Goodbye, Facebook

I have decided to delete my facebook account.  It was an easy decision to make, yet did not go without several instances of personal reluctance to do so.

Why?  This is the question I keep getting asked by those who have a facebook account.  I'm not getting asked this question by those who don't have one.  Because, they don't know I'm deleting my account.  And, they don't care.  I look forward to being one of those people.

There is a grand myriad of reasons why I am tossing off the yoke of facebook.  I couldn't list them all if I tried, but I can list some of the top reasons that immediately come to mind.  They are, in no particular order:

• Lack of security.
• Facebook is a business.  They sell your information.  They always have.  And, they don't hide or apologize for this.  It's genius, really.  They have created a motive to get people to willingly profile and track themselves.  Since this information is so specific, it's very valuable for marketing.  Marketing you, that is.
• It's not reality.
•  What people post on facebook doesn't usually say much about them at all.  I cannot compare the time I have spent with friends with the time I have spent reading those same friends' facebook posts.  Time spent with friends is meaningful and I get to know them well.  That time is real and so is the content.  I can't say the same for facebook.
• It's not a responsible use of my time.
• I am married.  I am a father of three children.  I am involved in my church.  I work 50 hours a week.  I have many real friends.  I am renovating a house.  I am restoring a car.  I am coaching a soccer team.  Etc.  Etc.
• With all that I have going on in my life, I don't have time to maintain a digital profile of myself for others' sake of "knowing" me.  Nor, do I have time to browse an endless sea of junk to spot the few tidbits of "knowing" others.
• Define "friends"
• Let's face it.  I'm not friends with most of my facebook's friends list.  I've even been pretty picky about whose friend requests I've accepted.  Still, if not for facebook, I wouldn't know two cents about a lot of people and those people wouldn't know two cents about me.  That's not a bad thing. 
• I know things that I'd rather not know.
• Some of my facebook "friends" and I have not seen eye to eye on things.  And, while it's no requirement of mine that those I associate myself with carry all my same values, I wish there were some others' soapbox speeches I hadn't been exposed to.  I wonder if I would be better friends with some people if I weren't subconsciously using my "facebook impression" of them as a screening tool.  Don't hate on me.  You do it, too.  The difference is that I'm admitting it.
• I read that "Facebook Erodes Real Community" and I agree.
• I know that people don't make as much of an effort to visit friends since the introduction of facebook.  Why would I see that friend I haven't seen in three years when I've seen every post of his/hers since our last visit.  What could I possibly catch up on with them since we're already "caught up".  At the very least, it stands as a seemingly valid justification to put off visiting someone.
• What am I teaching my children?
• Do I want my children to be on facebook?  Maybe you do and that's fine.  Use your own judgement for what's good for your children.  But, I don't know that I want mine on there being exposed to an online social world where people say and do things that they wouldn't say or do in person.  Or, maybe I would allow them to have a limited profile with some heavy monitoring.  I don't know.  But, seriously, when I think about it, I think of how heavy of a burden to parenting it will be if or when it comes up.  Maybe things like that are better left to adults.  Regardless of how I want my children to use or not use it, one thing is for sure: I can't legitimately limit or restrict it's use for my children while I have given myself no limits or restrictions.
• At the end of my life, what total number of hours spent on facebook would satisfy me?
• 1,000?  100?  2?  It seems that whatever the number winds up being, it isn't anything to be proud of.  I tend to think that the greater the number the greater the shame, actually.  I'm glad that I don't know how much time I've burned scrolling, commenting, and liking.  It's too late for me to have 0 in that category.  But, it's certainly not too late to stop the number dead in its tracks.

I could go on, I'm sure, but then I'd be wasting my time doing this.  Plus, my lunch hour is over.  Time to get back to work.

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World Cup Excitement - Free Download

ATTENTION! If you downloaded the World Cup spreadsheet before June 21, 2014 then you have a copy that has errors.  A fixed version is now available for download here with scores filled out up to June 21 or for a blank version download this one.

I apologize for the calculation error.  Technically, it's not my fault.  I originally built this spreadsheet in Microsoft Excel 2003.  Since the first round is a point system that breaks ties in points by goal difference and ties in goal difference by total goals scored, the formulas to determine the ranking for each group are surprisingly difficult to write.  I wrote formulas with multiple nested formulas within them.  Microsoft reduced the number of formulas for which you can nest within other formulas in Microsoft Excel 2010.  So, the formulas were logically correct but disallowed by the newer version of Excel that I am using.  As a result, the ranking of teams within Group play were not calculated and no teams were pulled over into Round 2.  Thanks, Microsoft, for that "improvement" (eye roll).

UPDATE:  For a free downloadable and printable poster of the brackets, go to my newest post and click on the link for the download.

FIFA World Cup 2014 is coming up and this guy is getting excited.  The weekend before last was the draw and so the official schedule has been filled and is ready to go.

So, without hesitation, I built my Microsoft Excel spreadsheet to keep up with all the games.  It's in the same user-friendly interface as it's been when I originally designed it for World Cup 2006.  I updated it a little bit, but I was afraid to get into the formulas too much because I keep getting a warning about too many arguments being nested within single cells.  Apparently, I was able to do more within a single cell in Microsoft Excel 2003 than in the 2010 version I have now.

Anyway, it works like a charm with no more interaction from the user than entering the final scores of each game.  In Round 1, it does all the math for you on the fly in regards to team points, total goals scored, total goals scored against, and total goal difference.  Basically, every scenario that might possibly be used to determine final ranking in Round 1 to see who makes it into Round 2 and who doesn't.

In Round 2, in the event of a tied game going into penalty shots for a tie breaker, a box pops up to allow the user to enter the penalty shots results.

It's a fun way to follow along with all the games.  Otherwise, with 64 games being played in roughly a month, it's easy to just miss a good portion of the action.

I considered marketing this sheet of mine, selling it online for download for something like a dollar.  But, after some investigation, I found out that FIFA holds exclusive rights for a lot more than I thought.  I would have been infringing on the intellectual property rights of FIFA had I done something like that.  Perhaps, on Microsoft, as well.

So, here it is for free.  Also, it will be available in the 'Downloads' drop-down menu at the top of this blog.  FIFA can't sue me for distributing it this way.   Well, they can, I guess, but they won't win since I am adhering to their legal requirements.

• I'm receiving no monetary benefits in the distribution of this file, nor any other form of compensation.
• I'm not using this distribution as a means to advertise any product or company.
• The file contains no copy-written or otherwise protected images belonging to FIFA or any of its affiliates.
• The file does not contain excessive words or phrases registered as intellectual property of FIFA or any of its affiliates.
• The purpose of distribution of this file is to excite a fan base and increase the number of individuals watching the World Cup in 2014, which is FIFA's own product.

P.S.  FIFA, if you are reading this, don't get mad.  You don't want to sue me.  You want to hire me.

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Rounded Deck Stairs

I saw these photos on my news feed on Facebook last week.  They showed up there since the person unknown to me tagged a friend of mine.  I suppose that they had been in a previous conversation about them and the person posting the photos was trying to show them as an example.  Just speculating.

I really like the rounded steps and it has me reconsidering my planned deck design.  As you can see in my mock-up below, I was planning on having a set of long deck stairs, but with two 45 degree angles in them to get them to wrap around and make the corner.  I think what I'll do different is replace these stairs with one set of rounded ones instead.  I won't quite get the same deck area from doing this since I'll only be able to bend these out so far.  But I think that it will be a nice custom touch that will help add a little calm to the deck design.  It will also tie in to the rounded brick patio area.

Another thing I realize that needs changing about my design is that the height is not at all to scale.  This design comes from a 3D version of my house that I built using Google Sketchup.  I began this project for the sole purpose of seeing what the house would look like in different color schemes.  My intention was to just build the house pretty basic and only focus on the front and one side so that I could show my wife as many different color schemes as her heart desired from the one angle.  However, one thing led to another and before I knew it, I was searching the web for 3D versions of some of the most needless detailed additions to my model.

The benefit is that I can use it for things like this to help me design the perfect deck.  Concerning the unscaled height I mentioned earlier, there's no real way to fix it on Sketchup without completely redoing everything from the foundation up.  What happened was that I just guessed at the height of the foundation when I started the project.  In reality, my house sits about 18" taller than what this design shows.  In turn, my deck only shows three steps coming down into the yard, but it'll be more like five or six.

To remedy this partly, I may add a couple steps from the back door to the deck.  This will lower the entire deck height and allow me to only have three or four steps from the deck to the yard.  If I do this, I can also make those steps rounded and help tie in the deck design to the house a bit.

I don't yet know when we will start this project but I'm certain that, with at least 4 years of planning already under our belts, we'll have all the bugs worked out when we do.

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Matching Travel Trailer

I created this Mazda5 trailer digitally with GIMP today but someday I think that it would be pretty awesome to create one for real.

On my way down to pick up Jacob from Louisiana, I managed to get 28.75 mpg in the car.  Almost all of that driving was on flat stretches of highway on a beautiful, still day with the car fully cleaned out in preparation for our road trip the following day.

Coming back from Virginia, I was checking our fuel consumption with every fill up.  And, at one point it actually got down to 14.5 mpg.  The difference was that we were driving east to west (into the wind), we had 5 passengers, we were traveling over the Blue Ridge and Appalachian mountains, and we had the top of the car loaded down with my DIY roof rack, all of our luggage, a running stroller, and some more stuff given to us that we were bringing home from our friends' house.  We pretty much lost all aerodynamics with the return trip.

This is why I would like to have a trailer such as the fictitious one pictured above.  It's unique.  It's stylish.  It's already equipped with the proper lights.  It's roomy.  It's lockable.  It's long enough to sleep in on a camping trip.  With two sliding doors, it's very accessible.  And, it's aerodynamic.  I found a pretty cool resource that would help me find one for cheap, too.  It's called Salvage-Cars-For-Sale.info.  This site helps me search for a wrecked Mazda5 or whatever make and model I choose.  With a cutting torch, some sheet metal, a welder, some primer and paint I could have myself one of these bad boys.  Plus, I could potentially salvage the motor, electronics, seats, etc. and either sell them to reduce the cost of the salvage purchase or save them in case I might need them for our vehicle.

I don't know if my wife would approve of such a purchase.  But, I sure would like to get one if we ever intend to do something like this trip again.  After all, we traveled a whopping 3,382 miles in total in only 10 days time.  Once out of the mountains, I was still only getting 17 mpg with all of our weight and stuff on top.  I estimate that if we were pulling a trailer like the one shown above, we would likely get about 23 mpg instead of averaging around 17.  The 6 mpg improvement would've equated to $181 in gas savings.  And, I'm being realistically conservative with these numbers.  I'll concede that we would likely never travel so much as to have it completely pay for itself.  But, the usefulness of it on the trips we did take it I believe would make it worth the cost.

Here are some real world examples that I found of people doing the same thing but with different cars.

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59 Ford Love

I've promoted Google Sketchup several times on this blog yet I haven't used the program for some time.  Though, that may change in the near future as my interest in the program has just been rekindled.

In an Internet search yesterday, I found not one but three separate Sketchup projects where people have tediously reconstructed the 1959 Ford F100 Styleside Truck.  My Sketchup skills are a bit lacking to the extent of reconstructing an object such as an automobile.  I'm finding that I'm pretty decent at building homes.  But, they are built with considerable more straight lines and right angles than a curvy 50's model vehicle.  So, I'm excited and thankful that someone with more skills than I possess must have loved the '59 Ford enough to build one up for the rest of us.

I now can insert this truck into any other project that I'm working on.  For example, when I design our new dream home in Google Sketchup, guess what will need to be in the driveway of said dream home.  That's right.  You guessed it!

In case you'd like to see them in all their 3D splendor, you can download Sketchup for free in the Downloads drop-down menu found at the top of this blog.  And, here is a link to the file for each of the three trucks here, here, and here.

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PC vs Mac

The title of this blog, when looking at it in print, brings the game Pac-Man to mind. Not that PacMAn has anything to do with this blog. I'm just saying.

I have been a PC user most of my life. My earliest memory of using a computer was in second grade at Eugene Field Elementary, here in Springfield. The year was 1986. I learned the ins and outs of DOS and then LogoWriter. The years went by but my computer experience never strayed from the PC.

Then came a day many more years down the road when Apple started making fun of PCs in their advertisements making the assumption that Macs were not only more advanced but also more stylish, more laid back, cooler, more popular, etc. While I did find the ads humorous mostly, I also resented Apple for their conceited campaign, much like you would if a chess geek was heckling one of your math club buddies.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago. Due to God's good graces, I was able to purchase a Mac off Craigslist from a guy who had bought it new many moons ago. Inside all the well-kept boxes & packaging I found the original invoice from the store with the guy's name on it. He had sold me the entire setup for $30 even though he had paid $3,400 for it! Eeeek!

It's really pretty, aesthetically speaking. It's easy to install software on, and I was really impressed with the simplicity of installing hardware. I installed 4 sticks of RAM, a PCI card that added USB 2.0, and a bluetooth adapter. Of course, the RAM doesn't need a driver, but the latter two would have needed drivers to function properly on a PC. But, when I booted up the Mac it was already using them without a hitch, no drivers necessary.

So, I can see why Mac users like their machines. I don't have enough experience yet with the running of programs to be able to say anything on the subject except that I hear that programs work like they're supposed to without the issues that sometimes plague PCs.

However, so far, my official position takes sides with PCs. The biggest reason is price. Last week, my motherboard got fried mysteriously in my best PC. It was about three years old and had been part of a barebones kit that I bought for somewhere around $130. The kit included the processor, motherboard, case, fan, and power supply. I found a new motherboard on TigerDirect that will allow me to reuse everything and just swap out the old for the new. I won't go into detail, but it's way better than the one that fried and it's only $50.

You just can't do that with a Mac. Parts are very expensive. For example, a replacement motherboard for a G5 Mac that would be similar, yet not quite equivalent, to my computer would cost a whopping $430.

But price isn't the only reason. There are tons more programs available, it seems, for a PC that aren't even available in a Mac compatible format. Mac users may argue with me on this point citing the PC emulator that allows a Mac to run PC programs. But, what does that say for Macs that they would want to emulate a PC?

I will concede that Macs are better quality both in their hardware and software than your average PC. I've had my fair share of issues with PCs. But to be fair, those problems were largely due to my inexperience and naivete. I've learned much over the years, some the hard way. For example, I bought a barebones kit from TigerDirect once that sounded great and was nice and cheap. I had been using a Pentium II 350 Mhz Gateway up to that point, but I was ready, or so I thought, to get into editing more than just the occasional photo. I wanted to edit home movies. So, I got the computer up and running, but it crashed the first time when ripping a CD. It did it again later doing the same thing. I realized that I had some bad RAM and it wasn't dumping the memory properly so it would just get full and then >poof<. New RAM solved the problem. Later, though, I had the same issue when rendering video. I bought some more RAM, at that point thinking that it would solve it, but it didn't. I got really frustrated because this new computer was an AMD 2 Ghz processor and I had 2 GB of RAM. This thing should be able to fly! Upon searching out forums on the subject, I found my answer: Front Side Bus. The FSB was only 100 Mhz. The guy on the forum explained it by saying, "You have an awesome processor that's like 20 semi trucks driving side by side on a 20-lane highway, but to get to the RAM and back the 20-lane highway bottlenecks at your front side bus down to a 1-lane bridge."

I didn't know what front side bus was. TigerDirect had plainly made it known on their site that it was only 100 Mhz, I just didn't know what that meant at the time. You can't just replace your front side bus, either. It's built into your motherboard. All you can do is get a new motherboard, which I did. But, that was the one that just fried. Oh well, it was a great motherboard for 3 years. And I have a better one coming.

Through my mistakes and searching, I now have an amazing collection of programs that work flawlessly. I have hardware that runs all those programs super fast and simultaneously. I have all this and I still haven't spent as much combined in the last 11 years of owning computers as I would have spent on one Mac that would have been long ago obsolete.

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Google Sketchup 7

It's my lunch break and I just threw together a plan on Google Sketchup 7 for the desk that I'm going to build tonight. If you haven't ever used Google Sketchup then you should definitely check it out. It's a whole lot of fun and can be easily learned. I picked it up in about an hour (months ago) after going through all of the tutorials that came with it. The tutorials are especially easy because they're hands on. It shows you something and then they have you do it before you can go on to the next thing. It's pretty cool.

Another amazing thing they have is the 3D Warehouse. While in the program (as long as you have an Internet connection) you can import 3D models directly into your model. These models are free to download because they're built by people like me who waste their lunch period playing around with a computer program. Anyone can upload a model they built and so there is a huge amount of models just hanging out there. There are extravagant ones that are highly detailed like house plans, antique cars, and skyscrapers as well as simple ones like stick figures, soccer balls, and flowers.

It can really prove to be quite useful, actually, if you want to build something complex. I plan on doing it for the deck plans that I have drawn up already. My drawn plans are pretty accurate, but my 3D version will cover EVERYTHING. I'll be able to measure every board. My material list can be extremely accurate. With this program, I can even have it count the number of screws that I place in the model. How cool is that? It can also be useful with the simple things, too, like this desk, for instance. I didn't necessarily need to create a 3D model of this desk in order to build it, but I did need to figure out the design of it in my head and I do a lot better when I can actually see it come together BEFORE I start cutting boards. Once a board is cut, it's cut. I've learned this all too well over the years and kick myself every time I find I've cut something too short. So, this is a way that I can put something together and have it for sure be right. I like drafting plans for projects. I always have. But nothing beats being able to draft a 3-dimensional project in 3 dimensions.

Well, my lunch is over, so I gotta go. But, I uploaded two plans to the warehouse. My plans for the desk and the one I drew up months ago for the house. I included a material list for the desk so that maybe it will help someone out there looking for a quick, cheap desk they can build themselves.

Once again, this is a free program available for download for anyone to use. Click here to download the program. Click here to see my house plans on Google or here to see my desk plans on Google. Happy building!

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GIMP 2.6

I've been promoting GIMP for years now and have told countless people about it. Usually, this is accompanied by an explanation in laymen's terms what "open source" software is, so that the person on the receiving end might just understand why the program is free to use. It's funny that during this time, I've spoken with lots of people and they all seem to have roughly the same attitude towards GIMP. They're interested to find out that as a photographer I don't use Photoshop. They are still interested to find out that I use GIMP. Their interest is still hanging on when I explain that GIMP is just an acronym for GNU Image Manipulation Program. But, then their interest falls off the second I say that it's free.

When someone says "free" while I'm within earshot, they have my attention. They may also receive a single raised eyebrow from me, but regardless of the position of my eye-hair, they do have my attention. However, some people do just the opposite when it comes to computer software. Has consumerism completely saturated our brains with the marinade of materialistic prestige? Some things just aren't better because they're more expensive, but many are fooled into thinking this way. People go out and buy the biggest, most expensive laptop on the market so that they can play solitaire away from home. People own PDA's and only use them for the phone function. People buy Photoshop and never figure out how to use it.

I once was talking with a forklift driver who once worked for Ocean-Spray. He said that after every production run of Ocean-Spray juice they would switch to filling up the off-brand bottles. There was a quota to hit and then the rest would be packaged as Always-Save or Best Choice. The company, like most companies, knew that they could sell to both markets: the name-brand buyers and the off-brand buyers. But, it was the same stuff!
Don't think that electronic manufacturers don't do it as well, because they do. The best DVD player that I've ever owned was one of the least expensive that have ever hit the market. $30 and it would play anything! CD, VCD, DVD, Picture CD, AVI, MPG, MP3, etc. It played everything. The name-brand models got more and more expensive with each extra format that they could play and people would buy them. I even would up with a couple of them. They're terrible. One very expensive brand wouldn't even play a burned DVD in DVD format. Most of these electronics use the same hardware built in India or Japan or China and then they package them up in a different looking box and slap their insignia on the front. Then, they add software that tells the DVD player what NOT to play. The ones that have the fewest restrictions are made into their most expensive models. Yet, under the hood, it's the same engine.


GIMP is an amazing program that can do just as much as Photoshop can and it's free. It's constantly being updated with fixes and new and better tools. And when a better version is produced, you don't have to pay for the upgrade. You simply download it and go. And, as always, if you want to check it out, click on the link on the right of this page. I updated the link to download it directly from my hotlinkfile account rather than send you to GIMP.org. It can be somewhat confusing on what exactly to download to get GIMP using their site if you've never done it before. However, note that the version I have linked up is for Windows. If you are running another operating system, you'll have to just figure it out at GIMP.org. Sorry.

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