A dog named TBD

Well it's been a good day, Renee and I picked up a Whoodle today (half Poodle, half Wheaton Terrier. We (well mostly Christopher) are working on a name, with Wrangle and Scout being the two top contenders. The dog is currently about 8lbs but will reach about 40lbs when fully grown. He is a bit timed, but loves to lay at my feet and follow me around the yard.

Getting out and about on a bike and a hike

It's been a good week for getting out. Tuesday I went biking with a guy from work I met on an internal social network, the one thing he did not mention is he is half my age and does half iron-mans for fun. I managed to hold my own, but lets just say nothing got done at home Tuesday. Wednesday was a complete waste of time, the only redeeming quality was how easy it was to replace my router which was shot when I got home. Tonight my friends were biking, but I had a better offer; Christopher asked if I wanted to go for a hike at Maybury state park, so we did a two hour hike. We walked past his eagle project and things still look good, so we both felt good about that. Anytime your teenage son want to walk and talk, do it!

Photography - Merit Badge that is

Sunday night in a moment of weakness I volunteered to teach the Photography Merit Badge. So tonight I was working with 9 scouts talking about photography. First thing is 12-16 year olds who sit for hour in school and have finished homework are incapable of sitting quietly and listening. So even thought I'm passionate about Scouting and Photography, I'm not so enthused about trying to get scouts to sit still for 45 minutes. With photography I have found the hook, let them criticize my photographs, and than make them explain what is wrong and than I can explain why it's wrong and how to fix it. I just wish I had fewer photos capable of teaching what not to do.

The way Sundays should be...

Most of the time Sundays are taken up doing all the "stuff" that was not done the rest of the week (and for me still needs to be done).  Today was different, we accomplished nothing and did things more important.  We started by sleeping a little later than normal and went to church.  After church Renee stayed home and cleaned up after our guests from Saturday and I went shopping for dinner.  As usual I had less than a plan for dinner, I normally just look for what looks good and I know we can enjoy for 2 or 3 days.  I finish shopping with the intent of making beef stroganoff, tabbouleh, grilled asparagus, peppers and summer squash , tempeh, chicken and a rustic French bread.  Well as I'm checking out from shopping Renee calls and says my Mom and her Aunt will be stopping buy for an hour.  I got home and talked them into staying for dinner (mostly by the aroma of cooking bread).  So I did not get my bike ride in, but I did get several hours of great company and great food out of the deal.  All Sundays should be so good.  Now off to the Troop 755  Committable meeting.  I may not have gotten a bike ride in, but I sure got my two hours of passion and I will eat well for a few more days.

Two hours of passion a day!

Is it a midlife crises or just starting to truly value what's important, I'm not sure why I want to change, but I'm sure I do want things to change.  To put it simply I want more of what I'm passionate about in my life.  More time with my wife, more time with family & friends,more good food, more biking, more camping, more backpacking, more reading and more writing (If you know me this last item should concern you).  

It's easy to get busy and let days and weeks go by with little or nothing done for pure joy and the passion of doing it.  TV, facebook and the like are little more than mental masturbation; entertaining on the surface, but not fulfilling.  So my plan is to make sure that I spend two hours everyday doing things that are real and that I love to do.

So I started today with a two plus hour bike ride and going out to dinner with my lovely bride, followed by having friends over for drinks.  It may be overkill, but you gota start somewhere.

April 1 - Bike ride and the want for a helmet cam

I'm trying to ride every day of April and I started with a one hour ride around Novi.
The Good:  It was almost warm and sunny and it just felt great to be out.
The Bad:  Many of the streets that have been paved in the last 5 years are a disaster, 2-4 inch crack at every pavement seam.  The contractor should be sued!
The Ugly:  I found a nice stretch of smooth road and was nearly taken out by a middle aged women pulling out of a drive, apparently if your running late it's OK to assault cycles in Northville  (dead-end of Scenic Lane, Northville, MI 48167).

C# Fun and bugs - Multiple interface ambiguities

Error 1 Ambiguity between 'System.Collections.Generic.ICollection<double>.Count' and 'System.Collections.ICollection.Count'


// My interface 
 public interface ITest: IList<double>, ICollection { } 
 // The class public 
class bob : List<double>, ITest { } 
 // Using .Count from the ITest fails 
public class Test 
 { public Test() { ITest iTest = new bob(); int a = iTest.Count; } }

I googled this and check with a few "experts" and found nothing.  Then I looked at the error and found that IList and ICollection both define int Count.  So the compiler does not know which count is used in the interface.  The simple solution is to add:

   new int Count {get;} 

to ITest, this resolves the issue by providing one "Count" to the interface.