I just downloaded the Flock browser, based on the source for mozilla firefox. It has blogging built in, and rss aggregator, integration with del.icio.us, and a couple other cool features, but it is currently pre-beta. It seems pretty fast loading web pages, so we'll see how it goes.
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
Flock
Tuesday, October 25, 2005
Monday, October 24, 2005
Vacation
We got back from vacation last night. We all had a great time, although
the first couple of days weren't too fun for me. The first day I got a
migraine, the second morning around 5am I got a kidney stone. The
doctor there said it is described as "incapacitating" pain, I'd have to
agree with that. The doc is also a pilot, and he said they ground you
for about 6 months if you get them, because you'd be in trouble if you
had a recurrence in the air. Other than that we had a great time. The
water was cool, but not too cold to swim in, so we had a good time body
surfing the waves. We went to Jockey's Ridge, I got some pretty good
pictures there that I'll post later. We played a round of putt-putt,
and went to the pool at the rec center almost every night. The three
oldest girls got to go shopping with Deanna and Debra an afternoon each,
they all enjoyed that. All in all a good vacation, I'll post pictures
in the next couple of days.
Saturday, October 15, 2005
Soccer Saturday
Meagan did much, much better playing soccer today. She kept after the
ball, and was paying attention to the game the whole time she was in.
Unfortunately they were playing a team that had them by a good bit in
average age, so they lost despite playing a good game. Meagan took it
better this time, and enjoyed playing, so I think that's good progress
also. Brenna's team tied, but Brenna didn't get to play much, she's not
very fast and doesn't go after the ball. Sarah's team was playing the
second best team in their league, AND evidently completely forgot how to
play between our early practice on Monday and the game. They were
running around the ball instead of kicking it. Ah well, they did have
fun, that's what counts.
After the game we took Riley and Eryn to get their hair cut. The cut
off about 10 inches from each of them, it's around the bottom of their
ears now. It looks really cute on them, I'll post pictures after we get
back from vacation.
Friday, October 14, 2005
Vacation
Well, its off on vacation I go. Should be having 3 soccer games tomorrow, hopefully Meagan's team will win this one. After that the 3 older kids are going with my parents for the night, and the rest of us are going to finish getting ready and pack things up to leave in the morning. I am hoping to get in a night or two of camping while we are down there, as it's supposed to be sunny until next weekend.
Tuesday, October 11, 2005
Robotic Car
http://www.blog.speculist.com/archives/000478.html
Wouldn't we all like one of these? I think we are a number of steps closer due to the DARPA Grand Challenge. I've been following the Virgina Tech Smart Highway project since it got started, it being my alma mater, and me hating driving AND having to drive about 90 minutes a day. Hopefully that will soon be a thing of the past. I'd love to be able to get in my car and tell it where to go too, I can think of a lot of things I could get done with an extra 90 minutes a day. I could probably even get part of my work done, what with wi-fi being offered everywhere.
Wouldn't we all like one of these? I think we are a number of steps closer due to the DARPA Grand Challenge. I've been following the Virgina Tech Smart Highway project since it got started, it being my alma mater, and me hating driving AND having to drive about 90 minutes a day. Hopefully that will soon be a thing of the past. I'd love to be able to get in my car and tell it where to go too, I can think of a lot of things I could get done with an extra 90 minutes a day. I could probably even get part of my work done, what with wi-fi being offered everywhere.
More Rain
Meagan and Brenna's soccer practice got canceled for the night. Sarah's coach moved her practice to last night, so she at least got hers in. It's looking like rain here for the rest of the week, but Saturday looks like it's going to be sunny, so they will get their games in before we go on vacation. Sarah's team is starting to really understand the game, we've been working on getting them to pass the ball, not get in each others way, and to play defense.
We're going to Corolla on vacation starting Sunday. I need to get our tent dried out so we can get some camping in during the week. We have a house directly across the street from one of the recreational centers they have in the communities. The weather is looking good for the week down there, sunny through next Thursday.
Work is going pretty well. I'm doing some that is at least more interesting than converting procedures from MSSQL to Oracle. I am working on converting an application from VB6 to .Net that talks to a DTC (Depository Trust Company) mainframe. We have two options to talk to it now, using files (basically EDI), or message queuing. I am, of course, hoping for the latter option, but the odds are currently very much against it, as their data team does mostly file moves, and doesn't know much about message queuing. You'd think a large company like Wachovia would have people that know about pretty much everything, but I guess not. I'm trying to read up on security some more in my spare time, I'd really like to get a job in that area until I can move into the bioinformatics or biotechnology fields.
We're going to Corolla on vacation starting Sunday. I need to get our tent dried out so we can get some camping in during the week. We have a house directly across the street from one of the recreational centers they have in the communities. The weather is looking good for the week down there, sunny through next Thursday.
Work is going pretty well. I'm doing some that is at least more interesting than converting procedures from MSSQL to Oracle. I am working on converting an application from VB6 to .Net that talks to a DTC (Depository Trust Company) mainframe. We have two options to talk to it now, using files (basically EDI), or message queuing. I am, of course, hoping for the latter option, but the odds are currently very much against it, as their data team does mostly file moves, and doesn't know much about message queuing. You'd think a large company like Wachovia would have people that know about pretty much everything, but I guess not. I'm trying to read up on security some more in my spare time, I'd really like to get a job in that area until I can move into the bioinformatics or biotechnology fields.
Monday, October 10, 2005
Rain
Well, soccer got rained out on Saturday. On the good side we got to finalize the plans for the house, and it looks like we signed our contract at just the right time, as we avoided being screwed by the cost of materials increases due to everything going to Louisana. I also heard that FEMA has bought up all the used recreational vehicles. Don't even get me started on that. My parents were planning on doing a cross country tour next summer in a used RV, so I don't know if they're going to be able to go that way with it.
I saw a summary of the Kaine vs. Kilgore debate that was on TV, which finally allowed me to make up my mind who I'm voting for. After looking at their web sites and what they have done, it was very difficult to tell a difference between them, fortunately something came out in the debate, Kaine and Warner raised taxes in order to balance the budget, so I'm voting for Kilgore. I'm all for a balanced budget, but I don't think we need to be raising taxes to do it, there are plenty of programs and wasteful spending that can meet with the axe instead of raising taxes.
I saw a summary of the Kaine vs. Kilgore debate that was on TV, which finally allowed me to make up my mind who I'm voting for. After looking at their web sites and what they have done, it was very difficult to tell a difference between them, fortunately something came out in the debate, Kaine and Warner raised taxes in order to balance the budget, so I'm voting for Kilgore. I'm all for a balanced budget, but I don't think we need to be raising taxes to do it, there are plenty of programs and wasteful spending that can meet with the axe instead of raising taxes.
Thursday, October 06, 2005
Parents back from vacation
My parents and one of my cousins got back from vacation last Sunday night. They spent a week with my great-aunt in Michigan, in the "north woods." My great-aunt has a cabin on a lake, where they spent the week. There is no electricty and no phones, they cook with gas or on a grill. They had a good time, and really like the area. They went to Mackinaw island and a bunch of small towns in the area, got some really nice pictures. We are going to go visit them next summer, and maybe stay in the cabin in the woods as well.
Sunday, October 02, 2005
Saturday, October 01, 2005
Soccer Saturday
Kids and I went camping in the back yard last night. This was the second time, and I think we're ready to go to a campground next time. We got new sleeping bags for the kids, as they youth ones they had are only good down to 50. The tent was a bit smaller than I thought, and only 3 of the 4 air mattresses fit in the tent, but we did OK on just the 3. I cooked hot dogs and hamburgers on a little propane grill while the girls set up the tent. They did pretty good with it, only couldn't figure out how to get the pieces to hold the front and back flaps up, which even took me a few minutes to figure out how to do.
We had soccer games today, 2 at 9 and 1 at 11:30. Sarah's team won, but we only had 3 players, and the other coach was a really good sport and gave us 2 of his (he had 7) so we played 5 on 5. I think one of his players scored as much as the rest of ours, but half of them were for the wrong team. He would just kick it into any goal whenever the ball got close to one. It was a really fun game, all the kids had a good time, I don't think they cared if they won or lost, I don't even know if they knew when the game was over, which is how it should be at that age. Meagan's team is getting better, but they couldn't get the ball into they goal, they lost 2-0, but kept the ball on the other teams side of the field most of the game. I didn't catch most of the game, I help coach Sarah's team, so I only got the last 15 minutes of Meagan's. Deanna watched some though, and what I saw was the same, she is still not going after the ball, just walking around most of the time. Brenna's team played at 11:30, and they were up 2-0 after the first half, but ended up losing 3-2. Brenna is doing a better job keeping her mind on the game, but she still needs some work on running, that or working on where she needs to be, as I don't think she's ever going to be the fastest player. She does pretty well on defense, keeping between the ball and the goal most of the time, but once someone gets behind here, she can't catch them. The coach put her on offense, and she doesn't do so well with that, she's a bit timid when she's playing the game, but not when we practice at home, hopefully that will go away with experience. They all said they had fun, that's the most important thing, but I do hope Meagan's team wins one soon.
We had soccer games today, 2 at 9 and 1 at 11:30. Sarah's team won, but we only had 3 players, and the other coach was a really good sport and gave us 2 of his (he had 7) so we played 5 on 5. I think one of his players scored as much as the rest of ours, but half of them were for the wrong team. He would just kick it into any goal whenever the ball got close to one. It was a really fun game, all the kids had a good time, I don't think they cared if they won or lost, I don't even know if they knew when the game was over, which is how it should be at that age. Meagan's team is getting better, but they couldn't get the ball into they goal, they lost 2-0, but kept the ball on the other teams side of the field most of the game. I didn't catch most of the game, I help coach Sarah's team, so I only got the last 15 minutes of Meagan's. Deanna watched some though, and what I saw was the same, she is still not going after the ball, just walking around most of the time. Brenna's team played at 11:30, and they were up 2-0 after the first half, but ended up losing 3-2. Brenna is doing a better job keeping her mind on the game, but she still needs some work on running, that or working on where she needs to be, as I don't think she's ever going to be the fastest player. She does pretty well on defense, keeping between the ball and the goal most of the time, but once someone gets behind here, she can't catch them. The coach put her on offense, and she doesn't do so well with that, she's a bit timid when she's playing the game, but not when we practice at home, hopefully that will go away with experience. They all said they had fun, that's the most important thing, but I do hope Meagan's team wins one soon.
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