I Rode "Goliath"

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

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"

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:

• http://www.porsche.com/usa/sallycarrera/
• http://adisney.go.com/disneypictures/cars/main.html?sec=1&car=3

Aerial

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

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!

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!

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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!