Mr.Sharps.Com

Arizona

2011-12-31T20:32:00.000-08:00

While planning my trip home for thanksgiving, I realized that it would be cheaper to stop over in Phoenix than to fly through it. And with a few vacation days to spare, it was a no-brainer to take it as an opportunity to add another state to my list. The trip in general followed what seems to be a trend in my vacationing: a wholesale lack of preplanning, rapidly covering a lot of sites, and tons of road tripping.

Once I landed, I asked for suggestions from the locals, grabbed a couple of travel brochures, and surfed the web. It quickly became clear to me that I needed to see the Grand Canyon. But with an estimated travel time of 4 hours each way, I wasn’t sure if I’d need to get another hotel for the night and drive back the next day. I didn't. The drive was a blast! Between reviewing two new albums I picked up, listening to a bunch of podcasts, and reflecting on the events of the last year of my life, the road trip blew by. Plus, it really took less than 7 hours total. And, it included a brief stint on the historic Route 66!

The Grand Canyon itself was amazing; more so that I could put into words. Though I tried, its grandeur cannot be capture by a camera either. You really just need to go and see it yourself. No matter how immune you think you are to typical tourist sites, I’d bet that you’d still find it breathtaking.

What was also interesting about it is how comfortable the groundskeepers are with letting people fall off the edge of the canyon. There weren’t rails anywhere around it. As such, you may notice that the pictures of me in front of the canyon are a few feet from the edge. Seriously, it wasn’t windy or anything, but there is no way I’m letting some unforeseen gust of wind be my demise.

So, the next day I took a quick tour of Phoenix. Honestly, it is a nice city and all, but I didn’t really find much about it that was distinctly its own or a must see. So, I wrapped it up and, you guessed it, did more road tripping! This time: Tucson. The highlight for me was Mission San Xavier del Bac.

When it was all said and done, I was proud to return my Hyundai Accent to the rental car lot with 798 miles added it to it. I can’t wait visit my next state.

Pics

https://picasaweb.google.com/110551311021667955130/20111127Arizona?authuser=0&feat=directlink

King Memorial

2011-11-29T20:54:00.000-08:00

On an uncharacteristically warm Black Friday, my family headed to our nation’s capital to see the new Washington, D.C. Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial.

It was impressive to see that this monument to such a great leader was created using fundraised money and placed amongst statues of our nation’s greatest presidents. Surrounding the statue were 14 of Dr. King’s most profound quotes. Here is my personal favorite:

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."

For me, the visit was less about the greatness of one leader, but the combined sacrifices of so many that have afforded me the opportunity to live the quality of life that I do now. I hope that as I progress as a professional and as a person, I do them honor.

Links

Washington, D.C. Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial: http://www.mlkmemorial.org/

Happy Dennis Ritchie Day!

2011-10-30T21:41:00.000-07:00

On October 12th, 2011, the world of computer science suffered a great loss. Dennis Ritchie, the creator of the C programming language and co-creator the Unix operating system passed away. C is either a core technology of or a source of inspiration for all modern programming languages. Unix could be said to be equally influential in operating systems. To say that I owe my career to this man is a tremendous understatement.

Tim O’Reilly proposed that we celebrate his life on 10/30. In the spirit of this, please read O’Reilly’s post proposing the day which includes a brief, but much more fitting tribute to Mr. Ritchie.

Links
Dennis Ritchie Day Proposal Post: http://radar.oreilly.com/2011/10/dennis-ritchie-day.html

PCA HQ

2011-09-30T22:42:00.001-07:00

I grew up in Columbia, MD, a suburb about half way between Baltimore and Washington DC. Even as a little kid, I was fascinated with Porsches; be it Hotwheels replicas, Jazz (the Autobot from Transformers that could transform between a robot and a Martini Racing 935), or the various simulations in my favorite video games. In my adult life, I have been fortunate enough to own a Porsche and proudly joined the Porsche Club of America (PCA). As a member, I can’t help but smile when the monthly member magazine, Panorama arrives in my mailbox from an address in Columbia, MD.

Recently, I took a trip back to Columbia to visit family. As usual, the trip had me running all over my old stomping ground to catch up with as many high school and college friends and family member as possible. But this time around, I ended up with a free hour and my mom’s car while she got her nails done. So, I put the address of PCA’s headquarters into the navigation system and off I went.

Now, it was a Saturday afternoon when I was doing this. So, I kind of figured the office would be closed. Further, I assumed that since this really is a club off enthusiasts and not a blue chip company the office space would be a fairly small space in an office park. But that didn’t stop me from fantasizing. As I drove to my destination, I joked with a friend on the phone (don’t worry, it was hands free) about what would be ideal. The parking lot would be lined with exotic examples from Porsche’s stable. A 959, a Martini Racing car, maybe even an unannounced vehicle set to make its debut two years from now. The facilities would not be complete without a test track behind the building. Maybe a couple models posing next to the latest 911 for some random car magazine. And of course all visitors could buy their car of choice for 25% (ok, this all might not be funny to you, but the idea of actually getting a discount on anything from Porsche had to make you laugh)?

So, yeah, it didn’t quite live up to those expectations, but I really did luck out on my visit. I knew I was in the right place when I pulled into the parking lot and saw a Concours-ready 944 Turbo, Boxster, and Cayman. I was ready to take a quick photo of the outside office of the office and leave, but I noticed the lights were and people were moving around, so I headed in. The club’s National Secretary, Caren Cooper, greeted me. I told her my story and she informed me that I had actually just missed an open house. Apparently it was a big enough deal that the county executive dropped by and declared Sept. 24th ,2011 as Porsche Club of America Day. The up side of my tardiness was that I got my own private tour from Ms. Cooper! How’s that for dumb luck.

The tour started at a replica dinner table where the Porsche was founded over 50 years ago. Next to the table was a display case filled with Porsche related memorabilia. Perhaps the most interesting piece in the collection was a log book. Engineers and Porsche employees involved with the 356 checked out a test mule 356 named “Ferdinand” and left their comments in the book. The most noteworthy signature in the book: Ferdinand Porsche.

Also in this collection were notes from Dr. Helmut Bott, the designer of the legendary 959. When he passed away, Mr. Bott’s heirs offered the collection of notes to the Porsche factory to add to the Porsche Museum. The factory turned down the offer. Years later, younger Porsche family members were shocked to find out that the notes existed and were part of PCA’s collection.

Next was a showcase of winners of Winners of Porsche Parade events. Included in this collection was the original Porsche Parade trophy own loan from PCA charter member’s Jack and Ginny Case. At their request, the trophy remains in its glorious, unpolished state.

Unfortunately, the models posing next to 911s left a little to be desired. There actually was a section of the office space dedicated to staging and photographing vehicles. Club executive director, Vu T. H. Nguyen was kind enough to let me take a photo of him and his Black 996. He a handsome man and all, but doubt any of us will be looking forward to seeing him on the cover of next year’s Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition.

His car however, could grace the cover of any magazine. His black 996 was tricked out with black wheels, custom flat black hood, and rear spoiler inspired by the GT2RS. The rear spoiler was a real show piece. It sports a glossy black finish to match the car with the club name inscribed in a black matte finish. Now THAT is how to represent the club!

Even the conference room was overflowing with memorability. A map of the Weissach test track was framed and mounted on the wall. Apparently only a handful of these exist. In the corner was a pallet of vintage Porsche posters.

Perhaps the least exciting, but most necessary section of the office was the actual office space. Here, a handful of paid employees managed the club’s 105,000 members and roughly 3,000 events held annually. Most of this space was dedicated to archiving documents.

One nifty fact for us Seattleites is that the PCA logo light box was designed by Glass Art Print Company. You are probably more familiar with their more common sign manufactured for Starbucks.

Like an alarm clock waking me from a dream, my mobile phone rang. My mom was ready to be picked up. In parting, the club officials let me know that the doors are always open and that they are always happy to trade tales with fellow enthusiasts. So, if you get a chance, stop by.

Pics
https://picasaweb.google.com/110551311021667955130/PCAHQ?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCIbh2uzuzJDIdw&feat=directlink

Links
PCA: http://www.pca.org/

Hackathon

2011-08-31T21:01:00.000-07:00

I’ve been meaning to create a mobile app for UberNote for some time. But a combination of workload on the day job, other life priorities, and procrastination has kept me from it. But recently I have began to revisit the idea. And when AT&T’s Developer program sponsored an all-day hackathon, I figured it would be just the thing to get me in gear.

I’ve generally shied away from developer competitions. They are crowded and noisy which are bad for focused work, they encourage developers compete versus hone skills, and really, what worthwhile project could be coded in a day. And I guess you could say that all of these things were true. And, as with all things involving code, the group was 95+% male. But forget all of that, there is nowhere I would have rather been on that Saturday!

The morning started with all of the participants jammed into the main room of the ThinkSpace. While enjoying free bagels, we listened to lightening talks from the sponsors. These were actually very interesting. It was a great opportunity to learn and receive free samples for a lot of relevant technology. When the speeches concluded, we formed teams and spread out into the various rooms in the building. This and a good pair of headphones eliminated the crowded/noisy concern. Since I was working on a project of my own, I opted to work alone.

As with all things involving code, massive amounts of caffeine were at our disposal. A few hours in, Red Bull girls stopped by to hand out 16oz. cans. Combined with a sick playlist and the joy of writing code for myself and only myself, I really got my head into my code. I think I reached a state of nirvana.

That said, I did make it a point to spend code breaks and lunch talking with other developers. Despite the fact that it was a competition, everyone was very open to discuss ideas. It ended up learning about a lot of interesting groups and projects people were working on.

As for how much could be coded up in a day, I was surprised. Admittedly, I created a special branch of my code, did almost no error checking, and fudged a couple of UI elements. But I was able to knock out about half of the features I intended to include in the final version of the application. Plus I identified a few issues that need to be resolved in my implementation plan. And some of the things the groups managed to pull off were substantial. My personal favorite was a team that created a digital version of the ‘Love Contract’ from the Dave Chappelle Show (basically, it’s a contract a groupie must sign before getting intimate a celebrity) for tablets. But the most impressive app was an augmented reality game of laser tag using the camera on Windows Phone 7 phones. Two of the four teammates just graduated from high school.

Now if we could just get some more ladies to code …

Links
Thinkspace: http://thinkspace.com/

AT&T Developer Program: http://developer.att.com/developer/tier1page.jsp?passedItemId=100006&_requestid=54523

Mud

2011-07-17T00:30:00.000-07:00

This weekend, I got up bright and early, headed out past Fall City to Carnation, WA, and participated in the Survivor Mud Run. It’s basically a 5k with obstacles (running through tires, scaling walls, going over and under logs, etc.) set on a muddy course. Very muddy. But we’re in the Northwest, so it’s still cold and rainy in June, so on the day of the event, it was even more muddy!

I kind of thought I’d make it through the course with my shoes soaked and mud up to my knees. But knowing what I know now after the event, there must have been a meeting amongst the organizers where one stood up and said, ‘Yo! It’s like half way through the course and the participants can’t possibly be drenched in mud. How about we …’. At this point the course had us do things like, crawl through mud, slide down mud hills, and attempt to run over, only to sink into waist deep mud. We were on a farm. I really, really, really hope that was all mud.

But was it fun? Hell yeah! And the shower you take at home will almost feel like a spa treatment.

Links

Survivor Mud Run: http://www.survivormudrun.com/

Ridin’ & Road-side Dinin’

2011-06-18T17:17:00.000-07:00

So, what’s my next merit badge? A motorcycle endorsement.

I’ve been curious about this for a while. I have a lot of friends who are really in to bikes, so that has definitely spurred on the interest. When I realized that if you take a course you get to ride a bike that THEY provide, I was sold.

The class I took was 3 days. Friday evening in the class room, a full day of riding followed by a written test on Saturday, and another day of riding and the riding test Sunday. It was a lot of fun. I was surprised how quickly I could get up to speed and be competent on a motorcycle. That said, this is also the end of me and the biker lifestyle. Let’s be real, I’m a klutz and occasionally a bit of a hot head on the road. And on a motorcycle, your margin of error is very small. I know of no bikers who don’t have a story of how either they or someone close to them have been killed or seriously injured. I’m not trying to be that story for anyone; especially as it would get in the way of my true road-going dream of the Porsche 911.

After Sunday’s session, I found what could be my new favorite restaurant in the Puget Sound area: Sharps Roasthouse. Not Sharp’s, but Sharps! How can you not love a place with your namesake? For Seattleites, the Roasthouse, down by SeaTac airport is a sister to Von’s in downtown Seattle. Same cocktails, but bigger, more food options, and more beer options (like 500). The place will never win any culinary awards, but it's great pub grub. Instead of free bread, they offer you cornbread with maple butter while you decide on your main course and provide redhot mints (just like Von’s) when you are done.

Not a bad weekend if I do say so myself.

Links
Evergreen Safety Council: http://www.esc.org/
Sharps Roasthouse: http://www.sharpsroasthouse.com/

Speed Reading

2011-05-14T22:54:00.000-07:00

In my adult life, I have found reading to be one of life’s simple pleasures. Sadly, there is always waaay more things to read then time to do. And, I like to learn how to do things better. So speed reading has been an interest for quite some time. I once attended a free intro seminar and later bought some training software. But I couldn’t say I got anywhere with it. A couple of weeks ago, one of the ‘deal-per-day’ coupon sites offered a substantial discount on a course, so I jumped at the opportunity.

The one course was put on by Iris Reading. The key insight was to see the forest, and not get caught up in the trees. The course was not exactly what I thought it was going to be. But I felt that I walked away from the course with everything that I need to become a more efficient reader.

There seemed to be two themes of the course: tactics and techniques. I was really expecting the course to be more about tactics: How to read an article quicker. Here, there wasn’t too much new. Don’t read one word at a time. Don’t regress on a sentence. Don’t verbalize the words in your head. Do use your fingers to scroll along the words you read. I guess since I had some exposure to speed reading, it shouldn’t be surprising that I knew what to do. There is no magic pill; I just have to practice until I get better at it. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that I started the course reading at an above average pace. During the class, I had a 33% improvement in speed. If I keep at it, doubling my original speed is feasible. And the instructor gave us some drills to work on on our own.

What I did not expect was that half of the class was on techniques for reading more efficiently. This is where the ‘see the forest’ insight came into play. Have you ever found yourself reading something and lost interest or found the subsequent material irrelevant, but kept reading just to finish it? Stop! You don’t care so you and not gaining anything from it. And how can you possibly read quicker than ending immediately? Likewise, the instructor gave us a series of techniques for overviewing material, identifying useless sections, and knowing when to quit.

One technique the instructor challenged us to utilize was to read the first and last paragraph of all sections of a nonfiction book that we’ve wanted to read, but haven’t been able to get around to. Sure we’ll read less than 20% of the book, but we’ll probably walk away with a gist of 80% of the material. And that’s definitely better than waiting for that ‘someday’ to come when you’ll actually read it. I’ve found 17 books at home that I plan to try this on. Armed with these new skills, maybe I’ll actually manage to cover everything I want to read! Ok, maybe not. But definitely more!

Links
Iris Reading: http://www.irisreading.com/

MIX 11

2011-04-30T16:44:00.000-07:00

Last year around this time I wrote one of my most boring posts about watching a bunch of talks from the MIX 2010 conference. This year, I took it up a notch and went to the conference in Las Vegas! Let me tell you, it was sooo much better in person.

Mix is an annual conference hosted by Microsoft for developers and designer to discuss best practices and forthcoming technologies around web development on the Microsoft platform. This includes web development (ASP.Net, MVC, JavaScript, and Internet Explorer), mobile development (WP7 and connecting to rival platforms), and cloud technologies (all things Azure).

Like I said, attending definitely was a more valuable experience than just watching the recorded session. I actually got a set time to watch the majority of session I was interested in (there are still a handful I will go back and watch). It was a great opportunity to talk with developers/designers from diverse backgrounds, solving unique problems. And it was super nerdy. Where else could you go to see an XtraNormal video (NSFW) on the pains of developing websockets as the spec gets revised, the latest episode of the HaHa Show (Scott HAnselman and Phil HAack), and a lounge chair controlled by a Kinect? I definitely left feeling excited to get back to coding.

Links
MIX 2011: http://live.visitmix.com/

iPad 2 - Fail

2011-03-31T22:59:00.000-07:00

The last time I really got excited about the launch of a product enough to actually wait in line was for the Sega Dreamcast on 9/9/99. But a friend of mine is really excited about the iPad 2 and couldn't make the launch but does know how to press my geek buttons. So here I am.

the request came in the weekend before. I spent the week trying to get out of it. Could you preorder? How about online? What about other stores? No luck. At 3:45pm. I called the local apple store. The bad news is the was already a line of 300 people winding around the mall (part of which extended in front of the Microsoft store). The worse news was the rep was unable to give me a definite 'yes' or 'no' as to whether I would stand a chance. So off I went

Surprisingly, the trek from my office was quick. No traffic. Good parking. Once in line, the apple staffers were friendly; offering bottled water and cookies for all those who waited. To encourage the feint of heart (read: me) all of the store employees did a lap around the line hooting and hollering. The number of employees rivaled a college football team.

1715- some dude with a new ipad2 walks by vanna white-style showcasing his new shiny toy. I feel like doing that makes you a tool. But people in line applauded.

1730 - me and the dude in line behind me (he's my best friend for the next few hours. Let's call him Wilson) theorize that, based on the estimated length of line, frequency of groups of people waved forward, and size of groups, we could get one around 1900

1741 - the apple bouncer only let me into the next part of the line. Wilson got left behind. I'm so alone.

1800 - the wife of the guy two back said that one of the AT&T 3G models sold out. Apparently, the apple staff will start handing out slips. If you don't get one they don't have enough of the model you want

1815 - there are definite perks to being single. The lady significant others of Wilson and dude behind him keep dropping by to weaken the spirits. But these guys are resillient.

1930 - both couples are arguing

1945 - I have TWO of the magical cards that entitle me to an iPad.

2050 - front of the line

2051 - the apple store rep informs me that they are out of all models of interest (16-32gb wireless). So I buy a 64gb wireless and a 16gb for verizon. I'll see if anyone wants it; otherwise I'll put it on eBay.

Sent from my phone

Update:

Ok, this was a total waste of time. But at least I was able to make a little bit of profit by selling them on eBay (Which, sadly, went to fund my Mac Book Pro :)

Good Night. God Bless.

2011-02-24T22:44:00.000-08:00

Me: So I think I may have offended Russell Simmons with my question.

Friend: Uh, yeah. But you did raise a valid point.

The question in question:

A common narrative that I have heard is that successful people go through two phases in their lives. The first where they do what needs to be done to get to the top. The second, once they've reached the top, where they give back. How can the lessons from your book, 'Super Rich' be applied to people still in the first phase?

In asking this I meant that it is a common story of successful people, not necessarily him. I thought of the Kennedy's ties to bootlegging, Duke University's ties to tobacco, or Gates/Jobs/Zuckerberg not necessarily being the best of people while starting their company then looking for ways to give back. And I thought of myself as a person still trying to come up and wondering which was the right way to go about it. And if I did succeed using questionable means, would my sins be forgiven if I turned to philanthropy. Though, I guess it is worth noting that Simmons did sell drugs and is repeatedly questioned about the way Def Jam portrays women in music videos. I think I am digressing.

His answer was, albeit a bit frustrated, spot on. I am paraphrasing, but 'You missed it. Everything in this book I have done to get to where I am. Your work is your prayer'. That last sentence is powerful. It speaks to the idea that when you work on something great, you don't do it for money or fame. You do it to feel more connected with god and the talents given to you. If you stay connected, good things will happen.

Russell Simmons spoke at the Seattle Public Library tonight. He was here to promote his new book, Super Rich. The book is an expression of how he has learned to live a better life through the teaching of various religions and life practices such as Christianity, yoga, and veganism. Even the title of the book is impressive. A classic definition of rich is to have enough money to live of the interest. Essentially never needing to work again. Mr. Simmons takes it to the next level by defining super rich as 'the state of needed nothing'. Nirvana if you will.

Despite potentially getting off on the wrong foot, it was an honor to meet Mr. Simmons. As a hip hop fan and African American man, he is someone I truly look up to and who has influenced my life. Further, it is inspiring to see someone succeed while having some much interest in giving back, the well-being of others, and remaining so humble.

The Diet

2011-01-30T20:43:00.000-08:00

In the past, I have blogged about some of the interesting challenges I taken on for while pursuing physical fitness. But the biggest challenge for me is the diet. Calories in, calories out, right?

My friend J had this idea for the ultimate fitness book.

- Chapter 1: Intake - write down how many calories you ate today.

- Chapter 2: Output – write down the number of calories you burned today.

- Chapter 3: Analysis – subtract the number from Chapter two from the number from Chapter 1.

- Chapter 4: Strategy – make sure the number from Chapter 3 is less than or equal to zero.

- Chapter 5: Lifestyle – repeat Chapter 4 indefinitely.

But me, I tend to over think these things. I’ve always wanted to follow some name brand diet plan. But here are the problems I have ran into:

The Zone Diet – I think the idea of optimizing your ratio of grams of carbs, fat, and protein sounds like a mathematically sound approach. But actually trying to do that for each meal is damn near impossible.

Raw – The idea of eating primarily raw foods seems pretty exotic, simple, and fundamentally healthy. But in practice, this is pretty difficult too. Though the food is not cooked, it takes a lot of work to prepare. This isn’t really quick, cheap, or easy and can leave a lazy bachelor with a lot of rotting food in his kitchen.

Vegetarian – I have a friend of a friend that is a vegetarian and inspired me to take a closer look at this. The reason is that he is built. I always have thought of vegetarians that are in good shape as extremely lean. But he managed to main a vegetarian diet and sustain a substantial amount of muscle mass. That’d seem like a win/win, but with my allergies, I’d be down to a pretty limited set of sources of protein. So I don’t think this would work for me either.

The Movie, Food Matters – This movie encourages a raw/organic diet with mega doses of vitamins. I’m a bit skeptical on megadosing. I don’t think there is enough scientific evidence to support some of the claims that were made in the movie. It may not be fatal, but there are studies that have shown that the extra amounts of the vitamins will be pissed out, can cause toxic levels in the body that can trigger negative side-effects, or can interfere with prescribed medications.

I’ve ultimately determined that I need to devise a custom diet lifestyle for myself. It’s a work in progress, but here are it’s tenets:

- Try to have protein and produce with every meal.

- For my produce, eat more vegetables (bonus points for raw veggies). Seriously, when’s the last time you heard someone say, ‘dude, you’re really letting yourself go. You need to cut back on all those vegetables.’. Never. Not ever in the history of medicine and diet has that phrase ever been uttered!

- For protein, I am limiting myself to poultry. I am a HUGE lover of burgers. So I feel like eventually, I’ll create some exception to this rule. Like, one burger per month, or something. But red meat just seems like a gateway to a lot of poor meal choices. Like Burgers, hot dogs, Italian sandwiches, anything with bacon, etc.

- Start with the worst of the healthier stuff – I’m kind of afraid of tofu. Its texture scares me. But it needs to be in my mix if I am losing red meat. So my game plan is to start with fried tofu. As I get used to it, I will then switch to the healthier methods of preparation. I think this is a good strategy for most healthy alternatives.

- Vary what I eat so I don’t get bored. My current experiment is sprouting. I’m still not exactly sure what to do with these. Right now I am just throwing them on my sandwiches; which is tasty.

- Shop and cook weekly. This isn’t too overwhelming a time commitment, but it keeps me consistent and stocked up with the good stuff.

- Shop at the Pike Place Market. It’s kind of embarrassing that I live so close to this landmark and haven’t used it more. Cheap, fresh, local produce.

- Shop at the yuppie markets (e.g. Whole Foods). It is a little more expensive, but they have a better selection of healthy options.

- Drink lots of water.

- Have a few bad meals. It’s ok to enjoy some junk food.

- Slow down my pace of eating and practice portion control. Yeah, this one is a work in progress.

- Accept that this is a transition and don’t expect everything to be perfect immediately.

- Have Fun!

Licensed Mixologist

2010-12-11T17:35:00.000-08:00

Somewhere on my list of things I've wanted to do for a long time is, 'be a bartender'. But it always seemed to be one of those things for, 'someday'. I mean, really, study to be a bartender?? It's kind of hard to justify when I maintain a daunting stack of books for my current career that I'll never get through. And I have no real intention of making a profession of it. I figure it would just be cool know how to make a good drink for friends at a party.

So it just so happens that one night I'm out at a bar on a slow night in Seattle and end up talking shop to the bartender. And quite a good bartender at that. He talked for sometime about what it took to be good at his craft. At some point, he mentioned that, 'Yeah, sure, you can get your license really quickly at some of these quicky courses, but ...blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.' I kind of stopped paying attention when he detailed the high road. But my ears perked, when he mentioned a quick and dirty solution. So after convincing him that I had no ambition of being a pro, he finally let slip that there's this guy, 'Kevin the Wine Guy' that can get you a license quick. So I went home, googled him, and signed up for a class.

The class was held in a fairly small office in an office plaza off Aurora ave in Seattle. I arrived at 9 AM on a Saturday not knowing exactly what to expect. One surprise was that I left not learning how to make a single drink. The goal of the course was to get you past the Mandatory Alcohol Server Training curriculum and to past the required exam for a Class 12 Mixologist Permit. This permit is required to serve or supervise the sale of alcohol. It really is focused on making sure you don't serve to minors and the visibly intoxicated; and that understand the consequences.

But that's not to say I felt let down or did not learn anything about being a bartender. Quite the contrary. Kevin "The Wine Guy" Stump is a personable, boisterous fellow with years of experience behind the bar. He covered the material by making note of the key points and explained the concepts using tales from his life. Along the way, he'd inject tips on how to be a good bartender. A pro. Things like the importance of the House Rules; essentially how your particular bar sets up rules stricter than the law to assure things don't get out of hand. Or, techniques for communication, like blaming The Man for the House Rules that you are stuck following. Even if you actually are The Man that instructs your employees to enforce them.

Getting the permit was a lot fun. Maybe someday, I'll get a chance to use it!

Links
Kevin The Wine Guy: http://kevthewineguy.com/
Liquor Licenses (WA State): http://www.liq.wa.gov/licensing/Mast.aspx

Family Portrait

2010-11-27T22:45:00.000-08:00

For our parents' anniversary, my sister and I decide to take a family portrait. A lot has changed in the 26 years since our last family portrait.
- I finally out grew my sister!
- Looks like I put on some 100 lbs.
- At the end of this photoshoot me and my sister were not denied McDonalds for acting up.
- My niece, Bri, did throw a temper tantrum. It did not prevent her from getting Chick-fil-A (kids have it so EASY these days)

Happy Thanksgiving!

That's Right, Boise!

2010-10-28T21:29:00.000-07:00

I had the opportunity to take a training course for work in one of four locations; Seattle, WA, Bellevue, WA, Portland, OR, or Boise, ID. Seeing the opportunity to add one more state to my list, I naturally chose Boise. After about 5 minutes of driving away from the airport, I was ready to write Boise (and the rest of Idaho) off as the most irrelevant place in the nation. But a couple of things changed my mind. First, the people. I was humbled by how much of an effort the locals made to reach out to me. Second was the handful of sites I did end up seeing in the town.

My first stop was Boise State University. They have a great football team and their homefield is know for its blue artificial turf. I had to see the ‘Smurf Turf’. Unfortunately, the team didn’t play a home game until I left the city and no tours were available during the days I was in town. As I walked around the stadium, I couldn’t help but notice the low fences and lack of security. It was all I could do to not try to sneak in. Luckily, there were a couple of places outside where you could still get a good view.

The most spectacular site in Boise is definitely the state capital. It is an imposing building from the outside, but the recently renovated interior is elegant. The first floor is completely composed of marble with marble columns extending to the top floor. While walking around, I ran across a security guard that was describing some of the recent renovations to a couple of locals. When I mentioned that this was my first visit to Boise, they invited me to the discussion and the guard gave us all an impromptu 30 minute tour of the building’s court rooms, congressional halls, and statues. Along the way he peppered in factoids and historical notes about the capital. It was very impressive.

To get a better sense of what the town has to offer, I decide to participate in a 4k scavenger hunt put on by a local running club. Once again, when a few of the contestants realized I was from out of town, they invited me to join their team. Along the way, they recommended local restaurants (Red Feather was their favorite because the owner does a lot of work to support the community), described the Basque heritage of Boise, and recommended a couple of other local attractions. It was a lot more interesting than the playlist on my ipod that I was planning to listen to.

Ok, so New York it is not, but what the town lacks in size, it more than makes up for in hospitality.

Pics: http://picasaweb.google.com/MrSharps/Boise

GMT

2010-09-30T23:23:00.000-07:00

Part 1 of the Dream Vacation Blog Series

Ok, I'm back from what was truly a dream vacation. The first stop was London! Here I hung out with my good friends Kudah and Shivani. They were great hosts, taking me to Gourmet Burger Kitchen (sorta like a British version of Red Robin) and the grounds for the 2012 Olympics. But the highlight for me was the Greenich Meantime Park!

Here's the context: In programming, datetimes can be a source of numerous issues. These can arise when you use an api that bases the time stored on the machine's current time. This can be ain issue for a web application where the timestamp is created on a server that is in a timezone different than the client machine. A common solution is to store all time ins UTC time and translate that to the local time of the client machine. In UTC, greenich meantime is the center; 0 hours ahead or behind. So after years of translate to this time, it was cool to be in the place where it all started!

I think this piece of trivia was lost on my fellow park dwellers, but it had a lot of other cool scientific/historic stuff too. It also sits on 0 degrees longitude. So you can literally have a foot in each hemisphere. Further, it had the telescope used to find Uranus. And if none of this works for you, it easily has one of the best views of London. It's a must see when visiting the UK!

Links
GMT vs. UTC: http://geography.about.com/od/timeandtimezones/a/gmtutc.htm

The Annual Review of Finances

2010-08-31T11:57:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, I conducted my 2nd annual Annual Review of my finances. Two years ago, I let go of my financial advisor. I wanted to have a greater amount of control and understanding of how I use my money. Plus, with the money I saved by not paying an advisor, I’d have more to invest. This would give me a buffer for the initial mistakes I’d make on the road to financial literacy.

The first challenge was that I needed to manage all of my money, not just the investments. The second was unraveling the investments made by my financial advisor. While he did a good job, it required far too much management and knowledge of investment products for me.

To attack the money management problem, I formed a strategy loosely based off of the book the book/blog I Will Teach You To Be Rich by Ramit Sethi. The key takeaways for me were

Automate money movement such that investments accounts and bills get paid automatically
Follow the 60% Rule: 10% savings, 10% invested, 10% expenses, 10% toys, 60% day-to-day expenses and taxes
Don’t get too fancy with investments. Even the best investment professionals struggle to beat the market. Focus instead on feeding as much as possible to a quality portfolio, such as a lifecycle fund.

Of course, I had to do my own tweaking. I still get paper bills as they are easier to review. Logging into a different site for each bill is tedious, and I realized I’m too lazy to do it. I manually monitor my spending as well. I never could fit my money management style into the format that sites like ~~Quicken~~, ~~Wesabi~~, and Mint prescribe. I have become fascinated with Yodlee. It does a good job of providing a unified dashboard for my major accounts. Plus, it exposes API’s for me to develop against in the future :)

So, what exactly does my financial review consist of? Basically, I review the last year of spending, review the last year of investing (rebalancing as needed), and determine ways to better tracking my finances for the next year. I currently do not have the time to learn and follow individual stocks. But one day, I’d like to set aside a pool of money for managing a stock portfolio. But for now, my system is inching me towards financial independence.

And what discussion about finances would be complete without the Benajamins:

STP: Epic Ride

2010-07-26T21:09:00.001-07:00

I am proud to say that earlier this month I completed Seattle to Portland (STP)! STP is a 203 mile bicycle ride between the two cities held annually with some 10,000 participants. Most ride bicycles, but part of the fun was seeing the different contraptions people used to make the trek. The list of things I saw or heard about include 2 and 3-people tandem bikes, a 3-person wide bicycle, a skateboard, a device that was essentially a moving elliptical machine, and a unicycle. Yes, a unicycle.

Of the three most popular endurance events (swimming, bicycling, and running), cycling presents a lot of challenges outside of ones physical abilities. Getting your bike to and from the event has been quite a challenge for me. Finding good routes can be difficult because they need to span 10’s of miles. As such it is also quite a time commitment. And of course, there is the maintenance of your equipment. Nothing will ruin a perfectly planned day quicker than a flat or a problematic chain. All of these led me to drag my feet on actually registering for the event. However, when the event sold-out, it made me really want to do it. So when they opened a 2^nd round of registrations I got really serious.

By far, the best part of STP was training. I am fortunate enough to have a friend, Andy, who is very serious about long distance cycling and has been for years. So when I mentioned I was interested in STP, he egged me on and invited me to join him on a few training rides. He laid out a couple of 70+ mile day trips that we’d describe as, ‘EPIC!’ It was here that I began to think of him as the ‘Ride Guru’. His years of cycling made him an endless source of knowledge on everything about cycling. From bike routes, to best equipment, to bicycle maintenance, to fine cuisine along the route, he knew it all. During the rides we’d trade tales about life, careers, and interests. I learned that you had to speak in chapters as the elements around you would occasionally force you to pause and focus on cycling. From time to time, Andy would say, ‘to make a long story short’ and I’d have to cut him off and tell him, ‘we’ve got 50 more miles, feel free to elaborate!’. I truly could not have done STP without him.

The morning of the event, I got up at 3:45 to pack and head to the start line at the University of Washington. At the start line, the announcer said, ‘Give your seat a pat for good luck. It is going to be your home for the next two days’. He wasn’t kidding. That Saturday and Sunday there was close to twelve hours between the times when I got on my bike to start the ride and when I racked it up for the day.

But I ride fairly slow. And I definitely stopped to enjoy the event. Along the way I’d occasionally post my status to Facebook with pictures of what I was seeing. It was encouraging to see my friends supporting me online throughout the event. I found my eating habits (and those of most participants) very interesting. I never really ate a meal until I was done cycling for the day. Instead I ate a lot of snacks that were mostly carbs. I guess that makes sense as what you really want is food that can quickly be converted to energy to keep you going.

However, the first day was a challenge. It was around 100 miles total. Up to this point, my longest ride was about 80 miles. I really began to appreciate little things like smooth pavement (less friction means more distance for the same effort) and flat surfaces (uphill is tiring, downhill can be scary). By the end of the day, I was beat.

The midpoint where most people stopped for the night was Centralia. Since the town has cyclists stop every year, they’ve gotten good at playing host. The local college had a small fair set up, plenty of space for tents, and rented out spots in the gym to sleep in. For dinner, they served pasta and broadcasted the Tour De France on the big screen.

When I woke up on Sunday, I was sore. It hurt to walk and my legs weren’t trying to do anything that resembled a pedaling motion. I had no idea how I was going to last. But surprisingly, day two was actually easier. In fact, a little after half time, I kind of got into a groove and did some of my best cycling of the event! I had a lot going for me that I did not expect. I had the well timed advice of my fellow participants. Two tips in particular (inflate your tires and pump with your arms to get up hills) made a huge difference. I also dabbled in some substance that eased the pain (ibuprofen) and got me hyped (Mountain Dew). Moreover, I was more in tune with what my body needed. If ever I was at a stop and debated whether or not I should use a restroom, I did. I drank more fluids, I knew how to tell when I was about to get hungry, and I made good use of the rest stops to stretch, relax, but not get too out of the zone. And, of course, I knew that at the end of the day, I’d actually reach the goal.

Perhaps the most surreal moment of the event was crossing the Oregon state line. It really dawned on me how far I had gone. From there, the last 50 to hit the center of Portland were a lot more relaxed. All in all an amazing experience.

Pics: http://picasaweb.google.com/MrSharps/20100718STP

Flying Wheels: DNF

2010-06-15T23:23:00.000-07:00

I always thought it would be cool to be on the injured reserve. To be the guy on the sidelines in street clothes looking cool. Enjoying the game without actually having to do anything. I’m not the most competitive guy in the world. And thus far in life, I’ve been pretty fortunate to not have any major injuries. But even my DNF on Flying Wheels taught me how bad of a feeling it is to not be able to participate in or finish something you set out to do.

Currently, I am in training to participate Seattle to Portland (STP). It is an annual event where cyclists ride their bikes from (wait for it) Seattle to Portland over the course of one or two days. Thus far, my training hasn’t gone to well. For about a month of my training plan, I didn’t even have the ability to transport my bike to local courses. Plus, I just haven’t set aside the appropriate amount of time training. To get up to 100 miles for two consecutive days, you need to repeatedly spend the better part of both of your weekend days cycling for the weeks in advance of the event. Add to that the fact that I didn’t register in time to get a guaranteed slot and I was just about ready to call it quits.

A friend of mine, Vaibhav is really into cycling. Knowing of my interests in STP, he challenged me to participate in Flying Wheels. It was a Thursday evening when he challenged me for the Saturday even. I felt like if I could do the 65 mile variant of the hilly event, I’d be good to go for the more flat STP. Then at the tail end of a cold, I figured, I’d be back to full strength by Saturday morning.
So Saturday, I woke up, and packed my bag with the following:

- foot long subway sandwich for two meals,
- cliff bar
- bottle of water
- Gatorade G series (primer goo to start, electrolyte drink for later in the event, protein drink for after)
- long sleeve shirt/pants if I got cold
- a 2nd shirt for after the event (the first would be soaked with sweat by the time I was done)

The last thing I heard before crossing the start line was a volunteer tell me, ‘we’ll have an ice cold beer waiting for you at the finish line’.

I’m really glad I went. It was a beautiful day. I believe it got up to about 70 degrees Fahrenheit. Plus, the course, starting in Redmond’s Marymoor park and winding through carnation, Monroe, and then back south, was chock full of scenic views. Taking all of this in is one of the best parts of cycling.

What this course taught me is that distance means nothing. I could have done the flat stretches, rolling hills, and valleys indefinitely. However, a few hundred feet up a steep incline was brutal. I guess I hadn’t really thought about it much, but bikes naturally roll down hills. That’s great for going down a hill, but going up it, you are working just to stay still. The first hill got me good. But I quickly learned how to pace myself better, humbly use the lower gears of my bike, and take advantage of a decline before a hill.

I’d even prefer pedaling through a flat stretch over a steep declining hill. You can get going really fast down a hill. If it is too steep, I use my brakes to keep in control. It doesn’t take much knock you off balance. One time I got lucky. When I was flying down a hill, I noticed a pothole too late and had to brace for it and take it. Luckily, it didn’t throw me off of my bike.

Unfortunately, a second pothole that I didn’t catch in time is ultimately what did me in. Somewhere around the 24th mile, I looked down and again saw a pothole that I didn’t have enough time to respond to. I thought I survived it, but my bike started making a funny sound. Next thing I know, I started to hear a hissing. So I jumped off my bike and found not one, but two flat tires.

You may not have noticed this, but my packing list did not include anything to fix a flat tire. My bike is fairly new and I figured I could just chance it that I wouldn’t run into any problems. Further, even if I did have the tube that I needed, I’d be at the mercy of whatever nice stranger I could find that would be generous enough to stop. I hadn’t taken the time to learn how to change a tire. So in other words: I was short.

Thankfully, the organizers of the event had thought through such scenarios. They had volunteers in cars with ham radio operators patrolling the course. That’s pretty impressive when you figure that it was a 100 mile main course with branching paths for the shorter routes. The volunteers were super friendly. I hope I didn’t come off to untoward. I tried my best to keep up with the polite small talk, but realizing my day was over put me in a sour mood.

The car ride back to the parking lot couldn’t have felt any longer. As my race day high faded, so did my feeling of invincibility. I spent about a third of the ride coughing up a lung. I didn’t appreciate the gorgeous mid-spring day that we were having. Instead, I focused on the packs of cyclists enjoying the course. Or, the rest stops where cyclists got to know one another, compared notes on the last few miles, and discussed strategy for the next stretch. The last thing I saw from the window of the Subaru was the finish line that I would not cross. There would be no ice cold beer for me to enjoy.

As I carried my bike across the parking lot, I finally truly understood the passion that people, including myself, have for these types of events. So not being able to participate in or complete a challenge you set for yourself hurts. Once I found my car, I Marymoor Park rather abruptly.

Once home I took a power nap then headed out to my favorite triathlon shop, Speedy Reedy. I fixed the flats, picked up some repair parts, and had a long discussion with one of the techs on proper bicycle maintenance. I’m a Scorpio and I like revenge, so YOU KNOW what I’m doing next June!

Links

Flying Wheels: http://www.cascade.org/EandR/flying/FW_Details.cfm

Maxwell and Jill Scott

2010-06-06T23:18:00.000-07:00

I can’t say that I’m the biggest fan of live music. Big crowds do nothing for me. And as a fan of hip-hop, I think that there are few acts that can manage to do more than just scream (with their boys) over their own songs. Ideally, the live performance would offer an experience that can’t created with a studio-mastered work. I have had some good experiences with John Legend, The Roots, and some local jazz acts. On Wednesday, I was fortunate enough to catch Jill Scott and Maxwell performing at Key Arena. It was an amazing performance.

I don’t know if this is true, but someone mentioned that a lot of artists like to start their tours in Seattle. It is a smaller media market to work out the kinks in your show, plus it is easy to sell out. Key Arena may not have been the perfect venue. It was a tad bit big for the more intimate styles of these two artists. Plus, the acoustics weren’t great. The Paramount would have been a better choice. But being practical, I guess it makes more sense to perform at the largest venue you can fill. And that they did. It was also nice that this was about the most black people I have ever seen in Seattle. For once, I wasn’t the minority.

But like I said, it was an amazing show. Jill Scott’s stage show brought to life a lot of songs that I had worn out in the early 2000’s and introduced me to songs from her latest album that I had yet to hear. Maxwell’s performance was masterful. When he first came out, the jumbotrons were broadcasting him in black and white; giving the show a sort of 60’s soul vibe.

The show for me was a much needed change of pace. In addition to being great entertainment, it was an opportunity to see the beauty that comes from being truly passionate about one's craft. When Maxwell and Jill Scott come to your town, go see them live!

Pics: http://picasaweb.google.com/MrSharps/20100602MaxwellJillScottConcert

Boxster Spyder Unveil

2010-05-16T10:18:00.000-07:00

Only Porsche could come up with a special convertible edition of a car that is only available as a convertible (Why the fixed-roof Cayman is a different car than the Boxster is a subject for another rant. I’ll spare you). That said, when Barrier, the local Porsche dealer, extended me an invitation to their unveiling of the latest offering from the German automaker, I jumped at the opportunity.

The Boxster Spyder is a beautiful car. It takes the already stunning Boxster and adds a more pronounced rear spoiler and rear body work reminiscent of the Carrera GT. Performance-wise, it adds 10 horsepower and removes 176 pounds. But the biggest difference between this car and your run of the mill Boxster is the roof. The convertible top on a traditional Boxster is mechanically controlled. The Spyder is 100% manual. Removing this machinery accounted for the majority of the weight loss. The dealers claimed that two people could remove the top in 2 minutes and one person could complete the task in about 5. Now, if it takes me about 30 minutes to get to work, I can’t see spending an additional 10 playing with the roof. I think this gets to the real intention of this car. It was most likely developed for someone who could afford to have a toy car for sunny days only. I’d imagine they’d probably never bother putting the top on, instead opting to just leave it roofless in a garage. So perhaps this car isn’t for me.

While at the dealership, I had a chance to see some of the more exotic Porsche vehicles. They also had a 911 GT3 RS. The GT3 is a version of 911 optimized for use on the track. The GT3 RS is a version of the GT3 further optimized for use on the track. Again, only Porsche could come up with a special track edition of a track edition of a sports car.

As a special treat, Barrier also had a 1987 Porsche 959 on display. This car has some history to it. It was Porsche’s supercar of the eighties; I guess a forerunner to the Carrera GT. And, of course, this is the car that Bill Gates attempted to import but failed to acquire for 13 years as it did not met US regulations. As rare of a car as it is, it was priced at $710k. Can you afford 10% down? If so, you’ve got a tough decision to make: get the 959 and start financing or buy the Boxster Spyder outright.

Pics: http://picasaweb.google.com/MrSharps/20100515BoxsterSpyderUnveiling

Meet the Deloaches

2010-04-30T00:05:00.000-07:00

I’ve tried time and time again to convince my sister to visit me during the summer. I believe Seattle has the best summers in the world. Long days. Warm, not hot, temperatures. And a city full of people who have been waiting for 8 months to go outside. This time she got a little closer and visited me in the spring. Lucky for us, most of the days were pleasant.

Adding to the fun, this time she decided to bring here whole family for their first trip to Seattle. Granted, Sabrina is only 9 months old, but it’s still a milestone.

Side Note: I have the cutest niece in the world! Now, I know everyone says that about their kids/family. And I generally get annoyed when people tell me this and then show me endless pictures of their little tykes. But this is different, I actually *do* have the world’s cutest niece. So let’s get back to the story and endless pictures of the little tyke.

Entertaining a family with a baby was definitely a new challenge for me. Movie theaters are out. And during day events, it’s best to not wear your best shirt as Bri may decide to mark her turf with a little spit-up. But what was great about it was that I gave me an excuse to do a lot of things around Seattle that I’ve wanted to do for a while. Like check out the Zoo. Seriously, I’ve been here for years and had never been. And who knew it was so big.

And of course we did our usual round of fine dining. The featured dinner for this trip was at the Space Needle. Sadly, the meal was quite disappointing. We expected to pay through the nose for the view (which was spectacular. The restaurant rotates giving you the full view of the city over the course of dinner). But I would have expected that the food would have matched the quality of well respected if not top-notch restaurant in the city. It fell way short.

But why dwell on the negative. Here are more shots from the week.

Pics: http://picasaweb.google.com/MrSharps/Deloaches

Nerd Film Festival

2010-03-28T14:35:00.000-07:00

One of the challenges of being a software developer is keeping up with new technology. I can remember being in High School and thinking, “as soon as I maser C++, I’ll be set!”. Boy was I ever wrong. Then came Java. Then came the LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, Php) stack. Then came the Microsoft .Net Stack (Sql Server, IIS, C#, ASP.Net). No matter how hard you try to specialize and therefore minimize your problem space, there will always be too many technologies to do a deep dive on.

Though I dabble in everything, the .Net Framework is definitely my most familiar set of tools. To keep up to date, I have a sizeable set of web sites, forums, blogs, community events, mailing lists, podcasts, and books that I review. Perhaps the most fun source of knowledge is the Microsoft conferences. Microsoft holds two a year. In November they hold the Professional Developers Conference (PDC). It covers the breadth of options for developing applications on Microsoft’s platforms. In March, the company holds its MIX conference. This one is focused primarily on web development. This includes cloud offerings, web development, mobile development, and design.

Actually attending these conferences is outside of my budget. However, Microsoft posts the video of all of the presentations on the conference web site. It is now becoming a tradition for me to wait until the Friday after the conference, download the videos of interest, and then burn them off to DVD. The nerd inside of me feels like a kid in a candy store. There are some many exciting new technologies to learn and play with. But, then the pragmatist in me dampens my enthusiasm. With each successive conference, the number of videos of interest grows. For this year’s Mix conference, there were 40 videos at 1 hour a piece. I’d need a solid work week to make my way through all of them. Heck, it took me 2 hours just to filter the list and download the videos. Sadly, I realize I will never make it through all of them. But it will be fun and informative to try!

The Dictionary: Remixed

2010-02-27T20:50:00.000-08:00

Disclaimer: One of the main goals of this web site is to show case things in my life that I have done and am proud of. That said I cringe as I write this post. See, like most good software projects, this one is running down to the wire. I am aiming to have the site up and running by end of day tomorrow; 2/28/10. But I’m feeling under the weather and have been taking it easy today. As such the schedule may slip a few days.

I have been pretty deep in nerd mode so far this year. A new job as a software consultant has kept me busy. Plus, it has opened my eyes to a lot of new developments in software. And every time I begin to understand a new technology, my mind naturally thinks, ‘hey, I could use that to …’

So enter my latest side project Dictionary: Remixed. Have you ever heard someone say, ‘If you look up the word X in the dictionary, you’ll see a picture of me’? Well, that’s exactly what this site is. I’ve been having a great time with the software design and architecture of the site. The challenge for me is to make its components loosely coupled enough that I can change them at will while keeping the overall application cohesive: it’s just an editable dictionary.

First, let’s talk about the components. Images are stored on a file share and definitions in a Sql Server database. The database use Entity Framework to map data to objects. These stores of data are exposed to the business layer via an interface (we’ll talk more about this later). The business layer is fairly thin. Its responsibilities are to apply rules based on configuration settings, filter the data received from the user interface, gather data from the applications and external data stores, and return data to the UI. This is implemented using Plain Old Common language runtime Objects (Pocos). The UI was implemented using ASP.Net MVC. You can email definitions out using a nifty little widget I found called ShareThis.

Second, coupling. In computer science, we use the phrase loosely coupled to describe software written such that components of an application need to know a minimum about the inner workings about one another. A real world analogy would be that you don’t really need to read the manual of a new car just as long as it has a steering wheel, brakes, and a gas pedal. The reason I desire to keep the components loosely coupled is that I hope to swap out most of them in time. I am ramping up on cloud technologies. In the near future, I plan to implement data stores using Amazon’s simple storage, SQL Azure, and Windows Azure storage. Hence the interface between the business layer and the data stores. As implemented, I should be able to select an different data store by simply changing one line in the web.config file. Likewise, I have ambitions of making this application accessible from mobile browsers, facebook, android, and the iphone. The next step is to create web services to replace my existing UI. Then, build thin clients for each target. Lastly, the actually definitions I present are pulled from Bing. It would be great to also be able to grab definitions from a less traditional site, like Urban Dictionary. Unfortunately, they don’t offer an api at this time. However, my application is architected in such a way that reading from additional sources won’t require refactoring. So if I really wanted slang in my application, I could either find another site or just scrape their site (and pray they don’t redesign their pages :)

Finally, cohesiveness. One challenge every developer faces is finding the happy medium between hard coding everything or making an application flexible enough to accommodate anything. In computer science, when we say hard coding, we mean explicitly setting a value instead of allowing it to be configured. For example, consider a program that calculates tips. I could quickly write it to just multiple whatever value you give me by 15%; which would be great until you read an article that says the new etiquette is 20%. Then I’d have to write it all over again. To make it infinitely flexible would be to create a programmable scientific calculator with 3D graphing capabilities; in which case, I’d never finish. In building Dictionary: Remixed, I faced similar challenges. To get it out the door, I did away with typical but nonessential features like user accounts, video uploads, and ads. Further, I opted for a phased approach for some of the more advanced stuff like cloud storage and the various client apps. Where I realized I couldn’t skimp was on logging, captchas, and quality coding conventions. Hopefully I made the right tradeoffs.

Spending my free time writing code. Yeah, that pretty much makes me the definition of a nerd.

Burger Quest – Lunchbox Laboratory

2010-01-23T17:39:00.000-08:00

Let's keep it real, Seattle isn't exactly known for its junk food. Given my eating habits, that's a good thing. But no matter where you are, you’ve got to have your spot when you are jonesing for some something unhealthy.

For a while, I was on a mission to find the closest thing to authentic New York pizza that I could find in Seattle. It doesn’t exist. Honorable mentions go to Piecora and Zeek’s (which isn’t even New York style, but just the best that Seattle has to offer), but there was no winner.

But a good cheeseburger has become my junk food of choice. Pizza is primarily a carb. It takes a lot to get truly full. Plus, you really want that dense bloated feeling when you’re done bingeing to send you off into a pleasant food-induced coma. This is where a burger really shines. My preferred toppings are blue cheese and bacon. I love to complete the meal with a side of onion rings, but sometimes that’s a little too much grease, so I’ll scale it back down to just french-fries.

Seattle actually has some good options for the burger connoisseur. Palace Kitchen and The Metropolitan Grill are two of the city’s top restaurants and top burgers. If you want something slightly less upscale, Jak’s Grill and XXX Rootbeer will do the trick. Sadly, I had to take Red Mill off the list. Many people, me included, would argue that they are the city’s best, but something in their ingredient list sets off my allergies.

Not on the list are Two Bells (just a little too heavy), Burgermaster (it’s just greasy), Kid Valley (great sides, generic burgers), and Dick’s Drive In. I have a special annoyance for Dick’s burgers because so many people born and raised in the area swear by them. I finally figured out why. At some point in every Dick’s burgers lover’s youth, either in high school or college, they’ve gone out with some friends and gotten wasted. At two in the morning, the options for grub were limited, but Dick’s Drive In was open. When the excess alcohol, nasty burger, and youthful ignorance mixed, a bond was formed between the restaurant and patron that will never be broken.

Today’s adventure was the Lunchbox Laboratory in Ballard. I read a review in the Seattle Weekly about this place about a year ago and knew I needed to check it out for myself. Their tagline is ‘the art and science of American comfort food’. The hype about this little hole in the wall is that they make great burgers, but are wildly experimentive in their ingredients, seasonings, and toppings. Case in point, their menu includes a burger composed of duck and pork called the dork burger. For my meal, I went with a Hothead; a burger with bacon, pepper jack cheese, and a jalapeno mustard. For my side of tatter tots, I selected Habenero Fire mustard and Satan’s Tears ketchup from the list of 8 special condiments. These are not to be confused with the 20-something freely available bottles of ketchup, mustard, and hot sauce that they themselves did not hand craft.

So how did this burger stack up? It’s kind of hard to say. First off, this place is not for the health conscious. The pile of bacon I pulled off my burger so I could actually bite it was more than I’ve eaten all year (ok, it’s only January. But seriously, it was a lot!). I ordered the diminutive quarter pound burger (half pound is the standard size) and couldn’t finish my meal. Ultimately I’d recommend this place to any burger lover. The burger was delicious, the seasonings were distinct, and the side dishes were plentiful. However, because they have such a wild array of flavors, you’ll probably never order the same burger twice and definitely never order just a plain cheese burger. Thus it will never be the place you go to for that burger you know and love.

So, after waxing poetic for so long about the best burgers in seattle, what is my current favorite? The Blue Ribbon Burger at Red Robin. Yeah, I know. I’m pretty embarrassed to admit I’m going with a national casual dining chain, but it’s really that good. And if I could only eat one junk food meal, it’s definitely what I’d go with. But hey, the burger quest continues. Who knows who will be the one to top it.

Links

Lunchbox Laboratory on UrbanSpoon (the Lunchbox Laboratory site does not seem to work): http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/1/335763/restaurant/Ballard/Lunchbox-Laboratory-Seattle

Seattle Weekly Review: http://www.seattleweekly.com/2008-05-14/food/lunchbox-laboratory-lab-coat-necessary.php

Seattle Metropolitan Magazine’s List of Best Burgers in Seattle: http://www.seattlemet.com/issues/archives/articles/bars-0509/

PRINCE: The Dream Project

2009-12-27T23:37:00.000-08:00

Earlier this month I was contacted by a lawyer from Microsoft to provide further details for a patent filed over three years ago. To some extent, I was a bit annoyed by the process. I had to find time to take a meeting during business hours for a company that no longer employs me, I spent my free time reviewing drafts of documents in legalese, and when everything was finalized, I had to fax off a signed copy of the full document (instead of just the one page I actually signed). Looking back, these are minor inconveniences for the chance to work on what was truly a dream project.

Ok, a little about me: I love video games. Have for as long as I can remember. When I was five years old, I knew that I wanted to make video games when I grew up. It’s what drove me to throw temper tantrums when my parents refused to buy me a video game system for fear of it rotting my brain. It’s what drove me to learn how to use a computer when my father brought one home from work and told me there was a directory filed with games on it. It’s what drove me to bring home my best report card when my parents told me they’d relent and buy me a Nintendo Entertainment System if I did well in all of my classes my first semester in a new middle school. Then lead me to a degree in computer science, then a masters in computer science with a concentration in computer graphics and human computer interaction. You get the point.

Upon graduation, I was passed over for a position at 3DO, developing High Heat Baseball. My next best option was to go to Microsoft. I had an offer to work in MSN. Ok, so it’s not working on Halo, but with luck, maybe I could work my way into their games division.

Working in MSN was a great experience. I learned what it was like to go through a professional development cycle, I found a mentor in DirectX, and I had access to the company store so I could get all Microsoft published games cheap. In fact, my favorite game from the Xbox/Playstation 2 era, Project Gotham Racing 2, was published by Microsoft Game Studios. When it came out, I killed my whole extended thanksgiving weekend beating it. I can remember my roommate and his girlfriend staring in amazement (ok, maybe it was more like pity) as I continued to play while they’d headed to and from their various weekend festivities. Finally, the project I was working on in MSN came to a conclusion and I felt it would be a good time for me to go job hunting. As luck would have it I found out about and landed a great position within Microsoft Game Studios as a tools integrator. Basically, I was a member of a shared technology team responsible for getting the technology to work for different game teams. First game? Project Gotham Racing 3!

Finally the Project Gotham Racing series was receiving the love and attention from the media and gamers that I felt it deserved for PGR2. As a launch title for the Xbox 360, PGR3 was a graphical showcase of what the console could do in stunning high definition 720p. So much so that the developers felt it worthwhile to include a photo mode where players could pause the game and take pictures of the cars and tracks, applying real world photography effects like adjustable aperture settings and sepia toning. The only problem was that once you took the picture you could only store it on your 360. Now what? What if you want to remind your friends that only have a Playstation 2 how obsolete their console is? What if you want to show your momma that you did get that gold medal on the Big Apple Loop Cone Challenge? What, are you going drag them over to your living room every time?? This is where PRINCE comes in.

PRINCE was the code name of a project to upload in game images from PGR3 through Xbox LIVE. After the initial launch of the game, there was interest in adding this feature for title update schedule several months later. One of the tools that I used internally during the game’s development had the ability to upload data from the game, so we used that as the basis for the feature. Though there was a good amount of interest in the feature, there weren’t a lot of resources available for the project. As such, the project landed on my shoulders. It was my first experience running a project. Luckily there was a great web development team that agreed to host the images and an ops team that could manage the servers. I also used a mentee from the test team as my test lead and routinely sought support from members of our engineering team. The feature officially went live in August of 2006. After taking a picture in game, players could hit the Y button to upload the image to the PGR3 community site in a gallery tied to your Windows Live Id.

In addition to creating a cool new feature, we created new technology. No one had ever created a feature to upload from a video game console to the web. Which means it is patentable. Microsoft provided a lawyer for filing the patent. We had a couple of meetings to describe the project and did numerous rounds of reviews before the application was officially submitted. As is tradition at Microsoft, our efforts were commemorated with a patent cube.

Now some 3 years later, we needed to defend some of the claims made in the application. I guess the stress of my day to day life made this initially seem like a chore. But it was good to talk with the guys I worked with on the project. Since I am no longer with the company, I was sent check-in notifications from our code versioning system and emails that I sent. I was kind of strange to have someone send me an old email from me. Even in the check-ins, I my comments were exuberant with the excitement of what we were doing.

What this really reminded me of is how fortunate I have been in my career. By my mid-twenties I had completed my biggest life objective, to develop a video game. In doing so, I became a part of one of my favorite franchises and did something that had never been done before. What I have learned along the path to completing this goal is providing the foundation for the next. My years in MSN gave me a taste of web development using .Net. Microsoft Game Studios gave me a chance to work with customers to define and deliver solutions using technology. A major challenge for me has been to define what’s next. I think I have the answer.

Links
Photo Mode Walkthru: http://picasaweb.google.com/MrSharps/PGR3PRINCEPhotoModeSlideShow
PGR3: http://projectgothamracing3.com/default.htm
PGR3 Photo Mode Site: http://projectgothamracing3.com/photos
PGR3 Photo Mode Competition: http://www.bizarrecreations.com/article.php?article_id=5215

Roughly One Quarter Iron

2009-11-29T14:46:00.000-08:00

It was a few days before my big race when Chris Lieto gave a speech at my local Road Runner shoe store. Mr. Lieto finished 2nd at Kona, one of the most competitive ironman races. Before attending, I didn’t know what to expect (I mean seriously, what was he going to say, ‘use the freestyle stroke, pedal hard, and run fast’??), but I got a lot out of it. He talked at length about having, ‘the best possible race’; for himself and his competitors. In events where he knew he would not win, he continued to challenge himself to do his best. This forced the winners to continue to push for their best for fear of being passed. Mr. Lieto considers himself a part of a community and wants to bring out the strongest character and highest quality of everyone in the community. I found that interesting in such a solitary sport. By the end of my race day, it finally made sense.

Over the weekend of November 8th, I was down in Miami to participate in the MiamiMan Triathlon. I had a great time in Miami! I haven’t visited the city in several years. Coming from the northwest, Miami’s tropical climate and strong Latin cultural influence almost made me feel like I was in a different country. Among the highlights of the vacation portion of the trip were an authentic Cuban sandwich, brunch on South Beach and VIP tickets to a Miami Heat game thanks to Alex! But like I said, I was there to participate in the triathlon. I competed in the international distance. At 1km swimming, 22 miles biking, and 6.6 miles running, it is sort of a deformed Olympic distance.

The usual suspects were involved. Rabiah, who encouraged me to do the ½ marathon last year was organizing a group of friends and family to for the event and competed in the ½ ironman distance herself. When I committed to the event, out of the blue my world traveling, humanitarian personal trainer landed back at my gym. Since he is no longer an employee at the gym, I traded him a contribution to his foundation Erace Poverty for a custom training plan.

There were some new players involved too. Locally, I joined TN Multisports. Most of the people in the club are a little more intense about triathlon than I am, but everyone is welcoming and friendly. They made great company for some of my open water swims and outdoor runs during training. For MiamiMan, we forged Team RNA. An elite team of athletes from around the country dedicated to dominating (read: participating in) and cheering on the sport of triathlon. Rabiah, the team captain, competed in the ½ ironman distance. I did the international distance. And Alex (swim), Rabiah’s father (bike), and Ade (run) combined to form a rally for the ½ ironman.

Race day began early. We got up around 4am to pack the truck and make our way to the event site. It was held at the Miami Zoo. For the run, we actually ran around the park, passing elephants, monkeys, and other wildlife. Kind of a surreal experience when at the end of a race when you are that tired.

All told, it took me over 4 hours to complete the event. It was definitely harder than the ½ marathon. No single event was worse, but having to break yourself into a new form of exercise three times, twice after what would qualify as a good workout, definitely is a unique challenge. The swim was fairly pleasant. The big concern was that it would be too warm to wear a wetsuit. Coming from the northwest, I didn’t think that was possible. The morning temperature stayed below the USA Triathlon’s cutoff temperature for wetsuits, but my arms were surprisingly warm in the suit. The bike presented a new challenge. I like to take it a little easy on this leg because I know how hard the run is going to be for me. Unfortunately, there was a very strong wind blowing that day. It sort of blew across us for the first half and then directly in our face for the second. I never thought that wind would prove to be such a factor for bikes so thin, but it felt like I was going uphill the whole second half. And the run was, well, the run. By that, I mean hard. Interestingly, I don’t think that the triathlon was a mentally tough as the half marathon. Perhaps it is because there was always a new milestone around the corner when switching the legs of the event.

That all said, this was not a pretty event. I don’t think anyone from team RNA did as well as they wanted. Since I did most of my bike training on a stationary bike, I was not used to reaching for my water bottle. Since I felt ok during the ride, I didn’t drink enough water. It came back to haunt me during the run. I got so dehydrated that I needed to walk a little bit of the leg.

After the event, I felt a little disappointed in myself. But then I thought about Mr. Lieto’s presentation. I thought about the people who surrounded me. Who were pushing for the best in every aspect of their lives and were there to encourage and support me. While I will never match Lieto’s performance in triathlon, I walked away proud of myself and my team and thankful for everyone who got me there.

Links
Chris Lieto: http://www.chrislieto.com/
MiamiMan: http://www.miamimantriathlon.com/
Triathlon distances: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triathlon#Standard_race_distances

Failure :)

2009-10-31T12:34:00.000-07:00

It's been a pretty quiet month for me. A lot of grind, but not much shine. So I don't really have too much to talk about. So, I figured I'd take the easy way out and post a video.

The video is from a site called Bluefish TV, a site dedicated to promoting christian missions around the world. I can't really say that I know too much about the organization behind it, or, to be brutally honest, care. What I do care about is the message of the video. The video offers a quick list of some historical figures and describes their greatest failures. I can't say this is really much of a surprise. Pretty much every example of success I've ever heard of has been preceded and influenced by a great failure. This includes pretty much all of the biographies I read as a teenager, such as Malcolm X going to jail only to find out about the Nation of Islam. Or weightlifters lifting to failure with the intent of ripping muscle tissue to have it grow back larger. To stress testing servers in a lab so that you know when and how they'll fail so the won't in production. To Traf-O-Data being only a moderate success, but ultimately being the learning experience that taught Allen and Gates how start Microsoft. Put more succintly:

"You have to give yourself permission to fail so you can to give yourself permission to succeed."
- Lisa Nichols

I found the video motivational and a good reminder that the path to personal success is anything but linear. Anyway, enjoy the video!

Science Chicago

2009-09-30T18:00:00.000-07:00

Next Generation will always be my favorite video game magazine. It has been out of print for several years, but it was revolutionary for its time. Instead of appealing to kids, it recognized that gamers have grown up and that teenagers and adults loved the hobby too. In addition to coverage of the latest games, the magazine talked about the development process and business side of the industry. I can still remember the issue when they listed the most influential people in the video game industry. Among them was the manager of Microsoft’s DirectX technology. A black man! I was still in school at the time and felt very self-conscious about discussing my silly dream of one day working in the video games industry. Seeing a face I could relate to doing what I wanted to do was definitely encouraged me to keep going.

In that regard, I have been very fortunate. From Mr. Frankel giving me an opportunity to work in television production in middle school, to Mr. Lonnie King from church showing me how to lead the Men’s Day committee, to the Meyerhoff Scholarship staff and students who taught me to strive for academic excellence, to Dr. Bill Massey who taught me to strive for more, and of course my family and many more, I have always had someone to look up to when I was growing up.

It is kind of strange to think that I am in a position to be looked up to. Most days I think of all that I have yet to accomplish and feel frustrated with myself. However, I think if the younger version of me who read the Next Generation magazine had seen what I’ve managed to accomplish thus far, I think he’d be proud. So when my good friend Rabiah approached me about speaking to kids about careers in math and science, I accepted. I consider it an honor and a privilege to have the opportunity to help the next generation of kids reach their goals.

Dr. Rabiah Mayas is the Science Director of Science Chicago. Science Chicago is a yearlong program lead by the Museum of Science and Industry to encourage kids to take an interest in math and science. Check out my presentation in the videos below.

Panamera Premier

2009-08-20T23:10:00.000-07:00

I’ve gotta be honest. I can’t really say that I have been excited about Porsche’s upcoming sedan, the Panamera. I respect the fact that as a company they need to expand their market. I just wish that Porsche would create a new design language for its not-sport car offerings. The styling cues of the small and sleek Boxter/911 don’t scale up to the powerful and elegant Cayenne/Panamera. That said, when the local Porsche dealership sent me an invite to its premier party, I rsvp’d immediately.

And quite a party it was. I try to think of Porsche as a manufacturer of high performance vehicles, but they are a luxury brand and know how to cater to discriminating tastes. The event was held at a garage for private jets. When I entered the venue I was treated to a picturesque view of bright skies and vibrant forest in the distance while being surrounded by executive aircraft and perfectly detailed examples of the entire Porsche product range. Imported water, red and white wine, beer, and hors d'oeuvres were served at the open bar. If couldn’t tear yourself away from the automobiles, don’t worry. One of the lovely waitresses in the short dress would gladly take your order. If this isn’t motivation to be successful, I don’t know what is.

Once I saw the Panamera in person, I thought, ‘I get it’. The long nose and distinctive Porsche headlights looked powerful and elegant; pretty much what you’d expect from a front engine Porsche. The interior is huge and reminiscent of a 7-series BMW. But they took every chance they had to and some sport to the trim. The seats grip firmly (all four), the instrument panel is similar to the 911, and the center console extends the length of the cabin (much like a Mazda RX-8).

The real controversy around the car is its tail. The story goes that the CEO demanded that the roof be raised make the rear seats comfortable for adult passengers (note: Wendelin Wiedeking has since resigned). In doing he destroyed the design team’s ambitions of mimicking the sweeping tail line of the 911. Seeing the final product in person you realize that they almost got it to look right. Almost.

After looking at it for a few minutes, I wandered around to look at the rest of the lineup. I’m just not a sedan guy. There is nothing you could do to a sedan (not all-wheel drive, not a twin turbo charged v8, not a double clutch, not a fridge in the back seat. Nothing!) that would make it worth $150k to me. My wandering ended when I saw an old favorite. My dream car hasn’t changed.

Pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/MrSharps/20090820PanameraPremier?feat=directlink

The Cascade Loop

2009-07-12T23:11:00.000-07:00

I’ve been jonesing for a good road trip for a while. And sadly, as long as I’ve been in Seattle, I’ve never ventured much further east than Steven’s Pass. With a slow weekend on my hands, I took the advice of some colleagues and did the Cascade Loop.

The Cascade loop is 440 miles of scenic highway driving in the state of Washington. It stretches from Anacortes, though the Cascade Mountains, past the Columbia River, and back down through Leavenworth. In a lot of ways, it was reminiscent of my trip to Anchorage last year when I cruised the Seward Highway. While the Cascade can’t match the natural beauty of the Alaskan highway, it is truly amazing in its own right. The upside is that this time around, I did it with the top down in my Boxster with a full tank as opposed to a rental cavalier riding on fumes. My momma may read this, so I won’t go into the performance difference between the two cars. I’ll just say I didn’t quite match my freefall velocity form last weekend’s skydiving trip. Consistent with my usual weekend sense urgency, I got started bright and early at 1pm. And I stopped at a 7-11 to pick up a free Slurpee (Note: if you ever go to 7-11 on July 11th, you'll get a free 7.11oz slurpee. How cool is that?). I was originally planning to stop about half way through and find a hotel. However, I had such a great time driving and taking pictures I covered the whole route in one day!

Ok, one confession: the actual route takes 526 through the islands. I skipped this leg since I’ve already done the islands and knew it would substantially slow me down to have to either take a ferry or bridges. Instead, I took I-5 straight to Highway 20. The first half hour or so was kinda dull. The real fun started in Concrete (yup, that’s the name of the town). Here you leave the small towns and start getting into the long empty straights and winding country roads. It became a bit of a struggle to convince myself to stop every once in a while to see and shoot some of the sights I was flying by. The wineries and fish hatcheries got no love from me, but views of Skagit river and the Diablo and Ross lakes were breath taking. Plus, merging back into traffic required me to take my engine up to the red line for the first couple of gears.

Winthrop was half time for me. Upon entering the town I noticed a sign that read, ‘Limited parking for RV’s’. Shockingly, when I made it to the downtown strip, it was nothing like the bustling metropolis of Seattle (which, I guess is nothing like the bustling metropolis of, say a New York). Instead, I was greeted with a strip of quaint small shops and the local biker club. After grabbing a light lunch and another bottle of water, I was right back at it.

As much as you hear about the rain in Seattle, you’d never guess there would be parts of Washington as dry as the stretch between Winthrop and The Columbia River. With no small towns or rest stops, this section’s expansive views were a reminder of how big a world we really live in. With no small towns or rest stops, this section was also the fastest. I took some guilty pleasure seeing how many cars that past me when I pulled off to shoot the Columbia River I managed to catch up with.

My final stop was Leavenworth. This Bavarian themed town is a popular tourist attraction in Washington. For dinner? Tradition German fare, of course. Initially, I figured this would be where I stopped for the day. However, still full of energy, I decided to put the top up and finish the tour. By the time I entered King County’s east most limit, I was pretty much sick of driving. This was perfect, when I made it home a little after 11pm, I had completely exhausted my road trip desire. Gotta love Summers in Washington!

Links:
- Pics
- The Cascade Loop

Jump

2009-07-04T15:27:00.000-07:00

Now would be a good time to mention that I have a mild fear of heights. I don’t really like rollercoasters. I say a short prayer before taking off in a plane. So, when my good friend J mentioned that he was getting certified as a skydiver, I was happy for him, but not really interested. However, one day we started talking about it over IM and it didn’t sound that bad. I thought, if I could not be a wuss for about 60 seconds, I could totally do it. In true J fashion, he then kept egging me on and getting my friends involved until I agreed to do it. My friend Rod jumped too. The whole event was an interesting experiment in conquering a fear.

I knew for about a week that I’d be jumping on Friday. My general strategy was to not think too much about it (despite the previously mentioned friends sending me video a failed jump). We jumped in Snohimish, about a 45 minute drive north of Seattle. I was pretty cool until we got off the highway and into the surrounding area. Normally, the wide open fields, clear skies, and mountain views would be calming; however, this day it only served as a reminder of the vast open space that I’d be jumping into.

We jumped at Skydive Snohomish. The training was cool. I did a tandem jump, so there wasn’t really much to learn: smile, arch your body, and lift your feet when you land. They had us watch their own intentionally cheesy instructional video that walks though the whole jump. We then put on our equipment and met the tandem instructor we’d be jumping with. These guys are all certified and have jumped hundreds of times. Plus, the backpack they have carries a backup parachute and a computer that will automatically release a parachute after a certain amount of time if one hasn’t already been released. That said, I still had to have a brief chat with my instructor, Colin, to make sure he was generally happy, emotionally stable, and not going through a major breakup with a significant other.

I was calm for the plane ride up too. I spent most of it thinking about how I’ve spent my whole life afraid of this and how if I did this, I could do anything. The view going up was amazing as well. At altitude, a little green light comes on and they open the door. It is a strange feeling to be in a plane and see someone hop out. Even stranger to know you’re next.

This would be my second round of freaking out. We jump out at 13,500ft. and accelerate to 120mph. There is a little rail at the top of the door frame which I held on to for dear life. Colin told me to let go then started rocking. “1” he leans forward. “2” he leans forward. “3” we’re out of the plane. I think this is the most scarred is I’ve ever been in my life. It’s also why there’s no video on this post. I definitely screamed for the first couple of seconds. You are very aware that you’ve plummeting to the earth. However, after about five seconds, you begin to realize it is not going to get any worse. You can’t hit anything and die. So you might as well enjoy the view. This is where people fall in love with skydiving. The feel of the air is invigorating. The views are amazing 360 degrees. It is a feeling of freedom that can’t be match. That said, the feeling of a successful deployed parachute is even better.

You’ve got a couple of minutes to get to the ground. The parachute has cords that let you turn and guide it. At a more relaxed pace you can enjoy the view and actually talk to your instructor. The landing was funny. Apparently you can either stand or slide down to the earth. At the last minute, my instructor decide to switch from standing to sliding so we hit pretty hard. Colin was very apologetic, but I thought it was kind of funny. I just jumped out of a plane 13,500ft. up and my butt’s a little sore. I think that’s a win!

Reasonable Results From My First Tri

2009-06-28T00:04:00.000-07:00

Today, I completed my first triathlon. The event was the ‘Get Out There and Tri’ put on by Mary Meyer Life Fitness (That's Ms. Meyer herself posing with me). It was a super sprint (swim 400m, bike 9 miles, run 1.5) so it wasn’t too long. The physical challenge for me was to get used to swimming and running in real world conditions: no ipod, pushing off pool walls, standing because the water is only 4ft deep, or stationary bikes with ESPN on the flat screen. Though, the biggest challenge was equipment. My goggles kept losing their band. I seem to have a body to fit a medium large wetsuit and the shoulders to fit a large. Based on advice, I went with the medium large and felt it fight my arms the whole swim. The worse was the bike. Let’s dedicate a paragraph to complaining about this before getting back on topic.

So, I don’t have a bike. I haven’t ridden one with wheels in 7 years and never one with as narrow of tires as the ones used for triathlons. I figured it’d make sense to rent one before buying. So I headed down to the local shop and make a reservation. While placing my order I mentioned my next problem: my car is too small to carry a bike and that I’d either need to find a ~~sucker~~ friend with a rack or rent a car for the weekend. The guy behind the counter disagrees and proudly relays the story of a friend with a Miata that did it. So I’m thinking, ‘A Boxster is waaay bigger than a Miata. I can do this!’. In life, there are a lot of things that can be done, quite a few less that should. It worked, but it involved …

Putting the top down (thank god it didn’t rain)
Removing the front tire
Placing the front of the bike such that I couldn’t shift into 2nd, 4th, or 6th
Hanging the seat out passenger side
Hold the bike in place so it wouldn’t knock the window switches (the seat went out the downed window)
Dodging a swinging pedal while driving 45mph
Not relying on the now hidden right rearview mirror
Not exceeding the speed limit in the slow lane (come on. Y’all know how I do)
Doing all this back and forth through 40 miles of downtown, a highway, country roads and traffic
Prayer

Once I got past fighting my equipment, the event was an absolute blast! Participants were split up into waves. First was the elite wave. These people did the whole event twice. Next were the men, then women, then seniors. I couldn’t imagine a better location for the tri. The water was reasonably warm and the bike route only had a couple of tough hills, but plenty of declines to keep you going.

The first leg was swimming. Here all the men passed me. It was neat being a part of a wave of swimmers in open water. Though turning at the markers was a bit disorienting. Once I came around the turn, I was blinded by the sun and just saw a sea of swim caps in front and to the right of me. It took me a little while to determine if I was to swim straight or diagonally. Once I got that figured out I was ok.

Next was the bike. We did two laps around 4.5 miles of local roads (where respectively the women and seniors passed me). I knew the bike was going to be my worse leg, and I was spot on in my expectation. I was hoping to get a few minutes to acclimate myself to the bike before the event started. Unfortunately, my chain fell off during the afore mentioned hell ride. I spent about half hour figuring out how to get it back in place and verifying it worked. During the first mile of the ride, I was playing with the gear shifts to figure out which was up and down. I never felt 100% comfortable on the bike. At lower speeds, it was very easy to wobble the bike by doing things like wiping my brow. So going downhill, I capped my speed to what I felt comfortable doing. And man, was that seat hard. I began to hurt after 5 miles. By mile 7 I was inadvertently giving my own personal homage to Michael Jackson, singing a ‘hooo’ or a ‘he he hee’ with each bump in the road.

The run was my strongest leg. What’s surprising is when you get off the bike and try to run, your legs feel pretty rubbery. They’ve been working, but haven’t had to deal with your weight. I was probably about a mile in before I felt like I was hitting my stride.

One other neat thing they had going on was the ‘Beat John Curley’ Challenge. If you registered to compete against the 47 year old local TV news personality and posted a better time, you were entered into a raffle. The winner was given $500 for the charity of their choice. He even spotted the field 3 seconds for each person who registered. Needless to say, I didn’t beat Mr. Curley. Though, I kind of wish I did. As part of the victory ceremony the winner took a picture while standing on his back. Problem was some skinny little woman won. I wanted to put some weight on him!

That about covers it. Next up: figure out my bike situation and train for a sprint triathlon.

Boston vs. Houston

2009-05-31T09:18:00.000-07:00

Some time ago I developed a hypothesis that you can either love Houston or Boston, but not both. Last weekend, I finally had the chance to test this out on myself.

Next time you have a conversation with someone where they mention one of the two cities, ask them what they think of the other. People who love Boston will talk about the city's college atmosphere, the water, and the history. When asked about Houston, they'll rant about the heat and humidity, crime, generic layout, and overall dirtiness of this city. Conversely, people who love Houston will talk about the great weather, friendly people, and it's up and coming economic power. Not too surprising, they'll also go on a diatribe about Boston's historically poor race relations, cold weather, and generally rude people.

A couple of years ago, a friend of mine got married just outside of Boston. In the city, I round the T, visited Harvard, and hit a fairly crowded night club with some friends in the wedding party. It was great. It was my first time in New England, so I had a great time touring the region as well. With a rental car, I managed to hit Connecticut and Rhode Island as well.

This year, I flew home to Maryland for Memorial Day to visit family and attend another friend's wedding in D.C. On the way back to Seattle, there was a problem with my connecting flight that stranded me in Houston. I was kind of annoyed as it killed my dinner plans, but I was given a free hotel, $300 travel voucher, the opportunity to add Texas to my visited states list, and gauge my feelings on Houston. So I was ok with it.

I don't think I'll ever go on a rant about Houston (unless this counts), but I'm definitely more of a Boston person. Houston had some nice spots. Rice University was beautiful as was Minute Maid Park. But I hated Houston's humidity. The people were very friendly, but seemed not very up on their city. I asked a couple of people about where to get a good steak and was routinely given the names of chain restaurants, including Outback. I asked a cab driver where I should go to get a feel of the city; he recommended a nice mall in the suburbs. I wouldn't rule out returning to Houston, but I'd need a well defined reason.

As in a lot of ways Boston is a bigger version of Seattle, I don't see my findings as much of a surprise. Oh well, one more state on the list. Plus, I'm rapidly developing a new hypothesis that within the state of Texas, Austin is the anti-Houston :)

Microsoft Certified Professional

2009-04-11T15:26:00.000-07:00

I am a Microsoft Certified Profession, certified in Microsoft .Net framework application development. W00t!

I love the .Net framework. I've been using it professionally and personally for about 5 years. Before that, I dabbled in Java in grad school. The idea of a virtual machine, managed memory, a strong class library, and a clean programming language excites me because it allows developers to write less plumbing and more logic. I prefer with .Net over Java because of its extensive access to the Windows operating system, the Visual Studio development environment, a class library that just made sense to me, and, the five+ years of Microsoft Kool-aid I drank :).

But unlike most languages I have learned, I never took a class on it or never finished a book about it. Everything I learned I learned on the job, surfing the web, or tinkering to get something to work. I knew there were holes in my knowledge base; hence the pursuit of the certification. I still don't know everything there is to know (and never will. With .Net 4 on the way, I will always need to keep learning) but at least I feel confident that I have a solid foundation.

I am very proud of how I prepared for this exam. Looking around the web, I never got a solid answer to the questions, "How long does it take to prepare?" and "What did you do to prepare?". So, here are my answers. The short answer: This book and 12 weeks where I studied for two hours a night, three nights a week.

The long answer: I came in with five-ish years of experience in .Net development, but studying for the exams and making sure you understood the topics the test makers deemed most important was something different. I only found one exam on the topic,
MCTS Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-536): Microsoft® .NET Framework Application Development Foundation, Second edition by Tony Northrup. Generally, I'm not a fan of Microsoft Press books. This book did nothing to change my mind. It had numerous errors, some sections did a poor job of going into adequate technical detail on the topic being covered, while some others elaborated on things that it would almost be impossible for a developer not to know. I almost lost my mind reading the chapter on App Domains. This is definitely one of the tougher topics to understand and explain. But the chapter read like the author didn't understand it so he emailed developer of the feature asking for an explanation. The developer, with minimal interest in explaining his genius work wrote a terse email and got back to coding. The author pasted in the reply and some reference material from MSDN and called it a day. To be fair, probably about 60% of the book was solid, there were some cool code examples, and most important, it got me to a passing score.

When I got the book, I looked at the table of contents and broke it down into what I thought I could realistically cover in a two hour timeframe. I generally did three sessions per week. I did all of the quizzes, labs, and scenarios, but none of the additional code projects. I included a list of my sessions below. Every couple of weeks I'd take a practice exam based on the chapters I had completed. Once I finished the book, I had about three weeks before the exam. I took a full practice exam and failed miserably. Based on the experience, I prioritized what sections I need to do more work on and which I need to just review. All told, I probably ended up reading the book twice and taking 4 practice exams. I supplemented these materials with Programming Visual C# 2005: The Base Class Library, by Franceso Balena and a Pass4Sure sample test. I didn't really use either of these that much and feel that they were not crucial to my success.

Sessions
01 - Chapter 1 - Framework Fundamentals
- Lesson 1: Using Value Types
- Lesson 2: Using Common Reference Types

02 - Chapter 1 - Framework Fundamentals
- Lesson 3: Constructing Classes
- Lesson 4: Converting Between Types

03 - Chapter 2 - Input/Output
- Lesson 1: Working with the File System
- Lesson 2: Reading and Writing Files and Streams

04 - Chapter 3 - Search, Modify, and Encoding Text
- Lesson 1: Regular Expressions

05 - Chapter 3 - Search, Modify, and Encoding Text
- Lesson 2: Encoding and Decoding

06 - Chapter 4 - Collections and Generics
- Lesson 1: Collections and Dictionaries
- Lesson 2: Generic Collections

07 - Chapter 5 - Serialization
- Lesson 1: Serializing Objects
- Lesson 2: XML Serialization

08 - Chapter 5 - Serialization
- Lesson 3: Custom Serialization

09 - Chapter 6 - Graphics
- Lesson 1: Drawing Graphics
- Lesson 2: Working with Images

10 - Chapter 6 - Graphics
- Lesson 3: Formatting Text

11 - Chapter 7 - Threading
- Lesson 1: Starting Multiple Threads
- Lesson 2: Managing Threads (Stop after 'Waiting for Threads to Complete')

12 - Chapter 7 - Threading
- Labs/Review/Scenarios

13 - Chapter 8 - Application Domains and Services
- Lesson 1: Creating Application Domains
- Lesson 2: Configuring Application Domains

14 - Chapter 8 - Application Domains and Services
- Lesson 3: Creating Windows Services

15 - Chapter 9 - Installing and Configuring Applications
- Lesson 1: Configuring Applications
- Lesson 2: Configuring the .Net Framework

16 - Chapter 9 - Installing and Configuring Applications
- Lesson 3: Installing Applications

17 - Chapter 10 - Logging Systems Management
- Lesson 1: Logging Application State
- Lesson 2: Working with Performance Counters

18 - Chapter 10 - Logging Systems Management
- Lesson 3: Managing Computers

19 - Chapter 11 - Application Security
- Lesson 1: Understanding Application Security

20 - Chapter 11 - Application Security
- Lesson 2: Using Declarative Security to Protect Assemblies
- Lesson 3: Using Declarative and Imperative Security to Protect Methods (Stop after, 'How to Use Permission Sets')

21 - Chapter 11 - Application Security
- Labs/Review/Scenarios

22 - Chapter 12 - User and Data Security
- Lesson 1: Authenticating and Authorizing Users

23 - Chapter 12 - User and Data Security
- Lesson 2: Using Access Control Lists
- Lesson 3: Encrypting and Decrypting Data (Stop after, 'Signing Files')

24 - Chapter 12 - User and Data Security
- Labs/Review/Scenarios

25 - Chapter 13 - Interoperating with COM
- Lesson 1: Using COM Components from the .NET Framework
- Lesson 2: Using .Net Types from COM Applications (Stop after, 'How to Control Marshaling')

26 - Chapter 13 - Interoperating with COM
- Labs/Review/Scenarios

27 - Chapter 14 - Reflection
- Lesson 1: Using Reflection

28 - Chapter 15 - Mail
- Lesson 1: Creating an E-mail Message
- Lesson 2: Sending E-mail

29 - Chapter 16 - Globalization
- Lesson 1: Formatting Data for Globalization

I really want to keep going and complete exam 70-562 - Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5, ASP.NET Application Development. But I probably won't get to it this year. I plan to spend a little less time studying and a lot more coding!

Links:
- MCTS Exam 70-536
- MCTS Self-Paced Training Kit

I'll take the stairs

2009-03-29T10:07:00.000-07:00

Every year Seattle holds Big Climb. Participants climb 69 stories to get to the top of the Columbia Tower, the tallest building in the city. I've wanted to do this event for years, but I have this strange knack of finding out about it the week after it happens. This year, I planned ahead and put a reminder on my calendar.

It was an interesting event. In most ways, it is ran like a 5k. A local radio station was there, free samples of health food was given away, and we got race numbers. But once the event got started it was a completely different experience. First, you are indoors. Second the stairwell is dark and very narrow with just enough space for faster climbers to pass. Third, your pacing is different. With running, you can run slower to catch you breath, but with stairs, even just walking up them can get draining very quickly. It was funny to see so many people jog past me in the beginning, but finish after me because I never stopped. Supposedly firefighters train to run the distance in full protective gear. That's impressive!

B o r i n g

2009-02-28T07:00:00.000-08:00

I've had a great time this month. But nothing seemed to emerge as blog-worthy. So, this post is dedicated to the medium-lights.

- Randomly stumbled upon the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile. Yes it is as cool seeing it as an adult as it was as a kid. No, they wouldn't let me test drive it.

- Had a coworker bring in a working phonograph.

- Street Fighter 4 finally came out. Bonded with old friends over it. Got pwned in a tournament.

- Made a failed attempt to bake my favorite cookie (snickerdoodle)

- Geeked out on all things personal finance. Finally finished The Millionaire Next Door. Did my own taxes for the first time since I was in school. Revised my investment strategy.

- Sent my mother a Valentine's day card that featured Optimus Prime. Lived to tell about it.

See you next Month!

Polar Bear Dive!

2009-01-04T18:49:00.000-08:00

So what did I do on New Year's Day? Jumped into Lake Washington! I've always been fascinated with Polar Bear Dives (probably just because I have such vivid memories of seeing them on the news and the subsequent conversation in the room on how stupid these people are). I found out about one that occurred at the end of a 5k on New Year's Day. It sounded like such a bad idea, I had to try it.

All things considered, it wasn't as bad as you'd think. The key thing I had going for me was that my body was already heated from running. I've been told the water in the lake was 42 degrees. By the time I realized I was freezing, I was pretty much out of the water. I'm definitely glad I've done this once (and probably only once).

Link: Resolution Run 5k

New Years Resolution

2009-01-01T21:47:00.000-08:00

I love New Year’s resolutions!

Some people laugh them of, noting that most fail within six weeks. Others believe that if something about you is really worth changing, you should do it immediately and not wait for some magic date. I disagree with both. The failure of others should never be a reason to not try something. And there actually is some magic to the date. Many people take vacation days at the end of the year to celebrate the season with friends and family. The separation from the daily grind can provide the mental space needed to reflect on ones past successes and failures. The free time is helpful in putting together a full plan for radical change. Mine usually include a couple of days of ramp up with a goal of truly starting on the 15th. And finally, the friends and family you are with can provide a counterpoint, guidance, and support.

There are a lot of things I want to do in the New Year. Ending 2008, I felt I was on the right path, but my approach needed improvement. More focus. Better ability to handle adversity. More discipline. Less willingness to simply go with the flow. More comfort talking with others about my plans.

In salsa class, my instructor often matches words to the steps of a new move he is teaching us to reinforce the lesson. For example, ‘step, pivot, spin, , right, left, right, ‘ are the 8 steps taken to do a right turn. As we practice, he uses a phrase which neatly express my aspirations for the year and will serve as my resolution.

Say what you do. Do what you say.

My first act for this resolution is to post my initiatives for the New Year. In late December 2009 or early January 2010, I’ll post my status. Between then and now, talk to me about them. If I give you a vague answer, keep asking me questions. Call me out if I’m slacking.

Initiatives

Technical Education
- Pass the Exam for MCTS 70-536 in April 2009
- Determine if I see value in certification process. If so, Pass the Exam for MCTS 70-562 by August 2009
- Establish and maintain a technical blog: MrSharps.Net
Bonus
- Silverlight
- Sharepoint
- Expression Studio

Unsung Technology Corporation
- Release our first project to the web *or* offer technical services to become profitable
- Finish company website

Financial
- Keep tracking my expenses
- Develop a budget
- Properly allocate and invest a retirement money
- Start a Jim Cramer-esque pool of stocks

Health
- Follow The Zone Diet
- Flow a CrossFit routine
Bonus
- Keep dancing salsa

Travel
- 1 new state
- Ade's wedding
- Bobby's wedding
- Rabiah's birthday
Bonus
- Germany

Hobby
- Rejoin Porsche Club of America and attend an event
- Volunteer for a running race
- Attend an alumni event
- Attend a software networking event
- Show a photo at a gallery
- Showcase my own photography at home

Happy New Year!

Half Marathon

2008-12-14T22:16:00.000-08:00

I did it! On December 7th I ran a half marathon in Las Vegas! After a year of getting into running events, my good friend Rabiah challenged me to run a half marathon.

I trained for about 3 months based on a routine put together by a personal trainer at my gym. It incorporated a good mix of running (long runs, hills, intervals, etc.) with resistance work. Towards the end, as the runs became longer, it became decidedly more focused on running.

Before the training, the longest I had run was 5 miles. I had always been told by runners that if you can run two miles, you can run three. And if you can run three miles, you can run four. etc. As someone who has always felt like dying after about two, that never made sense to me. Over the course of the training, it became clear. It seems like there are plateaus of pain involved with running. After about a half of a mile the freshness of running runs out and you realize you are actually working out and it hurts. Maybe after about a mile you get used to it. Then, maybe a quarter mile later, it really begins to hurt and you want to quit. But if you stick with it you'll get used to it. I've found that you go through about one more wave of pain from here. At this point, the pain doesn't go away, but you get used to it again and figure that if you've been running with the pain, there's no point in stopping because you have already learned to deal with it. Shortly thereafter, you're fully broken in. Now, you've just got to keep yourself motivated yet distracted about how far you have to go.

The actual event was quite amazing. This definitely turned me on to the idea of athletic vacations. The turnout was HUGE. People had flown in from around the world to participate. When you register, you get funneled into this expo center where they sell you anything imaginable that could make running easier. Water with electrolytes, belts that hold water bottles, sunglasses with built in ipod connections, massages, energy bars. You name it, they've got it.

The race began at 6 a.m. It was still dark when we began running. Since it was so early, the city was actually able to shut down the strip while we ran. The route started at the Mandalay Bay Casino, ran all the way down the strip, somewhat off into the older sections of the city and back. Some of the serious runners (or, I guess not so serious depending on how you see it) ran the race dressed as Elvis. Fitting for Vegas. Also fitting was at mile 5, there was lane where you could do a 'run thru wedding'. Yes a couple got married during the race. And yes, I ran my fastest time to get out of mile 5.

Mile four was my slowest mile. Nature called and I have to stop and use a port-o-potty. Worse was that there was a line. Usually after a couple of miles, people sort of filter out into groups that maintain similar paces. I'm pretty slow. So when I returned to the race, I was surrounded by walkers. For once, I was passing everybody! I guess a lot of people ended up taking a break because by the end of the race, I ended up with a lot of the same people I was running with earlier.

Strangely, the hardest run I did during my training was a 9 mile run. I was just getting over a cold and the run took everything out of me. After that, the 11 miler and the half marathon were hard, but not devastating. Also strange was that, despite never running together, Rabiah and I had a very similar pace. I caught up with her around mile nine and our final times were 1 second apart.

A great thing about running so early was that I made it back to the hotel in time to watch the early NFL games. After that long of a run, what could be better than laying in bed and watch my Bears beat the Jaguars.

Macaroni and Cheese

2008-11-29T13:21:00.000-08:00

At my family gatherings, macaroni and cheese is a sacred tradition. Growing up in Maryland, my family gatherings often revolved around seafood (fish frys, crab bakes, favorite seafood restaurants for big occasions, etc.), which posed a small problem for a child with allergies. To keep me happy, my mother would always make a special dish of macaroni and cheese so I'd have something to eat. For each family gathering, she'd try a new recipe in the quest for the perfect dish. I think she succeeded numerous times, but to this day, she continues to tinker.

As an adult I usually do not travel back to Maryland for Thanksgiving. However, mac and cheese is still a vital part of the big dinner for me. I started with a recipe from the Joy of Cooking and made a few minor tweaks. This is quickly becoming my signature dish (met with rave reviews from dinnermates I might add). This year a couple of friends gathered for Thanksgiving. We each cooked a couple of dishes and ended up with quite a spread. The appetizers were bacon wrapped dates, mini toast and cheese. My signature mac and cheese, homemade mashed potatoes, and store bought desserts complemented biscuits, stuffing, bolani, pork loin, and pheasant (that's right, pheasant. That's how we luxuriate!)

Happy Thanksgiving, y'all!

Anchorage

2008-10-05T18:40:00.000-07:00

Before it's all said and done, I'd like to visit all 50 states. With a couple of weeks between now and when I start my next job, I took an extended weekend in Anchorage, making Alaska my 36th state. Anchorage is Alaska's largest city, but it's no New York. It's not really a Chicago, or Seattle, or Baltimore, or Wilmington either. As a matter of fact, there's not really to much in the city itself worth mentioning (well, having reindeer sausage with breakfast was cool). But the surrounding area has the most incredible natural scenery I have ever seen! The first day I traveled north to Wasilla and checked out the Glenn Highway and Thunderbird falls along the way. The real highlight was taking Seward Highway south. Designated as one of only thirteen 'All-American' highways, the trip is definitely more important that the destination. Along the way, I stopped to check out Potter Marsh and Portage Glacier. One bit of advice if you make it up there: make sure your tank is full. I was at a quarter tank when I passed the last gas station and found out the hard way that the next one isn't for close to 100 miles. Thank god I didn't upgrade to the SUV.

Pics:
- Wasilla & Anchorage
- Seward Highway
- Potter Marsh & Portage Glacier
- Seward Highway at Dusk

Plenty of Fish

2008-09-21T20:54:00.000-07:00

Ok, I’ve gotta give it to this guy, what he is doing is pretty amazing! Markus Frind single handedly built and maintains a dating site, PlentyOfFish.com. When you look at it, the first thing you’ll probably think is that page design could use some work. But never mind that. Offering up all services for free, he has created a site that rivals Match.com in active accounts and page views per month. All using two web servers and one database. Check it out.

ARCast.TV - PlentyOfFish.com How one man beat the big guys

Whale Watching

2008-08-12T09:23:00.000-07:00

I have often joked that my parents have made numerous threats to come out and visit me, only to have their flight mysterious redirected to some Caribbean island. I joke because they have done this twice. This year, they finally made good on their ~~threat~~ uh, promise and came out to visit me.

Seattle is a great place to visit in August. It is warm but not hot and we receive very little of our much publicized rain in this month. I think I did a pretty good job of showing off the city. Saturday we hung out in Belltown. We started off at my gym where I challenged my father in his favorite sport, racquetball. To keep this post to a reasonable length, I won't go into who won (yeah, that's my excuse). We spent the rest of the day at Pike Place Market, The Big Picture at El Gaucho, and Flying Fish. Sunday, we did a car tour of Seattle, hitting Kerry Park, Queen Anne Ave, Volunteer Park in Capital Hill, Uwajimaya Village in the International District, Alki Beach in West Seattle, the Arboretum, Green Lake, Husky Stadium, dinner at Kingfish Cafe and of course, the Space Needle.

The real highlight of the trip was Monday. We headed up to the San Juans for breakfast and some island hopping. The afternoon was spent whale watching!!! This was amazing. We started in Anacortes, WA and took a boat north of the Canadian border. Our boat ended up surrounded by three or four pods of orcas whales. They put on quite a show, circling, diving, and jumping around our ship. One even jumped out of the water and did a flip. Pretty graceful for an eight ton animal.

Who knew hanging out with your parents could be so much fun?

Pics: http://picasaweb.google.com/MrSharps/20080812WhaleWatching

Urban Golf

2008-07-20T19:34:00.000-07:00

After 10 months of rain and gloom, Seattleites will use anything as an excuse to go outside. Take Urban Golf for example. In this annual event, participants work their way through 9 holes located throughout Capitol Hill and 9, uh, 'watering' holes. This year I had a chance to play in the tournament with a couple of friends. While I can't say anyone would mistake us for pros, I can say it was a wonderful way to kill a summer afternoon.

Pics: http://picasaweb.google.com/MrSharps/20080719UrbanGolf

An All-American 4th

2008-07-13T22:40:00.000-07:00

This year for the fourth of July I headed to Chicago to visit my good friends Rabiah, Ade, and Tasha. I think I truly had an All-American 4th of July. Flying into Chicago on the 3rd, I was treated to several fireworks shows from my window seat. On the 4th, I drank a beer, ate a hot dog, and watched the White Sox play the A's. On the 5th, we checked out the Taste of Chicago. Here local restaurants host booths where attendees can sample the cuisine. So my lunch consisted of two slices of pizza, a taco, corn, ice cream, cheese cake, a meatball, and possibly the largest turkey leg I've ever seen. Beer, baseball, and excessive amounts of food. God Bless America!

SIFF

2008-06-29T22:42:00.000-07:00

On my list of annual events to attend in Seattle is SIFF, the Seattle International Film Festival. This year, I only made it to one movie: August. The film was a tragic story of the demise of an dot com start up at the end of the boom. I don't think too many of my fellow movie buffs particularly liked it, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. It did a great job of capturing the feel of the time (with pop culture references and now dated computers), excitement and overconfidence of the era, and its downfall. If you get a chance, check it out for yourself and let me know what you think.

IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0470679/

Beat The Bridge

2008-05-29T22:19:00.000-07:00

Beat The Bridge is an annual event in Seattle to benefit juvenile diabetes research. The goal? Beat the bridge. It's an 8k run, but the challenge is that you must cross the bridge by a set time or get stuck behind it as it is raised.

A couple of people from the office decided to take up the challenge. In the slow heat (my heat), we had 20 minutes to cover the first 2 miles needed to beat the bridge. As the non-runner that I am, I figured 5 miles is rough, but I should be able to knockout two 10 minute miles to save face. Little did I know that raising the bridge was but one of the tricks this event had up its sleeve.

At the starting line, the gun went off at 8:40AM. However, because there were so many people in my heat, it took 2 minutes to cross the starting line and begin running. As I crossed, the emcee on the loud speaker announced, "18 minutes to go!". Great! Now I need to do two 9 minute miles, right? Wrong. I know this because after crossing the 2 mile marker I saw the bridge gates about a quarter of a mile ahead; half of that distance I covered before my allotted time had ran out. The lights flashed, the the gates dropped, the bridge raised. I lost to the bridge.

Ironically, that was probably the best thing that could have happened to me. Stuck standing around with the rest of the losers, I got a chance to catch my breath for the last 3 miles. These miles were decidedly slower.

The fifth mile was definitely the hardest. Partially because of the fact that it was last, but more so because it was deceitful. The course kind of ran out of places to send us. So one thing the organizers did to give runners 8 kilometers of terrain is to send us down and back a street. At the beginning of the street there is a balloon in the shape of a 4. When you get back, you see the normal mile marker. You just ran 1/4 to 1/2 of a mile thinking you were on the last mile when you weren't. The actual 5th mile consists of several short straights that turn towards the University of Washington's Husky Stadium. With each upcoming turn you think to yourself, "The end is just around the corner. Keep going. You can do it!". Only to realize that you have yet another few hundred yards to go. But hey, maybe this turn will be the last?

When it was all said and done I'm glad I did it. It was for a good cause and 5 miles is my personal best. Plus, it gives me confidence to do more races!

Beat The Bridge: http://www.beatthebridge.org/site/PageServer?pagename=homepage

Images: http://picasaweb.google.com/MrSharps/20080518BeatTheBridge

This page intentionally left blank

2008-04-29T23:22:00.000-07:00

Sadly, there is nothing I want to talk about this month. No awesome achievements. No cool trips. No YouTube clips. Nothing.

Check back next month ;-)

National Corndog Day

2008-03-23T22:46:00.000-07:00

As if the Obama Rally wasn't enough to make for a great weekend, on Saturday, I celebrated National Corndog day for the first time. What happens on Corndog day? Well, you eat corndogs. A lot of corndogs. And beer. And tater tots. Veterans of the festival strive for a triple double, that is 10 Corndogs, 10 Beers, and 100 tater tots (10 10 tater tot units). The holiday is taken the first Saturday of the NCAA men's basketball tournament. Legend has it that a couple of guys sat around all day watching the games. A concerned family member was determined to get them to eat something and corndogs is what they'd agree to. By word of mouth, an underground movement was started. Each year more and more corndogs parties were thrown. A couple years ago, Foster Farms got wind of this and sponsored the first 300 parties (including the one I attended) to register with the company, providing as many free corn dogs a needed. Later Pabst Blue Ribbon followed suit. This year, over 5000 parties were thrown. Where else but in the United States would there be a full day celebration of something like a corndog? God Bless America!

Links
Homepage: http://www.corndogday.com/
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Corndog_Day
Shout out from the Oregonian (see page 2):

A Great Week To Be An Obama Supporter

2008-03-23T22:16:00.001-07:00

It has been a great week to be an Obama supporter. On Tuesday, the Illinois Senator gave one of the most impressive speeches on race our nation has heard.

On Friday, he held a rally in Portland where he received the endorsement of Gov. Richardson. Shannon was swift in getting us two tickets. It was an early morning. We arrived at Memorial Coliseum at 6:45 AM to join a crowd waiting for the doors to open at 7:30 for a rally that began at 9:30. All time well spent. We sat one section up behind the main podium. Richardson's speech was inspiring and very complementary of Obama. Seeing Obama in person was inspiring. He is even more polished, motivational, and intelligent (though a little bit skinnier) in person than he is on TV.

Check out the rest of my pictures.

Pics: http://picasaweb.google.com/MrSharps/20080323Obama
Source of Image: http://obeygiant.com/post/obama

Go Retrievers!

2008-03-15T22:50:00.000-07:00

I don't know about you, but I've got march madness! For the first time, my alma mater, UMBC win be in the tournament!!!

I remember being a high school senior and attending a recruiting event. UMBC President, Dr. Freeman Hrabowski, laughed as he mentioned that "We're not exactly know for our basketball team" before moving on to promote the chess team and several scholastic achievements of the university. I remember being a junior at the university and walking through our bookstore displaying T-shirts reading, "UMBC Football: Undefeated", mocking our absence from the gridiron. I remember that every winter, there will be a day when ESPN will have on its men's basketball ticker, "UMBC 60, Maryland 90" with no highlights. But this year it'll all be different. Here's hoping for an upset in the first round.

Leaving Microsoft

2008-02-29T12:59:00.000-08:00

For about 5 1/2 years I've been a developer at Microsoft Corp. Today is my final day. It's been fun. I've had a chance to work on a lot of cool stuff. I spent the first 2 1/2 years in MSN, working on the homepage. From there, I moved into the Entertainment and Devices division, working on Project Gotham Racing 3, Forza Motorsports 2, and Project Gotham Racing 4. Talk about a dream come true! Anyway, I'll probably post a little more about some of the projects at Microsoft that I am most proud of, but for now check out a couple of pictures from my going away happy hour.

pics: http://picasaweb.google.com/
MrSharps/LeavingMicrosoftHappyHour

Mr.Sharps.Com Endorses Obama

2008-01-31T18:53:00.000-08:00

My Candidate of choice? Barack Obama. I've tried to explain my reasoning to a friend before, but in reading Nobel Laureate, Toni Morrison's letter to Obama, I don't think I could have done a more eloquent job expressing my own feelings about the campaign.

Dear Senator Obama,

This letter represents a first for me--a public endorsement of a Presidential candidate. I feel driven to let you know why I am writing it. One reason is it may help gather other supporters; another is that this is one of those singular moments that nations ignore at their peril. I will not rehearse the multiple crises facing us, but of one thing I am certain: this opportunity for a national evolution (even revolution) will not come again soon, and I am convinced you are the person to capture it.

May I describe to you my thoughts?

I have admired Senator Clinton for years. Her knowledge always seemed to me exhaustive; her negotiation of politics expert. However I am more compelled by the quality of mind (as far as I can measure it) of a candidate. I cared little for her gender as a source of my admiration, and the little I did care was based on the fact that no liberal woman has ever ruled in America. Only conservative or "new-centrist" ones are allowed into that realm. Nor do I care very much for your race[s]. I would not support you if that was all you had to offer or because it might make me "proud."

In thinking carefully about the strengths of the candidates, I stunned myself when I came to the following conclusion: that in addition to keen intelligence, integrity and a rare authenticity, you exhibit something that has nothing to do with age, experience, race or gender and something I don't see in other candidates. That something is a creative imagination which coupled with brilliance equals wisdom. It is too bad if we associate it only with gray hair and old age. Or if we call searing vision naivete. Or if we believe cunning is insight. Or if we settle for finessing cures tailored for each ravaged tree in the forest while ignoring the poisonous landscape that feeds and surrounds it. Wisdom is a gift; you can't train for it, inherit it, learn it in a class, or earn it in the workplace--that access can foster the acquisition of knowledge, but not wisdom.

When, I wondered, was the last time this country was guided by such a leader? Someone whose moral center was un-embargoed? Someone with courage instead of mere ambition? Someone who truly thinks of his country's citizens as "we," not "they"? Someone who understands what it will take to help America realize the virtues it fancies about itself, what it desperately needs to become in the world?

Our future is ripe, outrageously rich in its possibilities. Yet unleashing the glory of that future will require a difficult labor, and some may be so frightened of its birth they will refuse to abandon their nostalgia for the womb.

There have been a few prescient leaders in our past, but you are the man for this time.

Good luck to you and to us.

Toni Morrison

Link: http://www.observer.com/2008/toni-morrisons-letter-barack-obama

Obama: http://www.barackobama.com/

Mixed Martial Arts

2007-12-09T18:47:00.000-08:00

I'm not exactly sure where it is on my list of things not to do, but 'Participating in a Mixed Martial Arts Match' has got to be pretty close to the top. Spectating, on the other hand, is quite fun. J hipped me to an amateur event that featured a guy from his gym, so I checked it out on Saturday.

Although it was held at a community college, it was impressive how hard the organizers worked to replicate the experience of going to a professional event. Dozens of Domino's Pizzas were ordered to sell at a concession stand. 'VIP's sat on chairs on the gym floor in front of general admission fans in the bleachers. Zip Fizz promoted their product, complete with a sample booth and giveaways. The fights featured an announcer, intro music, ring girls, and 18" trophies for the winner. Heck, there was even a scalper at the door.

The actual fights were exciting as well. It began slowly with a couple of skinny short guys scrapping. However, as the evening progressed, the fighters got bigger, more skilled, and more intense. For the championship fight, I could tell the difference between the guys in the ring and combatants in Pride Fighting or Ultimate fFghting.

Probably the most interesting bout was between two Muay Thai kickboxers. Probably the quickest was the one featuring the dude from J's gym. Check it out. Trust me, it won't take long.

Seattle International Auto Show 2007

2007-11-02T00:54:00.000-07:00

There is a list of events that I feel I must attend on an annual basis in Seattle. Among them is the Seattle International Auto Show. There are no exclusive unveilings or exotic prototypes like the New York or Detroit shows, but it's a great way to see all of the new models at once. As a car nut, it's great! Plus, each year, a few concepts or future models do make a showing. This year, there was the Ford Super Chief concept, the Chrysler Firepower, and the 2009 Chevrolet Camaro. And of course, there's the obligatory shot of me in some Porsche I can't afford (yet).

Pics: http://picasaweb.google.com/MrSharps/
SeattleInternationalAutoshow11012007

Go Ducks!

2007-10-30T22:58:00.000-07:00

We are right smack dab in the middle of my favorite sports season: Football! This season has taken on an exciting new twist. Shannon and I decided to swap allegiences: her Oregon Ducks for my Chicago Bears. It makes perfect sense as undergrad left me with no real interest in college sports (UMBC's bookstore proudly sold a t-shirt reading 'UMBC Football: Undefeated') and Portland has no NFL team. It's been pretty exciting to watch Oregon rise from unranked to #5 in the nation with Dennis Dixon slowly getting some Heisman buzz. And who can forget the Mascot fight??

I'm a bit embarrassed to say that I currently like college football better than the pros. I like that in the NFL, every game means something. A team can't go on a 10 game losing streak and expect their coach to last much more than a week into the offseason. But it's even more intense in college. Michigan came into the season ranked #5 and lost its first game and was immediately removed from BCS championship consideration. Imagine an NFL team ruled out from the Superbowl after week one. Further, though the players may not be as good, they play waaay harder. In the NFL, if you go for the extra yard and take another hit, it could be the end of your career. T.O. gave us 25 million reasons why that's a bad idea. But in college, you still have to earn your way to those reasons. Lastly, the fact that there is no playoffs adds some intrigue to it all. So much of the fun of sports fanaticism is arguing why your team is #1. With no clear criteria the analysis is so much more fun.

... or maybe it's just that the Bears are awful this year and the Seahawks ain't much better.

I may have O.D. the weekend of Oct. 20th with flag football, fantasy football, going to the University of Oregon vs. University of Washington game, and going to the Rams vs. Seahawks game. But, I've recovered just fine. I'm heading to the Arizona St. vs. Oregon game this weekend. Go Ducks!

Pics: http://picasaweb.google.com/MrSharps/20071021Football

Superman's 'allergies'

2007-09-14T17:53:00.001-07:00

With my last post about PAX, I guess now would be a good time to post my favorite Penny Arcade comic, if not my favorite comic strip of ever. With allergies as bad as mine, these three panels feel like the story of my life.

Original Post: http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/06/28
Penny Arcade: http://www.penny-arcade.com/

PAX 2007

2007-08-25T23:28:00.000-07:00

Every year, the popular web comic strip Penny Arcade hosts the Penny Arcade Expo, a 3 day convention, celebrating video game culture. This year, with two long time gaming friends turned professionals J and Stephan and their patient wives Chris and Shawna, I attended day two. Now, I'm an avid gamer, but I feel at odds with may facets of the stereotyped game culture. And every stereotype of gamers was on display in full force this weekend. Men in kilts. (Far) Less than model-esque Women dressed as their favorite video game characters. Bad hair cuts painted just about every color. Random rants on the console war between Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft. Legions of teens to twenty-somethings lounging out in hallways entranced by their Nintendo DSs. Rows of tables of Magic the Gathering. And enough body odor qualify the Washington State Convention Center as a weapon of bio terrorism. But ... I had a great time! As much as I cringe in embarrassment at what this crowd must look like to the rest of the world, or what must be thought of me for being one of them (note: NO, I did not wear a kilt), this is my industry. This is what I do for work and for play.

The show floor had booths filled with yet to be released games, presentations on issues in the gaming community, plenty of bean bags for comfortable portable gaming, and a room dedicated to LAN gaming. Everything you need to geek out. Also worth noting, I entered a contest to win my body weight in Ramen noodles (supposedly, a little over 1000 packets. Wish me luck). Probably most exciting for me was a live recording of my favorite podcast, 1up Yours. Afterwards, I met the show's cast. Awesome!

Pics: http://picasaweb.google.com/MrSharps/PAX2007

5 years old

2007-08-21T20:47:00.001-07:00

A running joke of mine is that all of my major life decisions (a career in video games, owning a Porsche, and not eating eggs) were made at the age of 5. This week, I celebrated a different 5th birthday. On August 19th, 2007, I entered corporate America and have been working for the same company ever since. To celebrate, a small celebration was held in my honor, cakes were carved, and I was awarded a crystal to recognize my service. So, does being a 5 year professional mean I have make a new set of career decisisons?

Lunch Break

2007-08-08T22:28:00.000-07:00

Ok, there is the occasional perk to the job. Today at lunch, Babyface performed in the office. It was a short (four songs, about 1/2 hour), but wonderful performance. He did 3 songs off his upcoming album, 'Playlist' and his classic 'When Can I See You'. Three things came across about him over the course of the event. First, was his mastery of the guitar. Second, his handlers should be fired. The clean cut nice guy that you can relate to seems completely at odds with the faded designer jeans and trendy blazer they shoved him in to have, 'the look'. And Third, his ballads will never get old.

Where were you when Bonds hit #755?

2007-08-05T17:26:00.000-07:00

Everyone who knows me knows I'm a supporter of Barry Bonds. I simply feel that if amateur athletes realized that they could reach the top of their sport with steroids in the 80's (Ben Johnson in '88), then professionals who could go from earning below a living wage in the minors to millions in the majors would do it too. So if a sport chooses not to police itself, it is colluding with the cheating players. Even if you believe Hank Aaron is a better baseball player than Bonds, he most like was not competing for a roster spot with 'roided up teammates to face 'roided up pitchers. Plus, without hard evidence on any of the players, you'd need to put an asterisk next to every player in this 10 year window who makes it into the hall of fame.

But I'm rambling. Where was I when he hit #755? At Safeco Field watching the Mariners play the Red Sox. They flashed the rerun of his hit on the jumbotron to a chorus of boo's and my cheers. The game I attended was great. The Mariners ultimately lost 4-3, but staged a late game rally. Shannon's a big Yankees fan, so having a chance to watch their nemesis go down at the hands of the local club was worth getting good seats. We were just a few rows back of the right field wall, enjoying hot dogs, beer, and chili fries!

Buy Games from EA Sports!

2007-07-30T12:31:00.000-07:00

Microsoft Corporate VP and Xbox Big Dog, Peter Moore is heading over to lead EA Sports. Back in the day, he was the President of Sega America, launching the Dreamcast in 1999. I was fortunate enough to catch up with him and get him to sign my favorite classic system and reminisce over the good ole days of gaming.

My colleagues, Ray and Jon tagged along too.

sharpSter S

2007-06-26T20:52:00.000-07:00

I was gonna play it cool, be low profile until December 2008. The Eclipse is a great car. The sound system I put together in it is sick! It's paid for. Women seem to like it. What more could I ask for?

I tried. Really I did. But, well, I'm me. And I've already had a taste of driving stick, I've already had a taste of driving a light nimble car, I've already had a taste of the Porsche lifestyle. There's no going back. I found a near flawless example in my favorite color (Lapis Blue) at a great price, so I had to pull the trigger.

Check out my new thang: '02 Boxster-S

... more pics and foolishness to come!

Shannon @ The Zoo

2007-05-16T22:34:00.000-07:00

There's something inherently funny about two full grown adults going to the zoo. But hey, it was nice outside and a lazy Saturday. I guess the animals of the Portland Zoo got the memo as they were all asleep. Peep the elk in the background of the first shot. Stiff as the tree next to him. A kid next to us asked his father if the bears were dead. My esteemed tour guide, Shannon, helped me make the best of it.

Bugatti Veyron ...experience

2007-05-15T19:36:00.001-07:00

I hate Bugatti. They're too good to have their cars in video games. They don't want to sell to rappers. Their car costs a cool mill. 16 cylinders is pointless. 1001 hp is just silly. And who would ever actually be able to drive 254mph? Top Gear. Wooooo. This car is
a m a z i n g ...

Bugatti Veyron at top speed

Whiskey Tasting!

2007-04-03T22:53:00.000-07:00

Last Friday my good friend Allison invited me to the Scotch Malt Whisky Society's Whiskey Tasting at the Rainer Club. So I rounded up some of my most distinguished Whiskey connoisseurs and checked it out. Good times!

More pics: http://www.mrsharps.com/pics/Whiskey-03-30-2007/

NBA All Star Weekend 2007

2007-03-14T15:42:00.000-07:00

NBA All Star Weekend was the weekend of Feb. 17th 2007 in Las Vegas. A bunch of guys from my grad school crew rallied up to participate in the festivities. It was an awesome weekend of with celebrity-filled parties, drinks, a trip to the gun range, and supposedly a basketball game too. A couple of shots from the weekend below...

The Two Best Days of Owning a Porsche: Published

2007-03-04T18:25:00.000-08:00

The post mortem of my Porsche experience just got published! It is now an article in the March 2007 issue of Porsche Spiel, the official magazine of the Porsche Club of America, Northwest Region (PNWR). Check it out:

Opportunities

2007-02-27T00:22:00.000-08:00

“One of the great things I think I’ve been able to do in my life is seize opportunities … Opportunities are seldom perfect. But I’ve learned that if you’re not ready for them, they may not come again.”

- Tiki Barber

This is an excellent, if not inspirational ad. The quote is definitely awesome advice. The music and set up of reflecting on life while cruising though the city is smooth. Tiki Barber is the perfect choice for the ad too. He is definitely the class of the NFL as a person, but was never the best in the league at his position. Nonetheless, few would argue that he truly maximized his potential during his playing days. I had to throw this up on my site.

The Two Best Days of Owning a Porsche

2007-01-21T00:32:00.000-08:00

It was a Sunday. I called home to do my weekly check in with my parents. After covering the usual topics of work, sports, and family, my father asked for an update on my car. He already knew it was in the shop and I was wading through a series of issues. But this was the first time I had to say aloud what I had known for a couple of days; that I was getting rid of my Porsche 944. In an effort to offer some silver lining on what was obviously a cloudy period in my life he offered this pearl of wisdom:

They say that the two best days of owning a boat are the day you buy it and the day you sell it. Between, there is a lot of heartbreak, and bills, and problems. I image there are a lot of similarities in buying an old sports car.

My father believes the path to upgrading a car includes finer trim and a larger, quieter cabin. My obsession with all things Porsche never made sense to him. His assessment of this era in my life made me reflect on the experience. What were the two best days of owning a Porsche?

Technically, the last day of my ownership was the next Saturday. I sat at my desk staring blanking of into the distance for what seemed like an eternity before finally signing and faxing the paperwork. The demise of my membership in the Porsche Club of America sprawled out over several weeks. About half way through my autocross session, I had a couple of the more mechanically inclined guys at the track help me understand why my emergency light was on. Noting that one of the mounts for keeping my pulley system in place had broken, it was recommended that I have the car towed to the nearest shop. From, there, the Pandora’s Box of mechanical fails under my hood was unraveled. I tend to think of my last day as a Friday when I was informed of the third major issue that needed to be resolved before returning my baby to the road. I knew it was over.

My first day of ownership was horrifying. Having never driven stick before, I spent the better half of my day lapping a corporate campus with a friend. I think the sounds of my car stalling and grinding through the gears may have made Dr. Porsche roll over in his grave. Feeling just confident enough in my skills to take the show on the road, I made the trek from Redmond to Seattle without my coach. All told, I stalled 4 times en route. There were quite a few prayers for traffic to not stop when I saw too many brake lights on SR-520. I had a hard time sleeping that night knowing I’d have to get up and do it all over again.

One of the more pleasant days came on a winter Saturday. Expecting the usual gloom and light drizzle the Northwest is known for, I had planned to head to work to knock off a few tasks. But as I emerged from my garage, I realized that it was one of those rare periods where we would be blessed with several days of clear skies, moderate temperatures and plenty of sunshine. I pulled over immediately to remove my sunroof and roll the windows down. Now truly comfortable driving stick in traffic and for my day-to-day needs, I was excited to have a chance to test my skills. I zipped across the 520 to the east side. With no plan, goal, or sense of time, I zigzagged through the suburbs, drove spiritedly around the curves of the back roads, and enjoyed every moment of the minor traffic snags. Heading back into the city via I-90, I took the scenic route and did a lap around Mercer Island. There is something nice about driving a small, light, open car in good weather. You feel very in touch with your surroundings. I didn’t close my windows or sunroof for a week!

My third autocross session was by far the most exciting day. I started off with Tim Kornacki Co-piloting to get the feel of the track. My 2nd run was slow, but respectable. But on the third run, something wonderful happened. I hit that Zen moment when the sea of intimidating orange cones became a series of directions; directions that each could be interpreted at least one ahead of when reached. For a brief period, I had the fastest time in class. I actually made the class champion, Wolfe Macleod, earn his number one spot for the day.

So what were the Two Best Days? That’s a tough one. Owning a Porsche had been a life long goal. So achieving it, even in one of the least expensive ways, was huge for me. There were a lot of great times. Most were small moments. Like when my sister called my trifling for buying ‘the cheapest one you could find and joining the club’. Or attending my first Porsche Club event: The Cayman-S launch party at Robert Larson's in Tacoma. The first member I met was Carl Swan, a great ambassador for the club who welcomed me immediately. Then there was my first Autocross lap. With Tim riding shotgun I made it though without hitting a single cone. It’s still funny to think of how cool and encouraging Tim was when I realized how far I was from a time even remotely competitive. Or any time I left work after a tough day and walked to my Porsche. Somehow, it seemed like everything had balanced out by the time I started the car. The best two days were everyday of the experience. I’m saving my money now. Hopefully by early 2008 or 2009 I’ll be back on the track with something a lot more solid. Until then, I’ll enjoy the memories.

Unadulterated Pr0schography

2007-01-03T18:03:00.000-08:00

We all have our dreams ...

Michael Sharps: Staff Writer

2006-12-15T16:29:00.000-08:00

An oldy but good:

I pride myself in being a science/math guy. But for a brief period in college, I moonlighted as a sports reporter. See, my roommate Chris was in need of some staff writers for the sports section for the university newspaper (‘The Retriever Weekly’) of which, he was the editor. So, for $20, I figured why not? Poor Chris, if he only knew what he got himself into. Probably the first bad sign for him was when I triumphantly handed him a story that exactly matched the minimum word count he required. After a few minor tweaks, he was able to turn it into something worth printing. Chris, I still want my $20.

Scan: http://www.mrsharps.com/pics/RetrieverWeekly/

Full text:

Swimming Splits Dual Meet With George Washington
MICHAEL SHARPS
Retriever Weekly Staff Writer

This
past weekend yielded mixed results for the UMBC swimming and diving teams.
On Friday, Jan. 28, the Retrievers split a dual meet with George
Washington. The men emerged victorious 157-112 while the women stumbled,
losing 144-132. Playing host to Navy on Saturday, the UMBC men’s swimming
and diving team followed its impressive win with a tough loss by the score of
132-109.

The loss to Navy dropped the Retriever men to
8-4. Despite the set back, several of the team’s top swimmers put on an
impressive performance in the pool. Junior Kevin Goh continued to dominate
the competition, winning the 200-meter Individual Medley, 500-meter freestyle
and the 200-meter backstroke. Ron Park took first place in the 200-meter
butterfly, finishing in 1:59.41. Sophomore sensation Medhi Addadi
contributed with a win in the 100-meter freestyle, while Matt Rausch took the
200-meter freestyle. The two joined by Rob Giggey and Evan Patrick to win
the 400-meter medley relay.

At the end of the day, UMBC captured
first place in seven of the day’s thirteen events. However, Navy’s depth
proved to be the deciding factor. In nine separate events, the Midshipmen
were responsible for two out of the three finishing times, which secured their
victory.

The loss to Navy came on the heels of a powerful
showing at George Washington University. The Retriever men beat the
Colonials 157-112 at Friday’s meet in Washington DC.

Things did not
fair so well for the women’s swimming and diving team. In a close battle,
the Retrievers lost 144-132, dropping their record to 4-8.

In the
final days of the month the swimming and diving teams have been on a hectic
schedule. On Jan. 21, Rutgers dealt both the men’s and womens’s squads a
loss in Newark, New Jersey (101-130 and 86-148 respectively). One day
later, at the University of Massachusetts, the Retriever men were able to
regroup and defeat the Minutemen 121-116, while the women came up short,
106-137. Gaining momentum, both teams were able to beat Central
Connecticut on Jan 23. The men destroyed the Blue Devils 157-76 while the
women, competing against their toughest opponents in the NEC, came through with
a 129-106 victory. The lone home meet in the stretch against Johns Hopkins
University was cancelled due to the recent snowstorm.

Nearing the end of the season, both Retriever teams are looking to
get back on track this Friday in Williamsburg, Virginia, where they will square
off against William and Mary.

The Sharps DeLoach Wedding

2006-11-25T19:27:00.000-08:00

On Saturday, November 18th 2006, my sister married Harry DeLoach. They had a beautiful wedding at my Grandmother's church. Below are the links to my pictures from the rehearsal and the day itself.

Pictures: http://www.mrsharps.com/pics/Wedding-11-18-2006/

28

2006-11-12T10:51:00.000-08:00

My actual birthday is the 15th, but I'll be on a plane back to MD for my sister's wedding.

Since moving to Seattle, I have been fortunate enough to have great people in my life. Each year, I have had been treated to some wonderful celebration, ranging from attending a concert from a legendary DJ, to a nice dinner, to drunken romp through the city. This year, I wanted to turn the table a little bit and host the party. The idea was to make it more of a celebration and meeting of the various people who have made my life in Seattle what it is. Check out the pictures to see what transpired.

Pictures: Shhh...

I. L.O.S.T. J.Z.

2006-10-08T03:29:00.000-07:00

I love tetris, but who doesn't. I finally decide to do something I've wanted to do for a long time: code it myself. Microsoft recently came out with a beta of XNA Game Studio Express, so I wrote it on top of it. It's cool because it let me write it all in managed code (c#). The down side is that to distribute your game, your consumers must have a lot of stuff installed on their machine (.net 2.0, directX, c# express 2005, and XNA). Right now, it works with a keyboard attached to a PC or 2 Xbox 360 controllers. I'm looking forward to the final release of XNA so I can fully port it to my Xbox 360.

In doing this side project, I learned a lot about the world of tetris. Wikipedia's entry on it has a lot of great details like scoring variations, traditional colors, and terminology (did you know the term for a piece in tetris is a 'tetromino'?). I also stumbled on some interesting implementations of the game. The one linked to below includes an ai mode and nightmare mode (you're always given the worse piece).

Sharptris (code, app, and screenshots): http://mrsharps.com/code/SharptriS/
XNA: http://msdn.microsoft.com/directx/XNA/default.aspx
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetris
Some guy's awesome java implementation: http://isapan.org/html/tetris.html

Engagement Party 9-30-2006

2006-10-03T18:34:00.000-07:00

Saturday, September 30th 2006, my sister Stephanie and fiance Harry Deloach had their engagement party. It was nice to meet the new additions to the family :)

pics: http://www.mrsharps.com/pics/EngagementParty9-30-2006/

Football!

2006-09-25T22:51:00.000-07:00

Football is the best sports season. I think 2006 is going to be the best one ever for me. My favorite team is off to a 3-0 start (Da Bears!). Likewise for the local squad (I'm proud to be a bandwagon Seahawks fan provided it does not interfere with Chicago's dominance). I was lucky enough to nab a season ticket from a friend. Downtown Seattle before a home game is crazy. All of the bars surrounding the stadium are overflowing with fans. The parking lots are filled with tailgaters. Win a good set of football fans as friends, I am also in two fantasy leagues, one suicide league (well, I was until week #1 when the Redskins lost :( ), and a flag football team. Go Coasters!

a few more pics: http://mrsharps.com/pics/football/

Street Fighter 2

2006-09-19T20:00:00.000-07:00

Yo-

Everyone who knows me knows how much I love Street Fighter 2. I stumbled across these videos of some sick combos in SSF2T. I'm not 100% sure these videos aren't hacked, but regardless it's impressive. 15+ years later it's a classic!

Mr.Sharps.Com

2006-09-04T03:44:00.000-07:00

I am making this my official homepage. Expect updates a little more frequently. For now, here are a few shots from my summer.

Mr.Sharps.Com

2005-05-11T22:26:00.000-07:00

The Intro

This is my second Blog!!!!

I'm already posting on spaces. But I figured I'd give this a try.