Go Elf Yourself

This is funny...

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1311440760

Stupid 'Where' Clause

So I'm taking a little break and decided to write in my blog. It has been a few months since my last entry. I know I'm a slacker. Anyway, I'm taking a break because I did a programmer mistake and I'm now waiting for my database table to come back up. I'll make this as simple as possible. In programming we use Oracle databases and to update a table you simply write a query that tells the database what you want to change but you need to tell it what exactly to change or it will change everything. Hence the 'Where' clause comes in. Well I forgot the where clause and updated the whole table. That is my embarrassing moment for today. Have a great day.

New Story idea

Not sure if everyone is linked to my "McGee Films" blog, so I thought I would share here also. I have come up with an idea for a video-short which, if all goes well and we get enough collaborators and help, can turn into a series.

I have posted the series idea and episode 1 summary in a document on Google.com. There are a few collaborators (Tracy, Chels, Nic, Aly) that can view this and add to the idea. Here is a brief summary:

I have come up with a new idea for a video-shorts series. It is "Brother vs. Sister". While it is on the hush-hush for the moment (except for a select few), I think it will be a lot of fun. If all goes well, we could have this 1st one filmed and on YouTube, MySpace, or any other video sharing site. I think it will be a lot of fun.


That was the post on McGee Films. Anyway, for those of you that are interested in helping (I know there are a lot of creative types that we know and that were interested in helping with other projects before), send me an e-mail giving me your gmail account and, if I count you worthy, will add you to view the documents to start the little hamster running the wheel that is your mind.

Anyway, will post more later.

New Music...

As you all know, all 2 of you that read this post, I'm a big fan of music. I'm always on the lookout for new music that I can add to my ever growing collection. The radio started playing this song...



a while ago. It's pretty cool. This week iTunes has Bubbly free. Go get it, it's definitely worth having in the collection. Let me know if either of you hear any more good music.

P.S. I think I have 2 readers, but I may be way over-exaggerating.

Oh, the memories

So today I've been thinking back on the past. What a fun journey. I got up early and went golfing, it took me back to the days in Logan when we'd get up at the crack of dawn to hit Logan River before class. Those were some good ol days.

As well, the other day, I was laying in bed with the fan running and Chels was putting on some of that girly lotion that smells good. I woke up and thought for a second that I was back in Logan going to school in our small apartment in Aggie Village. It was a nice memory. Our apartment in Logan was always hot and Chels would put that lotion on and the sweet smell would spread throughout the house. Another good memory.

Then today I was just playing on YouTube and found the Def Leppard video of Pour Some Sugar on Me.



I just remember when I was a kid in Rose Park and we'd watch MTV when my step-dad wasn't around and this was always on the top 5 videos that we'd watch. Def Leppard and this one by DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince...



Enjoy!!!

Introducing Wash...

I'd like to introduce you to the newest member of the McGee family...



This is Wash. Named after the pilot on Firefly and Serenity. I picked Malcolm, but Chels suggested Wash and it stuck.

Beans, the Musical Food

Last night for dinner we had Navajo Tacos. You know scones and chili. It is sooo yummy. Well while we were eating, Bree, the 3 year old, was picking like she normally does. She gets this bean stuck on the end of the fork and says, "Beans make you fart". It was so funny, it was just out of the blue and we normally don't talk about how beans make you fart. We do sing the beans, beans song once in a while when we do have beans, but I didn't know she had picked up on it. It was just funny. OK, back to work.

Another Year...

...under my belt. Saturday I turned a year older than I was, 31. Am I any wiser, no, fatter, yes, but not much wiser. Had a good birthday, could have been a little funner, but with it being Father's Day weekend, I decided not to do to much. I'm starting to feel like a home body. Going places where there are crowds just annoys me. It is usually fun when I get there, it is just the idea of going into a crowd. I don't know if that is the old talking or the fact that I have 4 very "active" children that have broken ears most days. I told everyone that my kids weren't going to be like that, but they are like that and worse. Buy my kids are the best kids on the earth. They make my day. Anyway, just some odd ramblings.

Thanks Hess and Crew...

Yesterday one of my best friends left for training with his National Guard unit on their way to a one year tour in Iraq. For this, I want to say "Thank You". Something about Hess that I think everyone needs to know. This man has always put himself in the face of danger for those he cares for. Even if it is facing up to a monkey boy that was more than a foot taller and about 150 pounds heavier than him. He cares about all of us and knowing the type of man he is, and the group that he's with, I'm glad that they are there helping to protect this great country we live in. While this blog isn't coming out as it is in my head, I hope that everyone that reads this will know that I truly appreciate all he and his fellow soldiers are doing for me and mine.

I heard the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sing the Star Spangled Banner live yesterday and what a sweet song to help me remember that I have freedoms that I wouldn't otherwise have if it wasn't for people like Hess. I know he's not to fond of praise, to that I say too bad. As I said to you when you told me you were going, I'd be right there by your side brother. Thanks! See ya in a year.


Read Neal's Blog - "Godspeed My Brother"

SO COOL!!! So Bored!!!

It is Sunday, I'm sitting at the hospital working on a big ITS initiative to go from paper charting to electronic charting. For the most part I sit here and twiddle my thumbs. I was curious yesterday if I could find that pinball song from Sesame Street online, and sure enough...



SO COOL!!

Finally...San Fran Pictures

So I put all my photos from my recent trip to San Francisco online. There are some good ones and some ok ones, you choose. I added some captions for some of the pictures, but not all of them. Enjoy the slide show.

San Francisco, JavaOne 07

Funny Stuff

Over the last little while, Bree has had a hard time going to bed. She shares a room with Tiaree so I always thought she'd be ok. Recently she is crying when we put her to bed because she is scared. Or at least she says she's scared. I ask what of and she never really answers clearly enough for me to make out what she is saying. The other night, she said she was scared of the thunder, it was a cloudless night.

Last night, I went in to say goodnight after getting home from Young Mens and she was doing the normal crying thing. I knelt down and told her that if she was scared she could think of pink butterflies. Tiaree added that she could think of blue ones and green ones. I left the room with her smiling really big. Went and did a couple things then heard her crying again. I went into see why she was crying and she told me "I don't know what butterflies look like". It made me chuckle. So I laid down with her till she fell asleep. It was cute. Kids do say the darnedest things sometimes.

Back From San Francisco

Well I am back from San Francisco. I can't believe that it went by so fast but there was so much going on at the conference and at home. Things are better this week. I took a few pictures while I was there and hope to eventually get them online, got neighborhood cleanup today and tomorrow so I'm going to be busy in the yard and what not. Here are a couple pictures from the trip.


This is Barry Bonds hitting home run #745. This was cool, but the Mets still won, which was cooler.



This is Lombard Street taken from Coit Tower. Got to love the good 'ol zoom lens.

I have about 400 images that I'm still trying to sift through to get the bad ones out. For the most part, they all turned out pretty good. I'll keep you posted on how it is going to have them posted.

Remodeling

I am so excited to announce that we have almost completed our 1st home improvement project. There are a few more things to do but for the most part, the hardest stuff is done.

For our first project, we decided to work on the master bedroom. We have painted it and pulled the old carpet. Tomorrow we lay down new carpet. Tonight is electrical night. I am going to change out the plugs and light switch and put in a ceiling fan.

Once everything is done, I will take pictures and upload them for everyone to see. Once the items above are done, we are going to put up some shelves in the room and hang a new door. Those will be completed later after we have moved back into the room. I'm still debating on closet doors or curtains for the closet and we have to figure out the window coverings but that shouldn't be too hard.

I'm Stoked

So on Monday I leave for the JavaOne Conference in San Francisco. I got online today to find out if the Giants were playing to maybe catch a game. The Giants for those of you who don't know are the Major League baseball team in San Francisco. It just so happens that they are playing the Mets. Which is my favorite team. I don't keep up with baseball all that much, but I really like the Mets and I keep tabs on them. So I'm going to go watch the game on Monday or Tuesday and I'm taking my Mets hat and maybe my ball glove if it will fit. Anyway, just wanted to blog and say I'm excited for that. Ok, laters.

Only 8 More Shopping Months 'Til Christmas

Pretty catchy title aye. I thought so. It's there to reflect how quickly this year is going. I can't believe that in less than a week, 4 months of 2007 will be gone. Crazy days I tell you. I don't know if it is the kids that make things move faster or if it is the busy days at work. Either way, the days are flying by.

My world, well nothing is happening right now in the McGee household. We just planted two trees, a ash tree in the front yard, and a peach tree in the back yard. It's cool. we also have a nice little garden going, radishes and peas are growing well. It's exciting. I have a little bit of work to go on the garden to get the other stuff planted that we want to plan.

Well that's all for today...I'll write again eventually.

New Post

It has been over a month since the last post. How much our lives are either too busy to post or too boring to tell anyone.

Anyway, just wanted to blog about how cool life will get soon. It is now spring and moving into the summer months. Lagoon is open again and is working on a new and exciting ride. Plans are being made for camping, hunting, fishing, geocaching, etc. Lots of fun things going on.

That's pretty much it. That's basically the excitement of my news. Hopefully life will get more entertaining than that. At least enough to give details but until that time, I guess this will have to do.

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End Countdown

Flickr Fun

It's time to start posting some of my pictures where everyone can see them. I'm using flickr for the moment to do my pictures. Here are the URL's...
Photos
People

I don't know why there are two, but they gave me two url's. Enjoy...

White stuff.... again.

After reading the post from Tracy, I wanted to chime in with my 2 cents. I'm sure we need the snow. I'm sure Utah, especially the SL Valley will benefit from the snow. Do you know how hard it is to geocache in the snow? It really does suck, for a few reasons.

1. It's cold. Snow is actually frozen water which makes it cold. I hate cold.
2. It's wet. You climb out in the snow, you bring some heat with you. It is enough to melt the snow and therefor is wet. Add that to cold and you are wet and cold.
3. Geocaches are not to be burried. Since they are not originally, now you have snow burying them. It is a lot harder to look for a cache if it is under 2 feet of snow.
4. Tracks. If you search around for a cache in the snow, you leave tracks. For the curious observer, their thoughts are "Why are their all those footprints around that tree?" They either think we are complete idiots for circling a tree, that we are sniffing around for a place to pee or that there is something of interest. Even if the cache is hidden as it should be for other cachers, the curious observer may find and, not knowing about geocaching, take the cache.

Anyway, not trying to complain but spring better get here quickly. According to the forecast, it is supposed to snow off and on for the next couple of days. Basically a series of storms are lining up to dump and run. How crappy is that. Hope to get to geocaching before to long.

One More Storm...

Ugh...there is one more storm coming on Thursday. Please STOP!!! I know we can use the water, I guess, but I'm ready for the winter to be done. I'm ready to get outside and do some walking around, playing with the kids, whatever else can be done. Especially geocaching. I am looking forward to the warmer weather and being able to get out and find some caches around work and home. I'm excited. One of these weekends I am going to take my father-in-law and brothers-in-law out geocaching. Anyway, I know I am a nerd but these things are fun. That's all I have today...

How to handle telemarketers

Give this a listen. If you can do this and keep from laughing and letting on, you are doing better than I would.

http://howtoprankatelemarketer.ytmnd.com/

Great Weekend, Minus the Drive

So me and the fam spent the weekend in St. George snapping pictures and hiking and Geocaching. It was a load of fun. We stayed with my Mom and took her on all of our outdoor experiences. It was fun. Saturday we went to Zions had lunch and did the Riverside Walk, which takes you back to where the Narrows start. Then we did the Canyon Overlook hike, which was fun with the kids since there are some major drop offs. Then on Sunday we went and did the Emerald pools, Lower, Middle and Upper. It was fun, long but fun. On our way home we stopped at a small ghost town called Grafton, they filmed some of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid there. We did a couple caches in that area as well. Monday we got up and packed up the car then went out and found a couple of caches in my mom's area. There are some amazing sites there where caches have been hidden, forgot my camera though. Bummer!

Got on the road and hit some nasty weather between St. George and Cedar City, but we made it home finally. We had a movie on for the kids to distract them and keep them quite and it worked. It wasn't until the movie was over that Bree realized that it was snowing. It was kind of funny, guess the distraction worked.

Gotta Have Your Music....

or the monsters will get you. I don't know why, but it has been an exceptionally bad day. Just my mood, nothing anyone did, just feeling depressed. Maybe it's all the damn snow we've had. ;) Anyway, I decided that I needed something to boost me up today and nothing does it better when I'm at work then my music. Just turn it up as loud as my ears will handle, find some good songs and just rock out. It's some of the best medicine out there for chasing those monsters away. The nice part is I have music to battle almost any monster. I have Mo Tab to bring in the spirit when it's needed. Some good upbeat music for the general times. Today I started with My Chemical Romance's Welcome to the Black Parade. Good upbeat song. Went from there to Rodney Atkins, If You're Going Through Hell, then Bowling for Soup, Almost. Then one of my favorites for digging out of crappy days. Will Smith's Lost and Found album. The whole album is one of the best for chasing away monsters. Now the monsters are gone and I'm going to be headed home in about 10 minutes, cross my fingers, when my ride gets here.

New Camera Fun

So the new toy that I talked about the other day was a new camera. I got myself a Canon Rebel XT. It is one of the SLR type cameras and has been a lot of fun. It gives me a lot to work with as I start into this new hobby of mine. Here is a cute picture of Keighlee that I took tonight.


She is such a cute little girl. She was attacking me I think. That or she just wants to eat the camera. I'm sure that I am going to post more pictures as time goes on. Anyway, look at that cute little almost 8 month old. Well have a good night.

Good Morning!!!

Well it is finally Friday. This has been one of those up-down weeks where life takes you and throws you around a little. Being Friday things should go smoothly. Even though it is 7:15am and I'm already at work. Just means I'm leaving early today.

I found out this week that I got the position of team lead over my team. It is funny how the wheel turns. I work on a team, leave it, come back to another team and then apply and get the lead position for the team I started on. It is kind of funny. It should be a lot of fun and we are a month or so out from releasing a pretty big application. Other than that life at work is life at work.

Life at home is going well. I'm doing a diet thing, which has helped me drop a few pounds and start exercising a little bit more. I've had 1 hamburger all year, which for me is amazing. I have had chicken sandwiches from Wendy's but only one hamburger. It was an Apollo burger from Apollo Burger. It was a good hamburger. The kids are all doing really well. Keighlee is starting to get around a little, though backwards is her favorite direction. It's cute. She's also trying to pull herself up on things now and that's not always working. She's going to be an early walker. Other than that, life is going about as normal as it can. I did get a new toy yesterday, which I will blog about another day.

Testing

Moving to heynerd.us.

The Christmas Box House

Tonight I had the opportunity to do some service at the Christmas Box House. It was a lot of fun. I played Yahtzee and Hangman with one of the kids there. I came home and was sad though. It is awesome that there is a place like the Christmas Box House, but at the same time it is really sad. I came home and my oldest daughter was crying because her cousin left without giving her a hug. Minor issue to me but a big deal to her. All she needed was a big hug from her daddy and to cry a little bit on my shoulder. I gave her a big hug and let her know it was ok, and that we'd see her cousin again. Then Bree came up and gave me a big hug and I started to cry. There were kids in the Christmas Box House that were pretty young. There was one that if you looked at her just right she looked almost exactly like Bree. It made me sad. It was a great opportunity as I said before and I decided that I will have a hard time doing it again because it tugs the heart strings. Well Keighlee is being a little snot about going to sleep so I think I'm going to go steal her from Chels and put her to sleep. Thanks for reading.

Time to Post for the Day

I'm sitting here at work and working on an application that is being somewhat of a pain. I'm working with Spring, Java, and Tomcat and when you change a Java class file, you have to restart the Tomcat instance on the machine. It takes a couple minutes for it to restart and populate all the information that we have it populating for the app. So I just restarted the server and decided I'd write something. Just for the heck of it. Well I'm done rambling now.

Feeling Good

I've started playing basketball on Tuesdays and Thursdays and it's a lot of fun. Well by started, I mean that I've played two days, but it's fun so I plan on playing more often. Last Thursday was the first day and I beat myself up. We played for so long and so hard that I was in pain the rest of the day. It also gave me a headache that didn't go away really until yesterday. I went and played today, we played for a a little over an hour, I didn't run as hard and I'm not as sore today. I actually feel really good.

That's it. The end for this post.

No Pain, No Gain

Today I'm feeling pretty good. I've started a little diet and trying to do more exercise. I didn't do it as a New Year's Resolution because they don't usually last very long. The diet is going well. I'm getting into the exercise thing and I'm a little sore. I worked out on Wednesday, I'm still a little sore from that. I ran on the treadmill on Tuesday for 15 minutes. I actually ran for the 15 minutes, which is a big step for me. Yesterday, Thursday, I played basketball for an hour and a half and minus a headache, I'm feeling pretty good. After the first week of the diet I lost 8 pounds and this week I'm doing pretty good too. I think I'm around 3 pounds down, but you aren't supposed to stand on the scale except for weigh-in days. Oh well. It's my diet and I'll do what I want. Today we are planning on going to the gym to lift again and I'll probably run again either today or tomorrow. Wish me luck.