MichaelRunyon.com – All Things Geek

So, it’s winter in Indiana, and cold is to be expected. Cold and snow. It happens every year. No one should be surprised. But, one thing that you learn growing up in this environment is that the cold makes ordinary things very difficult. 

Example number one: my furnace went out on Wednesday, around noon. I didn’t notice until about 2, though I was luckily at home that day. It was pretty cold outside, but not terribly cold. Probably around 15 degrees or so. The house had already gone down to 55 and was losing a degree every 15 minutes or so. After messing with the furnace controls for about an hour, I realized from the diagnostic readout that the pressure switch was stuck open. According to people online, all you have to do is remove the panel and clear the debris from the pressure switch hose from the air intake. Remembering the last time that I invoked the home warranty that I have, where my attempt to fix it caused them to claim that they could not touch it, I did nothing aside from take the panel off to get the serial number and then closed everything back up. 

After that, I started the oven at around 400 degrees and then opened it, and started a space heater in the basement. With the help of the oven, the main floor heated up to around 60. I cycled it on and off throughout the day, keeping it around 55 most of the time. After a little research, I heard that keeping the faucets running was a good way to keep the pipes from freezing. that night, we went and got another space heater, and Leah brought the one from school home, bringing our total to 3. We ran 2 in the basement, and one on the main floor, running the oven every now and then. We were able to keep it around 60 with this method. I was still afraid that the pipes would burst once we went to bed. With all the faucets slowly running, we went to bed, with a space heater and electric blanket. 

I got up around 7, after not sleeping very well, and went out of the room to check the temperature. A solid wall of cold met me at the door. It was probably nearly 70 in the room with the little space heater, and the thermostat on the main level read 48. Yikes! Pipe freeze alarms go off at 45, so I had to start running the oven again. After 2 hours of oven, it finally rose to 50. 

The furnace guy that I had called the day before was supposed to arrive between 9 and 12, and I was desperately hoping that he would arrive and fix it, because the next evening was to supposed to get very cold (and it did!). He arrived, did some quick diagnostics, pulled off the tube from the pressure switch, cleaned it, restarted it and it kicked on. I could’ve easily fixed it myself, if only I hadn’t been afraid of voiding the warranty. At any rate, it was working again, and the house began a slow rise from 51 to 64 over the next 12 hours. 

Leah and I were both home from work that day. It was Leah’s 2nd snow day that week, as Laporte had gotten quite a bit more snow than we had, and we already had about 12-15 inches. Around dinner time, after reading horror stories about ice dams on your roof causing flooding when the snow melts, I went outside with the dog for about 3 minutes, then went to the front and shoveled off as much of the roof as I could. Then, I shoveled the walk in front of our house and the neighbor’s house. I guess that I had forgotten to check just how cold it was, because after about 10-15 minutes of being outside, I realized that I couldn’t feel my fingers or toes. Remembering that this was an early sign of frostbite, I quickly went inside to warm up, and after getting on my computer, realized that the outside temperature was -10, with a windchill of -35! After a couple of hours of tingly toes, I was relived to know that they would be fine.

As we were watching TV last night, a plow truck from the city badly negiotiated a turn and hit a control box on the corner across from our house. About 10 seconds later, the light started flashing red, and I got very upset. This same thing happened about a year ago, and it took the city literally 3 months to fix. A flashing light at a semi-busy street in front of your house makes it nearly impossible to get out in the morning, and furthermore, makes it quite dangerous for drivers on that road to queue up and quickly stop. 

Now, I’m home from work again (though, with a computer and an Internet connection, I find myself still very able to produce work), because it’s -17 outside with a windchill of around -30. With cold like this, you have to be very careful. If you don’t stop and get gas and run out, you might freeze to death before the police or family comes to your aid. If you are shoveling snow or doing something outside and feel warm on the inside, you could get frostbite on your nose, ears, fingers or toes. It’s so cold, that even simple mistakes become terrible mistakes. It truly does complicate things.

The South Bend area has received somewhere between 6-9 inches of snow in the last 2 days. I typically allow these sorts of situations to pass, but today I unwillingly trudged out to the driveway to shovel out a path for our vehicles. After nearly 1.5 hours of shoveling, I grew extremely agitated with the negative progress induced by the rapidly passing snowplows on my street. I thought it amusingly ironic that our street (which is moderately busy) is often bypassed by plows on other days, but that in the 1.5 hours that I shoveled, a plow drove past 8 times, sometimes in teams of 2. 

At any rate, my driveway is now mostly clear, and my back is very sore. I am simply not in the kind of shape to allow me to just go out and shovel 80 feet of driveway. The lack of a viable exercise program, combined with zero exercise effort at work, leaves me very much a glorified vegetable. I wil limp now upstairs to crawl in bed with a hot pad, and hope that I am able to perform normal functions in the morning, without the aid of additional heat or excessive painkillers. 

To those of you that live in other, milder climates, please take this time to praise your choices and reminisce about similar situations you may have experienced in the past. For those of you that still living in the area, I wish you a hot cup of coffee, a good shovel and a strong back. Or, at the very least, a enterprising young lad from the neighborhood looking to work for cheap. 

Well, everyone typically has resolutions sometime around the beginning of a new year. As a sidenote, I find it interesting that in our continually more insulated society, we still find newness at the turn of the year. Sure, it marks some changes that are evident in everyday life. Writing 2009 instead of 2008 on your documents. Rolling over taxes, wages, spending to another year. But in all truth, it is just another day. Sure, it’s a day marked out clearly by heavenly events (spring, summer, fall, winter) and we continually adjust our schedules and time-sense to make it clear to us when it’s happened. But we choose to make the day different. We could go on about the day, thinking no difference about it than any other. But I digress…

My resolutions this year will be a bit different than ones in years past. For one, some of them are joined with my wife. And also, I intend to actually accomplish a few of them, rather than pie-in-the-sky ruminations. Some of them, I started the first day of the New Year. 

The holidays can be a time for reflection, among other things. Relatives that you don’t see very often come into town, and you reflect on how wonderful it was to see them, and reflect on how much you wish that it could be more often. Logical constructs appear randomly to remind you of the circumstances dictating the current situations, and defeat is accepted. You speak frankly with those whom you love, barriers of feelings and space broken down by limited time and chosen words, chosen actions. But ultimately, time passes quickly for both parties, and you are separated and left still in a state of reflection.

My goals this year are motivated by many aspects of humanity: the physical, the professional, the emotional. But I will jump straight into the goals and leave you with the details as follows.

Health

1. Immediate and total cessation of soda drinking. My wife will be joining me on this goal. Basically, our soda consumption had reached epic levels, and reflection upon the vast amount of daily liquid calories grossed by soda consumption realized a goal of simply stopping. This cessation will leave us heavily addicted to both major properties of soda: sugar and caffeine. Being that the sugar is the major proponent for change, I will seek out caffeine elsewhere to curb that addiction. But the sugar will lapse with time.
2. Get to a more healthy weight. I typically weigh somewhere between 220 and 225. This translates to a BMI that approaches obesity (28.2-28.9). After the holiday food rush (massive food intake coupled with entire lapsation of exercise) my weight spiked towards 230, dangerously close to obesity. To get within the parameters of a “healthy weight” as dictated by BMI, my goal weight would be 195 (BMI of 25, the very high end of healthiness). That is a 30 pound differential of my average weight. Based upon the amount of pop that I was drinking before (average of about 3 cans per day == 450 calories), if I did nothing else besides ceasing pop consumption and not replacing it with other calories (tea, coffee), I would drop 49 pounds (in a reality unaffected by descending exponential caloric need with weight loss). More realistically, with some caloric replacement by coffee and teas, (still in an unaffected virtual reality) I would still lose 36 pounds! Obviously, this reality is not entirely the case, as already stated. But with proper exercise and improvement in diet in areas other than liquids, it is most certainly possible.

Personal/Professional Skills

1. Implement source control. Utilizing SVN or Git or other methods of source control has proven to be extremely valuable and effective for programmers the world round. I can think of many circumstances within the last year where enforced source control (checking in/out code) would’ve solved problems, especially with our larger sites/projects where multiple persons are developing. This is also a valuable skill when marketing yourself in the future, since source control is such an essential mechanism for production in a team or project environment.
2. Further develop .NET skills (C#/VB.NET). Despite my qualms about transitioning to an entirely different paradigm, it’s prevalence in the marketplace neccesitates my at least minimum proficiency in utilizing it. I have some experience with ASP, which functions in a normal GET/POST environment like most other languages, but ASP.NET functions inside the Windows Forms control mechanism with Viewstates and other specialized controls. As I mentioned before, I am not particularly a fan of this procedure, but it seems to work for others, and I’m always interested in learning a new skill, particulary if it will be useful in the future.

Personal

The Internet is really changing everything. People are coming together and information is spreading so rapidly, sometimes it is truly unbelievable. Runyons from all over facebook are contacting me and inviting to join groups of them. 

This summer, I was unable to go with my dad’s side of the family to a reunion in West Virginia. The reunion primarily focused on the Lester side of the family (my paternal grandmothers family). My paternal grandfather had passed away the summer previous and the trip was especially meaningful to those who were able to attend, as much of the elder family members are starting to thin out as time goes on. 

Then, randomly, I remembered at one time someone saying that my paternal great-grandmother was a McCoy (from the infamous Hatfield-McCoy feuds of the late 1800s). I decided to try and find out if this was true, and if so, how I was related to the events that happened. The McDowell Co Historical Preservation Society’s website was instrumental in finding the familial relationships of the Lesters and McCoys, along with a couple of other websites related to WV history.

My great-grandmother Rose Nell McCoy was born on Sep 9, 1907 to Wayne McCoy. Wayne McCoy was the 13th child of Selkirk McCoy. Selkirk McCoy was the firstborn of Asa McCoy, son of Samuel McCoy. Asa was the cousin of Randolph and Asa Harmon McCoy, the two brothers that started the feud with the Hatfield family. According to Wikipedia, the feud officially started when a band of ex-Confederate soldiers killed Asa Harmon McCoy, a Union soldier returning home. 

According to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatfields_and_McCoys ); 

“The uncle of Devil Anse, Jim Vance, and his “Wildcats” despised Hans Hall McCoy because he had joined the Union army during the American Civil War. Harman had been discharged from the army early because of a broken leg; several nights after he returned home, he was murdered in a nearby cave.”

So, therein we come to the very start of the feud, and also a famous event in history (well, semi-famous) that we/I can trace our family tree to. My great great great great great grandfather, Asa McCoy, was the cousin of Hans Hall McCoy, who was murdered to start the feud. So, Hans Hall McCoy, the origin of the feud, would be my 1st cousin, 6 times removed (Many thanks to a relationship calculator provided by Stephen Morse).

I won’t pretend that this association makes me in any way special. I am 6 generations away from the events that happened; those involved in the circumstances probably spawned thousands of descents in the years since. My great great grandfather, the last male McCoy in my family tree, was the 13th child in his family. Randolph, who was eventually killed in the feud, married my great great great great great great aunt Sarah, and had 16 children over a span of 23 years. Amazing! Our times have changed so much since then. 16 kids in a family today would literally be national news. Following our train, even if all of the other McCoys were much less fertile, and each successive generation spawned only half as many kids, that would still be 6,000 descendants with the same relationship to Asa McCoy (and Randolph McCoy) that I share.

Again, I cannot express how impossible this would’ve been without the Internet. It would’ve taken many phone calls and probably a physical trip or two to some archive to find out how we were all related.  And yet, it took me inside of an hour to make this connection. What a wonderful tool…no matter who you are, how savvy you are, how old/young you are, the communications ability of this technology (which is only just beginning) is just staggering. Our ability to bring together and communicate today is so much greater than anything we could’ve imagined even just a few years ago.

Maybe there’s someone famous in your family’s past. With the power of the Internet, and a little determination, there is almost no limit to what can be known.�

Well, i got back last night from a wonderful trip to visit Leah’s dad’s family in Greeley, CO. The mountains are beautiful there, and only about an hours’ drive away. It does a body good to see something besides corn all the time. Here’s the link to the Picasa album: http://picasaweb.google.com/mrunyon/2008ColoradoHernandezVisit

I also sent out this year’s notification emails for the gift registry last week. I gave the registry a little face-lift. Hopefully it will be more useful now. More changes to come, i’m sure.

I’ve got a mountain of work to do now that i’m back, so i probably shouldn’t spend too much time writing about all that I’ve been doing lately. Working mostly, and trying desperately to stop time from screaming by so quickly. Winter is upon us in full force; I can only hope to focus on getting my crucial work done before all hell breaks loose and deadlines start looming.

Hope that you all are doing well. Best wishes to you all as winter approaches and a new season begins.

I realized today that I always spell tomorrow “tommorrow”. Now, when I look at it in this context, it makes perfect sense to me that it’s spelled the way that it is. And clearly, I eventually recognize that this word is not correct when it comes out of my hands. Yet, I cannot stop doing so. 

I find this behavior to be fundamentally different than that of a “bad speller”, if you will. I am aware that I am spelling something wrong, and due to the corrective functions of the tools that I use on a daily basis, I no longer have to go back and correct myself. Yet, I still remain in my ways, despite all evidence to the contrary. 

What aspects of ourselves can we analyze and come away with no solution? I have bitten my fingernails (an admittedly nasty habit) since birth, and continue to do so, even ravenously, and most noticeably during times of stress. I also compulsively (and also sub-conciously, i might add) chew the inside of my cheek. I don’t even notice that I’m doing it most of the time. Yet, if I had to devise a solution to get me to stop doing it, would I be able to? Short of something drastic or autonomous, I doubt that it would be successful. 

Which brings me round to my point again: What are we to do with behavior that we understand, but cannot correct? Should I continue to worry that I cannot bring myself to find solutions to behavioral problems within myself? Or is it strange to be so self-analytical, that you might even consider something of this nature. To be sure, it’s pretty late in the game to be trying to correct some of these things; consider that they’ve been happening my entire life. But that shouldn’t stop me/us from attempting to bring about the best sides of ourselves. 

Today, i was stopped in the parking lot of the Post Office and asked a few questions by WSBT about concerns about the bailout and the economy. The goal of the questioners was to find out what people had questions about, concerns about. I mainly talked about what I thought caused it, and what the ramifications would/will be. Therefore, I barely made it in the clip. The last interviewee who says “I think it will affect everyone”….that’s me. Too bad that I tried to sound intelligent with my answers and they chose a clip that shows me talking out of the side of my mouth, wearing a dirty looking shirt…there is no escaping the stigma.

Here’s a link…

http://www.wsbt.com/news/local/29969904.html 

In an attempt to re-invent myself in small ways, I recently thought of shaving off my goatee. I’ve been growing it since mid-way through my first semester at college, and with the exception of a particular bad shave job, it’s been on my chin in one manner or another for 4 years and 7 months, give or a take a bit.

I don’t know what prompted it, but I am always for changing it up, given that the change is not too drastic or risky. So when I thought of shaving the goatee, well, that tugged a bit at the security blanket side of me. I covered my chin with my hand, thought of how I might look without it. I was none too impressed. Yet, I feel an overwhelming urge to attempt to change up something about my appearance, that has been in stasis for quite some time. Not that I am looking for anything in particular, but it annoys me that this little thing can cause such consternation.

My wife urges me to reconsider, stating that I will look fully 5 years younger if I do so, and that she likes it. Given that others have to look at me much more than I do myself, I am wont to give their opinions some consideration, but consider, too, that it will grow back in a short time. 

So, the question still remains….shave it, or don’t shave it?

After a pretty hefty dry spell in this area during the latter part of August and early September, the South Bend area experienced between 7-11 inches of rain between Saturday morning and Sunday evening. The 7-inch one day total for Saturday is the standing record for single-day rainfall in this area. The news played many clips of families with heavy flooding, especially those in low-lying areas. I went out briefly on Sunday afternoon and found myself soaked. There were a great many near-impassable places, with quite a few unlucky sedans floating through the puddles. Happily, I saw quite a few people in better equipped vehicles jump out to assist their neighbors.

My roof withstood much of the downpour until Sunday afternoon, when the heaviest rain occurred, due in great part to Hurricane Ike making its way up to the Midwest. A small leak from the top of my dormer caused a small drip leak that put a small puddle on my floor. The rain subsided shortly after finding the leak, so I thought that would be the extent of my problems, but sadly, I went thereafter into the basement and found quite a few small puddles of water that had risen through the floor of the basement. I went rapidly searching around for wall or ceiling leaks, but finally concluded that the water table had just risen enough to come up through the cracks in the foundation.

Probably about half of the laundry in the laundry room got wet, and so we had to divide the wet from the dry, for proper washing. Very time-consuming and frustrating, all the way around. I can’t complain too much, given the extreme circumstances. There was very little damage, mostly just annoyance. I will have to follow up on the roof leak, however, since I now know that the minor repairs done last summer were not enough to hold off extreme weather.

Notre Dame beat Michigan soundly today, 35-17, in a game heavily influenced by rain in the latter half. Michigan made some key errors at the outset of the game, and I, along with the rest of the doubtful Irish fans, watched in disbelief as Notre Dame went up 21-0 in the first quarter. I couldn’t believe my eyes.

Michigan fought back, somewhat, to their credit, and established a good running game against the Irish, something that I think Notre Dame needs to work on, as it was a repeat feeling from last week against SDSU. Notre Dame excelled in all aspects of their offense, getting exceptional field position many times due to interceptions, fumble recoveries or other errors by Michigan, and scoring in the red zone extremely well. They only seemed to falter once the rain came on heavily, and started to pound the ball via their backs and much improved offensive line.

Notre Dame can have few complaints about this game, though Charlie Weis did suffer a knee injury during a strange play where an ND player was blocked out of bounds and rolled over Weis’ leg. The replays showed a grisly bend of the leg towards the impact. The report at half-time was that the MCL and ACL was torn, and he would be seeking surgery this week. Yikes! That kinda thing doesn’t happen too often.

I have somewhat strengthened hope in Notre Dame after this win, though Michigan essentially gift-wrapped it for them with their many mistakes. Michigan hasn’t proven themselves a quality win yet, either, with their shaky win over Miami of Ohio, and a loss to Utah (though with Utah’s new ranking, that is looking less bad all the time). We’ll find out the new couple weeks whether the Irish are returning to their old ways, when they play MIchigan State at East Lansing and then Purdue at home. Purude took No.16 Oregon to two overtimes, so they will be a quality opponent.