Bloggity Blog, Blog | Kimball's House Of Pain | E. Kimball Larsen

Bug Lightning

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 00:11:00 -0600

Lightning has always fascinated me. I don't know if it is because of the threat of death to those who are too close, or the raw power it carries - but lightning transfixes me.

Tonight I captured a timelapse of the sunset from our office construction cam, and I noticed that after it was completely…

Colorful Sunset

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 00:08:33 -0600

Overcast Sunset Timelapse, May 29 2009, Meridian, ID

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 10:14:56 -0600

Sunset Timelapse With Rain, May 24 2009, Meridian, ID

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 10:13:18 -0600

Sunset Timelapse, May 14th 2009, Meridian, ID

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 10:11:04 -0600

SuperCub Aerial Video

Wed, 01 Apr 2009 10:21:29 -0600

A Letter From The CEO

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 09:47:17 -0600

LETTER FROM THE BOSS.....

As the CEO of this organization, I have resigned myself to the fact that Barack Obama is our President and that our taxes and government fees will increase in a BIG way. To compensate for these increases, our prices would have to increase by about 10%.

But since we cannot…

We The People Stimulus Package

Mon, 30 Mar 2009 09:43:06 -0600

Beanie's 15 Minutes Of Fame

Fri, 20 Mar 2009 10:16:11 -0600

This news story features my sister and brother in law. It's all about how he was deployed to Kuwait while my sister was pregnant and in the middle of moving their entire family across the country.

Enjoy!

Super Cub At The Park Flight 1

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 16:09:51 -0600

Super Cub At The Park Flight 2

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 16:06:40 -0600

Super Cub At The Park Perfect Landings

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 16:05:40 -0600

SuperCub At The Park

Fri, 27 Feb 2009 09:51:41 -0700

I stopped by the park this morning with my HobbyZone SuperCub. This video is of a completely stock SC with the exception of the propeller - which is exactly the same size, but has been painted with yellow tips.

Historically Important Date

Thu, 12 Feb 2009 22:38:40 -0700

Today is a very important day.

On this day in:

1809: Naturalist Charles Darwin was born in Shrewsbury, England.

1809: Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, was born in present-day Larue County, Ky.

1915: The cornerstone for the Lincoln Memorial was laid in Washington, D.C.

…

P-51 Re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-maiden

Sat, 07 Feb 2009 21:40:09 -0700

Clock Resurrection

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 10:49:04 -0700

Until this past Friday we had a pretty cool clock hanging on the wall of our catwalk over the family room. The face was composed of a small (about 4" diameter) round block of wood stained a dark cherry with brushed aluminum bars (about 11" long) set into it in a sunburst pattern - a bar at 12, 1,…

Christmas 2008

Sun, 28 Dec 2008 17:33:53 -0700

Why I Celebrate This Time Of Year

Tue, 09 Dec 2008 00:14:54 -0700

Last week I had the opportunity to attend the Jim Brickman Holiday Homecoming concert here in Boise. Jim is a fantastic pianist and I was really looking forward to the music of Christmas performed in his unique style. The concert was good, but at one point Jim talked about how hard it is to write…

Veins

Wed, 29 Oct 2008 19:53:10 -0600

To see the original high-resolution version, visit my photo gallery.

First Frost

Sun, 12 Oct 2008 20:58:09 -0600

To see the original high-resolution version, visit my photo gallery.

If A Tree Falls Next To The Highway...

Sun, 05 Oct 2008 23:09:11 -0600

8th Anniversary

Sun, 05 Oct 2008 22:46:45 -0600

To celebrate our anniversary, traditionally and I have found a way to get out of town to a nice bed and breakfast and enjoy a relaxing weekend together. We've stayed at all kinds of places, and usually had a great time. It's nice to be waited on for a change - to be pampered, spoiled, even.

But…

High Dynamic Range Photography

Fri, 26 Sep 2008 22:03:52 -0600

Several weeks ago I ran across an article about HDR (High Dynamic Range) photography. HDR photos are produced by taking several different shots of the same scene with different exposure settings, and then doing a sort of a blending of all the shots to produce one image. The result can be anything…

New Family Room Shelves

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 21:35:30 -0600

Those of you who know me personally know that I like to think I'm pretty handy with power tools.

Ok, so mostly I take big pieces of wood and make them into smaller pieces of wood.

I've built lots of stuff around the house - storage shelves in the garage, a workbench, some invisible shelves, a…

Fire is Just The Pits!

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 22:17:38 -0600

A few weeks ago, my brother in law and I built a fire pit in our backyard. I've been waiting since the concrete finished curing to have the gub'ment tell me I would not cause anyone to come down with emphysema by having a fire in my backyard.

Today was finally the day.

We toasted marshmallows and…

Lines of Power

Sun, 27 Jul 2008 22:17:31 -0600

All growing up we had "common ground" that ran through some areas of our neighborhood. As an adult, I now realize that this is where the power lines went through the neighborhood, and city zoning would not permit land developers to build right under the lines. Driving past this area today, I was…

Mom's Moving Videos

Sun, 27 Jul 2008 14:39:49 -0600

Moving Mom Part One

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 23:02:43 -0600

Ever since my father passed away several years ago, my mom has been trying to figure out where she should live - stay in St. Louis, move to Salt Lake where some of her kids live, move to Idaho, where other kids live, move somewhere completely different, etc.

Well, she finally bought a house in…

Moving Mom Part Two

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 00:30:40 -0600

Ted Drewes

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 22:11:47 -0600

I'm in St. Louis right now to help with moving my mom to Boise. We hired some good folks from Labor Ready today to come help clean out the house, and as a result found ourselves ahead of schedule this afternoon.

So we took time to catch a movie (saw Get Smart - good fun there) and head out to a…

Zy-Uhn

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 12:19:15 -0600

My wife and I just took a vacation down to Cedar City for the Shakespeare festival, followed by a full day to play in Zion National Park. While the Shakespeare festival was a bit underwhelming (we saw "The Taming of the Shrew" and "The School For Wives") our day in Zion Park was fantastic.

We…

2 Liters Of The Good Stuff

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 23:39:35 -0600

My wife's family came to visit us for the 4th of July. After they arrived and got settled in, we began to think about what we had been up to. My father in law mentioned that he and his son (with his church youth group) had spent the previous evening building rockets out of soda bottles.

…

Résumé or not to Resume

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 19:54:17 -0600

I don't know what my problem is, but I really don't like to dust off my résumé. I know that from time to time it is a good idea to pull it out and brush it up, but each time I think about it my first reaction is a stout "meh..." accompanied by a shoulder shrug.

But not tonight.

I'm trying to get…

Updated Square Foot Garden Information

Mon, 26 May 2008 21:37:01 -0600

For those of you (all 2) who read this little blog regularly, you know that I have planted a garden this year. Well, I finally finished all the construction, and got around taking some pictures.

I was actually quite surprised about how much work there was to set up the garden in the first place: …

Invisible Shelves

Wed, 14 May 2008 11:42:54 -0600

The other day my wife mentioned an article on wikihow that explained how to make "invisble shelves". I have to admit that I am a sucker for simple and innovative projects such as this one, so when she also mentioned that she'd like something like that for her recipe books, off to the local thrift…

Wheeler Farm

Tue, 06 May 2008 22:54:27 -0600

On a recent vacation in the Salt Lake city area, we took the kids to Wheeler Farm. It's a real, working farm with places to have a picnic lunch, feed the animals, take ride through the rolling hills, see examples of farm machinery old and new, and sample some of what is produced there today.

The…

This horse needs a dentist!

Tue, 06 May 2008 22:43:32 -0600

I admit it. I'm not from the country. I was raised in suburbia, USA, where seeing corn still on the stalk involved a 40 minute ride on the interstate, and horses were something we only saw up close at the fair.

Now I live in an area that was very recently mostly farmland. My whole sub-division…

Ohhhh - Sparkly!

Tue, 06 May 2008 22:24:02 -0600

So, as you may know, I'm building a pretty large garden this year. Some of what we want to grow needs a sturdy trellis to climb, so off to the hardware store I went to find some steel conduit to use as a frame.

Tonight I am finally to the stage of cutting the conduit to size so I can fit it…

Square Foot Gardening

Tue, 06 May 2008 21:58:59 -0600

This is the summer.

We're finally going to do it right.

The garden is almost complete.

In years past we have tried several times to grow a decent vegetable garden. First, in Eagle Mountain we tried more or less marking off a small garden plot and tossing some seeds in the ground. I watered it…

Dog Tags

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 01:34:01 -0700

Tonight was a full lunar eclipse that was visible at the perfect time of the evening for me to enjoy it with my kids. So there we were - hanging out in the front yard with camera in hand waiting for the clouds to thin out a bit. I was holding the baby and Erica was running around the yard trying…

Full Lunar Eclipse - Feb 20, 2008

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 01:08:02 -0700

Recently Erica has become very interested in all things astronomy. We took her to the library and picked up Charlie Brown's Encyclopedia of Earth and Space - it's a pretty large book filled with the state of the art science from 1978 (when it was published ;-) ) about space. For the last several…

Kimball Birthday List 2007

Wed, 23 Jan 2008 11:05:08 -0700

Ugh. Birthday time again. At least the pain of turing 31 is to be offset by the relative joy of receiving doodads from folks who care about me. :)

MOTOROKR S9 Wireless Headphones (I really want these things...)
Leatherman Skeletool
Flannel Shirts
iPhone
Air Compressor and Brad Nailer - would prefer…

Golden Rule of Computer Programming

Wed, 23 Jan 2008 09:59:41 -0700

I recall a certain professor of mine proclaimed:

"Computers are dumb, and programmers are lazy"

I've since come to call this the golden rule of programming - (technicalities about how this is actually 2 rules left aside...)

At the time, it gave the folks in the class a good chuckle, but upon more…

The Piano Man

Sun, 23 Dec 2007 21:46:00 -0700

Some time ago, Christine posted a note in her blog about our piano ordeal. To sum up, we ordered a piano in June of this year from the folks at the Piano Superstore. Normally I would not consider purchasing something like a piano sight unseen (and unplayed/heard) but after several weeks of…

Illegal Immigration Rant

Fri, 21 Dec 2007 14:56:15 -0700

I typically am not a horribly vocal person when it comes to politics and current affairs - heck, I don't even watch much TV. I get my news online or on the radio when driving to and from work. However, something happened yesterday that has prompted me to sound off on the problem of illegal…

Nerd Handbook

Fri, 30 Nov 2007 14:19:13 -0700

I found this via a quick note that Hans wrote in his blog, but found it to hit the mark so astonishingly well that I learned quite a bit about myself, and about how patient my wife must be with me.

Thanks, honey!

The Nerd Handbook

Now, back to my cave...

Kimball Christmas List 2007

Tue, 27 Nov 2007 11:05:08 -0700

I've actually had a bit of a hard time coming up with items for my list this year - but here is the list, such as it is (All links are to provide a general idea, unless otherwise noted):

As Usual, Scott Adams Is Right

Tue, 27 Nov 2007 08:45:28 -0700

This is particularly funny to me as I've recently begun to read up and attempt to practice some of the agile methods. The basic gist of agile programming is that you make small, rapid, incremental changes to the software you build, and receive feedback on each change as you go from your customer. …

Christmas Lights

Sat, 24 Nov 2007 23:38:18 -0700

The turkey has been cooked, consumed, and caused us to go into a coma. The pie is almost gone. The relatives are getting ready to head back home tomorrow.

Sounds like it's time to hang up some Christmas Lights!

Wouldja Pass Me That Spoon? It's Time For My Sandwich

Fri, 16 Nov 2007 23:25:47 -0700

At work I occasionally get so involved in whatever I'm working on (usually really ugly code) that I don't realize just how long I've been at it. Sometimes I am rescued from this near stupor-like state of staring at my computer monitor by an interruption - someone popping into my office to play…

Split Personality Blog

Mon, 12 Nov 2007 14:36:45 -0700

For those of you who have attempted to wade through all the technical goop I wind up blabbering about in this blog looking for anything less.... nerdy, I've finally gotten around to splitting my technical blog entries (which are really for me more than anything - I refer to them so I can pretend…

Shopping with 2 Year Olds

Thu, 08 Nov 2007 09:37:34 -0700

Sometimes when I'm at the store to pick something up, I get to see the most entertaining things. Ever watched people try to pick out vegetables? Fascinating.

Sometimes, when I'm at the store I provide great entertainment for those around me. For instance, last night I took my daughter to a…

Real Programmers Don't Eat Quiche

Fri, 26 Oct 2007 01:34:28 -0600

Upon reviewing my story about Programmer Mel, I took the time to read the following article about how Real Programmers Don't Use Pascal, and nearly shot milk out my nose:

(Note: I found this article here)

[ A letter to the editor of Datamation, volume 29 number 7, July 1983. I've long ago lost…

Homemade Helicopter?

Mon, 22 Oct 2007 13:56:46 -0600

When I hear "Nigeria" my mind automatically fills in "scams", as it has been one of the single largest sources of attempts to defraud on the internet. However, at work we actually have a great customer in Nigeria... In fact, someone from the office has been elected to go to Nigeria to do some…

Cambria

Mon, 22 Oct 2007 13:52:39 -0600

So, I found an article today on the new core web fonts that Microsoft is bundling with Windows Vista. The full write up is here, but anyone who knows me and my family much will recognize that Microsoft just stole the name of one of my kids for a font.

That chaps my hide. Now, since I don't have…

Coughin'

Thu, 18 Oct 2007 09:20:05 -0600

I like to pretend that I know a little something about woodworking, and occasionally even try to build something that won't be condemned by the urban housing authority. Since it is nearing Halloween and all, I thought it was amusing to see a new story pop up on wikihow about how to make your own…

2007 Sysadmin Of The Year

Wed, 17 Oct 2007 10:49:52 -0600

Last week there was a story on slashdot pointing to www.sysadminoftheyear.com, a site where folks can go to nominate their IT staff for Sysadmin of the Year. They were offering free T-Shirts to the first 2500 nominations, so I asked Adrian to nominate me. Here is what he sent in:

"Though he's not…

The Pedal-to-the-Metal, Totally Illegal, Cross-Country Sprint for Glory

Wed, 17 Oct 2007 08:59:32 -0600

So, a few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to drive from St. Louis to Salt Lake in a minivan. We did the trip in a little less than 19 or so hours, which means that we pretty well obeyed the speed limit and didn't get ourselves too tired/worn out, etc.

However, 19 hours is still quite a bit of…

New Website!

Wed, 17 Oct 2007 00:08:05 -0600

Spiffy - so I've finally finished converting my old (roughly 5 years old) website into a new format. I'm pretty sure nobody ever even reads anything here, but what the hey, I like the new format.

If anyone did actually ever grow attached to any of the old goop that could be found kicking around…

Huge Grocery Savings

Tue, 16 Oct 2007 23:04:57 -0600

Ok, so Christine has figured out how to save mucho, mucho bucks at the grocery store by using coupons and watching for the killer sales. She’s had such a great success that we’ve registered http://www.hugegrocerysavings.com and are going to write up a quick guide on how you can do it too, which we…

Programmer Mel

Wed, 01 Aug 2007 00:24:36 -0600

So, I was just getting settled in for my workday (aka getting my daily fix of /.) and I ran across a link to a neat article about Mel the Programmer. Well written and entertaining, this article adds some neat perspective on where programming has been compared with where it is now. Set in the…

Finally Moved; Server Alive!

Sat, 16 Jun 2007 00:24:36 -0600

Ok, so we finally loaded up all our stuff into the biggest U-Haul money can rent, and headed north to the sunny climes of Boise, ID. While the drive for me was mostly uneventful (except for when the car hauler behind the truck started fishtailing and whipping the back of the truck around - that…

New Home

Sun, 29 Apr 2007 00:24:36 -0600

So, as I have accepted a new job working for Miridia Technology in Meridian, ID, we headed up this weekend to find and purchase a house. Turns out that while we were there, our house here went under contract, so we are all set to move in June. I have posted about a gazillion pictures of the new…

Joel on Customer Service

Thu, 01 Mar 2007 00:24:35 -0700

I have tuned in to Joel on Software (the blog of the owner of Fog Creek software) from time to time, and have always found his opinions refreshing. Today my brother pointed me to a recent article Joel posted about doing customer service the Right Way™. I find all 8 of his points to be really…

lshw

Thu, 01 Feb 2007 00:24:36 -0700

Have you ever needed to know the hardware configuration of a linux box that sits halfway across the country? I recently needed to determine exactly what kind of ram was needed for a server sitting 4 states away from where I live - and not only what kind of ram it used, but how much it already had…

Birthday List '07

Thu, 01 Feb 2007 00:24:36 -0700

Ok world, here it is: Kimball's birthday list - 2007

This year I'm pretty much into the same stuff I'm always looking for (in fact, much of this list is the same as last year's list) - digital devices of some sort or another, tools (especially the kind that require at least 120 V AC) and typical…

Santa is Coming To Town...

Fri, 10 Nov 2006 00:24:36 -0700

Ok world, here it is: Kimball's Christmas List - 2006

I'm a geek. I like geek stuff. I'm also a guy. I like typical guy stuff like movies and video games.

Here are the top items I'm really looking for this year:

iFM Dock - an FM tuner/remote control for my iPod.

Laptop Stand - this is a great…

How Much Optimizing Should I Do?

Thu, 31 Aug 2006 00:24:35 -0600

With the ever-increasing speed of consumer computers, frequently developers decide that it is much more important to get their applications shipped quickly than to take extra time to optimize their code a bit. This morning I ran across an interesting article that points why this is a Bad…

New(ish) Web Server

Fri, 30 Jun 2006 00:24:35 -0600

So, quite some time ago I picked up a newer used machine than my current web server. Over time I have gradually moved bits and pieces of things over to the new box. Tonight I finally had time to move this darn blog. :)

So, feast your eyes - this is being served by a heckufalot faster hardware…

Kimball Birthday List '06

Sun, 05 Feb 2006 00:24:35 -0700

Ok world, here it is: Kimball's birthday list - 2006

Family History

Thu, 13 Oct 2005 00:24:35 -0600

For those of you who are looking to do a bit of work on your family history,

I have set up PhpGedView on my server - click here to get to it.

Isaac Henry Larsen

Sun, 29 May 2005 00:24:35 -0600

Isaac Henry Larsen

Congratulations to us! Isaac Henry Larsen was born today at 9:46 am in the Alta View Hospital. He weighed 9 lbs, 9oz, and mommy and baby are doing just fine.

I could pontificate about how cute he is, but I'd rather show you:

Christine was only in labor for about 4 1/2 hours, and…

New Job

Fri, 25 Feb 2005 00:24:34 -0700

Can you believe it? I bailed on Convergys and got a new gig. I now am the "Extremely Intelligent Executive Information Officer" (you know... EIEIO... ) for Beat the Bookstore. They franchise stores at major public universities where students can buy and sell books for classes - they just buy for…

Birthday List '05

Thu, 03 Feb 2005 00:24:33 -0700

Ok world, here it is: Kimball's birthday list - 2005

This year I'm pretty much into the same stuff I'm always looking for - digital devices of some sort or another, tools (especially the kind that require at least 120 V AC) and typical guy stuff like movies and video games.

Here are the top items…

Baby Boy Names

Wed, 26 Jan 2005 00:24:34 -0700

We found out just before Christmas that we will be the proud parents of a baby boy this June. :) As with Erica, we need some help figuring out just what to call the little guy, and we've slapped together a quick spot for you to make your opinion count. Vote early, vote often!

Happy Birthday Erica!

Fri, 21 Jan 2005 00:24:33 -0700

Erica had her second birthday on the 21st, and she had a blast! :) We decided to not have a party with a bunch of people over (can you imagine a house full of 2 year olds) and just had a small family thing together when I got home from work. Erica had six kinds of fun opening her presents and…

Back From Vacation

Tue, 04 Jan 2005 00:24:34 -0700

Well, we are finally back from the extravaganza known as Christmas Vacation. If anyone out there has yet to experience the pleasure of dealing with a 2 year old with stomach flu while on the road, let me assure you that it is not pleasant. We started this *vacation* with a road trip to Idaho to…

Christmas Wish List

Tue, 21 Dec 2004 00:24:33 -0700

Ok, it's that time of year again, and we have a few items on our list that we would love to find under the tree...

Board/Group Games

Cranium - possibly the most fun group board game we've run across this year.

Update: Already broke down and bought one ourselves...

Cranium Hoopla - similar…

Christmas is Finally Here!

Tue, 14 Dec 2004 00:24:33 -0700

Well, we finally got around to hauling out all the decorations. We wound up discovering this year that we had a lot of stuff we really don't like at all. So, off I go to the local second hand store to drop off some old stuff we thought was pretty neat a few years back...

Tonight, we made the…

Snow!

Tue, 30 Nov 2004 00:24:34 -0700

Well, it snowed a few days ago, so today we got Erica all dressed up and went out to let her explore a bit. Of course, I had the camera.

Since we are going to need to move Erica into a new bedroom soon to make way for the newest Larsen, we are in search of some good inexpensive furniture. Today…

NewBaby

Mon, 29 Nov 2004 00:24:34 -0700

Erica has some big news....

Give up?

That's right, we're having a new baby. :) The due date is June 2 (which for those of you who know us pretty well may recognize that as Christine's birthday!), and we have already heard the heartbeat.

We'll probably find out if it's a boy or a girl around…

Elmer And The Bear

Mon, 29 Nov 2004 00:24:33 -0700

As I was growing up, every summer my family would make a pilgrimage to Nauvoo, IL to participate in the City of Joseph pageant held there. As part of the annual tradition, at the cast picnic one of the original writers of the pageant would jump up on a picnic table and recite "Elmer and the Bear".…

Restored AG

Fri, 19 Nov 2004 00:24:32 -0700

Well, it took a lot of work and pulling hair, but I finally think I have AG 1.1.4 source restored.

What a pain.

Yes, I have now made a backup, and will be **much** more careful in the future.

Ugh.

Time for some sleep.

I can't believe I lost the source.....

Thu, 18 Nov 2004 20:24:33 -0700

So, the other day I finally decided to refactor the source for AG (anyone who knows me knows what that is, others who dont... well, ask!) and break the huge monotlitic binary into lots of little xml files. Only problem is the fine folks at RS (again, ask) decided that it would make perfect sense…

About Me

Mon, 15 Nov 2004 00:26:34 -0700

For anyone who has stumbled across this blog with no idea about who I actually am, here's some stuff you will probably not find all that interesting:

I am married to Christine (Seen here passing out halloween candy).

I have a little girl named Erica (More pictures than you want to see).

I write…

Welcome to my Blog!

Mon, 15 Nov 2004 00:24:35 -0700

Ok, it's not all that impressive, but I finally got around to setting up a weblog.

Yes, it's likely useless.

No, I'm not planning to write stuff everyday.

Maybe I will sometimes write something useful...