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.