According to a new article from AppleInsider today, there may be 14 new Mac products next week, most likely to be announced at the WWDC.
I am a big proponent of finding a viable biofuel alternative to oil for energy in the United States. Ethanol is a good choice but it's been a question whether or not it would be profitable and cost-effective. A new paper published today in the Proceedings of Natural Sciences clears that all up. Turns out that switchgrass produces 540% more energy than is required to grow it and turn it into ethanol. This should clear the way for large-scale conversion of marginal farmland into switchgrass crops.
I support English as the official language of the United States. I do so because having an official language is more efficient and less costly than other alternatives. You only need to look as far as Canada and the European Union to understand why a single, common language is the best choice. The national languages of Canada are English and French, despite the fact that 90% of Canadians speak only English. The European Union has to contend with 25 or so official languages. Citizens of both Canada and the European Union complain about the costs of not having a single, common language. An example of this expense is the cost of translating and printing of government publications in the EU. Every proclamation and law has to be translated and printed in 25 languages, i.e. German to French, French to Spanish, German to Latvian, and so on.
Anyone who spends time around me will eventually see me wearing gear from The North Face. Inevitably I find myself explaining why I buy stuff from The North Face. Most people I talk to think that North Face gear is overpriced. I agree that gear from The North Face tends to cost more than other brands of similar gear. However, the price is justified by the quality and reliability of the gear.
I saw something kind of silly today on my way to work. It was sprinkling slightly with occasional bouts of actual rain. A school bus winds its way around our subdivision and stops at various corners to pick up elementary school children. Today, a big black Hummer was waiting at a usual corner stop. The bus pulled up and two or three children got out of the Hummer and onto the bus. The Hummer then proceeded to drive back home, about 200 feet away. That's right, not even a full city block's distance away.
Ahu and I went on the 2nd Annual Chicago Luxury Home Tour on September 17th. The Tour is sort of like a mass open house for new luxury homes. A number of builders in the Chicago area open up various homes to the general public. The homes are typically over 5,000 square feet in size and priced over $1 million. The Tour is, for many people, the only way to see first-hand inside the homes of the very wealthy. For those who are very wealthy, it is a chance to see the craftsmanship of these builders and to help determine which builder would be the right builder for their new dream home.
This article was sent to me by email. It's quite interesting when you consider the way things are today versus the way things used to be.
Just returned from a long weekend in Door County, Wisconsin, with Ahu, parents, and Randy and Tiffany. More soon...
I think I have finally worked out the comments functionality in the Narrative CMS. As originally posted here, I have, in past months, had a lot of problems with comment spam. Unscrupulous marketers send out spambots which crawl my website, leaving advertisement comments on every page that accepts comments. To end this, I implemented a captcha system which defeats spambots by requiring a security code before submitting comments. The security code is displayed as an image on the page and all the user has to do to submit a comment is to type in the code in the image. Easy for people to do, hard for spambots to do. This solved the comment spam problem. However, in recent months I migrated Narrative to a on-demand build model. This means that the content on this website is static and is only refreshed when content is added, deleted, or changed. When a comment is submitted, it is displayed on the page with the article that the comment is about. This is a kind of indirect change to the content. So I needed a mechanism for Narrative to accept comments, save them into the database, and then automatically rebuild the originating article page. Additionally, certain other pages - such as the home page - need to be rebuilt also to show that comments are now present. Without getting into the technical challenges, the end solution is a combination of AJAX and server-side modules working together. Now when you post a comment, your comment is saved and the page is rebuilt and refreshed in your browser instantly. Let me know what you think.
Apparently, according to the all-knowing Wikipedia, I also have the same birthday as the following people:
I started a new blog called The Weekly Edge which can be found at http://www.weeklyedge.com. I will be blogging the best of technology news once a week on Fridays. Consider it a summary of the most important technology news of the week.
If there is one thing every American has known for a long time it is that we should be driving more fuel-efficient cars. Everyone knows it. In science class growing up we get lessons on pollution, history classes on the oil shortages of the 1970s, and regular reminders as America goes off to war to stabilize a region we depend on for oil. Unfortunately, fuel efficiency is like weight loss in the United States - something everyone knows is good for them but something few are successful in achieving.
The unfolding events in New Orleans this week are truly a tragedy. The months following Hurricane Katrina will be a living nightmare for many. It is, quite possibly, the end of New Orleans as we have known it - the birthplace of jazz and home to some of the best food in the world - and this in tandem with other significant destruction and loss of life in Louisiana and Mississippi.
I recently built my own bookcase. Not from a kit, not from a box, but from real lumber, screws, and work. The bookcase took only 3 1/2 hours to complete.
In our modern goal-driven society, it seems to be a common tasks for one to create a list of "things to do before you die". There are quite a few of these lists on the Internet these days. I have created an index of these for reference. I may also share my list at some point.
UPDATED! Since the launch of Google Maps a few months ago, a lot of people have been inspired to create websites dedicated to exploring the world through these map. Additionally, a few innovative websites have been created which combine the mapping functionality with useful data from other sources. There seem to be so many, actually, that I decided to create my own list of them to keep track:
It's a strangely pleasant feeling having a bowl of cereal for breakfast in the morning as an adult. After years of having "breakfast bars" and similar fare, it's nice to get a good bowl of oatmeal to start the day.
Mountaineer Ed Viesturs became the first American to summit all 8,000+ meter peaks in the world without supplemental oxygen. It's taken 16 years but he finally pulled it off. Annapurna was his last peak, one that has taken him three attempts to conquer. There's a great story on this in the August 2005 issue of Men's Journal magazine.
The server hosting this website has moved. It used to be hosted at ServerBeach and I was paying about $120 a month for a dedicated server there. I got kind of tired of that and so I set up a dedicated server in the basement of my house. The server running this site is now more powerful than the old one but the upload speed of my home network connection is only around 384 K so the site might seem slower to you. If so, too bad, I'm saving $1000+ a year.
I've been waiting for this movie for a very long time.
Saw this one over the past weekend and it was pretty fun. Not good, mind you, but relatively fun. Pitt and Jolie have real chemistry on-screen and its enjoyable to see them dodge and parry with each other during the more heated moments of the film.
Well, after the Winter Quarter ended at DePaul, my focus has been almost entirely on getting in shape for the summer season of track cycling. What is track cycling, you ask? It's bicycle racing around a banked track called a velodrome. Track cycling is not a very popular sport in the United States. There are only 18 velodromes in the United States compared with over 70 velodromes in Japan, for example. Cycling in the United States is dominated by road cyclists, inspired by Lance Armstrong, and mountain bikers. Due to the lack of velodrome access, there are less than 1,500 competitive track cyclists in the United States and only a handful of those compete at the Elite level. Since two of the U.S. velodromes are in the Chicago area, I decided to take up the sport.
Ah, Slashdot... Someone posted images from the new Star Wars movie last week. There were about 80 images leaked in total covering every major scene in the movie: The Revenge of the Sith.
I recently received a strange letter in the mail. I haven't actually opened it as it was not addressed to me. In fact, the address is the weird part of the letter:
I am a new Amazon Prime customer. What is Amazon Prime? Well, I paid $79 and for a year I get unlimited 2-day shipping. And if I want it overnight, I pay only an extra $3.99. Now, I've already placed 7 or 8 orders in the few weeks since I went Prime. So, say $80 divided by 8 orders is $10 per order, so far, to get 2-day shipping. That will continue to be diluted with every order I place in the next year. Last year I placed 20 orders with Amazon. That would have brought the per-order shipping cost down to $4 per order for 2-day shipping. That number, by the way, is unheard of for that kind of expedited shipping. FedEx 2-day shipping is around $12 for a 1 lb. box. So I'm getting a good deal. But how is Amazon going to continue to pull this off? One major difference between last year's orders and this year's orders is that last year's orders required a minimum purchase of $25 to get free shipping. So for all of those orders, I had at least $25 worth of goods in the order. Now that I have unlimited shipping, I just click the "1 Click" button that buys and ships in one click. So I've been getting $6 items and $12 items sent to me in separate 2-day shipments. Given the FedEx rate, that would be $12 in shipping costs for a $6 item. Amazon must be getting a huge discount or they have figured out some other interesting arrangement with FedEx. Either that or they didn't plan on customers like me.
I was listening to the news on the way home last night and heard some guy being interviewed about sick days and whether to take a sick day or not. The guy was some union worker and he said that the first thing he learned when he started working at a union shop was to never, ever take a sick day when actually sick. Always drag your ass in to work no matter how sick you are so that you can use your sick days for something fun, like fishing. Seriously, he said fishing. This whole concept is wrong on so many levels, not the least of which is the fact that when you are sick and at work, you are getting everyone else sick. I have already blogged about this before so no more here. But it just goes to show yet another reason why businesses don't like unions.
The Airbus A380 is the first "superjumbo" jet in the world. It has two full decks and carries 555 passengers in its nominal configuration. Other aircraft have had a second deck but no other airplane in the world has two complete decks. The A380's top deck carries 200 passengers. In an economy-class only seating configuration, the A380 will carry almost 900 passengers. The wingspan of the A380 is almost the length of a football field.
Ahu and I saw this movie last weekend. I had heard that it was one of the best movies of the year. An interesting attraction for me was that wine played a major role in the movie. We saw it at the Marcus Cinema in Elgin. It was definitely one of the best movies I've seen in a long time. It contains two or three of the funniest scenes ever. One scene has to do with a discussion around drinking merlot wine. Another scene occurs when one of the characters shows up at a motel door completely naked. The last scene has to do with recovering someone's "lost" wallet. This last one was so funny I was crying and couldn't catch my breath.
Anyone know where I can get a bottle of this stuff?
Oh, man... I was looking for a song, somehow stumbled onto the Wikipedia entry for American Pie, clicked on the Stifler link, which led to the "stif-meister" link...
Is "statuses" even a word??? How about "statuseseses"???? Ah, anyway, I saw this:
I have always heard about this mysterious "Lake Effect Snow" but have never seen it firsthand. I still haven't seen it firsthand but I do have a satellite photo which shows what it looks like from orbit. If you live in Michigan, be afraid, be very afraid:
Another excellent movie and a very good sequel from Quentin Tarantino. Not quite as good as the first but still great. Each movie was written in its own style and are completely different from each other. This one focuses less on the martial arts and more on character development and story.
Wow. What an awesome movie. To start, I've now seen both 1 and 2 and my favorite of the two is the first one. I really enjoyed the swordplay. Gotta give Uma Thurman a lot of respect. She must have worked out and practiced for hundreds of hours to get those moves down.
I loved this novel. I read it while I was in Turkey for J's wedding at the end of October. What an interesting glimpse into the future. The premise regards a huge, innovative company whose primary product is a near-perfect matchmaking service. Behind the service is an AI construct which uses a variety of complicated algorithms to pair men and women together.
I am starting to evolve a strategy to win more auctions while paying as little as possible. If you are familiar with eBay, you know that it allows you to see items up for auction, sorted by time left in the auction. Of particular interest are those items which are down to less than an hour. Those items show up in red in the list.
I have finally discovered eBay. You'd think being a web developer and all, and especially one who thrived and survived in the dotcom bubble days, that I would have discovered it before. But, alas, it always seemed a little too good to be true for me. When I think of auctions, I usually think of some old guy with a loud voice selling off junk seized in a police drug raid.
I took the file extension quiz to see what file extension I am. If you have no idea what I am talking about, you don't spend enough time on the web. My file extension is:
I recently found myself surrounded by college-age kids discussing pointillism. Pointillism is the technique of applying many small strokes or dots of color to a surface so that when viewed at distance, the dots come appear to come together in a larger, cohesive image.
Wow! Another fantastic book from Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. This one again features our favorite hero - A. X. L. Pendergast - and brings back some old characters from earlier novels. Similar to Cabinet of Curiosities and Still Life with Crows, this plot features a series of inexplicable crimes.
Election Day is November 2nd this year. Election Day is always the Tuesday after the first Monday of November. Since Monday is the 1st, we have the earliest Election Day that is possible.
Two of my favorite people got engaged this past weekend! I'm really excited and happy for them - they are a great match for each other! I was lucky enough to be around when they met and to see them become friends and to see that friendship grow into something much more. I always hoped that the guy would be smart enough to realize what an amazing woman he was with and, apparently, after all his crazy misadventures, he is. She has a beautiful ring and I'm certain his proposal was very memorable. So congratulations to both of you! I wish you the best!
There is a debate going on between afficionados of the movie The Big Blue. However, before I can describe the debate, a little background info is required. The Big Blue is or was a French movie and when released in Europe, was met with great critical approval. It was considered an avant garde art house movie and enjoyed a successful theater run in Europe. The excellent soundtrack was written by Eric Serra.
There have been some changes to ForkBender.com recently. These are due to me getting closer and closer to the 1.0 release of the Narrative CMS and finalizing some design decisions.
Chicago has a lot of tollways. The history of the tollway is kind of interesting. Supposedly the idea of the toll was created so that the toll would be charged to pay for the creation of the tollway. In other words, Illinois would build the road but you would have to pay to use it, at least until the cost of building the road was recouped. Of course, it turns out that tollways need to be repaired and resurfaced every so often so instead of getting rid of the toll when the road was paid off, they kept the toll to pay for ongoing maintenance. So we have lots of tollways in Chicago and a lot of gridlock during rush hour because of all the people who have to look around for change to pay the toll.
Last Tuesday night I was driving home from class and had a bit of a problem with the Jeep. We've had the Jeep since October 2002 so its about 2 years old. There are 38,000 miles on it so far. Recently my brother was in the Jeep with me and said it sounded a little loud and maybe was making a grinding noise in the front. I didn't really notice anything. Of course, when you drive a car everyday, you might not notice gradual changes if they are very small. But a little bit of change day to day adds up to a big change after two years. This was one of those cases but I didn't realize that until too late.
UPDATE: This link is currently broken. I am searching for a new link. In the meantime, this site has many Office Space quotes and some audio files from the movie:
Along the lines of The Eight, this novel is a highly intellectual fictional rendering. All of the author's books start off in Castilian Spanish and are translated to English by Sonia Soto. The author was formerly a Spanish journalist and has a rich knowledge of European history, music, literature, as well as geography and eccelesiastical facts. The Club Dumas is about rare books and 19th century serial fiction. There is an occult touch also which lends a slightly horrific turn to the story. Another recommended novel but be sure to have a Latin dictionary close at hand to look up some of the ancient text included in the novel.
I found this movie to be very disturbing but an excellent movie nonetheless. It was disturbing in a different way than The House of Sand and Fog was. This time the bad feelings came from the treatment of the Polish Jews by the German soldiers. Its truly unsettling to see fellow humans treated like animals. It was a tragic time and the story is about a famous pianist who manages to survive the war. Definitely worth seeing at least once. I rented the movie through Netflix and then bought the soundtrack, which is filled with moving classical piano pieces.
This is book 10 in the Prey series. I enjoyed this one immensely. There are two "villains" in this novel, both of whom are women. You find out who they are right at the beginning and then the rest of the novel goes back and forth between the villain narrative and the Lucas Davenport narrative. Both are worthy adversaries. One of the women is truly an imaginative piece of work.
This was pretty good. Another book about a disease which almost wipes out the world. After you read enough of these, they get kind of old - virtually the same plot across the board. This one is slightly different in that it really delves into the vectors through which the pathogen is transmitted.
Another excellent Elvis Cole novel. This one has Elvis making a trip to New Orleans. Lots of interesting characters and very good humor.
I read a happy, yet aggravating, news item in the MIT Technology Review today. A drug company in China is putting a SARS vaccine into human trials this month. That's right, they've already got a vaccine for SARS. Of course, it might not work, but considering SARS has only been around for maybe TWO years max, I think that's pretty good. In fact, I bet the AIDS patients around the world who have HIV and have been waiting for a vaccine for TWENTY years are kind of ticked off. China cranks out a SARS vaccine in 2 years and the U.S. can't figure out HIV in 20 years. Just wait until their full-blown stem cell program gets going. China has no restrictions on stem cell research so they are light years ahead of the U.S. there. It won't be long before all the new drugs are coming from China and other non-restricted Asian companies. Of course, we won't be able to get any of these drugs because of the FDA but that's another rant...
Just an interesting aside... I had lunch today at Chipotle, which is quite normal. So did this other guy in front of me in the line. The guy is a rail, I mean, literally 130 lbs. at most and taller than me. He gets a Bol with rice and chicken and not a lot of rice. It was the wimpiest little Chipotle I've ever seen. Not even any no calorie flavor add-ins like onions, green peppers, and lettuce. My Bol, which comes standard with mucho rice, mucho vegetables, chicken, EXTRA chicken, corn, another scoop of corn, sour cream, cheese, and lettuce looked like a real meal. His Bol looked like the results of someone wiping scraps off of a couple tables. When we go to the register, the checkout guy had to control a laugh when our Bols ended up side by side, it was so ridiculous. And I had to control an urge to say "Well, another example where mine's bigger than yours!"
Tonight was the most incredible night of any Olympic Games I've ever seen. And I've seen every Olympics since I was old enough to watch television. The Olympic Games were always on at my house. At every games I knew all the best athletes and tuned in for every special event.
Well, finally, after months and months of waiting, Doom 3 has finally been released. I received my copy from Amazon.com two days after the release date. I've played all of the previous incarnations of Doom, from the first release of Doom through Ultimate Doom, Doom 2, etc. I think I've played all of them through to the last level but no longer remember what's what.
Masquerade is the 8th novel I've read since moving to West Dundee. I've read other books by Lynds where she was a co-author with Robert Ludlum. As a soloist, she writes in such a way that you'd think Ludlum were the author. Reading Masquerade is a lot like reading a Jason Bourne novel, all international espionage and intrigue, assassins, and memory loss.
This is a powerful, but disturbing film. Ahu and I saw this on Saturday night and thought and talked about it for days afterwards. Jennifer Connelly and Ben Kingsley play their parts in the movie with amazing emotion and belief. Jennifer plays a jobless alcoholic who gets evicted from her home for not paying some taxes. Kingsley plays an Iranian colonel who leaves Iran after the overthrow of the government and seeks asylum in the United States. He shrewdly invests in Connelly's house after the seized home is put up for auction by the local government. However, Connelly does not give up easily and her pursuit of this house and the colonel's defense of his ownership results in a tragic struggle. I was amazed at the compassion of Kingsley's character and the members of his family as they confront the woman who would do them in. Ron Eldard fits well in his role as a wayward deputy who gets in over his head. A definite must-see, just watch it when you are in the mood for a thinking movie, not an uplifting or comedic one.
Ah, what joy to see Shakespeare under the stars... Chris and Tessa and Ahu and I had a great evening at the American Players Theater in Spring Green, Wisconsin last Saturday night. While the weather in Chicago looked pretty gloomy, all was made well by the time we got to the theater. In fact, it was a perfect night with fall evening temperatures and not a cloud in the sky or any wind. When the play was underway, there were incredible moments of stillness and quiet, an excellently peaceful occasion.
I have now finished the 9th book in the Prey series by John Sandford. Again, this one had a radically different plot but one that still involves a series of unfortunate victims. The criminals in the Prey books are always unique and fascinating but the part I enjoy most is the progression in the life of Lucas Davenport, the detective hero of the series.
Ah, another Elvis Cole novel put to rest... I enjoy reading detective novels but I think I like the Elvis Cole novels best not so much for the detective aspect of it as much as I just like the characters of Elvis Cole and Cole's partner, Joe Pike.
My parents bought this lamp for their home. Ahu and I liked it so much we bought one just like it for our family room. It casts a beautiful warm light perfectly suited for reading a book by the fireplace.
I ran across this today and about fell off of my chair I was laughing so hard. Finally someone lays out what should be obvious. In particular, I have seen people violating the hair dryer rules in very disturbing ways. I'm always thinking "Is it just me or maybe you're a disgusting freak!!!!" Anyway check this out for a great laugh: http://blogs.slashstar.com/tim/archive/2004/07/14/784.aspx
I really enjoyed this novel from James Rollins. I think I've read all of his books at this point, except maybe one...have to check on that. This one, all 460+ pages, was read over two days. It was tough to put down. The premise of the book centers around some interesting items found at the bottom of the ocean.
When I was looking at the Karate Kid entry, the following recommendation was made:
In the spirit of the new movie, I, Robot, I am posting this link. If I had seen this at the right moment in my life, I am sure I would be doing robotics work now instead of programming. Of course, you can't really have robotics without programming so maybe there's still a chance! (Image: Picture Lloyd Christmas saying to Mary Swanson: "Sooooo you're telling me there's a chance!!!") Be sure to check out the videos of the robot throwing a soccer ball - pretty cool! Myself, I would have done a video of one robot slapping another robot silly and perhaps a quick video of a robot doing a Crane pose a la The Karate Kid and delivering Johhny's finishing kick!
The theme used for Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 is called Royale. It's a very attractive and elegant theme. I now use it on all of my workstations. You can see screenshots here, here, and here. You can download it from here. Once you unzip it, put the DLL in the c:windowsresourcesthemes directory and double-click the Royal.msstyle file to install it.
Since Ahu and I moved to West Dundee, my commute has been about 45 minutes in the morning and around 60 to 75 minutes in the evening. I listen to the radio in the car but I do not listen to the brainless talk radio stations. I usually listen to NPR (WBEZ in Chicago) or news radio WBBM 780. 780 gets old quickly because of the frequent commercials and repeating news stories. I enjoy NPR but between 4 and 6:30 PM, it gets a little repetitive and somewhat boring, depending on the stories. So I subscribed to XM Radio last week and, ever since, my time in the car is an absolute joy!
This is one of the best Prey novels that I've read. It's very different from the others in that Lucas Davenport isn't solving a murder mystery but is rather attempting to stop a crazy escaped convict from taking revenge for his recently killed wife and sister.
For some reason, I seem to have doubled up the images in the garden galleries below. I'll fix them later. Right now, I have a date with my wife!!! See ya!!! All better now!
I've read a number of other Patterson novels. This is an older one, written in 1989, and was somewhat inspired by the 1987 stock market crash. The premise is a weird merging of Viet Nam tragedy and betrayal and Wall Street high finance. The plot was average but some of the characters were memorable. In particular, the characters of Hudson and Arch Carroll were interesting. This novel was of the standard paperback length of around 400+ pages but easily could have been longer with a little more background on the above characters. That background information would have been fascinating, I'm sure, and certainly worth the extra reading. This is a novel that could have been great but was instead mediocre because of missing details and unfulfilled character promises.
Coming back from lunch today I somewhat witnessed an accident between a semi and a maroon passenger car on Lake Cook Road and I-294. I was in front of the maroon car and there was one other car between us. The semi crashed right into the back of the maroon car. We were stopped at a light at the time. The semi driver apparently hadn't noticed in time that the traffic had stopped. The fact that I could see the top of the crumpled trunk above the roof of the passenger car should tell you how much of the car had been squashed by the semi. The engine was also making smoke so my guess is that when a semi smashes the back of a car, the exhaust system is damaged and closed up and this causes some sort of engine damage as well. I would say the car is probably totalled.
This is a new type of crime novel for me - one where the main character is a woman instead of a man. I read about Lucas Davenport in the Prey series and Elvis Cole in Crais' detective novels, but Evanovich's Stephanie Plum is something else. Whereas the male characters mentioned above are seasoned pros, One for the Money details the start of Plum's new career as a bounty hunter.
I have now finished the 7th novel in the Prey series by John Sandford. This one was pretty dark. I find it hard to review these books because of their severe content. Let's just say that the characters in the book pull no punches.
I can't say enough about this movie. I loved it. It really demonstrated a group of people who have the same values and beliefs that I do. I can't remember the last movie made in English that exemplified the Bushido philosophy so accurately. The cast was great. Tom Cruise was okay as Captain Nathan Algren but the really excellent cast members were the Japanese actors. Ken Watanabe was perfect as Katsumoto. His voice was just right for the peaceful leader of the samurai. He has very interesting facial expressions throughout the movie.
I was thinking the other day about how I had not written a letter with pen and paper in years and years. In fact, I may not have scribed such a message since I was a child. I realized that I rely completely on email to communicate with friends and family. Of course I still use that archaic device, the telephone, from time to time but pretty much send electronic mail whenever I want to reach out and touch someone.
I ran across this link on the Internet yesterday. It's written by a woman who lives near the city and rides her Kawasaki Ninja on the roads around the city. She says its the best place in the world to ride because there are no cars or people anywhere to be seen and, therefore, the roads are wide open. She says the roads are in perfect condition because there is no wear and tear on them from constant traffic. Only the occasional blade of grass pokes through a minute crack in the pavement.
I just got a copy of the latest release in the Unreal Tournament tradition. I got it the day it became available and put in at least 4 hours playing it already.
Yes, yes, I know it usually has another name but I attempt to keep things clean on this website. But here is a list of all the things I can think of that piss me off...and trust me, you don't want to be on this list. These are not in any particular order and I am sure the list will grow.
Just like I started keeping track of countries I've been to, now I am keeping track of states I have been to in the United States. Found a neat little map on World66 which allows me to highlight the states I've been to.
The movie Pulp Fiction has a ton of great scenes. One of my favorites is when Vincent takes Mia to the restaurant and she orders a special milkshake:
This is one dark book. This is the third book in the Prey series by John Sandford. I really enjoy reading this series (there are 14 books in the series now) and watching the development of the Lucas Davenport character. In this book, Sandford introduces the Michael Bekker villain. He is the darkest and freakiest serial murderer I've read about in a long time. This book drains you when you read it as it takes a lot to steel yourself against the evil in Bekker's personality. Davenport has a tough time in this book and you feel it right along with him. I was going to go right into the fourth book but my mind needs a rest.
I've decided to start keeping track of the countries I've been to before I forget them. The number after the country name is the number of times I've been there. If there is an asterisk (*) then I've only been in the country during transit, i.e. on the way to another country and thus I've only seen the airport.
Having spent months of my life in Europe while travelling in the last few years, I have compiled a list of differences that an American will find interesting. I'm not sure that all of these are present in every European country but all were present on my recent trip to Austria.
Those who know me know I hardly ever watch television. I don't have time for it. I work my 40-45 hours a week, come home, and then I work on Narrative all night or work out. Sometimes I turn on the TV over dinner. Tonight I did that and caught The Apprentice with Donald Trump. I'm not a big fan of reality shows but I was very impressed by this one. And I can also say that it is obvious why Donald Trump is The Man. He is sharp, decisive, fair, and intelligent, a formidable combination. The group dynamics in the show tonight were fascinating and the conclusion was surprising and intense. I feel I even learned a few things watching him and the others during the show. I plan on watching The Apprentice every Thursday night. It's an hour well-spent.
The news that every Best Western hotels in the US will have free wireless is awesome! I became a Best Western fan when Ahu and I were travelling through Europe on our honeymoon. We could pretty much count on finding a BW in almost every city we went and could rely on the quality being relatively good in each one. The fact that they are offering free WiFi now makes it a good choice for us in the US as well. I am hoping that this will encourage other hotels to provide similar service and pricing. Nothing I hate more than going to a hotel and having to pay a $10 or more daily free for Internet access.
I received a package from Amazon.com the other day with a bunch of books I ordered. I tend to order three or more books at once from Amazon. I "stock up" on the books I am looking forward to reading. I only buy books that I have had on my Wish List for awhile. I have a 6-page Wish List so I won't run out of candidates for purchase anytime soon. But when I opened the box up, I had a flashback to my childhood and the excitement of receiving a package from the Weekly Reader Book Club.
Saw this movie while Ahu and I were getting over the flu. I'm assuming it's the first movie that Brittany Murphy was ever in. It's not a bad film but there really wasn't that much to the story. Yet another, non-thought-provoking way to blow off a couple of hours.
Wow, we are having a heat wave in Chicago today! It's almost 35 degrees warmer today than it was last Thursday or so. That's the good news. The bad news is that we are still below freezing. That's right. The temperature is 35 degrees warmer and still below 32 degrees. Thursday it was -7. There is just something totally wrong about living in a climate where the temperature can vary so greatly and still be so freakin' cold. Totally, totally wrong...offensively wrong...
I first saw this movie in high school shortly after it came out on video. It is a French film (Le Grande Bleu) that totally bombed in the United States. In fact, I was planning on seeing it at the theater but it came and went so quickly that I did not have the chance.
The second Elvis Cole novel written, Stalking the Angel is about Elvis finding the stolen Hagakure, an antique Japanese manuscript. So far this is even better than the first Elvis Cole novel. More later...
After quite a long break, I am back to writing content for ForkBender.com! It was a busy December with two Christmas weekends, New Year celebrations, finalizing construction details on the house, and all of the ongoing work on Narrative. I should be posting on here much more often now starting with several articles in the next day or so.
What is it with this movie??? Everyone seems to like it! I've even heard it was the best movie of the year!!! Come one - you have got to be kidding! I didn't like the movie at all. I will admit that the computer graphics are awesome. Pixar certainly leads the world in this area. But the story was only okay and the voices were not very interesting. In fact, I really disliked the Marlin character (and it has nothing to do with the Cubs). What a whiney guy! Did they get Woody Allen to voice him, because that would have been quite appropriate. The beginning of the movie is almost depressing and the end of the movie is not really exciting. Just didn't like it, what can I say?
This is yet another war movie along the lines of Black Hawk Down. The story is nothing special but the casting was done particularly well and there is some interesting cinematography. Owen Wilson plays a wisecracking F-18 navigator whose plane crashes. Gene Hackman is the admiral in charge of Wilson's battle group. Pilot crashes, calls for help, admiral sends help...eventually. There is an awesome scene where an F-18 is literally "chased" by missiles. A vivid sound effects track and innovative camera motion make the movie more appealing.
I finally got around to watching this movie...only a few years after it was in the theaters. The movie is a somewhat true-to-life story of Carl Brashears, the first African American to become a Master Diver in the U.S. Navy. He is played by Cuba Gooding, Jr. Robert De Niro plays his harsh instructor Billy Sunday. It's a good introduction to the challenges of early diving as the movie takes place before the invention of scuba gear. The divers walk around the bottom of the ocean in brass shoes and attached air hoses. One of the more interesting movies I have seen recently. If the real Carl Brashears is anything like the guy in the movie, he has got to be one of the toughest Navy men in history.
What can I say? This movie is one of my all-time favorites. It's just sooooo funny! The Dude is the epitome of cool, relaxed, and go-with-the-flow. There are so many great scenes, especially the one at the end with the "wind event". Steve Buscemi is sort of wasted in his role but is still an interesting presence. John Turturro makes a pseudo-cameo in his short role as Jesus Quintana, a bowler on another league team. The scene where he is introduced is hilarious!!! In the end, though, this is a love-hate movie and I know a lot of people who think this movie completely sucks. Oh well, their loss! I think it is great and now own a copy so I can watch it whenever I want!
Last Thursday night, Deloitte's Global Network Services team and a bunch of developers, including myself, went to the newly opened Chicago Indoor Racing complex in Buffalo Grove. The draw of this particular attraction is that you can race go-karts against others and that these go-karts go really fast. Fast enough that no one, even a heavy guy like me, complains about going slow. In fact, several of the guys didn't even push their limits, it's so fast.
I finished scanning in the Rawson family history that my great-grandmother Ruth Rawson Meng wrote 30 years ago. It's a very well prepared document and illustrates perfectly the scholarship that she possessed. I think you will agree it is a very interesting read.
Ahu and I watched this after the X-Men movie tonight - a double feature. Quite an intriguing film with a bit of a twist at the end. Takes place in and around Seattle, Washington and an island off the coast. Just another reminder of the strange and disturbing events in the lives of others.
I recently found myself in need of some AA batteries. I discovered this when I was getting ready to leave work the other night to catch the Metra train downtown for class. So I was on a schedule - I could not miss the train - and yet I needed to make a quick stop somewhere to buy batteries. Since Home Depot is adjacent to the train station, I chose to go there. I drove up at 4:02 PM and parked the car. I walked into the store and made a beeline towards the checkout counters, knowing I would run into some sort of battery display on the way. I picked up my batteries enroute - a nice 12-pack of Duracell Ultra AAs to satiate my energy craving for awhile. It is now almost 4:04 PM.
A futuristic story (thus far) about a submarine cruising the polar ice cap which finds a hidden underwater submarine base (perhaps Russian) which contains life.
I got the 2-disc version of the Matrix Reloaded soundtrack from Borders on recommendation from Carmen. After listening to the album several times, I must say it is an excellent soundtrack. It is as good, if not better, than the original Matrix soundtrack. I am listening to it even now as I write this review.
I have come to the conclusion that one of the reasons I don’t like watching team sports is that I don’t want to develop any sort of identification with a team. When you watch a team – the Chicago Cubs, for instance – you can easily get caught up in the action and start feeling like part of the team (even if you never sit in the dugout). You feel as if the players are friends of yours. You even call them by their first names; not that they would ever know who you are.
Sort of a disturbing film about a convicted drug dealer (Edward Norton) preparing to check into prison to serve a 7 year term for dealing Russian heroin. The excellent cast includes Rosario Dawson, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, and Barry Pepper. Hoffman's role as a preparatory school teacher is of particular interest. This is a Spike Lee "Joint" and as such has numerous scenes which serve no other purpose other than to make a few political statements. There is some moving footage of post 9/11 New York City which fits in as a fitting memorial backdrop. Look for the scene where Norton is talking to himself in the bathroom mirror - a Spike Lee classic - and the discussions between Norton and Pepper in the club. The description of the prison that awaits Norton's character is enough to give any would-be criminal a whole host of second thoughts. Overall, not the best movie I've seen - certainly no Fight Club - but interesting enough to hold your attention for a couple of hours.
After watching all these Cubs games lately, you can't help but remember the Old Navy commercials they are showing with the woman walking around with all the guys smiling and winking. After some research I have found out that it is, indeed, Fran Drescher from the television show "The Nanny". I was shocked, actually, because in the commercial she looks to be about 25 years old. Fran Drescher was actually born in 1957 so that puts her at about 46 years of age. I'd say she has aged quite well...
Anyone reading my site recently knows that I run an Internet radio station called Romance Life Radio on Live365.com. Currently, I have 300 MB of total space for music but only use up about 115 MB. I have lots of room for more songs! Unfortunately, getting new music for the station has required purchasing entire CDs of music for one or two romantic tracks. In general, that is a frustration I think many people have - having to buy a $16 CD for one good song.
I passed the Windows application development exam for the MCSD.NET this morning. Not too bad - a lot of emphasis on Trace and Debug, data binding, deployment, and security. I now have only the Solution Architectures exam left to finish. That one is scheduled for Halloween!
This pretty much sums up how I live my life. My parents will remember that I had a poster on my wall with these rules on it throughout my teenage and college years:
After hearing about the Curse on the Cubs and seeing how they played last night, I have decided that I hate goats. Or at least that loser, idiot, jerk fan who messed up Moises Alou's catch last night. What a colossal faux-pas to make at the worst possible time. The loss of momentum cascaded into a series of setbacks for the Cubs, starting with the error by Gonzalez, then a bunch of hanging pitches from Prior leading to his being taken out of the game, ending with a score of 8 to 3, in favor of the Marlins. All I have to say is that they better win tonight...
I am studying to obtain my MCSD certification. This book is for the Windows apps exam.
Anyone who knows me knows that I am not much of a sports fan. I don't pay attention to any of the major sports teams. I don't know the name of all the football, basketball, or baseball teams. I do know three of them, though - Bears, Bulls, and Cubs - as any kid raised in Illinois does. The Bulls were pretty cool there for awhile when Jordan played for them but just as I moved to Chicago, he quit, and now the Bulls are a nothing-special team again. But, miraculously, the Chicago Cubs are, for the first time in 95 years, in contention for a World Series spot. I started paying attention when they played the last game against Atlanta and won that playoff series. Now I've seen all of the three games thus far in the NLCS and last night's game was the best baseball game I've ever seen. I was busy until the 7th inning and tuned into a tie game. The game went back and forth until the climactic finish where that one guy (as if I have picked up the players' names yet...sheesh) got tagged out between 2nd and 3rd base. Awesome. I was having a great time until I looked at the clock. Two hours had passed watching the 7th, 8th, and 9th innings and the extra two in OT. Then I remembered why I never watch sports games. They take up too much time. If I was truly a fan and watch games all season, I would never get anything done. This site would never be updated because I would not have time to write anything. So I resolved to watch as many of the games as I can and then go back to being a non-fan after the Cubs win the World Series. Then I can say I was there when history was made.
Awesome movie with Tom Hanks, Michael Duncan Clarke, Barry Pepper, and other greats.
Why is it that corporations get so nasty when the economy goes in the tank? It's understandable that when the going gets tough, hard decisions need to be made. But those decisions should be made in an honorable fashion. Unfortunately, however, it seems that some companies can't take this high road approach. A very good example of this has recently come to my attention. Someone I know works for a company that is "down-sizing". I have a problem with the very term "down-sizing" but that is a different commentary. The problem here is that a lot of existing jobs are being merged into one. So if you have two management positions A and B, soon there will be only one position C, which is basically A + B. In the case of this company, they have decided to eliminate A and B and have the individuals in those positions "interview" for the new position C.
This is the best of the Jack Ryan books, in my opinion. The Bear and the Dragon was written after this one but this is still the best. A very compelling and realistic plot. Just like the plot in Debt of Honor was carried out on September 11th, I fully expect that there is some terrorist group out there looking to enact the plot in this novel. Scary stuff but written with genius.
This book was made into a movie but is still best experienced in print. It is in this book that we really start to see more of Mr. Clark, one of the most intriguing characters in this literary genre.
Does anyone actually use these things??? It's pouring rain in Chicago and driving down the road this afternoon I haven't seen a single person with them on despite seeing many cars with this option installed. Go figure. I use mine.
Well, today is the big day (for me) - I have finally turned 31 and am officially, "thirty-something" as Ketra has reminded me. Didn't there used to be some TV show called thirty-something? Probably I didn't ever watch it because the age of 30 seemed quite far away. I can think of friends I haven't seen in awhile where the "while" has gotten to be about 8 years or more even though it seems like last month. Time sure does fly.
I have a large family. The Sieg family in the McLean county area of Illinois alone has well over 100 members. In fact, about 60-70 of these get together every year in the summer for a Sieg reunion. I am working on publishing the history and genealogy of the Sieg family online.
Recently I was informed that the TCF Bank website is not able to provide a list of banks near a given zip code. Surely we have all used a search like this by now. You go to a website, type in your zip code, and the website returns a list of locations which are near the given zip code. You might get a list like this:
On September 6th, 2003 we gathered at Howard's Grove in Wisconsin to run a 5K. It was a bright, sunny day and the run went very well. Our group did very well. Chris Peters got 3rd in his age group and my wife Ahu got 3rd in her age group. Tessa's parents each got 1st in their respective age groups. Ahu set a personal best for the 5K and I set a personal best of 27:50 for the 5K. I've run it faster in practice but this was the fastest I ran it in competition. The next race is the Lake Geneva Triathlon next weekend followed by a 5K in Lake Mills, Wisconsin on October 11th.
Had a chance to go back home for the Labor Day weekend. Great weather on Saturday but nothing but rain on Sunday and Monday. The Friday weather forecast had it as sunny weather all weekend. After thousands of mathematical models, countless hours of supercomputer time, and the dissertations of hundreds of doctoral meteorologists, no one is able to accurately predict the weather. How embarrassing...
I was driving home the other night and chanced upon a jazz tune which had a very "elevator music" sound to it. But then I had to stop and realize that I can't remember when the last time I heard music in an elevator. I assume at one time, elevators did actually have music playing in them???
After much research, study, analysis, and experimentation, I have discerned one more of life's Universal Truths.
I apologize to any faithful readers who have not gotten to see much actual play-by-play commentary lately like I normally write here. I am in the process of bulk-loading the site with archive content so I can test some new features in a few days. I am trying to get a list of all the camping gear, etc. that I own so that I can make checklists for various trips I am planning. Also, Ahu and I have tons of pictures that I need to get online and so I am posting all these image galleries in bulk also. I should have most of this archive content up in a week or so.
I have found a geek movie class at ThinkGeek.com! Take a look at thisOfficeSpace legend!
This last weekend was beautiful in Chicago. The temperature was around 80 degrees during the day and dropped to the 60s at night. Ahu and I spent most of our time by the pool reading and getting some sunshine. We went to the Chicago Botanic Garden on Sunday. We went to the shady area by the Rose Garden and had ice cream and read our books. Saturday we watched the movie Amelie, which is the first movie we received as part of our Netflix membership. So far, we are really pleased with the Netflix service. Hopefully we will never have to go to Blockbuster again.
I just had to drop a quick note to express my utter satisfaction with Amazon.com! Several months ago I preordered the latest Harry Potter book. When I ordered it, I was still living in the Loop. After I moved, I forgot to update my address. Well, I forgot until a few days before the book was supposed to be released. I went online and changed my order. I had requested the normal shipping to minimize cost. But lo and behold, my book arrived on Saturday morning, just in time to take with me to the pool! Amazon had upgraded my shipping to FedEx Overnight Saturday delivery for FREE!!! Instead of waiting in all of those crazy lines to get the new book, Amazon had it in my hands on the day it became available, for a very reasonable price, and with free overnight shipping. That's what makes customers like me so loyal to Amazon.com.
The IMAX version of the Matrix Reloaded opens on Friday! For those of you thinking you should probably see the movie again to figure out all the confusion, this is the perfect opportunity! What did actually happen there at the end with Neo and the Sentinels??? Just who is this "Bane" fellow and why is he not a nice guy??? The special effects have got to be incredible in the IMAX format. You can buy advance tickets at Fandango.
Am I the only one who was paying attention to the news when a research expedition off of the coast of Cuba last year reported discovering a series of underwater monoliths at approximately 2,000 feet in depth? At the time, National Geographic reported on the story. A few less-scientific minds took interest also. Another article here and the most interesting article here.
This is a handy little map of my travel plans and travel history. I will update this as often as I can but in general it will show where I've been in the last six months and where I will be in the next six months. Clicking on the destination will navigate your browser to something related to that destination, either the hotel we stayed at our an image gallery or something like that. Thanks to Bryan Boyer for this excellent "Indy Junior" Flash control - only $5!!!
Today I realized that the floppy disk is truly a thing of the past. I frequently move files between my computer at home and my computer at work using FTP over the Internet. Today, when leaving to go home, I wanted to send myself a Word document to work on over the weekend. When I went to FTP it, I found the network was down for maintenance. Naturally, I thought of the floppy disk drive since the file in question was only 350K in size. Unfortunately, after looking all over for 15 minutes, not a single floppy disk was to be found. I did have a CD burner available and a CD-R, but wasting a 600 MB CD on a 300K file seemed quite the waste to me. Finally I ran into a colleague who had a Sony Micro Vault. The Micro Vault is essentially a MemoryStick with a USB connector. The device appears to the computer as a slick, 128 MB hard disk. I put the file in the Vault and took it home, easily transferring it to my PC. The Micro Vault weighs the same as a single floppy disk and is smaller - it fits in a shirt pocket. It also holds the equivalent of approximately 100 floppy disks. It can transfer the file in a second as opposed to waiting a minute or so for a file to load off of a floppy. The disk is done - long live USB storage! In the future, laptop designers should just leave out the floppy disk drive. It takes up space, drains the battery, and provides minimal benefit. Time for the world to move on.
Good God, man, are you crazy??? AtariAge has a running set of articles on how to program the good ol' Atari 2600. With a focus on game programming, it is very interesting to compare the programming techniques of today against the hoops they had to jump through back then. It's hard core stuff and not for the faint-hearted. Try writing code to send each scan line to the television or try working with 128 bytes of RAM...
Just got back from seeing the Jim Carrey's new movie, Bruce Almighty. With Jim Carrey in the lead role, they should have called it Bruce Alrighty Then. Not a bad movie and there were several very funny scenes, although the funniest was not even Carrey's. It's good to see Jim Carrey get back into comedies after attempting the whole drama thing with The Majestic and The Truman Show). The Truman Show was an excellent movie and Carrey's acting talent showed through but Carrey's true gift is his plastic face and quick wit. There is an underlying theme in this movie which embodies Carrey's reacceptance of the comedy genre.
You can contact me by email at csieg@renkara.com. I respond to all emails but I may respond very slowly. If I write back to you within 3 months, you are at the top of my list! Seriously, though, I do take a long time to respond but I keep all emails in my Inbox until I have responded to them, as gentle reminders to do so.
The weather in Chicago has been great lately. We have had three perfect days in a row. Memorial Day weekend has probably never had better weather. However, weather in Chicago leaves much, much!, to be desired. Without stating the obvious, the wind is relentless. It is always windy. ALWAYS!!! Especially downtown. Downtown is the worst because it is dusty. There is all this loose junk on the sidewalks and roads and it blows around in the wind and gets in your eyes and hair. Its really quite lovely - a whole new reason to wear sunglasses.
I just had to write that I have broken the record for Ms. Pac Man at Nickel City in Northbrook, Illinois! It was around 98,000 points and is now approximately 110,000 points.
I am the founder and president of Renkara Media Group. Renkara created AccelaStudy, an accelerated learning platform with millions of users. AccelaStudy was launched in 2008 and was one of the first 500 apps in Apple's new App Store. It has been in the App Store continually for over 15 years and serves over 30,000 student sessions every month.
This website is stored in a Git repository at Github, generated with the Static Narrative CMS, built with CodeBuild, copied to an S3 bucket, and is served by a CloudFront distribution in the AWS cloud.
