Well, we finally did it. Tonight is the first night Ashlyn is sleeping in a regular bed. Her crib is one of those convertible jobbies, so we converted it after work tonight and re-arranged her room quite a bit. So far, so good. Cross your fingers...
So, I purchased a PreSonus Inspire GT firewire recording box to mess around with a few days ago, and I must say that I'm thoroughly enjoying it so far. I'm still learning how to use the multi-track recroding software that it comes with, Cubase, but it seems to be a pretty good software package. The Inspire ships with Cubase LE, so it's got some restrictions as compared to the full-blown version, but it seems to do what I want for the most part. It also comes with a multitude of guitar effect plugins and a few drum machine apps that are fun. I'm really looking forward to finally recording some of the guitar riffs that I've been messing around with for years!
Here's one of the first riffs I recorded: (Audio clip removed. If you really want to hear it, just ask.)
Not sure if it will ever become a full-fledged song, or just stay a quick little doodle -- I'm just glad it finally got recorded before it disappeared into the ether. :-)
Here's a sample of our little dancer:
I foresee dance classes in the not-to-distant future...
Actually, it's been so long since I posted the first part to this story I kind of forgot where I was planning on going with the second part. :-P
But, since the title of the first post implies there being at least a second, I thought I'd go ahead and post a few pictures.
Scott's "head zipper"
What I look like on the inside:
You can even see the screw in my left shoulder from the rotator cuff surgery I had in high school. Neato.
And no, I don't have an abnormally curved spine. It only appears that way because I have severely limited mobility in my left shoulder due to the previously mentioned surgery, and I had to raise my arms above my head for the X-Ray and CT scan. In order to do so without causing extreme discomfort, I had to slightly twist my torso.
I should really make up a t-shirt with the X-Ray image on it, and some text saying: "I was in a car accident, and all I got was this lowsy t-shirt." Yeah, that would be cool...
No, I'm not talking about your laundry. ;)
Folding@Home is a distributed computing project run by Stanford University to research the process of protein folding. More specifically, they are studying the phenomenon of proteins that do not fold correctly, and the role they play in such diseases as Alzheimer's, ALS, Huntington's and Parkinson's disease, and many forms of cancer. The project began over seven years ago, with the beta version of the software released in 2000.
The Folding@Home project utilizes a concept known as distributed computing, where the complex calculations required to simulate the folding process are broken down into chunks of smaller, more manageable calculations (called Work Units) that are then sent to the client software running on a home user's computer (or PS3). The client software runs in the background, using "spare" CPU cycles. Once the client software finishes the folding simulation of the individual Work Unit it was assigned, the results are uploaded to Stanford's servers where Work Unit results from users all over the world are re-assembled for further analysis. The hundreds of thousands of home computers running the client software provide enough computing power to "simulate problems thousands to millions of times more challenging than previously achieved", according to the Folding@Home website.
The online gaming group I belong to has joined the folding effort, and all are welcome to join our team. Yes, even YOU! You don't need to be a gamer, but if you are, we even welcome rival clans. ;)
So what do you need to do to join the folding effort?
- Go to http://folding.stanford.edu and download the client software. Client software is available for PC, Mac, and even PlayStation 3!
- Install the software, select a username, and join Team [760] by adding team number 70586 in the config window.
- Let it run in the background. That's it - you're folding!
Once you've finished your first Work Unit, your folding stats will appear on the Stanford website, and the Team [760] Stats Page.
As a fun added bonus for Team [760] members, I've personally put together a much more comprehensive stat tracking system: Team [760] Folding@Home Advanced Stats. We realize it's not a competition amongst ourselves or other teams -- these stats are just for fun, and serve to document our progress and help visualize our contribution to the project as a whole.
Even if you don't join Team [760], I hope you'll consider joining the Folding@Home project. It's a worthwhile cause.
When we moved into our house on the southeast side of Des Moines five years ago, we were fairly pleased with the neighborhood we had chosen. It's located at the edge of a development that was constructed in the mid-90's (ours built in '94), so the homes are all relatively modern and in decent condition. The immediately adjacent neighborhood to the west is slightly older (probably mid-80's), with the homes continuing to get older as you move farther west. Extending to the east are generally newer homes, with the most recently constructed houses popping up all around Easter Lake, which is about 5 minutes from our house. We knew that the SE side, in general, was not the nicest part of the metro area, but it provided a lot more buying power, getting us a much nicer home than we could get for a similarly priced house in the western suburbs. Basically, you have to drive through some "not so nice" neighborhoods to get to ours, and when we purchased that was OK. Unfortunately, things have changed over the years.
The most significant change has been the fact that we are now parents. Having the well-being of a young child at the forefront of your daily concerns makes you sensitive to things in your surroundings that you probably could care less about when you qualify as just a couple of D.I.N.K.'s (Double Income, No Kids). Anyone with children will know exactly what I'm talking about. Things that might seem trivial to someone without any children can often times be very important to a parent. Unfortunately, there have been more than just trivial events (even by D.I.N.K. standards) leading to the decline of our neighborhood.
In general, the SE side of the Des Moines metro could be considered a bit of a rough neighborhood -- really the entire east side. Yes, there are nicer spots interspersed among the bad areas, like our neighborhood for example, but it's generally not a highly revered part of the metro. We knew that going in, realizing that we would most likely move on after 5-7 years, so no big deal, right? Well, it wasn't at the time we purchased, and continued to not be a problem up until about two years ago when the crime associated with the bad areas around us started creeping closer and closer to our neighborhood.
It seems like there is a shooting/stabbing/robbery/hit-and-run/recently discovered dead body on the east side about every other week. Seriously. If it's not one of those things, it's another. Here are just a few examples that stick out in my mind:
- A few nights ago a 15 year-old was killed in a hit-and-run near South Ridge Mall (about 5-10 minutes south of our house).
- There have been at least three robberies of various businesses on SE 14th over the last several months -- at least one of which ended up in a high speed chase. SE 14th is the nearest major north-south thorough-fair to our house, about 5 blocks away.
- Last year, a man was arrested for sexually assaulting a young child (under the age of 10) in a van parked at the Fareway 2 blocks from our house.
- A few months ago a house on our street was broken into. I'm not sure what, if anything, was stolen. No one was home at the time.
- And most recently, there have been a rash of mailbox bashings on our street. Saturday evening/Sunday morning marked the third time it has happened this summer. This last go-around was the first time our mailbox was hit. Luckily, the damage was only superficial. There were somewhere between 5 and 10 other mailboxes on our street that weren't so lucky.
Normally, I wouldn't get too concerned about my mailbox getting bashed. And compared to the other items in my above list, some damaged mailboxes seems pretty trivial. Yes, it's annoying, aggravating, and an inconvenience -- especially when it happens repeatedly, but under normal circumstances I'd just chock it up to some bored, rowdy teenagers. That's what it appeared to be all the times leading up to the most recent. However, this last round was accompanied by, what I can only assume to be, gang symbols spray painted on the side of my neighbors boat which he had parked in his driveway. I have no idea what it meant or what gang it may or may not have been representing, but it concerns me greatly. That's just too damn close.
I feel as if it's only a matter of time before something more significant than a smashed mailbox will happen to my family, and I don't really feel like waiting around to find out what it might be. It's time to get the hell outta dodge...
