2nd workout

Well, it was a bit cold (~40F) in shorts, and the long sleeves did not help either, but we COMPLETED the 2nd run of week 1.

Found a fairly flat road area near the new Ball Ground City Hall that goes for about 1.3 miles. Until we get much more progressed, this will do just fine.

We might have to do 2 weeks per week to let our old, decrepit bodies catch up. or hire paramedics to be follow us around the circuit with oxygen and a defibrillator...

the podcasts are awesome to help pace you. I can see why I stopped running intervals before with trying to run, watch the watch, count intervals, etc. It is MUCH easier to just listen and do. It is also rather rewarding as you hit the end of the run segments.

I think if we are able to maintain this, maybe I will try to combine the techno beats at low volume with audio books. how cool would that be? run and read.

Found a GREAT deal on Nike Air Pegasus+ for 40.00 for me and 52.00 for her, plus 14.00 for shipping and tax. And they are Nike+iPod compatible.

gonna try to walk the circuit on off days to keep blood moving.

new runnings - Couch to 5k

Well, found Couch to 5k a while back. Friend was talking about it
which reminded me.

Wife said she wanted to try, so off we went. I was certainly game
to try. getting too close to type II & at 270 lbs, this is enough.

Found this: http://c25k.com/ with nice resources.

I liked these mixes:
http://www.djsteveboy.com/intervals.html
not a huge techno fan, but it is good to run & walk to.

Carol thinks she might prefer these:
http://www.buriedtalentsband.com/C25K/
they are cool, but a bit mellow for me.

ran week 1 today at the small park in Ball Ground.
44F is a bit cold, but we did it. since we just went around the park,
I have no idea how much we covered, and don't really plan to
measure and track it. This park does not even have a loop, so we
just went back and forth. Looking for a better place nearby. I really
don't want to drive all the way to high school...

When I progress to one of the other tracks such as gateway to 8k,
maybe I'll splurge for us and get some running schwag such as Nike
tracking units or something.

check back to see our progress.

move back to Florida? no thanks.

For some reason, we were moving back to Florida. Near the beach, somewhere near Hillsboro in Deerfield Beach. Why, I do not know what drove this.

The house we were buying was right on the beach, sort of. just wait.

It was beautiful house, lots of rock and hardwood, with a fireplace (who needs a fireplace in Florida?) Even a rock covered staircase from the 2nd floor down to the ground near the beach. But we can hardly see the ocean. :-o

Well, as it turns out, that is because we are on the far end from the water on a small strip mall.....

near the ocean is a restaurant. between the restaurant and our house, a spa, and our house shares a wall with the spa. Odd.

The rock covered staircase really took the cake, however. It was fabulous looking!

We were trying to arrange some sort of sawap for out house to this one.

No idea if it was successful.

time changes and jet lag suck

Here's why:
I am 5 hours ahead of where I belong. I am up until 3am or so local time EVERY NIGHT.


PLUS, THIS Saturday, This area goes SPRING FORWARD. So, my flight Sunday morning
is NOT 6:15, it is effectively 5:15.

crap. I get to lose TWO hours.

oh well, at least I get home Sunday before dark. I hope I can sleep OK Sunday night so I can
be mostly effective Monday at work.

menu in Aix-en-Provence, France

Arrived Monday at 2pm.
Dinner (at pleasant cafe)
Pork Shish-ka-bob with pineapple (ananas), Lettuce, Green Peas
Fruit and Ice Cream
Coffee

Tuesday
Breakfast (at hotel - continental)
OJ, coffee, sourdough roll, cheese, cereal and milk, yogurt

Lunch (at Atmel facility)
beef with sauce, rice, green beans
apple pie
coke light

Dinner (24 hour cafe)
mussels in white wine sauce
beef (skirt steak seasoned and cooked med), lettuce, fries
fruit

Wednesday
Breakfast (at hotel - continental)
oj, coffee, croissant, cheese, cereal and milk, yogurt

Lunch (at Atmel facility)
beef chunks in sauce. cauliflower puree, green beans, hard roll, apricots in yogurt
custard pie
coke light

Dinner (at fabulous vineyard/olive press)
wine tasting - fascinating
eggplant mousse with spicy sauce on crackers, wine
roasted duck (the best I could imagine), wine, twice baked potato
wine, zucchini squash
creme brule, cheese on bread, dessert wine
coffee

Thursday
Breakfast (at hotel)
oj, coffee, hard roll with ham and cheese

Lunch (at Atmel facility)
ground beef steak, fries, green beans
custard pie
coke light

Dinner (at best cafe except for vineyard)
prawns and whitefish on light bread
wine
steak with peppercorn sauce, lettuce, fries
lemon meringue pie
grand marnier
a bite of creme brule

Breakfast (at hotel - continental)
oj, coffee, sourdough roll with cheese and ham

Lunch (at Atmel facility)
beef with Roquefort sauce, green peas/carrots
butterscotch pudding
coke light

Dinner (cafe near sam's pub pool hall)
salad with very tangy dressing
grand marnier
wine
lasagna with massive cheese and cream
custard with caramel sauce (similar to flan)

Breakfast none

Lunch
crepe with apricot
coke light

Dinner
duck breast with green beans and fries
coke light
'float' meringue on top of egg cream
grand marnier


Breakfast (at airport in Marsailles)


Lunch (In Paris at airport



my memory might be a bit hazy on the lunches. there was lots going on during the days!!

bye bye Mot

Well, the shoes have begun dropping on my friends back in Florida at Motorola. I think Scott Adams had it exactly when certain corp types were unfavorably compared to drunken lemurs.

How fortunate was I to get relo to 'home' then cut loose to land where I did.

Right now, I am on what I call a high class problem. Here is my schedule for the last several days. Once you get to the end, you will understand the high class part.

Sat before Easter morning: in an endeavor to prove our total insanity and lack of self-preservation and reason, out church therevolution.tv decided to put out big ads and drop several thousand eggs from a helicopter. (yep, a helicopter.) So, being motivated and involved, we rose at 6am to be there by 7am to setup. You can see the carnage here http://www.garylamb.org/2008/03/26/easter-egg-dropthe-rest-of-the-story/

so, after the drop, my son had to be at work at 2pm. He was livid that he and mom did not just wait in line. But we persisted to not waste that much time and gas. At 1pm, we left the park and quickly drove home. He was just in time to work. He worked until 11pm. (keep that time.)

I actually got a 2 hour power nap, because it gets worse.

At midnight, after the last movie, we arrived to set up the stage and lights. We bought 8 new lights and a new board to control them. the board has a steep learning curve, so our main light operator was prepared to spend all night getting ready for Easter Sunday mornings.

We put the lights, set their control channels, and strung all the control cables. my son (worked from 2 to 11) helped all night as well. He finally got a 1/2 hour nap at 4:30am.

The lights looked fabulous. After the 2 services, we put the toys away. I feel badly for the team this coming Sunday. The new lights take a LOT of time to put in place and get cabled.

After lunch, we all went home and took a nap. We felt great. At 5pm, we headed to the airport for my high class part. I had a 10pm flight to Marseilles (yep, on the Mediterranean Sea) via Paris. I arrived in Marseilles at 2pm Monday. I got some sleep, but not much on the flight.

Very compact hotel room, but quite comfortable and quaint. nice people. good food.

Tuesday, our training began. All day each day until the end of the day Friday. I get to do some sightseeing Saturday, and fly out of Marseilles at 6am Sunday. I get back to airport at 2pm Sunday afternoon. Time for another nap.

I wonder how long the lights will take this week? I bet it takes > 1 extra hour.

where is this really?

OK. we live on a hill. The driveway goes down rather straightly on a not too steep slope to the road below.

In this dream, we found a cover over a hole down the drive, just to the side. Opening it exposed a LARGE chamber, about 20 feet vertically, with various water and electrical equipment. However, the water equipment is out of place, since we have a well, and the well and pump are at the TOP of the hill, near the house. Also was some electrical equipment that I do not understand. The main part was set of coils wound of 8 inch PVC that ranged from closely wound turns to more loose turns. What it was for, I have no clue. I THINK there was a generator there as well, or a pump. It's a bit hazy. There was a 4 inch or so water pipe that went into an opening that was rather large, and behind this, and under the drive was a wall of concrete, and the water pipe entered into this. The water pipe went to some other confusing equipment that looked vaguely like a very large farm pump with elbows and joints, then toward the house....

As we were looking into the hole, Will, our 15 yr old, fell in. He hit the floor in a heap, and jumped up exclaiming "I'm good." and headed for the stairs. (WHERE did the stairs come from? AND where do they go?) So, after Will scrambles up the stairs, he is back with us. (WHERE do the stairs come out???)

Man, we can use the chamber for such cool storage and parties! if only it were really there...

WHERE do these come from?

OK. Our church is portable. A group of workers arrives at 5am to assemble the stage,
then I arrive about 5:30 to wire and setup the DMX lighting system. This involves placing
and mounting several spot and flood lights and wiring XLR cables in a daisy chain to control them all.

So, here is the dream I had......

I arrive, and there is no setup crew. We are not in the movie theater, but in some gymnasium type
building with a very high ceiling. There is a carpet on the floor (another thing we do not have) and several power cords staged for band use. Now, it appears we are under the stage, and it is MUCH higher than normal. Then I realize the stage has not been setup at all.

So, I find several people (including some former Florida friends, some of whom are now in Texas.) and we begin assembling the stage.

Of course, we are unhappy to have to do his since we are not supposed to need to do this, we are late, the stag parts are heavy, we ar not fully certain how they all assemble so we are not sure we are doing it right, etc, etc, etc....

WHERE does this come from? I did not have a huge or spicy dinner ;-) very odd.

Scott Adams has maybe the easiest job on Earth

let's see.
1. draw a comic strip.
2. read the news.
3. re-read in sheer disbelief a news story about a poor schlub getting
FIRED for putting Dilbert strip on wall at work.
4. Draw comic about someone getting fired for .... well I bet you can guess.

The other rather ironic part? the place was closing due to










wait for it








It will be worth it...







just a bit more





poor management.

never would have guessed that would you!


I can hear Scott now, laughing all the way to the bank and saying..
"You just can't make this stuff up."
"These things write THEMSELVES!!!

hardware vs software

hardware is neat, hardware is impressive, but without software, the led does not blink.


software is neat, software is impressive, but without hardware the bits flip, but the LED does not light.

hardware tech vs software engineer.

password rules for corporations

What the crap is it with companies that they want to make their passwords so onerous that you end up WRITING THE PASSWORD DOWN in order to have ANY chance of logging in later. And, wow, heaven forbid that you seldom log into that particular system. I have had more than I can count experiences where I had to reset a password for some system I used maybe 2 or 3 times a year. so, here, without delay, is the new passowrd rules for any company where the IToids are in charge over common sense.

Password selection rules

CORPORATE DIRECTIVE NUMBER 08-570471

In order to increase the security of all company computing facilities, and to avoid the possibility of unauthorized use of these facilities, new rules are being put into effect concerning the selection of passwords. All users of computing facilities are instructed to change their passwords to conform to these rules immediately.

RULES FOR THE SELECTION OF PASSWORDS:

1. A password must be at least six characters long, and must not contain two occurrences of a character in a row, or a sequence of two or more characters from the alphabet in forward or reverse order. Example: HGQQXP is an invalid password. GFEDCB is an invalid password.

2. A password may not contain two or more letters in the same position as any previous password. Example: If a previous password was GKPWTZ, then NRPWHS would be invalid because PW occurs in the same position in both passwords.

3. A password may not contain the name of a month or an abbreviation for a month. Example: MARCHBC is an invalid password. VWMARBC is an invalid password.

4. A password may not contain the numeric representation of a month. Therefore, a password containing any number except zero is invalid. Example: WKBH3LG is invalid because it contains the numeric representation for the month of March.

5. A password may not contain any words from any language. Thus, a password may not contain the letters A, or I, or sequences such as AT, ME, or TO because these are all words.

6. A password may not contain sequences of two or more characters which are adjacent to each other on a keyboard in a horizontal, vertical, or diagonal direction. Example: QWERTY is an invalid password. GHNLWT is an invalid password because G and H are horizontally adjacent to each other. HUKWVM is an invalid password because H and U are diagonally adjacent to each other.

7. A password may not contain the name of a person, place, or thing. Example: JOHNBOY is an invalid password.

Because of the complexity of the password selection rules, there is actually only one password which passes all the tests. To make the selection of this password simpler for the user, it will be distributed to all supervisors. All users are instructed to obtain this password from his or her supervisor and begin using it immediately.

feb 1

getting my digit back.

atmel

well, they finally found a pen, and we finally got together.

I really do appreciate DRC and Sherman for stepping up and working with me
after mot gave me the k.o.d., but they pay way below market.

this should get my digit back. and cut my commute costs by >80% as well.

more later

dreams

what a bizarre dream.
several of us standing around where I used to work.
Jo, Tim, Knox, me.

Jaime in his office, and some sort of panel had come loose on the wall.

we began our bad geek jokes about escape hatches, etc.

jaime came out with the panel he had been trying to get back in place, and it was
a shelf cubbie. He opened it and inside was an old MS office set of manuals
from when word, excel, ppt were all individual, and were just boxed together
and called office. In this were some Microsoft pencils for some reason. I quickly grabbed
2, pulled the eraser off one and held it up and in my best TV announcer voice, noted:
Microsoft: Word 1.0
then held up the other one and announced:
new from Microsoft: Word 1.1, now with undo.

wow. geek much?