Darth Double Dogs

I turned 31 this last weekend. A few weeks ago Jeanne asked me if there was anything special I wanted to do this year. For some reason memories of my brother and me having themed parties growing up immediately flooded my head. I shared a few of those memories with her and we both decided a Star Wars themed party was the plan for this year!

The party was Saturday and I brought out a good portion of my Star Wars memorabilia including old collectors toys, a soundtrack, games, trading cards, and an old poster. We even utilized my new SW cookbooks I received as Christmas gifts a few months ago. We made TIE Fighter Dogs, Bubble City Salad, Darth Double Dogs, and Han-burgers.

The prerequisite for attending the party was that each person had to try and dress up as a Star Wars character. This was by far the most exciting bit of the party! What a fantastic time! On to pictures...

Josh as Luke Skywalker


Mike and Lianne as Queen Amidala and Obi-wan Kenobi


Rob and Rachel as Queen Amidala and Anakin Skywalker


A Jedi trio (Anakin, Obi-wan, and Luke)


Jeanne and me as Princess Leia and Han Solo


No messin' with Princess Leia!


Wielding Darth Double Dogs! The Jedi Knight on the far right is my co-worker Mike...


Star Wars Trivial Pursuit


Memorabilia


A fine resemblance to Anakin =)


An orbiting TIE Interceptor

The Perfect Shot

"Starbucks Promises Customers Perfection"

Instead of dumping shots straight into the paper cups they'll serve to customers, Starbucks baristas are getting back to pouring espresso into shot glasses first.

I'm gonna give all the credit to my bro-in-law, Rob, for pushing 'Bucks into thinking that quality might just be better than quantity =). The article mentioned the auto-shot machines but didn't say if the retraining had occurred on those same machines. Or are new machines are being rolled out? Maybe I'll go ponder this down at Stumptown.

Flightstats: Webware 100 Finalist

Vote here for your favorite! =)

FlightStats and FaceBook

This week we at FlightStats launched an application on and for Facebook! A good portion on what you would find on the main website can be found in the Facebook application; flight tracking, flight status, delays, and more!

We've had some good early press about the launch! Check out the following links.

Resource Shelf
Planet Facebook (blog)
Facebook News (blog)
24-7 News
PR Web

If you haven't already create yourself a Facebook account and add the FlightStats application. I know, I know, Facebook is another social network but to me it seems to be a bit more mature than say myspace, and it is suited for more of the older crowd. And I'd love to be one of your 'friends' as well =).

FlightStats in the WSJ

The WSJ posted a cool article about flight alert services. FlightStats received an 'Excellent'! So hurry and go get your self a copy of today's Wall Street Journal for the scrapbook!

An excerpt:

The most useful source of more information was at FlightStats.com, which collects data from airlines, airports and the Federal Aviation Administration and sends frequent updates. A big advantage of FlightStats status alerts is that the service sends messages when planes actually take off and when they actually land.

Update 10:30am: A podcast of the above story can be found here. The article and podcast are both by the same author, but in the podcast he is way over the top about FlightStats services than he is in the written article!

Update 10:30am: Here is an echo for the above story from the News Tribune from Tacoma.

Update 12:56pm: More news!

Update 1:39pm: Bloggers are catching on!

Fantasy 08

Fantasy leagues. I've enjoyed a few NBA fantasy seasons and I believe I have done one MLB season. I faired well in all of them but I was left frustrated that though I made what I thought were wise transactions, and most were given my purchases and trades improved the value of my team, I stood in the middle of the pack by seasons end.

As some of you know I check into some political blogs to keep myself informed of the 'news'. I saw an interesting post that lead me to RealClearPolitics' play-money '08 market powered by Intrade. Wow! How fun is this! Register and try it out. Talk about a cool fantasy 'league'.

GOP Senate in 08, a contract/stock that seems to be doing well for me at the moment.

Update: GOP Senate contract is down. Darn Dems.

It's done!

We finally finished the deck this week! Thanks to all of you who helped along the way! We couldn't have done it without your encouragement and advice. I've attached a few photos of the old deck we tore down, a few photos of the new deck being constructed, and a few photos of the completed deck.

Julio

Jeanne, Belldar, and I took a little hike today through Forest Park here in P-town, and we stopped by the Audobon Society of Portland. They rescued and raised this Great Horned Owl, cutely named Julio. Being raised by humans made him super friendly. Beautiful bird!

A Winter Hawthorne Bridge

A New Year's Eve Engagement

Took this photo the night our good friends Mike and Lianne became engaged. Thought I'd post it for them.

White-breasted Nuthatch

It was beautiful this last weekend, perfect for a Sunday stroll through the Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge. Jeanne and I joined Andy, Joanne, and Dave Crisman taking in the sun, views, smells, and sounds. And of course, we saw plenty o' bird life; tree swallows, yellow-rumped warblers, red-tailed hawks, bald eagles, killdeer, mallard and pintail ducks, downy woodpeckers, hairy woodpeckers, and white-breasted nuthatches. Dave and Andy, be sure to comment and let me know on the ones I missed. I know I did. A few photos of our outing follows.

03/07/07

No script. I figured I labor over python code all day why bore everyone with a nerdy post in said coding language. I am not a nerd.

My old AMD 700+ machine is ready for an update. I kicked started that guy the other day and was screaming 'need new updated kernel'. And I'm thinking of giving it Zope for some web server goodness. Oh, and my assassin character for Guild Wars is a level five! Played a few hours tonight.

Work was well today. On the xmms player today was Wilco. Looped the song 'Spiders (Kidsmoke)'. Great tune. Off a great album. Highly recommend it. Go get it. If you don't like it, sorry.

The following are pictures from a January Whistler trip. Global warming was evident. Heh heh, yeah. Right. And today I read NY and surrounding areas are under winter advisory warnings. Again. Threatening to postpone global warming conferences. Again. I better post the snapshots before ranting about Gore's monthly energy bill.

Debugging

Perfection takes time. So my 'daily' script will have to wait for publication.

I have a router again. Power.

That is all.

Router demise

Ah, the middle of January. Still winter, almost spring, summer is a short few months away, than comes fall, my favorite season of the year (next to winter and spring of course). Harrod's of London to start their Christmas season again in August? I say yes. Why you ask? They are wise.

My router died today. Rest in peace my fair and just firewalling genius. So what was there to do today? Um, nothing. I made quesadillas, with re-fried beans and tomatoes. It was a very satisfying supper enhanced by the entertaining 2 hour epic Beetlejuice which aired on channel 110. I'll always strongly contend that the film was loosely based on true events. Desert was Tillamook cookies-n-cream ice cream. Heaven in a carton. Try it. Yummy in the tummy.

Waiting for a replacement router. I'm currently using the neighbor's wireless to write this blog entry on the internet. Why people do not secure their routers continues to eat at my brain like flesh eating bacteria. Here are instructions, plus or minus manufacturer specifics. First, bring up a browser. Second, type in 198.162.1.1. Third, default username/password entries usually are admin/admin. Fourth, enter an SSID. Fifth, do not broadcast the SSID. Sixth, configure a WEP 64 or 128 bit key. Seventh, click save. Easy. Peasy. Eighth, share the SSID and WEP key carefully. Echoing Deep Throat and X from the X-files, 'Trust no one'. Good advice.

Monday tomorrow. I like mondays. I look forward to telling co-workers 'Looks like someone has the case of the mondays'. 'Office Space', another true epic. I also look forward to gracing you all and my blog with a python representation of my typical work day. Interesting and fun, blogging and work. And me. I rock. Like Motley Crue. And Winger.

Til' next time.

Postscript. Goodnight.

Postscript. Postscript. I have re-'scripted' the previous postscript since I last hit the publish button. I mentioned Peet's producing in my belly flatulence. Hmmm, I am not so sure it was that. I believe it to be the pickled asparagus I snacked on earlier in the day. Just wanted to set the record straight.

Neato map of the Internet

Map here, and the author's blog entry of some of the work that went into it can be found here.

Rocky Balboa

"No matter what, you can overcome your past. With help, if you look to God, you can overcome your past and be reborn."

Halo 3

The public-beta version of Halo 3 is said to be available in the spring. Read the details here. And below is a new screenshot of Master Chief.

Linus Torvalds

Time magazine has a feature honoring heroes from the past sixty years. Linus made the list. The page honoring him is here. See the full list of those honored here.

Nov 5 2006 - Heather's BDay

Shootin' pool at Ringlers...


...Ringlers...


...Ringlers.


Yummy, yummy ice cream cake!

Oct 31 2006 - Halloween

Kaia the pirate! Arrrr!