Saturday, August 04, 2007

A Group of Updates

I went to a wedding several weeks ago, and one of my old friends there mentioned that he enjoyed my infrequently updated blog. So, this is for you, Mike. :)

At Work

Work has been dying down a litte now. At least, from my perspective. The big rush on the HD project has mostly been resolved, with the only issue being something outside the scope of what I am working on. So, I've been moved onto another project, one which is going to be vacant of people soon, since the last person working on it is going to be deployed to Iraq in a couple of months. This new project is much smaller and has had fewer people working on it, but there are a number of things that need to be resolved. It will be a nice change moving from bug fixing to more general problem solving / design.

Biking

I've become the crazy biking guy at work. There is a nature preserve, Al Sabo Land Preserve, near my house. Well, I had my bike serviced at the local bike repair shop and also bought a bike rack for my car. Since it takes about five minutes to get to the trails, I will often go after I put Katy to bed (when Kendra is home, of course.) I have actually gone enough now that I have lost track the number of times I've been there this year. I've also encouraged my group of co-worker/friends to come join me on Sunday nights at 6:30 for a biking excursion together there. The response has been much more favorable than I thought it would be, and there are about five-six of us that will meet. So far, the largest turn out and one time has been four. I think we will be short one person for awhile, since my boss wiped out and smashed his knee up pretty bad. :(

My best record is 28.58.40 for the first lap, 26.21.25 for the short lap and a total 55.19.65.

Gaming

I used to wonder why anyone would be excited about a portable gaming device, namely the Nintendo GameBoy; it always seemed like there would be limited opportunity to play it, since you really are only going to play while you are away from home. If you were at home, why wouldn't you just play a console hooked to a TV? Well, my eyes have been opened to the wonder and beauty of portable gaming devices, namely the Nintendo DS. The thing I overlooked was that the answer to when and where you are going to play isn't "when you are away from home, sometime" it is, "everywhere." I spend a bunch of time on "my little game" and even will screw around with it while we are watching something "light" on TV. Mucho fun.

Books

Well, I was able to actually drag myself away from my DS for several days when Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows came out. Since I was afraid of encounter spoilers online, posted by a**holes, I took a break from the internet until I was done. Without revealing anything, I'll say it was a decent ending, but I really enjoyed the first five books more than the last two. These last two seemed to really be written with the intent of them being made into movies.

I've borrowed a book from one of my biking / Guild War playing co-workers, Matt, called "the Zombie Survival Guide" by Max Brooks. It is an amusing read, since it takes the threat of an attack from zombies very seriously. I wouldn't call it a hilarious book, but it is a fun read due to the subject matter.

I have a couple of books from one of my neighbors, the Hyperion series. I will probably take a quick read of those once I'm done with the zombie guide.