Janet, Keith, Matthew, and Josie Pie doesn't have tentacles!!!

w finally gets something right!

No, it wasn't what direction the sun rises, or the eternal question of whether bears defecate in the woods (They do).

He has nominated a woman to be a four-star general.

This is a proud moment for me as a U.S. citizen.  Congratulations to Lt. General Ann Dunwoody.  I hope the congressional confirmation goes swimmingly.

-Keith

In case you were wondering

I was actually a huge Hufu fan:

56%

Stolen on an off moment from Emaw.

-Keith

The most evilist code evah!

I don't talk about what I do, because

1. Other people already do that
2. They're better at it than I am
3. It bores the crap out of normal people

However, every so often I have a moment of brilliance.  While not quite rising to the level of obfuscated C, I think this does exemplify the maxim of 'just because you can doesn't mean you should'.  One co-worker of mine said, "You know had you asked me if }.<methodName> was valid Java syntax, I would have said no."

Here's the part of the test case I wrote.

final Calendar yesterday = Calendar.getInstance();
yesterday.add(Calendar.DATE, -1);
assertTrue(new License() {{
        setAssignedDate(new Timestamp(yesterday.getTimeInMillis())); 
    }
    @Override Calendar getCalendar() {
        final Calendar sixMonthsFromNow = Calendar.getInstance();
        sixMonthsFromNow.add(Calendar.MONTH, 6);
        return sixMonthsFromNow;
    }
}.isEligibleForTransfer());

As you can see, it's totally self-documenting. 

-Keith

And in the seventh year

Today at 2:51 p.m. will be our seventh wedding anniversary.

I can't tell you what an amazing ride and wonderful journey it has been with the perfect woman for me - Janet.  What started out with an accident at Halloween has become and amazing and fruitful journey with a person I can only describe as amazing.

Every day I wake, I'm glad I get to spend it with her.  Even though we've been married for a while it still seems like we've just met, and even though we live together, I can't wait to get back to her when I get home and I still miss her while I'm at work.

So from the bottom of my heart and with every fiber in this fragile body I still wish to say that I love and cherish the love of my life.

I love you baby.

-Keith.

Nycticeius humeralis

Yesterday afternoon we had a visitor.  Janet has already posted about this, but I'll tell you my side of the story.  First of all, that picture on Janet's post doesn't do nearly the justice as to how inaccessible that roosting spot is.  Let me describe it from the viewpoint of repainting that area of the house.  The actual location is where that tiny upper wall in the upper left of this picture joins with the ceiling.

In this picture you can see just where that slanted bit of ceiling starts - from the door!  Add another 2.5 feet to that above the staircase and you now sort of realize where the bat was.

So, for most of the afternoon Baley (after Christian Bale who plays, oh nevermind) just chills out and kind of moves in his/her sleep.  We forget about the bat and go to bed because it isn't active by our bed time - 9:45 p.m.  We close the kids doors to prevent the bat from absconding with our little ones .  If you've ever wondered where tiny vampires originate, that's how.

Janet wakes up a little bit after we've gone to bed and tell me "Keith the bat is moving.".  I ask her how she knows, and she says "it's in the office."  I jump up, and find out the bat is circling in our office.  I quickly run down the hall to get a towel from the kid's bathroom to try and catch it.  I come back and close our door to keep the bat in one section of the house.

So here's the situation: I'm naked, having just gotten out of bed and I'm trying to catch the bat with a large sage green towel.  The cat is in the room and I can tell it's thinking LET ME GET THE FLYING THING PLEASEPLEASEPLEASEPLEASE!!!!!  She will be of no assistance, but I will have to avoid stepping on her.  The bat is circling our master bedroom wondering WTF?!

Ferocious want-to-eat-a-bat cat:

Now I make several attempts to grab the thing out of mid-air by 'netting' it with the towel.  Only one of these attempts comes close to our furry friend and it only knocks it to the ground for an instant.  Janet then grabs a towel and tries to join (no XO she was not naked, so you can just stop that).  Both of us are jumping around in our bedroom with towels trying to capture a very nimble flying cirtter.   Janet manages to do what I had done, namely knock the bat down and then the cat tries to pounce on it.  I do not want bat entrails on my carpet, but luckily the bat is still quick and is in the air before our vicious well-fed cat can have at it.

Apparently our exertions reduced the bat to a fit of laughter and it finally landed on our bedskirt to chuckle.  At this point sensing it's distraction I grabbed it with the towel.  Did you know that bats chitter when trapped?  Me either but it wasn't enough to make me let go of it.  The other thing that I notices was how incredibly light they are.  The big ones weigh maybe 2-4 ounces.  I couldn't feel the weight of this one through the towel.

So now I have a very upset evening bat in a sage green towel and I'm moving, naked, down the stairs to release it. You do know that it is illegal to kill a bat in MO right?  So, I'm off to the front door, and I release it back to the suburban wasteland from which it came, and no I didn't have the porch light on.

So, how was your Sunday evening?

-Keith

Quote sourcing

I've finally found a, if not the, source of a quote regarding creationist that I find quite droll:

"Debating creationists on the topic of evolution is rather like trying to play chess with a pigeon; it knocks the pieces over, craps on the board, and flies back to its flock to claim victory."

- Scott D. Weitzenhoffer

So for anyone that's followed a link from Pharyngula or some nice man in Australia via my butchered version, this is the real thing.

-Keith

RSS feeds how do I love thee?

Mostly in hysterics.  Bigh hat tip to 1-800-Magic for the link.

rotfl

-Keith

My son the photo-hound

As XO  mentioned, my son is quite the budding photographer.  The most amazing thing about him is he does it just for the joy of taking a picture.  He doesn't care what's in it.  The fact that he took the picture is totally awesome to him.  His view and vantage points are just astounding to me as well since he captures the world from his height, and he captures what's important to him.

On with the photo essay, the full gallery is here.  Click on any of the pics to see an 800x600 version. I had to open up a whole new album for his most recent output.

He loves shadows of any sort:

He can make the mundane seem unique:

He always tries to make his subject look good:

I thought this one was a brilliant perspective:

This one reminded me of Serenity:

He also managed to take some really good shots of his sister who just turned two!:

Check out the whole album, it's fascinating.

-Keith

divinely inpsired and separate bovine mammal!!!

There are 274 pictures on our family camera out of a possible ~400.  Janet and I took 25 of those - maybe.

I'll have an update later.  Right now, I need to figure out how to catalog all of my son's output.

-Keith

Happy Birthday Josie!

It's only been two short years since we brought you home...

and you've grown so much since then...

We love you, bare-foot princess!

I don't have music taste, I have music smells

What Your Taste in Music Says About You

Your musical tastes are intense and rebellious. You are intelligent... but in a very unconventional way. You are curious about the world. You love doing something new. In fact, you enjoy taking risks and doing things most people would shy away from. You are very physical. It's likely that you're athletic, but not into team sports. You have the soul of an artist. Beauty and harmony are important to you.

-Keith

Happy Mother's Day!

I want to wish cyber-happiness to the two best mothers I know - my wife and my mother.

Happy Day to the both of you!

-Keith

Curse those Canadians

And their darn catchy pixie-cute lesbian twin sister groups!

Yeah this song is blaring on my iTunes, myspace, and elsewhere.

-Keith

Waiting with a friend

Dan, who many of you read and know, is going through the long dark of a terminal wait.

I have no great words of wisdom or consolation for him, but I will wait with him.  I had just seen him last Thursday and had no idea he was going through this.

My thoughts and best wishes are with you Dan.  If you need anything, we shall be there for you.

-Keith

Go go Science

As many of you know, I'm an ardent science supporter.  I've stolen this from Josh, and ex-KC blogger, and it's excellent.

-Keith