Portland Autoshow

This weekend we went to the Portland Autoshow. It was a TON of fun! I've got a more detailed description on my family blog. Basically, it was great, I decided the new Mustang convertible isn't a good family car, the Honda Civic Si Sedan would be great fun to drive, but not enough back seat family room for the kids, the Element was nice, but smaller than I want, and the little Honda Fit is perfect for my driving needs. There's only one thing I don't like, it is GUTLESS!! 0-60 in 11 seconds!!!!

So after many years, I was able to get a Honda s2000 (a 2001 model). It was AWESOME!!! You know those old guys with grey hair driving the Porsche's? They finally got their dream car and are enjoying driving it. That's how I felt with the s2000. But it wasn't a good family car, no back seat and you couldn't turn off the passenger side airbag. Semi-ok for one kid, but no way with two. After 10 months I finally agreed to say goodbye to it. Believe me, there's not a day that goes by that I wish I still had that car!!!!! Got a 2001 VW Passat 1.8L turbo. It is actually fun to drive, has decent pickup, really good stereo, but a step down from what I had. The s2000 wasn't necessarily fast (0-60 in 5.2 seconds), but a TON of fun to drive on corners! Perfect 50-50 balance, could corner like it was on rails, just more fun than I've ever had behind a wheel.

Anyhow, the Passat is fun, and a better stereo, but a step down. Now the Fit. 31-37 MPG. I drive about 6 miles/12 minutes to work each day, and I don't drive it much otherwise. If the family goes anywhere, it's in the Honda Pilot. So for me driving back and forth to work, the Fit is a perfect "fit" (ya, I know, bad pun but no other way to say it). BUT, I'm not sure how fast the Passat goes 0-60 - I'm guessing about 8 seconds - the FIT does it in 11 seconds!! So I'm going to from 5 seconds to 11! ARGH! Yes, that's hard to drive a car where I step on the gas and it says, "Huh? What? I'm sorry, you wanted to get up and go? Oh, ok, hang on, let me get things together..." If this thing would just do it in 8 seconds I'd be really happy.

Fortunately there are things I can get to help. K&N has an air filter and an intake filter that can help boost horsepower and fuel economy, so I can probably easily go from 11 seconds to 9. I don't necessarily want something that jumps off the line, just want to be able to downshift, step on the gas and have the car easily pass the car in front of me.

However, there are no Fit's to be found in Portland! I emailed a couple dealers and they told me the Fit is very popular and they don't have any. One said they aren't taking any new orders for at least 6 months. 6 months!! Wow, I guess this thing is really popular. Oh well, that's actually kinda good. We have a tendency to jump into things and this gives us a reason to think about it more and make sure this is right.

There were lots of other cool cars at the Auto show. Audi had their S8, their sporty version of the A8. $110,000! I didn't feel worth enough to even sit in it. Lots of other cool sports cars, lots of actual race cars, we sat in a Land Rover and found out why people like them - talk about cool features! It was a fun 3 hours, and the funniest part was trying to get Riley to leave. Until I sat in the first car, he didn't want to be there or sit in a car. When it was time to go, he was mad cause he wanted to sit in more cars! LOL!

Learn to Speak Body: Tape 5

This video is FANTASTIC! It is by BodyVox and Mitchell Rose. BodyVox is owned and run by one of the owners (and his wife) of the company I work at, she's in the yellow dress and he's in the "I don't know" set. Checkout MitchellRose.com for more videos from BodyVox. My personal favorite is Deere John.

Feeling better & Snow

So last week I slammed myself into the concrete. Here it is a week later and I'm feeling pretty good! Pretty much everything is much better, my knee is a tiny bit sore, my right elbow is almost completely better, my face never got any bruising (which surprised me since I hit really hard), but my back is still quite sore. Obviously that's where I did the most damage, I'm pretty sure I pulled a muscle or something. I just need to take it easy, which isn't easy with two little kids around. haha

Today we have a snow storm here in Portland. I know many other parts of the country laugh at us for getting 1-2 inches and having problems driving. We just don't get a lot of snow here so people don't know how to drive in it. And we have a LOT of hills here, you can easily go from 300 feet to 1000 feet in a matter of a few miles. So what looks good where you are is really bad trying to go over the hills. These are days I'm glad to be working in IT where I can work from home!

Which is harder, concrete or my body?

First, I have to say I thought this blog thing would be fun to just share random thoughts I had. I still that, however for it to work, I kinda need to actually write stuff here. D'OH! Last year from Sept on got crazy busy in every way possible. I took a week off from work between Christmas and New Years and that really re-energized me. I feel refreshed and ready to go! So this year one of my New Years resolutions is to blog at least once a week. SO, to start it off, here's hopefully a good laugh for everyone from this last weekend. I know I'm laughing about it. :)


We get our Christmas tree right after Thanksgiving and take it down the weekend after New Years. This year we had a fantastic tree, it was still taking water even the day before we took it down!

So this last weekend my wife was at the beach with her mom and I was home with the kids, they were actually very good and we had a great time. Sunday morning at 8:45am I remembered the Christmas tree had to be at the curb by 9am for the boy scouts to pick it up. I quickly took all of the ornaments off the tree, the lights, and shoved it out the door top first (I know that was the wrong way to push it out, I can only say I'd been up for about 15 minutes so wasn't thinking clearly, which probably explains the rest of this story, that or I'm just stupid which is always a possibility). Of course it got stuck, I took off the tree stand and pushed it out the rest of the way.

It went out fine, but then started to fall to the right. I didn't want it to fall on a plant so I was trying to guide it. As it was falling faster than I could guide, I went to move my right foot to catch myself, but I caught it on my pajama pant leg and proceeded to fall over off a two foot step onto the hard concrete in front of our house (and ours has those little rocks coming out, not the smooth kind).

Hit my left shoulder, left side of my head (my cheekbone and head), my right knee a little on the inside, my right hand to catch myself, and after I was down my feet finally came down too. I laid there thinking, "Oh great, my wife is at the beach and I've done something stupid and probably broken something." Took a quick inventory and nothing felt broke so I started to get up. My left side hurt (upper back and upper front on my chest) and my right knee, I couldn't put pressure on it to stand up or use my left hand, which is of course how I always get up so had to change position to stand up.

Got up, checked everything again, all felt ok, nothing broken or out of place, so I finished taking the tree to the curb.

When I got back in the house, I looked at my knee and it had a HUGE welt on it! My left should only has a few little marks and they look normal, and very little bruising. My right hand has three cuts which are healing fine. I went into the bathroom to checkout my head and was shocked to find NOTHING! I mean there wasn't any sign I'd tried to shove my head through the concrete! Very weird, but I've always known I'm thick headed. hehe

When my wife got home, I asked her to check my back as it was still sore and hard to lift my left arm. (Did I tell you she's a licensed massage therapist?) She said it felt like I pulled a muscle or really strained it. By the end of the day my knee was feeling better, my back was ok, but now my right elbow was acting up, really sore. I think when my right hand came down I kinda jammed it or something. This morning my knee feels great, just some cuts and it's still tender where I hit it, my hand is fine, my back is sore but better, my head still feels fine with no signs of anything, and my elbow was feeling better, though today I've been leaning on it too much and it's hurting again. I did think I might have gotten a concussion from that, so I looked it up online and had none of the symptoms.

I'm quite shocked that I came out of it feeling pretty much just fine, just a few scratches and bruises. So now I can laugh about it cause I'm sure I looked really stupid, I certainly felt stupid.

But I did get the tree out in time and they did take it! WOOHOO!! And that's what really matters as I didn't want to have to deal with it. hahaha

Hyundai ad

I just saw a new ad on TV for the Hyundai Santa-Fe. In this commercial, they sprayed water on a giant yellow piece of plastic that they put on the road making a very long slip-n-slide. At the end of the commercial they were talking about how sure footed the Santa-Fe is because it stayed on the wet road like it was dry.

Um, I don't know a TON about cars, but isn't staying on a wet road like that more a function of the tires than the car itself? If the car can grip the wet road, that's all in the tires. So this ad was very misleading. At least to my limited understand of cars.

New Diet!

Have a special event coming up - class reunion, company party, hot date - and you need to lose 10+ pounds in two days? Think it's impossible to do it? I've got the diet for you!

Don't waste time trying to eat zero carbs. No exercise needed. No grapefruit. No diet pills. This is 100% natural and guaranteed to work!

What can this wonderous thing be? How is this possible? Have I found some alternate dimension where two days here is two months there? How much does this cost? And is it from Ronco?

First the price. It's FREE! That's right! No cost, no shipping, you pay nothing. Are you interested? Want to know what this is? Ok, I'll tell you. It's called...

The Stomach Flu!

That's right, nature's own little bug that grabs your stomach, twists it inside out, upside down, in a zillion knots, then makes you empty everything that was in there. But that's not all! After you have emptied your stomach, this wonderous bug won't let you eat anything else! It'll make you want to sleep for at least one day, maybe two. During that time this bug is still going strong and won't let you eat a thing.

Yes, you'll feel a little weak, won't be able to go dancing all night without passing out, but isn't that a small price to pay for dropping that weight quickly so you can look good for that special event?

How do you catch this fantastic bug? That's the tough part. You can't just go to your local pharmacy and buy it. There are several ways you can get it though. Find someone who has it and let them breath on you. Find an area where this bug is spreading and visit a doctors office or a school, preferably with kids in 2nd grade or less who's resistance is low but bug carrying ability is high. Wander around shopping malls looking for people coughing and follow them trying to get some of their cough to land on you.

So remember, the next time you need to drop some weight really fast, go looking for The Stomach Flu!


Seriously, our family caught this thing and it was nasty. I RARELY throw up. I mean I'll roll around on the floor fighting it for hours until I don't have to throw up. This time I started feeling a little bad around 4pm, and by 6pm I was seriously puking! An hour and a half later, puked again. I could NOT hold it back! Finally I slept. Felt like I was going to throw up again at 10:30pm, but didn't HAVE to. So I fought it and won this time! Ate a tiny bit of a cracker and that settled my tummy. I slept through the night, got up, checked my email, 15 minutes later was out again, woke up at lunch for an hour this time, and crashed again. I didn't eat anything that day except a few crackers, drink some Fresca. Finally ate a burger at night and slept all night, and was able to go to work Thursday. This was bad, but I did drop 10 pounds. Of course I don't have any energy and am ready to sleep for two days, but it was nice that my pants were a little looser. LOL!

From the silly but fun department.  I found this on someone elses Flickr page and decided to try it myself.  Some I can agree with, but I think my face broke the software for some of the others.  LOL!  Go ahead, try it yourself!

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Interesting Scott Adams (Dilbert) Blog Posting

I was catching up on my rss feeds with Google Reader (3 days worth) and came across the post below from Scott Adams on his Dilbert Blog about Steve Irwin being killed by a stingray. Now I like Scott Adams and his sense of humor, and I like on his blog he has no problem calling people stupid and foolish when they are being stupid and foolish.

However, this post was out of line. Now while it is probably true that everyone figured Steve Irwin would eventually be killed by some animal - I mean how many of us have seen him or one of these other guys do things we consider insane - the post seemed rude to me because Scott Adams was rubbing Steve Irwin's face in it, like "Told you so!" Just poor taste and bad judgement on Scott Adams part to post this.

So I was curious to see what comments people were leaving about this post. Guess what? It's gone! I'm guessing someone with a few more brains, like his new wife or his publicist, smacked him upside the head telling him to delete it unless he wanted to commit professional suicide. Some things are ok to make fun of, some aren't. This is one where he should have kept his comments to himself. And a good reminder to all of us - in cyberspace, there is no delete, so be careful what you say. So here's his post for you to judge.


What? No Way!

Scott_Adams Sep 04, 2006 - Show original item

I was shocked when I heard the news that the Crocodile Hunter died in a “freak stingray accident.” I had ten dollars bet on “misjudged the speed of a crocodile.” Something tells me that the media already had his obituary written with a fill-in-the-blank for the specific creature that killed him.

Readers of the Dilbert Blog know that I believe death is not a laughing matter, unless the guy who gets killed is in the process of bothering dangerous animals. And by “animals” I include all manner of aquatic, flying, stinging, clawing, bitey things. When someone gets killed doing that sort of thing, it’s a good lesson for the kids. I think it lends credibility when you tell them not to pet strange dogs that are foaming at the mouth. “Don’t pet that dog, Timmy. If you do, you might be killed by an entirely different animal that is not normally considered dangerous. Remember the Crocodile Hunter.”

I remind you that the Crocodile Hunter is the same guy who in 2004 famously fed wild crocodiles with one hand while holding his infant son in the other. Just be glad the Croc Hunter didn’t have triplets because you know he would have tried juggling them.

It seems weird to me that the stingray that got him is now the world’s most famous aquatic creature and doesn’t even know it. He’s probably floating around eating kelp or whatever-the-hell stingrays eat, oblivious to the fact that he’s as famous as O.J. I hope he gets a book deal because I’d like to hear his side of the story. I realize that stingrays have brains the size of a dried raisin, but that doesn’t stop athletes from writing books. All you need is a good co-author.

STINGRAY: “Well, I was minding my own business, eating kelp or whatever-the-hell I eat, when this guy jumps in the water and yells ‘Crikey!’ like a crazy seal. So I killed him and then hired a co-author who is both handsome and talented. You will find his contact information in the back of this well-written book.”

Steve Irwin, the "Crocodile Hunter" dies...

I was in total shock when I heard he had died!  I loved his shows, they were fun, silly, and educational.  I've been reading about it on the web this morning just tragic, such a loss.  I have never understood why great people like Steve Irwin have to die so young when there are so many other horrible people in the world who deserve it more.  My prayers and thoughts go out to his family.

Feeling my age...

This last weekend we went to the beach. Had a great time, played in the sand, let the waves wash up on our feet, and it was Maddie's first trip to the beach. The weather was really nice, not too hot or cold, just about perfect.

There's a little river that runs by where we stayed to the ocean that's extremely shallow right now, I don't think it got even up to my knees. Riley and I made a little sand fortress by dumping sand into the river about 6 feet to close off an area. Then we bailed all of the water out. After that was done, we had fun digging a big deep hole. Great father son bonding stuff.

Normally I don't feel my 43 years of age, but today my body is reminding me of them - all of them. I'm fine sitting here, but when I have to get up it takes about 3x as long! Walking is also an interesting experience. As much as I hate to admit it, I guess I really am getting older. LOL!!

Say this tongue twister, or else...

This is just crazy.

http://www.glumbert.com/media/tonguetwister.html

Is this one of those crazy Japanese game shows? Or maybe a new way to interrogate customers? Who in their right mind would do this? And if it is a game show, what do you win if you get it right - other than the ability to have children?

Would love to know more about this clip.

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Tree Farm Trip

On Wednesday 7/26 I took a trip to visit one of my companies tree farms. It was VERY beautiful and wonderful! I had a fantastic time! It was more like hiking on a weekend than work. I posted some of the photos I took on Flickr.

Winternals & Sysinternals bought by Microsoft

I just heard about this from Mark Russinovich's blog.

First I want to say Congrats to both Mark and Bryce Cogswell.  If Microsoft chooses to listen to these two, they are getting some first class people who will help make Windows a better more stable product, and give us better tools to work with and administrate it.  So I'm quite happy for them - again, if Microsoft chooses to listen to them.

Second, I want to say NOOOOOO!!!!  WHY?  WHY?  WHY?!   There are a TON of great utilities available for FREE on the Sysinternals website that I have used a lot.  I now think they will either go away or at a minimum no longer be free.  And I doubt Mark and Bryce will be available to create other free utilities either.  We have lost one of the most valuable resources around for Windows administration and troubleshooting.  You can read what others are saying on the Slashdot article.

So it is a mixed blessing for me, I'm happy for them, sad to lose all the tools.  Once again Microsoft as assimilated and shown "Resistance is futile".

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The Voice of GOD

It's funny how when you're surfing the web for one thing, you can find links that take you somewhere totally different.  That's how I found the Religious Freaks blog.  On there he has a post about Samuel L. Jackson doing an audio book of the New and Old Testement where he will be the voice of God.  (Personally I would rather have it be James Earl Jones.)  I then listened to the audio clip and couldn't believe it was real.  Did some quick Googling and while I couldn't verify the clip as real, it appears the audio book is.

Some have said they thought the clip was from Pulp Fiction.  Could be, it's been awhile since I've seen that movie.  But I remember there being a LOT more swearing when he did that.

Anyhow, it's a funny clip to listen to and could be a good audio book.

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Why we have kids

This weekend I finally learned the real reason we have kids.  Here are some reasons I have heard before:

• To further the family line.
• The joy of being a parent.
• Nurturing young minds to make the world a better place.
• Living vicariously through your kids, seeing them do things you never could.

These are nice, but not the real reason.  This weekend I was steam cleaning the carpets upstairs and drinking a beer.  My 4 year old son came in to see how I was doing.  As he left I asked if he could do something for me.  When he came back, he had a fresh beer for me.  That's when I realized why we have kids - to bring us beer so we can continue what we're doing, be that cleaning carpets or watching tv.  ;)

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Non-Carbonated Water??

Ok, so what's up with this?  You grab a bottle of "water", you know, that expensive stuff that you can get out of your faucet.  It says, "100% Natural", "Non-carbonated", etc.  But when you unscrew the cap, it makes that "fssst" sound, the same you get from a plastic bottle of soda.  If it's non-carbonated and supposed to be just simply water, then why does it make that sound?  I'm sure there's a good reason - and if so, please tell me in the comments!  I just don't get it...

Google Calendar is COOL!!!

I've been using Google Calendar for awhile now.  It's great for my wife and I, we have a calendar that both of us see and can update so when either one of us has something come up, we can update the calendar and we always know what we're doing.  It's a clean, simple, and easy to use interface.

AND I just found out you can publish a tiny calendar on a web page.  Look my ORPUG blog to see the calendar on the right.  Very cool!  Man, I LOVE Google!!

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Very Cool Pearl Jam!

I'll admit Pearl Jam isn't one of my favorite bands.  However, I love what they have done with their new music video "Life Wasted".  Here's the Google Blog article:

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/05/attention-all-pearl-jam-fans.html

Attention all Pearl Jam fans

5/19/2006 08:09:00 AM

Posted by Eva Ho, Product Marketing Manager, Google Video

Pearl Jam's new music video "Life Wasted"
is now on Google Video for free! Be sure to check it out now, as free
streaming and download is available only until next Wednesday.

And in line with the band's experimental personality, Pearl Jam released the "Life Wasted" video under a Creative Commons "some rights reserved" copyright license.
What does all that legal gibberish mean to you? It means that you can
download the video for free, share it with your friends, and even post
it on your own site--provided you give the band credit and don't use it
for commercial purposes. It's yet another example of Pearl Jam putting
its fans first.

I think this is great for everyone!  Now if we can just get more bands doing stuff like this.

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The Da Vinci Code Movie/book

I'm looking at the news online and just see tons of items about people protesting the movie, trying to block it from being shown, planning boycott's, etc. 

Hello?  Is anyone home?  The movie/book is FICTION!  That means it isn't real!  Even on Dan Brown's website he says,

"The Da Vinci Code is a novel and therefore a work of fiction."

I guess some people could read the book or watch the movie and think it's true, but that's their problem.  It's made up.  Fake.  Not true.  And it's a darn good story too!  Dan Brown even states

"Even so, a small but vocal group of individuals has proclaimed the story dangerous, heretical, and anti-Christian. While I regret having offended those individuals, I should mention that
priests, nuns, and clergy contact me all the time to thank me for
writing the novel. Many church officials are celebrating The Da Vinci
Code because it has sparked renewed interest in important topics of
faith and Christian history."

I read the book, loved it and am now looking forward to watching the movie.  Get real people, it isn't fact, and it's actually a really good story.

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Illegal Immigrants...

So we've got all these people who are in this country illegally and they aren't working right now to show how much we depend on them, how much we need them.  Ya, right.

Well of course if they aren't going to be at their jobs those companies will suffer some, and people might not get what they want.  It would be that way with any group walking off the job.  What if all white males 25-30 walked off their jobs for a day or two?

They are trying to say we need them.  Um, WRONG!  If they weren't here, we would simply be employing others who are here LEGALLY!  Maybe some kids would have afterschool jobs again.  Maybe some people who don't go on to college would have an easier time finding jobs.

It doesn't help with companies employ these people.  Those employeers KNOW they are here illegally yet they hire them anyhow.  It's probably because they can pay them less than legal people and they're wanting to save a buck - more money for their pockets.

It's simple.  If you want to live and work in this country, come here legally.  Or at least work at becoming a legal citizen.  Why should I feel sympathy towards someone who is breaking the law?

Oh, and one more thing.  LEARN TO SPEAK ENGLISH!!  I shouldn't have to repeat myself over and over at some fast food restaurant because you can't understand what I'm saying.  And employeers, if they can't speak english, don't let them talk to customers!  I'm not saying forget your culture.  If I were to go to Germany, I would need to speak German to get around.  Sure, plenty probably speak a little english, but if I want to live there, I need to speak the language.  Trying to make them change just for me is wrong.

Sorry, no sympathy here for your Boycott.  You are taking jobs away from LEGAL people who could be working.  WE have to follow the laws, you should too.

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