I PASSED!

The studying and sacrifice paid off. I took the test this morning and passed. I needed a 170 and earned a 178. I was pretty stoked. I reviewed the information again this morning before the test and then went to the facility. It was all computer based and they wouldn't let you even wear a watch into the testing area. So I take the test, and yes, it was as hard as they made it sound. I must have marked 20 questions to go back and review. It took me about an hour, but we get 2 hours to take it. Then another 10 or 15 minutes to go back and review the marked questions. Then it was decision time. Do you hit the "End" button or review more questions? I hit the end button and it popped up with a bunch of information about the test and scoring and I couldn't find my score. Then I saw it. I didn't know if that was my score or not. But it was, and I was ecstatic. Now I am Cameron Denison, AIC, CPC, LEED AP. (Yeah, all construction stuff that doesn't mean diddley outside of the industry)

Study, Study, Study

I am studying for the LEED AP test. I have been studying for 3 weeks and I'm still at it. From what everyone tells me, this test is extremely hard. Most people are having to take it a second time before passing the test. There are so many little things that you have to memorize and a thousand other things that you have to know and understand. I've read the 400 page guideline book twice so far. Now I am going to start going through the flash cards to see how I do. I'm also going to take the practice exam tonight. I've got 2 days of work and tomorrow night to study before taking the exam on Wednesday morning. Man, I sure hope I pass!

Rewards Cards for Smart-Phones

I got this idea from my wife's iPhone. There is an "app" for the iPhone that will let you enter your Rewards Card barcodes into the phone and then the phone stores the barcode. When you need it, you pull up the application and the card you want. The checker can then scan it right from your phone. I haven't found a program that can do this on Windows Mobile yet, but I think I have a work-around. There is a website called Barcoding, Inc. that will allow you to create a barcode from any number/letter combination and save the barcode as a .JPG. I suggest taking your Rewards Cards and recreating the barcode on the card using this website. Then save the file as the name of the place of the Rewards Card. Save these files on you phone and just pull them up when needed. I don't know if it will work, but I think it's worth a try.

iPhone and Ringtones

Yesterday we went and picked up a new phone for Linda. She wanted to step into the technical age and get a "high tech" phone. In my mind there was only one choice, the iPhone. WOW! This thing is as awesome as all the hype makes it out to be. There is an application for everything. Plus, the majority of them are FREE! The only downside I found was the ringtones. You have to buy them from iTunes and cannot make them yourself, or so I thought. With a quick Google search I found that you can create them in iTunes, with a little bit of manipulation. Here is what you do.

1. Open iTunes and locate a song you want to make into a ringtone.


2. Listen to the song and determine what clip you want to be the ringtone. It must be less than 30 seconds. Make note of the start and stop times.


3. Right click on the song and go to Get Info.


4. Under the Options tab, you can adjust the start and stop times of the song. Enter the start and stop time of your clip.


5. Listen to the song again to verify this is the correct start/stop times. If not, repeat steps 3 through 5.


6. Right click on the song and go to Create ACC Version.


7. After iTunes completes converting the file, right click on the newly created file and go to Show In Windows Explorer.


8. Move this file from where it is, to your desktop.


9. In iTunes, right click on the newly created file again and delete it. This will remove the clip from iTunes, but won't remove the file that you put on your desktop.


10. The file that was moved is a .m4a file. Rename this file to a .m4r extension.


11. Move the .m4r file back to your iTunes folder, or just add it back to iTunes.


12. Once moved, it will show up under Ringtones and you can copy it to your iPhone.

If you want to take that same file and make it into an MP3 ringtone, try out www.media-convert.com This worked really well for me. You will need to change the file back to a .m4a by changing the extension then just follow the directions on the website.

Public Records

Just a quick note. Marriage Licenses are not public record at the State level in the State of Missouri. However, they are public record at the County level. Or, in other words, if you know what County someone was married, you can get a copy of the marriage license by contacting the Recorder of Deeds in the County at which the person was married.

DSS Comes Through... Now We Wait

Got the confirmation phone call from DSS today. They received the Certificates of Death and will now enter my information into the Adoption Registry Database. Then we just wait. They don't actually contact anyone, they wait to see if there is a match to a Birth Parent or Sibling that also enters their information into the database. If there is, they will contact us. If not, we will not hear from them. Hurry up and wait. That's the way life goes.

DSS

It's been two weeks since I sent in my information to the State to see if I can get my adoption records, or any other information. I guess I didn't send in all the information because I got a letter in the mail over the weekend asking for me to have my parents sign a consent form in front of a notary and send it back. I sent them back a Certificate of Death for each parent along with a letter. Hopefully that will suffice.

Adoption

So most everyone knows that I was adopted. I was told this when I was very small (like 5 years old). Mom and Dad told me right after dinner one evening. It's odd that I remember it so clearly. They told me that I was adopted and assured me that they love me more than anything. They made sure I understood what they were telling me and I did. Then when they asked if I had any questions, I didn't but I wanted to go back outside and play. I think I was playing with TJ and Amie across the street. So, as I grew up, I never questioned my adoption. I never cared. I did not have any desire to find my birth parents. Mainly because I didn't have a reason to. It's not that I was mad, upset, I just didn't have any feelings towards it. I grew up like everyone else I knew. However, when I became a father myself, I started to wonder what type of health history my family has. Not so much for me, but for my daughter. At the same time, I would never ask my Mom about that. I always felt that it would break her heart. I thought that if I were to ask questions about my adoption, she might feel that she did something wrong that caused me to question things. I can tell you that my Mom did nothing of the sort and that has nothing to do with my search for my birth family. Needless to say, I have started my search for my birth family.

So far, most of my information has come from my Uncle Jeff. Turns out, he played a part in my adoption. He had my birth mother's first name, and I found a document between my parent's lawyer and social services that named a Male Infant Bryson so I had her first name and last name. I also know that she was a student at UMR, has a brother, and was from the Rolla area. I don't know much about my birth father. He did marry my birth mother, and they did have other kids, so Uncle Jeff says. My birth father was military, possibly an officer. My birth mother was 20 years old when I was born, and my birth father was 24. So this is about all I know. Oh, my favorite part, they have written down that they were Irish-German, both of them. I always knew I had Irish in me!

Ahhhhhhh!

Bitch!

Use of the term "e-mail"

Ok, this is one of my biggest pet peeves. It is the use of the term e-mail. I am no grammar expert or English expert, but the use of the plural form of the term e-mail absolutely drives me bonkers. That is, when someone say "I received twenty e-mails while I was out today." What upsets me is that it is accepted. Let me see if I can break down why it drives me crazy.
Let us start by breaking down the term. E-mail is derived from two words, electronic mail which were shortened to form one hyphenated word. This is evident from the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary definition "a means or system for transmitting messages electronically (as between computers on a network) ... messages sent and received electronically through an e-mail system ." (*1)
This said, let us look at the second word that makes up the hyphenated word, mail. Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary defines mail as "material sent or carried in the postal system ... a conveyance that transports mail." (*2)
The word mail is already plural. "I received my mail" could mean I received 1 piece of mail or twenty pieces of mail. Why do we insist on saying "I recieved my e-mails"? If the word mail is both singular and plural, why would e-mail be any different? Yet we naturally accept it's use in our language. In fact, some online dictionaries such as Answers.com include e-mails as the plural form of the word. (*3)
If you want to make the statement that you received more than 1 e-mail, the proper use would be that you received multiple e-mail messages. Just like letters received through the mail, or letters received as mail, the e-mail system delivers messages. You could state "I received 20 e-mail messages today." Next time you catch yourself using this term incorrectly, think about my skin crawiling, or maybe just correct your usage.

---

*1. "e-mail." Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. 2008.
Merriam-Webster Online. 29 August 2008
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/e-mail
*2. "mail." Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. 2008.
Merriam-Webster Online. 29 August 2008
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mail
*3. "e-mail." Answers.com 2008.
Answers.com. 29 August 2008
http://www.answers.com/topic/e-mail

Running, Situps & Pushups

For a while before Savannah was born I was doing well, losing weight, working out everyday, watching what I eat and starting to look good. Then as Linda got more uncomfortable and sleeping less, I started sleeping less and stopped getting up in the morning. Since then I haven't been getting up as early and therefore don't workout in the morning. Than has led me to gain the majority of the weight back, and right around the mid section. So, this past Monday, I am starting all over. I'm not going to be as anal about the food, but I'll try to choose better selections. The main part will be running, situps and pushups. The schedule is this for now; run morning and evening on Monday, morning on Tuesday, evening on Wednesday and both morning and evening on Thursday and Friday. If possible, run once Saturday and/or Sunday. Prior to each run I'll do a set of Situps and Pushups. Right now it's only a mile, which I can get through (couldn't make the whole thing on Monday morning, but made it Monday night). The goal is to get back into a bit of shape sticking to the one mile lap until I can do it without being quite as winded. Then I'll stretch it into a mile and a half. After I get that one down, I'll jump to a 3 mile route which is where I was when I stopped running a year and a half ago. Little steps. Right now I just want to get back into shape and shed the extra weight.

Just as I suspected

Well, just as I suspected, this stupid head cold kept me from some of the Bachelor party activities this weekend. We all went shooting out at Blackhawk. There were 8 of us, which was a lot of fun. Then we came back to our house to fry fish. We had crappie from our spring fishing trip. They were GREAT. So after the fish fry we all went home to take showers and meet back up at 7:00. Well between the sun, the fried food, the beer and this head cold, I was done for. I called the guys as 8:00 and threw in the towel. I felt like crap. I think my head hit the pillow at 8:10 and I was out. Slept right through to this morning. Sounds like the guys had a lot of fun. Now I MUST kick this cold before next weekend. I don't want to feel crapy at the wedding (that's crapy not crappie).

Today the wife and I are just hanging out at the house. Watched a little bit of the ass kicking the Cardinals were receiving from the Mets. Our wonderful darling daughter is being a little bit of a pain in the butt, however, she is stuck inside with us today and I think we are all getting a little stir crazy. Thus why I'm writing this. Here's to Baby Einstein! See ya.

The Summer Cold

DAMNIT!!! I am getting a summer cold. Started yesterday with that little sore spot in the throat. You know, right were the sinus drains into the throat. I thought to myself Maybe I just scratched my throat or something. But no... that's not the case. Drained all night and now it's continuous. I just don't want the rest of the family getting sick, and I don't want to be sick for the festivities this weekend and next. Here's a Denison Law for ya. If there is a big event that you really want to go well, something will happen to spoil it. Yeah, the story of my life. Like our honeymoon. Linda was sick the first half, and I got a head cold on the second half. This kind of stuff always happens. Oh well, as long as it's gone before we hit the river again. I've already missed enough of the river for this year.

A Hole in the Water...

Into which, you poor money... I worked on the boat on Saturday. Just a few things that needed to be fixed. The built in depth finder wasn't working and the horns (as usual) weren't working. Of course one thing leads to another which leads to another. When I went to start work on the boat, I found that the No. 1 battery was shot. It lasted a couple years, but would not hold a charge. So up to Walmart to get a new battery. Next I took the dash apart to get to the horn switch and the back of the depth finder. The depth finder was easy (or so I thought), the in-line fuse holder had broke, thus cutting the power to the unit. Easy enough, buy a new fuse holder and be done with it. But, being wiser in my older age, I moved on to the horns before going shopping. My thought with the horns was that they weren't getting enough power to make them work. They were replaced last year, so I figured the horns were good. When I tested the switch I found they were getting plenty of juice, so I pulled my little 12V battery out of my fish finder and ran a straight wire to the horns... Nothing. I was pissed. I have to replace these horns every year, and every year they quit. So up to the store I go, I need a horn and a fuse holder. As I am looking at the horns, the replacements for the trumpets are $120. So I ask the guy at the store, Do these things fail frequently? I have to replace them every year. He looked at me kind of funny and said, Every year? Maybe every few years, but not that often. When I told him that I had finally put them on a quick disconnect he laughed. Needless to say, there is now a plastic $20 horn under the dash like every other boat on the water. So the horn is fixed and the in-line fuse is replaced. Out on the water we go. Only to have the depth finder come on and off continuously during our trip. There must be a loose wire at the connection points. So, there is one more thing that needs to be fixed. There is always something that needs to be fixed, especially when the boat is 18 years old. The good news is (knock on wood) the boat is running, almost everything is working and the water is down far enough that we can enjoy it.

The Canada Post

I've gotten a lot of crap about my Canada post and that it's not very interesting and that no one cares that I was 30 feet off a bank, etc. Well, I did write this each night as a journal with no intentions on blogging it. But after it was done, I didn't really feel like doing something different on the blog, so I just posted my journal which was written so we could go back to the place we were and we could remember what we caught when.

Wednesday...

It's Wednesday and I'm off today to watch my little girl while mommy is at work. Our sitter is on vacation this week but our old sitter (June) has been filling in. It's hard to believe that Savannah remembered being there, but she did. Even remembered where the snack drawer was. I wanted to post some information about some new things that are on the blog. On our main blog on the right hand side, down at the bottom you'll see a map. This map shows where my phone is, thus where I am. Now, this isn't on ALL the time. I have to turn the service on for it to work, but when I think about it, I flip it on. The way this works is I have a PDA type phone (the Sprint Mogul) which is basically a small computer. I downloaded a program called TrackMe. This program, when running, talks to the phone's GPS and then uploads the information to a public server. This file is accessible to anyone that has the address (http://luisespinosa.com:80/trackme/routes/Camalama.kml). If you open Google Earth, you can set this up as a network link and it will give you LIVE data of where I am when the software is running. Anyway, I thought it was pretty cool stuff. My buddy, Jeff, has a brother that is on a 5,000 mile motorcycle ride with another guy and they are utilizing the same software to allow friends track their trip. They also include some texting information on their site so they can send a text message from their phone to their website to give updates of what's going on. Check out Kevin's trip. The map below is a larger version of the one on our main page.



View Larger Map

Added Feature

So I added the last feature to the fish finder. It now has a transducer switch with both the quadrabeam trasducer and the wideside transducer. Just thought I'd throw this up here.

It's Here and Ready to Go!

It’s finally here. All my talking over the last year has come to fruition. It’s set up and ready to go. I cannot wait to put it into the water. Got it finished up on Thursday. The battery was already set up in the case so all I had to do was anchor the base and hook up the wires. I haven’t yet tied the wires down. I’m waiting to make sure I like the layout and how it works. But it is hooked up and it does work. I’ve been playing with it in simulation mode and I think I have the setup set for what I think will work best. I do still need to come up with a way to anchor/stabilize the case to the boat when in use. Oh, I’ve also sent off for the wide side transducer. So, here it is in all it’s glory. Finally on Friday morning I’ll get to use it for real. This is the big fishing weekend, Friday, Saturday and Sunday all day, 3 days of crappie fishing. Hopefully we’ll be able to use the fish finder to help us out.

Case & Battery Assembly

Spent the few moments of free time building the base for the fish finder case which everything will mount to. Then I created a mounting system for the battery. Hopefully the battery location will work with the fish finder. Guess we'll find out on Monday!

The Saga Continues

The Quadra Beam is scheduled to arrive today. In hopes of using the system this weekend I made a phone call to Bass Pro to see if they had any luck getting the 787c2i in. They did! It came in from Columbia last night and the guy went back to check to see if it was here. I was VERY excited to finally have this whole thing in my hands. Then I got a call back. Turns out that they did receive it but the guy that was working in receiving couldn't figure out why they received it so he shipped it down to Springfield! So, in an effort to get me moving this weekend they tried to wheel and deal on a 797 with side imaging. They came way down off list price, but were still WAY out of my price range. Then they tried to sell me a Lowrance, but since I've already ordered the Quad Beam transducer, I would be out that money. So my 787c2i will be in on Monday. My wife says that this is just not meant to be. I say that the best comes to those who wait.

It's Ordered!

Took some time at lunch today to drive to Bass Pro and purchase "the fish finder". Of course, as my luck goes, they didn't have one. They took my name and number and will try to get one in. When I asked how long it would take to get they told me "could be 2 days, could be 2 weeks". So to help ensure I'm ready to go when it comes in I ordered the portable Quadra Beam transducer from Humminbird and will use the standard transducer as a trade for the Wide Side transducer. Now I just need to start putting it all together in the case and were ready to fish!

Fishing On Saturday 4/20

Moonrise 4/19/08 7:23 PM
Transit 4/20/08 12:46 AM
Moonset 4/20/08 6:01 AM
Underfoot 4/20/08 1:16 PM
Overhead (Best Fishing) 4/19/08 11:46 PM - 4/20/08 1:46 AM
Underfoot (Best Fishing) 4/20/08 12:16 PM - 4/20/08 2:16 PM
It also looks like a front will be moving in Friday and moving out on Saturday so the barometer will be on the rise.

The Ultimate Portable Fish Finder

This is the bad boy I've been eying up. This is the 787c2i Combo which features a brilliant color, ultra-high resolution 640V x 480H 5" display, DualBeam PLUS sonar (which I will upgrade to the QuadraBeam sonar) with 4000 Watts PTP power output, GPS Chartplotting with built-in UniMap, and advanced Fishing System capabilities. It also includes internal GPS receiver so I won't have to go buy the cables and hook up my hand held Garmin GPS receiver. I will be updating it with the QuadraBeam sonar transducer (XPT 9 QB 90 T Portable Transducer) which is a portable version of the QuadraBeam that has 3 sonar units operating at 20 degrees, 60 degrees or 90 degrees and a built in temperature sensor. Basically with a 90 degree cone, at 20 feet deep we can see 10 feet to each side of the boat, or 20 feet across.

To make the whole thing portable, besides the portable transducer, I plan to mount the unit inside a pistol case on a piece of plywood which will either be glued down or bolted down to the bottom of the case. The foam from the gun case will be utilized to cushion the unit during transport. To lower the footprint of the case while in use I'd like to replace the hinge with a metal rod that has a pin in one end. I can then remove the rod (hinge) and remove the top of the case.

As for power the plan is two fold. First, I did some math today concerning the use of a 12Ah battery. Ah stands for Amp Hour. to figure out the amp hour you take the Ah and divide by 20 hours. Example: a 12Ah battery is 12/20 = 0.6 amps. This means that a 12Ah battery can maintain 0.6 amps for 20 hours. The 787c2i draws 560mA or 0.56 amps. So I figure that a 12Ah battery would run this unit for about 20 hours. This will also be supplemented with a 12 volt hook-up that will have a cigarette lighter adapter and alligator clamps allowing hook-up to any 12V source. The batteries are small 4"H x 6"L X 3.7"W and are as low as $35. This would fit in the case with the unit making the whole thing completely portable.

Meetings

Meetings are sometimes a necessary evil, sometimes they are productive and other times they seem pointless. In any event, if you're scheduled to be at a meeting, you go. Yeah, sometimes you may be late, but you go. It is verry frustrating when a meeting is scheduled and only two of the seven people that are supposed to be at the meeting show up. It's as if they would rather waste everyone elses time. Bottom line, if you are scheduled for a meeting show up or let someone know.

A Little Fun

I found the above video while cleaning out an old "inbox" a couple of weekends ago. Thought it would be fun to share. Plus now I won't have to go looking for it anywhere, it'll be right here for viewing pleasure.

Taxes

Taxes SUCK,
They REALLY, REALLY SUCK!

Professional Memberships

There are many of us that are members of, and often participate in, Professional Organizations. I am a member of two (American Institute of Constructors and St. Louis Engineer's Club) and looking at becoming involved with the AGC. All of these Organizations charge a fee for their membership, but what do we gain from being a member? They all have the benefit of being able to state that you are a member of the Organization. But what is the REAL return on your investment? I'm a nember of the AIC, which does require certain qualifications and experience to become a member. But besides being able to say "I'm a member of the AIC" I don't feel that I've seen a return on my yearly investment. At the same time, I don't want to let my membership lapse, even if I don't see a return yet. Maybe if I was looking for a job this would help. We do get yearly or quarterly newsletters that try to give us insight on what the Organization is doing. But there aren't local meetings, so it's hard for me to see the return. At least with the local affiliation I'm not participating by choice.

SIUE

Today I am over an my Alma Mater, SIUE, taking the Certified Professional Constructor examination. I took the leve 1 portion five years ago and am now allowed to take the level 2 portion. It's a 2 part, 8 hour test. The first half took me 2 hours of the 4 hours and I still have an hour to kill before I go back to take the second half.

In an effort to kill time I drove around campus and then around town. I wish I would have spent more time out here when I was in school. Living on the better side of the river (Missouri), whenever I was done with class I would go back to MO instead of hanging out and going out on the town. When Linda and I go to Columbia she has a story for each bar or restaurant we go to. In Edwardsville I can tell you that we went to Shananigan's between finals. That's my story. I had a good time at SIUE, but I didn't get the "college" experience here. I did get a good education.

OH, time to eat and kill the rest of this hour.

The Oak Tree

The bigges and oldest oak tree is still standing because it can bend with the wind.

Beyond the Deadly Sins, ASAP

“ASAP” or “As Soon As Possible” is a bad term to use. The typical meaning behind it is to get information quickly to the person asking for it. However, the term itself does not reflect the urgency that is typically behind the meaning. “As Soon As Possible” means that as soon as the person being asked can possibly get to it. If they have other things, then they can get to those first and then, when it’s possible, they can get to the matter at hand. This is not what we typically want when we use this phrase. So, if you need something quickly, or urgently, put a date and time on it. “I need this by 10:00 today, March 28, 2008”. There is no question when you need the information. It’s right there in black and white. Let’s not leave ourselves open to interpretation

The Mission

So I have quite a few Blogs. One for my family, one for my photos, one for hunting and fishing, but not (until now) have I had one to express frustration and the generalities that go on in my head. That's what this one is for.