Memory Day: Crew

Thirty years ago today, on March 1, 1993, it was the first day of spring crew in the Alexandria City Public School system.

The first week of crew was always the worst -- in that awkward weather armpit where the river is frigid and the rain briefly turns to snow several times per storm. It was the perfect beginning for a sport that I never truly enjoyed, and really only did because it seemed inevitable. I grew up hearing people constantly say, "You're so small! You should be a coxswain!" so it was probably easier to go along with it than buck the trend.

In 1993, I was a freshman coxswain starting my second season of crew. Owing to the "junior high" system, where freshmen were at the top of 7th-8th-9th, rather than the bottom of 9th-12th, we had to trek all the way across the city to get to the boathouse on the Potomac River. School got out somewhere around 2:30, the activity bus lollygagged through the projects in Old Town and dumped us at the boathouse around 3:15, and then we had to wait for the high schoolers to get out of school and arrive near 4:00. After a vigorous 1.5 - 2 hours of practice, the activity bus took us back across the city in rush hour traffic at 6:00. Bus drivers didn't get paid after 6:30, so if we hadn't gotten all the way to our designated stops, they'd just dump us out on the side of the road and we'd walk the rest of the way home. Some nights I didn't get home until after 7!

There were a few small perks to the slog, like my friendship with Jack (who I still see somewhat regularly) and girls in unitards. And on the 2 days of there year with actually decent weather, when high tide hid all of the poisoned fish and the stench from the sewage treatment plant was carried away on the west wind, it was nice being in a boat on the water. Still, if I had it all to do over again as a modern student, I'd look for the nearest eSports competitive team instead.

Thesis Day

It has now been exactly 20 years since I defended my Master's Thesis at FSU. To commemorate this milestone, I've put together this score video of the piece from start to finish.

I've done very little with my music degrees since leaving grad school. Apart from a few sub-in trumpet performances and brass quintet arrangements for my dad, I've been content to be a passive consumer of music rather than a creator. In contrast, I've made at least a million dollars with my computer science degree, most of which went towards Popeyes meals and boxed DVD sets of bad TV shows.

Learn more about each movement: I | II | III | IV | V | VI | VII | VIII | IX

Weekend Wrap-up

Dinner on Friday night was quick-broiled shrimp over a bed of liguine alfredo.

On Saturday, Rebecca went off to her weekly yoga class in the morning while the kids and I cleaned and organized the living room and hall closets. Maia's assistance was limited to building a cave in the hall closet out of spare paper towel rolls, while Ian's assistance was limited to building a paper towel tower (a paper tower), knocking it over, and saying "Uh oh!"

After a run to the grocery store midday, we mopped the kitchen and then relaxed around the house on Saturday afternoon. We made a big stock pot full of vegetarian lentil soup. Our friends, Tammy and Patrick, came over for dinner followed by pints of Ben and Jerry's for desert.

On Sunday, Rebecca took the kids to church as usual while I got some extra work done on a deadline. The weather was super nice so we spent the whole afternoon outside, reattaching hoses for the springtime and making a fire in our rapidly decaying firepit. Maia made grass-based foods as a Baking Show contestant and garnished with 2 of the 3 white daffodils we had in on our woods trail.

Dinner on Sunday was burgers with sauteed mushrooms. Ian serenaded us with several rounds of "Jesus Loves Me" after which we gave the kids a bath and put them to bed. Sunday night was reserved for 2022 taxes and putting up TurboTax's annoying cadence of "We're going to look to see if you qualify for this benefit! You don't qualify for this benefit!"

How was your weekend?

Maia's Art Day

Notable artwork from February 2022

Maia's artwork is increasing in output and starting to remind me of my own early art.

The cat is sad that the bunny ate all of her carrots.

Technically the truth.

A Valentine's caterpillar.

Looks like Maia will be adopting the lesser known MM/YY/DD format, using snowflakes as a divider.

Maia is really into Number Blocks right now.

These sea things were drawn using a "How to Draw" book I got her.

Highly accurate mapwork.

Review Day

There are no major spoilers in these reviews.

Abbott Elementary, Season One:
Taking the Office formula to a public school in Philadelphia, this sitcom is fairly shallow but has pleasant, quirky characters to enjoy time with. Principal Coleman steals the show, while the former child star of Everybody Hates Chris spends most of the season doing his patented eyes-bugging-out routine before getting more complex near the end. On Hulu.

Final Grade: B-

Chronologic by Caravan Palace:
This electro-swing album has a lot of interesting timbres and colors. I bought it mainly for the first song, Miracle, which was Ian's infant anthem that I used for calming and napping.

Final Grade: B

Atlanta, Season Two:
The anthology format of this show really drags it down. The show jumps from vignette to vignette making it hard to care about the characters or have them grow. The concluding episodes then go all in on character development but the build-up to that point was so fragmented that it lacked weight. On Hulu.

Final Grade: C+

Tar (R):
Watching this movie is like hanging out with a musicologist for two and a half hours. It's overly talky but seems to be building up to something all the way up to the two hour mark. Then it blows that goodwill away and whimpers out. I regret investing as much time I as I did.

Final Grade: C-

Chad Darnell's 12 of 12

12 pictures of your day on the 12th of every month

5:48 AM: Up early to get some work done (and maintain my normal work wake-up time through DST).

7:42 AM: Continuing my Kotlin journey through old Advent of Code puzzles with 222 stars earned out of 400.

8:58 AM: Showered and ready for the day.

9:10 AM: Bagel for breakfast.

12:35 PM: Off to Giant for groceries.

1:28 PM: Tending to the all-day beef stock (from beef rib bones) for a Rainbow Bean Soup.

3:48 PM: Maia invited us to a book and art show in her bedroom.

4:27 PM: Miscellaneous chaos.

4:41 PM: Big fat flakes of snow.

4:50 PM: Running the trail behind our house.

5:27 PM: Rainbow Bean Soup for dinner.

6:03 PM: This game is called "Uri! Pile-up".

Memory Day: Snapshots

These pictures were taken 21 years ago today, on March 15, 2002.

The weather in Tallahassee was such that an afternoon in mid-March had the exact same temperature as one in November or June. As first-year grad students with nothing useful to do, we took a mid-morning trip to Wakulla Springs. The trip was forgettable, other than a plethora of wildlife to observe on the tour boat. Mike (of Mike and Chompy) had a brief obsession with posing in pictures as if he were an alligator around this time.

Review Day

There are no major spoilers in these reviews.

Top Gun (PG):
Would you believe that neither Rebecca or I had never seen this movie before? We figured that we should probably watch this before watching the new one and were generally underwhelmed. The action scenes are uniformly unnecessary and hard to follow and all of the characters are fairly interchangeable. At least the director got his money's worth out of reusing the song, "Danger Zone", in four different scenes.

Final Grade: C-

Bruises by Dia:
I bought this album hoping for more light pop songs like Isabella, but this is a more introspective "blanket of sound" album that wasn't very memorable after my first few listens.

Final Grade: C-

Kirby and the Forgotten Land:
I bought this game to play with Maia so she could practice navigating a video game with a 3D camera perspective. She's getting there slowly but it's still frustrating enough that she eventually gives up and lets the game automatically teleport her character to mine. (Thankfully, she will never have to learn 3D controls with Mario 64 like us old-timers did). Game-wise, it's very shallow with far too many weapon options, collectibles, and side goals as distractions. Controls are very imprecise, yet the game is littered with time trials that require precision to unlock extras. We only play it now when Maia remembers it, but I'm fine moving on to the next game.

Final Grade: C+

Everything Everywhere All at Once (R):
This multiverse movie is ridiculous in a good way and doesn't take itself too seriously. That said, the fact that the wild part of the story is grounded in a very simple familial relationship story helps give something to care about. Fun, but not necessarily the best picture of the year.

Final Grade: B

Ian Year 1 Month 11 Battle Report

Ian is 1 month away from turning 2. He is very similar to how Maia was at this age although his wants can explode into tempests much more easily. His current weight is 24.6 pounds.

His first desired activity upon waking up is to read books forever, maybe with some breakfast after a while. Once he's gotten going, he has a vigorous appetite and will eat pouches and other snacks throughout the day. Yogurt and berries remain real food staples, and he "loooooves ice keem" -- part of the nightly dessert ritual to entice the kids to get in their pajamas.

He requires much less oversight these days, and if you look busy with chores, he'll wander off and play on his own. Usually this involves reading even more books or building a parking lot out of blocks where he can park all of his cars end-to-end.

Among his common phrases: "'i Daddy!" "'i Amber!" "What doin' Daddy?" "Playing Mario Kart!" The last phrase is shouted when he runs up and down the hall pretending to be a car. Related, here is a picture of his "windshield", a tupperware lid. He likes to walk around the house saying "BEEP BEEP" while looking through (and sometimes licking) the windshield.

Maia recently used her weekly school library visit to get a book that she thought Ian would like, and it was about a franchise called "Trucktown". Ian read it religiously every day and memorized the catchphrases of each truck in Trucktown ("Ram, oops!"). The books are of questionable literary value, featuring two trucks that SMASH and CRASH things even when their friends don't want them to.

Other things Ian likes right now: The rare episode of Bluey he gets to watch with Maia (maybe once a week or so), getting sprayed with the showerhead in his bath, cats, and (of course) wheeled vehicles. Last week, I took the kids to the farm to see the new baby animals and Ian spent the whole visit pointing at farm equipment.

Sleeping is going well -- he sleeps through the night once again, and will either take a 75 minute nap or entertain himself with books in the crib during that period, allowing the rest of the family to have Quiet Time of our own.

Finally, Ian currently has a couple scratches on his face that he won't stop picking at, which is why all of his recent pictures include two band-aids. As a result of the round Scooby Doo bandaids, he has added the Scooby Doo theme song to his repertoire.

Maia's Art Day

Notable artwork from March 2022

Hang on to your hats. I'm going to post more of Maia's artwork because I simultaneously want to remember it forever but don't want it all cluttering up the living room shelves!

These cats are CRAZY.

Half of us are surprised by the cat.

Though not perfect, Maia's phonetic spelling of words is improving.

This is the lyrics sheet for a song Maia wrote about love.

I'm not in this picture because I'm "in the kitchen making dinner". Can you spot Ian's band-aid?

A butterfly, of course.

Rebecca's about to pop off on those monkey bars.

Review Day

There are no major spoilers in these reviews.

That Was Now by Just Jack:
Just Jack's latest album is a fun outing with a little more energy than the last couple. The song, Genome is the catchiest, and the "Last Song" outstays its welcome with too much sameness.

Final Grade: B

Top Gun: Maverick (PG-13):
As we started this movie, I was telling Rebecca how the original Top Gun was a disappointment because they didn't let Tom Cruise run anywhere. Thankfully, this is resolved in the sequel, as there's exactly one scene involving tons of running. The movie itself was fine -- there's a logical progression to the plot and reasonably clear action scenes, although the tonal shift into comedic buddy movie towards the end felt a little too obvious.

Final Grade: B-

History of the World, Part I (R):
A forgettable pastiche of skits that shouldn't have been any longer than a skit.

Final Grade: D+

Stray:
This game about a lost cat in a dystopian future has a great style and visual appeal. It's shallow, exploratory gameplay is great for letting Maia watch (although the cat being swarmed by leechy aliens can get a little scary), but it's not so amazing that you'll keep playing to know what happens next. We lost interest about five months ago, probably over halfway through the game.

Final Grade: B-

Backlogged Side Project Status

7 months after this post

1) Swap out my PC power supply, which currently has a 40% of not turning back on after we lose power in a thunderstorm.

I upgraded my power supply last year, but unfortunately the power issue persists. When we lose power while the computer is on, something in the motherboard keeps thinking it's already on and prevents it from being turned on again. Mysteriously, the only workaround is to move the computer to another room and plug it into a different outlet (though still on the same breaker). Once I turn it on and off there, I can bring the computer back to my office and it works fine.

2) Become fluent in a non-Java programming language (likely Python or Kotlin) in time for Advent of Code 2022.

I didn't get to this in time for last year's Advent of Code, but I have been writing a little Kotlin code every day this year. My GitHub contribution heat map looks much more exciting this year as a result.

3) Migrate away from Eclipse IDE for my polyglot projects, possibly towards something like VSCode or IntelliJ.

I've been using IntelliJ IDEA since last October. I'm equally efficient writing Java in it compared to Eclipse. The IDE is a must-have for Kotlin, though, as the suggestions and autocomplete really help me avoid creating naive code that isn't idiomatic.

4) Restart work on my open-source library, Sparkour.

No movement here, and I'm not sure I'll ever restart this. Like most open-source projects, it's hard to maintain motivation when I no longer work with those technologies anymore.

5) Update the URI! Zone's SSL handling to use free, auto-renewing Let's Encrypt certificates.

Haven't started this yet and I have another year and a half before my next renewal ($46/yr).

6) Update the URI! Zone's ancient reliance on Apache HTTPd, OpenLDAP, and Apache Tomcat, in order to learn more modern alternatives.

These are both still on my "want to do" list -- maybe in the summer or fall!

8) Migrate the Maitz & Wurts Studio Shop to a modern storefront solution.

Still on the list but on the backburner at the moment.

9) Create a mobile app that shows nearby homeowner and sales information as I walk around the neighbourhood.

My interest in this has waned since I haven't taken daily neighbourhood walks with Ian since last Fall. Maybe the warmer weather will raise this back up.

10) Reread the Wars of Light and Shadow series and post book-by-book reviews in anticipation of the final book in the series.

Going strong here -- I've reviewed 8 of 10 published books so far and hope to finish the last 2 by the end of April.

11) Reeducate myself on the current state of MIDI and wavetable synth, which has surely evolved beyond my 2001 Roland Sound Canvas, and update my old compositions currently lost in Finale file format limbo.

Backburnered.

12) Rip all of the CDs in the house into MP3s and develop a NAS-based solution to play an entire library of owned MP3s from Alexa devices throughout the house.

Gone up in priority a bit for each day that Amazon Echo gets WORSE at understanding commands or prevents me from interacting with my purchased music in the manner that I want.

And, two new projects to add the list!

13. Learn Spanish.
14. Compose music or play an instrument regularly.

Data Day: 13 Years of Annual Finances

Chart Notes

• With the exception of two years (2018: The Year of Stay-At-Home Dadding and 2022: The Year of Having Two Kids), I've consistently made more than I spent. This is intentional so the graph looks more like a brontosaurus.


• Life is definitely more expensive post-pandemic. My grocery bills have spiked from an average of $60 to $100 per trip, and only $10 of that is fresh berries that the kids immediately devour.


• I'm looking forward to September of this year, when that boring mortgage line finally goes away for good, freeing up resources to buy a jetski or an exotic reptile.

End-of-the-Month Highlights Day

New photos have been added to the Life, 2023 album.

• Events
  • Went to the company leadership development program graduation at Dulles Hilton (as a mentor) on F 3/3.
  
  
  • Had Tammy and Patrick over for dinner on S 3/4 (vegetarian soup).
  
  
  • Family dinner at Cafesano on T 3/7.
  
  
  • Catherine Hicks and her granddaughter came up to visit on S 3/11.
  
  
  • Took Maia and Ian to Frying Pan Farm to see new piglets on H 3/16.
  
  
  • St. Patricks' Day corned beef dinner a day late on S 3/18, after taking Maia to get fitted for her first pair of glasses.
  
  
  • Elizabeth and Steve stayed overnight, S 3/19 on their way south.
  
  
  • Had my parents over for dinner on S 3/25 (rotini with meatballs).
  
  
  • Had the Whitmer clan over for belated St. Patrick's Day (corned beef) on S 3/26.
  
  
  • Maia got her first pair of glasses on T 3/28.


• Projects
  • Did our taxes on S 3/5.
  
  
  • Got my car inspected (60k miles in 11 years) on T 3/14.
  
  
  • Rechipped the common area trails behind our house in anticipation of Spring on T 3/21.
  
  
  • Continued learning Kotlin by redoing Advent of Code puzzles from 2018 - 2020.


• Consumerism
  • Still playing Overwatch 2 and getting into the "Mystery Heroes" game mode.
  
  
  • No amazing new shows, games, or music this month.

March's Final Grade: B-, lots of sick time within the family