No Trays at Chuck's

In an effort to *Go Green* the cafeteria at the university were I work has eliminated trays at the cafeteria. It will be interesting to see what the reactions are from the students when they return in a week and a half.

Father's Day '07

This father's day has become deeply reflective for me. I stand at a vantage point of looking back on my childhood memories with my Dad and looking forward to being a father in the very near future. I have much to thank my Dad for. My dad taught was the importance of many things which include:
How to have a relationship with God,
The value of hard work
The importance of Family,
How to make hard decisions,
The importance of understanding how money works, and how to avoid needless debt,
That nearly everything could be taken apart and fixed,
The fun of playing countless "side yard" football with my brother,
How to catch fish without using a bobber,
How to drive safely,
and how to be a father through example.

I can attribute my career path of computer programmer to my father. He taught how to use the Quick-Basic programming language when I was in 4th grade. He taught me the single line if statement, the goto statement, variable assignments, and math operations,the print statement and the sound statement. Believe it or not that we all we needed to solve me problems and have loads of fun. But most importantly it allowed me to program and build excitement for the endless possibilities of computer programming.

Thanks Dad. I love you.

Draining Cedarlake Reveals *Treasures*.

Summer 2007 Cedarlake

Summer '07 at Cedarville University means a summer full of construction. Projects include a new Chuck's dishpit, a new Biblical Studies Building, and Weir Dam Project. The lake has been lowered a few feet which reveled a toilet, bicycle, and skateboard. Who knows what else the lake might reveal. I'll see if i can get more picture of the lake treasures. Rumors include more toilets, orange trees, fridges, engagement rings, textbooks, pet gold fish... Enjoy the pictures.

Commuting to work via Bike Trail

Google Earth View of my Ride to Work

I finally decided to go for it. I rode my bike the 9 miles from Xenia to Cedarville. I averaged about 12 mph for a total cycling time of 45 minutes one way. I only had to get up 5 minutes earlier than normal to arrive by 8 am. I did learn a couple of lessons at the trip. I overload my backpack which made it a tab bit harder to breath. Next time I'll bring my work clothes the day before . Even though the shower was freezing cold and it was only in the low 50s in the morning, I enjoyed my ride to and from work. It was great exercise and I saved about $2.00 in gas. (18 mile round trip / 27 estimated MPG for my Saturn* $3.019 current price for gas in Xenia). This is part of my great plan not to have to drive my car to work accomplished so far by either car pooling or cycling in myself.

House Pics

235 2nd Street

Click on the above picture for a tour of our house/apartment. Danielle did a wonderful job of decorating.

Welcome to Xenia

Just a quick post to tel you all know that Danielle and I arrived safely in Xenia on Saturday with all our stuff packed into a 26 foot uhaul truck pulling out pickup truck. I had a great first day of week. Danielle continues to do well with her pregnancy. More picture and posting to come soon. If you would like our mailing address please send me an email

Amazing Grace Movie

Be sure to view the Amazing Grace movie trailer, hosted by Asbury College.

To recode or not to recode that is the question

I've been learning python at work, the programming language not the snake :-) I've been using python to keep our Informix database synced with our new mysql database. I have learned a lot through the process and I do have it working. However, if I had it all to do again, I would have written my code differently. The question now is, should I take the time to rewrite something that is working great, to write it *correctly*. I sure programmers in *ages to come* would appreciate it written correctly.

Ohio Linux Fest 2006

This weekend I had the privilege of attending *the* Ohio Linux Fest. I was able to attend with 4 other people from work. The presentations were excellent, I learned some, but I also learned where I need to learn more, especially with MySQL performance tuning. It was fantastic to be around people who use, patch, create and *evangelize* open source software. Being a database programmer and interacting with both closed source and open source systems I know that advantages of working with open source. Working with a closed system is like going to an glass art store where you can't touch anything, they don't explain anything, and there are sales people telling you how great everything is, and signs all around saying you break it you leases it every year for more and more money; whereas working with an open system is going to a museum, where you can touch everything, everything is explained, and you can build and modify the exhibits, and copy them and take them home for free. I hope in the near future I'll be able to contribute code in the open source community.




The Columbus zoo also treated us to a Penguin Show. Which was fantastic since the Penguin in the mascot of Linux.

Yes open source is
free as in beer,
free as in speech
and yes and times free as in puppies.

Who is writting your plans?

I attended chapel today at Asbury which I am encouraged to attend once a week, but rarely utilize. The speaker today was Steve Saint son of Nate Saint, one of five missionaries killed in their attempt to befriend the Waodani also known as the Huaorani in Ecuador. Steve delivered a powerful me sage today. He talked about the death of his father at age 5, his return back to Ecuador soon after, the amazing salvation transformation in the Waodani tribe, his return to Ecuador later in life and befriending of Mincaye, the man who killed his father and one who was able to comfort him in the unexpected death of his daughter. He talk with passion about even at age 5 he had all these plans. He planned to grow up to fly airplanes just like his father. But God changed his plans is wrote new ones. The chapter in Steve's life were written by God some chapters were very rough, but the endings were beautiful.

I plan on watching the movie “End of the Spear" which tells his story. I also plan to read his books as well. I also reflected how often obsess about planning my own life. God can do amazing things, but I limit him so much. I know my thought must seam *silly* to God's. Today's chapel was good for me. It makes me feel even more foolish for getting all worked up over getting a $15 parking ticket at work for having the wrong colored tag.

Nearly Worthless Science Report - battery powered analog clocks

The cube next to mine has been mostly uncapped for about 4 months. Sometime toward the begging of the four months the battery powered analog clock handing on the wall in the cube had become stuck at [something] at 45 seconds ( right at the *9*) with the second hand ticking but falling back to the same position each tick. I conjecture that if the clock was laid flat it would continue to run since it do not have to overcome gravity. I was correct! However, in the two hours it has been running it is now 15 minutes slow.

Several of us cube dwellers want to take this conjure further. My full conjecture is this:

1)Most battery powered analog clocks with second hands hanging vertically will stop keeping time somewhere near when the second hand reaches the 9. The reasoning is that according the my memory of calculus and trigonometry, the second hand has the most gravity to over come right at the *9*.
2) Battery powered clocks with second hands laying horizontal will keep time longer than hanging vertical.


I am most interested in conjecture #1. Send in the time when your battery powered analog clocks stops keeping time.

Most people would just replace the batteries, but I have to ask why. This is the first topic of what I hope to be many on my blog on nearly worthless science.

Voted Most Secure.

At my place of work our department is transferring in a new person from a different department. As a result all but two *cube dwellers* get to relocate to *better* cubes. I however, get to stay where I am at. The 26 months I have been employed at Asbury College, I and one other have never been *relocated.* Aince I have been working at Asbury longer than the other one, I was *voted* most *secure* cube dweller. At least I wont have to relocated my geocache which is outside my window.