Aaron's Blog Adventure

Horseback Adventure

2010-05-31T16:56:00.000-07:00

The Past Catches Up.

2009-12-16T21:57:00.000-08:00

Pete loaned me a device that takes in composite feeds and allows for recording, so I broke out the old Hi-8 and played a few of the old tapes. I'm planning on converting more, but below is my first run. I tried to keep them around 2 minutes a piece. The time frame is around 1998. What a great stroll down memory lane.
2 things struck me right away, 1. the video quality is superb. All the recent fuss about trying to achieve HD , and the HI-8 stuff looks super!. 2. I need to shoot more. Capturing the kiddos in their regular play state is great and I need to capture more. It's like a virtual time capsule for the girls to come and see down the road or show their kiddos if they decide to have them later in life. I've chosen vimeo for now, quality is superb.

Thank you Pete for helping our family re-discover these fantastic memories of an earlier time in our lives.

December in ur Town Christmas Concert

2009-12-15T20:23:00.001-08:00

Thanksgiving Vacation

2009-12-03T21:43:00.001-08:00

Made the trip down to Texas over the Thanksgiving weekend. I am very glad we made time for the trip. Early on when Corrie and I were dating, we had several road trips back and forth between Kansas and Texas. I find the road very relaxing and helps me to reflect. The girls had a great time at the Thanksgiving brunch at the Gaylord Resort in Grapevine. Knowing we wouldn't be at home for the holidays, we wanted to make sure we had some good grub for dinner. It was great, afterwards we checked out the ICE exhibit in the hotel. Bbbbbrrrr!! But it was fun too.

Got to see friends and family we hadn't seen in a while (almost a year). We will try to be sure and see them in the next couple of months. A year is just way to long.

ICE November 2009 from aaron meis on Vimeo.

Music Concert

2009-11-10T21:30:00.000-08:00

Jessica had her music concert last night. Her class did great. She's playing the flute and really enjoying it. I did not bring the HD video camera, but used the VadoHD. It worked great and even the microphone did well. Pretty impressed by such a small device.

VID00105 from aaron meis on Vimeo.

VID00106 from aaron meis on Vimeo.

VID00107 from aaron meis on Vimeo.

Untitled from aaron meis on Vimeo.

Happy Halloween 2009

2009-10-31T21:45:00.000-07:00

The girls had a fun time tonight. It was a little chilly but the wind stopped later in the evening so it wasn't quite as cold as earlier. We decorated up a little more than usual this year. The girls are getting older and have really great ideas. So we set the mood a little this year. We added haunting music in the bushes (more of ambient screams and low bass oOOoooooo, we added spiders web all over the bushes (we will look for a big spider over the next few days for next year, I was instructed by the girls :)), added a strobe light, and finally some fog. Overall it was spookyish. :) Happy Halloween.

Happy Halloween 2009 from aaron meis on Vimeo.

Alexa Lynn-Meis Koch

2009-10-26T20:38:00.001-07:00

We drove out to Manchester tonight to see Christina's new baby.

The video below is all of the raw shots quickly stitched together. no music or anything fancy.
just the video. :)

Alexa Lynn-Meis Koch from aaron meis on Vimeo.

Christina's new baby.

Pre-Halloween Prep

2009-10-24T16:48:00.001-07:00

The girls went out tonight and picked there Halloween outfits. They had a good time.

Pre-Halloween from aaron meis on Vimeo.

Girls trying on their costumes for next weekend. Also tried encoding at 720p instead of the regular 1080. Playing with the settings to get the best setting without losing too much detail.

Rosie Saturday

2009-10-24T12:45:00.001-07:00

Family on the way to feeling better today. I'm getting over my cough too. A little medicine head is all that is left for me today and some work. Also upgrading the machines to Windows 7 today. Have been running on the laptop for the past few weeks and really like how stable it is. also will allow us to share files throughout the house. We will see how that goes.
Rosie had a fun time sliding down the slide today. The more I'm using the Vado the more I love it. Great little camera.	Rosie from aaron meis on Vimeo.
Scootin Boston from aaron meis on Vimeo.	Boston has been getting around faster and faster. Hasn't completely taken to walking yet, but scoots around really quick Boston Late October from aaron meis on Vimeo.
I've really enjoyed shooting random video of the kids. The picasa web will still be used, but whenever possible will shoot video. Fortunately, I've entrusted google with most of our memories and treasures (pictures) and we back up to an online back up service, so relying heavily on youtube and vimeo for storage of our videos has been a decision I'm completely ok with. Youtube does feature a better "post" video upload editing experience and encodes the uploaded files much faster. But we will continue uploading to both. Both support HD which was key and part of this decision. My approach was based on streamlining the files from device to an online format. Similar to taking pictures and quickly uploading them. I hope to capture a more rich picture of the family that they will be able to look back to several years later and have quick access to the memories. :)	Untitled from aaron meis on Vimeo.

Changes Coming

2009-10-22T18:00:00.001-07:00

Changes from aaron meis on Vimeo.

Looks like Christina will be due soon. Today was so so, didn't feel that great, but mustered enough energy this evening to grab a couple of videos.

Isabelle is making good progress on her project.

project from aaron meis on Vimeo.

Boston and Around the House

2009-10-21T20:38:00.001-07:00

Boston from aaron meis on Vimeo.
Nearing the end of October grabbed a video of Boston getting around. looking forward to seeing him next week in his Halloween getup.

Isabelle homework from aaron meis on Vimeo.

Isabelle's Invention Convention Project

2009-10-19T20:55:00.000-07:00

Isabelle Project from aaron meis on Vimeo.

Project for school.

Jessica's Fall Concert

2009-10-12T20:39:00.001-07:00

Jessica had her fall vocal concert tonight and it was great. Will be posting the videos shortly from it. She was a little cold on the way there and back, but otherwise had a good time. Ran into Bart at the concert.

Snow

2009-10-12T20:00:00.001-07:00

Corrie and I on the way for an oil change. The snow was great earlier Saturday morning.
Let it snow , let it snow, let it snow.

Foltz's Birthday

2009-10-11T19:21:00.003-07:00

Had a great time this evening with the Foltz's. Tried out the camera, didn't do too bad in the low light :)

Pete

2009-10-11T19:21:00.001-07:00

Zac @ Buddy Walk

2009-10-11T19:20:00.000-07:00

Zac !

Buddy Walk 2009

2009-10-03T19:44:00.001-07:00

Addie had a great time today at the Buddy Walk 2009. After the walk we joined the Harlan's with family and friends for some burgers.

Erin in the News

2009-10-03T17:53:00.001-07:00

Animoto

2009-10-03T00:40:00.001-07:00

Experimenting with Animoto.com

Slide

2009-10-02T22:24:00.001-07:00

Slide from aaron meis on Vimeo.

September Camping

2009-10-01T23:16:00.000-07:00

Had a great time camping with the Harlan's out at Morgan Creek. Great camp ground, great facilities, great great great! Even hot showers at the camp site bathroom. The girls enjoyed the trails, the trees, and butterfly reserve. The girls can't wait to go camping again.

Highly recommend getting out and soaking a bit of nature up as much as possible. :)

September Birthday Party

2009-10-01T22:48:00.000-07:00

Carissa had a great birthday party. Lots of friends came to play.

We have been experimenting with posting more video, so working to integrate the images and the videos together. I look forward to exploring the space. I've also leaned more on the 2 older girls to take more pictures and video. They took most of the pictures in the slide show above. Great job girls! :)

Coloring!

2009-10-01T17:50:00.001-07:00

test post

2009-09-29T00:55:00.001-07:00

B-Man Walking

2009-09-28T20:22:00.001-07:00

B-Man Walking from aaron meis on Vimeo.

He's up and around more and more. Also downloaded to the Vegas Movie Studio to add some effects and see if the encoding was better than Windows Live Movie Maker. I think its a winner. :) Great product.

WASP

2009-09-27T16:29:00.001-07:00

1080p Version

name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" />

WASP (1080p) from aaron meis on Vimeo.

Standard ( 640x480 )

WASP from aaron meis on Vimeo.

Afternoon Reading (1080p)

2009-09-27T16:17:00.001-07:00

Afternoon Reading 1080p from aaron meis on Vimeo.

Afternoon Reading (Standard)

2009-09-27T16:05:00.001-07:00

Standard (640 x 480)

Afternoon Reading Standard (640 x 480) from aaron meis on Vimeo.

Afternoon Reading

2009-09-27T16:00:00.000-07:00

Video testing 480p

Reading Time from aaron meis on Vimeo.

Reading a new book on the deck. Recorded at 480p.

Fun Night

2009-09-26T23:12:00.001-07:00

Fun Night from aaron meis on Vimeo.

Today the girls got a hold of the Flip video's and made some videos. They had a fun time. A couple of them may have a future in journalism :) I threw the videos together of them into one video. I'm getting used to the different video formats and quality of output. This is the standard output setting in Windows Live Movie Maker.

New Camera Test

2009-09-26T20:29:00.001-07:00

Testing out the quality and capacity of the new camera...

HD Video Test from aaron meis on Vimeo.

Garden!

2009-09-26T20:28:00.001-07:00

September Garden from aaron meis on Vimeo.

With Fall here were wrapping up the gardening for this year. It was a great year and we have several jars of tomatoes.

B-Man Part 2

2009-09-26T14:55:00.000-07:00

B-Man Saturday from aaron meis on Vimeo.

B-Man

2009-09-24T23:02:00.001-07:00

Boston got a hold of the camera tonight while grabbing some video. He's getting around great.

B-Man from aaron meis on Vimeo.

Back and ready to Blog

2005-08-17T08:06:00.000-07:00

Back. Testing new Word Plugin for Blogger. And yes I’m back……..

2005-07-20T08:21:00.000-07:00

http://www.testdriven.net/Default.aspx?tabid=27
Posted with Blogger

2005-06-28T08:51:00.000-07:00

Google is taking over the world! http://video.google.com/ (Amazing stuff)
Posted with Blogger

2005-06-23T11:42:00.000-07:00

www.codebetter.com great site for all the questions that don't seem to have a book answer for. Plus some goodies on patterns. Happy Coding
Posted with Blogger

2005-06-22T14:59:00.000-07:00

semi completed bench for the backyard, with Corrie's new Camera phone.

Posted with Blogger

2005-06-21T07:04:00.000-07:00

Fathers Day Trees

2005-06-19T21:42:00.000-07:00

new Father's day tree's
Great thing is their 50% of this time of year, so half the cost.

Posted with Blogger

2005-06-15T22:59:00.000-07:00

Coffee for my late night coding "ZIMBABWE", smooth and sweet. Thanks goodness for great coffee like this to help the long nights go by.

Posted with Blogger

2005-06-15T08:04:00.000-07:00

The finished deck (walkway) it will soon be connected to the other deck (in progress)

Posted with Blogger

2005-06-14T21:54:00.000-07:00

The smile is because I finally finished the deck tonight. just have some touch up left.

Posted with Blogger

David and Goliath

2005-06-14T08:57:00.000-07:00

Tuesday. Last night turned into quite a mess. What was simply a minor modification turned into an 8 hour how to session. I decided to use a new set of controls we purchased to save me some time. Rumor 1: fancy new controls require N amount of time to ramp up on. actual fact. It took me most of the time getting used to the behavior of the controls. Best thing to do is have a solid plan or goal of what you want the page to do (keep it simple) , then build up from there. Debugging is happier and so is your code. Last night felt like driving my grandma around town in circles. Anyways, today will be productive and chaulk last night up to learning experience.
Happy Coding.
CODE/TOOLS:
I did run across a tool that rocks. Cropper allows you to draw a transparent window on your desktop to copy, instead of the dreaded PRINTSCREEN.

Posted with Blogger

2005-06-13T18:52:00.000-07:00

Going to be a late night, fortunate for me though, I have VPN and can work from home. Jamming to the new ColdPlay album X and Y , it rocks the rock. great coding music, with a dash of limp bizkit and pumpkins to go with it.

Posted with Blogger

2005-06-13T11:45:00.000-07:00

Thanks Roy for the Schwag from TechEd, your alright in my book. ;)

Posted with Blogger

2005-06-13T07:39:00.000-07:00

Monday Morning . Got my outline of items to be complete today. Mp3's on shuffle, ready..set...go.

Posted with Blogger

Another Week goes by

2005-06-12T21:53:00.000-07:00

Another week ahead, which will prove to be productive. I have the survey base engine to wrap up, a few web edits, and some mild DB work. All in all , it will be a good week. I also began on Friday to enhance a drop down admin section of the web site I'm working on. Previously it was some clunky old ASP app with an ASP and xsl page for each different type of dropdown... The drop down (ID, NAME, DESCRIPTION) . The new version will have one aspx page and treeview control that will bind based on the tree. Much better execution time and just slicker!
Some key points from last week:

1. Wrap it up
if you have controls (base controls on your web page) wrap them with your own. I'm preparing an example early this week to send to a good friend of mine. I'll make a seperate post.

2. The Forest from the Trees
Some times when coding , ecspecially head down lights off in the flow coding, you lose track of the overall goal or purpose. Take a minute to stop, go for a walk (5-10 min) and come back fresh or if its an uber big/long project, break up your day and spend a few hours documenting your awesome code. Documenting is like having a session with a psychologist. As you are typing out your documentation, a little voice says in the back of your mind "that code sucks, you should use a pattern! " It's a very good way to be internally critical of your code. Like telling your code as a story. Some stories being good while some are very very bad. Just be honest with yourself. Always consider that someone else will look at your code and consider your code to be your legacy.

Just some thoughts , have a great week and talk to you soon.
Books I'm reading :
a. One Nation Under Therapy : How the Helping Culture Is Eroding Self-Reliance
b. Black Rednecks And White Liberals

AJAX

2005-06-12T21:10:00.000-07:00

Looks like some very cool features. Will need to check this out soon:
http://ajax.schwarz-interactive.de/csharpsample/default.aspx

2005-06-12T18:15:00.000-07:00

Ran across this article tonight, covers the behind the scenes architecture of the XBOX Live Bungie.net servers. Amazing stuff. Any IT group should take a look and take notes.

2005-06-06T21:20:00.000-07:00

you've got to love it when a plan comes together. I finished the plumbing for the dynamic print feature I've been working on. Just need to polish it up and call it done. I spoke breifly with Wade on the way out tonight, and he suggested making it uber plug and play so other people might use it. I think thats valid and reasonable. Also might get to play some this week with Documentum, havn't even install the dev kit yet but looking forward to it. Tommorrow I will mainly focus on the tree view in the combo box and rending 2 of the survey reports dynamically to help Peter get started on the dyno stuff for the surveys. Were also having a pre-IISO audit so that will be a big interruption tommorrow. I acheived flow 2 times today. for about 1 hour each. For the readers that may not know, Flow is the state in which you lose track of time and location and are just at one with your code or code objective. It rarely happens in a programmers day due to the countless interuptions etc, thus, the best work (arguable) is done in the late evenings , after hours, or on the weekends away from work. (Thanks Dan) Night

2005-06-06T09:46:00.000-07:00

Monday morning slow start... weather drab. Why does it take Studio 10+ minutes to open up when you have your projects in sourcesafe ? Sometimes it takes longer. Well today will be a productive day, I can just feel it. My back is feeling a little better this morning from the rest this weekend. Going to tackle 2 main pieces of the project this week, 1st. print selection 2nd treeview in drop down combobox. The 1st is just tedious and the second shouldn't be that big o' deal cuz we just got some groovy components from ComponentArt, which happens to have what Im looking for. I'll try to post at the end of the day. Now that my 15 interruptions are over, and Studio is now ready for a spanking! Let the coding begin.

DEV Connections Florida Rocks!

2005-03-29T13:45:00.000-08:00

My great boss gave me a week to go out to Florida to check it out and get the skinny on the new stuff coming out. I had a fantastic time and really enjoyed the fresh look at things. Everyone should take some time each year to reflect on what there doing. Wether it be a conference geeking out or just some time off for yourself. I personally love to drive and enjoyed driving out there last week. Below are some key points from the conference I took away.

KEY POINTS FROM DEV CONNECTIONS

GENERICS (VS 2005)

Summary:
Determining type at compilation. Cuts down on errors.

Example:
Imports System.Collections.Generic
Public Class DataLayer
Public Customers as new List(Of Customer)
End Class

Read more here:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/vbasic/default.aspx?pull=/library/en-us/dnvs05/html/vb2005_generics.asp

My take on it:
This will really cut down on the amount of code that is needed. How many times have we written collection classes for our objects? This rocks.!

PARTIAL CLASSES (VS 2005)

Summary:
Allows you to span your class across multiple files.

Read more here:
http://www.devx.com/dotnet/Article/22603

My take on it:
Yikes: so someone could have one class that could really be across several files, kind of dangerous.

MY NAMESPACE(VS 2005)

Summary:

My contains Application, Computer, Resources, User, and WebServices wrapper objects that act like shortcuts to powerful and useful features of .NET. You can use these features without creating instances of the classes they wrap and without mastering arcane subjects like reflection first.

Read more here:
http://www.developer.com/net/vb/article.php/3492111

My take on it:
(napoleon) sawweet. This thing is loaded with goodies that I usually have to interregate some api to get to.

OPERATOR OVERLOADING(VS 2005)
Summary:
Allows you to add two types together

Example:
Public Shared Operator +( _
ByVal v1 as Vector, ByVal v2 as Vector) as Vector
Dim len as Integer = Math.Min(v1.Length, v2.Length)
Dim v3 as new Vector(len)
For I as integer = 0 to len – 1
V3(i) = v1(i) + v2(i)
Next
Return v3
End operator

Read more here:
http://weblogs.asp.net/cfranklin/archive/2003/11/14/37580.aspx

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnvs05/html/vboperatoroverloading.asp

My take on it:
This is really cool also.

BACKGROUND WORKER COMPONENT(VS 2005)
Summary:

Allows you to drop a component on your form to handle asynchronous threading in winforms applications

Read more here:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/vbasic/default.aspx?pull=/library/en-us/dnvs05/html/vbnet2005_preview.asp

My take on it:
Who cares, I program 99% in the web world.

TOP 10 CLASSES IN THE BASE LIBRARY (VS 2003)

microsoft.win32.registrykey
Summary:
Allows you to easily read and write from the registry.

GET

' VB.NET
Dim oReg As Microsoft.Win32.Registry
Dim oRegKey As Microsoft.Win32.RegistryKey
Dim sValue As String

'this will open a registry key under Hkey_Local_Machine
oRegKey = oReg.LocalMachine.OpenSubKey(PathToValue)
''this will open a registry key under Hkey_Current_User
oRegKey = oReg.CurrentUser.OpenSubKey(PathToValue)

'To read a value under the key
sValue = oRegKey.GetValue(Key, DefaultValue)

SET

' VB.NET
Dim oReg As Microsoft.Win32.Registry
Dim oRegKey As Microsoft.Win32.RegistryKey

'open the key
oRegKey = oReg.LocalMachine.OpenSubKey(PathToValue, True)
'set the new value
oRegKey.SetValue(KeyName, ValueToUse)

system.diagnostics.debugger

Summary:

Slick way to debug a service or any app

Read more here:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/chats/transcripts/vstudio/db_dbnet_021505.aspx

system.security.cryptography.cryptostream
Summary:
Quick way to use cryptography in .net app

Read more here:
http://www.vbdotnetheaven.com/Code/Jun2003/2002.asp

Microsoft.visualbasic
Summary:
Access to financial calculation.
system.xml.xmlnode

Summary:
Quick way to work with an xml document

Read more here:
http://www.perfectxml.com/DotNetXMLKBs.asp?pg=4&t=H

system.runtime.InteropServices.Marshall
Summary:
Release COM Objects
Allocate/Deallocate memory

system.text.regularexpressions.regex
Summary:
Validation, parsing, searching, replacing

system.Collections.ArrayList
Summary:
Contains, Search, Sort, Cast To Array.

SQL 2005

Summary:
T-sql now supports try catch blocks with sql.
Statement level recompile.
New varchar(max) and varbinary(max)
Top now accepts an expression.
Supports self referencing queries.
PIVOT, UNPIVOT, APPLY
Row_number.
Built in data paging.
CLR integration
New XML DataType for columns

You may have seen it , but if you havn’t take the time and check out the “Blackbelt Tips and Tricks” from Rob Howard.
http://www.rob-howard.net/

It was a great time overall, was able to talk to Ken Getz and Marcus Egger. Really enjoyed the presentations by Juval Lowy, that guy is uber smart.

2005-03-28T15:31:00.000-08:00

Great links from Matt

2005-03-17T07:55:00.000-08:00

Good morning. After some great design days with the local team here, David suggested this morning that we start blogging. I think this is important, sort of like a digital diary. Plus by logging our viewpoints today we can gauge better in the future how were doing. The project were working on today is from the ground up. We're working to utilize the application blocks from Microsoft for data access, exceptions, and configuration. We will start in small pieces and build from there. Going to also include some of our core features from our current core. My focus has been on utilizing existing design patterns where appropriate, this is challenging. I have a limited understanding today of the patterns but am working towards understanding them more. I purchased "Head First Design Patterns". It's a great book and presents the ideas in a fresh way. I'm sure after the trip I'll have a better grasp of the patterns. I was moved to get the book when i was trying to explain them to a coleague. I failed in the explanation because I didn't understand fully myself. So ...come next week.. I think I'll be better prepared.

2005-02-15T08:02:00.000-08:00

A few times a year I come across something that I just have to tell as many people as I can about. Im not sure why, just love to share the goodness when I run across something that can benefit somebody with both time and simplicity, IF you havent already heard run do not walk to go check out : http://maps.google.com , I think the race for mapping may be over, theres so many bells and whistles in this thing, plus if they expose this a service similar to there seach capabilities, "GAME ON"

Good Listening

2005-02-12T11:09:00.000-08:00

Blogworthy site just read about on joi.ito.com
archive.org
rockin site

2005-02-12T10:20:00.000-08:00

Ran across something interesting today. Our department was tasked with standing up a legacy app for another department. After digging deep into the app with the users yesterday we found an area that wasn't displaying a column. I got into the code this morning and found an ASP page using a parametized query inside of Access. When you see things like "strSQL = "vChargeCodes '" & strdatefrom & "', '" & strdateto & "'" and its pointing to an ACCESS database, you begin to wonder, so I checked the Access DB and sure enough there was a lonely parametized query. HERE needed_by >= [StartDate] AND needed_by <= [EndDate]; The brackets in Access force the user to enter a value when it comes up in the Access UI, just thought it was pretty cool and sorta reminded me of a procedure in SQL , cool stuff

2005-02-08T12:28:00.000-08:00

Today's Lunch Feb 8, 2005 , motivated me to start blogging again

2005-02-03T16:14:00.000-08:00

This is a collage

2005-02-03T16:13:00.000-08:00

MAN THIS IS COOL!!!

2005-02-03T16:07:00.000-08:00

This is a test to show wade

2004-12-24T18:25:00.000-08:00

We had an unexpected evening last night, the starter in the heater for the house decided to fail, which according to the service guy, is made to go out. Unfortunatly, we didn't notice it was out until about 10pm and it was getting cold. So, we made a big pallet n the living room and got a space heater and warm humidifier. Kept the space cool for the evening, but Corrie and I didn't get much sleep. Good news was the damage wasn't "THAT" bad. Just ticks me off that Pulte would build a house knowing this stuff goes out and at least not make an attempt to contact the homeowners when the warranty was about to come up (which for the heater and AC is only 1 years on parts, no labor coverage). My final opinion of Pulte is, they suck. Cash cow cookie cutter greedy suckers. If your looking for a house take your time and ask alot of questions about the warranty. And after that expect the major stuff (heating,plumbing, etc) to go out, so keep that paper work handy.

2004-12-23T15:48:00.000-08:00

I was really feeling sick Tuesday and Wed. this week and into today. I caught some virus from who knows where. My back and stomach ached while my eyes felt swollen as though they were coming out of my head. Well I braved the weather this morning and drove into work. It was the coldest day I can ever recall while living here in Texas. The windchill felt like XX below zero. My car was literally frozen! The roads were not that bad, but after hearing about the 100-200 accidents between Fort Worth and Dallas, I wasn't planning on taking chances. The pic is from outside my bedroom window on the first day it snowed. The kids got a real kick out of it.

Snowmen and more Snowmen

2004-12-23T15:39:00.000-08:00

More Snowman pics..........

>

The Snowmen are here..........

2004-12-23T15:38:00.000-08:00

Finally, with my brother's help and Tak's we finished the snowmen. I will definitly have a better plan in place next time for executing such a project. I'm still sick getting over some virus, but Josh helped stick them in the ground. We need to go get some light bulbs for the floods Tak gave us to. Yippie!! The Snowmen Live!

Fresh Starts Summary of Meeting

2004-12-15T09:06:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we had a company brief about the changes to come and what to
expect. Overall, it will be BAU. Sounds like the official day will be
sometime in Feb. There will be no benefit changes. There will be
changes to the travel policy and stocks to be sure. It was overall a
great meeting and I personally look forward to the challenges ahead.
The meeting was held at the Worthington downtown Fort Worth. I have to
hand it to those guys, they are first rate. We drove right up to the
front door, and fortunately they had valet. Funny thing was it was
held in the same room our Christmas party was in. Really nice room.
They served snacks and drinks as well.
Did put a dent in my productivity but was nice to get together as a
whole and rub shoulders with the brass.

Im a horse of a different color now.........

2004-12-13T18:25:00.000-08:00

Found out today, Veritas purchased us for some uber dollar amount. I
look forward to the change and welcome it with open arms. Our group
was sort of in limbo for a while, but now we have a home. We have a
big social tomorrow from 3-5, Im assuming for explaining how our
benefits will need to be re-signed up for and how the office is in
Dallas. (kidding I hope)

2004-12-13T18:17:00.000-08:00

Jessie had her Christmas concert tonight. It was great. They sang several songs from throughout the globe. Way to go kiddo!

Scholarly Help for the kiddos.

2004-12-13T15:03:00.000-08:00

http://scholar.google.com/
Thanks Eric for the link
http://ericmiles.blogspot.com

2004-12-13T11:29:00.000-08:00

Just had a great break through on a project Im working on. Peter sat down with me, I explained the steps I had gone through to debug and walked throught the symptoms. Within a few minutes he noticed a small section of a core xml configuration I hadn't even noticed. I had looked at it for the past few days and it eluded me each time I guess. So, Mucho Thank you's Peter. It also reminded me of the importance of team development both within in a team and within your own code. To help improve your code or to help find that needle in your stack!

Uber Wow

2004-12-13T07:26:00.000-08:00

http://www.google.com/webhp?complete=1&hl=en

Google Suggests.......................

2004-12-09T13:46:00.000-08:00

Happy Holidays and a Merry Christmas!!

2004-12-09T12:13:00.000-08:00

Sad day for QA, Tyler's moving onto greener pastures. Will miss ya Tyler, and best of luck with Lockheed.

2004-12-08T11:14:00.000-08:00

Toastmasters meeting went well today. One of the speakers (it was only her 2nd speech) sang a song for their speech. It was great. Good intro, smooth transitions, very well done. TM allows you a set number of speechs for each level you achieve to be singing speechs. Our Prez gave a speech on speech anxiety and talked about some good tips for handling anxiety, both isometric and breathing that will help calm a person down a bit before a speech. Great meeting overall, I'm still amazed at how calm the singing speech was delivered, I would have missed notes all over the place and been nervous as heck. The speaker did a great job. The guy in blue on the left was on top of the column next to him , but I didn't have the camera fast enough, it was quite the site.

2004-12-08T09:15:00.000-08:00

This could be something useful

2004-12-07T11:52:00.000-08:00

Thanks Antonio for a great idea on a snowman, I will be making a Master Chief Snowman for the front yard, will upload pics tonight.

2004-12-07T11:51:00.000-08:00

Need to research MSI automation, SCI, and CMMI certification. Any one out there have any ideas before I google it ?

2004-12-06T14:24:00.000-08:00

Might not work late tonight, looks like a storm is headed our way , yee haw! Maybe it will snow and we will get the day off tommorrow?

Where did my Poppies go ?

2004-12-06T14:19:00.000-08:00

Check out this article :
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/05/international/asia/05afghanistan.html

2 points I see in this , 1st yes, if the gov't knows that a percent of
the nations capitol is from the illegal drug, then the gov't should
assist in providing conversion or replacement programs. Unless of
course, the US is the real policy maker in this situation, which may
be the case. And 2nd, I've never heard a crack addict complain to the
police that someone stole their crack ? If you know your doing
something that the gov't has told you not to do, why would the gov't
help ? That would be like an MP3 downloader to ask the gov't to
enforce smaller file sizes for the record industry so all the mp3's
after I rip them will fit on my portable mp3 player, give me a break!!

2004-12-06T12:19:00.000-08:00

Due to budget cuts in the military.......Thanks Roy.

Danno to the Blogosphere!!

2004-12-06T07:56:00.000-08:00

Please (Drumroll) help me welcome Dan to the Blogosphere!!!
http://danielghernandez.blogspot.com
Homey of Homies the Prince of Methodology and soon to be Dr. Hernandez!!!

2004-12-04T19:38:00.000-08:00

Today was a productive day. I let the Xbox get the best of me though, spent "too" many hours playing today. I was thinking today kinda funny how when I first got my Fios(Fiber Optic Internet Service) I used to check every day to make sure I was getting the bandwidth I was paying for. But, since the Xbox Live, I just plug it in and go. I'm not even concerned with the speed? ?? I just caught myself today wondering what all the hoopla was when I got the FIOS. Speaking of XBox , if anyone sees Danno (Downzu) online , ask him how much he wants for his Xbox !! He hasn't been online all weekend! What gives man??

2004-12-04T19:33:00.000-08:00

The snowman project went nicely today, completed cutting out and priming of the 4 snowman destined for my front yard. We opted to not put lights up this year. So were making 4 individual snowman for each of the girls. They will be putting on the goodies tommorrow. Carrot nose, mittens, candy cane and anything else there creative hearts come up with.

Eric's a Blogger.

2004-12-03T15:07:00.000-08:00

Eric finally broke down and created a blog. If anyone knows or has a
good image of Eric please post it here.
http://ericmiles.blogspot.com

2004-12-03T08:06:00.000-08:00

Tom not showing of his new pants.

2004-12-03T08:05:00.000-08:00

Chalabi showing off his new pants!

2004-12-03T07:46:00.000-08:00

Every Friday we have a donut day. Well today thought I would try the buttermilk donut (nievely thinking it had less sugar). I took about 3 bites while drinking my coffee. Im slowly beginning to feel the sugar overpower me. Im headed for a sugar coma. I've now thrown away the remaining carcas of donut. Why can't we have a "Fruit" friday? instead of drenched in sugar and fat donut friday ??

2004-12-03T07:42:00.000-08:00

For the Messenger impared at work or at home, here's a link that allows you to message from anywheres
http://webmessenger.msn.com/

2004-12-02T16:33:00.000-08:00

DB Guru Todd Peterson, foreign national from East Germany Double Agent defector living under witness protection at XYZ Corporation. Notice the big smile.......

2004-12-02T16:31:00.000-08:00

Thanks for all your help Peter, got the site out there thanks to you man. Really appreciate it.

2004-12-02T16:19:00.000-08:00

My boss, your the man Eric. "And don't forget to submit your timesheet"

2004-12-02T15:32:00.000-08:00

boogers

2004-12-02T14:51:00.000-08:00

Tyler Slempt Local QA and Harley Guy.

2004-12-02T10:00:00.000-08:00

Tribute to Patrick, Im with you in spirit homey. But I guess to each his own. Your secret is safe with me Pat.;)

2004-12-02T09:31:00.000-08:00

Wild Man Patrick Northrip, also known to frequent online games and has a massive collection of UT maps and currently is playing the role of "Migration Man" in our company play.

2004-12-02T09:12:00.000-08:00

Glenn RedFern PM here at XYZ Corporation

2004-12-02T08:51:00.000-08:00

Lexia Crawford, the best Project Manager around.