In cliffhanger like fashion, we left off with Allie throwing up, and Diana and I trying to keep the laundry ahead of the flow. Well, it turns out that cleaning up vomit and caring for a sick baby is a pretty good way to get sick yourself. Allie was really only sick for a day or so, and soon back to her normal happy self. The next night, however, Diana and I both woke up at the same time, and went to separate bathrooms to be sick. It was pretty incredible.
The day the followed was pretty much the worst ever. I’ll spare you the details, but after a night of rotating in and out of the bathroom, we spent the rest of the day as quivering blobs, knowing we had to rehydrate ourselves, but afraid to drink even water for fear of our stomachs continuing to revolt. Thankfully we were able to get Allie to daycare, so we could spend the day recovering. The next day, we felt much better, but still needed a day to get our strength back. Diana made instant mashed potatoes soaked in chicken broth, and I’ll always remember how good it was.
That second day of recovery happened to be Election Day, so we watched news for much of the day and the evening.
I remember seeing Obama speak at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. I don’t remember exactly what he said, but I remember being more moved by that speech than anything I’d seen by any modern politician. I distinctly remember thinking that if this guy ran for president that I would vote for him. So it was exciting to see that all come to fruition. It’s refreshing to feel like we’ve really reached the end-game of racism and civil rights. It’s also refreshing to see the world’s reaction to his election. After years of having to lie and say you’re a Canadian (the horror!) when traveling, all of a sudden, it’s cool to be an American again.
But as happy as I was to see Obama win, I was disappointed to see Proposition 8 lose (or “win”, I suppose). In most issues, I feel that I can really take the time and see both sides of the story, but with this, I’m really at a loss. Even after perusing Yes on 8 websites, I don’t understand what “protect marriage” means. I don’t understand why it’s bad for children to learn that homosexuality is a real thing, in an age-appropriate context (like how we teach kids about heterosexual relationships and mechanics). I just don’t get it. The websites all sort of take it as read that if you’re there, you’re already on board. So if someone can explain the Yes on 8 viewpoints, I’d appreciate it.
And regardless of the issue, I don’t understand why it only takes 50% of a popular vote to amend the state constitution. That seems way too easy. It seems like you could get 50% of the people to vote on almost anything. (That reminds me of a quote I just saw… “You know how dumb the average person is? By definition, half of people are even dumber than THAT!”)
Moving on, things are good. Allie had a rough couple days recently, beginning with a fever. She was pretty unhappy, waking up crying and so forth, but I think she’s really turned the corner on whatever it was. Sleeping through the night and happy in the days. She’s really a lot of fun as she gets to be more interactive. She definitely understands a lot of what we say, and it’s fun to prompt her to show us her shoes, put the basketball in the hoop, blink her eyes, stomp her feet, etc. But for some reason, whenever I say “Allie, can you say ‘Daddy’?” she responds with: “Maw-maw!” We need to work on that. She’s just a real kick, though. We love her. :)
Work has been busy, but it’s slowed down a lot lately as I’m rolling off one project and waiting for the next. It’s nice to have some time for a little education and research and development.
It’s going to be a busy couple of weeks coming up. We’re going on our first road trip this weekend to Palm Springs to visit my aunt and uncle and cousins who are vacationing there. Then Thanksgiving, which we’re spending with the Schatz’s. Then Mike and Gwen are going to be staying with us as they job-hunt in San Diego. My birthday is around that time, so my parents will want to make a fuss, especially since they’ll be leaving to Montana soon afterwards. Then various friends and company holiday parties after that. It’s going to be a fun couple weeks!
2008/11/19
2008/11/01
Allie's First Time Throwing Up...
... and second, and third, and fourth, and...
She apparently has a stomach flu. It's heartbreaking. My poor baby. :(
She apparently has a stomach flu. It's heartbreaking. My poor baby. :(
2008/10/30
Proposition 8
I'm really having a hard time coming to terms with the fact that there is even a POSSIBILITY that I'll live in a state that would amend its CONSTITUTION to DENY the right to marry to a certain class of people.
I mean, seriously... what year is this?
I mean, seriously... what year is this?
2008/10/14
BizTalk, LittleBigPlanet, Facebook, etc
Hello everyone!
This past week I was up in Irvine at a training class for work. The class was on Microsoft BizTalk, a business application used to pass data between systems. It's something I've been using at work for a while now, but with no formal training, so while lots of the class was review, it was good to get baselined.
It wasn't totally awful being gone, but it kind of sucked. I missed my family. The classes were long, and by the end of every class, my thoughts of going out and finding some fun had vanished, and all I wanted to do was get takeout and sit in the hotel room. The first or second night I was there, I went out and bought dinner. Then stopped by the store for some beer. At that point, I realized that I didn't have access to my mini-bar (it was locked and I didn't get a key), so I bought a single 22 oz bottle of Corona. When I got back to the hotel, I realized I didn't have a bottle opener. I was hungry, thirsty, and a little desperate, so I used my key to pry off the top, slicing my knuckle pretty good in the process. It all felt a little white-trashy.
I had the forethought to borrow my parents webcam for my trip. Every night, I talked with Diana and Allison via Skype, and it was great to see their shining (if squirmy) faces.
The weekend before I left, I spent some time with my boy Baditude, who introduced me to a quirky game called LittleBigPlanet. On the surface, it's a quirky physics based platformer with a fun atmosphere. But it comes with tools to create your own levels. Under the surface, though, there is a huge amount of potential for creating FUN. With a few switches, buttons, motors, pistons, and virtual foam, rubber, metal, stone, and other materials, there is a lot of room for creativity. I pretty much read all I could and watched every video on YouTube during my week away. Baditude pointed me at a place where I could get access to the open beta, and I got that up and running when I got back (it ended on Sunday). I haven't been this geeked for a game in a long time, and that's including Rock Band 2. Wow.
Work is pretty hectic. We're in a little bit of a perfect storm with the market tanking and lots of accounts closing right during quarter end tax season, and there is something that's causing the database to fall over. Bad news. So it's been kind of busy as we try to monitor and figure out the problem, and come up with a solution. I think we're on the right track. It's kind of funny that on Monday, we had major database problems. Monday night, we set up all kinds of logging and tracing and diagnostic tools. Tuesday (today) had no issues. Ha.
Little Lovely is doing great. Daycare continues to go well, and she's a full-fledged walker now. She'll still crawl and bear walk sometimes, depending on what surface she's traversing, but in the house, she's all over the place. No English yet, but lots of sounds, and a comprehension vocabulary that grows every day. Still no teeth yet either. I remember seeing my friends kids go from toothless to toothy, and am always shocked at how much it changes their look.
Changing the subject: at some point recently, I decided I was going to accept any Facebook friend request that came my way. My previous strategy was to limit my friends to, you know, actual friends. I even denied a friend request or two (which at least one person found absolutely hilarious). Now that I've added some people, the requests keep coming in! I find it all totally fake and lame, but also fun to see what old friends are up to. My love-hate relationship with social networking continues.
Bedtime. G'night.
This past week I was up in Irvine at a training class for work. The class was on Microsoft BizTalk, a business application used to pass data between systems. It's something I've been using at work for a while now, but with no formal training, so while lots of the class was review, it was good to get baselined.
It wasn't totally awful being gone, but it kind of sucked. I missed my family. The classes were long, and by the end of every class, my thoughts of going out and finding some fun had vanished, and all I wanted to do was get takeout and sit in the hotel room. The first or second night I was there, I went out and bought dinner. Then stopped by the store for some beer. At that point, I realized that I didn't have access to my mini-bar (it was locked and I didn't get a key), so I bought a single 22 oz bottle of Corona. When I got back to the hotel, I realized I didn't have a bottle opener. I was hungry, thirsty, and a little desperate, so I used my key to pry off the top, slicing my knuckle pretty good in the process. It all felt a little white-trashy.
I had the forethought to borrow my parents webcam for my trip. Every night, I talked with Diana and Allison via Skype, and it was great to see their shining (if squirmy) faces.
The weekend before I left, I spent some time with my boy Baditude, who introduced me to a quirky game called LittleBigPlanet. On the surface, it's a quirky physics based platformer with a fun atmosphere. But it comes with tools to create your own levels. Under the surface, though, there is a huge amount of potential for creating FUN. With a few switches, buttons, motors, pistons, and virtual foam, rubber, metal, stone, and other materials, there is a lot of room for creativity. I pretty much read all I could and watched every video on YouTube during my week away. Baditude pointed me at a place where I could get access to the open beta, and I got that up and running when I got back (it ended on Sunday). I haven't been this geeked for a game in a long time, and that's including Rock Band 2. Wow.
Work is pretty hectic. We're in a little bit of a perfect storm with the market tanking and lots of accounts closing right during quarter end tax season, and there is something that's causing the database to fall over. Bad news. So it's been kind of busy as we try to monitor and figure out the problem, and come up with a solution. I think we're on the right track. It's kind of funny that on Monday, we had major database problems. Monday night, we set up all kinds of logging and tracing and diagnostic tools. Tuesday (today) had no issues. Ha.
Little Lovely is doing great. Daycare continues to go well, and she's a full-fledged walker now. She'll still crawl and bear walk sometimes, depending on what surface she's traversing, but in the house, she's all over the place. No English yet, but lots of sounds, and a comprehension vocabulary that grows every day. Still no teeth yet either. I remember seeing my friends kids go from toothless to toothy, and am always shocked at how much it changes their look.
Changing the subject: at some point recently, I decided I was going to accept any Facebook friend request that came my way. My previous strategy was to limit my friends to, you know, actual friends. I even denied a friend request or two (which at least one person found absolutely hilarious). Now that I've added some people, the requests keep coming in! I find it all totally fake and lame, but also fun to see what old friends are up to. My love-hate relationship with social networking continues.
Bedtime. G'night.
2008/09/26
Sick
Diana was sick last week. I've been sick the last couple days. Allie is just getting it now.
It's a big party over here.
2008/09/24
Allie Turns One
Astute readers may remember that Allison turned one whole year old on September 21st, and what a year it’s been!
I can remember her actual birth like it was yesterday. I remember Diana feeling new and different contractions while we were watching Survivor the night before, and the subsequent craziness of the next day, followed by pure adrenaline of the next few weeks as we figured out how everything worked. Watching her grow from a tiny little sprout into a toddler (almost) has been incredible. From one year to the next, adults are pretty much the same, but she’s gone through such an amazing transformation in this past year, it’s just miraculous. We always look at pictures and videos from this past year, and marvel at her various stages of development.
On Saturday, we had an informal get-together in the park to celebrate, and I was talking with an old friend from high school. He asked about fatherhood, and I told him what’s been going through my mind over the past few weeks. When other people look at Allie, they see a baby. When I look at her, in very literal, no hyperbole terms, I see the most perfect thing ever created.
This next year is going to be a big one. She’s just taking a few steps, so full-on walking is right around the corner. No teeth yet, so I’m assuming they’re in there somewhere. Lots of talking, but no English yet. Over the past few weeks, she’s been getting a little more free-willed, so we’ll see how that develops. It’s going to be an exciting year, for sure.
I can remember her actual birth like it was yesterday. I remember Diana feeling new and different contractions while we were watching Survivor the night before, and the subsequent craziness of the next day, followed by pure adrenaline of the next few weeks as we figured out how everything worked. Watching her grow from a tiny little sprout into a toddler (almost) has been incredible. From one year to the next, adults are pretty much the same, but she’s gone through such an amazing transformation in this past year, it’s just miraculous. We always look at pictures and videos from this past year, and marvel at her various stages of development.
On Saturday, we had an informal get-together in the park to celebrate, and I was talking with an old friend from high school. He asked about fatherhood, and I told him what’s been going through my mind over the past few weeks. When other people look at Allie, they see a baby. When I look at her, in very literal, no hyperbole terms, I see the most perfect thing ever created.
This next year is going to be a big one. She’s just taking a few steps, so full-on walking is right around the corner. No teeth yet, so I’m assuming they’re in there somewhere. Lots of talking, but no English yet. Over the past few weeks, she’s been getting a little more free-willed, so we’ll see how that develops. It’s going to be an exciting year, for sure.
2008/09/14
2008/09/12
Hello, Blog
Hello blog!
I haven’t forgotten about you. I just haven’t had the energy to pay you the attention you deserve.
Best Weekend Ever ‘08 is in the books. Mike and Gwen stayed with us for two whole weeks, which was a real treat. Not only to spend time with them, but the whole gang hung out almost every day. Flag football was played, and no one got hurt. We drafted our Fantasy Football teams, and so far I’m not disappointed. We BBQ’d and swam in various pools in various mansions. Lots of games were played, both video and board. Really good times all the way around.
Our kitchen is done! It took about two or three times as long we were told, but I padded my expectations by about double, so it worked out ok. We’re really, REALLY happy with the results. Here are some before and after pictures (please indulge me showing off a little)
The slides match up, so press each Play button at watch the slides side by side!
Before:
After:
Allie is turning one year old in a week or so. Amazing. She’s doing really great. She’s on the cusp of walking, but hasn’t quite taken steps on her own yet. No teeth yet, but we’re assuming they’re in there somewhere. She says “Duh-DAH!” and points at almost everything. She’s just perfect.
I’m beginning to see Halloween signs at various shops. I wonder what Allie wants to be? I’m sure I can’t wait to find out!
Work is busy. Diana is teaching it up, schoolin’ kids something wicked, and that seems to be going well. With the newness of school starting and daycare, as well as the awesomeness of BWE ‘08, we’re ready to get back to a more stable routine. So far, so good.
I haven’t forgotten about you. I just haven’t had the energy to pay you the attention you deserve.
Best Weekend Ever ‘08 is in the books. Mike and Gwen stayed with us for two whole weeks, which was a real treat. Not only to spend time with them, but the whole gang hung out almost every day. Flag football was played, and no one got hurt. We drafted our Fantasy Football teams, and so far I’m not disappointed. We BBQ’d and swam in various pools in various mansions. Lots of games were played, both video and board. Really good times all the way around.
Our kitchen is done! It took about two or three times as long we were told, but I padded my expectations by about double, so it worked out ok. We’re really, REALLY happy with the results. Here are some before and after pictures (please indulge me showing off a little)
The slides match up, so press each Play button at watch the slides side by side!
Before:
After:
Allie is turning one year old in a week or so. Amazing. She’s doing really great. She’s on the cusp of walking, but hasn’t quite taken steps on her own yet. No teeth yet, but we’re assuming they’re in there somewhere. She says “Duh-DAH!” and points at almost everything. She’s just perfect.
I’m beginning to see Halloween signs at various shops. I wonder what Allie wants to be? I’m sure I can’t wait to find out!
Work is busy. Diana is teaching it up, schoolin’ kids something wicked, and that seems to be going well. With the newness of school starting and daycare, as well as the awesomeness of BWE ‘08, we’re ready to get back to a more stable routine. So far, so good.
2008/08/22
Elk Ridge Quilts
My mom, an avid quilter, was recently persuaded to think seriously about selling her quilts. She proposed the idea of a website, and I jumped on board, eager to help out. After some research, I got Mom set up with a basic merchant PayPal account, and signed up with Yahoo webhosting. I expected that it would take a bit of effort to get a website up and running, but was pretty blown away at how easy the whole process was.
When I signed up with Yahoo, I used their pre-canned site-builder tool. They asked what kind of site I was creating, and basically pre-made a website which we then customized with our own text and images, and played around with the layouts. The coolest part is how easily it integrated in with PayPal automatically. Basically, in about 10 minutes of pointing and clicking, I had a fully functional online store up and running. Awesome.
The pre-canned solution stuff is good for probably 80% of anything anyone needs to get a basic site up and running. They also have a more hands-on SiteBuilder tool which has a bunch more templates which are more customizable. The geek in me wants to redo the site using the more in depth tool, but it might also be more trouble than it’s worth.
For now, check it out: http://www.ElkRidgeQuilts.com
I’ve always been impressed by Yahoo, and this experience only adds to that. I’m always fired up with things Just Work the way they are supposed to. I’m also proud of my mom for starting up her new business. Very exciting for her.
Who’d have thought baby quilts could be so much fun?
When I signed up with Yahoo, I used their pre-canned site-builder tool. They asked what kind of site I was creating, and basically pre-made a website which we then customized with our own text and images, and played around with the layouts. The coolest part is how easily it integrated in with PayPal automatically. Basically, in about 10 minutes of pointing and clicking, I had a fully functional online store up and running. Awesome.
The pre-canned solution stuff is good for probably 80% of anything anyone needs to get a basic site up and running. They also have a more hands-on SiteBuilder tool which has a bunch more templates which are more customizable. The geek in me wants to redo the site using the more in depth tool, but it might also be more trouble than it’s worth.
For now, check it out: http://www.ElkRidgeQuilts.com
I’ve always been impressed by Yahoo, and this experience only adds to that. I’m always fired up with things Just Work the way they are supposed to. I’m also proud of my mom for starting up her new business. Very exciting for her.
Who’d have thought baby quilts could be so much fun?
2008/08/16
Trouble Brewing in La Costa...
So recently, Diana and I noticed that a nearby neighbor painted their house a really bright green color. It's right on the main street leading through our neighborhood, and it really sticks out.
As I drove home from work yesterday, I noticed a local news van parked on the hill next to her house. I got Allie, and we took a walk to investigate. The local "on the spot" reporter was there, and told me that they were doing a news story on the house. "On the color?" I asked. He said yep. I was VERY close to saying "Slow news day, eh?", but decided against it.
Anyways, here is the story. Watch it now.
Here's another story from the San Diego Union Tribune. The user comments are especially funny/troubling/sad. Not a lot of love for La Costa in the rest of San Diego.
I'd be interested to hear others opinion on this. I'll save mine for now...
As I drove home from work yesterday, I noticed a local news van parked on the hill next to her house. I got Allie, and we took a walk to investigate. The local "on the spot" reporter was there, and told me that they were doing a news story on the house. "On the color?" I asked. He said yep. I was VERY close to saying "Slow news day, eh?", but decided against it.
Anyways, here is the story. Watch it now.
Here's another story from the San Diego Union Tribune. The user comments are especially funny/troubling/sad. Not a lot of love for La Costa in the rest of San Diego.
I'd be interested to hear others opinion on this. I'll save mine for now...
2008/08/14
Ping pong is an Olympic sport.
That's just weird to me. I mean... ping pong?
I just watched some Fencing. I did some fencing in college, but I still had no idea what was going on. One thing that bothers me about fencing is that there appears to be a lot of influencing the judges. In some point, both fencers will hit each other, and immediately cheer and raise their arms and "celebrate" as if they scored the point. But it's all bunk, since they do so while looking at the judges, and waiting to hear who ACTUALLY scored the point. Pretty analogous to to taking a dive in soccer, I suppose.
In other news, we're back in our house, in spite of our kitchen not being 100% complete. Even though the finishing touches aren't there yet, it still looks awesome. We're both really happy with how things turned out. Pictures will follow when it's all put together.
More and more people are adding me as a friend on Facebook. I figure it's easier to not fight it and just open the floodgates. *sigh*
That's just weird to me. I mean... ping pong?
I just watched some Fencing. I did some fencing in college, but I still had no idea what was going on. One thing that bothers me about fencing is that there appears to be a lot of influencing the judges. In some point, both fencers will hit each other, and immediately cheer and raise their arms and "celebrate" as if they scored the point. But it's all bunk, since they do so while looking at the judges, and waiting to hear who ACTUALLY scored the point. Pretty analogous to to taking a dive in soccer, I suppose.
In other news, we're back in our house, in spite of our kitchen not being 100% complete. Even though the finishing touches aren't there yet, it still looks awesome. We're both really happy with how things turned out. Pictures will follow when it's all put together.
More and more people are adding me as a friend on Facebook. I figure it's easier to not fight it and just open the floodgates. *sigh*
2008/07/21
Montana, etc
Back to it…
Diana and I had a great vacation this past week, flying out to Montana to visit with my parents and enjoy some Big Sky country. It was Allison’s first set of plane rides, so in spite of her generally calm, agreeable demeanor, I admit to being a little anxious. How would the pressure affect her little ears? How would she feel not being allowed to roam around, now that she’s used to crawling and moving around?
The morning started off at something like 4:45am. By the time we got to the airport around 5:45am or so, Allie was all smiles, looking all around and chatting it up with the world. She slept for the first portion of each flight, and sat happily in our laps for the remainder. It was really easy, thanks in large part to Diana’s preparation. We had bottles all ready to go, and lots of toys and books for instant distraction purposes. It all worked out really well.
Our time in Montana was great. We had lots of good family time with the grandparents. I snuck away one morning and played 9 holes of golf in the beautiful mountain course up there. It was awesome to have mountains on one side, and the lake on the other, with some deer frolicking in the trees. Just gorgeous. I shot a 51, which is totally average for me for 9 holes. Later in the week, Diana and I left Allie at home with my mom, and went on a float trip with my dad and another guy. Diana floated and relaxed and I fished. After about two hours of NOTHING, I caught three fish in about 10 minutes. That turned the trip around right quick. We ended up being gone for about 7 hours, which is the longest anyone has babysat Allison, and both she and my mom did great. That 7 hours comprised a full cycle (nap, lunch, awake time). Previous to this, Allison always seemed a little suspicious of my parents, so it was wonderful that they could spend some quality time together.
And now we’re back home. Our kitchen remodel continues, albeit slowly. We’re still a few weeks away from moving back home, I think, which kinda sucks.
Today is a big day for Allison. It’s her 10 month birthday, as well as her first official day of daycare at Dorrie’s! Dorrie is a nice lady who runs a day care from her home (and has been doing this as her chosen career for the past 25 years or something). So far, we’re pretty impressed with her. Since this is a tough age with regard to separation anxiety, Dorrie suggested that Diana start coming over for lunches and doing some acclimatization, which has been going on for the past couple weeks. Today, Diana dropped off Allie at 8:30am, and picked her back up at 12:30pm. I just got a message that everything went really well, with only a few minutes of crying before naptime (which is totally normal). So, that sounds really good. She’ll continue to do half-days for a couple days this week, then do a couple full-time days next week, and then start full time as Diana and I go back to work.
Now that I type that, I realize was a big change that’s going to be for everyone. I’m used to being apart from Allison during the days, obviously, but it’s going to be huge for both her and Diana. I mean, I always knew that it was coming, but it’s just kind of sinking in. As I said, we’re pretty pleased with what we’ve seen at Dorries. The children are really well behaved, and she treats them with respect and politeness. I hope it lives up to my expectations.
Speaking of expectations, I went out with some boys to see the new Batman movie. Long story short, I thought it was really good. It started at 10pm, and we left the theater at like 12:45am, so I was a little sleepy, and afraid I might have missed some of the subtleties, so I’m looking forward to a second viewing. I thought that Heath Ledger’s Joker completely stole the show. All the buzz you’ve heard about him is well deserved.
And finally, we have a new pet! Diana caught a stick bug! And by “caught”, I mean “found it on her foot”, and by “stick bug”, I mean “baby stick bug”. The thing is about half an inch long. But I put him in the requisite jar with holes in the lid, along with some sticks (natch) and grass and a piece of spinach. I’ve named him “Pointy”. I hope he does well. It’s always fun to look in the jar and try to find him.
That’s all, blog. Smell you later.
Diana and I had a great vacation this past week, flying out to Montana to visit with my parents and enjoy some Big Sky country. It was Allison’s first set of plane rides, so in spite of her generally calm, agreeable demeanor, I admit to being a little anxious. How would the pressure affect her little ears? How would she feel not being allowed to roam around, now that she’s used to crawling and moving around?
The morning started off at something like 4:45am. By the time we got to the airport around 5:45am or so, Allie was all smiles, looking all around and chatting it up with the world. She slept for the first portion of each flight, and sat happily in our laps for the remainder. It was really easy, thanks in large part to Diana’s preparation. We had bottles all ready to go, and lots of toys and books for instant distraction purposes. It all worked out really well.
Our time in Montana was great. We had lots of good family time with the grandparents. I snuck away one morning and played 9 holes of golf in the beautiful mountain course up there. It was awesome to have mountains on one side, and the lake on the other, with some deer frolicking in the trees. Just gorgeous. I shot a 51, which is totally average for me for 9 holes. Later in the week, Diana and I left Allie at home with my mom, and went on a float trip with my dad and another guy. Diana floated and relaxed and I fished. After about two hours of NOTHING, I caught three fish in about 10 minutes. That turned the trip around right quick. We ended up being gone for about 7 hours, which is the longest anyone has babysat Allison, and both she and my mom did great. That 7 hours comprised a full cycle (nap, lunch, awake time). Previous to this, Allison always seemed a little suspicious of my parents, so it was wonderful that they could spend some quality time together.
And now we’re back home. Our kitchen remodel continues, albeit slowly. We’re still a few weeks away from moving back home, I think, which kinda sucks.
Today is a big day for Allison. It’s her 10 month birthday, as well as her first official day of daycare at Dorrie’s! Dorrie is a nice lady who runs a day care from her home (and has been doing this as her chosen career for the past 25 years or something). So far, we’re pretty impressed with her. Since this is a tough age with regard to separation anxiety, Dorrie suggested that Diana start coming over for lunches and doing some acclimatization, which has been going on for the past couple weeks. Today, Diana dropped off Allie at 8:30am, and picked her back up at 12:30pm. I just got a message that everything went really well, with only a few minutes of crying before naptime (which is totally normal). So, that sounds really good. She’ll continue to do half-days for a couple days this week, then do a couple full-time days next week, and then start full time as Diana and I go back to work.
Now that I type that, I realize was a big change that’s going to be for everyone. I’m used to being apart from Allison during the days, obviously, but it’s going to be huge for both her and Diana. I mean, I always knew that it was coming, but it’s just kind of sinking in. As I said, we’re pretty pleased with what we’ve seen at Dorries. The children are really well behaved, and she treats them with respect and politeness. I hope it lives up to my expectations.
Speaking of expectations, I went out with some boys to see the new Batman movie. Long story short, I thought it was really good. It started at 10pm, and we left the theater at like 12:45am, so I was a little sleepy, and afraid I might have missed some of the subtleties, so I’m looking forward to a second viewing. I thought that Heath Ledger’s Joker completely stole the show. All the buzz you’ve heard about him is well deserved.
And finally, we have a new pet! Diana caught a stick bug! And by “caught”, I mean “found it on her foot”, and by “stick bug”, I mean “baby stick bug”. The thing is about half an inch long. But I put him in the requisite jar with holes in the lid, along with some sticks (natch) and grass and a piece of spinach. I’ve named him “Pointy”. I hope he does well. It’s always fun to look in the jar and try to find him.
That’s all, blog. Smell you later.
2008/06/27
Science and Skepticism
In my own mind, I’ve really cemented position as a Skeptic.
I used to consider myself a skeptic, but with a relatively open mind towards the possibility of spirituality, faith, and belief. I mean, there are billions of people in the world who believe irrational things. Even very smart people. But after reading and pondering, I just can’t figure out why.
I recently read Richard Dawkins letter to his daughter, titled “Good and Bad Reasons For Believing”. Go read this now. We’ll wait. To sum up, the good reason to believe in something is “evidence”. The bad reasons are “tradition”, “authority”, and “revelation”. He expands on each of these topics, of course.
I then read an excerpt from Carl Sagan’s book “The Demon Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark”. The excerpt is called “The Dragon in my Garage.” You should read this, too. Soon after reading this, I purchased the book itself, and I started reading it last night. It really got my mind racing.
Also, here's a small web movie which touches on the subject of what science is. (Skip to 25:10 or so for a really nice description of how clinical trials work). It’s long, but well worth watching.
Each of these attempt to teach us laypeople exactly what Science is. The authors clearly feel that the general public is scientifically illiterate. Given our collective penchant for UFO stories, psychics, ghost sightings, crystal healing, and all manner of pseudoscience, I’m afraid I’m inclined to agree.
In my own opinion, the problem with scientific illiteracy is that it makes Science appear to be “just another religion”. Those who don’t understand basic science are forced to take it on faith alone. For example: we hear scientists say that humans and apes evolved from common ancestors (or, and I cringe when I hear it, that we “evolved from apes”) millions of years ago. On Sundays, though, our pastor tells us that we were created from a divine source in the same form as we are today. Some people think this happened as recently as 6000 years ago. Both the pastor and the scientist are pretty emphatic that they are right. In fact, they both can cite lots of important sounding resources that confirm their belief, and also make pretty convincing arguments why the other guy is wrong.
So we’re left in the lurch. Who should we believe, and why?
The best option would be to do all the research on our own, and see all the evidence with our own eyes. But obviously, we can’t all be experts in paleontology and biology, as well as fluent in ancient languages. So, somehow, we need to decide. Do we believe the scientist or the pastor?
Sagan points out a difference between science and religion. My paraphrasing is: science wants to be wrong, and religion wants to be right.
So here’s how science works. We observe the world around us, and see that weird stuff happens. We notice, for a stupid example, that water turns into ice when it gets cold, and turns back to liquid when it warms up. Why does this happen, we wonder? So we take water into the laboratory, and do tests. Over and over again, we find that water always freezes at 32 degrees. In fact, the tests we do aren’t to try to make water freeze. The tests we do try to make water NOT freeze at 32 degrees. But no matter what we try, water always behaves the same way.
What a great discovery! We publish our results and crack open the champagne.
Now here is the CRITICAL part: A fellow scientist in the French alps reads our paper. He’s also been working on the water freezing problem, and has found that water freezes at a slightly different temperature at a high altitude. Another scientist tries seawater, and finds that he comes up with different results as well. So we all go back to the lab and try more tests, until we come up with a good working model of how water freezes, noting that salinity and altitude make a difference. And once we get that model, we publish it, and let others beat on it, looking for holes. And even when it seems to stand up to rigor, we still keep testing it, just in case. We want it to be wrong. In fact, I’ll bet that proving that our current concept of why water freezes is wrong would win you a Nobel Prize.
Another example. Does anyone remember the Cold Fusion discovery in the 80’s? Two guys thought they had unlocked the secret to cheap and abundant energy, and published their results. It was all over the news for a while, until other people tried to duplicate their claims, and couldn’t. That is the scientific community at work. Everything is transparent and open-source.
A couple years ago, my dad had an article published in the New England Journal of Medicine. I didn’t realize it at the time, but soon after it became pretty clear that this was a big deal. Being a proud son, I read the article. I couldn’t understand much of it. My memory was that the conclusion of the article was basically “our tests indicate a minor trend toward such-and-such. More testing is required.” I remember thinking “That’s it?” We talked about it, and it became more clear that that’s how it works: Science isn’t sweeping discoveries. Science is adding to the accumulated body of knowledge in very small, verifiable steps. It’s slow and steady, but it is reliable and repeatable.
And Science is pragmatic. It works. If praying or faith healing or holding a crystal to my forehead reliably cured migraines, I’d do that instead of 50mg of Imotrex.
I’m certainly not an expert in religions, but they don’t appear to have the same sense of inward scrutiny and need for self-validation.
I think I’ve always been a skeptic, but now I’m making it official. And my first official pronouncement as a Skeptic: that I’m skeptical of my own skepticism! Are there things that I believe on faith alone? What do I believe in that can’t be tested or verified? And, to be fair, have I really given crystal therapy for migraines a fair shot?
I used to consider myself a skeptic, but with a relatively open mind towards the possibility of spirituality, faith, and belief. I mean, there are billions of people in the world who believe irrational things. Even very smart people. But after reading and pondering, I just can’t figure out why.
I recently read Richard Dawkins letter to his daughter, titled “Good and Bad Reasons For Believing”. Go read this now. We’ll wait. To sum up, the good reason to believe in something is “evidence”. The bad reasons are “tradition”, “authority”, and “revelation”. He expands on each of these topics, of course.
I then read an excerpt from Carl Sagan’s book “The Demon Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark”. The excerpt is called “The Dragon in my Garage.” You should read this, too. Soon after reading this, I purchased the book itself, and I started reading it last night. It really got my mind racing.
Also, here's a small web movie which touches on the subject of what science is. (Skip to 25:10 or so for a really nice description of how clinical trials work). It’s long, but well worth watching.
Each of these attempt to teach us laypeople exactly what Science is. The authors clearly feel that the general public is scientifically illiterate. Given our collective penchant for UFO stories, psychics, ghost sightings, crystal healing, and all manner of pseudoscience, I’m afraid I’m inclined to agree.
In my own opinion, the problem with scientific illiteracy is that it makes Science appear to be “just another religion”. Those who don’t understand basic science are forced to take it on faith alone. For example: we hear scientists say that humans and apes evolved from common ancestors (or, and I cringe when I hear it, that we “evolved from apes”) millions of years ago. On Sundays, though, our pastor tells us that we were created from a divine source in the same form as we are today. Some people think this happened as recently as 6000 years ago. Both the pastor and the scientist are pretty emphatic that they are right. In fact, they both can cite lots of important sounding resources that confirm their belief, and also make pretty convincing arguments why the other guy is wrong.
So we’re left in the lurch. Who should we believe, and why?
The best option would be to do all the research on our own, and see all the evidence with our own eyes. But obviously, we can’t all be experts in paleontology and biology, as well as fluent in ancient languages. So, somehow, we need to decide. Do we believe the scientist or the pastor?
Sagan points out a difference between science and religion. My paraphrasing is: science wants to be wrong, and religion wants to be right.
So here’s how science works. We observe the world around us, and see that weird stuff happens. We notice, for a stupid example, that water turns into ice when it gets cold, and turns back to liquid when it warms up. Why does this happen, we wonder? So we take water into the laboratory, and do tests. Over and over again, we find that water always freezes at 32 degrees. In fact, the tests we do aren’t to try to make water freeze. The tests we do try to make water NOT freeze at 32 degrees. But no matter what we try, water always behaves the same way.
What a great discovery! We publish our results and crack open the champagne.
Now here is the CRITICAL part: A fellow scientist in the French alps reads our paper. He’s also been working on the water freezing problem, and has found that water freezes at a slightly different temperature at a high altitude. Another scientist tries seawater, and finds that he comes up with different results as well. So we all go back to the lab and try more tests, until we come up with a good working model of how water freezes, noting that salinity and altitude make a difference. And once we get that model, we publish it, and let others beat on it, looking for holes. And even when it seems to stand up to rigor, we still keep testing it, just in case. We want it to be wrong. In fact, I’ll bet that proving that our current concept of why water freezes is wrong would win you a Nobel Prize.
Another example. Does anyone remember the Cold Fusion discovery in the 80’s? Two guys thought they had unlocked the secret to cheap and abundant energy, and published their results. It was all over the news for a while, until other people tried to duplicate their claims, and couldn’t. That is the scientific community at work. Everything is transparent and open-source.
A couple years ago, my dad had an article published in the New England Journal of Medicine. I didn’t realize it at the time, but soon after it became pretty clear that this was a big deal. Being a proud son, I read the article. I couldn’t understand much of it. My memory was that the conclusion of the article was basically “our tests indicate a minor trend toward such-and-such. More testing is required.” I remember thinking “That’s it?” We talked about it, and it became more clear that that’s how it works: Science isn’t sweeping discoveries. Science is adding to the accumulated body of knowledge in very small, verifiable steps. It’s slow and steady, but it is reliable and repeatable.
And Science is pragmatic. It works. If praying or faith healing or holding a crystal to my forehead reliably cured migraines, I’d do that instead of 50mg of Imotrex.
I’m certainly not an expert in religions, but they don’t appear to have the same sense of inward scrutiny and need for self-validation.
I think I’ve always been a skeptic, but now I’m making it official. And my first official pronouncement as a Skeptic: that I’m skeptical of my own skepticism! Are there things that I believe on faith alone? What do I believe in that can’t be tested or verified? And, to be fair, have I really given crystal therapy for migraines a fair shot?
2008/06/25
Quick Hits
Allison is becoming more and more interactive every day. She definitely understands about a dozen words (that we know of). If you put some toys in front of her, and ask her where the ball is, she’ll look around and grab it. She knows Mommy and Daddy. I recently taught her to clap, and when we sing a song that involves clapping, she’ll clap at the right part. Babies clapping? Pretty damn cute. If I ask her for a kiss, and I’m very lucky, she’ll lean forward and open her mouth and stick her tongue out a little, presenting it to be kissed. It’s a little… intimate, but it’s extremely cute. She’s crawling around everywhere now, and likes to pull herself up to standing and bang on things on the coffee table, and walk around holding on to our fingers. It’s so crazy to think that she’s becoming her own little person, and will soon be walking and talking.
We went to the Fair yesterday, and she seemed to enjoy the animals. I wanted to walk through the fun zone, and Diana checked on Allie in her stroller, and she was full lip-out pouting/crying. Bad father. It was pretty loud and scary back there, so we left pretty quick. Some of the rides are crazy, and it kind of amazes me that I used to go on ‘em.
When we got home, I took some aspirin for a headache, and soon after my eye swelled up. I’m finally putting a connection together between aspirin (and ibuprofen) and my eye swelling up. I don’t take headache medicine very often, and the reaction doesn’t always happen (or perhaps is delayed), but I think I’m pretty convinced that I should avoid those types of drugs. Apparently Tylenol is ok, so I’ll try that for a while.
Work is going well. Not too much else to report.
2008/06/18
Arcade Game Memories
Something has made itself clear in my mind recently, and that is that I have extremely distinct memories of what coin-op arcade games I played as a kid, and exactly where I played them. Even though the Yellow Brick Road arcade no longer exists, I could probably still go stand in the exact spot where Virtua Fighter was.
During a particularly slow day at work, I started compiling a list. I approached it from two directions… first I thought of my stomping grounds, and remembered what games were there. Then I started thinking of random video games, and trying to place where I’d played them. This list is pretty much off the top of my head.
Safeway: I’d come here with my mom. While she shopped, I’d watch the video game demos, and if I was clever enough to bring a quarter from home (or steal one from her car), I’d play a game.
Beef Shoppe:
Bellasarios:
7-11 was a great hangout on the way to and from school
Bioys and Girls Club:
Yellow Brick Road: A classic, classic arcade. I mourned the day that it was turned into more food court.
Best-a-Wan Pizza
Surf and Turf. I remember we went here for Scott Hall’s birthday party one year, and his dad handed out platic baggies with quarters in them.
What’s a little scary to me is that this isn’t just a list. Each of these is pretty much a distinct memory. As I write this, I can think of more (the Family Fun Center, the FunSpot arcade in New Hampsire, the Del Mar Fair (beating Golden Axe with Iwan)). I have no idea how or why these have stuck so firmly in my head, but there they are.
Phew. It feels good to get those aired out a little...
During a particularly slow day at work, I started compiling a list. I approached it from two directions… first I thought of my stomping grounds, and remembered what games were there. Then I started thinking of random video games, and trying to place where I’d played them. This list is pretty much off the top of my head.
Safeway: I’d come here with my mom. While she shopped, I’d watch the video game demos, and if I was clever enough to bring a quarter from home (or steal one from her car), I’d play a game.
- Asteroids (I remember finding a quarter and putting it into the machine, only to find that the single player button was missing, so I couldn’t start the game. Later, some kid (who had the button) was playing my game. I think my mom explained that it was my quarter, and the kid moved aside and let me play. I’m pretty sure I couldn’t see much of the screen).
- Slalom skiing (don’t remember the exact name)
- Pool game (ditto)
- Alien Syndrome
- Yie-Ar Kung Fu
- Jungle Hunt
- Q*Bert
- Punch Out
- Spy Hunter
Beef Shoppe:
- Karate Champ
Bellasarios:
- Bubble Bobble (noteably, played this with NBA player Scot Pollard in junior high school)
- Raiden II
- One of those 4-in-1 NeoGeo things that I never liked or played
7-11 was a great hangout on the way to and from school
- Gauntlet (I remember playing this with a guy who was later caught as a serial rapist)
- Street Fighter 2 (I spit Slurpee all over the machine when Jon Yarris called Chun-Li “Chin-Lu” (not really that funny now, I guess))
- Black Tiger (great game)
- Moon Patrol
- Shinobi
- Bad Dudes (I think Iwan and I beat this together)
- Double Dragon
- Donkey Kong Jr.
- Elevator Action
- Some “Wild West” game
- Ninja Gaiden
Bioys and Girls Club:
- Pengo
- Gravitar (both games only 5 cents!)
Yellow Brick Road: A classic, classic arcade. I mourned the day that it was turned into more food court.
- Virtua Fighter 4
- Tron
- Star Wars
- Red Baron
- Battlezone
- Street Fighter 2 (Mike Stup would frequently school me on this game at Flower Hill... even when he'd play the big russian wrestler guy and I'd play Blanca)
- Pole Position
- Popeye
- Kangaroo
- Front Line (I liked this game)
- Pit Fighter
- Marble Madness
- Rampage
- Xevious
- Time Pilot
- Track and Field (I remember playing this on a skiing trip with Joel Brown. It was in a little rec room where the Jacuzzi was. One of us did the “run” buttons while the other did the “jump” button. That worked pretty well)
- Marble Madness
- Rampage
- Gauntlet II
Best-a-Wan Pizza
- Vanguard (This game came out in 1981. I was 6 years old)
Surf and Turf. I remember we went here for Scott Hall’s birthday party one year, and his dad handed out platic baggies with quarters in them.
- Jackal
- Front Line
- Ikari Warriors
- Dig Dug
What’s a little scary to me is that this isn’t just a list. Each of these is pretty much a distinct memory. As I write this, I can think of more (the Family Fun Center, the FunSpot arcade in New Hampsire, the Del Mar Fair (beating Golden Axe with Iwan)). I have no idea how or why these have stuck so firmly in my head, but there they are.
Phew. It feels good to get those aired out a little...
2008/06/15
Indiana Jones
Diana and I saw the latest Indiana Jones movie as a little fathers day getaway. I had exceedingly low expectations, but what was I going to do, NOT see it?
It was pretty bad. From the VERY first shot (the gopher nearly getting hit by the car), I had a bad feeling. It just got worse from there, culminating in classic digital vomit on the screen in the climax. Seriously, the single rolling ball in the beginning of Raiders was far more exciting and realistic than 10,000 physically accurate computer generated crashing rocks. And where the hell did all those monkeys come from?
The only silver lining is that little Shia Le Boef (or whatever) did a halfway decent job. If the reins are handed off to him, I guess it could be worse.
Ugh. Diana probably summed it up best after we left: "My soul needs a shower".
It was pretty bad. From the VERY first shot (the gopher nearly getting hit by the car), I had a bad feeling. It just got worse from there, culminating in classic digital vomit on the screen in the climax. Seriously, the single rolling ball in the beginning of Raiders was far more exciting and realistic than 10,000 physically accurate computer generated crashing rocks. And where the hell did all those monkeys come from?
The only silver lining is that little Shia Le Boef (or whatever) did a halfway decent job. If the reins are handed off to him, I guess it could be worse.
Ugh. Diana probably summed it up best after we left: "My soul needs a shower".
2008/06/11
Sugar and Spice
It was when Diana was still pregnant that the idea of raising a girl and the gender issues that may follow hit home.
I remember visiting a bookstore. I was in the magazine section, and there was a mother and her little girl (three or four years old) looking at magazines. While the mom was looking at some magazine on the top shelf, the girl was looking at the covers of the magazines at her eye level. Those magazines were fashion magazines like “Elle” and “Vogue” and whatever other magazines feature airbrushed models in high fashion clothes. We’ve all heard the concept about “the media” telling out little girls how they are supposed to look, but in that one moment, it really kind of hit home. And it wasn’t even my own daughter!
It’s been interesting to observe the kind of comments Allison gets. Some of my friends have young boys, and there have been good-natured jokes about potential future relationships. We get many comments about her looks, even from strangers on the street. I tell her how cute she is all the time.
I never thought much of it before, but as time passes, I can’t help but wonder what the cumulative effect of those comments might be. I realize it’s WAY to early to be starting to worry about this kind of thing, but by the same token, I’m surprised at how early people wonder who her first boyfriend will be, or how she’ll look in a bikini.
I don’t really know where I’m going with this. Is it bad to comment that she’s cute? No, absolutely not. I just want to make sure she’s on the right course from the start, as it seems far easier to do that than to try to make major course corrections later on. And I guess I’m afraid that potentially years of constantly hearing “You look so pretty in that dress!” could get her on a course which I don’t think is the best.
But on the other hand, seriously, what the hell do I know about any of this? Someone help me out, here…
I remember visiting a bookstore. I was in the magazine section, and there was a mother and her little girl (three or four years old) looking at magazines. While the mom was looking at some magazine on the top shelf, the girl was looking at the covers of the magazines at her eye level. Those magazines were fashion magazines like “Elle” and “Vogue” and whatever other magazines feature airbrushed models in high fashion clothes. We’ve all heard the concept about “the media” telling out little girls how they are supposed to look, but in that one moment, it really kind of hit home. And it wasn’t even my own daughter!
It’s been interesting to observe the kind of comments Allison gets. Some of my friends have young boys, and there have been good-natured jokes about potential future relationships. We get many comments about her looks, even from strangers on the street. I tell her how cute she is all the time.
I never thought much of it before, but as time passes, I can’t help but wonder what the cumulative effect of those comments might be. I realize it’s WAY to early to be starting to worry about this kind of thing, but by the same token, I’m surprised at how early people wonder who her first boyfriend will be, or how she’ll look in a bikini.
I don’t really know where I’m going with this. Is it bad to comment that she’s cute? No, absolutely not. I just want to make sure she’s on the right course from the start, as it seems far easier to do that than to try to make major course corrections later on. And I guess I’m afraid that potentially years of constantly hearing “You look so pretty in that dress!” could get her on a course which I don’t think is the best.
But on the other hand, seriously, what the hell do I know about any of this? Someone help me out, here…
2008/06/08
Under Control
So things are going pretty well.
At work, we just went live with our new Trading system. As I said, this is a big deal project, spanning over two years, involving updates to several applications, a couple new applications, and all the back-end glue that lets the systems interact with each other (the Order Generation program needs to talk to the Trading program, which in turn needs to output stuff to the back end Accounting system). As with any software, there were (and certainly still are) some bugs. In a Trading system, the worst kind of bug comes when orders are generated that shouldn't have been. We might buy the wrong thing, or sell too much of something. When those trade errors happen, we correct the problem so that the client gets whatever they should have gotten, and eat any costs. In the first week of our big project, I understand that there was something like $100 in trade errors. This is huge. Trade errors can easily be tens of thousands. So, things are going pretty well, and it feels good.
I also mentioned that Dr. Dave and his family were here for a week, and that was a lot of fun. One thing I realized while playing with Ben was how much we use our imagination as a child, and how little we use it as adults. Ben and I spent a while on the airplane (our big chair). He had on my gaming headset (with microphone), and we'd have to talk to the tower to request permission to take off and land, as well as instruct the flight attendants to start handing out Oreos and milk (and sometimes "chiiickennnn feeeeeet...") I was a bit worried about how all our schedules would interact (naps, etc), but there weren't any problems at all.
Allison has made some pretty big strides lately. Up until recently, we'd still swaddle her for bedtime, because if we didn't, she'd bonk herself in the face and wake herself up. She was also waking up multiple times in the night, and each time required about 20 minutes of holding and comforting to get her back to sleep, followed by the dread of trying to put her down in bed without waking her up, and sneaking out of her room. Sometimes that was followed by getting back into bed, only to have her wake up 5 minutes later.
After doing some reading, and thinking about how we wanted things to work, we decided that she needed to learn that her crib was a place for sleeping, and that she should be able to wake up and put herself back to sleep. So for a few nights, when she'd wake up, we'd let her cry a bit instead of immediately rushing in to pick her up. And it didn't take a whole lot of time before she got the picture. Now when she wakes up in the night, she'll cry for a few minutes, and go right back to sleep. And last night, as far as we can tell, she was asleep at 6:30pm and slept through to 7am. This is a good trend.
What's a little scary is that she's becoming mobile. She'll now frequently go from sitting to all-fours, and can kind of inchworm or half-crawl across the floor. It's slow and effortful, but I'm pretty sure she'll be cruising in a week or two. Time to buy childproof cabinet locks and outlet protectors! The problem with crawling is once she gets to where she wants to go, she doesn't really know what to do, and is left stomach-down and unhappy. The maneuver to get from all-fours back to sitting will be a big step.
Another big development is that we're having our kitchen redone, and since my parents are in Montanny for a while, we've moved into their Del Mar pad. The 7 minute commute is pretty awesome.
So, that's about the latest news. With all of the above, things have been pretty hectic for the last couple (months), but I'm hoping we're back into a good groove.
Some quick movie hits:
I third-wheeled with Iwan and Sara to see "Iron Man", and thought it was pretty decent. Worth seeing. That's probably as high-praise as you'll get from me for a summer blockbuster superhero movie.
Diana and I independatly saw "LA Confidential" when it came out, and neither of us remembered it, or felt like we "got it" the first time around, so we Netflix'd it and watched it last night. I really liked it, and not sure why I didn't the first time I saw it. Maybe it's got an intricate enough plot that if you don't pay close attention, it's easy to get lost.
I still have Indy Jones on my list to see. I'm not particularly looking forward to it, but what am I going to do, not see it?
At work, we just went live with our new Trading system. As I said, this is a big deal project, spanning over two years, involving updates to several applications, a couple new applications, and all the back-end glue that lets the systems interact with each other (the Order Generation program needs to talk to the Trading program, which in turn needs to output stuff to the back end Accounting system). As with any software, there were (and certainly still are) some bugs. In a Trading system, the worst kind of bug comes when orders are generated that shouldn't have been. We might buy the wrong thing, or sell too much of something. When those trade errors happen, we correct the problem so that the client gets whatever they should have gotten, and eat any costs. In the first week of our big project, I understand that there was something like $100 in trade errors. This is huge. Trade errors can easily be tens of thousands. So, things are going pretty well, and it feels good.
I also mentioned that Dr. Dave and his family were here for a week, and that was a lot of fun. One thing I realized while playing with Ben was how much we use our imagination as a child, and how little we use it as adults. Ben and I spent a while on the airplane (our big chair). He had on my gaming headset (with microphone), and we'd have to talk to the tower to request permission to take off and land, as well as instruct the flight attendants to start handing out Oreos and milk (and sometimes "chiiickennnn feeeeeet...") I was a bit worried about how all our schedules would interact (naps, etc), but there weren't any problems at all.
Allison has made some pretty big strides lately. Up until recently, we'd still swaddle her for bedtime, because if we didn't, she'd bonk herself in the face and wake herself up. She was also waking up multiple times in the night, and each time required about 20 minutes of holding and comforting to get her back to sleep, followed by the dread of trying to put her down in bed without waking her up, and sneaking out of her room. Sometimes that was followed by getting back into bed, only to have her wake up 5 minutes later.
After doing some reading, and thinking about how we wanted things to work, we decided that she needed to learn that her crib was a place for sleeping, and that she should be able to wake up and put herself back to sleep. So for a few nights, when she'd wake up, we'd let her cry a bit instead of immediately rushing in to pick her up. And it didn't take a whole lot of time before she got the picture. Now when she wakes up in the night, she'll cry for a few minutes, and go right back to sleep. And last night, as far as we can tell, she was asleep at 6:30pm and slept through to 7am. This is a good trend.
What's a little scary is that she's becoming mobile. She'll now frequently go from sitting to all-fours, and can kind of inchworm or half-crawl across the floor. It's slow and effortful, but I'm pretty sure she'll be cruising in a week or two. Time to buy childproof cabinet locks and outlet protectors! The problem with crawling is once she gets to where she wants to go, she doesn't really know what to do, and is left stomach-down and unhappy. The maneuver to get from all-fours back to sitting will be a big step.
Another big development is that we're having our kitchen redone, and since my parents are in Montanny for a while, we've moved into their Del Mar pad. The 7 minute commute is pretty awesome.
So, that's about the latest news. With all of the above, things have been pretty hectic for the last couple (months), but I'm hoping we're back into a good groove.
Some quick movie hits:
I third-wheeled with Iwan and Sara to see "Iron Man", and thought it was pretty decent. Worth seeing. That's probably as high-praise as you'll get from me for a summer blockbuster superhero movie.
Diana and I independatly saw "LA Confidential" when it came out, and neither of us remembered it, or felt like we "got it" the first time around, so we Netflix'd it and watched it last night. I really liked it, and not sure why I didn't the first time I saw it. Maybe it's got an intricate enough plot that if you don't pay close attention, it's easy to get lost.
I still have Indy Jones on my list to see. I'm not particularly looking forward to it, but what am I going to do, not see it?
2008/06/03
Fires
Our big project at work rolled into production on Monday.
I was definitely heavily involved in it before Allie was born, so that’s over 8 months ago, and as a developer, we join the game after requirements have been gathered and analysis and design has been done (so, halfway through the course of the project).
So it’s been about a 2 year deal, and it’s pretty huge that we’re live. Today and yesterday were spent stamping out little fires as they popped up, but so far there hasn’t been any Big Issues.
Crazy.
In other news, I had last week off while Dr. Dave and his family were in town. It was great to see them, and especially to see little nephew Ben as a real live little boy. Lots to tell, but another work fire just popped up.
More later.
I was definitely heavily involved in it before Allie was born, so that’s over 8 months ago, and as a developer, we join the game after requirements have been gathered and analysis and design has been done (so, halfway through the course of the project).
So it’s been about a 2 year deal, and it’s pretty huge that we’re live. Today and yesterday were spent stamping out little fires as they popped up, but so far there hasn’t been any Big Issues.
Crazy.
In other news, I had last week off while Dr. Dave and his family were in town. It was great to see them, and especially to see little nephew Ben as a real live little boy. Lots to tell, but another work fire just popped up.
More later.
2008/05/13
Social Networking
As I’ve probably mentioned on here before, I’m the king of nostalgia. I feel like I can remember my pre-college years, all the way back through elementary school, so clearly. I love looking through old class photos, and seeing old friends and acquaintances and wondering what they’re up to now. Occasionally, some random person will get on my mind, and it will be sort of a challenge for me to find them and see what they’re up to, and in rare cases actually email them and say “hey”.
Combine this, however, with my distaste for social networking, and you’ve got kind of a weird mix, I think.
I sat next to Liz last night at a dinner celebration for Baditude’s birthday. She found it PRET-ty hilarious that I denied a friend request from an elementary school classmate that I haven’t talked to in, say, 20 years. I don’t know if anyone on the planet has ever denied a friend request, judging by her reaction. I tried to explain that the term “friend” holds a certain meaning for me, and I’m sorry, there’s no way I can justify having that person on my “friend’s list. Mike Stup’s sister, likewise, issued a “friend request” to me. What? I did a magic show at her 9th birthday, I think, but since then I’m pretty sure I haven’t had a conscious thought about her. And now she wants to be friends? I’m sorry, but that’s just a little weird to me. No disrespect to little Mal, I’m sure she’s wonderful and that we’d be bff’s someday. But we need to work on our relationship a little bit to get to that point.
The only reason I have a thrice-damned MySpace and Facebook account is to spy on people anyways.
My theory on MySpace is that chicks like to hang out there. They like it because they like to post messages to each other, and use the cutesy li’l graphics like this:
And the only reason guys are on there is, well, ‘cause that’s where all the chicks are hanging out. Someone tell me if I’m wrong.
Facebook seems a bit more adult, but I’m still not quite sure what the point is. And it’s far too closed off for a snoop like me to get anywhere. It has those wacky plug-in applications, but I don’t particularly like that those applications are granted access to your personal data. That’s smells way too fishy for me.
In the end, social networking, for me personally, feels like a solution looking for a problem. I’m not looking to meet people, and I don’t feel like I have a problem staying in touch and having fun with friends… What am I missing?
This didn’t mean to turn into a rant. Oh well. :)
In other news, life is good. Little Allie is my absolute pride and joy. My favorite time of the day is coming home from work and her looking up and seeing me come in the door and giving me a huge smile. Melts my heart every time. She’s at a really fun age right now, where she’s interactive, but manageable, and not out of control or totally headstrong and willful. Her newest hobbies included shaking her head back and forth (as if she’s say “NoooOOOoooOOo!”), banging things together to make noise, and making strange guttural noises. Good times.
Combine this, however, with my distaste for social networking, and you’ve got kind of a weird mix, I think.
I sat next to Liz last night at a dinner celebration for Baditude’s birthday. She found it PRET-ty hilarious that I denied a friend request from an elementary school classmate that I haven’t talked to in, say, 20 years. I don’t know if anyone on the planet has ever denied a friend request, judging by her reaction. I tried to explain that the term “friend” holds a certain meaning for me, and I’m sorry, there’s no way I can justify having that person on my “friend’s list. Mike Stup’s sister, likewise, issued a “friend request” to me. What? I did a magic show at her 9th birthday, I think, but since then I’m pretty sure I haven’t had a conscious thought about her. And now she wants to be friends? I’m sorry, but that’s just a little weird to me. No disrespect to little Mal, I’m sure she’s wonderful and that we’d be bff’s someday. But we need to work on our relationship a little bit to get to that point.
The only reason I have a thrice-damned MySpace and Facebook account is to spy on people anyways.
My theory on MySpace is that chicks like to hang out there. They like it because they like to post messages to each other, and use the cutesy li’l graphics like this:
And the only reason guys are on there is, well, ‘cause that’s where all the chicks are hanging out. Someone tell me if I’m wrong.
Facebook seems a bit more adult, but I’m still not quite sure what the point is. And it’s far too closed off for a snoop like me to get anywhere. It has those wacky plug-in applications, but I don’t particularly like that those applications are granted access to your personal data. That’s smells way too fishy for me.
In the end, social networking, for me personally, feels like a solution looking for a problem. I’m not looking to meet people, and I don’t feel like I have a problem staying in touch and having fun with friends… What am I missing?
This didn’t mean to turn into a rant. Oh well. :)
In other news, life is good. Little Allie is my absolute pride and joy. My favorite time of the day is coming home from work and her looking up and seeing me come in the door and giving me a huge smile. Melts my heart every time. She’s at a really fun age right now, where she’s interactive, but manageable, and not out of control or totally headstrong and willful. Her newest hobbies included shaking her head back and forth (as if she’s say “NoooOOOoooOOo!”), banging things together to make noise, and making strange guttural noises. Good times.
2008/05/05
Grand Theft Auto IV
I bought Grand Theft Auto IV the day it came out.
I honestly wasn’t planning on buying it right away. I knew Baditude was going to pick I up, and I figured I’d let him check it out and see if it was worth it. But then I heard reports on the radio about how huge it was going to be, and read a couple of reviews that were all in the 10/10 or A+ range, and figured I wanted to be a part of it. 70% of my decision was for the game in general. 25% was that I thought the multiplayer aspect of the game sounded really neat, and 5% of it was I wanted to support Rock Star Games, and a cause that I believe in.
When I mentioned this to a workboy, he said (a touch incredulously) “What cause is that?”
“Freedom of artistic expression,” I shot back coolly. (Well, maybe not that coolly, but I meant it).
The unfortunate thing about GTAIV is that there’s simply no way for the two sides to communicate with each other. People who haven’t played the game hear reports on the news that the game generally involves murder and mayhem. There’s drinking and driving and sex and drugs and violence. Not only that, but there’s a huge amount of freedom built into the game, so the player can make some really obscene choices. A popular example is that you can hire a prostitute, drive to a dark alley and conduct your business, and then when she gets out of the car, you can run her down and take your money back. Stuff like that. The game doesn’t direct you to do this, or specifically reward you for it, it just creates a world where those choices are available.
But as I said, there’s simply no way for people who have played the game to communicate with those who have only heard about it. You read the above and are shocked, but we have ALL seen or read fictional depictions of equally depraved acts. I guess it’s the interactive nature of the game that makes it different from passively reading a book or watching a movie. I actually believe that the two are closer than most people think. When a gamer is controlling someone on the screen, it’s not “me”, it’s “him” or “my guy”. We’re in control, but we’re still primarily observers of what goes on. I think non-gamers overestimate exactly how much we gamers actually personally identify with our on-screen persona.
The second major source of confusion is that people still associate the word “game” with “children”. This needs to be addressed somehow. GTA is about as appropriate for children as the movie “The Departed” is – which is to say, not at all. (You remember “The Departed”, right? Oscar winning movie where the whole second half of the movie is people getting shot in the face, but no one blinked an eye about it?) When I bought the game from my local GameStop, I asked the drone if there were any problems with kids trying to buy the game. “We don’t sell it to kids”, he immediately responded. He even went on to say that if a kid did somehow manage to drag his mom into the shop to buy the game for him, they still wouldn’t sell it. So, kudos to that guy. A popular news story on GTA release day was that someone in London was stabbed in a line that had formed of people waiting to pick up the game. This kind of muck-racking journalism really pisses me off. I have to believe that people are stabbed and shot in all kinds of lines all the time (not to mention concerts, nightclubs, etc). Some journalist obviously said “quick, find some associate of real-world violence and this game!” and that’s the best they could come up with.
Another news story going around is that MADD is unhappy with the game because it features drinking and driving.
"Drunk driving is not a game, and it is not a joke," MADD said in a statement released Tuesday. "Drunk driving is a choice, a violent crime and it is also 100 percent preventable."
As the victim of a drunk driving accident, I couldn’t agree more. But it’s clear they never actually saw the game.
I was just playing GTA this weekend. Niko was bumping around Liberty City when his cell phone went off. It was crazy cousin Roman. “Nico, let’s go out and have some fun!” he said. So I (of course, not “I”, but Niko) picked him up and we went to a local bar. Soon after, we were standing on the sidewalk, weaving all over the place. The camera was panning around all over, and it was really hard to walk around. A little message box popped up, and said something along the lines of “You’re pretty drunk. You shouldn’t drive in this condition. Consider walking it off or getting a taxi.” Definitely something pretty strongly worded like that.
Of course, I decided to drive. Why?
I once heard a game developer define fun as “learning in a consequence-free environment”. That quote really stuck with me. Things that I think are fun are always about learning in some respect or another. If there isn’t any learning involved, then it’s just a task (no one plays tic-tac-toe once they’ve figured it out, right?) And “consequence-free” is obviously important. Given the opportunity, I’d love to get drunk and try driving a car if I was guaranteed (magically) that would be absolutely no consequences. I think part of the problem of drunk-driving is that we have no idea what .08 feels like, and can’t judge our own impairment.
So, Niko and Roman hopped in the car and we tried driving a couple blocks back to the taxi depot. The camera was blurry and panning around wildly, and the car seemed to steer on it’s own accord, and I was careening into oncoming traffic and rubbing against parked cars trying to go in a straight line. The car was a wreck, and I ran a couple people over, but we eventually made it back (real-life Adman feeling a little sick to his stomach after all the camera movement).
I couldn’t help but think that some sort of modified version of that exact sequence would be the best anti-drunk driving education ever. GIVE kids a computer game (in Health class or something) that simulates being drunk in the same way (blurry, weaving camera controlling a semi-autonomous car). Let them learn in a safe environment (fun!) about how hard it is to drive drunk. Keep a dollar tally of how much damage you cause, and how many pedestrians you killed. I have to think that that would teach so much more than watching some 1960’s filmstrip about drinking and driving. Anyways, I really think MADD screwed up, and just is trying to ride some coattails.
All that said, I’ve been really enjoying it. I read a review that lauded the choice of using Russian/Eastern European mafia as a theme, saying that it was the only crime culture left that had not yet been glamorized by Hollywood. I thought that was pretty insightful. I feel like I’ve just scratched the surface, but so far it’s been great.
And remember that line about “learning in a consequence-free environment”, and let me know if it makes as much sense to you as it does to me.
2008/04/28
On April 30th of last year, we signed up for cell phone service.
Here’s my “before” post:
http://admansblog.blogspot.com/2007/04/so-last-night-diana-and-i-pulled.html (To summarize, I looked forward to the utility of having a mobile phone without becoming “Cell Phone Guy”).
After buying $100 worth of minutes (which came out to 1150) initially, I think I was left with around 300, and Diana had about 500. What’s cool is that once you get up to $100 worth of minutes purchased (which we did in one shot), minutes don’t expire for a full year. Not only that, but they apparently roll over, which was an unexpected surprise. I learned this only after I spent another $100 to get more minutes. On Diana’s phone, I spent $10 to get some small amount of minutes, and rolled over the remaining 500 (which should theoretically last for another year’ish).
Being lukewarm on having mobile phones in the first place, I’m pretty stoked on the pre-paid plan that we chose. $8 a month is tough to beat.
I honestly can’t remember using my phone all that much. I guess it added some convenience in things like calling and ordering take-out food while driving home after a long day out. It made it easier to coordinate with people who have an aversion to making plans in advance. And although it was never realized, it’s nice to know that it was available in an emergency situation. But I can’t think of Big Wins.
So, while definitely didn’t turn into Cell Phone Guy, after a year, I guess you could call me a satisfied customer.
Here’s my “before” post:
http://admansblog.blogspot.com/2007/04/so-last-night-diana-and-i-pulled.html (To summarize, I looked forward to the utility of having a mobile phone without becoming “Cell Phone Guy”).
After buying $100 worth of minutes (which came out to 1150) initially, I think I was left with around 300, and Diana had about 500. What’s cool is that once you get up to $100 worth of minutes purchased (which we did in one shot), minutes don’t expire for a full year. Not only that, but they apparently roll over, which was an unexpected surprise. I learned this only after I spent another $100 to get more minutes. On Diana’s phone, I spent $10 to get some small amount of minutes, and rolled over the remaining 500 (which should theoretically last for another year’ish).
Being lukewarm on having mobile phones in the first place, I’m pretty stoked on the pre-paid plan that we chose. $8 a month is tough to beat.
I honestly can’t remember using my phone all that much. I guess it added some convenience in things like calling and ordering take-out food while driving home after a long day out. It made it easier to coordinate with people who have an aversion to making plans in advance. And although it was never realized, it’s nice to know that it was available in an emergency situation. But I can’t think of Big Wins.
So, while definitely didn’t turn into Cell Phone Guy, after a year, I guess you could call me a satisfied customer.
2008/04/24
2008/04/22
Head Above Water
Head above Water…
I’ve been working a lot lately. We’re right at the “go live” date for the big Trading Project at work, and there’s been the inevitable last minute push to get things all ship-shape.
One big issue is that we’ve been developing on a special Development environment. This is kind of a sandbox set of computers, where we can code up stuff, try different things, and not have to worry about sending live trade orders to Wall Street. However, this Dev environment only has a small subset of data.
Once we got things working in Dev, we moved the code over into a more official “Parallel Testing” environment. As the name implies, this environment is parallel to the actual live Production environment. So while it’s still a playground, it’s a full set of data (tens of thousands of accounts, instead of hundreds).
We’ve been doing performance testing in the Parallel environment, and uncovered some pretty serious issues. For example, if a certain process (placing an order) takes two minutes for two-hundred accounts, how long will it take for 1000 accounts? Since 1000 is five times bigger than 200, you might say it will take five times as long: ten minutes. That answer is correct ONLY if the processing time scales linearly.
We’ve found some cases were the processing time was scaling exponentially. Things that were perfectly acceptable (a few minutes) in Dev were taking HOURS or DAYS in Parallel (if we extrapolated… we’d killed processes after a couple hours). That was obviously unacceptable.
A small group of us worked pretty hard this weekend and made some really big improvements. Because some of the original stuff was designed so poorly, now that we’ve learned a lot, we were able to really see what was going on (lots of this stuff was designed by contractors who are no longer with us), and come up with some good fixes. What’s really satisfying about the whole thing is with some relatively minor changes, we took processes that were taking hours and turned them into minutes. Or something that took 15 minutes, and now runs in 30 seconds.
To make it a little more concrete: imagine that when you clicked “Send” on your email, you had to wait 2 hours to use your computer again. Now imagine that someone comes and tweaks something, and now sending that same email takes 5 seconds. We did stuff like that.
When the head of the Systems department comes in on Monday and calls you a “rock star”… that’s never a bad thing.
I’ve been working a lot lately. We’re right at the “go live” date for the big Trading Project at work, and there’s been the inevitable last minute push to get things all ship-shape.
One big issue is that we’ve been developing on a special Development environment. This is kind of a sandbox set of computers, where we can code up stuff, try different things, and not have to worry about sending live trade orders to Wall Street. However, this Dev environment only has a small subset of data.
Once we got things working in Dev, we moved the code over into a more official “Parallel Testing” environment. As the name implies, this environment is parallel to the actual live Production environment. So while it’s still a playground, it’s a full set of data (tens of thousands of accounts, instead of hundreds).
We’ve been doing performance testing in the Parallel environment, and uncovered some pretty serious issues. For example, if a certain process (placing an order) takes two minutes for two-hundred accounts, how long will it take for 1000 accounts? Since 1000 is five times bigger than 200, you might say it will take five times as long: ten minutes. That answer is correct ONLY if the processing time scales linearly.
We’ve found some cases were the processing time was scaling exponentially. Things that were perfectly acceptable (a few minutes) in Dev were taking HOURS or DAYS in Parallel (if we extrapolated… we’d killed processes after a couple hours). That was obviously unacceptable.
A small group of us worked pretty hard this weekend and made some really big improvements. Because some of the original stuff was designed so poorly, now that we’ve learned a lot, we were able to really see what was going on (lots of this stuff was designed by contractors who are no longer with us), and come up with some good fixes. What’s really satisfying about the whole thing is with some relatively minor changes, we took processes that were taking hours and turned them into minutes. Or something that took 15 minutes, and now runs in 30 seconds.
To make it a little more concrete: imagine that when you clicked “Send” on your email, you had to wait 2 hours to use your computer again. Now imagine that someone comes and tweaks something, and now sending that same email takes 5 seconds. We did stuff like that.
When the head of the Systems department comes in on Monday and calls you a “rock star”… that’s never a bad thing.
2008/04/13
Anti Virus, Schmanti Schirus
After reading an article regarding anti-virus software, I’ve decided that I’m going to disable/uninstall AV stuff on my computer. Anti-virus software that provides realtime protection does so at the expense of performance. Every time you load something up from disk to run it, your AV software will analyze it. This can seriously degrade performance.
Here are other reasons:
1) My computer is behind a well-configured hardware firewall. It’s invisible to passive scans. All ports are closed down, except those specified by me for various purposes. I’m not worried about network worms.
2) I’m experienced (I purposely avoid using “smart”) enough to know when something is fishy. I don’t download email attachments unless I’m damn sure I know what they are. (And no one I know sends me any attachments other than jpgs, anyways).
3) I’m generally a safe web-surfer. 95% of my web surfing is to the same sites over and over again. However, I do like to learn and explore, so sometimes that leads me on wild tangents through the web.
In all my years of being a computer guy, I can remember two virus incidents. One was self-inflicted (an unfortunate side effect of the whole “learn and explore” thing… I wanted to learn about viruses! And I was successful!) The other was similarly stupid (unsafe websurfing in uncharted pirate software websites). Both those were years ago.
So on one hand, I just don’t think I’m susceptible. And on the other side of the coin, don’t put a whole lot of faith into AV software anyways. I just recently watched my dad’s computer recently become infected (remember “smart” vs. “experienced”?) in spite of having up-to-date AV software on it. Even doing a scan with an online virus checker turned up nothing, in spite of an obvious infection. My point being: even up to day AV software is useless against new malware.
Finally, I have a backup system in place. I regularly take an image of my machine, so that if worst comes to worst, I can restore from backup.
So, all in all, I don’t think the dangers require a constant watchdog looking over my shoulder, micromanaging and double checking everything I do. I certainly don’t recommend that the general public uninstall all AV software, but I’m going to give it a shot.
If you don’t hear from me in a week, avenge my death!
Here are other reasons:
1) My computer is behind a well-configured hardware firewall. It’s invisible to passive scans. All ports are closed down, except those specified by me for various purposes. I’m not worried about network worms.
2) I’m experienced (I purposely avoid using “smart”) enough to know when something is fishy. I don’t download email attachments unless I’m damn sure I know what they are. (And no one I know sends me any attachments other than jpgs, anyways).
3) I’m generally a safe web-surfer. 95% of my web surfing is to the same sites over and over again. However, I do like to learn and explore, so sometimes that leads me on wild tangents through the web.
In all my years of being a computer guy, I can remember two virus incidents. One was self-inflicted (an unfortunate side effect of the whole “learn and explore” thing… I wanted to learn about viruses! And I was successful!) The other was similarly stupid (unsafe websurfing in uncharted pirate software websites). Both those were years ago.
So on one hand, I just don’t think I’m susceptible. And on the other side of the coin, don’t put a whole lot of faith into AV software anyways. I just recently watched my dad’s computer recently become infected (remember “smart” vs. “experienced”?) in spite of having up-to-date AV software on it. Even doing a scan with an online virus checker turned up nothing, in spite of an obvious infection. My point being: even up to day AV software is useless against new malware.
Finally, I have a backup system in place. I regularly take an image of my machine, so that if worst comes to worst, I can restore from backup.
So, all in all, I don’t think the dangers require a constant watchdog looking over my shoulder, micromanaging and double checking everything I do. I certainly don’t recommend that the general public uninstall all AV software, but I’m going to give it a shot.
If you don’t hear from me in a week, avenge my death!
2008/04/10
Collaborative Google maps...
A while back, I was playing with Google maps, and found that there is a “My Maps” feature. If you have a Google login, you can create your own maps to share publically or privately. I thought this was pretty cool. It was especially useful when the San Diego wildfires were raging… some helpful person created a map and kept it up to date with various fire lines and safe areas and stuff.
The first thing I thought of was that it would be fun to create a communal map. I thought it would be neat to make a map where friends could add favorite places to eat, neat things to see, etc. The problem was that the first round of My Maps only allowed the owner to edit the map.
But now that’s changed. I just happened to be playing around with Google Maps recently, and noticed that there is now a “Collaborate” button when you create a map. You can still set the map as “Public” or “Unlisted” (in which case you can only view the map if you know the direct link to it), and for each setting, you can have the map be updateable either by collaborators you invite, or by anyone who can view it.
That’s pretty cool.
The only problem I have now is that it feels like a solution waiting for a problem. I want to make a cool, useful, fun map, but I don’t have any grand ideas.
On a whim, I created a Publically viewable, publically editable map called San Diego Beaches, with the idea that people could add their favorite beach spots. I wonder if anyone will update it.
Even if I don’t have any great ideas, I still love the concept.
View Larger Map
Click on the "view larger map" link to see a full view (there's not much there now...)
The first thing I thought of was that it would be fun to create a communal map. I thought it would be neat to make a map where friends could add favorite places to eat, neat things to see, etc. The problem was that the first round of My Maps only allowed the owner to edit the map.
But now that’s changed. I just happened to be playing around with Google Maps recently, and noticed that there is now a “Collaborate” button when you create a map. You can still set the map as “Public” or “Unlisted” (in which case you can only view the map if you know the direct link to it), and for each setting, you can have the map be updateable either by collaborators you invite, or by anyone who can view it.
That’s pretty cool.
The only problem I have now is that it feels like a solution waiting for a problem. I want to make a cool, useful, fun map, but I don’t have any grand ideas.
On a whim, I created a Publically viewable, publically editable map called San Diego Beaches, with the idea that people could add their favorite beach spots. I wonder if anyone will update it.
Even if I don’t have any great ideas, I still love the concept.
View Larger Map
Click on the "view larger map" link to see a full view (there's not much there now...)
2008/04/09
Rock Band Robot Progress
My original idea was to try to drop steel balls from a height in order to simulate a drum beat. I looked quite a bit into stepper motors, which are motors that don't feely spin, but spin at a fixed increment every time you pulse them with a signal. They're a little complicated, but not too bad.
In order to interface a stepper motor with the PC, you need some sort of hardware in the middle to translate the PC parallel port signals into something the stepper motor can use. The easy way to do this requires 4 data pins (out of 8) from the parallel port, which means I could only drive two stepper motors. The hard way required only a single signal line, but some more intricate bridgeware.
I decided to revert back to my ORIGINAL original idea, which was to use a solenoid (which also only requires one signal line). In case you didn’t know, a solenoid is an electromagnet with a metal rod in the middle of it. Turn on the current, and the rod shoots one way. Turn off the current, and a spring pushes the rod back. So it's pretty easy to see how that directly translates into drum beats... just hold the solenoid over the drum, and turn on the current for about 50ms, and it rod strikes down and then released. At a local junk shop (Industrial Liquidators off Convoy), I was able to find little anonymous solenoids for $1.50 for two. What a bargain.
So, I've got software that creates signals, and I've got solenoids. What next? I need a power supply for the solenoids, and then I need a way to turn on and off the circuit using the PC.
I begged an old PC power supply from a workboy, and learned how to get those to run on their own (they need some internal wires connected, one with a resistor to simulate load). The PC power supply outputs 5v and 12v (red and yellow wires), and also has black ground wires.
After lots of research, I learned about a particular integrated circuit that would do exactly what I wanted. It's called a ULN2803a Darlington Transistor array. A transistor is basically a switch. It has an input, an output, and a signal input. You attach voltage to the input, and ground to the output, and current will only pass through it while the signal input is on. And this little integrated circuit is basically 8 of those stacked together.
So, I did a little test using an LED. I hooked up one leg of the LED to power. I hooked up the other LED to this IC, and I attached the signal portion of the IC to my parallel port. (I had to buy a separate parallel port card for my PC... my motherboard didn't have one, and even if it did, I probably wouldn't want to use it. $10 on eBay!). I wrote a little application to output signals to the parallel port. So, just like a lightswitch, when the parallel port pin has a signal, it will allow current to flow through. When the parallel port is off, no current flows, and the light turns off.
Electronics Test - Click here for more blooper videos
It worked!
So I tried hooking up the solenoid in a similar manner. I had no data on the solenoid (I even did a "live online chat" on the manufacturer's support website, and they didn’t know anything about it!), so I tried it with the 5v power supply output. I carefully hooked everything all up, and tried my little test application.
Nothing.
I checked my wiring, and found a mess-up (oops!). I tried again. Still nothing.
I triple-checked everything again, and decided to try the 12v line from the power supply. I started up my application, and clicked the mouse, and the solenoid fired with a satisfying *click!*. It worked!
Shortly after that, I modified my code to send signals on and off to the parallel port with a variable delay time that I could adjust on the fly. I started off at one second, and the solenoid clicked on and off just like it should. Then I bumped it down to half a second, and down to a tenth of a second, and it clicked on and off that fast. Certainly fast enough to keep up with the fast drum rolls in Rock Band.
So that's about where I'm at. One open question is if the solenoid fires with enough force to register a hit on the drums. I'm estimating that it does, but I haven't actually tested that.
So, I need to find a way to mount a solenoid on each drum. Then I need to find a way to actually get video input into my PC (beg, borrow, or steal a video capture device). I think those are the only open questions, and they shouldn't be that hard. All the hard stuff is basically done!
In order to interface a stepper motor with the PC, you need some sort of hardware in the middle to translate the PC parallel port signals into something the stepper motor can use. The easy way to do this requires 4 data pins (out of 8) from the parallel port, which means I could only drive two stepper motors. The hard way required only a single signal line, but some more intricate bridgeware.
I decided to revert back to my ORIGINAL original idea, which was to use a solenoid (which also only requires one signal line). In case you didn’t know, a solenoid is an electromagnet with a metal rod in the middle of it. Turn on the current, and the rod shoots one way. Turn off the current, and a spring pushes the rod back. So it's pretty easy to see how that directly translates into drum beats... just hold the solenoid over the drum, and turn on the current for about 50ms, and it rod strikes down and then released. At a local junk shop (Industrial Liquidators off Convoy), I was able to find little anonymous solenoids for $1.50 for two. What a bargain.
So, I've got software that creates signals, and I've got solenoids. What next? I need a power supply for the solenoids, and then I need a way to turn on and off the circuit using the PC.
I begged an old PC power supply from a workboy, and learned how to get those to run on their own (they need some internal wires connected, one with a resistor to simulate load). The PC power supply outputs 5v and 12v (red and yellow wires), and also has black ground wires.
After lots of research, I learned about a particular integrated circuit that would do exactly what I wanted. It's called a ULN2803a Darlington Transistor array. A transistor is basically a switch. It has an input, an output, and a signal input. You attach voltage to the input, and ground to the output, and current will only pass through it while the signal input is on. And this little integrated circuit is basically 8 of those stacked together.
So, I did a little test using an LED. I hooked up one leg of the LED to power. I hooked up the other LED to this IC, and I attached the signal portion of the IC to my parallel port. (I had to buy a separate parallel port card for my PC... my motherboard didn't have one, and even if it did, I probably wouldn't want to use it. $10 on eBay!). I wrote a little application to output signals to the parallel port. So, just like a lightswitch, when the parallel port pin has a signal, it will allow current to flow through. When the parallel port is off, no current flows, and the light turns off.
Electronics Test - Click here for more blooper videos
It worked!
So I tried hooking up the solenoid in a similar manner. I had no data on the solenoid (I even did a "live online chat" on the manufacturer's support website, and they didn’t know anything about it!), so I tried it with the 5v power supply output. I carefully hooked everything all up, and tried my little test application.
Nothing.
I checked my wiring, and found a mess-up (oops!). I tried again. Still nothing.
I triple-checked everything again, and decided to try the 12v line from the power supply. I started up my application, and clicked the mouse, and the solenoid fired with a satisfying *click!*. It worked!
Shortly after that, I modified my code to send signals on and off to the parallel port with a variable delay time that I could adjust on the fly. I started off at one second, and the solenoid clicked on and off just like it should. Then I bumped it down to half a second, and down to a tenth of a second, and it clicked on and off that fast. Certainly fast enough to keep up with the fast drum rolls in Rock Band.
So that's about where I'm at. One open question is if the solenoid fires with enough force to register a hit on the drums. I'm estimating that it does, but I haven't actually tested that.
So, I need to find a way to mount a solenoid on each drum. Then I need to find a way to actually get video input into my PC (beg, borrow, or steal a video capture device). I think those are the only open questions, and they shouldn't be that hard. All the hard stuff is basically done!
2008/04/08
Too Busy to Blog
I’ve been too busy to blog, so here are the highlights.
Allie is doing well. She brings me an immeasurable amount of joy every day.
Work is really busy, and mildly stressful, but generally going well. I’m looking forward to the end of the project.
My Rock Band robot project is actually coming along very nicely. I emailed Norm a big update which will be translated into a full blog post real soon now.
Life is good. Busy, but good.
Allie is doing well. She brings me an immeasurable amount of joy every day.
Work is really busy, and mildly stressful, but generally going well. I’m looking forward to the end of the project.
My Rock Band robot project is actually coming along very nicely. I emailed Norm a big update which will be translated into a full blog post real soon now.
Life is good. Busy, but good.
2008/03/17
The Revolution
My boy Fwats recently posted the following regarding his one year old daughter:
“I hereby refuse to continue on with using the month count to tell her age. For the next year, she has four ages, as follows:
-a little over a year
-a year and a half,
-almost two
-two!”
I wholeheartedly agree. Mod 12 math isn’t that hard, but “20 months”? Really? I have to do some mental gyrations for that to hold a lot of meaning for me. “Almost 2”… now that means something.
So I’m joining the revolution. After your first birthday, months are no longer allowed! I’ve even had some workboys join me in the fight.
That said, last night Diana was skimming a book about baby sign language (a subject which I’m not particularly passionate about, either way… anyone have any advice?). She read me this passage:
“In a long term study, it was found that by age 36 months, children who signed as babies were talking at the 47-month age level, putting them nearly a year ahead of their nonsigning peers.”
The 47-month age level? Seriously? Is this what it has come to?
“I hereby refuse to continue on with using the month count to tell her age. For the next year, she has four ages, as follows:
-a little over a year
-a year and a half,
-almost two
-two!”
I wholeheartedly agree. Mod 12 math isn’t that hard, but “20 months”? Really? I have to do some mental gyrations for that to hold a lot of meaning for me. “Almost 2”… now that means something.
So I’m joining the revolution. After your first birthday, months are no longer allowed! I’ve even had some workboys join me in the fight.
That said, last night Diana was skimming a book about baby sign language (a subject which I’m not particularly passionate about, either way… anyone have any advice?). She read me this passage:
“In a long term study, it was found that by age 36 months, children who signed as babies were talking at the 47-month age level, putting them nearly a year ahead of their nonsigning peers.”
The 47-month age level? Seriously? Is this what it has come to?
2008/03/14
Rock Band Robot
Warning: Extreme geekiness ahead.
So, I’ve picked up a new idea for a project, and it’s kind of taken over my brain.
At some point in the middle of the night, I got this great idea. I was going to build a robot that was capable of playing the drums in Rock Band (I know, but stick with me here). I was going to have a camera pointed at the TV screen, and write a program that would analyze the image to figure out where the notes where, and then trigger some sort of mechanism that would hit each drum at the right time. I had it all worked out.
When I woke up the next day and thought about it more, I realized that it was probably a little more complicated than I initially thought. But I figured I’d still poke around and see what I could figure out.
The first thing I found was that it’s really easy to write an application and interface with a webcam. In no time I had a little application that was capturing images from my dinky little webcam. I was halfway there! Moments later, I discovered multiple reasons why a webcam couldn’t be used. It was simply too damn slow at capturing images. I was getting just a few images per second, where I was hoping for something more like 30-50.
After doing some websearching, I found some smart people who made a robot that could play Guitar Hero. I noticed that they simply split off the video signal from the game (the yellow cable), and did direct video processing. Reading about video signal processing scared me. Video signals aren’t just frames of animation like film. There are keyframes and compression and lots of bits I didn’t understand.
However, I found a really cool programming library that does all the work for me. Basically, you feed in a video stream (webcam, VCR, digital video camera, etc), and it gives you each frame. It even allows you to use a video file as a video stream. So, I hit up YouTube and downloaded a video of someone playing Rock Band drums. I was able to load that up, get each frame of animation as a picture, and could then program against it.
The programming to analyze the frame is actually a lot easier than it might sound. The notes all fall down in the screen in a very regular pattern. Each color notes always follows the same path. So, on each frame of animation, you simply look at a particular point on the screen. I picked a small rectangle, and find the average color across that rectangle. If the average color is black’ish, then there is no note there. If the average color is red (when looking on the Red note track), then there is a note there.
Within an hour or two, I had a program that was able to dynamically “read” the video, and surprisingly accurately detect notes. It was only a proof of concept, but I’m fully convinced that I could do all the software necessary to complete my little project. No problem.
So I started thinking about the hardware side. How would I make something that would bang on the drums? Actually, I can think of a lot of ways. Some sort of motor with a stick on it that bangs down. Or a solenoid suspended over the drum that shoots down at it (like a doorbell, but instead of hitting a chime, hitting the drum). A really cool idea, however, came from a workboy. He suggested dropping a small ball-bearing from some height. I thought that sounded interesting. We talked a bit more about it to see what we could come up with.
The best idea I can think of is a hollow tube suspended directly over each drum. At the top of a tube is a big funnel filled with 1/4 inch steel ball bearings. The inner diameter of the tube is just over 1/4 inch, so the balls line up single-file. Without any intervention, of course, the balls would flow through the pipe freely. The plan requires them to be dropped one at a time (possibly in rapid succession). So, something needs to get in the way of the balls, holding up the train, and releasing them one at a time.
An idea I can up with was cutting a vertical slot in the side of the tube, allowing access to the stack of balls. Into the slot would be inserted the edge of a bicycle gear, oriented vertically. The idea is that the first ball would get stuck on one tooth of the gear. The next ball would sit on top of the first ball, and the second tooth of the gear would nestle in between the two. So, as the gear spins, a single ball is dropped, and the next ball is held in place. Using something like a stepper motor (a motor that moves in very exact steps) to drive the gear, and I really think this could have a chance at working.
And if it didn’t work, it wouldn’t be a big deal. I think there are lots of ways to create a simulated drum hit. I’m not too worried about that.
So, the next big question, and one that I think is interesting in its own right, is how do I interface hardware and software? How do I send a signal from a computer to do something in the physical world (no matter what that thing is… turn on a light, drive a motor, flip a switch, whatever). If I was able to do that, I’m pretty sure I could take over the world. Well, maybe not
Unfortunately, this is where it gets a little hairy. I’ve made circuits by hooking batteries up to light bulbs, but that’s really about the extent of my knowledge.
Lots of websearching later, and I found that there are hobby robot makers that do exactly this kind of stuff. In fact, they sell little kits and parts that make it all really easy. You hook up a little controller board via USB to your computer. Then you hook up various motors and devices to that controller board (motors, etc), and it becomes super easy to drive the motors. The problem is those kits are outside of the budget which I’ve set aside for this project (which is about $10).
So, that’s about where I am. I’ve found some online electronics places that sell little solenoids and stepper motors for just a couple dollars, which is pretty cool. If I could just figure out how to make ‘em go.
So, I’ve picked up a new idea for a project, and it’s kind of taken over my brain.
At some point in the middle of the night, I got this great idea. I was going to build a robot that was capable of playing the drums in Rock Band (I know, but stick with me here). I was going to have a camera pointed at the TV screen, and write a program that would analyze the image to figure out where the notes where, and then trigger some sort of mechanism that would hit each drum at the right time. I had it all worked out.
When I woke up the next day and thought about it more, I realized that it was probably a little more complicated than I initially thought. But I figured I’d still poke around and see what I could figure out.
The first thing I found was that it’s really easy to write an application and interface with a webcam. In no time I had a little application that was capturing images from my dinky little webcam. I was halfway there! Moments later, I discovered multiple reasons why a webcam couldn’t be used. It was simply too damn slow at capturing images. I was getting just a few images per second, where I was hoping for something more like 30-50.
After doing some websearching, I found some smart people who made a robot that could play Guitar Hero. I noticed that they simply split off the video signal from the game (the yellow cable), and did direct video processing. Reading about video signal processing scared me. Video signals aren’t just frames of animation like film. There are keyframes and compression and lots of bits I didn’t understand.
However, I found a really cool programming library that does all the work for me. Basically, you feed in a video stream (webcam, VCR, digital video camera, etc), and it gives you each frame. It even allows you to use a video file as a video stream. So, I hit up YouTube and downloaded a video of someone playing Rock Band drums. I was able to load that up, get each frame of animation as a picture, and could then program against it.
The programming to analyze the frame is actually a lot easier than it might sound. The notes all fall down in the screen in a very regular pattern. Each color notes always follows the same path. So, on each frame of animation, you simply look at a particular point on the screen. I picked a small rectangle, and find the average color across that rectangle. If the average color is black’ish, then there is no note there. If the average color is red (when looking on the Red note track), then there is a note there.
Within an hour or two, I had a program that was able to dynamically “read” the video, and surprisingly accurately detect notes. It was only a proof of concept, but I’m fully convinced that I could do all the software necessary to complete my little project. No problem.
So I started thinking about the hardware side. How would I make something that would bang on the drums? Actually, I can think of a lot of ways. Some sort of motor with a stick on it that bangs down. Or a solenoid suspended over the drum that shoots down at it (like a doorbell, but instead of hitting a chime, hitting the drum). A really cool idea, however, came from a workboy. He suggested dropping a small ball-bearing from some height. I thought that sounded interesting. We talked a bit more about it to see what we could come up with.
The best idea I can think of is a hollow tube suspended directly over each drum. At the top of a tube is a big funnel filled with 1/4 inch steel ball bearings. The inner diameter of the tube is just over 1/4 inch, so the balls line up single-file. Without any intervention, of course, the balls would flow through the pipe freely. The plan requires them to be dropped one at a time (possibly in rapid succession). So, something needs to get in the way of the balls, holding up the train, and releasing them one at a time.
An idea I can up with was cutting a vertical slot in the side of the tube, allowing access to the stack of balls. Into the slot would be inserted the edge of a bicycle gear, oriented vertically. The idea is that the first ball would get stuck on one tooth of the gear. The next ball would sit on top of the first ball, and the second tooth of the gear would nestle in between the two. So, as the gear spins, a single ball is dropped, and the next ball is held in place. Using something like a stepper motor (a motor that moves in very exact steps) to drive the gear, and I really think this could have a chance at working.
And if it didn’t work, it wouldn’t be a big deal. I think there are lots of ways to create a simulated drum hit. I’m not too worried about that.
So, the next big question, and one that I think is interesting in its own right, is how do I interface hardware and software? How do I send a signal from a computer to do something in the physical world (no matter what that thing is… turn on a light, drive a motor, flip a switch, whatever). If I was able to do that, I’m pretty sure I could take over the world. Well, maybe not
Unfortunately, this is where it gets a little hairy. I’ve made circuits by hooking batteries up to light bulbs, but that’s really about the extent of my knowledge.
Lots of websearching later, and I found that there are hobby robot makers that do exactly this kind of stuff. In fact, they sell little kits and parts that make it all really easy. You hook up a little controller board via USB to your computer. Then you hook up various motors and devices to that controller board (motors, etc), and it becomes super easy to drive the motors. The problem is those kits are outside of the budget which I’ve set aside for this project (which is about $10).
So, that’s about where I am. I’ve found some online electronics places that sell little solenoids and stepper motors for just a couple dollars, which is pretty cool. If I could just figure out how to make ‘em go.
2008/03/05
Rock Band
Tonight I finally beat "Green Grass and High Tides", the last song I needed to complete in order to beat the Rock Band guitar. It was the only song that was pretty tough, and it didn't make it easier that the hard part is 80% through a 10 minute (or whatever) song.
So, with all songs complete (most songs only played once), I have a career score of about 6.3 million points. According to the online Leaderboard for PS3 players, that ranks me about 1440. The list appears to cut off at 100,000. Not too shabby. I think I'm going to play through the songs again and see if I can nudge up the score a bit.
I also recently completed Drums on Hard, and made the jump to Expert. That's going to be a challenge.
I think it would be really fun to find other Expert players, and form a band and try to post some scores, if not on the full career, than at least song by song. I know Baditude can drum on Expert, and I apparently can do Guitar. We could probably find a workboy between us who can do Bass. Singing on Expert might be tough...
So, with all songs complete (most songs only played once), I have a career score of about 6.3 million points. According to the online Leaderboard for PS3 players, that ranks me about 1440. The list appears to cut off at 100,000. Not too shabby. I think I'm going to play through the songs again and see if I can nudge up the score a bit.
I also recently completed Drums on Hard, and made the jump to Expert. That's going to be a challenge.
I think it would be really fun to find other Expert players, and form a band and try to post some scores, if not on the full career, than at least song by song. I know Baditude can drum on Expert, and I apparently can do Guitar. We could probably find a workboy between us who can do Bass. Singing on Expert might be tough...
2008/02/29
Garfield Minus Garfield
This is one of the funniest things I've seen in a long time. Welcome to
"Garfield Minus Garfield".
From the page:
Who would have guessed that when you remove Garfield from the Garfield comic strips, the result is an even better comic about schizophrenia, bipolor disorder, and the empty desperation of modern life? Friends, meet Jon Arbuckle. Let’s laugh and learn with him on a journey deep into the tortured mind of an isolated young everyman as he fights a losing battle against lonliness in a quiet American suburb.
Office Mafia
So we’ve been having a really fun time at work playing a bastardized version of the game “Mafia”, also known as “Werewolf” or other things.
The basics of the game are as follows. A group of players (hopefully around 7-10) sits in a room, and each player draws slips of paper from a hat that describes their roles in the game.
The roles are:
Mafia – there are two mafia members. They are basically one team vs. everyone else.
Investigator – there is one of these.
Businessmen – basically everyone else.
There is also someone else outside the game who runs the whole thing (call him the Moderator)
Once the roles are chosen, the Moderator has everyone close their eyes. He then instructs the two Mafia members to open their eyes and see who the other is.
There are two stages of the game, called Night and Day. At Night, everyone closes their eyes, and the Mafia members are allowed to open their eyes and decide who they want to kill. They then close their eyes. Following that, the Investigator is allowed to open his eyes, and can silently ask the Moderator about a single other player. The Moderator will give a thumbs up or thumbs down indicating if the chosen player is in the Mafia or not. Then everyone opens their eyes, and the Day phase has begun. The person who was assassinated by the Mafia during the night is revealed, and is henceforth out of the game.
The Day phase is simple: someone must be arrested for the crime that was committed. As soon as the majority of the people vote on someone to throw in jail, the Day phase ends and that player is removed from the game as well.
So, in case it’s not obvious: The Mafia members are trying to prove their innocence, possibly by casting suspicion on other players. The Investigator may very well know who one of the Mafia members is, and is trying to get everyone to vote that person out (or, conversely, if he knows someone is innocent, NOT have the person voted out). The Investigator has to be careful, however, because if they reveal they are the Investigator, they will make themselves a prime target for the Mafia the following night. The other players are simply trying to vote out Mafia members and not innocent bystanders.
Days and nights are repeated until both Mafia members are thrown in jail, or everyone else is killed off.
We’ve modified the game to be played over email (and in person), and are using a “Hacker” theme instead of “Mafia”. The email changes the game a lot, since the Hackers can openly discuss their plans and strategies, instead of just silent winks and nods.
A fun little thing that happened in this game is that one of my workboys (who works on a very different level than the rest of us) sent out a pretty cryptic email that seemed to indicate that he was a hacker. I couldn’t think of any real reason why a non-hacker would want to draw attention to himself, but I COULD think of reasons why a hacker might want to openly say he was a hacker (standard reverse-psychology, as well as bragging rights if he ended up winning (“I TOLD you I was a hacker!”)). I pressed him on it further, and was able to get him to explain that he had his message was so subtle that the other non-hackers would understand, but the hackers, because of their mindset, would be biased to NOT get it. As I said, this guy works on a different level, but I am pretty convinced that he is a Developer (ie normal player).
So, I approached him privately, and we had a talk. I said that I was looking for someone to team up with and share information with, and I thought that the Hackers had a big advantage because they could work together, and the only way for the Developers to win was if we formed an alliances. He agreed, and said that was why he sent out his email. I told him that I believed him and would trust him. I said that there was no way for me to prove that I was a Developer as well, but I just wanted him to know that I believed his story.
Of course, being a Hacker, I KNOW that he’s a Developer! :)
So I “revealed” to him that I was a fellow Developer and said I was willing to work together. The fact that I trusted that HE was a Developer I guess was enough for him to return the favor and trust me. In fact, in the middle of our conversation, I left for the restroom. By the time I got back, he said “You know, I think we can logically PROVE that we’re both Developers”. Of course, I was all ears. The proof didn’t exactly pan out, but regardless, I think we’re good.
Of course, I’ve been in contact with the other Hacker about all this. In fact, we MIGHT try to have the other Hacker “reveal” himself to this guy as the Investigator. And the way he could reveal himself is by saying that he investigated ME, and found that I was a Developer (which would reinforce my story). Not sure if that’s a good idea or not, but it’s on the table.
Unfortunately, one of the players is out until Monday (which adds its own twist to the game), so the first actual vote won’t take place until then. That’s left a lot of time for public and private chatter, which has been awesome.
It’s all very Survivor-esque, and it’s been a ton of fun. I’d really like to try it in person some time. Maybe the next game night that has enough people.
The basics of the game are as follows. A group of players (hopefully around 7-10) sits in a room, and each player draws slips of paper from a hat that describes their roles in the game.
The roles are:
Mafia – there are two mafia members. They are basically one team vs. everyone else.
Investigator – there is one of these.
Businessmen – basically everyone else.
There is also someone else outside the game who runs the whole thing (call him the Moderator)
Once the roles are chosen, the Moderator has everyone close their eyes. He then instructs the two Mafia members to open their eyes and see who the other is.
There are two stages of the game, called Night and Day. At Night, everyone closes their eyes, and the Mafia members are allowed to open their eyes and decide who they want to kill. They then close their eyes. Following that, the Investigator is allowed to open his eyes, and can silently ask the Moderator about a single other player. The Moderator will give a thumbs up or thumbs down indicating if the chosen player is in the Mafia or not. Then everyone opens their eyes, and the Day phase has begun. The person who was assassinated by the Mafia during the night is revealed, and is henceforth out of the game.
The Day phase is simple: someone must be arrested for the crime that was committed. As soon as the majority of the people vote on someone to throw in jail, the Day phase ends and that player is removed from the game as well.
So, in case it’s not obvious: The Mafia members are trying to prove their innocence, possibly by casting suspicion on other players. The Investigator may very well know who one of the Mafia members is, and is trying to get everyone to vote that person out (or, conversely, if he knows someone is innocent, NOT have the person voted out). The Investigator has to be careful, however, because if they reveal they are the Investigator, they will make themselves a prime target for the Mafia the following night. The other players are simply trying to vote out Mafia members and not innocent bystanders.
Days and nights are repeated until both Mafia members are thrown in jail, or everyone else is killed off.
We’ve modified the game to be played over email (and in person), and are using a “Hacker” theme instead of “Mafia”. The email changes the game a lot, since the Hackers can openly discuss their plans and strategies, instead of just silent winks and nods.
A fun little thing that happened in this game is that one of my workboys (who works on a very different level than the rest of us) sent out a pretty cryptic email that seemed to indicate that he was a hacker. I couldn’t think of any real reason why a non-hacker would want to draw attention to himself, but I COULD think of reasons why a hacker might want to openly say he was a hacker (standard reverse-psychology, as well as bragging rights if he ended up winning (“I TOLD you I was a hacker!”)). I pressed him on it further, and was able to get him to explain that he had his message was so subtle that the other non-hackers would understand, but the hackers, because of their mindset, would be biased to NOT get it. As I said, this guy works on a different level, but I am pretty convinced that he is a Developer (ie normal player).
So, I approached him privately, and we had a talk. I said that I was looking for someone to team up with and share information with, and I thought that the Hackers had a big advantage because they could work together, and the only way for the Developers to win was if we formed an alliances. He agreed, and said that was why he sent out his email. I told him that I believed him and would trust him. I said that there was no way for me to prove that I was a Developer as well, but I just wanted him to know that I believed his story.
Of course, being a Hacker, I KNOW that he’s a Developer! :)
So I “revealed” to him that I was a fellow Developer and said I was willing to work together. The fact that I trusted that HE was a Developer I guess was enough for him to return the favor and trust me. In fact, in the middle of our conversation, I left for the restroom. By the time I got back, he said “You know, I think we can logically PROVE that we’re both Developers”. Of course, I was all ears. The proof didn’t exactly pan out, but regardless, I think we’re good.
Of course, I’ve been in contact with the other Hacker about all this. In fact, we MIGHT try to have the other Hacker “reveal” himself to this guy as the Investigator. And the way he could reveal himself is by saying that he investigated ME, and found that I was a Developer (which would reinforce my story). Not sure if that’s a good idea or not, but it’s on the table.
Unfortunately, one of the players is out until Monday (which adds its own twist to the game), so the first actual vote won’t take place until then. That’s left a lot of time for public and private chatter, which has been awesome.
It’s all very Survivor-esque, and it’s been a ton of fun. I’d really like to try it in person some time. Maybe the next game night that has enough people.
2008/02/24
2008/02/22
Blu-Ray, PS3, Rock Band
As a recent HDTV owner, and even more recent PS3 (and thus, Blu-Ray owner), I’ve been following the HDDVD vs Blu-Ray format wars perhaps a little more closely than your average joe. I’ve hated seeing competing formats, because I think it’s paralyzed a lot of people for fear of making the wrong decision. From a consumer point of view, a single format should give you confidence that you’re not wasting your money. The beginning of the end was when Warner Home Video (who makes up a significant portion of the pie) jumped from HDDVD to exclusively Blu-ray. This turned a pretty much 50-50 split into mor e like 70-30. They announced this at CES, and shortly thereafter, a big HDDVD press conference was abruptly cancelled. They must have been really shaken by the news.
Within the following weeks, Blockbuster, Netflix, Circuit City, Amazon, and WalMart all announced that they’d offer Blu-ray exlusively, or at least push Blu as the right choice. It didn’t take long for HDDVD to crumble, and within the past week Toshiba finally shut it down altogether. With HDDVD pronounced dead, Universal and Paramount (the remaining big players on the HDDVD side) were released from their contract, and within a few days announced that they were going Blu as well.
I read an interesting (if not conspiratorial) article talking about Microsoft’s angle in this whole thing. Microsoft not only makes the Xbox (which doesn’t come with but supports an add-on HDDVD drive), and I think is also involved with the technology behind the HDDVD software. If HDDVD “wins”, everyone would basically have little Microsoft computers in their living rooms. One report was that Microsoft was “writing $150 million checks” to various entities to keep the format alive.
Today, there is an article that speculates that Sony paid Warner up to $400 million to jump ship (and start the landslide). That’s a lot of coin. Lots of people are comparing this format war to the old VHS vs. Betamax war that our parents fought in. Betamax was the Sony-backed technology, so they may or may not still be smarting a little.
So, with any luck, consumers will all go out and buy Blu-ray players. Studios will start pumping out Blu-ray titles (Lord of the Rings, please?), and we will all watch our movies in glorious high definition (DVD is 720x480 pixels. Blu-ray is up to 1920x1080 pixels. More pixels means much more detail and clarity. To say nothing of the better sound that will accompany it).
Speaking of PS3s, I conquered my Rock Band drum career on Hard difficulty last night. Actually, I only had a few stumbling points (“Don’t Fear the Reaper” (one of my favorite songs) and “Run to the Hills”, notably). RttH required some time spent in Practice Mode, playing the song on a slower speed, and I still never really got the timing down, but was able to fake my way through it. Now, onwards to Expert difficulty!
Part of what allowed me to beat Hard difficulty was I was able to get in some playtime after the ladies went to bed. And part of what allowed me to play when others were sleeping was my little arts and crafts project. The Rock Band drumkit is really nice, but the sticks make a healthy THWACK when you hit a pad. A solution posted to the various interwebs is to take some stick-back craft foam (found in the kids sections of crafts stores), and put that on your drum pads. Then, on top of that, add a layer of felt. So, that’s what I did. I cut the circles of felt and foam at different radii, which I think makes it look pretty sharp. Cuts down on the noise a lot as well, which means I can play without waking anyone up. Good times. I also got a nice metal support and some Gorilla tape (strongest tape there is!) and reinforced the kick trigger, since I could already feeling it warp a little while playing. It was only a matter of time when that bad boy snapped (which has happened to many other players).
2008/02/20
The State of Adman
Hello everyone!
At the beginning of this year, my company announced, much to our happy surprise, that they were increasing the number of half days. Typically, the day after Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve would be half days. With the change, we basically get a half-day before every holiday (I think it was six new half-days), including this previous Friday! Given the free afternoon, and that Diana was going to be hanging out with my mom and her mom, it seemed like a perfect time to get away and play a little golf. Thankfully, Iwan and Little Buhr thought that was a good idea as well, so we hit up Lomas for pretty much the best day of golf ever.
Iwan was in charge of the scoring. Since we were playing multiple types of games at once, this was no small feat. We played normal stroke play (with Iwan giving me and Little Buhr strokes), as well as match play. We also played “Bingo, Bango, Bongo”, where you get a point for being first on the green, closest to the pin, and longest putt. We also played “Wolf”, which is too complicated to explain here. Most important to me, however, was straight up stroke play against Little Buhr.
Little Buhr and I have recently found ourselves in somewhat of a Tournament of Champions. On a recent Mammoth trip, we played many games of 9-ball. Over New Years, we played at least a dozen games of ping pong. We recently went bowling. In each of those events, he absolutely creamed me, and I loved it. We even did a Rock Band drum battle (him on Easy and me on Expert), and he beat me there, too! I’m used to being pretty competitive in games like these. At least, I’m certainly NOT accustomed to getting crushed over and over again. So I’ve kind of entered into my own personal challenge against Little Buhr, just for fun. He is now my nemisis (which, I should say, I mean as a compliment).
We talked about this previously, and he said we should hit the golf course and that I’d probably beat him there. And so we did.
We had a ton of fun golfing on Friday. I was putting my shoes off, hitting multiple 15 footers, as well as probably the longest putt of my life, all the way across a huge green. I think I had 3 birdies. When it came to the 18th hole, I did some quick addition and saw that I was winning by two strokes. However, I finished the last hole with a 5, and Little Buhr was putting for 3, and he made it. After he made the putt, I said that I thought we’d tied, but when Iwan added up the scores, I’d actually won by a single stroke. So, a point for me in a long string of losses. I know he likes tennis, so maybe that will be our next challenge. Oh, and we also talked about kicking field goals. I think we need to arrange a field-goal kicking contest, too.
Saturday, we visited my parents who were in town for the weekend, and it was nice to see them. Allison is in a stage where she’s a little leery of anyone besides me and Diana, but she did ok. I met up with Baditude and others for some gaming later that night (Shadows over Camelot and Bohnanza). Both games require a lot of communication between players, which rubs me a little bit the wrong way. I don’t like trying to convince someone what the best move is. I don’t like other people telling me what to do, and why it’s in my best interested to do that. I don’t like seeing people make moves that are “obviously” (heavily arguable) a bad move. So many “I don’t like” statements makes it sound a little stronger than I feel, but I think I prefer games where each player makes his own decisions. A little table-talk is good, but not too much.
The gaming went late into the night, when I got a call from Diana. Little Allison was not sleeping very well, and Diana needed a break. I came home and helped out for the rest of the night while Diana slept, and Diana took over in the morning and let me sleep late. That worked out pretty well.
In spite of some sleeping issues, Allie has been doing absolutely great. She has two new tricks: spitting and sitting. She’s discovered that, like a trumpet player without a trumpet, you can make a pretty cool sound if you purse your lips together tightly and blow air out. There was one night when she was lying in her crib, happy as a clam, spitting all over the place. I took a video of it, just to get the sound.
Her other cool move is sitting up by herself. In the course of a week, she’s gone from not being able to sit up at all (no balancing, just toppling over) to staying up by herself really well. And even if she does fall over, you can tell that she’s trying NOT to fall over by throwing her weight in the proper direction. It’s pretty cool, and fun to see her sitting up like a big girl.
Sunday was a quiet day, mostly recovering from the night before. Diana and I have been watching “Band of Brothers” again, which we’re really enjoying. Monday was a day off from work, and we walked around Encinitas and had a nice family day. We also watched the latest Jason Bourne movie (Bourne Ultimatum?), which I thought was good-not-great. What’s funny is that walking around Encinitas, we went into a bookstore and Diana saw the Bourne Ultimatum The Book. She read the back cover synopsis, and it sounded TOTALLY different than the plot of the movie. The book sounded like David Webb was living a quiet life until some bad thing happened, and he had to “reprise” his role of Jason Bourne one last time. Uh, what? Anyhoo, that was crazy.
Work has been going well. Our mandate of 50 hours a week has been cut to 45 hours a week, so that’s pretty cool. My Rock Band careers are continuing along (Guitar on Expert and Drums on Hard). I’m replaying Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and loving it all over again. I still simply can’t believe how much content is packed into that game.
So, there you go. Did I forget anything?
At the beginning of this year, my company announced, much to our happy surprise, that they were increasing the number of half days. Typically, the day after Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve would be half days. With the change, we basically get a half-day before every holiday (I think it was six new half-days), including this previous Friday! Given the free afternoon, and that Diana was going to be hanging out with my mom and her mom, it seemed like a perfect time to get away and play a little golf. Thankfully, Iwan and Little Buhr thought that was a good idea as well, so we hit up Lomas for pretty much the best day of golf ever.
Iwan was in charge of the scoring. Since we were playing multiple types of games at once, this was no small feat. We played normal stroke play (with Iwan giving me and Little Buhr strokes), as well as match play. We also played “Bingo, Bango, Bongo”, where you get a point for being first on the green, closest to the pin, and longest putt. We also played “Wolf”, which is too complicated to explain here. Most important to me, however, was straight up stroke play against Little Buhr.
Little Buhr and I have recently found ourselves in somewhat of a Tournament of Champions. On a recent Mammoth trip, we played many games of 9-ball. Over New Years, we played at least a dozen games of ping pong. We recently went bowling. In each of those events, he absolutely creamed me, and I loved it. We even did a Rock Band drum battle (him on Easy and me on Expert), and he beat me there, too! I’m used to being pretty competitive in games like these. At least, I’m certainly NOT accustomed to getting crushed over and over again. So I’ve kind of entered into my own personal challenge against Little Buhr, just for fun. He is now my nemisis (which, I should say, I mean as a compliment).
We talked about this previously, and he said we should hit the golf course and that I’d probably beat him there. And so we did.
We had a ton of fun golfing on Friday. I was putting my shoes off, hitting multiple 15 footers, as well as probably the longest putt of my life, all the way across a huge green. I think I had 3 birdies. When it came to the 18th hole, I did some quick addition and saw that I was winning by two strokes. However, I finished the last hole with a 5, and Little Buhr was putting for 3, and he made it. After he made the putt, I said that I thought we’d tied, but when Iwan added up the scores, I’d actually won by a single stroke. So, a point for me in a long string of losses. I know he likes tennis, so maybe that will be our next challenge. Oh, and we also talked about kicking field goals. I think we need to arrange a field-goal kicking contest, too.
Saturday, we visited my parents who were in town for the weekend, and it was nice to see them. Allison is in a stage where she’s a little leery of anyone besides me and Diana, but she did ok. I met up with Baditude and others for some gaming later that night (Shadows over Camelot and Bohnanza). Both games require a lot of communication between players, which rubs me a little bit the wrong way. I don’t like trying to convince someone what the best move is. I don’t like other people telling me what to do, and why it’s in my best interested to do that. I don’t like seeing people make moves that are “obviously” (heavily arguable) a bad move. So many “I don’t like” statements makes it sound a little stronger than I feel, but I think I prefer games where each player makes his own decisions. A little table-talk is good, but not too much.
The gaming went late into the night, when I got a call from Diana. Little Allison was not sleeping very well, and Diana needed a break. I came home and helped out for the rest of the night while Diana slept, and Diana took over in the morning and let me sleep late. That worked out pretty well.
In spite of some sleeping issues, Allie has been doing absolutely great. She has two new tricks: spitting and sitting. She’s discovered that, like a trumpet player without a trumpet, you can make a pretty cool sound if you purse your lips together tightly and blow air out. There was one night when she was lying in her crib, happy as a clam, spitting all over the place. I took a video of it, just to get the sound.
Her other cool move is sitting up by herself. In the course of a week, she’s gone from not being able to sit up at all (no balancing, just toppling over) to staying up by herself really well. And even if she does fall over, you can tell that she’s trying NOT to fall over by throwing her weight in the proper direction. It’s pretty cool, and fun to see her sitting up like a big girl.
Sunday was a quiet day, mostly recovering from the night before. Diana and I have been watching “Band of Brothers” again, which we’re really enjoying. Monday was a day off from work, and we walked around Encinitas and had a nice family day. We also watched the latest Jason Bourne movie (Bourne Ultimatum?), which I thought was good-not-great. What’s funny is that walking around Encinitas, we went into a bookstore and Diana saw the Bourne Ultimatum The Book. She read the back cover synopsis, and it sounded TOTALLY different than the plot of the movie. The book sounded like David Webb was living a quiet life until some bad thing happened, and he had to “reprise” his role of Jason Bourne one last time. Uh, what? Anyhoo, that was crazy.
Work has been going well. Our mandate of 50 hours a week has been cut to 45 hours a week, so that’s pretty cool. My Rock Band careers are continuing along (Guitar on Expert and Drums on Hard). I’m replaying Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and loving it all over again. I still simply can’t believe how much content is packed into that game.
So, there you go. Did I forget anything?
2008/02/05
It’s weird when universes collide.
As you all know by now, Rock Band came out recently. What followed shortly afterwards was a slew of grumpy neighbors and angry wives and girlfriends, tired of hearing the repetitive clack-clack-clack of the drums. I woke Diana up once, so I, like many other players, have been looking for a way to dampen the sound of the drums.
One of the more popular suggestions is using gum rubber, and cutting it into a circle and using glue or tape to stick it to your pad. Apparently this dampens the sound quite a bit, but also provides a good rebound effect (which apparently is important for good drummers… I’m not there yet). Demand for gum rubber is skyrocketing. Unfortunately, you can’t just go to the local supermarket and buy a sheet of gum rubber. It’s typically only sold at industrial rubber supply companies. So all of a sudden, you’ve got a glut of gamers all of a sudden talking about 40 durometer gum rubber and neoprene.
One enterprising rubber company in San Bernardino actually created a website purely as a result in the demand for gum rubber pads.
It cracks me up that quite suddenly, two completely disparate demographics (video game players and industrial rubber suppliers) are finding themselves in bed together. Who’d have ever guessed?
In more important news, life is going well. Allison is growing every day, and getting more and more control of her body. I’m pretty sure that her eyes are changing color. They’ve been a deep blue for the first months, but now are definitely changing to a steely sea blue/green. I think they’re going to turn green like her moms. I hope so. I’d much prefer that to my boring old brown. Her other big thing is standing up. She’ll tolerate lying on her back for a while if the mood strikes her. Tummy time is still going strong. Sitting (who doesn’t enjoy a good sit?) is apparently for suckers. Standing, though, is the coolest. She’ll arch her back and do whatever she can to get upright. It’s pretty funny. She’s just a little squirmy lump, but I absolutely adore her. She gives me a big smile when I come home from work, which is the best ever.
We went to the Wild Animal Park this Saturday, which was a nice morning out. Saturday night was “Rock Band and Ping Pong” night at Baditude’s, which was a ton of fun. I even managed to beat Little Buhr once at Ping Pong. I brought over my Rock Band drums and did some dueling drums, which was awesome. Sunday morning, I woke up with a migraine blind spot and Diana woke up with mastitis (funny how the word “tit” is in mastitis). Thank goodness for good medicine, though, as we’re both feeling a lot better. We headed over to Baditude’s for the first half the Super Bowl, and watched the send half at home. I don’t have any allegiance to the Giants, but I’m still sorely bitter over our loss to New England LAST year, so I was truly happy to see them lose. I was also happy for Mick, a lifelong Giants fan. Good times.
Today is Super Tuesday. I’m not very political, but I have found myself very moved every time I’ve heard Obama speak, so he’s won my vote. And I never get inspired by politicians. He actually won my vote at the 2004 DNC, before he even decided to run for President, and nothing I’ve seen has made me sway that opinion. I see him as young and fresh and able to unite the country. He may be inexperienced, but that’s not always a bad thing. And really, could he be any worse than our current situation?
I just had my annual review at work. Very vanilla, which is a good thing. I got high marks for working extended overtime these past weeks, and satisfactory on everything else. Then we talked about parenting for the rest of the time. Good times.
As you all know by now, Rock Band came out recently. What followed shortly afterwards was a slew of grumpy neighbors and angry wives and girlfriends, tired of hearing the repetitive clack-clack-clack of the drums. I woke Diana up once, so I, like many other players, have been looking for a way to dampen the sound of the drums.
One of the more popular suggestions is using gum rubber, and cutting it into a circle and using glue or tape to stick it to your pad. Apparently this dampens the sound quite a bit, but also provides a good rebound effect (which apparently is important for good drummers… I’m not there yet). Demand for gum rubber is skyrocketing. Unfortunately, you can’t just go to the local supermarket and buy a sheet of gum rubber. It’s typically only sold at industrial rubber supply companies. So all of a sudden, you’ve got a glut of gamers all of a sudden talking about 40 durometer gum rubber and neoprene.
One enterprising rubber company in San Bernardino actually created a website purely as a result in the demand for gum rubber pads.
It cracks me up that quite suddenly, two completely disparate demographics (video game players and industrial rubber suppliers) are finding themselves in bed together. Who’d have ever guessed?
In more important news, life is going well. Allison is growing every day, and getting more and more control of her body. I’m pretty sure that her eyes are changing color. They’ve been a deep blue for the first months, but now are definitely changing to a steely sea blue/green. I think they’re going to turn green like her moms. I hope so. I’d much prefer that to my boring old brown. Her other big thing is standing up. She’ll tolerate lying on her back for a while if the mood strikes her. Tummy time is still going strong. Sitting (who doesn’t enjoy a good sit?) is apparently for suckers. Standing, though, is the coolest. She’ll arch her back and do whatever she can to get upright. It’s pretty funny. She’s just a little squirmy lump, but I absolutely adore her. She gives me a big smile when I come home from work, which is the best ever.
We went to the Wild Animal Park this Saturday, which was a nice morning out. Saturday night was “Rock Band and Ping Pong” night at Baditude’s, which was a ton of fun. I even managed to beat Little Buhr once at Ping Pong. I brought over my Rock Band drums and did some dueling drums, which was awesome. Sunday morning, I woke up with a migraine blind spot and Diana woke up with mastitis (funny how the word “tit” is in mastitis). Thank goodness for good medicine, though, as we’re both feeling a lot better. We headed over to Baditude’s for the first half the Super Bowl, and watched the send half at home. I don’t have any allegiance to the Giants, but I’m still sorely bitter over our loss to New England LAST year, so I was truly happy to see them lose. I was also happy for Mick, a lifelong Giants fan. Good times.
Today is Super Tuesday. I’m not very political, but I have found myself very moved every time I’ve heard Obama speak, so he’s won my vote. And I never get inspired by politicians. He actually won my vote at the 2004 DNC, before he even decided to run for President, and nothing I’ve seen has made me sway that opinion. I see him as young and fresh and able to unite the country. He may be inexperienced, but that’s not always a bad thing. And really, could he be any worse than our current situation?
I just had my annual review at work. Very vanilla, which is a good thing. I got high marks for working extended overtime these past weeks, and satisfactory on everything else. Then we talked about parenting for the rest of the time. Good times.
2008/02/01
A Brief Rant...
Ok, I’ve had enough of this.
A huge part of my job is looking for things. Searching code for a particular bug. Searching data files for some little bit of information. Whatever.
Some ass-hats at Microsoft decided that the “Find” function in Notepad and Internet Explorer should be DIRECTIONAL.
So you get the following bullshit:
This is WRONG! This is BAD! This is NO!
Yes, there are workarounds: Jump to the top of the file and search down. Use Notepad2 and Firefox, which is what I do whenever possible. That’s not the point.
50 million Adam Points if someone can provide a rational explanation.
A huge part of my job is looking for things. Searching code for a particular bug. Searching data files for some little bit of information. Whatever.
Some ass-hats at Microsoft decided that the “Find” function in Notepad and Internet Explorer should be DIRECTIONAL.
So you get the following bullshit:
This is WRONG! This is BAD! This is NO!
Yes, there are workarounds: Jump to the top of the file and search down. Use Notepad2 and Firefox, which is what I do whenever possible. That’s not the point.
50 million Adam Points if someone can provide a rational explanation.
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