The Olympics (and Medal Debate)

I wouldn't be accurately reflecting our life on this blog if I didn't mention the Olympics. Tonight they ended, and just like every night since the opening ceremony, Stacey and I watched them.

Certainly there are events that most people aren't that interested in, but I figure that's what a DVR is for. If you think the Olympics are boring, it probably is unless you can watch exactly what you're interested in watching. This Olympics we watched a lot of biathlon, cross-country skiing, speed skating, and hockey. Those were the sports that we focused on. When I take a step back and look at what these sports have in common, all but hockey are races and all are events where competitors compete directly against each other. Forget judges, forget individual "tricks", and definitely forget any event where the competitors are teenage punks that listen to their iPods while competing. I just can't reconcile the spirit of the Olympics and the idea of pure competition with those events. Seriously, save that for the X Games and save your headphones for a more appropriate time.

Overall, I was entertained by this Olympics. Canada set a new record with the most gold medals (14) won in a Winter Olympics after narrowly beating the USA in a thrilling OT gold medal hockey game. For the first time ever, the United States won the medal count (37) in a Winter Olympics and also set a new record for the most medals ever won (37) in a single Winter Olympic Games by one country. However, Norway still leads in the all time medal and gold medal count by 53 medals and 16 golds over the USA and the Soviet Union, respectively. Not bad for my "homeland" considering their population is about 5 million people.

This brings me to my next point - who really won these Olympics? Canada or the USA? Believe it or not, many other countries (including the IOC from what I hear) consider whoever won the most gold medals to be the winner. England (and it seems Europe) is one country that thinks the most gold medals win, while Canada and the USA consider the most medals as the winner. When you think through this for only a few minutes, both are probably too simplistic. Neither make perfect sense. For example:

Example 1
Country 1 = 10 Golds, 0 Silver, 0 Bronze
Country 2 = 9 Golds, 10 Silvers ,15 Bronzes

Those who subscribe to the "Gold Theory" would say that Country 1 won the Olympic medal race. Obviously, that doesn't make much logical sense.

Example 2
Country 1 = 15 Golds, 4 Silvers, 1 Bronze
Country 2 = 0 Golds, 0 Silvers, 21 Bronzes

Those who subscribe to the "Overall Medal Count Theory" would say that Country 2 won the Olympic Medal race. Obviously, that doesn't make much logical sense either.

The only way you can really determine who had the best Olympics is to assign a point value to each medal and calculate a score. The winner of the Olympics would be the country with the most points. The point value is debatable, but I think each medal should count for double its next lesser medal. That is, 1 point for a Bronze, 2 points for a Silver, and 4 points for a Gold. The only other scoring system I might use is a 1, 2, 3 - but I think the Gold is more important and since I'm using this example to show how the USA won this Olympics, I wanted to weight Golds won by Canada (since they won the most) by the higher number. So, using the "Aaron scale" (4-2-1), the results of the 2010 Vancouver Olympics are:

1st - USA - 79
2nd - Canada - 75
3rd - Germany - 73
4th - Norway - 58
5th - South Korea - 38

USA! USA! USA! Surprising, really. We have long been a Summer Olympics powerhouse but it looks like we might be making strides in the Winter Olympics too. Cue Lee Greenwood's song now.

Child Labor

Kids, Don't Try This At Home

Did you know that your computer's DVD drive has an appendix? For probably over a year now my laptop has had trouble ejecting discs. It would take the disc and read it fine, but if I tried to eject the disc it would sound like it was trying to spit it out but nothing would happen. Then, it would continually try to load and eject the disc until I turned the computer off.

Last night I got tired of trying to get a disc out so I took my laptop and DVD drive apart. After examining the DVD drive, I decided my problem was being caused by the part in the picture. So, since the drive wasn't really working anyway, I ripped the part out.

Guess what? My computer and DVD drive still work. Actually, I can now insert and eject discs with no problem. The only thing I can figure is that this part was supposed to work like a gate. That is, when there is a disc in the drive it pops up and prevents another disc from being inserted into the drive. Have you ever tried to insert a disc while there was already one in the drive? Did you hit something solid at the very front? My guess is that it was this lever. I assume that this part wasn't retracting properly (i.e. the gate was staying closed) and the disc was hitting it when it was being ejected.

If not, I don't really care what it does or what it is. My DVD drive now works better without it.

p.s. my theory passed a simple test too. After I removed the part I loaded a disc and then tried to gently load another disc. I barely slipped the second disc in the slot and it made contact with the one in the drive. It sounded like a mitre saw!

Bunny Love

Socks, shoes, AND pigtails. Julia's handiwork, of course.

New Red Shoes and Pigtails

For a few weeks now we've been trying to get Julia to wear pigtails....mainly because it's extremely cute. Pigtails make her look a lot more like a little girl then say, the "Canadian hockey mullet" that she has been sporting around town. Of course, she wasn't interested in giving up the Slapshot look.

Since she also insists on wearing an old pair of red shoes that don't fit her anymore, I thought maybe it would work to buy her new shoes and rubber bands and the same time at Walmart. That way, it would be "fun" and she would accept pigtails as her own idea and wear them.

Stacey bought matching red shoes and rubber bands. Apparently she likes the new hair accessory now because it matches her new favorite red shoes. She probably thinks it's her idea, which is fine. It's much cuter.

I hope she insists on wearing her new red shoes AND her hair in pigtails now - like she has in the past with her shoes. At the very least, I've been told she wants to "show Dadda". That alone was worth the price of new shoes and hair bands.

Introducing the iGod

The iGod is a revolutionary new product that delivers a fully-customizable and controllable life experience. Invented in America, it has been designed with your modern lifestyle in mind. Its sleek box-like design fits neatly in any pocket or handbag, allowing you to use it whenever it’s most convenient for your busy life. Can’t decide what your ears want to hear? The iGod’s controls allow you to decide what you hear, when you want to hear it, delivering your life experience the way you want it.

Your experience. Your life. “You’re” iGod.

I'm Not Lost

One of the great things about watching the show Lost is that we get to see our old stomping grounds. Apparently, “Los Angeles” in the show looks a lot like Honolulu and its surrounding neighborhoods. OK, it’s not exactly a secret that the show is filmed on Oahu.

Over the past 5 seasons we’ve seen many familiar scenes of Oahu during the show. A couple of weeks ago the international terminal at “LAX” looked exactly like the international terminal at Honolulu’s airport (oddly enough). I would know, since I flew to Tokyo 3 times from Honolulu while we lived there. I have long suspected that previous neighborhood scenes in the show were filmed in our old neighborhood but I couldn’t prove it. That is, until tonight!

In the opening scene of this week’s episode, “The Substitute”, I finally saw our neighborhood. It’s hard to miss since it's the only development on the island that consists entirely of pink Bermuda style houses. I hope this doesn’t ruin it for you, but John Locke’s house in “Los Angeles” is really 94-1814 Alelo Street, Waipahu, HI 96797. For those people who thought otherwise, now would also be a good time to tell you that Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny aren’t real either.

It was a lot of fun to see the old street that I used to walk and jog on and also to see the housing development where we lived. I took screen shots from the beginning of the episode (online) and have compared them with the same shots from Google Maps Street View. Pretty sweet.

Opening Scene

Our neighborhood in the background

John Locke's van and house in "LA"

94-1814 Alelo Street

John Locke getting out of his van in the driveway

The same garage and driveway

John Locke falling out of his wheelchair

The real residents on the porch discussing last night's episode

Grocery Store Checkout

We've officially entered the "embarrass us in public" phase with Julia. She's starting to verbalize things about other people when we're out in public. Although nothing happened today, we've been warned.

I was behind a mother and her infant in the checkout line today. Yes, Valentine's Day. The infant was probably about 6-9 months old and her mother was holding her in her arms. Julia looked the baby up and down for a few seconds and then asked everybody where the infant's shoes were. Like most kids that age that can't walk yet, their parents didn't bother with shoes. I smiled at Julia, as did other people. A couple more seconds passed and then Julia asked, "Where's baby's Dadda?".

Apparently Julia forgot that it was Valentine's Day. Luckily, Julia didn't ask very loud and I don't think anyone heard or understood her. I played it cool and pretended like I didn't hear her ask. A couple of seconds after the question I was able to make out a wedding ring still on the hand of the mother. So, unless she was a widow or her husband is deployed, I think we're OK. That could have been really bad. I can't wait to see what she says next - probably something about body parts and/or funny smells. We've been warned!

Baby Brother's Room

Today we finished up the baby's room. I like it so much I'm considering moving in. The blue, green, and brown color combination is very relaxing. I think it's my favorite room in the house.

For those observant types, we are reusing most of the furniture that's been in Julia's room. That means Julia is going to get a new, but cheap, bedroom set that should last into her teens. About the only thing we have left to do in the room is to put up letters above the crib that spell out our son's name. In case you're wondering, we're keeping it a secret - even from ourselves. That's a roundabout way of saying we still don't have a name picked out yet.

Because we're now ready to go a full 4 months before he'll be born, this will free me up to focus on the backyard this spring.

Tottenham Get Blanked Again

With all of the big teams playing each other tonight, we needed to win our game against second from the bottom Wolves. Of course, it didn't happen. In fact, we failed to score a single goal for the 5th time in our last 8 league matches. Even though Harry started 5 different players from the previous match (half the outfield), the result was the same. We really miss Lennon.

After our one-on-one with the goalie was saved I decided that if Wolves scored first I'd fast forward the game until 1) someone else scored again or, 2) the game was over. Well, they scored first...and the game ended. "I've seen this movie before". Opposition scores. Fast-forward. We lose. Delete. Vent on blog.

Although technically we're still in the mix, things are looking bleak considering our recent form. We're essentially now in 7th place and City have a big lead on us. We have to put a run of games together soon or else.

At least we still have the FA Cup.

Julia Quote of the Day

Tonight, out of the blue, Julia said, "I smell stinkies! Probably Dadda."

What the heck? In all sincerity and honesty I can say I had nothing to do with this specific instance. It was probably her diaper, the dog, or something else. I see she's already shifting the blame...

Aaron Sees a Who

Sunday morning we pulled back the curtains in our bedroom and saw this. Excitedly, I grabbed the camera and took a few pictures. I watched the owl for awhile and even opened the window and made some noises in an attempt to get him to look back at our house.

Since the weather and the distance made it difficult to get a good look, I hopped in my truck and drove over to the street behind us...

22 Weeks

Dancing Flower

Football Jersey Day

To celebrate this weekend's Superbowl (and Superbowl Ad), the entire ministry was allowed to wear their favorite sports team jersey. Of course, the majority of folks wore a Broncos jersey but teams and sports of all kinds were represented.

Here is a photo (courtesy of my camera) of those in our Finance department who showed their colors. Or, in my case, colours.

Your Local Furnace Guy

This morning we woke up early to a beautiful blanket of snow outside…and a figurative one inside our house. Around 6 a.m. we realized that the house was uncharacteristically cold and that the thermostat was reading in the low 60s. I grabbed my coffee and set out to figure what was going on.

It didn’t take long to figure out that the furnace wasn’t working. Like a curious little monkey, I went downstairs and pulled the panels off of the heater. I like to believe that I can fix things but also know when it’s something I shouldn’t touch. You never know how easy something might be to fix if you can adhere to the “look but don’t touch” philosophy of home repair jobs.

I knew that thermostats wear out. So, the first thing I did was to crank the heat up to 90 degrees to see if the thermostat was wearing out in the furnace. That is, if it was giving a bad reading and thinking that 60 was actually 70 and thus not keeping the heater on enough. Nothing much happened. I checked the circuit breaker in the garage. Oddly enough, our furnace has a distinct auditory pattern. The fan starts, the air blows, and then it emits a whoosh of gas igniting just like a gas grill. Then, warm air. The pattern was the same each time except that we never got that final whoosh of gas igniting sound.

I didn’t smell any gas, so I went upstairs and lit the gas fireplace to make sure we were getting gas to the house (did I forget to pay the gas bill?). It fired right up and I kept it on so that the living room would stay warm. I went back downstairs and verified that the red light on the circuit board was solid, indicating everything electronically was a-ok (the back of the bottom panel has a key for the number of blinks and what it means). The furnace kept the same pattern up and did everything it normally does except light. So, I set out to find where the igniter was located.

When I found the igniter I realized that it was very easy to pull out. I pulled it out in one piece and headed up to show Stacey. I practically only breathed on it and it crumbled to pieces. Since that was what I thought was the issue in the first place, I was pretty sure it was the problem. So, I headed down to Rampart Plumbing and Heating and picked up a new one for $30. I put the new one back into the furnace and the cycle started again. After a second or two and after I took a couple of steps back, the new igniter started to glow and eventually reached the point where it was bright orange hot. The gas caught it and ignited the flames immediately. The piece is made of coated ceramic and since it sits in the flame eventually wears out.

Long story short I saved us about $200 (based on a neighbor’s recent experience of calling someone out for the same problem). I got a nice pat on the back for “taking care of us” from Julia, which was appreciated.

Photos left to right: the old igniter, the gas and red light on/solid, the new igniter in the flame, the new igniter in the flame, white electrical cord showing the igniter power supply, Quincey looking very concerned.

My Apple Experience

I’m hardly one of those crazy Apple freaks…yeah, you know who I’m talking about. However, I’d like to share another positive experience further reinforcing why I won’t ever buy a PC again.

What is different about a MacBook Pro, then say, your typical laptop? Macs are more expensive (maybe – read on). As far as home use is concerned, that’s about the only advantage I can think of that PCs have over Macs. Upfront cost. I don’t need to tell you that Macs are virus free, more stable, have a better OS that never crashes, are extremely more sexy (in both look and form factor), and in general just work better. Oh wait, I just told you.

Back to the subject at hand. PC guy: eat your heart out. When was the last time you heard a PC tell its owner that its own hard drive was failing? Yeah, that’s what I thought. My experience is that it tells you when it crashes or gives you the blue screen of death. A few days ago I opened up disk utility in my MacBook Pro. Sure enough, my MacBook Pro had evolved into some kind of self-aware being that told me that I should back my files up because the hard drive was failing. Seriously? Maybe that’s why it gets the “Pro” added to the end of its name.

I thought about it for awhile. Well, my MacBook IS coming up on 4 years old, I thought. Yes, that was another shameless plug for its quality – 4 years of problem free computing courtesy of Apple (even considering I upgraded the memory and OS). It’s the computer equivalent of driving a Toyota or a Honda (recent events not withstanding). I took it down to the futuristically designed and decorated Apple Store near where I work and signed up for a free Apple Care doctor’s appointment. Guess what, no co-pay or office visit fees! They checked out my Macbook Pro on the spot for free and they confirmed the worst...my Macbook Pro HAD evolved some computer sixth sense and had properly self-diagnosed itself. My guess is my MacBook Pro had been secretly surfing a WebMD equivalent site while I slept and then covered its own tracks by deleting the history.

Apple quoted me a price to swap out my hard drive. Since my laptop was old, they only carried 160 GB hard drives now – double what I currently have. Of course, they made sure I had backed up all my files with Time Machine (more on this later). I knew they were going to be more expensive but didn’t expect them to tell me that (in not so many words). The guy asked if I wanted to shop around at some of their recommended dealers in town. I declined, since I didn’t want to attempt to fix it myself nor hassle with potential hacks…not too mention the Apple Store is literally across the street. So, I left my MacBook at the store with the undersanding that it should take 3-5 days. Guess what? They called the next day to tell my it was ready. That’s called under-promising and over-delivering.

I took my newly fixed computer home and fired it up. To my pleasant surprise, they had loaded the same operating system but had upgraded me to iLife ’08 for free (the main software applications for Macs). I’m sure the only reason why I was “upgraded” was because my original software was so old that they didn’t carry it anymore…but that’s OK. To me, the customer, it’s the same result as if I had purchased it. Currently iLife ’09 is out and sells for $80. Who knows how much ’08 sells for – if it does. I’m glad I never actually upgraded and paid for it. My Mac screams in comparison now. I have twice the hard drive space, on a brand new hard drive that isn’t cluttered from 4 years of use. As I mentioned above, I plugged in my Time Machine backup and am in the process of restoring all of my files. It works like a charm. I’ve restored all of my files except my pictures - which are currently being transferred now. Having a backup system built in to the software and that is user friendly is a great idea.

Apple will be keeping my business. The next time I buy a computer (probably for Stacey) it’ll be a Mac. Sorry PC guy, for my use, they are just better in every way.

Tottenham 1-1 Birmingham

It's been a great run. Today is the beginning of February and we're still in 4th place. However, I, along with most fans, are less then filled with confidence that we'll stay there in the coming weeks. Over the last 4 games we conceded 3 injury time goals and only won one game. 5 points out of 12 is slightly under expectations considering our opponents, if not fair. However, for us to keep this 4th spot we needed results a little above expectations in my opinion. Not only that, but the manner in which we dropped points only makes it more disappointing.

We dominated Hull City, completely bottled it against Liverpool, performed well against Fulham, and choked at the last minute against Birmingham this weekend. According to the run of play, we should have 4 more points (9) from these past 4 games. This weekend we play Villa. Although we have 2 easier games after that, our next 3 out of 5 opponents include Villa, Everton, and City. After that, we have a run of easy games before the massive month of April. However, if we don't overperform in our next 5 matches and take points from Villa and City, I think 4th place will be gone for good.

Looking at the table, techincally we're not even in 4th place considering City is 1 point behind us with 2 games in hand. This may be the beginning of the end. However, this season has been a bit unconventional and we still control our own fate. I'm not throwing in the towel just yet...even if the month of January saw me wadding it up in preparation.