I got an RMA for my Time Crisis 3 game, so I'll be sending that back to Namco to get a replacement disc. In the meantime, I'm keeping myself busy with SSX3.

Last night I busied myself with figuring out the whole bartending thing. I've found that my favorite drinks to make are the layered ones, mostly because the whole thing fascinates me. here are a couple that turned out reasonably well - on the left, a B52; on the right, a Peach Haze.



I've also been working on staining a wooden shelf that I bought at the craft store the other day. I thought that buying a raw shelf and then staining it myself would be a money-saver, but if time is money, then I've wasted about $2000 on this thing already. Woodworking projects, including staining and painting, are generally bad ideas if you live in an apartment without a garage. I need to remember that.

Finally, we've had a leak over our stove now for a while. The first time we found it, it had rained the night before and had leaked down through the fan vent over the stove and onto the stove top. It was sort of discolored and gross, but what can you expect? Plus there was a lot, and we soaked it up with a towel. After a couple of times, we figured it was actually a leak and not some one-time thing, so we filled out a repair request form at the apartment office. The guy came to fix it and we didn't see it for about a week.

I went out this morning and found there was more there, but this time I looked a little closer...

We have squirrels living in the crawl space, and they're peeing down my Goddamn vent. I can't say I'm surprised; it's happened before. I was hoping I'd seen the last of these little assholes, but apparently not. I've since filled out another maintenance request, so here's hoping I can put an end to the small animal urination in the area that I prepare my food. If it's not one thing, it's something else.

I woke up this morning distinctly glad that I still don't have to go back to work quite yet. I've finally reached a decent state of decompression, and while I admit I have actually reached a state of boredom a couple of times so far, it's been a welcome relief from the hustle and bustle that I usually endure. Having nothing to do (that is, nothing that has to be done) is a nice thing.

Jenn and I continued our recovery from the Christmas holiday by venturing out to what is commonly referred to as the "After Christmas Sales." I'm not a big shopaholic, but I did find some bargains I couldn't pass up. At Target, I picked up a couple of Harry Potter Lego sets on the cheap, and at Radio Shack I got my remote controlled Acura RSX. I've never had an R/C car before, so it's pretty fun. Now if it would only stop snowing and/or raining so I could take it outside. I'm sure the cats are pretty tired of it by now.

I got my PS2 back. Actually, it's a refurbished unit, so it's not actually "my PS2" as in "the original PS2 I had," it's a semi-new unit, factory inspected, with a warranty and all. And you know what? Time Crisis 3 still doesn't fucking work. So now I'm convinced that it is, in fact, the disc at fault, and not the console. However, I'm still glad I went through the process because DVD movies finally play correctly and all of the games I have (other than TC3) work perfectly. So I'm still ahead of the game. I have since contacted Namco support to see about getting a replacement disc.

I continue to rip my CDs into 265kbps AAC format so I can listen to them on my iPod. I'm just starting on the letter 'S' (my CDs are alphabetical by artist) and I've got 5,988 tracks totalling 45.3GB, or about 17.4 days' worth of music. Not too bad; I thought it'd be much more space taken up than that. (Technically, some of my CDs are comedy, like Denis Leary stuff, so it's not all "music," but it's still 17.4 days' worth of audio.)

New Year's plans include going to the Winter Hawks game and then going home. I bought a book - Cocktails For Wimps - and I think I'm going to try out some of the fancier ones with layers and stuff. I got a nice bar spoon and shaker from Kitchen Kaboodle yesterday, so I'm all ready.

Christmas 2003 has come and gone, and with it has arrived a bountiful helping of goodies and fun. Not to mention some cool toys that I've been wanting.

Here's a picture of the majority of Jenn and my Christmas Haul. Not everything is pictured; some things have already found homes, are in use, or have been taken by Jenn to work today. Click the picture to get a larger version.



The first thing that long-time readers will notice is that the picture quality is much improved. That is thanks to my parents' gift of a 2.0 megapixel digital camera and 128MB smart media card. I can now take up to nine minutes' worth of 320x240 video, or like 275 pictures at 1600x1200. It's got a flash, it's got a nice little preview LCD display... perfect. Plus, plenty of space for pictures! I've been hoping for something like that. Now I'm in business.

Other highlights...

• Bond Girls Are Forever
• Harry Potter Legos - The Chamber Of Secrets
• Several gift certificates to places like Michael's, Target, See's Candy, and Krispy Kreme donuts
• A generous donation to the Travis Fund by my grandparents
• Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas and A Muppet Family Christmas on DVD
• A nice pair of black leather gloves (now I can garotte people and leave no fingerprints!)
• A clock for our dining room wall (goes perfect with the rest of the decor)
• Eragon, which is supposed to be really good
• A Strong Bad t-shirt (how can you NOT have one?)

That's not all, but that's the majority of it. If you're reading this and I didn't mention your present, nothing personal.

Jenn got two George Foreman grills - one smaller one, and one larger one. I think she's going to take the smaller one back and get something else. We hardly have counter space for one grill, let alone two.

I always have trouble deciding what to get Jenn, mainly because she wants "nice things" but she also wants lots of things to open. So what do you do? Buy fewer, more expensive things or several less expensive items? The last couple of years I erred on the "several less expensive items" side, but this year I got her a nice Mickey Mouse watch that she wanted; a Citizen Eco-Drive watch that's solar powered so she'll never have to get a new battery. I think she liked it, but you could see her disappointment with not having a lot of stuff to open. Next year I'll probably go back to several less expensive items.

So here's how the holiday went:

Christmas Eve we went over to Jenn's... uh... cousin's? uncle's? I dunno, some relation's... house and had some food. I wasn't too hungry, particularly considering it was a ham dinner and I don't like ham. But it was nice to meet some of her relatives that I haven't met before (there seem to always be more).

After that, we went over to my parents' house and watched Pirates Of The Caribbean and hung out. We got home, exhausted, about midnight.

The next morning we were promised breakfast at her parents' house, so we busted over there by about 9:30a and found that there was no breakfast. Bah. We opened gifts (which, as ever, consisted mainly of watching Jenn's niece open thousands of gifts - every child should be as spoiled as she is; I know I never was) and hung out for a while.

At around 11:00a or so, we went to Jenn's grandma's house to visit. We hadn't seen her grandma for a while, so it was good to see her again. Not much was going on there (surprise) but that was just fine by me. Usually it's utter chaos.

We got to my parents' house around 11:45a or so and stuffed some food in our faces (leftover pizza from the night before) because we hadn't eaten. After that, we opened gifts until about 1:00p when my grandparents showed up. We ate, talked, and did a small amount of further gift opening. About 4:00p or so people started leaving, so Jenn and I packed up and headed out.

At 6:00p we headed back to my parents' house so we could meet up and head to the theater to see Paycheck. I liked it quite a bit - I had hoped it would be good and was excited by the previews, and I wasn't disappointed.

After the movie we went straight home and, well, now it's today. Tomorrow Jenn and I will go shopping to return the things we don't need and buy ourselves the prizes we didn't get.

I think the only thing I'm really disappointed about is that, as time goes on and I get older, Christmas loses more and more of its magic. I do my best to keep it in perspective and try to maintain the wonder, but the hustle and bustle and commercialization of the season usually overtake me and I don't get into the Christmas spirit until it's far too late to really appreciate it. Jenn noticed it, too, and we don't know what to do about it.

The part I think I have the hardest time with is trying to make everyone happy. This includes making sure we make it to everyone else's house with enough time to spend some quality holiday time with folks as well as making sure we get gifts for people that they'll like. It's hard, and even with my online shopping I think the simple fact that so much weight rests with good gifts is what brings the season down. We're toying with the idea of doing a secret Santa style drawing in my family where everyone just buys one really nice thing for one person and that's it. It would definitely make it easier...

So that's that. One more year, and now we start anew.

If anyone's looking for a belated gift idea, I just discovered they're releasing a two-disc version of Alice In Wonderland. Booyah! Then again, maybe I'll just buy it myself...

Saturday was the family meal.

See, my grandfather likes to get the whole family together and then, rather than getting people gifts, he buys lunch or whatever. Usually it takes place at some "halfway point" since half of the family lives in the Seattle, WA general area and the other half lives around Portland, OR. Last year we went to Spiffy's, and it was... not so good. This year we ended up at the Country Cousin restaurant in Centralia, WA for breakfast.

Sigh.

I can't really complain so much, since it wasn't nearly as bad as last year. We got there about 15 minutes early, and all of us (my parents, sister Tori, Jenn, and I) were totally hungry after driving two hours for breakfast. We had the room in the back to ourselves and when we got back there we saw that most everyone was there already.

I ordered the chili omelette, I think Jenn had some "meat lover's omelette" or something... It was all pretty uneventful.

Highlights of the trip included:

My aunt telling us about how she went out dancing the night before and had some little Mexican guy saying, "Spank me! Spank me!" at her.

The waitress. (She was hot.)

The photo op outside. There was one of those walls with peoples' bodies painted on it and holes cut out so you stick your head through the hole and it looks like your head is on the painted body. One of the holes was about a foot off the ground and the painted body was a dog. My dad got his head down and stuck it through the dog hole. I'm hoping those pictures came out.

That's about it. Generally uneventful, which is surprising considering the crew we had together there. I think next year we may pass on the trip, though; driving that far for a quick meal isn't a whole lot of fun, especially when we see everyone at different times throughout the season anyway.

Onward to the holidays!

We just couldn't go through the holiday season without a Traffic Asshole, could we? I don't think so.

Yesterday I went to training. Normally that's nothing too special, but it's nicer on the commute than most days because the training facility is only five minutes away from my house.

Usually.

This time it took 45 minutes.

See, to get there, I have to cross a bridge. That's not a problem, but it's an older bridge with only one lane going in each direction. Traffic generally flows pretty well. When I got there yesterday, though...



Traffic was blocked up like a toilet after someone who wipes too much. No plunger was going to clear this jam-up, though. I thought, "Maybe I could pass some folks..."



"...or maybe NOT."

After sitting stationary for quite some time, things began to move... a little...



... but quickly stopped again. I couldn't believe it! I left my house 45 minutes before class thinking I'd get there with plenty of time! Might as well enjoy the view...



Ah, a nice Folgers-style morning. Good to the last drop. Or whatever.

I knew it was getting bad when I saw that I was being passed by pedestrians I passed half an hour earlier.



And when I finally got through, you know what it was?



A Bronco. The earliest form of - say it with me - sport utility vehicle. And we all know how much I love SUVs. ARGH! Chalk one more accident up to the SUV drivers. Bastards.

This class is finishing up, so here's the last post on it.

Overall thoughts:

The teacher was a good guy but wasn't too familiar with the subject matter, so he floundered at the beginning and to cover for it he rambled about things that had no bearing on reality. Having taught the section on code access security myself when he was ready to gloss over it, it makes me wonder what other tidbits of information I'm missing out on that he also glossed over due to lack of experience.

The courseware sucked donkey. There were altogether too many questions that had answers you could never have come up with on your own. The idea was there, but the person (or people) who QA'd the book should be fired. Or maybe they need to take the course, too, so they know why they did such a crappy job. Regardless, it made the class a little harder than it should have been, methinks, and that's never good.

In the end, this whole thing is exactly what I thought it was: "Software Engineering the Microsoft Way." It's one more method to pull together and manage software development projects. This one focuses way too much on the planning phase, though, and while it looks good on paper, I can see several shortcomings in it, particularly when scaled down to apply to smaller teams and projects. This one's best left for the larger stuff - huge product suites, operating systems, etc. I'm so glad this is a test I get to take.

Now we're just talking about different ways to derive object models for your project. I've already had my four years' worth of training in this one, but I'm listening to see what other people do; it's always interesting to get an outside perspective.

After that, I'm outta here! Go home and... well, I haven't planned that far yet. I guess I'll see when I get there. On to the holidays!

We've been going hard and heavy today, so I probably won't be posting again until I get home here... which means this is today's report, even though it's only midday.

It took me 45 minutes to go five miles on this morning's commute, which is not something I was planning on so I was a little late for class. I think/hope I got some pictures of the traffic asshole that had the accident on the bridge I needed to cross, so if I did, I'll post 'em.

I got to teach some of the class yesterday (and a little today) on my meager knowledge of Microsoft .NET code access security. I'm by no means an expert, but I've spent many hours (and company dollars, I'm sure) on the phone with MS developer support fighting code access security issues, so I do have some decent knowledge of it (and what a huge pain in the ass it is).

I'm not looking forward to taking the test for this class. Gonna suck, big time.

Speaking of tests, Jenn got her results from when she took the national pharmacy technician certification test... she passed! That's very cool and I'm totally proud of her. (She got a really good score!)

Okay, well technically speaking it's not the end of the day today yet, but I'm going to post now because it's lunchtime and I have time to do it.

The class is still pretty boring, but now we're into the "how to design your database" section of things and, having already taken the SQL Server classes and having designed several databases myself, we're into familiar territory. Not only that, but the teacher and the rest of the students seem to be more engaged, which brings the energy of the room up a few notches.

I went to Jenn's VA Christmas Party last night and had an okay time. There were about 20 people from her pharmacy group that showed up, but she only knew a few of them. I spoke to the head of the VA pharmacy stuff for a while about Krispy Kreme donuts and apparently I had a longer conversation with him than Jenn has ever had with him. He seemed nice.

I talked to my dad last night and he says he wants to sign up to be on the next Survivor show, so I have to help him come up with ideas for his tryout video. I don't know what the guy's thinking; he's got a bad back, he can't see without his glasses, and he's got terrible pollen allergies so bad he can't mow the lawn. I'm not sure how far he thinks he's going to get on the thing, but you know what? I hope he goes all the way (assuming he can get on the show). He's been wanting to get on one of these reality shows for the longest time. More power to him.

At least I know he'll be entertaining to watch on TV, right?

God damn this class is boring!

The most frustrating thing I'm running into is a distinct lack of quality assurance on the coursework for the class. We have labs (more like essay questions) at the end of each chapter that we go through, but they all end up like this:

Q: Company X is releasing a web site for online ordering. They want it secure and reliable. They want to make sure only registered users can purchase things. What are the user requirements?

Now, for those who haven't sat through this, "user requirements" are essentially "requirements for what the end user will see." The end user doesn't necessarily see "security" or "reliability" - those are "operational requirements." So the answer in the real world to this question is, "There are no user requirements specified."

The real answer?

A: Web site users should be able to complete their orders in five minutes or less.

WHAT?!

Where did that five minute requirement come from? You didn't see it either? Fuckin' A.

Anyway, that's where I'm at. It's boring, nothing else to say. Moving on.

I didn't do a play by play for this class because... ugh. It's a dry class. I'm bored, so I can only assume anyone reading would be bored. It's sort of like taking an advanced calculus class if you're an art major; it might be interesting (not) but you'll probably never use it in real life.

It doesn't help that the teacher sidetracks a lot, usually onto the topic of venture capitalists and startup companies. Which, of course, ends up having nothing to do with the concept we're learning. Presumedly he's showing us all this stuff so we know why the steps the book outlines are important to do... but I'm failing to see the connection. He starts out okay, but... well, it goes a lot like this:

"Class, the important thing in this step is that you document the requirements very clearly. The reason is, if you're doing work for someone else, this set of requirements is going to be part of your contract, and there's usually a clause in the contract that says something to the effect of 'delivered product must match documentation.' So they don't have to pay you if you don't stick to the requirements."

So far, so good, right? Then he continues:

"I was working just the other day on a contract for TransCorp [or something like that] because, you know, Step is one of the most respected contractors in the area. And I was working on this contract that had some interesting requirements to it involving security terminology we were unfamiliar with and so we ended up solving the problem by..."

Whoa. We're already heading away from the point here. Actually, here's a better scenario:

"A vision statement is important because it helps the team focus on what the overall goal is. It includes a goal, a timeline, and usually something involving a restriction. Like 'We'll double sales by the end of the year without increasing budget.' This is also sort of like an elevator pitch. Does everyone here know what an elevator pitch is?

"There's this conference, SomeCon [I don't remember the name], that's really a great place to get venture capital. Only the top investors are there, and only 100 different companies get invited. So if you're in the elevator at this conference, you're going to want to pitch your company to the investor in there with you, so you can get to your Mezzanine round of funding.

"See, there are four rounds of funding in a company before you can go public. First there's your seed round, where you get usually Angel money because investors don't want to invest in this market. Then comes your first and second rounds of investors, usually certified venture capitalists since the SEC doesn't want grandma losing her money so now they have everyone register if they want to invest. Finally comes your Mezzanine round, which is typically the hardest round to get to because it involves a LOT of money. After that, you try to go public.

"My company didn't have the ability to get to the Mezzanine round because..."

I think you get the point. We're on company funding from... vision statements? Gimme a break.

So that's what I'm sitting through. Ugh. If there wasn't a test on this shit, there's no way I'd be here. I sincerely hope the test is as "easy" as a couple of my coworkers have made it out to be, because if I actually have to know this project management bull from front to back, I'm hosed.

I played around with my PS2 some more last night and it turns out I'm not only having trouble with Time Crisis 3, but also SSX3 and SSX Tricky (among others). So while the console plays DVD movies now, it plays fewer games than it did before I sent it in.

I called Sony and I'm going to send them back my console and they're going to send me a new, working unit. Postage paid and all! So while it's been a pain to have to deal with it, Sony seems to have done their best to make things right, which, again, is better than I can say for most technical support situations I've been in. No fighting, no hassle.

Unfortunately, I think that means I'm going to be PS2-less for the holiday season unless they can get their shipping on. I suppose that's okay. It'll give me a chance to catch up on movies and reading, and maybe even install a *gasp* PC game or three. I have a load I've been wanting to try, I just haven't gotten to it. Now that I have a new PC, there's no reason not to.

I got home on Friday night to find that FedEx had dropped my Playstation off... with my neighbors. And not just any neighbors, but the ones who park in the fucking fire lane.

Jenn tried to get them to answer the door twice, but had no luck. Their TV was on far too loud for anyone to hear the door.

I got home, rang their doorbell (they've installed one themselves; our apartments don't come with doorbells) and a few minutes later the door opened and I was accosted by the stench of freshly pissed pants. I have no idea how they live in that, but it almost knocked me out. Only my dire need for my Playstation kept me conscious.

The lady of the house gave me my package (it took her a second to remember that, yes, just a few hours ago she did, in fact, sign for a package) and, after making sure it wasn't going to pollute the air supply in my apartment, I returned upstairs to unpack my console.

I took it straight into my room and opened the box. I pulled out the work order description and it seems Sony saw fit to replace the entire laser component in the unit. Fine with me, man. I hooked it up and put in Time Crisis 3, the game I was having trouble with in the first place.

It still doesn't work.

I tried it all different ways, but it doesn't work. Other games work, and I even watched a movie on it (which didn't work too well before), and that works. Everything works except this game.

What's puzzling me now is that the game worked for me for a while, but stopped. It worked for my friend/boss Greg (on his newer hardware version of the PS2). So is it a disc problem or a hardware problem? I have to assume it's the disc now, since everything else works and it's been freshly repaired.

I've now sent a note to Namco support to see if I can package up my disc and send it in for a replacement. Hopefully I can get my replacement disc and try that out before my 90 day limited warranty on the console repair runs out. If the replacement disc doesn't work, then it'll be confirmed a problem with the console. If it works... well, at least I have a new laser component in my console, right?

I'm takin' off from work now. Next time you hear from me will probably be next week during training... after that, who knows?! If you email me (or leave a comment) and I don't get back to you, that's why.

I woke up this morning and saw the Tub Cat was in the Christmas spirit, so I figured it was time for me to get there, too.



As such, I decided to send out a quick email pseudo-personal card to folks that I talk to and folks that I don't normally get a chance to talk to and catch up with people. A few might be coming in to check out the site, even, which would be cool. (Plus, I get to see who has changed their email addresses and NOT TOLD ME. I'm already getting bounces.)

I've gotten a comment already on how sad this tree looks. A little background there... It's a small, plastic tree that we're using as a test for our Tiny Cat (not pictured). We want to see how well she handles this tree - how many times she knocks it over, how much of it she eats, etc. - so we can determine what kind of tree we could get next year. Every morning we wake up to the more plastic pine needles all over the floor, so the chances of getting a nicer, larger tree next year are not looking good.

I'm in training next week, so I'm out of the office. The following two [holiday] weeks, I'm on vacation, so I'm out of the office. What that yields is not unlike a month-long mini-sabbatical from work. The anticipation is killing me. Freedom from the ridiculous commute. Freedom from the daily grind. I can hardly wait.

Of course, I'll be missing the company outing to Lord Of The Rings next week, but I suppose that's the price I pay. If I was on vacation, I'd actually come back just to see the movie... but I'm in training, and I can't really skip out on that. It's for my last MCSD test, and I want to get it over and done with.

I'll do my best to continue posting to the blog while I'm out, but don't expect daily updates. I mean, I'm on vacation for goodness sake. What do you expect?

After a nice call to Microsoft Developer Support, I learned the root of some of my web part development troubles and thought I'd share the [undocumented] wealth with the community.

Web part properties can only be:

• string
• bool
• int
• float
• enum
• System.DateTime
• System.Drawing.KnownColor

The reason for this is that they use their own custom XML Serializer, not the standard one that .NET Framework ships with. (That's why I keep getting errors when I try to save custom classes as properties. Even if they're marked Serializable and have all the XML Serialization info attached to them, you can't do it. This is all you get.)

So I guess my way around that's going to have to be to XML Serialize my custom class, then save that as a string in the web part. What a pain.

Some of you (but probably not a lot) have read Max Barry's novel, Jennifer Government. If you haven't, I highly recommend it.

For those who have read it, there's a web game out, written by the author, that's based on the novel. Check it out: http://www.nationstates.net

I'm sure you all remember the SharePoint Portal Server work that I was doing for several months in a row just a little bit ago. Well, that was part of the "Rapid Adoption Program" for Microsoft Office 2003. Today, in the mail, I got a plaque for my efforts:



It says:

Microsoft Office
Worldwide Office System Rapid Adoption Program
Thank you for your outstanding contribution

I'm sure they printed like a million of these things, but I don't care. Normally my reward for putting up with shit is... more shit. This time I got a plaque. (I'm still dealing with Portal Server, but the difference here is the recognition that I'm doing it.) I think that's pretty cool.

(Oh, and it's actually rectangular; it's just the camera I used to take the picture has a bit of a fisheye to it.)

I got an email just now telling me that my Playstation 2 is on the way home from the repair facility, and it has a 90 day warranty. Woohoo! I'll be kicking up snow in SSX3 and shooting the bad guys in Time Crisis 3 in no time.

Minor geek moment:

I've been working on this project at work where I want to read RSS (syndication) feeds and display them inside SharePoint Portal Server 2003. Thank goodness for RSS.NET. I was fearing I'd have to try to implement the RSS Bandit parser, and that's just a little more than I was ready for.

Okay, enough of the geek moment. I may have to blog in more detail on that one later, though. I'm pleased with my work (it's not done, but the stuff that is rocks), but most folks out there aren't going to "get it."

Sidetrack: A form just came through my cubicle and the shipping instructions on it said "Second Day Error." Like that's a new service FedEx offers or something - lose your package on the second day. No extra charge! Too funny.

I got my copy of the Alias Season 2 DVD set last night. Six discs this time. I'll have stuff to watch while I'm on vacation at the end of this month. They have a $10 rebate offer where you get a refund for buying both Season 1 and Season 2 (which I did). Time to send away for that.

My mom called me up this morning because she was reminded of a funny childhood Christmas story about me. I guess they were sharing kid stories on the radio and she thought of it. Apparently when I was five years old I went to see Santa Claus at the mall. Santa was wearing a bad pair of rubber boots instead of the nice leather ones that quality Santas wear. When I got done, I came back to Mom and said, "That's not the real Santa! Santa Claus doesn't wear irrigation boots."

She didn't call that one in because most five year olds don't know what irrigation boots are, so she didn't think they'd believe her. I think it's pretty damn funny, though.

I've been ripping all of my CDs into AAC (MP4) format so I can listen to them on my iPod. I've been working on it for a few weeks now and I'm only about halfway done. I'm doing it alphabetical by artist, and today I'm working on the end of the m's. I'm glad I'm there, since that means most of my holiday music is done (love the Muppet holiday stuff!) so I can at least transfer that over to the iPod and get in the Christmas spirit.

I tried watching the Tracy Morgan Show last night and it sucks. I love Tracy Morgan on Saturday Night Live. I think he's great. One of my favorite skits is "Brian Fellow's Safari Planet." But his new show is like... well, have you ever tried to watch The Cosby Show now that it's been off the air for 10 years? It's not funny. It's predictable and tame. That's what Tracy Morgan's show is - predictable and tame. I suppose if I was sitting down with my kids and wanted something on prime time television that would be guaranteed safe for all of my kids, yeah, that'd be the show. But I'm not, so it's not. Very unfortunate; I had high hopes.

I've added a new category, Tech Support, to the categories on the site. Right now there's only one article in it, but as I find solutions to technical problems I'm having that other people might be having, I'll post 'em in that category.

It got busy yesterday, so I didn't get to fill y'all in on my weekend. Let's give the whole rundown, since it was a pretty decent weekend, all things considered.

Friday night... I don't remember what was going on Friday. Oh, wait, I remember. Jenn and I went over to my parents' house and watched Survivor. That show never fails to piss me off. The stupidity exhibited by the people on the island rivals something out of Lord Of The Flies. Then again, I have to remind myself that I see a lot of stuff - interviews, secret meetings, etc. - that the people participating in the show don't see, so they can't take that into account. Still pisses me off, though.

Saturday... ugh.

Saturday morning I got all of my chores done, which this week consisted primarily of vacuuming and dusting. I tried out the Swiffer Duster we got and it works pretty well.

At four we went to see Jenn's dad get made the Master of his Masonic lodge. That was... interesting... I had anticipated it being a much more formal experience than it was, considering that he wore a tuxedo and top hat during it, but it was surprisingly casual. Almost too casual to hold any reverence for me, which is unfortunate, because I have a feeling this is a big deal. The part that really killed it for me was the music. Every time someone would stand up and walk to the front of the room to say something or get initiated into office, this guy in the corner with a Casio keyboard would play a bad rendition of a Christmas carol, like "Frosty the Snowman" or "It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas." Every time he fired it up, I wondered why the organ grinder started playing and where the little dancing monkey was. It was pretty terrible. I guess the person who was supposed to play music was sick so if the carols weren't there, there'd be no music at all. Somehow I think that would have been a better option.

Towards the end of the ceremony I started getting stomach cramps something awful and had to make a mad dash for the bathroom. I'm not sure what was going on there, but my stomach never really recovered; I went back to see the end of the ceremony and was ill the whole time.

We had a hockey game to be at by seven and since dinner was part of this thing, we convinced the people cooking to speed ours along. Dinner was prime rib, and I discovered something while eating it.

I don't like prime rib.

The other option was ham, and I'm not a ham-eater, either, so after Jenn was done, we left and stopped at Burger King on the way to the game. Let me tell you how happy I was to get some real food in my stomach.

Got to the Winter Hawks game in time to see the Hawks come out and the game start. The Hawks played their asses off and beat the best team in our division six-to-two. We got free pizza (because we scored during the "Pizza Schmizza Magic Minute," which means everyone gets a free slice from the local Pizza Schmizza) and free chalupas from Taco Bell (because we scored six points). There were more fights than I could count, and most of them were actually awesome fights. I even got to talk to the best fighter on our team, Robin Big Snake, after he got kicked out of the game for fighting (the locker room entry is right next to the men's restroom, and I happen to be heading in there and saw him hanging around just outside the locker room, watching the game).

I need to get a Big Snake jersey. That guy rocks. I'm still stoked about how great that game was.

Sunday we went to see Bad Santa with a couple of friends of ours, Jason and Tracy. The whole point of that movie is that it's so offensive - it's everything Santa Claus should never be associated with. I thought it was hilarious, and a perfect role for Billy Bob Thornton. Jenn seemed to sit there mortified half the time, Tracy, I think, was actually offended, and I think Jason laughed at parts but didn't think it was as funny as I did. Regardless, it was good to hang with them and see a funny movie.

Don't take your kids to that one, though. Yow.

We finished off Sunday night by catching the latest episode of Alias, a show that continues to be on the top of my list.

Yesterday, the CIT group I work in got to go to lunch at the Portland Steak and Chop House as a reward for doing such a good job in the past... quarter? Year? Whatever. Free lunch, man. I got a New York Peppersteak and had tiramisu for dessert. It was pretty good, but after seeing the prices on the menu, I don't know that it was worth the price. I suppose the point is moot since I didn't pay for it, but I didn't feel like the steak I ate was a $35 steak. Maybe I'm just not the food connoisseur I'd like to think I am.

I've mentioned this idea before in passing, but I keep coming back to it, so I'll post it again.

I think car insurance should be enhanced to handle rubbernecking.

What do I mean?

Well, let's say you have an accident on a major freeway. You know how much traffic that backs up because of the rubberneckers out there having to catch a glimpse? And follow that through to the end results:

• Lost time for everyone stuck in traffic
• Depleted natural resources because of the decreased gas mileage of all of the idling vehicles
• Increased stress on everyone in the traffic

If I'm caught up in traffic because of an accident that's not my fault, I feel that I should be compensated for the time and resources wasted by the natural effect that others gawking will have on my time.

It would work like this: Someone has an accident and you get stuck in traffic. Once you get home, you go to a government web site (or some centralized location) and file your claim for reimbursement class-action style - give your name, contact info, etc. Then the reviewing agency would go through each filed claim, compare the claim information with the accident reports on file, and pay out accordingly.

The money to pay the claims would come from the insurance company of the at-fault party in the accident. You cause the accident, you cause the gawking, you pay.

I've only come up with two problems: First, there's no way to prove you were actually caught in the traffic. You may have been, but you may also have gotten a tip-off from your friend. Everyone's car would have to have, like, a GPS tracker or something (and that's a whole other can of worms). Second, insurance companies would probably go broke (or insurance costs would skyrocket).

But that's not the point!

Then again, maybe police and fire agencies should have giant privacy curtains they put up around wrecks so you can't see anything. Might be inconvenient, but it would sure fix the traffic.

The latest Traffic Asshole isn't even someone I found on the road... it's someone next to the road, if you can believe that.

This happens every year, and I should have been expecting it, but somehow, just like every other year, it once again took me by surprise.

I was headed to work on Monday the first - the first work day back after the Thanksgiving holiday. At a normally fairly clear area, I noticed cars were jamming up all over the place.

With the density of the crowd, I started thinking, "I wonder if someone's had a real wreck up there... Maybe someone's dead. Of course, I'm gonna be pretty pissed off if there's not someone dead up there, with this amount of traffic."

Okay, so that's a little mean and morbid. But true. If there's not some life-threatening thing going on, what's with the backup?

Behold, the Griswolds have arrived in Portland:



That's right - every year the Shilo Inns headquarters puts up the largest lights display ever, and it's right along the most difficult freeway in the Portland metro area. So I have Shilo to thank for the so-called Gawker's Block in effect. Let's see that again:



Oh, yeah.

And the thing is, it doesn't get any better as the holidays approach. You'd think after the first week all the regular commuters would have seen this thing and be ready to move on. But they always slow down. So Shilo Inns has, once again, fucked up traffic for an entire month. Good job, guys.

I'm still at work because traffic is terrible out there and I'd rather sit around here and get stuff done than sit in a car indefinitely. Ugh.

I was reading the blog of a friend of mine and it brought up an interesting question. Where do you work best?

For him, he works best "out of his element" - traveling, sitting at Starbucks, in someone else's cube, etc.

For me, it's a whole other story. If I'm out of my element (i.e., working at home or out of the office), while I will be more likely to come up with solutions to nagging problems, the amount of code I will churn out will be *less* than if I'm sitting in my sensory deprivation chamber at work. Why? Call it ADHD - there are too many things "out there" that I'd rather be doing than sitting and coding... Art projects, working on my own personal code projects, playing with my cat, watching movies, playing games, etc.

Being at work, I have more of a sense of dedication to the task at hand - I'm at work so I can work.

I think I solve my problems best in the shower or in the car in the morning. I'll figure out how to deal with stuff I'm stuck on while I'm driving to work in the morning or coming home at night. (Actually, sitting on the pot's a great place to solve problems, too.) Once I'm going to code, though, I need to put the headphones on (music with no words - trance/techno seems to be best for me) and not answer the phone or see any distractions around me. Otherwise, the workflow goes kaput.

Quite the weekend, considering it was four days long. I can't say it was entirely restful, but I can say it was better than being at work. I think.

Thursday was Thanksgiving. It was pretty busy, too, considering it's supposed to be you hanging out with your family. Unfortunately for me, that means two families - mine and Jenn's.

11:00a saw Jenn and I at the local Hometown Buffet - all you can eat, anything you want. This is especially good for me, since I can't stand turkey or ham. I ate my fill of baked fish while everyone else shovelled gamey disgustingness down their gullets.

After we finished eating at the buffet, Jenn's parents gave her "part of her Christmas gift."



I appreciate that they were trying to do something nice, but there are a few problems with candleholders, particularly candleholders of this nature:

• They're large, and we're out of storage space.
• They're delicate, and the Tiny Cat will knock anything off a shelf if you look away for more than two minutes.
• They hold candles, and even unscented candles bug my allergies like nothing else.
• You can only use them during a short period of the year.

Sigh.

By 2:00p, we were 30 miles away from there sitting with my family at my grandfather's house in Sandy. Having already eaten, Jenn and I pretty much just hung out during the dinner part of things and then ate pie when dessert rolled around.

I, of course, somehow got into the unavoidable "I need help with my computer" conversation, which I try like the devil not to get into but always seem to get sucked into anyway. I think it's a combination of several key factors: I work with computers; I do stuff that I really can't explain to the lay user; People want to have a conversation with me and don't know what else to talk about, so they ask about work... and then it goes from there. I'm thinking I need to get into some common sport (hockey isn't for these people, they're -ugh- football watchers) so at least I'll have something to talk about.

Hung out at Granddad's for a few hours and headed home.

Friday Jenn worked, but I was off and I ended up going over to my parents' house. My dad hauled 12 big boxes full of school papers, toys, and other things that they had saved over the years for us three kids, and they wanted to weed out the stuff we didn't want. I ended up getting all of my stuff to fit into a single (sizable) box after throwing out loads of duplicates of things and a bunch of crap I'm not sure why we kept. It was an interesting blast from the past, though.

Some of the boxes that things were stored in were kind of neat, too. Remember the Commodore Vic 20? Here's the box:

 


We had one of those, and then we ended up buying a Commodore 64 when the Vic 20 got stolen:

 

We also got one of the floppy disk drives:



So that was sorta neat to see. (Those boxes have since been dumpstered.)

Saturday Jenn worked again, so I ended up doing housework and working on my blog here. Of my previous list of things I wanted to do, all that I didn't get done was fixing the links between blog entries, updating my "about" page, and fixing the blurbs to do fancy popup thing I want them to do. The rest got done, though, and I think it's much more usable, at least from an admin standpoint.

Saturday night I went to the Winter Hawks hockey game and watched us barely beat Seattle. It was also the "Teddy Bear Toss," where, on the first Winter Hawks goal scored, you throw stuffed animals out onto the ice. The animals are then collected and donated to charities. This year they had 5,448 animals thrown, which filled up two pickup trucks and several dumpsters. It was pretty slick.

Sunday was spent doing things around the house for a while, then we went to the mall because we were bored. Not much going on at the mall. At at the Cajun Grill, which is, in my opinion, the best place in the food court. After that we went to another Winter Hawks game, where, once again, we barely won. Went home and watched Alias, which always rocks, and then went to bed and had a bad dream about zombies coming to kill me.

So the weekend was okay, though I would have liked to have rested more. Because Jenn worked over the weekend, I ended up doing her chores and mine, and that sucked a lot. I've got the last two weeks of the year off, though, and I'm hoping that's a bit more restful.