Categories
Family

Lessons

One of my high school football coaches had a great saying that I never appreciated until the kids came along. It’s “Lessons are taught until they are learned.” At the time, I’m pretty sure my impression was “Duh.” But I’ve learned to appreciate the nuance of the statement now.

For example, we have a breakfast bar in our kitchen that is populated with bar stools. The stools are on the high side so when the kids sit in them, their feet dangle.

Being kids, they can’t sit still.

Being stools, they aren’t very stable.

I figured the first time they tipped the stool over and fell off would also be the last time. But, as I said above, lessons are taught until they are learned.

Categories
Bread

Sourdough’l Faithful

I went back to the rye-sourdough stater this week and I’ve got my first loaf proofing right now. Aside from the starter, it’s all white flour so I’ll be curious as to the flavor, texture and taste. I’m thinking it will be another good sandwich bread. Being a rye, it should certainly be on the hearty side.

I’m also trying to “back” into a conventional starter by using the rye starter to er, start the starter. Basically, I took some of the rye starter and I’m starting to feed it some all-purpose white flour. As it progresses, I’ll keep increasing the proportion of white flour, while discarding a portion of the starter. We’ll see if that works.

Categories
Computers Programming

Bare git

It’s been awhile since I’d learned anything interesting regarding git. Frankly, my needs are modest and I’ve been making due with my current work flow. My only real problem was every now and again, I’d run into trouble with merges.

Turns out, there was a perfectly reasonable explanation.

I didn’t know what the hell I was doing.

Continue reading “Bare git”
Categories
Politics

Dunning-Kruger Effect

Lately, all the Democratic criticism of current Republican/ conservative ideas seems to be a variation on “the failed policies of the past.” I think it’s worth pointing out that Medicare, Social Security, and now Government Healthcare are bankrupting the country. Further, everyone, Democrats and Republicans, agree with that assessment. Yet, somehow, with the exception of Healthcare which hasn’t fully taken effect, these are considered paragons of successful government policy.

Here’s the best explanation I can think of regarding this conundrum.

Categories
Computers Programming Python

python-markdown Typed-List Extension

I’ve contributed a bit to the python-markdown project in the form of bug fixes. Today I finished creating an extension that allows python-markdown to recognize list types and generate code with the appropriate list markers. For instance, lists can be marked with upper or lower case letters, or upper or lower case Roman numerals.

The git repository for the extension is available here.

Categories
Family

The Power of Suggestion

Not one of my more dignified moments yesterday.

I was cleaning the bird cage and the lass was helping. She actually wanted to help. Why? Beat me.

Anyway, I let her wipe down the outside bars since she is not comfortable that one of our 2 Greys won’t take a nip at her. While we were cleaning, she asked “Dad, have the birds ever pooped on your head?”

Now, anyone who has companion parrots will likely understand that any parrot owner is going to get pooped on at some point. It’s an occupational hazard; especially if you handle them for any meaningful amount of time. So, I have been pooped on. But never my head. So I answered in the negative without any qualification. Some topics are best left alone.

As it happened, I was sitting on the floor and one of the bird’s perches is attached to the door. Being as I was cleaning inside the cage, the door was opened and the perch, and the bird sitting on it, was positioned above me. I’ll also note that this particular arrangement is nothing unusual; I’ve cleaned that cage many a time without incident.

But naturally, this time would be different. Thanks to the lass. And it wasn’t 5 seconds after she’d asked and I’d answered. Luckily, she never noticed.

Categories
Misc

Blue Ray Update

We, certainly I in particular, have been very pleased with our Blue Ray player. Probably the most noteworthy aspect of it is how little we actually use it as a Blue Ray player. Thus far, we’ve watched 2 BR discs with it. The vast majority of the usage is as a media center.

I’ve been using it to play music from my Pandora account almost constantly. I’ve always enjoyed having background music and when I first started using Pandora I was very pleased with the product. The BR player then solved a problem for me- how to get Pandora connected to our main stereo system. I frequently used my EEE for this purpose, but it was a little kludgy. The BR player has a Pandora application that works great. The only kludge involved is that the sound plays from our flatscreen TV’s audio out- a consequence of using the HDMI connection from the player to the TV.

We also signed up for NetFlix and have been able to go and select from a decent variety of cartoons to stream through the BR player. A plus for the kids since we can give them a little more variety for their Saturday morning fare. An added bonus is access to some oldy-but-goody cartoons and shows. Fraggle Rock, anyone? No? How ’bout Voltron? or Scooby Doo?

Definitely a worthwhile purchase.

Categories
Football

Other Football Rule Changes

The 18-game proposition, which from everything I’ve read appears to be a done deal, prompted me to think of some other possible rule changes. Here’s 2 other changes that I think have merit:

  1. Eliminate the divisions and reduce to 2 conferences. The schedule would consist of 1 game between all teams in a conference and then the schedule could be filled out with several inter-conference games. As of now, each conference has 16 teams, so that’s 15 games intra-conference leaving the opening for 3 inter-conference games. Playoffs take the top 6 teams from each conference and the playoff format remains identical with the top two teams getting a bye-week.

    This preserves rivalries, perhaps augmenting them since teams only get 1 shot at one another each season. Plus, this makes crystal clear who the cream of the crop are. Mainly though, I think this augments the playoff scenarios. No more crappy division winning teams when there are better teams in a more competitive division. Or rather, we no longer have that argument because it’s all settled on the field.

  2. Make field goals worth points based on distance. I think there are 2 scenarios:
    1. Field goals are worth a minimum of 2 points up to 30 yards, and then increase by 1 point for every 10 yards further. So 17-30 yards worth 2, 30-39 worth 3, 40-49 worth 4, 50-59 worth 5 and 60+ worth 6.
    2. Makes field goals less than say, 40 or 45 yards worth 3 points (I’m not sure what a good dividing line is, my sense is 45. Looking at league stats would make it pretty clear.) Make anything beyond worth 4 points.

    Mainly, this affects the ends of games and keeps teams in a game even longer. Basically, the minimum safe lead becomes 2 touchdowns (14 points). For instance, under scenario ‘A’ a team down 10 late has a new path to tie, or even win the game. To tie, they need 2 50+ yard field goals. It’s a lot easier to move the ball to the 35 or so than to score touchdowns. Less time comes off the clock for each drive as well.

    Arguably there are also new strategic considerations that come into play. Does a team down 10 immediately settle for a 50+ yard field-goal to preserve time on the clock, or do they try to finish the drive and score touchdowns? When inside the 10, does a team settle for 2 now, or go for it on 4th down because 2 points isn’t worth it?

Of the 2, the variable-point field goal is more interesting, IMHO. But I like both and don’t think either is so crazy as to be dismissed without merit. I’ve had other thoughts, but these 2 I think are simple and enhance the game in interesting ways.

Categories
Football

NFL Week 2

There’s really not a lot to add to the current commentary about the NFL after Week 2. Being a Dallas fan, I will say that I’m becoming more hopeful about Tony Romo becoming truly an elite QB. I don’t know if I’m the only one, but I’ve never been totally sold on him. Sure he’s got gaudy stats and he’s won a lot of games. Truth be told, my criticism’s of him don’t even rest on his less-than-stellar playoff performances either.

Continue reading “NFL Week 2”
Categories
Family

You’re Not Nice

This has become the boy’s favorite retort any time we discipline him or otherwise force him to do something he’d rather not. Annoyingly, even the lass has picked this one up. So when he used it on the Wife and I yesterday, while en route to the zoo no less, I unfurled a little sarcasm at him:

“You’re right, we’re not nice. We’re so not nice that we never get you anything for your birthday like bikes and rollerblades. We’re so not nice that we never take you to the park to use them. We’re so not nice that we never take you to the zoo, or the museum. We’re so not nice that we never take you out to eat. We never make you your favorite foods. We’re so not nice that we never give you a shoulder to cry on. We never take you to friend’s houses for birthday parties. We never let you get together with your friends at all.”

“You’re right, we are not nice parents at all.”

After several moments of silence, he said “I just meant right now.”

Categories
Family

Dondi

You never know what kids will fixate on, and the lass’ fascination with an elephant certainly fits in that mold.

Continue reading “Dondi”
Categories
Football

Now That’s Gutsy

Michigan State beats Notre Dame in overtime last night using a fake field goal. The significance here is that Michigan State was down by 3, so if the play hadn’t worked, they would have lost and chances are the coach would be second-guessed into resigning.

Looking around at the games, I’m seeing a lot of really good, competitive and entertaining games that were played yesterday. The Clemson-Auburn game went into overtime as well; Umass almost pulled an “upset of the year” against Michigan; and the Iowa-Arizona game was a good one.

That seems to be the pattern for now- there were a lot of good games last week as well.

Categories
Computers Programming Python

Down and Dirty Mail Notification

Following is a simple new mail notification implementation for the awesome window manager that leverages procmail. It’s main virtue is simplicity: there are about 20 lines of python code, 1 procmail recipe and several lines of code required in the rc file for awesome. The result is a numeric count of new email displayed in the statusbar.

Continue reading “Down and Dirty Mail Notification”
Categories
Football

The Real Reggie Bush Travesty…

… is that anyone ever thought he was the second coming of Gale Sayers.

Categories
Misc

A Taste of October?

Acknowledging the rather large caveat that October isn’t here yet and could be anywhere weather and temp wise, it was 38 this morning when we came down to let the dogs out, making it very October-like. Yesterday the temp didn’t get out of the 60’s and it’s more of the same today, despite sunny skies.

Have to admit, I like it.

Categories
Family

On being 6

Back in the Spring, I recall the boy arguing about his bedtime. With the days getting longer and their bedtime of 8, he argued that he should be allowed to stay up later because it was still light out when he was going to bed. I recall being impressed because he was not just whining for a later bedtime- he was actually making an argument. For the record, we relaxed the bedtime thing when Summer vacation started.

What I didn’t, and likely couldn’t, realize at the time was that his new found ability was just going to be the tip of the ice berg. He has changed a great deal in a short amount of time. Those changes continue and the Wife and I are working to guide him along his way.

Continue reading “On being 6”
Categories
Football

Week 1 Football Analysis

There’s really only 1 thing you need to know at this point: half the league is undefeated and half the league is winless. Being Week 1, speculation much beyond that is silly.

I will say, however, that I hope Rex Ryan’s portion of crow was tasty.

Categories
Football

Football Question

Couldn’t Calvin Johnson’s non-touchdown-catch been ruled, in fact, a catch by virtue of his being tackled immediately while in possession of the ball in the endzone?

The ball didn’t come out until well after he was down. In any other circumstance I can think of a play is ruled a touchdown and the play is over immediately. So if the ball crosses the goal line while in an offensive players possession, it’s a touchdown and their can be no fumble- even if there is no tackle. If the player is going out of bounds but is able to get the ball across the goal line prior to touching down out of bounds, it is a touchdown.

Some may object on “football move” grounds, which is the standard for field-of-play catches. But I don’t see how this can apply in the endzone since there is no football move- the offensive player is in the endzone with the ball which is a touchdown. Period. And anyways, in this case, Johnson was tackled immediately after catching it- so even if this was the normal field-of-play, there was no opportunity for a football move. He was down by contact.

Seems like an arbitrary change from the standard end zone possession rule interpretations.

Categories
Misc

Storm Riders

I caught a little of TWC’s new Storm Riders show. My impression is that it will be a short lived show. Obviously, the whole premise for viewership is adrenaline. The two tornado chasers get as close as they possibly can to the storms and start taking pictures. The problem is, how does this not become “if you see one show, you’ve seen them all?” Sure, it’s different for the two of them every time, but they’re actually doing the chasing.

The other comment I wanted to make was about the editing. They had some incredible pictures and video of tornadoes. But they way the show is edited together, it isn’t possible to actually see anything. The pictures are constantly changing and switching views and angles. They even show still shots taken, but only leave them on screen for a second.

I’m sure the intent is drama. But the effect is frustration. It would be nice, since these two guys are getting phenomenal video of tornadoes, to be able to actually see the storm as they see it- how the debris moves, how the clouds spin around the funnel. Instead, we get at most a few seconds of footage, followed by fancy editing and shot sequences that make it impossible to really see anything of interest.

They probably could have done these guys more justice by giving them a 2 hour show where they narrate their video and explain what they’re doing and feeling. As it is, there just isn’t much to get excited about.

Categories
Misc

Remembering

I remember that day with clarity. It was a beautiful sunny day.

I was at work and browsing the web (on a dial-up connection, remember those? HAH!). At that time, I would check the various news sites looking for the latest bit of inanity. I wasn’t a news junkie (I’m still not) but I paid attention to events.

I remember bringing up MSNBC’s site and at that time they would have a single picture and headline to try and grab your attention for a new story. The picture here was an aerial shot of the Twin Towers, and the headline said simply “Plane crashes into World Trade Center.”

I remember my first thought being “Great, some idiot flew into the building.” The picture and headline made it sound like it had been a small private plane. I didn’t even bother mentioning it to anyone else in the office.

Then facts started flowing in and word spread through the company- we’d been attacked by terrorists. A plane had crashed into the Pentagon as well, another plane crashed in Pennsylvania. I remember a TV was setup in the company’s conference room and for the rest of the day, we milled in and out of the room, watching and waiting for the latest bit of news. When we left the room, it wasn’t to work but to talk quietly about what was going on. Little work was done after 10AM that morning.

When the Towers finally fell, there was an audible gasp in the room followed by silence. One of my fellow engineers just put his head down. Talking about it later, I remember him saying simply “It was already bad before that, but when the buildings collapsed … Man, that just made it a lot worse.”

Since that day, we re-elected George Bush and subsequently elected our current President. We’ve warred on 2 countries. I got married on a beautiful Spring day that following April. I’ve now got 2 kids, 2 dogs and a cat. I’ve got 2 birds too- but I remember they were already with me that day nine years ago.

9 years later, I still remember.