If you follow this blog, or our Facebook pages (Joshua's, Crystal's) you know we're expecting our fourth child in November. That means, as much as we love our Subaru, we're going to have to say goodbye. We recently (yesterday) acquired a used Toyota Sienna. It's a 2004 with almost 90,000 miles, but it's in really good shape. It has all the Alaska accessories: engine block/transmission heater, winter tires, and it's all-wheel-drive of course (Toyota is the only company still making an all-wheel-drive mini van).

We will be selling our Subaru Outback once it's cleaned up and in pristine shape. We hate to see the Subaru go, but are excited about the baby, and really jazzed and praising God about the vehicle acquisition.

It isn't news that our national level of grammatical literacy is declining. It isn't news that a quickly jotted e-mail or text message will have improper grammar, or teeth gratingly obnoxious abbreviations (whts with that ne way? enuf already! kthnxbye!). It is somewhat notable however, when a chain with "over a thousand flooring stores worldwide" sends out an advertising postcard with a 2nd or 3rd grade grammar mistake.

With that in mind, click on the image to the right, and take a good, long look. Stare at it a while. While you're (that's a hint) staring at it, contemplate how many people worked on this invitation, planned it, thought about it, and viewed it before it was given the official OK to go to print. Imagine how many looked at it as they stuffed them into envelopes (eh, maybe that part was automated). Then, wonder with me, if you will, why no one in that entire process ever wondered why "YOUR" was missing an apostrophe and trailing "E."

And no, you can't blame this on Podunk Fairbanks: this store is a Worldwide chain. At least they say so on their web site.

I could go on, but I'm so flabbergasted I have nothing left to say.

[And yes, you better believe that I'm proof reading this entry very carefully. It would be the height of irony to have grammatical errors in a rant about grammar. And yes, this is posted under "humor" but it really is a tragedy.]

Two photos too cute not to share.

Progress continues to be made, slowly but surely!

More NextStep ministries crews worked on the house since the last update, and more got done! The entire upstairs ceiling is now covered by sheetrock. Only one panel is left to secure into place.

We also had our electrical service entrance replaced by the fine folks at Bright Electric, and the down-stairs subpanel installed. The frustration came from miscommunication and lack of communication. We thought the labor was going to be free. It was, in part, but it appears Bright Electric thought it would only take four to six hours. It ended up taking about 24 hour of labor (had to replace the mast guy wire, feed lines because they were aluminum, and do some other modifications because the first inspection didn't pass). More materials were required than we originally planned as well. In all, it ended up costing $3200. Bright donated part of the cost, we were able to pay part of it, and NextStep minitries covered the rest. So, it was all taken care of, but the money did come out of our sheetrock budget.

In all, Praise the Lord! We've made some great progress. We can start finish work on the inside electrical now!

Somebody in our family turned 50 recently. 50,000, that is. On June 10th, 144 miles through a tank of gas the reliable, trustworthy, efficient, useful 2005 Subaru Outback began the second half of its journey to 100,000 miles.

This car has been through quite a bit with this family. It brought all three of our kids home from their places of birth (hospital for Elizabeth, birth clinic for the other two). It's taken Crystal and me on two anniversary get-aways. Carried lumber for the house remodel. Made five trips to Anchorage (one of those being a one-day round-trip for shopping and to pick up an oven). Helped us move into (and out of) two places. Carried pallets for a contract job (five in the back, four on top). Dozens upon dozens of shopping trips. Been an impromptu baby-changing station.

It's been a great car. We look forward to another great 50,000 miles.

After several months of no progress on the house (due to finances--mostly--and other things), some more work is being done on the house. NextStep ministries from Wisconsin is sending teams up to Fairbanks this summer to do construction projects in the area. Our house was one of the locations chosen, and we are excited!

So far on the agenda: new stairs, vapor barrier, new kitchen window (done!), some electrical work, plumbing installation, and sheet rock on the upstairs ceiling. We'll see what else we can accomplish.

We have a list of todo's to get the upstairs livable so we can move back in, and that is our action plan. Our finances are tight (still working part time, looking for a full time job), and the team has a limited budget, but we know God is in control, so we'll see what He has in store.

Keep praying! We're making progress!

Jonathan may be 2.5, but he is still a toddler. And sometimes he toddles...and sometimes he does faceplants. Such was the case, sadly, this past Sunday at Alaska land. He was trucking across the parking lot and hit an uneven spot. I only caught the last half of the event, so as near as I can tell, his hands went down, but didn't adequately catch his fall. His face made contact with the asphalt knocked off his glasses (they survived) and gave him, as he put it, an "ouch on my cheek." He cried, we wiped it off, prayed for him, and he was ready and raring to go once again. Brave little boy.

It's been a busy month so please forgive us for not updating you sooner.

Our baby boy has a name: Timothy-Isaiah John Kugler. Timothy means honoring God; Isaiah means Yahweh (God) has saved; and John means Jehovah (God) is a gracious giver

The first week and a half of Timothy's life is a bit of a blur. He was jaundiced to the point where he was admitted to the hospital over night to get his biliruben levels down. After that we were in and out of the local clinic checking on his weight. Today he had his one month check-up at the birth clinic. I was pleasantly surprised to see that he weighed in at 11lbs. even. He gained 2lbs 2oz from his birth weight of 8lbs. 14oz.

So, all in all, Timothy is quite healthy and going strong!

Or so said Elizabeth this morning at breakfast.

Yesterday evening, Crystal started getting pains below her stomach. Having just had a chiropractic adjustment earlier that day, she didn't think much of it; she wasn't due for three weeks, after all. But as the evening progressed, it became clear she was experiencing contractions. So, early this morning, the mid-wife came over, checked Crystal out, and said, "Yep, you're dilated to three centimeters."

Time to go to the birth clinic.

After a relatively short labor (about five hours total), our third child, a boy, was born. Eight pounds, 14 ounces; 21 inches; born at 4:37AM today, January 24th. Incidentally, today is also my dad's 65th birthday. Another interesting fact about my dad's birthday: He was born about 6:30AM, Arizona time. So, our new baby boy was born 65 years after his grandpa, almost to the minute.

Praises:
- Crystal was only three weeks early, so we didn't have to go to the hospital (the cutoff is three weeks prior, two weeks after)
- Baby and Mommy and doing GREAT!
- Labor and Birth had no complications

Prayers:
- Baby boy doesn't have a name yet...we want wisdom in naming him!

Edit: My dad is 65 today, not 68.
Edit: Correct hospital "cutoff"

Joshua is starting a new job Monday! See his geek blog for more details.

A while back I heard about this product called Baby Legs. Think of them as long socks minus the feet. Great for crawling around hard floors, keeping legs warm (of course!). I've seen adults use them on their arms. I like the idea of of using them on little ones, sounds like a great alternative to pants when it comes to changing diaper!

They have a contest going where you can win 20 pairs of Baby Legs, and you can get bonus entries if you link to the contest on your blog (as I'm doing now). Go here to sign up.

These tickle me, for some reason.

Q: How many elephants can you fit in a VW Bug?
A: Four. Two in the front, two in the back.

Q: How can you tell if an elephant is in your refrigerator?
A: There's a footprint in the mayo.

Q: How can you tell if two elephants are in your refrigerator?
A: There's two footprints in the mayo.

Q: How can you tell if three elephants are in your refrigerator?
A: The door won't shut.

Q: How can you tell if four elephants are in your refrigerator?
A: There's a VW Bug in your driveway.

So, due to lack of projects at my current employer, I might be getting laid off come Wednesday. Not the news one wants to hear.

If anyone has any leads for telecommuting tech jobs, please let me know. There is a link to my resume at the top-right of this page.

Thanks!

Every now and then you get a reminder that small children are still working on discerning that fine line between reality and dreams. Like today, for instance.

Elizabeth was sleeping on the bed while I worked at the computer. She woke up from a dead sleep, eyes open, and, the following conversation took place:

"Hey dad?"

"Yeah?"

"Earlier I saw some giraffes."

"Really?"

"Yeah, outside."

And she laid back down and was back out. And this all happened in the span of about 60 to 90 seconds. Wow.

If you go to the rebuild category (http://jjncj.com/blog/categories/1-rebuild) the first post is a "sticky post" giving introductory information. Well, now it's going to serve double duty. I'm going to take my todo list from this post and add it to that sticky post, and update it as thing get done.

That way, you'll have a constantly updated progress chart. So, either bookmark the rebuild category or the sticky post itself. Or just add our RSS feed to your RSS aggregator.

Last Friday (2008-09-26) the house was spray-foamed! This is a polyurethane closed-cell foam that is one of the best insulators out there. We got four inches of foam in the studs up stairs, and two inches of foam in the 2x4 furring down stairs. Translation: the house is very air-tight and very insulated. The boiler with a couple of unit heaters on it can keep the house quite cozy.

We spent the last week cleaning up after the foamers (studs have to be cleaned, random foam overspray, etc), removing the rest of the sheet rock on the upstairs ceiling, and sweeping/vacuuming up the aforementioned mess. Save the stairs we're redoing, no more demolition!

It's coming along nicely. Stay tuned for more!

A lot of progress has been made since our last major update three months ago.

• Almost all the upstairs wiring has been run. Just a few runs to lights from the switches remain.


• The basement has been furred out with 2x4s. Much thanks to my dad for getting me started on that, and to Robb for spending several nights learning (along with me) how to do framing.


• All the wiring for the exterior walls is done downstairs. Again, Robb helped a LOT


• All the conduit for media (network/phone/coax) has been run to the exterior walls. (Robb, Jason)


• Acquired a connex container and moved our already-purchased cabinets and flooring into it to make it easier to work in the house. (Robb, Jason T., Steve M.


• The house was prepped for being spray foamed. (Robb)

And today the house was spray-foamed. We got four inches of insulation in the exterior wall upstairs (2x6 walls) and two inches in the exterior walls (2x4) down stairs. We're so excited! We've been praying that the weather would stay warm until we got the insulation in, and it did. It's expected that we'll have highs in the thirties in a few days. So that Indian Summer we've been having? Yeah, that was a God thing.

So, the house is sealed up and insulated, and should be very easy to keep warm. Other work can now continue. Our todo list as it currently stands:

• Cleanup for foaming


• Floor reinforcement downstairs


• Walls we're replacing: Bathroom/guestroom; Family room/office; Laundry/Office


• Wiring up interior walls


• HRV System


• Replacing stairs (code compliance)


• Solid foam insulation on downstairs floor


• Radiant floor heat downstairs?


• Resurfacing down stairs floor


• Media conduit for interior walls (including speaker wire conduit and security system conduit)


• Plumbing


• Window replacements


• Sheet rock


• Switch/outlet installation


• Underlayment upstairs


• Texture walls


• Priming and painting


• Flooring installation


• Cabinets and vanity installation


• Kitchen appliance installation


• Miscellaneous stuff (light fixtures, etc)


• Move in!

So, did I miss anything?

So, quite a to-do list, but the insulation today was a major milestone. We're getting there!

Edit: Added HRV.

Spam subject today:

"You have never thought that this could change urlife for better."

What is urlife? And why would I want to change it?

Yes, it was a spam for, ahem, "enhancements."

Today I was looking over the letter that came with our garbage bill, and saw that the City of Fairbanks was attempting to lower the cost of collecting garbage. They are doing three things. First, they are going to start working four 10-hour days instead of five 8-hour days. They say this will save them time doing their mobilizing and demobilizing at the beginning and end of the day. Makes sense. Second, they will only drive through a neighborhood one time on the collection day. Good idea. I didn't even know they did multiple passes as it was.

But the third way was the one that caught my attention:

We are installing GPS systems on our City packer trucks and have redesigned routes to maximize efficiency and reduce trips to the landfill.

I always love to see technology put to good use.

Now, if we can only get them to implement something like this system we could save them even more labor costs. And we'd be able to put yard waste in the bins without bagging it first!

1173 cubic feet. That's how much storage is sitting in our driveway as I write. We have been storing some stuff in the house for a few months (cabinets and flooring) and they need to be removed so we can do the insulation and the floor, and so we don't have to work around them while sheet rocking, painting, and the like.

What we now have in our driveway is a 20 foot connex container. We'll be moving the cabinets and flooring tomorrow. You're welcome to join us. Oh, and we'll be prepping the walls for the spray foam insulation.

In order to get to Jonathan's appointment I had to wake him up from his nap. He got to keep his binky (pacifier) to the car. When we got to the car I offered him a granola bar as a snack. He held it firmly in his hand, and I asked for his binky. He was quiet for the whole ride to the eye clinic. When I went to get him out of his seat, there was his uneaten granola bar. Feeling really badly, I offered Jonathan his binky. He took it, still clutching onto his granola bar. I asked for the binky back when we got inside. (they have a small play area and I didn't feel like losing a pacifier) He willingly gave it up. We get inside to sign in where he tells everyone he's sick (he's not, this is the eye doctor). All the while he's clutching onto the granola bar. We sit down in the waiting area and I ask if he's going to eat the granola bar.

"Yes" he says as he just sits there. I ask a second time and it was like the light bulb went on, "oh yeah, food". He then proceeds to start counting (mouth full of food no less), "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9."

I corrected him, "7, 8, 9." He practically shouts "10!" I asked if he knew what came after 10.

"9?"

I told him that 11 came next. He then says "12."

"What comes after 12, do you know?"

"10".

I said "10, 11, 12."

"13"

"Very good Jonathan. Who taught you that? Did Elizabeth teach you that?"

"No"

"Did you learn that from Elmo (we have a TV game that uses Sesame Street for learning)

"Animals!" (There are animals on the Elmo game.)

Today Jonathan had an other eye exam, to see how he was adjusting to his prescription. When we went to sign in, he said "I sick". I was quick to tell him that he was not sick but he persisted. I reiterated the fact that he was not sick. I also told him that we were seeing the eye doctor not his medical doctor. To which he replied: "ok"
I am happy (elated perhaps) by the fact that Jonathan does not have to wear his glasses! He will have to wear them again if we see his left eye start to drift (and also bring him back to the eye doctor). Dr. Zamber was very impressed with how far Jonathan has come since getting his glasses.

So, you don't think I was going to let you escape without hearing about the other child, do you? Today, it is Elizabeth who is on my lap, sitting sideways, leaning against my right arm, with her right hand on mine as I type. And she's asleep. Yup, it's kind of hard (translation: impossible) to use my trackball, but there is little that can match the feeling of a sleeping child on your lap. I certainly don't mind the "inconvenience."

Right now, I am typing, but the range of motion of my right arm is somewhat impaired, effectively eliminating the usage of my trackball. This is because I got my son up from his nap, but he's not quite awake. In fact, he's quite sound asleep on my lap, laying against my chest. And the typing/trackball impairment? He's using my right arm as his pillow. Well worth the bother.

...and bring me right back down.

It has been an interesting past few weeks. We've been searching for funding, and just haven't gotten anywhere.

Another interesting wrinkle came a little over a week ago. We got a bill from the water company for $3,200. Why? Well, they were billing us for digging up the street, filling it back in, and paving it. I thought I had been told, repeatedly, that if the line was fixed, and they didn't have to dig it up again to turn on the water, we wouldn't be charged. Either I was told incorrectly, or I misunderstood. No, I never got it in writing, and no, I never wrote down who told me. It was all verbal, and I don't think I was ever on the phone when I was told, so I didn't have anything to write it down. Right now, we're waiting to hear back from them as to how much they'll let us pay per month.

This past Monday we met with Fairbanks Neighborhood Housing Services (FNHS), the organization that helped us buy our house in the first place. They have some funding available for renovation loans, and we talked with them about that. The loan officer was very helpful, and very encouraging. It was almost a "sure thing" that we would be able to get a VERY low interest loan for $45,000 and finish the house. We were pretty excited, but still a bit cautious. We talked to him today, and were told that Alaska Housing Finance Corporation (the source of FNHS's money) is very reluctant to (translation: just about never will) loan money for work on a house in which black mold has been discovered, even when all the mold has been removed (in our case, the house is gutted). Even with an air test to prove the mold is no longer in the house, he was not optimistic. We'll do an air test and see what it gets us, but for now, that door is closed.

So, we're right back to where we started. We need $45,000 to finish the house (ideally $50,000, but $45,000 will do). And yes, I have a spreadsheet with all the numbers to back it up.

If you happen to know the source of a very low interest 30 year loan, please let us know.

God is in control! We know we'll get through this. We're just a bit discouraged right now. I'm just glad that the kids are young enough to not have any idea what's going on. Elizabeth knows that I go "work on the house," but she doesn't understand why I'm working on it, or why we're not living there. She and Jonathan-David are just happy being kids.

...everybody has at least one.

And I, not to buck the trend, now have two blogs. Or 1.5, since I am not whole owner of this, the blog I share with my wife.

My new blog is to be found at joshuakugler.com. It is a blog that will focus mainly on tech stuff: programming, system admin, and computer topics in general.

And I have a new e-mail address, since bigfoot.com, after years of use, seems to now be having major technical problems. I am now reachable at:

joshua@joshuakugler.com

I hope you'll visit!

As I mentioned in my previous post, I was heading over to the house today to shovel dirt back in to the trench. After working for about two hours, you could tell I had made progress, but you had to look closely. The tops of the dirt piles were gone; that was about the extent of it.

About that time, a paving crew from Bloom Enterprises drove by to do some asphalt patching down the street. On one of their trailers was a Bobcat. Maybe, just maybe. I walked down the street and ask the supervisor how much they charged an hour for bobcat work. "I don't think we really do that," was the response. Ah well, at least I tried.

About 15 minutes later, I look up, and coming down the street is a Bobcat being driven by one of the crew, and the supervisor riding on the bucket. I smiled, but kept my enthusiasm in check, because after all, there was a trench in the street in front of our house which needed repair too. But I did get excited when they pulled in the driveway.

We worked out a price, and Travis went to work. In about an hour, he accomplished far more than I could have working all day, maybe two days. All the dirt is back in the trench, and the driveway is, oh, semi-level, but functional. It'll probably settle over the next week or so, so we'll need more dirt, but that's OK. It was such a blessing to have that done. It saved me hours upon hours, and didn't cost us anywhere near what renting a backhoe or Bobcat would have. God is truly good.

If you're in need of paving work in the Fairbanks area, please give Bloom Enterprises a call. 907-474-0625 And let them know you're calling because they helped out a friend of yours.

For the first time is many moons, we now have water flow in the house. Granted, nothing is hooked up to the water in the house, we we have water when we turn on the main valve. It's all foamed up (we have to insulate our outside water pipe in Alaska to protect from freezing), and I'll be heading over there today to throw dirt back in the hole. We'll see how long it takes me to put back all the dirt a back hoe took out in three hours.

We now bring you an update of our water rupture story.

My father-in-law Steve got way more than he bargained for when he came to visit last week. He arrived in Fairbanks the evening of July 2nd after driving for over nine hours from the Kenai peninsula. Within a half hour of arriving, he was helping me dig out the driveway while Philip L. operated the back-hoe I had rented earlier that day.

In about three hours we dug up some 40 feet or so of driveway, and we did manage to find a rupture, hopefully the only one. The rupture was about two inches long, so must have pushed out thousands of gallons of water before our line was shut off. I'm surprised our neighbor's yard didn't settle any.

The bad part in all this is that our home owner's insurance won't pay for this, as the house 1) wasn't occupied, 2) wasn't heated (true, but peripheral to the cause of the freeze-up), and 3) there was no circulation pump (not required by code if you are less than 100 feet away from the main). So, if you know of anyone that might have some "pull" at State Farm, let us know.

Pictures included for your viewing pleasure.

My afternoon was interrupted at a quarter until four today by a phone call from our local water company, Golden Heart Utilities (GHU). The nice lady on the other end of the phone informed me that I needed to go to the house at 1612 Southern Avenue (the house we're currently remodeling) and check if we still had water service.

My reaction: "Huh!?" She went on to explain that a water supply line (the line going from the main to a house) had ruptured, and they had determined it was most likely ours, and they had dug up the street^* and shut off our valve. How did they know about the broken water main? Water running down the street.

At this point, I'm thinking one of two horror scenarios. 1) I had left the valve in our basement open, the lines had thawed, and our basement was "full to overflowing." That was worst case. 2) The line right next to our basement had ruptured, saturating the ground next to the basement which would cause expansion of the soil come winter, possibly compromising our basement wall. That was best case.

When I got there, it turned out to be nearly not so bad. Walking across our neighboor's lawn I noticed it was rather squishy (important!), and our entire driveway was dry. A couple of employees from GHU arrived a little while later, and we discusses what had happened. Since there was not enough flow through our water lines, even with the recirculating lines (due to non-occupancy and the freeze up last winter), our water supply froze up and ruptured. It finally thawed out (yes, I know it's July), and started leaking. The fun part? It started bubbling up in our neighbor's driveway, some 40 feet away. GHU started digging in front of our neighbor's, looking for the valve to turn off. When that didn't work, they dug up nearly 40 feet of street looking for our valve. Shutting it off stopped the "spring" in our neighbor's driveway. The guys told me they were out digging in the street until 2:00 AM this morning, and then came back later to continue digging before they finally found our valve.

So, where does that leave us? We need to dig up the supply line, find the leak (hopefully only one), repair it, re-foam (insulate) it, and rebury it. I'll be coordinating that over the next few days.

^*No joke. In our part of town, the main shutoff valves are buried about six feet under the street next to the water main. No exposed shutoff valves on the property line like we had in California.

Yes, we're late in getting this on the blog, but if you haven't heard yet...we're expecting. Another little Kugler should arrive some time in February.

Just so you know!

Update: We're due February 11. We had an ultrasound today. There is only one, but the upside to that is we don't have to buy a new car yet.

On June 11-15, Crystal and I had our first multi-day no-kid get away since Elizabeth was about six months old. We drove down to Soldotna, Alaska, and stayed at a bed and breakfast called Escape for Two. We stayed in a small cabin sitting about 20 feet from the edge of a small lake. We had the cabin all to ourselves, hence the name.

Our breakfast each morning was two kinds of fruit. Pineapple quarters and blue berries, or watermelon and grapes, for example. In addition, we were given "munchies" each day: granola, small loaves of fruit and/or nut bread, crackers, and the like. In addition, I ordered the "mini-moon" package, which got us a dozen roses, a box of specialty chocolates, sparkling cider (we could have had wine, but Crystal can't drink that right now...more in the next post), and a large plate of fruit, meat, and cheese. And not just "normal" cheese either. There were three large wedges; one each of blue cheese, brie, and a really good mango/soft cheese combination. There was dry salami, cold cuts, and smoked ham. The fruit included grapes, strawberries, kiwi and star fruit.

So, what did we do on our trip? Not much. We drove to Seward with Crystal's dad one of our days down there. We went geocaching, and found all three of the locations we had printed out, but only one cache. On a couple of the days, we just drove around and looked at the scenery. And of course just "vegged" out at the cabin.

It was a very relaxing, very enjoyable time. Pictures follow. Click for bigger versions.

So, it's been a while since my last update on the house. About two months, to be exact.

There aren't any "major" chunks of progress to be reported, but we are making progress, slow and sure. Right now, we're down to the "little jobs" that need to be done before we can start putting it all back together.

Let's see...what has been done in the mean time?

• All the insulation is out (Izzy had that itchy job), and thus has confirmed we have 2x6 walls up stairs. Something that is rather rare for a house built forty years ago.


• The downstairs got a serious cleanup. The cinder block walls were scraped with a steel brush (Robb had that fun job), and dirt and sheet rock dust was swept and vacuumed.


• The rotted section of the master bedroom floor was replaced (Thanks Bill Wood!)


• Removed some old coax and phone cable from the outside of the house. Will be replaced with all new runs to a network/wiring closet in the new office.


• The closet doors in the master bedroom and kids room were widened to accommodate sliding mirror doors instead of the 32 inch interior doors they had.


• The wall between the old family room and old guest room was removed. Its base plate was so rotten that it split in half when torqued during the removal process. And the rest of it was rotted to some degree. A new wall is going back up a few feet over to make re-size a couple rooms.


• The wall between the laundry room and old family room was removed because it hadn't been installed correctly in the first place. It will go back up soon.

Stay posted...some major progress is coming soon, we hope. Furring and insulation is planned for the next few weeks. And then sheet rock after that.

It's always fun to see companies reference other companies with which they work. VirtualBox is a software package that allows you run several different operating systems in their own virtual machines (like VMWare, Xen, etc). Their about box is great. They have the Suse Iguana (wearing a Red Hat), the Linux Penguin playing a tambourine emblazoned with the Ubuntu logo, the Microsoft "Butterfly," stars (alluding to Mandrake/Mandriva) rising from the fire, and the BSD Daemon eating a multi-colored Apple. No, VirtualBox can't boot OS X, but the apple is probably an allusion to Darwin, which I assume VirtualBox could boot, and upon which OS X is built. Did I miss any logos?

I love listening to Elizabeth talk! With her limited vocabulary she tries so hard to form her thoughts into sentences.

On the drive home from church tonight the sun was right in her eyes. She asked for her sunglasses like this: "I want my sunglasses! I don't want my eyes to be bright!"

Anyone who has programmed for any length of time has an opinion about comments in code. They're essential. They're not essential. Commenting is actually worse than not commenting. It runs the gamut. I'm beginning to understand more and more that comments are actually a disctraction to clean, clear, concise code. Especially when writing in Python, it is possible to write code that requires no comments, but is still 100% understandable and discoverable. Sometimes a line or two is required to explain something not clear from context, but it's rare.

After reading a piece by Steven Smith entitled Comments in Code Indicate Functions Trying To Escape, my lead programmer Troy Melhase (i.e. my "boss"), who is a strong proponent of clear code/no comments, wrote:

Yes. Instead of writing comments, write code that doesn't need
comments.

Clear, and concise, just like his code. After musing on it a while, his ironic streak kicked in, and he composed the following "epic tome," as he describes it, that so clearly illustrates the many useless blocks of comments I have seen in my time as a programmer. He gave me permission to post it, so here you go! Enjoy.

(BTW, visit Troy's blog. He's written a Java to Python translator, and has a really cool stock-trading and analysis application.)



Now, this doesn't preclude documentation--we use doc strings at the beginning of files, functions, and classes quite heavily--but in-line comments in code are rare.

In the world of system Unix/Linux system administration, one of the statistics often quoted by system admins is their systems' "uptime." That is, how long has the system been up and operational since its last reboot. This is a conversation in which Windows system admins never join due to the fact that even the smallest system or software update often requires a reboot. My personal best? 500-plus days. Of course, I probably should have rebooted it in that time for some security updates, but for some reason it didn't get done.

It seems Linux admins will soon have even more bragging rights when it comes to uptime. A new project from MIT (where else?) has developed a way to apply security patches directly to a running kernel, without having to reboot. Unless an update makes large changes to the kernel (in this case, modifies data structures), a kernel update will not require taking the system down. Considering that a kernel update is the only reason to ever have to reboot a Linux system -- even hardware drivers can be updated without a reboot -- it might be possible to never reboot a Linux system, and still keep it up-to-date with all security patches.

More information at the Ksplice site. Very interesting stuff, indeed.

A little more progress to report. Last Saturday Robb and I managed to get boxes and wiring in the kitchen. All the wire is there, and run back to the breaker box, although nothing is yet hooked up. We ran wire for the dishwasher, refrigerator, garbage disposal, microwave (required because our microwave is "large," i.e. above 1000 watts), small appliances (counter outlets), and the 120/220 line for the oven. The circuit for lighting will come later. Fun stuff.

Next up:

• Insulation removal


• New furring downstairs (removed the old/rotted stuff)


• Spray foaming the outside walls (4 inches for R28)


• Wiring the rest of the house.

A couple more sub-projects on which major progress was made today.

The first had to do with the flow of electricity. The existing electrical system in the house consisted of two side-by-side Pushmatic boxes. For those who've never seen a Pushmatic box, it's exactly what it sounds like. The breakers are really large push-on-push-off switches, as shown to the right. Ancient. You can't buy boxes like that any more, even though the breakers are pretty easy to find. In fact, I've replaced a couple of them that have gone bad. At any rate, one of those boxes fed the lights and outlets in the house, and the other box fed the garage sub panel and the (out of service) electric baseboard heaters. Each box was fed by a 100AMP main from the service entrance. So, it was time to replace them.

We now have installed a brand new, shiny, Square D 200 AMP breaker box right inside our rear entry. All this was accomplished thanks to our new friend Joe Delskie. His wife posted on a local sale/trade list saying he was looking for NEC (National Electrical Code) and IBEW (Internation Brotherhood of Electrical Workers) books. I wrote, asking if he could do some work for us. He could. He does great work, and knows his stuff. If you have any electrical, HRV, other wiring (network, etc), tiling, or general carpentry jobs that need doing, he is looking for work while he does his IBEW classes. Drop me a line and I'll forward your information.

The other project today consisted of putting part of the sewer lines back together. A large section had to be replaced for a couple reasons. One was the discovery of a couple of leaks on the existing sewer pipe, as evidenced by the copper rust around a couple joints (one of those being the toilet run). The other was a puncture from a screw used by a previous owner to hang a bathroom cabinet. Yes, the screw went into the sheetrock of the wet wall, and into the copper pipe behind that.

So, we ended up removing the DWV (drain/waste/vent, refers to the drain and vent system) pipes running to the upstairs toilet, tub, and bathroom sink, as well as a large section of the main three inch DWV pipe. We worked on getting it back in a little last week, but this week Robb and Izzy measured, cut, and fit most of the main DWV pipe, as well as the runs for the toilet and tub. We now have all the pieces ready for gluing. The new runs are actually simpler than the old runs thanks to Robb's creativity and skill with connecting the pieces at various angles. Don't worry, everything still slopes in the right direction. The only thing that made it a little difficult at times was having to cut out the notches in the floors and 2x8s a little more due to the fact that 1.5 inch inside diameter ABS plastic is a bit bigger around than 1.5 inch inside diameter copper.

It was a very productive day. Felt good to see what was accomplished.

Update: Robb informs me that it was in fact Izzy that came up with the idea to use a 22.5 degree joint to match up the tub run to the oddly-angled run for the toilet. Gotta give credit where credit is due!

It's probably HDR.

I sometimes wonder how marketing types live with themselves. Their whole purpose in life is to convince us to buy things for which we have no need, and often lack the money. As George Foshee said, "We spend money we don't have, to buy things we don't need, to impress people we don't like." But I digress. I was talking about marketers. In addition to trying to convince us to buy things, sometimes they even take techniques, rename them, and then claim they invented them, as is the case in a press release I found today.

First, a little background. HDR (or High Dynamic Range) Photography is a method whereby you take several shots of scene at several different exposures, and then combine those shots into one. This generates a final image that captures much more of the range visible to the human eye. As usual, see Wikipedia for more.

So, today I came across a press release from a real estate web site. Under the pretentious headline "Arizona Firm Revolutionizes Real Estate Photography With New ELC Technology," they claim to have invented a technique called "Enhanced Lighting Compression" which promises to "[bring] new level[s] of detail & appeal to property photos." Hmm...sounds interesting. Let's read more.

This is how they describe the process:

ELC photography involves taking multiple simultaneous exposures with a specially configured digital camera. These images are processed at VMLH's studio, where they are integrated and enhanced with custom software that merges a series of images into one ELC photograph that can be printed, emailed or used on web pages as a standard JPEG photo file.

Sounds exactly like HDR, except for the "multiple simultaneous exposures" part, which is either complete hyperbole, or they have a special multi-CCD camera. Considering it is a marketing piece, I would assume the former, but if it is the latter, then it's still HDR photography, they just had someone make them a VERY expensive digital camera. And on their web site, they simply claim that "custom software" is "custom Photoshop settings."

And I could stop there, since it's pretty clear they they have simply renamed an existing technique and are trying to market it under a new name. But, there is other marketing-speak in the article that is just begging to be called out.

The new Enhanced Lighting Compression (ELC) system produces pictures that bring out far more of the details seen by the human eye, creating stunning images that have a hyper-real level of presence, clarity and immediacy.

"Stunning images?" Well, maybe, in that it's more range than you are used to seeing in a photograph. But no more stunning than a well-taken and well-lit shot of a house.

Brings out more detail? Yes, HDR photography does that. But "Hyper-real!?" Oh, sigh. The only references to hyper-reality I could find on Wikipedia (I know, not always authoritative) were Hyperreality, a term used in semiotics and postmodern philosophy; Hyperrealism, a school of painting; Hyperreal numbers, an extension of the real numbers in mathematics that are used in non-standard analysis; and a song. So unless they are talking about philosophy, math, or a realistic painting technique, their choice of words was completely meaningless. The images aren't hyper-real, they simply, as I stated, look like a well lit shot should.

"I tell people that ELC photos adds $100,000 to the value of their home," said Arizona realtor Kim Stoegbauer.

Right, about that "how do marketers live with themselves" question? Enough said.

If you take a look at the images at http://www.vmlh.com/elc/ (no I'm not linking to them, I have no desire to raise their Google rank), you'll see the sample photos don't look all that amazing. They simply look like a picture taken by a photographer who knew what they were doing.

For some examples of real HDR photography, and what it can do, take a look at HDR photos on Flickr. For an excellent example that shows how HDR can generate a picture showing detail in the bright areas, all the way down to the dark areas, see this image.

HDR photography is neat, and if they want to use it real estate, great! Actually, really great; have you seen some of the photos attached to houses for sale? Some of them are horrible. So, if they want to use HDR, that's fine, but at least call it what it is, instead of creating a new name, and claiming you invented it.

Oh, if you're interested in the press release, copy and paste this link: http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/03-25-2008/0004779580&EDATE=

The first is by Ben Stein, Kevin Miller, and Walt Ruloff about the persecution that scientists and other experts have been enduring for simply suggesting that there might be an alternative to Darwinian evolution. Quite the irony in a nation that claims to value "free speech," "free thought," and "constructive discussion and debate." More at Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed (Found via Alaskans in the Minne-City)




The other one is about how mechanized and unnatural the birth process has become in modern medical America. From the web site: "The film interlaces intimate birth stories with surprising historical, political and scientific insights and shocking statistics about the current maternity care system." More at The Business of Being Born. If you're in the Fairbanks, Alaska area, they will be showing this at the Women's show April 4 through 6.