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In Case of Emergency

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

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

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

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

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

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

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! 

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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!

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!"

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

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.

Emmie With Her Pink Cast