The Halls

did anyone see my post on updating to MT 4.0? I doubt it. But the short story is, 3 days later, I hated it enough to go back. So I love MT3.33, or more explicitly, I love FCKeditor.
At least Dave will appreciate it.

Posted by Aaron at 6:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

We bought the UFC fight last nite and played some cards.
Randy Couture is a bad, bad man. Otherwise, I was a little disappointed with the broadcast, as there seemed to be less total fights, and only one was very good.

I was great in the hold'em tournament until the very end, when it mattered most, I crumbled and choked at the key moment, costing myself the season title. That was great.
But then we played cash and I crushed everyone. That was great.

Today we had a birthday party for Ann's mom, and then Aubrey had a double-header roller hockey game. He played quite well, and is improving.

I am starting my thesis semester tomorrow. The plan is I have 2 semesters left, and it's just thesis work. So it's a lot more my kind of class work, cuz it's more like work instead of just working homework problems. But next semester when I'm writing the paper portion of it, I'm sure I'll be hating every minute of it.

Posted by Aaron at 8:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I just watched henry rollins show where he interviews Christopher Walken, where they discussed many topics. Of course, one of the funniest SNL skits of all times came up


In the interview, he said that shortly after that skit, he was at a restaurant where at the next table was an asian couple, and the guy leaned over towards Walken and said "Chris, you know what that salad is missing? More cowbell"
Will Ferrell is in all the best SNL skits, period.

BTW, the opening monologue was one of Henry's best. I have reposted in the extended entry. History isn’t broken but it’s getting fixed all the same. You can’t handle the truth?! No problem! When history doesn’t fit your needs, just change it.
History’s old, it needs a makeover!
The new truth has to have more truthiosity to stand up against all those stuffy old historians, so you have to go big! Now. What would be the only way to make the insanity of Creationism have even an inkling of legitimacy?
No, not a theme park. Close. A museum, that’ll do it. Sound crazy? You bet! The Creation Museum is open for business! At 60,000 square feet, packed full of state of the art technology, it promises to “Bring the pages of the Bible to life.” Nothing like a high-tech fantasy display to make those dinosaurs 3000 years old and God, the almighty creator of all! Allah be praised! Whoops, wrong god. As the museum’s motto says: “Prepare to believe.”
Nations have been air-brushing the homicidal and wretched bits from their histories for years. According to some, Russia under Stalin was a paradise! The Holocaust never happened! Columbus’s thugs never slaughtered the Arawak Indians and the Native Americans couldn’t wait to give the North American continent to the white invaders and were overjoyed for the smallpox and free blankets. The Civil War? It wasn’t about ending slavery! It was those faggoty book reading northerners oppressing all those poor poor farmers! And the south didn’t lose!
You put a mature man in a suit and tie, call him a doctor or a scientist and anything that comes out of his mouth will be believed by someone and in no time, the lie has legs, the lie has its own parking space, the lie is a fact.
I can’t wait for the Bush Library. One copy of My Pet Goat and the rest of the shelf space taken up by volume after blood-drenched volume of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq magically cleansed in re-write into the Liberation and Democratization of Iraq brought to you by a visionary President who made the tough decisions to keep America safe as he almost single handedly won the War On Terror.
The future of our past looks bright. Cheer up!

Posted by Aaron at 7:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

beeline was offended that I did not go into great detail about our escapes when I was in seattle.
I did not want to do so because I didn't want all the prostitutes and drugs public knowledge, but now I guess the cat is out of the bag....

I did have a steller time up there hanging out with him, and crashing at his place.
The first nite, we went straight from work to his friends house (~1 hour away) to play cards. It was a good time and a good group of guys, except they were all dirty smokers, and by the end of the nite when I had to drive the hour plus home, I was actually nauseous and couldn't even drive the whole way back I was turning so green.

The next day was calm, Beeline and I took his oldest two kids, Bethany and Brody to the beach. Then we went and got some Red Mill burgers, who according to Beeline, are the best burgers in the country. He claims someone saw it said on tv somewhere, so it's clearly the truth.
Then we went another hour away to go to Dug's friends party, where they had awesome wings and free beer. It was a very good time.

Now here's the fun part.
I'm up there to work with the MS hardware group to flush out design details, right? Where I mentioned that the first detail I gave up was that there was no way in hell this thing is going to be able to run on the part they picked, and who in God's name told them it would?
Oh, that would be my boss.
Great. Well, I'm stuck up here for 4 days, so I'm not going to get away with lying about the details for that long, they're going to find out how nothing else is going to work either, so may as well get that out there too.
To quote what I discovered was the most overused MS saying, I threw my boss under the bus.
I told them how they got sold a scam, and there was no way it was going to work in it's current form.
They were both mad at the boss, and happy with me for being up front with them.
So much so, that they offered me a management job there on the spot.
That's right. day 1, job offer at MS for Aaron.
I clearly did not take it, but it was a nice ego stroke.

I only mention it because then for every waking moment I was there, I was rode hard by everyone I saw to take the job offer. The days I was working, I was getting it from the guys I was working with. And the other days I was getting it from my friends.

Maybe I'll suggest that MS just buy my little lincoln office, and then I can work for them from here...

Posted by Aaron at 7:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This is the best idea I've ever not had myself. I'm completely jealous, and if my poker table were permanent, I would do this in a heartbeat. An LCD in the middle of the table is pure genius!

If anyone is interested in building a permanent table, I can help with that, and will insist we add this as well.

Posted by Aaron at 11:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I've always liked Alice in Chains to a certain degree. Some songs were great, others were a total miss.
I recently got the music box collection, and I'm now liking many of the songs I used to not like. Gregg, my college roommate, whom I still see occasionally, loved the sap album, and I couldn't stand it at the time. Now I can't get enough of it.
I also was amused while in Seattle because while there I heard on The End that Alice in Chains is back together, and going on tour.

Posted by Aaron at 10:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Wow, I had a good weekend. Why so good, you ask?
Because I stayed off the computer (nearly) the whole time. I spend too much time in front of this thing.
I got my shower door installed, and otherwise basically watched a lot of tv, which was relaxing.
I haven't taken any pictures for a long time, I need to.

We discovered on sunday that I did manage one super blunder last week.
I was a last minute replacement as the coach of the girl's soccer team. I had been helping quite a bit, just not running things. So I needed to last minute pick up all the team info and schedules and such, but went ahead and had a practice before I got all that stuff home.
Aubrey is playing roller hockey, and his first game is next sunday, so we assumed that the soccer games started on the same weekend. Nah. On sunday we looked at the soccer schedule and saw that the first game was saturday. So now I get to go to practice this week and say "yeah... we missed the first game already. So clearly, I'm going to be needing some help..."


I also wanted to comment on the last comic standing. I now officially hate that show. I think it's rigged.
This guy, not that funny.

This guy, hilarious.

Her, not that funny


She's better

This guy's pretty good, he should be there

Pretty good

also pretty good


Pretty good, but not the best


This guy looked like he would be stupid, but was actually quite good


Whatever, they don't care what I think, clearly. My top 5 would only include 1, maybe 2 of the guys into there now.

Posted by Aaron at 7:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I am currently installing the basement bathroom shower door, and it's not going well.
I just broke the pieces that secure the side rails to the wall, so that's not a good thing.

crap. I had a really great, insightful post ready before I broke the shower, so now I forgot it all.

Maybe I'll remember later...

Posted by Aaron at 12:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I am "working from home" today. It's hotter than Hades here today. Seattle weather definitely is my kind of weather. Cloudy and 70 everyday I an tolerate. Scott and I normally play racquetball today, but because the racquetball courts are at the top of the building (6th floor or so) and not air conditioned, we passed today, figuring it would not be a good idea to play in the sweatbox  and risk a heat stroke.

So I'm staying home and watching the kids while Ann is at some CPR class. We went to the library briefly so I could get a book on soccer drills, because we have soccer practice tonite, and now I'm the only coach. It's gonna be 100 degrees for this practice, so I anticipate it being short.

Posted by Aaron at 1:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The last entry was much too sparse.
There was a fair amount of drama in my getting here tuesday nite.
I am currently sitting in beeline's office here at MS because I'm done working with my contact, and I came to visit beeline and boon, a friend of mine since I was born, basically.
So with nothing else to do but wait for poker to start tonite, I'll give the story of my arrival here.

Flight into seattle was of course late. Not by much, only a half hour or so, but it was already due to arrive at 11pm, so now it's 11:30 (1:30am to me by the way).
I wait for 10 more minutes to get on the rental car shuttle bus, and thankfully get first in line to get a car. I watched the people behind me in line be very upset at how slow the process was, and I was too, but at least I was getting waited on.
I get my ultra-awesome hyundai elantra and before I leave I say "I need to go to microsoft, do you have directions?"
"Oh yes, we can help you, no problem" says Apu. Then he asks where I'm going again, and says he doesn't know where Microsoft is.
"Redmond" I say.
"hmmmm"
Yeah, that's a good sign.
"Take the I-5 north to the 405, and then I don't know"
great.
I get out my directions to the microsoft building I need to go to, and follow them instead. They get me to the microsoft building fine, which I know is quite close to the hotel, but not exactly how far or in what direction. It's 1:30am now, and I have no idea how to find this place.
I check the orbitz hotel reservation I printed out, and no phone number, no address. How helpful. Be sure to print those out in the future.
So I stop at a 7-11 and ask for directions, and of course Apu two doesn't know anything, but another guy says he's lived here for 20 years, and has never heard of this hotel name.
Encouraging.
I get a phone book and start calling around, and finally get the hotel I have the reservation at. She says "yes, you are listed here"
"Great! I'm at NE 51st st and 148th avenue, can you give me directions to where you are?"
"ohhhh, no, I can't..."
"What?!??! why not?"
"I'm not sure where that is, or how to get here from there"
"you have to be kidding me"
"no, sorry, I can't help you"
(edit: Wow, I guess they don't hire the A-team for the overnite shift)
"can you at least tell me what you're next to, so I know what to look for?"
"We're right across the street from the overlake hospital"
"Ok, hang on." I yell to the 7-11 monkey, "Hey, do you know where the overlake hospital is?"
"oh yes, very easy to get there!"
"Ok, how do to get there"
"well, you go south on 148th, then turn on 8th, then turn right just before the exit"
"that's it?"
"yes, very easy"
"what streets am I looking for at this exit? how far is it on 8th street?"
"I don't know for sure, but it's very easy"
yeah, I bet.
I start off just to get away from this idiot.
I follow the directions, and it just seems like I'm getting farther and farther away from what I know is the Microsoft campus, and I know the hotel is quite near to the campus, so there's no way this can be right.
I find a cop, and pull over with my hazards on to get his attention, and it works. He asks if I need help and I say "absolutely"
I show him the address of the hotel I got from the phone book, and he says "wow, you are going completely in the wrong direction!"
Yeah, I guessed that.
He gives me some very reasonable sounding directions, and I'm there in 15 minutes. It's now 2:10am. I am ready to kill the front desk girl who clearly is the stupidest I've met in recent history.

Other than that, and the obvious tough parts of working here, it's been much better since then.

Posted by Aaron at 4:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I'm in redmond, wa, a suburb of seattle. I am the guy who got to break the incredibly bad news that pretty much the entire project isn't going to work as they expected because the salesmen were basically lying to them. Not that that is any different from any other salesman's technique. But this is Microsoft, and I have a feeling the repercussions cold be a bit more severe than any other place we've screwed before.
I've been through a bit of an emotional rollercoaster here because I really like the guys I'm working with on this project, yet my company is clearly expecting me to completely screw them over.
sigh.
I don't know where this is headed right now.
I'm going to meet up with beeline and dug tomorrow nite and play some cards and relax. There's currently some talk of me even working on saturday. fun.

Posted by Aaron at 9:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Beeline sent me this, I got a mild chuckle out of it.
http://www.destructoid.com/minesweeper-the-movie-37770.phtml

Posted by Aaron at 3:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

bleh. To say I'm busy would not be a strong enough word.

I just got back from a good trip out to my parents, and now I'm leaving again.


I have to go to microsoft tomorrow nite. It won't be all work I hope, as I know some guys up there, and hope to go have a beer with them while there. But I have a lot of work to do before leaving, and it's not getting done right now.
so bleh.
As Dave said, "Do you actually know what your house looks like anymore? "

Not really, no. And I have a shower door to install, a new dog shocker to install, kegbot to develop, master's thesis to work on, a new race to train for, and a soccer team to coach.

Posted by Aaron at 4:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

I went for  a run today, which is a bad idea when you don't know the area very well.
I initially wanted to run about 2 miles, but got totally lost, and ended up running close to 5 miles.
Pretty smart, huh?

Posted by Aaron at 7:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)