My Traveling Adventure to Novosibirsk, Russia - Day 0

Most might think that the title should say Day 1, and not Day 0. It actually took me two days to get here so (of course) I know that it should say Day -1. To me, my first full day IN Russia is Day 1... Maybe it's a geek thing, but whatever... it's my blog... get your own. :)

Travel Day (Columbus, Ohio)
Ok, so I started by staying up all night with my family and packing Sunday night. The day was completely crazy and I had other things to attend to before I could actually pack, therefore I almost pulled two consecutive "all nighters". I didn't sleep at all Saturday night, and I went to sleep at 11pm Sunday night, only to wake up 4 hours later (at 3:00 AM). My flight left at 7:15, but due to the fact that it was an international flight, and also the fact that I live so far from everything, we had to leave the house around 4:30AM - 5AM. I got to Columbus around 6AM and had plenty of time to wait for the plane to begin boarding around 6:45ish.

Chicago, Illinois
Ok, the coolest part of the whole trip went down in Chicago O'Hare airport. I got to meet Charlie Murphy! I was walking from one terminal to another and on my way there, I saw some mac'ed out dude wearing a fur coat, a pimped out golf hat and some big sunglasses. I thought he looked "famous", but wasn't sure. As I went to pass him, I glanced over to see if it was anybody I recognized and... sure enough... it was Charlie Murphy. I stopped and got his attention and, as I stuck out my hand to shake his hand, said "Excuse me, is your name Charlie Murphy?". He said, "Yeah, wassup; how you doin!?" and he held out a closed fist for me to hit the rock. :) As I went to hit his rock, I saw that he had a diamond ring on his finger that probably cost as much as my house! Needless-to-say, I was pretty excited the rest of the time in Chicago having met him in person. Ironically enough, Tyler and I were talking about his skit just the day before saying how it was one of the funniest skits ever on the Chapelle Show. The rest of my stay in Chicago was pretty uneventful, paid for internet and did a few things before boarding for Munich.

Munich, Germany
I should really give this section the title of Flight to Munich, Germany since I was only actually in Munich Germany for 1.5 hours. The flight itself however was ~8.5 hours. This much flying is not recommended for anybody looking to travel oversees. Of course I realize that it's inevitable with today's (lacking) technology, but it sucked! My legs kept cramping, I couldn't get comfortable and everybody was speaking... non-English. That didn't bother me, but what did bother me was when I was on the butt-end of a non-English joke...

Ok, long story short: I switched seats about 3 hours into the flight so that I could sprawl over a couple of seats. Well, about 7 hours into the flight I saw a "somewhat" empty overhead luggage area, so I decided to move my carry on from where it was to somewhere closer to where I was. This way when the plane was ready to unload, I didn't have to go dodging people to get to it. So anyway, when I went to put my luggage in the overhead by my seat, one of the "local foreigners" began yelling "NO NO NO NO NO" and I just stopped and looked at him like "WTF!?". He then began to speak Serbian as he stood up to "manage" the situation and everybody around him began laughing while he continued to mumble Serbian at me. I know my face turned 3 shades of red and I was totally confused as to why he was so persistent that I not put my luggage up there. Apparently, he was carrying a map and he didn't want me to crease. He was afraid that I was forcing my luggage up next to it (which I wasn't).

Of course, I made light of the situation and generated some laughs back at him with some silly jokes... but on the inside I was pissed about how he approached it. His demeanor was totally to ridicule me once he had everybody laughing. He kept looking at me and mumbling Serbian while I sat back in my seat. When it was all over I wanted to punch him and say "Speak English if you have something to say to me" which I know he knew because he had been speaking some here and there. Looking back on it, I think it was just my embarrassment catching up to me at that point... Anyway, we talked afterwards and he was cool with it. Even though he handled it all wrong, I was cool with him when I got off the plane. :)

When we landed, I decided to charge my laptop and got to make use of my power adapter kit with the German outlets (Thanks Sis!). Other than that, Munich was a short visit and uneventful.

Moscow, Russia
This is where the trip takes a turn for the worse. The flight from Munich to Moscow was very quick and not many people were on the flight. I was able to tuck myself in the back right corner of the plane and do a bit of reading in my Russian dictionary. I needed to figure out the sounds of all the Russian symbols, for I knew I was going to be seeing these letters everyday for a while. I figured it would probably be a good idea to try and learn how to say them. :P Anyway, the trip was uneventful. Then we landed...

I was instantly in "culture shock". There were Russian policemen every where just standing around watching everybody. Russian advertisements and Russian words everywhere. The book helped a bit, but I still cound't pronounce anything unless it included some of the letters I learned to that point (which was very few). For the most part, I just followed the heard and got my luggage so that I could recheck it onto the next flight... in another (disconnected) terminal. The flight that I was taking to Novosibirsk was ran by a totally separate transportation systems, therefore I had to take a shuttle over to that terminal and check everything into their security system and go through their customs. Unfortunately, the unfriendly lady that ran the shuttle system told me that the shuttle I needed to take didn't come again until my flight was just about to take off; which meant that I had to find an alternate means of getting to the next airport... T minus 1.5 hours.... And, go!

At the time, it didn't sound so scary, but once I got on the bus, I realized that I had no idea where I was going, I had no idea which exit to get off at, I had no idea if I was even on the right bus. So, here was with all of my luggage, trying to navigate through a foreign country using public transportation system, unable to read these foreign symbols, and it was clear that nobody wanted to talk to me. Perhaps it was my Boston Redsox shirt?? No, that couldn't be it... I mean, who doesn't like the Redsox? :)

The whole time I was on this bus, I just sat there looking as confident as I could just hoping that nobody tried to talk to me and "blow my cover". The few feeble attempts I made to communicate with the locals, it turned to a rude and short cold shoulder; therefore I knew to keep my mouth shut unless I was ready to speak Russian. The longer I sat on the bus with all of my luggage, the more worried I got. I didn't know if had passed my exit or not and the windows were totally covered in condensation, so I couldn't really see out the windows... oh yeah, I forgot to mention that there was snow everywhere and it was friggen cold. It didn't help that the bus driver spoke Russian at every exit and the words on the LED display were (of course) in Russian. Most people would have flipped out by this point, but I'm gonna do this!!

Finally, I met an angel and he helped me. He spoke very little English, but just enough to help me. I quietly said "Do you speak english?", to which he said "Little, what you need?" I used my hands and was able to communicate to him that I landed in "Terminal 1" and needed to get to "Terminal 2". He said "When I have, then you have." I said OK??? Then I just sat there for a couple more exits. Finally I got nervous and said "Here?" out of nowhere. Then he said again "No... When I have... then you have." I then realized that he said "When I [get off the bus], then [at the next stop], you [get off of the bus]." I said, "Oh OK!". My muscles began to relax, for I understood at that point that I was on the right bus, and I hadn't missed my stop. My flight was to leave in less than 1 hour at this point and I still had to call my friends in Novosibirsk once I got through Russian security. At least I was on the right track up to this point.

When I got to the next airport, I wasn't able to read anything, but knew that this had to be the place because there were pictures of airplanes and there was a line of people at the front door waiting to get through security. I made it through security OK but of course got taken aside so that they could find out why I "beeped" as I walked through the metal detector... damn iPod! :) I need stop and remind you that up to this point nobody spoke English, nor did anybody want to!.. Except for the angel I met on the bus.

Once I checked my luggage and made it upstairs to my gate, I still had to call my friends in Novosibirsk to let them know when I was going to be there. Uh oh, more attempts at Russian communication... this sucked! I had no phone, no phone card to use at the Russian phone booths, and $20 worth of rubles burning a whole in my pocket (which, by the way was about 466 rubles). I walked from person to person asking if I could use their phone to make a phone call with broken Russian words that I quickly learned in my handy dictionary. Even after I told them I would pay them, they still waved their hands and looked away. I found myself wandering around these people looking like a lost puppy trying to find somebody to help me. I wanted to scream, but I kept my cool for the most part... even though my plane was about to board in 5 minutes. I finally met a young girl who was selling cellular phones at a small booth. Today was her lucky day! I needed one and stat!. She sold me some minutes and let me call my friends while she filled out my paper work... I made the call and boarded the plane.

Moscow, check!

Novosibirsk, Russia
The plane ride was more Russian talk and more rudeness from those around me. One of the flight attendants actually gave me a smile, so that eased some of my frustration. When we landed, I (again) followed the heard like I did in Moscow... only this time I was misled to the wrong spot. Apparently this flight was connecting with another flight and I was (unknowingly) waiting on a flight that I didn't need to take. When I realized that the people around me weren't waiting on their luggage (?), I jumped up and quickly learned how to say "baggage". I went from person to person and tried to figure out where I needed to go. Again, most people spoke lightning-fast Russian and turned away from me as if I was bothering them. One guy actually pointed to a door at the end of the hallway as he spoke at me. To which I said "THANK YOU!" with a Russian attitude and walked down the hall.

I must admit that I wasn't very happy with my time here in Russia up to this point Moscow was the scariest experience in my life and so far I was looking to have a similar experience here in Novosibirsk. I finally scurried around and walked up to a Russian police officer saying "baggage" (pronounced "bah-gah-dj") with my hands waving all over the place as if I have a lot of luggage around me. :) Yes, picture a crazy man pulling very heavy, invisible luggage, and that's me talking to this policeman. :) I eventually showed him my flight ticket and he spoke into his walky talky; many words were exchanged, and another police officer came over and they spoke a while too. Finally he said "follow" and began walking. I didn't know if I was in trouble or if he was going to be taking me to the "baggage". :) On our way to where ever we were going, I heard "Lucas!"... it was my friends!! I shook the policeman's hand, picked up my luggage, and switched my focus to happy thoughts and smiles with my friends from Novosibirsk. SERENITY NOW!!

Conclusion!
I am very sorry for everybody reading this that lives in Russia. I do not want to give the impression that all Russians are rude. I love this country, especially after having been here for a full day now. Please understand that the people I ran into were very rude to me and it was the most frustrating experience I've been through in a long time. My experience definitely made me a stronger person! Of course, the few smiles and patient people I met helped, but overall I hated my time here until I met up with my friends. Looking back on it now, I can't believe I made it here in one piece with all of my (very expensive) luggage. I just want to warn anybody that plans to travel through Moscow, be warned!!

By the way, today was my first full day in Novosibirsk, and I had a great day. I plan to write a post each day I'm here so that everybody knows how awesome Russia really is. So, stay tuned for that story! :)

Super Mario Drummer

While digging around for more Wii ideas on YouTube, I found a video that had to be shared. This guy puts funky beats to to old school songs that everybody knows:



He has tons of drumming beats to old school songs (like Simpsons, MacGyver, and more). Pretty cool...

Minority Report User Interface is Here... Gotta Wii?

I was blogging along today and found a very slick YouTube video of a guy that has created a Minority Report User Interface with a Wiimote, an LED panel, and some reflective tape. Take 4 minute out of your day and watch this video:

How cool is that?!

Here is another cool video that explains how to create a virtual whiteboard using the Wiimote, a camera, any flat surface, and some homegrown LED pens:

This guy (Johnny Lee) has a whole site dedicated to Human Interaction Research: http://www.JohnnyLee.net

Check it out if this stuff interests you. I think we may be seeing this guys name in the future

CodeMash v2.0.0.8

Well, CodeMash 2008 is over and... Wow, what a great event! I had an absolute blast this year. Last year I took the family and we had a great time, this year I took my other family (aka: James, Pilgrim, and Zach). I learned a lot, drank a lot, did lots of drumming, and I fell "head over heals" in love with RockBand.

Wednesday

We started off from the office around 2:30 and made it to Kalahari Resort by around 5pm or so. By the time we got there and got everything in our rooms (clothes, rock band stuff, and my drumset crap) it was about 6pm, so we went down to the booth and hung out for a while. It was great seeing everybody again and we all stood around and "networked" for a few minutes. Once we got our booth setup, we decided to run to WalMart so I could get a watch and we could get Pilgrim some drugs for his cold... Yeah, I had forgotten my watch at home and I felt completely naked, so I bought a $5 analog watch to tide me over til I got back to my digital running watch. By the time we got back to the Kalahari, the evenings events were done as far as CodeMash went, so we went to the room and began drinking beer and played RockBand... That game ROCKS!! James had some cheat codes to get all possible songs and we ended up playing it til about 1:30am.

Thursday

The next morning, we got down to the booth and the event was in full bloom. Geeks were coming out of the woodwork and I felt right at home. :) We talked to a few people about who we were and met a few of our customers. I quickly found out that the only way to get people to take our books was to jump out in the middle of the mix and force our material into their hands. Once I made eye contact with them, they would ask questions about the company, I would tell them about what we did, showed a couple of demos and told them to download an eval and see for themselves. I was amazed at how many people were from Columbus. It seemed like the most popular place as far as I could tell from all the attendees I talked with.

I saw Scott Hanselman wondering the halls and I approached him with an extended hand. I told him I loved his podcast and we talked about his last show with Rory Blyth / Chris Sells. :) It was hilarious; if you haven't heard it yet, check it out! He actually gave me a "Private Invitation" to his expert panel talk during lunch, but I decided to use that time to iron out my speach for the Vendor Sessions. It payed off too, because I felt very comfortable during my session and people in the audience actually gave me a good review... I know this because they had 'evaluation forms' they had to fill out and I read them. :)

Speaking of RockBand and Scott Hanselman, I got to jam with him and he commended me on my (rather crappy) RockBand drum skills. He played guitar while I played drums, then he sat and watched a couple of songs that I ended up playing with others. It was pretty cool to see him hanging out with all of us and "geeking out" with all of us geeks. 

At the end of the day CodeMash had a party and they offered a jam session for all of the musicians that brought their instruments. There were a couple of people that brought guitars and Zach brought his Bass, so we got to jam out for quite a while. It was a lot of fun and I met a lot of cool people that night. Of course the night ended in a drunken haze (long island ice tea is th'shit) and of course it ended with even more RockBand and pizza. We had a blast! 

 

Friday

We all woke up and got out stuff packed and loaded into the cars. By the time we got to the booth, we still had some time for the breakfast and it was soooooo good after the night of drinking (I chowed). We saw a couple of cool sessions and talked to a lot of people in the halls about our products. The ending raffle was a blast. So much stuff was given away at this raffle and it was a lot of fun. 

Things I learned:

• Corey Haines has some mad musical talent
  • Harmonica + Guitar + Vocals 
• F# is fun and very powerful. I'll be learning it this year for sure! 
  
• Silverlight is actually fairly easy to use... once you know a few tips.
  
• Zach is a guitar whiz and James is a damn good singer in RockBand!
  
• Bring a gaming console to your booth when you exhibit at CodeMash!
  

Props to all the organizers that put CodeMash on: Jim Holmes, Brian Prince, Jason Gilmore, Jason Follas, Jeff Blankenburg, Josh Holmes, Dianne Marsh, John Hopkins, Brian Sherwin, and Chris Woodruff.

We'll be seeing you next year! :)

Another Successful Christmas

Ok, so he had a "real" white beard, but...

We had a hard time explaining this one to the girls.

Wait a minute... is Santa drunk?

Mohican Trail Run

I met up with some new friends at Mohican State Park today for a long trail run through the hills: 

Nick, Luc, Kim, Rob, & Mark 

These runners are all "ultra runners" which means that they all run races that are more than the standard marathon distance (which is 26.2 miles). Each of them had run 100 mile races before and were planning to run various ultra endurance races this year too. I told them right up front about my running record and they were all very supportive and congratulated me on my new passion. Before today my longest run was 13.1 miles, but my longest trail run was 12.4 miles... and anybody who reads my blog knows that I almost died that day. :) To even consider a 100 mile trail race was beyond me... Even after todays run. 

Kim, Mark, and Nick were all doing 20 miles, Rob was doing 40 miles, and I agreed to do 15 miles with them. This was the longest I've ever done at once. We started off at the covered bridge @ 8AM and ran through some of the technical hiking trails along the "orange loop". This run was a blast!! We started off with a walk/run pace taking it easy up the hills and jogging through the flats and down the narrow paths. The crew I was running with had strategically placed water jugs along the course so we could refill our water bottles at mile 5 and mile 10. The stops were perfectly spaced apart, for my water bottle was just about empty by the time we got to them; apparently these guys knew what they were doing. :) We basically ran to the water jugs, filled up our bottles and got moving again. Good thing too because it was really cold and standing still with all that sweat was not fun. 

While we were running, I was asking Mark and Rob them what the longest distance they had ran and both Mark and Rob stated that the longest they had run were both 100 mile races. I'm still trying to comprehend how this is humanly possible. They both stated that it was all mental really. Who knows, maybe one day I'll be able to think about these types of distances... For now, I'm just going to focus on 26.2. :) 

My total run today was 15 miles and it took me right around  3 hours and 10 minutes (not counting water stops). At mile 10, I ran into a nasty patch of frosted thick gooey mud and my shoe got sucked up into it while I tried to run through it. In order to get my shoe back, I had to slosh back through it in my bare sock and this was pretty unpleasant. I basically wiped my sock off with my hand and slimed it back into my shoe. Luckily, my foot warmed up rather quickly and I ended up forgetting about it after about 5 minutes or so. Needless to say, my new Adidas Quatra Trail Shoes are pretty gross looking right now (both inside and out).

About 1 mile later, my legs pretty much locked up on me; I had some pretty uncomfortable cramping in my quads. It was hard to walk for a few hundred yards at one point. I've had calf cramps before and those hurt, however I'd never had quad cramps before; it just felt weird more than anything (not "painful" though). I think this was my body's way of yelling STOP!! Unfortunately (for my legs anyway) I still had 4 more miles of trails to go. These next 4 miles were the technical ones too. The trail ran right along side the river and there were all kinds of roots, rocks, mud slicks and just nasty terrain. 

I would like to thank Rob for staying with me through my cramps because I didn't know where I was, nor how to get past these nasty cramps. It seemed like every time I tried to run again, my legs would start to lock up again. Rob stayed back and gave me some tips on how to get past this so I don't have to go through them again for my next trail run. Our whole conversation could be summed up with two easy words: "slow" and "steady". Thanks again Rob!

Grand Island Trail Marathon

Call me nuts, but I signed up for my first marathon tonight and the one I signed up for is quite a doozy... I'll be running the Grand Island Trail Marathon in Munising, Michigan (upper peninsula) on July 26th!

I stumbled upon this race online the night that I realized that I liked trail running so much. A while later, I saw it advertised in my RunnersWorld magazine (clip shown on the right). In the full list of all upcoming marathons for 2008, this is the one that sparked my interest the most. Oddly enough, it had the least amount of information associated with it though. I guess there really isn't much to say about it; there doesn't appear to be much crowd support, it's not a good race for a "BQ", and the terrain is insane. To me though, it looks like the coolest one of all of them and I'm damn excited to be running it. When I realized that I had to do this, I got all giddy and told Jennifer about it. We're probably going to make a weekend trip of it and take the girls camping up there that weekend; fun for the whole family!

Honestly, the amount of hills and overall terrain of the course makes it a bit intimidating for me, but I'm totally up for the challenge. The blurb indicates that "hills are constant" and even mentions some of the mile markers to watch out for. :) Sweet! This does not put any less attention on my upcoming Trail Marathon in April. However, the Grand Island Trail Marathon has a major"cool" factor to it since it is run on a remote island out in Lake Superior.

"The water of Lake Superior is as clear and aqua blue as the Caribbean, with the kind of crystalline quality that lures you to cleanse yourself in its frigid embrace. You imagine you could walk right in and just just keep walking along the rock-strewn bottom in a beautiful blue purity."

Well, that all sounds "good 'n' gay", but check out the topo map of the course and notice the steep climbs and drop-offs in the chart at the bottom:


Crazy huh? That kinda voids the whole 'crystalline quality' and 'beautiful blue purity' if you ask me...

Judging from my near death experience with 12.4 miles in Hocking Hills last September, these trail marathons are really going to push my limits! I'm totally out of shape for these races, yet totally excited to do them at the same time! Luckily, I have almost 8 months to train for this nasty one. I plan to train hard because I want to make this one count...

And... go!

Richard Campbell - The Real Alpha Geek

.NET Rocks!: Richard Campbell Tells All!

Carl interviews Richard, who tells many stories of his experiences in electronics and computers. Don't miss the funny stories! This guy is insanely geeky and I solute thee.

If you think you know anything about computer, listen to Richards story: http://www.dotnetrocks.com/default.aspx?showNum=300

Late Night Running

I've found that I've been doing a lot more of it... I had to resort to running at night because I can't find any other time throughout the day to run. Between the short days, spending time with my family and work stuff, this is really the only time that I have available for "me time". I've just learned how to dodge headlights. Needless-to-say, it is very relaxing and, well it also fits well into my schedule.

Basically, I run while others sleep. I've done quite a bit of night running these last couple of weeks. The first time was the most awkward really, because I didn't know what to expect. After I realized how relaxing it was, I discovered that this is really the best time to run. Jen has a head light that she uses for working around the barn yard after dark and I strap that on my head and go. I try to wear as much white as possible so that people can see me and my shoes reflect pretty bright, so it's fairly safe. I've asked Santa for some reflective clothing this year, so we'll see...

Here is my favorite late night path:


Basically, I park at my friend's house (thanks Tyler) and just go... I showed up at his house tonight @ 10:15 and took off running. I got back around 11:15 and then came home. The night after my company Christmas dinner, I actually ran a longer version of this loop and didn't get back to my car until about 1 am. :)

It's funny because a lot of the cops doing their rounds at night probably all refer to me as "that crazy guy with the head light" on their radios. I just wave at them... :)

Kayak.com

I've always kinda taken charge at setting up our travels at work. As embarrassing as it is, I have to admit that I've been using Expedia.com this whole time. It has always allowed me to book my flight, hotel, and car in one stop. Since it was all I knew, I was happy... Well, I have a new standard. I recently had to book a flight and Issam sent me a link that blew me away: Kayak.com

This single site ties together lots of sites into a single list to filter, sort, and flag. Using the controls on the left, it's so quick to search for the exact flight you want. For example, on this trip I was trying to avoid a certain airport. With a single click, I was able to exclude all results that had layovers at this particular airport. Using the flight time sliders allowed me to only show flights that left within my defined time range. There were 250+ possible routes to get to the destination I wanted. However, after some simple clicking and dragging, I had my results down to 20 or so. From there, I simply checked the details of some and remove the ones I didn't want. I placed a flag on the good ones until I got down to about 5, then I just picked one. Picking one spawned off multiple site queries from various sites (including Expedia, Priceline, CheapTickets, Hotwire, as well as all the major airline's sites). I ended up buying my tickets from Priceline.com. The entire process was so painless and I got the exact flight I wanted.

Conclusion: Next time you book a flight, use Kayak.com.

Oh yeah, Expedia called and they want their 56k modems back...

Trail Running

I found my new passion. Yesterday, I had lunch with an old friend and had full intentions on going back to the office to work. However, after lunch I wanted to get in my run for the day while it was still light outside. I decided to go to Blendon Woods and run some of the trails. About 1 hour later I had ran every trail they had to offer and I wanted more. It was cold, my feet were soaked, my running pants were destroyed and coated in thick mud splat, my heart was thumping, and I was drenched in sweat... I loved it!

Since it was raining off and on yesterday, I decided to leave the iPod in the car and I just listened to my feet sloshing through the soupy grass. The whole time I ran, I was avoiding all of the roots, puddles, and mud slicks as much as possible. After about 45 minutes of this, I decided to just ignore the 3 inch deep puddles and I started sloshing through them... like a crazy man. It was in these moments that I decided road races were for the birds... I am a trail runner!

When I got home last night, I started looking up all the trail runs in this area. I was surprised to find that there really aren't a whole lot. The big ones around here are YUTC, Hocking Hills Indian Run, and the Mohican 100. I'm sure there are others, but I have yet to find them. I found quite a few in Michigan that I plan to sign up for, but not so many Ohio races for 2008.

The truth of the matter is that I should have known after the Indian Run that trail running was my true passion. When I did the Hocking Hills 20k Indian Run (my story) back in September, I admitted that it was the hardest thing I had ever done, physically. It really was! This is the race that I take the most pride in. Yeah, I did the Columbus 1/2 Marathon (my story) too which was longer in distance, but (like I stated before), it was easy compared to the 12.4 mile trail run. Next year I plan on signing up for the 40k (aka: 24.8 miles). In the meantime, I'm signing up for a full "trail marathon" in April called: The Trail Marathon (ironic?)

I am officially "in training" for my trail marathon (4 months away). When I told the wife about it, she threw her head back and told me that I'm crazy. I think she's right. :)

CodeMash Theme Song

There has been some discussion on the CodeMash discussion board about a jam session this year: Music at the conference?

After reading the thread, I saw where nobody had voluteered for drum-duty, so I did. I'm pretty excited about this, to say the least. I'm going to try and talk James into either singing or bringing his saxophone. :)

Flashback: Many years ago, Data Dynamics took a trip to San Fransisco and there was a band playing at one of the Microsoft after-hour events (making some pretty good money, I'm sure). We were all mingling about with our drinks in hand, and I went up to meet the band. I was talking to them (in between songs) and asked if I could sit in on the drums for one of their songs... surprisingly they let me! I'll never forget that. They announced my name and stated that I work for Data Dynamics (free publicity) before we played and then we ended up playing "Brown-Eyed Girl" for the crowd. The people I was traveling with (Tim & Ferhat, if I remember correctly) couldn't believe I even asked. :) I think Ferhat even took pictures (?). This was all before I was blogging of course, or this would have DEFINITELY made it on my blog.

Ok, back to present day... I'm hoping somebody will bring a digital camera and we could record the CodeMash theme song. :) If all goes well, we may end up travelling around the world opening for various pop stars... Ok, maybe not. Anyway, Scott is preparing a keynote presentation to tie many things together and he plans to stick around afterwards to talk to people and answer tough questions. This ought to be a great event. :)

CodeMash 2008 - Spread the Word!

Data Dynamics is damn proud to be sponsoring CodeMash 2008! We sponsored (and attended) the event last year, and we'll be sponsoring (and attending) the event again this year. Last years event was a huge success for the entire development community around here. The crew that puts this event together is just "with it"... big time.

For example, last year, Scott Guthrie gave the keynote, and they had all kinds of high class speakers giving sessions on some pretty cutting edge technologies (ie. grid computing was pretty informative). I actually made "small talk" with Scott Guthrie in the hall (mono 'e' mono) before his keynote; he's pretty grounded for a man with such wisdom/respect. This year, the other Scott will be giving the keynote. That's right, Scott Hanselman! I just blogged about this guy the other day (Scott Hanselman - The Realtor) and I listen to his podcast (HanselMinutes) all the time. It will be great to see him face to face... who knows, maybe I'll bring the floor plans to my house and ask him to lunch for some Google Earth / SketchUp wizardry. :)

Last year I was able to take the family and we made a mini vacation out of the event:

CodeMash 2007 @ Kalahari Resort

This year, the family is staying at home, so I'll be in "full" nerd mode. It will just be James and I, and we'll be talking a lot about our latest products ddReports and ddAnalysis. We'll be giving lots of demos and plan to give a presentation of just how powerful and easy to use these products are. If you plan to attend CodeMash this year, please take time to visit our booth and attend our presentation.

It goes without saying (thanks Pilgrim) that the CodeMash agenda looks pretty stellar this year. I'm thinking that James and I might split up and check out some different sessions, then share knowledge over a beer afterward. We will be giving a presentation of our latest products in one of the side rooms (more details in a later post). We plan to create a compelling use case for analyzing data (source code included).

If you are reading this post, and haven't got a ticket for CodeMash, go do it! This is a high class event, put on by some high class people. The best part is that the organizers have made this event cheap to attend, with a list of speakers that are highly respected in the development community. CodeMash made the #1 Technorati search term last year (beating the iPhone)!! I gotta admit that the overall feel of CodeMash just makes being a geek "cool"! It's gonna be a fun one this year! I wonder if there will be more head shavings... Josh? :)

Oh yeah, if you didn't know this, the Kalahari Resort is a huge indoor water park! I do plan to bring my trunks... and about $20 extra for the massive arcade room as well.

Spread the word!

O Sweet Static - CD's for Sale

The ever famous O Sweet Static CD's are in and available for purchase. :)

So if you don't already know, I was in a rock band for a few years and we did a bunch of gigs out at many of the local bar scenes in Columbus. We played at Whiskey Dicks, Little Brothers, Club 202, OldFields on High, just to name a few. We also played some private party's as well that were more low key unless you were in our "groupie" click. :)

Here's to all my peeps: Woody, Steve, Eric, Jay, Pete, Jon Chinn @ Workbook Studio, & Bonnie Young @ BYoungDesigns... It's done!

So basically, if you like rock and roll and you dig funky drumming, buy this CD. I'm trying to get $10 a pop out of them if possible. Of course, I've been selling them pretty cheap to my coworkers and those that were there for me when it was all going down (family & friends). Truth be told though, $10 isn't that bad for the quality of product that you would be buying. It comes shrink wrapped, it's all arted out, and has all the lyrics inside so you can sing along. I'd pay $10 for it... if I hadn't already spent @#$@#% on it already. Let's just say that it cost a hell of a lot more than $10 to make 'em! :)

As the drummer, my favorites are probably Love Drugs & Bombs, Anger Management, Hazy, & Summer Fun. Ok, I guess I forgot Tripping Along, Conversation 29, and Carnival. But then there's also Attitude, Beautiful Thing, Alcohol, & Mild Concussion, oh hell, they're all good! Honestly, they all have their own hook in them. The more you listen to them, the more you'll like them.

When we played at gigs, we did a couple of songs that aren't on the album. Therefore if we ever get together and do another album (very unlikely), you can expect to see songs like SoundCheck, Anthem, Ode to Fans, State Your Claim, and a few others. All of which are very fun songs that didn't make it on the album. I do have some studio clips of them in my iTunes that are un-mastered. If you're interested in these, let me know and I can post them on my site for you to listen to.

Ok, if you're interested in getting your hands on our CD, send me an email. I have tons! I'd be happy to get you hooked up with this disc (lucas (at) hardbarger (dot) com). We put a lot of time and effort into this thing and we are all real happy with how it turned out! Note that if the album artwork looks confusing and "dark", fear not, for it was intended to look this way. Always remember to "never judge a book by it's cover". Most all of our songs are actually bright and fun!!

Check out our GarageBand demos if you don't believe me: http://www.garageband.com/artist/osweetstatic

My Desktop Backgound

I am using the following image as my desktop background image:


Just last week I was in a meeting at work and someone made mention of how cool of a picture it was. I actually took this picture on my hill the day after our bonfire. That next morning was beautiful and Jennifer and I had a mini picnic with the girls.

Check out some of the other photo's that were taken that day from my online photo album: http://picasaweb.google.com/lucas.hardbarger/HardbargerHill2007

For instance, this one is pretty cool too showing the girls playing on the wood pile:

Anyway, I got lots of pictures in my album and so far, my current desktop background is the most professional looking one yet from my collection. :) The others are just "fun".

Ajax Gif Generator

I'm doing some black majik ajax stuff and was looking for an animated gif to load while waiting on the server calls in my web page. I did a google search for "ajax gif loader" and found this (among others of course): http://www.ajaxload.info

Thought it was worthy of sharing since it basically shows every Ajax loader gif I've ever seen... Except for that damn dog wagging his tail!?

...For Pilgrim

Country boy can survive!

My dad built a custom "trucker radio" from a $20 Wal-mart toolbox using spare material. The overall idea is to allow him to carry a CB radio with him anywhere he goes and it has come in handy many times out here at our house (working on the tractor, camping in the middle of nowhere, our bonfire, etc...). It's basically just two used speakers, a CB, some bungy cords, crazy wiring, and a detatchable clamp welded to a huge antenna for hanging it on the truck mirrors. The box comes equipped with 3-4 car lighters, (handy for charging your phone, or actually heating up a... car lighter). He uses one of them to run his XM radio. It weighs about 30 lbs, but has a handle for carrying, and a wooden base for placing it anywhere you want... like on an uneven engine of a pick-up truck when hot-wiring it to a 12 volt battery. :)

Cool Ruby Linq

... ok, the "q" was not necessary; I just thought it made my title look cool... Well?

Whatever, click this: http://www.dzone.com/links/rss/introduction_to_ruby_video_series.html

Scott Hanselman the Realtor

Wow! I was listening to episode 105 of Hanselminutes and Scott got me excited about planning my upcoming house projects. He discusses using Paint.net along with Sketchup and Google Earth along with VirtualEarth to model a house that he and his wife are building. The best part is that he walks you through exactly what he did to make it work.

This could keep me up all night in the near future. :) Jennifer and I want to make a walk out basement, finish our basement, and build a deck on the front of our house that would connect the front of our house to the back of our house. After listening to Scott's podcast, I can see great value in modeling my house projects and landscape first in SketchUp... then getting the hammer and nails.

If any of this sounds cool to you too, then listen to Scott talk about it: Planning, Placing and Building a House Google Earth and Sketchup. He makes it sound much cooler! If he does decide to get into real-estate, I definitely want him as my Realtor!

Gphone... really!

James sent me a link to a Scoble post about a rather boring (but exciting) new platform called Android from Google... Can you say Gphone?



Of course you should definitely read Scoble's post too since he adds a lot of extra talking points and sparks some pretty amazing comments on his blog.