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November 30, 2005
100,000
The Dallas Morning News ran a story today proclaiming that the population of McKinney was now over 100K. A couple who had just moved here were selected to be the representative 100,000th residence (they didn't believe the city official when he called with the good news). What's truly amazing is that McKinney was barely 20K residents when Anne and I moved here in 1989 (almost 1990). By 2000, the population had increased to 50K (more than doubled from 1990) and now at 100K, it's doubled again in only five years.
They think McKinney will top out at 300K residents, which may happen before 2010 at this rate!
Posted by Steven at 10:12 AM | Comments (0)
November 27, 2005
PepperPad Dissed
PC Magazine's Jim Louderback listed the "10 Worst Tech Products of the Year", and #3 was the PepperPad computer. I worked on this product last year from Sept. until Nov., when I stepped down from the contract job and came back to Dallas. It was really cool working on a real Route 128 startup product, but I have to admit, many of Louderback's comments rang true.
3. PepperPad: Following in the footsteps of the Audrey, Netpliance, and NIC, this is an Internet bubble failure five years too late. More expensive than a laptop, with a battery life measured in minutes, and a tiny 8- by 6-inch touch screen, this home Internet tablet has few redeeming features. Unless you're a fan of freaky keyboards, opt for a cheap tablet PC instead.
It doesn't help that laptops with much higher screen resolutions sell for well under the price of the PepperPad. It's a neat idea, but it needs at least 1024 x 768 screen and Bluetooth.
Posted by Steven at 04:38 PM | Comments (0)
The Battle for Lake Highlands
Apparently, independent film is still alive at LHHS:
Those pesky Russians are at it again – and Lake Highlands is squarely in their sights.The Battle for Lake Highlands, a satirical homegrown video that spoofs the 1984 movie Red Dawn [Ed. Easily one of the stupidest, most jingoistic films of the Reagan Era], was envisioned, acted, directed and produced by Lake Highlands High School students, premieres Saturday as a school fundraiser.
Lake Highlands High seniors James Daniel and Justin Hamilton, filmmaking partners since elementary school, teamed up to write, produce, direct and act in the 45-minute film.
"Our video is in the vein of Red Dawn, but in our project, the Russians don't want the entire U.S., they just want Lake Highlands," Justin said. "There's no good reason for this. They target Lake Highlands just because they want it."
He said the humor derives from the fact that "although this is a ridiculous concept, all the actors take it so very seriously."
Justin, 18, puts the original movie, which starred Patrick Swayze, in the "so-bad-they're-good" category of cinema.
In the local version, about 50 Lake Highlands High students act in the movie, which stars Bryan Goad and Drew Hawkins, who portray student leaders of the Lake Highlands resistance.
The video includes several Lake Highlands landmarks such as Lake Highlands High, "The Boneyard" (Wildcat Stadium) and Flagpole Hill. There is also plenty of what Justin calls "gratuitous violence" wrought by special effects and an aging collection of broken BB guns as the fight for the leafy 1960s suburb stretches through quiet alleyways and neighborhoods.
Cinema fans who search for holes in movie plots, quibble over costuming and props selection and seek out other inconsistencies may want to turn off their brains while watching Battle for Lake Highlands.
Jason Mazzella, a Lake Highlands High teacher, is the only adult in the video. He just happens to be making Bryan and Drew read a Thomas Paine essay on liberty when the Russians' first shots ring out.
By that point, the video purports, all of the suburb's fathers have already been rounded up and held by the Soviets. What about the mothers?
"Plot hole," Justin shrugs.
And don't expect to see any Soviet army surplus on the backs of the invaders. Justin said costumes for Russian soldiers were a mélange of uniforms from Sweden, Germany and elsewhere. James does double duty by portraying the head Russian.
"It is funny," Bryan said of the movie in which he makes his "big-screen" debut. "The audience will laugh at it. But at other times, it's pretty intense, and it is even sad at a few times."
Drew said he and his classmates actually "started the video as a joke in 10th grade; then it got serious."
"Originally, it was going to be a showing for just the senior class, but then we hit on the idea of using it as a fundraiser for the senior class and inviting the entire community," Drew said.
Organizers hope that up to 500 people will attend the premiere. Proceeds will help offset the expense of senior class projects.
Bob Pittman is a Lake Highlands-based freelance writer.
E-mail rhpittman@yahoo.com
IF YOU GO
The video will be shown at 8 p.m. Saturday in the auditorium of Lake Highlands High School at Church Road and White Rock Trail. General admission tickets are $5 and will be sold at the door. More information, including a trailer with scenes from the video, is available at www.bflh.blogspot.com
Posted by Steven at 11:06 AM | Comments (0)
November 24, 2005
Thanksgiving In Austin
Alanna and I were in Austin during Thanksgiving, visitng the Fiala's with my sister Susan.
Susan, Leigh Anne and Richi (left) and Todd and Alanna watching MNHS Marching Band (right).
We didn't stay for dinner, as we needed to be heading to Dallas by the afternoon. This was something of a surprise to Leigh Anne, but I had assumed that we were eating in the early afternoon. I should have said something before the night before, but I really didn't expect our timing to be so bad for everyone else.
We ended up eating at Snuffer's for Thanksgiving dinner, watching the Cowboys lose in OT in the very same stadium we had performed in the week before. We know what losing there feels like, too.
On the way home, we stopped in Italy, TX to fill up. I caught this view of the burnt orange sunset, from the opposite side of the highway that the Starship Pegssus rests upon. We were at a Stuckey's, and they had the namesake peanut brittle on sale. I managed to not buy any.
Anne pointed out that I forgot to listen to Alice's Restaurant on Thanksgiving. That's true, but I did watch the movie earlier this year, which should count for five or siz settings of the audio.
Yeah, it's that bad.
Posted by Steven at 08:05 PM | Comments (0)
November 21, 2005
Lilly Staton's Funeral
Alanna and I attended Lilly Staton's funeral. She was the next-to-youngest sister of my father's father, and next-to-the-last remaining Aunt on the Staton side. She lived near Cedar Creek Lake, in Gun Barrel City, TX. Alanna and Mamie, her surviving (and youngest) sister, are in this photo (on the left) taken after the services.
Mamie was a special Aunt to me back in the early 70's. When I was staying with Elsie, her eldest sister (near Garland) the summer my mother was in Timberlawn, she took me out to her farm (near Rockwall, TX) so I could experience the country lifestyle. They had a few cows, and did some actual farming. I had no other kids to play with, but I was ok with that as I was very solitary at the time.
The thing I remember most fondly, however, was that she bought me my first Lego® kit (click here to see it). I will always remember that kit because I could build so many different things with it. It came with two large plates, and featured a clever mechanism for providing steering on the roof of the model. The shear number of parts (nearly 100) and the abundance of axles and wheels meant that it would build two whole vechicles whereas most kits would only make one.
I have no idea what she paid for the toy, but it wasn't cheap. It started me down the road of Lego® that would eventually lead to over three thousand parts ... I know, I counted them.
Posted by Steven at 12:21 PM | Comments (0)
November 20, 2005
Gaia
by James Lovelock
Lovelock was hired by NASA to help design experiments for the Viking Mars Lander mission; specifically, to detect 'life' on Mars.
Early on, he discovered that there is no scientific definition of life. "We know it when we see it" is a common mindset about the problem. Unfortunately, this is hard to convey to machines. His thinking about the problem, on a planetary scale, led to the contraversial Gaia Hypothesis:
Life regulates the biosphere of planets in a way that creates habitable conditions.
The practical upshot of which is, a living planet looks very different (chemically) from a dead one. And a notion arises from this hypothesis: the planet itself is a huge, living thing.
This idea is (not surprisingly) very contraversial. It brings a quasi-religious aspect to a Scientific observation, and makes many mainline religious people uncomfortable. Afterall, they didn't just spend the last two thousand years attacking any animistic or naturalistic deism just to find their place at the top of the religion food chain blown away by Science.
Is the Science behind the Gaia hypothesis sound? Earth's atmosphere is almost 20% oxygen, in a form (O2) that readily combines with almost any other element in a highly exothermic reaction. In otherwords, Earth's air is explosive, and that's not the way it would be if it were a dead world (like, say, Mars). Life puts the oxygen in the atmosphere in a complicated balance between plants and animals that runs completely counter to chemistry and the laws of thermodynamics.
When I read this book, I was blown away by the idea that the entire Earth was somehow alive itself. Lovelock makes some pretty amazing and reaching statements (like the idea that plate techtonics are driven by living processes) but the basic premise seems pretty sound to me. I don't have any problem with his basic notion, and the environmental movement has embraced this wholeheartedly.
Really, the only groups that hate the Gaia Hypothesis are those that have planetary reach and planetary domination in mind (e.g. international corporations and religions). This idea means that they are subverting a huge structure, and even the parent of us all. Apollo 8 gave us (humans) the first view of Earth as a planet, alone in space. Lovelock gave it a soul.
We're all children of Gaia.
Posted by Steven at 04:56 PM | Comments (1)
November 15, 2005
Church Sign Generator
Following in the theme of the previous entry, go visit the Church Sign Generator for hours of good, unclean sinning.
Go ahead and give it to The Man, you know you wanna.
Posted by Steven at 05:01 PM | Comments (0)
Zero Wing Rhapsody
Either you get it, or you don't. I'm NOT explaining it!
Posted by Steven at 04:39 PM | Comments (0)
November 14, 2005
Red State Anniversary
Today's the first anniversary of my return from Toronto/Boston in 2004. After two days of relatively easy driving (once I left the snow belt of MA/CT/NY), I was home and hoping to start a new job with an Irving, TX based debit phone company. Little did I know how bumpy a ride that would be, but it's turned out for the best.
Huzzah for Home, where ever it is.
Posted by Steven at 10:01 AM | Comments (1)
November 13, 2005
MNHS Football Playoffs
The Bulldogs beat Hillcrest HS (soundly) last Friday, and advance to meet Highland Park HS in Texas Stadium this coming Thursday. We're not the odds on favorite to beat HP, but Alanna will almost certainly march in Texas Stadium, and if I play my cards right, I may get to announce our school's band as well. Look for the photos next Thurs. night.
Posted by Steven at 09:27 PM | Comments (0)
More and More, It's Boyd
I saw three zoning maps that are under consideration for the MISD and it's new High School, Boyd. In all three maps, the heart of Stonebridge Ranch and surrounding neighborhoods are rezoned to Boyd HS. So that's that, next year Alanna will be at Boyd HS, which apparently doesn't have an auditorium, a gym big enough to seat even half the students, a band practice lot nor a full band hall with uniform and instrument storage (heck, the new HS has no instruments or uniforms).
At least it looks like Kelsey will be back with Alanna at the new HS.
Posted by Steven at 09:24 PM | Comments (0)
The Discoverers
A History of Man's Search to Know His World and Himself
By Daniel J. Boorstin
I got this book through the Quality Paperback Book Club in the mid-80's, not really knowning what to expect. It turned out to be a gem of a work, covering many, many facets of human history in several "Books".
I remember being enchanted reading it the first time. The prose is easy to follow, and the events, places and people chosen were quite interesting. What I didn't appreciate until much later is how much depth there is in this work.
Boorstin popularlized history in his works during the 80's and 90's, but this book, in addition to being very non-technical, was also quite rich in it's selection of history's important events and people. Since I've taken up reading Neal Stephenson's The System of the World, I'm impressed with all the information in The Discoverers that maps back to Stephenson's work.
Anecdotally, I should add that the section that covers the discovery of Iceland, Greenland and America by the Vikings is particularly interesting to me now that I work for an Icelandic company.
The book covers humankind's discovery of Time, Space, Nature and Himself. As a text that one might consider for a college level "History of Man", I find myself wondering how much pure information is buried in the stories Boorstin tells to bring this history to life.
Finally, I think the colored woodcarving on the cover is one of my favorite pieces of Medieval Art, and it perfectly summarizes the subject of the book.
The Discoverers, by Daniel J. Boorstin, ISBN 0-394-72625-1
Posted by Steven at 07:59 PM | Comments (0)
15 Years of Web Pages
The World Wide Web began fifteen years ago as a single web page on a NeXT Cube (hey, I got one of those!) in Geneva, Switzerland (hey, I lived there once!).
There are a few more pages today ... in much the same way as there are more McDonald's hamburgers sold.
Posted by Steven at 05:12 PM | Comments (0)
November 06, 2005
Accidental Empires
Accidental Empires
How the boys of Silicon Valley make their millions,
battle foreign competition,
and still can't get a date.
by Robert X. Cringley
Few books about the history of the PC are as salient and insightful as this. Taking us from the 8-bit world of early hobbiest-businessmen to beginning of the Internet bubble nineties, this insider's look at the industry is a must read for computer professionals of all stripes. Cringley, who had an epic battle with Infoworld over the use of the pseudonom, has a fun writing style that bounces from Dave Barry to Ken Burns. He tells the story, warts and all, and it is engaging.
This book revealed the insanity of the early days of the PC. How IBM marketed and sold a product called the "Personal Computer" that they were certain no other company could copy and sell for less at a profit. How a snot-nosed rich kid from Seattle would eventually run a software company like a cult, even onto the point where he believes he audits all the software it produces (this chapter, by the way, is titled Chairman Bill Leads the Happy Workers in Song, making it far and away the funniest titled chapter in the book). How so many great ideas never turned into products, and how so many people got lucky and hit it big without ever knowing why or being able to survive the success.
This novel formed the basis of the PBS series Nerds 2.0, which is a shadow of the book. Cringley has a weblog, of sorts, on PBS's website. His industry insights continue to be a valuable source of where the computer business is heading.
Posted by Steven at 11:58 PM | Comments (0)
APE Tree Unveiled at The Grape Restaurant
Dallas, TX - Former members of the APE gang (founded in 1980 at Lake Highlands HS, a noted gang school) conducted a premeditated surprise unveiling of "APE"-themed Christmas tree ornaments to an unsuspecting former teacher, Martha Ann Cates.
(Seen baffled on the right) Mrs. Cates was shocked when faced with ornaments depicting scenes from her 1979 classroom (the infamous paper-shredding file cabinet) foisted upon her by noted gang leader Charles "the Prince" Schmalzried.
Other "APE"-themed items included: Barrels of Monkeys® and garlands of fried banana-chip. Mrs. Cates' own past came back to haunt her when she was forced to open packages revealing minature "APE Diplomas" like those that she awarded the gang members back in 1981. The irony could not have escaped her.
The APE Gang proceeded to eat a sumptuous meal at their quiet, backroom hangout at "The Grape" restaurant on lower Greenville Avenue (noted for its association with mob killers like Jack Ruby). While the authorities had staked out their other hangout (a clip joint known by the name of "Snuffer's") the police completely missed the hints and cues that the gang would perform it's ambush at the other infamous local eatery. The authorities even lost an opportunity to sieze the gang's automobiles from the backlot valet parking.
The Red State Blues has acquired this photo of reputed gang leader Steve "Skates" Staton with his wife/moll Anne "88 Keys" Staton. (Many Bothans died to bring us this photo.) If you see either of these wanted characters, we caution you to report their whereabouts to the authorities in Toontown immediately.
But Seriously ...
Tonite the Schmalzrieds, Anne and I took Martha out to The Grape for dinner, and sprung our "APE"-theme Xmas tree decorations on her. In addition to the aforementioned items, we also made ornamental spheres with images embedded in them (taken from our APE parties and classes), a toy hearse (Charles once drove a hearse up and down her street calling out her name -- it's in the APE Roast), an ornamental picture of The David from my personal slide library, and a minaturized Snuffer's menu from 1985. Kim found (and I once again decorated) dollhouse file cabinets with the the "monster" motif, and Kim and Anne provided "Barrels of Monkeys" and strung the banana garlands. The Schmalzrieds found a monkey hand puppet to sit on the top of the tree (in place of Santa). Except for having to explain the tree to friends, it'll be a hit at her next Xmas party. She was very surprised and moved at our bizarre tribute to our favorite teacher.
Posted by Steven at 08:20 PM | Comments (2)
November 05, 2005
Bye Bye Birdie
Anne and Alanna are performing in the orchestra pit in MNHS Drama Club's production of Bye Bye Birdie. I have posted two sets of photos from the Nov. 4th rehersal and the Nov. 5th performance, which doubled as the first and only dress rehersal.
Anne has been practicing like mad for the last two weeks, since Josh Kurzweil asked her to perform the piano selections in the musical. It turned out to be a lot more work that she expected, but the orchestra sounded very professional in the first performance. Alanna was also added at the last minute when another student wasn't able to make the rehersal schedule, so both my girls were added at the last minute to a complicated musical score.
They're working hard, but are glad to be part of the performance. Alanna received a billing listing in the playbill, including a short bio. Anne is (supposedly) being compensated for the performances. No doubt those funds will end up back in the band's till and soon.
Josh asked me to take some cast photos including this one:
Posted by Steven at 10:29 PM | Comments (1)
November 04, 2005
Last Regular Football Game for MNHS Band
MNHS Marching Band did a short performance at the last (10th) regular game this season, against neighboring Frisco Centennial HS. The MNHS football team stomped Centennial, which was celebrating its first Senior class. We had already clenched a playoff berth, so this just made our overall score slightly higher (MNHS is ranked 18th out of the top 20 in the 4A schools).
I made the announcement for the band over the stadium PA (for the second time) and did a slightly better job than my first try two weeks ago. One of the girls who rides on Alanna's bus (the nerdgrrl bus) was selected as "Freshman of the Week" so once again I was able to tease the girls about the Fish Hat. Monse is beginning to despair over ever winning the nerdly covetted hat.
Speculation is beginning to run wild [Ed. no thanks to my comments!] about the split of MNHS students for Boyd HS. I assume (openly) that Boyd will become the "It" school and there will be a small stampede towards it after the dust settles in January and people realize that they're really going to have to switch schools. A lot of kids who can choose one school or the other will go to the newer one, based on its location and population (i.e. Stonebridge High).
Silly photo of me is here.
Alanna is here and here, the last photo of her long red hair (she's getting it cut today).
Posted by Steven at 11:48 PM | Comments (1)