Big Day Tomorrow

I get to meet my boss' boss' boss tomorrow. He's relatively new in the department (heck, all of the management from that level up is new in the past 2 years) and doesn't know me from a hole in the wall.

The question is, will my reasoning win him over to my side. I asked a friend who already talked to this guy, what was his reaction. About the only point the boss-man made that my friend wasn't ready for was that an HP VP recently revoked working from home for their employees (and HP originally backed flex-work and remote working from it's inception in '67). I did a little more looking, and it only applied to the IT folks, not everyone. And the stock may have gone up since then, but there's nothing to indicate it was the VP's decision. It could just as likely be the fact that the CEO spied on board members. Both things happened at the same time.

Also, in 1996, Sun's CEO mandated, "no more powerpoint" and it's stock rose from $3 to a high of $64 in late 2000. Should we ban powerpoint?

Anyway, I'm getting all riled up and have all sorts of facts and points about our department.

This boss-man has 17 teams under his reign. 11 of the 17 teams have either 2 or more people working in different sites, or the manager is in a different site than the majority of the team. That's nearly 2/3!!!! 4 of the 17 have the manager in a different site. How effective is that?

Not to mention that our team has 3 members in Hudson MA. We only overlap their working hours by 2.5 to 3 hours a day. Again, how effective?

I could go on and on, but I've got to keep things on an even keel. It's not personal, it's business. And pissing off the boss-man isn't a good way to keep your job.

Wish me luck.

iBike WW15 (1)

Beautiful day today so Simone and I rode around at lunch, returning some library books and videos. The ride was over half an hour, but not very far. Simone still has trouble sitting up in the Burley, but she seems to enjoy herself.

Beaver Freezer 2007 Results

The results are in. Without further ado: I placed 109th out of 242 total road racers, 82nd out of 131 men, and 7th out of 16 men aged 35-39 (road race). I'm about 3 minutes slower than my 2005 time, primarily due to my slower bike time.

Trey's Race

Stage	Time	Pace	Place in Stage	Cumulative Time	Cumulative Place
Swim	8:12	1:38.4	66	8:12	66
T1	2:22		87	10:34	64
Bike	39:06	18.4	112	49:40	86
T2	2:13		136	51:53	90
Run	26:11	8:26.8	134	1:18:04	109

All in all, I'm happy with the race, though I do wish I would have done better. I was really afraid my run was going to be way slow, so that was a nice bonus.

My goal for next year is 1:12. I think that's very doable. I just need to get my biking back in shape to where I was in 2005, and then take a minute off of each of my events (run/bike/swim). A minute off the swim might be difficult, but the bike and run should be pretty straight-forward. Heck, I'd like to take a good two minutes off my run. For reference, a 1:12 would have placed 53rd this year (and 71st in 2005). Plus, my T2 time is horrible, I guess I need to run faster in that transition.

How did the race play out? Well, as I donned my gear to bike over to the start the skies opened up and rained down. It poured. I got soaked and my stuff got pretty wet when I laid it out. Of course, 15 minutes before race the rain stopped completely and wouldn't start up again until I was biking home. Lesson: bring plastic garbage bags and don't lay your stuff out until the last minute (if it's raining).

I had a huge cheering section this year. Mary and Simone and my folks cheered me during the swim - I did actually hear them. I was in a lane with just two other people and they swam much slower so I had to stall with the breast stroke a couple of times before I was able to pass. The swim ended up feeling really good (other than the frustration) and pretty easy.

I ran out to my bike where the Mattsons and Bouchers rang their cowbells. The transition felt pretty fast and I was able to find everything I needed. On a nice day I might forgo the shirt, but it was cool enough that I was glad to put it on.

The bike started pretty well, though my legs did feel a little tired. I got passed by a number of people about half way out toward the first turnaround. That was the first sign that my bike ride wasn't as good as it was in 2005. I ended up playing leap-frog with a guy and a gal at the end, but sprinted to finish ahead of both of them. I think I could have pushed the bike a little harder. Lesson: do more swim/bike bricks to make the transition easier.

I revved up the RPMs during the last quarter mile of the ride - that's supposed to help your transition to the run. However, I just felt really winded during the transition. My fan club was standing next to my space to help me find my running shoes, but I was a little too (un)focused to find it quickly. Lesson: bring big chalk and mark up the sidewalk (or just look for my fans).

The run started pretty painfully. I tried to keep my steps short and the turnover fast, but I think it was more like short steps and slow turnover. The first mile and a half felt sluggish, real sluggish. Kelly timed my last lap (7:43 or something like that - which is just under a mile) which was when I finally started feeling like I could move. I pushed hard for nearly the whole lap - especially up the hill on the backstretch, and I'm sure I left a trail of smoke and flames turning into the center of the quad where the race finished. Lesson from the run: run more, run more, run more - and practice the bike/run brick more.

The race was a fun one - I made some folks laugh as I passed them (or they passed me) on the run, and everyone who showed up to cheer me on seemed to have fun (Elizabeth even showed up for my last lap). I'll definitely do it again next year.

goal: 1:12

Simone Swims

Here are two photos of Simone swimming under water in her water babies class.

10k

No, I'm not ready to run one yet, just a milestone: my blog has 10000 hits. Which is nothing for a web page, but a milestone for me.

iBike WW14 (1)

I rode the Beaver Freezer bike route on Thursday, just to remind myself what I'll be in for.



I've no idea how long it took - it was at least 30 minutes though b/c it's 12 miles long, and I can't bike 24MPH for half an hour on a flat course, let alone one with hills. I'll do it again tomorrow, after a swim, and before a run. woo-hoo

Move or Quit

I've been working from home for nearly 7 years now. In 2000 I asked my boss if I could work part-time from Corvallis because Mary was moving there. He agreed, and I've done work ever since.

The mother organization (12000 employees) has made the decision that people working remotely is not to be allowed. I must either move up to Portland (Santa Clara, CA and Hudson, MA are also allowed) or quit.

That's the short version. The long version involves showing how inconsistent the policy is, how it is not being applied to all employees, and it doesn't fit all departments. But I won't go into that now.

Needless to say, Mary and I are looking at all of our opportunities. I may stay at Intel and we may move up to the Portland area. I might find employment elsewhere. And I can always commute every day up to Portland.

According to the rules, we've got until the end of August to make a decision.

I am, of course, hurt/angry/frustrated by this. While some folks are trying to get an exception made for me, it really makes me concerned for the future of the software department that I (for now) work for.

Don't Mess With Our Chocolate

The FDA is considering changing the definition of chocolate, namely to eliminate the need for cocoa butter as an ingredient (and to allow "milk" chocolate to contain only milk substitutes).



If you don't like this idea, then visit http://www.dontmesswithourchocolate.com to read more and submit a comment to the FDA.

Do it now - it only takes a minute or two, and the deadline for comments is April 25, 2007.

First Tooth

Simone has her first tooth - it's on her lower jaw. It's just barely out, but we're calling it good.

She also now shakes her head back and forth like Stevie Wonder when you do.

The fun never stops at the Jackson household.

Funny, yet depressing

JibJab is back at it again, with a video that's funny and depressing at the same time:

What We Call the News | Send To Friends | Funny Animations at JibJab

Podcasting

I pay attention to a couple of podcasts using Sage (a Firefox plugin). But it's a pain to manually download each of the .mp3's, and I didn't want to use iTunes to do it for me.

Turns out there's a pretty nice, free (as in GPL) podcast receiver. You just add the feeds you want and it'll download them for you. It also does a nice job of letting you clean them up (delete them) when you're done.

Check it out - click on the button:

iBike WW13 (1)

My second ride of the year on my road bike. Still no cycle-computer so I don't know the distance (probably 8-9 miles), but I rode hard for 30 minutes. Just out around Philomath.

Sadly, It's Not A Parody

I was led to this post and I thought it was funny, until I realized he was serious.

A choice quote:

“Based on genetics, I think Adam’s chest hair needs to be short, like Sean Connery’s.”

The post in full is here: Meeting Scientists Behind Closed Doors - Answers in Genesis

iBike WW 12 (1)

Today was the triathlon clinic at the Osborne aquatic center. We basically did a sprint triathlon and got some tips from some pros (one of the guys finished the 2005 Hawaii Iron Man in 9:39 (205 of 1600)). It was pretty fun - we got video taped while swimming. It turns out my swim stroke is pretty good (need to get my elbow up earlier, but most things are working well) - probably the best thing would be to reduce the drag of my belly (which hangs down pretty low...).

Anyway, I did the long ride (20 miles), and I biked there and back, so that's my ride for the week. I hadn't been on my road bike for probably near 2 years, so the cycle computer needs a new battery.

The beaver freezer is in 2 weeks - hopefully the run then won't be as bad as the run was today.

Shorts

So, I was leaving work on Wednesday. It'd been a sunny day, but a bit cool. As I was walking through the parking lot I saw a guy heading toward his car wearing a heavy jacket and shorts. I immediately thought, "dork, who wears shorts when it's chilly."

For those who don't interact with me much, I almost always wear shorts - except formal occasions and when I ski. I just had to laugh to myself as I said "dork" - but it just came out.

Holupchi

Mary made Holupchi for dinner. mmmm...

It's a Ukrainian recipe consisting of savoy cabbage leaves stuffed with ground beef and pork and cooked rice. You cook it slowly for a few hours in some chopped tomatoes (oh, and add onion/garlic to either the rice mixture, or the tomatoes).

Very tasty. The few internet recipes have egg in them, and some odd spices I don't believe they had in the Ukraine, so I think we'll stick to salt and pepper.

Blowing Bubbles

Tonight Simone figured out how to blow bubbles under water. We were taking a bath, she stuck her mouth into the water and blew bubbles. Occasionally she'd breathe in a tad bit of water, but by the end of the bath - she almost never sucked in water.

And to think, I still have problems blowing bubbles when I am under water.

Simone 9.5

She's nearly ten months old. scary.

Lucky for us, she's not crawling yet, so we can still run circles around her. Before long, she'll be flip the tables on us, and then we won't know what to do.

Today was a beautiful spring day, so we decided to do some yardwork. We conned a friend's kid into mowing the lawn (woo-hoo), and did the weeding and pruning ourselves. Simone even tried helping out - she got her first taste of grass.



mmmm.... grass....



mmmm.... phone....



Dad, stop taking pictures and help me up!

She's obviously sitting up and grabbing things. She's actually gotten to the point where not everything immediately goes into her mouth. She looked at the grass for quite a while before tasting it.

Simone's laughing lots more, and still gurlges on command. Just this week she learned how to make the clucking sound by ... um, well combining your tongue and the roof of your mouth.

She's playing the piano, and drumming any two things she has in her hands together. The favorite toys seem to have moved away from the mint tin and wooden ring to a quarter cup measuring cup.

Each day is an adventure.

Root Beer Remixed

So, I decided to make root beer again. The first two times I made it I used yeast for the carbonation, which gave nice bubbles, but had a little bit of a yeasty flavor.

This time I sweetened the batch with maple syrup (and a little sugar), and I tried carbonating the bottles with dry ice. A guy at work talked about how he did that for his beer and it worked really well. In fact, he wasn't using yeast for carbonation any longer.

I grabbed some dry ice from the store, mixed up my brew, and dropped some small chunks of frozen CO2 in the bottles. The guy had said pea-sized chunks worked well.

I'm here to say, bull-sh*t. A pea-sized chunk of dry ice in my 16 ounce bottles blew the cap right off. I've got the nice, sturdy glass bottles with the wire bale swing-top cap. While testing one of the early bottles out, I popped the top and the entire wire bale mechanism shot off the bottle and hid under the cupboards. Needless to say, I was a bit spooked. My sunglasses and yellow fabric gloves weren't going to be enough to protect me against that danger.

I popped the couple of bottles I'd already done to let them de-pressurize (two more bales came flying off. And I looked for even smaller chunks of ice. The "right" size appears to be about the size of a cooked lentil. We'll see tomorrow. I'll be opening them with a towel over the top to keep from breaking something.

iBike WW11 (1)

Just another ride to the gym for tri-training (over Witham Hill).

Stats: 35 min, 13 mph, 7.77 miles.

iBike WW10 (3)

I rode to the gym today, and since the last ride took just over 32 minutes, I wanted to try to get it under 30.

I also happened to fall off my bike. It was my fault - about the only excuse for going over the handlebars is a stick in the wheel, which didn't happen today. I was at a four-way stop sign, rolling along real slow, waiting for the driver going the other direction to give an indication of what she was going to do (go straight through intersection, or turn left - and cross my path). I waited a couple of seconds until my legs said, "let's go boys!" and I stood up on the pedals, beginning to start going. At just that time, the lady turned on her left-hand turn signal, and my brain said, "whoa there!" and I hit the brakes. What happens when your bike stops suddenly and your center of gravity is way high? You go over the handlebars.

I mostly scraped my left elbow, and my inner thighs got a nice set of scratches from the handlebars. I continued on to the gym (where I did a lighter workout), and biked home.

I did make it in less than 30 minutes though:

time: 28:13, 14.9 mph, 7.01 miles total.

iBike WW10 (2)

To the gym and beyond! Well, just to the gym to swim.

32 min, 7 miles, 12.8 mph.

Bunk as News

Good article, with an interesting idea on how to make it possible to have real news. Ironically, the article is in some ways an advertisement for a book Why the media passes off bunk as news - Yahoo! News. I'm sure the irony is not lost on its author.

Ha (Paranoia)

iBike WW10 (1)

Another beautiful day. I rode to the gym and back. Why go to the gym on a beautiful day? Well, my body isn't ready to run on pavement, and I've got a triathlon in just over a month.

Ride stats: 13.6 mph, 10.5 miles, 46 minutes. The ride went past bald hill, out Walnut to TimberHill, and then back pas the north store of the co-op to pick up some potatoes for dinner.

iBike WW09 (1)

Today was one of the only days this week that wasn't raining nasty, and it is the last day of the week - so I lucked out.

Simone and I rode downtown to pick up some library books for me and some bolts for the bed frame that needs some fixing. We also wandered around downtown because it was just so pretty. After paying for the bolts, and my library fine, I had $2 left, so I bought an over-priced cookie at one of the shops. Simone got her first look at a drinking fountain - I showed it to her and she stuck her hand in the water.

We then rode back through campus and the covered bridge. A very nice leisurely ride.

Stats: 36 minutes, 10.5 mph, 6.5 miles.

iBike WW08 (3)

The third ride of the week was a simple criss-cross of the country club hill. I try to put hills in to keep the workout somewhat challenging. I happened to choose the only hour during the day that wasn't raining heavily.

Ride stats: 38 min, 12.2 mph, 7.82 miles total.

Random thoughts from the last week

Lately I've had it against capitalism lately. I must be turning socialist or something. I'm just getting tired of the crowd that tries to solve all our problems by applying market forces (capitalism).

The first thing is schools. Vouchers don't seem to be in the news as much, but they make as much sense as do the "No Child Left Behind" (NCLB) policies. Under NCLB, if your school isn't performing, then they get punished, and kids can go to other schools (with your school footing the bus bill no less).

Sure, there are better teachers and there are worse teachers. There are better (more modern, better equipped, not running down, etc.) schools, and there are worse. However, I seriously doubt that the rich, white, suburban school has twice as good of teachers than the poor, multi-racial, inner-city school. Heck, they've even found that the public schools teach math better than private ones (once adjusting for background).

So, how does shuttling around a bunch of kids who are not doing well in school solve the problem? It just blames teachers and doesn't address anything. Vouchers seem nifty because the folks that (can) take advantage of them already have money and already value education - their kids are going to do better in school. And, you leave behind the ones that value education less, have more problems at home, etc. I'm no expert, but it's difficult for Johnny to do his homework if he's worrying if mom's gonna get home with dinner tonight or not. When was the last time you had to worry about eating? (Let alone worrying about getting shot because your brother is in a gang...)

The NCLB thing just doesn't pass the sniff test. Kids are not untainted raw material, and teachers are not craftsmen. Take the analogy of kids == wood, and teachers == furniture makers. The cities are full of trees/lumber, and we need to turn all lumber into furniture. If an inner city shop (school) is having to spend all of it's time/energy drying the wood, planing it flat, working around knots, it's just not going to be able to compete against the suburban school that is receiving dried, knot-free wood. NCLB and vouchers simply end up concentrating the poor wood in the "problem" shops. Eventually, that poor wood is going to make it to the suburbs and we'll be back where we started.

Before you get all high and mighty, I'm not saying that inner-city folks are knotty and the such, but in general, with lower income, the kids come in with more baggage. The kids aren't flawed, their environment is. That's what we need to fix.

And I do think the teacher's union needs to figure out how to get rid of dead wood. We had some really bad teachers in my high school. The other teachers knew about them, but there's not much you can do b/c of the tenure. But that's another digression...

Back to capitalism. Miles and I were having an interesting discussion on health care. My main beef is that I think that when you try to make a profit off health care, profit becomes #1, and patients take the back seat. Costs are rising for all sorts of reasons, but costs for non-profit health-care providers have gone up more slowly than that of for-profit providers. Anyway, I don't intend to rehash our discussion, but I did find this interesting article that shows two sides to the debate (I'm sure there are more sides than just these two).
Long-Run Health Care Cost Drivers.

Similarly, newspapers. They're in a world of hurt because readership is down, and they're losing advertising revenue. So the LA Times is looking at what to do to address the situation. Well, the LA Times thinking of closing down its foreign bureau, because it is not making enough money. I don't think it's creative editing that makes the investors sound like they want to turn the LA Times into something of a tabloid (like People magazine). A quote:

Mr. Bobrinskoy (vice-chairman of one of the major investors of the LA Times:

"The demand is for a very strong, high-quality, local newspaper, focused on the things that people in L.A. care about: style, Hollywood, entertainment, local government, local sports, local issues like immigration. If he [Dean Baquet, former editor] was focused on all those issues, there would be a lot of demand for his product. Instead he's trying to be the fourth national newspaper."

So, you've got an investor wanting more money, not caring about the news - the first three things he lists as priorities are exactly what People magazine covers.

You can't expect everything to continue to grow or to make more money, it's just not realistic, and that demand pushes organizations in the wrong direction. At some point, you have to push back against capitalist pressures, because at some point they will push you away from your original goal. If you are a newspaper, you should be reporting news. Simply trying to maximize money leads us down the road to a common low - tabloids.

The recent killer-diaper-wearing-astronaut and Anna Nicole Smith stories are just examples of it. For a week, they were two of the five top stories. The Anna Nicole Smith one has been in the top five for a few weeks now. How is this news? It's not, it's "entertainment." The businesses may hide behind the excuse that, "it's what readers want" - but that's simply lame. We also want to eat fat, salt, and sugar all day, but at some point you have to say enough is enough, we should be eating vegetables.

Enough is enough, we should be getting real news.



capitalism - applied to schools (voucher system, no child left behind)
just doesn't apply well to everything
e.g. food

How Cool Is This

At work I do most everything from inside the application Emacs. It's my mail reader, I write software, compile it, run and debug it from Emacs. I've even taught a class in it at work.

Anyway, this guy just wrote a module that lets you post blog entries to blogspot from inside Emacs.

I actually remember him from college - he was getting his PhD at Cornell while I was an undergrad. You see, he's blind. What made me remember him was ... well he was blind and programming computers. When you walked past his office you could hear the computer talking to him. It sounded more like barking to me, but that's probably because it wasn't in English. Turns out, he wrote the program that "speaks" to him, and it runs inside of Emacs.

He left off a few details of how to get the posting functionality working, so I need to download some extra modules. But I hope to begin posting from inside Emacs soon.

Hans Art

A buddy of mine from college has always been a little odd. I think he'd admit to that. Now, he wasn't odd in the insane-but-facinating way an ornithologist friend of his was (who kept a couple of terrariums full of roaches in his room), but more of a "how does come up with these ideas" kind of odd. That, and he seemed to know nearly everyone in College, which was impressive given that 12,000 undergraduates went there.

He was a good friend, and distance has but softened the friendship a tad.

Anyway, once in a while I'd get a wonderful card from him. Usually very random, but very interesting and unique. This past holiday Mary and I got one that kept us entertained for a good 15 minutes.

Why would you care about such cards? Well, if I'd saved all of them (sorry Hans), I could now sell them for a bundle b/c he's famous! He's got his own store in this thing called the "World Wide Web" selling his one-of-a-kind cards (blank no less, mine came with personalized writing). Check out his shop.

Seriously, if you're tired of the Hallmark cards from the mall, or the "artsy" ones they sell at "antique" shops, or the hippie-cards found at organic produce shops, check out Hans'. They are truly unique and the recipient will never forget the card.

How FAIR is that?

I recently heard FAIR's counterspin on the radio. The show really intrigued me as they pointed out informative biases/misreportings/outright lies in the news stories of the week.

I have to laugh every time they refer to the NY Times because they label it as a "Right Wing" establishment.

I happen to agree with FAIR's viewpoint (it's mine as well) that media has gotten way too cozy with big business (it is big business) and politics, and it's reporting is very slanted. While I enjoy listening to OPB and NPR, I do often find them leaving out a lot of questions I would have asked. Those organizations just aren't the bastion of left-wing reporting that folks make them out to be. As I wrote two and a half years ago, I just don't see all that many folks in politics representing my view. FAIR does a nice job of poking at the issues I want investigated.


Anyway, it's worth a read/listen. You can listen to the podcasts of counterspin through this feed.

Building Stonehenge

This is simply amazing. Hard to argue with a man who shows you how to make Stonehenge:

iBike WW08 (2)

This is the second make-up ride for missing the WW07 ride. I just criss-crossed Witham hill twice (er... crossed it twice, criscrossed once?).

Stats: 43 min, 13.4 mph, 9.67 miles.

iBike WW08 (1)

Well, we went to Hawii. What does that have to do with biking? I didn't.

I could have biked, but it would have been a little lame. I couldn't ike with Simone (no Burley) or Mary (no Burley). The roads have nearly no shoulders, and the bike lanes inexplicably start and stop semi-randomly. I could have gone on one of a small handful of mountain bike trails - but that would have been an entire day away from Mary and Simone. So, I didn't ride.

What's that mean? I've got to ride twice this week to make up for the missed ride.

Today is the first make-up ride. Just a little trip out toward oak creek and back, just missing the rain (whew). It is a pretty flat ride and I pushed pretty hard - thus the higher than average average speed.

Stats: 35 min, 14.7 mph, 8.78 miles.

Pshaw, when I fold paper

it can actually fly.

Shopping

Simone and I went shopping the other day, so she got to ride in a shoppin cart for the second time (she did once earlier with Mary, but it was new to me).

Here she is in all her cuteness:

iBike WW06 (1)

Today was yet beautiful day, especially for an Oregon winter.

Mary was running some errands, so I tossed Simone in the Burley trailer and we went on a ride around town. Let's just say Simone is very forgiving. She can't quite sit up on her own in the Burley with all the bouncing around. I had pillows there, but she basically just laid on her side during the ride. But she seemed happy - she only told me she was unhappy when I tried to "fix" it.

The ride was just out to 53rd, out the Midge Cramer path, up 53rd to Walnut, and back over the top of Witham hill.

Ride stats: 45 min, 12.6 mph, 9.67 miles, and a max of 27 (the fastest I've gone with Simone yet).

Simone Napping (not really)

I lay down with Simone the other day, hoping to get a little nap. My cell phone rang, and it was all over. It's been months since I've napped with Simone, but it was not to be my day.

She's very interested in phones - probably because they light up and make noise. Here are some pics of her admiring the phone. They go from her being cute for the phone to wanting to eat the phone.

iBike WW05 (1)

A short ride today, up the Country Club hill twice. While on the backside (south side) of the hill I came across Mary's River Natural Area, a 1/3 mile board walk in a grassy wetland. Cute.

Yet another beautiful day, I don't recall the last time January had so many beautiful days...

Ride stats: 7.17 miles, 36.5 min, 11.6 mph.

Happy 2/3 Birthday

So, Simone turned 2/3 today. Yup, that's 8 months of excited, bubble-blowing, diaper-wearing goodness.

What's new with Simone? Well, she's rolling over back to front and front to back. She's not real crazy about being on her belly, but will hang out there for a while now and then. She's sitting up pretty well, though she doesn't quite realize that straightening her body like a pirate's plank is antithetical to sitting upright (or, maybe she does and is just playing with us).

Her hands operate independently, and she's starting to bang toys together or on the table. I'm thinking a drum set might be in order for her 4/5 birthday, we'll have to see if it passes the censors.

Today, Simone and I took a walk past the duck pond because it was beautiful, we needed a walk, and Mary was up for a nap. You see, Simone has decided naps are passe, and she's also decided that 9pm to 6am is enough sleep for her. Needless to say, it's not enough for Mary who's awake chunks of the night feeding Simone. I, on the other hand, obvliviously sleep through the night.

Some friends came over for dinner, and that was reason enough for Simone to stay up. She's just a party gal who doesn't want to miss a beat.

So happy 2/3 birthday Simone.

iBike WW04 (1)

A shorter ride today, started off foggy, but ended with beautiful sun. Just a little loop with two hills and two bumps - past the country club, out country club drive to Philomath, and back on West Hills Road.

Stats: 47 min, 10.6 miles, 13.4 mph.

I'm a month in (1/12th the way through the year) and it feels good to get out on the bike regularly.

Roasted Carrots

Who would have thunk it? Mary made roasted carrots tonight (to go along with the grilled halibut, mmm...). I bit into the dark orange slices and wow! They taste very much like roasted yams! Awesome. I've always hated cooked carrots (ok in soup, but icky sauteed or steamed), but wow, I'll take them roasted any day.

iBike WW03 (2) + Simone

Mary, Simone and I went on a ride around town today. The sun was shining, birds were chirping, and we just had to try out Simone's new helmet.



We just meandered up 53rd past the fairgrounds, up Walnut, and over to Patti and Ken's place, where we stopped in to say "hi." All in all, just a wonderful day - it tired us out enough that we took a family nap.

Details: 8.44 miles, 51 minutes, 9.7 mph average.

mmmm.... tasty

Or, should I say del.icio.us?

del.icio.us is a "social bookmarking website." Basically, you can use it to maintain bookmarks, adding tags to them, searching through them. Plus, it lets you see who else is looking at the same sites (and then you can see what else they look at).

A buddy of mine got some folks at work to start using it. We could then subscribe to each other's bookmarks and then get an idea of what folks thought was interesting. It worked for about a week, then they stopped adding new bookmarks.

I still think it's cool, if only my friends used it. You can pay attention to what sites/links I think are nifty by adding this RSS feed to your favorite aggregator. I still add links occasionally, though my blog is a little more active than my del.icio.us bookmarks.

Getting a Grasp on Oil Production Volumes

I found this little article The Oil Drum | Getting a Grasp on Oil Production Volumes which helps bring the energy numbers into perspective. To do so, they noted that the amount of oil produced last year was 1.02 CMO (Cubic Miles of Oil).

Simply staggering...

Car Rental Scam

We're going to Hawaii in a few weeks (woo-hoo!) And while we're there, we'll have a rental car. I made reservations - checking all the companies that rent at the airport. Turns out there's a 50% difference between the lowest and highest prices. Who would have figured.

Anyway, since we have Simone, we need an infant seat. Most places have a reasonable deal, $10/day, $60 maximum. Dollar, on the other hand, has decided there would be no maximum - therefore the seat rental would be $140 - about twice what it costs to buy our car seat. What a rip-off.

Now we're debating about checking it at the gate, or switching rental companies.

Toe Job

So I had the toe done today. It feels fine now, but looks horrible. I'll spare the gory details, but just have to say that the surgery itself was rather barbaric. It looked like some sort of cruel torture video, only it was on my foot, and I couldn't feel anything.

The doctor said he'd only do one toe at a time, and that's all he really had time for anyway. At the least, I can still hobble around on one foot fairly well, it's tough enough walking around using only one big toe.

Things should be completely healed in 2 weeks, and bunches better in just a few days.

Unfortunately, Mary said she wasn't going to help me with the bandages - as she stopped work altogether. I imagine if she were still working she'd have used the excuse that it was a nurse's job, not a doctor's. Either way, I get to dress my own wounds.

iBike WW03 (1)

A new ride today. I got it in early this week because of the toe doctor appointment later this week (not sure if my feet will be up for riding or not after that).

I had grand plans of a short ride - I started by going by the country club and then heading toward Philomath, but I kept taking back roads I'd never been on. I knew roughly where I was, I just didn't know where the roads I was taking would lead me. So, when I saw a sign pointing south to Philomath (2 miles) I knew it was wrong, had to be because I was south of Philomath (which I was), so I took the other option, eventually ending up on a main road going south.

Time to introduce a rule to the weekly rides. One cannot turn back simply because one does not know which turn to make, one can only turn back when time is a factor (gonna run out of water, people are going to worry, etc.).

Anyway, the day was beautiful, sunny with blue skies, and cold cold cold. Luckily, there was no wind. I'm still getting used to riding a single speed - I certainly need a higher gear for road rides (which is what today's was), but probably should step down a notch or two for mountain rides. Note: I'm currently running 32 teeth in the crank, and 16 teeth in back - as if you cared.

Stats for the ride: 53 min, average speed 12.7mph, 11.21 miles.

Note: the (1) at the end of the title indicates the count of the ride for this week - this is the first ride, thus a 1. And the "WW" is "work-week" or the Nth week of the year (also known as the ISO 8601 week date).

Coding Horror: Typing Trumps Pointing

A quick sneak peek at Windows Vista reveals ... Typing Trumps Pointing.

Hm, looks like everything evolves toward becoming Emacs.

Survey Says...

I use Stat Counter to keep track of my massive amounts of traffic. I'm up to almost 9000 hits, total! Wow, you can't buy traffic like that.

Anyway, I occasionally look at the search terms people have used to find my blog. Stat Counter keeps info for the last 100 people who visited (I'm using the free version). For a while, I was actually #2 in Google for "mojito recipie" (note the misspelling of recipe), but I seem to have slipped to #5.

Some other interesting terms that lead people to my blog are: "aol yay worm", "makes a mean steak", "chapel of the chimes", "crappy car", and "on one midge bar shifters" (no idea what that last one means). Oh, 4 people came to my blog with "x-biking en puerto rico" - I guess I've got a bi-lingual audience.

My favorite search term, however, was "simone fart videos" - which apparently came from someone in Quebec Canada. I'll have to get on that, I don't think I have any videos of her farting.

iBike WW02 (1)

Same ride as last week, I imagine it'll be a regular ride until the bald-hill trails open up, and until the weather clears up a bit.

This week was snowy and cold, so I got to ride in some snow and ice today. It couldn't have been more than 35 degrees out, but man was it beautiful. The shady spots of the Midge Cramer path still had snow, and in the forest there were little puddles that completely froze over. I clipped the end of one going around a corner, and that was a bit scary. The ride ended well, I've got high hopes for the iBike project.

My legs didn't have a lot of oomph today, and it showed, just a hair over 1 hour to do the loop. But it felt good to get out.

Yeah, the deniers are going to love this.

Yahoo News reports that warming could spur "evolution explosion". That's like saying that you saw Bigfoot riding the Loch Ness monster.

Toe

I won't gross you out with any pictures, but I've got an ingrown toenail. Normally, it's not something I'd blog about. I'm gonna get it fixed - I just saw a foot doctor today and it'll be taken care of next week.

The interesting/funny part is that he decided to trim up the nail today so the toe has some time to heal (reduce inflammation). He pulled out the shiny toe-nail clippers - the ones that look like the nice ones you'd find in a grooming kit. He reached over, squeezed the handles, pop! the clippers broke. He had to break out the industrial clippers to take care of mine.

The nails are nice and healthy, no fungus or anything. Just super-strong nails, which won't be ingrown as of next Wednesday.

I hope my insurance covers nail clippers.

Word

Check out opportunity costs redux.

Sweet and Sour

Tim and Maria had a party this weekend to celebrate three kings day. A bunch of people came, it was fun.

But I'm most excited about the new way to make a whiskey sour (amaretto sour, vodka sour, whatever...). Toss that sour mix you bough from the store and go pick up some frozen lemonade mix. Mix 1 part liquor, 1 part lemonade mix, 1 part club soda, a marchino cherry and a little marachino juice. That's one tasty sour.

iBike WW01 (1)

Rode the Oak Creek mini-loop on the single-speed. 57 minutes, 12.5 miles. Cool day with slight sprinkles, felt good to be back on the bike again. The slight hills were tough with the single speed - need to get a larger gear for the rear, and get into better shape.

Introducing, the iBike 2007 goal

So, my goal for the year is to bike at least once a week, every week of the year. That's not gonna set any world records or anything (I read about a guy who has ridden once a day for 10 years (where each ride was at least an hour long)), but it's a start toward being more active.

Each winter I tell myself, "I'm gonna bike this winter." But I never do. This winter started with the excuse of my shoulder and neck hurting. It still does a little, but it's on the mend, and if I don't get active, it'll probably never heal. So, I went on my first ride of the year today.

I think the ground rules for this are that I've got to ride for at least half an hour. It'll be ok if it's a casual ride with Simone in the trailer, or if the ride is one of those epic 3 hour rides with the guys from Cyclotopia.

I can't take a week off after riding 2 or 3 times the week before. I figure if I happen to miss a week, I should have to ride twice the following week to make up for it (meaning, 3 rides that week - 2 for make-up, and one for that week itself). The one hitch I see already is that we're taking two weeks to go to Hawaii in February, so I'm going to have to make that middle one up.

You can follow along - I'll have a special label under which I log all my rides - just to keep me honest. Follow along if you will.

A moment of silence please

FoxTrot to be a Sunday-only comic. It's one of my all-time favorite comics, and I'm sad to see it go.

Bush Poll

A little funny for you, how do you rate President Bush?

Excellent article by Richard Clarke

A most excellent article by Richard Clarke. He lists some of the big items the Bush administration has left unattended with its single-focus on Iraq. It begins,

In every administration, there are usually only about a dozen barons who can really initiate and manage meaningful changes in national security policy. For most of 2006, some of these critical slots in the Bush administration have been vacant, such as the deputy secretary of state (empty since Robert B. Zoellick left for investment bank Goldman Sachs) and the deputy director of national intelligence (with Gen. Michael V. Hayden now CIA director). And with the nation involved in a messy war spiraling toward a bad conclusion, the key deputies and Cabinet members and advisers are all focusing on one issue, at the expense of all others: Iraq.

It's worth a read.

The Top 10 Bizarro Environmental Stories

A short list of the most bizarre environmental stories. My "favorites" are America Outsourcing its Pollution to China, and Eskimos Buying Air Conditioners. There are of course the obligatory nods to the Bush administration in the list.

Chapel of the Chimes

Well, the McMenamin's brothers have done it again, they've converted another nifty building into a pub. This one is the old Chapel of the Chimes, which happens to be where I last saw Grandma Jackson, just before she was cremated

I'll have to check it out and toast to her memory when I next get to Portland.

First Ever Blondie (well, Conga)

I was watching America's Test Kitchen today and they made brownies and blondies.

I'd never really heard of blondies, but it sounded intriguing. Of course they spiced it up by adding coconut, which turns them into Conga bars.

Now that I've made them, I must say, "bravo!"

Too bad there won't be any left by the time most of y'all read this.

Oooh, snap!

An article about NoKA's chocolates lays bare the ridiculous overpricing of their chocolates, and their misleading marketing.

I did find out there are some wonderful chocolatiers in Portland though: Alma Chocolate, DePaula Confections, and Sahagun Chocolates. Mmmm.... chocolate.

Neato!

It's a mash-up of wiki and Google map. Pretty slick.

This is Moab.

This is our home.

Seven Months (and two days)

She's growing fast. We think she's finally plumping up. See, she's been growing longer every day, but hasn't put on much weight. But it now looks like she's starting to bulk up like most babies.

She's cuter than ever, and beginning to sit up on her own. We're still waiting for her to roll over.

Christmas was fun, but I'm pretty sure next year will be even better. I figure it'll be more fun when Simone actually knows that Christmas is happening. This year, she slept through some of the opening of gifts. Somewhat surprisingly, she didn't get any clothes for Christmas, just wonderful toys and books.

What an Insult

So, the feud between Donald Trump and Rosie O'Donnell is making the rounds. Rosie gave The Donald (what a stupid moniker) a hard time for pretending to be a moral compass to the Miss USA (who was caught drinking under-age, partying, and kissing Miss Teen).

The Donald hit back with the quote, "Maybe she wanted to put the crown back on Miss USA's head. I think she's very attracted to Miss USA so she probably wanted to put the crown on her head herself."

What? Rosie is openly gay, so saying that she's attracted to Miss USA is as insulting as telling a straight man "you like Miss USA" Um.... DUH. I mean, she won Miss USA, so that goes without saying. She's beautiful.

The Donald really needs to work on his trash talk, he would get schooled by any second grader out there.

Festivus for the Rest of Us

Simone's latest thing is that she can say, "baa baa baa baa." And she does so very well. She kept herself up two nights ago for hours doing that.

We're gonna have a great Christmas - spending it with my folks this year (we switch off). We plan on having pork pie for dinner the night before, a fresh ham for Christmas. Of course there will be the obligatory cinnamon rolls. And, of course, presents.

My favorite Christmas movie has to be Southpark's starting point The Spirit of Christmas. Note: the movie is not so kid friendly, but is one of the funniest things I've ever seen.

Merry Chistmas to all my loyal viewers, all 2.5 of you.

An apt analysis of Bush's end of the year speech

A good analysis of W's end of the year speech, and how he he thinks his will alone will lead to victory in Iraq.

Another reason to love Oil

The subsidies we pay aren't buying us much. I bet we'd get a lot more bang for the buck investing that money in renewable energy.

Stationery Movies

I'm up to 10/20 so far. How well can you do?

Update: 13/20 now.

The choice is yours...

I just found out about Newcomb's Paradox. Intellectually, I can see where some of the paradox is, but the answer seems very straight forward to me. What would you choose?

I choose the closed box.

Family Portrait

Yup, another rant, I'm on a roll here.

Mary's bank (well, our bank) gave her/us a family portrait at a local studio. So we got all gussied up and went to take pictures. We liked one of them well enough to fall for the sales pitch and get an 8"x10".

Neither Mary nor I ever figured we'd have one of those. We have nothing against family portraits, it just didn't seem like "us." Anyway, we knew we wanted to get a photo of all of us at this time, and all the pictures taken so far either seem to be me and Simone, Mary and Simone, or just Simone. So the stars were aligned.

I picked up the photo the other day - it looked nice, but I noticed something unexpected. They'd signed the corner of it. I've since learned that this is common practice, but I was a bit miffed. I don't really feel like hanging an advertisement in my living room. If I were to do that, I'd expect a nice discount on the photo. The portraits hung in the studio itself certainly don't have their signature (and why not? b/c it looks tacky).

The studio was considerate enough to say they'd reprint the photo for us, and I'm happy to tell you which studio took the photo (click on the link at the top of the page if you care).

bigsaceworm

We've done it, we've switched to Vonage (well, Qwest gets us for another 2-3 weeks until the phone number switches over). Vonage finally got numbers local to Corvallis, so we could keep our number. And now we'll no longer be gouged by Qwest for nearly 3X what Vonage charges.

And, it was super easy to install, just as easy as the Mac mini. I plugged it in (got the phone cord in the wrong port at first - and the phone gladly told me I did it wrong), and I could make calls. Vonage has all the features I'd ever want: voice mail, call waiting, call forwarding, completely configurable. And there are features I didn't know I wanted (but are cool) - ability to listen to voicemail over the net, get email notification of voice mail, and ability to take the phone with us wherever we go (that has high-speed internet).

Actually ordering was a bit of a pain - the web page wouldn't work for some reason, so I called. And they have to run you through the ringer, repeatedly telling you about the ramifications of 911 calling. But I sat through it patiently.

However, I'm coming to really dislike the outsourcing of phone services. The lady I ordered Vonage from was a little difficult to understand. And ... she screwed up both my name and the login id. Thus, the title of this post "bigsaceworm" WTF And they can't change it - it's tied to the account number (poor software design there folks). And they had my name as Mcdonald, not MacDonald. I spelled it out for them, and while 'eff' may sort of sound like 'ess', 'em-ay-see' doesn't sound like 'em-see'. It should have tipped me off when she asked if I was the owner of the fast-food chain (and the banter continued with asking me about the king of pop).

Wonder how most people do

How do you do trying to place states on a map?

I got 80% right, average distance of 51 miles, and took 528 seconds (granted, I was in a meeting while playing it).

I think the test would be better if you didn't get to use the already placed states as guides, b/c the last 1/3 of the challenge is pretty easy because most of the map is already filled in.

State of Denial

I just finished the book, State of Denial by Bob Woodward. I picked it up from the library (after being 37th on the waiting list) about three weeks ago. I'd have finished it sooner, but Simone is much more fun to play with than it is to read about Bush & Rumsfeld fcsking up Iraq (and in the process, the U.S.).

I knew I'd get angry reading the book, but I was surprised how depressing it is. Only Bush/Rumsfeld/Powell/Rice/Card really know what happened in their meetings, yet, even without Woodward's inside accounts from people who were there, it's obvious we screwed up Iraq. We had no plan for what to do after the invasion, and conditions there (now 3+ years after the initial invasion) are no better than when Saddam was in power (and they're getting worse).

My take on what's reported by Woodward: Bush has the intellectual curiosity of a rock (whether he's smart or not, I don't know, he just doesn't seem to want to learn), Rumsfeld is a power-monger who avoids taking real responsibility. I can't even imagine what possessed them to decide to go into Iraq, nor how they can continue (to this day) to deny the reality of what is happening on the ground.

And, I'm surprisingly frustrated with Powell. A friend at work said he supported going into Iraq - mostly because if Powell said they had WMD, they did. Powell was at the peak of his political power at the beginning of the war, and he did not stand up to Bush/Cheney/whomever was pushing for this war. I expected more from him.

I guess the war is analogous to the guy who "solved" the divide-by-zero problem. They're both just so fundamentally flawed at so many levels that it leaves one at a loss for words.

18.286 seconds

So, the meme on this link is that the Air Force expects its pilots to last 2 minutes in this game. The goal is to keep the red square from touching the blue ones or the black border. And supposedly if you can keep it from being hit for 18 seconds, you're doing awesome.

Well, I made it 18.286 seconds on the 7th or 8th try. It's really not difficult mostly because the movement of the blue squares is deterministic, and you can get to 11 seconds by making three basics moves (down to the bottom, then up the the top left, and then down the left side). Doing that with the appropriate pauses (long time in the top left) and you've got 11 seconds.

Perhaps if the pattern of the blue squares was different each run I could believe this might be used in the Air Force as a little gimmick. But not if it's deterministic. People with those kinds of reflexes would quickly spot the patterns and keep on building on their time - and it'd be incredibly dull.

It seemed as though the blue squares sped up all of a sudden at 18 seconds, but I'm not going to play any longer b/c it's gotten dull for me. I'd never make 20 seconds, but I'm pretty sure I could hit 18 seconds on a regular basis.

Grrr... not as easy as it should be

The reasons we bought a Mac were three-fold:

1) Mary first learned computers on a Mac and really likes them

2) Macs are easy to use and configure

3) Macs are supposed to be wonderful for creative arts - such as drawing/photoshoping/editing movies/etc.

Well, I beg to differ with #3. For one simple reason - the Mac doesn't natively grok MPEG2 format. Huh??? That just happens to be the encoding of all video on DVDs - and it's been a standard since 1994. Oh, and when you go to Apple's web site asking for information on how to deal with video in that format, they just say that iMovie can only edit video and audio streams when they are in different streams (i.e. not interlaced, as is done in mpeg2).

Fine... Great... Just give me the option to import it. But no... you have to find some 2nd party utility to do the job. It turns out, the software they sort of recommend also requires a $20 plugin for Quicktime. Fine, an extra $20, not a big deal, but you're still have to convert the movies outside of iMove and then import them.

Come on, what a crok. Maybe they don't support the mpeg2 b/c of licencing issues or they're afraid of the MPAA. But that doesn't make sense because you can buy the plugin that plays mpeg2... So why? And why not have a very simple guide as to how to do the conversion.

Anyway, the Mac is pissing me off right now.

Power Out

We had a little power outage last night. The northwest had a wonderful storm with winds up to 70mph. So, Simone got to fall asleep to candle-light and the sounds of our voices singing to her (or humming when we couldn't remember the words).

Given that we didn't know how long the power was going to be out, I quickly devoured the peppermint patties.

Regardless, the power is back up, and we weathered it just fine. Simone got to experience her first power outage (and first hail).

Six and a half months

So, Simone is getting longer and longer, 27.5" right now, and weighing in at 14.5 pounds. She's just a happy little baby.

She just found her feet yesterday, and loves to play with them. She's also splashing lots when taking baths, and she went swimming with Mary just a few days ago.

While she's not rolling over yet, she's sitting up real straight, and loves to gum a drinking cup while sitting in her high chair.

WWJP

What would Jesus play?

I've a feeling he wouldn't be playing this game. It's got a very loving theme, along the lines of "convert or die."

Brings back nightmares

So, there's this nob at the University of Reading who says he's solved the divide by zero problem (well, one video talks about how he solves 0^0, but the full feature discusses dividing by zero).

First of all, if you're going to say you've come up with some newfangled math thing, at least pretend to work at a relevant school, perhaps the "University of Arithmetic" or "College of Numbers" - no, he's going for Reading.

Secondly, he's showing it off at some grade school? I would think that something (seemingly) on par with coming up with imaginary numbers would be earth-shattering and discussed at institutes of higher learning around the world. But no, he's "enlightening" grade school kids. Evidently, they're the only ones not educated enough to tell him he's full of it.

Lastly, at least pass your "theory" by a couple of people before blabbing to the local media. Apparently, the BBC has about as much scientific credibility as USA Today does - none.

The responses to the feature are pretty funny, just scroll down the page to see them.

This all reminds me of a class I took in college, which I briefly discussed here.

If this were April 1st, I could understand, but it's not. I'm baffled how people can be so cluelessly wrong.

So Exciting

We really need to get some video of Simone being excited. All sorts of things get her going - most recently it's the top of your head (hair) and my Cal hat. She gets all quivery. Here are some pictures that try to capture the excitement.




Here she's just being cute.



More of a vanity pose here:

Walkies

Simone and I have had a couple of really nice walks recently. It snowed about a week ago, check out the field across the street:



I think she grooved on the brightness of all the snow, though her nose got quite cold.

This past weekend, Mary had a conference in Portland. To pass the time, Simone and I walked in Forest Park for a little bit. I got many compliments on the beautiful baby (which she is). Here are some self-portraits:





Saturday night, Simone and I walked around my old neighborhood. One problem with having Simone facing out in the sling is that I cannot tell when she's asleep. So I try to take pictures to see if her eyes are closed:



Kind of tough when it's dark out, eh? She had finally fallen asleep.

Words Of Wisdom

If our society is set up to reward, not the people who make things, but the people who place bets on the people who make things, then eventually there will be more speculators than speculatees. Market forces, right?

I understand that I am fighting a battle that was lost 50 years ago. Values are not going to change; the underlying system is not going to change. One could, though, adjust tax policies so that the very rich were paying more of the crippling medical costs the very rich are creating by rewarding insurance and pharmaceutical companies for maximizing profit. Just a thought.

From Jon Carroll.

Way Neat

This guy does a new drawing every day. What makes it real neat is he video tapes the drawing and lets you see the creation as it unfolds (each drawing is between 1 and 2 minutes).

Hat tip to Ze who is also doing his own daily show.

More firsts

Today I fed Simone from a bottle (good breast milk, lovingly pumped) and it went pretty well. And just yesterday she ate her first solid food - just a little bit of sweet potato.

Things are changing fast.

Half a year old

Simone turned 6 months today. And to celebrate, she decided to roll over, from her front to her back. It happened very fast but I was lucky enough to see it. Mary and I pestered her for a while afterwards, but she couldn't quite do it a second time (she tried hard).

And I just received this great picture of her from Mary's mom:

6 months - 4 days

Simone will turn 6 months in 4 short days.

Her favorite new activity is drinking from a glass. More correctly put, gumming the edge of a glass, sticking her tongue in it/under it like a proboscis. She gets very excited, quivery even, when the given the chance to drink from a glass. We're thinking of doing without a sippy cup (no binky has worked well so far).

Simone is very close to rolling over, and her coordination has gotten very good. I still beat her in thumb wrestling and rock-paper-scissors, but she's getting better. She now realizes that a dropped toy hasn't disappeared from the universe, but is likely just out of sight, right by her head.

She's very interested in the world and in other people, usually giving her cutest smile anytime a stranger comes along. She giggles a few times a day, and has this odd coughing (sounds like the fake cough little kids do) when she's excited.

As it has always been, Simone gets very excited at diaper changing time. Heaven help us if we need to change her in the middle of the night because she'll wake up and start playing the "I'm so cute" card. It's very hard to not giggle with her (which would mean staying up for an hour).

She's still pretty thin - a number of other babies born around her time are 6 or 7 pounds larger than her (but they're gargantuan), but we're not worried b/c she's eating like a champ.

All in all, we're very lucky to have such a cute, healthy, happy girl.

YASOGO

Yet another sign of getting old.

We had a date tonight, the second since Simone was born (a lovely friend of ours offered to baby-sit. We stopped by Safeway on the way home to pick up some brussel sprouts for dinner tomorrow (they, like all other stores in the area have none). A bottle of wine seemed like an appropriate gift as we are going to Mary's folks place. When the scanning machine chimed to remind the cashier to check my id, I offered it. She stopped me by saying, "I don't need that, you're old."

Of course, she topped it by mentioning my gray hair a few sentences later.

Old I tell you, old.

Study on WIC's promotion of infant formula instead of breast feeding

I'd heard a lot of this information before from Mary (given her background, that's to be expected). But I didn't realize that WIC was so intertwined with infant formula.

There are so many reasons people should breast feed their babies, and I certainly don't appreciate the government influencing people away from breast feeding.

The article is here.

Fun Fun

I saw this way back when it was created, but now it's got its own domain name and everything. What's real fun is all the videos people have made. The first few are really fantastic.

Amazing what such a simple concept can spawn.

LineRider

Simply Beautiful

The 2006 winners of the fractal art contest.

A few months ago, Mary and I were at an art fair of sorts, and a guy was selling his fractal art. It was nice, but nothing like the images in the link above.

Unbelievable

Just last week I wrote about names. Just a couple days later I heard the worst name ever you could give someone:

Dick Hyman

Another Milestone Reached

Sigh....

Further evidence that I'm old.

Right now, as I type this, I'm wearing my leather slippers and white socks. Yes, at the same time.

In my defense, I was just wearing the socks b/c I'd taken my shoes off (we're a mostly shoe-free house). I was padding around the house in my socks, happy as could be. But then I needed to divvy up the beef, which is in the garage. I was too lazy to take my socks off, but I didn't want to get them dirty. Plus, the extra insulation would be warm (the garage is cold).

So I didn't plan to wear them together, it just happened.

Hmmm... that applies to getting old as well.

It's What's For Dinner

Mary and I just bought 1/8 of a cow. Actually, we bought 1/4 cow with Miles and split it. The meat is grass-fed and local and all that - everything we've bought from them has been uber-tasty, so we're just buying in bulk now.

We recently bought a freezer (kind of a necessity when you're going to buy 100 pounds of meat). The freezer is in the garage - I got to be Mr. HandyMan and cut out 3 feet of the existing shelving to make space for it.

I picked the meat up on Thursday and took stock of it today - splitting evenly so Miles gets his fair share. He wanted the ribs, and I didn't really care. Surprisingly, out of the 100 pounds of meat, only about 5 were ribs. Maybe I had visions of Fred Flintstone's rack of ribs in the intro to the show.

Anyway, 1/4 cow got us about 100 pounds of meat (from about 162 pounds hanging weight), 40 pounds of it is hamburger, about 13 pounds of steaks, 5 ribs, 8 pounds of stew meat, 7 pounds of soup bones, and the rest as a variety of roasts.

Now the trick is to make sure we actually eat it, and don't just hoard it like we seem to do with food.

Pacman funny

http://themot.org/gallery/d/58721-1/pacmanchart.png

s1m0ne

Just this week we were talking about names at work, and how people get teased or get nicknames.

Miles had a bunch (I can see for miles..., miles from nowhere..., kilometer, etc.)

Andrew didn't want to relive the horrors of his youth.

A favorite of mine was a variant of the one-armed/one-legged person jokes: What do you call a man with no arms and no legs sitting in a cafeteria? Trey

Of course Jeff had us all beat. His last name is Weener.

But, working at Intel, everyone thinks they're just clever as all get out when they call Simone s1m0ne.

They're not.

Ha, Math Humor for the Day

Check it out.

Happy Halloween

Simone did get dressed up for Halloween this year. We weren't really planning anything - she slept through the trick-or-treat festivities downtown. However, Mary and I thought it'd be nice to take a walk before the rain started.

My mom found a cow outfit a few weeks ago, and we figured it would be perfect to keep Simone warm and to dress up. Sure enough, it fit like a glove. Here are some pics from the Halloween night.

First she had to get a bath to be ready for dress-up.


Then she gets dressed up in her cow outfit.


And lastly, we're outside.