Orville Chomer

Christ'ys Engagement Ring

2009-03-31T23:22:00.001-04:00

Click to Play

My sister Christy's Engagement Ring.

Formats available: MPEG-4 Video (.m4v)

Importing AVI File Into Moviemaker

2008-01-20T22:49:00.001-05:00

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Importing AVI file we converted from our Canon HG10 camera into Windows Moviemaker

Formats available: MPEG-4 Video (.m4v)

Tags: avi, moviemaker

NOTICE: All my Posting is Moving...

2008-01-11T15:12:00.000-05:00

Hello all, besides posts to this site of videos done automatically by blip.tv, no more posts are going into this blog. That means, that unless something changes, this is my last manual post to this blog: http://orvillechomer.blogspot.com/

I'm consolidating everything onto my main site of Chomer.com. So, to view my active blog, go to: http://blog.chomer.com/

So stop on by, read, and post your comments!

Thanks!
Orville

Some thoughts this December 27th, 2007

2007-12-27T13:26:00.000-05:00

Well, it's been awhile since I directly posted to this blog. The year is winding down. My time working on my website: http://chomer.com has been steadily going up. This is a good thing. I've removed a ton of links on the site that went to nowhere or went to pages that might say something like: "This is a Test."

There were pages that had a high likelyhood of generating ColdFusion errors, now, no links to them! I've been distilling the sap down to good maple "syrup."

There were links that used to go to something but were broken. I've fixed them. The results of all this is many fewer links on the navigation bar on the left but a wholey more statisfying experience going to the site. It's still not were it needs to be though.

I've added stuff too. Mainly video stuff. This is cool. Stuff like the "Orville Chomer Show" which, incidentally cross-posts to this blog. Also, my webcam page. On this page are posts (via Kyte.tv) that I can recording and post easily on a whim. It is a very nice way to get a message out or clear my brain!

You will notice, if you've seen the site in past years, that I changed the look of the site. Right now there is a nice view of snow cover trees in the woods! I also changed the Home page so that actually is something!

I'm focusing in on two main things:

Video. Having a video show, and posting thoughts from the web cam.
Coldfusion information. Bringing my Adobe Coldfusion section up to snuff. This is going to take awhile! It is getting better though. My plan is to focus on one tag or function at a time and really write some good stuff on it, add instructional videos on it and then, when it's done well, move on to another tag or function. Check out the information on the cfoutput tag. This is my first really good Coldfusion page. Note that there is one instructional video on the page two. I've recorded video for two more videos to go on this page. I've not edited them yet or posted the results. But that is coming.

Ok, let's see, I rearranged my Google Adsense ads. Based on some stuff I've read, hopefully I will get a better click-through rate.

Also I've added Google Analytics to the site. Now I can track just how well the site is doing with charts and graphs and all sorts of cool tools!

Happy New Year!

Episode 7 - Christmas Special

2007-12-25T09:56:00.001-05:00

Click to Play

John and Kathy Atwood share some Christmas music.

Formats available: MPEG-4 Video (.m4v), Flash Video (.flv)

Tags: music, christmas, carols

Episode 6

2007-12-17T12:51:00.001-05:00

Click to Play

Join Orville Chomer on a healthful climb of the stairwell at work.

Formats available: MPEG-4 Video (.m4v), Flash Video (.flv)

Tags: stairs, climbing, exercise

Episode 5

2007-12-03T08:13:00.001-05:00

Click to Play

Formats available: Windows Media (.wmv)

Episode 4

2007-11-21T22:05:00.001-05:00

Click to Play

Formats available: Windows Media (.wmv)

Episode 3

2007-11-16T08:27:00.001-05:00

Click to Play

Video Comments Regarding: Naked Conversations 2.0: How Google is disrupting the social media starfish

2007-11-01T09:43:00.000-05:00

Robert Scoble left a post on his blog yesterday in which he speculated on how Google might change the social media game. It included two videos. They were allot of fun and got me thinking. My imagination was kindled. I could see Google giving me allot of leverage on what I do with my Internet real estate. Stuff that could save me allot of heavy lifting. Chomer.com might become something more special in less time. Only time will tell!

Well, sometime today, Google will announce whatever they announce.

Here's the video of my thoughts in response to Robert's videos:

Annoying Things on Blogger Blogs

2007-10-26T17:57:00.000-04:00

There are times I am bored and I click the ol' "Next Blog" button at the top of blogger pages to see what I can see. Here are some things that annoy me that come up. I'm sure you too... but I want to vent:

The "Next Blog" button and "Flag Blog" button are missing. So, if the site is indecent you can't flag it. Also, if you want to move on to another "Next Blog" you have to hit your browser's back button and click the "Next Blog" button on the previous blog.

Spam Blogs. They're popping up all the time and they are truly annoying! Many times they are guilty of annoying thing #1!

No Blogger Directory that I know of. If the writer of the blog has left it open to the world, I wish there was a directory to browse by subject, etc. The site GlobeOfBlogs is lame in my opinion and not automated.

I wish the directory could have a place for users to rank blogs, and post comments about the blogs.

I annoy myself: How many different blogs do I have that I've bearly updated that are wasting space on servers out there. Most blogs are like that I've heard. I can live with this I think.

Excel Formula Parser Progress

2007-09-26T14:12:00.000-04:00

Well, my Excel formula parser in VBA has been coming along abit. It has turned out to be a little harder than I expected. Some formulas work fine. There are some tricky parts though. I'm working on some debugging log code to hopefully make it easier to figure out.

I admit that I'm lazy though and I find it hard to sit still and work on it. I kind of attack it in little surges with large gaps of whatever else in between. I get bored way too easily!

Blog Update

2007-09-21T10:30:00.000-04:00

I've been doing a little bit of work on my version of the Movieland Directory for the iPhone. I've been getting home from work tired though and just not want to deal with things so the amount of time I've put in has been disappointing.

I'm tired.

Also been working with Excel VBA at work. I'm learning new stuff here. I'm also trying to write an Excel formula parser. If I get this sucker working it will take a complex nested formula and make it easier to read and understand by a human.

Cosmo the Kitty and Thumper not on Speaking Terms!

2007-09-19T12:20:00.000-04:00

Perhaps they can't decide who's going to put up the window blinds?

Taken with my iPhone.

Blog now Showing up on Orville.Chomer.com

2007-09-12T17:31:00.000-04:00

You can see my blog on my "home" page now.

New iPhone Obsessed Blog

2007-08-01T15:57:00.000-04:00

FYI: A new blog on the iPhone. Check it out.

Chicago iPhone Tech Talk: Will I go?

2007-08-01T14:32:00.000-04:00

I got the time off with my boss to go to the August 28th iPhone Tech Talk in Chicago. The question is, will I get an invite? I submitted my request plenty early. Are they ignoring requests that they might think are "riff-raff?"

"Oh, this Orville Chomer dude doesn't work for a company that develops Apple software... Strike 1... and look... according to the info he entered on-line he doesn't own an iPhone yet... Strike 2.... And we looked at his crummy Chomer.com site and we don't want to give info to someone whose site is a total mess like this one! ... that can be Strike 3! Yes! Strike 3! Let me see here, is this Chomer-dude an A-List blogger? No? .... Well.... not even that to consider!"

I'm thinking about showing up regardless and seeing what happens. Though I'd much rather get an official "you're in" note from Apple!

Ajaxification Disabled

2007-08-01T14:25:00.000-04:00

I've created a spiffy bit of Javascript and CSS to "Ajaxify" my blogger blog. Problem is that the browser's Back button doesn't work properly with this. Right now I don't have time to work on this, so I disabled the functionality. Besides that problem, it is really cool. It caches pages visited, so, if you click on a link to a post you've looked at already in the same session, it doesn't go back to the server to get it, it gets it from the cache. Neat-o! I have other ideas for this besides having the Back button working... but it will have to wait!

Arkonoid Game on the iPhone?

2007-07-27T10:19:00.000-04:00

Somewhere I found after fishing around on the internet, an Arkonoid clone done completely in DHTML. Although not perfect, this game by Scott Schiller I consider it well done.

To play go to: http://www.schillmania.com/arkanoid/arkanoid.html

I did notice that the game did not work in IE6. I haven't tested it in IE7 yet. It worked fine in FireFox and Safari running on a Windows XP box.

And, what I'm really trying to get to is it runs on an iPhone (sort-of). Scott mentions that he modified the game to work on the iPhone (sort-of), so, Wednesday night after dinner, I bid my wife ado and went off to the Apple store at the Oakbrook Centre. In my pocket written on a yellow index card was the URL listed above. I entered the URL into an iPhone there and tried out the game. Below are a few comments I have regarding it:

First some positive things... The game is playable, unlike the one I'm working on. But bearly so. More on this later.

The ball / paddle speed in the game is good. I have a ball and paddle in my game but they move much too slow on the iPhone.

The graphics for the game (on the iPhone or in a regular web browser) is very sharp and professional looking.

Despite self-effacing comments at the top of the main Javascript file, I think the coding is pretty well documented (not perfect but still pretty good). There is alot here that a Javascript developer can learn from.

Now the negative... I had to do the finger-pinch (or is it unpinch) move to zoom the page big enough to play the game.

The button to start the game is way too small for iPhone usage. I had to zoom the page even more just to get it so I could barely press it will my finger without pressing buttons on either side.

The hack he implented for the iPhone is that you can press a spot on the x-axis to move the paddle to. You cannot slide the paddle back and forth. This works rather clunky.

Application
I plan on studying the Javascript for this game. The main reason, I want to find out how Scott kept his game performance good even on the iPhone. I have some ideas on how to track paddle movement based on a post I read on the iPhoneWebDev Google group. I want to create a test event page more suitable to my needs and post it on Chomer.com. Then I will go to the Apple store again and try out my test page to collect more detailed event information. And, finally (I hope), I will update my game so that it actually works correctly!

iPhone event handling frustration

2007-07-23T12:44:00.001-04:00

I went with my wife on Friday evening to Oakbrook Centre to the Apple store and tapped in the URL for my iPhone game.

The game fits in the screen properly.
The game's attract mode worked pretty good, but it ran WAY slower than it did in the Safari browser on my PC at home.
Tapping the screen did start the game, but...
onmousemove did not work.

I've been scouring the internet looking for information on how to use the proper event handlers in Javascript to make it so the user can use his finger to move a paddle back and forth over the screen (this info is a little hint on the game I am working on). I've had very little luck so far.

As far as speed, I might be able to set the setTimeout timer value to a smaller value when running on an iPhone.

I'm somewhat stumped regarding the paddle control right now. Any ideas regarding how to do this in Javascript?

iPhone Tech Talk in Chicago

2007-07-20T12:44:00.000-04:00

Apple is going to have an iPhone Tech Talk in Chicago on August 28th this year. I work in Chicago so this is a great opportunity. I submitted a request to attend. I hope I get in! That would be a fun day. I think I can get the day off from my boss.

The "World's Handsomest Man"

2007-07-20T12:36:00.001-04:00

You might be wondering why the heading of my blog says:

Also known as "The World's Hansomest Man."

My wife Yvonne calls me that. I think it's going to my head!
She is such a joy. We've been married 5 years today.

Developing for the iPhone

2007-07-20T12:23:00.000-04:00

Though I don't own one yet, I find this subject intriguing. A cool site that gets you off to a good start is: http://www.iphonewebdev.com/ Click on the Examples button. This is where there is some really good stuff!

It's a fun place to poke around. Yes, I am working on a game for the iPhone. It is well along it's way to completion. I'm initially testing it in Safari on an XP box. Once I think it is ready, I'm going to the Apple store to test it out on one of their showroom models.

What is the game? I'm not telling until it's done!

iPhone First Impressions

2007-07-16T17:55:00.001-04:00

Sunday evening my wife and I were at the mall. Ah! The Apple store. We went inside and I played around with an iPhone that they had tethered to the table. Here's a few comments that I'd like to make:

The fonts are pretty amazing, i.e. it's amazing what you can read even before you zoom in on a web page. I could read the page of the Movieland Directory without zooming (in landscape mode).
One bad thing, I seemed to have to press down rather hard to get it to register my touch.
The right edge of the display seemed less sensitive than the rest of the screen.

It could be that the iPhone I was playing with had gotten alot of abuse being on the "floor" so it might have been abit "beat up." Who knows! Still can't afford one now.

Using Blogger editing - Some Problems

2007-07-16T10:36:00.001-04:00

First of all I've noticed that uploading pictures in IE7 does not work.
Next, if you insert pictures into a blog post, they end up inserted at the top of the blog, NOT where the insertion point is!

Suggested placing of pictures in a blog post:

Use IE6 or Firefox for the post.
Begin your post with some spaces, then move your insertion point somewhere in the middle (this makes editing easier later).
Before writing one word of your blog you should insert your pictures first, starting with the last picture to appear first.
Do one picture at a time to keep from getting confused.
Then add the text to your post.
To do some "fixing up" you may want to click on the Edit Html tab and edit there (assuming you are HTML literate).

Grosse Point Lighthouse "photo walk"

2007-07-16T07:49:00.000-04:00

My wife and I went to the Grosse Point light house in Evanston, Illinois on Saturday. It just so happens to be the place that I proposed to my wife! I like light houses. I had driven by this one many times without knowing it was even there!

One day I was looking through a book on lighthouses of the Great Lakes, and there it was. I know where that is! There on, it has become a favorite place for me to visit. The following pictures were taken with a simple Canon Powershot A70.

Walking over to the Lighthouse
On the left we are walking from our car over to the lighthouse. This shot is is facing East towards Sheridan Road which the lighthouse is on (on the other side of the street).

The Lighthouse Keepers House
Here is a shot from across Sheridan Road of the lighthouse keeper's house. The lighthouse itself is not really visible itself because of all the trees.

In Back: Passageway connnecting keeper's house to lighthouse
This is a nice shadey spot.

Sign about the Grosse Point Light Station
It's a National Historic Landmark.

Shot from front.
In this shot you can see the lighthouse towering overhead.

Lighthouse Wildflower Trail Garden.
There is a little garden in the back with a path that leads down to Lake Michigan.

A shot looking up at the tower (1).

A shot looking up at the tower (2).

Behind the lighthouse.
The building on the left used to house a large fog horn which was used to alert sailors when it was foggy and they couldn't see the lighthouse light. You can see some of the wildflower garden growing by the building.

Lake Michigan (1).
Looking over some bushes.

Lake Michigan (2).

Wildflower Garden.
The garden is small but nice.

Sand Dune.
Walking up this sandy path over the ridge will take you to the shore of Lake Michigan.

Lake Michigan Beach, Swimmers and Life Guards.

Beach Volleyball Anyone?

The Lighthouse peaking over the Tree Tops.
This picture was shot from the beach.

Lighthouse tower.
Shot from the wildflower garden.

Scale model of the lighthouse.
The lighthouse keeper's quarters is now a small museum. Tours are $5 per adult during summer weekends.

Lighthouse keeper's uniform.
This thing is made out of wool! As a worker for the U.S. Government, a lighthouse keeper was supposed to wear this thing at all times when on duty. This includes hot summer days.

Stepping up into the top of the tower.
The light uses a 2nd order Fresnel lens (pronounced: "Frenel").

Lighting Gearbox.
The Grosse Point lighthouse has a white light with flashes of red in it. This gearbox would control the flashing of the red by moving a red piece of glass in from on the light approx every 15 seconds. It had to be wound up every two hours. A big weight in the hollow wall would cause it to run. Rewinding it pulled the weight back up.

Opening to the top from the staircase.
You have to watch your head when you come up these babies! By the way, there are over 100 steps.

View West from the top.

View North East from the top (1).

View North East from the top (2).

View East from the top.

Frenel lens.
Note that it can be over 100 degrees up here. Imagine wearing one of those wool uniforms!

Yvonne and myself posing for a picture.
My wife and I get someone to take our picture.

Another shot South East.

The Fresnel lense is easy to scratch.... don't touch!

The Bahai Temple off in the distance.
Unusual building that resides in Wilmette Illinois.

One more view South West.

It was a lovely day.

TMD Update

2007-07-13T12:18:00.000-04:00

I spent a bit more time working on the Movieland Directory version 2.0 last night. A few minutes only. I thought it was interesting that after making my last post about my work on the site, Tony told me that the unique visits went up. Just for your information, the work I'm doing now for the new version is not on our web host. I'm initially doing all the work on a ColdFusion Developer web server running on my PC at home. So, the link above will take you to the live production version of the Movieland Directory, not to the new version 2.0 version.

There will be a beta at some point. But it is way too early right now to be thinking of that. Sadly, I can't work on it "full time." And even if I could, I would probably be too restless to do so.

Inching forward on the Movieland Directory 2.0

2007-07-12T17:16:00.000-04:00

I spent maybe 15 minutes working on version 2.0 of TMD last night. I got quite abit done for 15 minutes of work. If I would just put in some real time on this project, I might be done by now and people might be awe-struck at how cool it is!

Oracle Invalid Character Error, ColdFusion and a semicolon

2007-07-12T16:52:00.000-04:00

I faced and solved a real puzzle at work today. Hopefully the following will help someone. First, let's layout the scenario:

I have ColdFusion MX running locally on my PC.
I have a version of a web site running there that uses a DSN to a development Oracle database.
Running the application on the local server, everything works fine.
I moved all the code to the actual "development" server. This server is hosted internally by our company.
I run through the same steps on this server as my local server.
I get an Oracle "Invalid Character" error. The web page displays the SQL that it was trying to execute.
When I look at the SQL, it looks ok to me. There is nothing like a missing comma, or a single tick mark in between any other tick marks, or any such thing.
I paste the SQL into TOAD and run it. Argggh! It works fine!

To Summarize:

I'm doing the same thing on two ColdFusion MX web servers.
Both are running the same ColdFusion code.
Both are accessing the same Oracle database instance.
Both are running the same SQL.
On one environment it works, on the other it fails.
Run the SQL that fails on the one web server in TOAD and it works fine.

The Issue and Solution:
The SQL was not multiple statements run between a BEGIN and END statement. It was just a single SQL statement. But it ended with a semicolon!

When running several SQL statements at one time, you put a BEGIN at the front and an END at the end and you seperate things by semicolons. The semicolons are needed in this case. But when running one statement alone, it is not. And though however my PC was set up allowed the semicolon to be there, on the other server it did not!

To fix the problem I removed the semicolon at the end of the SQL. Now it runs on the main dev server as well as my localhost web server running on my PC. This was abit tricky!

2007-07-09T10:52:00.000-04:00

Well, today the wife goes back to her job as an occupational therapist. I'm so proud of her! By the way, she calls me the "handsomest man in the world." I think it goes to my head sometimes!

Movieland Directory Coding

2007-07-06T11:06:00.001-04:00

Spent some more time working on new version of the Movieland Directory last night. I'm still trying to figure out some navigation issues with the new design. I have a desire for the BACK and FORWARD browser buttons to work properly, coupled with the code not getting too complicated!

A day or two ago my code had seperate headers and footers on each page that is designed to be search engine friendly. Not too efficient! Last night I created ColdFusion functions to generate these. I've added them to two of the pages. I have a few more to do. The footer includes a link that can be clicked to validate the HTML on the page. I plan on posting these pages in an obscure directory on our web host for testing. This testing isn't really even the main functionality of the new site. The main point here is that:

The HTML is properly formed.
The HTML and content is search engine friendly.

After this part is done, the next things I want to do are:

Have the initial navigation start code will be added.
Add javascript code that loads initial user interface.
Change style sheets to hide Raw HTML (which I mention above). This HTML and it's content is going to be for the benefit of search engines only. The content will describe in a textual way what the actual content is in the Real interface!

Movieland Directory Update

2007-07-05T10:46:00.001-04:00

Our web host found some more problems that had slipped my notice for the production environment of the Movieland Directory. I got those problems fixed yesterday.

Also spent time working on the new improved version of the Movieland Directory. Not alot of time, but some time.

I tried getting Visual Interdev 6 to work with IE7 on my PC at home but to no avail. I wish that I had not been so quick to install IE7.

Happy 231 America!

2007-07-05T10:41:00.000-04:00

Well we just got done celebrating the 4th of July. My wife and I figured out that the country is now 231 years old. The the United States has many flaws, I still thank God that I live here. The freedoms and opportunities we have here are unparalleled.

video.Maru and polygeek.com weirdness

2007-07-03T11:20:00.000-04:00

Robert Scroble of Scrobleizer.com had a post about this web site where Dan Florio provides all these custom flash video interfaces for people to look at/use. The link in his blog post to you to the following URL:

http://polygeek.com/videomaru/

I've been thinking about a video interface on the Movieland Directory, I've been looking around for information on this so naturally I was interested.

Well, I went there and I went, "Where's the content?" The headings are there, the side bar navigation is there, the comment posting at the bottom of the page is there... but where is the content? I went to different pages on the site and they were all the same!

Below is a composite image of the video.Maru page (I did not include all the user posted comments at the bottom):

2007-07-02T16:40:00.001-04:00

It's been a long time since I've posted something on this blog! It might be another long time before I do so again!

I'm cold, my brain is numb.

Weekend Update from Work

2007-06-09T15:36:00.001-04:00

Here I am sitting at my desk at work on Saturday. The reason for this? I have a deadline coming up on Wednesday for my project. This sucker really has snuck up on me! It's sure quiet here on a Saturday afternoon!

In other news, I discovered last night that I forgot to fix the save article routine to handle mySQL on the Movieland Directory. I fixed that last night, and added the picture of E.J. Fleming sitting in Jean Harlow's car to the page about E.J. I think it looks great! What do you think?

E.J. In Jean Harlow's Car

2007-06-08T10:58:00.001-04:00

E.J. Fleming sitting in Jean Harlow's car

Picture from Tony.

ING Direct Savings

2007-06-07T10:32:00.001-04:00

Opened up a savings account with ING Direct. Gets 4.5% interest! I've been wanting to do this for quite some time. Well, there are a couple little things left to do on it, but I'm moving forward to some extent on working with my finances.

Movieland Directory Performance

2007-06-06T16:21:00.000-04:00

Well, since converting to mySQL for the Movieland Directory, the site has been much better behaved and generally providing zippier performance than before. That is a good thing!

Movieland Directory now using mySQL

2007-06-04T13:34:00.000-04:00

Just wanted to mention that Friday night I got the Movieland Directory website weaned off of Microsoft Access and it is now using mySQL! Hopefully this will eliminate some of the errors we were getting. I did a bit of learning some of the particulars of mySQL's syntax.

Doin' Pretty Good Considering...

2007-06-04T13:28:00.000-04:00

Last night I woke up and had a full-blown panic-attack. It's been awhile since I had one of those. I had no drugs like Valium on hand. It was a miserable night. My wife suggested taking a "Restful Night" pill (a Dr. Whitaker sleep aid). I avoided doing this for awhile due to the fact that it was so far into the night. But finally my misery was just too great. I took one and was finally able to get to sleep (around 4 in the morning). I slept in a bit later than usual. I don't feel perfect. But I did make it to work.

Dumb Joke...

2007-05-29T14:17:00.000-04:00

Q: Why is a car that has no wheels considered naked?

A: Because it is without a tire!

get it? "a tire" ... "attire?"
:P

Global Talent Resources

2007-05-25T09:52:00.000-04:00

I just wanted to mention, that a friend of mine, Tim Finlay, has started up a new web site:

http://globaltalentresources.terapad.com/

He provides recruiting services in the insurance industry. If you or someone you know is looking for a job in this industry, or trying to fill a position in this industry, check out this site.

Writer's Block

2007-05-23T11:30:00.000-04:00

It is strange how that as I'm browsing my own blog, I think of all sorts of things to write about, but, when I pull up the Create Posting, the ol' brain goes blank on me. Arggg!

Grampa

2007-05-21T17:59:00.000-04:00

My wife and I took my father out from the nursing home for lunch at Wendys. We were then going to take him for a drive. But he asked about going over Heather's (my sister's) to see her new baby. I didn't think she'd be up to it, but Yvonne my wife called and it worked out just fine.

She and her husband Emmet live fairly close to the nursing home, and my sister was up to it, so we went. Grampa got to hold the baby ..Joseph... and uncle Orville (that's me) did to!

Heather took some pictures (which I hung up next to my dad's bed back at the nursing home).
It worked out rather well.

Blogger Logon Getting Screwy!

2007-05-18T14:30:00.000-04:00

I just want to say: "Blogger, what are you doing?" Logging in has gotten really screwy. I'm not even sure how to describe it. It took quite a while before it would take my user id and password. :(

2007-05-14T10:02:00.000-04:00

Yesterday turned out to be quite a nice sunny day. Yvonne and I took my father for lunch at Wendy's and then for a nice long drive. He certainly was glad to get out of the nursing home for a while.

When my wife and I got back from the jaunt with dad, I mowed the lawn (which was getting a bit shaggy) and did some edging. We had our first picnic meal of the year. And watch a video of "Pride and Predudice" with my mother for mother's day.

Adding Comments and Viewing Profile

2007-05-11T18:00:00.000-04:00

I am suprised that when a visitor of the blog goes to add a comment or look at my profile, the page is not formatted the same as the rest of the blog. Wordpress looks better in this way. Also, I get a message about content mixed between protected and unprotected. This could be fixed easily so that the annoying messages would not come up.

My gripe mainly is it wrecks the continuity of the blog. It doesn't "flow."

I had another thought.... oops! lost it!

2007-05-11T14:47:00.000-04:00

Went to the theatre to see a drama about puns.
The stage was covered with phrases written on large pieces of cardboard all screwn about.
As the drama unfolded it became clear that it was a play on words.

2007-05-11T14:44:00.000-04:00

Someone who is self absorbed: Ego Maniac
Someone who is fantically interested in large birds of prey: Eagle Maniac
Someone who is obsessed with toaster waffles: Eggo Maniac
Someone who is trying to kill Superman: Evil Maniac

Cookies are Gone

2007-05-11T14:30:00.000-04:00

The cookies (not the web browser type) I bought earlier this week are now gone. They are either eaten or thrown out. I am cashless, credit cardless, and debit cardless of my own volition.

Hopefully, this is the start of something good both health wise and financially.

Blogger Template

2007-05-11T14:24:00.000-04:00

Was messing around with my blogger template. If you know HTML and CSS you can do quite a bit! Too bad they don't talk to me, I could make a WYSIWYG template editor that works in the browser!

Chilly in the Windy City

2007-05-11T12:56:00.000-04:00

Weather.com is a wee bit confused I think, it projects that it should be 71 degrees outside right now, but displays the current temp as a frigid 53 degrees. Brrrrr! So much for a long walk at lunch! I just wore a short sleeved shirt!

Tightening the Screws on my Spending

2007-05-10T12:31:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, I had no money in my wallet, and no bank card (debit card) at my disposal--- intentionally. I just had my credit card. Well I used it. I only spent just over $2. But that isn't the point. I bought cookies and chocolate milk. I'm trying to lose weight, be healthier, etc. Plus at that rate, it still $40 a month!

Well I left my personal credit card at home. I am now a self broke man! Great! I still have some cookies left over from yesterday, but once they run out, all my snacks will have to come from home. At least I haven't had any soda in quite some time.

Sewer Place-holder

2007-05-10T12:30:00.000-04:00

I will fill this in later.

Baby Pictures!

2007-05-09T19:58:00.000-04:00

My wife and I went to visit my sister and her new baby boy in the hospital. The nephew has arrived. Here are some baby pictures!

Naturally I start with me and my wife!
And and the Baby!

This guy is a bruiser! Nearly 10 pounds. He felt heavy for being just a few hours old. Name?

Joseph Andrew Downes.

Is Javascript js File Loaded?

2007-05-08T18:04:00.000-04:00

I learned a little coding tip over the weekend. I was monkeying around with Microsoft's mapping mashup, and I found that every now and then I'd get an Javascript error. Basically saying that the function I was calling did not exist. I came up with the following idea to deal with the problem:

<html>
<head>
<title>Sample Page</title>
<script src="Includes/sample.js"
language="Javascript"></script>
<script language="Javascript">
function initPage() {
   if (sampleFunc == null) {
      setTimeout("initPage()",100);
      return false;
   } // end if

   // now that it exists, call it!
   sampleFunc();
} // end of function initPage()
</script>
</head>
<body onload="initPage()">

</body>
</html>

This little sample will give the web browser more time to download the sample.js file. But it will do it in such a way as to not lock up the entire browser whilst it's waiting!

2007-05-08T17:45:00.000-04:00

I know that I don't want to spend my time occupied with the sport of Orville Bashing. But at the same time I want to get somewhere good. I, as usual, am my own worst enemy.

A Slip?

2007-05-08T17:06:00.000-04:00

Boy do I want to justify myself! A little rationalization. A little self-spin doctoring. I bought AAA batteries for my phone's headset at work. Not a problem. But I also bought at the same time a can of Red Bull. Not supposed to happen! I can say that the main thing I went for is the needed batteries. But that is lame. I can say Red Bull has less caffiene in it than coffee. That is still not the point.

The points:

I don't need any sugar (processed) or caffiene in my life. I'm trying to get healthy.
We are trying to save money. I certainly don't want to open the flood gates.

Before leaving the money at home I was spending $5-7 a day at work on junk food and soft drinks. If we just stick with $5 a day, that's $100 a month. Nothing to sneeze at! I am annoying!

"How did you buy this stuff if you left your money at home?" you may ask. I left my bank card in my wallet. I forgot to take it out. I've been just leaving my credit card in my wallet for emergencies. But I was so driven today I might have gone to the trouble of using it anyways.

Joseph has arrived!

2007-05-08T16:38:00.000-04:00

Well it's official: I'm now an uncle! My sister gave birth to a bruiser (the dude weighs over 9 pounds). I'm going to the hospital tonight to visit her and the baby.

2007-05-07T14:37:00.000-04:00

No pictures yet. This week promises to be a more "normal" week in respect to the fact that it looks like I won't miss any work. Ahhh! No sewers blocking up, no mom needing transport to the doc's for cataract surgery, nothing! I hope...

Back from the Weekend

2007-05-01T14:31:00.000-04:00

Well, I'm back at work today. Not that you would know since I haven't posted anything to give you a clue. I came home last Thursday night from work to be greeting with a flooded basement, a wife who had gone out and bought a wet vac and was trying vainly to vacum up the water only to have it replaced with more water.

I went out with her and bought a portable sump pump at the Home Depot. A good thing to own I've learned. Anyways, we battled on a good part of the night to keep our basement from floating away.

I called a plummer on Friday morning. The sewer was backed up. And they proceeded to rod the sewer line. The rod got stuck! The poor guy working on the thing struggled for several hours to get his sewer rod out but to no avail! The possible meaning of this: the pipe was broken somewhere. Or, less likely, it ran into one nasty tree root.

There was no one available that day to dig a hole in my front yard to find the problem so I would have to wait until Monday. Fortunately, the whole weekend there was no rain... except for Sunday night! As I heard the rain on the roof Sunday night I prayed to God that there would be no more flooding in the basement. I was not thrilled about the thought of spending hours in the basement babysitting a sump pump and then wet vacing all the stuff it couldn't get.

Fortunately, the basement stayed dry. Later I am going to post an entry with pictures from the repair (took with my digital camera).

2007-04-24T15:02:00.000-04:00

Work phone is now working! yea!

2007-04-24T11:40:00.000-04:00

Listen O my soul: please God. Make Him smile! May the thing I try to get is the Father being happy. Not stuff. May what I do, I say, I think bring pleasure to God!

No Money - No Bankcard -- On Purpose

2007-04-24T11:34:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, I knew better that I should not have any soda (especially Mountain Dew), but I ignored rational thought and bought some anyway. I drank a good portion of it and regretted doing so the rest of the day and through-out last night. The caffiene, the sugar. I decided to leave my cash and bank card at home. I am carrying a credit card for emergencies. Using it is more of a hassle. And I am glad it is a hassle! Not that I have that much money anyways! It doesn't take too much to buy a soda! Bah!

Phone Service At Work

2007-04-24T11:30:00.000-04:00

Speaking of phones. My phone at work has not been working since last Thursday. Still no worky!

Called up and found out that sometime today it should get fixed. I sure hope so! It is a royal pain not having my phone working. My cell phone lacks a certain amount of clarity! One nice thing about this whole thing is I found out my cell phone wouldn't work on those IVR menus "press 1 or blah"... But I found the setting to change and it now works! So, if I have to join a conference bridge on my cell phone because my work phone doesn't work yet, I won't be out in the cold!

Phone in the Hood

2007-04-23T10:52:00.000-04:00

I got my jacket on this morning. Something didn't feel right when I put it on. I walked over to the train to go to work. I sat down in the seat. Man! I feel a lump in my back! I reached back. Somehow I had gotten my cell phone in the hood of my jacket!

Yesterday

2007-04-23T10:44:00.000-04:00

My wife and I picked up my dad from the nursing home and took him for a drive and a meal at Wendy's. He liked that! He doesn't like being there at the nursing home. I don't like it either. He has Parkinson's and mild to moderate dementia. If I could but make enough money for in-home health care. I need to trust God with my dad, my situation. Please, no holding things in, no dwelling on these things and letting them fester.

Both Saturday and Sunday were beautiful days... warm and sunny. Flowers are blooming, leaves are starting to show up on trees, and, finally, the true test if spring has really come, the dandelions are flowering all over the place on people's lawns!

Friday at 6

2007-04-20T19:09:00.000-04:00

It is 6:09pm Friday evening and I am still at work. Two meetings, no working phone on my desk. Hmmm. I've not gotten alot done at work today. Did some coding (mainly javascript) for the project I'm working on. Tried getting on one conference bridge today with my cell phone. The conference bridge would have none of it!

I'm trying to push myself to code a bit more. I'm toggling back and forth from this Blogger edit window to my text editor where I have my javascript.

Bah! Well, I just got a little more code put in.

Alright, I better finish this post, and call my wife from my cell phone so she doesn't worry.

TMD: Problems with the Old, Potential with the New

2007-04-20T12:42:00.000-04:00

The technical problems with the Movieland Directory site continue. Tony called me at home last night with some issues. Fortunately, these were easy to fix and I fixed them while I was on the phone. Tony told me that the site was acting up this morning and wondered if I had changed anything since last night. The answer was "No."

It seems ever since Tony saved the database in the later version of Access we have had these problems. Part of me wants to write a program that converts the database back to the old version of Access and see if that clears things up.

There is still the idea of converting the Access database to MySQL. There are issues with this right now. Tony has a few thoughts on this that might tide us over for now.

Ultimately, I'm working on a revised Movieland Directory site. Adminstrators would have full editing capabilities, so mySQL will be used for sure (no need to edit stuff off-line in Access and reload the database). The new site will be very Web 2.0. I've got to finish this thing! It rocks! As far as how the new site works for the user, I don't think there's anything on the Internet yet like it.

I'm working on the design on my PC at home using ColdFusion MX's Developer Edition. Initially the database will be in Access to make design easier. Once I have everything working great, I will convert the database into MySQL. Then upload everything to a sub directory for Tony to check out. When Tony sees it he will be blown away and urgently desire for me to put it into production for all to see!

I have a certain nerdy pride about the whole thing, but for now I need to keep my nerdy revelations under wraps (no details)!

Movieland Directory Issues

2007-04-18T15:09:00.000-04:00

More record locking issues on the Movieland Directory web site.

Sigh!

Looks like I seriously need to convert the Access database that is behind the site into a mySQL database.

I have been given a document on the steps that I need to follow in order to do this. I have all the tools needed on my PC at home (including MS Access). Tonight I need to work on this!!

Practice

2007-04-18T15:05:00.000-04:00

Well my site may not be relevant, but I am getting practice writing. I'm trying to get into a habit here. So maybe it is relevant to me. Maybe.

Not Relevant

2007-04-18T14:58:00.000-04:00

I pondered the question: "Does anyone besides myself read my blog?"
Probably not.
When it comes to this "site" I have not done any networking whatsoever. I may eventually link to it from my real site: chomer.com. But honestly, right now, the content of this blog is not relevant!

Hey? did you notice that the login for Blogger is now rather weird? A combo of Blogger and Goggle. And if you have the stay logged in option checked, instead of going straight to your control panel it does this weird screen flicker thing. Too kluggy Google! I can hear them say: "Well at least it works!" True.

Ideas

2007-04-17T15:11:00.000-04:00

Ideas are swimming around in my mind. They're bumping into one another! They're bouncing off the inside of my skull! There are so many things that I want to do!

The engine of my "calculator" here at work is coming along (though not as fast as I want). What is this calculator? Sorry, can't tell! I will certainly be glad when I have it done and working properly.

The new ideas mainly have to do with putting together a new version of the Movieland Directory web site. Can't tell you those either! Want it to be a suprise. Why am I writing this then? I need to purge the urge (to write) from my system. I'm trying to declutter my mind abit.

Merry Christmas!

2007-04-11T16:49:00.000-04:00

Just kidding!

I woke up this morning to snow falling here in Chicago. And sticking! I borrowed my mom's umbrella to walk to the train through the sloppy mess. And the wind destroyed her umbrella! Looks like I need to get her a new one.

2007-04-10T15:05:00.000-04:00

Had egg salad sandwich of lunch. I had my wife wrap it in plastic wrap and not just wax paper so that people on the El wouldn't be annoyed by the smell, and that I wouldn't be tempted to eat it too soon!

I went down to the little store next store and bought a 20 oz bottle of Arizona Green Tea. Hopefully the caffeine in it will be enough to sharpen my thinking but not enough to make me edgy! It has 70 calories.

The weather is slightly warmer today here in Chicago. We still have a ways to go before it feels like full-blown spring around here!

Google Earth or DirectX?

2007-04-10T10:28:00.000-04:00

Opened Google Earth on my PC at home the other day. It kept closing down on me out of the blue. Installed Microsoft's Virtual Earth 3d too, it pull the same stunt on me. Could it be some patch installed on my XP computer for DirectX? Or some other patch? Google Earth didn't use to do this to me before.

Stuff done today...

2007-04-09T17:27:00.000-04:00

Let's see, I "hiked" part of the stairwell at work today.
Fixed a goof in some process document at work. Silly me!
Didn't have an soda. This is good, I'm addicted to the stuff and it does a number on my health.
Did have some chocolate milk.
Did have a candy bar. Rats! I want to cut down that sugar intake!
My Ajax calculation editor at work is had a pacel of bugs squashed.

2007-04-06T14:04:00.000-04:00

Chomer.com. This site is "in shambles." At least in my estimation! Who is the bum who is responsible for this thing? Er, ah, well... That would be me wouldn't it... hmmm....

I have to say that many months went by without me doing one blessed thing on the site. All my evening hours would go to working on my co-worker's site the Movieland Directory, if that at all. I just wanted to say though that in the last 2 or 3 weeks I have made some changes to my site!
Amazing!
The site?
No!
That I made changes! :P

I think my main problem with Chomer.com is that my goals are too lofty. I want to cover too many things. I'm interested in too may things! That isn't a good enough excuse. Robert Scoble has his blog, and about a bazillion other things going at the same time. And he does it well. Of course that's his full time job! My full time job is writing SFA intranet web sites or any other internal Sales Force Automation things they want me to build. When I get home many times I'm sick of building web pages, scripts, software, etc. Do you get the feeling that I am just coming up with excuses?

I fall down, get back up, dust myself off, and begin working on my site again. I look at what it might become someday. It's is my techy playground for now, nobody's counting on it, it is definitely not a cash cow for me, but it's my little spot on the web. Please stop by occasionally and check it out. And please be patient with me and my site and don't write me off.

I forgot: Network Back Up!

2007-04-06T13:51:00.000-04:00

My sister Christy, undid the damage she had done and I have access to the Internet again at home.

Farther Along

2007-04-06T13:45:00.000-04:00

I got the editor I mentioned in the "Ajax is Cool" post is working well. It is both saving and loading nicely. What's nice is the user can edit a fairly complex structure of data all locally and save changes whenever they want to. They can navigate through a tree-veiw on the left hand side of the page, which changes the right hand side of the page (all without reloading the page). Nice!

No wonder my shoulder and arm hurts! It must be from reaching around and patting myself on the back!

Home Network Down

2007-03-27T10:37:00.000-04:00

My sister, may God bless her, reset my DSL modem. All the info in it to log onto my ISP is gonzo! Yea, I know, I should have had the stuff written down and in a place that I could find it. She's working on getting me working again. Bad sister!

Movieland Directory Fixes

2007-03-27T10:30:00.000-04:00

The fixes I'm talking about were done basically last Friday. I esentially made it so if a user enters a URL to the site doing one of the following:

Leaving out required parameters
Leaving out the value of a parameter
Giving a parameter a invalid value

If the user does one of these things now on the site, it should not get errors now, but rather handle the problem gracefully.

Yesterday I read a neat article on how to improve ColdFusion code to work with an Access database. I wanted to implement those changes to the Movieland Directory but...

Preparing for Vacation

2007-02-22T11:20:00.000-05:00

Today is my last day at work before going with my wife on vacation. It has been nearly 3 years since we last went anywhere. I'm ready!

We'll be staying in Walt Disney World.

Dells Flashback

2007-02-19T14:55:00.000-05:00

The picture on the left I took of some cliffs along the Wisconsin River in the Wisconsin Dells. I took it quite awhile ago.

2007-02-19T14:51:00.000-05:00

I got most if not all the complaints addressed on the movielanddirectory.com web site. Fortunately, the problems were not hard to fix. I wish it was like that all the time! Most of the fixing I did last Friday night. Another little fix or two I did Saturday night. Good!

2007-02-15T18:27:00.000-05:00

I am dead tired. Well, I guess I've been more tired before. But I am "leave me alone" tired none the less. I stayed away from the caffeine today. That's good. Though caffeine sharpens my thinking initially it bites my butt later. I stayed away from pop (soda) too. After reading this you might guess that I have a weakness for ingesting caffeinated pop. The carbonation of the pop does a real number on my stomach. The caffeine provides a double-wammy.

Basically, this means that I am pretty much not artificially stimulated and want to just veg tonight. But I can't. I've got to put time into the movieland directory site to see if I can get the major issues it's having resolved. Tony is freaking out. I think the problems are fixable fairly quick (famous last words). We will see.

Fixing Movieland Directory

2007-02-15T17:07:00.000-05:00

I spent last night FTPing files to the new web host for the site (http://movielanddirectory.com), setting up the DSN, tweeking a file or two. And got the site back up running... sort of...

Several errors keep coming up. Tonight I need to drill down into this stuff and see if I can resolve it quickly.

Right now the domain name points to the site's blog on wordpress.com.

The Sugar Bandit Strikes Again

2007-02-14T17:56:00.000-05:00

Went up to the vending machines on the 20th floor at work. Mumbled to myself that the thing ought to point a gun at me and say "stick-em-up!" I mean even this smallish rice crispy treat cost---- believe it or not--- a whole dollar! Of course, what do I do? I buy this $1 danish wrapped in plastic. Yum!

Maybe bandit is the wrong word, maybe pusher would be better.

What does that make me who knows the stuff is over-priced yet continues to buy?

(You don't have to answer that!)

Blue Customer on the Blue Line

2007-02-14T11:01:00.000-05:00

"Customer service requested at the blah blah blah kiosk." This came blaring over the speakers in the sub-way this morning. The Blue Line, Clark & Lake stop if you must know. This recorded message plays when someone presses a big red button at a customer service kiosk located on or around the platform. Well? What about it? Does someone come? Ha! The CTA sucks at this sort of thing. At least at that stop. Whoever the poor soul is who pressed the button may press it a few more times if they're determined. But eventually they are going to have to give up. Come on CTA, lean on your lazy employees! Perhaps the message should say: "A customer wants service at the kiosk, please disregard this message and chat with your fellow worker."

Looking Foward to Disney

2007-02-12T12:49:00.000-05:00

I think it has been nearly 3 years since the wife and I have been somewhere on vacation. Due to the fact that my mom and dad lived with us, my dad has Parkinson's, and my mom didn't have the strength (at least emotionally) to take care of my dad alone for a extended period of time (i.e. overnight), we were kind of tethered in place.

Well, good news or bad news (it can be taken both ways for sure). Taking care of my dad at home became too much to handle. The doctors had been suggesting it for a year or two now that we put him in a nursing home and we put it off. But no more. That has been very hard on me. I don't want my dad there. Well, I'm not going there now... [the subject of my dad] it's too upsetting to think about.

The upside is all of a sudden me and my wife are free to go and do things. In case you're wondering, we do visit my dad regularly.

I've just booked a trip to Disney. Airline tickets, resort accommodations, access to the Disney parks, rental car... yes! I am sooo ready for a real vacation! Away from work, from the house, just "away!" I am not going to think about "here" while I am "there!" I am going to decompress!

Ajax is Cool!

2007-02-12T12:37:00.000-05:00

I've been working on creating new functionality to a web site here at work. This functionality uses Ajax technology. It's coming along nicely and I think the client is going to like what they see. It saves changes in the background. I still have a bit of "save" code left to do. Then I will need to finish the "load" code.

Lunch and Blog

2007-02-12T12:30:00.000-05:00

Here I am, sitting at my desk, eating some tasty swarma chicken that my wife made me, and hey! I decided to pick up this blog again. Will this last? Will I continually post this this blog my inner-most feelings? Only time will tell. It would be great to use this as a sort of "therapy." You know, getting my feelings out as words on "paper."

Wow! It's been nearly 2 years since my last post!

Home Remodeling and Drawing Classes

2004-06-25T15:52:00.000-04:00

Well, yesterday the work I had contracted to be done on our house was completed. Our house needed tuck-pointing, and the back wood porch was decomposing, rotting, molding, warping, splitting, what more can I say? Bees seemed strangely attracted to this "wood." There was also a couple large "holes" on the gable of the house where bees have in time past moved in an made a nest!

Now the holes are gone. The tuck-pointing is done. There is a new porch made out of wolmanized pressure-treated wood. It all looks great!

I paid the final payment for the work this morning.

Me an my wife went to our beginning drawing class and learned about "value." It was fun but I was glad to get home and crash in bed!

Gallery Frustration

2004-06-25T15:48:00.000-04:00

I took more digital pictures of a painting I did and did some editing and resizing on it. I posted a thumb nail on my gallery web site and was disappointed.

I can't find my Photoshop CD! I can see why Photoshop costs so much, the free stuff and cheap stuff sucks! :(

I'm thinking of posting the raw file somewhere on my site, downloading at work, using Photoshop to correct image and resize, and then repost the thumbnail to my gallery site!

In the Realm of Ideas

2004-06-24T14:37:00.000-04:00

I have ideas floating, spinning all around me! I also have events.

The house has been tuck-pointed. The old porch has been torn down and a new one built in its place. Me and my sweetie have been taking beginning drawing classes on Thursdays at the local community college. I've been spending a little more time working on may actual web site. I've gotten our home computer back up to snuff (almost). I've gotten one thumbnail image posted of a painting I did on my web site: http://gallery.chomer.com.

I've gotten Generals Zero Hour reinstalled on the computer!

There is so much to do! So much many ideas I have that I want to do something with!