Saturday, September 15, 2001

9/11/2001

With profound sadness, my prayers are with those who died and their family and friend due to the terrorists attacks on Tuesday, September 11, 2001

posted by The SillyMoose - Saturday, September 15, 2001
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Monday, August 27, 2001

Model Railroad

Over the last few weeks I finally made some progresso on the n-scale modular I've been working on. Back in May I had created a 2X4 modular box with pink foam insulation glued to the top. It sat in the garage all summer until last week. I turned in my penny jar (which had much more silver than pennies) and purchased most of the track needed. The track was fit the track plan created with only a few modifications. The higher elevation track above the cliff at the back of the module still need some work. My daughter and I built a small trestle bridge some years ago and I am trying to work it onto the module in some fashion.
posted by The SillyMoose - Monday, August 27, 2001
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Monday, July 30, 2001

The 'Ol Ball Yard

Saturday we attended a Milwaukee Brewers game. I have not been to a ball game since about 1992. For a few years my family and I attended KC Royals opening day and a few during the rest of each summer. I believe the same firm design Kaufmann Stadium in KC who built the Brewer's new stadium, Miller Park.

Miller Park is a great stadium. We sat up in nose bleed territory, but its a stadium where every seat has a great view. My partner's company held their company picnic under a large tent in the parking lot. A great meal and beer for everyone and prizes for all age groups. Two of her kids one prizes, one a Nintendo 64 and the other a portable CD player. If you read the entry below you know I found the original Mario games on the net and now can play another Mario game on the Nintendo box.

Anyway, The Brewers lost the game, which is nothing new for the team this year. The experience of being there with my partner and her kids in a great ballpark was so fun. A joy, for sure.

posted by The SillyMoose - Monday, July 30, 2001
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Monday, July 09, 2001

Past Pleasures

My partner's kids have a current Nintendo at their Dad's house. One game they enjoy on it is Mario Tennis. Now my exposure to Mario was the Super Mario series of one, two and three. When my kids were around 8 or 9 we purchased the Nintendo system which included Super Mario #1. I think I played more than they did. We rented #2 and #3. Eventually I beat #1 and #3, but never finished #2. These days, whenever Nintendo comes up in conversation I lament about not beating #2. The other day I finally thought why not search the Internet and find out if you can now download for play on a PC.

I am always amazed at what is out on the net though after being on for over ten years you would think the surprise would be gone. It is somewhat more complicated than simply downloading these old games. There are two parts to it. First is an emulator. An emulator makes your PC act as the system the games were originally on. I needed to find an emulator for the Nintendo system of that time. After a little bit of searching I found Jnes.

The games are called ROM's which I am unable to understand what is stands for. Finding the Super Mario ROM's was a little more difficult as many sites had bad links to the ROM's. In this case the term 'difficult' is somewhat relative. It took going to 6 web sites to find downloads for the ROM's, whew. But eventually I found all three games available for download. After setting up the files and unzipping everything, the moment was at hand. Opening Super Mario #3 was a thrilling shock! There it was, on my computer screen just as it was on the old Nintendo game. The goofy music is the same and you can really play the games, all three of them. Everything is not perfect, but mostly it works the same. I miss having the controller, but I am getting better on the computer.

On the old, 'real' game when you pressed button A the character jumped straight into the air and you could control the direction with the other buttons. On the PC when pressing the equivilant of button A, the character jumps up and to the left on the screen. In #2, 1-2 you have to jump on a flying carpet and then jump over attackers landing back on the carpet. So far it has been very difficult and we have not made it past this part.

What fun though. I have one of her daughters 'hooked' on it. All three kids are familiar with #1 through the Game Boy. When the her oldest daughter gets back from camp, I'm sure she will find Super Marios great fun too. Sometimes you can re-live fun times from the past!

posted by The SillyMoose - Monday, July 09, 2001
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Friday, July 06, 2001

Old Haunts

Last week was another week of trainging in Schaumburg, IL. This time it was for Advanced Nortel Routers. The training company is Tech Data. I've asked my boss several times why we are learning about data products from a company that lost 19 BILLION dollars in one quarter and whose data products we don't sell anyway? Since we sell Nortel voice equipment was the answer.

During my week in Schaumburg I visited three old haunts from years past:

First I visited Woodfield Shopping Center. I have not been inside Woodfield in probably over 15 years. After all this time it looks very much the same with only the store names changing. Many more years ago I was in Woodfield on its opening day. Since that time the mall has grown and more growth has occured around it. There are many smaller malls around it now days along with the many, many resturants. In the early 70's I spent many Saturdays at Woodfield hanging out, buying albums (remember those?) and watching girls.

One evening after training I decided to wander over to Palatine. Now I have lived in many Northwest Chicago suburbs and Palatine is one. In the late 70's I did some volunteer work at a teen hotline center. If you do not know, those were places teens could hang out or call in for advice about drugs, relationships, sex and all kinds of things. I forget the name, but it was located in Palatine. Many of us used to hang out at the Big Boy's Restaurant on Northwest Highway. I ate dinner in the same building which is not called Cafe Fourteen. The inside has changed somewhat, but I am not sure how much. Was fun just being there after so many years.

The last old haunt I visited does not really fall under the old haunt catagory. I spent a half hour or so at The Presbyterian Church of Palatine. I attended some Easter services here, but most importantly this church is were I was married way back in 1974. There was no one in the chapel and it was so quiet and peaceful. The traffic noise were muted and the light fading as I sat and comtemplated. The word serene comes to mind.

posted by The SillyMoose - Friday, July 06, 2001
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What Happened With The Shoulder?

The specialist did give a prescription for 600mg Ibuprofen, three times a day. For me, having something sore all the time gets me feeling down or depressed. The Ibuprofen really helped.

The physcial therapy went very well and now wish I had not waited so long about seeing a doctor. There have been four sessions. During two sessions the therapist applied ultrasound to get some deep heating action (sounds like a commercial) into and around the tear. Then I was given sets of exercises to work on starting with some isometrics and moving on to using small weights. The improvement was immediate and dramatic. I've even started to play golf again.

During my last visit to the therapist he suggested not taking Ibuprofen prior to seeing the doctor, which I did. Soreness has returned, but not to the extent prior to therapy and excercises. I go to the specialist next week for a follow-up. I'm not sure if the shoulder will ever be like it was, but its close and that may be good enough.

posted by The SillyMoose - Friday, July 06, 2001
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Thursday, July 05, 2001

Holy Crow

I did not realize it has been nearly a month since I've updated this. A friend emailed me yesterday saying my blog was featured in an article in his local paper. The article was a from a national news organization. And sometimes I thought I was the only one reading this stuff. So, with a new national audience in mind (just kidding), I'll be updating more later today and on a more consistent basis.

posted by The SillyMoose - Thursday, July 05, 2001
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Wednesday, June 13, 2001

Some Catch UP

It has been awhile since I posted, so some catch-up items for you:

Last week I spend the entire week in training at Inacom taking Interconnecting Cisco Devices. This course is supposed to provide the knowledge for passing the Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) certification exam. We are setting up a lab here at work consisting of a PC, two Cisco 2510 routers and a Cisco switch to work with. It is much easier to pass these type of tests with hands-on work.

I have discovered The Dane County Library. What a great system the library has on the web. There is a great useful engine that mimics the search computers you find at the physical libraries. Once the an item is located you can have it put on hold and delivered to the library of your choice in the system. The Verona library is about two blocks from my office. The whole thing works so slick...even the libraries on getting on the good Internet band wagon!

In several posts I've mentioned the book and PBS series, The Jewel in The Crown. I saw the series on PBS in 1984 and finally read the book this year. I read quite a bit and find few books create a feeling of really caring about the characters. Jewel has done that for me. I always wanted to see the series again but found the complete set on DVD or VHS a tad expensive. The Dane County Library which is mentioned above, has all the tapes. Last night we watched the first one. What a fine production, highly recommended.

posted by The SillyMoose - Wednesday, June 13, 2001
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