Collective Soul - A Good Omen?

Last year was a really good year for concerts. I saw six really awesome bands: Goo Goo Dolls, Dream Theater, Foreigner, Styx, Def Leppard, and the best concert ever, Van Halen. Not all the same type of music, as we can plainly see, but every one of these bands was outstanding live. Goo Goo Dolls was the first show I saw last year, which surprised me at how really great they sound live. It was the foreshadowing of many other good shows to come last year.

Well, I caught my first concert of 2008 just a couple of days ago when I had the great privilege of seeing Collective Soul live. I had heard really excellent things about these guys as a live act and was not disappointed in the slightest. Collective Soul dudes, you guys put on a very awesome show and so much props out to ya. Everyone else, take an opportunity to see these guys if you get a chance.

The Perils of Motocross to the Young Mind

Anyone who reads my blog at all knows that I have a real thing for Motocross and Supercross, the world's greatest sports, alongside football. But I have to admit, I'm worried a bit about the effect of motocross on the minds of young professionals.

Take Trey Canard for example. He is doing absolutely fabulous so far in his rookie season, having won the first three pro Supercrosses he raced in so far. But perhaps his avid involvement in racing is having an effect on his brain; perhaps the home schooling is not going quite so well as one would hope.

Apparently, this is at least true somewhat in math. Trey has, in repeated interviews, indicated his plans this year to give "200%" to his racing effort.

Oh. I see. Trey is planning to give even more than people who are only going to give 110%, 120%, or even 150%, although apparently he doesn't plan to be as committed as anyone who is going to give 1000%.

Well, Trey, I've got news for you. You cannot give more than 100%. This is a mathematical fact. Perhaps if you went to school instead of racing so much you would already know this.

I will translate Trey's statements, in order to make them easier to understand: "This year I plan to give twice as much as possible. I plan to be two times more dedicated than is possible. I plan to perform in the races two times better than I possibly can."

Maybe I'll try this at work. I'll give 200%, and bill my employer for two times the amount of work than I can possibly do.

Interview Prep Helps

I ran across some resources for interview preparation and thought I would put them here, mostly so I know where to find them someday in case I need them. Some of these are CS-specific, BTW.

• Steve Yegge's Google Interviewing Tips
• Top Google Interview Puzzles
• Joel Spolky's Interviewing Tips:
• The Guerilla Guide to Interviewing
• The Phone Screen
• Sorting Resumes

New PC Build

Well, my old trusty home computer finally died. I've used that thing pretty hard for about 5 years when I originally built it for around $1000. Considering that it was powered on nearly all the time for that long I'm pretty happy with the life.
I didn't actually want to spend the money on a new PC, but since the old one died I figured I might as well build another good one. Hopefully this will last as long as before.

Here are the specs for the new PC:
Smilodon Raidmax tool-free case w/ 500W power supply
Gigabyte GA-MA770-DS3 motherboard - PCIE 2.0 x 16 and DDR2 1066 capable
AMD Athlon 64 X2 3.2 GHz CPU
nVidia GeForce 8800 GT video card
Two Samsung 750 GB SATA 3.0 hard drives configured in RAID 0
3 GB DDR2 1066 RAM
ASUS DVD-R/RW optical drive w/ lightscribe


Here's a picture of most of the main components, unopened. It's like Christmas. And I mean that literally, because not only is Christmas a day when I get neat new things, but I also hit the realization that I had to pay for it all, and it kinda bums me out.


This Gigabyte motherboard is dang cool lookin'. I don't know if cool lookin' makes it any faster or better, but it is cool lookin' nonetheless.


Look how tiny that processor is, especially compared to the rather substantial AMD heatsink/fan combo, which is also cool lookin', whatever that is worth.


Awesome video card. Like in my previous build, this is the single most expensive component in the whole system - more expensive than the processor, motherboard, or even one of the hard drives.


Everything is in place inside the case. Everything is cool lookin'. We've hashed over this already.


The finished, cool-lookin' product. Did I mention how cool lookin' this thing is? Wait, yeah, I did.

James "The Spoiled Baby" Stewart Drops Out of 2008 AMA Supercross

Last Saturday, James Stewart announced that he was dropping out of the 2008 AMA Supercross season because he hurt his knee again last December 20.

This is a bunch of baloney. I mean, I believe James when he says he hurt his knee again. But he is dropping out of the season because he is afraid that if he doesn't, he will lose the title straight-up to Chad Reed.

Consider:

1. Chad and James were tied for the points lead going into last Saturday's Anaheim II round.
2. Each had won one race, and in each race they were running very similar lap times.
3. James won the last race - he WON THE RACE with a "hurt" knee!

James knows there is a very good chance he will lose the title to Chad, hurt knee or not. He also knows that he is stronger outdoors than everyone else. Racing the rest of the supercross season puts his outdoor season in jeopardy, whereas the supercross season is already in jeopardy because Chad is sufficiently competitive. He also knows that by dropping out, everyone will speculate that, had James raced the whole season, he would have beaten Chad, which we all know is not necessarily true (and also just as dumb a thing to say as "If James hadn't crashed he would have won").

One thing we do know - Chad Reed wouldn't have dropped out. He raced an entire second half of a season with a third degree shoulder separation. He would suck it up and race, because he is a tough dude. That is something James is not familiar with.

James Stewart: "I am a spoiled prissy baby mama's boy."

Van Halen Road Trip - Follow-up

Well, the Van Halen Road Trip is over, and I must say I highly recommend such an activity - if you are so fortunate to have such supportive spouses as we have, that is. :)

All in all it was a great trip. We left about 5:30 a.m. for Sacramento. This picture on the left shows us stopped at a freeway on-ramp about one hour into the trip. Luckily we had great weather all the way out and back. Weather in Sacramento and San Francisco was absolutely gorgeous - I don't remember a more beautiful day in San Francisco than November 27, 2007, and I've been there a number of times. Even Donner Pass was snow-free and relatively warm; we were told while there that there is generally about 6 inches of snow on the ground by that time of year.

We visited Alcatraz on the morning of November 27, 2007. Our reservations for tickets were not honored, but fortunately for us we were able to get tickets to the 9:30 a.m. ferry anyway. This is probably due to the fact we were traveling there off-season. If you ever go to Alcatraz, you'll probably still want to try to make reservations, but be sure the reservations are actually honored. Pier 33 is the pier we left from; maybe you can call them directly.

Anyway, Alcatraz is awesome as you might expect. Visiting Alcatraz in the winter is recommended as there are parts of the island that you are only allowed to tour during the winter months; they are closed during the other parts of the year due to the large numbers of birds there. And don't miss the self-guided audio tour - when they say it is award-winning, they mean it. Amazing.

Van Halen performed at the Arco Arena in Sacramento that night, Tuesday November 27, 2007. This was nothing short of the absolute best concert I have ever been to. I was born a few years too late I believe, so I never really saw the big deal about David Lee Roth vs. Sammy Hagar as the Van Halen frontman. Well, everyone, now I get it. Not taking anything away from Alex or Eddie, who are fantastic musicians, but David Lee Roth is a performer. He made the difference between this show and my previous Van Halen concert encounter about ten years ago, which was simply great and not downright unreal like this year's show.

We were talking on the way back, how fulfilling it must be for Eddie to be up there performing with his own son (who did just fine thank-you). More tour dates have been added, so if you have not seen the show yet, you still have a chance.

We came home on Nov. 28, stopping at Donner Memorial State Park. The sacrifices our ancestors made to populate and settle the United States were beyond comprehension, and it made me very grateful to take this time to think of these people and others who suffered so much, and how great my life is today as a result. All in all, it was an awesome trip.

Greg, myself, and the Dall*ns at Donner Memorial State Park.

Unreal - Utah State Wins Again

What a wacky year of college football. Utah State wins again today over the Idaho Vandals, pulling themselves clear up to 7th place in the WAC and clearly not the worst football team in the nation. This is a spectacular improvement from last year. Way to go Ags!

Utah State Wins A Game

It has been a truly wild, crazy, amazing college football season thusfar, but the craziest thing happened last night when Utah State won a football game.

Utah State had lost 16 straight games, dating back to last season, before finally winning a game last night in Las Cruces over New Mexico State. (Take that, maryck!) This is almost sure to vault USU up in the polls from 119th. Way to go USU! There is nowhere to go from here but up!

Yes, Utah State is my alma mater. What of it?

ROAD TRIP!

Van Halen is on tour, and that means one thing for me and my half-bad buddies - ROAD TRIP!!!



Actually, it mostly means that we have to go to Van Halen. It isn't like we really have a choice here. But since Van Halen isn't actually scheduled to come anywhere even close to where I live, we decided to make a road trip of it and go to the show anyway. We wouldn't do this for just any old band, but then again, Van Halen isn't just any old band.

So, we will be renting a cool car and driving to Sacramento, California, which until just recently was the most local scheduled concert venue. Trip begins on November 26, a day before the concert. We hope to visit Alcatraz on the morning of November 27, then we'll be at Arco Arena for the concert event of the decade. Can't wait!

Half Bad Days are Good Days

A Half Bad Day is a day when a Half Bad Boy does a Half Bad Boy thing. Going to rock concerts is a half bad thing. So is holding a Guitar Hero party or attending a college football game.

Yesterday was a Half Bad Day. The day before, it rained, and Greg and I know when it rains that means it is time to take the motorcycles to the sand dunes the very next day. Oh yeah, wet sand dunes and motorcycles.



Yeah, check out those awesome dunes. These are absolutely not the dunes we rode yesterday. The dunes we rode on yesterday are now covered with motorcycle tracks. Tracks that the wind will cover up, and restore the dunes to pristine riding conditions for next time.

Any day on a motorcycle is a great day, especially on pristine sand dunes.