Monday, November 28, 2005

Answers, Part 1

Rowdy has indirectly asked me to complete a survey that he answered on his blog. Here is the first part, I'll do the rest later:

10 Years Ago: Just finished with fall quarter finals, Thanksgiving in Columbus at my parents' new house. Chloe the dog was with us, but slowing down a bit with age. I spent December of 1995 temping at the Dublin, OH office of a company called Enron -- you may have heard of them, they have popped up in the news in subsequent years.

A funny incident occurred at Enron while I was temping there; they had an office Christmas party toward the end of my tenure, and they held it in a glass-walled conference room that was right across from the cube where I worked on my filing. They didn't invite me, since I was only a temp. So I sat there, head hanging low, filing document after document while a few feet away, in full view behind the glass, the entire office was chatting happliy and opening gifts and eating goodies. I felt like some sort of Dickensian wretch, shivering out in the snow, looking through the window at the happy people celebrating Christmas. Was the karmic retaliation to this snub the cause of Enron's downfall? Perhaps.

5 Years Ago: Thanksgiving 2000, this was the fall when I met my future wife, Denise. I spent Thanksgiving in Columbus with my parents and brother. The following few months would be some of the most important in my life as Denise and I started spending lots of time together.

1 Year Ago: Thanksgiving 2004 was in Clinton, Iowa, at my sister-in-law Carolyn's house. I remember Creighton, aged 7 1/2 months, doing pushups on the floor with his cousin Mark. Mark would lay on his stomach head-to-head with Creighton and push himself up with his arms, and Creighton would copy him and do the same thing, and he was laughing the whole time. I believe it was the first time Creighton ever copied someone else's actions. The dinner was great too.

Wednesday, November 23, 2005

Get Ready

This weekend should be eventful -- my parents are coming in to visit for Thanksgiving, and we will be installing the baseboards in the living room. My folks haven't seen Creighton for several months, so they are excited. It should be a lot of fun.

This morning there was snow falling and snow on the ground, so first thing after Creighton woke up we brought him down to look out the window. He stared all around for a while, then noticed a squirrel and then pointed out the snow-covered cars. Denise should be taking him out to play in the snow this morning, so he should have fun.

In other news, my new article has been posted to the dotnet developers journal website. I hope you enjoy it.

Friday, November 18, 2005

By Popular Demand: Twinkies!


Twinkie the Kid sez, "Check out The Twinkies Project for a scientific examination of twinkies!"

They even have the results of the experiments in haiku form.

This is what makes the web great.

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

By Popular Demand


By popular demand, here is a picture of the boy.

Friday, November 04, 2005

Optical Illusion

http://www.patmedia.net/marklevinson/cool/cool_illusion.html

Wednesday, November 02, 2005

Archives: The Squatter

I have decided to run a real blog now. Up to this point, I have been a squatter, blogging in the comments section of Blogging with Maier, but Mr. Maier started a new blog and I figured it was time to move on. So what follows is the history of my blogging posts.


At 11:56 AM, Guy said…
I have decided to use this forum as my personal blog.This past weekend was good -- Creighton is learning some new signs, "ball" for one. He is also enjoying playing hide-and-seek, although he is much more into seeking than hiding, and you have to make noise and poke your head out of your hiding place for him to have much of a chance -- still, it's a step in the right direction.Kleo the cat is getting more brave with him, too -- she didn't hide instantly this weekend, just waited until he lurched toward her.More tomorrow.

At 3:58 PM, John said…
Good post Guy!Let's face it, little kids suck at hiding.J. Go

At 4:05 PM, John said…
While we are waiting for Maier, here is a joke.A three legged dog walks into a bar, and says,"I'm looking for the man who shot my paw."

At 11:58 AM, Guy said…
Good one, John.Well, this morning I was supposed to get up and run -- but just like last week, I turned off the alarm and went back to sleep. I am weak. I really need to sign up for a 5k to get myself motivated. There's one over Labor Day weekend in Buffalo Grove that I think I will do.Cool software alert: check out feedreader (www.feedreader.com). It's an RSS reader that is open source, and is pretty nice. Unfortunately "Blogging with Maier" is not RSS-enabled (as far as I can see), so you won't be able to get my Blog using it, but it is great for tech blogs.

At 11:46 AM, Guy said…
Not much to post today; Creighton was trying to sign along with the "Signing Time" theme song last night, it was really cute how hard he was trying to keep up with it.He is now inventing his own signs, which of course we can't interpret. This morning right after he got up he was wandering around his room and you could see him get an idea, then he put his hand up by his ear and waggled it -- he was really trying to tell us something, but we don't know what it is.It's great that he is getting into communication so much. Check out http://www.signingtime.com to read about Creighton's favorite video.

At 11:51 AM, Guy said…
8/11/05Last night was a tough one -- Creighton is sick, it looks like he caught some sort of chest cold, so he was coughing and mopey yesterday. He went to bed early.Denise's allergies are acting up, so that combined with Creighton coughing kept us awake a good part of the night.So when Creighton got up, Denise slept in and we got to play for a while. He is currently obsessed with putting things in their correct place, so we dumped out his block/books (books that are also blocks) and he put them back in their holder, several times. It's nice, because it keeps him busy and happy and I was able to get a little shut-eye.Hopefully the family will be feeling better soon.

At 11:18 PM, John said…
Creighton is a good kid.Allergies suck.But for some reason I think it's odd that a farm gal has allergies and hates vegetables.Oh well.

At 11:19 PM, John said…
PS: I like your blog, Guy.

At 12:08 PM, Guy said…
Monday, August 15The ides of August -- I have a big deadline today (more details later). Hopefully everything will work out for the best.Everybody was sick over the weekend, so we tried to take it easy. We are working on clearing out Creighton's new bedroom (currently the hobby room) in order to get him moved before number 2 gets here. Creighton had a cough, but like a little kid he recovered before either of us did.My car stereo is acting strangely lately, not turning on, making screeching noises, and fluctuating volume -- over the weekend I discovered a new quirk. Sometimes, if it won't turn on, if you turn on the headlights of the car it will come on. Turning the headlights back off does not seem to affect it in any way.

At 4:23 PM, John said…
Hi Guy,A few comments:- Is your car acting weird because I broke that thing? If so, apologies.- I was a bit sick too. It is going around.- Have you noticed every time you go to Maier's blog the guy in the green suit looks older? It is creepy.- I was going to say a fourth thing, but I forgot what it was.

At 3:19 PM, Guy said…
Tuesday, 8/16/05No, John, my car radio acting strangely is not related to you breaking that thing.To catch up my other readers on the story, one night a number of years ago I was over at John's house, and some down-on-their-luck fellows rang the doorbell asking if someone could jump their car.John and I went out, and, their car being close to mine, I pulled around and popped the hood. The problem was, my car was new to me, and it was dark outside, and none of us could see where the battery was.John took initiative, and, reaching under the hood, grabbed ahold of something and pulled on it, and it broke. I put it back where it came from, and it is still there to this day, and although it rattles occasionally, it doesn't appear to be causing any problems.The fellows never did get their car jumpstarted, and I have since found my battery (it's under a cover that is poorly marked and invisible in the dark).There's a legend that those young men are still wandering around Wheaton on dark nights, casting about for an honest man to jumpstart their car, an honest man who knows where his battery lies.

At 1:28 PM, Guy said…
For further blogging, please seehttp://blog.360.yahoo.com/gorgias32

At 12:24 PM, Guy said…
Never mind about my last post; the other blog is too hard to set up, so I will continue blogging here, at least until Mark figures out what I am doing and makes another post.Last weekend (Labor Day) was fairly eventful; I went to the OU/Northwestern game with JGo, which was fun, except if you wanted OU to win. They lost the game 38-14.It was a gorgeous day and I had a footlong polish sausage with saurkraut, which was quite good. I also walked back to my car (free parking!) from the stadium, and Evanston and the NW campus are beautiful and interesting.The other big project this weekend involved us poking holes in Creighton's pacifiers, to wean him off of them. Let me just say, this really pissed him off. He was MAD. He's gotten better now, but he still cries a bit when he goes to bed.

At 9:13 PM, Mark said…
Cut me some slack. I've been preparing the house for the boys.And I've been working on my new blog site...to be announced soon.

At 10:27 AM, John said…
Yes, that was a hell of a hotdog.And there was a gentleman next to us that REALLY wanted to make a bawdy, phallic-related joke about it.His joke was not that humorous, and yet he repeated it 3 times, believing his friends didn't actually hear the joke.If you are curious, he said "That's a hot dog on Viagra".Which is kind of funny, but not really a laugh-out-loud kind of funny.PS: Maier's new blogsite????

At 12:07 PM, Guy said…
I hope that Mark has a comments section on his new blogsite. Otherwise I may need to really get my own.JGo is correct, the guy next to us at the game was making the guy sitting in front of us really uncomfortable with his joke. He basically brow-beat the large fellow into turning around and acknowledging the size and tubularity of my lunch.In other news, I accidentally woke Creighton up this morning by inadvertently slamming the bathroom door when I went in for my shower.

At 12:41 PM, Guy said…
I called up Rowdy last night and had a nice talk with him. Since we last spoke (I think right before my wedding), he has developed a cadence of speech and subtle accent that resembles this man. With the additional resemblance fostered by Rowdy's beard, I am starting to think that he is a true protege.

At 11:59 AM, Guy said…
Creighton has three words now, "Mama", "Dada", and "Ball". These are, of course, the three most important things in his live right now.He also LOVES books. The other night I let him take a book to bed with him, and he threw it out of his bed, then got really upset because he wanted it back. Now we have to put all the books out of sight before we put him to bed.Last night I decided to talk to the new baby (still in utero) and Denise mentioned that number two is already getting a lot less attention than Creighton did. I mean, I talked to Creighton in the womb all the time, but last night was the first time for number two.I then said to Denise's belly, "The next time I speak to you will be at your college graduation. And all I'll say is, 'good job, kid'."

At 5:22 PM, John said…
That is exactly like my dad.Then a couple years later we were at the Berghoff and he expressed how he thought you were Chinese.Oh, the circle of life!

At 1:10 PM, Guy said…
Sorry for the lapse in posts, it's crunch time at work and I'm trying to finish up writing a second article as well. It was a busy weekend -- we went out to Lena to the Creighton family reunion. It was at Uncle Norm's farm, which was pretty, and though it rained it was clear enough for a good time to be had by all.Norm had a hog brought in and BBQ'ed -- that is, cooked for 12 hours in a smoker. It was very good indeed.Creighton is working on some new words, including "baby", "bee", and "Night-night". He has said all of these (or something close) once or twice, but not consistently.Good website alert: ninjas!

At 5:20 PM, Rowdy Theologian said…
What a great Ninja site! It's about time someone posted step-by-step instructions for seppuku, complete with a demonstration....wow.

At 2:08 PM, Guy said…
Big weekend -- we took off for the Northwest corner of the state on Saturday morning, and dropped Creighton off at uncle John's house. We then went to Galena, stayed at a nice b&b, and ate dinner at Timmerman's Supper Club. It's a very retro place in East Dubuque - while we were waiting at the bar for our table, a guy came out an got up on stage who was dressed just like 70s Waylon Jennings - cowboy hat, sideburns, and big gold Elvis sunglasses. He put on a tape and started playing guitar and singing 70s soft rock hits along with the tape. It was awesome.Back in Lena, uncle John only had to watch Creighton for about an hour, but during that hour Creighton got into a cabinet and pulled out a marker, and drew a line on his own face as uncle John napped on the couch. The line washed off.

At 12:56 PM, Guy said…
Does anybody know what's going on with Maier? Are the Twins here yet?Another note from Lena -- uncle John got his wind farm approved. He's going to be putting up a bunch of windmills on his farmland, and will sell the electricity to ComEd. So if you live in Illinois, and you plan to use electricity in the future, some portion of it is likely coming from Lena windmills!


At 11:14 AM, Guy said…
10/17/05I won't break the story here, but Mark has some news. Keep an eye on his other blog for details in the very near future.The White Sox are looking pretty good going into the series -- but as a devotee of Rob Neyer and Bill James, I am wondering how wise it was to have all four of your starters throw complete games in the ALCS. I can see doing it in the world series, but you don't want four sore arms going into the games that REALLY count.That said, I'm not really worried about Buehrle and Contreras -- they are well known for being war-horses. I can say, though, that if the starting pitching falls apart in the world series, Ozzie Guillen will have a lot of explaining to do.I'm definitely excited about a Chicago world series, and this White Sox team reflects the fact that it is managed by a shortstop -- they are, just like Anaheim, an NL-style team playing in the AL, and with the recent "de-juicing" of the ball, this style has payed off in a big way.

At 4:58 PM, Guy said…
I read a funny article by Bill Simmons at ESPN.com which defined the "decathlon for pseudo-sports -- pool, shuffleboard, wiffleball, Monopoly, stickball, HORSE, ping-pong, miniature golf, bowling, darts and croquet"That's a pretty good list.

At 4:19 PM, Guy said…
A good quote:"Every time that I have ever tried to help a woman out, I have been incarcerated."-- Jose Canseco on "The Surreal Life"

At 4:40 PM, Rowdy Theologian said…
Speaking of baseball, the wife and I are going to see Cabin Boy this Sunday. Wish you could join us....

At 11:56 AM, Guy said…
I'm looking forward to introducing Creighton to the classic dumb movies. Some of my favorites:1) Cabin Boy -- "I'm giving him foot pain!"2) Big Trouble in Little China -- Kurt Russell does a one-dimensional badass Elvis impression throughout the whole movie, and the slutty chick from "Sex in the City" plays a Chinese woman. True story.3) Major Payne -- another one-dimensional performance and somehow the movie just works.

At 10:28 PM, Rowdy Theologian said…
Now that you mentioned Creighton, please keep him away from my blog. My last post (Shock and Awe) was quite naughty and might confuse the young lad. In fact, I would suggest keeping him away from any webpage discussing a "Treasure Hunting in the Arctic One More Time" kind of pleasure.Also, if you have any idea where that phrase originated from, please let me know.

At 12:22 PM, Guy said…
I believe the phrase, "Treasure hunting in the arctic one more time" comes from Ovid's Metamorphoses. If you know what I mean.

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?