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.