MnJIM

Father Of The Year

2008-09-26T08:39:00.003-05:00

Dunno if I'm the dad or the one laughing and filming...

Not Father of The Year - Watch more free videos

Flashback 1982: Atari BASIC, My First Programming Language

2008-09-04T10:09:00.001-05:00

From:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BASIC_Programming

BASIC Programming was released for the Atari 2600 console in 1979. One of only a few non-gaming cartridges, this program allowed consumers to create some simple programs using its own unique programming language, which was superficially similar to dialects of BASIC, but differed in many important respects. The extremely small RAM memory size of the Atari 2600, 128 bytes, severely restricted the possibilities of this cartridge.

Our Family Circus

2008-08-13T12:02:00.003-05:00

Meghan, our eight-year-old daughter, rushes in our bedroom shortly after sunrise this morning with Carter, her six-year-old brother, in tow.

Meghan: MOM! You need to see Carter's spine!
Mom: WHAT? What's wrong?!?
Meghan: It's too long!!!

Two more days of summer break (down here in South Florida)... Then kids go back to school and OURS begins!!!

August???

2008-08-09T22:01:00.003-05:00

Work was very busy this week. The project I'm working on is getting ready to show potential "beta" customers. Was very nice to enjoy a cigar and a cocktail (something with juice and rum) at the pool tonight. That feeling of "vacation" still lingers quite a bit when we're relaxing around the pool.

In south Florida in the summer, it's 92 every day, and 72 every night. The humidity varies depending on the storms and the wind, I guess, but it never drops to a point where you don't feel like it's all around you. For example, when you hang something up to "dry", it only becomes LESS HUMID... I think the only things that are DRY around here are the things IN MOTION - IN A DRYER!!!

A friend of ours from Murphy's Law Irish Pub is Paul. His brother is Ken Egan, the Irish Olympian in Light-Heavyweight Boxing! We watched his first match today and he WON 22-2!!! Go Irish!

On The Move

2008-06-20T11:19:00.003-05:00

The open road calls to some of us more than others. My recent employment situation ("best. job. ever.") allows me to work from my home office full time. Given the lack of constraint over where we live and a few other factors, we decided to move from the sixteen weeks per year of nice Minnesota weather to fifty-something weeks of warm and sunny Florida weather.

My boss works from his home office in Palm Beach Gardens and we'll be about ten minutes away. Also ten minutes away is the beautiful beach.

I don't see us staying in Florida forever and I have the idea that my kids (entering first through seventh grades this fall) will graduate from my high school. That being said, it seemed like almost everything lined up for the relocation.

Keep in touch!

Suggestion For Google / Gmail

2008-01-24T12:01:00.000-06:00

My Idea

I'd like to see a "timeline" view of a Google Calendar. I would use this for my family's timeline.

Other Thoughts

- I would like to be able to merge other user's entries into this calendar.

- Viewing (or printing) the "timeline" view would be useful with a user-define list of events ("filter") that match certain keywords (like "timeline", "major", "birth", "death", "important")

- Privacy would be controlled using the access controls already in place. For example, I would grant "full" or "read-only" access to family members, but this would be a private calendar.

Jim

Powerful Word Of The Day: Dude

2007-12-11T13:07:00.000-06:00

Great commercials, not-so-great beers...

From:
Google Video

Uncle Ted!

2006-07-30T11:40:00.000-05:00

Saw Ted Nugent at Ribfest (on Harriet Island in St. Paul) last night - for three bucks a head. w00t!

I don't know what was sweeter - the sweet BBQ sauce on those ribs - or the suprised look on people's faces (as they packed up their chairs, wondering what his problem is) when Ted said:

"Life is a ribfest, baby!"
"Kill the sh!t and grill it, baby!"
"All the liberals can 'Kiss My A$$!, Kiss My A$$!"

Sweet! Rock on, Uncle Ted!

Blogging (and Matching) for Katrina Relief

2005-09-06T12:06:00.000-05:00

This is really a great idea. Using the power of networking (and blogging) to generate matching for donations to Hurricane Katrina relief.

No Fast Internet, But Tacos You Say?

2004-11-09T10:59:00.000-06:00

Last week, Qwest was saying DSL is available in my area. This week it's not, apparently. So when I used their web site check my "availability", it said:

"Product not available. View residential products available in your area"

The first item on *this* list was:

10 Cents to Mexico

Cool.

Back In The Grain Belt

2004-10-17T15:56:00.000-05:00

Picture this... Sunday afternoon. Properly built fire in the fireplace. Chilled "football" beer (read: not expensive, Minnesota-brewed, easy-to-drink). Bratwurst and baked cheesy potatoes. Now, add 10 consecutive hours of America's best TV sport, professional football. What a Sunday!

Running The Race...

2004-10-15T19:50:00.000-05:00

I don't even think I'm in good enough shape to *watch* a marathon for six hours MUCH LESS run in one... My brother recently became our immediate family's hero when he became the first one in our family to complete a marathon, the Twin Cities Marathon.

Way to go, John!

Cool: Install XP With No Updates to Download

2004-09-23T06:09:00.000-05:00

A great article from Fred Langa about "slip-streaming" the Windows XP install with Service Pack 2. I'll be doing this from now on...

It Can Read Your Mind...

2004-09-23T04:58:00.000-05:00

How cool!

---

20Q.net is an experiment in artificial intelligence. The program is very simple but its behavior is complex. Everything that it knows and all questions that it asks were entered by people playing this game. 20Q.net is a learning system; the more it is played, the smarter it gets.

...

Think of an object and the A.I. will try to figure-out what you are thinking by asking simple questions. The object you think of should be something that most people would know about, but, never a specific person, place or thing.

Ex-Pats: News in English; Living in, Moving to, Working in Europe

2004-08-31T05:11:00.000-05:00

This is just a well-done site with lots of up-to-date valuable information. I've even signed up for their daily news email - something I attempt to avoid, normally.

Expatica.Com - News in English, living in, moving to, working in Europe - Belgium, France, Germany, Netherlands, Spain

New Pictures

2004-08-26T05:28:00.000-05:00

Just posting some new pics on my Photo Gallery. They are:

2004-08: Around Home -- It got quite hot in August. We took a trip (or two) to the nice biergarten at our local pub, Murphy's Law Irish Pub.

2004-08: Meshell @ Marlene's Wedding -- Meshell flew home to be in her Mom, Marlene's wedding in Iowa. She took Lindsey, our oldest, with her. It a tragic mishap, I deleted about half of the pictures from her trip while transferring from the camera to the PC. I felt terrible about this...

2004-08: Out With Elena -- We've gone out a few times for dinner or to the pub with our neighbor's sister, Elena. We always have a blast.

2004-08: Girls In Wedding Dresses -- Despite not being able to make it home for Marlene's wedding, the girls dressed up in the dresses at home. They really look great!

2004-08: Mannheim Bierboerse (Beer Exchange) -- With lots of vendors, breweries and food stands, this is a great local beer event situated on the Neckar River

VIM Color Schemes

2004-07-29T10:01:00.000-05:00

I really can't think of many people I know who still use vi(m) as a text editor, but for those that do, here are some great...

Color Schemes

Mark Twain: The Awful German Language

2004-07-20T07:09:00.000-05:00

It's an accurate and *very* funny 124 year-old appendix to his book "A Tramp Abroad". If you are German, or have ever tried to learn that language, check out either:

The German translation:
Mark Twain: Die schreckliche deutsche Sprache

...or the English original:
Mark Twain: The Awful German Language (HTML) or (Text)

Let Freedom Reign!

2004-07-16T03:18:00.000-05:00

A great montage of photos taken the day Iraq became sovereign, two days ahead of schedule. Here's the note that was handed to President Bush:

You'd Never Guess This Actually Exists...

2004-07-12T08:54:00.000-05:00

The Brezelfest ("Pretzel Fest") in Speyer is the biggest Volksfest in the Oberrhein ("Upper Rhein") area. On Sunday, we took the kids and met up with Ray, a buddy from work, and his daughter, Rachel.

Since we were already knee-deep into bratwurst and bier when we heard the gun for the start of the Speyer Straßenlauf ("marathon"), we decided to settle for looking around and letting the kids enjoy the rides. Many people actually have a life-long goal of running a marathon. Mine is less ambitious. I'd like to watch one - someday...

Check out the pictures!

My Million Dollar Wishlist

2004-07-12T08:46:00.000-05:00

I know I should be working on *making* a million bucks instead of *spending* it, but this would be the toy I'd buy after winning the lottery (or some other more-likely scenario) and taking care of my family...

Spending $80 million on the large sub it just crazy. :) I'd take the 36-meter version and be happy with well-enough.

Family-Style Pub Crawl

2004-07-09T04:33:00.000-05:00

What a nice, long weekend! Our Saturday kind of went like this:

Picked up tired Viktor early (10 AM) in the morning and left Mannheim heading towards Wiesbaden (where I was stationed for three years from 1994-97).

Meshell hit the Marktplatz (kind of a farmer's market) in Wiesbaden and dropped us off at the Rathaus ("city hall") where we used to hang out.

Note: They call this tradition Fruehschoppen (literally translated "early shopping") and it normally happens on Saturday mornings or on Vatertag (Father's Day). Distinguished gentlemen, such as my self, meet at a local pub for a beer or two, some traditional grub and a nice sense of gemutlichkeit (roughly translates to a warm, easy, friendly environment). American's could learn alot from the social and mental benefits from the occasional beer-related event, like this...

This place used to be a nice brewpub, but now it's an Andechser restaurant / biergarten. [pictures] Normally this wouldn't bother me since Andech's is one of my top 3 breweries in the world and making several of my favorite beers in the respective styles. But in this instance, I was disappointed. The character that the old Ratsbrauerie had, with its dark walls, old wood and cave-like ceilings had been replaced with a well-lit dining area with new furniture, white and yellow paint and poor service. Forunately, the beer on tap redeems this place, barely.

We met up and went across the river, to Mainz, in search of a brauhaus we used to like to hang out at - even before we had kids. It took Meshell about five minutes (and no wrong turns) to find it, the Eisgrub Brauhaus. After a great lunch, tired Viktor was beat (and stuffed - after a plate with two big pieces of schnitzel). [pictures]

Meshell had one more stop to make - at the American Army base in Mainz-Kastel to pick up some bicycle gear for Lindsey's bike. This base is right around the corner from *another* old favorite hangout of ours, the Castel Brauhaus. I couldn't resist, so I took some of the kids to the biergarten and had a couple of biers. [pictures] Viktor rested his eyes in the car...

This was the first time I've been to three (or even two) brew pubs in a single day and I don't know if I'll do it again. I was overwhelmed by the good (and fresh) beer. I didn't think that was possible!

Wheat For Bread, Confiscated For Expensive Beer

2004-07-09T04:21:00.000-05:00

Found a great write-up about the history of Weizen (Wheat) Beer. It's definitely the right time of year for this great style of beer, in Germany and any where else warm weather and good beer are found.

Here's an excerpt - that surpised me - about Reinheitsgebot (the Beer Purity Law):

In the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, Weizenbier was a privilege of the nobility. The Reinheitsgebot of 1516 was not a control relating to purity of beer for the masses, but rather a mandate to protect this "refined" style of beer for the nobility in Bavaria. No private brewer was allowed to brew beer with wheat, be it in the towns or in the country, even for home consumption, - only the nobility.

Enjoy the article and enjoy a Weizen!

Geek Post: Drop-Down Menus, Horizontal Style

2004-07-01T10:17:00.000-05:00

Found a great article about Drop-Down Menus, Horizontal Style from A List Apart.

Specifically, it deals with creating a drop-down navigation menu that only requires a browser with CSS support (normally). Currently there's a bug in IE 6.x that prevents it working properly without a small JavaScript . But otherwise, this is a finely-crafted piece of work. Check out an example of his, if you're interested in this sort of thing. I definitely am. I just wish I had more time to spend on web sites - when not at work...

Root beer: What's fresh at the farmers market

2004-06-29T02:42:00.000-05:00

A homebrewing buddy of mine recently started selling the root beer he's been making for a few years at a Farmer's Market. There's a good article in the StarTribune. Also, Mark's home page is at Glewwe-Castle.Com.