Matzah Ball Soup

Today, with considerable assistance from Carrie, I cooked some Matzah Ball Soup. First I mixed oil with eggs, and then I added the mixture to make the ball dough. This was followed by adding some broth powder into some water, and boiling.

Then the fun part. We made small balls of the dough by rolling them around in our hands play-doh style. Then we dropped them in the broth. 20 minutes later they were fluffy and tasty. This was my first time making this kind of soup, and I declare it to be a success!

Although, I'm not too sure what to do with the leftover matzah balls.

Cleaning

Today I spent some time cleaning my apartment. It involved various soaps, paper towels, bleach, sanitizing wipes, a roomba (robot vacuum), dishwasher, washer/dryer, and trash bags.

And even though it's a lot of work, somehow you feel fulfilled after it's done. To me, it's not the cleaning, but the organizing that makes me feel better. Getting all the things out of place into place gives me a feeling that there is order still in the world.

Settlers of Catan

This Saturday, I'm having a Settlers of Catan game playing night. This involved me overcoming my less than steller social abilities in order to invite various individuals to play. The results are in, and we're looking to have as many as 6 people, which is good, since the game only supports a maximum of 6 people. I'm quite excited, as I haven't had a chance to play in quite some time.

There will be snacks, drinks, and a whole lot of tradin' going on. Let the settlements begin!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Settlers_of_Catan

Doxygen

I downloaded a copy of Doxygen today. It parses C++ code for special comments in order to automatically produce documentation. I've used this before, but it's been awhile, and I'm rediscovering what a wonderful thing it is. All I have to do is update comments in the code every time I change the code, and my documentation is automatically kept up to date!

http://www.stack.nl/~dimitri/doxygen/

Oranges suck

My office building provides free fruit for the people working within it. They have bins of apples, bananas, pears, and oranges all through the building. Today I went for a pear, but they haven't refilled the bins yet this week, so all that was left was oranges. Now I know why.

Oranges are a pain in the ass. I grabbed one, took it back to my desk with some paper towels, and began to slice. With an apple or a pear, slicing the fruit twice top to bottom in an X shape produces four peices of easily edible fruit.

However, the orange produce a lot of orange juice, which ended up all over my desk. And then trying to eat, well rather "drink" the orange, proves futile. You just end up with pulp and juice, which isn't all the appealing. I think from now on, it's pears or bust.

Working from Home

Today I "worked" from home in the morning. It's such an amazingly convenient thing to be able to do. There are many times when you have something that needs doing during the week, or you can't get into work on time, or you just plain don't want to. All it takes is a quick email to the boss saying, "I'm working from home today".

For those that are now thinking, "gee, software seems like the perfect industry to work in!", realize that I actually do work , when I work from home. It's just less structured. Flexible hours are a perk/privaledge that can be lost if abused. So I must use with moderation.

Echo Cliffs

Yesterday Carrie, myself, Joe, and Sri went on a climbing trip to Echo Cliffs. It's quite a commitment to go there, as the drive is over an hour, and the walk is about 40 minutes!

We stopped first at the Grotto, and climbed a 5.8 and 5.9. Here's Joe on the 5.8

I lead both climbs, which I was happy to do, as I don't get much leading done these days. I set up a top rope so everyone else could climb, and they did great. Everyone except for me seemed to be able to handle the red-ant nest running along the middle of the climb.

Joe then had to leave, so Carrie, Sri, and I proceeded alongside the cliff to Easy Street. This is a beginner area which provides excellent first time leading experience. Sri decided to lead one of the 5.6s, and he pulled it off without a hitch. First time lead outdoors, nice job!

Afterwards, we all went to the Java Wall, and climbed a 10b, and a 10a. I lead the 10b, which can be a challenge, due to it's slightly overhung finish and it's 80 foot height.


Here's a picture of me doing what I do best.

Another of Carrie in a good mood:











And the intrepid pug, Tala, researching climbs for us.

Lazy Day

I am having a lazy day today after a hard week at work. Friday made me feel disenchanted because of various programming difficulties. I need today to recover. I went to the diner for some lunch, visited the Verizon store, and now am contemplating the idea of watching a scary movie called Skeleton Key.

I am excited about tomorrow because Carrie, Tala, Joe, Amy, Sri, and I are going climbing at Echo Cliffs (with two ropes, both Carrie and Joe own ropes).

Tala is looking forward to trying out the 5.7 lead on Easy Street but I am worried that that notorious pack of wild pugs may distract her from the climbing.

Cell phone: update

Since my phone has been officially dead for a few days, I decided to open it up and investigate.


One of the four mini-screws wouldn't come out, so I had to remove the plastic from the other side, and remove the screw socket.

I was hoping to just use some compressed air, and perhaps save it, but when I opened it up, I discovered that the circuit board had some small burn spots. These most likely developed when I turned it off the last time, at points where a tiny amount of water had collected.

Lunchtime math

Here's a lunchtime math related story.
I was attempting to purchase a chicken sandwich at the cafeteria today, it was labeled as $5.75. This meal includes a 12oz fountain drink. Instead of the fountain drink, I chose a bottle of apple juice that costs $1.75.

My total at the cashier, $8.06. I asked why it was so high, since the sandwich comes with a drink, and the conversation went like this.
Him: There's a price difference of 75 cents
Me: OK
Him: Do you want to pay 75 cents more?
Me: Uh...
Him: OK, your total is $7.00

So there you have it, I paid 75 cents more for a discount of $1.06

(I did figure it out though:
$5.75 + $1.75 + tax = $8.06
$5.75 + tax = $6.25
$5.75 + $1.25 + tax = $7.00

So, I did pay 75 cents more, but he originally wanted to charge me for a fountain drink I didn't get)

Top Rope Anchor

I was discussing the top rope anchor that I used with a friend today, and to illustrate, I drew this:


I know it's not exactly a picasso, but it shows the basic idea of my anchor. Two pieces of webbing attached to two bolts, plus one cord attached to a metal pipe. This provided three independant protection points, reducing the possibility of failure to nearly zero. However, I think in the future I'll throw a fourth piece somewhere, probably an extra webbing into one of the bolts.

Cell Phones Suck

About a month ago, I spent $170 (minus $50 rebate) on a fancy new Samsung Vcast phone from Verizon Wireless. Other than the fact that this phone tended to take pictures of the inside of my pocket, I liked this phone quite a bit.

However, due to a slight mishap in the San Gabriel mountains a few weeks ago, my phone ended up underwater for a few seconds. This led to water getting behind the screens, and the phone failing to turn on. Fortunately for me, it dried out, and all was well. Yesterday, while out, I decided to turn my phone off, only to realize later that day that it would not turn on.

Today I took my phone to a Verizon Wireless store, where my phone was pronounced dead on arrival. To repurchase the phone without a new contract costs well over $200. The cheapest retail phone is $170. They sell refirbs for $90, but they didn't have any. So I am left with a dilemma. For right now, I am cell-phoneless.

Jury Duty

Today I fulfilled my civic duty and went to Jury duty. My two previous experiences involved sitting in a room with a bunch of people for 8 hours. I watched movies, worked, and played video games on my laptop.

This time however, I was called into a courtroom after about 2 hours. I spent the rest of the day watching the painfully slow process of Jury selection. Listening to each and every one talk about their job, their past, their biases, etc.

Although I was in the original selection, I was never called up into the Jury box for questioning, so I sat in the back of the courtroom for hours. I would have opened up my laptop (they had wireless access), but I figured it might be innappropriate. At about 4pm, they had a jury selected, and they let us go.

Climbing at Malibu Creek

Today I went to Malibu Creek State Park for an outdoor climbing adventure. The first step is the steep $8 parking fee, followed by a 15 minute walk to the "Apes Wall". This wall was used in the Planet of the Apes TV show. It's a 60 foot high, vertical, volcanic rock wall.

It was too crowded at the time, so we continued into the canyon, to the Rock Pool. The Rock Pool is a large, deep natural pool created by Malibu Creek. To contiue, we had to boulder hop across the creek, and then traverse a 5.5 level wall right along the rock pool. After successfully (i.e. not falling into the pool) traversing, we scrambled across house sized boulders to the bottom of our climbs.



I lead climbed a 10a, and a 10c. Both were filled with deep pockets, satisfying flakes, and crisp crimps. It felt good to lead climb again, as I have been doing nothing but top roping in the gym for many months, as I have no regular gym partners who are lead qualified.

After those two climbs, we proceeded back to the Apes wall, where I set up a top rope anchor on a 5.9, which we both climbed easily. There was a group next to use on a 10a I would have liked to climb, but the group was uninterested in swapping ropes. There was something odd about them though, none of them had climbing shoes! All three were in sneakers, and yet their anchor displayed some level of competence. Very strange.



A short walk and a long drive through Malibu ended a very fun outdoor experience.

Better than laxatives

I had an interesting thought while walking a dog tonight.

Each morning and night, she gets a walk around the neighborhood, in order to do her business. And each time, right after her business is done, she gets a treat. This got me to thinking, what if people started giving themselves treats after each and every bowel movement. Wouldn't that condition us to start having them more often? (Or at least to condition us to look forward to them). I know Tala looks forward to them, as the moment I grab the leash, she's off and jumping about excitedly.

It seems like a worthwhile experiement that I will likely not do.

Crazy Boulderers

While bouldering last night, I took notice of a group of "boulderers". These are people who

1. Only boulder, they never climb on the walls, nor lead in the cave
2. Tackle a problem once every 10 minutes or so, so they stay for hours
3. Work on V6 to V8 level problems, which are equivalent to the hardest part of a 5.13
4. Won't talk to you unless you climb V6

It's just more friendly on the walls or in the cave. And perhaps less intimidating.

However, last night I managed to finish a red boulder, approximately V4.

V0- .9
V0 - 10-
V0 - .10+
V1 - 11-
V2 - 11
V3 - 11+
V4 - 12-
V5 - 12
V6 - 12+
V7 - 13-
V8 - 13
V9 - 13+
V10 - 14a
V11 - 14b
V12 - 14c
V13 - 14d
V14 - .15a

C++

I've been an old school C programmer for almost 6 months now. The product I work on is written entirely in C on UNIX for speed and portability. But I was just told that the new task I have been given can be written in C++!

I am very excited, I have always thought C++ is easier to write clean, maintainable code. Plus, I get default arguments again!

void func( int arg1, char *arg2, int default = 4); YAY!

Not to mention inheritance, operator overloading, the STL, type safety, etc...

For those aspiring programmers out there, here's a good place to start with C++

New Task

As of this week, I have been given a fairly large programming task. It involves tens of thousands of lines of code, and I am expected to complete it in about two months.

I always get apprehensive and worried at the beginning of large tasks. I get a feeling of "will I be able to get everything done", and "will I be smart enough to figure it all out". I'm feeling this now, and it sucks.

What also sucks is that in about 1 month, I'll have most of it done, and I'll think back to myself, "if only there was more to do, that was fun and it went too quickly". Oh well. Back to coding!

Cars

What follows is my complete car history, up to the present day...


It all started with a 1990 Oldsmobile Silhouette.

While driving, it had 17 enormous blind spots, stopped like an elephant, and turned like a battleship.
Then there the problems with the brakes and the coolant.

So in the Spring of 1998, I cashed in my Bar Mitzvah money,

along with some parental funding, and purchased a 1996 Honda Civic Hatchback. It had power locks, alloy wheels, a moonroof, and a keyless entry system.
It was a bit underpowered (it’s a Honda after all), but it maneuvered like a go-cart.

Skip ahead to Summer 2000, when I negotiated with my Dad to get his 1998 Honda Civic LX Sedan. My sister got the hatchback, painted it purple, and bumped it into many stationary objects. This Civic is the car I drive today, now 8 years old and at 105,000 miles. It’s a fun car to drive, but the automatic transmission has been grating on me the last few years, and the hills in OC challenge my poor 116 HP 4 cylinder engine.

This leads me to the great car search.

I began in late 2004, considering everything from another Honda Civic to a BMW 330i.

Then I sat in one of these.

An Acura RSX. It was perfect, except that it lacked some doors.

So I looked at Acura’s 4 door model, the TSX.

200 HP, 6 speed manual, dual zone climate control, power seats, leather interior, race-car style handling, etc. I had found what I was looking for. In early 2005, I began saving, with a purchase date around August ‘05.

However, in August, the 2006 specs came out, which included more power, an auxiliary input jack for MP3 players, a Bluetooth connection for cellphones, and a new color, Royal Blue Pearl.

So I decided to wait. The 06s were released in November, and I began dealing on December 1^st.
But much to my disappointment, Royal Blue 6MT TSXs were just not to be found. There was one in the entire state of CA, up in the Bay area, 400 miles away. I tried to deal on that car, but they were only selling for MSRP.

I took another look at the Carbon Gray,

and I was just about to deal on new CG TSX, when I started looking at the money. A new TSX out the door would cost me about $29,300. That’s a lot of cash. My frugality kicked in, and I started to consider other cars.

A 2006 Honda Civic: Won Car+Driver’s "Car of the Year" award.

A new EX 5MT would cost about $19K OTD.
A practical choice, good mileage, fun to drive, reliable, cheap to maintain, and incredible unexciting vehicle.

A 2006 Honda CRV: A mini-suv perfect for camping trips to places where Civics fear to tread.

I had this idea because it’s fairly inexpensive (about $22K), and it would be most useful for outdoor trips, but still functional on OC freeways.

Laptop

After many months at my new job, I finally have received a laptop. It's an IBM T41, with 2 GB memory, 60 GB drive, and a 1.6 GHz Centrino processor.

Unfortunately, it only has an XGA (1024x768) display, but I guess I just have to deal. My previous job provided me with a laptop with a WUXGA (1680x1050), which spoiled me a bit. Maybe someday I'll buy myself one of these.

I'm dual booting Windows XP and Red Hat Linux Enterprise WS 4. I'm using a nifty trick to boot Linux using NTLDR, instead of GRUB. Go here if you're interested.