Is That Next to POLONIUM on the Periodic Table?

I was checking some source code today that had to do with foreign language support for the product. We have a enumeration in the source code that lists potentially supported languages, though not all of them may actually be currently supported. The enum contains values like the following:

• ENGLISH
• SPANISH
• FRENCH
• PORTUGUESE
• KOREAN
• JAPANESE
• CHINESE
• RUSSIAN
• UKRANIUM

I wasn't familiar with that last one.

That's More Than 5K!

After a few years mostly off, for various reasons, I am trying to get a little back into running this year. I'm up to what I considered my "normal" distance, which I measured this morning on my bicycle at 3.41 miles, or, if my conversion is correct, 5.48 km. I am certainly giving more significant figures than is reasonable for the device. Anyway, so what if I run 10-minute miles! To anyone that runs regularly, this will seem real slow. But I suppose this seems like a long way to run to people that don't.

As an incentive and goal, I recently signed up for a 5 km race, which will occur on August 12 at a local park. Since I go more than that distance, I figure that it wouldn't be too tough. Still, I thought it might be wise to go try the course before race day, since I don't normally run on a packed, tiny gravel (what is that called?) surface, and the course is hillier than my neighbourhood. Since the course was available online, I went to the park, found what I thought was the starting line, and gave it a try.

Forty minutes later, I was still running, and I stopped a bit before I reached the "finish". That is the longest duration I've run in a long time! I know I wasn't fast, but surely I had covered 5 km in that time, at least I would think. On the 12th, I will discover which of the following are true:

• I (or the map) messed up with the location of the starting line.
• I am a much slower runner than I would have ever thought.
• My bicycle odometer is really messed up.
  

First Day of Football Practice, 2006 Edition

After football practice today, I asked, "Are you tired?" and thought I had an appropriate response for any possible reply. Yeah, probably I would have said something like "I told you so" regarding being a bit more active over the summer, had the response been "Yes." However, the response I got was, "Daddy, you know you told me that I'm not allowed to tell the coach that I'm tired." While I am not the coach, I'm pleased to see that he did remember something!

It's difficult to focus on a moving target at maximum zoom.

High School Reunion Photos

Here are a couple of photos from the high school reunion that I was roped into attending on Saturday night. The first photo, which shows just about all of the small percentage of graduates that actually attended, especially strained my camera's ability to take a good photo, given the low lighting conditions in the room. (I'd say that it did an adequete job.) Also, I wanted to wear a tie, but that idea was vetoed. I would have been just about the only person doing so, had I worn one.

New Arrival (Émilie)

The child we were expecting arrived yesterday. As expected, she's fluent in French, and very good with English as well. In other words, as we did last year, we're hosting a foreign exchange student. This year, it's for one month. The point of the month so that the students can attend a Language and Culture Enrichment Camp. This is aimed primarily at students from Asian countries such as Thailand and Japan, where their English might need some quick improvement to be able to survive in an English-speaking high school. After the relatively short "Camp", the students (maybe 25 or so) will disperse and live with English-speaking families throughout the continent.

Strange Affair by Peter Robinson

Rather than The Glass Key, this is the book that my book club decided as our crime novel. Strange Affair is a contemporary crime novel in Robinson's Inspector Alan Banks series. I don't know how many previous books there were in the series. On the one hand, I thought that I was able to enjoy the book without really understanding the backstory that helped to govern the relationships between the characters. But on the other, it was clear that, by starting in the middle, I was missing out on a little bit.

In a recent novel, Banks' house burned down, almost killing him. So, at the start of the book, Banks has physically recovered, but is still trying to emotionally recover from the fire. With this backstory, an attractive young woman is murdered in her car. She's discovered to have Bank's address (to his burned-down house) in her pocket.

The same day, Banks receives a phone message from his brother Roy, with whom he rarely has any contact, desperately asking for his help. When Banks can't reach Roy by telephone, he decides to travel to London to investigate what is going on. Due to his brother's past shady business dealings, Banks doesn't want to immediately involve the police, as he doesn't want to be the one to expose any illegal activities Roy may have been involved in. (Plus, as a police officer himself, he doesn't expect the police to be interested in an adult who has been missing for such a short time.) So, Banks, on his own, starts off his own investigation of what happened to Roy.

What, if anything, does the highway murder have to do with Roy's disappearance? Of course, we, as the readers, get to find out. Unfortunately, I can't say a lot more about the plot without giving too much away. Suffice it to say, Banks, his colleagues, and the readers attempt to discover whodunit, what they did, and why.

It's a fast-moving read. A lot of believable-sounding details of police work are included, but not too much to make it boring. Also, there is a bit of exploration of the relationships between the characters, but not too much to turn the book into a relationship study. If you're looking for a contemporary crime page-turner, I'm sure you can do worse. None other than Stephen King, on the back cover, claims, "The Alan Banks mystery-suspense novels are, simply put, the best series now on the market." While this may be true, it also might not say much about the genre. I give it three stars out of five. If you like this kind of thing, you'll think it's a winner. If not, then you might not see a lot that is special.

The astute reader will notice the dilemma caused by legal abortions.

Birthday Party for the Big O.

Since everyone was invited, I left work early on Friday, and drove with the big kids for about 2 1/2 hours to a birthday party. Everyone had a good time. I need to do stuff like this more often!

Before the kickball game:


Putting that food service industry experience to good use:


The birthday girl with the "Arizona Mountain" cake:


Mmmm. Good:


We did not sing Kum by Ya, but I was wondering...:


The post-downpour volleyball game. With all the kids running around, it took on an Australian Rules Football flavour. With Mike, Tom, Joe, and myself on hand, we certainly had the players.

Who Is This Girl?

(I barely recognize her!)

A Bit of Art

A Mountain Sunset by A.

Invitation to Job Interview

Since it has been a few years since I updated my resume, I've been working at making it up-to-date again. I recently reactivated what I have at Monster. At this stage in my career (i.e., currently being employed) I can be a little choosy with what I am looking for, both in terms of the job and its geographic location.

This morning, I got an e-mail from Ameriprise Financial. They say, "You are being considered for the financial advisor position". Thank you very much, Ameriprise. If you read the first line of my resume, you would have known that is not the type of job nor the location that I am looking for. (I sent a nice reply, saying that it didn't meet my needs at present, but I would keep the information in case my situation changed.)

The point I want to make is that, if you want to work for a company that is willing to consider just about anyone without bothering with the courtesy of glancing at a resume, consider Ameriprise. If you are looking for a financial services company, and you don't care that your advisor was desperate for a job and willing to take just about anything, consider Ameriprise. Others might want to stay away.

Bad Day at the Ballpark for Trot Nixon

Today's White Sox/Red Sox game went 19 innings. Checking the box score, I see that Christopher Trotman "Tricky" (Trot) Nixon went oh-for-nine. Ouch. By the way, he had 4 strikeouts. Has anyone in baseball history ever had a worse day at the plate, in terms of most at bats without a hit or a walk? Has anyone ever gone oh-for-ten (or worse)?

The Glass Key by Dashiell Hammett

As an attempt to do something "lighter" for the summer, my book club is reading a crime novel. The Glass Key by Dashiell Hammett was considered, but we decided not to do this one. I read it anyway.

It starts off running. There is no introduction to speak of -- I felt like I was starting in the middle of a book. Part of the point seems to figure out who is who, and what they are up to. It soon becomes clear that the main character, Ned Beaumont, is a gambler, friend, and a kind of unofficial assistant and advisor to Paul Madvig. Madvig is high up in the political structure of the unnamed city. It's never mentioned explicitly, but I had the impression that he's the mayor. (Is he?)

When there's a murder, the evidence begins to point to Madvig as the killer. Is it just the opposition-controlled newspaper planting false leads, or is there something to these claims? In this bleak picture of city politics, Beaumont slides between the political establishment and the criminal underworld (with the division between the two quite blurred at times) trying to aid his boss and come to the truth behind the killing.

Overall, while not exactly a bad read, I hesitate to recommend it. I'm not a big fan of crime novels. I would recommend it to people who are fans of the genre, or those who are interested in the history of the genre (which the book flap says that Hammett basically invented). For others, you can probably find a book you would enjoy better. Two stars out of five.