Blogging All Around So today I sent an email to my friend Ken and happened to mention thatI'd started a blog that he might find interesting (providing he findskeeping tabs on my life interesting). Little did I know I've beenbehind the times! Ken's had a blog for years. And our friends Derekand Carol also blog, which is very cool. It makes keeping up to datewith friends a lot easier, especially for those of us who have troublecoming up with excuses to pick up the phone and call.Of course, it'd be nicer to have more time to meet f-t-f with friends,>but people are busy, and family is far away. Derek mentions being infavor of unscheduled time for creative activities (I agreewholeheartedly), but not having any such for himself. I hope thatdoesn't happen to me! I'd go insane pretty quick, I'm sure. Right nowI have the opposite problem - too much time on my hands, and little todo but activities on my own (notwithstanding comments further down, asyou'll see if you keep reading). Ken and Kari joined us for breakfast atCharlie Browns last week and seemed to enjoy - hopefully it'll be aregular thing. Maybe a breakfast club will develop, who knows?Played Europe Engulfed more with Jeff last night. It's really a neatgame, but large and lengthy - particularly for a two-player game.However, it's really nice to again have a friend who actually likes tospend that much time on big games. It has been a long time since I hadthe opportunity. I still prefer games that involve multiple people,just because I enjoy the group dynamics so much, and the opportunitiesfor cooperation in addition to just plain competition.Again, it reminds me of my own goals for making a game. I want a gamethat makes players feel part of group more than part of a competition.Some competition is necessary, because one needs a dynamic backdrop togo up against (playing ping-pong against a wall gets dull quick), but Ithink a cooperative element needs to have equal emphasis. I think partof the reason so many people avoid wargames is the stress involved inwinning and losing, and there's so rarely any other aspect to thesegames to balance or alleviate that stress. The simple idea of teammateschanges things for many folks, I think.I'm excited by all the blogging though! I'm inspired to work on myfamily some more, and Vivi.

So today I sent an email to my friend Ken and happened to mention that
I'd started a blog that he might find interesting (providing he finds
keeping tabs on my life interesting). Little did I know I've been
behind the times! Ken's had a blog for years. And our friends Derek
and Carol also blog, which is very cool. It makes keeping up to date
with friends a lot easier, especially for those of us who have trouble
coming up with excuses to pick up the phone and call.

Of course, it'd be nicer to have more time to meet f-t-f with friends,>
but people are busy, and family is far away. Derek mentions being in
favor of unscheduled time for creative activities (I agree
wholeheartedly), but not having any such for himself. I hope that
doesn't happen to me! I'd go insane pretty quick, I'm sure. Right now
I have the opposite problem - too much time on my hands, and little to
do but activities on my own (notwithstanding comments further down, as
you'll see if you keep reading). Ken and Kari joined us for breakfast at
Charlie Browns last week and seemed to enjoy - hopefully it'll be a
regular thing. Maybe a breakfast club will develop, who knows?

Played Europe Engulfed more with Jeff last night. It's really a neat
game, but large and lengthy - particularly for a two-player game.
However, it's really nice to again have a friend who actually likes to
spend that much time on big games. It has been a long time since I had
the opportunity. I still prefer games that involve multiple people,
just because I enjoy the group dynamics so much, and the opportunities
for cooperation in addition to just plain competition.

Again, it reminds me of my own goals for making a game. I want a game
that makes players feel part of group more than part of a competition.
Some competition is necessary, because one needs a dynamic backdrop to
go up against (playing ping-pong against a wall gets dull quick), but I
think a cooperative element needs to have equal emphasis. I think part
of the reason so many people avoid wargames is the stress involved in
winning and losing, and there's so rarely any other aspect to these
games to balance or alleviate that stress. The simple idea of teammates
changes things for many folks, I think.

I'm excited by all the blogging though! I'm inspired to work on my
family some more, and Vivi.

Grab-bag of Goings On Vivi and I go out for breakfast nearly every Saturday, and today we werejoined by some friends, which will hopefully become a regular thing.They told us they had started the process of adopting a child from Chinaafter we told them we were expecting. So, of course, we talked aboutkids and being parents and all that. I guess it's inescapable thathaving kids will dominate your life. We are all very excited.Vivi is still being sick much of the time, but she is getting accustomedto it. She had an ultrasound and some blood tests done to test forvarious abnormalities, and the first results we have gotten have allowedthe doctors to reassess our risk for Down's syndrome from the normal1/300 to 1/4000, and for another syndrome I can't remember to 1/10,000.So we are very happy with that - it means for one that we can skip theamniocentesis, since the risks involved in doing that procedure faroutweigh the chance that it would reveal any problems.In the meantime, my efforts on my context-based IoC container havestalled as I have been having difficulties with the latest Eclipse andthe AspectJ plugin. I can't compile the code without encountering nullpointer exceptions from it, and I'm sort of waiting for the eclipsecommunity to work it out a bit better before I get back to it. I'vealso been working fairly hard at work, and I have been keeping away frommy computer at home. As I've known for a long time, there's only somuch time I can spend staring at a computer. Plus the weather has beenso nice, I've been outside a lot. But I do want to get back to it.I also need to get back to working on my game(s). I've been playingsome EastFront from Columbia Games, and it seems like a nearly flawlessgame system from my limited experience. So of course I am stealingideas from it shamelessly for my own work :-)

Vivi and I go out for breakfast nearly every Saturday, and today we were
joined by some friends, which will hopefully become a regular thing.
They told us they had started the process of adopting a child from China
after we told them we were expecting. So, of course, we talked about
kids and being parents and all that. I guess it's inescapable that
having kids will dominate your life. We are all very excited.

Vivi is still being sick much of the time, but she is getting accustomed
to it. She had an ultrasound and some blood tests done to test for
various abnormalities, and the first results we have gotten have allowed
the doctors to reassess our risk for Down's syndrome from the normal
1/300 to 1/4000, and for another syndrome I can't remember to 1/10,000.
So we are very happy with that - it means for one that we can skip the
amniocentesis, since the risks involved in doing that procedure far
outweigh the chance that it would reveal any problems.

In the meantime, my efforts on my context-based IoC container have
stalled as I have been having difficulties with the latest Eclipse and
the AspectJ plugin. I can't compile the code without encountering null
pointer exceptions from it, and I'm sort of waiting for the eclipse
community to work it out a bit better before I get back to it. I've
also been working fairly hard at work, and I have been keeping away from
my computer at home. As I've known for a long time, there's only so
much time I can spend staring at a computer. Plus the weather has been
so nice, I've been outside a lot. But I do want to get back to it.

I also need to get back to working on my game(s). I've been playing
some EastFront from Columbia Games, and it seems like a nearly flawless
game system from my limited experience. So of course I am stealing
ideas from it shamelessly for my own work :-)

No Computer and AWOL bossman My computer is in the repair shop currently getting a new heatsink. It stopped working last weekend and I noticed the cpu temperature at 95c. Living without my computer is terrible! For me, the computer is the new tv, and I have nothing to do without it. Oh sure, I could read, or watch the old tv (yuck!), but I happen to be in the middle of a book of only so-so entertainment value. Not bad enough to dump, not good enough to devote my undivided attention to. So, I keep trying to convince Vivi to play a game, but she's mostly not feeling well....Work has been interesting. Our boss never returned from vacation. Turns out, he had sold his house over 2 months ago (that was the closing date) and had moved to South Carolina without telling anyone and was never coming back. Kind of an interesting way to quit your job. Of course, the company wants the vacation pay and the bonus back that he collected before they realized he'd skipped out on them. This should give you some inkling how much fun it was to work for this nutjob. We have no boss now, and we're hoping to get someone good, but the upper-ups haven't yet decided.With luck, we'll get somone reasonable enough to let us work from home most days. The way gas prices are going, it's completely irresponsible to make us drive in to work when it makes no real difference in how we work or how well we work.

My computer is in the repair shop currently getting a new heatsink. It stopped working last weekend and I noticed the cpu temperature at 95c. Living without my computer is terrible! For me, the computer is the new tv, and I have nothing to do without it. Oh sure, I could read, or watch the old tv (yuck!), but I happen to be in the middle of a book of only so-so entertainment value. Not bad enough to dump, not good enough to devote my undivided attention to. So, I keep trying to convince Vivi to play a game, but she's mostly not feeling well....

Work has been interesting. Our boss never returned from vacation. Turns out, he had sold his house over 2 months ago (that was the closing date) and had moved to South Carolina without telling anyone and was never coming back. Kind of an interesting way to quit your job. Of course, the company wants the vacation pay and the bonus back that he collected before they realized he'd skipped out on them. This should give you some inkling how much fun it was to work for this nutjob. We have no boss now, and we're hoping to get someone good, but the upper-ups haven't yet decided.

With luck, we'll get somone reasonable enough to let us work from home most days. The way gas prices are going, it's completely irresponsible to make us drive in to work when it makes no real difference in how we work or how well we work.

On Climate and Moving After yet another Rochester winter, Vivi and I feel even more desire to move somewhere nicer. After visiting my parents living in western North Carolina, it seems an ideal place - not too hot, very sunny and usually dry, beautiful scenery. So Vivi started talking it up to her parents at dinner the other night, but didn't get very far. It would be hard to pack up and leave her family behind.I think I could work my job to a point where I could move to NC and continue working here via telecommuting. Most of my peers are telecommuters from around the country, and I used to be one too, till I got moved to a sister group with a manager who demands physical presence. But it looks like things will change soon on that score, and in any case, I won't be ready to move for a few years - by then, the chances of working out such an arrangement seem likely. Provided the company itself is still around.The thought of living somewhere where winter doesn't last 5-6 months of the year is enticing, and this past weekend only reinforced that feeling, as it rained non-stop, and even our "sunny" days are merely less darkly overcast days in reality. But we call them sunny.The main problem is we want to convince Vivi's parents to move with us - her brother is already in NC. Their main objections seem to be: bugs, quality of food, and social climate (are they all rednecks down there? :-) Vivi and I are pretty much sold on the idea though - we want sun!

After yet another Rochester winter, Vivi and I feel even more desire to move somewhere nicer. After visiting my parents living in western North Carolina, it seems an ideal place - not too hot, very sunny and usually dry, beautiful scenery. So Vivi started talking it up to her parents at dinner the other night, but didn't get very far. It would be hard to pack up and leave her family behind.

I think I could work my job to a point where I could move to NC and continue working here via telecommuting. Most of my peers are telecommuters from around the country, and I used to be one too, till I got moved to a sister group with a manager who demands physical presence. But it looks like things will change soon on that score, and in any case, I won't be ready to move for a few years - by then, the chances of working out such an arrangement seem likely. Provided the company itself is still around.

The thought of living somewhere where winter doesn't last 5-6 months of the year is enticing, and this past weekend only reinforced that feeling, as it rained non-stop, and even our "sunny" days are merely less darkly overcast days in reality. But we call them sunny.

The main problem is we want to convince Vivi's parents to move with us - her brother is already in NC. Their main objections seem to be: bugs, quality of food, and social climate (are they all rednecks down there? :-) Vivi and I are pretty much sold on the idea though - we want sun!