MichaelandChrissy.com

This video has nothing to do with Philip K. Dick, but the context reminded me of the title of the book that inspired Blade Runner.  Why?  Well, these guys strap Christmas lights to sheep.  They’re electric sheep.  Aiden would love to see this.

Set to music, the effect is stunning.  Hundreds of sheep on a hillside, herded into shapes, running in a particular direction so that they can be captured on video.  Otherwise known as EXTREME SHEEPHERDING.  It’s neat, but I’m led to believe that these people have way too much time on their hands.

When Aiden first became ambulatory, he would move himself by rolling over.  He would just roll on over to where he wanted to be.  When Aiden began crawling, he couldn’t quite coordinate his back legs to work with his arms, so he ended up dragging himself all over.  He still got around though.   It took a few months for him to start using his arms and legs together to overcome that friction with the carpet.

Gavin became mobile about two weeks ago.   He skipped the rolling part.  He skipped the dragging part.  In a matter of days, he went from propping up on all fours to actually crawling forward.   Within a week, Gavin could pull himself up to a kneeling position by grabbing the side of the couch.  We fully expect him to pull himself up into a standing position by next week.   He loves to stand up.

For Gavin’s safety, we unlatched the safety door on our staircase.  It was surprising how quickly he made it from the living room to the staircase (and from there down the hall).  We actually put him on the side of the staircase to see if he would avoid it, since Aiden did when he first made it to the stairs, but Gavin happily tumbled over the side.  Luckily, we were there to catch him and close the gate.

The weather has been pleasant lately, and we’ve been trying to take the kids out for walks whenever we can.  Aiden knows by now that he can’t go to the park without his shoes and his jacket.  So imagine our surprise when he came walking into the room with his shoes on, jacket in hand.  He must be trying to tell us something…

Chrissy and I looked at each other, wondering who put shoes on Aiden.  Well, the shoes were on the wrong feet, so it wasn’t either of us.  It was a good first try, and he even got the velcro straps tightened up.  So soon we’ll have to teach him how to tie his shoes, which will be a requirement once he gets the shoes on the right feet.

Monstructor is one of the hardest combiner sets to complete from the US releases of the Generation 1 line.  Each Micromaster robot came with a Pretender shell, a combiner part and other assorted weaponry.  So when I finally got a set, the first thing that I did was pair it with Fisher Price toys shaped like dinosaurs.  Putting the two concepts together, we get “Monstructor Babies“.

You can practically hear the “Muppet Babies” theme song, can’t you?  Aiden had a set of “Little People” dinosaurs that came with a Baby Dinoland play set, and I thought that they looked a lot like the rubbery shells for Monstructor.  Replacing the scary-looking monster shells with cutesie baby dinos made a pretty funny picture.  I defy you to look at Scowl’s hair and not laugh!

The fearsome Decepticon Monster Pretenders had to wait a long time for their outer shells to mature.  In the meantime, they made due with infantile Baby shells.  Thus brings us to the tales of… Monstructor Babies!

I originally posted this to Flickr a while back, and it’s gotten a lot of traffic there.  The next few weeks brought regular installments of “Monstructor Mondays“, when I would post a new Monster Pretender.  I had half-expected to return to the Monstructor Babies concept and do some photo comics for them, but who has the time for that?  Maybe later, when the kids are older!

I really dig Target. With the exception of groceries, I usually head to Target when we need to do some shopping.  I was thinking about it on the way home from Target today.  There are many reasons why Target is my favorite store, and I’d like to list them out for posterity.

• There’s one right around the corner from us.  If I were so inclined (which I’m not), I could walk there in about half an hour, or ride my bike there in about fifteen minutes.  Generally, I just drive, and it’s real easy to get to.  Our Target is an anchor store for a large strip mall in a great location.
• The have a great pharmacy.  The hours are very accommodating (open late and on weekends).  I have two monthly prescriptions, Chrissy has two, and occasionally we get something else handed to us from our doctors.  The pharmacist knows us by name: “Pickup for Wilson?  Yours were filled today!”
• Our monthly medication prescriptions are set up in their computer to remind us when they’re due, then automatically refill just before we run out (assuming that I take them when I should).  I then get a recorded phone call from the system to let me know when they’re ready.
• Again with the pharmacy…  Our prescriptions come in an upside-down, clear brown bottle with a color-coded rubber ring around the cap.  The pharmacists automatically give me the yellow one and Chrissy gets the purple ones.  The bottle is shaped so you can easily read the name of the medication on the top (while sitting on its lid).  The medication instructions are folded up and tucked inside of the label on the front.  Although not a huge deal, this can be very helpful.
• We get a coupon for 10% off our entire purchase once every two months or so.  Target has a program with their pharmacy that gives you a 10% off coupon for every ten prescriptions that you fill there using your Target credit card.  We then make a huge Target run every few months to save 10%.  Cha-ching!
• Every so often, Target will have a promotion on an item (or group of items) where you get a $10 gift card with a purchase of the sale item.  Recently, this has been bulk diapers by the case.  Along with our 10% off coupon, we have stocked up on so many diapers that we’ll never have to buy any more.  We save money, they give us money, and we have plenty of diapers!
• They take returns even if you don’t have your receipt.  Somehow they track which credit card that you paid for each item with, so they can tell from your card if you purchased that item (and when).  They will then send the refund directly to your card.
• If a returned item doesn’t match up to your credit card, they’ll allow you to return one item, once every twelve months, using only your drivers license.  Those get refunded to a gift card.  I recently had to do this with some diapers that Gavin grew out of, and it was very helpful!
• Here’s a two-fer: the day after Halloween and the day after Christmas.  Chrissy and I always hit Target on the day after a holiday to pick up marked-down holiday decorations and other deals.  And we also make it a point to hit Target on the day after Thanksgiving, but Black Friday is a holiday all on its own!
• For a department store, they have a decent wine selection.  Chrissy and I like Rieslings, and our two favorites are Kendall-Jackson and St. Mike (Chateau Saint Michelle).  Target has them both for less than $10. They also have some other Rieslings, but none that we like.
• They regularly restock their Transformers. Okay, that used to be true, but not so much anymore.  I suppose that they’re waiting for the Transformers 2 movie toys to come out first, but it’s been hard finding Animated stuff.
• It’s not a Wal-Mart.  Wal-Mart is a necessary evil, but it generally comes across as a mad-house full of carnival ride operators.  I won’t go out of my way to visit Wal-Mart.

Is there anything there that you didn’t know about?  If you don’t currently use the Target pharmacy, I’d make the switch now and sign up for the computer service.  And diapers and baby food, run to Target if you need those at all.  Y’know, I feel sorry for people that don’t have a Target nearby.

I recently got in back in contact with a friend from my days as an IT manager at DeepDiscount.  He had fallen on some hard times (death in the family), but wanted to get back into IT work.  I offered to look over his resumé, since I had a lot of practice honing mine during my consultant days.  You never know where you next gig will come from as a consultant, so I kept my resumé sharp.  I gave my friend some advice, and he was so happy that he said that I should teach this stuff.  I figure that’s not a bad idea, so I’m reprinting a paraphrased version here.

I told my friend that his resumé needed a total overhaul.  He had an older, four page document, and I recommended starting with that and working his way down to two pages.  Length aside, the resumé had no clear goal.  Is he shooting for a technical position or a project management position?  Each goal should have its own resumé: one to detail technologies that he had worked on, the other to detail projects that he had completed.  The other problem is that the experience he outlined was not results-based, in that it outlined what he did but not what the outcome was.

Try this: read each bullet point in your resumé and ask yourself “So what?“  Take this sentence, for example: “As a corporate employee, my responsibilities have ranged from heavy user technical support to training and project management.”  Well, what did that do?  What did that accomplish?  You need to display results to potential employers.  You could instead say, “Corporate responsibilities have included fielding 3000 client messages per day as a ‘heavy user’, holding training courses for up to 50 students at a time, and managing projects with budgets up to $500,000.”

Notice the difference?  I use lots of numbers!  The numbers tell a story.  The bigger the number, the more important you are (at least to people who don’t know you).  In my own resumé, I pack in details with small fonts and I use big numbers.  I include what was done, why that was important, and which technologies were used at each phase.  Don’t be afraid to estimate some of the big numbers, as long as you’re consistent in interviews.  If your estimates sound about right, then there should be no problem if a potential employer tries to verify them.

One more thing: there’s no reason to outline your absences due to a death in the family [or extended illness, etc.].  If someone spots the missing time on your resumé (and they often will), you can just explain what happened.  I was unemployed for six months before finally taking the job at DeepDiscount.  The gap is not highlighted on my resumé and I don’t bring attention to it.  If anyone asks, I say that I took time to finish my MBA between jobs.  Besides, you’ll need that space to display how fantastic you are at your job and show that hiring managers can’t live without you!

So I hope that the advice that I gave my friend can be helpful to others as well.  Resumé writing is my least favorite job, but it’s a necessary evil.  I haven’t updated mine properly in a while, but I’m feeling pretty secure in my current position at the University of Chicago (I gave up consulting when Chrissy and I decided to start a family).  Even so, it never hurts to keep your resumé current!  One more bit of advice: you won’t have to estimate your numbers in the future if you gather them now.  I used to ask the finance guys, “How much money could we have lost if these technical changes weren’t implemented?”

I’m not a big fan of internet meme emails, but this one made me giggle, so I thought that I would share.  It’s a nerd-o-meter, which attempts to judge your nerdiness on a scale of one to six.  I had to make a few changes in order to adjust to my audience, but it still holds up.  I’ve underlined my answers and my responses are in italics.  Let’s see how we do!

STAR WARS

Not Nerdy: Seeing the movies
Slightly Nerdy: Owning a toy lightsaber
Fairly Nerdy: Knowing in which “expanded universe” novel Admiral Ackbar dies
Nerdy: Learning to play the Cantina Song on your musical instrument of choice
Really Nerdy: Membership in a Stormtrooper fan brigade
Dangerously Nerdy: Defending the idea of Jar Jar Binks

I don’t like dressing up in costumes, since it’s hard to find good ones that work with my glasses.  But if I had 20/20 vision, you can bet that I’d own a custom Stormtrooper suit.  And I’d wear it to Botcon.

STAR TREK

Not Nerdy: The Next Generation
Slightly Nerdy: Deep Space Nine
Fairly Nerdy: The one where Picard rides a dune buggy
Nerdy: Any of the novels
Really Nerdy: Owning a phaser
Dangerously Nerdy: Speaking fluent Klingon

I don’t own any of Star Trek paraphrenalia.  I used to, but again, only one collection at a time.

HARRY POTTER

Not Nerdy: You read at least one of the books
Slightly Nerdy: You read and liked all of the books
Fairly Nerdy: You own a wand
Nerdy: You read fanfic that “fixes Rowling’s mistakes”
Really Nerdy: You are a fan of “wizard rock”
Dangerously Nerdy: You have an alternate “Hogwarts persona”

I dig all the books and the movies, but I don’t collect Harry Potter stuff.  I’m only allowed one collection at a time (and my Transformers collection is fairly ridiculous already).

BATMAN

Not Nerdy: Going to see The Dark Knight in theatres
Slightly Nerdy: Buying Batman comics other than Year One or The Dark Knight Returns
Fairly Nerdy: Dressing up as the Joker for Halloween (Heath Ledger version)
Nerdy: Dressing up as the Joker for Halloween (Cesar Romero version)
Really Nerdy: Writing Batman fan fiction
Dangerously Nerdy: Writing Batman fan fiction where he has sex with Poison Ivy

It’s pretty sad when you try to explain the differences between the story based on the movie and the story based on the comic books to your non-nerd friends (who could care less).  But again, I don’t dress up as anything, so I didn’t score very highly here.

NERD TELEVISION

Not Nerdy: Lost
Slightly Nerdy: Buffy The Vampire Slayer
Fairly Nerdy: Battlestar Galactica
Nerdy: Stargate: Atlantis
Really Nerdy: Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog [technically not on television]
Dangerously Nerdy: The Adventures of Brisco County Jr.

I think that I need to watch the entire series of Brisco County Jr. on Netflix right away.  I seem to remember it being on TV, but I didn’t watch much TV back then.

H.P. LOVECRAFT

Not Nerdy: Recognizing the word “Cthulhu”
Slightly Nerdy: Knowing the proper pronunciation of “Cthulhu”
Fairly Nerdy: Owning a Cthulhu plushie
Nerdy: Running a Call of Cthulhu campaign
Really Nerdy: Organizing a chapter of the Campus Crusade For Cthulhu
Dangerously Nerdy: Actually reading any of Lovecraft’s stories

I particularly like the Cthulhu backpack, but I don’t personally own one.  Lovecraft is on my future reading list, but I’ve already read all about the mythos on Wikipedia.

COMPUTER USE

Not Nerdy: Macs [not nerds, just a cultists]
Slightly Nerdy: Knowing how to use Windows rather than just knowing “how to do emails”
Fairly Nerdy: Knowing the actual reasons why Windows sucks
Nerdy: Anything to do with Linux
Really Nerdy: Getting all of the coding jokes in XKCD
Dangerously Nerdy: “I’m bringing BeOS back!”

I love XKCD (geek comics), and I have a few friends who could seriously code a new operating system on their own.  What ever happened to BeOS?

CONCLUSION

So rating this on a scale of one to six, with one being ‘Not Nerdy’ and six being ‘Dangerously Nerdy’, I only averaged a three-point-four.  I thought that I would score much higher…  I guess that I’m only “fairly nerdy”, but only because there was no list for Transformers.  I’d strike a solid three-point-seven with that one!  Now I dare Carl to try it…

For a long time, I scoffed at image sharing sites like Flickr.  Who needs a photo storage site when you have a gallery on your own web site?  Well, I found that our web gallery wasn’t set up to do 365 projects, and I had a free Flickr Pro account through my internet host, so I decided to give it a try.  I was really happy with the social networking aspect of Flickr, and spent the next six months uploading daily (at least usually) photos of Aiden, Gavin, and various Transformers.

Then the status of my Flickr account changed.  They said that due to agreement changes with my internet host, my Pro account would convert to a free account on February 1st, unless I paid the annual Pro fee.  I decided to try the free account for a while.  What are the downsides to a free account?  A 4 MB upload limit per day, a 100 MB limit per month, and you can only have three sets to organize your photos.  That’s all right, I don’t go outside of those limitations anyway.

Oh wait, I forgot about the “200 photos on display at any given time” limit.  I’ve been posting three photos a day for the last six months, for a total of over 450 photos, and Flickr is now hiding over half of them from view.  So now, only the last 66 photos of my 365 Project sets are displaying.  This kind of defeats the purpose, doesn’t it?  I’m not sure if I want to drop the projects altogether or just pay Flickr for the Pro account.  It’s $25 a year, but I’ve already put a lot of effort into it.

Gavin’s first couple of teeth are coming in.  He’s got one big one erupting on the bottom, and another one starting to come in almost next to it (unlike Aiden, who started out with fangs).  We’ve put a bunch of pacifiers in the freezer, but he’s going through them like crazy.  Frozen binks are soothing on sore gums!  We also just bought some “Baby Orajel” tonight, and that seemed to help.

With the first teeth comes the insatiable need to put everything into his mouth.  Gavin is chewing on everything.  We try to steer him clear of the Thomas tracks, but the wooden building blocks are fair game (as long as he doesn’t get splinters!).  They’re not choking hazards, and we think that he cut his first tooth on a building block.  We’re keeping an eye on him though!

Thomas The Tank Engine had not felt “Really Useful” as of late.  He had spent the entire night looking for UFOs instead of delivering the mail for Percy, who was out of commission.  He had not even known what “energy management” was until a few days ago, but apparently Mr. Toppem Hat thought that it was very important to not waste time on the rails, noting that “our coal supplies will not last forever, Thomas!”  Thomas sadly puffed along to his next stop.

…..

“This is a waste of time, oh wise Megatron,” Starscream called while flying over the ocean along with the other Decepticon commanders.  “The only energy source on the island is a non-renewable resource: coal.  Coal can’t even be reliably or efficiently converted into energon.”  Starscream couldn’t understand why his leader would drag them all out here.  Perhaps he planned to kill him and dump his chassis out where no one would ever find him?

“You’re an idiot, Starscream.”  Starscream was easily excitable (he was already on a roll), and Megatron knew how to press his buttons.  He would play his favorite fiddle a while longer, before cutting his losses.   “The island nation of Sodor has something much more valuable than energy reserves.  There are sentient machines here.”  Starscream was too shortsighted to see the potential in these Really Useful assets.  He was dangerous in that respect.

It was relatively easy to find the ruler of Sodor.  The humans of this nation were all extremely helpful, even without any displays of overt force.  Megatron allowed Starscream to shine in this regard, as he was highly skilled at trickery.  “So you see, Prime Minister Hat, in exchange for Decepticon power technology that will run your trains indefinitely without the use of coal, we only require the locomotive engines that are no longer Really Useful to you.”

…..

“Rail Richter!  Destroy these structures to make room for my new weapons platform!”  Unlike other gestalts under Megatron’s command, the minds that made up this one were simple to the point of being childlike, easily molded, and worked very well together.  Although the individual limbs had no robot modes of their own, it was an adequate trade-off to gain such a willful engine of destruction.  The windmills fell easily to his will.

Thomas missed being on the rails of Sodor, but now he was being Really Useful once again.  The Constructicons were already on hand to build the “Auto-Buster” as soon as this portion of the island was leveled.  Who knew that being a left arm could be so satisfying?  Although he was very happy to be working so closely with his friends, it always made Thomas a little sad to hear the screams of the people when Rail Richter crushed them underfoot.