thoughts to blog

Digging for Bones

Jake Good — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 22:16:33 GMT

I was watching the news last night and a story (read) came on about a new dinosaur dig going on in Glen Rose, TX... a hot spot for dinosaur foot prints and bones.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/curiousexpeditions/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Now... I am an atheist, a scientist, a naturalist... but I can't help but feel uncomfortable when the local news reports on the dig and get's an official word, on screen, from Dr. Carl Baugh of the Creation Evidence Museum.

Before you get all flame bait on me, please do some research on the man.

According to an article at the National Center for Science Education, in the Creation/Evolution Journal found here, his colleagues who worked with him before, have pointed out that he has made up evidence to support his claims on finding fossilized "manprints". He has also been involved with purchasing fossils from people, who then turn around and spend the money on hospital bills or other non-philanthropic purchases. In fact, those purchases were never released to or examined by a scientist at all. Lost forever are the clues and historical facts about those pieces of Earth.

The man is a fraud. In fact, the guy's doctoral studies were in philosophy and theology, not archaeology, biology, or any other historical study. He's a young Earth creationist. With a mission to prove that his theories are correct, leaving out possibility that he could be wrong. A scientist admits tests if his hypothesis and theories are false. I haven't seen any claims from Mr.... err Dr. Baugh.

It makes me sad when the news station presents his views as "expert" and "truth" bearing, when his motivations are not that of a scientist.

Maybe it's the station's fault, maybe it's Dr. Carl Baugh's fault... or maybe it's the land owners fault, for allowing Dr. Baugh to examine, instead of a proper archaeology team.

Then again, maybe I'm still struggling with every day things I see and here, being in Texas... as an atheist.

Facebook Dev Garage June 2009

Jake Good — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 14:56:04 GMT

Today I'll be speaking in front of a large crowd of DFW Facebook developers, 260 people have registered for the event... should be exciting.

By the time you see this, I'll probably have already gave my talk...

Here are the slides:

Check out http://drop.io and our API http://api.drop.io

Seperation Anxiety

Jake Good — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 16:27:03 GMT

So I've been working from home since November 2007, nearing 2 years... and it's been really great. I've been given a lot of opportunities to do things that I wouldn't have normally had, because I have some flexibility and freedom.

One of those is adopting 2 pups... Princess Lucy and Bentley the Regal Beagle... pictured here:

It was tough at first, but we stuck it out... and it's been quite rewarding (and expensive).

But that's not the point I want to get across... For any other dog owners, it's a well known fact that some dogs have separation anxiety. When they can't quite figure out why their owner has left and they feel anxious. Crazy things can happen. Like this:

Erratic behavior. Ultimately something your heart goes out to them for and they are forgiven quickly.

But what about humans? Would one get separation anxiety from leaving their animals?

Yes

I can fully say, that when I have plans to leave my house for extended periods of time (> 5 hours), I often have anxiety. For shorter durations during the summer, I get worried about the dogs being outside in 100F weather... For longer durations I get worried about them not having fun or missing us. Of course, mostly irrational fears, and it always works out...

But it's something that happens to me and I'm sure it's a direct effect from working from home and raising these two pups every single day for the last year or more.

I'm not quite sure how I'm going to get rid of the anxiety, but with the wedding coming up, we're going to board the dogs for 2 whole weeks. I'm not sure how I'm going to handle it. I already got nervous making the reservation. I know it's the logical thing to do as we're going to be super busy and with no fenced in yard where we'll be, we can't take them. They will be well taken care of and we're paying good money to make sure that that happens. But I still can't stop thinking about the idea of being away from my dogs for 2 weeks...

Who knows what I'd do if one ran away... Eek!

Can I get an Amen

Jake Good — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 17:34:34 GMT

I'm getting the urge to have a complete geek movie fest soon...

I'm talking... geeked out, fritos and Tab... back to back movie fest...

Here are my options:

1) Indiana Jones Series - I've done this round once, sans the newest, but always a pleasure. DOCTA JONEZ!!

2) The Matrix Trilogy - Do you really have to ask why? Take the RED PILL!

3) The Lord of the Rings Trilogy - Frodo... I like saying Frodo Baggins...

4) Excalibur (1981), Clash of the Titans (1981), and Willow (1988) - Apparently my birth year saw some of the awesomest films EVER!

When should I embark on this journey and which options should I choose?

Fort Worth Tweetup at Blue Mesa

Jake Good — Wed, 27 May 2009 16:00:19 GMT

So I'm putting together another Fort Worth Tweetup...

Here are the details:

Fort Worth Tweetup Wednesday, June 3rd 5:00 PM

Blue Mesa Grill 1600 S. University Dr. Ft. Worth, TX 76107

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Starting to Cafe

Jake Good — Thu, 21 May 2009 14:05:07 GMT

So here is the CL450 before:

And after a new set of handlebars and some removal of gear:

Looks a lot more mean and lean doesn't she :)

Still more work to do on her rear-end... lower seat, removal of break light, and chop the rear fender...

Method Man and Redman

Jake Good — Fri, 15 May 2009 20:31:45 GMT

A-YO!

Time to figure this out

Jake Good — Sat, 02 May 2009 21:49:57 GMT

So this blog brings in more spam comments a day, than I get emails, txt messages, and phone calls combined... It's frankly discouraging.

I know it's the platform that I have chosen. I know I could update Feather and it would probably help me, but I just am too damn lazy for that :)

I've got a toy ruby site (using Sinatra) that I want to host as well...

So who knows, I want to get whoisjake.com back up as my "online landing page"... and I use my [Twitter][3] account every day, so maybe some form of hybrid "What's Jake up to" kind of feed, instead of my blog would be better. Something that merges my fun stuff (Flickr, Twitter, Blog, etc)... like a life stream... Or maybe nobody cares and I should stop worrying about it :)

Maybe I have too many things I want to do and not enough drive to get them done...

And now my motorcycle is broke.

Sorry for the "whoah is me post", but I just need to figure this out!!

Rock and Rollergames

Jake Good — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 15:17:39 GMT

Even though it only lasted one season, Rock and Rollergames was awesome!

The wall of death!!

Bonnie Bassler on Bacteria Communication

Jake Good — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 15:24:58 GMT

Incredibly interesting TED talk about how bacteria communicate... and how instead of killing off bacteria with anti-biotics, we should be blocking their communication or scrambling it.

Great stuff!

If Atheists Ruled the World

Jake Good — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 14:59:29 GMT

Just a little bit of religion humor to start off the morning...

Btw, these lines are taken directly from a Fundamentalist Christian message board... granted they are out of context, it's still humorous...

Excuse Me, I'm Coming Through

Jake Good — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 22:00:49 GMT

Discover Simple, Private Sharing at Drop.io

1970 Honda CL450 Scrambler

Jake Good — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 14:47:38 GMT

Check out my new toy!! I have been searching high and low for a 60s/70s Honda... and after many attempts at purchasing one, a super nice man up in Denton, TX decided to part ways with one of his precious Honda's...

And here it is (click for larger image):

The guy I bought it from was extremely nice... He even gave me back enough money to buy a new battery because it was ailing...

And I've been drooling over the Cafe Racer movement... and these bikes turn into cafe racers quite easily. Maybe I'll get my hands dirty and see what I can do...

Until then, I think I might take a cruise around the neighborhood!

Long Time No Blog

Jake Good — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 04:25:25 GMT

So I haven't posted in quite a while... I have good excuses. Here they are, in no particular order:

I recently acquired my motorcycle license and have been on an aggressive hunt to find a bike.
I just got back from a trip to the mountains in CO... Went snowboarding.
I'm traveling to Iowa this week to do the "Parents meet the Parents" thing with my fiance and family...

I've just been busy... plain and simple :)

Sushi 101 at Central Market

Jake Good — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 16:00:47 GMT

Becca and I took our first cooking class together. It was a late Valentine's day gift and we chose to take the Sushi 101 course. We both enjoy really fine sushi and wanted to know more about the craft.

The class was awesome! Very much recommended. The chef's were fun to watch and taught the class very well.

Here's a picture of my first roll:

My monster futomaki/uramaki rolls (giant rolls with rice on the outside):

And my prize winning Caterpillar Roll:

As you can see, the class was great... and my rolls actually turned out!

Some key things about sushi:

Use a very sharp knife and don't push down and smush through it, slice through the roll...
Coat everything (knife, hands, palms, etc) with a water (and a slight hint of rice wine vinegar)
Don't smush your rice on the nori
Don't squish your roll until after you have completed it, then compact it and form it
Did I mention use lots of water?

The main thing that I gathered is that the concept is simple: rice, fish, and flavors... but the technique is what makes killer sushi. It's all about presentation and tradition.