Category: Blog

Once a week looks like the norm now-that’s OK, a week is a good unit of time…

We went to Vegas over the weekend-stayed at the Alexis Park-it was pretty nice-off the strip, quiet except for the airplanes landing, nice rooms (but pretty generic), the management was very accommodating-think about it if you don’t want the bustle of the Strip casinos. It’s right across from the Hard Rock Las Vegas Hotel, so you can do the casino thing without taking a cab to the strip. I’ve fallen in love with the Hard Rock. It’s a really cool place. The casino is tiny, they play great music (Pink Floyd’s “One of These Days”, fer chrissake!), there’s a ton of memorabilia, the videos playing are cool-I really like it. We didn’t go in at night, though, so I have no idea how zoolike it gets. Erika said the pool is the hottest one on the strip right now…

So, here’s how the weekend went: we got to Long Beach airport, had lunch, waited for Tracy to pick up the kids. We get on the plane, it’s a bumpy ride, Erika was stressed over that. JetBlue is nice, with the little TV’s and the leather seats. We get there, get a bus (the taxi stand was SLAMMED-every taxi stand we went to this weekend was slammed…), get to the hotel, rest, and walk to the strip-MISTAKE-it’s a longish walk. We walked through the Aladdin’s mall, over to the Bellagio, tried to eat at Olives, no go, over to Caesar’s, walked through the mall, ate at Spago. We gambled a little, went back. Up the next morning early because the room faced east, got another room later facing west. Had room service breakfast, went over to the Hard Rock and Erika got a massage. I gambled at the center bar & had a few drinks. Erika got done, we went downtown because Erika had never been. Walked down the promenade, gambled a bit at Binion’s-they were setting up for a World Poker Tour event. Walked some more, stopped at a few more casinos, Erika got some souvenirs for friends, I got a nice cigar for after dinner. Went to Bellagio, ate at Olives-sat outside, which was cool-we could watch the fountains. Went back home, I took a nap and Erika had her feet done at the Hard Rock. Got ready for dinner, walked through Paris, ate an amazing meal at the Eiffel Tower. Walked to MGM Grand-another MISTAKE. It was a zoo there. We got some stuff for the kids and got a cab from the Tropicana-taxi stands were slammed. Got up, ate at the Hard Rock, got some more stuff, lost some more money. Went to the airport, looked around, waited, waited, WAITED, then flew back. Got the kids and went home. The kids loved their time away from us. They went to a carnival, we gave them each 10 bucks. They didn’t really miss us much at all-some at night, probably. They were well behaved, too.

Not much else happening-busy on the QC audit-17 pages now. Matt barfed at school today-he had been complaining of an upset stomach… The battery on my car died Sunday-replaced it & got an oil change.

Here I am again-another week passed-I’m still working on the QC audit, but making progress. I have 11 pages of changes… I’m done with the Tai Chi class, we watched The Last Samurai at work, and we’re going to Vegas tomorrow!

Woo Hoo! Erika is SO excited. The kids are too-they’re spending it with their Godmother and another pair of friends.

What else? I got an email from my parents about the ACLU protesting prayer in the military-turns out it’s a hoax. Rrrrr. The new product is good, but there may be competition already hitting the market for it. I was also thinking about trying to get a radio station to broadcast Air America here, but there’s already one in Riverside, so I’m scrapping that idea. It’s be cool to run a radio station, but a lot of work to get the $$$, FCC approval, etc., etc.

Not much going on here-working on the QC audit and that’s about it. More design details for the new product.

I read an interesting analysis by Stratfor this morning-check them out: http://www.stratfor.com. Basically it said that the US is running out of time get Iraq fixed, and that the level of blundering is amazing.

Well, it’s been almost a month since this last-so what else is new? If you look up the archives, that’s the norm for this. I get busy, work on other things, and the journal sits here. No biggie-I’m not like the fulltime guys anyways. My opinions don’t change much and there are better places to get news. I guess this is more for a peek into a “normal” life than anything else.

So, the journal sez: rebuilt my work computer, went to rents for Dad’s birthday, finally moved all our storage stuff to our local place, started then abandoned getting a new apt., Colin’s birthday, kiteflying at Seal Beach (I took some video). And the usual work, kids, church, etc. Woo hoo. Exciting life.

I guess the big thing right now is the abuse scandal. I think what burns me up most is the apologists who say that the prisoners deserved it. Really. And they’re the ones who want the people who do it to Americans executed. What a double standard that is. Kindness, compassion, the Geneva convention and the Golden Rule apply to EVERYONE, not just the ones on your side, guys.Since we live in Orange County, California, the most conservative county on the PLANET, having liberal bumper stickers is a mixed blessing. Two incidents in the past two weeks illustrate this. We were stopped at a light and a carful of white males between 18 and 25 gave us the finger. A few days later, a pickup came past us and the driver (another white male) shouted “Down with Kerry” (it’s always men, too). What’s next? Pulling people out of their cars and beating them up or shooting them or lynching them? These are disturbing trends. We have seen a few liberal bumperstickers, though. We always give them a thumbs up. Gotta stick together.

I’ve come up with a good idea for commercial software. It’s has to do with searching. Now I have to get the design and the UI down, figure out what to develop it in (I’m thinking open source all the way), develop it, QA it, write docs, figure out how to market and distribute it, find somebody who wants to pay for the marketing and distribution, and sell, sell, sell! It’s a good idea, and I need the money really bad. If you’re a venture capitalist, email me-I need a few million and that’s it. Product will probably take 6 months to develop. I won’t start burning through it until the development is done-the interest will be enough to keep me going until then. I need the money for advertising, production, trade shows, website. Everyone will want it.

It’s been several days since I posted this-I’m doing it at work so my time is a bit constrained…

As usual the weekend flew by-Friday I took the kids to school, Erika’s parents were here-their apt. was tented. Went to Tai Chi on Sat, took the kids to the Discovery Science Center & the mall. Matt got sick Sat. night, so I took him to the Dr’s while Erika went to church. We went to the local park in the afternoon-I tried to fly my Rev, but the wind was shifty. We went swimming last night while Erika went to a church meeting. Matt has diarrhea, and won’t take medicine of any stripe except suppository. Erika hates that…

I had a performance review today, and it was OK-I get another $1,000 a year-woo-hoo! I definitely got left out to dry-but Space Manager might get me back. I installed Oracle, DB/2, SQL Server, Sybase and mySQL on one of my servers this week-loads of fun-I still think mySQL is the way to go-the open source stuff works just as well as the commercial stuff, and it’s free! Anyways, I have to improve my code quality and do a UI “audit”, as well as the usual talk less, listen more and say I don’t know.

Erika lost 2 mentors last week. They had a bit of a email spat over an innocuous joke, and they’re willing to lose the relationship because of it. The priestess who married us also died last week, so Erika is feeling a bit lost right now.

What else-the occupation is going badly-no surprise there, we’re looking at houses again, the boys love swimming, and I have to go pee! Again, woo-hoo. I have some ideas that are bubbling around, and I need to update my essays, the diet and the rest-maybe I should stretch them into book length. I also need to start the music thing-I have ideas and feelings that need to be expressed, but no time for either writing or music. I wish I had a pile of cash like one of the execs here and take off on a sabbatical. Maybe I’ll win the lottery, too.

Page 23, sentence 5: Nothing of the sort actually happens.

Another day at the grind-well, not much of a grind…I’m feeling a bit left out to dry-I’m working on a program that is being superseded, and no one is telling what’s going on-so I keep working even though I know that all the work I’m doing may be tossed…oh well, the guy knows it and hasn’t given me anything else to do.

My wife has had a baaaad migraine the past day-she took drugs which turned her into Anna Nicole Smith but didn’t help the headache. She went to the Dr.’s today and got better meds which seemed to help.I took the kids to work and Colin didn’t want me to leave. They had one of those bounce things, so I think he settled in fine after I left. I had fun playing with the other kids in his class while I was trying to settle him in. I didn’t say a good goodbye to Matt, but I was able to when I had to put his nap blanket away. They’re both great-loving and kind. The teachers really like them.

We went swimming yesterday night-Erika got some arm floats and Matt is finally able to swim independently (after a fashion ;). Colin was good floating with help. We saw the planets that are out-they know them pretty well by now.

I’m obsessed by Foamy right now-I need to get that last movie that I don’t have-Elf Dreams-if you have it email me.

OK, on to larger topics. MySQL came out with a clustered version. This is good news-I can finally see a viable alternative to commercial software-Linux, Apache, jBoss, mySQL, Eclipse, OpenOffice, Mozilla.

Well, the hippest thing to do right now is “have a blog”. Ooooh. Ooooh, baby.Well, I’m the hippest of all-I’ve had one since ’96, dude. So there.

I guess the reason I’m starting it up again is because I have a bit more time on my hands than before. I alsohave a nice webserver on my desk to play around with and archive this stuff offline. I’m also feeling a little”bottled up”, and I liked being able to write down things.

So welcome to “Journal ’04”-woo hoo.So, what’s gone on the past 3 & some change years? Not a lot. Working at the same job, same 2 kids-they’re a little older, wife much the same too. I sold my place, but that’s in the bio. I don’t fly kites as much as I used to.

I’ll probably be talking about a few topics here. My life, computers, politics, and religion. I’m probably going to say things that will offend some of you, make others angry, and maybe even attract the attention of the FBI. Not like any of those things are difficult to do these days… With our country so polarized, and most of the rest of the world either really pissed at us, or trying to suck up to us to get more money, or just thinking we’re all a bunch of idiots led by the biggest idiot of all, it’s not so surprising.

In any case, I hope what I have to say isn’t as boring as a simple recitation of “here’s what I did yesterday”, “here’s some links to look at”, “here’s how much I hate the U.S. gov’t”-there’s lotsa places to go for that sort of stuff. I’ll try to post once a day, at least during the week.

First off-tax time-{sigh} This year I used a tax program to do them. It was really easy. I have one problem. It’s TOO easy. Like using an accountant, you don’t have to do much at all. I like the suffering better.

I really don’t like the whole tax thing, though. It’s SO biased against regular people, especially with all the stuff the GOP did. It was bad before, it’s worse now. And the corporate tax avoidance just STEAMS me! Aargh! I mean really, we could have a system where most everyone pays no tax, the large corps and the filthy rich pay it all, and the difference is handled by VAT. I’ve been thinking this one over for years, but the big multinationals will never let it go by, ever.

Next-Big Brother Dubya. This is a topic that could easily overwhelm this blog-I have so much to say. For today, all it’s going to be is this: Rove & Cheney should NEVER let him give press conferences… See Tom Tomorrow for more on this one, though I suppose everyone is on this topic today.

I took a bitty quiz on beliefnet.com called the belief-o-matic. It’s kinda fun-you answer a bunch of questions about what you believe and it tells you what religion you belong in. Mine was pretty accurate-the top ones were Buddhism, neo-pagan, and UU, which are exactly the three I’m active in…

It’s very tough to come up with something profound to say after Black Tuesday.I’m in a writer’s block anyways-can’t finish an article on Rev moves. That and the fact that we’re killing people in Afghanistan…Oh, well, everyone is going to jump on me for being a pacifist, but responding to killing with killing doesn’t make sense (to me at least).

So, what’s gone on in the past four months? Not a lot-busy working and taking care of children. Some kite flying, a visit to Berkeley, my parents a few times. Colin and Matt are both growing quickly.

Another month has passed, time to write again. Not much to say-taking care of children, working, flying kites.

Lessee, what did we do the month? Spent the 4th at home. Came in 3rd in the last kite competition-gearing up for Berkeley. Painted our toenails. Matt’s getting into Crash Bandicoot (he watches me play). Visited my parents’ house while they were in Pasadena

Went to doctor about my hip-seems I’ve got arthritis, but I’m going to various specialists-the rheumatologist is next-seems there are spots on the x-ray. Not getting any younger, I guess-my 40th birthday at the end of the month.

It’s June, I’ve been lax about writing-again, it comes down to too much going on. Quite a lot to write about, hard to know where to start…I guess the best place is with the big news, then to the smaller news, then to month by month.

Big news: I have another son! His name is Colin Alexander, and he’s much different that his big brother. He was born May 4th, 7 1/2#, 21″. He’s a bit fussier than Matt, but I think he’s just more sensitive-he doesn’t like it when we leave him. Babies are so elemental, though. Matt is taking the newcomer well, he’s really affectionate-this is both a good and bad thing… The birth was really, really bad-Erika almost died because she had a c-section and her uterine artery tore in recovery. She’s fine now-the scar healed quickly, but the Friday was very bad. On a bizarre note-I found out the our OB is the daughter of one of my high school teachers…

Other news: I placed first in both events at the last kite competition-my routine is almost flawless. We went to Australia in February/March for work. I got a raise and a promotion, too. Other than that the time has flown, working, flying kites, Erika taking care of kids, visiting parents & friends, the occasional dinner out…

Well, it’s almost the end of the year. Time just drifts along… The big news is that we’re finally done with the project and on to the next one. What else has happened in the past month? Erika’s in her 2nd trimester and feeling better. Matt’s growing fast and is quickly learning language. We bought a Saturn for me & a Toyota Sienna for Erika-that ate up 900 options and 20K of debt…Erika got her driver’s license and is motoring all around. Thanksgiving was nice, Johnny Reb’s cooked. I was sick for a few days. Erika’s pretty much done with Christmas shopping and the lights are up. We’re all tired of the election BS. We babysat Hannah last Sat., and I babysat her & Matt a few weeks ago. We put up new blinds last weekend and cleaned the place. Flew a few times. Went to Disneyland to scatter Ken’s ashes-I really, really hate that place. Been reading Alexander’s stuff a lot-it changes that way you look at things…Getting rid of the Well account-I don’t use it so much, so I switched to freehosting and hotmail. Now I need to update the site to reflect that…

I’m again writing this about every month. It seems like a fairly round number, and a decent time increment-not much happens in a day… We’re tired all the time-Erika’s pregnant and this time is a bit tougher, Matt’s up late nights sometimes & he’s getting a pair of molars. Work is going well-we’re on the last legs of a year and a half long project. Some guy hit my car last week, so I’m dealing with that.

Lessee: came 2nd & 4th in the last kite comp, got a vented & an indoor, a climber for the boy, Erika really wants a new car, went to a crappy Irish fair & a swap meet, went out to dinner without the boy, finished most of the filing, went shopping, to work, etc, etc.

It’s September.I’m tired. What’s news? Work. Boy. Wife. That’s about it. Actually, August was pretty busy-Erika did faire just her and the boy, but they came home sick, we did faire both in Santa Barbara & Long Beach, Erika’s mom had a surprise birthday, got invited to Nationals but declined because of a tight deadline, visited my parents, cleaned the house, my car, started on the office, I think we moved offices (could’ve been earlier), not much else. I’m beginning to move my stored office stuff back into the mainstream-no chance of why I put stuff there. I’m also thinking of selling some of my extra stuff-it’s just taking up space.

And here’s the biggie: ERIKA’S PREGNANT!!!! She’s due early May. I’m hoping for a girl-I don’t know if I have the energy for three if 2 of them are boys. Erika is thinking twins, sigh.

Well, it’s almost my 39th birthday. I’m not sure how I feel about it-I suppose it’s not that important, I have bigger issues to deal with-a wife and baby, among other things…I guess things go on no matter what, and I should keep that in mind-the world isn’t turning around me.

So, what’s new? Not much-the boy is growing-lots of words, he runs around getting into everything, he gets upset when denied something or you take something away from him, but he loves to play and have fun. We really enjoy him (and he us!) Erika is fine-her friend Ken died of cancer July 4th, and it’s been tough on her. Other than that, she stays at home, talks to her friends, takes care of the boy, visits her parents, etc. I’m busy working on the beta release of Space Manager. I try to get out & fly once a weekend-my routine is improving, but not to the point where I can win with it-maybe next year. The powerkite is what I’m really interested in-it’s a lot of fun to get pulled down the beach, and I’ll probably start on the water soon-I have a cheap skurfer I’ll use-next is a mountain board, a vented and an indoor Rev.

Let’s see if I can remember what we’ve done in the past 2 months: we visited Ken, he died, we went to the funeral, went to San Diego for a Borland convention, saw the Whoolies a few times, visited my parents a few times, lost miserably at the last comp, abandoned going to Berkeley, spent the 4th at Erika’s parents-until we got the news that Ken died, Erika changed the house around again, we switched insurance so we have a new doctor-I got a checkup-208 cholesterol-time to restrict those fats…I wracking my brain trying to remember what else happened-I guess that means not a lot…Buh bye.

June first, it is. Things are same ‘ol, same ‘ol-I’m at work, Erika’s at her parents’. Not much going on-boy was sick last weekend, visited my parents, went to big faire a few weeks ago, lost miserably in the last kite competition, got a new power kite, got some records I’ve been looking for, saw the Whooligans once. Busy working, the house is pretty clean, now I’ve got to clean my room, Erika is fine, if tired, the boy is fine. C’ya l8r!

Time marches on, with no hint of stopping or even slowing down. One can only hope. So, this past month we: started shopping for groceries online, I came in 2nd at the San Diego competition, visited my parents, went to Ojai faire. I also practiced a lot, worked, got sick, saw the Whooligans twice (St. Pat’s) and took care of the baby.

Not much else, the usual. The boy is growing-he walks rather well and is starting to run. He talks a lot and some real words are coming out. Erika’s doing fine-all of us got sick a few weeks ago, but that’s it. She’s changing the living room again.

March, already-time sure flies whether you’re having fun or not. Whatever. I’m busy working, and that’s about it-Erika and the boy are fine, he’s walking and actually saying partly intelligible words! He also gets mad if you take something away from him.

What’s up? Not a lot-we’re taking a UU class on parenting-Erika likes it a lot. Me, I’m OK with it… It’s been rainy, and when it’s not rainy it’s calm, so I’ve gotten in very little kite practice, except for 0 wind and traction. Haven’t done much-visited San Diego for a kite seminar, joined the local UU church, seen the Whooligans a few times. I can’t think of much else.

Mid-January, the world didn’t end. Not a big surprise to me. I wasn’t expecting disaster. We do have an updated earthquake kit now.

What’s happened? Not a lot-Christmas came & went, as did New Year’s. Spent Christmas with family-got a neat hard cover carrier for my kites. New Year’s was OK-we had to get up really early to get to Pasadena. The parade was OK. Since then, not much.

The boy is doing great, walking a bit and chattering all the time. Erika is fine, too, if a bit tired. I had a sore throat the past couple of days.

Got my music for the new routine all done-am just getting to work on it. Also got some practice with my stack. That’s it…

The year, century, and millenium are almost over (at least in the popular imagination)-I suppose I should write something profound about epochal changes and how the world has changed so much and what we still need to do but instead I’m going to say nothing. Because the difference between December 31st, 1999 and January 1st, 2000 doesn’t exist. Change happens much more slowly than in a day, especially with culture.

So, what’s happened since October? Not a lot, Mathias is growing quickly-he vocalizes a lot now, is fully crawling and starting to walk. Erika is fine, she gets tired taking care of Mathias, though. One of her friends has cancer, and that takes a lot out of her too. I’m fine-busy working and that’s about it.

Events? Not much, Halloween was uneventful. Went to Carlsbad for the company holiday party. Bought a new Rev 1.5. Started planning to make a NASA Parawing 5. Getting ready for Christmas & New Year’s-tree & lights are up, cards are sent, presents are bought. We’re going to Merlin’s for New Year’s eve & Pasadena for the parade.

Well, it’s almost mid-October. I’m getting so I write this about once a month, which isn’t bad, but isn’t really good either. Whatever…

So, what’s been up, you ask-as if anyone reads this…that’s prolly why I haven’t been writing this-it’s just a waste of time. Anyways, here goes-working, taking care of baby. Moved the office end of September. I’m pretty settled in now and back to work-it’s a nice place, if sterile. Came in 3rd at San Diego in both precision and ballet, which is good considering I’ve never flown precision and the ballet routine was an Experienced one. Got my car fixed-Ford dealership tried to rip me off-the problem was a torn hose & they wanted $750 in injector repairs… Never going back THERE. Retrieved my parents from the airport-they had a good trip. The boy is crawling now. He can pull himself up to standing now, too-it won’t be long until he’s walking. Went to the Festival of Sacred Music when we got back-we got there late, so I missed Sekar Jaya and the Tibetans-I’m bummed. I’m not sure what I’m going to do about gamelan this year-it’s SO far to drive.

And now the big news-went to AKA Nationals last week to compete, and…I’M NATIONAL CHAMPION!!!!!!!! It’s only in the experienced class, so I’m just the best of the “pretty good”-it’s not like I’m the Masters champion…But the trip was good-the boy was great on the plane. It rained Friday and Saturday, but Thursday was great-sunny and good winds. I flew great-Ron Despojado, Tom Stoner, Steve LaPorte and Allan Stroh all said so. Allan has a video, too, so I’ll get a copy of the performance. I’d like to get in touch with Tori Amos & let her know that I used her music… California fliers did well-3 firsts, 4 seconds, and 7 thirds. Ron Despojado came in 3rd in Masters-a surprise, Ron beat Steve LaPorte for freestyle, also sort of a surprise. It was a good trip.

Not much else to say-time to start work on a new routine. And get back to work…