The Evil Eyebrow

Category: Personal

  • "The Next Logical Step"

    I’ve recorded a public domain story for Librivox and posted it today. It is “The Next Logical Step” by Ben Bova. Ben Bova is a hailed prolific science fiction author and I was glad to snag this one for voice recording. You can hear it at [link removed]. I killed this link by request of Librivox. I’ll be putting up a new one when I get a moment to upload the file to the jbwr server. [3/4/09 edit: Still haven’t gotten to this. I’ll get it up, I promise]
    [3/5/09 edit go to this posting for the link]

    This is the second story I’ve done for the Librivox project. Upcoming are two tales from “1001 Nights”.

  • Why Coding is Hard, Even When It's Easy

    Keywords: WordPress, Quicktags, Cache,

    There are days when I totally understand why people are afraid of computers.

    Today is one of them.

    I started with a very simple task: add an additional quicktag to the WordPress editor for my own use. I’ve done this before. It’s really bloody simple. Just add an additional piece of code inside your WordPress blog. As long as you can do a google search and aren’t afraid of digging around in the code, this is a snap.

    Or at least, it was a snap back when I did it the last time. This time it didn’t work. It should have worked. I double checked my syntax on the 5 lines of code that I freaking copied and pasted. I double checked the WordPress codex. I double double checked the code again. I banged my head a few times. I swore and cursed. There was no noticeable change happening because of my addition.

    Finally, I did what any coder would do, I started to try and effect any change that would evidence my having altered the code. I started commenting out important parts of the file I was working in. Still nothing. Did WP need to be “refreshed” or “restarted”, I thought to myself.

    Then, I thought of the cache.

    The goddamn cache was maintaining the old javascript.

    I had banged my head on this simple easy child-like task for two hours and all I needed to do was clear the cache.

    Argh.

    Don’t forget to clear the cache.

  • Keeping Track of Things

    Do You Write Stuff Down?
    One of the things that High School tried to teach me was note taking skills. It didn’t really take until I got to college and even then I didn’t have a good system until around late sophomore year. I ended up only carrying a notepad of quadrille paper (three hole punched) to classes, taking all my notes and doing up my work and then filing it in 3 ring binders for later referral. That way I didn’t have to haul around a bunch of different binders or notebooks for my various classes.

    I’ve gotten away from that system now. I only have two notebooks, one for personal stuff and one for work. My work notebook contains a lot of phone logs and records of conversation, plus lists of things to do. Very occasionally will it have sketches or numbers that document engineering work. That mostly is handled through the various software that I work with, however there is nothing quite like a hand sketched map with notes and annotations.

    My personal notebook contains a lot of more notish stuff; much more like a journal than a logbook. In this notebook I currently have the layouts of two different gaming campaigns (one D&D from a while ago and one GURPS), the beginnings of my recording of my toothpick bridge building and some construction sketches for stuff around the house (it’s very early into the notebook’s life).

    My current two-notebook system dovetails nicely with the modified GTD setup that I use. I go back through the notebooks at the end of the week and see if there are any outstanding “to do” items that need to be encapsulated in my system. It also lets me see what it was I did that week; I’m sure I’m not the only person who’s arrive at Friday afternoon and wondered what the heck it was that occupied all my time.

  • Remembering Challenger

    Today is the 22nd anniversary of the Space Shuttle Challenger’s last launch. I was in sixth grade english class when I heard about it. You?

    My family watched the first 13 shuttle launchings from our house in Satellite Beach, Florida. We had moved to New Hampshire 7 months before the disaster. I know several people who watched the Shuttle disintegrate overhead and felt the rattle from the explosion.

    Let’s hope that the spirit of the crew lives on in the work of the people like SpaceX who are pushing to make it easier to get to orbit.

  • Ironman Training

    Motion Blur, by Mariano Kamp, on Flickr

    My Ironman training is proceeding apace. I’ve been doing strength and some base training since December. I’m about 4 weeks away from switching to a maintenance cycle on the strength workouts and ramping up more sport-specific training. The concentration at that point will be bike workouts and secondarily swimming. Honestly, I plan to take the swim nice and easy; I won’t be breaking any records, even my own. It’s the bike that is the most important part of my training, though, as I’ve set a goal of 19 mph average during the race next year. Plenty of time for that.

    But right now, I’m in the most intensive part of my strength training. I’m squatting more weight than I ever have, with similar improvements on other parts of the regimen. This is kind of freaky because I haven’t pushed this hard on a lifting workout since high school, and there’s been a lot of water under the bridge since then. My back issues have made me a bit paranoid when it comes to stressing my lumbar area, but so far things seem to be working well.

    One of my stated (i.e. “picked out of thin air”) goals for the training year is to “Squat 280 lbs by March 15th”, and I’m well on my way there. I’ll probably end up short, but that’s ok with me. The objective of this exercise isn’t to build strength just for the hell of it, nor is it to build the type of one-shot ability-to-lift-heavy-weights. No, the point is to train my muscles and neuromuscular systems to exert force constantly for a long long long time. That is how you finish an Ironman.

  • 2009 Resolution Run

    Racers
    Left to Right: Jenn, Me, Courtney. Photo Credit: Sharon Burdick

    It’s becoming tradition (does three years make it a tradition?) for Jenn and I to get up and go to the Atlanta Track Club resolution run on New Year’s Day. This race is extremely convenient to our house, so it would be a shame not to go. Plus, it doesn’t start until 12:20 PM. If you don’t get to snockered the night before, you shouldn’t have any problem getting out the door for the run.

    This race is either a 5k or 10k (you choose). Last year I ran the 10k and crushed my PR in that race. This year I ran the 5k…and crushed my PR in that race. Formerly, my best post-high-school 5k time was 26:12. Now it is 23:43, which shocked the hell out of me. Especially because I ran a 5k a month ago and only turned in a 26:51.

    In retrospect, I’m wholly surprised at this improvement in my time. The 5k I ran last month was a cross country run, with attendant terrain difficulties. And my previous PR had been set during the Kaiser Permanente Corporate Challenge, which runs through downtown Atlanta. The bits and pieces of Atlanta that we traverse are rather hilly. As a contrast, the Resolution Run is nearly flat, with a tiny bump at the turnaround point. Here is my artist’s interpretation of the Profile for the KP Corporate Challenge.

    Kaiser Permanente Corporate Challenge Profile

    Notice the two big hills in the middle. They’re not nice. The one moving up Harris Street (right by the Hilton for those Dragon*Con attendees familiar with the area) is rather steep. And the second hill, (which you can tell by the profile actually goes back in time!) on Courtland is a killer. You have to pace yourself very particularly to do well in this race.

    Then we have the Resolution Run.

    ATC Resolution Run Profile

    It’s just a bit flatter. And there are fewer runners (~1100 as opposed to ~20,000) to jostle you. It all adds up to an easier run leading to a faster time.

    Sharon and David

    Sharon and David came along to be our cheering squad and our pack mules. Thanks guys. It’s always nice to have people at races who will hold sweatshirts and take pictures.

    All the images at the flickr set of the race were taken by Sharon and/or me. I haven’t properly attributed them on the flickr set yet.

    There’s another 5k in a few weeks down in Peachtree City. We’ll see if I can better this time.

  • No Resolutions this Year (Except One)

    This Year’s MMIX Resolution is very simple. Complete the Florida Ironman. That is my focus for the next 10 months. I’m sure you’ll know how it goes if you read this blog.

  • Happy New Year!

    Welcome everyone to MMIX otherwise known as “Mummix”.

  • Here's What I'm Doing. You?

    Perfect Sunday?

  • Merry Christmas

    Here’s wishing everyone who’s not near me a Happy Christmas. Merry Yuletide, etc.

    Christmas Morning