Learned a cool bit of trivia today: "quem o sabe" ('Kemo sabe' from The Lone Ranger) is really a Portuguese phrase that means "One who knows". Cool, huh? Well, I finally finished the 4th Harry Potter book today, "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" - it's pretty darn awesome. Also, I was shocked to find out that most of the sheep in the world have their tails pinched or constricted off ('docked') at birth. Something about maggots and feces and flystrike, I don't know.

The "shift" indicator light timing in the Chevy S-10 pickups are way off. It tells you to downshift at odd times, like between 3rd and 4th, and so you do it and then it almost stalls because there aren't enough RPMs to keep the engine running at such a slow speed. Weird.

I'm now officially the choir director for the ward. I was glad to hear that the war in Iraq is virtually over. All things considered, this was pretty darn quick for a war. Found a cool resource on the web: Wikipedia, an open source encyclopedia that anyone can edit. I had this dream a couple of nights ago that I was a retarded Harry Potter. I could fly and everything, but I was really wobbly and some of my spells didn't work quite right. Funny stuff!

Jason Isaacs ("Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets", "Armaged-don", "Dragonheart") and Timothy Dalton (James Bond) must be twins. Look at their photos (isaacs -- dalton), they're nearly identical (except for the nose, the chin dimple, and age). They could be father and son, however. Hmmmm.

Got some lemonade-flavored Carefree Koolerz^TM bubble gum the other day and it's actually quite good. We've been looking at houses to rent during the past few weeks, and I have concluded that some people are seriously delusional when they think they can get some of the astronomical rents they're asking. Who in their right mind actually expects to get $1,350 per month for a 2 bdrm, 1 bath house in Washoe Valley, and $900 per month for a 1 bdrm, 1 bath, 80-year old house? Get real, no wonder they're still empty.

Just caught a few minutes of Beavis & Butthead, the episode where they both meet their dad (the same guy). Hasn't changed after all these years. It's been at least a decade, hasn't it? Got some "Mud & Bugs" cereal from the store a few days ago. It's pretty good, but not as good as Count Chocula - my all-time chocolate cereal favorite.

We ate at Two Guys from Hong Kong the other day, and it was alright, but I have to tell you that ever since we ate at Flame, all other Chinese food pales in comparison. Ordinarily, Two Guys would've been considered pretty standard Chinese food, but compared to Flame's entrees, it was like fast food. With Flame, however, I think I ruined my affinity for cheap food.   =(

I'll post a couple of the Easter egg hunt photos here in a few days. You know, everyone really ought to have a computer screen and keyboard built in to their car dashboards with a wireless Internet connection. There have been nearly a million times when we're driving around and needed driving directions from Mapquest, or wanted to have a word translated from Spanish into English (many of the street signs here are in Spanish), etc., but couldn't simply because we were in the car, away from a computer. I know, someone's going to suggest a PDA or a laptop (or even a Tablet), but get real, they all suck. Even those little itty-bitty navigation map things probably suck, too, simply because they're too small, and they presumably only do one thing (I've never heard of one that let's you translate languages or check your email). Another thing, when are they going to get smart and start making PDAs and cell phones bigger? All these tiny screens that everyone keeps quinting at are just pathetic. And Tablets, don't even get me started on those. Make the stupid things legal size for pete's sake. A lightweight, portable computer with a built-in keyboard (not a stupid on-screen one) with a 14" screen/digitizer would be to die for! I hate these little 10" screens. And for pete's sake, give it a built-in retractible handle! Don't the engineers who build these things ever try to use them? Sheesh.

Oh, for those who haven't heard yet, we're expecting again. We don't know the gender yet, but we're hoping for a baby boy this time. We're really excited, and have already started planning things and been discussing names and such. Any name suggestions will be appreciated.   =)

I really like the new Blogger interface (code-named "Dano"). It's a fresher look, and seems to be pretty reliable. Of course, I had always felt that the old one was pretty reliable until lately when the archives started acting funny and support for high-ASCII characters became buggy. Apparantly the archives will be one of Dano's fortés. Looks good so far, though.

Also seen on Gateway Dr.: a raccoon crossing the road, a cat, a squirrel, a fat little round bunny in the grass on the side of the road, as well as the duck using the crosswalk a couple of days ago. It's a veritable wildlife preserve.

Played a game of Cranium the other day at Marcie's house with Jim, Gene, Don #2, myself, Marcie, Ronda, Coreen, Caroleen, and Misti. It was fun, especially because of the words "curmudgeon" and "turgid". Jim's Elvis impression, Marcie's bungee jump, and Gene's DNA sculpture also were a big hit.   =)

Got some Jelly Bellies (the 40 flavor pack) for an Easter treat. Mmmmm. I think my favorite flavor is the Raspberry. It tastes nearly identical to a real raspberry. Bonny and Becky did the easter egg hunt this year again, one on Saturday at a park (we scored two eggs with Baskin-Robbin's gift certificates inside), one on Sunday in Bonny's backyard, and Becca's got another one tonight at home (inside, for Family Home Evening) that she doesn't know about yet.   =)

We attended Stake Conference this Sunday at the Sharon/Golconda chapel. I got a really good parking spot even though we were about 15 minutes late. I parked over the little ramp in front of the maintence/equipment shed on the back row of the North parking lot. No one ever parks in front of it, even though it's the perfect spot, a lot better than double-parking like some have done.

Had a wonderful meal at IHOP on Saturday morning after the Easter Egg Hunt. I had a superb chili and cheese omelette with pancakes, sides of corned beef hash and bacon, with orange juice, hot chocolate, and ice cold water to drink. I know, I sound like a pig, but thankfully I couldn't eat it all, so I brought it home and had it again for a later meal. Good stuff, truly.

Got some "Tangerine Sours" Altoids at the store a few days ago. They're quite tasty. We finally watched "Singles Ward", but I have to admit that we didn't find it that entertaining. I felt it was only mildly funny, and I don't think Misti really liked it at all. I think I'll skip "The RM" unless I can see it for free. This, unfortunately, is just another independent, church culture-centered film that just doesn't make the grade. "God's Army" was another one, but it just plain sucked.

Easter dinner was quite tasty, as we had ham and scalloped potatoes, asparagus/green beans, and fruit salad, with strawberry cake for dessert. Afterward, we all helped Becca learn some new songs, including "I jumped aboard a pirate ship". She really likes that one because she gets to jump. Forward, backward, over the deep blue sea.   =)

In the continuing saga of strange digital camera weirdness (see previous post), Olympus comes out with the Camedia C-4000 which, once again, has non-standard image sizes. Although I do love this camera (the quality is excellent), I just don't understand some of the weird rationales for their image sizing. The available options on this 4-megapixel camera are thus:

• 2288x1712 (should be 1716) (1.3364)


• 2048x1536 (1.3333)


• 2288x1520 (1.5052) (nearly 3:2 ratio, almost 4"x6" photos/35mm compatible) (should be 2280)


• 3200x2400 (1.3333) (extrapolated size)


• and all the normal smaller sizes

This is such a good camera, I just can't figure out the whole 4 pixels off and 8 pixels off thing, that's all.

Yoplait's frozen "Double Fruit Smoothies" aren't tasty at all. I don't recommend them.

We were driving down Gateway Dr on Friday night, and saw the funniest thing: a duck crossing the road - in the crosswalk. I know you probably had to be there, but it was funny to see it. We purchased and subsequently watched "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" on DVD (got it at Wal*Mart). Awesome. Another film that wasn't awesome, however, was "Superstar" - it was supposed to be super funny, but ended up being super stupid.

We ate at Bertha Miranda's (the Reno Mill location, not the Sparks Greenbrae location). The food was great, but it was too loud, and the chips before you order were cold - I'm used to the hot ones at Chevy's. Our neighbors (Geoff Komenda and his family) moved this weekend. It was funny because I first met him at work (he's a security contractor), and then we moved into the same apartment complex, but didn't really know each other until I saw him again at work, and then we laughed about it.

Becca is really cute when she says "toot toot" - as part of the Down by the Station song.   =)

Here's a hilarious quote I got in an email: "Having a smoking section in a restaurant is like having a peeing section in a swimming pool." - Claire A. Murray, Senior Lecturer, Northeastern University Newland Media Education Center

Ate last night at a wonderful Chinese restaurant in Southwest Reno called "Flame". I guess it's all the rage with Rusty Humphries. The peanut butter salad was great, as was the wonton soup, the sesame chicken, the sauteed broccoli, the beef and snow peas, sticky rice, etc. I have had better sweet and sour pork, however. The thing that impressed me the most, though, is that none of it was greasy - all the veggies were steamed and fresh and crisp. So many other Chinese restaurants are greasy, especially that place in the mall (Flaming Wok) - ooh yucky.

We watched Cher's farewell concert. Pretty good show - it's amazing to see the devotion of her fans. Also watched the new film "Maid in Manhattan" (Jennifer Lopez). It's pretty cute - a good film. "Whose Line is it Anyway" (Drew Carey) is another favorite of ours, we usually watch it most nights at 10 p.m.

Becca, like most toddlers, really likes songs that have actions associated with them. "Five little monkeys swinging in a tree, teasing Mr. Alligator, can't catch me, can't catch me. Along comes the alligator, quiet as can be... Snap!" is one of her current favorites, except that instead of saying "snap", she says "snack" - which I suppose is also fitting as a monkey probably is nothing more than a snack to an alligator.   =)

I finally broke the 3,500 mark on Seti, and just upgraded to the new (more secure) client (3.08), having read the recent news that several sources are trying to purport to be a huge problem, when in reality it isn't. Sensationalistic journalism dorks.

Like many, we participated in the 173rd Semiannual General Conference via television yesterday and today. My favorite talk this time was by Spencer V. Jones, as he drew an excellent analogy between sin and repentence and his childhood experience with getting sprayed by a skunk (and the resulting process of trying to get clean again). I'm not really doing it justice here, so feel free to read it or watch it yourself.

On my recent Vegas trip, we had a few of those Little Debbie Oatmeal Creme Pies at home, and since I like them, Misti packed a couple in my suitcase for me. Well, have you ever seen one when it's been flattened after going through the whole airport process? It's quite humorous. I'll post a before and after photo here in a few days.

Here's another brief SETI@home update: "The race for 4th place". It's been some time that I slipped into 4th place on our Seti@home team. No one was even remotely close to me for awhile, so I really slowed down and worked more on other distributed computing projects instead. I would still check the team rankings every week or so to see what was going on, but I wasn't worried about loosing my spot until two days ago, when I saw that two folks had recently crept up on me. Now there's a race, so to speak for 4th place (me - to retain it, Ravyn and Glenn - to jump ahead of each other and to overtake me). In other Seti news, Brad has been bumped out of top 10 again, this time by someone with no name.

If you've been shopping at Kmart's Big K 90% off bankruptcy sale you know it's a mad house - simply crazy. We got a few good deals there, but I was really shocked by the whole scene - the lines were 20 minutes long at least, the whole store was in utter disarray, and they must've been trying to sell every last spiral CFL in the country - they were everywhere - aisles and aisles and bins of them.

Becca likes little smiley face stickers now, and she says "miley" - it's cute. I like to read her books on the couch. She comes up and hands me a book and then climbs up on the couch right next to me and leans against my shoulder as I read it to her - it's the best. One of her favorites is a little book that I used to read to her before she was even born yet, called "Slug". It's all about this cute little greedy slug with poor vision and an insatiable appetite. Who knew slugs could be cute?   =)

Becca likes soynuts, she thinks they're popcorn kernels. I was reading the label on a pack of Wrigley's "Orbit" gum. It has Xylitol (which is good), but it also has Aspartame (which is bad). Hmmm. I do like the packaging and the taste, though, but I can't figure out why if they're using Xylitol, why bother with Aspartame at all (they're both sweeteners, and although Xylitol costs more than Aspartame, Xylitol has known dental benefits, whereas Aspartame doesn't, and Aspartame has had some very negative publicity)?

Brenda touched Jon Bon Jovi on stage at a concert in Salt Lake - for free! That's gotta be pretty novel, right? We watched a few episodes so far of "Nashville Star". It's pretty clear to me that the Texas girl (Miranda Lambert) is gonna win, although it will be tough for the judges once it gets down to the three best performers. There are quite a few that I think could be cut without any hesitation, but there are a small few that are really good.

Watch out, get out of her way - Becca plays ball angry:



Here are my humble observances on what's wrong with Outlook 2002:

• If you've got 15 different group calendars in the public folders, there is apparently no one "master" calendar that automatically adds everything from the other calendars. It would be extremely nice to have one master calendar for the entire company's events each day, instead of having to look through all the separate calendars for each department.


• For some reason, it's apparently impossible to get rid of the stupid "bulletin board" folder, even if you're the administrator, you know the one that only keeps entries for a few days anyway - not much of a bulletin board, in my opinion, anyway.


• Why doesn't the Auto-Archive feature auto-increment the file names of the .PST files? How stupid is that? It would be helpful in some cases to have a user-configurable setting that allowed it to archive 6 months worth or a year's worth of email, and then automatically start a new file for the next time period - for organizational and backup purposes.


• Maybe this is more of an Exchange 5.5 issue, but why can't you have more than one owner for global distribution groups? How dumb is that? In a team setting sometimes it would be nice to have 4 or 5 people be able to maintain the list members, instead of just one person. Doesn't Microsoft think about how to actually *use* their products?


• Also, why can't a distribution group be the owner of another group? Let's say you've got the administrative group consisting of the network admin, the IT manager, and two techs, and they're all members of that group. Two actually have administrator privileges, but the other two don't. It makes sense, then, to have them all in an Exchange distribution group, and then have that group maintain all the other distribution groups - that way you've got 4 people that can all help maintain the lists instead of just one person and one administrator. Hasn't anyone complained about this before?


• Outlook has a problem keeping line feed/carriage returns (hitting the enter key to drop to the start of the next line) in plain text email messages - it just loses them. They're there when you view the email message, but not when it prints or not when you reply or forward the message. It also happens when you compose a draft, save it (without sending), and close it, and then come back to it - all the LF/CR's are gone and it's one big run-on sentence. What's that about? I suppose it has something to do with Outlook's "ability" to remove 'extra' line breaks. Well, guess what - THEY'RE NOT EXTRA!


• When you try to print some email messages using File...Print..., Outlook 2002 won't let you change the printer (from the default to a different printer) - the dropdown list is grayed out. What's that about? It only happens on some messages, though - not all of them. How do you get around it then? Simple, you just change your default printer for a few seconds while you print then change it back. Small hassle, but it works.


• Why can't an Outlook profile have multiple user addresses like Outlook Express does? I have several valid email addresses at work, but I can't send a message from each of them without logging into a different profile. Whose bright idea was THIS limitation?

I sincerely hope they fix these issues in Outlook 11 (2003).

Amaya's baby blessing was Sunday in Sparks. She's awfully cute. Marcie is engaged to a guy named Don. What were the chances that two sisters would both marry guys named Don? Hmmm.

What does the word "troop" really mean? According to several dictionaries, it means a group of soldiers. Thus, when CNN says that 100,000 more troops are heading to Iraq, to me that means that 100,000 groups of soldiers are involved. If that's the case, how many soldiers are typically in a troop? 1? 15? 50? If a troop is only one person (like the Army's catch phrases 'An Army of One' and 'I am the Army'), then that would equate to 100,000 soldiers. If a troop, however, is a group of 50, that would mean 5,000,000 soldiers. That's a big difference, so which is it?

The only explanation is to assume that the two words "troop" and "troops" are completely unrelated words. "Troops" is clearly not the plural of "troop", so there clearly must not be a plural of this word available in the English language. I think we need one, so I'm going to invent one right now: "troopz". "Troopz" is now the plural of "troop". This is the most logical choice because it's a homophone (no, not a gay communications device) with the other word that everyone misuses, so by adding this new word not only will they not have to learn a completely different word, I'll be automatically correcting millions of people's speaking errors. As for spelling, however...

This type of spelling convention is not without precedent. You might recognize some of the following other "z" words: 'Orbitz', 'Babyz', 'warez', 'Carz', and 'Koolerz', just to name a few.

Having just invented a word, I feel some examples are in order. Please read the following two simple sentences to make sure you can recognize the difference:

1. Ten troops retreated behind the hill.


2. Ten troopz retreated behind the hill.

Did you catch it? Sentence #1 states that 10 individuals fell back. Sentence #2 states that 10 groups of people fell back. Just remember that the "z" word is always better than the other one, because it will always connote a greater number since we're talking about the plural of a plural. Got it? Good. I'll inform the dictionary people.