So what is it you say you do here? What is my day like? Today I will step you through a typical day in the life of Brian. At around 7:35AM the lights turn on in the bedroom, bathroom, dining room and kitchen automatically. A text message gets sent to my phone "time to wake up." Of course since I hate morning I usually pull the covers over my face. So much for that alarm system. Then around 7:45 my cell phone alarm goes off. Then the in wall speakers then say "It is 7:45, time to get up" Of course, I don't like being told what to do so I am still in bed. I then reach over and grab my iTouch. It kind of reminds me of when I was in college and had to have a cigarrette in the morning to get me out of bed. I check my email, check the news and then turn on the Voice Alarm. By now it is 7:50 and the voice alarm says "15 minutes till your departure." I then hop out of bed and turn the shower on. I take a shower, brush my teeth, and shave. Depending on how late it is I may skip some of those steps. By 8:15 I am usually out in the kitchen making my V8 and bologna and cheese sandwich for breakfast, packing my lunch and taking my pills. The voice alarm reminds me of the time during my morning ritual. If I am successful with this ritual I should be out the door by 8:20. The lights then all turn off automatically when I leave. If I want to ensure my on time to workness I should leave by 8:15.

The drive to work has been tested to be roughly 42 minutes depending on lights. As I drive to work eating my bologna & cheese sandwich and drinking V8 I think to myself - If there was some kind of website that tracked the status of all of these lights I could determine my optimum speed, leave time and be able to get all green lights. I also take time to do a daily prayer for the family. Supposedly at 8:55 I should pull into the parking lot. I then go through the metal detector to get into the building and should be at my desk in a desk farm at 9AM sharp. Today it was 9:02 and that is not bad at all. Once at work I usually start by checking my email, checking the news and start to ramp up my mind. My current task is what I call a "hero task". I have been porting over 200,000 lines of VB code to C# since January and am close to finishing. Back in the day this task has probably cost over a million dollars and has failed most of the time. Companies just give up. I aim to do the impossible - one person, code porting to something that actually works without any old code. I think I will be successful. Of course it my belief that what I do will get quelched by management eventually so I am doing this task straight for the joy of coding, with no thought that it will actually make it into production. I have learned when you are in government work if you don't have low expectations you will eventually leave out of disappointment.

I usually eat around 11:30 at my desk or at Mango's - a good chicken pho restaurant nearby. Everytime I eat there I get Best Buy reward points. At around 5:30 I fill out my timesheet and leave for the day. I drive home a different way since school is out and there are no school zones. I usually get home at around 6:30. I check the mail and walk in. Holly is there with the baby making dinner. I give her and the baby a kiss and get a plate. Brennon is in his high chair and probably has already eaten. I ask "how was your day today" and she does the same. Afterwards I give Brennon a bottle and play with him a little. Sometimes I give him a bath, change him, put him in his PJs and put him to bed. That is usually by 7:30 since he starts to get grumpy. After that I am free for the evening. It usually involves TV, laptops, programming, surfing, Holly, dog walking, errands. Holly goes to bed around 10:00. I stay up till around 12:30 watching a movie and surfing and then go brush my teeth, clean my CPAP, plug in my phone and hop into bed and put on my CPAP. Sometimes I toss and turn for around 15 minutes, coughing as well. Then I fall asleep and do it all again the next day. What is everyone else's day like?

So I am looking forward to getting my new phone. The thing is they already assigned me a new phone number. The good news is I haven't yet cancelled my old phone number. Since I already have a google voice account I think I can transfer that over to Google Voice and have it redirect all calls to the new number. Or even legally I might be able to change my new number over to the old one when it gets here. We will see. All I know is I love my old phone number and want to keep it forever. I remember when I got it. I had arrived in Dallas in June of 1998 and needed a cell phone to call people. Just the 7 digits were pretty cool - 740-1776. It was Independence Day for Brian. July 4th 1776. Of course it wasn't perfect like 704-1776, but it was close enough. It was a phone number that was easy to remember by everyone.

During the past 12 years I have had many phones. It started with a big brick of a phone. I made sure to get it to have WML on it, so I could access the internet. I used it to create my new language for cell phones for Realpage. I called it BBML. Brian Bass Markup Language. After that job I jumped ship pretty quickly to a PDA phone. For a long time I was on Windows phones. Around 2003 I think I got a Nokia N-Gage - a gaming phone. It still had the internet but it was designed to play games. It was a phone way ahead of its time. Then I went back to a Windows smart phone until I got the first iPhone. Everyone was in line in the morning and that evening I walk right into the store and get my $500 cell phone for $200 and a new contract. My new phone is an even better deal - a $550 phone I am getting for 20 cents.

I guess I am a technology junkie. Last night as I tweaked homeseer. Holly watched as I made our house come alive. I spoke the words - "Computer" and heard back "Yes Sire". "Turn Chandelier On". "Do you want me to turn the Chandelier on?" "Yes". And all of a sudden the chandelier in the media room turns on. My home is alive. It's alive! Right now it's favorite thing to say is "I don't understand". But as I get better at programming it it will become smarter and more versatile. I said "Computer" "Yes Sire" "Get Weather." "Tomorrow it will be 80 degrees" I thought to myself. Well, I guess I no longer need a jacket. This morning as it sent me a text message "Brian, time to get up." I realized maybe I will get to work on time today. Back in the day all of the fruits of my programming could only be seen on a computer screen. Now that has changed. Programming the house is going to be fun.

On Friday we hung around the house. Apparently there is a Cowboy Chicken 15 minutes away in Frisco so I went there and got take out. They have alot of food for a reasonable price. When you go in to sit down they have neverending entrees. Meaning if you order the chicken you can eat until you are full. That is why Texas has one of the highest obesity rates. Anyways, it was good. So that evening I prepared for my first dip in our pool and hot tub. I turned on the heat and jets and went to pick up the chicken.

So after I eat I get my swimsuit on and towel and go out to the hot tub. Since it is 70 degrees out right now it is perfect weather for it all. As I approach the hot tub I notice something - there is no water in it. Ack. Apparently the pool people must have changed some kind of button or something. When I turned on the jets it drained the hot tub. So it was completely drained. When I turned the jets off it started to fill up again. I am going to get my pool service to fix that when they come back. Saturday the FIOS people came and installed another jack in the guest bedroom. I also worked on setting up more home automation features. My home now speaks to me. Of course it is only in the living room. Holly's mom came and babysat for Brennon and we went and saw "How to train your dragon" in 3D. It was pretty good. I wouldn't mind seeing it again. I was a little disappointed simply because I had raised expectations from the previews. Otherwise it was a fun little movie.

Sunday we went to church but came in late so we just hung around the kids playground with Brennon watching it on TV. that afternoon we went to visit mom. Her place has a church service at 2PM. That is the perfect time. I am thinking I might just do that every week and not have to get the caravan ready every Sunday morning. Although it is kind of weird being the only person under 65 there. Most of them are women too. Apparently males die earlier than females. I think it has something to do with the old style culture where men did more physical labor. Mom saw Brennon and all of the ladies commented how he has a cute smile. I know, he is already admired by all. We got him a walker and the picture on the box cover looks like him. I wonder if he could be a child superstar ;-)

Today was supposed to be the day when I got to get a new iPhone at the early discount. But it was not to be. When I went to AT&T's site it said I could upgrade on 4/27 when last week it said I could upgrade on 3/27. Ack. Something must have happened. The thing is I realize that I have almost the iPhone right now. I have an iTouch which has all my apps. It just doesn't have always on Internet. So I thought to myself what if I kept the iTouch with me and got a different phone? One that has tethering - sharing of its internet connections then I could have something new and still have access to all my apps. So I have officially jumped ship. It was rather easy and I ended up ordering it off of Amazon.com. I am now the proud owner of the world's biggest smart phone - The HTC HD2. It is a Windows Mobile 6.5 phone. I had to jump to T-Mobile to get it, which gave me the phone for almost nothing. That phone has an HD screen that is 4.3 inches. It can turn into an internet wifi spot for connecting to my iTouch. It has GPS, 5 MG Video Camera, SD Card Storage up to 32 gig, multi-tasking, multi-touch screen, flash support in the browser, and App store, compatible with older pocketpc games, office and is extremely fast. It is a computer in my pocket. That is all I ever wanted. Now, as far as making calls, we'll find out when it gets here.

Today Holly is home with Brennon cause Brennon has a cold. She needs it anyways as this week she has had to do paperwork and stay up to when I go to bed around midnight. Then she gets up at 5:30 to get the baby ready and to go to work. Sometimes Brennon gets up at 4AM and I can't hear a single peep so sad to say Holly has to do it. I actually did awake last night around 3AM to hear the baby crying in our room and Holly already up comforting him. It was weird cause I was probably 90% asleep. I noticed Holly was already up so I successfully went back to sleep with a crying baby in the room. The other night I was up till 1:30 with Brennon as he likes to wake up when I was going to bed at 12:45. I think I might have given Brennon my cold, if I have a cold. It may be allergies. I do go slower to figure out what is wrong. I do the checklist - changing, burping, eating, pacifier and then try to get him to sleep through some measure. Sometimes I think, well if he is going to cry and I've done all I can do what can I do?

Taking care of the baby during the day at our house is easier than being at work. I know, some stay at home moms will disagree, but it all depends on how much you choose to do and how much the baby sleeps. While you have the baby awake he gets your undivided attention so that is like work but there are fun moments when you play with him. You also can put the baby down in a crib or playpen for a little bit and eat, nap and watch tv. Also if you ignore housework there is no boss to give you a bad review or anything. I know I don't care if the house is dirty or not. So that part of the stay at home mom duty is not needed. When requests are made you don't ever have to do anything right away. Although I wonder how Brennon will react to our easy going personalities growing up.

My family is a bit different than most. I don't complain. I don't order around. I don't tell Holly to do anything at all. And in return she does the same thing. Can you imagine how relaxing our house is? I get homesick during the day. Our pre-marriage class at the church helped us iron out our roles and rules before we got married. Life is good and I have the best wife in the world. I think one of the main reasons I like her so much is because she is different from the women of my childhood. My mom demanded alot from me and even my sister did to. I was ordered around from a very young age and it never stopped. Everyone always did tell me what to do, and me being a passive person did not tell others back. I just ignored their requests or I complied just to get them to be quiet. That is why one of the rules in our house is "if you don't like something, do something about it" I will grant you there are some flaws in that and we do comprimise on many things, but we don't ever argue. Live and let live and don't keep score. I think if a most people had that philosophy there would be alot let stress in the world. I call it The Lazy Fair Philosophy.

I'd like to say Congrats to my wife's cousin who just had a baby. It is a girl named Riley who weighed in a very small 2 pounds 2 ounces. She was born 10 weeks early. She is breathing on her own so that is a very good sign. Prayers are welcome. It kind of takes me back to when Brennon was in the NICU when he was first born. It can be nerve wrecking going to the hospital every day and worrying about him. I was glad he was there for only a week. I can't imagine having to stay there for 2 months. His medical bill was like $28,000 for being in the hospital for one week. But because both me and my wife had two insurances it covered it all. I wonder how much it would be if we didn't have insurance or had to stay for 2 months?

Holly's current job is to teach, or babysit, 4 to 6 year olds who are developmentally delayed. It is interesting to hear how they will hit her and run around the room babbling. As a teacher she cannot legally do anything to discipline them. Even though those kids are delayed they still need discipline and alot of the mothers don't do it. It makes her think that alot of these kids will become institutionalized when they grow up because they aren't being taught to respect people. Parents have to do that. Some of the kids are blind. Others are deaf and most have low IQs. Some have to be spoon fed, fed through a tube and some are not even potty trained. Her job to me sounds like a babysitter, but I think to myself, a majority of people could not stomach that kind of job. I know I couldn't. I have a great admiration for what she does.

I am getting better at changing Brennon, but now that he is on solid food it starts to smell more. I haven't yet had to break out the scuba mask, but I can see it in the future. I remember hearing how back in the day dads didn't do anything like that. Nowadays if you don't change your kid you are thought of as uncaring. There are two moments in caring for a child when you get the biggest smiles. The first one is when you visit them in their crib when they are waking up. They look at you will those big eyes and smile and giggle. The second is putting them on the changing table and they look at you with those big eyes and smile and giggle. That's the best part. Now the rest, well, he'll grow out of it.

Last night I spent 3 hours putting together a desk for mom. It started months ago when mom said she wanted a desk for her room. Melinda agreed and told me to get mom a desk. Of course I got her the desk for her birthday. The thing is I ordered it from walmart.com. What that meant was mom would call me every other day - "where's my desk". Then when it got there it was in a box and I would then get a new call "when are going to put the desk together?" At which time I would say "Wednesday night."

So last Wednesday comes and I get there and open the box only to read the instructions and determine that I don't have the equipment. I needed a drill, a screwdriver, a hammer and a tape measure. So I then told her I have to go get that stuff. On Saturday I went to Home Depot to purchase said things. I took the instructions with me so I could remember what to get. I needed a new drill anyways as my old one was lost in the move. So I go to mom's room with the tools ready to put the things together. Then it happened. I forgot the drill. I must have left it at home depot. So I went back to home depot and in the parking lot I noticed that the drill had slid under the backseat. Happy that I found it I went back to mom's room to put it together. Then at her room it happened again. I lost the instructions. I searched her room, I searched the van, I searched everywhere. By that time I was ready to go home so I told mom I would download the instructions online and come back next week, knowing I would get calls about it every day.

As I was driving home I thougt, what if I left the instructions at Home Depot? So stopped by and looked in the carts - not there. Then I went inside to see if I left it at the counter. Not there. I talked to the clerk and she said she hadn't seen any. So as I walk to the parking lot, defeated, I spot on the ground the instructions. They are a little covered in dirt, but they are viable. I can't believe it. I walked back in to Home Depot and waved them in the air "I found them" I say victoriously. Then I knew I would be putting it together this week.

So last night I read the instructions. I follow it to a tee and as I do I start to laugh. The pieces are all kind of small. This desk is not an adult desk, it is a kids desk. However, it has 4 drawers and a good writing area. It is just a foot smaller than a normal desk, but mom is short anyways so it will work. Towards the end of my reading and following directions I start to wonder, what was the drill for? What was the tape measure for? In the end I had put it all together and never used the drill or the tape measure. As I put the drawers in and things start sticking I realize what it should have been used for - aligning the tracks. I was close enough to get them in. Just don't use the bottom drawer as it has a habit of falling out. I should have taken a victory lap as I completed my masterpiece. And people think nerds can't do carpentry...

This weekend we hung out around the house. Apparently even though it was the first day of spring it decided to snow. I suppose that is rule of Texas weather, given that it was 72 on Friday and snow on the ground on Sunday. We decided to watch some of the latest Rifftrax movies. For those who don't know Rifftrax is a comedy website made by the creators of Mystery Science Theater 3000. My wife is a big fan of the series. Anyways you download a Rifftrax to a movie - like Twilight:New Moon, play it on your computer in sync with the movie and these guys make fun of the movie every minute. That movie needed making fun of. It was so boring and they all, liked to talk, in pauses, during, the dialogue. We also saw the Rifftrax for Paranormal Activity. It was an ok movie. Kinda boring and easily was funny. It was kinda freaky cause it reminded me that I've got cameras all over the house that could detect "paranormal activity".

On Sunday I kept on flipping it over to the coverage of the new health care bill. If you remember back when I was solely working for my company I was trying to get health insurance and kept on being denied for "pre-existing" conditions. I noted having sleep apnea was akin to having cancer in the eyes of insurance companies. I knew then and there the system has to change. So when the bill got passed I was actually happy. It represents a win against evil corporations. It even makes me think I could go back to working for my business, get a contract and would not have to have Holly's school insurance cover us. I think there will become a new growth market for contractors, especially with the new tax breaks for small businesses.

People are always like ,"what about the benefits, the health insurance, that is why you need a permanent job". Now, not anymore. There are no pensions from corporations any more. There is little vacation days - maybe 2 weeks. 401Ks are limited in their investment options and historically have lost money that could have been in a savings account. The only pluses about 401Ks are if the employer puts money into it as well and the tax benifits. However if the value drops then it would have been better to have the cash on hand. Also, there are more rules to follow in a permanent job. You have to come in when they say and contractors can takes weeks of vacations and days off and not have to account for it, except in hours charged. It is very hard to come up with reasons to stay permanent except for the "job security", which we all know means nothing in todays economy. The average contract lasts 6 months and the average permanent job lasts 18 months.

Of course for me personally I do have some job security. I was a contractor for years and did note how I was the first to be cut when times were tough. Having a wife and child means I need some kind security, even if it is always at risk. Of course given that I am in the government sector and the government is growing by leaps and bounds means I will probably live out the rest of my days at the IRS in some form or fashion. This is the third time I have been here. They like me and keep getting me back. I might as well stay and enjoy the fruits of my labor. Of course having a job and health insurance is nothing compared to the family. So it is all good. I am happy the bill got passed just for the others out there who are looking for jobs and fear starting their own business. The time is now! Go for it!

Ah so last night I was talking about lessons learned with RideSearch. I told myself I would sell it after all the house fiasco happened so now I am going to concentrate on that. I would only sell it if I got something fair for it. Probably for $150,000 or more. I put alot of time and money into it and that is actually a steal for anyone interested. I accomplished alot and I tended to dwell upon my accomplishments to keep me going. Like the national press exposure and getting people in the country to actually use the site to carpool with. I never knew anyone who was able to do what I had done. Get on national newspapers, syndicated television and actually go all out into an idea. Right now because gas prices are rising it is getting around 15 people signing up a day. RideSearch.com is now up to 11,500 members. I am not even doing anything to maintain the site and it keeps on growing. I am just sitting here and people are signing up. I am sure there is a profit model within it. I just never developed it all the way because I had lost my initial dedication.

The lessons I learned were really internal lessons about myself. I suppose real wisdom is gained through experience. For instance I learned that it is okay to take big risks, but you need to be very critical of what you are doing before you jump into something. You need to really answer the unanswered questions and not just assume everything is going to work out. I learned that passion can be used to keep a person going through tough times, but when you lose hope in your idea, you lose your passion for it and then nothing can save it. I learned owning a business is a lot like having a child. You have to first decide if you want to bring something into this world. Is it worth it to affect your entire life and will it help you and the world? The decision to start a business means automatically you have to sacrifice. You have to sacrifice your time, money and sometimes rather foolishly, your relationships.

I learned to be critical. I learned to not take people at face value. I learned to be critical of myself as well. I came to a point where I had to be honest with who I really was. I was not a CEO. I was a software engineer trying to be a CEO. I've now got the CEO skills but I don't want to use them in a business role. I'd rather use them in a technology role. But during this time I did gain insight into another world. I realized the decisions executives make can affect everyone who look up to them. This other world though, is full of liars. It is sad to say but money is the bottom line, not people. Eventually I got a board of advisors and I realized what kept them going was their personal goals and usually they were selfish. And if anything got in the way of a personal or business goal a real businessman will take action. I learned that selling is lying to people to make them feel good about a product or service. See, my service was free. I had nothing to lie about. During my travels to various shows people always wanted to know what the catch was. There was no catch. But we are so used to being lied to, we now expect it. As for myself I can now see the forest and the trees. I can see peoples motives and am critical of everyone and everything. Sure I am trying to sell RideSearch for $150,000, but to be honest it is only worth it if the person buying it has a passion for business and people and that is a hard combination to have. It probably won't sell, but everything I do to get it to sell will have a purpose, something I missed having along the way.

Hmm, what to write about? Technology? Fun. Brennon? Cute. My life? Going well. My wife? Hot. My weight? I am still 20 pounds lost and going strong, however a side effect has been my wedding ring slipped off and is somewhere in the house I hope. I dreamt about finding it last night under my bed. So I looked and it wasn't there. My dog? Princess enjoys our new backyard. My family? My mom's desk arrived at her place the other day. This is going to take hours to put together. When the instructions call for a drill I know I am in trouble. I did put together Brennon's crib but it was easy because it had the tools that came with it and like 6 steps to put together.

I could talk about deep issues like spirituality. We have been lax in that lately, but I believe I am in a period of restoration. I think I even did a message on that back in the in the day - the key is to pray and hope for renewal. I could talk about life with a baby. He is cute and does something different every day. We are weaning him off the bottle at bedtime. Apparently that can cause bad habits when you use a bottle to put them to sleep. However, Brennon does sleep for like 10 hours at night. He might get up once a night. Now that the time has changed I can spend more time with him in the evenings. That is nice.

I could talk about the news. I don't do that much cause it is so blah. Like we are all waiting for the next earthquake. I guess it makes the news now more than ever. I could talk about passing the health care bill. I say yes to that cause I always got turned down for pre-existing conditions for personal health insurance. It is a big racket. Might as well be in my favor as opposed to corporations favor. I don't get the debt thing anyways. It is not like we didn't get into massive debt in the 80s to keep up with the cold war. Might as well do it to keep up with our health. I don't like to simplify things though because bills in congress are way more complex than we can understand and I trust no one to simplify it without bias. I guess I did write about things. And thus the title of this blog.. Thoughts.

So now my computer is talking but not saying anything. I am using the UltraHAL assistant software and Windows speech recognition. It still has a way to go but I think I just need to spend time training it. Those speech recognition programs need alot of speaking to to understand the way we talk. I had an idea for open air speech recognition and it seems to be working. Basically I got a bluetooth speakerphone and connected it to my laptop. I then connected the laptop to the living room TV. Now I can roam around the house with this portable bluetooth speakerphone and talk to my computer and it will talk back. I even setup an alarm to get me up this morning. It was a rooster crowing. Unfortunately I couldn't get it to stop so I turned off the speakerphone. Once I get it right it will be way futuristic. Last night though I had my "It's alive!" moment.

I am the family network administrator. I get the computers up and running and I get the home networked and media center active. That is a role they never talked about in marriage class. I think it is a new 21st century role. I will deal with things like helping Brennon with the internet and teaching him about it, as well as filtering out the bad stuff. I am still a protector, but instead of carrying a club I deal with the security systems and cameras. I deal with forwarding text messages when the motion detector sees someone at the front door. I will eventually setup the house robotics - in the future like the robotic sweeper and hopefully a robotic maid. Instead of dealing with changing the oil I will deal with changing the RAM and programming the house systems.

Of course we don't have to do any of that stuff, but it is fun and actually helpful. When Brennon is older computers are going to be even more intrusive he won't even know they are there, it will be hidden. He will talk to microphones and hear knowledge back on speakers. He will have a "tablet" for school that contains his textbooks. He will have a wearable music player/text messager for entertainment. He will have a portable drive on a necklace that will contain petabytes of all his files that he can access by speaking into the air and viewing on a projected surface. He will be able to automatically network wirelessly to any nearby console and see and hear anything that is on his drive. He will even play in 3D environments that he controls with his hands. See in the "old days" we had one computer that served many purposes - games, internet, typing, documents, email, chatting, painting, and many utilities. Still we didn't always know what they were capable of. Now we have multiple devices and multiple computers. The future is the Personal Area Network. The funny thing is all of this is not wishful thinking or imagining, we are capable of all of it now. We just haven't put 2 and 2 together, but we will and it will be fun.

So this weekend was the beginning of Holly's spring break. That is the one thing I envy about teachers - the time off, around 3 months out of the year. On Friday and Saturday we cleaned the old house out. It is now cleared out because on Monday I took the day off and went and closed. It was much easier than buying a house with less paperwork. We are now down to one house payment. Thank God. It was a miracle that we did not have overlapping payments. I even got some money for the house. Not that much but nevertheless it was something. Now if I was a super spender(which I am close) I would probably put it towards the down payment of a car. But driving mom's van is free so I am just going to stash it away and wait until the van dies.

On Saturday Jason, Holly and I went to Doug's kids birthday party at Chuck e Cheeses. We took Brennon and showed him to Doug's parents. I have taken to putting Brennon on my shoulders. He went to the doctors on Monday and weighed in at 20 pounds 5 ounces. He is around 29 inches long as well. We were told to start him on baby food. He gets this funny face when we feed him, like he wonders what it is he is tasting. The doctor heard his heart murmur. I guess he will have that as long as he has this bicuspid valve thing, although I thought the heart doc said his murmur was gone. The doc said Brennon looks good and is very responsive. He is now 90% for weight, 85% for height. He is growing like a weed. He says "dadadadada". I wonder if that counts?

On Sunday we just kind of chilled. I went to visit mom cause she had a list of demands. I have been visiting her 2 to 3 times a week now. Mom was sick this last week and someone stole some money out of her purse. I can't believe it. Even in an assisted living place there are crooks. This economy has affected everyone. I am glad I went to Fry's the other day and got a camera graphics card. I am now streaming and motion recording the cameras in my house. It took me a while to get it set up but it is well worth it. I need to be doing everything I can to protect me and my family from thieves. I think that is a lesson we should all learn. You don't know you are not safe until something happens so it is better to be prepared. The boy scout motto. Now all I need is a security badge and I will win at the pine wood derby.

So this weekend marks our 'spring forward' time of year where we set our clocks ahead an hour. I always got confused as to what that meant - do we really gain an extra hour or lose an hour? Off hand we all say we lose an extra hour because mathematically that makes sense - what is supposed to be an 8AM wakeup now feels like I am waking up at 7AM. Somehow we all accept that time as accurate. But what has always gotten me confused is that if we lose an hour how come the sun stays out longer in the summer? If we lose an hour why is it that the sun goes down later and later during the summer making it feel like we gained an hour? Yeah, I know, the angle of the planet.

And yet in the summer morning it is still light out. So if we didn't lose this precious hour that would mean that the sun would actually stay out until 10PM and come up at 7AM. Then in the winter when we are supposed to be gaining an hour all of a sudden the sun decides to go down by 6PM and up at 8AM making it feel like we lost a couple of hours even though we are supposed to be "gaining" an hour. I think I have figured out this conspiracy. It is because morning people don't like reality. If we didn't do the fall back then the sun would go down at 7PM thereby making the drive home from work have more light, but dark in the morning. Oh no, morning people can't handle that.

In reality if we kept the clocks the same, mornings would be dark during the winter. Of course I do realize it is all relative and deals with the orbits of the planet, but the relativism lies in that this whole spring forward fall back scheme benefits morning people. Recently the fall back was pushed out some weeks making sure we have more light in the morning. Cause they need to get up early and feed the cattle and slaughter the chickens. Wait, most people don't have farm animals, but yet our society acts like we all do and we all need to get up early. We seem to think if we are not up at the crack of dawn that we cannot be healty, wealthy and wise. That is the propoganda they spread. We do more work in one morning than some people do all day - another saying. It is a conspiracy I tell you.

Now that I think about what I just said was pretty stupid. If you paid attention you would notice that there is darkness in the morning after the spring forward as well. Of course it doesn't last long but nevertheless that fact goes against my little conspiracy theory. That's another example of someone leading someone down the conspiracy theory trail. I have no evidence backing anything up. Athlough it does sound like it fits my worldview so if you are into it come join my new cult. The cult of the evening people! Revenge! Don't set your clocks ahead this weekend. I dare you! Let my people go! Let us form into this little cult and do more work all evening than most people do all day. Late to bed, Late to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise! Viva la late bedtime! And now for the rest of the story.

I am looking at transforming my 2002 smart home into a 2010 smart home. What is a smart home you say? A smart home is a computer controlled home that controls systems such as lighting, security, music, video, temperature and anything else that can be automated.

The perfect smart home:
Multi-room Touchscreen Audio Out(Speakers)/In(Microphone), Video Out(Screen)/In(Camera)
Complete house lighting and dimming control from control panels
Complete Zoned Thermostat control from control panels
Ability to manage from iPhone and Web
Intercom system for front door with auto-lock and auto-open
Blind automation including raising and lowering
Pool and hot tub tempurature/jet/pump control

In detail it would have:
Multi-Camera Monitoring at once with motion detection texting and emailing.
Ability to pipe one rooms mics and video to other rooms in the house - baby monitor mode
Lighting based upon X10 or ZWave wireless controls. The central server will manage it.
Computer speech recognition for house/music/video control plus dictation of notes and email.
Plays different or the same music in each room. The touchpad will give the user the ability to select songs. The microphones will be able to select a song, play it and pause it.
Mutli-room intercom system that talks to other rooms. For example say "talk to office" and it will patch you through to the office.
Ability to schedule scenes:
night - like have ocean sounds playing at night with video of night ocean
morning - have sunrise video, sunrise up-dimming of lights, computer text-to-speech of morning news/emails/notes, voice-alarm throughout house
away - have motion detection lights, thermostat turned to power save
leave - lock door, energy saver mode, alarm system active
home - turns on HVAC an hour before coming home. Sets blinds and lighting to appropriate levels.

Solution: HP Slate computer control panels with integrated webcam/speaker/microphone. If microphone does not pickup well get usb viop speakerphone that has higher quality microphones and speakers.
Centralized server in one room that serves video/audio/cameras to the rest of the slates in the house.

Now back in the day the cost of this would be over $10,000. I think I could get it done for $2000. At first I was like why not use the new iPad for such a task and then I realized that an iPad had limitations. Most of it was hardware limitations. Being an Apple device you can't hook up networked computers via wifi. You can't share music with other computers in the house. You can't run any kind web server on an iPad. According to the news the year of the Tablet PC is upon us. My guess is they will all be around $500 which is great considering that technology was just around $2000 just last year. HP has announced a new Slate Computer which should come out in the summer to compete with the iPad. The time has come for multi-computer houses to be common with purposes for each computer. We are now free of the bounds of the "Desk" and the "Lap". We are free from wires. I shall definitely wait on buying all of that as prices are just going to keep going down. It makes me think though I could create a software company that manages home networks as I see it as a void that needs to be filled. I've got the experience with network managment software and I can see the possibilities. I even have the name and the domain name from an idea I had a while ago. "Freeverge.com" - coming soon to a store near you.

So I am learning how to save on expenses. It is rather enlightening. Apparently I have been able to get my prescripts from an online ordering company that will send me a three months supply of them for like $300 for 3 months. That is amazing considering I am taking 7 prescripts. I used to pay $300 for one month. Now I am actually saving $200 a month. I am shocked I have not done that before. So if you are like me and get prescripts I would order them through the mail, definitely. We are also learning how to save on things like tolls. At the very beginning of our move we were paying like $40 every week in tolls. Now we are taking side roads. Top off with saving a car payment from my recent fiasco and it is as if our house payment is the same as the old place. We are in financial stasis, I hope. More tests.

At my last doc appointment I got 2 scripts added. He did my lab work and did a detailed blood analysis. Apparently it is official that I have glucose intolerance - a precursor to diabetes. I asked my doctor for something to take for it cause I know the usual "diet and exercise" prescription is not always followed and 95% of the time does not work. So even though Actos is prescribed for diabetes he prescribed it for my pre-diabetes. I think that will stave off it. The doc even said I could lose weight by taking it, however I notice a side effect listed is actually weight gain. We shall see. The other one is niaspan. It is basically a vitamin and I am supposed to take it at night for high LDL. I can see why as it makes your face flush. I am not sure this is wise with rosacea but we shall see.

So you might think, wow Brian is heavily prescribed and is in bad health. It is actually the reverse. I am in excellent health. My blood pressure is now normal, usually 116/76. I no longer have chronic heartburn, rosacea or depression. My triglycerides are normal and my blood sugar will soon be normal. Can all of you "dieters" and "exercisors" say that? Do you even know what your levels are? It always boggles my mind how people who think they are "healthy" have no real idea if they are healthy or not. Only a doctor can say. My fear is not dying young but dying old. I think I could live to be over 100 and at that point I wonder if I will be pleasant to be around. I am not a hyochondriac because I don't think there is anything wrong with me. I actually think I am just fine.

I don't think I need to have any major lifestyle changes either. I am tired of doing that. I need to get into the old age stasis. Once we get accustomed to our patterns and habits our bodies usually overadjust accordingly. It is the adjustment that needs to be lessened. Our bodies aren't good at adjustments. If I started seriously dieting and exercising I would have to do that for the rest of my life and eventually my body will get used to it and adjust backwards. It is better to get to stasis and occaisionally eat low calorie food and occaisionally exercise. It seems to be working so far as I have lost 20 pounds without even trying. See I notice people in assisted living do the exact same thing every day. However, retirement looks kind of boring to me know. I think it is better just play with kids and get exercise chasing them around. Now that's fun.

Ah, so I was lucky in the total loss claim. I actually got a little more money than I owe. Thank God for that. The insurance company is paying the car off directly so I don't have to deal with it. I think it was because I put some down and I had a trade-in, the old PT Cruiser. I thought about getting a used PT Cruiser during this transition period but decided it wasn't worth it. Everyone asks me if I am going to get a new car. The answer is no. I am going to use mom's van. It works and can get me from point A to point B. With us having higher house, debt and utility payments, I think I will take advantage of the situation and do the Dave Ramsey style of driving around a junker. Then take that money and put it into payments and savings for a future car where I could pay for it up front. I've never done that. I can't imagine what it is like to go into a dealership and have that kind of negotiating power - "I will give you XX dollars for this car right now."

As for the future I would like to get the new Nissan Leaf electric car that comes out next year. It actually looks like a normal car and is pure electric. It is like a regular car and can go 100 miles on a single charge. I wouldn't use it to go on any cross country trips, but I would use it to get around Dallas. I estimate I spend $40 a week on gas for just one car. Imagine saving $2000 a year on gas. Then imagine getting a federal tax break of $7500 for buying it. Then imagine not having to get oil changed and having a car that doesn't make any noise and drives completely smooth. I do see gas prices going up next year even higher. I think though the major oil companies know what I know that $4 a gallon is the magic number where alternative sources become sought after. So my guess is it'll be around $3.50 a gallon next year. I just wonder if electric cars we be stolen as well.

In other news I am gutting the houses wires. Yesterday I started unplugging everything. It was unbeleivable how many wires I have in the entertainment center. It looks like spaghetti. Thankfully some wires have tape on them saying where they go to. I actually found the internet connection coming from the wall. My samsung DVD player now will play netflix! To me that represents a major accomplishment. That means that I got the internet router sending it to the home router and then sending internet downstairs to entertainment center. I told Holly I won't just get someone to come in and do it. I have to be the system administrator at home. I need to know what goes where. That's my job. In the end all systems will be talking to one another and I will be in complete control. As He-Man said "I have the power!"

Ah so, this weekend I relaxed a little bit and got to play with Brennon more. On Saturday we went to mom's and brought her a cake for her birthday. I am going to get her a desk for her room. Then we went to a friends home-warming party. It was weird cause there were 4 babies there. It was then when I realized what 95% percentile of height and weight means. He was almost as tall as a two year old standing up, just maybe 10 more inches. Another baby was there that was 7 months old and Brennon is 6 months old this week. Brennon looked like a giant comparitably. Part of me was like, Brennon is just so heavy - around 20 pounds. If he was lighter it would be easier to carry him around. I think the easiest way to do it is to put him on my shoulders.

I also fed him via a spoon this weekend. Holly has experience doing that cause she spoon feeds alot of the kids at her school. Brennon seems to be wondering what he was eating. It was weird cause it didn't look like he was swallowing, yet somehow the food was disappearing. He also needs some more clothes as he is now into 1 year old clothes. It is just weird to see him growing so quickly. I am going blink and he is going to be talking and walking. He is babbling and cooing right now. It is exciting because he is going to be talking soon and I wonder what he is going to say. His babysitter said she saw him roll over on his stomach. We haven't seen it, but he is very close. He will use momentum and turn to his side. He also loves hopping on his legs. If he does it too much he will spit up. I am getting better at watching how long it takes and stopping him before it happens.

What is cool about being a dad is that I can see him learning and figuring things out. I will be able to guide him and explain things to him and teach him how to be a leader. He will be like a sponge and will look up to me. I wonder though if he will be athletic or smart or both. It seems like anything is possible. I do know he will probably be a tall kid in his class cause he was born in September making him older. And then top off his bigness and he will likely win at races and sports. For Holly and I, character is probably the biggest thing we can teach him. Maybe he will be in cub scouts and the like. Saturday night we saw "Shutter Island". It was better than most movies. I'd give it 3 out of 5 stars. Of course I figured out things way early into the movie. Sometimes I wonder if it is better to turn off the brain when watching movies. More tests...

Ah, so I do believe I have an addiction. At first I was like, I don't need an iPhone, I'll just wait until March 27th when my 2 year contract is up and I can get another iPhone for $200 less than retail. So in the meantime I got this Samsung Go Phone. I shouldn't have done that. It was like going cold turkey. At first I was like, I can handle this, no problem. Hey my car was stolen, this is nothing. I believe it took 2 days for me to start wanting to surf the net and check my email whereever I was. Then came the workday. I always listen to music while I program, it makes me a happy programmer. So this week all of a sudden a quietness could be heard. I couldn't concentrate. I desired, I needed entertainment. All because I realized how truly boring my job was without it.

Then when I went in line to get my prescriptions, which can take 25 minutes I was sitting there wanting, needing, something to do. It felt like pangs, like I wanted to avoid boredom at any cost. I am not used to being bored at all. It was kind of like when I quit smoking 6 years ago. I could feel the desires, the craving for instant access. I needed to text, surf, listen to music, watch tv, watch movies, play games, record notes, and even surf the Bible. And there I was with this stupid Go phone. It didn't have Gmail. I tried frantically to have my email forwarded to text me. At least the Go phone can text. But alas, 160 characters does not an email make. As my frustration mounted I really wanted to take it out on my cheap phone. I wanted to get mad and smash it on the concrete. I think it would be cathartic.

Last night at Best Buy I looked and looked for a cheap substitute for under $75. The problem, there is no connectivity. I might get a good mp3 player, but no way to surf, text or check email. Finally I thought I had found some kind of $50 email, music, pre-pay phone from t-mobile. Then I read the fine print - works when activated for $50 for 1 month. So I put it down. By now I am jonesing for something, but I restrain myself, just like I did when I quit smoking. However, I already know an easy cure for this iPhone addiction. An iPhone. Why fight it? Luckily this morning I get a welcome surprise from Best Buy - $115 in gift certs. I went to it at lunch and got an iPod touch for only $75. Of course, connectivity is missing unless I am in a wifi hotspot, but it has apps and music and notes and movies and can play games just like an iPhone. I think I have found my pacifier.

And then this afternoon a miracle happened. I have taken the sullen remains of my iPhone to work with me and left it in my desk. I thought, hmm, maybe if I plug it in and turn it on, maybe it will work. Guess what? It did! Of course the screen is blotchy with water stain, but I can't believe it still works. The phone is dead on it, but the music is still there. I am listening to it right now. Ahhhh, finally I get entertained. I will keep the touch for our living room at home to control the house. It is a good home automation control panel and can watch the cameras. There is use for this after I get an activated iPhone. See I realize something. You can take my car, but for goodness sakes, don't take my iPhone.

Happy Birthday goes out to my mom, who is 70 years old today! That is a good milestone to reach. I only hope I can make it to 70. It is kind of weird because this is the one year where my mom will be twice as old as me. And then in 35 years I will be 70 and twice as old as Brennon. I can not even picture my sweet baby as a 35 year old. That boggles the mind. For mom's birthday we are visiting on Saturday with the baby and mom will get to show him off to all the residents. She should enjoy that.

The saga of our mystery electronic house continues. Last night a 3:30AM we hear a loud screetching alarm in our bedroom. Holly quickly awoke scared to death. It kind of freaked me out to. But my head started going over scenerios, things I never thought about. For instance, say you do have a burglar in the house, are you supposed to get out of bed to go check it out or is that dangerous? Should I brandish a weapon? I am of the opinion to let them steal and then call the cops when they are gone because they could be dangerous if confronted. But, the thing is I had no idea what that alarm meant. It didn't continually go off either. It went off for only like 30 seconds. Holly is like "Brian do something! What do we do?" I am like,"I don't know, well its turned off now." I was actually content with going back to sleep. Then about 10 seconds later we hear a thump and I knew I had to do something. But then I thought, "what if it is a smoke alarm? I should check that out. Well I guess if it is a burglur I should meet him and tell him to leave." So by my bed I have an X10 controller for the house. I decided to turn on all of the lights in the house. It did take a couple of minutes to do it.

Then I went out to the living room to check it out. Nothing. I checked the doors, nothing broken. I checked the windows, all is fine. I am like "What in the world was that alarm for?" So we go back to bed wondering what it could be. Our house has many alarms. There is even one if the refrigerator door is left open. It could be a smoke alarm going bad, maybe. Here is my theory. When I went to work this morning I noticed a flyer on our front door. Something tells me that the guy who put it there did so at 3:30AM. I think we have some kind of overnight active doorway sensor and it went off. I don't know though. What was the thump? Did the alarm scare somebody away? What is the alarm for? Ack. One of these days I'll figure it out.

On the lighter side of things I got into the new hot tub last night. It was pretty good. I turned the jets on and the backyard fiber optic lighting on. Saltwater pools are a bit different. There is no chlorine smell. It is like a hot jet bath. Then of course I did take a real bubble bath just because I have yet to clean the pool. I definitely need a pool service. The pools temp is set at 80 right now and I know if it was clean I could start swimming in it. Yes, I took a bubble bath and it was rather enjoyable. I think I had probably spent years just taking showers. My bathtub at my old home was one of the standard long tubs and a man of my size can't really fit that well. The new tub is a jetted circular tub. I dimmed the lights and played music on the bathroom speakers. I have to say, our quality of life has increased alot and so has the complexity. I think I need a bubble bath after the whirlwind I have been on. I am still manly even though I take bubble baths. I don't light candles. Go Cowboys!

Today I am going to pull up a soapbox and rant to get out my frustrations. The subject at hand is critical thinking. I believe a lack of critical thinking is the biggest thing wrong in America. In the dawn of the information age we were greeted with so much information coming at us electronically that we believed everything we read. Eventually it got so overwhelming and so unbelievable that we picked people and ideas that we trust, some based upon heritage others based upon how they matched some of our ideals. There were even some that based their most trusted advisors on looks, religion or how they criticize others. Then we became arrogant about our decision to go with one point of view. We closed our mind on options. We gave our selves sanity by dismissing everything else. But was it the right thing to do? Can we do a thorough research and fully understand the other sides point of view without losing your faith? Yes.

So what am I talking about? Hypocrisy. I am frustrated that there are no credible sources to be found that are cited in the liberal, mainstream and conservative cultures. Is Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck a credible source of environmental science? Not by a long shot. They cut out scientific papers and lie to people about their conclusions. Is an athiest a credible source for Christian information? No way, they only got so far as to deny Jesus and did not get into apologetics and understanding the true meaning of the Bible. Is a democrat a credible source for corporate economics? Traditionally no, they concern themselves with middle and lower class. Is a republican a credible source for government social programs? No, they do not see value in them and desire most to be cut, while people who have lived their entire lives working for the betterment of man have seen results. Is a politician a credible source for health care? No, they filter their advisors who have some financial stake in the outcome. Is a news article a credible source for delivering detailed analysis and objective truth? Not anymore. It is slanted both ways. Is a scientist a credible source for religion? No. Most scientists agree you should not put your faith in something that never has a 100% conclusion, although they do it all of the time. Is a pastor a credible source for peer reviewed science? No. They read their news in a filtered way and avoid contradictory scientific opinions of others. A truthful pastor should admit he knows nothing of detailed science and should not preach any scientific conclusions. All of these cases represent hypocrisy. Our culture is filled with so much we need critical thinking now more than ever.

See, I want my son to be able to look at all angles and not put his belief on something flimsy that is not tested. I want him to see the words and phrases people use to decieve others and to tell the difference between right and wrong. I want him to be able to admit when he is wrong. Sometimes it is one word or one sentence or even body language that can lead you the right judgement. First of all we have to back off our own arrogance. We humans are stupid. We don't understand the world. We don't understand how everything works. Everything we understand to be true is all based on faith. We humans live in a world of faith. We have faith the sun always shines. We have faith gravity works to keep us on the earth. We have faith that electricity powers everything. We have faith that the stars all shine at night. We have to believe our physical laws are correct otherwise we would be scared all of the time.

Why is critical thinking so important? Well it has to do with the consequences of being wrong. For instance if you are wrong in your decision to not follow Jesus a hot fiery place could be the outcome of that decision. If I am wrong in my decision to follow Jesus then what is the consequences of that? A moral family? Helping the less fortunate? Loving God and others as I love myself? If the AGW(anthropogenic global warming) deniers are wrong about global warming then a hot fiery place could be the outcome of that decision as well. If I am right about it then we can do something to try to stop it. The bottom line is you cannot trust anyone and you cannot make assumptions as to their trusted sources and where they got their information. I want the world to be critical of leaders, entertainers, newspapers, science and religion. I want everything to be peer reviewed. I want everthing to be put to the test by many people with different points of view. If you find yourself defending a person like "I heard the other day polar bears are growing from so and so" and your main point is how "so and so" is always right then you have been deceived. Always ask yourself,"Is this person a credible expert or does he want me to get mad at the opposition?" If you can ask then question then you are on your first step to the world of critical thinking. Ok, off my soapbox.

So this weekend I was able to take some time to do stuff. That is important. For instance I uploaded a movie of Brennon laughing to our media page and I uploaded pictures that have been sitting around in my camera since December. I also spent alot of time figuring out our home network. The problem was I was able to get the home router to get an IP Address but the internet traffic was not being translated. I figured out that when you connect two routers together you can use the same DNS entry for both. So 4.2.2.1 is a good one for FIOS customers. I was happy when it was fixed. I also decided to use the Premise Automation System currently installed just so I could get it up and running to its old state. Of course the lights still have yet to be controlled by the computer. I am thinking it has something to do with the Leviton Controller attached to the wrong COM port. I did figure out how to get the air conditioners controlled by the computer. And then I figured how to output the TV to the speakers in the house. I awoke to classical music playing in the bathroom. That was pretty cool.

I also turned on the illustrious heater for the hot tub and pool. Once I actually read the instructions it turns out the pool pump has to be turned on for the heater to work. So as I got up this morning steam was coming off the pool and hot tub. After today this week is expected to be sunny in the 50s. I think I will take a dip and see what happens. Time to start up the exercising again. Even my heel seems to have healed. Although since I have been eating at home and at work I seem to be maintaining my 20lbs loss. I think if I lost another 20lbs I would be able to fit in XL shirts again. I've got a ton of those shirts in boxes right now waiting for me to fit into them.

In other news we took Brennon to a wedding shower for Holly's cousin. He is already a popular kid with all the relatives admiring him. Mom turns 70 this week on March 4th. She wants us to bring Brennon over to her place to wow the other folks there. I went to visit her on Saturday and actually put up all of her bottles in a case and hung pictures. Mom has soo many bottles. I also looked at some old newspapers. There is one called "The Second Coming" and it was written in 1840. It goes through all of these Biblical calculations and ends up at 1936 being the second coming of Jesus. That just goes to show you - no one knows the time or date. But it was interesting reading their reasonings. The person who had this newspaper must have stashed it away somewhere just to make sure they didn't forget it. The weird thing is those old newspapers make you very itchy when you touch them. I think her oldest one dates back to 1804. That is over 200 years old. Anyways, it was good to get some stuff done. I dream of a day when there is nothing pressing on my schedule. Will it happen? We'll see.