HA! - [10:45 AM]

James Robertson: "Well, these guys are debating the merits of two approaches, and which would be superior. I give you..... The Radio Button" - Sarcasm will get you everywhere, at least with me!

Labels: Fun

We've been Elf'ed! - [4:40 PM]

Labels: Family, Fun

Happy Thanksgiving! - [9:06 AM]

Enjoy time with your family and friends! Eat too much turkey, have some pie, and watch some football! Ahhhh, I love Thanksgiving!

Labels: Family, Friends, Fun

Superstition - [3:45 PM]

Our daughter plays Volleyball for the Exeter Union High School Monarchs. They've recently been crowned the Division III Volleyball Central Section Champions! Congratulations girls! That happened last Thursday, in dramatic fashion. The crushed their opponent in straight sets, 25-4, 25-15, 25-16. The entire time they were on the run through the playoffs, and subsequent title game Bug, our daughter, would send us a simple text message, "Starbucks! Huh? Yes, that was the entire content of the message but we knew what it meant. When the run began she happened to visit Starbucks with Mom a couple of hours before the game. Since then she's been doing the same thing before each game, sending me her "Starbucks!" message and the team has continued to win.

Tonight the girls begin their march to a state title, so a few minutes I received the familiar "Starbucks!" message, let's hope the streak continues. Four more victories and they'll be California Division III State Champions.

Wow, that has a nice ring to it!

Good luck Bug, and good luck Lady Monarchs!

Tonight 7PM, EUHS gym, Exeter vs. Campbell Hall.

Here are some links to local papers covering their Central Section Title Game.

Visalia Times Delta
Porterville Recorder
Fresno Bee
Bakersfield Californian

Labels: Family, Fun, Sports, Volleyball

I'm a PC - [8:47 AM]

Kim, my lovely wife, surprised me the other night, here's how the conversation went...

Kim: "Rob, you should make one of those 'I'm a PC' videos."
Me: "Yeah?"
Kim: "Yeah, you could say 'I'm a PC and I'm old, tired, and I hurt all over', just like Windows."
Me: Laughing too hard to talk.

Labels: Fun, Microsoft

BASIC is back! - [10:52 AM]

MSDN DevLabs: "Small Basic is a project that's aimed at bringing "fun" back to programming. By providing a small and easy to learn programming language in a friendly and inviting development environment, Small Basic makes programming a breeze. Ideal for kids and adults alike, Small Basic helps beginners take the first step into the wonderful world of programming" - BASIC has a special place in my heart. My first professional programming job was writing accounting software in BASIC, Microsoft BASIC 6.0 as a matter of fact, what a great language, it was what's referred to as Street BASIC because it was structured.

Labels: Development, Fun, Microsoft, Tools

Rob's Seattle Favorites - [8:58 AM]

So, for all those participating in GTAC, in beautiful Seattle, here are some of my favorites. Steve, you'd better hit a few while you're there. The maps below begin at the W Hotel, which is the conference venue according to the GTAC weblog entry.

For morning coffee you have to visit Monorail Espresso, it's on 5th and Pike, in the side of Banana Republic. Awesome coffee. Please remember, every shot is a double! Map.

We used to eat quite a bit at a joint called Happy Teriyaki. I loved their Teriyaki Chicken and Gyoza, with extra rice. Map.

Down in The Market you can find World Class Chili, awesome chili. Your chili is custom built. Order your size, bean type, meat type, and hotness. I probably miss this the most. Map.

Before Microsoft decided to move the Visio team from Seattle we used to visit Typhoon as often as we could. Map.

If I sat and though for a while I'm sure I could come up with a BUNCH more. Anywho, enjoy.

Oh, if you make it down to The Market, make sure you look for the Pigtograph.

Labels: food, Fun, Seattle

That's our Bug! - [9:33 AM]

Visalia Times Delta: "Exeter's Taylor Fahrni makes a return against Central Valley Christian's Brelle de Groot during a Central Sequoia League volleyball match. Exeter won in five sets." - For a while I thought the girls were going to drop their first game of the year. In fact, they lost their first set in league during this match. Tough game. I'm used to the girls winning in three, but not the final three. Great game girls!

Bug, you look like you're trying to bite your opponent.

Labels: Family, Fun, Volleyball

Exeter's Fall Festival - [9:26 AM]

If you're in the Exeter area drop by this weekend for Fall Festival. The parade starts at 9AM, I believe, and there's food and fun in the city park all day. It really is a great day for family and friends, and when it's all said and done for the day you can visit the Vossler Farms Corn Maze, in Visalia, for a night cap.

Labels: Family, Fun

Vossler Farms Corn Maze - [11:01 AM]

I love this time of year! When October hits it time for the family to take a trip to Vossler Farms Corn Maze. We go every year and since the girls were old enough to wander off on their own we have a Parents vs. Kids competition to see who can get all twelve checkpoints and get out of the maze first. It's so darned fun.

Kim will be taking her teen girls bible study group to the maze next week, that should be super fun.

Labels: Family, Fun, Halloween

Fun with video - [10:32 AM]

Tom Distler: "So, we’ve been developing a slick cross-platform media framework to standardize or products on (proprietry, of course), and I couldn’t resist building an ASCII text renderer." - Tom did a brilliant job with the design of our new media pipeline, but this, well, you'll have to forgive him, he couldn't help himself.

Labels: Cross Platform, Development, Fun, Graphics, Video

The great pumpkin - [10:24 AM]

Boston.com: "SHARON - Darkness and fog shrouded the ranch houses receding into the inky blackness of this forested suburb. Standing in the damp grass of a field, wearing galoshes, shorts, and a long-sleeved T-shirt, Steve Connolly held aloft a portable work lamp, brilliantly illuminating an otherworldly orange orb that looked as though it had crash-landed in his yard." - Wow, and 1,800 pound pumpkin, move over Linus.

Labels: Fun, Halloween

Can Bill see the future? - [8:31 AM]

Bill Lazar: "(Washington, D.C., 21 Jan 09) Nancy Pelosi (D, California) was sworn in as this nation's first female President by Chief Justice John G. Roberts on the steps of the US Capital building this morning after neither the House nor Senate were able to resolve last November's Electoral College tie between Barack Obama and John McCain." - A fun work of fiction.

Labels: Fun, Politics

Pet Peeve - [8:33 AM]

I'm catching up on the Google Chrome hype this morning by reading through their comic book introduction, which is very nice by the way, and I ran into one of my biggest development pet peeves, the use of the word Manager to describe something that manages a bunch of other things. Now, in this case, it could be the top level description given by marketing for the feature, then again it's probably used in the code.

I keep teasing folks at work I'm going to start using the new terms for these things because they have as much meaning as the word Manager.

How about...

1) VicePresident
2) Director
3) CEO
4) CTO
5) ExecutiveVicePresident

So in the code you'd find something like...

ProcessVicePresident* pvp = new ProcessVicePresident();

ProcessManager* pm = new ProcessManager();

Labels: Development, Fun

Beating security - [9:48 AM]

MAKE Magazing: "Helium filled rubber balloon set to the correct height and covered with enough static electricity to stick to any surface, such as a public camera." - That's pretty funny. I can see our Marketing guys coming up with a requirement to beat this sort of non-sense. We'll have to create a robotic arm with a pin on the end that can be controlled by the security guard monitoring the cameras.

Yeah, that or have the security guard walk outside and remove the balloon.

Labels: Fun

Yes, it's satire - [6:46 AM]

McClatchy: "Satire is tricky. It makes its point by exaggerating wildly with a straight face. In inflating a thing beyond all common sense or propriety, it seeks to render inconsistencies and hypocrisies glaringly apparent. Satire seeks truth in the ridiculous. For illustration, see any given episode of The Colbert Report." - Obama and his camp need to lighten up. Anyone with half a brain understands he's not what the magazine portrayed. I know, I know, there are actually people that believe he's some scary Muslim extremist "Manchurian Candidate", just waiting to gain office so he can destroy this great country of ours. Those are the same people that believe terrorists lurk around every corner, that the attacks of September 11, 2001, were orchestrated by the United States Government, the landing on the moon was mocked up in some Hollywood backlot, and well, you get the picture.

So, lighten up a bit. If you want to be President of the United States you're going to face much bigger challenges than someone poking fun at you.

Labels: Fun

Yes, I'm a bit insane - [1:06 PM]

Tom Distler: "My friend Rob (whom I share an office at work with) made the mistake of sending me the following picture, which I couldn’t resist turning into a motivational poster." - Remember, when you send a goofy photo to your friend, it will most likely wind up on the internet. My personal favorite is "Reality: This guy could be your office mate!"

Labels: Fun, Insanity

53 - [8:08 AM]

Mousekingdom Blog: "Today, 53 years ago, Walt Disney opened his first park “Disneyland“, leaving his heritage to a world of dreamers, fans, and guests from all ages." - Happy Birthday Disneyland!

Labels: Fun

It's time for some campaignin! - [8:58 PM]

Labels: Fun

Arsy in Rio - [9:21 AM]

Richard Caetano: "The first day I arrived, in true Portugese style, we had a feast. About 20 people showed up. After the meal the living room turned into a music studio with instruments galore. We played all kinds of crazy stuff, bossa novas, sambas, american rock? Later in the night my cousin Terza took me out for drinks." - In general the rest of the world really knows how to live. Here in America we're consumed with our jobs and don't really take time to enjoy life.

Labels: Family, Friends, Fun, Life

I liked Indy - [8:38 PM]

While we were on vacation we managed to slip out and catch Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. I liked it, it'll be a part of our DVD collection when it releases.

So, a big thumbs up, highly recommended.

Something else, we saw a trailer for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. This is another must see, it releases around Christmas this year.

Labels: Fun, Movies

Too late to comment - [12:08 AM]

Anderson Cooper 360: "Here is the ‘Beat 360°’ pic of the day: Vice President Dick Cheney delivers the main address during U.S. Coast Guard Academy commencement exercises, Wednesday, May 21 in New London, Conn." - My caption would've been "Shhhhh, I'm hunting Terrowists."

Labels: Fun

Redneck heaven - [1:45 PM]

The Fan Manual: "Instead, try driving a Ford, drinking Bud-heavy, playing the entire 2007 Coca-Cola 600 via cassette on the radio, eating an entire rack of ribs, sporting a UNC or USC college sticker, throwing the football, and listening to Hank Williams Jr. Also, any provocative signs that you can include at your campsite will only heighten your chances of success in fitting into the redneck realm (If you don’t know what I’m talking about, check out the banner in the picture below . . . CLASSY). If you can sit in your site by your cooler with the utmost confidence in your proper clothing, then you’re half way there!" - Important tips for surviving a NASCAR event while mullet hunting. Go read the article, it's a classic.

Labels: Fun, Life

Vatican buys Palm - [7:38 AM]

Gizmodo: "ROME (Agencies) - The Vatican has bought Palm Inc. in an $800-million cash, stock, and souls deal, a move that analysts are calling a bold bid to reconvert the Catholic Church into the number one mobile operator for communication with God."

Labels: Fun

Route 66 - [2:08 PM]

Kim and I have been talking about taking a trip on Route 66, so I thought I'd link to a site dedicated to it.

Historic 66.

Maybe someday we'll be able to give it a go.

Labels: Family, Fun, Life, Vacation

Fun at USA - [8:12 PM]

I built myself at USA's Game Lounge.

Labels: Fun