BIGmog's BIGblog

Merry New Year! Well I suppose it is a bit late for that now. Merry Martin Luther King Jr. Day! This is the final year I can use my lazy new year's resolution again. Finish school. This is the last semester before I graduate and I'm already surveying opportunities for a job change this year. Should that fail, plan B is to save as much as I can while I'm still relevant in IT so that I'm financially sound should this career have an early ending.


Outside of school and career news, I signed up for a comedy writing workshop. Reading these posts, I wouldn't blame you for wondering how such a boring person could write comedy. My preference is to have comedy delivered verbally like a stand-up comic does. Those jokes are written at some point. I gather that every comic has a different means of coming up with material. This course seems to use improv and then building on that to create sketch comedy. First class is this week. Maybe this could be plan C. C as in Comedy. Hey-ooooh!

As a fan of stand-up comedy, I have many acts that I enjoy. My tastes in comedy are electric but I think that is true for everybody. If I had to pick a favorite however, I think Jerry Seinfeld would be at or near the top. His sitcom originally aired when I was 12 and ended when I was 21 which were prime years for developing my sense of humor I feel. I missed the first season or two I think as did many others. Once I found out about it, I watched every week.

I've listened to the albums, watched the specials but have never seen him perform live. That is until 2 weekd ago when he had a show here in Denver at the Bellco Theater downtown. Stand-up comedy works best in a comedy club. There is an intimacy and a connection in a small venue that is missing in a giant concert hall (The same holds true to live music as well but to a lesser degree). With an act as big as Seinfeld however, there is just no getting around the giant venue. The crowds necessitate it.

Knowing this, I paid more for a close seat though I was still 30 rows back. The other problem with large venues for comedy is that there is no drink service. Drinks are served outside only which means missing part of the act if you aren't inebriated enough.

Fortunately Jerry's act is so good you needn't be close up or drunk to enjoy it. He killed as expected and I was not disappointed. Jerry is often described as 'obvervational' comedy in that he finds humor in the routine and mundane. Stuff that most everyone can relate to.

Food, for example, is a topic he may be borrowing more from comedians like Jim Gaffighan or Bryan Regan. Jim does Hot Pockets, Jerry does Pop-Tarts. I was also relieved that it was mostly new material. There was only one joke that I can recall hearing before. Surprisingly consider he has recorded so few albums. I've found that comedians that don't put out albums/specials regularly tend to recycle their act too long.

I keep an eye on the calendar for the local comedy clubs and wait patiently for my favorite acts to come. Perhaps instead I should experiment with other acts I'm not familiar with.

My very first job was as a dishwasher at an all-you-can-eat restaurant. I do not recommend this as a career path. After 3 months of this, I quit and found a better job. Still, I think being a dishwasher had an impact on me. For most of my adult life, I have washed my dishes by hand despite having a dishwasher. This habit was amplified by my life in Japan where having dishwasher is uncommon. Being a bachelor, I really don't soil that many dishes anyway so it was never a real major chore to do them by hand.

Then about a month ago I decided that I had had enough. My wrists were sore from work (occasional I suffer from repetitive stress injury due to typing all day). Having used my existing dishwasher in such cases before, I learned it was terrible. It was loud, slow, and the dishes were not even cleaned well. I wanted a new one.

Dishwashers are expensive however. Even a basic model is going to start at $400. With Lefty getting an ACL surgery soon, I didn't want to spend the money on something I never really needed to date anyway. An idea came to me. I had recently sold a car part on eBay that I didn't actually need and thought I might be able to auction off something to come up with the cash to get that new dishwasher. I had just the item.

In my youth, I liked to buy and collect video games. Some of these purchases have actually become valuable with time (most have not). One such treasure is my Game Boy Player designed for the Panasonic GameCube. Without getting more geeky, just know that it was a very uncommon peripheral made for a unique Japan exclusive system. I had scored this rarity on Yahoo Auctions (Japan's equivalent to eBay) way back in 2004. If I recall, I paid about $100. Today's value: $500.


Some readers may be thinking, "You sold a rare piece of Nintendo hardware so you could buy a new dishwasher??" I know. I'm old. One was sitting idle in the basement collecting dust. The other saves me from having to wash dishes by hand again. I regret nothing.

While there is still a bit of summer left in the tank, school is underway again. In truth I've been looking forward to hitting the books again. Momentum is undervalued in many aspects including school. I'm over half way done but I can see the finish line which gives me a boost to finish.


To recap August, I spent most weekends on landscaping projects. Normally I would prefer to be up in the mountains hiking, etc. but Lefty has an injured knee and the one hike we did do may have agitated that further. So instead of being in the great outdoors, I was in the okay outdoors. Specifically, the side of my house installing a paved walkway. Were I to hire a pro, no doubt this would be completed in a single weekend. As an amateur, it's taken me multiple weekends. Also, I pace myself with just a few hours per day which delays the completion. Still, I may just finish before the summer truly ends.

Not able to get the embeded photo working so this link will have to suffice.

I start off most every morning by taking Lefty (my beagle) for a walk. It gets me up and helps to kickstart my day. After a while though, I wanted to speed things up so I started jogging which cut 10 minutes off the 30 minute walk. As I did this, I got better at jogging and now it's back to 30 minutes again instead now I run. In his younger days, Lefty would run with me but he's not much of a jogger. Instead, I let him off his leash in the park so he can sniff around while I do laps.

2 miles was my limit but since I did it every day I felt it was good exercise. I needed an excuse to push myself farther and I got one in the Bolder Boulder. It's a semi-famous 10K race in Colorado. Previously I avoided such events. Personally I didn't see any appeal to paying $50+ to run. Running is free. All you need is a decent pair of sneakers and you are good to go. What finally convinced me was a coincidence. This year is the 40th annual Bolder Boulder and I am 40 years old. The race grows every year but I can't say the same. So I signed up to see if I could do it.

Since 2 miles was already well within my capabilites, I only had to triple that to 6 miles to be worthy. I spent the month leading up to the race training but only got to 5 miles. Still, I felt I could handle that last mile. I even ran to work one day; a 5 mile trip. My time is about an 11 minute per mile which seemed pretty good to me. I could have qualified for a racing wave but I settled for the slower jogging wave being my first time running a 10K.

Well, I ran the 6 miles / 10 kilometers in 64 minutes. I was hoping to get under an hour and I might have if I weren't in the jogging wave. The course was pretty crowded and I spent a lot of time and energy weaving around slower runners and others that were just walking. It's most of a fun-run anyway and the course was littered with bands playing live, free food samples, and actual litter.

Now that I've proven to myself I can go the distance, I'm thinking of switching my bike to work days with run to work instead. I burn 3x more calories running and training for the Bolder Boulder I even lost the weight that I gained on the JoCo Cruise. I think if I run regularly I could even get down to my original weight: 6 lbs, 10 oz. ;)

I had best get this in writing before my memory fails me. Two readers are anticipating so I would hate to keep all my fans waiting. This is a great opportunity to flex my writing muscles and make up for my lack of blogging this year. An important finger is still injured from the fracture and was injected with cortisone today so that may be my limiting factor.

Even with sharing a stateroom, taking a cruise is an expensive vacation. Add in the cost of airfare to the port city plus any desired excursions. Being a bit of a pinchpenny makes this a difficult sale. Fortunately it was a good year for the company I work for and my annual bonus was easily spent. Better to blow it on a life experience than some new shiny toy. I was going to be spending a lot anyway so I got a new credit card for the sign up bonus awards.

Onto the cruise itself. 7 days with departure from San Diego and 3 port stops in Baja Mexico. As I was just in San Diego a few months ago, getting to the port there was a breeze. Boarding however is as involved (if not more so) as boarding a plane. There are security checks and customs. The cruise line prohibits bringing alcohol since they want to make money on selling booze.

Once aboard, I began to learn my way around the ship. Cruise ships are ginormous of course but ours is only considered a mid-size ship by today's standards. That's "only" 10 decks to navigate. The main theater has enough capacity for half of the passengers so each night the same show was performed twice. An early show and then a late show. Whichever show you didn't go to, you had dinner instead.

Ahh the food. I had never eaten so well in all of my life. I knew that the food would be plentiful but wasn't expecting the exceptional quality. I ate like a king for a week straight. By the end I had put on 3 lbs. Worth it.

Seasickness was a concern. While I had never experienced it before, I had also never been on a ship for an extended period. I planned accordingly and took meds the first day. From then on, I didn't need to take them again.

Getting back to the shows, each night had a variety show with music, comedy, etc. This was probably the weakest part of the cruise. There were performers that I know and admire but for every one of them there was another that was disappointing. Some used politics in their act which I didn't enjoy. It's not that I was disagreeing with them. It's just that I don't want to think about politics on a vacation. Also, as the shows were a mix and match of performers, it was clear they were not well rehearsed.

During the days, various other venues of the ship were used for panels and presentations. Mostly this was a chance for the authors and artists to do their thing as their craft didn't translate well to a stage show. Also going on was the shadow cruise events. These are events run by the passengers themselves. Many areas were covered like an improv workshop, knitting, crafts, logic puzzles, sing-alongs, and so on. Late night there was karaoke, dance parties, bar crawls, etc.

If none of those were appealing, a 24 hour board game room had a literal ton of games to check out and play. I certainly did some of this and learned some new games. A game that I embraced is bridge. We all know bridge as that game that little old ladies play. A bridge club made of youths aimed to dispel such stereotypes. Indeed, bridge has lasted for generations for a reason. It is a great game and I hope to play it more now that I know how.

Then there were the 3 ports in Mexico. I had never been to Mexico so I did an excursion simply to say that I had. My choice was a zip line adventure which was more fun and more stressful than I expected. The next port was a small town in Mexico that hardly gets any tourists. They were super happy to have us and were very welcoming. The third stop looked like crap so I stayed on the ship.

And if all that wasn't enough, you could always relax on the deck and read a book, soak in the hot tubs, or just sit and watch the ocean pass (all of which I did).

My favorite part was a behind the scenes tour. As you recall, I'm interested in the logistics and mechanics of how such a large ship operates. I was fascinated. Our tour showed us the engine control room, waste management, the command bridge, crew quarters, mess hall, laundry room, tailor, the galley, the provisions storage, and even backstage where we got to meet the cruise director and headliner Jonathon Coulton himself. What a surprise!

As you can tell, I had a great time and I'm already considering joining the JoCo cruise again next year. (School schedule may not allow it however) Even if I only get to do it once, I'm happy I did it.

A peculiar opportunity came up at work that I'm sort of considering. Although I've been with the company for 10 years and my field even longer, I'm pessimistic to this combination lasting in the long term. I work in IT which has a ever changing skillset that tends to favor educated youth over experienced aged. That is why I am going for my master's degree to at least be educated aged.

Basically I have an excellent, well-paying job that I'll probably lose sometime in the next 20 years. I need to expand my skillset to make it to retirement. Back to this weird situation. There is an internship listed at my company looking for a student in the middle of a master's degree that is studying what I am studying. To me, that is an enticing chance to launch a new career.

The downside is that I'd have to give up my current salary for internship money for the 3 months of the internship. Doing the math, I'd lose about $15,000. Now, switching careers often means accepting a lower salary so while it would be painful, I could do it. The other risk is what happens after the intership is finished. I spoke with my boss and my boss's boss and I was assured that I could have my old job back if I want it. That's a generous safety net should my new career plans fail.

With that all established, it couldn't hurt to apply. With me already being an employee, I'd guess that gives me an advantage over real interns. HR told me there are already over 100 applicants however so it's not a given.

I'm way behind on my journal but I will put forth an extended entry soon. It's just that I jammed up my left index finger playing football and the injury makes it difficult to type. It feels nearly usable again.

I missed all of September blogging so it's time once again to condense it all down into one post.

Fall semester is underway and it's going well. While the material is always engaging, the way it is taught is inconsistent with each instructor. This semester I'm taking two class each with a very different instructor. One is difficult to reach with the class all taught through readings and youtube videos. The other is more hands on and use live WebEx sessions to engage with the class. What is startling is just how many questions students have related to logistics of the class.

For example, questions about due dates, how to turn in assignments, which file format to use, which program or technology to use, and what the requirements are. I'm certain that both of these courses have been taught a number of times already and this isn't the first time these types of questions have been asked. Both instructors seem a bit frustrated by these questions so why aren't they answered in a FAQ or the syllabus already?

Another example: The coursework is all online including quizzes. Only one professor has used the technology to make his or her job simpler. If a quiz is well written and uses multiple choice, then it is graded automatically as soon as the quiz is finished. Still, some professor write quizzes with some write in answers. The multiple choices answers are graded but then someone (the TA) has to manually grade every quiz.

As much as I dislike Java, the teacher was excellent and used lots of great technology to review code and automatically give feedback on error or other missing requirements. That was a well designed course because of that.

Well, what good does writing all this here do? I give this same to the program directors but little is done about it. They promise to use my input to improve the classes but it's too late for me and I'll never know if they really do either. And this is the #2 ranked online Masters of IT program. I can only image how bad others must be.

I ranted a bit there so I'll save the good stuff for the next post. It won't take a month I promise.

Denver Comic Con is a geek convention that attempts to replicate the main comic con in San Diego and it seems to be okay at this (I've never been to SDCC so I can't speak with much authority). I usually attend DCC every other year and it improves each time I go. This year I was lured by one of the guests of honor: "Weird Al" Yankovic.

At the first Al concert I attended 20 years ago, I bought a headshot photo hoping to get it signed. There would be no autographs that day however but I kept that photo knowing that eventually I would have it signed. DCC was my chance.

It was an interesting and expensive experience. Getting a professional photo taken with Al was $70 but I figured that I'd also be able to get an autograph so I paid (cash only). I wasn't the only one. The line for photos was hundreds of people long. I was prepared to wait with my Nintendo 3DS in hand.

However, the photo process is a well-oiled machine and the line moved in record speed. To keep it moving, there are no autographs and almost no interaction with Al. My guess is that he's instructed not to make small talk, chit-chat or even utter a single word. I got to shake hands and he gave me a peace sign. It's a nice photo but I was a bit disappointed that I didn't get at least a minute to meet Al. I suspect this isn't how Al prefers to meet fans but I gather that the system is out of his control.

There was another chance however. The line for photos was cleared in less than an hour. After, Al moves to his autograph area where you can pay (again). I hesitated to spend even more but I'd waited 20 years for such an opportunity. So I forked over another $40 to have him sign my headshot from that first concert.

Curiously this line was completely empty. I was the only one there (maybe because I had come later) but it was a bit strange meeting Al without a crowd of fans around me. As I approached, we was checking his smart phone thus proving that celebrities are not so different.

I showed him the headshot and told him the story of how I'd been saving it for 20 years. He was pleased and pleasant enough. I could have chatted him up but I didn't. I got my autograph and simply walked away smiling. In hindsight I wish I would have said something more but what more would I say? "I really like your work." or "I'm a big fan."? Yeah. No kidding?

So I have a nice memory of me not seizing the moment to make a fool of myself. I want to believe that Al likes fans like me best. The ones that happily pay a premium and then quickly leave so that he can get back to checking his phone.