Busy Saturday

Normally our weekends are our quietest times, with Mary Ellen going to school all week and trying to keep up with the kids 1/3 her age. For those who aren't aware, the average grade point of entering freshman at BYU is about 3.8. In spite of that, Mary Ellen is doing well and enjoying the trip. This weekend was one of our busiest since starting school.

We got a call at 8:20 in the morning from Kassie asking us to attend her (and Kimmy's) basketball games. They started at 9:00 in the Salt Lake Valley. We were just lazing around at the time and hadn't even showered yet. We didn't make it at 9:00, but we weren't too late.

I tried taking pictures but (1) it was a gym that wasn't well lit and (2) it was a long distance shot and (3) it was a basketball game and they kept moving. So the shots were "interesting".

After Kassie's (they lost) and Kimmy's (they won) game, we jumped in our car for the 50 mile jaunt to Springville where Braden was also having a basketball game that we were invited to attend. We hadn't eaten breakfast (40 minutes to shower and drive 25 miles was a little tight) and we had just enough time to get to the game, so we did what every american would do - stop at McDonalds for a burger. Then to Braden's game. Note in the picture that they guy he is defending is almost a foot taller and probably double his weight. I give Braden an "A" for effort though. Their time got wiped because of the size of the opponents. These were only 5th and 6th graders.


After the games, we had to get ready for the monthly family birthday party. Our assignment was a fruit and vegie tray. We stopped at Reams in Springville (a really good place for fruits and vegies and cheap too) then came home to get ready before the hoards arrived. Fun was had by all, mostly the kids (both small and big). After the festivities were over (about 10pm), we took Tim and Carly home because Mary Ellen had to pick up her intaglio prints before they were thrown away by the custodial staff.

Sunday was not really much of a day of rest. I had a Mens Chorus practice at 10:30, followed by Choir Practice, followed by Home Teaching, followed by Church (where I taught the High Priest lesson), followed by dinner, followed by more Home Teaching, and finally bed. Somewhere in there we did manage to read the Sunday School lesson. And somewhere on Saturday I managed to prepare for both the High Priest lesson and the Home Teaching message.

Ok, this is a pretty boring post, but it does show a slice of our current life. I do wonder where I ever found time to go to work though.

What Am I Doing?

Long before text messaging and even before "general" email, computer nerds were using "BITNET" and "DARPANET" - the predecessors to email and the internet, to send messages to one another. Like the text messaging "HOW R U", these early computer nerds developed their own "shorthand". One of those things was "Flame On...", where a sender would "flame" either the recipient or just a general "flame" - airing of a pet peave or irritation real or imaged. So with that intro:

Flame On...

Mary Ellen is going to school. Pretty much everyone is really supportive and is always asking her how school is going. Invariably, though, after talking to Mary Ellen about school, they generally turn to me and ask "What are you doing"? My general feeling is that they are saying, "Your wife is busy solving the problems of world peace and curing diseases, and you are sitting on your fanny doing absolutely nothing all day, aren't you." My first reaction to reply with something like "I am learning to be a tatoo artist" or "I am trying to record every episode of 'Overhauling' on television". My second reaction is to want to hit something or somebody.

For the record, I love to learn. I love technology. I love to learn about technology. I love to learn as much about computers as I can. With Mary Ellen in school, I relished the opportunity to have several hours each day to be able to learn. So with that, this is what I have done since January 5th:

* Read "Adobe Photoshop CS4 One on One", complete with about 20 hours of video and about 80 hours of hands on exercises.
* Read "Adobe InDesign CS4 One on One" complete with about 20 hours of video and about 80 hours of hands on exercises.
(While I would love to be doing this just to do it, it does have a purpose. Mary Ellen is writing and illustrating family history stories but doesn't know the programs that are used for image editing and layout. She is the artist. I am the technologist.)
* Read "Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X", complete with mucho hours of exercises and problems. (OK, I am not quite done with this one yet. I have read the book but am only 2/3 finished with the problem sets.)
* Read the Sony Ericsson W810i Users Guide. Mary Ellen has used her cell phone for over 4 years. The family callled it "the brick". It was just a cell phone. No camera. No music. No nothing else. The keys started to die one by one. So Brandon gave us one of Rachel's old phones. Mary Ellen isn't a technologist. So I am the designated "reader" and "trainer". She can now dial the phone sometimes, answer the phone most of the time. The camera and music player are still "in training", although she stumbles across the music player frequently when she hits the wrong keys.
* Read "Weird Relationships" (don't bother, it wasn't worth the time it took".
* Currently reading "Screwtape Letters", "Snoopy", "Mac OS X Leopard", :PHP and MySQL", "Nearly Everything Imaginable - The Everyday Life of Utah's Mormon Pioneers", and "Butt-Naked Baby Blues".
* Just bought "Adobe Photoshop CS4 Channels and Masks" as my next self-learning project.

Besides that, I try to help Mary Ellen both with her homework (especially family history) and housework, as well as keep her comforted, happy, and loved.

So the next time you want to ask me what I am doing after talking to Mary Ellen about her school work, don't!

Flame Off...

There. I feel much better now.

First Week of School

Mary Ellen is just finishing her first week of school. Although she started the week a bit apprehensive and anxious, she has had a really marvelous week of classes, assignments, studying, meeting new people, and having fun learning new things. Thinking back almost 40 years when she went to BYU the first time, she enjoyed it then, but not to the same degree. I think the experience of living for over 60 years makes for a better perspective at how enjoyable it can be to learn new things.

She is only taking 10 credits in 5 classes (she will be a bit upset at the "only" word - it is really keeping her busy). She started the week with Art History where they are looking at art from about 1500 to the present. Next semester she will step backwards into art before 1500. The one comment she had about this (and other) classes was that all of the instructors act like their class is the only class that is important, and really the only class that the students should spend ALL their time on. Following that class, she has a Family History class. The instructor wrote his name on the board ("Roger Minert") and asked if anyone could pronounce his last name. Mary Ellen held up her hand and pronounced it correctly. He said that she was the first one to ever do that, and asked how she knew. Her reply: "Because your neice is my daughter-in-law." The whole class laughed at that one.

On Tuesday Mary Ellen has a 3 hour intaglio class. It has something to do with etching copper plates that is well beyond me (at least beyond my interest level). Mary Ellen is really loving this class as she has wanted to take printmaking classes since she first arrived at BYU. She also attended the first devotional.

Wednesday is her long day. Besides Art History and Religion, she also has a three hour water color class. Since it was the first meeting, no one had any materials to work with so the class was pretty short. It should get going next week.

On Thursday, besides her intaglio class, she has a seminar where they invite artists in to speak to all art majors. The teacher for this class was the one who got her into the program so quickly. A number of people in the class were complaining that the class was two hours long and interfeared with other classes they wanted to take. He response: (1) it used to be no-credit so no one would come, (2) the artists that come to speak are the best in their field and the students will enjoy their talks and learn a lot, and (3) the other classes aren't as important, so if they don't like the fact that they have to take this seminar every semester, they can get a different major!

Luckly Mary Ellen has Friday off to catch up on assignments, the family, the home, and church. She has been more than wonderful to me this week, in spite of being so very busy.

I don't think there is anything a husband can do that is more wonderful that helping his wife to soar. She is a marvelous person, a very fine artist, a wonderful wife, a marvelous friend, and very supportive of me and works to meet my needs. Helping her achieve her dreams is the least I can do for her.

Birthday and Gifts

My birthday was Wednesday. Mary Ellen and my kids made it a wonderful day. We did a combination of things, including having lunch at the Mongolian Grill in Springville. It is a really nice hole-in-the-wall chinese place with good food that is really inexpensive. The people there are really nice but barely speak English. I have decided that doesn't always equate to good food, any more than nice americans running a hamburger joint equates to good hamburgers. I do find, however, nice people who run any business make the business a better place to shop.

Irony: During our lunch in Springville, we got a call from Eric & Sarah, who live in Springville, who we were planning to visit after our lunch. They too had gone out for lunch -- in Lehi. They wanted to stop by our house (in Lehi) after lunch.

Many of the gifts I received were really wonderful and thoughtful, including a couple of gift cards to a book store and Outbacks (both of which I love), a wallet (which I needed), a book (non-fiction - can't put it down), and a MindStorms set from my sweetheart. Some of the gifts were far more random. I know that I can respond with thanks and appreciation for the thought of the gift, but how do you respond when the giver of a "questionable" gift asks if you like it? Or worse, if they had spent a lot of time and effort to find the "perfect" gift that ended up to be something that really wasn't your style or taste, then how to do you respond?

If any of you reading this blog gave me a gift, thank you! And I assure you, your gift wasn't one of the "random" ones. :}

More Computer History Ramblings

I am constantly amazed that it isn't necessary good software that succeeds in capturing the market, but well marketed software. Several cases come to mind:

Back in 1978, CP-M was the best microcomputer operating system with the most users. MS-DOS (Microsoft DOS for the younger crowd) was slower, bigger, less features, and generally shunned by most users. So why is CP-M unknown now and Microsoft the "king" of software? Blame IBM. When microcomputers started appearing, IBM said that they would never catch on. (You may have heard the quote in the 50s by the head of IBM saying that there will only be a few hundred computers ever sold - must be the same guy who said that there will ever be a market for microcomputers.) When IBM saw that they were wrong, they quickly came up with the IBM PC. (Again, for the young folk, the IBM PC wasn't the first PC. It sure wasn't the best PC. Its architecture was really poor. It was put out in a hurry. But it was made by IBM and was well marketed. So it survived, the rest - Osborne, TRS 80, Commodore 64, Kaypro - did not. IBM didn't have the time to come up with an operating system, so they negotiated a "deal" with a young nerd named Bill Gates. They could have gone with CP-M but they got a better deal from Bill. Although I don't care for Microsoft, or any of their products, I will say that Bill Gates knows how to market.

For a word processor, Microsoft Word started as one of the worst word processors. There were several much better than Word, including WordPerfect, XYWrite, and others I can't remember. IBM had a pretty good one that I used for a while. But each one disappeared as the Microsoft Marketing Machine pushed its product harder and harder. WordPerfect held on to the Number 1 slot though, until Windows came out. For some reason, WordPerfect didn't think that it was necessary to have a Windows product. So they were left in the dust by the Windows version of Word. Then Novell bought WordPerfect and didn't know what to do with it. That finished WordPerfect as a contender in the word processing market. Corel later bought the product and still sells and supports it. I still prefer it. It is a lot easier to use. But I use Word too because "everyone uses it".

Likewise, Excel was a bit player in the spreadsheet market. They weren't first. Visicalc was. They weren't the best. They were one of the worst. But marketing wins. For many years, Lotus 123 was the best and premier spreadsheet. But they kept the price high and didn't have any student option. Microsoft almost gave away the Office suite to students. So the students bought Office and became the next business leaders and pulled Office into businesses.

Powerpoint, on the other hand, has been a great product for a long time. It really started as the number 1 presentation product and no one has even gotten close to competing with it.