This is the first time I've run into the potential disappointment with network television. I've never really watched much television, but now that iTunes offers TV shows, there have been a few shows I've been getting from there. The convenience makes all the difference.
One of the shows Olympia and I have enjoyed this year is Jericho. We just watched the season one finale Monday night. Today, I learned that CBS has cancelled the show, so we won't get to find out what happens. I guess a lot more bombs go off and the storyline so far ceases to be relevant.
Ah, well. So sad.
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Sunday, April 15, 2007
Children of Rock
I'm writing this from Union Jack's, a restaurant/bar in Bethesda, Maryland. I'm (mostly) working on my laptop and listening to several bands that are playing a Sunday afternoon concert. All the bands are made of kids from about ten years old to their late teens and they take their lessons at the same music school I attend for my guitar lessons.
The crowd here is really large and these kids are doing a great job. Listening to a bunch of ten-year-olds rock their way through "I'm a Believer" in front of about two hundred people is quite an experience.
I need to find some other people my age and experience level who want to practice as a band. Maybe when Union Jack's hosts another concert, I can get on stage instead of just watching.
The crowd here is really large and these kids are doing a great job. Listening to a bunch of ten-year-olds rock their way through "I'm a Believer" in front of about two hundred people is quite an experience.
I need to find some other people my age and experience level who want to practice as a band. Maybe when Union Jack's hosts another concert, I can get on stage instead of just watching.
Sunday, January 14, 2007
Scrabble
The last few weeks we've pulled out the Scrabble board several times. This is a game that I'm pretty good at, although I have no idea how I'd do if I was to enter one of the tournaments. I don't really use the crazy words you only ever see in Scrabble very often. In our last game, I did use "ibex" though. The "x" was on a triple letter score next to a free letter "o", so I got 48 points off that one letter.
It turns out that at eight years old, Katerina's pretty good at it. I showed her how she can make a word that also adds a letter to another word, thereby getting points for both words. She got it after it being explained only once and dropped "re" onto the beginning of "fixed" (same "x" as in "ibex") with the "e" also making "me" on the vertical for 26 points.
For a while, I used to write the word and points gained for spectacular scores on the backs of the letter holders. I had several in the 90+ points range, although never one with more than 100 on one word.
I actually don't remember the last time I lost a game of Scrabble. Ever time I play, though, I have a particular Scrabble game come to mind. I don't remember how old I was, but I was definitely in my late teens, as it took place at my parents' house. I sat down to play a game with my dad and my brother, Adam. We set up the board, drew tiles, and I got to take the first turn. I had a pretty decent seven-letter word, which gets you the double word score for the center spot, a double letter score for one of the letters, and a fifty point bonus for using all your tiles. My score on that one word was 98 points, better than any written on the letter holders.
Very pleased with myself, I started drawing seven new tiles, but my dad and my brother just looked at the score I'd just pulled and left the table. It was a long time ago, so I don't remember precisely, but my memory is of one of them saying, "Well, this is pointless." Neither one of them has ever played a game of Scrabble with me since.
Of course, Adam has played an uncountable number of other games with me and is a very challenging opponent at most of them, beating me many, many times. I've also played Scrabble with other people many times since. Olympia and I used to play it reasonably often after we got married but before we had children. It's interesting, though, how something like that can stick with you so persistently for so very long.
It turns out that at eight years old, Katerina's pretty good at it. I showed her how she can make a word that also adds a letter to another word, thereby getting points for both words. She got it after it being explained only once and dropped "re" onto the beginning of "fixed" (same "x" as in "ibex") with the "e" also making "me" on the vertical for 26 points.
For a while, I used to write the word and points gained for spectacular scores on the backs of the letter holders. I had several in the 90+ points range, although never one with more than 100 on one word.
I actually don't remember the last time I lost a game of Scrabble. Ever time I play, though, I have a particular Scrabble game come to mind. I don't remember how old I was, but I was definitely in my late teens, as it took place at my parents' house. I sat down to play a game with my dad and my brother, Adam. We set up the board, drew tiles, and I got to take the first turn. I had a pretty decent seven-letter word, which gets you the double word score for the center spot, a double letter score for one of the letters, and a fifty point bonus for using all your tiles. My score on that one word was 98 points, better than any written on the letter holders.
Very pleased with myself, I started drawing seven new tiles, but my dad and my brother just looked at the score I'd just pulled and left the table. It was a long time ago, so I don't remember precisely, but my memory is of one of them saying, "Well, this is pointless." Neither one of them has ever played a game of Scrabble with me since.
Of course, Adam has played an uncountable number of other games with me and is a very challenging opponent at most of them, beating me many, many times. I've also played Scrabble with other people many times since. Olympia and I used to play it reasonably often after we got married but before we had children. It's interesting, though, how something like that can stick with you so persistently for so very long.
Sunday, January 07, 2007
Two Memorable Conversations
First, I spoke with my friend Barry. In November and December, he was dealing with his father being sick, heart trouble in particular. The prognosis seemed worse each time I spoke to him. I didn't hear from him for a couple of weeks, so when I did:
Aaron: So, how's your dad?A couple days later, a conversation with Elizabeth about what she was doing:
Barry: Not so good. He arrives tomorrow in the
mail.
Morbid, but somehow funny.Aaron: What are you up to?
Elizabeth: Studying for exams.
Aaron: When are your exams?
Elizabeth: Next week.
Aaron: You know what I don't have next week that makes me happy?
Elizabeth: Exams? And Ebola?
Wednesday, December 27, 2006
The Short List
I was getting gas at an Exxon station yesterday and it had a very short list of instructions.
Pump Operation
1. Follow instructions on screen
Pump Operation
1. Follow instructions on screen
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
Done Gone and Moved
I mentioned just two posts back that we had no heat in our house. About two weeks later, we had a particularly chilly night where the temperature dropped down into the upper forties or so. The next morning, the house was really, really cold and my mother-in-law was developing a nasty sounding cough. We decided this just wasn't going to do and there was an expected cold snap coming in that first week in December.
Olympia and I tackled some immediate house-hunting. That's way easier when you're seeking a rental because getting into a rental doesn't involve the reams of paperwork that buying a house requires. The first house we found that might work was owned by some people that had had to evict their last tenants. Despite looking for a long-term lease (three-and-a-half years, so we won't be faced with moving again until Elizabeth is done with high school,) which normally thrills landlords, these people wanted the rent to be paid by certified check every month, an "escape clause" that would allow them to turn us out after eighteen months if they decided to move back in, and on and on. Our realtor told us she wouldn't let us rent from them after all even if we wanted to.
Another round of looking at options found us another house, this one a single-family home only a mile from where we living, in all the same school districts and a landlord that was smart enough to employ a property management company. Three days after seeing the house, we had a signed 43-month lease. The next day, moving began.
We got out of the other house just in time. Two days after our first night sleeping in the new house, the old one's temperature was below 45 degrees - how far below, I don't know because the thermostat's thermometer didn't go any lower than that.
Moving is an absolute help and I found myself wishing for a version of The Matrix, but without the oppression by machines. I couldn't be happier that it's done.
Olympia and I tackled some immediate house-hunting. That's way easier when you're seeking a rental because getting into a rental doesn't involve the reams of paperwork that buying a house requires. The first house we found that might work was owned by some people that had had to evict their last tenants. Despite looking for a long-term lease (three-and-a-half years, so we won't be faced with moving again until Elizabeth is done with high school,) which normally thrills landlords, these people wanted the rent to be paid by certified check every month, an "escape clause" that would allow them to turn us out after eighteen months if they decided to move back in, and on and on. Our realtor told us she wouldn't let us rent from them after all even if we wanted to.
Another round of looking at options found us another house, this one a single-family home only a mile from where we living, in all the same school districts and a landlord that was smart enough to employ a property management company. Three days after seeing the house, we had a signed 43-month lease. The next day, moving began.
We got out of the other house just in time. Two days after our first night sleeping in the new house, the old one's temperature was below 45 degrees - how far below, I don't know because the thermostat's thermometer didn't go any lower than that.
Moving is an absolute help and I found myself wishing for a version of The Matrix, but without the oppression by machines. I couldn't be happier that it's done.
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
My WarEngine Wiki
I've tackled a new project. I'm taking my WarEngine wargaming system and putting it in the hands of the community of wargamers in the form of a WarEngine Wiki. I signed up for a cheap hosting account that supports PHP5 and MySQL and installed the latest version of the free MediaWiki, the same software used to run Wikipedia. I've added some built-in Google AdSense banners and a donation page as a way to try making the service at least pay for itself and perhaps even generate some passive income.
I've also seeded the site with some content, including the Shock Force setting I developed when I was publishing wargames as DemonBlade Games. By putting all this in a wiki, I'm hoping that the community will then add to it. I've dropped $25 on a month's worth of ads on The Miniatures Page to drive some traffic to the site, too.
This has some similarity to writing to a "monetized" blog site, but I think it has some nice potential from the perspective that I don't necessarily have to (and if it works, shouldn't) provide all the content. I only launched it last week, so it's too early to tell, but if nothing else, it will be a good experiment in whether hosting and building an online community of this sort can be a profitable commercial endeavor, too.
I've also seeded the site with some content, including the Shock Force setting I developed when I was publishing wargames as DemonBlade Games. By putting all this in a wiki, I'm hoping that the community will then add to it. I've dropped $25 on a month's worth of ads on The Miniatures Page to drive some traffic to the site, too.
This has some similarity to writing to a "monetized" blog site, but I think it has some nice potential from the perspective that I don't necessarily have to (and if it works, shouldn't) provide all the content. I only launched it last week, so it's too early to tell, but if nothing else, it will be a good experiment in whether hosting and building an online community of this sort can be a profitable commercial endeavor, too.
Sunday, November 12, 2006
The Miracle of Heating
My office is cold. It's not yet numbingly cold, and maybe it won't be, but I'm a bit worried about it.
My office is a room off the kitchen in the house we rent in Rockville, Maryland. It's nice because it has windows on three sides that look out onto the backyard, which is quite large and very pleasant. Here's a picture of the view straight back:
The problem is that the house is aging, and not well. Since we've moved in, the pipes in the basement have sprung leaks half-a-dozen times. The landlord sends out a guy to fix them, he repeatedly tells her that she needs to replace the whole pipe system, but she insists he simply patch it.
A couple of months ago, the furnace broke down. Again, our landlord went to discount labor sources, in this case, a tenant at one of her other properties. That guy took awhile to show up, then didn't fix it. The landlord got another guy to come out, who finally replaced the oil pump, but when the furnace started shutting itself down again a few days later, he came back and found that some other part of the furnace was also busted. Basically, the whole thing needs to be replaced.
In the last couple of weeks, we've learned that the landlord doesn't intend to continue renting the house out once we move out, something we are thinking of doing next spring anyway. She intends sell it to a developer who will subdivide the property, tear down this house, and put up four million-dollar-plus homes. Under the circumstances, it seems she doesn't really want to fix stuff.
Instead, she promised us a couple of big free-standing electric heaters. Having seen the one the my friend, Ben, uses at his house, I was willing to give that a try. Yesterday, I got home from taking Gregory to a Cub Scout event to find two small, electric, parabolic space heaters on the front doorstep - one of them very dusty and missing a knob. I'm very skeptical that these (plus the two other heaters we bought ourselves do handle the cold days while they futzed around with fixing the furnace) will replace the normal heating capabilities of the built-in heating system.
We will have to see how this works out, but since the next place we live will also be a rental, you can bet that it will be in a commercially run operation where you don't have to worry about adequate heating being high enough on the landlord's priority list.
Sunday, November 05, 2006
Contrast
I've been doing some thinking lately about the value of contrast, primarily about how it is an important tool in developing or marketing a new product. Contrast adds interest, so contrast is common in things to which we find ourselves drawn.
I'm using contrast here in a very broad sense, where it means that there are any two attributes of a single thing that are significantly different. Consider some examples, beginning with what we eat. Almost every meal we eat includes two or more foods. There really isn't any reason beyond getting a wide variety of nutrients not available in a single food for us to prepare multiple foods when we eat. However, even if it covered every element of nutrition you needed, you would be unlikely to feel particular satisfied by eating the same single item with every meal.
Another very basic example is that we tend not to design objects to be of a single color. My laptop, on which I'm typing this now, has a number of buttons that when they are in the "on" position light up with a blue glow. The blue contrasts with the black of the plastic and is therefore pleasing.
Not every example is so trivial, though. While it may not have such a firm grip on its market as it once did, Monster was remarkable in the job listing website business because of the contrast between the generally serious matter of browsing through jobs and the more whimsical nature of cartoon monsters adorning the pages. Similarly, "Amazon" (at least to me) conjures up images of a rain forest where the only inhabitants have little if anything in the way of a written language, which contrasts heavily with the concept of an online bookstore. I've noticed Elizabeth regularly browsing a make-up site called "Beauty Whore." Whatever you might feel about the name itself, it is certainly striking and memorable.
Even the name I picked for my online alter-ego, Dark Tortoise, was picked in part because of the contrast between "dark" and "tortoise." If asked to name a bunch of things that are dark, especially if given the "sinister" definition of the word, it's unlikely that "tortoise" would show up on your list anywhere in the top thousand.
I've been talking to my realtor friend, Ben, about ideas for a real estate website. Most such sites are, in my opinion, largely forgettable. They also tend to highlight the realtor, leaving the houses listed for sale as pretty much a set of photos and some basic attributes, like number of bedrooms and bathrooms. Buying a home, though, is largely an emotional decision with the house itself at the center of that decision. Thinking about contrast and that emotional factor suggests new ideas of how to present homes in an appealing, remarkable, and memorable way.
For example, we could present the homes almost as though they were people themselves so that the website visitor has the opportunity to be introduced to the homes and find one with a pleasing personality. We could include things like video testimonials about the houses given by either the developer or architect for new houses or the previous owners for resales. The presentation could even be made to look much like a typical (but well-designed) customized profile page on social networking sites like MySpace or FaceBook. The contrast between an inanimate object and the anthropomorphizing of that object would be unusual and notable.
Contrast, while not the only tool for creating distinction, seems a critical one. How could you apply new contrast to make something in your life more interesting, either to yourself or others as appropriate?
I'm using contrast here in a very broad sense, where it means that there are any two attributes of a single thing that are significantly different. Consider some examples, beginning with what we eat. Almost every meal we eat includes two or more foods. There really isn't any reason beyond getting a wide variety of nutrients not available in a single food for us to prepare multiple foods when we eat. However, even if it covered every element of nutrition you needed, you would be unlikely to feel particular satisfied by eating the same single item with every meal.
Another very basic example is that we tend not to design objects to be of a single color. My laptop, on which I'm typing this now, has a number of buttons that when they are in the "on" position light up with a blue glow. The blue contrasts with the black of the plastic and is therefore pleasing.
Not every example is so trivial, though. While it may not have such a firm grip on its market as it once did, Monster was remarkable in the job listing website business because of the contrast between the generally serious matter of browsing through jobs and the more whimsical nature of cartoon monsters adorning the pages. Similarly, "Amazon" (at least to me) conjures up images of a rain forest where the only inhabitants have little if anything in the way of a written language, which contrasts heavily with the concept of an online bookstore. I've noticed Elizabeth regularly browsing a make-up site called "Beauty Whore." Whatever you might feel about the name itself, it is certainly striking and memorable.
Even the name I picked for my online alter-ego, Dark Tortoise, was picked in part because of the contrast between "dark" and "tortoise." If asked to name a bunch of things that are dark, especially if given the "sinister" definition of the word, it's unlikely that "tortoise" would show up on your list anywhere in the top thousand.
I've been talking to my realtor friend, Ben, about ideas for a real estate website. Most such sites are, in my opinion, largely forgettable. They also tend to highlight the realtor, leaving the houses listed for sale as pretty much a set of photos and some basic attributes, like number of bedrooms and bathrooms. Buying a home, though, is largely an emotional decision with the house itself at the center of that decision. Thinking about contrast and that emotional factor suggests new ideas of how to present homes in an appealing, remarkable, and memorable way.
For example, we could present the homes almost as though they were people themselves so that the website visitor has the opportunity to be introduced to the homes and find one with a pleasing personality. We could include things like video testimonials about the houses given by either the developer or architect for new houses or the previous owners for resales. The presentation could even be made to look much like a typical (but well-designed) customized profile page on social networking sites like MySpace or FaceBook. The contrast between an inanimate object and the anthropomorphizing of that object would be unusual and notable.
Contrast, while not the only tool for creating distinction, seems a critical one. How could you apply new contrast to make something in your life more interesting, either to yourself or others as appropriate?
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
Halloween Costumes
Last night, like so many others, we walked around begging for candy from neighbors. We did so well bringing home the loot that I suspect we live in a development full of ruthless dentists.
When I say we, I mean me and the little guys, Gregory and Katerina. Gregory was dressed up as the recently quite popular pirate, looking for all the world what I'd picture a young Wesley in The Princess Bride may have looked, but judge for yourself:
When I say we, I mean me and the little guys, Gregory and Katerina. Gregory was dressed up as the recently quite popular pirate, looking for all the world what I'd picture a young Wesley in The Princess Bride may have looked, but judge for yourself:
Katerina, meanwhile was a rag doll, but had no idea why people were asking her if she was Raggedy Ann. I guess she'd never been introduced to the doll after which her costume was modelled. Here she is:
We were also joined by Katerina's friend, Muye, but I don't have a picture of her because I only took a couple of photos at home. She looked quite good as the Queen of Camelot. She told Gregory who she was dressed as, and he exclaimed, "The Queen of Camels! Ha!" A piratical view of things, indeed.
Elizabeth spent the evening at a friend's house, disinclined to have a costume, but happy to have a good reason to further indulge her make-up obsession to create spiderweb eyes. She sent me this picture of her with friends:
Sunday, October 29, 2006
Rockville Volunteer Fire Department
Today was also a trip to the Rockville Volunteer Fire Department with Gregory's Tiger Cub den. Here's my artsy take on one of the trucks.
The boys got a chance to look over all the gear a fireman uses when going out on a call. It was kind of like watching a knight prepare his armor for battle. They were looking at the fire truck when there was an alarm, the boys were quickly moved out of the way, and the firemen and truck roared out to answer a house fire call.
A member of the second team gamely took over and showed the boys all the equipment on the medical rescue truck until a further call for assistance came and the second team roared out of there with the other trucks.
A guy from another station that was filling in for someone off on vacation was just suggesting we wait in the firefighters' common room when the alarms went off for the third time and he had to go, too. At this point, we figured the boys had seen enough and we should probably head out before they got drafted to go on yet another call, and headed home.
What part did Gregory like the best, as evidenced by being the first thing he told Olympia about when we got home? The foosball table.
The boys got a chance to look over all the gear a fireman uses when going out on a call. It was kind of like watching a knight prepare his armor for battle. They were looking at the fire truck when there was an alarm, the boys were quickly moved out of the way, and the firemen and truck roared out to answer a house fire call.
A member of the second team gamely took over and showed the boys all the equipment on the medical rescue truck until a further call for assistance came and the second team roared out of there with the other trucks.
A guy from another station that was filling in for someone off on vacation was just suggesting we wait in the firefighters' common room when the alarms went off for the third time and he had to go, too. At this point, we figured the boys had seen enough and we should probably head out before they got drafted to go on yet another call, and headed home.
What part did Gregory like the best, as evidenced by being the first thing he told Olympia about when we got home? The foosball table.
Call of Duty 2
This afternoon, I completed the last of the missions in Call of Duty 2 on the Xbox 360 and on the hardest level, Veteran. That makes me a true Call of Duty bad-ass. It's amazing what a little free time on your hands can help you achieve!
Next week: Call of Duty 3 hits stores and my copy is already reserved and paid for. Look out, Jerries!
Next week: Call of Duty 3 hits stores and my copy is already reserved and paid for. Look out, Jerries!
Fright Fest at Six Flags
Last night, I took "the little guys" to Fright Fest at Six Flags. I'm really feeling pretty good about getting season passes!
Despite it being chilly and windy, we got out there with (most of) another family, Kevin and his two kids, Preston and McKenna. It was dark, so I didn't really get much in the way of good pictures, but here's one of the four of them lounging around one of the Halloween displays.
We went into the haunted house as the first thing we did there, and it scared the bejeezus out of the three younger ones. Katerina was quite as scared, but it started to get to her by the end, too. Particularly scary for them was being chased out of the final room by a madwoman swinging an actual, running chainsaw (sans chain.)
There weren't many rides to go on, but there was some trick-or-treating, a really bad Monster Mash show, and the Prop Room was open. That's a big room with thousands of little Nerf-like balls and stuff like air-burst ball launchers. I was standing there watching the kids run around and throw balls around when I got hit in the back of the head with a ball. It didn't hurt, it was just startling, so I didn't really care. Then a moment later, I got hit in the back of the head again. It was too directed to not be intentional. I waited about ten seconds, then whipped around and caught some little kid trying to look innocent, about to throw another ball at me.
Trying to be a good sport, I spent the next ten minutes following him around and trying to pelt him with balls, too, apparently to his great amusement. I thought I had him cornered on a platform up a few ramps near the top of the big room, but he flung himself down a slide I hadn't even realized was up there. I tagged him a couple times, though mostly, he was pretty good at eluding me by going in areas not really conducive to adults. And then he left with his mother, who probably would have been none too pleased with him (or perhaps with me) and also probably has no idea that she's raised a hellion.
Leaving after 9pm, there was the usual whining about not wanting to leave, but the park was going to close anyway, so apparently the trip was a winner for the kids.
Despite it being chilly and windy, we got out there with (most of) another family, Kevin and his two kids, Preston and McKenna. It was dark, so I didn't really get much in the way of good pictures, but here's one of the four of them lounging around one of the Halloween displays.
We went into the haunted house as the first thing we did there, and it scared the bejeezus out of the three younger ones. Katerina was quite as scared, but it started to get to her by the end, too. Particularly scary for them was being chased out of the final room by a madwoman swinging an actual, running chainsaw (sans chain.)
There weren't many rides to go on, but there was some trick-or-treating, a really bad Monster Mash show, and the Prop Room was open. That's a big room with thousands of little Nerf-like balls and stuff like air-burst ball launchers. I was standing there watching the kids run around and throw balls around when I got hit in the back of the head with a ball. It didn't hurt, it was just startling, so I didn't really care. Then a moment later, I got hit in the back of the head again. It was too directed to not be intentional. I waited about ten seconds, then whipped around and caught some little kid trying to look innocent, about to throw another ball at me.
Trying to be a good sport, I spent the next ten minutes following him around and trying to pelt him with balls, too, apparently to his great amusement. I thought I had him cornered on a platform up a few ramps near the top of the big room, but he flung himself down a slide I hadn't even realized was up there. I tagged him a couple times, though mostly, he was pretty good at eluding me by going in areas not really conducive to adults. And then he left with his mother, who probably would have been none too pleased with him (or perhaps with me) and also probably has no idea that she's raised a hellion.
Leaving after 9pm, there was the usual whining about not wanting to leave, but the park was going to close anyway, so apparently the trip was a winner for the kids.
Friday, October 27, 2006
Google Docs & Spreadsheets
Google sure is doing some interesting things designed to directly compete with Microsoft. I'm writing this using their beta of Google Docs & Spreadsheets, which seems to have been largely acquired from Writely. The part about which I'm particularly curious is the blog publishing. Of course, if you're reading this on my blog, I guess it works.
(Update: I didn't get a title in my first attempt at publishing this direct from D&S to my blog. I have to see if there's a way to define the title without revising the post.)
(Update: I didn't get a title in my first attempt at publishing this direct from D&S to my blog. I have to see if there's a way to define the title without revising the post.)
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
Gregory Goes Camping
This past weekend, I took Gregory camping for the first time. We went with his Cub Scout pack to Greenbelt Park. My first job in Maryland was about a mile away and I had no idea that there was a park this size that supported overnight camping. That area is very urban otherwise. As the website says, it's only twelve miles from the White House.
Here's Gregory in his Cub Scout uniform in front of our tent:
Gregory Goes Camping
The big white and black plastic attachment on the right side of his uniform is his Tiger Cub "instant achievement" badge. He gets beads to attach to it as he completes different activities, fifteen of them in three categories, plus a large selection of electives. He's earned two of his fifteen. His left pocket is where his rank badges will go. He's actually earned the first one, his Bobcat badge, but he only received the badge two nights previous, so it didn't get sewed on his uniform until after this trip.
I was in Cub Scouts, then Boy Scouts for most of my childhood and I think it was the best part of growing up. I didn't quite make it to Eagle Scout, mostly because my troop sort of disbanded when the long-time Scoutmaster left, but didn't shut down entirely. I had plenty of time to complete Eagle, but needed a good troop and didn't switch to the other really strong troop in Fairbanks. So I left with the rank of Life and lots of great experiences.
Getting back into Scouting with Gregory has only just begun, but I'm finding myself deeply drawn to the involvement. I met a Scout leader named Joe this past weekend who reminded me very much of the late Mr. J, the Scoutmaster of Troop 92 when I was a boy. He has patience, respect for the boys, and takes the time to talk to them about the why of things, not just giving commands (except for "Step away from the fire!") He's invited me to join the Boy Scout troop on their camping and hiking trips as an adult chaperone. We were talking about hiking and I'd mentioned how I go alone on some hikes when I want to go on one too long or difficult for Olympia or the kids. I think I'll go.
Back to this camping trip with Gregory: He mixed with the other boys as much as he ever does, which is sometimes distressing less than I might hope, but he had a fantastic time. I'd forgotten to bring a flashlight, but I had a headlamp and a couple of those green glowsticks. I used the headlamp and gave Gregory a glowstick. He was fascinated by it and held onto it that night even when he was sleeping. It also had the advantage of being distinctive and visible from some distance, so I could spot where he was out in the dark pretty easily.
There was a capture-the-flag game that was almost pure chaos, egg races that were a little better, a short walk through the woods, hamburgers and hot dogs cooked on a huge grill that Joe brought, and a campfire with s'mores and skits by the various dens in the evening. It brought back very positive memories and helped build some new ones.
The next Cub Scout activity? This Sunday we take the Tiger Cub den to visit the Rockville Fire Station.
Here's Gregory in his Cub Scout uniform in front of our tent:
Gregory Goes Camping
The big white and black plastic attachment on the right side of his uniform is his Tiger Cub "instant achievement" badge. He gets beads to attach to it as he completes different activities, fifteen of them in three categories, plus a large selection of electives. He's earned two of his fifteen. His left pocket is where his rank badges will go. He's actually earned the first one, his Bobcat badge, but he only received the badge two nights previous, so it didn't get sewed on his uniform until after this trip.
I was in Cub Scouts, then Boy Scouts for most of my childhood and I think it was the best part of growing up. I didn't quite make it to Eagle Scout, mostly because my troop sort of disbanded when the long-time Scoutmaster left, but didn't shut down entirely. I had plenty of time to complete Eagle, but needed a good troop and didn't switch to the other really strong troop in Fairbanks. So I left with the rank of Life and lots of great experiences.
Getting back into Scouting with Gregory has only just begun, but I'm finding myself deeply drawn to the involvement. I met a Scout leader named Joe this past weekend who reminded me very much of the late Mr. J, the Scoutmaster of Troop 92 when I was a boy. He has patience, respect for the boys, and takes the time to talk to them about the why of things, not just giving commands (except for "Step away from the fire!") He's invited me to join the Boy Scout troop on their camping and hiking trips as an adult chaperone. We were talking about hiking and I'd mentioned how I go alone on some hikes when I want to go on one too long or difficult for Olympia or the kids. I think I'll go.
Back to this camping trip with Gregory: He mixed with the other boys as much as he ever does, which is sometimes distressing less than I might hope, but he had a fantastic time. I'd forgotten to bring a flashlight, but I had a headlamp and a couple of those green glowsticks. I used the headlamp and gave Gregory a glowstick. He was fascinated by it and held onto it that night even when he was sleeping. It also had the advantage of being distinctive and visible from some distance, so I could spot where he was out in the dark pretty easily.
There was a capture-the-flag game that was almost pure chaos, egg races that were a little better, a short walk through the woods, hamburgers and hot dogs cooked on a huge grill that Joe brought, and a campfire with s'mores and skits by the various dens in the evening. It brought back very positive memories and helped build some new ones.
The next Cub Scout activity? This Sunday we take the Tiger Cub den to visit the Rockville Fire Station.
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Trip to Seattle & Victoria
I mentioned in my last post that I had taken a trip to Seattle and Victoria. I've finally managed to get the pictures off my phone, find the best ones, and get them up here.
The main reason for the trip, my first significant batch of time off since January's well-documented cross-country drive, was to visit friends and family. I pretty much found myself hanging out with other folks every lunch-time and every evening except for the trip to Victoria. That was great, as I've not really had enough time to make many friends in Maryland, and those I have tend to have a different set of interests and backgrounds than those people I know from Microsoft.
I didn't take a lot of pictures of people, but here's one of Trevor (now a Google guy,) thinking hard during a game of Goa we played with Adam and Ally. It's good he did so, since he won.
Trevor Thinking Hard About Goa
The side trip to Victoria resulted in a lot more pictures. I took a seaplane out and back, operated by Kenmore Air. Taking off and landing on water was a new experience for me, although I'd been on small planes before. Both directions, the plane I was on seated about eight passengers, plus a co-pilot seat that was available for a passenger both times. Here's a photo of the plane:
The Seaplane to Victoria
I sat in the co-pilot's seat on the flight back, so I got a great picture of the approach to Lake Union, in Seattle. If you look very closely in the upper middle of the photograph, you can see the Space Needle.
Seaplane Approach to Lake Union
Victoria is a nice little town that is very friendly to the large number of tourists that visit. I'd gone there to go hiking in the area and generally relax, and only had two full days to spend, but I could see spending a week there some time. I pulled a U-turn at one point while driving in town and sort of cut off someone coming out of a side street. He pulled up along side me at the next light and I could see he was trying to get my attention. I thought I was about to get cursed out or something, but once I looked over at him, he said, "Your headlights are off! Have a nice evening!" New York, it ain't!
This guy playing violin on a street corner was very odd, but also not a typical Victoria resident.
Darth Vader Playing Violin in Victoria
I took two hikes while I was there. The first was to Thetis Lake, intended as a kind of warm-up, since I hadn't been hiking in awhile. I bought a book of hikes on Vancouver Island, so I had what I thought would be a pretty good map of the various trails around Thetis Lake, but it proved to be just awful. At one point, I was basically lost, or would have been if I hadn't known which direction was south and after heading that direction for a bit could hear the highway. There was another lake north of Thetis Lake that I'd wanted to find, but I never did.
Here are a couple of pictures of the lake:
Thetis Lake
Thetis Lake
The second hike I took was to the top of Mount Finlayson, generally touted as a fairly difficult one in the area. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I didn't really have any trouble climbing it. So far, no hike I've done has really compared to the one I took up Mt. Dickerson north of Seattle in 2004. It was steep, but not terribly long, so the steepness was very manageable. I snapped a photo of the marker at the top. I also got a pretty good picture of the distant Mt. Baker from the summit of Finlayson.
Mt. Finlayson Marker
Mt. Baker from Mt. Finlayson
Coming down the back of the mountain was much less steep, but the down side was you end up walking some two miles down a winding, narrow blacktop road, which is less than pleasant. I did pass a farm with llamas and a goat, though, so I got a great up-close picture of a friendly llama. He did have two ears, his right one just happened to be folded back.
Hello, Llama
So finally, I'll leave you with this self-portrait I took while on the seaplane. I believe it is fine expression of me having a good time.
A Self Portrait
The main reason for the trip, my first significant batch of time off since January's well-documented cross-country drive, was to visit friends and family. I pretty much found myself hanging out with other folks every lunch-time and every evening except for the trip to Victoria. That was great, as I've not really had enough time to make many friends in Maryland, and those I have tend to have a different set of interests and backgrounds than those people I know from Microsoft.
I didn't take a lot of pictures of people, but here's one of Trevor (now a Google guy,) thinking hard during a game of Goa we played with Adam and Ally. It's good he did so, since he won.
Trevor Thinking Hard About Goa
The side trip to Victoria resulted in a lot more pictures. I took a seaplane out and back, operated by Kenmore Air. Taking off and landing on water was a new experience for me, although I'd been on small planes before. Both directions, the plane I was on seated about eight passengers, plus a co-pilot seat that was available for a passenger both times. Here's a photo of the plane:
The Seaplane to Victoria
I sat in the co-pilot's seat on the flight back, so I got a great picture of the approach to Lake Union, in Seattle. If you look very closely in the upper middle of the photograph, you can see the Space Needle.
Seaplane Approach to Lake Union
Victoria is a nice little town that is very friendly to the large number of tourists that visit. I'd gone there to go hiking in the area and generally relax, and only had two full days to spend, but I could see spending a week there some time. I pulled a U-turn at one point while driving in town and sort of cut off someone coming out of a side street. He pulled up along side me at the next light and I could see he was trying to get my attention. I thought I was about to get cursed out or something, but once I looked over at him, he said, "Your headlights are off! Have a nice evening!" New York, it ain't!
This guy playing violin on a street corner was very odd, but also not a typical Victoria resident.
Darth Vader Playing Violin in Victoria
I took two hikes while I was there. The first was to Thetis Lake, intended as a kind of warm-up, since I hadn't been hiking in awhile. I bought a book of hikes on Vancouver Island, so I had what I thought would be a pretty good map of the various trails around Thetis Lake, but it proved to be just awful. At one point, I was basically lost, or would have been if I hadn't known which direction was south and after heading that direction for a bit could hear the highway. There was another lake north of Thetis Lake that I'd wanted to find, but I never did.
Here are a couple of pictures of the lake:
Thetis Lake
Thetis Lake
The second hike I took was to the top of Mount Finlayson, generally touted as a fairly difficult one in the area. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I didn't really have any trouble climbing it. So far, no hike I've done has really compared to the one I took up Mt. Dickerson north of Seattle in 2004. It was steep, but not terribly long, so the steepness was very manageable. I snapped a photo of the marker at the top. I also got a pretty good picture of the distant Mt. Baker from the summit of Finlayson.
Mt. Finlayson Marker
Mt. Baker from Mt. Finlayson
Coming down the back of the mountain was much less steep, but the down side was you end up walking some two miles down a winding, narrow blacktop road, which is less than pleasant. I did pass a farm with llamas and a goat, though, so I got a great up-close picture of a friendly llama. He did have two ears, his right one just happened to be folded back.
Hello, Llama
So finally, I'll leave you with this self-portrait I took while on the seaplane. I believe it is fine expression of me having a good time.
A Self Portrait
A Volatile Life
Last night, Adam and I were talking about some stuff that's going in my life, and he described my life as highly volatile. After my initial protest against such a term, another ten minutes or so of discussion had me admitting that, yes, he's right. While a little less volatility would be nice, I don't think I really want to change that.
By volatile, he meant that I tend towards activities that have greater risks, more change, but greater opportunity for reward, as well. It's kind of a, "Bet big, win big" point of view. I do try to mitigate risk and I've become much better at mitigating risk over time, but I'm also much less risk-averse than he is, or perhaps than most people are.
This discussion is a direct result of my recent and abrupt departure from Columbia Books. I can't really go into details here yet, as there are now lawyers involved, but that further illustrates the volatility point.
As an aside, I haven't posted much over the last several months because I've been very busy in my role of President and many of the things I was thinking about involved staff or other internal-only work that I could really discuss. In fact, I found that the work was about all I'd spent any significant time thinking about. Certainly the last ten days or so have had some elements of thinking about much wider subjects.
I'd taken a trip to Seattle with a side trip to Victoria, in Canada, just a couple of weeks ago. Partly because of the expense of travel for a lot of people and partly because I'm the only one that was interested in such a thing at the moment, I made this trip without Olympia and the kids. It seems I need to do that sometimes anyway because I need introspection time. It's very hard to introspect when you are in a house full of people.
As it stood, I didn't really get the usual amount of introspection time I might otherwise have had because I spent most of my time visiting with friends and family. That's also incredibly valuable, but different. What introspection I had time to do had revealed to me that I was actually working too hard and was ignoring too many other things I care about doing. I'd decided to change that when I came back, then a week later I wasn't working there anymore. Not quite what I had in mind, but I suppose it works.
What I'd had in mind was to do more hiking or other exercise, take up my guitar lessons again, get actively involved in Gregory's Cub Scouting, and spend some of the time I was spending in the evenings and on weekends working on Columbia Books stuff on some of the small projects that interest me, too, like developing a new edition of my WarEngine miniature gaming system. I'm starting to do those things, although there is a little short-term distraction as I figure out what form my future income will take. I've read a lot of articles by Steve Pavlina, and I think "a job" is out of the question. I may have to take employment with a company I don't own for shorter-term financial reasons, but if I do, there will have to be some form of profit-sharing involved, because a straight salary just doesn't cut it.
There's a lot to think about, but in a volatile life, there always is. I think that's one of the things I like about it.
By volatile, he meant that I tend towards activities that have greater risks, more change, but greater opportunity for reward, as well. It's kind of a, "Bet big, win big" point of view. I do try to mitigate risk and I've become much better at mitigating risk over time, but I'm also much less risk-averse than he is, or perhaps than most people are.
This discussion is a direct result of my recent and abrupt departure from Columbia Books. I can't really go into details here yet, as there are now lawyers involved, but that further illustrates the volatility point.
As an aside, I haven't posted much over the last several months because I've been very busy in my role of President and many of the things I was thinking about involved staff or other internal-only work that I could really discuss. In fact, I found that the work was about all I'd spent any significant time thinking about. Certainly the last ten days or so have had some elements of thinking about much wider subjects.
I'd taken a trip to Seattle with a side trip to Victoria, in Canada, just a couple of weeks ago. Partly because of the expense of travel for a lot of people and partly because I'm the only one that was interested in such a thing at the moment, I made this trip without Olympia and the kids. It seems I need to do that sometimes anyway because I need introspection time. It's very hard to introspect when you are in a house full of people.
As it stood, I didn't really get the usual amount of introspection time I might otherwise have had because I spent most of my time visiting with friends and family. That's also incredibly valuable, but different. What introspection I had time to do had revealed to me that I was actually working too hard and was ignoring too many other things I care about doing. I'd decided to change that when I came back, then a week later I wasn't working there anymore. Not quite what I had in mind, but I suppose it works.
What I'd had in mind was to do more hiking or other exercise, take up my guitar lessons again, get actively involved in Gregory's Cub Scouting, and spend some of the time I was spending in the evenings and on weekends working on Columbia Books stuff on some of the small projects that interest me, too, like developing a new edition of my WarEngine miniature gaming system. I'm starting to do those things, although there is a little short-term distraction as I figure out what form my future income will take. I've read a lot of articles by Steve Pavlina, and I think "a job" is out of the question. I may have to take employment with a company I don't own for shorter-term financial reasons, but if I do, there will have to be some form of profit-sharing involved, because a straight salary just doesn't cut it.
There's a lot to think about, but in a volatile life, there always is. I think that's one of the things I like about it.
Thursday, August 03, 2006
Lunch was Surreal
I went to a Johnny Rockets burger joint for lunch today, but it's kind of surreal at this location. Almost the entire staff are eastern European. They were talking to one another in Polish.
It felt like a Russian 1950s "learn to be American" spy camp.
It felt like a Russian 1950s "learn to be American" spy camp.
Monday, July 24, 2006
Billy Goat Trail Hike
It's been awhile since I went hiking, but I managed to pull one off this past Saturday. I went with Olympia, Gregory, Katerina, and Buck to the Billy Goat Trail, Section A in particular. The trail runs along the Great Falls section of the Potomac River and starts at a trailhead that's only a twenty minute drive from my house.
The Maryland bank has huge rock piles along the edge of Mather Gorge.
Mather Gorge
While the complete circuit is only about 3.8 miles, I ended up as exhausted as on the eight mile hikes I did last year. Some of that is probably from being a bit of a slacker when it comes to exercise lately, but the difficulty of clambering over boulders also had a lot to do with it. However, unlike Cunningham Falls, where I went with Gregory earlier in the year, this hike raised my liking for the Maryland outdoors.
Potomac River
Olympia (with some occasional help from me or Buck) spent a fair amount of the hike helping Gregory up or down the most rugged terrain, although the following picture certainly suggests it wasn't so hard she couldn't get a glamorous smile in at the same time.
Olympia, Helpin' and Grinnin'
It was also nice to have a chance to hang out with Buck outside of the office.
Buck on a Rock
About two thirds of the way through the hike, there's an "emergency exit" that takes hikers that are too tired back to the towpath that leads back to the trailhead along the canal. Olympia took the kids that way, while Buck and I pushed on to what ended up being the much rougher last third. I slipped at one point and came down really hard on my shin on a rock outcropping, turning a hunk of it into a nasty hamburger looking wound that required a stop to clean off some blood and use (for the first time since I bought it) the first aid kit I always carry on hikes. I don't have a picture of that, although Buck took one I probably won't share once I get a copy.
Oh, no activity involving photography and Katerina would be complete without her getting her chance to pose, so here's one of her:
Katerina and the Muddy Creek Bed
All in all, this was a good time, about four hours out in the hot, summer sun. It's a strenuous hike and probably was a bit much for Gregory, but I recommend this one to anyone that can go.
The Maryland bank has huge rock piles along the edge of Mather Gorge.
Mather Gorge
While the complete circuit is only about 3.8 miles, I ended up as exhausted as on the eight mile hikes I did last year. Some of that is probably from being a bit of a slacker when it comes to exercise lately, but the difficulty of clambering over boulders also had a lot to do with it. However, unlike Cunningham Falls, where I went with Gregory earlier in the year, this hike raised my liking for the Maryland outdoors.
Potomac River
Olympia (with some occasional help from me or Buck) spent a fair amount of the hike helping Gregory up or down the most rugged terrain, although the following picture certainly suggests it wasn't so hard she couldn't get a glamorous smile in at the same time.
Olympia, Helpin' and Grinnin'
It was also nice to have a chance to hang out with Buck outside of the office.
Buck on a Rock
About two thirds of the way through the hike, there's an "emergency exit" that takes hikers that are too tired back to the towpath that leads back to the trailhead along the canal. Olympia took the kids that way, while Buck and I pushed on to what ended up being the much rougher last third. I slipped at one point and came down really hard on my shin on a rock outcropping, turning a hunk of it into a nasty hamburger looking wound that required a stop to clean off some blood and use (for the first time since I bought it) the first aid kit I always carry on hikes. I don't have a picture of that, although Buck took one I probably won't share once I get a copy.
Oh, no activity involving photography and Katerina would be complete without her getting her chance to pose, so here's one of her:
Katerina and the Muddy Creek Bed
All in all, this was a good time, about four hours out in the hot, summer sun. It's a strenuous hike and probably was a bit much for Gregory, but I recommend this one to anyone that can go.
Wednesday, July 05, 2006
Agreeing to Stupid Things
Buck just left the office, headed to pick up a directory that's being returned to us by a customer that doesn't want it. They asked if someone could pick it up, probably just to save themselves the shipping cost to return it, and since it was over on Capitol Hill, near Buck's home, he agreed. Of course, just two minutes later, he realized that was not a very cost-effective way to handle the problem. Telling them to throw it away (or better, keep it with our compliments) would have been better. But Buck said that since he agreed to go pick it up he feels obligated to do so.
Sometimes we agree to do stupid things. Following through anyway is what shows character.
Sometimes we agree to do stupid things. Following through anyway is what shows character.
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