We've Moved!

FYI--- this blog moved a while ago to http://ronhopper.com/

posted by chopper @ 4:06 PM | 0 comments

Hoigh from a Gaeltacht

Well, it's been over six months since my last post, and I suppose it hasn't been a continuous freefall since then. I hit bottom around December pulling off a working man's miracle at the expense of my family and my sanity. (We all knew it would be bad going in.) The day I signed the contract for my second job downtown, I got the news from employer-one that the huge masterpiece I had suggested I would do a year ago finally had the greenlight and one of our biggest clients needed it done within six weeks! Well, we did it all, got some fat checks in the mail, and nobody was the wiser.

After the initial contract term, I re-signed for a part time contract as a telecommuter and rented a small office a few blocks from my house to make it easier on my nerves. This arrangement has been most excellent.

So, anyway, this post is coming to you from a Gaeltacht (Irish speaking community) in Galway, Ireland. I'm just sitting in this WiFi cafe sipping my cappucinno waiting for the U.S. workday to begin. More on this later.

posted by chopper @ 7:40 AM | 1 comments

A Moment Before the Plummet

Have you ever done a free-fall, like bungee jumping or sky-diving? Do you remember that moment when you were sprawled weightless in midair and time stretched out for much longer than the instant that it was, and you floated delicately above the abyss contemplating your now total commitment to plummeting into it?

I got that second job I mentioned. It's temporary, but here I sit on this side of it waiting for the chaos to begin as I drop into my new schedule, the one that starts at 4 AM. In short, don't bother stopping by this site for a few months, I know I won't.

See you at the bottom!

posted by chopper @ 4:32 PM | 1 comments

Thanks Mom

As I sit here in the comfort of a Panera booth typing drivel that you, dear Internet, are actually reading (no, really, thanks for stopping by), there are two moms lovingly scrubbing my house from top to bottom. Good bye, cobwebs. Hasta la vista, soap scum. Do svidania, kid crumbs.

Why live on 50% of your income when you can live on 55% and have someone else clean up after you? That's what we were thinking, and [Rent-a-Mom] came to the rescue. "I think I'm gonna like it here!"

posted by chopper @ 12:01 PM | 0 comments

Turn Your Head and Cough

Great news, I just saved a lot of money on my health insurance!

I had a physical today and earned myself a discount. There was nothing unusual about the experience except that my nurse, Jasmine, seemed to be new. She was a little too aware that I was a person and a little too unsure of herself. She tripped over her words when she told me to take off my shirt and lay down. She was apologetic about placing EKG stickies on me; she even seemed to be experiencing the needles with me, looking me in the eyes, taking a breath, and asking "Are you ready?". It might have been creepy, but I got a kick out of it. It made me feel like we were just two friends having a do-it yourself exam. She drew blood expertly and I barely noticed my Tetanus booster. The only thing that sucked was the ear canal irrigation. I've had this done by many different people and I know how it should be done. Well, she kept jamming it into my ear too far, and that scared me. At first there was a more experienced nurse guiding the giant ear syringe, but then she left us alone to finish the job. Ouch!

posted by chopper @ 12:10 PM | 4 comments

Start It Yourself

I've learned an important lesson. I'm not a do-it-yourself kind of guy; I'm just the start-it-yourself kind. In fact, I've started a whole slew of projects and was going great guns on them until I got over the hump. I just don't roll downhill well, I guess. I've found my solution to this problem: pay someone else to finish what you start. So after this weekend, the entire downstairs half of my fixer-upper will be finished. The cabinet doors will finally have hardware, the outlets will be new and white, the baseboards will be replaced, the door painted, and I'm even splurging on new carpet. The old stuff was a white berber that I got free, then my tenants had their way with it, then my kids took their turn, now it's the color of [ugly]. I'm pretty excited. I'll be away for the weekend, then I'll return home, and voila it will all be done. I can't really believe it.

In other news, I've just about scored a big moonlighting gig that should keep me busy around the clock for the next few months. We'll see if my blog dies again. I'm dreading it, but afterwards I'll be able to afford those two [Russian girls] I hope to adopt.

posted by chopper @ 12:41 PM | 3 comments

Raytracing-- You Know, For Kids

One of my favorite pastimes as a boy was [ray tracing]. I loved measuring real world objects and meticulously duplicating them in the POV-Ray scene description language. I once set out on a mission to recreate my entire house, but got stumped by things that defied easy measurement like the toilets. I did manage to recreate the living room and the furniture in it though. I absolutely loved it; I daydreamed about it.

As I was telling my son about it the other day I got to thinking about how I could introduce him to the wonderful world photorealism, and how it would be a great segue into programming concepts. Then after mentioning it to [Joel], we started discussing the idea of a ray tracing GUI on top of an engine like povray that did very simple wire frame modeling and key frame animation with primary colors and bulky lines.

Picture a dumbed down kid friendly interface with a seven year old at the helm ray tracing scenes that he has crafted to fit his fancy. Ray tracing is just plain cool; what boy could resist?

posted by chopper @ 8:43 AM | 0 comments