microcline

Oatmeal Stout from Breckenridge Brewery

2010-08-20T22:55:00.001-06:00

I like the Oatmeal Stout from Breckenridge Brewery I enjoyed while reviewing mortgage paperwork this evening.

I'd drink it again.

Arizona Board Game Society

2010-04-10T14:29:00.003-06:00

I went to the Arizona Board Game Society meeting yesterday evening at Gamer's Inn in Mesa, AZ. Five or six people, mostly IT. Good times.

We played Dominion with the Intrique expansion. I misjudged when to switch modes to grabbing up victory points, and so was soundly beaten. I've played Dominion a few times now; it's pretty good. I tried to buy a copy of Dominion at Gamer's Inn but they were out of stock and didn't give me any confidence on when they would be back in stock, so I'll have to get it from Amazon.com instead. Convenient thing, that Amazon.com.

Then we played Power Grid using the France map. That game is great fun but as one of the other players pointed out, the end-game is disappointing in that there's way too much opportunity for players who cannot win to play kingmaker and take actions that choose a winner. Still, the gameplay of the game prior to the final round is compelling and I'll look to play this again.

The evening closed with a quick game of Family Business. It's a quick-playing card game with some depth. It reminded me a little bit of Gloom, but not a lot. I liked it. It's quick, simple, not too hard, but still has some redeeming value with some depth, especially if you try to pay attention to the social aspect and steer the balance and momentum to encourage the other players to eliminate one another.

Opening .swf files with Firefox on your Mac

2009-09-12T14:44:00.002-06:00

I've been asked how to do this a few times by friends and relatives for whom I provide informal tech support, so I'm going to try to document this.

Let's suppose you have a .swf file that you'd like to play locally.

For example, Cyberbee has a lovely .swf file on copyright. (Try this web page. If the copyright classroom experience doesn't play for you in Firefox, then the directions below for playing .swf files locally also won't work.)

If you've downloaded the .swf file locally, or otherwise gotten your hands on a .swf file, you might then want to be able to play that file off of your desktop.

An easy way to play it locally is to open it with Firefox thereby taking advantage of Firefox's ability to play it with the Adobe Flash player.

As a one-off you could open it with Firefox. (Right-click and select "Open With...". Select Firefox as the application with which you'd like to open the .swf file.)

However, it might be more convenient to configure the Finder to always open files of this type with Firefox. You do that like this:

Right-click on the .swf file.
Choose Get Info.
There's an "Open With" section in the Get Info dialog. Expand it.
Choose Firefox as the application with which to open it.
Select "Use this application to open all documents like this."
Close the Get Info dialog.
Double-click on the .swf file, and viola! It should open in Firefox and play.

Christmas Church Service

2008-12-25T18:00:00.000-07:00

Attended Christmas eve church services this year at The Covenant Church in Cheboygan, MI.

The Covenant Church
3424 E. US Hwy. 23 Cheboygan, MI 49721
(231) 627-9889

A Christmas Eve Candlelight Service of Lessons & Carols

Songs and carols included O Come, All Ye Faithful; O Come, O Come Emmanuel; Emmanuel; Joy to the World; Heaven's Child; O Little Town of Bethlehem; It Came Upon a Midnight Clear; One Child; O Holy Night; Hark! The Herald Angels Sing; Angels We Have Heard On High; and Silent Night.

Avoiding scientific inquiry into gender issues

2008-06-22T21:37:00.005-06:00

Having watched Idiocracy last night, I feel a bit sensitized to stupidity and anti-intellectualism in public fora.

In the Sunday June 22 Arizona Republic, among the Opinions, Kathleen Parker writes in "Why women still do more housework":

... But little truck is given to the obvious: Men and women are hard-wired differently. Of course, that sort of statement will get you thrown off college campuses these days -- ask Lawrence Summers -- but common sense and experience often explain what science cannot.

Often? And how would one know when common sense and experience have successfully explained what science cannot? Science has an understanding of reproducibility of results, peer review, empiricism. "Common sense and experience" rely on assertions seeming true and narrow perspective.

I don't think common sense and experience often explain what science cannot explain. That's the sort of anti-intellectual platitude that sounds nice and like it might be true but is unfounded. It's "truthy", if you will.

"Hard-wired" evokes the hardest science in psychology and cognitive science. If men and woman are hard-wired differently, it will be (and in part, so far, has been) hard science that will discover this wiring, in what ways it works, and in what ways there are differences -- with care to understanding of significance in both its scientific meanings (statistically significant) and common meanings (differences that actually matter).

These differences in wiring will be anything but "obvious" -- this is the lesson, e.g. in popular science book Freakonomics, that things that seem like they ought to be true aren't necessarily true.

To deride serious researchers and scientists ("gender theorists") that any answer to differences in men and women lies in "simply that men and women have different preferences" is to idiotically beg the question: yes, but why do people have different preferences? Is this a matter of biological wiring? A response to cultural messages? Investigating this in a scientific way, subject to hypotheses that are testable and theories that can be proven wrong, potentially improves human understanding of the world. I wish the writer were acknowledging that, perhaps even encouraging women to become interested in careers in the sciences.

What the writer actually closes with is "Sometimes things just are what they are. A wishful theory is no match for nature's stubborn ambition.", a disconcertingly defeatist approach that admits unknowability where it ought not be given ground.

I was very disappointed in the opinion piece "Why women still do more housework".

Unsubscribed from Dinosaur Comics

2008-05-10T23:14:00.001-06:00

I unsubscribed from Dinosaur Comics this evening in Google Reader. I just consistently didn't "get" Dinosaur Comics.

One less RSS feed burying me.

Bought 12 gallons of gasoline

2008-04-04T20:41:00.004-06:00

Today I bought 12 gallons of gasoline, bringing the odometer to 15786 and yielding 25 miles per gallon since my last fill.

Joe's Farm Grill

2008-04-02T18:10:00.000-06:00

Went to Joe's Farm Grill for dinner this evening. Had a BBQ Bacon Blue Burger with a chocolate shake. Tasty stuff.

Teacher: hero. Copy editor: less so.

2008-03-31T09:26:00.003-06:00

In Sunday's Arizona Republic, National Briefs, page A2:

Teacher kept school bus out of oncoming traffic
The driver of a bus carrying 44 children on a field trip passed out at the wheel, and a teacher's quick actions kept the vehicle careening into oncoming traffic, students said.
...

That would be horrible, if the teacher's actions kept the vehicle careening into oncoming traffic. What's presumably heroic here is that the teacher's actions kept the vehicle from careening into oncoming traffic. That is, that it prevented that untoward fate.

On the meaning of "self insured"

2008-03-30T19:38:00.003-06:00

From the story "Chandler law enforcement uses new tactic against copper thefts" by Megan Boehnke in today's Arizona Republic:

Theives have left more than 3 miles of trails dark and cost the city hundreds of thousands of dollars.
"The city is self-insured, but we have to pay a deductible just like anyone else, so it hits taxpayers," Parks Maintenance Manager Kris Kircher said.

I don't get it. When a city self-insures, that means that the city doesn't take out an external insurance policy against the risk. This avoids paying insurance premiums, but it leaves the city (and therefore, the taxpayer) directly vulnerable to the full cost of the loss should it occur. So the city doesn't have to pay deductibles like anyone else. It absorbs the full cost of the loss.

For example, I could choose to self-insure against potential damage at my apartment. There's no law requiring renter's insurance and no requirement of it where I live. If I self-insured, I would pay no insurance premiums. But if damage were to occur, I wouldn't pay deductibles like anyone else -- I'd have to experience the full cost of the damage without insurance to cushion me from it. Instead, in actuality, I do have renter's insurance.

In the long run, on average, having insurance and paying premiums is more costly than not. This is how insurance companies make money -- they make more money from investing the premiums than they pay out in claims. Insurance is a mechanism for distributing risk -- by all policy holders incurring some "loss" in the form of predictable premiums and deductibles, individual policy holders avoid concentrated local risk, sharing it across all policy holders.

It can make sense for municipalities and governments to self-insure -- they may be large enough that the odds are achieved and they're better off avoiding the overhead of insurance. But self-insurance has little to do with deductibles. Something is confused in this reporting.

I posted a comment about this on the Arizona Republic article. Maybe if I check back in a while there will be an answer.

Steam Cleaned Carpets

2008-03-16T11:06:00.003-06:00

When I renewed my lease they gave me a coupon for a free carpet cleaning. Wow! Cleaning the carpets actually worked, got the unsightly stains out, and made it feel much cleaner.

Campbell's Steam Pro
Cecil: 480-593-2808

They seem to have an entry on Angie's List, but I didn't find them on Yelp. :/

Eyeball exam

2008-03-06T16:45:00.001-07:00

Saw the doctor today about the lump under my left eye. Instructed to apply warm compresses, wash eyelashes with baby shampoo, and see how it goes.

Pork Chops for dinner

2008-03-05T17:14:00.001-07:00

I made pork chops and salad for dinner this evening. I think I accidentally bought real potatoes rather than sweet potatoes, so the salad was not functioning as designed. It was still excellent.

24 miles to the gallon in my Caliber

2008-02-25T23:02:00.001-07:00

Bought 11 gallons of gasoline today for the Caliber at the new Chevron. Apparently I am getting 24 miles to the gallon.

Crushingly Poor Blackboard Suit Result

2008-02-22T16:56:00.003-07:00

This is really disappointing and further erodes my faith in the ability of the judicial system to arrive at appropriate verdicts.

For shame. We deserve the government we get, and here, we are getting a crushingly stultifying patent regime.

Francis Ford Coppola 2005 Rosso

2008-02-17T23:40:00.001-07:00

Not very good at all.

Gasoline for the Caliber

2008-02-16T23:05:00.001-07:00

I bought 11 gallons of gasoline today for the Caliber.

Guiseppe's

2008-01-26T22:53:00.000-07:00

Dinner with friends this evening at Guiseppe's.

The Sub-Prime Mortgage Market in Plain (British) English

2008-01-26T14:31:00.000-07:00

I take it this is why my 401K investments have had tremendously negative growth of late.

Golden Compass

2008-01-22T17:10:00.000-07:00

Saw Golden Compass today. Was pretty fun.

San Laurio Coffeehouse

2008-01-01T13:27:00.000-07:00

Went to San Laurio Coffeehouse today with my parents. Caramel Machiatto. Pretty tasty.
s74 w16825 Janesville Rd. Muskego, WI. 414-422-0556.

Counterintelligence

2007-12-23T19:58:00.000-07:00

Higgledy-piggledy
Arthur M. Schlesinger
Asked, "How does Washington
Do without you?"

Answered, "It suffers from
Counterintelligence
High on concensus, but
Low on I.Q."

- E. William Seaman

Best Sakai Conference Ever!

2007-12-02T10:47:00.000-07:00

Best Sakai conference so far.

Finally got to the end of my Reader queue

2007-11-23T16:31:00.000-07:00

I think I'm trying to stay on top of too many feeds.

Spock?

2007-11-23T16:14:00.000-07:00

Played briefly with Spock, but I'd have to admit I just don't get it.

Apple, please get with the Java program ( 13949712720901ForOSX )

2007-11-23T11:08:00.001-07:00

So, I'll bite.

13949712720901ForOSX

I'd like to see Apple release a quality Java 6 JDK for OS X. I'd further like to see them admit that they're not going to release these things with any kind of regularity, and so they'd like to instead encourage Sun to do it for them or even better that they'd like to kick what resources they can into doing this work in open source.

Actually, personally, I'd love to see Apple's software empire collapse, hoisted on its own petard.

A model of "please, please, oh vendor, grace us by giving us the obvious thing this platform needs to be a good platform for which to develop stuff" is pretty hopelessly broken. I'm more in favor of a free as in freedom model where everyone is maximally empowered to produce maximally excellent software for the platform. One path to this empowerment is making all the source code free to read, free to use, free to modify, and free to redistribute.

However, I don't have a lot of hope for Apple open-sourcing all their IP in the near term, and that will be just fine. (I get very OS X like experiences on Ubuntu where I'm allowed to see the source code I'm running and even modify and redistribute it, incidentally.)

It would be better for JDK 6 to be unambiguously the go-to modern Java platform, without having to deal with any whining from Mac OS X users that it's hard to get working on that platform, so, Apple, please get with the program.

Ok, thanks, bye.

Riesling

2007-11-22T13:05:00.000-07:00

I'm sure the Riesling tasted better for having been consumed in the company of family, but the 2006 Leitz Dragonstone Riesling I tasted this Thanksgiving was very good.

Lindor Truffles

2007-11-21T08:53:00.001-07:00

Picked up a birthday present from the apartment package cache today. Lindor Truffles are delicious! So cool.

I'd like to sell a vowel

2007-11-21T08:41:00.001-07:00

Finally made my ItsYourTurn.com move. Too late to stay in my Jamble games with dad, unfortunately.

Some Walkable Locations

2007-11-20T21:37:00.001-07:00

I live where there are Some Walkable Locations according to WalkScore.come. I'm pretty amazed the score is this high.

Amazon Kindle: Only Good for Kindling

2007-11-20T19:30:00.000-07:00

Succinct yet devastating remarks on Amazon's latest Defective By Design offering, Kindle, replete with Digital Restrictions Management technology.

Beat Mystic Inn

2007-11-20T19:24:00.001-07:00

I beat the computer game Mystic Inn this evening. It was oddly compelling.

Enough wasting time, though. Chores to do.

uPortal video

2007-11-20T07:19:00.001-07:00

Impressive video showcasing uPortal.

Just a Chance that Maybe We'll Find Better Days

2007-11-19T08:03:00.000-07:00

On the occasion of a birthday.

And you ask me what I want this year
And I try to make this kind and clear
Just a chance that maybe we'll find better days
Cuz I don't need boxes wrapped in strings
And desire and love and empty things
Just a chance that maybe we'll find better days

So take these words
And sing out loud
Cuz everyone is forgiven now
Cuz tonight's the night the world begins again

And it's someplace simple where we could live
And something only You can give
And that's faith and trust and peace while we're alive
And the one poor child that saved this world
And there's 10 million more who probably could
If we all just stopped and said a prayer for them

So take these words
And sing out loud
Cuz everyone is forgiven now
Cuz tonight's the night the world begins again

I wish everyone was loved tonight
And somehow stop this endless fight
Just a chance that maybe we'll find better days

So take these words
And sing out loud
Cuz everyone is forgiven now
Cuz tonight's the night the world begins again
Cuz tonight's the night the world begins again

Better Days
The Goo Goo Dolls

Trains are fun

2007-11-18T18:18:00.000-07:00

Took Amtrak from New Haven to New York Penn Station. Then took the Long Island Rail Road from Penn Station to Jamaica Station today. That was pretty fun. I like trains. Then I took the Air Train from Jamaica to JFK. Then I caught a plane back to Phoenix.

Yale Harvard Game

2007-11-17T20:39:00.000-07:00

Went to the Yale-Harvard game at the Yale Bowl today.

Dogsitting

2007-11-06T21:31:00.000-07:00

Dogsitting Johan and Cubby. (And catsitting Alexis, Reggie, and Shenanigans).

Johan has a slight limp, he hurt his leg somehow. Gimpy dog (yet still distinguished and handsome). So he got a very short walk up the sidewalk and back.

Cubby appears to be well and was jumping around, so he got more than an hour worth of walking, which took some of the starch out of him.

All five animals gathered round when I had a cheeseburger for dinner. Bunch of vultures. I didn't let them have any.

A Webcomic of Romance, Sarcasm, Science, and Language

2007-11-05T23:54:00.000-07:00

This xkcd web comic is here included under a
Creative Commons License.

My Normal Approach is Useless Here

2007-11-03T22:25:00.001-06:00

This xkcd web comic is here included under a
Creative Commons License.

First Friday

2007-11-02T23:08:00.000-06:00

First Friday art walk in Phoenix.

Also spent some time playing FreeRice.

Handed out candy to trick-or-treaters

2007-10-31T22:51:00.000-06:00

Handing out candy to trick-or-treaters was great fun. My costume was to be a bouquet of flowers. Green t-shirt with a few flowers taped on with clear duct tape.

Chili's for lunch and dinner

2007-10-30T10:53:00.000-06:00

Went out to lunch at Chili's with the Sales team today. We won favorite overall Halloween decorated cubicle in the Unicon Halloween festivities for Jason Lacy's efforts implementing a Deal or No Deal theme and thereby gained a modest gift certificate to Chili's. It was tasty -- I had the chipotle bleu cheese burger. But I then noticed on the menu both a honey barbecue sirloin and a molten chocolate cake dessert.

I have a weakness for molten chocolate deserts.

So I went back for dinner, on my own, which is slightly less sinful for having used the time to prepare for the Science of Software talk I'm to give in a week (I'm feeling totally unprepared). Honey barb sirloin was delicious. Molten chocolate desert was kind of disappointing. My favorite molten cakes are still those I enjoyed at Oolong's Tea Bar in New Haven, CT -- I'm very disappointed to see the place has closed.

Incidentally, I've decided I have a real problem with the portrayal of gender roles in Deal or No Deal, having perused their website a bit. Never seen the show.

allergies

2007-10-29T14:55:00.000-06:00

I'd been feeling pretty miserable for the last week and was convinced I had some kind of horrible infection going on. Nose hurt, sinuses hurt, could have sworn I was feverish, felt miserable. Figured it was amphliblius or something similarly dire.

Saw the doctor today. He tells me it's just allergies. No massive antibiotics for me. Got back on Claritin and using Benadryl for pointed relief at bedtime.

As long as I was at the doctor, got my flu shot for the season, which I particularly justify by the fact that I'll be hanging out with my grandparents at Christmas. But I'm flying around enough these days that it seems quite sensible to take this effort not to contribute to spreading the flu around.

Update from later: anti-allergy meds are working great! I feel human again!

Unicon and uPortal in the news

2007-10-28T20:51:00.000-06:00

Pretty cool to see Unicon and uPortal positively featured in a CNNMoney.com news item. Lest anyone wonder whether the free and open source uPortal portal platform can scale: one million users, baby.

Read an article about an Internet Relationship

2007-10-28T20:20:00.000-06:00

I found this article pretty disturbing.

It's the sort of thing that reminds that "intentional infliction of emotional distress" isn't always hogwash.

Dear Kohls, your website is unusable

2007-10-28T17:46:00.000-06:00

A note I sent today to the kind folks who run kohls.com

Dear Kohls,

I write to express significant displeasure with your website.

I first visited your website in order to register my Kohls credit account in order to pay it online.

I navigated to http://www.kohls.com

And at the upper right there's a My Kohls Charge link with this URL: "javascript:launchCorporate('http://credit.kohls.com')"

When I click it, I am directed to "https://credit.kohls.com/psp/zcprod02/?cmd=login&errorCode=105&languageCd=ENG"

Which is an error message, quoted here:

[

My Kohl's Charge

We have recently improved our site and have a new address.

Please click here to go to Kohls.com, select the My Kohl's Charge option at
the top of the page, and update your Favorites link to My Kohl's Charge
with the new address.

If you continue to have difficulties, please contact us at 1-800-470-0554.

Please note that payments can be made in ANY store at ANY register, over
the phone by check, or the payment can be mailed to our payment center at:

Kohl's Payment Center
P.O. Box 2983
Milwaukee, WI 53201-2983

]

The "Please click here" hyperlink takes me to "http://www.kohls.com/", and when I use the link to My Kohl's Charge at the top of the screen as directed, I again visit this error message: infinite loop.

So then I go to the Customer Service portion of your website in order to contact you. Rather than clearly articulating an email address at which you may be reached, there's some kind of web form for entering my first and last name and email address, and then selecting a topic from a pull down, and clicking "Go". That doesn't work either: when I do that, it clears the filled out form fields but doesn't give me an opportunity to compose a message.

Overall, I'd say you haven't "recently improved your site" enough. Please correct these significant usability problems with your web presence. A website that doesn't work frustrates customers, erodes consumer confidence, and erodes the association of the Kohl's brand with quality.

Yours sincerely,

Andrew Petro

Jane Austen Book Club

2007-10-27T23:59:00.000-06:00

I saw Jane Austen Book Club today in Gilbert.

PodCampAZ volunteer coordination meeting

2007-10-27T13:00:00.000-06:00

Went to the PodCamp AZ volunteer coordination meeting today. In retrospect I should have brought a laptop. This would require owning a laptop with usable wireless access, which isn't quite presently the case, but I have high hopes for the newly-Unicon-issued work laptop.

I'm helping with set-up crew on Saturday, as well as manning the registration desk in between the sessions in which I have interest. Must remember to bring lunch. It will be fun to be unskilled labor for a day.

Why do I keep doing this to myself?

2007-10-20T19:36:00.000-06:00

That really hurt.

Blood type A Positive

2007-10-20T16:28:00.000-06:00

Received in mail my United Blood Services donor card today. Apparently I am blood type A Positive. Neat.

2 miles

2007-10-16T19:22:00.000-06:00

Ran 2 miles with Doug after work.

Phone call

2007-10-11T23:15:00.000-06:00

A phone call from a friend just made my day.

Honesty

2007-10-09T01:14:00.001-06:00

Honesty and Honest Tea with a local friend. Stuffed crust pizza from Pizza Hut and coupon clipping fun to go with.

Jersey Boys

2007-10-07T19:00:00.001-06:00

I saw Jersey Boys this evening at ASU Gammage. It was ok.

On Apologizing without really meaning it

2007-10-06T15:07:00.000-06:00

Southwest Airlines' repeated harassment of its passengers about clothing that is not in fact lewd, obscene, or patently offensive suggests that their apologies to the harassed customers may not in fact be sincere. If one apologizes and means it, one does not turn around and commit the same offense immediately.

Southwest can make light of it, but it's not really funny. I wish they would focus on things that matter, like not running airliners off the runway and into motor vehicle traffic so that they crush little boys, and less on things that don't matter, like stupid t-shirts.

A Southwest Boeing 737 landed on a snowy Dec. 8 and rolled off the end of a slippery runway, crashing through two fences and striking vehicles outside the airport on Central Avenue at 55th Street.

Joshua Woods, 6, of Leroy, Ind., a passenger in one of the vehicles, was crushed to death.

(As reported in the Chicago Tribune).

Justice is not achieved through trickery

2007-10-06T14:20:00.000-06:00

I am gravely disappointed that Senator Craig has been unsuccessful in having his guilty plea withdrawn and receiving a fair and speedy trial before a jury of his peers.

Yes, Senator Craig, stupidly, pled guilty. A guilty plea signifies an admission of culpability, an agreement of the accused and the prosecutor and the court that a guilty verdict is appropriate.

It is clear that Senator Craig no longer agrees. It is also if not clear at least apparently strongly possible that he entered that guilty plea on the basis of assurances a police officer had no cause to be making, assurances made in bad faith. Senator Craig was misled. Shame on him for being a person in such a position of power and yet so naive as to believe a police officer. Shame on the system for misleading him.

Confidence in the criminal justice system in part stems from belief that those convicted of a crime are guilty of that crime. We achieve that confidence through an expensive and rigorous criminal justice process involving a trial before a jury of the accused's peers wherein the Government proves that the accused committed the crime. We forgo this expense when the accused agrees to guilt, often in exchange for lesser consequences. That coercion is extremely philosophically and practically problematic, but the coercion of the plea bargaining system is not the topic of this post.

In this case there is some doubt about what really happened with Senator Craig, about whether there has been some misunderstanding. Failure to overturn the guilty plea and require a trial avoids an opportunity that it be proven beyond a reasonable doubt to a jury of citizens that a crime was committed here. That standard is appropriate an necessary in a situation where a vote in the most powerful lawmaking body in the world is on the line.

Trickery and something short of the full judicial process swings a senator from power and influence to criminality. We the people ought to be uncomfortable with that. I believe Senator Craig is owed a trial here, but even short of that, I believe the people, you and I, are owed that trial. Here is a situation where a guilty plea ought not to have been accepted in the first place.

"Mr. Craig, the court apologizes, but it finds that it is contrary to the interests of justice to accept your plea. The people are owed proof beyond a reasonable doubt where a senator is effectively removed from office. The court regrets any embarrassment a trial may cause you, but recognizes that really, you're going to face embarrassment and ridicule regardless, so that may at least be purposeful in giving the public assurance that justice is indeed being served. Your guilty plea cannot be accepted. Please enter a plea of not guilty."

Simple Personal File Backup

2007-10-01T00:23:00.001-06:00

I've been trying out Mozy for file backup on my personal computer. So far I've been very impressed. I wish they had an Ubuntu client, in addition to the Mac OS X and Windows support.

Beware of swimming in nature

2007-10-01T00:12:00.000-06:00

PHOENIX --
It sounds like science fiction but it's true: A killer amoeba living in lakes enters the body through the nose and attacks the brain where it feeds until you die.

Omanhene

2007-09-30T18:52:00.000-06:00

I've been eating a square of Omanhene Dark Milk Chocolate for Baking each day for a while now, more for nostalgic reasons than for the health benefits of flavonids. That and it's tasty.

Phone Call

2007-09-30T18:39:00.001-06:00

A phone call from an old friend today made my week.

Edgefest 2007

2007-09-29T12:38:00.000-06:00

I went to Edgefest 2007 today with Dan.

Good times.

I went to see the Plain White T's, who dutifully played Hey There Delilah, which was okay but not quite as awesome as I had unrealistically expected.

Dan wanted to see Mute Math but with the parking and traffic we weren't quite in time to hear them.

However, we were in time to catch the second half of the Eisley act, which was awesome.

Then we caught Hot Hot Heat, a band I hadn't previously been familiar with. The Bravery was kind of cool, but Fly Leaf was definitely not my kind of music. Reminded one of the angst of Ruby developers.

The last act we caught was Louis XIV. The mannequin they brought with them onto the stage more or less summed them up. Talented, though.

Corks and Cactus

2007-09-28T13:39:00.000-06:00

This evening I went to the Desert Botanical Garden Corks & Cactus wine tasting after work.

I'd never been to a wine tasting before. I learned a bit and it was a good time. Sipping wine amid beautiful plants was pretty cool. Beautiful evening for it, too.

Since I know basically zero about wine, I did the Wine Diva pre-event. It was a "Fabulous Finds for Fifteen" class involving tasting six wines and a whole shtick. The Mionetto Prosecco NV (Italy) (sparkling wine) was very good and as the instructor, Christine Asnbacher, impressed upon her audience, effectively quenched thirst created by spicy food. I don't usually care for spice in my food, but when it's there, I want it quenched, so I could see ordering this again. Second on the slate was Erath Pino Gris (Oregon, 2006). Tasty. Bonny Doon Cigare Volante (California, 2004).

The reds were Marques de Caceres Rioja (Spain, 2003), Nine Stone Shiraz (Australia, 2004), and Septima Malbec (Spain, 2003). They were all enjoyable enough. I'd need several more classes to be able to say anything intelligent about them.

I also got a copy of the instructor's book, Secrets from The Wine Diva, autographed no less, out of the deal. I'm a lot more likely to get into book collecting than wine collecting as a hobby.

After the Wine Diva class came the Corks and Cactus event proper.

I liked the Weibel Brut Sparkling (California) very well, but part of that was running with the "try sparkling wines" cue from the class preceding. The Clos LaChance Violet-Crowned Merlot (California) was good, the Lolonis Lady Bug White (California) less so, but with a cooler name. I did not get to try the Two Hands Brilliant Disguise (Australia), but I was told by people I met at the event who seemed to share my tastes that it's something I should try sometime.

By far the most fantastically excellent wine I tasted this evening was Deco Chocolate Port (Portugal). I thought it was far better than the Desiree Chocolate Desert (California) (and they must have meant "dessert", right?) and I liked its more complicated flavor than that of the Smith Woodhouse Lodge Reserve Port (Portugal).

Dennis Rowland & the Jazz Experience provided neat background entertainment. I'll look to hear them again.

Picasso pottery was on display -- very neat stuff and I hadn't even realized this was visiting Phoenix.

Since I didn't know what to expect, I took a taxi to and from the gardens, so as to not be driving after having tasted the assorted wines. In actuality I think I was entirely sober and driving-able by the time I would have driven home -- there was a good long post-tasting area involving decadent deserts and delicious decaf coffee, and I just didn't take in that much volume of wine at this event -- for me it was all about tasting with a sip or two, though I noticed other participants adopting a more voluminous approach.

Taking the cab turn out to have been a worthwhile investment in discovering effective local small business. I like small personable cab companies, and in Union Cab I think I have found a suitable local one. Came quickly, polite, knew his way around, I got the same driver both directions, dispatcher was intelligible. Met my cab needs; I'd use them again and recommend them to others.

A day off for reflection

2007-09-25T23:30:00.000-06:00

I took today off from work to think, and to catch up on local errands not finished during my very enjoyable weekend visiting family in Colorado.

Dinner at Big City Barbecue, suggesting to me that I'm more of a small town barbecue or even a country village barbecue kind of person.

Gave blood

2007-09-24T20:55:00.000-06:00

Today I gave blood. Success at this for the first time while in Arizona. I'm feeling it, but I'm not feeling too badly.

Furniture and Oregano's

2007-09-17T18:34:00.000-06:00

After work today I helped Drew Wills move in some furniture he'd purchased off of Craig's List. Then we went out to Oregano's for dinner.

Weighing in on K-9 case

2007-09-16T13:42:00.000-06:00

On Thursday the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office released an updated report explaining what happened when Sgt. Lovejoy of the Chandler Police Department abandoned the police canine Bandit in a vehicle, discovering the animal dead of heat and dehydration over 12 hours later.

My take: Sgt. Lovejoy through negligence destroyed approximately ten thousand dollars of government property entrusted to his care and caused an animal to suffer and die in so doing. This is rightly a crime of some kind, worthy of an arrest. Lovejoy may have already "suffered enough" from his mistake in handling Bandit, but arrest was never about visiting suffering upon human beings, it is about recognizing, recording, and responding to reality. The reality is, there was consideration, there was duty, there was negligence, and a police canine died because of it. I'm not saying Lovejoy should spend a single day in jail out of all this, but it's reasonable to presume under the circumstances that Sgt. Lovejoy has committed a crime under these facts and an arrest is justified.

However, a *full custody arrest* was neither customary nor appropriate, and is rightly called out as more grandstanding by Sheriff Joe Arpaio. It is increasingly clear that the Sheriff wields power irresponsibly and capriciously. Power corrupts. I see this as more evidence that it is time for Sheriff Joe Arpaio to step down and someone with less existing wear on his soul to step under the sword of Damocles and serve for a time.

Incidentally, there are a number of extenuating circumstances in this case. The sergeant had a number of demands on his attention and was operating on a reduced amount of rest. This doesn't necessarily excuse the incident -- rather it points to to a totality of circumstance that a prosecutor will need to consider in filing charges, offering plea agreements, or dismissing the case entirely.

Larry Craig and excesses of criminalization

2007-09-08T20:58:00.000-06:00

Apparently ex-Senator Larry Craig didn't watch much Law and Order. The take-home message of that show, it seems to me, is that you should have a lawyer when being interrogated by the police. (Further, if that lawyer just sits there like a dead insect while Vincent D'Onofrio paces around looking at your crosseyed, get a new layer.)

(Actually, this incident suggests to me that the time has come for another step beyond Miranda and Gideon v. Wainwright. If a United States senator doesn't have it together to insist on his right to counsel while being interrogated by police (and it is clear on reflection that Craig would have benefited by counsel, given his gross misapprehension of the stakes involved and his recent vacillations regarding his confession and plea), then no one can be reasonably expected to effectively invoke and exercise counsel. Being smarter, more legally adept, and with greater presence of mind than a US Senator is too high a standard to expect of the average person. I think the time has come to go beyond affording suspects the right to an attorney if they ask for one and advising them that they may do so. The time has come to require that anyone interrogated by police have a capable attorney present with all reasonable celerity. Confessions not rendered in the presence of and with the assistance of legal counsel should be inadmissible.

This would be expensive, but it is in the interests of justice. Law is sufficiently complicated that can be expected to be in no one's interest to interact with it outside the context of active and vigorous legal advocacy.

--

If the ex-Senator Craig really was soliciting sexual activity, then I agree that act was wrong and is scandalous. The man is married and attempting to cheat on his wife is not to be admired.

However. I'm not sure I believe the actions of Mr. Craig should be criminal. There is a difference between what is moral and what is legal, and all things that are immoral should not necessarily also be criminal.

Mr. Craig is accused of and plead to engaging in activities typical of someone soliciting homosexual activity. As far as I can tell from the press around this case, that involves pretending to drop something on the floor, reaching down for the floor, maybe feet wandering across stall barriers. Not all that clear on what's involved here, but it doesn't appear to involve bloodshed, or exposing oneself, or anything, well, criminal.

If someone in a stall next to me were engaging in these behaviors, would I even notice? I rather doubt it. Seems like it could be mistaken for having dropped something and having some rude misapprehensions of appropriate personal space. Rude? Probably. Criminal? I don't buy it.

I object to this being criminal. The August 31 Arizona Republic editorial vilifies Mr. Craig, asserting "It is illegal to troll for sex in public places, making those places repellent to the public."

What I don't notice won't repel me. It's not clear to me that any behavior here is actually repellent, or even noticeable.

Mugging someone should be criminal. Hitting someone should be criminal. An official's mishandling and destroying government property entrusted to him should be criminal. Stealing money by bilking investors should be criminal. Defrauding the taxpayers should be criminal. Lashing out at those exposing that criminal defrauding of taxpayers should also be criminal.

But reaching down while in a men's room stall? Putting your shoe in the wrong position? I don't see a compelling reason for these actions to be criminal. I have rather more faith in consenting adults. Certainly I trust people to more capably navigate the men's room than I trust them to capably navigate the extraordinary experience of being interrogated by an belittling and misleading police officer without legal counsel.

I read the necessary and proper clause differently than has become popular.

--

Mr. Craig was arrested for activity in an airport men's room.

What I want to know is, what wasn't that police officer policing because he was attending to Mr. Craig's foot position? Was there a threat of violence in a school that could have been responded to by the presence of another law enforcement officer? A lead in a kidnapping case that could have been followed up on? Could this officer have been enforcing some crime that causes actual harm? Maybe somewhere someone was littering.

The cost-benefit analysis here doesn't add up.

Here in Chandler there's a serial rapist in the news. He apparently preys on young girls. That's a crime, a terrible, vicious, horrifying crime, deserving of police response. Maybe we could have one more police officer looking for him, instead of attending to perceived signals on the floors of airport bathrooms.

Southwest Airlines and Inappropriate Clothing

2007-09-08T12:27:00.001-06:00

Apparently Southwest Airlines felt the need to harass a 23 year old female flier about her clothing, which reasonable people on review did not in fact find "lewd, obscene, or patently offensive", as reported in this column.

This is another example of excessive (and discriminatory) organizational paternalism -- and that's paternalism of the pejorative sense, not in the sense of the wisdom you may have enjoyed from your own parental units.

This relates to the Thumper principle: if you don't have anything kind to say, don't say anything at all. It is not an airline's, or an airline's customer service representative's, place to dispense fashion advice, or to create a problem where none need exist.

You might wonder: what *wasn't* that CSR attending to while he was engaged in harassing this passenger? Not too long ago I was at Phoenix Sky Harbor and had the opportunity to assist someone distressed on the brink of tears because she couldn't *find* the Southwest ticketing area. (As one would expect, it was a Midwest ticket agent who eventually helped her recover her composure and find her way.) Addressing these minor but real issues seems a better use of CSR time.

"We don't feel like our employee was in the wrong," Chris Mainz, a spokesman for Southwest Airlines, told FOXNews.com

Then the error in judgment of a few employees is an error in judgment of an entire organization.

Would you like to fly on an airline that attends to real air travel safety issues, or would you like to fly on an airline that harasses its passengers?

On Respect for Peaceful Protest

2007-09-07T12:08:00.001-06:00

Reported in today's Arizona Republic: Mesa police intend to discipline an on-duty uniformed police sergeant who made an obscene gesture at pro-immigrant protesters while driving by in a marked police vehicle.

Police spokeswoman Holly Hosac felt the need to explain that his gestures were "due to general distaste for protesters" and not out of an anti-immigrant viewpoint, and that the sergeant didn't even know what the protest was about.

This gives me a couple of distasteful choices. I can believe that Mesa has a police sergeant driving about with uncontrolled distaste for the peaceful exercise of civil rights generally and who is so unobservant, even while on duty, as to fail to notice the signs carried by protesters he is flipping off or so dim-witted as to be unable to intuit from these signs what the protest is about. Or I can believe that Mesa has a police sergeant driving about with uncontrolled distaste for the peaceful exercise of civil rights specifically around immigration and who further will along with his police spokeswoman then blithely lie about his observations and understanding to the public. (Leading one to ask, because the stakes are oh so high, does this mean this officer will fib about other things he has observed? How about under oath? As a witness to a crime?)

I find in my personal life that telling fibs and lies eventually catches up to me and causes me much more anguish than had I faced reality from the get-go. The same experience applies to government. Please, stop lying to the governed. It is a step down a road that it serves no one to tread.

Drawings of Guns, sense of proportion

2007-09-07T09:00:00.000-06:00

I've been disturbed to read in the local papers of students suspended from school for having drawn stick figures with guns, vague drawings that might be interpreted as an impressionists "aura of gun", etc.

Certainly violence in all its forms, physical, psychological, and its conceptual pre-cursors, should be addressed with seriousness and attention. This is one lesson of the Virginia Tech tragedy -- that there may be premonitions of violence peoples' lives -- in their writings, their drawings, their speech -- and that there will be opportunities to intervene to bring people back into balance and coping rather than spiraling out of control with tragic results.

This isn't news. The statistics of the incidence of mental illness are astounding, surprising to many, and ought to lead to a recognition that many troubled people are not evil but rather are ill, that they cannot be treated as rare exceptional outliers but rather need to be considered as part of the mainstream "care for the masses" provided through such institutions as public schools.

Violence is part of our culture. This isn't a good thing, but it is a fact. Presently my government is engaged in military action in Afgahnistan and Iraq about which there are varying political viewpoints but no one can disagree with this fact: there are a whole 'lotta guns involved. Popular culture is filled with such concepts as MOAB ("Mother of All Bombs", a particularly large yield conventional weapon), occasional consideration of the use of tactical nuclear devices against terrorists holed up in tunnels, Russia resuming strategic flights of nuclear bomb armed long rage bombers. It is a fact that the United States Constitution guarantees the right to bear arms. It is a fact that in the United States, in contrast with other countries, most police officers are armed. It is a fact that the army is paying an unprecendented twenty thousand dollar signing bonus to young people not much older than this eighth grader to do more than draw stick figures of guns -- to be that stick figure, dragging a gun into battle. To fire a gun and potentially kill other human beings or be killed by gunfire.

Do we suppose denying all of this is in the best interest of schoolchildren?

The most recent case leading me to write here is that of an eighth grader who drew a stick figure pointing a gun at another stick figure. Neither of these stick figures was labeled, but a neither pointing nor targeted stick figure was labeled with the name of a school administrator.

Disturbing? Yes, absolutely. Worthy of attention and intervention? Yes. Not my attention or your attention or media attention. Worthy of a guidance counselor's attention. What is leading to these drawings? Are there guns in this child's life being ignored? Is the implicit message that the school administrator would ignore one student visiting violence upon another? Is this child reacting to the violence of Iraq and Afghanistan? To the gun violence here in Phoenix? Did he see a gun and hasn't told anyone because he was afraid of what would happen next with that information?

What is the purpose of school? I see the purpose of school as that of educating, of assisting society's children to grow into thinking, moral, capable, responsible citizens. And so legitimate school activities are the diagnostic, curative, supportive activities that promote learning.

No doubt disciplinary measures must needs be in the array of tools available to schools. Sometimes suspension will be a necessary response to express the seriousness of an offense to the standards of the community, to protect students from credible threat of harm.

But suspension must be reserved for those circumstances that necessitate it. The continuity of presence in school is, unless our schools are totally without value, of importance to the quality of education experienced by a child. We go to ridiculous lengths to encourage "perfect attendance". There is a disconnect, then, to whimsically suspend students.

Reserve suspension for circumstances that actually warrant it, and with the extra school time thereby recovered, refer students needing intervention to capable professionals capable of diagnosing and remediating this sort of acting out.

I am concerned that the generation of students resulting from schools without a sense of proportion, with draconian or capricious discipline, will be at a disadvantage in providing appropriate leadership. The lesson learned here is "the response to drawing stick figures will be disproportionate, because the bullies in charge have no shame." When this or other students are in a position of power over others later in their lives, how will they have learned to behave? Will they apply power consistent with principles of minimal force, of understanding and support, of offering the benefit of the doubt and trust, of sound diagnostic and curative action? Or will they have learned to jerk the reigns of power to force those below them to comply without making an effort to understand the situation or what less severe force may prove helpful?

Cline said that school officials do not thing Joshua meant for any physical harm to come to anyone, but that the school had to discipline him for the safety of the other students and faculty.
- As reported in Aug 31 Arizona Republic

This is the sort of 1984-esque doublespeak that disappointingly too often comes from public officials. Say what? No physical harm was meant. Clearly none was actually imparted. ("Oh no! A stick figure! And you, Brutus?!") Yet school officials needed to discipline him "for the safety of other students".

I object, sir. Nods to Virginia Tech do not excuse disproportionate punition. "Safety" and "Security" have become buzzwords excusing official an institutional cowardice and failure of judgment. Instead of disciplining the student, apply efforts to discovering and addressing the underlying problem. Instead of useless random punishment that doesn't actually improve safety, do things that will improve safety, such as verifying emergency exits will actually work if needed, and getting to the bottom of where these gun images are coming from. If there's actually some guns around, that's an interesting problem worth addressing. Punishing the messenger to discourage future early warning of guns encroaching on schools won't help.

"It is our hope this young man learns from this and comes back to school."

I doubt that's the lesson the student will learn here. The lesson I learned here is to have less confidence in the sound judgment of the officials involved.

Is this dog still under warranty?

2007-09-07T00:19:00.000-06:00

Dogsitting. Brady has started a weird behavior where he'll decide he's had enough with walking, pick a spot on the grass wherever he wants, and lay down. Sometimes he rolls around in the grass, but in any case it's very hard to cajole him into finishing the walk.

I'm not sure whether there's something wrong with him (I doubt it -- he happily bounds and otherwise seems to enjoy the walk in between wayward lying down), whether he's confused about when it's appropriate to lie down (we've been working on "lay down" as a follow on to his pretty reliably "sitting" on command), whether this is his idea of a game ("Andrew sure is funny when he's trying to get me to get up, I want to see that look on his face again"), or whether it's a response to being over-walked. I try to walk him twice a day and we go for forty minutes or so each walk, but he's a big fellow and I figure he needs the exercise.

I switched to long walk in the morning and a shorter walk in the evening, but he's still doing the lie down thing. Not sure what my next move is. I don't have him lying down reliably in the house, so it's hard to drill getting up again after having lain down.

A big beautful dog, full of bugs and stuff

2007-09-02T14:53:00.000-06:00

Continued dogsitting today. Woke around 6 to take Brady out. We had a good run, made it out to Hanger and back, refilling the canine at the doggie drinking fountain.

Then I went back to sleep and woke noonish. Not feeling so good - I hope it's just odd allergy symptoms from being around the dog and cats. Must get some more Claritin. Though that probably won't help with the drowsiness.

Went to Taqueria Mi Casita last night and had leftovers from there for "breakfast" this "morning". Washed down with some prune flavored Activia.

I've been working through The Amazing Dog Trick Kit with Brady. So far we're still working on mastering sitting on command. I think we're just getting back to the maybe 50% effectiveness of the command we were at before I started in with the kit. The clicker is a lot of fun, though. He's tired out and naps between play sessions, so I must be doing something right.

But, I really liked Hitch

2007-08-30T23:32:00.000-06:00

But, but, I really liked Hitch.

Elephant Bar

2007-08-26T23:37:00.001-06:00

Lyndon was in town again this evening on his way back from his San Diego vacation. We met up for dinner, first trying to go to Cyclo which it turns out is closed on Sundays and Mondays, and so instead going to Elephant Bar at the Chandler mall. Dining there with Lyndon is an altogether different experience from dining there with Mike Zackrison. Fun in a different way. It was good to see Lyndon looking well and he's convinced me San Diego is a place I'm going to have to visit again sometime.

A Saturday Well Spent

2007-08-25T22:13:00.000-06:00

Today I had a brie and turkey sandwich lunch at the Desert Botanical Gardens and again took some time to walk through the Childhood Dreams sculptures, explored the Hall of Flame fire museum, called relatives, bought too many books at Changing Hands, visited my favorite canine Brady and took him for a long run, borrowed a friend's cable television to catch the end of a Psych episode and all of a Burn Notice, and met up with friends to see Stardust.

A truly excellent day.

However, no day is perfect. Today I confirmed that grabbing onto a cactus, while the natural and reflexive thing to do, is not a good way to break one's fall. (No, this didn't happen at the DBG, so you need send no garden police after me.)

Hall of Flame reminded me of home, it having so many Wisconsin artifacts and roots.

Stardust Trailer

Only you can prevent Developer Abuse

2007-08-25T09:32:00.000-06:00

On Being Agile

2007-08-25T09:29:00.000-06:00

With videos like this, how could you not like agile development?

Buffalo Wild Wings with Lyndon

2007-08-23T21:39:00.000-06:00

Lyndon hosted an after-work gathering at Buffalo Wild Wings featuring a parade of ex-Uniconers. It was a good time and it was good to hear everyone's doing well.

Salubrious Canine

2007-08-22T22:19:00.000-06:00

Katie was generous enough to let me borrow Brady this evening for a run. We had a good time. Brady's a pretty good listener.

On ability to admit having erred

2007-08-21T23:45:00.000-06:00

Inability to admit error is a disturbing trait in public officials.

Mehrens said Judge Edward Burke dismissed [charges of theft and mishandling of public money] because the Maricopa County Sherrif's Office failed to disclose key pieces of information regarding the investigation.

Yet Sherrif Joe Arpaio said "We didn't botch anything."

(Both as quoted in today's East Valley Tribune.)

Something's wrong with this picture. Failing to disclose information such that a judge feels the need to throw out charges, that doesn't count as botching?

Steaks R Us for lunch

2007-08-20T12:17:00.000-06:00

Steaks R Us for lunch today with Dan. Tasty.

Day one of the resident technical wizard being on vacation at work. I'm surviving.

Chase's Diner

2007-08-18T19:02:00.001-06:00

Treated myself to breakfast at Chase's Diner this morning. French toast, bacon, and orange juice. It was okay.

Bourne Ultimatum

2007-08-15T23:35:00.000-06:00

I saw Bourne Ultimatum today. It was a guilty pleasure, given its excesses of violence.

I'm a popcorn addict.

Informed Consent and Boar Tusks

2007-08-14T19:33:00.000-06:00

An oral surgeon who temporarily implanted fake boar tusks in his
assistant's mouth as a practical joke while she was under general
anesthesia and got sued for it was awarded $750K profit beyond his out
of court settlement with this assistant, in a Washington state supreme
court decision against his insurance company.

(Summarized and paraphrased from an MSNBC story). There's an underlying Associated Press snippet all the newspapers seemed to have, since this showed up in my own Arizona Republic and the Houston Chronicle.

???

Why isn't installing extraneous hardware into a patient and taking
embarrassing photos while she's under anesthesia a gross violation of
medical ethics? What legitimate diagnostic, curative, or palliative
purpose did that element of the procedure have? If none, then it introduced unnecessary distraction, risk, and time under
anesthesia, yes?

Why isn't this dentist having his license revoked by a medical ethics
board? Why isn't he facing criminal assault charges?

And why does it make any sense for everyone else's insurance premiums
to be higher so that society can reward this misbehavior?

It seems like this court is ignoring years of relatively hard-earned
progress in legal understanding of patients' rights, of professional
ethics, and of the limitations and context of consent, to return to an
old-boys-club chauvinistic ha ha harassment is just a big joke approach.

Seems to me insurance ought to cover honest mistakes, not deliberate
misbehavior. Premiums would be lower if it didn't cover this
nonsense.

Apparently a healthy majority of respondents to this unscientific, informal poll would agree.

PS: A law-school-educated friend of mine points out that the Associated Press article may not have fully reflected the nuances of the underlying holding, which apparently was more about duty to defend than actual liability to insure against the damages, and hinged on whether it is conceivable that the matter under dispute fell under the scope of the insurance.

I still think this is ridiculous, just in a more nuanced way.

Flew back to MKE today

2007-08-13T19:45:00.000-06:00

Flew back to Milwaukee today with my parents on Midwest. Nice to be able to fly with them, simplified the logistics a bit. Also, I like flying through Milwaukee and the Midwest airline cookies.

Beautiful day. The gardens at home are beautiful and my Vince Lombardi 5K spruce is looking healthy and has grown taller than me. I am glad I visited my hometown.

Went to the Verizon store to get a new cell phone for my dad. His new LG 8300 seems to work much better than the old phone. Was a rough patch there where Sunrocket bought the farm and neither of my parents' mobile phones were working all that well, leaving them largely phoneless.

Sister's Wedding

2007-08-12T18:47:00.000-06:00

Attended sister's wedding today in Baltimore at the Rusty Scupper. She seems happy. Flowers were beautiful, lovely cake as well. Unlimited coca-cola was a treat, since largely I forgo soda these days. Very glad to to meet up with family, especially so soon after my week in northern Michigan.

National Aquarium Museum

2007-08-11T14:18:00.000-06:00

Visited the National Aquarium Museum in Baltimore today. It was tremendous fun and my grandfather even joined in for a bit. Reminded me of visiting the aquarium in Boston.

American Visionary Art Museum

2007-08-10T14:21:00.000-06:00

I visited the American Visionary Art Museum today in Baltimore. Some of it didn't seem to me to be art, but much of it did. I especially enjoyed the "Trojan Hippo" piece.

I was supposed to go to Camden Yards to see the Orioles-Red Socks game this evening, but I was exhausted and slept instead while the crowd went to the game.

Michael during layover

2007-08-07T18:40:00.000-06:00

My college friend Michael had a longish layover this evening at PHX, so I picked him up at the airport and we went to dinner and hung out on the ASU Tempe Mill Ave scene before I deposited him back just-in-time to the airport. Made me feel old -- I don't quite pass for college age kid anymore, though neglecting to have my ID on me still kept me out of the Big Bang piano bar.

Maybe it's just me, but maybe the signage around getting to the airport could be improved a whole lot.

Insomnia

2007-08-07T03:04:00.000-06:00

Somehow, I couldn't sleep a wink last night. Made for a relatively miserable traditional-hours work day. I managed to sleep 6pm to midnight or so, though, which felt great, and after working a couple hours, plan to get another nap in before facing tomorrow, and ideally feeling much more human.

Chompies for brunch

2007-08-05T22:31:00.000-06:00

I had the strawberry stuffed French toast today at Chompie's. It was pretty tasty, but I think next time I'll seek to eat something more nutritive. Taking a bag of day-old bagels to work tomorrow.

Went to Costco to buy water and stamps.

This evening I got to visit the St. Bernard and borrow him for a run in the park. We had a blast.

Flash game

2007-08-05T12:36:00.000-06:00

A friend sent me a link to this Flash game in which I'm able to get a high score of 6.

Phone with an old friend

2007-08-04T20:00:00.000-06:00

Spent quite a while on the phone with an old friend this evening. It was fun to catch up.

Airport

2007-07-30T07:19:00.000-06:00

This morning I got to deliver a friend to the airport in the wee early hours of the morning, which was a lot more fun than it might sound.

Saturday

2007-07-08T00:44:00.000-06:00

Today I bought a plane ticket to my sister's wedding, filed the associated PTO request, paid bills, visited a friend and her dog (and enjoyed excellent fresh Snickerdoodle cookies!), watched a Poirot episode, and ate take-out General Tso chicken for dinner. The latter wasn't all that good and just as soon as I find them on Yelp I'll probably feel the need to ding them.

I turn in with especial resolve to hit the day early to make it to at least one church service.

Rockfish Seafod Grill

2007-07-06T23:00:00.000-06:00

Went to Rockfish Seafood Grill for dinner since I had a coupon for a free appetizer and I'm a sucker for a coupon. It was okay but not great. Coconut shrimp appetizer. Pecan-encrusted trout entree. Icewater to drink.

The regular-sized Sonic cookie-dough blast I picked up on the way home was by far the highlight of the experience.

Independence Day

2007-07-04T14:59:00.000-06:00

A friend's generously included me in her family's Independence Day gathering. Several lovable canines, oodles of delicious food, interesting people to meet and a particular grandmother's stories to hear. It was a good time. Awesome swimming pool, too.

Breakfast and a Dog

2007-06-10T11:16:00.000-06:00

Breakfast at Arizona Bread Company with a friend, and I get to dog-sit her St. Bernard for a few days, and borrow the use of her washer and dryer whilst my washer is still on the fritz. Shaping up to be a good day already.

Tudor Tailor

2007-06-05T11:35:00.000-06:00

I head the Tudor Tailor team speak this evening at the Phoenix Art Museum. More demonstrate than merely speak. Deliciously academic tidbits about reading wills to gain insight into what clothing was like in Tudor times.

University In Film .com

2007-06-02T14:44:00.000-06:00

A friend of mine has set up a wiki for documenting sightings of universities in television and film. Neat. Especially neat is that it's using what may be my new favorite documentation license, though that bit about invariant parts doesn't often apply to documentation I write, so I'm coming around to the idea that Creative Commons ShareAlike is good enough.

Creative Commons Attribution is not good enough, so it's one of those low-grade constant background annoyances in my life that projects like Sakai and Fluid use it and JA-SIG will likely adopt it.

Question: How do you get a pearl?
Answer: Through continual irritation.