Mobile Dad

So after work last night while I was walking to my car, there was a flurry of activity around me.  Nature just went on a ‘code sprint’ and started to push out some lush colors around me!  It was cool to have the bees ignore me and went on their way making sure they hit their quota before heading back to the hive.  I wanted to capture some of this so I pulled out my handy Zi6 and started to film.

I notice something interesting when I imported my clips into iMovie ‘08, the playback was a little fast. I am not a video buff so the solution was not obvious.  I know what the problem was, I recorded at 720p/60fps.  I was hoping for a fluid video at 30fps but that did not happen.  Instead of spending another day fixing it, I figured I will post what I have.  Any easy solution out there anyone willing to help would be appreciated.

So Keyla and I took some time out yesterday and wanted to see what all the hype is about with the NBC series Heroes. You see, we never saw a complete episode.  Sure we caught a couple of minutes here or there but the story was so confusing that we gave up.  After taking care of our Saturday morning errands, Keyla and I took a moment to watch the first episode of Heroes from season one on Netflix.  Ten episodes back to back and we are now officially hooked.  Damn instant watch option from Netflix.  The video quality was shockingly good and the audio was engrossing.  We will most likely wrap up season one today and start season two so that we can be caught up for the season premier of season three tomorrow.  Now the sad thing about tomorrow is that Terminator, the Sarah Connor Chronicles has also been very good.  Terminator and Heroes will be back to back so our Monday will be filled.  It is very funny considering we have no cable or satellite and actually watch very little tv to begin with and yet here we are looking forward to a couple of great shows.  All honesty Keyla and I are sci-fi junkies and miss shows like X-Files, ST-TNG, ST-V, ST-DS9, Babylon 5, and Battle Star Galatica. Heroes season one is so X-Men with the storyline of the professor, people discovering powers and those who wish to suppress them.  We are hooked.  It looks like a marathon run to the premier.

We also need to do the same for The Office and figure out what is all the hype about that.  Damn Netflix, why must your streams look so good on the big screen? It is better than HBO.

As usual, head hunters are hitting my inbox. Here is the latest one:

We have your profile on file and I would like to find out if you would be interested in a position we currently have available with one of our clients.  I have included the job description below for your review.  If you are interested in this project, please reply to my email with a Word formatted resume.

Thank you.

Location: Austin, TX
Duration: 4-6 month contract
Title: Senior Software Engineer
Client: Dell
Rate: W2 only

Responsible for the design and/or development of software for platforms, peripherals, applications or tools using a range of applicable technologies (e.g., programming languages, compilers, assemblers and other tools) and state-of-the-art software engineering methodologies. Responsible for the delivery of products within budget, schedule, and quality guidelines. The Software Engineer Job Family includes engineering positions for the development and support of applications, databases, diagnostics, firmware, drivers, BIOS, utilities, and scripts

Accountabilities:
Develop Software
Test Software
Develop Test Strategy and Test Cases
Integrate Software
Deliver Complete Software
Maintain Software

Experience: 8-10 years

Skill/Role:
Scripting
Programming Languages
SQA (Software Quality Assurance)
Software Engineer
SQL (Structured Query Language)
Software Installation & Upgrade
Interface Design (GUI)

The knowledge requested is a bit broad and much of it I can honestly say I do not have but if I did, why would I take a job that only has a lifespan of six months? 8-10 years of experience is desired yet Dell only would like to use me for less than half a year. I hope no one out there with this wide range skill-set would ever seriously consider something so short-sighted. I guess I should not look at this so negatively. We do live in an on-demand society. Why should those we employ be any different?

Trying out the Seesmic plugin for Wordpress.
{seesmic_video:{“url_thumbnail”:{“value”:”http://t.seesmic.com/thumbnail/o2oWxTZgwX_th1.jpg”}”title”:{“value”:”Seesmic post from Wordpress ”}”videoUri”:{“value”:”http://www.seesmic.com/video/kbtGGyNAoD”}}}

UPDATE: Success! I initially tried to post the video using IE and went into an endless loop of “Please wait, posting video”. Firefox 3 beta 5 had no issues. Comments can also be in video form as well by clicking on the “Or add a video comment with Seesmic” link at the bottom of a blog post. You can post a video even if you do not have an account with Seesmic. I have not tried that feature yet. Feels weird to post a comment on my own post.

Today after nice drive in the hill country, we came back to get ready for the work week.  One of my weekly tasks is to clean Stevie’s tank.  While cleaning his tank, I put him in a small plastic tank that was where he first started his life in.  At one point, it was big enough for him to swim around.  Now it is used to keep him in one place while I clean his home.  He has gotten so strong that during the last two cleanings he can now climb at the top edge of the container.  Sometimes he falls backwards and lays there on his back as to say, ‘damn’.  I love the gaping mouth as he pushes above the rim.  This is our entertaining pet.