It has been some time since my last post - been busy with
Mackenzie's Softball
Ashley's Gymnastics
Vacation
Work
School
and if that is not enough stuff going on, Nicole and I are expecting kid number 3 in January, and it has been confirmed with three different ultra sounds that we are indeed expecting a boy! I love my girls dearly, but we need some more testostorine in the house.
The end of July I found myself driving to Beaverton, Oregon with Mackenzie and Ashley. Mackenzie had a softball tournament (Western Nationals). The team played well and end the tournament in 25th place out of 95 teams. Nicole had to work, which is why I was alone for the drive. She met us in Oregon and after the tournament we did some camping in southern Oregon.
Camping was alot of fun, no TV, DVD, etc. Just us - great family time. Did a little fishing, some swimming, some driving around to see the sites, and on the last full day we had, we went on a Hellgate Boat ride - these are very low draft jet boats that can run in as low as 8 inchs of water. I highly recommend this activity - way fun.
From there we drove the 199 through Cresent City to Eureka to lay some flowers at grave sites of some of Nicole's relatives. Day not being over, we finished driving to Monterey Bay where we had dinner at one of my favorite places, Bubba Gump's. Peel and Eat Shrimp is Awesome!
The next day we went to the Aquarium and I got a bunch of pictures with my new digital camera, I will try and post some later. While at the aquarium, the girsl tried scuba diving, that ended up being snorkelling with scuba girl on. It was a neat experience for them, and they both want to do Real SCUBA. I have signed up Mackenzie for SCUBA lessons and will do the same with Ashley when she gets old enough. Hopefully I will now have a SCUBA partner - Yea!
From there we drove to Morro Bay where we meet up with the rest of Nicole's family. The weekend was dedicated to my late Mother-in-law Sharon and late brother-in-law Andrew. We all had dinner that night together, sans Sharon and Andrew. The next day we chartered a fishing boat to dump both Sharon and Andrews ashes into the ocean, we also dumped Yoggis ashes. Yoggi was my sister-in-law's cat that she had cremated and the ashes have been sitting in her house for the last 6 plus years.
To end the 2 week journey I got to drive home, on my birthday, oh yea and I was hungover from drinking a bottle of Makers Mark with Andrews brother Bruce! And not the small bottle either, the Costco size bottle!
Thursday, August 31, 2006
Tuesday, June 13, 2006
Update - Some People Vex Me
So here is the update on my previous post (some people vex me). In short, I win! The teacher backed off the lowering of Mackenzie's citizenship grade. However he is still lowering her scholastic grade from an A to an A-. By giving the instructor a compromise, I was able to at least continue Mac's record of outstanding citizenzhip. And an A is an A, even if it is an A-, whatever...
But wait there is more. So this dance that Mackenzie was missing had props. Mackenzie volunteered to build the Eiffel Tower from a kit, it stop 16 feet tall and was 8x8 feet at the base. This meant that Mackenzie voluntered dad to put together the eiffel tower.
So here is another example of the genius' we are dealling with. The kit came in three boxes. They told Mackenzie to take it home, assemble it in to three pieces and bring those pieces back for final assembly the day of the dance. OK, so how am I suppose to transport a 16 foot cardboard towere even if it is three pieces. Needless to say, there where issues.
One thing I noticed right off the bat was the lack of stability. This thing was going to be around a bunch of eighth grade students, last thing I want was for this thing to come crashing down on their heads.
So day of the dance, I take off work because I had to put together this monster by 1:00 so we could leave for the games by 1:30. I drop the kids off at school, and head to Lowes to get some supplies... some wood to tack to the structure to add stability -$50 later... I head back to school. Outside of the assembly room, I cut the 1 3/4 x 1/2 strips of wood into 4 foot strips and start painting them black. Once that is done, I come in and find Mr. Lewis directing kids in assembling the tower -WAIT!
So that stops and they move on to something else and Mackenzie and I continue with my plan. Part of the instructions call for using duct tape to attach pieces of card baord together. While other parts are attached by double sided adhesive tape. Obviously the rocket scientists that designed this POS were not concerned with any structural integrity. So once I stabilize the base we move on tho assembling the other sections. Before long things are looking good, except, the tower is 16 feet high, and the ceiling of the assembly room is only about 13 feet high. Time for customization. I take a foot from this section, another foot from another section, still another foot from yet another section.
We move the base into position, away from where the kids will be dancing. Start attaching the various sections, and then add the light fixtures, all 9 of them, to eluminate the tower. Powerstrips, we need power. I get some power strips from the custodian, and finally we are done. Appearently it was hit.
After all this I come to find out from the mom that organized the event, that Mackenzie was the only ASB member willing to step up and tackle the tower. There is no way a kid could have built this tower on there own, or even as a group. Parent involvement was mandatory on this one.
Anyway we finish around 1:10, once I add a strand of X-mas lights to the structure, at the request of the "mom".
Upon leaving, Mr. Lewis thanks me for the help in putting things together. He did not realize the amount of time and involvement required to put something this large together. He also said, he would be doing something nice for me for my help. I am thinking - leave my kids grade alone... instead I got a Starbucks gift card.
But wait there is more. So this dance that Mackenzie was missing had props. Mackenzie volunteered to build the Eiffel Tower from a kit, it stop 16 feet tall and was 8x8 feet at the base. This meant that Mackenzie voluntered dad to put together the eiffel tower.
So here is another example of the genius' we are dealling with. The kit came in three boxes. They told Mackenzie to take it home, assemble it in to three pieces and bring those pieces back for final assembly the day of the dance. OK, so how am I suppose to transport a 16 foot cardboard towere even if it is three pieces. Needless to say, there where issues.
One thing I noticed right off the bat was the lack of stability. This thing was going to be around a bunch of eighth grade students, last thing I want was for this thing to come crashing down on their heads.
So day of the dance, I take off work because I had to put together this monster by 1:00 so we could leave for the games by 1:30. I drop the kids off at school, and head to Lowes to get some supplies... some wood to tack to the structure to add stability -$50 later... I head back to school. Outside of the assembly room, I cut the 1 3/4 x 1/2 strips of wood into 4 foot strips and start painting them black. Once that is done, I come in and find Mr. Lewis directing kids in assembling the tower -WAIT!
So that stops and they move on to something else and Mackenzie and I continue with my plan. Part of the instructions call for using duct tape to attach pieces of card baord together. While other parts are attached by double sided adhesive tape. Obviously the rocket scientists that designed this POS were not concerned with any structural integrity. So once I stabilize the base we move on tho assembling the other sections. Before long things are looking good, except, the tower is 16 feet high, and the ceiling of the assembly room is only about 13 feet high. Time for customization. I take a foot from this section, another foot from another section, still another foot from yet another section.
We move the base into position, away from where the kids will be dancing. Start attaching the various sections, and then add the light fixtures, all 9 of them, to eluminate the tower. Powerstrips, we need power. I get some power strips from the custodian, and finally we are done. Appearently it was hit.
After all this I come to find out from the mom that organized the event, that Mackenzie was the only ASB member willing to step up and tackle the tower. There is no way a kid could have built this tower on there own, or even as a group. Parent involvement was mandatory on this one.
Anyway we finish around 1:10, once I add a strand of X-mas lights to the structure, at the request of the "mom".
Upon leaving, Mr. Lewis thanks me for the help in putting things together. He did not realize the amount of time and involvement required to put something this large together. He also said, he would be doing something nice for me for my help. I am thinking - leave my kids grade alone... instead I got a Starbucks gift card.
Tuesday, June 06, 2006
Some people vex me
I had to write the principal at Mackenzie's school today, because I thought a teacher was being unreasonable. Here is my note:
Mr. Sieger,
I spoke to Mr. Lewis today regarding the fact that Mackenzie will be unable to attend the 8th grade dance as part of her requirements as a 7th grade ASB representative. Mr. Lewis informed me that he is lowering her scholastic grade from an A to an A- and her citizenship grade from an O to an S, simply because she will be unable to attend and assist with the dance.
Mackenzie currently play’s on a travel softball team (American Athletics 14U –
I asked Mackenzie to talk to Mr. Lewis regarding the situation and ask to be excused from attending dance, to which he replied that he would be lowering both of her grades. Lowering of the academic grade, I understand – I don’t agree, but I understand. I do not understand lowering her citizenship grade. Her not attending the dance has nothing to do with any of the pillars of character, by witch it was my understanding that citizenship is graded on. How is it possible that a student that has numerous Superintendent awards and citizenship awards can take a hit because she is not attending an after school event? Mackenzie has continually exhibited leadership qualities, gives whenever she can, and is by all accounts and excellent student.
Mackenzie had to weigh putting the needs of others who rely on her with putting the needs of others who do not rely on her. While she has made a commitment to ASB, she has made a bonding commitment to her team, a group of girls that she has been playing softball with since she was six and will continue to play softball with after 7th grade. The girls on her team, a number of them 8th graders, are missing their dance. They are not being penalized with a lower grade, but rather losing something more valuable, a memory.
I have to admire her decision making skills and moral judgment. If Mackenzie does not display the moral character we want to promote, then I am not sure what moral character is.
Mr. Lewis has placed Mackenzie in a no win situation. Because of this event, she is seriously considering not continuing with ASB next year. I think this would detriment to her, the school, and the student body.
I am writing you in hopes that you may be able to help persuade Mr. Lewis in reassessing his stance on this subject.
Sincerely,
Ken Nelson
Pacific Queen
Went fishing this weekend with a long time friend of mine, Todd. Yellowtail season has been on for a while and Albacore and Tuna are starting to heat up. So we decide to find a boat for a day & and half trip. That is where you leave at night, start fishing in the morning, head back that night, and wake up at the dock the next morning.
The only openings we could find were on the Pacific Queen out of Fisherman's Landing. Not a bad boat, but not a great boat either.
Our journey begins on Friday at around 3:00pm. I leave my house and head to Scripps Ranch to pick up Todd. Traffic SUCKS! It takes an hour and a half to get to Todd's. Fortunately the game is on, Angels game that is.
I pick up Todd, say "Hi" to Teresa and their three kids - she gets them all weekend. All three kids are under seven years old. I digress. We load up and head out. More traffic. For some reason we had to be at the dock an hour earlier that was originally scheduled, more on this later. To find a parking spot at Fisherman's Landing, you want to get there about the time the day boats are coming back, which of course we do.
We check in at the landing an decide to get something to eat. Some italian/pizza place near the landing. Food, ok, but over priced. Good beer, crappy service. Place sucked so bad I forget the name.
Finish dinner, pay the bill, and grab our gear. Head to the boat, find our bunk and wait. And wait, and wait, and wait. We find out that we are not heading as far south as we thought we were going to be heading (50 miles south instead of 100 miles south) so we don't have to leave early now. I finish listening to my game on XM Radio - Angels win! We finally leave the dock around 9:00 pm or pretty close to that.
I read some for school, have a beer, and try and get some sleep. The bunks where designed for pygmies. 6 feet long (maybe a little more) and my shoulder with apart. The boat is way tippy so trying to sleep and keep yourself in the bunk at the same time is tricky. Todd is screwed. At at 5 feet 18 inches (as he likes to refer to himself), the bunk is far from acceptable.
5:00 AM people are up. I get some coffeee, we are stuck in fog, pea soup fog. Not good. Fog makes it difficult to find the kelp patties that the fish like to congrgate around. We head out looking for sun, trolling along the way. We catch some fish, actually we catch quit a few -Yellowtail and Bonita.
We spend the morning trolling and stopping, catching fish. Now here is the problem. On the day & half boats, you get the yahoo's that don't know how to fish. They cast over you, don't move down the drift line following their bait, they don't get out of the way when you have a fish on...
But what really pissed me off, was the deck hands that could not gaf a fish. WTF? I caught 8 fish that day, I brought home 5. Three fish lost to miss gafs.
So the afternoon comes, the fishing slows, and I decide to take a nap. Every once in a while you hear "Fish On". One of the four troller's hooked a fish, turns out they were all bonita, we were looking for Yellowtail and Albacore.
Late afternoon arrives and I wake from my slumber, the best sleep I have had. We get into a couple of more bites, have a pretty good time. We are about 40-50 miles from home as the sun sets and our fishing day concludes.
Captain informs us that we can not go back to the dock early because the landing will not let them in. OK, that is complete B.S. we could have been back at 12:00am I could have been home at 2 and in my bed. Nope another night at the Crappy Bunk Inn.
Next morning, I get up, the deck hands are cleaning fish. I ask who won the jackpot (who got the biggest fish and gets my 10 dollars?) they do not know yet. I ask well, why are they cleanning fish if they do not have the jackpot fish figured out yet? Oh, they are going to weigh the fish when they get to the dock. ??? What??? Turns out someone screwed up, big. They only fish that got weighed were the fish that were not being cleaned. I had my fish cleaned, I got screwed.
So all in all good day fishing, but the Pacfic Queen had three strike outs.
The only openings we could find were on the Pacific Queen out of Fisherman's Landing. Not a bad boat, but not a great boat either.
Our journey begins on Friday at around 3:00pm. I leave my house and head to Scripps Ranch to pick up Todd. Traffic SUCKS! It takes an hour and a half to get to Todd's. Fortunately the game is on, Angels game that is.
I pick up Todd, say "Hi" to Teresa and their three kids - she gets them all weekend. All three kids are under seven years old. I digress. We load up and head out. More traffic. For some reason we had to be at the dock an hour earlier that was originally scheduled, more on this later. To find a parking spot at Fisherman's Landing, you want to get there about the time the day boats are coming back, which of course we do.
We check in at the landing an decide to get something to eat. Some italian/pizza place near the landing. Food, ok, but over priced. Good beer, crappy service. Place sucked so bad I forget the name.
Finish dinner, pay the bill, and grab our gear. Head to the boat, find our bunk and wait. And wait, and wait, and wait. We find out that we are not heading as far south as we thought we were going to be heading (50 miles south instead of 100 miles south) so we don't have to leave early now. I finish listening to my game on XM Radio - Angels win! We finally leave the dock around 9:00 pm or pretty close to that.
I read some for school, have a beer, and try and get some sleep. The bunks where designed for pygmies. 6 feet long (maybe a little more) and my shoulder with apart. The boat is way tippy so trying to sleep and keep yourself in the bunk at the same time is tricky. Todd is screwed. At at 5 feet 18 inches (as he likes to refer to himself), the bunk is far from acceptable.
5:00 AM people are up. I get some coffeee, we are stuck in fog, pea soup fog. Not good. Fog makes it difficult to find the kelp patties that the fish like to congrgate around. We head out looking for sun, trolling along the way. We catch some fish, actually we catch quit a few -Yellowtail and Bonita.
We spend the morning trolling and stopping, catching fish. Now here is the problem. On the day & half boats, you get the yahoo's that don't know how to fish. They cast over you, don't move down the drift line following their bait, they don't get out of the way when you have a fish on...
But what really pissed me off, was the deck hands that could not gaf a fish. WTF? I caught 8 fish that day, I brought home 5. Three fish lost to miss gafs.
So the afternoon comes, the fishing slows, and I decide to take a nap. Every once in a while you hear "Fish On". One of the four troller's hooked a fish, turns out they were all bonita, we were looking for Yellowtail and Albacore.
Late afternoon arrives and I wake from my slumber, the best sleep I have had. We get into a couple of more bites, have a pretty good time. We are about 40-50 miles from home as the sun sets and our fishing day concludes.
Captain informs us that we can not go back to the dock early because the landing will not let them in. OK, that is complete B.S. we could have been back at 12:00am I could have been home at 2 and in my bed. Nope another night at the Crappy Bunk Inn.
Next morning, I get up, the deck hands are cleaning fish. I ask who won the jackpot (who got the biggest fish and gets my 10 dollars?) they do not know yet. I ask well, why are they cleanning fish if they do not have the jackpot fish figured out yet? Oh, they are going to weigh the fish when they get to the dock. ??? What??? Turns out someone screwed up, big. They only fish that got weighed were the fish that were not being cleaned. I had my fish cleaned, I got screwed.
So all in all good day fishing, but the Pacfic Queen had three strike outs.
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
MacBook Pro vs MacBook
So I want a new computer! Go figure.
It is time, I have had my latest computer (Dell 600M) for over 2 years, that is a long time for me. I also have one of the original MacBook Pro Titanium's. Both nice computers, but a real pain if you need to carry both operating systems.
The only reason I keep the Dell around is for development purposes. Macromedia Flex only runs (currently) on Windows.
Since the new MacBook Pro is Intell based, and with the announcement from Apple of BootCamp, I now have the ability to run one computer. So now the deliema, MacBook or MacBook Pro? When looking at the website, I noticed a few minor issues.
So why would one care? The answer is, you won't, unless you are playing video games that are video instensive or more complex gaphics manipulation. Most people will be fine with a MacBook, I on the other hand will not. I want to be able to edit video's and digital pictures and play video games like WarCraft.
But note this, most applications built for Mac will run slower until they are rewritten for the new processor, such as Adobe products. However, you can run most of those products under Windows running on the Mac ~ which is what I plan on doing until the tools I need are written to take advantage of the Intel on the Mac.
It is time, I have had my latest computer (Dell 600M) for over 2 years, that is a long time for me. I also have one of the original MacBook Pro Titanium's. Both nice computers, but a real pain if you need to carry both operating systems.
The only reason I keep the Dell around is for development purposes. Macromedia Flex only runs (currently) on Windows.
Since the new MacBook Pro is Intell based, and with the announcement from Apple of BootCamp, I now have the ability to run one computer. So now the deliema, MacBook or MacBook Pro? When looking at the website, I noticed a few minor issues.
- MacBook has a smaller screen, not a big deal since I usually hook up to an external monitor
- MacBook is less expensive (that would be a plus)
- Same Processors available
- Same Hard-disks
- Same Memory
So why would one care? The answer is, you won't, unless you are playing video games that are video instensive or more complex gaphics manipulation. Most people will be fine with a MacBook, I on the other hand will not. I want to be able to edit video's and digital pictures and play video games like WarCraft.
But note this, most applications built for Mac will run slower until they are rewritten for the new processor, such as Adobe products. However, you can run most of those products under Windows running on the Mac ~ which is what I plan on doing until the tools I need are written to take advantage of the Intel on the Mac.
Friday, May 19, 2006
Mackenzie
So this is kinda cool. I took a picture of my daugther Mackenzie when we were at Dana Point.I uploaded the picture to www.costcophotocenter.com. From there you can edit the pictures, I put this nice border and coloring effect on it. I then ordered a print from my local Costco, and the picture was ready in about an hour.
They do enlargements as well. Pretty cool.
Going back to school
So, I have decided to got school - college. Hopefully this time I will actually stick with it, should be much easier now that I am not travelling as much as I used to. Major you ask? Marine Biology - after looking into what it takes to get a marine biology degree, I must have bumped my head. Don't get me wrong I LOVE the ocean. The last time I went to Spain I studied dolphins with Ana Canadas and crew aboard the Toftevaag, I had a great experience. One might say life changing experience.
So now I am going to get a degree in Marine Biology. Should only take me about 10 years to complete, seems as though every class is 5 units and requires a lab. I have to take a ton of Math as well, I thought I could get away with college statistics - nope, calculus.
What am I going to do with this degree I am pursuing? Probably nothing, but I figure if I am going to go through the process of getting a degree I may as well get it in a subject I enjoy. I have been a computer programmer for the last ... almost 20 years! Holy Crap! Good money! But I am soooo over it.
So now I am going to get a degree in Marine Biology. Should only take me about 10 years to complete, seems as though every class is 5 units and requires a lab. I have to take a ton of Math as well, I thought I could get away with college statistics - nope, calculus.
What am I going to do with this degree I am pursuing? Probably nothing, but I figure if I am going to go through the process of getting a degree I may as well get it in a subject I enjoy. I have been a computer programmer for the last ... almost 20 years! Holy Crap! Good money! But I am soooo over it.
Friday, February 17, 2006
Flex 2.0 is way cool
So I really like Flex 2.0, I mean I REALLY LIKE Flex 2.0. Even though the product is in beta, the new features are awesome. The ability to develop applications that use Hibernate as a data source is key for Java developers. Flex also supports JMS integration, allowing true push capabilities of your applications. So from a Java Deveopers perspective, this is really cool. We now have a real competitor for AJAX.
Flex can do many things that AJAX can not do, check out this sample application from Adobe. I admit, I am no AJAX expert, I am not even a novice. But from the samples that I have seen of AJAX applications, I really do not see AJAX doing the transitions and true Rich Internet Application features that you find with Flex.
The major PRO AJAX statements are interactivity and portablity. However one of the major CONS to AJAX is the fact that Javascript must be enabled, there by defeating the the whole portablity discussion.
Flex 2.0on the other hand does not require Javascript to run in the browser. The oxymoron to this is that the scripting language of Flex 2.0 is ActionScript which is now fully ECMAScript Compliant. Flex 2.0 applications run in the Flash Player. The Flash Player is supported on all major Operating Systems with all the major browsers on those OS's, including IE, Mozilla, FireFox, Safari, Opera, and AOL. Flash is no longer a tool for creating splash screens or building movie or game information sites. With Flex 2.0,
...more to come on this topic, I am sure.
Flex can do many things that AJAX can not do, check out this sample application from Adobe. I admit, I am no AJAX expert, I am not even a novice. But from the samples that I have seen of AJAX applications, I really do not see AJAX doing the transitions and true Rich Internet Application features that you find with Flex.
The major PRO AJAX statements are interactivity and portablity. However one of the major CONS to AJAX is the fact that Javascript must be enabled, there by defeating the the whole portablity discussion.
Flex 2.0on the other hand does not require Javascript to run in the browser. The oxymoron to this is that the scripting language of Flex 2.0 is ActionScript which is now fully ECMAScript Compliant. Flex 2.0 applications run in the Flash Player. The Flash Player is supported on all major Operating Systems with all the major browsers on those OS's, including IE, Mozilla, FireFox, Safari, Opera, and AOL. Flash is no longer a tool for creating splash screens or building movie or game information sites. With Flex 2.0,
...more to come on this topic, I am sure.
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