Dreaming of things that never were

Moved

2011-10-11T16:36:00.001-07:00

Sorry no one is home anymore. I have moved (and copied all this content plus some) to my new blog home : http://nodsw.com/blog/leeland

Come on over.

Thanks for reading this far.

Video / Image sharing for knowledge

2008-03-26T13:47:00.001-07:00

moved to http://nodsw.com/blog/leeland/2008/03/28-video-image-sharing-knowledge

Where have all the good projects gone?

2008-03-19T10:20:00.000-07:00

moved to http://nodsw.com/blog/leeland/2008/03/19-where-have-all-good-projects-gone

If the backup fails is it really a failure?

2008-03-17T09:16:00.000-07:00

Moved to http://nodsw.com/blog/leeland/2008/03/17-if-backup-fails-it-really-failure

First Sleep - Intermission - Second Sleep

2008-01-08T09:58:00.000-08:00

moved to http://nodsw.com/blog/leeland/2008/01/08-first-sleep-intermission-second-sleep

Behavior-Driven Development

2007-12-31T10:43:00.000-08:00

moved to http://dreamingthings.blogspot.com/2007/12/behavior-driven-development.html

OK so I finally got a Wii

2007-05-21T12:20:00.000-07:00

Moved to http://nodsw.com/blog/leeland/2007/05/20-ok-so-i-finally-got-wii

Geek WMDs (Weapons of Much Distraction)

2007-03-15T12:35:00.000-07:00

moved to http://nodsw.com/blog/leeland/2007/03/15-geek-wmds-weapons-much-distraction

How do you get to getting to fixing that you are not getting things done?

2007-03-05T09:31:00.000-08:00

moved to http://nodsw.com/blog/leeland/2007/03/04-how-do-you-get-getting-fixing-you-are-not-getting-things-done

A few books that really helped me out

2007-03-05T08:13:00.000-08:00

moved to http://nodsw.com/blog/leeland/2007/03/15-few-books-really-helped-me-out

End of year wrap up

2007-01-03T10:37:00.000-08:00

Well the holidays are over. Now I have to get used to writing 200…7.

My holidays were distracting, unexpected, sad, fun, odd and happy depending on the day.

The pacific northwest got hammered by a tornado class wind storm that knocked power out everywhere for days. My home was without power for 3 days, my office was without power for about 5 days. This is amazing as this is the first time I have ever lost power for more then a few minutes (my home is right next to a primary distribution substation for the area, in order to fix the power it has to flow out from the substation first).

The power outage really killed my momentum for getting things at work neatly wrapped up before I left for the holiday break. It also put a complete stop on all my side projects too. So I felt a compelling urge the whole break to cancel my time off and get back to work (which I mostly ignored but that caused me to be a little distracted).

My mother's office was totally weirded out and her normal computer guy couldn't figure it all out. So she was calling for help and I ended up spending a few days in working on her networks trying to figure out what the heck was wrong in a 3 person, small network office where there shouldn't have been half of the issues there were (which was entirely unexpected). There were about 5 contributing minor issues which all added up to a major disruption and had to be individually traced down and properly corrected before moving on.

Most of the holidays were spent alone at my house as I was trying to get some work done, too distracted and bouncing around in my head while my wife tried to get some quality time in with her mother before she left. Apparently in Russia the travel papers that let you come and go are issued for a window of time and then expire. It takes a little over 2 years to get travel papers. But if you had travel papers and USED them then it then takes up to 5 years before you get more. My wife’s mother was going back and her travel papers expired December 31. So it will be at least 4 years before she can come back and visit. Considering where we are it might be 3 years before we have the ability and opportunity (at the same time) to go visit Russia. Hence things were pretty tense emotionally and my wife was on and off sad.

When we got together we did things like light shows, we got out to a holiday pageant and we managed to get ALL of the local family together in the same spot for a fabulous holiday diner and present exchange. I managed to get my wife doctor stuff (which she has been complaining about not having for a year now) and she is bouncing off the walls over the new tools. Naturally she gave the entire family a check up on the spot.

My daughter got more then she hoped for and everything she didn't expect. I found her a Sony play station (which she has been pining for as there are a few games she wants to play) and 3 mega pixel digital camera (which is about as good as a high school student could hope for and perfect for these important memory years).

I made picture collages and enlarged old family photos for everyone. Between thrift stores, garage sales, pawn shops and careful scanning/printing at home I managed to pull off a holiday present bonanza for 14 people without diving into deep pools of cash. Really the whole holiday diner and present exchange were a great deal of fun for everyone.

We had a lot of plan changes, alterations and other emotional issues which kept tossing everything into total shock and disbelief zone throughout. I can count on two hands the number of times who was going where and when changed more then once including as it was supposed to be happening. This made everyone (especially my daughter and I) feel very odd and mixed up on what we were doing.

After my wife’s mother left on the 29th my wife, daughter, son and myself ended up at our home. We went no where and did nothing more then sleep and watch old DVDs for 3 days making the end of the year very anticlimactical. But, then considering all that we went through to get there I guess that is as a good an end as any other. So no fire works, diner cruises or other amazing end of year stories. In fact I barely had enough to pay the mortgage yet I had just enough and no more. So we ended the year calmly, healthy and with a positive cash balance. And I we are all very happy with that.

Happy new year everyone!

My new computer monitor

2007-01-02T20:24:00.000-08:00

... I wish!! ... this is a very cool ergonomic experimental monitor. When this thing goes production I want to know about it.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=06d013845e

What comes after primary, secondary, tertiary?

2006-12-12T15:43:00.000-08:00

moved to http://nodsw.com/blog/leeland/2006/12/06-what-comes-after-primary-secondary-tertiary

No more 'unable to find valid certification path to requested target'

2006-12-06T09:51:00.000-08:00

Moved to http://nodsw.com/blog/leeland/2006/12/06-no-more-unable-find-valid-certification-path-requested-target

So what have I been doing? I don't really know

2006-12-01T11:31:00.000-08:00

Very random week.

Nothing much has been done in the last 2 weeks. Why? Very good question. Unfortunately I have no answer for that and that is very confusing since I’d like to know why myself.

New baby only answers some of the issues. I mean really lack of sleep and such isn’t that bad. Or maybe it is. It is hard to tell from inside the issue.

So what have I done?

Well lets see, first a friend told me about the “One Red Paper Clip Guy”. Who started with a red paper clip and kept trading up until he got a house. " (http://oneredpaperclip.blogspot.com). OK that was interesting.

Then on Monday the expected hard disk crash of my lap top hit. Boy did it hit hard. Of course at just the wrong time. Well no problem I bought the laptop with the “absolute no worries for 5 years” service contract (because it was essentially free via the employee program I used to get there along with the 40% off retail pricing).

First order of business try and get the Thanksgiving through Sunday coding and personal project stuff off the computer (yes I had backups but not of that recent sprint of inspired activity and work).

Poke, prod, poke… not much… Crud… oh well that will hurt a little. Look away, drink some coffee and the computer magically booted itself and was actually up and running.. WHOA grab the external 40GB USB drive and go baby go!

Ok data recovered… But what about the tons of software and registrations, not to mention environment customizations… Wait a tick I work at a nice company that uses the same laptops and the hard guys are like good friends. Short walk, sure they’ll take an image of the hard disk and when I get the replacement push it back out. Just hand it over and come back tomorrow.

Except Tuesday was snow and ice day, so was Wednesday and Thursday. Stuck at home, all my current work missing… what to do… Well document and do real work yes. But otherwise, well read a book. It isn’t like I can get out of the house I was pretty snowed in.

Friday, finally get to call order the replacement parts. Luckily the contract includes Saturday delivery and such. OK so now I wait. Oh and go back to real work.

And that is about it. I still need to clean up my messes at home, pay bills, build shelves, remodel kitchen, plan birthday and Christmas parties, etc.

Autoduel Comes To Life

2006-11-21T07:47:00.000-08:00

So here I am reading my morning items. Last thing on my mind is how to rig a flame thrower to my car (not that I haven't spent time thinking about that when I was a tad younger). Yet, I ran into some interesting side notes (which never happens on the Internet). That led me to ... you guessed it ... how to mount a flame thrower on your car.

OK so this is seriously dangerous, but with commercially available products you can get side mounted "ball-o-flame" launchers and a rear tail pipe flame thrower. Both are of course adjustable to your tastes in "distance" to affect and both claim to NOT peel your car's paint. Oh and you can put both on your car for less then $1000.

I wonder how many geek points (tm) it would be worth. Autoduel really is coming to life. I think I'll rent Blade Runner and Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome tonight and rethink where we are going.

Project Management leads to fun games

2006-11-14T08:39:00.000-08:00

Well this was unexpected. I was researching the Project Management Process. Which was going great, I have been reading a lot of papers and books on the subject and getting much more comfortable with some of the more common TLAs. Problem is that it seems that every single author decided to come up with her or his own set of TLAs which makes the whole area of process and more specifically project management very fuzzy.

Ran into some very nice items though:

Simon Wallace Has put together a complete book on Process/Project management called the ePMbook and it really is a good read. I find his style very friendly and easy to stay awake to. Honestly his prose make me chuckle from time to time and I get the impression that in person he would be very funny. Then as I poke around to find out more about the author I ran into his LinkedIn Profile and even better a puzzle game called Brain Buster that he created.
I also ran into the Process Impact site which has a lot of nice resources for Process Management stuff. Although their licensing costs are pretty expensive.
Then there is the Project Management Principles & Training web site which has a very high ratio of content to text. Honestly this site is more like a light primer on the whole topic. Which makes it a great starting place to delving into the subject.

Coming Robot Revolution

2006-11-09T19:00:00.000-08:00

Well thanks to my good friend (Grimmtooth) I have a little more to worry about tonight. He points out that most people laughed at the Terminator movies and that he didn't as he saw them as more prophetic and now he has the proof... Samsung is making killer sentry robots with BFGs (5.5mm machine gun).

Fabulous Mini Database in Java

2006-11-09T14:11:00.000-08:00

I am very impressed with the HSQL product (a lightweight 100% Java SQL database engine). It is not only the best SQL relational database open source product I have ever seen, it is also one of the best written code I have seen in a long time. It is fast and lean but it doesn't skip corners for speed. Which is very nice as it means there is a higher chance of this not doing something unexpected on older or new versions of the JVM.

I also rather like their web site layout too. It has some nice elements that I think I might mimic for my upcoming software distribution project. I am currently writing a fully automated web site engine to let me publish my "memoirs" easily. Which means I can publish talks by dropping the ppts and zip files into a dir and let the engine link them in for me. Source code and product releases will be as easy. Why am I doing this? Because no one else has a good enough web site template engine that does what I want. Specifically using templates that do not have an entirely new template syntax, where each page can be edited separately using ANY HTML editor and the right bits will be merged into the right locations on the templates, where code and presentations can be added without having to do more then drop them into place, and where the table of contents and site maps are generated automatically. Oh and I want all of it to be very intelligently cached so it isn't doing file scans on every hit. More to come on that.

Any way HSQL is pretty cool.

Getting a grip on my daily routine

2006-11-08T12:42:00.000-08:00

Well I need to force myself to be better at time management and project management. It has been a long time since I taught my time management course and I find that without that regular refresher my time management skills have been slipping.

So what to do. Well obviously start researching time and project management again, dust off the course and start collecting data.

So far I have found some very interesting things.

First off there is the Borg-Calendar program. Which has a lot of project management stuff built into it. But I am not happy with the fact that I can not have sub-tasks, and that the completion data nor the dates a project moves from one state to the next are not tracked. Admittedly they do say that the project management stuff is tacked on.

So poking around the forums for the BORG-Calendar I found a reference to another project called Memoranda that does not have the ability to for enforcing the project management aspects (states of the project etc), But it does have a very nice task manager...

I am now poking at that one a little hard. It is not really finished, looks a LOT better the Borg-Calendar but still I want something that will let me do my tasks, to-dos, calendar and other things from multiple computers that have a shared drive or at least a copy of the recent "data set." Preferably using a system that keeps NO locks on the files so they can be dynamically shared between computers with the soft ware continuously running.

I also ran across a great web site for project management skills and knowledge apply named Project Management Institute.

I also found a very cool tool called TimePanic which is designed to fulfill the tracking needs described in paper by Watts S. Humphrey’s article “Why does Software Work Take So Long”. The paper discusses learning to work better by improving your work style. But you need to know what you are doing in order to fix it, hence, TimePanic.

I sense a whole new short course coming into being...Well first I need to find a way to get things done. I still love the ABC system by Alan Lankein as described in his book "How to Get Control of Your Time and Your Life" (out of print). If only I could find something that is NOT as complex as MS Project, lets me do what TimePanic does combined with Borg-Calendar's enforced project stepping stones with Memoranda journal and date time stamps. Oh and for less then $50.

Let me know if you know of such a product please.

Pool room is mostly ready even if it is too small

2006-11-04T19:07:00.000-08:00

Well last night John and Jeremy came over. We chatted and relaxed for nearly two hours. We ordered out from Quiznos for diner. Funny thing is what was delivered wasn't what we ordered. In fact I signed the wrong credit slip all together. Unfortunately what we ordered LOOKed exactly like what we got (sandwiches and everything) except that they were different sandwiches. So we opened them up and bit into them before we figured out we had the wrong order.

The driver was still in the driveway (he was trying to figure out if he had given us the wrong food without opening the other set). Well he gave us our right order and we got to keep the other order too. So we got to try samples of some of the other Quiznos sandwiches. I have to admit the BLT is better then I thought.

Then we attacked the unassembled pool table I got in September. We cleaned the room, the table, and tried to make space. Managed to get it back together (I still need to go get some new balance feet for it and wood panels). Oh and it really needs new bumpers and felt. But it was good enough that we could play. Without the balance feet we had a minor shift to one end that made for some funny shots.

Problem is the room is about 3 feet too narrow. So shooting from the sides is a little tricky. I still have to move the piano and book cases out of the way to clear the entire area around the table. But I think we are going to have to move it to the other room (once that one is finished, right now it is bare concrete) as that other room has the extra 3 feet width.

But, now we can play pool. So that is cool.

The quest for a Qwest cell phone

2006-11-01T22:32:00.000-08:00

Man what a stupid catch 22 to get caught in. My cell phone died and I now need to get a new cell phone. My problem is that I want to shift to a different carrier then Qwest. Problem is we have 3 cell phones with Qwest on contract till next May. If I cancel early there is a $200 per phone early disconnecting fee per phone. So I have to hang out till May.

So what is the problem? All I need to do is get a new used phone. Except in the last few years almost all the cell phones have moved to using smart chips or SIMMs. Qwest does not support this technology and are stuck in the old CDMA phones using ESNs only.

So if I want a new phone it is pay FULL price (which is highly inflated to prevent someone in this situation from getting out easy). The crappiest phone is $189.95. Qwest is more then willing to give me one of the $19.95 phones (which is any phone they have just about) but only if I renew for a minimum of 2 years.

If I switch to a new carrier I can get 3 new Razor phones and save $40 per month while picking up a few extra features for our combined cell accounts. So in short that means I do not want to renew with Qwest.

Hence I need a cheap Qwest only cell phone to get me from here to May 2007.

As Qwest does not support smart chip phones they will not activate any phone that is not made specifically for their network. I have already had 5 phones from friends. 4 were smart chip phones and the 5th had an ESN that was connected to an account that was closed with some fees left on it and until the owner of that phone called Qwest and cleared the balance due they would not switch it over. When I asked how much was due (figuring if I could just pay it as the phone itself was free) they wouldn't tell me because I didn't know the name and SSN of the person whose account the phone belonged to.... SIGH

If only Qwest wasn’t so behind the times. Then practically any phone that could be unlocked would do. I’d save the activation fee as they'd give me a duplicate Smart Chip for free. Plug it into the unlocked phone, or your proper provider-locked phone, and presto, problem solved.

Halloween Concert at the Fenix

2006-11-01T14:29:00.000-08:00

What a very different Halloween experience! Instead of the fancy dress up costume and many parties I lost track of time (I was in the baby warp zone). So no Halloween decorations around the house, no pumpkins and no costume for me or my daughter. I suddenly realized it was Halloween pretty much the day before (ya on the 30th). So I was trying to figure out what to do. My wife was not up to partying (we are still feeding about every 3 to 5 hours 24 hours a day and her back is not exactly fully healed up). I was tired and Sapphira was off in her own world with friends.

Then I noticed Nintendo had a drawing for some tickets to the Seattle Halloween night show of the fourth annual Nintendo Fusion Tour that was making its way across America. With Evelina at her sisters it was only Sapphira and I. So popping out for a Halloween night party / concert with Hawthorne Heights leading the bill, and including Relient K, Emery, Plain White T's and The Sleeping! (You can check out the bands and sample their music at nintendofusiontour.com.)
Well it was 2:30 PM and the entries for the tickets had to be in by 3:00 PM. So I entered and (since I am talking about this you probably think I got them, well your right) at 3:15 PM I was notified I had won 2 tickets for Halloween night. Cool!

So Sapphira and I suddenly had just plans for Halloween but really GREAT plans for Halloween. In addition to the music The Fusion Tour was also showing off the new Nintendo Wii console. Wii, music, food and kind of a “Dad’s Night Out With Daughter” thing! I was pretty excited. Plus the show was at the Fenix (formerly the Premier).

Forgot the camera. But boy was the party a blast. The music was great and the games were fun. Sapphira got to play the new Zelda game using the Wii wireless controllers and she is excited about that.

How do you follow that up? Well like last year the following day Wednesday, November 1 at 12:00PM, Hawthorne Heights came to Nintendo's Redmond campus for a private performance! I let Sapphira skip school and she joined me for a great lunch hour of more music (just the band, simple instruments and about 40 people). Hawthorne Heights brought the sound level down a notch in an exclusive acoustic set. After which we got to personally meet and chat with the band! Got pictures and signed posters / CDs to prove it (picture below). It was great!!

Leeland with Hawthorne Heights

Picture compliments of A.J. Blount shutterbug extraordinar for Nintendo of America

Baby Pictures are online

2006-10-24T16:03:00.000-07:00

Well I'm back to work full time and of course I have baby pictures. I
have put them in an online web album. If you know the address you can
run through them in slide show and it is controllable with the right
and left arrows, or via mouse clicking on the controls. There are
absolutely no gross pictures (I personally do not like those myself so
I made sure to not take any).

Evelina is doing fine, but is still having some pain from a little
nerve damage. Physical therapy is doing wonders so likely only another
week or two before that is all cleared up. Lewin (our new son) is
doing fabulous and has already grown nearly 4 inches in the 4 weeks.

Not a lot of sleep yet... so I am a little scatter brained until I get
enough coffee down to keep brain functions at acceptable levels!

Back to work

2006-10-23T09:30:00.000-07:00

Man 3 weeks can sure fly by! I am totally shocked that so much time has past since Lewin was born.

Doing the new kid thing is definately easier the second time around. Not so scared of all the stuff that is happening and at I at least know what to kind of expect in the way of up coming events.

Still Fatherhood has caught me slightly of guard. I was not expecting so the emotional rush to be as strong as the first time. But I have to say the emotional rush is just as potent the second time as the first time. Maybe more so because I always wanted a larger family but since my first wife was a flat out "no way" had given up on that dream.

Being a new dad is pretty great!

I have to go back to work tomorrow after 4 weeks of paternity leave. So far we are doing pretty good. I change the diapers and play with him till he is tired. Then mother and son doze in and out while feeding.

Honestly new daughters are easier at the beginning. Lewin seems to always hold back just enough so he can get me with the firehose as soon as the diaper is off. But I figured out how to deal with that. Take the diaper off, put a towel over the top and then let him relax and feel nice and dry. Boom he releases the gates, finishes voiding and then gets a new diaper.

Heck I even managed to NOT faint during the circumcision. And Lewin took it pretty good. Didn't have any of the "screaming fits" advertised and he is all healed up.

Well, tomorrow I get to sing the back to work song.

The Meatrix

2006-10-11T20:55:00.000-07:00

Ok this is pretty darn funny. Great parady and a good message. It is all about the truth of the Meatrix.

Little Vacation Memories

2006-10-10T09:43:00.000-07:00

Well now that things have settled a bit I can sit and type. I finally got the pictures organized for the trip and put them online. Still need to get captions on all of them but they are at least online now... whew!

So what was the trip? Basically Evelina and I finally got a "honey moon." I took 2 weeks off from work and we drove route 101 following the ocean front from Canada to San Francisco. Then we hopped over to Las Vegas through the Mojave Desert, where I discovered my transmission could overheat but not the rest of the engine.... Had to stop every now and then for a break, snacks and so the transmission could cool down (it would lock in low gear).

We camped the whole way down in fabulous rain forests, ocean front view camp sights, and one really dead spot. When we got to Vegas we stayed at the 5 star Hilton Grand on the strip for 4 days. We did a Vegas show every night (Cirque De Solie, Blue Man Group, Everyone Wears Bowlers), toured Vegas and surrounding areas. I showed Evelina where I grew up, the houses I lived in, Lake Mead, Boulder Dam, and all my favorite hang out spots (most of which were still there and going strong). Prices in Vegas were WAY up from the last time I checked. But, as we are camping and cooking our own we could handle that.

Then we drove to San Diego and stayed in the cheapest hotel we could find ($50 per night) for 3 days / 2 nights. We got up in the morning and ate breakfast on the beaches, swam in the ocean, and got completely sun burned. Then I showed Evelina all the interesting places I used to hang out, my old Navy job (TacTraGruPac / or TTGP where they are very touchy about people driving up and trying to take pictures), SAIC, etc. They were all still there. San Diego has changed very little since I was there.

We ate at the outdoor old town Mexican restaurant, to the sound of live bands playing. I shopped at Game Towne and Evelina about broke my head for trying to buy a literal arm load of stuff. I ended up with only 2 things (Munchkins Kung Fu and the expansion set)... SIGH...

Oh and we went to Loma Bonita and they are still doing the Carne Asada Burritos (although the price is now 3.65 each)... Man was that good eating.

Finally we ran out of time and made an end run north on I-5.

We did this since with the new baby boy coming we knew it was either then or in a year as Evelina would have been unable to travel well a month later. Of course now with new baby we are not going far or for long for at least 6 months. So now that baby boy is here it is time to organize web sites, burn DVDs for the family and get all those home projects moved a few more notches towards "done."

My Second Child Is Born

2006-10-02T17:31:00.000-07:00

It's a boy!

Named: Lewin
Time: 8:13 AM October 2, 2006
Weight: 8 lbs 15 oz
Size: 19.5 inches
Location: Northwest Hospital, Seattle, WA

My wife Evelina broke her water at 5:30 PM October 1, 2006. A doctor call, a little packing and we made it to Northwest Hospital at 6:15 PM where she was found to be just over4 CM dilated! A good start. We ended up getting the super 5 star suite at the Childbirth center (it is larger then two rooms with wood paneling a couch, and a work table). By 11 PM she was 5 CM dilated and the contractions were enough to make her feel unable to deal with the pain. So an epideral was added to the mix. At 5 AM they started talking C-section (a very good motivator to work harder at the pushing part I am told by the nurses). Next procin was added in to the mix to try and ramp up the contractions. Boy did that do the trick. By 7 AM she was fully dilated at 10 CM and was having serious birth contractions. One hour and 13 minutes of very hard pushing 3 times for 10 seconds timed with the contraction which where coming every 2 minutes and our son was born!

Very cool. Also let me say this... Dads do not be afraid of the cutting the umbilical there is almost no blood and it is a very potent and important emotional experience (for your significant other if not for you, but I'll bet you'll be surprised by how much it means to you).

Pool Anyone?

2006-09-25T18:50:00.000-07:00

My Grandpa use to have a saying “free is too expensive for the likes of us.” Sometimes I need to remind myself of this. A very good friend called me Friday September 22nd afternoon and said “hey would you like a pool table for free?” Being that I love pool I said “Absolutely.” Mean while my Grandpa rolled is eyes in the heavens.

So then came the details. She and her boy friend had just bought a new smaller house and there would be no room. They were renting their current house out. Oh and the new tenants were taking possession next Friday. So I had to go pick it up that weekend. Also I figured it would be in fairly good shape. Later I found out it was a spider’s nest and had been in the garage for a very, very long time. In fact it had a huge stack of old mattresses and other odds and ends on it. So it was more then a little dirty. It had been heavily abused by the teenage sons as they grew up and was in need of some help. But still it was free!

I figured “How much can a rental truck cost?” Well the $ 19.95 prices are not exactly what you end up paying. I managed to talk my friend into coming and helping. I called up made reservations for a truck. We had to stand in line for the better part of an hour with no air flow in the little rental room. A quick run to my friend’s home was then in order.

Then I got to see it. Yes, it was a full sized table with a very GOOD slate top. But, it is seriously 1960s art deco style. It was a darn good table then and could be again. So now I need to repair it and get it a complete refelting (which is looking like it will run in the $500 range). Then I still need to get a few large chunks of wood and do some carpentry to replace the abused wood paneling on it. Then it will be very nice.

Well three guys plus my daughter on the side to load it into the truck. Only two of us to unload it. I rented a solid enough furniture dolly. But, in the end we still banged it up more then I wanted adding to the damage needing to be repaired.

Got the rental truck back on time. Grand total with dolly, blankets, mileage and gas was near to $125.

In the end my free pool table will run me about $1000. Which is still pretty cheap for a pool table of this size and caliber. But, this is way more money then I really have to dump into what amounts to a luxury item. Guess this will be one of the winter projects…

When it is done I figure I'll be able to coax friends over more often! Which is always nice.

Ode To My Weed Whacker

2005-11-23T12:01:00.000-08:00

Ode To My Weed Whacker

Tis tall the grass that grows,

Where the mower cannot go.

To my trusty shed

I thusly forward tred.

There in the corner it sits
The weed whacker that will not quit
Grab the cords, the power must flow!
And out to the yard we must go!

Spin, vibrate and smack,
Twas a sprinkler head I whacked!
Forward, forward there is more to do
The grass needs to be trimmed true!

Sharp corners do we make
As I ponder getting the rake
I wish this had a bag
But, then my back would sag.

My trusty weed whacker has done the job
In pride I no longer feel a slob!
For my yard is clean and neat

So once again I can take my seat.

Twisted around her finger

2005-11-21T21:32:00.000-08:00

Well what a great way to start a little mini vacation.

Saturday slept in too late. Got up, did a few minor things. Decided had enough. Went back to bed. Got up just in time to go pick up my friends and take us all to a great Pagan Choir Concert in Ballard. There was a surprise silent auction at the concert and I ended up bidding on some things that I was sure I'd get out bid on (and hoped I would on a few). Instead I won 5 of the items and spent about 150% of my allowed budget... Oh well what is fun money if you try and horde it.

Sunday I got to take another friend out on an expedition to the darkest jungles of Seattle. We had a lot more fun then I expected spotting birds and other things like the fearless ravenous brown squirrels. We ended up taking my daughter out for Indian at Cedar's (my all time favorite Indian restaurant). After that we roamed around until we found a bubble-tea place and settled down for a couple hours of playing games and drinking bubble tea.

One of the funnier parts of the day was when we ran into a free roaming peacock. She tried to get to get the peacock to compete with her and show its tail feathers. It was pretty fun to watch. Didn't work, but we got a good laugh out of it.

Now my daughter can't seem to stop talking about my friend. She has decided that she really likes her sense of humor and thinks she is "the coolest adult" my daughter has ever met.

So what did I do on this fine Monday? Well I had a lot of fun. I took my daughter to breakfast and we ended up talking for hours about things going on in her life. I lost track of time. When I realized what time it was I could only get her to school after more then half the day would be gone. Instead I call her in sick. Then we went out to see the new Harry Potter movie (personally I'd recommend waiting for the DVD and then rent it only). When we got home we did some work around the house. She is then did some practice math and French while I was at my monthly poker game this evening.

Now I have to go review her work with her. We are going to practice French for a bit. Then head off to the gym to swim some laps and then probably out for a coffee & coco with some game or another.

So goes the start of my 2 week vacation at home. I know, I am pretty silly sometimes.

Canceled Concert Blues

2005-11-09T23:19:00.000-08:00

Well talk about an interesting experience. Had tickets for the main concert Sunday night and backstage hang with the band passes for Monday's private concert with Fall Out Boys for their Seattle concert (http://www.nintendofusiontour.com). Daughter was excited, I was excited.
Then a large rock fell on I-90 stopping all 5 bands from getting to Seattle. Found out about the concert getting rescheduled after paying for parking.

So we grabbed some games and headed to Starbucks. Stopped off at book store and spent more money then is proper for some new and used books. Then we played games for a few hours at Starbucks. My daughter managed to "sweetness" one of the barista girls into a free drink coupon for our next visit (how she does that is pretty amazing to watch). Over all, very different night then planned but good fun.

To top that off my daughter got to skip school and come to work with me Monday for the private gig and to hang out with the band. Except they still couldn't make it into town and so headed straight to their next stop in Salt Lake City. Oh well, she had fun reading her magazines & comics, playing video games and goofing off with me on my breaks all day Monday. She also took a little too much pleasure in giving me a bad time about the code I was writing and hanging out with me instead of going to school. I am pretty sure she was as happy about being with me as skipping school... pretty sure...

Rest of the week seems to be flying by... can't really comprehend that it is already Wednesday night. Seems like it was just Sunday a few seconds ago.

Also been pricing boats. I am trying to decide if I want to get a really big ocean quality boat so I can sail to foreign ports... like Alaska and Hawaii. I think I might wait till mid December then some of the prices will drop drastically. Of course a fixer up boat would be a lot cheaper all around. But, between, daughter, work and school I don't think I have the time needed to do a project of that size. Of course I could tap a few friends for help. In the mean time, stuff money away cause those boats are a lot of cash no matter how many corners you cut.

Sony using bad (and wrong) hacker techniques for copy protection

2005-11-03T08:34:00.000-08:00

Moved to http://nodsw.com/blog/leeland/2005/11/03-sony-using-bad-and-wrong-hacker-techniques-copy-protection

Halloween Fun...

2005-11-01T21:50:00.000-08:00

Not a bad Halloween.

My costume got much "oh ya cool" and "awesome" from various people. So I feel pretty good about that. Now that the surprise to my friends is over I can reveal what it was.

I bought a really nice stage wig which was essentially silver grey curly hair in an old lady bun. I cut the bun off and POOF a head of silver grey hair that looked like I tried really hard to finger comb it to be neat but just failed completely.

Next I took a burlap based zombie costume and cut it down to size so it became something of a lounge suit over sized shirt / caveman outfit cut open to my belly button, raggy but in its own way "neat."

To that I added a bone neckless, a large fake wooden club, a length of really crappy looking hemp rope (to hold the club in place but also pre-tied with a slip knot on one end), a very expensive silk tie tied all wrong, and a top hat.

Title of costume: Eligible Bachelor Number 2

The parties were great. I was introduced to a new drink called a "slutty red head." What was in it I have no idea. But, for a guy who has serious acohol resistance it certainly tossed me for a nice buzz. Then, of course, I over did it a bit on my recovering ankle. (A little ice the next day solved most of that problem. Although I was really wishing I knew someone that could come over and give it a good massage.)

Two bummers for the weekend.

The first was that at the very cool party Saturday night a group of teenagers (17-19) came in with one of the hostess' better friends at about 11 PM. She didn't feel right asking her friend to leave with his other friends or just kicking out the teenagers. All the adults decided that a "contributing to the deliquency of minors" charge would not be a good idea. Hence everyone packed up and packed out, essentially declaring an end to the night's activities. When I left one of the teenagers had pulled out some pot and another was actually shooting up in the back yard. So I had not problem leaving myself. I didn't even hang with that crowd when I was that age, I always thought they were nuts.

Brenda drove me home, declared she was done for the night and went home herself. Since it was 1 AM I decided might as well do the same since all the other parties I was interested in going to would be wrapping up by the time I got there.

The other bummer was it turns out Brenda's car broke down near her house that night. So I spent part of Sunday trying the help her through the problem. Unfortunately all the good intentions aside the car was dead beyond serious garage work to recover. So she is seriously down over that. Luckily another of her friends is a good mechanic and last I heard he was going to go over tonight to have a look.

One major good Samaritan event too!

I also got to witness an auto accident this weekend. I am really glad I decided to go to the store when I did because it was 1 AM in a nearly deserted area. What happened was a group of boys out having fun (not paying attention and with the usual loud music causing even the pavement to rumble) cut across this 16 year old girl's right of way. Not only did they not have insurance but the poor kid was totally breaking down over what to do. So I called the police, made sure to explain to her she wasn't going to loose her license or get in trouble over this because it wasn't her fault, and played the "adult bull elephant" against the boys to keep them from being jerks to her. When her mother got there explained it all to her mother (who was also a bit freaked out as well). The mother, daughter and policeman thanked me profusely for helping out making me feel really good for the 45 minutes spent standing in the cold.

Oh and pictures are online for all of the Halloween parties.

Sanity Check

2005-10-24T23:29:00.000-07:00

Ever wonder what goes through the minds of your friends?

I mean really, I finally decide to cut loose from this girl who was treating me very poorly (not returning calls when she said she would, agreeing to dates then 3 out of 5 times canceling at the last minute leaving me to scramble to find someone to give her ticket to, etc.) and all my friends say "its about time she just wasn't right for you." What the heck is up with that? These are the same people that a couple of weeks before where saying "she is awsome, man you really ended up with a great lady."

Talk about going with the wind. This makes it hard to know if they are just saying something that goes with the situation, or if they are telling me what they really think. I much prefer them to be honest all the time. Sure it means sometimes hitting me in the stomach when I am already partially down. But, I think it is far better then leaving me wondering if they are being honest with me.

Perhaps I am just too honest. I generally tell it like it is, keep my word as best as I can and follow through. I am beginning to wonder if I am alone in this regard.

Enough said... Time to get back to work now.

Wine, dance, laughter

2005-10-23T07:12:00.000-07:00

This weekend turned out completely backwards.

Question: What happens when you throw a party and no one shows up?

Answer: You have a completely different party!

I had 30 friends swear they were coming to the free karaoke party I was roped into helping with Friday night. They even went so far as to tell me a day or so before hand how much they were looking forward to going AND that they had a couple friends that were coming too. So I figured at least 10 would show up. ;^)

The other people putting on the party also called around and we had confirmed about 60 people. We made sure there was enough food for about 40 figuring we could order pizzas if there wasn't enough.

Grand total of 16 people came... Which even with all the free booze was not enough to really do karaoke... So I reprogrammed the machine tossed in a bunch of 80s music, dragged out the poker table and we played poker to loud 80s music with TONS of booze, snacks, and deserts. Everyone had a hell of a good time. Lots of people were sent home with enough left overs to eat for a week.

After the poker game broke up at about 10 PM three of us headed out to the pool hall and played pool till 2 AM.

Friday night - not what I expected but fun none-the-less

Saturday: Huge Halloween celebration (last year had about 300 people there). Fabulous DJ, silent auction, more food, and more booze. Lots of witches (its put on by a pagan group). Something must be in the air... Only 40 people showed up to that one. But, we danced till we dropped. I managed to get a couple of cool CDs and a fabulous T-Shirt (says "Its Your God, There Your Rules, So You Can Go To Hell.").

Tonight... well was planning on going to Fright Fest with a date. But, if it is still raining the park will not be open. So need to find a plan B. I'm thinking Century Ball Room...