Summer time...

Well it has been almost 6 months since my last blog so I thought that I would put down some random thoughts.

Travel - I just got back from a trip to Oklahoma and spending time with my family down there. It was very enjoyable seeing everyone and the food was great (especially the fajitas at Abuelita's in Shawnee). Earlier this summer I spent a week in St. Louis for work. We were field testing a new software release. It was good experience for me though I was pretty tired by the end of the week with a number of midnight to 3am shifts. Some of our activities needed to be in the late night to avoid disrupting the cellular network during the day.

Gaming - My favorite platform for video games is the PC and more specifically my Gateway laptop. I have played lots of different genres of PC games over the past 25 years but I have only recently started playing racing games. Two of the racing games that I picked up on sale in the past 6 months have been DiRT 2 and Burnout Paradise. The games are very different with DiRT 2 being an off-road racer and Burnout being a street racer but I have really enjoyed both games a great deal. They have been a welcome change from the strategy and shooter games that I typically play.

Reading - I used to be a very heavy reader but for some reason the past 3 or 4 years I have really stopped. My favorite genres are science fiction and spy/thriller books though my overall favorite author is John Grisham. This past week I grabbed a book called "Little Brother" by Cory Doctorow as I was looking at Young Adult books for my daughter in the bookstore. I had read some short stories by him in the past and the back of the book for "Little Brother" sounded interesting. The reading was easy though the book was close to 400 pages long. I read the book in a couple days and really enjoyed it. The title of the book is a play on the theme of "1984" and Big Brother. The book takes place immediately after a terrorist attack on San Francisco that kills thousands of people. The story is about how quickly we can become a police state when security is a higher priority than personal freedom. The book also contains a lot of interesting technology that appears to be pretty realistic. I thought that it was a fun read and as a computer geek I enjoyed the many ideas in the book including thoughts on encryption and security systems. Two thumbs up!

Health - My health has been good this year. After my hernia surgery things have been going very well. I continue to take medicine each day for my hives and for my irregular heartbeat but the medicine is working well and both have been very well controlled. I am still considering a procedure to correct the irregular heartbeat (AFib) but for now I haven't made up my mind either way. I have two cardiologists that I see and it seems that one thinks it is a good idea and the other thinks that I should wait until the medicine stops controlling it before I do any procedures. They both make sense so for now I am just waiting and seeing how it goes.

Sports - I have been digging the World Cup which just completed as well as the Tour de France which has just started. For the World Cup I was rooting for the United States and Germany. Neither won but they both had a pretty good run with Germany taking 3rd place. For the Tour de France I guess I have been rooting for Lance Armstrong but it appears that he has already put himself in position where he can't win with problems on Sunday. I am now cheering for Andy Schleck from Luxembourg. I enjoyed watching him and his brother in last year's Tour. Unfortunately his brother Frank is out of the Tour after breaking some bones in an accident during the first few days but Andy looks very strong and should be a top contender along with Alberto Contador. After all the drama from last year's Tour between Contador and Armstrong I am hoping Schleck wins this year.

Well that about covers my random thoughts for now. Thanks for stopping by!