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Chat convo with my wife: Bella: I’m gonna need that $ back. Harvid: Sure, right after I put that deposit down on that motorcycle Bella: Oh, so you’re leaving me then? Harvid: Oh, didn’t the guy show up with the papers? ;)

Finished reading this book Saturday night It was an interesting tale of an entitled, White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP) whose life completely unravelled in his late 50’s. This true story follows Michael Gates Gill, son of Brendan Gill of The New Yorker magazine fame, graduate of Yale, member of Skull & Bones. Gill’s never worked a real job in his life–he moved from Yale to a prestigious Madison Avenue ad agency, living a jet-set life and leaving his kids behind. As he entered his 50’s, he got downsized and went home (for the first time, really) to a wife he didn’t know and children who grew up without him. He descended further, carrying-on an affair with a younger woman and fathering a child at 60 years old. Then his wife left him. Then his ad clients stopped calling him back. ...

I’ll get some pics up soon…just some thoughts from attending the 2010 Louisville Auto show It’s much better going with your 3 year old daughter than with your 1 year old daughter. Maria was my wingman…er…wingdaughter. Awesome! The Ford display triumphed. They had position right in front of the entrance, and the cars were great. They (understandably) didn’t have the 2011 5.0 Mustang GT on display–who would by the 2010 4.6? The new Taurus is incredible. Great styling. Sumptuous interior. I can’t believe this platform began as the VW Passat-derivative Five Hundred. It’s a completely different car just when America’s ready to return to cars after gorging on SUV’s for 20 years. That being said, the new Fiesta’s too small. Unless they can make money on this car at $14k or less, forget it. People will buy the redesigned Focus instead. Toyota’s display, right next to the entrance as well, was a ghost town. I felt sorry for these guys as there are some superb cars in the lineup. Maria loved the Scion xD, and I thought the the new Prius to be the perfect replacement for my 2000 Camry–only it gets double the mileage. BMW has lost its way, big time. I though things were bad when Bangle took over, but $100,000 UGLY, IRRELEVANT cars (X6? 5 series GT?). Those posers snatching-up the Beamers are BROKE, you Bavarian Dullards. Those who remain are the hardcore faithful, and you’ve given them nothing but complicated, overpriced, ugly cars that break with British regularity. ::sigh:: Still want an E39 530i Sport. Probably a 2001 model. :-) Honda: WHAT ARE YOU PEOPLE THINKING?! The Oddysey withers on the vine, the Civic is a disaster, and the Accord remains ugly (as it has since 1998). Meanwhile, we get the Accord Crosstour. Meanwhile, the Fit remains a joy. Pity it’s overpriced and lacks taller gearing for the highway. Still, play with those folding rear seats, work that snick/snick shifter, and feel the quality of the controls–this is Honda Motor we-can-engineer-better-than-you Company at its best. Jump in a Mazda 6, then into a Hyundai Sonata, and tell me why Mazda’s still in business. The Mazda 2 won’t sell. It’s an uglier Fiesta, with less space. GM is still the “too many divisions, too many nameplates” company. And the new Regal (a rebadged Opel offering only a 4-cylinder engine) is too small. Finally got in a Camaro. Maria liked it because it’s red. It has so little headroom and such bad outward visibility, I felt like I was in a coffin. I don’t see that car having even the legs of the 4th Gen Camaro/Firebird. GM has a talent for useless styling exercised (SSR, anyone?) This feels exactly like that. Acuras make BMWs seem attractive. Yikes. So yeah, I feel like an old fart–I like reasonable cars, with good styling, interior appointments, and room. I dislike gimmicks and needless complexity–they seem like sleight-of-hand to hide bad engineering. ...

I live in a dysfunctional state. Actually scratch that…I live in a dysfunctional Commonwealth. Looking at this logically: We have 4.3 million people We rank 22nd in population density We have a state sales tax of 6%, except on foodstuffs. We have a state income tax of 6%, basically for everybody. We pay property tax assessed on cars, yearly. We pay property tax on LEASED CARS. Think about that for a minute. Lots of our local municipalities levee income taxes as well Yeah, so of course we’re flat broke. Comically so, like your friend who’s lived off credit cards for the last 10 years, then can’t convince Citibank to up his limit. ...

Sorry. KACO financial abuses was discovered by Le… Dash - Jan 2, 2010 Sorry. KACO financial abuses was discovered by Lexington Herald–not State auditor, as was the Lexington Airport financial abuse and League of cities abuse. C.J. State Salares: Agency is U of Lou 2616 employees High of $912,288-to low of $351,487 agency is U of KY 4469 employees high of $804,726-Low of $412,500 Agency: Ky Community College 1498 employees from High of $212,484-to low of $145,714 Agency: KY JUDICIAL SYSTEM: 545 employees from high of $139,164-to low of $128,760 Agency: Legislative Research Comm 196 employees from high of $132,840-to low of $99,744 Agency: LOTTO 62 employees from high of $220,200to low of $99,100 Agency:KY HOUSING CORP 95 employees from high of $137,957 to low of $76,500 STATE 5269 $222,718-50,000 EXECUTIVE BRANCH ADMINISTRATION ASSISTANTS 86 EMPLOYEES from high of $100,000 to low of $55,650 ...

Trying to journal a few things from the past weekend: My wife likes Ducatis and Triumphs. She thinks that a Nighthawk 250 and the Honda Rebel are ridiculously too small for me. In other news, I actually got Whitney to go to a motorcycle shop with me :-) I’m considering selling some of my Voigtlander R1 Rangefinder kit, particularly the 15mm Heliar f/4.5 and the 90mm f/3.5. I haven’t snapped any pictures with this camera in 2 years, and the 35mm and cannon 50mm f/1.2 are good enough. I keep waiting for the day when my kids go, “What’s that stuff you’re putting into that camera? ‘Film’…is that like a coating for light sensor? Where’s the 32GB memory card go in that thing? What do you mean it doesn’t use BATTERIES!?” I had chills and low-grade fever Saturday evening through Sunday morning, and still don’t feel 100% Currently reading Peter Egan’s excellent compillation Side Glances. It’s much the same old stuff–Peter buying old cars, stories of his childhood with his friend Pat Donnelly, long road trips hither and yon. It gets a bit repetitive, but so what? Part of me wants to be this guy when I grow-up, minus the Hepatitis C. Helped Whitney out with the 4 + 5-year old Sunday School class this week. Seven girls and one irrepressible boy, Noah. Saw an excellent free concert from the Central Kentucky Brass Trio at Christ the King Cathedral Sunday afternoon. Many thanks to Betsey Keating for watching Maria so Whitney and I could have some time together.

I paid $4.00 at a matinee to watch Avatar, now 3 weeks after its worldwide release. The 2.5 hour video game movie amazed me, and at the same time, its overarching vanity and irony haunts me. Let’s talk. The movie itself tells the story of former marine Jake Sully (Sam Worthington)’s journey the new world Pandora, where he’s embedded with a corporate mining operation of ‘Unobtainium’, a mineral essential to old Terra. Jake takes over for his Ph.D. identical twin, who’s killed months before he’s supposed to ship out to be an Avatar driver. In return, they’ll fix his paraplegic legs after his 6 year hitch on Pandora. ...

you post a link on ur fb. BTW, Joey and I just ha… Whitney - Jan 1, 2010 you post a link on ur fb. BTW, Joey and I just had the misfortune to watch this movie that was released in 2007, titled “Terra”. Same story, right down to brother being killed, humans looking for mineral to run their habitat, etc. comp gen’d animation of course. im actually surprised cameron and crew hasn’t been sued over this adult adaptation. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0858486/ ...

Yes, the blogging fad is over. When it was invented, blogging was a giant leap beyond “creating your own website” by hand-coding HTML or using a program to ‘publish’ your site. Suddenly, you could type out your thoughts, embed images and let some other program handle all the layouts, storage, archiving, and hosting. Blogging exploded. However, blogging is lonely, hierarchical. Comments made it better, allowing you to engage with other people. Still, it’s not a *conversation*. It’s like standing in a room with one person yelling statements and thoughts, then yelling ‘Whatta ya think of that?’ ...

So, here we are, at the end of the Awful Aughts. The automobile in America has pretty much jumped the shark, maybe for good (Exact moment: The day the movie ‘Cars’ was released). Still, I’m a gearhead. I’ll die a gearhead. The 2000’s coincided with my twenties; having no debt to speak of, a well-paying job, and no one to answer to besides myself, I wasted as much of my own money and my inheritance on cars as I could. Motorcycles are much cheaper and more fun…wish I’d figured that out 10 years ago. Anyway, onward. This list is pretty-much chronological: ...

In the beginning, man created paper, and it was good. It was permanent, stateful, and could be used for warmth if the auditor got too close. Man could transfer the paper to another man, certain his message would get across. Man could doodle and mark-up the paper. For a backup solution, there was carbon paper. And, there was much rejoicing. And, lo, God saw Man enjoying paper, and said, ““If as one people they use the paper, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.” And so, God invented e-mail and the Blackberry. And suddenly, man’s communication was much faster, yet intent and meaning was lost. Yet, there was much rejoicing. (?) ...

Could this be extended for security frameworks too… Shubhashish - Nov 0, 2009 Could this be extended for security frameworks too.

Randomness: * This month marks 2 years since Mom’s cancer was diagnosed. She’s still kickin'. * I’m going to try and blog much more. Facebook’s great. Twitter’s great. Sometimes, though, I just can’t hear myself think in there. Blogging’s much more composition and reflection. * I’ve learned to say ‘No’. I’ve de-committed some things at church. Whitney and I have worked out some ways to get time for ourselves: Every other Saturday morning, we get ‘Off’. The opposite parent takes the kids, no questions asked. It’s still a work in progress, but I like where it’s going. ...

I was staring at myself in the mirror a moment ago, washing my hands, thinking of a time years past, when I sat across from a Hazel Eyed woman: “Why do you keep doing that?” she asked. “What?” “You keep doing sign language when you’re talking. Why?” It was the Fall of 1999. That summer, I thought I’d lost my soul mate, the woman who’d taught me a little bit of sign language. Her name was Whitney. I loved her so much I couldn’t see straight. Even this sparkling gal from Menifee County couldn’t cheer me up. ...

User story: As a developer, I want to tag my code every so often, so that other people can get code that’s stable, not bleeding edge. This is the classic CVS usecase: Commit your code, and then tag it as ‘Production’ or ‘Released’ or whatever. In CVS, that entails touching every file. In Subversion, that’s a constant-time operation you can do wholly on the server. Let’s say you want to copy your current /trunk to /tags/release-1.0 tag. Issue this sort of command ...

[Insert obligatory apology/observation about not updating my blog here] It’s a brand new me, folks. Less introspective. Focused on “What” and “How”, not “Why.” ‘Why’ is an empty question where one can spend one’s whole life. I’m 30 now. I’m married. I have two kids I love very much. I also have no idea who I really am. Most of this blog from these many years is complete B.S., I’m afraid–at least the stuff about me. ...

Someone gunned-down George Tiller in cold blood in his church Sunday. That he happened to be an abortion clinic doctor is immaterial. Vigilante justice, retribution, and demagoguery are not roads we need go down in this country–it’s been done before.

i don’t get ur reference to Marat….esp since tha… Whitney - Jun 2, 2009 i don’t get ur reference to Marat….esp since that wasn’t “in this country” (see entry)…….. ??? It’s a stretch, I admit. We haven’t been there in this country, but France has, and it’s a bitter lesson. That’s the parallel I was trying to draw. ...

I enjoyed Memorial Day quite a bit. Our trip to Kings Island (formerly Paramount’s Kings Island) was great. I would actually call it an achievement–we didn’t overtire ourselves, and we never had a desire to strangle one another. For the Combs clan, that’s an achievement. We got there at 6pm Friday, having checked-in to our excellent Courtyard Inn in Blue Ash and settled our stuff. A 20 minute wait for our Gold passes later, we were in the park and headed towards Nickelodeon, standing in awe of the new ride, Diamondback. As I’ve tweeted and Facebooked—WOW, what a ride. Beautiful, graceful curves–it’s a transcendent beauty that’s really themed the wrong way. The ride’s not a snake at all, it’s a tour de force of elegance and grace. A shark theme would have been better. ...

Linky Simply put, this regulation will be the end of the automobile industry (and possibly the automobile itself). They want 42mpg fleet AVERAGE? Given current regulations, the 2009 Honda Civic Hybrid gets 42mpg average. Nearly EVERY OTHER CAR on the road will underperform. They want these regulations by 2016…understand, that’s ONE GENERATION in automotive terms, given the 5-year product lifecycles the carmakers deal with. The 2011 and 2012 cars are already done and in the pipeline at this point. ...