Month: August 2006

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Oh the dreams we dream

Last night I dreamed that Doug Heffernan and I were trying to break an old style iMac by throwing it up in the air and letting it land on the floor. Carrie gave us the whole smug "you’re going to regret this" attitude and toward the end Doug and I look at the concrete porch then at each other and rush off to actually break the screen. The location was an altered version of the show’s house set and the style of the dream including the lighting was just like the show.

In other dreams, I was helping Miss Julie Patchoulie out around her house and we were talking about the branches I had cleared in a previous dream and how they were still around because I had put them down across the property line and despire the large spanse of grass the oriental neighbor was now irrated with Julie. We skipped the sticks and went to an old shed to tear out a wall. Upon beginning to pull off the duct tape that held the concrete block up, numerous spiders with bizarre markings rushed out.

The fun beginning dream of the evening involved a guy who had built a long wooden pier into the side of a cliff high above the ocean. At the end of the several miles of pier was a bar. He began his day by standing on the egde of the pier and jumping high in the air doing a forward flip and landing back on the very edge of the pier. Then he would repeat with a backflip. A reporter was interviewing him as he did his morning flips. At the top of the cliff was a house. From the house, you could go through some woods to the street but once in the street it was evident that the woods was really a small grove of trees and a path led around the outside of the trees from the street to the house. The house was Julie’s and we started her dream.

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Tommy brought home 3 blue ribbons!

Dad reports:

Two Wednesday’s ago I dropped Tommy of at STAR and ran off to do an errand. Upon my return I am stunned, and unfortunately cameraless, seeing Tommy riding off lead! Tommy rode with confidence!For the past 5 years (maybe 6) that Tommy has participated in the STAR program he has ridden on lead. That means one, sometimes two, people walk beside the horse holding a tether and they have equal, if not more, control of the horse as the rider. On that Wednesday, Tommy’s sidewalker was near by Tommy was in complete control of the horse.

Last Wednesday I stayed the whole class. Tommy mounted his horse and rode into the ring before anyone else. I mean before anyone else! He took his horse into the ring and brought it to a complete stop. The next student came out with two volunteers helping him. One of the volunteers asked Tommy to start around the ring and he confidently made his horse walk. He rode the entire class without a volunteer or staff member anywhere near! It was incredible. I had goosebumps!

This past Saturday, Tommy rode at the annual Star horse show at Roane State Community College in Rockwood, TN (Harmond). In the Intermediate Futures he rode against 2 other rides and took first place. See his performance below.

Tommy was thrilled. This was the first time he had ever ridden in a show without an assistant. The horse he rode, Dandy, was skiddish and would have reacted badly to applause. Tommy rode with confidence and poise.

He tied for first place against 4 other riders in the Intermediate Obstacle English/Western. See his performance below.

Tommy also rode Intermediate Western Equitation against 2 other riders and received first place!

The folks at Shangri-la Therapuetic Academy of Riding have seen Tommy grow from an out of control child, who spoke harshly with insults to the volunteers Tommy received 3 blue ribbons for his riding at the STAR horse show!and who was almost removed from the program when his actions and increasing weight threatened harm to the animals, grow into a calm, controlled young adult with a sense of humor and the ability to chat correctly and politely with the staff and volunteers. He has gained their confidence enough to earn the privilege of solo riding. Lynn Petr, founder of STAR, prior to the show, but in ring, gave Tommy a pep talk and asked him if he was up to this. She reminded him that not only was he in charge of his safety and the safety of the horse but for all others that were in the ring. Tommy responded non-chalantly, "No problem." After the show multiple staff members, volunteers, and parents remarked at Tommy’s achievement! Thank you Star! Tommy did great!

Tommy has his own blog. Cathy and I blog about Asperger Syndrome from a parent’s point of view at Aspergerteen.com.

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Seeking feedback on phones

I have to decide between the following phones. Any input?

  • Nokia 6102i ($29.99 after receiving a $50 visa card ala mail-in rebate 10-12 weeks from now)
  • LG C2000 (free) <—- Chose this one
  • LG CG225 ($9.99 after receiving a $50 visa card ala mail-in rebate 10-12 weeks from now)
  • LG CG300 ($49.99 after receiving a $50 visa card ala mail-in rebate 10-12 weeks from now) also buy one get one free
  • Samsung D407 ($9.99 after receiving a $50 visa card ala mail-in rebate 10-12 weeks from now)
  • Pantech C300 ($69.99)
  • Motorola L2 (free) No camera

I’ve linked each to a nice C|Net review that includes a short video of the phone.

Update: Chose the LG C2000 because for its purpose it is simply a value that could not be beat. The Nokia 6102i was the runner up and had Cingular not screwed me on rebates (to the tune of $200) in the past I might have considered it. After excluding the features of Nokia 6102i that would not be used it pretty much matched the features set of the LG C2000 for $80 more.

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That thing programmers do

I’m doing that thing programmers have to do all too often. Today I’m staring at some gibberish and in as brief a time as possible I am absorbing it into my very essense. I can feel my brain swell with the influx of knowledge! Information overload. The synapses cannot fire fast enough and information gets arbitrarily filed in odd places.

Ok. Let’s see. When I was 8 years old after playing Axes (and Allies) I was thinking about searching for my descendants while skipping through the xpath in the woods.