First blog from ipod

Today I took Jacob's iPod to the apple store and they replaced it. The new one works fine. I thought I'd make a blog entry with it.
The typing interface will take some getting used to. I think I will get me one someday soon.

Running is in her genes

Cathi finished her 29th marathon yesterday. She did great. Anytime she gets under 4:00 is a good marathon. She got 3:47. A couple minutes from being another Boston Qualifier. Jacob also ran the half marathon. He was determined to get under 2:00. He got 1:58 and took first place for the 12 and Under category. When he puts his mind to something he fights to the finish! Plus it doesn't hurt that his Mom is a running machine.

I'm so proud of these two people in my life! Congratulations Cathi and Jacob. You guys did so good.

From Cathi's Marathons

Russell Hantz did NOT win Survivor Heroes vs. Villains

I read today that Russell Hantz was arrested for hitting some guy down to the ground at a festival in Louisiana.

Based on this I can infer that he did NOT win Survivor Heroes vs. Villains because to a guy with that big of a head, if he won, he wouldn't be frustrated. This tells me that he's having so much frustration with his outcome (and his life) that he has to resort to violence because he isn't happy.

Poor guy.

Can I just say I can't stand Russell Hantz? Survivor's biggest villain and fool. If he wanted to win, he'd win over a few people instead of make everyone on the jury hate him. It's not who makes it to the end alone. It's who makes it to the end and has enough people on the jury who will vote him as the sole survivor.

I would have thought he would have learned that the first time, when he lost to some girl that I can't even remember anymore.

Goodbye Facebook

So our Stake President who is probably the most inspiring speaker I've ever heard, mentioned last Saturday in a session of conference, the problems presented with Social Networking. He said, "I'm not telling everyone to get off of Facebook, I'm just saying, be careful." He went on to give examples of problems that people often stumble over with its use.

I decided that for me, I would just get off it. It really is a waste of time, and also encourages big egos. So I'm done. I'll still keep my blogs though as they are really a form of keeping a journal.

What do do when deploy fails in OC4J App Server

First of all, this post is WORK RELATED, and not intended for friends/family and is completely boring so feel free to hit "mark as read" now.....

I found NO help whatsoever in google for this issue, so I'm hoping that this post might help some other poor soul trying to figure it out.

Trevor tried deploying TomaxCMAdmin in 10gR3 OC4J App Server and kept getting this error:
"Operation failed with error: oracle.oc4j.admin.internal.DeployerException"

I was able to deploy the same war file to my standalone OC4J just fine. I compared settings, deleting the CMADMIN OC4J Instance and recreating it, but nothing worked. Then I asked the hero of the day: Sudhakar Pyndi, and he had an immediate answer. Man I really respect guys who have a photographic memory!

The fix for this error: "Operation failed with error: oracle.oc4j.admin.internal.DeployerException" is in the second page of the deployment in OC4J.

On the "Bind Web Module to Site" option, DO NOT select default-web-site. (I put it that way because that is how it is set in my standalone OC4J which does deploy properly). But in the OC4J App server, this needs to be set to null. Once I did that, it deployed properly and without errors.

Hoping that this helps someone else out there.

Flashback of bullies and Austin's Piñata

Yesterday I had an experience that made me have a flashback of an encounter I had with a group of bullies:

I was about 11 or 12 and walking to the store from my house when I had to walk past a group of about 5 or 6 kids that were rough kids. The kind that used foul language and often got in trouble at school. They were hanging out on a corner where i had to turn to get to the store. I decided to walk past them and not show fear, cause they sense that and feed off it. So I walked past them. One of them said, "Hey where you goin? You got any money?" Stuff like that. I decided to just keep on walking rather than turn myself into a victim. Then the group started following me. They got up right next to me. I had to make a move, so I turned up a driveway to a house the I deliver newspapers to. The family had a couple of smaller kids not my age, but school age kids. One of the bullies said, "You live here?" I said no. I went up to the door and pretended to ring the doorbell. The bullies pretty much walked off and out of sight. I then resumed my walk to the store and didn't have any issues.

So bottom line. Don't show fear, and just modify your planned route momentarily if needed to throw off the enemy.

What caused this flashback? Layton Police department. I took the first Layton exit and was heading up to Gordon, when there was probably 3/4 mile of cars all lined up to get through the intersection at Fort Lane and Gordon. I wasn't in the mood to wait for 10 minute to get through there so I turned into the MASSIVE fort lane parking lot to cut through. I noticed after turning in that there were, no lie, about 8-10 cops on motorcycles and cars chasing other cars who were also cutting through a minute before me. Lights were flashing all over the parking lot. I knew I was busted. This was a traffic cops dream. Lots of impatient people like me trying to bypass all the old people who mosey on through.

But then I had the above flashback and had an idea. I had to throw off these bullies. One of the few remaining shops of that dying block was an authentic Mexican shop. I stopped and parked. Went inside thinking I wouldn't buy anything, but just come out a couple minutes later. But then I saw some very cool looking piñatas. Austin's birthday party was this evening so I bought one with Shrek and donkey on it. I then went back to my car, put the piñata in the back seat and made my way to the north end of the parking lot (still taking advantage of the cut through).

The few cops who weren't already issuing tickets were eyeballing me. I bought my way through that parking lot! It was way cheaper than a ticket and dealing with an underpaid and aggressive bully. Screw you Layton cops!

Layton should hire more construction workers to get that nightmare construction done with, rather than cops to give tickets, chasing people down like cats. But that doesn't bring revenue in for Layton does it?

So I stopped at All-A-Dollar and filled up the piñata with candy and small toys and what a party we had with the kids and a bunch of other neighbor kids. They had a blast and enjoyed all the fun toys and treats.

So what originally was a diversion actually ended up being such a great activity for Austin's party.

Qwest (and other phone bullies) better wise up, or a little kid called Ooma is gonna kick them where it counts

I am very excited to announce another step away from the "financial tyranny of phone companies". Today I got my Ooma system which I bought on Amazon.com for $180. The Ooma system allows for telephone charges that are free. That's right free! Not a penny or two a minute. Nothing!

Within 4 months, the system pays for itself. That's a kick butt ROI.

Installation was simple. I plugged the box into my DSL box, and then from there to my network router. Then my main wireless phone receiver into the Ooma box. Then within a few minutes of setting up an account online, I got a dial tone and could make free calls.

A couple of minor catches:

• I have to pay the one time fee of $39.99 to port my old phone number - but that's worth it.
• At the start of the second year, the calls are still free, but I have to start paying the yearly $11 tax - I was wondering about tax. Can't really get around that, but $11/year for phone service isn't bad.


• The phone system is only as reliable as your internet - which so far has been pretty reliable, although overpriced.

I called Qwest to cancel my over $50/month phone service and gladly told them I'm going to be paying $0/month for phone service. They tried to cut me a deal, but they couldn't come close to free. Can't wait to hear about more people jumping on the Ooma bandwagon and really make the big dogs sweat!

You gotta check them out. Ooma.com