Great Music Videos

Caught this on reddit. Had to sit and watch all of them, all the way through. Dazed by the memories, the guitar work, the music.

Wow.

This is some of the best music that defined my generation.

http://rakeshkumar.wordpress.com/2006/08/28/top-10-guitar-solos/

A Day in Chicago

Wowsers, what a day!

We did sleep in a bit, til nearly nine o'clock. The boys didn't even move until I clicked on the telly to see if there was anything newsworthy. There wasn't, but we accidentally ran into the last hour or so of "Revenge of the Sith", and watched that instead of eating breakfast.

That's guys for you. Entertainment before sustenance.

Finally checking out of the motel, we headed downtown (after a quick stop at Dunkin Donuts, which is where Real Men eat breakfast!) to start our tour, and quickly discovered that all of the metered parking on the Lake Shore was "disabled"; that is, all the meters were covered with little hoods, and there were orange cones all over the place to say, "No, you can't park here, either." Everyone was being directed to park at Soldier Field. Actually, it wasn't too bad. Only $15 for the whole day. But - Cash Only. No cards, no checks.

That took care of all my real money. Turns out that there was just enough change in the car to get us a parking spot. So we parked. And walked. Luckily, it's just a short walk from Soldier Field to the Aquarium.

Adam had been to the Shedd before, so there wasn't much to surprise him there, but James was totally thrilled. He got to see the big sea turtle and the octopus and the dolphin show and the penguins and the huge lobsters and crabs and the bird-eating spider of the Amazon and the Komodo dragon. And the Gift Shop. Especially the Gift Shop. Where he found a cute little sea turtle beanie baby.

Then we walked down to the Adler Planetarium and saw the Stars of the Pharoahs show, of particular interest to Egyptologists like James, and then Adam found all sorts of fun things to do in the hands-on exhibit section, like making impact craters and watching the mars rover and creating his own solar system (trying to set the orbitals so that the planets don't crash into the sun).

On the way out, we stopped by the little beach which is right next to the Planetarium, and I inadvertenly stepped into Lake Michigan with my sandaled foot, which meant that for the next hour or so, I had to deal with a wet foot. But it did keep me cool!

It was time to head home by then, so we got into the I-94 traffic and spent the next couple hours trying to get out of Chicago. Finally managed to get to Michigan City where we stopped at IHop for dinner. Or breakfast. Whichever. Then we drove over to South Bend to visit with Sue Gaub's mom, Mrs. Rice, whose husband is in the hospital with pneumonia.

Then, finally, home.

Today, the kids are getting together with some of their friends to play for awhile, then we're heading out to the company picnic at the zoo, and then it'll be time to try and re-establish normality again. School is on the way. Fall, too.

And I'm ready for another vacation!

Are we there yet?

It has been a very long day.

My flight finally took off around 2 p.m., getting me into GR around three-thirty or so. My bag, sadly, didn't make it.

Cheryl needed to take the girls to piano lessons, so I got my car and drove over to meet her there, and we swapped cars, and then it was time to head to Chicago. Deja vu.

Got to Chicago in time to check in at the motel -- but the room wasn't ready yet; they were still cleaning it, and didn't want to give me a key. So, still in the same clothes I'd gone to work in the day before, I drove to Midway and waited for the boys.

Naturally, their flight was delayed, too. Got in around ten.

But they made it, and we got to the motel, and I've had a nice, refreshing shower, and they're watching Animal Planet and showing me pictures and toys from the trip.

I'm sleeping in tomorrow.

New Gate

They changed the gate number. And the time. It was 10:40. Then it was 12:55. Now it's 1 p.m. At gate B4.

And more and more people keep showing up. Don't they watch the news? Don't they know that the air traffic around here is screwed up?

They should all just stay home.

I should've stayed home. What a dumb trip.

Waiting

Stuck in Chicago. Weather problems. Was supposed to be flying out of here at 6. The current estimated schedule says 12:55. Then it'll be time to turn around and drive back to Chicago again to pick up the boys.

Ooooh, this is fun.

You oughta see the terminal. It's jam-packed with frustrated would-be passengers.

I'm not taking any pictures.

Here we go ... again

I'm sitting in the airport waiting to catch my flight to LAX. Life got just a little more interesting last night.

When we got home from church yesterday, there was a voice mail from work. They needed me to come in. Didn't mention exactly what the problem was, but you know how it goes. Guess they didn't want to scare me off.

So I went in to work and discovered that our customer (names have been removed to protect the far-from-innocent) was having difficulties. Nothing earth-shattering, just software that wasn't working. Their software. See, we give them an operating system, and a few applications to run on it, and they write some of their own applications which run at the same time as our applications, and they all work together to help pilots manage navigation and flight management tasks.

They took our, stuff which was working, added in their own stuff, and suddenly it wasn't working anymore. Well, let me clarify that: in this one particular failure mode, it didn't do what they expected it to do.

So I and my comrades were at work yesterday from early afternoon to late evening, trying to figure out what was going on. We took their software and ran it in our lab without any problems. Which leads us to believe that there is something amiss in their lab. That is, a hardware problem. Nothing much we can do here about their hardware.

But that is not the correct response when the Customer says, "Jump". They said, "Get someone on a plane right now!" -- which is their default response to any problem. And when the Customr says "Jump", we Jump. And as the front-line geek, that means me.

Which is why I'm on a flight to LAX today. In this particular episode, I'm playing the part of the 7th Cavalry, riding in over the hill to save Custer. Armed with my laptop rifle and my cell phone canteen. Ready to jump into the fray and slay the dragons. Or bugs. Or whatever.

Oh, and I have to be back in Chicago by Thursday to pick up the boys!

Man, what a fun week this is going to be.

Recovery

The boys are in Washington, I've got a ton of work to do after taking two days of glorious vacation in Chicago, and there is a serious girly-girl tea party planned for the weekend.

Where can I hide?

In Chicago

We arrived in Chicago this afternoon, after an uneventful drive. Cheryl navigated us downtown without much difficulty, despite the ridiculous amount of construction and traffic on I90 near the lake front. We parked close to the Navy Pier and spent a few hours wandering through the shops, riding the ferris wheel, going through the Children's Museum, grabbing ice cream at McD's.

Then it was time to take the boys to the airport for their flight to Seattle. Cheryl and the girls dropped the boys (and Dad) off at Midway, then drove off to the hotel. Dad and the boys got through Security, found some dinner (pizza!) and wandered through the airport shops to kill time until the flight was ready to go.

The boys were excited about going, although Adam was suffering from a headache. They were feeling quite grown up about being on their own, standing in line by themselves, boarding the plane unencumbered by adults. Plus they were probably looking forward to consuming all the snacks that were packed in their backpacks!

After the flight had left, Cheryl came to the airport and picked Rob up, and then it was back to the hotel, and sleep.

Voting Day

I don't understand people who don't vote.

It's a Primary poll today, and time to get to the voting booth and select the candidates for state and local offices. The state of Michigan doesn't exactly make it easy on people to find out what the issues are, not like Washington does. In Washington, they put out these nice voter pamphlets with pictures of the candidates and summaries of their positions, as well as summaries of the issues that are up for a vote, and everyone gets a copy so they can read up on things even if they're doing that reading on the way to the polling station. At least they are a little informed of what is going on in the world.

I don't read the paper much, outside of the comics, and I don't watch the television to get my news, and I don't like the local news websites because they are almost as boring as the newspaper and television news, so there isn't much opportunity for me to get information about the state and local issues unless I do my own research.

But it is my civic duty to stay informed, so that my vote means something. A vote cast in ignorance is worse than no vote at all.

So I researched the issues and the people running for office by doing a bit of web surfing, talking to some people at work and at church for whom I have great respect, and then considered the facts and the opinions presented before making my selections.

Then Cheryl and I, with the girls in tow, walked to the polling place and cast our votes.

How hard can that be?

It was nice to go to the school and see the old ladies sitting at the tables, the volunteers who verify residency and hand out the ballots and answer questions. It's gratifying when they remember you from the last election, and recognize in you someone who cares about such things as civic duty and responsibility.

It's disheartening to put the ballot in the machine and read the electronic tally of the number of ballots cast thus far. Pitifully low.

Where are all the voters? Are they all waiting for the last minute? Are they (hopefully) finishing up their research on the issues before showing up?

Or are they sitting at home, watching TV and thinking, "Eh, it doesn't really matter. It's just a Primary." "My vote doesn't really count." "My wife and I cancel each other out." "I don't want to miss the game."

Just once, I'd like to see 100% voter turnout, just to see what people really believe. That would be a very interesting election.

If they had all done their research.

If they had all paid attention back in High School Government class.

If they really understood how easily the democratic process can be corrupted by those with the money and power to do so. (After several years in the Lake Stevens area, I understand. Completely.)

In the end, those who do not vote have no one to blame but themselves for the city/state/country/world in which they live. If you don't spend the time doing your duty at the polling place now, you may end up spending it on the battlefield later on - or in the concentration camp. (Think Germany 1933.)

Happy Birthday, Dear Craig!

Try not to spend it at work this time.

Happy Birthday, Dear Judy!

We hope you had a great time doing whatever it is that you wanted to do on your birthday, hopefully involving at some point a bowl of ice cream and perhaps a Red Vine or two. If not, we'll save you one for later.

More Fun at VBS

Man, I'm tired.

It isn't the number of activities that wear me out, it's the intensity of the evenings, trying to get the kids excited about the subject and yet temper their enthusiasm so that they focus it on the right thing. I don't want them getting out of hand, yet I also don't want them to get bored out of their minds.

Mostly I worry about them getting bored. Nothing worse than a bored pre-teen for getting in trouble.

We didn't have much trouble tonight, except for one kid who just doesn't have good control of his mouth (keys in the ignition, can't shut it off). That was in the lesson/snack room. Back in the craft room, everyone was finishing up their treasure boxes and wind chimes, and they all looked great. Some of the boys finished early, so they played some card games while the rest finished up.

I found out that these boys don't handle board games well, which is why we haven't been playing the one I made up. We tried playing it the other night, but there were too many boys and each round of play was taking too long. I could've had the boys play it tonight, but the ones who were finishing up their projects needed more attention, and I didn't want to try and split my time. Yes, I had helpers, but they were quite busy as it was.

The girls managed to finish their projects right on time, at the end of the session.

Only one more night!

Second Night of VBS

Wow.

Last week, our registration numbers stood at eight. Then this past Sunday, it climbed to ten. So we were thinking there would be maybe twelve kids in the Middle School class.

Twenty-five showed up last night.

Can you say "flustered"?

One of the reasons we had decided to do the projects we picked, was because we were thinking we'd have relatively low numbers of students. When we had such a huge number, we had to scramble to get enough materials to keep the kids busy.

The obvious first step was to split the kids up. Oddly enough, we had a pretty even boy-girl split, so we did the boy-girl thing; I took the girls into the craft room and got them started on the treasure boxes while Cheryl did the lesson with the boys. Then we switched at snack time.

It went sorta OK. I only had to get after a few of the boys for being rude and disrespectful (they were day-care kids, so I was sorta surprised at their misbehavior, until it was later explained to me that they hadn't seen each other in a while and were in the "impress the other guy by seeing who can misbehave the most" mode). But overall things went very well, other than the initial panic at the large numbers.

I forgot a few things. Like the fact that the kids didn't know enough about painting/staining to hold the brushes right. Or NOT to dip the entire brush (up to the handle) into the paint. Or to wipe off the excess paint/stain before dripping it all over the table. Or how to keep the newspapers I'd put on the tables from shifting around. So there was a big mess to clean up afterward.

We didn't get out of there the first night til nearly ten. Clean-up was a pain.

Tonight, we had several 'helpers', so things went a lot better. Cheryl had one helping out with the lesson/snack room, and I had a couple in the craft room, and somehow the presence of some other adults helped to keep the kids in check.

Of course, there was still lots of clean-up involved, but it wasn't as bad as before. Once we get the rhythm down, it'll go a lot better.