All I Need is a Mugging

Today, I came in to work and noticed that my drawer was open. Someone had ruffled through my desk drawers and found my small cash-stash ($50 in ten dollar bills and quarters) that I keep around for pizza lunches on Fridays.

The list of theft's that I've been a victim of now include:

• Cash ($50) from desk at work
• MP3 player ($20) from coat pocket while playing indoor soccer
• Wallet, glasses and keys ($130) from church while attending a potluck
• Bicycle & snowboard ($970) from apartment (they ripped the door off)
• Backpack (Wallet, Thomson Portfolio, MP3 player, reading glasses, portable game system - $430) from my car's trunk while packing up from a LAN gaming party
• Ironman watch ($40) from pants pocket at gym

I'm averaging a theft every 10 months for the last 5 years.

How about you? Any stories?

The Johnsons Set Up a Christmas Tree!

Link: http://www.youtube.com/v/1aOYi-4loIE&fmt=6

With the scent of freshly baked cookies hanging heavily in the air after an afternoon of baking, we set out to put up our christmas tree. Pandora Radio set the mood with hits from the "Rockin Holiday" station: http://pandora.com/stations/574a57ea7384db17645cedeeb33c1e25425ba2910f7abf8b. I marched box after box of tree trimmings, decorations and other such flair up the entry stairwell from the garage under the approving eye of my 14 month old daughter. With each box came an inquisitive look followed by a pointed exclamation and bubbling laughter. Annabelle was getting quite excited!

I opened the first box, and immediately Annabelle was touring the contents. Each item was observed, moved, poked then discarded for the next item. We started to assemble the tree. When I unfurled the lower branches, Annabelle didn't quite know what to make of the bouncing branches, and stared for a few seconds til Cheryl asked her what she thought of that. As you saw in the video, Annabelle promptly did an interpretive dance to display the awkward excitement of the event.

Soon after, came lights, ribbon and ornaments. Annabelle put up the plastic ornaments near the bottom, while Cheryl and I adorned the upper sections of the tree. When the angel topper came out, Annabelle lept into my arms, ready to assist in its placement.

The tree was finished, so we tossed the boxes back into the garage then laughed, played tag, and danced around in the living room til we were all exhausted enough to hit the sack. What an excellent Sunday!!

Productivity and Curiousity

I'm a curious guy. When a thread piques my interest, watch out!!

What happens in between topics of interest? Laa dee da dee da, skipping around, eyes wandering in a lackadaisical fashion... dee dee doooo... Cheryl to David, "Honey, why does salt make ice melt?" *Poof, alert, interested* "Hmmm... I don't know" *gears revving, BAM!!, sonic boom, David flies through wikipedia and google scholar to related links, topics and visualizations* *crack-azapers* *the yellow brick road bursts into a million pieces as David's wake follows him past Oz...* "Aha!! ..."

I tend to drift while I'm between topics of interest, but when I'm interested, I fly. Time seems to do the same, passing slowly when I'm bored and cheating ahead when I'm interested.

Topics that caught my eye this weekend: 

• .NET and C#'s amazing catch-up to Java (including multi-platform runtime, open source support for projects like xStream, Spring, JUnit, and the frickin amazing new & free Web Developer Studio by Microsoft... http://www.microsoft.com/express/download/default.aspx)
• Java EE design patterns, security approaches, scalability concerns...
• NetLibrary's stunning varienty of technical refferences
• The drama involved in crowning Solomon king of Israel and Judea.
  
• The relationship between water phase changes and solutes
• Mind mapping tools as a solution for writing technical documents, authoring presentations, composing emails, keeping track of work... (see FreeMind: http://freemind.sourceforge.net)

What did you find interesting this week? Pique my interest with something cool!! I'll love you for it. :)

The Content of My Blog

Here's a visualization of my last six months of blog posts:

http://www.wordle.net/gallery/wrdl/334931/Untitled

Moments with Annabelle 8-10 Months

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrg4wDAaNlA&fmt=6

All the Small Things

I love my life. :)

Yesterday, Cheryl was out with some old friends. I started the day with an hour face-to-face chat with my brother via Skype. (P.S. If you have a skype account, email or facebook me your skype account sn so I can talk to you too...)

Allan's friggin brilliant and proving it at school. I love hearing about the ridiculously awesome things he's up to.

After our chat, I watched a B-movie on the sci-fi channel, then drove over to North Ponds park, strapped on my roller blades and went for a five mile jaunt up the path.

After that, a trip to wegmans, another B movie, some video games... It was a very relaxing day.

The beautiful thing about being me though, is that even with such an uneventful, relaxing day, I learned a lot and honed my existing skills...

My average day activities are what I love so much about my life. Right after waking up, I played blocks with Annabelle, had a delicious breakfast, danced around the apartment to the foo fighters, muse, blink and system of a down, juggled, stretched out, did hand stands, practiced balancing on one hand... The things that are novel to me include my trip to Wegmans where I visited each isle 1 or 0 times... the research I did on wood-working and how to build the shelves for our garage... the whitepaper I read on agile data management... the design patterns I investigated... service oriented architecture approaches.

All that's a heck of a lot of fun to do and learn, but it certainly doesn't make for good lunch-time conversation. I'm making headway in so many ways!! I've got our finances under control. I have a new method of approaching difficult topics with Cheryl and we're closer because of it. I've got a system for preparing great meals on a regular basis. They're all fantastic things!!! But how much of that is interesting to blog about? Believe me friends, my lack of blog posts recently doesn't mean that my life is slowing down... I'm simply filtering out the stuff that's not of general interest.

P.S. Here's the photo gallery of the Johnson-Herring annual apple picking trip: http://picasaweb.google.com/ultimadj/BerryPicking2008

Johnson Moving Day

Album Location: http://picasaweb.google.com/ultimadj/MovingDay

The night before the move, Cheryl, Annabelle and I brought our sheets, toiletries, a few blankets to our empty new apartment. We slept on the floor without a mattress after playing a few games and chasing Annabelle through various rooms and closets. We were all so excited that we could barely sleep. The evening was wonderfully cool, a luxury made possible through the central air conditioning. Our old apartment didn't have an air conditioner of any sort. Cheryl's dedication to living within our means can be attested by the fact that she went lived in the tiny apartment with no air conditioning and shoddy heat for the entirety of her pregnancy.

We woke the next morning feeling refreshed, sizzling with excitement about the task at hand. I drove out to Henrietta to pick up the moving truck. Trying to rent a truck only a week in advance had proven to be an issue... Budget and UHaul had no trucks of ANY size available in the area. Fortunately, AAA sent me to Penske where a truck was not only available, it was less than half the cost of either competitor.
I drove the truck to the old apartment where Cheryl's closest friends were already starting to gather, preparing the apartment for the move to come, putting knick-knacks and cleaning supplies into the final few boxes. I missed having Nate with me. For our last move, he was the first there, helping me to get the truck and the last to leave, chilling with us after the move was over.

Soon, others started to arrive. The first heavy lifters assisted me in placing furniture onto the truck though eventually, the movers were so efficient that I ended up managing placement of items in the truck more than actually carrying myself.
The truck was loaded swiftly and we headed off to the new apartment. The contrast between old and new was stunning. The truck was unloaded quickly, and it was time for pizza. After pizza, beer, soda and slides, the crew members gradually left 'til Cheryl and the final few unpacked the essential items. In the following days (two or three), Cheryl not only established an organizational system for the new space, she managed to unpack and reorganize the available space into a livable apartment.... her skill in such matters in unrivaled in my opinion.

The move was a blast, and the helpers a joyful blessing. Thanks to all involved!!

The Johnsons Went to Camp Tamar

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjzfmu_E254

The Johnsons Moved! And I Got Lost...

We moved to our beautiful new apartment yesterday. So many team players showed up that a full 16' truck, 2 vans, and several personal vehicles got packed in only an hour and thirty minutes!! It was insane!! The ladies cleaned out the apartment and met us over at the new place where we unpacked in the record-breaking time of... 1 hr.

There are so many stories to tell!! We didn't have any of the usual heavy lifters (Brian, Toby, Nathan, Adrian, Rob), but we still managed to get everything onto the truck. The craziest moment for me occurred about half way down the third flight of stairs... with a piano. I was on the bottom (good leverage) with Chris and Curtis hunched over on the top (how they managed to hold the piano up while stooped over is yet to be explained by science). My foot slipped on one of the steps and the piano slipped an undetectable 1/2 inch. In that moment, my life flashed before my eyes.... having your life flash by rapidly is apparently very hard on your heart, because mine was thumping like a speedcore gabber. Nothing happened, but you know how terrifying the indication that something COULD happen can be. :)

Anyhoo, this morning, I woke up, gathered by bike gear (which was all easily findable thanks to our dear friend Alicia) and hit the road. Well, the road hit back. I completely missed a major turn and ended up in Greece before I recognized anything. Take a look at this link to see the ridiculous zig-zag I did to get to work: http://alnk.org/1fatsnake

All told, that trip took nearly 50 minutes. I can't wait to see what the ride home looks like... :D

Moments with Annabelle 3-5 Months

Moments with Annabelle 3-5 Months

Whoa... That's a Crazy Bug

I was sitting at my computer desk, happily perusing the internet for funnies, when out of the corner of my eye... AH!! What's what?!?!

A 4 inch long creepy, wave-like shadow goes flying down the hall. I frantically call to Cheryl for a paper-towel as I follow the shadow into our project room. Such a creepy thing wasn't going to get away from me so easily...

Boof boof boof Cheryl came rapidly pounding down the hall as I continued to follow the now well-lit terror that was rapidly weaving through the room.

Slack, crackly-crunch! I threw down the paper towel on top of the terror and smashed it firmly with the spare change jar, leaving a 3 square inch blob of goop on the floor and wiggling legs/feelers in the paper towel.

After some internet research, I found what the crazy creepy was... Scutigera Coleoptrata

(Image from http://cordially.narod.ru/album/en.html, Copyright Eugeny Kornienko)

My Shared Items

For those of you who haven't added me as a friend in Google reader, you can access my shared items (funny videos, interesting articles, fun flash games) at the following URL:
http://www.google.com/reader/shared/05663508976928265738

Add me as a friend in google talk so I can read your shared items as well!!

Camping in Ithaca

Jacky graduated from Ithaca College (possibly soon to be University) this last weekend. We decided to skip the hotel costs in favor of an outdoor romp in Buttermilk Falls State Park and Campground. ($40 for a weekend instead of $80 per night...) This strategy worked for us quite well before when we attended Juliana's wedding last summer.

We packed when I got home from work on Friday (5:30 ish), hung out, watched some TV and ate dinner. Annabelle had done her best to fend of the sandman, but succumbed to a rocking chair and some warm milk, dozing off around 9pm. We quickly loaded the car (well, loaded the rest of the stuff... Cheryl had done a brilliant job of preparing the day before), made our last minute ID10T checks and plopped the baby into her car seat. The trip up was filled with enrapturing conversation, joyful rock, and a beautiful dusky set of scenery.

We arrived at the site around 11pm... at which point I pitched camp in the dark (Insert thunderous applause here). The craziest part was errecting our 3 man dome tent... friggin crazy. After 20 minutes of tent poles, flashlights, and stakes, it was time to unroll the sleeping bags and go to bed... which we did without hesitation. As we finished up and started to change for bed, I mentioned that we'de need hats to sleep. Cheryl thought that was a little weird, but we popped them on and hit the hay.

Annabelle woke up around 2am for her early morning feeding. She did her usual soft-cry-half-asleep thing then noticed something was up. Bonk her eyes popped open and she started looking around the tent...

Wow! Tents are so cool... Annabelle certainly seemed to apprecite it. :D

The weather was much cooler than the last time we went camping... instead of 80 degree days with 50 degree nights, we saw a high of 60-something and a frigid low of ~30 degrees at night. We cuddled in a set of sleeping bags we'd zippered together for a nice cozzy sleep time.

The next day, there were campfires to be built, sticks to play with, caterpillars to meet... ROCKS TO EAT... Annabelle had such a great time! ...and so did we!!

Chat As You Read

I've added a chat widget to my blog and web page. As you're reading, feel free to strike up a conversation. :)

http://manunderdamoon.blogspot.com/
http://www.isajohnson.com/david

Another Band I've Gotta See

The list of live shows I've got to get to has just doubled in size!

It's now Blue Man Group and the newcomer "The Pinker Tones"

Baby Heartbreaker?

Annabelle didn't want me to go this morning. She never wants me to leave for work, but today...

I was off in the bathroom, brushing my teeth after my nice hot shower which came after my breakfast of cocoa crispies and yogurt (typical routine), when I heard "Ohhh, daddy's getting ready for work. He's got to get going."

Annabelle said something unintelligible back, so I decided to check in. I was greeted with a squeal of delight and an arm wave, followed directly by open "Daddy, pick me up!!" arms. When I picked her up, she laid her head on my chest and hugged me. A nice, long "goooood morning daddy, I love you" hug.

I smiled at her and told her I had to get to work, then put her down where she quickly turned to Cheryl with a big smile like "Aha! See! Daddy's here!!", then I left the room to fill my water bottle and leave... but this was far from what Annabelle had in mind. She wimpered a bit from the other room, then convinced Cheryl to bring her to the living room. When Annabelle made it into the living room, she let out a quit, gasping "Dad" and watched intently as I readied my bag. My sunglasses are always the last step before I leave the house and when Annabelle saw them come out, she franticly scrambled across the floor to grab my leg in a desperate attempt to keep me from leaving.

I played for a minute or two longer, but then I really had to leave... Work needs a better schedule.

Why an ASUS Eee PC?

This is a summary of my purchasing and usage decisions with the $360 Eee PC laptop I just purchased.

Here's what I use it for:

1. Remote data recovery (I fix a lot of dead hard drives, the eee is much lighter than my 12 lb gaming laptop)Vacation photos/video (I have a 20GB portable drive I ues to copy my camcorder's and camera's flash cards to)
2. Google Docs/Calendar anywhere with WifiTimeshare Travel (There's always wifi, but I've been afraid to take my $1k laptop with me... not to mention 12lbs is a lot for a day bag. The Eee PC is shockproof and weighs in at 2lbs.)
3. Open office docs & spreedsheets (I can view and edit my budget and personal notes(songs in progress, bible studies, tips & tricks for ...) anywhere.)
4. Daily mail & news (I open up and sync Thunderbird before I leave the house in about 30 seconds from boot to shutdown. On the bus and at lunch I can read and respond to all of my rss feeds and mail offline.)
5. Around the house Cloud Computing (I want to use the media center, so I pass the Eee to Cheryl so she can read her mail, surf facebook, and do all that non-resource intensive stuff she likes to do)
6. Random Entertainment (For trips or Dr's offices, I can watch the DVDs I've ripped to Xvid, or play flash games online)

Why the 4G instead of the 8G or 900? Price point and battery life. The 8G is $500 where the 4G is only $360 (Windows or Linux). The 900 has a 9" screen instead of a 7" screen, but that takes the battery life from 4 hrs to 2.2 hrs.

Why Asus Desktop (Xandros derivative) instead of Ubuntu or Windows? Speed. Plain and simple... With Asus Desktop, the Eeepc boot time is 17 seconds from off to surfing the web. Asus desktop recognized my A-HD camcorder, Canon 700is Camera, 3 different USB flash drives, portable hard drive, and every wireless network I've put it on so far without a hitch (including WPA).

Why the 4G 701 instead of the 4G Surf (401)? I wanted the webcam to talk with my brother via skype. In the 701, you can upgrade the RAM to 2GB, where the 401 (Surf) has soldered RAM.

Why scale the processor back to 667 MHz from 900? Apps launch slowly (2-3 seconds), but I get 4.5 hrs of battery life with wifi instead of 3.

Eee PC & Skype

I've got a crazy new laptop on which I'm writing this blog. This 2lb wonder gives a whole new meaning to ultra-portable. My nifty new toy has a webcam. If you have Skype, send me an email with your user, or call me. My SN is 'ultimadj'.

Vacation

Injuring my leg was a great thing. I've had a solid two weeks of royal treatment. Cheryl's been taking care of all the running around, while I've been left to enjoy her cooking and entertain Annabelle while Cheryl's busy with stuff like... the dishes GASP!!!

I've had a productive streak at work that has been unparalleled... one that has been enhanced by the brilliant streaks of my coworkers. I LOVE WORKING WITH BRILLIANT PEOPLE!!!

Cheryl recently purchased a walking toy (kind of like a shopping cart) for Annabelle. I put Annabelle behind the toy and placed her little paws on the padded bar. It was as high as her head, but she didn't mind. She stood there for a while, laughing and smiling at us to let us know what an excellent new trinket we'd given her. Then she leaned in to grab the little spinner near the middle of the toy. It started to roll forward.. her eyes got wider and wider as the toy rolled further from her! She stood there for a full 5 seconds, willing her little arms to hold her weight as she avoided succumbing to gravity... but... ooooh... sliiip thump. She just wasn't strong enough. (Actually, no one is. Try putting a chair out in front of you, then holding your own weight near vertical with your hands outstretched over your head... you'll see what I'm talking about). She gave me the pouty face (ie: Daddy, I didn't like that) but when I set her up again, she was right back to smiling with enough joy for every man woman and child in New York. The toy started to roll again... oh boy, she nipped that one in the bud! She placed one foot in front of the other til she'd run into the sofa on the other side of the room. Amazing! My 6mo old says Mamamama, Dadadadada and semi-walks like a pro!! Booyah!

Another Bad Injury??

What the heck!? I'm not an injury prone guy, I've just had the weirdest streak of ugly... the food poisoning, rectal bleeding, hitting a bus on my bike, and now a severe hematoma...

Yesterday, my soccer team played against the Xerox team. The last time my team played this team, the goalie broke his foot. This time, Tim ended up in the hospital, with a broken wrist and 7 staples to stop his head from bleeding. (He opened up that back of his head pretty badly.) Me? I got kicked in the thigh so hard that my body dumped nearly a pint of blood into it. My leg was so swollen that I couldn't even pinch the skin (it was stretched so tight). After speaking with the doctor, I'm on a tight icing regiment. Unless the healing process goes well, I'm headed to the permanent disability list. There's a reason this team is on the bottom of the stack. They're clumsy. Oh the drama...

So send some love as I'll be on the couch for the next 3 days (moving as little as possible, including rationed bathroom stops). Email me with good flash games, send me a message telling me how awesome your schooling, teaching, and general tom-foolery is going, and I'll keep you posted on the progress I'm making with my miraculous recovery ;)

Behold the Mighty Strawberry

I love food... I mean REALLY LOVE it. My ideal day is a 40 mile bike ride, followed by a basketball game, followed by a few hours of disc golf, followed by a good meal involving steamed artichokes and a variety of little tasties (salty snacks, sweet sauces)...

My darling daughter also loves to eat. Here's a picture of her tasting a strawberry for the first time:

From Photo Gallery: Annabelle 3-6 Months

Notice the crazed look of ecstasy (which was immediately followed by a frantic scramble for the bowl from which the strawberries came... Cheryl was only a split second faster).

Oh, Mr. Adams

Code monkeys need more endorphins.
This one hits the nail on the head: http://dilbert.com/comics/dilbert/archive/dilbert-20080317.html

In dance, there was a lot of criticism, but it all helped you improve. When the ballet was over, there were compliments, flowers, chocolate and newspaper articles.

In software, there's a lot of whining. I feel like I spend a decent amount of time disproving the blanket excuses that my tools, projects and plans are assailed with. When a project is completed successfully, that's it. The project is over "yeah team!"... even the dead weight is associated with the project's success.

Software and its development are currently a little depressing. I really need to be surrounded by the sea of positive/creative people I miss from high school and college. (Thank God for the random excellent people from work (Christina, Matt, Tim, Ed, Dean, Brian...) that make lunch times so pleasant.)

Meh, I'll ride my bike in tomorrow and remind myself of why I love being me sooooo much!!! Toodles!

Auto-Dialer

WARNING: This isn't an exciting post. (WHOA)

I've been receiving calls from 770-242-8446 a few times a day for the last week. I typed the number into Google and found that it belongs to Spectrum Services which is a company that contracts with Toyota, Verizon and a number of other prominent companies for feedback surveys. There seems to be a slight glitch in the system, so it kept calling me back, but then not connecting me to a rep (possibly because I had already completed the survey so surveys.length == 0).

I went to: http://www.spectrumservicesusa.com/contact.html
...then called the 800 number and explained my dilemma. The very courteous lady on the other end removed my number from the list and poof. No more calls.

Round trip, this issue took about 1.5 minutes (including search and phone time) to remedy. I really appreciate how well this company handles their business!!

Baby Steps

Do you or your friends have a child? Are you tired of awkward situations due to not knowing how to properly package/handle the tiny tot? We've got what you need: http://www.c00lstuff.com/1133/Do_s_and_don_ts_with_babies/

My Weekend (3 Big Events in 1.5 Days)

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HE-Bw_kpNtk

Blogs & Such

I don't have many blogs on my frequent reading list. If you have a blog, would you send me your url so I can add it?

Annabelle Knows Kung Fu

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m04rBHxDUWE

Laptop

My next laptop: http://www.apple.com/macbook/

Every 4 yrs, I spend about $1000 for a new laptop. My needs have shifted since I purchase my last laptop (in 2005). I'm now less interested in having a half-million options for video editing programs, free video games, and operating systems. I really want something I can just power up, edit my photos, video, and music, then power down without having to worry about an update changing a driver or incompatibilities that make these tasks difficult, impossible and/or time-consuming.

My sister bought a macbook. I scoffed at first, wondering how you could spend so much on so little (imagine the PC laptop you could get for $1.4k)... She smiled, laughed, then proceeded to edit 720p high-def h.264 video in realtime on her cute little laptop... the sound of my jaw hitting the floor echoed through the house.

She gave me a quick tour of her macbook, including the integrated webcam, combo drive, iLife suite and ease-of-use including the installation and execution of that christian-pop dance-dance revolution game. I'm now a believer. My next laptop will be a macbook. (The 13.3inch 2.2GHz Core 2 Duo macbook w/ Leopord is only $900 direct from apple via the refurbished mac sales system. Shipping is free.)

New Movie for My Collection

I only purchase movies if I'm going to watch them again, and again, and again. I saw "Live Free or Die Hard" this weekend and liked it so much that I watched it again the next day... then liked it so much again that I wanted to restart it right after I finished... I've gotta get this movie. :)



link: http://www.youtube.com/v/QZ9Q1EGge7Y&rel=1

GTK 2+ and Soccer

I've been getting back into sports! Over the last month, I've played a game of football, rugby, and nearly 10 soccer games! I'm a little sore, but my balance is back to ridiculous. Oh, what fun can be had with feet that move faster than expected... :)

My car is fixed and beautiful! Turns out, the work was covered by a recall, so I'm only out $180 for brakes! I'm still going to sell my precious *ahem* my ZX3, but I'm now selling it in top condition.

I shaved my beard off on Friday. It was an arbitrary decision, just like the previous decision to grow it was. Cheryl likes me better with the beard and I strongly agree that it gives me a certain bonus regarding the perception of respect. I'm going to grow it back. I walked in to the sports garden Sunday to play with my team, but no one recognized me without my beard. :D Imagine that!

For those fine few using WorkRave, Pidgin, Gaim, Gimp or any other GTK based tools, I strongly recommend updating to the latest GTK. It's prettier than ever.

Farewell My Sporty ZX3

I haven't used my lil red sportscar for 8 months. It's a sad sad thing. In 2 years of service, the only maintenance it has required (despite my race car-like driving) has been oil changes and a set of tires.

The KBB for this car is here: http://alnk.org/radham

Because I let it sit, it needs new brakes and calipers all 'round and a right coil spring. I got it on the cheap 2 years ago and it's performed solidly since. It's slick and zippy, has a phat 200watt MP3 CD player, carries up to 16 pairs of skiis/snowboards all the while handling like a porsche. 'nough said.

If anyone's interested, I'm offering a friend rate of $3.5k before I post it to craigslist, the kbb classifieds for $5k. If you're a skilled mechanic, the parts for the jobs above come to $500. If you're not, I can have the guys at East Ave auto do parts and labor for $1k (would add a 1 year warranty).

This car is a golden egg and I'm having a really, really hard time letting it go. It's cheaper than a beater and more reliable than most new cars. I've never been in a car that's more fun to drive (including a porsche boxtser, bmw 5 series, audi and a nice little mini). It gets 27 city, 33 highway.