In my career in the "Online world" as a Web Developer I've worked with more people that had "Art History" or "Fine Arts" degrees than people with "Computer Science" degrees. Go figure that one huh?

I'm going to start by warning you that this post is a rant. A rant that I'm sure most Technology Workers have from time to time. A minimum of once a month I meet someone new outside of work and my family. After some chitchat about the weather or whatever we have in common that brought us to whatever event we are at to keep the conversation going they always ask "That" question, you know which one. "So what do you do for a living?". I hate this question.

There are two very good reasons why I hate this question. First, what I do for a living doesn't really tell you what type of person I am. If you'd truly like to learn who I am and what I'm about, ask me about my family or my hobbies. Ask me what I'm passionate about. These subjects are something I can speak volumes on with such enthusiasm we'd talk for hours. I'd be delighted to tell you what the Little Boy did yesterday. I'd love to tell about my Beautiful Wife, and how we meet, and how wonderful she is to me. Heck, I'll even be happy to talk with you about film verses digital photography and the merits of both.

My second reason, most people have no idea what I do. I'm not trying to be mean or condescending. It just from personal experience I know people who don't work in IT (Information Technology) have no idea what I do. They'll ask me what I do for a living and I say "I'm a Sr. Web Developer." And their eyes glaze over while their brain tries to connect any synapse to any other connection to the words "Web" and "Job". The most common reply is; 'my nephew just built a website, I should send you the link, you'll love it! It's got blinking banners and a cute little bunny picture, it's great!". Honestly this has happened at least a dozens of times. So in a futile attempt I try to clarify by telling them that what I write is Online Banking software. Again, the glazed over look, and then they tell me, "You know I have trouble logging in to my Online Banking, why do you think that is?" By this point I just simply shrug my shoulders and say, I have no idea and change the subject.

7 years of bliss

Tomorrow my Beautiful Wife and I are leaving for an extended weekend getaway. We plan on spending some time with nature and each other. I've been looking forward to this trip for months as I know she has too. It's not that often we get out just the two of us, so this is something special.

Saturday will be our 7 year wedding anniversary, again it's something special. My Beautiful Wife is the Love of my Life, and my Best Friend. She has a beautiful heart and a rare and deep understand of people and emotions. Not only that, but she's got a great sense of humor. For those of you out there on the interweb not married yet, go with the girl with the great sense of humor she will make you happy for the rest of your life, and she'll make sure you don't take yourself too seriously.

As you may or may not have noticed, I've been working to post something of interest at least twice a week. Mondays and Fridays to be exact. I've decided that each post should do one of two things. Make you laugh, or be informative. Since I'm not going to be here Friday or Monday, here are five links that will make you laugh and five links that are informative.

Something Funny:

1. Pearls of Wisdom from Merlin Mann: I read this pearl of wisdom and couldn't stop laughing to 5 minutes.

2. Why I Cropdusted a Three Year Old: Danny Evans, is funny, wrong, but funny. Warning: yes this is a fart joke.

3. More Merlin Mann Funnies: This one is entitle "Elanor's Agenda", just watch and enjoy.

4. Bottoms Up: My good friend Rick is a nature photographer who specializes in birds. He's found that some times birds just don't want to be photographed. Here's one of his photos that proves that point.

5. Chuck Norris Facts: You've all heard the legends and the urban myths, here's the low down on Chuck.

Something Informative:

1. The Absolute Minimum Every Software Developer Absolutely, Positively Must Know About Unicode and Character Sets (No Excuses!): Joel On Software explains Unicode, and this is something every Web Developer and Software Engineer should read!

2. The First Rule of Programming: It's Always Your Fault : Yes, it is your fault, and Jeff Atwood explains why.

3. The Developer Life, Yo: Dead Programmers Cafe explains just what a Sr. Developer does. I loved this article, it explains it so well, I was speechless.

4. Is Eeyore Designing Your Software?: Yes it's a strange question, but it's a great blog post on software design.

5. Twitter: The Uselessfulness of Micro-blogging: Scott Always has something funny and interesting to say.

As you can tell I've been reviewing my blog the last couple weeks. Sprucing it up, making it a little more user friendly. In doing this I've gone back through and read a lot of my older post. While not all of them are masterpieces, there are some gems. My last post was my Top Five Tech Post, so I figured this one should be my Top Five Family Post.

If you've read this blog for any length of time you know that I am one of those guys that just adores his family. They mean the world to me, and are pretty darn funny besides. So please take a walk down memory lane with me as we revisit some of my favorite family posts.

5. Fred Potatoes, A Shave and Three Words: I know this is a recent post, so of course it's still on my mind, but it means a lot to me.

4. Boys Vs Boredom and Boys Vs Boredom Part II: This is of course a two part post, that started mainly because my brother and I were talking about when we were kids. Childhood memories are the best, check it out, and see if we have similar experiences.

3. Capt'n Cranky : This was an interesting time in my life. I was having some "male" problems. My Wife was actually surprised I wrote this blog post. But I figured if I was going through it, there had to be someone else who was going though the same thing. So if I could make them laugh and not feel alone, then it was worth the little bit of embarassment. By the way, my favorite word in this blog post is "man-o-gram".

2. Is That a Peacock in my Livingroom or are you just Happy to See Me : It's not everyday you come home and there's a peacock in your livingroom. A bright blue peacock, yeah, enough said, huh?

1. The Little Boy Goes for a Joyride : I think this one is pretty self explainatory. When the Little Boy was three he felt like going for a drive. This post is mostly in my Wife's words, and it's really sweet and funny.

Well I hope you get a chuckle from these posts. I know they make me smile.

Happy Life

I got a call from my friend RP today. He had a story to tell me that he was sure I could appreciate. You see he rides his bike to work almost everyday. However his ride home isn't along traffic filled streets, with hundreds of cars puffing out smog. He rides right along the marina. He gets some great photographs on his rides to and from work. If you look at his work you can tell that birds are the majority of what he shoots and posts. Well a few days ago he posted a pick of a seagull. He half joking said, please feel free to print it out and use it on your dart board. RP grew up in Florida along the beach. He grew up fishing and surfing, so he knows that seagulls are rats with wings.

Well today, that changed, he saw a seagull that was in a bad way. Apparently this seagull had a lure that was hooked in it's beak and his feet. In the water this little fellow wasn't going to make it. So RP did what most people wouldn't, he hopped off his bike, ran down and fished the seagull out, took him to the boathouse near by and free the bird from the lure. He did a good thing, even though he doesn't like seagulls.

This made me think of a time that I hopped into a fountain to rescue a pigeon that I didn't want to see drown. Like RPs dislike of seagulls, I detest pigeons. I mean "pig" is right there at the start of their name. So why don't I like pigeons? Well I didn't always have the desk job I have now. I worked with my Dad for many wonderful years. However the jobs weren't always wonderful.

On one rainy cold night we got a call from a client, a bank that isn't around anymore, anyhow in one of their loan offices there was a mess to clean up and patch. You see the building had a flat roof. The pigeons had found a way between the roof and the ceiling. Well with the rain, there were lots of pigeons in that nest. Lots of pigeons equals lots of pigeons poop! Well with all the water from the rain and the mess that the unfortunately this pigeon bomb, made the the ceiling collapse right on to a loan officers desk. Our job was to clean it up and to patch the ceiling and to patch the roof in the rain. The pouring freezing rain. So of course I think, strike that I know that pigeons are rats with wings.

So you could see why I don't like pigeons, and I'd imagine that RP has a story like it.  So why did RP save that seagull and why did I save that pigeon. Well respect for life. That's something worth respecting.

Happy Life

Childhood dreams are important, do you remember yours? I can tell you some of mine. I wanted to fly. Fly like superman, I can't tell you how many good bath towels got used as capes and snagged on the old swing set as I'd try to jump of the swings and grab the "cape" to fly. I wanted to be a computer programmer (yes, honestly I was a geek from way back. I'd check out byte magazine from the local library and then type in the programs into the Apple IIe they had in grammar school) I wanted to be a photographer. I was always fascinated with cameras and how the worked. I took pictures in my head all the time as a little kid.

Well now that I'm a "grown-up" I've looked back and can see that I've actually achieved some of my childhood dreams. By day I'm a Sr. Web Developer,  so definitely get to program computers. In fact I get to program for all computers that have an internet connection. How cool is that?

Of course my hobby is photography. (Hobby is used in the most generic way, but obsession is much closer to the truth.) I've taken more pictures of the Boy then I can count (10 or 20 gigs worth). If you want to see some of my work, I have a photoblog, feel free to take a look.

I feel pretty fortunate about both of those things. However I don't think I would of ever realized that both of these things were childhood dreams if I hadn't sat down and watched Randy Pausch's lecture.

Randy is a pretty interesting guy. A Professor at Carnegie Melon, and a leader in the Virtual Reality field. His lecture is called "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams". It's part of a lecture series called "Last Lecture". The concept behind this series is simply this, hypothetically if you knew you were dying what would your last lecture be?

However Randy has a little twist on this, you see he is actually dying of Pancreatic Cancer. His lived longer than the 6 months that this doctors gave him, but mostly from his courage.

This is one of those inspirational things that I think everyone should watch. The repised version of the lecture that he gave on Oprah is embedded below, his full length lecture is here: Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams

Good In = Good Out

Well I haven't written an actual post in a while. I don't claim that this one will be an actual post either, but it will be closer to one them my last three or four attempts. Well between work, family and my hobby (obsession, yes you are right my Beautiful Wife) I've been keeping myself pretty busy. I haven't felt much writing. A blog or, well any other form of writing, journals, short stories, novels, three volume novel etc, are all ways of expressing ones self. Lately I've been doing that with my photography. So I haven't really felt the need to write. However dear friend I've recently experienced something that photographs cannot capture. Mostly because it's auditory.  So on to the back story, from the time I was about 14 years old till I was 24 or so I worked construction with my Dad. It was some of the hardest work and most fun I've ever had. I don't know if you've ever been on a construction job site, but in the 80s and early 90s when I was, there was always one radio on the jobsite with the volume knob turned to 11, blasting rock. Big Hair rock to be exact. Skid Row, Poison, Slaughter, Firehouse, White Lion and many many more. So as with most people, these songs bring back memories of the good times.

Some more back story, As many of you know my Grandma K passed away in November, in a very wise decision, my Mom and Dad and Grandpa K are remodeling Grandpa Ks house, so they can all live together. Being that both of my Brothers are in construction, my Dad is a Sr. Building Inspector for the city, and I have ten years in construction, we felt and knew that we could handle most of the work ourselves. It cuts down on costs and we know it is done right. So the first phase of the remodel/addition is to remodel the kitchen. It was just too small for the number of people cooking in it at one time Sis/Mom/Dad/Brother J, sometimes Brother K and occasionally me. So some walls were moved, some were removed and viola the kitchen is bigger, now we need cabinets for the new walls. We are effectively tripling the amount of cabinet and counter space in the kitchen. Which means there are a lot of cabinets to make. Well cabinetry was and still is one of my favorite facets of construction. So this was the part I was asked to help with.

Sunday was my first day helping build cabinets. We worked till 7pm that night, I was so stiff and sore. I had used construction muscles I haven't used in a decade. However it was a lot of fun. All the tools have been updated. The nailguns are lighter, the miter saw has  a laser sight on it, so you know where your cut will be. And the cordless drills are stronger lighter, and even have a light on them that shines when you are driving in a screw. So while these toys... I mean tools were very enjoyable to work with. Working with my Dad and Brothers was even better. It was like old times, but just a little bit better, because we are all a bit older and maybe even a little bit wiser. As the tools were updated, so was the radio, the Boys were cranking 80s music, however it was from a channel called "Hair Nation" on Sirius Satellite Radio. Man did this take me back.

Well last night I went over to help, we still have a ton more cabinets to build. And of course, we were listening to 80s rock. So I guess that until this project is done, I'll be a cabinet member of hair nation.

My Beautiful Wife sent this to me, and I have to say I just love this. I've watched it 5 or 6 times in a row.

I have no idea if this is a joke or not, by Adobe just released a site through their  Adobe Labs on  April 15 called http://adobenostalgia.com.It looks like it tries to "process" digital images as you would process film. It picks a tank size for the images you are important and even asks you which chemistry you'd like to use to develop them. Then you Using a enlarger you can make test prints, contact sheets and prints of your images. Like I said, I don't know if it's a Joke or not, but it has my interest.

This is one of my favorite scenes from one of my favorite movies! I am embarassed about the fact I can quote the entire film. Enjoy

I am just completely adore the Little Boy. I'm sure if you've read this blog at all you know that, but as he grows and he's thoughts grow in complexity, I love hearing what he has to say.  As you may also know I have wheat intolerance. Wheat affects my stomach the same way, a bottle of tequila affects ones stomach. So the Little Boy has been raised knowing this. He has a allergy to cherry flavoring and red dyes so he knows it's important to look out for things you are allergic too. I also happen to have a intolerance to milk. The Little Boy knows this to, but doesn't exactly know why. Anyhow so Saturday morning and I sleep in, so I got up around 6:15am, the Little Boy is already up and has the TV turned on to his channel for Krypto the Superdog. However Krypto doesn't come on till 7am. Yet he was willing to sit through 45 minutes of informercials to see his cartoon. I have to say I am very proud of that kind of dedication to Saturday morning cartoons. So he's there, a informercial for an Oreck vacuum is on the TV and the Little Boy has a glass in his hand. I ask him, "whatca drinkin'?", to which he answers "Wheat Milk.", I ask him again, "so what are you drinking", he replies "you know Wheat Milk, the milk you can't drink in the big jug, Wheat Milk". It was everything I could do to not laugh out loud, he had put together, that if I wasn't drinking it, it must have wheat in it!

Another example of his brilliance. Last night, my Beautiful Wife was under the weather. So he suggest that we buy her some flowers. A great idea of course. But I tell him, well I think she'd like it more if we just made dinner to night.  Then he looks me right in the eyes, holds his little hand up with his index finger raised in that I have an idea kind of way and says, "I have an idea, why don't we just do everything she says!". I told him I thought that was a great idea, truth be told, it was brilliant! He's six and he already gets it.

Happy Cooking

Lately there has been some brilliant viral videos. Some very talented people have edited together clips from movies and tv shows that have nothing to do with each other and made them really work. This one is a great example of this.

Here is yet another reason to go and visit japan

Fuji-Q Highland (Fujiyoshida, Shizuoka Japan)
Number of Inversions 14 times (Guinness World Record)
maximum Speed 126 kph/78.30 mph
Lift Height 76 m/249.34 ft
Angle of Descent 89 degrees
Track Length 1,153 m/3782.81 ft

This morning we were woke up to the sounds of a electrical transformer self destructing and the blue light shows that follows. Then the lights were completely out in our house and several of our neighbors. This was at 2:00 am this morning. We were alble to get back to sleep till the Little Boy woke up, which was at about 6:00am. The Little Boy was excited about getting to use flashlights and candlelight for the first hour or so. We started a fire in the fireplace and gathered around it for warmth and light. I also happens to be really sick with some cold/flu thing that has my head about ready to explode with snot. So my mood may not have been as happy happy joy joy as it could of been, but I mananged. One of the things you have to know is that our stovetop and oven are both electric so food was a bit of a problem. So I took a bunch of meds and we went to starbucks and yes the coffee was worth the drive! Sitting there in the lights of the Starbucks, we came up with a plan of action. We would go back to the house I would take more meds and then I would take the Little Boy to the morning matinee. Well that went as well as it could. The Little Boy and I come home and the power still wasn't on. I didn't expect it to be, as Edison had told us that it wouldn't be on till about 3pm. Well this was just about 1pm when we got home, and the 21st Century Kid had what can only be described as a meltdown. Crying and angry, kicking at the dog or any other creature he could without getting in trouble. As the meltdown was starting to subside an amazing thing happened the lights came back on. And the 21st Century Kids had power again.

Did you know that when a Panda sneezes it sounds like a huge squeaky toy? Seriously

So I am born and raised here in LA, so cold is not something I am use too. Apparently our building at work. I've turn the heater up and it still like only 60 degree. All I can think is Dr. Evil saying "I'm freaking freezing in here."

Tonight we were watching TV together, watching the Little Boy's favorite show AFV. Halfway though the show a commercial came on that had me laughing so hard I almost cried. However the Little Boy looked at me and said, "I don't think that is funny" at all. Apparently 6 year olds can tell when a commercial is making fun of them too!. Check it out and tell me what you think.

Now after hearing the title of this post, the Little Boy would remind me that we should not use the word "stupid", because as he would say "If you call yourself stupid you can hurt your own feelings." Which he actually did once, and of course he cried because he had hurt his own feelings, but I digress. So with the stress of the week, I've been trying to be good, not eat any of the literally tons of delicious looking wheat products that have been brought over by friends. I've been good, my Beautiful Wife has been the dutiful Wheat Nazi. She sees me looking at the cake or pie longingly and gives me a smile and then says "No Wheat for You!". So yesterday, I thought, what the heck, I've been good, we are out and about at Disneyland and I've been walking for three hours, an order of McDonald's French Fries will taste good and can't hurt me too much. Even though I've seen Super Size Me and have read Fast Food Nation, I was about to rationalize this as something "okay" (imagine I used quotation fingers right then). First off, let me warn you, Disneyland only has the Super Size me, Meal Replacement, is that a bucket or a cartoon of French Fries size. So I eat what I later find out to be 580 calories worth of french fries. Now to give you a comparison on this, a In-N-Out Double Double Protein Style is 520 calories. Yeah, I know, right! So I eat this gianormous container of fries and they taste good and everything-thing. Then about 20 minutes later my stomach starts to hurt. I recognize this particular pain, this is the you've eaten wheat and now you must pay pain, I know it to well. So I have a little talk with my body about this.
 
Me: Dude, I just ate french fries, potatos, you know POTATOS, no wheat really!
Body: We are inclined to disagree, there was wheat in that last meal in which you partook.
Me: No Man, they were french fries, you know Frenchie Fries, the stuff you loved as a kid.
Body: Well I'm not going to argue with you, especially when I am right, I tell you what, when we get home tonight, go online and look up what was in those "french fries", that is all.

So I did look it up, if you can spend the ten minutes it takes to navigation McDonald's site, you will find the nutrional information and ingredients for most of the food. So I looked up Large French Fries of course what did I find "Contains derivatives of wheat and dairy." D'oh, Stupid French Fries!

Don't run too quickly.... I thought this was just too fun, had to share.

  When you're a kid you know who your enemies are. It's the kid in your class you don't get along with class and any one deemed a "bad guy". However as you get older, who your enemies are gets a little blurry, but there is one guy I know for sure is my enemy. The Ice Cream Man! Oh yes, don't be fooled by his innocent looking brightly colored, cartoon wrapped wares, he is evil, pure evil. Like McDonald's he markets to children. Here's what happened, once someone bought the Little Boy an ice cream from The Ice Cream Man, or Dr. Evil as he is referred to around here, we've also suggested that his parents were never married. Anyhow like feeding a stray animal it only takes once for it to become a habit. Now when we here "pop goes the weasel" the whole house goes to defcon 5, because the Little Boy hits the door at about 300 mph. It's amazing and sad how Little Boy reacts to that song. Its like pavlov's dog meets a crack addict. The crazed look in his eye, the way he runs so fast his feet can't say underneath him. It so scary to see. You don't dare stand in his way, getting hit by a 70lbs blur in the stomach at 300 mph will land you in the hospital. So if it isn't bad enough that Dr. Evil sales sugar from a van he has recently started selling toys as well. Does he have no soul!

So tonight, I was watching TV and pretending that it was interesting, which it wasn't when the Little Boy came in to our room and asked, "have you seem my ttoodoolllee(something completely unintelligible)?". To which I replied "seen your what?" a little louder he says "have you seem my ttoodoollee?" Well I still don't really understand what he was asking me for so I say "I don't understand what you are asking", so at almost a yell he says "have you seem my ttoodoollee?", to which I reply, in a firm but calm voice, "We don't yell, I don't know where it is but I will help you look". Ten minutes later, three adults are search the house for "ttoodoolee", As the Little Boy is  muttering "my only toy" as he search through one of his two large toy boxes. My Beautiful Wife finally finds it and I realize that I had no idea what I was looking for!

I know I haven't posted in a while. I don't know, I just haven't feel terribly creative or like I had anything to say. So, I just didn't say anything. However I did come across something while surfing the "Net" that I had to share. Growing up I was a huge fan of "The Muppet Show". Getting to watch it every week was something I always look forward to. And of course I identified with the stranger characters on the show. I am sure my Mom remembers consoling me as I cried my eyes out because Gonzo was going to leave. He didn't leave of course, which is good, because my Mom would of headed down to the studio and taken those executives out for making Gonzo leave, and upsetting here son so bad. Of course I grewup and like all geeks liked sci-fi movies, like the matrix. Well apparently some art students must of had a similar background as mine, and have created an animated short called "the Muppet Matrix"... Enjoy.

 So today I went with some of my co-workers to LA's Chinatown and had Dim Sum for the first time. For those of you that haven't been to Dim Sum, it is quite an different dinning experience. A hostess shows you to your table and as you sit down you are pounced upon, by the servers/food pushers. Before I was even seated we had a vegetable dish, and some kind of deep fried shrimp creation on the table. Durning the first round of attacks by the food pushers there was no less then four carts of steaming hot food, that had everything from pastries with pork and shrimp to things that I could barely be identifed with my untrained eyes. The food pushers were sticking the plays of entrees in your face fast and furiously, while telling you you'd like it. Fortunately Yvonne and Eggman knew was to eat and what to let walk away. If you are a first timer to Dim Sum I highly recommend going with a pro, otherwise you'll have 800 dollars worth of food on your table before you know what hit you.

I decided that I'd start off this culinary adventure with a simple plan. I'd start with the foods I recognized and progress to dishes I couldn't quite identify and or would make my coworkers laugh. First round was a little bock choy and seaweed salad. Both of course were very good. I had a little bbq pork and short ribs, and then Eggman dropped the food bomb. He ordered the chicken feet. Well, when in rome right? So I tried me some chicken feet. I'm going to have to say not my favorite thing on the menu. The flavor was surprisingly good, but I just couldn't hang with the texture or having to contiunely tell myself that I wasn't eating chickens feet, when in fact I was. But hey I tried it right! However I did try something called porage, its a soup that is made from rice pork and green onions, it was absolutely delicious. Ed man stole the show when he ate the shrimp with spicy salt whole, in two bites, head, tail and everything inbetween. The man likes his shrimp, that is for sure, not to be out done the Left Handed Texan, followed suite.

So we got through most of our meal and it was time to get some desert, again Eggman was up to bat for ordering, and he choice sweet tofu. Its appearance left a little be desired. Mike said, "when something looks like that in the frige, I was taught, its time to throw it away." But I tried it anyway, It was good, I actually finished off the huge bowl that Eggman served me up. All in all a nice adventure in food.

Today is the Little Boy's first day of First Grade. It seems completely amazing to me that the Little Boy is already in First Grade! My Beautiful Wife and I were talking and it seems like just yesterday when we were talking about how it would be only five years till he'd be in school. And now, he's in first grade. He'll now have two recesses and lunch at school. We tried to tell him that these were good things, and I am sure soon he we feel it is.

So as per our ritual The Little Boy and I rode down the the local starbucks this morning and got our usual's. I'm always surprise to see how many people smile at us, and wave to him. Its a great thing that seeing him riding is so nostalgic for so many people besides myself. In November the Little Boy will be riding for a year. Riding with him I've learned more than I think he's learned from me.

One thing I've learned is lead by example, the do as I say not as I do thing doesn't work. You have to ride as you tell them to. For example in California, children under 18 must wear a bicycle helmet by law. However adults are not required to do so. I always wear a helmet when I ride, even if I'm not riding with the Little Boy. If I come home and he sees me riding without a helmet. I've nulled all of the time I spend telling him he has to wear a helmet. So today we are riding home from starbucks and he sees a guy riding his bike, and says too me "That guy isn't wearing the seatbelt for his head!', I agree with him and say, you are right, he's not wearing a helmet." He says, if he falls he can hurt is head.", I of course again agree.  Inside, I'm thinking "Yes!!!! he gets it!, wooohooo!".

Another thing I've learned is, you want to be a good bike handler, it's amazing how quickly they zig and zag. They will keep you on your toes. I can't tell you how many times the Little Boy has jumped all the way across the street and back on our little side street, and cut me off. Crossing a main street at the crosswalk, with cars speeding it two directions, you learn how to do a trackstand, while putting yourself between the Little Boy and Angry motorist, without pulling you feet out of the toeclips, you've learned to handle the bike better than you ever thought you could.

So today is the first day of my week long vacation, and I am sick. Not only am I sick, but I mad about being sick. You see the last time I took a vacation, about a year ago, I was sick then too. So it seems that I can't mention the word vacation without catching a cold or the flu. My Beautiful Wife suggest that I just rest for the next couple of days. Which sounds like a good idea. She's a smart lady so I plan on listening to her.

It's coming up on a 10 months since the doctor told me to shape up or things would not go well. I was really good for the first three months. Mostly because I think I was scared for my life. However around January I slipped some. We had a huge project at work, and I let the stress of that allow me to slip back in to some bad habits that had gotten me in trouble in the first place. Like handfuls of M&Ms to reduce stress. Don't get me wrong, a handful of M&Ms can reduce stress, but only for about 10 minutes and then another handful is required. A vicious cycle I admit. While I haven't slipped all the way back to drinking three 20oz Coke-Colas in an afternoon. I have been eating too much beef and not enough fish. Also did let other things go, like getting out and exercising. But I am back at it now.

However its a little difficult. The only real exercise I can stand to do is cycling. In fact I love cycling. I have a photo of a 10 speed cassette on my wall at work as art. And around July people are tired of me talking about the stages of The Tour De France (That is Tour of France for those non-french speakers out there). So for me the best way to get  exercise is to ride my bike. Again we run into a problem. I am asthmatic. One of my biggest triggers is cut grass. It takes my breath away faster that Max the wonder puppy can wolf down a hot dog. (For those of you that don't know, that equates to about .005  of a second). So for those that aren't asthmatic with cut grass as trigger, you'll be interested to know that at almost all times, someone is mowing a lawn with in a 7 mile radius of where you are standing. So ride a stationery bike, you say.  Yeah, I can't do that, the futility of all of that work and you're still in the living room just doesn't work for me. So I ride when it's dark. Usually earlier in the morning. Because if you can't see the lawn, you can't mow the lawn.

Now I've learned some interesting things from riding in the dark. First, more people eat breakfast than you think. This morning I passed a house where I could smell bacon, fried potatos and eggs. I almost stopped by for a bite. Secondly doughnuts smell disgusting after you've ridden 5 miles as hard as you can. Third anyone that has gotten up before the sun to exercise, is happy to see another person and will always wave hello. Somehow knowing you aren't suffering alone makes it more bareable. Forth, I really love riding to the east and watching the sun rise as I ride. The sunlight dancing through the leaves is quite breathtaking (but not in a cut grass kind of way). Fifth, there is such an amazing feeling you get when you've ridden to the top of a hill that intimidates you. Sixth, you get a great comfort riding along a road by yourself and there isn't another car on the rode to be seen for miles. Its amazing how tranquil an empty road can feel. Seventh, I actually love to ride when it is misting or drizzlying. After the first ten minutes, you actually warm up, and feel comfortable and feel like you can ride farther than you have before.

 So if you see a guy riding a silver bike, with a silver helmet pedalling to towards the foothills early in the morning, don't pull up behind him and honk, that scares the bejeepers out of me.
Happy Pedalling

So it is Sunday morning, we have been a work since 4:00am, because they are working on the power. So we had to come in and shut down all of the servers and of course we'll have to bring them all back up. So at about 5:10am, the power goes off.We were suppose to get a call warning us, but instead that just shut the power off, which did let us know immediately. And it is completely and utterly dark in the office. But don't worry about us. We have flashlights, and laptops.

Just in case you are wondering this is Ed's laptop and yes that is a usb powered keyboard light. Geek...

Today is "Frys"day. We have a Fry's electronic right across the street here at work. A very dangerous place for a geek. My Beautiful Wife has even commented that if there was a Michael's that close she would be tempted to spend a lot of money. However the group I work with do attempt to be financially responsible and so we check out the Fry's ads that are in the newspaper Monday, Wednesday and Frydays. As with all newspaper ads there are times when there was a misprint, or someone created the ad that doesn't know what a product is. This is a great example of that. If you know what a Capacitor is, you know how funny this is. If you don't, ask your local geek, he/she will explain how funny this really is.

P.S. Thanks to Ed and Eggman getting a scan of this.

It's Hot! I don't mean warm I mean Hot. Last night I got home from work at 6:30pm and it had cooled down to 101 degrees, but at least there was 80% humidity. However it is suppose to get better by the middle of the week. I know what you are thinking, but Russ you sit in an air conditioned office building all day, why do you care if it is hot? Well, that is true, I do, but I have some very good reasons for caring that it's hot out.

1. The Little Boy, do you remember when you were a kid, I do, and the desire, no, the need to play was so strong that it would completely override the, it's too hot to play part of my brain. He's the same way. Yesterday evening we took a quick bike ride around the neighborhood. It had cooled down to an cool 97 degrees, so we got our hydration packs and rode. We rode for about 20 minutes and that Boy had drank a litter of water. (Minus the pint or so we were spitting at each other. What, he looked hot, I wanted to cool him down, and he just wanted to return the favor.)

2. We don't actually have Air Conditioning at the house, we have an evaporative cooler (swap cooler) and some room air conditioners. Not enough to cool the entire house when it's 108 degrees outside and the humidity is at 80%. Evaporative coolers work by well, evaporation, and so if the humidity is 20% to 40% it works like a charm, if its higher than that, well, it just gets more humid.

3. My Brothers still work in construction. While Dad and I have left the trade. The Boys are still out there sweating their guys out. I was talking with them earlier this morning and they are going through about 4 gallons of gatorade a day trying to stay hydrated. They are framing in the hot sun all day.

Well, It's hot out there, remember to stay hydrated and don't forget the sunscreen.

This morning I came across this article in BusinessWeek about the 10 oddest iPod Acessories. I really have to agree with their list.

1. Stereo Dock for iPod with Bathroom Tissue Holder - For Those that need their iPod at all times...even in the bathroom
2. iPode Sholder Bag - It's a purse, it's a iPod boom box, it's both!
3. CE0 Card Wallet for iPod Nano - For those that believe their iPod is like their American Express card, they don't leave home without it.
4. Bullet Proof iPodCase - I assume this is for the secret agents iPod, whoelse would need a bullet proof aluminum case for their iPod.
5. iPod Nano Thong - Now this one is just wrong, it a thong for your iPod. I would guess that large quantities of alcohol where involved in the design process.
6. The iPod Nano Belt - Because everyone wants their iPod on their belt...don't they?
7. iPod Cases - This cases look more like a Muppet at your iPod.
8. Mobile Security Lock for iPod - I'm not really sure what this does, but I think I feel more secure...
9. iSticky Pad XL - Now it maybe just me, but I really don't think that sticky and iPod should be used in the same sentence.
10. Gloves with Playpoint Technology for iPod Click Wheel - Not only is that a lot to say, but I don't get it. I get batting gloves, I get driving gloves, I don't get iPod gloves. Are people getting blisters from over use of the iPod Click Wheel?

So this evening I was driving down the street, stereo cranking playing "The Raconteurs" at a very high volume, moon roof open feeling pretty cool. Then I realized I'm not cool. I'm driving a camry home from the pharmacy, where I've just picked up my colesterol/triglyceride medication, which is sitting next to me in a childs car booster seat. I am not cool.