New Project - Chain Mail

In 1 month, I am going to a LARP (Live-Action Role-Playing) event. For the event, I would like some mail armor (aka chain mail) to wear as armor. I am planning on 2 pieces, a haubergeon and a coif. A haubergeon goes over your torso and down past your waist to your mid-thigh and a coif goes over your head and neck.

Mail armor is created by taking small metal rings and linking them together. It is very flexible and not as heavy as wearing metal plate armor. During its use in the middle ages, it proved very effective against slashing (swords) and piercing (spears and arrows) weapons.

The process I am going to use was not really what was used then. The reason for that is because my method is a little easier, the armor doesn't need to deflect real weapons, and the materials are cheaper.

The first step is getting rings. Back in the day (before the web), I had a friend who made some mail for his SCA activities. He sought out old door springs which he would then cut to make rings. Another method is to take a heavy gauge wire and wrap it around a dowel and then cut that into rings. However, ringlord.com does all of the winding and cutting for me.

Today I received my box of rings. They are galvanized steel and number around 5500.

I am not doing this in a vacuum. My daughter has already done a bit of linking and is getting me started.

What can I say? I am inconsistent. You should see my personal journal. Every entry starts with "It's been a while since I last wrote...."
I have posted some things on facebook that were probably more blog-worthy. I have not been silent.

So, why start now? A colleague said "You should totally write a blog." So, I have been thinking on that. I am not sure how to proceed. Should I write stuff here? Make an anonymous blog? The problem is that I have so many topics to cover. This blog is personal and more meant for friends and family and not public consumption. Who cares about my band experiences, right?

But this one exists, so here it is.

Recap: 2012 sucked. That's just the truth of it. In June of 2012 my street was on the national news. Exciting, right? There was a big fire. It burned my neighborhood. Neighbors had houses burnt to the foundation. Nothing left but ashes and twisted steel. We were evacuated for 8 days. For at least 2 of those, we didn't know if we would have a house to return to. We came back to a war zone.

I have typical male attitudes. I was in control. I was dad. I took care of business.

But it affected me deeply. Way more than I realized. I lost a lot of of that secure feeling. My brain had a lot of new possibilities to process. I dreamed of disasters. I didn't know how my family was doing that day. I didn't know how they would be doing in the future. How was my youngest going to feel about going to school when one of her best friends didn't have a house in the district anymore? What happens if the next time I am at work when the evacuation notice comes out.

It took its toll. My productivity at work went down. 2 months later I was fired. Are those 2 facts that directly related, no. But they are related.

Getting fired was hard to take. Not getting a new job quickly was harder. I fell into true depression. Depression is a funny thing in that it is hard to know you are there, it is absurd to have others tell you that you are there, and you have no desire to fix it.

I read a good blog post describing it. Hyperboleandahalf-depression part two (Warning! Contains adult language)

Her words help describe the process and the reality. I was not that bad, but I was there. It's that "nothing". It was hard to be happy about anything. Nothing interested me.

In November I was offered a job. A good job.

Begin: 2013
It's been a rough start. I was in a hole that you can't just pop out of. There are biological things going on. Also, I had some health issues. The pain meds sent me back down into the pit. However, with those I could see the cause. By that time, I knew what was going on.

Step 1 - Get a job -- Check
Step 2 - Switch meds -- Check
Step 3 - Get healthy -- .... let me get back to you on that.... :)

Actually working on that last one and it helps a lot.

So, here I am. Coming out of it. I have things I look forward to now. 2013 has a lot of promise. Just saying that is a good thing.

Pioneer Trek

This past week I participated in a church activity known as a Pioneer Trek. It is where we gather the youth, dress in pioneer clothes, and pull handcarts on the Wyoming prairie. It gives our youth (and those adults who go along) a chance to get in touch with the early members of our church and some of the things they went through.

It was great! I had a lot of fun.

Here is a picture of me with my Pioneer gear on complete with a mid-nineteenth century beard (yes, it is real and yes it is natural).



We take the youth and divide them into families. Each family has a Ma and a Pa and 6-7 children. My wife and I were a Ma and Pa (I was a Pa...).



The family was issued a handcart and we pulled it on trails with our belongings in it. Our job was to help the kids get the most out of the whole experience and make sure they were where they needed to be.



My wife and I enjoy working with the youth. I don't know if it makes me feel young or they are just a ton of fun. Once again, I was impressed at just how amazing these kids are. I realize they were on their best behavior, but they were all helpful and happy. Everyone pitched in to get things done and I think we all had a good time.

InstallShield and MsiGetProperty

For a long time I have had a problem with MsiGetProperty in that sometimes it would work and sometimes it wouldn't. I posted about it on the InstallShield forums and got this great piece of information:

MSI properties set during the pre-file transfer events (OnBegin, OnFirstUIBefore, etc.) or set during immediate custom actions will lose their values in post-file transfer events (OnFirstUIAfter, OnEnd, etc.). This is an unintended side-effect due to how InstallScript MSI projects are implemented.

The basic reason for this is the InstallScript engine acts as an external UI handler for the MSI package being installed. In order to interact with Windows Installer, the InstallScript engine opens an installation session through the MsiOpenPackage API. All properties set during pre-file transfer events are backed by this installer session. Just before file-transfer is started, this installer session needs to be closed, otherwise, Windows Installer would be unable to read the MSI package and the install would fail. A consequence of closing the session is any properties set during that session are essentially lost. Properties that are Directory table entries, such as INSTALLDIR, are reinitialized after file-transfer by running the Windows Installer costing actions.

If you need to maintain property values between pre and post file transfer events in InstallScript, global variables should be used in addition to or instead of MSI properties. Properties set during custom actions in the execute sequence would need to be written to a file or registry entries on the machine as there is no way to pass global variables from InstallScript custom actions to InstallScript events.
__________________
Josh Stechnij - Software Engineer - Acresso Software: InstallShield Team

My Model Railroad

I have decided to separate my model railroad blogs into a separate blog called Doorland & Western Railway. This is a big project and I want it self contained and uninterrupted by my other ramblings.

When I started this blog I figured I could just ramble about work, family, and play. However, I see the folly in that. Some folks only want to see specific topics and the posts here are too eclectic. I will probably separate the work stuff as well.

DCC for My Model Railroad

A couple of weeks ago (maybe 3) I got my DCC system. It's made by NCE and is their base radio system (PH Pro 5 Radio). I got it barely used and got a great deal on it. I also got an additional throttle.

First off, it's great. It has so much potential.

I got off to an interesting start. The problem with DCC is that you can't really run a train on it unless the locomotive has a decoder board installed. My locos did not have them. I knew about this, so the day before I was to receive my system, I took my locos to the train store to get decoders for them. The week before I had even ordered a decoder (with sound!). Two of my locos are old. 12 years or so. Back then DCC was out but not so common. There was a possibility that my locos would pull too much current for a decoder. So, I needed them tested and checked out before they got installed. The folks at the store took my three locos after I described what I wanted for each and then found out that they wouldn't be ready for at least a week. Ouch.

The next day, my wonderful new DCC system arrived. I got it all plugged in and ready to go. Wow, it looked cool. And that was it. That was all I could do. I could just look at it. I read through the manual. I guessed how awesome it would be and I waited.

As it turns out, decoder installation isn't completely easy. The guy installing ran into difficulties. At the sight of my obvious disappointment (which involved some whining), he offered to loan me some of his locos in the interim. So I borrowed two.
They were a pair of Atlas Master series locos. One had sound and one didn't. The sound was very cool. I played with that for a bit. The locomotive seemed to have hardly been used.

I would like to take a moment to point out that it ran very smooth. This was my first hands-on experience with a not cheap locomotive. It ran so quietly! I am not going to settle for less any more. When I got my locos back, it just drove that point home. The cheaper locos grind and they take a bit of throttle just to get started.

So, now I have it. A full 5-amp DCC system with two locos and a medium-sized oval... Total overkill, but I hope to remedy that in the not-to-distant future.

BTW, one loco is still in the shop. An old Atlas switcher. Probably the best loco I own (which has never really been used since I got it. Long story for later). However, it doesn't fit an HO decoder and so we need to find an N decoder that can handle HO current.

Happy Easter

Here it is, Easter Eve, and I am on the computer...

All the festivities are over with and everyone is in bed. We had fun with our eggs, and I thought I would show what I can accomplish with a total lack of artistic ability (but with plenty of enthusiasm).


This is the Santa Fe Super Chief modeled in Egg... I am not sure the scale. But notice the accurate War Bonnet paint scheme and authentic looking Vista Dome car.


I thought the F7A #31A was particularly well done.

There you have it. I really pushed my skills to limit this time. And yes, I have had trains on my mind a lot lately. Everyone around me is about sick of it, so I had to enlarge my audience.

Happy Easter!

Train Spotting

The BNSF Railroad goes through town here. I have watched as locomotives have changed colors and names. Lately, I have thought I should take pictures to preserve this current time. Also, I have become aware of the fact that I seem to see a particular kind of train more than others. Coal. Long coal trains stop beside the highway. I believe they are waiting to unload at the power plant. I always regret not having a camera with me because it would be easy to just snap some nice pictures as the trains sit there.
Today I planned to do just that. Just drive down the highway and take some gorgeous shots of a long coal train just sitting there in all its splendor.
There were certain flaws in my plan... First, the weather was not lovely. Then, when we got down there, the tracks were a bit... trainless. After we had turned around to head back, a train approached, and I finally got my pictures. Here they are:







So... the pictures are terrible. When taking pictures of trains, there are some things that are important. You want to capture the type of car or engine. You want to see the numbers. And you want to see what color scheme they are painted with. My pictures amazingly captured none of that.

I laughed at just how horrible they were. It seemed that I had put a bit of effort into a complete waste. However, I have learned some things.

1. If it's raining, leave the camera at home.
2. Have the camera in your lap ready to take pictures in case the train is moving.
3. When you are in a car on the highway and the train is traveling in the opposite direction and not slowing down, it's probably more important to work on turning the car around.
4. Make sure the camera is set to normal color mode before you start taking pictures.

Anyway, I hope someone else sees the humor in all this.

Model Railroading and the 0-Budget Layout

I have been meaning to post about this for a while, but just haven't. The context is this: Last year my family moved into a new home. The home included a large unfinished basement (a big selling point for me). My wife and I struck a deal. She could have the upstairs office and I could have the basement.
So, as we were getting ready to close on the house, it occurred to me that I would finally have a place to build a real model train layout.
Since then, I have been somewhat obsessed with trains. Sometimes more than others. In the early time (before we even moved in) certain realities were very clear. Even though I had space, I had no extra cash. All the money was going into the new house. However, I also had some materials left over from fixing up the old house. I also had some old track and some old trains and car. I decided to "make do" and my 0-Budget Layout was born!
I am not going to go into details now, but I have pictures that I would like to post later.
I made some discoveries along the way. The first is that a budget of $0 has not been achieved, but it is still pretty low. Also, I found that my brain did allow me the purchase of some new trains (mostly cars with a new loco for my birthday). That sort of snowballed into buying things to fix up my old stuff. So, I have spent more than I should, but technically, it wasn't on the layout. ;) (rationalization, I know)
I do continue on my quest to build a layout on recycled materials. However, soon I am going to allow myself 1 exception. I am going to purchase a new power system. For those who know, power is expensive and hard to make do with. Plus, I am changing the type of power I am going to use from DC to DCC. This is a big change and an expensive one. It is also what I will be using on the new layout. Plus it has some pretty good gadget value. So, I am going to upgrade power now which totally blows my 0 budget. But there are still many areas to explore and I hope more on this will follow in future posts.

InstallShield Merging Web Sites (Correction)

I found that the redirection in the command line wasn't working correctly. So, I created a DOC batch file to wrap the command line. The InstallScript changes to this:

//---------------------------------------------------------------------------
// GetNextWebSiteNumber
//
// This function returns the next available web site number based on entries
// for current web sites in IIS. The admin script adsutil.vbs is used the
// query current web sites.
// If there is an error, the function returns -1.
//---------------------------------------------------------------------------
function GetNextWebSiteNumber()
 NUMBER nResult;
 NUMBER nvTempWebSiteNumber;
 NUMBER nWebSiteNumber;
 NUMBER nvFileHandle;
 NUMBER nNumPos;
 STRING szProgName;
 STRING szProgParams;
 STRING szFileDir;
 STRING szFileName; 
 STRING svLine; 
 STRING svSiteNum;
 STRING svNumStr;
begin                 
 nvTempWebSiteNumber = -1;
 nWebSiteNumber = nvTempWebSiteNumber;
 szFileDir = SUPPORTDIR;
 szFileName = "websiteenum.txt";
 
 //
 // Run the adsutil.vbs script and get all the web sites. Put the 
 // output into a file. NOTE - InstallShield doesn't pass the
 // redirect through correctly, so the adsutil needs to be called
 // from a batch file so the output can be captured.
 //
 szProgName = WINDIR^"system32\\cmd.exe";
 szProgParams = " /c " + SUPPORTDIR^"CmdOutToFile.bat \"" + WINDIR^"system32\\cscript.exe C:\\inetpub\\AdminScripts\\adsutil.vbs ENUM /p W3SVC\" \"" + szFileDir^szFileName + "\"";
 StatusBox("Running " + szProgName + szProgParams, DEBUG);
 if (LaunchAppAndWait(szProgName, szProgParams, WAIT) >= 0) then
     //
     // Open the file with the web sites and find the number
     // of the last one.
     // 
  OpenFileMode(FILE_MODE_NORMAL);
  nResult = OpenFile (nvFileHandle, szFileDir, szFileName);
  if (nResult = 0) then
   while GetLine (nvFileHandle, svLine) = 0
    if (svLine % "W3SVC/") then
     StrSub(svSiteNum, svLine, 8, StrLengthChars(svLine) - 9);
     StrToNum(nvTempWebSiteNumber, svSiteNum);
     if (nvTempWebSiteNumber > nWebSiteNumber) then
      nWebSiteNumber = nvTempWebSiteNumber;
     endif;
    endif;
   endwhile;
   CloseFile(nvFileHandle);
   nWebSiteNumber = nWebSiteNumber + 1;
  else
   NumToStr(svNumStr, nResult);
   StatusBox("Could not open the web site enumeration file " + szFileDir + szFileName + " (Result = " + svNumStr + ")", DEBUG);
  endif;
 endif;
    return (nWebSiteNumber);
end;

Here is the DOS Batch file:

::@echo off
::----------------------------------------------------------------------------
:: CmdOutToFile.bat
::
:: Wrap a command that redirects output to a file. This is to allow the 
:: output to be captured when run from a program that doesn't allow this, such
:: as InstallShield.
::
:: Parameters:
::    Parameter 1 = The command to run.
::    Parameter 2 = The file to redirect output to.
::
::----------------------------------------------------------------------------

:: Get the command line
set cmdLine=%1
set outputFile=%2

:: Remove quotes
set cmdLine=%cmdLine:"=%
set outputFile=%outputFile:"=%

:: Run the command
%cmdLine% > %outputFile%

BTW, I noticed that the blogger doesn't scroll horizontally or widen. However, the text is there, so you can copy and paste it into notepad to see it all. I prefer showing it this way as the whitespace is preserved. If I let HTML format it, it strips all that and makes it unpleasant. I will work on finding alternatives.

InstallShield Merging Web Sites

I had this problem with my InstallShield project where it was merging my web site into the default web site instead of creating a new web site. This was happening if I was installing the site using port 80 which was also being used by the default web site.

After some research (and help) I found that the problem was caused by the web site number (a value in the IIS config settings in the project). I had set this value to 0 thinking InstallShield would just use the next available web site number. However, this is not so. I don't know why, but if the port was used by another site, it used that site's number. If the port wasn't in use, it would used the next number. As far as I know, there isn't a mechanism to use the next available. So, I wrote a function in InstallScript that calls out the the IIS admin script absutil.vbs to get the numbers in use and return the next one.

Here is the function:

//---------------------------------------------------------------------------
// GetNextWebSiteNumber
//
// Author: Yevi
//
// Description: This function returns the next available web site number based
// on entries for current web sites in IIS. The admin script adsutil.vbs is
// used the query current web sites.
// If there is an error, the function returns -1.
//---------------------------------------------------------------------------
function GetNextWebSiteNumber()
  NUMBER nResult;
  NUMBER nvTempWebSiteNumber;
  NUMBER nWebSiteNumber;
  NUMBER nvFileHandle;
  NUMBER nNumPos;
  STRING szProgName;
  STRING szProgParams;
  STRING szFileDir;
  STRING szFileName;
  STRING svLine;
  STRING svSiteNum;
begin               
  nvTempWebSiteNumber = -1;
  nWebSiteNumber = nvTempWebSiteNumber;
  szFileDir = SUPPORTDIR;
  szFileName = "websiteenum.txt";
 
  // Run the adsutil.vbs script and get all the web sites. Put the
  // output into a file.
  szProgName = WINDIR^"system32\\cscript.exe";
  szProgParams = " C:\\inetpub\\AdminScripts\adsutil.vbs ENUM /p W3SVC > " + szFileDir^szFileName;
  if (LaunchAppAndWait(szProgName, szProgParams, WAIT) >= 0) then

    // Open the file with the web sites and find the number
    // of the last one.
    OpenFileMode(FILE_MODE_NORMAL);
    if (!OpenFile (nvFileHandle, szFileDir, szFileName) < 0) then
      while GetLine (nvFileHandle, svLine) = 0
        if (svLine % "W3SVC/") then
   nNumPos = StrFind(svLine, "/");
   StrSub(svSiteNum, svLine, nNumPos, 10);
   StrToNum(nvTempWebSiteNumber, svSiteNum);
   if (nvTempWebSiteNumber > nWebSiteNumber) then
     nWebSiteNumber = nvTempWebSiteNumber;
   endif;
 endif;
      endwhile;
      CloseFile(nvFileHandle);
      nWebSiteNumber = nWebSiteNumber + 1;
    endif;
  endif;
  return (nWebSiteNumber);
end;

Hopefully this will save you time and pain.

*EDIT* This doesn't quite work. Look for the posted correction.

Auditioning in Band

Last night I auditioned on a tenor saxophone for the "grown up" band. In the New Horizons band, there are several bands. There are different levels and to be able to play with the higher level bands, you must audition for the conductor. I was auditioning for the Symphonic Band, which is the highest level of the concert bands.

I hate auditioning. I get very nervous. I can play in the band, even in a concert, and be very calm. But if I need to stand out (e.g. solo part or audition one-on-one), I go to pieces. The request is to play something prepared, some scales, and sight-reading (playing a piece of music you have never seen before). I KNEW I would be a wreck. So I did practice my prepared piece and tried to polish it. However, since my life has other things going on, it probably wasn't as well prepared as it could have been, but it was prepared.

For practice, I performed my piece the night before for my family and parents. I fell apart. I found where I had problems in the piece when I wasn't thinking straight and worked hard on those spots that night and before the audition.

Due to other things I wanted to do that night, I took my youngest with me to the audition. This didn't play a major role in the audition, but just as we got started, she popped up above a divider right in my field of view. I explained that she couldn't do that. She disappeared and I continued.

I found that musical theory requires thought. Even after years of training and use, it still requires thought. I found that when I am at the height of anxiety, thinking becomes very difficult. "Are you able to transpose from concert key" "Yes, with a little thought" "Good, what is concert F?" "Uhhhh...." (note the quick well-articulated answer. This is very basic knowledge.) "It's G. Will you please play a G major scale for me?" "Uhhh G? Oh right." I played a G major scale (very easy. very basic) "Play an A-flat major scale for me" "Uhhh..." Blank. A-flat sounded hard. BTW, I had a sheet with all the scales in front of me. This wasn't expected to be all from memory. My eyes were working only a shade better than my brain. "Ok. Now, play an A-minor with a harmonic 7th" "What?" <-- not a well-portrayed level of knowledge with such a statement. He explained. He basically named the notes. I still messed it up. "Ok. Now play your piece for me." I played. It wasn't perfect. However, it was good. The trouble spots flowed. The sound was good. I was expressive. It was a good tempo. A couple of flubs due to nerves. Like having a repeat and going to the wrong place. Once again, neither eyes nor brain were working. However, I sounded like a mature player. Then came sight reading. I knew this would be a problem without eyes or brain. So, I scanned the music a little while asking questions about things I couldn't immediately see like expected tempo. The rhythm was very tricky. I played sloppy, but I kept going. It was ok. I got most of it and it really was not a simple rhythm. "You sight-read well, don't you?" "Yes" I refrained from saying that is a skill you pick up when you don't like to practice :). "Good. Are you available Thursday nights for rehearsals?" "Yes!"

Somehow, he saw through the flubs. Or maybe he needs my part in the band.

It's G! Concert F is G!!!! I know that!

How could I not know that?

Slow Load for Visual Studio

This week my Visual Studio started loading my solutions very slowly. It would take 10 minutes or more just to get everything up and ready. I suspected something network related since there was no real CPU or disk usage occurring.

After some digging, I found this interesting tidbit.

From: Never doubt thy debugger

It was handy finding out where the recent file list was. Mine didn't have network shares, but it did have some projects that had been moved to other directories. I deleted all the entries.

BTW, Visual Studio has to be shut down before the list is cleared. If not, it gets recreated with the in-memory copy when Visual Studio exits.

This helped some projects but not all. I still had one solution that was slow. After a bit, I noticed that a file on a network share was being checked for searches. While working I had dragged a file from a network share into my Visual Studio and didn't close it (I tend to keep a lot of files open at once). Once I closed all my files, things got better.

The Perfect Halloween

No jokes or sarcasm. Last Friday was a perfect Halloween. It was the perfect convergence of elements.

Here in Colorado Springs, Halloween has a weather reputation. It's usually bad. It is often cold and/or windy and if it isn't wet, it probably because it is snowing. I have been out with my daughters in all kinds of inclement weather. (My oldest is a die-hard)

So, the weather was perfect. It was 55-60 degrees, no wind and clear.

However, let's not forget that it was a Friday. No school the next day meant no homework and no strict bed time. The kids could trick-or-treat to their hearts content. And they did.

We had some friends come over. Each of my daughters had trick-or-treat buddies. Therefore there were no fights about taking a little sister.

My kids are in 3 of the 4 trick-or-treater groups. My oldest is a teenager. She wants to go fast and get as many doors as possible while being with friends. No adults, please. My second is in the sweet-spot. As a pre-teen, she went with friends and got a lot of candy. She also got a bonus, a friend she was able stay over for a sleep-over. The youngest got to go till she was tired and her bag was too heavy. She loved the decorations at houses as long as they weren't too scary. Halloween is magic at that age. The fourth group are the little kids that are carried or pushed in strollers. I don't have any of those any more, but I know that that age is all about being cute.

Last week was parent-teacher conferences. The kids were out of school Thursday and Friday. It was like an actual holiday. The kids had time to do all these fun things like decorate the yard and carve a big pumpkin.

My wife dressed up like Palin. She's a natural for it and looked good. She got a lot of comments on her costume. And there were lots of viewers because with the warm weather, everyone was out. She was very happy showing off as she handed out our candy.

After the rounds were all made by the kids they came home for the great trading session. Wall-street at home. This year, everything was sorted into tradeable and not-tradeable. The bartering began and then ended. There were no fights.

And for me? Well, I got chocolate.

Isn't that what truly makes a good holiday? Everyone was happy!

Frosting

It's birthday season in my house. All three of my children have their birthdays within a month of each other. With all the excitement and fun comes BIRTHDAY CAKE! Yum!

Over the years I have realized the purpose of cake. The purpose of cake is so you can eat frosting. It is merely a vehicle. It isn't that cake doesn't matter, because frankly frosting looks better on a cake, but the cake is secondary to the true treat.

This attitude works its way into all aspects of cake eating. When selecting a piece, go for the corner (if there is one). When eating cake, you need to carve out all the cake parts first in order to save the frosting husk to be savored last. Without any cake in the way, you can slowly eat slices of frosting goodness.

Cupcakes are a bit different. Eating the cake first just isn't very practical. So, my technique has evolved into something different. With cupcakes, you get all the frosting goodness up front by biting the top off. With practice, you can get it in one bite. However, after that you have a dilemma. What do you do with the cake? It has already fulfilled its mission of delivering frosting, so it is not really needed. I have known people who throw it out, but I will eat the cake part because it seems more proper.

I'm not sure I should be this revealing here...

Second-Child Syndrome

This is how it goes with parents. We can't really help it (or at least I can't). Your first child breaks all the new ground. They are lucky. Their parents are very focused on all their milestones. Every minute is photographed, every event lives on forever.

The second child gets the short end of the stick. Their events are celebrated, but... well sometimes the camera doesn't even come out.

What about the third child? Well, that depends. If it is the last child, then the get all the "Last Time" interest. "Oh, this is the last time one of our babies starts kindergarten." So, they don't get completely left out. However, they still get ignored for some things.

Now, just to complicate things, put those last two birth days two days apart. That is the situation in our house.

This year, #2 wanted a big party with lots of friends. So, she got it. The camera did come out and it will be remembered. However, it contributed to the current problem.

#3 turns 8 this year. In our church, 8 is a big deal. It is when our children are baptized. For #1 much thought and preparation went into it. It was a grand event. For #2, it was still grand but a little more last minute. For #3... well we have a date and time set, but we're still working out some of the details. Did I mention it is in 6 days?

I don't know if it is laziness or lack of novelty, but these things just creep up on you. I feel bad. I want each child to have as much grandeur as the older children have, but it just doesn't happen.

That brings up my second recurring thought about parenting. I feel like an amateur. I suspect this is common. There is no real training for parenthood. No study course or planning. You are told how to get one started, you do it, and then you wing it. There are books for various aspects to help you along the way, but these are usually after something has happened and tend to focus on one specific thing. Nothing trains you on how to be a parent.

The good thing is that your children don't know any better. To them, you are the greatest parents in the world (at least until they are teenagers in the "nobody understands me mode". Fortunately, I'm not there yet.) So, there is room for error.

Hmmm, I think I just hit on something. Parenting is sloppy. It involves a lot of guess work. Professionals couldn't get away with this. They train hard and make very little mistakes.

Ouch. Mistakes. I can only hope my children turn out ok.

There is one consolation. My parents were amateurs too... crap. I was going to end with "I turned out all right", but I'm not sure Mom counts as an amateur. She was a teacher and school counselor. She studied psychology. She may have had an edge.

Oh well.

Weather Forecasts

So, earlier I mentioned there was snow in the forecast. Well, that isn't the case anymore. The forecast is now 50% or so chance of precipitation. It just isn't going to get as cold as they thought.

Forecasting must be really hard and I must admit it is a topic that fascinates me. We all like to complain about the weather and forecasters, so maybe I'm just normal. However, I have noticed some interesting patterns in forecasting. (BTW, I am not really trying to trash forecasters. I think the front range of the Rockies is a very difficult area to predict weather.)

Pattern 1: Psych! There have been several times when major snow storms have been predicted and just didn't happen. I remember once schools let out early and we ended up with a few flurries (not enough to accumulate).

Pattern 2: Oops, missed that one. This is similar to the first pattern. Totally missed the boat but in the other direction. There have been days when nothing major was supposed to happen, but it did. I enjoy making the remark "I just shoveled 6 inches of partly cloudy off of my driveway."

Pattern 3: Rebound. This is a subtle pattern, but I have noticed it many times. The distant forecast (a week or more out) makes a prediction. As the day gets closer, the forecast changes (I assume as the information used for the predictions becomes more solid). And then, when the day comes and we see its actual weather, it was more like the early prediction than the late prediction. This is my hope for this weekend. It will actually get as cold as originally predicted and snow.

Pattern 4: Rut. Here in Colorado Springs, we have a fairly consistent weather pattern during the summer. Afternoon Thunderstorms. There is something about the mountains that produces a daily weather cycle where we have clear skies in the morning, developing storms in the afternoon, and then clearing skies in the evening. Many days are forecasted as a percentage chance of a thunderstorm or how big the storm will be. It gets monotonous. Even the weather people on TV see it and comment on it. "Yet another day of PM thunderstorms."

Anyway, that is my take on the weather. I guess now you don't need to ask :)

Band Night

Tonight is band rehearsal. I love it!

When I was in high school, band was a huge part of it. Yes, I was one of those band nerds. I loved it. It was fun and the highlight of my day.

And then college came and I didn't continue band. I was busy in college and failed to realize the good it would have done me to continue music. It didn't help that I was not well motivated and didn't manage my time well. So, that was pretty much the end of playing in band.

At the beginning of the year, my Dad found an organization that allows you to play in band again. He was very enthusiastic and invited me and my family to his spring concert. When I went to the concert, I was struck by two things. First, it sounded just like high school. Second, I missed it and wanted to be on the stage playing.

At the end of the summer, my Dad invited me to a recruiting event for the band. He was very excited about it and at the time, Mom had said "no". So, I thought I would go and at least support Dad. Long story short, I signed up, arranged to borrow a tenor saxophone, and started playing.

The organization is called the New Horizons Band. I believe it is national and it was created for people just like me. Folks who stopped playing because school stopped and not because they wanted to stop playing. Here we have several bands depending on ability and availability. I rehearse once a week for 1 hour in the evening. It is an intermediate level group (8th-9th grade music), so it isn't too difficult. It has been perfect for relearning how to play.

I have been going for a month and there is one thing that is very clear. I love it. Even the rudimentary fundamental exercises (breathing, rhythms, scales, etc) are ok because I am in band again. After rehearsal, I come home happy.

More Personal

My previous entries have been very technical. That's not bad, but it isn't all that I am. My sister started her blog at GatheringHolly which reminded me that I can put other stuff here too since my original intent was to post stuff about me.

So, after my incredibly exciting topics on work things, I thought maybe I could tone things down and talk about the weather. Why? Because winter is coming and I LOVE winter. This weekend it could snow (at least here in Colorado Springs). I love snow. I don't know why, but I have been this way as long as I can remember. I tend to attribute the attitude to the fact that I grew up on tropical islands without any snow as a young child, but I am not sure that is completely true. I just am not a fan of the heat. I don't like sweating and I am one of those people that sweat a lot. So, bring on the cold!

Also, snow is just cool. The landscape becomes something new when it all turns white. The commute becomes a challenge. The kids get excited because they might miss school. Humidity is up and noise is down.

I think that is it. It is just different. It is not the normal routine (at least here) and I like it when something knocks you out of the rut of normal routine.

InstallShield XML File Changes

InstallShield 2008 has an interesting quirk when editing XML File Changes. When changing the value of an XML tag by typing a new value in, it doesn't like to get saved. You need to do something else on that screen like check/uncheck a box before the new value is saved. Or you can select the new value from the list of string values.

One thing I don't do well is use the string values from InstallShield. I like to type in the values I want instead of just changing the value of a string. I had several XML files that needed the exact same change. If I had properly used the string values, I could have just made the change once.