mek.highcroft.com

Stress Relief

GameWorks opened this past December in the new Block E entertainment complex in Minneapolis. This place has all kinds of video games, bowling, a decent restaurant, and a bunch of other fun stuff. I have been over there a few times, but not really to play video games. I play air hockey.

So, "Who cares?" you ask. Well, years ago, I worked for my friend Dan at Clockwork Internet. This was a great job. Despite the fact that some of the customers were sometimes not the proverbial "sharpest tool in the shed" we had quite a few good customers. The irritating ones, however, gave us an excellent reason to de-stress over lunch by playing Quake and Commanche III. Unfortunately, major corporations have network managers who don't like it when you play multi-player first-person shooter games (it tends to suck up the bandwidth), so we must resort to actual, physical exercise.

Join a health club? Nah. Not really my style to change into workout clothes and exercise in front of all the other people who are trying to stay fit during the business day. I try to do Jujitsu a few times each week. So, we walk over to GameWorks and play air hockey. It's fun, fast paced (especially when playing with 3 or 4 pucks), and definitely good for lowering stress levels.

I've decided that unwinding in the middle of the day is very helpful. Maybe not as helpful as a siesta, but wonderful nonetheless. I have a better ability to focus after I have unplugged for a bit, and done something completely unrelated to my job.

Now, if they could only install a few PCs so I could play Quake...

Hobbies

Most of my friends have incredible talent and/or hobbies that make them stand out as individuals. Talent, coupled with hard work, produces incredible results, and I am in awe of their many efforts and successes.

So far (and this is not a pity-party-in-progress or anything) I'm still searching for mine. I'm noticing that I've been comparing myself to a lot of my friends lately, and truly wondering why. I'm not looking for recognition or a chance to sign autographs or anything like that, but mainly because I want my kids to one day say, "you know, my dad does (insert talent or successful venture here) and he's great at it." Even if it's "he builds the coolest tree houses" or "my dad is the best soccer referee" or "my dad invented (whatever)" it'd be fun to know that I did something that stood out in the minds of my kids.

Like most people, I have several hobbies I'm fairly adept at, but I don't spend enough time doing them to become a "master." Too much learning "the tricks of the trade" instead of just "learning the trade." I'm an amateur photographer. I'm slowly learning to play the guitar. I'm learning jujitsu. I'm becoming more mechanically capable with each passing home improvement project. But you know, I don't do too many things just for fun. Everything has some crazy financial reason or business motive behind it. It's like I'm hung up on being successful at the expense of having fun.

I don't build model airplanes anymore. I don't draw. I have not whittled anything in years... and you know, Pinewood Derby cars are actually pretty fun to make.

So, I'm looking for hobbies... something that would be fun, a little productive and helpful, and something I could do as I get older. I've been getting more interested in target shooting (pistol and rifle) and shooting skeet. This has sparked an interest in firearms history (very well documented already) and gunsmithing. It's something of an interesting hobby, but it looks fun and challenging.

So, am I looking at the long-term business possibilities of gunsmithing? Probably in the back of mmy mind, yes. But I' just interested in learning and working with my hands, doing more than using a computer keyboard all day long. I'm, for once, not setting goals on this. Not planning to reach a certain level by a certain date. Not planning to do anything but enjoy learning, and enjoy making mistakes (hopefully not involving gunpowder) in pursuit of having some fun!

Dan Brian's New CD: Over Ties

My friend Dan has just announced his first release CD of piano improvisation, Over Ties, a compilation of songs posted on his Web site, improvist.org.

I've enjoyed listening to Dan play for many years, pretty much since meeting him in 1987. He has an incredible talent, and has been sharing his music with friends and family for years. Good luck with the first CD, Dan!

I've already submitted my order... Submit yours!

Fun with Mortgages

So, last week I received a phone call last week from a mortgage broker asking if I'm interested in refinancing my home since the rates are getting better and better. I asked what rates he was offering, and his response included a 4.8% rate for 15 years or 5.5% for 20 years. That got my attention.

Of course, when you actually sit down with a mortgage broker (which we did last night), the rates change. The fees start to pile up. You are presented with a TON of paperwork and little or no time to consider your options. It's worse than buying a car, where at least you can say, "you know, the (insert car name here) at (insert dealership name here) shows a sticker price of X. Can you beat that, or would it be better for me to go buy a (insert name of different brand of car)?"

So the mortgage broker, after more than an hour of combing through our financial statements, stuns me with fees totalling in excess of $10,000 and asks if I'm ready to get started. The required home appraisal, of course, is paid out-of-pocket. And we pay the brokers fees. So our mortgage rate has "improved" on paper, but now it's gonna pull a huge wad of cash out my pocket, now and for the next several years. But it looks really good on paper, all that savings, but maybe it would be more attractive if I was actually saving money.

In reality, the savings would not have been realized for 5-7 years. The increased payments would have been based on an appraisal of the house and an estimated current market value for our home. Right now, the house is in great shape, in a great neighborhood, and we're already looking at making a huge profit on the house if we were to sell today... which we're not. And cutting the loan length from 30 to 20 years can be accomplished if I just pay a little more each month (See Monster.com for a great little payment calculator), saving more than $70k by paying off early.

So I fretted about the mortgage thing all night last night, hardly sleeping, and finally getting out of bed this morning to crunch numbers (aren't amortization tables great at 6:30AM?). I've decided that I'm happy where I am, mortgage-wise, and while I have to say that the broker was nice and very helpful, my thoughts about the last 14 hours of finance juggling come down to these few statements:

• If it does not feel right, it probably isn't.
• If the risk seems too great, take the time to crunch the numbers and weigh the options.
• Be willing to take risks, but not at the expense of the well being of your personal finances.

Bold 6am Request

This morning, while waiting for the elevator to get to my office, I was approached by a man asking if I had any spare change. Honestly, if I had any, I would have given it to him, but since I take the bus, I generally do not carry any cash on me. I mentioned this to him.

He asked if I had a credit card.

I responded that his request was rediculous, but bold. I was simply have no intentions of turning my credit card over to this man. I mean, I don't even give my credit card to friends and family, let alone someone who is asking for spare change in an office tower at 6:00 in the morning. He approached another guy at the elevator bank who immediately called for the security guard.

I don't know if he was escorted out, or if he managed to get any spare change, but I am certain that he did not leave with any "spare" credit cards. Wow... maybe this guy needs to apply for a job as a telemarketer.

Rook

Yesterday evening was spent with family playing Rook and eating way too much ice cream.

I never really played cards very much as a kid, or even as a young adult. Uno was about the only card game (aside from Go Fish and Slap Jacks, of course) that we played, and I've only played Poker twice in my life. I lost a lot of money both times. That pretty much cured me of feeling the need to play cards for money.

So Rook is a bidding game, and is pretty fun. Because a lot of people who play Rook make up "house rules" it's great to play with the same people time and time again. It sorta drives me nuts trying to remember all the house rules when visiting others, so sticking with the rules on the "home court" makes playing more fun.

Mostly, I enjoy spending the time with family. We've got so much to talk about and share, and watching the kids grow up is wonderful. With our first due in June of this year, it's hard to keep from spending a lot of time with our relatives' kids, which means spending more time with the whole family. Personally, I never thought I'd be spending as much time with family (especially in-laws) as I do, but each oppportunity I have to spend time with them, our friendships grow stronger.

So with the card games, board games, and kids, I can see that we will all be seeing a lot of each other over the coming years. I love it.

Blog Images

Hershey as a puppy.

So I've been looking for a simple way to post photos within my blog, but have been finding that the various scripts are not all that compatable with the various browsers I use. So this is a simple little jaunt down the ol' window.open route which I will play with for a while. I'd like to get the ViewImage script (written by my Canadian friend Brian Wells) working here, but until then, you'll have to go to WilliamsDevelopment.com (see Our Favorites and click an image) to see the script in action. But for now, let me know what happens when you try to view the photo of our dog.

Home Improvement

I love working on my house. Home improvement projects are a great way to learn, spend time with family (who actually know what they are doing, by the way), and unload fistfuls of money that would have otherwise gone to things like X-Box games, chrome accessories for the motorcycle, or car payments.

But really, improving the house is a lot of work. Since we generally do the work ourselves (under the supervision and with the guidance of experienced help), we can keep the costs down and only have ourselves to pat on the back when the job is finished. The bathroom, completely redone since we moved in, looks 100% better than when we moved in. New tile in the shower and on the floor. A new vanity and sink, mirror and lights, and all new faucets and fixtures make the room look much more updated. And the new coats of paint give it some life. It's not like we expect people to notice, but if we had not done the work, friends and family would definitely have noticed that the work needed to be done.

We've worked on other rooms, like the dining room (finally painted after a LOT of sheetrock work), the living room, and the main hallway. The guest rooms will get new paint in the springtime, but guestroom #1 will soon be converted into a nursery, complete with a new, fun paint job, stuffed-animals, and baby-related furniture.

The sliding glass door and the new deck have been the largest projects by far. Lots of work, lots of sweat, and more deck screws than I care to mention. All this has added to our enjoyment of the house, since we have a place to grill and enjoy the outdoors without fear of having the old deck crumble to the ground beneath us. See the new door and deck (completed summer 2002).

So, now that we've finished the deck, of course the next project is the kitchen, which will require (with current plans) that we remove part of the deck. Does this make any sense? Of course it does... when we re-do the kitchen (new cabinets, tile floor, countertop, and finally adding a dishwasher), our hope is to notch out the wondow-side of the kitchen with a big "bay window" from floor to ceiling, adding almost ten square feet to the room and three large windows. It'll take a lot of planning, and even more work, but the 1973 kitchen will be updated to a 2003 kitchen. Definitely worth the work!

Morpheus Walking

A few weeks ago, Heidi and I spent the weekend in Chicago. We arrived at our hotel in Schaumburg in the early afternoon on Friday, and spent a few hours perusing the wares at IKEA. If you've never been to IKEA, go. It's a fun place to shop... and I generally hate shopping.

Well, Saturday we spent the day with our good friend Marsha (whom we only see every couple years). She showed us Chicago on foot, on the city rail line, in the car, and from 96 stories in the air -- all of it amazing.

What stunned me was the crush of people everywhere in the city. Of course it was only a couple weekends before the Christmas holiday, but I was amazed at how many people there were everywhere. Michigan Avenue was an interesting experience. We walked up and down Michigan, looking in shop windows, browsing wares from electronics to kid's toys, and we had a great time. It was chilly out, but bearable, so we spent quite a while on our feet. Once I knew where we were headed, I just walked. And walked.

Heidi and Marsha were tucked in behind me like cars following an ambulance on the freeway, and Heidi mentioned at one of our stops that it was like following Morpheus from The Matrix... I never turned or got out of the way, because people just kept stepping left and right to let us through. Of course, after she mentioned it to me, I got a huge laugh out of it, watching people move aside as we came down the sidewalk.

We ate Tapas at a great little restaurant across town, and completely stuffed ourselves. It's a good thing we had a long way to walk, or I never would have been able to burn off the calories. We ended the evening at Marsha's place, chatting the evening away, and left to head back to the hotel sometime around midnight.

I'd definitely go back. We saw and experienced a lot, including the Navy Pier, the Titanic exhibit at the Museum, and the Marshall Field's store on State Street. We had a great time, and I hope it's not too long before we head back there.

Chewing Connundrum

Oh, the things we take for granted: walking, breathing, blinking, chewing...

I'm having no problem with the first three at the moment. This week, however, saw the culmination of a three-step dental crowning process. The actual in-office process itself is not overly tough, but time-consuming (three separate one-hour appoitments to get it prepared and fitted), and now I'm trying to get used to this new "tooth" in the back of my mouth.

My front teeth are also crowned (due to a bike accident in ninth grade) but I don't remember spending so much time thinking about my new teeth then. Perhaps I was too engrossed with Ski Club and Choir to notice...

Interesting fact: Dental crowns have been used since the time of the Pharoahs in ancient Egypt. Not the same ones, mind you, but the the process has hardly changed over 3000 years according to my dentist. It just costs more now, probably because of insurance premiums.

It feels like it fits. Not like a new shoe fits, given that the crown is not designed to "break-in" or anything, but it just feels weird chewing on that side of my mouth. I hope it gets better over time, because I'm realizing that I apparently have been chewing on that side of my mouth for a long time. Really, how often do you consciously think about what side of your mouth you use to chew?

Back to Shoshin Ryu

Tonight I started training again with the Shoshin Ryu Jujitsu class I attended some months ago. We moved, I injured my back, and then I fell out of the habit of going.

Bad idea.

It's amazing how out of shape I feel after only one night of class. I remember having the ability to last 2 hours of training, but tonight I felt as though I had never attended. I remember the moves, the katas, and even the exercise regimen, but I failed to remember that I have not been working out at this level of intensity for several months.

My intention is to be in class every week now. I have my yellow belt (only second from the bottom rung) but I hope to attain my blue belt before the end of this year. It'll mean a LOT of work, a lot of practice, even away from class, but I know I will be able to do it.

Right now, however, I need to lie down. After I stretch a bit.

Welcome to mek.highcroft.com

Two years ago, I set out to write in a daily journal. In fits and starts, with solo programming and by trying available online tools, my attempts met with frustration and a simple result: more busywork than results.

I recently asked the good folks at MovableType to rescue me. Benjamin jumped right in, installed the software and here I am, working (finally) on a great system, recording my thoughts, intentions, and whatever I can come up with to share.

My past attempts notwithstanding, I hope that this journal will:

1. Provide me with a place to store my thoughts -- complete or not.
2. Act as a living record of my daily life and all it's interesting endeavors, so that one day it can be shared with my family and as-yet-unborn children.

It's now 2003. I'm 30. My wife, Heidi, and I will be having our first baby in June. Perhaps this is an attempt to begin cataloging all the things I hope to do, but I simply don't make resolutions with each New Year. The pursuits remain the same:

• Love my wife and family will all my heart.
• Learn something useful each and every day.
• Make a positive difference in my community.
• Exceed expectations.

I've never felt that any of these could or should be "put off 'till tomorrow" and now I simply have a way to keep track like never before.