Archive of March 2005

Thursday, March 31, 2005

Old, Fat & Slow

So this morning I got up at 4:15am, got dressed and went riding outside before work for the first time this season.  I did get out and ride on both Saturday and Sunday in addition to my bonus early season ride, so I guess this is marks the start of another outdoor cycling season for me.

I've been hoping that I might be able to log more miles this year than I have in the past few years now that my little ones are out of the fussy at night baby age.  I even got started again after the holidays sooner that I ever have.  But this morning proved what I already knew; I'm old, fat and slow.  Actually there are four parts to the cause of this morning not going well.

1) The battery pack for my lighting system needs to be replaced again.  I knew as soon as I unplugged it this morning that there was likely a problem as the batteries were not warm and the charger was fairly hot.  This was the same symtoms of the batteries failing a couple 2-3 years back.  And when I started using it, it just wasn't putting out a lot of light.  That's a big problem when you are riding on bad roads in the dark.  Later in the seasons it's less of a problem as you start to learn where the really bad potholes are, but right now that's somewhat of a mystery.  This naturally slows you down because you can't see as well.

2) I also forgot my water bottle this morning!  I really can't remember the last time I did that, but without water that also slows you down after a while.

3) I'm carrying too much dead weight as excess fat.  I'm 4 pound heavier today than I was at this time last year.  I always expect to be a bit heavy at that start of the season, but this year is worse than ever before.  Hopefully with some discipline and hard work I will be able to shed it or convert it to muscle mass in a reasonably short period of time.  Being at about 152 right now would be good, although my target weight is actually 148.  This of course sends my wife into a tizzy as she thinks that's too thin.  I'd be happier with more weight, but only if it is muscle mass.  It's been several years since I was that light, but I also did some of my best riding then.

4) The other reality is I'm getting older.  It's harder to get out of bed, I hurt more and it takes longer to recover.  Getting back into shape and maintaining a fairly constant weight and working out year round would go a long way towards making all of this easier.

Must be disciplined and mentally strong!

March 31, 2005 @ 12:57 pm | Category:
Tuesday, March 29, 2005

R.I.P. Paul Henning

I discovered yesterday that Paul Henning died last Friday.  You may not recognize Paul by his name, but it's quite likely you know his work.  Particularly if you are in the 35+ crowd…can you say "The Beverly Hillbillies", "Petticoat Junction" or "Green Acres"?

These are shows I have fond memories of and still catch in reruns early in the morning while working out.  As part of The Beverly Hillbillies, Paul penned "The Ballad of Jed Clampett", which I used as the basis of The Ballad of Joe Barbie for the SFFL trophy.

Thanks for all the laughs Paul.
March 29, 2005 @ 12:57 pm | Category:
Saturday, March 26, 2005

Heads in the sand

If this is truly the case, it's incredibly shortsighted.  Are there really people out there that believe that only teaching abstinence is going to stop teens from having sex?  This might work in some parts of the country, but do you really believe this is going to work in most urban areas, particularly inner-cities?  Get real.  Last I checked, telling people —children and adults alike, to "pay no attention to the man behind the curtain" does nothing but to cause them to look.

Oh, and it's good to see that as this bus rolls down the highway it's next stop will be to pick up "intelligent design".  This will be necessary after running over evolution in textbooks because it's "just a theory".  That may be true, but creationism or "intelligent design" has no more solid evidence than evolution in my book.

Regardless of what you believe, whatever happened to critical thinking?
March 26, 2005 @ 08:04 am | Category:
Friday, March 25, 2005

I’m more demented than I thought!

Well…I've taken the quiz and I've learned I'm more demented than I ever imagined…
Albert Fish, Serial KillerIf i was a serial killer i would be Albert Fish.

"Albert Fish was a masochistic, pedophile obsessed with religious themes such as sin, sacrifice, and redemption through pain. It is believed that he would force his own children to beat him with a nail studded paddle until he bled. He would also stick nails underneath his finger nails,into his groin, his scrotum and his anus. He forced himself to eat feces and would stick alcohol soaked cotton balls up his anus and set them on fire."

"Fish believed that God wanted him to castrate boys, which he would do over the course of many years, finally to be caught for kidnapping, murdering and eating a 10 year old girl. Fish claims to have molested over four hundred children. Police charged him with eight but suspect him on fifteen."

Kill count: unconfirmed

Find what serial killer you would be, take the Serial Killer Quiz now!
March 25, 2005 @ 04:09 pm | Category:

My Job

As you may have noticed, my blogging has become a bit less consistent in both quantity and quality.  Although quality probably wasn't one of it's strong points in the first place!  Anyhow, what follows might explain the situation…

I generally don't blog about my professional life much largely to avoid any potential hassles.  I don't recall if I mentioned it or not, but back in November I changed jobs.  I was very happy with my job at ChoiceOne and was not even looking for a new job.  But along came an unsolicited opportunity that proved to be an offer that was "too good to pass up".  And I have to say in hindsight it was a very good decision on my part to pursue it.

My job at Synacor is wonderful, but it's kind of hard to explain it all.  I was initially hired as a Code Review Engineer.  My primary function is to review the work that others do and make sure they aren't doing dangerous or computationally expensive things in their code.  In short, their code must meet certain standards.  Documenting these standards based on existing guidelines they had and industry standard best practices is also my job.  I am the gatekeeper.  If you want your code added to the the project it has to be approved by me before you can commit it to the version control system.  When I started I was to spend 3 months working with the Platform Development group who develop new features for our product and then 3 months with the Client Deployment group who do customization to meet each customers needs.  After that I would begin to do some code reviews.  But due to the our rapid growth, it hasn't quite worked out that way.  Basically I spent about 6 weeks —including a week off with the Platform Development group and then started doing some code reviews.  Within about a week of that I was then doing virtually all code reviews!

So I was chugging along doing "CR" when in early February the Technology Department underwent a minor restructuring.  For me that meant a change in my role/additional responsibility —I was made a manager of initially, "Development Operations" and later called "a department to be named later" when my boss comes up with a better name for it.  So in addition I now am responsible for bug fixes in our existing live product.  It's a very small department consisting of me and Tony a very good QA Engineer who does the bug fixing.  Additional people will be added as we identify what other responsibilities will be under my group and the workload increases.

At the time of my accent to a management role I was also informed that I would be becoming the backup to the Release Manager.  Cool.  Fast forward to last week when due to multiple priorities and the Release Engineer's unavailability, Kevin was informed he would be doing an "rsync" release the next day.  Okay.  With a good deal of assistance this baptism by fire went off without a hitch and I've since done a couple more with a major one coming up next week.

Although it can be somewhat hectic at times, anyone who knows me or has read my resume should realize it is really nice to be working for a wildly successful company for a change.  After working for a number of failing entities it's quite refreshing.  Thus my previous casual surfing at lunchtime and doing some blogging has begun to be overrun by my work demands.  But that's okay because I love this job.
March 25, 2005 @ 09:12 am | Category:

Pez MP3 Player

Now  here's a really cool idea, a Pez MP3 Player.  Apparently this guy must have built himself one, thought it was neat and wanted to share it.  But having concerns about Pez coming after him, he did something really smart and got their permission.  He's now gearing up to produce them.  Me want.  You buy.
March 25, 2005 @ 07:55 am | Category:
Thursday, March 24, 2005

Voluntary Amputee

Wow!  One really has to wonder what's going on inside the head of someone who wants to be an amputee.
March 24, 2005 @ 12:53 pm | Category:
Tuesday, March 22, 2005

Your Time

Your Time

I could hear the voices calling
They were sending out my name
'Til my mind became aware —Come forth to lay it's claim
I tried to run
I've tried to fly
I just couldn't, believe it's time
It's my life I'm running for
Someone help me —Open a door

As I ran across the plains
Screamed for help
In complete despair
Somehow I wonder, is it fair?

"Go away, leave me alone"
There are somethings
That must be told

"You go back home"
"You check on the time"
"I'm pretty sure, it isn't mine"

3/19/1982
March 22, 2005 @ 12:32 pm | Category:
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