Clever DIY mosquito trap

I ran across a clever DIY mosquito trap... Well, not clever in the sense that they were able to macguyver some dish washing detergent, two toothpicks and half a coconut and trap mosquitos... but you know... clever.

It's also asian, so you know some smart little person was behind it. Can I say that?

Today's missed opportunity

I was hoping to be able to come home this afternoon and gleefully post that Katie and I are the new owners of the house next door to Taylor. I can't though, because we're not.

For a few weeks now, we've been eyeing the property next door to Taylor, which was foreclosed after a lady skipped town due to lack of money (unsubstantiated rumors, but good enough to be on my blog). We read a notice on the door that said the property would go to auction at the bossier sheriff's sale.

After a week or so of talking with the mortgage people at Katie's bank, we ended up with 85,000 in loan money (our pre-agreed maximum bid) in the hopes that with that amount we could place a winning bid at the Sheriff's sale.

So, today I took off work at 9:15 and headed over to the Bossier courthouse (10:00 every wed. in the lobby). The bidding was looking good at first. Three cars, a boat, and then the housing auction began. First house went for 40 something as best I can recall. Second house, in the 60's. Third house, the 40's again. Our house came up soon after, and the auctioneer announced that he "need an opening bid of $79,100". No soon after those words were out of his mouth, the plaintiff's (mortgage holder in this case... citi bank) representative spoke up and gave a bid of $92,000. Just like that our hopes of a house and a dog (I want a dern dog!) were crushed.

The house ended up going for $94,000, at least a $20,000 discount from market value. I'm not really sure who the person was that ended up buying it, or whether it was going to be for personal use... but that was a high price for real estate to use only as an investment (since you can't view the property until after you've bought it).

Anyways, Katie and I are pretty bummed out about it, but we're still hopeful that we'll get a good another opportunity sometime soon. If we don't get another gem like this opportunity was, we'll just wait until November when Katie gets herself a real jobby job.

Until then, puppy of my dreams... until then.

A month into marriage

Katie and I are well over a month into our marriage... and I'd like to take this time to say something to the preacher. I told you it would last.

Things are good so far, but the first weeks are not as easy as you'd think they would've been with two people who were inseperable as a dating couple. After all, two people's worth of stuff was crammed into a space designed for a tiny herd of circus clown-car clowns. Every where I look, there's Katie...touching my stuff and looking at me. She's sneaking into the bathroom while I take showers, sleeping right next to me (though she got the worst end of that deal. I smack her at night while I'm thrashing around in my sleep). I even have a feeling she's creeping around outside the bathroom door while I take poo's... just waiting to jump in there mid-squeak and ask if I've seen her hoop earings... you know the silver ones with the little dangly thingies on the bottoms of the loops... the ones you said you liked! I digress...

Though we are cramped here and are having to deal with issues that we never had even thought would cause multi-session discussions - who knew you had to put the toilet seat back down!!!???... crazy talk) - things are pretty much amazing. We're cooking for each other. We hosted a dinner function for my family on mother's day where WE (Katie) cooked! We brush our teeth together at night. We even have a small home theater system and have decreed that Saturday mornings are Saturday morning movie time.

*Reading from the book of Monkey*

And thus sayeth the couple to each other, "Thou breath reeketh in the morning. Speak not to me foul dragon breath. Point thou face toward the TV and fill thine face with hot brewed liquid and jimmy dean sausage goodness until that smell hath passed."

And lastly, since it's fresh on my mind, we're looking into the possibility of buying a house (right next door to Taylor in a Sheriff's sale this coming Wednesday *crosses fingers*).

All these things that come along with sharing money and a small apartment are new to me, the bad and the good. I'm enjoying it though. I'd rather put up with the little nit-picky arguments and the stress of being pre-approved and switching insurance and tax forms than be single/engaged again and not get to spend all this time and these experiences with Katie.

Effective Software Performance Measurement

With my new employer I've had the chance to learn many new techniques and "best-practices" when developing software. The most notable being the (effective) use of CVS and the use of a program that will generate generic classes and stored procedures from a database table's structure. However, recently, I've developed my own method for measuring the performance of my applications.

I call it the state performance measure, and it works by using states to quantify how well a program is performing (start taking notes, Johnny). For example, let's say I'm working on a program that will allow users to choose from a list of students at LSU and print address labels for those people. If that program finishes loading by the time I can count aloud to "one mississippi", then the program needs no further performance engineering.

If the program works extremely quickly (let's just say the program can run its task in "1-ohio") , the programmer who coded it is an absolute genius. As an aside, if you are a programmer who consistently writes "1-ohio" programs, you should confront your boss with this information in hand and demand a raise.

You see, what I've done here is developed a method where you take out all the extra variables and unnecessary calculations involved with determining whether a specific implementation is appropriate. You needn't consider whether your program is extremely complex - calculating the 10,000th digit of pi - or as simple as a "hello world" program. You just pick the fastest machine at your disposal, run your program and if the desired task is completed by "one mississippi" you're golden.

I'm available for speaking engagements.

Amazing video

Have a gander at this video.