I had a minor bike accident this morning

December 28, 2006 by Adam in Adam

I had a minor bike accident this morning. I was coming down our hill and hit a spot of black ice, immediately tipping over from lack of traction. Fortunately the fall wasn't too bad, getting away with only a bruise on my tailbone. I walked to the bottom of the hill and rode on without incident.

Since I started commuting to work three or four years ago, this is the closest thing to an accident that I've had. Let's hope my uneventful biking continues in the future.

It's Mocha Tuesday for me as I'm taking the r...

December 19, 2006 by Adam in Adam

It's Mocha Tuesday for me as I'm taking the rest of the week off. I can't wait to make jam with Sadie and generally take it easy for a few days. I think Thursday is going to be my "me day", where I can do whatever I want. Maybe I'll sit around watching t.v. and doing my nails, or whatever folks do with free time. It's been way too long.

My life and times goes fairly well these days. It's still all about family, work, and sneaking in a little free time here and there. I have a little interview about my gaming stuff that I just released. My annoying cough seems to slowly be getting better, though it's been a couple weeks. All-in-all, life's good.

My big work project has actually turned out r...

December 13, 2006 by Adam in Adam

My big work project has actually turned out really well. It's one of those behind-the-scenes applications that's pretty utilitarian, but everyone in the organization uses it one way or another. People keep coming up and congratulating me on how it works, which is a good sign. I just keep polishing and making it fancier.

I'm resisting getting more presents for people. My kids will be horribly spoiled, especially in the realm of electronica. I figure it's my role as a computer-savvy father to equip them with appropriate gadgets and gizmos. Jamie got more practical things (other than the robot), but hopefully she'll appreciate them too.

My annoying cold still hasn't gone away entirely

December 04, 2006 by Adam in Adam

My annoying cold still hasn't gone away entirely. I've been sniffling and coughing throughout the day. Blah.

My Level One project continues to fill all my time at work. I had a conference call on an unrelated project and ended up throwing together a web demo in 15 minutes. The lack of preparedness is sadly bleeding into other things.

On the plus side, people are using and looking at the information I'm collecting from tons of different systems. Unfortunately they're also finding the bugs, which means I get to stay busy.

What a day

November 29, 2006 by Adam in Adam

What a day.

I was deathly ill last night, with a headache that simply wouldn't stop. I went to bed at eight, woke up at two to get more Advil, and slept until six. Then I dragged myself to work late, riding my bike on icy roads to work.

We went live with a major system yesterday, so the entire day was filled with fixes and change requests. I ate lunch in front of my desk and didn't make it to the gym.

I think the insanity is slowing down, with only a handful of big issues left to go. I was incredibly productive, whipping out web pages and interface changes left and right. Now I'm tired and just want to go home to my family.

Happy Thanksgiving to all! I just finished a...

November 23, 2006 by Adam in Adam

Happy Thanksgiving to all! I just finished a caffeine-fueled spending frenzy at amazon.com. I think I'm getting what Jamie wants, though I took a few liberties here and there. Emma also should be getting a somewhat unusual treat. Regardless, it was fun for me to convert those hours of hard work on my latest project into presents for my family.

Work's been almost pleasant lately as I try frantically to wrap things up for my big Level One project. Monday is go-live day for me. There's always little issues here and there that I'm sure will come up, but it's almost fun playing firefighter and fixing things as they explode.

I swam to work today

November 07, 2006 by Adam in Adam

I swam to work today. A few of the streets I bike down were completely covered in water, to the point where I couldn't see the curbs. I hopped up on the sidewalk and creatively crossed streets. Fortunately it was warm and I have good rain gear. Somewhere along the way I actually had fun.

Work has been going from rather pleasant, to completely insane, and then back again. I suppose it keeps me on my toes. It looks like we're hiring a new person soon, which hopefully will help spread the workload around.

I'm a big silly-head

October 19, 2006 by Adam in Adam

I'm a big silly-head.

A couple days ago, Emma and I went to the park in the evening. She remarked on the beautiful sunset, pointing out that it was pink, her favorite color. I noticed the chestnuts scattered around. As it grew dark, it turned into a treasure hunt of sorts. We went around finding chestnuts and putting them in the stroller. Eventually we had quite a haul.

Emma was excited to roast them and eat them. Since we don't have an open fire, like the song goes, I tossed them in the oven and cranked up the heat to 425. Part of me thought I should actually read directions on how to do this, but I figured the worst that could happen is that they get a bit toasty.

As it turns out, you can do worse than that. Soon Sam and I were called upstairs to a shouting Jamie. Smoke filled the house and I opened the oven to find the chestnuts had exploded and charred. Two remained mostly intact, having oozed out the nutty interior into a thin paste of goo.

I was chastized by both Jamie and myself, promising to clean it up the next day. Jamie beat me to it, and I was left doing some minor scrubbing last night.

Stupid, stupid, Christmas song.

I'm self-medicating with a Mocha this morning...

October 17, 2006 by Adam in Adam

I'm self-medicating with a Mocha this morning, driving away the winter blues. The transition to Fall has been odd, riding my bike to work in the dark and the kids going to bed earlier. Work has been a bit overwhelming as of late. I finished up my last big coding push, which was good, and now I have endless little things nipping at my heels. No rest for the weary.

It's been nice reading posts from Sadie as of late. She's been on my mind, the wayward sister on the East coast. I'm looking forward to a hopeful Christmasy trip home.

At work I've been doing this massive code con...

October 12, 2006 by Adam in Adam

At work I've been doing this massive code conversion, going from Visual Basic to C#. I've been working with variations of Basic since I was eight, so it's a bit of a change. Last night I was actually dreaming about it, watching SqlInt32.Parse and various {} symbols move across my brain. And then I had a dream about talking dolphins. Go figure.

I think I'm in the last stages of my annoying cold. I'm still a little sniffly, but no headache this morning. I slept for eight and a half hours last night, which is pretty unusual for me. Now it's off to shower and head in to work. The C# is calling to me . . .

I finally caught the cold that Emma's had for...

October 10, 2006 by Adam in Adam

I finally caught the cold that Emma's had for the last week or so. After being well for so long, it's a bit of a shock. I'm pretty worthless about the house and I keep telling Jamie how much I appreciate her. Today at work I've purchased a medicinal mocha, which I'm about to take orally.

Life's pretty good, otherwise. The kids are in school and we're adjusting to the school routine. The big holiday season is coming up, along with endless computer game releases. The weekend after next Sam and I get to have a father-son weekend as Jamie and Emma go to Portland.

I keep mentally preparing for my work to be moved out to the Riverbend Annex in Springfield. I'm not too happy about it, but I think I can make due. The big choice is to see if I'm up for a 45ish minute bike ride each morning and afternoon. I haven't nailed down the time entirely, but it would be significant and might involve traveling through high-traffic areas. The other choice is to buy a second car, which is certainly convenient in some ways. Hmm.

Okay, this one's for dad

August 23, 2006 by Adam in Adam

It's been a good week so far, though I can te...

August 22, 2006 by Adam in Adam

It's been a good week so far, though I can tell it'll be busy. I keep trying to find a time to have dinner with my mom and it looks like the Thursday plan might be delayed due to Angie having a baby. I swear, can't people be more considerate of my needs?

Jamie and I tried to cuddle up and watch a t.v. show on the laptop. Sadly, my nerd skills were week, though I've fixed the problem and I'm hoping we can try again tonight. It's MI-5 a.k.a. Spooks. Jamie says the lead character looks like John Cusack, which I guess is all she needs.

I don't usually like the way my voice sounds, but I've been playing around with recording myself for my little NWN2 hobby. You can listen to The Troupe of the Damned here. It's a pretty big sound file, so it might be slow.

I was incredibly productive yesterday at work...

August 18, 2006 by Adam in Adam

I was incredibly productive yesterday at work, though I'm not sure I'll match my vigor today. The mocha is kicking in, though, so we'll see how it goes.

These days I'm working on a new version of an old application. It's got so many bells and whistles, though, that the folks that use it will hopefully give me tearful hugs in the hallway, accompanied by "I love you man!" Well, perhaps not, but I'm automating a ton of work that they once did manually.

My old friend Devon e-mailed me. He's looking to move to Japan with his girlfriend, where he's been teaching English to little kids on and off over the years. He has an old experimental site and a more current livejournal site.

I was feeling out of sorts yesterday, having ...

August 15, 2006 by Adam in Adam

I was feeling out of sorts yesterday, having a hard time getting things done. The good news is that today seems a bit better. I've whipped up a bunch of changes to one application and I'm sinking my teeth into one of the bigger projects I'm working on.

I did treat myself to a mocha this morning, for medicinal purposes only. Who needs prozac?

I ran across this odd site that lets you uplo...

August 06, 2006 by Adam in Adam

I ran across this odd site that lets you upload a portrait of yourself and transform it into different races, ages, and so on. I'd seen something similar at OMSI years ago, but this was the first online one and it was surprisingly snappy. I couldn't resist and made a bunch of pictures of myself. You can see the big version here.

I keep waiting for the day when webcams are built in with "correction" software that let you take your normal face and change the appearance in real-time. Combine that with voice changing software and you could be pretty much anyone you want. Ah, the joy of anonymity on the Internet.

It was like Christmas when I got home today

August 03, 2006 by Adam in Adam

It was like Christmas when I got home today. There were two big boxes waiting for me as I stepped in the door, one from Amazon and the other a generic FedEx package. I knew exactly what both of them were.

The FedEx package was my frivilous gift to myself, a decent quality microphone. I got it for my game stuff, hoping to record some voices of people I know. There's a bunch in the game, and plenty of work for my friends and family.

The other package was the smaller part of a partially cancelled order from Amazon. They're starting to sell food online, and I ordered a crazy amount of cereal. Instead, I got 16 boxes for the low price of $30. Since I go through huge volumes of cereal, it seems like a reasonable deal. I can only imagine what my family would say if the original 48 box order had made it through.

They might have really made fun of my cereal habit.

Well, it's my birthday

July 19, 2006 by Adam in Adam

Well, it's my birthday. I turn 37 today. I have my suspicions that Jamie is planning some event this evening, but she's been remarkably tight-lipped about it. I'm also terribly excited about the four-day beach trip that's coming up.

Works been wacky lately. We keep working on standards and all this new ASP.Net stuff. I think I broke a new record as to how long it took to make a single update form. It's been a couple weeks and it's still not entirely finished.

After a long time with a terribly boring phot...

July 04, 2006 by Adam in Adam

After a long time with a terribly boring photo album, I spruced it up a bit, adding in some JavaScript and such. I could probably fiddle more with it, but this is as good as it gets for a 4th of July morning with the kids running about.

Take a look.

Update: I ripped out everything and started again from scratch. I'm pretty happy with it, but I worry a little about my new photo nav bar, which probably takes awhile to load over dial-up.

Another Update: It's just plain too slow, even over broadband. Back to the drawing board, I guess. I'll rip out the nav bar and find some other way to sneak it in.

Final Update: I redid it again. This time only a few thumbnails appear per picture, which should make it much snappier.

Amazon

June 16, 2006 by Adam in Adam

Amazon.com recently started selling groceries. Well, I poked around out of curiousity and found myself staring and dirt-cheap boxes of organic cereal. A few clicks later, 48 boxes of assorted cereal was being packed up and ready to be sent to our house.

Before anyone thinks I'm completely insane, I eat a lot of cereal. It's one very large bowl for breakfast and another right before I go to bed. It seems I'm always pestering Jamie to get me more cereal, and not just the tiny individual boxes, but the kind you buy by the pallet.

So, hopefully this will keep me stocked in cereal for awhile yet. The whole concept of having food shipped to your door for free is an interesting one. The prices were cheaper than Costco too. Could be an interesting new trend.

I got my swag from the Bioware writing contes...

May 10, 2006 by Adam in Adam

I got my swag from the Bioware writing contest yesterday. It's fairly cool. I'm drinking tea from my Bioware mug and just popped in the Jade Empire soundtrack. I admittedly didn't put in my Jade Empire t-shirt or Bioware wool hat. That might be a bit too much, even for me.

There's some electronic goodies arriving soon, various games that I'm hoping I have time to play. We'll see how it goes.

Work has been frantic these last couple weeks, with me feeling I haven't quite recovered from my last business trip. I'm working on so many big projects that things are falling through the cracks. They don't pay me the big bucks for doing things that are simple, I suppose.

I finished my third cup of tea this morning a...

May 02, 2006 by Adam in Adam

I finished my third cup of tea this morning and have been in frantic "catch up" mode all morning. The e-mails have been blazing by, followed by a flurry of coding and a terse response. The items on my "to do" list of e-mails dwindled down to three. I still have several major projects to juggle, but I feel much better that the endless little things are better under control.

Yesterday was rather wacky. I came home to visit with Jamie and ended up under the sink being dripped on by leaky pipes. Ah, the joys of marriage.

I'm constantly amazed at the wacky gadgets that people come up with. My latest favorite is the "teddy gun", which fires a parachute equipped teddy bear. Supposedly it's big at weddings, but I'd have fun taking it to our next team meeting.

I'm moments away from heading to the airport ...

April 27, 2006 by Adam in Adam

I'm moments away from heading to the airport and returning to home sweet home. I can't wait.

Ironically, I am indeed eating cereal and usi...

April 27, 2006 by Adam in Adam

Ironically, I am indeed eating cereal and using the hotel's Internet access as we speak. I had to use a cup and swizzle stick to eat my cereal, scooping it up like chopsticks. I'd like to think it's in sympathy for my dad's plight, but the reality is that I'm too lazy to go down to the lobby to get a spoon.

I had a terrible headache today, starting small and getting worse throughout the day. We went to the Sister's retreat, which has a number of big meeting rooms. The grounds were beautiful, right on the lake with trees all around. We did our usual meeting stuff, with lots of talking and chatting as a group. Nothing too earth shattering, except some interesting talking points by one of the VPs. Change is afoot.

Afterwards our entire group went out to dinner and stayed there for three hours. We were incredibly loud and had a good time, especially after I popped three asprin and I drank some tea. I think the relief of not being in pain made it all so much better.

I'm heading off to Bellevue tomorrow morning

April 24, 2006 by Adam in Adam

I'm heading off to Bellevue tomorrow morning. I'm flying out of town tomorrow morning and not getting back until late Thursday. As usual, I'm fairly unenthusiastic about the trip, thinking about the work that will pile up and how we could have done this over the phone. To top it off, I'll miss my family.

Jamie did whisk me away for a nice lunch. It was surprisingly quiet with no kids trying to talk over each other. It took us awhile to come up with anything to say since we tend to be all business when we get a few moments to talk. I'm very much looking forward to our life of leisure when the kids are a bit older.

Well, it looks like I have the best job in Am...

April 12, 2006 by Adam in Adam

Well, it looks like I have the best job in America. Software engineers make good money, get to work on cool projects, and are relatively stress-free. Duh.

I was given the chance to go write games for a living at Bioware and turned them down. That's sayin' something.

Awhile back I ran into a woman who was somewhat unkind to me in high school. We exchanged some polite, friendly words and later I remarked to Jamie later that her husband drove an ice cream truck. Revenge is sweet.

Stupid FedEx guy

February 13, 2006 by Adam in Adam

Stupid FedEx guy.

My Valentine's Day present for Jamie arrived today, with Jamie waiting there to pick it up. The FedEx guy said "Looks like an iPod."

I asked Jamie for his name so that I might track him down and administer a beating.

I don't normally throw out random links, but ...

January 30, 2006 by Adam in Adam

I don't normally throw out random links, but this one gave me a chuckle. It's images from old food advertisements where the kids end up looking demonic in their steely grins.

I'm just coming off of a weekend watching the kids. Parts were rough, parts were great, and now I'm returning to work for a bit of rest. Work's been fairly good these last couple weeks. I've been doing interesting work and slowly gearing up for a couple major projects. One of the big ones involves creating standards for how our team writes applications, which is going to be exciting. It's been awhile since I've had to learn a fairly different way of doing things.

I'm looking forward to Spring, which seems to be tiptoeing its way slowly back. I've been trying hard not to look too closely at our front garden, which is a mess of dead and decaying plants.

I swam to work this morning, braving the pour...

January 02, 2006 by Adam in Adam

I swam to work this morning, braving the pouring rain and cursing my lack of proper protection for my shoes. I've taken them off and stashed them under my desk, hoping my socks dry before lunch time. I thought about taking them off and letting the heat from my big CRT monitor dry them off, but my cubicle neighbors might complain.

I'm glad I came to work last Wednesday as my e-mail to-do list isn't too bad. I'm still going through and reading things, but hopefully that phase of the morning should be finished soon. Then it'll be the part when I actually have to do things, including several projects that I've put on hold while I was out on vacation.

Fortunately it's technically a business holiday and most people are at home watching football games and the like. I'm hopeful that means I can get some work done and feel somewhat caught up.