Feeding Ducks

Next Assignment

Work in my home state of MN has been pretty slow as of late. So slow in fact I was told to find work else where. The only position I could find that seemed remotely interesting was in Taiwan. So I've accepted a position there for the next 6 months. It could get extended up to a year depending on the workload. We'll see I guess. It's going to be weird raising kids in a different country, especially one where nobody speaks English. But it's going to be great opportunity to see another culture and learn a new language.

[Update] - April Fools!! I pulled a Ben this year.

It's April and Snowing in MN

So far this year the best part of my rotation in CA is this pic taken today by my sister-n-law.

vs today in CA

Yeah, I really don't miss that crap. I'm really not a snow lover as you have probably guessed.

Goodbye Grand Prix

The Grand Prix has been frequently beeping to inform me that the car needed an oil change. I wanted to keep the car until my rotation was over but the beeping got to annoying, and I might feel a little guilt if the car lost some life from not changing the oil for an extra 2 months. So I went in to trade it hoping to get another GXP but the Avis computers were down so they were doing everything with paper. At this point I didn't want to deal with it so I told them I'd take a Grand Prix or a Chevy Impala. So now I'm driving an Impala with a 6 cylinder. The car is so slow it sucks. I feel like I'm pulling a 2 ton trailer behind it, and to think I used to think it was fast compared to my Mazda 6. It's going to be real painful driving that when I get back.

The Send Off

Jens mom and Tina went back to MN yesterday. Since she's been here Hayley has refused to nap and she's been waking up early everyday. One of the mornings I went to get her and she flipped out cuz she wanted grandma to get her. You could tell Hayley was so alert to grandma's visit and she didn't want to waste a minute sleeping. Funny stuff. Anyway, on our way home from the airport Hayley zonked out. We got home about an hour later and she didn't wake up for another 2 hours. She was pretty much out for 3 hours. Hopefully she gets back to her normal sleep schedule.

Weekend Recap - Jens Mom and Tina Visit CA

Jens mom and Tina came for a visit while Tina is on Spring Break. Everyone has their fingers crossed that the babies will make an early appearance. So far it hasn't happened. Jen is going in for a stress test tomorrow and the last time the nurse said that if the swelling didn't go down in her feet they might have to do something about it... we'll see what happens since the swelling has gotten worse!! (She's got some big feet and it doesn't look at all comfortable)

We did the usual when we get visitors and a few extras - San Fran, Golden Gate, Zoo, Big Basin, and Gilroy Gardens. The drive to Big Basin was the most brutal drive, we had about 20 miles of hair pin turns on pretty much one lane road. On the way back we saw a biker down around one of the turns. We sat there for about 5 minutes wondering what to do as there was already a crowd around him and there was no cell phone coverage there. Finally the guy got up with some help and they moved his bike out of the way so we could around. I felt bad for the guy since he just biffed a sweet looken Harley. At least he seemed ok. We saw a cop a few miles up and told him about it so hopefully all is good. Some advice if you come across and accident in a remote area, try and write down the exact location. I felt like a moron trying to explain to the cop where it was cuz I really had no clue how far I had driven.

Anyway, here's the video of the week. I'm shooting for a minute or less a week. I left sound out, I'm not really sure if playing music with it is better or worse since my taste in music is terrible.

Weekend Recap

At one time I was going to start a video podcast of mountain biking around here but I didn't want to buy the helmet cam and supporting equipment. I'm thinking instead I'll start a video podcast of the kids growing up so they have something to look back on later in life. I plan on adding a feed to it at some point in time but for now I'll just make the videos. I'll be playing with different formats for these video's in the future and experiment with music as well. This first video has some pretty long scenes that will probably make it boring. This podcast has music because there's hardly any dialog. So here's the first in hopefully a long running series of video podcasts.

Weekend Recap - Twins update

The twins are 5lbs apiece which is above average for one baby at 33 weeks. Jen wouldn't mind if the twins were born today. She asked about being induced around 36 weeks and CA law forbids it before 38 weeks without an Amnio. So she's gotta live with a sore back and all for another 6 weeks or so.

We didn't do much else over the weekend. We enjoyed the great sunny weather as usual. We bought some kites and went to a park with Hayley but it happened to be the one day of the year the wind wasn't blowing.

Happy B-Day Ginger

err - Sorry I'm a day late.

Hope you have fun in FL.

Weekend Recap

Not much happened this weekend other then enjoying 65 degree sunny weather. We decided to buy a new camera that takes better video then our Kodak. We use our camera for 30 second videos quite often so our new camera is much better at taking video. We also wanted a thinner camera as our Kodak is huge. We ended up getting a Canon SD750.

MN Budget Deficit

Keeping up on MN politics and taxes, the latest coming out of the state is a billion dollar projected deficit fresh off the heals of a veto override of a 6.6 billion transportation bill. Now I wouldn't want to be in the shoes of our legislatures but I hope they'd take note to what's happening in CA. California is one of the most gorgeous states and most desirable places to live in the country. However, because of the higher tax rate, the wealthy citizens are moving out and the wealthy contribute a larger percentage of the tax revenue. Now CA faces a 14 billion dollar deficit this year.

The source article states:

"When California faced a Mount Everest-sized $14 billion deficit in 2003, one of the major causes for the red ink was the stampede of millionaire households from the state," says a report called "Rich States, Poor States" by economists Arthur Laffer and Stephen Moore. "Out of the 25,000 or so seven-figure-income families, more than 5,000 left in the early 2000s, and the loss of their tax payments accounted for about half the budget hole."

Raising taxes seems like a logical solution to fixing the budget, but like CA, many of the wealthier citizens might take their tax money an move out.

Jumpcut

Sven sent me a video he made on Jumpcut. I've never heard of it until now. Basically it's an online movie maker.

This is video created with Jumpcut just after I figured out how not to fall and before the weather got to bad.

Lake Tahoe - Kirkwood

Yet another item to check off since I got to CA. A group of us from Lockheed and a Yahooligan went to Lake Tahoe skiing. It was a blast. The morning started out with 4 of us meeting at Chad's to drive to the Sports Basement and catch the Bay Area Ski Bus there. We got there and went to check in and the guy said I had the wrong pick up location. Chad and Paul signed up a few days before I did so that location filled up before I signed up. So while I was wondering what the heck to do Sven noticed he was at the wrong location as well. Chad was nice enough to let us take his car to the right location and thankfully our bus left a half hour later. But we got there 30 minutes earlier since our driver didn't take a wrong turn

I haven't skied since 1993 and I found out quick that skiing a few times at Powder Ridge doesn't prepare one for skiing Tahoe. My skiing abilities were basically ski down hill until I was going to fast and then hit the snow plow to slow down with no ability to turn. Well these abilities don't bode so well on a real mountain. We hit an easy first run to get the snow plow feel back. Under normal circumstances I would've taken a few more runs down the hill to maybe figure out how to ski for real, but I was with Sven who is pretty awesome at snowboarding so I didn't want him to get board so we hit a few runs that led us to the other side of the mountain for some much longer and steeper runs. Every run we hit was a little steeper and longer but the snow plow was working just fine and there weren't a lot of big turns so I was fine. Then we hit one of the longest runs on the mountain, not to mention it was really steep. As we were riding up the lift I started getting nervous as this lift just kept going up and up and it got real windy and at the top our faces were getting pelted with snow/ice. It was at this point I wish I would've ponied up $40 for a pair of goggles. The Oakley's weren't cutting it. We hit the end of the lift and I stood up to get off and the chair hit the back of my knees and I sat back down. Now I'm 5 feet in the air starting to head back down the mountain so I jump off and lost a ski.

So I get my composure back and I'm ready to start down the hill. At this point it's learn to ski or ride down on my arse. I spent more time on my in the snow then I did on top of it. I was fortunate Sven was with me and every time I'd lose my ski's after a fall he'd get them and jump back up the hill to give them to me. He wasn't much of a skier but he was trying to give me tips and he noticed a skier shifting his weight to the outside leg on turns. I had been putting all my weight on my inside leg and i couldn't get my other ski around so this was a huge tip. A couple tries and falls later I had it down. Sven said it was really impressive how I improved by the minute. The rest of the day was awesome until the last run which I tried a black diamond. I think I would've been fine but I couldn't see a thing, it was a friggen blizzard and total whiteout conditions. After falling about 6 times I rode on my arse until we got far enough down that the trees blocked a lot of the wind and snow so I could see. After the run we called it a day.

Click here for some pics of from the day.

Race Day

You're thinking the Daytona 500 right? Unfortunately I couldn't watch it since I had lab time at work. Which bummed me out since I wanted to see how Junior would do on Gordon's team. I arrived to work to find the usual parking lot I park in blocked off and full of cones. WTF there's friggen race track set up and screaming rice burners hitting the track. How safe is that I wondered. These cars are racing 10-15 feet from light pulls. Then I thought about asking if I could take my rental out on the track. But I'm probably one of the worst drivers ever so I decided against it. Most of the cars were 90's looking, the Fast and the Furious wannabes, but there was a newer looking Corvette, Mazda RX8, and I think a Lotus. I was late for my lab time so I couldn't watch that long but it was cool from what I saw. It looked like each car got two laps and they they had to get back in line. They had a dude taking times and all.

So does your employer let you turn their parking lot into a race track on Sundays?

9-1-1 is busy

Friday Jen and I were heading to Blockbuster to get some movies. I was in the second lane from the right on a four lane expressway. There was an Explorer a couple car lengths in front of me one lane over and I noticed it starting to drift into the far left lane and BAM it nails the car waiting for a left turn signal and veers sideways into my lane. I slammed on the breaks and maneuvered away from the car and the debris left from the accident. For a second I thought the driver was going to just drive away but he/she eventually turned into a parking lot. I'm not sure why they just didn't pull over to the shoulder but whatever. By this time I'm past the accident and there are a lot of cars behind me so I didn't stop. I called 911 and got a recording asking if it was an emergency to which I replied yes. Then I got another recording saying that all lines were busy and to wait until the next available operator. I waited for a bit and by this time I figured someone else had gotten through or something so I hung up. I couldn't believe that 911 was busy. I wonder how often that happens and if anyone has died because of it.

Twins Update

Jen had another ultra sound today. All is great. The twins are 3.3 and 3.4 pounds. Jen checked what the weight is supposed to be and they're supposed to be 2.5lbs so they're growing really good. The babies are getting big enough that it's really hard to see them in the ultra sound. I thought as they got bigger one would be able to see the features better but it's opposite. The scan only covers a small portion of the baby.

Now we need names. I'm thinking Eric and Al after my brothers but Jen isn't going for it. All the names we pick are taken by the family or they're pets of the family.

Super Awesome

With Jen pregnant and not feeling the best we ended up just hanging out at the apartment to watch the Super Bowl. At half time I paused the game with our Comcast DVR and we went to Target grocery shopping. When we got back I started the game again and during the fourth quarter with the Patriots driving the DRV skipped to the post game celebration. I was so mad that I missed the last two drives but on the other hand I was happy the Giants won. I was a Patriots fan until last year when Belichick wouldn't acknowledge Payton Manning when he tried to shack his hand. All year I wanted the Pats to lose at least one game. I figured they'd win the Super Bowl but as long as they didn't go undefeated I wouldn't care that much. To stomach having to hear about them year in and year out would suck. But now that they've lost it moves the Vikings '98 season as the 2nd best team to not win a Super Bowl.

The Grand Prix

One perk of this off site rotation is having a rental car. If I don't like the car I can trade for a different one at any time. I pay for the car with a CC and my employer pays me back so it looks like I'm spending a lot of money on rentals, so now every time I get a top of the line model car. The rental I have now is by far the best car I've rented, a 2008 Grand Prix GXP with leather seats and satellite radio, it's top of the line. It's got a 300hp V8 and it's figgen fast. I love it and I wish I would've bought it instead of my Mazda 6. Although it only gets about 20 mpg with my driving compared to almost 30 with the Mazda. I think the extra power on the freeways here is totally worth it. Satellite radio is great too, but I wouldn't get it if I had to pay for it.

Here's the list of cars I've rented in order of favorite to least favorite:
- Pontiac Grand Prix
- Chevy Impala
- Chevy Malibu
- Dodge Charger
- Hyundai Elantra
- Hyundai Entourage
- Chevy HHR
- Mercury Grand Marquis (this car was so big I couldn't reach the radio without having to lean forward)

Potty Training

Hayley's potty training has consisted of buying her a potty chair when she wanted to try it a few months ago. We thought it might be easy since she was all excited about getting her potty chair. After she tried it a few times she lost interest. We tried to get her to use it a few times here and there but she never wanted to. Tonight after her bath she wanted to sit on it, I just figured she'd sit there and get up a few minutes later like normal so I didn't really pay any attention. When she got up she said all done and we got her PJ's on her. I went back to check just to see and sure enough she went #1. Hopefully she continues to want to use it. It'll rank as one of the easiest potty training efforts ever... knock on wood.

2 blocks from our apt

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22767192/

2007 - Cali Recap

A quick run down of what we did in California during 2007.

Walked across the Golden Gate Bridge and hung out in San Fran on multiple occasions.







Visited Muir Woods home of one of the last groves of huge Redwoods.



Went to an A's vs Twins game in Oakland



A couple visits to cliff side beaches at Stinson Beach.



Toured the tourist trap Sausalito where Matt found a new friend.



The Winchester Mystery Mansion in San Jose. Where the widow of Winchester thought she was haunted by the spirits of all those killed by the Winchester rifle. To ward off the spirits she never stopped adding on to the mansion.



The Monterey Bay Aquarium.





17 mile drive





Alcatraz





Gilroy Gardens





San Fransisco Zoo, the one where the tiger escaped.





Swimming at the apartment





The Children's Discovery Museum of San Jose



Fairy Land





The pumpkin patch at Half Moon Bay

Weekend Recap - Playoffs

Watching the NFL Playoffs was the highlight of the weekend. The Colts losing was so dissapointing as well as the Pats winning. It was just an all around crappy weekend for football. It would be so awesome if the Pats don't win the Super Bowl. In fact I'd probably cheer for the Packers if they play the Pats in the Super Bowl.

Jen and I also had dinner with a couple that has a girl Hayley's age and nine month old twins. It was pretty interesting hearing their stories. They said the most annoying thing about having twins is everyone in public asks them "Are they twins?".

Happy 30th Jen

Twins Update

Jen had another ultra sound and everything is going great with the twins. They both weigh 1 lbs 10 oz which means they are both getting enough nutrients. It was also confirmed that they are boys.

Christmas Shopping

I have yet to buy one present for the family. Working in a different state puts a big damper on Christmas, no tree, no gifts under the tree, lights, decorations, etc. I don't know what to get my wife. I asked her what she wants and she doesn't know so I told her she's getting an iPhone if she doesn't pick something. We've been going through this for a couple weeks now so I'm thinking she really must want an iPhone cuz she picked a gift yet. Getting Hayley gifts here in MN sucks because we can't bring them back to CA, so we're stuck with deciding if we should wait to get her gifts until we get back to CA or get her some here and letting her play with them when we get back.

Anyway, have a Merry Christmas.

Super Mario Galaxy Saves the Wii

Going into the holiday I was thinking of selling the Wii. All the games I've rented haven't been that great and except for tennis, baseball, and golf the wii-mote hasn't really had a great use. I rented Madden and I didn't like the passing configuration at all. I'd much rather play Madden with a game pad. With the demand for the Wii I was thinking I could sell it with the extra wii-mote and games and make enough money to buy an xbox 360.

Before heading to MN I read an article that said Super Mario Galaxy was the highest rated game of all time. Intrigued, I thought about buying it but I put it off to think it over. Eventually I bought it and tried it out. If this game didn't pan out it would've been the last game I bought without renting it first. The game has about 15 minutes of dialog at the start which was disappointing cuz I thought it was going to be like that throughout the entire game. However, as the play wore on this game turned entertaining as the it galaxies start out simple and teach the controls along with achieving milestones. The farther into the game you get the harder it gets.

I'm really impressed with the creativity that went into this game. There are so many different features to this game. Both the num chuck and the wii-mote are used extensively and both can be used for totally different functions at the same time which makes quick thinking a must.

I'm happy with the game and I'm not thinking of selling the Wii now. Hopefully the Mario Cart lives up to the hype as well.

Heading Back to MN

Enjoy the holidays all. I'm heading back to MN until after the New Year, and I'll have limited access to the Internet so there will be little activity on the blog. (I know at least one reader that will miss it)

911 Challenge!!

For the last three weeks we've been hitting up University Chicken. It's a college sports bar so we're pretty much the oldest bunch in the bar. They have an assortment of food, but they are best known for their wings which are friggen awesome, as long as the sauce is at the lower half of the scale. (shown above) Last night we saw two attempts at the 911 Challenge. The rules of the challenge are:

1. Sign Waiver and admit you are an IDIOT for attempting the 911 Challenge.
2. Eat 12 911 Global Thermo Nuclear Wings the to the bone in 10 minutes or less.
3. Nothing else to eat or drink while taking the challenge.
4. No napkins allowed during the challenge.
5. Lick fingers clean after eating the last wing.
6. After licking fingers clean, wait 5 minutes before eating or drinking anything.
7. The Most Important Rule: Participants — wash hands very, very, very well before going to the bathroom or rubbing your eyes (think about it)!

Winners get a T-Shirt and their picture put on the wall. After watching the two attempts there's no way I'd even think about attempting it. The wings are in so much sauce that the wings have to be fished out. The sauce is basically a deep dark brown thick mud. It doesn't look edible at all.

Two guys tried it first, both of them downed the first wing in about 20 seconds. contestant one continued at the same pace on the second wing, contestant two had to take a second before starting on the next wing. Contestant two finished the second wing and chocked a bit. The crowd around him started call for a garbage. He got about half way through the 3rd wing and started dry heaving. Now if that were me I'd quit right there, but he kept eating cheered on by the entire bar. After finishing the 3rd wing he took about 20 seconds off, he kept looking at the 4th wing and bolted for the door and threw up outside, disqualifying him so he was out. Contestant one was now on his 4th wing and I think he just quit after seeing his buddy bolt for the door, he seemed to see his fate if he continued forcing them down.

About 30 minutes later we saw another attempt. The guy brought out 4 tubs of wings for what I thought was 4 guys, but the guy put them in front of the 4 girls sitting at the table. One girl ate one wing and she was done. The other three were working on their 4th wing when we left. Over 5 minutes had past so there was no way there were going to finish the challenge. But I was impressed that they were able to eat 3 of them and who knows how many more.

Wild vs San Jose

We hit the Wild vs Sharks game tonight in San Jose and it was the boring game ever. The Wild skated like they had lead sleds in the arses, it was so pathetic. They turned it on a bit in the final 10 minutes of the third period but by that time they were down 4-0 so it was pretty much over by then. There were a couple fights but none of them involved Boogaard so that was a bit disappointing. I see in the box score that he didn't have any minutes and checking the injury list he's listed as day to day.

It was my first pro hockey game so that was cool and it was affordable ($26). I don't think you can get anything under $50 at the Excel Center. The HP Pavilion is a great arena as well. We sat in the nose bleeds but we could still see the game.

Big Screen Repair Success!!!

I finally broke down and decided to fix my big screen. A guy from work was nice enough to drive down from San Fransisco to help out. Mike had experience soldering but not much experience replacing chips. I opened the TV up and wrote a diagram of the circuit boards and all the connections free hand and labeled where each connecting wire should go, and any wire not labeled, I labeled myself with tape and a sharpie. Mike laughed at me a bit for being so cautious but I figured it would make a good check list when we were reconnecting everything to make sure we didn't miss any of them. We spent an hour on the first chip trying to remove the solder on the chip. Finally Mike figured out that he could melt the solder and push the pin through with the soldering iron. After figuring this out the second chip took 5 minutes to remove. Then we use the wick to clean up the solder from the empty holes.

Inserting the new chips wasn't that easy as the pins (20 of them) were really flexible and they didn't match up perfect so it was another 15-20 minutes to get the chips in. After being super careful reconnecting everything I plugged the TV and turned it on. There was no smoke so that was awesome, the 10 seconds or so waiting for the TV to warm up was intense. Did the fix work or not. The TV came up in setup mode and the picture looked terrible... but I made some big adjustments to the conversion when it went out in the first place so I reset the conversion and whoohoo!! the picture was perfect. A couple high fives and some fist pumps followed. I was so happy I saved a $500 repair bill. In all I spent $10 on the new chips, including another $5 for shipping, and another $50 or so for the soldering iron and solder. I bought a battery operated soldering iron which didn't have enough wattage so I ended making another trip to Fry's for a plug in soldering iron. So I could've saved $15 had I bought the right soldering iron.

The entire repair took about 2.5 hours. I probably wouldn't have figured out soldering myself had Mike not been there, so I owe him a big thanks and a lunch or two. He soldering the first chip in less then 2 minutes. He let me attempt the second chip and then cleaned it up after I was done. I'm pretty confident if I had to do it again, I could get it done in under an hour. I'm happy I got the experience of fixing it, not only did I get to try soldering, I got to see what the inside of a projection TV looks like.

TV Parts Are In

The parts for my Big Screen arrived today. Now I'm kind of getting nervous about cracking it open. I need a soldering iron and crap before I can proceed. Maybe I'll have myself talked out of it by then.... If I actually go through with it I'll video it and post it online for others to follow.

Comcast Crap

So not only is my only TV on the fritz, my Internet isn't working. I called Comcast last night and they said I have a bad modem and I should bring it in to get it replaced. They close at 6 and it was 5:50 so I had a night without TV and Internet. I've never been happy with Comcast since we got to CA. Their PVR box sucks, the picture isn't that great, and the Internet is hit or miss. But this was all fine for the most part cuz I was only paying $70 for it, not bad since we have a few premium channels with it. Our last cable bill was doubled since our initial year is up. So now we're supposed to pay $140 for crappy service, I don't thinks so.. and I top of it, Chad and Paul, who got the same Comcast package as us, at the same time last year, didn't have their rates raised. So I guess we won the Comcast "Raise the Rates" sweepstakes. What a friggen joke.

Weather

It's raining today and the forecast for the rest of the week has rain just about everyday. It could be worse though, we could have a blanket of 5-10" of snow with high temps reaching only 20 degrees like back in MN. I'll take this 50-60 with rain any day. Although I hope the snow is still around when I go back so I can build a snow fort with Hayley or go sledding somewhere.

!#@#!@#!@# TV is on the frits

After an afternoon of watching football I decided to hit Fry's. That place is crazy messy, all the displays were out of order and nothing matched to the prices listed next to it. I was surprised cuz Fry's is normally good about keeping the store organized and clean. I walked through the game section and an alarm went off in the Apple section. I looked around and nobody was responding. I also went to check out a video camera that I could attach to my helmet when I'm mountain biking and another alarm when off in the isle next to me. Again I looked around and nobody responded. Either this place is way understaffed or they're that busy.

When I got back home I turned on the TV to catch the NFL highlights and the picture is totally messed up. I spent about an hour trying to align the guns with the built in adjuster, switching inputs around and what not. This wasn't working so I went online to find the problem and it's sounding like a convergence problem that requires a couple resisters and two STK packs. Whatever the heck that is. The forum also said that it will cost around $350-$500 to have a repair guy fix it. For FAACK sakes, I can buy a new 32-36" LCD for a few hundred more. I also read a quip that said "this is common after owning the TV for 5 years", which is about the age of mine. So I'm going to have to replace this stupid part every five years at $500 a pop. Are you friggen crazy!!! arrggg. I'm so mad.

While researching this I found a blog with this guy posting about how he repaired his TV. He has a Panasonic 47" which can't be that different from a 53" so I'm tempted to give it a shot. If I mess up the TV, I'll just buy a new one. (A little anger may ensue as well) If I can fix it myself it should cost around $50. I guess I could ask around work to see if there's an engineer with some soldering skills. I'll smolder on it for a while.

ABC's

Turkey Day recap

The Thanksgiving break was awesome. Thanksgiving dinner is my favorite dinner of the year. A couple days before Thanksgiving Jen told me that she got an email that said we weren't having turkey this year from my sister. Man was I bummed for a few days. Later on Jen reread her email and it said "not to bring buns cuz my sister was making popovers" not that we're having popovers instead of turkey. Whew, crises avoided. One perk of being married is getting two Thanksgiving dinners. Thanksgiving has been dedicated to my family since it's the only day my family gets together. Since Jens family is more flexible we normally have dinner there on Sunday. This year we had it on Friday so I was a little stuff from the day before but it didn't stop me. What can I say, I love turkey.

So after having a great Thanksgiving I left my wife and Hayley back in MN so she could hang out with the family. I'll be heading back on the 14th. We probably won't make it back to MN until my rotation is done here with her being prego and all. Now what to do with all this free time. What else.. Game!!! and a little mountain biking this weekend. I was looking at getting a helmet cam. It would be cool to take some video of the trails here.

Audible Books

Walking through the book section of Target last weekend I spotted a book that sparked my interest. "Where Have All the Leaders Gone" by Lee Iacocca. I was tempted to buy it but I figured I'd never have time to read it. Back in college we studied what Lee Iacooca did with Chrysler so I've always been intrigued by him and I think he's a great leader. Later on after we got home I started thinking about the book again and I went on Amazon to see what the price was, but I talked myself out of it again. Then I remembered the Audible Book option, since I listen to my iPod all day at work this is a great option for me, so I searched iTunes and found it. So instead of listening to podcasts for a few days I've been listening to this book. So far it's been a pretty good book, (or narration). When it's finished maybe I'll review it just to get some notes from it.

Weekend Recap - C&C Tiberium Wars

Every other Friday Jen attends Mothers of Preschoolers (MOPS) meeting, that includes daycare, which gives me about 3 hours of free time. Normally I get up and get Hayley ready and then go back to bed. This time I stayed up and played Tiberium Wars, the next installment of Command and Conquer. I installed it and had it ready to go Thursday night so I wouldn't run into any issues come Friday. The three hours that Jen was at MOPS flew by and it felt like I just started playing when Jen got home. The game is great and I can't wait to try some online play.

Friday night we went to a good by grill out at Michelle's. Michelle's apartment is our connection to downtown San Fran so it's going to suck not having her around. The rest of the weekend we didn't do much. We pretty much sat around the apartment and took Hayley to some parks. I did get to watch the Vikes since they were playing Oakland. Man both those teams suck, 4 turnovers and the Vikes still win.

Softball

Softball wrapped up last week as we got blown out of the playoffs. The game started out pretty rough with a 5-4-3 double play. That pretty much set the tone as we couldn't hit or play defense. We gave up 8 runs in the bottom of the first and we never made it a game the rest of the way. We took third in the regular season and this team is the only team we got 10 run'd. We actually almost beat the first place team so going into the game I though we'd be more competitive since most of our team was gone the first time. But it was a fun season and we did pretty good considering we threw a team together that's never played together.

Macworld

Last year I wanted to go to Macworld but I didn't really have a clue where it was or the process of getting tickets and what not. It would be awesome to see Steve Jobs in person giving his keynote. Since I'm extending out here I'll be here for another Macworld so I started checking into. Pricing starts from $25 for a exhibits only pass, on up to $1695 for a Platinum pass. In order to see the keynote you need at least a User Conference Pass at $229. However, with the User Conference pass the keynote is first come first serve. I've seen video of the mad dash to get seats and I'm not sure it's worth the $200+ to gamble on attending the keynote. Maybe I can win some tickets on the radio or something or with all the hype pretty much gone from the iPhone buildup, maybe nobody is interested in going this year.

Hopes Dashed

Sunday started out great, I got up, had breakfast, had a few cups vanilla cappuccino creamer with a dab of coffee and we headed to local sports bar to watch the Vikings/Packers match up. All week I was excited cuz Bolinger was starting and every time he plays we seemed to move the ball. I figured the Vikings had a great shot to win this game behind Peterson. We got to the bar and just before the game started we found out that the game wasn't on since it was being televised locally. (ahh so a sports bar doesn't have local channels??? Way to go) So then we scrambled to a co-workers house to watch it on his 60" inch projector. I should have seen this as an omen and not watched the game.

Just when I thought the Vikings might be turning corner they go and get shutout. Worse yet, they get shutout by the Packers. This team is hopeless. I was so mad yesterday that I was going to create a new web site entitled www.FireChildress.com, but unfortunately someone has the address reserved. Who knows if a web site will actually show up or if someone reserved the domain name in order to make money. It sucks being a Vikings fan when they have a one of the worst front offices in sports history. From their owner to the GM to the coaches, this team is full of hapless morons.

Jennie-O Funnies

Twins Update

Jen had an ultrasound yesterday and everything is looking great. We also found out we're having boys so it looks like the in-laws will have a couple extra farm hands.

Jericho

Jen and I finished watching season one of Jericho last night. I heard that it was a good show on the radio but I never got into it last year when it was on TV. When the show was cancelled and the online community got together and successfully petitioned CBS to keep the show going, it sparked my interest. A few weeks ago, season one was released on DVD so we rented the it

The show is about the survival of the town of Jericho after a nuclear terrorist attack on 20 or so large cities in the US. This is one of the better shows I've seen and I can't wait for season two. Had the show been cancelled, it would've sucked not knowing what happened after the big cliffhanger. I was reading some of the fan posts and it was in the same time slot as American Idol so that's likely the reason for the bad ratings. Many viewers watched Idol live and TiVo'd Jericho, which brings up the point of how to handle ratings in the era of DVR and the Internet. Season two is going to be an abbreviated season of around 7 episodes, hopefully the show gains a large following so the network makes a season three.

Earthquake

I've experienced everything I wanted to in CA after tonight. Jen, Hayley and I were at a Halloween party when we started to feel a vibration that turned to pretty good rattling. At first we thought it was just kids jumping around but after a couple seconds everyone realized it was an earthquake and a semi panic broke out as everyone went for their kids and started heading out the door. In all it lasted about 5-10 seconds. We went outside and the water was splashing all around in the pool. It was a pretty cool experience as soon as we realized everything was all right. The Earthquake measured 5.6 but we were about 10 miles away from the Epicenter. Read When we got home and turned on TV and the news had broke into all major networks, kind of like the first big snow storm in MN.

Extend or Not

A couple days ago we got an offer to extend our rotations here in Sunnyvale. It's been a tough decision and I'm still not certain on what to do. With twins coming we really need the extra money. With the market the way it is we're probably going to end up taking a loss on our house... but we really could make it work there, albeit a little cramped. So is the extra money worth staying here and missing family and having the twins here in CA.

A little ink and some creativity

What happens when you leave a toddler alone with ink stamps for a 5 minutes?

Next Race - Silicon Valley or Golden Gate

Since finishing the San Jose Rock-n-Roll half marathon I've been itching to get out and race again. My legs feel fresh again after a few days rest and I had no trouble running for an hour tonight. In fact all week I've been thinking of racing again and how I can work to improve my time. There are two races coming up on November 4th, Run the Golden Gate, and the Metro Silicon Valley Marathon. The Golden Gate marathon would be cool since the route goes over the Golden Gate bridge and back, but it goes up to Vista Point which is a pretty steep climb. Chad said there's probably no way I'd break my 2 hour time on this race. It's also a big hassle getting to and from San Fran so I'm kind of leaning towards the Silicon Valley marathon. However, the experience of running a race over the Golden Gate Bridge would be pretty cool.

The Silicon Valley marathon includes both a full marathon and a 1/2 marathon, which is intriguing since I kind of want to run a full marathon sometime in my life. With Jen expecting twins this might be my only opportunity for a long time to run a marathon, and I'm probably not going to be in this good of shape after the kids are born. So I'm kind of mulling the idea of running the full course. This weekend will be my deciding factor. If I can run 15-20 miles without killing myself I'll run the full marathon, if not I'll settle for a 1/2.

Race Day

It was a great day to run my first 1/2 marathon this morning. Temps were in the low 60's with little wind. I stayed up a bit late last night so I didn't get as much sleep as I would have liked and I had a slight headache to start the morning. Nothing 6 Advil couldn't handle. Chad and I got there around 7:00am and warmed up a bit as well as finding Joe. I started training for this with a goal of beating 10 minutes a mile. Early last week Joe mentioned that he would be happy getting a time under 2 hours. I mulled that over and decided to shoot for the same goal. My best practice time was 2hrs 15min, just over 10 minutes miles so trying for under two hours was going to be a stretch. I normally don't run with a watch but I decided to today so I could tell how I was doing mile to mile.

I had a 10 minute mile to start and I was pretty upset by that, but by the end of the race I was running at a clip of approximately 8 minute miles. I was surprised at how strong I got towards the end. I've always faded in practice but running in the crowd gave me a boost of energy. Another big boost was getting water every mile. I've never run with water before so after today I'm going to change that.

The race was pretty cool, there were garage bands about every two miles playing music of all different types. The crowd was pretty thin in areas but I wouldn't' know better since I've never run a race before. Chad said that in the Twin Cities it's wall to wall fans through out the race. After today I'll definitely run a lot of 1/2 marathons. As far as a full marathon goes, well I might give it a shot someday but for now I'll stick to the 1/2's.

I ended up getting in under 2 hours with a 1:57:44 time. I thought that was pretty good but I guess for my age group I got in just under the 50 percentile. Next time I'll shoot for the top 40th.
Chad finished with a 1:48:23 time - full details here
Joe finished with a 1:47:49 time, just barely beating Chad - full details here

My results:
Place Overall: 2415 out of 8787
Men: 1778 out of 3985
M 30-34: 261 out of 587
AgeGrade: 49.70% Place: 4111
FINISH: 1:57:44 pace: 8:59
5k: 29:13 pace: 9:25
10K: 57:00 pace: 9:11
10Mile: 1:31:00 pace: 9:06

Hayley and I after the race.


Chad, Joe and I

Baby News ... X2

Just wanted to pass along some baby news. Two weeks ago Jen went in found out she was having twins, however, the doctor didn't see a membrane separating the twins, a condition called "monoamniotic twins" which would've been really bad news. The doctor said it's common that a regular ultra sound won't pick up the membrane cuz it's so thin so she scheduled a High Resolution Ultra Sound which we had today. The tech found a membrane in about 10 seconds which had Jen and I almost jumping around the room in excitement. Both babies looked healthy and they had healthy heart beats. They are about 12-13 weeks along and their due date is April 23rd. The tech thought they were probably identical cuz she only could see one placenta but the doctor would know more. Click on the picture above for a larger image. The babies are in the bunk position, meaning one is on top and the other is on the bottom.

Heading back to MN

My flight leaves in a few hours so I'm sitting around waiting. This weekend we'll be hammering out details on our house on what we need to do to get it ready to sell. Looking back I wonder if we shouldn't have just broke down and purchased a bigger house to start with. With the housing market the way it is we'll probably be stuck for a long time. It's a great location and we haven't had to stretch to make payments so I can't complain to much.

The ducks are a flying and it's going to be hard to be in MN and not out with the brothers hunting. I haven't been out for two years now so the itch is getting worse. My brothers have new dogs so I'm curious to hear how they do. Besides hanging out with my brothers, dogs are my favourite part of hunting. I would hunt just to watch the dogs work.

Wii Weekend

Since Jen went to MN on Friday I've played about 30 hours of Wii sports, mainly bowling. The Wii is cool but the remote is deceiving because it really only needs to move 6 inches for any game. I can rest the remote on my knee while playing tennis and just flick it 2 inches to hit the ball. Bowling makes absolutely no sense. I throw the ball exactly the same every time and the ball never ends up in the same spot. After about 100 games I figured it out that if you flick the remote sideways instead of straight you'll get a mean hook and major pin action, so it's way more forgiving when missing the pocket. Golf is fun but playing the same 9 holes over and over gets pretty boring. Boxing is dumb cuz the remotes don't work worth a crap. Baseball is ok but you only pitch and bat, fielding is done by the computer. It's fun to play home run derby and that's about it. I'm can't complain though, Wii sports was free with the Wii and it's provided hours of entertainment.

I was looking for a game to buy but I don't want to pay $50 for a game that I haven't tried. I have 2 free rentals a month from Blockbuster but they are always out of any game I'd be interested in renting. I'm almost to the point of trying game fly but I'm to cheap. I stick with Wii Sports for the time being.

So True

I got this forward today about You know you are a Californian if...... and I so many of these bullets are true.

1. Your coworker has 8 body piercings and none are visible.

2. You make over $300,000 and still can't afford a house.
- It's amazing how many BMW's, Corvettes and what not are in our parking garage. People can afford 60-70k for a car but can't afford a house.

3. You take a bus and are shocked at two people carrying on a
conversation in English.
So true, the diversity is unbelievable here.

4. Your child's 3rd-grade teacher has purple hair, a nose ring, and
is named Flower.

5. You can't remember . . is pot illegal?

6. You've been to a baby shower that has two mothers and a sperm
donor.

7. You have a very strong opinion about where your coffee beans
are grown, and you can taste the difference between Sumatran and Ethiopian.

8. You can't remember . . . is pot illegal?

9. A really great parking space can totally move you to tears.
I'd move this to numero uno. A free parking space will cause one to break out into pandemonium

10. Gas costs $1.00 per gallon more than anywhere else in the U.S.
Dam liberals

11. Unlike back home, the guy at 8:30 am at Starbucks wearing a
baseball cap and sunglasses who looks like George Clooney really IS George
Clooney.
Probably true in LA, not Silicon Valley. However, if you're into tech you'll see people like Kevin Rose from Digg or Steve Jobs hanging out

12. Your car insurance costs as much as your house payment.

13. You can't remember . . .is pot illegal?

14. It's barely sprinkling rain and there's a report on every news
station: "STORM WATCH."


15. You pass an elementary school playground and the children
are all busy with their cells or pagers.

16. It's barely sprinkling rain outside, so you leave for work an
hour early to avoid all the weather-related accidents.
haha kind of like the first snow in MN

17. HEY!!!! Is pot illegal????

18. Both you AND your dog have therapists, psychics, personal
trainers and cosmetic surgeons.

19. The Terminator is your Governor.
This would be weird if you're from any other state then MN.

20. If you drive illegally, they take your driver's license. If
you're here illegally, they want to give you one.

Fantasy Football

I play in a fantasy football keeper league in which we keep two players a from last years roster. Since Daunte Culpepper started for the Vikings way back in 2000, I've kept Daunte and Randy Moss. For the first few years I ranked close to the top in my league but generally fizzled at the end of the year along with the Vikes. Last year I had the #1 draft pick and I drafted as though I was rebuilding, so I drafted Reggie Bush and Joseph Addia. Both these guys split the carries last year with veterans so they didn't score that much. I ended up keeping them anyway hoping they'd carry the load this year. So far it looks to be paying off, especially now that Duece is hurt for New Orleans. I knew it was going to be tough to let Moss go now that he was with the Pats but for the most part running backs score more then receivers. So far so good as I've been in the top 2 or 3 in scoring each week with the help of Steve Smith who basically replaced Moss on my roster. Fantasy Football makes football interesting when my home team sucks as bad as the Vikes do.

Back to Ubuntu

About two weeks ago we bought a new computer after the wife got frustrated with Ubuntu. We got the new computer home and fired it up and it kept rebooting after an error message "The OS didn't install correctly and will restart". After a fresh install, registration and what not the computer was up and running. I tried installing a wireless USB card but it wasn't supported by Vista and I had it working but Vista was never stable after that. It kept freezing up and we had 3-4 blue screens of death. (I thought that was fixed, I never got one with XP) The wife was not at all pleased with this and she wasn't listening to my argument that it was the wireless card and not Vista. I thought I had it stable after reinstalling an updated driver but the wife claimed to still have issues with it so we ended up returning it yesterday.

Jen emailed a friend who owns a Mac and she talked Jen into wanting one. I told the tech at Fry's that we're thinking of getting a Mac and he said he's had a bunch of people return their new Vista machine for a Mac. I'm on the fence with getting a Mac, but at least with Apple moving to Intel processors I can fall back on running a dual boot system with Windows and/or Ubuntu.

My Electric Output

276 WATTS Body Battery Calculator - Find Out How Much Electricity Your Body is Producing

I discovered this web site via digg that calculates how much electricity one generates. Here are my numbers.

Your Body is Producing 276 Watts!
This is 38% MORE wattage than the average person

* You could light up 3 light bulbs
* You could power 69 iPods
* You could power 1 Xbox 360
* 4 of you would be needed to keep a refrigerator running

I wonder if one would burn calories while acting as a battery.

5K Walk Run

Today at work we had a 5K Walk Run. I ran it in just under 23 minutes. I was shocked at my time since my goal was 27 minutes (approx 9 minute miles). I placed about 20th overall which I didn't think was to bad. I didn't know what to expect since I haven't run a race since 9th grade. On a normal run I don't push myself at all. Even though I said I wasn't going to let other runners effect my time I totally caved after the race started. I used the first half mile to warm up and then started eyeing people in front of me to catch. I didn't get passed after that. Towards the end I swapped positions with this guy, after passing him he must have thought "I can take this guy" then ran past me. I let him go for about 30 seconds and then blew past him. Before I knew it Chad was waiting about 100 yards from the finish. I had no clue the finish was that close since we ran past it a couple times already, so I sprinted the last 100 yards passing about 10 people in the process. Chad placed 10th overall and 3rd in his age group with a time of 17 minutes, Joe placed in the top 20 and 5th in the 30-39 age group with a time of 21.

This was a great experience to get before the Rock-n-Roll marathon coming up. I know that no matter how hard I try not to let it, other runners will affect my pace so I'll have to take that into account so I don't die at the end of the race.

Up with the Yo-Yo

So I haven't been paying that much attention to my weight lately. I figure it probably hasn't changed much since I've been working out pretty regularly. Yesterday I stepped on the scale and I was 210lbs. How the heck did I gain 15ish pounds in less then a month. I guess a bowl of ice cream here an there will do the trick. Now it's back to the dieting and hard-core working out to get down again. (What to do with the three left over quarts of ice cream in the freezer) I hate being old, when I was 18 I could eat a huge serving of ice cream everyday, sometimes twice a day, and not gain a pound.

I signed up for the San Jose Rock and Roll 1/2 marathon. Hopefully training for it will help with some weight loss motivation.

F/A-22

Just an interesting tid-bit I got in an email. Some co-workers have seen the assembly line of the F-22, how cool would that be. Make sure to click on the link at the end to watch the video. It's awesome


The New F/A-22

Fast (super-cruise*) and stealthy, and integrated avionics are cool, but what's really impressive is the F/A-22s low speed stability and maneuverability. In the late 40s and to early 60s aeronautical engineers were going nuts on how to shape intakes to handle both subsonic and super-sonic air flows, without stagnation or compressor stalls. Supersonic in itself was a big challenge because you had to use shock waves to slow the intake air mass to sub-sonic before it hit the compressor blades, or they would stall. The engineers figured it out, but the solution was keeping a lot of air going in the front end to make sure the all hot air kept going out the back end. As you watch this Mach 2 airplane suspend motionless in air and do tail slides, be aware of the truly amazing performance of the engines and intakes.

Some used to think the Su-27 / Su-31 "Cobra" maneuver was the epitome of 3rd to 4th generation fighter maneuverability. That snap maneuver doesn't hold a candle to what this two-dimensional vectored-thrust fighter with fat independent horizontal stabs can do at low speed. There must be far more tricks up its sleeve in the high subsonic dogfight speed range.

ACC (Air Combat Command) recently approved the Raptor's new DEMO profile. This was the first show. The F/A-22 can sustain supersonic flight without the use of fuel-gulping afterburners.

The video is about 5 minutes long but the last 30-40 seconds are priceless.

Weekend Recap - Great America and Kids Discovery

I had lab Thursday night to Friday morning 10pm-6am so that put a damper on the three day weekend. Friday I was pretty much shot for the day. We did manage to take Hayley to the mall for some play time and Jen and I got our eyes checked. I'm still have between 20/20 and 30/20 eye site. Not bad considering I had really bad eyes growing up, so bad that I had bi-focals in 6th grade.

Saturday we wore Hayley out at Great America. She rode a couple rides and then spent about two hours on the kid playground going down slides and climbing ropes. She's getting really good at climbing compared to the last time we were there.

Yesterday we hit the Discovery Museum in San Jose. Hayley played so hard that she ended up taking a 3 hour nap which pretty much wrapped up the day. We finished the day by getting some groceries at Costco. That place is almost as bad as sitting in rush hour, there are so many friggen shoppers in there. Every checkout line is 15 deep. Hey Costco, add some checkout stands!!! I can't believe people keep going back to that place.

Cloudy Days

I looked at the sky in shock that it was actually cloudy at mid-day. Although it's cloudy sometimes in the morning, it quickly burns off and there's rarely a cloud in the sky. I started to wonder if the rainy season is soon to set in until someone mentioned the clouds are from the forest fire that's about 20 miles from here. So far the fire has burned 27,000 acres of land. That's crazy to think. It's a little over whelming to think that this fire is causing the sky to look like major overcast. Fires are a side effect of living with the best weather one could ask for in a summer.

Final out ... cough cough CHOKE!!!

Last night I played softball for the first time in year. We were beating the other team by 3 runs when two of our players had to leave. So we played with 9 guys from then on. By the bottom of the 7th we were down by 2. We managed to get the first two runners on 1st and 2nd. A sac fly later and the runners are on 2nd and 3rd. The next guy flew out and advanced the runners. So we're down 1 with a guy on 3rd, two down and I'm up. I let a perfect pitch go by for a strike so I had to swing at anything close. The next pitch was high but I didn't want to chance striking out so I hit it and skied it to short. Kind of a bummer to make the final out with the tying run on 3rd. Although, I have an excuse... It's tough to hit with two hands around your throat.

B-Day pic at DQ

This is old but Dan finally sent this pic...

I miss the DQ big time out here so we drove the 20 or so miles to the closest DQ during lunch. We got there only to find out they had little seating. Two tables total and one table was occupied by a lady reading a book. So we rounded up some tables and ate outside. Good times.

Unplanned Trip to MN

I had to take an unplanned trip to MN when Jens Grandpa took a turn for the worse. Jens grandpa had 10 kids and most of them would bring there families every Thanksgiving and Christmas. Now that her grandpa passed away they don't think they'll be getting together now that his big house is going to be sold. The same thing happened to my family when my grandma passed away and now I don't ever see my aunts and uncles and their families. Kind of a bummer cuz it's fun to hang out with families.

Latent Print Examiner

I have a buddy, Scott, that works for the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) as a Latent Print Examiner (fancy name for an finger print specialist). I got an email from him today saying he helped crack a murder case in MN. Read it here. Kind of makes what I do feel a little less cool. But then again I couldn't have passed all the chemsitry had to take in college so it's all good. Having a buddy work for the BCA is cool, there's always soemthing new to talk about when we hang out. Instead of watching CSI we get to hear about the real deal.

One weekend Scott went out with us to the bars while he was on call. Since he was on call he was our DD. Around midnight he gets a page the reads "Murder scene Willmar", what are the friggen odds of that. The one night we go out while he's on call and there's crime scene in my home town. Crazy stuff... But to top it off while he was racing to drop us off and head down to the BCA he get's pulled over. He show's the cop the pager, with 5 drunks in the exploder the cop doesn't believe him so he heads back to his car to verify it and comes back laughing saying he's never heard that excuse before and lets him off.

Madden '08

Madden '08 comes out today. I'm not sure if I want it or not. I'm quite satisfied playing Techmo Super Bowl. The simple game play is great. Madden has become so complicated that I can't pick three solid plays that work most of the time. Instead one has to be an understudy in offensive and defensive strategy. Bring back the good ol days, when I played offense and Scott play defense.

Happy B-Day to me

Today I turn 33. Unbelievable. Time is flying by. I got a wake up call from Jen and Hayley wishing me a Happy B-Day. Hayley said "Happy Birthday" really good, it was awesome. So what to do on a Monday B-Day, what else, head on down to the DQ in Mountain View and have a Sunday Cone Blizzard for lunch. After work a few of us are getting together to grill, drink a few beers, and at least I'll have a cigar. Good times.

Happy B-Day Dad

Hope you had a great B-Day.

iPod on Ubuntu *#$@#@

The last few days I've been fighting to try and get my iPod to work on Linux. There's a bunch of different software packages that I've tried to no avail. So far Amarok seems to recognize iPod and **Syncs** the best. After I synced new versions of podcasts to the iPod I check the iPod to see if they are there and I get nothing. Then I plug the iPod back in and the podcasts are supposedly on the device. I'm not sure if I should be upset at Ubuntu or Apple. Ubuntu is kind of a pain in the arse. There are tons of forums and stuff but trying to find the information pertaining to the issues I'm having kind of suck. Before you know it 4 hours have passed, and it's midnight, trying to troubleshoot an issue. I'm thinking I'd just rather have an OS that works then dealing with this crap. Maybe if I was in college where I had no problem staying up all hours into the night tinkering with computers it wouldn't be so bad.

A new iMac or PC???

So with my computer on the fritz, we're considering purchasing a new one. I see the new iMacs came out today. So the temptation is there to make a switch. But that $1400+ price tag is tough to swallow. There's a computer at Fry's that runs just over $700 that's pretty fast and loaded with Ram. hmm. What to do...

Awesome

My B-day is coming up, I think I'm going to pass on the Wii and ask for this. If you're a hunter you'll love this.

Weekend wrap: Ubuntu

After a computer hard-drive crash I spend the weekend trying to get the computer up and running. I have two hard-drives so most of my important data is backed up on the second HD. But it's been a little while since my last backup so I wanted to get into the main HD that crashed. I left my windows CD's in MN and I didn't want to spend money on it so I got my work laptop and downloaded Ubuntu.

After downloading Ubuntu and burning it to a CD I hassled with it for a while to get it to load on a partition that didn't have anything of importance on it. Ubuntu works great on hardware that's not out of the ordinary, however, I have a wireless USB stick that I use for networking so I don't have a 25 ft long cable running across the living room. This USB stick cost me 1/2 my Sunday trying to get to work. (My computer almost ended up like the fax machine from Office Space) And now that I got it working I'm afraid to shut down my PC for fear of it freezing up after startup.

So know I get to experience Linux for a while until I get my Windows CD's. So far it's pretty cool, the only software I need that it doesn't have is iTunes which really sucks. If Linux had better driver support for hardware I'd say it's ready for the mainstream desktop market.

Volleyball

I joined a volleyball league this summer. It's the first time I've played since high school. The team that asked me to play said I had to play with the Bump, Set, Spike mentality and no just hitting the ball over. I've never played like that. I've always just tried to hit the ball back to the other side. It's a four man team so we play with the diamond format, 1 up, 2 middle, 1 back. It's taken a few weeks to get used to it but last week we played really well even though we lost both our matches. I think by the time the playoffs start we'll be rocken.

So know that I've been playing volleyball I'm thinking of getting a net and what so we can play at home. However, if I get one will it just sit in the closest and end up being another useless purchase? Maybe I should just apply that money towards the purchase of a Wii. My B-Day is coming up and a Wii sounds like a pretty good present. Now if I could only find them in stock somewhere.

Bye Bye Franchise

KG was traded yesterday to the Celtics. Although the T-Wolves were going to suck with or without him it sad to see him go. It's the end of an era in MN basketball. Jen and I used to have season tickets to the T-Wolves and it was a blast going to the games and now and then we'd see my sister there and we'd team as two of the loudest fans at the Target Center. The T-Wolves weren't the best team in the NBA but they were pretty competitive. KG was always the guy that kept the team in the game and although he has the reputation of not being to win games at the end, he always kept it close. It's sad to see KG go but he's got a much better chance to win a title in Boston.

Tecmo Super Bowl

The glory days of the early nineties were back for a night when Jen went out in San Fransisco with some friends. I stayed home to watch Hayley. After she went to bed I fired up the X-Box to play some Tecmo Super Bowl. I played a season as the Oakland Raiders with the greatest running back of any console football game... Bo Jackson. He opened the season with a 350 yard performance. He had a steller season with close to 2000 yards rushing. I get bored running the ball all the time so I tend to pass more after a few games so he could've had a lot more yards. I actually lost 3 season games and I was losing the AFC championship game by 20+ plus points when I decided to restart the game. After regrouping I crushed the Bills 51-0 and went on to win the Super Bowl 42-7 against the Vikings. Good times. I can't wait until the next girls night so I play another season and attempt a perfect season.

Formax Slicers

Yesterday I was talking to a co-worker about the glory days of working at Jennie-O. I was boasting about being a mechanic and fixing machines and how that was one of my favorite jobs I've ever had. The slicers they had there were one of the most phenomenal machines I've ever seen. Trying to explain it just doesn't do it justice so I went online and found this demo video of the slicer. It can slices over 100 stacks of meat a minute along with weighing each stack and accepting or rejecting the stack if it's over or under weight. So read about it here if you want or or just watch the video.

Wine Country

 

 

 

 

Santa Cruz - Boardwalk and Beach

Sunday we spent the day at Santa Cruz hanging out at the beach. The sand is not as good as Clearwaters, but it is a much larger beach and it is has better scenic view. Where Clearwater is more of beach to hang out on, Santa Cruz has a board walk with a theme park on the beach. It's pretty cool. After a few hours of throwing the football around and playing some volleyball we hit he them park. We were buying tickets to ride some of the rides when this lady handed us her braclets to ride all day for free. The rides were pretty cool except for Double Shot, which is similiar to the Power Tower. All I could think about is losing my feet but I survived. Traffic to and from the beach was pretty bad but other then that it was pretty cool. Check it out if you're ever in the area. http://www.beachboardwalk.com/

Happy B-Day Toni

I didn't get time to post an entry Saturday so this is a belated happy birthday to my sister Toni. Sorry I'm late. Hope it was fun.