Wednesday, December 14, 2016

The State of the Blog, v.04 (2016)

Well, it has been four years of writing... well, blogging. I sometimes question the literary validity of blogging versus other literary pursuits. I think blogging will be (or may be currently) viewed as a legitimate literary form, and so I throw up my feeble thoughts into the blogosphere every so often for amusement and evaluation.

Before I forget, I'd like to say "Thanks!" to all of my readers, loyal and occasional, new and old. And, in keeping with internet survey options which really make no sense, those who would answer "Other" also get my thanks.

I'm afraid this is going to be one of "those" posts, the sort I'd guess most blog writers dread: I've gotta write something, but I've got absolutely no clue as to what it will be.

I suppose I could go with the "ever-popular" "Year In Review" theme. Except I don't think anyone enjoys reading those- especially folks who don't know me or my family personally.

For a change, I'd like to say that this year has been pretty exceptional. Unlike last year when I had cataract surgery, we've not had and major illnesses or injuries- and we're quite thankful for this! Jennifer's Dad has been the exception, and out of respect for her family I'll leave it at that.

Daniel is no longer a newb at his job, and has scored some pretty impressive hours for a newcomer. Amanda and Mike are still at the ranch. Mr. T is ISO employment, and sharpening his graphics skills in the interim.

Jennifer and I are still knee-deep in home improvement projects. With the roof out of the way and the mulberry trimmed, we can now (hopefully!) turn our attention to other projects- more on these later.

And finally, one might ask: what's up in the wonderful world of data and programming?

Well, my latest endeavor I've been trying to do something which seems pretty simple- download and install Microsoft Visual Studio. We have an internal project or two at work which would benefit from multiple programmers poking at it, but I have as yet been able to successfully download and install Microsoft Visual Studio completely on my (personal) laptop. I've downloaded it to my work laptop and Jennifer's computer, so I'm more or less in business.

I've not done much with R or Python, but hopefully that will change in 2017. Who knows? For now, Merry/Happy Christmas! Here are a few recent photos I hope you enjoy!
Meerkat at home

New cat tree- Kenji on top, Tinka below

Meerkat, somewhere north of Springfield, IL

Tuesday, December 6, 2016

Om the road again- Dec, 2016

The Secret Underground Lair is once again abuzz with activity as Jennifer and yours truly have just returned from an epic- and somewhat unplanned-  trip. My original plan for the remainder of my vacation time was to take care of some personal business in mid-December, but a family situation in November in which our assistance was requested took precedence.

As it was Jennifer's immediate family, I agreed that we would help and rearranged my vacation. Thanksgiving (this year, Thursday, November 24, 2016) is a holiday that the boys like to celebrate as a family with Jennifer and I and special meal, so we had dinner with them, did the dishes and then packed our luggage and made snacks for the trip.

Friday morning (Black Friday), we got up at 0600. Jennifer made final checks on everything and got our breakfast together, and I packed Meerkat, our trusty Subaru Outback. Our journey would be approximately 950 miles (~1530km), and take us through four states: Illinois, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas.


Our first rest stop was in southern Illinois. It was a relatively quick one at a rest stop named "Homestead". Note the grass- it is late November, and the grass is still green!

We've done this route a few times before, so we had a rough idea of how far we needed to travel on the first day of the journey. We generally stop in Springfield, Missouri  and overnight there. However, on this trip, because we were making such excellent time, we blew past Springfield and spent the night in Joplin, Missouri, adding 70 miles to our normal 1st day! Saturday was relatively easy, mostly because we were able to avoid most of the construction in Dallas!

I won't bore you with the details of our visit... suffice it to say that I can't remember the last time I did so much yard work! At one point, we realized we needed a chainsaw, and we purchased an electric one.

Long story short: we  busted our buns in that yard!

So, we worked (much family drama deleted!). and a week later, snow had fallen. The pictures are not of the same places, but both were taken in southern Illinois, a week apart!

We busted our buns at Jennifer's folk's home that week. At one point, I (literally) could not walk and my hands barely worked. Still, all of the work was for family, and it was fun, so I have no complaints.

That's all for this trip. As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.