I've been working for quite some time now at Honda. I'm not in any way related to the new HondaJet project, but it's still pretty neat to watch Honda venture into this area. You can watch the HondaJet making it's first flight earlier this month. If it's like what happened in the automotive industry, maybe a company like Honda can force the prices of these aircraft down while improving on quality.


Honda's piston engine in development

What I'm mostly interested in is Honda's development of a piston engine for small aircraft. Right now, even brand new aircraft rely on engines that are heavily steeped in 1950's era technology, simply because it is too expensive for manufacturers to obtain FAA certification, so they continue to sell engines that are just plain old. Reliable, but old. For example, having fuel injection in your piston engine is very rare! To make matters worse, the cost of a small engine that you'd typically find in a Cessna is around $20,000! Again, I'm really hoping that Honda can bring market pressures to bear on engine manufacturers so that consumers can be the real winners.

Finals are over. Thank God. 4 exams in 4 days while working full-time is a good way to earn yourself an ulcer.

While surfing today, I found that the Anaheim Angels have placed some of their local television commercials on their website. They're very creative. If you've got some time (and you like baseball in general) take a look (Free Real Player required). My favorite is "Batting Cage."

I haven’t blogged much recently, due to being sick and upcoming final exams. However, much has been happening, and I’m trying to get back in the saddle.

I have to say that I really enjoyed the reality series Average Joe. The final two men that were selected was the classic pretty boy versus the nerd. The nerd, if you can call him that, is a self-made millionaire that balances his family and friends with work and is as genuine as a human can be. He seems to have his life so well-balanced that he’s actually inspiring to me to work harder on those areas.


Beauty and the Beast.

The pretty boy is pretty. He’s 27 years old, lives with his parents and is a student. Should be an easy choice, no?

Who did the pretty girl choose? Well, since this isn’t fiction, of course she chose the pretty boy. I’m actually glad she did this. It really does show just how superficial our society is. And with style, Adam gracefully accepted defeat and let the shallow woman down easy when he had his last chance to try and strike back.

Kudos to the nerds out there, and for all the pretty boys, open a book once in awhile or challenge yourself. Develop a personality. Oh, that’s right, this is reality, you can get by with just being pretty.

Today, the Cal/OSHA released their findings on the Big Thunder Mountain accident. After reading an initial report from the Orange County Register (free registration required), I had assumed that Disney's maintenance procedures were being blamed for this tragedy.

I just spent a few minutes reading the entirety of the report, which was posted and later removed from the Cal/OSHA website. Isn't that odd? I found a copy, and have placed it here for your purusal.

When learning to fly, managing risks is often a topic that receives considerable attention. Most aviation related accidents occur because of several events, chained together, ultimately ending in an accident. The goal of managing risks while flying is to break that chain somewhere along the line. This seems to be the case in this accident. The chain of events regarding Big Thunder Mountain were:

1. Two bolts were not properly tightened to tolerances.
2. Safety wire was not installed where these bolts resided, as required.
3. No procedure existed for ride operators to act upon the train exhibiting an unusual sound.

Had any one of these problems been corrected, then there would not have been an accident. There's also a great deal of rumbling in the report about how green and yellow tag procedures were not followed, which apparently didn't have a result on the accident.

After reading the report, what is very clear to me is that Disney is not at fault at all. Disney had proper procedures in place and the operators and maintenance people failed to follow those procedures. What's frightening is that Disney will escape this unscathed except for a large under the table payment to the deceased's family.

If you've been to Disneyland in the last 5 years, it's obvious that it is not maintained as it used to be. Here's hoping against hope that the new President of the Disneyland Resort, Matt Ouimet, will actually reverse his predecessors objective of maximizing revenue. He obviously has a very rough road ahead of him, and with someone like Eisner leading the company, I don't think he's going to be able to get things back to how they used to be run. My two cents.

My life is now complete! The return of Bloom County! Outstanding!

Let's face it. Putting the "Star Wars Kid" into Episode III wouldn't make the movie suck more than it's going to already.

April Winchell is one of a few people that can make me laugh until it hurts. I about fell over her commentary on Bill Gates' child's name. Search on "Adelle" and play the file.

My boss at work is a bit of a Blade Runner fan. Who can blame him? Here's a link he sent me about how the Millennium Falcon model was used as a building on the movie!

A belated Happy Birthday Marine Corps! OOOHRAH! I actually remembered the birthday, but forgot to blog it. D'oh.

A public service announcement: Being at a technical conference recently reminded me of a few conferences I attended while serving in the military. Without fail, my badge would always list my organization as "United States Marine Corp." This is really, really, really irritating. The USMC is not a for profit organization, and the least people can do is try to understand the difference between "Corp." and "Corps." Okay, I'm done bitching now.

Semper Fidelis and Happy Birthday Marines! Our prayers and best wishes are with those of you that are placed in harms way.

Unfortunately, this article sums up my Tivo relationship.

Although I’ve known about RSS feeds for quite some time now, I never really thought they were that useful. After attending the Microsoft PDC conference a couple of weeks ago, I’ve been busy trying to soak up as much information as possible on Microsoft technologies. It turns out that the best way to do this is through blogs that are maintained the key designers and developers at Microsoft.


BlogExpress

I’m currently using a RSS Reader named BlogExpress. It’s very easy to use, and while it’s missing some features that I’d like, it makes consolidating all of this information in one place a snap! It also makes reading Slashdot much easier.

This is a pretty funny video of a low flyby by a Spitfire. I've heard those engines roaring from a good 100 yards and they're damn load. That guy must have been as close to a heart attack as you can be!

An good piece of reporting from the L.A. Times? Wow!

Disneyland's Ride Upkeep Criticized by Park Workers

Park management's quote, "We have to ride these rides to failure to save money."

We had planned a larger mountain bike expedition with friends this weekend, but canceled it believe the rain would make conditions difficult. Well, the rain didn't show up, so Dave and I decided to take advantage at go riding. Dave made the drive down to my place, and then we headed over to Palos Verdes.


The view from the top.

For some reason, the thought didn't cross our minds that we could just go down half way and then return to the top. So, the two out of shape geeks rode all the way down to the main road and then started the arduous climb back up.


The view from the bottom.

All in all, it was a great ride, if not an exhausting one. Clearly, this trail needs you to be in serious shape to be able to get back up the hill without much trouble. Since Dave and I are realists, we'll just park one of our cars at the bottom next time. :)

This has got to be the best idea ever. Really. Okay, maybe not ever, but this Internet thing might just have its uses after all.

Whew. I’m exhausted.

You can tell you’re at a developer conference when it ends without a giant production. The last session ended and everyone went home. No song and dance, just good technical information presented at blinding speed. All in all, this is the best conference I have ever been to. Right now, Microsoft only holds these events when they have some major new technologies to show to developers to get us to start building our applications with an eye toward the future. They should really think about holding these things on a yearly basis.

Since my focus was on the conference last week, my educational performance suffered and I’m now trying to play catch up for the lost week, which has proven more difficult than I thought. My goal to keep my GPA high is in serious jeopardy after a lackluster performance on a math quiz last week and a psychology exam last night. I have ultimate respect for those that have completed their degrees while working full-time!

We have some very good news on the Disneyland Resort front this morning. You can read the whole update, but it essentially boils down to that new management has taken over the resort and in the short few weeks they’ve been in power, they’re already making changes that are focused on the customer, not on retail. Good stuff.

Back to the trenches…

Today was a very cool day. Besides expanding my wardrobe with three free T-Shirts, I had a great time playing with probably the coolest geek today on the market today. My colleague, Ivy, and I were able to ride the new Segways!


Ivy enjoys inner geekdom

While I haven't really figured out how I'd ever really use one of these on a day to day basis, it was great fun just being able to play with it for a few minutes. What's funny is that as soon as you step on to it, your natural reaction is to try and balance. Well, that actually makes it difficult to ride, when all you need to do is just stand there. Also, your natural reaction is to look down, which is also bad, as it's much easier to ride just looking out in front of you.


How not to ride a Segway: Don't look down!

It took both Ivy and I only a couple of minutes to get somewhat comfortable with the machine to be able to move it around the little roped off area they provided. It does have a very impressive turning radius, and is very responsive. If you ever have the opportunity, I highly recommend giving one of these a spin if only for the novelty!

Ah, Fall, the time of year when a young man’s thoughts turn to code. This week, I’m one of 7000 code monkeys enjoying Microsoft’s Professional Developers Conference (PDC) here in Los Angeles.


The brown tint from the photo is from the smoke in the air.

Microsoft only holds these conferences when it has a major release, so this is the first PDC in three years. The conference is centered around Windows “Longhorn” which is the next release of the Windows platform. All I can say is that Microsoft is certainly getting the job done with this new version that looks spectacular and more importantly, really unifies all the data on your computer and network into data that is so easy to find that it almost finds you! Of course, these were controlled demos.


How many people can we fit in one room? All of them.

The 3 ½ hour keynote presentation was long, but it was packed with great information. One highlight was a very well produced “Behind the Technology” video ala VH1. Microsoft really poked fun at themselves and Apple and Oracle in the video, and it included humorous interviews with Bill Clinton, Warren Buffet and P. Diddy.


The Uber-Geek, Mr. Bill.

Bill Gates spoke to the attendees for about 45 minutes and gave an overview of Microsoft’s direction of the various new initiatives within the company. Gates is a very good speaker, and I especially appreciate his no nonsense approach to delivering the details to the developers. Other conferences that I attend tend to get too wrapped up in their own hype, but this one so far has set a very cautious and realistic tone with an underlying current of excitement.

The biggest surprise was rifling through the myriad of junk given in my conference materials to find a full version of Microsoft Office Professional 2003. That’s right, a full version. Schwing! We also received the latest build of Windows Longhorn, which I may get around to running if I can find some time.

I’m looking forward to the next 3 days!

One month to the day. Yep, what a loser. Truth is that this last month has been wrought with personal discovery and exploration. Whatever the hell that means. Actually, the last 5 years of my life have largely been focused on a divorce that almost happened, reconciliation, two wonderful children, and finally the divorce that did happen. Recently, I realized that my life was on hold for those 5 years, and in fact, whatever motivation and potential I did possess had been completely sapped. So, the last month was time to reflect on the past and the future, and I had some great help from my close friends on the issue.

To this end, I have made one decision in my professional life. I concluded that sitting through a college level programming course would be the equivalent of slashing my wrists with razors over, and over, and over. In what should have been obvious, the reason I haven’t been moving toward my educational goals is simply because I found no enjoyment in them whatsoever. So, I changed the goals. I’m now focused on completing a Bachelors of Science degree in Physiological Science. I haven’t been this excited about my education in, well, I never have been this excited about my education. Of course, my sentiment will likely change after the first few chemistry, biology and physics courses. We’ll see.

Diet update: Surprise! I’m still on the Atkins diet, and we’re now in Week 7. Who would have thunk it?

Start weight: 236 lbs.
Current weight: 214 lbs.
Total loss: 22 lbs.

Diet update: This last week I saw a 3 pound loss. Overall, I’m very happy with the progress, and I’m keeping to the diet well. My energy level has dropped a bit from last week, but I still feel better than before the diet.

Unfortunately, I didn’t take my advice too well from last week. From the files of “always make sure how much damn carbohydrates are in whatever you are eating,” I really failed. I had thought I found the Holy Grail for this diet: Del Taco’s Macho Beef Burrito. I had been eating one of those every other day (sans tortilla) and they’re just perfect for this diet. Until I discovered last night that the spices put in the meat have carbohydrates! D’oh! That didn’t even occur to me.

Well, the good news is that I still lost weight for the week, even though I probably took in sizeable amounts of carbohydrates from those burritos. So, without those this week, I’m hoping to improve on my results for this week.

So to recap:

Start weight: 236 lbs.
Current weight: 224 lbs.
Total loss: 12 lbs.

Interesting read. The Bull About the Beef - Has the Atkins diet really transformed the American economy? By Charles Duhigg

Well, I managed to make it through a week on the Atkins diet, and I’m 9 lbs. lighter for the effort. I’m feeling very energized and have noticed that in the mid-afternoon, I have not been experiencing a lull in my energy level. I’ve also been staying up longer and have been sleeping approximately 7 hours per night, which seems about perfect right now. I had been sleeping at least 8 hours and sometimes 9 hours a night prior to the diet, and always feeling like I had never had enough rest.

So, here’s some things I have learned from the first week:

• I’ve shifted my mindset to the long term now. At first, this diet was just a “let’s see what happens” experiment. Well, I’ve seen and I like, so now I’m committed for as long as it takes to see my abdominal muscles.
• The Coca-Cola company, in their infinite wisdom, has packaged their caffeine free diet Coke very similarly to their caffeine free regular Coke. I drank 1/3 of a can of the regular before I realized my mistake (“Hey, how come this tastes so good? Aww, damn.”). Considering that my carbohydrate intake is limited to 20 grams per day, and that one can of the regular Coke contains 39 grams, you might conclude that I was very upset with myself for such a stupid mistake.
• Despite what you think about what is in a food, always, always, always read the label or ask. Last week I found out that McDonalds adds fillers to their chicken, which increases the carbohydrate count. I also found that Skippy peanut butter is loaded with sugar, after I enjoyed some celery and peanut butter sticks. D’oh!
• In-N-Out burger sells their Double-Double as “protein style,” which substitutes the bun for wrapping the patties in lettuce. Yummy!
• Despite what the book may have you thinking, calories still count. The good thing about eating a protein and fat rich diet is that you feel full very quickly when eating, which automatically helps you reduce your calorie intake. But this most certainly is not an “all you can eat” diet.
• While beer has a fair amount of carbohydrates, wine does not. Especially white wine. I was very happy to learn this, because I had initially assumed that all alcohol was completely out of the question. The truth of the matter is that most hard alcohols have no carbohydrates.

The first 2 days of the diet were fairly rough, as I quit carbohydrates and sugar cold turkey. Clearly, I had some addictions there, but I was able to sit in Baskin Robbins yesterday afternoon with my kids while they enjoyed their ice cream and I had very little desire to order anything for myself. That, my friends, is nothing short of amazing for me.

Look for another diet update next week.

Before anyone thinks that I’m a Disney critic and can’t say anything nice about the company, they should probably know that I’ve invested a considerable amount into the purchase of Disney’s timeshare program, the Disney Vacation Club.

I’m actually a huge fan of Disney and theme parks in general. This explains why I’m often critical of the company that seems to milk the parks for every dollar, just to stop the hemorrhaging of the company’s other divisions. It would just be nice if company management could actually turn profits in all of their divisions so that they didn’t have to rob Peter to pay Paul.

Anyway, I just wanted to chime in and say that I’m really very excited for my next trip to the “World” on January 18, 2004. A mere 131 days from now! I made the reservations for the trip in April and I’m looking forward to really taking in all the Beach Club has to offer.


Disney's Beach Club Villas, part of the Disney Vacation Club
I’ll be there for two weeks with my parents, sister and my girlfriend. Somewhere in that time, my buddy Dave will be showing up to enjoy the parks and then to geek out at Lotusphere.

I’m looking forward to returning year after year to DisneyWorld, and hopefully many of my friends will take me up on my offer to join me!

Sadly, it’s beginning to appear that the Big Thunder accident really may have been from all of the budgetary cutbacks at the Disneyland Resort. I was hoping against hope that this was just a freak accident, but it’s becoming more clear that Eisner may have blood on his hands.


My daughter and me on a recent Big Thunder ride
Here’s a quote from the MiceAge.com update from a former cast member that had worked the Big Thunder attraction for 7 years:

My initial chill has since been replaced with anger and disgust. I am absolutely sickened that Disneyland after so many safe years of operation, has now become a place where accidents of this magnitude are allowed to happen and even become commonplace. There is no doubt in my mind that this accident and others are the direct result of the cost cutting measures that were first implemented back during the time when I was a lead on the attraction. I just thank God that I didn't stick around to witness the end result.

Why do I have this feeling that the investigation is going to be glossed over and nothing is going to change?

I decided to no longer play Star Wars Galaxies about a month ago. The game is devoid of content, and while the graphics are stunning, there isn’t enough game play depth to warrant a serious commitment. I’m taking a wait and see attitude with this game, so I expect that I’ll give it another try early next year.

I do, however, like to read the Galaxies message boards on occasion, because it reminds me of many of the reasons that I left the game. A couple of days ago, the publisher of Galaxies, Sony Online Entertainment, decided to lock the public message boards and require that users be actual paying subscribers to Galaxies to read the boards.



I know I shouldn’t be shocked, but I can’t help but being confused. I had a programmer friend in the Marine Corps, “Weems,” who was not known for his people skills. He would often remark that he liked to build user interfaces that would hurt the user. He was kidding of course but that always gave me a good chuckle. You’d appreciate it more only after you’ve sat through numerous meetings with users who can barely operate a computer, yet expect the programmer to magically make up for their deficiencies by making requests that NASA couldn’t fulfill. I digress.

I think Weems works for Sony Online Entertainment. I’ve spoken to him, just the other day, and while he says he has his own business, I beginning to think he’s lying to me. Sony is just really mad at their customers; they want to hurt them and their families. I can’t see any other reason behind their actions, besides blind idiocy.

Clearly the move was to ensure that new customers would be completely clueless about the poor game design. If you want proof, go look at the home page for the game, and try to find a glowing review on the front page, that often appear after the press lauds a well deserving piece of software. Well, you’re not going to find any, because there aren’t any good reviews. What’s dismaying is the gaming press is notorious for being “bought off” with advertising dollars which Sony has certainly spent. Even the most liberal of gaming reviewers knew that a sub-average review was a stretch.

My subscription to the game is not yet over, so I can still access the message boards. And closing the message boards has definitely not stopped the players from screaming about all of the problems. What is most troubling for me though is that I’d like to come back to the game at some point, because I’m a Star Wars fan and an MMORPG fan. So, now I have to go out of my way to find out if the bugs and game design have been fixed because I won’t be able to access Sony’s message boards. It seems to me to be double-edged sword.

I should have known better. This is the same company behind the highly successful, and highly boring, EverQuest. They fooled me twice, shame on me.

Diet update: As of this morning, I’ve lost 7 lbs. I’m assuming that some of this, maybe the majority is water weight, but I’m very encouraged. My energy level is the highest it has been in years, although I’m sure it will become even higher as the weight disappears.

Today, I’m the heaviest I have ever been in my life: 236 pounds. It’s time for a change.

I’ve always struggled to manage my weight. Even while enlisted in the Marine Corps, I was never able to achieve the weight that would be considered fit. I have been running to improve this situation; however it’s becoming more and more obvious that I need a diet to go along with the exercise. Sigh.

I’ve chosen the Atkins diet because I did attempt this diet half-heartedly before and lost 5 pounds in the first week. I didn’t prepare myself properly by having foods nearby that are low in carbohydrates, so I quickly fell of the diet. Today, I’ve purchased so many special foods for this diet, that I only have myself to blame for failure. I have the credit card bill to prove it.

All of the stories that you heard about the diet are true. Pretty much eat tons of protein without regard to fat or calories, but limiting yourself to less than 20 g of carbohydrate per day. The thing you probably haven’t heard is that this part of the diet only lasts the first 14 days. After that, you’re steadily increasing your carbohydrate intake to find where you stop losing weight, and then lower your carbohydrate intake by just a few grams to continue gradual weight loss. So yes, I’m looking forward to eating carbohydrates again, just not as many as I have enjoyed in the past.

In addition, I’m publicly announcing my diet, so hopefully that will be a good incentive for me to stay on track. The theory here is to keep myself accountable. So, today, September 8, 2003, I weigh 236 pounds at 27% body fat. I’ll check back in next week to detail my progress.

I love to play computer games. My dad bought me my first computer 20 years ago, a Timex Sinclair 2000. I spent hours typing on the membrane keyboard from this book that had a few games written in basic. I was hooked on the games I was able to play.

The emergence of several MMORPG’s (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games) on the market in recent years has been my gaming focus. I love the idea of playing a game with thousands of others online, whether it’s in a cooperative effort or fighting against each other.

You may have heard of games like this, such as EverQuest, Dark Age of Camelot or the recent Star Wars Galaxies. While I have enjoyed playing each of these games to some degree, none of these games was really able to capture my attention for months on end like most players. Star Wars Galaxies is enduring growing pains that ensures that the game is more frustrating than fun at the moment, and I will probably play that game again at some point in the future.

However, I really wanted to play a MMORPG now, so that I can escape from my world for a couple of hours a day and enjoy a different world entirely. I stumbled upon a game entitled Asheron’s Call 2. I had played the first version of Asheron’s Call, also an MMORPG, and found it to be the most enjoyable online experience that I had so far in this genre. Unfortunately, the game was plagued by massive cheating and the developers of the game didn’t do much to stop it. That’s really a show stopper for me in this genre, as I believe the games need to be fair considering how much time they ask of you.

Asheron’s Call 2 was released last year and was met with a very frustrated player community who felt the design of the game was flawed and that the product was released too early. While the design of the game isn’t fundamentally flawed (it’s just not anything like Asheron’s Call 1), the game did have a large helping of software bugs.

Today, Asheron’s Call 2 has lost many aggravated players, however the game is now stable. In fact, during prime time, there are only 1500 or so people playing Asheron’s Call 2, where Star Wars Galaxies has just reported that their subscription base is 275,000.

I decided that now would be the perfect time to give it a spin, and in fact, they are offering a completely free trial right now that requires no purchase of any software or even a credit card number.

I’ll be reporting on my experiences with this game in the coming weeks ahead, but if last night was any indication, this game is going to hold my attention for at least a few months. The game was designed and succeeds by letting brand spanking new players actually get into the game almost immediately. After only 2 hours of play, I had a real sense of accomplishment and enjoyed my time in their world. I can’t say that of any other MMORPG.

Here’s some highlights:

The first dungeon I found, I immediately became lost because there are no stereotypical right angles in the dungeon. It had a very natural feeling, almost like adventuring in an ant farm, and it was disorienting.

The game has been designed to eliminate down time and almost has a FPS (first person shooter) feel to it, although that may be an overstatement. It definitely doesn’t move as slow as traditional MMORPG’s.

The graphics are stunning and beautiful. In fact, they give you the option when installing to place very high resolution information on your computer. What a great idea! If you have a high speed computer, you can really press it’s capabilities and really enjoy your surroundings. If you don’t have a fast computer, you can install the normal detail graphics and ensure that you’re machine will keep up with everyone else. Neat! I was in awe of this little magical dagger I found that had a red glow infused within it. When I equipped the dagger, the red glow was actually a real 3 dimensional light source that acted just like any other light source in the environment. Swinging away at monster, you could see the shadows cast on the cave walls as the red glow swiped by the monster.

If you’re looking for something to play, for free in fact, you should definitely check out Asheron’s Call 2. Worst case, you’ll enjoy yourself for a few hours on someone else’s dime.

In studying to obtain the MCSD certification, I'm currently focused on Microsoft SQL Server 2000. Having obtained two difficult certifications in the past, I have found the certification process to be more of a chore than a valuable learning experience. Luckily enough, this time around, I’ve found myself enjoying the process, mainly because of a book entitled Inside Microsoft SQL Server 2000.

I don’t know why, but I really enjoy books that fill you in on the things that shouldn’t matter, but they do. Most technical manuals give you the nuts and bolts, and are often incorrect and poorly written. Not only has this book nailed many technical subjects, it has provided insights into the decisions that Microsoft made when developing the product, and most importantly, how to take advantage of those improvements instead of ignoring them as most people do.

I agree with their point that SQL Server 2000 may be too easy to use, as is exampled in the common occurrence of poorly designed, insecure, inefficient and just plain bad databases. Those that know me know that I’ve been involved with Lotus Notes development for over 10 years. I have often remarked that Lotus Notes suffers this same fate; just because it’s easy to do a couple of things does not mean that you have any idea of what best practices to use in a large and complex database.

As icing on the cake, the book describes the history of SQL Server. I found it very interesting reading of how the timelines and market pressures that Microsoft, Sybase and IBM (OS/2) were exposed to resulted in the current products of today. I wouldn’t recommend the book to everyone, but those that are making a serious study of SQL Server should have it in their library.

I love when technology and the law collide. It always makes for interesting reading. In this round of fun, DirecTV has decided to file a ridiculous amount of lawsuits against citizens that may have illegal used their service. That's the truly interesting part. DirecTV doesn't really have any evidence, they have just acquired sales records for companies that sell smart card readers and such devices that may be used to intercept a DirecTV signal.

What's interesting is that DirecTV is probably suing the right people; people that stole their service. The downside of that, and the completely unacceptable part of that, is that people that had actual legitimate uses for the technology that they purchased are being sued and forced to defend themselves. That is just unacceptable and completely irresponsible. I hope the courts find a way to punish DirecTV.

Fascinating and sad.

I love retro technology things like this. This is stuff that could have been created on computers years ago because they had enough processing power to handle it. Just very cool.

Dave sent a link to me that is just classic. Japanese table tennis anyone?

Star Wars Galaxies is giving me carpel tunnel. I'm going to sue. :)

He's baaack. Yeah, well, yeah. Been a rough couple of months and just decided that updating this page wasn't worth it. Well, I may not do daily updates, but I plan on getting around to this a few times a week.

I'm currently addicted to Star Wars Galaxies. While the game has just launched, and it's a bit devoid of content, I am enjoying myself so far. I'm playing the role of an armorsmith and am enjoying the change in gameplay that this provides. Granted, it's not terribly exiciting, but I'm not bashing monster x over and over again either. Plus, I'm based in Mos Eisley, and that is just wicked cool.

My new toy is being built, and I can't wait to get a hold of it for all my gaming needs. :)

"It's totally stupid and gay!"

It amazes me how much aftermarket stuff there is Harleys but the thing that has got me the most involved is this thing called Tattooing and Body Modification http://www.bmezine.com The web is evil!


But this set of links take the cake for http://www.demonikaclothing.com/links.html

Wow. The NIMBY folks in California would go nuts over this thing.

If this doesn't make you all hot and bothered, then you're beyond my help. 3 comments: The cities look amazing, the bows look very sweet, and dwarven rifles make me happy.

This + this + this = pure Jumpman & M.U.L.E. joy. These two games single handedly kept me in my room for more hours than I could possibly care to admit to while growing up. And now they're all mine again! :)

This is fascinating. I woulda just figured they were all idiots.

Took my kids Geocaching over the weekend. What a fun excuse to get outdoors and see things that you overlook on a day to day basis. I picked up a GPS unit for $109 from outpost.com. Well worth the money for this kind of fun and exercise! :)

Anyone want to take a guess as to how many movie studios are stepping over themselves to get the rights to this story?

I so need $2,000,000 right now.

This is sad. Very, very sad. It's bad enough that private pilots have to weather the insane amount of regulations that the FAA requires, but when cities like Chicago tear up a landmark airport, it makes me feel like flying in America is simply not worth the hassle. If it looks familiar, Meigs airport is the airport that everyone that has played Microsoft Flight Simulator starts out from.

What a great way to celebrate 100 years of flight. I'm sure Oliver & Wilbur would have been proud.

Fascinating.

A few news updates:

Stupid Bald Man Sticks Foot in Mouth up to left testicle:Peter Arnett appeared on Iraq's State-run news to accept the "Jane Fonda Comfort to the Enemy" award. In an unprecedented move, he was also awarded as part of the same ceremony the "Should've thought before I said anything and here comes my Pink Slip" award that was awarded to Michael Moore just last week. Said Moore when he heard the news, "I was under the impression that I was passing the torch to Peter, but apparently it's more of a club that you can't get out of, ever. Hanoi Jane is going to explain the rules of being a social pariah in our own country to us at next week's meeting. OJ is going to speak, as well.... I'm so excited."

Iraqi Soldiers get nasty surprise during ambush: I can't find the link, but the story struck me as terribly funny in that morbid "Wow, sucks to be you" kinda way. During the suicide pickup truck attacks (apparently Saddam has been learning to play AOE2 online from Todd: "Build big army, toss into meat grinder, lather, rinse, repeat.") Where was I? Oh yeah, during these attacks, the Allied tank troops found that if they were looking down a city street lined with hiding places for enemy soldiers, they could fire 120mm shells down the road. The passing of the shell creates a vacuum capable of pulling the hiding Iraqis out into the street where they are easy prey. "I have you in my sights as you near my hiding place, Yankee infidel.... What was that noise? ..... Hey!?! Oh S**T!!!"

Quote of the Week: "French's Mustard recently had to put out a press release explaining that they are not French nor associated with the French because people in America are boycotting them in retaliation for France's opposition to the Iraq war. Apparently some Americans are confused by the product name. Please people, I know we're upset with the French, but can we keep our how stupid we are a secret?" -Jimmy Kimmel-

Since we're being accosted by the pitiful excuses for music that come out of the overly-patriotic country music genre (except the fat little c*** from the Dixie Chunks) like that "Iraq and I Roll" song, or the friggin LEE GREENWOOD sonic abortion known as "Proud to be an American" (I almost went into a coma while they sang that f'ing song on American Idol... they used to torture us half to death by making us sing this song during boot camp, and I don't think I'll ever recover...) These songs suddenly coming out of the woodword during times of war is almost enough to turn me into a war protester... almost. ;-0

But I've lost focus. This was supposed to be about the good music I've heard recently...

Norah Jones - Come Away With Me. Just like Santana's "Supernatural" the grammy's got this one right. This is an amazing, perfect album. Great easy-listening from an incredibly talented musician.

Tori Amos - Scarlet's Walk. Ever since "Little Earthquakes" I've bought every Tori album and hoped that it will be anywhere near as good as "LE" and been disappointed every time. Scarlet's Walk, while lacking the great memorable moments of Little Earthquakes, does contain almost all of the elements that made that album great. If you liked Little Earthquakes, you will like this album.

Linkin Park - Meteora. It's about HUGE FRIGGIN GUITAR RIFFS and Chester the "Little man with the Big Scream." Hybrid Theory was a pretty much flawless album, with the one problem of it being a bit over-produced, and way too short. Linkin Park seems to be a bit lacking on new ideas on this album, but the old ideas still work as well as they did the first time. This album lacks a "One Step Closer" song to stand out and really give the album something distinctive. For the most part, Linkin Park is a pleasant way to shake the pictures off the walls and annoy the neighbors, but they rarely achieve the bite of "Closer" in any other song. This is a small criticism, because the music is near perfect, even without that one little element that would push it over the edge into classic album status. It's still too short, too. 36 minutes? It's a CD guys, write some crappy music to fill in some space or something...

That's it, gotta wait for Limp Bizkit and Godsmack for something else new, high hopes waiting to be dashed on the rocks of reality, with those two....

Why haven't you sent a letter yet? There's no excuse, do it now!

What's really sad about this is the fact that our grandfathers would have probably gone down and kicked every town politicians ass if they enacted something ludicrious like this during World War II. Is anyone else as bothered as I am about how politically correct this war is? I don't care if they put a communication site in an archeological ruin; bomb the damn thing! I can't believe how a nation with our might acts like such a cry baby during times of stress. Get a backbone people! War is not pretty.

This really pisses me off. They should have just shot this reporter for giving away positions of our troops. I don't care how you feel about the war; giving away troop positions is right up there with treason in my book.

Truly interesting. It's hard to imagine life without the Internet.

Well its an end of an age. I have decided to sell one of my EQ accounts. Yes Im keeping one; The cleric. But Im selling the Ranger. I have found that my time is too taken up with Fitness and Real Life to keep up on 2 accounts much less pay for both. Now I relize that Im not completly over my addiction but Im better then I was. So What is your current game of choice?

Ah, sweet LAN parties...The stimulating scent of caffeine, the verbal jousting, the smell of pepperoni lingering in the air, the floor a tangled infestation of cat 5, the neon lights of case mods poking through the scene like lasers in fog. Nothing quite like it. And when the gaming starts, everybody becomes so intense. One frag leads to the next, emotions wax and wane as gibs amass and levels change, here an unnamed player, there an elite commando with uncanny aim. Over time, the LAN party itself, a single organism, breathing, hunting....

Someday we may actually do this again!

Okay, you have every right to speak your peace about the war. But can we be just a little bit more careful when we're dangling from a bridge that is several hundred feet above the ocean?

Onto better news. My pop was written up by his local newspaper for being a geek! Rock on Dad!

And I'll leave you with this quote: "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." --The Friends of Voltaire, 1906. Cheers to all of those that have defended our freedoms in the past, and to the hard chargers staring down chemical weapons now. Our hearts, thoughts and prayers are will them all. God speed.

I swear when I first opened this story, I fully expected the city to be Berkeley. La Habra? Really? While the cops sat their and watched. Whee.

I for one geneally trust the U.S. government when it comes to criminals and terrorists. I don't really care much about keeping my privacy, since I'm so mind blowingly boring that anyone who tries to investigate my life will lose interest in about 3 minutes. Anyway, this Echelon technology is very cool. It can triangulate a cell phone by using satellites. Rock on.

So what's the difference between the guy who plays the president on TV and the guy who really is the president?

Sure, they've both got teams of writers telling them what to say, and a little troop of image people making sure they don't appear on TV with a piece of toilet paper stuck to the bottom of their shoe. Some smartasses who refuse to acknowledge the electoral college will even claim that neither of them was elected. But there is a big difference--Accountability.

The real president is held responsible if something goes wrong. If everything he does turns out to be completely wrong, and he gets our army smacked around... AND we get 100 new terror attacks because of it... AND we get thrown out of the UN (oh the horror!!!)... if all that happens, George Bush will be held accountable. If Martin Sheen is wrong, he gets to go back to Malibu and enjoy his mansion and say "oh, well, guess I was wrong." He's not held liable for anything he was wrong about. If we don't go to war, and it turns out Iraq is affiliated with Al-Qaeda (is there a middle eastern country that isn't?) and another 3,000 people die in a terrorist attack, he gets to say "Wow, didn't see that coming. Everything always goes my way on the TV show. I didn't expect that I might be wrong."

There are valid points about whether or not we should go to war--and none of those points are coming from the bunch of ex-hippies paraded in front of us on the evening news who are hoping for a return to the glory days of the 60's and 70's when people gave a rats ass what they had to say, but I digress. I think we need to make sure it's done for the right reasons, but in the end, the real president needs to make the call... and the guy who pretends to be the president on TV needs to shut the hell up.

I went skiing yesterday at snow summit and it was warmer than Rich's place. Suicide is the only answer Rich. BTW the conditions are great and there are no lines.

Submarines? Back at Disneyland? I hope so!

Apparently I'm dangerous. I clicked Publish, and now my post has gone off to never-neverland.

Whatever. Here's the interesting link I included
Don't worry if you have not the least clue what that is. No sane person would.

So, this site is no longer just for my ramblings, but it has been opened up to a group of friends that I've had for more than half of my life. These folks are an eclectic bunch and we're always learning and sharing with each other via e-mail. If there's something that any one of these folks feels is appropriate for public consumption, then you'll see it here. Our buddy Rich moved last year to Ohio (he said he had a reason, and it sounded plausable, but I'm still not buying it). I'd be on the first plane out of anywhere that had a thermometer reading like that.

Of course, you shouldn't be reading this, you should be doing important things!

Yea Rob!

The only thing exciting that happens in my life is watching the thermometer (yes, this pic was taken last night. While taking it I broke the screen part of the sliding glass door because it was frozen shut):

If you hadn't noticed, and judging by the amount of traffic that this site gets, you most definitely did not notice that I had dropped out of sight for a few days. If you know me, then you know that when I have a test or some other event requiring a lot of focus and attention, that I pretty much become a giant stress ball. Anyway, I'm happy to report that on Saturday, March 1st, all of that stress paid off in the form of a Private Pilot certificate! Whoo damn hoo! Who wants to be my first victim, er, I mean passenger?!?

Not much to say in the past few days, simply because I'm taking my Private Pilot checkride on this upcoming Saturday. The sheer volume of information that you are required to master is pretty much insane. So any spare moment is spent reading, and any other spare moment is spent flying.

Well, Joe Millionaire certainly lived up to my expectations, although a "twist that you'll never see coming" was pretty much what everyone expected. I had expected from the beginning for this show to be incredibly cheesy and full of drama, surprisingly, I found the ending to be, well, quite uplifting. When you're consumed in a world of bad news and hate, it was nice to see the human condition actually shine through in the most unexpected of places, a Fox television show.

Here's a fascinating article that is a bit long, but definitely worth your time if you were ever a "nerd" in secondary school. When thinking about my childhood, I'm often happy with most of it, but there were some points that were just terrifying. For example, I was walking home from school one day (5th grade) on a dirt road when someone on an off-road motorcycle rode up to me and slid his bike just inches from my feet. I tried to run, but he was on my heels the whole way, sliding and kicking dirt on me with his rear tire. I can still remember that day vividly and I'll never forget it. I have a good idea who it was, but I'll probably never know for certain. Anyway, good reading and food for thought to process for the next few days.

Okay, um, how in the hell does this thing work?!? Update: I figured it out, but it's pretty damn cool anyway!

Yeah, I'm a tool. Despite Fox's last episode of Joe Millionare, I'll be glued to the tube tonight to finally see what the hell is going to happen.

Oh, and Friday's Jimmy Kimmel Live featured "Big Tad" of KROQ morning show fame. It's pretty clear he's grasping at straws at this point. Oh well. Some friends and I are going to try and get to the show in early March, if it's still on.

It’s no secret that I drank the Kool-Aid labeled “Disney Parks.” I love Disney theme parks, despite Eisner’s reign of incompetence when it comes to bleeding the park coffers dry to save other divisions of the ABC empire.

Anyway, one of the websites that I frequent for Disney gossip is reporting that they’re kicking around the idea of changing the theme from California Adventure to Disney’s America. They went through this exercise before, but this time without Vice President of Parks, Paul Pressler. Hopefully, since Mr. Pressler has moved on to The GAP, we can get back to making wise decisions about the parks with longevity in mind.

In other news, I’ve watched 4 episodes of Jimmy Kimmel Live, and I’ve come to the conclusion that the show is essentially the television version of KROQ’s morning show, Kevin and Bean. It’s pretty clear that what works for radio doesn’t work so well for television. For example, one of Jimmy’s guests was the Armenian Comedian who has been a staple of the KROQ morning show. While the Armenian Comedian is completely inept at comedy, he manages to be completely entertaining on the radio, while being completely awkward on television.

I love Jimmy Kimmel, and have enjoyed him as the sports guy on KROQ and his work on The Man Show, but I have a feeling that this latest outing will be canceled within a few months. I hope I’m wrong.

Actually, the correct response to this is to force the teacher to write on the chalkboard 1,000 times: "I will not be a complete idiot and leave my computer console unlocked and unattended." Not condoling what the youngster did, in fact, I probably did worse growing up with computers, but a felony? Are you kidding?!?

Everyone read the headlines a couple of weeks ago regarding two small aircraft that collided in the air and crashed into a residential area of Denver, Colorado. The circumstances of the crash are sobering since both pilots were receiving VFR advisories from air traffic control, which is an extra measure of safety not required by either pilot, and yet they still managed to find each other in that “big” sky. Of note, my own flying will change in that I will not be lured into complacency when receiving VFR advisories from ATC.

The media went wild with the story, and even the Mayor of Denver called for an immediate investigation to “the number of low flying aircraft over Denver.” Of course, the media failed to report that the last mid-air collision in Colorado was over 29 years ago. In fact, in 49 million general aviation flights in 2002, there were only 7 mid-air collisions, and only four of those produced fatalities (AOPA Safety Foundation). Certainly there is room for improvement, but methinks this is hardly a crisis, Mr. Mayor.

Why a blog? Because I maintain the fantasy that someone somewhere might find a morsel of my writing relevant. Other than that, it’s a good way to document life experiences that maybe others can learn from and I can reflect upon. And most importantly, I can bombard readers with irrelevant information that I’ve come across on the Internet.

In this spirit, I offer one of the best comedy bits I’ve ever seen on late night television. If you’re a Star Wars geek, it’s even better. Click the video with the title “Triumph Visits the ‘Star Wars’ Nerds Part One"

(Thanks Dave G.)