Rayd.org Latest Blog Postshttp://www.rayd.orgWell! I don't think I'll be able to top that last post anytime soon, so let's just continue on, shall we? So Josh and I have been going out to eat a lot lately because cooking makes me feel like vomiting. This weekend, the topic of rudeness really came to mind while we were out. Scene 1: Five Guys Burgers and Fries. Some old guy didn't get his hamburger done the way he wanted, and proceeded to make a scene about it. He got very upset about it and loudly berated the kids behind the counter--twice. He told one girl to get lost because 'I don't want you.' Scene 2: Kirin House. A troupe of high schoolers come in dressed up like the cast of Jersey Shore. They had (who I assumed to be) someone's dad with them. He walks in and sees that the place is packed, and like Scene 1, proceeds to make a scene about it. 'I have a limousine waiting outside!' he says. 'Someone needs to leave NOW.' He continues to rudely berate the nice Asian waitress. I don't understand this being-rude-to-waiters thing. I can understand being annoyed that your food isn't done the way you asked, but is it really necessary to be a complete a-hole about it? Is it that difficult to nicely ask that your food be fixed? And to dude #1, it's a hamburger shop, not a 5 star restaurant. You're paying a few bucks for a sandwich. You don't like pickles? Pick them off and stop crying about it. And dude #2, just because you have a limo waiting doesn't get you out of waiting in line like everyone else. Maybe you should've made a reservation. Maybe you should've shown up before the dinner rush. Don't get me wrong--you have every right to get what you paid for, but don't be rude about it. Both of these situations made me uncomfortable, and I thought about getting up and punching those guys in their faces until their sense of entitlement deflated a bit. Scene 3: Ted's Montana Grill. We again were seated next to people who were unhappy with their food--two tables, in fact. But these people opted not to make a scene. They politely called the waiter over, told her what the problem was, and the waiter fixed it. Nobody was rude, nobody berated anybody, and everybody got what they wanted in the end. Was that so hard? I found it interesting that the people at the more expensive restaurant were more respectful than the people at the cheaper restaurants. Anyway, just wanted to vent about that. Moral of the story: be nice to your waiter/waitress. Because someone at the table next to you is silently judging you.http://www.gnomograms.com/?p=1143Melissahttp://www.gnomograms.com/?p=1143#commentsTue, 16 Mar 2010 14:34:32 -0400http://www.gnomograms.com/?p=1143FINISHED! I'm feeling pretty beat up right now, that race was brutal! The 10K race was two laps of the 5K run and I was spent after the 5K lap was done. I've been training for a while and I've worked up to about 3 miles so that second lap to get me to 6.2miles was just a mind game to keep my legs moving. I thought Atlantic Station would have been flatter than it was. The course ran by those townhomes (remember Tim and Stephen the ones with the light switch fireplaces...that brought back some memories) then out to Northside by IKEA and we ran up that hill and turned back down onto 17th. You know what the biggest morale killer is when running...having a mom pass you with her stroller. Aaaggh! After the race I went to the Flying Biscuit with some friends to replenish all those calories I burned. I just checked the results online and my official time was 54:00.72. I placed 23rd out of 41 in the male 25-29 group. And I placed 172 overall out of 586 total participants. Well, I'm off to bed. I had all these plans for projects around the house. Not going to happen.http://excalibur.rayd.org/?p=336excaliburhttp://excalibur.rayd.org/?p=336#commentsSun, 14 Mar 2010 15:42:16 -0400http://excalibur.rayd.org/?p=336Sunday at 8:30am I'll be running the ShamRock 'N Roll 10K Road Race. I was peer pressured into it from some guys at work that were already signed up. Both run half marathons pretty regularly and wanted me to join. I said 'fine, I'll run the 5K race though.' Then I heard things like, 'come on don't be a pansy, my wife is running the 10K race and YOU want to run the 5K?!' So I succumbed to the peer pressure and reluctantly signed up for the 10K. Now mind you I've never even run a full 5K before. That adventure race I did a while ago was 20 miles but half was mountain biking and the running was split up. And if you remember I finished the race that time just barely. We'll see how this turns out I guess. If you hear about a twenty something guy collapse in Atlantic Station during a road race...it will probably be me. I have been training a little bit. I'm up to running 3 miles in the evenings in my neighborhood. I've got my iPod shuffle (courtesy of Tim H.'s wedding, thank you) loaded with about an hour of music: AFI - Prayer Position Black Eyed Peas - Imma Be Beck - E-Pro Muse - Supermassive Black Hole The Almost - Monster Monster A Change of Pace - A Song the World Can Sing Aloud AFI - Medicate Anberlin - Godspeed Destroy the Runner - My Darkness AFI - Weathered Tome Anberlin - Audrey Start the Revolution Destroy the Runner - Columbia Anberlin - The Feel Good Drag Paramore - Decode Anberlin - Stationary Stationery http://excalibur.rayd.org/?p=335excaliburhttp://excalibur.rayd.org/?p=335#commentsWed, 10 Mar 2010 22:43:55 -0500http://excalibur.rayd.org/?p=335Well, I guess there's no more beating around the bush about this. I've thought long and hard on a creative way to say this, and I came up with a whole lot of nothing. So here you go: Yep. You are interpreting that photo correctly: I am knocked up. To answer the inevitable questions that will follow, here goes: It was a surprise. To us, I mean. Obviously to you guys as well. 10 weeks and counting. Yes, maybe I should've waited till 12 weeks, but I am having a hard time keeping this a secret. We'll find out if it's a boy or girl at 20 weeks, so you will be in the dark just as long as we are. Yes, we are excited. No, we have no idea what we've gotten ourselves into. This ultrasound was taken at 8 weeks. No, you can't name our baby. Yes, we've told our families. They are excited, too. Yes, I have been morning sick. Everything has been going smoothly except for running a really high fever a couple of weeks ago that caused some consternation (fevers are bad in the first trimester). But I have been assured by my doctor that since nothing bad has happened by now, things should be okay. Hopefully I didn't miss anything. I'll give you some time to let this sink in. Personally, it still hasn't sunk in for me.http://www.gnomograms.com/?p=1135Melissahttp://www.gnomograms.com/?p=1135#commentsSat, 06 Mar 2010 15:12:16 -0500http://www.gnomograms.com/?p=1135I just realized that my post title has two implications, both totally relevant to where I'm at now and what's in store for me, my family, and the next few months. We've begun the process to move out of our home in Alpharetta John's Creek down to Fayetteville/Peachtree City, and I've decided to leave Wordpress and darkphetus.rayd.org behind. OK, to tackle that in two parts. First off, Valerie and I contacted a Realtor and we've begun the process to list our current home and begin looking for new homes to move our family into. We've known since we bought the place in 2006 that we were going to have to move at some point to accommodate a larger family and a more permanent (read: long term) housing answer. Now with David turning two and our desire to not have a giant age gap between him and his sibling(s), we've decided to make the move this spring/summer. We're well aware of the housing situation and the fact that our house (along with everyone else's house, for that matter) has depreciated in value from when we bought it in 2006, but we can't wait around for an imaginary economic recovery to regain the lost value before we move, we're now just hoping to minimize the property value loss. To accomplish this, we're going to be investing in some high ROI upgrades and needed repairs to the house to prep it for sale. It's unfortunate that the house value has dropped, but that is somewhat out of our control and we're going to move forward with our plans to begin moving anyway. On the bright side, it's a buyers market out there and there are some fantastic properties to be had for a discount! Secondly, I hate Wordpress. It has become this giant, ugly, hulking, boring, tedious monstrosity to log into, post, update, maintain and deal with. If you want to know, a huge reason I don't post anymore like I used to is because other communication mediums like Google Reader, Twitter, and Facebook all have the ability to share information with the people I care about much much quicker, easier, and hassle free, they don't ask or require an investment of time or brainpower to be able to share a quip or a link that I found interesting with the people I think would care to read that sort of thing. Logging into Wordpress is like taking a rake to my brain and trying to scrape it for something new I haven't already shared with everyone via the above-mentioned sites. So to that end it was with great joy that I discovered Tumblr. It's refreshed my stance on posting things and given me new blogging life. It's premise is simple. It's idea of functionality sits between a full blown blog like Wordpress and a microblogging tool like Twitter. It allows you to share and connect with friends and see what they want people to see (like what our mainpage does) and allows you to post rich content with a few quick clicks or even via a mobile device. It's a site that has basically said 'hey, we know that blogging is a hassle, and microblogging loses some personality, here's a happy medium of the two.' BAM. Retain individuality of your own domain and presence on the web, allow quick-fire AND deep-thought posts, share rich web content (pictures, videos, chats, quotes, etc.) quickly with minimum of fuss and hassle? SIGN ME UP. So I did. Find the new site permanently at timandvalerie.com. I will still keep this site up, it's not a full blown migration, rather an interesting side experiment in revitalizing my blogging. Also, they currently don't have any mechanism of importing Wordpress posts into their ecosystem, so for the time being my legacy data will remain here. Just remember that all NEW content will be on the new domain. Farewell, sweet Wordpress chariot. Maybe someday we will rekindle that romance, but right now you're a busted old hag and I'm off for greener pastures. PEACE!http://darkphetus.rayd.org/?p=479Timhttp://darkphetus.rayd.org/?p=479#commentsFri, 05 Mar 2010 15:41:24 -0500http://darkphetus.rayd.org/?p=479Man, I have been in the foulest of moods the past couple of days. Why? Several reasons. Normally it doesn't bother me that the majority of my coworkers are male, but sometimes it just feels like I work at a damn sausage fest. It's like we're having a party where everyone is grilling bratwurst, and I'm the one who showed up with the potato salad. Not that that's the best analogy I ever thought of, but it's the first thing that came to mind. It's not that I'm on a different wavelength sometimes than these guys--it's that I'm on a different freaking planet. One that doesn't have fantasy football or motor cross or any type of discussion that requires men to compare lengths of anything. That's what irritates me. Do you have to be first at everything? Do you constantly have to prove that you're the best troubleshooter? I don't feel this need. It's not a friggin' competition to be the boss' golden boy. Is this a guy thing? Maybe not, but considering I'm surrounded by dudes, that's what it seems like. And then there's the dude in our NOC who INSISTS that I look like Annette Bening in An American President. And so he INSISTS on calling me Annette Bening every time he sees me. Do I look 52 (that's how old she is, I looked it up)? Do I look at all like this? No! Next time someone calls me Annette Bening, they're getting punched in the mouth. And then I was in a meeting yesterday where the leader of the meeting was chewing gum. With his mouth open. The whole time. And when he talked, you could see it dangling precariously out of his mouth. I almost lost my mind, people. It was the worst, most disgusting sight I've seen in days, maybe weeks. Gah. So I'm a little testy these last couple of days. Just don't chew gum around me, call me Annette Bening, or try to be better than everyone else.http://www.gnomograms.com/?p=1133Melissahttp://www.gnomograms.com/?p=1133#commentsThu, 04 Mar 2010 14:59:53 -0500http://www.gnomograms.com/?p=1133Things have been quite busy in the Riggan household. Taylor has been swamped with work, and I've just been surviving. Pregnancy can take a lot out of a girl, but the experience is even more difficult when you work night shift. Sleep is fleeting. I wake up every couple of hours just to go the restroom, and then you might not be able to sleep again because the baby starts to move. During the last trimester, it also gets more difficult to find a position that is comfortable enough to assist in falling asleep. Work has been every so crazy for me as well. I think work has either forgotten that I'm leaving for maternity leave or just doesn't care. The side projects and the work load hasn't eased up, and they've been giving me more responsibilities. Also, it doesn't help that my department is short staffed, and everyone who can escape, has done so. We're losing tenured people, so the number of people who actually know what's going on and can appropriately respond to any situation is dwindling very rapidly. I am just counting down the weeks when I'll be gone on maternity leave. Other than that, pregnancy has been good! This baby is healthy, is approximately 4 pounds and 4 ounces as of Friday, and is very active. So far, I've gained a total of 20 pounds, and my doctors do not want me to gain any more until the end of the pregnancy. I'm not sure how successful I'll be at that. I've already gained a pound since my checkup on Friday. :( At the rate that we've been going with posting here, the next post will be right before the birth of the baby! How exciting! http://www.rigganonline.com/?p=315Anitahttp://www.rigganonline.com/?p=315#commentsTue, 23 Feb 2010 05:46:39 -0500http://www.rigganonline.com/?p=315If you plan to start any plants from seed this year, it may be time to start them inside already (depending on what you're planting). Here's a link to the farmer's almanac's suggested starting time for seeds in Lawrenceville. I started eight plants already (okra, cantaloupe, tomato, chamomile, borage, marigold, cilantro, and basil) and will start more in a week or two. I also have my mint from last year as well as a bunch of strawberries since I let some runners sprout at the end of last season. I'll also be doing lettuce, spinach, radish, and garlic at least. And I want to go pick up some broccoli seeds if I can get a chance... I ordered some last year, but I guess Burpee had run out because that part of my order was cancelled. Despite being sick the past four days, today I moved my raised bed from where I put it last year to the back yard. Last year I made the mistake of choosing a sunny spot in February and not paying attention to nearby trees that filled out by April. It wasn't horrible, but it ended up not being as sunny as I'd have liked. I staked out the new location while building my fence last summer. Anyhow, get those seeds started.http://ardentfrost.rayd.org/?p=525Ardentfrosthttp://ardentfrost.rayd.org/?p=525#commentsSun, 21 Feb 2010 23:30:47 -0500http://ardentfrost.rayd.org/?p=525It just seems harder and harder to keep up posts on this site lately. Every time I think of things to post and just feel I'll get to it later, then later never happens. April and I are still around and hanging in there. We've still been traveling to Claxton every third weekend or so. Next week the power company will be installing there new power pole by our barn. I had an electrician install the service panel and bury the #2 (expensive!) wire from the barn to the service pole I installed. Chuck (April's Dad) and I dug a 4.5' hole and picked up the 20' pressure treated pole and put it in the ground. That wasn't too easy, it felt like we were install a mini-obelisk or something. With all that driving back and forth I've downloaded a few albums lately and my current favorite is the Zac Brown Band. I'm not really much a country music listener but this band and very good! Things are pretty decent at work. I've been going to a lot of out of town jobsites lately. I've been at this site in Knoxville where we are repairing a failed retaining wall. Yesterday I had a meeting with the Mississippi DOT over in Mississippi. Our client (block supplier) has his own single engine plane that he pilots. We took off from Charlie Brown in Fulton Co. and in about 2 hours we were in MS. That was my first time flying in a small four seater plane and I want one! The only down side for the pilot is that you are in constant contact with the ATC. You really aren't just flying around on your own and going anywhere you want. Our client was explaining all the instrumentation on the plane and the physics involved is very interesting, how the altimeter, air speed gauges work are pretty cool. The best part is just flying so low (7000ft) for such a long way. You're close enough to the ground to really make out a bunch of things. Well, that's about it for this post and I think it'll be another 2 weeks for my next one.http://excalibur.rayd.org/?p=334excaliburhttp://excalibur.rayd.org/?p=334#commentsFri, 19 Feb 2010 21:31:50 -0500http://excalibur.rayd.org/?p=334I've been up to my eyeballs in sewing projects lately. They're all for other people, and I'm to the point where I don't think I can accept any more work from anyone. I like sewing, but I also like doing other things. Like lying on the couch on my lazy bum watching TV. Sewing is cutting into my LOST time, people. When I am sewing, though, it helps my motivation to put on some tunes. Here's my current sewing playlist, for your amusement. Please don't judge me on the content of my iPod. Alright - Jamiroquai Amazon - M.I.A. Aqueous Transmission - Incubus Beware of the Boys (Mundian to Bach Ke) - Punjabi MC's Beyond the Sea - Bobby Darin Billie Jean - Michael Jackson Bittersweet Symphony - The Verve Bohemian Rapsody - Queen Boyz - M.I.A. Break It Down Again - Tears For Fears Buddy Holly - Weezer Buena Vista Social Club - Buena Vista Social Club Candela - Buena Vista Social Club Cecilia - Simon And Garfunkel Cocaine Habit - Old Crow Medicine Show Come Around (feat. Timbaland) - M.I.A. Comfortably Numb - Scissor Sisters Cosy in the Rocket - PSAPP Damn It Feels Good To Be A Gangster - Geto Boys Dashboard - Modest Mouse Dead Leaves & The Dirty Ground - Chris Thile Down Under - Men at Work Ecstasy - Rusted Root Eple - Royksopp Everybody Wants To Rule The World - Tears For Fears Everyone's At It - Lily Allen Finished Symphony - Hybrid Float On - Modest Mouse F*** You - Lily Allen Get Right - Jennifer Lopez Gold Lion - Yeah Yeah Yeahs Golden Years - David Bowie Gossip Folk - Missy Elliott Head Over Heels - Tears For Fears Honey - Erykah Badu Hotel Song - Regina Spektor Hung Up - Madonna I Feel It All - Feist If I Survive - Hybrid In The Waiting Line - Zero 7 Jump - Madonna Just Fine - Mary J Blige Lebanese Blonde - Thievery Corporation Like Eating Glass - Bloc Party Maneater - Nelly Furtado Nan You're A Window Shopper - Lily Allen New Slang - The Shins Nice Day (Album Version) - Persephone's Bees Oh My God - Kaiser Chiefs Private Idaho - The B-52's The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly) - Missy Elliott Ruby - Kaiser Chiefs Ruby Blue - Roisin Murphy Sea Legs - The Shins Shout - Tears For Fears Starry Eyed Surprise - Paul Oakenfold Take Your Mama - Scissor Sisters Too Young - Phoenix Tribute - Tenacious D Work It - Missy Elliott 15 Step - Radiohead It's a little eclectic, I know, but it keeps me entertained. It's snowing here today, and the ratio of people doing work to people not doing work is pretty low. It's like the snow has frozen everyone's will to work. I am just hoping we get to leave early so I can go home and play with Zoe in the snow. Anyone got any good snow plans? I just hope it doesn't freeze too bad and then I get stuck here overnight with these people. Can you imagine how that would be? Like an episode of The Office gone wrong. Now that I think of it, maybe you should just go ahead and send help.http://www.gnomograms.com/?p=1128Melissahttp://www.gnomograms.com/?p=1128#commentsFri, 12 Feb 2010 15:29:07 -0500http://www.gnomograms.com/?p=1128Don't you just love the weekends where there isn't much to do and you just lay around and get caught up on Tivo!? We stayed in town this weekend instead of heading down to Claxton. We spent Friday night doing a little restaurant hopping downtown with our friends that live off of Howell Mill. We went to this one burger place called Flip. Great burgers! A little small on the portions but great tasting food. The place is located at the end of the street that Craig, Eric and Christian lived while at Tech. We then had desert at Crepe Revolutions. This place had larger than normal crepes for a good price. Wonderful evening! Saturday I split some wood that we brought up from Claxton. It's live oak and it should burn well. Then we just did a little house cleaning and caught up on Tivo. Today nothing is planned and we love it that way. For a while we've been working our butts off in Claxton and when we stay home its some project around here or I'm in the office on the weekends. This weekend is nice in that it actually feels like a winter weekend! This coming up week at work I've got to head to Knoxville on Tuesday/ Wednesday to meet a driller to drill two 40' bore holes and install the casing for inclinometers. Later we'll install the inclinometer sensors in the casing that measure the tilt of the ground and upload the data every 2 hours via cell signal to a website. This area we are observing is behind a department store where a retaining wall has failed and is holding up the store. I'm a little nervous about installing all this stuff because I don't have the slightest clue what I'm doing. I've never seen the equipment or the process to install it, I'll just have to wing it with the drillers once we get up there. I just hope it all goes well. Beside this project, work has been pretty slow. All the erosion problems brought about by the rain in September have been designed and we really aren't seeing any more work come in from that event. We just hope that the warmer weather comes quick and people start building again. Historically this is a slow time anyway but I hope it picks up when it gets warm.http://excalibur.rayd.org/?p=333excaliburhttp://excalibur.rayd.org/?p=333#commentsSun, 31 Jan 2010 17:03:46 -0500http://excalibur.rayd.org/?p=333In keeping with Tim's post about the new year and how it is going thus far, I decided to give ya'll an update as to what we've been up to through today. After arriving back from our vaca to Europe in December, I was immediately forced back into work. Meaning we arrived home at 10:30pm on a Monday night and I was in the office at 7am the following Tuesday to implement a customer's new SQL Server environment. That first week back was really rough - 10 hour days at work followed by copious amounts of sleep in order to fight off the jet lag. Atleast the customer was easy to work with and understanding of my situation. The first week of January I had the 'pleasure' to fly to Toronto for my employer's annual all-hands meeting. So to recap I arrived back from Northern Europe the last Monday in December, was in town for less than a week, and had to turn around and fly back to the frigid north for work. I was at home hardly long enough to thaw out. Oh, and to top all of that off, I missed the first half of the Orange Bowl because I was at a dinner event. Believe me, I wasn't pleased about the whole situation. Also, I can safely say for certain that Canadians only know one sport - hockey. In order to catch the second half of the football game we went to a sports bar around the corner from our hotel. We had to ask a waitress to change one of the 25 televisions in the place (all showing the USA v Canada Junior Hockey Championship Game) over to the Orange Bowl. She gave us this look as if we just walked out of an insane asylum. After that I now have an even greater disdain for hockey. And for those that are curious, USA won that game 6-5. The remainder of January has been a whirlwind of balancing a handful of ongoing projects and writing proposals for other projects for which I have no clue when I'll have the time to do if we get the business. On the other hand, it feels good to be busy. It seems that the IT sector is leading the way in getting our nation's economy out of the duldrums. If things keep up, this year should be really exciting at work. In other news, Anita's pregnancy is going very well. She's having a hard time sleeping more than a few hours at a time. Compared to some of the horror stories I have heard from others, a bit of insomnia seems to be small potatoes. Oh, and the baby seems to get the hiccups about once every three days. It's quite funny to hear Anita say she couldn't sleep because the baby was spazing out with hiccups. ;-) The baby's room is coming along nicely as well. My parent's bought us a crib using some AMEX points. Anita and my mom have been out shopping for other nic-nacs (i.e. blankets, bumper, etc.). My mother is being a little overbearing with some of the stuff. If it gets much worse I'll end up having to say something (which I'm not looking forward to). I've heard from other guys that this is a normal event in the process of having a first child and especially a first grandchild.... oh joy. And to wrap up this post, a few have asked where we are registered. You can find our registries at Babies'RUS and Target. Cheers.http://www.rigganonline.com/?p=309Taylorhttp://www.rigganonline.com/?p=309#commentsSat, 30 Jan 2010 01:46:04 -0500http://www.rigganonline.com/?p=309'Ignorance is bliss until they take your bliss away.' So yeah, Happy New Years and all. I tweeted on the 15th of January that this year has not been a good year so far, and up until that point it wasn't too hot. As silly as it sounds now, I didn't particularly enjoy the Georgia Tech loss to Iowa in the Orange Bowl on the 5th and then subsequent Green Bay overtime loss to Arizona the following weekend. Yeah yeah I know, they're just football games, but contrasted to how uplifting the seasons had been up until that point, it was mightily heartbreaking. Then couple that with a realization that work inadvertently gave me a 5% pay cut when they stopped outsourcing their Human Resources department and brought it all in-house. So far they have explained to me that it was an unintentional mix-up and that the pay discrepancy will be fixed, but it was not a heartening sight to see that money missing from my paycheck I'll tell you that much. Life hasn't been all bad news though. David's 2nd birthday bash is coming up, and he's been quite the entertainer recently. He repeats everything you say, and he masters all sorts of complex stuff seemingly out of the blue. He also successfully used the potty a week ago, dropping a thunderdump that had Valerie and I in shock. (Don't worry, I got video of it after the fact. Yes, I said video. Gotta have something to torment the boy with when he gets older.) Valerie and I have been making small cosmetic updates to the house these last two months in preparation for selling it this spring. This weekend I got it on my task list to replace two horribly decrepit faucets with some shiny new ones (on sale too!). On deck, some painting, patchwork on some ceiling water damage, and a good carpet cleaning and home de-cluttering right before the list time, which hasn't been set in stone yet and is still kinda nebulous (we'd like to time it for when the weather starts reliably warming up). I've also started working out again, this time shifting my regimen to an early morning workout routine 4 days a week before heading into work. This involves me waking up and out of bed at 6:00 AM, on the road by 6:15, at the gym by 6:30, workout for an hour and then shower and ready to work by 8:30. So far I've been doing it for 2 weeks and I've been really encouraged at how well I've adjusted to going to bed a bit earlier at night and resisting the temptation to sleep in when the alarm goes off and it's still pitch black and freezing out. My plan it to make it 3 months then re-evaluate my situation then (also my gym membership expires in April, so I'll be forced to reconsider my workout routine anyway). My original plan was to follow the p90x routine of 3 months of muscle-confusion based workouts, sans the buy-ins for nutrition junk, but I didn't realize it was a program designed for the person without a gym membership who works out at home. So instead I've kinda loosely adapted the training pattern and principles to my morning workouts, without following the program step by step. I think that will work out just fine for me. And don't worry, I didn't pay for anything, I just happened to find some p90x information floating around in some noted pirate waters, if you catch my drift.  ;) In other awesome news, I got Assassin's Creed 2 for the XBOX 360 for Christmas, and it's a phenomenal game. I wouldn't shut up about it to a coworker of mine and HE ended up getting it and 'playing it until it was so late that my eyes were watering and I was half-falling asleep.' Good times. I just bought Mass Effect 2 (and dropped WoW) and gaming on the HD television just got awesome again. Valerie has been clamoring for me to buy a Wii (and the New Super Mario Bros. Wii and a Wii Fit and everything else Wii-related, she's really entranced with the system and the games available for it), but I'm holding off until the Wii 2 is  supposed to be released this year with full backwards compatibility and native HD output. Last bit of awesomeness to share. My new music hotness is Them Crooked Vultures, a supergroup consisting of ex-Nirvana and Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl on drums, Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones on bass, and Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age on guitars. I'm damn near addicted to their self titled debut, and I challenge any rock fan to listen to the album twice, and by the third listen if you're not bobbing your head then you must be deaf. Seriously. Yeah, it's got a Queens-ish vibe to the sound, but it's looser and more jam-influenced and it's been my workout mix of choice thus far.http://darkphetus.rayd.org/?p=476Timhttp://darkphetus.rayd.org/?p=476#commentsFri, 29 Jan 2010 16:05:40 -0500http://darkphetus.rayd.org/?p=476In big news around here, my car hit 100,000 miles yesterday: It took 10 years, but I finally made it. She's a good little car. To quote Star Wars, 'She may not look like much, but she's got it where it counts, kid.' She could totally make the Kessel run in less than 12 parsecs. Check it out, new quilt in progress: Liam's Quilt I'm rolling along quite nicely on it. In the end, it will look like this, except (much) larger and with different colors. An update on the whole trying-to-get-off-meds thing: I saw a new doctor this week for the next step in getting off mood medication (my old doctor moved to a new, far-away location). She told me flat out (and I quote), 'Your problems can't be fixed with therapy.' She also told me some other unhelpful, tear-inducing things that had me at a loss for words. Singularly the most frustrating, confusing, and unbelievable doctor's appointment I've ever had. Long story short, I won't be going back to see her. Unless maybe I feel like I need to be told I'm a bad person for wanting to make a change in my life. Because then, sure, I'll call her right up. Other things going on in our house: Josh has been brewing beer right and left. We literally have beer sitting around in random places in our house. Like in our bathtub at the moment. Not, like, a bathtub full of beer (you were picturing it, right? Gross), but rather a carboy full of beer, sitting in the bathtub. Covered by a black plastic bag. Which freaks me out every time I groggily get up in the morning and forget it's there (because from the corner of your eye it looks like a ominous, hulking black form). Apparently Josh puts it in the bathtub because the fermentation process could cause it to explode at any minute, or something like that. Exploding beer from a bathtub, folks. The line starts right over there. (Just kidding, I promise his beer has been very good so far. And so far there's only been one or two minor explosions.)http://www.gnomograms.com/?p=1120Melissahttp://www.gnomograms.com/?p=1120#commentsFri, 29 Jan 2010 14:33:08 -0500http://www.gnomograms.com/?p=1120I have to tell you about my new favorite place on the Interwebs: reddit.com. People post links, interesting stories, questions, etc., and you can comment on all of the above. You accrue 'karma' based on links and comments you post. It sounds silly, but it keeps me amused when my workload is light. Anyway, I posted a picture of the robot bag, and someone contacted me asking me to make bags for her. I'm very excited. The Internet is a cool place. I've started on my next quilt, too. It's for Liam, Josh's little brother (the 2 year old), made at the request of Josh's mom. I'm also very excited about it. I found the most perfect precut batch of batiks in the perfect colors (greens, browns, tans, and a few blues). Since it's precut in strips of 2.5', it saves me a lot of time--I have to cut about 300 2.5'x4.5' rectangles. It's going to be the biggest quilt I've made so far (a queen). Anyway, I think it's going to turn out very nice. Now for an abrupt change in subject. I'm embarking on a bit of a mental health journey, you might say. I've mentioned on here numerous times that I have issues with my moods, anxiety, and depression. I don't need to rehash it all again. By society's way of thinking, these issues are not something you talk about in public, but you know what? Screw that. I'm going to talk about it. You can stop reading now if you don't want to hear (read) about it. I've been off and on anti-depressants for the past 5 years or so. For the past year, I've been on a combination of a mood stabilizer and an anti-depressant. Medication has always worked really well for me, even with the wonky side effects that come with these types of drugs. They never changed my personality or anything like that. They just leveled out my moods so that I wouldn't overreact in the extreme to certain triggers. They helped me get back to where I could function on a daily basis. I'm not exaggerating here--you can ask Josh sometime if you don't believe how bad it got from time to time. Anyway, I made the decision recently be weaned off the medication. The decision was twofold. One, Josh and I would like to start a family (!) in the next year or so (pick your jaws up off the floor, please). I want to be med-free when I'm pregnant. Two, I read somewhere that therapy can rewire your brain just as well as medication can. That intrigued me. I wish I could find the article about it. I'm also scared of how my body will react when I stop taking the meds, and I want to have some sort of support mechanism in place in case things get bad again. So I decided I wanted to try therapy in place of medication. Ok, I guess that was a threefold decision, but whatever. I had my first meeting with my therapist yesterday. It was a little weird, considering I'm going through a 'good' phase at the moment where I don't feel crazy or in need of help. So I pretty much had to talk about how I used to feel when things were bad. The therapist just basically asked me a lot of questions about myself. I guess that's standard for a first visit. I brought up the things I want to work on (moods, anxiety), and she tried to get an idea of how to help me. I go back in two weeks, and we'll see how things go from there. I hope it helps. It would be nice if I never have to go back on meds again. I hope things don't go downhill after I stop taking them--I'm really worried about this. But the possibility of permanently feeling good is outweighing that worry. I want to work really hard on making myself a better me. So here goes...http://www.gnomograms.com/?p=1115Melissahttp://www.gnomograms.com/?p=1115#commentsFri, 15 Jan 2010 10:53:22 -0500http://www.gnomograms.com/?p=1115Dude, I totally took a picture of the stars! Specifically, the Orion constellation. I just had to share it because I'm really proud of it: Go, go, gadget camera!http://www.gnomograms.com/2010/01/12/just-popping-in-to-share/Melissahttp://www.gnomograms.com/2010/01/12/just-popping-in-to-share/#commentsTue, 12 Jan 2010 17:31:29 -0500http://www.gnomograms.com/2010/01/12/just-popping-in-to-share/I just realized that it's been over six months since we last posted, so I want to let everyone know that Anna and I are still here and we're both doing well. I know I'm going to forget to mention something here, but some good things have definitely happened since the last post: Anna, as we mentioned before, graduated in July 2009 with her Master's Degree in Occupational Therapy.  In August 2009, Anna began working as a full-time occupational therapist at a local rehab hospital. I am finally a college graduate with a Bachelor of Science in Information Technology degree.  I finished college classes in July 2009, and I walked in my commencement ceremony in September 2009. In October 2009, I was promoted to applications programmer at work, so I can now say that I am a full-time programmer again. We attended a very cool Motor Trend Car Show in November 2009, but alas, our camera was out of commission.  A highlight for me was seeing a real DeLorean in person. We've caught a few shows and concerts over the last several months thanks to House Seats (which I highly recommend for any Vegas residents). Basically, we've been pretty busy with life in general, work, and whatever else has come our way.  I'll try to post more frequently so that everyone doesn't think we've fallen off the face of the earth.  See you next time.http://www.apandjoe.com/?p=239Joehttp://www.apandjoe.com/?p=239#commentsSun, 10 Jan 2010 23:50:42 -0500http://www.apandjoe.com/?p=239We got a bunch of snow yesterday and overnight up here in Canton. I tried to get out to work this morning but it was a no go. I left my driveway and noticed footprints in the middle of the road. I thought was weird since it wasn't a school day and the kids wouldn't be at the bus stop. I continued driving and got to the small downhill section in the neighborhood and started sliding. At this point I noticed several cars on the side of the road parked. Sometimes people do that since our driveways aren't that long but in this case they just didn't seem normal. I slid for about 10 feet and caught traction. I turned the corner and headed up a slight hill. While going about 5mph I shifted into 4x4 and continued up the hill. This hill was about as steep as the one I came down but about 5 times longer. At the top of the hill I noticed about 5-10 cars parked on the side of the road. I continued up the hill a ways before I started to slip and catch on all four wheels. I was able to hobble along for about 50' before I just couldn't go any farther. I slowly backed down into a driveway to turn around and go home. I hit more ice on the way back and I ended up just parking my car on the sidewalk behind 5 other cars. Luckily I've been going to jobsites lately so I changed my shoes from dress shoes into the boots I had in the car. I also had two pair of gloves that I put on. I opened the door and slipped and almost fell. I took a picture of all the cars (unless my boss needed proof) and called into work and told them I'd be late. I started the cold walk back to the house. Now I know where all the footprints came from! Now I've been home watching the news and waiting for it to warm up a bit. I just went back to the Jeep about an hour later and it's still all iced over and I met other neighbors doing the same thing. So I think I'm going to be stuck at the house today. Luckily I don't have much to do at the office. How is everyone else fairing in this snow?http://excalibur.rayd.org/?p=332excaliburhttp://excalibur.rayd.org/?p=332#commentsFri, 08 Jan 2010 10:42:14 -0500http://excalibur.rayd.org/?p=332Man, I have been having great fun with my new camera lately. Josh did good at coordinating with his family for Christmas this year--I got a bunch of accessories to go with the camera, too: A camera bag A 6GB memory card A lens hood A smart card reader A car charger for the camera battery With a gift card, I bought a couple of other camera goodies, too: A tripod A polarizing filter Anyway, that's more than enough accessories with which a person can get a good start. Here are some of my favorite pictures that I haven't already posted. Here's one of Gaby, mostly because she doesn't get near enough face time on this blahg: Here's a scary tree that Josh thought looked like the Whomping Willow. (Even though he's never read Harry Potter, somehow he knew this.): This is just a picture of the underside of the gazebo in downtown Lawrenceville: There are more fun pictures, but I posted them two entries ago. I hope to have a chance to take more pictures of things other than my pets soon--like the snow that is supposed to fall at some point today (c'mon, snow!). When I'm not taking pictures of mundane objects, I'm still keeping up with this whole quilting thing. I should be starting another quilt here soon. I've realized in the past year or so that Josh and I are hardcore hobbyists. We live for our extracurricular activities, and without them we'd be terminally bored. For me, it gives me another way to define myself outside of the scope of my job. Don't know about you, but I find that refreshing.http://www.gnomograms.com/?p=1108Melissahttp://www.gnomograms.com/?p=1108#commentsThu, 07 Jan 2010 15:01:49 -0500http://www.gnomograms.com/?p=1108I realized that we never recapped our Europe trip! We were so busy having fun and trying to acclimate back to the States that we haven't had much time to sit down and write. Here's a brief recap of everything we did overseas. Things we saw in the UK: -Cambridge -Stonehenge -Bath -Dover -London (British Museum, History Museum, National Gallery Museum, Westminster Abbey, etc.) Things we saw in Denmark: -Nina's and Michael's house -Nina's parent's house -The movie theater -Nina's friends house -The shopping mall Obviously, we didn't do a whole lot of traveling in Denmark. The weather was pretty crappy, so it was hard to drive around. We didn't mind, though, because we saw so much while in England that we were pretty tired from the first left of the trip. Coming home was a chore. We started off by waking up at 4AM Denmark time, which is 10PM EST time. We didn't get home until 10:30EST the next day. Yeah, not fun. Ever since we got back, we've been trying to unpack, settle back in, and working. Since we were gone for the holidays, we celebrated Christmas/New Years with my family on Saturday and then celebrated with Taylor's family on Sunday. We had a great time this weekend and got to share some of our gifts and pictures. Anybody get some good presents? Taylor and I didn't buy each other anything because the trip was our gift to each other, but he ended up getting his Flip and an upgrade on his computer. We received some money from Taylor's parents, so I'm going to get a digital SLR camera, most likely just like the one Mel got for Christmas. Another thing I got this year was a new, used car! Well, Taylor's mom got a new, used car for Christmas, so I got her old Volvo. It's the same year as my Corolla but has about 30K less miles and has more options. We plan on using this car for another year or so, and it should be a great starter baby car. BTW, baby update: 25 weeks now and counting. Belly, still doesn't look that big, but everything is growing normally. Well, that's a quick recap. I hope everyone had a great holiday! http://www.rigganonline.com/?p=306Anitahttp://www.rigganonline.com/?p=306#commentsTue, 05 Jan 2010 04:08:51 -0500http://www.rigganonline.com/?p=306I've done this meme the last few years, and it's time to do it again. I originally got it from Sundry, my favorite blogger. Now I'm passing it on to you. Again. 1. What did you do in 2009 that you’d never done before? Learned how to sew. Shot a rifle for the first time. Visited wine country in Sonoma, California. Saw Devo and the B-52's in concert. 2. Did you keep your New Year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year? I normally don't make New Year's resolutions, but for 2010 I'm resolving to lose weight and get in better shape. I've gained weight as a combination of being lazy and some medication I'm taking, and I'm starting to hate how I look. So this coming year, I want to feel more comfortable in my skin. 3. Did anyone close to you give birth? Several friends give birth, and I have several other friends with babies on the way. 4. Did anyone close to you die? Yes, my grandfather died in May. 5. What countries did you visit? Does California count? It's practically another country. 6. What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009? More self confidence. More friends. 7. What dates from 2009 will remain etched upon your memory and why? May 11th - the day my grandfather died. Quite possibly the saddest day in my life so far. I'll never forget sitting in my grandmother's living room with my family waiting for the funeral home to come take my grandfather away. I'll never forget how he looked that night. So frail, but so peaceful. 8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? I got a promotion at work--but the big achievement was that I finally got the stones to ask for it. 9. What was your biggest failure? I think my answer to this is the same as last year's: losing my cool over nothing. I've gotten much better about that, though, over the last year or so. 10. Did you suffer illness or injury? No. I've been surprisingly healthy this year. 11. What was the best thing you bought? I bought that sofa I was whining about in last year's 38 questions. 12. Whose behavior merited celebration? My grandmother's--for staying strong this year. 13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? Is it cliche to say Jon Gosselin's? 14. Where did most of your money go? Mortgage, man. 15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? I got pretty excited about our trip to San Francisco. I also geeked out over my new camera (as if you couldn't tell). 16. What song will always remind you of 2009? Anything by the B-52's. It will remind me that I totally got to see them live in 2009. So freakin' awesome. 17. Compared to this time last year, are you: a) happier or sadder? Happier. Contented-er? That's my new word. b) thinner or fatter? Fatter, alas. But I'm planning on fixing that. c) richer or poorer? Happily, richer. Thanks to that promotion. 18. What do you wish you’d done more of? Geocaching. Hiking. Getting outside and exploring. Exercising. 19. What do you wish you’d done less of? Sleeping on the couch and sitting around on my lazy butt. 20. How will you be spending Christmas? Well Christmas is already past at this point. I spent Christmas Eve with Josh's family in Augusta, and Christmas Day, my entire family came over for dinner. Josh and I cooked all the food this year--a first for us. It was a lot of fun just hanging out with my nutty family. 21. Did you fall in love in 2009? I'd say I've fallen more in love with Zoe this year. She and I have bonded this year through walks and trips to the dog park. I think she respects me more than she used to. 22. What was your favorite TV program? The answer to this is always going to be LOST (until after 2010, when LOST will be no more. *weep*). 23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year? Nah. 24. What was the best book you read? An Echo in the Bone, Diana Gabaldon's latest book in the Outlander series. Love me some Diana Gabaldon--got to see her in person this year! 25. What was your greatest musical discovery? I haven't gotten into new music this year like I used to. This is mainly because I no longer have a job where I can plug into my iPod and zone out for a few hours. But let's see. I liked the new Regina Spektor album. Does that count? 26. What did you want and get? A sofa! A digital SLR camera! 27. What did you want and not get? A new phone. Stupid Verizon, not giving me my 'new every two.' 28. What was your favorite film of this year? I didn't see too many movies in the theater this year. Star Trek was pretty awesome. So was that new Harry Potter movie. 29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I turned 28 this year. I don't remember doing anything spectacular for my birthday. I think it was happily low-key this year. 30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? I honestly can't think of anything. 2009 was a pretty good year, it seems. 31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2009? Blue Jeans Match Anything, Don't They? 32. What kept you sane? Sewing. When I'm sewing, I'm not thinking about anything else. It's liberating. 33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? Hmm, I thought Chris Pine in Star Trek was pretty easy on the eyes. 34. What political issue stirred you the most? I haven't really paid that much attention to political issues this year, but I hear that healthcare thing has gotten a lot of people all in a tizzy. 35. Who did you miss? My grandfather. 36. Who was the best new person you met? Josh and I met this cool couple, Jamal and Jessica, when we went to a meetup.com beer club group. They were super easy to talk to and very fun to hang out with. 37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2009. Be persistent. If you want something, sometimes you have to ask for it. 38. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year: Every year, this is what always pops into my head for this question. It always seems to fit, and I can't think of anything better at the moment: It's been a long December, And there's reason to believe Maybe this year will be better than the last.http://www.gnomograms.com/?p=1101Melissahttp://www.gnomograms.com/?p=1101#commentsThu, 31 Dec 2009 11:48:48 -0500http://www.gnomograms.com/?p=1101About two months ago I decided I should try my hand at brewing my own beer at home. I started reading about it and borrowed a brew kit from a friend. Well, after weeks of fermenting and bottle conditioning, I cracked open my first bottle this past weekend. It was pretty dang good for my first go! It's a Belgian Ale from an ingredient kit by True Brew which I'm guessing is about 8% ABV (I didn't use a hydrometer for that batch). I wanted to go with a kit for my first one so I didn't need to know too much about the components. However, since then I spent a lot of time reading about it and found a recipe on homebrewtalk.com for my second batch, which will be an ESB. I purchased these ingredients from my local homebrew shop in Lilburn today. In case you're wondering, the paper bag has specialty grains in it (which are steeped in the muslin mesh bag in front of it), the large container is liquid malt extract, the vial in the glass is yeast, the gold packages are hops, the white powder is priming sugar (the additional sugar you put into the brew right before bottling for carbonation), and, of course, the bottle caps. And all this goes well with one of my xmas gifts from my dad: a really good brew kit. If you're thinking about getting your own, this one is a good deal since it comes with a carboy and is still under $100. You do still need a brew pot, though (which I also got for xmas). If anyone is interested in doing this on your own, it's a good bit of fun. Making a five gallon batch gets you two cases of beer. Doing an extract or partial mash beer will run you $30 - $40 (so about $0.70 per beer) which is ok, but after cost of equipment and bottles (unless you collect your own) it's not really a way to save money on beer. However, you end up making a beer that exists no where else and it's fun to let others taste what you've made. Here are a few reference links if anyone is interested: How to Brew: Everything you need to know Homebrew Talk: Forums and Wiki Midwest Supplies and Austin Homebrew Supply: Good suppliers, but local suppliers should be supported when possible, especially since they are helpful when you have questions. I'll be starting my ESB this weekend which will spend a week in the primary fermenter (big plastic bucket), two weeks in the secondary (glass carboy), then three weeks in the bottle. So I guess I'll tell you how it tastes come February :) It should be around a 5% ABV beer based on the recipe's listed OG and FG, and I'm hoping the time it spends in the secondary will clarify it a bit. I guess we'll see.http://ardentfrost.rayd.org/?p=517Ardentfrosthttp://ardentfrost.rayd.org/?p=517#commentsWed, 30 Dec 2009 21:25:45 -0500http://ardentfrost.rayd.org/?p=517Merry Christmas, dudes! Hope everyone's holidays are going well. Christmas has been great for Josh and me this year. We had my entire family over for Christmas day. It was our first time doing all the cooking, etc. for a family holiday, so that was challenging. But we pulled it off, and everyone had a good time. For Christmas, Josh gave me a digital SLR camera. So prepare yourselves--you'll be seeing a lot of pictures on here. Instead of writing a long post about the holidays, how about I give you pictures instead? First: general Christmas pictures. Christmas 2009 Second: pictures of our day trip up to the North Georgia mountains. A day at Robb's place I'm taking the next two days (in addition to today) off from work, so hopefully I'll have more fun opportunities to take pictures. By the way, if you're interested, this is the kind of camera I got. So far I LOVE it (in case you couldn't tell by the massive number of pictures I've taken in the past few days).http://www.gnomograms.com/?p=1097Melissahttp://www.gnomograms.com/?p=1097#commentsMon, 28 Dec 2009 22:59:21 -0500http://www.gnomograms.com/?p=1097The second half of our vacation is underway. We're currently sitting in Michael and Nina's living room in Hammerum, Denmark. Getting here has been a real chore. Our flight out of London was delayed by three hours. Moreover, the plane we were supposed to take was diverted to a different airport 35 miles from London. British Airways rented a bus and had all of us destined for Denmark transported to the airport where our plane was waiting for us. We're very thankful that they went to such lengths rather than canceling the flight. The United Kingdom leg of our trip was outstanding. My brother could not have done a better job in showing us a good time. We made multiple trips to London, a day trip to Cambridge, a day trip that included Stonehenge and Bath, and a day trip to Dover. Needless to say, we were exhausted when it was all said and done. I've got plenty of video and pictures to share, but for now I'll just leave you with a small tasting. Here is a picture of Anita and my brother, Alan, at Stonehenge and a video that I took just after arriving at Heathrow. From UK Trip - December 2009 http://www.rigganonline.com/?p=299Taylorhttp://www.rigganonline.com/?p=299#commentsWed, 23 Dec 2009 10:59:33 -0500http://www.rigganonline.com/?p=299Hello everybody! I thought I would post sooner than this, but to be honest with you, we have been moving nonstop since we got here. We're simply exhausted. Here's a recap of what's been going on here so far. We left Monday night to go to the airport. We were a little nervous because British Airways (which is the carrier for our entire trip) would not let us choose our seats for the flight out (stating we were on standby), and we had heard that the cabin crew would officially go on strike on December 22. However, once we got to the airport, we were able to check in and get bumped up in another class level. The plane we were one had 4 levels. Our flight out here was very smooth, we were given a snack, 2 meals, and 2 drink services. Once we arrived, Taylor's brother Alan met us at the airport, and we drove down to where he's staying which is in Alconbury, England. It took us about 2 hours to drive up. We were able to check into our hotel (a room on the air force base out here... for 40 US dollars a night... which is a steal!), ate some lunch, and then went out to see the local city. The time was still pretty early and since we were still tired, we went and watched a movie (2012) before eating dinner. For dinner, we ate at a pub called Manor House in Alconbury that served raw meat on a personalized hot stone. You then cooked your own piece of meat to your liking and had 2 side dishes to eat with it. We all ate lamb, and so far, that's my favorite meal. Yesterday, we rode the train into the city of London. We were able to see the London Eye, Big Ben, Parliament, walked by Westminster Abbey (which we'll go back to because Taylor wants to do the tour), Tower Bridge, and the Natural History Museum. We pretty much walked all day, and by the time we got back to the hotel, the three of us were exhausted. Today, Alan has to take care of some of his personal business, so we're taking it slow, sleeping in (well, Taylor is), and then heading into Cambridge. I know that we were warned how expensive London was, but dang... things are not cheap here. Also, the time change is very surreal. As I type this now, it's 7AM local, but all of you guys are probably sleeping as it's only 2AM EST. We've been taking video and pictures, but the internet connection has been iffy. You'll probably see me post and Taylor tweet, but that'll be the extent of the updates until we get home. Oh, and for those baby followers out there, I think my tummy got bigger since we've been there. He's been doing really well and moving a good bit. He's actually moving right now as I type this. The only issues I've had is that packing has been a pain to come over here because I could only really pack maternity clothes and that I've had to make sure that every location that had a bathroom, I made sure I hit it before moving on. Otherwise, it's been a great trip so far, and we wish you were all here with us! http://www.rigganonline.com/?p=295Anitahttp://www.rigganonline.com/?p=295#commentsThu, 17 Dec 2009 03:04:57 -0500http://www.rigganonline.com/?p=295I think it's been a family tradition for I don't know how long to drive around and look at all the lights people put up for Christmas. Ever since we bought our own house we've put a limited amount of lights outside. Usually I put up 3 strings around our 5 front bushes. This year I decided to decorate our front bradford pear as well. I used 400 lights and wrapped up the trunk and wrapped them around several branches up the tree. I'm not a fan of the multicolored lights so I only use the white lights. That leads me into a list of several my Christmas light pet peeves: 1. Blue lights. Nothing says Christmas like blue lights, right? WRONG. Blue lights have no place at Christmas. There is a person in our neighborhood that ALL THEY HAVE is one strand of blue rope lights around the trunk of their bradford pear. I mean these people actually took the time to wrap this hideous light strand around their tree and then consciously plug them in everyday! 2. Blinking Icicle Lights: I don't know about you but do real icicles blink where you live? No? So why do your icicle light representations blink? 3. Net Lights: Now this is one of those things that look great when done right or can make you look lazy. Case in point, in our neighborhood a house's net light strand is longer than their bush row so what is the most logical solution, just haphazardly throw the net lights over the Pompous Grass that ends their bush row. Classy. 4. More than 2 Blow Ups: Seriously, nothing says lazy/tacky like 21347 blow ups in your yard! And why oh why would have a blow up Manger Scene? That's the sign of a true Christian, Joseph, Mary and the baby Jesus blown over in the wind. Great job. Please follow these easy rules and I won't have to vandalize your property!http://excalibur.rayd.org/?p=331excaliburhttp://excalibur.rayd.org/?p=331#commentsSun, 13 Dec 2009 08:50:26 -0500http://excalibur.rayd.org/?p=331Howdy folks. Welcome to your monthly edition of 'that Tim don't post much on that thar website of his' type update. I promise that this time I will actually annotate something worth reading, like updates and poignant observations and such. Over the Thanksgiving holiday, Valerie and I took David on his second-ever flight up to the Washington D.C. area to spend some time with Valerie's brother Matt, who works in the Alexandria area for a government contractor. The flight was somewhat similar to our first time flying with David, in November of last year up to Chicago for my grandfather's funeral, except for a young boy that was a bit older and a flight that was a bit shorter. Both flights were uneventful, with David sitting on our laps for the flight (which you can do with small children), and the only pain point was the check bag fees for Delta ($20 a bag each way). With us checking two bags to head up there and the same two bags to fly back, that was $80 that Delta managed to squeeze out of us for a 4 day trip. Outrageous. If Southwest Airlines, who wisely doesn't charge a bag fee, actually flew into Atlanta, I'd fly with them in a heartbeat. But alas we'd have to drive to Birmingham to achieve that, and that sucks. As we are aught to do every Christmastime, here is an obligatory picture of our Christmas Tree. A simple motif, silver-themed and clear lights, and the extra hassle of keeping David from playing with the ornaments (actually not as big a deal as we were fearing). As requested, here is a link to my Amazon wish list for Christmas. Yes, I realize that its only 2 weeks until Christmas, so let me help all of my family and friends out that are planning on getting me a gift this year (since I'm apparently difficult to shop for?) I need clothing. Nice clothing. I'm a mens medium in shirts, and 32x30 in pant sizes If you see an item on the wishlist, they are there more as ideas rather than concrete examples of exactly the item I want. You can be creative if you see something on the list and go 'OK, he wants something like that, I think I can find something similar. I accept almost any xbox 360 video game as well, including THIS GAME RIGHT HERE. (hint hint) :) In other news, we have not jumped onto any new TV show bandwagons other than Mad Men, which is, and I'm not understating it, the best written show on TV. The ONLY shame is that this show isn't on HBO or something, because then they could REALLY push the content. Other than that, I got a few ideas of shows to catch, but a reminder here or there wouldn't hurt. Merry Christmas everyone, and let us know your plans for the 1st! 2010 here we come!http://darkphetus.rayd.org/?p=469Timhttp://darkphetus.rayd.org/?p=469#commentsThu, 10 Dec 2009 21:26:25 -0500http://darkphetus.rayd.org/?p=469We got our Christmas tree this weekend. We went to a Christmas tree farm with my family, picked out a tree, and decorated it. At the farm, we discovered a couple of things, the main point being that Zoe is OBSESSED with goats. And she's also not too good at taking photos. First, we tried to get Zoe to pose with Santa. You can see how well that worked out: Then we went to check out the goats. Zoe loves, loves, LOVES goats. Like, losing-her-mind loves goats. She wanted to hang out with the goats all morning. The feeling, unfortunately, was not mutual: Once we got the tree home, it was time to take our customary Christmas card photo. I give you: The Christmas Card Photo Outtakes. Outtake #1: The Blur Tool Effect. After that, we tried putting antlers on her. Because, duh, that's what you do when you have a dog. Dress it up cute and stuff. Outtake #2: I call it 'Do Not Want.' Outtake #3: I call this one (as my sister-in-law put it) 'Thuggin''. Here's our guard dog, guarding the Christmas tree. All in all, this trip was almost as entertaining as our trip to the Christmas tree farm with Josh's family. We went the Saturday after Thanksgiving, but we didn't get a tree because we had no way to get it home from South Carolina. But it was fun just the same. My sister-in-law brought her dogs and we brought Zoe. And of course we had to make them pose: That's Auggie (a St. Bernard puppy) on the left, Zoe in the middle, and Bentley (a Weimeraner) on the right. Dogs are so much fun. Anyway, I hope all of you have as much fun getting ready for Christmas as I have had this year. Good times have been had by all. http://www.gnomograms.com/?p=1079Melissahttp://www.gnomograms.com/?p=1079#commentsTue, 08 Dec 2009 10:00:12 -0500http://www.gnomograms.com/?p=1079First of all, today is freezing cold! I know that it's December and should be winter, but this frigid weather came out of nowhere after a weekend of such beautiful weather. That's Georgia for you! Anyway, I was thinking we should all meet up before the big black married man, also known as Michael, leaves the country for who knows how long. Anybody have suggestions? We're only here for two more weekends before we head out of the country ourselves, so time is very limited. We could meet up this upcoming Saturday before ACC championship game. We could meet up at a restaurant for dinner, or we're more than happy to host something at our house. If we do something at our house, everyone is welcome to stay to watch the game here too. Hopefully, it'll be warmer than it is today! What does everybody think? Dates? Suggestions? Come on, I gotta show off my growing belly to everybody before I seriously pop!http://www.rigganonline.com/?p=293Anitahttp://www.rigganonline.com/?p=293#commentsTue, 01 Dec 2009 15:24:55 -0500http://www.rigganonline.com/?p=293I was cleaning out my camera tonight, and I found this picture. I have no idea exactly what was happening in this picture. I have no idea exactly what it is that Gaby is doing with her back legs. Observe: If only that candle weren't in the way. I've been seriously bitten by the Christmas-decorating bug this year. This is the first year I've ever felt compelled to decorate our house for Christmas. Not only did I spend today decorating our house, but I also decorated my parents' house--inside and out. I did the outside lights in their front yard, and then Josh and I put together their Christmas tree. Alas, I didn't take any pictures. I did, however, take pictures of our house. First, the dining room: I'm having my whole family over for Christmas Day, so I felt like our dining room needed to reflect that. Also check out our fireplace. Homey, right? And the outside: The bright circles are snowflakes: While I was at my parents' house today, someone found a pair of antlers in the basement. So of course I did what anyone would do: I put them on the dog. Hilarity ensued: I just love that picture. My pets rock.http://www.gnomograms.com/?p=1072Melissahttp://www.gnomograms.com/?p=1072#commentsSun, 29 Nov 2009 21:40:01 -0500http://www.gnomograms.com/?p=1072So one of the things I find difficult about being in my late 20s is meeting people. I'm not in school anymore, so I don't have classmates around (and the friends I had in school have almost all moved away). I am not really involved in any activities, either. So how does a person my age make new friends? And has anyone else run into this? I'm not real sure of the answer to this, but one thing I did find that might help: meetup.com. I just stumbled across this site yesterday. Basically it's a site to keep track of 'meetup groups' around the country. I found a meetup group for knitters that meets 5 minutes from my house! Pretty cool. I plan on going to their next meeting. As someone who'd classify herself as shy, this idea fills me with no small amount of trepidation. I hope the people are cool, and I also hope I can manage to participate in the conversation. And as for the knitting, I have a pair of socks to make for Josh that desperately need to be worked on. In other news, Thanksgiving is tomorrow (you're shocked, right?). I plan on making these. With the metric ton of butter that goes into them, I'm quite positive I just gained 30 lbs by looking at the picture. In an effort to keep you an informed reader, I will be sure to let you know how they turn out. This just in--I have photographic evidence that Zoe and Gaby are BFFs: Note that the cat's foot is actually on the dog's face. They stayed this way for about 5 minutes--possibly the longest and the closest they've ever been to each other. Oh, before I go: I've been itching to go camping lately. About a year ago, we camped at Providence Canyon in west Georgia. Anybody have any good camping sites to recommend? I'm thinking about arranging a trip sometime over the Christmas break (I'm taking a few days off work).http://www.gnomograms.com/?p=1066Melissahttp://www.gnomograms.com/?p=1066#commentsWed, 25 Nov 2009 10:50:19 -0500http://www.gnomograms.com/?p=1066Last weekend I entered my first adventure race! Two guys from my Sunday School class asked me to join them for a team of three for this race. They asked me about 2 months ago and we've been training ever since. With all the rain we didn't really get enough training which was unfortunate. The race includes mountain biking and trail running. Some trails are bike only and others are either run or bike. There are 12 checkpoints to reach and they take precedence over your finish time. Each team has 6 hours to complete the race. We estimated this year for our team was about 10 miles biking and 10 miles running. If you've seen Band of Brothers, this race is held at the location of that old base. Part of the race is up 3 miles to top of the mountain. The race starts with a 1 mile out run to a checkpoint and then run back to 1 mile to the starting line again to get your map. This separates people so we aren't all right on top of each other. Once we got our map we decided to get checkpoint 1 first which was a 1.5 mile there are back checkpoint on the bikes. Everyone else went up Currahee mountain first. This worked out great for us in that at some checkpoints the team have to complete a small challenge, with all the teams together in the beginning, some had to wait in line to finish the challenges. We headed up Currahee after checkpoint 1 and about 1 mile up the trail I got a bad cramp in my calf. I was able to massage it better in a minute or so but it was aggravating me the rest of the race. We reached the top of the mountain, refilled our water and took a minute break eating energy gels (which are digusting!) and power bars before our long decent. We reached about 30mph on the decent and I was on the brakes pretty hard. Most of the next checkpoints were mainly running and I wasn't prepared as well for that I believe. Toward the end of the race we were running out of water and we were getting just plain exhausted. The last checkpoint was just one too many for me. I've always been intrigued with pushing my body farther than I thought I could do. I liked to be able to push the physical pain out of my mind and continue running, hiking, biking or whatever the activity is. I was doing that for the last few miles and was working well. That last checkpoint I found that I just couldn't push myself anymore. By this time we were about 18 miles and 4.5 hours into the race. I would tell my legs to run but I just couldn't do it. All I could do was walk. We finally got back to our bikes and headed back to the finish line. During the bike ride I was feeling real weird, like nothing I'd felt before. I think I'm pretty in tune with my body with all the hiking and biking I've been doing and the signals I was getting weren't good. I was nauseous and slightly dizzy and my muscles just weren't listening to me. Luckily the finish line was mostly downhill from where we were. We finish the race in 5 hours and 20 minutes. It was about 30 minutes faster than those guys did last year. We got our picture taken, then we headed to the car. I put down my bike, grabbed a Gatorade and sat in the grass under a tree. I just felt completely exhausted and I thought a little rest would get this back to normal. I dumped water over my head and drank a full Nalgene and half the Gatorade bottle. Then my hands started going numb, kind of like when they 'fall asleep' that tingley feeling you get. Then it started spreading all over. I laid down to rest more and the numbness became more intense. My friend went to grab the medic just to be safe. The other teammate stayed with me to make sure I was okay. It kind of peaked while he was getting the medic. My muscles started flexing and I wasn't controlling it. My hands for forced open and I couldn't move them. By the time the EMT came over that was slowly going away but I was starting to shiver all over. My back muscles hurt because I was shivering so much. I was talking to the EMT the whole time and he checked my blood pressure which was fine but he told my friends to feed some more of those energy gels. After about 10 minutes I started getting back to normal. What the EMT thinks is that my blood sugar dropped real low and I probably had a little bit of heat exhaustion. He stayed around for about another 15 minutes to make sure I was fine. On the way home I drank another gallon of water and was extremely hungry! When I got home I fixed myself a HUGE dinner. After a few days they posted the results online and we were 9th out of 14 teams that finished and 4th in the all men teams. Besides the EMT episode, everything was awesome! I really want to do this again but maybe next time exercise a little more. http://excalibur.rayd.org/?p=330excaliburhttp://excalibur.rayd.org/?p=330#commentsThu, 19 Nov 2009 20:34:30 -0500http://excalibur.rayd.org/?p=330Does good intentions count? I've been meaning to write, but I keep feeling like I don't have the time. Work has kept me pretty busy at night... well, and that's the only time I play my Facebook games. I try to go to sleep as soon as I get home, and I keep waking up at 1PM. NEVER FAILS. Doesn't matter how tired I am or if I take a sleeping aid, I immediately wake up at 1. It's quite annoying. I try to go back to sleep, but my mind starts racing, I can hear everything, so now I'm just embracing it. I just get up, do some work around the house, and then hope I get exhausted enough to go back to sleep. The only downfall is that when I do want to crash, it's usually when Taylor gets home. Poor guy. He doesn't get dinner. He won't watch the tv shows we TiVo because he'll wait for me to be able to watch it with him. Sorry honey. On a side note, I am having a level 2 ultrasound done tomorrow morning. This is the 3D ultrasound, and we'll be able to see all the baby's organs. We should also be able to find out the sex of the baby! If for some reason we're unable to determine the sex tomorrow, we have another ultrasound scheduled at the doctor's office on Dec 2nd. I've slowly started gaining weight. Today, I am at 19weeks, but you still can't really tell that I am preggo. I have a lower baby bump, but you probably won't notice unless you're looking for it. I did feel the baby move for the first time last week, and I notice movement more and more as soon as I wake up and lay there. Perhaps the baby is waking me up at 1. I blame everything on the baby. :) So, I'm sure the next post will be our announcement of the sex of the baby. Stay tuned!http://www.rigganonline.com/?p=291Anitahttp://www.rigganonline.com/?p=291#commentsThu, 19 Nov 2009 15:24:40 -0500http://www.rigganonline.com/?p=291Post about important stuff? Updates? Stories of David or the family or other stuff going on in our lives? Nah, that's too tough. Here are some funny pictures instead. They draw more traffic to the site anyway. http://darkphetus.rayd.org/?p=451Timhttp://darkphetus.rayd.org/?p=451#commentsMon, 16 Nov 2009 22:02:22 -0500http://darkphetus.rayd.org/?p=451Aside from making decisions about what path my career should take, I haven't been doing a whole lot of anything. But there are a couple of things I've been up to. Remember that Halloween dog walk I told you about? Well Zoe and I went--in the pouring rain, mind you--and had a pretty good time. There was a good amount of people there, considering the monsoon that was going on at the time. Several brave souls had dressed up their dogs for Halloween, but most (including me) did not. We took the dogs for a one mile walk (in the rain, through the mud, which the dogs loved. The people, not so much). Did I mention it was raining? Anyway, after the walk we saw a demonstration by the Georgia Disc Dogs. They had a couple of amazing Australian shepherds who could do all sorts of cool tricks with a Frisbee. After that was done, the organizers gave out awards. Zoe won the award for--wait for it--Biggest Dog. Shocking, I know. She won a UGA stadium blanket and several odd UGA bracelets. So several things that I will never use ever. Except for the blanket, which is being used by the cat for sleeping. Also I've been making stuff, like usual. Check out this elephant I made for Sara's baby shower: How cute is that?! I found the pattern on Etsy because all I do these days is browse Etsy in my free time (and make stuff). By the way, I listed a bag for sale on Etsy, so check it out. It's over there on the righthand sidebar. Also? I discovered I have a gift for creating things out of office supplies. A bunch of us from work are going bowling tomorrow ('Team Building Exercise '99, OOOooh!' Kudos if you get that.), and we're having a tournament. Behold, my super tacky bowling trophy: I am pretty proud of it. Nothing says awesome like a bunch of crap held together with rubber bands and Scotch tape. I am a GENIUS. And by GENIUS I mean 'weirdo who has too much free time.'http://www.gnomograms.com/?p=1061Melissahttp://www.gnomograms.com/?p=1061#commentsMon, 16 Nov 2009 17:22:06 -0500http://www.gnomograms.com/?p=1061I've been waiting to write about this for a little while now, but I had to wait until some things were finalized before I did (which happened today). So I had a job interview at Georgia Tech about a month or so ago. The position was an entry level network support specialist--basically doing similar work to what I do now. A day after my interview, my boss called me into his office and told me he was going to fix my salary and promote me from junior engineer to engineer. I've griped about my salary on here before, and I'd asked my boss on multiple occasions to remedy that. I would always get a vague promise and nothing to show for it. So it was kind of out of the blue that he told me this--especially a day after I had a job interview. I have two theories on this: a) he figured that my absence the day before was for a job interview, or b) one of my references (a coworker) went to him to tell him I was thinking about leaving. My money is on b. Anyway, up to this point I was super gung-ho to work for Georgia Tech. Like, seriously obsessed with working there. Josh always made it sound like this awesome place where everyone gets along, innovative work gets done, the halls are filled with ponies and moonbeams, and everyone there farts roses or something. So the promotion/raise threw a kink in my plans. It turned out the salary The Internet gave me was more than I expected to get, and the paperwork all went through a couple of weeks ago. What to do? Today I got called by Georgia Tech and was officially offered the job there. I turned it down. It was a really hard decision to make. On one hand, I had this job I'd been ogling for months dangling in front of me. On the other hand, I had the pay and status that I'd worked hard to achieve at my current job. There were good and bad things about both choices. My main gripe about The Internet had been my pay, and after that was fixed I found there wasn't really any major thing I disliked about it. Sure, it's a little dysfunctional at times, but every workplace is. To further reinforce this decision, I was told by reliable sources at Tech that I most likely wouldn't be happy there. So that also factored into my decision. Staying at The Internet seems like the responsible, right thing to do. It's not just the money, it's also that I feel like I've worked really hard to get where I am. The position at Tech would essentially be a step backwards (it's an entry level position). I still feel weird about it, though. I wanted it so bad for so long, and then in the end the best answer was no. My conclusion is that this is part of being an adult, doing the right thing for yourself and your family even when it's not glamorous. I am ultimately happy about it, but I still felt the need to go home and eat a giant bowl of pasta to convince myself that I made the right choice. Because somehow pasta is reassuring like that. So that's what's been going on around here. Glad to get that off my chest.http://www.gnomograms.com/?p=1057Melissahttp://www.gnomograms.com/?p=1057#commentsFri, 13 Nov 2009 20:19:16 -0500http://www.gnomograms.com/?p=1057Barn Progress Take a look at them and see how far we've come. It's taken about 1 year to so to get to this point. The first picture in the group is actually a few weekends after some clean up. I decided after a few weekends to take some pictures in a sort of time lapse so I could get an idea of what it used to look like. As you go through the pictures it's also neat to watch the changing of the seasons. We started with a falling apart pole barn with one part of the roof collapsed on the ground. We saved the main area though. Of the 8 main posts, 3 of the corners were badly water damaged and one corner wasn't attached at all! It took a lot of cutting and retrofitting of new 2x10 timbers to secure the posts and roof connections. We didn't have any power near the barn so all cuts were made with a hand saw or battery powered tools. Let me tell you, a reciprocating saw can really suck down the battery power. I'd use two battery packs during the day and recharge them at night. After the roof and poles were secure we cleaned up underneath and leveled it out for the concrete pour. We hired a guy to come in and pour it for us. When that was finished we started framing the walls and installed the windows. My dad bought us the front garage door for the barn. I wanted to use barn doors up front but the ground slopes up from the opening so they wouldn't work. I needed a roll-up type door and a traditional garage door was the cheapest solution. We bought it at Lowe's and I installed it myself. The spring system took a little bit of a learning curve but it all works now. I haven't built them yet but the back door will be two 8' by 4' red oak doors. I'm building them from scratch on the weekends down there in Claxton. I should finish those by Christmas. We still have the trim and some gutters to put up but I think that will wait until we move down there. I'm going to route the gutters into a 100 gallon tank behind the barn and use it to water the garden that will be next to the barn. That way I won't need to bore a well in that area. Probably this winter I'm going to talk to the power company about putting in a power box for the barn and then I'll start wiring it for power! More Power! I'm glad we are finally wrapping this project up. It was real fun to work on!http://excalibur.rayd.org/?p=329excaliburhttp://excalibur.rayd.org/?p=329#commentsFri, 13 Nov 2009 18:46:47 -0500http://excalibur.rayd.org/?p=329This has been driving me nuts for days. There is so little documentation on this out there I guess because it's a newer feature and Zend's reference manual is lacking. With Zend Framework 1.9.x, you can instantiate a lot of stuff automagically simply by adding specific commands to the config application.ini. For instance, in order to instantiate a Zend Layout, you simply have to add the line resources.layout.layoutPath = APPLICATION_PATH '/views/layouts' That is in lieu of a dozen or so lines in the bootstrap file. Then you can create your layout.phtml as you normally would in that layouts directory. The reference manual for Zend Application says you can do something similar for Zend Navigation (which is how you can generate menus, breadcrumbs, and a sitemap), however try as I might, I couldn't work it out. Finally I got it to work. So let's say you want to make a menu that looks like this: Home Login List Objects -> Add New Object (subpage of 'List Objects') And you have two controllers, index and object. Index has a login action, and object has an add action. Here's how you lay it out in application.ini resources.navigation.pages.home.label = 'Home' resources.navigation.pages.home.controller = 'index' resources.navigation.pages.home.action = 'index' resources.navigation.pages.login.label = 'Login' resources.navigation.pages.login.controller = 'index' resources.navigation.pages.login.action = 'login' resources.navigation.pages.object.label = 'List Objects' resources.navigation.pages.object.controller = 'object' resources.navigation.pages.object.action = 'index' resources.navigation.pages.object.pages.add.label = 'Add New Object' resources.navigation.pages.object.pages.add.controller = 'object' resources.navigation.pages.object.pages.add.action = 'add' I probably tried a dozen different things here before I got the format correct. That 'resources.navigation.pages' thing was messing me up the most, and I ended up figuring it out by first implementing it using the old bootstrap and xml config file method, then translating to this method. Also the Zend manual was using the word 'page' to represent a page name, which combined with the keyword 'pages' to be confusing. Anyhow, the above code can then be used like this in your view: < ?= $this->navigation()->menu() ?> or < ?= $this->navigation()->breadcrumbs() ?> It's easy in retrospect, but was pissing me off for a while. More examples online would have helped.http://ardentfrost.rayd.org/?p=502Ardentfrosthttp://ardentfrost.rayd.org/?p=502#commentsTue, 03 Nov 2009 16:14:27 -0500http://ardentfrost.rayd.org/?p=502Seeing as how I haven't posted in about 2.5 months, maybe it's time I let people know April and I are still alive and kickin'. Work life and home life has been crazy lately. With all this rain we've been crazy busy at work. I've been working about 45-50 hour weeks and April's been coaching cheerleading which keeps her busy two nights a week and on Saturdays. I think after this week work will finally slow down for both of us and we'll be able to finish up some projects around the house. Also, another reason why I haven't updated is because my computer was giving me problems. I finally decided to upgrade from my 80GB and 160GB IDE hard-drives to a nice new 500GB SATA drive. So plugged in the new drive to the motherboard and nothing. I then realized the motherboard didn't come with drivers preinstalled for SATA seeing as how it was new back then I guess. So I then tried to install the drivers from the original CD, no go. Even the 'new' drivers from the internet didn't work. I decided to just go ahead and build a new machine that was faster anyway. I met friend Brian and Microcenter to help me with the decisions. This is what I settled on: Asus M4A78TE motherboard AMD Phenom II X4 processor (funny story is that I actually bought the X3 processor but in the box was an X4!) 2GB DDR3 1333MHz RAM I also bought Vista with the free Windows 7 upgrade. So I currently have Vista installed and 7 will be here in 2-3 weeks. I LOVE the new machine! Mine plan for the old computer is to build it into an arcade system. I'll put a Nintendo emulator on it and build a full height box with joystick and push buttons and everything! That'll be my project in the spring time most likely. Nothing too much more happening here. We've been going to the property every three weeks or so. We are just about done with the barn and in a few weeks we'll be down again to harvest this years pecan crop! The yield doesn't look too bad, not the worst but not the best either. Hopefully I could make $50 or something out of it. So there you go, a snippet of our lives for the past couple of months.http://excalibur.rayd.org/?p=328excaliburhttp://excalibur.rayd.org/?p=328#commentsSun, 01 Nov 2009 20:05:24 -0500http://excalibur.rayd.org/?p=328I started a store on Etsy.com, so if you want to buy a bag, that's the way to go. Right now, I don't have anything posted because I only have like one bag ready to be sold, but I will take custom orders. So if you've seen a bag on here you like, go submit it to Etsy! Here's how you do it: 1. Go to http://melhutchins.etsy.com 2. Click on 'Request Custom Item' on the righthand sidebar. 3. Follow the instructions to request a custom item. I'm very excited, and I hope to have more bags available in the weeks to come. Normally you'd see my shop over there on the right sidebar, but since my shop is empty at the moment, there's just whitespace there. Check back often.http://www.gnomograms.com/?p=1055Melissahttp://www.gnomograms.com/?p=1055#commentsWed, 28 Oct 2009 14:16:12 -0400http://www.gnomograms.com/?p=1055Haven't written in awhile due to lack of riveting content. One thing I have been doing is making delicious pumpkin seeds. I found this Martha Stewart recipe, which makes me feel as though I have truly descended to the depths of domesticity. But dude, they are ever so tasty. I also made pumpkin bread recently from a real live pumpkin, but it was a bit of a disaster. Things were collapsing and mushy-fying all over the place. But the pumpkin seeds! Have I mentioned those yet? I've also been making things here and there when I have the time. No interesting pictures at the moment. I am toying with the idea of starting an Etsy shop. I figure I'll just make bags here and there when I can, then toss them up on Etsy and try to sell them. We'll see if this actually comes to fruition or not. Just an idea I've been tossing around. In other news, I passed my CCNA Security exam yesterday. This gets me another certification that will look good on a resume and possibly help in getting future jobs. The exam covered a lot of stuff about keeping the Internet secure, and I have to say I thought the course material was fairly interesting. I also got some good news at work yesterday which I can't disclose at the moment, but suffice to say it was something that was a long time coming. Anybody have any good Halloween plans? I'm thinking of taking Zoe to a Howl-o-ween dog walk (I didn't make up that name, someone else did) at a park near our house on Saturday. Despite my protests, Josh will not let me dress Zoe up as anything, so I'm going to tell everyone she's a polar bear. The walk actually is actually a benefit thing. A girl in my high school graduating class was killed by a drunk driver this year, and proceeds from the walk go to a scholarship fund that was set up by her parents. So it's for a good cause. How awesome is this fall weather (minus the monsoons we've been having lately)? We at our house have been enjoying it immensely. Zoe loses her mind in cool weather. But when she's not digging holes or chewing on something, she's as sweet as can be: http://www.gnomograms.com/?p=1051Melissahttp://www.gnomograms.com/?p=1051#commentsTue, 27 Oct 2009 15:18:00 -0400http://www.gnomograms.com/?p=1051I wanted to make a not-as-bad for you pumpkin pie because it's one food that I love this time of year, but hate to take in all those refined sugars. Plus, a friend at work has celiac disease which means he can't eat gluten and has a difficult time finding food he can enjoy without detriment to his health. So, I went around researching different recipes and put this one together. It uses honey instead of granulated sugar which makes it a little better... honey requires less processing by our bodies since the sugars have already been separated into fructose and sucrose by the bees. It has a slightly lower Glycemic Index value and generally takes less to get a similar sweet to regular sugar. It doesn't make it diabetic-friendly, but it certainly makes it friendlier. I also used almond meal as a base for the crust as opposed to flour. This is where gluten comes from in pumpkin pies and is a big source of refined sugars. In all, I came up with these nutritional stats per piece vs. standard pumpkin pie recipe as gleaned from nutritiondata.com: Calories: 243 (vs 316) Total Fat: 13g (vs 14g) Sugars: 26g (vs 41g) Protein: 7g (vs 7g) Total Carbs: 30g (vs 41g) The difference in carbs and sugar is fiber. So 4g of fiber in mine, 0 in the regular recipe. I thought it came out really well. The sweetness is more subdued than a classic recipe which makes it more pumpkiny. The guy at work also liked it, and Mel liked it even though she said she prefers more sweet. It isn't completely guilt-free, 26g of sugar per piece isn't exactly low, but it is a good bit better than the regular recipe. Also, since pumpkin is filling, it may be easier to turn down a second piece. Directions: Start by making an almond crust: 1.5 cup almond flour or almond meal 3 tablespoons melted butter 2-3 tablespoons honey (or artificial sweetener but I think honey tastes good here) You can make your own almond meal by taking raw almonds (not roasted or salted) and pulse grind them in a coffee grinder. If you grind too much, it'll turn to almond butter, however, so pulse until it looks good and broken up. Sift it, what falls through is almond meal, continue grinding what doesn't sift. It'll break out into a 1:2 ratio - 1 cup of raw almonds will become 2 cups of almond meal. Of course, if you use a sifter that you also use to sift wheat flour, make sure it's clean otherwise you ruin the 'gluten-free' part of this dish. Put the almond meal/flour and butter into a pie pan and mix together with your fingers until all the flour is clumping. Add the honey and use a silicon (nonstick) spatula to mix it in so you don't get as much on you. Use the same spatula to spread the mixture around the pan. Press the mixture down to compact it and press it out toward the edges. It'll want to gather at the corner, but keep pushing it up the side and try not to let it be too thin at the top or it'll have a tendency to burn while cooking. Put the crust in a preheated oven at 350 degrees. After 8 minutes watch it. It'll begin to brown and should be ready to pull out within 3 more minutes. Don't leave it in too long or it'll burn, and that can happen quickly. While that cools, you can make the pie filling: 2 eggs .5 cup honey 1.5 cup pumpkin (fresh is better, but canned is fine) 2/3 cup hot milk (I microwave it for about 30-45 seconds) 1 tablespoon melted butter 3/4 tsp ground nutmeg (buying whole nutmeg and using a rasp to shave your own tastes better) 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon 1/2 tsp salt 1/4 tsp ground ginger I use a hand mixer, but a stand mixer would probably be easier. In a mixing bowl, beat the eggs well. Once you start adding stuff, add them all slowly while continuing to beat the mixture. This is especially important with the honey since it will otherwise just stick to the bottom of your bowl. Add the honey first and slowly. Add the milk and butter next, both kinda slowly so if they're too hot, they won't scramble the eggs. Add all the spices next, they can be tossed in all at once. Finally add in the pumpkin. Once you're sure everything is well blended, pour into the previously prepared pie shell. Put into a preheated oven at 450 degrees for 10 minutes, then reduce the heat to 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until the filling is pretty firm. It may take even a few minutes longer than 25, it's just an estimate. I shake the pie back and forth to see how firm it is. A little movement in the very center is fine (at least for me). Let it cool for 30 minutes before cutting and serving. I like to serve this type of pie at room temperature and do not refrigerate for storage, just cover on the counter.http://ardentfrost.rayd.org/?p=489Ardentfrosthttp://ardentfrost.rayd.org/?p=489#commentsTue, 20 Oct 2009 13:20:06 -0400http://ardentfrost.rayd.org/?p=489The machine that sits at GT's root domain is one that's under my control. But, of course, I have nothing to do with GT's main website. So obviously I want to redirect people who type in the address in a browser without the 'www' to the www location. Unfortunately, installing Apache (or similar) on that machine isn't an option. It is a Linux box, however, so we can make it run a script when someone connects to the www port. In order to do something like this, you start by opening /etc/inetd.conf and adding this: www stream tcp nowait nobody [script location] That says on port www (which gets the number 80 from /etc/services) with a streaming socket over a TCP connection (TCP is generally stream, UDP is dgram) do not wait for the previous socket to close before running again (allow multiple simultaneous executions) run as user 'nobody' (the user doesn't have to be a real user on the system as long as permissions are set correctly) run [script] (which should be an absolute location) If you look in /etc/services you see that www can come across TCP or UDP, so both should really be handled: www dgram udp nowait nobody [script] Make sure your machine is listening on port 80: netstat -an | grep 80 tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:80 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN If not, you'll need to open that port with iptables which you can do like this: iptables -I INPUT -p tcp --dport 80 -j ACCEPT And do that for UDP as well. Now it's just a matter of making the script. It doesn't have to be complicated at all, and for me, since I just want to redirect to the www address, I simply echo the redirect headers as outlined in RFC 2616 Sections 6.1 and 10.3.2. Essentially they say that a 301 redirect only needs a Location header in addition to the Status line. I do this with a simple bash script: #!/bin/bash -r echo 'HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently' echo 'Location: http://www.gatech.edu/' echo exit Each echo causes a newline, and headers are supposed to end with two newlines. That's why there's an empty echo. To support older systems and methods of navigating the internet (like gopher) I did add a little HTML after that so that if the redirect isn't followed automatically, a link to the correct location would be provided, but what I have listed here is the minimum required for a 301 redirect. You can test with Telnet, Netcat (nc on Linux if it's installed), or Httpfox or Firebug in Firefox. I don't know why you'd want to, but you could even provide an actual webpage. The bash script would instead be #!/bin/bash -r echo 'HTTP/1.1 200 OK' echo 'Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8' echo cat [some file with HTML in it] exit Of course, bash is just what I used. PERL, PHP, or whatever other scripting-capable language would also work. Some browsers don't seem as reliable with this as others. Firefox works every time, but Safari sporadically doesn't follow the 301 for me. If you can install apache, using mod_rewrite to do a redirect would be far better.http://ardentfrost.rayd.org/?p=483Ardentfrosthttp://ardentfrost.rayd.org/?p=483#commentsFri, 16 Oct 2009 09:15:33 -0400http://ardentfrost.rayd.org/?p=483For those of you who don't know, I have returned to my overnight shift at work. Surprisingly, the transition has been smoother than expected. I have no problem staying awake at night. I just have a problem falling asleep during the day. Since I haven't been working in my department for the past two months, there's been lots of catching up to do. I think that's the only reason that I've been successful in staying awake. I actually went apple picking this past Saturday. Taylor and I went with my sister, her husband, and niece up to Hill Crest Orchards for the Apple Jubilee. The day was lots of fun! We got to go on a wagon ride, watch pigs race, watch a bee demonstration, and pick apples. The variety of apples to be picked wasn't as big as I wished they were. I think it's because it's the end of the season. However, the apples we did get are pretty high quality. This upcoming Thursday is a momentous day. That day, Taylor and I celebrate our fourth year wedding anniversary, and I'll officially be at the end of my first trimester. One down, two more to go! Unfortunately, Taylor is out of town this week, and because I started my night schedule, I haven't been feeling like doing anything once I get up from sleeping. That's it for now. Happy October everybody!http://www.rigganonline.com/?p=289Anitahttp://www.rigganonline.com/?p=289#commentsWed, 14 Oct 2009 06:36:50 -0400http://www.rigganonline.com/?p=289Had a maintenance window this morning (2am! Did you know there's a 2am? There is. It comes right after Way The Heck Early O'clock), so here I am, killing some time until Atlanta Bread Company opens. They don't open until 7am. Seriously! Some of us need fresh coffee and maybe a nice squishy muffin before 7am. In the meantime, have a gander at a couple of new bags: First, the robot bag for Sara (how cute is that fabric??): And second, the flowered bag for Anita (again, love the fabric): If you sent me an email via my 'Contact Me' form and you didn't get a response, that's probably because my form flaked out. So send it again to aDOTrockDOTlobsterATgmailDOTcom. Fill in the DOTs and the AT accordingly. In other news, Josh and I went on vacation a couple of weeks ago. We went to Myrtle Beach. Myrtle Beach is kind of the Panama City Beach of South Carolina: somewhat trashy in parts, but you could probably do a lot worse. We ate some good food, sat on the beach, slept late, etc. The kinds of things you do on a vacation. Good times were had by all. If you're wondering how we fared during all that flooding a few weeks ago, we and our house were fine. Our little hamlet of Lawrenceville made it to the national news, though. It was crazy to see L'ville on CNN.com. Luckily we don't live anywhere near a creek or river, but we definitely got enough rain to last awhile. I even heard Lake Lanier is actually a lake again. I'll leave you now so that I can continue to ponder the possibility of decent coffee and breakfast. You know, life's little things.http://www.gnomograms.com/?p=1045Melissahttp://www.gnomograms.com/?p=1045#commentsThu, 08 Oct 2009 06:07:26 -0400http://www.gnomograms.com/?p=1045My elementary school had a program called 'SOAR' which stood for Students On Active Research (whatever that means). In second grade you were invited to go if you excelled enough. The program would bus you off to another location one day a week where they aggregated all the elementary schools in the area into the program. In all there were about 20-30 kids from each school. So they send me to this thing and I can't even remember everything we did, but I remember I thought what we were doing was too easy to really be for smart kids. The logical conclusion, then, was that it was actually for stupid kids and they had lied to me to make me feel special and willing to go. I cried my eyes out over this. I was convinced that while they had removed the poor performers from class, the other kids were advancing unhindered by us. My parents and my teacher all tried to assure me that wasn't the case, but for about a month I didn't believe them. A few years after I left elementary school I heard some minority parents accused the program of being racist (even though there were certainly minorities with me in the program). The parents yelled and screamed until they changed the program so that all kids were in the 'smart' program.http://ardentfrost.rayd.org/?p=481Ardentfrosthttp://ardentfrost.rayd.org/?p=481#commentsSun, 04 Oct 2009 11:53:51 -0400http://ardentfrost.rayd.org/?p=481First off, congratulations to Taylor and Anita on their expecting of a little one. Exciting news, isn't it? It reminds me of when we were expecting David, way back in the day, before he had a name, or gender, or a room, or anything. A time when we would wake up in the morning and do... what? What the hell DID we do with our time before David? Before diapers, naps, snacks, playtime, all that stuff? It's hard to imagine now, seriously. I guess we just sat around and picked our butts, because I am at a loss. I DO know that I didn't have the chance to shoot the video you see here, and is one of best videos I've shot of him to date. Having babies also reminds me of the doctors visits, the confusion at getting insurance coverage setup for Valerie and David when he came, the deadlines and questions to get it all done, verifying if the paycheck deductions matched up and if we had the correct coverage with deductible... it was a freaking PAIN. And the worst part is that it's STILL a pain in the ass to deal with. Take this last doctor visit for David. It was his 18 month checkup, with a bevy of immunizations and height and weight checks, normal routine stuff that hasn't differed much from the first visit a week after he was born. This time when we went in, we were handed a clipboard that had some basic questions on it (Can your baby listen to verbal instructions? Can they point and describe objects? That sort of thing). We filled it out and went over it with the pediatrician, no problems, all looks good. A month later we got a BILL for the questionnaire. The pediatrician charged the insurance company $20.00 for the questionnaire, and the insurance company decided that it was not fully covered and paid $5 of the total and we got billed for the remainder. How ridiculous is that? In my humble engineering opinion, if there isn't a good enough reason that our medical system is broken, this highlights it EXACTLY. We weren't under the impression that filling out a 1 page questionnaire would incur costs to us, because it was never explained to us. The office went ahead and charged the insurance company for the document, expecting payment for it. When we called the pediatrician's office, they mentioned that 'yeah, we've had some issues with insurance companies not reimbursing the cost of the developmental questionnaire in full, we're not sure why that would happen, and we're really sorry, but you'll have to take it up with your insurance company for repayment.' Why does it have to be this way? Why did the doctors office feel it was okay to charge us for a basic skillset questionnaire for our child? Why on God's green earth did it cost $20 freaking dollars? What was the justification for that other than an attempt to nickel and dime some money from the insurance company? I'm totally with the insurance company not paying the charge, but now the onus is on the patient to pay the remainder of the bullshit charge once the insurance company washed their hands of it. I thought that was why I paid for insurance, to cover medical costs, but when the costs charged are bullshit, what recourse do I have? Switch to another insurance provider, away from my employer offered health care coverage, and pay an extreme premium for the privilege? Switch pediatricians to another one that no longer has a rapport with my child and probably commits the same type of fraud my current one does? How would I go about being an informed consumer on this? Do I straight up ask the pediatrician 'hey, do you routinely charge a patient's insurance provider with bullshit charges in an attempt to squeeze more revenue from a broken system?' Would you expect them to answer honestly? C'mon here. And another thing, why did I have to fill out a mandatory MUST REPLY IMMEDIATELY mailed questionnaire from my health insurance provider that made me list out any additional coverage I have for my wife or my child? Why should they care if I have one insurance policy or 100, and whether or not it covers them? Why is it enough to deny me coverage if I don't fill it out? It's the same deal with pre-existing conditions. Both of these events are just a little taste of what you have in store for you when you have kids, that is, unless something is done to make the process a little more SANE and STRAIGHTFORWARD. Sorry for the rant there. Hope you enjoy the video! (There, there is a positive ending.)http://darkphetus.rayd.org/?p=445Timhttp://darkphetus.rayd.org/?p=445#commentsWed, 30 Sep 2009 16:23:55 -0400http://darkphetus.rayd.org/?p=445Yes, we are bums about posting stuff lately. However, I don't want to inundate everybody with relentless pregnancy stories. Pregnancy has been strange and different, but it's definitely not as exciting as an actual baby. Because of the pregnancy, I've been craving a lot of fruit. At first, I was eating grapes nonstop. Now, I've been wanting apples. What I really want to do is go apple picking. There are a couple of orchards near Elijay, GA that have UPick days in the month of September and October. One of them, Hill Crest Orchards, does an apple festival. I want to go! Husband, will you take me apple picking? Can I bring friends and nieces too? Anyway, the coolest thing lately is that I got to hear the baby's heart beat through a sonogram yesterday. Sometimes, pregnancy is a little surreal because there is no evidence of pregnancy other than some nausea and other minor symptoms. I think it is really neat to get validation that there is a being inside of me when I get to hear the heartbeat. Well, I will let you know if I have successfully convinced Taylor to take my apple picking. Wish me luck! http://www.rigganonline.com/?p=287Anitahttp://www.rigganonline.com/?p=287#commentsTue, 29 Sep 2009 16:25:41 -0400http://www.rigganonline.com/?p=287I took a break from working yesterday to check out a few new shows for this fall... some are good, some bad, and some I'm not sure about yet. Flash Forward (ABC / 60 min length / Thu @ 8PM EST) - This one comes from a book written over a decade ago and is about a worldwide simultaneous unconsciousness that lasts for 2 minutes and 17 seconds where everyone sees what they are doing roughly 6 months in the future. Overall I liked the first episode and think there is potential, though it does seem like ABC is trying to make this the 'new' Lost (which ends next year). Definitely one of those things where the audience knows very little about what is going on with subtle clues and no shortage of cliffhangers. Also it has at least a few Lost actors playing parts, as well as (believe it or not) Seth Mcfarlane who plays an FBI agent. This is one that has gone into my Hulu queue and I would suggest others to check out. Community (NBC / 30 min length / Thu @ 9:30PM EST) - This is Joel McHale's delve into non-The Soup-related TV where he plays a disbarred lawyer attending community college in an attempt to get his old life back and ends up accidentally bringing together a group of misfits while he was trying to get into another student's pants. The writing is actually really funny, though it mostly centers around McHale's character's narcissism and ability to talk his way out of (or into) anything he wants. McHale doesn't have to pull the show completely by himself, though, as it does also have Chevy Chase playing a perverted old man who wants to be cool more than anything else. Overall it's difficult to relate to the characters, but that may just be me. I don't know if I see this series lasting long, but it is funny enough to enjoy while it does. Modern Family (ABC / 30 min length / Wed @ 9PM EST) - This one caught me by surprise since I had heard little about it before clicking on the first episode in Hulu. It's about three families connected by one of them being the biological father of members of the other two: a gay couple who just adopted a Vietnamese daughter; a husband and wife with three teenage-or-younger kids and a dad trying SO hard to be 'cool'; and an old man (played by Ed O'Neill of Al from Married with Children fame) married to a Hispanic woman and mother as old as his children. I kept wanting to say 'this show is dumb' but it really brought the funny. Rotating through focus on the three unique families at once keeps the show moving and not boring. As for the future of the show, I completely don't know... it could really go either way depending if it catches on or not. I think it has the quality, but they need to make sure people know to watch it. Cougar Town (ABC / 30 min length / Wed @ 9:30PM EST) - This one I had low expectations for and it didn't really disappoint. This is Courtney Cox's new show where she plays a recent divorcee in a town littered with 40+-something single women and young 20-something men with which to have sex. I gave the show a shot because it's done by Bill Lawrence who also did Scrubs. I really liked how quirky Scrubs was (until it dragged on to long) so thought maybe despite a silly premise he could recapture that. It is certainly quirky, and actually has a good bit of funny, but none of that overcame the awkward and ridiculous premise to me. On the other hand, how long has Desperate Housewives been going on? This show could very well tap into that market and be very successful, it's just not for a male edging out 30 I guess. Glee (Fox / 60 min length / Wed @ 9PM EST) - Ok, I know, but hear me out. This one isn't near as bad as I was expecting, though it does have me face-palming at times. It's about a newly-formed Glee club at a High School that has nothing going for it except an internationally-competing cheerleading squad, and how the Glee club continues to better the school against all odds. One of the best parts about the show is the head of the cheerleading squad played by Jane Lynch, who you will know as Paula (the boss) from The 40 Year Old Virgin. The show is a heaping mess of dysfunction, unrequited love, high school drama (without being too terribly angsty), and, of course, musical numbers. It's an oddly fun show, though I don't see myself continuing to watch it. There are 4 episodes so far and at the end of each one I would say to myself 'Ok, we can stop now' but then I'd watch the next one. Personally I think it'd be a lot better in a 30 minute time slot rather than a 60 minute one. Also they need to get rid of the main character's wife because she simply brings TOO much dysfunction to the show (even faking a pregnancy). It's another one where it can be difficult to relate to some of the characters, and I just don't see it being strong enough to survive Fox's axe. So that's what I've seen lately. Another one to look out for is V on ABC which is a reimagining of an 80's show of the same name about a race of aliens who show up to Earth touting peace and harmony, and a group of people who don't buy into that and form a resistance. It premieres on November 3 and may be an additional Lost replacement for ABC given what I've seen about it so far and that it has a number of Lost people playing parts in it. It also has the hot prostitute chick from Firefly/Serenity in it playing the main alien.http://ardentfrost.rayd.org/?p=476Ardentfrosthttp://ardentfrost.rayd.org/?p=476#commentsSun, 27 Sep 2009 10:50:06 -0400http://ardentfrost.rayd.org/?p=476If you're serious about wanting a bag from me, email me. If you don't have my email address, you can use the handy 'Contact Me' button on the top bar up there. I'm serious about making them, so bring it on. If you're looking for ideas on fabric, one of my favorite sites is here. And, of course, there's always Etsy.com. Lots of cool fabric to drool over. Some of my favorites? This one. This collection. This vintage-y-looking one. This one is quirky. This one is cool, too. I could probably go on all day. Josh and I are headed to Myrtle Beach for the next week. It hasn't really sunk in yet that we're going on vacation. I guess I haven't been stressed out at work so vacation kind of snuck up on me. If you know of anything cool to see/do in Myrtle Beach, let me know. I've never been there before, and I think Josh hasn't been there in years. I am looking forward to doing a lot of reading on the beach, maybe just doing a lot of nothing in general. Hooray, vacation.http://www.gnomograms.com/?p=1041Melissahttp://www.gnomograms.com/?p=1041#commentsFri, 11 Sep 2009 13:17:02 -0400http://www.gnomograms.com/?p=1041