I Need Your Help

What is kind of tree is this? Does anyone know? It's not a fig tree. The leaves below the fruit look like fig leaves, but it's actually the leaves above the fruit that belong to the tree that the fruit is on.

Help!

Ingenuity Rocks

I have a great job. I work with great people and for a great company. I'm a Sr. Systems Analyst for a large ambulatory health care organization. I know...sounds exciting, right?

One of the funnest (most fun?) things about my job is getting to come up with creative solutions for problems. Usually my co-worker Bob and I tag-team on a lot of these problems. We've been working on one lately where we are migrating the documents for a couple of physicians from their old electronic medical record system to ours. A little over 30,000 of these documents are Microsoft Excel files. The system we are importing them into only accepts PDFs or other graphic file types (JPG, TIFF, etc.).

So, we needed a way to transform those 30,000 files from XLS to PDF. Bob worked out a system using PDF Creator, which can "print" pretty much any file type to a PDF, that could batch convert the files. There was only one problem. On every file the computer asked, "Do you want to save your changes?", to which Bob answered by pressing the "N" key. Now, of course Bob didn't want to sit at his desk for 34 hours hitting the "N" key. So he devised a plan. An ingenious plan.

To answer the question you must be asking: Yes, that is in fact a stapler, balanced on a stack of blank DVDs, pressing the "N" key.

Click on the image to enlarge it.

An Important Phone Call

A couple of days ago, my wife called me just as I was about to go into a meeting. This is how the call went:

Wife: Do you have a second? Your son needs to talk to you.

Me: Yeah, I've got just a second. Put him on.

(Pause)

Son: Daaaddddyyy!

Me: What's wrong, little buddy?

Son: (Said through sobs) I was in the front yard, and I found a stick, and I picked it up, and then I went to the back yard, and Bonnie grabbed it, and Bonnie ate it.

Me: She did?

Son: Yeah, Bonnie ate it. She ate my stick.

Me: Don't worry. We can find another one.

Son: She ate it.

Me: I know, buddy. I'm sorry.

Google vs. Bing

Bing

Maybe you've heard of it. If you're like me, you've seen all the commercials about Microsoft's new search engine. Oh wait, my bad, it's Microsoft's new DECISION engine. Big difference, right?

Well, for someone like me that uses Google multiple times a day, if there's something better out there, I want to know. So I thought I would put Bing to a little test. Better yet, how about a head to head competition with Google? Sound fun? Okay, maybe not fun, but maybe interesting enough for you to keep reading.

I've taken a few random items, plugged them into both search engines, and evaluated the results. Here we go!

1) 23rd president of the united states

Google returned the Wiki article first and a Wiki list of presidents second. Third was some website called "presidentsusa.net". Fourth was a link to the official site for the president.

Bing returned the "presidentusa.net" website first, then followed up with the Wiki article. It's third link was to a biography page about President Harrison on the website for Harrison Elementary School in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. (This site was 5th on Google.) Fourth site for Bing? Amazon.com.

I'm going to give this one to Google, but just by a margin.

Score: Google - 1 / Bing - 0



2) Aquada (a really cool amphibious car)

This one was pretty much a wash, so I'm giving them both a point.

Score: Google - 2 / Bing - 1



3) Serenity (a pretty good sci-fi movie)

Okay, this was weird. Almost the exact same results.

Score: Google - 3 / Bing - 2



4) Eisley calendar (a great band, who I happen to know personally)

Well, Google's first link was "Eisley fan's journal - calendar", I didn't see that link at all on Bing. I thought Google had won a clean win. However, when I clicked on the link I found that the website hadn't been updated since 2004. Oops.

Score: Google - 3 / Bing - 3

5) Aaroneous Findings (you've got to do the vanity search)

Google, without a doubt, won this one. The actual address of my blog didn't even appear on the results on Bing. Google? Top of the list.

Final score: Google - 4 / Bing - 3

Google wins!


That being said, Bing does have a couple of cool features. The travel feature that they tout on the commercials is actually pretty cool. Is that enough for me to change search engines? Nope.

Plus, saying that you are "googling" something when you are searching the net sounds so much better than "binging".

A Little Test

A few months ago, I mentioned comic books in one of my posts, and how I've always been a fan. These days, it's okay to like superheros. In fact, a huge portion of the movie industry is now geared around that. It's no secret that the Spiderman, X-Men (Wolverine), Iron Man, and the most recent two Batman movies have been big hits.

So, with superheroes taking on a even bigger role in popular culture, I thought I would do a little quiz. In the first list, tell me the real name of the superhero. The second list, do just the opposite. Which superhero is it? I'll try take make each list start easy and get harder. That way you can gauge your level of geek-ness. I've also made sure that they've all appeared in movies. So, it's possible to know them all and to have never read a single comic. Here we go!


1. Superman
2. Spiderman
3. Daredevil
4. Ghost Rider
5. Beast

Bonus 1: Magneto

-----

A. Bruce Wayne
B. Bruce Banner
C. Tony Stark
D. Johnny Storm
E. Scott Summers

Bonus 2: Wade Wilson


Have fun. I expect only a small percentage of people to get them all (without the help of Google, of course).

Back to School Bash

Today my church hosted a "Back to School Bash". We had free hot dogs, popcorn, cotton candy, snowcones, and drinks. There were not 1, not 2, but 3 bouncy-house-thingys for the kids. There was face painting (that was incredible, I might add) and carnival games for the kids. And let's not forget the live music from the Easy Pieces, Sheri Carr and Diane Thiel (and friends). To top it off we had a prayer booth and a dunking booth. I'll let you guess which one got the most traffic.

Zaxby's donated sweet tea and free kid's meal coupons, as well promoted the event with a special coupon good during the event. The Zaxby's chicken, "LZ", was out shaking hands with the kids and hanging out. They even put the event on their Facebook page!

Our next-door neighbors, All Star Pizza Co. also chipped in, letting us store our ice in their coolers , as well supplying some wonderful baked ziti and rolls.

But the main thrust of the afternoon was to give away backpacks with school supplies for local children. That's where Cheryl and I worked, and it was great fun. I don't know how many backpacks we had to start, but we gave them ALL away. Everyone was very excited and appreciative to receive them.

We didn't solve world hunger today, or end war, but we blessed our community, offered hope to some people that might not have had it, and possibly eased the financial burden on some families going through some tough times.

Over all, I'd say that's a good day.

A special "shout out" and "mad props" to Ali, Skye, and Elizabeth for helping take care of Nathanael (and to anybody else that chased him down). It gave me and Cheryl a chance to do something we both love: serving together. Thanks!

Taking the Month Off

So I'm taking the month of August off from the Hut. I've been a little under the weather this past week, and I think part of it is just from being tired.

Job #1 has been really busy for the past several months, and when you throw the second job on top of it, sometimes it's just hard to catch your breath. This weekend is my first full weekend off, and I am already loving it.

Had a great time last night! I did some puzzles in a brain teaser book and watched Jeopardy at the same time. Wild night.

Today, we cut my hair. Actually, I should say, shaved my hair. I haven't had it cut in years.

This afternoon, our church is doing a "Back to School Bash" in the parking lot for our community. We're giving away food, going to have some live music, fun stuff for the kids, etc. But the main thing thrust is that we are giving away a bunch of backpacks filled with the necessary school supplies. (That's actually my job, the handing out of the backpacks.)

It's going to be a lot of fun. It's from 4-8 tonight, so hopefully we'll miss most of the heat.

That's it. That's all I have to say. No clever quips or witty anecdotes. Just a little about my life right now.