MMORPG

Our family has been taken over the MMORPG craze. Our kids have spent hours playing Webkinz. I wonder if there are Kinz Cash farmers?

Innovation Through Dedication

At my office, they have a coffee counter just like every other office in the western world. Among the available items are coffee stirrers. Here is a picture of the box of stir sticks:

Now I admire the Royal Paper Products company for the pride they take in their products, but this might be taking it a bit too far. These stirrers are simple wooden sticks. As far as I can tell, they do not possess any innovation whatsoever. Since they are probably made my machine in huge quantities and not individually handcrafted, they don't really contain any dedication either.

Kurds

Some good news on Iraq.

Disneyland

For Jaya's birthday, I took her and a friend to Disneyland on Saturday. We had a blast. Got there right after it opened and staying almost to closing. We did every ride the girls wanted except for Peter Pan, which had 60 minute plus lines the entire time.
I also did a few things that I had never done before

• Parked in the Poombah lot. If you get the opportunity to park in this lot, DON'T! It is located across Harbor Blvd. and there is no shuttle service. This wasn't a big deal in the morning when we are hyped up, but at 11:00 at night with two tired girls, the walk is no fun.


• Saw the story at Aladdin's Oasis. It is easy to miss this attraction wedged between Jungle Cruise and the Tiki Room, but I highly recommend it if you have kids. The actors did a great job telling the story of the movie.


• Got dinner and a show at the Golden Horseshoe. I don't think I have ever been inside the Golden Horseshoe, but they have food (a limited menu though) and great entertainment. The band was country/hillbilly with a frontman that looked very much like Neal Young. Very entertaining, but a tad bit loud.


• Rode Roger Rabbit spin ride in Toon Town. This had the longest line of the day and right before we were about to board, the ride broke down. As the current passengers were unloaded, they announced a 20 minute wait and we decided to stick it out. After almost exactly 20 minutes, it was back up and running again.

Toastmasters

I recently joined the Toastmasters club at my company and today gave my first speech, the "Icebreaker" project. This is supposed to be about yourself, and I spoke about my progression from loathing automobile maintenance to enjoying it. I got a bunch of good feedback to pore over and hope to make my next speech soon.

Shaara Trifecta

I recently finished three historic novels from Jeff Shaara.
The Rising Tide - The newly released first segment of a World War II trilogy, I think I was the first to grab this from the SD County library. This was my first Shaara book and I really like it. Due to my past interest in WWII I knew all the people and places that were mentioned. This book follows American troops from the invasion of North Africa through the Sicily campaign. Mr. Shaara does a wonderful job of describing the heat of battle but also the tedium of the planning and waiting. I guess that is war is described and periods of shear boredom punctuated by moments of shear terror (or something like that).

To the Last Man - My favorite Shaara book to date. Follows the same tedium/terror pattern of Rising Tide but the battle scenes are much more intense. I think this has to do with the choice of characters. In Tide, Shaara follows a tank driver and a paratrooper; these disciplines, added with the nature of WWII combat lead to a greater separation between participants. But in WWI, there was still a "wait until you see the whites of their eyes" kind of fighting. Highly recommended, especially if you know nothing about The Great War.

Gone For Soldiers - This was Mr. Shaara's first non-Civil War novel, and his weakest that I have read so far. In this book, he follows the "dream team" that made up the American side of the war, including Winfield Scott, Robert E. Lee, U.S. Grant and others, in the Veracruz to Mexico City campaign. He does not cover any grunts like he does in his later books and gives the book a bit of a blue-blood tone to it. Not a bad book by any means, especially considering the difficulty of the subject.

Next up is Jeff Shaara's two-part America Revolution series.

Mexican Moving Vans

Living close to the border, I often witness the wonders of the Mexican Moving Van. For the uninformed, an MMV is a steel frame built up around a pickup truck. Kind of like a carpenters pickup with the over-the-cab rack just a lot higher and longer. The owners then pack them to the rafters with stuff. It is amazing that these things can even move much less travel the freeways. I saw the mother of all MMV's on the way down from Orange County Sunday night. This one was not hauling a household of goods like they normally do, but rather had a single cargo: mattresses. Lots of mattresses. Think of your normal MMV loaded to the hilt, then throw on a few dozen mattresses. There were some decent winds on the freeway that night and I still can't figure out how that thing didn't tip over. My wife thought they were using ballast in the truck bed. I hope the poor guy didn't get rained on or he would have soaked up a few tons of water.

Dogs Are Like Flies

As a previous post detailed, we are having a problem with our dog pooping on the floor, usually on the carpet where it is the hardest to clean up. A friend gave us a good trick to try. She only feeds are dog once a day, in the morning. Then she walks the dog, it poops, then nothing until the next day. Apparently, dogs are like flies. When something comes in the front end, something has to move out the back to make room. We were leaving Sophie's dish out all night. She would wander in for a midnight snack, then nature took its course. This trick has worked so far and has saved her from a one-way ticket to the Helen Woodward center.

Bad Week

Its been a rough start to the week so far.
* Woke up sick the the flu that everyone seems to have
* Dog crapped on the hallway carpet
* I stepped in said crap
* Work is piling up due to sick days
* Strained a muscle in the back of my rib cage

Pipe Hike

Each weekend, we try to get out on a hike that is not too difficult for the kids and we can take the dog. Out favorite is on the Manchester Trails just a short distance away. We call it Pipe Hike for the gas pipeline running through the park. Most of it is buried, but there is a wash that was exposed the pipe so it acts like a bridge. The kids like to cross the over it.
One our last trip, I took my eTrex and tracked our route. Through the wonders of Google Maps and GPSVisualizer, I made a map of our trip. Our route is 1.7 miles which is just right for the tykes. There is one steep stretch where we climb 160 ft. in little over a tenth of a mile.

Lucene

I have started to integrate Lucene into one of my projects at work. Now I can be a genius like my colleague.

Chargers

To fire Marty or not to fire Marty...that is the question.
IMHO, Marty is a good coach. He has made a few poor decisions in key playoff games, but most of his losses have been due to bad luck. Charger fans can now share in their grief with Cleveland Brown v1.0 fans. The coach always gets blamed because he is in charge. But in the end, it is not him on the field.
Instead of firing Marty, they need to fire some of the players. Eric Parker has to go. He is a mediocre WR at best and a game-killer at worst. McCardell is getting too old to play anymore and should retire. Then, they need to get a big-time receiver to line up with Vincent Jackson. I have my eye on T.O. You could probably get him cheap from the Cowboys. Yes, he's a headache, but look at those numbers. They bring back the same team as last year but with another playmaker for Rivers, they could go 16-0; then lose in their first playoff game :(

Roomba

I got my wife myself a Roomba. Should I hack it?

Post Vacation Blues

Upon returning from my vacation, I had the following waiting for me:

• Car covered in bird poop


• Dead battery in said car


• Lost cell phone


• Many pounds to be worked off


• Down DSL

St. Louis

I spent the last week in St. Louis visiting my brother and his family. He has a girl and a boy that are year behind my kids (my mom got grandkids in four straight years) plus an infant. The kids got along great even though they are very different personalities.
My family has deep roots in the St. Louis area. My mom grew up in Cahokia and met my dad while he was attending Parks College. My brother also attended Parks and worked for Anheuser-Busch before moving to Merrill Lynch.
We hit some great sites this trip:

• St. Louis Zoo - an awesome zoo and free to boot! It was pretty cold so alot of the animals were off exhibit keeping warm. However, the antelopes and other hoofed animals were in a big barn. You could get very close to them and the highlight were the giraffes.


• The City Museum - probably the greatest playground/children's museum I have seen. It has to be seen to be believed. If you have kids and are in the area, plan a day to go here. We stayed for over 7 hours and kids didn't want to leave.


• U.S. Grant Historical Site - a small, but very interesting park. It contains the house that the Grant's owned. The rangers where extremely informative. I plan on visiting this park again when the museum is finished.


• Jefferson National Expansion Memorial - best known for the Gateway Arch, this park also has a good museum and a great film on Lewis & Clark. The arch is not for the claustrophobic or altophobic. Imagine getting into a large clothes dryer and going straight up for over 600 feet. The angle of the viewing windows at the top let you see behind the arch.

Fantasy Champs!

My team pulled out a huge win to take the eNFL championship. Steven Jackson, Rian Lindell and the Chargers D overcame mediocre performances from Matt Hasselbeck, Marion Barber and Torry Holt.

Iran Loses Lawsuit

In more ridiculous legal news, Iran has been ordered to pay damages for the Khobar Towers bombing. Does anyone really expect them to pay?

Exxon Valdez

Why is this still going on? No wonder the courts are backlogged if they keep doing the same cases for 17 years.

Fantasy Football Semi-finals

By a minor miracle, one of my teams squeaked out a win. The game was tied after Sunday's afternoon games and I was going to lose the tie-breaker. However, due to a recount, I was awarded an extra point and the victory. I believe that crucial point was the fumble recovery by the Chargers on that blocked punt. I was in the championship game last year in this league, so I hope second time's the charm.
My other team got smoked.

Three Books

Bruce Catton - American Heritage New History of The Civil War
This book is one of the seminal volumes in Civil War history. Not because of its depth or groundbreaking analysis but because of the large number of historians that list it as one of their first exposures to the Civil War. This book provides a great overall history of the war but it is the maps that get all the attention. The maps are drawn 3D maps with tiny soldiers, cannons and cavalry running around, fighting and otherwise depicting the actual troop actions. They give a nice feel for the events over traditional military maps, especially for younger readers.

James McPherson - Battle Cry of Freedom
This book won the Pulizter Prize so it must be good. It is a much more comprehensive
narrative than Catton. Frankly, I skipped most of the first 6 chapters since they covered the political events of the prior decades leading up to the war. I was mainly interested in the military side of things. MacPherson covers everything in just enough detail to get a good feel for the war.

Tom Clancy - Debt of Honor
I hadn't read a Tom Clancy book for ages before picking this one up at the library. I don't think I will be picking up another for a while. This book is predictable and boring. The premise is that the Japanese, after getting in a trade dispute with the US, decide they need to be more "indepenent." So they attack US naval forces and invade Saipan and Guam. The industrialists that are controlling the government also have plans to ally with China and India to grab more land. But there is no suspense, no surprises. Jack Ryan is the hero who can do no wrong (and his wife is even more annoyingly perfect). In the end, the US uses its superior technology to knock out key Japanese capabilities and forces them to retreat. Maybe it is because I read "The Hunt for Red October" and "Red Storm Rising" at the height of the Cold War and they seemed real and plausible and that made those books fun and exciting. But Debt of
Honor just seems silly.