In Search of Minutiae

New Update Schedule

2007-04-01T17:21:00.000-05:00

Been very busy lately...

but I will now be updating my blog twice a day.
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(April Fools) :)

I think I'm going to try writing more again, but probably not a whole lot of blog entries. Might give the whole creative writing thing another shot. Also, cycling season is ramping up and I committed to riding RAGBRAI (bicycle ride across Iowa) so I need to start putting in the miles.

Weather People

2007-02-26T21:40:00.000-06:00

Just a real short rant to provide some sort of monthly update to this ghost town that is my blog...

We just had a decent sized weekend snowstorm here in the Twin Cities. Anything over 6" and less than 2 feet ranks as average heavy snowfall... In late February, this is enough to muck up traffic for the time that it snows, and about 8 hours following. With the higher sun angle, and longer daylight hours, the asphalt doesn't stay snow covered for long. But I digress.

In my opinion, most of the weather people in this town seem to take some sort of twisted enjoyment in predicting massive, crippling, devastating amounts of snow. They are very smug in their predictions, using the same tone of voice that reminds me for some reason of elementary school teachers in a foul mood... they know more than you, and they know what's good for you, so you better not question it. Even if they're right, they still make you simmer under the surface, wishing they were wrong.

Okay, lame rant over. And as long as I'm updating and talking about the weather... If you're wondering why meteorologists can be reasonably accurate 24 hours out, and not a week, check out chaos theory... fractals are cool.

they're not spinners, but they're just as cool...

2007-01-16T22:29:00.000-06:00

2006 Mavic Ksyrium Elite wheelset from www.lickbike.com for about half-off... I'm a sucker for upgrades. Though having said that, in all honesty, now the rider needs to be upgraded. Am working on that as well with some progress (~8 lbs lost in 10 weeks...) but more to go.

Best of ... Entry 4

2006-12-14T22:47:00.000-06:00

View from inside Mo Sussman's Steakhouse in Charleston, SC. Best steak I've ever had in a restaurant. (I think I've cooked one or two better on the grill.) :)

Best of ... Entry 3

2006-12-09T14:39:00.000-06:00

View of downtown Duluth, MN from Park Point (aka Minnesota Point). Nothing really spectacular here, but I liked the way it turned out nonetheless. The first few pictures from this set, I had forgot that my camera was set on ISO 800 (for low-light conditions,) and so they all turned over-exposed enough that even with some digital magic, they still didn't quite turn out.

Best of ... Entry 2

2006-12-02T15:28:00.000-06:00

View from San Gabriel Canyon Rd, near Azusa, CA

Best of ... Entry 1

2006-11-28T22:51:00.000-06:00

I decided that in order to do updates a bit more often, but not type anything terribly meaningful, I would go into my photo collection and starting posting the best-of's...

This is an operational P-51 Mustang at the Planes of Fame Air Museum in Chino, CA. They maintain the largest operational fleet of WW2-era aircraft. While we were there (by total coincidence,) they were flying 2 P-51 Mustangs, a P-47 Thunderbolt, and a B-25 Mitchell bomber (forget the designation, but it was used in the Doolittle Raid on Japan during the early stages of the war.)

You Know What Really Grinds My Gears?

2006-11-01T21:36:00.000-06:00

Macro-mode bike pr0n. I took some photos of the new pedals, but nothing that looked cool enough. I'll try again later...

Potentially the last [outdoor] ride of the season was last Sunday to Minnehaha Falls from my house in the southern 'burbs - 23.1 miles round trip. Brings the total for the year to ... 1034 miles.

Carbon Fiber Goodness

2006-10-22T22:44:00.000-05:00

Here's one more picture that I've been playing with... for being free, Picasa has some pretty fun filters to play around with.

I've got new pedals coming, probably tomorrow, I think I'll save a cool 100 grams... something I'm sure to notice. (joke.)

Da Rubay

2006-10-22T20:41:00.000-05:00

Finally got around to taking some pictures of my bike, here's one of the more artsy-fartsy ones... more to come.

This Space for Rent

2006-10-11T22:44:00.000-05:00

It is October

Here it is snowing outside

Need to play more golf

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2006-09-18T18:41:00.000-05:00

I felt compelled to write something today, just so I can keep my rate of posts as roughly every two weeks...

I hate talking about politics. It's about as fun as talking about religion, or abortion, or which unix text editor you like. (geek joke.) But, I need something to write about, and it's a thought that has been floating around in my head for a while.

Lately in Minnesota, there has been a lot of talk about stadiums, be they for baseball or football. I don't know the exact percentage, but Hennepin county (where Minneapolis resides) recently approved a small (less than 1/2%) sales tax increase to pay for a portion of a new stadium for the Minnesota Twins. I'll leave the rant about why they chose to make it without a retractable roof alone. Anyways, this has been in the works for about 10 years now, and one thing you hear constantly is, "let the people decide!" The idea being that a majority of voters would decide yay or nay on this tax and that would be finalw. Which brings me to the point:

Majority rule is NOT democracy. Therefore, neither are referendums.

Democracy is a representative form of government. We elect our representatives to bicker and argue about things and ultimately make a decision. We may not always agree with what they decide, but we are trusting them to consider all the evidence and make an informed decision, so that we don't have to. If we decide that they made poor decisions, then we vote for someone else. It's a slow process, but that's how it's supposed to work.

This isn't meant to be a political science essay, so I'm not going to go back and reinforce all my statements or even check for spelling errors. I'm just tired of the constant cry of "put it to a vote" no matter what the issue...

Further reading: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy

Random Thoughts from the MN State Fair

2006-09-01T22:00:00.000-05:00

Sorry, no pictures this time either... I need to a) take some, and b) renew my hosting service (or just use blogger, blah blah...)

Ahem... random bullet-pointed thoughts fresh in my mind:

We are getting fatter as a state/nation. I don't remember noticing it as much previous years...
The food at the fair is no longer very novel -- everything there can be bought at restaurants and "your grocer's freezer." See above. This does not mean that I don't enjoy it... after all, the only other place that I'm aware of in MN to get a genuine Pronto Pup is Canterbury Park.
Once the sun goes down, the demographics seem to change to be more urban/hipster and less suburban/outstate. I think it's cool that every type of person shows up.
We have a kick-ass fair in terms of size, number of people, and things to see/do. I've been to Wisconsin's... they got nothing on us.
Lots of political stuff going on: t-shirts, stickers, radio stations, etc. I found it amusing that one of the conservative radio stations in town were interviewing a democratic candidate and there was a distinct difference in volume between the host's microphone and the guest's. (The host's was louder.)

That's all I got, figured I'd better write something. Next time: why never to say, "gee, I haven't yet had a flat in 700 miles of riding" while starting a 40 mile bike ride...

Minnesota Nice?

2006-08-14T21:39:00.000-05:00

I'm not sure whether to file this under Minnesota, cycling, or just general human behavior. I've put about 800 miles on my two bicycles across the past 5 months. During that time, if not on an organized ride where saying hi to everyone would be impossible, I've made a concerted effort to say "hi", wave, or at least nod to people that I have passed on the trail/road. I would say that less than 10% of non-cyclists greeted offered any kind of greeting in response, with a slightly higher percentage of cyclists acknowledging my existence. Those least inclined to any sort of response were women by themselves (especially those under 35), older folks (>60), and cyclists in full "Fred" get-up.

During previous stints of riding over the years in Minneapolis, this year definitely being the most miles, I've noticed similar behavior. I have a feeling that were I accompanied by a female, or better yet, children, my percentage would be significantly higher.

Perhaps people have gone through the same attempts as me, and getting no response, simply stop trying to say hi, thereby perpetuating the situation. It's not as if I go home and cry myself to sleep over this -- I'm just sort of surprised that so many people can't be troubled to be polite when encountering other people... maybe they're not used to being outside their 6000 pound SUV's.

No real point here, just kind of curious if this is a phenomenon unique to Minnesota, or Minneapolis in particular, or just general isolationist attitudes that all Americans have.

Closed-circuit to Splatgirl: Ha, I wrote something. Where's my chocolate cake? (Kidding.) :)

Things To Do

2006-08-12T22:13:00.000-05:00

Of the following three items, guess which two I've been doing lately? :)

Update Blog
Ride Bike
Play Golf

untitled

2006-04-27T22:58:00.000-05:00

A couple things I thought I'd mention by way of a quick post:

1. Nintendo just announced the name of their new gaming console. It will be known as the Nintendo "Wii" (pronounced 'we'). I'm not an insane gamer or anything, but I have a passing interest in the stuff, and play a few games now and again. The "we"??? The jokes write themselves, and you don't even have to be British.

2. I'm signed up for a 30-mile bike ride this Sunday - called the Ironman - no relation to the insane triathlon thing. The forecast earlier this week called for 70 degrees and sun. Now they're saying 55 and rain. But since it's the Ironman, it goes on rain or snow. Now I need to figure out what I'm going to wear on the bike and not be miserable.

Still Here

2006-04-12T21:16:00.000-05:00

Just a quick post to say that I intend to revive my blog a bit... still not sure on the direction, but now that I have successfully changed jobs (and it was a very good move,) and no longer have to worry about being on-call and other stressful things like that -- I just might feel like writing a bit more.

Some of my activity goals for this spring/summer/fall:

Bike more... a lot more... I think completing a century by the end of the summer is a reasonable goal. I plan to do a 30-mile ride the end of this month if I get enough days without pouring rain (and I don't golf too much.) http://www.ironmanbikeride.org
Play more tennis. I bought a new racket end of last year, need to use it.
Golf about the same. I did a lot of that last year.

I have yet to formulate my other sort of goals just yet-- like writing, photography, etc... but I might get there. :)

Transition Period

2005-12-05T19:15:00.000-06:00

I've been hesitant to write lately out of some inexplicable paranoia that someone at my workplace reads my blog and cares that: I got a new job! I gave extended notice and so still have a few weeks left to work, but after this week it should be smooth sailing. I need to start figuring out what I will do in my 2 weeks off before I start the new gig. At a minimum, I am going to Los Angeles for a long weekend, ostensibly to visit my brother, but really because IT'S COLD HERE!

So -- what will hopefully happen with this blog across the next couple months: More photos, and probably a bit more technical stuff that might not always appeal to Knit-Whit and her visitors. :)

Watch this space (maybe)

2005-11-18T22:20:00.000-06:00

I'm sure if you took all the blog postings that begin, "I apologize for the lack of updates..." you would probably reach about 10%. Consider this one of them. :) Hopefully next week, or the week after, I'll have some good news and then I can get down to some serious discussions about stuff that's really not important.

In the meantime, I suggest everyone find and watch the episode of Family Guy titled "PTV".

Help Wanted

2005-11-08T21:46:00.000-06:00

Short post:

Looking for work is too much work. Especially when you already have a job that is too much work...

Geek Zone Ahead

2005-10-26T20:45:00.000-05:00

I just put together a PC for my father last night... I ordered the parts from www.newegg.com (great site, btw) -- and after about an hour worth of troubleshooting, due to not reading the entire manual, got it working. Pretty nice setup for $450. The kicker is that my dad is going to try using Linux for a while. Now, it's not like he's a computer neophyte by any means; he works with them every day, but it still comes as a shock.

It's just tempting enough to put together another PC like this for myself. But considering that I have 3 PC's (excluding my work laptop) at my disposal, that might be a bit much. I have a hard enough time fully utilizing them as it is. One of them is too old to be useful for anything but a file and print server (which is its function,) I have a 12" PowerBook, which is basically a browse the web while on the couch machine, and my Windows PC is small form-factor Shuttle. Think a PC about the size of a shoebox, but slightly taller.

Maybe I could lease processor time to Pixar or NASA or something... that should bring in a solid 25 cents every month... and in a few decades, I can pay off the investment.

Driving Lesson

2005-10-19T20:40:00.000-05:00

Closed-circuit to about 75% of Minnesota drivers --

Brake before the turn, accelerate through the turn.
Merge at the speed-limit.
If the person in front of my car is at a constant distance, it does no good to tailgate me.
Left-lane = passing only, except perhaps in rush hour, and 1/2 mile before a left-exit. Corollary: If you have to make a left-turn in 5 miles on the freeway, do not move over with 5 miles to go.
If there is a cop nearby, go the speed-limit, not 10 below.
It is okay to break the Earth's inertial forces when the light turns green.

Okay, I'm done. For now...

Fictional History Lesson

2005-10-12T21:50:00.000-05:00

Quick post as I watch the Wild take care of Vancouver... (damn good to have hockey back.)

During high-school, I had an AP European History class that went through a rather large amount of history. Something like 1492-1900 ... Columbus through the Renaissance, French Revolution, etc. Subjects such as the Thirty Years War, the Reformation, Machiavelli's The Prince, and so on were covered. That's a lot of guys and gals with whigs.

Of all of this, I probably remember a few basic events, a few of the more important people, and maybe some of the underlying ideas that they were all about.

I am in the midst of "The Baroque Cycle" by Neal Stephenson, which is basically an enthralling ficitious epic that just happens to be an excellent history lesson as well. Isaac Newton is a character, Louis XIV is a character, Gottfried Leibniz is a character, Huygens is a chacter, etc. etc. Long story short, if you like intelligently written stories & characters, Stephenson is your man, and this series just happens to be an excellent history lesson as well.

amazon.com links:
Quicksilver
The Confusion
The System of the World

Must... Write...

2005-10-10T21:02:00.000-05:00

The internet is evil. There. I've said it. Not because it contains nekkid pictures, or that whole virus thing, or because blogger doesn't double space sentences, or even because there's probably a forum for people to talk about what kind of flashlight works best while hiking down a gravel road when the moon is at 42 degrees above the horizon. (Okay, maybe that last one is slightly evil.)

The internet is evil because it is there. It is like television on steroids. Have you ever been able to sit in the room with the television, and get anything done? It speaks to you... there might be something interesting on, maybe not, you'll never know unless you click that Power button. Yes, yes, yes, you can get your cable/satellite disconnected, but that's like cutting off your arm to stop your fingernails from growing. The internet is television times 10. Not only can you watch mind-numbing, time-wasting things, but you can actively participate in them!

Personally, I read probably 2 racing forums, several "geek" news/info web site (plug: www.arstechnica.com,) and a bunch of other daily reads. Not including blogs. It is nearly impossible for me to sit down at my home computer and not just browse the web. If I have something to accomplish for work, or banking, etc., then no problem. But if there's something I could be doing, say writing, taking photographs, designing nice layered-effect shrubberies... it just won't happen.

Yes, this is all about self-discipline... something I lack in various areas. Yes, I must work on this. Yes, the country, nay, the world is littered with middle-class people who work hard during the day, then slack off at night. I don't really have a point. I probably should come with some gripping, profound, unique statement that wraps all of these up into one unavoidable conclusion. ... oooh! There's a new sudoku puzzle out...

Fear of Tomorrow

2005-10-06T22:03:00.000-05:00

I hate that feeling you get when you start to get a cold. You're not actually "sick" yet, but you can feel certain parts of your body not reacting 100% and your mental state can generously be described as cloudy. That's where I'm at this evening... I'm hopeful, but not optimistic, that I do not actually have a cold. Maybe if I keep telling myself that I'm supposed to golf on Saturday, I won't get sick.

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There hasn't been much for me to write about lately, at least nothing I feel is significant. I reorganized my office area last Sunday and repainted it a generic beige color (it was sorta light-blue-gray from when my roommate still was here.) More significantly, I reorganized the layout of my desk(s) to point them towards the room. Also, now when I look out the window, I can see actual trees instead of just my neighbor's window. Ahh, the joy of townhomes. I also installed a shelf from IKEA complete with drywall anchors. Gotta use the new drill I bought somewhere.

I also bought a devilishly hard guitar exercise book. Take a look...

What makes this really difficult [for me] is the up and down arrows which indicate picking direction... this is a style known as sweep or "economy" picking, whereas the first style you [should] learn is alternate picking.

Well, now I've put my camera out on my desk ... I really need to go pickup a cheap tripod.

Mo Sussman's Steakhouse

2005-09-26T21:15:00.000-05:00

Best steak that I have had in a restaurant... I think I've done a single steak better on my grill. :)

still here...

2005-09-25T21:34:00.000-05:00

Figured I'd better post some evidence that I am still alive. Back from SC & NC last Friday night -- was a fun but busy trip without much time for sightseeing. To address a previous comment, while my comment about NASCAR fans in North Carolina was meant to be tongue-in-cheek, I'd say the fact that the conversation at dinner one night went immediately to "Bristol", the stereotype must have at least a kernel of truth. :)

Anyways, I will be uploading photos from a couple of the places we went to: Mo Sussman's steakhouse in Charleston, SC and a crazy place called South of the Border just before the NC border on I-95...

Goin' Down South

2005-09-09T20:51:00.000-05:00

Off to Charleston, SC, just as tropical storm Ophelia is apparently headed that way. Then after 2 days there, a drive to Raleigh-Durham, NC to finish the week. Bringing my camera, but I'm not sure I will have much time to take pictures.

I'll have to pretend I'm a NASCAR fan I guess... go Dale! (pick one) Jeff Gordon sucks! err something...

Duluth Pictures

2005-09-07T22:40:00.000-05:00

Per Carrie's request, here is a link to the pictures I took on Sunday...
http://www.pbase.com/mattg42c/duluth_91105

I'll add some more detail in my next post, but when you see the pictures of the people swimming, keep in mind this is Lake Superior, the air temperature was about 60, and the water temp about the same... crazy people.

Is anyone else experiencing blogger-slowdown today?

Ribbon Ramblings

2005-09-06T19:39:00.000-05:00

Here in the Twin Cities, about 1 out of every 2-3 cars on the road has the yellow "support our troops" sticker on their bumpers. I have a few random thoughts/questions about this:

- Does anyone not support our troops? Even those who think the war is wrong, or want them to leave, support them... obviously no one wants any harm to come to them.
- Do the companies that sell these stickers donate any of their proceeds to organizations that help troops and their families? Or is this simply a cash-grab?
- In 3-4 years, will car dealerships pay less for trade-ins with a discolored area of paint, in the shape of a ribbon... and will people accuse them of not being patriotic for doing so? :) (joke)

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Minnesota State Fair rating:
Spaghetti & Meatballs on-a-stick: 3 out of 5 ... probably won't buy one next year.
International Beer Garden: Corona & Heineken do not constitute being international...

Ugh (or why I'm home Friday night...)

2005-08-26T21:17:00.000-05:00

Long softball game, several beers (whilst having fun,) allergy medication, and 4.5 hours sleep do not make for a fun day at work. At least I wasn't expected to be too lucid today.

Of course, now that it's 9pm, I'm feeling slightly better.

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Might go to Duluth for the day on Sunday, if so - I'll try to have an interesting photo or two.

Hole in One!

2005-08-16T20:53:00.000-05:00

I had a hole in one today during the par-3 league, at Mendota Heights Par 3 Golf Course.

171 yards with a 5 wood.

Thought it had rolled off when I found my friend's ball on the green (who also had a good shot,) and went searching beneath the trees behind the hole. My buddy pulled the flag out of the hole and out popped my Nike #1. (Not the ridiculously expensive Nike One golf balls...)

Supposedly the course might even send me some sort of trophy.

Netflix Woes

2005-08-15T20:42:00.000-05:00

Ran into the first hiccup with Netflix that I've experienced... 3 of the past 4 discs I've received have been cracked. 2 of them were split right down the middle.

Of course, it probably happened in transit at the post office, as most people probably aren't negligent enough to break a DVD. (How do people manage to scratch discs anyways?) But, it is a bit disconcerting, only getting 1 movie a week doesn't quite make it as much of a bargain as before.

They probably should fork out another few cents to buy a reinforced cardboard sleeve in addition to the soft paper deal they have now.

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Tonight's golf score - 53 at the Ponds at Battle Creek ... not great, but considering I lost about 6 golf balls, could be worse.

Oww Oww Oww

2005-08-12T20:58:00.000-05:00

Too much golf, softball, and finally trying a new [to me] driver do not mix. I think I found out what golfer's elbow (tendonitis) feels like.

I'd type more, but ouch.

TOo BuZzED tO pOsT

2005-08-04T23:12:00.000-05:00

Just back from our softball happy hour - fun fun fun... good thing I don't have to work tomorrow... golfing. Birthday is Sunday, less than two years till I have to deal with being 30. I realize that lots of people are >30, but just typing it out seems scary to me. Anyways, posting might be slow for the next few weeks as golf and softball overlap...

Scary Creature

2005-07-31T19:38:00.000-05:00

Scary looking, aren't they? I should've spent more time focusing before I sent him to the vacuum cleaner. C'est la vie.

Wanted: Photo Ideas

2005-07-28T21:05:00.000-05:00

Of the three or four people who might read this blog, I ask you for some photo ideas -- being that it will be at least a month before I get to another race, and might not even be until next year.

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On another note - Hockey Is Back! Yay! Now to scam some club-level Wild tickets.

More Movies

2005-07-24T11:15:00.000-05:00

A couple very brief movie "reviews" while I watch Lance win his 7th Tour de France...

Repo Man - A surreal comedy that combines teen angst, repo men, and UFO's. A friend at work kept telling me to watch it, so I finally did. I was expecting something along the lines of Emilio Estevez's other comedies like Men at Work, but this was nothing like it. The humor was subtle and almost beneath the surface (Estevez eating out of a generic container marked "food",) while the bizarre story gets the emphasis. I liked it, but not for everyone.
My rating: 4 out of 5.

Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind - Difficult movie to categorize, I think officially it is considered a romantic comedy, but throw in science fiction, and mess up the chronology and you might begin to get a sense of this movie. If you like movies that you have to figure out (which I do,) this is a great one... if you didn't like how movies like Pulp Fiction or Run Lola Run are put together, you might be a bit confused. Excellent acting and special effects, for some of which they used trap doors and other tricks to make the shots continuous.
5 out of 5.

Current Vinyl Record

2005-07-21T18:59:00.000-05:00

So this afternoon I received my long-awaited [not really] vinyl version of the 89.3 founding member's CD. All the founding members received the CD a few weeks ago, and it's pretty good, though a little melancholy for my tastes. Keep in mind that the last vinyl record I played was probably my dad's copy of the Empire Strikes Back soundtrack... and I haven't owned a record player of my own since I was 4 or 5 years old and listened to Kermit the Frog singing, "It's Not Easy Being Green".

I'm definitely not one of those audiophiles who thinks that records sound better than CD's, nor do I anticipate a wave of nostalgia as the as the stylus hits the record and those scratching noises are amplified through the speakers.

But I am curious to listen to this record, just to see what effect is has... not enough to go buy a turntable mind you, but maybe enough to ask my dad where his LP player is buried in the garage.

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Photo Geeks: link here to the picture on PBase where you can get the full EXIF info... taken using my Rebel XT using macro mode on my Tamron 75-300 telephoto.

Blogging Ideas - First Movie Review

2005-07-19T21:50:00.000-05:00

Carrie (aka Knit-Whit) suggested that I do movie reviews as a means to update more frequently. I think this is a good idea, but having been so busy lately, I still doubt I can update more than a couple times per week. With that in mind, I'll kick it off, and try to add a few contextual links for those who like cross-reference thingies. (These will not be terribly long reviews, just my impressions.)

Spoiler Warning -- I may or may not divulge plot details below... proceed at your own risk or curiosity.

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Napoleon Dynamite --

The primary plot line of this film surrounds a socially awkward "teenager" in rural Idaho named Napoleon Dynamite. His immediately visible family includes: a hippie-ish grandmother, a stuck-in-the-80's uncle, and 30-something Kip, who is apparently Napoleon's older brother.

Typing this up in blogger, I started to detail the plot a bit, but decided that it really wouldn't do any good, you'll have to watch the movie. :)

ND appears to have two distinct camps: those who love the movie, and those who hate it. I'm afraid I fall into the latter. There were funny moments, and it does have a bit of what I call the Spinal Tap effect -- it's more humorous to recall the funny stuff than to actually watch it in the first place. But it's just not quite to that level.

After a conversation I had with some friends last night (post golf-tourney beers were being imbibed,) I have a hypothesis of what the problem is. Those who watched the movie and just saw a bunch of funny, weird, messed-up stuff happening to the main character liked it. Those who watched the movie and empathized with this socially-challenged guy and felt sorry for him for all the weird, messed-up stuff surrounding him, hated it and were generally bored.

My Netflix rating: 2 out of 5.

Cinderella Story... at Augusta...

2005-07-14T22:48:00.000-05:00

Prior to this year, I didn't play any golf for about two or three years... it was costing too much money, and I wasn't having any fun.

This year, a co-worker asked if I wanted to play in the par-3 league -- I figured what the heck... it's probably been one of my better decisions this year, as I've had lots of fun, met a few neat people, and seem to have improved somewhat compared to my previous abilities.

Some random thoughts about golf, I'm too lazy to put this into something other than a bulleted list:

In this country anyways, it really is accessible to everyone in the middle class on up... to play par 3 courses usually isn't much more than $10-$15 for 9 holes.
The golf swing is depressingly difficult to learn, especially considering each club requires a slightly different motion due to the differing club lengths & angles.
There is still a lot of snobbiness out on the course, people who think they're better because they have the stodgiest clothes, newest clubs, etc. This is one of the things that most bothers me about the game. Hard to think of any other sport that has this many private facilities in the world, where large amounts of money make it an elite class.
All it takes is one good shot to become addicted.
Just when you think you've learned something, another thing will go off.
Mark Twain called golf, "a good walk spoiled".
It's okay to be a beginner at golf, it's not okay to play slow... unless you're Tiger.

That's all I got for now... just watching the Tour de France and scratching mosquito bites, figured I'd better write something.

Leaky Faucet

2005-07-05T19:48:00.000-05:00

I figured I'd better write something... I've had threats.

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The faucet in my laundry room tub is leaking. Give me credit, because after the initial, "oh crap," my reaction was, "hey, I can learn how to fix this." However, one basic concept I was immediately aware of, is the need to turn off the water in order to replace/fix whatever is leaking. Hard to replace something when it is spraying water at probably 30 psi or so.

This is where the whole townhouse thing comes in, because it appears that in their haste to save a few bucks, there is no valve for this faucet, and there is no immediately visible valves in the pipework above the tub. So now, I figure I have to find wherever the main connection is, in order to fix a stupid leak.

Well, this should turn out better than the $80 I had to pay a water softener guy to replace a 15 cent spring a couple years ago.

(I'll try to think of something more interesting for next time...)

Household Ecosystem

2005-06-27T19:21:00.000-05:00

A great many things have been happening recently, some good, some bad, nothing I really feel like writing about -- at least at the moment.

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Anyways, I hope I took steps to remove the local wildlife residing in my basement for the past several weeks. I don't really use my basement much, except for the washer & dryer, so to say it gets neglected by the vacuum is probably a slight understatement.

When I moved in a couple of years ago, a small table I had broke apart... it's one of those really simple tables with two flat sections connected by four posts. Pretty basic. The leftover pieces of which get moved around every couple of months as I clean or reorganize the downstairs. Apparently, the last move resulted in an ideal environment for silverfish. When I went to clean the most recent time, there were probably about 20-30 silverfish, some alive, most dead. What killed them? Presumably spiders, as a few of the victims were balled up in silk suspended from the table surface, which was leaning against the wall.

What is eating the spiders you ask? House centipedes. These things are scary looking. Not too many insects get to me, but these things make my skin crawl. First of all, they are FAST. Secondly, and probably most notable, if you happen to "squish" one... the detached legs continue to twitch for a minute or two.

All of these guys disappear in the winter months, so obviously they have not signed a year-round lease. If I could just figure out where they come from...

---
In the interest in writing anything, the preceding post was not checked for grammatical, typographical, existential, geometric, or emotional errors. I also just read the Wiki I linked above, and apparently house centipedes eat silverfish also. Great.

Apple "Switch"ing to Intel

2005-06-09T22:57:00.000-05:00

For those not at all into computers who might be reading this, I'd probably skip this entry... geekspeak ahead. This is also going to be a fairly long post. (To make up for all the short ones.) :)

---

Apple has announced that they are switching from IBM-manufactured PowerPC processors to Intel x86 chips beginning with systems manufactured during the middle of next year. For those not familiar with the significance here, this is tantamount to George W. Bush announcing he's going to donate all of his salary to the ACLU. This is a big deal for the Apple faithful.

Ars Technica has a great article up detailing exactly why this hits Apple's hardcore user base especially hard. Apple has always claimed technical superiority to the Pentium crowd. It is arguable whether this has ever been true, but they have successfully created a religious core user group who have been following the dogma lockstep. "I'll believe it when I see it" and "it will never happen" were common quotes on the Apple forums the day preceding the announcement. The next day, their second most-hated enemy in the world is now their new best buddy.

All of the media pundits are speculating as to what Apple's intentions are and who their real target is: Dell's computers, or Microsoft's Windows OS. Robert Cringely (famous for the "Triumph of the Nerds" documentary on PBS) has his take that Microsoft is the target, and gives good insight into why IBM pissed off Apple so much. Motley Fool's idea is that Apple intends to go after Dell.

While I agree largely with Cringely, and his idea of what will happen doesn't conflict with my view, I don't think that Steve Jobs is as much of a visionary as most give him credit for. I don't think he has a target in mind.

I would hypothesize that IBM has, for at least the past 3 years, been a less than satisfactory partner for Apple, due to their persistent lag of performance and clock speed, despite their marketing department's assurances to the contrary. This in itself would justify creating x86 builds of OS X for the past 5 years. (See the Ars article for more on that, it wasn't that hard.) The final straw, causing Apple to finally bail on IBM and the PowerPC, was Big Blue's inability or unwillingness to create a G5 processor that they could put into a PowerBook and not light the user's lap on fire, along with Steve Jobs not being able to keep his promise of a 3 GHz G5 Power Mac in 2004.

For IBM's part, they have limited incentive to spend time and money on a platform that only holds 3% market share, and is virtually non-existent in the business world at large. It makes much more sense for them to concentrate on the next-gen gaming console market with Microsoft and Sony. (XBox 360 and PS3 respectively.)

Apple has said repeatedly they have no intention to allow OS X to run on non-Apple hardware, and historically, they have sued the sh*t out of anyone who has tried to make an Apple clone. Which, unless Jobs leaves as CEO (as Cringely suggests is probable,) this strategy is unlikely to change.

The conclusion I draw from all of this, is that this is nothing more than a "simple" switch of architecture, to a platform believed to be more viable for the future growth of their computer business. The catalyst for all of this may well be the iPod, which gives them the revenue to ride out such a significant change.

Apple has been the BMW or Mercedes-Benz of the personal computer industry for the past few years, commanding a price premium for the perception of quality and eliteness... they're just switching engines.

Milwaukee Pictures

2005-06-08T22:57:00.000-05:00

"Best of" Pictures from the Time Warner 225 in Milwaukee are up at the link above (and here) for anyone who is interested. A good time was had by all, the downtown Hilton was conveniently close to the RiverSplash festival which was going on. We also ate a great dinner at a locally-famous German restaraunt called Mader's.

I'm going to have to do a writeup on the Apple switching to Intel thing -- hopefully tomorrow.

NOTE: I seem to be having problems getting my image linking to work... hence the alternate link.

Off to Milwaukee

2005-06-01T22:55:00.000-05:00

Race #2 for me this season is this weekend... at the Milwaukee Mile. Coinciding with the race is RiverSplash, basically a 3-day drinking and music exercise downtown. Lots'o'fun. I also used Priceline for the first time and got a killer deal on the downtown Hilton, so I don't have to worry about driving much. Pictures of the race up when I get back.

I also just joined NetFlix and watched my first movie - High Fidelity. I read the book a few weeks ago, and I have to say this is one of the best book adaptations I have ever seen... even considering they changed the location from London to Chicago.

Long Time No Writey

2005-05-23T19:42:00.000-05:00

I feel obligated to write something since it has been over a week...

Unfortunately, I can't think of much to write about. I could complain about how lousy the weather has been in the Twin Cities, but today finally it is very nice out, and hopefully tomorrow will be too, as I get to play golf after work.

I could write about how it appears the Long Beach Grand Prix appears to be safely in Champ Car hands, thanks to the efforts of one of the series owners, Kevin Kalkhoven... who made a bunch of money during the Silicon Valley boom, and wisely sold some of it before the bottom fell out.

Or I could talk about how freakin' cool the PlayStation 3 looks... and I'm not even close to being a hardcore gamer.

I need to think of something eventually. Or maybe I'll just go out and take more photos.

Old Photo Day

2005-05-14T10:18:00.000-05:00

delorean
Originally uploaded by MattG42C.

I'm recovering from going to The Local last night, but I thought I'd better put something up. Here is an old photo from my trip to LA in February... if you're going to buy a Delorean, why not get a gold-plated one?

Los Angeles Redux

2005-05-07T19:45:00.000-05:00

Okay, I finally coughed up the money to PBase so they will host my pictures. I wasn't very happy with how flickr sized pictures down so much for casual viewing... good for snapshots, but if you actually want to see more detail, it is a pain.

Anyways - this is pretty much a test to see if I remember how to use HTML IMG tags...

white stuff is back

2005-05-01T18:50:00.000-05:00

IMG_0982
Originally uploaded by MattG42C.

The spots of white in this photo are not smudges on the camera lens, or the remnants of dandelions floating in the wind.. they are snowflakes... in MAY.

It's really not that out of the ordinary, I remember as recently as two years ago getting a fair bit of snow around May 8th or so... but it still sucks.

---

My very brief review of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy... if you've read and enjoyed the books, you will like the movie. I suspect that if you haven't, it may be a bit confusing at first, but I encourage you to just go and have fun.

oops

2005-04-27T19:50:00.000-05:00

According to Mark Wheat on 89.3 the Current, this week is National Turn-off-the-TV Week. I guess I screwed that up by getting sick and spending the last 1.5 days in front of the TV... where basically once I went through everything on my Tivo, the only options are hours-upon-hours of interior design shows, soap operas, or infomercials. I chose the former... but I guess in hindsight, I should've just tried to finish off Quicksilver. (Very good btw, basically historical fiction...)

For anyone who might be interested, I just received my calendar from ShutterFly. Oddly, they express-mailed the calendar by itself, and I haven't yet received the miscellaneous prints I also ordered. No complaints, just weird. Anyhow, I'm not very impressed for $25. Basically I'm paying for hard-stock paper, average inkjet printing, and a white spiral binding you can probably get done at Kinko's. I understand there's labor involved, and I wouldn't say it's bad by any means, but even though it's essentially a one-off job, $25 is a bit steep.

I also just learned about smugmug.com which hosts pictures and lets others order their own prints of which you can take profit from. Of course that "pro" service charges the photographer an additional $100 a year, so you'd have to be a bit serious about it and actually try to turn a profit.

Ultimate in Geek Humor

2005-04-24T14:59:00.000-05:00

If you've played 8-bit Nintendo, it is impossible not to find this funny.
http://gprime.net/video.php/nintendothemesacappella

Just ordered my calendar from ShutterFly -- for $24.95, it better be at least somewhat professional.

Nothing to Say...

2005-04-23T16:03:00.000-05:00

As I've stated before, I only like to blog something when I feel I have something to add to it, or some point to make, or whatever... it wouldn't feel worthwhile to me to sit down and write a diary out. Sometimes it can be fun to read others' blogs as such, but it's just not me. Anyways, in an attempt to flatly contradict what I just wrote -- here is one of my "projects" that I am trying to resolve:

I have a townhouse that was built in the mid 1980's so picture lighter wood than the 70's, but still some fixtures and other various interior elements usually found outside the house. I wish I would have taken a picture of the previous bedroom lighting fixtures that I removed last year. These were presumably purchased by the previous owners. Think bad seashell motif in a pseudo-chandelier form. But I digress.

Being a guy, I have no interior design ability whatsoever, nor do I really desire to have any. If I paid someone a bunch of money to come and redesign a room for me... I probably wouldn't be able to say if I liked it or not until it was done and I could actually see it.

The project that I am slowly getting around to describing is deceptively simple. I want to paint my office (ex-bedroom) a color that one would think "studio" or creative space or whatever. If someone walked in, if they immediately thought that I was one hell of a creative genius, that would be a bonus.

My current progress is basically about 10 different paint chips hanging on the wall... obtained during trips to Home Depot for other items. I own the house, so yes if I fux0r it up, I can always re-paint blah blah blah... but somehow this is just too difficult for me.

More Long Beach Pictures

2005-04-14T22:31:00.000-05:00

I'm trying out PBase's hosting service -- I get like 10 MB and 30 days... so here you go:
http://www.pbase.com/mattg42c

Be sure to click "original" format -- as the resized versions are less impressive.

Awesome Trip

2005-04-13T20:16:00.000-05:00

LBGP 2005 - 01
Originally uploaded by MattG42C.

The camera was worth every penny. I don't have a lot of time to think of what to write here. I'm going through about 500 pictures from this weekend, among other more important things.

My goal is to come away with a poster print and a calendar from one of those online sites. Has anyone uses ShutterFly to create a calendar?

More later...

Los Angeles - Take 2

2005-04-06T22:16:00.000-05:00

Well, I leave for LA on Friday and the forecast looks great. Oops, I just jinxed myself. Anyways, it's Southern California, it can't rain all the time, right?

Anyways, I am very much looking forward to this. It's the first time I will have gone to the Long Beach GP, and since it is the season opener, it's even more exciting. I hope I will end up with enough good/great pictures to do a calendar and make a couple near-poster size prints. I encourage everyone to watch it on NBC on Sunday - 3pm CDT... or check out Race Director on Champ Car's website, supposedly they even added real-time telemetry.

I will need to come up with more topics to write on eventually, I sort of hate to do the "today I did this, yesterday I did that" sort of thing unless I have a point...

NotSoPowerBook

2005-04-02T10:47:00.000-06:00

Thursday of last week I sat down to use my PowerBook on my cheap IKEA desk, (next to my slightly less-cheap Best Buy desk, containing my PC.) As I reached towards the laptop, a large bolt of lightning arced from my fingers to the touchpad. Smoke rose and flames erupted... *ahem* okay, not exactly. I got a mild shock from my computer. This was not the first time this had happened.

Those of you familiar with the latest generation of PowerBooks know that their cases are made almost entirely out of METAL. Metal is known as a good conductor of electricity, a flexible but strong material; used in wires, automobiles, skyscrapers, etc. Laptop computer cases... not so much.

Bottom line, after resurrecting the computer from sleep mode (involving the dreaded forced-power-off,) I went to click some things, and lo-and-behold, the button was not working. Oh, it was mechanically moving up and down, but nothing was happening on the screen. In fact, if I held it over menu items, they would work -- so it was stuck DOWN. After about two hours of resetting this, and rebuilding that, still no dice. I quickly re-learned that trying to use an Apple without a mouse button is something like trying to ride a bicycle without a front tire...

So I brought it into the Apple Store "Genius" at the Mall of America... I decided that my threshold for pain was about $200. (Note: I had not opted for the 2-year AppleCare warranty...) I figure the machine is worth probably around $1100 or so at this point. I'll pass on telling the whimsical conversation with the genius, mainly because I don't remember half of it. Final price tag: $325 if they send it away to Apple, $270 if they fix it there.

Now, once the parts came in - they actually fixed it in just over an hour... I was at the mall for another event with friends, I actually got a voicemail while in the bars on the top floor, saying it was done. When I got down there, with a mild buzz, I inspected the laptop, and made the Genius reseat the F2 key, as it was skewed, but it worked.

While I was waiting, both dropping it off and picking it up, there were at least 2-3 different people bringing their iPod in with problems. One guy had a battery that lasted only an hour, another could only use it for about a day at a time before having to reformat the unit and reload all of his songs. Of course, all of these were also out of warranty, and the best the genius could do was offer a replacement for $250. Note that brand new iPods are about $300. Hmmmm... coincidence?

Obviously, all electronics are going to have issues, and music players as popular as iPods are going to expose them in higher numbers. But, given my experience with the PowerBook, it makes me wonder how much priority Apple gives to design over quality. In other words, are they skimping on quality components, construction, and QA testing to give us shiny things that look good? It wouldn't be the first company...

Do I really have to work tomorrow?

2005-03-27T21:15:00.000-06:00

IMG_0267
Originally uploaded by MattG42C.

Took plenty of pictures with the new camera today... for better or worse, about 75% of them were of my parents' cat "Mittens."

Maybe I'll try to do the Office Space thing and just not show up.

Dilbert Awards

2005-03-24T20:17:00.000-06:00

This is going to be a short post... I'm going to be intentionally vague. My company at some point in the past few weeks had an awards ceremony for my department. It was straight out of a Dilbert cartoon. The managers patted themselves on their collective backs, congratulating themselves on doing a good job of raising employee morale, the huddled masses dying a little more inside.

I need to come up with an idea, or money, or better yet, both.

A few CD recommendations - inspired by 89.3 The Current.
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, Abbatoir Blues
The Bad Plus, Give
Lanterna, Highways

Only 2 weeks until Long Beach! And I just signed up for the free Digital SLR class that came with my camera, here's hoping it's worth something. The price is right. Apologies to any English teachers who may be reading for starting a sentence with "And".

Long Beach Tickets

2005-03-21T19:27:00.000-06:00

Long Beach Tickets
Originally uploaded by MattG42C.

Not much to say here, can't wait.

Very happy with the new camera thus far... I've already printed a few shots and they turned out great. I suppose eventually I will have to decide if a photo printer is worth the extra cost.

Fun With Macro Mode

2005-03-17T19:58:00.000-06:00

IMG_0053
Originally uploaded by MattG42C.

One of the first shots with my new camera... being that it's dark out, I have to scrounge for things to shoot. The nice thing about digital is I don't have to wait and pay even more money to see the results!

I'm hoping to do a decent comparison shot between my old P&S digital and the new Rebel XT. Problem is that, as I've already noticed, when you size the XT pics down to web-size, some quality is noticeably lost... though I still think it blows away the S110.

No Will Power

2005-03-16T21:56:00.000-06:00

New Toy
Originally uploaded by MattG42C.

I was planning on starting this with, "just call me a materialistic American"... but I actually feel zero buyer's remorse and am looking forward to all the fun this camera will offer. More to come...

Dilemma

2005-03-13T00:38:00.000-06:00

I'm facing a moral problem of immense magnitude.

Okay, not really... I'm going back to Los Angeles next month for the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. This is the event that helped revitalize downtown Long Beach, starting in 1975. The first year it was run with Formula 5000 cars as a test, and from 1976 until 1983 it was the Formula 1 United States Grand Prix West. Following Formula 1's departure in 1984, CART (now Champ Car) has run each race since. Without going into the various politics involved (see CART-IRL split,) it is possible that this may be the last Long Beach GP run with Champ Cars.

My problem is that I want to bring a decent camera to shoot with. I currently own a Canon Rebel 2000 film SLR camera, and have a couple decent telephoto lenses. My digital camera is a rather old 2.1 MP PowerShot 110 that is just a point-and-shoot. I don't like either of those options - the digital doesn't take very good pictures and only has a 2.5X zoom. The film camera takes nice pictures, but they obviously need to be developed ($$$) and I hate hassling with film when going through the airport, and then the pictures usually just collect dust in a box afterwards.

Also wrapped up in this decision is a) the need to reduce debt by not spending money [especially on frivolous toys] and b) delusions that maybe I should explore photography as either a more serious hobby or something to make money with on the side.

Bottom line, I am used to the quality of image that an SLR gives, and even newer P&S digitals just look sub-par to me. I also have two Canon EF telephoto lenses that would be wasted if I got anything besides a Canon Digital SLR.

My choices are basically:
1. Buy nothing, bring the digital camera. Least encumbering and I wouldn't have to worry about keeping track of it when doing other things as part of the race weekend.
2. Buy the new Canon Digital Rebel XT when it comes out next week. ~$1000.
3. Buy the Canon EOS 20D that I mentioned earlier. A nicer user interface (wheel instead of buttons,) faster shooting, heavier duty. ~$1400.

Plus, you know if I bought one of the cameras, I'd be helping the country's economy... and we all have to do our part. :P

Kenny & Mr. Hanky

2005-03-09T18:30:00.000-06:00

Road America - Kenny & Mr. Hanky
Originally uploaded by MattG42C.

From Road America 2002.

Since Kenny is always dying, it's appropriate that he's in the runoff area for a 190 mph straight that slows to about 40 before the next corner.

Argh

2005-03-03T20:10:00.000-06:00

Okay, I am forcing myself to write something... anything... before Lara beats me up again. I barely survived the last lashing.

This week at work has been one of the most stressful I've had since arriving at my current company. We have an on-call rotation for application developers which at the best of times is a minor inconvenience... this week it has been a royal pain-in-the-ass. Details don't really matter at this point, but suffice to say I am really looking forward to tomorrow evening and possibly some severely-alcoholic beverages. A pan-galactic-gargle-blaster sounds good.

I'm a big Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy fan, and I have high hopes for the new movie that arrives sometime late April. The trailer up is on the movie's website. Everyone should watch it.

I need to try come up with a topic to write about next time... I doubt I'll get around to more complaining about LA. :)

Obligatory "Things"

2005-02-25T20:08:00.000-06:00

Okay, so apparently the unofficial rule of blogs is that you need to do a things you like/don't post... at least when you have nothing else to write. Well, I don't want to go into a deeper entry right now, so here ya be:

"Good" Things:

Movies: Contact, Office Space, Spirited Away, Empire Strikes Back, The Big Lebowski, Fight Club, The Matrix, A Night at the Opera (okay, anything Marx brothers,) The Pink Panther movies, Slap Shot, Grand Prix, Clerks, Office Space, Being John Malkovich
TV: Simpsons, Family Guy, Seinfeld, Aqua Teen Hungerforce, World Poker Tour, Daily Show, Nova, Nature, Poirot, Beavis & Butthead, Scientific American Frontiers, Futurama
Music: Joe Satriani, Paul Oakenfold, Buddy Guy, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Steve Vai, Antonin Dvorak, The Clash, The Suburbs, Jamiroquai, Alice in Chains, Nine Inch Nails, Mozart
Books: Douglas Adams, Neal Stephenson, Tolkien, William Gibson, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Frank Herbert, basically anything sci-fi or fantasy... "modern" fiction that has a story. Excessive analyzation of literature bores me... I read primarily for fun.
Food: red-sauce Italian, Mexican, steak!, Indian, anything off the grill, my chili
Champ Car, Formula 1, MotoGP, Ferrari, Porsche, Road America
HDTV, DVD's, PS2
Subtlety and wit (except when trying to decipher women...) :)
Learning and objectivity
Paul Reed Smith guitars
The First Amendment
Lewis Black, Ron White, Al Franken, Larry the Cable Guy, Conan O'Brien
Monty Python
Hockey, Tennis, Cycling
those road signs that indicate curves ahead
hot summer evenings by a pool with no bugs
Lake Superior
Coronas with lime

Things I don't care for so much:

Movies: most "chick" flicks, anything with Sylvester Stallone, Triplets of Belleville, Driven
Music: rap, "new" country (Willie Nelson is good), pop, barber shop, bands that don't have a guitar
Closed-minded people, extremists of any kind (religous, political, etc.), pundits, Bill O'Reilly, Ralph Nader
IRL!, NASCAR (I have seen a couple good NASCAR races, but most put me to sleep...)
politicians who don't understand technology but yet try to control it for corporations
political correctness (i.e. some court in California tried to outlaw the terms 'master' and 'slave' for computer hard drives)
LLB's (left lane blockers), Suburbans, automatic transmissions, straight roads
mornings, Mondays, unfulfilling work, meetings
Budweiser
mosquitoes

Okay, that's about all I can think of right now...

Los Angeles - part 1

2005-02-23T21:20:00.000-06:00

Hot Wheels Car
Originally uploaded by MattG42C.

I arrived back from Los Angeles late Monday night (in more than one sense.) A quick summary of my trip: RAIN. The picture of the real-life Hot Wheels car is from the Petersen Auto Museum in LA, next to the La Brea tar pits, which we also went to.

I'll be writing more about Los Angeles, but I'd like to summarize a few key observations (admittedly, mostly negative):

0. I did have fun, Monday was the best weather and it was 70 degrees or so on the beach.
1. I found why Sun Country is $30 cheaper than Northwest Airlines... you are always late. This is not the only reason, but I'm not going to go into that here. (yet.)
2. Los Angeles drivers are better and worse than Twin Cities drivers. They drive fast on the freeway, but they seem to handle it appropriately... very little tailgating, etc. But throw a malfunctioning stoplight in the mix (4-way flashing red,) and they are helpless. It's just totally random.
3. LA has no, or very little, storm sewer system. That's why everything floods. Granted, they only get like 15 inches of precip. per year, but when there is always mudslides, one would think something would change.
4. Beach houses are cool. (and presumably, very expensive.)
5. For some reason, if you check luggage at LAX, you have to enter a second line to hand your bags to the security guy... who just asks you if your bags are locked. Why can't they just use the conveyer system that is already there?
6. We tried to go to an air museum in Chino called "Planes are Fame" but it was closed because there was standing water in the hangars. Next to this museum was a big field with cows. These cows stunk like the zoo. I'm from Minnesota, I know what cows and manure smell like. This was 50 times worse. I don't get it.
7. I managed one decent meal in LA at Hermosa Beach in a "Hawaiian-Mex" bar. The night before, we ordered delivery Thai food, and there was ZERO spice. Again, I'm from MN -- Ketchup is spicy to some people up here -- this was the blandest Thai food ever. How is this possible?

Okay, enough ranting... I really did have fun, but I suppose it's easier to write complaints than anything else. I'll try to do better.

* disclaimer - I wrote this in the posting window on flickr.com, which isn't as user friendly, so if my prose seems a bit closer to grade school level, I'm blaming that. :)

... going to LA ...

2005-02-16T21:53:00.000-06:00

Nothing profound here today, but felt obligated to write something. I'm going to LA on Friday to visit my brother who moved out there about 8 months ago. Of course, as is my luck, rain is in the forecast... at least it should be 60 degrees.

Since I haven't yet caved to my evil self and bought the Canon EOS 20D, I'll have to settle with pictures from my 3 year old 2.1 MP digital point-and-shoot. I did invest $60 in some Sony noise-reducing headphones, so hopefully I will get a bit of writing/brainstorming done on the plane.

---
Oh, and the NHL cancelled their season officially. BOO. Having lost my interest in basketball a few years ago, I'm stuck waiting until March for the start of the Formula 1 season.

Marketing

2005-02-12T13:22:00.000-06:00

I am typing this entry on an Apple PowerBook G4 (the 12" aluminum model) which I bought just over a year ago. It was an impulse buy... not in the sense that I walked by it in the mall and bought it, but the final decision was along the lines of "okay, I give up, I'm buying it." I had been considering buying a Mac for about 6 months prior to that. Ultimately, the lure was two things: OS X (a nice GUI on top of a stable Unix OS,) and more importantly, Apple's marketing had convinced me that if I buy their computer, I would suddenly become this insanely creative individual. I would start making movies, composing music, writing novels, and so on. Unfortunately, time and motivation does not come in the box.

Now, I am starting to write more (this blog being the primary example at present,) I have played a bit with GarageBand, and I really like the PowerBook as a machine. But, 90% of the time, it's just a rather expensive web browser.

So I guess my whole point is; Apple has a good marketing department.

Quick One

2005-02-06T20:10:00.000-06:00

Figured I'd better write something since it's been a few days. Today, I went with some friends to the International Motorcycle Show @ the Minneapolis Convention Center. The consensus was that it was definitely not worth the $12 they charged for admission. (Consensus meaning everyone felt more than a little ripped off.)

Here is the highlight (for me anyways):

Context: MotoGP, Valentino Rossi, and his Yamaha.

Oh, and the best Super Bowl commercial thus far is for the new Mustang Convertible. I want one of those too.

Tivo

2005-02-02T22:55:00.000-06:00

File this post under the same category as my "DVD addiction" entry...

I've had a Tivo for approximately 4 years now... it's one of the original silver Sony models. A couple months ago, the hard drive started to make a disconcerting high-pitched noise, so I decided to try to upgrade it. Otherwise, I would have to spend even more money on a new model. After a surprisingly easy process and about 45 minutes, I now had an 80 GB instead of a 30 GB Tivo. End result, I can store 30 hours instead of 10 hours of stuff.

There is now a backlog of TV to watch... probably about 10 hours of shows that I thought looked good enough to record, but not good enough to watch as they happened. It has become another pile of stuff to "go through" while at home. Yet, I can't imagine watching TV without it. The ability to pause live TV and easily setup recordings is very liberating. But at the same time, it seems to bind me to television even more. I think this is a bad thing.

I suppose it is a bit different being a single person. I don't have any over-arching priorities besides the job, and maybe eating. :) If something more important comes up, the Tivo gives me the ability to watch the show later. But in a weird way, it becomes another thing to "deal" with, and another thing to do instead of something presumably more important.

Is Tivo good, bad, or a little of both?

---

On a totally different note, 8am meetings are bad.

Road America 2002 Photos

2005-01-31T22:25:00.000-06:00

As promised, here are a few of the better photos I took nearly 3 years ago. They were taken on my Canon Rebel 2000 SLR, I believe on Fuji Velvia 100 film, and scanned using a friend's slide scanner.

Creative Block (part 1?)

2005-01-26T21:38:00.000-06:00

I have been developing software professionally for approximately 10 years. I've done projects that have been great successes, and things that haven't really mattered. All of them solved their respective problems, regardless of what happened afterwards. If I have to pick one and only one thing that I am good at, this is it.

I used to write programs for fun. (Yeah, that's the way to attract the girls...I know...) This was definitely a factor in my successful professional career. I would create things just because I thought of the idea. Ironically, after starting to work for real money, it was no longer very interesting to do in my spare time. I still create things, but the ideas don't hold my interest very long.

Ack, this is turning into a long-winded autobiography... ANYWAYS...

What I'm trying to get around to is an exploration of creativity and motivation. I enjoy writing stories, but never get further than a few pages before worrying about whether anyone would read it, finding agents, publishing pressures, etc. I have a hard time concentrating on the enjoyment of the activity, and ignoring any obstacles way down the road. I suppose the athletic analogy might be a beginning skier abandoning the sport because he/she is worried about the pressures of being an olympic giant-slalom skier. I know my friends and others face the same sort of difficulty, which was the whole point of this blog entry.

One of the reasons I created this blog was to try to create something I would feel obligated to do, which might force me to write, when I otherwise wouldn't. So far, that portion has been successful, but I haven't yet started working on other things, stories or projects or whatever... that's the next leap.

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I realize after writing this, that most (all?) of my posts have been with a negative slant... I will have to think of something positive to write about. I'll post a couple of my better race photographs next time.

Good Radio

2005-01-24T19:39:00.000-06:00

I listened to the new Minnesota Public Radio station, "The Current," pretty much all day at work, and again now at home... I don't know what else to say, except it's good... very good, scary good. If they can keep this up, MPR might actually get me to part with some donation money. It's very weird to feel rushed listening to 'radio', and realize it's because there are NO commercials. (I put radio in quotes because it was over the internet.)

For the few people reading this, it's 89.3 FM in the Twin Cities, and the streaming link is on their website. The aacPlus stream is amazing quality, especially considering the low-bandwidth requirement.

Fire!

2005-01-21T23:20:00.000-06:00

fire

Apparently it is possible for me to light a fire and not set off the smoke detector... the nice ltitle gadget that is wired into the house, and so is impossible to turn off and not disturb the neighbors... the plastic thing that creates a stunning amount of noise, but luckily doesn't automatically page the fire department.

Note to self, do not attempt to light a fire with a downdraft when the temperature is -10 degrees F.

DVD addiction

2005-01-19T21:23:00.000-06:00

I started a post about something philosophical, but decided against it in the end, so I thought instead I'd write about DVD's. :)
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I buy DVD's... too many of them. Probably about one-third of the trips I make to Target or Best Buy result in a DVD purchase. I doubt it qualifies as an official addiction. I don't buy movies instead of food. I don't steal them from my friends' shelves, or hoard them in their original cellophane wrappers. But let's just say that of the 150 or so DVD's that I own, I think I've watched about 100 of them, 10 of them are unaccounted for (read: I forget which friend borrowed which movie,) 10 of them are in their original wrappers because they are unwatched, and the rest are probably copies of movies that I liked in the theater, bought the DVD, but don't feel compelled enough to watch it.

Like everything, there's always someone worse to compare to... a friend of mine probably spends an average of $200 a month on Amazon. I doubt I could come up with a house payment if I hocked my entire collection.

The studios have been successful at creating the notion that a DVD might be temporary. So if you don't buy it now, there's no guarantee it will be around in the future. This is classic collector psychology. Look at Toy Story, Blues Brothers, and other movies that are currently out-of-print, and likely selling above original retail on eBay or Amazon. For instance, until it was re-released in a new box set, my copy of the Marx Brothers' Animal Crackers was going for about $80 on eBay. Eventually, demand was high enough that a Brazilian bootleg was being sold for $25.

The other half of it is the technology. I never really was interested in VHS tapes. I owned a few, but renting was good enough. DVD's on the other hand are cool. I can't afford to be a real AV-geek, but I do read the box to make sure it's in 5.1 Dolby Digital sound, original aspect ratio, etc. Which leads me to what's coming: HD-DVD & BR-DVD. Collectibles that become obsolete. Uh oh.
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This will have to be a topic for another day, but I want this camera...

Summer? What's that?

2005-01-17T20:27:00.000-06:00

dtn_stpaul
Originally uploaded by MattG42C.

I thought I better dig out an old picture to remind us here in the frozen north that it is warm here sometimes. The colors in this picture were not altered and it is pretty accurate. It was taken from my 28th floor apartment in downtown Saint Paul a couple years ago, right after a storm. It is looking west towards downtown Minneapolis, the silouhette of which you can just see in the background.

By the way, I still haven't quite figured out how the fonts work. My last entry I accidentally changed fonts and couldn't find the default one back, which I like better. So if any reader is wondering why they've changed... that's why. Also, if anyone knows why Blogger automatically changes double-spaces between sentences to singles, I'd like to know. Maybe it's an HTML thing?

Cult of Macintosh

2005-01-15T15:10:00.000-06:00

So this will be my first real post to this medium... I'm not sure yet if it's best to choose a particular focus for all posts, or if it's best to maintain the stream of conciousness thing. For right now, I'll go with the latter and see what happens. Lara also suggested that every second or third post should have a picture, so I will try to accomplish this as well. So with that out of the way...

Wired magazine has a section of articles on their online edition titled "Cult of Mac". I've always thought that was appropriate, based on my experiences, which I will attempt to sum up below. With the announcement of the new Mac mini, and the iPod Shuffle, the Macintosh culture is being brought to the forefront again.

To get a feeling for what I'm talking about, head to the discussion forums at the Macintosh News Network, and read some threads. Better yet, register and post something like, "I like Macs, but the Dell I just bought is designed really well, and Windows XP works great," or, "I think that the PowerBooks should have higher screen resolutions like PC's." I predict that within 3 replies, you will be informed that you're opinion really doesn't matter. There's probably a 50% chance of being labeled a heretic. Yet, do some reading and find how when most posters refer to Windows, it is always horribly unstable, Dell is "dull," and Bill Gates is put on the same level as Joseph McCarthy.

This sort of product zealotry is certainly not unique to Apple. Try telling a Chevrolet owner to consider buying a Ford, or ask a Formula 1 fan to sit through a NASCAR race. The real question becomes: If Steve Jobs and Apple were in Microsoft's position would anything really be different?

There's no question that Apple designs innovative products and has lots of things going for them. They finally have an operating system in OS X that truly rivals Windows, and they might finally grasp the concept that to attract more users, you must lower costs. Now, they are faced with a question that I believe they have encountered before. Can we truly convert the legions of "unwashed" PC owners into Macintosh owners, or will our current users scare them and their wallets away?

Some footnotes:

There are 3 computers in my house: a 12" PowerBook, a homebuilt AMD Shuttle XPC, and an old box that is currently running Gentoo Linux and is acting as a file and print server.
I own a second generation iPod.
I have programmed on Apple operating systems going back to System 7.1.
For the past 8 years or so, I have coded primarily for the Win32 and WinCE platforms.
I want a Mac mini for no explicable reason.

First Post

2005-01-15T01:45:00.000-06:00

Okay, my friend convinced me to do this, so here is the obligatory introduction paragraph with a bit about who I am, why I'm doing this, what may or may not be discussed, and how often it is likely to be updated. In fact, this introduction may not even be complete.

My name is Matt, I'm 27, single, live in a townhome in a suburb south of Saint Paul, Minnesota. As I write this, it's about -8 degrees Fahrenheit outside. I work as a software developer in the same sense that I imagine an architect designs buildings... once in a while they design stuff, but there's a lot of other junk that has to get done in between.

I'm not quite sure why I'm writing this yet... I enjoy writing and have started several stories, none of which have progressed beyond about 5 pages - at least in the post-college era. So I'm hoping that this will either provide an outlet for some thoughts, and hopefully help compose some ideas for other things.

Things that may be discussed on here (and are also my interests): software development, guitar, cars in general, and open-wheel racing in particular, writing, books, and I suppose life in general.

We'll see how often it gets updated...

Some links of interest:
Champ Car - http://www.champcarworldseries.com
Twin Cities Climate History - http://climate.umn.edu/doc/twin_cities/twin_cities.htm
Online Guitar Tab Archive - http://www.olga.net