I recently saw a special on TV about the Beach Boys. It spurred me to give Pet Sounds a listen. I have listened to it about 10 times in the past 2 days. This album is really special. I think it may be my favorite album. Others in my list…

Yesterday was the first flight, I really believed I could die. The plane was approaching Vegas en route to Dallas. All of the sudden the air stopped blowing from above and we started bouncing around like crazy. If I had eaten anything it would’ve come up. The shaking was not…

I need to take a trip to Texas next week, so I told the boys this morning. The very first thing they both said was, “Daddy! There are COWBOYS in Texas! They might think you are a bad guy! They have guns!” Initially, I thought it was cute, now I…

Why do I have a mail server and a web server in my garage?The servers cost (when I bought them) about $1200 each. Hosting of email is pretty cheap. Less than $50 a year. Hosting of Web is also pretty cheap. With a $2400 budget, why do I bother buying…

Dell had this pretty amazing deal. Quadruple Ram on select systems. Here are the details: Pentium D 2.8 ghtz 2mb L2 Cache 4 (FOUR) gigs of Ram SATA Hard Drive (I will upgrade this to Sata-II HD soon) 48X/32XCD-RW AND 16XDVD+/-RW 128MB PCIe x16 nVidia Quadro Price: $1400 The deal…

Jared has recently learned to pronounce L. He emphasizes it in every single word. “Daddy, Can we go pLlllllay tennis?” “My name is Jared CoLllllle Llllipka.” He also started teasing Ethan about it. Ethan says W instead of L. Wipka. I don’t think it is a problem. He will certainly…

I set up my 2005 NFL Football pool using http://www.officefootballpool.com. Decent Interface, pretty fast. Written in Cold Fusion. Lots of options for setting up the pool. Nice statistics information. Everyone you want in a football pool with participants scattered about the country. I am going to be picking the Jets…

It seems the most important quality in public debate is the catchiness of the phrases one uses. Some Examples: Everyone thought conservatives just don’t care about the plight of the working class and poor people. They were right. But then came “Compassionate Conservative”. None of the policies changes, but people…

I used to have this speech I gave people at Koko of what a vision and mission was. I used the analogy of the United States of America. Vision A “Vision Statement” is really just an idea. It is a statement to the world saying, I believe this to be…

I am current reading Master of the Senate, by Robert Caro. Pulitzer Prizing Winning Biography on Lyndon Johnson. Caro also wrote two other books on Johnson and one book, The Power Broker, also winner of the Pulitzer. 4 books in thirty years and two of them won the Pulitzer. Not…

The House of Representatives by a wide margin approved a mammoth energy plan for the nation Thursday that sends billions of dollars in tax breaks and subsidies to energy companies, but is expected to do little to reduce U.S. oil consumption or dampen high energy prices. – MSNBC This bill…

In a SpongeBob Squarepants Episode, where SpongeBob meets Sandy, there is a scene where Sandy invites SpongeBob into her Air Dome. She mentions something about air. So SpongeBob asks his friend Patrick Star what it means. Patrick says, “It means she is stuck up. She puts on Airs. You can…

Since moving to San Mateo, I have adopted a new regiment of exercise. First off, I bike to work. 2.5 miles each way. This saves us the cost of a second car/gas/insurance, plus I am helping the environment. And the exercise is good for me too. Second, we have decided…