Couple quick things

Finally pushed over the edge and need to fix my PC. This is the longest I have ever had a PC without changing it and am starting to feel the pressure to upgrade. But I just continue to try and limp along. Today I am spending some time reformatting so that hopefully I can download my video's from the vidcam. Plus, my TV mode on my video card quit working months ago, and I finally am tired of waiting on that. The one problem I can't seem to fix is the one that bothers me the most. Whenever I reboot, it takes 15 minutes to POST. I unplug the one piece of equipment I installed after purchase (HDD) and it POSTs in less than 15 seconds. This only reinforces the next PC will be build by me. Just a lot more flexible and reliable for what I need it to do.

So, I have a DLP projector that I use for movies and games. It works well for movies, but I was unable to see in most games because they are dark and require a fairly high contrast ratio. So I saw online that you can buy a dongle that will convert hi-def to vga. So now I am using one of my old monitors (19") to play my games on. I will post a full review of it later along with make/model/where you can get one too if you are intrigued.

Well back to reformatting.

(BTW, I have been considering a Mac Mini so that I can do audio stuff on it. Don't tell my wife.)

Book Review: The Innovation Superhighway

Without boring about why I am doing this so much later than when I actually read the book, suffice to say, I have decided that this book requires a full review. I had written previously about this book, where I recommended this to my previous employer. I would like to explore why I felt this way and more so why I became disillusioned with the book's message.

First off, when looking for books on innovation, one must know what type of information they are looking for and what information they are going to find in the book that they are going to read. The Innovation Superhighway is a book that starts out presenting the start of a framework using the internet as a means of transmitting information. Early on in the book it is stated that internet and all it's services and facilities are really about innovation, not information. While many innovative activities are occurred because of the information that is made more readily and by the "free wheeling" of early internet companies, the internet is truly about the transfer of knowledge. When much of the book deals with sharing of innovations across some infrastructure sounds wonderful, I have seem little of it in the corporate world, where it may be true in the academic world. In fact I have seen the opposite in the corporate world, where innovation is coveted and hoarded.

In the end, this book will do a couple of good things for you. It provides an excellent look into the ideas of Intellectual Capital, which still has a certain amount of nebulousness about it (although I was looking for something a little deeper here). The book also presents some excellent views into Knowledge and what it can mean to an individual, a company, and even a country. There is a lot of good information in those chapters.

This however only gets us to page 127 out of 349. At this point, the book goes into the story of ENTOVATION which I was unable to find much that I could use in many of my roles of using technology to facilitate communication and parts within a corporation's innovation processes. It becomes the story of how individuals from many roles got together to explore knowledge exchange and sharing for the purpose of innovation. Many of the cases that are put forth rely on companies and individuals seeing the benefit of sharing information and also that all information being shared is of equal value. I have been part of such attempts at sharing only to have them break down due to information having different value to different parties and therefore demanding different returns. The whole knowledge market, although referenced earlier in the book, seems largely ignored. The primary aspects near the end of the book rely on a more idealistic world, where personal gain (thinking selfishly here) is largely ignored and the greater good of society and countries are funded to aid innovation. I have seen little evidence of any working towards that or any chance of these goals coming to fruition. Painting of Exemplar Ken Practitioners through ~40 pages had little value to me in my quest for knowledge and innovation processes.

So, there is value to the book. I felt that the first portion of the book was the most valuable and would love to see more around that, but I was disappointed that after such a strong start, the end left me wanting.

If only Tequila

I wish it wasn't NyQuil. Tequila (the other Q drink) would be preferable, but somehow I have managed to become sick. Again. Oh well, sick happens.

NFL Collective Bargaining Agreement

Look, wealthy teams, I know that it isn't fair that you should have to give up more of your income to other NFL teams, but perhaps some of your popularity comes from your rivalries to the other teams you help? Both the owners and players make a ton of money in this sport and on all fronts they seem very stingy. I think I would propose some major changes however. First off, I would reduce the pay of the players. Second I would increase the allocation of player money. Third, I would increase the monies that go into the NFL retirement program.

Many of the big name players do their own financing but many don't or don't even do it effectively. So to the first point, reducing pay, I am not talking about a major deal here, but a limitation to a percentage of the salary cap. So for instance, the most any given player can make in a year would be 8% of the salary cap, so this year that would mean that a player could only make 8% of $94.9 million. That is the sum of their prorated signing bonus, incentives and base salary so that there will be no trickery here. Today's $94 million is given all to the players and that accounts for 54% of a teams allocation. I would like to see the difference of what the players want to current placed in a NFL 401(k). Plus the players can contribute some of their money into that as well to create a cushion for them when they are finished.

To do away with the salary cap, and the money sharing in the NFL would destroy everything that I have come to love about the game. We will lose the aspect that on any given Sunday, our team could win. We would lose these battles of equals and the power of groups of heros to emerge. We would lose the aspect of good team management to create forces were all teams start on equal footing. We would lose American Football and they would lose a lot of viewership.

I may build one of these

This one falls into my friggin' awesome category. Something about it just makes me giddy, but what really gets me is that in the end it turns out to be a good looking guitar. I will have to think about what other things I could build into a guitar...

Toilet Seat Guitar

Our Cell Phones suck!

This is probably one of my longest running rants about living in the U.S. Our cell phones really suck. Part of the other things that I have seen on web sites like Engadget, Gizmodo, and Engadget Mobile only whet my appetite for a phone that will provide all the functionality I want in a tiny, sweet looking package. I would love to see better cameras, faster data networks, bigger displays, bluetooth, good processors, applications, coverage, etc. I think the only thing we have right is battery life. Even the general style does not live to the Geek that drives me. Think of the Geek as similar to the Fast, only it has a pocket protector and a more demonic voice. It desires the pinnacle of technology in ones pocket to provide connectivity where ever you are.

But on the plus side, it looks like someone is trying to do just that. I hope that it takes off, and I might even considering using my dollars to purchase into it.

Source of rant: normal life and Engadget Mobile: Wired profiles Sky Dayton and the birth of Helio

6 weeks to go

Did I just say that? Only six weeks left till our family is 50% bigger. I think I am getting nervous. It will be fine. Room is coming along. Get to put it hiatus as Michelle's family will be visiting and we will use that room for sleeping. But we have a form of baby sleeping device that is not a crib. That will do for a while, but we will be on the lookout for all sorts of stuff. I am thinking that shortly we will make a list of all the stuff we have yet to pick up. It is not part of my nature to make lists, but I have this feeling that this is bigger than my normal fly by the seat of my pants events.

Work is good. Football is sadly lacking (although I have been following the Combine in Indianapolis like a hawk). I would be nice to see more off season coverage. My gaming is limited to football on the xbox and my reading is:

Domain-Driven Design: Tackling Complexity in the Heart of Software
A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 1)

Ahh the good life.

Another 3 reviews

Finished 3 books in the last couple of weeks and I am pretty sure that I have not blogged about them. I will start with the business one and move on to the other ones. It may sound like I am spending a large amount of time reading, but I have to say that riding the train is definitely a plus to my reading.

The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It

E-Myth Revisited actually takes place in the E-Myth series prior to E-Myth Mastery. This one again uses the example of Sarah and her business of all about pies. Much of my initial reaction to this book was largely negative compared to the E-Myth Mastery, but after getting through with it, there was a large amount of good information. My major gripe with it was that it seemed as if Michael Gerber was pushing the idea of the Franchise Prototype on to the reader as the only way for one to truly be successful in a business, but later on that message seems to soften. The end of the book focuses on the right things of a franchise, which involves creating a business system that makes the business run without YOU, which leads to much less stressful business. In the end though, I would not buy both books, but instead just buy E-Myth Mastery as it seems to set up a much better framework for a business and how to focus one's energies.

Prince of the Blood, 15th Anniversary Edition

I have been a big Raymond Fiest fan, but I started a little backwards with the Serpent War Saga. I have since gone back through his other books all set within the same basic universe. Mr. Fiest has a wonderful ability to create rich characters and a intriguing environment and this book is no exception. The story tells of the two sons of the Prince of Krondor and their "punishment" and coming of age. Although this book is not as good as some of his other works, it is a worth while read. There is always a sense of fun and adventure is these books and this is another of the series. However, as you read more and more of his books, you start noticing the reoccuring emergence of character traits, but in the end it is just a great fantasy "spaghetti western".

The Man Who Sold The Moon

The Man Who Sold the Moon is a series of short stories by the great sci-fi master R.A.H. The short stories in this book were written early in Heinlein's career and cover the later half of the 20th century and how he predicted the future based on the occurrences of World War 2. The primary story is based on a character who's goal in life is to first visit the moon (being the first human) and then setting up a colony on the moon. Harriman (the character) uses is past business successes and his business savvy to convince his friends, his company, and complete nations of children to help back his venture, which is of the goal to fulfill a childhood fantasy instead of make money. The rest of the stories tell of the engineers who make that path possible via their inventions and work and it sets up a beautiful backdrop. The painful part of reading this was Heinlein's attention to detail around concerning everything but the inventions and many of his shady business practices and national politics seem to be more far-fetched than the inventions themselves. But in the end, I did enjoy it, but for all I would recommend that one sticks with Stranger in a Strange Land and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress as they are much better stories.

Talent Identification

So in my last post, I discussed some of the problems that face Human Resource employees and some ideas on what they could do to impact the company that they are working for. This time I want to talk a little bit about trying to identify talent. Some employers will base everything on a resume, a phone screen, a interview, or a test. But can those properly identify top talent. Probably the best one will be an interview, but I have heard from some that a talented individual might perform poorly under the pressure of an intense grilling. They are still talented at ideation, learning, or focus, but communication or pressure situations arent their cup of tea.

It leads into the problem that many people have with standardized testing. Should someone not get a chance because their SAT was 890, resume didn't have enough experience or the right name of school, or can't tell you how to program the perfect hashing function on the phone, not get a chance at working? See the problem in all cases is that the pressure is too much for the candidate or person being tested and that isn't something you can remove. And if I am someone who is trying identify someone for a role in a job or as a student at my prestigous university, I need a means to measure the thousands of potential candidates.

My point is the current means all have the same drawback, then the best way to discover talent is the quickest, most consistent method. My recommendation to a team is to create a test that will help reduce the thousands by removing ones that you would not hire anyway. Use and abuse the standardized testing before you start using your currently employed resources.

Mismanagement of Human Resources

Rant source: Why we hate HR?

One of my favorite quote that a friend of mine uses is: "People aren't your company's most important resource, the right people are" as taken from Good to Great by Jim Collins. This puts the right focus in front of any HR person who wants to be more involved in the strategic decisions of a company. In fact, nothing will impact your knowledge centric company more than acquiring talented, driven individuals to work in your company and then keep them there.

At some point, I have noticed that Human Resources continues to add processes to measure their people from year to year on their performance. This process adds a overhead to every single employee in your organization. Now, I am not saying that we should not measure the effectiveness of people or of the HR department, as continual measurement and measurement improvement is the only way to optimize performance. However, why is it the job of a Human Resource department or representative to determine a process to measure the individual contributor? There seems to be this universal need to list your weaknesses and strengths. The strengths are there for feel good factor while the weaknesses are a thing to used as a driving whip in the backs of the employees. Another standard question concerns the accomplishment of goals that were set out at the beginning of the year. Specific task oriented items that can be accomplished by a certain time limiter with little wiggle room is a poor way to measure an employee that has the ability to take initiative and put thought into finding the things that will make the most impact and work on those.

First off Human Resources does have a part to play in the Performance Review process, just not the creation, but instead the documentation. To begin, the goals set forth should be derived from the goals of leadership. This belief was instilled in my by Jay, and has been reinforced by the operation of the team he ran. If the company goal is to creat $7 billion in free cash flow or increase diluted eps by $.20, these things can be translated down to individuals, but can only be done some one org layer (or layer to the corporate onion) at a time. The leadership team involving the C class executives are responsible for splitting that goal up among their individuals orgs as some teams are not created equally. A VP of PR can't contribute much in the way of dollars to free cash floor, but could do more with less by creating value in interviews and product demos that cost nothing to the corporation but generate media buzz. A VP of IT, can contribute to efficiency that are needed by other orgs. All parts and pieces must contribute to the end goal, but not all contributions need be equal, but all must be related to the overall all goal and those pieces of the goal must relate to the company's vision and mission statement.

Within a given org, the departments can now look at those high level goals (that are now closer to their company view) and break those down into goals that are to be worked on. Our group will contribute $50 million in buzz worthy demos. Our group will contribute $50 million to Apparel revenue. At no point do you want to limit the individual to where they are just working on set goals and afraid to go blaze new trails.

The next step is reaffirmation of the goal at each quarterly analyst call. The goals of each org and person should still reflect the goals of company at all times of the year. The process by which it should be done is subjective, but one that is engaging to the members who actually have to contibute and accomplish the goals is probably the best case as there is now more ownership of the companies performance.

The final step in performance is meeting the goals which should be again measured at the top and trickled down. If the company met goals, then great. Next is to allocated kudos (whatever those may be) to the departments based on their relationship to the goal and this flows down through the org. The amount of kudos in the pool is defined by the scale of eps or free cash flow or whatever.

So where does that leave HR? What do they do again? It is easier to look at their functions in terms of architecture. There are main functions that need to be accomplished to aid the company and then some underlying services that all functions need to use to accomplish their goals. The only function of HR is Talent Management (aquisition, retainment, removal, classification). This means that we need a way to hire individual (how does a manager set up the requisition? how is that req communicated to the job seeking public? etc.), a way to identify individuals that can contribute (standardized tests of personality, IQ, functional knowledge?), a way to create incentives for people to join (dogs at work, 401(k) matching, medical insurance, etc). This is just a drop in the bucket, but the core is creating an environment that allows for the company to accomplish its goals. When those goals are inhibited due to talent, that is a failing in HR.

I know that this is just the tip of the iceberg, as each part of HR's mission needs to be explored out, mapped, measured, and enacted but it is time for dinner. HR principles today seem to be driven out of the old America, when employees were of little skill and could be replaced easily. These were environments of system driven results as opposed to many industries rely on people driven results. Maybe product engineering and software development companies will find systems to remove the need for talent, but until then HR has a strategic place in the corporation regardless if they feel it or not.

Pushing more product!

Ok. So if you have noticed, when I create links to books, movies, etc. that I am reading and reviewing, the link goes to Amazon. The deal is that get a small fraction of a cut help fund my main site of Modilabs which hosts my pictures and my encyclopedia of me. So without further ado, I will push more product on you.



I have not completed this comic book, but if you are a fan of Penny Arcade and more specifically the blog posts that go with the comic, then you will enjoy this. Basically this pulls from the 1999-2000 of the website and puts little insights behind what was going on with our hosts, the owners and creators. Lots of fun.

As going through the recent comics, I found one that I would love to have as a poster in my office (if I knew that my child will not see it). That would be the middle frame of this comic. Without the witty words. Just the simplicity of glowing pants. What a rockin' poster.

Also more product to push and places to push you to, I signed up for a pro account of flickr. The UI is simple, the features are rich, and the price is not bank breaking. For a link to my pictures, you can look all over my site and find a few or just click here. Also a friend of mine is taking up the nasty habit of vblog, video blogging, vibe-logging. I have found his videos enjoyable and a neat look at the various technologies he tries out using green screening and using various software. For note, the hosting for his news casts is through vimeo.

New look and feel

I finally got tired of using the look and feel that I could download off of blogspot and made my own. I had done some modifications to the template that I originally started in, but grew weary of it over time. Looked like everyone blog on the planet. There are a couple of glitches in this new skin that I am going to have to fix in time, but it took me an entire Saturday creating my sparse images and aligning everything just so. At some later point, I am going to start adding in some java script to all you to minimize and hid menu items. Also, at some point take a gander down the page.

If you have suggestions or complaints, leave me a comment.

Gaming and my test.

It may be because it is battlefield, but the number of profanity is low (because you can't hear someone else when they are dead). Cause I know that I was spewing them out like crazy. Mostly at my inability to get ACCOMPLISHMENTS.

As a note:

• With Projector: 42 Points per hour
• With Low Def CRT: 98 Points per hour

Simply infuriating. All I can gather is that with the CRT the contrast ratio helps with spotting enemy troops. When I switched to my gorgeous projector doing high def, the contrast ratio is so low that it feels very washed out. The funny thing is when I checked the specs online recently of my projector it said 1800:1 contrast ratio. But that doesn't seem right since my LCD monitor is worse and sees to be easier to see things. Hmmmm. Plus the projector is further from the wall than in the old house. Sigh.

Gamers and their verbal diarrhea

Seems that gamers have quite the potty mouth. I must say that I am guilty as charged but soemtimes it is a little 12 year spouting off using terms I don't even consider using regardless of their winning or losing.

One gamer went so far as to track the use of profanity over a 30 hour period. I think this is a neat idea. But for the most part I tend to only play with those in my clan as dealing with the younger generation can be a bit of a burden. However when I was reading through the comments on the first link, I found a link to the Seasoned Gamers clan which expects a certain level of maturity in their gamers (how much I am not really sure.

So it seems there is a place where you can find friends that aren't young and stupid.

xbox gamertag: reverend0

Reviews Galore!!!

It is time for my review extravaganza!!!


Best in Show (4.5 out of 5 stars)

Watched this over the weekend and was impressed by again the talents of Christopher Guest and many of the folks that he works with in creating this mockumentary in the style of Spinal Tap and Mighty Wind. If you have seen any of these movies before, you will know that premise is to take the emotions and personalities of these vaunted professions and experiences and explode them expodentially. Best in Show follows 4 sets of dog owners through the trials and stresses that lead up to a major competition which involves nothing more than having a well trained, finely groomed dog. The actors do a wonderful job creating these over the top personas and giving them those human touches that sometimes you are moved by the lengths they go to, but many times horrified at their take on many things.

<SPOILER>
I think the part that completely sold me on the movie was in end of the movie where the handlers are walking their dogs for the grand champion and Eugene Levy's character is walking their dog never having done this before. And you noticed that his two left feet lead him perfectly around the parade ground with his dog. Superb
</SPOILER>

Doom (Unrated Widescreen Edition) (.5 out of 5 stars)

This film disappointed me on so many levels. I felt obligated to see it as I have been a fan of id games and played their games since the days of Wolf3d. I knew going into this movie that they had changed the premise of the movie to be mutants as opposed to demons as done in the games. I had heard that this was done by the studios to appease the christian groups. But WTF? You'd think bashing demons would be totally up the Christian rights alley... of course that is hearsay.

Either way this popcorn flick was trash. From the get go you are faced with scientists running down a dark hallway from something frightening and the head scientist calling to earth for help. Following this you have an l33t group of special forces that come in raining bullets and getting their butts trounced. I think special in this case refers to their lack of teamwork and gross mistakes in going into an unknown and hostile situation. Without spoiling this one, I would easily call this one Resident Evil 3: Welcome to Mars.

E-Myth Mastery : The Seven Essential Disciplines for Building a World Class Company (4 out of 5 stars)

First off, I must say thanks to Jay for convincing me to read this book. E Myth Mastery takes a look at what it takes to be an entrepeneur. It goes through the driving need to be creative and how often that need to create gets changed into not wanting to work for the man and suddenly the creativity is stagnated or you perhaps go out of business.

At some point you have to look at your passions and the things that drive you and make the decision to be the technician and work in your craft or find the passion in creating a successful business around your craft and teach others of your craft and passion and make that business truly world class. As it goes though by telling the tale of a woman named Sarah with her pie selling business walking through the steps with her consultant, the author of the book, you are told of the 7 essential masteries to create a world class business out of your business. These 7 skills focus on different leadership skills such as financial, lead generation, and marketing and it is often mentioned that these skills must all be practiced because if you let one aspect of your business get away from you, then it can cause your business to not be as successful as it could have been.

Also in reading this, it can be helpful to those that are not out to create their own business. These skills and funnelling of passion can help you lead an organization towards "world class" where world class is the best of it's kind. Understanding that as a team working on projects and creating customer solutions, you need to know what you are working towards with the allocated money and how you are going to create loyal customers.

I recommend this book to those that want something more out of their business or are looking for a way to channel your passions into creating great things.

Mounting Frustration

I guess my projector and xbox are just irritating me. My xbox locks up all the time and seems to have trouble frequently. My projector has always had a low contrast ratio, but it is now starting to get on my nerves. The solution: deal with it. Right now everything is in new parent mode, so the only purchases are vital purchases till we get through this, unless there is some killer deal (ala the robo-vac that we got for a song).

I think the first panic attack happened when we were watching the birthing videos and I started counting back and we have less than double digit weeks left till our baby arrives. Holy smokes! Michelle is doing a great job painting up her stencils of frogs and leaves and butterflies. To see her progress, check the link to her blog on the menu to the right.

I think I did the final thing today to signify my move to Washington state. I changed the plates on my truck and my wife's car. Although we gotten the plates a while ago, the weather has not been conducive to putting the plates on as it has been <gasp /> raining. However in putting on the plates, I came to the realization that radiators are sharp and attaching the mounting brackets has left my knuckles a bloody mess. But it is done!

--------------------- READING -------------------------

• I have nearly completed E-Myth Mastery : The Seven Essential Disciplines for Building a World Class Company and I will be putting up a review of it soon. I thank Jay for suggesting it.


• The Man Who Sold The Moon

He said, she said

Lions hire Martz as offensive coordinator

The Lions have a new coach in Marinelli, a defensive coordinator in Henderson of the Jets and now signed Martz of the Rams as their offensive coordinator. However it seems that the Martz hiring did not go off without a hitch. Seems someone was lying or leaked information or some form of falsification over the last nine days that led up to this. I don't feel like taking a side in who did what, but it will be nice to have one of the most brilliant offensive minds leading a team such as the Lions.

Marinelli late last week mentioned that Detroit was going to be moving to a run first offense while Martz is typically known for his pass heavy offenses, this leads me to be very curious to see how it turns out. Either way, this leads me to question the players currently in the program.

Joey Harrington has been in a west coast offense up until this point and that has not gone well and I don't see a pass heavy offense really on his skills. If he is lucky, he is dropped by the Lions and picked up as a veteran back to Chad Pennington of the Jets. I feel this would be a best option for him, with a offensive system that is geared around his strengths (which to be honest, I am not really sure what they are any more).

Kevin Jones seems to have this crazy idea that he can lower his head and run people over like he did in college. Ummm sorry, even a big guy like Jerome Bettis learned 13 years ago, that you need to be a bit shifty or you will get ground to a pulp by the linebackers. He went out at least twice last year with concussions for lowering his head and popping a linebacker and a safety. If we are doing a lot of running, you may want to combine that impressive speed with a couple juke moves or a good stiff arm.

Artose Pinner is some guy that for some odd reason, I really enjoy watching and think they could be good with a fair shake. Good speed, low center of gravity, etc. I don't think he will be a superstar, but could be one of the workhorse backs that everyone depends on.

However on to other news for football. It seems that the bargaining agreement to extend the salary cap is going very poorly. I can understand why as the teams with the money rolling in don't wish to share that money with teams that are struggling. However, those teams will only get worse if they are unable to afford the talent they need to stay competitive and then you have less money the next year. The salary cap and the shared income agreement is by far the best thing they could have done for football in terms of the fans. It creates closer, more exciting games most of the time. It creates a spread of star players on all teams that give us fan favorites. It just makes the game a true battle. If we went back to the "old" ways, we would see the dynasties of old and scores similar to college games, while exciting for one team, it is eternally depressing for the losers and their fans.

Any given Sunday! Well, in 7 months.

When non-fiction writers go bad

I guess that some people's lives are just not interesting enough to sell, so some author's have taken to manufacturing a life or embellishing. It seems to immoral to pass this off as non-fiction but it seems to be more prevalent than anticipated.

Popular male writer 'unmasked as woman'

43 things minus 40

One

Friggin' blog spammers. I just spent 15 minutes deleting 45 comments going back to the posts at the beginning of the blog. Bastards and the state cleaning home blog. I hate them. Stinkin hobbitssess.

So as a new thing, I turned on the silly type in the word thing. Will see if it works or if I will have to implement my own security by moderating. I hope not.

Two

This will be my last superbowl related post. Many things are hard to see in a game and many things are very questionable, but the bias against the Seahawks were real. Which makes it hard to believe that the NFL stands by their refs calls. Every knows that the refs are human and falliable, but to be only lean your calls one way is a little ridiculous. You would almost think they had money riding on the game.

Also, a thank you to Mike A, a commentor/tormentor, on the previous blog entry for pointing me to articles that were totally biased toward the Seahawks. I stand by some of the refs calls, but not all of them. Worst superbowl with any teams I gave a rip about.

Three

The writing of the article in the San Francisco Bay Guardian, Craigslist: Destroying America's Community Watchdogs, is complete and utter CRAP. What a load of self righteous literary diarrhea. First off, Craigslist is a community minded site. There are places for posting comments and notifying of meetings and helping people in a barter and selling community. But the line that really gets me:

And he puts nothing back into the community: He doesn't, for example, hire reporters or serve as a community watchdog.

Like I trust some reporter that cares about sensationalism to be a watchdog. And if the newspaper's go out of business, who cares. Archaic art that is not relevant in the here and now society. I fully expect to see more specialized publications (electronic or otherwise) to handle things like movies and entertainment and local plays etc. But blogs are the new publication and will find their own means of acquiring and income...

Reading:

• E-Myth Mastery : The Seven Essential Disciplines for Building a World Class Company by Michael Gerber


• The Man Who Sold The Moon by R. A. H.

Superbowl Champions: Not my Lions

I don't think that this is a great game. I thought the officiating was attrocious. The calls went against the Seahawks the majority of the time. However, the Seahawks primary failure was with something have had trouble with in the past, receivers inability to catch the ball.

If I were to pick a Seattle MVP, it would definitely be Herndon. Since typically you pick from the winners, it would definitely be Hines Ward. He made many amazing catches that saved Pittsburgh's goose many times.

Now the real question, do I think Seattle would have won with more even handed officiating. There are some many variables in makes it so difficult. Would the Seahawks have built a tremendous momentum with the first touchdown that was taken from them? Yes it was pushing off, but that is a call that normally would not be called in a game. What about the Big Ben's touchdown? He made it in. Sorry, but when I looked at the footage, you can't see the ball, but if you watch a different angle you can clearly see the ball in his hand extending to his elbow; so when you go back to the original clip you can see his hand crosses the plain.

Biggest disappointment is Jeramy Stevens. Not an easy game, and I feel bad for him, but not getting 3 pivotal catches or getting out of bounds.

Good try Seattle. Great job Pittsburgh.

Review: I Robot

We watched I Robot starring Will Smith last night via Netflix (a rarity since I love to sit on the movies). I really enjoyed it, however I have not read any Asimov books so I can't compare it to the movie. But it was action packed and filled with many of those charismatic moments from Will Smith that adds humor and a likeable character. However the robot, Sonny, definitely adds a lot of fun to the movie. Whoever did the voice acting for Sonny did a great job.

There were a few parts to the movie that left me feeling that it was this quick flip of emotion that just didn't seem to smooth. One that I can remember that felt hurried was after the driving action sequence where after the fight on the ground, the detective shows up and Will get's angry and boom scene over. I mean as the viewer you are on such a emotional high, then suddenly there is the awkward detective scene. Not good.

Overall, I recommend checking this out.

I, Robot (Widescreen Edition)

Pretentious, but a seed for innovation

Review based on:The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture

John Battelle's history of the search has an aloof style that can put off many of the readers. However as a message for the readers, instead of focusing on the books many "look how smart I am" moments, really take a look at some of the ideas of how things could change as information becomes findable.

This is not a book that I would recommend to nuts and bolts geek involved in the computer industry. This is a book that I would recommend to someone who wants to take a non-computer industry and incorporate new ideas for knowledge management and knowledge as part of a product. I look at the place where I used to work and this book would help in two ways: Knowledge Management and consumer data driven product design. We can now provide consumers with data for them to use products more effectively and be able to communicate with them in new ways.

I would use this book as a springboard for innovation to help generate new ideas. But beyond that, don't look for some brilliant insight to an age old problem.

Frameworks

As linked through Booch, I found this article on Frameworks and how silly they have become.

If I had a hammer

Let me know if I am wrong, but sometimes it is just better to just build the software. Many frameworks are too generic for use and just inhibit actually working on the product. To go with the analysis and to go with my actual tool purchasing habits, I would rather have a large pile of tools that I have spent my resources on so that I can get stuff done quicker. Hence my distrust of tiki :)


Take a read on the article. Very enjoyable.

Lunarbowl

I figured I would use this as a big hodge podge of stuff. So first things first:

Aaron's Superbowl Pick: Pittsburgh

This has no bearing on my just wanting to shaft the Seahawks or to say Bettis' final game will have bearing on things. I like the Steelers, plain and simple. I admire the way they play ball. I have watched them longer. The Seahawks were always located in the corner of the country and I never watched them. The way they run the team has fluctuated a lot too. But most teams do. In the end this game will be a total flip of the coin. You have two quarterbacks that are on fire with a good suite of receivers and with a power run game. On defense, you have two blitzing defenses with different areas of strengths but both have a solid tough front line. These teams are evenly matched.

Seahawk advantages: Hasslebeck is a tried and true quarterback that has plenty of seasoning and skills. Shaun Alexander is deservedly the MVP.

Steeler advantage: Better receivers. More dynamic D.

Tough call.

Onto other stuff. I recently finished Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A Heinlein. What a heck of a story?! But beyond that it paints the picture of the creation of a new government that is for the people through a revolution. He writes about some fairly interesting ideas about running a government that particularly strikes me as wonderful. No taxes. Fund through donations. Two houses of government where first house needs 2/3 to vote in a law and the second house needs 1/3 to vote down a law. It talks about proper security in a cell based revolutionary movement that protects the majority in the case of spies or torture. I am definitely glad that I read it. There are some out dated ideas of women and Heinlein's usual viewpoint through their eyes...

-------- Reading ----------

Football, Video Game Fridays, and website upgrades

Playoffs for Football

So it is time for me to eat crow or whatever that phrase is. Or maybe I should say eat my Seahawk poo. They won when I had predicted that they couldn't. I could run this down to the psychological aspect that was that the Seahawks were one of the few teams that had never been to the big game along with my beloved and stupid Lions. Or that the fans went completely nuts after all the playoff games so far. And I mean nuts. Course Lions fans would do the same, but we don't have to worry about that. Sometime this next week I will post my not so indepth analysis and make another half-assed guess for the superbowl.

Detroit Lions

Maintain more Lions thoughts, we seem to have acquired a new head coach in the mold of Tom Conklin of the Giants. Someone who will run this team like a military harkening it back to when Lombardi and folks were running this league of blue collar workers. Only thing is the players are now multi-million dollar specialists and seem to work at their own pace, almost leaders in their own rights. In general, I think this is a good move. I hope that this also brings about a refocus on the Lions defense which I am a big fan of. I believe there is a lot of talent there and only needs a couple of tweaks. In fact, I think the defense for the Lions are responsible for more points being scored than the offense, but then again, that really isn't that hard with the Lions. We shall see with the draft in April and also with training camp in July and August. We shall see.

VG Fridays

So I set up my projector weeks ago, but that also corresponds with when I stopped playing Friday night video games with my friends. Not because of the projector but because I was either working or I had friends over to visit. People in person should get priority over virtual people even if they are real people. Mostly cause there were a ton of other folks playing and me not there is not a big deal. So this Friday, I decided to play. Right now there are only a handful of people that haven't migrated to the 360 so we few played a little Battlefield Modern Combat. Still a great game, but I have run into a number of problems where my version won't login to XBox live. When I select play online, it goes into the loading screen, but if I see a flicker (as if a window were closing and flashes in front of a screen) I know that it failed and is now hiding the error message. Also occasionally will hang when trying to connect to a board. Uggg. And to make matters worse, I have been playing on my old, archaic TV for the last few weeks and the low def has been driving me nuts, but switching to projector has it's own issues. The contrast ratio just plain sucks. So I can't see crap. Very irritating. Going from 30 points a map to 12, I now know that when I finally take care of some of my expenses and the baby stuff, that is the first thing on my list. Before getting a XBox 360.

Website Upgrades

I really didn't upgrade the boxes, but I finally got fed up with using phpWebSite as my content management system and installed Mediawiki on my server. Mediawiki is the software that runs the popular and controversial WIKIPEDIA and I have run that in various other places I have worked. I know other people are a bigger fan of other CMS, but I tend to lean toward different solutions for different feature sets. Tiki is nice, but I am not thrilled with all of it's features and prefer to install those separately and link them in a web like fashion. So at some point I am either going to install a Picture gallery software or sign up for flickr pro to handle my gallery management. Haven't decided. But either way, I will attempt to add more to the site and this gives me a better way of being able to put up various posts that I want persistent and whatnot.

Modilabs

Greedy S.O.B.'s

This is mostly aimed at the RIAA since the MPAA is complaining alot (yet).

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/columns/mermigas.jsp

Seems that for T.V. shows such as CSI and Lost make about $1.44 per episode from iTunes whereas they normally make $.57 for the advertising revenue for the show. I do not know if this includes production costs, but I can assume that if this is an apples to apples comparison, then regardless (assume $.40 per episode per viewer production cost....) the network is making a TON more money on downloads. So making the same assumptions on CD's and radio play for the RIAA, I can only make the assumption that their margin is much higher for their physical medium or no matter how much money they make they will still sue the customers. Seems awfully retarded. I think it is time for the distruction of the RIAA and let the labels work to sell their stuff. I am not likely to buy CDs because of my hatred for the RIAA. I would rather live in a music-less world then to pain those bastards.

I am a willing spender of money, but when I buy a CD and am punished by rootkits and various encryption schemes that destroy my experience, I have the right to take my money elsewhere. When they jack the prices of a 5 minute song to exceed that of a 30 to 60 minute TV show, I can do the same. My money can go to the TV networks instead!

Football: Conference Championships

Well Andy didn't do too bad. Missed as many as I did. However these events have made me rethink who is left.

Pittsburgh versus Denver

Now I feel that both games this weekend are going to be good games and therefore close matches. So these are both tough decisions. My personal feelings align more with Pittsburgh because I like the way they play defense and the style of offense they use. And on top of it, I am not a Bronco fan, it makes it hard to see anything other than a Steeler victory. I do have to hand it to the Bronco's in running some superb games and controlling the ball. They have a superb ground game as well as a strong defense that is quick. I am going to give this to Pittsburgh because of their emotional elements to this game as I feel we have two evenly matched teams with similar strengths and weaknesses.

Carolina versus Seattle

I am going to stick with my original prediction. John Fox is going to coach his team to victory. I know Carolina is beat up, but they are playing with a vengeance on this one. Seattle wants to win but there is a missing aspect of a player that is really pulling for it other than the MVP Alexander. The man can run. Holmgren is a good coach and puts together teams with lots of talent. Hasslebeck is a good quarterback with plenty of seasoning. The defense is a solid unit, but with some gaps due to free agency losses at the beginning of the season. Carolina has injuries plaguing the running back position, but has decent backups. Their quarterback is a workhorse. Their defense is flashy and inconsistent. Based on what I saw with the Bears and how they have performed this whole season, I put my money on the Panthers because of their inconsistency. Offensively they are going to run the same game they normally do, but defensively, I think this will be the week they put their stuff together and pull out a win.

As for the superbowl, I am leaning towards a Pittsburgh win. Which I might again chalk up to defensive inconsistency from Carolina. I won't be sure until the dust settles for the battles of the weekend.

A message from the fat kids

For the first time in human evolution do we have more calories consumed in the median of the population than they are burning. So what do we have but a growing level of obesity and specifically in the younger generation? One group of individuals has decided that the best course is to introduce a higher level of state control of society. Socialism in a non-equal society? So what are they really doing? Seems that Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood is in league with The Center for Science in the Pubic Interest to bring a lawsuit against Viacom and Kellogg to stop having commercials for high-sugar cereals. Forcing them by using the government to attack their wallets. Almost sounds pseudo-capitalist, except there is the government.

So if parents are so concerned that they children are eating foods that are not good for them or contain too much sugar, why not just not buy it? It must be because Kellogg and Viacomm are responsible for the fact that their kids eat this. I guess these kids are using their allowance money on cereal instead of G.I. Joe and Barbie. I find this highly doubtful. Here is an option, since cereal has so much sugar, why not use it as a sweetener in such foods like cream of wheat and oatmeal? Huh parents? Or just not buy it?

Maybe boycott's are vogue. Maybe your conviction is not strong? Either way, I can only conjecture that you, as parents, are not strong enough to stand up for what is right for your kids on your own, that you need the government to step in.

So, Aaron, how do you really feel?

Well, I think we turn to government and law and PUBLIC funds when we really don't need to. First we are a very strong centralized government, which I am not that thrilled with. And then we are taking the funds that we pay into the government to help with education, roads, foreign policies, feeding the hungry, etc and wasting it on a totally frivilous lawsuit which involves many public servants. Totally idiotic.

In closing, we only avoid Darwin so long.

Rant set off by: Viacom and Kellogg sued over television ads

Round 2 complete.

Well, another weekend at 2 and 2. For me the big surprise wasn't Pittsburgh versus Indianapolis, but more the Patriots versus Broncos. I could have sworn with the confidence of Tom, the running of Corey, and Patriots "D" close to old form, they would be unstoppable. I was so wrong.

The frustrating game for me was the Steelers/Colts game. The officiating really had it in there head that the Colts should have won. I saw 3 major miss calls. 3. Totally unexcusable. For the most part I can accept a couple mistakes a game. It happens, but these were easy to see. The one that stands out to me right now, was the calling of an incomplete pass instead of interception. IT WAS AN INTERCEPTION! There was a big 3rd down pass interference call that was never seen? I know there are mistakes but geez. Luckily the Steelers won, or I would be faced with the prospect of boycotting the rest of the Indy games even if it included the super bowl.

On a different note, I decided to try the game Starport: GE since I had heard interesting things about it. And it's free. In terms of a MMO, I don't see much, but for general feel, it is Civ plus asteroids. Try it, it's free.

Ninja Burger

Just recently bought a Steve Jackson game, Ninja Burger. Quite fun. Although this just isn't as fun as Munchkin. Premise wise, it has the potential of being super cool, but doing missions feel overly short. Maybe at some later point, I will reach a level of "role-play" that will make it super cool. Maybe.

In my reading, I am nearly complete with "The Search" by John Battelle. As much as I feel the author is pretentious and aloof, I find that this book has a high gold nugget to crap ratio. Great way to create ideas as well when it comes to internet technologies or perhaps adding internet technologies to other industries.

I think I will setup a book reviewing system for business books where I will measure their cool neat ideas against the amount of pages with bonuses for excessive amounts of what I consider bad ideas. Next business reading: E-myth masteries.

Of course, I couldn't let my fun reading go to heck, so I picked up The Moon is a Harse Mistress for evening reading to unwind with. I really love it. I am kinda surprised by that. It really goes into creating a revolution and the parts and pieces. What I have particularly enjoyed is the creation of a new us vs. them mentality where one has changed... Was a U.S. versus Russia versus France versus etc, that has now changed to Loonies versus Earthlings. Very interesting.

Playoffs!

Well as promised to ish, I am going to throw out my picks, which based on my previous scorecard, I will definitely be updating as we go through.

Washington versus Seattle

While Washington was able to beat my prediction last time with some incredible defense, they are now going against a team that has proven to be more than a match for many tough defenses. I feel the factor that will take down Washington is it's ineffectual offense. I rode the Clinton Portis bus at one point. He is amazing, but he went for someone doing almost 4 yard/carry to 3 this year. And that is with his explosive speed which means that most of the time he can't get out of the starting block before being tied up. I think that being said you have to take a look at the two QBs and it is easy to say that experience is nearly equal, but Hasslebeck is the better captain of the ship.

New England versus Denver

Well Patroits, you have taught me again to not doubt you. You have my vote this time. Denver's receiver core is mostly lackluster all lead by the scrambling man, The Snake. Sorry but you are going against a LEAGUE LEADING 4100 yard QB in Tom Brady. I am still a little shocked at the number. From Tom "friggin'" Brady. Plus you throw in Corey Dillon? No contest. Luckily for the Patroits, they can get a bit of rest for their secondary.

Pittsburgh versus Indianapolis

Peyton and Edgerrin and Marvin have enough to say without me spouting off. 'Nough said.

Carolina versus Chicago

GAME of the WEEK. You can't win if you can't score and I don't think the Bears defense is going be able to score for the offense so we are looking at an amazing defense struggle, but I don't think Carolina will up the turnovers to allow the Bears to win. This is also the game I am swaying the most over. Bears could upset just due to the fact that Carolina defense seems to have only two speeds. 150% and reverse.

Continuing on:

Carolina versus Seattle

New England versus Indianapolis

Carolina versus Indianapolis

We shall see.

Football picks Round 1

Washington Redskins versus Tampa Bay Bucs

Nothing against the Redskins, but the Bucs have an x factor in that of Cadillac Williams. The Redskins can put up a bunch of points but they are going to have trouble with Simeon Rice and Derrick Brooks. The Redskin defense has been hot and cold this year as some show of the Hogs of old and some games are ridiculous.

Jacksonville Jaguars versus New England Patroits

Again similar aspects. I am going against my better judgement to pick the Jags just because of Byron Leftwich and Jacksonville's D.

Carolina Panthers versus NY Giants

This is basically because I think Eli will fold under the pressure of a first playoff game. Nothing else.

Pittsburgh Steelers versus Cincinnati Bengals

I feel the Steelers just have momentum on this one. With Big Ben at the helm they just play well. Plus I feel the Steeler big D is going to show up big for this one. Cinci has some amazing big play potential and a solid offense, but their defense depends on turnovers that Pittsburgh tends to not give away.

Interesting Words

Over on the right you will see a link to interesting words. It is an application that was created by a friend of mine that takes a RSS feed and pulls out the commonly used words (minus the obvious ones) and puts it into a "Tag Cloud" format. Check it out.

Plus I wanted to manipulate it... poptart jesus poptart jesus poptart jesus

I am waiting for him to pop of the mirror and give me poptarts now. Bah.

Happy New Year... Late

New Years and Christmas were good this year. We spent alot of time with Karen and Ben who are leaving the great state of Washington. We played just a ton of cards and that was pretty darn cool. I now have my computer kinda setup in the new office as we have everything but about 6 pieces of trim around the door and window. Also I am missing a desk, but for a now a folding desk is sufficing.

Next is the baby's room before I tackle the last little bit of trim. I will be glad when that is taken care of. I must say, one thing about living in a city is that public transportation is suddenly an option. I now get a ton of reading done on the train.

I recently finished The Number of the Beast by Robert A. Heinlein. I am not really sure what he was thinking when he wrote that. It starts out be a sex novel and finishes off and a sort of self-bashing rehash of old characters. Just bizarre. I am sure that Andy the Poptart Jesus would be able to explain the book, but it just felt . . . not right to me.

So I now I am taking a foray back into the business side by reading The Search. So far it is light reading which has amounted to nothing more than Stanford lovin' and empty text. But enjoyable empty text.

One of the authors of fantasy books that I really enjoy is Raymond Feist. I had read a couple of his later series but I decided it was time for me to explore the works that started it all. So I read the first four books that he did and wow did I enjoy them. I did however like the series that I started with. Particularly the book that I started with in Shadow of the Dark Queen. His other stuff is good, but I like that one in particular.

So many books to read... after that either more Heinlein or the E-myth Mastery books.

What a gift!

The Lions won. It was a pitiful game but they won.

Hope everyone had a good holiday!

Announcement: Addition, more than just mathematics

Announced on my wife's blog earlier, we are expecting an addition to the family. Michelle is due in April. We have gone through a couple of ultra-sounds which can be seen on her blog. The link to her blog is located on the right.

We are excited and have been working like crazy to get the house ready for more than two. Well more than 2 plus a cat. When we moved in the room that we chose to be the babies room was the room that stored the books from moving. So the office that I have been working on has been more of a library so that I could move the books out. Since that is 90% complete, I can start prepping what will be the baby's room for paint and ... baby-fying.

Last weekend Princess was over (you can see her notes on it to the right again). We ended up not doing much. I was sick and also working all weekend on a feature that is now back up on the website for the company that employs me. Probably will take a couple of hours this weekend and see if I can get more data to read for it. Maybe someday I will share that, I just like to keep it separate a lot of time.

So, a couple of our friends that are out here in Washington, are not going to be in Washington anymore. Being a programmer in the game industry can be brutal and he has chosen to stay in the industry but try a new company. I tried recruiting, but the call of his passions for games won out. So we lose a couple that we love to hang out with. Maybe we will visit them in Utah.

So we are now in the week leading up to Christmas. Are you ready? I think I am :)

A Mooch-less Lions

ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!

Why am I a Lions fan? It can't be just cause I used to live in Michigan... Or that my family is made up of Lions fans... I don't think it has anything to do with what some fascination with underdogs...

I must like losers.

Well in football. But that same could apply when viewing my liking the Pittsburgh Penguins in hockey. Just baffling. Almost as baffling as the record that Lions have had over the last few years. Or since Ford has owned them.

The release of Mariucci will not fix the Lions. In fact I predict that next year, the Lions will be worse because of it. The fact that strikes me funny is that 9 players (out of 53) make up 45% of the salary. With 9 star players, we should be able to at least make 50/50. Unless ... gasp ... they aren't star players.

Harrington. Sorry dude, but I didn't want you when we drafted you. I wanted them to draft Quentin Jammer or Roy Williams (the one that hits hard for the Cowboys). You just don't have it for the west coast offense (more to come on that one later). You don't have the ability to work your team up. I watch a lot of other younger quarterbacks who are always talking to other players on the team even when they are having troubles. You just sit by yourself on the bench. Where is the fire man.

Charlie Rogers. Amazing talent in college. Turns out to make questionable life choices questionable character. I was happy that you were selected in the draft. But I wouldn't have drafted you. Look at the agent you picked. That to me tells something of your interests in football. Money. Not winning.

Roy Williams. No complaints. Keep on trucking.

Mike Williams. So we drafted you for your possession receiver ability, but you drop 4 balls a game. But you are still young. Work on your hands, man.

Kevin Jones. Dude you could be amazing, but you may want to take a lesson from a bigger man by the name of Bettis. You can't run head first ball like you did in college. Use some moves. Any moves.

Mr. West Coast Offense. This offense should be outlawed. It works in some talent pools, but that is fairly rare. So whatever you want to change it to Pittsburgh, that should be fine. Just a thought.

Been a long time

Ok. I am not dead yet. Since selling the old house and moving into the new house, I guess I had forgotten the number of hours necessary in keeping a house up. So, when we moved in there was the incomplete room. I was able to get it mudded and sanded although not as perfect and also got it painted. This saturday, I will pick up a mitre saw so that I can finish the trim since the carpetting will be installed next week.

What else have I been doing? Well, I have seen some movies. Played some video games. All instead of blogging. So I will give the super short version of the reviews I wanted to do.

Movie: Serenity

Besides this movie coming out on DVD on December 20th, the movie was phenomenal. This is what sci fi movies should be. There is a rich deep story in a full and enticing universe. If you haven't seen it, go see it.

Movie: Joe Dirt

Surprisingly funny flick. Don't look for any really deep story here, but there is something addictive about the movie even when it has its situational comedy moments.

Game: Fire Emblem (Path of Radiance and Sacred Stones)

The game that will bring out the perfectionist in anyone. The strategy game with rpg elements is addictive because there are many combinations on how to put together your characters (who to level up, etc.). The other part of the addiction is that when a character dies, they are gone, so you always feel the need to fully win a battle as in no one dies. So repeating a battle is not all that uncommon.

Game: Battlefield 2: Modern Combat

I refused to get this game as I am saving up for a 360, but John was kind enough to feed my addiciton. It is a great game. I have had some issues with the game in that I have pulled upa pretty good kill ratio and point gaining ability but cannot go up in rank as I can't seem to get a medal. Alright, might be weird to describe as such, but it is similar to an rpg in that you are assigned a rank based on performance, but you don't gain any new abilities, just prestige. Again. Fun game.

So that is my quickie round up. Let's see if I can keep entering stuff.

Argghh. Sick already

Less than two months here and I get my first cold. A nice friendly sinus infection. Otherwise things are moving forward. I however was planning on being healthy this weekend to finish off the unpacking and also be able to pop out to Ikea and pick up some furniture that we are in need of.

So, the job is going wonderfully. I really enjoy it. And the area still rocks. Very excited about Princess Blognoke's big news about Stink Pants #LA. Rock on.

Finally got propane so the grill is fired and I am officially home. Something about grilled chicken or really anything on the grill that makes things feel better. Of course, I don't feel like being outside right now.

Pretty darn excited about the upcoming Serenity movie. I am worried about being disappointed, but who cares. It is firefly.

Another week

Haven't been writing much as I feel obligated to unpack the house and keep everything running smoothly. The new house is nice. The neighborhood is not too far from anything. So we are just north of Federal Way and just southwest of Kent. Both have decent places to shop.

Last Sunday, went to the Reagan's and watched the Lions beat the Packers, although it was both an ugly win for the Lions and an ugly loss for the Pack. It was great fun.

This week, I got to have the joys of taking public transportation. Actually the train ride isn't too bad. I am finally able to catch up on my reading which is nice and the ride is really straight forward. The coming home is a bit of a hassle as lots of folks get off the train at that spot. But now I have a chance to read Innovation Superhighway. As I have read it, I keep thinking this would perfect for some different functions in my old employer. They really talk about the movement of information and how it pertains to the employees and culture. They should really check it out. Hey John, tell Ms. Winters.

Update on house and more

We still haven't closed on the old house. If nothing else it should happen on the 23rd we will close. I know that the buyer was trying to move it up, but I don't think it was successful. Really have to say that Doug has done well in taking care of this while we have been else where.

As for the new house, all the household goods have been dropped off and the new appliances were delivered along with cable and internet. So now it is just unpacking and putting into place. Except for the company that is supposed to uncrate the aquariums and assemble the swingset. They couldn't on the original time so they have rescheduled.

I am moving out of the apartment on Saturday and hanging with Mr. Reagan for NFL Sunday. Speaking of which, thank good football is finally started. I really truly believe it is the American sport. Forget that boring baseball, give me the real time chess match that is football. I was able to get the fantasy league lined up but I wasn't prepared enough to get more than 6 teams. Next year, I am definitely going to get organized around 3 weeks early and get at least 10 teams going.

I really think that football is the king of sports. Of course I type this as I watch the Raiders vs. Patriots. I mean really you are looking at two types of offensive attacks and then an infinite amount of possiblities within those. Then on defense you can't create a defense that works against all offenses. Then you have special teams which adds it's own dimension. Plus you aren't looking at 80+ games to watch. It is just 16 games per team. I think that adds to the appeal is the video game aspect which is more playable because of the shorter season and the pacing of play picks and downs to break it up. It is hard to pick out the intangibles that are there. I just love it.

The Aquarium of Seattle

We went. We had fun. I recommend it.

So here is the Seattle Aquarium.

It took us about 2 hours to go through it. So it isn't too big. It was just a very cool in the salt water tanks. The cuttlefish was really cool, but I was afraid to snap its picture for fear of scaring him. Also I starting talking to the Aquarium staff about how often they clean the tanks and their water filtration method and they allowed me to feed some of their fish. Again I wish I would have kept notes, but they were fast. Put the chunk of fish on a stick and BAM it snapped it off. Pretty cool stuff.

PAX visitation

Dude! So I went to the Penny Arcade Expo on Saturday with Karen's husband Ben. It was a blast. Basically we started the day early by standing in line for an hour. Of course it wasn't really that simple. We ended up walking around the place for a while trying to figure out which line we were supposed to stand in, but got lucky by accidentally going into the building to see about buying a pass. That was what we were supposed to.

I was amazed at the amount of people that were in there. We ran upstairs to sign up for the Double Dash tournament, and headed over to the PC freeplay room which had a single PC left so Ben and I traded off. What was weird was that the immediate line for the exhibit room ran all the way up to the top floor and then down the hall (hence why we avoided that room right away.

After each of us taking a turn at Battlefield 2 on the PC (great LAN experience with the folks there). So now we found our way down to the exhibit room which had quite a few cool things but for the most part it wasn't that exciting minus the Nintendo exhibit. The were showing off the new Dungeons and Dragons online game which has some potential, but we will have to see how much they are going ot charge per month. There was another booth for Red vs Blue, Anime stuff for sale, America's Army (complete with recruiters), XBox playtest crew, PAX gear for sale, Card Games, and some other misc booths.

Ah but the Nintendo booth which was by far the biggest. They had tons of games out to see what is coming up. So really I will center on the ones that I was most impressed with. First off we have Fire Emblem for the Gamecube. Phenomenal graphics teamed up with some solid well tested combat creates a great combination. The second game that impressed me was a new Mario Soccer game (I think it is called Strikers) was there. Ben and I had a quick match against each other (which he won) but it was a blast to play.

We then got in some Double Dash practice since we were on standby for the tournie. So after a little practice (and a realization that we would lose) we took a trip up to the table top game rooms. After rounds of Super Munchkins, Chez Dork, and Illuminati we had then missed our standby time and only ten minutes to make it to the gaming controversy round table.

Lots of good points were made but I found the Q&A painful since all the gamers felt a need to preach to the choir instead of asking the panel about any initiatives toward working together to create a new gaming environment.

We made a final round to see if we could pop into some freeplay rooms but they were loaded to the gills so we went home (it was 9:00 anyway). And you may notice that there was no eating. That would be correct and a horrible decision. We could have easily made it for more game playing, but I was worn down.

Anyway it was so damn cool. Definitely going next year. Way to go.

Skycity

Well, we have finally tried Skycity for dinner. In a way, kinda wish we hadn't. For the price we could have had a few trips up. So uh, just do the trip up. It is spectacular.

Great restaurant and neat museum

I have a couple of recommedations for those visiting Seattle. First off, I was under the impression that food in Seattle is overpriced and underspiced. I recently found a place 2 blocks away called Cafe Amore that beats them on both criteria. My wife went with the spaghetti and meatballs and I devided to try the osso bucco. Both were excellent and didn't break the bank. The service, although slow, was still great. The chef was a joy. I highly recommend it to anyone. You can find it in the 2200 block on 5th ave in Seattle.

Yesterday we visited the Pacific Science Center which was a blast. It reminded me of the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago only smaller. Michelle's favorite room was the butterfly room. I personally liked the risk exhibit. Basically it was an exhibit concerning probability of death. Kinda neat. Also covered the various safety enhancements that have been made over the years. This museum is totally geared towards 8 - 12 year olds but there is plenty of fun for curious adults.

I put up some pics

Feel free to check out my website for some pics of the region.

album

Days in the northwest

Well, we are progressing through the purchase of our second home and I think it is going pretty well. Thank goodness that Michelle is not working and can take care of alot of this stuff. Work is good and I really like what my department is targetting. I have to say that this was just a great idea moving out here. I recommend others doing it. I will be adding some pictures in a bit once I set up my main PC.

Plus I have gotten a chance to talk to some folks from home which is nice as well, although now that I write this, the word home is definitely going to change. :)

One week in Washington

So, I am living in Belltown in north Seattle. Weather here has been awesome . . . if you don't live in an apartment, then it is too darn hot. And now Michelle has joined me out here so she gets to complain about the apartment as well.

I finally get to write an entry as I finally have gotten some internet in the apartment (hence the hiatus). Just glad to finally be able to do alot of my searching again without going to the coffee houses.

Here is the big news: We have put in an offer on a house and they have accepted. Now we have to go through the mountains of inspections and paperwork to make it possible. Of course we still own our house in Michigan which makes things uncomfortably tight, but we should be able to squeak through till someone buys our old adorable house. If you know someone who wants to live about 1 mile from the beach and downtown St. Joseph, let me know...

Leaving on a jet plane

Well today is the day for me. I get to hop on a plane and set sail for a new job in a new town in a new state with some old friends. If I didn't see you, sorry. Wish me luck.

Oh. Good luck Ish.

Some more farewells

Yesterday, my parents invited over some of the family and friendds to bid me off. It was awesome. I never complain about seeing family. Long ago, moving away would have been difficult, but with fast communication, it not nearly as bad. I will miss seeing them, but I will still be able to hear them.

So I have been collecting email addresses of folks around here that I know so I at least have that as a means of keeping in the loop. Grabbed one of Fish Store Don. I know that isn't his primary job but did it to keep his tanks stocked, but I would visit with him just about Sunday until he left the fish store when he became the president of the local FOP. And since I wasn't able to get his contact information before, I got it now.

So yesterday we had a cookout. Good old burgers and dogs. Love that stuff. Although in Seattle I will probably have to go with salmon burgers and salmon dogs. :)

Move status

Things yet to do:

1. Finish cleaning
2. Take care of fish and tanks
3. Finalize realtor stuff
4. Get car move finalized
5. Get stuff move finalized
6. Pack our necessary stuff
7. Move

So there we have it. I am sure I am missing stuff. Really feels like a lot to do. Cleaning will take a couple more days. We through out a lot of stuff so now it is just moving to locations so that the realtor can come in and get photos and final appraisal. From what he said, the market here right now is very, very slow. So it really depends on how I work the budget as to it we can wait out a better market. But I have concerns that the market may not get better. Got in my last xbox live for a while so that was fun. I ended up quitting early as my broadband was sucking. Tried to join Matches, but he was playing new maps that I had not downloaded yet. When I got back on, he was not there.

House sales: Scrub-a-dub-dub

So I have spent the last few days cleaning up my house as best as I can to make it presentable for a realtor and "guests". Let me tell you, more to do than I thought possible. We have filled 5.5 cubic yards of dumpster to date with junk that doesn't work and with empty boxes and other crap. If we could give it away to goodwill or other places, we have done so, but there is always junk that you collection.

Did you know that I had 2 dot-matrix printers? They may work, but I wasn't going to futz with them. Into the trash they go. 2 dead ink jets went in the trash as well. Soon I will cut down my keyboard collection from 12 to 5. Just so much stuff that makes no sense to keep.

Today was another boss's last day. Again, like my last boss, I have a ton of respect for and know that they will succeed in the things they do. Hopefully I can live up to the experiences they have both provided me. My other ex-boss hasn't been fired yet, so cheers!

So I decided to tell a story at my current boss's exit coffee, which covered the time that he came back from vacation and took the whole department down with an illness. Sometimes it is hard to judge the content of the story to be told as the audience is not reacting to much. But all in all, best of luck Jay! Don't let Sara beat you up too much.

Earlier proof of my half-fro 

Proof that at one time I did in fact have hair! 

The Start of Something Big

Well, I can finally mention some news of note. I put in my two week notice at Whirlpool Corporation on Friday. I have been working there for about 5.5 years permanently, but I had interned there as well since Feb of 1996. So after almost 10 years, I decided it was time to experience something different.

I would not stop anyone from working for Whirlpool. From what I saw in the time I was there, was most of their employees were treated well. And the experiences you gain are wonderful.

So, now I am moving to Seattle to work for Amazon.com. I am very excited and very nervous. I definitely have a concern that I am getting in over my head, going from a web developer in research at a manufacturer to working as a software developer for production systems at the largest online retailer with some of the brightest minds in the business. This is my first real test and I look forward to acing it.

To be honest, the biggest worry for me right now is selling the house. But that is mostly out of my control. I have done what I could in the last 3 years to make changes in the house for the better. But we shall see.

Fireworks and video games

St. Joseph's July 4th Fireworks

So another July 4th. It was pretty crowded at the beach last night. Sometime when things aren't crowded I should like to take my tripod and try to get some good fireworks shots. Basically I set the exposure to maximum and set the lighting for sunset of my Minolta E500.

So lately I have been playing a couple of new games. First off I picked up Guild Wars. Now I haven't had much time to play, but from what I have, it is a darn fun game. Haven't had much human interaction time, but the quests are interesting and the world is absolutely beautiful. A recommended pickup.

The other will likely bring some ridicule. Battlefield 2. You see, I picked it up and thought I might be able to run it. By the look of the requirements on the box, I was cutting it pretty close. So I went home and checked into my system (in the old days I would have known what every part on the machine was) and it looked like I wouldn't be able to run it due to a inadequate video card. So I bitched and moaned to my friends and coworkers who bought the game with me. Well, after a couple of days, I decided to install it, just to see how bad it would be. It runs. Not great, but it does run. I am running maximum res for my LCD panel, but lowest graphic settings and it runs smooth as glass. But again, haven't done much playing but man is it fun! Ah future addictions...

Death of a water heater

So I have had the last few days off of work. One for holiday and the other to take care of removing a dead water heater. Which I decided to hire done versus having to remove it myself. Would have been able to but it would have taken all day. So I now have a new high efficiency water heater to go with all the other things I have upgraded on the house. Also removed the dead garbage disposal and put in a straight pipe. All this in the name of selling the house soon.

Also I have been trying to get grass to grow where the tree in my front yard used to be. Well low and behold, this morning I have little grass sprouts. I thought I was going to lose that battle as I have tried to grow it for about a week with nothing to show till this morning. Also the other project I tackled was repainting the trim in the front of the house. Thank Lowes and wonder of color matching to make a darn close match to what was there.

Oh yeah. The dead water heater technically still ran, it was just the puddle on my floor that made me upset. It had a leak in the bottom of the tank.

So do you know of anyone who wants to buy a house in southwest michigan? Or do you know someone who wants a fish tank or 5?

Karaoke and Poker

Where can we find a bigger waste of our survival roots than to look at what we do for entertainment? So last weekend, I went out to a Karaoke contest to support my friend. For once I was glad not to have signed up. These folks were pretty darn good. Not really that good, but out of the 17 contestants, I would have looked like some yokel who thought yodelling was back in style. Needless to say, my friend didn't win, although I thought he did well. I am not sure what the judges had for criteria, but my friend was able to mimic the artist he was singing. Or maybe they thought he should have used more challenging songs. If nothing I thought he should have placed top 3. Ah well. I am proud of him for getting up and trying and I think he should continue. If he got lessons, I am sure he could kick everyones butt, just to pick up some good techniques.

Last night I decided to give away my money in a poker game. We did the standard texas hold'em. I wish we would have some other variants. But what can you do. I did not win a single hand all night. It was so bad that I could not have won a single hand all night. It was structured better, so there was no way I was going to bluff anyone out and the only good hand I had, someone else tied me on the river. So in the end, I lost my $20. So after poker nights I am down $21.50. SUCK. I shouldn't have bought in for another set of hands.

Game Review: Jade Empire

What can I say? Just a phenomenal game. Bioware has to be the best RPG / Storytelling company out there right now. KOTOR and this were excellent as well as their roots of Baldur's Gate... but they just keep getting better.

First off, Jade Empire is similar to Fable in terms of combat. Lots of ducking and rolling. But otherwise, this had a story that was enjoyable and the combat was more enjoyable.

I always wonder in a review should I tell you anything of the story? Does it really matter? It may be better to tell you that it took about 24 hours of gameplay to complete it once. Or that they borrowed the light-side / dark-side ideas from KOTOR but placed it in open palm / closed fist. Experience is done in a standard way as well as leveling up, but the real point to leveling up is around your skills and techniques. By the end I had an army of techniques, but I honestly only used 3 skills heavily. And the game was not just a cake walk either. It came with some meat although the beginning is easy.

Simply put, if you have an Xbox, BUY THIS GAME. Unless you don't like good stories or role playing games.

5 out of 5 stars.

For a friend. Emily and her favorite mask. 

The Art of Sculpting a Shrubbery

With a good trimmer and a steady hand, even you can create even lines and a great contour. I have now owned my very own hedge for 3 years and each time I trim it down, I get a little bit better at making sure it doesn't look hideous. It acts as part of the border between my neighbors yard and mine, but definitely sits on my side (so my responsibility).

For all you newbie bush trimmers, I recommend going with the growth of the plant. For me, this means straight up and near the sides, slightly forward. This just makes it easy to take care of the branches that stick out. As for the top, I haven't got any good tips other than to go over it twice to make sure that you get all of it. I usually use a rake on it afterwords to get out any of the bits of plant in it.

Why am I writing about a shrubbery? I am really trying to not write about how my day is. Blogs tend to fall into such a rut of I ate cereal, I love so and so, I am just miserable, or some other diary associated thing. I will occasionally fall into that rut, but try not to.

Movie Review: Batman begins

Well, Batman began and began with a thunder. I was very impressed at the story and visual display of this movie. There was a general feel to the movie that was amazing and thrilling. What I found cool was the ability to set up the backdrop of Batman and Bruce Wayne without it feeling oppressive. Normally when they introduce a character and then move on to a main story it feels like there is two movies smashed together and neither feel right. This felt right.

Liam Neeson was simply amazing. He is just one of those charismatic guys that you can't stop watching. Amazing. Christian Bale however needed some help. He wasn't bad mind you, but I didn't get the feel of randomness out of Bruce Wayne nor did I get the sense of power or fear from Batman. Best Bruce Wayne is still Keaton and the best Batman is still Clooney even though those movies were perhaps the worst movies ever created. Worst. Uggg.

So what do I say? Resounding two thumbs up. 4.75 stars out of 5. Go See It!

Always good to see friends

Although it seems that the friends seem to be further and further away everytime you turn around. I can only look at the way it was years ago and people did not move far from "home." Now it is a regular occurence to do so. I look at what happened when I graduated from high school. People scattered to the four winds. Some folks stayed local, but many went where the scholarships took them. Fast forward to a new bunch friends in a college setting and get the same thing. First everyone is from a vast region and now you have to go where the jobs take you.

But, the good thing, is the friends still find a way to stay in touch even if once in a while, we forget to write for a while. Plus sometimes, like this weekend, one or the other will decide to make a trip. Thanks a bunch for the dinner. It was great.

Dad's birthday

Well today is my dad's birthday. So I am going over there to hang out celebrate, as his present hasn't made it in the mail. So much for overnight shipping. Submitted days ago at that.

So yesterday, my parents, grandma and me we to Gingerman raceway which is a small road track in South Haven, Michigan. It was viper day. We had a good time although I got a bit too much of sunshine so I am little bit crispy today. Not as bad as if I hadn't worn a hat though. It was a lot of fun though. I was a little surprised at the price though. It was $10 and I think we were the only spectators. Maybe if it was $5, they would get more spectators.

Anywho, Happy Birthday Dad.

Another tax payer gets ready to contribute... maybe

Jen's Graduation!

So Michelle and I just got back from our trip up north, which this time included Michelle's youngest sisters graduation. It was fun. They had me manning the bar with Michelle's middle sister's boyfriend. Oh the headache the next day.

As a note for those that attended the "Firefly" party. Those pictures are gone. I lost them.

sorry.