Category Archives: Family

Terror in the not-so-deep

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While I haven’t blogged about our pond as much as I originally intended, I have mentioned it before so I’m sure you are already aware of its existence. There has been a development over the last few months that I haven’t mentioned. An evil development.

About two months ago we noticed that the fish were hiding in their “tunnel” (a 6″ wide pipe about two feet long underneath the waterfall for them to hide in) all day for a day or two in a row. We concluded that they were hiding from something. Fortunately, our dogs have been good to not bother the fish so it wasn’t them. The active theory was a racoon.

We were out as a family and came home one day and saw a rather large haron flying away from our yard. It’d didn’t take much deduction to make it our suspect #1. Shortly thereafter, one of our two butterfly koi was missing. A week or two after that, the other one was gone.

Research began on the predator and learned that they are one of the more common visitors for pond owners. We also learned that they are quite crafty even going so far as to vomit into the water to lure out less cautious fish. We may be missing more but with about 27 (mostly goldfish around 4-5″) it’s hard to keep an accurate count.

We have determined the best defense is to get ourselves a scarecrow. We should receive it this week and shall hopefully reduce the tension among the inhabitants.

I also need to get some more fish.

Am I ready for this?

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Monday is the beginning of a transition for me at work. I’ve mentioned previously the group I work in which is called SAS-DEV. That particular group is made up of myself, three colleagues and our manager (who is also the manager of the larger SAS group). Monday, a fifth team member joins us and I start the process in becoming the SAS-DEV manager. I’m not sure how long it will take but the “official” (e.g., HR) designation won’t change until I am doing at least 51% of the work of a manager.

The whole thing is going to be a bit odd for me. I’m generally o.k. with the manager thing as I used to have two direct reports when I was at RedZone. The strange part, initially, is the fact that I’m going to be the manager for what up until now have been my peers. Ultimately, I feel this will work out for the best as I already know them, they know me, and we get along quite well both personally and professionally. If there was one time in my life where I can start this next step and not stress about it, it’s here with these folks. Yes, I know that each of them generally follow my blog but I am honestly not trying to suck up.

The other part that has me wondering is how things will look when everything is said and done. I don’t believe there is enough “managing” to be done to fill a whole workweek so it’ll probably be a half manager, half sys admin kinda thing. One of my friends referred to it as being a Sergeant which sounds about right. I’ve never stressed about my career and we’ll all feel our way through things as the weeks and months come.

To give you and idea of the support, Kristin was kind enough to put the following comic up in the window of my new office:


From Johnnie Moore’s Weblog

It hasn’t been the first ribbing since all this came up and I’m sure it won’t be the last. That’s just how we roll.

We’ve got ourselves another frog

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When we got our pond two years ago, the "pond guy" told us that it would likely draw life from elsewhere in the neighborhood. Not really living near anything even close to "wilderness" I didn’t expect much.

Last year, we started hearing a small frog near the waterfall. I couldn’t figure out where he came from as he sounded like a small frog and I couldn’t imagine such a small thing hopping blocks to get to our backyard. I tried a few times to find him, but decided to just enjoy the added ambience. Towards the end of the summer, his croaking stopped. I’d like to think he just moved on which is likely since I never found any signs of foul play.

This morning, we started hearing croaking again. Is it the same one back or perhaps just a referral?

An update on my eyes

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Safety goggles are for loosersIt’s been three days since my exc-eye-ting morning getting metal removed from my eyes. My right eye is now only solid pink instead of beet red and my left eye is just a little bloodshot. Both feel o.k. especially if I keep drops in them.

Kristin was kind enough to forward a shirt she found on CafePress shown on the right. B said she is very likely to get it for me as a late birthday present or early father’s day present. If she does, I shall wear it with pride!

One eye, two eyes, red eye, redder eye

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I’m sitting on the couch at the moment wearing my sunglasses in a room with the blinds closed and writing this blog post while I normally would be wrapping up at work to head home. Why? Is it because I am just too cool for the room and couldn’t be bothered with work or the many paparazzi that often linger by my house? Not a chance. No, no. The simple truth is that I am recovering from one of those many unexpected events that occur in life. Let me explain.

PS3 Development systemOne of (many) projects I’m dealing with at work is racking up some PS3 development systems (one pictured at right) and while they are often used in our offices, these are the first that my group have ever had to set up in our datacenters. Unfortunately, the rails for the units were unlike any that I had seen before and came with zero instructions. When examining how I was going to get them to work last Friday, I concluded that the slots in the provided rail brackets were too thin for the M5 cage nuts and screws provided. I figured that since there are several ways for server racks to work, the hardware included presumed one type and we used a different one. "No problem," I thought. My manager suggested using a drill or dremel to compensate. I was frustrated that I would have to do such a thing, but fortunately I had the necessary equipment at home so I took the brackets home with me.

On Sunday between church and our last home fellowship meeting for the season, I pulled out my dremel (knock-off, actually) and started working through the bits to find what would work. I discovered that the grinding wheel worked pretty well and so I took care of the lot of them (there were eight).

The next morning when I went to use my modified hardware, I figured out that it wasn’t actually necessary. Eh, oh well. It did take an hour for the two servers (by comparison, I can rack one of our Dells in about 5 minutes) but I finally got them working. Satisfied, I went on with my day which by my luck was filled with vendor meetings.

Around lunchtime, my eyes started bothering me. Not burning, just like there was sand or similar irritation and I couldn’t stop blinking. I was able to get through the day and during the somewhat uncomfortable drive home (blinking, tearing, and aching) I discussed the situation and possibilities with B. She pulled out her trusty nursing books and we went over the options. Pink eye? Ugh, I shook hands with a lot of people (including my manager as a joke). I felt horrible with the possibility of starting a mini outbreak of conjunctivitis. I remembered the metalwork I was doing just a day before, but wasn’t sure as I had no complaints for almost 24 hours. She scheduled a examination by an ophthalmologist to determine what was going on.

That was this morning at 8:30. I had taken my lunch, this laptop, and my other work items with the presumption I was going to be heading in afterwards. The nice gentleman checked my eyesight (still good), and examined my eyes. He discovered two metal fragments (one in each eye). He got the one in my left and half of the one in my right which was more deeply embedded. He called a nearby vision center and was able to get an immediate examination with a corneal surgeon to get the remaining piece and to excise the tissue around the injury as rust was already present. About an hour later of significant examination and (ironically, a smaller dremel like device), he had removed the remaining fragment and the surrounding tissue. He gave me some anti-bacterial drops to use for the next few days and sent me home. As it was already about 11:15 and work is an hour away, there was no chance I could head in. The drive home was a treat with the nice, bright sunshine.

Red eyeI worked briefly via VPN but was quickly sanctioned by both my wives (my real one and my office-mate) so went low(er) tech and listened to podcasts with my eyes closed. As the afternoon wore on, my eyes got more sore to the point now (at 7:30) I’m thankful the sun as set and am trying to avoid anything bright which would cause my iris to constrict which is still quite unpleasant. The picture at left is the best that could be taken with little ambient light. It’s enough to get an idea how much I discourage the experience for others. I’m hopeful a full night sleep will help considerably and I can get back to work tomorrow which is K‘s birthday.

Now, my lovely wife(wives) criticize me for not using proper eye protection, and while that is true, I have realized, or at least justified, that it could have been from my hair or clothes which would have happened either way. If I really want to point fingers, I should have spent more time examining the rail system to determine that modification wouldn’t be necessary. As anyone who knows me well knows, I tend to take things as they come. I don’t blame anyone (certainly not my employer as I wasn’t doing this under their direction) and the Lord was kind enough to (so far) get me through this. I’m pretty sure it will just improve as the days/weeks go on.

A change of scenery

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 A kind friend of mine, shared a few new WordPress plug-ins with me for integrating a blog with a Flickr feed: Slickr Gallery and Slickr Widget. I had previously set up Gallery on my site and do have several pictures uploaded, but I liked the idea of leveraging the largest web sharing photo site around. Now, I can simply export any picture I want to share from iPhoto to my Flickr account and they are displayed on the sidebar to the right. Click on a picture and pull up a nice flash-based display of the pictures.

I’m planing on setting it up with the email access option, so I can easily post new pictures when out and about. I’ll be working to migrate the gallery pictures to my Flickr account but will likely leave everything in place until I have to worry about migrating it. That way, my previous posts are still valid.

Can you tell I had a nice time this weekend relaxing? Now, I just wish I didn’t feel like I’m coming down with the same cold that Brian and Becky had last week.

Operators are standing by

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 I’ve heard about GrandCentral a few times, but never had the chance to take a look. I’m impressed. The service which was acquired last summer by Google, has a very interesting concept of a single phone number for life.

How it works is this, you pick a phone number in any area code you wish (not necessarily where you live or work), and then register your other phones (e.g., home, mobile, and work). When somebody calls your new number, all of your registered numbers ring simultaneously. You can limit which phones ring based on the designation of the caller (family, friend, work or unknown). You can even register a SIP phone like Gizmo Project or an Asterix service. Now, you can hand out a single number for all folks and not worry about giving a more private number and they can still get a hold of you. If you don’t answer, GrandCentral will take a voicemail and can email and/or SMS you with the notification and link to get the message. You can also customize the greeting for each caller which certainly make it more personable.

A cool feature is you can switch between any of your registered phones by pressing ‘*’ just like if you switched extensions in your home.

Lastly, and perhaps the geekiest feature, is the WebCall button you’ll find on the home page of my blog. You click the "Call Me" graphic, enter your name, and the number you can be reached at and click "Call Me." What happens next, is your call-back number will ring and when you answer, my extensions will ring and connect us when I pick up.

I hope I’ve given a reasonable description of the service. For me, I plan on using it specifically for work for a single contact number when our network operations center needs to get a hold of me and for those occasions I need to give a number to somebody but don’t want to worry about staying at a number or leaving the line open.

If you’re game, give me a call at 760-444-0399. I’m planning on using it from now on.

Clearing out the drafts: A night with John Williams

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I have a few posts that I never got around publishing and have been glaring at me every time I go to write something. Since I can’t think of anything particularly interesting to say, I’ll polish off one and call it good.

Interestingly, the concert was one year ago tonight exactly. Weird.

My family had the distinct pleasure to go see the San Diego Symphony last night during a special performance of John Williams‘ music conducted by the man himself. I have had a great appreciation of his music since my childhood after seeing Star Wars, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Superman, Raiders of the Lost Ark (and on and on) so it was a real treat to experience his music performed live while the man who created it, led. He covered much of what he is known for and to be honest, I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s a little tired of hearing them. That is true for most well known performers so why not composers, too.

During a set of pieces from Harry Potter, he did something that I thought was very decent and a sign of how genuine he really is. The piece "Nimbus 2000" is performed by a woodwind ensemble which was seated right in front of his stand. He started them off and then simply stepped down and watched them perform. I thought that act showed sincere trust in the performers and an appreciation of their performance. I do believe that he wanted to make sure everyone could see them as well.

Another interesting part was when they performed the chase sequence from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. He first showed the sequence (the one with River Phoenix as a young Indy running from some poachers on a circus train) on a screen above the stage with only the dialog and sound effects. He then played the sequence again with the musicians playing the scored music. It was a nice experience for people to see how the process of scoring a movie works.

In many respects it was the symphonic version of a rock concert. They did three encores (Memoirs of a Geisha, Olympic Spirit, and Raiders of the Lost Ark) which, in my fairly limited experience of concert going, was a first. All-in-all, I was very happy to see my musical idol in the flesh (well, tuxedo) and feel it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

A nice Sunday with the family

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If you’ve been paying attention, I’ve had two trips in three weeks. As a result, I’ve been missing my family, and it was quite nice to be home today and watch the super bowl together as a family. Since I’m not much of a sports fan, I was more interested in the ads than the game itself. One of the more entertaining ones was the one from E*TRADE. You can check it out at their site.

Macworld Expo, Day 2

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Today was all about the South hall. Obviously, Apple’s booth was the largest and in the middle of the floor. Most people were interested in fondling the MacBook Air but the other products got plenty of interest as well. They were smart to have empty MBA shells at the sides of the booth so people could marvel at the new design. Time will tell how durable it is as the form certainly makes you want to slip it in a backpack or bag. The recessed USB ports look cool, but I’m sure owners are going to have to carry a USB extension for those things that won’t fit.

The coolest product I saw was Eye-Fi which is a 2G SD memory card that also has WiFi circuitry that is independent of the camera. In practice, it allows you to take a picture and have it automatically upload it to your computer (in local mode) or to Flick via their servers. If there isn’t a known network available, it stays on the card just like normal. I asked if they were thinking about a MemoryStick version and he said they are talking to Sony but it’s too early to know. I hope they do.

I also talked with the Omni Group booth about their new OmniFocus which I’ve been using for a bit. I wanted to make sure I was using it properly as I started while it was in public beta and developed habits before some features were implemented.

The funniest thing was the fact there were iPod/iPhone case vendors everywhere including two that were across the isle from each other (awkward). Becky‘s in the market for one so I’ll have to try and find out what she wants and see who has a good show special.

I’m very happy that El Gato released a new version of EyeTV. They addressed several complaints I had since switching from my MythTV last year. They add a smart listing (e.g., smart playlist) based on multiple categories and can optionally record any matching episode. They also improved the on-screen menu which will make it easier to use on our TV.