My name is
David Robins:
Christian, lead developer (resume), writer, photographer, runner,
libertarian (voluntaryist),
and student.
This is also my son David Geoffrey Robins' site. He has been abducted for 2228 days.
2013 Acura TL SH-AWD Advance
News, Auto ·Monday September 9, 2013 @ 20:15 EDT (link)
I picked up my new car today. I confess I opened it up a little after Honey dropped her car off and we went driving around by the cornfields (actually, we went up to the gun range, since it's a nice drive). Accelerates real smooth, and a comfortable but not isolating ride.
My (2000) Toyota Solara will be spending some time in WV; I'm going to lend it to/store it at their place, and they'll be able to use it when they need an extra car. I don't want to sell it since it still runs fine and I may need it some day, or want to drive it on longer trips when we have a house to store it at, rather than taking the Acura, since it gets better mileage. It's worth more to me than the couple thousand, tops, that I could get from it. (Also, I was glad not to let the dealer have the opportunity to take money from me on the trade-in.)
Range membership, car shopping
News, Guns, Auto ·Saturday September 7, 2013 @ 19:49 EDT (link)
I stopped in to the Atlanta Conservation Club (ACC) this morning to submit my membership application, which required an online quiz, a paper quiz, an on-site safety check (which involved correcting common malfunctions such as a stovepipe, and shooting a line of steel plates), participating or volunteering at two events (I volunteered; I didn't want to shoot matches right now), and submitting rather too much ID (driver's license, license to carry handgun, NRA membership), which, although they are a private company, I blame the state for, as the sine qua non in the transaction. I gave the packet directly to Jeff Oakes, and a check for $150 for a year or so membership (they had some sort of deal for new members), and he said he'd put my gate code in that evening (and he did). So since I'd been waiting several months, mostly for the LTCH, but also do do the events and physical safety check, I was glad to finally be a member (or pretty close; it may require board approval?); unfortunately, I didn't bring cardboard for backing, and they didn't have any spare, so I couldn't shoot that day.
I drove around to a few gun stores, like Bare Arms (sic.), and eventually ended up back at the (Ed Martin) Acura dealer, where I took a 2013 TL (black, or crystal black pearl exterior, black leather, or ebony, interior, SH-AWD, Advance package, tinted windows) for a test drive. Very nice car (I had done another test drive in a similar vehicle in Florida, but it had been a little while). In fact, it was pretty much exactly the model and feature set I wanted, so I returned later in the day with Honey and bought the car. I also had a chance to go through Edmunds.com and request a price quote, using their "True Market Value" calculation, which brought it down some, and a little negotiation did the rest, as they really wanted to make a deal before I left. The car I was looking at had some "diamond cut alloy rim" wheels they wanted $2k for, which I certainly didn't value that highly especially as the package already came with 19" wheels, so they asked if I wanted them if they left them on and didn't charge for them, which was fine by me. They kept trying to get me to go a few hundred higher than my "buy now" price and I told them that'd be fine, but I'd take the numbers down and shop around first. I took the 0.9% financing even though it meant a 36-month loan. I pick the vehicle up Monday.
Books finished: The Subtle Knife.
Tenth anniversary dinner
News ·Sunday September 1, 2013 @ 21:42 EDT (link)
Today we went to Ocean Prime for an anniversary dinner; we had a reservation (via OpenTable) for 1930. I had mentioned on the reservation "special notes" that it was our 10th anniversary, to see if they would do anything for it; and they did, giving us champagne and comped desserts. Honey wore a white "crocodile" pattern dress she had just bought, and new heels, and of course her new earrings.
For the main course Honey had the 10 oz. filet, medium (but they may have done it medium well) and I had the 14 oz. New York strip, medium rare, and we both had baked potatoes on the side (all à la carte, no "included sides", but that was fine). We were pretty full but not uncomfortably so and had called for a box and the check when we received word about desserts on the house, so managed to squeeze it in. I had a white chocolate key lime pie and honey had a chocolate peanut-butter cake. Our waiter, Emmanuel, did a great job.
We were there a couple hours, all told, and had a great time, although we could have wished for quieter neens next to us. I think we brought home enough food for another meal.
Mammoth Cave revisited, and Interactive Fiction hope
News ·Saturday August 31, 2013 @ 21:22 EDT (link)
Friday was our tenth anniversary; so I took off from work early; we had planned to go down to Mammoth Cave in Kentucky on Saturday, so we drove down to Elizabethtown, KY and stayed overnight at the Fairfield Inn there (with a nice whirlpool tub). The room was nice, but a little smaller than I expected; but then, it wasn't a suite. I gave Honey some diamond earrings I'd been shopping for a few weeks before when she was out of town, and she gave me a nice card (and might be getting me something else later; I'm supposedly hard to shop for). We ate at the Texas Roadhouse, which was fine but we planned to go somewhere special for our "real" anniversary dinner (see next entry). We left in the morning right before checkout at noon, heading down to the cave, mindful that we got an extra hour since it was in Central time and we weren't, yet.
We took two tours, which I had reserved ahead of time: the New Entrance tour at 1300, which we had to take a bus to the start of, and the Historic tour, which was right near the visitor center (although down a bit of a hill which was no fun coming back up at the end). Both lasted two hours, and happened to have the same ranger guides for both: John and Michael (Michael talked more on the first, John on the second).
The last time I had been in the cave was about 10 years ago, in March 2002 (photos). There were some new rules this time, notably, no backpacks or rucksacks (to help preserve the cave walls), and people had to walk on "biomats" (spongy mats with some sort of anti-bacterial soap on them) after leaving to avoid spreading "white nose disease", a fungus that kills bats. Also, when I went back then, I went on a tour (Grand Avenue, four and a half hours, $18, so $4/hour vs. $6/hour now) that wasn't being offered at present (due to cuts, i.e., Washington monument syndrome). I also got to take my tripod in; it wasn't officially sanctioned then (don't know about monopods, but they aren't allowed now), as one of the rangers told me at the end, but he didn't bother me about it since he could see I was being careful and not getting in people's way. Which is an eminently sensible attitude about rules (much like the range officer at Silverdale was saying when we were there last; rules are meant to serve man, not the other way around). I much preferred using a tripod and the lights set up in the cave to having to use flash as I did this time.
Michael was a very entertaining guide, and good at getting people, including the kids in the crowd, to quiet down (John was less good at that, but he told a good tale of his family's historical connections to the cave as inspiration for future generations to protect it). Both tours had us sit on benches in open areas for information and questions (and to help stragglers catch up, I suppose); we moved at a good pace but not too quickly.
There were a lot of stairs going down (280?) at the start of on the New Entrance tour. Michael told us they cost taxpayers $3000 (back 30? years ago)&hellip per stair, and asked if we thought we got good value for our money. Given that a nuclear sub contractor had done it, and probably overcharged a great deal just because they already knew their way around the federal bidding process, I expect not, but amortized over time it probably wouldn't have been a huge deal even if (and if only) it had only been paid for voluntarily.
At one of the areas with benches we were sitting near the front and I mentioned Crowther and Woods and Colossal Cave Adventure to see if he'd heard of them, and knew what locations (since I knew it was in Kentucky) inspired them. Not only did he know of them, but he programmed interactive fiction as a hobby. And yes, Colossal Cave does connect to Mammoth, but it is closed to the public although some IFers have been allowed in to write about the connections to the game. (I suppose over the years enough tourists would come by asking that even an uninterested person would look them up.) Which gave me hope for humanity, if a government employee is doing something like that. We talked a little later after the second tour, and he told me he used TADS 3, although said he would have to learn about object-oriented programming (it seems TADS 2 didn't do that; TADS 3 was pretty smart to go with prototype-based objects, for flexibility and ease of use, like Javascript). I read up on TADS a little later (Sunday), and it's a C-like language with some great built-in syntax for building rooms, objects, relationships, verbs, and the like. (I worked through a tutorial, and am playing through the web hosted version of Return to Ditch Day now, in fact.)
We drove back that day (getting in around 2300), and stayed up and slept in the next day.
Books finished: The Golden Compass.
Weekend in Canada: shooting and a barbecue
News ·Sunday August 18, 2013 @ 22:14 EDT (link)
We drove up to Canada Friday for the first time since moving to Indiana; I took a half-day vacation and we left a little after noon, driving via Toledo, Detroit, and then across southern Ontario on the 401, getting in before 2200. We finished a (3D) movie with dad, Rebecca, and Theo, who were leaving that night.
Saturday morning I went to the Silverdale range with Jon Yade; he shot his bow; I was going to, but it really didn't align right for me, being left-handed and custom-fit to his draw, so we moved on to the H&K SL8, which we were sighting-in at 60 yards. Jon had an EOTech red dot on it, like I have on my AR-15 (I also have a 3x magnifier, he did not). It was a little tricky since his binoculars weren't magnified enough for me to see the hits well; I wish I had brought my spotting scope with me. We did borrow the guy on the next bench's scope, but that wasn't real convenient. Also: strange Canadian rule: you can't even look through optics (even not attached to a firearm, like binoculars) during a ceasefire, or have them pointed downrange. We did manage to get his rifle a lot closer to being zeroed, but given the situation it wasn't as convenient as we hoped.
Honey and dad and I had planned a barbecue for the afternoon; we bought some steaks, and Jon accepted an invitation to stay, and had corn and potatoes; a great late lunch. Jon had to leave afterward; we rented Amazing Spider-Man (3D) to watch that evening, which was pretty well done.
On Sunday we went to Thorold South, saw the Trotters, and Jon was at the second meeting; Gary McBride spoke. We went home to eat—Honey made chicken Teriyaki in the crock-pot, and dad took us for ice-cream at Avondale on our way out to the 401. We got in around 2300—wanted to be able to spend some time and not have to go right to sleep.
Books finished: Debugging, Chapterhouse: Dune, The Leader-Manager, The Bell Jar.
Canoeing on Sugar Creek
News ·Sunday July 7, 2013 @ 15:46 EDT (link)
We went to Turkey Run state park—well, really just Sugar Creek, which runs through the park—and went canoeing down Sugar Creek. We rented our canoes from Sugar Valley Canoe Trips ($18 for a canoe, paddles, and life jackets, plus leaving a credit card as a deposit against loss or damage), and arrived at the drop-off spot (in their bus) at just past 1300. It was a bit chaotic: there were wooden stairs leading to a small beach, with canoes arriving, and some paddles in a canoe at the top of the steps and some left by people dropping off canoes. One had to grab a canoe as it arrived, and paddles, without any direction or assistance from staff. Easy enough, but it would have been nice to know that was how it worked. I grabbed a canoe, found a paddle of the right height, and Honey got one, and pushed off down the river.
It was very scenic, and very shallow at many points—large rocky and sandy bars and some treacherous snags. We took the 6-mile trip, and arrived at the destination point at around 1515, which was pretty good time according to the website, which suggested 2h30-3h30. We even made a stop to eat: we shared a Coke and had some Pringles on a long sandbar (there was very little shade near places once could stop). Even though swimming was forbidden (prohibidibidado!), at a few points people (or yahoos, sometimes) were stopped and swimming, sometimes out in the middle blocking passage (especially bad due to the frequent shallows).
There was a spot where it was possible to see falcons of some kind—they had a nest in a tree, and were wheeling overhead; magnificent.
The end is pretty rough: one has to drag the canoe up a set of wooden stairs. Near killed me (I was "feeling faint", as Emily would put it) but I bounced back fast and we got on the bus with almost no wait and headed back to our car at the main depot. No pictures, since I wasn't sure what to expect so didn't bring my canoe out.
A rainy walk at Mounds State Park
News ·Sunday June 30, 2013 @ 17:34 EDT (link)
I drove out to Mounds State Park today, to get in a little hiking (Honey was resting). The weather did not cooperate; I first went into the visitor center (pointing out an incorrect use of "principle" for "principal" on one of the printed wall panels to one of the rangers) and then Bronnenburg House, hoping the rain would stop. The House is well-preserved—actually mostly rebuilt from having languished by a volunteer society, a member of which gave me the tour. Alas, however, the rain actually got worse; nonetheless I headed out to the boardwalk and then to Trail 1 to the Indian mounds. I did have my Coleman poncho with me, but wished I had rubber boots too. It was a nice enough walk, but I was glad to get back to my car and eat the lunch I brought.
Books finished: Hackers.
Impressions of Indiana
News ·Tuesday June 18, 2013 @ 19:36 EDT (link)
We've been in Indiana—NE of Indianapolis, in the town/city of Fishers in fast-growing Hamilton county—for about two months now, so it's time for some initial impressions.
We haven't had much of a chance to travel around the state and see the scenery, except on driving I-70 to WV and on the drive up, which we plan to remedy—it would be nice to get out to some parks. We did get to go to Lafayette for a gun rally, though.
The area is nice; people are friendly; there's sort of an "Anytown, USA" feel about it; it is distinguished more by its *lack* of distinguishing features that, say, Florida, Boston, or Seattle had. Most construction is fairly recent, so streets are wide and there's plenty of parking. There's some construction nearby on the IN-37/I-69 which slows down getting to/from work sometimes, but it's not a huge deal. It's been warm since we got here; the coldest I've been is when I got up at 0700 back in April for a "Fishers Code and Coffee" meetup.
We've been looking at houses—trying to find something balanced between all of our needs and wants: not too far from work, trees (since it was all cornfields not too long ago, that's not as easy as it sounds), land (enough for a private shooting range, although as flat as it is that might require moving in some earth for berms), a reasonably modern house with a nice kitchen, perhaps a deck and/or pool—the usual things people look for. Our real estate agent has us on an automatic search that sends us new properties and updates periodically. There are some "maybes" but nothing perfect—older or tiny houses tend to go with a lot of land, for example.
Work has been interesting: being a lead for the first time, which really wasn't as strange or difficult as I expected; my two secret weapons (OneNote and Source Insight) have stood me in good stead, and I've made a release of the API on schedule and submitted some changes for a key partner well ahead (which will be part of another release). I have a lot of ideas for improvement (e.g., automated testing) which I will have opportunity to implement (or oversee implementation). And the developer "brown bag" lunch talks that took six months to get set up/approved the last place I worked are starting tomorrow after minimal fuss.
We like the area; the biggest problem so far is that our LTCH (License to Carry Handgun) is expected to take three months (even though the law says we are supposed to get it in 60 days); but the state's protection rackets will be with your alway, even to the end of the earth. (Next up, we need driver's licenses, which hopefully won't be such a miserable process as to merit its own post.)
Books finished: The 50 Best (And Worst) Business Deals of All Time.
Comcast scumbags
News ·Monday June 17, 2013 @ 18:14 EDT (link)
Comcast, either out of massive ignorance or massive incompetence, is charging us for our brief "X-finity" use, even though it was within the 30-day money back guarantee. They also sent us to some collection agency about a week after they sent the bill. Two of their representatives—one online, one when Honey returned the modem (which we have a receipt for, of course) told us we owed nothing on our bill and it was "taken care of". Liars all.
AT&T U-verse has been a much better experience throughout. Avoid Comcast. AT&T surely have their problems too, but not with us.
WV; meeting Eileen and Doug
News ·Monday June 17, 2013 @ 00:36 EDT (link)
Since some unanticipated relatives showed up in WV while Honey was there (cousin Jonathan Edwards, his wife Adair, and aunt Debbie), I came up for the weekend, leaving Friday evening after work; we left after church Sunday at around 1300.
I took the opportunity to contact Eileen about stopping in to visit her and Doug (near Dayton, off the US-35), and we were able to stop in around 1900 (after eating at Wendy's). We brought some Timbits®—Dayton apparently has four! Tim Horton's. (I also stopped at one on the way up and got a cappuccino and sandwich and half dozen donuts.)
We ended up talking in a lot behind their house—we set up some camp chairs by our cars—for about three hours. It was great to meet them and discuss everything from anarchy to theology; Doug prayed before we left (in part that we would escape the attention of the state's enforcers as we drove); we got in shortly after midnight.
Books finished: Know-How.
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