Gray Hair

Everyone is commenting on how grey my hair is getting.

I'm surprised every time I got get my hair cut how much more grey hair I have.

Tonight, while reading her Bible, my wife found this verse

Proverbs 16:31 Gray hair is a crown of splendor; it is attained by a righteous life.

Car problems yet again

My daughter came home from school today. Changed for work, and went out to go to work, and her car wouldn't start.

She took our truck.

I'm not 100% sure what is wrong with the car. What I do know is it wont turn over. Wont even click. It has juice, well, enough for the radio and lights. I tried jumping it thinking it had enough juice for everything else, but just not the start. No dice. I hope it's not the starter.

OK, I pull out my daughters books on her car, and start reading.
Fuse? Nope, it's good.
Maybe it's not in park good? Nope. That's good too.
Hot and not want to start? Again no.

OK. I hit Google. From the research I've done there, it is either a) the starter or b) the battery cable.

So, out I go. I jack up the car and get it on blocks. Then the hunt is on for the starter.

I FINALLY found it. Back of the motor. Half way up the block. *sigh*

Off the blocks it comes. Tomorrow, I'll try to tow it to my mechanic and have him look at it. Nothing else I can do. There is no way I can reach the starter with the clearance I have. And to make it worse, I was going to pull it, take it to AutoZone and have them test it. My luck if I did try to get the starter off, that wouldn't be the problem.

We'll see.

Funny thing though. The last time I worked on my daughters car was on July 30th. Today it August 30th.

This better not be a habit.

Cricket thermometer?

While listening to the radio this morning (Air1), they were talking about how you can tell what the temperature is based on cricket chirps.

So, here is the formula
# cricket chirps in 15 seconds + 37 = current air temp

Pretty simple. Though I don't think my wife would let me have a cricket themometer. She doesn't like them. (crickets, not themometers)

Weather Bug

I've made another addition to my blog.

I have added a Weather Bug "Sticker" to my blog. Each time you enter the page (or refresh), it will updates with the latest information.

As many of you know, I live in Collinsville, but we do not have a weather bug station here in town to link to. The closest one is in Owasso, but the temperature doesn't work, so it says it's 32 degrees. As much as I would love that (and I would), I just couldn't leave it.

The next closest location is technically the Tulsa Airport, but I figure Claremore's weather and temperature will be closer to what it really is here at the house.

Fall?

Well, it is August, but it feels like Fall.

It was 64 degrees this morning when I woke up to go work out.

What a nice break from all this horribly hot weather.

The drive in was just great! I love Fall. I know it isn't that time yet, but this is a nice taste of things to come.

Doom Update

Back in December, I posted about a Doom movie that had been released.

I finally got it in my Netflix queue a while back and watched it.

My impression? It was ok. Nothing spectacular. It was an UR movie, so I'm not sure how different it was from what was in the theaters.

I remember lots of language, and nudity. Other than that it was ok.

I thought I saw a Kangaroo?

I could just imagine a little kid telling their mom or dad.

Kid: "Mom, I just saw a Kangaroo!"
Mom: "No you didn't. There are no Kangaroo's in Oklahoma"
Kid: "But I did, I did, I did see a Kangaroo!"

Well, there was a Kangaroo loose in OKC over the weekend.

That's funny.

Worn out!

Today has been a busy day for me.

After work, which I left early, I mowed my grandparents as usual and my yard.

After finishing my yard, I still had some daylight, so off to Auto Zone to get oil and filter to change my oil in my Caliber. This is it's second oil change since we've had the car. We've gone about 6000 miles in 3 months.

I'm excited that I got it all done.

Losing Weight

As some of you may, or may not know. I've been trying to lose some weight.

Cutting back on the food and excercising. (Cutting back on the food is harder than excercising.)

I've been excercising and trying to eat less for the last 5 weeks. For all but the first week, I go 6 days a week.

So far, I've lost 11.5 pounds, 2 inches in my chest, and an inch in my stomach.

Making progress I guess.

PS3 - Not just games anymore

As you area all aware, the PS3 will be the most expensive (and in my opinion, the most processing power) of the NextGen consoles.

They are touting this as a Home Intertrainment system, not just a game system.

Well, this goes beyond Blu-Ray, DVD, online, I'm sure linux boxes, and playing music (and numerous other hacks that will come out in months to come after it's release).

I've found an article that now adds scientific discovery to a use for your PS3.

The team behind the Folding@Home distributed computing client has reported that Sony has developed a version for the PlayStation 3.

For those not familiar with it, Folding@Home client uses distributed computing to help the project assist in understanding how proteins "fold," or self-assemble, to become amino acids or other compounds.

There is more information on the Folding@Home project at their webpage at Stanford. They also have a FAQ about the PS3 version.

Medco Health

I hate Medco.

My company uses them for a prescription plan. They are the biggest pain in the rear I have ever seen.

We can get our medication discounted pretty well if we use their mail order service. However, if the prescription isn't written just so so, then it costs you more. They are the least helpful people I've ever seen. I had ordered and paid for some prescriptions on their web page, and used my debit card. I had let them store it so I'd not have to type it in in the future. MISTAKE!

More than once while refilling, I had marked for them to send me a bill to pay, and they automatically billed my card. That was a disaster waiting to happen. The last time this happened, I called them up and told them to take off the card since they can't seem to not bill me on it if they have it.

I guess they are better than nothing, but maybe not by much.

Pluto no longer a planet?

Ok, this whole Pluto thing is just silly.

All of my life (longer really), Pluto has been a planet. That is what is taught in school. We have 9 planets.

Well, now, because of some stuffed shirted, want to make everything difficult scientist at the International Astronomical Union has said so, Pluto is no longer a planet.

It will now be called a "dwarf planet"

You know what? I don't care except for the havoc this will make on the education system alone.

So now, if you care, our solar system has 8 planets, and 3 dwarf planets.

Does anyone else have a head-ache?

Blogging

It has finally happened. Blogger has been blocked by our "Surf Control" software here at work.

It's a sad day.

Good thing I can still blog through email.

UPDATE: it appears that only the Beta Blogger that is blocked. Still sad though

Beta Blogger

Blogger now has a Beta with new features.

I have switched to the beta, but because of the switch, there are a few things I need to pass along.

There are still a few Known Issues that they are working to correct.

The main one is that commenting as a Blogger user doesn't work if you have NOT upgraded your blog. So, for the few of you that do comment, you'll need to chose anonymous or other as an option.

The upgrades to add some nice functionality.

1. Private Blogs - So we can now have a private blog that only people assigned to it can view it. This is a huge thing if you've wanted to set up a family blog.
2. Labels - you can now add category labels to your posts, so you can find topics by the labels.
3. New ways to customize templates - including drag and drop.

I've not yet played with many of these features as I just found out about it.
I will however let you know what I think as I do.

1st Grade Update

Today was a big day.

My boy had his first ever spelling test. 5 words. Today is a pre-test. If he got them all right today, he doesn't have to take the test on Friday. He got a 100%!!!

That was so cool.

Also, he brought home book to read to us today. We sat down and he read he book. It was so cool!

I was a mean dad though, and I pointed to some of the words out of order to make sure he was really reading and not just going from memory.

*sigh*
He's getting so big!

101 most commonly asked Nintendo Wii questions

As most people that know me know, I am a huge Playstation fan. I've always liked the Playstation though I never owned one. The PS2 rocks in my own opinion. I've really enjoyed it.

I am looking forward to the PS3, though I know I'll not be buying it the opening day/week/month. The cost will just be too much for me to be able to get.

I've never been a Microsoft fan. If the XBox was made by anyone other than MS, I'd probably have it. It has some nice titles. One day, maybe.

However, the more I have read about the Wii (pronounced "we"), the more it sounds interesting. And the currenct price guess-timate is around $170, will be affordible. I may be interesting in getting this. The ability to play old Nintendo games (can we say Super Mario Brothers?) and even some old sega games would just be sweet.

Anyway, you may find the following interested if you want to know more about the Wii.

101 most commonly asked Nintendo Wii questions - Nintendo Wii Forum

Oh, and for the record, I still hate the name.

Cub Scouts

Today, my boy signed up for Cub Scouts. He will be a Tiger Cub. He was very excited.

We'll have weekly den meetings and monthly pack meetings.

He'll have a lot of fun.

For more information on Cub Scouts, you can go to joincubscouting.org. This site has information for boys and parents.

Also, there is more information on both Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts at Scouting.org

NASA - Countdown 101

The Space Shuttle Atlantis is scheduled to launch on Sunday. I was looking on NASA's web page, and found an article that gives you a Countdown 101 of the launch process.

Interesting if you like that type of thing.

Forgetfulness

There are days I am shocked at how forgetful I can be.

There have been several things that I have wanted to blog about, but when I get home (or work) to a computer, I can't remember what they were.

If I'm this forgetful now, I don't want to see me when I get old.

Of course, at this rate, when I'm old, I'll forget I'm forgetful.

OK Centennial Botanical Garden

Several weeks ago, my friend Michael posted about the Oklahoma Centennial Botanical Garden.

I finally got a change to go to the Botanical Garden's web page.

It will be great once it is finished. I know that at the moment, I plan to go often!

Happy Adoption Day

6 years ago today, I adopted my little girl. Though I guess she isn't so little anymore.

I gave her a little present (SpongeBob light) and a birthday card. I think I have done that every year.

I've never regretted adopting her. In fact, I never really thought about not adopting her.

She is as much my girl as my son is my boy. And as I point out to her. I was stuck with whatever came out with my son. With her, I chose her. I got to choose to be her daddy.

First Day of School

Today was the first day of school. As usual, we took pictures before they headed off to school.

My girl is now a Senior. 9 more months and she'll be out of school. That is both great and sad news.

She is in such a hurry to grow up, but if she only knew she'd not mind being a kid for a bit longer.


My boy is now starting 1st grade. He wasn't as excited about the first day of school as I was at his age, but he was much more excited than his sister. Soon he'll be a senior. I know that that is in 11 years, but it will be here before we know it!

BMI - Body Mass Index

Ok, so while reading another blog today, I ran across this link for a BMI calculator for Adults at the Department of Heath and Human Services Centers for Disease Control. For those that might be interested, here is the BMI calculator for Children and Teens. As I am trying to lose some weight I thought it would be good to see what this says.

Well, It seems that my height of 6' 0" and my current weight, I am considered Overweight (not a big surprise hince the trying to lose weight).

What did surprise me was how much I have to weigh to not be classified as overweight. The magic number? 183.5 pounds would give me a BMI of 24.9. If I weighed 183.5 pounds, I think I would look skinny.

The table at the CDC page has 4 categories.

BMI	Weight Status
Below 18.5	Underweight
18.5-24.9	Normal
25.0-29.9	Overweight
30.0+	Obese

Soccer Practice

Today was the first soccer practice of the season.

I think it went pretty well. I have 2 kids that have never played before. 1 that is on their second season. 1 on the fourth, and 2 on their fifth or sixth.

I went over the basic rules of U8 soccer. Most people didn't have any questions. I'm not sure if that is good or bad.

After much, and I do mean much discussion, we finally chose the name Electric Sharks as our Team name. I'll never do that again. If I let the kids pick the name again, I'll give them 2 or 3 names, and vote. Most votes win.

Well, I have 7 more practice sessions before the first game.

We'll see how it goes.

NFL Commissioner

I was catchin up on the news on KOTV's web page, and I found this story about the new NFL commissioner.

Roger Goodell is the new NFL commissioner for those of you that care.

My grandfater is a Goodell. And unlike Smith and Jones and Brown and all. the Goodells are actually one BIG family.

So I'm related to him. Unfortunately, I have no clue who he is, and visa versa, but still sorta cool.

PS3 memory card adaptor

As we already knew, when the PS3 comes out, you will be able to play the PS1 and PS2 titles.

However, there is a catch when it comes to your saved games. There isn't a reader for the PS1 and PS2 memory cards. To be able to get your saved games, you'll have to buy an adaptor to plug them into the machine and copy the contents onto the internal drive.

There are 2 things about this that strikes me.

1. I wont have to worry about keeping up with the memory cards (which always seem to get misplaced).
2. This adaptor better not cost much.
3. I could see where you buy the adaptor, upload all your saved games, then let your friends borrow (or charge them if your a jerk) to use the card to upload their games to their machines.

Well, this isn't great news. It isn't horrible either. From reading other posts about this, you'd think you had to buy an adaptor to play the silly games.

Possible Rolling Blackouts?

It appears that PSO is having some equipment problems.

With their problems and the high heat, PSO Issues Appeal To Concerve Electricity.

This is for the Tulsa Area customers. So far, the power has stayed on here at work.

We'll see if that continues.

State Highway Signs

I noticed something today.

I'm not sure when this happened, but I noticed that the Oklahoma State highway signs are changing.

The Old Sign

The New Sign

Tomato thief

I went over to my grandparents today, and I found something very funny.

Seems someone climbed their privacy fence and stole ALL of their tomatoes. Both red and green!

We figured that if it was an animal, there would have been something left. Half chewed tomato, broken branches, or something. Nope! None of that. Just tomato plants with not a tomato on them.

Beware of the tomato thief!

hehe

What kind of American English do you speak?

Ok, so while I was taking the Sesame Street personality test, I also ran across this test.

I was glad to see it showed 0% Yankee.

Your Linguistic Profile:

65% General American English

20% Dixie

5% Midwestern

5% Upper Midwestern

0% Yankee

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

Sesame Street Personality

My friend Kim over at Momma Moments had posted her results of a Sesame Street Personality test she had taken.
I thought it was very amusing. So I went over and took it myself.

You Are Bert

Extremely serious and a little eccentric, people find you loveable - even if you don't love them! You are usually feeling: Logical - you rarely let your emotions rule you You are famous for: Being smart, a total neat freak, and maybe just a little evil How you live your life: With passion, even if your odd passions (like bottle caps and pigeons) are baffling to others

The Sesame Street Personality Quiz

HD DVD and Blu-ray Compared Again

While reading Gizmodo.com today, I found a very interesting article.

HD DVD and Blu-ray Compared Using Identical Source Material - Gizmodo

The movies Training Day, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and Rumor Has It have all be released in both HD DVD and Blu-Ray formats. Finally, a head to head comparison of the new formats.

The article compares them, and ranks HD DVD as the superior product. However, upon further inspections, this is not a complete apples to apples comparison. It appears that the codecs used to encode the movies were not the same. The movies on Blu-ray used MPEG-2 while the movies for HD DVD used VC-1. And the VC-1 codec is a superior codec.

Since both Blu-ray and HD DVD can use the VC-1 codec, there is much speculation as to why they did not use it.

So, though this first comparison of the 2 new formats clearly had HD DVD as the winner, but there are several factors that leaves that conclusion to be doubted.

I personally believe that the Blu-ray will be the superior product when it is all said and done. However, as we learned in the VHS/Beta-max wars, the superior product does not always win.

Burn ban back

Well, the Govenor issued another state-wide burn ban today.

On the bright side, the ban has exemptions in place for charcoal and gas grills and welders.

Stardust = high traffic

Sometimes, people just don't think.

I tried to go to the Stardust@home project page and I received this message:

Aug. 1, 2006

Today we officially begin the Stardust@home project with real data.

Due to the unexpected large volume of traffic, our website might be slow or non-responsive. If you are receiving this message, please try again at a later time.

We are working to solve this problem as soon as possible. Please be patient and thank you for your understanding,

Stardust@home Team

Unexpected large volume of traffic? You have got to be kidding me. The thought that they didn't expect a lot of traffic is... um... sad? They emailed all that pre-registered best I can tell. I believe I read that the number was over 100,000 people. (Not sure where I saw that).

Truth is, I expected delays with this. But their comment that they did not was surprising.