RaceWriter

While I was down in LA, I worked with my Dad to make some improvements to his web site. I taught him how to use a Cascading Style Sheet (.css) file to give his pages a little better look and feel. I also tried again to get him to start using Blogger as his main publishing tool, but too much of his site is non-liner / non-chronological. [The over all navigation is a mess.]
On the way back to Seattle, I conceptualized a new blogging tool specialized for runners, like my Dad. The result is a new web project that I'm working on, RaceWriter.

Back In Bellevue

Arrived home safely at 5:40. Traffic from Salem north
was heavy but moving.
I found out from my housemate that the recycling truck
knocked down the cable connection again. So no
Internet until Monday.

Around The Snow

After sleeping in Eureka, got a good start about six
AM. Stopped in Crescent City for gas just as it was
getting light. Found about two miles of slushy snow
near the OR state line. Rest of drive has been
uneventful, with light rain. ETA 1800

Made It To Eureka

Left LA about 1045. Drive so far has been uneventful,
except for a little light rain.
Expect to get about eight hours of sleep then back on
the road. Should get to Crescent City about first
light.

Heading back to WA via cost route

I'm headed back to western Washington via the coastal route due to snow forecast for the Siskiyous. Will be heading up I-5, then out to US-101 near the SF Bay area. Will overnight in Eureka. I plan to get an early start Sunday getting to Crescent City about first light, then over to Grant's Pass, OR hopefully before the snow level drops below the pass level.

TSOed

Last night I went to a Trans-Siberian Orchestra performance at the Arrowhead Pond in Anaheim, CA, with my Mom and my niece. Was a wonderful performance. I especially liked the electric violin, keyboards and the special effects (lasers pyrotechnics, etc.). The ending / encore was truly amazing.
The audience was overly sedate, given the amount of heavy metal / rock concert look and feel that the show had. I've seen more animated audiences at philharmonic performances back east.
After the performance we managed to briefly hook up with Michael Lanning, a long time friend of my Mom's, and got to visit a little back stage.
If you like classical music and/or heavy metal, I would highly recommend catching a the when it comes to your city.

Showing off how I post blog Entries

Spent much time today working on my parent's computers and their web site.

In LA For Christmas

Arrived in Glendale about 4:30 this afternoon. Very soon after I got to my parent's condo, we headed out to my brothers place for dinner with Ed, Laura, Nicole & Jack.



After dinner we hung out at their house until Jack's bed time.

On the Way to LA

Left Bellevue about 1100. Made it to Redding in just
under twelve hours, including stops for food, fuel,
etc.
ETA 1800ish

Tom & The Trencher

Here's a photo that my housemate(s) took this past summer as we were replacing the drain pipe that runs along side the driveway.



I like working with big tools!

No good deed goes unpunished

Toady I was informed, in a somewhat formal meeting with my supervisor, that my initiative to develop and deploy an open source barcoding tool for my co-workers to use has been rejected because our legal department is fearful about using software that is covered by the GNU Lesser General Public License. This despite the facts that: 1) Another division of our company (like many other companies) manufactures and distributes a Tivo which includes many software components covered by the exact same license and even the more restrictive GNU General Public License. And 2) that our upper management has historically been strong supporters of open standards such as the compact disk and the universal serial bus. Oh well, this in and of itself is simply an example of the old adage that the quickest way to kill a good initiative, is to consult the legal department.
As if simple rejection weren't enough punishment, I was also informed that my web site included or contained inappropriate "self promotion" using the {Employer’s Name Removed} name [and/or trademarks?]. While parts of my web site, including TomS Barcode Bonanza, are blatant self-promotion, I thought that my referential use of the {Employer’s Name Removed} name was typically editorial in nature. And I certainly haven't tried to pass my self off an official spokesman for {Employer’s Name Removed}. I've even tried to link to official {Employer’s Name Removed} sites for those who are looking for that kind of information and stumbled across my site instead.
For the most part I've been proud to be an employee of {Employer’s Name Removed}. So I am somewhat disheartened, that I feel I need to censor my web site to keep from offending my employer. So in the coming weeks, I will be updating various past posts to my blog and other pages to reflect this paranoia.

Been Busy !!!

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. It's been a busy couple of weeks.

Big news items are:

• The vaulting team has been trying horses.


• I've been helping my housemate rewire the bathroom.


• I got and have been setting up a Linux box.


• We been in the big christmas push at the toothbrush factory.

Hope to write more soon, but I won't make any promisas.

Real Postcards from Online!

I found this cool service through the USPS website. I was able to upload a photo I took with my digital camera compose a message, have it all printed and sent to 10 recipients for under $5. Assuming that the printed quality turns out to be reasonable, this looks like a good deal and a great way to earn brownie points with that Grandma that doesn't do e-mail.

Barcode Bonanza

This evening I whipped of a barcode generator application for my web site. This was my first public PHP project. The more I use PHP the more I like it. At some point I want to learn how to generate PDF files with PHP.

Vaulting Photos

In case you missed it, I posted a couple of cute photos from the Devonwood Vaulting Harvest Fest on the Cascade Vaulters' blog / public web site.

Volcano Visit 2

Today turned out to be a sunny but cool day so I drove down to Mt. St. Helens again. Again I got all the way out to the Coldwater Ridge Visitor Center. Unlike my visit on 10-8, this time the Volcano was in spectacular view.



When ever the few scattered clouds would move out of the way I could clearly see the steam plume rising from the creator. At one point the plume got very gray. I couldn't tell if it might have had some ash in it or more likely that it was just a rather dense puff of steam.



It was really neat to see this kind of geologic activity first hand. The proximity of active volcanoes was one of many factors that influenced my decision to move to the Pacific NW back in 2000/2001.

For more info on the current activity at Mt. St. Helens and the other Cascades Volcanoes click here.

I again spent time with my laptop in the Cafe of the Coldwater Ridge Visitor Center watching the various clouds and the steam plume waft about. And while I did I worked more on the Club Bylaws and Rules for the Cascade Vaulters.

As I was leaving I found out that the Coldwater Ridge Visitor Center will be open a few days a week through out the winter, so I plan to make some trips back if the activity keeps up.

Soot (the Cat) 1993 - 2004

I got the following bummer of an e-mail from my friend Jen today.

Dear Tom,

I'm sorry to have to tell you that Soot passed away last week, on October 19. He'd been having some trouble walking and the vet thought he had hurt his back, but it turned out he had a rapidly-growing brain tumor. The neuro-specialists we took him to were very good and I don't think he had any pain or fear - he just got duller and quieter and then he slipped quietly away only a couple days after we learned there was a problem. We will be putting his ashes in the back yard.

Smoke seems to be doing OK; he's been very sociable and clingy, but doesn't seem to be sad.

Sorry to relay the bad news. Josh and I were pretty in pieces about all this but we are recovering and remembering the 11 years of joy Soot gave us.

Love,
--Jen

Soot and his brother Smoke were the inspiration for my domain name, Soot-n-Smoke.com. I certainly enjoyed the time I spent with him over the years and I will miss him.

RE: Flame: FW: Special Alert regarding P&G boycott! Pls forward

I got the following reply from my Uncle.

Tom,

I am very sorry to have offended you. It is
certainly not my desire that your bonus be reduced, but we serve a God who can
increase our bonus in ways we never thought possible. Everything I
have, including all pay and bonuses, I considered as having come from the
Lord. "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the
Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows."
(James 1:17).

I have a lot of compassion for people who are
involved in homosexual relationships because I know that God loves them. I
believe that God's Inspired Word, the Holy Bible, tells us that He views
homosexual behavior as sin (Genius 19:5-7, Leviticus 18:22 & 20:13, and
Romans 1:27 [all of these should be read in context with the verses around
them]). Our God is a Holy God and a Just God and therefore, we deserve
death for the things that we have done that are against His
Law. But "Christ loved us and gave Himself up
for us" (Eph 5:2). Jesus paid the price for our
sin so that If we repent and turn to Him, we can be forgiven and be
healed. There are also a lot of sins in heterosexual behavior that God
also views as immoral (e.g., adultry) and therefore as sin. All of these
sins God can and will forgive through Jesus Christ.

I respectfully
decline to debate this issue and hope that you will understand I hold
nothing against you for what you believe -- that is between you and God.
You are part of our family and we love you. If you have
accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, then we pray that He
will guide you into all Truth. If you have not believed and received
Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, we pray that you will. After I
received Jesus as my Lord and Savior (I was about 34 years old), I found that in
knowing and loving Him, I have come into a wonderful relationship with a
Awesome & Mighty God and I will be spending the rest of eternity
worshiping Him.

It was good to hear from you and hope that all
is well. Again, I am sorry to have offended
you.

Love,

Uncle Rodney

It's too bad that he declined to debate the issues at hand. But it is understandable as most arguments based on blind faith don't hold up when examined rationally.

My Uncle references several Bible verses and implores that they should be "read in context with the verses around them". But he seems to forget that they should also be taken in the context of when, where and by whom they were written.

Saga of the Heater Valve: Epilogue

The new heater valve, battery and starter seem to be working well. My Jeep hasn't had any more starting troubles or leaking coolant.

In case you missed them, due to my back posting, parts 2, 3 and 4 of the saga are now online. The original part 1 is here.

Words of Encouragement

I got these comments by e-mail to my Flame: FW: Special Alert regarding P&G boycott! Pls forward entry. (Charlie is my Dad and Joanie is my Mom’s cousin.)

thanks for the forward Charlie

RIGHT ON TOM!!

thanks for having the courage to speak your mind.

Take Care,
Joanie
@}--}---

As of the time of this post I haven't heard anything back from my Uncle Rodney.

So I’ll simply add that now is the time for Moderate Christians to stand up, speak out, and take back our churches, our communities and our nation.