Sunday, March 05, 2006

Fleece Pullovers




OK, so we're back to whining about the weather here. Which really isn't fair, because honestly it was a really nice weekend. My son actually had sun for his Little League evaluation on Saturday, and we got a chance to play some catch this afternoon too. But it was wet and windy enough this morning that we lost power for about an hour, which set me off.

Anyways --- my wife figured this out a long time before I did, but there's really nothing like a good fleece pullover when it feels raw and nasty outside. Wool sweaters are pretty good, but dang they're itchy. I get really claustrophobic beyond all appropriateness. But fleece is puffy and warm and all kinds of goodness without any of that nasty sheep issue.

My personal favorite is my new Disneyland hooded fleece sweatshirt that I got when we were down there in January. Fleece AND Disney, I mean, c'mon now.

Thursday, March 02, 2006

The Bosox




I've been a Red Sox fan forever. I grew up just outside of Boston, and the best thing ever was when my dad's consulting company got season tickets about twenty rows back from first base. Jim Rice, Dwight Evans, Butch Hobson (!), Eck, Pudge, Yaz ... jeez, I'm tearing up here. The absolute highlight of my young life was in 1978 when my dad's partner took me out of school to watch the one-game playoff against the Yankees. I was so depressed after that game --- but will never forget it all the same.

In 2004 my brother and I each flew into St. Louis for game 3 of the World Series. I bought tickets off of some broker on the net for an ridiculous sum, and we met his runner outside the will-call gate. We were amazed but there were almost as many Sox fans there as there were Cardinals fans. The folks around us were great; they gave us a hard time, but all in great spirit and they took it back from us with a smile.

I'm not sure what it is about baseball that is so great. But unlike George Will, I'm just going to enjoy it. Right now I'm watching the first game of the first ever World Baseball Classic --- Taipei against Korea. I hope this thing catches on, it'd be great to draw more countries into the sport.

Thermacare Heat Wraps




Thermacare heat wraps are just awesome. One of our family just had a surgery that is causing a lot of pain and these things are --- in some ways even better than the drugs --- really helping. When I get one of my ever-more-frequent weekend-warrior injuries I use them as well.

The schtick is that they get hot when exposed to the air, and they're lightly adhesive so that you can stick them in place under your clothes. They stay there for hours putting heat right where it helps the most. Very impressive.

I'm not doing so well on the one-post-a-day thing. Taking a new job put a bit of a cramp in my extracurricular time. I'll try to catch up over the next couple of weeks.

XML Schema




This is dorkorama extreme, but having just spent a few hours working at some new code, I have to say that XML Schema is just the greatest thing ever. It lets me use the freedom and flexibility of XML in my applications without having to worry about checking for valid input all over the map. When I read files in they either match or they don't --- and if they do I can make a lot of assumptions everywhere else I work with them.

I get really ticked off at Microsoft because they're constantly creating new technology that we don't really need --- yet another way to access databases, yet another new UI framework, blah blah blah. Mostly this just creates a constant spin cycle for app developers who get excited about new features, but don't deliver measurably better code. Schema is one of those very few new technologies that can really make a difference.

Disclaimer: I've been picking on Microsoft for years, pretty much since leaving ten years ago. Now I work there again. The difference? My complaints are slightly better informed. :)