My son got a small guitar a while back and finally started to show some slight signs of interest in learning it.  I went ahead and bought a full-size Yamaha 6-string for the two of us to share.  The plan is to eventually spring for my own guitar so we can play together.

In an effort to be able to help him learn, I’ve been trying to figure it out myself.  Been at it about three weeks now, though I don’t practice nearly enough.  The Music & Arts store set me up with a good beginner’s book though and I’ve slowly been working my way through it.  I’m close to having the notes down for the first four strings.  In the process of doing that, I’ve managed to learn a few songs - Yankee Doodle, Happy Birthday, and Amazing Grace.  I’m not too good on them, but they are recognizable.  I’m starting to learn When the Saints Go Marching In.  One day I hope to be able to play a song for my wife.

The bigger challenge has been learning to strum the chords.  Once I get my fingers positioned, playing the chord is not a problem.  But switching between them is really hard for me.  Especially when switching from one note to the next.  I guess I’ll eventually get it with enough practice.  Dang small hands.

The other challenge is my complete inability to read music.  I suppose I’m making a little bit of progress.  Alas, my brain just does not function that way.

Anyway, it is a new challenge I’m working on in my life and figured I would start blogging a bit about it.

Just a quick note about a study I ran across regarding deployments of OpenOffice.org. There was a recent article that came out about OpenOffice.org uptake in Germany (sorry, the article is in German), where it has reached a 21% market share. The people doing the study decided to expand it and try to figure out what deployment was like around the world. They released an article explaining their result. Methodology is not the strongest, which they admit. But, still a pretty good indication of the gains it is making. In the U.S., they only found it deployed on 9% of computers.  While low, I think that is actually pretty good.  Probably more than I would have guessed. Of course, I was especially interested in this bit toward the end:

Many of the leading countries have switched to OpenOffice (or the ODF file format) in their public administration, education system or in several municipal governments.

Being in public administration, that is news that warms my heart.  I’ve actually got one of my new employees using OpenOffice.org now (maybe two?).  Would really like to get it deployed throughout the organization, but that will be a pretty major change.  Funding restrictions may work in favor of that looking forward though.

THMMC took a run up to Big Walker Lookout led by ohbuga. For me, it was an early start to the day with a quick run through a carwash to knock some loose stuff off. Little did I realize how futile it would be to spend that $2. From home, the first stop was to meet up in Winston-Salem with several other club members for the run up to Sparta, the official starting point. From home over to W-S had been cloudy but dry. Things changed quickly as we headed up 52 and then over to Sparta on some backroads. A light mist set in, the roads were wet throwing up lots of spray, and there was the occasional patch of snow on the side of the road just to let us know how cold it was. The boxy shape of our MINIs didn’t help things from a cleanliness standpoint.

Gathered in Sparta

We got to Sparta and met at the Ship’s Wheel restaurant. By the time we left, I counted a total of 22 MINIs. From there, we started the “official” part of the run. Unfortunately, we were not far along, on some nice twisties, when I thought I smelled something a little odd - maybe brakes or rubber burning? But then it faded away. For a few seconds. Coming around a curve I saw a couple MINIs pulling over to the side of the road. I followed suit and we soon discovered our first casualty of the day as whaner had a flat tire. Amazingly, their model happened to have a drop down spare. Things really got on track with the help of maacodale who apparently keeps and entire shop’s worth of equipment in his Clubbie. We soon had the donut spare on and whaner was able to head back home for some fixing. The rest of us caught back up with the group waiting at a gas station. After a considerable delay.

Fun on twisties in the country

From there, it was a run up through some great backcountry roads. I did get a kick out of a pickup truck that was trying mightily to keep pace with the run rather than pull over and the last six or so of us by. He finally turned off though and we were able to catch up.

Oh yeah - THMMC got dirty on this run.

Getting to Macado’s in Marion we truly discovered just how filthy our MINIs had become. Not only were boots dirty, but sides, hoods, glass - everything. I think we may be able to lay claim to a new motto for the club - “THMMC - Dirtiest Club in the South”. And we all got to commiserate over the thought of how many rock chips we might find after washing the crud off. Lunch was tasty and capped off with some cake provided by ZOOOOM!

Upon returning to the parking lot though, we discovered our second casualty when we found MiniCuse had a flat tire. Unfortunately, no spare for him. The good news is we were in town with a cell signal, so he was able to call for assistance. Alas, it was the end of the day for him as the rest of the group headed out.

Go MINI go!!!

Time for more twisties. This may have been the most enjoyable part of the run for me as it was largely uninterrupted and I was able to get into a nice groove. Plus, things were finally starting to dry off a bit.

Yay! Sgt Pepper makes it to the top of Big Walker Lookout.

The final few miles up Big Walker turned into a cloud bound journey as the summit was socked in. Nevertheless, after all that time and miles, I was determined to climb the tower. So, me and Sgt. Pepper showed why we are the El Presidente and Vice El Presidente and made it to the the top. With probably 50 mph winds and ice covering the towering and barely able to see the ground below from the cloud.

For all the challenges of doing a run in the middle of winter, it was still a great time. Got to see plenty of old friends and meet several new ones. And we will all have tales of a truly unique run.

I have the proof!

Be sure to check out the rest of my photos in my gallery.

You would probably expect this to be about Christmas seein’ as it is on Christmas Eve. But not really. Just thought I’d touch on a few topics. I’ve been stepping up my use of Facebook and Twitter, so some of the update stuff has been redirected. That’s what really got me to deciding to come here. Feel like I’ve been neglecting my own site. So where to start.

Probably the first thing would be to mention some software update news. Yesterday I downloaded and installed Thunderbird 3.0 on both my work desktop and my home laptop (Win partition). So still need to do the work laptop, and my Linux distros here at the house. TB 3.0 has a very different interface (but they apparently give you the ability to retain the old one). I’m still getting used to it. The initial shock of the change was a little disconcerting, but I’m starting to warm to it (especially now that I’ve got the Lightning and Google provider beta add-ons installed).

And on the Mozilla front, my Firefox got updated to 3.5.7 at home yesterday as I get the beta distributions when they come out. Out a small handful of technical changes to fix bugs there. (more…)

I really need to get back to updating my/this blog on a more regular basis. Lots of MINI events and photos to catch up on. Soccer stuff. House stuff.

Tomorrow is homecoming at my church. Big meal afterward, so I guess I will definitely get to eat good tomorrow.  I’m not sure whether this will be the second or third homecoming at GFC for me.  The years all run together.

MINIs gather in the Triangle

This past week I ate at the Mellow Mushroom in Durham on Thursday night for the THMMC Tranquil Triangle Thursdays.  Pretty good restaurant.  Got a calzone and a Greek salad.  Can certainly tell it is a chain though.  Speaking of chains, one that I really despise even though I find myself eating there quite a bit is Subway.  I would much rather have a Jersey Mike’s any day of the week.  The problem I have with Subway is how everything is so measured out.  On a footlong - four slices of meat, four slices of cheese, four slices of tomato, etc.  This past week on the 2 Guys Named Chris show I heard Dave (this was all best of stuff) make a comment in disbelief about Subways being around back in the 80’s.  Indeed they were.  Back then there was a Subway on Hillsborough Street at the corner of the NCSU campus.  Only a short walk from Sullivan Dorm, so a favorite place to get subs.  Back then they still cut the meat themselves and actually built a real sub (like Jersey Mike’s does now).  That was when Subway was good.  Alas, change.

Meanwhile, looks like we have stumbled upon our next great adventure for the MINI club.  Or at least a long weekend of motoring.  Will be doing some research into a route nicknamed “The Snake” which is basically Hwy 421 from Boone heading northwest.  Until then, I have to get ready for my Howl at the Moon Run.  Question is, will I be able to get my new GPS before then?  And this coming weekend I get my head shaved for a St. Baldrick’s event as part of the THMMC team.

So, haven’t posted here lately. Summer doldrums perhaps. Things just seem to be kind of plodding along. Although work has been a little bit interesting. As mentioned last month, HUD came in and conducted a review of the agency. Needless to say, problems and areas for improvements were identified. That was preceded by an IRS audit and our annual independent audit. Between all the constant reviews and audits and the ensuing corrective action plans, it is very difficult to get any momentum going to actually make improvements or changes that would actually be beneficial. I guess that’s government for ya’.

This past weekend I finally got some new tires for the MINI. Went with some Yokohama S.drives. They’ve gotten really good reviews and several members of the Tar Heel MINI Motoring Club have them. They are a summer tires, but supposedly will do ok in our winters here (which I suppose are mild relatively speaking). Still trying to get the feel for having non-runflats. Everyone swears they are better than the runflats that come standard on a MINI Cooper S.  Mine came with Goodyear Excellence RFs.  I managed to squeeze 38.5k miles out of them.  I thought they were pretty good tires.  Until I hit about the 30k mark, wet traction was excellent, but it fell off quite a bit after that.

Got the tires at the new Discount Tire that opened here in Burlington.  Managed to catch a special through them to get a $100 rebate on a set of four.  Once the local shop did some more discounting, I ended up getting the tires for $68 each.  Of course, by time you add all the services and stuff, it ended up at $115 per tire.  I was perhaps a sucker, but I did buy the replacement certificates so I can get a free replacement if something happens to one of the tires.  Now I suppose I need to find a good slime kit and compressor to keep in the MINI, especially if I go on a long motor.

The worst part was on the way home when my check engine light came on.  Swung by Advance Auto and had them read the code for me.  Came up as “Coolant Sensor Temp Low”.  Didn’t find much on-line about that, but looks like it is either a bad sensor or it really is low, apparently caused by the thermostat getting stuck in the open position.  This will cause the engine to run cool, which in turn will cause the ECU to try to run the fuel mixture rich.  Not sure whether it is really doing that.  Haven’t detected a drop off in gas mileage yet.  I’m wondering whether it threw the code one time and will clear itself out after a few more starts?  In any case, I’ve scheduled the MINI to visit Flow MINI this Thursday to have it checked out.  While I’m there, I guess I’ll go ahead and pick up all the consumables to perform the next scheduled maintenance service on my own.  Sadly, I am out of my “free” maintenance period.

On the motoring front, I did manage to get hooked up with the THMMC Sunday Sliders group about three weeks ago.  Tends to be a smaller, more informal group than some of the more organized runs.  We only had seven the Sunday I went for a run up to Apple Orchard Gap.  It was an extremely fun run and on the final leg back, I managed to get up to the front and was able to run with some of the big dogs in the club.

With the pending move to a new house scheduled for the last weekend in August and soccer matches and football games scheduled for most weekends, looks like my motoring opportunities are going to become quite limited for a while.  I do hope to make it to a St. Baldrick’s event on September 19th with our MINI club.  Supposedly the Corvette club is planning to take us on.  Then after that I may finally get to go motoring on October 3rd for the Howl at the Moon Run I am leading.  Hopefully I’ll have my new GPS by then - trying to navigate at night could be a challenge.  Don’t want to lead my MINI followers through another U-turn maneuver.

Finally, the time draws nearer for me to start leading a Sunday School class at my church (Graham Friends Church).  Pastor Mark gave me a copy of If You Want To Walk On Water, You Have To Get Out Of The Boat to review.  We are thinking of doing a study series based on the book.  I hope to start reading it later this evening.

Speaking of reading, I took some time to read some non-fiction and gave Dan Brown’s Digital Fortress a go.  It was average.  Very similar to the James Rollins books that I read.  I’ve also read The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown and thought it was pretty good.  Didn’t really see what all the hullabaloo was about.  After reading The Da Vinci Code I read The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova.  I thought that was a very enjoyable read.  Really wish she would write something else.

I haven’t posted anything in over a month? Never finished my updates about my MINI adventure up to Maine and back?

I suppose I need to get on that. But things have been a little busy. And they don’t look to be letting up soon. We have made a deal to buy a new house and the closing is scheduled for the end of August. We’ll then have two days to move. And in the meantime, we have to finish up some odd jobs around our now “old” house while it stays on the market.

At work, projects are really piling up, especially after HUD came in and conducted a “comprehensive management review”. Some issues to be addressed in my part of the “shop” and I need to figure out some creative ways to raise the level of performance of some key employees. And this has triggered some new demands from our Board that promise to pile on even more stuff to do. I suppose it is all good in that it keeps the job interesting. I just need a few more hours in the day (but I refuse to upset my work/life balance, especially with kids that are the age mine are).

Finally, after missing a bunch of church while out of town, I’m getting back into the swing of things there. It looks like I will be the leader for my Sunday School class come fall. I’m certainly not well-qualified for that, but I suppose someone has to step up. Maybe in the process I’ll find my Aaron. Now I need to find a curriculum to lead the class in.

So that is the 30-second commercial for what is going on. Hopefully I can get back to some more thoughtful writing soon.

Our stop at the highest point on the BRP

Not a long post, but just wanted to quickly update progress on my MINI journey.  I am currently on a “tour” that is really made up of several events that segue into each other in a unique manner.  It has started with the Tar Heel MINI Motoring Club’s (THMMC) Blue Ridge Parkway Tour 2009.  At the conclusion of this, I’ll be hooking up with The Great Ice Cream Run 2 run by a member of the NEMINI club.  At the conclusion of that, we normally would have done the Bar Harbor Invasion, an event that in the past has been conducted by the PhillyMINI club.  Even though they are not doing it this year, I am still staying a couple days in Bar Harbor and will try to carry on some of the traditions they have established.  Finally, I head over to Minis On Top, a national MINI event at Mt. Washington that is put on by a group of individuals dedicated just to that.  Judging by the show of hands, it looks like there may only be 3 of us that are making it the entire way through these tours.

Signing the MMAC banner

I’ll also mention that it is my understanding that this is going to be the final run for the MINIs Motoring Against Cancer banner.  This is a banner created by THMMC that has been passed around to different MINI clubs and MINI events to help raise awareness and funds for cancer research.  We will run it up to Mt. Washington, then back home to NC for it to be retired.  Our club will then take up a new call for charity.  As an aside, that is one of the great things about our MINI club - all the charitable efforts we engage in.  For instance, today I wore my pink ball cap for breast cancer awareness (and the funds I used to get it were donated to the Kay Yow WBCA Cancer Fund).

Devil's Courthouse in the background

Back to the event at hand.  On Thursday several of us caravan’ed down to Cherokee where we were staying Thursday night.  Our dinner was at the Brushy Mountain Smokehouse, a BBQ joint that was also set up as a buffet.  That was kind of different.  They also had ice cream which several of our group tried.

Friday morning we got an early start, with a group picture at the start of the parkway’s south end at 8:00 a.m.  We visited Waterrock Knob, the highest point on the parkway, Devil’s Courthouse, the Folk Art Center in the Asheville area, Craggy Gardens, Mt. Mitchell, Linville Falls, and the Rough Ridge Trail (which we are donating to this year - I’m sure someone has a picture of our name on the donor sign).  We ended the day with a run down Shulls Mill Rd. into Banner Elk and then dinner in Beech Mountain at the Famous Brick Oven Pizzeria.

Pretty awesome seeing the line of Minis coming down the Parkway.  One downside though is that I’m doing it on my own this year (no wife), so it is a bit lonely.  I’ve also been frustrated with my homemade camera mount and camera equipment.  Almost to the point that it is intruding on my enjoyment.  Had to spent some time with The Bible tonight to help me focus on enjoying God’s creation and not letting little things bother me.  I’m seriously considering not even trying to get any pictures or video from in-car on Saturday and try instead to just relax and enjoy the ride.

So I’ve setup a gallery for all the from all the tours I’m doing and I’ve uploaded the first couple days (day 0 and day 1).  Enjoy!

The Hanging Rock - yes, I hiked all the way up there to get this pic

On Friday, June 12th and Saturday, June 13th I did something quite a bit different.  Went and attended a “retreat” for some men from my church and other guests that was put on by my Pastor.  The retreat consisted of a camping trip up to Hanging Rock State Park.  It is a little scary I suppose to think about it, but it has been a few *decades* since I last went camping.  As a little kid was the last time, though I do have some fond memories of attending a Boy Scout jamboree one summer.  I think it must have been down around Fayetteville as there were some military vehicles around and we found all kinds of “brass” in the field where we were camping (keep in mind that to us kids, brass was very interesting; not so much after target practice and you have to police it all up).  I don’t count all the times I camped out in front of Reynolds Coliseum to get tickets to basketball games while I was attending NCSU.  Although probably as cold as it was a few times it should count as “camping”.

Luckily, Pastor Mark and some of the other guys were all prepared with the equipment needed for a successful camping trip.  I get the feeling they must have been before.  (Aside in my head:
“You think?”)  So all I had to do was bring some drinks, a sleeping bag, some bug spray, and clothes.  I ended up using a sleeping bag my son got for Christmas as part of a tent set he received.  As I discovered, the sleeping bag was about paper thin.  Just enough to keep me warm from the cool night air, but absolutely no padding to help combat the hardness of the tent pad I was sleeping on. (more…)