Primordial Ooze

Some of you may know that my house has been under construction for quite a long time. We did some major work such as:

• Redoing our basement
• Redoing our bathroom
• Putting in an in-ground pool
• Installed pavers instead of grass in the backyard
• Tore down our garage and back extension (where the old office was)
• Redoing our kitchen
• Redoing the office

Well, all of that work is essentialy complete. We’re re-doing one more room, our front living-room, but compared to everything else  the living room will be a minor job.

Anyway, the Office went online yesterday so I spent the night moving in. here are a few pictures of it:

By Nick at 8:30 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

My cousin Andy is running in the Marine Corps Marathon and could use your help. Any donation, however small, would be very welcome! Please consider throwing him some love.

This effort especially hits home for me since someone from my immediate family has Leukemia (in remission!) and I sorely miss Julian, a Marine Sgt. killed last year in Iraq.

Here is a description of what he’s running for, in his own words:

I am training to participate in the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington D.C. as a member of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Team In Training. All of us on Team In Training are raising funds to help stop leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin lymphoma and myeloma from taking more lives. I’m completing this event in honor of all individuals who are battling blood cancers. These people are the real heroes on our team, and we need your support to cross the ultimate finish line - a cure! I am also running the Marine Corps Marathon in Honor of our brother, friend, son and fellow Marine Julian Arechaga of the 1st Battalion 6th Marines 2nd Marine Division whom we lost in Iraq October 9, 2006. I am raising money for this very important cause and I’m asking you to help by making a contribution! Please use the link in this email to donate online quickly & securely. You will receive email confirmation of your donation and I will be notified as soon as you make your donation. I thank you in advance for your support, and really appreciate your generosity!! My goal is to raise $3,500 By August 1st. http://www.active.com/donate/tntliny/andyrandazzo Please forward this email to as many people as you can to encourage them to donate as well! Thank you for your support. Sincerely, Andy Randazzo

By Nick at 9:40 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

I’ve been pretty bad about maintaining my flickr account lately. So, in honor of Independence Day, I thought I would send along the a new round of photos. Hopefully, I’ll keep things up to date for a while.

By Nick at 3:36 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

bagel to go
Originally uploaded by pwka.

By Nick at 9:06 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

My two oldest sons are both cub scouts and tonight was a Pack Night. Cub scouts are organized into dens and packs. Tiger, Wolf, Bear, and Webelos all get together and do some activity on pack nights. Sometimes it’s a demonstration from a local organization (my Tae Kwon Do school did a demonstration, for instance). Sometimes the local Astronomy club speaks (as was the case for my friend Steve’s pack). Tonight, though, was the biggest pack night of the year, for it was the Pinewood Derby and many scouts spent many hours preparing their home-made cars for the big race.

Who am I kidding, I made the damn cars and my kids maybe spent 10 minutes applying spray paint and stickers all over my basement floor. Oh, and they did a little sanding if you can call it that.

Back to the race. The Pinewood Derby is a race of wooden cars built to a rigid specification that emphasizes simplicity. The cars are propelled only by gravity and a lack of friction. Air resistance and aerodynamic designs, they say, play no part in the performance of the cars. The cars are judged on how fast they can go in the 2-3 seconds they sail down the old wooden track made specifically for this purpose. It’s a straight track and it holds the fate of each scouts dreams in it’s emotionless span from starting gate to infra-red finish line.

Like many fathers, I started out with a simple kit which contained a small block of wood, four plastic wheels, four nails, and an instruction booklet. This Pinewood Derby was my first and I didn’t know what the hell I was doing.

Luckily, my contractor and friend Greg was doing work in my basement and was kind enough to cut a car-shape out of the raw pieces of wood that came with the kits. If I was left to do it, the car would, well, it could have been ugly.

Here is a picture of the Pinewood Derby track:

When all was said and done, the cars I made for my sons did quite well. Giovanni placed third for the Wolves and Antonio placed second. I could not be more pleased and the kids really felt great.

Here is a picture of my sons with their cars after the race:

Here is a picture of some of the other cars:

(If these pictures are too big for the blog, I apologize. I’m still learning markdown and the blogging bundle in TextMate.)

One of the cars, one of the winners in fact, was amazing. I wish I had a picture of it. The paint job was superb! The car had a blend from dark to light that was simply gorgeous. The cars were fast, too, so I suspect the father had some decent engineering know-how.

All in all, it turned out to be a pretty great night. I took plenty of photos and a ton of video. Lots of memories to remember for a long time.

I’d like to thank my friend Steve for sending me all kinds of PDF’s and guides on how to make the car fast, perhaps some of those techniques came into play tonight and I don’t think we would have fared so well were it not for his sage advice. Thanks Steve!

By Nick at 11:35 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

I was in Best Buy this weekend. This was the second trip on a $100 gift card that was burning a whole in my pocket. My generous friend treated me to the gift card for Christmas after I helped him with his website earlier in the year.

With me I brought my youngest son Marco. Marco wanted to get some kind of bear movie since he was obsessed with bears lately. I figure I would look into getting some old sci-fi movies, hopefully at a discount price.

After finding “Brother Bear 2”, I came across a widescreen copy of Steven Speilberg’s 2005 War of the Worlds for $9.99. That didn’t seem right but at that price I simply didn’t think. I also picked up a 2–pack of The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms and Them, two classics from the “atomic age” for another $9.99.

Back to War of the Worlds.

When I got home, I later popped in the Worlds disc and noticed that it didn’t play. I popped out the disc and saw some huge surface defects on the bottom of the disc! Holy cow, no wonder the disc was so cheap. How annoying! There was no indication on the disc, other than the price, that this was a defective product.

My first instinct would be to march back to Best Buy and complain, perhaps demand a “real” disc but that would have been such a hassle. A hassle that I’m sure the Best Buy folks are betting on. How infuriating!

In the end, I have a DVD/CD Repair unit from Aleratec which I used to scrub off a few layers of plastic to fully restore the disc. After 4–5 treatments, the disc worked like “new”. The scratches were totally gone and the disc played perfectly.

Now the $50 repair unit effectively gets cheaper with every disc I repair. In this case, I saved $10 for repairing the defective Worlds DVD. I guess I can start looking for these faulty discount discs as a strategy to save money in the future.

But still, this is a totally offensive tactic and I’m left just shaking my head.

By Nick at 5:18 PM |Tagged as best+buy , bestbuy , cd , dvd | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Let me begin this post by stating that I am a weak-willed individual. I mainly rely on my wife to keep me in check. However, I recently read, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion and I have become very dangerous. That book is ridiculous!

I wanted to get an iMac for my two older sons because they have been asking to get their own computers for a long time. Part of me is thinking, I should get one and they should share. I should be teaching them how to share. Sharing is good…

Then I think to myself, I frakking teach them about sharing all of the frakking time. Screw that, I’ll leave the sharing lessons to other things like the frakking slide out back.

So, we’re talking about two iMacs, not one. I’m clicking away at apple.com/store and this leads to that and I find myself with a shopping cart brimming with quantity two 20” iMacs with 2GB of memory, upgraded video, wireless kb/m and AppleCare (of course).

The cart came to like $4k. I chicken out. I save the cart and exit, ashamed.

The next day I get an e-mail from Apple. They saw the saved cart and thought he quantity two (2) was a mistake. How CLEVER. They also asked if there was anything they could do to move things along, so to speak.

I joked and wrote back, “Yes, convince my wife that I can click ‘place order.’”

The phone rang like 20 minutes later. [They are EVIL]

Apple: Hey Nick, this is Jason with Apple. Your e-mail made me laugh. Is there anything I can help you with? Do you have any questions I can answer to help you make a decision?”

Me: Um.

Apple: I think you made a mistake since I see quantity two on your iMac and the AppleCare.

Me: Um, no, that’s not a mistake. I need two.

Apple: OK, so who are these beautiful new iMacs for? I’m sure I can get you a discount.

Me [thinking]: What? A discount? How? Really?

Me [sounding cool]: Yeh, that would be cool. The computers are for my two sons.

Apple: OK, give me a minute.

[there is a pause]

Apple: Hey, Nick, you’re in luck! I was able to save you over $400 on you order.

What happened next was a blur. Since I have my credit card number memorized, I found myself spewing out numbers, addresses, and the color underwear in one long sentence. In two days two new iMacs will arrive at my doorstep.

This post could be considered advice to all of you buyers out there. Mainly it’s confession.

Call 1–800–My-Apple and see if you can get a discount! I mean, school kids are eligible for an education discount… right?! Or, maybe you can save a cart and wait for the money to roll in!

By Nick at 1:14 AM |Tagged as apple , applecare , imac , mac | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Here is my fig tree, as taken on Saturday December 2. We’re experiencing an unusually warm December (not that I have a Farmer’s Almanac by my side or anything!) and the tree is in no immediate danger, but I’m a bit late to be taking care of this so I’m glad that I’m done.

Or so I thought.

I wrote to a friend, very proud of my bubble wrap protection. In my head, bubble wrap will serve as a good insulator. It’s waterproof and has plenty of air pockets to help regulate the temperature. My friend told me that the plastic will harm the tree!

He had another suggestion:

That might work better but maybe you might want to try to buy 4 2x4's and drive them into the dirt then slap on some plywood around it and fill the interior with leaves.  Then you could but some tar paper on top somehow to seal it from water.  It's alot of work which is why i don't have a fig tree.  Prune it back so that it fits into the house you would build. I forgot to ask, have you wraped it in the past?

Oy.

I’ll attempt his solution next weekend, but if I don’t get to it I’m hoping that my bubble wrap will at least be better than the raw elements.

The fresh figs at the Italian store by me are pretty good. Maybe I should just resign to eating those.

By Nick at 8:00 PM |Tagged as fig+tree , figs | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

My house is a mess. This post can be skipped by most, nothing technical or creative or “fun” here. Just a journal on the war zone which is my home.

We’re doing a bunch of work now; work that we’ve put off for years. Last month we had our entire heating system redone. This work involved the removal of 1940’s era radiators and placing baseboard heating in their place. We also got a new boiler.

Next up is the kid’s bedrooms. We’re tearing up the carpets and sanding and finishing the hardwood floors below. I spent the weekend moving all of the furniture and knick-knacks out of their room.

For the past month, I’ve also been clearing out our entire basement. First just enough to allow the plumber to come in and work on the boiler. But now it’s completely devoid of anything; ready to be finished off for good.

I have a large-sized PODS in my driveway full of so much crap I can’t even begin to describe. We threw out a lot but I’m hoping we throw even more out when it comes time to unload that behemoth.

After the basement is finished, my family will move down there while the bathroom, kitchen, and rear extension get a major overhaul. Then, in the Spring when all of the inside work should be done, my backyard will get torn to ribbons as I have a pool installed. Goodbye grass, hello pavers. I’ll need a fence between the pool and my house, too, to keep my young ones from falling in.

I started playing with room layouts. I’m thinking about where I want ethernet jacks; where I might want power outlets; and more. Here is one of the layouts:

Notice the Wii in the corner ;-)

By Nick at 9:14 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Via haha.nu. You will laugh, you will cry. Quicktime version, here.

by Dony Permedi

By Nick at 8:50 PM |Tagged as animation , youtube | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Here are some pictures I took of my family on my visit to Florida. I spent a lot of time with my cousin Billy on the football field. Two of his four sons were playing that day and I took lots of pictures.

This is my Grandma, she’ll be 89 next week.

We talked at the kitchen table for hours, catching up.

One factoid that was odd to me was the fact t hat these 9–12 year olds do not punt on the 4th down. Instead, they go for it every time. Billy says that the kicks don’t always work out so well so it’s not a sure thing.

I traveled on Southwest, great experience.

I brought a few blank discs and I made a few DVDs with my MacBook while I was there. Everyone was amazed. I was able to burn some hi-def footage I took on the first night of my visit, some stills, and even some video footage at the beginning of the tape.

All in all, the trip was great. It’s nice to be back, but I’m sorry it’s over.

By Nick at 4:42 AM |Tagged as florida , football , lomo , photography | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

I'm in West Palm Beach airport right now. I'm connected to the Internet via a free Wi-Fi connection provided by the airport. Very cool. Here is a picture I just snapped of my unshaven self.

This weekend, my brother and I are seeing my grandma. She's 90 and will be 91 in a week. It's been about a year and a half since I've seen her so I'm looking forward to our visit. Plus, I have lots of video and photo equipment ready to record her telling stories from the old days.

Perhaps I will have some adventures to tell, perhaps I'll be watching soap operas and daytime television. Who knows.

By Nick at 4:13 PM |Tagged as family , florida , isight , vacation | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

I was born in the 60's, even if just barely! I was too little to really understand what my hometown was like back then, but a fellow Wantagh-ite sent me this link with pictures showing how it used to be.

These pictures are from Wantagh, NY in 1961. This was way before my time… but most of this was probably still around when I was born in ‘69.

I remember this Carvel… but I’m amazed to see the new construction to the North… that was all built up by my earliest memories.

Ah, the Cherrywood Shooping Center. My friends and I went here all through high school. We usually ate at the Cherrywood Pizzeria, but I don’t think it was in business back then.

I have no idea what the fuck this is. Ray’s site says it was a flower farm. It draws a blank for me.

I have no idea where the hell this is. Ray says it was the A&P shopping center,– wherever that is. I should ask my father, or my brothers, or my friends Steve and Rob. They would probably know.

It’s much bigger now.

Ah, I remember seeing many movies here. Movies suct as E.T., Conan the Destroyer, and many others. I looked up Mr. Sardonicus and, yep, it was released in 1961.

Images seem to be copyright (c) 2005 bvy Ray Young. Thanks Ray!

By Nick at 11:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Last night I fell asleep on the couch a little after 10pm and didn’t wake up until 6am. I set my alarm clock for 5am so my last hour of sleep was interrupted a few times while I smashed on the snooze button a few times.

I was tired.

Last week, we got our little girl from Korea. The first few days with her kept my wife and  awake as she adjusted to the other side of the world, but our little girl soon fell into a nice groove and began to sleep through the night.

This weekend, my wife and I through a birthday party for my second oldest (no longer the middle), Antonio. The party went really well and I’d like to thank anyone reading this who came to celebrate the occasion with us.

That night was a bit rough. Our Serafina had a bit of a cold and was up all night. When morning came, my wife and I were faced with two kids running around the house screaming about my son’s new Nintendo DS Lite (it’s awesome). My youngest son was obsessed with some Floam and wanted more than his share as he constructed his little super bug. Then we had the yard to clean up. Oh man, it was a disaster area.

We rented an Italian ice cart, which is like the best thing you can get for a party. The kids get all sugared up and the adults find they’re finishing off more of these than they care to admit. Well, the little paper cups were in some very hard-to-find places.

We also had a big inflatable water slide which I had to re-inflate, clean off and dry before folding. Beer, soda, and water bottles were everywhere. My deck was a mess. Toys and remnants of last night’s epic light-saber battle were all over the place. By the way, the light saber battle may make it on Youtube if I can get my act together. It was cool.

Our cleaning efforts were interrupted by a trip to Bertucci’s in Melville to celebrate my cousin’s daughter’s first birthday.

In the end, I had to call and cancel our D&D engagement for the evening. Lisa and I simply had too much cleanup to do. we wound up finishing after 8pm. Serafina was still feverish and we knew it would be a long night with her up (it was).

I feel better rested now. I have my coffee and I’m ready to get to work.

By Nick at 7:47 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

In a few months, my house will be knocked down and we're going to build a new one in its place. The old one is starting to fall apart partly because I'm not all that handy with the tools, so to speak. The other partly is because we've known we were going to do something drastic for well over a year so I kind of let things just go.

Oh, and did I mention that we have more carpenter ants than you can shake a stick at? We do and they seem to know they are about to rule the joint because they no longer fear us. They come out in broad daylight and make their away around the kitchen like we're the intruders.

In preparation for the move, we started packing. The best way to pack is one room at a time. Put everything in boxes, label the boxes, and stack them up for the movers. We're going to rent one of those PODS thingies like everyone else does. Once it's full, we're going to have them haul it all away. We're also taking this opportunity to throw a bunch of stuff away. My wife and I are pretty good that way. If we don't use it, we just incinerate it.

When the house gets demolished, I'll be sure to document that so stay tuned.

By Nick at 9:54 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

This blog is normally pretty light-hearted, but I came across this link and thought it a good idea to post this:

http://www.familywatchdog.us/default.asp

There are links to tips to keep your kids safe, products (like safety watches), amber alerts, etc.

The site is pretty well-designed and their use of the Google Maps API showing the proximity of sex offenders to an arbitrary address is certainly an eye-opener.

By Nick at 5:00 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Today marks the 230’th anniversary of our great nation. I hope your holiday was fun, relaxing, safe, and everything you intended it to be. Here are some fireworks photos I took on my Indy trip:

More photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nickcody/sets/72157594187293787/

By Nick at 11:03 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

My brother and his wife just bought a new house on Long Island. Actually, in the town right next to mine. They currentlt have an apartment in the city and they hope to spend their weeks there and their weekends on L.I.

On their first day, they were greeted by some geese, or ducks, or whatever you call these floating birds:

Congratulations!

By Nick at 11:03 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Inside a kid’s head:

Happy Easter!

By Nick at 9:26 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

On Tuesday night, I stayed in the city and saw my fiend and work colleague compete in Guitarmageddon, an annual guitar competition hosted by the Guitar Center here in New York. He played brilliantly but a showman who could play the guitar behind his back won the event. Here is a quick shot of the contestants:

My friend Steve is second on the right. You wouldn’t know it, but he’s a brilliant database developer and from what I’m told an amazing singer. My other colleague Derek took some amazing shots of the players, but I haven’t asked him yet if I can post his photos here.

A bunch of us from work went to the event and afterwards we went to eat at the Heartland Brewery in New York’s Union Square. I ordered a salmon sandwich which was “ok” and a couple of their fresh brews which were also, just “ok.”

On my way home, I snapped this photo of the Union Square sign in the subway:

When I got to Penn Station, I was greeted by the music of Nicola, who sings down here quite often. My 11–megapixel camera allowed me to discern her website.

Finally, I was fortunate to take this photo of the old LIRR flip-panel main display. Later in the week, it was replaced with an LED version. I’m sure that the new signs will be far more reliable, but it’s still sad:

By Nick at 10:00 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Here is a picture I took this morning with my son in front of a sunrise. I learned what the “SL” flash seems to do. This was quite an exciting discovery for me. It exposes the background for a bit and then issues the flash (or vice versa?) so a foreground subject doesn’t show up as a silhouette against a bright background.

UPDATE: I wrote this while still on vacation, but the Internet connection was pretty bad and the post never made it. I’m back so here it is! Bandwidth restored!

By Nick at 11:00 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)