MrOof takes the plunge

My friend Mike Roof and his lovely bride Lori got hitched two weekends ago, and I'm finally getting around to posting the photos.

Hope they are enjoying the cruise and I look forward to enjoying their company once they return.

Best of luck to you both.

Here are a few notable shots...







See all the pictures here

14 Flavors of Awesome

nce upon a time, in the magical city of Phoenix (or Mesa), at a golf course on sabbatical, a small twibe of developers converged. The group escapes the impending icy freeze of their home locales for a few days of learning, laughing and (daresay) loving (and no, not that kind). In the year (2^11)-39, this plucky band of folks met again to make or renew friendships and have a good time. This is is the pictorial of some of the happenings...

he Grotto became the place to meet. After the dinners, the races, the trips to Albertsons. The locale gave rise to epic stories of things gone right and things gone wrong.


Some men know exactly when to say when, others not so much...

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Barb sings, Mike Plays, Walt thinks, Cristof drinks, Alan plots world domination.

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Soak your feet, get your laugh on. Alan, Jody and Yag.

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The Pink Ladies (minus 1, and technically a Thunderbird) make their appearance

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Alan, are you trying to say something?

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Seems like there was a lot of crush for Mike Feltman evident. Even Yag was caught up in the mood. He is fetching in pink, isn't he?

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The Russian shows .Net Girl... "In mother Russia, pizza orders you". (carefully note the fluid level in the Patron tank)

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Cristof making a point with Mike while Alan and .Net girl relax. Not sure who that is at the bottom. The hair-do narrows it.

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@MrOof, come in @MrOof?

@MrOof is 404

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Charlies Angels made their appearance. You can even see most of their hands.

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Rachel waits for Alan to drop some pearls of wisdom.

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Wisdom dispensed. Don self satisfied look.

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Then some bitches showed up.

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Well, I orignally came on to post MrOofs wedding pictures, but did this instead. Wedding pics tomorrow. Maybe

SW Fox Update

Well, I went and did it.

I decided to be a little bit crazy and head to the land of the sun for a little "face time" with my friends from the Foxpro community. We all chat or tweet or email on an almost daily basis, but we only have a few times per year to actually "see" each other, and SWFox has to be the mac-daddy of the times we can get together.

The weather in Buffalo was cold, rainy and a perfect precursor if not polar opposite to the weather here in Phoenix. A quick hop to Philly on a crowded DC9 was a bit of a hassle, but not too bad. The plane was a bit late, so I had to hustle from terminal B to A to catch the flight to Phoenix. It was nice that the plane had a lot of vacancies which allowed me to have row 26 all to myself. I actually curled up on the whole 3 seats and had a bit of a nap and bing, we were landing. Cool!

Had to circle the Sky Harbor terminal a few times in order for the transportation to find another SWFox attendee who had also just arrived. A quick ride to the resort, and there I am.

Feeling a little like an interloper as I made my way to Chez Feltman, the suitcase clacking out a tempo as I get closer. Round the corner, and there it is, replete with many VFP'ers hanging out. Walt Krzystek, Kevin Cully, Doug Hennig, Kevin Ragsdale and a half dozen or so others. Rumour had it that the remainder of the gang was at the hot tub (A place which I will call "The Grotto" henceforth). A quick trip around the corner and we're together again. Jody, Toni, Cathy (the Angels), Craig, Alan, Mike, Steve, YAG!!!, Frank, Sam and a few others. We sang, we drank, we made meat helmets.

We called it a night (morning) at about 6am EST, which made for a continuous 24 hours for me and I was a bit tired. Got up this morning had some great conversation with my erstwhile roommate, had a bit of lunch, and am manning the booth for Matrix for a few hours.

If your here, come visit.

Charlie asks for assistance

SW Fox approaches. It is the preeminent (and only, I think) VFP conference held in the states. The quality of the speakers, facilities and people is second to none. Not to mention the October weather in Mesa isn't too bad when compared to Buffalo.

Alas, it was not in the stars for me to attend this year. I have to stay at the office to "tend the garden" as it were... In the words of Yoda, "Saddened, I was". But, as things often go... sometime during the intervening months our communities own "Charlies Angels"* suggested that I simply fly in over the weekend for the "social aspect" of the conference. Great idea, but implementation is generally more difficult than planning. Some plans we made for lightening the financial load went awry... So, here I am at the intersection of "Really want to" avenue and "Is that prudent?" boulevard. All domestic T's are crossed, however the financial I's aren't quite dotted and here is where the assistance part comes in.

For a donation to the "Help Charlie get to SW Fox" fund, daughter Steph (@Steph_Lyon on twitter) and I will make you a t-shirt with maybe a logo and / or a pithy phrase. I will bring these shirts to SW Fox for distribution (If you're not attending or don't know an attendee, we'll figure something out). We are kicking around a few ideas for the final design, so I will post the design Friday night (10/2/2009) .

Not looking to have the trip shouldered by others, just make it a bit easier financially. Shoot me a DM via twitter or an email if your interested in helping out or just want to flame me.

Peace

* Charlies Angels: Jody, Cathy, Toni - Because I coined the phrase somehow I was appointed Charlie, and I think Craig Bernston has already volunteered for the role of Bosley (all other roles remain open).

Ahh March has arrived

Have I ever mentioned that I hate February?

OK, hate is a strong word, but you know, if there is any month that needs an ass kicking, it's February. Ok, here's my points:

• It's too darn short! 28 days? C'mon. You know that February did something to someone to deserve that.
• Its chameleon like way of having 29 days every few years, its icy grip and its general lack of sunshine (for us Western NY residents), it's the one month that is just begging for it.
• Not to mention that for most the Christmas credit card bills really come home to roost and what with having one less week to pay.
• When you send out the mortgage you think "Didn't I just do this?"
• February follows January, the almost as icy, bigger sibling with its larger than life 31 days...

So how can you generate any kind of love for such a month? It's tough I tell you, tough!

But, in my never ending quest for self improvement, and general reduction of negativity in my life, I have decided to try and find a few things to like about the month. I'm not saying that we will have lunch any time soon, or exchanging torte recipies, but maybe if I can find a few rays of sunshine in its previously gray exterior, I might not feel so bad about it.

So here goes...

1. Well, as Februarys go, this one was rather unremarkable.*
2. It wasn't half as cold as January (this year).
3. I suppose there were some triumphs at work, we did get our behaviour classes up and their events being raised, much to the chagrin of my boss. I guess reading and re-reading the GOF design patterns book finally sunk in.
4. On a personal note, my daughters lacrosse team won two games in a row last month which for them is an acheivement (The lacrosse program at their school is in its' infancy).
5. To refute my previous weather claim might be going a bit far, however, I did get out and ride ten miles on the last day of the month. Frozen toes notwithstanding, it felt pretty good to get off the rollers and ride with the (skin numbing) wind in your face.
6. Finally, I found out that my good friend Jody Meyer was married to hubby Jeff on February 29th 2000, and her story might just warm the hardest of hearts if you care to read it.

So, I guess I have found a few points to take the edge off my terminal dislike of the month and I think its wonderful that there is almost a whole year before having to experience her unique 'joy' again...

Let's just see how March shapes up. Here's hoping that the months don't share any tips as they make their way past our lives and ours through theirs.

Until next time,
Marc




* We did have an incredibly tragic event happen locally during the month, but out of respect and dignity, I chose not to mention it. Maybe you should consider not mentioning it as well, no need to pile on. Thanks

Setting a foot on the path

{Deep cleansing breath}
Not sure where to begin on my first blog entry 'cause they say you only get one chance to make a first impression. Bah, what do they know anyway?

I have a hundred topics spinning through the rolodex of my mind, but it just doesn't want to stop on any one topic long enough for my fingers to begin their "keyboard dance". Unforunately, "Spinning the topic wheel" doesn't work in the blog-o-sphere.

Thought about a few good topics:

• A Tech blog entry where I could talk about my favorite programming language (VFP).


• Why I hate February.


• Drop my two Lincolns into the current debate about how social applications such as Twitter might be causing the death of blogs and wikis.


• In the animal kingdom, do dogs truly have "the life"?

None of these seemed a worthy topic of my first ever blog post. So, maybe I should take advantage of the spinning rolodex and spout some strange stream of conciousness ala Gord Downie but probably only Andrew McNeill and Doug Henning would know who he is and maybe some of the other Northerners might get it, but probably not.

Exercising my procrastination muscles... I read a few blogs to maybe "stoke the fire" of imagination but all that succeeded in doing was pouring a bit of precipitation onto the bonfire of my vanity and shaming me to the point of wondering why should I even write a blog when I really don't have anything to say.

Then, I hit upon it...

As none of you know (well some of you might, but if so, shhhhhh) , I used to have a much different career than I do presently. I still receive monetary compensation for performing this job, but it is more of a hobby these days. I used to spend months at at time riding buses with members of bands in a pastime some call "touring". It had its' good points, and its' bad, it wasn't quite hell, but you definitely could see it from there. Anyhow, last weekend I achieved the dream of many people and reduced my Bacon number to what used to be the lonliest number of one!!! That's right. I was the monitor engineer for Kevin Bacon and his brother Michael and the "Bacon Brothers Band".

The show itself was pretty good and for what its' worth, Kevin is as good of a musician as he is an actor (take that however you want), he plays 6 and 12 string guitars, harmonica, Djembe and bohdran and sings pretty well. Brother Michael plays acoustic and electric guitar, cello, and sings. Backed by another guitar player (Ira), bass (Paul), keys (Joe) and Frank on drums they were fairly polished as a band, and heck, the kids (audience) seemed to like them. Who am I to argue?

Consequentially, any of you who work with me (or just want to say you have, go on, you can do it) can now reduce your Bacon numbers to two!! If you don't have a clue as to what a Bacon number is, you can visit here for more information. You can also consult the Oracle of Bacon to compute Bacon numbers for other actors.

Well, for not having much to say, it appears as though I have made it to the bottom of my first blog post. Hope you enjoyed it.

Peace,
Marc