Reality Me

Month: September 2006

  • Earth to Noah

    Noah this morning poured his cereal in his bowl, opened the utinsil drawer for a spoon, poured his milk, closed the milk carton, and tried to put the milk carton into the utinsil drawer.

    Yesteday the dogs were out when Noah came home. He opened the door and let the dogs in. Molly carried a ball that must remain outside. We call it the "stinky" ball. I said the stinky ball needed to go outside and Noah opened the door, stared at the tv, and was oblivious as the dogs stepped on his feet and ran out. When I asked, "what are you doing?" he swayed back and forth almost as if semi-conscious and closed the door. I mentioned the dogs he let Molly in and closed the dog on Crystal.

    These types of absent-minded actions on Noah’s part have become increasingly bad. I feel it has slipped beyond "being 10." I do not yet know how to snap him out of it. I feel he has some enourmous stress or anxiety built up in him. I am sorry. At 10 years old you should feel no stress or anxiety. We are going to start by making his life as stress free as possible, do some juggling, and perhaps yoga. I would like to see an improved diet also.

  • Cool! Astronomer gets picture of shuttle leaving ISS

    Fantast picture! Serendipitous Reflections has instructions on where to look. It appears he also caught a satellite at 2 oclock.

  • Bloggone

    The Reign of Ellen is closing shop. Maybe she’ll be back. Ellen always managed to draw some of the best Lost reviews! Hopefully Margalit will take over as Ellen suggested. Or! Perhaps Ellen will be back by Oct 5.

  • Of Grasshoppers

    Student: How can I regain my confidence?
    Master: Quit chasing the rabbit. Chase the turtle.

  • Why do you hate America?

    Well, if "you" means someone from outside of America then perhaps this information explains it.

  • We met! We talked! We had fun!

    Cathy and I have no social life now-a-days. Blame it on managing 5 children’s schedules, lack of money, or my constant working if you will but basically we have not created much opportunity for adult conversation. Yesterday we broke our mold and went to Atomic Tumor’s party and had an absolutely wonderful time! The crowd was very comfortable, the food excellent, the conversation fun, the children played hard and were happy among new friends, the very pleasant teenagers eagerly watched the younger children, and there was much laughter. There was at least one "small world" event (I met you in 2000!) and it resulted in some throwing of fire. Cathy has links to the exhausted children and others. The only noted damage appears to be the two youngest children ended up with fevers. Build those immune systems! Thank again to Atomic Tumor et al!

    Update: More photos here, here, here, here, here and here, and video here.

  • Of course we will be 35 minutes late

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  • Shindig – Heading to ATs

    Today we are joining the AtomicTumor gang for festivities in Oak Ridge. Looking forward to putting faces to bloggers! We are heading over around 3pm. I don’t expect my crowd to last terribly long.

  • From the mouths of babes

    Dad: "Amy come here!"
    Amy: blink blink, no movement
    Dad: "The dog is better behaved than you."

  • Family Rocks

    I love my family! We just had the pleasure of running errands together and despite Noah being puny, Amy being overtired and cranky, and a bit of a rough start, we had a good outing.

    We live a great adventure!

  • Terrorists on American Soil!

    Domestic terrorism is prevented by improving the quality of life in America not by bombing Iraq, Iran or anywhere. To have Congress take on the credit card companies that hold so many of the American people hostage would be a good place to begin the Domestic War On Terror. I missed a payment on a closed credit card and they charged me $165 per month in fees and penalties until I got caught up. That should be illegal!

    The letter demanded a large sum of money and set a deadline for its delivery.

    “The letter did communicate that if the city did not comply, Las Cruces residents will be shot at random,” Lara said.
    [Source]

    If I had to guess, these extortionists are on their last nickel and feel this is their only option. If people actually start getting shot, I will change that opinion to these extortionists not being extortists but sick cold blooded killers. More information.

  • Why document?

    Because I have just spent 20 minutes trying to figure out what 1, 3, 5, and 6 mean in regard to access levels. Had the previous developer added a single comment to the database design to say 1=guest, 3=admin, 5=customer service, 6=suspended or the like my job would be more manageable.

    Developers should document at a minimum within the code and in an external document. Further documentation can be injected into many other places such as the database table design via Enterprise Manager. Once you make commenting a habit, the pain goes away and it almost becomes fun.

  • Cathy to the rescue!

    Cathy, despite not feeling well, has risen and I am working undisturbed! I owe her.

  • Where did the morning people go?!

    Noah asleep on the couch.
    Amy asleep in a sleeping bag on the floor.
    Tommy asleep in his bed.
    Sarah asleep in her bed.
    Cathy asleep in her bed.
    Evan wrecking havoc.
    It’s 10am and my deadline is noon! Calgon!

  • The Sound of Silence – Riiiiight

    Programming is an art. Basically programming is mathematically solving complex logic problems that start out as word problems. That is why lateral thinkers make good programmers.

    I have heard it stated that programming is 90% thinking and 10% coding. I am not sure if 90/10 is accurate but the concept is correct. To get your head around the problem, you have to be able to concentrate and sometimes for a long time. One disadvantage of working from home is finding long blocks of undisturbed time to concentrate and focus.

    I used to have a Sony Discman (minidisc player) that was great for helping me block out ambiant noise (white noise drives me nuts) but it is gone or misplaced. I have often used ear plugs that cut noise down by about 20 decibals but I have lost ever single set. I would kill for a nice pair of noise reducing headphones. Of course, having a music source to plug those into would be even nicer.

    In leu of all that, I will let Evan climb in my lap, listen to Amy’s shrill demands and shreaks, monitor the fights between the older children to decide when to intervene, listen to the dogs bark at unseen foes, hear the whine of the television and the hum of the refrigerator, heed my wife’s requests and listen closely to the words she does not speak, and between chaotic outbreaks I will slip in some coding enjoying the chaos and the logic.