New tires for the Jeep

We dropped the Jeep off at Les Schwab to get some new tires. The front two were balding pretty badly and hadn’t been replaced since we bought the car from the dealership two years ago. It was time. Fortunately we chose the last day of the free beef promotion and now have eight rib-eye steaks in the freezer.

As always Schwab were utterly professional and did an outstanding job for a great price. It is very refreshing to do business with a company who understand both customer service and quality. We’ll be buying tires from them for a very long time to come.

Casual vs Professional Audiences

Like many people, Meaghan and I have been watching the winter Olympics on TV. We both enjoy watching the figure skaters but as the competition draws to an end I start to see more clearly the difference between a program that receives high acclaim in the skating world and a program that would receive high praise from me. Clearly there is a subtlety and skill within the skating world that is of a higher resolution than the signals I use to judge the programs at home. I recognize some of the skills involved with triple- and quad- jumping tricks but in all honesty I often enjoy the routines that bring aesthetic dance qualities to compliment the music. Some of the programs with big amazing jumps in them feel stunted and don’t flow well because the skater has to spend the majority of their time preparing for the jump instead of dancing to the music.

I’m not a figure-skating expert. I can barely even skate around an ice rink without slipping and face-planting. However, I am the audience for the TV broadcast and as an observer I find my favorite routines are often in contrast to those of the judges. It reminds me how differently people who are “in” a sport of pass-time perceive that sport from those who are outside it. It reminds me of bowling in college. For your average casual bowler they will select a pair of rental shoes that fit, pick up a house ball and try to throw it as straight as possible at the middle pin. Those who have seen bowling on TV might try to curve their shot, not realizing that professional bowlers use special weighted balls to hook their shots. To a casual bowler they will see a straight shot down the lane and think “Yay! That was awesome!” However, to a professional bowler the lane looks quite different and a ball heading straight down the middle of the lane is a bad thing because it regularly leads to a 7-10 or 4-6-7-10 split.

I’m sure the same effect is in play with the figure skating I see on TV. I observe and enjoy the dances that flow with the music and are enjoyable to watch. The judges and aficionados of the sport observe the minutiae of where the skate blades landed at the end of the last triple-axle. Technical correctness is often less aesthetically pleasing, but from the perspective of the sport it is the more advanced and worthy of a higher score. Either way I’m still enjoying watching. It was as I watched on the TV as they reviewed the same 0.5 seconds of footage over and over to see exactly whether the jump was a quarter-turn off the mark that I realized how little I know about the sport I am watching.

Finding ways to deal with stress

Throughout my career as a software engineer/architect I’ve found that I often run into stressful situations. Software projects are often unpredictable in nature and more often than not are being run by people with little experience or knowledge of the complexities involved. As a software consultant I am often in the position of working with a team that needs help but doesn’t want to admit it. The fact that a consultant is present is a sign that at least some level of help is needed. A strong signal of a talented consultant is someone who can guide and educate a team without their knowledge of it. However, more often than not that is at the expense of the consultant’s sanity and stress levels. At least that seems to be the case with me.

What I’m trying to do now is find ways to channel the stress and anxiety of my job so that I can live a life outside of work. I have a hard time disconnecting from projects. I don’t know how to tell my brain to let go of something that was massively important only a few hours earlier. Long after I leave work I find my brain idling through many of the outstanding issues that the project is facing, searching for solutions, thinking about ways to better our success rate and give feedback for improvement. A lot of what I do is about people as much as it is about software. I have to listen to their ideas, understand their point of view, and then guide them towards an architecture or solution that will leave them in a better place moving forward. My success is often measured by my redundancy. Once I’m no longer needed then my job is complete. Ostensibly the team have learned enough to run projects by themselves.

During the journey of a project there are often three distinct phases. The first phase usually begins with a very rosy view of the world as a new project is defined and scoped. Many hours are spent in a manner that will seem quite inefficient as deadlines approach as developers, designers, and managers alike wax lyrical about the new masterpiece that is about to begin. Phase two is a learning phase where time seems to be spinning by at an alarming rate and the team is abuzz with process and methodology discussions. Meetings are held to discuss how time can be managed more effectively and how items can be tracked and monitored to give more visibility into the process. Sadly it is often during this phase that scope also expands as in the name of cutting features the first real look at the project occurs and the stakeholders realize that their original visions lacked many of their true needs. Phase three is where the rubber hits the road. The talk is now of deadlines and deliverables. Gone are the gay days of dreaming replaced instead by the machine of productivity. It is usually during this phase that the stress begins to well.

I’m currently navigating a particularly delicate phase three. The stress is mounting daily and I’m searching for ways to keep my cool and help the team reach their goals. Give me strength.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

I’ve been playing a lot of MW2 lately. The sixth release in the popular series has struck a great balance for multiplayer that makes it very compelling. I can jump in and have fun for half an hour even though I’m someone relatively new to the online part of the game. There is a definite advantage to be gained by playing the game and learning the maps but it is not so overwhelming as to make the game unapproachable for newbies.

Character Customization
The game rewards online play by allowing your character to gain levels. Playing games and fulfilling certain challenges grants you experience, which in turn causes you to level up. With each new level and completed challenge you can gain access to new guns, perks, and attachments. These allow you to customize your character and play style as well as forcing you to specialize. You are restricted to using only three perks at a time and selecting one primary and one secondary weapon. Tuning your load-out to fit your play style is one of the most challenging and rewarding parts of the game. It took me until level 50 to really figure out which gun, attachments, and combination of perks most suited my play. I’ll probably change things up again in another ten levels or so. The ability to fill different roles brings a lot of new life to the conflicts.

Game Modes
The game offers a large number of game modes from a free-for-all style to capture the flag games and king of the hill style objectives. So far I have found that “team deathmatch” has kept my interest sufficiently and that the load-out and customization options provide more than enough flexibility to avoid the need to try new game modes. I’m comfortable with the 5v5 style of the team deathmatch modes (it’s anywhere from 4v4 to 7v7 I think, depending upon available players) and may try the others only once the team version has lost appeal. I have tried the other modes at least once each and so far haven’t found any that I don’t like. The “hardcore” versions are not really my style as they introduce friendly fire penalties. I’m not yet ready to play a mode that allows me to injure my fellow team-mates. That would quickly lead to my being unpopular.

Playing with Friends
Without doubt the most compelling aspect of Modern Warfare 2 is the ability to play online with a group of friends. In the team deathmatch variant the match organization system will keep you and your friends on the same team, allowing for tactics and strategy to be applied. Most team matches just devolve into individuals running around and killing ad hoc while contributing to a team total rather than a coordinated team assault. However, by introducing your friends into the equation you can tip the balance by organizing your squad and taking advantage of group firepower. Chris and I had fun doing this over the valentines day weekend and I had the opportunity to play with a friend from work one night last week. I’m looking forward to more friend matches in the coming months.

Controls
I’ve been  playing the XBox 360 version of the game. As someone who classically played first person shooter games on the PC I still find the thumb-stick controls to be very cumbersome. My aiming is far better with a keyboard and mouse and I don’t think that will truly ever change. However, I am now getting competent enough with the thumb-sticks to provide a competent challenge. I’m generally able to score more kills than deaths (my only real goal!) and have several times finished at the top of the scoreboard for a particular match. Learning the maps garners a much larger advantage than quick and accurate controller movement in my opinion, so some of the fears about input/output disadvantages are mitigated by strategy and position. I’m still much slower at aiming than many people who play online and if we meet on even terms I’m probably dead. Where I do gain an advantage is in tactics and strategy. Many of the teens who play the game simply run around wildly gunning everything that moves, relying more upon their quick reflexes than anything else. With some knowledge of the maps and popular high-traffic areas I can usually lay in wait and pick them off before they even know I’m there. After listening to them trash-talk you in the pre-game lobby there is certainly something very satisfying about creeping up on them and applying wisdom over reflexes to edge out a win. Be warned though, if you are a PC mouse/keyboard fan of the Quake/UT days then the same control problems that haunted your Halo experience will almost certainly exist here.

Conclusion
I’d give Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 a 9.0 out of 10. There are some niggles that detract from a perfect score. The single player game is very short. Even without ninja skills I was able to complete the entire campaign on the “hard” setting (one down from the hardest available; Veteran) in a little over five hours. There is some replay value as the story was done superbly. However, for many people this may be far too short. There is a “special ops” mode that asks you to fulfill certain challenges in limited scenarios. These modes are great for honing your skills in certain areas, however the online play is a far more compelling option once the single player campaign is finished. The bulk of the game’s value comes from its outstanding multiplayer. A few more multiplayer maps would be very welcome as the ten or so that are included can quickly become repetitive. Fortunately there is a map pack expansion that is expected to launch this spring. Overall a superb package and definitely one I would recommend adding to your collection. I’ll see you online!

New TV, Blu-Ray player, and surround sound system

After a week or so deliberating we finally decided what to do with the extra money we received from our medical expense account refund. Several options were available from paying off more of our debt to putting away extra money in savings. However, we had already put a significant amount of money towards debt this year and I’ve established two savings accounts since November. We’ve been living pretty frugally for quite some time and decided instead to treat ourselves to a new home theater system.

Starting with a sofa from World Market snagged for $300 in a sale we added a TV from Costco that we found discounted in the Superbowl sales. A week later World Market were having another sale, this time on rugs, and so we bought a new area rug for in front of the sofa for 50% off; another bargain at $99. It’s hand-woven and the perfect size for our new sofa.

Next up on the list was a BluRay player. We still had a little budget left but decided to go with a cheaper model. We weren’t interested in paying for a whole bunch of high-end BluRay features and chose instead to go with the $150 Samsung BDP1600. That turned out to be a colossal mistake and the following day I learned a lot about BluRay players and why the PS3 "slim" was the way to go for a home BluRay player.

Our final purchase pushed us a little over budget (isn’t that always the way?) but we wanted to complete the home system with a 5.1 surround sound decoder and speaker set. Thankfully the release of 7.1 systems has driven the prices on 5.1 through the floor. Searching around at Frys we found this Onkyo 5.1 decoder and speaker set on sale for $329.

So far we’ve seen the Dark Knight, Zombieland, and Watchmen on BluRay in 5.1 surround sound. It’s the first time in the three years that we’ve been together that we’ve sat at home and watched a movie together. I am usually busy coding, playing, or blogging at my computer while keeping one eye on the TV. Having the couch and full audio visual system has made it more of an event and lets us enjoy movie nights together at home.

What’s the Buzz?

I get it. Google want to unseat the mighty gods of Twitter, FaceBook, and MySpace. Mini-blogging and highly networked social media is cool and Google understandably want in on the action. Millions of people updating each other on what they ate for lunch is too much to resist. I have no problem with that. What I do take offense to is Google’s apparent disregard for their own first commandment: “Don’t be evil.”

Harvey Dent said: “You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.”

It seems that Buzz is already angering some people and I completely understand why. Automatically connecting me with frequent contacts sounds harmless on the surface, however in reality the frequency of contact has been mistaken with the desire to contact. I have hundreds of people in my contacts list because GMail adds contacts automatically. That doesn’t make them my friends and it certainly doesn’t mean I want them to know who I talk to regularly.

Trust
I’m sure that Google will take steps over the coming days to tighten up the way that Buzz works as I’m not the only one upset about the way Buzz was launched. However, it served to remind me just how much information we share with our online overlords and the kind of leaps they could make by automatically networking that information together. We’ve placed a lot of trust in social networks to only share the information we choose. That trust could very easily be violated and given the comprehensive nature of the terms of service it would be 100% legal.

Signal to Noise Ratio
I’ve been considering for some time now whether or not to quit TwitBook and return to just blogging and uploading photos now and then. There is a feeling that if I don’t monitor the constant stream of brain-drool that oozes onto the feeds of those around me that I’m somehow a bad friend or person. The signal to noise ratio of my own feed has degraded into little more than white noise at times yet I still maintain a profile on a site that knows more about my friends and relationships than I do. That feels like a higher price to pay than the return is worth.

Referencing the Good Stuff
Twitter is certainly a valuable tool for marketing firms and businesses as well as for those who are turning their feeds into professional modern media coverage. For some it’s the online equivalent of “people watching” at the mall. I personally see Twitter as a resource for ad hoc searches and reference. It’s like a living transcript of snippets from conversations around the world. The funny part is that none of those activities actually require you to tweet anything. You can just sit on the sidelines and watch the information go by. I still tweet throughout the day, muttering about taking a walk or what I ate for lunch. If you read the stream at a later date I’d sound like a kitten on crack with an attention deficit disorder. I tweet as though I’m turning to an imaginary co-worker and just spewing the first random thought in my head.

Final Thoughts…or did I?
The nature of this post itself is a little bit “I like cake!” so I’ll end with an impromptu final thought in a time honored style and simply say this. Share your thoughts and experiences with your online networks and enjoy the massively connected world of the modern internet, but always remember that you may be saying more than you mean to not only to our internet overlords but to the increasing number of marketing firms who are using FaceBook, Twitter, and other services to build demographic databases about all of us. The world may seem like a massive place with five billion of us scurrying around on a daily basis. The reality is that we live for a long time and modern computers can store and index incredible amounts of information about who we know, how we interact with them, and even how we think. Share only what you mean to and treat any online publication as though it was being sent to the whole world. Your FaceBook updates may be semi-private for now but who knows what the future may bring. You could always just claim to mom that you developed a rare strain of online tourette syndrome but it might be easier to just double check your privacy settings before posting or even consider if FaceBook is the right venue for the message you’re about to send. As always be safe and take care of each other. Goodnight!

Kenny & Zukes

This morning Meaghan and I met our friends Brian and Ellen for breakfast at Kenny & Zukes. It was lovely to see them both and great to try a new breakfast venue. We all ordered bagels of one form or another. I was the only one who opted to avoid the lox, instead choosing an olive cream cheese spread. I was thoroughly satisfied with my choice and would happily return for a repeat visit.

I wasn’t keeping track of the coffee refills I was receiving and ended up being more than a little wired for the balance of the morning. Reminded me that green tea is definitely the way to go unless I’m going to drink coffee regularly. As I described to a co-worker: “I feel like the RoadRunner if he had just ingested a mixture of crack and nitrous.” It certainly made for a productive morning but I crashed around lunchtime and had to really buckle down to get through my task list by the end of the day.

Thanks go to our friends for another great breakfast and we look forward to seeing them again soon!

Medical Expense Account Refund

We had some fairly good news on our taxes this year. It helped reduce some of the last of our debt and gave us hope that our bedraggled savings accounts might soon perk up. However, after making this decision and finalizing our budget for the quarter we received more unexpected news. The medical expense account which had been denying our reimbursement claims for the last three months finally decided that we were in fact making legitimate claims and issued us a check. It’s a shame it took so long for them to correct the problems in their paperwork but we’re glad to finally have our money back.

Taxes Filed

My W2 and 1099 forms have all arrived in the mail and so tonight I went online to file my taxes. Thanks to a combination of preparedness and the amazingly slick TurboTax system I was able to finish the process in about twenty minutes. We’re getting a fair refund that we’re going to use to pay off more of our debts. This helps out a lot and while some people say that we gave the government an interest-free loan for a year I say that we wouldn’t have separately saved this money through discipline alone. Besides this year I figure the feds could use an extra few dollars in interest.

We’ve successfully resisted the urge to spend any of the refund on toys, instead deciding that reducing the final pieces of our debt was the smarter way to go. There is light at the end of the tunnel now and we’re hopeful that we’ll be debt-free by the middle of the year. Fingers crossed!

Voodoo Doughnut

On Sunday morning Meaghan had been planning to meet up with some friends who where visiting from out of town. They were to meet at Voodoo Doughnut in downtown. Meaghan had never been to Voodoo and she was looking forward to it. Unfortunately plans changed and her friends ended up having to leave town earlier than expected. After much arm-twisting (read: none at all) I was persuaded to join her and so instead of sharing doughnuts with friends we embarked upon a voyage of our own.

Ever popular, the store is open 24 hours a day 7 days a week and as far as I’m aware there is always a line. Even on a Sunday morning at 10am we were standing outside in the rain with a good crowd of people who were all keen to get their doughnut fix. We returned with two of their signature doughnuts, a voodoo doll and bacon maple bar, as well as a voodoo dozen, which is thirteen doughnuts picked out by the Voodoo staff. They have some of the most creative doughnuts ever conceived and we’ve been enjoying them all week.

If you’ve never tried a bacon maple bar then you’re missing out. Next time you find yourself in old town Portland you really owe it to your taste buds to stop by Voodoo Doughnut and try one.

The Gift of Music

This year I was fortunate to receive many gifts both for Christmas and for my birthday, not the least of which was a collection of gift cards, cheques and cash. I had a few gift cards for BestBuy, which seemed like a logical place to start the search for a gift.

Meaghan and I had talked for the last couple of years about someday getting me a piano. I have played since I was very young but have not had access to a real piano since leaving England in 1999. I have had a couple of portable electronic keyboards over the years, but they just don’t have the same feel as a piano. The keys are plastic and even the touch-sensitive models just don’t have the right feeling to them. It’s hard to introduce a concept of pianoforte into the music. However, the reason I had stuck with the portable keyboards for so long is that pianos are expensive; really expensive.

A couple of weeks ago Meaghan and I had gathered some ideas, one of which was the Yahama Arius, a very capable digital piano that had caught my interest. The price tag was over a thousand dollars however, putting it firmly out of reach. On this occasion, we found something very similar and much more within reach. The Yamaha P-85 digital piano has the full 88 keys (about 7 octaves) found on a real piano and a simulated hammer action that feels like playing the real thing. Tonal control and touch sensitivity are extremely authentic and if you close your eyes you really can’t tell the different. Digital pianos also do not go out of tune, which means no expensive tunings every six months.

I’ve spent the last few days practicing with every spare moment available. On Saturday we went to a local music store so that I could pick out some sheet music. I decided to start with some favorites from my youth with Mozart’s Sonata in C Major (K545), Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata, J.S.Bach’s Menuet in G, and J.S. Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor (BWV 565). I still had my copy of Haydn’s Arrival of the Queen of Sheba from our visit to England two years ago, which gives me a fantastic set of works to begin learning.

My new piano is currently occupying our dining room table as the stand and pedal set do not come as part of the package. We plan to buy the stand as soon as we are able; hopefully in February. For now I am thoroughly enjoying the exploration and expression of playing once again.

Game Night

On Saturday our friends Mark and Kate invited us over for a board game night at their house. We had won a card game at the SoftSource Christmas party that they had brought as part of the white elephant gift exchange and we were keen to try it out. Meaghan and I picked up a bottle of wine and a few beers and headed over to their place. We’ve been looking forward to the chance for a game night for some time and with our card game in hand we were ready to go.

Mark and Kate cooked a great chicken dinner for us, which we later followed with frozen yogurt from a local store they had been wanting to try. The card game, Martian Fluxx, was both easy to learn and fun to play. Players can join and leave the game at any time because it takes only a few steps to win, although you’ll spend much of the game on the brink of winning only to find the goal changing. The game of Fluxx is, as its name suggests, is constantly changing. By playing cards you change the rules as well as the goal for the whole game. It’s fun and fast and I look forward to playing it again.

We also played a game of Agricola, a game that was new to Meaghan and I. You play as a farmer in a wooden hut attempting to build up your farm faster than those around you. There are limited resources and the turns go by quickly. For those who enjoy some deep strategy and big rewards for planning this is a great game. It took a few hours but was great fun and is another I look forward to playing in the future.

Thanks to Mark and Kate for a great game night and for establishing the first of what we hope is a long-lived tradition!

Dragon Age: Origins

I’m only a short way into Dragon Age:Origins but I’m already really enjoying myself playing it. The world is incredibly immersive and the conversations you have with in-game characters have a noticeable effect on the story and tale that you will experience.

 
Combat is challenging (on hard difficulty at least) and engaging enough to stay interesting from fight to fight. The ability to switch between members of your party and give advanced tactical assignments to each member beforehand really allows you to experiment with many different approaches. Crowd control is a large part of the fights I’ve seen so far and often the ability to disable two or three opponents at once so that your group can burn down the others is crucial to your survival. This makes the battles feel important and intense. Larger mobs within packs can quickly cut down casters and archers and they make very informed decisions about who to attack instead of just focusing on the warriors nearest to them. Controlling those mobs early in the fight makes a huge difference in the overall encounters.

I’m looking forward to exposing more of the story and might even consider playing through a second time (rare for me) as there is enough interest in seeing an alternate outcome to certain plot twists (based on the decisions you make) that a replay may still be interesting. I’ll post an update when I know more.

Birthday Shopping

This weekend Meaghan and I went shopping with my birthday money. I looked around at several items from a new music keyboard to a Playstation 3 (for the BluRay player mostly). However, after searching for a couple of hours I couldn’t find anything that felt like a definite purchase. We found a really great keyboard that had touch-sensitive keys, a full seven octave manual, functional and well-weighted foot pedals, and a $1,000 price tag; significantly out of my budget. We decided that would be more of a long-term buy. Shopping around the other keyboards we couldn’t find one that would satisfy the desires I had to advance from the current keyboard I have and it felt silly to buy something in the middle of the range that we’d likely want to replace within the year.

The PlayStation 3 was very tempting, especially at the new and more affordable price of $299 (for the 120GB drive “slim” version). However, we ultimately reached the conclusion that a combined BluRay player and gaming system might not be the best idea. I play video games rather a lot and purposefully introducing a device with contention over use seems foolish. I can envision the night where Meaghan wants to watch a movie whereas I wish to “just get 5 more minutes, just 5 more minutes” on the game I’m currently addicted to. That won’t end well. Meaghan will win and I’ll just end up sitting in a corner sweating through the withdrawal symptoms from whatever game I’ve been summarily dragged away from.

For now I’ve decided to hang on to my money and keep looking around for something else. Meaghan and I have talked about upgrading to the world of high-definition television sometime in the not too distant future. That’s certainly an option, however it begs the question of whether to wait until we can get a BluRay player at the same time or if we should just watch DVDs and the HD ComCast broadcasts for now. Let’s see what the tax season brings and go from there!

Citadel Miniatures – Step One

I’ve been playing Dungeons & Dragons with some friends locally now for a little over six months and in doing so have rekindled an old interest. In turn this got me thinking that it might be fun to paint miniatures again and so over the Christmas break I picked up a starter kit, which includes the foundation paint colors, a couple of glues and a pair of trimmers. I also picked up a box of wood elf miniatures to assemble and paint.

This morning I took the first step by cutting out all of the pieces from their mold frames. The kits ship as a set of frames, in this case ten frames, that contain the unassembled figures. The first stage is to clip out all of the pieces from the frames. I like to separate the pieces into small, medium, and large groups. I store them in individually sealable bags to keep them together. The fourth bag contains the base fixtures; small plastic squares to which the completed figures are glued to keep them standing up straight.

Next I’ll use a hobby knife to trim off any plastic tabs and smooth out any irregularities from the molding process.

Birthday Celebrations

We celebrated my 32nd time surviving the Earth orbiting the sun yesterday with our friends Michael and Laura. We started with some food at Buster’s Texas BBQ before heading off for some bowling at the Sunset Lanes. After a couple of games of cosmic bowling, and a lot of fun being not competitive at all (grin), decided we weren’t quite ready to call it a day. We finished the day with a trip to the movies to see the new vampire flick Daybreakers. Pretty gory in places but with a strong story, I enjoyed the movie and was pleasantly surprised by the ideas presented in the plot. Willem Dafoe delivered a great performance. He’s certainly good at playing the “grizzled scary dude”.

I love the food at Busters and had a great time with a plate of beef brisket, pork spare ribs, beans and rice. They really know how to BBQ there and seeing the meat carved right in front of you at the counter is great. I’ve always loved to bowl and had fun knocking down some pins. For being more than a decade since I took it seriously, a 132 and 127 wasn’t half bad either. I’ve considered getting back into bowling and am wondering if that’s where some of my birthday cash might go. Still not sure yet. I have close to $200 to spend and I can already feel it burning a hole in my wallet.

It was great to see our friends and to celebrate my birthday quietly. I’ve never been one for big parties. I’m looking forward to a nice relaxing Sunday tomorrow, perhaps some video gaming, a bit of TV, and I might start working on my new citadel miniatures. I’m 32 now. Time to play with toys and games like never before.

Piazza Italia

Tonight we had the pleasure of joining our friends Bob & Deb for a meal at one of their favorite NW Portland restaurants, Piazza Italia. They invited us to join them based upon a recommendation stemming back many years of continued patronage and were assured that Friday night was one of the best nights to enjoy the experience to the fullest.

Without doubt Piazza has an authentic feel to it. Run by an Italian family of obvious soccer fans, the front of house service was superb and got the night started out very nicely. The menu contained a great sounding selection, however ultimately it was the specials boards that caught my attention. Bob & Deb knew what they were getting as they enjoy a lamb special offered only on Fridays. I chose the rabbit special and Meaghan chose the lasagna. Our meals were excellent. The rabbit was cooked superbly. The meat slid off the bone perfectly and the meat was flavorful and tender. Meaghan assures me the lasagna was equally enjoyable. The service was great and for two entrees, a desert mocha, and half a liter of wine we came away for under fifty bucks for the two of us. That’s very affordable by any dining standard. I’m sure we’ll be returning again in the future. We had a great meal and a great night out with our friends.

Merry Christmas 2009

Meaghan and I had a superb Christmas this year. For the first time being together we didn’t travel, didn’t plan, didn’t really go anywhere at all. We simply took some time off to unwind and relax, and it felt great. By fortune of how the calendar fell this year I was able to get a twelve day break for only five days of paid time off.

We had put up most of our decorations shortly after Thanksgiving but took time on the 23rd for our final preparations. It was really nice to get a chance to decorate our own tree and lights this year and to enjoy setting up some of our own traditions for celebrating Christmas. I ran a continuous strip of nearly four hundred lights around the ceiling in our living room, up the stairs, and all along the main balcony. Our cats loved the tree, despite the fact that they tried to pull it over on several occasions, so much so that I ended up fastening it to the wall via two re-enforcing braces. Christmas decorations hung, we ran to the store to get the final items for our Christmas dinner. I managed to talk Meaghan into getting a twenty pound Turkey this year. Adventurous in some ways but a nice way to avoid having to cook for the rest of the Christmas break.

Christmas morning arrived with haste but without snow, much to Meaghan’s disappointment. However, the lacking weather did not hinder our enjoyment of the day at all. We were blessed with a veritable mountain of gifts from friends and family and spent much of the morning watching each other open our presents. Our bounty was too voluminous to list here without abandoning any sense of digestible brevity, some highlights for me including Assassins Creed II, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, and my new Sennheiser HD 280 PROs; simply the finest pair of headphones I’ve ever owned. Meaghan got me a hoodie (WoW themed!), which I love and have used every day. I have been wanting a hoodie for my daily walks to keep me warm and dry. It’s comfortable, light-weight, fleece-lined, and has a hood. Brilliance. Furthermore, as I was informed by several people at the local movie theatre, it is “full of awesome”. The girl at the box office pulled out her iPhone and snapped a picture of me sporting said hoodie to share with her friends. I smiled.

Meaghan got seasons 2 and 3 of the new Doctor Who (with David Tennant) on DVD as well as the new Beatles Rock Band, which is awesome fun. We had a blast singing and playing along to the early Beatles songs on Saturday and plan to do more of the same in the coming weeks.

We spent most of the rest of the day cooking Christmas dinner together. The turkey took around seven hours to cook, with fairly regular basting to keep it nice and juicy. Our efforts were well rewarded for it all turned out wonderfully and we enjoyed a lovely turkey dinner with a toast of champagne. Meaghan made mashed potatoes, stuffing, and crème brûlée for dessert, while I set the table and got the dining room set for a holiday feast. We were treated to multiple delicious courses and a thoroughly wonderful meal. ‘Twas the end of wonderful Christmas day.

Realtek HD Audio Manager

I was cleaning up some unused applications from my home pc the other when I did a stupid thing. I saw “Realtek HD Audio Manager” and my brain thought “Real Player <blah blah blah>”. It wasn’t until the uninstall was running (and wouldn’t cancel!) that I realized my mistake. The audio manager responsible for sound devices on my system finished uninstalling successfully. Well, bugger.

I googled around for a short while thinking that getting it back would be easy. However, what I found was a sea of confusion from other people in the same boat. Double bugger.

After poking at the problem with a stick for a short while I found audio codecs and drivers available from the Realtek site. The name is a little confusing however, as it turns out that the control panel and “HD Audio Manager” installs as part of the codecs package.  52MB of download later and I’m back in business.

Four Million Steps

It’s been almost two years since I started walking 10,000 steps a day to try to get back in shape. In those twenty months I’ve been covering the 4-5 miles five days a week and have now covered almost 4,000,000 miles. That’s approximately 2,000 miles. If I keep it up I’ll reach five million steps by the two year mark in April.  It’s amazing how quickly it adds up and it takes a lot less time in the day than I originally thought it would. I feel fitter and stronger and I find that the walking provides a great chance to think and unwind during the day. I’ll often take a short walk when I’m stuck on a problem or feeling a little burned out and I find that it energizes me almost as much as grabbing a soda.

I’m now 25 pounds lighter than I was this time last year and I feel stronger and fitter as a result. The benefits extend further than I first imagined though. I find I’m depressed less often and that I get a lot less anxious at the end of a work day. Taking the time to walk and unwind allows some of the stress from the day to disperse instead of bundling it all into for the ride home.  I’m able to start an evening fresh instead of grinding on the tribulations of the day for two hours when I first get home. This in turn promotes a healthier life schedule at night, better eating habits, and a higher likelihood of being in the mood to exercise the next day.

Not feeling like a big fat knacker helps a lot too. I’m incredibly vein when it comes to my weight and appearance (I think secretly we all are) but I had no idea what an effect it would have on my happiness to lose a pant size or two and see less belly and more bicep. I no longer get winded walking uphill or a steep flight of stairs and the walks now are something I look forward to instead of a chore. It’s been a lot of effort to get here and there were days when I just wanted to sit in a corner and cry, but now that I’m here I feel energized and alive. Exercising, for me, is like a turbo-system in a car in that it takes a while to get going but then feeds its own momentum moving forward. This is the first Christmas in three years that I’ve entered feeling good about the year that preceded and confident that my New Year’s resolutions will be more like reaffirmations.

New Moon

Meaghan and I went to the theater last weekend to see the new Twilight movie New Moon.  It was predictably teen oriented in nature, but true to the stories (so I’m led to believe) and entertaining to watch.  The production values were high and helped to convey the vampire and werewolf characters well.  Direction was a little light in places but everything kept moving and I was able to keep up with the plot despite having not read the books.

The population of the particular theater and showing we attended carried a high percentile of teenage girls who “ooh’d” and “aah’d” whenever a shirt was ripped off to reveal a rippling abdomen.  There were a few moments when I had to conceal a snicker or two, but as someone who idolized a variety of bimbos at that age I have few stones to throw.

Meaghan enjoyed the movie and I had a fun afternoon date with my beautiful wife, so all in all it was mission accomplished.  I did feel as though I should perhaps get in a bar-fight on the way home though, just to be sure everything was still intact.

Wet Weekend

On Friday night the rain began.  Meaghan and I headed over to our friend’s house for dinner and board games.  It was great to see Matt, Holly, Amy, Ben, and Audrey for it had been too long.  Nice to start out the winter season with an evening of parlor games too; it’s a great portent for future occasions.

Saturday saw the first of the true Oregon winter rain.  Despite the downpour Meaghan and I still made it outside for a walk, albeit around a local mall.  As we were about to leave for our perambulation we discovered that the water outside our front door was rising alarmingly.  We notified our apartment managers who dispatched maintenance right away.  They did a great job draining the water and then dug a trench to help it drain more easily over the coming weeks.  It’s not the best looking solution, but it should save our entryway from getting wet.

For breakfast on Saturday I made us some cheese potato cakes (from scratch!), the remainder of which I was able to enjoy on Sunday morning.  On Sunday afternoon we enjoyed a quiet meal at the local pub, using the remainder of a gift certificate given to us by a friend at our wedding.  It was a nice way to finish the weekend.

All in all a quiet weekend with some football on Sunday afternoon and a fair amount of video gaming.  We kept up with the walks and exercise and enjoyed the first days of the wet season.  Here’s to a great end to 2009.

Carving Pumpkins for Halloween

Meaghan and I carved pumpkins together this evening.  I’d never carved a pumpkin before but always thought it sounded like fun so we picked up four pumpkins and a carving kit at the store.  While our dinner was in the oven we cut off the lids, scooped out the guts, and prepared our designs.

I chose to carve a kitty-shaped pumpkin and Meaghan chose to carve a skull.  We left a couple of small pumpkins uncarved; one for each of our kitties, Lucy and Dougal.  All four are now sitting on our doorstep to greet those who would “trick-or-treat”.

We’re finishing off our night watching Transformers 2 and then X-Men Origins.  Not really Halloween-themed movies, but two that we’ve both been looking forward to watching for a while.

Happy Halloween!

Halloween day walk around Wilsonville Memorial Park

Meaghan and I enjoyed a walk around Wilsonville Memorial Park this afternoon.  The air felt wonderfully fresh and the rain was kind enough to hold off until a few moments before we returned home.

Tonight we are planning to carve pumpkins, watch some movies together, and play some board games by a nice warm fire.

Late Release Night

Had a late night at work last night, pushing our latest release out to production. I was reminded once again to always double- and triple-check with our release managers that the assets actually deployed to the system are the same as those intended. Almost every release I’ve seen has some missed assumption about what was actually deployed that ends up causing issues.

Last night paired with an early morning has left me feeling wrapped up in sludge. I’m just not thinking quickly. Looking forward to a nice, relaxing weekend and the chance to catch up on some sleep.