work, then click here and then play the video for Independence Air. You'll need Windows Media Player for it to work, I think, but of course this is Microsoft's site so what do you expect?] This short video demonstrates how Independence Air moved from a Java-based architecture to a Microsoft Windows-based architecture. Our CEO is prominently featured, too. Anyway, this is just one way for me to be able to tell my friends and family about my company, even if they still have no idea what I really do for a living! :-)

The End of Credit Card Applications!

2005-08-19T12:59:00.000-04:00

I came across this site today. It is free to put your name on the opt-out list (or would that be "remove your name from the opt-in list?), so I put my name there as well as my wife's. Now let's see the number of credit card offers showing up in my mail box drop down to zero! I can't wait!

Cool Technology

2005-08-18T09:18:00.000-04:00

This looks cool: http://www.maxivista.com/

I have a couple of computers lying around, so I'll post back here if I give it a try. Not sure if it will work on my Commodore 64, though!

:-)

Fun With IT Marketing

2005-08-18T08:40:00.000-04:00

The folks at Microsoft just have too much time on their hands. I can understand wanting a kick-ass marketing strategy for a new product (or at least a new version of an existing product), but I think that this may be overkill. Of course, I did go through the entire site just to see what all was there... Here it is! Just click here to see what I have to look forward to in my work. Favorite quote: "You the man! The man the man the man!"

First Day of School!

2005-08-16T08:41:00.000-04:00

First day of school was a success. Madeline came home saying, "First grade is awesome!" We all managed to get up early enough to ride the bus, and then Melissa and I remembered at about the right time to head to the bus stop to pick her up. It must have been over 100 degrees in the sun--I'm glad we were running a bit late so that we didn't have to wait for the bus too long! Emmie will start preschool in a few more weeks. Expect another post a that time!

"That Made My Day!"

2005-08-07T21:57:00.000-04:00

Melissa overheard Emmie talking to a friend of Madeline's. The friend mentioned that her dad doesn't come home until 11 at night and that she hardly sees him.

Melissa then heard Emmie say, "I get to have breakfast with my dad every morning!" She was very excited and proud that she got to do that.

That put a big smile on my face, and it still does each time I think about it!

Our Trip to Six Flags

2005-07-18T13:59:00.000-04:00

I took Madeline to Six Flags over Georgia yesterday. She rode her first roller coasters! I started her off pretty easy with the "Canyon Blaster"--a small roller coaster in the kids section of the part. The whole ride took less than 90 seconds. On the contrary, it took well over 2 minutes to get people off and then get the next people on...

She LOVED it!

Next we rode the Dahlonega Mine Train--twice! It's a longer and bumpier ride, but she loved it, too.

After riding some other rides I managed to get her on the Scream Machine. She was scared stiff, even before we got onto the ride. Just standing in line she told me that she didn't want to ride it. I just sort of paid no attention to her comments and got her on there anyway. I made sure to put my arm around her head, though, so that it wouldn't get banged up--those wooden roller coasters certainly do knock you around! Well, at the end of the ride I couldn't tell whether she wanted to kill me or ride it again. Eventually she said that she wanted to do it again, though we ended up riding some other rides that she also wanted to do, instead.

The very last ride that we rode was "Thunder River". That should have been one of the first rides that we rode, because we both ended up UNDERNEATH the water fall and got completely SOAKED! Melissa was smart--she packed a change of clothes for Madeline. I, on the other hand, drove home wet...

In short, we both had a blast, and Madeline wants to know when we can do it again.

2005-06-30T22:22:00.000-04:00

Emmie With Her Pink Cast

Broken Arm

2005-06-28T08:21:00.000-04:00

Well, it finally happened. My three-year-old broker her arm! I was downstairs with some neighbors that we had over for drinks when I hear a horrible scream coming from upstairs. This was after I had been up there several times telling the girls (who share a room) that they needed to be quiet. So I headed upstairs ready to tan some hides... I was met in the hallway by my older two daughters coming out of their room, the younger one crying. I gave her a hug and asked her what was wrong when she showed me her arm. It looked like it had an extra elbow in it! I immediately picked her up, took her downstairs, and told my wife that I was taking her to the emergency room. I showed her a quick glimpse of the arm and then took her to the car, scrambled to put some shoes on, get my wallet and keys, and then sped to the closest children's hospital. When we got there, they weighed her, gave her a shot of morphine, and told me that they didn't have the capability to set it correctly. So after they put a splint on her arm and took some x-rays, I sped down to Scottish Rite, near I-285 and GA 400 (which is about 25 miles from home). The first place I went to was a satellite office, so they sent the x-rays on ahead. On 400 south, I almost got into a wreck because of some idiots in front of me who didn't know how to merge! [As an aside, if you are right next to someone and your lane is ending, you need to either speed up or slow down to get over into the lane next to you. Actually, that wasn't the problem. It was the idiot in the lane that wasn't ending who was ALSO slowing down, even though there was no one in front! That was the car that I was behind when I noticed that there was no way I could stop in time to avoid becoming a fixture on his (or her) back bumper, so I took a brief glance at my right rearview mirror (it was the left lane that was closing), didn't see anyone, and swerved around them. The V8 in the Ford Expedition failed me not, and I was back on my way to take care of my little girl without a scratch.] I had been to Scottish Rite before, so I pulled into the same entrance I was used to pulling into. However, as I found out later, it was not the emergency entrance. I had to walk down several halls, go down the elevator, and then walk some more, only to find myself in the back entrance of the emergency room. They were a little busy, but they put us in a room right away and proceeded to triage her. They had some ladies on staff whose job it was to make the kids feel better about being there--for instance they showed us the "special straw" that they were going to put into my little girl's hand so that her hand could drink up some medicine. My personal feeling is that they were more annoying than anything else--my daughter is 3 years old, after all--she doesn't like strangers in her face telling her things she doesn't know anything about. All my daughter knew was that something was wrong with her arm, and then some other people stuck her in the leg with a needle (for the morphine). But one cool thing was that they had a Viewmaster with them that my daughter was watching while they inserted the catheter, so that worked out pretty well. They asked her what color cast she wanted--red, blue, pink, or purple (whatever happened to white?), and she chose pink--her favorite color. Not that she knew what a cast was! They decided that in order to set her arm correctly that they would sedate her, which I don't blame them for. I would have wanted to be sedated, too! Also, they used some sort of continuous x-ray to make sure that the bones were aligning correctly, so they didn't allow me in the room for that part, which was fine--my daughter was knocked out anyway--so I called Melissa to let her know what was going on. A few minutes later they came to get me, and there was my daughter, still groggy, with a hot pink cast on her arm, but at least her arm was straight again. They showed me the x-rays of her arm, and I must say that I was impressed--they got it about as straight as was possible! [I still have a bump on my arm from when I broke it back in 1976!] So now, a few days later, she's getting around pretty well. Almost too well--we have to slow her down a bit to keep from knocking her arm up even more! She still asks what that "thing" is on her arm and why it has to be there. I just explain that her bones broke and the cast is there to take the place of her bones until they heal. I don't think it has quite sunk in, though, yet. It may not. So there's my story. After talking to my oldest daughter I got what I think is the rest of the story. Emmie had piled a bunch of stuff on top of her bed and then either jumped of lost her balance and fell off. She broke bother her ulna and radius of her left arm, about midway between her wrist and elbow. It was pretty nasty looking, and I still get the willies when I think about it! Arms just don't bend that way naturally! One final note: We have some friends who have a 3-year-old son who plays with Emmie, and when they told him that Emmie broke her arm because she fell off the bed, he got so scared that he won't get back in his bed. He's been sleeping in his crib!

Field Day Update

2005-05-12T09:54:00.000-04:00

Ok, so Madeline came home with a ribbon, but it wasn't for placing in one of her events. Everyone got a silver ribbon with blue lettering on it (the school's colors) that says "Field Day" on it. I guess that's better than nothing at all, but I still think an awards ceremony would have been cool.

Field Day!

2005-05-11T11:03:00.000-04:00

OMG, I had so much fun this morning! I just came back from volunteering at my oldest daughter's school for Field Day. That in itself brought back a lot of memories, although I don't think this field day had any of the same elements as the field days that I remember as a kid. Except, of course, the tug-of-war! I remember actually keeping score and having one class be the "winner" of field day. I remember signing up for certain events and only competing in those. I remember blue, red, and yellow (Or was it green? I guess I don't remember everything!) ribbons for placing first, second, or third in your event. No, in this Field Day everyone participated in everything. Each class divided into two teams. One class was at each station at each time, and when the coach blew the airhorn they moved on to the next station. We didn't keep score. There were no ribbons. There was no one class that "won" Field Day. I guess the kids these days can't handle competition like when I was young! I volunteered to help out, not sure of what I would be doing. I was the first volunteer there, so I got to choose my "station". I chose what the coach called, "Crazy Croquet". It was done as a relay, and the balls were those big Swiss balls that you find in gyms and Pilates classes. The kids paired up and dribbled the balls through giant arcs, which I think were made from 2 hula hoops that were opened up and joined together, if that makes sense. There were three of these arcs, two in front and one in the back. Each team would go through the arc on their side, and then both teams would go through the arc in the back, and then go back through the arc on their side and then pass the ball to the next kids in line. It was pretty funny watching those Kindergarteners try to kick those big balls around! Some did really well, some rolled over the top of the ball! We had about 7 classes, and out of all the kids we ended up with one skinned knee and about 5 kids who got a little shook up when they toppled over the top of the ball. I guess those numbers aren't too bad. The song "Wipeout" kept going through my mind while watching... At the very end, after each class made its way through each of the stations, came the tug-of-war. This time we had one class pulling against another class. But we still didn't keep score or anything. May daughter's class lost to the class they were pulling against. I was there cheering them on and trying to give pointers (lean back! dig your heels in!), but it didn't help. I had a blast! It sure was better than sitting in front of a computer, which is what I'll be doing now for the rest of the day! [I was reminded that the 3rd place ribbons were white, not green or yellow. I guess I'm losing it! -sj]

Herman Schwartz Lives!

2005-05-10T13:48:00.000-04:00

I spoke to my uncle the other day--he mentioned that he is featured in a cyclist's blog at http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/. The blog in particular is called "Sunshine State to Golden State", and my uncle is the "welcoming committee" in LA (hint: look at day 43).

The journal is quite interesting. I started by just looking at all of the pictures that were posted--those by themselves are interesting enough--and now I'm slowly working my way through the narrative of each day on the cross-country trek. It's interesting to know that these guys rode pretty close to where I used to live in Northwest Florida. Makes me want to take up cycling...

Anyway, Herman I know you're reading--I just wanted to share the link (indirectly, anyway). I already sent the link to mom and Cheryl.

Rocks and Spiders

2005-04-26T09:17:00.000-04:00

I moved a bunch of rocks last weekend. These rocks have been sitting underneath what will one day be my kids' swingset. They were there way too long! I built a stone retaining wall, but very slowly--I'll post a picture some day... Anyway, I noticed something when moving the rocks: if there are leaves attached to the rock, check for spiders. I saw lots of them, mostly black widow spiders. The largest black widow spider that I saw had a leg span of about an inch and a half! Yes, I was wearing gloves. Yes, I killed lots of spiders.

DREAMTIMEMIX

2005-04-14T08:58:00.000-04:00

This guy is on the Simple Minds mailing list that I'm on: DREAMTIMEMIX

Hail Storm, April 12, 2005

2005-04-13T16:15:00.000-04:00

This is truly one of the most brilliant rainbows I have ever seen! The sun came out shortly after the hail storm left and there was a lot of mist in the air, still. Shortly after I took this picture, the ground started creating fog--all of the hail cooled off the ground air and it looked like somone left the freezer door open--one HUGE freezer door, that is!

Hail Storm, April 12, 2005

2005-04-13T16:13:00.000-04:00

This is a mound of hail that came down the downspout! There was still some left the next morning!

Hail Storm, April 12, 2005

2005-04-13T16:12:00.000-04:00

Here you can see the hail that collected in the yard. Yes, I waited until the storm stopped before going out to take any pictures and assess any damage (didn't see any, except for lots of new leaves that fell off of my trees).

Hail Storm, April 12, 2005

2005-04-13T16:11:00.000-04:00

Hail collecting on the deck. You can see it coming down, still--look for the white streaks on the left-hand side of the picture about 1/4 the way down from the top.

Ella and Nana at Ella's Christening

2005-03-03T10:10:00.000-05:00

Ella's Christening on February 27th.

Ella and Papa at Ella's Christening

2005-03-03T10:09:00.000-05:00

Ella's Christening on February 27th.