Computers – Jacob and Marcia

Give Thanks

Jacob:

I am thankful for our water heater because hot water is important to all of the ways we stay comfortable in our house, like radiant heat, I can take a warm shower, and wash dishes in hot water.

I am thankful for my bicycle because it helps me be healthier while having fun at the same time.

Marcia the Elder:

I am thankful for filtered water in the fridge door so that I can have clean cold drinking water anytime I need it, which helps me try to drink enough water each day.

I am thankful for stocking caps/hats because I am cold most of the time, and some of my migraines are triggered by my forehead being cooled down, so I wear them much of the time from fall through spring.

Marcia the Younger:

I am thankful for technology like computers and my camera because it helps us communicate with everybody.

I am thankful for a lot of blankets for my bed because they help me be warm and comfortable when I need to sleep, and when I sleep, and when I want to sleep.

Hinckley:

I am thankful for life itself because if we didn’t have life how would we have a good life?

I am thankful for family because if you did not have family you wouldn’t have anybody to live with in your childhood.
*

I am thankful for pop because it tastes great and fizzes on my tongue.

I am thankful for ice to make the pop be less fizzy.

Corban:

I am thankful for a real machine that gives life to everybody and that gives seat belts to every body…the machine that makes seat belts because seatbelst keep us safe and alive.

I’m also thankful for a machine that makes ~~people~~, no I mean robots, robot chickens.

* Hinckley said the first two first, and then when we explained that we wanted actual things to “touch” he gave the second two.

Give Thanks

Jacob:
I am thankful for the temple, where families are sealed together forever, and where I married my best friend.
I am thankful for my home office because that’s where I work to provide for my family, it’s where I study and learn a lot, it’s where I do some of my favorite leisure activities like playing chess and writing music.
Marcia the Elder:
I am thankful for the Grand Canyon because nobody fell in! And because I enjoyed spending a week down in the there hiking among the beauty, while I was in college, and then a couple years ago we got to go as a family* with the Fairlie women!
I am thankful for the hospital where I birthed my children, because there are caring doctors and nurses, and I am so glad that I did not have to clean up the “Lake of Machu Picchu”** in my house.
Marcia the Younger:
I am thankful for libraries because they have lots and lots of books, and I love books!
I am thankful for Compton Park because the bridge is very good for riding your bike over and it has a beautiful “river” there.
Hinckley:
I am thankful for our house. I love our house because if we didn’t have our house we wouldn’t live anywhere, but we do have our house so that we have some shelter and a place to live.
I am thankful for the school because I need to learn, and the school is exactly the right place*** to learn.
Corban:
I want to do what Hinckley said, but a little bit, a little part:
I am thankful for our house, well, because it has dishes.
I am thankful for Earth because it has a lot of houses, and a lot of people, and a lot of houses for that people.

* This was the only time Jacob had been to the Grand Canyon, even though he lived in Mesa, AZ for 14 years.

** The lake was so named by the midwife, because the older two children named the unborn Corban, “King of Machu Picchu” and he made a great lake during labor.
*** “Place” may be more of a concept than an actual location, because this year our kids are attending school online only. Here is the setup they have.

The “lockers”

Once upon a time

We went to the store this evening, yet again. They did not have what we were looking for, yet again. So we will have to order it off the internet, yet again.

Anydangways, on our way home there were some spots of cool fog. And that got mee to thinking about how we often refer to “dense fog.” That got mee to thinking about the word “dense.” When I was younger I used to think it meant “light,” “airy,” or “fluffy.” So then when someone would give mee bread or cake to try and call it “dense” I assumed it would have the consistency of angel-food cake. I was confused by it being more like pound cake instead. I do not remember when I finally understood, probably a science class when talking about mass, or maybe a social studies class when talking about population. In any case I figured it out. Some people may wonder why I misunderstood the word in the first place. This is why. I often heard some individuals called “dense.” These are the same people I heard called “air-heads.” So in my young-brain-logic, dense=full of air. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

*Okay, so “often” could have been only once or twice for all we know, then again it could have been everyday. (Un)fortunately, I do not remember who was called this or by whom, I just remember hearing it.

And just for fun, here is a picture, or two, of an amazing little girl typing the text after the picture.

YHGJGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG6

TTJHY555sgsssssssssssssssssssssssccdwdqsss7444nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnjghbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb+

633.

3…

020789.89+.66

k,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o,o

+++52525252521*99*9*2jhihhhhhhhhhh hhhhhnnn77777,,,,,jkukun jnjjjjo6yygjujynfg0 .236663666666666 vc’ c[vbccv999999999999999999999999999ui

96.

Family Bike Ride!

This morning we decided to go for a family bike ride. Marcia Holland’s first. I think she enjoyed it. She took a nap in her bike trailer.

First we had to see if her helmet would fit her yet.

Still a little loose, but we decided it was close enough to go for a short ride.
After the ride she and Jacob had matching helmet-hair.

Next time we will have to set up the camera on a timer so we can get a shot of all three of us out for a bike ride.

We were all relaxing, Marcia on the floor, Me in the recliner and Jacob on the futon with the iPad. He fell asleep, and Marcia saw this as her opportunity. She crawled over, stood up, realized she could not reach, and put her xylophone in place as a step. Sadly for her, Jacob woke up in time to rescue it from her.

Then we decided to let Copyright take a turn at the piano. I hope you can get an idea of how much she likes the piano. Unfortunately, this video turned out odd. I recorded it with my phone. Now, watching the playback, it has the full three and a half minutes of video with audio, though somehow it un-synced. I don’t know how or why. When I uploaded it to youtube, it sped up part of the video and cut it short, and so there is only 25 seconds of audio. I (as her mother) still enjoy it, I hope you can too.

Another interesting fact…Marcia Had tooth number 8 break through the gums. Four on top and four on bottom! (Part of mee thinks this is unfair. I know all people are different and what not, but I know of kids that don’t start getting teeth till their first birthday. I wonder why she is in such a hurry.)

Obechi: new game for iPhone/iPod touch

From the creators of the Flash sensation Boomshine comes a devious new game where hand/eye co-ordination and a lightning-quick reaction time spell the difference between success and failure. Hundreds of colorful particles floating in the ether – and it’s your job to put them all together. Click and hold down the mouse button to make a ring around the dots, and watch them all gather in the center. With every ring you create you’ll get closer and closer to your target… but miss the target, even by one, and the nucleus is ruined. How quickly can you complete all fifteen levels without making a single mistake? The challenge is on…

Danny Miller and I just released a new game for iPhone called Obechi. It’s a native iPhone version of the flash game at http://www.k2xl.com/games/obechi, and it’s quite addictive.

Find it on the iTunes App Store.

Dead and Deader

Last Friday (June 12), I went out for an afternoon bike ride, and when I got home, the monitors connected to my main work computer were dark. I wiggled the mouse to bring them back to life, but they did not revive. The computer had crashed.

While such a thing had never happened with this particular computer before, we’ve all seen random system crashes, and I didn’t think anything of it. I had saved all my files before going out the door, after all. I pushed the power button on the computer case to shut off the machine and reboot it…

…And nothing happened. The case LEDs were still on, keyboard LEDs still glowing. The machine had all the appearances of being alive, but was dead. I tried again. Held the power button down for 15 (it should turn off after 10), 20, 30 seconds. No response. It wouldn’t turn off.

Hmm. This is strange.

I flipped the rocker switch on the power supply and the machine shut off instantly. After a short wait, I flipped it back on and pressed the power button.

Nothing happened.

Again, I pressed and held the power button. No case LEDs, no keyboard lights, no fans spinning up, nothing. Great.

I love the small town where we live, but one of its downsides is that there’s no decent place to buy computer parts in a pinch. Thankfully, there’s a big internet electronics warehouse store that’s located such that when we order things with the cheapest UPS ground shipping, we almost always get them the next day. But, it being late Friday afternoon, I knew anything I ordered wouldn’t actually ship until Monday, so I wouldn’t get it until Tuesday. Oh well, at least I still have the laptop to keep me on top of things.

I decided that the power supply was fried, so I ordered a new one, which arrived tuesday afternoon, just as expected. Tuesday evening, I sat down with the ailing computer and swapped out power supplies. I got it all plugged in and put together, and hit the power button.

Nothing, again.

Dangit! For those of you lucky enough to have never had a computer die, here’s a hint: When you have a computer that’s just dead, the culprit is almost always either the motherboard or the power supply. In this case, I had good reason to believe the power supply was the problem. Apparently it wasn’t (or at least it wasn’t the ONLY problem). Now I need to order a new motherboard.

Again, it’s after shipping time, so anything I order will ship Wednesday and arrive Thursday. Fine. I ordered a new motherboard, and went back to work on the laptop (which, by the way, is a Mac, and doesn’t have all the Windows software I need to work on my main business projects). The new motherboard arrived Thursday afternoon, and went easily into the computer case

Cross fingers. Say a prayer. Do a rain dance. Push the power button.

It booted right up. No other hardware damage, no data loss.

The rest of Thursday was spend installing new drivers for the new chipset and audio all that stuff that comes with a new motherboard, and Friday I was finally back in action. A full week without my main computer was quite a bit of lost work, and put me behind schedule, but I’m catching up quickly.

The moral of the story: While I didn’t lose any data, it made me take a good look at my backup strategies. While the source code that keeps my business running was always backed up in two different places, other things (like iPhone app sales records) were not. If there had been a hard drive problem, some important things could have been lost.

So please take this opportunity to review your backup strategy and make sure that everything important is backed up and will survive a hardware failure or worse (Question: what would happen if your house burned down while you weren’t home? Would you still have your precious data intact?). We work way too hard on creating our digital lives to have them vanish at the whim of a few faulty bits of silicon. Be careful!