Daily Dose of Emo - Another Blog by Bob Wold

EVICTION NOTICE

2011-02-16T10:03:00.000-08:00

Re: Robert C. Wold, v. Matthew R. Wold

Dear Matthew :

You are hereby notified that the term of your 9 month lease agreement (LEASE) of the premises commonly know as MOMMY'S TUMMY, expired February 8, 2011.

You are further notified that, pursuant to the provisions of the LEASE, you are hereby given notice to vacate MOMMY'S TUMMY prior to 7:30am tomorrow, or you will be forcibly evicted from the premises.

Dated: February 16, 2011.

Signed,

Dad

Idea loosely Plagiarized from my favorite Mommy's Blog: The Daily B

Couch to 21k

2010-12-13T12:32:00.000-08:00

The batteries on my scale have been dead for months, and I figured that was a convenient problem since my Wife is pregnant, and I'm packing on the pregnancy weight once again. On friday I took my daughter, Abigail, to an ENT that didn't have a baby scale. To get her weight, they had me stand on the scale, then had me hold Abigail to get her weight. It turned out to be very easy to subtract out her weight from mine because I'm now a cool 200 lbs.

If you know me, you might have noticed that I'm big on over correcting, so continuing on that tradition, I've decided to run the half marathon again this year.

The haf marathon is 1/16, so that gives me about 4 weeks to get off the couch and in shape to run the 21km.

If anyone wants to rock this one with me, let me know. I'll probably be training at very strange hours because of the Baby, but I'd be happy to meet you at the starting line.

Using Swype

2010-09-17T12:05:00.001-07:00

I just got a new phone that lets me type using swype. So far I love it. As a matter of fact I am using it to write this blog post... I can't type quite as fast as I can on a computer but I swear its almost as good.

Right now I'd be willing to go out on a limb and say that this is the single biggest improvement in phone usability I've seen yet. I even have a qwerty key pad on this device, but I dont use it because swype is just that good.

I'm hooked.

Nice job swype!

Published with Blogger-droid v1.5.9

Pandora One Upgrade

2010-05-10T11:15:00.000-07:00

So I've been doing a lot of nerding in the evenings lately, and I've started to hit my 40 hour limit on Pandora early in the month. I had just stopped listening when I hit my limit, but then I decided that I really love this product, and even though I may be one of the most fiscally conservative (cheap) men on the face of the planet, I decided that I really should support them by upgrading. So I did it. I whipped out my visa and let it rip. Two minutes and 36 dollars later I was done. My Pandora immediately converted to Pro and I was rolling.

Here are the highlights:

1. No action required, Pandora just started playing again right away and there was a new menu at the top of Pandora:

2. clearly the removal of the 40 hour/month limit is huge.

3. I got this email, that made me feel like I was really supporting something grass-roots which was nice. Even though this could just be a marketing strategy :-)

4. Probably my favorite thing though, is that I have this nice desktop app that I never have to touch, and it just sits there and streams wonderful music all day long. From what I read you need to touch it about once in an 8 hour day to keep it playing, otherwise it sleeps to avoid wasting bandwidth.

Overall, I'm very satisfied with my purchase so far. :-) These guys put out a great product, and I am very happy to be able to support them.

Getting Out and Running Again

2010-02-24T07:59:00.001-08:00

Pat's Run is coming up, and a friend of mine recently asked if I wanted to run it. It's a really short run, but it's a GREAT excuse to get off my butt and loose some of the sympathy weight that I had put on during my wife's recent pregnancy.

When I had been training in the past, I was rocking a BlackBerry 8330 running AllSport GPS, but I recently upgraded to the HTC Hero, and that device seems to have a lot more power. (Though it's practically out of date already with the new HTC Nexus 1 and Motorola Droid out powering it now)

Day 1
Man that first run back was harsh.... I actually had some nasty kidney/back pain early on and couldn't run through it. (This may have had to do with the fact that we were also experimenting with making pizza earlier that night :-p) The Yellow on the map is where I had to stop.

This site does not support embedded trip maps. View the trip here instead.

Day 2
The next run was a lot better, I didn't have to stop which was a HUGE improvement! Unfortunately I forgot to charge my phone that morning so I had to leave the phone on the charger instead of recording my run.

Day 3
The next run, I felt so much better that I decided to run a little further when I finished my Short loop. I decided to do a little extra:
This site does not support embedded trip maps. View the trip here instead.

Day 4
Now normally I like to take a night off, but my buddy Michael on Facebook picked up the pace and crushed my last run and posted it all over facebook, so I had to get out last night and log a few more miles:
This site does not support embedded trip maps. View the trip here instead.

I have to say, connecting my Runs to facebook using AllSport GPS has really ended up being helpful in training. I am really starting to buy into this whole thing more for the social/community aspect, and less for the private workout logs that I had used it for in years past. I'm loving it.

If you want to, Join me on facebook, and We'll challenge each other to get off our butts and get out!

Songs that you connect with you

2009-08-20T14:07:00.000-07:00

It's wild how sometimes a song can connect with you so strongly just because that happens to be exactly what you are feeling at the moment you hear it.

I just heard this one on Pandora, and it connected with me more than a song has in a while.

When you meet the one, that you've been waiting for
and she's everything, that you want and more
You look at her and you finally start to live for someone else
And then you find yourself,
yeah that's when you find yourself
-Brad Paisley

I have heard people refer to Getting married and "loosing yourself", but I think that for me at least, it has been quite the opposite. I think that it has been through my marriage that I have found myself.

I love being the Man that my wife needs me to be, and I can't wait to be the father that my children need me to be.

America

2009-07-04T21:42:00.000-07:00

Another great American Independence day! So far today has been a great 4th of July.

Thai Food...
Imported Beer...
Imported Coffee...

Now I’m not saying that these things are un-american, but it’s interesting to think about the role that nationalism plays in today’s world. The idea that buying American is the only way to support America is an idea that has less truth than it has in our parents’ generation. An interesting idea that might be worth talking about more, but right now, it’s time for an American beer, and some fireworks.

Seattle Center: 7/4/2009

Be safe America!

Good Luck Barack!

2009-01-19T18:55:00.000-08:00

I'm still not on the Barack Obama bandwagon-- but then again last week I was still on the fence about the Cardinals, and look at me now. GO CARDS!

I don't have a lot to say on the matter, except that I really do wish Mr. Obama good luck. He has a clean slate in my mind and I hope that he has a successful presidency and leads this great county into a successful future.

I hope that over the years our new president will accomplish victories so great that I will have no choice but to jump onto his bandwagon.

Good luck tomorrow as you celebrate your first day as the President of the United States.

It's an Abomination! I mean "Obama Nation"

2008-11-05T07:48:00.000-08:00

Well it happened-- our brothers and sisters have voted for a government controlled entirely by democrats.

Though they will likely not gain my vote, I do truly want to wish the best to the party whose principles I disagree with. I will not sit here and hope for more terrorist attacks so that I can rub it in their face. I will still hope for a swift recovery to our struggling economy, though a continued decline would be fuel for the conservative fire. This land is their land just as it is mine and I do believe that we all want what is best for it.

If there is one good thing that I hope will come from this more than anything it is this: I hope that the GOP will take this is a message that what they are is not wanted by the people they want to govern. A government is by the people and for the people and it is only good when the people want it. The GOP has principles that I agree with, but they have not been acting on those principles for quite some time. It is my hope that they ask themselves what they are if they are not wanted, and they emerge anew in the spirit of their core principles.

On Wednesday November 5, 2008 I left for work, and the sun still rose, cars still worked, there was still gas at the pumps, and I arrived at work to find that I still had a job... Perhaps we will survive the next 2 years after all.

Political Pons? I hope not

2008-09-17T00:19:00.001-07:00

I'm starting to get really sick of the propiganda being shoved down my throat in this election. I think that the media knows that on average we all want to sound informed-- We just don't want to work hard to be informed.

I have had many of my friends tring to promote propiganda as fact in the past few weeks. When I hear something new I say things like, "wow I'll need to look that one up", and they are always confident and don't back pedal on the issue. What I find more often than not is that the are accurately repeating the propiganda that is being feed to them, but they are never checking their facts or even checking to make sure that it passes a basic smell test. They are listening to either extreme liberal or extreme conserrvative media and are, for some reason, assuming that the information is accurate because it fits into their arsonal so well.

Unfortunaly, it is proving to be completely inaccurate most of the time. These are smart people who end up trusting the media that favors their party, and end up looking quite sheepish because of it.

You are more than a sheep. You are the best educated nation in history. Take your current beliefs and run them through the wringer! Make sure that you are not just a pon being controlled by the media. Question everything, assume that everything is a lie until you prove otherwise to yourself, and don't put your education to waste. Help our nation be the best possible by working a little bit today to ensure a better future for our nation.

Nutrition Fact overkill?

2008-09-12T09:03:00.000-07:00

Has anyone else ever noticed that bottled water has nutrition facts listed? It seems really funny to me.

Nutrition Facts:
Calories:0
Total Fat:0
Sodium:0
...etc..

I suppose in a world where they market cool-aid as a water replacement by naming it "vitamin water", maybe it is appropriate to list nutrition facts on things labeled "water". One way or another I thought it was thoroughly funny to see.

Another funny one was the ingredient label on a box of raisins that I ate the other day...

Ingredients:
Raisins

Also: Marathon Training Update: (3 mi, 27min)

Rock and Roll Marathon

2008-09-10T13:42:00.001-07:00

How hard is it to train for a marathon? I have no idea, but I'll let you know.

I ran in a half marathon 2 years ago, and that was hard enough. I didn't have a ton of time to train for it, but I thought I had enough time. When it was all done, I had accomplished my goal, but felt pretty beat up. My knees were in pretty bad shape, and my ankle was pretty beat up.

A few weeks after the race, I had quietly decided that running might be too hard on my body, and I probably didn't have a future in it.

Now, two years later, I find myself pre-registered for the full marathon after a spontaneous urge to sign up. My plans this time around are to train more steadily and less aggressively. I wanted to start off very slowly to give my body a chance to build all the primary and supporting muscle to take some of the pressure off my joints. I'm hoping that this plan will leave me with less injury, and even more success.

I'll keep you posted on my training on this blog. Here is the first run.

The Race is Jan 18, 2009. If anyone wants to join me just let me know.

Caffine Junky

2008-07-10T09:52:00.001-07:00

Last night, after a long day of work, I was numbing out to a little crime TV. Near the end of the show the writers must have realized that the plot was a little too boring, so they threw in the classic "My Partner is secretly addicted to pain killers" sub-plot to spice things up. Seeing this was a little pathetic, but it's not particularly worthy of a blog entry. But the series of thoughts that went through my head after probably are.

As I watched the drama unfold, I started to think about how I might present myself to my colleagues at work. From time to time I certainly look as stung out as this alleged pill popper detective did. I got to thinking how sometimes I react in a stronger way than would seem necessary to some scenarios. I also realized that I do get impatient like our pill popping detective, and I do become easily flustered and when I'm in rare-form I even fly off the handle over seemingly insignificant things.

These thoughts all got me thinking maybe I am a junky, but if I'm a junky what's my juice? Coffee and/or stress! I'm not sure whether it's the poison of the stress or of the coffee, but I don't always look entirely healthy from 8:00-5:00.

Today, I am going to start limiting my coffee fix to one cup in the morning... Just to wake me up a little bit. Lets see if this simple change can make a difference in my day. :-)

Are you a junky? If so, what is your juice?

My MOP!!! dabbling in video editing

2008-06-21T02:51:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday my buddy Logan asked, "why does every nerd on the internet know how to make a lightsaber fight?".

It was a good question... Making a lightsaber fight video is probably something that every nerd out there has thought about at one time or another. I'm positive it's crossed my mind before. So I decided this was probably a good time to give it a try.

Once I installed all the right software, it was really quite easy to do. I only spent 30 minutes actually editing the video (after hours of setting up software). with another 30 minutes you could really make a pretty good looking video, but since this was just a proof-of-concept, this is where I stopped:

It's not exactly star wars quality, but it's almost UHF quality

Thanks to Logan Swapp for the idea and Kevin Gay for help with some of the resources :-p

...for those who don't get the reference it turns out that youtube has everything, so here is the reference :-p

A Breath of Fresh Air

2008-06-16T16:51:00.000-07:00

I decided to take off the friday before last to do a hike. My PTO was building up and I was really starting to feel a little need for a day away from the office. When I dropped off my PTO form, my boss asked where I was going to hike, and asked if I'd rather join him on another canyoneering trip into the Jug.

The Jug is a slot canyon carved into granite by the Salome Creek. It's just on the other side of four peak from phoenix, right near Roosevelt Lake. It's a little hard to get to, but it's quite a fun hike.

I took my Blackberry Pearl running Trimble Outdoors, and I collected a GPS log for the trip. (Don't worry, I didn't check my email)

Here's what I collected:

This site does not support embedded trip maps. Visit http://www.trimbleoutdoors.com/ViewTrip.aspx?tripId=56268 to view this trip.

Though this hike has it's tough spots, it's really more like a day on the lazy river. We filled out packs with dry bags, and just floated for probably 50% of the hike.

The other 50% was either hiking through the desert to get to and from the Jug, or jumping from rock to rock between baths in the canyon.

My boss, Rich Rudow, straddling the creek

There was one spot where we had to either rappel or jump. I'm not much of a jumper... and it's always fun to use some climbing gear, so we rappelled it.

The Rappel

It was a great trip, and I really had a good time getting out of the office for a day.

First Impression vs Last Impression

2007-12-10T09:55:00.001-08:00

You always hear people talk about the importance of the First Impression. It's true that the first impression is important, and it's significantly more important when it's the only interaction you ever have, but recently I've come to doubt the importance of the first impression.

I've know many people that I didn't like at first, and whom I am now very good friends with. Likewise, I have had many people that I have interacted with wonderfully for years, and whom I can no longer get along with at all. Did this first impression really weigh as much as I thought it would? I don't think so. Maybe I'm just a weirdo, with a short memory, but I certainly think that the last interaction I had with someone weighs a lot more in my overall impression of that person.

To me, you are the weighted average of my feelings about all of our interactions, with the highest weight on the most recent. You can always earn a good impression, regardless of interaction in the past.

One of my many first impressions:

When I was 13 I moved to a new school. On the first day of school, in my first ever Spanish class, I made an awkward first impression. The teacher asked me, in front of the whole class, if I wanted to stay in the 8th grade class or move down to the 7th grade class. I kind of locked up and didn't know what to say. I didn't really want to move down to the 7th grade class, but I didn't know if I would be able to catch up to this class, so I just sat there with a goofy look on my face, unable to respond. This was my first impression on the entire class. Years later, some of my friends were talking about that moment, and I realized that for many of them, that was my first impression. It wasn't a good one, and it certainly isn't what they think of when they think of me. But there it was. Not very glorious, but of little consequence. :)

Another important first impression:

One day, I joined some friends on a trip to the river. On the way, we ran into another group of people with a common friend. We decided to float down the river together, after all: the more the better. For some reason there was one girl that really caught my eye. I had the cliche feeling where you have butterflies in your stomach, and you are totally afraid to interact. I played it pretty cool, I didn't lock up... I just had a series of those moments where you catch each other's eye in the right way, and you just have a quick moment where you are communicating a lot without saying much. Little did I know, she had mistaken me for the long term boyfriend of another person in the group I was with, and kept thinking to herself, "Eww, her boyfriend is a making eyes at me... what a perv". Long story short. I am going to marry her on January 11th, and if she loves me half as much as I feel like she does, or half as much as I love her, then the first impression was totally irrelevant.

Requirements for Success

2007-10-14T09:46:00.000-07:00

It has been a while since I've blogged about anything, and it's been even longer since I've emo-blogged. :) So here's one that is about as emo as they come.

Failure is defined as a lack of success.
Success is defined as an event that accomplishes its intended purpose.
In order to accomplish an intended purpose, you must have one.
...and in order to know that it has been accomplished, you must first know what it is.
A Person who is a failure is a person with a record of failing

In brief, it is impossible to succeed without identifying a purpose, and if you don't succeed, then you fail. And if you have a record of failing, then you are a failure. And even though "Failure" is just a word, we sure know that we don't want to be one.

With this line of reasoning, the message is clear:

You must identify a purpose. Only then can you accomplish it. And only in accomplishing it can you be successful.

Maybe that purpose is as simple as have fun, or make money, or maybe its quite complex. but if we at least identify why we are doing things, then we can identify how successful we are in accomplishing that purpose. Then we can know that we are successful, and that we are not failures.

Let there be Light

2007-08-23T09:55:00.000-07:00

Since the day I bought my house, there has aways been this funny rattle every time you open or close my front door. The rattle was quickly diagnosed as coming from the light fixture on the exterior wall outside the door. The light fixture had taken years of abuse, been heavily weathered, and painted by the lazy last owner. it also had a tendency to flicker from time to time, which makes the house seem really ghetto.

I decided it was time to replace the fixture, so I went out and bought a new one, which only cost around $30.00 at home depot. While I was there, I also bought a new fixture for the back porch for $15. The back porch was mounted fine, but had stopped working a month ago, and you could get it to work for a little bit by un-mounting it and shaking it. I had verified that the wiring coming from the house was fine, so decided that I would just try replacing the fixture there too.

I got home and replace the back porch fixture very quickly and painlessly. It looked great. When I unmounted the front fixture, it was a different story. It had been poorly installed years ago because the box was too close to some of the trim on the house, and the fixture wouldn't fit over it. So instead of fixing the problem, they mounted it to the siding with a short wood screw. If you've ever played with the sidin on these houses, you know it's like thick cardboard, and that was all that was holding this thing up. (well that and the wiring :-p ) This resulted in a very poor mount, that allowed the fixture to rattle when there was the slightest vibration in the wall. It also allowed for pests to move into the electrical box. I had to remove their nests before I installed the new stuff :-/

To achieve the desired mount, I decided to remove a small section of the trim, using a dremel, so that the fixture would fit on the box correctly. It took a little extra time, but the fixture is mounted very solid, and it no longer rattles when you open and close the door.

If you look at the brown paint, that's where the old fixture was. The new brass that you see is a mount that I'm using with the new fixture. you can see where I cut out a round section of the trim to fit the fixture better.

If you look closely, you can see one old hole where the screw ripped out of the siding, and one newer hole where they repeated the same mistake a second time :)... ERRR

Here is the final result... all I have to do is touch up the paint, which will happen in the fall:

Suicide Lane Junkies

2007-08-22T09:36:00.001-07:00

Perhaps it is the nature of my drive home, or maybe the conditions I observe exist everywhere, but the drivers that I observe day in and day out seem notoriously bad.

I take the surface streets home because I work less than six miles from home, but because of the mountainous terrain, the traffic conditions are always crowded, and usually people get antsy when they are stuck in one place for too long. To make matters worse, the neighborhoods that I drive through are largely populated with people of bellow average income. Which, regardless of it's merit, I associate with wreckless driving.

Every day, I would wait patiently in traffic, as I watched hundreds of my fellow drivers breaking the law, and using the suicide lane in a manner that helps justify it's nick name. instead of waiting in traffic, until it was legal to enter a left turn lane, they would just drive 50mph down the suicide lane. This always made me cringe, especially when you would see others doing it, because they felt justified after seeing their peers doing it.

I was overjoyed when I saw that they had added some barricades to the suicide lane to prevent this. So much so, that I took my camera out to take a picture of it for the blog. But I had a hard time getting a shot of it, because so many people were driving around it, into oncoming traffic, to try to get home quicker. I switched to video mode for your entertainment.

Drive safe, And remember that you are accountable for your actions, not the idiots that you imitate.

Pine trees in the desert

2007-08-09T09:47:00.000-07:00

Before I start, let me mention that I am guilty of what I'm about to rant about. I'm not trying to be a hypocrite, I'm just ranting :-p

So here it is: What's the deal with people trying to maintain mid-west yards in the desert? We should be afraid of running out of water, and we should stop dumping it on plants that shouldn't naturally live here anyway.

I have large trees, lush bushes, and a green grass in my yard, so I should be the last one to talk. When I was young, and slightly more ignorant, I thought it was great. It was so green. But over the years, I've been becoming more of a naturalist, and I'm starting to feel really guilty about it. A few months ago, I had some issues with my irrigation system, so I turned it off, and would only water manually, and that month, I used 19,000 gallons less water than most months! That is so much water.

We waste all this water on these plants, that grow like crazy, then we collect their droppings, and we trim them, and fill our landfills (or if we're lucky compost them) and the water just goes into the air as they decompose.

But worse than all other plants, (and here's where I really rant) is the PINE TREE.

My neighbor has pine trees in his back yard, and all year long, they shed needles. Pine needles are pretty unique. They are highly acidic, so they take really long to decompose, and they actually prevent other leaves from decomposing. They are also really thin, but quite strong, so they will fit perfectly through the baskets in your pool system, and proceed right into the pump where they, being as strong as they are, jam it up great.

Pine trees also drop pine cones. Pine cones are pretty, but they are also light enough to get sucked into my leaf hog, and strong enough to shred the fan that causes the suction :) So when I try to suck up the pine needles, I tend to wreck my leaf hog.

Last weekend, I decided that I had had just about enough of all these pine tree droppings, so I racked them all up, and sorted them out from all the rocks, that I wanted to keep in my rock garden, and filled the trash. Then I put the rest of them in a pile so I could throw them away after the trash was collected. Here is a quick photo of the second trash bin full of pine needles. Keep in mind that this is the second bin full of them, and this bin was completely empty when I started:

So if you are building, and you have the opportunity to make this choice without spending a ton of money, please consider keeping it natural. Plant plants that are native to the region, and avoid throwing away our water.

youtube.com vs brightcove.com

2007-08-06T09:57:00.000-07:00

Ben recently pointed out that the quality of the video on youtube was less than ideal. I totally agree after watching them again.

When I watch them locally, the videos look pretty good. Especially when you consider they were taken from my point and shoot camera. So in the interest of a blog post, I thought I'd compare what I upload to youtube.com, with brightcove.com (a slower, less popular video service)

Here are the results:

Youtube.com (link)

Brightcove.com (link)

I think that there is actually quite a big difference in quality. The other thing that's worth noting is that with both of these services, there is a delay after you upload before you can view. And when I uploaded to birghtcove, it said:

We've got your video and are processing it to make it look great.
This might take a few hours, but we'll let you know by email when it's ready.

This was shocking. It didn't really take hours... but it did take a little longer than youtube (to the naked eye)

The other thing is that youtube seems to serve up their content faster. I guess you win some you loose some :-p

Enjoy!

**ALSO! the brightcove code doesn't render right in my firefox! WOW... They need to fix that ASAP, or they will fail big time :-p

***Thanks to Mikey from the Brightcove Team for noticing what was broken, and telling me how to fix it. This problem was more of my fault (or maybe bloggers fault: I'm not sure), and less of brightcove's.
Also, I did modify the code a little bit to make this window fit better in the blog...

Some Colorado Videos

2007-08-03T09:13:00.000-07:00

I'm trying out You Tube to host some videos. from the recent Colorado hike. I'm not sure how much I like it, and it takes FOREVER to upload, but I think it's pretty decent.

Check this one out:

In this video, I am making my way along the ridgeline of Mt Yale as it starts to hail on us above 14,000 ft. I had to put my camera away pretty quick because it's not waterproof, but you get the idea. This ridgeline is literally a straight drop on both sides, and though it's pretty timid here, you have to use all 4 limbs at times to stay on the face of the mountain, and the wet rocks don't help :)

I know that a friend had a water proof camera, I can't wait to see what he was able to record.

In this video, i just do a quick 360 from the top of Mt Huron, another 14ner in Colorado.

Monsoon

2007-07-31T09:33:00.000-07:00

I went outside yesterday afternoon to find that it was pouring rain. Normally I wouldn't care at all, except today I was supposed to help Katie move. and most stuff doesn't like to get wet :)

So after work, I decided I would swing by the store and pick up some trash bags, so that we could try to keep as much dry as possible. After 2 hours or being stuck in traffic, and going less than 3 miles total, I decided to park and walk the remaining half a mile to Safeway.

I found that the street was flooded up to my knees at some points, and entire roads had been shut down because of flooding: which explains the traffic :) I made it to the safeway only to find that they had no power, and closed early. I'll tell you what though: I haven't had a good excuse to play in a puddle for a long time, so it wasn't all bad.

For those of you who think my shoes are funny, I have one thing to say:

:-p

Here is a quick shot from rural and broadway:

Colorado

2007-07-31T09:01:00.000-07:00

I spent the last week chilling in Colorado. I went backpacking for 5 days, and spent the weekend before and after in the city. The backpacking trip covered about 55 miles and over 12,000 ft vertical, and it was a blast.

Here is a quick photo from the trip:

Taken from Lake Ann Pass, Collegiate Peak Wilderness Area, CO
July 24, 2007

Here is a link to all the photos (there are way too many, and I have to sort through them still :-)

On a funny note, we took the bus to boulder, and spent the day hanging out there, when I saw something great for my brothers, Mike & Al. The two of them have been trying to make the perfect pizza, and I saw just the thing to help them get there... Guys you just need to build one of these:

Also, those are real Italians running it... so they might have a natural advantage.

Breaking in the Boots

2007-07-18T09:01:00.000-07:00

I bought some new boots for the CDT hike, since I noticed the soles on my old ones were starting to wear through.

I used the opportunity to try out some different types of leg braces, and get a little more endurance training in before I ship out.

I tried two new leg braces. The one I found for my left knee worked great. It is a band that wraps around your leg just at the base of the knee cap. It holds the kneecap up so that it isn't rubbing on the tendon behind it all day long. I worked great.

The second kind I tried (on the right knee) was for the IT band (connecting your knee and thigh on the outside) It did nothing :-/ Maybe I was wearing it wrong, I'm not sure.

The hike was good though overall. I carried a 45lb pack to try to reproduce what we will be encountering, and I think it went pretty good. It was way hotter here than it will be in Colorado, but the altitude is much lower, so you win some, you loose some.

I was very lucky during this hike, and I hit a number of great views because of the clouds. I've included a few here.

The Wrath of the Mailman

2007-07-18T08:54:00.000-07:00

For those of you who are following the mail man situation, here is a nice follow up. Yesterday, I gt home from work, and saw the wrath of the mailman!

This is not for the faint of heart... so please make your children close their eyes.

Here is is; The Wrath of the mail man!

Taken July 17, 2007
in front of my house

Ok, so maybe it was just the wind, or the garbage man set it down wrong, or whatever... but maybe it was the wrath of the mail man... So just in case, I decided to trim my bush this morning. I wouldn't want the mail man to get too ticked off, he does have a lot of power after all, imagine how much a mail man could hurt you... He could just throw away those tax documents, and bills, and before you know it you could be in a tough situation. Probably better to work with the system on this one :)

Geocaching Troubles :-/

2007-07-17T13:50:00.000-07:00

I was testing out some new features that I'm working on with the Geocache Navigator, so I decided to try to find a cache at Lunch.

For those of you who aren't nerdy enough to know what Geocaching is (Good for you!), this might not make any sense :) For those of you who do, THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS

I was trying to find I'll trade ya! and I couldn't find it for the life of me. This is the second cache in two days that I have just not been able to find. I would like to blame the heat, but I don't think that would be fair :)

Here is the rough area of the cache... there are a few good places to hide one

I'm pretty sure it was supposed to be in with the palm trees. The hint was "Van Accessible"... and I think I figured out what that ment :)

but all I found was a bunch of liter. The last cache that I couldn't find was also surrounded by liter. I'm thinking that I didn't find them because there was so much trash around... like I didn't want to sift through all the trash to find the cache :) I really don't remember liter being a problem when geocaching before... Is it getting worse?

Going Postal

2007-07-16T10:46:00.000-07:00

Photo of my mail box:

Photo of a note found in my mailbox July 5, 2007:

Photo of note found in my mailbox July 14, 2007:

I'm going to come back and comment more on this after lunch, but how funny! :) I think they should check this mail man out before he goes postal!

...

Sorry, either that was a long lunch, or I'm a day late getting back to this :)

So I got this letter from the mail man, telling me that my bush was interfering with the delivery of my mail. So I took a close look at the bush, and I couldn't see what he meant. I couldn't get the bush to interfere with the mail box at all. So I didn't change it.

So now, I am not getting my mail :)

It is odd though... my bush now appears to be dying, and I can't help but think that there is some sort of funny business going on :) Did the mail man poison my bush? Can you feel the anger in his last note? He's so mad that you can hardly even read it. Just compare the handwriting from the original to the latest :) wow.

I decided that there are 3 options:

Trim the bush back a bit
Leave the bush, and talk to someone at the post office about it
rip out the bush, run it through a wood chipper, and stuff the chips into the mailbox.

If anyone has any suggestions, let me know by posting a comment!

White Lies

2007-07-11T10:08:00.000-07:00

Always try to be honest.

When you lie, or even when you are misunderstood and choose not to correct it, you put yourself in a situation where you either loose credibility, or are forced to dig a deeper whole by covering it up.

Covering it up of course is done by lying more, and more, each time growing in severity in order to cover all of your previous lies.

For those of you who know chronic liars, I feel your pain. I deal with at least one chronic liar more than once a week, and it's excruciating. Every time their lies get bigger, and I have to bight my lip to not call them out. one the rare occasion that I do ask questions about the lies, I'm either hit with bigger cover up lies, or they just change the subject.

I think that it is our pride that tricks us into continuing to lie, rather than admit that we were incorrect or misunderstood earlier. And this pride is much stronger when you feel threatened by those you lie too. I wish we could all somehow leave our pride out of life.

Good Morning

2007-07-10T08:43:00.000-07:00

There was a very pretty cloud cover this morning, that started the morning off very nicely. But alas, I was still heading into work :(

I was running out of gas, so I had to stop here:

but I really wanted to be here:

This morning started on the right foot... I would try to stay on the right foot all day, but my balance is really no good, and I'm afraid I would fall over if I tried to hop along on one foot all day.

More American Than Me

2007-07-09T10:36:00.000-07:00

Let me apologize before you even start reading... I'm all over the board on this one. A.D.D. maybe?

So, I was on my way into work today, and I saw this guy working on some landscaping. He caught my eye because of his American bandanna. He probably just got it 50% off after the 4th of July, but it made me think about the recent immigration attention... I don't think that this man is less American than me. He might even be more American than me.

Taken on 48th st South of Guadalupe
July 9th 2007

Now he's not enlisted in the army or anything, he's not risking his life, but he is doing a job for a more competitive rate than the rest of us would be willing to do it for. And while most of us are in a panic about securing our borders to prevent illegal immigration, illegal immigrants are busy doing the work that we feel we're too good to do, or we wouldn't get paid enough to do.

America is a nation, founded on the idea of freedom. This freedom is what we should be looking to protect, not the purity of our nation.

I think that most people (mostly white people) are more worried about the color of the skin that makes up America's population. I think that too many white people are afraid that America will become brown. Here's an idea: if you're so afraid of being outnumbered, STOP KILLING YOUR BABIES.

I think that the mentality that allows people to kill their own children, is in fact the same mentality that creates fear of minority growth. It's this idea that you need to fit into a picture perfect image in order to achieve happiness: One boy, one girl, in a safe, white neighborhood, with a picket fence, and the nicest house on the block.

Not only is this wrong, it's disastrous. Once you step all over people to try to gain this theoretical happiness, and once you have everything on your list, you'll realize that is didn't bring you any happiness was anyway. All you've done is destroy the happiness of others to get there. And once you're there, and still unhappy, you will start to become depressed, questioning the point of life, and consider suicide. which brings up another good idea: STOP KILLING YOURSELVES.

To be honest, I would prefer a world where we embrace a free market... capitalism..., and let the best, and cheapest have the job. If you are afraid that you're job can be done better and cheaper by someone else, than you'd better improve. Don't worry about protecting your cushy job that you are under qualified for, worry about improving, and being all that you can be. and Maybe you'll find happiness along the way.

4th of July 2007

2007-07-04T09:13:00.000-07:00

Happy Independance Day!

Today is the fourth of july, and I thought I was being tricky by going up to prescott for a few days. I figured I'd escape the heat a little bit... unfortunatly it is hot even up here. I'm told it's supposed to be about 20 degrees cooler up here. All I know is that if that's true, the people in phoenix are way worse off :)

But whether it's cold, hot, rainy, or dry, I hope that everyone has a nice relaxing independance day. Enjoy your freedom. :-p

Taken at My Parents Condo in Prescott, AZ
July 4, 2007

Humphrey's Peak

2007-07-02T10:35:00.000-07:00

Katie pointed out that I was a little late on my post this morning (Thanks for the kick, I appreciate it). I've been annotating the Humphrey's Peak hike me and my dad did this weekend.

Taken on Humphrey's Peak, AZ
June 30, 2007

here is what I have so far:

I hope to have it polished up soon, but I'm distracted by the planning of a Prescott Hike for Katie and I to do tomorrow morning.

Humphrey's peak was pretty cool. It had crowds like you would see in phoenix on trails like squaw peak, or camelback mountain, but it was certainly more difficult. You start at the bottom of the snow bowl ski resort, cross the slope once, and enter the woods. You stay in the woods for miles, and you don't exit it, until you rise above the tree line. The trees of the woods provide great protection from the sun, and from the wind. The ground is very solid, but gentle on your knees.

Once you cross the tree line (at around 11,500 ft) you start to get plenty of views, but you also get a lot of sun, a lot of wind, and very loose rocky ground that makes for much more difficult hiking. around every corner is another false summit, and you constantly feel like you are being tricked. As you rise higher and higher, the air starts to thin. I had a pretty decent time ajusting, but my heart rate did start to rise faster than normal, and it was no uncommon to get a little dizzy from time to time. generally a quick break would cure the symptoms.

Once you get to the top (after about 3,500 ft) you get a view for hundreds of miles. The wind are pretty wild, but there are some rock piles that provide good shelter from it.

Check out the video:

Over all it's a great hike, and If I lived in flagstaff, I would hike it frequently. (at least to the tree line)

The weekend

2007-06-29T08:22:00.000-07:00

Sorry guys, I forgot my camera at home this morning :-/

Today I'm taking off work a little early for two reasons:

Katie left her car at my house and it has a flat tire that I want to replace
We're heading up North, and I need to finish packing

So, Katie has been out of town all week, and she left her car at my house. She seems to have a slow leak on the back passenger side tire (which she had repaired, but that apparently didn't work). Anyway, she's getting home today, and I just noticed that it was completely flat. :( I really don't want her to come home to a flat tire, so I'm going to either get it repaired/replaced, or just put the donut on, depending on time. I'm guessing I'll be pushing it, so it will probably be the donut.

After I take care of that, I'm packing up and heading up to flagstaff. Me, my dad, and my brother John are going up to hike Humphreys peak, via Humphrey's Trail at Snow bowl. I originally wanted to make it a 2 day hike, going through the wilderness area from the other side via Weatherford Trail, but time didn't allow for it, and people didn't want to carry that much gear. For this hike, I will plan to carry water, snacks, lunch, a jacket, some hiking poles, and a beanie. I really think hiking poles are dorky, but I've been repeatedly told that they are a necessity, so I'm going to try to get used to them on this trail ans see if they help much.

I had a really hard time finding good trail data for this hike, so I decided I would have to record our trip, and publish it online. You should be able to see it online before Monday. I'll post a link by then. Here are the four sites I'm working off of:

If all goes well with this hike, and if time allows, I think I'm going to try to do a follow up trip and hike to the summit again via Weatherford Trail.

Pretty Random: Misc/Knees/Root Canal

2007-06-28T08:56:00.000-07:00

Sticking with the idea of posting a photo daily, Here is one for today:

Taken at the office
June 28, 2007

There is nothing interesting about this photo... it's of a fountain in front of the office, because I forgot my camera at the office and couldn't take a photo of anything better :-p I'm really starting to get boring with my photos. I will plan to get much more interesting next week. :-p

The idea of the photo-a-day thing is not really about the photo, it's about forcing a routine. Tricking myself into continuing to write a blog for anyone who happens to be bored enough to read it :)

On another note, I started using the workout room at Al's condo, and I did like 40 minutes on the stair machine, followed by stretches, followed by a lot of leg extensions on a small weight, and today my knees are really feeling a lot better. I'm going to try to do it a little more often and see if the problem goes away. My theory is that your quadriceps have four muscles, and some of those parts don't get isolated in your natural workouts. I'm hoping that if I isolate them in the gym, they will do a better job of holding my knee together the rest of the time. :) I'll keep you posted on the results.

As a follow up to the Root Canal, I have nothing to report... I'm really feeling fine so far. I can't really put a lot of pressure on the tooth yet, but it doesn't hurt if I don't chew on it. So far, so good.

CDT: Rough Route

2007-06-27T14:20:00.000-07:00

Last week, I got the rough start and stop points for the CDT hike I'll be doing.

Here are the details:

Start: Cottonwood Pass Road
End: South Clear Creek TH
Distance: 45 miles
total elevation gain: 9,790 ft

I did a quick rough trace of the route we're taking, from a book I'm reading. I think everything should be within a few hundred feet. The switchbacks look pretty awful, but the book claims to have them wrong anyway.

Map of our route
Elevation Profile of the route
Google Earth file (kml) of the route
*you do need to sign up for a free account to download the kml though.

This could be a tough little hike... the elevation is the scariest part :-)

Root Canal

2007-06-27T13:10:00.000-07:00

Sorry I'm late on my post this morning... I was at the dentist, and it went a little longer than expected.

In 1998, I had a deep cavity on my number 14 tooth (one of the top left molars), and when it was drilled, a nerve was exposed. That tooth has been trouble ever since.

The original plan for today was to go in, and redo the filling, as a new cavity was starting to emerge where the old one had filled. But after taking X-rays, my dentist decided it would be best to do a root canal, since one of the nerves appeared to be infected.

Root Canals are not as painful as they depict them on T.V., though I suppose the drugs might not have worn off yet. Also, I suppose some people get them when the problem is worse, and it probably hurts a lot more.

Anyway, Since I was late on my post, I decided I would have to get something real good... so I got this:

Taken at Mountain Park Dentistry (on 48th st and Chandler)
By Doctor Randy Mow, using a small optical camera
June 27, 2008

What you are looking at, is my number 14 tooth, hollowed out. Each of the dark spots is where they drilled deep into the tooth to remove the nerves of the tooth.

Unfortunately there were some time issues due to a file breaking while inside of the tooth, and needing to be removed. Near the end the drugs started to wear off, and the open tooth started to cause some major pain. Due to time constraints, they have temporarily filled it, and will need to follow up to remove the temporary filling, and do the permanent one.

Thanks to the crew at Mountain Park Dentistry, and Dr. Mow for this super cool view of the tooth that most of us never get to see.

I'm Tired

2007-06-26T08:40:00.000-07:00

I don't know if it's the heat, something health-related, or what, but I've been so tired the last few weeks...

Maybe it's all of this:

Taken at the Office
June 26, 2007

Maybe I should take a break from the coffee, and see if that does anything. I think I should plan to wait a week or two after my current stash runs out, before I buy more. Maybe that will make a difference.

In other news. Al turned 26 yesterday. I was over at his house for the first time in a long while, and it looks great. It's come quite a long way from where it was in august. He should be proud of what he's been able to do to that place.

Last night Lucy made diner at Al's place, and all the family came over. It was pretty nice. I took off early to catch up on sleep, but it didn't seem to do a lot of good. :)

Wienermobile

2007-06-25T09:09:00.000-07:00

So I was driving into work today, because through some fluke, both of my bikes are at the office now :) On my way in though, I saw a funny sign in my rear-view mirror... Check it out.

Taken on Priest, South of Southern
June 25, 2007

Photos from June 22, 2007

2007-06-22T08:45:00.000-07:00

Last night, at the brew conference, the Goo Goo Dolls played on the runway of an aircraft carrier. It was pretty cool, but it was really weird. Everyone there just kinda stood still. It was a little weird...

Anyway, here are some photos

The Goo Goo Dolls
Taken one the USS Midway
June 21, 2007

Also, I was impressed how well my sprint card was working at the hotel... then I saw this, and I left Tricked:

Taken at the hotel
June 22, 2007

Photo from June 21, 2007

2007-06-21T07:33:00.000-07:00

San Diego is very pretty... I wish I had a little more time to explore. I'll try to get out of the hotel a little bit today, and tomorrow morning.

For today, here is a quick shot from the balcony I'm sitting at, drinking coffee.

Taken at the Hyatt in San Diego
June 21, 2007

Photos from June 20, 2007

2007-06-20T09:14:00.000-07:00

Today, I caught a flight out of phoenix to San Diego at 7:00am. The economy parking took a little longer than I expected, so I was running a little late. I had no problem making my flight, but apparently my bag did :)

Right now I'm sitting outside in b beautiful San Diego, CA, but I'm stuck here waiting for the next flight in from phoenix which should have my bag.

Airports really bring out the best and worst in people. You should see some of these over-privileged people forced to wait in endless lines... It's a riot. Some people are so relaxed, and loving, but some are totally anxious, and are horrible to each other.

In an effort to keep up with my daily blogs, I snagged a few photos. Nothing great, but something to look at.

...OK... I'm stuck on this Sprint card, and I didn't have software to resize, so I'll add them as soon as they upload :-/

Sorry about that

Sorry about that :)

Taken at the San Diego Airport
June 20, 2007

Taken from a taxi in front of the hotel
June 20, 2007

So instead of using the web uploader for my picasa web albumn, I downloaded picasa. It's great, it resizes for me (so this sprint card can handle it) and it auto-connect to my online stuff for me. It's really pretty nice. I just wish their web stuff would get as good as gallery2 :)

Introduction to the CDT Project

2007-06-19T08:59:00.000-07:00

As some of you know, I'm going to be hiking a small portion of the CDT (continental divide trail) in July. Last night I finally received Colorado's Continental Divide Trail: The Official Guide
It's very exciting, but a little scary.

The hike will be through about 50 miles of wilderness, but will be fairly strenuous. I normally wouldn't be too worried about it... you have to deal with the wildlife, weather, and altitude, but none of that is too much of a concern for a 50 mile hike. The problem, and the biggest concerns come from my knees. Recently I took a shorter hike, and one of my knees started to hurt. which makes me worry a bit about the longer hike. I hope that a little stretching and training will take care of that problem.

I'll be meeting later this week to get more details on the start and stop points, and then I should have a better idea of what to expect.

More to come on this one.... I'll label them "CDT"

Photos from June 19, 2007

2007-06-19T08:31:00.000-07:00

Gas at the QT on priest, south of southern was $2.91 today. I think thats the best price I've seen in over a month. I was thinking about how that was a good price, and then I kicked myself and took it back. When did 2.91 become a good price?

On the note of gas, I almost drove today. As I drove up 48th st, I was thrilled that I didn't. Traffic was such a mess the whole way in. 48th st, priest, the whole way. I think there may be too many people for the streets to support them all :-/

Taken on Priest North of Southern
June 19, 2007

The Alternative? Yea... I need to stop this promotion of bikes. But they are defiantly more peaceful (and yes more sweaty)

Taken on Priest North of Southern
June 19, 2007

Photo from June 18, 2007

2007-06-18T08:21:00.000-07:00

In phoenix, there is a service called "Bulk Trash". Four times a year, they will come through the neighborhoods of phoenix, and pickup any trash you have. All you have to do is figure out when it is and make sure to put it in a neat pile in front of your house.

I love this service, because my plants grow like crazy, and they drop a metric ton of leaves every quarter... (OK, maybe not a metric ton, but it seems like it)

So I usually end up having a small pile in the backyard just waiting for the window of time, when I can leave it on the curb. This morning, I started moving the little pile out to the front, and I unearthed a little nest. The nest had no living creatures, but did have a series of eggs. I'm guessing that these are either the eggs of a roadrunner that hangs out around my house, or of a lizard that I see from time to time.

Hidden Nest
Taken in my backyard
June 18, 2007

Unfortunately, now that the leaves and stuff aren't providing shade, I suspect they will over heat and die. The nest may also be abandoned because of the human scent all around it :-/

Hypocrite?

2007-06-17T09:03:00.001-07:00

It is much easier to condemn someone else than to take a good look in the mirror; doubly so when you are predisposed to judge them because the opinions of the company you keep.

How can you say to your brother, 'Let me remove that splinter from your eye,' while the wooden beam is in your eye?
-Matthew 7:4

Photo from June17, 2007

2007-06-17T08:36:00.000-07:00

This is a quick photo of one randomly selected flower on plant in my backyard. It is one of hundreds, and it it not better or worse than any of them. There is nothing special about it... It is just one part of a big system that makes up this plant. But if you look at it alone, it looks amazing anyway.

Many Parts - One Body
Taken in my backyard
June 17, 2007

Bowen Baby

2007-06-15T08:35:00.000-07:00

Well this morning, I'm going to be late to work (waiting for the Terminex guy), and I still haven't really left my house. But I do have big news. Jonas Bowen was born yesterday.

Jonas Bowen
Taken at Desert Samaritan Hospital
June 14, 2007

Congratulations to Dad, Mom, and Grandpa. They looked so happy to have a new baby in their lives.

Photos from June 14, 2007

2007-06-14T08:43:00.000-07:00

Apparently someone has something worth protecting :-p I thought this was a cool little gate/fence. It is really funny to me for some reason; it looks so cute and friendly, but the sign says, "BEWARE OF THE DOG" and the fence is clearly designed to injure anyone who tries to get over it :)

Taken on 48th st, south of Broadway
June 14, 2007

It seems weird to me that we spend so much time trying to grow plants that shouldn't naturally exist here, then we need to water them heavily, and spend all our time cleaning up after them. Then weeds start to grow because we spend so much time making it easy to grow things there, and we spend all our time removing them.

Taken on 48th st, south of Broadway
June 14, 2007

Photo from June 13, 2007

2007-06-13T08:59:00.000-07:00

Today was a busy morning, I recently had a friend, Jason Farrier, help me out with a little dry rot issue. He is a home inspector with a history in the construction business, so I figured he was perfect for the job.

I'm feeling pretty good about what we've accomplished so far, but what's more important, is that he took a look at the house, and pointed out a number of other issues that he recommended I fix before I sell.

Here is a photo of the repairs that we did this morning:

Taken at my house
June 13, 2008

I need to finish it up (caulk, primer, etc) in the next few days, but at least the hard part is done.

Other upcoming projects that this has brought into light:

Potential Termite issues
Fixing additional trim that has rotted
Fixing the leaky chimney
Fixing some insulation issues in the attic
Fixing the duct work for the AC system, and potentially removing the evap. cooler
Fixing the pool's electrical system
Landscaping the areas that touch the house to avoid bugs, and further rot.
Finishing the master bath/closet leak

Its a long list, and it I'm not sure how much it will all cost, but I think it will be fun, and I think that its a great opportunity to learn. The current plan was to sell in January, when I get married, but I might try to convince Katie to do it in May to give me more time to repair, and one more spring to play with the landscaping.

A Special thanks to Tom and Jason Farrier, and Elite Home Inspections for their help so far. Jason is Great, and I would recommend Elite Home Inspections to anyone buying a house. He is way more thorough than the guy that did mine last time.

Photos from June 12, 2007

2007-06-12T07:50:00.000-07:00

Today I had to drive to work again, but it wasn't all that bad... I was intent on taking a photo of something other than the rear end of a car, so I made a few turns that I normally wouldn't make, and I even got out of my car at one point to snag this photo:

RIP Trimble
Taken at the Double Butte Cemetery
June 12, 2007

For those of you who know me, this photos seems pretty ironic. When I saw the tombstone I couldn't help but snag a photo.

I also had one photo that I took while stuck in traffic turn out alright, so I've included that here:

Fairway
Taken on 48th st, North of Guadalupe
June 12, 2007

Photo from June 11, 2007

2007-06-11T08:18:00.000-07:00

I had to drive to work today because I have an appointment at 11. So instead of being outside, enjoying the morning, I was stuck in this:

Taken on 48th st, south of baseline
June 11, 2007

When you ride your bike in the morning, you wake up during the ride. When you get to work, you're ready to go. Today when I got in I was dragging my feet, and really didn't feel much like doing anything. O well. I'm cleaning to coffee pot right now, hopefully some coffee will fill the gap this morning. :-p

Tomorrow I have to drive again, for an knee doctor appointment :-/ Maybe I'll get creative tomorrow, and come up with a photo of something other than a car's rear end :-p

Photo from June 8 2007

2007-06-08T08:13:00.000-07:00

Nothing too great today... I was riding on the Guadalupe/I10 overpass, and I stopped for a second to watch the traffic. As I looked off in the distance, I could see a brown haze on the horizon, and the traffic was pretty solid for 7:00. It would be cool if the world cut back on driving, but that's never going too happen. We all live a million miles from where we work, so we are locked in :-p

Taken from the Guadalupe/I-10 overpass
June 8, 2007

Photos from June 7 2007

2007-06-07T08:00:00.000-07:00

I'm going to start trying to do a daily post with one or two photos, actually taken that day. I've been trying to wake up earlier, and I've also been riding my bike in to work... Gas prices, Global Warming, Getting out of shape, etc :-/

Anyway, I've decided that since I am already out and about in the morning, I should try to make a daily post of photos, actually taken that day.

Enjoy! Check back in from time to time!

This is the Point South Mountain Golf Course, taken from the bike path on 48th st.
June 7, 2007

This is the Church in Guadalupe, taken from Priest
June 7, 2007

People are funny

2007-06-05T08:32:00.000-07:00

Saw this on the way to work today... People are funny... I'm sure the author of this one was justified in being upset, but the message is lost in the absurd text that he put on this sign.

If you want to be successful in changing the world, make sure your efforts are fueled by Love, and not Hate. Hate will only make people resist you. (and probably make them think that you are silly).

Taken on 48th street, south of baseline
June 5, 2007

Stop the Negative Vibes

2007-05-08T16:40:00.001-07:00

The world is full of negative people, and we need to fight them, or we
will end up becoming them.

If someone talk down about everyone else to you, they probably talk
down about you to everyone else, so stand up for everyone else, put an
end to the negativism. Add a little optimism to the world.

Investing in Life

2007-04-13T10:54:00.001-07:00

In my high school sophomore math class, I remember learning about compounding interest. It seemed totally boring to me, until we got to the word problems. The problem asked about what the difference would be in how much money someone would have if they started saving when they were 18 vs 20, and I was floored. The difference was so huge. That year I started saving money.

The concept of investing is a good way to illustrate something in life that is hard to explain. So hard, in fact, that we don't usually notice it -- and if we do notice it, we don't understand it.

The way we live our lives is an investment in our future, and in our happiness. It's not as obvious as our financial investments, It's not like we get a statement in the mail every month, and there is no annual taxes to force us to look at how we've done this year.

Like investments, the good that we do now is not just put away and buried in the ground. It is an investment, and it grows and has returns. When we do nice things, it makes the people around us happy, and it promotes the behavior. Often times, this results in more happiness in your own life.

In this same metaphor, there is also debt. Doing mean things is like spending our money. And we can easily spend too much and go into debt. Like with card debt, we have to pay interest on what we owe, and what we have doesn't do as far because we're too far in the whole, and are busy just trying to break even. When we build a mean world around us, and we try to start being happy, you will be brought down by the mean nature of the world you've created. It's not like you can just start being happy, and the world will change. You need to keep working at it for quite some time before you break even and can start saving.

Moral of the story? Start promoting happiness now. Don't wait till you are older. If you build a bad world, you have to live in it, but if you build a happy world, it will hold you up even when you feel down for a little bit. Help to build a world that will help you live happily!

Happy Post

2007-03-09T08:26:00.000-08:00

I promised a happy post a little while ago, and I never delivered :) but that's only because I've been incredibly busy being absurdly happy.

well some of the time anyway :)

I had such good luck this week. I brought my car into the shop, because the check engine light was on, and the mechanic told me that the problem was extreme, and that there was no reason to repair it: that I might as well sell my car for scrap. This news was so bad that I didn't even react bad. I just kind of laughed it off as incredibly bad luck. The funny thing is this: it was good luck, in disguise.

I went down to the shop and talked to the mechanic. He told me that the engine was misfiring, that the PSI on the cylinders was about 100 on 5 of them, and like 250 on 1. He told me that this meant that there was internal valve damage, and it would be major work, which would result in costs that were more than the blue book of my car... This is where it gets fishy: He offers to buy the car off me, and offers to "Help me out" with the bill I had with him, if I wanted to sell it to him. He indicated that the price he would give me was around $100. I told him I could sell the rims on ebay for more than that, and that I would spend a few days considering my options.

I called them up, and paid for their "Diagnostic" over the phone, and had a tow truck pick up my car and tow it to VW. When it got to VW, they told me that there was just a short in the spark plug wires and that it would be easy to fix.

They replaced the spark plug wires, and the coil, and gave it a full service for $1,600 (after tax).

Now here is how I see it: If I had brought it to VW from the start, I would have been mad that I had to pay 1,600. I would have thought that I was getting robbed... but thanks to the good people at Purcell's, I was expecting to be out about $10,000 on the deal, so $1,600 sounded great to me :)

How lucky is that?

positive?

2007-03-01T16:49:00.000-08:00

I was looking at this blog, and I realized how hateful I sound. I rant on here pretty often, cause its a nice way to unleash, but I really don't have nearly as much hate in my heart as I would seem to from reading my own blog :)

I think my next post will be about something positive... More to come tomorrow.

Love My Work, Hate My Job

2007-01-29T10:03:00.000-08:00

I love the work that I do, but I hate my job.

When I say that I like the work that I do, I don’t just mean software development, though that is part of it. I mean the exact work that I do at my current job. I develop applications for phones, I write code to integrate with google earth, I write web applications, I write windows applications, I get to do basically everything I want, and very little that I don’t. But even though I love EXACTLY what I am doing, I hate my job.

Many people around the office have this heir of entitlement. They all seem the think that though they don’t do anything, they should be promoted, respected, and empowered because they think they are somehow entitled to be. They have this idea that everything they do is right, and everything everyone else does is wrong, and everyone thinks they could do everyone else’s job better. They keep their noses in the air, and don’t listen to anything unless it comes out of their own mouth. If you have a killer idea, they don’t like it until they repeat it and coin it as their own.

I think we all know and hate people like this, but through some freak occurrence, they all ended up working here. Maybe it is this place that changes them.

When I started, all I wanted was what I had, plus a little raise every year. But I find that the more time I spend here, and the more I am attacked by these people, the more I become one of them in defense.

This attitude is poison, and it’s infected my entire office… thought I love the work I do, I need to exit before I let this poison take its toll on me. What a shame... give up something you love to protect yourself from becoming something you hate.

Rock 'n' Roll 1/2 Marathon

2007-01-23T08:24:00.000-08:00

Well the 1/2 Marathon has come and gone... I always figured it would be harder than it was. You really don't have to kill yourself, it's not even as long as it sounds. That being said, the recovery time, would tell a conflicting story. My knees were pretty soar for about 5 days after the run.

About two and a half years ago, I trained for a 10k which is less than half the distance of this race. When I finished, I just kept running till I found a trash can, and I puked my guts out.

Now it's not like I've been training for 2.5 years straight for this, I only decided to run in it late November, and in the 1.5 months I had to train, I only ran 6 times (see the training log at the bottom of this entry). Though the training helped me build some muscle, endurance, and helped me find my style and pace, I think that there were two factors that really helped me out on this one that happened outside of the realm of training.

First off, I lost 40-50 lbs over the last 2 years, which makes a HUGE difference. When you can carry 170 lbs, compared to 220, its a world of difference.

Secondly, I read I book on how to run. It promoted the idea that running style was not all it was cracked up to be, that if you cared what people thought of you when they saw you, you would look better, but waste energy and cause injury. I focussed a lot of my training on finding as style that would keep my ankles, knees, and back comfortable, and would minimize the work I spent bobbing up and down. I tried to spend all my energy moving forward. I think that it really worked out. Day 4 of my training was the first day I figured out the style that I used in the marathon.

Anyway, it was a good experience, I don't feel as accomplished as I thought I would, but it felt pretty good to cross the finish line.

For anyone who is interested, here is my GPS training logs:

A father's love could change the world

2006-10-11T11:35:00.000-07:00

Father,

Help me show others the same love that you show me.

You do not reject me when I go against your will.

You never give up on me, even when I give up on myself.

You love me when I disappoint you.

You listen to me, even when I talk back.

You don't snap at me when I snap at you.

You don't fight back when I fight with you.

You will not hate me, even when it seems I hate you.

You bring peace into my life.

You love me just because I am.

Help me learn to love everyone, especially those who it is hardest to love, like a father loves his son.

Drama-rama

2006-09-28T10:07:00.000-07:00

I think that many humans, especially in successful cultures, have reached a state where they have no real problems anymore. But instead of being happy about it, we find ourselves bored, and wishing that more was going on. So what do we do?

We invent problems.

I've started to use the term Drama-rama to describe this phenomenon. People get so bored that they start to try to find anything to fight about or be down about just so they can escape the monotony of leading a dull life. I think that the only solution is to this problem is to find something else to occupy our time. I've found that when things get busy, during finals for example, the drama-rama effect is at an all time low. When people are stressed naturally, we actually get along better. It's a bit cynical, and I'm not 100% sure it's accurate, but I think that it can be seen often in my own life.

Example:

At work one day a co-worker confronted everyone in the office trying to figure out who used the last paper towel in the bathroom. It's a particularly small operation, and there is no staff to refill things like that, so we keep a stocked closet in the bathroom with plenty of refills. I've personally been in the situation many times where there is no more TP or paper towels, and I have to grab them from the closet, but it never occurred to me to try to figure out who used the last one. In this case, when I was confronted, even though I knew I was not the guilty party, I let myself feed this drama-rama and it turned into an epic argument about the ethics of what things in the office should be refilled, and why. It was a totally bogus argument, but then again, being drilled about whether or not I was the guilty party was equally, if not more absurd. :)

Things like this happen every day, even as simple as giving weird looks, or wondering about why others are giving you weird looks, why do we do it?

Extremes vs Averages

2006-08-16T10:22:00.000-07:00

History judges us by our extremes not our average. We don’t tell stories of normal moments, we tell stories of things that are better or worse than normal. Furthermore, we usually let the bad beat out the good.

If you hate your parents you would point out the moments when they were at their worst: the meanest things they ever said, and the worst things they ever did. You will tell them about the time they were stressed out and said they wish you weren’t born, or the time they slapped you for talking back to them. You won’t tell anyone about how they packed you a lunch every day in elementary school, or how they always picked you up from your sports, or how they always made sure you had clean clothes. You will judge them from their extremes, and you will tell stories that reflect those extremes.

Likewise if you love your parents, you would point out the greatest things they ever did for you, how they stayed up all night helping your build your science project because you waited till the last minute, how they loaned you the money you needed to get your first car, how they nursed you back to health when you got your wisdom teeth out.

We are a drama driven people, and though we should give people credit for their good moments, and deduct credit for their bad moments, that shouldn’t be how we judge them..

98% of the time we are at our average.

Pride Kills

2006-06-20T09:48:00.000-07:00

It happens on every playground, and even when we are grown. People advance at the cost of others. From giving wet willies to spreading rumors, cc’ing the boss to fighting for covered parking, these prideful outbursts happen throughout our whole life. We let ourselves think that we deserve more than other people. We think that we’ve tried harder, or done more, or were born in a better place, and we blindly let our nature take over and go whatever it needs to do to prove our superiority. If you think about this and say “No, that’s not me”, then you are exactly who I’m talking about. You have such a high opinion of yourself that you are unwilling to even consider the fact that you might actually do the things I think of. We all do, all the time, it’s basically something that you can’t avoid. Even when you have the lowest self esteem in the world, you are still in the same boat. You think, “Why is that person so secure? What do they have that I don’t have?”

Pride is so bad for that exact reason; it makes us blind to recognize it.

Pride makes the world a bad place, because when people are oppressed, their pride will usually cause them to drop to the level of their oppressor, and fight fire with fire. But they are usually so mad about it and get so worked up that they up the anti a little, and this creates a cycle that is very hard to break.

What’s the solution? Just have Sympathy for your oppressors, be kind to them, they are only doing this because it has been done to them, and they are blind to what they are doing. If you let yourself be a victim, you can hold onto the hope that they will start too have sympathy for you. That is a medicine that might cure this curse of human nature.

Apologies

2006-06-16T20:48:00.000-07:00

Why do we need apologies? What is it that we hope to get? Why can't we just forgive anyway? Being mad causes a horrible cycle. when two people who are close to eachother fight, it causes both of them to be mad, and both of themdecide that they deserve an apology. But the truth is probably that they are both right. They both overreacted and they both owe eachother an apology. But in the mean time, while they are waiting for one, they will just look at eachother with mad eyes, thinking about why the other person won't give it to them. But if we just notice this, and stray from our nature, we might realize that these mean looks are worsening the situation. They have become the fuel that keeps this destructive fire blazing. It we changed out nature and just forgave them and put on a big smile instead, they would look at you, probably with a new confused look on their face, and the cycle would be broken. It might take a while to break through to the otherperson, but I imagine they will eventually come off their stuburn anger, and join you with a smile. Just break the cycle, otherwise a stupid little fight can become an epic battle.

And They're Off!

2006-06-16T08:48:00.000-07:00

I have been keeping a blog on my own server for a while, but it just seems stupid to waste time maintaining my own server for this, when there are services like this that do it faster and better. I have no plans to move my old blog over, but if you know where it was, I have no plan of removing it.