Merry Christmas!

Here's hoping that you and yours have a very merry Christmas and a happy new year!

Life update. After a couple of months of world of warcraft addiction I think I'm starting to become more reasonable in my time spent there. To my horror, I checked how much time I've spent in-game as my death knight since Nov 11th. Approximately 6 days 15 hours. That's 144 hours + 15... so 159 hours. Hours that I'm sure my wife feels have been unfairly and unjustly stolen from her life. Fortunately I'm not a complete moron and will be much more casual about it. I'll play a night or two a week rather than 3.697 hours a day (that's an average over the last 43 days... heh). For those interested you're welcome to have a look at my waste of time here.

But enough about that.

I'm starting to get the iPhone programming bug again. I've done a few touch-ups to my application, Geopher Lite, and will be hitting the full version hard in the next few months. I have to say, I do like programming in C and C++, but objective-c is simpler and more elegant all the way around. Some people have put some serious htought into how to make getting your job done as a programmer much easier with objective-C and apple's cocoa framework. If you're one of the crazies like me and into that stuff, I'd recommend checking out Jeff's blog, he's doing some interesting graphics exploration with openGL on the iPhone right now and documenting his progress on his blog. Interesting stuff!

The new arrival, discussed here, has kept both of us adults sleep deprived. We're starting to get to a place called normal (well, everyone but mom probably), but we have a ways to go before it's routine. I had my first real stint with the baby being awake for a few hours last night with me solely in charge (usually he is sleeping, needing minimal interaction, and I'm playing on the computer). I feel bad for my wife. I don't know how women survive their babies with so little sleep. Still, he's generally a bundle of joy and everyone is excited for the new addition.

I was going to post tomorrow with our family's loot, but I know I won't. Maybe my wife will. I'm getting a waffle iron and a wii game. (Lego star wars collection, don't tell my kids I know!) My wife is getting a hip new pair of boots and a... well, a $5 surprise that she's not getting out of me on this blog. =) My dad pitched in and helped out with the purchase of a snowblower, so that will be really nice. Too bad it's been storming the past 10 days, and the model I'm planning on is from sears and is sold out right now. Actually, the guy said yesterday that they have 0 snowblowers on the floor at sears right now, so that may be a belated gift. The kids are getting the usual glut of littlest pet sho, my little pony polly pocket toys that are the rage for them, and something called a neopet, which I think is code for expensive stuffed animal. My parents came through with PJs for the kids and a toy they really wanted each, so we're overflowing with gifts again this year. It's an abundant life, here's hoping for that kind of life for my kids.

Plenty more, but I'll save it for another time. I suppose it's been a while, I should post something more interesting than... well, me. Enjoy. Merry Christmas!

Off the wagon

So, I let myself get pressured into returning to world of warcraft two weeks ago. Gulp, there goes all my free time again. We'll see how long it lasts this time.

I saw this article earlier today and I'm in a state of shock and disbelief.

Here are a couple of quotes:

"The money that’s been pledged is equivalent to $24,000 for every man, woman and child in the country. It’s nine times what the U.S. has spent so far on wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to Congressional Budget Office figures. It could pay off more than half the country’s mortgages."

“It’s unprecedented,” said Bob Eisenbeis, chief monetary economist at Vineland, New Jersey-based Cumberland Advisors Inc. and an economist for the Atlanta Fed for 10 years until January. “The backlash has begun already. Congress is taking a lot of hits from their constituents because they got snookered on the TARP big time. There’s a lot of supposedly smart people who look to be totally incompetent, and it’s all going to fall on the taxpayer.”

“Some have asked us to reveal the names of the banks that are borrowing, how much they are borrowing, what collateral they are posting,” [Ben] Bernanke said Nov. 18 to the House Financial Services Committee. “We think that’s counterproductive.”

and the thing that makes me the most nervous:

"Most of the spending programs are run out of the New York Fed, whose president, Timothy Geithner, is said to be President- elect Barack Obama’s choice for Treasury Secretary."

Get your house in order, bad things are coming. I'm getting nervous.

Still Alive.

Yes.

I am still alive.



(If you've not played portal, regardless of if you play video games or not, you are missing out!)

I just finished reading Atlas Shrugged. Very good book, I would recommend it. I don't agree with all of the conclusions, but the problems seem to be spot on, if a bit black and white. The book was summed up by Ayn Rand in this way later: "The theme of Atlas Shrugged is the role of the mind in man's life and, consequently, presentation of a new morality- the morality of rational self-interest"

I scare myself lately with what I am interested in. Next up is reading a book on the economy. Good thing it was written 10+ years ago.

I'm probably going to disappear again, what with the holidays coming up, a baby here in about 2 months, and a ton of work (both my own as well as at my "real" job) going on. Still, thanks for dropping by. =)

So uhm...

I got this interesting email today regarding my new app from the app store. I think that whoever this is, the least of their worries is $1.99 on apple's store. I'd best just let them speak for themselves.

i purchased your gopher lite and it does nothing. i have been use nav instruments before loran and gps for 15 year and this was nothing but a rip off. you are something. either you send me my money back or i will tell all about your junk. you have till tomorrow early. i gues thats why they call you gopher.


Heh. In some ways I feel bad about it. I mean, who wants to get this kind of email? In other ways... well, I can't help but think of this.

Geopher

So, Geopher Lite has been taking up virtually all of my free time lately. However, if you ever wanted to get to know me a bit better or simply wanted to follow the development process of a piece of software, you're welcome to go have a look.

I've posted almost every day. Which as some of my long time readers know, is quite an accomplishment for me.

I haven't abandoned this blog, but it may get less attention for the next few weeks. (What else is new?)

Geopher Demo

After many hours of work and a wife that's ready to break my laptop, here's the fruit of my labors for the past couple of weeks.

Geopher Demo Page

I know a few of you who read this blog do geocaching, so I thought I;d post about it.

Wish me luck!

iPhone

So, I think I'm going to do it.

For a mere $40 a month (plus taxes) for 2 years and $299 for the phone*, I think I'm going to get one.



Now I just have to figure out how to pay for it.

GPS, Camera, iPod, Phone and more. It's almost a PDA (that I've never been able to use). I have to say, if I wasn't technically interested it likely wouldn't happen.

I'm working on an application for it, I'll mention more here once I actually release it. It's a geocaching app, so you geocachers out there feel free to drop a request if you're so inclined. =)

I keep wanting to be more consistent with this blog, maybe someday. In the meantime, thanks for hanging around. Until later.

* On top of the $39.99 + taxes of the cell phone we already have, and purchasing the 16GB model.

Inconsistent

You'd think I was busy lately or something. I seem to spend most of my evenings lately tied up in the yard, the basement or spending time with the kids. I had a date with my 4 year old last night, we went and bought me a pair of pants and a belt, and got her a coloring book, beach towel and everyone else some starburst jellybeans. We had a lot of fun looking at toys and such either. (What can I say, I'm a cheap date...)



Tonight I'm going out with my wife to choose tile for the bathroom floor in the basement. After over a month of trying to get someone to do the finish carpentry we finally found someone who we know a bit but had no idea that he did such a thing. And he does tile as well, so we're scrapping the linoleum we were going to get and having him tile the bathroom floor for us instead. Anyhow, rather than go to the movies or something we're going to choose some tile, trim and doors for the basement. That and going out to eat should be fun. We don't get out without the kids much anymore.

I'm itching to get the basement done... We're almost hitting that $10k mark on what's spent and there's a lot more to do. I had no idea all of this cost so much. If I wasn't so lazy it'd be cheaper, but I guess that comes with the territory.

On a less gloomy note, after a couple of poisonings, ironite treatment, and some weed & feed, our yard is starting to really look like it has a lawn again. My wife has kept the flowerbeds up to date, so it's looking quite good. The sprinklers still short out occasionally and blow the fuse, I'll have to figure out a way to make the wiring waterproof in the backyard. The weeds are pretty much gone from the front, but you definitely need your shoes in the backyard still. BUT! Progress is good.

I broke down and bought the pinball game for the Wii. Good stuff. I like how it's set up, it has goals to work towards, so I've found myself playing it a bit more than I would normally to unlock all of it's features. I have all but 3 tables unlocked for free play now. I've really enjoyed playing a few games that I've never had the chance to play before but heard good things about. If you like pinball I'd recommend picking it up.



One last thing. I got accepted the other day into Apple's beta developer program for the iPhone. Monday morning is Apple's World Wide Developer Conference, and they should be announcing the 2.0 version of the iPhone. It's supposed to have a built in GPS which I'm excited about. I'm thinking about getting myself one, but we'll see. It's a lot of money, but again, if I'm going to develop for it I need one right? =) I'm actually a bit bummed about this as it's the first year that WWDC has ever sold out and I was going to try and go this year. The $2k travel/hotel costs prevented that from happening though. Maybe I can talk work into sending me next year. Wish me luck with that.

Until later.

Work

Work has been interesting lately. Here's hoping that myself and our new department manager can turn our department around into a fun place to work again. We've made ever so small of a dent, but our new manager has the ear of the owner of the company. There are big plans. We'll see what happens.

I mention this because I read an article today that's probably more applicable to other jobs than the author wants to admit. It's an interesting read, though I think money and time are downplayed for the older, family oriented kinds of people.

Check it out.

On an unrelated note, we have an electrician coming in today to fix our basement wiring. Seems the sheetrock guys put a nail or screw through a wire somewhere. Of course they're not paying for it, but they may actually come in and patch up the hole for us.

Losers.

More later.

Hullo!

I've had a number of people bothering me to post. I suppose I had better do so to dispel the rumors that I'm dead or that I've quit blogging.

I keep almost getting to that elusive next post, but I have communication issues. So I can't seem to get the idea across in a blog message. I might cheat and put some audio up, we'll see what happens.

In the meantime.

I'm still a pinball nut. I'm going to have to buy this I think. The reviews look good and it's something I think both myself and our kids would like.



a list of tables include:

Black Knight
Firepower
Funhouse
Gorgar
Pin*Bot
Space Shuttle
Taxi
Whirlwind
Jive Time
Sorcerer

Should be a good time. I'll let you know how it goes. And regardless of that "next post" that is ever elusive, I should be back around here and there.

More later.

Busy...

Aside from work and doing stuff for my church, I've not done a lot in the last month. I caught up on some of my TV watching with a stint of "The Office" and "Chuck" over the past few weeks. I introduced my kids to Manamanah and other such things. I played through Metroid Prime 3 over the past few weeks. And my daughter's birthday was yesterday, Cousins, presents, candy and a pinata. Lots of fun. (Congrats to the giants if you're into that kind of thing as well)

I'm still mulling over a post or three in my head, but they're not simple sit down and write kinds of posts. I'm still trying to get my head around being aware of my reality around me to some degree, so I've been kind of jumpy and gruff the past few months. I'm getting better, I think. Slowly but surely.

My next post will likely be philosophical in nature and focus on principles of living. Yeah, kind of vague, but I've never really learned about modern philosophers until recently, just the historical ones. It's been an interesting last few months.

Meizu?

My new mp3 player. Or rather, my first mp3 player that's not a phone. Good stuff.

This isn't me by the way, mine is black. I'm way to lazy to do a video this cool. =)



More coming soon. Until then.