Snuffle Square

Tellus Science Museum

2010-08-21T11:26:00.001-04:00

I didn't even know the Tellus Science Museum existed until yesterday morning. After finding out that it had a planetarium, I decided that it would be a good idea to take Mom and Dad there for an impromptu visit. The place is actually very interesting. It's much, much bigger than I expected. It felt like there was more overall exhibit space than at Fernbank in Atlanta. I don't know if many other people know it's there either since it was mostly empty. If you're looking for something educational to do, I'd say it's definitely worth a visit.

Dad really liked this very large dump truck. It's tough to tell how big it is from the picture, but imagine that each tire is about the size of a small car.

Dear Porsche, Bring It!

2010-06-14T08:35:00.007-04:00

You can see Porsche's North American headquarters from my office.

This morning we noticed an airplane flying around with a banner reading "Dear Porsche, Bring It! Love, MINI."

Apparently MINI is laying down the gauntlet. I guess Porsche won't race them.

Nice Box

2010-06-09T09:00:00.003-04:00

This is a box used to ship two discs from CD Baby. It's a nice box. I really like how with two neat cuts and strategically placed perforations the box can be made to accommodate from one to four discs with a minimum of waste and adhesive.

William Tell

2010-05-05T14:05:00.003-04:00

We have someone at work that does a pretty good impersonation of William Tell. Just before this shot he knocked a cup off of another coworker, landing the cup in a trash can to her right and the rubber band in a trash can to her left. Unfortunately I wasn't quick enough with my camera for that shot, but I did capture this one. The mostly willing volunteers were not harmed.

Cable Connector Quiz

2010-01-08T17:06:00.002-05:00

The Cable Connector Quiz

Score: 100% (10 out of 10)

It would have been a disgrace if I had not scored 10 out of 10 and matched Grant.

B20? Not today.

2009-11-27T20:20:00.003-05:00

I was excited to make my way to Refuel Biodiesel today to fill up with some B20 for the first time. I didn't really need any fuel, but I thought it might be a good idea to find the location of the pump before I really needed it. Unfortunately, they were completely out. There are only two pumps there; one for B20 and one for B100. I didn't even try the B100 since it's not really great for cold weather and it's starting to get a little chilly around here. So instead I stopped off at RaceTrac on my way home. They sell B5. It's not as "green" as I would like, but it's a start. Since Monday when I picked up my car I averaged 36.8 MPG in a mix of city and highway driving. The efficiency should improve as the engine breaks in. I'll post some better pictures of my new, fuel-sipping ride once I've had a chance to give it a proper washing and polishing.

On My Way To The Hot Lips Hustle

2009-09-12T16:48:00.006-04:00

A really great sunrise greeted me on the way to the Hot Lips Hustle 5K this morning. Today it was for the run, but I'm up and about most days long before dawn. It's not really because I'm a morning person by nature; my loathing of sitting in traffic just trumps my desire to stay in bed.

This is reason enough to get out of bed early, though.

I Am A Centrist Social Libertarian

2009-08-20T19:03:00.002-04:00

No surprises here.

My Political Views
I am a centrist social libertarian
Right: 0.01, Libertarian: 4.15

My Foreign Policy Views
Score: -4.82

My Culture War Stance
Score: -4.12

Political Spectrum Quiz

Dad Finds A Turtle

2009-07-08T21:04:00.003-04:00

Dad found a turtle hanging out in the backyard today. He made a little cage for it to stay until I could get home to see it. The turtle is now safely back at the creek next to my house.

Fireworks!

2009-07-05T13:35:00.002-04:00

Last night was the first time I've specifically gone out to watch a fireworks show in several years. I forgot how much fun it can be! I went with some friends to view the show put on at Indian Hills. It seemed like a good time to test out the video recording capabilities of my iPhone 3GS, too. Other than having some trouble holding the phone still after 20 minutes, I think it turned out pretty well.

Chocolate?

2009-06-24T07:09:00.003-04:00

I should be used to this by now, but I'm not. I walked into the kitchen at work this morning to find an empty chocolate wrapper and box sitting on the table. The garbage can is about 6 feet away. It's NOT THAT DIFFICULT to throw away your own trash!

iPhone 3G S Day

2009-06-19T22:19:00.003-04:00

It's that time of year again. Yes, Apple released a new iPhone so I bought it. Fortunately this year I didn't have to deal with any lines since I pre-ordered from the AT&T store. As you can see from the above picture there was nobody knocking down the doors. I walked right in during lunch and picked mine up without a wait. I've heard of folks having to wait nearly 4 hours today at the nearby Apple Store, though.

My primary motivation in buying this year (like I really need much of a reason) is the upgrade to 32 GB of storage. What can I say? I like a lot of space. The CPU speed bump is nice, too. The device really does feel snappier in general. The 3G performance, however, is kind of disappointing (but in line with what I expected). Last year when I brought home my iPhone 3G on launch weekend, I was testing out at up to 1800 kbps transfers. Over the course of the year I observed performance gradually dropping until last week when I was lucky to see 500 to 800 kbps. With my new 3G S today I consistently saw 1000 - 1300 kbps again. I think it's going to be a constant battle between how many iPhones join the AT&T network and how fast they can add bandwidth.

I expect that next summer they should be releasing a 4G version. I'd really like to see a 64 GB storage option, too, but that might be pushing it. I'd settle for a multi-core CPU and real-world 4G speeds in the 3 to 5 mbps range. A new case design would also be welcomed. Sign me up.

Cheese Toast

2009-06-09T17:29:00.003-04:00

I'm not the only one who loves Brick cheese. I brought back three bricks to share with the folks in the office. Grant has been making cheese toast in the mornings with it. We'll all be sad when the supply runs out.

Wind Farm

2009-05-28T21:05:00.002-04:00

I was very surprised and pleased to come across the Mendota Hills Wind Farm today. This was my first time seeing a wind farm up close and personal. This is one of my ideal scenarios; the land under the turbines is still used for crops (producing all sorts of vegetarian delights, I'm sure) while the turbines produce clean energy. The sound of the facility was pretty cool, too. It was a sort of gentle "wooshing" sound. I recorded some video of the turbines in action, but I'll have to upload that later (maybe). We should be doing this everywhere!

Ladysmith Welcomes You!

2009-05-28T08:31:00.003-04:00

We arrived in Ladysmith yesterday afternoon. On the way I observed that Wisconsin has both some of the smoothest and roughest roads ever, but at least everything is paved now. It rained the entire drive. Fortunately, the rain broke for a few minutes when we arrived at the cemetery. After paying our respects we drove through Ladysmith so Dad could do some sightseeing. Unfortunately a tornado that came through a few years back destroyed a lot of the old buildings that he could remember, including their old house in town. We then went to visit Aunt Irma at her farm. She seemed to be doing well and is planning to participate in a motorcycle ride in a few days.

The Voss farm is located just down County Road P from the cheese factory where Dad's family lived and worked when he was kid. The gas pump above was the pump they had there. I believe Uncle Fred moved it to his farm sometime after the old cheese factory stopped operating.

Brick Cheese

2009-05-25T16:49:00.007-04:00

Brick cheese is one of the only things I miss about living in Chicago. When I was a little kid I didn't really like lunch meat (big surprise), but I loved cheese. In particular I loved this cheese. I saw some in Jewel today and had a Brick and Lorraine Swiss cheese on rye sandwich for lunch. Yum! Shopping in Jewel, by the way, is complete chaos. The aisles are small and there isn't any obvious traffic pattern.

Morning Walk

2009-05-25T07:42:00.003-04:00

Dad likes to find stuff on the ground. This morning while he was taking Simon for a walk he found this piece of concrete and a clover patch. The concrete reminded him of Uncle Ralph who invented some form of concrete for use on skyscrapers; I'll need to investigate this further. The clover reminded him of how he picked clover with my brothers and sisters when they were kids. They'd eat the flowers.

Rental Cars

2009-05-23T09:00:00.005-04:00

My nephew recently commented that my blog appeared to be dead and wondered if I had any interesting trips planned. I take that as a subtle sign that I've been slacking.

Under my original plan I would right now be driving in a rented minivan to Chicago instead of writing this blog entry. I was late picking up the rental yesterday and learned the hard way that they don't hold the vehicle for longer than an hour after the scheduled pick-up time. Now I know not to be late again.

I searched for comparable vehicles, but there is nothing available until tomorrow morning. Fortunately my travel plans are flexible enough to absorb the delay. On the bright side, I will now be able to attend Bear's Memorial Day party this afternoon.

The plan for the trip is to take Mom and Dad back to Chicago (and Wisconsin if bodies and time permit) to revisit places where they met, grew up, visited as a young couple, etc. and record as much information as possible. I consider it to be a mini-documentary project with the goal of producing a DVD / Blu-ray that I can share with the rest of my family. I'll try to post short entries throughout the week to keep my nephew from getting bored.

No Sense Of Quality

2009-03-15T10:25:00.003-04:00

Grant mentioned this to me last week. I just got around to reading an article about it. Essentially, it appears that younger people are preferring at an increasing rate the crappy sound of low quality MP3 music. My hope is that this is a passing anomaly since the new iTunes Plus standard is 256 kbps AAC. At least with that codec at that setting the lossy version is audibly indistinguishable from the CD version. Maybe kids will start to appreciate high quality audio again. Otherwise, this is just another indication that we're on the path to Idiocracy.

Kitten Milestone

2009-03-04T20:48:00.003-05:00

Last Sunday I reached a major milestone with Frances and Angie (mostly Frances). She finally decided it was okay for me to pet her without having to use food as a bribe. It seems like only 8 months ago they were both ferocious little man-eaters. I think it may now just be a matter of days before Frances decides to become a lap cat. Angie is still a little less personable. She's the one lurking in the shadows in the picture above. To her credit she rarely runs away unless I get closer than about 10 feet; she might need a few more months to warm up.

Red Rice Cooker

2009-02-08T12:17:00.005-05:00

I decided that I should eat more rice. This led me to the decision that I should buy a rice cooker. I was guided by three thoughts:

1) The vegetarian meals and cooking styles I enjoy most use rice.

2) Much of the world's population survives thanks to rice.

3) I really don't like to cook, so anything I can do to make cooking rice easier is good.

I researched rice cookers online and talked to friends about their experiences with rice cookers, but ultimately I just went to Target and picked up this small, red one for $18; it was cheap and matched the accent color I use in the kitchen. Yesterday was my first time using it. It was great! I put in some rice, added some water, pressed the button and left for the grocery store. When I got home I was greeted by the smell of freshly cooked rice. Now I just need to focus on preparing a few, key recipes well and I'll be set.

Knife Storage

2009-02-02T06:38:00.002-05:00

I'm now ready to expect almost any kind of senseless behavior in our office kitchen, but this was a good one. Evidently toasters are ideal locations for storing dirty knives.

Some Night Photos

2009-01-21T20:16:00.002-05:00

I added a few photos to Flickr. I'll probably add some more over the coming days.

Vienna - Day 2

2009-01-19T15:05:00.005-05:00

I started the morning by visiting St. Peter's Church. The artwork is beautiful. I didn't look at any brochures or pictures online before entering, so I didn't know what to expect. Walking through the doors was amazing; none of the pictures I was able to take did it justice.

After leaving St. Peter's I started walking towards the National Library. Unfortunately, it is closed on Monday's (at least the tourist portion is closed). I found that the library is actually quite large, and the "real" part of the library is open. However, you have to be a student or card carrying library member to get in. I tried entering through a back door in the ethnic studies wing (I think that's what it was), but I was intercepted by a librarian. I pointed around and said "look". He said "no, it's for students." I think he could tell I wasn't a student. After that I just wandered a bit more. Vienna looks exactly what I have in mind when I picture an old, European city in my head. Street after street is filled with spectacular buildings. I finally came upon the Parliament building. I went on the tour and was surprised that we were actually allowed to stand right up in the front of the National Council chamber. The style is from the mid 50's since the original chamber was destroyed by bombs in WWII. They have plans to renovate it so it will be modern and new by 2012, but those plans are on hold since the economy is hurting right now.

After Parliament I hopped on the train and traveled to Schönbrunn. That place is HUGE. I could probably have spent most of my daylight hours there. As it was I was racing against the clock to take some pictures before sunset. By the time I was done there my feet were in a LOT of pain, but I decided to go back to the hotel and pick up my other camera for some night photography in Vienna. I basically retraced in a much faster fashion the route I took during the day. In spite of the pain I'm glad I did it. I had a feeling the buildings would look even better when lit for the evening and I was right. Those will have to wait for posting to Flickr when I get back.

Vienna - Day 1

2009-01-18T16:54:00.003-05:00

I spent most of the morning riding the train from Munich to Vienna. The route offered me the opportunity to see a lot of northern Austria, even if it was only through the window. My impression is that while the architecture and "look and feel" in Austria is similar to Bavaria, there is a lot more industry. On the German side of the border I mostly just saw small agricultural towns, but on the Austrian side there were a lot of lumber mills. It didn't seem to be quite as clean looking, either. Though admittedly my scope of observation is limited.

After checking in to my hotel I jumped on the subway and made my way towards the Museum Quarter. The subway system is NOT as nice as Munich and I feel confident enough in my observations to stand firmly behind that assessment. In Munich, the stations are clean and they don't really smell. In Vienna, I kind of felt like I was riding MARTA. If you've done that, you know what I mean about the odor. Fortunately, the Museum Quarter smelled fine and the scenery was outstanding. I only had time to visit one museum so I ventured into the Natural History Museum seen above. Mostly, I just wanted to see what it looked like inside such a cool building. The architecture was amazing! I didn't really learn much about natural history since almost everything was in German, but I did get to see several large dinosaur skeletons.

I then made my way over to St. Stephen's Cathedral. I was really disappointed when I arrived because Mass was already under way; I only caught the end of the service. However, I was in luck; they had back-to-back Masses. The student Mass was at 7:00 PM instead of 6:00 PM like it is back home. So, I was able to take a seat and participate in that one. Again, it was all in German, but it really isn't difficult to follow a Catholic Mass if you're familiar with it. I'd have to say that this was my most favorite experience so far on this holiday.

Munich - Day 2

2009-01-17T16:10:00.002-05:00

I joined my sailor friends on a day trip to Neuschwanstein Castle. It was apparently the inspiration for Disney's Sleeping Beauty castle. I have much better pictures, but due to some limitations with my hotel wi-fi connection I can only post what I have on my iPhone. It was a perfect day for this trip; the sky was clear, it wasn't too cold and the views from the mountains were spectacular. King Ludwig II might have been somewhat crazy, but he sure knew how to build a castle. Tomorrow morning I leave on an early train for Vienna. Once again I have no particular plan, but I'm sure something will work out.

Munich - Day 1

2009-01-17T16:02:00.001-05:00

I arrived before check-in time at my hotel, so I dropped off my bags and set off on foot towards the center of the city. About an hour later I came upon the New Town Hall (seen above) and found an English speaking tour group forming. I decided to join them. I'm glad I did! The guide pointed out several sites that I revisited later for more picture time. He then mentioned that there would be a beer tour in the evening. How could I skip that? I spent the rest of the afternoon taking pictures and visiting the Jewish Museum, then I arrived at the main train station to start the "Beer Challenge". We had folks from England, Australia, South Africa, Columbia and even America ready for the challenge. I hooked up with 3 US sailors on leave for a long weekend; Rebecca, Kim and Amy. They are posted at the Navy base in Sicily and work as a nurse, physical therapist and pharmacist respectively. It was a fun evening. Talking and drinking with people from all around the world is a great experience.

Dorfen

2009-01-13T19:05:00.005-05:00

The funny thing about business trips is that you tend to have to do a lot of work on them. I probably won't be able to blog the experience quite as much as I would like. Regardless, I wanted to get these pictures posted tonight before I go to sleep.
We arrived late at the hotel last night since we went straight to work after landing in Munich. The hotel is very odd. It's on the third floor of a building owned by some type of organic farm cooperative. Above is one of the first signs I saw on the wall when we entered the building. All of the lights were out, there was no attendant, and the place smelled like fertilizer. There is warehouse-type facility on the first floor, a Weight Watchers meeting group on the 2nd floor and something that looks like a natural birthing teaching center.
The "hotel" portion of the building consists of 6 rooms located off of a communal kitchen / breakfast area. The breakfast was good, but the cook doesn't really speak any English. That's fair since I don't really speak German. We all understand what coffee means, though.

This is my room. It's nice and clean. I have much better pictures in RAW format, but those will have to wait until I get back home. I've traveled to a lot of odd places, but I think this may be the most unusual hotel in which I've ever stayed.

Carbon Tax

2008-12-28T08:33:00.002-05:00

I was talking with my nephew recently about the need for higher gasoline prices. I essentially believe we need to change tax policy in a revenue neutral way to encourage the development and use of more energy efficient technologies. Today, I saw this article in the New York Times written by a conservative senator and one of Ronald Reagan's economic advisers. I like this approach to the issue since it seems like a solution that everyone can support.

Magic Cube

2008-12-19T08:41:00.006-05:00

In my Secret Santa stocking at work I discovered a Magic Cube this morning. It's essentially a Rubik's Cube. The best part about it are the instructions. They don't help me, but they're fun to read.

Wildlife Snow Scene

2008-12-04T12:58:00.002-05:00

We have a winter wildlife theme going on in the office with Dan the Snow Bunny, a penguin and the squirrel family. The totem holds up Douglas the singing fir tree (not in picture since he doesn't count as wildlife).

I think my odometer is broken.

2008-11-13T16:13:00.001-05:00

Training

2008-10-18T13:36:00.006-04:00

I was recently drafted into a competition with some friends. We're doing a boys vs. girls team challenge for an upcoming 5K race, the Gobble Jog. Since it's been a really long time since I've done any running, I thought I'd go down to Marietta High School and assess my condition on the track; it's not great. I ran 2 miles in 19:56. I'm definitely not setting any records with that. I did some internet searching and learned that for someone my age, a 26 minute 5K is near the 50th percentile. Given that the race is less than 6 weeks away, I'll be happy if I can finish it in 30 minutes flat. I don't think that's TOO optimistic.

Single Cup Coffee Club

2008-10-18T11:59:00.002-04:00

Last year I bought a French press so I could enjoy some good coffee at home. I still have it and enjoy the coffee it produces, but the cleanup and prep time isn't always convenient. So, I finally took some advice and decided to give a single serving coffee maker a try. I bought the Keurig B66 coffee maker bundle found at Costco with some birthday money from Mom and Dad. It comes with a large variety of coffee, tea and hot cocoa cups to try. I am very pleased with the coffee and how quickly it can brew.

Peppered Vodka

2008-10-10T19:05:00.003-04:00

I just tried some of Grant's Peppered Vodka. It is spicy perfection! Sure, my throat feels somewhat scalded now, but it is worth it. This was my mix:

1 part Grant's Peppered Vodka

3 parts low sodium V8

Celery salt to taste

No additional hot sauce required.

Trash Can, Anyone?

2008-10-01T15:12:00.000-04:00

Grant's Not Here

2008-08-28T08:20:00.002-04:00

I checked. He's definitely not here today.

29! Yes, Again...

2008-08-13T08:17:00.003-04:00

Happy birthday, Scrappy!

Kitten Update

2008-07-27T11:27:00.005-04:00

Angie, as seen above, still likes to spend most of her time at the back of her box. She still hisses quite a bit when I pet her, but I've been fortunate to not be bit or scratched yet (yes, I'm knocking on wood right now). I've read some material online about how to domesticate feral kittens; most of the techniques don't work well with her, so I've decided to fall back to a regular routine of visiting her and petting her in few minute chunks. Much longer than that and she really starts to get irritated.

I'm having more success with Frances, though you might not be able to tell from this picture. She was preparing to dart away in this shot. I'm able to pick her up and hold her in my lap with moderate success. She isn't too keen on the idea of being handled when I'm not holding her, but she usually settles down and almost goes to sleep while I'm holding and petting her. I'm hoping she'll rub off on her sister, but so far it seems to be the other way around.

I knew this was going to be a lengthy process going into it, so I'm not really discouraged. It probably would be a LOT easier if I already had a domesticated cat from which they could learn. I may pursue this idea if I can procure a good example cat.

iPhone 3G Day - Take 2

2008-07-13T09:30:00.002-04:00

After making a failed attempt at buying a new iPhone on Friday I decided that I would be content to try out the new features of the 2.0 firmware on my first generation iPhone. There is no doubt about it; the new App Store makes the iPhone an even MORE useful device than it already was. I found that my favorite app was Pandora. I never used Pandora much from a PC. Streaming to my phone and then on to my truck stereo is a whole different experience. There was something very geeky cool about have my own, personalized "radio station" to listen to while driving. Well, I found that it glitched for a few seconds a couple of times while driving around on Saturday and THAT was all the excuse I needed to make a second attempt at buying an iPhone 3G. The extra bandwidth would surely help to eliminate those annoying glitches.

I arrived at the Perimeter Mall Apple Store around 12:15 or so. The line was less than half as long as it was on Friday so I decided to give it a shot. The people in line near me were easy to get along with, so it was overall not a bad waiting experience. I still spent 4 hours in line (yes, it's stupid, I know), but I got my phone. Now, the question is, was it worth it?

Their are primarily 3 differences between my new phone and my old phone:

1) 3G. I've seen comments online stating that iPhone on 3G is anywhere from 2.4x to 5x faster than the original iPhone on EDGE. I couldn't test this at my house (I'm lucky to get a signal here at all), so I went up to the Kroger parking lot about 1/4 mile away. I found that the iPhone 3G is fast... really fast. I performed 3 different download speed tests and found the rate was between 1350 kbps to 1850 kbps with a ping time averaging between 200 ms and 300 ms. For a comparison, the same speed tests when conducted at my house using WiFi average around 3400 kbps with a ping time around 100 ms. When browsing the web via 3G it felt almost as fast as WiFi (as you'd expect based on the numbers above).

2) GPS. The cell tower triangulation the my first generation iPhone performed to find its location was very good. The GPS in the new iPhone is even better when outdoors or in a car (no, it doesn't work well indoors... it falls back to standard cell tower triangulation). When in my truck, however, it pinpoints its location with a nice blue dot in a few seconds. It's very cool.

3) 16 GB of storage. I carry a lot of music with me. I'm a freak about compression artifacts. After my post about how to rip music, I eventually decided to re-encode everything I carry with me at 256 kbps even though I couldn't hear a difference at 160 kbps. I know; I'm sick. Anyway, at that bit rate I was able to keep about 870 tracks with me. Since my phone also works as my "CD changer" in my truck, I like to have as much variety as possible. This left very little room for apps. With my new phone, I can carry nearly 1800 tracks, install around 20 apps that I find interesting and still have nearly 300 MB of space leftover for more apps. To me it is a worthy upgrade.

So, was the phone worth 4 hours in line, $300 and a new, crappy contract from AT&T? Yes. I'll continue to use Pandora regularly to suck bandwidth like there is no tomorrow. And next year, when they release a 32 GB version with some other trivial changes that I could probably live without, I'll most likely upgrade again. I'll admit it. I'm a fanboy.

Kitty Litter

2008-07-11T21:04:00.004-04:00

I found Frances and Angie (yep, they're both girls) camped out in the kitty litter when I came home from work today. It was clean. Frances is the slightly darker one on the right. She generally seems less likely to attack. Angie has an itchy trigger claw, but I think she's warming up to me.

iPhone 3G Day

2008-07-11T10:59:00.004-04:00

I just stopped by Perimeter Mall to get an iPhone 3G. The line was WAY too long to wait in. I kind of expected it to be short or non-existent 2 1/2 hours after the store opened. Instead, I found a line that I estimate was roughly 180 people long. I like Apple stuff, but there's no way I'm waiting in a line like that.

Alternative Energy

2008-07-08T16:58:00.003-04:00

I've seen a few articles recently concerning the wind power plan proposed by T. Boone Pickens. It's actually a really good idea. Check it out and see what you think. I believe the idea is that he wants to encourage the next President, along with the Congress, to get behind the plan to help move it along.

The Kittens Have Arrived

2008-07-06T14:21:00.006-04:00

I decided that I should get a kitten so I could work on being a kind and loving person. I tend to have trouble with empathy, compassion, blah, blah. Anyway, my plan was to seek out a Siamese kitten that I could train to act like a dog; I used to have a cat like that and I suppose I wanted to duplicate that experience. Well, plans don't always work out. Instead, I learned of two feral kittens in need of a home. This was almost exactly NOT what I was looking for, but I realized that this is perhaps a better situation for both me and the kittens. Instead of me imposing my preferred behavior on some poor, unsuspecting kitten, I can try to build a mutually beneficial relationship with a couple of cute little critters that would just as soon tear out my eye than take a nap. Don't let their cuddly ways fool you; these are man-eaters. This might turn out alright.

Roof Replaced

2008-07-06T14:02:00.003-04:00

The crews couldn't finish the roof on Thursday. Communication was difficult in general, but I thought they told me they were going to come back on Friday morning to finish. That turned out to be wrong; they came Saturday morning instead. It still took most of the day Saturday for them to finish it up. I think the job may have been bigger than they realized.

Overall, I think they did pretty good work, but I wouldn't recommend the company I used to anyone else. The level of organization and professionalism I experienced from the people in the main office was completely unacceptable. It took more than a month from the time I signed the work contract until the job was finally started. During that time I had to repeatedly call to find out the status of the job since nobody bothered to call me to set up a date to start work or notify me of schedule slips once the date was set. They sent out crews (while very nice) that had no idea where my house was, and when they called for directions the job foreman had almost no ability to communicate with me in English. The company had great reviews on Kudzu and received an 'A' in Cobb Home Reports for whatever that's worth. Maybe my experience was atypical.

Before: Standard, three tab shingles with poorly vented roof.

After: Architectural shingles (supposedly weather better) with properly vented roof.

Roof Repair

2008-07-03T09:42:00.004-04:00

The replacement of my roof is underway. The first thing I noticed is that the process of removing the old shingles is very, very loud. I found it interesting to see how the guys work on such a steep surface; they use something that looks like the foam cushion from a couch seat. You can kind of see them under the two guys on the left. I suppose the foam not only is more comfortable, but the large surface area gripping the roof surface makes it much safer.

After The Rain

2008-06-29T21:15:00.005-04:00

The rain this afternoon was a welcome gift. The effect of the sunset on the clouds was icing on the cake.

Twizzlerhenge

2008-06-25T06:27:00.002-04:00

The polar bear finds Twizzlerhenge.

U-verse

2008-06-21T12:28:00.004-04:00

U-verse recently became available in my neighborhood so I decided I'd ditch Comcast and give it a shot. This Wikipedia article is a pretty decent summary of what the service is all about.

In the house it is based around a 2Wire 3800HGV residential gateway. Of the 25 Mbps down and 2 Mbps up of bandwidth, 10Mbps down / 1.5 Mbps up is reserved for my internet connection. I've conducted speed tests using various testers across the net including multiple NDT servers, and the results are pleasantly consistent.

The highest speed I've observed is 9.52 Mbps while downloading the ISO image of Ubuntu from Georgia Tech. My Comcast cable connection could beat that when in its "Speedboost" mode, but that only lasts for a brief period of time. My download speed from Tech did not fluctuate. I prefer having a constant, predictable speed.

The gateway can also serve as an 802.11g wireless router, but I'm not using that functionality. I just set up my 802.11n base station to operate in bridge mode and disabled the wireless on the AT&T box.

The TV service works well, too. You need a decoder box for each TV. They use the coax wiring already present in the house to communicate with the gateway. The user interface falls somewhere between the crap that is Comcast and the perfection that is TiVo; I'd say it's closer to TiVo on that spectrum.

Overall, I am satisfied. I'll post updates if my opinion changes.

Mother's Day

2008-05-10T18:28:00.002-04:00

I took Mom and Dad to the Atlanta Botanical Garden for an early Mother's Day activity. There were a lot of families there doing much the same thing.

Dad found a frog that he really seemed to enjoy.

Mom, for some reason, was always on the lookout for snakes and other creepy crawling things. She wanted me to take a picture of these to prove that the critters were everywhere.

Twizzler Straw

2008-05-08T21:10:00.002-04:00

Today several of us from work went to the baseball game. It's an annual event now. A few of us tried to drink beer through Twizzlers. The volume of liquid you can drink through one Twizzler is really too small to be satisfying. I think you'd need at least four.

Some More Photos From Greece

2008-04-26T15:21:00.005-04:00

I posted some more photos from Greece to Flickr. The one above is from a little stroll I took through an open-air meat market. I converted it to B&W and took out some detail to make it slightly less nasty to view. It was actually a really fascinating experience to walk through there. The pictures I posted to Flickr have nothing to do with meat.

Drunk Guy

2008-04-19T01:37:00.002-04:00

You never know what you might see while sitting down for a snack in Athens. Near the center of this picture you may be able to make out the form of a guy talking to a pair of police officers sitting in their car. A few minutes prior to this scene, the guy was acting generally drunk and disorderly and got into a scuffle with one of the local restaurant owners. Apparently this happens almost every day according to one of the waiters that was enjoying the show. I think the drunk guy operates the little shop that you can see near the left side of the image. As the day goes on he becomes progressively more drunk. In the end nothing happened. It looked like the cops really didn't want to get out of their car. After talking to him for a few minutes, they drove away. I suppose he's a "regular" for them by now. Five minutes later it was if nothing had ever happened.

Temple Of Poseidon

2008-04-17T16:16:00.002-04:00

There was a rumor going around during the meetings today that we were going somewhere nice in the evening; the rumor turned out to be true. We took a tortuous drive down the coast in a pair of cabs operated by aspiring Formula One drivers. The "exciting" ride was worth it. We visited the Temple of Poseidon at sunset. The sky was somewhat overcast, but the atmosphere was perfect for visiting this site.

Tuesday In Athens

2008-04-16T23:41:00.003-04:00

On Tuesday my coworker and I visited the office of our colleagues in Athens. After a long afternoon of meetings, we went out with a few of our friends from the office to have dinner near the center of the city. Unfortunately I didn't bring a camera other than the one built in to my iPhone. I'm hoping to go back some time before heading home to get some better pictures. In the picture above is a small street containing several restaurants. Streets like these surround the Acropolis.

Good morning, Greece

2008-04-15T02:30:00.002-04:00

Above is the view from my seat just prior to landing in Athens. Curtis and I are currently waiting in the hotel restaurant for our rooms. It's a really nice location. I'll post more pictures as time permits.

Vegas Revisited

2008-04-06T21:50:00.005-04:00

I recently came back from another trip to Las Vegas. I have only ever traveled there for work related purposes. Some day I think I might enjoy going just for the fun of it. I posted a few more pictures to my Las Vegas set on Flickr.

Dairy and Blogs

2008-03-25T19:54:00.006-04:00

I took Dad and Uncle Don to walk on one of the nearby trails. It was a great afternoon for it. They mostly talked about dairy products, but I think everyone had a good time. I also learned that Uncle Don maintains a blog with links to a few of my cousins' blogs as well. I guess it must run in the family. He hasn't updated his blog recently, although I think that will change; he's in need of a computer upgrade. I demonstrated the appeal of the iMac to him. I suspect he will soon be a member of "The Cult of Mac." His blog, Lake Country Reflections, is now appearing in my links.

Pot Holders

2008-03-24T20:16:00.004-04:00

Uncle Don and Aunt Rose are in town to visit. Aunt Rose brought along some pot holders that she made to give as gifts. When she realized that I am vegetarian, she thought that I wouldn't want any of them because of the edible animal theme. I'm flexible about that kind of stuff; I may not want to eat the cow myself, but I'm not offended if someone else wants to eat it. Anyway, I found these that I like.

Twitter

2008-03-23T21:16:00.004-04:00

Grant introduced me to Twitter over the weekend. It seems like a cool idea. I like the concept of posting brief thoughts, status updates, reminders, etc. It has a nice, simple interface for the iPhone, but something like this would be easier to do if I could just think about an update rather than having to type. Maybe someday a slimmed down, more capable version of this devices will replace the ubiquitous Bluetooth headset and I'll be able to do just that.

Animal Protein

2008-03-20T17:47:00.003-04:00

For those of you that enjoy eating animal protein, perhaps you should read this article. My preferred kind of protein probably doesn't look as bad.

Loafing

2008-03-14T06:39:00.002-04:00

I arrived at work this morning a little later than usual; it was 6:22 AM when I pulled into my parking spot.

It's a tough crowd in the morning.

1213

2008-03-08T08:44:00.004-05:00

An odd numerical convergence occurred when Grant and I went to lunch. His ticket was number 12. Mine was number 13. The clock on the register was set wrong, so my ticket time was 12:13. However, I was able to take this picture when it was REALLY 12:13.

Eclipse

2008-02-23T20:38:00.008-05:00

There was a total lunar eclipse last Wednesday night. The next one won't be until December 21, 2010. By then I should have a lens with a much longer focal length; 70mm was just not enough to really get a nice, tight shot of the moon. A lot of cloud cover also made it difficult to shoot. These are a couple of pictures that I thought were acceptable.

If I have my bright points of light right, that should be Saturn to the lower left and Regulus near the top of the frame.

My New Lens

2008-02-09T21:19:00.000-05:00

I started my Canon L-series lens collection last week by ordering the EF 24-70mm f2.8L lens from Amazon. I was torn for a while between that lens and the EF 24-105mm f4L IS, but in the end I decided that the greater maximum aperture was more important to me than the stabilization and additional focal length. I also ordered a B+W UV filter and a B+W circular polarizing filter. From what I've read, they are widely considered to be among the best filters to use with a high quality lens; it seemed worth spending a little bit more on good filters to protect and maximize the investment I made in the new lens.

Dad helped me test the lens with the clear UV filter. This picture didn't come out too bad considering it was night and I shot without flash, using only the ambient light in the room. The large aperture combined with the high ISO performance of the 40D is great.

Here's a shot I took using the circular polarizer. It really does a nice job enhancing the deep blue color of the sky.

And in case you didn't know, the top of this rock is the highest point of ground on Kennesaw Mountain (at least I haven't found anything higher).

Not So Hungry

2008-02-09T19:24:00.001-05:00

Last month I ordered some food from a place called The Hungry Vegan. I really liked the concept of having some good, meat-free food delivered to my house. I'm a vegetarian, but I'm definitely not a vegan; I think animals can be used to make great seating surfaces, I just don't want to eat them. My main reason for giving the mail order thing a try was that I absolutely do NOT enjoy cooking.

The food came in a much bigger box than I expected.

Inside the box was a styrofoam cooler filled with vacuum sealed bags of food and a cold pack. I don't really know what I expected since they had to ship fresh food a few hundred miles by ground, but the idea of having a large, styrofoam box sent to me every week bothered me. They had a little note in the box that described all the food and made a point of mentioning that the dessert boxes used recycled cardboard. Who cares? You've just sent me a block of indestructible polystyrene! I'd rather have had the dessert encased in bulletproof plastic domes if I have to deal with a styrofoam cooler anyway.

These are all of the bags of food. I paid around $85 for that. The little block of bread (African Toasted Peanut Bread) in the lower-right corner may as well have been a block of sawdust. I took one bite of it, gagged, and then promptly threw it away. The rest of the stuff was pretty good, but it wasn't $80+ good.

And these were my desserts. On the left you see my blueberry pie and on the right is my pumpkin cheesecake. The flavor was good, but now you see why I didn't think so highly of those recycled cardboard boxes; they were almost smashed beyond recognition.

I won't be ordering again. It's not practical or cost effective to ship fresh food like this. Instead, I'll just go to my local Whole Foods and pick up some food from the gourmet, ready-to-eat, food area. In fact, I did that today. For $31 I bought the following:

1 terriyaki grilled tofu (think terriyaki chicken breast for vegetarians)

1 herb crusted tofu

2 spinach cakes

2 vegetable samosas with chutney

1/2 lb. smoked mozzarella pasta

1/2 lb. Greek salad

1/2 lb. mixed fruit

1/2 lb. szechwan frizzled green beans

For me this is a better option for enhancing the variety of my meals. It's still a bit pricey, but at least nothing is smashed.

This Is Why I Go To Work Early

2008-02-09T18:56:00.001-05:00

I took this picture from my truck last Tuesday afternoon at around 4:00. As you might be able to see from the picture, I'm not moving. Nobody next to me or behind me was moving either.

I think the rain may have caused someone to collide with the barrier wall. I arrived at the scene just in time to be stopped so the accident could be moved off to the side. Traffic may have only been stopped for 5 minutes, but I suspect the folks behind me experienced a much longer delay than that.

Yes, I don't mind arriving at work at 6:00 in the morning if I can sometimes leave early enough to miss a bad drive in the afternoon.

No Mas FARC

2008-02-04T12:31:00.001-05:00

There is an interesting demonstration going on outside of my window. A few of us in the office have been watching it unfold over lunch. The Colombian Consulate is in the building next door to us, so I suppose that's what the anti-FARC demonstration is being held on top of our parking deck.

More Snow... In Chicago

2008-01-22T20:48:00.001-05:00

I'm getting my fill of snow this winter. You can see my ice scraping staff hard at work clearing the windshield. We weren't really planning on leaving the hotel tonight since it is 10 degrees out there, but the items on the menu at the in-house restaurant didn't look very appealing. Instead we went to a nearby pizza place (stuffed pizza, yum).

It's A Snowy Night In Atlanta

2008-01-16T19:34:00.000-05:00

It started to snow this afternoon. This is quite a rare event here. It's even more rare for any of it to stick. It's a nice, snowy night in Atlanta.

It's A Brand New Year

2008-01-02T14:02:00.001-05:00

Some things never change.

Gifts

2007-12-20T08:56:00.001-05:00

I am fortunate to work with a great group of people that I can also consider as friends. One of those people gave me these gifts today. It doesn't take much imagination to figure out how the jelly bean dispenser works. As for the bunny, it's clear that my friend knows me pretty well.

Words and Rice

2007-12-08T10:08:00.001-05:00

A little squirrel told me about this site:

FreeRice

It's a fun game and it is for a good cause. I just tried it this morning and reached level 43 and donated roughly 3000 grains of rice. I was curious about how much rice equaled a single serving so I did some searching on the net. This article seemed reasonable and concluded that 10,340 grains of rice was contained in 1 cup, but I found some other information that contradicted this. So, I did the only thing I could and counted some grains for myself.

I counted the number of grains of Kroger brand Long Grain Brown Rice that would fill one of my teaspoons, I then counted the number of teaspoons required to fill 1/4 cup.

~300 grains per teaspoon
9 teaspoons per 1/4 cup

So, that's just about 10,800 grains per cup. It turns out that the answers.com article is really close to what I counted, so I feel comfortable with the number. For the Kroger rice that equals roughly 640 calories. That's not too bad. You could probably donate enough rice to provide for the total calorie requirements of a single child with 25,000 grains per day.

It's Snoopy!

2007-12-05T08:20:00.001-05:00

We like to decorate around the office for holidays. This year for Christmas we split into teams and turned it into a contest. I won't name names, but an opposing team spent literally hours of time to turn the entrance to our office into a winter wonderland. My team, consisting of me, Rich, Grant and Mary decided that we wouldn't go to such extreme lengths. Instead, we focused on tradition and simplicity... Peanuts. Obviously, we should win.

Vega

2007-11-27T21:02:00.000-05:00

Last night I went to see Suzanne Vega perform at the Variety Playhouse. This was my first time seeing her perform in person. I was somehow surprised that she sounds virtually exactly the same live as she does on her CDs. I suppose that is an indication that her CDs are not over-produced and that she is just a really superior singer / songwriter. She started the show by singing "Tom's Diner" a capella. I think she did that to get it out of the way since so many people know her by that one song (including me for a long time). She then proceeded to sing a variety of the songs from her latest CD as well as many of her better known older songs; many songs she sang with very little instrumental accompaniment. She provided nice backstories to describe the history of the songs she performed and even tossed in a bit of humor at the expense of Rod Stewart. It was a thoroughly enjoyable show. I overheard someone say that he felt like "he had been put under a spell" for the duration of her performance. I think that is a good way to describe the experience. I hope she comes back again soon as I would gladly attend another of her shows.

Thanksgiving

2007-11-23T21:56:00.000-05:00

I took Mom and Dad to Florida over the week of Thanksgiving so they would have the opportunity to visit two of my aunts that live there. We first went to visit my mom's sister-in-law who lives in Lehigh Acres. It's been more than 20 years since we've seen her, so I suppose it was just about time. On the way we stopped in Sarasota to see the ocean. We weren't there for very long, but I think it made an impression on my mom; she's already planning a future vacation there. From Lehigh Acres we then drove back north to Ocala to visit my dad's sister. It hasn't been nearly as long between visits with her, but the area really has changed a lot. I put up some pictures from the trip on flickr.

Game Day

2007-11-17T20:22:00.000-05:00

Dad and I went to the Georgia Tech vs. North Carolina game today. My brother-in-law has season tickets and was kind enough to let us have use of his seats. The last time I watched a Tech football game in person was when I was a freshman there. So, it's been a long time. Both Dad and I had a great time. He was reminded of his days in high school when he played the baritone in the school band.

It was an exciting game. This shot was just after we scored a touchdown. It's difficult for me to say if I had more fun watching the game or more fun experimenting with my new camera. This was the first chance I've had to use it since buying it last weekend. I blew through my 2 GB CompactFlash card quite easily, and I was being conservative in what I chose to shoot. It's a good thing that I have an 8 GB card on order. It won't be difficult to fill.

This was a shot of the winning team. We won the game in the last 15 seconds with a field goal. To say that the stadium was energized would be an understatement. It was really an awesome game; the weather was picture perfect, the game was filled with action, I had a fun new toy to play with, and Dad and I got to spend the day together.

Garden State

2007-11-17T19:40:00.001-05:00

I was in New Jersey last week attending a conference for work. Most of the week was spent indoors. That wasn't really a problem since it was also mostly rainy throughout the week. On Friday, however, the sun came out and the natural beauty and color of the changing leaves became apparent. These pictures do not do justice to the intensity of the colors. Unfortunately, I had my camera set for taking pictures of white boards in dim conference rooms and I forgot to change the settings before snapping shots outdoors. The last time I was in New Jersey I was under the impression that the state was mostly monochrome. I actually was looking at video from a color camera and thought there was a problem because everything appeared in varying shades of gray. I must now admit that my first experience was not at all typical of what I saw this time. Now I understand why it's called "The Garden State."

The Big One

2007-11-12T21:35:00.000-05:00

Persistence pays off. On Friday morning I saw on dealnews a particularly good price for the Canon EOS 40D body and Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM lens at Circuit City. Thanks to a coupon that provided an additional 10% off the sale price if picked up in the store, it was possible to buy the kit for about $250 less than it is currently sold from most reputable dealers. I have been waiting for this camera to hit the stores and this deal was just way too good to pass up. I jumped onto the Circuit City website and placed my order with the intention of picking it up from the CC near work.

Grant and I ventured over to the store on our way back to the office from lunch. They were having some computer problems at the store when I arrived, so the customer service representative wasn't immediately able to locate my order. He sought help from someone in the camera department and came walking back up to the counter empty handed. They didn't have the camera in stock and allegedly no other store anywhere near Atlanta did either! I was annoyed. He offered to special order it, but said that it would take 2 weeks to arrive. Ugh! I told him just to cancel the order. I received my $24 gift card as their compensation for not having the item available 24 minutes after I ordered, per their advertised policy. Great... I now had a gift card for $24 but not the awesome deal on the camera I've been waiting for.

I checked their website when I arrived back at the office and it confirmed that the camera was unavailable unless I felt like driving to Chattanooga. It was the "Big One" that got away.

This evening on a whim I decided to check the CC website one more time. Impossible! It said that the kit was available for pickup from the store a few miles away from me in Acworth. I placed my order online for the kit and a high-speed CompactFlash card and this time called the store to verify that they REALLY had the camera in stock. The CSR confirmed that they did. Happy day! I drove to the store and picked up the kit along with the memory card. It was even better than the "Big One." The best part was that due to the lower taxes in my county and the $24 gift card I received for my inconvenience yesterday, I paid $41.82 less out of pocket than I would have on the original, awesome deal.

This would have been a Disney movie happy ending if not for one small "gotcha." They gave me an SD memory card instead of CompactFlash! So, unfortunately, I'm going to have to go back to the store tomorrow to exchange the card for the right type. It's annoying, but at least I still have a great camera at a great price. I'm really looking forward to being able to take shots with it. I love my PowerShot SD800 IS, but my new bundle of joy will provide me with a completely new world of options to explore in photography. I look forward to sharing my experiments.

UPDATE: The exchange of the SD card for the CompactFlash card went just about as well as I expected. I showed my receipt to the customer service representative and then showed the box containing the incorrect product. She was new, so she had to ask a supervisor what to do. After finding out that she should just return the SD card and then ring up the CompactFlash card she instructed me to go back to the camera department to bring the correct item to the desk. Sure, I could do that. I walked back there to discover that the card I needed was in a locked display case. The only employee in that part of the store was helping / flirting with a small group of young ladies as they searched for a camera. I realized this wasn't going to go anywhere fast so I went back up to the front of the store and asked the CSR if anyone else could unlock the display. They paged someone to the camera department and asked for me to go back there to wait for them. I went back to the display case and waited about 5 minutes (felt like 10 or more) for someone to show up. It was the same guy that was helping the young ladies (apparently he was the only person with the key). I took my card back up to the front desk and the CSR proceeded to ring up the order. Uh oh... The price didn't match what I paid. I informed her that was correct since I received a 10% discount on the item for picking it up in the store from the online order. She looked puzzled and thought she should still charge me EVEN THOUGH MY ORIGINAL RECEIPT WAS FOR THIS ITEM. She went back and contacted her supervisor again. The supervisor authorized the "discount" and was about to leave when she noticed that the SD card box was open. She asked me if I had opened it. "Yes," I said. That was how I realized I was given THE WRONG ITEM. She let it go and that was that. So, I finally got the right card and my order is now complete. I certainly don't like dealing with Circuit City and I wouldn't recommend it as a first choice to anyone, however this bargain was just too good to pass up. Unfortunately, I'll be out of town for the next week so I won't have a chance to experiment much with my new camera (I don't feel like taking it with me on a business trip where I'll most likely be in a hotel conference room all week). I'll try to get some pictures of interesting things posted up over the next couple of weeks, though.

Leopard

2007-10-30T23:32:00.001-04:00

Like 2 million of my closest friends, I bought a copy of OS X 10.5 over the weekend (actually, I pre-ordered it so it was waiting for me when I came home from work last Friday). I'm not going to go into a product review since there are plenty already out there, including some that explore the finer details of the new OS. There is a lot to be happy about. Yes, I've found a few bugs already, but they are nothing compared to what most people would probably expect from an initial release of an operating system (ever heard of Vista?). The improvements to the already excellent OS X 10.4 are substantial. The screenshot above is an example of one of the new features. It's a fairly old feature by UNIX standards (multiple desktops), but as usual Apple pulled it off with extra style. The transition between spaces is extremely smooth and you can view all of them quite easily with this all-in-one perspective. You'll notice than I'm running Safari in my first space, then iTunes in another, Windows XP full screen in yet another space, and finally Ubuntu 7.10 full screen in the final space. This is all running simultaneously in case it isn't obvious from the picture. I have to give credit to VMWare Fusion for making it possible to run both Windows and Linux, but on top of OS X everything feels as fast and responsive as if nothing else was happening on the system.

I'm more pleased with my iMac purchase with each passing day.

The Fog Rolled In

2007-10-30T07:40:00.001-04:00

The fog rolled into the office this morning. It is a foreboding sign of the Halloween terror to come.

The eerie mist permeates every crypt.

The Target

2007-10-25T06:17:00.000-04:00

I think this makes for a nice Halloween-themed picture.

This is a Styrofoam cup that we have hanging in our office. It is a great target for rubber band shooting practice. As you can see, it has been nearly torn in half by the fury of the projectiles. Today will be the day that we complete the evisceration.

A Morning Visitor

2007-10-21T10:51:00.001-04:00

I had a little visitor peek in this morning. Dad likes to throw acorns out in the backyard. Evidently this squirrel likes to pick them up. I was very pleased that it posed for this picture. In the background you can see one of the bird houses that Dad made. Right now my yard is a haven for birds, squirrels, chipmunks, lizards, and the occasional cat that likes to visit with the birds, squirrels, chipmunks and lizards.

Gold Rush Days

2007-10-21T09:44:00.001-04:00

Yesterday I took Mom, Dad and Simon to the Gold Rush Days festival in Dahlonega. This was actually an accident. I meant to take them to Helen, but I had a slight mix-up in my brain as to where I was driving. It worked out okay, though, since the festival was going on. This was a type of nice surprise. Even late in the day it was packed with people browsing the booths, enjoying the food and otherwise having a good time. I don't particularly care for buying stuff at events like this, but I enjoy taking pictures and watching the people.

Mom seemed to really like these wire sculptures. They were made to look like a band and swayed with the music that was playing (due to their spring-like nature). I really don't know where one would display something like this, and I don't think anyone else did either since I never saw anyone buy anything from this guy, but they do make for an interesting booth.

Rowan's Is Closing!

2007-10-20T12:48:00.001-04:00

I suppose the sign says it all; my favorite, used music store is closing up shop. I'll have to find a new place to find a bargain. It's tough to beat 5 discs for $21.20 including tax. Anyone have any suggestions?

A Gift Of Fine Art

2007-10-17T10:21:00.001-04:00

I received this finely wrapped gift this morning for my birthday. My little friend, M., did an excellent job with the decoration of the paper. You may find this piece prominently displayed on my desk at work. Within it was a framed photograph of an Anartica iceberg by the renowned polar researcher, Charles R. Stearns. This was a very cool gift indeed.

Fermented Tea?

2007-10-15T06:53:00.000-04:00

There's no telling what one might find in the office kitchen in the morning. Today, Rich and I discovered a jug of fermenting tea. It's a little difficult to see in the picture, but the jug looked like it was ready to pop. There was a nice hissing sound as I unscrewed the cap to pour it down the drain. It apparently was left sitting on the counter since last Thursday. We didn't try any of it, but I doubt it would be as good as Kombucha is supposed to be.

Start Of The Fall Season

2007-10-13T21:38:00.001-04:00

The familiar, golden light of sunset greeted me on my first evening trip of the season to Kennesaw Mountain. I generally like to park along Burnt Hickory Road and then walk north up the trail that crosses over Pigeon Hill, Little Kennesaw Mountain and then Kennesaw Mountain. I think I am most at peace when walking the trails and sitting on the top of the mountain.

With a few squirrels, chipmunks, birds and crickets, I watched the sun retire for the day and welcomed the evening. There was one particularly sassy chipmunk that gave me a stern "chirping" as I tried to get a good look at it. I don't think it appreciated my attention. I would have taken a picture if I could, but the light was far, far too dim for any sort of shot.

This is the crescent moon as seen from the top of Pigeon Hill. By this point it was really dark, but I had to stop and sit for a while to appreciate this view. I look forward to many more sunsets on the mountain over the coming months.

Jailbreak

2007-10-11T21:55:00.000-04:00

I just spent the evening performing the iPhone 1.1.1 jailbreak. I followed a combination of steps from the guide found at iPhone Alley and the one from the iPhone Dev Team. I ran into a few bumps along the way, and this certainly isn't a task that I could imagine a casual computer user performing, but it was worth it. I actually can't believe I didn't hack my iPhone earlier. There is something very cool about being able to SSH into a phone. Now I just have to figure out why my chat client isn't logging in.

Bowling

2007-10-02T21:57:00.001-04:00

Today we all left work a bit early to go bowling. It was a company event to celebrate the departure of one of our most beloved coworkers. She is on to bigger and better opportunities closer to her home in our office in Switzerland. It seemed like a perfect opportunity to have a party, although it really doesn't take much for us to find a reason to have a party.

Fun was had by all in attendance. We were split up into four lanes, so it was a bit difficult to keep up with all of the action. We had a similar bowling outing a couple of years ago and I think that the skill level in our office has definitely been kicked up a notch or two. It was a particularly notable event for me; I think 152 may be my highest score ever. It was a COMPLETE fluke as I normally am happy to break 100. The picture below shows the scores from our final set. It was a good game for the elusive "C" as well (initial covered here by screen instructions). She suddenly came on strong in the second half of the game to score a very respectable 136.

Las Vegas

2007-09-26T21:11:00.000-04:00

I just recently returned from a trip to Las Vegas. My coworkers and I were able to successfully complete our business there, and I was able to go out for a few hours each night to take pictures. So to me, it was a very good trip. I took literally hundreds of shots, but there are only a few I feel are worth sharing. I posted them on flickr for your viewing pleasure.

This was my first real visit to Las Vegas. I was amazed by the over-the-top grandeur of the place. The lights, colors, sounds and people were almost enough to distract me from the ever present stench of cigarette smoke that permeated virtually every building. The smoky atmosphere wouldn't be enough to keep me from wanting to return, though; there is still so much to see and photograph. Next time I'll just bring some allergy medication.

I tried my hand at the slot machines and walked away with a $24 loss. I suppose that isn't too bad. I watched some folks play craps. It looks like a very interesting game, but I didn't feel that I understood the rules well enough to put any money on the table. I think I'd like it much more than playing slot machines. Maybe I'll give it a go next time.

The Suite

2007-09-21T10:23:00.000-04:00

They were out of non-smoking rooms by the time we arrived last night. I ended up with a slightly nicer, smoke-smelling room. Grant, however, was put in a suite. Here are some shots from and of Grant's Palace.

At The Airport

2007-09-20T18:50:00.001-04:00

Grant and I are waiting at the airport for our flight. Fortunately, our gate is near the bathrooms; We just drank dinner.

Who Needs A Key?

2007-09-18T20:56:00.000-04:00

I was painting a few things for work in my garage this afternoon, so I decided to leave the garage door open to let the fumes air out. Being somewhat safety conscious, I locked the door to the garage from the house so that someone couldn't just walk in unannounced. I'm attempting to sell my house so this isn't completely unrealistic. The problem with this idea is that I have Schlage locks. For any of you familiar with these locks, they'll let you out but they won't let you back in. Well, I went back out to the garage to check on the progress of the paint without thinking about the locked door. It didn't take long for me to realize what I had just done to myself.

I (foolishly) don't have a spare key anywhere outside the house, so that really left me with just two alternatives:

a) Go over to a neighbor and use their phone to call a locksmith.

b) Use a big hammer to smash my way through the lock.

As you can tell from the picture, I chose option 'b'. It turns out those Schlage locks are really tough. I basically had to completely demolish the side of the handle facing me so that I could gain access to the mechanism inside. Even after doing that, it took me some time to find just the right sized tool to wedge in the lock so I could release the latch. I'm sure someone skilled in breaking and entering could have done the job more quickly, but overall I was pleased by how secure the lock turns out to be.

My door is now held shut with some invisible tape, a bottle of Purex laundry detergent, two hand towels and a piece of junk mail. I'll be making a trip to Home Depot tomorrow afternoon to fix this properly. The handle was losing its finish anyway, so this was probably a good thing.

I'm sure there is a lesson to be learned here. I think it has something to do with not locking yourself out of your own house.

Another One Bytes The iPhone

2007-09-13T08:08:00.000-04:00

I won't name names, but another of my coworkers decided to buy an iPhone. The Cult grows...

Another Reason Why I Really Like Apple

2007-09-06T16:35:00.000-04:00

Yesterday the price of the iPhone was reduced to $399 from the $599 that I happily paid just over two months ago. Several of the folks at work thought that would really irritate the early adopters, like me. Apparently from what I've read online, that is exactly what happened with many of my fellow iPhone owners. I was somewhat baffled by this. I bought the device because I felt it was worth $600 to ME. Why should I be upset if someone else can now buy it for $400? Do I somehow lose out because it now is more affordable to more people? I still have just as much utility from my iPhone today as I did yesterday or the day before.

Imagine my surprise when I saw that Apple is offering a $100 store credit to those of us who purchased the iPhone early on. They certainly didn't have to do something like this, but it is very good for PR and for their business in general. Sure, I didn't feel ripped off because they dropped the price, but I'm not an idiot; I'll gladly take the $100 credit and apply it to the purchase of Leopard next month.

Looking back on the situation, I'd almost bet that they had this planned. It's a great way to drum up a lot of publicity and then show how good they are to their customers. Regardless, I'll continue to buy Apple products. To me, they are worth it.

My New iMac

2007-08-29T17:02:00.001-04:00

I have no problem admitting that I have been absorbed into the Cult of Mac. It started with the iPod. I, as did many of my coworkers, received a 30GB iPod as a sort of bonus for a significant product release a couple of years ago. As a result, I started to use iTunes and paid more attention in general to Apple's products. A few months later I found myself picking up a used 12" PowerBook G4. I was impressed with how small, yet functional the device was. No Windows laptop I had ever used came close. I was pretty much hooked. Even though I had a Windows PC that was superior, in terms of speed, to the PowerBook, I used the Mac almost exclusively. I've long been a fan of BSD UNIX and fundamentally that is what OS X is... but with a much nicer GUI than anything else out there. As I've previously documented, I then took the plunge and purchased an iPhone earlier this summer. And now, my conversion is complete; I bought a new 24" iMac. I decided to go all out and purchase the model with a 2.8 GHz Core 2 Duo processor. I then upgraded the memory to 4GB after receiving it (memory upgrades are generally a rip-off from the manufacturer, whether it be Apple or Dell).

The screen is BEAUTIFUL and the machine is very, very fast. Unfortunately, I haven't found CD ripping and transcoding software for OS X that I like as much as EAC and foobar2000, so I use VMware Fusion to run Windows XP in a VM when I need to rip a CD. Even running in a VM (and only allowing the VM to use a single core), the process of transcoding from FLAC to AAC is roughly 10 - 15% faster than it was when running XP natively on my Windows machine that had an Athlon 64 3200 and 1 GB of memory. I no longer have any computers natively running Windows at my house and I doubt I ever will again.

How To Rip A CD

2007-08-28T20:05:00.000-04:00

This might seem like one of the most mundane and obvious tasks, right? You just stick the disc in your computer and let iTunes or Windows Media Player do the rest. Sure, you can do that... if you don't care at all about the quality of what you put into your ears. I don't consider myself to be an audiophile, but I am very concerned about making sure the song I'm listening to via my iPhone, iPod or computer is indistinguishable (to me) from the way it was intended to be heard directly from the CD. This is not as simple of a goal as it may seem.

Here is a nice description of the problem. If you want a bit perfect copy of a track (meaning, exactly the same data that makes up the song on the disc) as starting material for whatever compression format you choose, you have to use software like CD Paranoia or EAC to rip the track to a file. I use EAC v0.95 beta 4 as my ripping application of choice. It, when combined with AccurateRip, virtually guarantees an exact duplication of the audio data. Basically, EAC reads the data from the disc as reliably as possible and then compares the result on a track-by-track basis with the version obtained from other AccurateRip users. If the version of the file you obtain compares exactly to the version obtained by someone else using a different computer and different disc, it is safe to say that file truly is an exact duplication of the data from the disc.

Okay, so now that I have an application to use to rip the data, what do I do with it? I rip the tracks from the CD to FLAC files. If you think about it, ripping the track is the most important part of the process. Once you've extracted the song from the CD and are confident it is a perfect version of the source material, you can convert it in any way you want later on. If you rip directly to a lossy format, like AAC or MP3, you are counting on the fact that you never damage or lose your original CD. I prefer to have the FLAC files as a backup. It also makes it MUCH easier if I should decide to re-encode to a different lossy format or better version of the same lossy format down the road.

I don't just encode directly to a lossy format from the FLAC source. This article summarizes the problem nicely. First, I use foobar2000 to perform a ReplayGain analysis of the files. It stores both track and album gain adjustments to the metadata in each of the FLAC files. I then apply the album gain adjustment to each track when finally encoding it to a lossy format. The reason for applying the album gain is that some tracks are meant to be quieter or louder in relation to the other tracks from the same album.

I have tried both MP3 and AAC compression. I originally decided upon MP3 since that format is virtually universally playable and if you use LAME as the encoder at one of its transparent settings, the result is virtually indistinguishable from the original recording. However, I have found problems with MP3 concerning the way various applications (Windows Media Player) can mess with the tags in the file. The problem stems from the fact that the tag format has multiple versions and not every application seems to play nicely when it comes to using them. Furthermore, MP3 is an aging format. Even with an encoder as good as LAME, there are technical limitations to the standard. I performed my own ABX listening test using a variety of source material with my Shure E2c earphones (the best "speakers" I have). I have found, for my own purposes, that I cannot tell the difference among the original FLAC file, a 160 kbps VBR AAC version of the file or a 225 kbps VBR MP3 version of the file. What does that mean? I now use AAC since it sounds identical to the original recording and doesn't take up much space. Again, not just any old AAC encoder will do. I have done some research on the topic and it seems that the free Nero Digital Audio Codec does the best job of producing high quality AAC tracks.

The last step in this process is to obtain high quality album art and embed it in each file. I have found that the iTunes store is generally one of the best places to get art. Most of the art obtained from there is 600x600 pixels in size and suffers from very few compression artifacts. The problem with iTunes, however, is that it doesn't actually embed the image in the file. This is fine if you only use Apple software or hardware to listen to the music since it will move a copy of the image with the songs for you, but I tend to prefer to have the art actually contained within the metadata of each track. I use iTunes to retrieve the art; then I extract the art from iTunes and save it off as a separate image file. I then use iTunes to embed the art directly into the metadata. If iTunes doesn't have the art, I have found that Amazon is the next best place to look. They offer 500x500 size images at the highest resolution, but they can still be of very good quality.

The end result is a portable, album gain adjusted, virtually indistinguishable from the original version of each track from a given album that contains the highest possible quality album art I could find. Here is a summary of the process in stepwise form:

Using EAC with AccurateRip:

1) Rip CD to a collection of FLAC files.

Using foobar2000:

2) Perform ReplayGain analysis of FLAC files.

3) Apply album gain and encode to AAC using the Nero Digital Audio encoder.

Using iTunes:

4) Find the album art and embed the art in each file.

5) Enjoy the music.

If you want to know more about any of the settings you should use for EAC, foobar2000, Nero, LAME, etc. I suggest first reading the forums at Hydrogenaudio. It is an excellent source of information and many of the developers that work on this software actively participate in discussions there.

Coffee Time

2007-08-26T10:02:00.001-04:00

I bought a French press when I was in Germany. I have considered buying one for a while and noticed this one in a window while walking to dinner. This one liter model was less expensive than I was able to find similar, smaller presses for on Amazon. The press is just one piece of the coffee making puzzle. I didn't have a coffee grinder or a thermal carafe to hold the coffee after brewing, so I went out yesterday on a hunt for the appropriate equipment. I wanted a red coffee grinder since I use red as the primary accent color in my kitchen. Yes, it's all about the color. I found this KitchenAid model at BrandsMart USA. While there I also picked up this black thermal carafe. They only had black, white and steel carafes, but I'll keep an eye out for a decent red one at a good price.

This morning was my first occasion to put all of the equipment to use. I don't doubt that the placebo effect had something to do with it, but I found the coffee I brewed to taste much better than the coffee produced with my automatic drip coffee maker. I enjoyed several cups along with my breakfast of multi-grain bread and butter, and a bowl of mixed fruit. While dining I listened to Fiona Apple's Extraordinary Machine. I picked it up yesterday along with a few other discs from Rowan's while I was on my expedition for equipment.

Whirly Ball

2007-08-23T06:14:00.001-04:00

We had a company outing of sorts yesterday evening. Several of us from work went to play Whirly Ball. I didn't really have high expectations; in fact, I thought it wouldn't be much fun at all, but I went along anyway since I didn't have anything else particularly interesting to do. It turns out that Whirly Ball can be a lot of fun, but the game is more difficult than one may at first think. I was pleased to be the first person in the group to actually score a goal, but my athletic performance really only had nowhere but down to go from there. Near the end of the evening we were forced to change courts due to a technical difficulty concerning a broken floor. We took a vote and decided that Squeak probably did it.