Roman Days

In 2007 we went to Roman Days in Maryland. The Legions web site is here. In 2008 Roman Days is in September. Just a few of the pictures I took.

I wish I could like Barack Obama

I wish I could like Obama. He appears as a fresh face in politics, speaks well, communicates with ease, and claims to be a hope for change. (I say claims to be a hope for change, because I doubt actual change can come from one man.)
But along with his past deals in state politics and overall lack of experience, he just keeps showing that he is just a common politician.
As posted on CNN and reportedly lots of blogs Obama says one thing and does another. Sen. Barack Obama voted for a federal surveillance law that he had previously opposed and vowed to help filibuster.
Please don't get me wrong, I don't like McCain either, because I think he was crushed by his own party in 2000 and went a little loopy. Hey, those are the choices for the next President.

More Pictures

These are from the resort Nemacolin in PA.

Wiener Bus

Need I say more?

Cholesterol, Tastes Great But Will Kill You

So with all the recent health issues we have had in our family, along with getting yelled at by my eye doctor and stomach doctor, I went and had a physical for the first time since my early twenties. It was the first serious blood work in five years. As usual my glucose was off, typical in my family, and I need to keep a better eye on that now. The new finding was that my cholesterol is high. Borderline, to be precise. After I looked it up here, I found I knew less about cholesterol than I probably should. This is all a good thing, because no other results were high and a little self control can correct this easily.
Bad part is I misplaced my self control a long time ago, when it comes to my eating habits.

FLL and Lego Robotics

Last year, our eldest daughter was part of a team of four 9-14 year old kids that competed in First Lego League (FLL), an international competition that uses Lego robotics pieces. The competition is three-part:

• Research and solve a real-world problem based on the Challenge theme.
• Present their research and solutions.
• Build an autonomous robot using engineering concepts.

This year our 2 oldest children will be joining the team, Lemony will be assisting with the project, and I will be mentoring, as last year. Our youngest would love to join too, but he will have to wait a few more years.

It is a lot of commitment, but I feel it teaches many important lessons that you just can't get most places. I look forward to the working with everyone on the team.

If you have any questions, please leave a comment and I will answer any serious posts.

How To Sell Out

How to sell out and give up your goals and ideals in life:
Step 1: Go to college even if you don't want to and have no idea what you want to do.
Step 2: Get married.
Step 3: Have a child.
Step 4: Have another child.
Step 5: Get a job working for 'The Man'.
Step 6: Buy a house in the suburbs.
Step 7: Have another child.
Step 8: Get a job in management.
Step 9: Get a haircut and remove the ponytail you have had since college.

Two points to this post: one, I have short hair for the first time in almost 2 decades. Second point is that fact that most lists end at an even number so I have at least one more thing to add in the future.

Car driving video close call

Let me set this clip up a little. If you have been reading my blog, you know I recently put a pinhole camera in my car the records to a compact flash device. The reason I did this is because the things I see on the road every day drive me crazy and I wanted to record them. That is the main reason I started this new site, to share these videos.
So, I am driving to work and the garbage truck has paper flying out of it now and then (the camera does not catch this unfortunately) and the pickup behind it is driving too fast and too close, in my opinion. Now comes the fast black car. This driver is driving faster, but the pickup thinks that he should be in front. The pickup cuts the car off once, then twice, at which point the black car takes the curb to go around. I swear the car was 2 inches from swiping both the pickup and garbage truck. What you can't see well on the video is when the car slightly fish-tailing next to the garbage truck.

They grow up so fast

Our eldest daughter was complaining today about doing her Math. Months ago, we had taken all the kids' Nintendo DS systems with the understanding that they needed to finish their Math books to get them back. At this point our eldest had only two pages left in her book, but was still in tears on sitting down and finishing it.
Well today we received a few boxes of Lego robotics, and extra parts for the upcoming FLL (First Lego League) Robotics competitions. (I will post on this later; our older two are both in FLL this year.) All three kids were very excited about opening the boxes, but they were told they had to do their math before opening the boxes. You would of thought we asked the eldest to kill her cat.
Long story short, eight hours latter, (not exaggerating) things had settled down. Most of the Math was done, tears were dried and everyone was getting ready for bed. Our eldest comes down and asks:
"When I finish my Math book tomorrow, can we open the Lego boxes?"
"Yes, after your Math is done."
"What else do I get when I get when I finish my book?" she asked.
"What do you mean?"
"What else do I get for finishing?"
"Knowledge."
"What else?"
"We stop yelling at you."
"No Dad, what do I get?"
"What are you talking about?"
"What else?"
"I have no idea what you are talking about." After this goes on for a few more minutes, I finally got it.
"I now know you are growing into a woman; you are speaking in hints. If you want to ask for something, just ask for it."
She finally got to the point and said in an exaggerated voice, "Can I have my DS back after I am done with my Math book?"
I said what any good dad would say. "No, go to bed."

10 Things You Can Like About $4 Gas

This is a Time news piece I followed off of CNN. "10 Things You Can Like About $4 Gas" -by Amanda Ripley is an insightful piece about the positive changes that can come from expensive gas.
From the article :

"You suddenly are reminded how the economy works," says Eric Roston, author of a new book about energy, The Carbon Age. "Nobody wants high prices for oil. But there's also no faster mechanism to change behavior. " The suffering will go on. But the story, like any good tragedy, is not without redemption.

I personally wouldn't mind a 4 day work week.

Work, work, work

I have been busy with work so I have not had a chance to post anything. I thought I would post a few pics to keep things updated. These are from a recent trip to DC.

I am officially old

My family was sitting around the dining room table, discussing which movie they wanted to watch later this evening. Our youngest mentioned he wanted to see 'Mr. Hobbs Takes A Vacation'. Jimmy Stewart being a big favorite in our house, this was not an uncommon request. My wife commented that our son has been enjoying classic movies lately. Our oldest child then stated, "We could watch 'Short Circuit', that's a classic movie." After my wife and I stopped laughing, my wife told our daughter that she wasn't much older than her when that movie was made.
Not missing a beat, our eldest said, "That's pretty old."

sh!tpi$sf*ckc&ntc*cks@ck*rm%th&rf*ck*rt!ts

George Carlin died on Sunday of heart failure at the age of 71. I wonder if he ever got the answer to his question, why do we drive on a parkway and park on a driveway?

Netflix, Roku player and Homeschool

I love to watch movies, which makes Netflix great for me and my family. Besides wasting our time with movies, we also use Netflix to get a lot of documentaries for our children to supplement our homeschool curriculum. At times, 4 out of our 6 at-home DVDs are documentaries. The instant-view feature was a good start, but the kids just didn't enjoy watching movies on the computer screen. I have been waiting for Netflix to bring streaming to the TV, and now they have.
I will not bother to review the box itself; Google it and you will find enough reviews. The small box by Roku allows you to watch movies from there instant selection on your TV over your high speed Internet connection. The biggest advantage for me is that I no longer will have to fill my DVD queue with documentaries for the kids. The current biggest disadvantage is the lack of currently available movies, but that will change over time. At the price of $100, it makes a great deal, if you have Netflix already.

Spore Creature Creator

Spore, for those who live under rocks or don't play video games, is one of the most anticipated video games of the year. It is a sim that lets you grow from a single cell organism to a space exploring civilization. To help feed us game consumers they released the Creature Creator, a part of the game that lets you create different creatures to import into the full game when it is released in September. One feature of this game is they allow you to export video of your new creatures. I present to you: Dancing Creatures.

Infrared Photography

I took these pictures about a year ago, and I still enjoy looking at them. I was experimenting with an IR filter for my Nikon D50. Because the IR filter blocks almost all visible light, the shutter speed is really slow and a tripod is needed. First I set up the shot with no filter, a remote for the camera, and a secure tripod. I then previewed the picture to make sure the composition was what I wanted. Then I very carefully screwed on the IR filter and took another picture. At this point, I was shooting blind because the images are too dark to view. Because the camera has an internal filter to remove IR light, I had to process the raw image in Photoshop to correct the light levels. I like the results.