January 2004 Archives

Carol invited me to watch her soccer game in Duarte. I made it to the field about 5 minutes late, and missed the other team's first goal. She looked like she was enjoying herself, and has the best left foot on the team, by far. They wound up losing 3-1, but everyone had fun.

I caught up with Dad during halftime. His legs are remarkably less swollen - they're still pretty red, but the crusties are gone, and he reports enjoying his twice-daily warm soaks.

We all went to breakfast at the Monrovian afterwards. I had eaten cereal around 7:00, but agreed to share Carol's starches, which her diet does not allow. We had a nice chat.

I caught up with some errands on the way home: Staples for some magazine files; PetSmart for a 2-liter soda bottle water dispenser for the cats (the one they had was part of a combined food/water set, so no go); Ralph's for some general items, including a dozen and a half eggs to make quiche for dinner tonight.

Suzy called around 2:30 to see if William and Shane could spend the night. A quick check with Justin and Jason created no objections, and we arranged for them to come around 4:30 or so. I had doubts about William and Shane enjoying quiche, and re-scheduled it (again) for another day. With Jeremy at work, Jason persuaded me to get Domino's, which was good, but not cheap.

I'm making quiche tonight.

Update: Mytrang cajoled me into going to the soccer meeting tonight, so I abandoned the kids to their own devices. Afterwards, I decided that quiche would have been much nicer.

Critics question how independent the analyses are

Tuesday, January 27, 2004

By TODD BISHOP
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

Microsoft Corp. is touting the results of "independent analyses" in its latest effort to show corporate decision-makers the merits of its Windows operating system vs. Linux, its biggest open-source competitor.

The studies were, in fact, performed by well-known, independent research firms such as IDC, Giga Research and Meta Group. But the reports themselves tell the rest of the story: They were conducted "at the request of Microsoft," "commissioned by Microsoft" or "prepared under contract from Microsoft."

Studies on Linux help their patron: Microsoft

CNN.com - Kay: WMD search shows intelligence weakness - Jan. 28, 2004

Kay: WMD search shows intelligence weakness

Wednesday, January 28, 2004 Posted: 12:06 PM EST (1706 GMT)

David Kay testifies Wednesday before the Senate Intelligence Committee.
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VIDEO
Despite the recent statements by Iraq weapons inspector David Kay declaring no WMD in Iraq, President Bush defends his decision to go to war. CNN's Dana Bash reports (January 27)
PLAY VIDEO
ON CNN TV
Wolf Blitzer talks with former weapons inspector David Kay on "Wolf Blitzer Reports" at 5 p.m. ET Wednesday.
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• Convert to em-based sizing, so resizing will work as expected.
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The early morning weather report listed a day of rain in Santa Maria, so I postponed my planned ride to Santa Barbara County from Saturday to Sunday.

Sunday morning was overcast and brisk, but it seemed manageable. My first mistake was leaving my inner liner at home, but I'm not sure it would have made much of a difference overall. Starting in Santa Monica, I was cold - never so cold that I had to stop and warm up, but always uncomfortably cold. I started shivering in Oxnard, and throughout the rest of the day I was warm enough only a couple of times: walking around Solvang for five minutes, and ripping down Drum Canyon Rd. at 90+. Otherwise, I was cold.

I can deal with up to an hour, hour and a half of this kind of cold, but much beyond that I start to have problems. When I got home, I bundled up warmly, but I still couldn't shake the deep-down cold. Mandy was visiting and wasn't feeling well, so I waited to take a hot bath to keep the bathroom free for her. When she left to go home, I jumped in, and soaked for a good half-hour. I was still cold when I got out, but nothing like before; I put on a fleece sweatshirt and was finally comfortable. Between the long ride and the cold I was pretty fatigued and a little grumpy, but a little rest did wonders.

I woke up this morning with a nasty headache, probably from dehydration on Sunday. Two Excedrin and a bunch of water, followed by some under-the-covers reading time made me fit for the day.

During training to become a Navy Seal, recruits are subjected to seriously cold conditions. I will never be a Navy Seal.

BY PATRICK LALLEY, JON WALKER AND DAVID KRANZ
Sioux Falls Argus Leader published: 1/22/2004

FLANDREAU - Bill Janklow, one of South Dakota's most powerful political figures for most of three decades, will spend the 100 days behind bars in the company of thieves and drunks as punishment for an Aug. 16 accident that killed a Minnesota man.

MP3 audio of Janklow talking to a state trooper just after the crash.

I tore up my right calf muscle on Tuesday. Most uncomfortable.

There's two soccer fields at Pasadena High School; one is inside the main gates on the north side of the school, and other is on Altadena Drive. I went to the first one and saw two referees, so I headed to the other one. Once I finally figured out that PHS runs a 3-man for varsity games and I needed to be at the original field, they had already started. (The game started 5 minutes earlier than scheduled, in case that matters.)

I joined in as an AR on the PHS side, but had no time to properly warm up. The PHS defense was running an aggressive offside trap, and I spent all of the first half running up and down the line. Midway thru the first half, my right calf started to tighten. The center was a great referee, and I was pushing hard to give him good support.

With about 5 minutes left in the half, I made a furious sprint to catch up with a Glendale breakaway, and my calf really started hurting. From then on, I nursed it as best I could - I did not want to abandon the game.

In the second half, I was able to hobble through effectively. Glendale was much less aggressive defensively, and I found a way to quickly get up and down the line.

When I got home, the calf tightened up severely. I think it's a strain, but it could be a partial tear. A iced it for a while, then took a very hot bath. This morning, it's still a problem, but Advil and rest seem to be doing their job. If it doesn't improve a lot in the next day or two, I'll probably go visit a doctor to have it checked out.

• Old Time Radio - Jack Benny, George Burns, westerns, dramas...

I'm all set for a ride around Santa Barbara County on Saturday. The weather forecast isn't promising, but I'm taking a good book, and will hole up somewhere with some warm brew if it gets too gnarly.

The plan is similar to a ride from last August, with some variations. Like a sultry jazz trio (I've known a few) or a good woman (much harder to find), some things in life get better the more you experience them.

Giving in to the urge, I left at 3:00 Saturday afternoon for a quick ride up Angeles Crest, Upper Big Tujunga Canyon, Angeles Forest, back to Angeles Crest and then home. I regretted not wearing my jacket liner and neck gaiter - at elevation and speed, the shady sections got really cool.

Fun it was, but I wound up shivering at Ralph's later in that evening. I finally took a long, hot shower, which did the trick. I think my fatigue from many consecutive days of refereeing (including Saturday morning) and the blood donation on Friday made me a little more susceptible than usual to the cold.

The Vice President's motorcade just drove past my office on the 134, going west after a visit to JPL. CHP motor officers stopped traffic at all the on-ramps, and CHP cars ran a traffic break to give the motorcade free run of the roadway.

The motorcade started with 3 or 4 CHP units, followed by 2 or 3 limos, followed by 4 or 5 Suburbans, followed by some non-descript civilian vehicles (we all guessed they were the press entourage), followed by an LA City ambulance, with some CHP units bring up the rear.

My brother-in-law Michael had a late acting class last night, followed by an early meeting with his agent this morning, and needed a place to crash for the night. He called me at lunch time, and I let him know that he's always welcome to spend the night at my house whenever he's in town.

We chatted this morning about work, acting, and life in general. A fresh perspective can do wonders.

He's heading back up to Big Bear after his meeting.

Karen and Cary, my friends and in-laws, came over Sunday afternoon with Samantha, John, and Jake for enchilladas. John's not a big enchillada fan, so when lunch stretched into dinner time, we had the rest of the pizza I'd ordered to complete the day's meals.

Karen and Cary brought too much ice cream, but Karen forgot to bring the cookies she had made. I, of course, hounded her about that all day.

John was a blur of energy:

Justin had fun rolling around with Jake:

• Started by taking my Dad to his doctor's appointment. Carol was tied up at work, so I volunteered. She and I wanted to make sure that all of the outstanding questions about his medical care were answered, and Dad is sometimes too close to the matter to remember all the right questions. Everything seems to be coming along well.
• A full slate at work.
• The schedule I put together for AYSO Area 1/C's all star season got blown out of the water. I didn't remember (if I ever knew) and no one told me that Section and Area games use one set of fields, and Regional games use a second set of fields. So much for a relaxing weekend - coming up with a new schedule that works around this weekend's games is not an easy thing for my schedule generator to do.
• My new bedroom armoire (it has no provisions for hanging clothes, so technically it's a doored chest) was delivered yesterday, with a number of serious problems. There's a five-inch scratch on the face to the outside of the upper-right door hinge; more importantly, the right-hand door is askew by quite a bit, which not only looks funny, it causes the door to scratch the wood at the base of the door.

  I took some photos Friday morning, and printed them at work. At the end of the workday, I went to visit the furniture department at JCPenney's, and the guy who originally sold it to me was there. I explained the situation, showed off my pictures with a touch too much satisfaction, and asked what's what. He made a phone call, and arranged to have a new unit delivered in about 6-7 weeks. I get to keep the current one until then.

  The damaged one is sitting in the family room, next to the TV, for now. The DirecTV TIVO installer is due out on Jan. 26th, and I'm planning on painting the bedroom before then, so it's best to keep it out of the way until then.

• I made a same-old type of dinner - Chicken Corden Bleu and Rice-a-Roni. We ate it all, so I think the kids approved.
• Karen called to confirm lunch on Sunday, and we wound up chatting for 20 minutes or so.

U.N. Should Be Part of Weapons Program Probe, Group Says

By Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, January 8, 2004

The United States should bring U.N. inspectors into the probe of Iraq's weapons programs to accurately understand how effective the United Nations was in using inspections, sanctions and monitoring to constrain Saddam Hussein, concludes a new study by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

A nice meatball recipe for the meatballs to add to spaghetti:

2 lbs. ground beef
3 eggs
2/3 cup seasoned bread crumbs
3/4 tsp onion powder
3/4 tsp garlic powder
3/4 tsp season salt
2 tbsp. olive oil

Beat the eggs lightly; add the meat and other ingredients and mix well. You really can't get the mix right without digging in with your bare hands.

Form into 1"-1 1/2" inch balls. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat; add meatballs, and brown evenly for 3-4 minutes. Reduce heat to low, cover, and cook for 4-6 minutes. Drain, add spaghetti sauce, simmer for 5-10 minutes over low heat.

Add to 1 1/2 lbs. cooked spaghetti.

The kids and I had this for dinner tonight, with good reviews. Sarah was supposed to be staying for dinner, but had to go home early for Beef Stroganoff.

Here's a recipe for real hot chocolate, from the Gear Guy at Outside Magazine.

1.5 cups milk
1/2 cup light cream (or, use two cups milk)
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, plus a pinch to garnish
1.5 teaspoons vanilla
Pinch of salt
3 ounces semisweet chocolate, roughly chopped

Mix all these ingredients in a saucepan and heat until blended. Pack along a little whipped cream, too, for topping it off!

A multi-million dollar a year outfielder in the major leagues who can't/won't hit the cutoff man.

"One's philosophy is not best expressed in words; it is expressed in the choices one makes. In the long run, we shape our lives and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And, the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility."

—Eleanor Roosevelt

I'll admit it - it was tough coming back to work after a 16-day layoff. I did remember how to get here, though.

I was just about to print out this picture of Sarah at the Autry Museum for her school report, but she just told Jeremy not to bother.

Ingrate...

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Nattyware / Papers / CRC32. Behind a reliability.

I've been away from work since December 19th, but came in to work today to clear my e-mail and get a little work done before returning to a regular work schedule on Monday. I had 14,231 e-mail messages to download. (4 of them came from the goption server, and were quickly downloaded before the totals from the other two sites were displayed.)

Of these, about 20 will need an actual response, and about 100 others are messages from mailing lists I've subscribed to. The rest are spam, to be slowly filtered by SAProxy, the SpamAssassin tool I use.

Top 10 things likely to be overheard from a Klingon Programmer

10. Specifications are for the weak and timid!
9. You question the worthiness of my code? I should kill you where you stand!
8. Indentation?! - I will show you how to indent when I indent your skull!
7. What is this talk of 'release'? Klingons do not make software 'releases' Our software 'escapes' leaving a bloody trail of designers and quality assurance people in its wake.
6. Klingon function calls do not have 'parameters' - they have 'arguments' - and they ALWAYS WIN THEM.
5. Debugging? Klingons do not debug. Our software does not coddle the weak.
4. A TRUE Klingon Warrior does not comment on his code!
3. Klingon software does NOT have BUGS. It has FEATURES, and those features are too sophisticated for a Romulan pig like you to understand.
2. You cannot truly appreciate Dilbert unless you've read it in the original Klingon.
1. Our users will know fear and cower before our software! Ship it! Ship it and let them flee like the dogs they are!

After 8,588 straight days of wear, I had my wedding ring cut off this morning. Given today's circumstances, it seemed like a good day to have it done.

A quick, very tasty recipe for tacos:

1 to 1.5 pounds ground beef
1 can Dennison's No-Bean Chili
Corn and/or flour tortillas
Grated Cheddar cheese
Lettuce, tomato, sour cream (all optional)
Salsa to taste

Brown ground beef; drain. Add chili, simmer over low heat for 5 minutes. On a griddle, heat one flour or two corn tortillas (stacked) per taco; when warm, add meat and cheese, and continue heating on the griddle for 30-60 seconds. Transfer to plate; add lettuce, tomato, and sour cream if desired.

This recipe has some taste to it, but is mild enough for all but the meekest of taste buds - perfect for the younger set. More experienced eaters can add spice with salsa or taco sauce.

Pepys' Diary: The story so far

My dad made it home from the hospital in time to watch the Rose Bowl today. He left the hospital late Wednesday afternoon, and spent the night at my sister Carol's house. He really, really wanted to watch the game from his favorite chair in front of his new TV, so Carol and Sheehan made the necessary arrangements.

I spent the morning cleaning up the patio. It's been full of garage junk for just about a year to the day -- junk moved out of the garage to make room for the Corvette. I waited until half-time to go visiting, to avoid distracting my dad from the game. Carol, Sheehan, Dad, and I watched the second half together. My dad got into it, and seems much better than he had been earlier in the week at the hospital.

USC won convincingly, 28-14, and had 9 sacks. Sometimes, your favorite team doing well in a football game can be the best medicine.

I'm glad 2003 is finally over. 2004 can't be worse - can it?