I’ve blogged on here a number of times about some of my experiences here in the US. Some good. Some bad. Some neither here nor there. Just yesterday, I was sitting at lunch with a friend and he asked me something that I’ve never really stopped to consider before. He said something to the effect of “Do you think about how things might have been had you not met and married Jennifer?”. Continue reading
It’s been quite some time since my last post, but much has happened in that time. By far the biggest news is Lilyana is now a year old and walking around, making life a whole lot more difficult for Jennifer and I. Unfortunately, she has inherited our penchant for wanting to examine everything we come across, only to discard once its use has been filled. I swear she moves from one thing to the next so quickly, it’s hard for us to keep up with her. We’re constantly taking stuff off her, only to have her fix her gaze on something else. She certainly wears my patience thin at times, but I’m trying to learn how to be more patient, at least with her and Jennifer. Only Jennifer can tell you how well I’m faring in that pursuit. Continue reading
Over the last month or so, work has been pretty good for me. I’ve managed to get through a couple of reasonable projects, one is about to wrap up and I’m currently working on an ASP.NET based Facebook application, which is new to me. Admittedly, the application isn’t really a stretch because I’m pretty much dumping a Flash application in to a Facebook canvas and doing a few simple database updates, but it’s still a chance to get a better handle on ASP.NET and the .NET framework as a whole. Continue reading
It’s been very interesting entering the US and being exposed to the US at the organic level, ie. experiencing what US citizens experience first hand, rather than looking at it from the outside. Now, New Zealand has its fair share of racial tension. Almost 200 years after the fact, many Maori still feel robbed and deceived by the colonialists and settlers that arrived in the early 1800′s and promptly stole land from them. There are a considerable number of parallels between the the early history of New Zealand and the early history of the continental US. In both case, the aboriginal peoples were displaced by invading foreigners and land was stolen and sold to yet more foreigners. Continue reading
This last week was an absolutely miserable effort on my part. After weeks of staying in close to 600, I finished this week with a measley 504. I was having problems get any kind of reaction out of my ball. I think I need to get it resurfaced again. I need to start taking real care of my equipment to make sure I get decent mileage out of all my equipment. At the end of the game, I switched to my Twisted Fury and sure enough I was getting a better, more consistent reaction out of it. The Arch Rival was my first ball and as such has had a lot more games put on it. Having said that, I think I need to rough the surface up a little on my Twisted Fury to get a more movement out of it. Continue reading
After working in the web development industry for the last 6 years or so, dealing with older browsers that lack decent support for CSS and Javascript is something I face and deal with on a near-daily basis. Why near-daily? Well, I do a lot of Server side development which tends to be browser agnostic.
Dealing with older browsers is a problem that MUST be solved, or handled, one way or the other. Some solutions are more involved than others and some solutions will not be accessible under certain situations. One option that I think gets ignored all too often, is the possibility that older browsers simply get a different experience, visually and behaviorally. Continue reading
At the grand old age of 47 weeks, 2 day, 2 hours and some 17 minutes or so (ie. at about 4.29pm, May 19, 2009) Lilyana took her first unaided steps. We’ve been waiting for her to take her first steps for a few months now, because she’s been able to pull herself up on stuff and walk around leaning on stuff for about 2 or 3 months.
We were just sitting down in the lounge, eating when Cindy decided to put her on the floor about 2 feet from the coffee table and where she would usually just sit down and crawl to the table, she took the 4 steps required to reach the table instead. I’ve got to say it kinda took us by surprise, so we made her do it again to make sure it wasn’t a fluke. Needless to say, it wasn’t and she repeated the feat with ease. I guess it’s time to start putting everything that can be reached by a 2’7″ toddler up out of reach.
Tonight at about 7.30pm EDT a storm warning came across the TV newscast. This storm warning was soon upgraded to a tornado warning. As it turns out, we were right in the path of a massive storm cell and it was coming straight for us! They showed pressure maps on the news to show the intensity of the map in various places in the area and Browns Fork, the EXACT road we live on was right in the thick of the most intense part of the storm. Continue reading
Midday yesterday marked the anniversary of our arrival here in KY and what an eventful year its been. I’ve been through several contracts. Some lucrative, some not so lucrative. My first child (hopefully not the last) was born. Our car has broken down a half dozen times, as well as a computer crapping out completely. Continue reading
Recently Jennifer and I have been really trying to step out and find a place of our own. This is a little nerve racking because we barely make enough money to cover what little financial responsibilities we have. The thought of adding another $350 a month (minimum) is a little intimidating. Having said that, we know we need to do it. We’ve been married for 20 months and have yet to live on our own. Continue reading