Adam Miller and Family

Toward the end of the year, I start getting p...

December 26, 2001 by Adam in Adam

Toward the end of the year, I start getting pensive, thinking back on years past and years yet to come. It's been a good Christmas this year. I enjoyed having a few hours last night to have our small family's Christmas. Sam was just waking up, but once that first Lego package came out, he was ready to go. I practically had to force him to open the other presents, as he was so excited about that first one. I spent a good hour assembling the Star Wars submarine. It ended up being much bigger than I expected.

I'm also looking forward to the next Christmas with my side of the family, taking place on January 1st. I suspect there is much holiday cheer and loot just waiting for me. I'm still a little worried about Sadie, my mom, and Dick. It's a strange time to be far away from home.

I keep getting excited about the best Christmas present of all - the new baby. Bringing our household up to four is one of those big family milestones that you can't turn back from. Jamie allows me to pat her tummy from time to time, which brings a smile to my face. I also know how major a change it will be. Goodbye small amounts of free time, hellow sleepless nights and crying babies.

A group from work went to see Lord of the Rin...

December 20, 2001 by Adam in Adam

A group from work went to see Lord of the Rings last night. The first thing that greeted my eye as I walked towards the theatre was a man dressed as Gandalf. There were a few others in cloaks and robes inside the theater, though most of the people looked fairly normal.

It was an amazing moving. For three hours long, the pace was very well done, never getting boring. The visuals were beautiful, the actors played their parts very well, and the action kept you at the edge of your seat. It's not for small kids, as it gets pretty gory and scary at time. For us bigger kids, though, it's a wonderful film.

Christmas is sneaking right up on me

December 18, 2001 by Adam in Adam

Christmas is sneaking right up on me. This weekend, we head for Portland to celebrate Christmas there. I've heard rumors that people in Eugene are also getting together that day - someone let me know if that's true.

Two new team members at work: Annie, who's nice and quite bright, and John, who's extremely funny. We're spending the first two and a half days this week doing team orientation. Unfortunately, that means that the work that had just been caught up with is now piling up again.

I've been amazed at how much mom, Dick, and Sadie have been able to keep in touch electronically. It's far superior to post cards, as I almost feel I'm travelling with them. It's more like a radio expedition, with daily broadcasts of their adventures for the day.

All goes well in rainy Eugene. Jamie started working out again, since we finally found a plan that works well for both of us. I'm trying to do my last minute shopping, switching from online to store shopping since the time is approaching soon. Great fun.

Oh - and one more thing. Jamie's given the go-ahead for me to see Lord of the Rings this Wednesday. I have friends at work that should be buying tickets for me (they waited in line on Monday). Extra bonus nerd points for me.

I woke up this morning with the clock flashin...

December 01, 2001 by Adam in Adam

I woke up this morning with the clock flashing 3:38. Evidently the power went out last night. We've had heavy winds and endless rain the last few days. The state has a severe storm warning out, with possible flooding in the north. Hope Jim and Judy make it down safely this morning.

I reran the 3DMark 2001 benchmarks. I get a score of 6621 at 1024X768 with the CPU overclocked to 1.67 Ghz and the video card at 200/500. While that doesn't approach the crazy 10,000+ scores I've heard about, it's not shabby at all.

Brain getting fuzzy

November 27, 2001 by Adam in Adam

Brain getting fuzzy . . . too much work.

I had my flu shot today, and felt terrible within a couple hours. Fortunately, pain killers worked just fine and I'm doing okay but tired now.

Evidently there are a ton of people at our house, working on various issues. Hopefully the downstairs shower will work, the faucet won't leak, the fireplace can be controlled remotely, and a sturdy fence will be built around the stairs to the basement. It's amazing how much work an older house takes.

I'm happy with my new computer these days. I'm still waiting for the modem drivers, but it's pretty cool even when not connected to the Internet. Very snappy, quick to boot, and games play like a dream. Ah, Nerdvana.

Yet another illness sweeps through the Miller...

November 20, 2001 by Adam in Adam

Yet another illness sweeps through the Miller family. Jamie and I met this morning in the kitchen, fighting over the Advil bottle and mumbling words like "must have pain killers." I made it to work, though only coffee and my sense of loyalty to PeaceHealth is keeping me here. Well, actually it's mostly the coffee.

Five day weekend coming up. Should be fun. Hoping to pick up Wolfenstein today for some computer gaming madness. I also want to work on the banister, though maybe "want" is too strong a word. It'll be good when it's all done.

I decided that yesterday's headaches weren't ...

November 14, 2001 by Adam in Adam

I decided that yesterday's headaches weren't coffee related. Jamie's been a bit sick, and I felt pretty miserable. After a good night's sleep and lots of painkillers, I felt much better. This morning I'm back to my well-caffinated self.

I had a dream about Frank. In it, it turns out his death was just a big mix-up. We were sitting in the back of a high school classroom together, waiting for it to begin. I remember him making some strange reference to an old song.

I nailed down my weird computer noise to the hard drive. I need to check it out more thoroughly, but I may need to go through another painful return process. Blah.

Also, good Buffy last night. Although it's sad to see Willow start losing it all on her path to the dark side, it also makes for good storytelling. One of my favorite episodes involves the evil vampire-Willow showing up in Sunnydale.

A bit of an exciting morning for Too Much Cof...

November 13, 2001 by Adam in Adam

A bit of an exciting morning for Too Much Coffee Man today. I woke up with a bit of a sore jaw, probably clenching it during the night, and decided to not drink coffee today. Well, I did it, but I had to take something for the headaches that soon followed. Sigh. Perhaps tomorrow I'll return to the Dark Side.

I'm trying to put down the final touches on my new computer. The sound card arrives today. I also have a couple nagging issues that I'd like to resolve soon. The biggest is that that my DSL modem doesn't have XP drivers yet, though they may be released soon. The other is a high-pitched noise that I haven't been able to track down yet. Sigh.

I haven't posted in my personal area in a lon...

November 05, 2001 by Adam in Adam

I haven't posted in my personal area in a long time. I've caught up with work for the first time in a few weeks. Frank's position is still open, so I'm handling all the development and Internet content management at the same time. Crazy. Fortunately, I've also started the evil habit of drinking cafT mochas every morning. Coffee makes me smarter than I really am.

Family life is busy and fun at the same time. It's been hard to find time for Jamie and I to visit, and this week is no exception. I think she has something happening every day of the week, with her dad coming down next weekend. Sam and I spend virtually all our time together playing something related to Star Wars. I may just have to take him to the movie when it comes out next year. Though he's never sat through an entire movie, this may be the exception.

I'm hoping our major internal house renovations will be finished up by Christmas. I spent a little time sanding the banister this weekend. Lots of paint to carefully remove before it can be stained and put in place. I'd also like to do some garding next year. One of my first tasks will be to get blueberry bushes in the back yard. I miss our old house and all the things we put in over the years, and the blueberries were high on my list.

I'm looking forward to the holidays. Thanksgiving and Sam's birthday are coming up in a few weeks. I've got some presents already picked out for him. I'm getting the obvious present - Star Wars Legos. He keeps trying to build Star Wars characters out of miscellaneous parts, which only sort of works. He currently has to build Darth Maul light sabres out of Lego antennas. Never quite looks right.

I watched Enterprise last night, the season p...

September 27, 2001 by Adam in Adam

I watched Enterprise last night, the season premier of the new Star Trek show. I was quite pleased. I loved the feel of the show, first stepping out into the wide universe. Not nearly as clean and polished as the other Star Trek shows. The special effects were top notch, and the story was interesting. Liked the new captain too. Not as cool as Farscape, but up there in my book.

When you move in to an old house, it's expect...

September 16, 2001 by Adam in Adam

When you move in to an old house, it's expected that you'll find assorted knick knacks left over from the previous owners. We found a box of unopened Halloween toys, assorted building supplies, paint for every room, and the like. What I didn't expect was what I found yesterday: a rocket launcher.

It's homemade, a PVC pipe outfitted with an ignition system and a model rocket fitted into the tube. I imagine you'd hold it on your shoulder, make sure no one is behind you, and push the button. Crazy. Not sure if I'm really going to try it out, or if I'll just trash it to remove temptation.

Frank Obert, my coworker and cubicle neighbor...

September 05, 2001 by Adam in Adam

Frank Obert, my coworker and cubicle neighbor for a couple years, is approaching the end of his battle with cancer. He was diagnosed over a year ago, and his particular form of cancer has a low survival rate. I felt pretty lousy for a long time after finding out.

Since then, he's done chemotherapy and been very aggressive with fighting the disease. Just a few weeks ago, he started having serious back pain, and it now appears that it's spread aggresively to his liver. He probably has a few days or weeks of his life left.

Working with Frank through this time has been an intense experience. I've been much more serious about my own health, getting a physical earlier this year. I'm also getting life insurance, just in case.

It's been an honor to work with him these years. His particular brand of humor has added to our weekly meetings. I hope that when my time comes, I have the same courage and wit when facing my mortality.

I went to the eye doctor today

August 15, 2001 by Adam in Adam

I went to the eye doctor today. All was well, and I enjoyed chatting with Dr. Arbow about the future of the various eye surgeries. I'm holding off for now, but I can see a time in the next five years or so where I can get my vision corrected to 20/20 without much in the way of side effects. When it gets to that point, I think I'll jump on board. Vision is such a key element to my work and my life, it's hard to justify the risk. Still, it's a big hassle at times to not be able to see.

Okay, I admit it

July 31, 2001 by Adam in Adam

Okay, I admit it. I'm a Farscape fan. It's vaguely like an anti-Star Trek. The crew of the ship don't work together in harmony. They each have their competing agendas, but they're all interesting and likable. Good stories and special effects.

So, here's my short plug - get the Sci-fi channel or rent the DVDs, watch Farscape. It's good.

Josh, Dave, and I went out to see Final Fanta...

July 15, 2001 by Adam in Adam

Josh, Dave, and I went out to see Final Fantasy last night. It was an amazing movie - not from the perspective from the story, which was marginal, but the visuals and technology behind them. Though you could tell it wasn't real actors, the ability to portray reality completely digitally is slowly coming closer. In a decade or so, I may actually have the ability to display those kind of visuals on my home computer, in real-time. Simply amazing.

One of my favorite comics has a recurring cha...

June 29, 2001 by Adam in Adam

One of my favorite comics has a recurring character named Adam. Today's strip is about him and his issues with caffeine. Ironically, I also decided to cut back on coffee a few months ago (though I did have a mocha this morning). Read all about it right here.

Completely removing coffee from my life hasn't really happened yet. I'm not sure if it's something I want to pursue, though I typically just drink tea most work days. Who knows, coffee may actually protect against Parkinson's disease?

I hate moving

June 25, 2001 by Adam in Adam

I hate moving. Really, really hate it.

Last week, I was hating not having a stove and eating cereal and microwaved food all the time. This week, it's the terrible hassle getting DSL moved to my new house. In theory, it's all turned on. The catch is that The Pond turned off what was previously set up and their tech guys won't do anything until I fill out a form on the web. Gah! They ignored the e-mail I sent them a couple weeks ago asking if there was something I was supposed to do, now I have to wait a couple days just to process the order.

Sigh. I'll stop ranting for now. When everything's over and we actually legally own the house, I'll be a happier man.

Well, I spent the weekend with Jamie and Sam ...

June 11, 2001 by Adam in Adam

Well, I spent the weekend with Jamie and Sam off in Portland. The first day I packed like a maniac, being amazed and the number of boxes I labeled "Knick Knacks." The second day was spent playing Everquest and having a friend power level my character up to 14 in a few hours.

It's strange that it was the last weekend in our house. Lots of things happened there for the first time. We're still eager to move and have our family settle in.

As I wander about my house these days, it's a...

May 30, 2001 by Adam in Adam

As I wander about my house these days, it's a little sad thinking about the memories created here. Sadie's hand-painted murals are one of the things I'm going to miss. I went through and took pictures of all of them so I don't forget. Perhaps when Sadie's home from college, we can hire her as a muralist again. I also love how Seraph's nursery turned out. I'll have to get some snapshots of those some day.

And so the frantic days of getting ready to s...

May 20, 2001 by Adam in Adam

And so the frantic days of getting ready to sell our house begin. My hands are covered with assorted scrapes and cuts from gardening. Next weekend, my body will probably be paint spattered and abused. Endless work to be done and very little time to do it in.

I'm staying at the house over Memorial Day weekend while Jamie and Sam go to Portland. I have four full days to accomplish vast quantities of projects. I suspect I'll be hitting the coffee heavily to get all the energy. Once we get to the new house, then we can rest.

House hunting is turning out to be harder tha...

May 12, 2001 by Adam in Adam

House hunting is turning out to be harder than I thought. There are so many possibilities as to where we could live and what kind of house we could live in. The plan is to stay there until our kids are grown up, so it's a pretty major decision.

I'm entertaining the thought of the Ferry Street Bridge area. I've always lived in south Eugene, so it's a bit odd to think about. Still, there are lots of houses for sale, the area is flat (for bike riding), and it's somewhat central. There aren't really any older homes there, but I suspect there are lots to pick from.

Hopefully we can poke around some neighborhoods this weekend. Great fun.

Last night, I stayed up watching a Biography ...

April 21, 2001 by Adam in Adam

Last night, I stayed up watching a Biography show about the Bee Gees. Now, I've got a Bee Gees song stuck in my head. Great.

I ended up calling 911 for the third time in ...

April 16, 2001 by Adam in Adam

I ended up calling 911 for the third time in my life over the weekend. We had come back from an Easter lunch when we came across a car accident. It looked like there had been a collision and an SUV had turned over. One of the guys from the other car was trying to get into a store. I gestured that I had a cell phone and proceeded to call.

The crazy thing was that within a minute, three other people were calling on cell phones. Within a couple minutes, a police car was there and a few minutes after that, the fire trucks and EMT arrived. Crazy.

I had a dream last night where an assassin po...

April 11, 2001 by Adam in Adam

I had a dream last night where an assassin poisoned me and I only had a minute to live. I asked his permission to write a final farewell to my family, but every piece of paper I found was covered in scribbles. So, just in case:

Jamie and Sam, I love you very much.

Friday rolls along here at work

April 06, 2001 by Adam in Adam

Friday rolls along here at work. I woke up on the wrong side of bed this morning, but strangely turned it around. I stayed up until (gasp) 10 PM last night, way past my bedtime. Perhaps that played a role.

I've been very good about minimizing caffiene and my workouts have included both weights and cardio. I spend most of my lunch hour in the gym, which makes me feel good about myself. I haven't weighed myself lately, but I suspect I've picked up a few more pounds of muscle(Ah-nuld would be proud).

I think our family is over the various sicknesses, which helps a lot. Everyone's mood is much improved. It's nice to come home to two smiling faces, rather than the gloomy, drippy ones from a few weeks ago.

I made some minor changes to the web site

April 04, 2001 by Adam in Adam

I made some minor changes to the web site. You can now edit news postings, instead of deleting them and making a new one. Not a big deal, but it was tedious when I made a typo.

I've put in some minor changes to the web sit...

April 04, 2001 by Adam in Adam

I've put in some minor changes to the web site and I'm testing them out.

Well, Jamie and Sam are up in Portland and I'...

March 23, 2001 by Adam in Adam

Well, Jamie and Sam are up in Portland and I've got the run of the house to myself. I patched the concrete slab in the back yard and mowed the lawn. Yet more wallpaper and painting projects await me this weekend.

I've also been renting old episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer from the video store down the block. Without commercials, I can watch two or three at a sitting. It's pretty weird - I've noticed my dreams afterward are filled with Buffy characters and themes.

I'm also feeling a little sick today. When I talked to Jamie yesterday, she was feeling miserable. I'm probably next, so I'm drinking fluids and taking it easy.

Well, the "All Your Base Are Belong To Us" jo...

March 13, 2001 by Adam in Adam

Well, the "All Your Base Are Belong To Us" joke has made it to a nationally syndicated cartoon. Take a look here.

I've started drinking the occasional cup of coffee, though at a much reduced rate. Doing good with vitamins these days, as well as weight-lifting. I'm amazed at how much hungrier I am these days after a serious workout. Whew!

Still no coffee, though I did have a little b...

March 11, 2001 by Adam in Adam

Still no coffee, though I did have a little bit of chai tea a couple times. Did the blood pressure thing again, with Sam in tow. First time a little high. After a few deep breaths, it was under the magic 130 number. I think the conclusion is that a two-year-old is a risk factor for high blood pressure. Fortunately, it's curable by just waiting a few years. Rumor has it that there's another peak in the teens, but hopefully I survive the experience.

I've been relatively coffee free this week

March 08, 2001 by Adam in Adam

I've been relatively coffee free this week. No extreme withdrawl or unstoppable cravings. I miss it a bit in the morning, but that's about it. Now I've got to schedule another Fred Meyer trip to get my blood pressure tested again. I have a funny feeling that it's vaguely Sam related, so I'll try to dump him with Jamie for the test.

I'm also getting into lifting weights again. My poor muscles are a bit on the sore side, but it's a good kind of pain.