CMMI Level 2

Yesterday at work my department was certified CMMI Level 2. What does that mean? CMMI stands for Capability Maturity Model® Integration. It is a measurement of a project's or company's processes and procedures for software and hardware development. Level 1 is the lowest, and level 5, which is the real goal, is the highest. So obtaining a level 2 rating is actually a good thing, since most projects are operating at a level 1. The people in this photo are fellow project members, our supervisors, and the team members who evaluated us. Click on the photo for a larger size.

Colds are no Fun

Not that anybody cares, but I've been sick all of this week. I've had a bad sore throat and a dry cough. The doctor said I had nothing serious. Today I feel better and finally went back to work. Three days of doing nothing but sleeping and watching TV gets boring. I even found myself watching tennis! This football-less weekend will be a recovery weekend - I don't want a relapse.

O'Beer:30

Time to crack open that first beer of the night. Plans to go to the Aztec basketball game tonight fell through. Plans to have brunch tomorrow morning were canceled. I guess with all this free time on my hands I'll just have to make another silly video.

Life Of Keith Video

Well, I have created an odd video to be used as an introduction to my blog. I filmed it using my web camera, which does not produce the best quality picture or video/audio synchronization. The file is over 5 MB, so it might take awhile to load if you are using an ancient dial-up modem.

Note: If you have trouble playing the video, try this. Right-click on the link, click "Save Target As.." and save the file to your computer. Then play the video from your computer. Windows Media Player should launch and play the video.

Updated on 01/29/05: I have changed the video from a "avi" to "mpg" format. Now Quicktime might play the video when you click on the "odd video" link.

Karl Strauss

Beer was enjoyed by all after the plumbing disaster.

EuroTrip

Last night I watched the movie EuroTrip which I had recorded on my DVR from Cinamax. I don't remember this movie being released in the theatres, but it must have been. The only reason I watched it was because is co-starred Michelle Trachtenberg. Who is she? Well, Michelle Trachtenberg played Buffy's sister on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. As a bonus, she has the same birthday as me! EuroTrip can be classified as a "Teenage Sex Romp" B-movie. It was very funny and horribly bad at the same time, so keep that in mind if you watch it. It is rated 'R', but be warned. The movie contains almost as much D&A as T&A. The scene on the nude beach was hilarious because it was so true. Overall, I'd say EuroTrip is a fun movie to watch - more fun after a few shots of J.D.

Brent Spiner on Joey

I have posted before on how much I like the television show Joey. Well last week they had a guest star, and it is not even sweeps week! That's right, Brent Spiner was on the show and he played himself. This episode centered around the premier party for the "drama" that Joey co-stars in. Brent Spiner was at the party, as well as Joey's nephew Michael who is a very intelligent and nerdy (like me!). At the end of the episode, Michael had to make a choice. Go have a drink with a very beautiful woman, or go to Brent Spiner's car to see his Data uniform. So Michael looked at the women, then looked at Mr. Spiner, and then said to the woman "Sorry, I'm going to have to go with Brent Spiner." Classic! Funniest line ever! If you don't understand why this is so funny, then I could never explain it to you.

Web Hosting

I finally upgraded my personal home page. For the past seven years, I have hosted my home page with my ISP, Roadrunner. They give you only 5 MB per account. Since I put my vacation photos on my home page, I have had to delete old photos before uploading new ones. So last week I bought one year of web hosting from GoDaddy.com. Since I prepaid for one year, it is only costing me $3.16/month for 500 MB of storage. The average is $8 to $15 for that much space. How can this company charge so little? Here is my guess. When you register a domain name or buy web hosting, they make you go through a dozen upgrade offers, each costing an extra $2/month or $10/year. By skipping these choices you finally end up at the page where you get your total and pay. Enough people must pay for the extras that GoDaddy must make enough money to survive in this cut-throut market. GoDaddy also offers cheap domain registration and transfers. I transferred one of my domains (from a company that was charging me $30/year) plus I added two more year of registration for just $24. I researched GoDaddy and they are a reputable company (BBB and ICANN accredited), plus a friend of mine has been using them for years with no problems. With all this new disk space, I can now upload more video and audio to be linked to this blog.

Plumbing Disaster Averted

Today I attempted to install a new faucet on my sister's bathroom sink. After three hours of fighting to get the old one off, and trying to figure out why I had leftover parts. I finished. However, when testing the sink for leaks, hot water started spraying everywhere. By the time I got the valve shut off, the light in the hallway below filled up with water, and water was leaking through the ceiling and walls of the first story. The electricity had to be shut off so no one would be shocked. To make a long story short, the new faucet looks great, but now the water intake lines have to be replaced, and that requires shutting off the main water which affects many residents. Time to call a real plumber.

St. George

What am I doing looking at houses in St. George, UT? I don't plan on moving there, but if I ever did, I could buy a really nice house. I found a 3000 sq/ft house (including basement) for under $300K. Now for comparison, here in San Diego, that would buy you a small 1 bedroom condominium. If you have never been to the city of St. George, and most of you haven't, it is a very scenic city. Located 8 miles North of the Nevada/Utah border, it is surrounded by beautiful red rocks. There are numerous national parks nearby, and Brian Head ski resort is a short distance away. I might consider moving there if they had a job for me, but when I searched for jobs I found none for a computer programmer. Another city I looked for housing at is Colorado Springs, CO. That city also has cheap housing plus many high-tech job opportunities. However, it is also very cold in the winter, and far from my current home. I guess I'll spend the rest of my life in the same city I was born in. Not that is bad. San Diego was just ranked number 2 in the list of best-mannered cities.

Huygens Lands On Titan

Unbelievable! The probe Huygens, which was detached from the space craft Cassini in December, just landed on Saturn's moon Titan. It successfully took photos and other measurements during and after the landing and transmitted them back to Cassini, which then sent the data to Earth. This is all happening billions of miles in space. You gotta love science and technology, especially the software aspect.

Talk About Rain!

This morning I woke up to the sound of heavy rain, once again. When I hear rain on a work day morning, I try to get up early so I can hit the road before everybody starts crashing into each other. So I leave my house and open my garage door to find water everywhere. I grab a broom and push the water out and drive away. As I'm driving to the freeway, I see the local creek, which is dry 9 months a year, flowing with class 3 rapids. I have never seen so much water there before. Onto the freeway, I hear on the radio that a person was killed by falling tree further up the road I'm on. By the time I got to work, I felt like I survived a natural disaster. Luckily the rain soon let up, my garage dried out, and no trees feel on me.

Gloomy Day in San Diego

Somehow I ended up in Ocean Beach this afternoon. The skies were gray, the ocean was choppy, and the only people around were a few brave surfers and some homeless people - you know, the usual. As I walked up Newport I noticed that the bars were empty. There were lots of cars parked on the street, but only a few people on the sidewalk. It was kind of strange. I was hungry, so I ended up getting a chicken quesadilla at Nico's - always a good choice. Back at home I can now watch football, still thinking about the game that the Chargers lost yesterday. How depressing was that?

BTY, this photo was taken using the camera in my new cell phone. I finally got a new phone, which is tiny compared to my old one. It has a ton of features, including voice activation, web access, e-mail, text messaging and so on. However, they all cost extra to use - they didn't tell me that in the store!

Welcome 2005

For the first time in three years I left my house on New Year's Eve. My friend tried to get a group of people together to go out and do something fun, but it ended up just us two going to a local bar. It wasn't the funnest night, but better than sitting at home. There was man there that for some reason bought a round of drinks for everyone in the house, and the bar was packed. This guy was either rich, stupid or drunk. I didn't get a free drink because the offer was only for 15 minutes, and the two bartenders, as hard as they tired, didn't have time to get everyone a drink. People ordered mixed drinks instead of just beer, which take more time to prepare. I'm glad I didn't get a free drink because it turns out that the man was a jerk, and he got thrown out of the bar. Apparently he thought that he had the right to "touch" any women just because he bought them a drink.

So we counted down the new year, drank a small glass of complementary Champaign and soon left. Back at my friends house, we watched another episode of "The Avengers" and I fell asleep on the floor, even though I brought an air mattress. I woke up with a slight hangover, but not too bad.

Today I went with my brother to the auto show at the Convention Center, where I sat in many cars. Turns out that I don't fit in many sports cars like the Honda S2000 or Mazda Miata. However, I did fit in the Mini Cooper. For the first time I got into the new 2005 Ford Mustang, which is a really good looking car. I was a little too tall for the car, but I'd still consider buying one someday.

Family Christmas 2004

Here is a photo of my family and I taken on Christmas day. Yes, I am a few millimeters taller than my (older) brother.

The new glasses have been officially broken in with the proper beer. Doesn't that look beautiful?

Strong Storm

Last night I woke up at 2 AM to the sound of strong rain and wind. I looked out my window and it looked like a hurricane was passing over. My condo is surrounded by eucalyptus trees which fall over easy in strong wind, and they were swaying back and forth ready to fall. Then I looked out my front window and saw one of those trees lying across a nearby road, blocking two cars, and it looked like the tree had fallen on a parked car. There was also a driving rain coming down almost sideways. I tried to sleep but I was too worried that a tree was going to fall on my home. I finally did sleep, and when I woke up and looked out side it looked like a disaster area. When I drove to the gym, I saw trees laying on the ground everywhere, including one that landed on a condo near mine - so I wasn't being paranoid last night. I saw on the news that over 100 eucalyptus trees toppled over in my neighborhood. Now it is cloudy outside with a mild wind blowing - time to clean up the mess.

I am a Unit Leader (Spoken in a monotone voice)

Here is a slightly blurry picture of me on Christmas day holding one of four Stella Artois glasses and a Homer bottle opener. I asked for the glasses because ever since I ordered the beer at a bar in Key West, I liked that it came in a custom glass. Since I couldn't find where to buy the glass, I put it on my Christmas list hoping someone else would have better luck - which they did! Now I have four of these glasses to enjoy Stella Artois or any other beer in. The Homer can opener was an unexpected gift. When you open a bottle, you hear Homer say "Hmm, beer. Oh Yes...." It is funny at first but I'd imagine that after awhile at a party it would become annoying. So lets find out.

To the right is a photo of me the day after Christmas at Pizza Port holding a beer. I came here looking for my lost Christmas spirit, which I found at the bottom of this glass. Unfortunatly, Christmas is over, so I'll have to hold on to that spirit for one year.

What does these photos have to do with being a Unit Leader? Nothing. In fact, I am neither a leader nor a follower. I do what I want when I want, whatever that means.

Christmas Eve

Well, it's now Christmas Eve, and here I am sitting in front of my computer drinking a Guinness draught from a bottle - brilliant! I just went on my annual Christmas light viewing drive. I ventured up to a newer neighborhood where I saw not only beautiful light and decoration displays, but some very large expensive homes. Who can afford all these houses? What jobs are out there that pay enough so these people can buy $800,000 homes? It must be nice. I also ended up in an area where houses were still being rebuilt from last years big fire. That was depressing. So anyways, I say to the whole world, Merry Christmas!

Goodbye to Shopping Mall Traffic

I have finished my Christmas shopping. Traffic on the freeways was slow all day, and the parking lots were filling up fast. But I braved a trip to the North County Fair and lived to talk about it. All the gifts are wrapped and ready to be opened in two days. Now I'm free to do what I want on Christmas Eve. Oh joy!