From One End of the City to the Other

Our conference is over, and man am I glad. Don't get me wrong, it was a great conference. It was just long, long days with lots of information and thinking. We did get to see some pretty neat stuff, though. Not only did we get previews of some new Microsoft technologies, we also got to have a reception at the top of the Space Needle, a party at the Experience Music Project, a visit to the SciFi Museum (definitely a hit at a nerd convention), and to hear from some very cool speakers including Steve Ballmer.

Anyway, after the conference let out, I went wandering the city for several hours with my camera. I took some shots of a few cool things that caught my eye, and I tried to get another shot across Puget Sound. You could really see the snow capped mountains on the other side today, but the haze kept my camera from seeing it very well. Too bad. I also tried to find a place to get a pic of Mt. Rainier, but I couldn't do that either. Oh, well, you'll just have to enjoy what I did manage.

Now, I'm going to try and find somewhere to eat, so I can get to bed. I've got an early flight in the morning to take me back home to Leah and the kids.

Friday, May 11, 2007

In Seattle

I'm here. The flight out was long and rough. We only got a few minutes of time with the seat belt sign off. We did get a really good view of Mt. Rainier on the way in, though, and I was surprised by how much snow is still on the mountain. It was on the wrong side of the plane for me to take a pic, so I can't show you how cool it looked.

Once on the ground, I found my hotel just fine and then set out to explore the city a little. I made my way down to the waterfront and went to the Pike Fish Market. Unfortunately, everything was closed down by the time I got there. I did get some pics of the Bay and the Sound that you can see below. I ate at a place called Elliotts which was a little overpriced, if you ask me, but still good food.

Right now I'm getting ready for bed since I have a very full day tomorrow at the conference.

Tuesday, May 8, 2007

The Pacific Northwest

I was in NYC a few weeks ago, and now I am preparing to head out for the Pacific Northwest. I'll be flying out to Seattle in a few hours, and I won't be back until Saturday afternoon. I'll be spending most of my time at a business conference, but I will have my camera with me in case there is anything of interest to be seen, and I did bring the cable with me this time, so I can upload photos as they are ready. In the meantime, please enjoy my NYC pics that I just now got around to posting:

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

The Hardest Part

Last night was not one of the better episodes. After the past two weeks, I was really pumped up about the next chapter in the story, and I felt a little let down. Highlight below to read more:

Sylar is cuckoo. And so is his mother. At least now we have a little more idea of why he's so bent on gaining power. He wants to impress his mother. And now that she's dead, and he's been finger painting in her blood (which was a little gross), he'll be even more psychotic I think. I was a little impressed with the depth of the character, though, in that he revealed a little bit of a conscience in trying to stop himself from being the source of the bomb. He has a reason to kill those with powers, but no reason to kill normal people. So he's not just a cold-blooded maniac.

Hiro needs to get a backbone. It's nice that he's all innocent and what not, but what's the point of having a sword on your back if you aren't going to do some killing? And he knew that he was supposed to do it, future Hiro told him that he had to do it, Ando told him the consequences of failure, and he still hesitated. He was lucky to get out of there alive. And interestingly, we found out in that scene and in the one immediately preceding it what the white glow around Sylar's hands was all about in the fight between him and Peter in the previous episode. From somewhere, Sylar gained an ice power. Anyway, Hiro is up a creek now. His sword is broken. He's ashamed that he couldn't do the job. And what if he never gets another chance?

Parkman and Sprague are following HRG to New York to stop the Walker system. I don't think that Parkman and Sprague have any idea that it's a little girl, though. If you didn't pick up on that, remember that HRG told Parkman that the Walker system didn't need to use any radio isotopes or satellites to track them and that it was in New York. Also remember that when Mohinder met Molly she said that her power was to tell them where anyone is and her last name is Walker. She's the Walker system, and Mohinder is helping the company keep it online. Ironically, Parkman first got put on Sylar's trail when he found her hiding in her a secret room at her parents' house. I wonder if HRG wants to kill her or just take her from the company?

Mohinder is trying to save Molly's life with his own blood. Does that make Mohinder special? Was Mohinder "created" by his father so that he could be a cure for Shanti? Or is it just coincidence that he has the rare antibody that is needed to stop the disease that killed his sister and is killing Molly?

Peter is getting a little reckless, but he's less annoying when he keeps that hair out of his face, and now he's met Sprague. It looks like he's going to get the power under control for now, but what is it that will set him off later? Will he really blow up at the end of the season? Or how will they stop him?

Nathan apparently has bought into the idea of letting Peter blow up. He seems to be on board with Linderman's plan for now, and his mother has all but said that she's involved with Linderman, too. I still wonder if she has powers of her own and if she was a part of Linderman's group that wants to "change the world." Too bad Nathan doesn't realize that the painting is not really one of him in the oval office.

Micah is being held by Candice for some unknown purpose. I'm happy that he saw through Candice's illusion, but I still don't care much about whether he lives or dies. I do wonder what Linderman wants to use him for, though. It seemed like, unless I'm remembering incorrectly, that Micah is being held in the same building where Molly is being held and where Sprague, Parkman, Claire, Peter, and HRG all met back up. This just further solidifies Linderman's connection to the company in my mind.

D.L. and Niki/Jessica are on their way to New York to find Micah. Will they try to make Niki a good guy now? Or will she continue to be on the other team? I don't really care, I just think it's fun to try and see how they are going to try to make me care about those characters. Personally, I thought D.L. had a pretty good idea when he said that he should have left Niki stuck in the wall.

I hope that next week is better than this week. There's only two left in this season, and I'm really hoping for a big finish.

Dumb and Dumber

You tell me where the real stupidity lies in this story from Kentucky: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18251472/

Is it on the part of the prisoner who had a buddy fax in fake release papers? Timothy Rouse, charged with a beating an elderly man, had an escape plan. A friend sent a phony fax that "demanded" his release. The fax indicated that it was from the governor of Kentucky and that the prisoner should be released under the orders of the Kentucky Supreme Court. A good plan except that it was not on state letterhead, it was full of grammatical and spelling errors (some places report that "governor" was even misspelled), and it was sent from the grocery down the street. What dumb crook thinks that plan will work?

I hope not too many, because it did. Mr. Rouse was released from prison after the phony fax was received and the error was not caught for nearly two weeks. In order to put the community at ease, though, the prison officials claim that they frequently receive faxes with grammatical and spelling errors and that there is no policy to check the origin of a fax. That's really the position that they are going to take? This news story is going out around the world, and the state of Kentucky is going to defend themselves under the premise that apparently most of the people in government there are borderline illiterate and that checking the origin of a fax that demands the release of a dangerous and violent suspect that is not even on state letterhead doesn't fit with their policy.

I thought it was pretty dumb of the crook to not even try to fake the letterhead, but I wonder who's dumber, the guy that didn't take the time to make a decent forgery or the guy that thought a fax from the grocery store was good enough to release a prisoner?

There's no real good answer, but we could probably sum it up with two words: Hickman, Kentucky.

String Theory

WOW!! I was completely blown away by last night's episode. It was definitely, without a doubt, the best episode yet. Highlight below to read more:

Hiro and Hiro. I love future Hiro. He's certain of what he needs to do and powerful enough to get it done. He lost his innocence when Ando died, and he's been working for years to get it back by changing the timeline. Let's set aside the technical questions like how he's able to keep an apartment with all of these strings when he keeps going back in time to change things. I mean, wouldn't the ownership of the apartment and the things that he's done in the future change when the past changes? Unless you accept the theory that there are an infinite number of universes playing out every possible result of every possible decision and that Hiro can not only jump through time and space but that he can also jump between these universes, it doesn't really make much sense. Regardless of that, though, I think it was touching for Peter to tell Ando that Hiro has been doing all of this to save his friend.

Peter is married to Niki. What a man! I loved the fact that Jessica is apparently dead, but I wonder how that happened. How did she get rid of Jessica, and why? Of course, the part I loved the most is that she was only a bit player in the whole episode. Peter, though, what a cool dude. He's gotten control of his power and become a serious force to reckon with. My favorite part was when he stopped time and rescued Hiro and Ando from Parkman. What's the deal with the scar on his face, though? I had assumed that the scar future Hiro referred to when he met Peter on the subway was from when Sylar tried to take his powers; apparently, that assumption was incorrect.

Matt is working for Homeland Security. Actually, Matt seems to be in charge of Homeland Security. So, my question here is, wouldn't he have to talk directly to the President from time to time? And if so, how does he not know the big secret? How does he not know that Nathan is really dead?

Nathan is obviously dead. Sylar took his power and the power of the office. How far back did that happen? Was Nathan elected President and then killed by Sylar, or was it actually Sylar who was elected to the office? And does Linderman know? Linderman wants to change the world, and he wants Nathan to be elected to make that happen. He has a copy of the "Nathan in the White House" painting, and he wants events to unfold that way. At the same time, he appears to be involved in HRG's company and the orders given from the company are that Sylar is not to be killed. I might be reaching, but do you think it's possible that Linderman may know that Nathan will never really be President? Is it possible that Linderman knows it's an illusion? If so, then it could answer the biggest question of the night:

If the point of saving Claire was so that Sylar couldn't have her power and heal himself when Hiro attacks, then how can Sylar and Claire both be alive and the bomb have still gone off? Of course, we know that the bomb was actually Peter, so that part of the question is easily resolved, but Hiro specifically said that he stabbed Sylar and that he had healed because he had Claire's power. Well, that just doesn't make sense since Claire is still alive. When you throw Linderman in the equation, though, it makes a little more sense. Linderman was able to heal that plant without touching it, so what if he can do the same for people. Hiro stabs Sylar to try and stop the bomb, which we know is the wrong move for stopping the bomb, but a good move overall. Linderman wants Sylar to be in the White House using the illusion of Nathan Petrelli, though, so when Hiro stabs Sylar, Linderman heals him and Hiro believes that Sylar healed himself using Claire's power. At that point, Hiro goes back in time and tells Peter to save Claire from Sylar believing that that will stop the bomb, but not knowing that it will make no difference.

When Peter and Sylar finally meet in the halls while trying to rescue present Hiro, I thought it was interesting that Peter has Ted's power and Sylar has some other power. Peter's hands turned orange, like Ted's do when he's charging up, and Sylar's hands turned blue. What power was Sylar using, and where did it come from? Either way, I wish we could have seen the fight rather that just flashes of light from behind a closed door.

HRG is running an underground railroad for mutants or heroes or whatever you want to call them. I'm sure glad that he turned out to be a good guy, and that he finally found Claire again and his helping her. It was also nice to see Hana Gitelman working with him to aid the refugees. At present, she's trying to stop him, but apparently something happens down the line to change her mind. I thought it was equally interesting that Parkman knows about Claire and that Parkman has a kid with special abilities. I wonder what his child can do. And I wonder why his wife left.

We Just Need Some Time Alone

It happens in every relationship. Sooner or later, especially when you have kids, two people in a relationship need to spend time isolated from others. That's how we stay connected to our significant others or spouses. If we allow too many distractions in, then the next thing we know we're focused on parallel but separate lives and things start to go wrong. Reid Stowe seems to understand this principle all too well. He's planned a getaway for himself and his girlfriend that can end only one of two ways: marriage or death.

Check out the full article here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,2063275,00.html

Mr. Stowe plans to sail around the world three times in 1,000 days without making any stops, no port calls, and no walking on solid ground. Interestingly, he's planning on taking his girlfriend along for the trip, and all I can say about that is that 1,000 days is a long time at sea. Let's do the quick math. One thousand days is just shy of three years. Is this guy insane?

Three years with no "I need to work late tonight." Heck. Three years without even a chance to go to work in the first place. Anyway, it says that they've tried to plan for every contingency. They've both learned first aid, learned to set broken bones, and learned to stitch cuts. I'm just wondering if he's learned anything about how to deliver a baby.

I know what he's thinking. I'm a guy. I can read between the lines. Mr. Stowe is 55. His girlfriend is 23. He's figuring on lot's a playtime. There's nothing else to do when you're stuck on the ocean for three years. At least that's what he thinks because that's how guys think.

I guarantee you that if you asked 100 guys what they would do if they were stuck on a deserted island with a sexy, younger woman, 95 of them would say that they'd be practicing for marriage. The other five would be hoping a cute boy showed up to rescue them, but ultimately they're still thinking the same thing. The women on the other hand would be thinking that they could get a great tan if that guy would quit blocking the sun.

I'll be interested to see whether these two end up with a kid born at sea and a marriage that lasts forever or if she slits his throat late one night, feeds his body to the sharks, and tells the Peruvian Coast Guard that he had an unfortunate encounter with a rogue white whale. I'm betting on the latter if he doesn't get that libido under control. After all, he's got nearly a year's worth of weeks where her hormones are going to be out of control, and he'll have nowhere to hide.

.07%

Finally, after a seemingly endless wait, we were able to continue the saga of "Heroes" with a brand new episode last night. When last we saw our beloved characters, Peter was getting a haircut from an amateur neurosurgeon, Hiro and Ando were looking for a better travel agent, Mohinder was auditioning for a part in "Supernatural," and Claire was at a family reunion. Highlight below to find out my thoughts on how things are advancing:

Sylar obviously misjudged Peter's abilities giving us the opportunity to see a little bit of a fight between the two. Of course, Peter is still learning and doesn't fight as dirty as Sylar, so he just ended up with a big piece of glass embedded in his head. Thankfully, Claire was at the house when Mohinder dropped Peter off so she could remove the glass and let Peter resuscitate himself.

Speaking of Claire, wasn't the Haitian with her when she met her grandmother (Angela Petrelli)? So where was he in this episode? He just seems to have disappeared.

I like how Peter changed his hair toward the end of the episode. Maybe now that he can see clearly from both eyes, he'll be able to focus on his powers, get chicks, and stop whining about everything. I also like how he theorized that saving Claire wasn't directly going to save the world, but that it led to him being able to regenerate which might save the world. I think I had the same theory in a comment that I posted. Don't I wish the writers were trying to keep up with me?

Based on the fact that Angela knows about Claire's power, I had wondered if she also knew about Peter and Nathan. Apparently, she does as she said that she knew before they did. That then leads to the question of how did she know? And how can her orders supersede those of HRG? Is she a part of the company that HRG is working for? And does she have any powers of her own?

There is an apparent connection between the company and Linderman since Matt overheard them say that they needed to meet with Linderman, and Linderman has the power to heal (at least plants, but presumably humans as well). There is some kind of connection between Angela and the Haitian that works for the company, and Angela knows a great deal about the powers of at least a few people. Based on a comment that she made to Claire about trying to save the world and a comment that Linderman made to Nathan about trying to save the world, I'm betting that Angela has a power of her own, that she was part of the original group that Linderman was talking about (that went astray), and that that original group was the foundation for the company that HRG is working for. That's my guess.

Linderman, while seeming mildly insane in the previous episode, now seems to be completely off his rocker. How does he figure that setting off a nuke that kills only ".07%" of the population will be good for the world? Is he planning to have some kind of mass healing ceremony at ground zero so that he can be elevated to some kind of demi-god status? And how does Nathan being in the White House play into that plan? I can't figure out the real end-game for him, but he sure knows how to push Nathan's buttons.

After missing out on Peter, Sylar made his way over to Isaac's place. Not only does he enjoy killing, but he's somewhat methodical about it, too. I think he intends to use his new ability to paint the future to locate the others with powers. I am encouraged, though, by the fact that Isaac said that he would show the world how he stopped Sylar. I'll bet that it's part of the story next week since the last comic that he wrote was about Hiro in the future and next week's episode is set five years in the future. Isaac is communicating his visions to the world through the comic, so it stands to reason that the message is in that last issue, and we'll get to see it next week.

Of course, Sylar couldn't wait to try out his new power, and it looked to me as if he were painting another copy of "Nathan in the White House." It seemed a little off, though. Nathan was colored oddly and had disproportionate hands. I wonder if that hints at something going on when Sylar steals a power. Maybe he can't control them as well as he thought. When Peter painted using Isaac's power, the image looked the same as if Isaac had painted it. Does this mean that Peter is better at absorbing powers and doesn't lose anything in the translation while Sylar only gets an approximation of the power? And if so, doesn't that give Peter an edge in any future battle between the two?

Matt, Ted, and HRG are all teamed up now. An unlikely trio that was originally a pair bent on destroying HRG. I still think that HRG is a decent man that got sucked into something bigger than him, but I wonder how much of that brainwashing is still there. Matt and Ted need to be extremely careful.

It was pretty cool, though, how HRG told Matt exactly what to do to get them out of there, and it was very cool with Ted created the EMP. "He says, 'Burn bright not hot,' and I shouldn't be near you." What a great line.

Finally, Hiro and Ando are in the future and they've run into future Hiro. I like the look of future Hiro better than the dorky Hiro of the present, I wonder if I'll like the character as much, though. Part of Hiro's charm is his innocence, and future Hiro doesn't seem all that innocent. He seems determined, and if I'm right, all those strings and clippings are his attempt to understand the fabric of time, but it doesn't seem to be doing him much good so far. I think we're in for an interesting conversation between the two of them in the next episode.

Home Again

I made it back home safely yesterday. Alvin and I got up early and managed to fly standby on an earlier flight so that I could get back in time to make Abbie's softball game.

I'm glad that I was able to do that since we won the game and had a couple of outstanding plays. It was really great, and the girls were jazzed because they've now won two in a row.

Anyway, I'm here safe, and I'll try to get some pics posted this weekend. My next trip is to Seattle in a couple of weeks, and for those of you that couldn't detect the humor in my post a couple of weeks ago, I'm not really mad a Caci.

Driving in Traffic

I still can't upload pictures, and truthfully, I don't have that many new ones. We spent most of the day today on the road to and from Connecticut. Our business meeting was in Shelton, so we headed out pretty early this morning to rent a car for the drive and then tested our skills on the streets of the city.

The plan was for Alvin to drive while I navigated. Shortly after entering traffic, Alvin decided that "when in Rome" was a good idea, and he moved one hand to the horn and started driving like a NYC cabbie. My plan changed to navigate while hiding my eyes and puckering every part of my body that could pucker. I swear I got six inches thinner and pulled the driver's side door in at least a foot when he decided that there was enough room between the car and truck driving side-by-side in front of us. I really thought that Mitsubishi Galant was wider than the dividing line between lanes, but I was obviously incorrect in that assessment.

Kudos to Alvin, though. We got to CT and back to Manhattan alive and without any new dents or dings in the car. There were already several when we picked it up, and the guy at Avis said that they don't even worry about minor stuff like that in NYC. He said, "As long as it has four wheels and runs when you return it, we're good."

Since that took up most of our day, we didn't get to do much more sightseeing. We did take a cab down to Ground Zero, though. It wasn't really what I expected. I was thinking more of something like the Vietnam War Memorial. A somber garden with a plaque of names or something. In fact, it was just a big hole in the ground. It looks like they are really in the process of building a nice memorial there, though.

After that, we walked to the end of State St. and considered taking a ride on that Staten Island Ferry. Given the time to get across and back, the fact that were both starved, and the fact that we could see the Statue of Liberty from where we were (the whole point of going to the ferry in the first place), we opted to pass on that adventure. Instead we bought subway passes and rode back up to Times Square.

Having ridden on metro trains in Paris, DC, Rome, Chicago, and Dallas (if you can even count that), I think I can safely say now that they are all pretty much the same. It did take me a couple of minutes to figure out how the subway lines were marked on the map, but after that we were on our way. I think Alvin asked me about three times if we were on the right train when the conductor said that we were on the train to Queens, but it all turned out good when I told him to get off at the 42^nd St. stop.

Back to where our adventure started, we were on the hunt for a Cadillac windshield. Based on the advice of another coworker, there is supposed to be a huge window that looks like a Cadillac windshield and behind that window is a great restaurant with a view. We never found the windshield and we never found the restaurant.

The backup plan was to go to a steak house in the W hotel on Times Square that my dad recommended. We went to the W hotel in Times Square and they informed us that the W with that restaurant is actually eight blocks away. No dice there. We were hungry.

We ended up at a local chophouse about a block off of Times Square and had a pretty good meal. Of course, by that time, the McDonald's was sounding like fine dining to my stomach. Regardless the food was good and the waiter was sufficiently rude to make me feel like it was authentic New York.

By the way, if you ordered an appetizer that was chips with a cheese and spinach dip, would you expect it to be basically queso? And if you asked the waiter if that's what you were going to get would you expect him to know what you were talking about? I would. This guy maybe had never heard the word queso before because he just kept looking at me funny when I said it and then repeating to me (complete with hand motions of him dipping a chip) that it was "chips and cheese that you can dip in." Alvin thought it was pretty funny.

Anyway, we are planning to get breakfast around 8am tomorrow and then head out to airport to see if we can fly standby on an earlier flight. I'm coaching Abbie's softball team and we've got a game tomorrow evening that I'd like to be there for. I'm definitely going to have to budget for a return trip with Leah, though, so we can do all of the touristy stuff.

Oh, one last thing. Alvin and I decided that we've already done all of the important things in life in just the past two days. We've hailed a New York cab. We've ridden in several New York cabs. We've driven in New York traffic. And we've ridden on the New York subway. Our lives are virtually complete.

The Big Apple

Well, I forgot the cable for my camera, so you're going to have to do without pictures for now. My trip is off to a great start, though.

I left my office about noon today to head out to DFW for my flight. When I got there everything was cool. We had about thirty minutes before we were supposed to board. Right at the time that we are supposed to start boarding, though, they informed us that there were delays in NY, so we would need to wait another twenty minutes or so before boarding. No big deal; almost every flight that I've been on lately has been cancelled or delayed. At least I wouldn't have to wait on the plane. Or so I thought.

We finally boarded the plane, and we sat at the gate for an extraordinarily long amount of time before starting to taxi. Once we were sufficiently far from the gate so that no one could hear us scream or rescue us, the pilot came over the intercom and told us that he was sorry for not speaking to us sooner. He explained that normally he would inform his passengers of delays the minute that he knew of them, but in this case he was a little embarrassed. It turns out that when he heard there was a thirteen minute delay, he missed the part about the hour. In other words, there was actually an hour and thirteen minute delay on our flight.

So here we are, out in the middle of nowhere at DFW airport, between two busy runways with the engines shut off and an hour or so left to wait before we can even get in line to takeoff. No one was happy, least of all the baby two rows in front of me.

An hour later or so, we got in line to takeoff, and about twenty minutes after that we were in the air. My arrival at 6:30pm EDT was blown. We were actually on the ground a little before 8pm EDT. On the descent, though, I got to see NYC lit up with a good view of the Statue of Liberty, Manhattan, Shea Stadium, and many of the famous bridges. It was very cool.

Once I was off the plane, I hopped in a cab to get to my hotel. My first NYC cab ride, and it was just another adventure. I'm glad I didn't try to drive because you just think the drivers on I-20 are prepping for NASCAR, these guys are in a whole different league. We were driving on the shoulder, cutting people off, making pedestrians dodge on the sidewalk. It was nuts, but we got to the hotel in one piece and in a hurry.

Safely there, I put my stuff down and met up with Alvin (business associate) to grab some dinner. We headed out to Times Square since it's just a few blocks from the hotel figuring that there would be food and sights there. It was very cool. As cool as it looks on TV and then some if you ask me. We ate at Bubba Gump's Shrimp Co. which was kind of touristy but still good food, and we got them to give us a window seat on the second floor so we could get a good look at Times Square while we ate.

Overall, I really like this city so far, and I'm definitely going to plan a return visit with Leah.

My Buns are Burning

Toto Ltd., the leading toilet maker in Japan, is offering free repairs for bidet toilets that apparently catch fire. I think they are missing a great marketing opportunity, personally. Here's the full article: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18131541/

In a surprising statement by the company spokeswoman, it was revealed that "The fire would have been just under your buttocks." That really assumes that you were using the bidet correctly, though, doesn't it. Crocodile Dundee was about half convinced that a bidet was some fancy water fountain, so I imagine it could have singed his goatee. That really misses the marketing opportunity, though.

Right now the company is so focused on their pulsating massage spray, power dryer, "Tornado Wash" flush, and automatic lids that they are thinking that this is a problem to be fixed. They are so focused on avoiding any fires near customers' buttocks that they are closing their eyes to a whole new marketplace: Frat Houses.

Just imagine how fast drunken frat boys would be buying up flaming bidets. No more accidental eyebrow burning. No more funky smelling hands and cigarette lighters. They were going to be trying to set farts on fire anyway, why not have an automated fart lighting system installed right there on the ground floor? It would be perfect for those late night beer guzzling bashes, and it's so much classier when the Sorority girls come over to say you regularly use a bidet than to say that you regularly light your farts. You've just got to hope that when she returns from the restroom and says, "There was a slight burning sensation," that she's talking about the bidet and not something you're going to have to live with the rest of your life.

Leaving Tomorrow

It seems that I touched a nerve with some girl named Caci in my last post. Apparently, she thinks I should call her to get advice when I go to Seattle, but I'm not sure I want to go outside the family to get information related to my travel. There's really no telling where someone like that would send me. I'd probably end up swimming to Japan for Sushi or something. I really think I should get advice from family members just so that I know it's reliable.

I used to have a sister that lived in Washington for a while and may have gone to Seattle once or twice. It would be cool if she was still around to ask. Too bad she posted a questionable picture of me on her blog site and got herself disowned. At least I still have my brothers and cousins.

Anyway, I'll be headed out to New York tomorrow afternoon, and I hope to be able to get a few pics and sights in while I am there. The forecast if for it be rainy and cold the whole time that I am there, so I hope that that doesn't ruin any chance that I have of seeing the city.

Upcoming Travel Plans

I missed posting anything creative on Jeffrey's birthday, but let me go ahead and remind everyone that yesterday Jeffrey had a birthday. I won't say how old he is now because I've always got to be four years older than that, and I'm trying to keep myself stuck at 30 for a while. Anyway, happy b-day, bro!

I've got a good bit of travel coming up, and it's not to the normal, back-country, USA towns that I usually head to. For example, who wants to see picture of Des Moines, IA? Sure, it's the state capitol and all, but trust me, there's really nothing photogenic about the place. They didn't even have postcards of Des Moines for sale when I was there.

Anyway, I'm not going to Des Moines. I am going to New York City on Tuesday. I'll be staying somewhere in Manhattan Tuesday and Wednesday night returning to DFW on Thursday. I've actually got a meeting in Shelton, Connecticut on Wednesday, so I won't be in the Big Apple the whole time, but I hope to have the opportunity to see a few things while I am there.

Following that trip, I will be headed to Seattle early in May for nearly a week to attend a conference. I don't what there is to do or see in Seattle, but I'll have about four nights with nothing to do but drive around looking for trouble. Any advice?

Then finally, I have a trip set for June to Washington, DC with the family. We're taking the kids on vacation for nearly a week, and they are all very excited about their first chance to ride on an airliner. I was last there about a week before 9-11, so I'm sure things are a little different now, but we are really looking forward to giving the kids an up close look at American history. I've even got a tour of the capitol lined up for them through a friend of mine whose fiancée works for Senator Martinez. I think it's going to be blast.

I'll be sure to take the camera on all of my trips, and I'll do my best to get as many pics as possible.

Wrestle With This

Do we have free will or not. Of course, this question comes up from time to time in churches as a question of theology. Do we choose God or does He choose us? Are all of those that are going to heaven predetermined or is it still an unknown quantity? I don't want to get into all of that. I want to wrestle with a scientific article on the subject:

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/81bc32e4-d5e3-11db-99b7-000b5df10621.html

You really will want to read this article, I think, but I'll do my best to accurately reflect the meat of it in this discussion. According to this article, an American neuroscientist has demonstrated that there is a distinctive build-up of electrical activity in the brain before your conscious "decision" to move your arm, for example. Basically, by the time you think that you want to move your arm, your body is already most of the way there. It seems to make the "decision" part of it a last-second add-on to the process. The example in the article is that it's like driving a car and then finding out that the steering wheel is not attached to anything and that the car has been driving itself.

Some neuroscientists in Australia, though, took the experiment one step further. They electronically stimulated the brains of their subjects to influence the decision. Basically, they would ask the subject to raise an arm then they would stimulate the brain to raise the subject's left arm. Amazingly, the subject reported that they chose to raise their left arm in spite of the fact that it was going to happen regardless. So not only is the steering wheel not attached to anything, but someone else is driving the car and anytime it turns right or left you think that's where you want to go.

Now, if all of these experiments are being interpreted correctly, the implications to our society are huge. Did that man choose to kill his neighbor or was it predetermined? Can he be held responsible for something that he couldn't control? The article talks about some of this, and I don't want to get into that. I just want to wrestle with the experiment itself and what does it really mean.

Is it possible that our free will is an illusion that just makes happy? We feel better when we think we are in control, so we tell ourselves that it was our choice.

Welcome Home Prank

While I was at work on Friday, I thought that it would be nice to play a joke on a coworker who was returning from Las Vegas. I wanted to be sure that she had something nice to welcome her back after a few days out of the office, and it just so happened that there were thunderstorms coming into the area.

I called her up on her cell phone and told her that we needed to get all the machines in the building shut down in case of lightning. Before I even had the statement out of my mouth, she was trying to give me her password. Sometimes it’s just too easy. Armed with her password, I logged in as her.

After logging in, I closed all of the open applications on her machine, moved the mouse pointer down to the bottom left corner (so it was all but invisible) and took a screen shot of her computer at rest. Then I hid all of the desktop icons (pretty easy in Windows XP – you just right click on the desktop and uncheck the “show desktop icons” option under “arrange icons”) and I set the taskbar to auto-hide. Finally, I changed her desktop wallpaper to the screenshot that I had taken of what her desktop looked like before I messed with it.

If you’re following all of those steps then you realize that at this point her screen looks just like her normal desktop complete with icons and a taskbar, but it’s just a picture of that stuff. It’s not actually icons and a taskbar. Nothing is really going to work unless she happens to pull the mouse all the way to bottom of the screen and bring up the real taskbar.

You should have been here this morning. It was really great! She was having a time trying to figure out why her application icons didn’t work. Why the right click menus didn’t work. When she finally did something running, why it kept disappearing from the taskbar. It was classic.

Now my only fear is what she might think up when I’m gone to Connecticut in a couple of weeks.

Health Screening

Yesterday we had a group come in to the office and do health screenings for everyone. You'll be happy to know that I am still alive.

The past couple of times that I've seen Mom, she's commented on how tall I seem. She's been insistent that I've grown an inch or two in the last year or so. Unfortunately for Mom, part of the screening yesterday was measuring my height, and I am still the same five foot ten that I've been since high school. I guess that means that she's shrinking. Caci should run over real quick and measure herself; she might finally have the chance to be taller than Mom.

Other than height, they also checked my weight, flexibility, cholesterol (good, bad, and total), triglycerides, blood pressure, heart rate, blood sugar, and whether or not I wear a seat belt when driving. Apparently, wearing a seat belt when driving is right up there with eating healthy when looking at a comprehensive health plan. Anyway, everything was in the normal ranges, so they rated me at having a 2% chance of having a heart attack in the next 10 years. I wonder what the odds would be if I didn't wear a seat belt?

Regardless, I figure that makes it okay for me to get a cheeseburger, coke, and chili cheese fries for lunch today, don't you?

Survival of the Fittest?

I was thinking this morning on the way to work about evolution and the survival of the fittest and all of those theories, and I've run across something that I just can't figure out. In my understanding of the situation, the theory of evolution says that one species will give way to a better species through a series of mutations and mating encounters create entirely new species, and that the strongest of the population survive to mate and pass along their superior genes. If I don't have at least the general concept right, then stop me here and let me know, but I'm pretty sure that's the gist of it.

I can't even begin to get my brain around how a dog could give birth to something that's not a dog. Maybe they would have to mate with a cat or something, but I'm not sure that a dog could get a cat pregnant. So, I really have a hard time grasping how one day a monkey gave birth to a human (I know it wasn't that direct, but work with me). Or more specifically, two monkeys gave birth to two humans and those two humans just happened to find each other and mate to give birth to more humans.

On the other hand, we watch the Discovery channel and see that natural selection allows the fast zebras to escape the cheetah, while the weak and slow ones are devoured. At the same time, it allows the fastest cheetah to catch its prey and eat while the slowest goes hungry. Two sides of the same coin, and it makes good logical sense….at first.

Now, let's try to reconcile the two. Monkeys have animal instincts. They can hunt, forage for food, eat the right plants, make nests, climb trees, and so on all by themselves. Humans cannot. Humans are basically idiots compared to most other animals when they are born. A human baby will put his hand in a fire, eat poisonous foods, play with snakes, and walk off the side of a cliff if not attended to by their parents. Pretty much no other animal has offspring that stupid. Yet, we are the pinnacle of evolution. How exactly did the first baby humans survive without human parents to raise them? And how did the second generation survive without grandparents to babysit? Seriously, how did we pop out of the oven with no hair and survive the winter; with no claws and find our dinner; with no sharp eyesight and survive the night? It doesn't make good sense. Wouldn't we have been the weakest link when the cheetah came along? Wouldn't we have been the weakest hunter, forced to starve because we couldn't feed ourselves?

You would think so when you take natural selection at face value, but assuming that we did somehow survive. Maybe there was a compassionate gorilla somewhere, like in Tarzon, that took care of us. How did we end up with so many dorky nerds in the world? Think about it. How are there any slow cheetahs left? How are there any slow zebra left? Wouldn't all of those genes have been bred out by now through natural selection? Only the strongest and fastest survived to mate and they mated with another strongest and fastest so how did they have slow, stupid kids?

Back in the day, the strongest humans could hunt and fight and keep the Roman hordes from invading their city. No one wanted to be married to a sissy that couldn't put meat on the table, so how come we didn't breed all of the ugly nerds out of the human race back around the time of cave paintings? It must be something else. It seems obvious to me that natural selection doesn't tell the whole story and evolution still just doesn't make sense.

And this dorky nerd is definitely thankful for that.

Animal Rights

Two great articles for you today, and they both involve animals.

First up, a mouse that just won't give up: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17773580/

Apparently, Bill Exner and his wife have issues with killing mice. I only say that because they claim to have caught the same mouse in their house three different times. I am making the assumption here, though, that when they say they "caught the mouse in their house" that they mean caged, boxed, trapped, etc. not found, walked in on, surprised, etc. It could go either way though. Mrs. Exner is quoted as saying, "He's [the mouse] taunting him [Mr. Exner] – I swear he's taunting him."

I hope I got that right. Honestly, in the context of the story it could easily have been Mr. Exner that was taunting the mouse. What else could you call it when you catch the same mouse three times? Why else would you let it go???? There's only one explanation. You want to taunt the mouse. Mr. Exner just wants to make sure that that furry little rodent knows who's the master of his domain and it ain't no little buck toothed rodent.

Of course, the rodent ain't all stupid. As long as these guys keep catching him and letting him go, he's going to have to some fun. Apparently, he took Mr. Exner's dentures and hid them behind the wall and under the floorboards. Now, I would normally ask why go through all the trouble to cut a hole in your wall, pry up the baseboard, and chop through some lumber to get back a set of dentures that no sane person would ever put in their mouth again, but I'm going to skip that on the assumption that anyone that catches a mouse and lets it go three times might actually rather spend the extra money to repair the damage they did to their own home while sucking on the dentures that they retrieved during their treasure hunt. Besides, once you get started, the curiosity of what else you might find just keeps you going.

Second, not even the crocs want to be in the Gaza Strip anymore. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17797967/

With all of the fighting over the Gaza Strip, things have heated to a level where the animals are paying to get out of there in any way they can. Unfortunately, the only crossing is for people and it's constantly monitored, so they've taken to piggybacking on brave humans that have little to no sense.

Case in point: just last a week a woman was stopped and found to be carrying three crocodiles under her robe. She said she "was asked" to carry them across. Obviously she was trying to avoid telling the authorities that she hears animals talking to her, but the good news is that everyone around "was admiring a woman who is able to tie crocodiles to her body."

That's what I'm looking for in a woman. Someone that's covered up from head to toe and when I finally get to take that robe off I find snapping jaws of death crawling out of her armpits. Sign me up!

She's not alone, though. Based on this report, another woman tried to bring a monkey across (that could be code for her husband, I'm not entirely sure) tied to her chest, and other travelers tried to bring exotic birds and a tiger cub (where'd they hide that?). Obviously, the animals in Gaza have stooped to a new low in this conflict and we must call in the Discovery channel and National Geographic immediately to help improve conditions in Gaza for the animals. If not for them, at least do it for the unsuspecting husbands on the other side of that border crossing. Snap! Snap!