Sad

Sad
Originally uploaded by Averain

I was supposed to be on my way to see this today, but things happen in life that you hadn't planned for. Anyway, my poor little car which I love very much suddenly developed a problem in the power steering and the dealership pointed out that I am still under warranty and, better yet, that would cover the delivery of the car for service as well as its return (which is pretty cool, actually).

But just look at the poor little thing. Doesn't it look like a sad little person on that truck?

Snowmobile

Snowmobile
Originally uploaded by Averain

This thing is in our Christmas Parade every year and every year I think of how cool it would be to ride around in it in the snow. Elena told me I should go and get lost in the snow and then I could get a ride but that sounds a little dangerous.

Rock and Roll Lifestyle

One of the greatest songs ever.

My favorite part:

"Excess ain't rebellion, you're drinkin' what they're selling. Your self-destruction doesn't hurt them. Your chaos won't convert them."

Ghost Stories

Haunted Driveway
Originally uploaded by Averain

It is that time of year and I thought I would post some of my favorite spots for reading ghost stories:

http://www.horrormasters.com/Themes/Haunted_Houses.htm
http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/authors/l#a272 (Le Fanu is amazing)
http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/authors/j#a2768 (M. R. James is my favorite ghost story author of all time.)
http://gaslight.mtroyal.ca/

Relay For Life Ridgecrest 2008

Relay For Life Ridgecrest 2008
Originally uploaded by Averain

I participated in the Relay for Life again this year and it was a great experience. I highly recommend it.

Political Speech (aka. Lying)

From this article:

"We don't have a lot of leeway on time. One of the individuals in the caucus today talked about a major insurance company. A major insurance company -- one with a name that everyone knows that's on the verge of going bankrupt. That's what this is all about," Reid said prior to the Senate's approval of the $700 billion bailout bill.

and from a little later in the article:

A spokesman for Sen. Reid backtracked a bit Thursday and said that the senator was not aware of any company being in danger of bankruptcy.

"Senator Reid is not personally aware of any particular company being on the verge of bankruptcy. He has no special knowledge about [a bankruptcy] nor has he talked to any insurance company officials," said Jim Manley, spokesman for Sen. Reid, in an email to CNNMoney.com.

"Rather, his comments were meant to refer to the conditions in the financial sector generally. He regrets any confusion his comments may have caused," Manley added.

So saying, "One of the individuals in the caucus today talked about a major insurance company ... one with a name that everyone knows that's on the verge of going bankrupt" is meant to "refer to the conditions in the financial sector generaly" and does not refer to "any particular company being on the verge of bankruptcy."

Right.

I wish our politicians could tell the truth, really I do. I guess that they would get voted out of office in favor of the lying ones (just like when somebody says they don't like a "negative campaign" and then votes against somebody on the ticket because of all the bad things they heard about them) but just once it would be refreshing to have them not flatly contradict themselves in public.

How to Increase Your Flickr Views

Little Cat
Originally uploaded by Averain

Apparently nothing quite brings up the Flickr view count like a picture of a cute cat. This one has my highest number of comments, the most group invites, and the most faves I've had on any photo since I started with Flickr.

The Most Dangerous Cake

I got this in an email today and thought it was too good to not share!

5 MINUTE CHOCOLATE MUG CAKE

1 Coffee Mug
4 tablespoons flour(that's plain flour, not self-rising)
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons baking cocoa
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons oil
3 tablespoons chocolate chips (optional) some nuts (optional)
Small splash of vanilla

Add dry ingredients to mug, and mix well . Add the egg and mix thoroughly.
Pour in the milk and oil and mix well.
Add the chocolate chips (if using) and vanilla, and mix again.
Put your mug in the microwave and cook for 3 minutes on high.
The cake will rise over the top of the mug, but don't be alarmed!

Allow to cool a little, and tip out onto a plate if desired. EAT!
(this can serve 2 if you want to share!)
And why is this the most dangerous cake recipe in the world?
Because now we are all only 5 minutes away from chocolate cake at any time of the day or night!

One Degree of Separation

A friend of mine from High School wrote the score for this movie, which just seems cool to me. I'm always amazed that anybody I know has a job like that.


DO AS I SAY - Official Trailer (1080p) from DO AS I SAY Movie on Vimeo.

Sweet, Sweet Basil

Sweet Basil
Originally uploaded by Averain

This is my great pride and joy, my sweet basil plant. When I planted it at the beginning of the season, it looked like this.

This may not be so impressive to you, but I have a thumb as brown as the fence in the background (note that I killed the tomato and jalapeno plant that used to share this barrel with the basil) so I'm quite pleased that this little plant grew so well. I'm a bit sad that its leaves are getting smaller as the season nears its end and I'll miss Caprese Salad and basil in my scrambled eggs, but I'll be buying a basil plant first thing next year when they show up at the stores.

The Desert

Power Line Sunset
Originally uploaded by Averain

I love the desert. I didn't used to, but now I love long stretches of nothing and dry air; dirt roads that stretch to the horizon.

Stroustrup, C++ and Java

In the June issue of SD Times there is an entire article on how "spec-laden" and "bloated" the Java language has become. When I read it I was immediately reminded of Bjarne Stroustrup (the inventor of C++) and what he said in response to the question, "Is Java the language you would have designed if you didn't have to be compatible with C?" Keep in mind that he wrote this when Java was considered superior to C++ for its simplicity and he was being mocked in the press for creating such a "bloated" language. This is from his FAQ:

Much of the relative simplicity of Java is - like for most new languages - partly an illusion and partly a function of its incompleteness. As time passes, Java will grow significantly in size and complexity. It will double or triple in size and grow implementation-dependent extensions or libraries. That is the way every commercially successful language has developed. Just look at any language you consider successful on a large scale. I know of no exceptions, and there are good reasons for this phenomenon.

When he wrote this (back in the 90's) people pooh-pooh'ed this statement and said he had sour grapes but of course you shouldn't second-guess somebody of Stroustrup's caliber because, of course, he was right, Java is "spec-laden" and "bloated" now but also, "there are good reasons for this."

Hummingbirds!

Whoa
Originally uploaded by Averain

We went to the annual Kern River Valley Hummingbird Celebration today which is one of my favorite things to do since it isn't every day that you can have Hummingbirds by the dozen dive bombing you. But this year I was especially excited since I had a new camera and no bird is as cool to catch in flight as a Hummingbird.

Taylor Creek Fish

Taylor Creek Fish
Originally uploaded by Averain

If you are ever at Lake Tahoe you should take the time to go and visit the Taylor Creek Stream Profile Chamber. First you get to take this great little nature walk through the woods and then you descend under the water level of the nearby stream into this little room which has windows on the side facing the stream so the stream actually flows right by the window. It is a neat idea and well executed.

The Taylor Creek Stream Profile Chamber is a short walk on the Rainbow Trail (a paved trail which is not at all strenuous) that leaves from the Visitor Center. You can park at the Taylor Creek Visitor Center which is located off of Highway 89 a few miles to the north of Camp Richardson which is just outside of South Lake.

Mariposa Lily

Mariposa Lily
Originally uploaded by Averain

This shot of a Mariposa Lily on the hike to Telescope Peak in Death Valley came out nice, I thought.

Best Day Ever

What an outstanding day! I started it off by giving Elena an early Anniversary present (a Coach coupon I had gotten from a friend, and a Coach store trip to use it in). Then we went to Panera Bread and they had their Tomato Mozzarella salad back again. It is a summer item, and one of my favorite dishes in the world, so I've been missing it pretty bad for almost a year now. Last year when the season ended I can still remember the disappointment when I went to a Panera Bread and they no longer had it on the menu. After that we went to Bowers Museum and got to see the Chinese Terra Cotta Warrior Exhibit, which was fantastic and then off to Macaroni Grill (which Elena and I love) and Chicken Florentine salad with Blackberry Mint tea.

Amazing, but the day wasn't over yet.

When we got back to the hotel we went swimming in both the indoor and outdoor pools (and the hot tub). Oh, did I mention I burned some Hilton Honors points so the hotel stay was free (and it is a great hotel). Elena even went in the pool (which is most unusual for her).

But still, the day wasn't over.

We are right across the street here from Angels Stadium and we knew there would be fireworks after the game so Elena reminded me to take a look and sure enough, there were fireworks. We watched them for awhile and then we realized that there were two fireworks shows going off at the same time and we had actually been watching the Disneyland fireworks show originally. So we could see both the Disneyland fireworks and the Angels game fireworks at the same time from our room window.

I mean, really. It doesn't get much better than that. My kids called it, "The Best Day Ever" (with a bow to Sponge Bob).

I've opened an Etsy shop!

And since this is my blog, I can advertise for free, wheeeeee! ;)

So yes, I've opened an Etsy shop, and to get it out of the way, you can find it here. I had been thinking that I ought to try again to sell some of the items I had made (mostly knit and crochet) and since I had zero luck trying to sell things locally, I hoped that the internet would give me a little more visibility. :) Etsy is a really cool site, it's like eBay in the sense that individuals use the site to sell their items, but unlike eBay it is not in the auction format, and with Etsy, the items are handmade. So if you're interested in buying handmade items, you should check it out. And if you are interested in buying bags of all kinds, you should definitely see my site. :)

This Makes No Sense!

On Tuesday here it was 107 degrees. Today it is 65 degrees. Where is this global warming I am hearing so much about!?

Security, The Eternal Concern

In the May 19th issue of eWeek there is an article on Web 2.0 wherein we find that "Enterprises are embracing Web 2.0, but they're keeping the technology close to home for now as security and liability concerns remain." I think it would be nice to read an article someday that talks about some technology for which security isn't a "concern." Of course security, being what it is, has an intrinsic property of subjectivity and so it will always be a "concern" in any endeavor.

Microsoft + Competition = "Innovation"

In the May issue of Visual Studio Magazine a letter to the editor bemoaned the fate of VB.NET as being a second-class member of the Visual Studio suite. Of course it is absolutely true that VB.NET is not given the same attention by Microsoft as C#, but why that should surprise anybody is beyond me. Language-wise Visual Basic has no competitors and Microsoft does not make it a practice of spending too much effort on product areas within which they have no competition. C#, of course, was created as a counterpoint to Java and therefore it behooves Microsoft to make certain that it is projected to the fore of the VS.NET languages and that maximum effort is spent on it.

Microsoft's practice of spending minimal effort until prompted by competition is clear enough when looking at the market share of Internet Explorer and placing that against Internet Explorer's release history. Notably, IE6 came out in mid-2001 when IE's market share was just about to reach its peak. IE7 did not even have a beta release until mid-2005 and it did not officially release until late 2006. Prior to IE7 Microsoft had released a version of IE about every other year. So when IE7 came out the market share for Internet Explorer had begun to fall. Now, by any estimation IE's falling market share during the years 2001-2006 was driven almost entirely by the rise of Firefox. It shouldn't be any surprise that one of the primary differentiators of Firefox was tabbed browsing and one of the primary features touted in IE7 is, you guessed it, tabbed browsing.

The fact that competition drives innovation is, of course, a foundation of a market economy. However, Microsoft seems to embody that principle more than most companies do.