Geek At Play

The Red Serpent

2010-03-25T23:08:00.000-07:00

I watched the first episode of Spartacus - Blood and Sand this evening as I ran 3 miles. Though I'm not a fan of gore, the show frames violence in an artistic manner. I probably don't do it justice, but it's an attempt. Not sure if it's worth your time but I recorded a video of this illustrations creation. Let me know if you'd like me to post it.

Painting on my iPhone

2010-01-26T13:55:00.000-08:00

My wife and I were trapped in a doctors office this weekend. I took the opportunity to really give finger painting on the iPhone a shot. Here's the result.

Amazon's crack effort to retain Kindle customers before Apple iTablet announcement?

2010-01-22T07:10:00.000-08:00

So this morning I received a notice about a warranty replacement for my Kindle if it's developed cracks because of the Amazon Kindle Leather Cover I purchased to protect it, almost a year ago. Cracks it has indeed.

I have to wonder if the timing of this has anything to do with the Apple announcement to be made this Tuesday. That makes the most sense to me. Apple is supposed to reveal some form of "tablet". I intuit, that Amazon doesn't want to lose their current kindle customers, so they may be removing any excuse we have to jump ship, even at the expense of providing a new device. The customer support rep I spoke to at Amazon, volunteered to overnight the new kindle free of charge. Wow, that's customer service. You've got to appreciate that.

But I think the real game is all about the money I'll continue to spend purchasing books at Amazon for my Kindle. It might be to late for that though. Of late, I haven't been using my Kindle all that much and read most of my books on the iPhone while I'm on the go.

I really appreciate Amazon's willingness to get me a replacement Kindle, so that it's resale value will be higher when I move to the Apple tablet. ;) Does that make me a bad person?

Starting a comic strip / book

2010-01-20T07:20:00.000-08:00

Ethan (our main character):

scruffy kid in his early teens. Dirty blond hair, fond of wearing jeans and logo-less T-shirts. Often has a backpack with him, and slouchs a bit -- mostly because he has started to grow and isn't used to seeing the world from that height. Scruffy hair, occaisional dirt but not due to neglect but more from being a boy.

Boxing with my Boys

2010-01-01T11:10:00.000-08:00

All of them are quick learners. Everyone's fine and no injuries other than the oldest got a small bloody nose and nearly gave me one. :) The pictures are after the fact.

More Gorillaz Studies

2009-12-12T20:12:00.000-08:00

This time with a little color. I really like the style but I need lots of practice. My faces are longer than they should be.

Studying Gorillaz style

2009-12-09T20:40:00.000-08:00

Daily Sketch #4

2009-09-14T07:01:00.001-07:00

Well, I missed a couple days because I was spending my time recovering from the WordPress hack for a couple customers. Here's the sketches I did on Friday. Playing with style a bit. Which style is your favorite?

Daily Sketch #3

2009-09-09T23:51:00.000-07:00

Today I was reading Tai Pan by James Clavell (which I highly recommend) and the sentence "He was a small, sparrow-like man, his musket taller than himself." put this picture in my head.

Daily Sketch #2

2009-09-08T23:04:00.001-07:00

I don't even know where to begin on this one. It's an Axolotl. This is one of my really bad sketches... er well, most of them are bad. I'm making a lot of mistake while learning to use painter. I'm sure eventually these will improve.

Daily Sketch #1

2009-09-07T20:09:00.000-07:00

Alright. I've said time and again I'm going to do this. But now, "I really am". Inspired by Mel Milton, one of the guys I work with at Disney, and my biz partner Vladimir Chopine, I'm going to start doing A sketch a day.

Daily sketch #1 is an Angora Rabbit. Weird creature #2. Let me know if you have suggestions about what I should draw next.

Rusty Bottom Robots are coming

2009-09-05T15:40:00.000-07:00

Vlad want's to create a animated short about robot pirates. I'm trying to come up with some character designs... ugghh. ;)

Life drawing and the start of the Weird animal series

2009-08-28T20:30:00.000-07:00

Okay, so after 3-4 weeks off, I went back to the life drawing class. Here's my efforts today. I only had an hour and did 3 quick gestures before this. Pathetic, but practice none the less... :)

So a couple months back, my nephew sent me an email with all these weird animal pictures. I thought it might help my character development skill to create sketches of all these animals. I started with the Alpaca.

Sketching with a pen

2009-08-13T06:10:00.000-07:00

These are sketches based on sketches from J Scott Campbell's Shades of Grey sketchbook. Done in pen while I was waiting for DGamer to build. :)

What's next Purina?

2009-08-01T15:28:00.001-07:00

So, I was looking for information on securing horses while we're up camping in the back country and saw this photograph in an ad for Purina Horse Chow (aka, Purina Equine Senior).

At first I laughed and thought, "that's so cute."

But upon further examination, I responded with horror as I realized the horse was actually eating the man, starting with his ear! Purina Horse Chow (aka, Soylant Green) is made of people!

Coraline

2009-07-30T22:55:00.000-07:00

Sat down to watch Coraline with the kids. I think it was a little too scary for my 2 & 5 year old. I really enjoyed it though. Did some sketches along the way. I should probably do this any time I watch a movie or TV. Really works the art muscles. :)

New painting start

2009-07-29T13:32:00.000-07:00

This is a painting inspired by my friend Mark Harwood. It is based on his response to me taking a vacation on a mountain top next week. It's still probably too early for you to really call art, but I thought I'd post it anyway.

I'm done with painting... for better or worse

2009-07-28T12:58:00.000-07:00

I can't bring myself to work on this painting any more. Let me know which one you like best.

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Rough-in for my first epic landscape

2009-07-28T07:30:00.000-07:00

We're going to create a new epic landscape tutorial DVD at GeekAtPlay.com. I'll be one of the creators for this DVD (if my stuff is good enough). Here's the 20 minute rough in for my first scene.

Carving out a road

2009-07-28T06:25:00.000-07:00

So this 3D project took me way too long and doesn't look very good, but I'll post it anyway. The important thing here I guess is progress. The tutorial I was using is #53 Real Road from GeekAtPlay.com. I learned a lot more about the function editor and layering in materials. I don't quite yet have it down. My cat tails are all over the map when they're only supposed to appear in neat little ditches along the road side. Got to stop somewhere though I guess.

Model with an Arm splint

2009-07-26T10:03:00.000-07:00

Our figure drawing model from yesterday had her arm in a splint. That was an interesting change. I'd like to draw more clothed and costumed models. Any volunteers?

Close-ups in Vue

2009-07-24T06:39:00.000-07:00

My last Vue scene was a study in creating shots with the camera very close to the ground. The tutorial I was using for this scene is #52. Note that towards the end of the tutorial, I started experimenting with ecosystems and pretty much screwed up the shot I set out to create, but hey, I learned a lot. :)

I love video driver issues.

2009-07-22T21:58:00.000-07:00

Looks like it's time to install the Omega Drivers on this box. Why do ATI's own drivers have to suck so badly?

Vue of a desert

2009-07-22T08:26:00.000-07:00

Here's my first desert landscape. I think I'll try another with harder shadows. Probably earlier in the morning.

Today's lunch painting

2009-07-21T13:19:00.000-07:00

I spent most of lunch exploring painters brushes and paper textures. Then the last 15 minutes adding to the hay bales.

A Vue a Day - Restarted.

2009-07-21T06:56:00.001-07:00

Okay, so here is last evenings efforts. I've yet a lot to learn. Hopefully Vlad will critique this. I started with snow-capped mountains but that just didn't look right.

Painter Competition day 2

2009-07-20T12:35:00.000-07:00

Got my keys mapped out better in painter. Here's day 2. At this pace, I'll only need 10,000 days. ;)

Meetup Sketches

2009-07-20T07:19:00.000-07:00

These are drawings from the figure drawing meetup group I attend. All are graphite pencil drawings.

Painter Magazine has a competition

2009-07-17T13:47:00.000-07:00

Today at lunch I decided to try something new. I'm going to enter the Painter Magazine competition. The short of it is that they provide 9 images. You have to make a painting that includes at least part of one of the 9 images. I'm going to try and paint at least 9 paintings for entry. Here's my first step. Right now it looks really rough and crappy, but I'll be posting additional images of this painting as it gets closer to completion. Don't judge me until I say it's done. :P

Fujikawa: Jun-ichi

2009-07-16T12:48:00.000-07:00

This was a sketch I did based on an ad in Painter Magazine.

A Vue a Day

2009-07-15T06:19:00.000-07:00

On Monday my partner from GeekAtPlay.com challenged me to start creating a Vue scene each day. Here's yesterdays experimentation with creating realistic terrains and color distribution. Check out the tutorial I used to create it here.

Gen 13 - Get it, Read it... admire the art.

2009-07-15T05:50:00.000-07:00

I started collecting comics late in life, age 19, and one of the first I collected was Gen 13. It debut the artwork of J Scott Campbell and is probably my favorite comic for art, excepting Danger Girl, which is also drawn by J. As part of my 10,000 drawings goal, I thought I would start doing copy work from the Gen 13 series. Last night's drawing comes from one of the covers (there were 13 of them) for Gen 13 #1 (not the original 4-part mini-series).

10,000 Drawings! On your mark... get set... draw...

2009-07-14T13:01:00.000-07:00

I decided last night that if I can do about 10,000 illustrations I might finally get to the point that I can draw pretty good. I started numbering them today. Here's some more copy work from sketches done by J Scott Campbell.

J Scott Campbell Borat

2009-07-13T13:03:00.001-07:00

Here's my daily lunch time sketch. This time I was copying one of my favorite artists J Scott Campbell.

GeekAtPlay T-Shirt designs

2009-07-12T10:24:00.001-07:00

Vlad wanted me to create a t-shirt for GeekAtPlay.com to distribute at Siggraph 2009 during the first week of August. He had some very specific requirements, so don't judge me based on the slogans or the content. Personally I'm ready to scrap the whole endeavor. Please comment and tell me which one you like most. None of the above and your suggestion is an acceptable comment.

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T-Shirts and Logos

2009-07-12T10:16:00.000-07:00

So last week, my daughters posse needed a new logo for their group and my wife energetically volunteered my time. Yeah, ME! The girls really liked it. The design will be embroidered on the back of their riding vests. Here's what I came up with.

Figure drawing with Charcoal... blech...

2009-07-12T10:11:00.003-07:00

I tried using charcoal on Saturday at my figure drawing class. I have a long way to go before I become proficient with this medium... or drawing in general. Anyhoo here's the work.

Starting a tradition. Lunch time sketches.

2009-07-10T12:10:00.000-07:00

A couple days back, a friend in the IT department here at Disney had an extra Wacom Tablet lying around, unused and gave it to me.

I've decided if I'm every going to become really good at drawing, I need to draw a lot more, so today I hope to start a long standing tradition of lunch time sketches. For the first little while, I'll just be copying other peoples drawings...

Most of my lunch today was spent setting up the tablet and getting used to the pressure sensitivity. Today's sketches come from the AnimationMentor.com Course Catalog.

The pain is sweet.

2009-06-21T06:59:00.000-07:00

Health

So, I lifted weights for the first time in three months again on Friday. I hit it harder than I probably have in two years. I subscribe to the Mike Mentzer method (synopsis here). I hit my chest and triceps really hard. It only took 10 minutes. And two days later I can barely move. Ouch. It's a good kind of ouch though.

Art

I've been illustrating an painting a lot more lately. This week I did figure drawing 4 days for a total of 8 hours practice. I think I'm getting a little better. I'll post some pictures so you can be the judge. The last one I'm posting is using NuPastel. I picked up the medium yesterday morning on a recommendation from Brian at work. It's a lot easier to work with than charcoal, but it still takes some getting used too. I like the colors better than straight pastel.

I also picked up Corel Painter 11 on Friday. I need to start using my Cintque more. My goal is once a day. We'll see how far I get. I should start posting that art here as well.

Biggest Loser

There's only a week and a couple days left in the biggest loser contest. I'm still ahead of everyone even though I gained a pound and a half the previous last week. I'm down by a pound so far this week. I finally broke 180 and I'm sitting at 179.4 lbs. I need to kick it up a notch this week, with at least an hour of aerobic exercise every day. Don't want anyone to sneak up from behind and beat me. :)

Lastly

Today is Fathers Day. Amy and the kids are working real hard to make it a great day, and I suppose it is, but I'm not feeling like a very good father. I need to do more with my children.

I started with a more earnest effort this last week. I took Alexus to here summer college classes Monday through Thursday. I was surprised on Wednesday morning to find out that she hadn't been able to do any of the Photoshop tutorials because the computer she had been working on was messed up. I spent about a half an hour with her and went through three lab computers before finding one that worked. She also hadn't had any headphones for listening to the video tutorials. I really need to teach her to ask questions more often. She literally wasted two days. I found out on Thursday that two of her homeschooling girl-friends were having similar problems and so I helped them get set up. What kind of culture are we living in where children are afraid to ask questions at school? This needs to change.

I also started trying to do a nightly physics experiment with the kids. This week we only did two nights. The first experiment was the magic utensils (see below).

The second was testing the power of atmospheric pressure by crushing a can filled with steam.

Need to start keeping a private Journal

2009-06-03T08:03:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago I finished Benjamin Franklin's auto-biography and I started John Adams, Volume 1, by David McCullough this week. Both are great books and they've made me realize that I should really start recording my personal thoughts and opinions somewhere. What better place than a blog. :) I've set up another version of this blog for items that are completely private. I hope to make a record in each, every day. To that end I'll start by catching you up on my doings lately.

Learning German

About a month ago, the same time I started reading Franklin, I decided that I really want to be fluent in 3 to 4 different languages and started practicing German about a half hour every weekday. Why German? Well, I lived in Germany as a youth, for around 5 years and then took German in High School. I have a sister-in-law and brother-in-law who speak German. My parents do as well, although I'm not sure how fluently. GeekAtPlay.com affords me the opportunity to converse with many of our German customers as well. :) My goal is to be completely fluent, within a year. I will accomplish this through:

Continued 30 to 60 minute sessions each week day.
Readings once a day.
Corresponding with German customers in German.
Once my proficiency is a little more (probably 60 days) Amy and I will have one day a week where we only converse in German.
Netflix! Renting German films. :)

Loving My Kindle 2

Amy purchased a Kindle 2 for my birthday. I have to say it's one of the best presents ever. My eyes get very tired from all the reading I do online and this is just the ticket. Currently I'm reading:

John Adams, Volume 1 by David McCullough
Approaching Zero, by Paul Mungo
Professional Assembly Language, by Richard Blum

If you don't already have one, I highly recommend the purchase. You can download scads of free classics and public domain works at:

http://www.manybooks.net/

I like it so much in fact that I will probably purchase a Kindle DX in the next 60 days.

Back at Hap Kwon Do

I've started seriously training again. I'm going to the Studio twice a week now and try to get in 2 or 3 mornings a week sparring with Roark. I'm concerned though. My body at this age, is giving me much more pain than it used to. It seems like I hurt myself at least once every two weeks. But, I'm getting stronger and hopefully soon I can leave these aches behind.

Biggest Loser

At the beginning of April Disney, Salt Lake City, (my current employer) started the annual Biggest Loser contest. We've got 4 more weeks to go and I'm winning. :) My strategy has been a combination of the Atkins diet and a lot of exercise. So far I've lost around 30 lbs. I started at 213, my heaviest weight ever. I want to get down to 156 lbs.

Disney's Performance Connection

2008-12-26T13:50:00.000-08:00

The last couple days I’ve been thinking about and entering my personal Business and Developmental Objectives for the next 3 months. This is what Disney calls it’s Performance Connection . Basically every employee creates three Business and Development objectives for themselves. These should pertain to the individuals personal responsibilities and job descriptions. Each objective should engender an action with a specific focus, containing a quantity metric as well as a quality metric, and be time sensitive. All things I've discussed previously and wanted to accomplish with the Game-of-Work.

These objectives are then used during the employee review process to determine whether the individual is succeeding or failing at their job. Going through this process has helped me become super focused and I should have done this sooner.

Here’s an example of my business and development objectives:

BUSINESS OBJECTIVES

Develop a smooth, quick workflow for producing DGamer title integration builds, with a one day turn-around and improved third-party confidence, by the end of March 2009.
- What tools can I use to improve the workflow?
  - Are there systems for asset submission?
  - Versioning for integration specification?
  - Can I create tests to prove asset integration success?
  - Are there currently any progress indicators for third-party integrators?
- How will we measure the quality indicator, ie, improved third-party confidence? Perhaps a survey to get a measure of current confidence. Followed by a survey for improved confidence?
- I believe this is realistic, but need to check with Jeff.

Improve DGamer code documentation by 50%, providing a clear picture of what's happening in the code, by the end of March 2009.
- How should this be measured? Is there a continuous integration server I can setup to generate documentation and testing statistics per Perforce check-ins? Yes. Find the right integration server software.
- Need to create some flow-charts to visualize the inner workings and cooperation of the different overlays.
- Speak to Dan about the best place to set up a server for continuous integration.
- Set up a FallLine local instance of the DxD server for testing and communications mapping.
- I've already spoken with Joe about accomplishing this through Doxygen documentation. Get Jeff's buy-off.

Introduce at least three good ideas for improving DGamer functionality and user addiction by the end of March 2009.
- Currently, from speaking to Mike and Jeff, it feels like DGamer is dying. I would think it should be thriving. From watching my tween daughter (age 12) and her friends playing games like Pony Island, Neo-Pets, Virtual Villagers and other role-playing games to the great success of the social-networking phenomenon, there should be a huge market space for DGamer to fill. Teenagers and young adults have MySpace. Adults have Facebook, Linked-In, etc. Tweeners and younger children have what?
- Find out statistics on current DGamer usage.
- Why isn't it used more? From my own experience, using the online DGamer Web site is a very slow experience. Can I help speed that up? Will I have access to the flash source when I am given access to the CVS repo for DxD? Am I over-stepping my bounds?
- Interview my daughter and sons... what do they get out of DGamer? What do they want?

DEVELOPMENT OBJECTIVES

Improve my understanding of Disney's DS and Wii product lines, by playing at least 5 hours a week and recording observations of game play on my public blog weekly to be evaluated by the end of March 2009.
- Need to create a schedule to ensure I meet the weekly game-play goal.
- Need to create a reminder to ensure that I blog my play experience.
- Solicit and review feedback from my weekly game play critiques.

Increase my knowledge of Disney's core DS software development platforms by reading all available documentation on DGamer, NOX engine and the official Nintendo DS SDK documents by the end of March 2009. I will spend at least one hour per day perusing these documents and record my progress on my public blog.
- I should schedule a time of the day for accomplishing the one-hour-a-day goal.
- Create a reminder daily for recording my thoughts on what I have read.
- Make sure that I don't disclose confidential material in my public blog posts.
- Evaluate the depth and breadth of documentation and create a reading schedule to ensure that a cover all documents by the end of the allotted period.

Building relationships with every co-workers at Fall Line and relevant third-party developers by introducing myself to one new individual each work day and getting to know, if only briefly, each person by the end of March 2009.

I don’t know whether this performance system is a Disney specific internal software or whether they use an external ASP, but the specifics of the program are well described at About.com.

Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008

2008-09-04T09:16:00.000-07:00

Just got back from the Rally for the Republic where we discussed and learned about all kinds of economic and political problems our country is facing.

On the way in the house I unloaded my mail box to discover that I'd received and "urgent" notice from my Federal government. It was regarding the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008. I qualify. Is this a happy thing? Hell no. I make over 6 figures a year and the government want's to do the following for me and 400,000 other Americans.

- raising the loan limits to 150% of the conforming loan limit
- must have a mortgage debt to income ratio greater than 31 percent as of March 1, 2008
- It's a federal program so my credit score doesn't affect my qualification
- They've set aside a measly $300 billion for this program.
- I can receive a 10% discount on my new home purchase.

Isn't our Federal Government great?!

The only question I have is "Since we're operating at a deficit, and taxes are not being raised, where is the money coming from?" The link below gives a round about answer that roughly translates into "the reserve banks will create it out of thin air..."

http://tinyurl.com/6jn5ub

I welcome your input. :)

Bristle Bot from evilmadscientist.com

2008-06-16T19:59:00.000-07:00

Found this cool tutorial for making a mini-vibrobot and decided to make it with the kids. The kids dressed it up with the pom-pom and the googly-eyes. :)

I'm going to try to start doing more of these with the kids. Don't want to jinx myself but I think I can find one a day. I'll link to them from here.

How much force should police be allowed to use?

2007-11-25T09:59:00.000-08:00

About 12 years ago, I personally was the victim of "officer road rage" and don't ever want anyone else to have to experience this. I was traveling 65 MPH in the fast lane when I was pulled over. The officer started the confrontation by yelling at me through my open window, accusing me of being on drugs. After running my plates and checking my license and insurance, he had me get out of the car, and yelled at me, face to face for two or three minutes, telling me he was going to take me down town and have me drug tested. The closest thing I can compare it to is the typical hollywood drill sergeant. I kept insisting I wasn't on drugs and the only thing I was potentially guilty of was not moving over when other speeders wanted to pass.

The confrontation ended by the officer forcing me to get into his cruiser and driving me to my home, inconveniencing me and costing me another hour to retrieve my car.

He never filed any charges and didn't take me "down town" for drug testing. I didn't even get a ticket.

The experience scared me quite badly and left me shaken. I was so intimidated I never asked for a badge number or name. I'm just grateful this officer did not have a "non-lethal" taser to assault me with.

Now, I'm sure this is, in general, an isolated incident.

I can certainly see some of your points of view. Having a husband, wife or other family member that is a cop certainly ups the ante for you when it comes to officer safety.

But, having watched this video three or four times, I can't arrive at any other conclusion than that this is a gross violation of civil rights and a bad bureaucratic system.

Let's clear up one thing that was stated in previous posts. If there's a video out there on youtube.com without sound, you should look for the version with sound, because it's available.

Two links to the story (both have sound):

The actual footage from the officers dash cam.

Interview on CNN with the Highway Patrol Rep and the victim.

The officer never explained how fast the gentleman was going. As far as I know, that has to be written on the ticket. Why would the officer not inform the guy of that? Every speeding ticket I've ever received, had the excess of posted speed limit and amount marked.

The officer never explained that signing the ticket "was not and admission of guilt". The officer never even told the gentleman he was under arrest before tasering him. He was just told to "turn around with your hands behind your back".

On the bureaucratic side, why is not signing a ticket an arrestable offense?

I have a question for the ladies who's husbands are police officers. Don't police officers have to inform the arrested of their rights anymore? Or, is reading the accused their rights just movie and television fluff? I'm not asking to be argumentative. I really want to know.

Also I've read that the "non-lethal" taser has killed more that 270 individuals in North America in the last 5 years. Granted, that figure doesn't take into account drug abusers that may have died as a result of their drugged state. An article put out by Wired Magazine suggests that a quarter of those deaths are attributed to the taser itself, but this is not substantiated, as autopsies are performed on less than half of the victims.

So, for me this boils down to, "Does a routine speeding ticket merit use of possibly-lethal force?" I think not.

I'd love to hear your input.

Are Home-Schoolers and Ron Paul Supporters Terrorists?

2007-11-23T12:57:00.000-08:00

I'm sitting in my bedroom office, the day after Thanks Giving enjoying the lovely morning, sun streaming through the blinds, joy in my heart. Catching up on my email, when I read the following about US House bill H-1955 which has recently passed. I decided to send this email to you because I think it's important for everyone to know about this bill.

http://www.opencongress.org/bill/110-h1955/show
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/11/20/1458214
http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3388/examining_the_homegrown_terrorism_prevention_act/

If that doesn't scare you and perhaps normally it wouldn't, I mean, who doesn't want to be protected against "extremist belief system(s) for the purpose of facilitating ideologically-based violence" against the general populace. But what, indeed, is considered an "extremist belief system" or "ideological". The bill sets up to provide a grant system to prevent this type of activity. Below are a couple links that make this bill particularly disturbing and personal to me and my family.

http://www.crossroad.to/articles2/04/homeschool-terrorism.htm

In the article, the author of the disaster simulation script said that the general idea for the type of group (a group of homeschooling radicals labeled "Wackos Against Schools and Education"), came from the website of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, which suggests group names such as "Wackos Against Recreation" and other such "causes."

I've heard and read many negative things about FEMA but the following video clip from a FEMA training takes the cake.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPg9MdN9Gio

One might ask the question, "Is that really a FEMA training video? or just a propaganda video put out by an ant-FEMA group?" Good question, I've asked it myself.

More alarming, recently I've listened to my "trusted radio friend", Glen Beck, refer to Ron Paul contributers as possible terrorists and islamo-fascist type peoples. On another occasion I listened to him compare us to Timothy McVey.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Rc4OJWH1nE

If you are not alert to what is happening in this country, I sincerely urge you to become so.

You can start by researching recent executive orders at http://www.whitehouse.gov, the NAU (North American Union), the SPP (security and prosperity partnership), Homeland Security, FEMA, etc.

Some questions I have to ask myself recently are:

"Why doesn't the government want our borders secure? And amnesty for illegals?"
"If the guy who just served me lunch at McDonalds was able to sneak into this country illegally in the last year, and there are sophisticated terrorist cells with high technology requiring our involvement in IRAQ, why have we not seen any terrorist attacks here since 2001?"
"Why has the value of the US dollar decreased 30%, in the last 5 years, against a majority of other world currencies?"
"Why was the European Union created against the will of most Europeans? And could this be happening here with the NAU?"
"What can I do about these issues?"

I'd love to hear your input and thoughts.

Google Spider Goats? Is state-sponsored terror a reality?

2007-10-17T18:05:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm almost done reading The Bushes: Portrait of a Dynasty. It's blatantly partisan and has left me with more questions than anything. Especially the descriptions of George W., as a goof-off and jester and great slick speaker. There was nothing about Halliburton, which we hear so much about. It quickly glosses over the Nazi-support scandal, only briefly reviewing, Prescott Bush's involvement in companies he ran, whose assets were frozen for their supporting and funding of Nazi Germany. The coverage of George Senior's involvement in the CIA was very sparse as well, framed as an "in-between" job given to him by Nixon, while he was on his way to the Presidency. It covered senior Bush's stint at the United Nations, but didn't share much about his views on said government or the One World Order which I have seen and heard him commonly promote during his Presidency. I think I may have to read a book specifically on each, Prescott, George Senior and W. That's my review for now. I may have more to write when I've completed it tomorrow. I'll start reading "My Life" by Bill Clinton tomorrow.

On to the spider goats... er... what?! Well, my good friend Darren recommended a video called "Google Spider Goats". Some of it is not very professional and very blatantly propaganda, using pictures, music and words to create a decidedly scary experience surrounding the 911 incedent. But that said, it raises a lot of good questions and googling points. Here are a few that I will spend time researching:

Stock put options on united airlines days before.

Norad drills?

The project for a new america century report - rebuilding america's defenses c
alling for a new pearl harbor.

WTC 7 - building 7

Popular Mechanics is owned by the Hearst Corporation, Yellow Journalism

journalof911studies.com

halliburton

Carlyle Group

New World Order

Lastly, I'm more and more convinced that Ron Paul should be our next President. Take a minute if you haven't already to review his platform and decide for yourself. I believe he is the only candidate that will make a real positive change for our country. To the right you'll see my latest purchase supporting Ron's campaign. You can get them here.

Busy Day.

2007-10-08T21:36:00.000-07:00

It was a crazy busy day today. I got up at 3:50 AM. Got to work by 5:00 AM. Worked till 7:15 and then went running. My legs were feeling a little bit better today. Decided I'd take it easy on them and ran at Liberty Park. They've got a nice bark covered running track that's less impact. See my results below:

Only ran for 16 minutes. Got back to work around 8:00 AM. Worked on cleaning up our javascript code in esuite until noon and then had a lunch appointment with some old friends. That went really long and I didn't get back to work until 3:00 PM.

From there time flew and before I knew it, 6:00 PM had come and passed. Stopped by the Hospital to see my brother and his new-born daughter at 7:00 PM and dropped off a gift from Nando to Kory, my car-pool buddy, for his new baby girl.

Finally arriving home at 8:15 PM, I had a quick dinner and family home evening with the Kids and Amy. Tucked the kids in at 9:00 PM and spent the next hour reviewing Stock Option paper work from iCentris and Paperwork for our land purchase in Hawaii.

I'm tired now, but I need to put a couple hours into GeekAtPlay.com before I hit the sack, so I'll bid you adieu till later.

Is Alex Jones Crazy? ... or Right?

2007-10-02T18:51:00.000-07:00

I've started listening to a new podcast based on a recommendation from a co-worker that I really respect as being highly intelligent. I qualify that, because some might listen to the Alex Jones podcast and think that the guy has just stepped out of his mind and off the deep end. I tend to find myself thinking the same thing. At the same time though some of his extreme allegations begin to make sense and paint a believable, albeit incredible, conspiracy by the US government against the American people.

Those who know me know that I'm a pretty trusting guy. Some would even say gullible. But I do my research too. I'm going to test some of Alex Jones allegations. To start my quest, I just purchased two books. The first is titled "The Bushes" by Peter Schweizer and Rochelle Schweizer. Researching the author, I expect the book to take a pro-Bush slant. The second book, "My Life", an auto-biography by Bill Clinton, I imagine will take a pro-Clinton stance. I choose to start my research by reading knowingly biased viewpoints in order to better frame the accusations placed against these leaders by Alex Jones. I'll report back what I find.

After reading these, I will attempt to find books that tender a more neutral view point.

Your recommendations are welcome.

Knees a little soar

2007-10-02T17:57:00.000-07:00

I walked up hill for about a mile today and then ran down. Might have been a mistake. My knees are really soar. But my left femur that was feeling a little broken isn't feeling as bad today. Anyhoo, see my results to the left.

Who needs a truck?!

2007-09-30T09:41:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was interesting.

A couple days prior my daughter purchased a goat. She had the money for it and she's pretty responsible so I figured, "Why not?" Yesterday, I found I could give you a good reason.

Alexus named the goat Savannah. She walks the goat around like a dog. It's pretty cute. That morning I found her on our front steps leading the goat with a leash, really adorable. But there was a problem. The goat was very cold and shivering, a lot.

There's been a cold snap the last week and it was especially frigid yesterday. It started snowing soon after the porch incident. To make a short story long, the goat needs a shelter for the winter.

I stopped by the local farm store, Dallas Greens, to see if they had a suitable option for Savannah's home. Turns out they did, an all weather, calf housing. So I purchased it with plans to come back later and pick it up.

When I returned home to get the van, I discovered that the battery was dead. Nuts. The farm store would be closing soon and I wasn't about to have the goat rooming in my basement or garage. So I did what any independent American would do, I improvised. ;) The pictures below tell the rest of the story:

Winded and getting ill

2007-09-26T16:00:00.000-07:00

This has been a good week, but I'm getting ill.

My Monday began at 4:00 AM. I woke a little early to put the finishing touches on HydraLawn.com. I usually like to go in to work early to avoid the traffic and left here at 5. Work was pretty un-eventful. I went straight from work to Hap Kwon Do class. Fairly easy workout but my legs were still soar from the race on Saturday.

When I got home, I decided I would start learning how to use Hexagon, an inexpensive 3D modeling program. I spent most of the night and early morning hours reading documentation and creating a portion of my first model, finally wrapping up to take a shower and leave for work at 4:45 AM Tuesday morning.

Spent most of my work day debugging some critical issues we are experiencing with DWR and Internet Explorer 6. Arriving home from work at about 4:30 PM, I attended Cub Scout Pack Meeting with my wife and son. Following that, I spent the rest of the evening debugging the same issues I had been working on at iCentris during the day. I finally laid down to sleep for the first time in 43 hours, at 11:00 PM.

Waking at 4:30 AM this morning, I discovered that my throat was a little soar. Nature's telling me to slow down I suppose. Well, I decided not to and went running.

I think that was a mistake. Upon completing my run, and throughout the rest of the day, the congestion in my nose and my throat has moved to my chest. Blaaah... I better go take some vitamin C. ;)

Editing Object/Event binding for Ajax callback functions

2007-09-24T13:08:00.000-07:00

There has been a little bit of discussion and some confusion about how to handle local variables for javascript callbacks when making ajax calls. A large part of this confusion is based on the way function pointers are passed in javascript. When you pass object1.functionX as a callback function to object2.ajaxCall("1", object1.functionX), functionX is actually injected into object2. When the callback is executed "this" now refers to object2. You essentially lose your context to "object1".

Luckily, prototype developers have created an easy way around this. Below is an example:


<html>
  <head>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="prototype.js"></script>
    <script type="text/javascript">
      function test() {
        var testClass1 = new SomeJSClass("test 1", "testResponse.html", 1);
            testClass1.ajaxCall();

        var testClass2 = new SomeJSClass("test 2", "testResponse.html", 2);
            testClass2.ajaxCall();

        var testClass3 = new SomeJSClass("test 3", "testResponse.html", 3);
            testClass3.ajaxCall();
      }

      var SomeJSClass = Class.create();
      SomeJSClass.prototype = {
        initialize: function(instanceName, url, myVarForInternalState) {
          this.instanceName = instanceName;
          this._myVarForInternalState = myVarForInternalState;
          this.url = url;
        },

        ajaxCall: function() {
          alert("this._myVarForInternalState before = "+this._myVarForInternalState);
          new Ajax.Request(this.url, {
            method: 'get',
            onSuccess: this._myCallbackMethod.bindAsEventListener(this)
          });
        },

        _myCallbackMethod: function(results) {
          alert("results = "+results.responseText);
          alert(this.instanceName + "._myVarForInternalState after = "+this._myVarForInternalState);
        }
      }
    </script>
  </head>
  <body>
    <button type="button" onclick="test()">Top</button>
  </body>
</html>

The important line to look at is "this._myCallbackMethod.bindAsEventListener(this)". This code creates an adapter function that calls your callback (this._myCallbackMethod) in a context specific way so that you will still have access to "this".

This example is for prototype version 1.5.1 and earlier. In prototype 1.6+ this functionality is handled without special syntax.

WindRidge Elementary School 5K Fund Raiser

2007-09-22T09:50:00.000-07:00

Starting to Twitter

2007-07-22T09:03:00.000-07:00

It's been quite a while since I last posted to this blog. A lot has happened since then, but I'll pace myself in updating you.

First off, I've recently discovered a little web 2.0 application called Twitter. It asks the question, "What are you doing?" It's a social networking tool used to inform your friends where you are and what you're doing. Pretty fun stuff. The only problem is that it only allows you to add 130 character posts. Which really is not a problem at all. Long-winded as I am though, it's encouraged me to start up my blog again so I can give you more lengthy explanations on my random meandering thoughts. Check it out at twitter.com, then drop me a line and I'll add you to the people I follow.

2006-06-15T20:18:00.000-07:00

Side effects of Slim Fast Low-Carb shakes

Last week I had chest pain throughout the week. It started on Monday and continually got worse until Friday. I went to the doctor on Tuesday. They did an EKG, X-rays and the whole works. After all that, they told me that my heart looked perfectly fine and there were no signs of broken bones. The doctor thought it might be a result from inflamation in my chest. He basically perscribed me ibuprofen. That didn't seem to work. I finally decided this might be a result from the Low-Carb Slim Fast shakes I had started drinking on Monday. I stopped drinking them and the pain went away. Even with this result I still had thought that the illness might be the result of a virus or bacterial infection that my body finally fought off.

Well, it's been a week since I drank any of those shakes and I noticed at work today that I had left one in the refridgerator. I was craving something nice and chocolatey, so I thought what the heck, it won't kill me. I believe I was very wrong. Minutes after downing the shake I began to experience the same severe chest pain. I must be allergic to something in slimfast. It's now 5 hours later and and the chest pain is still severe. No more slimfast for me.

2006-06-13T16:22:00.000-07:00

The Nine Environments of YOU!

Three things that these environments affect are thinking, feelings and actions. You can't change one environment without affecting others.

Memetic - Comes from the word "memes". Includes your thoughts, beliefs, ideas, paradigms, styles and usages. Are intangible. Touches each other environment. This is passed down from generation to generation. A memetic enviromentment might be any media.

Body - Includes your hair, skin, nails, body parts, etc.

Self - Intangible. Has to do with your strength, talents, personality, passions, skills and unique assets. See book "Now discover your strengths."

Spiritual - Covers matters of spirit. Intangible.

Relationships - Includes family, colleagues, mentors, friends and others.

Network - Connects to relationships and financial. Not as intimate as relationships. Connections to people. Influencers have larger networks, Influencees have smaller networks.

Financial - Capital and how you use it.

Physical - Affects all tangible aspects of our lives. Homes, cars, possessions...

Nature - Parks, beaches, mountains, body of water, seasons.

You need to recognize the game your playing and change it. Change the game by changing your environments. Design your environments. Delegate your success to the environment!

Set up systems that will pay off for a lifetime. Your environments should provide inspiration.

2006-05-24T20:53:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was my second conference call with the Happy, Healthy, Wealthy Game.

A thought just occured to me. I wonder if there is and reasoning behind the order of the words in the game title. Is happiness more important than health, and health more important than wealth. I imagine this to be true, but I've never really thought it through before. Perhaps I'll meditate on this later.

Yesterday's lesson was on Goal Setting and action tracking in general. I'm really starting to see that I can accomplish anything I put my mind to, if I just set detailed, measurable goals and associate habits and actions with those goals. Taking the time each day to slowly, or quickly for that matter, chip away at each.

Jim stated that "A goal is an environment of you." It is an environment in that it controls the way you feel, think and act. Three keys that are important keep in mind while moving to ward reaching your goals are:

Your awareness
Your skillsets
Your environment(s)

I mentioned on the call that one of my goals was to "spend more quality time with my family". With Jim's prompting, the goal took a new shape and that was to "invest more quality time with my family." The key change being to move from a negative, "spend", to a positive, "invest". It really is more of a great investment than an expenditure. I don't think anyone ever looks back on their life and says, "I wish I had shared less time with my family..." In fact, I believe it happens just the opposite.

Another piece of enlightenment that Jim brought to the table was the difference between habits and actions and how they compliment each other. An action is an act that will help you create a habit if repeated oft enough. I need to spend some more time with my actions in the action tracker and associate the actual habits I want to establish with each of my actions. For example, instead of just stating that "I will drink 100 oz of water today", it could be better stated by associating the habit with the action, ie, "I will continually hydrate my body by drinking 100 oz of water daily."

I also need to spend some time re-evaluating my actions to ensure that they are precise and measurable and that "I" can actually control the out come. For example, you may not have control over wether or not you speak with 20 new potential business contacts today, but you could set a goal to "call 20 new potential business contacts today".

Lastly, I believe this is the second time I've heard Jim comment on how little we are taught about goal setting in School. I need to spend some time ensuring that I teach my children about how to set goals properly an follow through with the actions need to create healthy habits. I should see if Jim has any ideas or tips on coaching children in the HHW game. That would be very interesting. I'm sure my kids would dig it!

Well, it's been an exciting week, and I still have many hours of work ahead of me tonight, so until later, I bid thee adieu

2006-05-18T21:30:00.000-07:00

Today I had the pleasure and opportunity to hear Dan Millman speak. He is the author of the best-selling autobiographical novel "Way of the Peaceful Warrior", which is about to release as Feature film in select theatre's across the nation. You can view more info about the movie and the book at http://www.danmillman.com/.

Some of the useful nougats I took from the conference call are these:

Live in the moment by enjoying the life you have now
There are no "ordinary moments", treat each moment of your life for the extra-ordinary moment that it is
The present is perfect, or perfect as it can be
You don't really make a choice until you act. A thought is only a thought. Action translates to choice
Don't end up in your twilight years repeating Lily Tomlin's famous quote, "I've always wanted to be somebody, but I see now I should have been more specific."

Truths to live by and meditate on.

Today I also spent some time speaking with the President of iCentris, Brent Jorgensen. He told me about a new refi method called HELOC. It stands for "Home Equity Line of Credit" and sounds like an outstanding way to pay down mortgage principal while expending little extra money in the process. More to come on this subject.

That's about all I have to say today. Hope I can keep this up.