Life in and around S.S.F.

Well, another Christmas comes and goes. Of course it wouldn’t be Christmas unless someone was sick. Abby puked three times last night. Once at 3:15, then 3:30, then sometime between 3:30 and 9am. We found out about the last time after presents started being opened. I was up really late working on a puzzle when I heard the bedroom door open. Then walk to the bathroom, then splat. I thought she had a potty accident. I went to clean up and found a bunch of puke on the bathroom floor. Interesting colors (purple, chunks of red something, bits of cookie). She seems O.K. now. Hopefully just the one time deal.

It was fun to webcam the morning to mom in Florida. I think she enjoyed it. It’s probably the next best thing to being here. She was able to see and hear us open presents all morning. Since we are wireless I walked around the house yesterday to show her Christmas decorations etc. Someday wireless will be available everywhere. I could broadcast a performances, graduation ceremony, or birthday party. It’s not the same of course but you still feel connected. They bought a cam yesterday but need to upgrade the OS to use it. Then we will have a true video conversation. Just like they show in futuristic movies.

Erica’s favorite present: New printer/copier/scanner

My favorite present: Toss up between the composting crock and the grilling basket.

Sarah’s favorite present: Barbie Fairytopia movie.

Abby’s favorite present: Toss up between a stuffed kitty and a backpack.

Jenna’s favorite: doggie treats.

It was extremely generous for a “guy friend” from school to give Sarah a present. However, we may take it back. It’s a Barbie, My Scene. We don’t like My Scene at all. It’s all belly button exposed, trampy, disrespecting people, ignoring people’s feelings, attitude, arogance, I could go on. Sarah started talking like them for a bit. It has been extremely challenging to deal with. I fear what she does at school. It doesn’t take much for her to start up. I could see her friends trying to be cute and grown up and all that ugliness come out.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night…

I got a webcam hooked up to the laptop. I’m hoping to broadcast Christmas morning to mom in Florida. She can’t be here so it would be really cool if she could watch us open presents. MSN messanger allows video chats so mom set up an account. We just haven’t tested it out yet. Let me know when your ready mom. If any other family members get a MSN messenger account set up let me know. Add me as a contact using my work email address.

A manager caught me outside of his office a couple of weeks ago. “Give me your right hand” he states. I stretchout my hand and he shakes it and holds it for a second. “Now give me your left”, he requests. I give him my left. He puts a little green box in it. “Thanks for your participation with the DAT (Disaster Assessment Team)”, he says. Its an iPod shuffle. Way cool. Now we have two iPods.

With the wife downloading so much music she hijacked the nano. She called me at work the other day. “I downloaded some new music but the iPod doesn’t see it. I think I need to set it up for my iTunes instead of yours. Is that O.K.” Sure honey, Merry Christmas.

So someone turned me on to allofmp3.com. Instead of a buck a song at  iTunes they sell songs for 1/10th of the price. A whole album is less that $1.50. Plus the files are MP3 so any digital music player can handle them. Unlike iTunes version 6. The iTunes music store only has .m4p files that only work in iTunes and iPods. Sure you can buy a converter but that’s ridiculous. If I pay for music then I should be able to play it on anything I want to. It’s like buying a CD from a record label and you can only play it on Sony devices. If you car doesn’t have a Sony then to bad, buy a Sony.

They only draw back to allofmp3.com is that my wife found out about it. I came home and she had at least twenty songs queued up for download. Thank goodness it’s cheap. Now my problem is trying to get in some bandwidth. Its all taken for downloading music.

I did a search for available wireless signals. I have two neighbors with wireless signals. One requires a password the other doesn’t. Hmm. I wonder if I could use some of their bandwidth. Lets give it a try. Just for giggles of course. Sure enough, I can connect to it and use it. Hey honey, check it out. I can steal their bandwidth. Her response wasn’t so enthusiastic. “Our wireless router isn’t secure so they can steal ours”, I reply. Then my four year old daughter asks why the neighbor would  “steal our bandwith”. Well honey, I’m stealing theirs, well not stealing really, just borrowing theirs so they might want to borrow ours. Then she asks, “Did you ask to borrow it?” Well honey, they left it unlocked so… Then I ponder if it’s O.K. to take something just because it’s unlocked. I can hear it now. “Look daddy, that (car, house, store, garage, shed, gate) is unlocked let’s steal something from it. It’s O.K., just like the neighbors bandwidth.” I quickly disconnect from the neighbors signal. Nothing like a simple mind keeping things simple.

Last summer my department (IMSSO Integrated Maintenance and Site Services Operations) was transferred under the corporate engineering group. The new director of engineering gave a presentation to roll out the changes and future plans. After his presentation I asked, “What role does LSG play as part of engineering?” His answer was basically to help keep the labs they design running. Since he was new I didn’t push to much.

An end of the year meeting was announced for last Monday. A supervisor came to me before hand and said the meeting was because of me. I pushed him to explain. It turns out my question to the director took him back because he didn’t really see our role in engineering. That caused him to look closer, ask questions and have talks with our customers.

Now the director of IMSSO is demoted. The supervisors he lead didn’t like him to much. He squashed their ideas, refused to let the department grow with the rest of the company and was focused on creating new bureaucracies instead of improving the present work flows. He kept rolling out initiatives that consumed resources but didn’t provide any improvements for the customers we support.

During the end of year meeting it looked like he was going to break down and cry. He struggled through it and sat down.

My manager had a meeting with the Engineering Director. Our groups ideas for the future were laid out. Appearently the guy never heard these ideas and agreed they should be worked on. Such a suprise.

People are excited now. The cap has been removed. All because I asked a question. I’ve joked with some that they owe me lunch because I got the big boss out of the way.

Watching the news and a live cam outside of Quentin. Its amazing that the African-American community has no better hero than a man that murderered in cold blood. There are no A/A that I can see at the live cam. The news has one clip of an A/A that is a personal friend but no one in the background appears to be A/A. You would think that all of Marin City would be out there. There are plenty of other A/A that should be lifted up as examples of  how to over come gang activity. Tookie has never admitted guilt or apologized for the murders his gang committed. I don’t thing his heart is changed.

I waffle on the capital punishment debate. All I can say is that God is just. It is not how a person dies (unjust or otherwise) that is important. It’s how a person lives that determines the judgement they face. Tookie will face judgement for how he lived not how he died.