Tractor Square Dancing

So this morning, Sitting with my Beautiful Wife and we saw something that just cracked me up, Tractor Square Dancing. It was simply amazing to see a series of John Deeres, moving in sync with each other and the music, a ballet of music and machinery. It's something that is a perfect example of americana.

Working on Something New

So by now if you are visiting this site you know that I am working on getting it up and running. This morning, I've downloaded DasBlog and am working at configuring it. I plan to convert all of my blogger post to dasBlog. We'll have to see how it goes. I think it's going to take a little time but be worth it in the end. Also I am going to work on some "templates" for dasBlog. You can check out what I have up so far. After I get that done, I plan on converting my photoblog over as well. I plan to use OneReaction for that. Anyhow, this is what I am up to.

Toilet of Tomorrow

So I am under a deadline, and I still had to stop and post this. The Toliet of Tomorrow Basically it is a High-Tech toilet with a ton of sensors. Infact it will sense of you are standing infront of it, and assume that you are male and raise the toliet seat for you. I know some of you women out there have husbands that are a little slack in the lifting the seat department. Maybe spending five thousand dollars on a toliet could be just the ticket to a happy marriage.

Changing of the Seasons

It has come to my attention that some people are under the misconception that we do not have four seasons here in Southern California. However nothing could be further from the truth. While I do submit that we don’t have the traditional four seasons of spring, summer, fall and winter. We do have four seasons none the less.  In fact this week is the turning of one season to the next. While I know most of you are thing it is change from summer to fall. It is actually changing from summer to fire season. Currently a good portion of the San Fernando valley is ablaze as well as it’s little brother burbank. 

Maybe I should explain our seasons. Unlike typical seasons, ours are not dictated by time but conditions. We have the rainy/flooding season, summer, fire season and earthquake season. Interestingly enough we can have several of the seasons going at the same time. If you have the latter two occurring at the same time, we call that shake and bake.

One of the factors about living in LA exciting is because of the “seasons” we have, we can’t get insurance for any of them. If you live in a fire area, you can’t get fire insurance, and because a fire will surely come and burn away the vegetation you can’t get flood insurance, because in the next rainy/flood season the water and mud will take out the house the the firefighters just months ago worked so hard to save. Of course if the house survives the fires and the floods their is always the earthquakes. And so continues the Southern Californian circle of Life and Inflated Real Estate Prices.

With that being said, I would take a rainy/fire/earthquake over a hurricane or tornado any day. My heart really goes out to those people in New Orleans, and Mississippi, who haven’t been able to go back to there homes, or even worst have no homes to go back too.

Something I’ve always found interesting about Southern California is new years day. Somehow it always works out that it is sunny and beautiful, even if it is a bit on the cool side (50 degrees or so). So when people in states that have winter are watching the rose parade on TV, it looks like the ideal place to live. An so the seasons continue.

Where is the Rainbow

My beautiful Wife sent me a photo that does a pretty good job of summarizing my day so far.  

A blog to Laugh and a Blog to Cry

So my brother J started a blog. I had to mention it, because he is just darn funny, and is jumping in to this "being online thing" with both feet. He's using Yahoo 360 which seems to be a very nice service. Check out his blog, it is sure to crack you up.

Yesterday I blogged about the weekend, and there was quite a little bit about the "Mighty Hunter" well, My Sis posted a "copious amout of pictures" of the old boy. I sure miss him.

Last Week

I know it's been a while since I've posted anything. Last week I was on vacation and this week, I was overwhelmed getting back in to work mode. Not only that but my trusty Dell D800 laptop decided that I had been working it to hard and it took a vacation as well.

So last week was my first vacation in a while. I took time off to get a break from work and to spend some time with my Cousins from West Virgina. It was a great time. So here is a Day by Day break down.

Disneyland on Monday (Talk like a pirate day). My Sister, Dad, Mom and Cousin dressed up like pirates of all things. I in my weak attempt to join in the realvery wore my pirates of the Caribbean shirt. Brother J went and looked slick as always. However I did have my camera slung over my neck for that authentic tourist look. We had good time. First ride we hit was the newly redone Space Mountian. It is fast and smooth and has amazing visuals. Being that I had been on the ride before, I knew where the camera was, so without letting anyone know, I snuck my sunglasses back on and smiled big for the camera. Everyone else had either a surprised look, a loving the speed look or a white knuckle look, and there I am with my glasses and a big smile. I'll have to post the picture later. We hopped between Disneyland and California Adventure all day. Funny enough we saved Pirates for the last ride of the day. As we got out of the ride, that is when all of the thunder and lightning started. It was actually quite beautiful. Better then the fireworks if you ask me.

Tuesday, was the "doctors" appointment. Which I found out that sometimes the boys will get an infection from time to time. Of course I didn't know this because most men will talk about sports and women's anatomy with fervor, yet little things like health issues always seem to fall to the way side. After that it was over to my brothers to play video games with him and my cousins. There is nothing like four controllers and artificial engine sounds, and screeching tires to bring you closer to your family.

Wednesday was a little rough. Poor Rufus...well he had pneumonia, and couldn't hardly breath on his own anymore, so we had to put him down. The poor cat survived countless fights with other cats, losing an eye, losing his vision in that eye, and in the end it was pneumonia, that got him. I miss that old Cat. We had him since 1987. He was with me when we heard grunge rock for the first time. I do have to say he called it right, when he said that it was a fad. Dad came home early from work and when with me, which I appreciated. That was really hard to do, and I wore my sunglasses the whole time, so they wouldn't see me tearing up. But I think they did anyhow. Sis has a post with a picture of the old man.

After he lost his eye, we all started calling him the old man. Before that he was know as the mighty hunter. He was an outdoor cat for most of his life, so he really was a mighty hunter. The amount of birds he caught was astounding. Once he sat on the fence between our yard and the neighbors that was covered in Ivy and just sat and waited, then as a piegon flew by he jumped up and took the bird our of the air.

Thursday, well we went to the beach. We went to Will Rogers state beach so that we could pay too much for parking. It was nice, My cousins fed the seagulls bread and they ate it all. Again, I had the camera around my neck for the perfect tourist outfit. We had lunch at some place on the pier. Then the traditional two hours drove home in L.A. traffic.

Friday, well, I finally had to do chores. Change the oil in the car. You know the kind of stuff you have to do. However friday night, we watched Winged Migration. This is a stunning film, I highly recommend renting it.

Saturday was the big BBQ. I think we went though a whole cow. Can't remember much else because of the food coma.

Sunday, While doing some yard work got stung by a wasp, and had my arm swell up. So I road the antihistimine roller coaster of sleep and drowsiness for the rest of the day. I'm planning on using this later to get out of more yard work.

Saturday at the Races

Well, my vacation officially started Friday night. Which also happened to be the same day that my Cousins came into town. So Friday night we got together for a little bit just to say hi. You see I took my vacation to correspond with theirs.

Saturday we went to the races. The Saturday night races at LACR is a great thing to see. You get see the future motorcross starts as well as some of the veterans ride. My favorite part was watching the kids race. These little kids not only have skills but heart. One of my favorite announcements was when the announcer was reading off the name of the rider and their sponsor (Yes, these 8 year olds are sponsored). The one that got my attention was ‘Little Timmy’ being sponsored by “Grandma”.

It was nice to see motorcross being such a family sport. The races started with the youngest and then went to the veteran and then to amateur classes. So the kids would race first, which meant the Dads and Moms would be in the stands cheering for the kids. Then after the kids would race, and then the kids would storm the stands still all decked out in their race gear and would cheer for Mom or Dad as they raced. It was really kind of heartwarming.

The Boys are back in town

Two of my three Cousins from West Virgina are in town this week and I am so excited to see them. I haven’t seen C since I was 17, so it’s been a while, and J it’s been at least three or four years. I’m sorry that D couldn’t make it out, I would of loved to see him too. It amazes me how it works with my Cousins, we can go years without seeing each other, and we just start up where we left off, like we just saw each other last week.  I’ve taken the week off so that I can make sure to make the most of their visit.

In other news, I finally got the results of my manogram. Good news is it isn’t the big C, the bad news is, they don’t know what is going on. So next week, I’ll go back to the doctor.

Capt'n Cranky

It kind of a been stressful weekend. Thursday morning I was having some "Male problems" (I'm not talking about commitment issues either), one of the boys was acting up. So it was worrisome enough to make me go to the doctor. That was a little tough, the doctor poked and prodded and grabbed me in such ways that we are now considered married in 12 states. (no dinner or anything, men are so grabby). After that little ordeal, he orders a ultrasound, or as a friend likes to call it a manogram. Of course they couldn't fit me in until Monday. So the good doctor gives me something for my nerves, because I would have been freaking out all weekend otherwise.

Since The Little Boy’s Disneyland annual pass was going to expire on Monday we took him on Sunday. I don't think I've ever been on so few rides. Turns out, that when you are on "something for your nerves" and hurt, it's a small world is a pretty damn good ride. We also descovered a new character at Disneyland, “Capt’n Cranky”. We’ve even got photographic proof.

Yesterday was the manogram. I think the most interesting thing about all of it is the little rooms they make you wait in. Three of them to be exact. You just wait, they call your name and then you go to another room to wait to be called. Finally Andrew came for me. Andrew was about 6 foot tall, dark hair, and eyes, and sounded as if he was from eastern European descent. Andrew asked that I step behind the current and remove my clothes from the waist down. I involuntarily shouted out where my grandma hides her money. He asked me what I said, and I replied "nothing". Then he had me put the gown on, and lie on my back on table. I complied. Then he dimmed the lights and turned on some smooth jazz. I have to admit this bothered me a bit, but it is only a test I tell myself don't get up and run down the hall, (the gown that was opened in the back was one of the deciding factors.) After twenty minutes of the procedure which felt like two hours, Andrew said I was done, and that my doctor would get the report in two business days. He wished me good luck. Which I took to mean, there wasn't going to be that awkward moment when he asks for my phone number, and I’d have to explain that I am already married to the doctor.

So I am back at work today, trying not to think about the test results. And hoping the doctor will call me in a couple of days and just say it's some sort of infection caused from sitting on my butt too much and not the dreaded "C" word.

Falling Asleep to documentaries.

It’s cheating I know, but a couple of years ago I learned that when the Boy is having trouble falling asleep, nothing works as good as a documentary. Tonight he was very tired, but too tired to fall right to sleep. 20 minutes of a documentary about red tailed hawks living in New York City and he was out. Truth be told he didn’t stand a chance. I wish I could say the same for me. I have to go and have a test done tomorrow that I am really not looking forward too. This is one test that I am hoping will go well. And by go well I mean they don’t find anything.

Kids say the darnest things.

Kids say the darnest things, an old but very true saying. My Beautiful wife experienced that today. After The Little Boys second day of Kiderngarten (how come that is so much harder to spell then first grade) she took him to McDonald's for lunch. Anyhow apparently they have some special marketing going on with Disney about the Disneyland 50th anniversary, so kids are getting Disneyland toys in there happy meals. Well, the Little Boy got “Tinkerbell”. He was so excited he ripped the package open, and figure it all out, put her together and put her stand together, set her on it. Then he thought a moment, picked her up by the feet and shook her. Then with a very disappointed little voice said, “She’s broke, there’s no pixie dust”.

I told this story to one of my buddies here at work and he told me of a couple of great little things his daughter had said. The first one, she was playing with a plastic “magic wand” and noticed that it was working like it does in the movies, she then said “Mama, the magic isn’t working, it must need new batteries.” The second one was his wife had just bought six live crabs for a dinner they were having. With all of the crabs in the sink, his little girl watched them all and noticed that one wasn’t moving any more. She looked up at her Mom and said in a matter of fact tone. “That ones batteries ran out”.

Skeater On the Loose

So I was glad to hear that Cousin Jewels started blogging a couple of months back. She's got a lot of fun posts on her blog. Check it out I've also added her to my blogroll.

AJAX means we are using Javascript more now than ever

Google has made my life a little more difficult, but in a good way. Now that google has their Gmail and Google Suggest sites up and people are using them and loving them. They’ve become the new standard/model for user interfaces on the web. Till these interfaces things like web mail haven’t advanced very far since 1999–2000 as far as the user interface goes. However with Google proving that application that use AJAX are a very viable method of enhancing a web interface without the use of plug-ins like Flash or Shockwave. The browser support for these applications are wide reaching as is the kind of applications that they can use it.

 For example, we have an employee directory application at work. It’s built the way that you would expect. ASP.NET  for our presentation layer, SQL Database for the data layer and  a business logic middle tier that acts as a transaction broker between the presentation layer and the data layer. Well being a database driven application, you have to have input data, right. So we have a page for inputting employee data. So of these fields are information about the employee. There are of course some fields that while not, duplicates are related to each other. For example, as with most places email addresses and network logins are derived from the users first name and last name. So using some logic on the server side, and the AJAX.NET component, I fill the earlier fields from the later ones. Now we’ve saved people steps, and saved steps are saved mistakes. However you have to know how javascript works to connect these things together.

I’ve had a love hate relationship with javascript, some of the things I don’t like about javascript, just isn’t it’s fault and goes back to my netscape 4.7 days. The fact that the DOM (Document Object Model) is just a little different for each browser is sometimes very hard to deal with. It requires hours of testing on different browsers and different operation systems. Another thing I have a really tough time is with debugging. I wish there was a tool that acted like Visual Studio and would at least give me a hint that something is awry in the code before I try to use it. 

Javascript is a good tool though and something that we are going to use more and more. In web development there use to be more of a line between the front-end logic and the back-end logic. They were written in different languages and didn’t communicate. Well AJAX and the demand for more dynamic user interfaces will demand, that they do communicate, they may not have to be written in the same language, but they are going to have to work together. Which brings me to my next point, I’ve gotten use to writing applications in reusable classes. Javascript doesn’t really work that way, you can create structures that mimic a class, but not very closely. This is going to need to improve, especially if you are going to have more logic in the front-end. 

The brings us to another point, now that the logic is in both the middle tier and the front-end the three-tier architecture gets a little muddy. The dividing lines are harder to see, and for a time like mine, there is more overlap that can be hard to communicate. If I ask my back-end guy to write javascript, he’ll think, that is the front-end guy’s job, if I ask the front-end guy to write a function in C# to handle some front-end process, he will look at me and say C#, that is the back-end guy’s job.

Security is another aspect that has to be considered. There are some real risks having logic in the front-end. Especially with search engines scouring every web page on the Internet. If your a financial institution you have to worry about phish, in fact you have to assume you will be phished. So with those things in mind, having a calculation that is important to your business in a .js file for anyone to find in a browser is like hiding the house keys in the mailbox. Sure it’s out of sight but most people can guess where they are. So anything really and truly important like that needs to be done on the back-end.  This is where AJAX over just javascript definely has an advantage. However it still must be smart enough to be session/context sensitive. AJAX.NET does a good job of this.

In short, I think that AJAX applications are only going to grow in popularity and complexity. Popularity because it provides a user experience closer to a native application. Complexity because the developer is going to be knowing where and where not to use these methods.  With a little forethought by application developer and architects web applications can be dynamic, easy to use and secure, but only if we user AJAX, where it makes sense, not just to use it.

The correct Way to Backup a Truck.

I grew up driving trucks. Being that my family is in construction, and trucks and construction go to hand and hand it make sense that I learned to drive, trucks. In fact the first six months I had my license I would drive a D-50 dodge flatbed through downtown LA every day to pickup one of the guys we worked with and then would drive to Santa Monica. Also being in construction, you are always backing up to drop off or pick up materials. As if that wasn’t enough, my first driving lesson my Dad ever gave me was backing up. He said, if you can back a car up, the rest is easy. So needless to say, I thought I knew how to back a vehicle up till last night.

We are doing some concrete work in the back yard and need to go pick up some more concrete. Of course I can’t put 20 bags of 90lb concrete in the back of the camry, so I borrow brother K’s truck, which use to be Papa’s Truck. So we are at the big orange home store, buying concrete. And as you may know, I can’t borrow a truck without the Little Boy going with me. What can I say the Boy Loves trucks. Anyhow, so I have to back up to get the concrete in the back of the truck. I had to back up around a corner and miss shopping carts, building materials and other vehicles. So I start to back up, and the Little Boy jumps in the back seat of the truck, (its a club cab) and presses his nose right against the glass, and starts saying, “Okay, go left a little bit, right a little bit, stop, go forward Al right you got it, good job, keep going, keep going, you did it!”It was so darn cute. So next time I back up a truck, I’ll need the assistance of our back seat drivin’ Little Boy.

Sis' trip to Indy

Well, Sis is off to Indy for Gencon. It's one of the biggest gaming conventions there is. These people like to dress up for the occasion, which is where she fits in. My Sister makes some of the most beautiful costumes you've ever seen. She is flying over there for the conventions and being the nervous geek I am I had to track her flight. Of course I didn't want to have to hit refresh each time to see how her flight was going so I wrote something to do that for me.

A Few Changes in the Line Up

Okay, well as you can see the blog is looking a little different. I had to revert back to a standard template, because my friends web server that was hosting the images and the style sheets went down for a little bit. So I am using a "standard" template which I have changed to have most of the features I had on the previous version. So I guess this is version 1.52.

Also this morning I added a new link to the link section call "Where are you from?". This is a pretty cool service that tells you where people that visit this blog are coming from. You'll see the first one is from Burbank, CA, which is where I work. It uses google maps API and some geo-coding information form the ISPs to do this.

Hybrid Supercar Build My Highschoolers

This story is definitely refreshing. Instead of youth gone wild, we have youth gone engineering. So innercity high schools students team up with some engineering students and the results are stunning. The results are a Hybrid Supercar can do 0-60 in the low 4-seconds and can get 50mpg. The car is call "The Attack" and looks just as good as it performs. This is a solution better than the big three could come up with. The fueled engine it uses, runs on biodesiel. How brilliant is that!

read more | digg story

Shredding ukulele

You have to see Jake Shimabukuro play to believe your ears. This artist can play things on a ukulele that most guitarist would like to be able to play with 6 strings, and Jake is playing it on 4. You have to see Jake play “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”.

Digging Dig

As you know I work in the technology . It’s imperative that I keep up with the latest news on the technology front. If there is a new web browser, I download it and start testing our web site and home banking. Enter digg.com, digg is a social  bookmarking and rating site that is center around technology. One of the nice things about the site is that you can see all of the links/articles you “dugg” as well as being able to see the what your friends are “digging” too. I really like it, check it out.You want to see want to see what I dugg? My username is “o2bjang” Just add me to your friends list.

I've finally found a way to mow the lawn

As you may or may not know, I am very allergic to grass, specifically cut grass. Because of this I am denied the basic male excuse for going to home depot, which is, I need to get something to finish mowing the lawn. General my Beautiful Wife mows the lawn. I try to help get everything ready for her, and then flee the area. There are times with I do get to mow the lawn, however it looks like I’m about to perform surgery with a darth vader mask on. (Which by the way I still think is over at my Folk’s house). I have latex surgical gloves on, and a respirator that makes my breathing sound like darth vader, and is amazingly warm to wear.  Not the most ideal lawn mowing apparel.

That is where the RCLM2006S comes in. A completely remote control lawn mower. I bet if I put a wireless camera on it I could mow the lawn from the living room.

A Word About Phishing

Phishing is a reel pain. (pun intended)  So the phishing I am referring to in the Internet scam kind. I know that my family reads my blog, so this is for you guys. I don’t want you getting ripped off by the evil people out there on the Internet. In 2004, 970,000 people were victims of phishing scams.

So lets talk about what a phishing attack is, and how it starts. Its starts simple enough, you get an email that says it is from your bank or credit union. It usually says something to the effect that they’ve either done some system maintenance or had a system upgrade and need you to log in to the home banking site to verify either your information or your account. Of course for your convenience they’ve added the link to home banking in the email for you, so all you have to do is click the link to login.

See the Evils Phishing Bad Guys or EPBGs for short are very crafty. They will completely copy the look and feel of the website they are trying to imitate. Oh and don’t think because your bank or credit union is small that the EPBGs won’t try to phish it. It’s become a matter of when not if for all banks and credit unions.

So how do you tell the real email from the fake ones? Here is where the details matter. For the most part the EPBGs are launching these attacks from overseas, mostly Eastern Europe and Asia, so improper grammar and spelling are give aways that the email is probably a fake. Take it from me, our marketing people go through at least 5 revisions before an email is sent out.  Another thing to look at is the link in the email, does it look like the right address or is something a little off? If it doesn’t look right, it probably isn’t right. Third call the FI (Financial Institution) that send the email, don’t be afraid to ask them, “Hey did you send me this?”  If they don’t know about it, then they didn’t send it.

Okay now you’ve figured out that the email you got was a phishing scam, don’t delete it just yet, report the email to the company that the email claims to be from. They need to know as soon as possible, to protect themselves and their customers, as well as get the scam site shut down.

I’m not trying to scare you guys, I just want to keep you informed.

Dot.com Survivor

“Hello my name is Russ and I am a Dot.com survivor. I worked for four dot.com. Only one of them is still around. The last dot.com I worked for I survived five rounds of layoffs. By the time it was my turn to get laid off I was even relieved. I even asked my boss if he was okay, because he was more broken up about it then I was.That was in May of 2001.” I heard this monologue in my head as I was reading the article “10 Years That Changed the World” in this months issue of wired. I imagined that I was in a room full of ex-dot.comers as we take turns telling our dot.com survivor stories.

As I continue to read the article, which has a chronological order to it, I read from year to year and I think about where I was working in each of those years. It was the dot.com years so of course you never worked at the same place for more than a year.  A fact that almost played against me when I first interviewed at my current job almost four years ago now.  Of course I used monster.com to find these jobs. Monster being the first dot.com to spend all of their advertising budget on a super bowl add which worked for them. The very next year their were 17 dot.coms doing the same thing, it didn’t work as well for them. Can you remember any of them? Me Neither. 

In 1999 I worked at two dot.coms, the first one moved up north to the silicon valley a month after I started, they moved, I didn’t. The second was a dot.com that had a personalized license plate for a URL.  It was a contract job of course, and we all started with brand new G3 macintosh machines, and 21 inch CRT monitors. We were spoiled right from the get go. When they redesigned the new office space to have a fountain soda machine in the kitchen I should of known things were in trouble. Through giving computer geeks an endless supply of caffeine is a good way to get tons of work out of them, and they did. The deal breaker for me was, we had a huge project to do for the “Folks in New York”, so I worked from 5am and work till 9 pm for a couple months. The Execs saw what they wanted to see and our pleased boss took us out lunch to celebrate. Then he proceeded to congratulate his very attractive secretary whom hand only been there a week for the success. Two weeks later I was working somewhere else. What can I say, all I had to do was post my resume on monster.com and my voicemail would fill up with offers from hunger recruiters (head hunters) who didn’t know what HTML was but they knew they could get a finders fee for bring in someone that did.

2000, another year, two more dot.coms. The first was little startup that had great ideas, and offered me more money than the previous job. So of course that sounded great. However it ended on a Friday three months after I started when the “Big Boss” called us in the the conference room and gave a great speech about being a team and reorganizing for the betterment of the company (his wallet) , after that I was called into my bosses office, and laid off. “Don’t call us, we’ll call you”. A month later I finally got my last paycheck from them.

The second dot.com was one that you may have actually heard of , but I’m not going to tell you. This one had music though, and it was a blast, a lot of fun and a lot of work. I’d work till 4am sometimes, in a well designed working space blasting my music as loud as I wanted sitting in my Herman miller chair, and drinking all the free soda/caffeine that was offered. I got to meet quite a few famous people, and didn’t even have to leave the office. This place was the epitome of the rock and roll internet company. Honestly, if I told you that I accidently bumped in to a rock star in the hall, I really did.  I was working here when the dot.com bubble burst. I saw the large offce space shrink. We moved from working in to stories of a completely overpriced building on the Miracle Mile, to everyone fitting on just one floor again. I saw my friends and co-workers get laid off, and waited for my turn. My turn came May in 2001. I called my Beautiful wife, told her the news and bought her some flowers on the way home.

So that is it, those are my dot.com days. I worked in some of the nicest buildings, with the nicest office furniture money could buy. Others had the refigerator in the server room, and would open the frig door every once in a while if the servers got to hot.

I may not work for a dot.com any more, but I am still in web development, Sr. Web Developer in fact. I heard that most the dot.comers became Real Estate Agents. That makes sense, they just traded one comdity for another.

 

new design for the photoblog

Well, I've changed the design for the photoblog again. I like this one better. The "harbor" theme just didn't go, but I really like the simplicity and playfulness of this one.

The Day after London

On the train this morning it's very quiet, with fewer people riding than usual. You'll hear one or two people talking about the "Attack on London" which of course leads to discussions about 9/11, but for the most part people are sitting quietly. The hum of the air conditioning, track noise and engine is interupted by the conductor, who beside making the normal station announcements, is also making a new one every ten minutes or so. "Please keep all personal belongings with you at all times. If you see anything that looks suspious please inform the conductor or a sheriffs officer immediately."  This announcement was put in to circulation after the Madrid attack in march, but had seemingly fallen out of popularity and use. After the announcement is made, people are gathering their things closer to them. I carry a laptop bag and a backpack every day I have them right next to me, as to make sure there is no doubt that their mine. I kind of expect to get stopped and checked just because of their size, and I'll be happy to do so when asked.

It's visible that security is higher. Instead of the normal metrolink marshalls checking for tickets, there are sheriffs offices doing sweeps of the cars after every stop. It's evident that they aren't worried about train ticket infractions. If you punched your ten trip or not seems kind of trivial today. At Union Station the security is even more evident. There are two sheriffs, or police offices at the end of each platform. Since the Madrid attack, there were always two to four on the platforms, but now each platform has it's own pair of officers. Its made even more poingant by the fact that some of them are wearing their tactical uniforms. There is also a K9 Unit, but that isn't exactly new. It's been showing up from time to time for a while now, so I wasn't surprised to see it. On the ride in to work yesterday I saw several police cars driving along the tracks inspecting them.

Talking with my Brother J this morning on the train ride in, he heard one of the "belongings" announcements over the phone and asked what that was about. So I told him about the announcment and the increased security. He said that he had seen that the homeland security warning for public transportation had changed to orange. He said knowing that made me feel better about me taking the train. I know my Beautiful Wife feels the same way. I asked her yesterday if she was nervous about me taking the train. She said "No, I think it will be okay". I think seeing the news this morning that shows all the added security made her feel better too.

It's interesting to look at the faces of my fellow passengers. They are reading and looking around, but you can see that the Attack is somethinng that we are all thinking about. I've talked with a couple people, and it's interesting to see the differences in attitudes. Some people are nervous, but the increased security seems to calm their fears. While other people felt it was there duty to be on the train today. One gentleman I talked with even said "Don't give them an inch, if you die on the train, you die on the train."  He felt that his keeping his normal routine was a personal affront to the people who launched the attacks on London. All I know is I need to get to work on time, and I still rather take the train than drive in L.A. traffic.

Postcards From The Beatles

This morning, I saw a really interesting segment on the CBS News Sunda Morning on Postcards from the Beatles. Ringo has always had a thing for postcards, and all of the "boys" sent him postcards from where ever they were. I enjoyed the fact that it showed "The Beatles" were always friends before they were world famous musicians.

Favorite News Story of the Day

So this has to be my favorite news story of the day. Queen Elizabeth is now the proud owner of a iPod mini. I Love the fact that somehow that is a news worth event. That is almost as bad as the Associated Press marking the story about Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes getting engaged as urgent.

AJAX + .NET = AJAX.NET

Well, this will be my first techincal post in a while. I've been studying for my MCAD, and for some reason, that has not made me want to post anything to technical, however this one is too good not to share. Of course I've been reading about AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) for a while and have really loved the concept. The bacis concept is using Javascript and XML to send the data back and forth the the server instead of making a new page request. A new page request forces the page to reload on the users machine, where AJAX does the request in the background and is invisible to the user. You may have already used a web application that uses AJAX, if you've tried Google Suggest, you've used a AJAX enable web application.

Well, of course the idea of doing an application that uses this technology (group of existing technologies actually) has been intriguing to me, but I haven't the time or energy to work out how to implement it in our environment here at work. We are a Microsoft shop working mostly in C# but also doing some VB.NET stuff. Then I came across AJAX.NET. Looking at the documentation, this is going to make it so easy to do a proof of concept. If you have to do a lot of web user interface, check out AJAX.NET, while it isn't a perfect solution to the web user interface problem, it's definitely a step in the right direction.

A little shake

This afternoon there was a 4.9 magnitude earthquake, in the greater Los Angeles area. When it happened all my co-workers and I looked at each other, and just commented on the fact that it wasn't that big of an earthquake, and that it seemed to be a roller. We didn't even get out of our chairs. Then we discussed that the building we worked in is on rollers. If it was our first earthquake I seriously doubt we would of been that calm, or of blown it off like we did.

The Fun of Work

So this weekend the "Boys" got together. While that may sounds like the start of a faternity movie, it was actually, my two brothers, my Dad and I getting together and working on my Aunt's place. I'm not going to get into all that we were doing, but talk about the feeling of it. You see I worked with my Dad and Brothers in construction for ten years, but due to health reasons I needed to find a new line of work. The physical exersion that the job demand is too much for my asthmatic lungs to handle. Never the less, I loved working with my Dad and Brothers. Sometimes the work was very hard, sometimes it was very frustrating, the work and each other, but in the end when it was finished it was something we did and built together. That is the feeling I loved, and still love.

The other thing about working together is well, we are all a bunch of goofs! No one can make me laugh harder than my brothers or my Dad, they are just naturally funny people that are a lot of fun to be around, even when you are working. In fact saturday at lunch they had me laughing so hard, I couldn't breath. Just as brother K would do something so funny, that I'm laughing so hard, that I'm going to turn blue, I look to over at brother J and he is doing the same thing, and of course each time Dad looks at either of them they have a "I have no idea why he is laughing so hard, it wasn't me" look on their faces and that made me laugh even harder. The pure comedic timing my family posses is incredible.

Another thing that I really miss is the feeling like we are all taking care of each other. There is no corporate political games. There is also no clear cut lines, as everyone is willing to do whatever it takes to get the job done. Dad will dig trenches, just like all the rest of us would. There isn't any, oh, that is a different department's job, we were all the deparments wrapped up in one.

The weekend was very hard on me physically, It was dusty, and dirty work, and not all of the work was pleasant, but we had a lot of fun working together.

Chee-toes

The Little Boy has learned a new trick that I must share. It seems that eating with his hands is no longer a challenge to him. So he has decided to come up with a much more interesting way to eat. You see The Little Boy has figured out that if he licks his toes (yes I said licks his toes) that cheerios and cheetoes will stick to his toes. Armed with this knowledge he know licks his toes, sticks his feet in the bowl and lifts his foot to his mouth and eats said cheerio. While this seems to be a particular useful method for him to eat and watch TV at the same time, it does somewhat discourage sharing food with him.

A cubicle with a View

So for the past week or so I haven't been in my usually cubicle at work. My usually cubicle is situated right next to my workmates and the window. So I can look out the window and at least get the feeling like I am close to being outside. It isn't a bad setup at all, and I quite like it. There is a drawback however, rain. For some reason the roof doesn't do quite the job is should of keeping the rain out of the walls. so they've had to remove the drywall above my cubicle, let it dryout and then they will replace it. Well, till they get that all finished I am banished from my cubicle. It fact it is completely covered in plastic. So I had to move to another desk down the hall, one where there are cubicle walls 5 feet high. It is a little bigger than my cube, but it feels really small. So till they get all of the patching done, I am stuck in a gray/blue cube, walled in and waiting for a cubicle with a view.

1 down 4 to go

Well as you know I haven't been blogging much and I haven't really given a reason for it. Well I will right now. I have been studying and studying and studying. What for? Well for the MCAD, what's that, it's the Microsoft Certified Application Developer certification. There are three exams in the series and tonight I passed the first one.

This turned out to not be a terribly easy thing to do. This was actually my third attempt at this Exam. The first time, I get to the testing location and he is all in remodel mode. No computers and people looking at me like, what is that guy doing here. So of course I didn't take it that time. So I scheduled it for one week later. Well the next one didn't go so good, I got to the testing center and they had people and computers, but I failed it miserably. Well that was a little disappointing to say the least. However I felt better when I found that Microsoft had a retake it for free offer going on. So that made me feel better. So I sheduled the next test two weeks after the first one I actually got to take, and I've studied really hard. It felt good to pass it and to really nail the sections that I failed so miserably two weeks previously.

Okay I know what you are saying, the math doesn't add up, what is with the 4 exams left? Well after I get done with the MCAD, I plan on going after the MCSD which is the Microsoft Certified Solution Developer certification. for that one you have to pass the first three exams from the MCAD and then take two more for the MCSD, so I still have a lot of studying to do, but I will do my best to try to post more.

Rubber Band for your thoughts

It was a rough morning. That is the easiest way to put it. The Little Boy was up at 4am. The same time I discovered he was up, I also discovered that I was sleeping on the floor again. So we popped in a video for The Little Boy and snoozed while he watched Garfield the Movie. Once that was over about 5:30am he was determined to watch TV in the livingroom, my Beautiful Wife volunteered to be up with him so I could get a little more sleep before work. This time on the bed. Now don't get me wrong, it wasn't like he was in a bad mood, he was just up and ready for the day to start.

 Anyhow the alarm clock goes off at 6:15 and I don't turn it off till 6:20. Our alarm clock is on the other side of the room, so you can't just smack it and hit snooze, you have to get up out of bed to do anything with it. So I just let it ring for 5 minutes.  It was that kind of very slow going morning. I can't figure out what to wear, and the news on the TV decides to hide the weather report.

 Well, we go to get in the car and the seatbelt the Little Boy uses has decided to do an imitation of a turtle. It ducked back under the seat so after some poking and proding, I manage to get it up and ready for the Little Boy, all the while very tired and trying to keep what little patience I woke up with.  Some how the Little Boy got that, he figured out I was having a rough morning. So we get to the train station and I get out and give him and my Beautiful Wife a Hug and a Kiss and start to walk to my spot where I stand and wait for the train, half way there I hear the Little Boy calling for me, I turn around and look to see that he is hanging out the window of the car and pulled up right behind me. I smile and walk back, give him a big hug, and he hugs me back, and gives me a little blue rubber band, as if to say, here, this will make your day better, and you know what he was right. It has made my day better. I've put the rubber band around my cellphone which sits on my desk when I am at work. So every 10 minutes or so, my focus is diverted from the screen to the little blue rubber band and my day gets a little bit better. 

Some Good Ones from Hollywood Squars

 If you remember The Original Hollywood Squares and its comics, this will bring a tear to your eyes. These great questions and answers are from the days when game show responses were spontaneous and clever, not scripted.

Q. Do female frogs croak?
A. Paul Lynde: If you hold their little heads under water long enough.

Q. If you're going to make a parachute jump, at least how high should you be?
A. Charley Weaver: Three days of steady drinking should do it.

Q. True or False, a pea can last as long as 5,000 years.
A. George Gobel: Boy, it sure seems that way sometimes.

Q. You've been having trouble going to sleep. Are you probably a man or a woman?
A. Don Knotts: That's what's been keeping me awake.

Q. According to Cosmo, if you meet a stranger at a party and you think that he is attractive, is it okay to come out and ask him if he's married?
A. Rose Marie: No, wait until morning.

Q. Which of your five senses tends to diminish as you get older?
A. Charley Weaver: My sense of decency.

Q. What are "Do It," "I Can Help," and "I Can't Get Enough"?
A. George Gobel: I don't know, but it's coming from the next apartment.

Q. As you grow older, do you tend to gesture more or less with your hands while talking?
A. Rose Marie: You ask me one more growing old question Peter, and I'll give you a gesture you'll never forget.

Q. Paul, why do Hell's Angels wear leather?
A. Because chiffon wrinkles too easily.

Q. Charley, you've just decided to grow strawberries. Are you going to get any during the first year?
A. Charley Weaver: Of course not, I'm too busy growing strawberries.

Q. In bowling, what's a perfect score?
A. Rose Marie: Ralph, the pin boy.

Q. It is considered in bad taste to discuss two subjects at nudist camps. One is politics, what is the other?
A. Paul Lynde: Tape measures.

Q. During a tornado, are you safer in the bedroom or in the closet?
A. Rose Marie: Unfortunately Peter, I'm always safe in the bedroom.

Q. Can boys join the Camp Fire Girls?
A. Marty Allen: Only after lights out.

Q. When you pat a dog on its head he will wag his tail. What will a goose do?
A. Paul Lynde: Make him bark?

Q. If you were pregnant for two years, what would you give birth to?
A. Paul Lynde: Whatever it is, it would never be afraid of the dark.

Q. According to Ann Landers, is there anything wrong with getting into the habit of kissing a lot of people?
A. Charley Weaver: It got me out of the army.

Q. While visiting China, your tour guide starts shouting "Poo! Poo! Poo!" What does this mean?
A. George Gobel: Cattle crossing.
Q. It is the most abused and neglected part of your body, what is it?
A. Paul Lynde: Mine may be abused but it certainly isn't neglected.

Q. Back in the old days, when Great Grandpa put horseradish on his head, what was he trying to do?
A. George Gobel: Get it in his mouth.

Q. Who stays pregnant for a longer period of time, your wife or your elephant?
A. Paul Lynde: Who told you about my elephant?

Q. When a couple have a baby, who is responsible for its sex?
A. Charley Weaver: I'll lend him the car, the rest is up to him.

Q. Jackie Gleason recently revealed that he firmly believes in them and has actually seen them on at least two occasions. What are they?
A. Charley Weaver: His feet.

Q. According to Ann Landers, what are two things you should never do in bed?
A. Paul Lynde: Point and Laugh!

Cycling Coverage for People without Cable

We don't have cable. I know that its hard to believe. Everyday on the train I go past the projects in LA and every single person there has Dish Network or DirectTV. (Your tax dollars hard at work there providing low income families with the basics like food and HBO). Anyways I digress, we don't have cable or satellite, it is an additional expense that we just don't need right now. However that are certian things that I would like to see. For example last year I wanted to see the Tour de France. My sweet Mother video taped all 21 days of the race for me. I enjoyed every tape, and it was really kind of her to do, but it was also a lot of work. This year, I wanted to watch the Giro D'italiana and the Tour de France. Well two things have happen'd my Folks have TiVo now, and they are on Satellite and they don't get OLN, which is the channel that covers the Tour de France, and most of the major ProTour cycling events.  

Well OLN has stepped up and figured that hey, there may be people out there with broadband internet access yet they don't have cable or satellite. Which is our case, so for $5.95 you can view the racing action online. So with the Giro D'Italiana I have been doing so. First I have to say that this is really nice, and that I hope enough people subscribe so that OLN will keep this going. That being said there is one thing I think that could be done better. One of the things I miss is hearing Phil Liggett, Paul Sherwen and Bob Roll, their commentary is great. They add so much to the action because I have so much respect for both of them.  If we had their commentary as we watched the footage from the webcast it would be awesome.

Testing and Haircuts

Hello All, I know it has been a while since I've posted anything. What can I say, I just haven't been able to think of anything to write lately. I've been studying like crazy to get my MCAD and MCSD certifications. I won't bore you with the level of techno dribble that I've been stuck in, I will only say that I can tell you what the enumerations for several classes include TRACE and DEBUG. In fact I can nearly write a complete set of post on it...but I won't...not today anyway. It is a beautiful sunshiny day here in Southern California, and I feel like being chatty.

Like I said earlier I am studying for my certifications. I actually took the first test about a week ago wednesday. How'd I do? I failed miserably. I came home telling my wife that I was going to have to learn to dig ditches for a living again, I was so upset by how badly I did. Fortunately they let you know which parts you did well and which parts you did less than perfect at. So after my Beautiful Wife talked me out of being a ditch digger and gave me a great pep talk (She really is the best!) I resolved to become an expert at the things I did the worst at. So I have really been studying taking notes, and thinking through the whole process and not just reading the material. In fact I won't let myself leave a page till I understand everything that is one it. So now when I take the test next week, I might just be ready for it....I hope.

In other news, the Little Boy is showing how advanced he truly his, he is doing things that most kids don't do till they are six or seven. For instance, he has just recently began styling his own hair. Yeah that's right, he got the scissors out and gave himself quite a stylish haircut. He calls his new hair creation the "D'oh". Apparently for this haircut to be done correctly one must find the only sharp pair of scissors in the entire house (personally, I didn't know we had any sharp scissors) and artfully remove erradic circles of hair from the back right quadrant and front left quadrant of the scalp. In a pattern akin to crop circles. While we let him know that we were very proud of his artistic and creative achievement, we warned him that next time it might be best if he had some adult supervision during his next endeavor. He reluctantly agreed.

a few good quotes

I've recently have heard, or came up with in one case a few good quotes.

<quote id="1" src="brotherk">End a good day with a good smile</quote>

<quote id="2" src="me">Give a man a house, and he has a place to sleep, give a man a garage and he has a place to live</quote>

<quote id="3" src="The Band Travis">Live is both in Major and Minor keys</quote>

Bike Film Festival

This looks kind of cool, a Bike Film Festival. And from what I read it should have films that have better plots then RAD did!

Adventures in CSS

Today surfing the web I found something amazing. It's called CSS Zen Garden. So for those of you that don't know what CSS stands for, it's Cascading Style Sheet. Basically, it is a way of defining the style of your web site. As it has matured in its standards and and adoption it has goten more powerful. This site is a great example of that.

The Big Test..Not so Much

Today, I was nervous, I got up early and got ready for the day. For today, I was to take me first test for my MCAD certification. Like I said I was really nervous, so I take the early train in, and get in, relax a little bit and as my co-worker to drive me to the testing spot. I get there and get to the correct floor, and things don't look right. The walls have the wallpaper removed. There are computer parts laying on a desk. I am thinking not all is well here. I find a room with someone in it, and tell them I am here to take my certification. They say, "That's odd, our testing center has been closed for a month for the remodel.  Go down the hall and talk with Tina, she will help you out". So I go and talk with Tina and she says "They didn't call you? they should of called you to tell you that we were closed, here is the other company's phone number and the case number, you can call them and reschedule". Okay so now, I'm a little put out, I've been studying like a mad man for this thing, and now I have to wait. This isn't funny. So I walk out of the building and call my co-worker, asking if he would be so nice as to come get me early. Being the gentlemen he is, he turns right around to get me. While I wait for him I call the parent company and explain the situation, to which I get the same reply. "They didn't call you?!". Long story short, I get them to reschedule, then I get online when I get back to the office and schedule the test for exactly one week from now, two blocks from my Mom and Dads. Better, definitely better.

Boys Vs. Bordem Part II

Well, after writing my last post I came up with a few more things that we use to do as kids to fight bordem.  Of course yard work was always more of a torture than a chore for us growing up. I don't know why,  but we just didn't dig it. So of course we came up with a way to make it fun. In the front yard we had a tree that dropped these little spine balls that released seed. Well these things looked like a minature mace.  This tree would drop hundreds of them. So I think you can see where this is going. We use to collected all of them into two buckets, and then we would team up, two on each side of the yard, and we would hurl them each other as hard and fast as you can. Now there were some rules, the head and eyes were off limits, if you hit someone there they were allow to get 5 feet away and get a free shot at you. Of course are goal was to get one of these little spine balls to stick.

Growing up we always felt that trees were naturals jungle jim. Of course we had a tree that we could get pretty far up in, about 20 feet or so. So we would climb up the tree to see what we could see. Now I have to tell you, in my younger days I didn't fear heights, or falling. So we are 20 feet up this tree, and my brother K and I are hanging out, he is laying inbetween two branches, when I see one above and beyond him and I some how get the idea that I should just climb up a little hire, and the leap out and swing on that branch. So I did, and actually grabbed it and swung once, however my brother K didn't know what I was doing, he thought I was going to jump from now 25 feet up so, as I swung back he grabbed a hold of my legs and wouldn't let go. We both looked at each other with the, what the heck are you doing look. We also had an apricot tree that grew right next to the house, well it didn't take us long to figure out that we could get on the roof off that tree. So when playing hide and seek, we'd climb the tree, get on the roof, run across the roof and climb down off the roof using the swingset on the other side of the yard. We completely cheated. And we could never figure out how Mom always knew when we were on the roof.

Another one of our bordem fighters was our bikes. With that being said, I have to say, Dad, I am sorry we made you have to work on those things constantly. The list of parts is long, forks, frames, wheels, chains, handle bars, brakes, and once even a seat. So we will start from our younger days. We had an avacado tree that had a branch that hung over the driveway. I''ve already told you what we thought about trees, so we scurried up that tree, and tied one of Dad's good ropes (sorry about that too Dad!) to the tree. Then we would ride as fast as we could and then we would let go of the handlebars and grab ahold of that rope and ghost those bikes right into the fence. If that wasn't bad enough, the street we lived on was slight hill, our house was at the botom of the hill. Across the street right next to the curb, our neighbor had some very nice soft grass. So for kicks we would ride down the hill along side or infront of cars, and would run our bikes into the curb right infront of our neighbors, and roll on that nice soft grass. We knew how to take a fall so we didn't get hurt, and we would pop up and laugh as cars would screech to a halt to see if we were okay. The local park had a very bad design that we used to it's fullest. There was a slight down hill, and then a 6 full retaining wall and then the bottom level.  Well we use to see just how far we could fly off of that rataining wall. As we got older and moved in to mountian bikes, from our BMXers, we would race down stairs as fast as we could, then we would turn around and try to ride up them.  Man that was fun!

Boys Vs. Bordem

I was hanging out with my brother K this afternoon, and we were talking about stuff we did as a kid as we're watching TV. We talked about all the stuff the basically would of got us in trouble at the time, but now is just funny. Like the day we figured out two important things. One unpopped popcorn can fit through a straw and that we could hold a lot of kernels in our mouth. Second that the shopvac can clean up unpopped popcorn kernels with eaze. We figured that we could shoot about 20 rounds a second. And that if we teamed up, our little brother and sister didn't stand a chance.

We came up with other ways to fight bordem as well. Cleaning was one of the things that we figured could use some fun. For example our livingroom growing up at a title floor. We would get the chore of mopping the floor. This was one of those chores we would wait till Mom and Dad left to go grocery shopping to do. Mostly because we would cover the whole floor with soap and water and then take a good run from the other room, and hit that soapy floor and do our best to slide on our feet to the other side of the room. Now I know what you are thinking, hard concrete floor with title, and young boys sliding on it, what could go wrong? Believe it or not, we might have fallen once or twice, which resulted in some bruised sides. Fortunely there was never any broken furniture to give us away.

Another one we came up with, we called slap fighting. Now while this may sound nice and innocent, it was just a little violent. Let me explain the rules. First, you take off your shirt, and remove all furniture and animals that may get in the way, or ran over. Then you take turns running after each other open hand slapping each other as hard as you can, whoever leaves the biggest whelt wins. I do have to say that K won more of these than I did. The best of of these slap fights, I had just got K, so he had to get me, as I ran into our room, he got me, just as I tripped over the corner of the his bed, and flew across the the room and landed on my bed, we laughed so hard we cried.

Now don't think that K got all the licks in. Once, we were sitting in Dad's truck right around lunch time, Dad was in a store getting some supplies, and I figured out that I could connect two or three straws together and kind of rifle them together. Well now that I had this I had to use it, so I grabbed one of those toothpicks with the cellophane on the end. Now I just needed a target, and well brother K got to be the first target. What I didn't know, that the tooth pick would stick. K didn't know it was going to either, so he had a toothpick stuck in the side of his head. I'm justt really glad that he ducked. It could of been worse.

Breathing isn't easy

So the past couple of days I've had some real trouble with my asthma. Of course you sometimes wonder if it,s just you. So I did a quick search of the allergy index. Come to find out that it is bad everywhere. Somehow that makes me feel better.

Something new

So every once in a while something comes your way that is completely a new concept to you. Today that happened to me. At work we were looking at some pictures of my co-worker's/friend's cat, Kevin the feline wonder, when she showed us a picture of her friends new hypoallergenic, Irish Setter. I repeated it to make sure I heard her correctly, the dog was hypoallergenic. I thought that I was getting my leg pulled, so of course I googled it. Come to find out that certian breeds of dogs, either have no hair, or only have one coat, and don't have as much dander as regular dogs. So people with allergies can usually have one of these pets. There are quite a few dog breeds to choice from, some terriers, poodles, and some that I can't even pronounce. In all fairness I had to look and see if there were any hypoallergenic cats, and there is one breed, the Siberian cats. There is also one company claiming that the have a genetically modified cat that is a british short hair. However it seems a little strange to me to modify the DNA of a cat, just because your allergic to it.  

Wakin up is hard to do.

This morning, I couldn't wake up. I had planned on getting up early and walking to the train. That didn't happen. Instead I got up set the alarm forward an hour and then went back to bed. Laying in bed, not quite asleep, but not quite awake, the Little Boy and Max the wonder Dog come crashing in. Truth betold, I think this is the best way to wake up. The Little Boy is always so happy in the mornings and happy to see you and glad for the new day. Max of course is so funny, I think he forgets that he just saw you like 8 hours ago, and is so excited to see you that he can't control his little self. So you have to two extremely happy creatures coming in to say good morning to you, you can't but help to be glad to get up. So we wake up and My Beautiful Wife, The Little Boy and I are on the bed. Max the wonder Dog knows that he is not allowed on the bed, so he has everything but one toe of his right hind foot on the bed. Even the dog know that technically he is not completely on the bed. The Little Boy then distributes knuckle nuggies to everyone, the dog included, and keeps saying the sun is up, wake up. Then faintly in the background I hear the "eeett, eeett, eeett" of the alarm clock. I get up and walk across the room turn it off, and think, there are better ways to wake up then with an alarm clock.

Learn Bad Code

I know, I haven't posted in awhile. Work has been very hetic, with big deadlines for one of the biggest projects my departments has even done. So with big deadlines looming, it is really easy to let some code that is less than perfect slip through the cracks. Less then perfect code would be something that, while it works as in it doesn't have memory leaks or anything like that, just doesn't subscribe to good design patterns and practices. So why is the post titled "Learn Bad Code". Well, you need to learn to recognize when you've written bad code. Actually it needs to bother you when you've written bad code, or are using code that someone else's. It should bother you so much that you get up in the middle of the night to fix it. How do you do that? Well there is a couple of ways.

First learn the right way to right code. Learn to use N-Tier design structures. If your application is connecting to a database, your presentation layer should have no idea what kind of database it is. It shouldn't even matter. Your should write a data layer, that takes care of all of those things, and handles the data off to the business layer in a generic way. The business layer can then pass the data to the presentation layer in a generic, or more correctly abstracted way. I'm not the first one that has ever said this, in fact most developer, well .NET, C++ and Java developer work this way.

The second way, look at bad code. Hopefully it isn't your own bad code but someone else. At work we go to http://thedailywtf.com/ everyday. Here are examples of bad code posted daily and discussed. Don't get me wrong this code works, but it works in the most convoluted way possible. The other thing that comes from reading this daily as a group is the threat factor. Yes, I have threatened people in my team with posting their bad code, and vise versa. Let's face it, none of us wants laughed at for being a lazy programmer.

Let's go back the first method for a moment. Like I said earlier, there has been a lot written on how to write a N-Tier application, I'm going give you a practical example of why. I'll start by telling you a little bit about my team at work. There are three of us, including myself. Which makes each person's role very important. We have the Front-End Web Developer, The .NET Developer and me The Senior Web Developer. Our Front-End Developer works on the User Interface, design and things like that, he is an Expert in HTML and can do amazing things with it, yet he is new to ASP.NET and .NET in general. Our .NET Developer is a back-end programmers, programmer. He does all of the Database work, the stored procedures, the data layer stuff and so on. Then there is me, I do a lot of the architecture and design, as well as writing the business logic with our .NET Developer, and Front-End design with our Front-End Web Developer. So you can see by the way the team is structure that we are set up in to an N-Tier architecture. Okay, with that being said, why, is the N-Tier important to us?

One of the reasons why a N-Tier architecture is important to us is flexibility. Let's say, hypothetically, the company decides that Oracle is the way to go and that all of our applications have to be converted to use Oracle as it's database. Of course we had written all of our appliations for Microsoft SQL. Well with the N-Tier design model, we just change our data layer (or data access layer, which ever you like to call it), and we are in business. We didn't have to change the presentation layer (web page, or windows app front end) or our business layer (business logic) to accommodate the change because we wrote the application in such a way that those two layers were abstracted from the database. Simply put, they didn't care able the database, because they never knew it was there.

Another reasons why a N-Tier architecture is important to us is knowledge. My team is really diverse in their knowledge, so I can't expect them to all know the same thing. I wouldn't expect my Front-End Developer to write stored procedures, just as I wouldn't expect my .NET Developer to create photoshop comps of web pages. With the N-Tier architecture in place, the Front-End Developer doesn't have to know ADO.NET, or SQL. He just calls the business object and can intellisense his way though the fields without having to ask about them. Adversely, my .NET Developer doesn't have to sort through the ASP.NET code to firgure out where to try and put some inline SQL. And this touches on our third reason, speed. Now with both of the Developers, (Front-End and Back-End) doing what they do best, they aren't slowed down by trying to figure out how to do each other's job. They don't have to deal with the speed bumps of code.

In the end Learning what "bad code" looks like keeps you from writing it, just as much as learning what "good code" looks like helps you write flexible applications.

 

fun with Text

 

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This is was created by a fun little utility that converts any jpeg in to "ascii" Art!

Kids know how things should work

Today I learned that Kids know how things should work. Today the Little Boy was using a cellphone (yes the 4 year old was using a cellphone, don't pretend like you haven't handed one to your youngin' )and he wanted to show the person he was talking too what he just got, so he pointed the phone at the object and and said "See". Now Really thiw is how it should work. It's 2005 we don't have cars that fly, so we should at least have cellphones that have video conferencing built in.

Don't take the big pill

Every morning I tell myself the same thing. As I pour one of my asthma pills out of its bottle I say, or think to myself, "Don't take the big pill!" You see, that particular medication can't be exposed to humidity till taken, so they have one of those little cylinders that keep packaged goods dry. Well, it is a little larger in diameter then the regular pill, and abou three times taller, so every morning, in my sleepy state I have to make sure that I take the right pill.  I said it again this morning, and my Beautiful Wife heard, she commented, "you say that allot don't you", to which I replied, "yup everyday"

Family Tradition

First, I think it really says something about the state of things, that this evening I learned my Sister got injuried from her blog. Not a phone call, not an email, not even a voicemail, but by reading her blog. That being said she has carried on a fine family tradition. The tradition of course is completely down playing injuries and emergencies. You see she was sewing, to make a long story short she had the needle stab her in the finger and break off. Of course if that wasn't bad enough, the machine tried to keep going and really crushed her finger. What did she scream? What words of anger or panic came from her lips? None! That's right in the family tradition she just freed herself with her free hand, cleaned the wound and then went and told Mom.

Now this is just something we do. We don't yell or cry or cuss we just either let out a little growl or say something very subtle. An example of this, when I was fourteen, through a series of unfortunate events I managed to set the entire hallway floor on fire.  Flames are about three feet high and all along the floor, so did I scream, or cry or going running out the door? Of course not, I went and got Mom and sais "Mom, we have a problem". Of course the statement was completely true, but maybe just a little subtle for the Event.

Another example, my Brother J was framing up some walls, and we heard a misfire and a "errrr". Now anyone else we would think, that he was upset that they had a misfired, but in my family it means something happened. So we ran into the room were he working, he turned towards us with his thumb, in the cool Fonzie, "Aaaaa" position. We see that the nail went rightt through his thumb. So Dad without missing a beat, grabed his linemans pilers, grabed Js hand, and goes for the nail. Brother J was afraid that he was going to take his whole thumb off, and at the last second, Dad turns his hand and cuts the head of the nail off. Well, now the nail had to come out, and it has to go through, you can't back them out. So of course Dad says on the count of three. One, Two (now we know that Dad is going to pull it on two, he's been doing it since we were little kids), but just in case brother J braces for it on one. It was on two, and nail was out. And the only thing that J says is " I thought you were going to cut my thumb off".

Yet another example, Brother K is doing some framing, a making rip strips for fering out the walls. Well, as happens from time to time, the blade on the table saw reached up and bite him. Right on the top of his index finger. Of course in typical family style, he let out a growl. Well, J knew that it  was a "I am hurt bad come help me" growl. Anyone else would have wondered if he kicked a board or something. K, in typical K style, went down to the first aid kit and with the help of J, and bandaged up the finger so well that most medical professions would marveled at his handy work.

Family traditions, you have to love'em 

Slow Train, Heavy Rain

Okay, so driving would of been faster today. I usually wouldn't say anything remotely like that, but apparently because of the heavy rains, the trains can't go over 40 mph. Of course right now, we are currently not going over 4 mph since we are stopped. I left work at 4:40 and it's 6:35, and we are at least 20 minutes away from my station, if we start going right now  which we won't. So I am sitting on the train, listening to techno/celtic music (yes it does exist) and bloggin, what else is a poor commuter to do.

Joining the Digital Camera Revolution

So, I've finally done it. I went out and bought a digital camera. Of course this feat didn't happen without lots of homework, research and agony. I am sure that I drove my Beautiful Wife up the wall with this one. But of course in her wonderful way she answered my barrage of questions with her sweet, your a silly man, but  I love you anyway. So what did I get? Well I got a Panasonic Lumix FZ20s. Okay, what's a Panasonic Lumix FZ20s. Well, it is a cool looking silver camera. (silver is what the s stands for). It is a 5.3 megapixel camera with a Lecia 12x optical zoom lense. The 35mm equivalent lense would be 36mm-432mm. Overall it is a really nice camera. Instead of writing a long review (which I am not very good at), here is one by steves-digicams.com

I do have to say so far I am really happy with it, and it lets me do almost everything that my old Pentax spotmatic does. Of course being a digital camera, it does have the whole instant gratification of seeing the photo right after it is taken thing going for it. So between the new camera, and the images I've been taking lately, I figured it was finally time to start a photoblog. We'll see if my hectic work schedule will allow me keep both my blog and it going.

Rainy morning at Union Station

This morning on the way out my Beautiful Wife told me she excepted to see some pretty pictures on my blog today. You see I just got my first digital camera. I am really excited about it. I spend a month shopping for it. And now it is here, so I think you can expect some more snap shots to be posted.

First Train Ride

Yesterday, one of my co-workers took the train to work for the first time. Of course it didn't go smoothly there was a few snags.  This made me think about the first time that I rode the train for the first time. It didn't go smoothly for me either. In fact it was two months before  I wrote the train again. It was mostly because one of the conductors was a little intimidating. That being said, there was an amazing sense of accomplishment. You see I was born and raised in L.A. and that saying "Nobody walks in LA." is completely right. You see everything is an hour away. So you always have to drive. So the idea that I could get to work without a car was a liberating thought. Today, three years later, riding the train is second nature. I don't even think about it. However I won't soon forget that stepping off the train, just blocks from work, taking a deep breath and feeling like I accomplished something by getting to work without a car.

An interesting Photo Essay

One thing about the internet, is you can always find something interesting out there. Well I found something interesting, that also made me smile. A Photo Essay of a Gentleman thinking about fatherhood, so he spends a morning with his sisters son.

Boys will be Boys

So first thing, I have to say my Beautiful Wife is amazing. She gets that boys will be boys. That we aren't acting up to make her look bad, we are just playing. Tomorrow the Little Boy will be home from school, so we thought getting some videos to ease him into the weekend was a good idea. So the Little Boy and I were a little onery. We played in every isle of the video store (You know that one that starts with Bloc and ends with uster). I chased him down one isle and around the other. Met him in middle of the next. He grabbed my ankles, and I picked him up and held him on my shoulders and walked through the store. We check out and of course the Boy and I are still playing, he is on my shoulders and checker asks if we need a bag, and I says "sure, do you have one he will fit into?"

Video Games just might save your life

So this afternoon on the way home from my Folks' house, I had one of those near misses that make you have to change your drawers. I'm going south bound in the fast lane of a four lane street. Three cars are lined up to turn left in to the supermarket on the northbound side. Well, this person in third position doesn't see me and decides that he can just turn left in the the secondary driveway, and pass up the "hold up" (hold up being, good drivers waiting for it to be clear to turn left).  He pulls out, I see him, and stomp on the brakes (Toyota's awesome antilock brakes, but I still got them to lock up) and went to where he had been in the median. So I missed him by about two feet, and had to steer back in to my lane because of oncoming traffic. This all happened in a millisecond.  So how did I know what to do? Video Games, pure and simple! I credit video games for my evasive manuevering skills. The hours I've spend honing my driving and reactions on video games sure paid off this afternoon. So if you think your skills could use a little refinement, might I suggest Colin Mcrae Rally 2005.

Self-Portrait

I took this the other night. If you are what you eat then this is me, a Vanilla Coke, and wheat free pretzels with seasame seeds. 

Is your car running?

This post is an actual story that one of my friends from the train told me. This actually happened to him. The fact this story is completely true makes it that much funnier. To protect the innocent we will call him "Artist guy". As his name implies, Artist guy is an artist. He works for one of the cartoon studios in southern california. I could tell you which one, but that would be like name dropping, which of course I only reserve to impress people in person. But I digress, while Artist guy is very well, artistic, he admits that his mechanical talents are not at the same level as his artistic ones. So when his Dad comes to visit from somewhere back east, some city that's windy. His Dad helps him take care of all of his home and auto repairs, as well as helping him organize his tools and such.

Well one day Artistic guy got home pretty late, 2am or so, and after pulling into his garage, he turns the key to turn the car off. He pulls the key, and  opens the door, but, the car is still running. So he looks at the car, and looks in the key in hand, and goes, that's not right. So in a little bit of a panic he calls roadside service. Of course, they ask if he was stuck on the side of the road, of which he wasn't, so they said "Sorry, we can't help you." So, he switches to plan a2, he calls the Auto Club, but, pretty much gets the same response from them. Well, now it's about 3am, however it's 5am where his Dad lives. So he calls his Dad and of course his Dad knows just what to do.

Artistic Guy: Dad, My car keeps running, I turned it off and have the keys in my hand, but its still going.

Artistic Guy's Dad: Okay, so what you'll need to do is disconnect the battery.

Artistic Guy: How do I do that?

Artistic Guy's Dad: Don't worry, I will talk you through it. First, you're going to need your cresent wrench.

Artistic Guy: Do I have a cresent wrench?

Artistic Guy's Dad: Yeah, it's in the second drawer on the left in the kitchen, right next to the screwdrivers.

Artistic Guy: Oh, I do! Cool, okay I got it.

Artistic Guy's Dad: Now you'll need some gloves.

Artistic Guy: Do I have any gloves?

Artistic Guy's Dad: Yes, They are in the second floor bathroom in the cabinet under the sink.

Artistic Guy: How do you know this?

Artistic Guy's Dad: I'm a Dad, I'm suppose to know these things, now lets go out to the car disconnect the battery.

Artistic Guy: (Going out to the garage, and reaches inside and pops the hood) Okay, I got the hood open.

Artistic Guy's Dad: Umm, the battery in your car is in the trunk.

Artistic Guy:(Opens the trunk) Okay, at the trunk.

Artistic Guy's Dad: Now take the battery cover off, and you'll see two terminals, one with a plus sign and another with a minus sign. You have to take one of them off. (Artistic Guy reaches for the plus sign terminal) you want to take off the minus sign on.

Artist Guy: (taking the terminal off the battery and the car stops running) Hey, it stopped! Thanks Dad.

 

Whatca Readin?

"Whatca Readin?" This is how Tom and I would start most of our conversations. I was thinking about this today at his memorial. I was thinking about the first time we started chatting with each other, and it was about reading.  I was on his train heading towards downtown and I was reading  "Essential Chaucer", The Canterbury Tales, to be exact when he asked me what I was reading. So I told him, and share a line I had just read that I thought was brillant. It was easy to tell that Tom loved books. Tom always read great books. He would tell me about books he just got, or when the next book fair in glendale or pasadena was going to be.  Pretty soon we started lending each other books. It was really nice, because I would love what he recommended and loaned me and he would love what I gave him to read. It was so nice to just sit on the train and talk about how Kerouac described food so well that you could see it and taste it. Or how Orwell described being "down and out" so well that you could feel it.  Tom turned me on to so many great books, that I would always carry a note book with me to write down the titles of what he recommended. He loved the fact that he could read at his midday break for 2 to 4 hours. I remember him saying, "The only thing beter than reading is reading on company time".

At his memorial, there were at least 500 people. It was so packed that a couple hundred of us had to stand in the church courtyard for the service. It was nice to hear people tell stories about Tom, and how he had shown them kindness or generousity in his own special way. They told about how he loved to have water fights with his Grandkids, and how even the house was not a safe zone. It was obvious the people that truly knew him, because they couldn't get through their tale without having to pause and collect themselves. Every metrolink conductor I had ever met or seen as well as the Glendale, Fire Department and Police Department were there. It was nice to see such a large turn out for such a very ni, that I thought so highly of.

I remember how the train would pull into the station, and I would see Tom, hanging out of the car as i was pulling up, and I'd wave, and he would always waved back before the train had stopped just to let you know he was happy to see you. I'd get on the train, and after hearing him announce the that the train was departing he come over to his station to which I would sit next to and in is Olkahoma draw, ask "Whatca Readin?". I'm really going to miss hearing him ask that, and I am really going to miss him. Oh, by the way, I am starting to read James Joyce's Ulyesses, Tom recommended it.