Roddy's Rants

Retroactive Augmented Reality on a bike cam

2010-06-03T19:47:00.000-04:00

A guy posted a video of a bike race I was in. The cool, as you can see from the video is that he was able to overlay his terminator style augmented reality data on the video. So great. I contacted him. Turns out he used a Contour HD and a Garmin 705 to get the info from his powertap. Now I'm jealous.

I sense a new side project coming on!

viewWillAppear

2009-10-29T14:35:00.008-04:00

This is me right now: http://xkcd.com/621/

I've tried updating my blog on a regular basis and I fail. I'm just going to not commit on any level. But I'll post what I learned yesterday.

I was working on an iphone project and I needed to check a property list to see if a value existed, if it doesn't exist, I need to slide in a new modal view, add the information I need, then move the modal view out of the way and update the initial view with the data that was entered.

I learned about viewWillAppear. Basically it is called by the delegate whenever this....here it comes..."view will appear". Imagine that. In this case, I update the view to reflect the new data from the user. When the modal view goes away, the new data is updated.

Seem's easy to you, but it's all greek to me still.

Starting a new environment

2009-04-19T01:55:00.000-04:00

I have a wonderful opportunity to start an entirely new development environment. This opportunity came to me as I was at the apple store today and got a fresh install of an OS on a blank drive on an old macbook.

So I'm looking at this:
OS X v 10.5.6 - thanks to the genius at apple
Python 2.5.1 - installed with OS
Django 0.96.3 - matches the google app engine version, or close to it
Google App Engine 1.2 - Its what is available

And it works...

So I guess all it takes to get stuff running is a completely fresh machine. I had roughly 0 issues with this. All installs were seamless.

Back in the day when I used to play around I seem to remember environments being about 40x harder to install. This was trivial. Awesome.

Tomorrow I'll get Django and Google App Engine playing together.

Drinking logs part deux

2007-11-30T04:26:00.000-05:00

Perfect.

Its 1:14. I went to grant and green. Met up with James and David azn
and jen. 2 drinks $10. James just moved here from san diego. Not bad.
Great night. Played the straw game forever. Like 5 straws in one head.
Excellent. 5 points.

David Asian taught me how to do the sports center theme. Very funny.
That one is going world wide!

Met a few of their Davis and world travel friends. Great time!!

Anyway cheap night good laughs. Its good to see James in a city that
matters.

I'm out

Thanks,
Roderic

Lets start logging my drinks

2007-11-29T18:33:00.000-05:00

As suggested by Lorilynne, I should start documenting when I go out. I'll try to do it for a month everytime I go out. So here goes. Last nights recap, lets hope I'm not a lush:

Happy hour pushed by Tony Pham. Hit up Vessel (Tony, Daniel and myself) and made it about half way in the door when we decided it was bunk. Went to Azul and had 1 drink and some appetizer. Ruben and Calvin showed up.

Bailed on that place and went to 111 Minna. Cover charge, pass. On to Harlot. 1 drink. Joined by Adora, Jason, Jess and Frieda.

On to Thirsty Bear. 1 beer and a few shots. Down to just Jess, D-Rex(Daniel), Ruben and Frieta.

Back at work by 11.

Crazy Ass July

2007-08-09T15:28:00.001-04:00

Just tring to jot down my thoughts of the past month or so.

July was friggen rediculous.

Family stuff - even though it was a sad reason, I did get I visit my
family for several weeks. That was great. Always good to see the
family. I did however notice/learn quite a bit about how my pace of
life has changed quite a bit. Back in Rochester there really isn't to
much of a sense of urgency in anything that we do. Things are
generally a bit slower and as my sister pointed out, it made me sleep
a ton. It would seem that If my life slows down any, I get tired and
essentially stock up on my sleep for the next marathon sleepless
session. So thats interesting.

The job hunt is proving to be very fun. I came out to the bay area
early July. Had a great time and had a few really interesting
interviews. I've made some great contacts which led to other
interviews which were all great. I had to cut the trip short and head
back home for the previously mentioned family emergency. I'm back now
though. I'm on a one way ticket and I'm loving every minute of it.
I've been staying with friends and in hostels, both are sweet as all
hell. I've met people in bars that said they could get me jobs, I've
met tons of non employer people as well in the bars and its just been
a wild time.

I'm really learning how to get around in San fran and I'm really
coping well.

And holy crap I love not going to a 9-5 every day. What a waste of
time that noise is.

On that note: I've kinda had a revelation that I rushed into financial
security and basically missed out on life during my early 20s. I want
a more simple life where I buy what I want which amplifies my life
(not so much material goods) and i want to do what I want, so what the
hell was I thinking with a 9-5? And am I ready to entirely give all
that up to get drunk and make mistakes? Am I an idiot? Yes

So thats where I'm at. Oh and I wrote this post from my iPhone. I'm
still learning how that can enhance my life and loving what I find.

Thanks,
Roderic

Keeping it short: Scuba, phone, work

2007-06-26T14:16:00.000-04:00

I got to try out my underwater camera for the first time a few weeks ago. Misha, Sen, Kathy and I went scuba diving in Dutch Springs It was excellent. I'm certified. Thats cool.

I'm totally getting an iPhone this week. I'm sweatin' it so much. I think those things are slick as hell. Apple just seems to be making all the right moves. Its nice.

In short, work lately has been hostile. Its a bunch of bull. I want out. I'll explain when I can.

I've been biking a hella lot more lately. I'm finally getting rid of my winter insulation and feeling a hella lot better about myself. The only problem now is how can I get Kathy to bike with me.

How the weekend went...

2007-06-11T21:29:00.000-04:00

Thursday:
Basically on Thursday I hung out in Palo Alto all day. I went to this mall near Stanford which reminded me of the mall in San Diego in that it was all outside and the sun was outstanding. Very nice.

Walking around Downtown Palo Alto was also outstanding. I found that I really enjoyed the entire area. If I were to live in the Valley, that is probably where I'd live. University Avenue reminds me of Georgetown or Park Ave in Rochester. It just seemed like a very pedestrian friendly place to be. The little shops were great and the only major/familiar/non-local companies were Walgreens and Borders.

After I picked up Kathy from the Airport we had dinner with Cory at The Creamery. We tried to meet up with Sonya but it didn't happen.

Friday we went out in San Francisco. We got breakfast at a little deli on Mission Ave. Walked around South Beach for awhile, got a twitter shirt, checked out AT&T park, and had lunch in South Park. Later we went over the Golden Gate and checked out Muir Woods (Redwoods are awesome) and went to Mt Tamalpais (best view EVER).

Saturday we went to Scharffen Berger lol and had a tour of some high end chocolates and their factory. We went to the UC Berkeley Arboretum which was sweet, had Lunch at Jupiter per recommendation by Illian from Bulgaria/Google/first-trip.

Back to SF to see the Coit Tower, Crissy Fields, and a walk across the Golden Gate, Golden Gate Park and an outstanding dinner with a view at the Cliff House (highly recommended).

Sunday we went to Golden Gate park again and saw the Haight Festival which was sweet, another arboretum and a whole bunch of Gorilla's doing the Thriller dance, no joke. Hilarious.

Wrapped up with a trip to Half Moon Bay which was outstanding and another trip to Stanford to see the campus.

It sucks to be [on the way] back. :(

Its bound to happen one of these times...

2007-06-07T03:29:00.000-04:00

I'm out in Cali for another vacation. I think this is my 4th time to the west coast this year. I've got a pretty busy weekend ahead of me.

I'm meeting up with Carolina and Sonja Selena Duarte for Sonja's farewell party in Palo Alto. She has joined the cast of Blast! and will be leaving for Japan next week. Great news for her.

I'll be meeting up with Ma, Cory and a whole crew of engineers several times this weekend. That should be interesting.

The trip started off not so well. I ended up missing my first flight ever. I was supposed to go to SJC at 6:10. I got the next best flight to San Francisco at like 7:30 which put me here a bit later. Also made me miss a meeting with Carolina tonight. I was going to try to meet up with her for dinner or something if I got in at a reasonable time. So much for that.

So I'm in this Marriott Suite and its pretty large. I may have overpaid for the hotel. oops. I'm picking up Kathy tomorrow at the airport and we'll be staying at another Marriott in SF in or near the South Park area of SF. That will probably rule.

We have a full weekend of things to check out (http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=104998986066977447486.00000112bf473213e3573) so it should be quite excellent.

I gotta go find a local pub.

San Francisco and my new goals

2007-05-17T10:27:00.000-04:00

I got a chance to go to San Francisco a few weeks ago. I'll tell ya, it is now my favorite place in the entire continental U.S. (thanks Jason for the accurate portrayal of my feelings). The place was outstanding. There were two things in particular that were just perfect.

Jobs - In terms of technology, this is where its at. Companies like Google, Yahoo, Facebook, VMWare, Twitter, etc. are really driving so much of what is important to me. Hint Hint: This is why I went out there.
Biking - Someone described this as the most biker friendly area in the country. I'd buy that. There were bike lanes on so many of the roads that I went on. I think you'd be hard pressed to find a massively inefficient way of getting from point A to B in that area.

Of course, I had to meet up with my cronies. I got to grab a beer or 2 with Cory the night before my "meeting" which was awesome. He is living the life. So much great stuff going on for him. He will be world famous some day I'm sure.

Met up with Jon Ma as well. He is a clown. We got completely annihilated twice there in what I would call some of the most successful nights of drinking I've ever had. So many absolutely hilarious memories I can't even believe it. Also pictured are Jinen, Slin and Dileep. Son.

I also got so see the lovely Carolina and Sonya Selina Duarte from my Glassmen days. Oh the memories :(. Sonya knows about the horrible pictures that came out of that night. I totally made Carolina cry, but in a good way, it was awesome.

On the way out there, I ran into a friend from LM ELDP. That was outstanding. We talked the entire flight out there. He is up to some REALLY big things. Best of luck to him. While talking to him, we ran into a girl who was interviewing at Facebook. Pretty cool stuff. She was very nice. Turns out she got the job, so she will be leaving the DC area very soon for the greener pastures of Palo Alto. Speaking of that, Facebook has a pretty fun job application process.

So basically it was like the best weekend in a very long time. I fell in love with the area and I would love to get out there more.

Onward, I've been biking quite a bit lately. I think I'm getting out about 3 times a week which is pretty decent for me. I went out on a group ride a week or 2 ago and we were out for about 6 hours. Sadly, due to like 4 flats and horrible road conditions, we only covered about 55 miles. That sucked. I was so hungry.

I'm going scuba diving next weekend. Stoked.

I've got nothing else.

How to know if your job is making you unhappy

2007-04-19T08:58:00.000-04:00

Just a quick blurb, I saw this article and it mentioned how to "Know when it's not about your job". I thought the list they gave, which briefly states the definition of a good job, was quite interesting. Here are my initial thoughts on each point:

Your job stretches you without defeating you.
- What if your job doesn't stretch you at all? All of the decisions being made are driven to such an esoteric end so deeply that even the customer for which these decisions are made doesn't even care.
Provides clear goals
- What if when you ask for detailed requirement or undetailed requirements or informal requirements or an e-mail asking what the customer wants and you are ignored time and time again? What if every time you finish what you think is expected they take things in a whole different direction which requires a rewrite? Maybe this is agile development.
Provides unambiguous feedback
- Maybe not unambiguous, but what about entirely contradictory feedback. One day you are being praised for your work because it far exceeds what the customer wanted (probably because I didn't know what the customer wanted) and you are asked to present progress to the customer, the next day the entire effort is stopped with zero explanation. That's bunk.
Provides a sense of control.
- Pretty much entirely laughable at this point, being tossed around from project to project with no hope at all of attaining any career goals leaves one with little sense of control.

So all in all things are going well. HA HA

Best Saturday ever

2007-04-15T18:57:00.000-04:00

Yesterday the Capitol Hill Bikes shop in DC had a demo day. I got to try a few decent bikes. I tried the Cannondale CAAD9 Optimo 3, the Cannondale Synapse 1, and the Bianchi Via Nirone 7. It was pretty decent to try the bikes, but the responses they were looking for when we discussed the bikes were basically not what I know about bikes. I thought that was weird. Basically I don't know what I'm doing on a bike to know how it flows and grips the road and what a hard ride is. So I think I'm going to start riding as much as I can. I'll see if I can ride even if I don't have 4 hours to set aside. Each of the next 10 days looks like they will be warmer than the last so I'm cool with that. I think I can get quite a few rides in there.

On that note, I got my GPS back.

A few weeks back I signed up for meetup.com. Its a site where you basically just meet up with people wo do things that you like to do. I've joined 2 groups. One for biking in Gaithersburg, they do rides all over Gaithersburg, Monroe County and DC. I also joined another group for playing ultimate Frisbee. I found that they were playing yesterday so I met up with them (go figure). It was awesome. We played on the mall while people were walking around (and through the field). People would stop by and watch us play and take pictures. For one of the first times since I moved down here I felt like I was local. It was pretty cool. I'm definitely going to play with these guys again.

Later that night Joel had a cookout/housewarming/Tina'sBirthdayParty. It was awesome. It had been awhile since I had seen many of those cats. I ended up making plans with people to play Ultimate, and do like 2o happy hours. So that'll be awesome. We carried on a running joke about my 3rd nipple and my pig liver. I was also able to vandalize the cupcakes that someone brought in by rearranging them to spell "Joel Sucks". I laughed.

So it was a good day.

My GWT Adventures thus far

2007-03-28T15:26:00.000-04:00

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I started playing around with GWT. I'm working on 2 different projects with it right now and its pretty exciting. I ran into my largest issue last night when I attempted to pass state objects to the clients. I came to a crossroad where I could have polling or persistent connections so the server could push updates. I learned about Comet and integrating this into my GWT app. Essentially you have the server maintain connections with each client. I felt that it wouldn't be appropriate. I feel like it doesn't scale all that well.

"Yeah, like polling does!?"

Well, polling isn't great, but you can deny a polling request with little or no backlash with the way I'm implementing the game. Also, if you need to, you can just redistribute new requests to a different server. Again, this is all with my implementation and I can see obvious situations where this wouldn't be the case.

So anyway, I've got basic functionality down, I need to throw a front end on it so I can do some string testing. I do wish that I was better at LNF type stuff.

Also I signed up for Twitter. I've seen some posts on Lifehacker and some other blogs so I figured I'd give it a shot. My friend Dave actually suggested a decent extension to this using your phone with GPS for live twitter action. That would be fun, and 1984.

My Feelings on Open Source

2007-03-27T12:53:00.000-04:00

At work I've been doing some work thats quite a bit different from what I'm used to. Essentially I'm using an Access DB. I'm not exactly cool with this. Putting the front end on it introduced me to VBA so there is that. What bothers me about it is how restricting the supplied environment is on the development process. If you run into an error due to a null reference or similar, I find that I can't look at the DB to see where in my queries I went wrong. Very strange. My theory on what is actually happening is that MS developed a GUI for a Database system, then built the DB system and entirely integrated the UI into the DBMS entirely violating MVC.

This may not be true, I think the whole OLE 'framework' introduces massive (for my tastes) coupling to the system. Which explains why no effort was put into a CLI for Windows. I think its very strange and coming from development on a Linux system, doing ANYTHING the OLE way is not very comfortable.

So at work we started talking about using different plugins or 3rd party workarounds to get things the way you want them in windows. The problem is that these solutions aren't supported by anyone other than some script kiddies which yeilds 0 standardization efforts bringing us back to 0 support.

So then we started talking about some open source projects we use and I started thinking how the whole reason we use Open Source products is because of the ease of customization and the way these things in general seem to be supported. Once an add-on has enough support, it becomes integrated into the original baseline. I suspect tabs in Mozilla's browser were like this and I suspect that mouse gestures will be added as well someday.

So with that I noted that there are so many open source products that I use right out of the box and they are exactly how I want them. Its the adaptive nature of OSS and how it changes with the users needs. Still it must be noted that for me the whole reason I got into OSS was because of customization an such, but now as I said, everything is right out of the box.

I thought it was interesting. Especially the part about working with MS Dev tools and feeling like I stepped back in time to Windows 3.1. Its so crazy.

2007-03-22T08:28:00.000-04:00

Just a few things I want to mention. First, obviously I've moved to Blogger courtesy of a program from Paul Cooley over at Linux Lore. Its a pretty decent tool that does everything I need. The only issue is that it requires the .net framework to be installed. I guess its ok, but it still just seems like a gigantic overhead for a small task (the .net install, not his).

So with blogger comes some very decent changes. For one, I can now use analytics on my blog which is something I couldn't do in LJ. Thanks for visiting people from France. Oui! And that about sums up what I know of the French language. But its really nice to have analytics data that actually gets exercised. Its tight. I like the look and feel a bit more on blogger. Maybe I just like change in general, but so far I'm happy.

I also picked up a tool called jUploadr for my Mac which allows me to upload to Flickr. I've been trying to find my favorite web album, I think I've found it. Holy cripes flickr. I never understood why people said that Flickr was a leading force in the 2.0 revolution, but actually using it to organize my photos really opened my eyes. Man that rules. I really dig the map feature now. Which gives me an idea for a new organizer. I gotta get on that.

Speaking of my Mac, I got some new Rams in there. What sucks is that my original 512 came in 2 sticks, so adding a gig was really adding .75 gigs. That sucks, At least my theory on diminishing returns for adding the second gig stick is totally false. Woot.

Thats about it.

Fun with Google tools

2007-03-15T08:15:00.001-04:00

Over the past few months I've decided to be productive. I got into a few coding projects I've always wanted to get into so I could practice some languages that I didn't really know. Like my
Athletic Tracking thing (with awesome styles of course)(oh by the way, I'll be getting my broken GPS back so I can start exercising again)(3rd paren: I wonder if its a good idea to post live shipping info on a blog, probably not...). Kathy and I started working on a game which is still in the early stages in Gliffy, but that'll be fun.

Besides coding things up, I've been working with Google's free toolsets. Man they have some cool stuff. Besides the obvious Mail, Maps, Calendar, and Search, I've also gotten into Docs(awesome), Analytics, Adwords, Adsense, Dodgeball, Groups, Picasa, Reader(super awesome) and of special note is Notebook (which is super awesome because of the FF plugin supplied), and a few more.

The latest tool I started using is GWT which I think is so sweet I can't even imagine it. I've used a few frameworks in the past 2 years and I've found mostly frustrating results with them. Possibly it is because most of the tools use languages that I am not too familiar with. GWT seems to be built for Eclipse, or at least Eclipse is built to allow tools like GWT to be seamlessly integrated within. The fact that I'm back in the Java swing (nice choice of words eh?) of things is also very, not to sound cliche, refreshing (lol if you knew how java came to be).

The point of GWT is that you can write Java code and have it translated into Javascript. To me, this is a sweet gap between quasi compiled code (Java) and entirely interpreted code (Javascript). For me, development in JS is just so unstructured and difficult to deal with. I really enjoy my eclipse IDE which tells me when I do stupid things in Java, but I want to be able to do the flashy things you can do in JS. GWT feeds my hunger, and I love it.

I started working on a fun little app which so far looks a hella lot better than my Athletic Tracker. The forced organization of Java allows simpler css(ing). So I'm pleased.

In conclusion, Google has some really fun, time-saving tools.

In other news: I've been to San Diego 2x this year and I can't wait to go back, see the link for my Picasa above for pictures. We went swimming/surfing/boogie-boarding in like 50 degree water. Wet suits rule.

And I've been eating somewhat healthy again. Thats about it.

Installing Vista

2007-01-31T20:25:00.000-05:00

I got Vista:

Here are my impressions as I'm installing...

I'm waiting forever on this start up screen....Srsly it was like 10 minutes of nothing happening. No spinning no nothing.

I just clicked install now...apparently you can't determine what partition you want to you. All it says is "Install now". I clicked it. I think I just lost all of my data. Wow that would be fun.

Waiting....While I'm waiting I'll mention how I got it. Rit Academic Alliance....Still waiting.

No really...is it erasing everything?

I guess its moving. It just takes like 15 minutes between clicks to do anything....So I gotta enter the product key.

My dashes were added automatically.

I am formatting my drive. That was pretty brainless. Admitedly, I can't imagine anyone messing this up (famous last words). Now I'm copying windows files.

I put all the cds. Then it restarted...now its just doing stuff...

Ok so I'm fooling around with it. There are some fun things. The gadgets I feel are done better than Mac's widgets. They seem more relevant and are actually visible all the time. Thats a good thing. The liquidy feel of it is a big improvement from xp. But these aren't OS things in my mind.

In terms of actual OS stuff, its rediculously better at networked FS stuff. I just xfered a 1GB file at 7MB/sec which is HELLA faster than windows used to do with SMB shares. That was nice. The expose thing is fun. But if you have too many windows open (like it was designed for), I feel like you can't see the stuff in the back of the deck. Thats a bit odd. Anyway, its still fun to deek around with with it.

I went to the games folder. Its empty. What no Solitare in 3d? F....

Oh well...

I'll write more later. I'm le tired after all that work I had to do with installing.

Wii

2007-01-23T12:03:00.000-05:00

For some reason, Kathy and I were going into a bestbuy a few weeks ago and we
just happened to go past a demo of a wii. I really had no interest in buying it
at all. Anyway, something clicked and I had to have one. So we went out Sunday
and got one. I figured we had a $160 BestBuy card, might as well use it.

It's pretty fun. I actually found that when I got to work monday my shoulder was
hurting a bit. The wii sports are hella fun. You get to play with your mii
character and make them look like you. Its just funny because there is a tall
Rod with a perma-5-o'clock-shadow, a little asian kathy and and very short asian
Sen. Its funny.

The story about how we got it was mildly interesting. We both went to different
bestbuy's. They handed out tickets before we got there. We went to Gamestops as
they all told me they's have em at 11. So I got there at like 10 till 11 and
there were like 23 people standing in line. They had made a list. Blah blah I
was 27 out of 21 systems so I'm not getting one. Anyway, we got inside (i
figured i still had a chance) and this choad came in and cut in line. He wasn't
on the list but he snuck in. When people realized this it got heated. The cops
got called. He was a choad. The cops came and took him away under the threat of
trespassing.

Anyway, then I went to EB games in the mall and there was no line. Kathy beat me
there and was in line when I got there. She was like 2 in line. She asked for
one. She got it. End of story.

In action.

So we got Zelda and thw Wii sports. Still haven't used the gift card, so I think wii are gonna get Ultimate Alliance and Rayman Raving Rabbids. Awesome.

I don't post often enough

2007-01-11T09:58:00.000-05:00

IPhone

Its been quite awhile since I've been so excited about a product. I got an email about 20 minutes after it was announced from my roommate Sen. We had been looking into smartphones lately. To the point where he had actually ordered one but it got canceled. He sent me the e-mail about the latest toy. Paraphrased it said: "Get the iphone".

Its been out for like 3 days now so if you haven't heard of it you've basically been locked in a cave. Its all over the internet, tv and radio. I can't believe how stunning it is. The last time I was so excited about a product was google maps. This is the type of thing that is really going to revolutionize life. Maybe that is an overstatement, but the thing is a totally fresh perspective on a pretty stale market. My old philosophy on phones was that they needed only Bluetooth capability, quasi-reliable service, must be small, and must not have restrictions set forth by the SP (Verizon). That's about it. The last phone I got, the shoddy Razr was acquired specifically because I got paid to take it.

Anyway onto the phone. Its amazing. Just amazing. I guess I won't describe it, but it'll be the best thing ever. I'm getting one. Link. It comes out in June. My 18 month upgrade option comes around in July. I think Cingular gives you ~$150 off of a phone. That brings the price down to about $450 for me. Kathy said she would go in on some of a smartphone for an Xmas present. For me its a no brainer.

I guess just thinking of the possibilities. You can switch to a wifi connection if possible and use a VOIP client and not use any of your minutes. OMG, how ridiculous is that? Its running OSX. So you can write software for it or install select COTS products. Sick. They have a graphical vmail interface. Its rediculous. It just makes more sense. Its Cingular (WAHOO). Its great

Anyway, not so boring for reader things:
I started a website. I want to see how much money you can get from ad revenue. Googles ad program doesn't tell you how much you get until you sign up. So I signed up. I'll figure it out once the site gets ramped up. I won't link to it here. And I won't have my name on there anywhere. Someday I'll link it. Its just an experiment.

San Diego
I'm going to San Diego today. That'll rule. I think I'm gonna get some surfing in this week. Its supposed to be ridiculously cold, so I got a 7 mil wetsuit. I've never had one on in cold water so I'll see how that goes. The real reason I am going is to see Meredith, George and their baby Maya.

New position
I started back in Silver Spring last week. So far the commute has been way more tolerable. Not that the metro sucked, but I have much more time to myself at the house. That's cool. Though I get less reading time in. That sucks. I feel like now I have a ton more to read too. Double suck.

New Years
The most relaxed uneventful New Years ever. I did kill a bottle of sparkling white though. That was eventful.

Wii
How could I forget. I've decided to get a Wii. I returned my PS2 to bestbuy under warranty and they sent me a $160 gift card. Why not just shell out the extra $100 and get a nice new must have system? Oh I know why not, because even God couldn't find one for sale anywhere. No worries, I'll just wait till they are more available. I have enough ish to do without worrying about that right now. But if I wanted to, there is a pretty good

Lan Party, Turkey and Scuba

2006-12-06T10:17:00.000-05:00

Bob
Bombs over Baghdad. Also, Bob got a job down in the DC area. Sounds like he will be my nieghbor (Cue in Thin Lizzy).

Teh Lan Party |20><0|2
We had a Lan party at the house a few weeks ago. That was sweet. We had like 15 people from work and work contacts in the living room, stress testing our network. It was fun. We had minimal problems and maximum fun. It was a pretty decent spread of people including some who rarely played video games but who play quite often now and some lifers (doit).

As you can see, I got a chance to practice making websites with the Mac. That was fun and easy. I'm gonna have to redo rodericj.com with that. Cuz right now it is like the 2nd lamest website ever. iWeb really does a ton for websites for those of us who have no right brained ability at all.

Additionally, who is the tool who has a 1) Lan Party and 2) a website about the Lan party? What a tool!

Since we had all of the computers and stuff in the dining room/living room, we decided to move the office into the spare bedroom upstairs. Its so sweet now. We actually get to see light when we do marathon game sessions. Plus its helping us keep the room/the house(to some extent) much cleaner that rules. Of course, now the basement is a friggen trash heap.

Thanksgiving
Christie and Dave came over, and Sen and Kathy and they and I all had Thanksgiving dinner (2 days late). It was great. It was the first time I reached into a turkey's sliced open neck to grab its liver and heard and neck and stuff. It was totally gross but totally cool. The Turkey came out AWESOME! We had TONS AND TONS of food. It ruled. We are still enjoying the food. Also, it was totally great to see Christie and Dave finally making the trek down to the house.

Other Family News
My sister Meredith spawned on November 19th. She had a small human female named Maya Ashley. That was pretty cool. I'm planning on heading out there in January to check her out and see Meredith's *new* place. Should be fun.

Scuba
I'm getting PADI certified soon. I'm taking the class this weekend. I'm totally stoked. That and skydiving are things I've ALWAYS wanted to do. I am 100% stoked. While everyone tells me that its unlikely that you will drown, I still run through the scenarios of like a swordfish stabbing not me, but my regulator hose, thereby making it impossible for me to breath. Well hopefully the Marlin fishers will get them all out of the pool by the time we dive Saturday. But man, that would suck.

We have some HW assignments due Saturday for the class. We just started Monday with the book and its like 250 pages long. So basically, no starcraft for me this weekend. I guess we didn't realize how much we'd have to know BEFORE we showed up. Oh well. This week is especially hard for Kathy as she has TONS of work stuff going on this week. Its a bit easier for me as I've got that 2 hours of train riding every day which I can use to read.

I think thats it.

Cirque

2006-11-15T19:28:00.000-05:00

Last weekend, Kathy's sister came and visited. We found a decent Chineese restaurant in Chinatown (go figure, for real, we've been looking for a good one). We were there while we were seeing Cirque Du Soleil - Corteo. It was awesome as expected. If I can say one thing about that show, is that it makes me want to get a hotel room and re-master the skills of hotel bed skydiving. It was so cool some of the stuff they were doing. I loved it.

I got back into playing starcraft. Go figure, I get a screaming gaming machine and I play a 10 year old game. Awesome. Well anyway, that game rules. I also got Call of Duty. I gotta say, that has some of the best single player action I've ever seen. Its really fun and really intense. I dig it. One thing that was cool is that I was actually there a few weeks ago in Caen. That was cool. It looks a bit different. Its fun though.

Finishing Europe and new Computer and fixed the house.

2006-11-10T16:13:00.000-05:00

So a recap of how the rest of Europe went: Gallery
So we took a Ferry over the English Channel into Caen France. That is where many of the beaches of Normandy are. We had to take the night ferry, and we wanted to be to Paris by the time the night train left for Barcelona so we didn't have a lot of time. We got to one of the beaches. It wasn't really what I expected. It was just a normal beach. I didn't see like the cliffs or anything of (Utah) so it wasn't like in Saving Private Ryan. We were there for about 3 hours. We ended up missing a bus to downtown Caen cuz we were walking around the little port town. 1 thing that was cool was the very very very fresh seafood they were selling at the little market. The fish were still alive. It was wild.

Anyway, so we ended up in Caen and we had to get a train ticket to Paris which proved somewhat difficult. I was able to ask the busdriver if we were headed to Caen because of the book we had. But once he explained stuff and I had no idea what he was saying, I figured it was best for me to just get on the bus. It was the same at the train station. I basically just handed the lady the book of french words and pointed to what I wanted to say. It was a mess.

Paris was alright. We saw the Louvre. That was tight. I guess thats like the "castle" of France. That is where Louis the something lived. Unreal that anyone can live in a place like that. It was absurd.

While we were in France we were hungry. We tried to eat, but apparently no restaurants serve food between like 2 and 7 PM. So that was weak. I didn't get it.

We left Paris.

The night train was tight. We met some dude who was a bouncer who just kept going to all these cities doing bounce work. He knew all kinds of languages. He was more than helpful with us. We like him. I had myfirst experience speaking spanish on that train. It was tight. I tried talking to the train bartender. I did ok. It was really fun.

Barcelona was off the chain. I loved it, the weather was stellar, the people were awesome and I got to practice more spanish. It was so great. I really enjoyed that. We went up and down La Rumbla and saw all these hella cool street performers. It ruled. We went to the beach, we went to La Segrada Familia (awesome) and a whole bunch of other stuff. Again, I really liked Barcelona.

So at this point we had a choice of either going to Madrid or somewhere else. We heard that Valencia was really nice, plus it was farther south which meant warmer waters. We went. Thats one of the big things I loved about this trip, we could do whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted. So we hoped a train and went.

Valencia was tight as well. The food was good and of course more spanish speaking. We went to a museum there (see the gallery). We went to an "American" restaruant. That was kinda interesting. Very TexMex. It was fun. They have this (no longer a) river there that runs through the whole city that you can now walk on. Its really nice. It would have been stellar to run that. But I didn't. We went to the beach in Valencia and the sand was super super soft. I loved that.

We were only in Valencia like 2 days, so we split out of there and went back to Barcelona. When we were there we saw these Soccer dudes, including Beckham and Ronaldinho, shooting a commercial for pepsi I think. It was crazy, Kathy and I were standing where all the extras were and since we were dressed like extras I don't think the directors cared that we were there. So that ruled. Plus it was just cool to be around all those famous guys.

On the way up to Paris to catch our flight, we stopped by some store and got a big baguette thing and some brie cheese. It was great, we just ate that on the way to the train and on the train. We also stopped by a wine store and I got a nice Spanish bottle. The problem was that we didn't have a bottle opener on hand, so the guy (super awesome) just gave me the stores bottle opener. How friggen sweet was that? He said something like "Esta recuerdo Espana". Something to remember Spain. I thought it was totally cool. He ruled.

Anyway, Paris was Paris. They had Crepes. And the Hostile was REDICULOUSLY wierd. There were like 10 year olds staying there as well as like 80 year olds. It was odd. And like I said....Paris is Paris. Not much to say.

Totally unrelated:
We finally fixed up the ceiling in the house It was a mess for like 2 months. Now its finally good and we can finally live in our living room. What a mess it was. And what a pain to clean it up. The job we did is not nearly perfect, but it is only noticeable if you are looking for it. So whatever. We learned alot about drywalling.

I got a new computer:
Unremarkable case
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ Windsor 2.2 GHZ (that is alot of description in only the title..wierd)
2GB DDR2 SDRAM PC2 6400
and here is the good part...
19" 8ms HD Widescreen
XFX GeForce 7900GT 256MB GDDR3 gfx card (oh god....i need new pants)

So I've been playing wow and half life on it. Wow is like a totally different game now. It is absolutely georgeous to look at. I relike it now. Also halflife is just off the chain. Oh god its good.

Done.

England and more

2006-10-20T19:49:00.000-04:00

Links to pictures: here

England is friggen sweet. I would totally move here. London has to be one of the best cities I've ever been to for someone my age. The nightlife looked (yeah, looked) like it rocked. I'd love to come back and hit some of the bars. I bet they'd rule.

So we meant to head to France today on a Ferry but the weather wouldn't allow it. So we spent another day here and we checked out Bath. Its the home of these Roman bath houses that existed when the Roman Empire spread to this island. It was pretty tight. I've never seen so much influence regarding the Roman Empire before. It was cool. Maybe in Spain and such we will see more.

Other things we saw in England included Jessica Simpson in "Chicago", the London Eye, one of those Red double decker busses, Parlament and the Big clock connected to that (apparently its erroneously called "Big Ben"), their nice train system. We had a few long rides on that. It was nice. Saw Salisbury (Steak) Cathedral, St. Paul's Cathedral (way cool), cute british accents, Beefeaters (not so still), the Queen's Castle (Winchester or something), Stonehenge and more.

Anyway, we are off to France. We are taking an overnight ferry to Caen which is near Normandy. We are gonna do that whole thing tomorrow then hop an early afternoon train to Paris, then another night train to Barcelona. It'll be tight. I still want to do the French wine with a Baguette when I get there. It'll rule I'm sure! With all that night travelling we will be Le Tired so we might need a nap.

Iceland.

2006-10-15T19:01:00.000-04:00

we got to iceland alright. we are in the hostel right now. so far we have seen quite a few things...including about a ton of rain. it is pretty cold here too...but we went to the blue lagoon (hot springs powered by lava) which was awesome on a very cold day!!

Kathy and I ate whale today. That was fun. i think it came directly from the harbor we are near. you can go whalewatching near here. i think they caught one of them and gave it to us....maybe not...

anyway...we will be in england tomorrow and for a few days. Then its off to warm weather in France and Spain...have i mentioned i´m stoked about spain? and that this keyboard has all these odd symbols. and the shift key is small. and sites default to not english...maybe icelandic...which makes sense.

i guess thats about it.
more later.

On our way to Europe

2006-10-12T23:48:00.000-04:00

So we are off. We are pretty much all packed up. Thinking of some last minute things but we are pretty much ready to go.

So I wasn't totally stoked about it till just today or yesterday. I was talking to my buddy Jason and he mentioned some of the stuff he did when he was there. Man I am stoked. One of the things I didn't realize is that Barcelona is right on the coast of the mediternanianum. I can't wait. I love the water. I have a feeling that that is going to be my favoritest place in the world. I think even better than Hawaii. Oh man I'm stoked.

In other news...the creators of Youtube got bought out for $1.5B in google stock.

Wow.

Post dated updated

2006-09-20T22:38:00.000-04:00

⁃ Now that bushwackers is over, things have gotten like 100 times better. Even with the massive water damage in our ceiling. That pretty much sucked. Our first free weekend, we woke up on Saturday morning and there were giant water bubbles above the TV. Long story short, we are re-wiring our house now. So thats cool....Except its not going well. But still, better than driving to Northern NJ ever weekend. Anyway.
⁃ So I went to Atlantic City last weekend. That was pretty cool. I still hate NJ, but it was good to go to a beach and do some gambling. I started out winning like $30 playing slots....like right away. It was a great way to start the weekend. Then I went to play some craps and I was up like $80. So that was cool. Anyway, a few minutes later I was in the hole. So that was cool. I ended up down on the weekend but it was worth it. We did another one of those timeshare presentations. I love those things. Its so funny to hear the stuff they have to say. Kathy and I had a good time talking to him, then he got to the sale and we became pretty distant. He even called us out on it. It was pretty funny. So we got a free vacation and $50 bucks. Pretty fun.
⁃ Made some plans to go to Europe, so that is a definite go. Leaving in about 4 weeks. Can't wait. I think I already mentioned that on here.
⁃ Going to Michigan also to visit some friends from my drumcorps days. That'll be fun.
⁃ I started speed reading. I also think I mentioned that. But I'm reading much faster. Its pretty cool. I'd recommend it. Especially if you take a train or something to work.
⁃ So I'm on the train. And I'm not writing really constructively. I'm going to stop now.

Europe and Biking

2006-08-11T09:12:00.000-04:00

Couple things to mention here:

Drumcorps
Only 3 more Bushwacker shows for me. I kinda can't wait till that ends. Although, I am surprisingly learning A TON about how different people work. It's actually sort of exciting. Not exciting enough to be valuable, but definitely something to reflect on.

Biking
So I rode my bike home
from work(approximate map) 2 times this week. That was sweet. I've been sitting here watching my bike at work but the weather was too hot to take a trail I've never done. I'll post the gps data when I get around to it. I'm stoked about that. It was a great ride. The way I see it, I'm essentially combining the commute and my ride time. So in the time it takes me to do a 1.5 hour ride AND get home, I've done a 2.5 hour ride. Plus there is no downtime like when I get home for changing into bike stuff and all that. Its a pretty good system. I'd like to do morning and evening but that is a whole new set of challenges. Plus, 70 miles in 2 straight days on a bike makes me feel like I just got out of prison. I'm not up to 60 a day like some people . So that was fun.

Europe
I bought a ticket to Iceland yesterday. That's fun. So Kathy and I will be flying to Iceland on Friday Oct 13 (scary date). We'll hang there for awhile. I guess hiking is big there. So that, and whatever else you can do there. I'm stoked to get some gps run data from other countries.

So anyway, then we head to London a few days later to hang with Kathy's rents on her Mom's Bday. That'll rule. Check out Big Ben and traffic circles and what not. Then its off to France and Spain for some (very) short backpacking/hostel living. So I'm stoked. Hopefully I can run at least 1 time in each country we visit. Then I'll have maps from cool places. That'll be fun.

Ipod
I've been using my Ipod like woah. Apparently I can have it at work as long as I don't have the cables. So that rules. I'm beginning to like that thing. I got some accessories for it. I got a Car Charger and an FM Transmitter. I got the charger but not the transmitter. I guess I"m stoked about never having to have cd's in my car ever again. But I guess that is the whole point of these things. SON!

Speed reading
One other thing. I went to a Bday happy hour and was talking to some dude from TSS. He was talking about books he read. He listed off a few recent ones. I was like "So what you have like a summer reading quota". He was like, "Nah, I did that all this weekend". I was like "". So he got this book and he said it worked. So I got it too. He said there are drills and things you need to do. He also said that retention was through the roof.

So I'm stoked. I'll do my drills on the metro in the morning. I'll be a superhero before long.

I think that is all.

Long ride home in the hot weather

2006-08-01T22:19:00.000-04:00

So tomorrow in the 100 degree weather, I'm gonna try a long ride home from work. I hope it doesn't suck to have stuff on my back in that weather. My bag might be kinda full with work clothes...Or I could just leave some at work. I dunno. I'll figure it out.

So here it is. I hope I don't die.

Short update

2006-07-31T13:07:00.000-04:00

Not too much to report really.

1) I fell in love with Filet Mignon.
2) Bushwackers is still the same old thing. We are getting DESTROYED in drums.
3) I fixed my map thing is working for IE. However, now it doesn't work on the Linux system I have at home. Ugh. Oh well There were a few runs in there where the gps was on a bad setting. Wes, I don't know if you have tried the "less smooting" option. But that sucks unless you are going in a ton of straight lines. I have removed some of the extra laps on the actual device and I haven't updated them yet on the server. Soon.
4) With the runs, i'm up to 5.5+ miles per run. The last runs I've had were awesome. Take a look at July 25th and July 27th. Its a cool place to run. Right by the airport and almost to the monuments. My goal is to be able to run around all of the monuments. Or at least the ones on the mall. Stoked!

I think that is about it.

ical and todo lists

2006-07-17T16:12:00.000-04:00

My old working pal Karthik told me about this site Remember The Milk back when I was working in Herndon and I've been hooked on it ever since. It is a TODO list built on an AJAX style front end. I totally dig it. I think I dig the whole AJAX feel more than the actual functionality.

That's not entirely true. I find that I am pretty much bound to TODO lists. As soon as I couldn't bring my PDA into work I became less productive. When I was in school I ALWAYS had a todo list on my PDA and I was happy because I was always getting things done. Anyway, RTM is a great little TODO app. You can use the ical feed in a whole bunch of different mac products and google products for an overload of reminders. I'm pretty pleased with that. I'd recommend that everyone try using it for a few weeks to see if you can boost productivity at all.

As for ical, I'm starting to get a little more into that on my mac. I've been using Google Calendar for quite some time and the integration to ical using ical was pretty seamless. So that is fun. I feel like I am getting more productive as a result of that.

I'm trying to get more into my mac and use some of the features that are unique to that type of machine. The automator thing seems like a good thing, but then again, it also just feels like a script front end. Oh well.

The athletic tracker is fun to play with. I'm working on putting a better run selection thing on it. I was throwing around the idea of using google calendar as a storage facility for runs but that will be a pain I think.

Oh...one of my lists on RTM is "things to do when drumcorps is over". So yeah, that should explain how that is going. :(

I start taking the metro to work everyday starting tomorrow. That will give me tons of time to watch movies and or read books and stuff. That'll be fun. I'm excited about that.

Running Log

2006-07-05T16:34:00.000-04:00

So with my new GPS of course came with some sexy coding opportunities. If you have firefox, check this out: AthleticTracker.

Pretty fun. Still working some of the kinks out. I'd go ahead and give this a freeze as version 1 though.

Version 2 will have some more information built into it I think. Totals and speed and altitude and stuff.

Anyway, its written in Python in the back with some AJAX frontend stuff. Doesn't work in IE so don't even bother. Unless of course you know how to fix it. I'm not concerned about it though.

I'm a mac person

2006-06-27T17:30:00.000-04:00

Last night I went out and bought me a nice new macbook. It's a tight little 13 inch thing.

I'm so unbelieveably clumsy with it. But its cool. I'll get used to it. I like it so far. I was up real late last night using their video conferencing with Bob. Its pretty cool cuz the macbooks come with a built in camera. Dig it.

In related news I also got a 4gb black nano and a printer. If anyone cares, apple is having a big sale for college students. Check er out!

The downside is that the little thing does run pretty hot. I was reading some article about their thermal grease which didn't make me happy. Oh well. It's not a big deal. Kathy's run's hot too. Anyway, I'll post more later. I wonder if I'll end up getting a mac blog instead of this. That would make the graphics part of my site less of a hassle.

I think one of the things I like the most is that you can get a terminal in OS X. That kinda makes me happy. I can't imagine life without that thing.

Anyway, I'm a mac guy...cuz its fun to not know what the hell is going on.

More FEMA issues

2006-06-14T13:14:00.000-04:00

Wow.

The rundown:
Fema issued debit cards to people who needed help. But there was no policy set in place as to how to distribute them. Some people issued fake addresses and p.o. boxes as damaged property and were offered money no questions asked.

People who were living in Hotels paid for by FEMA were offered temporary housing assistance while staying at the hotel. $200 bottle of champagne from Hooters and $300 worth of "Girls Gone Wild" videos were among items bought with debit cards handed out by FEMA to help hurricane victims, auditors probing $1 billion in potential waste and fraud have found.

Wow. In retrospect it was a bad idea to handle things that way. So its funny.

On the other hand. What would you do if you were assigned the task of handing out cards to the needy and everyone said they were needy? And there were cases where people were dying as a result of no food or water.

Sucks to be in that situation.

Back online!

2006-05-12T09:16:00.000-04:00

It's been months but I finally got my server back up.

Thanks to Sen, we were able to do a network install of Debian. After doing that, I can't think of a way that I would rather install a system. Thanks Sen. 2 Floppys and we are good to go. We did that because my CD drive wasn't working and no other alternatives seemed viable. I'm very pleased. Debian is real nice.

Lets see, so gallery is the only thing that is up for right now. I'm cool with that. Kathy has decided to spearhead the running tracker problem. That's pretty cool. She is going to be using Ruby on Rails which I am stoked to hear all about. Should be fun. I want to dig in as well. I might duplicate what she does in Python or something cuz I don't know it. Then maybe we will compare and contrast and write a report. Or probably not the report.

Anyway, thats all for now I suppose...Well...all that I can post anyway.

Exciting times

2006-05-03T10:25:00.000-04:00

It's crazy. has quit his job to move out to Cali. Damn, he's only been here like 8 months. Unbelieveable. He leaves today for his interview trip. He lands in San Jose :( in about 12 hours. Crazy. I wish I were that spontaneous (not that he did it on a whim or anything).

It's just crazy.

I've been getting busy doing interviews and stuff for new "rotations". Got a few cool ones coming down the pipe. The most interesting one I would say would have to be Japan. Yeah...Japan. Sweet. I don't have much detail on that one though, they haven't given much. What I do know is that it'd be a year and the customer is in Japan (that makes sense). More details will definitely be coming later.

Running/Biking is awesome. I've got a little running schedule that I've been keeping up with. It is 3 runs a week. There are 2 shorts and 1 long. So far my long is 4 miles and my short is 3miles . My next long however will be 5 miles. And that is on Saturday. That should be fun.

Once I get the server up and running I will be able to post my runs like I did in the last post. That is a ton of fun to do, again, I need to get my server up.

Ok....I guess times aren't THAT exciting. At least they are for Cory.

Check that, times are exciting. As soon as I leave work(at least yesterday), I feel like I have a whole lot to look forward to in terms of potential happenings in the form of phone calls. I'm being vague but I think you probably get the point. If you don't, it will be apparent when something crystalizes.

First few runs

2006-04-26T12:49:00.000-04:00

I posted my first few runs with my GPS. I'm pretty pleased with the results. It's obviously not entirely accurate, as one of the maps shows me running on water. But its pretty damn close. You get a really good idea where I'm at with this stuff. So I dig it.

Kathy and I are gonna work on the DB storage for this as soon as we get the server up again. I swear, its pretty close. The OS is actually installed, but we are having some issues with moving the hard drive (not interesting).

2006-04-19T13:49:00.000-04:00

Bush:
So everyweeks starts at Bush this weekend. That should be fun. Although the last time we all got together was a bit of a stretch in terms of productivity or awesomeness.
1) They all basically told me that they weren't going to memorize their shit. That sux for me alot. I'm not happy.
2) The shorts took about forever. Luckily they made them for me so I didn't have to do anything.
1') It was fun though cuz they all came to my place. We drank and had a good time

GPS Biking and Running:
So I've been running and biking some. Now that the weather is basically consistently 60's and 70's I figure I gotta utilize it. I found a few trails in Gaithersburg that supposedly go down to DC. I haven't found that path yet. I always get stopped right around Rockville somewhere.

Each of the last two times I rode I popped a tire. That sucked. Don't know why that happened. Gotta figure that out. It sucks cuz that tire had about 14 miles on it. What a waste. Oh well.

I ran a 5k a few weeks ago. That was pretty cool. I pretty much got pwned though. I miscalculated my pace. I thought I was running an 8 minute mile. To my surprise, I was only running a 9. That suxor.

Well, in order to get a better handle on how fast I am going, I have purchased a little device that I am very very very excited about. Just ask anyone I work with. They are all sick of hearing about it. Its the Garmin Forerunner 201. I'm pretty stoked about this thing. You can track your runs on this badboy and it spits em out in XML format. I'm stoked. The first link there is one that I did using the Gmaps API. That was a fun little project that Kathy helped me out with. I dig it. Side note: I really want to learn more about AJAX and different ways I can use that.

Anyway, I think this device is gonna get me even more motivated to run and stuff. I'm gonna use it up in Jersey this weekend and I'll do some running up there. I figure it'll be another good way to track all the place I go. Plus it will keep me fit. Good times.

Cory:
Damnit. Cory is moving. This makes me livid. But it also got me to get in touch with my manager and ask him to get me out there. I think this could be a pretty good deal for me if I can get some TDY pay.

Speaking of TDY...

Roommate:
We got a new roommate. Don't know if I posted since then. But he is still working out to be a stellar roommie. He is mad easy going, pays ontime, helps with tech stuff, shares the same interests, and is totally successful at our company. Its great.

He helped me with...

New Server:
...getting the new server up. Well, tonight we are gonna finish it. But we had to get the data off of my old hard drive which I feared was hosed. Turns out I think it was just the boot partition. So we got everything off. Only took about 9 hours to xfer to a windows share. Weak...NTFS and its utilities are garbage. That is all I'm gonna say.

Anyway, so I am going with a Knoppix system. I was thinking Mandriva but I figure it'd help me out since Sen (roommate) is a Knoppix fan. That way I can just ping him for help.

Settlers of Catan:
Got into a board game which we call "Settlers" that is pretty sweet. Long story short, you can play it online for free at AsoBrain games and its fun.

It got Kathy and I back in the mode of doing something productive with our free time. We are gonna prolly make some web games in the near future. That'll rule.

Oh dear God.

2006-02-13T19:13:00.000-05:00

This is legendary!

Not too much going on. Recaps thats all.

2006-02-02T16:51:00.000-05:00

Vegas:
I don't think Vegas got enough coverage in the last writeup. The sights were totally rediculous. I'll post some pictures when I get the time. We saw the Bellagio fountains from way at the top of the Eiffel tower. That was totally rad. After that, we drank a bunch in Paris and just rested our feet. I fell in love with the margaritas. So nice. Drinking like that is totally prime. Good friends, good drinks, Paris. It was great.

I keep thinking of more things to put here about the trip but I keep forgetting. I guess what they say about things in Vegas is true.

Network:
Uninteresting news...The home network is up. For some reason, the LAN addresses are all of the form 192.168.2.x instead of 192.168.1.x. I thought that was odd. But it fixed the problem. So I played warcraft again last night. That was cool.

Drumline:
The drumline was doing well this weekend. We had 9 snares. My buddy Rawdie got cut. That sucks. I feel for him. He just didn't have the experience. I suggested he march elsewhere. He wants to hang out and be an alternate. I don't think that is in his best interest. Oh well. A vid of the weekend can be found here.

Work:
Kathy made me a great dinner (pork chops, rice, creamed corn) last night. I fell in love with mixing the creamed corn with the plain white rice. I brought the leftovers into work. Someone ate them. I was pissed. Really really pissed.

PBWiki

2006-02-02T07:34:00.000-05:00

Wikis are fun etc.

Happy groundhogs day.

It's been awhile

2006-01-27T15:06:00.000-05:00

Bad news

Family Health:
Horrible news. For a month my Dad's Mother has been growing more and more ill. It is a worst case scenario. Needless to say, I'll be in Rochester a few times in the next few months.

Work:
I sortof got laid off in December. My IRAD got cut significantly (+50%) and I was one to get the axe. It isn't so bad, I actually still get a paycheck and I wasn't alone. Well, at first I was the only one, I think cuz I was ELDP and I am expected to bounce back. Anyway, I look at it as, I felt what it was like to get laid off but I didn't have to deal with the significant consequences. The resolution is in the Good news Section.

rodericj.com
Is down. Our whole network is hosed. Something is up with the hardware. I think it is the switch.

Good News:
Las Vegas:
Uh....I went to Las Vegas last weekend. It ruled. OMG It ruled. First night I was up $200 in Roulette. I could not miss. It was amazing. It was almost to the point that I thought I had figured the game out! Pretty sweet huh? I thought so. Anyway, by the end of the weekend I was down into the negatives. I don't care, it was well within the pre-determined limit that I set for myself so I am happy with that. I learned how to play craps. That game rules. I think the odds are the best on that table. It was a really fun game. I learned a few strategies and it was cool. Of course I lost a buncha cash on that.

One of the best things about Vegas is that your drinks are almost always free. That ruled. I was wasted a few times.

Summary of that goes a little like this - Went with Kathy, Meredith, George her husband, and Adrian (Kathy's old Roommate). It was great. One of the real highlights was drinking in Paris with Adrian and him saying "Nurk Nurk" instead of "New York New York". That ruled. There were other things of course. Pictures will be on my site, which is down, soon.

Pictures:
Speaking of. I ordered some pictures that I took. I got them from Shutterfly. I got 6 8x10's of some of the best pictures I have taken from Hawaii, Bahamas, Honeoye, etc. Grand total with Shipping: $1.79. Kick ass.

Work:
I started a new rotation. I work in Virginia now. The drive is not so bad. Bout 40 minutes if I leave at 6. Thats fine. I can handle getting up early. More later as I gotta get out of here for...

Drumcorps:
...I started teaching a drumcorps in New Jersey. It is a pretty big thing for me. I am very excited. If you knew me, I was considering some drastic changes. I think I just needed to get my favorite hobby back. Anyway, this is working out quite well. I am leaving work right now and I am gonna head over to that as soon as I can get packed. This is huge for me. Some thoughts: the line is pretty good so far. I They are a little green but it is entirely workable. I think this is the right spot for me. Not to mention that everyone is on this huge momentum kick and they really are thinking that this is going to be the year for them. Dan Delong is the writer. He knows what he is doing so this could work out huge.

Oh also, it turns out that I am not so bad at this teaching thing. Not as bad as I thought anyway. I'll report more later, but it looks like its gonna be good!

Project:
I submitted my project 10 days ago. Its the first draft of my paper. I am excited to be wrapping this up. I expect only cosmetic changes. Since it has been 10 days and no response, I think that Kaminsky is already passing it to the rest of the committee. That is hugely awesome news for me. I am excited. Sweet.

I have to go now.

2005-12-15T21:23:00.000-05:00

ISWYDT

Worst post ever

2005-12-06T07:43:00.000-05:00

Its easy for me to add stuff to this. Don't even bother reading it won't get better:

Alice:
XTR:
KeyGen:

341:
0: 28734
1:17094
2: 22234
3: 5250
4: 3750
5: 2812
6: 16468
7: 8641
8: 13765
9: 7266

681:
0: 18703
1: 331031
2: 145593
3: 99843
4: 23828
5: 89578
6: 422297
7: 37938
8: 56531
9: 127640

GToTheAModP

341:
0: 813
1: 734
2: 844
3: 844
4: 891
5: 703
6: 828
7: 844
8: 813
9: 922

681:
0: 4688
1: 4609
2: 4391
3: 4532
4: 4750
5: 4453
6: 7828
7: 4687
8: 4453
9: 4641

K (GToTheABModP):
341:

0: 812
1: 735
2: 859
3: 860
4: 891
5: 703
6: 844
7: 703
8: 875
9: 937

683:
0: 4688
1: 4656
2: 4437
3: 4562
4: 4828
5: 4500
6: 4546
7: 4610
8: 4563
9: 4703

Hash:
341:
0: 0
1: 15
2: 0
3: 0
4: 0
5: 0
6: 0
7: 16
8: 0
9: 0

683:
0: 0
1: 0
2: 0
3: 0
4: 0
5: 0
6: 0
7: 0
8: 0
9: 0

Bob:
XTR:
gToTheBModP:
341:
0: 8931633
1: 8121933
2: 9005609
3: 9166692
4: 9643583
5: 7772234
6: 8948961
7: 7853797
8: 8517770
9: 8927536

From Derek:
XTR 341 keygen1
0: 250084

White water rafting and base jumping

2005-10-17T10:40:00.000-04:00

Ahhh so this weekend was the chap white water event. It was pretty tight. I had never white water rafted before so this was a new thing for me. I enjoyed it. The rapids were anywhere from Class 3 to Class 5 rapids. It was great. There was a picture taken of Kathy that was probably the best picture I have ever seen of her. It was probably the biggest smile I have ever seen of her. I bet I will regret not buying it.

So bonus round.
Turns out that it was Bridge Day at the New River in West Virginia. Yeah that is the one day a year when it is legal to Base Jump off of the New River Bridge. How rad is that? It got me thinking of ways to get into Sky Diving as a hobby. I would love that.

It was just really cool to see that the ENTIRE bridge was lined with spectators. There were cops there and food vendors and all kinds of stuff. I guess you need 50 Solo Skydives among other things. Anyway, we saw some people go like half way down before pulling the chute. Mark said: "I want to go up to that guy and ask him if it is hard to do that with 500lb balls". It was funny. We all laughed.

There were also repellers going down the entire height of the bridge. Dude that must have been Bad ass too.

Anyway, so later in the night we were telling ghost stories. Only they weren't ghost stories. They were movie plot lines. Some of the memorable ones were Face Off, and Back to the Future. Some others were Friday the 13th and Joel's adventures in World of Warcraft. All in all, it was pretty funny.

Today is the day!

2005-10-11T09:33:00.000-04:00

It should be noted that Socom 3 comes out today.

A moment of Silence

<pause>

So I have this presentation to do. I had to wear a suit today to work. Basically, I have to fight off the chicks with a stick. The presentation is at like 3 or something. I'll have to split right after that to go get Socom. I'll play for a few hours then go to Salsa lessons. It should rule!

Also, I had a big day on my project yesterday. I successfully sent data to and from the phone and found out that the phone computations shouldn't take too long. ROCK!

It's been a long time my friend...It's been a long time.

2005-09-27T17:25:00.000-04:00

Taste of Lexus:
Saturday we went to the Taste of Lexus event at FedEx Field. It was tight.

The field is very nice. The situation is much more ideal for fans than Ralph Wilson Stadium.
The cars were amazing.

I got to drive the not even new yet IS 350. It was a pretty tight little ride. You can see the video here. That ruled. It is always nice to be able to push a car like that. I now have a bit more confidence in my own car (since it can't push that hard) around turns and stuff. It made driving fun. Makes me want to take up a hobby in racing.

So the food was also very tasty there. It was rich people food so I didn't understand it, but it was super delicious.

I was supposed to go to the Red Sox Orioles game immediatly after the taste of lexus but I decided to stick around and test out the BMW 530 and BMW 330i. They were both nice cars. I am a big fan of the B dubs.

So I went to Baltimore and made the 6th inning on. I missed all of the free food and free beer but whatever. The game was fine. Only 5 innings of baseball is good enough. Steven Long almost got in a fight with some Sox fan. That was weak. The guy was such a blow hard. Went out to Federal Hill in Baltimore and it was cool.

New Job:
Got a new job. Its a networking position on a project called TSAT. It is pre-RFP which is total odd to me. What that means is that it is right up my alley in terms of process and stuff.

My first impression of the job was that I got a schedule with my name on it. So I have deliverables. Anyone who knows my old situation knows that this is a huge step for me.

So the job for now is that I am writing Linux Kernel Modules to do network filtering. Thats fun. I don't know how to do that.

Housewarming:
I'd say it was a large success. People seemed to enjoy themselves and nobody got in any fights.

The one thing that I realized during the party process, is that I seem to have a decent number of friends here. Thats pretty cool. Most of those people I would say went beyond acquaintences so that pretty much rules. I am pleased with that.

I think there were like 40 people there. That ruled.

Poker:
Played some poker with Luke, Jim (Luke's friend), Nirav and Adrian last week. I found that it wasn't quite what I was looking for and I should have taken advantage a little more. Luke and Jim like to play REALLY LOW LIMIT holdem. I thought we played low limit, but they like doing $1 max raise which to me is pretty pointless. We usually do $3 max raise with unlimited re-raising and that seemed to work out ok. With $1 raises, it takes out a gigantic dynamic in the game. That that point you are betting exclusively on who has the highest cards. I didn't like that so much. It seemed to make the game less exciting and dramatic. I didn't ever milk it though. Luke would always fold if anyone raised and I should have capitalized. I didn't. Shoot. Oh well. I learned something new.

Failure of a year:
I was debating weather or not to post this. So I will just list of some goals I had for the past 12 months.

No Credit card debt

um....

Project finished

um...

Success at work]

ELDP - 12 months later, I'm batting .334

So that is that.

Project update:
Speaking of which. I started doing time trials. The results for DH (switched from RSA) yielded a linear progression until you add multiply 32-bit digits. Now 1 iteration of Key Generation at 2048-bits takes about 4 hours. Good times.

WOW:
Yeah so one of the reasons I haven't been posting is because Joel got World of Warcraft and gave me his 10-day demo. Uh...yeah...I'll see you in about 6 months.....Damn that is a good game. That is a recipe for success right there. 4 million players at $12/month. Wow. Count em for Blizzard.

Thats long enough. I'll comment more later.

Best

DC - Deals - Light - Football

2005-08-30T14:18:00.000-04:00

Wanted to mention one or two more things that I forgot.

Drumcorps:
How could I forget. Finals is on ESPN2 tonight.

Soaps:
Gotta love slickdeals. Kathy and I went out and got 5 Soap Dispenser things for $0...NO REBATE!! That basically ruled. So I love those slick deal things. I was reading on lifehacker a few weeks back and he mentioned a new one that I had never heard of. It looks like slickdeals gets theirs from this guy. The best part is that they are all RSSable.

ELDPs at the Lighthouse:
Total found out that we are taking a trip down to VA Beach in October to tour our Center for Innovation. It should rule. We got very large hotel rooms. Mark (Bark) says that he was able to get the room with the "Romance" package. Should be hot. I and a few others got the view. Nirav got the "Deluxe" which is just bigger. Which is just an invitation for people to be at his place late at night. HA! Awesome.

FF:
New Strategy with Fantasy Football. I think I am going to look at individual players and based on stats and playing history, I am going to pick the best for the job. So far I am making a list of who to pick. Should be good.

ELDP Rules!

2005-08-30T10:47:00.000-04:00

LDC1:
I went on the first conference that all LDP'ers must go on. I was gone for an entire week to Landsdowne, VA. We stayed at the same place that the Washington Redskins were having their spring training so that was kinda fun.

Anyway, the purpose was for us to go to classes that deal with leadership as well as network with as many people as we possibly could. It was a pretty good deal. We got to see the CEO which was huge. He spoke to us for awhile and it was good.

I must say that I was a bit worried at first. Some of the classes seemed to be irrelevant to my job since I have no responsibility etc. The people seemed to relate to the stories about having 14 hours of work to do before noon. I was frustrated. I immediately got over that and found myself inspired by the stories I had heard. Some of these people were working really long hours in their first week and LOVING IT! After mulling in my situation, I saw the opportunities to get with these people and get job's out of them. My team coach was totally cool and as a result of a triangle of communication between Kathy, He and I: It looks like both Kathy and I may be moving.

That's right. Moving. How awesome is that.

The job is in Manassas so the commute could be unbearable. This job change could bring out a change in Organizations also. That would be funny. Funny and appropriate.

That is the biggest news.

Beyond that, ELDP so far has given me new inspiration to actually do things. I was really feeling that my career was heading nowhere. And worse, that my company was something other than what I wanted. I now believe that I have much to gain from this company/job/career. I am really excited and not so scared about being in a dead end job. I think its just THIS project that is not such a match for me. Soon I will be somewhere else. Good times.

The class so far has been pretty good. I think it should be a pretty good thing for me to get into. The degree I am now pursuing will be an MS in Systems Engineering. I'll be honest. It's not my first choice. I'd rather do the Computer Engineering degree at Virginia Tech but Logistically, it doesn't look like it's going to happen. Sucks. At least Systems Engineering is generic enough that I can use it anywhere.

Cory:
He is moving here this week. That should basically rule. Too bad I am going back to Rochester this weekend. Damn.

Prison Break:
I saw that new show on Fox called Prison break. It was pretty good. It got me excited for the upcoming season of Scrubs, Lost, Family Guy, 24 and other shows. Should be a good season team.

Cory's life

2005-07-25T11:55:00.000-04:00

came down to visit me this weekend. His real intention was the job interview. By the sounds of it, you can't have a much better interview. It baffles the mind to think he is considering not taking the offer. The good news for me is that he may be moving down to N VA very soon so that will rule. The times we had at Lola Bistro are something I really missed once I got down here. Maybe if he moves then we can find something like that again. He was asking me if I wanted to put in my resume. I am emotionally torn. I'd love to simply because of my current job situation. But I can't knowing that in 1 week I will have a new manager and hopefully a new job.

Blast you Cory!!! Anyway, comparing our two lives, I am insanely jealous!

Best Summer EVER (barring Drum Corps)

2005-07-19T09:48:00.000-04:00

Alright so where to begin. I was sittin' around the other day and I realized that I have had a pretty active and pretty positive summer so far. I am going to list off quite a few things here which are not in any particular order (except for the last one).

1. Fantastic party weekend like 2 or 3 weekends ago. I feel like I really got my personality out there with my co-workers and all. I went to this party where apparently I got ripped yet I still maintained some sense of humor and people bought into it, so socially that is cool.

2. No question, the biggest thing hanging over my head EVER is my Thesis. I seemed to have ridiculously slow progress with that over the past year until July. I don't know if it was the imminent deadline or what, but I finally got the hardest parts finished. So it isn't done, but it is at a point where I can finally say, completion is endevidabuble. I posted all about it in my blog. So that was one thing.

3. I(we) purchased a house. Obviously a huge step in anyones life. It was my first time and so far its been working quite well. Kathy and I closed Friday and it went pretty nicely. Kathy and I spent the first night there and got up and started fixing this, or buying that. This weekend was a big spending weekend but it pretty much rocked because every dollar (save the tax) went towards a better lifestyle. Thats a good feeling. I'll take that. We got some nice living room furniture the day after we moved in and I could sit in that couch for ever. We get our HOT table tonight at the same time as the comcast guy comes buy to hook us up. So that basically rules. We are working on some of the interior decorating schemes and it is really fun kinda working things out and making decisions based on what other people will think. I don't know, its just a different kind of fun.

4. Leading into that, we had been talking about getting a vacuum cleaner since we bought the house. Neither of us have one and I would say it is a necessity for any homeowner if you want to live to any decent standards. One of the things we were throwing around was the idea of getting a Roomba The only difference between the Discovery and the Discovery SE is the hanging wall mount is a charging wall mount on the SE. One of the things we like about the Roomba is that it will charge itself on the floor. So we will put the charger under the couch or something and it'll be fine. So anyway, we were going to hold off on this for awhile because of the price tag. Then I saw that it was sold at Sharper Image. After that I remembered that you can double your cashback bonus if you go to stores like Sharper Image and stuff. So since gas gives me 5% by default on my Discover card, it is really 10%. So when gas is $2.20/gallon, I am really only paying like $1.98 or something. So that rules. Anyway, I cashed in my junk and we got the Roomba for about half off. Not bad huh?

5. The latest huge thing that has happened to me. Today (really yesterday), I got the good news that I am now in the ELDP here at work. It stands for Engineering Leadership Development Program. Essentially what this means is that I get a new manager effective August 1st. I will start a new job VERY soon after that. The jist of the program is this: Members do 3-4 rotational assignments which last 9-12 months each. During this time I will be working towards getting a higher education technical degree. Thats right, a new MS. Some of the work we do at the plant is supposed to transfer into the school of our choice. This program has agreements with University of Maryland, Johns Hopkins University, and a few other big schools as well. My first choice for schools is VT in the Software and Machine Intelligence program. Obviously I am super syked about this. I did some interviews a few weeks back that I kinda kept on the DL exactly how excited/nervous I was about this. So it should be a pretty good time. The first thing I need to do is go to a conference in Virginia for a week. That should rule. That is like the second week of August or something. My friend Mario also got into the program. I am really happy that both of us got into this. Its going to change our lives and the velocity and which we progress from now on. (Now we wait to see who brings up the fact that I am not done with my project and how they would have done things differently because they are superior in their decision making process.)

6. Going with big things happening to me, see the link to my past journal entry. I don't need to write all about it, but its worth noting as "things that happened to me lately".

So...Things are going well.

I'm calling it: 10:15PM: 12 July 2005

2005-07-12T23:07:00.000-04:00

Project:
So it took me almost EXACTLY 1 year (6-27-04 to 7-12-05). But I finally did it, I finished my MS Thesis.

Well sort of. Here is what I am supposed to do:

Implement Arbitrary Length Precision Integer math Library (done)
Implement RSA (done)
Implement Elliptic Curve Cryptography (done)
Implement XTR (done)
Take measurements
Write paper
Defend

I think it is pretty easy to see that the hard part is over. Now the fun stuff begins. I really am excited about writing the paper. God this is gonna be good.

So that is all on that.

Last weekend:
Last weekend ruled. I went to a housewarming party. I pregamed with Mario at about 7 and we watched half of "Badder Santa" (so I am told). Apparently the pregame was the entire night. Oh man it ruled.

Apparently I was fun that night. Like I implied, it was a pre-gamed night. So it ruled.

Next night we went to a friend of Adrian's who had a hot tub with a cdplayer built in and little jewel lights that set the mood. Best part, he wrote it off as a medical expense. Rock.

They also had a foosball table which was part of the reason we went to the party. Kathy and I were pretty much the stars of the show with that. Which ruled. After a few drinks, Kathy was able to beat me essentially 20-2. Not good. Funny, but not good.

Conclusion:
In conclusion, I am done with my project. HA!

2005-06-29T16:45:00.000-04:00

Again Google pulls through.

I have some ideas I'd like to implement. Wes or Derek, you interested?

2005-06-28T11:18:00.000-04:00

Um. I am convinced that there is nothing better than this product. Google Earth.

That is absolutely amazing. I really want this in my car. How perfect would this be. Anyone know how to get data to a laptop in a car? Can you do it with sprint?

Anyone? Any verizon users have this capability?

Amazing.

2005-06-27T09:22:00.000-04:00

Today is a pretty big/good day for me.

All work related.

I have two interviews. One for ELDP which is something I have been hoping for for quite a long time. If it pans out, it should give me some pretty good stuff to write about, both in my LJ and on my Resume (wow, that rhymed). I have a meeting with like a "Chief Systems Architect" or something that is pretty unattainable maybe. That should be pretty cool. Its the second of this type of interviews for me so I am pretty syked about it.

And lastly I got some pretty good news today. And if you know me it should be easy to guess what it is.

Of course, to top it all off, I am wearing a suit today so I feel very important.

I BOUGHT A HOUSE!

2005-06-15T23:23:00.000-04:00

I officially bought a house!

Unofficially.

But its official that Kathy and I have put an offer in on a house and it was accepted so we are "going to contract"! And thats flippin' official.

I will let you read about it here. And look at our commute to work here. We are both very excited and we have some great plans for the kitchen and the basement.

The Celebration of choice is a bottle of Cotes-Du-Rhone villages finest Cuvee des Galets! Its a red from my Sister. Very excited and getting uneasy with the wine.

Thanks for listening.

Bored and more.

2005-06-09T14:31:00.000-04:00

obviously I am bored..

Morpheus

?? Which Of The Greek Gods Are You ??
brought to you by Quizilla

So a Friend asked me the other day why I don't pay back my loan that is at about 1.95%. Then I realized that maybe he doesn't understand interest rates. Then I started thinking: "I wonder if all of my friends are taking advantage of today's interest rates". Then I thought: "Does everyone use ING?". Then I thought: "If not, I would like them to use me as a reference".

SO: If you want a free $25 and a savings account with no minimums and no fees and 3% interest. Leave me a comment and I will send you a reference and you will get $25 free and I will get $10 and you will gain 2% more on each dollar you have in savings.

Even if you don't want to have a savings account, do it for the free $25 bucks. So, does anyone need $25?

And the update:
Kathy and I lost our second house yesterday. Someone outbid us. That sucks, but we are looking at new things now. That is fun.

Project:
I am very worried about the July deadline that Kaminsky gave me. Mainly because I sometimes have trouble finding the time to work on the Thesis. Then I think: "If I lose this, then I can work with Reznick". That would rule.

Foos:
Kathy beat me 5 times in a row in Foosball yesterday. Then today I beat her 3 times and I wanted 2 more and she crushed me in 3 games. I was so pissed.

Friendster:
Ed Paulson shot me a message from friendster. So that was kinda cool. Through that I was able to get in touch with Scott Callard. He was one of the people I tried very hard to be very much like. Kindof a role model for me.

Work:
Boring, but I have some things to do sometimes. I don't like what I do, but its something to make the time pass

Money:
Stopped putting cash into credit cards so I can save for the house. Before someone thinks that is a bad idea, understand that Maryland Housing in the past 10 years has been appreciating at about 12%. So that pretty much kicks the Credit Card's ass. So, anyway, I stopped paying cards and I can see my bankrolls finally accumulating. That is a good thing. Obviously I can't forget that I have the credit cards, but it still nice to know stuff is growing.

Deepest Sender:
I wish the moz extension Deepest Sender had a spell checker. Well it does, but I don't know how to use it.

Thoughts?

2005-06-03T13:00:00.000-04:00

So it looks as though I may be buying a house.

This gives a pretty good display of it.

There are 3 problems with this place.

1) Unfinished/non-walkout basement - However, we do agree that we can now form it to whatever the heck we want it to be. Also, since it isn't walk out, it makes it PERFECT for a theatre room like her sister's:
.

2) The neighbors backyards do not look stellar. Rather, there are 2 of our neighbors who's backyards are kept to a sub-par level. You can also see that like shudders are falling off and the paint is clearly not maintained. I don't know why the HOA hasn't done anything about this but it is a concern.

3) Termites. We got em in an isolated location (we think). If the seller doesn't get rid of them, then we probably won't buy the place.

On the plus side, its perfect size, its the layout we want, its clean, many appliances are new, the neighborhood rules (except for the 2 houses), there is a TON of open space near us (perfect for frisbee, or golf practicing), close to golf course, close to work, etc.

So it should be a pretty good deal. We put in an offer on it yesterday so that is pretty exciting.

The lady who lived there before us died. Sad. But they are selling the house at under market value. Her legend lives on. Betty King. May you rest in peace.

Internet offers:
I am inspired by here. I am trying to get a 20inch TV. Those things retail at about $1200. At least that is what I saw it at. So I finished my 6 offers and I should have this TV soon after we move in. I bet I could sell it for $900. Wouldn't that rule? Anyone want a Phillips 20 inch LCD TV with Dolby Surround Sound (whatever that means) and a built in FM tuner. I probably won't even open the dang thing. Unless we decide it would be perfect above the bed.

Day 3

2005-05-02T17:10:00.000-04:00

Today we went to breakfast with Matt and his roommates Steve and Bobby. It was a place called Sm . It was pretty good.

Went to Waikiki beach after that for a few minutes to see if we could body surf a little better. That didn't work to well. Matt called and gave us the 15 minute warning so we had to head out anyway. We got all ready for the day and Matt picked us up at the hotel while we were trying to make reservations for the busy week we had planned. We ended up not making the reservations then and it was a big mess. The lady was calling us and she sounded upset.

Anyway, Matt took us to Sandys Beach. It was unreal. We thought we were up against some normal sized waves. Little did we know that the waves there were outstanding. Matt tried to warn us but I had no idea what to expect. I have never experienced waves like this. The most memorable instance occured when I tried to catch a wave right at the break. I thought I paddled pretty well but I was actually going backwards. I figured the wave was or something so I kinda stopped. Then I got hit by this wall of water that just flipped me over and threw me pretty much every direction possible. The cable from the boogie board wrapped around my neck, everything went TOTALLY black and I was being slammed into the sand and twisted around so fast that I never had any guage of what way was up and what way was down. It was so bad that I started thinking about the best way to let the beach know that I was so that they could resesutate me. It was bad.

Its not that the waves were terribly big, I mean they were, but it was the vectors of the water that threw me off. It was so much water going in exactly 2 directions but interleaved within eachother all over the place. It was bad. I tried again and failed just as bad. I decided to give up soon after that.

Since we were on that side of the island, we saw the Halona blow hole. That was sweet. Kathy saw a turtle and was very excited to be the only one who saw it. She was still talking about it the next day. Crazy .

Matt took us on a tour of the southeast side of the island after that and it was pretty slick. There were some really nice areas as well as some amazing sites. Of course, I didn't have my camera on me so I didn't get to capture them. Damn.

After that, Kathy and I went out to a very nice dinner at Halekulani's House without a Key. It was great. We were right on the beach. There was some live entertainment. Food was great. Drinks were great. I got some pictures so I will post them ASAP. Kathy and I took a nap and waited for Matt to call us about the night out.

That night we went to Tsunami's Bar. It was alright. Matt was already drunk. It was fine. We were a little nervous about the skydiving event we had planned for the next day. So we only stuck around there for a short time. I had 2 shots and a beer and we called it a night.

It was 2 AM and we had an 11 AM appointment at Skydive Hawaii

Day 2

2005-04-29T23:59:00.000-04:00

Matt picked us up from the hotel and we headed out to Hawaiian Adventures Water park. It was a pretty good time. I got a little burned though. It wasn't too bad. I had quite a bit of sunscreen on so I was pretty covered. I was significantly pink though. Decent place. It was small but the slides were pretty good. I would say it was a bit too expensive. It is small because I think many people don't want to go to a water park when there is the Ocean ALL around you.

There were some slides there that were just like races. It was sweet. I totally dug em. Matt and his friends REALLY liked them though. The wave pool was SOOOO awesome. I had such a good time there.
One of the highlights of the place was the GIANT half-pipe that you used with a tube for 2. It was great. Just picture a skateboard half-pipe only there is water on it. You get the idea.

After the park we went over to Matt's place. His view is AWESOME. He can basically see all Honolulu and at night this view is incredible. He has a nice place that he shares with a few guys he knows. One of them is his cousin. We were talking to a few of them about housing costs (wink wink) and as it turns out, things aren't so bad down here. Yeah its an arm and a leg for anything but it is not a shock to us as it is remarkably similar to DC/Maryland/Virginia.

Left his place and we ended up eating at a place called Duke's Waikiki Restaurant. The food was pretty good. I had some Fish Tacos (which I love) and we ate RIGHT ON THE BEACH. We were so close that on the same pavement was a shower for the surfers. They would walk up basically right next to us and shower off. It was great.

After dinner Matt and Shelly and we went to this place on the windward side where the houses were right on the beach. Shelly said that it was titled the "Number 1 beach in the United States". The sand is VERY VERY VERY soft and there are little specs of phosphorous that glow in the moonlight. Kathy was able to find one glowing even though the sun was covered by clouds. Off in the distance about 1 mile away you could see little islands. I forget what they are called now. I will update this when I get the name.

The 45 minute jeep ride back to the hotel was FREEZING. It was rough but we made it.

We called it a night at about 11:30.

Day 1

2005-04-29T07:17:00.000-04:00

So the trip to Hawaii was pretty uneventful. LONG, but uneventful. Ryan picked us up at my place and we left EXACTLY at 11:30 which is a great start. We took a wrong turn on the way to the airport. That was dumb. We got to the airport after midnight and apparently I slept for a good hour or so while we waited for the desk to open.

Flight was uneventful. Arrived in Houston on time. Left Houston on time on a really large 767. I don't know that I have ever been on a plane that big. Not in recent memory anyway. I took about 5 or 6 catnaps (30 minutes or less) throughout the trip. I basically woke up when I realized my mouth was open and it felt really uncomfortable.

Arrived in Hawaii and it was great. A little overcast so that is a bit disappointing. Matt called before we even got to baggage claim so that was cool. We saw some people getting "leid" which was kinda cool. Except that one of the Lei s looked ed. Hot, but ed.

We were a bit groggy from the lack of sleep so it wasn't laughing and joy when we got here.

First thing I did was shower up and shave. I didn't want to hit the beach with a beard and end up with a perma-beard-tan. We scouted the hotel for a bit and found the pool and all that jazz. Its on the roof. Its cool. Our view is decent. I will post some pictures when I get back. Till then here is where our hotel is.

Went to the beach for awhile. We had to meet Matt Pounds at 5 for dinner so we knew we wouldn't have much time (it was about 3:30 at this point). We went to the beach and walked around, saw some nice hotels and trees and beach areas. Swam around for about 45 minutes. It was great. Rolling around in the waves is a really good time for me. The best part about Waikiki Beach was the view we had of Diamond Head State Park. It looks great from the beach.

So we went back to the hotel and hung out in the hot tub while it rained. We got all cleaned up then we met up with Matt Pounds and he took us to Dave and Busters. It was pretty good. Met up with a couple of his friends from the school he teaches at. They wanted to catch a movie and we were pretty tired from traveling. So we walked back to the hotel. It was kinda far. We crashed at about 8:30PM.

Woke up at 5 the next day.

I am off to Hawaii

2005-04-27T18:35:00.000-04:00

So I am at work. It is 6:30. That means it is time to go to Hawaii.

I leave at 11:30 from my place to the airport. Kathy and I will have to wait till 6:10 for our flight. I think thats fine. Kathy has a shirt she is Crocheting and I can read or sleep cuz I am tired.

We will be in Hawaii for 10 days. Its gonna rule.

I am taking bets as to how many pictures I will take.
Ten to One over unders on 783 pictures.
1003 place.
645 to show.
783 1003 and 1003 783 get the quinella.

That didn't make sense.

Paintball, house, Christie, productive weekend

2005-04-23T21:20:00.000-04:00

Things I did this weekend:

Saw the New Family Guy
Reinstalled Suse on my Desktop
Beat a few levels of Krash Nitro Cart
Hung out with Shane Cummings

He is in town to visit his sister and girlfriend and Kathy and I. Good times

Found out my sister is getting married

He is really a great guy. The whole fam was just waiting for it to happen. Its a good thing. I will probably put pictures on my gallery of the proposal. It sounded very emotional and symbolic

Saw my Aunt and Uncle who were visiting VA/NC for Golf.

They came through and paid for lunch for Kathy and I. It was great.

Went to the Gym at least once.

All in all not bad.

Some other things that happened:
Paintball. God I love it. I really wanna get into that. I would love to go out and buy me a Tippmann 98 Custom. That would rule. I at least want to buy a facemask before the next time I go out (May 14th). I have a great story from that, Id like to post a graphic but I think I don't have time now. Ill do that later, maybe in the comments.

Kathy and I are going to be buying a house. I had a good long talk with Rick and he basically convinced me to overcome the fears and face reality that there is no other way to survive. Not to mention the benefits this POTENTIALLY adds to the relationship Kathy and I have.

Of course the work section. I am going to request that we get moving on the Mentorship that my managers discussed with me. I will do this with my weekly status report that I will send this week.

That is all for now.

Hawaii in 4 days.

Time machines

2005-04-11T10:27:00.000-04:00

My Time Machine:
On Sunday April 3rd, Kathy's roommate Melissa had a going away party. She is moving to Miami. At this party, they had a poker table set up. We decided to play a few hands. $10 buy-ins. The game started decent. Then I got some good hands. My secret is that I am terrible at bluffing, so normally I don't bluff. I usually go big when I got what it takes to win. So I went big, got excited and cracked a huge smile. Everyone thought I was bluffing. Truth is, I was just excited. +$40 later I left the table with a really good feeling. We set up another day to play on Wednesday. +$50 later, I am thinking this is the best way for me to make income.
With Quicken, I am able to figure out that I net +$27/day on average. That is after food and rent and fun spending. These poker matches are basically placing me into the future. It's my time machine. I am 3 days ahead right now. This is great. I will continue to play poker often.

Work got a bit better:
(side note): A friend talked to me Saturday about IEC. She has worked on some really cool stuff. Her impression of my project from the outside is exactly the same as my impression of the project from the inside. We talked about what COTS meant and she feels the same as I do. *edit*

Friday I had a meeting with my manager and my manager's manager. It was one of those "What do you want to be when you grow up?" conversations. There is a formal document that needs to be filled out that I needed to do which I had a very planned response too. I think they weren't expecting this because of what everyone else has been saying. ("I don't know", "Maybe a manager or something non-specific", "code-monkey", "etc"). My response was that I wanted to be a CTO. But in the case where my background is not sufficient, I would settle for the rest of my career heading towards that. They replied: "GREAT, here is what we will do...". My 2nd line said that she knew a guy we could get in touch with. I can interview him and get his resume and see the kind of stuff he did to become the CHIEF TECHNOLOGIST. How cool is that. So end of June I will do this thing and they said that what they would like is for me to do some type of Mentorship with him. This made my day. I could be really excited about something like that. I wish I had a time machine so I could go to the end of June and get this thing on my schedule so I can start my career.

Weekend/Weather/Exercise:
This was the best weekend (that I didn't have visitors) in as long as I can remember. Started out Friday with that meeting (see work section). Then Mario, Kathy and I played some hot racquetball for a few hours. That ruled. After that we went to a dinner with Amanda, Azella, Re Re and her friend and a few others. It was great. Re Re and her friend and I talked quite a bit. It was great. I think we are all going to get together and go dancing. It will rule. Re Re seems like a really chill chick. I saw her house on the bike trail when I went with Derek. Rules.

We called it an early night Friday (11:30) and we went to the Cherry Blossom festival (check back after work hours today) on Saturday morning with Mario, Stephen Long, Melissa Mong and her friend (see gallery). It was wicked nice out and I got a wicked sunburn (see gallery). We all had a great time eating Japanese food and seeing the trees.

Sunday we got up, watched Lost (which was Flippin AMAZING), then I went home and fixed my bike and took her out for a spin. I rode all the way up to Kathy's place by way of Great Seneca. There is a path basically going all the way to her place. That ruled. I love Gaithersburg. It was probably like 12 miles or so. Based on this and the Pythagorean Theorem. We finished the day with the front 9 of the Seneca Park Disc Golf course and some tasteless home made turkey burgers. It was a healthy/athletic weekend with perfect weather. I wish I had a time machine so I could go back and live that weekend again.

Moving:
So hanging with Melissa Mong (CHAP president), she talked about where she lived in Bethesda. It seemed like it was about 2 stops from the metro center so it was mad close to everything in DC. I think she even pays less for me in rent and stuff. And her ride to work isn't bad at all. I was totally jealous. Damn. Then we were talking to Mario about getting pre-approved. Based on what he said and my situation, I think that I can get pre-approved for $200k. With that I would be really excited to buy a place similar to the one I was looking at on Christopher ave (map to work). This would not hinder my move to Hawaii NEXT summer either. It would only add to the savings. Good deal. I am looking into it. I wish I had a time machine so I could go back and not spend so much on credit cards.

CHAP Athletics:
I am the Athletic head for the MD West chapter of the College Hire Acceleration program. This means that I have to set up a paintball game in May (done), and semi-weekly Disc golf games. The good news is that CHAP will pay for the new set of Discs. Of course I will be responsible for storing and transporting (i.e. CHAP is buying my new discs). Good times. I don't need a time machine. I enjoy life now.

AWESOME!

2005-04-06T15:03:00.000-04:00

It is 81 degrees out right now!

"This Afternoon" (dumb post)

2005-04-06T10:18:00.000-04:00

Kathy and I were Talking.

Campbell, Roderic says: when are we leaving.
Law, Kathy says: this afternoon
Law, Kathy says: don't know what time
Campbell, Roderic says: "this afternoon" sounds weierd
Campbell, Roderic says: its like "next door"
Campbell, Roderic says: I don't get it
Law, Kathy says: as opposed to next afternoon
Law, Kathy says: what's your problem?
Campbell, Roderic says: afternoon is a state not a noun
Campbell, Roderic says: its like saying, "When will you go to sleep" "This tired"
Law, Kathy says: afternoon is a time not a state
Campbell, Roderic says: "When are we leaving" "This 1PM" I hate that.
Law, Kathy says:you wouldn't just say "when are we leaving" "afternoon"
Campbell, Roderic says: but you should
Law, Kathy says: no
Campbell, Roderic says: Because it is not a noun

Visitors and DrumCorps

2005-04-05T15:09:00.000-04:00

Visitors:
Alan Cona visited this weekend. I haven't seen him since probably freshman year of college. So like 6 or 7 years ago. Anyway it was cool. He was mostly the same. But I have a new found respect for his brutal honesty. He has done some pretty wild things. Sounds like he has had a full life. He is a pretty smart dude also. I am sure he will be fine. Some things worry me though. Like what he brought to my place. <wink wink> Anyway, we played racquetball because it was raining. We also ate out at a few places and it was good.

Wes also visited. But not so much me. He has a friend in Columbia. So Wes, Vin, Bonnie, Marissa, Derek, Kathy and I went out to Cheesecake Factory on Friday night. We then met up with them on Saturday night too. That was fun.

Saturday Alan and Kathy and Azelle and Amanda and I all went to Tyson's Corner and shoped for hours. Alan and I just caught up. It was cool. The girls did their thing.

We went to Olive garden for the worst service EVER!

Work and Drumcorp(?):
Thats right. They get the same category.

So I was sitting in work *edit* and I started searching the internet for camp videos and I came accross Dev's Feb camp or something. Man I started missing it so much I almost flippin' cried. Anyway, Mario suggests it is because it represents a part of my life where I was rediculously productive and now I am *slower*. I think he is right. I was sad.

So I get a call today from Matt Lusky and he says that he has a spot during movins where he is going to need some help teaching the X-men Bassline. At first I was a little hesitant, but then I thought about it. That would be perfect. Its like 2-3 days that would get me the fix I really need. I could go there and hang with some drummer boys and get some REDICULOUS teaching on my resume. I could also come home and work the rest of the week and manage to not take ANY vacation time. This could be good.

I really feel like I have some things I could really show them that Lusky may not know about. I am really excited about this now. I really hope this happens. It would pretty much make my day.

Bike and More Work Issues (long)

2005-03-30T16:44:00.000-05:00

Bike:
Derek and I spent a good 3 hours biking yesterday. It was awesome. I feel like I am in pain now but it is a great pain. I had a really good time and we got to see MUCH of DC. I am going to attempt a map.

We started at mile marker 11.5. We followed these 2 guys who seemed to know the trail pretty well.

Following the greenline through Fall Church:

We followed the trail through Arlington County and apparently another Fairfax county.

into arlington county:

At this point we kinda got lost. But we ended up near the Arlington Cemetary. We crossed the Arlington Memorial bridge to the Lincoln Memorial. Then it got really interesting. We went through George Washinton University and Georgetown on the streets. It was so cool. We were riding fast with little or no regard to our safety. Or at least thats how I felt. I wasn't scured though. We just went and it was fun as hell.

We crossed the francis Scott Key bridge and followed Custis all the way back to the starting point. Well almost to the starting point. I broke my chain about 2 miles from the end. I walked about 1.5 miles barefoot to Park Ave(first map) and Derek picked me up there. It sucked but I still had a kick ass time. Id say we did a good 35 miles by the time we were through. I don't know how to read my computer readout so I can't be more specific at this time. Needless to say it was a kick ass time. Now I need a new chain.

Work:
So we had this meeting today to discuss what could be done with my code. We went through some good stuff and Jamie Kunze wanted to get together to get us past the hump I am in. So we met up and pretty much found out that neither of us know the system well enough to do anything of any value. So we hacked around for a minute and found so many contradictions that it didn't make any sense.

I have a question for DEREK and and any other SE's out there who read this (I don't think there are any).
Here it is: Do you develop in the same place that you test? For instance, we do all of our code development on machine X. Then if we want to Unit test...UNIT TEST, we must move EVERYTHING over to a different machine which has the ENTIRE PRODUCT (Unit Test mind you). Then we run from there. That seems really pointless. I would like to build then run. I don't see why we need to do this. Anyway, this was one of the problems I have been having at work. Nobody clearly stated this to me. So I wasted too much time!

So now I am wasting the rest of the day sitting in from of my machine because everyone is on vacation. I can't get in touch with anyone on my team. Except Kathy.

Basically, I wish I had a good understanding of where Lockheed is going to take me. So I can at least aim towards a goal. Rather than float basically aimlessly. Oh yeah, and I also hate working on code that WILL be dead in a few months. I hate it.

Hawaii: The precursor

2005-03-28T14:03:00.000-05:00

Moving:
I mentioned in my last post that I was considering moving down to Hawaii for a temporary excursion. I mentioned that a part time job would be good. However, I did some research and found some jobs that are not part time. There are some open reqs at Lockheed Martin on the Big Island. I think I would rather be in Maui but what can ya do eh? This move could become a reality if I play my cards right.

Movies:
Since last week I have seen 50 first dates, Blue Crush and The Big Bounce. I like the Big Bounce because of Sara Foster.
I am trying to see all of the shows/movies that deal with Hawaii so I can be jealous of myself and I can have some motivation for waking up in the morning because...

...Work *edit*:
I just am totally bored with this stuff. No...I am bored that I can't get at the good stuff. It is becoming increasingly annoying that it is difficult talk to any of my team members on a regular basis because I am far away. *edit* (use Wes, Derek, and Cory as models for work). *edit* (I like the company, I just am not convinced that I want to work on a CMMI 5).

Easily Bored:
It has been the theme of my life that I am easily bored. Ever since elementary school I have had problems not paying attention or just losing interest in things.

This relates to this post because I am finding that I am bored with *edit* (many things in my life). Not so much life, as I can't really enjoy getting out because of the project and lack of funds. But I am bored with a job I really haven't even started with. That is odd to me. Anyway, it makes me wonder if I would grow really bored of Hawaii if I moved out there. Why not, I grow bored of everything else!

If I bought a seadoo, Could I drive it out to Hawaii? Or do I need to ship it? Wouldn't that be a fun trip?

The next big thing

2005-03-23T20:36:00.000-05:00

Day and Date: Thu, 4/28/2005
Depart: BALTIMORE MD, 6:10AM
Arrive: HOUSTON BUSH INTL, 8:20AM
Equipment: 737-800

Day and Date: Thu, 4/28/2005
Depart: HOUSTON BUSH INTL, 9:35AM
Arrive: HONOLULU HNL, 12:45PM

Day and Date: Sat, 5/7/2005
Depart: HONOLULU HNL, 9:15PM
Arrive: HOUSTON BUSH INTL, 9:55AM

Day and Date: Sun, 5/8/2005
Depart: HOUSTON BUSH INTL, 10:50AM
Arrive: BALTIMORE MD, 2:59PM

God I wish this was a one way!
The good news is. So far ALL of this is only going to cost me $200. Thanks to my friend Matt Pounds. How sweet is that?

I am seriously considering taking a year or 2 off in about a year or 2. How cool would that be? I could keep *edit*(my status). Heck I might even find some work out there. All I need is $80 a month for Student loans and enough for food and rent. I think I can do this! But then again...I always have crazy ideas!

New Bike and stuff

2005-03-18T12:18:00.000-05:00

Last Thursday:
Woah. Mario and Stephen Long and I went out Thursday. I was the designated driver. I didn't have a problem with this because I wanted to save some cash. So we pregamed a 1 at Mario's and then went to get my ticket at work then we went down the GW Parkway (which is nice) and got to Lucky Bar at like 9. Illed there for a bit and had some Rum and Cokes. Then we went to 1223. We were on the guestlist so we didn't have to pay the exorbinant cover. It was pretty dead so we started drinking some more. Next thing I know, I am buying champagne and my card now had $200+ dollars on it. Some responsible DD huh? What a mistake. So Stephen had to take us home. Mario ralphed in the back of the car and I got out somewhere on 66 and lost my lunch. Next day, I got to work at 3PM cuz I left my car in DC (and got a ticket). Holy irresponsibility. I watched the scrubs episode with Colin Farrel last night and now I don't care about what happened. I can embrace it now. Mario however is not drinking for awhile.

Jesse and Bob:
Jesse and Bob visited last week. It was a great time. They showed up on Saturday and we went out to eat and had a great time. Then we played some PS2 which was tight. They made me really like that MX Unleashed game. It kicked arse.

We went to DC Sunday and walked the Mall again. It was pretty cool. I had a good time there. I think Jesse was tired. We ate at ESPN zone. It was good.
Bob forgot his Camera. I need to charge mine.

Jesse of course brought my bike. That was tight. I haven't had a chance to ride on it yet. I think I got a rediculously good deal on it though. The accessories alone would cost about $300. That is what me and a few colleagues think. I paid $600 for the whole package so that means I got a sick bike for $300. Thank god for friends. This bike is in mint condition too. Its a pretty good deal. There are still those little rubber flappy things on the tires. Thats how new it is. Sweet.

Alex is visiting:
Alex is visiting this weekend. He should be here in about 2-3 hours I would say. I wish he was getting here a little later cuz I wanted to ride my bike. It is almost 60 out so I am thinking of bailing out of here in a few to get in a few miles on my bike. I gotta get a battery and fix the tirecap first though. Anyway, ALex and I should have a pretty good time I'd say. He wants to go to DC.

Corned Beef/St Patty's Day:
Kathy and I made some Corned beef for our semi-weekly dinner party. It turned out FABULOUS. It tasted so good and everyone loved it. I like that group of people. Sounds like Azelle is leaving soon so that kinda sucks. She is a good kid. Good thing she is married. ;)

I think that is it for now.

New Technology is cool - My life isn't

2005-03-08T18:06:00.000-05:00

I really like last.fm. Everyone should sign up. Its a good thing. I can listen to my own mp3's without being home or setting up a stream server. Good times. It gives me another reason to find new ways to use RSS stuff on my webpage.

Work is *edit*(work). I still don't like having to wait for people to get back to me. I don't mind the work I am doing, I just don't like waiting.

Project is coming along. I would almost say that I am almost done with ECC. That is HUGE news. Next its just XTR. If that only takes 2 weeks then we are in FABULOUS shape.

I really don't have much to report on. 24 Rules.

Oh I know...Kathy and I went Rollerblading yesterday cuz it was about 70 degrees here. Today it was about 58 or so when I went to work. By the time I got to my office it was a blizzard outside. I have NEVER seen weather change that fast before it was crazy. I hate snowy weather.

MythTV

2005-03-03T17:10:00.000-05:00

MythTV:
Today a co-worker (Don Brock) sent me a link to his MythTV (Knoppmyth) site and I was thrilled. I have been looking into this all day. When I get home I am gonna turn one of my boxes into a Tivo. I can't freaking wait. This is gonna be fabulous. Anyone would be excited aobut this if they saw this guys inteface. Its hot.

Estimated cost:
$100 for 200GB drive (50hrs)
$190 for Hauppauge PCI Video Recorder WinTV PVR 350
I think that should be about it. I am sure there will be some misc costs but this isn't a proposal ass.

People who doubt me:
I get mad at people who always doubted the time I put into school. They were like "WTF? Nobody needs to put in that much time to anything.". Needless to say that without exception I make more money and am happier than they. I say this because their lives are riddled with unemployment. In no situation does that lead to happiness. I don't see unemployment in my future(famous last words). It just made me so mad. So for future reference, if I devote my whole life to something and I do so for years with massive progress, please, don't doubt me.

Work:
Mario is done waiting. I hate waiting. I wouldn't mind as much if I didn't have anything to do, but I have stuff, so when I need help I can't get any because I am so far away from anyone. Dumb.

Maryland People:
I don't like how everyone here won the "property" lottery. It makes me mad. I sortof assumed that you had to work hard and stuff to acheive financial security. This is not true. Slick investments can be a highly thought out process or they can be a result of dumb luck, as is the case with most from this area. I don't feel like many of these people deserve the successes that they have. I say this because some of them spend so retardedly. Like getting TV stations that you don't know or care how to get to. Land lines that cost $50+ when everyone you know knows your cell phone number and you have no intention to use that land line. Dumb. And expensive for me.

People in Maryalnd drive like they are the only ones there. So many times I have been cut off for no reason. Someone changes into my lane (all the way on the right) fast with no blinker for no reason. Then they drive about 1mph for a bit. Then they maybe cut back to the other side of the road and turn left. Dumbass. Or sometimes they will just slam on their brakes and go really slow. Or stay in the right lane with the option to turn at a red light but they want to go straight. This is a big problem in Maryland given the light length. Inconsiderate Dumbasses.

Wizards:
Went to the wizards game last night. It was tight. They won. I got to see Yao from Houston. We had a good time. I was pretty drunk on a work night. I liked. Its a pretty decent thing to go to a game on a weekday. Not too late night. Metro was breazy and it was sweet.

High School buddies

2005-03-01T11:31:00.000-05:00

So I have been in touch with a High School friend of mine Alan Cona. He seems to be doing alright. I got in touch with him because I saw his name on the Alumni page. His little profile thing was basically a giant slap in the face for a list of several of the people who represent everything I hated about my earlier years. So our conversations went well with him and it sounds a lot like he and another friend may come down to visit. That would be awesome.

So anyway, I figured it would be a good idea to contact another guy I went to HighSchool with. This time, I think I will try someone who was a bit more borderline. I won't say names but I approached him by starting a conversation that falls within his lifestyle and his interests. His reply was a bit less than heartwarming. He basically said I wasn't educated. Or at least that is what my twisted mind got out of it. So this just further confirms that I hate so many of the people in Webster. Man they suck.

In related news. Aimee Maggio has a gallery like mine. I think some of her pictures came out a bit better than mine. Apparently she is attractive. When I told Bob about it he said "Dude, I beat up her brother". As if to imply that his actions are a way into a long term relationship. I laughed.

Anyway, I don't think I will get in touch with many more HS wipes.

Sad Yesterday

2005-02-22T11:19:00.000-05:00

Pointless:
http://gprime.net/flash.php/walksmashwalk

I thought this was cool. I like when people put meaning to meaningless things. It was a funny animation.

Work:
I was very frustrated with work yesterday. It sucked hardcore. I couldn't get anything done because I am not anywhere near the team. I think the fact that there wasn't anyone here to talk to yesterday added to that. Also my project is frustrating me. Anyway, yesterday sucked.

Thesis Failure:
Comcast is down too. So I couldn't work on my project because I didn't have access to the CS mail account. Damn that sucked. Nothing went right yesterday. If I hadn't already said this, that was the e-mail where Kaminsky brought up disbanding the comittee.

New Thought:
I would like to submit my paper from my connected home implementation to a call for papers in Germany. I think that would be grand. I have contacted Derek about this and I await his response. There is a call for abstracts due today. This should be fun.

Wes Visits

2005-02-21T11:09:00.000-05:00

So Wes visited this weekend. Ill start from earlier last week.

I was expecting both and Alex to show up this weekend. For whatever reason they couldn't drive together even though they live about 45 minutes apart. This is fine, Alex said that he was going to go even if he had to drive alone. So anyway, since Alex was going to be staying at my place I figured it was a good idea to clean up. Even if this meant cleaning up after the roommates which I despise doing. So I did that and I also worked a few extra hours earlier in the week so I could get out when I expected him to arrive. I neglected to work on my project thursday because I was cleaning(*).

Thursday he called and said he wasn't showing up. I am over it because we had a great time.

Wes showed up Friday night and we went to Cheeburger Cheeburger and got some pretty good food and some excellent shakes. We stuck around for a long time and just talked about pretty much everything. It was cool. Ended up at my place and watched an episode of family guy. Ended the night early.

Saturday we got up at about 9, ran an errand or 2 and headed to Derek's for a FULL day of DC. We got a sweet ass free parking spot thanks to Derek's dad. We walked to the mall and saw the "Cap". Went to the Museum of Modern Art and laughed at the garbage^1. However, I did notice a nude woman in a very abstract painting (one track mind). Ate lunch and planned on meeting up with Kedron Elliott (Alex will be pissed when he finds out she was there). Ended up walking ALL over DC looking for some bars and food. We got pretty loaded at Adams Morgan^2 and ended up meeting some girls. They were nice. One had a girlfriend. Wes had the balls to talk to them. It was a success. We thought they were lesbians, they were not. It was great.

Note to self: Must go to Dan's bar more often. You ask for vodka and they give you like a full glass of vodka. OMG.

We didn't end up meeting up with Kedron anyway. She had to bail early Sunday so they called it an early saturday. That sucks. We were so close. Well, I heard her voice when I was talking to Shawn, that is close enough.

(*) Kaminsky e-mailed me, it seems that I have a deadline now. I feel that he approached this a little harshly also. It felt rude. This e-mail added to the frustration about Alex's neglecting to be considerate.

^1

^2

Mind dump

2005-02-16T17:20:00.000-05:00

Money:
The massive Credit Card payback starts monday. I got the word that my purchases were not 0%. So "It's payback time"...Literally.

I have thrown around buying a house. It is not gonna happen in September.

Social:
Wes and Alex are visiting. Should be very very interesting. They are both coming from the cuse area but not driving together. I am pretty sure I know why ;). We will see what happens. I am excited to talk to wes about jobs and careers and stuff like that.

We have been eating at Amanda's place. It has been really cool. She is really fun and her friends are just great. Kathy and I would like to bring a pot roast next week. We are going to go dancing with Azella (Amanda's roommate...really attractive...nuff said) and her mother. Her mother is a professional/competition dancer. Sweet. That will rule. She is gonna teach us some hot Merengue moves. Should be good.

Mario and Nikki are going to FL for her Board exams. That should be sweet. She will come back as a Lawyer. She is going to be really successfull. They are gonna be a wealthy household.

Mario was out of hand at the Winter Gala in January. It was hilarious.
That video should be on TV forever.

I think I am going to be living with Mario when my lease is up. I feel like the situation at home is becoming hostile. Our gas bill was $400 last month. And I am paying for telephone and television services that I do not receive. That is unacceptable. I want out. I will talk to them...I swear.

Health:
General:
I was violently ill a few weeks back. Just like I was 2 years ago in January. This time was not quite as bad but it certainly rivaled it. That sucked.

Racquetball:
Here are the stats:
Men's C:
1) Hamid Toossi, W=7
2) Mike Selman, W=6
3) Irwin Weinstein, W=5
4) John Hallgren, W=3
5) Jared Zingman, W=2
6) Alan Prigal, W=2
7) Rebecca Levine, W=1
8) Roderic Campbell, W=0

Not doing so well. I won't quit my day job. Playoffs are tonight. Hopefully my terrible seed will give me a prime schedule.

Work:
Work is slowly getting better.. Like I said, I have my own code. Thats cool. Things are just ungodly slow. Kathy and I have been talking about it. *edit*(Kathy and I had our first heart to heart on work and where we were going...) That would be nice.

Derek, if you are reading...Do you think I could publish the paper I wrote on connecting a cell phone to a garage door? Id like to talk about that.
Here is the link to the paper. What could I do to change it. Id like to publish it. I saw some dude publish something about feeding his cat remotely. This is far more sophisticated.

I would like to post more often. I just don't.

Start of 2005

2005-01-17T09:49:00.000-05:00

So it has been awhile

Bluecoats (Xmen) Buddies:
This weekend I had a fantastic time with Matt Fite. He showed up Saturday and Kathy and I showed him around my plaza. We talked and it turns out that we had a great time. He has changed much since last time I saw him in August 2003. He has lost a significant amount of weight, apparently by running 10 miles 4x/week. Sweet. He has also become more confident and funny once again. We pretty much like all of the same internet things and mostly all of the same movies (except Napoleon Dynomite).

So he also got in touch with Mark Lersky (Matt Lusky) and Baby Adam (Adam Gabriel). Lansky is the bass tech at Xmen now and of course Baby Adam is the sectionleader. So that is fun. We all got together and had too many G+T's and Rum and Pepsi/GenericCoke's and we drummed a bit on saturday night. I was impressed that my chops were not as 0 as I expected them to be. I was by no means a key player in the session but it was still a good time. We stayed up till like 5am just shootin the shit and sobering up.

Xmas gifts:
So I got a nice Down Comforter with a Duvet which is nice. My sister MADE me a freaking fleece blanket which rules. Dave and Christie got me MX Unleashed. Kathy's parents got me Warrior Within. Kathy's sister got me an ill hand drawn picture of the broom from Fantasia.

There were other things too but that was some of the highlights.

High School Buddies:
I ended up seeing a whole bunch of people that I really wanted to see when I went home for New Years/Xmas. To name a few: Mark Hubbard, Chris Campanella, Jaimie Soper, Adam Krauzer. It was a great time. Everyone is doing well and we were all happy to see eachother. I even got a call from Campanella last night. He wanted to give me free steaks. I can't argue with that.

I had a party at my place on New Years. There was more than enough food and it seemed that everyone had a good time. It was laid back.

24/Alias/Housewives/Tivo:
Kathy has a Tivo. It has pretty much revolutionized the way I look at time. Its a pretty impressive machine.

Mario and Social stuff:
I got together with Kourtney Kanaley the other day. She was cool. Her and her friends are very nice and are each very pretty. I would like to hang out with them again. Her one friend got me into 94.7FM. Its a classic rock station.

I have been hanging out with Mario a bit lately. Its pretty cool. We went to Bugaboo the other day with his girlfriend Nikki (Lindika or something [Hawaiian]). He is a pretty laid back guy. I think he used to have pretty heavy party days down at University of Miami (or Florida). But now he is trying to pull back and settle in. He wants to buy a House...

Buying a house:
...me too. I have been going back and forth with people about what will happen when my lease ends. I want to buy a place but I really will not have any downpayment by then. Well at least, not much of one. My financial situation is looking pretty bleak right now. I can have a few G's but not enough to get 10% on pretty much anything. The other thing is that it is going to be a pretty bad drop in quality of housing. (See current residence). Kathy and I also discussed moving in with eachother because it will save several thousand dollars.

Finally work:
I am the point of contact for a large piece of code here. I got the assignment last week and this thing will be my baby. I am pretty excited about that. Not really much else to say about it. Jamie Kunz is my POC till he leaves. He is nice.

talked about moving to DC. I will keep the ole eyes open. I know where to get his Resume. I hope he has it up to date.

Bahamas

2004-12-21T20:25:00.000-05:00

This is gonna be a long one.

For about 2 months now I have been planning for Kathy's Birthday/Xmas/Birthday('05)/Xmas('05)/Birthday('06)/Xmas('06) present. I kept it from her and told pretty much everyone I come into daily contact with. The gift was a weekend trip to the Bahamas. The flight was direct through AirTran and the Resort was cheap cuz it was opening weekend.

The presentation:
I made Kathy this scavenger hunt. It consisted of:
a note in a bag on her front door
1. a note in a bag on her front door, leading to...
2. an internet clue game ()leading to...
3. a letter in her coat leading to...
4. a phone call to an unknown place and a request for a "k2 fatty" leading to...
5. her boots leading to a new e-mail account with a clue to the...
6. freezer, leading her upstairs to...
7. a book with an envelope. In the envelope was a piece of paper which said "We leave tomorrow", a second page which was our reservations and plane tickets on the third page.

Basically I am an F'ing Casenova.

It took her about 25 minutes to figure out that "heel" meant for a dog to follow. This was one of the clues and took probably the most time. Reading the reservation also took longer than expected. From what she said, I think she just couldn't believe what it was. She had been wanting (and bugging me) to go on a trip since before Alyssa and I split. We were going to go after graduation but Dougie Fresh ended up getting married and his bachelor party was in good ol' Vegas. So her and I never went.

So I teased her for about 2 months telling her it was gonna be the best thing ever blah blah blah. She said she never in a million years would have guessed what I got her. So thats a good thing. One of the best parts was watching her squirm knowing that the end was paradise...literally.

Anyway, she packed that night and we ate at Red Hot and Blue and went to bed...Stoked

The Trip:
We woke up at like 8 and got our stuff all in the car then it was off to Bal-Teasy's finest airport. We got a couple pictures from before hand.

Once we got there we noticed that some of the stuff on the island was a bit bootleg from the Hurricanes that pounded the island. We didn't mind. We were in the Bahamas.

The resort itself was great except for a few things:
1. The roof of the dining area wasn't totally done so there was hammering occasionally.
2. The extemities of the restort were not finished. So the manmade lake and some of the rooms were still not populated.
3. It was colder than expected (60's).

The Staff members of the place ruled. I wanted to be them. All they need to do is play volleyball and dance and drink and play bingo and windsurf. Damn what a sweet ass job that would have been.

Side:
I wondered if it would be possible for me to pay off my loans then just do that for awhile. Why would you ever stop doing that? It was so amazing. They had ZERO stress. It would NEVER CHANGE EITHER. It looked like a lot of fun. Reminded me of Dirty Dancing starring Patrick Swayze.

Activities:
Kathy and I went windsurfing, kayaking, snorkeling by the reef on the ocean, swimming, dancing (Salsa, Merengue, and at the Disco), long walks on the beach to find Conch's and Stingrays, took a bike ride to the Sheraton and Port Lucaya. By the way Kathy is AMAZING at Merengue. I have a video of it. She was great. We had an underwater Camera for the water sports but we haven't developed them yet. Soon.

Closing:
Long story short. The trip ruled, we are sad that it is over. It was awesome to see Kathy's reaction when she found out what I got her. That really made it worth it. That and going to the Bahamas made it worth it.

I REALLY want to be a staff member at one of these places. It was really cool. I would almost say ideal.

A picture or 2 or 3

Gavin Degraw Concert

2004-12-14T13:43:00.000-05:00

I saw Gavin Degraw yesterday thanks to Kathy. It was at The 9:30 Club which is a pretty good place. Of course Gavin was great. It was a bit pricey considering all of his stuff comes from 1 album. But it was a good show.

One thing that bothered me was the people smoking. There were like these 3-4 people near us who were smoking it sucked. I thought this one girl (loser) was going to burn me or Kathy. I would have knocked her out. That would have been so inconsiderate.

Anyway...Great show.

Side note. Kathy and I are wearing the same thing today. Maroon Shirt with Dark grey nice pants from Express. That sucks.

Latest update

2004-12-06T17:07:00.000-05:00

Kathy's Birthday (11/21):
Good times, her sister came in. We went to IKEA. Kathy will get her present on December 18th. I can't wait. Its gonna rule.

Thanksgiving:
Thanksgiving was good. (Cousin)Rob came home. That is a really good thing. He seems to be doing MUCH better. The turkey was excellent. The food was great and the company was great. Overall a good time.

Money:
Flies out faster than it comes in. I thought I made good money. What I find is that with gas and rent and savings. Money goes OUT faster than it comes in. This is a bit upsetting considering I was in a somewhat similar situation financially last year. I have been working (for real) longer than I was a co-op, I make more money, yet, my credit card bills get higher and higher. That sucks.

Movin' Out:
Not an overly impressive show. It is based on Billy Joel's Music. The idea is that they play his music and they put a story to it. Sounds cool. The music was great but the Dissonance between the music the clothing and the dancing is enough to drive you crazy. It was REALLY good ballet put to Rock and Roll.

The best part about it. The girl who played Brenda from the Brenda and Eddie pair had the most solid stomach you would ever want to see on a girl who is 6'5" tall. It should be noted that her legs were about 80% of her body also. She was hot. A daim.

It is difficult because I look at the show and I think, "Ok this is different, there is good music, they are reaching over the boundaries of art so it is good, but I am so under-entertained that it hurts." I think to myself: "If this were a $40 I would be dissapointed. Too bad it was $80.

Disco Party:
Went to the worlds largest disco party. That ruled. I will have pictures soon. Rodericj.com is down so I got nothing there. But it was loads of fun.

New TV:
I got a new TV. It is a 27 Flat Tube. Its pretty tight. I got it at Black Friday. $180 after rebates. HOT. Fits perfectly into the Armoire.

Racquetball/Overall fitness:
I am getting my ass handed to me in RBall. The guys in the C league are WAY better than I expected. Oh well. Its aight. I am getting more and more in shape. This is a good thing. My arms are getting bigger and my stomach (should be ) getting smaller. Way to eat right too. Lots of veggies,not a lot of breads and pastas. Hot.

Crash Nitro Kart:
I got a new game with the best buy tickets from McDonalds and my CreditCard company. Its a fun game. I dig it. I got it last friday after work. Took forever to get to and out of the bestbuy on the rockville pike.

Baltimore:
Went to Baltimore Dollar Days. Everything was a dollar. I got to see Henry Williams (Cadets, Coats, RX, Tarheel Sun). It was cool. Hung out with Sean Lawler (Coats). It was really cool to see them. We went on the USS Constellation in the port. That was cool. Sean and I helped shoot a Cannon.

Speeding Ticket:
I have to go to NY for a speeding ticket. That is bullshit. It is 5 hours away. Damn.

Doug's Wedding

2004-11-17T09:11:00.000-05:00

Here is a picture marquee of what happened this weekend.

scrollamount="2" scrolldelay="90"
onmouseover='this.stop()' onmouseout='this.start()'>

Went to Doug and Steph's Wedding

There was a nice Cake

Kathy and I tried to act like the cake

I went to High School with much of the wedding party

Todd blew bubbles all night

Bob and I danced like we were 15 again.

So it was pretty good. We all had a good time and I got to see my friends and Family.

Speaking of Friends and Family. I joined a clan on Socom II online. It rules. The guys are real patient with us and they don't mind taking us around and showing us the maps. I have been up late a few times this week playing. Which probably explains why I was late Tuesday morning by 2 hours (I was supposed to escort the Foreign nationals). DOH!

Plus now I am sick!

Hydrogen Cars near me

2004-11-11T13:46:00.000-05:00

One thing that I dig about being where I am is that EVERYTHING happens here. I enjoy the concerts that are here even though I haven't attended. I like how in 1 month, M Manson, Howie Day and Green Day all play in the same spot. Its a small club also. Maybe 1000 people I hear. And I like how everything happens here first. My new favorite example is the new Shell Hydrogen Station which is like 15 miles away. That is good. I wonder what effect this will have on the environment.

SoCom II

2004-11-09T10:33:00.000-05:00

PS2:
I was looking into getting a PS2 cuz I really like first person shooters. Socom 2 came out and it has a headset so you can talk using VoIP to the other players.

I looked on Ebay and I found people who were selling them used for more than a new one. Totally lame. So I went out to BestBuy and got me a shiny new thin PS2. It is seriously about the size of a dvd cover. Its pretty decent. Built in network card works like a charm.

So I got it and my sniper fantasy came true via life-like yet not actually living victims.

Headset:
The headset is great cuz you can talk to both the AI and the other users. It is TOTALLY SWEET. The AI I assume recognizes inflection and syllables(sp). Its really pretty cool. Cuz they talk back and stuff too. I love it.

You can also play with the guys online too. I can talk to them. They are all nasaly and kinda nerdy. I assume they are total tools. Its funny to hear them talk.

Ranking:
So they have this system where you can not play against someone who is a different rank than you. Or at least, there is the option that you can play only people of the same rank. I figure since I have never played that I should be an Ensign(sp)(worst type of player)(bottom 15%). Makes sense. However, these nerds I was playing with made it so that we were all on the same team. So we just killed each other. This is fine but it puts this unreal skew in some kill/death ratio which makes me a lieutenant. That sucks. Now I can not play in the room with ensigns only. So I will just get creamed constantly. Hate it.

The game was fun though. It is really fun to imagine yourself as a SEAL and move in under cover to get these guys. It rules.

Plan:
I have a plan with this game. I want to go through each of the levels of the scenario and MASTER them. So I will get like 100% stealth, accuracy, health and all that. This way I will be able to compete with the lieutenant and stuff. Sounds like a stock plan. But I have never executed a plan like this. I guess that is cuz no games have drawn me in like this one. We will see how it goes.

A Daim this game is sweet.

Mild Updates

2004-11-05T13:13:00.000-05:00

Chineese Food:
Went to this chineese restaurant. I love going to restaurants like that. I love the atmosphere. I especially like the comments on Chineese women's hair and how it falls at the back of a ponytail. Fun.

They had sushi at this place. That was cool. The place is near Lake Forest Mall. The food was good.

Picture rearranging:
I spent alot of time rearranging my pictures in my gallery. Why? because there were some pictures in there that went way beyond questionable. And my new webpage references ALL of the pictures in my gallery, regardless of the permissions given to them. Which leads me to a hole in Gallery... Interesting.

So needless to say, I was working a little on my webpage at work. That was fun, I learned quite a bit about CSS and stuff...

Work related:
My task is odd. I wonder how much of the system I am learning with this module. I suspect maybe 5%(?). Total estimate:

My other task (my first DR) (blah). It was the one I wasn't able to test. As it turns out, it doesn't work(duh). That is frustrating.

I started the investigation yesterday. Met with my guy. He is an X-Cop. Wednesday I found out that Becky and Bryan *edit*(are done waiting). Great...Now I will be ALL ALONE for months and months. That got a bit depressing. I don't like the *edit*(waiting) process. It is quite weak if you ask me.

CNN is so Redundant

2004-11-04T08:07:00.000-05:00

Keeping in mind that bush just won the presidential election by the smallest margin ever(*), does this sound funny to anyone else?

A post-election poll indicates most of those surveyed are hopeful the country will be drawn together during President Bush's second term. Just over half -- 51 percent -- said they were pleased with the outcome of the election...

Basically what just happened here was that CNN took a poll of voters for the most public poll of all time. They determined that 51% of people voted for Bush. I hope they didn't put too much money into that poll. I am pretty sure those results are BY DEFINITION (OR TRANSITIVITY) EXACTLY THE SAME AS THE ELECTION RESULTS.

Lost rules. Who the hell hit Sayid in the head?

(*)I think...It was 51%

Way to go Ohio.

2004-11-03T08:38:00.000-05:00

I would like to look at it this way.

2004 marks the 228th year that US has been a Democratic-Repulic nation. I think that is a pretty good run. Maybe we can hold off the Mongolian barbarians until 2006 giving us the milestone 230 years.

But seriously folks...
It is REALLY difficult to find ANYTHING that he has done in the past 4 years.
So here is a list of things that he WILL do in the next 2-4 years. So all is not lost.

Thanks Wes

Thanks Ohio. You really messed things up. Way to not want Jobs.

Weekend with Amanda Bye

2004-10-28T18:27:00.000-04:00

Apple Pickin:
We went apple pickin. It was cool. I ate an apple like seconds after I got it from the tree. That was tight.
See pictures here: Apples

Capoeira:
Capoeira is this Brazilian fighting style. If anyone remembers the game Street Fighter by Capcom, the guy who had the REALLY long arms and could punch from far away. That is a cartoon version of this fighting style. Or should I say, he uses Capoeira (pronounced "Cap p ate ah").

From here (http://www.shockwave.com/sw/content/capoeirafighter - a cool game you can DL and play which features this type of fighting): Capoeira is a unique fighting style that mixes martial arts with song and dance.

Anyway, I got into this kinda fighting. Sorta. Well I went to one class and I liked it alot. It was really cool. It was like dancing. Only your dance partner, was trying to kick your ass (sorta). It was so great. My feet hurt now. We did it barefoot so I feel like my pads are raw.

Anyway. So it is VERY similar to break dancing. The first move you do is a "top rock" in BD and in C it is called "Jenga". Its REALLY similar. That is why I could do it. Not to say that I have TONS of experience in Break Dancing, but I do have an instructional video or 2.

Anyway, then you break off into kicks and cartwheels which you need to block if you are getting them at you. This goes on for quite a bit until a new person comes in from the mouth of the dance circle. I don't have all the terms down so any Brazilians will have to forgive me.

So I would like to do this again. They are starting a Capoeira "Center" or whatever south of DC(far). I would consider obtaining a membership.

side note about the music. The Zoom Zoom song of Mazda is a very common song to play with from what I have found out.

LOST:
Kathy and I are up to episode 6 of lost. Its good.

Desperate Housewives:
Eva Langoria...

Jesse's Computer:
Jesse hinted at me buying his computer. I hinted at buying his bike AND his computer.

I hinted on JUST the bike. He didn't hint anything back.

This week:
I see a personal trainer to build my size. WAHOO..

Kathy's day

2004-10-27T10:27:00.000-04:00

Damnit Kathy. But congrats.

Election.
So we are within like 6 days of the election. I still don't know who to vote for.

HA HA HA HA HA. yeah right. Its so obvious. It seems that there is a large portion of the country that is pretty thrilled though to vote for the "other guy". I don't understand that. Its odd. Both candidates suck. But one sucks WAY less than the other. With what I feel is proven experience doing [better] stuff.

Anyway. A ton has happened since last post. Including...

Pumps.
...a pumpkin carving contest betwix Kathy and I. You can see the process at the following link.

http://rodericj.com/gallery/pumpkins04

Or just the end results here.

http://rodericj.com/gallery/pumpkins04/IMG_4117

I think the Headless horseman rules at the right angle. There is detail in that mane and cape.

But so far Kathy is winning. Vote for your favorite with the voting tabs under the pictures.

What else.

Sports.
Saw Monday night football with Adrian Urias at Strike Bethesda. That was cool. Except I forgot to pay. And I overate. But it was good. Also, Broncos lost.

Gym.
I joined a Gym. They are all expensive. This was not AS expensive as some and it is cool cuz it isn't crowded as all get out. The people that are there though are pretty cool. I am going to join the Raquetball leage as well as the scuba diving class. I am into that. I could change my icon for that.

Investigator.
My investigator FINALLY got in touch with me. He will be contacting(and already has) some of my friends. Thats cool. At least the ball is rolling.

Damnit Kathy.

Project.
I gotta work more on this. I have been working on the math library for MONTHS. I hate it. I just wanna get done. Problem after problem keeps coming up. Including I don't work on it enough. Damnit.

Time wasting.

2004-10-20T16:35:00.000-04:00

Here is what I have been doing *edit*.

My Updated Homepage
Monster Builder, Brain Baseball(not really), Cat Fight
Went to a CHAP (College Hire Acceleration Program) meeting in Hanover MD.

Ryan came in yesterday and told me about some stuff I can do. That is fun.

Does anyone know how to import an RSS into a webpage? Id like to import this to my website. And you may have noticed that I used the CSS from my LJ also. Sweet.

I'm 24 now

2004-10-18T08:42:00.000-04:00

Parents:
Hung out with my parents all weekend. They stayed at one of the dozen hotels near my place. It was cool. It was hella cheap and it was a Comfort Suite or something so they had some gigantic room. If anyone wants to visit this is where you will stay(or at my place). We had breakfast there Saturday and Sunday cuz it was a free buffet. I liked it.

We ended up going to DC and we saw the WWII memorial as well as the International Spy Museum. That was fun.

Then we took the ole Metro to Rock Bottom in Bethesda. It ruled. I suggest the Titan Toothpicks.

I had my birthday yesterday:
It ruled. It started out with a bang. I was showered with gifts and stuff starting at midnight and ending at 11:30PM. It was great.

I got the new Jon Stewart/Daily Show book about America.

Updated Desktop Image from way back:
Here

Last but not least. I won my second game of Fantasy Football!!! WAHOOO..Go Stagnant Unit

Queens and ChinaTown

2004-10-10T13:58:00.000-04:00

New Kitties:
Went to NYC this weekend. That ruled. Got to see Jesse and Bob and the new Kitties.

They were cool. I just wish that their friend took care of the cats better. She let one of them out at like 4 in the morning and we got a knock on the door at 6. He wanted to give the cat back. She sucks.

Kathy and I went to Central Park. We were late for the dinner.

ChinaTown and Crazy Ass Food:
The food was tight. I had some jelly fish, I had some sea cucumbers, Shark Fin soup, I had some Abalone. It was crazy. I liked it.

We then went to her uncle's place in Long Island. The house was tight. I dug it.

We went to China town the next day. That ruled. Her Grampa's place was pretty much in the best place ever. You could see the Brooklyn Bridge, Manhattan Bridge, and the Empire Statebuilding. On the other side you could see where the Twin Towers were too. That was cool.

We went to a restaurant in China Town were we had some more normal stuff but it was cool still.
Then we got beef jerky and it was the best I have ever had. GREAT.

Tons of Asians everywere in ChinaTown. Didn't see that.

Fun at Work:
At work we had so much fun today. I had some carrots that got dried. They got dry at the end of the day. And they looked like fingers. Becky and I tried to fool Kathy into thinking my finger fell off. We were laughing at eachother. It was so funny.

Cool Ass Plugins:
The plugins of Mozilla are so fricken awesome. I got the
gestures one. There are some rediculous combos you can do. Like I totally love how you can open up ANY number of links. I opened like 50 at a time off of cnn. It ruled. Plus it keeps a dragging trail. It ruled. And the preview pane one rules too. Its so cool cuz it finds a preview from alexia. It looks tight. I suggest seeing the screenshot on that one. Oh man. I love them all.

editcss also

Too long a post.

I want to play

2004-10-07T14:22:00.000-04:00

Just had a meeting with Monica McManus and Peter Cuviello. She is the Deputy VP of Geospatial Systems. He is the VP and Managing Director for Focused Logistics Enterprises at LMCO. That was pretty cool. It was a bunch of new hires who were there for "career planning" and stuff. It was pretty cool.

Monica: I liked what she had to say. She discussed her route to the top and how she got there and how she felt on the way up. I thought it was pretty informative. I dug it.

Peter: He was from the Army. He was more laid back than I though the would have been. I thought he contradicted her in many ways. But he was an impressive individual.

They gave me some pointers as to what to do in order to move up. I think I can do it. Seems like common sense to me.

I am supposed to hang out with Henry, Courtney and Derek all at the same time. They do not know eachother. I think it will be a bit odd getting this to work. If Henry doesn't call, I can play Derek off as a friend I brought to Courtney's Happy hour. We will see how it goes. I think I am going to Capital Hill for that.

Home and work

2004-10-05T18:24:00.000-04:00

This weekend:
Got to go home. It was my first time back since I moved. I guess it will always be my first time back so that adjective was pointless. So was that sentence. So was the first sentence if it read "It was my time back since I moved".

Anyway. Saw my 2 sisters which was cool. Saw my parents which ruled. Saw both sets of Grandparents and it ruled. My gramma got a Sport 2002(I think) Camry LE with a spoiler. It is red. Like her passion for speed.

Dave put in a patio for us. That rules. There is a fountain and rocks and its really really nice.

The fam was great. It was so nice to see all of them. I wish everyone wasn't so busy though.

I saw Alyssa and Cory. That ruled. We went to play laser tag then we went to a bar called the Thirsty Turtle. It was cool. Then we went to Wegmans and drove the electric cars around in the store. I was laughing so hard till the loser stock boy yelled at me and made sure I had 3 id's to buy the beer. How lame. Get a life. I wasn't hurting anyone.

Anyway, we all had fun. The trip ruled.

Haircut:
Monday Kathy gave me a haircut. I was a bit nervous about it but I was told that I wasn't going to be able to find a haircut place for less than $20. That sucks!
I think it came out good. I wouldn't normally rush into a risky thing such as a girl cutting my hair like that but I had to get my license. See below.

Got my license:
I got my Maryland license today.

Doing real work RIGHT NOW:
As I am writing this I am doing real work. Ryan and I are fixing some stuff up from the Formal Inspection we had today. I thought that was fun. And by fun I mean boring. Formal inspections are normally boring but I didn't hate it. I like learning about our processes and our system. Its fun.

So Ryan had me working on some threading stuff. There is this thing that is like a deconstructor in java but its different. No details needed here. That would be lame.

Now I am doing Javadocs.

Then it is off to IKEA to get new shelves.
Then maybe I will grab a beer with Luis Calderon from roommates.com. Good guy.

I hate long posts also!!

Varekai

2004-10-01T10:04:00.000-04:00

Kathy and I saw Cirque du Soleil's Varekai last night. It was good. I really enjoyed it. We got the tickets earlier this week and we found out Rick and Kurt(roommates) were also going that night. That was cool. They got their tickets MONTHS in advance.

The aerobics they were doing blew me away. They had this swings like a swingset kinda and they made them go ALL the way around. I didn't think that was possible. So that was cool. They would just jump off those things and go flying into some homemade cloth net. It ruled. I dig shows like that. It makes me want to g o back to Vegas. I REALLY wanted to see O when we were there. Oh well. I guess I will have to go back. Side Note: There were a lot of flexible asians there. For those links above, I would suggest looking at the videos

It made me think of some indoor shows I would love to write. Speaking of which. I got call from a friend in Newport News, VA. He wants me to teach one of his lines down there. That would be cool. I am sure I could help out quite a bit. That would rule. He says the kids are MAD good. They just need to be cleaner. So that is cool.

So I put up some shelves and whiteboards at the house. They rule. The white board isn't really white. It is glass. It looks cool as hell. I also got these(this) shel(ves)(f). The idea is like this glass motif in my room. It will be cool.

Networking news. I used the shelf I got at Ikea(College Park, MD) to clean up the clutter in the room. I also put the WAP54G that I got last week up there. I can connect my computers to that with a switch or something. So the AP acts as a wireless repeater as well as a wired/wireless access point. So the house network is SWEET!

The computer I got from Amanda(Kathy's friend) is now a fully functional Gentoo system. That makes 3. I named it CJ. After my car. Who is also named CJ. I named it that for 2 reasons: 1) It is a short name. 2) It is going in the car.

Next step is to get hibernate to work as well as KDE. (e.g. My old desktops)

I am going home today for the weekend. I will visit my Sisters and Parents. It will be a good time. Its how I will start up the frequent flyer miles on AirTran. Its gonna rule.

Work news: Ryan gave me a task. I tried doing it but I couldn't really do much cuz I didn't have an account on the ITL systems. So Kathy and I worked on it for a bit. Then she finished it.

The day she finished I got my ITL accounts up and running.
Imma gonna play with the system some today.

I hate long posts.

Reverse Chronologically described dates starting at Kings Dominion

2004-09-27T10:45:00.000-04:00

Kings dominion RULES! I couldn't believe how fun it was. Except for the lines
My top 3 roller coasters reside there.

Volcano: RULED. There were flames and fire and upside down and just as you thought you were at top speed you hit another acceleration part and you are flyin out of the mouth of the volcano. The flames made a circle of black smoke when they shot out. It was cool. GREAT!

Flight of Fear: RULED. totally dark and loopy inside. We had absolutely 0 idea what to expect. The best part was the picture of us during the ride. I looked totally shocked and Kathy was screamin! GREAT!

and
Hypersonic XLC: Ruled. 0-80 in 1.8 seconds. For those that don't know, that is UNREAL! Plus it is the only rollercoaster I have ever seen that goes completely vertical for an non-trivial length of time. GREAT!

So those are 1,2,3 in no particular order.

Networking:
The house is finally networked. Its a really confusing setup. We have a router attached to the cable modem with 2 PC's and a wireless AP. Then there is another wireless AP which acts as a repeater. Its kinda dumb. Attached to that network is Kurt and Mine's computers. At no point do we use the slickly wired networking capability of the house. Damnit! Thats the dumb part. Rick doesn't have a connection in his office of all places. Odd.

Justin is starting to smell.

I got the computer from Kathy's friend Amanda last weekend. I have installed Gentoo. I have called it 'CJ'. Named after the Civic. I am in the process of getting KDE installed. But now my network connection is down. I wonder if that is a Lockheed or Comcast thing. So the install is stalled.

I talked to the guy at the stereo shop on Friday about the mp3car. He LOVED it. He told like 3 or 4 people while I was there and they were all brainstorming about it. It was great. I don't think I will do business with them though. It was WAY too expensive. Talking like 4x what I would spend if I installed it myself. Kinda dumb.

Kathy is saying that we can continue on our task.
By the way, Ryan gave Kathy and I a task last week. It gets us into the system. That is cool. Its kind of a boring task though. And I don't think we have the exposure to be able to complete it.

First day

2004-09-13T21:50:00.000-04:00

Today I started work. That was boring. It was basically just orientation so it sucked.

Kathy doesn't even care about me.

The drive sucked in the morning. It was so early.

Rick yelled at me the other day. Shannon Stegal came over and he said some things that I thought he could have said better. I was a bit bothered by that. He just kinda snaped when I had my shoes on and when I was in his office. That sucked. Shannon said some things that bothered me too. I didn't like that.

I have a question? Why would anyone vote for Bush? Isn't he just a Tyrant? Who the hell invades countries without any reason. Oh yeah, Iraq and US and Hitler.

Oops. I said it.

Anyway. Work should be fun tomorrow.
Also, my cousin Mke is visiting this week with Lexy Levy. And Wes is visiting in October(right?).

I really don't have anything to say. Kathy and I are watching "The Cutting Edge". Its a movie about ice skaters. Enough said.

1 month of updates(thats why it is long)

2004-09-10T03:48:00.000-04:00

Its been quite awhile since I posted.

Vegas:
Rules...I had such a good time that it hurts. I wish I could post all of the stories here but I feel like that is not the best idea.
I lost prolly $250 or so in gambling. Not too bad. Ran into some great people down there. The LIMO driver was AWESOME. I fell in love with Silicon. Its been a month since I have been there(so it seems). I learned how to play "Let it ride". Worth it. I almost won $380 at Roulette(almost...ha). Drank constantly. Prolly put back like 25 LITs.

p.s. When I got back, my "lump sum" was waiting in the front door. ROCK.
Project:
Once Kaminsky and I FINALLY got together, things ruled. I got quite a bit done in my last week in Rochester. Got through Division, montgomery multiplication and most of montgomery exponentiation. ROCK. Too bad I am gone now.

Move:
Of course I moved to Maryland since my last post. We decided to go with a moving truck that Dave Remington was able to get through work. It cost like $200 less than uhaul.

The drive down was longer than usual. Took like 7 hours. Maybe its cuz I got a speeding ticket and we stopped quite a few times for the truck.

Christie and Dave's reactions to my place were priceless.

Since the move:
Rick and I have talked a few times and he is just a really cool guy. I don't see Curt all that much but he is really friendly so far. They are both really nice. I think I am doing OK with the cleaning thing. I clean up after myself thats cool. I think it is much easier when you start off clean. Thats why I am trying to keep the room nice.

Justin(dog) is pretty cool. He has a real cool personality. Or at least he did until I kicked him in the dark last night. Oops.

Kathy said I was doing something in my sleep. She said it was gross. Gross.

My dad overnighted my paperwork to me. That put him back like $20. Now I gotta send a check. Daim.

My internet doesn't really work. The house is wired but I can't figure out how to activate. That is pissing me off. Thus...no server. No rodericj.com Daim. That hurts. Also. I feel like I fucked up Ricks computer. Dame

The stores are SICK ASS CLOSE TO ME!!!! Its like a 1 minute walk to a tight ass plaza. I gotta get stamps.

I am sure there is something else of really high importance that I wanted to post. I don't remember.

Oh well it will come to me.

I hope I don't suck at work.

Class time!

2004-08-11T12:14:00.000-04:00

I am in class right now. Its aight. This is the last half of the last day. We just got back from break and now we are gonna cover the last 2 chapters in Corba by Orbix.

Good times.

The secondary purpose of this trip to Maryland was to find a place to live. I have done some exploring:

1) Mike lives in a place in Germantown. It was a decent place. It was only $600(maybe $500) which isn't so bad. But the place was in the basement and the washing machine is right at the foot of my bed. So everyone will be doing laundry when I am there. Sucks. Ryan and I went to the 7-11 and it was not our culture.

2) After class saw Chris' place. That was decent. Small, but decent. I would only get 1 bedroom. The livingroom was a pretty good size. Kitchen was nice. Molding on the ceiling was hot. There was a speaker system that went through the house. He didn't know how to use it. Chris was a mad cool guy. He was funny and I think we had a lot in common.

The place was mad close to work to. It rivals the distance from Kathy's to work. I could get there in 2 lights. Way cool. This could be the place I am living for awhile.

3)Holy cripes. I went to see that place in Clarksville after the class monday. It was unbelievable. Huge. He had a turntable setup and the TV was huge and the pool and the sauna and the this and that were fantastic. The guy was 24 years old. What I found not cool was that he asked for my credit card numbers and expiration dates and approximate balance and drivers license and social security card and blah blah blah. Totally setup for identity theft.

SUCKS.

4) Met Louis Calderon. He was a nurse at the Navy Hospital. Really cool guy. I dug the really nice apartment too(small). We really hit it off and I know he would have some really cool places to show me. The problem. It was $900 for a pretty small room. Daim. The location was PRIME too. ADaim. Gotta call him and tell him no.

5) Then we saw this place near the first place. No Bueno. It was kinda urban. It was a lower income housing area. It was small. I didn't think the landlord was totally nice either. But I am sure he has been burned before. Gotta call him and tell him no.

6) Going to see 1 more place. It seems like it could be hella decent. I will get some pictures today cuz I am gonna see it after this class. The lady seems nice. It was like:

Me: "What is the situation?"
Her: "Well it is a 3 bdrm. Place and it is nice".
Me:"So who is living there?",
Her: "Oh it is just me and my girlfriend.".
Me: "HOT"

My head:Her: "Lets all do it together!"
My head:Me: "Sweet"

Thats about it.
I wanna live at the LARGE HOUSE!

Bah...

Apartment hunting update

2004-08-06T12:29:00.000-04:00

So I wanted to keep it cool with the Roommates.com and not get a paid account.

I purchased a paid account though cuz it was a pain to get messages and not be able to read them. That said...We have a new frontrunner.

I don't feel that the pictures describe this place.

Here is the conversation we had:

Him: I'm a 24y.o.laid back professional male, that loves to have fun when there is time in my schedule, with a room to rent . It has a 6 person sauna,jacuzzi,and heated inground pool.(and I'm throwing a pool party this weekend if interested) It's
6,000 sq ft and has 5 bed/ baths. Three bedrooms have a private full bathroom inside the room. There is a pool table in the basement and a 65" tv in the living room. This is truly a once in a lifetime opportunity to live in a extravagent estate for $900 a month !!! please contact me here or at blah@msn.com.I look forward to talking to you in the future.

Me: There has to be a catch. I will get him on this one
How many other people are living in this 5 bedroom place? You are living there? What about the other 3 rooms(assuming I end up there)?

I would love to check this place out. How far are you from Gaithersburg? How long is the drive? That is where I am working.

Anyway, I will be in town Sunday-Thursday. Let me know when I could check the place out.

Him: Just me and my cousin live there....I work 16 hr days so the house was pretty much empty 80% of the day so i decided to rent a room out. The house is probably 25min from gaithersburg, and i would probably be able to show the house on Sun....

End of conversation.

Me:aDaim

It was a good day.

Notice the walkway that the guy made to connect the 2 wings of the house.
House...My house has 2 wings. Its huge. Shit.

Semi's baby

2004-08-06T12:05:00.000-04:00

Its semifinals day baby.

WAHOOOO..

In honor of my GlassBabies.

Coaties are up there at 6 for the first time ever. They are about to be the best drumline Bluecoats have ever had.

A bit low for my expectations for Madison. Fingers crossed for my G today.
I am not interested in Cavaliers.

And Vanguard is going to win drums. YAAAAYYYYY...

DCI