When I came to Orlando, Florida for the Microsoft Convergence 2008 Conference I didn't expect to get such a treat.  I found out yesterday, shortly after my arrival that we were going on an outing to watch the Space Shuttle launch.  Boy was I excited!  I had no idea it was going to launch in the first place, but was even more excited to be able to witness the launch in person, and at night.

I vividly recall when the Space Shuttle Columbia landed just 30 minutes from my house (a night landing) at White Sands in NM but I wasn't able to attend that event.  In fact, I have wanted to see a shuttle launch since the Columbia first went into space; it set many of my dreams into motion, few of which will ever come true - though seeing a launch in-person has just now!

The event was amazing.  We were situated across the water from the launch pad (geographically, I'm not sure how far it actually was).  Right at 2:28 AM we saw the first billows of smoke rise from the launch pad, then the bright flare of the flames from the rockets.  The rocket, the size of a lit match's flame at arm's length, ascended rapidly but very silently into the night sky.  Perhaps most astounding and brilliant was the entire sky...not just the horizon where the launch took place, but the ENTIRE SKY turned a bright orange during the launch.  It appeared as though a small sun had risen.  The rocket was then engulfed in the low cloud coverage.

The rocket disappeared.  After a small delay of about 10 seconds or so we began to hear and actually feel the trembling and roar of the rocket boosters.  This got increasingly louder and more rumbling before waning.

Poetry in motion.

As many who read my blog may already know (if nothing else because of proximity to me and this state of Utah), that President Gordon B. Hinckley passed away this evening (01/27/2008).  While I usually refrain from anything religious or centered around things non-technical (except for a few notable departures), I thought I would post this information as it's important to me.

Gordon B. Hinckley has been a fixture in my life for years.  For almost half of my years he has held the distinction of being the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and the prophet to whom I most related.  As child I recall President Spencer W. Kimball with distinction, and Presidents Benson and Hunter through my adolescent years were instrumental in my upbringing.

President Hinckley was an amazing individual, having served the Lord and His Church his entire life.  I distinctly recall a time when we were at my grandparents house in Las Cruces, NM watching conference.  Pa, my grandfather, expressed his great respect and admiration for President Hinckley (then a counselor to President Benson).  It was then that I began really listening to him and trying to follow his counsel.  I grew to love the man and have great admiration for him.

He shared a unique and brilliant wit in his talks and his wisdom was unsurpassed.  He will be missed.  At the same time, I'm happy for him, as he led a wonderful life and has undoubtedly been reunited with his lovely bride beyond the veil.

We are very excited and happy to welcome Aaron Joseph Zupancic into this wild world!  The youngest of five children, Aaron has four older sisters.  In other words, 5 moms.  I fear for his well-being!

Seriously, though, Aaron was born on January 8th, 2008 at 8:19 AM, weighing in at 8 lbs 10oz.  What a wonderful blessing he is to our home!  Mom and baby are doing great and we expect them home this weekend.

On a selfish note: we can finally get some cool toys around here! (no offense to his sisters .

As a special treat this year my company was kind enough to bequeath me a copy of Adobe Creative Suite 3: Master Collection.  I've been giddy with delight as I'm a long time user of both Photoshop and Illustrator and absolutely swear by the products.  I've had it sitting on my desk here for a few days and just tonight am getting the opportunity to install it.

Of course, as with most everything, things don't always go according to plan.  Not two seconds after starting to install, I was greeted with the most pleasant and informative error message and the setup aborted:

Setup has encountered an error and cannot continue.  Contact Adobe Customer Support for assistance.

Internal Error 2739

Though slightly disheartened, I sought a resolution on Adobe's site and didn't find anything.  However, after a single search on everyone's favorite search engine I found a resolution.  Though the solution is simple (regsvr32 jscript.dll) I would have never guessed it.  Thanks, Gopinath M for the great tech tip!

Back when I was a trainer (years ago now), we had a little inside joke; it's pretty industry-wide in fact, but it was fun nonetheless.  You've heard of the ID10T (pronounced Eye-Dee-Ten-Tee), of course.  We had another known as the PBKACH (pronounced Peeb-Cache).  Essentially it stood for “Problem Between Keyboard and Chair”.  Well, today I experienced this first hand - literally.

Apparently, this particular server went down on Friday.  That is, no users could connect to it via VPN, all web services were down, the virtual servers were down.  No matter what the users tried a connection could not be established.  Any attempts to connect to or contact the server would fail.

Attempting to reboot the server remotely via the DRAC (Dell Remote Access Controller) interface would freeze at the following screen:

Any attempt to gain physical access to the server over the weekend was denied, but today when we got into the server room the problem was immediately obvious.  It wasn't a hardware failure as suspected and feared.  It was a literal PBKACH error.  In setting up the server rack, apparently the keyboard was placed on top of the server.  Additionally, a folding chair (poised on a small box) was also placed in the rack, precariously positioned above the keyboard:

Well, one thing led to another and the chair had slid off of the box and landed squarely on the ESC key of the keyboard, holding it down.  In and of itself this wasn't much of an issue except when the server rebooted (through an Automatic Update in Windows) the depressed ESC key was aborting the reboot and stalling it out.

No amount of remote access would have been able to remedy the issue - unless, of course, we were to install a 'rumble pack' in the server - I'll have to look into that one.

So after a good laugh, we chalked this one up as a good ol' traditional (and literal) “Problem Between Keyboard and Chair” and moved on.

I just recently returned from the Netherlands on what turned out to be an amazing trip.  I wish I had had more time to prepare for the trip; as it turns out, I found out that I was going the day before I departed but I was able to set aside one day last week as a personal day and do some individual exploration.

The first part of the week was spent adjusting to the 8 hour time difference while working with a customer in the town of Eindhoven.  Eindhoven is about 1.3 hrs south of Amsterdam by train.  The entire customer experience was very positive and went very smoothly.

On Wednesday, August 1st, (following the customer on-site) I headed to Amsterdam and stayed at the very nice Mercure hotel on Noordstraat in Amsterdam.  I arrived late in the evening and wasn't able to do much on the first night, but I arose early on Thursday and headed out into the city to explore and see the sites.  One aspect of Holland that I found most endearing and enchanting was the use of bicycles.  They're everywhere.  Everyone ride bicycles; from the young to the old.  It's wonderful.

Following a nice pastry at a local bakery I set off to see Rembrandt's home (see inset).  What an amazing place!  Rembrandt's house has been converted into a museum and restored to what it was like back in the 1600's when he resided there.  Many rooms in the house were converted into galleries exhibiting his wonderful paintings and sketches.  Additionally, on the second floor, a gentleman was demonstrating Rembrandt's etching and mass-printing techniques that were quite remarkable.  The top floor had a few gallery rooms showcasing many of his prints and actual etchings.

Rembrandt's house was, I feel, the highlight of my trip.  I spent a couple hours there taking it all in and enjoying myself.

I then did a bit more exploration through the town, walking through the Dam Square and participating in a magic show on the street in which I chained up the performer (along with the help of Andy from Newcastle, England - also a recruit off of the street who also straight-jacketed him).  Of course (and as part of his show) he escaped from the binds, but it was fun nonetheless.

I am so glad that I had the opportunity to walk the streets of Amsterdam, enjoy the sites, some of the 18 miles of canals in the city, cross some of the 800 bridges, and visit another country.  It was well worth the visit and the time there.

Wow! What a week!

It's been an exciting time of late.  Not only were many things accomplished (and a few plaguing bugs resolved), but I found out Friday (yesterday to me still despite it now being Sunday) that I'd be leaving for the Netherlands (a.k.a. Holland, despite Holland being a pair of provinces of the country) on Saturday for the week.  Well, I'm here now in the town of Eindhoven.  And it's beautiful, though overcast.  I've not been in town but a few minutes so I've not had a chance to get out, but here's a quick photo from my hotel room.

I left Salt Lake at 1:30 PM, arrived in Houston and departed there at 7:10 PM to arrive in Amsterdam at 12:30 PM.  It was so nice to fly business class where I could fully recline the seat, watch movies, have great food, and all-in-all have a great flight.  Then, upon arriving I grabbed the train in the airport to Eindhoven (which was about a 1 hr 20 min ride).  The hotel is only a few blocks from the train station so the walk was nice.

I'll be here all week and I'm looking forward to a great time.

Today, April 10th, 2007, marks the three year anniversary of my blog.  What an amazing three years!  This marks the 504th post on this here blog.

Looking back over the past year I'm pretty happy with the many things that have been accomplished and the progress that I've made, both as a developer but also as a person in general.  Among other things, I've strived (more of late than usual) to not focus solely on computers, as it were, and more on life in general.  You could say I've ramped up other aspects of my life because I recognize that there's more to life than just sitting behind this monitor and keyboard.

For instance, I've taken up construction and woodworking (long time loves of mine to which I've not dedicated as much time as I would have liked before).  As soon as I clean out my garage I can really go to town.

Also, looking back on my blog, I've made some changes periodically and sporadically.  I've recently added Google Ads and a Google Search.  I hope those aren't visual obtrusive and annoying.  It's been interesting to see how many ad clicks are made and how many searches are performed daily on the blog.

You may have also noticed my download and rating controls.  I get notified each time someone downloads a file and/or rates a blog post or comment.  That's been a lot of fun to see at least one download a day by someone (most of the time I don't know who they are).  I've received but a very small handful of emails regarding issues with the downloads.  Have they been working for everyone?  I would assume so.  I've found it quite interesting to see that the Image Rotator Control is, by far, the most popular download.  I would not have expected that.

Well, enough rambling.

Here's to another fruitful, fun-filled year!  Enjoy!

I had a rather unfortunate experience today.  For a variety of reasons which I won't go into here, I was obliged to install a particular VPN client on my laptop.  I was loathe to do so, but did it anyway.  That was a mistake.  Don't you hate it when you attempt to install software that 1) freezes, 2) locks your computer, 3) won't uninstall (opting instead to freeze the computer entirely), 4) hoses your registry, and 5) leaves your network adapters in a complete disarray?

Well, that's what happened today.  Consequently, I am unable to connect to any network (wired or wireless).  Nor can I remove the miniport adapters that it left behind.  As a result, I cannot reinstall any network drivers.  What a pain.

Well, I suppose I was looking for an excuse to pave the machine and install anew.  I've been wanting to get Vista up an running on it (being my primary development box).  I have Vista running on two other laptops here and I'm loving it.

On the bright side, I was able to backup all of my documents, databases, files, and dev projects to an external source and will be able to be up and running in relatively short order.

What a pain though.

Well, this has been a long time coming, but among the myriad of other projects and goings-on, I couldn't get it up earlier.  As many of you know I've been doing a lot of projects around the house.  In addition to finishing the basement we took it upon ourselves to have the kitchen and upstairs completely redone.  We've never liked the cabinets and flooring that was installed when we originally built the house almost 9 years ago.  So the kitchen, most of all, got an overhaul.

Below I've provided a visual progression from what it was to what it is now.  Note, there is still some work to be done (e.g. the water's not yet connected to the sink/dishwasher, I still need to mount the under-the-cabinet lighting, the baseboards aren't yet up...but it's a work in progress for sure.

I still don't have pictures of the basement up yet.  Those might be forthcoming, provided I can get it organized.  Too many things left undone in all the shuffle.

You haven't experienced New York City properly until you've spent your first weekend there and:

1. Gone shopping out the whazoo
2. Seen Les Miserables on Broadway (with Lea Salonga :))
3. Seen Chicago on Broadway (with Bebe Neuwirth :))
4. Been to the Empire State Building
5. Eaten a NYC pie (pizza for the uninformed)
6. Been to Times Square, Rockefeller Center, etc
7. Ridden the subway
8. Been to The World Trade Center site (Ground Zero)
9. Left your wallet in a taxicab on the day you're supposed to fly out, only to recover it in the nick of time
10. And much more.

We had a great weekend (March 3rd-5th, 2007) despite the debacle of #9.  It's been a surprise trip I've been planning for our 10th anniversary for some time.  In fact, the trip itself was a well guarded secret for a while, until that fact was divulged by an over-eager daughter...though thankfully she got her North-West confused with North-East. :) ...a fact that I exploited fully.

We'd never been to NYC before and wanted to soak it up as much as we could.  We'd long wanted to see Les Miserables on Broadway.  It's far and away my favorite production.  Also, and this was a much unexpected treat, but upon arriving to the theatre we discovered that Lea Salonga was playing the part of Fantine.  For years I have followed Lea's work and absolutely LOVE her voice.  She played Kim (in Miss Saigon - another favorite), the singing voice of Jasmine (in Disney's Alladin) and Mulan.  But her standout performance, IMO, was when she, reprising her role as Eponine in Les Miserables, nailed the part in the 10th Anniversary on-stage production.  So as you can imagine, I was in heaven to be on Broadway to see her perform.

We also made an impromptu decision to see Chicago on Broadway as well.  We've enjoyed the soundtrack for years but had never the opportunity to see it on stage.  Playing the role of Roxy Hart was the amazing Bebe Neuwirth (Lilith from Cheers and Frasier).  Bebe played the role of Velma Kelly in the recording we own, so that was a particularly special delight.

We stayed at the Waldorf=Astoria towers, ate some great food, and had a great time.  We were on our way to see the Statue of Liberty when I realized that I had left my wallet in a taxicab 20 minutes earlier.  Fortunately, some good people found it and returned it to me a few hours later.  The cash (about $350-$400) was gone, but that's what I expected (how sad is that?!)...I hope it went to someone who needed it more than I.  I was a bit panicked because we were scheduled to fly out of town later that evening and without an ID I wasn't going to be able to get on the plan.  I'm glad it didn't come to that.  Well, our plans to see the Statue of Liberty were cut short, but all in all we had a wonderful time (we did see it at a distance).

I may call this experience "the full experience", but there is oh, so much more to do - already anxiously anticipating the next trip! :)

A special memorial fund has been set up for Jamie Walker (Jason Walker's wife) in his memory.  Jason unexpectedly passed away two days ago (Feb 20th, 2007) and leaves behind a beautiful family, a loving wife, and a great many friends.  Jason's enthusiasm for life was unbounded; an excitement with invigorated and enlivened all those around him.

As a small way of saying thank you to Jason for his friendship, his loyalty, and his support, please find it within your heart to donate to this memorial fund.  In this trying time for his family, it's but a small gesture of love and support to reach out a comforting hand and help buoy them up.  Please show your support by sending any donations to:

Jason Walker Benefit Memorial Fund
Wells Fargo
P.O. Box 3488
Portland, OR 97208-3488

If you're in Utah, you can go into any Wells Fargo bank and deposit directly into the account for Jamie Walker (contact me if you'd like the account #).

As I understand it, the name 'Jason Walker Benefit Memorial Fund' will not be set up for a day or so, but if you use snail mail to the P.O. Box above I don't foresee an issue.

We love you, Jason.

I was greeted several hours ago with some very unsettling, tragic, and somber news.  Though it has taken some time for me to internalize the weight of the event and for the news to settle in, I feel greatly privileged to have had a close association with Jason Walker and his family.  Jason, a friend and associate on many levels, tragically passed away this morning.

Jason's influence has impacted all those with whom he came in contact.  Jason was a great friend who was, as a mutual friend said, a force of nature.  I can't help but think that his life was cut short and his potential not yet fully realized.

I still can't believe that it happened.  I can't believe I'm referring to my good friend in the past tense.  I vividly recall the very first time we met.  Even now - especially now - it seems like just yesterday.  I am so grateful that we had the opportunity to share many special moments together and with his family.  Our families have made it a tradition over the past year or so to go out to dinner and/or a movie and pass a delightful evening together.  Those memories will endure forever.

Most of my interaction with Jason was at a professional (or at least a technical) level.  His influence and impact as Vice President of our local Utah .NET User Group was felt every single time, every single meeting.  He will be deeply missed.

Jason loved life and enjoyed it immensely.  Despite the last two years in which he endured much due to a motorcycle accident, his miraculous recovery demonstrated his spirit and his positive, upbeat outlook on life.  He constantly shared his rejuvenating spirit with everyone.

Jason leaves behind a beautiful family (wife and two children).  Our thoughts are with his family at this time, as we reach out to offer a consoling hand.  Ours is the desire to help in any way we can.  On that note, and as a very small gesture, we are wanting to set up a special fund in memory of Jason for his family in this, their time of need.  I'll be publishing any and all details of that fund in the coming days as more information becomes available.

Here's to you, Jason.  I believe I speak for all when I say that you will be missed.  You were a great friend and I will always look back at our association with fondness, longing, and great memories.  You are loved.

Well, it's official.  After many, many hours of hard work I'm finally almost done.  What started out about 7 years ago to be a simple "finish the basement" project is now to the point where I can sit back and look at the fruits of my labors.  In reality, the project didn't take too long to complete (a few months at best), but the fact that the months were spread out over several years made it a tad frustrating and far too lengthy (sounds like some software projects).  In all, I (with the occasional help of family and friends) added about 1300 sq feet to the house consisting of 1) a bedroom, 2) a home theatre/recreation room, 3) a storage room, 4) a craft room, and 5) and office (with an adjoining bathroom)

I guess the reason I'm blogging this is today marks the first day where I'm actually in the new office and working.  Over the weekend I was able to get all of the electrical work done in the basement.  Sure, there are still some loose ends to finish.  I still have a little touch-up painting to do.  I still have to wire up the ethernet, speaker wires, and cable lines.  But it's functional and that's the key.

Prior to today I was taking up a small, much needed bedroom upstairs as my office.  It was filled to the gills with books, papers, boxes - in short, it was a constant and complete wreck.  Moving from a small 11'x11' room to a 13'x23' room is SOOO liberating - and long past due.  I don't have any furniture down here yet.  In fact, my 'desk' is a piece of particle board sitting atop some food storage boxes.  So I'm sitting here on the floor :)  I'm anxious to get started building my desk - I've had this affinity my entire life for custom woodworking/carpentry, and that's a project I've long been anticipating and planning.

Anyway, this long, extended, after-hours project has led to me not having any time for "coding for fun" as all of my free time since December has been consumed in finishing the project.  Many of my personal projects had been put on hold to see the basement project come to completion.  I hope to see that change somewhat over the next few weeks.

...Almost done :)

I arrived home last night from a fantastic weekend.  We had the opportunity this past weekend to have an offsite executive meeting and establish plans and goals for the coming year and to get on the same page.  It was quite productive and we accomplished many things; it was just the right mix of business and fun.

Additionally, we had the opportunity to attend the first day of CES (Consumer Electronics Show).  Boy, was that HUGE!  Despite seeing it first hand, I still have a hard time fathoming the sheer scope of the conference.  I may be mistaken, but I heard that there are over 115K attendees - good grief!  One day was plenty for me.  I can't imagine attending the entire conference, much less spending more time there; too many people, too much of the same stuff everywhere, too big.  Then again, I don't know how else it could be accomplished.

All in all, a very productive weekend and lots of fun! - But it's good to be home and back in action.

We had the opportunity last night, after arriving in Las Vegas, to take some time out and check out an exhibit that intrigued us entitled "Bodies...The Exhibition".  Wow!  The exhibit takes you through the entire body, every system, each part.  What's most fascinating is you're not looking at diagrams or models but actual people preserved by by some polymers.

Each room in the exhibit is themed to an aspect of the human body (i.e. skeletal structure, circulatory system, respiratory system, reproductive system, digestive system, etc).  There are 'view boxes' with each piece of the body perfectly preserved (some even demonstrated characteristics of disease such as Cirrhosis of the Liver) and one or two almost complete bodies in dramatic poses that further illustrate that particular aspect of the body.

One room that greatly intrigued me was dedicated to the circulatory system.  Each view box in the room had the blood vessels of each of the major organs of the human body (and one complete body as well!) - but just the blood vessels.  Turns out that to accomplish this the organ's vessels were filled with the polymer solution, then the polymer was allowed to harden, and then all organic material was dissolved away leaving only the structure of the veins.  In a word: awesome!  Especially the complete body.  Each exhibit represented only about 60% of the veins in the body because the capillaries are too small for the polymer to enter.

If you get a chance, I would highly recommend taking the time to see it and experience it.  You'll not regret it.

On a side note, I'm rather proud of myself for my restraint.  That is, not once did I break out and say that most memorable line from The Sixth Sense. :)

I've been very quiet on the blogging front this month, especially over the past couple of weeks.  I took some time off to finish off some long overdue projects around the house (namely the basement).  With the exception of Christmas Day, I've been downstairs almost every waking hour trying to wrap it all up.  Tonight I got all of the caulking and spackling done on all of the baseboards and trim.  Essentially, all that remains is painting (baseboards, trim, and walls), but that's a pretty big undertaking that will occupy every hour of my weekend.  We're installing the carpet on Monday so I have my work cut out for me.  I'll post some pictures when it's all done.

On the positive side, I'll be able to get my office downstairs (finally!) in about a week (after I get all of the outlets and switches wired up) and free up a much needed bedroom upstairs.

Just wanted to drop in and let everyone know I've not gone away, that I'll be back and blogging some pretty good stuff in the coming days (following the vacation), and to wish everyone a Happy Belated Christmas and a Happy New Year :)

Being the major Potter-phile that I am, I can't resist but to put this out there: the next/last book's name has been officially announced.  Harry Potter and the _____ _____.  The name is actually embedded in a hidden easter egg on J. K. Rowling's website.  I must admit that I was sorely disappointed upon hearing the news of the new title and opening the article that the putz author included the name right in the first line of the article only to explain a few paragraphs down that, "oh, by the way, you can find out about the name on J. K. Rowling's site via a fun hangman game."

So as to not spoil the news (unless you already know), and to make it more entertaining, here are the instructions to the easter egg, as provided by the MSN article in question (spelling errors and all :), with a little more organization and clarity):

1. Open her home page.
2. Click on the eraser and you will be taken to a room - you'll see a window, a door, and a mirror.
3. In the mirror, you'll see a hallway.  Click on the farthest doorknob and look for the Christmas tree.
4. They [sic] click on the center of the door (ed: the center of the top panel) next to the mirrow and a reef [sic!] appears.
5. Then click on teh top of the mirror and you'll see a garland.
6. Look for a cobweb next to the door.  Click on it, and it will disappear.
7. Now, look at the chimes in the window.  Click on the second chime to the right.
8. Click it again, holding down the mouse button (rephrased).  The chime will turn into a key, which opens the door (drag it onto the lock on the door).
9. Click on the wrapped gift behind the door.
10. Then click on it again and figure out the title yourself by playing a game of hangman.

Gee, figure it out after I already told you the answer! grrrr.

This past week was very exciting.  Not only did I have the opportunity to work with a potential customer on a pilot, proof-of-concept integration to our existing product configurator, but I met some great friends in the process.

As I mentioned in my post a few days ago, I was down in Longmont, Colorado (a delightful place on many levels) working with a prospective customer and demonstrating some very cool software.  I also had the distinct honor to meet some great developers: Hailu, Praveen, Jvalin, and Atul (all of various Indian heritages).  I hope they had as good a time working with me as I did with them.

Perhaps the highlight of my entire time there was spent with my best friend of over 20 years, Erik Peticolas, and his wife Nancy who live in Denver.  I haven't had the chance to see them since my days at Microsoft when I would travel to Denver on a monthly basis for our monthly District Meeting and would purposfully make it a point to see them and have dinner at the very least.  We had the chance to go our four times this past week which was quite a treat.

Now I'm home and very tired, but very satisfied at a great week.

I've been officially called on the carpet as being a "critter" and having "the most hilariously awful prose style [that this guy's] ever endured".  The commentor (whose name is simply Oof) obviously dislikes the way I write, which I apparently do to sound smart.

In my defense, the blog post to which he's referring was a rant that I had composed in one pass and posted almost two years ago.  It did contain several typos and misspellings, some run-on sentences, and was generally disorganized, I agree.  To say that I, as a subnormal type, go straight to malapropisms is a bit far-fetched.  Did I include any malapropisms in my text? I don't believe so.  Partial thoughts and sentences?  Sure.  It was a rant, written the way I was thinking it as I was thinking it.  I didn't go back and proofread it (though perhaps I should have in retrospect), nor did I reorganize it.  It was a stream of consciousness jotted down.  It was not written in a manner to win a Pulitzer.

That said, however, I would like to get a consensus.  Is my writing style (my prose) difficult to read?  Is it awful?  Does it sound like I'm trying to be pretentious and self-absorbed?  Is it difficult to understand?  Unapproachable?

I'd like an honest set of constructive responses so that I might better target my future posts and comments.  It is sincerely my goal to make the blog approachable and if I've not been achieving that to this point then shame on me for missing the mark.

I'm back now from a small and much needed hiatus.  We've been cranking on getting the next version of our product configurator code complete for the next version.  It's gonna rock and knock people's socks off - and it's only getting better.

I've been out of email/cell phone contact since Wednesday afternoon last week except intermittently having taken the family to Disneyland.  Oh what fun that was.  It actually felt good to completely take my mind off of things and not focus.  Now that I'm back I feel completely rejuvenated (despite being a little tired) and ready to rock.

I'll be posting more soon.

I received a fax today consisting of a form to be filled out and faxed back to the sender.  Not only did the fax include two copies of the form to be filled out (presumably one for me and one for the sender), but included the following instructions:

Hi,

Please sign both copies, keep one for your records, fax the other back to me.

I usually refrain from making political or patriotic posts on this blog, but in lieu of the date, I'd like to make an exception.

There are events in one's life that leave an indelible mark in one's memory, an impression forever engraven.  I've been contemplating this a bit lately with today marking the 5 year (5 years!) mark of the Sept 11th terrorist attacks in New York City.  I can, as I'm sure many of you also can also, remember where you were at the moment you found out.  I was in Redmond, working for Microsoft at the time, and was there for training.  I recall vividly seeing the news on MSNBC across the campus and the hotel.  My first thoughts were of my family (I promptly called home to tell of the incident) and the well being of my loved ones.  I also wondered if I'd be able to fly home later that week.  I felt deeply hurt by the attack, and while I don't personally know anyone who lives on the east coast my heart was with them.

In similar fashion, I distinctly remember when the Challenger Space Shuttle exploded.  I recall sitting with my classmates in grade school watching the launch on the TV at the front of the room.  Just a few years prior we had the privilege of having the Space Shuttle Columbia land at White Sands, just a short 45 drive from my house in New Mexico.  I had great dreams and aspiration of becoming an astronaut all through my childhood, even into my teen years.  When we saw the explosion and ensuring plumes of smoke, my heart sank.  I won't say that this discouraged me in any way from becoming an astronaut (because it didn't), but it left such a feeling of mourning and sadness in my soul for the astronauts and their families.  Particularly, I felt moved for Christa McAuliffe and her family.

I distinctly remember the assassination attempt on Reagan's life.  While I was only a child at the time I recall feeling anxiety for him to recover.  I remember watching it on the news at my grandparents' house in Las Cruces.  We were all gathered around the TV amazed at the horrible experience.  I did and to this day, deeply admire and respect President Reagan, for who he is and what he stood up for.

These are just a few of the many, many events, albeit tragic events, that have left deep impressions on my mind (there are many other moments of elation and happiness that are just as poignant).

Despite these and other events, as a people we continuously unite under pressure and stand up for what we believe in.  May we be constantly united and stand up for what's right, not just in times of turmoil, but at all times and in all places.

I saw this post on Craig's blog today and thought I'd give the test a whirl.  It's kind of fun.  After an initial, free registration, the online face recognition software matches up your face with those of celebrities and provides a list of approximate matches.

My first photo yielded these results:

Julia Roberts (66%)
Howard Dean (64%)
Cary Grant (60%)
Roy Keane (59%)
Zsolt Baumgartner (58%)
Jason Donovan (58%)
Hillary Rodham Clinton (55%)
Dennis Hopper (55%)
Jack Brabham (54%)
Luis Figo (53%)

Whereas the picture on the left (on my blog homepage) matches the following:

Joi Ito (59%)
Sugar Ray Leonard (54%)
Matt Damon (51%)
Karl of Austria (48%)
John Deacon (47%)
Neil Sedaka (46%)
Jesse Metcalfe (46%)
Tiger Woods (45%)

Maybe I'll try to channel some of that Cary Grant, Matt Damon, and Tiger Woods charm that runs so prevalently in my blood. :)

This past week was a bit on the crazy side.  I had the opportunity to go to Boston, MA for the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference representing Experlogix, Inc.  We had a booth there and had a great show.  Perhaps as a downer for the company I was, unfortunately, the best we could come up with for a booth babe.  How unfortunate.  Seriously, though, the show was great and we had a fantastic time.

While I was there in Boston, a tragedy occurred in which a large cement slab fell from the tunnel ceiling killing a woman.  How terrible!  And to think that I had passed through that very tunnel just the day before (if I'm not mistaken).

We also had (back in Salt Lake City), our monthly Utah .NET User Group meeting.  Aaron Skonnard presented the second in a back-to-back series on Biztalk, this time focusing on Orchestrations.  I wish I could have been there.  I'm a big fan of Biztalk - maybe I'll blog about it someday as well.  They also sang “Jon Boy Jon“ which is to a few of the tunes from Les Miserables and “Uncle Earl's Hairpiece“ which was quite funny.  It was a great time!

Tonight we had the opportunity to take a family outing to the 'Arts in the Park' in Lehi with some great friends.  We attended a concert by the a capella group Moosebutter.  They're a lot of fun and we had a great time.  We heard about Moosebutter several months ago with their clever renditions of Star Wars and Harry Potter.

I'll get back to technical posts here in the coming days.  Conferences seems to drain some of my tech-blogging powers.  Usually, I'm armed with my Gauntlets of Blogging +1, but I left them in my suitcase as they don't let me bring them into the tradeshow floor.  I'll see if I can't find them here somewhere...

Things have been a little insane around here lately.  I've made it a point to work on around-the-house projects.  Over the past several years we've done many: replaced the driveway, replaced the garage door, etched/painted/sealed the garage floor, installed vinyl fencing, poured approx 3800 sq feet of colored/stamped cement (including a basketball court), built an ironwood deck, built a shed, landscaped and then re-landscaped the yard, built a garden box, remodeled the master bedroom (I'm still working on the shelving and cabinetry), poured a courtyard and constructed a brick wall w/lights, and replaced the front door.

In addition to the aforementioned projects I've had this 5.5-6 year-running project of the basement.  I started it about six years ago and, amid all of the other goings-on, haven't really found the time to finish it.  Sure, I've worked on it here and there (mostly dabbling and stuff), but over the course of the past few weeks I've made it a point to actually finish that project.  Well 99.9% of my part is finally done (I just have to replace two can lights that for some reason aren't working and move a few ethernet cables).  I'll be moving my office to downstairs .  Primarily due to this project I've not really taken the time to blog like I have wanted to.

The drywall is getting installed this week (that's the one part of the whole project I don't like to do so I'm contracting it out).  A finished basement will add about 1300 sq feet to the house so I'm very much looking forward to that!  Plus I'll be moving my office out of an over-cramped 11'x10' bedroom to a dedicated office that is about 25'x14' + bath.  I'm very excited - this is long overdue.  I just pray that I did everything correctly and that it will all work once it's up.

Anyhow, I very much enjoy house projects, but sometimes I'm a bit overwelmed by trying to do so many at once.

A Web Garden Box is something completely different.  Actually, this is manual labor - something I really enjoy - especially after sitting in front of a computer all day.  I took Monday and Tuesday off last week and got to projects around the house.  One of my projects was to build a box around the garden area.  Long have I wanted to to this, but I finally took it upon myself to actually get it done.

I went out and purchased a flat-bed trailer ('cause I sick and tired of leaning on my brothers to help me haul wood), hitched it up to my SUV (had to put a hitch on it first), and hauled home the redwood, cement, and stuff.  I then set out to assemble it.  Granted this was an extremely easy thing to design and build, but I revel in it, and had a great time doing it.

All in all I'm pleased with the result.  There're just a few more things to do.  I'm going to seal it this weekend and line the interior with some plastic or landscaping cloth.  Also, as you can see from the image that I subdivided the garden into three areas.  I'm going to run some PVC all the way across and T off of it in each box and run some perforated tubing through each section individually.  I'm also going to take the router and do a 1/2” round over on the lip that goes around the box just for esthetics.

We had, today, our first board gaming session in which we tried something completely different.  For some time now we've wanting to play Puerto Rico after hearing so much goodness about it.  In our usual monthly get-togethers we play Settlers of Catan, Carcassonne, Shadows over Camelot.  This time, however, we opted for a completely new game, seeing that one couple wasn't able to make it tonight.  Not one of us had ever played it so we were on even ground to start, which made for a lot of fun and discovery.

Wow! What a cool game!  At first the rules looked daunting - even after having read them some 3+ times.  They didn't really make a lot of sense until putting them into practice and then it was oh so simple!  The game was extremely well balanced and everyone had a great time.  We will definitely need to try the 6-player unofficial variation when we get together in our normal 3 couple gatherings.

If you're a board gamer and haven't tried it out, or are wanting something quite different and a blast, I highly recommend Puerto Rico.  I can't say that I've developed a strategy yet, as the first two games have been focused on learning the rhythyms and patterns in the game and learning how what I do and choose affects all the other players (and myself), but I'll be watching for more of the subtle nuances and tricks in future games.  I'm looking forward to it!

Today was amazing.  We came to Chicago yesterday for, among other reasons, the Microsoft CRM Tour on Thursday.  However, to take advantage of the trip to Chicago (a place to which I haven't been for almost 20 years), we came in a few days early to see the sights.  Yesterday afternoon was spent perusing the Miraculous Mile - a mile of shopping - culminating at the John Hancock building.

Today, we had the opportunity to go and see the Shedd Aquarium and the Field Museum.  Having been to both places as a child, I do have some recollections of the experience, but it was a blast to relive it.  To my great delight I saw something today that I've been wanting to see for YEARS: Sue, the Tyrannosaurus Rex.  I'd ALWAYS wanted to see a T-Rex and today my wish was fulfilled!  Sue is, if you're not aware, the largest specimen of T-Rex every found and the most complete skeleton.  Missing just a few bones in one claw, the lower left leg and a few tail bones, Sue is sure a sight to see!  Most amazing!

I've attached a link to one of the many pictures taken.  Clicking the image will show a larger sample of the picture (940 KB).

The walk back to the hotel included a walk along Lake Michigan and through Millenium Park.  All in all, a great day.

Tonight we're going to dinner at Topolobampo.  We saw Rick Bayless on Iron Chef America and loved his style...can't wait to try it!

I've been kinda quiet these past few days, but that not for lack of desire or for a lack of content.  Rather, I have been intensely busy on nailing down some functionality in some software projects as well as remodeling my bedroom.  I tore out the carpet, the padding, the baseboards, the shelving on the closet walls and completely revamped the room.  I built from scratch a new shelving system (which I have yet to totally finish, but it's hard being out of town), a new entertainment center, painted the walls (including an accent wall), installed new carpet with deluxe padding, put in a new bed, and the works.

It's been a fun experience and well worth it.  I hope to be more focused on the blogging moving forward, but I also need to finish the furniture...it'll be great!