If you've been to downtown Fort Worth on the weekends, chances are you've encountered a Christian organization handing out leaflets with a million-dollar bill on the front. If I recall correctly, they tie the question of where you go when you die with 'the million dollar question.' In the half-dozen times I've been to Sun Dance Square, I think I've seen them 3 or 4 times.
Turns out someone in Pennsylvania tried to make change with one of their leaflets at a grocery store. Here's the link.
Any idiot knows you have to go to the Federal Reserve to make change with your Clevelands.
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
The Intersection of School and Work
This week I've become very aware of how much my college classes had an impact in my professional life. Not my lecture classes mind you. Everything I needed from lectures I learned in the first year-and-a-half. No, it's the five project labs I had in the final years that made the deepest professional impact.
For those not in the know, Project Lab began with the instructor organizing us into groups and assigning semester-long projects, (though in later years we got to choose our teams and projects.) Each project involved designing and building some electrical device such as an electronic blood-pressure reading gadget. The projects also had an attached professor that served as the customer/advisor. We would develop a semester-long schedule and budget and then execute it with the professor signing off on our weekly progress. The majority of our time, though, was spent making power-point presentations (how accurate is that to professional life?!) and present them to the course instructor and our peers, one after another for three hour stints which can only be described as the death-march of academia.
The toughest part by far, was the firing line that came at the end. Each presenter would end with the obligatory, "are there any questions" and then the real learning would begin. The instructor would typically ask the presenter to go back to the first slide and we'd work through the presentation nit-picking every fault in the presentation. Although in retrospect this taught me the most, at the time it was sheer torture.
"Blue text on a black background means only the first row of your audience can read that, Mr. Wetz."
"There's too much information on this slide"
"There's not enough information on this slide"
"You call that a voltage divider? What have you been doing for the last three years of your life that would make you think that?"
“So you’re going to use an unsigned integer to store an angle between -pi/6 and +pi/6?”
One time a person had a picture of red and green wires he had twisted together to reduce the impedance of some network device. During the 'question time' the professor released both barrels on him for using "two of the same colored wire". "By doing so, every time you pull this out to work on it you've got to ohm out both ends to make sure you've got the right ones. You should have used two different colors!" Like good sheep the presenter and the entire class of about thirty sat there quietly taking this. Finally the presenter, at his whit’s end, did the unspeakable and said, "but sir, these are two different colors - they're red and green!" to which the instructor replied, "Oh... I guess I should inform you I'm color-blind."
In the final two project labs, the instructor raised the ante by announcing part of our grade would be determined by our active participation during the question time. Rather than the presenter being thrown to a great white shark at the end of their presentation, he would now be thrown to a great white shark and a school of piranhas.
Again, I did the most learning here, but it turned you into a person that you didn’t want to look at in the mirror!
I bring all this up because this week groups at work have been presenting their results of a month-long development. During the times I was presenting, I found that I was calm during the moments I would speak, but the anxiety wouldn’t build until I’d get closer to the “Any Questions” slide. In addition, I find that anytime a manager asks a question, I find myself wrapping it in a ‘bail-out clause” in case I’m wrong – “Well, last time I checked…” or “I was under the impression…” Thanks to project lab, I think I’ve been conditioned to believe that any question from an authority figure is just to test me and bring me down a notch. I need to either become a resident expert (not a bad thing) on whatever it is I’m talking about, or at least have the gumption to assert myself with confidence.
In addition, yesterday a person posted an object model diagram that was riddled, I MEAN RIDDLED, with errors! After confirming that I hadn’t fallen into some twilight zone or I wasn’t the center of a prank of conspiratorial proportions, everything from project lab was screaming, “Be the first to say something! You’ve got this!” And yet the other, wiser half of me was saying, “You’ve got a half-dozen managers and another half-dozen senior developers in here, surely they’ll point it out.” Yet NOONE did. We sat there in complete silence looking at the biggest travesty to software engineering and didn’t correct this error!
I don’t think I like the idea of “a time and a place” to correct programming errors. Or things that are Worse Than Failure - things that technically compile and run, but do so in such a wrong manner that it self-induces a face-five.
Software Engineers and co-workers, what do you think?
For those not in the know, Project Lab began with the instructor organizing us into groups and assigning semester-long projects, (though in later years we got to choose our teams and projects.) Each project involved designing and building some electrical device such as an electronic blood-pressure reading gadget. The projects also had an attached professor that served as the customer/advisor. We would develop a semester-long schedule and budget and then execute it with the professor signing off on our weekly progress. The majority of our time, though, was spent making power-point presentations (how accurate is that to professional life?!) and present them to the course instructor and our peers, one after another for three hour stints which can only be described as the death-march of academia.
The toughest part by far, was the firing line that came at the end. Each presenter would end with the obligatory, "are there any questions" and then the real learning would begin. The instructor would typically ask the presenter to go back to the first slide and we'd work through the presentation nit-picking every fault in the presentation. Although in retrospect this taught me the most, at the time it was sheer torture.
"Blue text on a black background means only the first row of your audience can read that, Mr. Wetz."
"There's too much information on this slide"
"There's not enough information on this slide"
"You call that a voltage divider? What have you been doing for the last three years of your life that would make you think that?"
“So you’re going to use an unsigned integer to store an angle between -pi/6 and +pi/6?”
One time a person had a picture of red and green wires he had twisted together to reduce the impedance of some network device. During the 'question time' the professor released both barrels on him for using "two of the same colored wire". "By doing so, every time you pull this out to work on it you've got to ohm out both ends to make sure you've got the right ones. You should have used two different colors!" Like good sheep the presenter and the entire class of about thirty sat there quietly taking this. Finally the presenter, at his whit’s end, did the unspeakable and said, "but sir, these are two different colors - they're red and green!" to which the instructor replied, "Oh... I guess I should inform you I'm color-blind."
In the final two project labs, the instructor raised the ante by announcing part of our grade would be determined by our active participation during the question time. Rather than the presenter being thrown to a great white shark at the end of their presentation, he would now be thrown to a great white shark and a school of piranhas.
Again, I did the most learning here, but it turned you into a person that you didn’t want to look at in the mirror!
I bring all this up because this week groups at work have been presenting their results of a month-long development. During the times I was presenting, I found that I was calm during the moments I would speak, but the anxiety wouldn’t build until I’d get closer to the “Any Questions” slide. In addition, I find that anytime a manager asks a question, I find myself wrapping it in a ‘bail-out clause” in case I’m wrong – “Well, last time I checked…” or “I was under the impression…” Thanks to project lab, I think I’ve been conditioned to believe that any question from an authority figure is just to test me and bring me down a notch. I need to either become a resident expert (not a bad thing) on whatever it is I’m talking about, or at least have the gumption to assert myself with confidence.
In addition, yesterday a person posted an object model diagram that was riddled, I MEAN RIDDLED, with errors! After confirming that I hadn’t fallen into some twilight zone or I wasn’t the center of a prank of conspiratorial proportions, everything from project lab was screaming, “Be the first to say something! You’ve got this!” And yet the other, wiser half of me was saying, “You’ve got a half-dozen managers and another half-dozen senior developers in here, surely they’ll point it out.” Yet NOONE did. We sat there in complete silence looking at the biggest travesty to software engineering and didn’t correct this error!
I don’t think I like the idea of “a time and a place” to correct programming errors. Or things that are Worse Than Failure - things that technically compile and run, but do so in such a wrong manner that it self-induces a face-five.
Software Engineers and co-workers, what do you think?
Saturday, July 28, 2007
Home Pics
Several friends and family members have been asking for some pics of our new home. The ones I've posted below don't show all the rooms - some of them are still serving as a catch-all for boxes and the kitchen wasn't presentable enough to be posted to the world. You can click on any of them for a super-big view...
Our front 'formal' living room
The formal dining room
The family room
Master bedroom.
This is the front of our house after I spent the morning working in the yard.
Our front 'formal' living roomThe formal dining room
The family room
Master bedroom.
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Sprinkler Woes
This week I mowed the yard for the first time since buying our wonderful house. After I was done I laid down fertilizer and proceeded to water it in. I took the oportunity to watch the watering since normally it comes on in the early morning hours. As it worked its way to the side of the house, I noticed a nook that wasn't getting watered. I heard sprinklers working but nothing was getting wet. I peered over the neighbors fence and this is what I found.
Apparently the neighbors fence (presumably built sometime after our fence and sprinkler system were installed) is blocking the last two sprinklers in the line along the stone wall (indicated by the grey bar). Four times a week for 5 minutes I'm soaking the bottom of 6 feet of fencing.
The inspector never caught it because the sprinkler system was never tested. This was because the control box is located on the outside of the house and was locked, (the reason it was locked and on the outside the garage was because it served as a model home and people needed to adjust the settings without getting into the house.)
I haven't dug up the survey yet, but I'm pretty sure the fence is treading into my property.
A few co-workers pointed out that since it's my property, I have the right to tear it down. While true, I don't think that would be very neighborly. I suspect the easiest thing to do would be to moved the sprinkler line to my side of the fence.
Apparently the neighbors fence (presumably built sometime after our fence and sprinkler system were installed) is blocking the last two sprinklers in the line along the stone wall (indicated by the grey bar). Four times a week for 5 minutes I'm soaking the bottom of 6 feet of fencing.
The inspector never caught it because the sprinkler system was never tested. This was because the control box is located on the outside of the house and was locked, (the reason it was locked and on the outside the garage was because it served as a model home and people needed to adjust the settings without getting into the house.)
I haven't dug up the survey yet, but I'm pretty sure the fence is treading into my property.
A few co-workers pointed out that since it's my property, I have the right to tear it down. While true, I don't think that would be very neighborly. I suspect the easiest thing to do would be to moved the sprinkler line to my side of the fence.
Friday, July 6, 2007
Airport Adventures
Here is the promised post I made about the Apple Airport Express and the adventure I had getting it set up. The device itself is really impressive - follow the link and you'll see all the amazing stuff it can do. Unfortunately, Apple's documentation has always been severely lacking. I supose they write with Mac owners in mind - in which case it's a trivial matter - everything is truely plug and play. If you have a PC and third-party routers/modems, you're on your own. Fortunately, once you understand what's going on, it's really easy.
So here's the current setup: We have a cable modem that plugs into a Linksys Wireless-G router. The PC then plugs (note: plugs) into the router. This created a little hurdle because the PC itself isn't wireless and isn't configured in any way, shape, or form. We wanted to use the Airport in its "Airtunes" configuration to pipe music from the computer, across the house to a hall closet that holds the wires for our recessed speakers. Below is the closest picture I could find of the desired setup sans Apple products, of course.
I'll save you all the issues, websites, and hair-pulling I went through with the exception of saying that no documentation Apple provided helped. Here's what I ended up doing...
1. Install the software package that came with your Airport Express.
2. Plug the airport into a power outlet and then hard wire it to your router. If you find yourself short a network cable, you can do what I did and use the cable connecting the modem and router. Make sure you move the cable from the "Internet" (i.e. input) port to the number 2 slot on the router.
3. Run the "Airport Admin Utility." By default, it's at Start --> All Programs --> Airport --> Airport Admin Utility
4. You should now see the factory default name of your Airport Express under the "name" column. Select it and click the "Configure" button at the bottom right of the screen.
5. It may or may not ask for a password. I can't remember the first time.
6. You should now be looking at a series of tabs of properties you can set for the Airport. The first thing to do is click on the "Airport" tab and next to the "Wireless mode" select "Join an Existing Wireless Network (Wireless Client)
7. Click on the "Wireless Security" button to set up the encryption and password for your netowk. THis reminds that in trying to get all this figured out, I disabled encryption for our network! I need to fix that... I seem to recall there being an issue with WEP or WPA encryption. Once I get that solved, I'll make another post...
8. Enter the name of your network name in the field provided.
9. All the other proerties are moot for the setup we're trying to do except the last tab - Music. On there, you need to click on the boxes to "Enable AirTunes on this base station" and "Enable AirTunes over Ethernet." Be sure to give the "iTunes Speaker Name" something meaningful - this is what will be displayed in iTunes.
10. Once all this is done, you can click on the 'Update' button at the bottom of the window to save all your changes. When you do, the Airport will reset itself (indicated by the solid amber display light). Once done booting, the Airport will begin flashing an amber light indicating its searching for your network. After about ten blinks, it should turn a solid green. Congratulations! You can remove the wire connecting the router and Airport to verify that the signal is being sent wirelessly. Furhtermore, try opening iTunes and look for an additional display at the bottom of the window for output. By default, it should be set to 'My Computer.' Selecting your Airport name should take a second or two to synch up but then it should work great. When I tested it, I had headphones plugged into the Airport and directed iTunes to output to both the PC speakers and Airport. There was no desernable delay between the two.
Anyway, that's what it took to get my Airport working. I hope this helps someone!
Thursday, July 5, 2007
Have home - will travel
For those that miss the reference, there is an OLD TV western called "Have Gun - Will Travel"
Today we closed on our first house! We signed the docs at 9, but couldn't pick up the keys until the seller signed (he wasn't showing up until 11:30) and the check cleared. To kill time, Casi and I went over to Southlake Town Square. I bought a Apple Airport Express, (I'll make a separate post about it here...) and then saw Evan Almighty. It was humorous but certainly not the funniest movie I've ever seen. I'd rate it as a renter. When we came out, it was raining (big surprise, right?) and after calling the realtor found out the seller STILL hadn't signed. It's like he didn't want our money or something... To kill more time, we saw Transformers. I wanted to be a movie hopper, but Cas played good girl. It was a better movie, but I'm afraid Hollywood has gotten to Transformers. They tried to make some funny moments in the movie with some really inappropriate material that had nothing to do with robotic aliens.
With the movie over, the rain gone, and it in mid-afternoon, we drove over to the Title Company, met Lorri (our realtor) and got the keys!
On the way home, we stopped by Best Buy and Radio Shack looking for an amplifier or receiver. I didn't find one I really liked. They had plenty, but they were just a lot more than what I was willing to pay.
I worked at getting the airport set up, (again... it's own post...) and now I'm ready to pack!
Hope everything is going well at work...
Today we closed on our first house! We signed the docs at 9, but couldn't pick up the keys until the seller signed (he wasn't showing up until 11:30) and the check cleared. To kill time, Casi and I went over to Southlake Town Square. I bought a Apple Airport Express, (I'll make a separate post about it here...) and then saw Evan Almighty. It was humorous but certainly not the funniest movie I've ever seen. I'd rate it as a renter. When we came out, it was raining (big surprise, right?) and after calling the realtor found out the seller STILL hadn't signed. It's like he didn't want our money or something... To kill more time, we saw Transformers. I wanted to be a movie hopper, but Cas played good girl. It was a better movie, but I'm afraid Hollywood has gotten to Transformers. They tried to make some funny moments in the movie with some really inappropriate material that had nothing to do with robotic aliens.
With the movie over, the rain gone, and it in mid-afternoon, we drove over to the Title Company, met Lorri (our realtor) and got the keys!
On the way home, we stopped by Best Buy and Radio Shack looking for an amplifier or receiver. I didn't find one I really liked. They had plenty, but they were just a lot more than what I was willing to pay.
I worked at getting the airport set up, (again... it's own post...) and now I'm ready to pack!
Hope everything is going well at work...
Monday, June 25, 2007
Thoughts on Cheese
First off, Casi has pointed out that 'cheese' is the new drug on the streets (see here). I'm not talking about that...
A small group of friends at work and I went to the company library today with the intent of finding a book that we could read and discuss. We ended up walking out with "Who Moved My Cheese" by Spencer Johnson. It's a very short read (30 to 45 minutes) told as a parable. The story centers around 4 creatures whose every waking moment is spent in the pursuit of cheese. They learn of a room within the maze where the cheese always seems to appear and begin to build their lives around it so much so that they are blind to the fact that there is less and less cheese appearing each day until eventually it stops appearing all together. The rest of the story is spent talking about how the creatures deal with this change. Some immediately pick up and move on. Some have a long internal debates. Some just sit, stuck on memories of the past, and presumably starve to death.
The explanation of the parable is obvious enough. Cheese is, "a metaphor for what we want to have in life, whether a job, a relationship, money, a big house, freedom, health, recognition, spiritual peace, or even an activity like jogging or golf." The maze is the place that we spend looking for it, although I would argue it is our lives since the creatures could not escape the maze. The creatures themselves represent us and how we adapt to change. Easy enough.
Despite its affirmation that we're in charge of our own happiness, and if we aren't getting our cheese we just need to gather enough self-will to pick up and move on, I didn't find any comfort in it.
As a Christian, I realized several things. To continue the metaphor the book began, there is Someone who has a top-down perspective of the maze. Someone who knows every turn and dead-end and knows every creature living in the maze by name. He placed each of them in the maze with purpose and intent and is the ultimate source of their cheese, even though they don't know it. His sole desire is to have a relationship (a friendship) with the creatures, for them to simply look up and see the smiling face looking back at them.
The creatures were not placed in the maze to spend their lives looking for cheese.
We as people spend our whole lives thinking that if we aren't happy, something is terribly wrong. If a relationship or a job or any situation is no longer fulfilling, we need to put our running shoes on and move on. How near-sighted and selfish is that! There are good things in life that don't immediately feel good. If we seek to be led, we need to stop looking at the path ahead and start looking up at The One looking back at you.
Maybe you're in a situation that you're not happy with. Maybe you've got a spouse you're not connecting with or a job that isn't fulfilling and you're longing for a change. Why not look at where you are and ask why have you've been brought here to this place. There might be blessings all around that you aren't seeing (and will never see) unless you look up.
A small group of friends at work and I went to the company library today with the intent of finding a book that we could read and discuss. We ended up walking out with "Who Moved My Cheese" by Spencer Johnson. It's a very short read (30 to 45 minutes) told as a parable. The story centers around 4 creatures whose every waking moment is spent in the pursuit of cheese. They learn of a room within the maze where the cheese always seems to appear and begin to build their lives around it so much so that they are blind to the fact that there is less and less cheese appearing each day until eventually it stops appearing all together. The rest of the story is spent talking about how the creatures deal with this change. Some immediately pick up and move on. Some have a long internal debates. Some just sit, stuck on memories of the past, and presumably starve to death.
The explanation of the parable is obvious enough. Cheese is, "a metaphor for what we want to have in life, whether a job, a relationship, money, a big house, freedom, health, recognition, spiritual peace, or even an activity like jogging or golf." The maze is the place that we spend looking for it, although I would argue it is our lives since the creatures could not escape the maze. The creatures themselves represent us and how we adapt to change. Easy enough.
Despite its affirmation that we're in charge of our own happiness, and if we aren't getting our cheese we just need to gather enough self-will to pick up and move on, I didn't find any comfort in it.
As a Christian, I realized several things. To continue the metaphor the book began, there is Someone who has a top-down perspective of the maze. Someone who knows every turn and dead-end and knows every creature living in the maze by name. He placed each of them in the maze with purpose and intent and is the ultimate source of their cheese, even though they don't know it. His sole desire is to have a relationship (a friendship) with the creatures, for them to simply look up and see the smiling face looking back at them.
The creatures were not placed in the maze to spend their lives looking for cheese.
We as people spend our whole lives thinking that if we aren't happy, something is terribly wrong. If a relationship or a job or any situation is no longer fulfilling, we need to put our running shoes on and move on. How near-sighted and selfish is that! There are good things in life that don't immediately feel good. If we seek to be led, we need to stop looking at the path ahead and start looking up at The One looking back at you.
Maybe you're in a situation that you're not happy with. Maybe you've got a spouse you're not connecting with or a job that isn't fulfilling and you're longing for a change. Why not look at where you are and ask why have you've been brought here to this place. There might be blessings all around that you aren't seeing (and will never see) unless you look up.
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Beginnings
Welcome to my blog! For three years I've learned about friends and family and gotten all my news from blogs. I figured it was time I join the fray.
I hope this site will become a place that I discuss all spheres of my life - paying special attention to record my observances on their intersections and unions.
For tonight, though, I'm off to bed. Cas and I have had a long week and we're very sleep deprived.
I hope this site will become a place that I discuss all spheres of my life - paying special attention to record my observances on their intersections and unions.
For tonight, though, I'm off to bed. Cas and I have had a long week and we're very sleep deprived.
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