You Can't Make This Stuff Up

A friend sent the link above. And the whole time I was reading it, I was thinking this is a complete joke. Read the article above and tell me you don't think the same.

But then I got to the very end and realized that this wasn't a joke. This is completely real. In the very end, the man says that the very best part of this miracle is that he can watch TV again. The guy lives in Ireland, and the best thing he can do with his eyesight is watch TV?!?!?! Sir, pardon me, but even though you have your sight back, you're *still* blind!

So, if this was a made up story, the best thing about having his sight back would be that he'd be able to see his grandchildren being born. Or he'd see his wife of 75 years while she had six months to live. Or he could finally read with his own eyes the handwritten letter his father wrote to him before he died. But no, the best thing about this guy having his sight back is that he can watch TV again. That's proof right there that this is actually real.

/sigh

Genius IP!

I honestly don't know if such a transferral would be legally binding in the event of a person's death, but I think this is actually a really good idea. I'm kinda' against patents anyway - particularly software patents, but this is goodness. Unfortunately, though, you'll need to read the fine print with your employer. Many employers own any invention you invent while you work with them, regardless of whether or not you used their time and money to invent it. I'm not sure how legally binding those types of agreements are, either.

That being said, there are infinitely more important things to get in order if you know that one day you'll die.

I'm Glad You're a Mom, Too!

Coming soon to a bookstore near you, Mrs. At Home is now published again - this time in a book that more people than geeks who spend their free time reading Unix System Administration guides. I'm Glad I'm a Mom: Inspirational Stories of Love, Laughter, and Everyday Life hits bookstore shelves on March 1, so mark your calendars. I'm sure your local bookstore will be open late on February 29 and into March 1 for the big release party just like they did for the Xbox 360 and iPhone. So you'd better pack up your sleeping bag, canvas chairs, and battery-powered electric blanket.

In all seriousness, I'm very, very proud of Mrs. At Home. In her professional career (professional career, as in when she got paid to do half the work she does now) she was an excellent writer and has dealt with a complete career change very gracefully. Yet, she misses writing, and is now getting a few opportunities to hone those writing skill again, this time writing far more valuable information.

I'm Glad I'm a Mom: Inspirational Stories of Love, Laughter, and Everyday Life is a collection of short, real-life stories by real-life moms. And don't let the cover of the book fool you - there are two problems with it: all the "moms" on the cover are smiling, and Mrs. At Home's picture is missing from it. But then again, if her picture was on it, readers would be confused and think it was a book of SUPER MOM-DELS. And I suppose it's okay if the moms who did make the cover smile - kids are plenty to smile about.

But send kudos to Mrs. At Home. She's looking for book signing opportunities, so be sure to let your local hangout of bibliophiles know that you know the husband of "The #6 Story Writer in I'm Glad I'm a Mom: Inspirational Stories of Love, Laughter, and Everyday Life"

2 Hours of My Life....

A phrase we use at the office on occasion is "That was (x period of time) I'll never get back." We use it when we spent some time doing something we're pretty certain was a colossal waste of time.

I just lost 2 hours off my life. They're gone. Kaput. Bye-bye. They're not coming back. I'll live out my life never being able to regain the last two hours I spent, and I have nothing to show for the two hours except this blog post.

So how did I just easily waste 2 hours of my life? I'm working on a project for my work at UNCC. And I needed to make some improvements to it. I was almost 100% complete with the improvements, and I zigged when I should've zagged, and I lost a whole directory of my project that had some very important parts to it.

Thankfully, I had it under version control. Version control allows you (among other things) to go back in time - assuming you use it often and correctly. Only tonight, I didn't use it often enough, or I did, just at inconsistent times. I checked in as soon as I started working - I had leftover things from the last time I worked.

But then I zigged, er - dragged a folder where I shouldn't have. And then there I was. I had worked 2 hours on adding new functionality, didn't check in the new functionality, then lost it all.

And what's *really* perplexing, is that I didn't actually *lose* the folder - I dragged it to a bad location, but I wasn't sure what I had done. So I spent the next 20 minutes trying to use my version control to recover, and ended up wiping everything and going back to the last version I had checked in. Had I not had version control, I might've actually spent some time trying to understand what I had done. But by the time I truly understood what I messed up, I had already wiped 2 hours worth of work.

So let that be a lesson to you. Use version control? Absolutely! But don't get so confident in it that you don't realize what you're doing or not doing.

More Silliness in the Written Word

I'm guessing that by the time you hit the link above, they will have corrected the issue. But at the time I first looked at this, they said "He set the career mark last year with his 762th home run last year." Is that "seven hundred sixty twoth?" "Seven hundred sixty tooth?"

I know - everybody makes mistakes. But this is Fox News. Generally, they check stuff like that very, very carefully - even if they are trying to be the first to release a story.

And incidentally - the Mac clipboard now works on Gimp 2.4 on the Mac! w00t!

MOBILE: Seen at lunch today.

I tried to think of an appropriate caption for this, but I couldn't
think of one that wouldn't get me in trouble.

Happy Valentine's Day Mrs. At Home!

This year, for Valentine's Day, I thought I would tell the world (er - all 4 people who are reading this) how wonderful my Valentine is. And rather than do the ordinary Valentine's Day stuff about the days long gone, or how she looked on our wedding day (amazing!), I want to tell you how lovely she is today, sixteen years after we met, almost twelve years after we got married.

Mrs. At Home, you're the most amazing lady. You've earned the "strong" in your name with your amazing perseverance in all the work that you've done. Between things like your allergies, the trials of children, the task of educating, sharpening your professional skills, feasting on the Bible, and putting up with a husband (we won't say to what degree), you never complain. You do what is asked of you from every direction, and you always persevere and finish the task.

You are the imperishable beauty of a quiet spirit that Peter talks about. As often as you could have been provoked to anger, you've always responded in kindness and love. You're so patient with all of us and all our shortcomings, and you return my bad moods with a serene one.

You're an amazing hard worker. You have so many responsibilities, yet you fulfill all your obligations with excellence. Between homemaker, teacher, chauffeur, budget review committee, chef, entertainer, writer, and woman of God, you have so many things pulling you in so many directions, but nobody can ever call you undependable. You handle all your many callings easily.

I pray that I can only love you half as well as you have me. I pray that God would give me the energy to honor you, to provide for you, to protect you, and to treat you as the joint heir of the grace of life that you are. More than telling you I love you, I want to love you - I don't want to just tell you about a feeling of love I have for you, but I want to choose to love you in action, and give myself up for you as One gave Himself so freely for me.

I love you! Happy Valentine's Day!

And in Somewhat Un-Related News

While I was telling Mrs. At Home about the lunch of the previous post, L kept interrupting - "Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!"

Once I finished the story, I asked L what she wanted.

"Tell Mommy you love animal crackers." (She was sitting directly next to Mommy at this point.)

Lunch with a Spoon

Mrs. At Home thought it was a funny story, so here goes (er - except it's true):

Last night I made myself a PB&J to bring to lunch today. Also, the obligatory Lays potato chips and animal crackers. And since milk doesn't come in a 12 oz. can, a can of Diet Dr. Pepper. I lost my lunchbag a few weeks ago, so this is in a plastic grocery sack.

Well, in my sleepiness last night, I was only concerned about actually remembering my lunch this morning. So I put my lunch with the rest of my stuff to bring to work. As in, not in the refrigerator.

Also, I did a bit of grocery shopping this weekend and picked up some desk rations - 6 cans of soup (in case I forget lunch, which I often do), and several packets of instant oatmeal (because breakfast is the most important meal of the day). So on the bus this morning, I was mostly concerned about my satchel and the big sack of soup cans and oatmeal. So my lunch fell on the (somewhat clean) floor of the bus, and the soda can rolled back and forth over the chips and sandwich a bunch of times (I lost count after 60).

So for my lunch, I had a squished, jelly soaked couple of slices of bread and some potato chip powder. Yum-my!

Mobile: Friday La Unica Madness

Our favorite restauraunt on Friday is pure crazy! But still yummy.

Beautiful Day!

It's sunny and 61 degrees F. What more to say?

10,000 Points

One of the mommy blogs Mrs. At Home follows is called Rocks In My Dryer. Once you understand that it's a mommy blog, the name of it is very funny.

Mrs. Dryer hosts on Wednesday a regular post called Works for Me Wednesday, where she makes a topic, then other mommy bloggers post their solutions to the problem or other things that work similarly. Today's WFMW was the On-Line Shopping Edition where people sound off on their favorite online stores.

And Mrs. At Home had this to say. And indeed, she's right. With me, you just about can't go wrong with any gadgetry, toy, clothing, or caffeinated item from ThinkGeek. I was first lured to the hiked skirt and perfumed inner thigh that is ThinkGeek about 6 years ago or so, and since then, I think I've at least had something in the stocking from there.

Yes, Dear - that will earn you 10,000 points just for mentioning it. And that's not including the billions of points you'll get from other ladies' husbands when their wives get them the first UPS box filled with l33t geeky goodness because you were kind enough to share with the world.

Fried chicken Wednesday

This is mobile, so not the photo of the day. My friend here was a little slower than me, but it didn't take long for us to get to the bottom of our plates.

There are also twice as many people at FBC Power Lunch on fried chicken days.

Photo of the Day 2008-02-05

Sorry I missed yesterday. It was dark before I even got home, and there was a whole lot going on.

Today's photo was shot today. February 5. And it was warm enough for the girls to buy and wear flip flops. Although, it's not been warm long enough for the girls to do anything with their toes. (Mrs. At Home was complaining when I shot the picture that their toes were not suitable for photography).

And I understand there's a cold front going into Dallas. Meanwhile here, we've thrown open the windows, and did I mention, the girls are wearing flip flops?

2008-02-05 17:18 D50 ISO800 55mm f/9.0 1/80s

Photo of the Day 2008-02-03

Sorry, this one is a little lame. Although it was a gorgeous day today, I spent far too much of it indoors and didn't get started shooting until late in the day. So I ended up shooting at a gathering at some friends' home for watching the third most important television event of the week (behind The Big Game and LOST).

So my friend insisted I shoot this because his wife can't stand the thing, and he hung it up anyway. Hope posting this doesn't cause any marital tension.

So here it is. Sorry the built-in flash doesn't really reach out that well.

2008-02-03 18:09 D50 ISO 400 55mm f/5.6 1/60s built-in flash.

The Big Game

I hear there's an American football game today, but enough about that....

Who's your vote for The Big Game. Since moving to NC in 2004, we've learned that upon entering the state, you must choose sides for your loyalty. Your loyalties cannot be divided, although there are some rare families that have a graduate from each school, but unless you graduated from another ACC school, you and your family must register your allegiance.

Of course, I'm talking about Carolina (that's the University of North Carolina Tarheels) and Duke (that's the Duke University Bluedevils). We registered Carolina Blue - as in the color God made the sky.

So, THE BIG GAME is really on Wednesday night. All of NC will be shut down for about 2 hours beginning at 9pm. And as usual, there's something at stake. As of this moment, Duke is ranked number 3 in the country, and Carolina number 4 in the country. That may change tomorrow as Carolina lost Ty Lawson and had to wait until OT to beat Florida State. Meanwhile, Duke handled Miami easily and they're getting better all the time.

So who's your pick for THE BIG GAME?

Shameless Request for "Shameless Request for Help Today"

Mrs. At Home has really, really taken to the ministry of a Mom Blog now. She finds encouragement, support, and helpful hints and tips in getting the day to day effort of homeschooling in a godly environment from other moms who are dealing with the same things.

From a completely selfish perspective, I delight in the days I work from home and I get to either help the girls with school or just to hear them. They work on Scripture memory (and not little 5 word bits, but real substance and theology), and they're working through the Bible in study. They get an excellent education, and L benefits from no confusion over who the parents are and that they'll never leave. K gets the benefit of a superb education in a comfortable environment, and not having to see bad behavior and wonder if that's alright for her as well.

Mrs. At Home would delight in going to this conference - having a weekend away to recharge, and to connect with other like-minded women. She has a couple of New Year's resolutions to find a ministry, to develop deeper relationships with other godly women, and to improve her blog. This conference will help her in all of those. And I wouldn't be surprised if she found somebody who had a similar allergy and could tell Mrs. At Home how to get rid of it. We pray for all four of these things every single night.

And lastly, to send Mrs. At Home to the conference would win me some serious points. If I sent her, I could probably get 375,000 points or so. But you see, we're working really hard on our budget. To send her for free would have the dual benefit of serious point-age *and* not having to mark it in a category.

Vote now - vote early - vote often. And of course, do the right thing and read several of the other posts and be blessed.

(I'm not Valerie at Home, and I don't know if she approves this message).

What Kind of School is This?

One of L's favorite toys in the house is LeapFrog Fridge Phonics® Magnetic Set. And she's actually learning a lot of sounds from it. You pop a magnetic letter into the magnetic box, and it sings the following song (for the appropriate letter):

'M' says mmmmm
'M' says mmmmm
Every letter makes a sound
'M' says mmmmm

I guess when the batteries get a little low, it's hard to tell the letter from the sound. Today, L popped in a letter, and it said:

'Uungh!' says uungh!
'Uungh!' says uungh!
Every letter makes a sound
'Uungh!' says uungh!

We must've picked up some new characters from the James Brown School of Funk Fridge Phonics.

I gotta' go now - gotta see what the character looks like that translates to "Hep Meh!"

Photo of the Day 2008-02-02

Eeeeeek! Great big Little People! Run for the hills!

Some friends had a garage sale today, so I thought I would try to get artistic at a garage sale. There's another shot of some light fixtures that they couldn't sell that I also considered. I took lots of those. But they just weren't as interesting as these. Nobody ever bought the light fixtures, but one couple said they had been trying to sell an identical set for two previous garage sales. They even tried to take them to Habitat for Humanity, but even they wouldn't take them - turns out it's a very common light fixture, and nobody wants it.

These, however, went in a snap. Small people love Little People. Our friends have four kids - including twins. So as the twins get older, they're getting rid of a bit of their stuff. These are just much more colorful and interesting, and certainly don't look like garage sale rejects.

We helped our friends with their garage sale because they'll be moving in the summer. Their house will be on the market soon, and things look good as other homes in the neighborhood have sold pretty quickly. But it will be sad to see them go. He's in a profession that moves him about the country pretty frequently, so we knew they wouldn't be here forever.

2008-02-02 09:11 D50 ISO1600 18mm f/4.5 1/4000s

Bonus Photo 2008-02-01

This was so good for the self confidence that you get a bonus picture tonight. It took me less than 2 hours to get the protoshield put together and lightly tested with a couple of simple circuits. Not too bad for having only tried to solder a few components before. I've tested the pushbutton, both LED's, and by virtue of hooking up to the Arduino itself, most of the headers. (Right now, it looks like the 3.3v copied up from the board is a bit flaky - waiting on the iron to heat up and I'll try to solder that one again.

Like I said, tonight was my first time to solder anything substantial, and it was all through-hole, so it would be pretty easy for an old pro. A couple of times, like getting the headers in, the board is turned upside-down, so I needed K's skilled hands to hold the header block in while I soldered the outermost pins. (Never let your kids hold header blocks, or else you could burn them with the soldering iron! No, I didn't burn K, but I'm a professional......right!)

And after all that typing, the iron was hot enough, I've re-soldered the 3.3v, and it works.

The circuit you see in the photo is a pull-up resistor combo to test the pushbutton. The program on the board sends a serial signal telling the machine whether the pin is high or low, and the pushbutton is tied to the pin and 5volts. When we close the switch, the circuit goes low, but it's high by default. There's a resistor between the input pin and 5V, but it's a 10kΩ resistor, so when the button is pushed, the 5V doesn't even register - it's all ground at that point. (If you don't use a pull-up resistor, the signal will fluctuate between high and low).

So a pretty fun Friday night project. Hopefully I'll get some time to play with it this weekend - but I had better do my chores first!

Thanks, Big Sis for the Arduino, and thanks girls for the birthday board!

2008-02-01 21:16 D50 ISO1600 195mm f/4.8 1/80s (no tripod!)

Photo of the Day 2008-02-01

This is my weekend project. It's a Protoshield for the uber-geek Arduino Diecimila my sister got for me for Christmas.

The Arduino is an open-source hardware platform based on a very versatile controller. This is like the Basic Stamp, only a bit faster and much less expensive, and open source. So instead of just having the Diecimila, which is what I've got, the schematics and specifications, and the firmare are all open-source, so there are lots and and lots of Arduino type boards out there. The protoshield is a shield that plugs into the Diecimila on top and provides a rapid prototyping area.

I like taking macro photography. If you get the lighting right, they pretty well take care of themselves. The computer seemed to make the right decisions here - I loaded this up in Lightroom, flipped over to develop, set the white balance to auto, and I don't think I can make this much better.

2008-02-01 18:46 D50 ISO200 185mm f/10 0.8s