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March 29, 2004

Scorchin'

I took part in my first alleycat this weekend (the Iron Lung Alleycat). It was good fun, and not as intimidating as I thought it might be. Matt joined me, and turned out to be a fine day to cruise around the city. We also managed to hook up with a messenger from Columbus who got separated from his group and was, therefore, hopelessly lost in the Southside (as opposed our situation, which was mildly disoriented in the Southside).

In case you were wondering, I didn't win. In fact, we were so inefficient, a couple of the checkpoints were deserted by the time we made our way to them. We managed to get Randy (the Columbus messenger) the "last place -- out of town" award. The way I see it, we had a couple of fatal flaws:

1. Taking fifteen minutes to find Terminal Way in the Southside. The funny part about this is that we rode past it twice, and one of those times, a group of people on bicycles were turning back on to Carson from it. That probably should have been a good indication that it was the right place.

2. Forgetting the checkpoint at the Amtrak station, then having to circle back to go there. Because of this, we didn't see the checkpoint, and spent five minutes wandering around the terminal.

3. Getting from Garfield to Squirrel Hill.

4. Confusing Craft Avenue and Bates Street in Oakland.

Like I said, we weren't dead last, so I didn't feel too bad. And, as Matt pointed out, PBR isn't a great substitute for water.

March 25, 2004

Argh

There's nothing a coffee incident to sully your morning. My usual weekday habit is to grind coffee beans in the evening, set up the coffee maker with water, filter, etc, and then the next morning, before I shower, turn the coffee maker on so there's hot fresh java waiting for me. Everything was going according to plan this morning, until I came back downstairs to the kitchen. The coffee maker had indeed done it's first task -- heat water and pour it through the coffee grounds, but it failed miserably on the next step -- transfering the newly formed coffee into the carafe. Instead, the coffee maker, the counter, the sink, and the floor were covered with puddles of coffee and coffee grounds. Awesome. What's worse is that the coffee at work (despite being brewed by the little Italian cafe downstairs that serves great espresso) is TERRIBLE. Bleh...

March 24, 2004

Two Things

Oregon County Bans All Marriages

Well. that's a fine solution to the gay marriage issue. My only comment is this -- if I'm a single person in that county, living with my significant other (who has better health insurance coverage that I do), I sue someone (my S.O.'s employer, their healthcare provider) for not providing me with coverage, since there is no legal definition of "marriage" where I live. I hope the county is ready to pony up and pay for health care coverage for unmarried partners.

And here's a nice comparision of the "differences" between Bush and Kerry.

March 23, 2004

Family Matters and Good News

Dinner time at our place can't generally be defined by a single time (say, 6:00pm). A few nights a week, Jen and I both try to go to the gym, so she'll climb as soon as I get home (or as soon as she picks me up at the bottom of the hill), I'll hang out with the boy, feed him, and get him ready for bed, then I'll head to the gym once she's home and putting him to bed. I usually something at some point, and Jen will eat the rest of whatever that is (typically mac & cheese) when she gets home. Seb will "eat" (read sit in his high chair for an hour, eat some of food, and yell a lot) anytime between 6 and 7. Even on nights that we don't climb, we don't always eat together, simply because dinner for us isn't ready by the time Seb is ready to eat.

But last night was one of those rare nights that we gathered around our dining room table to eat as a family. Seb sat happily in his high chair, eating a mish-mash of vegetables, pasta, and apple sauce. Jen and I happily munched pizza and greens and beans. We were, for a moment, the nuclear family. And it felt good, especially since Seb was actually eating his entire dinner and not complaining about it.

In other good news, Enrico's cafe in the Strip will be opening on Saturdays starting April 11. The weekly trip for pizza, paninis and greens will begin again! I'm glad they decided to reopen the cafe -- the new place in Shadyside is just too swanky to have the same cool chaotic feel as the Strip. Let the eating begin!

March 20, 2004

Do You Know What You're Doing?

Here's an interesting discussion on Slashdot with quite a headline:

Only 32% of Java developers really know Java

And as one poster pointed out, only 5% of people don't stretch the truth on their resumes.

Some of the more interesting posts dealt with the interview process, and what can be considered "fair game." Having been on my fair share of technical interviews over the past few years, I've seen it all, from completely non-technical interviews ("what person has most affected your life") to questions right out of a certification exam ("describe how to store an object as a reference in the Java Virtual Machine"). I've also had to write my fair share of code for interviews. Most of the time, I've been given access to reference materials, but sometimes I wasn't. And sometimes I was asked to ask to write a recursive Fibonacci class ("umm, did you notice on my resume that I don't have a degree in computer science? When was the last time you wrote a recursive Fibonacci method in the process of designing a website?").

I don't mind answering technical questions, and I don't mind writing code. I mean, that is what they're hiring me to do. I'm not a big fan of the certification questions, since most people who take the certification exams study like a medical student before them. Why should I be expected to have the inner workings of the Java VM or esoteric APIs memorized? What programmer doesn't consult a book or Google several times a week? Programming is a process, and you've got to know fundamentals to do your job well, but knowing what methods are available to an obscure API class doesn't count as knowing the fundamentals.

March 19, 2004

Ouch

For the first time ever, I'm involved in an NCAA tournament pool at work. It's a measly $5, so I could do without a couple of espressos during the week to waste time with my co-workers as March Madness begins.

It was a rough first day. Currently, I'm holding down last place, though I'm only a few points behind the pack. I picked fairly conservatively (unlike some people who picked Pitt to win it all. One co-worker, when he saw those picks, said he'd be glad to donate $5 to see Pitt win the championship), but I clearly missed the first round upsets. My upset picks? UTEP over Maryland and Air Force over North Carolina. UTEP lost at the buzzer, and Air Force played well, but ran out of gas and lost. I also missed a couple of the 8-9 games, and so here I am, in last place.

Fortunately, none of my Elite Eight teams have lost, so I still feel good about those picks, but we'll see how the weekend plays out before I figure out how to spend my winnings....

March 17, 2004

Doh!

I never said that. Did I?

"If You're Not With Us, the Terrorists Win. Or Something"

I've been reading a lot of the opinions flying around in the days after the Madrid bombing and the subsequent shift in government power (the conservative prime minister was not re-elected, replaced by the Socialist candidate). As expected, conservatives are claiming "the terrorists have won in Spain" and their gloomy forecast is that if the U.S. support in Europe wanes, the terrorists will win the war. Part of me thinks that there is some kernel of truth in that statement, but then I remember that conservatives are focusing this on the U.S. action in Iraq. They seem to forget that the war in Afghanistan was supported by the United Nations, and that many nations have troops on the ground there. It's the war on Iraq that has caused so muc international friction.

That said, I've been thinking about this concept of waging the war on terrorism at all costs, even if it means that terrorist wage their war in smaller countries, or even here in the U.S. And I think about the state things of things in Israel and Palestine, where the Israelis have been fighting the terrorists for decades. Parts of Israel are in a constant state of disrepair thanks to the fight against the Palestinian terrorists. The sound of machine guns, tanks, artillery fire, and bombs are an everyday occurrence. The question is, if the Bush administration is ready to fight terrorism (in all its forms), is it ready to suffer the consequences of turning other countries (and possibly our own) into a batte zone? Could we accept repeated terrorist attacks as we ratchet up the war on terrorism?

March 15, 2004

Interesting...

As I was wandering around today during lunch, I saw a group of kids (who no doubt should have been in school or something) riding around town on BMX bikes. Nothing too interesting there, until the pack came up to a red light, and each one of them had to do a Fred Flintstone-style, jump-off-the-saddle-and-land-on-their-feet stop. Upon closer inspection, the bikes proved to have no brakes, and the bikes weren't fixed -- as they rode by I heard the distinct click-click-click of freewheels. I don't quite get it. I guess everyone is doin' it though. To each their own.....

March 14, 2004

Rally Mexico Wrapup

As promised, here it is -- all the news and notes from Rally Mexico.

First, a quick look at the podium:

1. Markko Martin
2. Francois Duval
3. Carlos Sainz

An impressive sweep for Ford, but it didn't happen without quite a bit of luck. Petter Solberg started the rally quite fast, and he and Seb Loeb swapped scratch times on Day 1. Solberg set a torrid pace on Saturday, however, and extended his lead by sweeping the day's stages. Unfortunately, the celebration was short-lived. Solberg was a assessed a one minute penalty for coming into a time stop late thanks to a dead battery in his Impreza. To make matters worse, the marshalls were looking into whether or not Solberg received outside help getting his car into service, which could lead to an additional penalty of five minutes. More on that later....

At the same time, Seb Loeb hit a rock in his Xsara, lost oil pressure, and promptly retired. So much for three consecutive wins.

Thanks to Solberg's initial penalty and Loeb's retirement, Markko Martin was handed the lead. Martin had slipped a bit on day two, and without the leaders' misfortunes, Martin would have only been fighting for third, but now he was leading.

Before the end of the day, Solberg was assess an additional five minute penalty for receiving outside assistance. Suddenly the Norwegian dropped out of the top ten. This didn't affect his confidence, though, and Solberg stormed through the final stages of the day, taking back over three minutes of time and landing in fifth going into day 3 (Solberg adroitly pointed out overnight that had he not been assessed the penalties his pace would have given him a two minute cushion over the rest of the field.

Heading into day 3 it looked like Carlos Sainz could challenge Martin, but a spin and roll put the Spainard in third place to stay. Ford' Francois Duval looked quick holding down third, and Sainz's roll kept him from challenging the youngster.

Mexico was a huge disappointment for Peugeot. Harri Rovanpera's experience on the rally was all for nothing as he finished tenth, never looking comfortable behind the wheel of the 307. Marcus Gronholm barely salvaged his rally by winning the final two stages, but his 307 was slowed by mechanical difficulties on day two. It will interesting to see what the fickle Peugeot team does with Rovanpera -- before the rally he was their man. Now I wouldn't be surprised to see Freddy Loix made a few appearances in the 307.

Two drivers had very positive rallies. Mikko Hirvonen finished fifth, his first points score for Subaru. He held fourth until the final stages when Solberg passed him. This is a good sign for the young Finn, and the team should expect more good things on other gravel rallies this year. Gilles Panizzi also had a good rally in the new Lancer, finishing in the points in eighth. The car still had some growing pains, but Panizzi was pleased with the progress since Sweden.

Last bit of interesting news -- Martin won the rally yet he only set a single scratch time. Solberg won the majority of the stages (9 overall) yet only finished fourth thanks to the time penalties.

Next up, New Zealand on April 14.

A Question

If the initial reports are true, and the bombing in Spain was committed by an group working with Al Queda rather than the Basque separatist group ETA, will the current administration in America work directly with Spain to find the culprits? Or, if it's discovered that ETA was in fact responsible for the bombing, but received help from Al Queda, will George Bush send our military in the Pyrenes to destroy the Basque group, much like he did in Afghanistan after the 9/11 bombings?

Interesting side note. During a discussion we had on Friday night with some friends, it was pointed out that the bombing in Spain did statistically as much damage as the 9/11 attacks, based on Spain's population.

Monster Child and Fingerbored

Weekend news update....

First, I finally bit the bullet and bought a laptop -- a brand new Compaq Presario 2500. It's got a Celeron processor, a reasonable amount of RAM, and a wireless card. I also purchased a new D-Link wireless router to replace our existing router. This has been an adventure....

Getting the wireless working was relatively pain-free. I still need to upgrade the encryption mechanism (I'm just using WEP at the moment), but otherwise there have been no problems, and since the router and card are 802.11g, it's plenty fast. But, getting the new router to talk to the Verizon DSL modem has been a different story. Currently, the wireless router just creates a new subnet, rather than handling the DSL connection itself. It works just fine as a subnet router -- just don't ask it to connect to the internet. Bleh. I've combed the newsgroups, and found nothing enlightening, so it may be time to call customer service.

Seb is currently teething, and he may have a bit of a cold. Consequently, he is generally an unhappy camper. He hasn't been eating much, hasn't been napping much, and wants to be held more than usual. Last night was the only "bad" night, as he was awake for an hour and half or so, and crying most of that time. We were able to take him out to dinner last night, though. We went over to the Sharp Edge (a family friendly pub if there ever was one). He had a good time, offering bits of his dinner to the kids at the surrounding tables.

Other news...if the weather doesn't break soon, I may quit climbing. Ok, so that was a bit of overstatement, but I've been quite bored at the gym lately, and it's hard to get too psyched to train in the gym without the carrot of real rock dangled in front of me. So I've decided to put our fingerboard to use again to replace a trip or two to the gym every week. Lately I just haven't felt strong in the gym, and I think the lack of a lot of "hard" bouldering is the reason. Maybe a few weeks of fingerboarding will cure my ills.

It's been an eventful Rally Mexico so far, with lots of news. But I'll hold off on writing anything until the event finishes this afternoon....

March 12, 2004

Enough Already, Eh?

Via the Easterblog I found this section on Beliefnet about The Passion. I haven't had a chance to finish the Theological Smackdown, but I've picked up a couple of interesting bits....

If Jesus had not suffered all the indignities he went through before the crucifixion, but still died for our sins, our sins would still have been atoned for. It is, in short, the death of Christ—and not the degree or length of his suffering—that atones for sin.

Good point. Of course, Christ's suffering was a part of God's plan, but....remember that the Gospels are lacking the sort of detail that Gibson provides in the film. So, God hasn't provided us with the details of how Christ suffered, therefore knowing those details is obviously not central to our faith.

March 11, 2004

Rally Mexico Preview

After a long six week vacation, the World Rally Championship visits North America for the first time for the Rally Mexico. The drivers completed the initial recce yesterday, and the word from the top teams is that this will be a fast, technical rally, mixing the best of Finland and Cyprus. The rally will be a bit of crapshoot, as only Harri Rovanpera has any experience with the event (Sebastien Loeb took part in the recce for last year's event, but he reckons it won't count for much). The teams also have deal with the new tyre restrictions -- factory teams had to choose two tread patterns before even leaving their home bases. The teams will also have to deal with a limited number of tyre changes.

Since this is a new rally, and not a specialized one at that, nearly every top driver has a shot at winning this thing. But let's handicap the field....

Current world champion Petter Solberg has a good chance of getting his championship campaign back on track this weekend. The rally suits his style, and the Impreza is generally strong on this sort of event. The only thing that could hamper Solberg's chances is the introduction of the 2004 Impreza at this rally. They've had plenty of time to test since Sweden, but there are no doubt a few bugs under the hood. If the car performs as promised, however, Solberg should find himself on the podium.

Citroen could be poised to sweep the top spots. Carlos Sainz, drawing on his decades of experience, always does well on new events (he won the inagural Rally Turkey last year, and the first run of Cyprus in 2000). He's a disappointing season thus far, so he should be motivated. Seb Loeb has proven he's just quick, regardless of the surface. The Xsara has been an ideal car, reliable and quick.

This rally could be the first real test for the new Peugeot 307. It has performed well thus far on the relatively docile season-opening rallies, so the rougher roads in Mexico should be a good test of the car's reliability. Marcus Gronholm isn't a fan of rougher rallies, but he should be motivated to perform well. Harri Rovanpera could drive himself right into a factory car for the rest of season with a win in Mexico (which Peugeot no doubt expects since he's won here before). I don't think the 307 will fair well, however, and neither driver will see a podium spot.

My Top 8
1. Petter Solberg
2. Carlos Sainz
3. Markko Martin
4. Sebastien Loeb
5. Marcus Gronholm
6. Gilles Panizzi
7. Francois Duval
8. Harri Rovanpera

March 08, 2004

The Passion, Again

I came across yet another review of Mel Gibson's movie, this time from AKM Adam, a clergyman with some nice credentials.

I haven't had a chance to really dig into this article, but one bit really struck me:

Judaism serves only as a (negative) backdrop for Jesus’ suffering — and when Gibson exaggerates the extraordinary events at Jesus’ death by ruining the Temple (instead of simply tearing the veil), it takes no great stretch of the imagination to read the event as the destruction of Judaism.

I wasn't struck so much by his conclusion about the destruction of Judaism, but I was struck by Gibson's artistic license in the "destruction" of the Temple. The gospels are pretty clear about what happened when Christ finally died -- the temple curtain (sectioning off the Holy of Holies) was torn in two.

Cool...

Coffee is 'health drink' says Italian.

Finally, justification for a new espresso machine!

March 03, 2004

Talk about The Passion

Yet another insightful post on the Mel Gibson by Gregg Easterbrook. It's hard to imagine how the Protestant evangelicals who are falling over each to praise this film didn't think of this stuff.

Some other thoughts....

Another mindboggling facet of the overwhelming Christian support for this film is how, suddenly, theology doesn't matter much to the evangelicals. The typical evangelical minister wants nothing to do mainstream Catholics, yet here they are, embracing the vision of a Catholic whose theology would make many mainstream Catholics squirm. If you don't know much about theology, think of it this way -- this is like every Democrat in Congress, plus Bill Clinton and Al Gore, agreeing with Bush's belief that Iraq still has WMDs. But, I suspect that most evangelicals aren't concerned much about theology. Instead, they've found a cultural battle to be waged, and they'll fit to the death, even if it means suggesting that families bring their children to see Gibson's bloody, violent story.

Several people who I've talked to about the movie have asked me if I thought Gibson was wrong to make it. No, he's not. He has every right to do this. I don't question his faith, though I may disagree with his vision. I'm simply frustrated by the lack of vision among some Christians who quickly jumped on the bandwagon because it looked like they were entering a battle for their faith.

March 02, 2004

Conservativism

Two things this morning.

First, this article on Salon about the new cultural battlefield points out the hypocrisy of the Federal Marriage Amendment:

Kindly notice what this proposed amendment leaves out. While purporting to be aimed at the defense of marriage, it entirely overlooks every single problem associated with heterosexual marriage. The amendment does nothing to stop no-fault divorce, or indeed prohibit divorce altogether, nor does it recriminalize adultery. Its aim is not to protect straight families, but only to attack gay ones.

Good point. The FMA is a "defense" of heterosexuality, not a moral stand for the "sanctity" of marriage.

2. Johan Golberg, an unabashed conservative, does a good job in this essay explaining why laisse-faire economics isn't very Christian:

Today, the loudest voices in the Democratic party want to regulate the economy based upon what's nice, not on what works. Yes, it would be nice if economic realities didn't make it necessary for some jobs to be sent overseas, and, sure, it'd be sweetness and light if life-saving drugs could cost a penny.

So, it's not up to economic conservatives to be nice and try to help people. It's their job to simply be sure the system works, and if it steamrolls a few people, well, them's the breaks.

March 01, 2004

Locomotion and Credit DENIED

News and notes from the weekend....

Seb has finally gotten around to be interested in crawling. He's not getting up on his knees and travelling great distances, but he's scooting around on his belly when the spirit moves him. The spirit, by the way, is typically some object he can't have, such as the DVD remote, the telephone, or a set of technical specs for a work project. Oh, and the wood burning stove (which wasn't burning). This sudden interest in motion comes at a cost though -- we can't leave him in the middle of the living room and expect him to stay put.

More Seb news. He's finding his voice. Or should I say, scream. He enjoys yelling, especially in public places. He's also developed this new set of "talking" noises reserved for when he's thinking hard about something. They're something of a cross between what sounds like Japanese and Cro-Magnon, spoken in a whisper.

Other news....

Fraud alerts are a wonderful thing if you've ever had a credit card stolen. Basically, it means that no one can easily open instant credit in your name. Including yourself. I wanted to purchase a new laptop this weekend, as I've been busy at work, and would be nice to work an hour or so at home a few nights a week to keep the workload manageable. So, seeing that Best Buy had interest free financing on laptops, I threw Seb on my back and headed there. I found a couple of nice laptops, then, knowing that I had a fraud alert out, I went to the customer service desk to apply for the credit before I started the sale.

I explained to the lady at the counter that I had said fraud alert, and that she would ultimately need to call Equifax about it. A few minutes later, she was on the phone with Equifax, and she then handed the phone to me. Now, I did get a credit card once before under the fraud alert, and basically Equifax asked if I knew why there was a fraud alert. When I explained the cicrumstances, they said okay and thanks, and BAM! I had credit.

This time, however, the person on the other end of the phone asked if he could contact me at one of two numbers listed on the alert. Ummm....no, since the alert went out nearly five years ago, and that was three residences and too many jobs to count ago. Sorry, he said, but he's send me information to update that information. Gee, great. I bet that'll go to the Walnut Street address, so I'll never actually see it. Just like that, I couldn't get a Best Buy credit card. That's right -- credit denied. I just got approved for a mortgage, but I couldn't get a credit card for a purchase that was one-tenth of the mortgage.

By the way, there's nothing quite like walking out of a retail store having been denied credit.....