Monthly Archives: August 2005

A Typo With a Lesson

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In the following screen shot (click for a larger version) you will see that I ranked high for ‘imorality’ on this blog due to a previous post.
Immorality Screenshot
While the correct spelling would be good (and has been corrected) I don’t think that the real focus should be on my ranking or type. The real intersting thing is the third ranking result: Immorality: Compare Prices

While we can buy immoral things for inexpensive prices, or get them for free, it is important to realize that we are not called to sin and should abide in Christ as we walk in the good works he has planned for us (Ephesians 2:10). Count the cost, don’t compare prices. Sure, we’re under grace, but don’t you love Christ? Love Christ in your relationship and the cost of being out of fellowship will surely be too high.

Compare the prices… and you won’t buy. Immorality comes with a price – is the gold plated grenade that plays MP3’s really worth it? Once that pin gets pulled its a timebomb of death.

All Your Words Are Belong To Us

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We have magnetic words on our ‘fridge. At Abby’s party someone grabbed some of them and build ‘custom’ sentences. However, they’re not English, they’re rather Engrishy. Witness:
Butt Storms Need Essential Base
I don’t know who put that together but it has caused a smile to cross my face more than once 🙂

Google Talk

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I use Trillian because it allows me to chat with various IM clients. However, Google Talk is out and I’ve just downloaded it. My buddy Craig works at Jabber – its great software – and its what Google Talk is based on. Google Talk looks like its riding on a custom Mozilla implementation. If you look at the options screen the text and widgets are right out of Firefox. I think good things are happening. In fact, Google Talk also checks in on your GMail.

However, it doesn’t stop there. It’s got VOIP built in. How cool is that? I can VOIP just like I could with AIM, only know I can do it with a tiny less than 1MB download rather than with AIM’s larger download. It’s a wee early to tell, but it could be good as well. I need to find someone else on Google Talk to try talking 🙂 Add me to your list: randy.peterman@gmail.com.

Update: I am having troubles with Google Talk. I may not be online simply because they refuse to show me as such 🙂

I Used the Phone Book Today

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Don’t tell anyone. This has to stay between you and me. I used the phone book today. Google just wasn’t cutting it for finding a local waste removal service. The City of Aurora’s web site suggested (gasp!) that I use a phone book. So I went upstairs, grabbed one out of our pile of 7 phone books we’ve got and called Waste Management. Their courteous operator took my order, set me up with my schedule and BAM! [to quote a certain sterile chef] I’m going to have my garbage picked up by WM tomorrow instead of the other company. Also, I’ve got recycling now, which is handy since recycling is good for the environment or something.

But like I said, dont’ tell anyone I actually opened up the phone book. I’m going to put the other 6 phone books into the recycle box next week so that WM can collect them and then take them to the recycling elves who will make our worldly posessions new again simply by waving their magic wand at them and turning them into cookies.

Do You Need This Feature?

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A client has been evaluating various bug tracking software, and one of the packages, Mercury Quality Center, is written with many Active-X controls. Strangely enough they have a thesaurus button on the bug entry dialog. My co-contractor and friend Matt had the following to say:

Did you notice that the defect entry screen in mercury has a thesarus button?
Why do you need a thesarus when entering a defect… to find another meaning “the darn thing doesn’t work”?

I agree whole heartedly and want to know why someone would put a feature like that in a piece of software that requires clarity and precision for entering in bugs. Quality assurance means reproducing the bug, the developer fixing it, and then quality control confirming its fixed. A thesaurus is not needed for that processes.

I Love Cats… They’re Delicious

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No, this post was not inspired by my sister-in-law’s blog about her trips to China. Instead it is about our neighbor’s cats who have been making our house, their home. I’m allergic to cats and so dont’ find myself drawn to them, even cute little kitty cats don’t hold an attraction for me. Abby’s birthday party this past weekend generated a lot of trash – which I dutifully bagged into large trash bags so as to facilitate my job of moving trash to the curb, and our trash men’s job of moving it from my curb into never-never land where all garbage goes.

This morning (20 minutes ago) I went out to move the trash to the curb but Alas! the cats had ripped into my garbage and had a hey day with it! So I spent some time picking up after the cats and getting most of the things that needed to be disposed of to the curb. Next time I hear one of those cats making sounds liek they’re in heat I’m going to find them and… let Abby pet them – she’s brutal on cats.

Happy Birthday Abby!

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Abby is three! And I love her very, very much 🙂 She has received lots of presents, cards, and various other things. Here is a sophisticated outfit she got from her Grandpa and Grandma Peer (and her aunts there as well!).
Princess Abby

She’s getting bigger and keeps telling us so. What a cutie pie!

Randy’s Ande’s Mint Chip Ice Cream: AKA Govern-Mint

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The mint chip ice cream was a smashing success at Abby’s birthday party as well as at the church ice cream social we had last night. I felt bad for the other couple that brought pink mint ice cream (mink ice cream?) to the event because I was the first on the table and they were the last. However, it was good clean fun either way and I highly recommend to myself to post the recipe we used here so you can try it at home.

Oh, and at the ice cream social two sister-in-laws (two wives of the Matthew’s brothers) sang a fantastic cover of a song by Caedman’s Call. It was really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really good. I would pay real money to listen to things like that regularly. I’m going to see if they’ll come over to ‘The Pordcast Studios’ and record it so that we can share it with the world.

First Pet

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Abby has now gotten her first pet. Given my personal track record with animals I have high hopes of spending many more trips with Abby to purchase $0.12 goldfish.
Abby and Showdy
This ‘black’ goldfish is named Shody (pronounced like Show-Dee). Abby kept wanting to call the fish Goldy but Jessica and I kept telling her that Goldy was a poor choice for a black fish. So she blurted out with great excitement: Shody.

The upside in all of this is that Jessica is pleased with the quietness of the aquarium. We don’t know where the aquarium will reside, but we do know that Shody has outlived some of the goldfish I owned already 🙂

When You Buy A Home, Buy A DeWalt

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We just bought our house nearly 4 months ago. The week after we moved in I bought a DeWalt drill. That has been the best $130.00 I’ve spent so far (besides the refrigerator so we could store fresh foods and left-overs, and that cost nearly ten times as much). Last night while assembling Abby’s new playthings all of the instructions had large circles with slashes through them – over a power drill. I laughed. Why? Because my DeWalt has tension settings so that I could avoid the problem with less expensive power drills: stripping out the plastic with the threading on the screws. The instructions said no power tools but I can’t imagine hand cranking a 2.5 inch, finely threaded screw X 4 X 4 [16 times].

Then I put up the cabinet doors for the kitchen and while I was frustrated with a few of the doors themselves, the screws went right in, and the magnetic tip held the screw in place so I could hold the door in place with my other hand. Do yourself a favor and buy a good drill when you get into various repair and home improvement projects. In the world of power tools, money buys lasting, quality tools. Don’t eat out a couple times in a month and spend the extra money on the upgrade to your tool package, you’ll thank yourself many times over.