Interesting Hotel Stay

I have stayed at a number of hotels and have some pretty interesting experience but the most interesting one happened last night. My wife and children just finished setting up our living arrangements and were heading down stairs for a walk. My wife grabbed the door handle and pulled it open to go down stairs but it wouldn't budge. I then tried twisting and pulling both possible ways but no go. We called down and a host came up to help but couldn't open the door either. Maintenance came up quickly after but had just as much success as the rest of us. After some supplies were gathered maintenance came back up and was able to pry the door open with a crow bar. Once the door was opened it was fairly apparent that the maintenance worker came to our aid directly from his house. The hotel staff were so nice and apologetic afterward and offered us whatever we wanted to make up for the inconvenience. It was only a fifteen minute wait so my wife and I mostly thought it was funny.

Animoto Video

Video I made in less than a minute using Animoto Video.

Home Repairs

I have been doing a lot of house repairs lately. I have installed automatic door closers on many of the doors in our house and have ordered more door closers for some exterior doors. If you are not already familiar with a door closer, it is a spring loaded hinge that attaches the door to the frame. The wider the door opened, the more resistance is felt and the faster the door closes. At this rate of installation, in the next few weeks most of the doors in my house will be nearly impossible to open but they will all close flawlessly. My wife had the most concerned with the bathroom door, as our youngest, Veronica, loves to get into this room and touch/lick everything. I put the highest setting on the door closer for the bathroom. Now most of our guests and young children rather pee in the hallway as opposed to opening the bathroom door. I am still very proud to get that closer installed. It only took 30 different power tools and six quick hours of intense manual labor. No longer will I have to be calling out to people to close a door in my house; all our doors slam shut nearly the moment they're opened. Our electricity bill has never been lower.

When I first looked into automatic door closers, I found a number of videos describing how to perform the installation yourself. These videos showed people smiling, laughing, and having a grand ol time installing door closers. These people described how easy it is to perform this installation. I quickly found out that they were all liars.
The first thing that should have tipped me off was that all the doors and framing displayed in these videos we're perfect geometric shapes. None of the existing doors and framing in my house came close to this ideal.
These Handymen showed how a door installation could be done in a few simple steps. When applying these steps to the doors and framing of my house (which were made in the late 1950s) the number of steps increased exponentially. I found the complexity of hanging a 1950s door roughly equates to that of performing brain surgery on someone born in the 1950s.
With that being said, I did find it to be a challenging and fulfilling experience. Which is why I will be doing it again for my external doors. I guess I am just a glutton for punishment

Fun with Bees

My family had an interesting experience today. About 10 bees came pouring out of our chimney this morning. I grabbed the kids and ran them into their room and close the door. Sarah was kind of panicking so wasn't much help at first. Then I took a Tupperware container with a lid and started catching the bees and releasing them outside. I know sometimes when they sting or die they can trigger other bees to attack. After several minutes Sarah also was able to grab a piece of Tupperware and help get the bees out of the house. After the 10 bees came through no other bees came down except for two 20 minutes later; after that Sarah covered up the fireplace with a plastic bag and secured it with tape. We had a local beekeeper come over to our house and see what was going on. Turns out a bunch of Scouter bees came down our chimney. The beekeeper verified there was no hive or so warm nearby. Still thought it was pretty scary/odd that so many came through at the exact same time but the beekeeper said he has heard to of up to 30 come in through a chimney. The beekeeper recommended we cover up the top of the fireplace chimney with a board weighted down with bricks. So that is what I did. Hopefully no more bees from here on out.

Google Reviews Using Your Real Name

Posting  on http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/maps/_lhgjeLIwMg

@MB-CBS

I agree with your sentiments. I have found most reviewers to leave honest feedback and most businesses strive to make improvements in response to customer feedback. I find this policy change of showing peoples names needed, because a few bad apples ruined the bunch. Being an anonymous user gives people the power to say things they never would normally. Because some people have abused this power now all the rest of us are being "punished."

@AnonymousCoward123

I post as myself everywhere and have a unique name so I am obviously biased against anonymity. Statistically speaking, a person who post using their real name live just as happy a life as those that do not. I have not seen any negative effects in my life as a result of posting using my real name and believe most people who do would say the same. Again this goes back to the extremes. Most people in America are not a part of a persecuted minority group. Because of this, your comment does not seem applicable to most people living in America. I do agree with your conclusion though, that privacy is valuable to some people and in some situations, this mostly comes down to common sense. Anonymous name or not I would not post a public review of my primary bank, as this would not be a good idea. With the vast number of Americas using smart technology, on-line services, and numerous digital resources, privacy is simply a figment of the imagination. Even hundreds of years ago when people lived in small towns and neighborhoods there was no such thing as "privacy." Anonymous reviews or not, if a person wants to find you they can.

Realistically I think the issue has more to do with businesses having access to people's names with the potential to hound them than any privacy issues. Again we are looking at the extreme cases as I have posted hundreds of negative and positive reviews of businesses with absolutely no problem whatsoever. I would like to reiterate, if you are online making reviews then ANYONE has the potential of monitoring you. In reality, this usually is not a problem though. If you are an average American, then posting reviews using your real name will likely not effect you in any way whatsoever, so long as you use common sense.

The most important reason that real names should be used comes down to the USA legal system. Whoever stands to loose the most is given preferential treatment (this is why pedestrians have the right of way, and there are many more examples). So we now have two situations (both of which are not likely but possible).
1. Users being hounded by businesses to change their review.
2. Anonymous user posting a horrible, untrue review.

In case 1 being hounded could cause serious issues in a persons life (but in the vast majority of cases this is simply viewed as an irritant) and there are many avenues of recourse available to people who are being hounded. The main one being to sue a business that does this.
In case 2 a horrible review could cause negative publicity and could even put a business out of operation, which would be far more damaging than a simple irritant. More that this, there is absolutely no recourse of action a business could take in this situation unless they already have a good idea who made this comment, and even then possibly not due to free speech.

Interesting Field Experiance

Earlier this week I went on a site visit as part of a design meeting. The the facility has an underground vault filled with mechanical and electrical equipment. A visual inspection of this equipment is necessary so a coworker (an Electrical Engineer) and myself (a Mechanical Engineer) went inside the vault.

Breaker box that hit me

After looking around at some of the equipment I heard an odd noise coming from an electrical panel on the opposite wall about 10 feet away. Quickly looking up, I saw sparks emanating from it followed by a loud boom. At that instant the panel flew open and a breaker flew across the room and hit me in the chest. Unhurt, but very surprised, I noticed the box bounce off me and land several feet away. Turning to my coworker I said, "You need to fix that in your design."
When we left the vault I noticed a black mark on my shirt, but it simply wiped off. I suppose the breaker box was simply dirty, so unfortunately I do not have a singe mark to show off.

Control Panel

Google - Indefinite Storage

Just posted a question on Google Chat discussion forum:

The question I have doesn't fit into any category. I have looked at multiple questions on this subjects but have received no definitive answers.

Q: For all Google products, how long will your data be stored? 

I am looking for a table of some sort giving different data storage durations for each product Google offers. 

For example I am using (and have stored information on) Google+, Gmail, Analytics, Drive, YouTube, Maps, Play, Web manager Tools, ... (30+ services). So it could look something like this:

Service              Storage Duration

-------------------------------------------------------------

Google+            Until account is deleted

Gmail                 Up to 40 years of inactivity 

Analytics            Up to 10 years of inactivity

...

...

...

In line with this same question, if a storage duration is "until your account is deleted" could it also be said this way: " Until account is deleted, Google no longer exists, or (if the first two don't happen) for all of eternity"

I have never heard of a company keeping peoples information around indefinitely, but all of the posts I have seen on the subject have pretty much said this. If Google does keep your account with its records around forever, they should definitely be advertising this. Think about it, if I stored my sequenced DNA, a full neural mapping of my brain (still in development), and several full body scans, I could be completely recreated in the future (still in development). By Google storing all your information indefinitely they don't just help future generation understand you better, THEY TURN YOU INTO A GOD! You (the information that makes up who you are) could exist forever!

The one hitch in this eternal existence involves storing data that requires software retrieval. But it is a problem that Google has already solved. Google automatically updates the software in such a way that the original data can always be retrieved (at least they do for native Google Drive documents). 

The only indication I have that Google does not do this is with their failed products (Google Buzz). For failed products they give users a warning to get their information off of the discontinued product. However, I have never seen Google do this for successful products before.

Church Leaders

I was thinking about the church and about our leaders last month. As I was thinking I realized how accurate the statement is that “God does not call the qualified, but qualifies the called.” Looking at the life of J. Golden Kimble I realized how much better I could be. God called a person who swore, had difficulty following the Word of Wisdom, and is well known for other interesting behavior as well. At the time Golden was called, there were people like you and me, who didn’t seem to have any of these problems. Yet God still chose Golden as a prophet, sear, and revelator; someone that I should be looking up to. If Golden, with all of his failings, is a person I need to work up to, then I need to do some serious improvements in my life.
With that being said, there are many people who are better leaders than the prophet Thomas S. Monson. This is because the Lord does not choose great men to be His leaders. He chooses those who are humble, who, despite their numerous imperfections, strive to be like Jesus Christ in every way; and then He makes them great. I honor and revere Thomas S. Monson, not only as the prophet of this church, but, more importantly, as one who exemplifies the life of Jesus Christ.

Megan and Dad

I just found this today and had to post it

1-8-09
Starting Monday the 5th I have been with Megan every single day. I have really enjoyed the time with her. She has been very cute and funny. During this time Megan has a cold and I am doing everything I can to take care of her. This mainly involves using a lot of Vick’s vapor rub. I also set up a pup tent for Megan, so that Megan and I can use a humidifier to help clear her lungs.
I have to say some of the funny stuff that Megan has done lately. While in the put tent Megan lifted herself up my eight of my arm hairs. I don’t think those hairs will ever grow back.
On another occasion Megan was playing with my PS2 controlled robot. I was showing her how to move the robot around by pushing a few buttons. She tried to press one button over and over again but no matter how hard she tried she just didn’t have the strength to push the button all the way down. Finally she gave the button a hard look as she pushed it down with all her might. This sudden look of fierce determination upon hitting the button caused me to burst out a laugh. Megan visibly jumped in my lap. She turned toward me as if to say “Wow! I never knew the button could cause you to make noise.”

1-9-09
Megan has developed a great fascination for laser pointers. This is one of the best 99 cent purchases I have ever made. Megan can be captivated for almost an hour at a time following the laser light. Lasers: for dogs, cats, and children. 

1-12-09
One time while Megan and I were in the tent with perfuse amounts of Vicks vapor rub, Megan decided she could not take the smell any longer. I had put some vapor rub on Megan’s upper lip that way she could take advantage of it reparatory benefits more readily. Megan was not to have it though; she reached over, grabbed my shirt, and with the palm of her hand wiped the Vicks completely off of her lip and onto my shirt.

1-16-09
Yesterday I purchased a new laser because the old one went dead. Megan still has a great fascination for lasers.

Flying in Bill's Four-Seat Plane