Personal Stuff

We went for a lovely 7 mile walk yesterday through the trail going east through Lafayette. I posted pictures from the journey over on Facebook and I will post some below. We kind of got hung up on the squirrels, they were something of a theme yesterday. Melanie mentioned that the scene in UP was a noted instance of non-sequitur in her writing class.

We had to do some pushing and pulling to get Jaxon out of the house, sometimes he just doesn't want to leave the house. He would sit and play addicting games all day if we let him. Once he got out he had some fun though, he rode his bike and Melanie and I walked. As is the case with most of our good trips we had to go the wrong way and get a little lost to have fun.

Yesterday was one of those days where I wish I didn't work graveyards (Sunday and Monday nights). Having a full rich day interrupted by inexplicable exhaustion, inability to sleep, and then 8 hours of "MUST STAY AWAKE, PHONE MIGHT RIGHT", is completely heart breaking.

I have been reading the book "the Passionate Programmer" and I am really enjoying it. Maybe the authors experience rings close to home for me, or maybe what he is saying has some root goodness to it, but it makes me want to really get out there and join the Development community with force. Anyway you have all dealt with my ramblings long enough, as promised.... squirrels:

Well this blog post is essentially just toot my own horn kind of post. One month ago Thursday I stopped smoking, completely. I have not had even a single drag of a cigarette/cigar/tobacco product in 28 days. I would love to believe that this is some special sign that I am somehow now more in control of my destiny or that only I could achieve this amazing feat, but the reality is this is not the first addiction I have struggled with and as with all the others this will require constant effort and awareness to be rid of for the long haul.

My wonderful wife has been very supportive of the whole process even dealing with my mood swings and grumps with cheer and a smile. Our son has also been super cool during the whole thing, sometimes all I have to say is "I quit smoking" and he stops making noises and does something quiet for a while. All the things I thought would get harder (concentrating, thinking and long programming runs) have actually gotten easier over time. At first the monkey would just sit there and distract me from getting any work done. But finally the only time I think about cigarettes are when I smell someone else smoking one (neighbors and coworkers), and then they smell terrible to me now.

I guess this could also be my little farewell letter to what has historically been my old fall back friend. I read about programmers and their Rubber Ducks, Plants and "Discussions" and going out for a smoke has always been mine, I would ramble for a few minutes about my problem, talk to the air and eventually smash the butt in victory as the solution became clear to me. I am hoping that this final disconnect will open me up to actually working with more people and becoming involved in some Open Source projects (something I have desperately wanted to do but avoid out of fear and loathing).

Goodbye Smoking Habit,

You and I have been together since I was 15, I can't think of anything I have had so intimately involved in so much of my life as you. You have been there with me through hung over morning, late night drunks, after meals and romance, even at my wedding. Only now do I realize, you are out to kill me. I can't keep pretending that you will somehow become better for me. So I say. farewell.

Gabriel

This last week Jaxon had a project due for school which peaked my interest more then most. He was to do a report on Jupiter. I have more then a passing fascination with the Solar System and the idea of interplanetary travel so I was very eager to help get the project going.

First we needed to do a bunch of research, I wanted Jaxon to really get the feeling for how massive and alien this world was. So he read and read and read, and I read and read and read, and Googled and read. I could sense Jaxon was getting a little frustrated with my fastidious nature and was eager to get his hands dirty.

This is where his Mother makes everything wonderful, she went out and picked up a couple of Styrofoam globes, one rather large one and a small bag of smaller ones. She also picked up an assortment of acrylic paints, the two largest bottles containing a tan/beige color and a copper metallic pigment. I think initially the idea was to try and paint the planet by hand but I injected my experience here and we had some fun spinning the globe under dripping paint to get an atmospheric effect.

One of the more incredible features of Jupiter is of course its many moons, the most prominent of which hold many exciting mysteries that we are beginning to uncover. Europa is known to have water ice and it is believed may also have liquid water below the surface. The volcanic activity on Io is unmatched from our knowledge of the solar system. Anyway, we needed moons.

We hand painted the moons, each to resemble its counterpart in the books Jaxon had got from the library. Melanie went ahead and printed out labels for the display and worked with Jaxon to finalize his report content, getting it all onto a nice sheet for presentation. Jaxon practiced the speaking part of his report a couple of times until he felt confident and Mel and I almost went deaf (just kidding, though he does know how to project).

The final project piece:


and the proud creator with his work: