Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Italian TV is Wierd
Well I made it OK and am struggling to stay awake until midnight so I can get a normal sleep schedule going for the time I'm here. The combination of very little sleep, the long travel hiatus, and the long journey have left me feeling a little homesick. Typically I can find some consultation by turning on the TV when I'm traveling, unfortunately Italian TV is weird. I present Exhibit A:
There are instances of TV, movies, books, music, etc being so bad it's good - but I have yet to find that here. Interestingly though, The Ghost Whisperer is much better in Italian where you can't understand what anyone is saying.
Oh well, at least I can wax on the endless assortment of 80's tunes that pump out of the hotel's sound system in the lobby. Carrie would be in heaven...
There are instances of TV, movies, books, music, etc being so bad it's good - but I have yet to find that here. Interestingly though, The Ghost Whisperer is much better in Italian where you can't understand what anyone is saying.
Oh well, at least I can wax on the endless assortment of 80's tunes that pump out of the hotel's sound system in the lobby. Carrie would be in heaven...
Friday, January 25, 2008
Back to Italy
Well I'm headed back to Italy tomorrow after very short notice - but at least I get to fly first class (doing my world famous Robin Leech impression as I write this).
I'll fill everyone in on the details when I get back. Oh, here's a good one of Carlos and his brother:
I'll fill everyone in on the details when I get back. Oh, here's a good one of Carlos and his brother:
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Congratulations Sarah
... Or should I say Senior Master Sergeant Fisk. My sister Sarah received word earlier in the week that she earned a well-deserved promotion.
Congratulations Sis! You really deserve it!
Congratulations Sis! You really deserve it!
Friday, January 18, 2008
It's Been a Long Time Since I Rock and Rolled
My apologies to my faithful readership, I have been preoccupied with work and a number of other things, subsequently my heralded blog has suffered. But if absence makes the heart grow fonder, than you should be fonder than a mofo - technically speaking.
You see I am putting the finishing touches on a piece of software that I'm writing and it will be used by a number of people with varying degrees of technical aptitude. Therefore, I have been writing some very comprehensive help and this has left the right side of my brain aching and in no shape for blogging.
But I'm back, and I have several things to talk about. The first is that I have a new niece! I urge you all to follow the links to the right to get updates on Kendra Ruth Durec. She was born on my sister Jessica's birthday, January 12, and from what I hear she and Mom are doing great. She is so cute and I can't wait to meet her.
Last week my Mom came to visit and we had a great time. Among other things, Carrie and I were able to go on a date. We saw Juno (because the theater we went to is no longer showing No Country for Old Men) and it was really good. I started to really feel my age prior to the movie starting as I listened in on the conversation behind me and I realized that kids are now also speaking in acronyms as opposed to just texting this way. They might have the acronym heavy US Military beat. It's nice to see that some of the old staples, such as using "like" about 15 times per sentence, are still around. The movie was very good, I could tell that the lack of sleep was really starting to get to me because I was an emotional wreak.
I love talking to my Mom because I always find out new and exciting things about my family. I knew that both my Great Grandfather (Walter Hard) and Great Grandmother (Margaret Steel Hard) were authors and poets who lived in Vermont (check out what I found Mom/Jess/Sarah: follow this link to The Vermont Encyclopedia which has a lot of history on Nana and her parents). What I didn't know was that my Great Grandfather also served one term in the House and four terms in the Senate! That's right, my great grandfather was the f-ing Senator of Vermont! (the aforementioned Vermont Encyclopedia mentions this). This blew my mind, I can't believe I never heard this ... maybe it's just me, but this seems like a huge deal. With genes like this it's no wonder I'm the a national treasure that I am.
While Mimi was here we also snapped some more pictures. I read a book several years ago called Bag of Bones about an author suffering from writers block. Lucky for him he had a stash of books that he had written along the years and he was able to satiate his publisher for several years by dipping into his stash and producing a "new" book. Well I suffer from picture block, and I now have my stash. I plan on releasing a few at a time until you guys are talking to Jack on the phone and I am posting "new" pictures of him laying on the floor flailing.
Bye for now. Go Giants! (keep crying T.O.).
You see I am putting the finishing touches on a piece of software that I'm writing and it will be used by a number of people with varying degrees of technical aptitude. Therefore, I have been writing some very comprehensive help and this has left the right side of my brain aching and in no shape for blogging.
But I'm back, and I have several things to talk about. The first is that I have a new niece! I urge you all to follow the links to the right to get updates on Kendra Ruth Durec. She was born on my sister Jessica's birthday, January 12, and from what I hear she and Mom are doing great. She is so cute and I can't wait to meet her.
Last week my Mom came to visit and we had a great time. Among other things, Carrie and I were able to go on a date. We saw Juno (because the theater we went to is no longer showing No Country for Old Men) and it was really good. I started to really feel my age prior to the movie starting as I listened in on the conversation behind me and I realized that kids are now also speaking in acronyms as opposed to just texting this way. They might have the acronym heavy US Military beat. It's nice to see that some of the old staples, such as using "like" about 15 times per sentence, are still around. The movie was very good, I could tell that the lack of sleep was really starting to get to me because I was an emotional wreak.
I love talking to my Mom because I always find out new and exciting things about my family. I knew that both my Great Grandfather (Walter Hard) and Great Grandmother (Margaret Steel Hard) were authors and poets who lived in Vermont (check out what I found Mom/Jess/Sarah: follow this link to The Vermont Encyclopedia which has a lot of history on Nana and her parents). What I didn't know was that my Great Grandfather also served one term in the House and four terms in the Senate! That's right, my great grandfather was the f-ing Senator of Vermont! (the aforementioned Vermont Encyclopedia mentions this). This blew my mind, I can't believe I never heard this ... maybe it's just me, but this seems like a huge deal. With genes like this it's no wonder I'm the a national treasure that I am.
While Mimi was here we also snapped some more pictures. I read a book several years ago called Bag of Bones about an author suffering from writers block. Lucky for him he had a stash of books that he had written along the years and he was able to satiate his publisher for several years by dipping into his stash and producing a "new" book. Well I suffer from picture block, and I now have my stash. I plan on releasing a few at a time until you guys are talking to Jack on the phone and I am posting "new" pictures of him laying on the floor flailing.
Bye for now. Go Giants! (keep crying T.O.).
Sunday, January 6, 2008
Iowa Caucus
Well I've put off posting about the Iowa Caucus for several days now mostly because I've been busy and also because I have yet to find a forum that I can discuss politics without getting frustrated. It seems to me that most people that want to discuss politics have a hard-line party affiliation and will defend their party's candidates with almost blind loyalty. For the life of me, I cannot figure this out. For the longest time (and still partially now) I felt like this was due to my naivety to the ways of the world. Maybe when I get a house, a family, and start paying more taxes, I'll see why I should favor party A over party B. This has yet to happen and I don't know if it ever will - I don't think I'll ever base my political decisions on my bottom line.
I am very much an idealist who focuses on the issues that are important to me and votes for the candidate whose positions match the closest with mine. I am not silly enough to believe that the candidate will follow through on their campaign claims 100% ("Read my lips, no new taxes") but for me this is the only criterion that I have to base my decision on and I have to at least trust that they will be earnest in following through on their campaign promises provided they are feasible. I don't think any political party matches with my beliefs closely enough to say, I'm a Democrat, I'm a Republican, I'm a Libertarian, ...
That being said, here are some issues that are important to me in '08. They are in no particular order, and I have labored hard about whether or not to write about these issues as I'm sure that every person that reads my blog will have at least one contradictory viewpoint to mine. But your all stuck with me through birthright or law and forced to love me so I mine as well be honest.
The first issue I'll comment on is immigration. Again, I'm an idealist and I cannot look past the history of this country and the part that immigration has played in it. I'm in favor of providing a means for illegal immigrants to become citizens but am concerned about seemingly rewarding illegal aliens for breaking the law and also effectively jumping in line ahead of people that are trying to enter the country legally. I like the Senate's plan of allowing the nearly 12 million illegal immigrants living in the country now to qualify for citizenship eventually after learning to speak English, paying a fine, paying any back taxes, holding a job, and passing a background check. I do not equate this to amnesty, contrary to some people's opinion. They have also proposed greatly increasing the number of green cards issued this year to get through the huge back log of people that are waiting to immigrate legally, such as the number of Filipino immigrants that have gotten press.
I am opposed to strengthening border security, I feel like this is a just putting a band aid on the real problems. I would instead rather focus on why it is so attractive to enter this country illegally and work on those issues. One of these issues is the plethora of businesses that hire illegal immigrants. I think businesses that cannot provide documentation for workers should be heavily fined and perhaps have their licenses revoked for repeat offenders. This is where the guest worker portion of the McCain-Kennedy Bill would come into play. Through a guest worker program foreign workers would be matched with US businesses through a database and could be hired once the companies provided proof that they could not hire American workers to do the job.
The next issue is gay marriage. I am a big supporter of gay rights and think gays should be afforded all the rights of other citizens. I think the main argument against gay marriage is predicated on religion and I think religion has no place in politics or governance. In a democracy you have to be objective rather than subjective and if you want to ban something based on your religious beliefs, then you want to live in a theocracy.
I think in 50 years when our grandchildren look back on the gay rights movement it will be similar to how we look back on the civil rights movement and suffrage. When the history books are written which side would you like to say you were on?
Another issue is abortion. Historically I have flip-flopped on this issue, but eventually you have to pick a side. I simply cannot imagine forcing a woman who has been impregnated through rape to carry the child, so I am pro-choice.
I'm for the death penalty. I think some crimes are so heinous that the perpetrator deserves to die. I know this is vengeful and I have flip-flopped with this issue for several years, but this is just where I am with this now. I also think it serves as a deterrent to other criminals.
Gun control is a minor issue for me, so I don't know a lot about it. I like the idea of the Brady Bill, I think anyone who wants to own a firearm can wait a few days and not be opposed to having their background checked. I think people should be able to purchase and own automatic weapons.
Wow, I'm remembering the other reason I stay out of political discussions, they are tiring! So enough about my views for now. As a gear up to the election season I urge you all to visit Smart Select.com. You can answer a series of questions and it will attempt to tell you which candidate's views on the issues most closely match yours. This will at least get you thinking about the issues and give you a warm up for what things to listen for during the upcoming debates.
OK, now for some issues that aren't on the radar but are also important to me.
I'd like to see the eradication of the non-existent adjective "funner" from the national lexicon. Violators will be forced to attend English classes with the illegal immigrants attempting to gain citizenship.
I'd like to see a candidate address businessmen cellphone dicks at the airport. You know, the self important A-holes sauntering around the gate having superfluous quasi-business related conversations at full volume just so everyone around them can have the knowledge that they're big important business men on a big important business trips. You know, the ones that still get annoyed at airport security despite the gold member card on their carry-on indicating they fly a lot and should be used to it. You know the ones that roll their eyes and get impatient with having to deal with families on a Saturday flight as if it were a 7:00 AM Monday morning flight that is 95% business travelers.
I'd like to see the number of adjectives used to describe a new station's meteorological department limited to two. And now to Amanda Huggankiss on the High Definition Super Digital Doppler in the Channel 11 Severe Storm Weather Center.
I'd like to see MasterCard be forced to retire the "Priceless" add campaign. It's been 10 years, I've received 100+ dumb forwards based on this theme, it's enough already.
Yikes, Jack's getting hungry. Go Giants! Best out.
I am very much an idealist who focuses on the issues that are important to me and votes for the candidate whose positions match the closest with mine. I am not silly enough to believe that the candidate will follow through on their campaign claims 100% ("Read my lips, no new taxes") but for me this is the only criterion that I have to base my decision on and I have to at least trust that they will be earnest in following through on their campaign promises provided they are feasible. I don't think any political party matches with my beliefs closely enough to say, I'm a Democrat, I'm a Republican, I'm a Libertarian, ...
That being said, here are some issues that are important to me in '08. They are in no particular order, and I have labored hard about whether or not to write about these issues as I'm sure that every person that reads my blog will have at least one contradictory viewpoint to mine. But your all stuck with me through birthright or law and forced to love me so I mine as well be honest.
The first issue I'll comment on is immigration. Again, I'm an idealist and I cannot look past the history of this country and the part that immigration has played in it. I'm in favor of providing a means for illegal immigrants to become citizens but am concerned about seemingly rewarding illegal aliens for breaking the law and also effectively jumping in line ahead of people that are trying to enter the country legally. I like the Senate's plan of allowing the nearly 12 million illegal immigrants living in the country now to qualify for citizenship eventually after learning to speak English, paying a fine, paying any back taxes, holding a job, and passing a background check. I do not equate this to amnesty, contrary to some people's opinion. They have also proposed greatly increasing the number of green cards issued this year to get through the huge back log of people that are waiting to immigrate legally, such as the number of Filipino immigrants that have gotten press.
I am opposed to strengthening border security, I feel like this is a just putting a band aid on the real problems. I would instead rather focus on why it is so attractive to enter this country illegally and work on those issues. One of these issues is the plethora of businesses that hire illegal immigrants. I think businesses that cannot provide documentation for workers should be heavily fined and perhaps have their licenses revoked for repeat offenders. This is where the guest worker portion of the McCain-Kennedy Bill would come into play. Through a guest worker program foreign workers would be matched with US businesses through a database and could be hired once the companies provided proof that they could not hire American workers to do the job.
The next issue is gay marriage. I am a big supporter of gay rights and think gays should be afforded all the rights of other citizens. I think the main argument against gay marriage is predicated on religion and I think religion has no place in politics or governance. In a democracy you have to be objective rather than subjective and if you want to ban something based on your religious beliefs, then you want to live in a theocracy.
I think in 50 years when our grandchildren look back on the gay rights movement it will be similar to how we look back on the civil rights movement and suffrage. When the history books are written which side would you like to say you were on?
Another issue is abortion. Historically I have flip-flopped on this issue, but eventually you have to pick a side. I simply cannot imagine forcing a woman who has been impregnated through rape to carry the child, so I am pro-choice.
I'm for the death penalty. I think some crimes are so heinous that the perpetrator deserves to die. I know this is vengeful and I have flip-flopped with this issue for several years, but this is just where I am with this now. I also think it serves as a deterrent to other criminals.
Gun control is a minor issue for me, so I don't know a lot about it. I like the idea of the Brady Bill, I think anyone who wants to own a firearm can wait a few days and not be opposed to having their background checked. I think people should be able to purchase and own automatic weapons.
Wow, I'm remembering the other reason I stay out of political discussions, they are tiring! So enough about my views for now. As a gear up to the election season I urge you all to visit Smart Select.com. You can answer a series of questions and it will attempt to tell you which candidate's views on the issues most closely match yours. This will at least get you thinking about the issues and give you a warm up for what things to listen for during the upcoming debates.
OK, now for some issues that aren't on the radar but are also important to me.
I'd like to see the eradication of the non-existent adjective "funner" from the national lexicon. Violators will be forced to attend English classes with the illegal immigrants attempting to gain citizenship.
I'd like to see a candidate address businessmen cellphone dicks at the airport. You know, the self important A-holes sauntering around the gate having superfluous quasi-business related conversations at full volume just so everyone around them can have the knowledge that they're big important business men on a big important business trips. You know, the ones that still get annoyed at airport security despite the gold member card on their carry-on indicating they fly a lot and should be used to it. You know the ones that roll their eyes and get impatient with having to deal with families on a Saturday flight as if it were a 7:00 AM Monday morning flight that is 95% business travelers.
I'd like to see the number of adjectives used to describe a new station's meteorological department limited to two. And now to Amanda Huggankiss on the High Definition Super Digital Doppler in the Channel 11 Severe Storm Weather Center.
I'd like to see MasterCard be forced to retire the "Priceless" add campaign. It's been 10 years, I've received 100+ dumb forwards based on this theme, it's enough already.
Yikes, Jack's getting hungry. Go Giants! Best out.
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
Happy New Year
Happy new year everyone! I'm always excited around new year's - I like looking back on the milestones of the previous year and set some goals for myself to accomplish in the upcoming year.
On December 31, 2006 I officially became the 30th full-time employee of Aechelon Technology. I was hired to be one of three "Integration Engineers" in charge of delivering and maintaining the hardware/software involved with our company's Image Generators (IG) as well as helping people integrate them into their systems. In flight simulation terms, the IG is the computer(s) that draws the scenery seen by the pilot through the cockpit windows as they are flying. Here's a good example of a customer that created a specific type of simulator using our IG:
The scenery that is rendered is created from very high resolution satellite images that are taken of the area of interest. These images are combined with real world elevation data for the same area to create a 3D landscape that is indicative of the real world. After that we implant 3D models of certain buildings, trees, airfields, etc that the pilots use for visual reference in real life. Because we need to simulate everything the pilots can encounter we also render friendly and enemy aircraft, helicopters, technicals, aircraft carriers (including LSEs), enemy combatants, rain, snow, lightning, explosions, fire, smoke columns, rotor wash, etc. Additionally, we simulate all the visual sensor systems for any given aircraft including forward looking infrared (FLIR), night vision goggles (NVG), low-light TV (LLTV), etc. These are all physics based - where the material type for every pixel is taken into account along with temperature, humidity, etc to determine how hot something is to draw the correct infrared image. We have both simulated NVG which works in a similar fashion as the FLIR, as well as stimulated NVG which I think is really cool. For this the pilots wear their issued NVGs and we render an image that provides just enough light to stimulate the frequencies of the electromagnetic spectrum that the goggles detect causing an image to be displayed that looks just like what the pilots would see if they were flying in the middle of night with their goggles on.
Anyways, I was hired to help install these systems and also to work on my specialty which is the communication between the flight simulator and the image generator. My goals going in were to write some software based tools that would make my job easier, and more importantly the costumers, by providing a tool that shows them how to communicate with the IG to meet all of their requirements. For those interested we send UDP packets over a dedicated Gigabit Ethernet connection between the IG and the flight simulator at 60 Hz (we send data 60 times a second). I got the basics for this tool done rather quickly and it has now evolved into something that Carlos enjoys playing with. I have it written now so he can use one of his Xbox 360 controllers to fly around (which isn't easy in 3 dimensions, check out the math) , fire missiles, fly with wingmen, etc. Through much of the process of writing this tool Carlos was my unknowing beta tester, finding bugs for me along the way.
In March we had our annual all-hands meeting at our main office in San Francisco. The whole family was invited but Carrie and I decided we wanted to go by ourselves since we hadn't been away alone together since our honeymoon and before that - never. We arrived early to tour the city and stayed late to tour a bit more. Oh yeah ... and we also conceived Jack there. Heh ... sorry if that's TMI, we're very open in my family. :) A few weeks after returning from San Francisco Carrie gave notice at ProLogic and decided to become a stay at home Mom for at least the time being. The first couple of weeks were rough for her (I've always maintained that this is harder than me going to work everyday), I think she was feeling kind of listless, but we talked about it a lot to make sure we understood each others concerns and expectations for the next few years. To keep herself busy she took up jewelry making and attended a few shows among other things.
A few months later we decided to finish our basement and decided that we mine as well get some estimates just to see if we could find something that was reasonable. We thought we had and to make a long story short we learned several lessons along the way and any contractor I deal with in the future will undoubtedly think I'm a dick because I'm not going to make the same mistakes twice. Once the basement was finished I was able to move all my work stuff down to my new office and we started getting Jack's room setup. In retrospect it's funny how I rushed to get a bunch of stuff done in his room shortly before he was born and he has yet to really sleep in there.
Carlos finished out the school year strong, and began worrying about the perils of middle school on the first day of summer vacation. He had a good summer vacation - going to Camp Choosy again and meeting up with some friends from the previous year. He also went to his old babysitter's house for a few weeks so he could swim and play with his friends from there.
Towards the end of the summer Carlos and I competed in a sprint triathlon here in Morgantown. I didn't train for the biking or swimming part and found I forgot how tiring swimming can be - no wonder I was in such great shape when I was a kid. The next week I made my first trip to Italy for work, which happened to be my first trip to Europe. It was pretty amazing, and I learned a lot about myself. I also learned how to drive stick shift with the best motivation possible - necessity.
This same week Carlos started school and decided middle school ain't no thang but a chicken wang. He made several new friends and has gotten straight A's the first two semesters. It's still a bit weird to see him getting ready for dances and talking about who's dating who, the fight that happened at school, etc. Fifth grade just seems too early for all that stuff...
After a few months of school I went in to Carlos school to give a career awareness presentation. I felt obligated to do so because my job is very exciting to kids (it's essentially like creating the most kick-ass video games imaginable) and is a good platform to talk about the importance of Math and Science (even English) in the Engineering disciplines. I also feel like I'd like to get more involved with the school system as a tribute to my father. My mom gave me a box not to long ago containing my Dad's eulogy and several writeups from periodicals, college newspapers (he was a Dean at a New York State college), the papers, etc. As I read these I remembered how involved he was with our school system (he was a school board member) and how many friends he had there. Do you ever have the feeling that your meant to do something in life? Besides my career I feel like I am supposed to be involved with my children's school to help both them and their peers. I feel like these are the things that God put me on Earth to do.
Anyways, Carlos was a bit nervous about having his Dad come in and talk to his whole grade. Luckily my ice-breaker jokes went over well and the kids were super stoked about my career. Carlos, by his own account, was the most popular kid at school and was absolutely beaming for a few days.
In December the most exciting thing of the year happened, which you are all up to speed on - the birth of Jack. Right now we are still dealing with the joys and pains of having a newborn in the house.
Looking forward to the new year my main goals personally are to continue to work on my deficiencies as a father and husband (nobodies perfect). As I've mentioned I want to look for more opportunities to get involved at Carlos' school. At work I have a finical goal (I know this sounds materialistic, but our companies success is reflected in our profits, so essentially I want us to be successful and I have a number that I would consider successful) and see some of the new software I'm writing put to use. I have also been brainstorming on some software that I'd like to write and officially open-source to get my name out there. I think the tool could be quite useful to a lot of people if I find the time to write it.
On December 31, 2006 I officially became the 30th full-time employee of Aechelon Technology. I was hired to be one of three "Integration Engineers" in charge of delivering and maintaining the hardware/software involved with our company's Image Generators (IG) as well as helping people integrate them into their systems. In flight simulation terms, the IG is the computer(s) that draws the scenery seen by the pilot through the cockpit windows as they are flying. Here's a good example of a customer that created a specific type of simulator using our IG:
The scenery that is rendered is created from very high resolution satellite images that are taken of the area of interest. These images are combined with real world elevation data for the same area to create a 3D landscape that is indicative of the real world. After that we implant 3D models of certain buildings, trees, airfields, etc that the pilots use for visual reference in real life. Because we need to simulate everything the pilots can encounter we also render friendly and enemy aircraft, helicopters, technicals, aircraft carriers (including LSEs), enemy combatants, rain, snow, lightning, explosions, fire, smoke columns, rotor wash, etc. Additionally, we simulate all the visual sensor systems for any given aircraft including forward looking infrared (FLIR), night vision goggles (NVG), low-light TV (LLTV), etc. These are all physics based - where the material type for every pixel is taken into account along with temperature, humidity, etc to determine how hot something is to draw the correct infrared image. We have both simulated NVG which works in a similar fashion as the FLIR, as well as stimulated NVG which I think is really cool. For this the pilots wear their issued NVGs and we render an image that provides just enough light to stimulate the frequencies of the electromagnetic spectrum that the goggles detect causing an image to be displayed that looks just like what the pilots would see if they were flying in the middle of night with their goggles on.
Anyways, I was hired to help install these systems and also to work on my specialty which is the communication between the flight simulator and the image generator. My goals going in were to write some software based tools that would make my job easier, and more importantly the costumers, by providing a tool that shows them how to communicate with the IG to meet all of their requirements. For those interested we send UDP packets over a dedicated Gigabit Ethernet connection between the IG and the flight simulator at 60 Hz (we send data 60 times a second). I got the basics for this tool done rather quickly and it has now evolved into something that Carlos enjoys playing with. I have it written now so he can use one of his Xbox 360 controllers to fly around (which isn't easy in 3 dimensions, check out the math) , fire missiles, fly with wingmen, etc. Through much of the process of writing this tool Carlos was my unknowing beta tester, finding bugs for me along the way.
In March we had our annual all-hands meeting at our main office in San Francisco. The whole family was invited but Carrie and I decided we wanted to go by ourselves since we hadn't been away alone together since our honeymoon and before that - never. We arrived early to tour the city and stayed late to tour a bit more. Oh yeah ... and we also conceived Jack there. Heh ... sorry if that's TMI, we're very open in my family. :) A few weeks after returning from San Francisco Carrie gave notice at ProLogic and decided to become a stay at home Mom for at least the time being. The first couple of weeks were rough for her (I've always maintained that this is harder than me going to work everyday), I think she was feeling kind of listless, but we talked about it a lot to make sure we understood each others concerns and expectations for the next few years. To keep herself busy she took up jewelry making and attended a few shows among other things.
A few months later we decided to finish our basement and decided that we mine as well get some estimates just to see if we could find something that was reasonable. We thought we had and to make a long story short we learned several lessons along the way and any contractor I deal with in the future will undoubtedly think I'm a dick because I'm not going to make the same mistakes twice. Once the basement was finished I was able to move all my work stuff down to my new office and we started getting Jack's room setup. In retrospect it's funny how I rushed to get a bunch of stuff done in his room shortly before he was born and he has yet to really sleep in there.
Carlos finished out the school year strong, and began worrying about the perils of middle school on the first day of summer vacation. He had a good summer vacation - going to Camp Choosy again and meeting up with some friends from the previous year. He also went to his old babysitter's house for a few weeks so he could swim and play with his friends from there.
Towards the end of the summer Carlos and I competed in a sprint triathlon here in Morgantown. I didn't train for the biking or swimming part and found I forgot how tiring swimming can be - no wonder I was in such great shape when I was a kid. The next week I made my first trip to Italy for work, which happened to be my first trip to Europe. It was pretty amazing, and I learned a lot about myself. I also learned how to drive stick shift with the best motivation possible - necessity.
This same week Carlos started school and decided middle school ain't no thang but a chicken wang. He made several new friends and has gotten straight A's the first two semesters. It's still a bit weird to see him getting ready for dances and talking about who's dating who, the fight that happened at school, etc. Fifth grade just seems too early for all that stuff...
After a few months of school I went in to Carlos school to give a career awareness presentation. I felt obligated to do so because my job is very exciting to kids (it's essentially like creating the most kick-ass video games imaginable) and is a good platform to talk about the importance of Math and Science (even English) in the Engineering disciplines. I also feel like I'd like to get more involved with the school system as a tribute to my father. My mom gave me a box not to long ago containing my Dad's eulogy and several writeups from periodicals, college newspapers (he was a Dean at a New York State college), the papers, etc. As I read these I remembered how involved he was with our school system (he was a school board member) and how many friends he had there. Do you ever have the feeling that your meant to do something in life? Besides my career I feel like I am supposed to be involved with my children's school to help both them and their peers. I feel like these are the things that God put me on Earth to do.
Anyways, Carlos was a bit nervous about having his Dad come in and talk to his whole grade. Luckily my ice-breaker jokes went over well and the kids were super stoked about my career. Carlos, by his own account, was the most popular kid at school and was absolutely beaming for a few days.
In December the most exciting thing of the year happened, which you are all up to speed on - the birth of Jack. Right now we are still dealing with the joys and pains of having a newborn in the house.
Looking forward to the new year my main goals personally are to continue to work on my deficiencies as a father and husband (nobodies perfect). As I've mentioned I want to look for more opportunities to get involved at Carlos' school. At work I have a finical goal (I know this sounds materialistic, but our companies success is reflected in our profits, so essentially I want us to be successful and I have a number that I would consider successful) and see some of the new software I'm writing put to use. I have also been brainstorming on some software that I'd like to write and officially open-source to get my name out there. I think the tool could be quite useful to a lot of people if I find the time to write it.
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