A Pleasant Adventure

Kendra and I have returned from our trip to Mystic, CT. We arrived on Thursday of last week and came primarily to attend the wedding reception of her brother (Steve) and his new wife (Mary). My father-in-law and his girlfriend were kind enough to allow us to stay in their guest bedroom.

In fact, Kendra's dad (Carl) really took extra steps to ensure that we had a good visit. Like last year when we stayed here, he was more than willing to watch Katy, getting up with her and playing with her so Mom and Dad could relax and actually enjoy a little vacation. Also, for the reception on Saturday, he arranged (ahead of time) for a babysitter to watch Katy after we decided that it was her bedtime and needed to go back to the condo, and even paid for her. All our food, lodging and babysitting needs were met, and easily exceeded my expectations. Carl's girlfriend (Anne) was equally helpful and accomodating. Thanks for the great trip!

The Bachelor Party that Almost Wasn't

My good pal Ryan is getting married soon, July 15th of this year. I am his Best Man, and with that honor comes the important responsibility of throwing a bachelor party. Ryan was in town for Memorial Day weekend and we had a good time, but there was a question about whether we would be able to have the party at all.

Initially, the plan was that Ryan and Liannea were going to start the drive on Friday with their dog, stay someplace in-between and finish the drive on Saturday, arriving sometime around noon or so. I planned accordingly, scheduling whirlyball for 4:00-5:00 and coming up with speculative plans for before and after.

Disaster struck, as the doggy got sick and had to be taken to the vet and boarded. Because of that, it was possible that they wouldn't start the drive until Saturday morning meaning that they would arrive sometime in the evening, well after the appointed whirlyball time slot I had available. After waiting around a while, I got a call from Ryan letting me know that they were going to fly out on Saturday and that they would be in some time around 3:30.

4:00 would still be cutting it too close, as 3:30 was just a guess at their arrival time, so I called the whirlyball place on Saturday at noon, as soon as they opened. I was able to easily change the time to 5:00; apparently whirlyball is not the first thing people think of when they are planning their Memorial day weekends (something about grilling or something...)

After whirlyballing, we went to a bar and played trivia and watched the Pistons lose to the Heat. Then, we went to Davey's house and played Texas Hold'em (just for chips, but still fun.)

The interesting thing was the old group re-assembled at the party - Jamie, Jason, David, Me, Ryan - were able to pick up with our relationships and conversations as though not a day had passed since we last got together like this. Heck, I hadn't even really chatted with Jason for a couple of years before I called him up inviting him to the party and we were having a blast with old jokes and new, the same as we ever did.

These are the times that I look back to fondly. For many people, college was the time they made lasting friendships; for me, high school is where I made almost all of the friendships that I hold most dear. I'll have to make more of an effort to see this people more regularly.

Kendra and the Car

My Lexus RX 300 has been leaking oil. More important than that, though, is that there is often blue smoke that comes out the exhaust when I start the car, meaning that the oil is not just leaking outwardly, but that something bad is happening internally. So, this week I began my quest to correct the issue.

Tuesday evening, I looked up a couple of different local mechanics using an on-line, consumer-reviewed database at CarTalk.com. Wednesday morning, I called these places only to discover that most mechanics are not interested/qualified to work on Lexus/Toyota vehicles. Twice it was suggested that I call the local Toyota dealer.

The Toyota dealer in town mentioned that they could look at the car, but anything involving possible recall issues had to be handled by an actual Lexus dealer. So, I called the nearest Lexus dealership (which was ~45 miles away) in Grand Rapids and set up an appointment with them for Friday at 1:00pm.

Since Kendra's scheduled allowed for more fluctuations, she agreed to take my SUV to the appointment. Apparently, this problem is not at all uncommon for the RX 300. New valve covers are needed for the engine. How much does it cost to purchase new valve covers and have them installed? I do not know, and fortunately do not need to care, since the Lexus, at ~66,000 miles, is still covered by the 70k warranty. So, there is another appointment a week from this Thursday for them to install the new parts.

I cannot express the degree of relief I feel. It is extraordinarily pleasant to be on the correct side of a close call. The lesson here is to avoid procrastinating; less than 4,000 miles more would have meant this would have come out of my pocket instead of being paid for by Lexus.

Movie Explosion

I like movies. Lately, I have not watched many. This is due to a number of reasons, mostly cost and time. Although, cost is not the primary factor in this equation; I have had several movies on DVD for years without watching them at no cost at all. So, time seems to be the biggest factor. With Katy around, our movie choices are limited; after she goes to bed our time is short enough to make any disagreement about which movie is to be watched a show stopper. There are circumstances that lend themselves to the viewing of movies, however.

This previous Saturday was my pal Ryan's bachelor party. I had some things set for sure (like Whirlyball), but I wanted to leave a number of our events open since Ryan was to be driving in from out of state. One of the things I was considering was for all of us to go see the new "X-Men III" movie. I have "X-men II" on DVD, and had it for years, but had never seen it. Since I didn't want to see them out of order, I watched it on Thursday night (I liked it). Well, plans changed and Ryan didn't get into town until later on Saturday, so that nixed the movie idea. But, seeing "X-Men II" put me into a superhero-movie-viewing mode; after we all finished playing Texas Hold'em at Davey's, Davey and I stayed up and watched "Spiderman II" (which I also liked).

On Sunday, we after lunch, David, Dad, Jenny and I went to see "X-men III" (which I enjoyed, but have mixed feelings about). So, I drastically increased the number of movies I have seen this year in one weekend.

Kendra and I intended to watch some shows or movies on DVD tonight, but found that we were maybe a little too busy to do it. Maybe this weekend? I always forget how much I enjoy watching movies and how they give me a little feel-good lift-me-up.

Obsession as a Good Thing

I find myself spending a great deal of time on things in which those around me cannot see the value. An example of one of these "time-wasting" behaviors would be my devotion to video games. When I start playing a game, I will often play the game non-stop, using all my free time until I complete the story or burn out on the experience. I think this compulsion, this obsession, is a part of me in other areas of my life as well, and it can be used toward my benefit.

If I can convince myself that I am interested in something, I can, occasionally, develop the same sort of obsession with that behavior as I would with one of my games. My latest example of this would be my interest in selling my car. I've meant to sell it for a while now, but the compulsion to do so was lacking. Now that I have convinced myself that I am interested in doing this, I have been spending my time thinking about and acting toward the completion of this goal. I need to get some maintenance done, so yesterday I located several different mechanics that I would call the next day. Today, I called the mechanics and set up an appointment. Since there is the potential that the mechanic (the dealer, actually) might be interested in the purchase of the car, I spent the evening emptying the junk out of the car and thoroughly vacuuming and polishing it. Tomorrow, I intend to call the dealer again and address some other concerns involving my car.

The trick is to complete the task (complete the story) before I burn out on the experience.

The First Time in a Long Time

I recently dug out my old Franklin Planner and printed daily and monthly pages to fit using Microsoft Outlook. I still intend to read the "7 Habits of Highly Effective People", which I believe incorporates the use of a planner, but until that time, I have come to try to use my own makeshift system.

I am pleased to say that I had a list of tasks that I had set for myself today and (this is where the title comes into play) actually completed all of them. While I've come close in the past couple weeks, today I actually took care to include only items that I really needed to accomplish mixed with a realistic handful of little things that needed doing.

Part of my success comes from the use of a type of running To Do list that may contain vague or specific tasks. Anything that is not completed can safely be bumped to the next day.

I am hoping that this will be the beginning of a more productive and accomplished Andy.

A Bit of This and That

Often I think of things on which I'd like to comment, going so far as to begin the composition of these elements in my head. Yet, I never seem to ever commit these thoughts to the electronic medium of my website. While many of those thoughts are long lost, I think I will attempt to remedy this by making shorter posts, but more of them. Look for a number of posts in the near future.

Old Year / New Year

The New Year's Eve plans seem like they will be just me and K hanging out at home, watching the South Park countdown to the New Year. And, the New Year will start off in an interesting way; we will be driving to Sterling Heights on the first to visit my family and to attend the funeral of my great uncle Louie on Tuesday. He was 89 so it wasn't a big surprise, but funerals really are never much fun. :( On a positive note, there are several family members who have never met Katy so it should be fun. And, I have never seen my cousin's baby, so I look forward to that, too.

Hmmm... it doesn't look like I'll get around to my resolution from this year. Honestly, it was poorly thought out and I didn't have much interest, or at least enough interest to bother with it. This year, some resolutions come to mind that are, perhaps, a bit more intersting to me. Some are more clearly thought out, while others are currently just vague thoughts to be developed later. So, without further ado, here is...

Andy's Resolutions for 2006

1. Read 26 books this year - I've always enjoyed reading. As a youngster, I would frequently read in bed before going to sleep. But, in recent years, I've found that I have spent less and less time reading as a leisure activity (which is, apparently, not uncommon for adults to experience once they leave school.) So, my thought is that I would like to read one book every two weeks. But, I realized that there may be times when I am reading a longer book or I have less time and cannot finish in two weeks. There will likely also be books that are shorter, or I have more time and will take less than a week. So, a book every two weeks translates to 26 books in a year and will likely be an easier resolution to keep.
   
2. Maintain and follow an elaborate To Do list - There are a number of little mini resolutions I wanted to include, but, after thinking about how I would accomplish these resolutions, it became clear that they would be redundant if I included the To Do list. At any rate, this past year I have already experimented with developing a spreadsheet to be used for To Do items. The hard part will be to maintain it and act on the items contained within. However, this resolution is the one that holds the most interest for me, so I suspect it will be my focus.
   
3. Fiscal Responsibility - Our financial situation changed once we had Katy and I really haven't been as big a part in processing the finances as I feel I need to be. The first part of this resolution will involve creating a budget in Quicken and making sure that Quicken is kept up to date. Additionally, I'll probably sell the Lexus and buy a more responsible vehicle. These two items are significant enough that it is difficult to currently evaluate what further actions will be taken upon their completion. So, I will leave it at that.
   
4. Donate blood as often as possible to the Red Cross - While we currently are in a situation where it is not a wise idea to part willy-nilly with funds, I would still like to be able to donate to charity. Thus, since I can generate blood for free, I might as well donate.
   
5. Attitude adjustment - I think that I've fallen into a kind of grumpy state. In the past, I used to be a very mellow, easy going guy. I am going to try to be that guy again. I'm going to aggressively pursue tasks that others request of me and consider it an honor to be asked instead of upset that I am stuck doing it. I am going to look for ways to do things to help others and do them. I am going to stop procrastinating and try to do things right away. This is, by far, the most vague, least defined, and least likely resolution to be completed, but I feel it needs to be included, at least as a reminder to me.
   

Well, there is less than an hour remaining before the New Year. I am going to get back to watching the South Park mini-marathon. Happy New Year, everyone. :)

Happy 2nd Birthday, Katy!

My cute little baby is two years old today! At first, she was a little uncertain about what to do with the presents, but it didn't take too long for her to learn that opening presents is fun. :) She has a little pretend grocery cart that she now loves; she has been pushing it around the kitchen and family room, "shopping" for groceries. She loves the little wash-puppets we got her, as well as the books, DVDs and Dora stuff. Tonight, when I get home from work, we will open her final present from Mommy and Daddy; a Dora game for the computer, her first video game. :) Although it is listed as being for children 3 and up, Katy seems to be a quick learner and I think she'll get the hang of it, with a little help from Daddy.

Although Katy is allergic to tons of stuff, Mommy was able to find cake mix and frosting that were allergen free. Katy hasn't had sweets before, so she is a little uncertain about the cake. Maybe we'll be able to get her to try some tonight. :)

TV and Such

I had been suggesting to Kendra that we might want to get the 1st season of Lost, since we both had been hearing about how good it supposedly is. Well, Kendra seemed a bit luke warm about the idea, so I let it drop. But, she surprised me and brought it home from Best Buy on Thursday. So, after watching our recorded television programs, Starved (which is hilarious) and Reunion (which could be good, but is too early to tell), we popped in the first disc. I definitely understand now what the "big deal" about this show is. It is very good and I recommend it to anyone looking for something interesting on TV. We only watched the first three episodes (Pilot 1, Pilot 2, Tabula Rasa) and already we are ready for more.

As mentioned above, I would also recommend watching Starved on FX. While the subject matter might be considered questionable, it is both interesting and funny. IT'S NOT OK!!!

A Business Trip

While I have been working at SPX for over two years now, I have only had to take two business trips. The first was while I was still a contractor and was doing some work on the Mercury project. The second was just a couple of weeks ago, and it was to finish integrating my portion of the J2534 project ( PassThruIoctl ) with the rest of the system.

Actually, we really didn't do much integrating. Instead, we finished developing the code and waited on a couple other developers to finish their stuff, too. So, we could have done most of the stuff during those two weeks back at the Portage office instead of traveling to Owatonna, MN. However, it was good to see the other office and was a nice opportunity to meet co-workers there, as well as get to know the co-workers I had traveled with.

Aside from missing my family and my home, the only other big problem was eating. I love eating out, but when you do it every day, you need a big variety. There were really only about five different restaurants that we went to regularly, so it got old pretty fast.

The best part of the trip was that it inspired me to try to take more of a leadership role at my company. After seeing that there is more at SPX than just the Harley project that I had been working on since I arrived, I woke up to the desire to be more than "just" a software developer. I spoke with my local Department manager and made my desire to be a project lead known. Happily, his response was warm and encouraging. The next step is to express this desire to my boss, who was on a business trip of his own recently (to present the results of the project I was working on.)

In the mean time, I am working on a new project, which will involve writing scripts in a proprietary language to interface with specific automobiles. Additionally, I am still the sole developer on the Harley project.

NaNoWriMo

The National Novel Writing Month is coming up pretty soon. It occurs every year (since 1999) in the month of November. From November 1st through Novemeber 30th, the participants in this event attempt to write a 50,000 word novel. While the resulting work is typically not pretty, it is a good start to actually completing a novel. And, at the very least, it is quite an accomplishment.

I mention this because I am inviting you, all of you, to join me this November in trying to accomplish this goal. It will give us a fun experience to share, plus maybe a little friendly competition / peer pressure. :)

Sign up begins October 1st. While you aren't allowed to start until Novemeber, you can create a timeline / character guide / other notes. The official prize is a pat on the back and the admiration of your peers (plus the story you can tell about writing a novel in a month. ) Won't you join me?

Don't worry about quality; we can take care of that in March. ;)

A Picture Share!

Whale statues like this one are scattered around the Mystic area.

A Picture Share!

Kendra & I passed this statue honoring Civil war veterans while shopping in Mystic. Grandpa was watching Katy. :)

Let's start blogging!

A Picture Share!

This is the drawbridge as seen from my father-in-law's.

Ancient Relics of Great Worth

This is another little post about video games, specifically older ones. Just a warning for those who might be looking for something more interesting.

A long, long while ago, when I would frequent places like Best Buy or Babbages, more often than not, I would leave with at least one game. What would often happen is that I would enjoy the game(s) for a bit, but then would have many to play without enough time to play them all. Some would, inevitably, get set aside and forgotten rather quickly.

Times have changed; I no longer purchase my toys as frequently, and when I do, they tend to be used and slightly older than brand new. Recently, I have stumbled upon a stash of forgotten games. While not exactly cutting edge, they are, as the saying goes, new to me.

Within the last couple of weeks, I've been playing a game my brother bought for me as a gift, shortly after I bought the PS2. Batman: Vengeance, a game by Ubi-Soft, had a couple of flaws, especially the camera control and unprecise jumping, but was a pretty good time.

Another oldie takes on a slightly different form. Ages ago (around 1994 or so), Davey bought me the RPG, Final Fantasy III for the Super Nintendo. Over the years, I have started this game over a number of times. Typically, I would get pretty far in the game and then would either tire of it or be forced into taking an extended break; when I would try to return to it, often months later, I could not recall what I was doing and would decide that I needed to start again. While I still have the game and SNES sitting in the basement, the practicality of setting it up doesn't really excite me. However, I found that I can play it on my computer now. With an emulator for the SNES and the Final Fantasy III, (or VI, as it was known in Japan) rom, I am able to play through on the computer with some features that were not available on the original. For example, there were only specific locations that you could save at when playing on the SNES, and you could only have up to three saves at a time. With the emulator, I can still use those saves as normal, but it is easier to use one of the ten available "save states" that is, essentially, a snapshot of the moment in the game. Thus, I can save at any point, without any restrictions, as well as reload at any point without long delays. Plus, it has a fast forward button that allows for speeding through movie sections that have already been seen. Very nice. When I finally finish, I'll also take a look at Dragon Warrior 1-4 for the original NES.

For the PS2, I still have "Silent Hill 3" and for the GameCube I have the LOTR:ROTK that I am borrowing from the sibs. So, the need for the new new games is much less.

Games and the Gaming Gamers Who Play Them

Lately, I have been playing a lot of Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory for the XBox (in co-op mode with a friend online, since I've finished the solo campaign) mixed in with Spider-Man (which is actually a based on the movie) for the PS2.

Splinter Cell is a blast and my favorite series for the XBox, but I have been on a Spider-Man rampage. I borrowed it from the sibs on Memorial Day weekend and have finished it on the normal difficulty. One feature in games that I really enjoy is the ability "unlock" bonuses or secrets by accomplishing different things in the games; it extends the replayability of the game by giving additional goals asside from simply beating the bad guy at the end. In some games, you need to collect various hidden items, or earn enough money to buy the bonus goodies. In the case of Spider-Man, you get points based on various goals for each level. You will always get points for finishing the level, but to earn enough points to unlock the bonuses, you need to use a variety of attacks, and some levels have an added point bonus if you take no damage. The game is very well done. Some of the bonuses require finishing the game on the harder difficulty levels, so I started over and am playing through on "Super Hero" mode.

And, when I've exhausted both Splinter Cell and Spider-Man, I'll probably continue with the Sims 2 on my PC. What is interesting about the Sims is that you cannot really "finish" the game. Often described as a "sandbox", play continues indefinitely, with the direction and story of the game being left up to the player. Often in games, if you get tired with a certain character, you start over and have to work from scratch. The beauty of the Sims 2 is that the setup allows for restarts with new characters, while the previous characters remain in the neighborhood and the new characters can interact with them. Not only does this allow for a restart with new characters, but it also allows for gameplay at an entirely different level; you are now playing an entire neighborhood instead of just a sim or a family of sims.

And, I think that is enough video game talk for now. Come back later and I'll be sure to bore you further. ;)

Young Man, Take 2

While my progress, and interest, in my 'official' goal for this year is minimal, I have taken to a defacto resolution. Amusingly, the resolution I have fallen into is one which many make in vain; I have returned to the Y.

Starting the second week of March, I've been to the gym three times a week. There have been only a couple of weeks in which I missed a workout, so it has been pretty routine. It all started because of my griping to a co-worker about how I have a membership to the YMCA that I never use and was planning on canceling it. Upon hearing this, he expressed an interest in the Y since he was looking to become more physically active due to doctor's orders. I took him for a quick tour and he signed up the same day; we worked out for the first time the very next day.

It is interesting how some days seem to be trivial, while others feel like I've never worked out before, even though the weights remain the same. We always start with a fifteen minute run before we lift weights, and I think that might be the issue. Maybe it would be better to do the weights first. Though, the one time we tried reversing the order, it made the run much less bearable. We'll see.

Graduation vs. the Pistons

So, it is now about 4:40pm on Sunday June 5th, and I am sitting at home writing this instead of having a graduation dinner with my sister and family at the Rainforest Cafe. The entire state of Michigan is under a Tornado Watch until 8 tonight, so it didn't seem wise to make the 2.5 hour journey to Auburn Hills to participate in Jenny's graduation. It is all the Pistons fault.

If the Pistons had just swept the Heat, or been swept, the graduation cerimonies would have been on Saturday as planned. But, because there was a game six, graduation got pushed to Sunday. So, since there were no weather problems yesterday, the trip would have been a non-issue.

At any rate, I'm sorry I cannot be there, Jenny; I hope it was fun anyways. :)