What I Had For Breakfast

Pancake recipe

2011-01-01T07:31:00.000-08:00

There have been requests for my pancake "recipe". (The reason for the quotes will become apparent shortly. My mother-in-law did note that these pancakes 'taste different each time')

Damp ingredients:

oatmeal - start with 3/4 cup or so
cornmeal - less than the oatmeal (1/4 cup or so)
buckwheat flour
brown sugar
applesauce
milk (or substitute, such as almond milk) - just enough to get the whole thing wet

Mix the damp ingredients.

Dry ingredients

sorghum flour
flax
1 tsp baking powder (more if you like fluffier pancakes and aren't watching sodium. Seriously, read the label)
random flours as desired (millet flour, etc)
xanthan gum (small amount)

Mix dry ingredients

Wet ingredients

two eggs (if following some other pancake recipe, add one more egg that called for - makes for yummier pancakes)
some oil
vanilla
lemon juice (in theory to react more strongly with the baking soda. Haven't tested this very strongly)
milk (or milk substitute)

Mix wet ingredients.

Now mix the dry, damp, and wet ingredients together, adding more milk (or milk substitute) until the desired consistency is reached.

Grill 'em up.

The flours tend to absorb moisture, so I have to add more liquid after grilling the first round, otherwise the mixture is too thick.

Feed the children that have been screaming for 15 minutes anxiously awaiting pancakes.

Eat yummy pancakes.

U don't wanna touch this

2010-05-16T21:27:00.001-07:00

All of these were sprayed with round-up shortly after the photo shoot.

Sayonara Sweetgum

2010-05-05T20:34:00.000-07:00

The sweetgum tree was on Sue's tree hit list, and it was only a matter of time until it had to go (it was too close to the house, and it dropped little mace-like balls on the yard). We're getting the windows in the house replaced, so we decided to cut the tree down now (so if it fell the wrong way and broke a house window, it would break one of the old windows).

The thrill (or at least the adrenaline release) was heightened by the fact that it was windy that day, and the chainsaw stopped halfway through. After about 10 minute the saw started again, and the tree fell nicely away from the house, so it all ended well. (We did have a rope on the tree and Sue was pulling on it to guide the fall of the tree). I need a new chainsaw before cutting down any more larger trees.

After cutting the tree up, Maria helped pick up the pieces

Opening presents

2010-03-24T20:59:00.000-07:00

Opening some presents from Aunt Sandy and the Hello Kitty cake for Maria's birthday party.

Pictures of the young'ins

2010-03-11T19:31:00.000-08:00

My mother informed me that I had not updated the blog in a while with pictures of the kids. Detecting a hint, here's some pictures from the last couple of months.

Donovan

2009-05-27T21:26:00.000-07:00

Born May 27, 2009 at 5:30 PM.

Weighs 8 lbs 8 oz. - made for a tough labor for Mommy.

Length - about yea long. I think it's about 21.5 inches.

Has good lungs.

Got meconium all over daddy within the first hour. Not sure if this is a portent of things to come ...

Feeding the cat

2009-01-13T19:56:00.001-08:00

Maria's latest favorite activity - feeding Leo. Her understanding of the activity does not seem to extend to stopping feeding the cat, though (Leo doesn't seem to mind).

Riding in the laundry basket

2009-01-01T22:43:00.001-08:00

Maria likes to ride in the laundry basket. She especially likes to be spun around. I lashed the video camera to the basket and recorded one the rides.

If the embedded video doesn't work, here's a link: Toddler Centrifuge

Opening Christmas presents

2008-12-28T20:45:00.001-08:00

First look at number 2

2008-11-15T21:15:00.000-08:00

Maria is so wonderful we decided to have another.

The Great Pumpkin Patch

2008-10-20T20:41:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, we went to the Great Pumpkin Patch in Arthur. Pumpkins, squash, and cucurbits everywhere. And cute furry animals.

Little straw bales. I imagine a tiny baler being driven by a lawn tractor making these bales.

A portion of the Wall O' Squash.

The finger-eating goat seemed more interested in the grass than Maria's fingers.

A wagon load of squash, and a Maria, too!

Read those warning labels carefully

2008-10-15T21:11:00.000-07:00

The kids are running wild and you're trying to get them stand still for just a fraction of a second so you can dress them, feed them, fix their hair, etc. At times the following device seems tempting.

But alas, look more closely at the warning label...

An infinite number of sumo-posed Marias in curlers

2008-09-08T21:33:00.000-07:00

How's that for the surreal phrase of the day?
And not just a phrase.
There's a picture aptly described by the phrase.

Cute Maria pictures on other blogs

2008-08-22T19:38:00.000-07:00

Those of you reading this blog for Maria pictures (and you know you are), check out Jaime's blog entry titled Social Butterflies. Maria shows up near the end of the entry.

Little red wagon

2008-08-17T21:10:00.000-07:00

My parents saw some wagons in Farm and Fleet, and thought Maria would enjoy having one. Rather than shipping one down, they sent us money, and we went to the Farm and Fleet here and bought one.

Behold, the wagon:

Run, Leo, run!

Disclaimer: Sue is visiting a friend in Seattle. All wardrobe decisions were made be Mark, and are solely his responsibility.

Facebook

2008-08-17T20:40:00.000-07:00

I recently created a facebook account. If your a reader of this blog, and have a facebook account, search for me there. (I'm too lazy to create a link, and more importantly, I don't really want to - I want google to have to guess at the connection). If you don't have a facebook account, and don't know what it is - imagine the web redesigned by the marketing department (or at least the part of the marketing department responsible for collecting demographic information). And there's something about social networking (versus all the anti-social networking sites out there) Thoughts from short usage

The CAPTCHA's required before creating a friend request are pretty inscrutable. I am even more firmly certain that the first Artificial Intelligence will arise as a result of spam/anti-spam escalating warfare. (Although, according to a recent Defcon talk, current CAPTCHA's aren't implemented as well as they could be, so the technology required to beat them is still not that sophisticated)
The applications built on the platform are enticing, but what access do they provide to the personal data entered into the system? The developer TOS say the API doesn't allow access to contact info, but everything else is fair game. Hmmmm.

Food blog for local folks

2008-08-03T20:30:00.000-07:00

For those readers in the Champaign-Urbana area who like to eat, check out this blog - Champaign Taste. It offers restaurant reviews and info on new places opening.

Maria walking

2008-07-28T21:11:00.000-07:00

No tricks, no stunts, no wires, no fingers!

Sue has more commentary and photos

Making decisions

2008-07-21T22:25:00.000-07:00

From researchers in the Netherlands comes this paper on decision making.

It's a rather interesting read (and the anecdote about a Dutch researcher's encounter with the cereal aisle in an American supermarket is hilarious. Well, at least by research-paper standards.)

The point is that our conscious attention is very limited and we cannot simultaneously focus on all the variables in a complex decision. However, it appears our unconscious is not quite so limited, and can perform more complex weightings of many factors. (The paper describes several experiments designed to tease out the parameters of how this works.)

It's really interesting to see concrete confirmation of advice from various people ( and personal experience) that letting a decision rest (or sleeping on it, or however you want to describe it) does help, and aids in drawing out the relevant factors. (Found via this blog entry focusing on the house-buying example in the paper.)

The Sprinklers of Summer

2008-07-12T21:04:00.000-07:00

A lawn sprinkler is a great way to handle hot summer afternoons.

No running water

2008-06-30T08:59:00.000-07:00

The water pump broke the other night.

To make matters worse, the outhouse was out of order as well.

I suggested that Sue could tell people she visited her in-laws in northern Wisconsin, and they had no running water. (Omitting the fact that the pump was fixed the next morning, so it was only about 12 hours or so without running water).

Dad and I dissembled the old pump to see what it looked like (During the previous weeks, there had been bits of plastic coming through the water system that indicated the pump was failing.)

Some pictures of the impellers inside the pump. The side view is from one that broke while taking the pump apart. Finally, a chipped impeller that is likely the source of the problem.

Putting Maria to work

2008-06-30T08:57:00.000-07:00

I haven't been the only one put to work on the farm. Here's Maria carrying a bucket after feeding the calves.

Visiting the farm

2008-06-24T08:51:00.000-07:00

We're visiting the farm this week (Grandma and Grandpa are very excited to have Maria around) One of my father's favorite phrases has been "reconnect me with my roots". So far, this reconnecting has involved unloading hay, raking hay, and baling hay. And that's just the first day. My "pansy programmer hands" (my phrase, not his) are sore today.

But it hasn't been all work. Here's a picture of Maria with Grandpa and Uncle Chip. Sue was bothered that I kept calling the dog "uncle", until she realized (and pointed out with relish) that he's on my side of the family.

Life goals and lolcats

2008-06-15T18:05:00.000-07:00

I have a new life goal (note, that's "a", as in "one of many", not "the central organizing principle") - to get a lolcat picture on the front page of icanhascheezburger.com.

Here's the first couple of attempts. Clicking on the picture will take you to a page that lets you comment and rate the image.

moar funny pictures

Remodeling the bathroom

2008-06-11T18:38:00.000-07:00

We're remodeling one of the bathrooms in our house. Workers are coming tomorrow to put new tile on the floor (One lesson from the last tiling project - hire someone to do it)

Yesterday, we removed the old toilet, sink and vanity. If you remember the hot tub, you should see what's coming next.

Yes, that's right ... bathroom set on blocks in the yard!

Hairstyles of the young and cute

2008-06-11T07:47:00.000-07:00

Maria's hair has been getting longer and was hanging down into her eyes. The following conversion ensued:

Mark: Why don't we cut it?
Sue: Then she'll have a mullet
Mark: <silence>

What could I say? Sue had played the trump card, the nuclear option of hairstyle arguments. There was no responding.

(Although in reality, I probably made some smart-alec comment like "What's wrong with a mullet?)

Sue's solution is a tuft on top, fastened with a teensy-tiny rubber band. It's reminiscent of Pebbles (from the Flintstones).

The Selfish Gene

2008-06-07T21:50:00.000-07:00

I recently read "The Selfish Gene" by Richard Dawkins. It's a look at evolution from the perspective of the gene as the unit of replication and natural selection (rather than treating the individual organism as the fundamental unit).

Near the beginning of the book, there is this statement discussing possible moral take-aways of the book:

I am not advocating a morality based on evolution. I am saying how things evolved. I am not saying how we humans morally ought to behave. [...] My own feeling is that a human society based simply on the gene's law of universal ruthless selfishness would be a very nasty society in which to live.

And he goes on to emphasize that in building a society we wish to live in, we must teach the desired traits (generosity, altruism, etc.), since they will not be hard-wired by biology.

This is an example of an appropriate attitude towards evolution. Christians ought to learn from this atheist. Unfortunately, many easily-heard voices in the evangelical Christian community proclaim the "evils" of evolution and attack the science. This leads to a number of problems:

It wastes energy and resources tackling the wrong challenge. The real challenge is working out an understanding of what the general revelation of science tells us about the nature of God.
The Christian community (needlessly) appears backwards in it's views on science
It creates unnecessary barriers to belief (and offers good reasons to dis-believe.)

In a future post I will discuss why there is resistance to this viewpoint among evangelical Christians.

Sights on the return trip

2008-06-01T19:38:00.001-07:00

At a rest stop in Virginia, there was this helpful section for the pets:

Also in Virginia, there was a set of old buildings next to the gas station. From this angle, it looks like a dire warning should one decide to go past the church.

But, it turns out to only be an old gas station.

Eating ice cream again

2008-05-30T18:39:00.000-07:00

We returned once again to our favorite ice cream place (for the final time this trip. Sigh. We're leaving Saturday morning.) Sue tried a milder flavor (strawberry) and a new feeding technique (use the tasting stick to feed small bites so the cold doesn't overwhelm her), and it appeared to work. Maria ate some ice cream, and she liked it!

Maria walking with one hand now

2008-05-28T20:56:00.000-07:00

The last few days, Maria has been making make progress in walking - she's only using one hand now.

Yes, I know, most people walk on their feet. And so does Maria. But she also needs extra support by holding onto other people as she walks. Previously she needed support from both hands, but recently she's been doing well holding on with just one hand.

Fresh salsa

2008-05-26T19:19:00.001-07:00

Sue made some yummy fresh salsa, and I had some time to play with the macro lens.

Future physicist apparel

2008-05-26T19:04:00.000-07:00

Maria's aunt Monica gave her a physics-themed shirt. Here she is modeling it, with a Physics Today for extra authenticity.

Sunrise over the Atlantic

2008-05-25T19:47:00.000-07:00

As a consolation for Maria waking up too early, I did get a picture of a nice sunrise.

A now a word from our sponsors

2008-05-24T21:02:00.001-07:00

When it's time for a snack, reach for Goldfish crackers...

And now our spokesbaby will show where to put the crackers.

Maria playing on the beach

2008-05-24T20:48:00.000-07:00

Along with playing in the water at the beach at Jockey's Ridge, Maria played in the dry sand. A small drama ensued.

Act I: Situation normal. Playing in the sand.

Act II
Limb check: Right arm present and accounted for.

Left hand present and accounted for.

Legs. MISSING!!! Raise the alarm!

Act IV: Contact with legs reacquired. Everything restored to situation normal.

Maria with some guy in a goofy hat

2008-05-24T20:38:00.000-07:00

Here's Maria at a sound-side beach, where the waves are much smaller and the water warmer. There's some strange guy in a goofy hat behind her. Don't know where he came from, or how he wound up in the picture.

Longing for the sea

2008-05-23T20:43:00.000-07:00

Reading material for former presidents

2008-05-23T20:27:00.000-07:00

While walking, we saw this sign with three names on it. But it sure looks like a commentary (or a suggestion) on the reading material of former presidents.

Where we travel to North Carolina and get lost in the desert

2008-05-19T20:40:00.000-07:00

History repeats itself - previously we got lost in the deserts of Michigan. It happened again, only this time it was in North Carolina.

Though the people in the picture seems awfully happy for being lost in the desert.

Maria eats ice cream

2008-05-19T07:57:00.000-07:00

We walked to an ice cream shop and gave Maria her first taste of ice cream.

But first, her picture with a pirate outside the shop.

The ice cream is mandarin chocolate chip (the orange and chocolate flavor together is very yummy)

The first bite looks good

The second bite receives a different reaction. Perhaps it's too cold.

Maria at the beach

2008-05-19T07:54:00.001-07:00

Maria gets her first experience with the ocean at the Outer Banks, NC.

She wasn't so thrilled with the water (it may have been too cold), but she does seem to like running up and down the dunes.

I hate being described accurately by random strangers

2008-05-13T20:16:00.001-07:00

As in this description of Gear Acquisition Syndrome.
Although I didn't quite follow the steps in order. Skipped step 3, but that should be rectified soon.

In the same vein, there's two entire blogs:

Stuff White People Like. I read this blog looking for things that don't describe me, and use that to feel vaguely superior to other White People (it's not clear to me why being different is superior. Sometimes lots of people *are* right.) Or perhaps it's an attempt to retain some shred of feeling like a unique individual and not a zeitgeist zombie.
Stuff Christians Like

(HT: Found all of these via The World Needs More Ninjas)

Maria's first blog entry

2008-04-08T16:33:00.000-07:00

Guest blog entry from Maria:
j/. 00 / cxxxxxxxxxxxxx bv vv

Random thought and a parental concern

2008-04-05T23:16:00.000-07:00

Random thought:
If/when the grunge bands from the 90s become lounge acts in Vegas, will they wear sequined flannel shirts?

Parental Concern:
Will I harm my daughter's language acquisition by reading her stories in Swedish Chef?

One year old! One year old!

2008-03-21T13:32:00.000-07:00

Maria had her first birthday Thursday. Sue and I can hardly believe it's been a year already. To celebrate, we gave her a cupcake with one candle. She was a little confused by the cupcake as we normally give her food in small pieces and not one larger, whole object.

Camera geek note: Pictures taken with 50mm f1.4 lens that arrived Thursday, just in time for her birthday pictures.

Maria closeups

2008-02-27T21:28:00.001-08:00

Technical details:
Canon 20D with 100mm macro lens.

For the curious - my Pentax was stolen about several weeks ago, and I recently bought this camera as a replacement.

Valentine's Day bib

2008-02-15T21:16:00.000-08:00

Here's Maria with a Valentine's Day bib.

Maria feeds herself with a spoon

2008-02-04T20:18:00.001-08:00

The other day Maria was feeding herself with a spoon!

Fine print: To make this an entirely accurate statement, the following definitions have been used

"feeding" - food went from the bowl to a location on, around or near her face. Furthermore that location was largely, but not exclusively, her mouth.
"herself" - her hand was on the spoon from when it left the bowl to her mouth. Dad may have assisted a bit with initial spoon movements and/or maneuvered the bowl so as to be contacted appropriately by the spoon.

Photograph of the aftermath:

(Unfortunately, she's sick and not smiling)

Maria in the mirror

2008-01-27T17:35:00.000-08:00

So cute she warps time and space

2008-01-13T11:45:00.001-08:00

Maria is so cute, she warps time and space around her. Well, maybe not time so much. But she definitely warps space, as shown here.

Technical note: I was having fun adjusting the zoom on the camera during the exposure.

Letter from Internal Blogging Office

2007-12-30T15:34:00.000-08:00

I recently received the following communication:

Dear Sir,
The Internal Blogging Office has noted that you maintain a blog, and are a parent of a young child. We would like to draw your attention to blogging regulation 34(d), which states that updated pictures of said child should be posted on a timely basis. There are some concerns that it has been a while since such a picture has appeared on your blog. We trust this is merely an oversight from the hustle and bustle of the holiday season. Your prompt attention to this matter is greatly appreciated.
Sincerely,
Miranda P. Wallacespooner
Internal Blogging Office
Cute Child Pictures Division

The letter was a bit of a surprise - I didn't even know there *was* an Internal Blogging Office. Anyway, if it's anything like the IRS it would be best not to mess with them. Here's a couple of pictures that should satisfy the requirements.

New Van Air Freshener

2007-12-21T20:19:00.000-08:00

The van started to develop a little smell, so we got a new air freshener.

I'm not sure how we'll hang it from the dash.

Notes on intelligence

2007-12-18T21:42:00.000-08:00

Links to some articles, so I can find them later.

How to be a genius

The secret to raising smart kids

Short answer: Effort, not innate talent, is the key.

Hiking in the redwoods

2007-11-05T18:38:00.001-08:00

We visited a redwood forest during a trip to California this weekend.

This was a good hike for Maria. Her position in the baby carrier means Sue's back is the only scenery looking forward, and the straps limit the side view somewhat. If she wants a clear view she has to look up. Fortunately for her, much of the scenery is 'up' in a redwood forest.

One of the potential dangers of all the scenery being 'up', is that one might not look forward enough. A scenario depicting this peril is modeled below.

California - even the plants are in rehab

2007-11-05T18:33:00.000-08:00

California - home of the stars - many of them in rehab. Even the plants there are getting in on the act.

Sunset with vibrant colors

2007-10-24T20:55:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday night, there was a gorgeous sunset with plenty of rich, vibrant colors. Pictures are available at my Flickr photo stream. There's also some of Sue and Maria using the sunset as a background.

A small taste:

Thoughtful Marinas

2007-09-24T19:51:00.001-07:00

It was nice of the marina in Sutton's Bay to consider the needs of sleeping babies.

In which we travel to Michigan and get lost in the desert

2007-09-22T20:10:00.000-07:00

Sue, Maria, and I were on vacation in Michigan last week. We went for a hike and promptly found ourselves lost in the desert.

Golf pants for babies?

2007-09-15T12:00:00.000-07:00

At least I think they look like golf pants

And some bonus pictures, just because I have a camera, and she's so cute.

Note the two bottom teeth. We are eagerly awaiting more (poor Maria's been have teething pain on the top ones for quite some time).

Look at that upper body strength!

Rapture or not?

2007-09-11T20:08:00.000-07:00

I read the first book in the Left Behind series a while back, just to see what all the fuss was about. It struck me as very similar to the DaVinci Code. (Not in terms of plot details, but in terms of writing style, writing quality and the ruckus surrounding them. And it greatly amuses me to lump these two books together.)

So the Left Behind series focuses on the rapture. Here's a couple of posts analyzing the support for the rapture in the Bible: Why i will not be raptured and Why i will not be raptured, part ii. (Executive summary: Not finding it.)

Walking with Maria

2007-09-07T19:59:00.000-07:00

We finally got around to taking Maria for a walk over at Homer Lake. Sue is excited about her new ergo baby carrier. She says it works better than the other baby-carrying contraptions she's tried.

Maria fell asleep during the walk - here you can see the hood in place to support her head a little better while she sleeps.

Maria got a little warm near the end - it was getting hot outside by that time.

Flash tricks

2007-08-29T22:30:00.000-07:00

Inspired by a post at Cheapshooter, I tried putting a (clean, unused) tissue over the flash.

Here are two pictures of Leo in a box - the top photo is with the bare flash, and the bottom photo is with the tissue diffuser.

I love peas

2007-08-26T21:06:00.000-07:00

Maria seems to like peas.

Maria's View

2007-07-21T22:10:00.001-07:00

I took this picture of Maria in her bouncy seat this morning.

Often parents (and others) try very hard to make babies smile and react. I wondered what that looked like from Maria's point of view. I put the camera down by her head, and this is what she sees.

And all this time I thought she was laughing with me ...

(Alternately: All this time I thought she was smiling - now I know it's actually an expression of abject terror)

Evolution and Creation, and/or Intelligent Design

2007-07-02T18:53:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I want to express opinions about evolution, creation, and intelligent design. But I often wonder how to best put it into words. Being lazy, I'll take a short-cut and just link to these posts by Henry Neufeld (who can write better than I can): Why talk about evolution in church? and Evolutionary vs. Scientific Thinking.

Also check out his FAQ about evolution and theology.

Okay, I can't resist adding my own little rantlet: In all the debates, there seems to be an implication that accepting evolution automatically implies an atheist world-view. But this doesn't have to be the case. Evolution and Christianity can co-exist.

One social difficulty with believing in both evolution and Christianity: the voices stating that "accepting evolution implies atheism" are pretty vocal (not sure how numerous) - both on the conservation Christian side and with several prominent atheists. And if those two camps actually agree on something - it really makes one feel like you're swimming upstream to believe something different.

Grout, grout, grout

2007-06-12T20:10:00.001-07:00

The sunroom floor is getting much closer to completion!

I put down the tile a couple weeks ago, and we finally got all the grout done last week. (Thanks to Sue's mom, who watched Maria a couple of evenings so both Sue and I could work on the grout). The whole grout thing was much harder than it seemed (and the tiles are textured - I imagine it would be much easier cleaning the grout off of smooth tile.) There's still a film of grout on the tile that needs to be cleaned off (The directions on the cleaner said to let fresh grout cure for 10 days before using the cleaner).

Then it's just sealing the grout, and we will have full use of the sunroom.

Oh, and we need to get some chess or checkers pieces of the appropriate size...

Drying tile

2007-05-28T07:34:00.000-07:00

The hot tub in the sunroom has been removed, and now it's time to put in tile. Finding the right tile took time, but Sue persevered and finally found some with a matching pattern. The only problem was it didn't come in 6 inch sizes, so I had to cut a number of 12 inch tiles down to size. The wet saw left a lot of residue on the tiles, so I washed them yesterday and hung them out to dry.

Okay, so I didn't actually dry all the tiles this way. It seemed like it would make a good picture.

Get a long little baby

2007-05-27T19:29:00.000-07:00

Many people seeing Maria have commented on how long she is. She had her two month checkup last week, and she was 25.5 inches long, which puts her in the 99th percentile. I see now she really is a long baby.

Sleep books

2007-05-20T20:54:00.000-07:00

So I've been reading a book about sleeping babies (Sue asked me to read it - and speaking of her - Sue has a blog now. She has an entry about Maria sleeping). The particular book is Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child. The main problem is I keep falling asleep while reading it.

Things found in the yard

2007-05-12T20:33:00.000-07:00

A sampling of things found in our yard:

Pea plants

Diapers drying on the line

Bird's nest in the satellite dish

Eeek!!!

Leaves of three,
spray it with Round-up

Not as catchy as the original saying, but effective.

Mark on his new Dixon zero-turn mower. (well, new to us. It's a used mower)
Mowing the lawn has never been so much fun.

Grow, Baby, Grow

2007-05-03T19:47:00.000-07:00

Here's a picture of Maria at a little over six weeks, next to the manual for a size reference.

For comparison, the picture from first post with a manual is also included below

Brand Awareness Training for Infants

2007-04-27T15:01:00.000-07:00

While holding Maria the other night, I decided to try a little Brand Awareness Training for Infants (BATI). I had no logos to show her, so I did what I could and started reciting names of fast food restaurants: McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's, ... At this point Sue overheard what was going on and quickly put stop to it. I guess I'll have to come up with other ways to train up our little girl to be the brand aware consumer necessary to to survive in today's modern society.

Mass-Energy equivalence lullaby

2007-04-18T05:37:00.000-07:00

I've been singing to Maria lately - she's a captive audience, and I'm taking advantage of her being too young to know that Daddy can't sing.

One of the songs I made up was the "Mass-energy Equivalence Lullaby", to the tune of "Mary had a little lamb" (more or less)

E E E equals m c squared
m c squared
m c squared
E E E equals m c squared
Just like Einstein wrote

Dad: The Superior Napping Platform

2007-04-08T16:53:00.000-07:00

Okay, so she's not actually sleeping in this picture, but she seems to really like sleeping on Dad's chest.

Two weeks

2007-04-04T20:42:00.000-07:00

Maria survived two whole weeks! (And, her parents also made it through two weeks!!)

Only 17 years and 50 weeks to go.

Why babies don't come with instruction manuals

2007-03-28T20:27:00.000-07:00

Imagine what it would be like if babies came with instruction manuals. After pushing out the cute baby on the left, the manual on the right would have to come out as well, and it's just too big (and the wrong shape) to fit. That's why babies don't come with manuals.

Child process forked

2007-03-28T20:16:00.000-07:00

My wife successfully forked a child process last Tuesday (March 20, 2007) at 11:01 PM! The child process id is 3345. The executable exec'ed immediately following the fork is 'Maria'. Profiling indicates the child process spends significant amounts of time in the sleep(3) system call. Ironically, it appears the child process is interfering with the parent process's use of that same system call.

Waiting for baby

2007-03-05T20:14:00.000-08:00

Okay, so it's not even the due date yet, but we're still waiting.
Here's a funny comic by Muncher (full blog post). Maybe it's only funny to expectant dads, but I really liked it.

Panoramic photos

2007-02-23T19:02:00.000-08:00

I've been on a panoramic photo kick lately. Here's some pictures of the field across the road, some at sunset, some others after all the snow that came last week. Click on the pictures for a larger version.

Some of the panels get excessively dark. I probably need to set the exposure manually to be the same for all the photos involved, or adjust the brightness before stitching them together.

On blocks in the yard

2007-02-04T14:16:00.000-08:00

I wondered what was worse: a car on blocks in the yard, or a broken hot tub? A friend pointed out that the car-on-blocks was so iconic that it's really hard to get past that image. This, of course, led directly to the idea of a hot tub in the yard, up on blocks.
Here it is

There's a hole in my sunroom where a hot tub used to be

2007-01-27T16:10:00.000-08:00

See the previous entry for the remains of the hot tub. Here is where it used to reside:
Sue's uncle came down for a few days helped in removing the hot tub, and in installing the new joints and subfloor. (And on a side note, I did get to test hauling 4x8 sheets in the new minivan, and it worked well.)

The most tedious part of the whole process was removing the partial tiles from around the hole. When it gets warmer, we're going to install tile.

Hot tub for sale - cheap!

2007-01-20T19:49:00.000-08:00

Some assembly required.

Minivan

2007-01-11T04:57:00.000-08:00

As part of the preparations for the baby, we bought a minivan on Saturday. It's a used 2006 Dodge Grand Caravan. Sadly, we traded in the truck - it was a good truck and I had bought it with the intention of keeping it for a long time. However, the minivan should be a capable replacment vehicle for hauling stuff. All the back seats fold into the floor, and it can hold 4'x8' sheets.

So now we have a video camera and a minivan. I think we're pretty much set for the baby to arrive.

High Tech Mergers

2007-01-07T06:45:00.000-08:00

Inspired after reading about Scranimals, I pondered the possibilities of various technology and internet companies merging. Potential corporate names:

Googazon
Microogle (or Goosoft)
Amabay
Amabaysoft (3 way merger)
Microzon

Video from the new camera

2006-11-26T21:19:00.000-08:00

As part of the preparations for the new baby (oh yeah, in case anyone reading this blog doesn't know - we're expecting offspring in March), I bought a video camera last week (a Canon Elura 100).

While visiting my parent's dairy farm for Thanksgiving, I made this short video on How to chew cud

Bowl bread

2006-11-06T06:15:00.000-08:00

Saturday morning I started the process of making bread. After mixing and kneading, I heated the oven slightly (turn it on, turn it off after a couple of minutes) and put the dough in the oven to rise.

A couple hours later, some other member of our household (who will remain nameless to protect the identity of the guilty), despite having been warned of the bread dough in the oven, started the oven (to preheat it) without removing the dough.

Fortunately (*very* fortunately), the dough was in a metal bowl. When we went to put the chicken in the oven, we discovered, to our horror, that the bread dough was still in there, and well on its way to being baked. An executive decision was made to continue baking the bread on an experimental basis.

The bread baked (although with such a large loaf - it was supposed to make at least 4 regular loaves - the center still wasn't quite done), and came out of the pan quite easily (I had coated it with oil before letting it rise).

And now, I give you:

Bowl bread! (cue mad scientist laughter in the background)
(not to be confused with a bread bowl)

Don't confuse powdered wasabi with baking powder

2006-10-12T21:29:00.000-07:00

Whilst making muffins, I noticed the proximity of the powdered wasabi and the baking powder on the shelf. This led me to contemplate the consequences of accidentally using the wasabi in the muffins.

(I mentioned this thought-mistake to my wife, and she said I should put on the blog. So here it is)

New Diet

2006-08-02T19:30:00.000-07:00

I've been on this great(?) new diet. It lets me eat as much as I want, and no counting calories! I've lost over 15 pounds in just 3 weeks.

I call it the Mono/Pnuemonia diet.

The name isn't quite as catchy as those diets named after trendy places.

The tricky part (which I address in a chapter in my upcoming book) is how to contract mono and pnuemonia at the same time.

Sticky notes and moustaches

2006-06-23T20:57:00.000-07:00

Over on JFKBits, Joel posted some ideas about Annotating web pages using a sticky notes model.

He created a very simple demo. I played with it and took a screenshot. It's quite possibly a shining example of the sort of juvenile behavior this sort of technology is *not* to be used for.

So this leads naturally (in my mind) to the idea of annotating web pages with virtual moustaches and glasses. The idea of virtual graffiti is very appealing as it satisfies two conflicting requirements:

The primal urge to change the world in silly ways.
The changes are not permanent (Note that I don't even like to make serious notes in my own books)

(In the comments of his post, Joel pointed a site with a similar idea www.mystickies.com. I didn't create an account and try it, mostly in an attempt to squelch the impulse to find a flat panel monitor ad and put virtual stickies all over the virtual bezel.)

Insult polishing

2006-04-25T22:13:00.000-07:00

Tonight I mentioned to my wife that I needed to polish my insults - I needed to run them through the dis washer.

More breakfast blogs

2006-04-25T22:04:00.000-07:00

In the course of important daily research, I ran across another breakfast blog. With an important difference - that blog actually talks about breakfast. What a concept.

Another difference is the focus on eggs (according to the tagline, anyway). I dislike eggs for breakfast. Any other time of day eggs are fine (as long as they are fully cooked), but they make me queasy in the morning.

Hot, fresh waffles on the road

2006-03-29T06:40:00.000-08:00

I'm in Arizona, and the hotel I'm staying at offers one item that I've never seen before in a hotel breakfast. A waffle-maker. (And cups of waffle batter.) Pour in the batter, rotate the waffle iron to start the built-in timer (the other nifty feature is the waffle iron rotates), and 2 minutes later you have a hot, fresh waffle.

It was a tasty waffle.

According to reliable sources, at least one other hotel in the area has the same implement of fresh waffleness.

Illegal Sea Food

2006-03-14T19:45:00.000-08:00

There's a place near my hotel that reads "Legal Sea Food" on the awning. I'm not sure if it's a store or a restaurant or something else.

Does this mean there is illegal sea food about?

I've only been in Baltimore a short time, but I haven't seen any shady characters in trench coats whispering "Hey budy, want some prawns?"

Saturday muffin blogging

2006-03-04T20:32:00.000-08:00

Been a while since I've posted any pictures of breakfast foods. Time to get back to my blogging roots and rectify this great omission. This breakfast food picture even comes with a boring, pointless story.

Last week I had a hankering for muffins. Being somewhat competent in the kitchen, I set about on a quest to make some. I consulted my wife's "Joy of Cooking" tome for proper muffin making technique. The key is to keep the wet and dry ingredients separate as long as possible, and mix them just enough to get them sufficiently mixed. To the consternation of assorted bystanders, I actually *measured* most of the ingredients (okay, so I'm embellishing the story a bit - the only bystander was the cat, and he wasn't all that concerned.)

The pictured pineapple-coconut muffin is from my third batch (for the record, the first batch was blueberry, and the second batch was raspberry).

The recipe called for 4 teaspoons of baking powder. After reading the baking powder label, this seemed like a lot of sodium, so I reduced it to 2 teaspoons. The muffins still appeared to rise okay, and were still tasty.

Naming your new variables

2006-01-23T20:58:00.000-08:00

There are these lists around of popular baby names for a given year. (No links, do your own Google search). I wonder what such a list would look like if someone did the same tabulation for variable names in programs? How would it change over the years? ("i" and "j" would probably be perennial favorites, with "idx","indx",and "index" not far behind)
Seeing the lists broken down by "ethnicity" (ie, programming language) would be interesting as well.

On a related note, expectant parents have books of baby names at their disposal for aid in choosing a name. I wonder if programmers could use such a resource to assist in naming their variables (and functions and namespaces, etc)?
(Actually, a thesaurus is handy for that purpose. (Ugh, I just answered my own rhetorical question))

Questions from the Edge

2006-01-10T19:40:00.000-08:00

The Edge asks a big question annually. This year, it is: What is your dangerous idea? They have a pile of responses from scientists and other notable people. Many of them have to do with brain and biology, others have to do with religion and science, and there are sundry other topics discussed Give it a read (You'll have to scroll down a ways past all the blurbs to get the actual responses on the first page).

Recasting Harry Potter

2005-12-03T14:36:00.000-08:00

Raymond Chen's picks for a humorous (perhaps nightmarish) recasting of Harray Potter. Mr. T as Hagrid is brilliant!

Coincidence in the library?

2005-11-03T19:29:00.000-08:00

While browsing at the library this evening, I noticed the books on codes and cryptography were right next to the books on Word (like "Word 2000 for Dummies").
Coincidence?

Daylight Savings too commercial

2005-10-31T20:22:00.000-08:00

Daylight savings time has lost its way. It's become a big, commercialized, impersonal event. We get so busy with all the hoopla and fanfare, we rush around like mad and never stop to consider the true meaning of the event anymore. It used to be that stores put up their displays at the proper season, but now - now it's barely past Labor Day and every store is decked out in daylight savings time dioramas.

That's just one complaint, and a surface complaint at that. No, the real issue goes deeper. I feel it my heart. I have become distracted. Some years, I think I just want to throw off all the endless festivities that purport to celebrate, but somehow, seem to drain the season of all meaning. One year I'll actually do it - no parties, no festivals, no made-for-TV movies, none of the accoutrements that we consider indispensible - just a single, solitary observance focused on the true meaning of daylight savings time.

In the final analysis, it's not daylight savings time that has lost its way. It is we who have lost our bearings. But it doesn't have to be that way. Will you join me in rediscovering the joyful simplicity that is the end of daylight savings time?

Unnatural fashion chimeras

2005-10-27T20:17:00.000-07:00

Whilst listening to 80's music tonight, I suddenly had a vision of stonewashed baggy jeans, with rips in the knees. (Perhaps worn by a rapper with Big Hair (TM)?)

On a similar note, would it even be possible to tight roll baggy pants?

And the cultural collision images kept coming - two guys collide, their clothes get mixed up - "Hey, you got your hip hop in my disco." Second guy - "Hey, you got your disco in my hip hop".