notes from inside my head

There’s something about the change of seasons that is inspiring.  You are walking along the sidewalk or as you drive out the driveway out to work or taking the kids somewhere, you’re seeing the snow melt.  The water dripping along the curb and slowly making it’s way into the sewer system.

You can smell the earthy scents come out of the ground as it starts it thaw.

Birds are flying back.

Your next door neighbor fires up his grill on a Sunday afternoon.

Students are looking forward to spring break.

Less cloudy days – more sun light.  The changing of the clocks to “spring ahead”.

Spring is in the air….

-brian

Ever see that beautiful girl and wish you could be like her? Or for guys, look at another guy and think “man, I need to get a six-pack like he’s got”.

Let me be clear here, there’s nothing wrong with being healthy or eating your vegetables. I’m talking about wanting the long blonde hair with the figure that the cheerleader has or that chiseled jaw that Jay Leno has.

That feeling that you have, of thinking that “oh if I only had their looks, that smile, or their eyes”.

Let me ask you hypothetically, if you were to get that “special” look….think about now being in that person’s shoes. Would you want to cause others to feel the same you did before you had that “special” look?

Let this thought be an encouragement to you to find satisfaction in your own beauty. That you don’t need to have that “special” look to have self-worth. There is a reason why you are made the way you are. I encourage you to find out why.

-brian

Leviticus 11:10-12

¹⁰ But all creatures in the seas or streams that do not have fins and scales—whether among all the swarming things or among all the other living creatures in the water—you are to detest. ¹¹ And since you are to detest them, you must not eat their meat and you must detest their carcasses. ¹² Anything living in the water that does not have fins and scales is to be detestable to you.

Fall in love again…for the first time.
Watch the sun set.
Say what you feel…Good and bad.
Have faith.
Get on the evening news.  Appreciate the
fresh air.
Treat your friends like they’re forever.
Learn a different language.  Recycle.
See for yourself.  Share a skill.
Mind your manners.  Vote.
Smile at a stranger.
Graduate.
When you’re 45, do something so silly, even
your
children will be embarrassed.
Wear an outfit from the 80’s.
Keep a secret.
Bring cookies to a new neighbor.
Insist on yourself, never imitate.
Paint your toenails.  Have a garden.
Listen to your heart.  Go fishing.
Don’t drink and drive.
Create cloud animals.
Go barefoot.
Rollerblade.
Believe in yourself, even when others don’t.
Recover.
Give to charity.  Stand up for what you
believe.
Drive fast.  Roll down a hill.
Swing on a swing.
Tell a story to a child.
Accept the things you cannot change.
Learn the solar system.
Nap under a tree.  Sing off key.
If you’re going to regret it, think again.
Call an old friend.
Plant a tree.
Teach peace.

Seems like there are a number of things brewing in the pot, it will be interesting to see what pops out first.

I think while we’re feeling the effects of Mr. Winter, I’m looking forward to spring being a world of new possibilities, new change – and the summer to be really amazing!

Have to sign up for my class before I forget!

-brian

So it continues to snow.  An earthquake felt in Kenosha this morning?  I was sound asleep.  Didn’t even wake me up.  Wonder what the dogs went through when they felt the earthquake.

Snowblower still didn’t work.  Shoveled the sidewalk.  Thankfully I have a wonderful neighbor who was generous and allowed me to use his snowblower.  Cleared out the driveway and the snow dumped at the foot of the driveway by the snow plows that came through.

I’m working on finishing up a project that I’m doing for a friend of mine.  Basically the project is modifying a power wheels so that it has power steering.  I’m looking for one more part that I hope to find tonight and assemble and turn it over.  That being said – it has been a fun project and I want to tinker around with it some more but *sigh* my time is up with it.

In work – gearing up for my birthday weekend – and will celebrate it again next week with the in-laws.

Time is fleeting.

[rant mode on]

Came home – got stuck in the driveway – thank God for my friendly neighbor who came along and helped snow blow my driveway because my snow blower failed to start.  Got gas – started up the mini-scooter to recharge the battery – no issues.  Siphoned old gas out of snow blower, got gas in mouth – and man did it burn.  My wife locked the front door – could have gone through the driveway door but the front door was open – just the screen door was locked. *grrr* Rinsed out mouth extensively – thank goodness I can’t taste it but my mouth burned for a bit – but rinsed it all out some more in the shower.  Snow blower still did not start.

And yes, I know I shouldn’t have been an idiot and siphoned the gas by my mouth.  *sigh*

This night blows chunks.

[/rant mode off]

This weekend I went to Snow Daze 2010 with a group of middle school students from my church.  We had fun with the craziness that was broom-ball, snow tubing down a hill, cracking jokes, eating good food, hanging out at the canteen, and listening to the middle school boys call Matt Myers “honeybuns” (and consequently get pummeled for it).

It was a good time – just getting to know the students better and build a deeper relationship with them.  I look forward to seeing how these middle school guys are going to turn out in high-school.

Also had fun with a group of cheer leaders – taught them potato french fry and a few other moves.

All it all a great weekend!  I had to sleep for about 15 hours to recover from it.  And I get to look forward to a retreat with the high school students next weekend!

-brian

With the advent of Google Goggles, which enables people to search on the Internet by searching a photos, it is only a matter of time before the search engine is used to cyber stalk people

From the CNN article, I quote:  Although the service can recognize faces, since faces are among the billions of images in the database, it doesn’t right now, Gundotra said.  ”For this product, we made the decision not to do facial recognition,” Gundotra said. “We still want to work on the issues of user opt-in and control. We have the technology to do the underlying face recognition, but we decided to delay that until safeguards are in place.”

Imagine being able to take a picture of someone as you walk by and pull up their name, address, phone number and other related information.

Privacy has been dead.  We’re just beating it with a large stick now.

-brian

Sources:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/12/08/google.goggles/index.html

http://www.google.com/mobile/goggles/

I have taken it upon myself to start up a new pet project.  That is to show how quickly a basic store front can be created.

It has to be able to connect to our SAP system, as well as our exsiting storefront database.

The goal in doing so will be to show to people that we can migrate off our legacy storefront into somethingthat is updated and modern.  Another benefit is that the code is rewritten to take advantage of PHP, which can be learned easily and supported by developers, rather than a legacy Progress database programming language.