The New Road

Mom At Pebble

One of the long delayed plans for Mom's ashes was to sprinkle some of them at the Pebble Beach golf course. This morning I woke up whicked early and drove to Carmel, then walked the beach up to the ninth hole. From there I climbed up to the 9th green and found a lovely spot at the back of it which viewed both the green and the ocean. It was foggy, so I couldn't get any real pictures, but on the plus side, there weren't any early morning golfers around either.

The position, viewed with Google Earth is shown below:

It's nice to know that part of her will be there as her beloved Tiger plays. And it was nice closure for me as well. I had wanted to give her a trip to Pebble to celebrate her win over her second bout with cancer. But as the event came close it was clear that she had not won, and she died about the same time as we would have played. She was never able to see the course except on TV. I know she would have loved it. 

Perfect temperature

As with every other part of the country it's been stinking hot here for days. Tonight around 8:20, as I was coming out of the coffee shop with some iced coffee, and the temperature was just perfect. Somewhere around 80 I think. Anyway, it was just beautiful. The air was clean and with just the right combination of warmth and air flow. Awesome. There are days when California is just beautiful.

A couple of 'deep learnings' from swimming today. I think I'm mistaking part of the hyperventilating at the end of each lap for just panting, like I would have if I had been running. So that's ok. I pushed through it and did a bunch of laps of my mile today as fifty meters instead of twenty-five. If I swim tomorrow I'll go for seventy-five meters.

Second learning, it's nice to be able to swim, since I strained a muscle in my calf today so running was out, but swimming was ok. 

XBox 360 on HD

On Sunday I spent the afternoon and evening with my old friend Joe Block. He just moved to the Bay Area and one of his first purchases was an XBox 360. He was blown away with it, and when I watched him play one of the downloadable games on the TV in his apartment I was impressed myself. It's definitely fast.

But then we brought it over to my house and plugged it into the new TV and, oh my, it was a whole new level of HD experience. We spent a couple of hours playing Full Auto and... it was just sick. Flicker free, full screen, whickedly high end graphics. I was just blown away. Really.

I can easily see how an XBox 360, with XBox Live, an HD screen, and surround sound could just be completely life consuming. Thus, the reason I will not be getting one any time soon. ;-)

Army Burn Center

If you want a story that will bring the war in Iraq home to you listen to this about the Army Burn Center.

Why is it we are there again? And why don't the people who believe these kids are superhuman and can fight in three or four wars simultaneously going out there and doing the fighting themselves? 

Politics

You might have noticed that I'm not talking about politics as much lately. It's not that I have had a change of heart, far from, it's just that I have tired of all of the partisan bullshit that seems to go nowhere. Instead of trying to move the country in some positive direction the Republicans in power seem bent on simply appealing to their Total Fucking Moron (TFM) base. How does trying to ban flag burning, which happened all of four times last year, help solve the Iraq crisis? How does spending weeks failing to get a marriage ammendment help find and kill Osama bin Laden.

Everything the do-nothing Republicans have pretended to do this year has been to placate their knuckle dragging mouth breathing base who have been pissed off at every change in American since segregation was abolished.

What we need to do is attack Al Qaeda at it's heart. We need to get out of Iraq and let the locals squash the local insurgency. We need to get back into Afghanistan and wrap that situation up. We need to tell the Pakistani government that it can go fuck itself, then take a strike team in there to kill Osama bin Laden.

That would be my 2008 campaing promise, by the way. Osama won't be dead by 2008. He is too valuable to Bush to kill. That's why Bush disbanded the CIA group looking for him. So my campaign promise would be; in the first hundred days we will find and kill Osama bin Laden. No bullshit. Just situation handled. 

At the same time we need to get serious about reconstructing the Gulf coast, and get back into the Kyoto accords so that we can start to put an end to the global warming crisis.

About global warming, I gotta be honest with you, I can't understand the denier position at all. There are other moronic Republican positions that at least make some semblance of sense. But to deny global warming? You  have to be a total fucking idiot. But even so, to deny it, and then insist on buying a gas guzzler as a "spit in the face of those commie tree huggers", is idiot cubed. 

This country is going so far in the wrong direction it's more work than it's worth to point out every stupid thing that Bush, his cronies, or the do-nothing Congress pretends to do. If Bush does it, you can assume I'm 100% to 5000% against it, just on it's face. I can't think of a single thing Bush has done since Afghanistan that I have agreed with, and even then, I thought the execution of the Afghanistan campaign was seriously flawed.

Another aquatic mile

I did another aquatic mile this morning. This time in 55 minutes. It was tougher than the first one though. After three laps I wasn't doing very well in it was a struggle from there on out. I should have used some albuterol as my allergist recommended. I did that yesterday before swimming with Lori and Megan and was able to do 1/3 of a mile relatively effortlessly. I think if I do the albuterol thing, and keep practicing the twisting motion as well as working on my rythm, I think I can cut that time down and start taking the pauses out between the laps.

Tiger a the British Open

Tiger is doing well at the British Open. He is ahead by three at -12 after the second round. I'm really glad to see him bounce back so quickly after not making the cut at the U.S. Open. What a performance so far. i can't wait to see the weekend, especially in HD. Although, wow, the course looks bad.

New Fitness Goals

I'm sorta getting into this fitness goals thing. I think it's a good idea and getting the aquatic mile goal completed felt great. Super great, actually. So I'm going to set some more.

• Run a 10K sometime in August. Preferably for some good cause; breast cancer, ovarian cancer, colon cancer, etc.
• Swim a sub one hour mile in August.
• Swim a mile and a half in September.
• Run/Swim/Bike a half course triathlon on or before my 39th birthday.
• Run/Swim/Bike a standard course triathlon on or before my 40th birthday. 

The primary goal remains to be alive and very healthy at Megan's 30th birthday. 

By the way, if you are thinking, "Oh, my God, a triathlon, he is nuts." Then you are probably thinking Iron Man. I did a half-triathlon about five years ago. They aren't that tough. It's a somewhat short swim, about 10k on the bike, and 5k on the ground. Now there is the SF triathlon which is 1.5 miles in the water (from Alcatraz to the pier) and that would be tough. So I'll have to see how I'm doing a couple years out. 

I don't see these as stretch goals. The 10K might be a little tough next month. But the rest of it's all within reach. And it has the advantage of keeping me honest with my workouts. I could probably do a 10K today, but I would feel like crap afterwards.

Suggestions for which events (e.g. breast cancer run, etc.) are welcome. Something in the Bay Area is obviously preferred, though I am open to stuff in Castro Valley, in Marin, or down in Monterey.

Swimming - TYR

A little more on swimming today... Recently our pool has been really crowed because of the heat. More people means more chlorine. More chlorine means that swim suits degrade quickly. And the Speedo that I bought just a month ago is already starting to wear thin in spots. (There are other issues with lots of people in the pool all the time, but more on that in some other post.)

I took Lori's advice and instead of looking to Speedo for another jammer I checked out TYR. She said the suits were better quality and she is right. The material feels more substantial, while still being light. And the design appears to my naive eyes to be better, the number of stitches, their location, etc. Plus the designs I think are cooler than Speedo, both in mens and womens. So I got two for myself. Which was an easy decision since Big 5 had them on sale for $20.

I was also thinking about swimming at Newark at lunch time so I needed some extras; another set of goggles, and some ear wax. So after being impressed with the swim suits I decided to go TYR on those as well and there I haven't been as impressed. The goggles are ok, but I prefer the more substantial Speedo goggles that are somewhere between the racing specs and the full face mask.

The ear wax also has problems. It's stiffer than the stuff I bought at Target. So while it works fine the first time they go in, if you take them in and out during a single swim session then they will lose the good seal and water will get in.

So, the review, TYR swim suits, big thumbs up. Thanks Lori. TYR accessories, check and compare with other brands. I also notice as I look around that lifeguards and swim team folks also favor TYR almost unilaterally. So that's another recommendation for the suits.

Renaissance

It's so hard to tell from trailers nowadays, but either this is totally going to rock, or it's really going to suck. Your call.

Aquatic mile

I did it! My first aquatic mile! Which means 72 laps in a 25 meter pool. Actually I did 76 just to be sure. But, damn, what a way to start my 38th year!

I did it in just over an hour, so the next step is to shave that down to say 45 minutes or so, then down from there. I'm still having problems with breathing. So I'm trying to find a combination of technique and speed that will allow me to swim without taking a break to catch my breath at each turn. Of course, I could just use a kickboard and fins, but I'd rather do the front crawl.

Anywho, I am psyched. If you would have asked me just a couple of months ago if I could swim 72 laps I would have thought you were crazy. Now, I did it. Goal achieved. 

38th Birthday

Today is officially my birthday, which means I'm celebrating...

 

 

 

(Insert cheesy graphic here.) My 25th anniversary of being a software engineer. I started hacking when I was thirteen years old on Andy Baker's Model I TRS-80 in Microsoft BASIC. I held my first job when I was 15 (unpaid) writing software for bidding PCs. My first paid job was when I was 16 writing in Fortran 77 and C on UNIX (v7) for Samuel Berkowitz.

Twenty five years is an awful long time to be doing one type of job, let me tell you. What's helped me is that I have a passion for it. I write programs even when I'm not getting paid to. I'm one of those kind of "I'd be writing code even if they didn't pay me" types. Though I add, "Though I'm sure I wouldn't be writing this code if i weren't getting paid."

I really love this work though, and I thank my lucky stars for it. What other profession would give a dyslexic C grade student who never went to college the opportunity to put food on his family for 25 years and to write three books. And what's more is, I don't think it's a fluke of timing. I think software engineering is a field where if you a reasonably bright, resourceful, innovative and driven you can go as far as you want to and nobody will stand in your way. In fact, they will cheer you on. And I love that about my profession.

Awesome Party

My excitement about HD this weekend was far overshadowed by the killer party that Lori threw for my 38th birthday on Saturday. She made all of the food herself, decorated the place, had a bouncy house for the kids brought in, and generally organized the whole thing perfectly. I was really impressed and everyone I talked to there had a great time. Thanks, Lori!

HD pretty bad ass

Nothing fills a capacity void with like a new toy, and with the advent of the new TV comes the possibilty of HD. This morning that potential was filled and damn... it looks really nice. I'm watching Dead Like Me on HDNet right now and the quality is extraordinary. There are some motion interfacts at times, but that's likely transmission issues over encoding or format problems. It's clearly not just a matter of more scan lines, the form just has a larger gamma so there is a real variation in the tonal quality of the colors. Impressive. Definitely worth your time if you have the capacity.

Running a 5k/10k

I think a next short term goal will be to run a 5k or a 10k. Probably a 10k, since I ran the distance of a 5k over lunch today. So the 10k would be more of a challenge. One cool thing I have discovered is that I can use Google Earth to plot out a run and see what the distance is. I can see where the trees are. I can see the side streets and such. It's very cool. Today I plotted a course through Lake Elizabeth which is right next to my office, then through the golf course, near a high school, then coming back through a residential area. I only had to stop once for traffic, which is great. Unfortunately it didn't tell me about the duck poop in the park. But hey, that's easy to avoid.

Hannity drives poeple nuts

Apparently Sean Hannity's continuous drivelings are enough to cause people to blow up their own houses. Little wonder. I heard some excerpts from his thirty page letter and parts of it were just exact copies of Hannity's ramblings. Not surprising that repeating the same thing day after day can drive people nuts.

Swimming

I took a short private swimming lesson at lunch today. I learned some good stuff, but I think I'm a little nuts for doing this since I'm not exactly suited to swimming. I've got got a dense mass, which means that I naturally sink. Quickly. And I have asthma, which makes breathing, um... not so much fun. I think I'm getting better with it though, and it's certainly a challenge.

Speaking about dense mass. I watched a movie this morning that illustrated the percentage of Americans who are obese (rated using the BMI) over time. That was pretty shocking. But I have to wonder about the Body Mass Index (BMI) measurement. The BMI says that I am significantly overweight (bordering on obese) and I have been working out a lot lately and I really don't think I'm overweight. I know I have more muscle than before, which is heavier than fat. So going by height and weight alone doesn't make much sense. In fact I remember when I got back from Australia I was a gaunt 180 pounds and a doctor told me that I needed to 'lose some weight'. Right.

We definitely need a better measurement that gives people credit for getting healthy and gaining muscle, even if that means that they are weight neutral. 

Pirates

I really enjoyed Pirates of the Carribbean this weekend. I'm amazed at the reviews it's getting. It's certainly a far better movie than the 54% Rottentomatoes score. Lori, Pam and Yvonne really like it as well. And we are all excited about what will happen in the third installment.

What's up with Sony?

Looks like we are going to have to replace the big TV in the house. The 36" I bought about six years ago has been on the blink lately and Sony is no longer supporting it. And this was the flaghip, the flagship, of the Sony tube line at the time! Grrr... All of the other TVs I own have lasted longer.

PHP Hacks Slashdotted

My third book, PHP Hacks, was just reviewed on Slashdot. It got an 8 out of 10. Rock!

Scanner Darkly

I'm really looking forward to A Scanner Darkly. But now I see it's going head to head against Pirates II. What they hell are they thinking? No company should be releasing any film they want to make money this weekend. Is Scanner that bad?

Swimming

I've started to get a little more serious about swimming. Megan and Lori are living at the swimming pool on most days, and that means I'm spending a lot of time there as well. And while I feel fine just splashing around I find that I can't actually swim all that well. So I've been concentrating on doing some laps now and again, and I have set a goal of a mile, which is 72 laps. I figure if I can hit that then I'll be doing ok.

As it stands now I'm winded after each lap, so I have to stop, catch my breath, then start again. Today I did 36 laps with a combination of two laps of forward crawl, then four laps of breast stroke. With the breast stroke I can do all four laps without a break, but in the final laps my head is out of the water the entire time, I'm breathing heavy and my heart rate is around 180.

Anyway, I don't know where I'm going with this swimming thing. I know that I do feel more confident in the water after just a couple of sessions. And I'm going to get a 30 minute private lesson next week, which should help. I suppose this will help my breathing, and it's good full body exercise, so that can't be a bad thing. Plus it's nice to spend time in the water with Megan and Lori (between laps). 

Armageddon

I remember seeing Armageddon, what 10 years ago now, and thinking it was a reasonably decent action flick. I watched it again this morning and it again this morning and, wow, it was horrible. Like some neverending preview clip show with extra jingoism added in. Now the same channel is showing Die Hard, a Bruce Willis movie that was actually good and gets better with age.