dave campbell UNcanned

research project

2008-06-16T20:13:00.001-04:00

Now that Anne and I are returning back toward our home roots, we’ve begun a very important research project. See, the home turf pizzeria used to be Roma Pizza for years upon years. That was our joint. It was amazing pizza. They closed shop a few months ago – we can’t figure out why.

So part of us moving back to Middletown is determining our new pizza place. We started our research project last night at Colandrea Pizza King. I used to have their pizza when I was a kid and quite frankly I was surprised they’ve survived so long. However, I think they make a very strong entry into our research project.

I had two slices of pizza with sausage and Anne ordered two slices with mozzarella cheese. My two came out with heaping stacks of sliced sausage on top. It was very filling; ~~I might have only needed one slice.~~ Anne said hers was quite good as well. The only negative point for Colandrea’s was the price. Four slices and two drinks cost $14.50! Not what I call a cheap meal. However pizza is very important so if this turns out to be the winner of our research project, our wallets will simply have to be ready!

closing jitters

2008-06-15T10:46:00.001-04:00

We didn’t close last week as we had hoped. To make a long story short, the necessary work wasn’t completed in time to beat the seller’s lawyer’s vacation. So now we have a scheduled closing date for the day after his return: June 20.

Anne and I are becoming very anxious. It’s only a short time away, but we’ve been living in boxes for over a month now. I believe we have over 70 packed boxes! I’ve also been recruiting help. If you’re interested in helping please let me know! I even recruited some of the scout families to help out!

My dad and I were talking on the phone last night. He’s had a chance to see the house twice now and we’ve come to the conclusion that some of the bushes and trees are encroaching on the house. Somehow when he offered to cut down the (what I consider to be) large pine tree touching the back of the house, I gasped. I’ve never had to decide if a tree should be cut down! That’s something homeowners do! It was an awkward discussion that I think we’ll have to continue once I can see that tree again.

Closing next week?

2008-06-02T20:54:00.001-04:00

We got an unexpected phone call from the seller of the house we’re buying. Apparently our meeting last week convinced her to move along on the closing date. We could be closing as soon as next week!

It sounds like a lot of things will be left behind in the house and some cleaning will be necessary. I’ll take that trade-off compared to getting into the house later and it being cleaner.

I had a number of family members, friends, and colleagues volunteer their services recently. Now I’m hoping that people are actually interested in helping out! We’ll probably hold a painting party sometime after closing. And I’m not sure if we’ll stick to our original moving weekend (June 21-22) or push it out a week.

2008-05-01T09:18:00.003-04:00

One thing I've been asked a few times because I'm the resident computer expert of the family is how to print a screen when no printing option seems available. I may be subverting some systems that are not supposed to be printed, but this trick should work when Ctrl + P fails us.

Open the window you'd like to print and make sure it's the active window.
Press Alt + Print Screen
Press Start key (sometimes called Win key) + R (alternatively you can use the desktop Start button and then click Run)
Type "mspaint" and press enter
Once Paint has loaded, press Ctrl + V
Manipulate, print, and/or save your image

Scouting blog

2008-03-05T20:03:00.004-05:00

It's been a long while (again) since my last post. Unfortunately I don't have much to say except to plug another experiment in my life. I've started another blog geared specifically toward my adventures in Boy Scouting. You're all welcome to take the jump with me to Scouting Ahead; however, I realize that most could care less. And that's one of the great motivations for the addition of a new blog rather than continuing the Boy Scouts category. I suspect that the few readers I do have are more interested in the often random events in my life and care less about the Scouting. My other reason for splitting the two aspects of my life digitally is to allow me to brand the Scouting blog for Scouters interested in reading about Scouting (not my latest party or random event) .I will continue to keep this blog as alive as ever (if you call that alive).

first Eagle Scout on my watch

2008-01-08T22:53:00.001-05:00

I'm pretty happy right now because I just got back from my first Eagle Scout Board of Review. The young man became the first Eagle Scout while I've been an active adult leader. It makes me proud to know that I've had some influence in his success.

And it just occurred to me that I should probably include this little tidbit: I'm going to become the next Scoutmaster for our troop. I'm really excited and want to hit the ground running when I start in a few weeks so I've been compiling things to say and do for use later on.

New Year's Resolutions - two years later

2008-01-08T08:33:00.001-05:00

It's just getting to be too late to talk about new year's resolutions. That must mean it's about time for me to start writing about them. I picked up Guitar Hero 3 which has been totally addictive and is pushing into all sorts of productivity time including blog writing.

So I've been meaning to write this entry for a few days now. In doing so, I figured I'd look back and see if I've written about the topic before. It turns out, I have! I think I did a damn good job of it too! It leaves me very little to say except to instruct you all to go and read that post instead of this one.

In all seriousness, my feelings toward a new year hasn't changed. Yet as I read ~~last year's resolutions~~ my resolutions from two years ago I realized that I've pretty much failed on most of them. Yes, I did indeed have the best damn wedding possible. But I've fallen short of the mark on the others - some quite considerably. I'd like to attribute these failures to factors such as the list being too long or too lofty, but there's not much truth to that.

This reminds me of a Scrubs episode I was watching just last night. Turk and Carla were having marital issues (communication - not sex) and she was spending a few nights with Elliot. Kelso, on a dare from Cox, was actually attempting to treat a patient. The patient was a large woman who seemed to know exactly what Kelso was going to say because she had one of those "internet phones." She insisted on having a gastric bypass instead of dieting and exercise, despite Kelso's recommendation to do so. Getting to the point, as Turk is about to take the patient to surgery Kelso barges into the room (he literally knocks the door off it's hinges) and Cox-ishly explains to the patient that she's not going to have the gastric bypass. His crutch was that she was avoiding doing the right thing, the hard thing, because she might fail and there would be no one to blame but herself. Turk, of course, overhearing all of this rushes to Carla and the light little piano music comes in and all is well in the thirty minute tv world.

The point, and I have one for once, is that Kelso's message is true for many things in life. And one of those things is new year's resolutions.

Without any further delay or soapboxing, here are my resolutions of 2008:

Soda be gone. I have given up on soda. There's nothing to be gained in all that sugar, carbonation, and caffeine.
Farewell french fries. I really don't like them most of the time anyway.
Gossip and revel in misery less. I've gotten mean! If I'm going to be a Scout leader, I should be following the "A Scout is kind" point of the law.
Read more. I'm still trudging slowly through Harry Potter (book 2). But the list of books I'm interested in reading is growing by the month. Must keep reading!

And since I was so inspired by ~~2007~~ 2006's resolutions I'll be borrowing:

Get back into the gym and get back to eating well
Continue to shrink that to-do list! I'm doing pretty well on this one.
Clearer communication. I have made almost no progress toward speaking in full & coherent sentences with proper enunciation.

Do you have any resolutions (or stock in them in the first place)?

trying out ruby

2007-12-21T01:15:00.001-05:00

Last weekend was a slow weekend. It was really nice for a change. On Friday, Jason (from work) sent me a link to some demos of ruby on rails. He had been talking about ruby off and on for some time now - usually in the capacity of comparing developers.

I didn't want to be the kind of developer who had nothing to offer to a discussion about C# vs Ruby any longer, so I decided to heed his suggestion and spend some time with Ruby. So I spent ~~nearly~~ all weekend with Ruby and what have I got to say? Not much aside from a superficial evaluation.

I spent a lot of time getting the environment squared away. The actual Ruby on Rails install was simple. However I tried to configure it to work with Microsoft SQL Express. This was a bad idea. The reason this is a bad idea is the same reason the RoR motto is "convention over configuration." When you install RoR, you can see clearly that it plays well with MySql. Instead of going with the flow, I decided to travel upstream for several hours. Just like my analogy, I didn't get far. Right. So. Install MySql and things work like a charm.

Once I got the environment settled, it was time to get down to work. RoR installs with a small, super-powered notepad clone with some syntax highlighting. It's pleasant if you're into painful and tedious opening and closing of files. Otherwise I recommend an IDE I discovered, Aptana Studio, where I was able to start making sense of things.

So what amazingly stunning web sites did I produce? I walked through the tutorials I found online and attempted to apply them to the concepts I've been considering for my side project, ScoutOffice. Let's just say I'm not rushing out to become a Ruby developer. I'm still struggling with getting the relationships between various models right.

Despite my troubles and apparent inability to learn a language quickly, Ruby on Rails does have some interesting characteristics:

Drink the Kool-Aid. If you can swallow the quirky and debatable conventions Ruby on Rails prides itself on, it is truly amazing how quickly things can "just work." I was able to develop all CRUD actions within mere minutes provided I used MySql, named my data table as a plural, used an integer as the table primary key identity, and properly cased things. If you don't mind sacrificing a debate in best practices, this could be your language!

Ruby can make the bad web UI guys look really bad, really easily. It has this nifty scaffold feature which (I'm sure no real Ruby developer uses that) creates web forms for you on the fly. However the layout and style leaves a lot to be desired. That's great if you know how to modify those things easily. For those of us who struggle with Microsoft Paint, we're screwed. Ruby has a way of showing how bad one's UI skills a re in an instant.

So I have a pretty superficial opinion of Ruby on Rails at this point. It has a lot of merits, but I'm about to give up my day job. I do think I'll be revisiting it however and I haven't ruled it out as a possible avenue for ScoutOffice to go down.

ScoutOffice revisited

2007-11-21T17:24:00.001-05:00

It's been four months since my (first?) update about ScoutOffice. It's really hit a snag which I'm trying to deal with but seems to be a large deal breaker. Let's see if I can explain this in English.

The BSA launched a software platform called ScoutNET in 1999. It was supposed to be revolutionary and answer our Scouting prayers and probably dispense candy to small children. It failed to do any of those things (I'm still waiting for my M&Ms). However it's still around. It manages to provide some level of backbone on a national level I guess. Councils can submit and request reports from it. Local units are supposed to be able to recharter with it. Yadda yadda.

From best I can tell, back in 1999 and 2000 the BSA allowed only four software vendors access (and subsequent certification) to a ScoutNET api which facilitates the communication between local units and their respective councils.

Since then, two of those vendors have stopped supporting their products leaving two to choose from.

My unit is slowly getting on the technology revolution (they think this Internet thing may be around for a while). And of course I want to gallop and sprint through and make cool stuff happen. I want to frolic (yes and perhaps prance) in the fun of writing software for them! But this stupid ScoutNET certification. /grumble

I've scoured the net trying to figure out what this api is. It looks like it's not publicly available. I'm currently grappling with the idea of writing something that simply imports/exports similarly to the remaining two certified vendors, but that's a hack and it's going to be painstakingly hard.

I just want to the BSA to get off their 1930s attitudes and catch up already.

connecting the theoretical and practical dots of leadership

2007-11-16T01:03:00.001-05:00

Last weekend was our first ever "Suriviorman Weekend" for the Boy Scout troop. The wilderness survival event was inspired by the current television shows: Survivorman and Man vs Wild. It was an excellent success.

For our purposes the weekend was a scenario-based competition between patrols. We scored them on obvious categories such as shelter, food, and fire as well as less obvious ones like morale and teamwork.

When judging morale and teamwork, we were looking to see how a group of Scouts worked together. Did they look after each other and cooperate or did they bicker, fight, and hassle one another? Were they able to get done work quickly by coordinating tasks or was everyone fending for themselves? Reflecting now on the weekend, the judges saw an array of responses. One patrol managed to delegate responsibilities. Another did not fare as well since the oldest boys performed all the work leaving the youngest underutilized and bored.

It dawned on me while watching (from afar) these patrols work that we were witnessing differing leadership styles immerge on their own. Some Scouts were content to do all the work at the cost of morale and efficiency. Others had higher performance and were able to delegate, but required less than pleasant tones to motivate others.

So I've been considering the success of the weekend and what I witnessed. I was trying to diagnose how some patrols did better than others and I came across this article at Dumb Little Man. It was while reading the article that I had an epiphany - I understand what had happened: the Scouts were concentrating more on the tasks at hand than the bigger picture of wilderness survival.

Our event lacked the emotional connection that would inspire Scouts to be good leaders. When the fire competition began, Scouts decided the best way to win that competition. They then choose the best food cooking methods that they believed would earn them the most points. The underlying problem is that there was no incentive to be a good leader - just a good enough leader.

True survival situations require the seven tips as discussed in the article. Morale will be affected by how well the leader motivates and inspires others to strive toward goals. And morale is one hell of an ally in tough situations - even more so than dry socks!

So how do you bridge the gap? I wish I knew! I can't drop the Scouts in a jungle just to see them actually have to work together (although that would be amusing). I think you can start with having a healthy discussion about the good and bad things that happened.

What do you think? How do you bring the emotional desire to perform good, high-leveled leadership to an event?

"Blog about Jott" ...A message I left myself.

2007-11-15T01:19:00.001-05:00

I've been meaning to write about this topic and am just now getting to it. A few months ago, I had identified a problem in my life. I have a crappy memory. That's neither a new or startling revelation. I attempt to mitigate my crappy memory with to-do lists on scraps of paper files with limited success. The particular issue with that resolution is that I don't always have a pen, paper, or the ability to write something down (i.e. when driving).

So I had been thinking for a while that I needed some sort of device or service similar to a mini-cassette recorder. I, of course, did not want an actual mini-cassette recorder - yet another device to carry around. It would be ideal if it worked with my mobile phone since I'd have that just about everywhere.

I had been brewing about this problem for a few weeks. One evening I was began telling Anne about my idea that my cell phone would double as a simple voice recorder. She listened sleepily (she was just going to bed) to my idea and I went back Google Reader to do some reading. The very next post was Robert Scoble talking about Jott. I've dropped Scoble from the feed since then, but I've gotta give him cred (the "street" variety) for this one.

Here's how it works. I call Jott and it automatically records a message. It then transcribes my message to text and delivers it to email or mobile phones as a text message! I really like to send myself Jotts to keep track of reminders or mental notes. It even allows me to set up text message reminders and alerts.

Jott is currently free and in beta. I'm hoping those two are not linked because I'm getting hooked. So sign up and send me a Jott.

So what's the morale of this story? First, get Jott because it rocks. Second, next time Dave has a problem, don't wait to read about the solution! Make the solution yourself and perhaps change the world (or at least profit).

xkcd compiling shirt

2007-11-14T02:02:00.001-05:00

I showed Anne this comic and she was quite unimpressed. I can't blame her really. It's not like I'd understand some comic about teaching. However I told her I wanted the shirt (second down) inspired by the comic and she knocked me! I do agree that geek shirts with random obscure and technical jargon isn't usually my style, but comon'... they're sword fighting!

Perhaps Santa or the birthday fairy will remember this since I don't think Anne was taking notes.

Test, test. Hello W...

2007-09-16T23:23:00.001-04:00

Test, test. Hello World.
Click here to listen

Powered by Jott

ScoutNet .. err... I mean ScoutOffice

2007-07-12T08:06:00.000-04:00

One of the current side projects I'm working on is developing a website for my Boy Scout Troop. Scouting is defiantly and dismally in the stone age. It's pretty depressing. So I started working on this website. I think it should cover both the public-facing aspects as well as be a record keeping tool.

I've actually started and stopped work on the project several times over the past few years. That's the thing about my side projects... they rarely make it to completion. It's a nice fad for a period of time, but the novelty eventually wears off and some new obsession takes its place. Hopefully I can be a little more committed to this one.

I would like to continue reporting my progress in my blog. Sort of a development diary. I love those YouTube videos that show someone's progress building a huge Lego structure over time. The closest approximation to that I can make (without opening the project source and having it make much less appeal to a reader) is here I suppose. Perhaps someday the project will merit its own site.

So one of the first things to conquer is the tool set. I've been fighting with them for a day or two. I have a few major requirements:

stay legit (don't pirate),
WYSIWYG (or at least the Cassini developers' web server) web form editing,
and have the ability to unit test the most code possible.

I started with Microsoft Visual Web Developer Express. It covers the first two requirements. However it does not (or I have not found a way to) compile the site into dlls. What's the problem? You can't unit test a project that can't create dlls. At least that's how NUnit works. Perhaps there's another free .NET unit testing platform that can somehow negotiate web projects.

I fired up Microsoft Visual C# Developer Express. This would give me the first and third requirements. I was even able to publish the class library dlls into the web project! However it was really a sloppy mess and it didn't feel right.

While doing some reading I stumbled across sharpDevelop, a free and open developers' IDE. It said it offered WYSIWYG form development and the ability to compile web projects. I could sense my dreams coming true. Boy I was off! I run it for the first time and instantly feel like I'm using a horrible knock-off. It has integrated NUnit testing and some other nice features. However upon closer examination, I see it does not do web form development - it does windows form development. I merely dabble in ASP.NET. I need some WYSIWYG or Cassini action!

So back to the Web Dev/C# Dev I went. I fought with the solution and project files for a good while. I managed to get them into locations I can cope with. I have the web form editing and the unit testing. All is well with the world.

Two other issues presented themselves while working last night however. I needed to name the solution! Naming a solution often correlates to the name of the "product" itself. I really wanted to name it ScoutNet (a la Terminator movies) however BSA actually has a (really crappy) platform called that (don't worry - we're in no danger). With that name taken, the next best thing I could think of was ScoutOffice. It's only a matter of time before Microsoft comes knocking on my door (/eyes).

The other issue I found was a bit more technical. I started working on membership functionality first. I wanted to create new users. And I was trying to be slick and override the System.Web.Security.MembershipProvider since that's supposed to be an easy route to insta-membership functionality. It is pretty slick, but it requires I use the System.Web.Security.MembershipUser. Ok, so I make my user a child of that. But by doing so, I set up the dependency that all of my lower tier projects need System.Web. That's just not acceptable. So I guess I'll be writing the membership functionality by hand.

Since this is sort of the inaugural post regarding ScoutOffice, if there are any readers out there let me know what you think. If you have any features that you think would be cool to add pass them along.

referral incentive program

2007-06-18T13:02:00.000-04:00

Nothing motivates coming out of "blogging retirement" like the notion of earning money by shamelessly promoting something. I guess we'll find out if anyone still has me on their feed readers!

My company is seeking some people to do some programming, and they're paying the current employees for anyone they hire as a referral. So if you happen to be reading this and you're looking for a job and one of these jobs are in your field of interest, let me know!

C# Developer or UI Designer

Renaissance Faire - picture

2006-09-03T10:47:00.000-04:00

At the Renaissance Faire, Nate wound up getting taunted into paying to hit something with a large hammer. The carnie made some remark questioning his manhood and Nate wouldn't let that stand. He forked over his 2 bucks and gleefully smacked the 'thingie.' He didn't ring the bell, but he did manage to get into the "Knightly" category!

Of course the carnie started badgering me, but I was content to be called names and hold my $2 rather than be shown up by Nate.

RIT barbershop quartet

2006-09-03T10:45:00.000-04:00

Some of the guys up at RIT are making local news for singing - and that's always of interest to me. Keep up the good work! I'll let RIT News & Events take it from here.

Renaissance Faire

2006-08-29T22:21:00.000-04:00

The Renaissance Faire is an annual event that takes place in Tuxedo. It's a faire or park full of events, vendors, food, and games that come from the Renaissance era. I don't think Anne and I went last year, but she used to work there playing trumpet and I've been several times in previous years. This year we organized with Kevin, Tricia, Nate, Molly, Jen Bradshaw, Shannon, Dave, and Anne's sister Jen to go together. I want to show some pictures since there were several good ones, so I'll switch into Picasa and just caption the pictures.

Edit: Yarg! I can't do easy uploading with Picasa right now because my Blogger account is in the transitional beta stuff which - you guessed it - Picasa does not support right now! I'm not in the mood to monkey with uploading images via the web interface so for now you'll have to suffer knowing that there are pictures to be seen... but that you can't ... yet.

Scoble on a rampage

2006-08-21T07:50:00.000-04:00

So Robert Scoble spent the good portion of yesterday going nuts with second-hand information regarding Microsoft's claim to "have the most blogs in service." Who cares?! He goes on to make about advertising dollars and corporate credibility in marketing for those advertising dollars. Ugh. Scoble even spends most of the afternoon cataloguing "real" blogs on Windows Live Spaces and how they don't meet the definition of a blog.

And of course when it was noted that he's clearly angry and not thinking clearly by readers more eloquent and quicker than I, Scoble gave it a good spin and kept on going.

I like Scoble a lot! He's on my reader list. I usually agree with him. And I'm not saying I need to in order to read or enjoy some one's stuff. But seriously? What's the point? This morning I wake up and he's plugging a Windows Live Space full of XP goodness. It just feels like a stunt or a sensational effort for an afternoon much like reporting I'd expect from television reporting and it just rubs me wrong -- until tomorrow when I link to Scoble with some fantastic thing he said.

jen's step-dad's 50th birthday

2006-08-19T15:01:00.000-04:00

Jen and her family threw her step father a surprise 50th birthday party last night. Anne and I were invited for moral support with Dave and Shannon and her boyfriend (?) Jason. I had never met Jason before and he seemed like a nice enough character.

The party was on a boat and there was open bar, so of course a good time was had. I enjoyed a few drinks and hot dogs and hamburgers. Anne enjoyed a few of Shannon's drinks - she never finished hers - and the music (a bit too much I may add). The boat cruised up and down the Hudson River. We got to see West Point from the river side and the sunset was very nice as well!

Please note that in the picture I am neither Anne or Shannon and Jen is not Dave S as our name tags indicate. Please also note that the picture was taken after much wind-blowing had occurred and I accept no responsibility for my hair!

boy scout by-laws

2006-08-17T08:03:00.000-04:00

Not sure if I ever posted about it in the past, but I'm on a "task force" for the troop to document and publish the troop's by-laws. It's been a really interesting experience thus far. I've gotten to look at the adult history of the troop in ways I never have before. We've been examining the minutes of committee meetings back to 1999!

We're definitely making progress and I hope that our work will reunite and bind the troop as we move forward.

Of course part of the minutes uncovered a failed attempt to get a troop website going. I'm sure I'll be heading that one once we get back on our feet again. It may sound like I'm not looking forward to it, but I am - the website development aspect at least. I'm not looking forward to trying to satisfy a room full of parents all with different opinions about the internet. Some don't use it. Some think it's the devil. Others are a tad more liberal. Finding the common medium will be fun.

backlinks == on

2006-08-16T09:27:00.000-04:00

So in the last few days, Google released a new version of Blogger (which ironically is back in beta). I've upgraded to it and they now support backlinks. If you've been linking to my blog (and I know you have), you can now do it so my blog knows about it. Use the backlink stuff!

Along with the backlinks, the new version of blogger adds some new design features so be on the lookout for a new style in the blog. I'll be playing around with that tonight probably.

the Molly party

2006-08-13T23:41:00.000-04:00

First off, this post is being written by Microsoft's new WYSISYG blog writer, Windows Live Writer. It's pretty slick. I spent 5 minutes setting it up and will apparently post to my Blogger account! It's in beta right now so let me know if you notice anything odd about this post.

Anyway, on with the story.

Molly finished her summer contract with the YMCA camp she was working at so Anne and i picked her up. She'll be staying with us for a week - which rocks - until her parents swing by and pick her up.

When I told Foster that Molly would be coming in, he decided to change his weekend plans and conveniently end up in Chester for her arrival. Even better yet, Kev picked up Nate along the way. Molly was pretty elated when she saw them at the door. She screamed and cried :-)

Knowing that Molly, Kevin, and Nate would be all together I decided we needed to step it up to a full-fledged party. [Pictures] I called Kevin Twitty and Shaena and Steve. Anne got hold of Jen Bradshaw and attempted to get some others. However the 9 of us had an amazing night. We were all pretty wrecked - except Shaena who kept good track of some of the worse off. That, however, did not keep us from making several calls and messages to friends.

The party pretty much crashed in my living room and we woke up to pancakes this morning... made by moi! The whole lot of us went to the Castle to play mini-golf. The guys beat the girls and I think Foster had the best score of all. (I was ~~second~~ third)

We got some lunch at Chili's and Kevin and Nate were on their way. It was a great weekend. Earlier this evening Anne and I were talking. We both said we hadn't had this much fun in a while.

slapped in the face

2006-08-03T18:35:00.000-04:00

I believe that an ambitious person should have a vision of how he or she wants to live their ideal life. Something to strive for on a daily basis. Something to grade your current point in life against "complete success." And I believe that the vision is different for each of us.

For example, I take my vision from the Scouting roots I learned. I try to "be prepared" and "do a good turn daily." I try and live my life according to the Scout Oath and Law. And I feel that works well for me. It inspires me to be a better person.

However, and I imagine this happens to all of us ambitious folk, sometimes I stray. I lose sight of the vision. I forget or it gets shelved during stressful times. And it's often during those times that I need the vision the most.

When that happens, as it has in the past, I find that my journey back to my vision isn't a wandering or stroll. It's not an accidental re-discovery. Going on without the vision isn't a terrible thing. I don't think it makes one evil - just lost or misdirected. People go about every day without a vision on life.

The hard part is getting it back. In fact I think that re-finding your vision usually takes the form of a slap-in-the-face epiphany. In this last instance, I was so far from my vision that I was completely speechless - something that doesn't come over me often. It doesn't really matter what happened, but just knowing that it did serves as a notice to me to rededicate back to the vision I have.

the drive home

2006-08-02T00:08:00.000-04:00

I had the oddest feeling happen to me while driving home from work today. I was following a tow truck. One of those large ones used to haul away Mack trucks and box vans. Well it was towing a large box van... from the rear axle. The box van was staring at me while I drove behind it. I wasn't worried about the tow truck dropping it or anything - that would be like being worried about a bridge collapsing while you're on it. But it's just a common reaction to have a certain amount of dread when seeing an oncoming car in your lane. So I had the same awful feeling for 20 minutes straight as we drove back to Chester.

Not a bad take

2006-07-31T00:23:00.000-04:00

I have to thank my old residents in Building 30 up at RIT. They taught me everything I know about Texas Hold-Em' poker. Tonight I put my education to good use and pulled down $21 on a $5 buy in game over at Twitty's. I don't get to play very often with them, but I also don't think I've been disappointed when the game ends yet! At first I thought I ended up with $36 and I was super-happy but alas - I miscounted. Still a good night as a whole. Kevin and Shaena held a great barbecue and I got to catch up with some high school buds I haven't seen in a while.

Camp Ranachqua (ran-ah-kwa)

2006-07-24T18:36:00.000-04:00

Last week my Boy Scout troop spent a week at summer camp. I took a day off from work and got a chance to partake in the fun on Thursday night and Friday. Thursday night Steve and I went out for a few drinks on his night out. We talked Scout stuff and camp stuff and we got hit on by the waitress (him more than me). There was a singer there who was quite mediocre and I was even more upset when I realized it wasn't kareoke night - she was the hired entertainment. Whew!

Anyway Friday was a lot of fun! I got to spend some time with the Scouts I haven't seen in a while. I helped clean up our campsite, earning us a perfect score for the day's inspection. That afternoon I went on the fly fishing expedition with two of the Scouts; however there was not enough poles so I was forced to sit and watch quietly, just relaxing. It's tough being an adult leader sometimes.

A lot around the camp has changed. Places have moved around and policies added and edited. Camp food hasn't changed much. It's just as bad as I remember it. :-X

Before the evening flag ceremony, Steve, who is the rifle range master of all things, and I got to shoot for a while at the range. I was pretty bad at first, but with a few small adjustments and pointers from him I was able to get a pretty nice cluster. We took a few minutes with the shotgun as well and I got to shoot my first clay pigeons! That was a lot of fun. I was surprised to be able to pick it up so quickly. I don't shoot very often - almost never. But getting a chance to shoot up at camp was nice. It's a chance to just focus on one small thing and forget all the other things going on. You've got ear protection on so all you can really hear is your breath. It's a very "inner" thing - something I haven't experienced in a while.

The closing campfire was really nice. Our troop won Honor Unit; which is basically the "troop of the week" award. That was pretty cool. And at the closing campfire I got to participate in my first American flag retirement ceremony. That's when flags that are too old and worn to be used are burned in a respectful and simple ceremony. It's the only respectful way to retire an American flag.

I don't think there were many pictures taken, but if I come across any I'll have to post them up.

"Now you're thinking in portals"

2006-07-23T23:43:00.000-04:00

The upcoming Half-Life 2 episode is probably going to be pretty amazing. I haven't finished HL yet and I haven't even played HL2, but the upcoming episode is supposed to have a really cool new single-player fps which will turn the gaming industry on its ear. It's called Portal and just looks awesome. It's built on the HL2 engine called Source (warning: loads of big words on that link) - all of which has been written by Valve. Check out the demo video which is mocked up to appear like a training video for a new employee. It's impressive to say the least.

fly guy

2006-07-23T18:32:00.000-04:00

Nothing beats a random site to brighten your day. So ... let the brightening commence. This one is called Fly Guy and just put a little smile on my face. :-) That's a replica of the little smile on my face.

tom's new blog

2006-07-19T07:45:00.000-04:00

I'm heading out to work shortly, but I was delighted this morning when I received an email from good buddy Tom who just moved out to Washington. He's joined the club of the self-absorbed and started his own blog right here at Blogger. So now that I've plugged his blog our total reader count is ... 6 -- unless you count he and I twice. I also added his blog to the Friends' Blogs list just in case you didn't subscribe to the rss feed and couldn't remember tomgu.blogspot.com and failed to bookmark it and somehow couldn't find this post again to link to it. In any event if you can't find it again maybe you should stop using the internet.

While I'm talking about Tom, he sent me a link to a very amusing Jon Stewart clip that I must have missed. I know I'd remember his discussion on Net Neutrality if I saw it.

ie7 beta 2

2006-06-15T10:45:00.000-04:00

Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2 has been out for a while, but I just decided to give it a spin. I've been using it for 5 minutes, but I noticed that it renders the top of my blog differently so my name is covered by the blogger banner. I'll prolly need to switch UIs to something else now. Fantastic.

wedding pictures

2006-06-12T20:58:00.000-04:00

Anne and I received our wedding pictures from the professional photographers. I've already received a ton of pictures so far, but their collection alone is over 550 shots! That's 1 gig of photo space!

I'll be posting many of the good ones on daveandanne.com, but i may also open up a torrent file of the entire collection if there's enough demand.

2006-06-11T23:49:00.000-04:00

ok so if you managed to read the previous post (read below) before this one. i'm writing this now with jen and anne. we're all wearing off our buzz and they're goofing around leaving messages on myspace. i think they were checking out joe's (who happens to be gay) page. jen and i started arguing about men and women. she apparently will stop looking at a guy once she realizes he's gay. i however... um... pay more attention when i find out a woman is gay. we think it must be one of the fundamental differences between men and women.

well they've moved on to setting up plans for wednesday. i guess that was the end of that epic debate. jen has moved on.

holy cow i made it

2006-06-11T19:55:00.000-04:00

I've just survived an ENTIRE WEEK without television, internet or (land-line) phone.

Ok hold on a sec. Anne and Jen are setting up plans and won't let me listen to my music. I must fight them.

There. Anyway, yea, I just got my new Optimum cable service. The internet is hot. I'm getting 1782 KB/sec down and 204 KB/sec up at speakeasy's speed test.

One sec. Anne again... We're trying to decide about dinner.

And I'm back. Optimum screwed up my television so I have to switch the regular box for an HD box tomorrow.

Geeze. Another interruption. Sorry folks.

Alright. Lemmie wrap this up. The phone is quasi-functioning. We are prolly going to acquire a new phone to support caller ID in the future. If you'd like the number and you missed it in prior emails let me know and I'll hook you up.

yard sale tips

2006-05-29T22:51:00.000-04:00

My family held a yard sale this weekend which was quite profitable. With just a little planning and a small amount of prior investment, you can turn a quick buck on a bunch of old junk. Usually I spend my time writing about the daily events, but this time I'd like to spend more time on what I think are some good tips for holding your own yard/garage sale.

Planning

Make sure you really have enough items to hold the sale in the first place. You should really also have no reservations selling your items to the public. Remember the purpose of holding a yard sale is just as much to get rid of the junk as it is to make money on it.
Invite friends and family to participate. The more items on sale, the more cars are likely to stop as well as convert stops to sales. Plus your other participants can lighten the load and create breaks for eachother.
Take an ad out in the paper. Make some signs for the front of your house. If you don't live on a main road, plant some signs well in advance leading the way.
Go to the bank and get a large sum (we used $300) in various bills and quarters.
Grab some bold, but bright markers and thick paper for signs. Pick up some labels/stickers. They make them specifically for yard sales, but you can always get by with masking tape or taping paper to items.
Save up plastic bags and boxes. You'll need them to help people take their new purchases away.
Decide on the space you'll use. The closer to the road the better. A lot of people will browse from their cars so it's important to make it easy on them.
Plan for bad weather. A large canopy tent or hung tarp can provide shade and rain cover.
Set your time. Consider 8am - 3pm. Hardcore yard salers could be there at the immediate start if you place an ad and they like what they see. Most visitor traffic (in my experience) is dying out around 3. Many yard sales will go till 4, but IMHO if you start packing by 3 it'll be 4 before you finish and you can still cater to those tricklers who will do some box rumaging.

Pricing

Price your items.
Price them early.
Price them low, but maybe just a little higher than what you expect to get for it. There's two schools of thought on this... Price it high and expect to bargain people (so they think they're getting a deal) or price it as you want it and let the right buyer come for it.
Don't price items in increments smaller than 25 cents. Pennies, nickels, and dimes are not fun to deal with.
Consider what you think is fair. If the item has value, price it as the value. However if you're pricing something higher than it's fair value because it holds more intrinsic value to you, it may be worth considering if it should be sold at all.
Consistancy helps. Books, for example, might be subcategorized hard/soft cover but shouldn't have lots of different "cost levels." That just gets confusing. Clothing is another good example.
Group items and try to sell them in a group. Have a collection of some kind? Sell the whole set rather than allow it to be split and become harder to sell the rest.
Have something of extreme value ( >$500)? Don't sell it at a yard sale. People come looking for bargins with their dollar bills. They aren't carrying their check books. Place an ad or eBay it!

Setup

Put the most expensive, most impressive, most desired to sell items up front. A lot of people will only browse 5 - 10 feet "into" the sale making the first impression most important. Keep moving things up into those spots as things sell.
Set your items into "departments." Got a bunch of holiday items? Technology items? Glassware? Group them into sections so people can find things easier.
Make things easy to browse. Get some tables. Organize books spine out so they can be browsed without being moved. Older folks, who will be a large portion of your patrons, won't bother if they can't see or get to it easily.
Be conscious of walking lanes. If people can't get someplace, they won't try to go there. And then they won't see the silly lawn angel you've been trying to sell for 8 hours.
Optimize your items. Got a fake christmas tree? Set it up. Stainless steel platter? Polish it. Electric equipment? Run a cable and be prepared to show it works. You may even want to create an opportunity for folks to try on clothing somehow as well. Just like selling a house, the more people can imagine how the item fits in their house the more likely they'll buy it.
Get a lock box. Keep the key on you. Put the box out of plain sight.
You may want to setup the night before and cover your things. It'll be a big day.

The Big Day

Get out early. "Yard salers" are hardcore and will be out and about (we figure) as early as 8am. Setup the balloons and signs.
Take shifts as able. Hopefully it will be sunny and warm.
Be polite and greet people as you can. Creating a friendly atmosphere is important. Carry boxes for the old ladies dammit.
Be prepared to make deals and discuss the value of items. Remember half of the purpose of a yard sale is to get rid of the crap you've acrued. Sticking to your prices may not be worth having to haul the stuff back inside.
Having someone as a "greeter" in the front is a good idea, but you may want to station any other participants toward the back behind all the merchandise so visitors don't get the wrong impression and assume something is not for sale.
Selling beverages is a good way to make some side cash as well as keep yourself hydrated. I wouldn't get crazy into selling foods. Most yard sale vets move quickly between sales and prolly have some tradition to eat out or at home.
Hopefully it will be sunny. If it is remember your sunscreen. You'll be sitting under the heatlamp for several hours.

The End Of The Big Day

Before throwing out all that crap you couldn't convert to sales consider donating. Clothing and books have several possible outs; most notable right now is the New Orleans area. Many other items are also valuable to the right organization. Housing items can be used by emergency housing for example.
Large items might be worth holding onto rather than discarding. Wait for the right buyer. Take an ad in the paper perhaps.
Two-Day Rule: Items too large to go out in the trash and you can't stand to look at them anymore? Leave them on the lawn with a FREE sign and they'll be gone within two days.
Remember you can always eBay!

Wow that's a lot of tips. I guess I learned a lot this weekend myself. Now you're all wiser and can sell your crap on your lawn. Or if you've read this and become completely overcome you can always resort to eBay.

pretty good day

2006-05-21T23:55:00.000-04:00

Today was pretty alright. Got to sleep in. I set up an installation appointment for my internet/television/phone at my new apartment before really starting the day. At 1ish, Anne and I joined a bunch of friends at the local ball field for some ghetto ball (that's a scheduled pick-up baseball game). We avoided some rain and hit some balls. Malarky, Greg, and Jeff each hit one out (200 ft field). I mostly hit ground balls.

After a few hours of baseball, we moved over to Kristen's house for a lil bbq. She's not really much of a cook so i was the "grill master" for the evening, cooking some burgers, dogs, and sausage. While chowing and chatting we watched the final game of the subway series and I got to see the Mets actually win one. They tried really hard in the 8th and 9th to give it away, but the Yankees just couldn't muster enough to make it happen.

In all it was a pretty good day. I'm just gonna rest up now and get ready for another week of work.

The Sentinel - reviewed well beyond the point you could see it in the theatre

2006-05-19T00:32:00.000-04:00

So I saw The Sentinel Wednesday in a small crappy theatre in Chester. The walls were thin and I could hear the movie playing in the next theatre through the wall. I knew that before going in - I had been there before. Last time I saw a movie there however, the prices were below the wowie-zowie theatre in Middletown. Times have changed and the prices were now the same. It really bugs me (by the way, this is as much a review of the theatre as it is the movie itself) when you're paying 'the going rate' for sub-'the going rate' quality of anything; but especially for movies.

Jen, Anne, and I make our way inside (after I hit the ATM because the crappy theatre does not accept credit) to one redeeming feature. The movie operator's booth is on the same floor with the back of it completely glass, allowing a nice view of some kid reeling a movie. That's kind of interesting to me... for a moment. Jen, Anne, and I made our way into the theatre (with the 8 other people) and find seats on the left. Six of the others find seats opposite us on the right, and two women sit in the back row near the door. People on the right... no problem. People in the back... I wanted to take out back and beat with a shovel. Who spends $8.50 to see a movie they know nothing about only to watch the movie and continuously ask each other what just happened in a theatre with 10 people in it? Seriously. I spend $8.50 to sit quietly in a room and watch a crappy movie with Kiefer Sutherland and expect it to be quiet dammit. Since when did buying a ticket to a movie entitle people to talk (or worse, answer their phone) through a movie?

Aside from the theatre and the talkers, the movie was alright. It felt 24-ish... which it would cause Kiefer just ran around doing whatever he wanted in his slightly-panicked, always-husky voice... just like he does in 24. Eva Longoria is along for the ride as well, which should have been my first warning sign of a mediocre movie and Kim Bassinger(sp, cause i don't care) gives a rather lifeless performance. On the "Peter Scale" (refer to a yet-to-be-written post about the Peter Scale), I gave the flick a 650 (out of 1000 - in all fairness since I haven't even written about it yet).

2006-05-14T12:08:00.000-04:00

And here we are.. a month+ later (again) and married (for the first time). At least I have a pretty valid excuse. The wedding was great and the honeymoon was fantastic. If you'd like to see pictures of our trip, visit DaveAndAnne.com.

A lot of friends have asked if it feels any different to be married now. I usually respond with the crack, "It's such a small word, but i seem to choke on 'My wife' every time." Of course I'm joking. It feels a little different - a small tingle inside that we've reaffirmed our love publicly. But in all honesty, we're still two silly kids just having a good time together trying to get by. Only now we've got matching jewelery.

first dance

2006-03-26T23:54:00.000-05:00

Wedding plans are nearing completion since we're now less than 4 weeks away from the big day! Part of our decision process has been music to be played at the reception. Of course this is no easy task. We want the kick-ass-ing-ist party there can be. Don't worry, "Bust a Move" is on the must-play list. I'm sure it will be great, but Anne and I are still struggling with one big reception music decision: our first dance song.

We've been through a large list of songs several times. Neither of us want to compromise on the situation and we are not seeing eye to eye. I don't really know how to resolve the problem. I'm sure we'll find something eventually so I think patience is the best course for now. I've been listening to a ton of new songs on Rhapsody. Maybe I'll find a diamond in the rough there.

safari test

2006-03-01T22:13:00.000-05:00

While firmly entrenched in the opposing camp - being a Java person while I've sold my sould to Microsoft - Mark often finds some pretty cool links and web apps. Once again I owe him some credit. He's found a damn cool site that renders a url in Mac Safari and returns with a png of it's outcome. Now you can see how horrible your site may look rendered by Safari. While to the layperson this doesn't sound all that fantastic, it's a great tool for web developers.

today's word: jealousy

2006-02-16T15:26:00.000-05:00

Kevin owns an Easy Button. That's right! *THE* easy button as seen on Staples commercials. And I want one. I think I'll get one this weekend so that when I start my new job on Monday, I'll be the coolest programmer in the office... with my own personal Easy Button.

Here's to you Kevin. My source of jealousy, and my only reader.

2006-02-15T01:39:00.000-05:00

It's been some time since my last post. I seem to be slipping on this little endeavor of mine. It's late and I'm not going to even begin speculating why that is. Suffice it to say Foster motivated me to write something - anything for him to read while he's at work. It isn't much, but it's a start.

I can't even begin to cover the last few weeks/months happenings. It's probably best I don't try to hash it all in some epic story anyway. I think I'll just pick up where I left off - how I see fit - and continue on from here.

For now I see fit to head off to bed. I'm not feeling fantastic and I'd like to keep my weekend plans to visit friends in Rochester. I hope to avoid illness with a long slumber and some nyquil.

And since I know at least you will read this, hi Kev.

New Year's Resolutions

2006-01-02T16:58:00.000-05:00

It's been a month since my last post. December has come and gone! It was a great holiday season but now it's time to return to the "normal grind."

I always try to start the year off with a resolution or two. I've spoke with a few friends and they don't seem to put much stock in them. They told me they don't think they could accomplish or stick to them anyway, so "what's the point?"

I choose to make resolutions despite their cynicism. If we don't make resolutions in the first place, then how do we expect to change for the better in the first place? I won't pretend to believe that I'll be fully faithful to my resolutions, but if I don't make them in the first place I won't have something to strive toward. I think that's the point of New Years. It's the spirit that an individual can improve or better one's self. Don't we all want to be just a bit better off than we were the year before? And since we're changing all the time - shouldn't we try to change for the best.

It's an ambitious year for me. I have five-ish resolutions... all of which are pretty lofty. With that being said, here (in no particular order) are my New Year's resolutions:

Continue my efforts to lose weight & inches with visits to the gym and eating well.
Change a "growing" to-do list into a "shrinking" to-do list by finishing projects I've started.
Plan the best damn wedding possible - hopefully with as little stress as possible. (yea right!)
Train myself to speak in full & coherent sentences. Speak with proper enunciation.
Consider the consequences of things I say & do and how they will affect my friends, family, and people I interact with.

I realize that this may not be the best forum for a dialogue, but feel free to comment with your own resolutions. Good luck on yours!

2005-11-30T16:14:00.000-05:00

This is "JC" the Kitten. His story reads backwards actually, so you may want to start with the bottom picture and read "upward" for sanity's sake.
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2005-11-30T16:12:00.001-05:00

We took him back to JCPenney as previously arranged. We haven't heard if he's been found a home yet, I'll let you know when we hear something.
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2005-11-30T16:12:00.000-05:00

He's attacking the tape holding together his litter pan. Anne and I were proud (and happy) to see that he instantly took to the litter pan. No messes all night! We like to think we trained him.
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2005-11-30T16:11:00.000-05:00

This is JC attacking our bathroom cabinet door. Once he got the string he basically went berserk. Everything was a game or toy to him.
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2005-11-30T16:10:00.002-05:00

We gave him a piece of string and he just played and played and played. He was SOOOO cute.
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2005-11-30T16:10:00.001-05:00

We gave him food and he ate for a very long time. He must have been hungry.
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2005-11-30T16:10:00.000-05:00

Anne and I took "JC" home for the night because the store didn't know what to do with him.
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2005-11-30T16:08:00.000-05:00

This is "JC" the Kitten. He was abandoned with his brother "Penney" at JCPenney's yesterday.
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steve's new site

2005-11-03T14:06:00.000-05:00

I'm trying to get some stuff done around here so this is brief. Go check out my brother's new website at www.kissingnovember.com. Make sure you use the comment form on the contact page so he knows it works ;-)

They got to her too

2005-11-03T08:04:00.000-05:00

So Anne's taken a step out into the social networking novelty of the current internet generation. She's joined MySpace. You can see her little space here.

She didn't ask my opinion, but I gave it to her anyway. I'm not against MySpace. I just think that it's very fad-ish. I can appreciate that MySpace is one of many recent sites pushing the world wide web to a revolution (read more), but someone is going to do a similar thing in a better way and MySpace will be forgotten in a week as everyone migrates to that. I'd rather invest my time doing something more static - like blogging - which I realize is a just a tad hypocritical. (Yes that's right. I linked to my own blog to make sure you get my point.)

Perhaps I'd be less critical if MySpace did what it does better than it does it. She had been setting it up for less than an hour and was already having technical difficulties with the site. I hedged toward an "I told you so" and Anne responded with "well when are you going to write a new one?" I'll put it on my list of things to do.

I guess my other complaint is a stigma that maybe I'm alone on. I think I've heard several times from several people that MySpace was most useful for people just looking to hook up. I, for one, don't get that at all. Since when did the tried-and-true method for finding some action shift to broadcasting yourself in a public setting on the internet? What happened to attempting to meet individual people in social situations like a bar or chess club? I'm reminded of a Red vs Blue (thanks Jon) video comparing real life to internet life. Now there isn't an exact correlation within the video to this situation, but if you're intellegent you'll get my point.

Anyhow, visit her page. Click on some pictures, write her a comment, add her to your friends... or don't.

2005-11-02T21:24:00.000-05:00

Anne and I in a little homage to our handy-work. Isn't she cute?!
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*EDIT* "She" would not be the pumpkin. "She" is Anne.

2005-11-02T21:23:00.001-05:00

This is a shot of our pumpkins. Mine is on the left.
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2005-11-02T21:23:00.000-05:00

Anne and I finally got to carving our pumpkins. We did it today so unfortunately it's a day late, but you get the point. Mine is on the left.
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Happiness

2005-10-30T16:37:00.000-05:00

Happiness is finding and deleting the largest unused files on your hard drive.

Have you ever found yourself in a hard drive crunch? You may know that there are large files still hiding out on your computer that don't need to be around anymore. Perhaps you've ripped dvds to disc or done something else that takes lots of space that I can't think of right now. I've been there - today in fact. I've been hovering around 10GB of space on my hard drive and thought, "I should have more space than this. It just feels too full for what I've been doing lately."

I found a new tool called Folder Sizes which really made my day. I downloaded it on a 15-day trial, but it is fully functional even on the trial basis. If you know you've got some old files and folders around taking up a lot of space and you're feeling trigger happy with the Delete key, then I'd give this one a whirl.

It's a small download (3Mb) and unpacks quickly. Upon first run, there are several well written and placed help boxes (which I immediately clicked through). You can turn them off simply by changing a setting on each box. It works in a similar manner that you'd expect a virus checker to work. I was able to narrow my report to one hard drive right away. As the report comes back, I could see which root drive folders were largest. I picked a culprit and drilled down into the folder. Each time I did so, the report was updated with the largest subfolders and files. I found a number of installs as well as temporary files I no longer needed and in less than 15 minutes I had freed over 30GB of space.

Now there are a number of other features, but I didn't even get into them. I saw disc reports and defragmentation information. It didn't matter. I was super happy just to find the largest offenders on my hard drive and destroy them. It definitely made my day. Maybe it'll make yours.

"Doctor Tiki" Podcast

2005-10-18T14:26:00.000-04:00

If you don't have iTunes yet, get it. I'll wait.

Ok. Now that we're all on the same page... I found this pretty funny podcast while avoiding doing other things I should be doing. It's called Doctor Tiki. It's a humorous blend of dumb antics, drinking, and hawaiian parafonalia. In short... it's an a cappella song short of a typical BCS party. The lead charcter could easily be Fetzer. I highly suggest anyone with a short attention span or a need of distractions to check out. If you have a short attention span AND a need of distra-- hey you! Focus... focus.... there. You need to watch it twice. Damn kids and their Ritalin.

suroviec's blog

2005-10-18T10:26:00.000-04:00

Be sure to visit a fellow Dave's new blog. It's already got some fun drawings to check out. I'm sure it'll be filled with all sorts of general Dave goodness. You can visit it by directing your browsers to this url: http://davipalooza.blogspot.com/. Or you can simply use my "Friends' Blogs" section and hit up Davipalooza!

Assimilation

2005-10-13T07:52:00.000-04:00

We live in a one bedroom apartment with some decent closet space; however, no amount of closet space is going to store all the crap we have both gathered over the past 9 years together. Anne has a vast collection of teaching references and materials - sometimes I feel like I live in a arts & crafts store. I have computer equipment and Boy Scout equipment and other general ... equipment. We both have pictures of friends and diplomas and fun trinkets to display. In all we indeed have too much stuff.

We're both are fans of a TLC show called Clean Sweep. It's a reality program (oh the reality tv) about turning horribly cluttered rooms into nice Trading Spaces-esque rooms by pitching and yard saling away much of the room's contents. (ok no more TLC plugs today) And while we're no organization professionals (you can see for yourself if you come for a visit) last night Anne and I (I think) were beginning the long road to assimilating personal belongings into "our belongings" (dun dun daaaaah).

While cleaning, I came across a number of minor epiphanies: (which I think is an oxymoron because an epiphany is supposed to be large I would imagine)

I am a hoarder (ok that I knew way before last night)
I have too much stuff
I don't seem to finish things I start very easily

So after an evening's worth of work, things of hers that were pulled out are now neatly put away and things of mine are sitting in piles on our coffee table. They will undoubtedly get put back into a box or crate and put into a corner to sit and await the next day when Anne and I decided to clean house a little bit. I guess I'll never learn.

I won't lie and say I enjoy cleaning and organizing - I don't like doing it one bit. There are so many other things I'd rather do with my time ... like type in a random journal kept online for a small handful of readers. But I don't' avoid it either. I will tell myself to pull things out and tidy them up occasionally. However I don't find it cathartic like some wierdos out there who get their jollies by throwing their things out. I'm paranoid - worried I may throw out the one shred of my past that will reunite me with a fond and hazy memory. Just last night while cleaning up, I found some pictures of me when I was pretty young. (Anne says I was the cutest baby. I'll have to post a few for the reading republic to judge.) So there I was thinking about "the way it was." Now I didn't throw away pictures - that would be criminal - but I did let go of some things which had been in a trunk or crate for a long time. I don't feel any better than when I started and what do I have to show for it? One empty crate which its contents were assimilated or trashed. Now all I have is an empty crate. I still don't' know what to do with it. Oh I know... I'll just put all the crap that's on my coffee table into it and put it in a corner.

I guess that brings me to another concern. During the long process of melding properties, decisions are made. At some point some one has to decide, "Hey! Your piece of crap is not good enough. It didn't make the cut. Get rid of it. Yours is the weakest link. Go directly to jail. Do not pass 'Go.' And certainly... do not collect $200." Maybe I'm being a little sensitive to the issue, but I think that's a deeper part of it. Many people will judge you by your belongings. "Oh my God, how could she wear that?" "I've got the super-wowie-zowie newest video card in my computer." "Who's driving that Porche?" And I think trying to decide which of our personal belongings makes the grade to become our mutual belongings is also the decision that "your link to your past memory isn't good enough to stay around."

So in conlusion, since I don't know how to bring this around to a clean ending ... um ... *looking around* ... er ... LOOK OVER THERE!!! *points over there*

*runs away*

Basha Kill

2005-10-05T14:43:00.000-04:00

If anyone reading a few days ago really wanted to know where I went hiking (the place that I couldn't spell), I've found it again. Here's a resource on the Basha Kill Wetlands. I think the father-son-dog picture here is just oh so cute too.

2005-10-02T18:48:00.000-04:00

This picture was taken in the city of Boston the night of Jeremiah and Jen's rehearsal dinner. Heather just sent it to me. I loved it so much that I had to share it - so enjoy.
Posted by Picasa

i'm a freakin' machine

2005-10-02T10:24:00.000-04:00

This morning I got back from a hiking trip with Scouts from Boy Scout Troop 273. That was my old troop I belonged to before I went to college. I had a great time with the younger scouts (who I had basically just met).

This was the second of two hiking trips over the past two weeks. Last weekend we went hiking to someplace I can't spell and thus cannot find any reference material online. It was 10 miles and it was good. That is all I can think of to say about that.

However this weekend we went to Sam's Point in Cragsmoor and then followed the Bear Hill Trail. Another 10 miles. It was perhaps the most challenging hiking I've ever endured. We'd climb down these steep, steep hills only to cross a stream and turn back up to get on top of the ridge. This time we stopped a 1/2 mile from our destination and camped out for the night. We woke this morning (late), packed our belongings and then head out. It was a great time. The views from Sam' Point were amazing. And we were able to visit an awesome sidestop at the Sam's Point Dwarf Pine Barrens Preserve called the Ice Caves (the picture doesn't do them justice). They are these caves created by HUGE rocks shifting when glaciers passed through and removed softer rock from underneath these larger rocks. The large rocks could not support their own weight over time and eventually cracked and created large crevices for us to walk through which we now call the Ice Caves. If anyone in the area wants to check them out, it's a 3 mile hike (quite feasible for most) round trip for some really cool sights.

In the meantime, I've shaved off quite a few pounds in the last two weeks. I hope we can get out more often because, while my feet hurt, lightening my personal load would be great :-)

I'll post pictures when available.

holy big gap since last post, batman

2005-09-07T12:11:00.000-04:00

ok folks. I know you've been sitting very patiently with baited breath for my next post. It's been a month since my last and there has been a tremendous outpouring of concern seeking more posts on the blog. ... Actually, I'm exaggerating. There was no pouring of anything regarding anything about my blog.

But I digress...

Just a day or two ago, I got an email from our super nifty Brick City Singers super-secret alumni mailing list about the upcoming auditions for the group. (There's a not-so-super-secret super-nifty fan group here) They just put out a new video about the audition process which you can check out here. (link's on bottom of page. no direct link. don't want to anger Tom.)

I love the work done by those involved. I think it's a great selling piece for the group to potential bcs-ers. Tom was telling me that it can even be viewed on RIT's Student Government channel (15 last I heard) which is awesome. The video is fantastic at giving an informative look at what was most important to us when I was still in the group. I think it's as good a tribute to the bcs spirit as it is a sales piece. Good work!

Anne gave me props for my cooking

2005-08-03T21:28:00.000-04:00

First off- Dave Matthews Band. "Hello Again." Great song. Get the live version with the frackin' crazy awesome drum solo in it.

Anyway, onto the meat and potatoes of the post (HA ha...)

I made this awesome dinner for Anne tonight. She and I loved it! I was a little worried while cooking it, but it tasted really good! She said I should register daveisamastercook.com. Here's a quick recipe so you can try it too:

(all hyperlinks are unique, and irrelevant ... as usual)

Chili-Orange Country-Style Ribs

Prep: 15 min; Bake 2 hr; 4 Servings

Ingredients:
3 - 4 lb pork boneless country-style ribs (I just used pork chops. Wrong cut, but it worked fine)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon dried marjoram leaves
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 cup chili sauce
1/4 cup orange marmalade (I know! MARMALADE?!?)
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon ground mustard
2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives

Steps:

Pre-heat oven to 350.
Place meat in pan, sprinkle both sides with salt, marjoram & pepper. Cover tightly with aluminum foil.
Bake 1 hr 30 mins; drain.
While baking, mix chili sauce, marmalade, Worcestershire sauce & mustard in small saucepan. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally until flavors are blended. Stir in chives. Brush or spoon over meat. Re-foil and continue baking.
Bake uncovered 15 min. Brush or spoon again with sauce. Bake 10 - 15 min longer or until glazed. Serve with remaining sauce.

Twice-Baked Potatoes

Prep: 1 hr 35 mins; Bake 20 min; 8 Servings

Ingredients:
4 large baking potatoes (I did this with medium sized taters (creepy) and they worked fine)
1/4 to 1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup butter
1/4 teaspoon salt
Dash of pepper
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
1 tablespoon chopped fresh chives

Steps:

Pre-heat to 375. Gently scrub potatoes, but do not peel. Pierce (I know. Different spelling) potatoes several times with fork to allow steam to escape while potatoes bake.
Bake 1 hr 15 min.
When potatoes are cool enough to handle, cut lengthwise in half (parallel to the flat sides); scoop out inside into a bowl, leaving a thin shell. Scoop out potatoes using a soup spoon leaving about a 1/4 inch shell. Mash potatoes in bowl with masher or mixer until no lumps remain. Add milk sparingly.
Add butter, salt & pepper; beat vigorously until potatoes are light and fluffy and like a little piece of heaven. (I added that last part) Stir in cheese and chives. Fill potato shells (I like to think of them as potato boats) with mashed potato mixture. Place on cookie sheet.
Increase oven to 400. Bake 20 min.

The key is to start both dishes at about the same time. Get the meat in first and then wash and start the taters before moving onto the meat rub. Everything should be easy after that if you keep good time. Serve with a few orange slices on the side for some originality. It'll really match your pork.

So if you give this a whirl, let me know how it works out. Make it for your significant other. S/he'll love it!*

* Results may vary. This is not a guarantee. Void in Alaska and Hawaii.

cool link of the day

2005-07-20T15:16:00.000-04:00

In honor of Apollo 11, Google has done something else creepy and cool. Visit Google today for their homage icon and then visit Google Moon for some awesome moon action. Be sure to zoom all the way in.

Randomness: Boston, DMV

2005-07-08T16:11:00.000-04:00

I'm starting something new today. I don't really feel like all of this crap is worth reading in separate posts so I'll condense it into one randomness thingie and go along our way.

First up... New style, again. I wasn't feeling the other one as it broke on some posts. I opted back to a simpler style. I hope you enjoy.

Second. So excited! Sci-Fi Fridays (yes I'm a geek) return next week. I will once again have no life. It will be great. FYI if you don't know what's showing... you probably have more friends than me, but you should also know that it's Stargate SG-1, Stargate: Atlantis, and Battlestar Galactica.

I saw Mr and Mrs Smith last night with Anne. It was a nice date for the two of us. The movie was great - if you haven't seen it, see it before it leaves theatres. Then of course we capped our night by going grocery shopping. Ah the excitement of engaged life.

This past weekend was Jen and Jeremiah's wedding. Anne and I had a terrific time in the Boston area. Their wedding was beautiful! I was one of jeremiah's ushers along with his brother Colin and childhood friend Murray. We had a great time at the reception as well. One of the nicest parts about having their wedding on July 3rd was that the next day we were in the city for Independence Day -- er i mean Independence Day. It was a really great day! We toured a little bit of the historical district. We had awesome Italian food at a restaurant hosted by a Nazi-style Italian-grandmother-esque waitress. And then there was a concert with the Boston Pops followed by the BEST fireworks display I have ever seen.

Finally I spent a good portion of today down at the New York DMV. I now officially (at least in the eyes of the Orange County Clerk) live in Goshen. *yay*

MMOs and Ad Hoc Networks

2005-06-16T22:31:00.000-04:00

I found this interesting forum thread at gamedev.org regarding Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs). It discusses (with some variation) some issues with a serverless MMOG. In the traditional sense, MMOGs depend upon a central server to send and retrieve game data. The central server would coordinate information needed from one client to be passed to another. For example, the central server would have to somehow convey that a player was passing in front of another player's line of sight.

This of course requires a lot of machines and even more bandwidth (which is probably the basis for MMOGs requiring a monthly subscription). However the thread proposes an interesting thought about removing the central server. It raises issues in security and trust, notification, scalability, and network persistence. Who would keep track of information if no one was playing? How can you trust any machine? Etc.

These issues were very reminiscent to those I dealt with in a class I took at RIT. The class was called Research in Ad Hoc Networks. We were given this scenario at the beginning of the class:

Imagine being at a sporting event - thousands of people are there. The winning score at the last second was caught by hundreds of digital cameras... except yours. You missed it. No sweat. You'll just tell your camera to talk to all the cameras in the area and get images from theirs. A network would have had to fire up without a central server. Security and trust would have to be agreed upon. And several other topics regarding this ad hoc network would need to be addressed.

Studying those topics and then reading the forum thread really felt like similar issues. Perhaps some possible solutions for ad hoc networking could be employed in a serverless MMOG. I think the topic is really interesting .. and quite daunting. But if the bulk of the reason a monthly charge exists on MMOG is due to hardware and bandwidth, this could be a possible fix for that model.

into the west

2005-06-13T20:27:00.000-04:00

Anne and I have been dating for almost 9 years and I have never met her extended family. She's had to deal with mine from almost day-one, but I've never met hers.... until this weekend.

Anne's uncle Jon was getting married in Colorado and much of the family was coming in and getting together for the occasion. Fortunately Anne's dad Rick, Anne, and I were able to fly out as well.

It was only my second flight anywhere. And it was my first time off the east coast at all. The flying was pretty easy. On the way out, we had a layover at Charlotte. No biggie. As we landed I'm instantly looking for mountains. "Where's the Rockies? Where are the Rockies!?!" No where. It was cloudy!

We left the airport and headed to Aunt Anita's (all family references are Anne's, not mine) who was hosting the rehearsal dinner. Anne had given me a small piece of paper with a number of names and lines with relationships scribbled. It started easily enough. Rick has parents and 4 brothers with wives. Then Anne added kids. And first wives. And their kids. And then the fact that Anita is actually the bride's aunt as well... making Jon (the groom) Anita's sister-in-law as well as aunt. By the end, the scrap of paper looked more like a football play than a family tree.

So finally getting to Anita's and studied well I was ready. I met aunts and uncles and grandparents. And then I met the bride's family as well (which I was not prepared for). Rick had warned me that meeting his brothers would be a lot of "fun" for him. I was worried. I expected a bit of sophomoric pranking and humor and humiliation. They sat me down in the center of the four brothers where they began the "deee-scusion." I learned fairly quickly that the right answers were the ones that reflected their taunts, insults, and embarrassment-invoking questions with equal immaturity. Needless to say I fit in quite well.

The wedding the next day was very nice. I have never attended a Catholic wedding before, and while it was a bit longer, it was just as nice. At the reception, they served a free mimosa. Aunt Debbie unfortunately noticed that Anne and I were the first two at the table to finish ours. Oops. We slipped on that first-impression test. Anne and I had a good time dancing and such.

After the wedding, we went over to the bride's family's house for a post-reception party. It was a casual party for Jon and Lori to open gifts. Jon offered some words of wisdom in the form of jokes. And when the night was finally done, we sent them off with cans attached to their car bumper.

Sunday the Maynards got together and we continued the jokes and food. The brothers settled down a bit and caught up on happenings with each family. As they left I got several comments saying that I passed the trial and would be accepted into the family :-) Aunt Sheri said they voted and I survived. I could see how that vote would go...

"Dave"

"Someone taller"

"Dave"

"Somebody with more money"

"Dave"

... Looks like the "Dave"s win.

As the weekend drew to a close, I got to see some mountains ... which were beautiful. Colorado is a really cool place. I got to see Denver's stadiums from a distance ... which was real neat. Anne and I got some cool wedding ideas.

The flight on the way back was just fine except that we were running behind. We were on some crappy-ass plane from Pittsburgh to Syracuse which sucked, but we arrived safely.

With the weekend all over Anne, Rick, and I had a great weekend meeting/visiting her family. I hope we see a bunch of them come over for our wedding next April.

dating a developer: a female perspective

2005-06-09T13:03:00.000-04:00

Ryan found this fun and entertaining blog entry. It's a look at dating geeks from the female side. I laughed all the way through it. I think she's got a compilation error in it (you'll see it once you read it), but her intent is in the right place.

2005-06-08T13:35:00.000-04:00

After spending a bit too long on hacking my blog, there are some sorta-cool, sorta-new things. You'll see the NavBar up above is missing. And I've added a "Add a Comment" link right off the post - so feel free to do so. I added a "Technical BlogRoll" a few days ago in the sidebars. It's a slowly growing list of weblogs relevant to software development.

2005-06-08T11:54:00.000-04:00

Anne and I attended a wedding for a neighbor of hers two weeks ago. Steve shot this picture of us in my backyard before going out for the night. We thought we looked hot (for once both of us look good in a picture) so I thought we'd share.
Posted by Hello

mac podcast

2005-06-06T20:00:00.000-04:00

Are you a mac fan? Do you have too much time on your hands? Then this podcast is for you. It's not my cup of tea, but I thought it was interesting enough to blog about for the see of readers who may be into that kinda thing.

fun weekend

2005-06-06T09:41:00.000-04:00

Jeremiah's bachelor party was this past weekend. We had a great time. That is all I can tell you. I'm sworn to secrecy. :-D

Muse you can Use: Lite-Brite, Lite-Brite....

2005-06-02T15:48:00.000-04:00

Muse you can Use: Lite-Brite, Lite-Brite....

I was running through a few random blogs and found this blog featuring an awesome link! I could play around with this for hours!

Eagerly awaiting Myst 5

2005-06-02T14:46:00.000-04:00

I can't wait.
I just saw a preview of the upcoming (and supposed final) installment of the Myst series called End of Ages. I am SO excited. Apparently they had a display at E3 and I was not informed. However, GameSpy was there and did a nice preview spread on the game this week.

It's said to be a departure from typical Myst games in that it will utilize a full 3D environment (similar to a FPS) rather than 360-degree panoramas to point-and-click on. I'm not sure how I feel about that, but I've loved almost everything they've done so I'm sure I won't be disappointed.

Myst 5: End of Ages is slated for a fall release and I'll be there. I've had to include a screen shot from GameSpy. I hope this doesn't make the post look crappy. Awe man!

PS: The image was too wide for my blog and the CSS they've given me doesn't conform to wide images. I've shrunk it here so you can get the jist, but I'm also linking it so you can see it as it's ment to be seen.

What I'm reading: expert c# business objects

2005-05-31T23:52:00.000-04:00

This is your only warning, all non-geeks are likely to pass out due to boredom reading this post. Please move on or make sure you are properly seated before attempting to read on.

Did we get rid of them?
Good.

That being said, I made two purchases at Barnes & Noble's a week ago. I haven't gotten to the second book yet, but this one's a real winner. It's called Expert C# Business Objects by Rockford Lhotka.

If you work or play in Microsoft .NET (there's a really goofy pair of guys on the page when I visited it - here's the cache), I highly recommend it. This book starts at an advanced level and doesn't pander to novice wanna-be's. It attempts to cover the gap between small-time business applications and medium scale software development for businesses. I don't think this book would solve a software house's dev problems, but it would certainly handle many less involved situations.

This book has already been helpful to me and I'm only 100 pages in (out of 800). It quickly explains and shows with code included how to implement universal features of solid biz projects. It handles Remoting, n-Level Undo, Enterprise Services to name a few. Beyond discussions in each topic, Lhotka includes the source code for his Component-Based, Scalable, Logical Architecture (CSLA) which is ready to build upon with business specific logic.

I'm never very good at writing reviews or synopses so this isn't the best account of the book, but if you're in that niche and looking for a coherent place to bridge the gap that I found myself facing this is your book.

Notes:

Thanks to Kyle for some css support from his own blog (w/o his permission :-)
Check the sidebar links for a new addition: an old pal of mine, Ryan is now on the list.

shoestring budget foosball table

2005-05-29T11:58:00.000-04:00

(Sorry for the absence. I'm sure many of you were waiting in anticipation... very quietly)

Anne and I came down from Utica (or Yucktica as Anne's friend Joe would say it) for Memorial Day weekend for a variety of reasons. On Friday, we signed our lease for our new apartment in Goshen. Yay! Today Anne and I are attending the wedding of a neighbor of hers. It's actually being held at the same church where we are getting married next April. It'll be good to see how another wedding looks in the same space. And we'll probably have a good time too :-) And finally tomorrow my family is throwing a small Memorial Day party with family and local friends. So yay to that too.

But all of this is irrelevant and has nothing to do with my post. One thing not on the agenda that happened this weekend however is the entire point of this post.

This month, the town offers one of those spring clean-up programs. You put your junk out on the curb and the town comes and takes it (and then probably eBays it for a profit). Well my brother treats this time like a free yard sale. He's out like a vulture in the night scouring for some random coolness on someone's driveway. Wednesday night before I came down Steve came across the top to a foosball table! All the players and goals were intact! It was just missing legs. Steve threw (he probably did not throw, but place) it into his new Scion xA and sped off (he probably did speed off).

Thursday night we went and got 1 1/2" x 1 1/2" beams at Lowes and some hardware at Wal-Mart. Steve went to try and find a ball for the foosball table. (Is that called a foos? Or foose maybe? Anyway...) He started at Dick's Sporting Goods. They told him that they didn't have any right now because "they were out of season." Out of season?! I didn't know there was a right and wrong time to play foosball! It seems to me that foosball is always in season. When it's nice out, you put it on the back patio (or deck) so that you can enjoy the sun. When it's crappy out (or all the time in Rochester) you keep it in the den where you can stay warm and dry. Bam! In season! No "out of season." Steve went to Modell's where they didn't have them either.

Then Steve went back to Wal-Mart. He walked in and asked someone where he could find foosballs. The guy paused at first. Steve elaborated. The guy, who now claimed to know what Steve was talking about, brought him back to sporting goods (a good start) and proceeded to hand him a canister of tennis balls. Steve was no longer amused. He didn't find any there, although I'd speculate that they may indeed be at Wal-Mart. He even went back to the house where he found the foosball table in hopes that there might be a ball on the ground.

Regardless, we went to work on our foos-less foosball table. We attached the legs using some wood screws and L-brackets as needed. After testing the height, I told him it was too tall by quite a bit. He didn't want it too low so we only cut off a few inches. We then attached small floor coasters that we hope will be able to raise and lower to level the table as desired. Finally we applied a coat of textured green spray paint so the legs would sort of match the table top.

Once dry, we leveled the table, which is actually quite level on it's own. We want to seal the paint with some sort of sealant because it's water soluable, but aside from that it's finished. We were quite proud of our work at 4:30 am on Friday morning. Mom wasn't too pleased that we were banging and drilling till then in the garage. But oh well. All totalled $25 in parts plus our labor.

Not bad for a $25 foosball-less foosball table. I'll post pictures when available.

linux pvr

2005-05-15T01:30:00.000-04:00

So I'm not sure this PVR experiment is going to happen any time soon. I've got the plan in theory, but not the funds. I've been doing some reading and I don't think I can pull this off with the parts I have from my previous computers. This article in particular (thanks tom) indicates that I'll need a few new components. So... until I get some parts, this project is on hold. :-(

vote for the worst

2005-05-04T21:11:00.000-04:00

Now I haven't been a big fan of American Idol in the past. I guess I'm still not, but this season Anne got me hooked on watching it. I still don't like the "results" shows on Wednesday so I usually skip them (I'm skipping one right now while writing this).

I guess I was most hooked because I "picked my horse" early to win. Just like any other reality-based competition show, I hoped that my guy/gal/team would win. For American Idol, I picked Anwar (with Constantine second).

If you follow the show, you'd know that Anwar's journey ended a while back. It's unfortunate. If you also follow the news around the show, you'd have learned that pretty-crappy-and-white-trashy-lookin Scott was charged with felony assault on his fiancee a while back. Scott is clearly (CLEARLY) less talented than Anwar, and yet Scott outlasted him. With Anwar out, I rooted for Constantine. And last week, yet again my "horse" had fallen. Constantine was out before Scott, who has now made it into the top 5. So I felt justified and glad that I wasn't emotionally attached to the show. I walked away from it last week calling it "Farce Idol." TM

However I've come across some pretty interesting information. I was doing a search on the internet because of the Paula Abdul scandal about to hit the air waves (clearly another reason AI is absurd). .... Quick side note: that story is going to be hell-a-funny. I'll have to write again once I watch it. Anyway, I came across some interesting information. It turns out there has been an underground (so underground, I've never heard of it) movement for the past two seasons to put forth their choice as the worst Idol (Google Cache - It's not as pretty, but you can read the text even though the site is down) and try to get them to win. Their horse: Mikalah. And once she got bumped? Scott. They're mighty proud of themselves. I won't go into their explanation, but I'll point you to their site and you can see what they're up to.

I think it's funny that they do this to mess with the show which drives most people crazy (trust me I know. I checked the forums). However I've got a renewed interest in the show to see if they can actually pull it off. My new horse: the underground movement "Vote for the Worst." Now I'm not low enough to vote for Scott. He's sleeze in a cheap suit. However, who doesn't like a good controversy every ... week.

ftp again...

2005-04-24T13:48:00.000-04:00

I finally got my ftp server back up in a working condition. For those of you fans of a cappella, I hope this becomes the place to come to for your needs. I'm starting from scratch yet again so if you've had an account, you'll need a new one. Just ping me for one.

PVR experiment

2005-04-22T02:41:00.000-04:00

I was catching up with my buddy Rod (http://rodericj.com/~rod/) whom I have not talked with in quite some time. He's doing well. I'll let you ask him for the details.

While talking to him, he mentioned that his friend had built a PVR. A PVR, for those too lazy to follow the previous hyperlink, is a Personal Video Recorder. It's a device that can record video much like a VCR. The difference is that PVRs record to a hard disc. This allows for cool features like the pausing of television. A perfect example of a commercially available PVR is TiVo. (Wikipedia loves this paragraph)

Now the problem with TiVo (corporate link) and other commercially available PVRs is the monthly charge and the near inevitability that they'll be swallowed by competition and my equipment will become obsolete. Even if they're not swallowed anytime quickly, who would want to pay for those monthly subscription fees? I, and apparently many others before me, would not.

Rod's buddy had installed a openly available PVR called MythTV. I read some pages and saw some screenshots and was instantly impressed. I always wanted a TiVo, but I couldn't stomach the monthly costs. I definitely felt the gut urge to undertake the adventure of building a similar system.

Adventure? Indeed. See, I've done some research this evening and I can go a few routes...

No adventure & empty wallet: Go with TiVo
No adventure & less empty wallet: Go back to my regular television and rot my brain slowly
Some adventure & empty wallet: Buy a commercially available "do it yourself" PVR software bundle.
Tons of adventure & less empty wallet: Get a copy of an openly available "do it yourself" PVR software bundle that is much harder to install/configure because it isn't being funded by commercial purchases (we'll argue the freeware debate another day)

While the last option will most likely drive me the most crazy, it'll probably also be the most entertaining for you readers. The frustration ... The anger ... The disappointment ... The frustration. But it'll have drama. And readers love drama.

I'll be updating (ir)regularly with the latest details of do-it-yourself-PVR-building. Perhaps I'll be paving the way for one of you to follow later on. And for those of you (thank you Tom) who enjoy my tirades about dumb topics and pointless, longwinded stories have no fear. I'll still be writing in those valuable nuggets of daily time-wasting (your welcome Rod).

Google - one step closer to really scary

2005-04-15T14:03:00.000-04:00

I'll keep this short because this could be a long topic. Google scares me. Really. I was just starting to get over their really cool (I can almost see President Simone) and creepy (I can almost see President Bush) Satellite feature (click "Satellite" on right side of page) when their latest feature just came out. It seems like they come out with a new way to graft themselves to our lives each week. This time, Google is searching by numbers.

They can search basically any number you could think of. Phone numbers? Yes. UPC codes? Sure. Patent numbers? Uh huh. UPS, USPS, and FedEx tracking numbers? Yep. VIN number? No problem. VIN numbers? VIN NUMBERS?! They're hooked into my damn car now! DAMN! Not scary enough? How about FAA airplane registration numbers and FCC equipment IDS? Cause you can search those now too! I thought we were making a big deal about airplane/airport security. Now we're going to just give information away about planes? Why don't we just give everyone the names and pictures of the upcoming flights' pilots too while we're at it!?! I mean, I'd feel better knowing who my pilot was since I'd also know that anyone could look up anything about the airplane I'm flying in.

It would be nice to know that someone, somewhere is thinking, "Hey maybe we shouldn't make that ramp on the information highway... Maybe we don't want to make that information publicly available to the entire world. Maybe."

an odd relationship

2005-04-06T01:16:00.000-04:00

This story is confusing and has many characters. Try and keep up. I'd also like to point out that this entry (to the best of my very hazy memory) uses the MLA format for citing sources.

Anne's mother Cathy told me that her mother was a friend of a family up in Vermont. One of the sons in this family (Ian) is attending RIT next year. It came about that Ian could email me with any RIT/CompSci questions as he needed being that I'm a recent graduate.

So in one of his questions, Ian asked if I had any people who could answer questions in Film (they have a fun little flash animation) or Physics (they have a pretty boring one) as he had friends also starting at RIT who could benefit from their knowledge. I told Ian that I'd have to look for a physics major because I don't know any.

So where do I turn in search of a physics major? The friendly (yet closed and hidden and not-so-secret-anymore) Brick City Singers' Alumni Group. I sent the guys an email explaining a short version of the story and the need for a physics major.

Tom, current member in the group, couldn't help me out with a physics member but he was able to point out that the potential relationship between the incoming freshman and the physics major would be quite funny:

“I’m the only physics major who is a friend of a friend of a former member of an a cappella group who was contacted through an email list by the former music director of that group who is an RIT alum and a friend of you.” [Guzewich]

Of course Tom only got it partly correct. I didn't include the relationship through Anne so he missed a step plus I don't think he quite got it right. I would claim it should read like this:

"I am the only physics major who is a friend of a member of an a cappella group who was contacted through an email list by the former music director of that group who's fiance's grandmother is a friend of a family who's son is a friend of yours. And thus so am I." [Campbell]

We still haven't found that physics major (so if you're one, please contact me), but I'm sure if we were able to put the two in touch it would be like reuniting long lost twin siblings.

Works Cited

Campbell, David. Thought of five minutes ago. 5 April 2005.

Guzewich, Thomas. "physics major (off topic)." E-mail to RIT Brick City Singers Alumni Group. 5 April 2005.

Steve donates his hair

2005-04-02T12:39:00.000-05:00

My brother Steve has been growing his hair for as long as I can remember with the eventual intent to donate it to Locks of Love. The time has come just recently and he successfully dontated in the Buffalo, NY area before going back to Fredonia after his spring break. Here's a little photo-journal of the adventure. *queue sappy slow "memory" music*

Steve's hair is dreaded out into 10 inch locks.
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Steve grasping his donation after the damage is done.
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Before the razor...
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... And after the razor.
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An arial view of Steve's dome taken by the Goodyear Blimp.
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Steve and his girlfriend Ellen - post donation.
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Steve sporting the new look back at school.
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stupid crappy internet

2005-03-31T09:13:00.000-05:00

I have the stupidest, crappiest internet. The general service has been down more than it has been up since last Monday. In addition, I have a special IP address which I use to VPN to work... which has also been down for over a week.

I thought that perhaps the system administrator was perhaps on vacation and that no one assumed his responsibilities while he was gone. That would have been plausible considering Sunday was Easter. I could understand that. But it's Thursday folks. THURSDAY! He couldn't have taken time off before and after Easter. That's unlikely.

To make things worse, the admin isn't returning my calls. I don't know why or how much longer to expect this to be down.

BTW, if you're wondering how I'm posting now the general service is back up, but my special IP that allows me to work is still not working. :-(

new bed - part two

2005-03-18T11:50:00.001-05:00

As promised (a long time ago) here is a picture of our new bed. We got the sheet/bed spread from Kaufman's for a steal ($150).
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Here are Anne and I on our new bed. You cant see the bed much, but you can see us just fine :-)
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NOAC 5 Weekend

2005-03-18T11:39:00.000-05:00

Why do they rock so hard? Alumni Kevin Foster and David Fetzer work out with current Brick City Singer Regan Messenger during "Fat-Bottomed Girls" at last weekend's Night of A Cappella concert
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Tom and the guys singing "Clocks." I had an awesome time at the Brick City Singer's Fifth Annual Night of A Cappella concert.
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bridal show

2005-03-01T23:23:00.000-05:00

Anne and I put a small dent into our ongoing research for wedding vendors last week. We attended a bridal show hosted by the Meadowbrook showcased a number of DJs, photographers, florists, limos, and other bridal services. We found a few things we liked and several we didn't. Knowing those we don't like is just as important (if not more so) than finding those we did.

There was a gown/tuxedo fashion show put on by K's Wedding Center that was pretty lame (even for Anne). The dresses sucked. The bride's maids' dresses were awful. The tuxedos were standard. The models were unenthusiastic - not that they need to be Heidi Klum (hmm Heidi...), but at least smile and pose!

In all I think the event was informational and helpful. Anne and I had plenty to talk about afterwards. We may have even found our DJ.

donating to filesharing sites

2005-02-24T22:10:00.000-05:00

Now I've never been the one to give money away. I don't typically donate to people begging on street corners. I pass when RIT hits me up for alumni money most times. I won't donate to causes that don't appropriately justify their work. I make Girl Scouts explain why I need to buy their cookies and high schoolers tell me why I need to buy their chocolate bars. So when LokiTorrent (now a MPAA billboard, bastards) declared they were being attacked by the MPAA and the site was looking for donations to mount a legal defense, I didn't cave. I didn't give a dime. Why? Because they weren't going to win. They were breaking laws and had no hope of winning. Did I take part in their thievery? I plead the fifth. But they were knowingly helping others share illegal files.

So I read on Slashdot that the whole suit may have been a hoax. While reading the allegation, written by another file sharing community, I began to think "Yep. Good call on that one Dave. If they're willing to so openly break the law they may just be scamming you on this one too."So as I continued reading I was convinced it was a hoax. I was happy. Yay.

But I kept reading on into the readers' comments. And I found the truth is probably somewhere in between. It sounds like an agreement was made quickly once the MPAA contacted the site owner. After the agreement was made, LokiTorrent then proceeded to publicly ask for donations to "mount their legal campaign." HA!

I guess what bugs me most about the whole thing is that BitTorrent sites are based on a community of (illegal) sharing. It policed itself. It supported itself with (other people's) donations to keep servers running. And when the bottom bricks began to be pulled out from LokiTorrent, the owner decided to take it out on the community by taking advantage of them. And I think that's a shame.

So I guess the moral of the story is: don't buy Girl Scout cookies. No... I think the moral is apparent. It's just a shame that things like this happen. I'm at least reassured in knowing the owner didn't make enough in donations to cover the MPAA penalty.

Carnegie Hall

2005-02-24T21:30:00.000-05:00

February 22, 2005 will forever be remembered by me as the day I played Carnegie Hall. I didn't have a solo and my name was not mentioned in the playbill, but I was there - front row, leading the bass section. As some may know, I sing (sang) in the Middletown City Chorale. Last season we rehearsed and performed twice Beethoven's Mass in C. We did well performing it on our own with a small orchestra, but that's not the point.

This past Sunday and Monday, I rehearsed in New York City (at the Grand Hyatt New York) as a member of a larger choir, New England Symphonic Ensemble. The choir isn't really a choir as much as an aggregate of several choirs. We were actually few to be from New England. People came from Arkansas, Alabama, and South Carolina to sing as well. I made some new friends and we all talked about our varied experiences.

Tuesday was the big day. We had a stage rehearsal which went well and a lot of time in the city before call. Mom and I walked for a few hours and listened to the stage rehearsals of the two other performing groups that evening. We ate at this place called Cafe Europa just around the corner which was very clean and nice. With dinner finished, we came back and changed into concert gear - not combat gear.

In all the performance went well. I'm sure many readers probably would have fallen asleep during the performance (it's 40 minutes all in Latin), but it still sounded excellent. I'd like to go back in the next year or so if given the opportunity. It was definitely worth all of the preparation.

Valentine's Day 2005

2005-02-15T10:39:00.000-05:00

Of course we all know and love/hate Valentine's Day. What a swell guy, Mr. Valentine, to create a day where happy lovers feel extra happy, lonely folks feel extra lonely, stressed out guys spend lots of money and get extra stressed... *sigh* I can just feel it in the air.

My V-Day went as many others do. I hadn't done much planning, so as Anne left for work I was up and getting ready for my "day." I faked the "I'm working" thing with her to see her out and then started my day long mission.

First step: flowers.
Flowers are an important part of Valentine's Day. Why? Because that's where the real cash cow is. I paid several times more for my flowers than I did for Anne's gift. I'm not totally complaining. They look very nice. I took a picture or two, maybe I'll post those. I had to fight with them outside as it was extremely windy. And once I got them into the car, they spilled while I was driving. So it wasn't the best of starts for my day. Regardless, I get the flowers upstairs and make them look nice with some pictures of us.

Part duh: the gift.
The gift is usually the easy part. If you're a real sweet guy, you'll get some jewelry or other very thoughtful gift. If you're like all the other millions of guys, you listen well enough to know there's something she wants and that's what you'll get. (I fall in that category, I got her the Shark Tale DVD) However, if you're like all the other other guys (mostly made of RIT students), you got her what you wanted to get her and not necessarily what she wanted... lingerie and underwear. 'Nuff said on that. I think I just offended a lot of people (mainly RIT students).

Letter three: the candy.
Now the candy is a tricky one. There's a hidden message behind the candy. Get too much candy and your significant other (politically correctness is next to godliness) could possibly be thinking "OMG! Does he think I'm some kind of pig!?" Don't get any candy and you may hear "Where's the candy? Do you think I'm fat?" So the safe bet is to get a nice low dose of sugar and chocolate. Especially when you know she loves M&Ms. (Anne does) (btw, Anne didn't say or think any of those things)

Next: the card.
Kevin James (I just learned from IMDB that it's Kevin James III) has a very funny comedic commentary on greeting cards. I'll defer to him on this one. Get one. Write her name in it. Write "Love " in it. Don't literally write "" in it. Write some X's and O's. Done deal.

Five: some atmosphere.
Anne came home around 4. I made sure to have some candles lit and her gift and card wrapped up and near the flowers. I put the M&Ms out in a bowl nearby as well. Needless to say she was very happy. I think she loved the flowers.

Last but certainly not least: the restaurant.
Make sure you go out to dinner. On a nice evening like Valentine's is supposed to be, couples shouldn't have to worry about cooking dinner. If the experience at the restaurant is good, it's that much better of an evening. If the experience was "eh to poor" like ours was, at least you didn't have to cook. We went to an Italian restaurant down the street called Nino's. They have good food, but their service wasn't very good. Everything was rushed. Our waiter brought out salads while we were eating our appetizer (forgivable) and our entree before we were half-way finished with our salads (barely forgivable). It was later in the evening and we were probably their last table, but I was still surprised when one waitress began running the vacuum while we were clearly still eating. Anne and I had had about enough at that point so we quickly paid and left. It didn't hamper the evening at all- in fact it made for some interesting conversation.

The rest of the evening should be downhill from there. It's a lot of work, but it's almost always worth the effort. That's all for now.

PS- This post may not accurately portray my personal feelings on the whole Valentine's Day thing. Especially if you're reading this and your name is Anne. If you're Anne, then I love the whole day and have nothing bad to say about it. And I love you. .... Anne? Anne?! AAAAAAANNE!!!

new cell phone

2005-02-14T19:40:00.000-05:00

I went home this past weekend with Anne. We had a nice time talking to my Uncle / Pastor Brian about our wedding. But aside from that, my family got new cell phones for our family plan. I was soooo excited to be rid of the brown brick one would call my cell phone. I could slay a small dragon with the thing. Anywho we made our way down to the Verizon Wireless store to sign our new contract and pick up our phones. I got a Samsung SCH-a650.

I really hate cell phone companies. Verizon Wireless is no better than any of the rest. I think they hire their staff knowing that every social American will need to deal with these people no matter what. In that every Cell Phone Sales Clerk is the least helpful, most irritating, slowest individual you've ever met. And cell phone companies don't care... because they know you're buying the cell phone at that point. You could wait for 3 hours and you'd still be there waiting for your cell phone. And Verizon Wireless knows it. To make things worse, they sit behind this counter with a computer. I can hear mouse clicks all over the place. You know Tiffany (as our special clerk was named) is playing Minesweeper or Snood on her computer rather than selecting our contract and phones. The thing that really kills me is that she's probably on commission. Wouldn't you want to do your job quickly if you were on commission in order to sell more phones and thus make more money?!?

So we finished up with "slow Tiffany" and I thought she was going to give us our phones, but no. We were moved over to the Activation Clerk. This was much less eventful except that my brother Steve whispers in my ear that the woman is wearing a wig. I could barely hold my laugh inside. He was probably right.

About an hour after entering the store we got our cell phones. Hurrah. I moved my phone book over and everything already too so no one got dropped in the conversion.

Pepsi iTunes Music Promotion

2005-02-10T08:39:00.000-05:00

It's back! Last year Pepsi and Apple had the single best promotion. Drink a Pepsi and have a 33% chance of winning a free song! I thought it was brilliant. Why? Because suckers like me drank enough Pepsi products to fill a small ocean (I think they call small oceans "seas"). However they started it again. The big campaign started at the Super Bowl and goes until April 11.

Last time I had an in. I was an RA and buying soda was... how would you put it... ritualistic. I'd buy one for lunch, one for an afternoon snack, sometimes I'd buy one at dinner, I'd usually have one in the evening, and many times I'd have one as a nightcap with my good buddy Tom. You're probably thinking: "Wow! That's a lot of soda!" Well you're right dear reader, it is. See I could afford that because I was a fully funded RA on RIT's funny money system.

And alas, now I am not. Not only do I not have fake money to burn, but I don't live near any soda machines that dispense yummy, good Pepsi. So I need your help! If you drink a Pepsi and find a code, you should send it right away to me! Ok, GO!

Amazing Race 6 Finale

2005-02-09T13:45:00.000-05:00

You might be familiar with my guilty reality tv habit called The Amazing Race. It's appropriately named, aMAZing! I love the show. And it didn't I'm glad it didn't disappoint last night as it was the season finale. It wasn't quite as entertaining as watching Charla & Mirna (the midget team) from last season, but you really can't beat midgets anyway. I was rooting for Kris & Jon who were in first place until the final plane flight. They were misquoted by American Airlines (stupid AA) about the first plane back to Chicago and arrived second. Freddy & Kendra were able to capitalize on the mistake by grabbing the first flight and while only minutes separated them, Kris & Jon never had a chance to get back in front. Oh well. Freddy & Kendra won a million bucks. Yipee.

So at the end of the race, they tease us with trailers from Amazing Race 7 which starts in 3 weeks! WHOOO HOOOO!!! One of the teams are former Survivor contestants. That should work real well... *pfft* The Survivor contestants from season 5 were out in the first few weeks.

So then I got this really good idea. I wanted to fill an application with Anne for season 8. Last night there was no link to be found, but today while writing this, I found a link for casting! Unfortunately, like a sucker punch really, they're announcing that they're looking for family teams of 4! WTF!?

... So does anyone wanna be my long lost brother?

almost hit a deer

2005-02-05T01:42:00.000-05:00

Short story...

I almost hit a deer tonight! I was coming home around 1am from Montgomery where I was visiting my family. It was obviously dark and the road is twisty and windy. The road is notorious for deer because there are woods on either side of the entire road. The posted speed limit is 55mph, but I was doing 65 - 70.

Now even though I was speeding, I pay careful attention in front of me... always scanning for deer and other animals. I happen to catch one on the right side of the road a ways off and hit the brakes. My car was still going 25mph when I went by it, but I went along my way and it went about its.

Just as I was about to start pouring on the gas again, I saw a young deer right in the middle of the road. I easily avoided it because I was moving slowly and the deer had plenty of time to get off the road before I reached it. However if I was still moving 65 - 70 I probably would have hit it. That would have been bad for all parties: me, my car, and the deer.

Anyway, not much more to that story than that! I had a good two days in New Jersey at work. My company is moving into a new building which is very nice. And the meetings we've had yesterday and today have been quite productive. Needless to say I've got a full plate now. But that's fine because it'll pay the bills.

home till saturday

2005-02-03T01:57:00.000-05:00

So I'm home for the next few days-- Middletown, New York. Yippee! It's nice to go back to the roots sometimes. Especially when you get to fix computers and work a shift at the resuraunt on the first day back. It was slow at the resuraunt and Sue & Jerry gave me 20 bucks for working; plus, I got to hang out with my cousins Josh and Joe playing GTA San Andreas, so I shouldn't complain.

I just don't like servicing old computers. If I'd have my way, I'd have Holberts Catering (my family's business) pick up a new computer and be done with it. Oh well.

I'll be heading down to New Jersey tomorrow and Friday for some work meetings, but you can always email me if you need to reach me. I think my mom is cooking tomorrow night so I'm looking forward to that. Some good home cooking never hurt anyone. :-)

Take care.

2005-02-01T01:58:00.000-05:00

Things are going pretty well today. Anne and I finally received our new queen sized mattress. We put all the new sheets on it and took pictures of it; despite Anne wanting only to nap on it right away. I had to coerce her to get up and take a picture of me on it! Anyway, pictures on that forthcoming...

I'm finally fully operational and back up and running with work. I've been experiencing a variety of roadblocks including internet outages, VPN problems, and MS Visual Studio snafus, but I believe we've got them all figured out. Now on to making money!

I also got to catch up with Kyle Smith today. I haven't talked to him in quite a long time. It was nice to hear about his recent goings-on. I'm sure Kyle wouldn't appreciate me for airing them for him, so I'll let him do the talking at his own blog. You can also visit his blog via the link on the right side-bar. Needless to say he's doing well though or else I wouldn't be calling this part of my good day.

So for now I'm going to bed. Gnight all!

new style template

2005-01-27T18:26:00.000-05:00

I decided I wanted a change for the blog. I've seen too many using the same template I selected. So in a moment of weakness and originality I changed mine to Tic Tac Blue. How cute. I prefer the white background color though. It's easier on the eyes. Be sure to let me know what you think!

new bed sheets

2005-01-25T16:08:00.000-05:00

Now our mattress gets delivered (hopefully) later today. We still have to find proper bedding for our new upgrade. But that's a story for another day.

Well guess what? It's another day... Tuesday in fact. The mattress was not delivered yesterday (unfortunately) so I'm still sleeping on shitty ass extra long twin mattresses.

Anne and I decided to go out shopping for our new sheet set and out for dinner. We were going to check out this Italian restaurant which we heard of called Bella Cucina. Anne and I were starving and were looking forward to eating at a place we heard had good food. Unfortunately, again, we were thwarted and the restaurant was closed. Damn damn! (We ended up at Applebee's) Not letting it totally ruin our night we began our search for the bed sheets.

After several hours and stores, and cutting an already long story short, we found a set we could both agree upon. I think they look pretty hot. We got one of those bed-in-a-bag sets from Kaufmann's for a steal! They're red, bronze, black, and white. We even picked up a matching throw pillow. I'll have to take a picture of the finished project once it's all delivered and setup.