Life and Times of Andru

What I'm looking at doing in the near future

2010-09-16T17:14:00.000-07:00

Where have I been since the last post? I've been researching/possessing equipment for various research projects.

1. Research on video game purchasing decisions - If you're a friend of mine, get ready to be asked for your help. I am doing research for this years application into a PhD program. This batch of research looks good and is on track to propel my education.

2. Writing a short script - I'm also looking at some other schools that require a creative writing sample. Thus, I am creating a short script and putting the polishing touches on it.

3. Developing some low-cost telecines - What is a telecine? It's a really expensive machine that converts film to a digital media file. In the Spring of 2010, I'll be teaching traditional film production. The students will shooting on film, then be required to convert using one of my machines. Pretty cool stuff.

Then, there's a whole lot of other stuff that I'm into, but that will have to wait for a further post.

Starting a new year (in school)

2010-08-01T11:22:00.000-07:00

It's the beginning of August and with that date, I begin to think about upcoming school year. The next semester for me equals two sections of PM II (an intermediate video production class), one section of audio production and one class of video game level design.

I'm excited for this next semester. Each class is coming along nicely. Right now, I'm trying to line up all my special guests.

In addition, my other projects are also beginning to line up. My short script is done and will be under review. I have a few other projects that are in the editing stage. There's another development project that I might be starting. (Not too much on this one, yet.)

On the homefront, I'm nearly done. I just need to complete some "tidy-ing" up. Then my home will be done with the projects I set out to do.

All in all, my life isn't that bad.

The house is coming along nicely

2010-07-09T17:57:00.001-07:00

In the beginning of this project, I had some loose goals to meet.

1. Start to replace windows - Done, the front window has been replaced and the front room feels sooooooo nice
2. Replace front door - Done, it closes, seals and is really nice. I just need to paint the outside of it. Unfortunately it has rained a lot lately.
3. Tear out a bathroom - Done, and the room extremely empty
4. Replace the shell ceiling fans - Done, both fans now work and they give a soft, nice light

There are plenty of smaller projects and they are mostly done. All I have to do is basic clean-up.

WoooooooHoooooooo. I'm almost done.

Something a little new.....

2010-06-29T19:09:00.000-07:00

I finally began my short script tonight. I'm looking to have this thing be around 5-6 minutes long. (Yes, when I say short, I really mean short.)

I'm 4 pages in and have the main points in. Now, it's time for me to have fun adding in a little more.

Bees and bathrooms

2010-06-28T14:03:00.001-07:00

This past weekend, the bee guys came back and much to their disappointment, there was not a second have. The bees had 2 entrances/exits to the single hive. I still have 2 walls that need to be recovered. :( My house also smells like moth balls. I dropped some in the broken walls to ward off any moths that might come in for a little snack. After all of this, I am still happy that I decided to call the bee keepers and have them remove the little pests alive.

And, the bathroom that was planned to be destroyed is now empty. The previous people are absolute idiots. In the shower, a friend and I found 2 layers of tiles. I can see the previous owners/renters/handy people saying, "Hey, I don't feel like changing this, people won't notice if just add another layer of tiles." Idiots.

Today I am waiting for my dumpster and have a feeling that the dumpster people forgot/lost my order. I'm singing a song, "No dumpster, no cry......"

I got new glass.....

2010-06-23T13:51:00.000-07:00

Major house improvement is moving on down the road. The front window was finally replaced. I am now the owner of some vinyl framed windows. I do like the look of them from the outside. It supports a house painting decision I've been pondering.

I really need to repaint my house. The existing paint is peeling off. I have thought for awhile that white paint would look good. My front door (to be replaced soon) will be painted a muted blue.

I also called the bee remover yesterday and the feeling I get is that I will need to call him again tomorrow. Soon, the bees will be gone!

My house is coming down

2010-06-22T06:59:00.000-07:00

This past weekend, a friend and I mostly tore out one of the bathrooms in my home. While the structure of the room is fantastic, I cannot believe what we found. The previous renovation was put directly over the old walls. When we started to tear down the greenboard, we found the wallpapered paneling behind it. The wallpaper was a nice blue flowered pattern. The wallboard was a popcorn ceiling texture.

We covered (or uncovered) all but the shower. Next weekend!

And what do my eyes see.......

2010-05-21T17:44:00.000-07:00

I was looking out the window on Wednesday and I couldn't believe what I saw...... A blue jay! I was truly amazed. Now I'm really happy.

Other than that, I decided to step away from house organizing and look for videos. These would be used for my various classes and wow, I hit the jackpot. Over 100 clips will be rolled into powerpoints for my various classes. Most of these are between 3 and 5 minutes.

Whoopeeeee!

A fun little surprise while looking out the window

2010-05-15T18:19:00.000-07:00

Before I begin this posting, I want to ask everyone to begin to look out their window. Nature is one amazing thing. Here's the latest reason......

Lightning Bugs! Those of you who are not in a state/part of the world that does not have these little insects, I am sorry. While looking out the window this evening, I see a spec of yellow. A second later, I see another. I only counted three unique dots of yellow, but I was brought back to Kansas City as a kid. In the evenings, the lightning bugs would come out and I would try to catch them. Occasionally, I would capture on in a jar and after putting some grass in the bottom, the jar would go inside the home. There, I'd watch the blinking for about 30 minutes, then it would be time to go to bed.

The next morning, the lightning bug would be mysteriously gone, but the grass would be there. Where did it go? As a kid I wasn't sure. As an adult, I'm pretty sure my parents released the bug back to the backyard.

I know there's a scientific reason behind why the lightning bugs blink, but I do not want to know. I'm just happy to see these bugs blink around during the late evening.

Another thing is I put up a few bird feeders about a month ago and the birds have been showing up. I was really surprised when I saw a male and female cardinal chilling on my fence. The bird feeders are working and my backyard is beginning to be a small estuary. (BTW, I'm kidding about the estuary.) Now all I need to see is a Blue Jay in central Texas. Highly unlikely as my home is a bit too far South. :(

Over the past few days....

2010-05-15T14:37:00.000-07:00

Here's where I am with the home improvements over the past few days:
1. I've gotten rid of 3 bags of misc mailers that have been sent to me. And there's more. I can't believe all the paper mail that just gets sent out.
2. The bees found a new way in. Hello expandable foam.
3. The back porch now has a floor. Okay, to be honest, it always had a floor but it was covered with a quarter to half an inch of leaves.
4. 32 pounds of aluminum cans netted me a little more than $17.00. I bought pizza with that!
5. Organization in the garage. The glass tubing I received for free last year got moved into the glass shop. Extension cords on the floor got placed on the wall. And, the last shelving unit that was in pieces is now built and put into place. Unfortunately for me, there were two small parts missing. The top shelf will now need some strapping to keep it together. There is beginning to be room in there.
6. My grass is beginning to grow in the dead patch in the front yard. This is a good thing.
7. My front window is about to be replaced. The guy is coming by on Tuesday to take measurements and then 4 weeks later, new window. This is a fairly big deal as the front room is about 5-10 degrees warmer than the rest of the house due to heat coming through my single pane old 30+ year window.
8. I also decided it was time to replace the front door. I chose the design. (Here's a picture.) I'm tired of the 1-2 inches of rot on the bottom of the frame. The door has never been replaced, so I'll do it.

This is what I can remember, there was more.

This past weekend -> Bees, Trimming and Allergies

2010-05-10T10:24:00.000-07:00

Central Texas is a hot bed for allergies in the Spring and Fall. Unfortunately, I am extremely susceptible to allergies.

Saturday, I was just feeling bad. The foam appeared not to work from mid last week. I did more research on removing honey bees from inside a wall. I found there was an insecticide that had honey bees listed as one of the bugs. It's brand name is "Sevin". I found it at the local Lowe's. I spend most of Saturday up at work as I had 2 finals to give.

Sunday, after waking up feeling under the weather, I decided that the lawn and other plants needed some maintenance. A mower, an electric pruner, a hand pruner and a weed eater are the tools I brought out. Less than two hours later, my lawn looked great and the bushes where either cut down or trimmed. The yard looks a lot better.

I also have a portion of the lawn that will not grow. I seeded and watered a few weeks ago and that led to a few sprigs of grass. This weekend, I laid down a ton of seed. We'll wait and see.

The bees......

2010-05-06T13:05:00.000-07:00

I finally went outside in the backyard. I still see some bees, but they look confused by the expandable foam. Not sure how they out (or they might be going home). I'll find out tonight.

If there are a number of bees swarming, it looks like I might be "insulating" an entire 24 inch rail along my back wall.

Sorry bees.......

Bah, it's a sick day :(

2010-05-02T15:11:00.001-07:00

This morning I woke up not feeling well. So, the pond rebuilding will need to wait for another day. Unfortunately, my attacking the bee hive last night only did a bit. This evening the "Great Stuff" expanding insulation will come into play. Taps will play as the bees are sealed into their tomb.

This weekend

2010-05-01T19:12:00.000-07:00

I'm going to start writing about what I'm up to around the house. One, it will get me writing. Two, it will show people that a "fixer-upper" is more than what it appears. Three, maybe this will get my friends to begin to update they're blogs.

This weekend, I decided it was going to be pond and bees weekend. The pond is a little 150 gallon water feature in my backyard. It stopped pumping water this past week and that made me very sad. Sadly, it has slowly been dying a sad death.

I bought myself a pump to empty the pond. That pump was cranking through the water quickly, then I read a little bit in the instruction leaflet. "Pump will not work if water is 1 foot deeper than the inlet." About 5 minutes later, the pump began to have issues. The water just reached that 1 foot mark and I had about 4 inches of water left. I tried and tried to get the pump to work. Nothing.

In that time, I found out something else very interesting. My pond/water feature has a water filter. That really surprised me. Off to Home Depot to buy a new filter. (Note to readers - The pond had been running for almost 2 years without a filter change.) When I arrived, the water feature isle was around the corner. Amazingly enough, there was not a replacement filter for my set-up. (I sometimes hate when you can't get something a few years old.) I grabbed and purchased a new filter and a few of the filter clothes so I don't get caught for awhile.

Back at home, I check to see if the filter fit. Check! I then place the entire pump assembly in and turn it on, Churg, churg, churg. I see water coming from the top fountain portion but not the waterfall. I drain the pond to the last 4 inches again. I pull apart the spigot and associated other pieces. They got a good scrub down, get placed into the water and turned on. Churg, churg, churg. Water is coming from both the fountain spigot and the waterfall. Viola, it lives. I point the spigot out of the pond form and it spits out another 2 inches. Only two inches left.

Now onto the bees. I have had a bee hive in my wall since I moved in. Last year, it appeared to be small. This year, the bees returned and multiplied. They didn't bother me, so I let them live. They don't appear to be Africanized. They are just the standard honey bee. Well, a neighbor came over to my home and complained about the bees. He was worried that the "mean" bees that live in my wall might sting his chihuahuas. As a home owner, I must now do something about them.

Now, I've seen "Billy the Exterminator" on TV and I've done my research online. I've tried a number of sprays, had part of the bee hive empty out in my kitchen and they appear to use the spray as a sort of bath. They don't like it, but they keep coming back. I'm almost to the part of the bee hunt when I need to open my wall and see what's going on. If I do this, I'll empty out the hive and spray everything down. Oh yea, my outside wall is brick. Yep, I'm going to make the bees very angry inside my home.

Tomorrow, I'll try to get the pond back in functioning order.

Cleaning my home, a necessary evil

2010-03-21T14:44:00.000-07:00

For those who know me, I'm not much for cleaning my home. I currently live alone, don't have anyone who visits me and am frequently tired when I get home from work. That means, a nice evening in front of the television.

Yesterday some family visited me and had to use the restroom. I thought about this ahead of time and cleaned parts of it.

Later that evening, I went to the family members house for dinner. I was told I need to married to keep my house straight. (Meaning, the wife will kick my butt into cleaning gear.) I am waiting for my bride to join me this Summer!

This weekend was going to be a cleaning weekend anyways, so I started to cleaning. Living room, mostly done!

I'm feeling better about this place (after a year and a half.)

The Mac OS on a PC

2010-03-05T18:51:00.000-08:00

For the past month and a half, I've been doing some research into putting the MacOS on a PC device. Specifically, I saw this on a Dell Mini 9 and was told that it can never be upgraded or it will stop working.

I bought myself a Dell Mini10v and installed Snow Leopard on it. If you want to know the reality of this, I am currently writing this blog entry from this device. I effectively have a Mac Netbook. (I think that's pretty cool.)

I'd like to thank the guys and gals who have been working on the Hackintosh project and have worked to get all the drivers working. The project is working and the steps to complete it are flawless.

This thing seems really cool at first thought. My purpose to make one of these is curiosity, and now that it works, I plan on using it as a travel laptop. If I get into graduate school for my doctorate, notes will be taken via the device.

I'm not sure which office applications I want for it. Should I use Google docs? If I do, I will need connectivity. Should I use Open Office? That's what I'm leaning towards, but need to see the current state of the project. Should I use Microsoft Word? It is software that is used at work and will work.

While not as powerful as any of my other machines, this 10v appears to work really well. I just bought the cheapest box. 1 Gig RAM, 160Gig hard drive, nothing special.

The holiday season

2009-12-27T14:13:00.001-08:00

Some people might find me a bit odd. Some people might find me a bit "un-holiday." I find myself just someone who wants to celebrate the holiday with little fanfare.

Why is another questions........
1. The commercialization of Christmas. When did it become vogue for people to write articles on how bad the holiday "Christmas" was and then give the reasons why? Christmas, as I was taught, was a holiday to celebrate the birth of Christ. This year, I saw a lot of people rushing around central Texas buying a lot of presents. Many people probably went into deep debt to purchase the new video game system or a large flat-panel TV.
2. Spend time with those who you love. Well, I unfortunately my fiance is in Russia.

There are a few more reasons, but I won't go into them.

- Merry Christmas to all. (Yes, it's a bit late.)
- Happy Holidays to everyone (This is for those who don't celebrate Christmas.)
- May the New Years bring everyone luck and good cheer (If you don't like this one, that's too bad.)

The Grind

2009-11-09T19:03:00.001-08:00

A lot has happened to me over the past few weeks:

- We finished data collection for the study I've been helping with. Now we go into data review and interpretation. I'll be crafting the methods write-up.
- I'm in the final stages of grad school applications. This year seems easier than the last. That could be due to starting earlier in the year.
- I'll be traveling home for Thanksgiving. Mmmmmmmm, turkey and birthday!
- I'm looking forward to the Christmas holiday break. Unfortunately due to my classes' finals schedule, I will be unable to travel too far from Texas.

All in all, life is going great!

Almost done....... (with collecting data)

2009-10-28T17:34:00.001-07:00

After the lead on the video game study took a look at the research, he believes that we will be done collecting data this Friday. I wish I could say more about the study, but can't due to it not being done.

He asked me to write the "methods" section which basically explains how we did the study. A fairly simple task, I think.

2009-10-18T19:35:00.000-07:00

With the semester half over, I'm getting really excited.

1) I'm in the application process for a doctorate.
2) There are varying things I'm currently researching.
3) I'm currently assisting with a video game research trial.
4) Life couldn't get any better.

As things begin to solidify more, I'll make sure to post.

Back to school!

2009-08-29T13:14:00.001-07:00

Summer is over! And, the university has started it's Fall session. I'm back to teaching and what a blast.

This semester should be filled with a lot of unique opportunities:
- Working on my doctorate applications
- Potentially helping another professor on some projects that will be published
- New Audio Production and Game Level Design courses
- Working on my own game for classroom use

It's amazing how quickly the Summer went. Teaching Summer school and having an international guest was a ton of fun.

Viva 2009-2010 school year!

YIKES!

2009-07-16T06:30:00.000-07:00

Time is what we want most, but... what we use worst. ~Willaim Penn

All I can say how true. I thought my guest was coming in on July 21st. I checked the plane tickets yesterday evening and realized the date was really July 20th. I couldn't believe it. I now have 1 day less to get everything ready.

Cleaning the house

2009-07-11T17:58:00.000-07:00

I have a friend coming over to my place on the 21st of July. And, my house is a mess. I'm now in the process of cleaning it. (I've avoided this task for 11 months.)

It's going slow, but it is getting done.

The Dick Cavett Show?!?

2009-06-27T04:38:00.000-07:00

I woke up incredibly early today and was flipping through the channels on my 13" television. In that journey, I saw an old talk-show. The guest being interviewed was non other than Alfred Hitchcock. The interviewer, Dick Cavett, was a witty questioner.

I've heard of the Dick Cavett Show, but never seen it. The program, for which part I saw, was thoroughly enjoyable.

All I can say is Boooooo :(

2009-06-21T07:30:00.000-07:00

I've been working on Apple's Pro Application certification. It's something that I think could help the University and me further my career plans.

On Friday night, I finished the first book and started to look at what it would take to get certified. All I need to find is a Prometrics testing center or an official AATC (Authorized Apple Training Center). For central Texas, the closest AATC is in North Dallas. (About 2 hours away.) For a Prometrics testing center, I need to go to Dallas or Austin. The test must be part testing and the other section looks like it will test out the app.

It'll be a day trip to take the test for the first level. I was hoping that I could quickly go down to the street and test out on the app. Oh well.

I have a scarf :D

2009-06-15T12:07:00.000-07:00

When you peruse my site, you will notice a link to my Doctor Who collection. For those who don't know what Doctor Who is, here is a short explanation.....

Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The program depicts the adventures of a mysterious alien time-traveller known as "the Doctor" who travels in his space and time-ship, the TARDIS, which normally appears from the exterior to be a blue 1950s police box. With his companions, he explores time and space, solving problems, facing monsters and righting wrongs.

It also happens to be the longest running science fiction television in production. It ran from 1963 - 1989, then was picked back up in 2005 and is still produced today.

One doctor in particular used to wear these really long scarves and one my friend offered to knit me one. I jumped at the opportunity and know am a really proud owner of a Doctor Who scarf. A great thanks to the friend. The scarf ROCKS!

I am in technology nirvana

2009-05-20T17:12:00.000-07:00

I received an Xbox360 from work and thought, "Sweet! I now have an approved Netflix device." If you don't know, you can connect your Netflix account to a few approved devices: an Xbox360, a Raku video player, an HD Tivo, or any other Series 3 Tivo.

To make a long story short, within 5 minutes, I had my Xbox Live account and a Netflix account and connected them. Now the test was to see how nice the picture looks and how quickly it was to play. For those who don't know, I made a living creating streaming media networks and the media that played on the infrastructure. So, I know about pushing video around the Internet.

"Wow" is all I can say. Netflix, your streaming media is absolutely gorgeous. Now, I can watch a part of the Netflix library on my Xbox360. It is incredible. (Oh yea, and the picture is great, too!)

Today, I slipped in the game Bioshock and was utterly amazed at how nice the picture looks. I've played the every gaming system from the Odyssey to the Wii. When I watched the opening portion and then started to play the game, my mouth dropped open. This system is going to be nice to see how it develops. And, the next gaming platforms from the big gaming companies should be mind blowing.

I love Internet connected devices

2009-05-15T17:40:00.000-07:00

I purchased a Nabaztag 2+ years ago. For those who don't know, it is an Internet connected device that is a stylized little rabbit. The current bunny is named, "BunnyPrime."

Since I purchased him, it has been getting the weather for me in the morning, retrieving some basic RSS feeds and stuff like that. Some would consider this boring content. But, it was a great conversation piece and it was worth the $100 I invested into it.

Fast forward to a few days ago... I received a letter from Violet, the French company that makes these bunnies asking me why my other bunny, a replacement rabbit, is not connected. It then went and announced a new website and a few other things. I decided to go to the website and see what else the bunny can do.

While not new, I decided to hook up the Gmail interface. This widget allows the rabbit to read me the subjects of all my new mail. Today, it paid off.

I was sitting in my livingroom playing Oregon Trails. Yes, the old game that I played in elementary school on the venerable Apple II. It was awesome! All of the suddent, my Nabaztag called out that a new message arrived and gave me the subject of the message. Because I was on my PC laptop at the time, I opened a new Firefox window and went to Gmail.

Brilliant. 2+ years and Internet connected devices did something that I found utterly cool and helpful. Congrats Violet! I will now be purchasing more bunnies from you.

That's really neat......

2009-04-13T16:42:00.000-07:00

I decided to do nearly nothing over the Easter holiday. For those that know that school I'm teaching at, it means 4 days off. (Yep, an extended holiday set for travel.) Traveling did not really factor into my schedule this weekend. What did happen is I received a cracked Xbox and started to play games. Fable...... done. Half-life 2...... nearly done. A lot of time was spent playing the little black box. On top of everything else, it has a ton of emulators and various early games put on it. It was an early Christmas present.

This also made me want to get a Wii. This is a decision that wasn't made lightly. I've been mulling it around for about 9 months. (Since I left California.) Now, trying to be an educated purchaser sent me to Internet. I searched basic terms like "Wii" and other similar terms and all of the sudden, I found a YouTube video of a guy talking about head tracking using the Wiimote. I just had to watch. If you're interested, the guys name is Johnny Lee and his website is http://www.johnnylee.net.

After a bit of other research, I found some very cool projects that a lot of people are working on. "WoW!" is all I can say. It's amazing what these people are doing.

I'm finally unpacking

2009-03-27T20:51:00.001-07:00

I bought this house back in August 2008. I finally began to unpack the other stuff this past week. You know that kind of stuff like video game systems, DVDs and nick-nacks that just get displayed.

The guest room is also in the process of being completed. I brought my grandfather's roll-top desk from Kansas City. It looks great in the space I envisioned for it.

The other thing is I absolutely love the Intermetro shelving units. Who would have known that the shelves I bought 10 years ago would still be used today? All I needed to buy was some shorter legs and now I have the perfect shelves for the living room.

The first part of the year

2009-03-04T10:53:00.001-08:00

It has been an interested first few months of 2009.

- Teaching is great.
- I'm finding time to do other projects.
- I'm looking to expand the doctorate programs I'm applying to for the next year.

While it has been difficult at times to move from the San Francisco Bay Area to Waco, TX, it has also been extremely reviving and at times exhilarating.

More on some of these items in a bit.

The holidays are over - Welcome to 2009

2009-01-08T20:04:00.000-08:00

Now that I'm back from my holiday travels, I can focus on 2009.

First off, a farewell to the past: Buh-bye. It was fun and I will remember it all.

Now, to the future: Welcome 2009. It will be a fun time to explore all that you are going to bring me.

So, what's going on with me

2008-12-13T17:50:00.000-08:00

I just realized that it's been around 1 month since I last posted. Wow, time goes by quickly.

I have done the following:
- Finished the Grad School application. Now it's just waiting.
- Finished my first semester teaching. Really fun and interesting.
- Started working on getting my glass studio up and running. Yes, it's a few months later than I originally thought.

All-in-all, a great time.

This next week is traveling back to California and enjoying my holiday break.

Testing and informal talks

2008-11-08T13:42:00.000-08:00

This week is all about GREs and basic discussions with the school regarding their doctorate programs.

I've calmed down since it appeared I did well on the practice math test and didn't do that bad on the English. But, I am still studying. :)

On Friday, I travel to the school and chat with the graduate school about what else I might need to do to before the due date.

What I am doing?!?

2008-11-04T10:43:00.000-08:00

This is a post about what's going on in my head. If you don't know, I'm trying to get into grad school to persue a doctorate in Radio/TV/Film. When I got the teaching job, I decided that now is the time to go back to a role of a student.

I did most of the application work for the school I am looking to attend. I have a few things to turn in to them. One is my GRE score (which I need to take). I'm beginning to get butterflies in my stomach regarding this.

Next is the minor stuff (school transcripts and resume). I also need to contact the school and say, "Hey, I'm applying to the school......"

I didn't think this process would create any internal strife, but evidentally it is.

Class Development

2008-10-17T14:58:00.001-07:00

I was asked to create a few courses for the University I teach for. That's cool. The topic is even cooler, Game Level Design.

I think this is a perfect match for me, because I have:

Played some games (okay, a lot of games from various times)
Thought that people should learn the media side to game design
An interest in the subject

The first course is a mixture of gaming and media production. It should be really cool.

The second is a class on level design. I'm in the process of selecting a text for this course.

If you couldn't tell, I'm really enjoying this teaching job.

Until next time.

Post Apocalyptic Stuff

2008-10-07T12:08:00.000-07:00

While the current SciFi viewers stick to a few genres (Technology gone bad, Zombies and such, Space ships, etc), I love the post apocalyptic stuff. Unfortunately, there hasn't been a lot of features or TV shows in the past 5-10 years focusing on this science fiction genre. And, when it has (e.g. Jericho) I lose quick interest in it.

Let me focus in on one sub-genre: a percentage of the human population is gone due to something. That something could mean a virus, a bomb, an alien invasion, or whatever else could wipe out a percentage of human population. Something I have found out is that in the late 70s, British television was filled with programs along these lines. Shows like The Tripods, Survivors and The Changes, and The Day of the Triffids were actively being watched. The last televsion show aired in the US that I really enjoyed was Jeremiah.

Now I am an a quest for older post-apocalyptic British television programs. :)

Yeah! Finally my body is making adjustments.

2008-09-15T07:08:00.000-07:00

My body is beginning to make the adjustment between the Pacific to the Central timezone. My own personal opinion is, "Whew! It's about time." I had energy this weekend but sat around my house watching movies due to Hurricane Ike. (Waco had some rain and wind, that's it!) Maybe I can continue moving into my house.

Egads!

2008-09-11T08:24:00.000-07:00

This post is about me and how I'm doing, a litmus test if you will. Man am I tired!

Teaching is great and is exactly what I need to do right now. Classes appear to be going well. Some students appear to accept me as their professor and others are not sure what to think. Coursework is flowing and lecturers are being spoken.

My home on the other hand is the loser in this fight. When I get home, I sleep (alot). My body is trying to make the adjustment to the Central Time Zone and I'm the one paying the price. It's tough trying to move to a new area, work yourself into a new job and redo the interior of a house.

My glasswork is like a red-headed step child. I am so happy that the shows were not that good and the pieces that the distributors had covered the work that sold. The studio is exactly were it was when I moved stuff in. Glass is still in the back of my truck. And, I realized last week that I need to order some stuff before I can really begin.

I'm hoping the studio is done by October and I'm moved into my home by Christmas.

Pictures of my house (post carpeting)

2008-09-02T15:37:00.000-07:00

Other than sleeping most of the weekend, I finally have the images.

Living Room:

The living room has had a lot of work done to it. In the picture to the left, you can see a corner of the new wood entryway. Also, carpet, paint and painted trim has also been done. (You can see Jeopardy on the TV.)

Pretty Princess Room:

This was the room with the castle picnic table/wall hangings. Paint, painted trim and carpet are new. The room looks great! This room is now called the guest room.

Pink Room:

As you can see, there's still a bit of pink on the walls. Other than that, the room had the standard paint, painted trim and carpet. Right now, I'm moving stuff into it and it will be the first room that should be completed. This room is now the home office/computer room.

Master Bedroom:

This is the room where all the magic happens....... I sleep alot! Same old paint, painted trim and carpet. This room now has a bed and a few dressers. There is tons of rooms here. It makes me smile.

If you can't tell, I am a guy. That means that when it comes to paint and carpet, I like it to be the same. I'm in the process of moving stuff in, and that's taking a while.

A sigh of relief

2008-08-29T09:27:00.000-07:00

My first week of teaching is nearly done. My house is carpeted. Now is the time when I will move in.

It's been quite a ride this week. I finished painting all the areas in my house that are carpeted. Then, I had to clear out everything and put it where it was on tile flooring. And, the carpeting came. It is a great color and works with everything in the house. I was worried that my old denim covers may not work with it or the black furniture will clash. After beginning to move stuff around, my house is beginning to look like a nice little house. It's great.

For all of those wanting to take a look at my new rooms, I'll post pictures this evening.

The house (cont.)

2008-08-23T15:20:00.000-07:00

I have been painting the rooms with carpeting; the green room, pink room and pretty, pretty princess room, hallway, and living room. Everything is done a beige-ish color and I'm doing the trim in a semi-gloss white. I am sooooooo close to being done. This has been a long road, and I'm feeling really good.

Some other stuff I've had to do is replace the threshold. The one that was here was completely rotted out. My brother-in-law and I poured new concrete and I epoxied it down. On Sunday, I paint all the trim and put down the small bit of parquet flooring.

I'm hoping my carpet gets in Monday/Tuesday. I went with an independent company. It saved me tons of cash and the quality is better for the carpet and the pad. If it does come in, I can schedule Thursday as my install day. That will allow me to have the entire Labor day weekend to unpack and get everything in-place.

The house post (with pics)

2008-08-11T14:03:00.000-07:00

I realized I haven't let anyone see any pictures of this place. These picts are a "before being worked on photo walkthrough.

These photos are of the livingroom. Sure there's stuff in there, but it's really not much. I can't really move in until I get carpet and I'm waiting for the carpet dude to take measurements. Here's the thing about this room, one of the lights/fans does not work.

The kitchen had some stuff left in from the previous owners/tenants. This room has the majority of my stuff in it. I really want to move it into the house. Here's the thing about this room, everything is wood and there is a weird island in the middle of it.

This room is what I have called the "pink" room. This will be my computer room and home office. You will find a door in the first picture. That's the door that leads to the studio room. In the last picture, you will find a wall that has been halved wall papered.

Here is the studio. The room is a bit larger than a decent sized car. I've got plenty of room to spread out and do what I need to do. The wacky thing about this room is the door is cut into wall (see picture 1).

This is the master bedroom. It's fairly large and will fit anything I need to. You are seeing that right. I have two large closets. Not sure what I'm going to do with the room, but I'll make due. The green in this room is particularly lime. These pictures don't do it justice.

You guessed it..... There's Disney characters on my walls. This is what I'm calling the "main house" bathroom. It's accessed from the house hallway. Now, these pictures do the blue and decoration justice. It has Nemo and all his friends on the walls. Here's what's weird about this room, there is a vent and it's been covered with paper. The toilet seat and tub are really light blue, the tile is beige and the vanity is white.

This is the room across from the bathroom. I named it the "pretty, pretty princess" room. It has plastic covering placed on the walls.

There are a few other areas of the house, but they are really bad. I'll wait to post those images at a later time.

The house (ugh)

2008-08-10T08:39:00.000-07:00

I bought a house. It needed work. What I really didn't realize is that it needed ALOT of work.

Everything needs a new coat of paint. The bathrooms both are in fairly poor condition. The kitchen needs some updating.

What I'm trying to say is that this place appears to have been updated in the 80s. Yep, I stepped back in time to watching Back to Future I, II and III. I listen to all sorts of 80s tunes. And, I work, work and still work some more.

First things on my list: new appliances and carpet.

The new appliances were purchased on Friday and will be delivered Monday. (Yea!) The carpet has been ordered and they should be measuring my house in the next few days.

Before the carpet goes in, I want to repaint the ceilings. I'm not really sure what they have up there (whether it's oil or latex). That means primer. That went up yesterday on the 3 bedrooms and wil go up in the living room and hallway today.

One thing I thought was fairly cool is there is now ceiling paint that goes on pink and then dries white. I'm going to give that a try.

Other things I've found out about this place, the cold water on the kitchen sink doesn't work. This is a bit disappointing because that should have been caught by the home inspector. Oh well, what else will I find.

Back in San Jose....... (to finish packing and cleaning)

2008-07-27T12:54:00.001-07:00

I'll start this post at move Day 4. I broke out of Henrietta, TX and drove down to Waco. I got down there around noon. I was extremely tired. The rest of the day was just chilling and doing "stuff." Stuff was mostly having a final walk-though of the house and reading all the house related paperwork.

Friday rolled around and I signed my paperwork and had the house. I began unpacking and unpacking and more unpacking. It was extremely tiring. Unpacking in 100 degree weather really is not fun.

Saturday, I really didn't do anything towards the house.

On Sunday I had to catch a 6:20 a.m. plane. Ugh, I woke up around 3:30 in the morning and there is NOTHING on TV. Got on the plane to Dallas. Plane trip was simple. Got on the plane for San Jose, CA and realized I was in first class. That's cool.

I'm finally home. (Well, it's home for a few more days.)

Moving woes

2008-07-23T18:10:00.000-07:00

I am covering day 1-3 of the move. By now, I should be in Waco, TX. Instead, I am staying the night in Henrietta, TX. Why, you might be asking? Well, here's the story.....

Day 1: I got a late start on day 1. I left Sunnyvale, CA around 11:40 when the start time should have been around 9:00-10:00. When I started up the hills outside of Wasco, CA, my truck was lacking the "umph" to make it up the hills. I finally made it and landed in Needles, CA. The bad thing is that it was around 9:30 p.m. and I had a check engine light.

Day 2: I woke up a little after 7:00 a.m. and watched some TV. I needed to get that check engine light looked at, so I had some time. I called the local Uhaul place around 8:00 and was told that someone would be there around 8:30. I made it there around 8:40 and waited in the 90+ degrees for around 50 minutes. Finally, someone showed up and took a look at the engine error codes. Two of them popped up. The first is usually caused by some fuel issue like water in the line. No big problem. The second was something the guy told me could be an issue. A crank sensor went off. If this problem were to persist, he said it might be something to get looked at. I finally got on the road around 10:00 a.m. I drive about 1.5 hours and then I hear a giant "POP." Yep, I had a tire blow out. I called Uhaul and they said they'd send someone out to replace it. Also, when I was slowing down, the engine check light went off again when I was slowing down About 3 hours later, my tire was replaced and I was off on the road. Around 8:00 p.m. I ran into a thunderstorm that was a mess so I ended up in Grants, AZ. I couldn't get to sleep until 2:00-3:00. :(

Day 3: I popped up around 7:30 and was on the road by 8:00 a.m. I was hoping to make it to Fort Worth (or even Waco). Well, I started to yawn around 7:00 p.m. I ended up in Henrietta, TX. Tomorrow, I should end up in Waco a bit before noon.

Packing, blech

2008-07-17T11:27:00.000-07:00

I've been packing my home for the last few days while finishing off some of the open glass orders I currently have. It's a real pain to have to pack everything back up.

On the flip side, I am still finding stuff I was wondering where I put it a few years ago. :)

Ack, still ill

2008-07-07T06:04:00.001-07:00

It's been a week and I'm doing better, yet I'm still a bit congested in my upper airway.

As far as my life, I'm still in a bit of a flux. Waiting for information on the move. Waiting for my home to finalize. In the end, I believe everything will be fine.

Cough.......

2008-07-02T08:03:00.001-07:00

All the fires in Northern California have polluted the air in the Bay Area. This week, it finally got to me and I started to have issues.

I started to weaze and cough. It has me down since Monday.

I have very little energy to do anything and want to be back to 100% soon.

I have money down on the house

2008-06-26T16:53:00.000-07:00

Today I initialized all the proper documents and sent them back to my realtor. This is a weird feeling.

Moving (what a pain)

2008-06-24T11:06:00.001-07:00

Yesterday, I called Baylor to see what my options were when it comes to moving. They have arrangements with a few moving companies. Hmmmm, move myself or move by mover.

Bah! I hate decisions like this.

A chat I heard....

2008-06-19T15:12:00.001-07:00

This morning I was invited to Google to listen to a speaker they brought in. The speaker was Dale Chihuly. The individual who invited me had very little idea who Chihuly was, so I gave her a short primer on him.

This is my first time to hear him speak. From other friends, I've gotten differing reports. Some say he's a great guy and others say he gave them the brush off and such. Now I've heard him speak, I can make my own opinion. He appears to be a guy who is designing large glass exhibits and then exhibiting them. He's not the greatest speaker, but that might have been due to the people he was talking to, a bunch of Googlers. I was probably the only person in the room who was working glass (other than Chihuly). He also appeared to be a normal guy. I mean he's been in glass for more than 30 years. The grass wasn't always as green as it is today. He probably made some risks that paid off.

It was a decent speech and I thank my friends who invited me. It was a real treat.

Hunting for homes :(

2008-06-08T18:48:00.000-07:00

These last few days have seen me in Waco, Texas. I was looking at a house to purchase. Why? I answer people, "Why not?" I have the money. I'd like to build some equity. And, why should I continue to throw money at someone else to pay mortgage, etc.

Friday was the first day I looked. Yikes! Every property except for two were interesting. They either were homes that people had let go or hacked on. Two of the properties weren't what I was looking for or in a "questionable" area.

Saturday, we went back out. Egads! People can be really cruel on homes. A few of the properties were repo'd by the banks and the tenants just let them go to hell. Unfortunately, these properties were too far gone to be worth what was being asked. There was one property left.....

This last property had potential. While not staged for a showing, the place reminded me of the home I grew up in. A fairly similar layout, until I asked, "Where's the access to the garage?" The realtor and I both looked at the rooms that had adjoining walls to the garage. First bedroom, no access. The second had a strange door in the corner. When we opened it up, it was a large closet. Then, I noticed a hole in the wall. So, we both went into the hole and found a whole other room. It was really weird. A door in the other side of the room led to the last garage. We didn't really look that far into the "extra" room. After thinking about the room, it looks that people who were in it (or another owner) took out what would have been a utility room and converted it into the large closet.

All in all, for what I'm spending, I believe the last property is the most worthwhile to put a bid on. It is in a fairly nice neighborhood and doesn't appear to be in that bad of condition. We'll see. I have asked for some documents that the current tenants have on the property.

Time is slipping by

2008-06-03T17:57:00.001-07:00

I'm currently beginning to plan my move and realizing that time is beginning to catch up with me. This is a bit odd because I've had all the time in the world for the past 5 months. If my plans work out, I'll be moving out mid-July and then moving down to Waco.

But, who knows. I go down to Waco in a few days to look at property. The reality of everything hasn't really hit yet.

Cherries are ready!

2008-05-30T07:48:00.000-07:00

For the next month and a half, I still reside in Northern California. Why that makes a difference is in my back yard, I currently have 2 cherry trees that are very old. This year, they started to fruit. A friend came over last night and asked if she could grab some of them.

MMMMMMMMMMMMM! These things are really delicious. I will have to pick some more and store them in the freezer.

The website is nearly done!

2008-05-18T19:05:00.000-07:00

This has been something I've wanted to do for awhile, restructuring my glass website. (www.kodiakglass.com) I believe most of the legwork is done. The last part that needs to be completed is to create a webstore and start putting product up there.

It feels good to have finally found a decent CMS, find a template that can be tweaked, reconstruct/author templates, write content and then publish it out.

Wow, I'm gonna be moving...

2008-05-15T23:08:00.001-07:00

I'm finally getting my head around moving to Texas. My glass company is beginning to take-off. The jewelry I'm making is getting really good. People I show really like the designs. I'm really feeling good about that.

Things are beginning to take off. It's funny how business finds you when you least expect it. Now, it's a balancing game to make everyone happy.

Hahaha

2008-04-17T14:28:00.001-07:00

Maybe I need to have bouts of insomnia more often.

The news I need to report is that the Warcraft guild I'm a part of beat two new bosses last night. It's amazing sometimes. Life has a way to work everything out.

Insomnia :(

2008-04-16T11:39:00.001-07:00

Last night I had a lot of stuff going on in my head.

There's a purple necklace that had to be made. I finished the beads on Tuesday and they looked nice.
The World of Warcraft guild is stuck on a boss. (And, it's really pissing me off as I know that the raid should be able to down him.)
Other glass and life related stuff.

Well, this morning after a small nap I got the purple beads out and started to make a necklace. And, wow it turned out nice. It's around 17.5" long. I used sterling silver and copper findings between each bead and this is what sets this necklace off. In the end, I also had enough materials to make a large-ish (8.5") bracelet. See a picture

As far as the Warcraft guild, I have some ideas for him and we'll see tonight. I hope I get this boss down because if not, I'm going to pull hair out.

It looks like sometimes the insomnia is not too bad of a thing to have. (I'm just tired.)

Rolling, rolling, rolling.....

2008-04-14T10:59:00.000-07:00

This weekend I spent rolling coins. (Yea, I know I could just go down to the grocery store and use the Coinstar machine.) I'm about a third done and have rolled about $300-$400. It's a real pain and a simple joy to roll the cash. Count 'em out and roll 'em. Over and over and over.

I hope my bank will accept them all.

Sorting out stuff.....

2008-04-10T10:00:00.000-07:00

I've been doing a lot of work with my possessions and what-nots. And, I've been learning about how I personally deal with various things. (i.e. The stuff in my vehicles, miscellaneous tidbits, etc.) When going through my stuff, I have emptied 10+ large crates so far. As I get deeper into the pile of boxes, I find more and more stuff. Some good and some of those, "Why did I keep this?" kind of things.

I believe that I have found most of my glass stuff. And, currently it is sitting all on my kitchen table. Once I sell most of my sound equipment, I'll put it in my garage.

The project never ends, but I have identified a number of things to sell!

Continuing down the clean-up

2008-03-23T08:26:00.000-07:00

I decided that I must go through a box a day. It's incredible what you find. So far, I have found a few pairs of shoes that I thought were lost forever and about 150 lbs of glass. The craziest thing is that I roughly know what is in each box due to its age.

I am not kidding when I have 15 years of stuff to go through. All I have done from move to move is to pack everything up and store it somewhere. Some stuff I have collected. Other stuff get put in boxes with a mental "I will organize later" label on it. I found one of those boxes and had to laugh.

In this box was the following.....
- Some knives used in torchworking
- One cylinder of moretti glass taken from an Italian chandelier
- A Pimsleur "How to speak Russian" thing that I bought about 3 years ago and didn't open
- Two bags of papers and what-nots from about 2 years ago

It was entertaining to open and clear through this box. So, this box sorting task should be fun.

What now?

2008-03-17T16:43:00.000-07:00

Now that I'm leaving the Bay Area in July, I am beginning to sift through about 15 years of stuff and decide what goes, what stays and what can disappear. It's a bit odd to identify somethings as "now useless".

Hello craigslist.com, eBay and the trash can!

Acceped the job

2008-02-28T18:46:00.000-08:00

Today, I accepted the lecturer position at Baylor University.

I start in August. It'll be quite a change, but I think it's a good one.

The Job - Lectureship at Baylor

2008-02-14T11:58:00.000-08:00

I can't believe it's only been a little over 2 weeks since the interview. It feels so much longer.

Yesterday on my doorstep was a package from DHL. Inside the package, an offer letter from the University.

Travelling to Waco

2008-01-28T05:28:00.001-08:00

If you didn't know, I am on an interview at Baylor University for a lecturership position. I'll go into that later.

Right now, I need to say something about airlines. Yesterday, I was on a plane to Waco, TX from San Jose, CA. First off, where are the meals/snacks. I've been seeing this more and more, cut the price of my ticket, then start charging me for the food. Come on airlines. Secondly, I was stuck in the Dallas airport for about 3 hours waiting for a flight attendant to show up. The first flight was no issue. In fact, we arrived 30 minutes earlier to Dallas, and then sat on the tarmac for about 25 minutes of it. When we arrive, I shot out of the plane and hurriedly walked to my next gate (across and entire terminal). Once arrived, I see that we should be beginning boarding. The flight should be taking off and while sitting in the waiting area, it is announced that we are waiting for the flight attendant. The flight should be 15-20 minutes delayed..... About two and a half hours later, we finally get off the ground. Airlines, please let us know what's going on. Too many people were looking for information and were getting brushed off at the ticket counter.

Enough of griping.

Corning..... whew!

2008-01-22T10:40:00.000-08:00

Wow, what an opportunity. First, let me begin that I really wasn't sure what I was stepping into. I just knew I'd be taking a glassblowing class at Corning. The course was taught by William (Bill) Gudenrath. It was an honor to take a course by him. I saw Bill create glasswork without a worry and it turned out beautiful Venetian works.

Day 1 was a review of glassblowing skills. The nine students were all lampworkers, so I'm not sure if even Bill knew how much of a beginner class this was going to be. Simple low tumblers were the main outcome for the day.

Day 2 was the elongated tumbler. Out off the pipe came many a tall tumbler.

Day 3 was the low and wide vessel.

Day 4 was a review of the above techniques.

Day 5 was a day of vases.

Day 6 was a review/demo day.

I am fully aware that the works I created were "wonky" and not perfect, but I feel pretty good by them. The teaching assistant, Amanda, was also wonderful. There was many a time I yelled out, "Amanda, can you please bring me a XXXXXXX?" The XXXXXXX could be many things like a lip wrap, handle or a request for assistance.

I'd like to thank Bill, Amanda and the Corning Studio for having this class. We were all not what Bill expected, but I think he had a good time and I know that I had a blast.

Pictures will be posted in a few.

A lot has happened in the past month

2008-01-13T04:56:00.000-08:00

Here is a the post (made from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) that should tell everyone what has been going on in my life. It has been a whirlwind of stuff.

First - Quit my job (the day I put in my 2 weeks was posted about)
Second - Spent time doing glass at the Winter Wonderland (previously posted on this)
Third - Spent two weeks in Russia
Fourth - Got an interview at Baylor University for a Lecturer position
Fifth - Am currently in-transit to Corning, New York for a glass class

Russia as great. I can't say enough about it. Cold (but who really cares) and full of Russian items for glass creation. I can't wait to get all the photos from everyone.

The interview at Baylor was something I didn't expect, so that's great. More on that in a few weeks.

Corning, New York is a United States glass mecca. Some friends are taking a glass class, so I decided to pal around with them out here. As the class begins to take shape, I'll fill everyone in.

My Nabaztag has been replaced (and works)

2007-12-10T13:41:00.000-08:00

I received my Nabaztag back from ThinkGeek late last week. On Thursday, I spent about 15 minutes to get my bunny back to working mode. Tested the microphone and it works flawlessly. What is weird is that I think the original might have been a second-hand bunny. When I logged into the Nabaztag website and registered the serial number, there were already options listed under the bunny. When I registered this newest bunny, it was a clean slate.

For now, he is proudly seated on my black side tables. He doesn't do much yet, but I know what he's capable of. Once again, I begin down the road of a happy Nabaztag-er.

Viva Nabaztag!

My weekend mistress....

2007-12-10T10:51:00.000-08:00

I remarked to someone that my weekend mistress was taking all my time. This mistress is an event called the Winter Wonderland. When I volunteered to do glass, I thought, "It won't be that much time." Was I wrong.....

While the event is fun, it is time-consuming. Every Friday, Saturday and Sunday night, I spend time in a little house doing lampworking. I am finally able to create what I want to create, design new product and interact with the audience. (Even though at times, I feel like a fish in an aquarium.)

If you're interested in visiting me, feel free to drop by. My hut is one of the four labeled "Bay Area Glass Institute" and is located between the two sections of the Fairmont Hotel. I'm "on display" from 5:00pm - 9:00pm on 12/14, 12/15, 12/16, 12/20, 12/21, 12/22 and 12/23.

Will It Blend?

2007-11-29T14:07:00.000-08:00

I've been doing some things in the office (where I can), but mostly, I've been sitting around doing nothing. Does the term "lame duck" ring a bell? Earlier today, through a string of links, I ended up at at the Will It Blend website. This is a site run by Blendtec, the blender manufacturer.

Can I just say, "How did I miss this?" They blend all sorts of stuff. (And, it's nice to know that Chuck Norris does not blend.) For the most part, this site shows that if a company has a little humor, it can go a long way. (Go Go Viral Marketing!) Great job guys, it was really enjoyable.

Today....... I quit my job.

2007-11-27T12:48:00.000-08:00

This morning I went to my boss and I resigned. Right now, there are mixed feelings rolling around my head, but all-in-all, I did the right thing for me.

A post on "Creativity"

2007-11-19T15:24:00.000-08:00

Right now, I'm pretty drained. Drained of energy. Drained of life. Drained of creativity. Now, that might not be a major thing for a cube-living technology guy, but for me, it's an issue that must be dealt with.

You see, I'm a cube-living technology guy only at work. While at home, I like to create stuff. (Stuff is jewelry, glass and other assorted things.) What happens now is that I leave work completely "drained". I am a shadow of the former happy guy.

Creativity, according to m-w.com, is a word that traces is genealogy back to 1875 and is defined as the quality of being creative or the ability to create. Last night, I was at BAGI trying to create some test items for the booth I will be manning. I first created a ribbon cane, then a box and combined the two. What appeared in front of me was a box with a ribbon. Nice, and the ribbon cane needed some work. Next were candy canes. Easy enough. I created 20+ small candy canes and realized something. I was a bit stressed out. Next came Christmas trees. Nah, they sucked. Back to the boxes and a complete failure. I went home to de-stress.

A call from a friend beckoned me over to a smoked turkey dinner. There, I was introduced to some new acquaintances and said "hey" to some old ones. Turkey was eaten, then came the Wii. A little Dance, Dance to ease the mood. Then, some bowling. By the end of bowling there was the husband/wife hosts and me. I asked if I could see Super Mario Galaxy. My friend handed me the remote. Little did I realize that the second remote was useful. It was a jump enhancer. It was a mob stunner. It was a star collector. And, it was a mischief maker. I could either help or hinder my partner in the game. (It was a lot of fun!) At the end of night, I could feel the stress begin to melt away.

In the end, what does it really mean to be "creative"?

The Nabaztag is Nabaz-broken

2007-11-12T13:29:00.000-08:00

This past week, I played around with the Nabaztag. It is 100% a gateway device for the Internet. My expectations have been met and with an API, I think will be exceeded. During my introduction, I thought perhaps that the microphone was a bit odd. After looking at it, I have found out that it is not even working.

Back to Think Geek you Nabaztag! Bring me a replacement gender-neutral bunny!

Rabble, rabble, rabble! What happened to my holiday.

2007-11-07T12:47:00.000-08:00

This has been growing over the past few years and this year, it hit the fan. Halloween, straight to Christmas. What ever happened to Thanksgiving? I'm surfing the web, Christmas adds. I go into a store, Christmas decorations are for sale. Where did you go, Thanksgiving? You're still on the fourth Thursday of November, aren't you?

Why is Thanksgiving my favorite holiday? To put it bluntly, I was born around the holiday. Yep, my birthday occurs around Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving, the turkey and football holiday, means a lot to me.

Now, it may not be a popular Hallmark holiday. It certainly isn't a good gift holiday. It's a great family get together, stuff your face and everybody spend time together holiday. Thanksgiving happens to be when people used to get a four-day holiday to spend with friends and family. Unfortunately, now, the Friday after equals the largest shopping day of the year and most people are traveling on two of the four days.

For some simple sites on Thanksgiving, please visit:
Wikipedia
Holiday.net
History.com

People say that the American family is not as strong as it used to be. I'll weigh in and add that as the meaning of holidays erode, so will the family bond.

My Nabaztag arrived

2007-11-07T08:25:00.000-08:00

My Nabaztag arrived. Unfortunately, I was laid up sick, so I didn't do much other than set it up. Pretty easy set-up.

This weekend, I'll be working on getting an API set-up.

When did it go commercial!?!

2007-11-02T09:46:00.000-07:00

I decided to go and look at the state of PHP because of my new Nabaztag purchase. (Looking at OpenNab as an open-source API for it.) In the 2.5 years I've been away from any decent type of programming, what was a simple and free scripting language has become more commercialized. A simple search for "php script" resulted in mostly "buy my script, it's the best" websites.

I understand that it might have been my search term, but it amazed me what used to be a community of fairly open-minded and freely sharing people has become more of a money grubbing group. I also realize that there is still freshmeat.net and sourceforge.net. There are still a number of higher-level script sharing sites.

I'm just a bit surprised. Has PHP fallen to way-side? Have other languages taken that much business away from from the LAMP community? Or, did I just hop into the PHP world at a time when it was super popular?

Rock on Bunny!

2007-10-31T13:12:00.000-07:00

Today while looking at the web, I came across a little interactive bunny from Violet. The nabaztag looked intriguing. After some research (and some disgruntled users comments), I went out and bought one from ThinkGeek.

Call me crazy. Call me insane. The bunny is probably the beginning of something or at least a new time-sink. And, if for nothing else, it's an alarm clock.

What intrigues me is the ability to make it do "stuff." All web-based, via WiFi, commands are passed to it. It appears to be the first commercialized form of many applications used to break down the computing barrier, albeit in the form of a stylized bunny rabbit.

A drip, drip, drip

2007-10-10T09:20:00.000-07:00

Last night, Northern California (well Sunnyvale at least) got its first real rain of the season. I found something out about the home I live in. Next to the bedroom window there is a simple drain spout and it is LOUD when the rain stops. The rain drips from the gutter, falls about 10-12 feet and creates an incredibly loud THUD noise. This weekend, I'll be climbing to the roof and probably cleaning out the gutters if needed.

Fall has arrived

2007-10-01T10:51:00.000-07:00

As there is a chill in the air (and my allergies are beginning to awaken), it has become apparent that we have entered Autumn. When I look on wikipedia, I see that autumn begins around September 23. I'd like to give everyone a cheerful, "Happy Autumn" (albeit a bit late).

Now, autumn also invites me to sleeping a lot. Sunday was spent sleeping 8 hours during the day, waking up to cook dinner, watch evening television, and then hitting my bed around 10:00 p.m. I could not believe it.

Another thing I did was cook. (gasp) I dusted out the pots and pans, put some rice on the stove, put the peas in the microwave, and then put them altogether. MMMmmmmm, rice-n-peas. Uncle Ben's rice is not the best rice for this, but it works. I need to start looking for Japanese sushi rice. That works much better for this recipe.

Now that I have started to cook, it'll be interesting to see how that affects my life (if at all).

Success (in the housecleaning)

2007-09-28T09:08:00.000-07:00

While my walls were bare, people came over and said they liked the house. So, all-in-all, a total success.

The one thing I thought was a problem, and it was probably only me, was the seating. I'd love to find a way to fit a beanbag back into the set-up. I really only see this possible if I flip the room. Dining area becomes living room and vice-versa. I'll do some measurements and see how it fits.

My house is clean (sorta)

2007-09-27T14:17:00.000-07:00

The big day has arrived. Why I'm blogging about cleaning my house still eludes me, but hey, might as well.

I've been waking up early each day this week due to the Italian time change. This has had a wonderful effect on my house cleaning. I am now stating that my house is clean (sorta). While the main room and kitchen are now presentable (but still lived in), the rest of the house (bedroom, computer room and garage) are about to burst at the seams. It still amazes me how much one person can acquire over the years.

My tasks were as follows:
1) Clean kitchen (done, but now with dirty dishes)
2) Clean mainroom (done)
3) Get people over (will happen tonight)

The continuing House Cleaning.....

2007-09-26T10:34:00.001-07:00

One day away and the house is almost done. (Well, at least the main rooms.) The living/dining room area and bathroom will be clear of clutter and ready by tomorrow night. My bedroom is in a "lived in" state. The computer room is a disaster, but that's cool as it is a work room.

Cleaning the house has led me to a few observations:
- I hate to clean.
- It's amazing how much you accumulate over the years.
- It's a pain to keep cleaning week-to-week, but if you don't, it'll take awhile to get everything into a decent shape.

In addition, I've made the following purchases:
- New futon mattresses. (One of the futons was dead and needed to be replaced. I also replaced the second mattress so the two would match.)
- Some simple legs for some InterMetro shelving that I had laying around. (I'm amazed at how much life I'm getting out of these shelves.)

Some simple "cram into the garage" and dusting/vacuuming and viola, the house is ready.

A few things have occurred

2007-09-25T08:07:00.000-07:00

I finally took a much needed vacation. It was split between two events.

The first event was helping out a few friends at a glass sale they were holding. It was great! Two days of troubleshooting point-of-sale computers and helping out the general public. A great time was had by all and a lot of hard work paid off for both me and my friends.

The second event was a bit larger. I took an inaugural trip to Murano, Italy. Yep, you read it right, I went to the islands. Now, one would think that it would be all fun and games. You would be wrong. The aforementioned glass sale was a lot of 5:00 a.m. - 11:00 p.m. days, so I was a bit tired from those. So, sleep played a major part of the trip.

I was contacted by a friend to check if I'd be willing to take a bag to Murano for a friend of hers. (The friend was grossly over the 50 pound bag limit a week before I left.) I said, "Sure."

Airport to airport to airport, I finally reached the Venice airport. After collecting the bags and waiting a few minutes for the mysterious bag owner, she greeted me with the greatest (and I mean greatest) hug I have ever received. After a quick "Hi, how are you?", we left off to the boat bus.

Now, you might be questioning the idea of a boat bus. In the island of Venice, Murano, Burano and others, everything is boat based. There is no need of a car, in fact, if you had one, it would be useless. There are boats for everything. If you can imagine it as a boat, it exists.

Now, I should be awestruck of an island of glass people, but unfortunately, I was a bit "ah, duh" from lack of sleep. Throughout the week, I had a few things to do: take a murrini class (the reason I was there), meet up with Afro (a glass blowing friend who lives on the island) and try to spend some time with Amy (the mysterious bag lady). Only one of the three items I feel was accomplished, taking a murrini class. Afro wasn't there at his studio when I dropped in the couple of times. And, Amy or I was too busy for any real hang-out time. This has a simple solution... I'm going back to Murano.

The class was great. It had a slow start, but met my expectations nearer to the end. It was held in the studios of Lucio Bubacco, an Italian flameworking glass maestro. Lucio was a great host. He made sure that everyone had everything they needed. The class was a Loren Stump murrini making course. We chose to do a picture of Murano (and make it authentic Murano). When it was all said and done, we got the whole thing to about 3/4 of the way done before class was over. A bit disappointing that we didn't complete it, but the class was still great.

Now, looking at things from the rear, I needed to spend more time in Italy. Everything seemed so rushed (because it really was). There was very little time, if any, for "fun". Everything seemed so scripted, making sure I was here, or there, at a certain time. As I mentioned above, I will be going back for a "fun" trip.

Cleaning the rest of the house...

2007-09-04T14:39:00.000-07:00

If you haven't guessed, I'm cleaning my house. Why? Well, in a few weeks, my house will become the central meeting place for Thursday night TV watching.

My tasks are as follows:
1) Clean kitchen (done, but now with dirty dishes)
2) Clean mainroom (in-progress)
3) Get people over

The mainroom is the living room/dining area. It's a longish room that I started cleaning on Sunday. While I thought this might be an enormouse pain-in-the-butt, it has been otherwise. There are boxes everywhere and I saw that most of the boxes had a few things in them. Combine, close up and move to the computer room. (That's ultimately where they will be unpacked.)

Soon, my home will once again be a place to relax.

The weekend (aka THE KITCHEN IS CLEAN)

2007-08-27T11:24:00.000-07:00

Saturday, I had a bead meeting to go to. This is a "re-introduction" to the bead meeting world as I have missed the last 5-6 months of meetings. The meeting was un-eventful. :(

Sunday, I spent the day doing stuff related to the house. Bought a tool roll-away for the jewelry supplies, collapsed what seemed to be too many boxes and continued on the house cleaning. The nice part about it, my kitchen is CLEANED! Yep, you read it correctly, I now have a fully functioning, counter-topping kitchen.

So, my countdown to having a small social get together is beginning:
1) Clean kitchen (done)
2) Clean mainroom
3) Get people over

House Cleaning :(

2007-08-24T08:48:00.000-07:00

I've avoided this.... It's a pain.... So, I've began to "recruit" people to help me. This weekend, the kitchen. (Maybe the living/dining area.)

PMC classes - Yippee!

2007-08-21T10:12:00.001-07:00

It took a few days to sink in, but in the end, I really enjoyed my PMC classes. My mind has been rolling around a few ideas of how to incorporate glass and PMC. Rings come to mind almost immediately. And, finally, ideas for my cuff links are coming to fruition. (I'm so happy about this one.)

For those who are interested, here's the quick rundown of the classes. Two classes. One in basic PMC skills. The other in rings. (I enjoyed the rings class more.) Three pieces where made. One non-descript pendant in the first class and two rings in the second. Instructor for both classes was Patrik Kusek.

While I may not be "on the PMC bandwagon," I am traveling beside it.

Now, this opens up a new world to me that has been fairly unexplored, glass and PMC. While there are a number of artists who are doing a variety of things in this area, those numbers are few and far between. This appears to be a real opportunity.

I also have been asked to donate some pieces to the BAGI auction. It's probably about time I get off my duff and create a few pieces for the auction and finish the videos (Pulling Schott and Pumpkin Magic).

Game Night

2007-08-17T09:38:00.000-07:00

I went over to a friend house last night for a chili dinner and game night. Chili was great! Game night (Settlers of Catan) was also fun, albeit a bit late. A few of us also played a bit of Wii Sports (Bowling) and on game 3, I bowled a 210+ game.

Settlers of Catan is different every time due to the board layout. Throughout the game, you build roads, settlements and cities. You also purchase development cards. Now, the goal of the game is to be the first to reach 10 points. This may not seem difficult, but it is.

The Muppets are here!

2007-08-09T15:19:00.000-07:00

In my occasional check of the mailbox, I notice that something is jammed inside. After opening the garage door (seeing the rest of the garage is full of "stuff"), I see an oblong package. I grab the package and rush inside the house. After ripping the package open, there is Miss Piggy staring right back at me. Muppets Season 2 on DVD!

Now the question is..... Do I continue on my Doctor Who Dalek-a-thon or put it on hold and move straight to the Muppets?

The Weekend

2007-08-06T15:31:00.000-07:00

I've recently had a really weird experience.... The experience of waking up so bloody early (e.g. pre-5:00 a.m.) Here's the real rub, if I'm not sick and the sun is anywhere in the sky, then I'm awake.

Saturday was spent with one set of friends. Very enjoyable, saw a movie and ate some food. Went home around 10:00 p.m. :( (I was extremely tired.)

Sunday was spent with some other friends. These friends I helped set up some computers and began to solve some issues they were having.

Both days were really early mornings.... One benefit to waking up so early is that I began to unpack after living in my home for 3+ months. Stuff gets put where it's going to be and empty boxes are stacked in the "dead box" zone. Now I have been offered by some friends (for each of my 3 moves) that they will help me move in. I don't accept the offer everytime. Maybe, I need to cash in some "friend points" to quicken the experience.

Days and Nights

2007-08-01T11:11:00.000-07:00

This past weekend, I visited the Gilroy Garlicfest. It is a harvest festival that focuses on the stinking rose, garlic.

I woke up, slathered on some 45 sunblock and waited for my date to pick to me. We ate garlic fare, walked around the fairgrounds and watched some sideshows. It was enjoyable.

Unfortunately for me, my skin could not take the 45 sunblock, and OUCH! When I woke up on Monday, I had chemical burns on my arms, face and legs. (A shower was taken on Sunday night.) My skin cannot take the 45 sunblock. :(

Now (Wednesday), the chemical burns are beginning to heal and I am returning to normal.

Learning in Portland

2007-07-02T14:56:00.000-07:00

I returned from a class in Portland. The class was held at Bullseye Glass and was taught by Ted Sawyer and Erik Whittemore.

The class was kiln forming and cold-working. While a 5-day class, it seemed to go by quickly. There were two projects, a boxcast cold-worked sculpture and a simple lost clay sculpture.

In the end, everyone was tired, yet excited from what they had learned.

A strange predicament....

2007-06-19T16:04:00.000-07:00

So, today I have a strange predicament. Many people out there know I play some World of Warcraft.

I am trying to figure out why I can't get a 25-man together. And, how can I save a different struggling 10-man?

I've gotten plenty of suggestions from various folks and will see what boils to the top.

What am I to do?!?

2007-06-04T09:39:00.000-07:00

This weekend, I had some time to spend with some other glass compatriots. It was nice to sit down and chat with them. Now the question is, "When do I have time to focus on glass?" I am tired.

Success! (Reposting blog pages)

2007-05-17T11:38:00.000-07:00

When I began to look at my CMS and experiment within the pages, I noticed there was something called a "wrapper." Webpage wrapper...... maybe.

The short end of it (after too much brain power flung at this thing) is that wrapper is just that, a webpage wrapper. That's what I get for using something I haven't yet read the owner's manual for.

:)

Posting to another page?

2007-05-14T10:04:00.000-07:00

I am trying to bring portions of this page to another web location. (e.g. www.andruanderson.com/pages/blog.php) Unfortunately, my practices appear to be going no where.

Fight!

2007-05-10T08:49:00.000-07:00

So, in the morning, I usually spend a few minutes poking my nose into stuff I shouldn't. Today, came across Googlefight.com. It's fairly simple.... Put two words down and hit the fight button. Now the world is a safer place. :)

First

2007-05-04T15:56:00.000-07:00

A few friends were sitting around coding one evening and stared comparing notes regarding me. It became evident that my life was a complex mish-mash of seemingly unrelated things. Miniature golf, glass and improvisational comedy to name a few.

One of those friends IM'd me and said I need a blog. That's enough motivation for me.

Friends, countrymen, lend me your ears.... Here's my blog in it's fullest glory.*

*There are no promises or guarantees that this blog will be updated regularly.