Bolie Williams IV

Friday, January 5, 2001

Over Christmas, my wife and daughter and I visited my wife's parents in Virginia... here's the saga of our trip there.

US Airways to HELL!

I figured that traveling with a baby would be difficult, but I was totally unprepared for the experience of flying from Houston to Richmond with our daughter. Ironically, Laura Rose was not a problem. She was well behaved and seemed to enjoy herself more than we did. The ordeal was caused by a series of foul-ups by US Airways...

Our original itinerary (For December 16):

Well, things went wrong from the start. We got up at 5:00 AM and were packed and ready to go by 6:00 AM. My parents picked us up and took us to the airport by 6:30 AM. There was a bad traffic jam at the curb so we got out early and headed in. We were going to check our bags at the counter but there was what looked like an entire high school parked in line. Apparently, their flight had been cancelled (a bad omen). We checked our bags at the curb and then headed to our gate.

At the gate, there was an incredibly long line. They were checking passengers in for a different flight that had been delayed. Our flight wasn't checked in until closer to flight time because of computer problems (I later found out where nation wide for US Airways). We finally boarded and took off a little late.

I'm not sure why, but we ended up landing at about 11:50 AM. We had been planning on waiting until everyone else got off the plane since we had a baby and the attending baggage but we didn't have time so we pushed our way off and bolted for our other gate. We had had to read our incoming gate number (C16) off the building since the flight crew hadn't been told. They captain never read off any connecting flight information, which was unusual.

We arrived at gate C2 to board flight 1219 at right around 12:05 only to find that they weren't boarding anymore. The plane was still at the gate and hadn't moved but the man behind the counter was in the process of rebooking someone who'd actually arrived before us. I was a bit surprised that they'd buttoned up the plane early given that other flights were running late. Five minutes would have saved us a nightmare.

It turned out that we'd already been rebooked on flight 1562 to Richmond, departing at 3:30 PM. The lady who rebooked us gave us lunch vouchers and a phone card to call my wife's parents. This woman was the first in a string of helpful US Airways employees.

At this point, I overheard a US Airways employee talking about cancelled flights. I'm not sure exactly what he said but he sure sounded like he was saying that it shouldn't be a big deal if a flight was cancelled. Well, I hope that he's never stuck in an airport for nine hours with a baby on his way to visit her grandparents for Christmas. It may not be a big deal to him, but I'll certainly take into account the cancelled and late flights when next booking my air travel. I will also seriously consider driving rather than putting up with the ordeal of flying (even when things go well, the seats are too small).

We ate lunch and then returned at around 3:00 PM to board flight 1562 only to find that it was delayed. Eventually, the flight was cancelled. The man who made the announcment said that the flight was having mechanical problems and it never even took off to fly to Charlotte.

Everyone who'd been on flight 1562 was rebooked on either flight 2127 departing at 6:20 PM or flight 430 departing at 8:50 PM. We showed up too late to get on 2127 and so ended up on 430.

I forgot to get dinner vouchers and we headed for our new gate. I stopped at another gate and they suggested we go to the Special Services counter. I tried that, but they had strung up cords and were only helping the last three people. It was about 6:00 PM and I guess they were closing. US Airways closes their customer service at 6:00 PM but they still strand passengers late into the night. I eventually did get dinner vouchers from another nice US Airways employee.

After dinner, we watched the board as flight 430 was slowly, but surely pushed back, first to 9:20 PM, then 9:30 PM, and finally to 9:45 PM. When the plane finally landed, everyone cheered since most of the passengers had been delayed from other flights as well.

We boarded flight 430, got our seats and took off. Unfortunately, the weather was bad and the flight was really bumpy and my wife got sick. In response, Laura started crying. I must commend the crew of flight 430 from Charlotte to Richmond at 9:50 PM for going above and beyond what I would expect to help. They got us bags, ice, ginger ale, and held Laura while I got stuff out of our bag.

Unfortunately, the weather was bad at Richmond and we had to divert. The pilot initially said that the problem was that the weather was almost too low. Later, he admitted that one of his autopilots wasn't working and he could have landed if it had been working. We ended up diverting to Norfolk International Airport, only a two hour drive from Richmond. By the time we landed, it was after 11:00 PM.

The flight crew continued to help, making sure we had a luggage cart and wheelchair. They also equipped us with a bag of more ice and ginger ale. They were very helpful and very nice. I wish I had their names, but the flight attendants of flight 430 from Charlotte to Richmond, scheduled for 8:50 PM were very helpful and did something to redeem US Airways. Also, Maggie Rickard, another US Airways employee, took us under her wing and helped me get Laura fed and get them both to the lobby and then helped me find baggage claim. She also did something to redeem US Airways.

Once we got to Norfolk, we decided not to take the bus that US Airways was providing to Richmond. We wanted to recover a bit and let Candice's parents come get us with an infant seat. We called them and they headed over.

When I went to get our luggage, I learned that the luggage that had come with our flight was for passengers on an earlier flight and that our luggage (and others on our flight) had come in to Richmond earlier. I'm not sure why they did this since we'd been booked on flight 430 for hours. We elected not to bother with the paper claim form and just call Richmond in the morning.

The saga continued on to the next day when Candice tried to get our luggage. No one answered the phone at Richmond so she called the US Airways 800 number. They said they couldn't do anything without a claim in the system. Apparently, they weren't interested in making any kind of effort. Candice finally drove to Richmond and found our luggage. The people who had it were apparently relieved that we'd showed up. They gave my wife a piece of paper that had luggage travel information and phone numbers they could have called if they'd wanted to bother.

We talked to other disgruntled passengers at the Charlotte airport. This was easy as there were a lot. One girl was on her way on an all-expenses paid trip to a concert. She was headed up from Florida and stranded in Charlotte for several hours. Another lady was part of a group of 45 passengers who missed a flight. She'd been told at her first flight that the connecting flight knew they were coming and would hold the flight. The connecting flight was gone when they arrived. Presumably, it had a number of empty seats (unless they filled those seats with other stranded passengers).

Overall, I'm not impressed with US Airways. While I'm happy that airlines in general have excellent safety records, I think it's time they looked at the other parts of their business. All of our delays and cancellations were due to avoidable problems, computer errors and mechanical errors. We also found that many of the employees were not equipped to help us or were not interested in working outside their little area. Many of the other stranded passengers were amazed that we got meal vouchers. Apparently, they weren't always offered or were offered inconsistently.

All of the above was along with the usual problems with airlines: small seats, crowded airports, and long lines. I was amused to see signs about air rage but no improvements in customer service. I must say that I'm surprised that there isn't more air rage after the way passengers are treated. We paid over $500 dollars to be mistreated and abused and lose an entire day of our vacation. The whole trip should have lasted about eight hours, door to door, but instead lasted almost twenty-one. My in-laws had to drive four hours extra (not to mention repeated trips to the airport) and we ended up not having our luggage until the next day.

Sunday, December 31, 2000

Well, it's the last day of the second millenium. My wife and daughter and I have no plans to do anything special this year except dodge bullets falling from the sky. Buying a new house kind of wipes you out...

Old Fashioned Doc

I have gone to Dr. Margit Winstrom since I was a child. She is a great doctor who takes the time to listen to you and to explain what she's doing. She has just severed all ties with insurance companies and is now purely fee-for-service. She has been frustrated dealing with all the different insurance plans, their paperwork, and their different rules. I'm sorry to see her do this because my insurance makes her more expensive but I'm glad to see a good doctor take back her independence. If more doctors did this, maybe we could go back to having insurance that paid regardless of what doctor we saw and letting doctors decide what's medically necessary, not some insurance adjustor. Check her out...

A lot of gas...

Wow, after only two weeks, I'm already pissed off at Entex, our gas company. I've called them on five separate ocassions in the last month or so and every single time I've gotten busy signals and long waits. I've been using their local customer service number, but today couldn't get anything but a busy signal. So I found their emergency number on their web site and am now on hold. I guess emergencies at least get you an opportunity to listen to music and get cut off. That's twice now that I've been cut off. I wish I could get gas from someone else. I will say to their credit that the actual operators have been friendly and helpful. Both of them (there can't be many more than two or three customer service reps...).

Friday, December 29, 2000

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. I'm back from my vacation at my in-laws for baby's first Christmas. Everyone had fun, especially the grand parents. Laura travels well, fortunately, and enjoyed both of our flights. I'll post the story of our flight to Virginia and why mom and dad didn't enjoy it so much soon...

Happy Millenium! Why is no one bothering to celebrate the end of the second Millenium?

Thursday, December 28, 2000

Thom Marshall has been discussing the war on drugs in an interesting series of edtiorials on the Houston Chronicle web site. The latest article refers to the Schaffer Library of Drug Policy. A quick examination of a bunch of graphs show very clearly that not only is stricter enforcement and more drug laws having no effect on the problem, the homicide rate in this country is likely very closely tied to the existence of drug laws. This graph shows the correlation between alcohol and drug laws and homicide rates. I am not terribly surprised by this correlation, actually. I wonder how well number of guns per person correlates to homicides... I bet not as well.

Wow. The folks over at British Telecommunications PLC are total and complete morons. They claim that a patent filed in 1976 (granted in 1989, apparently by another moron), entitles them to licensing fees from anyone who uses hyperlinks. You know, like the above link to BT. IDG.net has an article describing the idiocy, including the fact that the term "hypertext" was coined in 1965. Not only are the folks at BT morons, they're assholes, as well. Even if they did own the patent, trying to enforce it on ISPs now is just greedy. Yet another in a string of frivolous and stupid patents sapping money away from productive uses.

The whole patent and copyright system in the United States was originally established to benefit the public. The relevant portion reads:

To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries

This is one of the duties assigned to Congress. To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, patents and copyrights must expire so that others can make use of the works without restrictive licensing and litigation. Most business don't budget or forecast more than five years down the road. Commercial patents and copyrights that expire after ten or fifteen years would get them all the revenue they could plan on anyway. Individuals should be able to get patents and/or copyrights that last no longer than their life for anything more will do nothing to promote the Progess of Science and useful Arts. I would argue that even ten to twenty years should be sufficient for an author or inventor to gain the majority of possible income from a created work. I'd actually rather that they be encouraged to create more by expiring their limited monopoly on previous works.

All of the above, of course, assumes rational patents. The Patent Office currently gets paid when it grants patents and loses nothing if a patent is overturned. It has no real incentive to screen patents and avoid bad ones. I would rather see them forced to refund part or all of their fee if a patent is overturned. The refund could go back to the applicant or it could go to Congress and the general fund. Whatever is done, there should be an incentive by the Patent Office to screen patents and only grant reasonable ones.

Wednesday, December 13, 2000

Well, at least we have a new President-Elect. It's not worth much given that the two nitwits running for office are hard to tell apart, but that's typical.

Baby Laura Update

Laura Rose is eating actual food, now, though it seems like most of it ends up on her face or on her bib. She's getting more and more active and is going to be crawling, soon. It's amazing to compare her to how she was when she was born and could hardly do anything.

KTRU

KTRU, the Rice University student radio station, was recently shut down by the administration after a student DJ played music over a Rice Women's Basketball game in protest against being forced to broadcast more and more Rice sporting events. I sympathize as a Rice Alumnus who doesn't really care about semi-pro college sports and wishes that there would less emphasis on it and more on education. Rice has a pretty good balance, but it's a constant struggle.

While KTRU is back on the air, the way the situation was handled shows that the administration is not really concerned about the students. Save KTRU has more information on the lockout and the arbitrary way the administration shut down a radio station run by and paid for largely by students.

Recently, Malcolm Gillis, the President of Rice University sent out an Alumni letter defending the actions of the administration. I read through it and thought that it was pretty reasonable. I then read through it again and formed a different opintion. You can read it yourself. While stating that the focus of the administration was to make the station more accountable to the students, the root cause of the incident and the negotiations that were going on before was the desire of the administration to force KTRU to broadcast more sporting events. Personally, I think that Rice should get out of semi-pro athletics so I am not very sympathetic to this idea anyway. The broadcasting of sporting events is not a student-accountability issue, it's the administration wanting KTRU to do something and using the issue of accountability to the students as a way to force changes that really are about more administration control. Of course, Rice owns the FCC license so can do anything it wants. But that doesn't necessarily make it right.

The whole thing is over, though, and I'm sure there is a lot more to it than what's been publically stated. I'm sure the DJs weren't cooperative and I'm not surprised the administration wanted to take control of what could be a valuable asset. The whole thing leaves a bad taste in my mouth, though.

Kill Your Television

Check out WhiteDot, an interesting anti-Television web site. I'm torn, myself. On the one hand, so much TV is junk and watching it is so mentally passive it can't be good for your intelligence. On the other hand, there are some shows I enjoy. I'll probably continue to have televisions but I'll certainly encourage my kids to do other things.

It's MY computer, dammit!

I wish webmasters wouldn't make links open new windows. I am quite capable of opening links in new windows if I want to. I'd rather links open in the same window so I can use my back button and keep control over how many windows are cluttering my desktop. I don't need some webmaster telling me I need more windows to hold his special content. I can decide that on my own.

On a similar note, I wish programmers wouldn't jump their program to the foreground when it feels like it. Every morning, I launch a number of applications (something which Windows doesn't let you do easily) one after another. I'll usually go back to another application while one is launching. A couple of them like to jump to the foreground when they're ready. Other programs jump to the foreground when they've loaded a page or completed some task. I often end up typing into the hijacking application by mistake (I type pretty fast, so I can type a couple of words before my hands know what happened). These programs need to learn that I am the boss of my computer (or should be) and I should be the one to decide which one I'm working in.

Thursday, November 30, 2000

This is going to be a long update. It's actually several days worth, but I've been collecting them offline. Work's been pretty hectic and I have a baby to take care of and we're planning on moving very soon. I hate moving but I also hate this place I'm living on. Oh, I can't wait to get rid of carpet in favor of hardwood floors, get rid of two stories for one, get rid of parking in a parking lot to parking in a driveway, etc...

Before I get started ranting and raving, though, here are a couple of interesting links. The Pixel Lab has some neat visual diversions. I almost hypnotized myself. The best and worst thing about the Internet is that there is a web page for everything. I found one on Dark Tower, an old fantasy board game that I used to like. I wonder if I have my old one somewhere...

Here's why I hate windows: I saved a bunch of files on my Windows NT machine at work. Some of them had the suffix .log_file. Others had no suffix. I was saving them from Netscape (they were files on a webserver I needed for work). I couldn't save the .log_file files with the name I wanted. I either got .log (Windows helpfully "fixed" the filename) or .log_file.log if I tried to correct it. I had to go into Windows Explorer and change it. Of course, Windows warned me that I might cause problems changing the filename extension even though I was returning it to what it was. My next trick was to save some files with no "filename extension". Oooh, don't try that. Windows helpfully added a .html. I was a bit surprised that it didn't just add .htm, but maybe that was Netscape. Anyway, I deleted the .html and hit Save. I went into Windows Explorer and saw that Windows had decided that I really didn't mean to delete the .html "filename extension" and put it back on. So more being told that I might mess something up by changing "filename extensions". I've also noticed that Windows NT hates acronyms and abbreviations. In my work, I deal with things called SEMs and RCBs and HPUs. Of course, all I can do is name directories Sem and Rcb and Hpu. I guess Microsoft knows better than I do what I want to name files. I wish there was some way to turn that off (or the warning about changing "filename extensions"). I really hate being patronized by my operating system, especially when it's wrong.

It's an I hate day, I guess, because I also hate commuting. I don't really mind sitting in traffic and I really like driving when the traffic lightens up. It's the selfish people who annoy me. I really try to ignore them, but watching people run up past all the cars in line and dart over really pisses me off. I've had people run up to where the ramp splits and then get mad at me when I won't let them in. I've made room while still back in line (before the solid line that's supposed to mean you can't get over anymore) and watched people fly by with their blinker on, not even looking for a spot until the last second. Oh well. I'll keep trying to ignore them and not get so worked up before I go postal and run some idiot off the road.

This isn't really something I hate, but why do corporate HR departments always focus on training everyone to be a victim. We had diversity training this week (fortunately, they forgot to put me on the schedule so I didn't go - of course, I never asked them why they didn't put me on the schedule) and from talking to othes who had to go, it focused on all the ways you might accidently harrass someone. It also taught the most horrible thing ever, that anything that you say that makes someone else feel uncomfortable is harrassment. Boy, talk about creating a hostile work environment. Having to watch everything I say knowing that if someone decided I had offended them I'd be guilty of harrassment anyway really does not contribute to my peace of mind. Fortunately for me, I ignore all that crap and just say whatever I want while being considerate of others. I really wish that they'd treat tolerance. Not the kind where you avoid anything that might be offensive but the kind where if someone says something you find offensive, you stop and think about it to see if maybe they didn't mean it the way you took it. Then, even if you figure out they were being mean, you just ignore them as a mean person. Teaching everyone to take everything seriously is just what mean people want. I remember when I was a little kid, I was taught to ignore the mean things some people say. They are less likely to bug you if you do. But now HR tells us to give them lots of attention and sue the company. They don't mean to tell us that but they tell us that someone else might.

If you're a geek like me, then you are annoyed by ICANN. Check out YouCANN for alternate name resolution. If I ever get a firewall up with caching nameservice, I'll probably point to one of these name servers.

Election Update!

I just read an interesting article that uses statistical analysis to show that there has been massive and not very well concealed fraud in Palm Beach County. In a nutshell, someone poked a stick through a stack of votes on the Gore hole. This does nothing to Gore votes, adds a Gore vote to non-votes, and invalidates any Bush or Buchanan (or other) vote. It certainly sounds plausible and would explain a lot.

Saturday, November 18, 2000

I am allergic to milk and yeast and have a very difficult time finding anything to eat that I don't make from scratch. While cooking myself is cheaper and healthier, in general, it's also sometimes not convenient. Probably because I'm biased, I don't think anyone should drink milk for a number of reasons. I'm creating a No Milk web page to share some of the things that I've found to eat and to rant a bit about the evils of milk. If you are allergic to milk or yeast, check it out. I promise to keep the ranting and raving to a minimum.

Thursday, November 16, 2000

This is great! Now, in addition to using tax money to fund a new basketball arena (not NEW taxes, but still taxes that could be used for something else), we're going to rebate city sales taxes to the new Reliant Sell-Out Dome and Convention Emporium. Fortunately, the city is in the middle of a financial crisis and doesn't need the... oh, wait, it DOES need the money. Mayor Lanier says that the tax money wouldn't be there if it weren't for the stadium. Doesn't he realize that the people who go to the stadium would probably have gone out and done other things instead? We don't all have infinite entertainment budgets that we can just add things to. People make choices. If not a sporting event, then a movie or something else. Oh, and the Superbowl will make back the money. Right. We'll get some number of fans (less than 50,000 probably) in Houston, spending money for ONE day. Maybe two days. Some will probably stay longer while others will leave right away. I'm sure this will bring in millions of dollars to the city. NOT! How do I tap into all this generosity? I could use a couple of million dollars to build a house. I'd promise to have my in-laws visit and spend money in Houston. I'd even forgo an income tax rebate. This kind of corporate welfare really makes me ill.

Just so I'm not only a naysayer, I like the idea of setting up a sports cooperative. The city could run it and let fans who wanted to buy shares in the cooperative. Shares would give preference in buying tickets and shareholders would get special treatment. Others could still attend events but only if there were available seats after the shareholders bought their tickets. Shareholders could even get a dividend and they could buy and sell their shares. This way those who want a stadium or a team could pay for it and those who don't wouldn't have to. I suppose this wouldn't make McNair as rich so he wouldn't go for it.

Also check out No More Bike Lanes. I support this initiative, though I'm not even convinced that bicycles are a viable form of transportation in Houston. I think they're great recreation and I support recreational bike trails like the one along the bayou in Meyerland and the one along Allen Parkway. I also don't think bikes have any business on streets with cars, as I've said before.

I'm going to have to comb my referrer logs for interesting searches to put up on Disturbing Search Requests. My web logs don't have anything particularly disturbing that I found right off the bat. I get a lot of hits from searches for Candace Cameron by people who can't spell her name because my wife is Candice and I work at Cameron Controls. I also get a lot of hits for Police Interceptor because I drive a Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor. It's a great car, actually, and I've searched for sites about them, too. The most disturbing searches I see in my web logs are the ones for me by name by machines I don't recognize... creepy.

Monday, November 13, 2000

I honestly don't think that it will make much difference whether George W. Bush or Al Gore ends up as President. Having said that, I feel like the Democrats are risking setting some very dangerous precedents by encouraging recounts and revotes. At some point, you have to draw the line and end the election. There is no way you can count 100 million votes perfectly. The error is probably going to be more than .2%, which is the current difference between the two candidates in the popular vote. This means that neither candidate really "won" in any meaningful sense of the word. I bet if you recounted all the votes you'd get different numbers. I have heard all the allegations of all the problems in Florida and the only ones that concern me or the ones alleging that voters were turned away or otherwise not allowed to vote. Actual fraud should be investigated and punished. The issue of confusing ballots should be discussed and addressed in future elections but I really don't think that mistakes made by voters who were in a hurry or who didn't take the time to really read the ballot do not warrant a revote. While I would love to be able to go and make absolutely sure that every voter's vote counts to the candidate they want, it's just not practical. If Florida revotes than every district in the nation where anyone was delayed by weather or traffic, was rushed and made a mistake, or had any other problem should get to revote. Personally, I had a baby in my arms who started screaming and I had to hurry. I ended up not voting in a couple of races I wanted to vote in. I should get to revote, too.

One great misconception that Americans have is that we live in a democracy. We don't. We live in a Republic. We elect representatives who are supposed to make the decisions for us. We do not vote on laws, our representatives do. While some of the reasons for an Electoral College are no longer valid (communication lag, for one), others are. One of the justifications of an Electoral College was to ensure that every region was represented and to make sure that a President had broad support, not just a lot of support in a few high-population areas. High population areas are going to have more influence, but rural areas and areas with low population density shouldn't be completely neglected. If we abolish or modify the current system, I'd like to see something replace it other than a straight plurality vote. I'd even rather see some system of ranking that would do a better job of picking out a second or third choice, thus at least giving a popular second choice a chance against a couple of polarized first choice candidates.

Well, whatever the outcome, I'm confident that the rich white male with heavy corporate and PAC connections will win. And things won't change much. Whatever budget the President proposes gets changed all around by Congress. Bush will screw Social Security and Gore will screw industry with ill-conceived environmental laws. Bush will encourage the murder of criminals while Gore will encourage the murder of babies. Six of one, half-dozen of another.

On a lighter note, it's finally cold here! Highs in the sixties and lows in the forties. Not as cold as Mars!

Sunday, November 12, 2000

If you are interested in buying a digital camera, check out Imaging Resource. They have very comprehensive reviews that are better than the manual for telling you how your camera works. Also, check Consumer Reports.

Uh oh! Lightning and Thunder!

Wednesday, November 8, 2000

So which nitwit is going to be the most powerful man in the country? Not that it really matters since we knew the rich white guy with corporate ties would win. Thank god that voters decided to subsidize Les Alexander and bribe the Rockets into staying. I'm pleased to see a third-party candidate get a significant number of votes. Hopefully the trend will continue and force the Democrats and the Republicans to pay more attention to the voters. Thank God Nader didn't win, though. I liked his platform but I'd never vote for him after his flaming idiocy with regard to the auto industry.

Sunday, November 4, 2000

My wife's parents were here last week to play with Laura. It was nice having a couple of live-in baby sitters. They just love her and she seems to love them, too. So it's been a busy week both at home and at work.

As a supporter of the second amendment and a sometime sport shooter, I am often annoyed at the antics of our lawmakers as they attempt to sway the ignorant public with redundant and/or ineffective gun laws to "protect the children." Well, the truth is out and we should ban football since it kills as many high school students as guns. To use the favorite quote of the hysterical, "If it saves just one life!"

With elections coming, I'm going to have to go vote for this Phil Sudan guy. I have no idea who he is, but the Democrats have flooded my mailbox with leaflets talking about how awful he is. I don't have any party affiliation but I don't want to reward the sending of annoying junk mail. So to the local Democratic Party, here's a vote for Sudan! Of course, it helps that the first mailer I got told me to call him up and tell him just what I thought of his fighting new gun laws. If I were going to call him, I'd say, "Right on!"

I recently picked up The Annotated H.P. Lovecraft from Barnes and Noble (not that other idiotic patent holding online bookstore). It's very strange and not a good thing to read right before bedtime. This book has three stories, "The Rats in the Walls," "The Colour Out of Space," and "The Dunwich Horror," along with the short nevel, At the Mountains of Madness. The jury is still out, but either way, I'll be adding him to my books page.

Sunday, October 29, 2000

Did you remember to set your clock back one hour for the end of Daylight Savings Time? Personally, I think this practical joke of Benjamin Franklin's has gone too far.

Wednesday, October 25, 2000

I saw an interesting State Farm auto insurance commercial. They showed people being helped by their agent and talked about how having State Farm auto insurance was like having a friend to help you out. To be fair, I really like my agent, Jan Stomel. However, last time I was in an accident (with another State Farm policy holder), I found State Farm to be unhelpful and, at one point, rude. The adjuster I dealt with even threatened me, basically stating that if I didn't take his offer he might just offer me nothing. This was after waiting over six months and them losing the file at least once.

I'm still with State Farm, though, mainly because of my agent, but I'm not happy with State Farm corporate. And watching that commercial just pissed me off even though I realize that all commercials are basically lies.

Tuesday, October 24, 2000

Whew! We've been busy house hunting and submitting contracts and all that and it looks like we'll have a new house, soon. This apartment is too small and we need to start building equity in a house we own.

Meanwhile, Laura Rose is continuing to grow and her vocabulary is expanding to a number of different goos and gaws and she's smiling all the time (except when she's fussing!). She's still not sleeping through the night, but it's a little early for that.

Weight: 279.5 lbs. Dammit. I can't change my weight. Candice is losing weight like crazy and I need to keep up!

Wednesday, October 18, 2000

Evening Update:

While I don't agree with everything IH8PCs has to say, I agree with a lot. Get computers out of the classroom! He also has at least one comment on smoking and big tobacco in each issue.

Memepool had a link to a semisubmersible drilling rig for which I handled the drilling control system.

While having a baby is a lot of work, tonight was one of the payoff nights. We played with her for about an hour and she smiled and laughed and looked at us. It sounds so simple but it's wonderful when it's your baby. She just grins and laughs and then says some nonsense.

And on a totally unrelated note, why is it so hard to find food without milk in it? I am sensitive to milk and allergic to yeast and I can eat almost no prepackaged food. Fortunately, I can tolerate small amounts so I can eat some things, but those two ingredients show up in the strangest places. Just about every canned soup has yeast in it and many have some milk by-product. Even "non-dairy" soy-based cheese substitutes will have casein (a milk protein). I finally found goats milk cheese and vegan cheese substitutes that are actually non-dairy, though they taste strange. I'll have to get used to them.

Morning Update:

I watched the debate last night and thought it was mildly interesting, though I had to tune out again to keep from getting too pissed off. I'm glad George Bush is confident that everyone executed in Texas under him was actually guilty because I'm not. If they're really interested in campaign reform, they should help fund Ralph Nader's campaign and give him equal time. Not gonna happen... I wish that guy who asked if Gore would keep his promises asked what he would do if he didn't. Maybe they could pledge to resign if they failed to keep their promises. Of course if they're breaking promises, why keep that one? I wish someone had asked Gore about his association with Bill after he gave his speech about keeping his word and his faith with his family. Not necessarily relevant, but it'd be fun to see his reaction.

During the debate, there was a commercial for the new Arena which stated that no new taxes would be needed to fund the arena. It also acted like the Comets and the Rockets would pay the bulk of the cost. Bullshit. The Comets and Rockets stand to make a lot of money. I wish they'd spend the money on better schools and, if they have to spend it on sports, recreational sports that we can play. I recall signing up for city softball and having to wait in long lines to get in overcrowded leagues.

Weight: 275.5 lbs.

Sunday, October 15, 2000

Boy, buying a house is tough! Aside from having to have piles of cash lying around, there are forms and contracts and points and fees and et... None of them are fixed, either, so you don't know how much it's going to cost until you have to pay. Yikes! Having said that, we're looking and finding some good houses where we like so maybe we'll be moving, soon. If you are a teacher, you must check out the Zero-Down and other teacher loan programs at Bank of America.

Friday, October 13, 2000

Evening Update:

I updated my PNG links to their new site. Netscape 4.75 doesn't load my PNG image on this page correctly but IE 5 for Mac does.

Morning Update:

Good morning! I was looking for a web site I saw on the bike lanes that are going up everywhere in Houston. They are removing car lanes and making car lanes narrower to add bike lanes that are used by very few people. I wish they'd just move bikes to the sidewalks since they are really more like pedestrians than cars. A rider and bike may weight 200-250 lbs. A car will weight at least 2,500 lbs and all the SUVs out there easily weight over 4,000 lbs. A bike on a city street won't go much faster than 20-25 mph and will probably be going slower than that. Most cars (and those big SUVs go at least 30 mph and often over 40 mph even on narrow streets. I know that this is speeding and illegal most places, but a car that is speeding illegally will kill a biker just as dead as a car that is moving at a legal speed. I've seen groups of bikers on Washington and Braeswood during rush hour. They were creating a moving roadblock and likely to be killed. I also saw a biker on Shepherd just north of Alabama. He almost got killed when some car got pissed off aftre being trapped behind him for two blocks and decided to rush past him.

Bikes need to be moved off of major streets and onto neighborhood streets and sidewalks. We need more busses and better roads to make car trips shorter and easier. People should be encouraged to ride bike, but NOT on major streets.

Thursday, October 12, 2000

Evening Update:

I'm working towards my Professional Engineering license. The Texas Board of Professional Engineers has kind of a crummy web page but they have all the forms and info needed. They don't really enforce it, but in Texas, like many states, you're not supposed to call yourself an "engineer" without a P.E. license. Most engineers aren't licensed and don't need to be since they work on internal projects for companies that sell products, not engineering per se.

Morning Update:

Laura Rose is growing fast and learning new things every day. I'm amazed to watch her trying different things and slowly learning how to move her body. She's still only two months old, so she doesn't really do much, yet, but it will only be a matter of time! She's a wonderful baby and everyone was right, she totally changed my life, but in a good way.

Bah! Check out NoArena.org to see why we don't need to be using tax money to build sports arenas. I'm all for professional sports but I'm not for using tax money to build them arenas that they can build themselves. Professional sports is a big money industry and they can well afford to build their own arenas with private money. I'm sorry some of the athletes take it personally when I don't want to line the team owner's pocket with my tax money.

If you're looking for a home, check out HAR.com for listings of all kinds of property. My wife and I find it a great tool to research homes and neighborhoods. I'll post more useful links, later, like property tax and crime statistics.

Todays weight: 280.5 lbs.

Wednesday, October 11, 2000

I listened to part of the Presidential debate tonight and as usual heard a bunch of half-truths and vagues statements. One thing that came up is pollution in Texas. I live in Houston, the city that keeps edging into #1 most polluted city. We are in the process of trying to come up with a plan to reduce pollution that will satisfy Federal regulators. Unfortunately, a lot of the pollution is from Federally regulated sources and can't be part of the plan. So we don't get to look at all sources of pollution, just some. So we get dumb-ass suggestions like limiting the speed limit to 55 (most of the day, you can't drive 55 because of traffic and that's when most of the pollution happens) and limiting lawn services. They also may have to restrict the construction equipment that is working to alleviate some of the traffic problems (heavy traffic causes more pollution because cars sit still and run longer). Oh well, who ever said that the government was logical?

Tuesday, October 10, 2000

I've turned to the Dark Side. I'm now using Microsoft Internet Exploder 5.0 Macintosh Edition. It handles CSS1 and HTML4.01 much better than Netscape Navigator. It's also more customizable and lets me manage cookies better. It also has one feature which I've been pissed off that Netscape has in its Windows version but not its Macintosh version... submenus in the Bookmark bar. It's the little things that count. The whole switch was precipitated by the Netscape Netcenter ID merge with AIM IDs. I couldn't get my IDs set up the way I wanted so I decided to abandon ship, so to speak. I'll try to make my pages look okay in Netscape, at least, but I'm not going to focus on it. I have a lot more sympathy for web masters who give up on it, though professiona; sites should be able to do better than I.

Current Weight: 281.5 lbs. Maybe this will shame me into working harder to lose weight.

Featured website: Slashdot

Sunday, October 8, 2000

What a dreary weekend. A cold front finally came through and it's now really, really cold, though drizzling and nasty. We spent the day running errands, regardless, finishing up with a look at some prospective neighborhoods and houses.

Just to show how totally geeky I am, I created myself as a GURPS character.

Yesterday, we had yummy Dim Sum at Golden Palace on Bellaire. The food is good, but not as good as the old New My-Canh Restaurant that closed down. Any suggestions for other restaurants would be welcome!

Friday, October 6, 2000

I spent another day at work trying not to drool on anything important. The price of oil is not helping my company right now. I want a President who will guarantee a high price for oil to keep my company going and to help encourage use of less gasoline and development of alternative fuel. Nice how my selfish desires and the greater good coincide like that

Lately, I've been working on my GURPS pages, mostly for GURPS Traveller.

Thursday, October 5, 2000

The Vice Presidential debate was tonight. Transcripts are available at most of the major news sites, such as The New York Times or CNN. These guys both come across as being much smarter and more competent than their Presidential candidates. Too bad we can't vote for either of them for President. Having said that, I still think they are NOT the cream of the crop. They both talked about developing alternate energy sources while expressing a desire to use our Strategic Petroleum Reserves to keep gas prices low so that SUV-driving soccer moms can fill up without whining. They both acted like the President has something to do with the economy, which I suppose he does, AFTER the Congress, the Treasury, the world economy, and the fickle markets. The President must be in there somewhere... but pretty far down.

Laura Rose Williams

Laura Rose Williams was born on August 5th at 1:34 PM. She was 8 lbs, 15 oz. She and her mother are both home and doing well. As for me, I'm just tired, but very happy and proud of my beautiful baby girl.

Rants!

I just added a bunch of little rantlets. These are just things that piss me off. So don't read them! You'll either agree and get pissed off with me or you'll disagree and write some angry email about what an idiot I am and be pissed off.

PNG

I am converting my Compuserve GIF images into PNG images to eliminate my usage of proprietary standards. Compuserve is beginning to charge for commercial use of GIF formate files. If images don't load, check out this list of browsers with PNG support. If that link doesn't work, you can check Yahoo! and search for "PNG". All of my images have alt tags, so you shouldn't lose anything if you can't see the images, except maybe some jokes.

Travel

I have finally started putting some travel stuff up on my site. Check it out...

Candice!

We're married! We were married in a beautiful outdoor ceremony at the Peaks of Otter on May 24th, 1997. I proposed on January 23rd in the middle of Pino's, a fine Italian restaurant here in Houston and the location of our first date. Luckily, she accepted! Here's some wedding info. She also has her own Web Page!