Great Free Valentine’s Day Present
I created VirtualVow.com several years ago, and it’s passing over 20k virtual marriages this month.
It occured to me, as more and more virtual newlyweds sign up, that it would make a great free addition to any of the standard Valetine’s Day presents. So, if you’re thinking a dozen roses or a box of candy might not cut it for your special someone, how about getting married online!
I have never been a big fan of golfing… In fact, I was 20 the first time I went golfing with my dad at the old Rio Rancho Country Club. I had fun, but I wasn’t very good. Since then I’ve played a couple times a year at most.
On the other hand, my father, grandfather, and son LOVE to play golf. Jonah even started playing in the junior PGA this summer. My grandfather, being from Scotland, started playing as a kid too. I never played much because it’s so time consuming, and I’m one of those crazy people that truly enjoys his work.
My grandfather played golf twice a week for the past couple decades and because I wanted to spend some time with him I mentioned that if he ever needed a fourth, to let me know. So a few times this past spring and summer we were able to play a round. In fact, one time I was able to bring Jonah to play too.
I’m really glad we got to play.
Our “Kody Bear” died on the 23rd.
He hadn’t been eating much for a couple days, then on the 23rd, he puked up blood in the middle of the night, and then puked again (just water/bile) in the morning. He looked very bloated (he’d been getting larger over the past month or so, but we just thought he was getting chubby from not running around) so we took him to the vet.
They did some x-rays, and it turned out he had a large tumor on his spleen (apparently it’s a common aggressive thing for shepard breeds - and he was part shepard). He had so much fluid build up, the vet said it was hard to see many of his organs, but that it had likely spread (they couldn’t be 100% sure without invasive surgery). It was also likely that even if they did sugery, he wouldn’t ever fully recover and he’d have no quality of life (and be in a lot of pain).
We asked if we could bring him home to die, but the vet said it would get very “bad” - he would be in more and more pain, and he’d be vommiting more and more until his body gave out. He wasn’t in much (apparent) pain, but he was visibly uncomfortable (couldn’t find a way to lay down). We took the vet’s suggestion to put him to sleep. We took Jonah in to say goodbye, and Janet’s mom came in too. After Jonah left with his Grandma, we petted him for about 20 minutes until he was just about to fall asleep. The vet gave him the injection and he went peacefully to sleep.
My grandmother told Jonah on Christmas eve that Kody and Great-Grandpa wanted to play, and Kody would keep him company. 
I’d like to start out the “Grandpa Stories” with a little history of both of my grandparents. My grandfather was born in Scotland and grew up in Rosewell Scotland (just South of Edinburgh). His father was Thomas Murray, and was the manager for the company that ran the local mine (and basically the whole town). On an interesting contemporary note, the Roslin chapel in the Da Vinci Codes book is very close to where he lived.
He went to school at George Watson’s College and was vice-captain of the rugby team (picture coming soon - Uncle Alan is going to bring it over so I can scan it in). He actually got injured a lot playing rugby, and I think that’s where some of his knee issues came from - although most probably came from the plane crash (more on that in a later post). After completing school, at the age of 19, he decided to join the Royal Navy and become a pilot.
For training, he was to choose between Australia, Canada, or the U.S. My grandmother always used to tell him it was the luckiest decision he ever made (and she said yesterday that she was the luckiest from that decision . So, he came to Grosse Ile for training in the Grumman TBF Avenger Torpedo Bomber. While training there, he was invited to a local dance (like the USO, but not) for service men. My grandmother was there and noticed him. After him not making any moves toward her, she approached him and asked if he’d like to dance. His response was completely predictable (if you knew him). He said:
“I don’t dance, and I don’t like girls.” (with heavy Scottish accent).
But, they did talk for a long time, and were able to exchange contact information, and they had a date shortly thereafter. They went on a few more dates (always double-dating, since that would have been improper for any “alone time”).
I’m going to skip ahead because the dating and marriage is a whole other story. To sum up, they got married just before my grandfather was shipped back to the UK. It was a long time before my grandmother could return to grandpa’s arms in Scotland. When she finally arrived, it had been many months (about a year I think) since they’d seen each other. By then, my grandfather was stationed at an air base and was boarding with a local farmer.
The morning after their reunion, they stayed in their bedroom until late in the morning (at this point in the story my grandmother blushes quite a bit). They came out to the kitchen/dining room together and sat at the table for lunch, while the Farmer was already seated. The farmer looked at his watch and looked up at them. My grandmother, trying to make the best of it said “Just think, we didn’t have to eat any of the breakfast, so we didn’t cut into the rations!”
To which the farmer replied, in his thick accent: “Aye lass! But think of the wearrr and tearrr on the sheets!”
As some of you may have noticed, I haven’t been online as much in the past few months. This was due to a combination of selling one of the companies that required me to be online all the time and helping my grandparents.
In August of this year, my grandfather started having difficulty driving, so I would spend 3-5 days a week shuttling them around town to various appointments (doctors, eye doctors, shopping, blood tests, x-rays, dermatologists, etc…) Since I don’t have an official “full-time” job, it was easy for me to do, and I really didn’t mind - in fact it was great because I got to spend a lot of time with both of them.
During August and September I received several scary phone calls, usually in the morning. My grandfather had fallen several times, and due to his knees, he couldn’t get back up himself. I would hurry over as fast as possible to help him up - usually he wasn’t hurt, just couldn’t get back up. (I’m convinced that I drove over with the help of angels - I once drove by several police cars at triple digit speeds in the silver Ferrari, and they didn’t respond at all.) Unfortunately, the frequency of the falls started to increase until early/mid October, when he fell and was just too tired. The first several times, he was okay, and we would take him to the doctor’s and have him checked. Earlier that week the doctor said that if he fell, he might want to consider going to the hospital. He of course said that probably wasn’t necessary. I was at the gym when they paged me over the loudspeaker on Sunday morning - Janet called and said the Grandpa fell again. I flew over again and found him tangled in bed sheets laying at the side of the bed. He couldn’t catch his breath, and I got him seated on the bed.
Grandma and I knew this time was different because when I suggested we call an ambulance to take him to the hospital, he said that would be fine. They sent over a fire truck, and then an ambulance to take him to the Albuquerque Heart Hospital (which is amazing, BTW). It was the last time he was home.
Over the last two months he went to several hospitals and continued to decline. It turned out that he was becoming allergic to some of his medication (most importantly the dieuretics). That was causing a spiral that the doctors couldn’t stop. Earlier this week they said it wouldn’t be long because anything they did to fix one thing would adversely affect other things. So family started flying in (both uncles and my brother). We were able to all see him yesterday morning and afternoon. He was lucid, and talkative, but also was very tired.
He passed away this morning around 1:30 am.
I’ve been spending 2 (and sometimes 3) nights a week at Grandma’s house to keep her company and help her with things she has trouble with. My mom would spend the other nights. We’ll continue to do that every night at least for the next few months.
Over the next couple days I want to post about the great and interesting stories he and grandma told me over the past four or five months. I’ve learned a lot about them in the past months, and it’s made today much harder, but I’m glad I was able to spend those days driving him around.
Anyway, about the title of this post… After going to so many doctors with grandpa, I was able to get quite good at answering the basic personal and medical questions. The most common was always “What’s your birthday?” After a few weeks, we’d say in unison (with a slight giggle) “two three two three” - February 3rd, 1923.
Wow, it’s been a while since I updated my blog… I guess it would matter if anybody read it heheh.
I heard a really funny quote about Wall Street today… It goes something like this:
On Wall Street there are two different sides of the street. The buy side, and the sell side. And it’s really easy to understand the difference. If you’re on the sell side, you have to slam down the phone before you can say F#!@ You! If you’re on the buy side, you can say F#!@ You before you slam down the phone.
On a recent trip up to Seattle (for SJ’s Wedding Reception) I took along “Little Brother” by Cory Doctorow. It’s a YA near future novel about a young hacker out to change the world from an oppressive government agency that’s gone on a rampage.
Politically, I try not to classify myself as anything - I have my own opinions and beliefs so I don’t stick with just a single party. If anything I’d be an objectivist libertarian with republican tendencies (well old-republican fiscal leanings). I’m even liberal on a few select topics, but don’t tell anyone. Basically, I’m as from from being a hippie as you could imagine.
The book does delve into the hippie/yippie sub-culture a bit - and even makes it sound great and wonderful. There’s also some demonstrations, discussions, political dissidents, etc.
You’d most likely assume I didn’t like the book - but you’d be completely wrong. It was enjoyable and a quick read. It is classified as “young adult”, so it’s not overly complex, and I would probably recommend it to any 14-18 year-olds that are interested in hacking and/or freedom. I’d also recommend it to anybody else too - it’s an enjoyable book that makes you think.
Seriously, I’m pretty sure they are morons. Again they sent my package to “delivered” land, but it’s nowhere in sight.
It’s happened several times in the past few months, with a couple boxes turning up at a neighbors house (with an address NOTHING like mine - it was a couple streets over), but a few times the box is just gone. I called their customer support and they said they’ll send the driver out to the house he delivered it too. I’m not holding my breath, since last time the driver said it WAS my house - and the next day the neighbor brought my package that had been left at his door… Niiiiice.
My house is not hidden or complicated to find - Fedex has never had an issue finding it - ever.
If you can avoid using UPS, use ANYTHING else… cuz they still suck.
For being such a geek, it took me a “very long” time to upgrade to HD. A few years ago, all my friends had new DLP 720 TV’s, but they were limited in the channels as well as the additional equipment to make use of their then-new technology.
It was a conscious choice I made to wait until the TV could:
Near the end of last year, it was getting close enough that I bit the bullet and bought a very nice and large LCD tv with plenty of HDMI, composite, RCA, and DVI inputs. I’m glad I waited, as the TV has everything I need.
And, after upgrade DirecTV to their HD DVR, I have to say that 1080 ROCKS! Although not everything is transmitted in 1080, whenever it is, it looks amazing. I watched the first Formula 1 race, and it is SOOOO much better.
The past couple days we’ve been watching the Olympics on the various NBC channels (Universal HD, etc.) and the picture is simply awesome. It makes a huge difference, not only in the clarity and crispness of the picture, but also the additional text “overlays” that have informaiton - due to the better resolution, more useful info can be displayed.
If you don’t have an HD set yet, I would have to say that now is the time - bite the bullet and do it (even you SJ!)
Star Trek Experienced, Ka, and Craig Ferguson
Janet and I had a great (albeit short) trip to Vegas last week. We went for different reasons that just seemed to match up - Janet wanted to see Craig Ferguson’s stand-up routine, and I wanted to be sure to go through Star Trek: The Experience at least one more time before they closed it on September 1st.
Craig Ferguson was very funny. He had a writer from his show (also a stand-up) as his opening act, and he was also really funny. It was nice to see Craig in a “non-censored” mode - he had a lot of funny stories about Scotland and wanting to come over to the U.S. as soon as possible.
Ka, the Cirque du Soliel show at MGM, was exceeding boring. Yeah, you read that right. B.O.R.I.N.G. Seriously, for a Cirque show, it was long and drawn out and almost put me to sleep (not an exaggeration - literally asleep). The stage was neat - it tiled 90 degrees and rotated all the way around, but with some many things you can do with a stage like that, they just jumped around on it a bit. SteveJ said it was great, but he was totally wrong - it sucked. I figure he must’ve had his “love goggles” on when he saw it, because most of the people leaving the show thought the same thing - even the guy in the row in front of us that was snoring. The guys on the rotating circles were neat, but that’s about it.
Star Trek: The Experience was great (Janet wasn’t as impressed as I was, however). We went for the full package, which also included the back-stage tour experience. Gretchen was our tour guide, and she was HAWESOME. It was great to hear her talk about the history of the show and the ride/experience, but it was also sad to hear her talk about what was going to happen when they closed up shop in the next month and a half. The backstage tour was really cool because we got to look around the bridge longer (instead of rushed through during the rides). I took a bunch of pictures that will be online shortly. I also bought some souveniers (t-shirts, lapel pins, drinking glasses, etc.), a stuffed vulcan teddy bear for Sterling, and a water phaser for Jonah. Shockingly, Janet didn’t really want anything. Both rides were cool (though Klingon Encounter is still a little better). You have about 3 weeks left, so if you’re going - get a move on!
Lack of Attention - Attention Economics
I was reading through a good book on Social Web topics and found a great quote from Herbert Simon. It basically started the concept of “Attention Economics” which I thought was fairly interesting. The quote:
“…in an information-rich world, the wealth of information means a dearth of something else: a scarcity of whatever it is that information consumes. What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention and a need to allocate that attention efficiently among the overabundance of information sources that might consume it.”
My interpretation of what that statement says is that due to information overload a lot of people have the attention span of a steamed carrot. Based on some customers and their support questions, I think that’s pretty accurate.
I’ve spent a lot of time trying to get simple ideas across, and it seems like it’s getting more difficult all the time. With a previous manager, for every email I had to make sure I wrote the important message in the first sentence (not first paragraph - first sentence - and it usually helped if the first paragraph was the first sentence). Through empirical testing, I discovered he actually DIDN’T read anything past there - no matter how important the email.
Part of the reason for this was that nearly every one of his direct AND indirect reports cc’d him on every email (due to a horribly ineffective C.Y.A. theory they seemed to hold to be a fundamental truth). The other reason was undoubtedly that he was totally on an email high… (see “Emails hurt IQ more than pot“).
MySpace and YouTube have the same effect on people - way too much information and data (most of it completely useless) ruins the ability to filter useful from useless.
So, I’m trying to save my “attention dollars” for useful and productive and limit spending them on crap. To start, I’ve turned my “send/receive” updates down to once an hour (from every 3 minutes!)
More information about the Attention Economy is on Wikipedia.
Janet was laughing at me…
I found out today that Star Trek: The Experience is closing! I really am sad to see it go - I’ve been on it at least 4 times that I specifically remember, and probably a couple other times just to go with somebody else. So, Janet thought it was funny that I was actually sad to see it closed. Mean Janet! *heehee* 
Fond memories of CES and Comdex always included stopping at the ST:E ride, then down to Quark’s bar for a nice Warp Core Breach. Hanging out with Kevin, Larry, and Kevin’s friend from work - me and Kevin splitting a WCB.
So, I’m dragging Janet to the ride before it closes - we’ll stop by later this month when we go to see Craig Ferguson live at the MGM Grand. I’ll be sure to take as many pictures as possible.
The 355 F1 Berlinetta is Home!
“This is the Ferrari 355. The best car in the world. Ever.”
- Jeremy Clarkson
The beautiful Argento Nurburgring (silver) 1999 Ferrari 355 F1 Berlinetta arrived the weekend before last - on a truck from Scottsdale, where FMS Motorsports did a top-to-bottom (or was it bottom to top?) Pre-Purchase Inspection. Other than a few minor things (motor mounts - which I had them replace), the car is in great condition.
I’m still working on getting the F1 shifting down to a smooth and fast operation, but I’m getting better. The manual throttle blips on the downshift are great for working left-foot braking.
We originally planned on keeping the 308, but since kicking Janet’s Porsche “to the curb”, she’s getting weary of getting into a hot Cayenne… So, if a good offer comes along, I may part with it. I’m not in a rush, since it’s a “famous” car - it was on the cover of the 308 book!
Diet Challenges at TrackDiet.com
So, last week HJ asked about any software to help track a weight loss competition (you know, like the Biggest Loser on NBC). He looked and couldn’t find a free one, then I looked around and couldn’t find a free one. There’s a couple out there that “look” free, but once you try to do anything (like actually have competitors in a challenge), they want to charge you.
So, I had an old diet domain that I bought a couple years ago called TrackDiet.com and though hmmm… this might be fun, so late last week and this weekend I finished the beta version of TrackDiet.com Weight Loss Challenges. It’s just the basics for now (with some ajaxy jquery goodness thrown in), but I’ll add more features as more people sign up. Feel free to check it out and let me know what you think.
The Lost Fleet: Dauntless, Feerless, and Courageous
About a month ago I was looking for a new book to read and found “The Lost Fleet: Dauntless” (Jack Campbell) from a few reviews on Amazon and Audible. I started with the audio book, and enjoyed the story quite a bit. It’s basically a story of a soldier that has been in hibernation/suspended-animation sleep for 100 years. He was the commander of a ship that was destroyed in a sneak attack from the “syndicate” worlds - that starts a war that’s still going on after he wakes up.
It examines what can happen to a society (and the military) after 100 years and multiple generations of war have decimated both sides. It does take things to the extremes a little bit beyond what I’d think would be likely - I don’t think military tactics would be completely gone… But aside from that, it’s entertaining and an enjoyable read. I’ve read the first three books (of the series of 6), and the final three have yet to be written. They’re all enjoyable and so far the story arc includes some interesting thoughts as to the reason for the war and what’s causing it to last so long.
The only thing I didn’t really enjoy was the amount of repetitious descriptions of time-delays. The first book constant reminds you of how long it takes to communicate at great distances. I think most readers “get it” after the second, if not the first, explanation - but the first book brings it up repeatedly. It’s less in the second book, and even less in the third, which is good, because it seriously would have put me off if it continued.
If you enjoy sci-fi, and space battles in particular, I’d recommend the series, either on Audible or paperback.
I also finally read Ender’s Shadow, and it was very, very good. If you’ve read Ender’s Game and then were not impressed with Xenocide, I’d still recommend Ender’s Shadow. It’s great.