GrandPa

My grandfather on my father's side of the family passed away before I was born. I knew he ran a service station but never new much more about it.

It appears that my brother found a photo of it in a recent home town paper.

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A bit lost

I have been overwelmed as of late, too many things do too soon, to the point that I am not getting anything done.  I have used remember the milk, but with limited success.  Now I am moving on to toodledo, lets hope it works better.

The idea of goals with subtask may make things easier.  It is a start.

pleasing the eyes

I have been looking for ways to get more people at work to use Python.  Lots of Perl hacks there, so the sale has not been too easy.  The best approach may be the old marketing approach, eye candy.

Where I work is a conservative group of math and computer geeks, so while a normal eye candy would work, but would not be appreciated by management, so I have found the following works okay:

These are from matplotlib http://matplotlib.sourceforge.net/

I hope to post some examples of matplotlib generated from Python in the near future.  I have some orbital paths go generated for school, and I may try that in Python/Numpy.

Well writing a blog, using twitter, and setup a facebook page, and have been using linked-in for a while.  Hummm, what next on my be social networking agenda?  

breath

Started playing with Adobe Air applications, TweetDeck and Agile Agenda, and love the installation and integration.  I think Adobe may have finally a light way platform which does what Java seemed to promise.  I am not bad mouthing Java, as I have written  many and used many more Java applications, I just think Adobe has done a cool job.

It does not hurt that tweekdeck is a great twitter interface and a good reason to install Adobe Air.

Distractions of homework

Well it is Spring of 2009, and my GPS Positioning class has started at Purdue.  It is the first time with this instructor, Dr. van Gelder, so I am at the panic stage trying to figure out what and how he wants his assignments turned in.  So far the homework has been okay, a brief introduction so he knows a bit about the class and small MATLAB program to do 3D rotations.

So I have this little bit of programming to do, (the intro was already email out, as it was due today), so I could sit down get things done.  Well except, I go my 3D Connexion mouse today, and well I do have play with it a bit.  You know to verify it all works and all that.

Also, well to have better integration with the MS Word world I live in, I purchased Apple's iWork09  yesterday, and while it does not support my 3D mouse, it does have lots of pretty template and gee-wiz features to play with.  I did realized shortly after buying iWork, Google Docs or Open Office could be used as well, yet I would not get all the cool templates, then again it was a bit for eye candy.

Well what other distractions are there.  Well have not been in Second Life lately, and hey that support the 3D mouse.  Maybe I should spend some time verify it?  Hmm, well I only watched my Christmas present, Blade Runner, once.  Maybe I should study its awesome lighting a bit more?

Well I did need to update my blog, and well I guess I have almost finished that...  I guess after the Christmas break it is just hard to get into the whole school thing again.  Guess I am lucky that I only one class, well and the place I have go during the day to make money.

Oh can I start complaining about source control, but I did that all day at the office, and guess I do not want to do that again.

Hmm, homework?  Maybe tomorrow.

BTW a 80's nerd note, both  @levarburton  and @brentspiner are twitting now.  If you don't know who they are, well this message is not for you.

1827 days

I know its 11 days past the beginning of the year, and that is when everyone takes a moment to look back, but five years ago our child move in to our home.  We are technically legal guardians, looking after an orphan.  A girl by the age of six had lost both parents to cancer, and was moved 800 miles from her home to start a new.  In all but legal title we are her parents, and are very proud of her.

It is amazing to see someone who has seen so much so soon be able to move on, worrying about friends, playing pokemon, and throwing fits about homework.  I am amazed at how well she and children in general can adapt.  

I keep my private life private, so there is not much more to say, except kids are exceptional, and full of optimism.  I guess they were not, the human race would have died out a long time ago.

Just remember, "pokemon, you have to collect them all"