Finally, after much speculation, rumors, and other innuendo, I have released the new theme to the ol' website. I call this theme "Shenandoah", mostly because the banner is from one of my pictures I took while hiking around Shenandoah National Park (the picture in question is shown below). For now, I am sticking with Graffiti as my site's engine. I've been poking around the latest code drop from the Codeplex site, and one of the things I wanted (routing) is enabled. Now, I just need to wait...

Continue reading "Different look, same great taste"

Thus another Bengals season comes to a close. They got to play one more game than usual this season by virtue of making the playoffs. The Bengals were the proverbial blind squirrel this year, and they found their nut thanks to a better than average defense, a solid running game, an off year by the Steelers, and some lucky bounces. I'm not going to do a retrospective for the entire season, there are better sources for that. I just wanted to post some thoughts after simmering down after watching the...

Continue reading "The Bengals are who we thought they were!"

It's been quite awhile since I've posted. I admit it, I'm not a very prolific blogger - newer job, new baby, personal projects, blah blah blah. Really, if I was inspired I would have time to take 30 minutes a few times a week to post something. But due to laziness (or inertia) I haven't been. I sometimes wonder if I should just make this a more static site and not even put up the pretense of being a blogger. But... I think I will continue to pretend to be an occasional blogger. After all, I've been...

Continue reading "And you call yourself a blogger!"

So Outside Magazine ranked Cincinnati #9 in it’s 2009 best places to live list . I found that interesting, to say the least. Not that I entirely disagree, because I do live here and like where I live (particularly East side – much better than North side). But, I have lived here pretty much my entire life and I do know that the adventurous types might find the area a bit lacking. Sure, as the article does say – we do have fairly easy access to the mountains and rivers of Kentucky...

Continue reading "Outside Magazine’s Best Places to Live, 2009"

Just about a month ago I worked my last day at Strategic Data Systems (SDS), and in turn, I started my first non-consulting job ever since I graduated from Miami University in May of 1998. That's right, I was a software consultant (mostly as a developer) for the first 11 years of my career. Truth be told, consulting fit me well - I liked the variety in work, the challenging and interesting projects, and working with many different people (technical and non-technical). However, this past winter I...

Continue reading "Career.Refactor()"

A few days ago I decided to take the plunge and install Windows 7 RC 1 as the main operating system on my laptop. I had heard from quite a few people on twitter that had done so, and decided that I was feeling just crazy enough to do it myself. I was due for an OS refresh anyway, so why not roll the dice and go with the well-reviewed Windows 7? Although I was actually pretty happy with Vista (as opposed to some out there), there were a few quirks that I was hoping Windows 7 would address. And after...

Continue reading "Windows 7 - first impressions"

The question is do I want to be a typical geek in this announcement. Do I want to say "A new process has spawned." Or, do I want to state "Version 2 has been released". Any of those phrases are kind of cliche when we developer types have a new baby. So, I decided to forgo that and just announce that she is here. I know, very "edgy". Without much ado... our daughter, Emilia Ruth, was born on Thursday, May 28th at 6:53 PM. She weighed 6 pounds, 3 ounces at birth, and was...

Continue reading "Introducing Emilia Ruth"

Monday night we had our annual end of the year banquet for the bowling league. As usual, it consisted of a steak or chicken dinner and drinks, followed by the awarding of prize money. The Lebowskis finished in 14th place this season, out of 22 teams. It was the same as last season , although I would consider it a slight fall since there were 24 teams then. We started off this season quite well, finishing in the top 10 during the first half. However, we fell apart during the second half, which concluded...

Continue reading "Conclusion of the 2008 – 2009 season"

Last night was the first week of the spring softball session, 2009. I am on two teams for the spring session, and both teams play on Friday nights. Apparently the schedule makers at Rumpke were able to accommodate teams who are in two leagues on the same night, so there we are. It was a pretty good first night - we lost the first game and won the second. The first game we were decent on defense, other than one inning where we just had a breakdown. We started strong at the plate, but failed to generate...

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It appears that Graffiti, like this blog, isn’t quite dead yet . Sure, the coroner knocks on the door from time to time trying to drum up business, but both seem to be hanging on. After Telligent had layoffs in February, there was much speculation on the Graffiti Forums that perhaps Telligent was about to jettison Graffiti. I still have some doubt until the next version is released, and I had been considering alternatives based on the lack of information - but for now I will be able to hold...

Continue reading "Not quite dead yet"