Throwing The Bar

School has officially started!

2009-08-13T09:44:00.000-05:00

Here are my two handsome offspring heading to their first day of school this morning.

If you shoot enough times, they'll group

2009-05-03T10:29:00.001-05:00

Mad World

2009-04-08T08:08:00.001-05:00

I watched Adam's performance on AI last night and had a feeling that I'd heard that version of Mad World before. Tara told me it was a Tears for Fears song but when I found their version on YouTube it was not the same. I followed some of the related links on YouTube and found the version Adam sang. I've never heard of Gary Jules but I do know where I became familiar with his version of Mad World:

Gears of War Commercial

And it keeps on dropping…but for how long?

2008-12-08T16:59:00.001-06:00

I took this picture this afternoon.

We’ve never lost a fireside…

2008-12-05T17:21:00.001-06:00

I found this rather funny.

Trying out Live Writer and cheap(er) gas

2008-12-02T14:15:00.001-06:00

So I downloaded Windows Live Writer and I’m trying it out to see how it works with blogger. I guess I could post about gas prices. It seems to be a hot topic. I filled up for $1.49/gallon yesterday. The proof is in the picture. It’s since dropped to $1.45/gallon. It always happens that way. I kept putting off filling up the tank knowing that as soon as I did the price would drop. Oh well. I wonder how long these 2005 prices will last. What do you think?

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog

2008-08-05T09:30:00.006-05:00

For those of you who haven't seen it. It's worth sitting through.

Say UNCLE!

2008-07-18T09:04:00.003-05:00

I'm an uncle again. Tony (my brother) and Elena had their second baby yesterday. I think the baby looks like Tony.

Here are some pictures.

Personal Space

2008-06-10T22:27:00.003-05:00

Everyone's personal space is a little different don't you think? A lot of it has to do with culture, but at some point it comes down to what each individual is comfortable with. Some people need a few feet around them, others don't break a sweat when people encroach their space to less than a foot. Yet some, like these guys, take it to the extreme.

Does $50 = $55.71? Only in the world of FAIL!

2008-06-09T07:31:00.002-05:00

Uh, what? Someone hasn't figured out the math yet. Maybe Target dollars are worth more.

Desde la patria

2008-06-07T16:19:00.002-05:00

Mi amigo Mac visito a mi patria nativa hace un mes. Hoy nos llego la tarjeta postal que nos mando el 7 de Mayo desde Merida, Yucatan. Ha de ser un nuevo record. Solo se tardo un mes (31 dias en este caso) en llegar. Que bueno que no me mando algo con fecha de caducidad. :)

Mac, gracias por la tarjeta.

10K = 6.2 miles

2008-06-07T16:12:00.003-05:00

Tara ran the 10K this morning. Check out her musings about the race here.

Mowing the lawn

2008-06-07T15:56:00.002-05:00

Uh...I have a lawn I have to mow. Do you? It's rained often this spring and the lawn has been growing like crazy. I also have neighbors that seem to enjoy mowing their lawns. They do it way too often in my opinion. That makes it so I have to mow mine more often than I would like lest they start thinking about reporting me to the HOA.

Anyway, today's mow wasn't too bad as far as grass clipped goes. I only collected 1 1/2 bags of grass. A couple of weeks ago I had 5. However, this mow did drain what little energy I have to being with due to the humidity. I was sweating so bad that I looked like I had jumped in a pool, and that was just trying to start the mower.

So I took a nap. Did you have a nap today?

New office furniture

2008-06-06T15:11:00.003-05:00

I didn't want to go back to the dungeon, so I decided I'd need to get some desks for the current office, formerly known as the dining room. I found a great deal on some decent looking office furniture. Here are some pictures.

The Credenza

The Desk

The lateral file

Odds are this is the only time the tops of each will be this clean. In a few weeks I'm sure my paper sprawl will have overtaken the tops.

An old favorite.

2008-06-05T21:12:00.000-05:00

Fox Spotting

2008-06-05T07:56:00.002-05:00

Mr. Fox was just spotted in the back yard. When he realized he was being watched, he decided to show off a bit. He got a bit of a run and jumped right over the fence. Show off!

I wonder if I can do that...

All you social bugs...here's what not to do.

2008-06-05T07:40:00.003-05:00

Are you on facebook? Yelp? Were you lazy enough in your quest for friends that you let the site find them for you by scanning your email address book? I hope not. Here's an excellent explanation of why you shouldn't allow this. Please read http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001128.html. If you haven't allowed it, good for you! If you have...please change your password and security questions.

That is all.

Turtle Time

2008-06-03T10:25:00.004-05:00

Big J and I went on a bike ride early this morning. There is a nice paved bike trail at the edge of the neighborhood that goes on for miles. Today's ride was probably 8 miles round trip. On the way back we saw a couple of turtles along the trail. Big J decided to pose with them. The first one was HUGE! I spotted it walking along the trail and we were still about 40 yards away riding towards it. I wasn't sure what it was at first until we got closer, but as you can see from the picture, it's a big one. The thing is so big you'd think it was a lawn ornament.

The second turtle we saw was close to where we were going to get off the trail. This one was a more normal size turtle. It was standing in the middle of the trail taking in some sun. The turtle decided to hide in its shell when it saw me stop next to it. Big J rode right by it and didn't see it. I had to call him back. This time he decided to pick it up and pose with it since it was a smaller turtle. That's the front of the turtle. He's a shy guy is all.

The bike ride was fun. The trail was a bit wet in areas and Big J managed to wipe out three times. Luckily he wasn't going too fast either of those times and didn't get hurt. The third wipeout did look bad but he turned out to be ok. He misjudged a turn and went off the paved trail edge causing his bike to slip from under him and slam him onto the trail. He made up for the wipeout by riding through the puddles as fast as he could. He came home with a muddy stripe along the back of his shirt.

Window 2, Burglars 0

2008-05-28T10:14:00.000-05:00

Weezer, full of awesome

2008-05-23T15:32:00.002-05:00

Pork and Beans

The Barry Gibb Talk Show

2008-05-14T06:55:00.002-05:00

A great SNL clip from not too long ago.

Señor Electricidad

2008-04-30T19:00:00.003-05:00

Little Man got himself on the trampoline and promptly built up quite the static charge.

Welcome to JC's Wild Kingdom

2008-04-22T07:42:00.004-05:00

A few weeks ago I migrated from the basement and have been working by a bay window that looks into the backyard. From my vantage point I've seen a lot of different animals in the back yard. Squirrels, chipmunks, rabbits, cardinals, blue jays, and a bunch of other birds I can't name. At night, the more interesting characters come out to play. A large prehensile-tailed marsupial, aka opossum, sets off the flood lights in the back yard. A few others that do this are a racoon and an assortment of neighborhood cats. There is also a skunk that makes the rounds, but I haven't seen it in a while.

One of our favorite visitors I hadn't seen this spring is the neighborhood fox. This morning, just a little bit ago, it made an appearance in our back yard. The fox trotted back and forth a few times along the back fence line, looked at me, taunted me, then squeezed under the fence and ran off across the neighbor's yard. I've also seen the fox jump OVER the privacy fence. I managed to snap a picture of it before it took off, but since it is so early, there isn't much good light outside and the shutter speed was less than optimal. With the fox roaming around, maybe the rabbits will keep their distance. One can only hope.

For Jake

2008-04-11T15:09:00.001-05:00

This one's for you buddy!

I'll tell you where you're NOT!

2008-04-10T11:47:00.008-05:00

Click the image for full size

Taking on the Issues

2008-03-16T20:37:00.001-05:00

Here they are again, for your viewing enjoyment. This one is where they tackle the issues.

This Dude Abides

2008-02-27T08:38:00.006-06:00

Heck yeah we watch American Idol. What else is there to do with a DVR? This was a very good performance last night.

You're my wonderwall

2008-02-26T10:20:00.003-06:00

Behold the raw power of Wonderwall.

Jake the Cougar Fan

2008-02-07T12:35:00.000-06:00

My friend Jake has arrived in France for a 6 month tour of duty for his employer. He is also the biggest University of Utah fan I know. He sent a few pictures with some Parisian landmarks in the background. I took the liberty to color correct one of them. What do you think?

Original Version:

Improved Version:

Best Version:

Round 2 Highlights: Worst (living on a prayer) and Best (I am your brother)

2008-01-17T08:40:00.000-06:00

This guy wouldn't leave.

This guy has a man-crush on Simon.

Let My People Go!!!

2008-01-16T08:53:00.001-06:00

If you missed the American Idol premiere last night (which I did) here is all you need to know:

There will be more tonight (which I won't miss).

Rockin' Football

2008-01-08T08:52:00.000-06:00

I had a few peeps over last night to watch the LSU-OSU game. At half time we put on Rock Band and ended up forgetting about the game until only a few minutes were left. We had predicted LSU would win and were correct. We were hoping for a 45-10 score, but we'll take 38-24, 14 of the 24 coming in garbage time.

Anyway, here's a bit of the Rock Band action. This is a fun game!

Closing out the year with Flight of the Conchords

2007-12-31T22:54:00.000-06:00

Watch without children. Enjoy!

Spinal Tap - The Lego Version

2007-12-10T14:37:00.000-06:00

Um....what?

2007-11-26T17:46:00.000-06:00

Have $23,111 per month for a mortgage payment?

2007-11-25T10:06:00.000-06:00

If you have $23,111 per month for a mortgage payment, you could purchase Michael Vick's house. If you don't, you can still take the virtual tour.

http://homes.realtor.com/realestate/duluth-ga-30097-1090758512/

Get your Mohawk on!

2007-11-20T15:19:00.000-06:00

"With Honor"

2007-11-20T11:32:00.000-06:00

I was flipping channels last night and happened to see this on the BYU channel. I liked it.

http://bronco.byu.edu/

10 Grains at a time

2007-11-13T14:43:00.001-06:00

You are reading this, so you must waste time online. Instead of wasting that time, you could use it to feed the hungry. How? By playing a game that increases your vocabulary? Wha!

Check out FreeRice and start feeding the hungry. You'll also be rewarded with better vocabulary, good looks and an invincibility belt.

Halo - The Future of Gaming

2007-11-12T15:17:00.000-06:00

A piece of history

2007-11-12T14:12:00.000-06:00

I was at the Microsoft campus in Redmond, WA all of last week attending a geek's summit. Lining the walls of their conference center was an eclectic art collection. At one point I saw a group of people taking a guided tour of this art. I guess it's pretty cool art.

Not having time for the guided tour, I toured on my own during breaks. Near a corner on a wall there was a plaque stating, and I paraphrase, that "this piece of the Berlin Wall was given to Bill Gates as a gift by ..." I thought, cool, a piece of history. The only problem was I didn't see any "piece" of the wall anywhere near that plaque. There was an LCD monitor showing historical pictures of the wall, etc., but no piece on the wall. I figured someone must have made off with the chunk of concrete that had probably been on display on the wall next to the plaque.

After looking at this plaque and the LCD screen for a minute, and a bit disappointed I had missed the piece of history, I moved on to the next piece of art. It was a tall piece celebrating some graffiti artist or something. That's a picture of it on the left.

When I backed up a bit to get a more complete view of it, I realized what it really was.

I guess a "chunk" means something more like "an entire segment" when you're Bill Gates. Pretty cool to have an entire segment of the Berlin Wall sitting there in a hallway. A piece of history indeed.

The One Semester of Spanish Spanish Love Song

2007-09-28T11:16:00.001-05:00

A fond farewell

2007-08-23T10:02:00.001-05:00

This commercial made me laugh. It is very accurate in its descriptions. :)

Oh, the drama!

2007-06-21T11:24:00.000-05:00

Short Paintball Match

2007-06-17T09:55:00.001-05:00

We went paintballing again yesterday. We were out playing for about 3 1/2 hrs. This was the shortest match by far. I'm the crazy guy in this.

Etch-A-Sketch Man

2007-06-15T16:13:00.001-05:00

Wow!

2007-06-15T00:58:00.001-05:00

Paintball video

2007-06-09T01:28:00.000-05:00

Here's the video of our first paintball outing.

First Take on White and Nerdy

2007-06-08T10:15:00.003-05:00

I found this "first take" video of Weird Al and Donny Osmod for White and Nerdy.

Pure Genius

2007-06-04T10:27:00.001-05:00

This video makes me laugh every time. Having Donny Osmond as his White and Nerdy backup is genius.

Pain-tball update

2007-06-02T15:44:00.000-05:00

OUCH!

Pain-tball

2007-05-29T17:29:00.000-05:00

I went paintballing for the second time ever yesterday. It was a lot of fun and I got my pants dirty. No, not that kind of dirty. Just regular grass and paint stains on the knees. We played outdoors in a grass field with a speedball configuration. I got shot a few times but the paintballs didn't break so I was able to stay in the games. I did manage to shoot myself in the facemask once. It takes mad skills to do that and I don't recommend you try it. I took out a few of the other players with some lucky shots and spent a lot of time just hiding behind some of the bunkers (hence the knee stains). I enjoyed it a lot and hope to go more often than once every 14 years. In case you are wondering, I am smiling.

Jaxon's Scooter Skills

2007-05-29T17:27:00.001-05:00

Wanting to be featured on the web, Jaxon shows off his scooter skills.

Impressive, I know.

Jayden doing a flip

2007-05-29T10:39:00.000-05:00

Jayden learned how to land a flip on the trampoline a few weeks ago. Here he is:

Ta da!!!

Mason's Displeasure

2007-05-18T13:30:00.000-05:00

The dangers of home...

2007-04-27T13:47:00.000-05:00

My body is older than my age. Like Indiana Jones said, it's not the years, it's the mileage. Unfortunately for me, I'm not getting any good mileage on my body and I don't have a cool hat like him. Some of the recent bad mileage is as follows:

Yesterday I heroically sprained my left ankle while doing the dangerous task of carrying our baby to the van. No, not through some pot-hole riddled parking lot but rather in our garage. There just so happens to be a one inch lip at the end of the garage (to keep water out I guess) and I stepped on that and pop went the ankle. Heroically? Well, I didn't drop the baby!

Three weeks ago I hurt my right knee. How you say? Playing football? Basketball? Jumping over a fence? Nope. I gracefully slipped on my living room floor and smashed my knee into the edging between the laminate floor and the carpet. Big ouch. My knee was very sore for a week but has been upgrade to mostly sore since. My knee-cap is still tender but I'm hoping it will be fine w/ more time. I hope there wasn't any permanent damage to the knee though it is still uncomfortable to kneel on that side.

I must add that it was a smooth move. I caught some serious air and Tara thought I was faking the fall because the thud of me landing was way too loud to be real. I had been playing with Big J and was keeping an unopened bag of Doritos away from him. When I fell, he happily let me lay there in my agony while triumphantly snatching the Dorito bag from me and claiming victory.

I'm not paranoid, but I think this house is out to get me.

Less is more...

2007-04-05T10:51:00.000-05:00

Center Mass

2007-02-06T21:05:00.000-06:00

I went to the shooting range today. I did better than expected. All shots were on the target, most were in the torso area. I even hit the center X a few times. Here's the target one of my friends used. He shot 11 rounds at this target and did not miss. You do the math.

Proper use of earmuffs

2006-12-14T13:51:00.000-06:00

Here you go. If you ever wondered how to properly use earmuffs, wonder no more.

60 Minutes for all demographics.

2006-10-27T22:58:00.000-05:00

I'm the dude...

http://sixtymins.ytmnd.com/

This is halloween, halloween, halloween.

2006-10-27T22:54:00.000-05:00

Have a spooky halloween!

Vote for me!!!

2006-10-27T22:49:00.000-05:00

You scored as Pedro Sanchez.

Pedro Sanchez

75%

Napoleon Dynamite

42%

Deb

33%

Uncle Rico

17%

Lafawnduh

17%

Kip

Which Napoleon Dynamite character are you?!?
created with QuizFarm.com

3.0 is here

2006-10-05T22:30:00.000-05:00

3.0 is here. A wee little one. Lots of hair.
Email me if you want the details. :)

JC

Geocaching

2006-09-21T22:54:00.000-05:00

The kids and I have gone Geocaching a few times. Lots of fun. I bought a used Garmin Etrex Legend C about a month ago and it's worked very well. It gets us to within feet of the caches.

It's a fun outdoor activity and weather permitting it can be done year round. The kids really enjoy getting out and searching for the caches. I think they just really like to play w/ the GPS receiver. It's fun to find caches in places that you might have walked/driven by hundreds of times.

Anyway, just thought I'd mention it. You might want to give it a whirl. Use the geocaching site and see what caches are in your area.

Aun mas weedeeos

2006-09-16T17:30:00.000-05:00

Everyone needs a little canon

2006-09-11T22:37:00.000-05:00

Here, have some. Get your canon here.

Kids are in school

2006-09-09T10:54:00.000-05:00

Both our kids are now in school. One in PK and the other in K. So it's not "real" school yet for both, but it's getting there. Time sure has gone by fast. Before we know it, they'll be writing term papers and going to prom. I hope we as their parents and the school system teach them how to write better analogies than these.

Super Mario Music

2006-09-04T22:38:00.000-05:00

The secret is finally out. This is where the Mario music comes from. No, not really.

Do google's work for them.

2006-09-04T08:35:00.000-05:00

Ever wondered what it's like to work for google? Me either. However, they can't take over the world without your help. Really! They need your help. So to my two readers, I present you with this cool little game that allows you to label images for google. The catch is that someone else is labelling the exact same image at the exact same time and your labels need to match in order to get points. I present to you, Google Image Labeler. Go crazy.

http://images.google.com/imagelabeler/

Why the Daily Show is a must see.

2006-08-31T01:08:00.000-05:00

Take 'em out

2006-08-21T20:24:00.000-05:00

I have an xbox. I have Halo 2. Jayden has played it a couple of times. Today I was reading on Wired magazine about a kid who is 5 and is a professional Halo player. Well, Jayden heard me telling Tara so he got to talking about Halo.

A little later, Tara tells me about the how the conversation went:

Jayden describes many different types of weapons on Halo and their pros/cons etc.
Tara: Jayden, I don't like you talking about that game.
Jayden: Why not?
Tara: Because it's about killing.
Jayden: Would it make you feel better if I said "take 'em out" instead?

That makes perfect sense to me. How about you?

What's behind curtain #3?

2006-06-13T22:34:00.000-05:00

What's behind curtain #3? A Boy! The little guy, or 3.0 as I like to call him, will be arriving in a few months. I waited until we had some screen captures of the ultrasound to post. Tara went to the doctor's office again this morning to get a second ultrasound since the first one resulted in a bad disk and no pictures.

Some might wonder if we have a name picked out yet. Well, no, we don't have a name. You may suggest some if you like.

Yeah, he's confident like that. Or maybe just lost.

2006-06-13T00:51:00.000-05:00

This story is about Jayden.

The four of us got to church on Sunday right at 11:00. After finding a parking spot we made our way into the building. On the way in the kids decided they were thirsty. It must have been the exodus across the parking lot that made them so. Jaxon must have gotten too much sun on the way in because he starting having a little tantrum. I decided to go on and find us a place to sit in the chapel while Tara took the kids to get their drink on.

10 minutes later...I'm sitting solo...

15 minutes...still solo...

20 minutes later, Tara and Jaxon finally show up. Before I can ask her, she asks me, "Where's Jayden?"

Me: Uh...(I have a confused look at this point)...uh...He was with you.
Tara: He got a drink and I told him to come sit by you.
Me: He never showed up. Maybe you should go look for him.

Five minutes go by...I decide to join the hunt for Jayden with Jaxon in tow.

I go down the hallways. No Jayden. Check the bathrooms. No Jayden. Find Tara. No Jayden. Hm...where's Jayden? I have an idea. I start looking in the other ward's primary rooms. No Jayden.

Just then, a member of the other ward that meets from 9-12 (so we overlap an hour) sees us and asks if we're looking for Jayden. Hm...I think I know where this is going.

Me: We are.
Lady: Oh, he's in a class.
Me: Can you take us to him?
Lady: Sure, he's right over here in this classroom.

Tara and Me: Why are we not surprised?

We get to the classroom where Jayden's been the last 30 or so minutes and retrieve him to come join us in the chapel. He told us he was making new friends. The lady said she had seen Jayden walking in the hallway and he said he was supposed to be in primary.

We couldn't help but laugh at Jayden and his comfort in going into another ward's primary class and staying there for a good 25-30 minutes. We figure he's confident. Or maybe just lost.

The Good, The Bad and The Nacho

2006-06-12T01:49:00.000-05:00

Help Nacho do good!

If you think you have what it takes then click here!

Can't touch this

2006-05-04T15:29:00.000-05:00

Behold, the evolution of dance!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMH0bHeiRNg

Not a condiment

2006-04-28T13:27:00.000-05:00

Sketchup is not a condiment. It is a cool little tool from a company google purchased. It's free. And what it does is let you easily draw 3D objects. Check it out.

http://sketchup.google.com

Easter Egg

2006-04-27T20:31:00.000-05:00

Do you know what an Easter Egg is? No, not the kind that come from bunnies. I mean those hidden artifacts in software, movies, etc. Well, here's one in a movie trailer. Check it out.

Apocalypto

When it gets to the screaming monkey part, pause the video then use your back arrow to move back frame by frame and find it.

Ask a ninja...if you dare

2006-04-25T22:48:00.000-05:00

Everything you ever wanted to know about ninjas, and then some. Go ahead, ask a ninja. Then you can view the rest at askaninja.com. (I haven't seen them all so proceed at your own risk).

What did you do this weekend?

2006-04-24T22:08:00.000-05:00

Here's what I did. A fast internet connection is recommended. I've put it on youtube.com so you should be able to view it on Mac or Windows.

Tannerite and the death of a stump

In case you're wondering what Tannerite is you can find some info at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tannerite

And just so you know we're not the crazy ones, here's this video by some people I don't know but are acquainted with tannerite as well. Somewhere, a child weeps.

Cut finger

2006-04-24T20:09:00.000-05:00

Jaxon's finger has a cut. Can you guess which one?

Monthly Man

2006-04-23T21:02:00.000-05:00

Getting rid of personal responsibility at an early age.

2006-04-21T21:22:00.000-05:00

Personal responsibility must be done away with as early as possible. Wouldn't you agree?

In case you can't read it...the shirts say "it's my brother's fault."

Mas weedeeo

2006-04-18T22:43:00.000-05:00

I like trailer #2.

You might too.

http://www2.warnerbros.com/happyfeet/

May I present to you...the one and only...NACHOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooo...........
http://www.apple.com/trailers/paramount/nacholibre/

Life Lessons...'tis better to learn from other's mistakes

2006-04-18T19:30:00.000-05:00

I watch TV on my computer because I can. :) Lately I've noticed some new commercials on TLC (the learning channel) called Life Lessons. So check them out.

tlclifelessons.com

Be vewee vewee qwiet

2006-04-04T18:11:00.000-05:00

Today we kept telling our kids to go play outside. The weather was very nice and they hadn't been outdoors for a few days. They went outside for a few minutes then decided it was boring and came back inside. In trying to get them to go back outside I started suggesting things they could do so it wouldn't be so boring out in the wilderness that is our backyard. Nothing interested them until I suggested they build a rabbit trap.

After carefully designing a trap using purple marker and scraping together some building materials, the kids produced the following wabbit trap:
The trap consists of a White Cloud Value Pack diaper box filled with baby carrots. From the trap's designer himself: "The ribbons are so the rabbits can make it tip over on them. The line of carrots outside the box are so the rabbits can follow them and find the string and make it tip over. After they eat all the carrots the rabbit will get fat enough that he won't be able to escape the box. And that's it." Well, there you have it folks, a homemade wabbit trap.

Below you'll see how well this went. You can click on the pictures to see a larger image.

First, the trap was set.

With the trap set, it was time to hide...

And wait for the wabbit to fall in the trap. Maybe our unwanted guest will take the rabbits out first. Only time, and carrots, will tell.

Unwanted Guest

2006-04-03T12:48:00.000-05:00

We have an unwanted guest. No, it's not a relative. We struggle to get those to come be guests. :) We're out of everyone's way here in the middle of nowhere USA.

Our unwanted guest is of the canine type. Check it out. I took these pictures this morning in our back yard. My camera's zoom leaves something to be desired but I think you'll be able to spot the guest. And yes, it can jump the fence.

Another cool weedeeo

2006-03-26T18:38:00.000-06:00

I surely don't want it that way, but these guys do.

Cool Weedeeos

2006-03-25T10:43:00.000-06:00

Make sure you have sound.

Honda Ad

Juggler

Da Plane! Da Plane!

2006-03-23T19:36:00.000-06:00

Ever since I was a little kid I've wanted a remote control airplane. This past summer I got one. I bought a nice six channel Futaba Radio and decided to start out with an electric airplane. I purchased a slow stick. It's a 3 channel airplane. That means that one channel is for speed, one is for rudder, and one for elevator. It wasn't too difficult to learn to fly it although I have crashed it several times and probably snapped half a dozen props. They are easy to replace and are less than $2 each.

I chose electric because 1) it was cheaper and cleaner and quieter than gas and 2) when (not if) I crash it, no big deal. It's so light that it usually isn't damaged and if it is, I can repair it, and 3) I can fly it anywhere, anytime. You can fly most electric airplanes anywhere there's enough room. I usually go to an open field at the edge of my neighborhood to fly.

I haven't flown for a while because the weather has been either too cold or too windy. Usually both. I did try to fly when it was borderline too windy and had an awesome crash. My plane flew for about 4 seconds until the wind slapped it right back into the pavement. That did some good damage and took some fixing.

Now that spring is here I'll be getting back into the flying and maybe get a new airplane, something like a Piper Cub or maybe even a Sportster. We'll see what happens.

Hindsight

2006-03-22T16:24:00.000-06:00

Hindsight can be an eye opener to say the least. Check these out:

http://www.bvp.com/port/anti.asp

My Flux Capacitor

2006-03-21T22:27:00.000-06:00

My PC is four years old now. I built it from scratch back in March 2002. I got the parts that gave the most bang for the buck back then and have upgraded things as needed. This is just a chronology of my PC's parts changes.

Started with 512 MB ram. Currently holds 1 GB.

Started with a 60 GB Hard Drive. I have 2 hard drives with a combined 420+ GB now (The original hard drive died a slow death which was great because I was able to replace it before losing any data. I'll probably take it with me next time I go shooting and put some holes in it, you know, so my data is safe.)

Started with a 64 MB ATI Radeon 8500 video card. I sold it a few months later and replaced with it with an 128 MB ATI Radeon 8500 All-in-wonder so I could have TV on my pc. I love TV on my PC.

I have the original MOBO and CPU (AMD Athlon 1700+ XP) though I did replace the heatsink & fan on the CPU a few months ago. The fan died suddenly. Lucky for me my motherboard had a sensor and immediately shut down the machine.

I've upgraded to a wireless mouse but not the keyboard. The wireless keyboard I want is too pricey and overkill since keyboards don't have to move. I've also added a FireWire/USB 2.0 combo card.

I had an extra montior when I built it so I used it instead of getting a new one. A year later I bought a Sony 19" Monitor that only lasted about 2 yrs. So I went back to using my crappy old monitor for about 6 months until things got blurry and I bought a 19" LCD. I like my LCD. I hope it lasts. My eyes love me for it.

I started with 4.1 altec lansing speakers. I never did use 2 out of the 4 spears in 4.1, but since they had been only $22 I didn't care. The subwoofer died a slow death as well. I replaced them about a month ago. I now have some nice sounding Logitec 2.1 speakers. Muy nice.

The part I hated about my computer was the case. I didn't know much about cases and such when I built it and so I bought one I thought would be fine. It sounded like a jet engine. And it got worse over the years. I finally had enough right after Christmas and bought a new case for my PC. I got a Antec Lifestyle Sonata II case. It rocks and is SO QUIET. I transplanted my PC's entrails from the old case to the new case and the difference was night and day. Tara asked me what the new noise coming from the PC was. It turned out to be the muted noise hard drives make when reading/writing. She'd never heard that noise coming from my PC before. I also realized that my xbox (I have it hooked up to my All-in-wonder) has a fan I can hear.

So all was bliss for a few months. Then I started getting some fan noise again. GRRRRRRRRRRRRR. I tracked it down to the video card's fan. I took it out, blew some compressed air in there, added some graphite lubricant, etc. Sometimes it's noisy, mostly it's very noisy. So I took the fan off the video card, found the manufacturer info on it and found one place online that supplies such fan. Since I don't need a new video card I decided to just get the fan. It arrived yesterday. I will install the fan this week and see if my computer is silent once again.

I was thinking about the changes I've made to my PC. You wouldn't recognize it as the same PC I built 4 years ago. All the external parts were the ugly PC tan color when I built it. Now it's all black except for the keyboard. Some day that too will be black. The xbox is black. I also have a DVD Recorder/VCR device on my desk. That's black too. New hard drives and more memory. Once I replace the Video card, Mobo and CPU, I'll have rebuilt a completely new machine.

And in case you're wondering, Tara has a nice Dell. We bought it last May.
P4 3.0 GHz CPU w/ HT.
1GB RAM
460 GB SATA hard drives.
128 MB PCI Express Video Card.

She needs the power for her MaryKay emails. :)

If I wanted to read I'd go to school

2006-03-10T17:17:00.000-06:00

I don't read many books. And those I do read are usually technical books. So to change all that I've decided to start reading for me. I think I'll start with those motivational, empowerment type books. Luckily for me, I have found the perfect book to read.

Flickr Mashups

2006-03-03T23:37:00.000-06:00

I found a link to webmonkey on wired.com that talks about Flickr mashups. I found some of these to be interesting. Give them a try:
http://www.webmonkey.com/webmonkey/06/08/index4a.html

Readers responded to that article with a few more links:
http://www.webmonkey.com/webmonkey/06/09/index1a.html

Cuatro

2006-02-28T00:10:00.000-06:00

Since Jen tagged me a while back, I figured I should get this over with. Everybody thank Jen. (pictures to follow)

Four jobs you have had in your life:
Cleaning bathrooms in the HBLL
Hotel Front Desk Clerk
Delivery Truck Driver for Bakery
Code Monkey

Four movies you could watch over and over:
None come to mind. I usually watch whatever is on.

Four places you've lived:
Nuevo Casas Grandes, Chihuahua
Provo, UT
New York, NY
Bellevue, WA

Four TV shows you love to watch:
Battlestar Galactica
My Name is Earl
Anything on the History Channel
Iron Chef America (because I can't/don't cook)

Four places you've been on vacation:
San Diego, CA
Nauvoo, IL
Jackson Hole, WY
Las Vegas, NV

Four of your favorite foods:
Gyros
Guacamole
Steak
Oreo Shakes

Four places you'd rather be right now:
Brighton
Riviera Maya
Some cool place in Italy
Seattle, WA

Four sites you visit daily:
yahoo
google
si
wired

Four people who I am tagging/alienating:
I don't know four people to tag/alienate

Got Widgets?

2006-02-08T20:14:00.000-06:00

I just got widgets. I remember seeing the original konfabulator as being available only for Macintosh machines. However, now that Yahoo! got its hands on it, they have ported it for PC and call it Yahoo! Widget Engine. At first, I didn't see a personal need for widgets. Just another needless app running on my machine. After a few months of seeing the widgets ads on yahoo's site I decided to give it a shot. I've installed them at home and at work and I'm happy to report I like what I've seen so far.

One of the default widgets hooks into my outlook and shows me my appointments for the day and my tasks list in a concise format. I hate opening those screens in outlook. Another checks my yahoo.com email account every 10 minutes and lets me know if I have new mail. Another shows me current weather conditions for my location of choice.

There are over 1000 freely available widgets, but what really prompted me to download them was the idea of building my own for whatever I might want. First off I'll tinker around and see how it all works under the hood. All widget run on a "widget engine", which is really the platform that does the heavy lifting and executes the widgets via a vast api. Widgets are written in XML and Javascript, two very simple and easy to learn programming languages. One is a markup language and the other a very friendly scripting language. So I believe anyone can build widgets, including me.

Take a look at the list of widgets available. Chances are someone has already built something that you've been wishing you had available. If not, drop me a line with ideas of which widgets still need building.

Basketbrawl

2006-02-04T15:30:00.000-06:00

So there's this sport called basketbrawl. It's played just like basketball, except that it's full of hacks. Yes, it's that time of the year again. The annual church basketball tournament is going on and for the most part has been non-eventful. Us overweight and out of shape married folk have been getting better every week. By "getting better" I mean that we aren't sucking wind after one round trip up and down the court anymore. And that's a 3/4 length court.

I personally hadn't played basketball in about a year so I was really hurting the first night. My legs felt like they would fall off at any moment. But after three weeks and playing two or three times a week, we can play the game without hurting anymore. That is, until we played the more than famous, the in-famous, Single's ward.

Playing other wards is playing other overweight and out of shape married folk. Just like us. But playing the Single's Ward. Well, that's a whole different story. These guys are 18-30 years old, single (of course) and with lots of "energy". I realized that us fat married folk play while trying to not get hurt. Single guys don't worry about getting hurt. In fact, I think they try to get hurt while playing so they can get some simpathy from the single girls. They play a more aggressive game, and about five seconds into the game it became clear it would be a hack-a-thon.

So they game went on, tempers flared here and there, I few bruises were issued, but being Church ball and all, no fights broke out. We came up three points short at the end of the game, but I think if we had refs half their team would have fouled out before half-time. Did I mention we play without refs? Oh yeah. Because, hey, what could possibly go wrong?

We have three or four more games left. I think we'll be able to play a bit more competitive each week and come away with some victories. We play the tournament games on Thursday nights and play for fun on Tuesday nights.
My hope is that the biggest losers are our collective waistlines and that we keep playing after this tournament is over. It's more likely we won't play again until next year's tournament, and the wind sucking will comence once again.

What does it mean?

2006-02-03T00:31:00.000-06:00

Welcome to Throwing the bar. What does this phrase mean? Well, it has nothing to do with drinking. Sorry. It's actually a literal translation from a Spanish slang phrase used to mean kicking back, being lazy, taking it easy or something along those lines. The Spanish slang phrase is "tirando barra". Since we spoke Spanglish where I grew up, we decided to use that phrase in English, and the literal translation was "throwing the bar". So now you know.

And this is me.