infamousdave

Chaning of the seasons

Wed, 25 Feb 2009 02:59:06 GMT

There are some places in the world where there is a clear changing of the seasons, where a single day can mark the end of one season and the beginning of the next. Minnesota is such a place.

As most people know, Minnesota has four seasons. They are: Mosquito, Almost Winter, Winter, and Still Winter.

We had a cold January and a mild February. The days are getting longer, we have seen the sun, and we've gotten used to whole days where the temperature is near or even above freezing. Today was sunny and, dare I say it, warm. Winter is almost over.

Thursday will herald in the new season. Forecasters are predicting six inches of snow. Two days from today we will witness a changing of the seasons. It will be...

Still Winter.

Today's Worst Person in the World

Wed, 11 Feb 2009 02:48:08 GMT

I'll take a page out of Keith Olbermann's book and give you today's Worst Person in the World.

As reported in The Age today, Danny Nalliah, senior pastor at the hopefully-no-irony-intended Catch the Fire Ministries blamed the current Australian bush fires on the legalization of abortion in the state of Victoria. According a ministry media release, "He said these bushfires have come as a result of the incendiary abortion laws". The release goes on to quote him as saying "That His conditional protection has been removed from the nation of Australia, in particular Victoria".

OK, first, the fires were caused by a buildup of fuel coupled with hot, dry, windy conditions exacerbated by a 12 year drought, arguably influenced by global climate change and in some cases triggered by arsonists. There is no divine intervention here.

Second, even if you accept that the circumstances leading up to the fires, many of which predate the passing of abortion laws, were none the less divine in origin (don't get me started on the free-will-denying implication), this God-loving fire-and-brimstone hack is asking to accept that the ever-loving Almighty is collectively punishing hundreds of individuals, regardless of their beliefs, for an act of the Victorian state government. Why not only the pro-abortionists? Why the whole state? God loves you, but he's going to kill you painfully because of an act parliament?

So much for a personal God, this one is more interested in state politics.

I'm sorry Mr. Nalliah, but this is sort of religion I have no tolerance for. You are Today's Worst Person In The World.

Arson and murder

Tue, 10 Feb 2009 00:50:57 GMT

As I'm sure pretty much everyone has heard, there have been some atrocious fires in Australia in the past few days, scores killed and hundreds of houses destroyed. Entire towns have been wiped off the map.

And some of these fires have been started by arsonists.

I generally don't have much patience for the eye-for-an-eye style of justice, and I support Australia's abolition of the death penalty.

That said, I think anyone found guilty of setting any of these fires that resulted in human death should be burnt at the stake.

Wedding

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 01:21:00 GMT

The wedding is done, and I now offically have a sister-in-law. Welcome to the family, K!

The ceremony was fantastic. Atholl Hall is located on the bay with a view of the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge. The weather was great - cloudy but not rainy, the celebrant was wonderful, and everything went smoothly. The ceremony was outside, then the wedding party ran down to the beach for photos, then back up to the hall for the reception, where as best man (it's nice to have my natural status recognized with a title) I got to make a speech. Towards the end of the reception there were even fireworks across the harbour.

So M&K are off for their honeymoon today. Mom, Dad, and dixon_green are driving down the coast to have lunch with Dad's sister, then meander their way to Melbourne. I'm in Sydney today, then I'm doing a bus tour down to Melbourne starting tomorrow and arriving Friday night. Then Sunday I fly back to the US.

Travels

Thu, 30 Oct 2008 08:05:02 GMT

Just a quick note to any Australian readers, I'm currently in Sydney for my brother's wedding. I'll be here till probably Tuesday, then slowly make my way down to Melbourne, where I believe there is an MCC concert on the Saturday which I will be attending before flying back on the Sunday.

So if anyone in either of those cities wants to say hi, grab some lunch or something, feel free drop me a line.

Home ownership

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 03:41:18 GMT

I own a house. Or at least 10% of one, but I still get to live there.

Not that I'm living there yet. I'm posting this from my apartment. I've scheduled the big move for August 2, though I've got until the end of August to vacate my current premises. In the meantime, I've got painting to worry about. The exterior is aluminum siding, so no worries there, but pretty much the whole interior could use some freshening up. For the moment though, I 'm only worrying about the living and dining rooms, which need it the most and would be the hardest to do after I've moved in.

The ceiling gets a new coat of white. The living room will be a two-tone textured gold, not sure about the trim yet, and the dining room will be a pale green with dark green trim. The rest of the house will probably end up being a bit more restrained, but I couldn't bring myself to do these rooms in any variety of cream or off-white.

Besides the paint, I've got almost all of the utilities sorted out, and I still need to stop by the city office to tell them I am homesteading (what a word!) the property. New locks would be a good idea, and I need to look into security systems. There is one already installed but not currently monitored, so that's a starting point at least.

So then after I move in, there's the rest of the painting to do, then sand and seal the hardwood floor upstairs. It's been covered by carpet the whole time until the carpet was taken out a couple years ago - it has never been finished! And of course the windows need reglazing and repainting.

And then there's the lawn...

And here's the really, really funny part. There are two projects at work that both need my attention and both have severe time constraints. I only have time for one of them. My boss (to be fair, somewhat reluctantly and on instructions from his boss) asked me today if I would consider working on both, essentially putting in 60-80 hour weeks in exchange for some negotiated compensation, presumably extra time off later and/or extra money. Yeah. Sure. Actually, if not for the house (and fest!) I might have considered it, so I can't blame them for asking. But as it is, it ain't happening.

Closing time

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 21:42:06 GMT

So, the inspections and repairs are done and the paperwork is all lined up. Closing on the house is tomorrow.

Yeep!

I had been hoping to be able to get away without painting before I move in, but it was pretty clear at the final walk-through on Sunday that I'll at least need to paint the living and dining rooms. I'm almost rethinking my decision not to pull up carpet as well (there's a hardwood floor underneath), but I think I'll still leave that for now.

So now I have to decide on colors.

On houses and cats

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 23:25:49 GMT

Those of you who read dixon_green's journal will already know that I have recently purchased a house. Subject to inspection, which occurs tomorrow, closing is in just over two weeks.

As I'm sure any homeowner knows, buying your first house brings a range of conflicting feelings. In my case, it is happiness that I found such a nice house, relief that I found it quickly, and sheer terror at what I have gotten myself into. It is a 1940 three bedroom, two bath, one and three quarter story house with a full basement and a detached two car garage just off Theo Wirth Park. It is in excellent condition and, subject to inspection, looks pretty much ready to move in without additional work or even painting. I may need to finish the hardwood floors in the loft, and I'll probably redo the kitchen at some point, but I can take care of all that later.

Of course, thanks to super-agent-extraordinaire Barb Kampf of Edina Realty, who is something of a legend amongst an impressively large group of friends who have worked with her, and deservedly so.

One of the things I've been contemplating now that I'll own a house is that maybe I'll finally get myself a cat or two. Which brings me to the sad news today that dixon_green had to have her fuzzy kitty put down today. Poor kitty had been unwell, and it turned out she had feline leukemia. She was so very tired, and clearly suffering, and the only thing DG could do for her was to end it. For all the happiness kitty brought during her life it was a very sad way to end, but at least she was not alone. DG's apartment is going to seem very empty now.

Northworst

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 00:19:09 GMT

I’ve long been struck by a quote from Billy Connolly, who said: “I believe there’s no such thing as bad language, there’s just bad use of language.” In that vein, I have very occasionally shared in the use of some of Connolly’s more colorful vocabulary in this journal, but I maintain that it was never inappropriate, and certainly never bad use of language.

In an effort to maintain that lofty standard, I hereby refrain from sharing my current opinion of NorthWest Airlines.

As some of you may know, I had to fly in to Chicago yesterday for two days of meetings. I was scheduled to fly out at 6:55 tonight. The flight has been delayed until 9:40. Given that my meeting finished early, I could have already been home by the time my flight even takes off, assuming it actually makes it by its new and improved time, had I simply driven.

Worse, I forgot to bring my headphones with me, so I can’t tune out the inane babbling of conversion that fills a crowded airport. Some Latvian guy is threatening to sue Orbitz because he missed his connection due to weather delays and got put on standby on his new connection instead of immediately having a confirmed seat.

And of course, I can’t connect to LJ right now, so I can’t even post my boring rant until later (I do have internet access - is LJ down?).

Ah well. M&K are flying in through Chicago tomorrow. As long as I meet them there and not here...

Whoosh!

Sun, 25 May 2008 23:25:20 GMT

Ironically, I was on the phone with dixon_green who was asking me whether any of the severe weather had hit me, and I said no, it hadn't.

Then the wind came.

It came out of nowhere and lasted about 20 seconds. It was a downburst, not a tornado, and as soon as it was done, the sun came out. And the fire alarm went off.

Damn, that fire alarm is loud.

So I made my apologies and hung up the phone, and went for a walk to get away from the noise. Wow. Five downed trees, one of which landed on a car, and lots of big branches, one of which also landed on a car. Siding got ripped off the side of my building, I found a piece of gutter about 100 yards away. I saw the shredded remains of a lawn chair spread over hundreds of yards. A bin for doggie doo got blown about 50 yards and landed in a pond, leaving a trail of plastic wrapped dog droppings to mark its path.

Sadly, there was one confirmed casualty. We found a dead squirrel near one of the downed trees.

Oif

Happily for me, for all the damage done here, we actually did miss the worst of the weather. The stuff further north and east tonight looks pretty vicious.

I'm back...

Sun, 18 May 2008 01:55:32 GMT

...and hopefully not too jetlagged. We'll see tomorrow.

For those requesting I bring some of that nice weather with me, I can only guess that you've never tried to get that sort of thing through customs.

Seriously though, I had to laugh as I was driving to the airport this morning. The radio was playing "Everywhere you go, always take the weather with you".

Wow. This morning. I woke up in Denmark, drove to Germany, then flew to the US via the Netherlands. Four countries in one day probably doesn't beat the record for me, but it may well tie it. And yes, I know Amsterdam only half counts because I didn't leave the airport, but geographically, I hit four countries.

If it's Tuesday, this must be Sweden

Tue, 13 May 2008 16:26:35 GMT

Well, the European tour continues. Last week was Neumuenster, then Flensburg, then Neumuenster, this week is Sweden (Almhult) and Denmark (Nordborg). I'm currently at the Ikea hotel. Yup, I think everyone has heard the quip by now, the hotel in the hometown of Ikea, across the street from Ikea, exclusively furnished by Ikea, and - yup, you guessed it - owned and operated by Ikea. Although I learnt this week that the A in IKEA doesn't stand for Almhult after all, so I apologize to all those to whom I spread that particular piece of misinformation.

I've just finished up my business here, and drive to Denmark tomorrow. I felt surprisingly nostalgic about leaving the office today. They're moving into a new building at the end of the month, so I was walking out of the old building for the last time. I've actually spent a fair amount of time there over the last eight years. Anyway, it's been a pleasingly productive trip so far, even if it has resulted with the normally undesirable outcome of me having more work on my desk at the end of it than at the beginning.

So now I have to decide if I want to have an easy day of travel tomorrow, or rush off early to try to get to Nordborg in time to visit Danfoss Universe, the company theme park (I kid you not). Unfortunately, that would probably also mean traversing the Copenhagen rush hour, so I'm still undecided. See how I feel in the morning.

I fly back on Saturday and have been informed by dixon_green that I'll be going to the new Narnia film on Sunday.

And just to keep rambling for a bit, the weather over here has been absolutely perfect. Warm, sunny, fields of rhaps showing off their usual startlingly yellow blooms. This is a great time of year for northern Europe.

One billion

Wed, 26 Mar 2008 01:16:59 GMT

Alas, I just realized this week that I have allowed the one billion second anniversary of my birth to pass uncommemorated.

For the record, I am now approximately 1,018,707,262 seconds old.

Bollocks

Tue, 18 Mar 2008 03:01:16 GMT

Great. I just hit a snag in my project at work. I'll spare the technical details (unless you understand the implications of the statement sizeof(int)==1, you really won't care), but the net result is that it looks like pretty much all the work I've done since December is probably down the toilet. Yay.

On the plus side, Plan B (which involves *not* throwing away a bunch of work I did a couple of years ago) is actually simpler and quicker, albeit less full featured, so I might finally be able to actually get on with some other projects that have been sitting on the back burner for a while.

The changing seasons

Sat, 08 Mar 2008 22:53:12 GMT

As we prepare for the earliest change to daylight savings time ever, we are reminded that the seasons continue to move on. Here in Minnesota, there has been a palpable change. Winter is over. It is now...

Still Winter.

There is a joke that there are four seasons in Minnesota: Almost winter, winter, still winter, and road construction. There is more than just a little truth to this. Winter is all about skiing, ice fishing, winter festivals, and snow tubing. It's fun. You put up with the snow and cold because you can have fun in the snow and cold. But then something changes. The sun is up longer, you have a few warm days (by the way, warm here means above freezing), and you're ready for spring to arrive.

And it doesn't. It snows again. The temperature drops to -5F.

It is Still Winter.

*sigh*

Happy Birthday!

Sat, 08 Mar 2008 22:41:59 GMT

Happy Birthday to dixon_green!

I'm not losing a brother, I'm gaining an in-law

Tue, 04 Mar 2008 05:11:21 GMT

or: All my friends are getting married
or: Another one bites the dust
or: Dammit, there's nothing wrong with being single!

So, one of my colleagues, who has long insisted that he and his girlfriend don't have that sort of relationship, announced last week that he's getting married.

Another one bites the dust...

Then on Friday Big Brother, in one of the least surprising bits of family news in a long time, announced that he popped question to his girlfriend, who of course said yes.

...another one down, and another one down...

Then I got another email from a friend today that she and her boyfriend are engaged.

...another one bites the dust.

There's nothing wrong with being single. Nothing at all. Period.

Anyway, I think I've figured out what's going on. It's Leap Day. People think that's the day they're supposed to take the leap. That's all I can figure.

In Phoenix

Fri, 22 Feb 2008 00:29:38 GMT

OK, I'm safely in Phoenix (damned if I can ever remember if that's "oe" or "eo"), where they happily support their claim of "friendliest airport in the world" with free WiFi.

Feeling better, but not 100%. Not sure if I'll go to work tomorrow, I'll decide that in the morning. The fever is down and the coughing is better, but aspirin and Mucinex probably have a lot to do with that.

So now it's just waiting several hours for the flight. I could probably get on an earlier one, but they'd probably put me back in cattle class in that case. I'm willing to wait around a bit longer to get a nice seat.

Good news / Bad news

Wed, 20 Feb 2008 22:39:47 GMT

The good news:

It is 64 degrees F in Tucson right now (*bwaahaaahaaha*)

The bad news:

My temperature is 101.3 degrees F.

Maybe the flu got me after all.

New boss

Sat, 15 Dec 2007 02:24:48 GMT

Well, a couple months back, two of our business units merged with a new VP in charge. Anyone out there in the corporate world knows what comes next. Yup. A re-org.

Fortunately, it's not too bad. The details have been filtering down slowly for a while now. For the most part, it actually makes sense. Instead of having subteams reporting to local bosses, we have genuinely global teams with reporting based on function, not location. Instead of several software development teams trying to cooperate on similar tasks, we have four global teams with members at different locations.

The only trouble with this is, well, me. I have a tendency to flit between one area of software and another, with the occasional foray into sales or marketing. Personally, I think this makes me a more valuable employee since it broadens my experience and brings insights from one area of the business to another. Also, I find it much more enjoyable not to be buttonholed in one particular area. But alas, the structure of the business is not defined for the purpose of my entertainment, so I now find myself on the software kernel team, an area I have actually been drifting away from for a while now.

This is both good and bad. Currently, I'm working on a project which spans the kernel and application development (a different global team) and will hopefully feed into our software tooling (yet another global team), but can really be categorized as an R&D effort (you guessed it, the fourth global team). Ultimately, I think R&D is where I really want to be, but that's also a political issue beyond belief. Anyway, the good news is that my new boss is a guy I worked with in Germany - in fact, he was my mentor when I first joined the company - who I have a great deal of respect for and consider a good friend. And I am delighted that he was named a team leader because that is a promotion for him and I can't think of anyone who deserves it more. It just remains to be seen how I fit into the team.

So interesting times ahead. I foresee at least a couple of European business trips in the year ahead. As well as the planned trips to Tuscon (in February, yay!), St. Louis (maybe), Montreal (probably), and the ever-present possibility of a brief return to Japan.

Minnesota moments

Wed, 05 Dec 2007 01:27:46 GMT

Yeah, it's been a while since I've posted. Deal with it.

As a non-Minnesota native, there are certain things I notice in Minnesota which strike me as funny that locals don't even notice. Here are of few of those things that remind you, "Yup, I'm in Minnesota. Ooh, ya, you betcha!"

1. You're standing inside watching the snow fall outside. Someone asks, "Is it cold out there?"
2. You think, "Oh, it's snowing. It must be warming up."
3. You become familiar with the phrase, "Too cold to snow".
4. You realize what those brown splotches on the highway are.
5. You go to the Renaissance Festival and hear someone say, "You betcha, m'lord".
6. Your car is going one direction. Your front wheels are pointed in another. Your rear wheels are sliding sideways. You are not at all bothered by this.
7. You gauge the temperature by the crunching sound the snow makes under your feet.
8. You get used to the weather pattern: It snows, then it gets cold.
9. You leave a clear imprint of your license plate in a snow bank.
10. You leave a clear imprint of your license plate in the side of a deer.
11. You know at least one person who has hit a deer with their car. Twice. In a week.
12. You know people who ski to work.
13. You go to your car and realize it's snowing. Inside your car.
14. 32 degrees Fahrenheit feels warm.

Arrived

Sat, 04 Aug 2007 14:24:51 GMT

I'm back in Minneapolis!

I got in last night, got a good nights sleep, and now it's time to think about finding a place to live.

Crap

Thu, 02 Aug 2007 14:48:54 GMT

I'm at an internet kiosk in Bangkok airport. Happy to leave, though I finally caught up with my cousin, which was a pleasant way to end the trip.

Here's the bad news. They're saying that my flight to Osaka may have to be diverted because of the typhoon. OK, even though the Northwest flight was booked on a separate ticket, it looks like they'll be able to get me on another flight, so no disaster, right?

Trouble is, I wanted to pack light for Thailand so I left three rather important bags in storage at Kansai airport, which will become rather hard to collect if I have to fly through Tokyo. *grumble*

On the positive side, it is still only a maybe that we'll get diverted. With luck, the typhoon will miss.

I know I am blessed with all sorts of luck. Let's hope it's good luck this time...

Woah...

Thu, 02 Aug 2007 02:57:59 GMT

Just woke up to the news about the I35 bridge collapse. Wow. That sort of stuff isn't supposed to happen in Minnesota. I hope everyone is OK, my thoughts are with you.

When in town, I don't use that bridge on a daily basis, but I would usually cross it at least a couple times a week. Scary.

Yay! Another typhoon

Wed, 01 Aug 2007 15:29:42 GMT

Looks like another typhoon headed for Japan. But why should I care? I'm in Thailand. Well, yeah, but I'm flying through Kansai airport on Friday. As far as I can tell, I should be in and out ahead of the typhoon, so here's hoping.