Obama for President

On Sunday, I went down by the Willamette River in Portland to hear Barack Obama speak. He is a very charismatic speaker, getting the crowd of 75,000 very fired up. I hope that he'll be the Democratic nominee and the next President of the United States.

It was a very sunny day, and I got a little burned, but it was worth it. I got to shake hands with Steve Novick; I voted for him for the Oregon US Senate race, based upon reading his interview at slashdot.org.

A busy couple of weeks

Between softball games, birthdays, etc., it's been a while since I've posted here.

Vainiaku and Selita have been playing PAA softball. They've won about half of their games. Their last games of the season--and V's last games as a high school student will be this afternoon at home against Corbett.

This last weekend, we had a surprise 40th birthday party for my sister-in-law, Tammy.

I'm in the process of setting up a used Compaq EVO D510 2GHZ computer that I got from ebay for only $41. I've installed the Ubuntu Hardy Heron on it. It will be used as a web server/proxy server/etc.

I've also added a new Linksys WRT54G-TM router with Tomato firmware as my primary router, with my older WRT54G connected to it using WDS to increase wifi coverage.

We found out this weekend that we have to move out of our apartment at the end of May. We'd planned to move this summer anyhow, but the timing is inconvenient, what with 8th grade and high school graduations, birthdays, etc. Oh, well, these things happen.

A very nice weekend

On Friday, I setup a used LinkSys WRT54g router using Tomato Firmware. This gives my router much functionality that isn't included in the stock LinkSys firmware, including SNMP and remote syslog, so that I can more readily monitor what is going across the wire. I got the router for only $30 at Stuff, which has pretty good used equipment.

It was a very nice weekend in Portland; it was actually hot out! On Saturday, we went to the Oregon Zoo. It was crowded, but we have an annual membership, so we got in easily, not having to wait in a very long line to pay for admission. The warm weather seemed to make even the animals lethargic.

Yesterday was our son John's 15th birthday. We ate out at Red Robin, and gave John an 8gb iPod nano for his present.

April has started

TGIF!

We've had very nice weather for most of this week. It has been clear and cold in the morning, but sunny and in the 60s during the afternoon. Today is cloudy and rainy, but I guess we'll survive.

The PAA girls had a softball game last evening that they won by 11 runs. Go Cougars!

I've been busy at work learning about Nagios, Big Brother, and Hobbit, all suites that can be used to monitor system performance, uptime, etc.

March is at its end.

It was a nice weekend. On Saturday evening, we went up to Vancouver to work on Joy's sister's computer. She had a printer that she'd gotten for free that needed hooked up. They have Qwest DSL, but the HP driver package was almost 350 mb and with their slow DSL, it would have taken about 4 hours to download, so I actually drove back home, downloaded it via our cable modem and back to Vancouver in about 1 hour.

Yesterday, Joy made homemade cinnamon rolls--Yummy! :-)

Today, it's back to work Monday.

More songs to listen to.

I just upgraded my Dell Axim PDA to have an 8 gb CompactFlash memory card, double the size of my earlier 4 gb version. Now I can have all of my songs from my notebook always with me and I still have lots of free space to grow into. [Fry's had a very good price on the card!] My old card is going to be put in Joy's PDA.

It was a nice, relaxing Easter weekend. March is rapidly coming to an end.

Another week is finished--March is half over

Time is still flying pretty fast. March is to the mid point. Next thing you know it'll be summer again!

Last evening, we went to Pleasant Valley Church to get pictures taken by Olan Mills for the church directory. Joy had us wear suits and ties; oh well, it only happens occasionally. I'm glad that I don't have to wear a tie to work. I don't think I could stand that.

Get ready to Spring Forward

Reading about the snow that is still hitting the midwest, makes me glad that we live in Oregon. The crocuses and daffodils are already starting to blossom and I saw some trees in bloom, too. Tonight, we push the clock ahead an hour. I wish that the government would just leave DST in place all year long! This evening, Joy and I are going to Pleasant Valley Church for a fund raising dinner in support of the youth outreach program, Pipeline.

I finished my first full work of week at ARRIS in Beaverton. I'm hearing lots of new terms and acronyms that I need to learn.

I finished my first day at ARRIS

I'm home from my first day at ARRIS in Beaverton. It is nice to be working again--and my benefits begin tomorrow, so that's good news, too, especially with having a family that needs medical coverage.

I ate lunch today at the Old Spaghetti Factory with some of my friends who are also Serena Alumnis. Most of us already have new jobs in the pipe, so our layoff hasn't had too much of a long term negative effect.

James and I have multimedia duty at Pleasant Valley Church tomorrow.

I got a job!

I'll be starting on February 29 at Arris in Beaverton. I'll get to relax some this week. Looking for work, interviewing, etc., are very stressful, at least to me.

The PAA girls are over at Burns playing basketball tonight against the Hilanders. Go Cougars! The winners tonight move on to the state tournament.

PAA Girls won last night versus OES.

In their first playoff game, against Oregon Episcopal School, PAA won by 5 points in a hard fought basketball game. Hopefully, they'll continue the winning ways against Warrenton. Go Cougars.

I've had several phone interviews and some follow up interviews, but so far, no offers. I know that God will take care of me and my family.

Another week is done

On Tuesday, I had an interview with a company in downtown Portland. I think that it went well, but I'm always afraid to get my hopes up too high.

Thursday evening, I went over to Oregon Episcopal School to watch the PAA girls play. It was a good game, with PAA coming out on top. Tonight, PAA plays at home against Warrenton. If the Cougars win, they'll be in second place in their league.

Last night was the first meeting of Revelation Speaks Hope at the Oregon Convention Center. It was a good meeting with a good turnout.

Tomorrow, we're going over to a friend's house to watch the Super Bowl--at least the guys, anyhow. The girls are going to be watch chick flicks! I don't have a strong favorite between the Patriots and the Giants, but I'll probably cheer for New England, since they are the AFC team.

Another layoff :-(

Last Tuesday, my job at Serena Software, along with those of all of the co-workers in my development group [plus our neighbors in the happy pod], was offshored to India. It was a total surprise--and a very unpleasant one. On Friday, I had a phone interview with a company in downtown Portland. It seemed to go well, but it is always hard to tell. Oh, well, God will take care of us.

On Friday, Joy and I drove up to Multnomah Falls to see them with the ice around. It was very pretty--but cold.

A great basketball game!

Last evening, the PAA Cougar girls played a close, hard-fought game with the Catlin Gabel Eagles. It was back and forth the whole game. PAA trailed by one point with 6 seconds to go and we had the ball. My daughter was called for traveling, giving the Eagles the ball. Luckily for us, they threw the ball out-of-bounds, giving us one more chance. My daughter, Vainiaku, was under the basket with the ball, shooting and making the shot, as the buzzer rang to end the game with a win. Go Cougars!

Our good friends Les & Keri came to watch the game. They are new, proud grandparents!

Today, our son John is going up with his classmates from Portland Adventist Elementary School to Mt. Hood Meadows for a day of skiing. It should be a very nice up there. There is no new snow, but they have over 11 feet of snow at the base, so there shouldn't be any rocks showing!

A good weekend

Ron Halverson had the sermon on Sabbath, January . His topic was preparing, via prayer, for the upcoming Shawn Boonstra evangelistic series, Revelation Speaks Peace, to be held here in Portland at the Oregon Convention Center. On Sabbath afternoon, he had a follow-up meeting at the Ambridge Event Center to help us learn to be Prayer Warriors.

An up and down week

The last week has been full of ups and downs. Last Thursday, a car that I owned several years ago came back to haunt my finances. I managed to get a loan against my 401k to be able to make ends meet, but it was still a traumatic experience. I've been riding TriMet to save some money. It takes much longer to get to and from work, though.

The PAA girls lost badly against Clatskanie last Thursday. The Tigers played man-to-man defense and the Cougars didn't cope too well. On Saturday evening, the Cougar hosted the Rainier Columbians. They led for a while, but at the end of the game, the Columbians out played us. Last evening, PAA hosted the Oregon Episcopal School Aardvarks. The game was very close through the first 3 quarters; in fact, it was tied up at the half. The Cougars broke the game open in the 4th quarter with some very good passing and inside scoring by Hannah King, and ended up winning by about 10 points. OES had a girl who scored 6 three pointers. Tomorrow evening, the Cougars are playing at Warrenton High School against the Warriors. I won't be able to attend this game, but hopefully, we will win again. On Saturday evening, PAA is playing at Riverdale High School against the Mavericks. I'm sure the girls will be tired after all of these games.

The video card on my HP Pavilion dv9330us notebook died on Christmas day. After talking with tech support and trying their suggestions, it was sent out to get repaired on January 2. HP was very prompt in getting it fixed. I had it delivered back on Monday, January 7. They had to replace the mainboard. It is working fine, now. While it was down, I was using an old Dell PIII/550 [running Windows 2000]. That computer was top of the line and very fast 10 years ago, but now it seems as slow as molasses. I'm glad to have my notebook back!

Happy New Year--2008!

I had a long stretch off over the holidays, but never got around to updating my blog.

For Christmas, our family got a Nintendo Wii. It came bundled with Wii Sports, and we also purchased Wii Play with an extra remote. John got The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess for the Wii. We plan to buy Wii Fit when it is available here in the US. It is a lot of fun to play the sports games. Boxing, tennis, and baseball all make you work. After a round of boxing, I'm really sweating.

On Christmas, we drove up to Joy's sister's house in Vernonia. We could still see the high water mark on the houses from last months floods. We had a White Christmas for the first time in many years. It was lovely driving through the Coast Range with snowflakes falling and seeing the snow accumulating on the fir boughs!

Last weekend, we drove up to my parent's home in Glenoma, Washington. We had a lot of snow there, too. My folks are members of an RV club that has a swimming pool, sauna, and hot tub. It was neat to be swimming in a warm pool while looking out the window at the snow falling. I actually made a snow angel while just wearing my swimming suit! Brrrrrr!!!

New Years Eve, we celebrated with our good friends Les & Keri. We watched a couple of movies (I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry and Live Free or Die Hard), played with the Wii, and danced, before raising our goblets of Martinelli's sparkling cider.

Tonight, PAA will be playing the Clatskanie Tigers in basketball. Hopefully, the Cougars will start the year with a win.

It's been busy!

Friday evening, we went out to look at Christmas lights with our friends Les & Keri. Then Sunday afternoon, we went to the Keller Auditorium to see the Nutcracker Suite.

Last evening, the PAA girls played at Hockinson High School in Brush Prarie against the Hawks. PAA played hard, but pulled up a little short and tired at the end. Tonight, they drive over to the coast to play against the Nestucca High School Bobcats. I won't be able to make that game, though. This is their last game this season.

I work tomorrow and Friday, then I'm off for the rest of the year.

The girls won!

The Cougars never trailed last night against Neah-Kah-Nie and won by almost 2-1. That was a nice turnaround from Monday's game.

We got our Christmas tree up last evening, so now we can start decorating it.

Portland Christian won last night

The PC Royals were just too good for PAA. Kim Hill had lots of blocked shots...

Today PAA is going up to Vernonia to help clean up from last week's storm. Then, tonight they host the Neah-Kah-Nie Pirates. Hopefully, they'll bounce back after last night. They have another game on Thursday hosting the Vernonia Loggers [and having a canned food drive for the Vernonia families].

Tomorrow evening, the Alegria Choir is singing at The Grotto.

Oh, by the way, PAA lost last Thursday's game at Mark Morris, too. :-(