Sunday was day two of our three day weekend. The first thing we did today was go to the zoo. I enjoy going to the zoo with the kids but experiencing the zoo with them is a different pace than I would personally choose. If it were just me by myself I might take my camera and sit for a long time in front of the gorilla exhibit or watch the elephants for a while. With the kids you get about five seconds with each animal, less if they are hiding behind something. The one advantage to the kids' zoo p
Two weeks ago, I began Private Investigator Training class at Canadian County Technology Center (formerly Canadian County Vo-Tech). I signed up because the class sounded interesting -- nothing more. The class is two evenings a week for the next several months. I had trouble decidiing between the PI class and the Cake Decorating class, however in the end, my desire to eat a cake once a week lost to my desire to taser someone.
Private Investigator Training is actually a "Phase 3" class. What
On Sunday, Mason and I along with Jeff and his son Talon ventured over to Laser Expedition to play some laser tag. Back in the mid-to-late '80s Jeff and I were regulars at our local Photon arena the few years it was open. Little did we know back then that someday the two of us would be playing laser tag with our own sons.
Laser Expedition is located off of Route 66 and Richland Road between Yukon and El Reno. The center has three separate attractions: indoor tag, outdoor tag, and the survivo
Last night I got invited to my first work Texas Hold 'Em poker party. I was a little nervous about attending, as I know two or three of the guys attending regularly play poker tournaments at the local casinos. I didn't go in with any intentions of winning. All I really hoped to do was make a good showing. House rules were $20 buy-in, which got you $3,000 in chips. Blinds started at $25/$50, and doubled every 15 minutes.
First hand of the night, I drew an ace/nine. On the flop we saw a pair
Many of you may recall my posts from earlier this year about the media PC I built that the fam and I have dubbed "PiVo" -- short for "PC-based TiVo". PiVo is actually a computer running Windows XP and the free GB-PVR software. Combined with a TV capture card and a video out connection, the computer (which is controlled with an ordinary looking television remote) allows us to record television programs to the computer's hard drive, save them, and play them back at a later date. The GB-PVR softwar
Celebrities who share your birthday:
Layne Staley
Tori Amos
Cindy Williams
Valerie Harper
Norman Schwarzkoph
Ray Bradbury
John Lee Hooker
To you all, I say ...
Happy birthday / Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday / Happy birthday to you
Well, it's time to celebrate your birthday, it happens every year
We'll eat a lot of broccoli and drink a lot of beer
You should be good and happy that there's something you can eat
A million people every day are starving in the street
Now that Mason's started kindergarten, Susan and I have had to, once again, split up our schedules. For the past nine months, all four of us have gone to work in the same car (our daycare is right next to our building). Now, one of us has had to take the late shift at work so that we can take Mason to school at 8am; the other has to go to work early, so that we can leave work early and pick him up when school lets out. Our other two choices were putting Mason in an after school program or puttin
Yesterday (Sunday) was my 12th wedding anniversary. Saturday evening, Susan and I got a night away from the kids and had dinner at The Melting Pot down in Bricktown.
Dinner in Bricktown starts with parking in Bricktown. I use a fairly unoriginal technique -- go to the final destination and then spiral outward, parking in the first parking lot that isn't full. Saturday night that ended up being about two blocks away from the restaurant. It was raining hard enough that Susan brought and used a
Class is over; all that's left is the drive home tomorrow morning.
For a class that cost $3,000, it's amazing to me how much of it some of the other students missed. The class ran eight hours a day for four days, although with breaks and lunch our actual time in class was closer to six hours each day. One of the twelve students scheduled Friday as his travel day; he didn't even show up the last day, missing a fourth of the course. There were a couple others who were consistantly late -- not
Earlier this week, Justin told me he wanted to take me out for dinner this week for my birthday. After telling me that he asked, "by the way, did you bring your camera?" That, of course, has had me curious as to where he was taking me.
Last night after class, the two of us met and he took me to a Vietnamese restaurant. The food was good, and unique. That wasn't the big surprise though. After dinner, Justin took me to the Fort Worth Museum of Science & History, who is currently hosting th
Mason's First Day of Kindergarten
Through the magic of the Internet and digital cameras, Susan mailed me this picture this morning. Unfortunately I am still in Dallas and was unable to wish Mason a terrific first day of kindgergarten.
The first time I went to Riverwind Casino, I lost $100. However, Riverwind Casino offers free soft drinks. As I was sipping on my free Diet Coke, I thought to myself, "well, this is worth a dollar." So in my mind, I decided I had only really lost $99, figuring in the value of my free drink.
The class I am attending this week also offers free drinks in the classroom. As I popped open my first one I leaned over to Johnny and asked him how much this class cost. "About $3,000," he said. As the c
I really love my portable MP3 player -- a Creative Nomad Jukebox Zen Xtra (say that five times fast). It's got a 40 meg hard drive, a screen that's easy to read and well lit, and all the buttons and features you would expect on your average MP3 player. It's physically larger than many of the newer models out there like the iPod Nano or the Creative Zen Stone, but at around the size of a deck of cards it still fits in my pocket easily. Using Notmad Explorer I can drop and drag files to and from t
Ignoring conventional packing techniques, I spent my morning going to areas where I "keep things" and throwing those things into bags until the bags were full. That's how I knew I was done packing. Mason seemed to be underfoot every step of the way; rollerskating in the kitchen, doing handstands in the living room, and spinning circles in the hallway.
While Morgan has both feet firmly planted in the terrible twos, Mason has graduated to the age of back talking. "Why do I have to do that? Wh
...and on the road again. Monday afternoon I'm headed to Dallas for a week-long work-related training course. I finally finished unpacking everything from my Vegas trip yesterday; all the clothes from my suitcase went from my suitcase into the washer/dryer and back into the same suitcase to next week's trip. In the six days I've been home since Vegas I've been able to catch up with friends and squeeze in quite a bit of family time. One thing I've noticed over the past few days is while I missed
Between all the e-mail accounts I have funneling into Outlook I am now approaching 200 spam messages a day. I've written several mail rules that filter a lot of those incoming messages directly into my trash pile, but dozens of them are still getting through. Fed up with constantly deleting messages, I set out Tuesday to find a program that would help me with spam.
The first program I found was Spam Terrier, which had the two major features I was looking for: it works with Outlook Express, a
I got back from Defcon yesterday (1,100 miles, each way) and quickly made the transition back to work today. The week of sleep deprivation caught up with me; I shuffled my way through work today and am getting ready for bed right now, shortly before 10pm.
I can and will post a complete summary of Defcon in the very near future, but until then I would like to tell you one major observation/revelation I had during this past weekend. During the convention I realized that a very small percentage
After sunset, temperatures in the New Mexico desert can reach "cool" or almost "chilly" -- although apparently the experience can be negated by sleeping in the back of one's Chevy Avalanche, at which point the experience can more accurately be described as "sweaty" or "muggy." Good times ...
Yesterday afternoon the final third of my Vegas adventures officially began. Around 5pm I checked in at the Defcon registration desk and received my badge and a handful of show-related materials. Most everyone’s badges are white with LEDs on the front of them; speaker badges are blue, and quite noticeable. I caught quite a few people staring at mine, wondering if I was someone important or not.
After registering for the con I drove over to the 4th annual Toxic BBQ, a pre-Defcon cookout. At
After dropping Dad off at the airport today, my Vegas Adventure is officially two-thirds over. I figured CGE to be the first third, my time with dad the middle third, and Defcon this weekend the final third. As of 2:20pm today, Dad will be aboard a Southwest jet, zooming back east. I am currently sitting at a small table at a small McDonald's inside the very large Stratosphere Hotel and Casino.
It seems weird to talk about the middle third before covering the first, but the time spent with
Here I am, six days into my Vegas adventure without a single blog entry -- how unlike me! However, I do have a legitimate excuse. I forgot my laptop! Susan had to mail the stupid thing to me via Fedex. It's here, I'm here, and now I'm playing bloggy blog catch up.
Over the next few days I'll try and recap the trip so far. Topics I'll be covering:
- The trip to Vegas
- Classic Gaming Expo (CGE)
- The CGE Museum
- The CGE Auction
- Meeting Three Heros At Once
- Visiting the Pinball H
Imagine, if you will, the sounds of an 18th century mental institution -- the screams, the maniacal laughter, door slamming and wall pounding. Coincidently, these were the same sounds that echoed through our house this morning, beginning around 3:30am when Morgan awoke. By the time Morgan had made enough noise to wake Susan up, the living room was a disaster. "She's been up for a while," Sue deduced. Around 5:30am, it was my shift. Morgan was hooping and hollaring so loudly that even I could no
7/26 (Thursday): Icbrkr should arrive from Arkansas around lunchtime. Eat lunch, hit I-40, drive west.
7/27 (Friday): Arrive in Vegas when we get there. Check into hotel. Stretch. Visit Riviera, assist anyone who needs help.
7/28-7/29 (Saturday-Sunday): Classic Gaming Expo! Two days of retrogaming glory. Also during those two days I plan on slinking over to the Commodore Vegas Expo 2007 (AKA CommVEx) at some point in time, and visiting the Pinball Hall of Fame/Museum if at all possible.
I've told this story around the office a couple of times this week so I might as well share it here.
Wednesday night, I took Morgan to McDonald's after work for dinner. She hasn't eaten dinner pretty much every night this week, so I thought I might
coax her into eating Wednesday night by first showing her the playground, and then offering to let her play on it as a reward for eating dinner. Of course, the minute she saw the playground she was done with me. Off she went, briefly on to th
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