Why I need a hat to stay warm

How about without the hat? I'm not really an angry guy. I'm just intense.

Serial killer or just cold?

This one is for you, Helen.

Trying to not get sick

All of a sudden this afternoon I got a headache. Heather brought me an advil and I shortly there after I started to feel realy cold.

I put on my knit cap and I'm beginning to feel much better. I'm turning into my dad!

This whore got paid!

Free stuff! We persevered and got free stuff. So, we ended up at REI 1 and half hours before the store opened, but the kids were prepared with Nintendo DSes and we stopped for coffee and scones while we stood in line.

The line didn't stretch as far as it did yesterday and some quick counts confirmed that we were well positioned to get free water bottles.


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Native was the breakfast sponsor for the day and we won a pair of sunglasses too! Unfortunately, the kids didn't get water bottles - they were evidently only giving them to kids over some threshold that mine hadn't crossed yet. They did get a key chain carabiner though.

Total collection:
1 1 liter Grand Opening Issaquah store water bottle
1 $5 gift card
2 Sunglasses cases
Some baked goods
Native sunglasses
2 Keychain carabiners

Free stuff whores

A new REI opened close to my home and the grand opening is this weekend. They are giving away limited edition water bottles with gift cards, ranging from $5 to $200. You've got to admit, free REI stuff is great.

I am not alone in my desire for free stuff from REI. Thirty minutes before store opening, the line wrapped almost all the way out of the shopping center. There were far more people than the 200 free water bottles. I wasn't going to stand in the giant line with my kids for no free stuff.

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We decided to go to breakfast at Denny's instead. It was fun, we sat at the bar, which we usually can't do. My daughter tried to order a diet coke for breakfast. I'm a cool dad, but that was nipped in the bud.

After breakfast, we walked through the new REI. It is a nice store, but was crowded. I think that it is cool that there is an REI close to home, but at the same time, I think that it could have a dangerous effect on my bank account.

I'm a free stuff whore. I'll be there tomorrow, even earlier, kids in tow. We're getting water bottles and some gift cards. With two kids, I've got at least a 3 in 200 chance for a big gift card...

A new look for Remember the Milk

When I woke up this morning, Remember the Milk had a whole new look and feel! Better usage of screen space, display of tags and a nice keyboard interface, too.

You can read more about it on their blog, which includes screen shots. Its a much slicker user interface.

If you haven't checked out RTM yet, you should. And if you passed it up before, you should give it another look. The interface continues to get better and better and it is still free! Combined with Jott, you can rule the world!

In my opinion, I think they have Google-ified their interface some. I still maintain that they are building a great product and waiting to get bought by Google.

Dinner is ready and waiting with a slow cooker

I have really started to get into cooking with the slow cooker recently. Between work, school, study sessions and swimming practices, my whole family is always on the go. Slow cooking has been a nice way to have dinner ready and waiting while we are out and come home after a hectic day.

I think that slow cooking is pretty cool and a great time saving method. It's just great that I can wake up in the morning and start making dinner (maybe even before eating breakfast). Then throughout the whole day, the house smells so good.

I've been learning and have had some good experiences and some not so good experiences. I used a tikka masala sauce from Costco and it dried out over the course of the day (it is meant to be poured over chicken and warmed up) and the slow cooking sauce from Williams-Sonoma was excellent. I've had problems where the slow cooker gets unplugged or I started it late (3 hours late on a 6 hour preparation is not a good thing).

The best one so far was from Food Network, Slow Cooker Chipotle-Lime Chicken Thighs Jamaican Rice and Peas. It was a hit with the kids and easy to make. I've got to figure out when is the right time to eat meals on the days I go to class so that I can eat dinner when I get home late and enjoy the good meal.

If you've got any good slow cooker recipes, post them or link to them here! I'm looking for ideas.

I'm sure I'll conti

Jott Link to Remember the Milk

Today is like Christmas!

Jott, the neatest voice to text message or email service just made a link to Remember the Milk.

Jott Blog » You asked for it, you got it!

Basically, with my voice, I can add stuff to my web based to do list. When ever I think of something, I can just pick up my cell phone and Ka-pow, it will be there.

This is great. With school and work and always being on the go, I always have quick and easy access to my todo list now.

I'm so excited!

Ironically, I got called a "big-ass geek" today by a co-worker, in a very kind way.

Wikipedia and education

Tonight as I was working on my Economics homework, I needed to look up a definition. As I've gotten back into the academic thought process, I decided I would look it up in the index of my text book. Before I was able to do that, I started IM'ing a friend of mine and while I was at my computer, I looked it up on Wikipedia.

Not surprisingly, Wikipedia had a page devoted to my topic. Surprisingly, it was a very simple definition and told me exactly what I needed to know - in an easier to understand way than my text book.

I'm not sure what this means for the future of my homework. I can find things faster online than in my text book and, in this case, a better, more applicable answer. This is my first time using Wikipedia for real research - sure I've poked around on there and read interesting pages, but this time I was looking for real and applicable information. And I found it.

I'm impressed, but at the same time new questions come up. How do I know that the article is accurate? I guess that is when I compare with my text book. And in the end that is even slower over all.

The web is having an impact on everything we do and this is just one way that web technology is disrupting education, an institution that goes back to the beginning of time.

Playground Day

Today was the first Dad's Play Day at my daughter's school (no recess for middle schoolers and not invited to half-day kindergarten recess). I hadn't eaten lunch, so lucky today was popcorn day and she shared with me. Yep, I hate popcorn, but it was better than the alternative of being hungry.

Plus, they run around and play! It takes energy to keep up with them. I have confirmed that I am not all that good at jumping rope, surprisingly worse at skipping rope and I cannot jump rope backwards.

After jumping rope, she found some of her other friends and we played Pac Man tag. This is not a game I played when I was young, but PacMan was in its heyday. You play it on a 4 square court and are constrained to stay on the lines. But you can pass another player if they are in front of you, so you can't trap them. Bummer.

I did a lot of running there. The little ones are quick and nimble! I don't corner as well as they do.

The recess bell rang and it was the end. I asked my daughter where she was going to line up for her teacher to pick them up. They lined up not by her classroom, but the gym! After all that playing, they have gym class.

There is a reason I'm no longer in elementary school. I just wouldn't be able to keep up!

Grow your own Metal Militia

I am a sucker for anything free. So, instead of reloading my Starbucks card, I got a new one, the one that comes with two free iTunes downloads.

As I was poking around on iTunes, my youngest (age 5) comes in and asks me if I have Master of Puppets on my iPod. The answer is no, but it is such an amazing question! I will download it shortly!

I ran upstairs to tell Heather what he just asked me and she tells me that he was asking her about it just a few days ago, too! I've got my own Metal Militia right here at home! My kids are so cool!

Energized by making a list

After thinking about breasts for my last few posts, it is time to get back to the serious content that I know you all love.

As I have previously written, I recently started Business school and some changes at work have given me a great deal of responsibility. As I add activities, I subtract sleep. I have been exhausted for a long time, and I can't seem to keep up with the rate that things are being added to my to do list.

Friday morning, I took a different approach. Before I even had coffee (see I'm not an addict), I sat down and went over the things I had to do. In the process, I came up with even more things to do, too. On the good side there were some tasks I could delegate and defer until much later. But at the end of it, I had a very long, prioritized list of things to do.

I felt energized after it all. I knew what I had to do on this day and even in what order. It was important because I didn't have any extra time as I had to prep for a weekend outing.

And just to draw the day to a close, I got everything done and I was ready to leave on time!

Now, I'm sure that this technique isn't news to those in the productivity world. But it was great to have such clarity of purpose and the right energy level to attack a busy day.

It worked wonders for me and I'll be repeating this strategy in the future. Mid-terms are right around the corner and I'm facilitating a 6 hour breakout session at an annual comapny meeting (and I'm flying in and out the day of the presentation); my plate is gonna be full for a while.

Breasts and Hooke's Law

My wife brought up Hooke's Law in a comment on Amelia's blog about her breasts.

After thinking about Amelia's boobs and Hooke's law, I realized that she made errors in her explanation of Hooke's Law. I did post a comment, the text of which I have pasted below and I can assure you that I will explain and demonstrate Hooke's law to my wife and how it applies to her breasts at my earliest convenience.

Scout's Honor [ed: my wife's pen name], while Hooke's law does apply to boobs, I think you misunderstood which forces where being discussed.

Hooke's law is applicable to springs and what force F is required to make them stretch a certain distance x. There is a material property of the spring k, called the elastic coefficient, which drives that ratio.

So, how does Hooke's law apply to breasts, in particular Amelia's? As she so astutely noticed, probably along with the other men in her town, her breasts are getting bigger. As her boobs (need to bring this comment back down to the level that it deserves) increase in size, they also increase in mass.

This increase in mass increases the force due to gravity on her breasts, which could cause some, but not all of the problems you identified in your comment. Obviously a force applied to the boob will actually pass back to where the boob meets the chest (not that great lower breast part), but that which is visible when showing off cleavage. I can not imagine that boobs will get so large as to actually cause a rupture, or explosion as Scout brought up, but if the current rate at which your breasts are increasing in size continues, they are going to be ginormous!

However, this is where the science gets fun! Amelia, we need you to collect some more information. Maybe this is better information for your husband to collect, to mitigate any anger issues that might arise from how much thought I've put into your breasts lately. We need to measure the change in the elastic coefficient of your boobs.

While there are many good scientific methods we can use, a good approximation would be to measure their firmness, which is where your husband comes in. Another method would be to actually apply weights to your nipples and measure the amount of stretch, but I don't know if you are that kind of girl or not. Which ever method you and your husband choose to measure the elastic coefficient of your boobs is up to you! Make it fun, science is fun!

So, Hooke's law dictates that the larger your boobs get, the more they could, for lack of a better term, sag. But I maintain, especially amongst preggers, that as your boobs increase in size, they will also get firmer (sweet). This increase in firmness, or the elastic coefficient, should mitigate any additional sagging. From my experiences with Scout's boobs during and shortly after pregnancy, the firmness will change during the course of the day, based upon feedings and other external influences.

Amelia, in the name of science, keep collecting and reporting the details!

If there is anyone from the NSF reading this, I would greatly appreciate some grant money so that I can study the effects of increasing breast size, both in preggers and non-preggers, on the elastic coefficient of the female breast.


[ed: I wish I had the right pictures to put on this post; a picture is worth a thousand words]

Baby Island: Boobs - A Visual Aid

Baby Island is a blog my wife reads and the authoress, Amelia, comments frequently on my wife's blog.

Amelia wrote this post, Baby Island: Boobs - A Visual Aid, and of course, I read it. How could I pass it up with a title like that. And I just feel the need to pass it on.

But it is a great read and all about math and science! Read it for the articles.

Toilet paper failure

My first "I'm blogging this moment."

My wife just came into the office and plopped this note on my desk.
Yes, she just returned from blogging in the bathroom. I'm not really sure that I needed to know this or if any of you really did either, but that is what makes it so much more blog worthy.

Not enough coffee

Last night, I didn't drink anything with dinner. A beer would have been nice with the take out burrito from Chipotle, but we didn't have any at home and I didn't pick up any on the way home. But I didn't drink any soda, water, lemonade, wine or cocktail either.

This morning, I woke up with a splitting headache which I attributed to dehydration. My lips aren't as soft as they used to be, either. So, I decided that I wouldn't drink my usual quantities of espresso and I would substitute water.

I had been drinking cup after cup of water, which is a rarity for me, but the headache was still there. Figuring that I had made a good effort to counter the dehydration, I had an espresso con panna. One shot with a little whipped cream and kapow - no more headache.

Before you go and suggest that this was a lack of caffeine induced headache, I maintain that the water finally took effect. And there is water in espresso, too!

Late nights = exhaustion

I'm beat. But it is worth it.

Unfortunately, this isn't a post about my late night parties with Paris Hilton or Lindsay Lohan. If I'm not at school late at night, I'm doing homework. It's not going to make Page 4.

Tuesday night, I was working on an accounting case study that kicked my butt. I was crunching numbers, trying to complete several financial statements, emailing team mates and even talking on the phone with them at 10:45 pm. Finally at about 11:30 I finished up and felt really good about it.

Wednesday morning, I had an early meeting that I had to drive to, so I was beat. The work meeting went well, but I was worried about how I would stay awake during class that night.

It turns out that staying awake wasn't a problem - I got all the financial statements completed properly, did my analysis fairly well (my reasoning was off, but the answer was right) and even contributed to class discussion. Knowing that I have no financial background adds to the amazingness of that contribution.

I'm still beat on Sunday morning and have another case study to write up, but I pretty excited about it. Hopefully, this one doesn't take all night long.

Drinking and homework

My wife just brought me a shot of vodka. She is alright.

It's a good thing all I have left on my homework is to format it nicely!

I always say that working on the weekends is better with a cocktail, I guess that homework is better with shots!

8 Random Facts

Helen once again tagged me, this time for eight random facts about myself. So here goes.

1. I like a lot of espresso. I do also like espresso a lot. I drink about 6 shots a day. Ten on the bad days. I will try just about anything with espresso in it - I even made an espresso creme brulee twice (I forgot how bad it was the first time around).
2. My favorite dessert is creme brulee. Not any of the fancy flavored ones (no green tea or chocolate), just a pure and simple creme brulee. And I think that it is snobby to refer to is as "the burnt cream," as they called it at the Chena River Lodge in Fairbanks, Alaska.
3. I lived for 4 years in Fairbanks, Alaska and have slept outside in just my sleeping bag at -26 degrees Fahrenheit.
4. I love the outdoors, camping and hiking and wish I could spend more time with those pursuits.
5. I really like haiku. The formal structure appeals to the engineer in me.
6. Since I was ten, I haven't lived anywhere longer than 5 years. I hope to change that here in Washington.
7. I haven't gotten any taller since I was a freshman in high school. I was pretty tall then. Most people have caught up with me now.
8. I love new technologies and being on the leading edge. However, I am cheap (my friends tell me I am frugal) and that keeps me from being an early adopter of things that cost money. No iPhone here.

Wow. That was easier than I expected. Pretty random stuff. Enjoy.

The cost of education

Within the last 7 days, I have purchased over $400 worth of text books and readers. I sure to some, that isn't a large textbook spend, but I am only taking two classes! And I don't think I get to use the same text book next quarter.

What really drove me to rant about this was the $47 custom printed reader. Not a lot for a reader, but it wasn't even bound!

I hope that the text books for next quarter cost less.