My Grown Up Christmas List

We all have many things that we desire for Christmas.  Some are selfish and some are not.   I myself put together a grown up Christmas List that included the following:

No more lives torn apart
That wars would never start
That I would never lose a game of chess
That I would have lots of super awesome books to read
That I would never lose a game of foosball
That Zack(my little brother) and Delta would get married

Well, I have already received some excellent books, so that wish was fulfilled (I may write more about that later).  But more importantly, Zack and Delta have agreed to give me my biggest Christmas Wish!

They got engaged 2 days ago on December 22nd.  I'm so excited to have a new sister!  The funny thing is that Delta and Robyn were friends before either of them ever met Zack and I so that will make it super fun for Robyn.

Anyway, I hope that everyone has a wonderful merry Christmas.

P.S.  There are a few more couples on my grownup Christmas List.  They know who they are.  But their relationships are not quite to this point yet so I am transferring them to my grownup birthday list.

Things you should never do

I admit it, I'm a nerd.  Sometimes I type random things into google to see what it suggests.  But lucky for you, I have uncovered a great treasure trove of wisdom.  Go into google and type "never p" you'll get some great advice:

I'd like to take the time to discuss a few of these:

Never Pet a Burning Dog
This is not because of any prejudice against burning animals.  It's just that you could burn yourself.  Put the dog out, and then feel free to pet it.  The dog probably doesn't want to be burning anyway.


Never Play Leapfrog With a Unicorn
Again, not a prejudice issue.  It just might not be pretty.  Offer to play something like chess.  Unicorns love chess.

Never Pickup a Duck in a Dungeon
I'm not sure exactly the problem with ducks in dungeons, but I would say it's best to avoid dungeons where possible.  I think it would also be a good idea to never pick up a dragon in a dungeon as well.

Never Put Ketchup on a Hot Dog
That's ridiculous, ketchup is delicious.  Google may be wise, but even google makes mistakes sometimes.

Binary Hex Morse Everything Converter

This past week my friend Jacquelyn started posting all sorts of things on facebook in binary, morse code, hexadecimal and other such craziness. Of course, I wanted to get in on the fun so I posted some things to her in various codes and what not. She sent a reply to me in octal(base 8). I suspected that was what it was but I didn't want to do the math by hand and I couldn't find a good converter, so I decided to write one. Well, once my geekiness starts going it can't be stopped. What you see below is the result of my geekiness gone wild over a whole weekend. You can convert to and from morse code, binary, hex, or any numerical base. I even threw in pig latin because I felt it was necessary. I also put in the Ong language which was a language that my friend Cong Yong Long ee and I invented in junior high school. I know, I didn't provide a conversion back from Ong or Pig Latin. I was tired and decided I was done.

Text	Morse
Decimal/Ascii Code	Binary
Any Base8	Hex
Pig Latin	Ong

A few notes: I threw this together over the course of one weekend. All of the conversions work but I didn't try to prevent you from putting in any invalid input. I know that makes it not professional grade. If anyone wants to pay me I am willing to upgrade it to that level. For this reason, just be aware that if you put in bad input you'll get bad output. Also, things like the binary field are designed to view binary as a computer does, in bytes. So numbers above 255 won't compute. But the any base field doesn't have that restriction so feel free to change it to 2. The default is 8 because octal is awesome.

Also, one more thing: It worked in all browsers when I tested the javascript in a file on my machine. Once I stuck it in blogger it quit working for firefox. Blogger and firefox are stupid. Sorry if it doesn't work in your browser, blame blogger.

The Genetics of Sound

What does a car sound like?  What does an explosion sound like?  How often do you see little boys playing with toy cars and toy guns?  They make pretty good sounds to go along with their play.  Have you ever heard a female make those sounds?

Tonight at our annual work Christmas party we got together and had some excellent food and excellent conversation.  Near the end the conversation turned to a very important subject.  Have you wondered why you never hear little girls making car sounds or explosions sounds?  I have a simple explanation.  I believe that the ability to make those sounds resides on the Y chromosome.

My amazing wife Robyn has agreed to share some sounds with you that she made.  She puts up with alot of wierd stuff that I make her do for my amusement.  This is one of those things.

First we have a machine gun sound:



No, it wasn't a sprinkler.

Next is a car sound:



My personal favorite is the "vroom."

Thanks again Robyn for putting up with me and being willing to share these sounds. Robyn and I had alot of laughs trying to record those sounds. We have alot of fun laughing at ourselves. She did an amazing job so maybe my theory is disproven. I'll let you decide.

Truly Awesome: Thanksgiving Leftovers

My friend Melissa has a series on her blog that I really enjoy. Every so often she writes about things that keep Melissa alive. Apparently there are exactly 364 things that sustain her life, of which she has (as of the writing of this post) revealed ten.

I thought this was an excellent idea. I have decided to shamelessly steal it. However, to make the plagiarism less blatant I am changing the title. I will be writing about things that are Truly Awesome. You can know in your heart that these things also help sustain my life.

One of the most truly awesome things in the world includes all leftovers from Thanksgiving. This is the first year that I've enjoyed those leftovers in all their glory. We generally go somewhere else for Thanksgiving, and while we always contribute a portion of the dinner (and thus get to keep those leftovers) we have never made all of the dinner within my family.(at least that I can remember) Well, this year my wife in her infinite wisdom decided to change that. We went to my grandparents for Thanksgiving and had a great time. But the next day Robyn cooked a turkey and made stuffing and mashed potatoes and all the other glorious foods that are traditional. We had a few friends over and had a magnificent dinner, but more importantly we had amazing leftovers.

There's just something about the turkey sandwiches and the microwave warmed potatoes that are still swimming in gravy that feels my heart with gladness and takes away all my sadness. It eases my troubles, that's what it does.

I finished up the last of the turkey with lunch today. There's maybe one helping of potatoes left. It's the end of an era. But I'll be spending Christmas with the Wrights this year and the word on the street is that the food there will take me to a whole new level of joy. It sounds truly awesome.

28 Things I Love About Robyn On Her 28th Birthday

Today is Robyn's Twenty Eighth Birthday.  To celebrate, I have selected 28 things that are great about her.  Of course, I could write many more than 28.  If there is anything you feel I missed, I would love you to share it in a comment.

1. She is fun to be with

2. She is kind

3. She is beautiful

4. She is funny and makes me laugh often

5. When she's not funny she tells me to laugh anyway

6. She is smart

7. She takes care of me

8. She is loving

9. She works hard

10. She likes to cuddle

11. She gives me space when I want it

12. She is an amazing cook

13. She likes to beautify our home

14. She keeps our home clean

15. I enjoy conversations with her

16. She's a thinker, and I love to hear her thoughts on all sorts of subjects

17. She is an excellent kisser

18. She is a reader

19. She likes movies

20. She's amazing with children

21. She fits in so well with my family and friends

22. She celebrates me, even though I often embarrass her

23. She is a hardcore Trekkie

24. She knows when to have fun and when to be serious

25. She laughs when I tell her to, even if she thinks I'm not funny

26. She has good ideas all the time

27. She is good at surprises and having the "sneaky face" as we call it

28. There isn't anyone I would rather spend my time with

Happy Birthday Robyn!

Update: Carol (Robyn's mom) and Kayli both wrote birthday tributes to Robyn as well.