St. Louis Pix

* Snow in Kevin's backyard.

* Bengt on the pistol range.

How America Works

Read this great Kickstarter story (and buy some, like I did).

St. Louis Vacation

We just had a wonderful vacation with my family at my brother's in St. Louis. My parents were also to able to be there.
Some of the highlights (pix to come later):
* Cahokia Mounds - it was snowing so we didn't get to hike around, but the mounds are one of America's least known wonders.
* Snow! - a nice 6" snowstorm.
* Good times with family! Including shoveling the driveway and helping my brother with his crown molding.
* Sister-in-law's photography studio - she graciously took some family photos and headshots for us.
* Jaya's 13th birthday (she is a teenager now)
* Trip to the range at the A. Busch Conservation Area Shooting Range - the boys fired some .22 pistol rounds. They also got to fire the 20 gauge but they didn't care for the kick.

Bengt on Youtube

Bengt has started on Youtube with some lego videos and his first stop-motion film.

Weekend Activites

* 5K run in Mission Trails - hot day and straight up hill outbound
* Jaya's performance in "Just So"
* Lunch at Mary's Restaurant in Oceanside with Grandma and Grandpa

Airport Book

Read "A Week at the Airport" by Alain De Botton, a wonderful little book about an airport terminal.

Weekend Activities

* Survived the hail
* Chased squirrels at Cardiff with Sophie
* Jaya's piano performance test

Weekend Activites

* Built trebuchet with Bengt. We had a great time building the kit.
* Walk with Sophie in downtown.

* 5K run.
* Jo was sick :(

Muammar Qaddafi, Fashion Icon

The recent activity in Libya reminded me on this Vanity Fair article.

3 Technical Books

Picked up a trio of technical books to help me with some new projects -

• Pragmatic Guide to JavaScript by Christophe Porteneuve - a good guide/reference to the latest js stuff


• Web Design for Developers by Brian P. Hogan - a great guide for developing web pages, targeted for the non-designer


• Professional Android 2 Application Development by Reto Meier - a good guide/reference for Android apps

Chasing Cezanne

Chasing Cezanne is another Peter Mayle novel. It was a good read until the end which was terrible. The ending was rushed and hardly followed the rest of the book. I love Peter Mayle's books, but this one needs a version 2.0.

Wooden Book

A recently finished a book my wife gave me, "A Game Plan For Life: The Power of Mentoring" by John Wooden and Don Yaeger. I enjoyed the mentoring stories Coach Wooden had, but especially like the second half of the book which had chapters written by people mentored by Wooden. This list included Lewis Alcindor (as Coach called him) and Bill Walton. Highly recommended for those considering mentoring or being mentored.

Union Spelling Dispute

Some local union came by the office and had a labordispute.

Funny thing is, directly out of view, on the building, is a huge NG logo with the correct spelling. Work union, spell worse.

Steve Blank

Heard Steve Blank talk at SD Tech Founders meetup.

Weekend Activites

* Replaced broken water heater. The old one was leaking and finally croaked when a short cause a small conflagration.
* Got sick.

The Pacific Book

After watching the mini-series (most episodes, at least) I read the companion book to "The Pacific". I prefer the book. The show is great, with good acting and chilling action scenes. But the scope is narrow: marine enlisted infantry. The book covers aviators, officers, et. al. Not meant to be a definitive narrative (which it isn't) it gives a great feel for the war and the different emotions swirling around during that period.

Consolidated Plant

The UT had a nice article on the Consolidated/Convair/General Dynamics plant I visit quite often.

Abacus

Bengt passed his 9 kyu level abacus exam! The next level has more complicated multiplication and starts division.

Traffic Jam

Here is a snap of a local freeway cam during the storms a few weeks ago.


I would hate to be in traffic like that.

Howard Lindzon

Howard Lindzon gave a great (and funny) talk at SD Tech Founders meetup.