Wordless Wednesday: Apparently I'm not the only one "following" the progress of Spirit and Opportunity...

(image courtesy of MarsPhoenix and Gizmodo)

Wordless Wednesday: while we're on a Star Wars note, it appears there was a truce while I was gone the other day...

That's it...

It's happened. That point in every debugging session where if I don't take a break I will cause myself or my computer physical damage. So I'm taking a break.

I've been mildly amused by reactions to the election last Tuesday. For several reasons. So here goes.

1. It's amusing how much the American people attribute to the President in light of how little he can actually do. Sure, he can suggest a bill, but law-making is entirely out of his hands. Sure, the confidence of the people in the President reflects somewhat on the economy, but there's not a dang thing he can do about it actually. Sure, he can say his plan includes tax cuts, improved programs, etc... but the legislative branch has to actually make the laws to implement them.

2. I've heard several people mention (mostly before the election) that if Obama were elected they would move to Canada (presumably because it's easy to cross the border???). People. Have you ever _been_ to Canada? Obama would make a pretty good right-wing nutcase up there.

3. I've heard several people express their sorrow and/or fear for our nation at the fact that Obama was elected. This is really funny to me. How much direct effect has the Bush administration had on your daily life? Really? The only direct affect the Bush administration has had on my life is that Federal Financial Aid was cut. And it's a lot more of a pain in the can to get on an airplane. Don't get me wrong. I voted for Bush both times, and I'm not sure the alternative would have been much different. It's just funny that people are so concerned about the future of the country now that a different idealogy will be in the White House. If you look at numbers throughout the last few decades, the so-called "GOP" has been the party to increase government spending and government size. Frankly, I'm not entirely sure 4 years of a different mindset will be that bad of a thing.

4. I've seen several petitions/groups asking for Obama to provide his birth-certificate. This is a good one. His mother is an American citizen people. Therefore, he is an American citizen. Do we really need to argue the point?

5. I have finally reached the point of complete apathy regarding the election process. My life's dream now is that someday there will be an election wherein I won't be trying to decide which of the major candidates will do the least worst job. After months of mud-slinging ("He's un-American. He's unbalanced. blah, blah, blah) I was completely fed up. While I like _some_ (not to be confused with "all") of Obama's policy ideas better than McCain's non-specfics, I don't really like either of their policy ideas, so I voted for Bob Barr.

6. I've heard a lot of people (not just my boss) say that Ron Paul would have been an ideal candidate 200 years ago. I'm not entirely certain a candidate who looked good 200 years ago would look so bad today. Most of my displeasure over the Bush administration stems from a less-than-intelligent foreign policy program. I agree entirely with Ron Paul, Bob Barr, and others who say we have _way_ too many problems here at home to need to be bothering with the rest of the world. There are certain things that I believe should not be allowed anywhere, anytime. Genocide is one of them, which is one of the reasons I think that we've accomplished something worthwhile in Iraq, even though I don't agree 100% that we should have been there to begin with. It's kind of irritating that so mass murder/genocide happens elsewhere in the world that doesn't rate the same kind of response. If you're going to be the international do-gooder, at least spread it around a little, eh?

7. As you might be able to tell, I'm a little fed up these days. The Bush administration has failed to make good on quite a few of its promises. The soon-to-be Obama administration has lots of ideas that look good on paper, but I wonder where they will get the money with the tax cuts he has proposed. Whatever happened to finding the best person for the job? Hence, my previously-mentioned life dream. Maybe someday.

8. Don't get me wrong here. I think George W. is a good guy, and I think he felt that he was doing the right thing most of the time. If I weren't so sick of the partisan mud-slinging fest, I probably would have voted for McCain, simply because on the whole I still feel that of the major parties (i.e. those whose candidates have a chance of being elected) the Republican party comes closer to my ideals than the Democratic party. It's just mildly amusing to me that so many people think a Democratic president (whose projected ideas are not much different than any other Democratic president we've had in the last few decades) signals the end of the world.

9. I am now done being amused at politics and will now return to debugging my graphics project.

(almost) Wordless Wednesday: that's 5 bags, with 5 bottles each

Happy birthday Hen. Hope 50 liters of Diet Coke is plenty for your celebration...

I suppose it could have turned out worse...

Way to get in the spirit of the holiday guys.

Star Trek, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, and Spider Man. You've pretty much covered all of the media that ever gets talked about at my office. All that's missing is Dr. Who...


Disclaimer on the picture. My phone has a big crack _right_ over the camera lens.

Wordless Wednesday: It's coming...

I know, I know, enough already...

Look at me, 2 posts in 2 days. Don't get used to it, though, my mom tagged me and I knew if I didn't do it right now I'd forget. So here goes:

1. Where is your cell phone? pocket
2. Where is your significant other? 6'away
3. Your hair color? brown
4. Your mother? crazy
5. Your father? mellow
6. Your favorite thing? electrons
7. Your dream last night? non-existent
8. Your dream/goal? graduating
9. The room you're in? office
10. Your hobby? biking
11. Your fear? drowning
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Apple
13. Where were you last night? home
14. What you're not? graduated
15. One of your wish-list items? Challenger

16. Where you grew up? Orderville
17. The last thing you did? eat
18. What are you wearing? hat
19. Your TV? korean
20. Your pet? non-existent
21. Your computer? unending
22. Your mood? normal
23. Missing someone? nah
24. Your car? Yeti
25. Something you're not wearing? bra
26. Favorite store? amazon.com
27. Your summer? crazy
28. Love someone? much-ly
29. Your favorite color? orange
30. When is the last time you laughed? barely
31. Last time you cried? 2002

Guess what? Not tagging anybody. You're all off the hook. Look at me defying convention.

Where has all the accountability gone?

It's official. Our "Limited Government" government has signed into law the $700 billion bailout bill. Why? Because some clever people found a way to add around $1oo billion in pet project "pork" to the bill.

So who is going to be held accountable? Is it the sub-prime lenders who enabled the mess? Is it the idiots who bought homes well beyond what they could afford because the sub-prime lenders told them they could? What's going on? Allow me to illustrate with an example from Bob Cringely:

Take our current national economic mess, the so-called sub-prime mortgage crisis. I like to think that I'm not a subprime kind of guy, but pretending to work as I do (my kids think I TYPE for a living) the world may not always see me the way I would like to be seen. So last year, in what we didn't know were the waning and idyllic pre-subprime days, I tried to get a new mortgage. Of course I used the Internet to get the loan because, as we all know, when banks compete I win. And within a few days, without having to actually meet with or even speak to another human, I found myself offered a $336,000 mortgage.

It was SO easy. Fill out a few online forms, make some choices, and there I was, about to close that loan. But then I did an odd thing. I carefully read the papers I was about to sign (I'm one of THOSE people). And in that residential loan application, right on line something or other, was a number that didn't make any sense to me at all. It was labeled "total household income" and was almost twice the pitiful amount I actually earn.

From where did that number come? It certainly never came from me. Since my signature would be at the bottom of this application I wanted to make sure everything was correct, so I called the mortgage broker. For the first time we spoke. She was a very nice lady, too, and explained that number was the variable required for all the ratios to be correct so I could qualify for the loan.

"But it isn't true," I said.

"Do you want the loan or not?" she asked.

Not.

I wasn't so principled as cowardly, but maybe that doesn't matter: I did what I knew was the right thing for me, which was to walk away from the loan. But evidently a lot of other people took the other course and today are having trouble paying for their houses, which is a big part of the reason why we are in this current economic mess.

Now there is someone with a brain. "Oh, I don't think I can afford this house, I guess I won't buy it". Which brings me back to the main question: Who is going to be held accountable for this mess? Apparently not the people who made the poor choices, and apparently not the people who made it so easy for them to make that poor choice, but the everyday taxpayer, including those who were not even close to being in a position to make any choice on sub-prime lending, and including those who used their brains and chose wisely.

Oh, there's one more thing. Want to know two of the people leading the fight for the bailout to pass once the pork was added? Oh, a couple of guys named Bob Bennet and Orrin Hatch. Way to represent your constituents, guys.

Oh, and think that this pork that got added was all for the common good? Check this out:

And I probably wouldn't have noticed...

As I was winding down from some programming tonight, Nicole walked over by me and asked, "So are you going to notice, or do I have to tell you?"

Me being me, I looked around my work area and didn't see anything amiss, so she told me to look at the toys on the top level of my desk shelf (that she hates).

I like Star Wars, and I like toys, so I have some Star Wars Lego figures, and little funny Star Wars figurines, and a Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader action figure. Normally, Luke and Vader are in various fighting poses, that I change whenever I get really bored or need a break from programming and nothing else sounds fun. The little figures are usually in some form of opposing situation.

As I looked up tonight, what did I see but Luke doing the Limbo under Darth Vader's light-saber, supported by our DSL Modem. The three little figures are "standing" with their arms around each other, with blue ghost Obi-Wan floating over them approvingly.



Needless to say, Nicole was very amused by her cleverness.

Now what could the person who controls the home network do in retaliation... (if you don't understand the comic, you can look here. You won't understand the explanation, but scroll down to the pictures and it'll be crystal clear)

Summer's last days...

So we just got back (recently) from our annual trip to Newport Beach with Nicole's family. Right at the end of the summer, it's a good break before school starts. And this year, we had a week to recover before school started, so that was even better. So here's some pics of the trip.

Me and Nicole

Chelsea and Awix at the pool

Playing with Jayden

Chucking Jayden

Chucking Chelsea

In the beginning...

The other beginning...

A little mid-day churro goodness

I can't think of anyplace I'd rather read than at the beach.

Too funny to not blog...

I laughed till my face hurt, as did everyone else in the office...

If you've never heard the song, "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" by The Charlie Daniels Band, you might want to listen to it first. You can listen to it here.




If you so desire, you can find the original (un-edited) version here at the very bottom of the page. Not for those offended by profanity.

It was bound to happen eventually...

That's right folks. I may have been to the ballet, and the symphony, and some musicals, but today we see that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Today, Nicole compiled and ran a C program from the command-line. I've never been so proud. Okay, so maybe I have. But if you're talking about milestones, this one is a pretty huge milestone.

Welcome to computer geekdom, my love. You've taken your first step into a larger world.

Yup, that's right.

I have hacked my iPod Touch. As a result, I have all kinds of goodies that Apple would never allow in the App Store. Here's some pictures of one of my favorites:

Battery mostly drained...

Battery charged...

Totally awesome. Whoever wrote this is a genius.

MUST. HAVE. IT.

Ever see something and think that your life won't be complete without it. I just did. Check it out.



That really is the coolest thing since sliced bread. If only the remote was a little light-saber stored in the top...

Arlington Cemetery

We went to Arlington Cemetery a week ago today, and since yesterday Nicole and Grandma were going to a couple more art galleries, I decided that I'd bookend the week with what was probably my favorite part of the trip: Arlington Cemetery and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Here are a few pictures and a video.

Since the Civil War, American Soldiers have been buried at Arlington Cemetery. From virtually anywhere in the cemetery, the ordered rows of headstone stretch literally as far as you can see. this adds a little weight to the fact that _very_ many have sacrificed so we can enjoy the freedoms we have in this country.

My favorite part of the cemetery will probably not surprise you. The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, with its solitary guard, is something I could visit every day. Had I not wanted to serve a mission so badly, the Third Infantry Division (The Old Guard) was one of the 3 things I most wanted to do in the Army.

The metal taps in the guards' shoes have left lines of rust on the stone where they walk their posts and perform their ceremonies 365 days a year, year in and year out. There are no non-straight lines here, and no non-90-degree angles.

The guards themselves are the pinnacle of solitary military precision and discipline. Their uniforms and weapons are flawless. Their eyes are fixed straight ahead. Their movements are crisp. They stand perfectly straight and still until the 21 seconds of each pause expire. The guard I watched yesterday paused for _exactly_ the same amount of time at each pause in his post. (by my watch it was 21 1/2 seconds)

The Sentinel's Creed, posted outside the quarters of the guard detachment, says it all:

Ignore the crappy camera holding and notice the perfect synchronization of the movements of the guards during the changing of the guard ceremony:

Many units of the Army have paid their respects to the Unknown Soldiers of war. These are posted by two units in which my dad served: the first in Germany, the second in Operations Desert Shield/Desert Storm.

George Washington once said, "Discipline is the soul of an army. It makes small numbers formidable; procures success to the weak, and esteem to all."

The soldiers of the who guard the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier exemplify that discipline, and are a credit to a profession I am proud to have been a part of.

It _is_ real. I've been there.

Some of you may know that I'm a bit of a Tolkien geek. I am one of those for whom Middle Earth is a very real place. And today we received incontrovertible proof. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the Bilbo Baggins Restaurant and the Green Dragon Pub.







Friendly service is, indeed, a hobbit, and as noted in The Fellowship of the Ring, Bilbo is very much so an excellent chef.

Bonus points (and maybe a small prize) for whoever can identify the secret picture from the book...

P.S. My wife is awesome:

I will be eternally baffled at how this didn't make her top five for today. Talk about right place, right time.

In case you may have been wondering. No, I didn't take this picture. She did.

Memorials in the Dark

I also will be taking some photos during our vacation, but I'm not nearly as compulsively organizational as Nicole and will not be narrowing my selection down as far here on my blog (it'll probably be below 10). These are some of my favorites from last night. I'll be posting the rest of this excursion on Picasa here. More to come from today...

This is what I do...

Some of you may think that this is the remains of a somewhat boring sunset. You'd be wrong. By about 8 hours.

This officially sucks.

No baby this time around, folks. This really sucks. Makes it kinda hard to want to pull the all-nighters I have coming in the next few days to finish projects before the semester is over. In fact, it makes it kinda hard to want to do much of anything. Perfect timing, eh? More shots for Nicole, more ovaries the size of grapefruits for Nicole. Am I allowed to be tired of building character? I'm a character, aren't I?

You can expect a return to regularly scheduled programming of goofiness when I'm done being bummed.

Laters.

Not the sharpest knife in the drawer...

If only this wasn't real...

YES!!!!!!

Nicole and I were just talking about music I've "introduced" her to (that she actually realized she liked once she gave them a chance).

After listing Van Halen, Bon Jovi, and Lynyrd Skynyrd, she asked "Who else?"

I replied, "Grand Funk Railroad," to which she responded, "That's American Band, right?"

I've never been so ecstatically proud of my influence on her. (5 seconds ago when Van Halen's Right Now started playing and she ID'd not only the band, but the name of the song, was pretty close though...)

Plant the seeds, and they will grow...

Unreal. Totally Unreal.

As many of you know, I don't really get upset about things that don't affect me directly. Heck, I don't even get upset about quite a few things that do affect me directly. But every now and then I'll see or read something that really sets me off. Which leads me to tonight.

The first part of our story begins with a rare, but beautiful event. Every now and then, Nicole will mention in passing something about going to Krispy Kreme. She will then immediately deny that she was serious and tell me to turn around and go home. But I know better. So we moseyed on over to Krispy Kreme for some warm, light, fluffy, heavenly goodness. Which is where our story turns south.

We were standing in line and I was admiring the finely-tuned machinery that brings this delicious marvel to life, when I noticed the middle-aged guy in front of us asking his 4 kids if they wanted samples. The kids dutifully filed forward from watching the doughnuts being made to receive their sample from the girl who was helping customers as the dad ate his sample. He then mentioned that there was one more in the car. The girl handing out samples promptly handed him another doughnut and then went back to filling orders. The guy then walked past us and walked out the door. At first I didn't think anything of it, figuring that he was just taking the sample doughnut to whatever little nubbin, or perhaps his wife, waiting in the car after which he would come back and place his order. No big deal, since there were like 3 or 4 people waiting in line before him. Then I heard him say to his kids, who were again watching the doughnuts cooking, to hurry up and come on. Nicole and I turned to each other in disbelief. Did this guy actually come to Krispy Kreme, knowing that they give you a free sample while you wait in line, to get a free doughnut for himself and the kids, and just leave without buying anything? Or even saying thank you to the employee who handed him and his 4 kids their free sample?

"No way," I thought. But sure enough, I looked out the window and watched him herding his kids into the minivan. This guy had actually come to mooch a free doughnut without buying anything. I couldn't believe it.

Now, I know what it's all about to be a little short-funded, and I don't know what the guy's circumstances are. But seriously. A half-dozen doughnuts is like $5. That's one combo meal at a fast food restaurant. A gallon and a half of gas. So for a guy who's packing a blackberry on his belt, $5 is not a heck of a lot. So what the heck does this guy think he's doing walking into Krispy Kreme, getting his free sample (which is given as a courtesy to their customers who are waiting to buy doughnuts) and walking out as soon as their backs are turned?

This bugs the crap out of me. Seriously. If you want a doughnut, buy a freaking doughnut. Don't go freeloading on a company offering a courtesy for their paying customers. What the heck? If I want a Krispy Kreme bad enough to actually go to their store I want one bad enough to pay for it. Don't get me wrong, a free sample is enough of a pull that I only go to Krispy Kreme when the hot light is on, but I'm going to buy some doughnuts, not get a free one and boogie on out of there.

This is a serious economic problem in the guise of a cheap, middle-aged blackberry toter and his kids. This is why public services are almost never effective or long-lived. How long is Krispy Kreme going to offer free doughnuts to customers waiting in line if they see those customers leaving without buying anything after receiving their sample? It's the same with any public service meant as a courtesy to potential paying customers. If those customers get what they want (even if it's only a small portion) without paying, there is very little incentive for them to stick around and pay for the real deal.

So, Mr. grab-samples-and-run, knock it off. At the cost of your integrity and $5 for a half-dozen doughnuts, your hosing the rest of us who are willing to pay for a few doughnuts after enjoying a free one. So hunker down and shell out 1% of the cost of that blackberry on your belt and be a responsible member of society.

Some clarification.

For those of you who may not know, Nicole and I are doing in vitro. In order to avoid misunderstanding, here are some frequently asked questions (to us) and their answers:

Question: Why?
Answer: Because we want to have kids. If you already know more details than that, then you know why. If you don't already know more details than that, you probably don't need to know.

Question: How are we doing with all this?
Answer: Honestly we'd much rather be able to just have kids normally. Nicole is _very_ tired of having shots and if possible I'm even more tired of giving her shots.

Question: What are our chances?
Answer: Every cycle, they have between 50% and 60% success rate. If we transfer embryos on day 3 (Saturday) that is the ballpark. If there are lots of healthy-looking embryos on day 3 and the doc says it looks okay to wait for day 5 (Monday) our chances go up to 70%, but there is a small risk (about 10% according to Dr. H.) that between day 3 and 5 all of the remaining embryos will die. So we're putting our trust in the embryolgist and the docs and we'll see what happens.

Question: What if we have twins?
Answer: Great. At this point, we'll take anything we can get.

Question: What's the plan?
Answer: There is no plan. When they call us Saturday morning and tell us what they think, we'll know what's going on. It would be nice to have twins, given that this is not going to happen very many times in our lifetime, but there's not a thing Nicole or I can do to make that happen. So the official plan is that we'll do what they tell us to do and hope for the best.

Question: What happens next?
Answer: We'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

There, now you all know as much as we do.

Wordless Wednesday: So. Very. Weary.