Frigging amazing. I remember how auto workers (in the 80s?) were (rightly so) afraid that these robots would be taking their jobs. It turned out that people were needed to program them (what you just saw was pretty good programming at work), AND people who could fix them when they broke. The only issue I had with this one’s programming was that “he” didn’t scoop up the bottle cap from the floor … [Read more...]
Books/movies – watch movie, read book or via versa?
July 25, 2018 By
True story time. I “found” a new sample book on my kindle the other day. Obviously I downloaded it myself, but don’t remember when nor why, since I didn’t recognize the title. Started to read the sample, got to the end of it and felt the book was worth spending ten bucks on it, and bought the full version about a week ago. Went back to the kindle store and learned a new movie is coming out … [Read more...]
Relaxing music video – drums
July 21, 2018 By
This is just so relaxing. Used to listen to a jazz drummer by the name of Billy Cobham all the time when I was a teen ager/young adult. Played his “Funky Thide of Sings” album over and over. https://www.facebook.com/DrumTalkTV/videos/1890765131002142/ … [Read more...]
iPad camera roll vs albums – not
December 27, 2016 By
A geek post regarding Apple devices - you might not understand if you don't have an "i-xxx" device. A month or ago, I looked at all the photos on the iPad (copied from my phone) and decided to finally organize them (more than a few thousand taken over the last few years) into "albums", in order to reduce the size of my "camera roll". This also includes any screen shots or pics I've downloaded … [Read more...]
Lost my cell phone, or so I thought
August 20, 2016 By
So. I left the house to do some errands this morning about an hour or so ago. Right when I was turning off my street, I remembered I had forgotten my phone. No worries I said, I don't need it. Did my errands, and came home, put away the groceries, dry cleaning, etc. Then remembered to go check the phone in case I had missed any calls/texts. Of course, couldn't find it where I usually put it upon … [Read more...]
IT departments – different standards, different policy/procedures
August 19, 2016 By
It's interesting: "large" (Fortune 500) companies with IT depts, each of them have their own way of doing things, their own policies and procedures, etc. Unisys was a bit "loosey-goosey" with the app I worked on, allowing the developers to move new code into production (I.e., having privileged / admin access). While, both Wells Fargo and USPS, definitely did NOT and do NOT allow this to be done … [Read more...]
First day at Thrivent
August 15, 2016 By
Day one over. Mostly on-boarding stuff, getting access to all things Thrivent. Reading some docs. Met two members of my team who are based here (both are almost straight out of college and are really nice fellows). The third member is based in MPLS and is on vac this week (but I've already met him during the interviewing process). The HQ here is a really nice, relaxing, gorgeous (huge) campus, … [Read more...]
Books and ethical quandary
August 11, 2016 By
A couple of weeks ago, BFF Rick and I were talking about the books we've been reading. I'm not sure if he reads at many as I do, but I respect his opinion on books. He indicated he had really enjoyed "Killing Lincoln" by Bill O'Reilly. I have just a little bit of animosity toward this fellow (read:idiot). I refuse to watch his show or even listen to him (or Rush L.) But, I did get myself a … [Read more...]
World Music
August 2, 2016 By
Well, I can tell this is going to be a very good day. I just shared a post of Asian (Chinese Lute) music and now here is a wonderful music video of toe-tapping Hispanic music. I have to admit, I liked this a bit better, because the video aspect captured my visual interest (in addition to the music itself). I love World Music! Thanks goes to Carlos Arturo Castellanos for … [Read more...]
Asian Music
August 2, 2016 By
Initially I was going to pass by this and not listen to it. But, I then remembered I love the group called "Twelve Girls Band" (having a few of their CDs), and so decided to give this a listen. Wow - she is amazing. Give it a listen if you have a couple of free mins. Thanks goes to Norm Witt for sharing. The World's Premiere Chinese Lute Virtuoso Plucks Out A Fiercely Impressive Tune … [Read more...]
Good photographer turns into average photographer
July 30, 2016 By
UGH. I used to be such a "good" photographer when I was much younger and/or when I had better eyesight. I rely too much on the camera to focus for me these days and/or to set the exposure for me. … [Read more...]
Third Trivent Financial interview scheduled for Thursday
July 26, 2016 By
Thrivent Financial job update: Three weeks ago, initial 15-20 min phone "get to know you" interview with director in Appleton, WI. Last week, three person video conference interview with mgr (WI), team lead (MPLS) and a non-team tech (WI). Not sure if mgr is the mgr of the team I would be on, or mgr of other teams. Got the impression they were mgr of other team(s), but could be mistaken. Call … [Read more...]
Dinner with Nancy and Lois, before seeing South Pacific
July 20, 2016 By
Hi there. This is story #2 from this past Saturday night. Story #1 was my encounter with a stranger in the parking lot before dinner at "The old spaghetti factory". Once I figured out how to pay for parking (had to download an app) and actually paid it, I walked across the street to the restaurant. I was still a bit early, and this place has a huge lobby with lots of elegant seating, so I took … [Read more...]
Friend with IT background unwilling to learn about new technologies(?), or just tired
July 18, 2016 By
Friend of mine (who shall remain nameless to protect the innocent) is an IT person with as many years of experience as myself. Wanted to share some "documents" with them. Me: "...Do you or use Dropbox?" Them: "Never heard of it." Well, OK, Then. I guess, based on your response, it seems you aren't even remotely interested in learning about it. Fine, be that way, I'll send them to you the … [Read more...]
Seeing South Pacific in the evening after having Lailah that afternoon
July 17, 2016 By
Huh. Well. Starting from around 5:30pm Friday, thru 11pm tonight, it's been a whirlwind of "activity", in the life of Brian. You can tell with my lame opening of "Huh. Well.", that I'm just too dad-blame tired right now (midnight) to write all about what's transpired during this 30 hour period, since it would probably take me a couple of hours to do it, and Mr. Crabby didn't get to take a nap … [Read more...]
Jesse Wiliams at the BET Awards
July 5, 2016 By
A fellow by the name of Jesse Williams gave an impassioned speech at the BET awards recently. It's been getting some (almost viral) press so I watched/listened to it, and didn't have any issue with it, actually thought it was a pretty good speech, and he's a very passionate, eloquent, articulate speaker. I'm not sure, but I may have even shared his speech here. At the time I thought no big deal - … [Read more...]
Photography and Fireworks
July 4, 2016 By
The problem with shooting 280 fireworks photos (in the space of thirty minutes), is trying to figure out which are the "truly great" and which are only "good", the easy part will be throwing out the junky ones. Some of the "good" ones look "artsy-fartsy", and while I like them, i don't think others would agree. Going to try to review them and post only the top 10 percent - we'll see how that goes. … [Read more...]
Tesla, Auto-Pilot, and software development
July 1, 2016 By
Reading a pretty cool and short (text)book (yawn), called "A gentle introduction to the art of object-oriented programming in Java. (yes, a truly exciting two volume set) Uses as an example, the programming of a robot. Reading this book, and also reading the recent news posted by my former colleague Charles Rader, about the first fatal accident with Tesla's autonomous self-driving car, makes me … [Read more...]
