Internet pal Dave Farquhar recently blogged about his Fifteen Minutes a Day theory. Says Dave:
A few months ago, someone actually posted something helpful: a suggestion that you spend 15 minutes a day working on your hobby instead of talking about it.
Fifteen minutes isn't a lot of time, but that's the point. You can almost always find 15 minutes. And 15 minutes isn't enough time to accomplish anything major, but you can accomplish lots of little things, and getting those little things o
If you aren't backing up your home computer on a regular basis, you are either insane, don't care about your data, or have never lost a hard drive before. Did you know hard drives have a 100% failure rate -- every hard drive will eventually die. It's not a question of "if," but "when." To date, I've been lucky; I haven't had any critical drives die on me yet, but I did something earlier today that sure made me glad I run nightly backups.
It all started this morning when I noticed my website
For at least a decade, the problem with emulation has not been technological in nature. For several years now, modern computers have been able to, for all intents and purposes, faithfully reproduce older computers, videogame consoles, and arcade machines. The difference between emulation and "the real deal" is all the other things that went along with those old gaming experiences -- and one of the most memorable things about those old games were their controls. Playing Atari games doesn't feel r
As I do the last of my 2007 digital house cleaning, here are a few pictures I took that never made it into blog posts.
Need for Speed Underground arcade game, bluescreened.
Shoddy Properties? I'll say!
Same building -- this way to see Dr. Crook.
Mason needs neither a spoon nor napkin at Braum's.
The cat is inside; the bird, outside.
Pearl's Restaurant, off I-240 and Penn, is permanently closing tomorrow. A secret informant (my friend's daughter, who works there) told us that someone bought the entire area, and that all the businesses in that area are either closing or moving. This includes Aloha Gardens (one of my favorite Chinese buffets) and Outback (other locations still exist). In honor of Pearl's, we decided to have lunch there one last time. And as I'm sitting in the restaurant, knowing that the doors will close forev
I've been reticent to talk about my post-surgery weight loss for a couple of reasons, the main being I don't really feel like I've done anything. Had I shed a few pounds through diet or exercise or lifestyle changes, I'd be bragging all over the place. The fact is, I'm losing weight because I had my body surgically altered -- although technically my lap band hasn't been filled yet, so it's only offering the minimum restriction possible. Most of the weight loss I've experienced to date has been t
Scanning back through my blog entries from 2007, I see two distinct topics; family-related articles, and technology-related entries. Because of this, I'm considering splitting my blog into two separate blogs. That way next year, my grandma doesn't have to wade through the tech entries, and my gaming/computer friends don't get bored by pictures of my kids. Those of you who both like technology and want to keep up with the family may end up reading two blogs instead of one.
Currently, all my b
Somehow, we survived another Christmas.
As my dad reminded me, Christmas anxiety (especially in children) manifests itself in many forms. The kids, God bless 'em, have been fighting non-stop for almost two weeks now. Both kids are equally guilty. Half the time, Mason starts it by taking a toy away from Morgan or simply teasing her. Morgan lacks Mason's finesse; when she starts it, it's usually with a hard slap on bare skin or a bite. Sometimes they both start it by arguing over ridiculous t
I made it back to Oklahoma just before the snow arrived. Friday night, the roads were clear; by Saturday afternoon, ice and snow had covered the ground. While driving 875 miles straight through is never particularly enjoyable, the desire to see one's kids combined with the fear of getting stuck in a blizzard are powerful motivators.
Today, the children wanted to play in the "snow" -- or what there was left of it. And as usual, once the two of them got outside, the never-ending fighting betwe
Our neighborhood is having a "holiday yard decorating" contest this year. When we asked Mason what he wanted to do, he said he wanted a Candyland theme. It was Susan's idea to make everything out of cardboard and paper. Other than paint, we didn't spend a dime. Susan drove the reigns; Mason and Morgan did tons of painting, and I assisted as needed.
Today is judgement day. I'm stuck in Atlanta and couldn't help in the final assembly, but Susan sent me a couple of photos she took after getting
The biggest problem with workout gyms is that they are social gathering places filled with people with whom I do not wish to socially gather. I have no interest in talking with complete strangers about their biceps, triceps, deltoids or hemmoroids. As I huff and puff while trotting along on my treadmill at a slower pace than everyone else, I don't much feel like chatting.
Someone should open a gym for geeks. Each treadmill should contain a LCD screen with cable television, a gaming system, a
Today, ABCNews ran an article covering the top 50 albums of the year. Conveniently, I've sorted them into the following categories.
Artists I've never heard of:
1. PETER BJORN & JOHN — "Writer's Block"
2. SPOON — "Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga"
4. M.I.A. — "Kala"
5. SHOUT OUT LOUDS — "Our Ill Wills"
6. THE GO! TEAM — "Proof of Youth"
7. LAURA VEIRS — "Saltbreakers"
9. ELENI MANDELL — "Miracle of Five"
10. YEAH YEAH YEAHS — "Is Is" (EP)
12. MARK RONSON — "Version"
14. COMMON — "Fin
So I'm cruising through Tennessee and I say to myself, "Self, I would really like some Chinese food." So I punch a few buttons on the GPS to search for restaurants. I limit the search to Chinese only and the GPS says, "well, I have bad news for you. The closest Chinese restaurant is 44 miles away, in Memphis." And I respond with, "you know what, that's okay. Take me there." So the GPS adds the address en route, and 44 miles later, I veer off the Interstate and stop at "Goodies Submarine Sandwich
Today's adventure sends me east on I-40, destination Atlanta. At 860 miles, it's a drive I'd normally make in one day -- however, as I'm still healing a bit, and there's a pretty good chance I'll be running into snow and ice along the way, I've decided to split the drive across two days. My initial plan was to head east on I-40 to Memphis, and then go from Memphis to Atlanta. In case weather gets bad, my alternate plan was to head south to Dallas, and then go east to Atlanta on I-20 -- a route t
Earlier this week Susan and I received a Christmas card from an old co-worker, out in Spokane. Reading the card reminded me of my first week in Spokane, back in the summer of 1996.
The night before I left for Spokane, Washington to start my new job with the FAA, I packed my Dodge Neon with the bare essentials I would need to survive – a small color television, my computer (a 486/100 in the tallest PC case I've ever owned), a monitor, all my computer disks and CDs, a CD boom box, every audio
For this year's Christmas cards we had two pictures to choose from.
In the first one, everybody's waving, but I'm not smiling.
In the second one nobody's waving, Morgan's crying, but I'm smiling.
The obvious answer? Cut my face out of photo two and stick it in photo number one.
And what about the neighbor's beige truck over there in the corner of the shot?
Let's just paint it out!
Gone!
Seasons Greetings from the O'Haras and Photoshop.
Just last week while our neighbors to the north were getting their first taste of winter weather, it was still 70 degrees here in Oklahoma. How nice of them to finally share the ice.
Here's the fam and I posing in front of dad's big tree ... or what's left of it. These ice storms are terrible on the trees; the weight of the ice breaks the limbs, sending them crashing into the ground (or occasionally, people's roofs). Dad was lucky (or smart) and paid a tree trimmer just last week to cut
Mason's Birthday Party -- Jump Zone!
Words cannot describe just how much fun Mason had today at his birthday party. I mean, just look at the joy on this kid's face. Priceless!
I'll explain, shortly.
Jump Zone is an interesting little business. You know those inflatable moon bounces? Jump Zone is, essentially, a giant carpeted warehouse with seven or eight industrial strength moon bounces inside. Each moon bounce has a different theme: one looked like a sinking ship with a giant oct
Well, the cake turned out, uh, differently than I had imagined.
Some things went well. I think the side "heat sinks" came out pretty good. I used a Christmas cookie covered in green icing for the center "Xbox Jewel". Tootsie Rolls became joystick ports, and SweetTarts became buttons. I didn't worry about the colors -- I wanted them to look like candy.
What went wrong. Well, for starters, I wasn't able to find black shoestring licorice, which is what I had planned on using for much o
For Mason's birthday party this Saturday he has requested an Xbox cake. I have volunteered to create the cake. Did I mention I've never really decorated a cake before? For the uninitiated, this is what a real Xbox looks like:
One thing I've always been really good at is charactures. The secret involves looking at a person or item picking out unique parts and then emphasizing them (my team always won in Pictionary and Win, Lose or Draw). When looking at that Xbox, I think the key feature
So far, the road to recovery has been relatively smooth and speedy. I had surgery on Monday. Wednesday morning, I rode with dad to Toys R' Us to do a little Christmas shopping. Later in the afternoon, I stopped by work to make a quick appearance.
Tuesday I had two doses of Loritab to ease the pain of the stitches a bit. Wednesday, I had two doses as a form of insurance (taking some before going out "just in case" things started hurting. Today, I haven't had any. I spent most of today laying
I made it! My lapband surgery was a success, and I'm alive and doing well. Thanks to everyone who offered me even the slightest amount of support during this time. The phone calls, e-mails and blog comments were all very kind. Thank you all very much.
My adventure began Monday morning with a 7:15am check-in at the hospital. I had blood work (poorly) drawn by a girl barely old enough to drive. From there it was off to the surgery check-in room, where I was soon met by Susan, and shortly after
Yesterday was my pal Andy's 35th birthday, and Andy's wife Lea set up a surprise party for him at Laser Expedition. Along with Andy's family and his co-workers from the fire department, a few of the old gang showed up including our friends Jeff and Scott. It's always fun when old friends get together, whether we're playing cards, playing laser tag, celebrating birthdays or simply hanging out.
Jeff and I had a slight advantage during the first game, having played previously. Out of 18 players
Earlier this week Susan got a giant scratching/climbing post for the cat. It's about seven feet tall, green, tree-shaped, and has (or had) christmas lights wrapped around it, ornaments hanging from the limbs, and an angel on top. It kind of sounds like a Christmas tree, but try explaining that to the cat.
The past two days, I've come home to find the tree in shambles, surrounded by broken ornaments. The angel is now leaning at a 45 degree angle; the tree itself is slightly more upright, but
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