:: Troutmaster blog :: October 2003 archive

:: Friday, October 31, 2003 ::

You know what this icon means? It means that it is snowing in Tahoe! Maybe I can talk Timber into going to Donner Pass to do some snowshoeing this weekend... But then again the first few snow showers probably won't stick to the ground.
:: Tom 12:05 PM:: [View/Post Comments]
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I'm in a book reading frenzy. I have lots of books that I am working on reading and my goal is to read one book a week. The book that I finished this week is "Keeping the People Who Keep You in Business: 24 Ways to Hang On to Your Most Valuable Talent" by Leigh Branham. This book was obviously written when there was a short supply of good workers and people could walk across the street and get a job. Even though those times are gone, this book is still worth reading. I say that because a good company should be a good company and treat it's employees right whether times are good or bad. The biggest factor in retaining good people seems to be middle management. If their immediate supervisor invests time in having a good working relationship with the employee, the employee is more likely to stay. Overall I think the book is well written and makes some good points. The book that I'm working on right now is "Brand Failures" by Matt Haig. I might finish it this weekend but I probably won't finish it until sometime next week.

:: Tom 11:51 AM:: [View/Post Comments]
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I just wanted to send a shot out there for the album Morning View by Incubus. It is an excellent album where pretty much every song is of the highest quality and I don't get tired of listening to it. I find that it is a great album to listen to when I need concentrate and get a lot of work done in a short amount of time. So if anyone out there has never heard any of the songs on the album you should check it out when you get a chance. You could get it right away if you bought it from the iTunes music store.

:: Tom 9:38 AM:: [View/Post Comments]
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This article brings up interesting issues with blogs. Blogger dismissed from Microsoft This brings up the issue of freedom of speech. But as always, when we have rights we also have responsibilities.
:: Tom 11:40 AM:: [View/Post Comments]
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Jack Bauer is on heroin. Crazy!
:: Tom 9:59 PM:: [View/Post Comments]
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Finally! The best show on tv is back. I wonder how this season of 24 is going to go. Here are a few unsolicited suggestions for this season. Jack's daughter Kim is annoying and needs to be eliminated. There needs to be more explosions and twists in the plot. And Jack needs to die at the end. I repeat, do not go to season 4. Let the show die a spectacular death. Let it end. I think it should have ended with season 2.
:: Tom 6:47 PM:: [View/Post Comments]
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I just got done listening to the webcast of the Nanooks hockey game. They won yet again. I emailed the announcer (Bruce Cech) and he read my email on the air. That was pretty cool. For any of you newly converted Nanook hockey fans you can listen to the webcasts by going to this site. If you decide to send an email to Bruce make sure to tell him that Tom sent you. In other news I went to a Jiu Jitsu tournament in Santa Cruz today. I watched Rong not do so well. That's ok though, he'll get his revenge soon. :-)
:: Tom 10:42 PM:: [View/Post Comments]
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I finally got iTunes onto my windows machine. What a pain. First I tried it and it froze when it was trying to install Quicktime 6.4 and then I manually updated Quicktime 6.4 and it still didn't work. Then I had to go through a lot of work to get Quicktime completely off my machine and then I tried the install again and it worked. So about an hour of productivity and twelve reboots later I can now use iTunes on my windows box. I can use my songs on up to three machines, so the iMac at home, this windows box, and the 12'' powerbook I'll get someday will be my three machines of choice. Yeeha!

:: Tom 6:45 PM:: [View/Post Comments]
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I noticed something last night. I noticed that hockey isn't the best sport to watch on TV while working on my computer. The reason is because hockey is so fast paced and it is hard to see where the puck is going when you keep glancing at and away from the tv to do some work. I think Football is the best sport to watch while working because they take so many breaks. I also found a good tv show a couple of weeks ago, but it is on at weird times. The show is called Globe Trekker. And if you check it's schedule you'll see it on at times like 2 AM, 5 AM 10 PM, basically at times that are very inconvenient for me to watch it. TiVo would be great for this. I could record all of these shows, plus all the Sharks hockey games, and any college and pro football games that I'd like to watch throughout the week. I wonder how much TiVo's cost nowadays?
:: Tom 11:27 AM:: [View/Post Comments]
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I wish all downloads were this fast. It is called the grid download option. Here's a little bit of information about it with the parties being anonymous to protect their identities.

If I use the downloadGrid (powered by the Acme intraGrid) what can I expect?

The first thing that happens is your computer "talks" to the downloadGrid center.
The downloadGrid center looks at your ip address and determines your geographical location.
Based on your location, a list of ftp servers is returned to you.
These ftp servers will provide you with a certain quality of service (QoS), which really = bandwidth = superfast download!
Your client will simultaneously strip away chunks of the Acme download file from your handful of servers.
The "chunks" are dynamically contracted and/or expanded to get the fastest possible speed out of the servers.
... and then Boom! you've gotten your Acme File in record time!

:: Tom 9:33 AM:: [View/Post Comments]
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I finally got the photos from this weekend's trip to White Mountain Peak posted here. There is also a link to the photos on the left side of this page. I also finally got the trip page finished and posted here. There is also a link to the trip page on the left side of this blog.
:: Tom 10:30 PM:: [View/Post Comments]
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Yahoo! News - David Gest Sues Liza Minnelli for $10M OK, someone explain this to me. Gest is basically accusing Liza Minelli of domestic violence and he is suing her for emotional damage and all that crap. I don't understand it. What is happening to men in this country? Are we going to let our wives beat us? Next we'll have men taking the last names of their wives.
:: Tom 8:13 PM:: [View/Post Comments]
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I made it back from White Mountain Peak late Sunday night. I'll post more on that later. In other news the Raiders lost again, as did the Nanooks, and as did my soccer team last night. My Habana Cuba team doesn't exactly work that well together and I think we are going to have a tough time winning game because of it. It might end up being a long season.
:: Tom 9:58 AM:: [View/Post Comments]
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Grady Little should be thrown into Boston Harbor. Why in the world did he leave Pedro in when he got into trouble in the 8th? He cost his team this series. Aye Caramba!
:: Tom 9:28 PM:: [View/Post Comments]
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I watched the movie Underworld last night. I am generally a harsh movie critic and my critique of Underworld is no exception. I thought there was too much violence and not enough character development. I also didn't like the tendency of this movie to continually add unneeded complexity to the storyline. And lastly, I did not like the way they left the ending open to more sequels. To summarize, Underworld underperforms.
:: Tom 9:44 AM:: [View/Post Comments]
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I went to Mary's art show last night. The theme of her show was memories from when she was younger. All of her photos seemed to be flashbacks from when she was in elementary school. She had photos of the school, the playground, and interesting photos of her (I knew it was her even though you can't see her face) playing and drinking at the water fountain. One thing that I thought was interesting about all of the photos was that most of them were over exposed which gave them the aged effect. It was also interesting to see what objects were the focus of each photo. Timber came along but she wasn't feeling too well. We also got to check out the new Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library while we were there. I payed my property tax today and that hurt. So to take advantage of my property tax dollars I'm going to go to the library more often.
:: Tom 9:29 AM:: [View/Post Comments]
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I've added a new feature on the lower left side of my blog. I'm guessing it will probably be there for a while.
:: Tom 1:19 PM:: [View/Post Comments]
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Well even though the Raiders and Niners aren't doing so well right now I can cheer for the Nanooks who won on Saturday with a 3 goal barrage in the last 30 seconds. Check out the article on it here. Also, in my 6:50 PM soccer game last night my team scored the winning goal with 3 seconds left to secure a 8-7 win. In the play just preceding that the other team got an indirect free kick just outside the goal box. They shot for the net and I tried to make the save, but I didn't actually touch the ball. The goal didn't count because of that. We got the free kick, took it down to their end and finished them off. I'll take a game like that over a blowout any day. In my second game of the evening my team got routed 8-1. The fact that we played 2 men down the entire game didn't help, but I thought we got good practice playing down a few men.
:: Tom 9:12 AM:: [View/Post Comments]
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Hockey season is upon us. I guess I won't worry anymore about the A's and the Giants and now move on to concentrating on the hockey season for the Sharks and Nanooks. The questions are will the Sharks and Nanooks make the playoffs? Will the Nanooks upset any of the big names in college hockey this year? I think the answer all of these questions is yes. But time will tell.
:: Tom 12:17 PM:: [View/Post Comments]
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Crazy people are all around us. Here's yet another example. Is there any coincidence that these people are from California? Anchorage Daily News | Treadwell: 'Get out here. I'm getting killed': ", "
:: Tom 9:25 PM:: [View/Post Comments]
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I'm looking at doing an ascent of White Mountain Peak in a little over a week... on my mountain bike. The peak itself stands at 14246 ft (4342 m) which makes it the third tallest peak in California. From my research, my bike ride will be approximately 15.85 miles and will gain a little over 2000' from the trailhead. I'm looking at an estimated ride time of 3 to 5 hours depending on the conditions and how I handle the altitude. I got altitude sickness last time I tried to climb Mt. Shasta at about 10000', so who knows what will happen this time. Anyway, I guess I should get to the gym!
:: Tom 7:08 PM:: [View/Post Comments]
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God Bless Yahoo! I saw that Yahoo! had gone up 12.14 % thus far today. It made my decision to buy some back at $31.08 look like a pretty good decision. As of right now my investment in Yahoo! stock has gone up 40.15 %. That's pretty good for the short term. I expect there to be some sort of correction within the next year or so. In that case I'd guess my long term position will be up by between 10 % and 20 %. Does anyone out there actually believe I know what I'm talking about? Good, neither do I. :-)
:: Tom 8:41 AM:: [View/Post Comments]
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My voice has been heard. I voted this morning on the way to work. I voted No on the recall, and voted for McClintock as the replacement candidate. I voted Yes on the infrastructure ballot measure and Yes on Prop 54. We'll see how things play out. But I would like to encourage all Californians to get out and vote no matter which way they plan on voting.
:: Tom 2:46 PM:: [View/Post Comments]
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I'm watching the A's game right now while I am working. They are down 4-2 in the bottom of the 7th of game 5. Hopefully they will be able to find a way to come back. There's just been a major collision between two Red Sox players in the outfield. It looked pretty painful. In other news I think I finally know what I am going to do in the recall. First, I am going to vote no on the recall. Even though I am a die hard Republican I think Gray Davis deserves to keep his job. Just let the guy serve out his term and then vote someone else in next time. I voted against Davis in the last election, but apparently not enough people agreed with me then. That being said, since we are obligated to vote for a replacement in the event that the recall is successful, I'm going to vote for Tom McClintock. I don't care much about the accusations surrounding Arnold right now because I believe they are politically motivated. Ask yourself this, why are they coming out now, and not when Arnold was only thinking about running? It is obvious. At any rate, I would like to rebut the commercials that Gray Davis has been running lately. His commercials go like this: Under Democrats, we've passed clean air legislation, banning greenhouse causing gases, we've passed tougher gun laws, we've passed the 8 hour work day, etc..., the Republicans fought against all of these things, if they recall the governor, what will they take away next? They should change the commercial a little bit... Under Democrats, we've chased out businesses, cowered to environmental zealots, spent ourselves into record debt, junked the credit rating of the state of California, issued drivers licenses to illegal aliens, had rolling blackouts and brownouts, tripled car registration fees, lost hundreds of thousands of jobs, etc... If Democrats do all this for us, can the Republicans really do any worse? I doubt they would show that commercial. Why am I voting no on the recall? :-)
:: Tom 7:33 PM:: [View/Post Comments]
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Well the Giants are out of the playoffs. It looks like Crayon was right. I wonder how the Marlins will do against the Cubs? I'm guessing the cubs will win, but anything can happen. In other news I went to NorthStar with Timber on Saturday. The first thing about mountain biking at NorthStar is that the first chair lift is so slow that I doubt I will go back again. It was unbelievable how slow it was. First of all the chair lift operates at about a chair a minute, and then on top of that they collect the bikes of about 15 people and then they start to let the 15 people get onto the chair lift and then put their bikes on behind them. After that it takes a long time to get to the top. I also think that downhill mountain bikers are part of some sort of cult. Everyone there had mountain bikes worth more than my truck. They also all wore full body armor and seemed to ride like they were crazy. Timber and I, on the other hand, seemed to be just hanging out and smelling the roses. It was fun, but I prefer NorthStar in the winter.
:: Tom 10:03 PM:: [View/Post Comments]
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I got a weird piece of junk mail the other day. It was a flyer for a subscription to a magazine called "Cat Fancy". As you might have guessed it is a magazine about cats. I am extremely surprised that I received that flyer because I am no fan of cats. I think they need to do more research before they send out flyers to people because at least in my case it is a waste of paper.
:: Tom 5:27 AM:: [View/Post Comments]
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I had a soccer game last night. I played goal keeper for my Thursday team and we played a man down the whole game and still ended up winning 9-3. It was a great demonstration on how to make runs into open space without the ball and how to spread the ball around. In other news I'm planning on going to NorthStar this weekend to do some mountain biking. I've been wanting to go for over a year and I finally get my chance tomorrow. He's hoping that I don't break anything!
:: Tom 6:04 PM:: [View/Post Comments]
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I've been watching the A's game off and on all evening and it just ended. They won the game at bottom of the 12th inning with a bases loaded bunt by Ramon Hernandez. That was an awesome play and an awesome game overall. Ha ha Boston fans! I don't mean any disrespect to the Red Sox. I think this is going to be a great series and I'm glad to see my team win. I even let the unthinkable happen today. I let Timber change the channel so that she could watch "The Bachelor" while the A's/Red Sox game was on. But we came to an understanding. If it is the deciding game of a series then we are going to be watching baseball. Luckily I didn't miss the best part of the game.
:: Tom 11:58 PM:: [View/Post Comments]
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