fun stuff

Anyone who knows anything about me, knows that early in life I wanted to be a Nuclear Engineer.  However my mother talked (prayed?) me out of going into that due to the fact that there aren't any jobs for that area.  This is something that I will hold against her for the rest of my natural life (or until Alzheimer's kicks in).  However there is good news.  I can build my own nuclear fusion device.  That's right.  www.fusor.net.  This is of course exciting news for me, and...  uhhh...  hmmm....  well.....  Ok.  Just me.  There are several downsides to attempting to build one.  The biggie is that you are working with EXTREMELY high voltages.  The next biggie is that if you build it wrong and get a radiation leak then you end up looking like this guy (and that is probably the best scenario).  Another problem is that the temperature in the "device" can reach in the 20 - 400 million degree range.  You think 118 degrees is a hot day?  Any who...  For those starting to get concerned, I'm not going to do it with one big caveat:  I would like to someday.  Unfortunately one of my "rules" in life has been "Never use what I build".  This would be a major deviation.  But I wouldn't have to worry about Alzheimer's.

nc

154.2

I lost 2 more pounds.  Mostly due to missing last weeks weigh in as I had 2 weeks to lose weight.  I'm going to call it good at 153.0.  Miranda lost also.

Another funny Patrick story.  The other day, I asked him to bring me something and he saluted me.  Today, Miranda hollered that it was time to go to school and Patrick started saying, "Hut one, Hut two".  

I want to complain a bit now (I don't think she knows me real well so this sort of a joke).  Diane Baber put her pictures of Grenada online and Miranda saw them.  Now she has decided that she wants to go to Grenada on vacation.  I don't particularly want to.

CRIME:  Street crime occurs in Grenada.  Tourists have been victims of armed robbery especially in isolated areas and thieves frequently steal credit cards, jewelry, U.S. passports and money.  Mugging, purse snatching and other robberies may occur in areas near hotels, beaches and restaurants, particularly after dark.  Visitors should exercise appropriate caution when walking after dark or when using the local bus system or taxis hired on the road.  It is advisable to hire taxis to and from restaurants.

And for a few other reasons (yes it isn't Grenada but it's close enough for me!) .  When it comes down to "Kill Whitey", I don't think I need to stick around to see how it's going to turn out.  I'll take my White Feather and run.  I can always use more pillow stuffings.  They are lovely pictures though and it looks very beautiful.

nc

Weight Watchers

After missing last week due to computer issues, tonight is weigh-in.  I remember in High School when the wrestlers had to weigh in, they would starve themselves to get to their "weight".  That's where I'm at right now.  Come on 154!!  This weekend did not help at all (for myself or Miranda).

nc

hmmmm...

I'm not going to get into an in-depth discussion of the Technological Singularity, but the basic idea is that technology will increase exponentially until humans are left behind by computers and we are rendered useless.  I don't know about all of that but this makes you wonder.  We are living in an exciting, if not frightening time.

funny.

Pretty humorous

Not a lot of demand for moving to Detroit.

weekend update.

What a weekend.  We went to Paul and Jane's house and spent the night Friday night.  We went and ate at Cafe On The Route in Baxter Springs.  Awesome food.  I had the frog legs (I think it's the first time I ever had them).  They taste like chicken (in this case, they literally do).    

We spent the night because Miranda had some kind of Children's Book something-or-other that she is doing with her school children in a few weeks in Pittsburgh.  Anyway, they were having a pre-meeting to make sure everyone knew what they were doing.  It started sleeting and snowing while she was there.  So she got home and we headed out.  On the way to Columbus, we were slipping and sliding and almost ended in the ditch.  At that point we decided to forget shopping and head for home.  Good thing to because the roads got really bad.  The KDOT "scraper truck" was even in the ditch (which I thought was funny).  

We stopped in at McDonald's at Columbus to get some eats for the way home.  Patrick and Nellie were sitting in the back with their headphones on watching a movie.  Miranda, myself, and Patrick had this following conversation:

• Miranda:  Patrick, do you want Chicken or a Hamburger?
• Patrick:  (says nothing)
• Miranda: (louder) Patrick, do you Chicken or a Hamburger?
• Patrick: I can't hear you
• Bill: (very loudly) DO YOU WANT CHICKEN OR A HAMBURGER?
• Patrick: I can't hear you
  
• Miranda:  Well take your headphones off!
• Patrick: I can't hear you
• Miranda:  I said "Take your headphones off!"!

Now at this point, to shorten this up for a blog post, the rest of the conversation was just variations on the same theme.  Miranda finally turned around and took the headphones off of him.  He's a funny kid.  Here's a picture of him from a couple of weeks ago.  

He has an overactive imagination (just like his dad).

I have also found a Cherokee class online.  Registration will open on Monday and the class is apparently free.  

nc

weekend is almost here.

The weekend is upon us and the family will be headed to Joplin.  We are going shopping and we have to run by Diamond to pick up 2 hockey sticks.  Something about a church and/or school project with Mrs. Brewer.

I'm glad to get this week over.  It's been a really bad week.  And of course it is supposed to snow tomorrow.  We are going to try to make it back on Saturday in time to go to some kind of music thing that God's Bible School is doing.  Not sure of all the details though.  

Nellie was sick yesterday and Miranda has to stay home with her but she feeling better today so she went to school.  Today was Show And Tell for Patrick and he loves Show And Tell.  He wanted to take his "Big Daddy" hat that Miranda accidentally bought him at Halloween.  He was pestering her and she didn't realize what kind of hat it was.  We don't feel that it is appropriate for him to wear outside of the house and especially not to pre-school!

The nice thing about Joplin is that they have quite a few eating places.  I think we will probably go to Whisky Creek if we can get in.  They have the best Prime Rib that I have ever had.

I'm off to study Cherokee on my lunch hour.

nc  

tapes

I have the tapes from JoAnn Douglas transferred to the computer.  Unfortunately tape #2, side A was empty but side B was there.  Tape #1 is complete.  I also got a book/tape from Cathy Parker so tonight will probably be transferring that one.  It's a different one than JoAnn's book but obviously a lot of the same information.  I am going to try to scan the pages into my computer.

My career is odd.  I just received an email from a head-hunter wanting me to move to Central Missouri.  I get emails for jobs about every 3-6 months.  It's nice to know if I get laid off, I will probably be able to walk right into another job (assuming I want another programming job which is NOT a foregone conclusion).  Needless to say with our setup here (Miranda working at IBS and me working from home) we really aren't looking to move.  I think it's probably this job.  Miranda will be unhappy that I did find a job in Shreveport, LA.  I want to move south for the warmer weather and if I can end up in Louisiana (where I could actually use French) well that would just be the cat's meow.

I would love to start a new career.  I would like to be a chocolatier or a baker.  We took a tour of Richardson's Candy House in Joplin with a Parent's As Teachers Group in Diamond and I was in hog heaven.  I've done a bit of candy making but not a lot.  

Hog heaven, cat's meow...  What's up with my animal references today?  

Nellie has not been feeling well lately.  Allergies or something.  Medicine really isn't working for her so unfortunately we will probably have to take her to the doctor.  Patrick is doing well at school.  He can count to 30 and knows most of his letters.  Not bad for pre-school.  He can also count to 10 in French but we haven't worked on it in awhile.  Maybe he'll be my language buddy.

Miranda signed Patrick up for soccer.  Which is odd because she hates soccer.  I watch Serie A soccer (Italian league) on ESPN360.com and she refuses to watch it.  I also like the Spanish La Liga, German Bundesliga, and English (Premier League) but they aren't shown on ESPN360.com.  MLS soccer is fairly bad.  French Ligue 1 is uninteresting also.  As for Patrick and soccer, I doubt if it's really much soccer but instead a bunch of kids running around kicking a ball.  I doubt if they get into 4-4-2 formations, etc...  

Well, I'd better get off of here because Miranda will be home soon.

Take care.

nc

British Gov't.

I wish I could vote for this guy.

It's fun to watch them in action and I love the accents.  He is right on the money for the U.S. also.  They aren't as diplomatic as the U.S. Congress. 

Feeling much better now.

So I had to go to Vinita to work on Mom's computer.  Needless to say, when her computer breaks down anywhere from Jan 1st to April 16th, it's a major deal.  On my way down there I was listening to The Best Of R.E.M.  There is a song on there called Everybody Hurts and it was written after a friend of theirs commited suicide.  This reminded me of a friend in college that also decided to "check-out early" with the assistance of a shotgun and then that reminded me of a scene from Red Dwarf.  Rimmer had apparently manned phones at a anti-suicide hot-line.  6 people commited suicide that day and one of them had only accidentally dialed a wrong number (he was trying to get the Cricket scores).  So I'm driving to Vinita cackling  (about suicide of all things) most of the way down.  Rimmer reminds me a lot of myself.  Obnoxious, loud mouthed, moron, and above all, a smeghead.  But he just accepts the fact that he is that way and no matter how he tries to change it, it is just part of him.  I'm feeling better now.

Tech tip:

The motherboard went out on mom's computer.  No time to order a motherboard so we went off to buy a new computer.  Should be as simple as plugging the old hard-drive as a slave drive to in the new computer and copying the data in.  Right?  Wrong!  Apparently she was running some software called Norton GoBack.  The programmers decided that it was cool to funkify the Master Boot Record.  Why did they do this?  Because they are evil.  Vista wouldn't recognize the drive.  I had to boot into Safe mode on an old computer and copy the data to flash drives (at about 1/8" speed and this is not an exaggeration because in safe mode, USB drives apparently go back to the USB 1.1 standard instead of the 2.0 standard?  Why?  They are evil too).  So it took about 4 hours to copy the data to the drives and about 20 minutes to copy it off the drives.  We started about noon and finished everything at midnight.  Needless to say, I'm not happy with Norton GoBack (or Norton).  It right up there with the most evil software imaginable (I'm looking at you Weatherbug).

nc

depressed

I'm pretty depressed so posting will probably be lighter over the next few days until I can get my head correct.  Stupid things get me down and things that should get me down, don't.  

nc

back home.

So we made it back home from Vinita.  I'm transferring tapes to the computer using Audacity.  Mom hired a lady to help look after Grandma while she is in tax time.  She was there while we were down there and her husband dropped by.  He was oddly enough Cherokee and spoke the language.  So we all set around and made fun of me trying to pronounce the various sounds.  Today I'm going to try to call Allen and Cathy as she has some tapes/books also. 

After working with Audacity, I'm kinda wondering if I couldn't do some steel guitar stuff and put it on my computer.  Unfortunately I don't have drums, bass, etc... to actually produce a CD.  I have a guitar but I don't want to have to break my fingers to get them in all of those strange positions.  So maybe I can start on my mini-opera "The Killing Of Faust".  I will of course be singing all the parts (I know everyone will be impressed with my tenor).  I don't know German so the libretto will either be done in Pig Latin or French/Cherokee/Arabic.  Either way should end me up in Carnegie Hall.

On to much more exciting stuff...  Nellie has taken a growth spurt.  All of her dresses are now too short.  Looks like we will be going clothes shopping for her and Patrick.  I'm really needing some "dress" shoes.  When I go to Monett, we aren't allowed to wear sneakers so I try to wear nicer shoes (or at least non-sneakers).  Miranda will of course need to buy some clothes.  Shortly after that we will end up in the bankruptcy court.  But we'll be dressed nicely!

As most of you know (or have gathered by now), I talk a "big game" and exaggerate quite a bit(mostly lies with a small grain of truth) so all of my comments should not be taken literally.  I am of course referring to the knock-down-drag-out fight, Miranda and I had.  After rereading, it came across that we actually did have a fight.  It wasn't.  Here was the conversation.

Me - I want to buy this Porsche.

Miranda - No.

Me - Ok.

nc

weekend.

Well the weekend is officially here.  Yesterday was quite a bit of fun.  I did get to take the day off because of my awesome "leet" skills (AKA stumbling into the correct solution).  It was an awful day to spend at the park but we made it happen.  Paul, Jane, Bud, Angie, Derek, Cameron, and Garett all came over about 11:00.  We went to the park and cooked hamburgers and hot dogs.  They were great!  Thanks Paul.  Paul is one of the best "camp cooks" that I know of.  We went to the zoo and all the children played in the kiddy park.  Afterwards, we went to Braums where Jane treated us to ice cream.  Again, my diet lay in ruins ( you will notice that this is also a reoccuring theme as are quite a few things in my life).

I am officially in mourning because of the poll.  I'm madder than a centipede with athletes feet.  None of the cool stuff won.  Oh well.  You know what they say "democracy is two wolves and one sheep voting on what's for dinner". 

Patrick is so silly.  Every night this is what he wears to bed:  pajamas, a santa claus hat, and McQueen Slippers.  He has the same fashion sense of his dad.  He and Nellie really had fun yesterday.  Patrick always pairs up with Derek and Nellie always pairs up with Cameron.  They really have a big time together.

Miranda and I had a knock-down-drag-out fight last night (slight exaggeration).  I want this and she says not right now since we are trying to sell our house and save up money for a new house.  We have decided that a 80's Porsche 911 is going to be my mid-life crises.  I want a 80's model because I like the style better than the later ones and it's SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper.  However both are actually cheaper than the usual mid-life crises of a 21 year old girlfriend because with this way I don't end up with half of my stuff and paying child support.  A win-win for everyone.  I think Miranda's mid-life crises is probably going to be a Mustang (car) or just shooting me because she is tired of all the drama.  I have only owned one other sports car and it was a Mitsubishi 3000GT SL. We had to get rid of it when we were married because we couldn't haul more than a 2 liter of milk in the back (ok, sort of an exaggeration but not much of one).  That was a nice car and it was very funny to watch tall people try to get into it.  

Well I'd better wrap this up.  As usual, our "On The Road Again" family is headed for Vinita.  I'm off to get the Cherokee tapes and let Patrick and Nellie play with Grandpa and Grandma.

Please say a prayer for Miranda because she has to live with me which isn't that easy.

nc

Joel Douglas

Joel Douglas just called me.  I hadn't heard from him in a long time and it was great to hear from him.  When I picked up the phone there was someone chattering in some language.  He was speaking in Cherokee.  The tapes are on the way to Vinita right now.  Funny story about him that I hope he doesn't mind me telling.  He drove a Cadillac and slouched way down in the seat.  Now Joel is a BIG guy, was in the Special Forces in Vietnam, and a brown belt in Karate.  He was driving his mom around, slouched way down in the seat and some punks started hassling him and following him real closely.  He decided to have some fun with them and when he pulled up to his destination, he jumped out of the car real fast and yelled at them "WHAT DO YOU WANT".  They couldn't get out of there fast enough.  I'm grinning just sitting here thinking about it.  

He has retired and out of computers (lucky guy!).  Great to hear from you Joel.

nc

randon thoughts

There aren't many people in the U.S. that are 100% of anything.  I'm mostly German (mom's side) and French (dad's side) but a mixture of others.  Miranda is Irish or Scottish and not sure what else.  I did go to college with a Finnish guy and he was dating a Filipino girl (so much for 100%).

I'm sick of "Faust" by Gounod.  I have a Sirius radio and listen to Met Opera Radio and they play that one every day.  I think I will write an Opera and send it in and see if they will play mine instead.  In the first scene an assassin will come out and shoot Faust.  The next hour and a half will be nothing but "Orange Blossom Special" played over and over on an accordion, penny whistle, steel drums, and bagpipes.  I'm thinking that would be more interesting.

nc

Sheesh!

I made it back home from Monett.  I left about 4:30 AM and got back about 7:00 PM.  It was a rough day.  Turns out this project I'm on is fairly rush-rush so my vacation tomorrow is in Jeopardy (I take "that stinks" for $100 Alex).  I'm sure everyone will be heartbroken that I won't be there.  Especially Jane!  

I do have some good news though.  Miranda heard from Cathy Parker and she has some Cherokee books and tapes also and will loan them to me!  Cherokee has about 20,000 speakers in the world and what are the odds that two separate people that I know would have the books/tapes?  One thing skewing the odds is that Oklahoma contains quite of few of the speakers (The Carolinas contain most of the rest).  Cathy is married to my Dad's sister's son (Allen Parker).  George and E.B. (Lois for everyone else - my dad's sister) Parker are awesome people.  George is (I think) 100% Native American.  I believe he was related to Quanah Parker but I'm not completely sure of that.  Anyway, many a happy day in my childhood was spent in their home.  Their daughter (Janet Jackson) is married to Gary Jackson and works at IBS (but I'm sure everyone knew that).  Small world.

I'd better get back to it.  Making some progress on my project but it's a bit from being done.

nc

Happy St. Patricks Day

I lost .8 of a pound.  Not too shabby.  About 2 more pounds to go and I'll be at my target weight.

On the odd side, we are at war with Mexico.  Well a trade war anyways.  It's the 1930's all over again.  Rising anti-semitism in Europe?  Check.  Wasting money on stupid gov't programs? Check.  Yay! 

History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce. -Karl Marx

Anyway...  That's my brief foray into politics.  Now onto more interesting stuff.

The poll is not going so well for my hat.  The sailboat is in a distant second.  I forgot to add when introducing myself that I am certified by the Coast Guard on Basic Keel boat Operations (don't ask).  This has come in handy approximately 0 times due to the extensive coast lines of Kansas and Missouri.  As soon as Kansas gets a Navy though, I just know that I'll make Admiral (at least as soon as I learn to swim).  I know what you are thinking...  "You got certified in sailboat operations without learning to swim?  You are stupid."  And you wouldn't be totally incorrect.  But that is the nuclearcowboy way.  It looked like fun and I don't fret the small stuff.  Anyway...  A guy at work has a Guppy 13 that he is trying to sell me for $500.  It's in decent shape and sailing is a lot of fun.  Slow but fun.  

Things have been slow around here.  Patrick and Nellie are enjoying their time off.  Miranda likewise.  In my attempt to get some exercise, I may have convinced Miranda to try fencing.  I'm not real great at it but it will be some exercise and better than sitting around.  Patrick and Nellie love it (at least the swinging the foil around) but don't care for the mask.  It's not a big deal because with the way they attack, I'm the one that needs the mask.

Well I'd better get off here.

nc

Spring Break

Miranda is fairly excited since this is Spring Break.  Unfortunately for yours truly, that means two children running around and playing.  I have to give them credit though, this is the first day and they haven't been bad at all.  On Wednesday, I have to go to Monett for a class called Respectful Work Environment Training.  yay.  So I have to get up at 4:30 and drive all the way to Monett.  Like I can be respectful to anyone after having to get up at 4:30!  And them I'm taking off Friday to spend the day with everyone and we are going over to see The Greatest Mum-In-Law Of All Time, The Greatest Pop-In-Law Of All Time, and Angie.  I can't call her Greatest because then Aaron's wife (Lindsay) would beat me up, make fun of me, or just be mean in general.  So I'm already looking forward to the weekend and it's only Monday.  I only have to worry about the kids bugging me tomorrow and Thursday!  Not bad at all.  Wednesday, she is sending the kids to day care so she can have a day to herself.  

In a few weeks, we are going to have someone baby sit for us.  When we lived over at Diamond, Miranda and I would have a date night by ourselves and eat at a nice restaurant in Alba (that is no more).  Unfortunately Independence doesn't have much for fine dining out so we are going to try to go to Tulsa.  I'm trying to decide between The French Hen or The Brasserie.  We've been to the French Hen before but not The Brasserie.  They never give you enough food and charge you way too much but the experience is great.  Miranda never cares where we go.  I eat at a French restaurant because you can get pretty much everything else around here.  Italian, Chinese, BBQ, Seafood, Mexican, etc...  Except Indian (and I'm talking Indian and not Native American although you can't get that either), but Miranda doesn't go for curry.  I haven't had much Irish food and there is Kilkennys that looks pretty good.

anyway..  you can tell it's time for me to weigh in because I'm HUNGRY.  

Hope you have a great evening.

nc

Voting for Change!

So it appears from my poll that most people are Voting for Change (i.e. voting that I quit spending money on stupid stuff)! However there are 4 days still left to vote so I'm holding out hope.

I have a fun story for everyone that doesn't work in a large company. I have worked in large companies and worked in small companies. I feel that I'm in a small company now (about 15 programmers and a total of 1,500 employees). Quite a few people don't realize and/or understand the frustrations with red tape and bureaucracy and why things never get done. I found this link awhile back that was pretty funny. It's about 2 dictionaries and the failings of bureaucracies. Here's the short version: Samuel Johnson created the first English dictionary after 7 years of work. The French set up a 40 member Academy to create their dictionary. It took 55 years to complete. Remember this story next time you are at the DMV.

This weekend was fun and short. Went to Vinita to visit the parents. Joel was sick so we didn't go over to get the Cherokee tapes. We didn't do a whole lot but it was nice to see mom and dad again. Only a month until she is out of tax season for another year.

Our life is like a Willie Nelson song. I'm talking specifically about "On The Road Again" and not "Whisky River" (although with the children, I sometimes feel that I'm just a couple of crises away from a "Whisky River" life as well). We spend weekends driving and the travel is hard on everyone, including but not limited to, the family and the vehicle. When we moved over here we looked around for a church and found Parsons. It's a smaller church and we really loved the people at the church. Spending two hours a day on the road every Sunday is starting to wear on us and I think our situation needs to be reexamined. Especially when there is a church here in Independence. Miranda and I are still in discussions about time frames but I'm guessing that our days at Parsons are probably numbered.

Well it's time to go back to the grind. Tonight is weigh-in night at Weight Watchers and I'm going to have gained. This morning I weighed in a 157.2.

*sigh*

nc.

WOOHOO!

I emailed the nice people at Arnold Hatters in NYC and they responded that if I didn't mind to get a custom made hat then I should check out http://www.baronhats.com/.

He has done several custom hats off of movies and other stuff.  Unfortunately I'm guesstimating that the hat will run around $400 (maybe a bit less or more).

Here's the hat that I'm shooting for.

So watch out Jane (my mum-in-law that gives me a hard time about a particular hat that I own that looks similar to this), because I may have a real bicorne hat soon (well not so soon because I have to save up the cash).

If I spend that much money on it, I will definitely have to wear it so beware everyone that hangs out with me.

nc

Life at the funny farm.

Patrick woke up this morning and walked into the bathroom where Miranda was getting ready. He says "Oh no! It's you again." He is growing up so fast and doing so well in school now (at least for this week). We are really proud of him.

Miranda informed me tonight we are really doing the ethnic thing for supper. Mexican meatloaf and souffle for dessert.

Clifford Dill sent me an email of Il Devo singing "Amazing Grace" which was really nice. That song doesn't lend itself very well to "Opera". Want some proof? Here and here. Yikes. I don't mind Opera singing when it's like this. I have a Sirius radio and I listen mostly to Met Opera radio but it drives Miranda crazy. I also listen to "Classic Country" and "Willie's Place" (Texas Honky-Tonk music) for the steel guitar. There is also a great southern gospel station called enLighten that is really good that I listen to quite a bit. And the 80's music! Although after awhile it becomes repetitious because they aren't making 80's music anymore (surprised aren't you!) and they play the same songs over and over.

This weekend we are going to Mom and Dads. I am running over to Disney to pick up those tapes on Cherokee. Yes, I said tapes. So I'm going to copy them to the computer and create CDs. I used to have a record player and my first car (thanks mom and dad!) had a 8 track player! The car was also puke green, smoked something terrible, and had a top speed of about 60 mph. It was a real babe-mobile for a 16 year old geek. Anyway... I'm off track again.

So awhile back at IBS, they had "funny hat day" which Miranda won by wearing my Bicorne hat. Here's the deal though. It's a costume hat and I want a real hat. So if anyone sees a bicorne hat or knows where I can get one, please let me know. Thanks.

nc

more humor.

That joke reminded me of another humor thing.

Conway Twitty and Loretta Lynn have a song that I want to hear.  The title is:

"You're The Reason Our Kids Are Ugly"

That is true (song #16).  

I need some humor today.  This house thing is really getting me down.  Still nothing and now we are having a foreclosure on a house near us and the bank is selling at a rock bottom price.  So we have to lower the price some more.  Between that and my 401(k) (or 201(k) now!) I can't afford to pay attention.  Now I hear what you are saying... "Well nuclearcowboy, you still have 30+ years to work to build up your 401(k)".  That's what you are saying isn't it?  Now think about that... "I have 30+ years to work!!!".  See how that works?  That didn't cheer me up at all.

At this point, I think this is going to have to be my retirement fund.  

nc

political joke.

Obama is not Jesus,  Jesus could actually build a cabinet.

nc

random thoughts

I believe this quote fits my life exactly:

God does not play dice with the universe; He plays an ineffable game of his own devising, which might be compared, from the perspective of any of the other players, to being involved in an obscure and complex version of poker in a pitch dark room, with blank cards, for infinite stakes, with a dealer who won't tell you the rules, and who smiles all the time.

Terry Pratchett, "Good Omens"

As soon as I think I start figuring it out, I end up not knowing anything.  Very funny book but you have to have a different sense of humor.  The whole "God does not play dice with the universe" part comes from Albert Einstein who was particularly unhappy with the ideas that Quantum Physics was espousing.  I'm reading the book  again (Good Omens - 3rd or 4th time) and it's great.  The last book I read was this one which was great but not really for the laughs.  I also found this game that I would love to play but I don't think I can find 3-5 more people in Independence that is that interested in the French Revolution.

Everyone is doing twitter these days.  As I do this longer, I think I should have done twitter instead.  I'm not a person who should write long posts and twitter is just for conversation between people.  I tend to jump from subject to subject.

I found this piece of art awhile back and I love it.

It's by René Magritte.  The inscription is translated as: "This is not a pipe".  It's really supposed to have great meaning and thought behind it but I really don't care.  It's hilarious!  I think it's just me though.

That's about it for now.  I do have a funny kids story though.  The other day Patrick told Miranda that he was the boss and was informed otherwise.  So know Nellie keeps saying, "Daddy boss".  She doesn't know how wrong she is but I don't have the heart to tell her otherwise.  Plus Miranda won't let me.

nc

157

That's right! 157 lbs. I lost 2.4 pounds this week. 2 more pounds to my target. WOOHOO!

Diane Baber had a question about Rosetta Stone in the comments on one of the posts yesterday and I thought I'd expand on my answer. Rosetta Stone is really a nice piece of software for attempting to learn a language. However it is really only useful if you are going to speak with other people for extended periods of time. For instance, the Army has come up with a "fluency" guideline for Arabic (and probably other languages) that to be "fluent" in Arabic, you have to have 1 year of schooling and 1 year of "in-country". That last section is the trickiest as I haven't been able to convince Miranda to move to Tunisia yet. Tunisia is the most "liberal" of the Arabic speaking countries but let's just say that it isn't up to U.S. level of permissiveness. There are 2 major languages there: French and Arabic. Anyway... I'm going off topic. Now I am very slow at languages since I don't have a natural ability at learning languages so your results may vary. If I was going to start a new language, I'd probably start with Chinese. Over 1 billion speakers (most of any language) and quite a few of them live in the U.S. We have 3 Chinese restaurants in Independence (I think) and we've ate at 2 of them. The one we ate at last night, the cashier was pretty much "right off the boat" and had a very heavy accent. So I think you could find plenty of people to talk to. So anyway, Diane that's my extended answer. If you are interested in German, I have some CD's that I would give you.

nc

Pie Auction

So Friday night was the IBS PFF Pie Auction. I made a blueberry pie and wanted to buy the pie back. Miranda saw a Chocolate Creme pie and so I bid on it also but got outbid by Neil and Becca Schaper. They bought the pie AND GAVE IT TO US! They are a real class act (and I'm not saying that just because they bought us a pie!). They are a great couple with some very nice and cute kids. I ended up buying my blueberry pie for $30. Plus it cost $5/can for the blueberry filling (2 cans). So I ended up buying the pie for around $45 but it was worth it!!! You know what it wasn't worth though? 9 weight watchers points! Yikes! Bad weekend for weight between the pie auction and the birthday party.

Thanks Neil and Becca!

nc

About me

So in case anyone drifts over from Miranda's Blog that doesn't know me I thought I'd formally introduce myself.  She knows a lot of people that I don't know.

My name is Bill Allen and I work for EFCO Corporation.  I have degrees in Computer Information Science and Economics from MSSU.  I married Miranda May Allen on July 22, 2000 and it was the best decision I ever made!  We have 3 children.  Paul Teemu Allen was born in 2003 and lived for 5 days.  Patrick Wayne Allen was born 4/14/2004 and Nellie May Allen was born 8/18/2006.  

My hobbies are playing pedal steel guitar, classical fencing, and languages of various types.  I have had 2 years of schooling in Spanish, 1 year in German, and have independently studied French and Arabic.  Not real fluent in any of them but it's fun.  I also love reading about history.

That's pretty much it about me.

If you have a blog post telling about you, please let me know in the comments!

nc

B-Day party.

Garrett (Angie's son) had his first birthday.  We had a big time over at their house.  Patrick and Nellie played with the children very well.  He has really come out of his shell big-time!  Thanks to all the teachers and workers at Noah's Arkademy in Independence for their great work!  Before this, he would typically just sit on Miranda's lap and not know what to do.  I think we need to figure out how to get him a bit more into his shell now.

nc

New home.

So I've moved to a new home which I will post more frequently on.  First some things to note.

1. I alone am responsible for the content.  What I post is mine and mine alone.  So don't complain to Miranda.
2. I'm not a great thinker or anything like that so all posts will be about the family or various things that I find interesting.
3. What I find interesting, you probably won't, however you may be interested in the family stuff.

Anyway...

Let us christen a new blog with a raising of a glass of Diet Mt. Dew (I can't have champagne due to my liver issue or non-Diet pop due to my diet so we will have to make do with diet pop).

To us!

nc