Whoa! Reubens Tube

As seen on Hack-a-day.



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Centralpark? LCD/Radio/Anything on a Side by side Fridge?

I am not sure if I can credit this to my friend, John. Either way, a dockable refrigerator is something I have been a proponent of. If this is yours, John, congratulations.

Facebook

Seems facebook got a ton of publicity with their recent addition of an external api as well as offering to those outside of college. Some other's think that face book could fall flat.

You'd think I have a ton to write about...

Not much really has been happening. I did the deck project last weekend. This weekend I was going to do some pruning and then paint the picnic table. Well, I started to paint the picnic table and realized that I had not bought paint. Or least one with very little pigment. Turns out that I had bought polyurethane. This isn't bad, but not something I had planned for. So now, I need to run to Lowes and pick up white paint when then leads to a couple of future projects around the house as well. If I run to Lowes today, I should pick up a couple of ceiling vents for the bathrooms as well as pick up some PVC pipe to create a sensory table for Miranda.

So once I have the white paint, then I can apply the polyurethane so my table can last forever. In fact, I think that I need to sand the table again so that the surface is rough enough to pick up a paint coat.

Miranda is still Miranda. Eating is getting better. Sleeping is getting better. I am pretty sure it will never reach "perfect". Just have to keep stimulating her. Yesterday I flipped on the radio which didn't exactly make her happy. I am not sure what she was looking for but... that was not it. I guess she doesn't like U2.

As for reading, I have finished 3 John Scalzi books, Old Man's War, The Ghost Brigades, The Last Colony. These books are definitely in the fun range of Science Fiction reading. They tended toward a slightly light form of science, with a smattering of politics. I think Andy would enjoy them. I might even be tempted to call it Heinlein light. Except it really isn't watered downed like light beer. Just light and airy.

Otherwise, I have recently picked up Accelerando by Charles Stross. I am just starting so I really don't have much to say yet.

Welcome Summer

Well the first day of summer was absolutely gorgeous. Here are to many more.

iPhone ... heh.

Somehow this strikes me as funny. I am not certain I know anyone who is that violently pro-Apple. But anytime you can distill down the world of Apple from the view of someone who could give a rat's ass about Apple... I appreciate that.

Here's to the iPhone sucking!

Father's Day

Well, my second Father's Day, and I can definitely say I am exhausted. Miranda has been going like crazy today (with some downtime for crying...). I was also able install some safety lattice work on the back deck rail to keep Miranda from falling through. Overall, I am pretty happy. Just finished talking to my Dad to wish him a happy Father's Day. It sounded like he had a good day as well (my brother stopped into town to visit).

Michelle made me Irish stew, which was awesome. I had made some cappuccino scones the night before which were really good (not as good as specialty bakery, but I try).

May happy wishes go out to Jeff, Jay, and Dan who are all celebrating 1st and 2nd father's days.

Free game...

So last night I tried out Aegis Wing, which was developed by a bunch of interns at Microsoft. I should say that I tried it out for the second time. The first time I tried it, I was not impressed. It seemed quite difficult and not really compelling. Last night though, I got to team of with AlphaCog and wife, as well as JOT3 and it suddenly got much more compelling. This is a game that is utterly dependent on the multi player, for one to make it even feasible and two that it can be a very social game where you can team up to form your own version of Voltron.

So if you don't have it, get it, if you have an Xbox 360. And send me a message, it will be fun.

Another rainy weekend

Yesterday, was just another rainy day in the Pacific Northwest. That's fine. It helps things stay green out this way considering we haven't really had that much rain this spring. It seems like the start of winter got a lot of rain, but it really has just been gray since.

Miranda seems to be getting her second top front tooth. It is slow going and has caused her irritation since Thursday night. So she has been a tad whiny and sometimes outright upset. Feeding during these times is in serious not cool.

Oh yeah, a big congratulations go out to Jaimee and Dan the Man on the birth of their child, Madison Elizabeth. She was born Thursday, June 7th at 3:53 pm weighing in at 6 lb, 11 oz and 20 inches in length. And that folks is the tale of the tape... Of course this is all from the person in high school that swore that it would be a cold day in hell before she had a kid :).

Amanda started it...

You Are Apple Red

You're never one to take life too seriously, and because of it, you're a ton of fun. And although you have a great sense of humor, you are never superficial. Deep and caring, you do like to get to the core of people - to understand them well. However, any probing you do is light hearted and fun, sometimes causing people to misjudge you.

What Color Red Are You?

And...

You Are 20% Evil

You are good. So good, that you make evil people squirm. Just remember, you may need to turn to the dark side to get what you want!

How Evil Are You?

All as seen on Amanda's blog.

Misc Miranda post

Argh, I hate teething. I wish that there was some magic cure to teething, but right now with one tooth coming in every two months, it is going slowly and she is not enjoying it. Overall, she is vocalizing a bit more and moving like a pro. This week saw the addition of climbing to her set of tools, which has completely destroyed any hope of my turning my xbox on again.

Unless she is asleep.

And then I am usually asleep.

So how do they have so much energy especially when they should be using it to grow and all those other amazing early things? I think they had it right in the Matrix when they harnessed humans to create energy. I mean stare at a 15 month old and tell me that is not a completely renewable source of power.

So as a video, here is one of Miranda reading her book to me...

Backyard landscaping...

Well, we knew that we wanted to get some landscaping done in the backyard prior to the cookout we had recently. I managed to find all the pictures that I had created in regards to this project. It is not perfect, but should give you an idea of the progression.

June 20th, 2006


May 24th, 2007


May 25th, 2007


May 28th, 2007


And there we have it. Currently love it and enjoy our backyard much more, although I am still looking for some extra muscle to help me move the bench swing to the round patio.

Dave visit + random

Well, one of my fellow troupers from MTU, Dave. Found out he was out here in Seattle and we finally worked out a time to hang out and chat. We went to Pizzeria Fondi and had the excellent Prosciutto and Arugula Pizza, Margherita Pizza and a pitcher of the Fondi Lager. Delicious all around!!! Dave seemed to have fun and he had Miranda laughing hysterically.

Thanks for everything Dave!

Also, I saw on George R. R. Martin's blog that he did a book talk in second life. Much more interesting is that he went as Tyrion the Imp. I like the "slip" that Tyrion would fly. Does he end up riding a dragon?

Heatwave '07, kinda

I don't really think it was a heatwave. It was more of an unusual spike in temperature that caused everyone to be a tad uncomfortable in the Pacific Northwest. For a single day, that is.

So Miranda got to try out her new Dora the explorer sprinkler and she was not at all happy about it. I don't know if Michelle got any pictures but she might have. If she did, I will post them up for all to see. Also decided that I would bring up our Whirlpool Portable Air Conditioner and try it out. Installation was a bear and the instructions were pretty horrible. But once installed, it worked like a charm. A 90lb charm that I had to lug up the stairs.

An attempt on large scale entertainment

How can people do entertaining? If you know, could you tell me? That being said, I think it turned out well. We had (including us) 9 adults and 2 children. I think I made enough food for 30 people though. Food turned out good. I think I was being a little to over critical of my pork tenderloin and ribs. The ribs I had were good, but a little on the chewy side. The sides were mostly store bought and what others could bring along.

So in the past, when we would go to summer family gatherings, I would be stationed at the grill doing the cooking letting who ever wanted to chat with me, swing over. Not to mention it was usually burgers, brats, and dogs so if you wanted it piping hot, or specially cooked, you had to come see me. This time, I was doing much slower cook items. In the smoker, I started 2 3lb pork loins at about 11am which I pulled off the smoker around 3pm. At about noon, I added 2 3lb pork spare ribs. For some reason the ribs caused the smoking process to be inhibited slightly. In the grill, I had 3 additional 3-4lb racks of ribs. These sat on the grill from about 1:30 to 2:30. Side wise, Michelle had me covered since I felt near wits end just trying to balance these large, slow cooking items.

During this time, though I felt less able to talk. I am thinking next time that we try this to go with the old standby of burgers, brats, and dogs (we will include some vegetarian options for those of that inclination). Otherwise, between cleaning, cooking, and tracking a very speedy 1 year old, I felt a tad hurried. I really hope all that could attend, had a good time. I know I really did enjoy the company.

As for Miranda, she was a complete doll. Started a little shy, but slowly opened up and had some fun. Landscaping was done about 3:30pm and looks great. As with all functions, I forgot to take pictures. Sigh.

You think you got it bad. Feel bad for Finland.

Heh!

First of the link to The Great Pyramid of Agile. This article was fairly amusing. Covers many of the issues of good platforms/architectures. Also takes into account that agile allows for many deviations from the original plan (basically an allowable form of scope-creep if you ask me).

As for the cases of failure, the answer is overwhelmingly, "of course it didn’t work; the project didn’t have enough good people."

This is of course followed with:

Good people can build good software no matter what methodology they use.

I think though that one of the things they miss that agile gives you the opportunity to do is fail fast. This is a tremendous advantage in helping predict paths features that customers won't find useful and to also determine when a particular technical path is the wrong way. But knowing this, if you decided you need to scale or need a platform, you are talking now of a major undertaking that won't really fit in the "Agile" world.

So if I were to say what the best software development process would be, I have to say that it has to be something that results in quick iterations for the design and experiment phase which would be followed by a planning process to convert this prototype into something becomes maintainable and meets more rigorous production requirements. Maintainability is key. Along with good documentation.

Halo 3 beta redux

Since I didn't sign an NDA on this I assume we are good talk. Although, I am not one to tempt fate, so I will not be talking in any specifics. Overall, I am having fun. There is little difference between Halo 2 and Halo 3. That is a pretty bad sticking point for someone the folks in my clan that think the graphics are so first gen Microsoft console... Not really a sticking point for me. It is fun and that is what matters.

I would like a better lobby though. It feels not friendly... Not sure how else to describe it. We all show up, and pray that they don't start matchmaking because once the party leader does, then those outside the party have to wait. Not very good. To be honest, I would be willing to wait or better yet just be a spectator on a match. Well, here's to future improvements!

That is what friends are for

It looks like some pictures of me from one of my college plays has surfaced again on the web. In particular, Princess Blogonoke's site is not holding pictures of me playing Virgil from Bus Stop. Although, I never did know that people questioned the moustache.

Most of those pictures bring back excellent memories. Of all that though, I always feel a tad down that I did not take all the plays that I worked with seriously. Whenever I was given leeway with the dialog, I tended to foul it up and move it out of character. So in that sense, it is bittersweet. But there are so many more good memories and thoroughly fun times that I can sometimes forget I said, "I am too busy scratching myself."

Loading Halo 3 Beta

Thank you Bungie.

love, Reverend0