morrowlife

Here’s another look at that rock field in the state park in Pennsylvania. That place was really cool (please note that I didn’t say it rocked).

Short day at work today. I took the late train (slept in until 6:00!) and am currently riding home on the early train. It’s quite crowded today because they have about 150 kids riding home from Great America. They’re confining them to the front two cars, but that still leaves many more adults in the rest of the cars. They were there this morning too, but it didn’t seem as crowded as this afternoon. Right now, there’s a woman sitting across from me reading the newspaper. Her paper keeps falling down and covering my computer screen. It’s really getting bothersome. Harumph.

Not much to talk about today. Loyal Reader Number Four called and told me she bought a clear plastic “bubble wrap” cover for the pool today. I’m a little worried about it – it may be difficult to store and a pain in the neck to put on and take off – but it will hopefully warm up the pool a little. We probably won’t need to be using it by the end of June anyway, and if it extends the swimming season by a month or two, as friends have told us it will, than it’ll probably be worth the hassle.

Ah, the middle-class blues. How ever will we survive?

The boys and I are going to the annual Aaronic Priesthood barbecue this afternoon at 6:00. We’re having tri-tip and hot dogs, along with various salads, condiments, and accessories. Sounds like fun. I’m hoping it stays warm enough late enough to be comfortable – probably won’t be a problem.

The weekend looks to be busy too. I need to work on Loyal Readers Numbers Two and Four’s computers. As mentioned before, LRN2’s machine is totally dead. LRN4’s computer is just acting strangely. It can’t seem to keep its sound card working, for example. I think I need to reinstall the operating system. I’ve been casually trying to find a Windows XP upgrade on the extremely cheap – I don’t think LRN4’s ready for Linux yet – and avoid having to install Win2K again, but I don’t think she can wait any longer. It’s been warning me that it’s not healthy and I really need to heed that warning. If I can’t find a cheap copy of XP on Saturday morning somewhere, I’ll just go ahead and rebuild the system and upgrade later. The machine wouldn’t be a good candidate for Vista and I had been hoping that XP would be dirt cheap by now, but it strangely seems to be just as popular, expensive, and in-demand as ever. I wonder why.

I’m done. Have a great weekend and I’ll see you on Monday.

Here’s another one of those bizarre sculptures in Monaco. Your guess is as good as mine.

It’s cooler today. I don’t think it got much above 65 degrees in Sunnyvale, and only into the mid-80’s in Manteca. It was a little chilly at the train station this morning, but I really hate to take a jacket during warm weather unless it’s going to rain. It’s inconvenient to carry it home and uncomfortable to wear it home.

Loyal Reader Number Two took a dip in the pool today. I keep meaning to do it and then not finding the time. Maybe tonight. The water’s still only in the mid- to upper-70’s which, while certainly tolerable, isn’t exactly bath water. I need to cowboy up and just do it. It’ll be hot by summertime and I’ll be wishing I had been swimming while the water was cooler.

The work schedule was busy today but not as bad as yesterday. I got a couple of things done, although not nearly enough. Need to keep pushing on it. I wish they would get the wifi working on the train – I could spend at least part of the ride time in the morning connected to work, allowing me to do much more than just email. I could also get the blog not only written but also published. Maybe someday soon. It would probably make me cut down on video podcasts, though. On the other hand, maybe web access would make me less productive than I am now. Who knows?

Loyal Reader Number Two’s computer died yesterday. It appeared to be a hard disk failure. Loyal Reader Number One downloaded the best hard drive tool in the world – SpinRite – and tried to fix it. It didn’t work. The tool seems to think his BIOS is goofed up, which just might be true. That motherboard has been slowly dying since it was fairly new. Functions just stop working. I’ll probably find some time over the weekend to work on it myself and see what I can figure out. It just might be time for a new motherboard on that machine. Trip to Fry’s!

Yesterday’s home schedule was worse than predicted. The train was about 45 minutes late. That’s unusual these days, I think. We got stuck behind a couple of freight trains and just had to go slow. Two trains before mine, some idiot farmer left a cow trailer parked partway over the tracks. They came around a curve and there it was. Couldn’t stop in time. They hit the trailer. Killed a couple of cows but didn’t harm any people, fortunately. They were only delayed about 45 minutes; it could have been much worse.

And on that cheery note, I’ll end. Oh wait, I wanted to mention the Cocoa Dev Central website. I found lots of very good tutorials there – I think I’ll follow a few. There’s probably a lot more stuff there too; I need to look around a little more. I recommend my Mac Programming Loyal Readers have a look if they haven’t already.

Now I’ll really end. See you tomorrow.

Here’s a Soyuz rocket on its way to the International Space Station a couple of years back. I thought it might be nice to not have a picture of Big Sur for a day or so. The viewing area for the Soyuz pads is way too close. It’s pretty cool to be right there, but there would be big trouble if there were a failure close to the pad. Big trouble.

Wow. Busy day. Let’s have a look at today’s schedule, shall we?

9:00 – Short standup meeting
10:00 – Hour-long daily meeting
11:00 – Hour-long weekly meeting
11:30-1:00 – Luncheon for departing employees
1:00 – 30-minute phone interview
1:30 – 30-minute phone interview
2:00 – 30-minute weekly meeting (I skipped it)
2:30 – 30-minute interview
3:00 – 30-minute meeting
3:30 – 30-minute phone interview
4:00 – 30-minute daily meeting
4:30 – Short standup meeting

Otherwise, I didn’t have much to do today. Oh, except that I’ll be home for about half an hour tonight and then off to my Wednesday PEC meeting. After that, I hope to post the blog and then go to bed. What a glamorous life.

A couple of today’s job candidates were okay. One was outstanding. We’re going to invite him out to see us. One was simply unqualified, but he was so enthusiastic and so hopeful and has had some really bad breaks and I really wanted to find a reason to hire him. I just can’t. Very sad.

The luncheon was nice. Lots of people came, which hopefully made our departing colleagues happy. We saw a few previous colleagues, which was nice. We went to a pretty good Mexican restaurant. Not real good, but pretty good. I had mole. It was nearly authentic and the tortillas were quite good. I went with my usual Theory of Luncheons, which states that since we’re splitting the bill, order large. Today it backfired. It turns out our colleague who figured out the bill decided to charge everybody for exactly what they ordered, plus a surcharge for tax, tip, and honoree meals. Oh well. At least the speeches were nice. Come to think of it, I gave the only one.

I started listening to a new podcast today, called “Late-Night Cocoa.” It’s for Macintosh developers, hosted by a guy who wants to learn Cocoa and couldn’t find anything out there in podcast form to help him, so he decided to start one of his own. He interviews various developers, each of which is more or less an expert in some area. As our host learns, we learn. Because it emphasizes methods rather than actual examples, the audio-only format seems to work. The only downside is that you really need to pay attention. I find it much easier to pay attention to the podcast while I’m driving than when I’m on the train/on the bus/at the station/walking to the office. Still, I think I’m getting something out of it.

I continue to enjoy watching video podcasts on the train. I get through five or six every day. I have several episodes of Command-N, MacBreak, and dl.tv on the computer now. When (and if) those ones get caught up, there are many more to try, including a large number of Make magazine podcasts and who knows what else.

And I think I’ll watch one now. See you tomorrow.

Here’s Loyal Reader Number Four at our recent campout doing – what else? – some reading. She always manages to find a sunny spot.

Well, it’s Tuesday, it’s hot, it’s sunny, and the living is pretty easy. Busy, busy, busy at work. We’ve decided we want to hire one additional person on top of the four I’m already trying to hire. It’s hard to find enough qualified people and it’s equally hard to get them scheduled in to see us. And there’s lots of pressure to get people in here. Sigh.

On the upside, I managed to delegate one of the things I was doing that was very time-consuming and not related at all to my managerial duties. Yoo hoo! It was kind of rote work, so it was kind of soothing, but it kept me from doing the stuff they’re paying me to do. So I’m glad it’s gone, at least for the present.

We had dinner on the patio last night – it was about 84 degrees when we went out there. The back yard is shaded in the afternoon, and it was perfectly comfortable at that temperature. I never did get a chance to go swimming, but I might jump in this evening. I waited a long time to buy a pool and I really want to use it. Time is the only issue.

I’m not sure why, but yesterday I received three test emails I had sent to myself back in December. Strange. Maybe the Computer On a Dime suddenly got its configuration figured out on its own. That makes no sense, of course.

We have a going-away luncheon tomorrow for two people who work for me. One is just moving upstairs to another program and the other is leaving the company. The latter guy is quite junior and was trying to take another job within the company that would have been a promotion, but HR nixed it. So he went and found a job at one of the numerous little software companies in the Sunnyvale area. Of course, those little companies come and go, so they don’t offer much security, but this guy is young and has very little need for security. Besides, it’s much easier for junior people to find their next job when things go bad, and my company doesn’t offer pensions to young workers anymore, so there’s actually very little reason to stay. And his new company is paying him much more than we are. So we’re wishing him all the best and saying goodbye. Cheerie-bye!

I’m pleased to report that the train’s air conditioning works quite well, even on a hot day. It’s extremely comfortable in here, even though I’m sitting by a window directly in the sun. As some of my Loyal Readers may be aware, I like to be comfortable. Very comfortable.

Enough typing just to hear my keyboard rattle. See you tomorrow.

Here’s yet another picture from the Big Sur campout. That was sure a pretty place. And so photogenic.

Happy start of another week! It was a beautiful, warm, sunny day today – in the mid to upper nineties here in Lardville, as a matter of fact. It’s supposed to stay warm and sunny for at least the next week or so. Loyal Reader Number Four told me she measured the pool’s temperature and it’s somewhere between 78 and 80 degrees. That’s swimmin’ weather! I’m seriously thinking of taking a little dip when I get home.

Implying, of course, that I’m writing this on the train again. The rail commute is still not getting to me and, since the drive was starting to get to me, I’m on the train again. And getting a lot done, including keeping my unread emails down to zero, watching a bunch of video podcasts, listening to a bunch of audio podcasts, writing the blog, reading a bunch of books (both electronic and old-school), and sleeping. Wow! I’m just a paragon of productivity.

Although I’m still mourning the loss of the rolling briefcase. I really like the temporary replacement I’m using, but it’s pretty hard on the back to haul it back and forth across campus. Fortunately, there was a shuttle bus pulling up just as I got off the railroad bus this morning, and a kind colleague offered me a ride to the stop this afternoon. So no exercise today, but no sore shoulder/back combination either. I hope I can hold out until next month.

We got just a few things done over the weekend. I got the barbecue repaired on Saturday – it turns out the old burner was completely rusted away – and even got the self-lighter working again. It was pretty full of grease and grime, so it was simply a matter of cleaning it up. I also went to the library and checked out a little pile of train-based reading material, including a couple of Dave Barry books and a couple that should help me improve my chess game. There are also a few other random selections in there, along with a few classical CDs for my listening pleasure.

Perhaps the most interesting thing from Saturday was when LRN4 and I went to the pond store in Escalon. They have lots of sample ponds, numerous kitschy pond accessories, and very high prices. I got some ideas there and will look online for better prices. Sorry about that, Escalon store.

While we were in Escalon, we stopped at a new neighborhood to walk through their models. The floorplans were pretty unexciting, the workmanship on the models was pretty bad (boding extremely poorly for how they build the non-show houses), the yards were pathetically small, it’s another half-hour away from work, there’s not much shopping, the neighborhood is right by the railroad tracks, and the prices were high. Other than that, we loved the place. Not moving there anytime soon.

Sunday was another busy Sabbath. Our church meetings were nice (my Sunday School class was a little short on participation, since there were only two people there, but was otherwise fine) and other meetings went well too. Loyal Reader Number One performed at his Honors Recital, as discussed previously, and did quite well. I mentioned to LRN4 that the quality of the recitals we’re attending these days has gone WAY up – it’s more like going to a concert than a piano recital. Every performed was hand-selected and excellent. The recital was at the college down in Turlock; what a pretty campus! Loyal Reader Number Two has organ lessons there every week, so I’m the only one who wasn’t familiar with the place. Turlock might be a nice retirement location.

That’s about it for today. See you tomorrow.