Seeping Matter

I hobbled in to work today, because I injured my knee over the weekend.

I work with this guy, let’s call him Newsom, who really doesn’t have a lot of patience for my sense of humor.  This is kind of fun for me.  So when I limped into my morning meeting, Newsom asked, “What’d you do?”

“I injured my knee this weekend,” I said.

“How?”

“I blew out my knee upgrading my computer to Windows 7.”

Of course this made Newsom mad because he thought I was trying to be funny.  But actually, I wasn’t lying.  Of course, I was trying to be funny; I’m always trying to be funny.  But I really did hurt my knee upgrading my home computer to Windows 7.

You surely remember me blogging before about building my home PC, so of course you remember how I built it with two 750 GB 7200 RPM drives.  I used one of these drives for the OS and programs and the other for data.  Well, about a month ago I got a corrupt registry file that I fixed, caused by a bad sector on the disk.

As you know, getting a bad disk sector is like having someone move into your neighborhood who puts up Halloween lights.  It starts out as just the one, but before long everyone is doing it, and now the whole neighborhood is ruined.

So, knowing that I was going to be upgrading to Windows 7 soon, I bought a new 320 GB 7200 RPM drive to replace my bad disk but set it aside until the upgrade day came.

Which was last Saturday.  So I pulled the PC out from under the desk, sat down on the ground, and proceeded to pull the old hard drive out and put the new one in, and then I started the install.

It started up fine, but after a bit it said that it couldn’t use my ASUS DVD drive because it didn’t have the correct driver for it.  Upgrading the firmware didn’t help, and ASUS didn’t offer any newer drivers.

Honestly, that thing never worked right anyway.  So we headed down to Best Buy to get a new one.

I walked quickly through Best Buy and found me a nice HP DVD writer drive.  As a bonus, it’s a SATA drive, not IDE, which is excellent since I had two open SATA slots.  And it said it worked with Vista, which gave me confidence it would also work well for Windows 7.  So I picked that one up.

I noticed walking around Best Buy that I was feeling a bit of a popping sensation in my knee every time I flexed it.

When I got home, I sat down on the floor again and opened the PC to install the new drive.  I started the install again and everything went fine.  But when I went to stand up, I felt a very intense, sharp, burning pain in my knee, and it has been like that ever since.

I’ve given this a lot of thought, and I now realize quite clearly:  This is ASUS’s fault.  Some might claim this is Microsoft’s fault.  I’ve thought about this, though, and I know quite clearly that it is not Microsoft’s fault.  This is primarily because I work there.  And of course, it isn’t my fault.  I mean, seriously!

Yeah, ASUS is to blame.

(By the way, the Windows 7 install went without a hitch after that.  And, coming from a fan of Linux and Mac desktops, I have to say that Windows 7 is really excellent.)

UPDATE:  Diagnosis is complex tear in right medial meniscus plus partially torn medial collateral ligament.  Surgery to come.

Once upon a time, there was a nice young man named AMA Superbike.  He really looked up to his big brother, named World.  In fact, AMA really wanted to grow up to be just like World.  So he tried to emulate his big brother in every way.

His big brother had some great friends, with names like Honda, Suzuki, Yamaha, and Kawasaki.  AMA also made friends with these people.

World was really into motorcycle racing.  AMA was really into motorcycle racing too.

World Superbike worked with his friends Honda, Suzuki, Yamaha, and Kawasaki to create a racing series based on 600cc and 1000cc production sport bikes.  This helped his friends to produce more powerful, better handling, higher quality motorcycles for their customers.  And it helped World create a great racing series that racing fans not only loved but could identify with, because they knew they could go out and buy bikes almost just like those to ride themselves.  When AMA saw how great the World Superbike racing series was, AMA worked with those same friends to create a racing series too.  The AMA Superbike racing series was great also.

Everything was great.  World Superbike had a great racing series, and so did AMA Superbike.  World Superbike had millions of great fans, and so did AMA Superbike; in fact, they shared many of the same fans.  World Superbike had many great riders, and so did AMA Superbike; in fact, some riders used to move from one series to the other.

Then, one day on his way home from school, AMA met a very bad person named DMG.

At first, he tried not to be friends with DMG.  After all, he knew DMG’s reputation.  He knew that DMG was responsible for turning NASCAR stock car racing, which used to race cars that were actually based on stock cars, into such a pathetic form of racing that it was the laughing stock of the auto racing world.

But DMG was persistent and persuasive.  DMG kept telling AMA that it wouldn’t hurt to be friends.  DMG kept saying how many fans NASCAR had, and conveniently avoided the fact that most NASCAR fans are drunk redneck alcoholics that don’t even pay attention to the race.  DMG kept saying how many racers NASCAR had, and conveniently avoided the fact that none of them really had that much racing talent.

AMA knew he should not be friends with DMG.  But despite knowing better, he gave into temptation.  He started hanging out with DMG even though he knew he shouldn’t.

World said he should not do this.  ”Don’t be fooled by DMG,” said World.  ”He doesn’t know anything about racing — especially motorcycle racing.  He will ruin your life!”

Suddenly, AMA reacted in a way he never had before.  ”You are not the boss of me!” he shouted.  ”You can’t tell me what to do!  I can do whatever I want!”

AMA stormed out of the house.  With nowhere to go, he went over to DMG’s house.  ”Wow, World must not be that good of a friend to treat you that way,” said DMG sympathetically.  ”I would never treat you that way.”

“What should I do?” asked AMA.  ”I don’t understand why World doesn’t want us to be friends.”

DMG replied, “He just doesn’t appreciate you.  You’re better than him!  Trust me.  You don’t need that dumb old World Superbike!  I’ll show you how to make a really great racing series!”

Unfortunately, AMA listened to DMG.  He changed his entire racing series from a proven successful formula to something most of his former fans now refer to as NASBike.  He turned his back on his friends like Honda, Suzuki, Yamaha, and Kawasaki.  In fact, once he moved away from World Superbike and started hanging out with DMG, Honda said that he could not be friends with AMA anymore.  AMA’s three-time champion left to race for World instead, and AMA’s former seven-time champion said he wouldn’t race anymore if AMA didn’t quit being friends with DMG.  A year later, he retired for good.

Despite all of this, AMA wouldn’t stay away from DMG.  Before, AMA looked up to World and wanted to be like him; now, for some reason AMA thought he was better than World, and felt for some reason like this was important.  So AMA wouldn’t race at the best tracks if World was also there at the same time.  AMA would sometimes wait a month or more to show television coverage of their races.  And the new race format was so confusing and ridiculous that nobody could understand it.

Before too long, everyone who used to be friends with AMA forgot about him.  Everyone except DMG.  Everyone else forgot about him, because he forgot about all of them.  They all just became friends with World instead, and forgot that AMA was even there anymore.

And that was how AMA went from being awesome to nothing in just one year.  And he lived miserably ever after.  The End.

Moral

The moral of this story is:  DMG bites.

Update:

I sent a link to this post to the AMA with the following message:

To Whom It May Concern:

Thought you might be interested to read my latest blog post on AMA Pro Road Racing (http://blog.mvryan.org/2009/10/the-sad-tale-of-ama-superbike-a-bedtime-fable/), which was written not so much as a bash session, but more as an interesting retrospective.
I learned one very interesting thing about myself writing it.  I’ve lived in Utah for over 9 years.  I’ve attended every single AMA Supercross in Salt Lake, as well as others nearby.  I’ve attended every AMA and World Superbike event at Miller Motorsports Park since the track opened.  I watch every AMA Supercross, AMA Motocross, World Superbike, MotoGP, and Formula One race on TV.  You could say I’m a racing fan.
I also used to watch every AMA road racing event on TV.  That is, up until this year.  I watched the first event, but when I couldn’t make any sense of the classes, had to wait for (sometimes several) weeks to watch the events on TV, and when you refused to come to Miller’s this year, I completely lost interest.
That’s what I found interesting:  Between you and DMG, you messed it up so much, in fact, that I, a true racing fan, completely forgot the series was even going on.  Note, I did not actively choose to boycott in protest of the changes.  The changes you made had the effect of causing me to lose interest.  I don’t care about the series anymore – it is as uninteresting to me as a club racing series in another part of the country.
So there’s some feedback for you.  If your intent was to gain fans, well, it seems what you did was exactly the opposite.

I’ll let you know if I hear from them.

One of my rules is that when I go on a business trip, I am required to go to a major-league baseball game if the following conditions are true:

• The city I’m visiting has a major-league baseball team
• It is baseball season
• The home team is playing at home when I am there

This is a bit odd because I don’t really follow baseball otherwise. And this rule doesn’t necessarily apply to other sports. Sorry. I can’t do anything about it, or even explain it. It is just a rule.

I’m not really complaining, either. It’s a good rule. I’ve seen the Mets, the A’s, and the Giants (twice) play so far. Even though I don’t follow baseball, it is pretty fun to go to cheer for the home team and watch the local fans get smashed. And watch the baseball game.

Anyway, this week I’ve been in Seattle for Microsoft’s TechReady conference, and all of the conditions were met, which meant I was compelled to go see the Mariners play the Blue Jays on Tuesday. Safeco Field is located in a slummy part of Seattle, but the stadium itself is pretty nice.

Safeco Field Outside - The Slummy Part

Safeco Field Inside - The Nice Part.

I had a great seat.

At the start of the game, they played the US national anthem, presumably to honor all great Americans like Edward Van Halen and Ben Spies. Then they played the Canadian national anthem, again presumably to honor all the great Canadians (i.e. Rush). I found out later it is because the mascot for the other team is a Canadian Blue Jay, not an American one. But it was still confusing why they had their own national anthem. Someone explained it is because they are a different country. What the…! When did Canada secede from the US?

Ah well.

When you go to a baseball game, one of the traditions is to pay atrocious prices for awful food. This is part of the rule. Strictly speaking, you should buy a hot dog, garlic fries, and an “ice cold” (thus falsely advertised) beer, unless you don’t drink alcohol, which I don’t, in which case you get a pass. I must publicly admit I had chicken strips instead of the hot dog. I felt unpatriotic. But I just could not bring myself to eat that thing.

It was a pretty exciting game. Ichiro Suzuki singlehandedly won the game for the Mariners. Here is a picture of Mr. Ichiro just before he hit the winning RBI.

Ichiro At Bat - The Sum of the Mariners Offense

Actually, that is a lie. It is a picture of Mr. Ichiro just before he got a hit a different time. But it is almost true that he won the game mostly by himself. He got on base three times and scored each time, I think, as well as made some great defensive plays. But the best was at the end – both teams went into the 9th tied, but in the bottom of the inning the Mariners managed to load the bases, and when Ichiro got up to bat, he cooly hit a single, driving in the winning run.

Given the excellent food, the excellent atmosphere, and the excellent entertainment both on and off the field, no wonder it is our national pastime.

So Amber and I are waiting at Salt Lake International for our flights to Seattle, and I see this guy walk in front of me. I leaned over to Amber and said, “That guy right there looks a lot like an old college professor I had. The one right there with the curly hair. I wonder if it is him.”

I didn’t say anything though, until later on the plane, where as luck would have it his seat was right next to mine. After we both sat down, I said, “You look like someone I know.”

“I doubt it,” he said.

That’s a weird thing to say, because how could he possibly who all of the people that I know are, and what they look like? And whether I think one of them looks like him? But whatever.

“Yeah, well, I had a college professor that looked a lot like you.”

“Oh, really? What school?”

“Utah State. Do you teach there?”

“Um, yeah.”

“Are you —- —- ?”

“Yes.”

I’ve removed his name here to protect his identity, because you cannot look on USU’s website and go through the faculty that teach in the Computer Science department and figure out which one has curly hair and has a name that rhymes with a scheme for doing something revolting*, or what you might do to another person to annoy them**, or the description of someone who is really, really passionate about masonry***, or a law that prohibits people from using a naked finger to remove debris from their nose****, or that really sweet ride that Frankie (aka Summer George) got for Jerry Seinfeld*****.

So anyway, I pointed out that I know him because I took a class from him.  He asked just enough to see if I’d made anything with my life, which pretty much means, did I become a software engineer in the field of artificial intelligence, which is his passion.  And since I just became the kind of software engineer that actually makes money, he quickly lost interest.

At this point his face clearly said, “Go away.”  So I did.  I mean, I had to sit next to him for the rest of the flight.  But I tried not to touch him.

Sheesh dude, it isn’t like I was trying to get your autograph or anything.

*sick plan
**flick man
***brick fan
****pick ban
*****trick van

To protect the guilty I am omitting names, but I was signing up for something, from someone, the other day, and they sent me to a web page with this agreement. Notice the highlighted part:

Who Reads This Whole Thing? I Mean, Besides Me.

Not long ago we went to visit the new dinosaur museum in Vernal, Utah.  That’s what everyone around there calls it – the new dinosaur museum, to disambiguate from the previous dinosaur museum, which is not there anymore.

However, the naming committee for the new dinosaur museum had a different idea:

The Official Name of the New Dinosaur Museum

It’s a Field House!  And a Park!  And a Museum!

I can imagine the meeting for this:

John:  Hello everyone, I’m John.  I’ve been asked by the new dinosaur museum people to moderate this committee, because I have no spine.

Everyone except Steve:  (sigh of relief)

Steve:  (rolls eyes because he is bored out of his skull and is only here because they thought they should invite the general contractor)

John:  Any ideas for the name?

Sally:  Well, I don’t like the name “Dinosaur Museum,” because it might also have something in it that is not a dinosaur, like a restroom.  Plus I don’t believe in dinosaurs.  But I do like museums.

Rick:  Well, I think the word “Utah” should be included in the name, since we’re building it in Utah… (checks map) … yeah.

Meredith:  Isn’t this officially a state park?  I think it should say state park.

Nancy:  I thought it was a field house.

Meredith:  No, I think it is a state park.

Rick:  What makes you think it is a field house?

Meredith:  Well, it is a building, which is like a house, built in a field.

Rick:  Oh, yeah.  Good point.

Carl:  How about “Natural History” instead of “Dinosaur”?  I mean, dinosaurs are part of history, and so is going to the bathroom.

Sally:  Yeah, that sounds really great.

Steve:  (sarcastically)  Great ideas everyone.  Why don’t we just combine them all and call it “Utah Field House of Natural History State Park Museum?”  Win-Win!

Everyone:  Hmm.  Yes, that is a wonderful name.

Steve:  (realizes the meeting might be over and doesn’t let anyone know he was joking)

John:  Steve, is the building big enough to accommodate that name?

Steve:  No, but we can easily just make it bigger.

John:  Well, then I think we are done here!  Great work everyone!

Going through old pictures on my phone and I found this one:

Happy Unbirthday Chris Cantera.

A few months ago while I was still at Mozy, Chris Cantera (pictured), Mozy’s new Director of Engineering (and my boss) had just started and took his engineering organization out to lunch, but when we got there he remembered that he had not applied for his corporate AmEx yet, and so he wouldn’t be able to pay for lunch (Mozy’s pretty strict about this stuff).  I had mine, so I volunteered to pay.

I wanted to pay, because I understand that he who pays has the true power.

Towards the end of the meal, I stopped the waitress and asked her if she would mind bringing Chris a drink in a child’s cup, and perhaps would they sing Happy Birthday to him.  He immediately resisted strongly.  The waitress was a bit undecided about how to proceed.  Chris pulled the boss card out, and said, “No, I’m the boss, and I say no to the Happy Birthday singing.”  So I pulled out the AmEx card and said, “Well, I’m the one paying the tip, and I say yes to the Happy Birthday singing.”

Needless to say, I won.  Here’s Chris with his happy, cute birthday cup.  Happy Unbirthday Chris.

Our family is on vacation this week. “Vacation” for us mostly means that Dad is not at work. We rarely travel anywhere, because we are lame.

Often what we do instead is take little day trips hither and yon in Utah, and we pretend we are tourists visiting Utah, and we go and see all the things tourists would see.

Anyway, since the new Oquirrh Mountain LDS Temple is finished and available for touring before the dedication later this summer, we thought it would be good to take our kids through the open house.  Amber and I of course can go to the temple whenever we like, or at least whenever we can find the time.  But the kids can’t go until they’re older, so we thought it would be a great experience for them.

It didn’t exactly agree with Oakley’s (my 20 month old) personality though.  Here’s a rough timeline:

12:30 p.m.:  We gently wake Oakley up from his nap.  He is such a good natured little angel.  He will love to see the temple because he still remembers heaven.

12:35 p.m.:  We put Oakley in the car.  He throws a fit because he wants to run and play outside.  He must not know we are going to the temple.

1:20 p.m.:  We arrive a few minutes early for the temple.  Oakley is glad to get out and see the temple.

1:21 p.m.:  We walk to the tent to wait for our turn to go in.  Oakley throws a fit.  He probably wants to be able to stay outside and look at the temple.

1:30 p.m.:  The movie begins.  Oakley wants to try to sit in every single chair in the meeting room in the tent.  He throws a fit when I won’t let him.

1:31 p.m.:  Oakley’s fit has become so loud that people are looking at us.  I do not want us to be that family.  Amber takes Oakley to the back of the room.

1:42 p.m.:  We walk to the temple.  Oakley is glad.

1:43 p.m.:  We enter the temple.  Oakley throws a fit.

1:45 p.m.:   We are quietly walking through the temple and looking around.

1:45:01 p.m.:  Oakley screams to see what the echo sounds like.

1:46 p.m.:  We pause to look through the glass at the baptismal font.

1:46:01 p.m.:  We have to move on because Oakley is banging on the glass.

1:47 p.m.:  Oakley throws a fit because we won’t let him go and play in the baptismal font.

1:49 p.m.:  Oakley throws a fit and insists on walking up all the stairs by himself.

1:53 p.m.:  Oakley gets mad when we won’t let him run off and explore the temple by himself.

1:55 p.m.:  We come to the Celestial Room.  I tell the kids to stop for a minute and quietly listen to feel the special feeling in the Celestial Room.

1:55:09 p.m.:  Oakley throws a screaming fit because we won’t let him run around the Celestial Room.  Amber leaves early to take him out into the hall.

1:55:15 p.m.:  The rest of us feel bad that Mom is out in the hall by herself so we leave early also.

1:58 p.m.:  We arrive at the sealing room and find a seat to wait for the presentation.

1:58:13 p.m.:  Oakley gets off his seat and wants to try to sit on the others.

1:58:16 p.m.:  Oakley gets mad and screams at me because I won’t let Oakley stand on those pretty white chairs with his shoes.

1:58:20 p.m.:  The presentation begins.

1:58:21 p.m.:  Oakley tries to escape our row and run around the sealing room but I won’t let him.

1:58:25 p.m.:  The presenters start speaking louder.

1:58:28 p.m.:  Oakley throws a screaming fit because I won’t let him leave our row.

1:58:31 p.m.:  I get after Oakley and tell him to be quiet.

1:58:32 p.m.:  Oakley starts crying in his loud, mournful cry, drowning out the presentation.

1:58:35 p.m.:  I have to take Oakley out of the sealing room into the hall.

2:02 p.m.:  The rest of my family comes out of the sealing room.

2:02:06 p.m.:  Amber and I decide it is time to finish the tour, much quicker than we wanted.

2:05 p.m.:  We get out of the temple.  Oakley gets a cookie.  He is happy to be outside.

People make fun of Utah drivers, for good reason.  But sometimes it isn’t our fault.

Two Detour Signs at the Same Intersection - One Points Off-Road Into a Fruit Orchard

I found out today that I have a new blog follower, oddly, since this person also told me, “I don’t really follow racing.”

???

That last sentence – can you even use those words together like that?  It doesn’t make any sense to me at all.

Anyway, this makes me quite pleased, because now I have three followers, including myself and my imaginary friend, and this new person.  We’re talking about 50% growth – now to sustain it!