Incidental Commentaries

My Road Rally - Work

2010-10-06T20:46:00.000-07:00

Numbers in parens are average speed. I spend almost all my time on I-5. I missed a couple trips (all the longest ones but one) but this covers a week. Evenings are definitely better than mornings.

Route Name : Work
Distance : 20.6
Best Time : 29:01.1 (43)
Average Time : 36:46.8 (34)

Trips :
10/06/10 17:35 - 29:11.3 (42)
10/06/10 07:31 - 01:05:13.0 (19)
10/05/10 17:43 - 31:37.6 (39)
10/05/10 07:34 - 43:20.5 (29)
10/04/10 17:59 - 29:07.3 (42)
10/01/10 07:33 - 29:01.1 (43)
09/30/10 17:22 - 29:55.8 (41)

Sent from the My Road Rally iPhone app.

New Friend

2010-08-04T20:55:00.000-07:00

t-rex

2010-07-05T19:53:00.001-07:00

Artown family night

2010-07-05T19:21:00.001-07:00

smiley wyatt

2010-05-30T16:40:00.001-07:00

He now smiles on demand ("SOD")!
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GPSed Track "Pooh racing"

2010-05-30T16:10:00.001-07:00

View my new track "Pooh racing" started in United States, Nevada, Reno.

Check out our GPS Track from the Pooh races; Picture here.

At the park

2010-05-30T15:06:00.000-07:00

What a goof!

the little guy

2010-05-29T23:51:00.001-07:00

we're starting to get along better; though, he still tries to headbutt me on a regular basis.

Bubble Machine

2010-05-29T23:12:00.001-07:00

30 minutes before dinner:

Son: You're a mean Daddy.
Daddy: Why?
Son (now starting to cry): Because you broke my bubble machine.

Later during dinner:

Son: I think I'll kill you and get a new Daddy.
Daddy (not at all surprised): Why?
Son: because you broke my bubble machine.

Reno, Nevada, May 22, 2010

2010-05-22T12:48:00.000-07:00

Falling snow strikes flip flop shod toe in parking lot on valley floor. Donner Party didn't stand a chance no matter what time of year they were trekking.

Working Through the Labor

2010-03-26T21:21:00.000-07:00

So on Monday after we checked in at the hospital, I emailed my assistant to let her know that my paternity leave had started and that I wouldn't be in to work for a while (I had discussed the fact of my paternity leave with everyone who needed to know and gone through all the proper channels to get said leave approved, which it was). Shortly thereafter, I received an email on my blackberry (it really is hard to stop checking those things, even when your wife is in labor with child #3) from a partner at the firm asking about one of our cases. He was emailing me because he knew that my wife was in labor, that our child was en route but yet unborn, that I would now be out of the office for a while, and that I could no longer be reached by walking down the hall. A very short while later, I received a voicemail from the same individual. I have since deleted it, but I wish I would have saved it so I could prove that I'm not exaggerating what he said, which was something to the effect of: "Hi [Fishhead], it's [John]. I know you're busy with family issues, or whatever, but I need to know [some stuff about a case we're working on]. Please give me a call to discuss."

Forget that I had tried to discuss my cases with [John] on numerous occasions and he was too busy to care, or he just didn't care. Some people just don't understand humanity, if you know what I mean, let alone family life. Unfortunately, I both responded to his email (one of two that I received), and I returned his call, all while my wife was going through her third all natural child labor. Sorry babe, but at least I was there when it counted most, right?

Wyatt David

2010-03-26T21:03:00.000-07:00

Photos and a video of my newly arrived son are here: Frogtroll Blog.

Baby Boy Arrives

2010-03-22T13:20:00.001-07:00

11:51 a.m. on March 22, 2010
8.0 pounds
20.5 inches
Name to be determined
Pictures will follow later

She's at an 8

2010-03-22T10:46:00.000-07:00

She's at a 4 and 80-90 effaced

2010-03-22T07:21:00.001-07:00

Checked in at the Hospital

2010-03-22T07:13:00.001-07:00

She's been having contractions since 2:30 a.m. It is just after 7 a.m. now. They're hooking on the monitors (ugh) now. More updates after they check her.

Got friends? Apparently Not.

2010-03-19T18:51:00.001-07:00

Daddy: "What do you think? Will my friends like it?"

Son: "What friends?"

A keen observation by an astute three and a half year old.

How high can you score?

2010-03-14T23:09:00.000-07:00

Holmenkollen Ski Jump 2

Jump the Holmenkollen ski jump! Try the game from visitnorway.com here!

Area Baby Doesn't Have Any Friends

2010-03-03T13:09:00.001-08:00

If you can't laugh at this, you are incapable of laughter.

snow cave from bb

2010-02-20T09:01:00.001-08:00

another snow cave shot from bb

2010-02-20T09:00:00.000-08:00

3rd time in cave; first time able to sleep

2010-02-20T08:48:00.001-08:00

From the depths of my snow cave: once again on the annual Troop 9 snowcave campout. This is definitely my best cave ever. Slept decently & warm. In order to dig the better cave I spent a lot of time digging -- at least three hours. But, since there's nothing else to do on these outings and digging keeps you warm, it was time well spent. The digging did mean that I got wetter than my previous two attempts, which made for a cold dinner and thereafter. Dinner was two cup 'o noodles piping hot with a pouch of jerky (need that protein). For breakfast I plan to have oatmeal and hot chocolate. Later, if the snow is decent, we'll have a ski/snowboard jumping contest, which was really fun last year, though there was no competition. I'll check in later with some pictures.

Great Business Idea

2010-01-02T23:56:00.000-08:00

Sell something that regular folks buy to install in their homes. They'll either break whatever you sell and have to buy it again (and again and again) or, they'll install it wrong and have to buy something else (which you should also sell) to fix it. I'd say $500 M by your third year if you land a major distributor. (Please see previous two posts for context.)

Victory Lap Dings

2010-01-02T23:34:00.000-08:00

Immediately after I snapped the last piece of laminate wood panelling into place (which project took me a week to do), my son convinced me to "hold [him] in [my] arms" and go "jet boat running," which is what he calls running so fast that he can't move his legs quickly enough to keep up, so he ends up just flying. As I was taking this well-deserved victory lap around the house, my framer's square fell out of my back pocket and landed point down on the laminate wood in a prominent and conspicuous location between the dining room and kitchen. As my wife pointed out, our youthful exuberance resulted in no fewer than two easily-spotted, irreparable dents through the laminate and into the fake wood, sawdust-like core of two separate panels (one of which was cut to fit around both sides of an entryway!!!). Despite having ruined the floor, I was still quite happy at the thought of being momentarily done. Regardless, I know that tomorrow I'm going to pull up the entire dining room so that I can replace those two panels. Will I hate doing it? Yes. Will my wife never let me eat dinner without reminding me about the dings if I don't? Yes. But, will I enjoy making her happy? Yes.

Laminate Wood. Aargh!

2010-01-02T23:33:00.001-08:00

While working on our interminable laminate wood floor installation, something close to the following occurred:

Me: "I should get an award for cuts like these."

She: "Yeah, that's pretty good."

Me: "Wait, what's that? NOOOOO!!!!"

(As I notice that, despite properly notching around a linen closet opening that required 5 separate cuts including a long rip, I failed to notch into a bedroom doorway across the hall, which, of course, required me to re cut the whole piece and re install).

2009-11-23T15:32:00.001-08:00

Is this a three-day week or what? I can't focus for anything! And it's only three o'clock. Maybe I should just go home and call it a day.

Confessions of a Two and Half Year Old

2009-04-04T13:04:00.000-07:00

So while my son and I were talking earlier this morning, the following conversation occurred after I responded to something he said:

Son: "Don't talk back, Daddy!"

Daddy (playfully): "What! I didn't talk back, you were talking back to me!"

Fairly long pause.

Son (in a quiet, contemplative voice): "Sometimes I talk back to Mommy."

A somewhat shorter pause.

Son (in the same quiet, contemplative voice): "Sometimes I don't listen."

Annual Snow Cave Campout

2009-02-22T16:14:00.000-08:00

We did it again this year. The weather was much better, and as a result, we had a much better time. We went snowboarding in the dark by headlamp. We had good food. We didn't die. And, we had a good time the next day in the beautiful sunny weather. All in all, we mostly stayed warm, though one cave did collapse during the construction phase, and father and son (age 8) had to sleep in a tent, which they reported as cold. The lowest temperature in my cave that I noted was 29 degrees Fahrenheit, so I don't know if their tent could have been much colder.

I made a few colossal blunders that were easily avoidable: (1) I forgot my fleece jacket, so I only had long underwear, a sweater, and a shell; (2) I forgot my ski socks, so I only had the dress socks that I'd worn to work earlier that day. Despite my shoddy preparation, planning, and packing, I still stayed passably warm through the night, and I was very warm at all other times.

The entrance to my cave.

Inside my cave.

The sunrise next morning outside my cave.

One of the sledders airing it out nicely.

Proving that I can still get into the air despite the lack of any real riding for 5 years.

One of the other leaders getting crazy on his skis.

And one of the boys showing how to ride a board with no legs and still get plenty of air! (Oh wait, those are just camouflage pants!)

Video Explanation of Kiva.org

2009-01-10T12:25:00.000-08:00

I am passionate about the good Kiva.org can do. The embedded video below explains how the website works, and how the loans from people like you and me are handled. Enjoy!

P.s. I've been paid back, or am in the process of being paid back, every cent I've loaned.

Anyone. Anyone. Anyone?

2009-01-07T22:09:00.000-08:00

This is a test. Does anyone still read this?

HULU

2008-06-09T23:30:00.000-07:00

So I've been watching TV, if at all, via the internet on my laptop computer since August 2006. To do this, I've been going to the websites of NBC, ABC, FOX, and CBS. It turns out, I've been living in the dark ages. Thank you to my brother-in-law for opening my eyes to the possibilities that are out there. Above is a sample of one of the clips that are available along with several hundred (thousand?) others. All the shows, all the networks, all the time. This is the wave of the future. Now I just need to figure out how to get a wireless connection on my projector.

FishHead Is Not My Wife's Pet Name for Me

2008-03-11T22:29:00.000-07:00

I just remembered something that amused me over the Christmas holidays. We were sitting around talking at my Dad's house and pretty much most of us were in earshot of my Dad when he turned to my wife and said something to the effect of, "You know, I think you [meaning my wife] have a unique brand of humor. I don't know anyone else that would use FishHead as a pet name for her husband."

It took me a while to grasp what he was saying, but when I finally got my head around it, I laughed pretty hard on the inside, of course not so much as cracking a smile on the outside. He thought that because she refers to me as "FishHead" on our blogs that she also calls me FishHead in our everday bantering. Somehow, he must have missed the fact that I'm obsessively paranoid about maintaining my anonymity. Can you imagine? "Hi, FishHead! How was your day?" and so forth. Dad, I hope your not too sensitive to this post, but you have to admit, it was funny.

Modern Utility of the "Prnt Scrn" Button

2008-03-11T22:12:00.000-07:00

Uninteresting to most, fascinating to the truly dull, and just learned by me moments ago. Drumroll, please....
When pressed, it copies the image present on your screen to your clipboard. Open any application with a "paste" function (Paint, MS Office, etc.) and you can paste in the image and email it or manipulate it how you choose. The image tacked to my recent post regarding the youngest and most successful camel racer in the sport's history was made using the "prnt scrn" button. I'm serious. I opened two internet browser windows and resized them to show only the racer's head, then I placed them next to the image on my desktop that's set as my background. Next I hit that formerly-thought-to-just-waste-space button, "Prnt Scrn," and opened my Windows XP Paint application, pasted it in, cropped the image and cut out some distracting unnecessaries, and whoala! A beautiful side by side by side image that captures the evolution of the world's next greatest camel racer.

The Evolution of the World's Next Greatest Camel Racer

2008-03-11T21:49:00.001-07:00

Title reference
First, the picture on the far left is a shot of the lad before he was able to camel race, but I thought it would give you a good idea of how he started. Always physically aggressive, even at a tender age, as seen here, flexing his biceps. Second, he's grown ever more serious as the competetive nature of camel racing has worn on him. During the more than a year since first entering the often overlooked sport, this rising star has had his share of crashes and falls (he's apparently still recovering from one, though his publicist seems to have made vain attempts at teaching him to comb his hair over the scrape!). And third, while his recent change in racing partners may have gotten him points with the local chapter of the Leche League, he certainly hasn't gained any momentum with visiting racers who, at one point in time at least, had looked forward to forming a long-term alliance.

We're getting closer...

2008-01-31T23:17:00.000-08:00

To a truly usable all in one

Best News Article Ever

2008-01-30T22:50:00.000-08:00

Here

Videos!

2007-08-31T20:30:00.000-07:00

Between moving, ending one job, starting another, etc., I fell a little behind on the whole internet connection thing for a while. And what does Google go and do? Add a video upload tool to Blogger. I couldn't resist, so here's a video to try it out.

This is a tournament in Bridgeport, CA. I've only ever won at arm wrestling about 3 times, and all three were when I was 20-21. I seem to have peaked.

Oh, and you can't really tell from the video, but the other guy was HUGE!

Moisture

2007-08-31T10:18:00.001-07:00

It's actually raining today. In over a year, I've only seen this a couple of times.

2007-08-30T17:49:00.000-07:00

This is a little picture of my credit card:

(Please note that the bottom half of the card is actually see-through plastic)

What follows is the conversation that I just had with AMEX's customer service representative:

CSR: What can I help you with today, sir?
Me: I'm calling to cancel my card.
CSR: Oh, I'm sorry to hear that, can I ask why you would like to cancel your card?
Me: Yes.
CSR: And why do you want to cancel your card?
Me: I hate it.
CSR: Oh, and why do you hate it?
Me: It's clear, and I'm disgusted by clarity.
CSR: Well, we'll go right ahead and cancel that for you.

Why do they always ask?

Book title: Ulitimate Workout VII

2007-08-28T16:04:00.001-07:00

On Sunday night i flew into Reno at a little past midnight. I had parked my car at the small airport where the little planes come and go b/c my father in law had picked us up to go down to So. Cal. for a wedding. After my flight, I decided to walk to my car b/c I didn't think it was that far and I didn't really want to spring for cab fare. My carry on was a backpack that only weighed about 20-30 pounds so I thought that it would be really easy. And it should have been. Unfortunately, I didn't have a clue how to get back to that small airport and I ended up wandering the less-than-ideal neighborhoods surrounding the Reno-Tahoe International for quite some time. At one point, I could see that I'd reached the end of the airport runway, so I knew that I'd gone too far. It was past late, and I had to work the next morning, so I decided to run back to one of the streets that I'd passed that I thought was probably the right way to go. I cinched my backpack down and took off. After about a mile or so, I realized that running with a weighted backpack on would really make for a great workout for busy people. You get all the benefits of a long run without having to spend all that time. My legs would normally burn out in about 5 minutes, but now they had burned out in 1. I chuckled to myself as I began mentally outlining my best-selling book.

It wasn't until about 5 minutes ago that I realized that there is a very large organization that is already a major proponent of my workout idea: Uncle Sam. To all you troops out there: Keep working hard. I'm glad when I run I don't have a sergeant screaming at me to pick it up.

Good Luck Mariangela

2007-08-05T15:16:00.000-07:00

So I didn't expect our borrower Mariangela to get her $1,000 so quickly. And I have no idea if any readers of this blog lent money to her. But nonetheless (sin embargo), she has the full requested loan amount. I imagine that now we can monitor the purchase of the car and the repairs and resale through the Kiva.org website. Best of luck to you Mariangela, I look forward to seeing your business grow.

Mariangela Alvarez

2007-08-03T19:21:00.000-07:00

Folks, Let's be honest. We've got stuff. Lots of it. We can sell some stuff and give the money away, or just realize we have stuff and give some money away. I want to see if this blog's readership can fund a small business loan to a Paraguayan entrepreneur. In fact, I'm issuing a challenge. I need no more than 40 people.

Do you have $25 that you'll likely spend at a restaurant, movie theater, or record store? Go ahead and do those things. Next month. You deserve it, and after all, it is your hard earned money. This month, though, practice a little self-denial and help Mariangela Alvarez get ahead in her business. If you're interested, click on the ad in the sidebar, or the link in this post and sign up at Kiva.org. After you donate, come back often and watch the little red bar move to the right side of Mariangela's banner.

Kiva.org is a highly respectable nonprofit organization with a great idea. It makes lending to business people in developing countries personal and real. Plus, don't forget, it is a loan. You'll get your money back (usually), and when you do, you can reinvest in someone else's business. I don't see any other way to end the cycle of poverty. We've managed to get out of that cycle through education, help from family, or just by virtue of living where we do. But now we can help to end the cycle for others. If you're thinking that you are too poor, you're not. Even wealthy people feel poor because they're maxing out their budgets. Look at where you're spending, do you need to? I know I could cut back my budget by $25 this month. I'm going to. I want to see how our collective help affects others. Are you with me?

Guaranteed Approval

2007-07-20T19:52:00.000-07:00

A recent conversation with our mortgage lender:

Lender: "So, do you both want to be on the loan?"
Me: "Yes, we do. If we default, we default together."

Help create awareness of sex offenders in your area

2007-07-17T22:09:00.000-07:00

I've started a sex offender residence location map using the "my maps" feature of Google Maps. See it here. You can see all the residences by zooming out, names down the left side. Click on a name and an information balloon opens on the map with a pinpoint on that offenders residence. I've pasted in the entire public registry into those info bubbles, including pictures. By making the map public, anyone searching for something about the topic can find my map in her/his search results. It might take a bit of time to do, but it also might save someone from walking/running alone down a street where one of these offenders lives. Often, sex offenders live in some sort of communal style house with other offenders for a period of time after incarceration. For example, at 1600 Arlington, in Reno, NV, no fewer than 5 registered sex offenders live. Knowing that, would you ever take your kid to the park nearest that address? Or, go running alone in that neighborhood? I don't think so. Do your part: Create a map of offenders in your area and help raise awareness.
UPDATE: This site has already done all the work for the entire country. Thanks Yoohoo for the tip.

New House!

2007-06-29T07:34:00.000-07:00

I'm headed into work now to fax over a copy of our acceptance of the seller's counteroffer. It was so much simpler than the last time. His counteroffer accepted our price but added two additional terms: one regarding our financing and one about the maximum he'll pay for any repairs needed after an inspection. I considered it an acceptance of our offer and was thrilled to read it. I noticed this morning that our last deal officially fell through on the 21st of June, so we really were very blessed to be able to find something that we liked so much in such a short amount of time. Here is a link to a map of the house. We're scheduled to close on the 29th of July, two days before our lease here expires. Since the closing day is a friday, we'll probably move the next day. My last day of work is currently set for August 3, so it will be perfect. With house payments on the horizon, though, I'm wondering if I shouldn't work as long as they'll let me and squeak out one more paycheck before the new clerk arrives. At any rate, we're very excited.

T-Mobile users just got a huge break

2007-06-27T16:33:00.000-07:00

Read about how to use your T-Mobile cell phone without using any of your plan's minutes. The secret: T-Mobile is not charging clients who talk at home over their WiFI network.

The end of your HTML email creation woes

2007-06-27T16:03:00.000-07:00

Some of you may recall the utter disaster sending out my Christmas newsletter turned out to be. Many of you couldn't see it, others had to scroll back and forth. Say goodbye to all of that.

Google Reader has once again come through in the clutch for me and not only makes keeping up with all my news and blog reading simple, it has now provided me a way to send perfect, easy, simple HTML emails to the whole world at the touch of a button.
Step 1: create your email on your blog or some random blog that you create for the sole purpose of sending the email. Insert pictures, text, colors, etc. Easy.
Step 2: Subscribe to that blog using Google Reader by clicking on the orange syndication button in the url bar at the top of your browser's screen. Easy. When given the option, have the subscription be managed by Google Reader. Easy.
Step 3: Go to your Google Reader account (free sign-up takes about 15 seconds) and pull up your recent post that you intend on emailing around the world. Easy.
Step 4: Go to the bottom of the post and click on the link about emailing your post around the world, type in your intended recipients' email addresses. Easy. If you have gmail, Reader even already has your contacts built in and after typing a few letters anticipates which contact you're sending the email to. Easy. Click send like you do for any email, and voila! you just sent a properly formated HTML email without doing really anything.

Making another offer

2007-06-27T15:40:00.001-07:00

As some of you know, we put an offer on a house in Reno, NV a

few weeks ago and it was ultimately rejected when the seller got a higher bid in the middle of our negotiations. Undaunted, like our pioneer ancestors, we've pressed forward and found another little beauty. As it turns out, I like this house, area, and everything about it, much more than the last house. It's funny, in a way, how things work out. We were so set on that house, and now, having looked around more and walked through even more houses, I almost can't imagine buying that first house.

So anywho, I just got a confirmation that the fax I sent to the seller's agent with our offer went through successfully. It took several attempts. Unfortunately, her voicemail box is full, so I couldn't leave her a message to call me back or anything. I anticipate that working with her will be extremely easy. Wish us luck on getting an acceptance!!

The one picture you're bound to scratch your head over is of the two-story, unfinished crawlspace. The others are of the living room (vaulted ceilings) and the kitchen sink, which allows easy viewing of the family room over the bar.

Hike at Twin Lakes, Bridgeport, CA

2007-06-12T23:31:00.000-07:00

2 weekends ago (time really flies by) we went on a little overnight camping trip with a friend of ours. His kin have a cabin next to a little fishing lake tucked back in the mountains just north of Yosemite. We camped in the driveway. On Saturday we took a nice little day hike.

Memorial Day Weekend in the Basement

2007-06-12T23:23:00.000-07:00

For memorial day weekend we went to UT to visit with some old friends. Other than Sunday we spent most of the time there helping out my oldest and best friend start to finish his basement. I had a blast. It was fun working and getting things done. Thanks for letting us stay with you guys.

My favorite part of this picture is Koll tugging on Kaden's ear. He's such a bully.

We also saw my brother and sister and some other friends on Sunday. (And brother also helped both days in the basement too, Thanks!) Everyone treated us to delicious meals, but we didn't get any pictures with them. All the same, Thanks, we had a great time.

Ouch!! That's gotta hurt.: CA bar pass rate

2007-06-12T08:45:00.000-07:00

I just saw this now for the first time, it's not news but it is interesting. How can a state bar be so cruel?

New Bike

2007-06-09T20:32:00.001-07:00

After one failed attempt, we finally made it to an REI garage sale today. If you're not familiar, REI's garage sales are when REI tries to recoup some of its losses from returns of used items by selling them to members at reduced prices. In some cases, extremely reduced prices. While at the garage sale today, I overheard a guy walking past me as he mentioned to a friend that he found Yakima bike rack accessories for his roof rack for 83 cents each. 83 cents. I imagine that the bike rack normally retails at something around $150. Needless to say, I was stunned, jealous, and covetous. The sale was somewhat reminiscent of a Black Friday sale, meaning that people were lining up very early to get in so that they would have a good shot at getting the best stuff. I called yesterday to learn when they were opening and was told 7 a.m. We showed up at 8 a.m. and there was still a line in front of the store. Huh? Turned out that my informant didn't know squat and we left. We went to a donut shop, ate breakfast and then went to a home improvement store to get remodeling ideas.

Finally back at REI for the 10 a.m. opening, I didn't find anything for 99.5% off, but I did, however, pick up my own little dandy for 77% off:

I've actually been looking for a used bike for a while now but Carson City doesn't offer much in the way of anything worthwhile and I'm not interested in paying more than about 60 bucks. Enter the REI garage sale. This bike is used, but I would guess not more than about 20 hours. Also, for whatever reason, it was missing the front tire and tube, so I did have to get those on the way home at an additional cost of $25. But since it is in outstanding condition, I really can only think that I got a very nice bike for a very reduced price. Really, the only problem with it is that one of the handle grips is torn slightly, though there is no other signs of a crash. Notably, the seat has no tears on it and the frame, fork, and wheels are in immaculate shape. As soon as we got it home I put on the new tube and tire, pumped up the tire, and took off on a little ride. After adjusting the seat height and pumping a little more air into the new tire, I was ready to rock and roll, so I set off on my first ride: to work and back. I don't live far from work, so I've been wanting to ride there since I started last August, but the lack of bike has been a problem. The shortest route is on the "highway," (I say "highway" because there are more stop lights than nearly any other street in town) and it is 3.6 miles. Two longer routes are available, at 4.4 miles each, which are much less traveled and thus safer. I took one of the 4.4 mile routes and arrived at court 19 minutes later. The return trip took 17 minutes. Keep in mind I haven't biked hardly at all since 1998. Wow, that's nearly ten years. If my calculations are correct, my average speed, including being stopped at three lights each way, was just under 15 mph.

Important features to keep in mind when drooling over my "new" bike are: suspended fork, suspended seat post, suspended seat, grip shifters, and road tires. It is a K2 Blakely, specs here. Other than being a bit heavy, it is pretty nice. It will take some getting used to riding on skinny tires and suspension (it feels squishy), but I think it will work out.

2007-06-08T10:44:00.000-07:00

Great story about advances in the wireless transfer of electricity.

I think someone could easily mistake me for the guy in the red shirt. Whattayathink?

CA bar results

2007-05-25T18:31:00.000-07:00

Pass.

Overcoming perception

2007-05-25T11:57:00.000-07:00

I am not one that typically makes an accurate first impression. Nearly everyone that I currently know has referred to or described me as "serious," "uptight," "cynical," "stern," etc. I don't think that those words accurately describe me. My own self-perception, however skewed it may be, is that I'm "playful," "silly," "laid back," "optimistic," and even "goofy." And thus I struggle. Yesterday at lunch I mentioned that I felt sorry for my wife because I'm a completely different person than the one she married 5 years ago, with law school largely to blame. My friend responded, what because you were laid back and not cynical. Since I hear it all the time, I didn't really react too strongly. I'm slowly getting used to the idea that smiling "on the inside" doesn't really work as well as I've always thought.
Another of my problems is that even when I think I'm smiling "on the outside" people can't tell that I'm smiling. The result is that I'm perceived as a non-smiler. A non-happy person that has no fun. I don't know what to do, my face doesn't express my emotions. I could stonewall the best poker players in the world.
Anyway, if you see me looking stern, just remember, I'm really smiling.

Ode to Mommy

2007-05-12T20:53:00.000-07:00

My mommy is great

my mommy is grand

my mommy used to let me play in the sand

when I was a youth she taught me well

now we talk on the phone, we don't yell

She likes to laugh and sing and dance

on the counter top she does a funny stance

she plays "wipe out" on her "bongo drums"

"if you can't say something nice" she often hums

my mommy is sweet and thoughtful too

on this mother's day, she should know

she's the best mommy

Mommy, I love you

Cops in Carson City, Nevada

2007-05-09T11:14:00.000-07:00

Before today, I considered our little neighborhood one of the quietest in the city. We have no street lights and there is very little traffic or noise at any time of day. This is mostly so because there aren't many houses in the area and we live on the outskirts of the city. Something happened this morning that changed all of that.

As I was backing out of my driveway this morning, a man was walking toward the end of the cul-de-sac. He was wearing white tennis shoes, black and white checked pants (they looked like flannel pajama bottoms) and a yellow hooded sweatshirt. He had the hood up. Other than the fact that I didn't recognize him, which is somewhat unusual in our neighborhood because I have seen most if not all of the people that usually take walks, seeing him struck me as strange. First, he didn't look at me even though I came somewhat close to him with my car as I was backing out and leaving. When I'm out walking and I car is headed my direction, I almost always try and make eye contact with the driver so that I know that he sees me. This man didn't do that. When I tried to make eye contact with him, he was only about 3 feet from my driver's side window, so I got a fairly good look at the left side of his face.

After leaving the cul-de-sac, I called my wife and told her not to worry but that I just saw a man that seemed suspicious and that she should be aware. After I hung up the phone, I didn't think much of it. But then she called me at work. She said she saw him walking back toward the street from the end of the cul-de-sac and then suddenly, he was gone. She went and looked in the back yard to see if he'd gone back there, but she didn't see him. In a beautiful moment of good neighborliness, she noticed that our neighbor's garage door was open (as it often is during the day) and gave him a call. He immediately went into his garage and found that he was inexplicably missing an air compressor.

Our neighbor's son is a deputy sheriff for our county, so when my neighbor called the police, he got an extremely quick response. (Thanks Carson City Sheriff!!) If I had to guess, I'd say it was much quicker than usual. The police found our guy parking his car in front of a pawn shop about 5 blocks from our house. He'd taken off the yellow sweatshirt, but he was still wearing the unique black and white checkered pants. After Whitney went to the pawn shop to identify him as the man she saw, but couldn't with any certainty, I left work and went over there. They pulled him out of the back of a patrol car and made him turn to the side to expose his profile. I said that on a scale of 1 to 10 that I was a 6--mostly sure that it was him. Then I noticed a police officer putting a yellow hooded sweatshirt in the trunk of his car, which sweatshirt he had pulled out of the man's truck. Then I asked to see his pants again, because I'd been focusing on his face, and when I looked again--same pants. So then I added to my written statement that I was 8 or 9 sure, on that same 1 to 10 scale, that he was the man.

In addition to finding my neighbor's air compressor, they found other things, including something out of my neighbor's car, which had been parked inside his garage. I can't imagine the nerve of this guy. Committing a burglary at 8:30 in the morning. Not only going into a garage, but going into the car inside the garage. Very assertive. The police also found drugs and drug paraphernalia, so I think that the case against the man is very solid and I have no doubt that he'll plead guilty when the time comes.

As happens with these things, now my wife is a little nervous about being home alone. She said she won't go on her daily run today. Now she'll be even more paranoid about security at home. I'm glad they caught the guy, and I'm glad my neighbor got his stuff back, but I wish that it hadn't happened. I envision having to get up in the middle of the night to check on strange noises, in my underwear, carrying a bat or some other useless weapon that will only provoke the intruder to use his stolen sidearm. I envision having to remember to lock up much better than we usually do, and having to check that I did so in the middle of the night. I also envision the possibility of having a good excuse to get a really cool dog. Maybe one with a spiked collar and a tattoo. That might make all this worth it.

Quelling fears

2007-04-30T13:21:00.000-07:00

I have gotten a few questions about this, so I suppose I should finish my story about the CA bar. Everything is fine, and my exam answers are in the hands of the graders. I was even told that my answers were not delayed and were sent off with everyone else's.

Google 411 Experimental

2007-04-09T16:30:00.000-07:00

I tried this out, it works very well. Quit paying $2 for 411 calls and use this free service from Google that is basically a telephone version of Google maps. Call 800-GOOG-411. No more need for phone books in the car! Article about Google 411.

A rare, worthy email forward

2007-04-09T10:15:00.000-07:00

What follows is the email I got at work today, word for word [SEE COMMENTS FOR UPDATE]:
"This is a case of photographer photographs photographer.

The following photographs were taken by photographer Hans van de Vorst at the Grand Canyon, Arizona. The descriptions are his own. The identity of the photographer IN the photos is unknown.

I was simply stunned seeing this guy standing on this solitary rock IN the Grand Canyon. The canyon's depth is 900 meters here. The rock on the right is next to the canyon and safe. Watching this guy on his thong sandals, with a camera and a tripod I asked myself 3 questions:1. How did he climb that rock?2. Why not taking that sunset picture on that rock to the right, which is perfectly safe?3. How will he get back?

After the sun set behind the canyon's horizon he packed his things (having only one hand available) and prepared himself for the jump. This took about 2 minutes. At that point he had the full attention of the crowd. After that, he jumped on his thong sandals...The canyon's depth is 900 meters here. Now you can see that the adjacent rock is higher so he tried to land lower, which is quite steep and tried to use his one hand to grab the rock.

This is the point of no return.

We've come to the end of this little story. Look carefully at the photographer. He has a camera, a tripod and also a plastic bag, all on his shoulder or in his left hand. Only his right hand is available to grab the rock and the weight of his stuff is a problem. As he lands low on this rock, both his right hand and right foot slips away... At that moment I take this shot. He pushes his body against the rock. He waits for a few seconds, throws his stuff on the rock, climbs up and walks away."

When the California Bar calls your cell phone . . .

2007-04-06T17:55:00.000-07:00

As I've mentioned before, I sat for the February bar exam in California. It consisted of six three-hour sessions, four of which were typed on my laptop. Following the two days involving laptops, I uploaded my four answer files to a third-party server. Each answer file represents 3 hours of typing/torture. Upon successful uploadation, the server sends you a confirmation email. Ideally, the third party then sends the Cal Bar my answers so the bar examiners can take years and years to grade each little word I wrote. Unfortunately, it doesn't always work like that.

California has a bit of a history with making it hard on its examinees. A few years ago there was a complete power failure at one of the laptop testing centers and everyone had to handwrite the rest of the exam. I don't know about you, but I imagine that when you're in the mindset to do an exam with your typing fingers, it would pretty hard to instantly transition to using your writing fingers. And what about not being in shape? Have you ever tried to handwrite at unbelievably furious speeds for 18 hours over three days? I haven't, but I've tried to do it for about 30 minutes and it kills. Afterwards your hand looks and feels like it was thrown into a garbage compressor for weeks.

During my first year of law school, during a three hour Contracts exam, the bloke behind me almost had a nervous breakdown when his laptop froze and he couldn't get it to restart. Talk about a difficult transition, instead of immediately starting to handwrite, he opted instead to loudly pound his fingers on one of the laptop's touchpad buttons for about 90 seconds. Even though I had in earplugs, I could still hear his "digital" tirade like it was inside my own cranium.

Usually, when the Cal bar needs to communicate with me, they send me a letter on cheap bond paper. Their letters normally just list the things I need to do to complete the application process. In other words, time is rarely of the essence. So to get a phone call, you know right off that they need something to happen quickly, like yesterday.

So last week I got a call on my cell phone. "Hi, this is Mary from the California State Bar." My stomach unsuccessfully tried to return its contents to where they came from. Panic shot through my whole body. Then, as tactfully as she could say it, I'm sure, she informed me, "There's a problem with one of your exam files." What can you say to that? "Oh, thank you for calling, Mary, I'm glad to hear that I'll be failing the bar exam. How's the weather over there? Oh, that's nice." She then tried to tell me that everything was fine, they have my answer but they couldn't print it, so if I could just do them a favor and call the third party and email them a few registry files that will help clarify why this problem occurred. But not to worry, she said, they have my answers. I called, I left a voicemail, and I forgot about it. I don't really care, after all, if the Cal bar figures out how to print exam answers. I just want my exam answers given passing grades, everything else is sewage running down the river.

But then she calls again today. This time, I'm not as surprised as before, but I'm curious why solving a simple technology problem is so pressing. After a little back and forth she mentions that they can't "get my materials" until I send them to the third party.
"What do you mean? You don't have my exam files?"
"No, we can't get them until you send them."
"But last time we spoke you left me with the impression that you had my answers and only wanted me to help understand why you couldn't print them, but that you'd gotten a print out from the third party."
"Well, initially we thought that to be the case, blah blah blah."

So there you have it. The Cal Bar does not have my answers for question 4, 5, or 6. In other words, THE EASIEST PART OF THE EXAM. If there was anytime in those long, tachycardia causing hours that I thought I did well, it was during questions 4, 5, and 6. Amazing. We'll see where all this goes, "Mary" assures me that everything is fine, the answers are on my laptop and I only need to send them to the third party. "Everything will be fine." I hope so, I'd hate to not study hardly at all, sit for the exam, and then have a technical snafu ruin my chances of getting in. That would be too much. And after all my hard work.

Google just ruined Blogger

2007-03-31T05:20:00.000-07:00

So Google has made two changes recently that affect my life. One for the better. Let's talk about the one that I don't like first.

Blogger image uploads cannot exceed a lifetime storage limit of 1 GB ("and counting!"). Google has achieved this by providing a "photo management interface for your blog's photos" in Picasa Web Albums. While Google attempts to put a positive spin on this, I see it only as an enormous drawback to what I until recently considered the greatest feature of blogger: unlimited storage for all my jpeg files. One more aspect of this change is that "when you delete photos [in Picasa Web Albums]. . . deletions will affect both your blog and its album." I'm really not thrilled about this at all. With our new camera dishing out huge RAW files, which we convert to huge TIFF (a small one was 22 MB!!) or JPEG files, I see the beginning of the end for the old "FotoBlog."

While it's true that lately I've been posting fewer of my own fotos, I have been downloading images from the internet and then uploading them to blogger to ensure that even if an image url changes or goes away, my blog will remain intact (for examples of posts that are no longer intact because I've removed them from previous storage locations, see posts regarding Yellowstone. I made those posts before blogger supported image hosting. I really do plan on uploading those images to blogger one day soon.) With the new rule, I'll probably cease that practice and try to post pictures only from reputable websites that aren't likely to change anytime soon. Of course, Google permits bloggers to increase image storage capacity for the following rates:

6.25GB ($25 USD per year)

25GB ($100 USD per year)

100GB ($250 USD per year)

250GB ($500 USD per year)

Does Yahoo offer blogging? (Yahoo's email is set to remove all storage limitations in May.)

Now, despite this crushing blow to something I have held so dear, Google did make my life better, as promised, in one way. Namely, it added a Google Talk gadget to the array of gadgets available to be added to its customizable Homepage. Now I can see who's online right from my homepage without the inconvenience of having to keep another tab open for gmail. For those of you who aren't using Google Homepage, let me tell you, it will change your life. My Homepage is divided into 4 tabs: Home, Games, Jokes, and Tools. Games and Jokes are self-explanatory, but on my Home tab I have gadgets for google reader (set to open my feeds in "bubbles"), gmail, google calendar, google bookmarks, google analytics (to check on my blogs' stats), weather, and now google talk. In the Tools tab, I keep such gadgets as a dictionary, google finance, google documents & spreadsheets, a pdf converter, wikipedia search engine (did you know that elephants are the only mammal to have 4 knees?), and google driving directions. I love Homepage and sometimes I wonder if I could ever need anything else.

It's good to have something to say again. I've been busy at work lately, so it has consumed much of my focus this month. I don't know how interested my readers are in the power of eminent domain. Let's hope April brings more than just showers. If you haven't visited lately because you read this via an RSS feed, I've made some changes to the layout and look of the blog, including ads, a search engine, a new header, and tabbed links across the top. While I really didn't have anything to say, I had plenty to do.

Another Bar Exam Down

2007-03-01T21:27:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure that someone who hasn't done it can really know what it is like to take a bar exam. I wouldn't have imagined I could ever feel the way I do now. And this is the second time. Just to give you a glimpse what it is like, I'll try to describe what happened during the lunch break today.

I left the exam center, crossed the street and stepped into the first deli that didn't have 45 people trying to buy a sandwich. I walked in and stepped up to the counter. After a few moments, I was asked what I'd like. I realized I'd been staring into space and hadn't look at the menu. I turned to the woman behind me and told her to go ahead. A few moments later, I was asked again what i would like. Another blank stare on my face must have made it clear I still wasn't ready. I forced myself to read the choices. (A) A ham sandwich, (B) A ham sandwich, (C) A ham sandwich, (D) A ham sandwich. What is going on? What is this, the MBE? All the choices are the same!! I ordered a ham sandwich, frustrated that I had to guess.

Later, as I was filling my paper cup with pink lemonade, my head jerked as I felt cold liquid on my fingers. My cup was running over because I hadn't been paying attention. Then, I couldn't find napkins.

I spent the entire 90 minute break with sticky fingers.

Witness Report

2007-02-24T00:25:00.000-08:00

I've started another blog. I feel like it is a little bit unique, because other than the two samples I just posted, the one being entirely fictitious *wink*, I won't be doing any of the writing. Well, I might occasionally file a report if I happen to see something cool. I hope you'll check it out.

Temporary Hiatus

2007-02-23T17:00:00.000-08:00

I'll be out of touch from now until the end of the first week of March. I don't expect to have time update until then. I will be in Sacramento, CA taking another bar exam.

No surprise: Tom Vilsack is out of 2008 Presidential Race

2007-02-23T13:41:00.000-08:00

You might remember when I wrote this:

Vilsack made a fine presentation, I just don't think he'll get the money or national recognition that he'll need to go the distance.

Today, Vilsack dropped out of the race, stating that "the process has become, to a great extent, about money, a lot of money. So it is money and only money that is the reason we are leaving today." "Mr. Vilsack, 56, conceded he was unable to compete in a contest where the ability to raise money trumps all." He also said that his "campaign was spending more money than it was taking in"--upwards of $700,000 since November 9, 2006.

While no one expected* today's announcement, I'm sure everyone expected it sooner or later.

*He was just in Nevada on Wednesday and had another appearance scheduled for this evening.

I just shook hands with Hillary Rodham Clinton

2007-02-21T15:26:00.000-08:00

And Christopher Dunn. And Joe Biden.

Carson City Nevada hosted the first Democratic presidential candidate forum and I was in the "forum viewing" overflow. So while the candidates were on national television at one place, I got to watch it on C-Span in another place. That sounds less than exciting, but Dunn, Clinton, Tom Vilsack, and Biden came to the overflow and spoke for a short bit and milled around with the people. It was the perfect opportunity to meet them and shake hands. We even took pictures with Biden on my friend's cell (no I don't have them yet).

I have no doubt that Hillary will be the most famous, well-known person that I will ever ~~meet~~ shake hands with in my life. I imagine that everyone in the country and anyone in the world with a television has seen or heard of her. Of the candidates that came to the overflow, she was by far, BY FAR, the most well-received. People were almost frantic. And talk about a secret service nightmare. The secret service agents (there were about three of them in the room with her) were doing their best to make sure that hands were out of pockets, no one was using their own pen (Hillary had her own to sign autographs with) and that no one was making any sudden movements. With no metal detectors, no security searches, I would think that those agents were losing their minds worrying about all the possibilities. I was surprised how likable she is. She comes across very well.

Here are my thoughts on the electability of each of the 8 candidates who spoke at today's forum (views on issues aside, I'm talking about raw people skills and popular recognition):

	Electable	Not Electable
Chris Dodd		X
Hillary Clinton	X
Joe Biden	X
John Edwards	X
Mike Gravel		X
Bill Richardson		X
Dennis Kucinich		X
Tom Vilsack		X

It was a real shame that Barack Obama didn't make an appearance at this forum. I would have liked to have seen him the most. Maybe next time.

Gravel comes across a little bit crazy. He gave more of a high school civics lecture than a speech about why he's the best candidate. Also, he hasn't been in politics since around 1981. He told us that to end the Iraq conflict, we'd have to forget about what God wants. Or something like that. And he is against income tax and for sales tax as the main source of federal revenue.

Kucinich also came across as a bit of a radical. He called health care reform the biggest fraud ever. He was talking very excitedly and maybe even shouting at times. He left the stage after chanting 6 or 7 times, "No strings attached" and spinning around several times with his arms extended (giving the impression that he's no one's puppet).

Vilsack made a fine presentation, I just don't think he'll get the money or national recognition that he'll need to go the distance.

Dodd is very sincere, he is likable, experienced, personable, but suffers from a serious lack of recognition.

I can't comment on Richardson because he didn't come to the overflow and I missed his speeches while shaking hands with someone else. But generally, he is virtually unknown, except in New Mexico.

It is very early in the race, so Vilsack, Dodd, and Richardson can each get the money and recognition needed to win a nomination. I'm not counting them out, they just have a very steep uphill battle ahead of them. The candidates spoke to the main issues: Lots of easy cheap shots at W. Lots of "get out of Iraq now." Lots of universal health care for everyone without raising taxes. It wasn't nearly as "rah rah" as I expected, and I didn't get lynched when I told my friend sitting next to me that I thought that abortion was not a fundamental right and it should be an issue left to state legislatures. (Though he did try and get me to lower my voice several times.)

Gmail: No invitation necessary

2007-02-15T09:02:00.000-08:00

You can now get a gmail account without going through the hassle of getting an invitation. 2.8 gigs of storage with in browser chatting (no download required), works seamlessly with google homepage, google docs, google calendar, google photos, and google groups.

"24" as a Politically Influential Vehicle

2007-02-14T10:25:00.000-08:00

As my prodigiously witty life partner pointed out yesterday, I have seen the first 5 episodes of this season of 24 (6 AM to 1 PM). I think that on Monday they must have had a two hour show, because now on the internet, episodes through 3 PM are available, so I have some more catching up to do.

For some reason, and despite the predictability of the plot, I really like that show. When I say predictable, I mean that you can guarantee that a couple of things will happen each show:

1. Jack Bauer will call Cloe at CTU and say "Cloe, it's Jack. I need you to patch me through to the international spy cam that happens to be positioned directly above the terrorist I'm trying to nab." At which point Cloe will respond, "Jack, are you alright?" "Cloe, there's no time, I need you to do this now." "I'm in. You should have it on your $15,000 PDA now." "Thanks, Cloe."

2. Jack Bauer will torture someone both in the field, meaning he will use a the old "stab a pen through the back of the prisoner's shoulder" routine, and at CTU or with the help of CTU agents, meaning he will inject either truth serum or a pain inducer into his blood stream. Then he will wildly scream questions in the terrorists ear.

3. CTU agents will just miss catching the terrorists.

Maybe I'm just gullible, but I, like so many others, find the show suspenseful, and I think it is well-done and entertaining. And I can't be the only one that finds it highly political.

The writers of 24 have done an excellent job of making people dislike the characters who want to increase "national security." I'm thinking specifically of Tom, a national security adviser to President Palmer II. He is so unlikeable. He's dripping evil. He's also the main proponent of doing things like suspending Habeas Corpus, the Fourth Amendment, and the Due Process Clause (presumption of innocence). What on earth is wrong with presuming that people belonging to certain demographics are more dangerous than others? I ask that question jokingly, of course. I can't say I disagree with the message the show is trying to push, but the show is trying to make me believe that what Tom wants to do, our government, in reality, has already done, or wants to, or would do if given the opportunity.

And that's where things get fuzzy. There's the Patriot Act, Guantanamo, enemy combatants, wire tapping. That's what we know about. What is happening that we haven't caught wind of? The show wants me to believe that the government is making missile strikes on men that haven't gotten a fair trial. The show wants me to believe that the government is full of ambitious-at-the-cost-of-the-greater-good types. Folks that would gladly take away our rights, and worse, to solidify and reinforce their own power. Am I believing it? Are you?

Seinfeld: The Show about Nothing

2007-02-13T13:11:00.000-08:00

I've been watching a lot of Seinfeld lately. A friend of mine loaned me the first three seasons on DVD and I'm about half way through the third season. It might have inspired the post about nothing, I don't know. During my last semester or so of law school I was watching two episodes a day at 7 and 11. Needless to say, I really like the show.

Coupling that with my recent thoughts about blogging, I've realized that the concept for Seinfeld is the same as the earliest concept for the web blog. Back in the day, bloggers just wrote about their daily lives, like a journal. Nowadays there are blogs that focus on specific topics and the generalization hardly applies. But more often than not, especially on this blog, many a post is based around the premise "Did you ever notice . . ." which was a Seinfeld specialty. He opened the show with a discussion about the importance of the placement of the second button on a man's shirt. Another one, "What's with . . ." was another series favorite.

So I'm thinking, what's with the fashion show? How do those world renowned designers make any money? Where is the revenue coming from? I truly don't understand the purpose of the fashion or runway show. Here's what I see happening:

1. Designer comes up with something completely ridiculous that no member of any society would ever wear.

2. Designer makes the clothing out of outrageously expensive materials and fabrics

3. Designer hires models that look nothing like people in any society, including having bodies that maybe 5% of the population can relate to

4. Designer forces hired models to wear ridiculous fashions while walking on a narrow raised platform

5. Only other designers, models, and the press attend the show

6. No one, not even the designer's relatives, buys the clothing

7. Designer makes millions of dollars

8. Repeat year in and year out

The only thing that makes sense to me is that they make clothes that people buy and wear, aside from the stuff that is modeled at the fashion show. But that begs the question, WHY HAVE THE FASHION SHOW? I just don't get it.

Obsessed?

2007-02-13T09:10:00.000-08:00

Fishhead and I watched the first episode of this season's 24 last night. We started later, so I opted to only watch the first episode, and then go to bed. Fishhead, however, watched one more episode, or so I thought. This morning, while Fishhead was bathing Koll, he kept asking him what he thought it would be like to be in a Chinese Prison. He was asking Koll all sorts of 24 related questions, even questions I did not understand because I only watched the first episode. Come to find out, Fishhead watched all 5 episodes, and is now caught up with television viewers. He confessed that it was 1AM, and he thought, I need to go to bed now, but was somehow watching another episode. He thought the same thing at 2AM, and once again, another episode seemed to be running. Finally at 3 AM he was finished with the last available episode and was able to "go to bed on his own free will." Sometimes I wonder if Fishhead was in a Chinese prison.

Making a living as a blogger?

2007-02-12T15:33:00.000-08:00

Did you know that there are ordinary people out there that are so successful as bloggers that they quit their day jobs and do it full time? I was reading dooce.com today and I finally got around to reading her bio, wherein she reveals that not only does she blog full time, but her husband also quit his job to help out with the blog. One blog sustaining an entire family (they have a little girl, too). She said that she is getting enough ad revenue that she doesn't have to work.

One of the main "secrets to her success" is being irreverent and controversial. For most people, that probably seems quite obvious. Want to generate a lot of hits, write about controversy, be controversial, and offend as many people as possible. It seems to work for political and social commentators quite well. (I'm thinking of the Rush Limbaugh types out there.)

The thing is, she doesn't really talk about anything all that controversial. Mostly just familiar topics relating to ordinary family life: parenting, pets, occasional travel. But she does it in a way that really keeps it interesting. For example, when explaining how yet another reader has complained that she is not raising her daughter properly by letting her suck on paper towels, The Dooce will say,

When you call Child Welfare, PLEASE get the story straight. Not only do I leave her alone with paper towels, I set her in the middle of a flea-infested floor and surround her with sharp objects and porn. Then I turn on a wood-burning stove in the corner of the room and seal all the windows. Before I leave the room and lock the door, I stick a bottle full of vodka in her mouth, you know, to muffle the screaming.

It's pure literary magic.

So back to this idea of writing for a living. I don't know about other people out there, but that sounds like an incredibly good idea to me. Just write about your life, take pictures of it, and spend the rest of your time doing whatever. In fact, just do whatever, and then blog it, and you're basically just doing whatever.

Beautiful.

I don't really fancy myself as such a great writer or photographer, but I think that being able to write-off computers, cameras, other great gadgets, as well as trips, meals, and life generally would be outta this world. As a blogger, what would not qualify as a business expense? The real question for me now is, Can the market bear one more full time blogger?

General Leadership Training Meeting

2007-02-10T21:45:00.000-08:00

Any one else go to that? It was by far the most unique church-wide meeting unrelated to missionary work (directly) that I've attended. I say that because training meetings about missionary work often have workshops and demonstrations and whatnot. This was about teaching generally. We got to see Elder Holland teach an unscripted teacher improvement class for about 45 minutes. We saw President Packer shooting from the hip about how to be a good teacher (and recommending to leave your scriptures under a sprinkler to really get the pages to turn easier) in a "conversation" with Elder Perry. And then, lastly, President Monson spoke about teachers that have personally impacted him, in his usual general conference talk fashion.

I thought it was a great meeting. It inspired me to do better as a teacher and really think about how to reach out to my class. I teach the 12-13 Sunday School right now and it definitely is different than Gospel Doctrine, but I think it can still be a positive, learning experience for kids.

Rembering Ren

2007-02-10T21:18:00.000-08:00

See if you remember this one: (sorry Rachel, it would have been before your time)

What walks down stairs, alone or in pairs

Rolls over your neighbor's dog?

What's great for a snack, and fits on your back?

It's Log, Log, Log!

It's Loooo-g, It's Loooo-g

It's big, it's heavy, it's wood!

It's Loooo-g, it's Loooo-g

It's better than bad, it's good!

Everyone Loves a Log

You're gonna love it, log

Come-on and get your Log

Everyone needs a Log!

Log from Blamo (song finishes)

For whatever reason, this song was really popular among the kids that went to Mattson Jr. High in the early nineties. I find myself singing it after my shower about twice a year. The last little while it has been pretty much stuck in my head, so I thought I'd share. What is, perhaps, most interesting about it is, though I've seen a few snippets of Ren and Stimpy here and there on television, I've never actually seen the Ren and Stimpy Toy Log commercial or heard the song at all on T.V. My memories of it are based purely on hearing other kids sing it in eighth grade social studies class.

9 Months

2007-02-10T21:07:00.000-08:00

It was nine months ago today that something else happened. And now something else is happening again. Do you ever wonder why things happen? Why is that nothing never happens? Can you imagine a story about the one time that nothing did happen?

. . . .

I just tried to imagine it and couldn't come up with anything.

Remember her inner beauty

2007-02-10T20:47:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure if it is because of the recent birth of her daughter, the recent death of her son, the Bahamian "marriage" to her lawyer, the centerfolds, the stripping, the billionaire geriatric husband at age 26, the diet pills, the jeans, the drugs, the three men claiming paternity re: her daughter, or what, but there is no doubt that Ms. Smith is getting a lot of press the last couple of days. If you missed this one, you must be living under a rock. And I'm not bringing it up because I have feelings one way or another about her. I think it is tragic that she died so young and left behind such a young daughter. I mainly wanted to post this picture and remind the world that she was also an actress. She had her own talents and used them in her own way. Given the current state of the paternity battle, which is really just a battle over the right to control the battle over Marshall's estate, and the currently unknown cause of death, I am sure that we will continue to hear about her for a long time to come.

Because it was hard to find: Email contact for Blogger help and support

2007-02-08T11:58:00.001-08:00

Some of you might need this one day and not want to spend the 5 minutes I did guessing at it. Send an email to support@blogger.com with a description of your problem and they might take care of it. My problem is that I am a member, without administrative rights, to two blogs that are defunct. They appear in my dashboard and I can't get rid of them. The owners of the blogs either don't know the blogs exist or can't access them because they don't know the passwords, etc. Which means that the owners can't take me off the blog. So, as a last resort, I emailed support. I hope they'll do something about it. From the number of posts about it at the Blogger Help Group site, I am not the only one that wants blogs off my dashboard.

Online Buyer's best friend

2007-02-07T14:12:00.000-08:00

Resellerratings.com. Just type in the name of the online vendor and see what previous buyers have to say about them. Another is epinions.com. I think I got lucky this time. article1. article 2. Both articles describe experiences very similar to mine.

Thanks to the local camera shop, Gordon's for providing the links to the 2 articles on its website.

I hope you blacklist the following two companies

2007-02-07T08:59:00.000-08:00

To whom it may concern at LowPriceDigital.com:

I am writing to disagree with your 5-star, gold certified rating that you've given to DigitalSuperDeals.com. I placed an order with them last night and was told to call and confirm my order today. When I called to confirm, I was told that the camera I had purchased came with a battery that needed recharged every 20 minutes and that I needed to buy another battery. I asked if it was the battery that the manufacturer shipped with its camera. I was told it was. I said I'd just take whatever the manufacturer was sending since I'd never read anything about a bogus battery on any of the reviews. Then, the spokesperson got rather belligerent and asked me if I thought he was lying and said that it didn't matter what other companies were shipping, he was shipping me a battery that would last for 20 minutes. He then suggested I cancel my order. At that time, perhaps only one minute had elapsed. Throughout the call he was caustic, aggressive, and extremely unprofessional. I hung up without indicating I would do so and called back, hoping to get another, more reasonable, representative. I was told that my order was canceled. I replied that I hadn't canceled my order. The rep then told me that my order had been canceled because the camera I had ordered was out of stock and that now only the "expensive" new model was available. Asking for clarification, he indicated that my order was for a refurbished model and that now only a new one was available for $1100.

It seems clear to me that Digital Super Deals is running some sort of scam, or at the very least is not being up front with its customers, as there was no mention of an under performing battery or refurbished model on its web pages. Looking at the website again now, it appears that they have new models in stock.

Your current rating should be changed. It is harmfully misrepresenting to the public Digital Super Deals as an outstanding company. Digital Super Deals is anything BUT an outstanding company. Based on my experience with them this morning, I think that a 0-star rating would be more than fair. Without any mention of gold, of course. Maybe something like "Mud Certified" would be more appropriate.

Unfortunately, because of this, I have no confidence in anything that appears on your website, and I won't be able to continue to use it.

Sincerely,

Fishhead

cc: all my friends and family

Super Bowl

2007-02-05T14:08:00.000-08:00

I watched most of the game yesterday. At first, I was really excited for the game. The Bears ran back the opening kick off and then scored again pretty quickly. It looked as though it was going to be a great game. The Super Bowl is usually the only game I watch all year, so I like it to be a good one. But I'm usually oh so disappointed. Yesterday was no exception. Other than the kickoff return, the game was really pretty blah. Lots of mistakes, few if any great plays, and really dull commentary. Oh well, there's always next year.

Another reason this year wasn't that great is because we didn't go to a Super Bowl party, which we usually do. Last year's, for those who know, was fabulous, with by far the best eats ever. For some reason, it really has a lot to do with the food, for me.

That reminds me, according to online BMI calculators, I'm in the "health risks increase" category. Yeah, the one just below "obese." It's really flattering.

Roll Over Accident?

2007-02-05T13:58:00.000-08:00

I'm pleased to announce that Koll rolled over this morning (stomach to back) for the first time. Whitney caught a subsequent roll on video, which we hope she'll post shortly over at frog troll. I just thought I'd break the news first.

A new nightmare

2007-02-02T08:41:00.000-08:00

It seems that the conversation I had with my Uruguayan friend had more impact on me than I thought it would. Early this morning I had a nightmare combining my previous nightmare with this new found fear. I was a first year associate (or maybe secretary) in a small Spanish speaking law firm with all Spanish speaking clientele. And I was awful. The worst. I had some guy waiting for me to get him my boss' name for so long that it got dark during the conversation. It was that bad. Like other nightmares, I awoke feeling awful and anxious. It took the full length of my shower to convince myself that I'm not really working at that job. I'm starting to wonder if in my yellow pages ads for my personal injury firm (hopefully mostly dog bites) I'll include the phrase, "Se habla espanol."

XOF Fotos

2007-02-01T22:33:00.000-08:00

I don't get to see my family very often, so when I get my hands on some pictures of them, I like to post them. My neices and nephews are especially fun. I never knew a volleyball weighed so much--Looks like XOF needs to start hitting the weights. I didn't post them, but the pictures of XOF with his nearly life size front loader/tractor are captivating.

Mixed feelings

2007-01-31T11:47:00.000-08:00

I just got off the phone with a friend that lives in Uruguay. We were roommates for about 4 weeks when I was in Paraguay in the late 90's. We haven't spoken since I left PY, though we've emailed and shared pictures of our families and whatnot. I'm really torn between being excited that I got to talk to him and feeling really ashamed and embarrassed at (1) how badly I speak Spanish now and (2) how hard it was to understand him.

I'll give you an example:

"So, what have you heard about so and so?"

"Yes."

"Do you know anything about so and so?"

"Oh, no, nothing."

It was basically the classic foreigner smile and nod routine. And my pronunciation was so bad and so slow.

But it was great to talk with him.

Vacation is Set

2007-01-29T16:44:00.000-08:00

I've just solidified my vacation plans for the rest of the year. My boss has agreed that my last day of work will be August 3. My new job won't start until September 3rd (they actually expect me to start on Labor Day!! How preposterous!) That gives me roughly a month off. I'll take a four day weekend for thanksgiving, and another few days at Christmas. Other than that it'll be all the state and federal holidays. It's good to get it nailed down so I can start planning my vacation in August. I've been thinking about doing two things: (1) hiking the entire 165 mile Tahoe Rim Trail or (2) some sort of sailing excursion, either in the SunFish or another vessel. Or it could be something else we haven't considered yet. There's no telling. The picture here is a possible sailing route from the innermost part of San Pablo Bay, San Fransisco, California through the channel islands to Dana Point Harbor, California, which is about 475 miles. There are a lot of reasons not to take that trip in the sunfish.

Apathy

2007-01-26T10:34:00.000-08:00

We live in an apathetic world. It's certainly nothing new. Jesus' parable of the Good Samaritan is filled with apathetic characters. And it's not just on the east coast in big cities. It's even crept into small western towns (keep in mind that Carson City is small, only about 55,000 inhabitants (albeit more and more of them are from CA, meaning from busier, more populated places)). Upon arriving at work this morning, my boss' secretary (Jane (not her real name)) told us a shocking story.

As she was out for her early morning walk through a nice neighborhood on a golf course, she encountered an elderly man laying prone on his driveway. He was wearing normal pants and a fleece jacket. The man's neighbor informed Jane that the man had been lying there for over two hours (temperatures were in the low 20s this morning). The neighbor also hinted that emergency service vehicles had already been to the house at around 3 a.m. Regardless of the neighbor's apparent attempt at deterrence, Jane insisted that the man be helped. She flagged down a passing truck (it was still dark out) and the driver helped Jane take the man into his house. He was disoriented and confused. He was shaking from the cold. He didn't know where to sit down and he refused Jane's offer to call an ambulance.

Of course, we don't know the history between the man and his neighbor. Regardless, it is beyond all belief that the man's neighbor would not do anything to help out. No phone call, no blanket, no kind word. I was really shocked to hear it. In light of the New York City hero, Wesley Autrey, I know that it is possible to help the helpless. I can only hope that we shun apathy, mistrust, and do, as Mr. Autrey encourages, the "right thing."

Questions for the day

2007-01-16T13:03:00.000-08:00

Three random questions here:

(1) Is it immoral for a person to be a professional musician in a band that performs music with lyrics that contain a message contrary to that person's own personal morality? For example, I'm Mormon and I think that taking illicit drugs without a medical reason and having illicit sex is wrong. In such a case would it be wrong for me to sing songs as a member of a band that talk about using drugs and having sex out of marriage? Would I be less of a believer in my religion if I did? Would it be different if I just talked to my friends in private conversations about such things? Is it the wide dissemination of the message that is the problem or the fact that I voice the message at all? At its simplest, the question becomes, is it wrong to talk about sin? Does it matter what the intentions of the singer/speaker are? In what situations, or under what circumstances would it be OK to sing about such things?

(2) Would it be better for a child to have its health and no father or to have its father and no health? Assuming that it is one or the other, which would you want for your child? Does your answer change if the type of health is physical, emotional, or psychological?

(3) Is it a bad idea to tell your wife that she looks like the Simpson's character C. Montgomery Burns when she does a crazy laugh in the shower? (Thanks Slink for the correction. Clearly, I'm not that big of a fan.)

Specialty vs. Multipurpose

2007-01-09T16:56:00.000-08:00

With the release of Apple's new "iPhone" today, a friend and I began an interesting discussion about multipurpose devices/tools/stores and whether it is better to have a "swiss army knife" or a knife and can opener. It seems that at least a little bit of quality is lost when combining any one thing, be it a thing or place, with other things. My friend's example is that the iPod is a great mp3 player and that the iPhone will be an OK phone and OK mp3 player. He votes in favor of having several devices that do one thing really well, than having one device that does several things so-so. I think that he is right: quality is lost by combining functions/purposes.

His other example was that bike shops are way better than Target at selling bikes because they know more, do better service, and sell better bikes. It's hard to argue with him. But I think that the loss in quality is going to be eradicated eventually. Some stores, for example, have began having specialists assigned to a given department of the store. Home Depot is trying, unsuccessfully in my opinion, to pull this off. But Nordstrom's does much better. And technology will certainly one day permit a device that is great at both making phone calls and listening to music.

I think that we all want the ONE device that does it all without sacrificing quality or smallness of size.

I was thinking about it, though, and it doesn't seem that the writers for Star Trek really had that same vision. The crew of the U.S.S Starship Enterprise wore utility belts that carried several little devices on them. Which made me think: Do you really want to combine a walkie talkie with a ray gun?

Jay Buhner gets one hall of fame vote

2007-01-09T15:33:00.000-08:00

The votes were released today, and our friend got one vote. Not too bad considering the competition. See here for the article about votes cast, here for article about Jay's thoughts on getting a vote, and here for previous discussion on this blog about Buhner being on the ballot.

Sledding

2007-01-09T13:08:00.000-08:00

Whit showed everyone how it is done. Granted, she was competing against 10 year olds.

I'm not aware of any openings in Imaging at BYU

2007-01-08T16:27:00.000-08:00

Sorry, acl. I haven't heard of any openings. For those of you wondering what has happened, please see the comments here, and then acl's comment here. As usual, I have way too much fun trying to get people to believe the biggest whoppers. Here's my confession:

Dear acl,

I do not work at BYU any longer. In fact, I last worked there when you did, in December 2000. I have been gainfully employed in NV since graduating from law school last May. As a result of my lack of contact with Kris Horn and our other imaging buddies, I don't know anything about the employment possibilities in the Imaging Office of the BYU Records Division. But for your sister, I'd be willing to make a few calls. Kris always did like me best.

Sorry for lying my head off,

FishHead

P.S. Neither Jared nor Justin work for Kris anymore either. We all conspired against you to confirm our belief that it truly was you in the pictures on your blog. Having discovered that you are you, we're glad to know that you're doing so well and have such an adorable family.

Smash Ball at the beach

2007-01-05T15:45:00.000-08:00

All fotos courtesy of Mary.

The circle of life

2007-01-04T16:28:00.000-08:00

The circle of life is an amazing thing.

Here's one of Whit, too.

Whit's always complaining that the knots of my ties are too big. I like big knots. I just looked at this in preview, and I'll admit that the "circle of life" reference isn't that obvious, so: I'm holding Wayne's hand, he's twice my size. Koll is holding my hand, I'm twice his size. We're wearing argyle sweaters. (John Wayne is too, you just can't tell because it's hard to do bronze in any color but bronze. And getting that sweater texture must be rough.) Like Koll wants to be me, I want to be John Wayne. I hope that helps.

Pretty Toes

2007-01-04T16:23:00.000-08:00

I don't understand it, but I know that it makes her feel good. That's enough for me. Over the Holidays Whit's mom took her and the other "daughters" out for a pedicure. It was a real "girls [day] out" if you will. I just realized that I have no idea which pair of feet belong to whit.

Nightmares on my street

2007-01-04T13:38:00.000-08:00

Do other adults have nightmares? Perhaps for this reason alone, I consider myself psychologically relevant*: I have nightmares all the time. Usually they center around my family or law school. You would think that since I finished law school about 8 months ago, that at least those nightmares would cease. Unfortunately, no. Last night I had a nightmare over and over again about dropping out of law school after the first year. It didn't make for a good night's rest.

I don't really remember the details, but I dropped out, realized it was a huge mistake, and then spent the rest of the dream worrying about what to do with myself. It was a night filled with anxiousness. Which is hard on my nerves. I felt all stressed out when I woke up and had to consciously convince myself that I was living in Nevada, working at a legal related job, and had in fact graduated. All through the night, when I'd wake up between the onslaught of self-imposed hysteria I'd think, "Why did I drop out? I really liked law school. I thought I was doing well." Etc., etc.

I'll have to save the details about my other nightmares for a different time. Perhaps they'll be revealed during the postmortem video in heaven. But I hope not. (Don't they say we're not responsible for our dreams?)

*I thought I just made that term up, but upon googling it, I discovered that I could never understand its meaning.

Future of my employment status

2007-01-03T16:58:00.000-08:00

Have no fear dependents, I will be employed following my brief, but exciting, stint here in Carson. Yesterday, I accepted an offer of employment at a law firm in Reno. I am scheduled to begin in early September of this year. Three cheers for the hiring committee!

We'd go out and celebrate sometime, but Koll is not feeling so hot today. (Last night we were just settling in after being out of town for 10 days.)

Thanks to a co-clerk for taking me out to lunch today!

Ceremonious Pomposity

2007-01-03T16:18:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was January 2, which in Nevada means all the new public officials get sworn in. For them, it is the culmination of years of hard work, public scrutiny, and glad handing a lot of people. First, despite temperatures being in the thirties, Governor Jim Gibbons was sworn in on the front steps of the capital. We stood in the cold. Seats were reserved for family members and those with deeper pockets than mine. Or maybe just looser. It started 18 minutes late. But it ended 11 minutes early. All in all, I was cold.

The reason I wanted to comment about the swearing in is this: Pomp for the sake of pomp is just pompous. What I mean is, the people didn't care. When his excellency was giving his inaugural address, no one was exactly sure when to clap. Certainly our emotions we're not so excited that we couldn't help but tear our hands away from our soft, warm pockets. The governor was getting courtesy claps, at best. I could tell that at certain points Governor Gibbons was expecting applause, but the crowd would hesitate, almost as if to ask, "Are you serious? That's the best you've got? Well, if you're going to keep pausing...." It was interesting. I guess most people in attendance were probably supporters of some sort, so it makes sense that they wanted to make him feel good.

Maybe that will be my new year's resolution: only applaud when applause is deserved and only give a standing ovation when emotions overflow.

I bring up standing ovations because later in the day, two new supreme court justices, Nancy Saitta and Michael Cherry, were sworn in and we stood up and ovated* about 15 times. I don't think that more than one was merited.

Without question I usually applaud and or ovate from a standing position because of peer pressure. Have you ever not stood up in a room where everyone was giving a standing ovation? I think I did once and I felt very uncomfortable. But maybe this is the year.

*Yes, I know that "ovate" has nothing to do with giving an ovation, but sometimes that phrase is just too long.

Boy becomes hero to millions, even gazillions

2007-01-03T16:01:00.000-08:00

Michael Perham just made me jealous. I might start planning a different sort of vacation for this coming August.

Execution of Saddam Hussein

2007-01-03T15:34:00.000-08:00

I realize that this is coming really late, but I keep thinking about it, so I thought that I should write about it. I was really surprised at my reaction to hearing about the execution of Saddam Hussein. I saw it on the news during commercials while watching Superman: The Movie on television. My first reaction, my honest, gut, I-didn't-think-about-it reaction was sadness. I think he did awful things, etc., but I was sad for him, and sad for his family. I watched a little of the footage from the execution and read an article about it. They indicated that he didn't appear remorseful. That is also sad.

Amazing views

2007-01-03T14:30:00.000-08:00

Space Shuttle launch 9/9/06