Happy Anniversary to my post

Wow, a whole year since I last posted!

Yeah, well, a lot has gone on since then. Um, let’s see, here’s the highlights:

- Tommy started at Mizzou and he’s reporting that he’s doing very well so far. We took a family trip to Columbia to get him oriented at Summer Welcome in July, and a good time was had by all. Tina flew back with him in August to help him get settled, and he’s been having a great time ever since. He says his grades are doing great, and he’s made a lot of friends. We are all looking very forward to seeing him at Thanksgiving.

- Tina started school and is in her second semester at SCC. Whenever she takes a new class, she always changes her mind on what she wants to study. It’s nice to see her enjoying all the learning she’s doing. Not hard to believe, but she’s already surpassed my writing ability.

- Simon joined the marching band, and went to a camp for saxaphone players in July. It’s been a real hoot going to Lake Mary football games (home and away) and seeing Simon play. He’s doing great in school and really has taken a liking to physics.

- Olivia is doing great in school and has continued as the best lil’ flyer in the whole wide cheer world. She’s really enjoying her math class and learning algebra. We also set her up a blog over at http://www.carbonefamily.com/oliviasblog if you’re ever interested in checking up on her.

I hope to write more often, although I spend more time on web backends these days than actually using the applications. I’m done with my PhD classes, passed my qualifiers, but I’m too busy with FIEA and 360ed to work on my project. Such is life.

October 11th, 2008 | Category: General | Leave a comment

Finally. A Yard.

Well, we’ve been waiting for - well - ever - for a yard of our very own. It only took 20 years. And by our own, I mean how good, or bad, it is, is our fault. Period. Nobody else’s. The sod got done today. All the sprinklers work. The lighting works. So now, when stuff breaks, do we fix it? When plants overgrow their spot and obscure something, do we trim it? Do we maintain the grounds? I think Tina and I will be the greatest yard people in the world since we’ve waited this long for a yard of our own. I really genuinely do. Joey doesn’t. But I do.

It looks completely awesome. Grass everywhere, no weeds. Trees where trees should be, trimmed. Beds tidy. Sure, we have a little work to do. But man does it look great. I went out tonight just to watch the sprinklers sprinkle and I stayed for 15 minutes just watching them.

We have 888 watts of transformers on the front of our house, of which we are using 304. No really. Maybe one day I’ll find a use for the other 584. Maybe in the fountain if we ever get one. I just realized that’s almost a kilowatt.

I’ve decided to make a new category - “yard”. Whoever had money on me never having a category named “yard”, you just lost.

October 11th, 2007 | Category: General | Comments (1)

Busy week

So this is our busy time of year at FIEA - we go out to grad fairs, career expos, professional school gatherings, and the like to talk to prospective students. Yesterday I was up in Tallahassee talking with Seminoles about becoming Knights. Tomorrow, I talk to Gators about becoming Knights. We’ve had several success stories about Gators becoming Knights and then getting paid well to make games, so I hope to talk to some of them about coming to Orlando. I’m heading back up to Gainesville 3 MORE times in the next 4 weeks, which should be fun. The ride is not that bad, especially since all trips will include someone else to talk to.

I’ve been doing quite a bit of development work with something called WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation) and C#. I’m writing programs on a tablet computer, doing things like recognizing handwriting, shapes, and gestures using the pen interface. For the final project in the class, I’m going to write a game I’m designing to teach algebra with the pen - I’ll post more about it as I do it. For now, I’m recognizing shapes, numbers, and some letters pretty well using an algorithm designed by a guy named Rubine. Fun stuff.

October 10th, 2007 | Category: General | Comments Off

4.0…I think

Olivia got her progress report, and I’m pleased to report she got all As. She’s a very organized, determined young lady, so I’m not surprised by her early success. She makes her mom and I proud every day of the week.

Tonight, I took the boys to college night over at SCC, where we checked out some local (and not so local) colleges. Most intriguing of the bunch was West Point - man does that sound tough. The guy made no apologies about how difficult the road through there is. I also talked at length to the gals from UF and SCC about logistics of applying and whatnot.

I’m heading over to Tampa tomorrow for a full day at USF, home of the #6 football team in the country, believe it or not. I’m actually not speaking at all - but I setup all three talks, so I’m going in support of those. Ron is giving a talk on C# and XNA, Brian is talking on MEL, and Michael is talking about Master Plan, our last game at FIEA. Should be a fun, albeit long, day. Todd hooked me up with a bunch of new recruiting material to hand out - I think we’re finally getting on the ball on this whole FIEA thing.

October 3rd, 2007 | Category: General | Comments Off

Chugging right along…

So we finally got up enough energy and whatever else it takes to try to make our yard OUR YARD. Tina and I have always kind of blamed the previous owners for our lousy grass and landscaping, but in reality, it’s just been our laziness that has made it go from a C+ to a D- in 4 years. That’s all changed, and we’re two weeks away from having a kickass new yard. Today, with Joey and Mark’s help, we laid out some new beds and planted a really nice new palm tree in the front yard. We have a lot more work aheads of us, but we’re making steady progress, which is always a great feeling.

School is going good - both the teaching and the taking. I’m in a pen-based computing class, which has been hard but interesting. The professor leaves a lot of the details to us, which has led to some difficulties on the first two assignments. I’m learning a lot though, so it’s a small price to pay. This is my second to last class before all I have is thesis hours left. A year of those and I’m done with my PhD. If all goes well, we’ll have three straight years with graduations in our house: 2008, Tommy. 2009, Me. 2010, Simon. Very exciting times indeed.

September 30th, 2007 | Category: General | Comments Off

Geez

Has it really been two months?? I guess it has…

Quick recap - things are going great. Finished up the semester with my two classes, only have two left and then my dissertation. I’m looking forward to working on that, as it’s something I’ve always thought about doing but never really had a good reason to do.

Brian and I went camping in the Keys when the semester was over, and that was fun. It was my first time in that part of Florida, and I’ll definitely be back. It made me wish I had a different kind of camper - one that you are comfortable in when the windows are sealed up to keep out the bugs. We had two great camping spots, and enjoyed our time in Key West as well.

I’ve been busy working on a unit I’ll be teaching in July, as well as getting ready for our fall cohort of students. This will be our fourth group, believe it or not. Time flies.

The kids have been rotating between the lake and the boat, with Simon at the lake this week and Tommy on the boat. So Tina and I have Olivia all to ourselves - what a treat! Last night she went to a sleepover, so Tina and I went out on a rare date to Smokey Bones to use our $10 gift cards from Christmas. It was pretty good - Tina just loved the waiter.

I went away from DirecTV recently in favor of Brighthouse, and I have to say I’m happier. The onDemand stuff is really cool, and since I blew out the HD package, I’m loving up the sports and movies in HD. Granted, I could’ve gotten that on DTV, but it was kind of like our move to Florida when we bought our big house to guarantee that we would like it down here, and that worked well.

I want to get rid of my dedicated server with hard drives in it, and go to a NAS system to kind of clean things up. I promise to update you when I do - and hopefully before then.

June 5th, 2007 | Category: General | Comments Off

Pressure

Urban Meyer better step up and keep “the streak” alive. Go Gators!

April 2nd, 2007 | Category: General | Comments Off

All done…

Wow, what a month.

Had a great time at GDC catching up with friends and learning new cool stuff.

It was great hanging in the Bahamas with Simon, and we have tons of great pictures that hopefully one day I’ll get time to sort out. Maybe I’ll even throw some up here, ya never know. Crazier things have happened.

Dave’s visit was fun as well, and we got to hit lots of spring training baseball games. Here’s the rundown of what I saw this year:

First weekend Simon and I went camping and met Tina and Liv at the Strawberry Festival:
March 2 - Tigers @ Astros
March 3 - Indians @ Tigers

Simon really wanted to get a green hat on St. Patrick’s Day, and I really wanted to see the Dodgers in Vero Beach before they move to Arizona, so we went to this game the day after we got back from the Bahamas:
March 17 - Astros @ Dodgers

Dave got into town on March 21, so we did the only Tiger night game of the year :
March 22 - Indians @ Tigers

Dave spoke on Friday at FIEA, and we went out with my parents for Birthday fun at a local chinese restaurant that night.

The next day, though, we got back on our horse and hit up Kissimmee:
March 24 - Tigers @ Astros

Next day was my birthday, and we celebrated in Tigertown with :
March 25 - Yankees @ Tigers

We considered our options for Monday, the 26th, which was Dave’s last day in Florida. Do we take it easy? Kick back? Play a little worms and have a nice dinner? Heck no, enough of this one game per day crap, let’s hit two:
March 26 - Cardinals @ Marlins
March 26 - Dodgers @ Mets

So five games in five days, not too bad. And I’ve always said Tigertown was my favorite stadium in Florida - not anymore. It’s close, but I think I like the Mets and Tradition Field better. What a stadium.

March 28th, 2007 | Category: General | Comments Off

Just passing thru

So I had a great time in San Fran hanging with my FIEA boys and Dave. GDC was good, lots of info.

Now I’m off to the Bahamas - no laptop, no phone. So don’t be trying to get a hold of me. Save it and hit me up when I get back. I’ll take pics and show you when I get back, but in the meantime, checkout this site. That’s where I am. Snorkeling a lot I hope. We’ll see. Don’t worry I’ll get you the full report when I get back.

March 9th, 2007 | Category: General | Comments Off

Busy Couple Weeks

So I’ve been working over at EA for a couple weeks on Madden, so you probably thinking that between teaching, my class I’m taking, and that, I’ve been pretty busy. Well, you’d be right - however, the last 2 weeks will not compare to the next two weeks.

Simon and I head out of town on Friday. We’ll hit the Tigers at Astros Friday at 1:05, then head down to our campsite at Alafia River State Park for a little camping and fishing. Saturday we’ll wake up and head to Lakeland as the Indians make a visit to Tigertown. We’ll head back to the campground that night, and wake up the next morning and head to the Plant City strawberry festival. So far, so busy, right?

OK, we’re just getting started, because I get back Sunday night and leave at 6am Monday morning for San Francisco, where I’ll attend the Game Developer’s Conference Monday thru Thursday. I leave SF Thursday on a redeye, and arrive Orlando Friday morning. Wow, I was right, that is busy, you say? We’re just getting heated up, because I leave Saturday morning bright and early for Fort Lauderdale with the scout troop, where we catch a plane and head to the Bahamas for a scout trip where we sail around the Abacos Island for a week on a sailboat.

What a life, huh? So don’t look for much in the way of updating for a bit. As if I update very often as it is. At least now I’ll have a reason not to.

March 1st, 2007 | Category: General | Comments Off

Little Camping never hurt

So I’ve been doing a lot of camping lately. OK, check that, a lot of camping. 5 straight weekends in fact. I didn’t even let Tina’s Utah trip break my streak.

I went to Alafia River State Park, which is about 20 miles south of Plant City, between Orlando and Tampa, about an hour and a half from my house. It’s supposed to be a great mountain biking place, and there are two bassy looking lakes in the campground. There are also some “finger” lakes nearby that would be easy to fish as well. Like all Florida state parks, the campground itself is immaculate, and has great facilities. It also turns out that it’s a great place for stargazers, since it’s a new park in the middle of nowhere and the trees are small. I’ve camped there three times and each time, there have been telescopes around. It’s also a horse campground, so it’s kinda neat to walk around and checkout the horses that people bring to take on the trails around there. Simon and I return to Alafia on March 1 for a 2 night campout.

We went to Myakka River state park, which is spectacular if you ever get a chance to check it out. It’s East of Sarasota, and has superb tree cover on the campground proper, and some great scenic areas in the rest of the park. The Myakka River itself can be fished from kayaks, and they have an area you need a daily pass to get into that I’d like to try one of these weekends. Lots of birds and other animals in the vast open praries.

Camping at Fort Clinch State Park was fun - a little on the cold side, which made it even more fun. It got down into the 40s - I know not much for many of you, but hey, it was cold for us, so gimme a break. What a cool park, with the beach on one side, and a Yellowstone-like river side within a mile of each other. It was like another world, depending on which side you were on. We camped on the river side, but drove over to the beach side to check that out too. The boys got to participate in hands-on demonstrations of cooking over an open fire, and we got to try the chili, blueberry cobbler and potatoes after. On the way home from Fort Clinch, we hit Big and Little Talbot Island State Parks, Amelia Island State Park, and Faver-Dykes State Park, so it was a busy day.

We’ve camped twice at Gamble Rogers State Park, which is a small campground right on the beach. I love going to sleep to the sound of the surf, so this was great. Both times we camped there, we ate at a place called High Tides, which is a great restaurant within walking distance of the campground. Needless to say, we’ll return for a visit when possible, since it’s only a little over an hour from me.

I always try to take pictures of my trips, and those go into Tina’s picture stream that I have on her site - so feel free to check them out. You can get to them quicker by going to this link…

February 14th, 2007 | Category: General | Comments Off

I can’t believe it

So rewind to October 2005, and Brian and I introducing our friend Tom Angus to a nice girl that was our waitress every Thursday night for a few weeks in a row at Bill’s Elbow, a fine local eating establishment we would frequent after class to grade papers. He married her the the other night! Amazing!

Tom was aglow, Cindy was all smiles, and the evening was perfect. Couldn’t have gone better. We hung with Tom’s mom quite a bit, and she was absolutely great. I’ve only met her one other time, but each time I’ve come away realizing how Tom turned out so well. Tina and I hung out today since we were already down there, and had a grand old time at Disney. I love Disney, but still can’t convince Tina we need to get a new kid that would like Disney, a DVC contract and season passes. We saw a movie called Children of Men that was OK, but tried a little too hard if you know what I mean.

Regina Spektor’s CD is great. You know how you always turn on a new CD and you’re not sure which song will be your favorite. I knew the moment I heard Track 1 that it would not be topped, and so far (I’m only 2 days in) that has held. I can’t get it outta my head. The whole CD, however, appears to be rock solid, and anyone that likes Sarah McLachlan or Fiona Apple should give it a whirl.

January 29th, 2007 | Category: General | Comments (1)

Busy holiday weekend

Well, this weekend has been busy…that’s for sure. I wish I had taken my camera with me so I’d have some good shots for you, but alas, I didn’t.

On Friday afternoon when the kids got out of school, I took Simon and Olivia to Alafia River State Park to camp out, because it is near Lakeland. See, Tigers Spring Training tickets were going on sale saturday at 10am, so I thought it would be cool to be nearby and be there right when they opened. That way we’d beat all the noobs coming down from Orlando, right?

So we had a grand time Friday night - I cooked up some great burgers and while the kids watched the Cars DVD, I worked on my graphics project. I got a lot done, and they were sleeping by 8:30. We woke up the next morning, and cooked a great scrambled egg breakfast before getting to Tigertown around 10. We were #454, and they were currently servicing #37, meaning we had roughly a 6 hour wait. So I asked the guy when they would go onsale online, and he explained that they already were. I called Tommy and bought all the tickets I wanted while sitting in my bus in the Tiger parking lot, looking at what must’ve been at least a thousand people milling about waiting for the opportunity to buy in person. Yes, I see the irony in the situation.

We got home and relaxed, but not after buying a couple kayaks for future trips. Gander Mountain was having a great sale on them, and they’re small enough to fit in my bus. We made plans to go Sunday night to Myakka River State Park. We took the kayaks for a test ride in the lake across the street, and sure enough they were great. Sunday morning, however, both Simon and I woke up with backaches, and feared the kayaks. So we left them at home and went to Myakka anyway, and had a grand time looking at gators and checking out future spots for kayaking/fishing. We had brats which I simmered in beer, and they turned out great! I got a lot done Sunday night as well, while Simon watched October Sky and fell asleep.

Next morning we cooked bacon and eggs, then checked out the park some more, before meeting the rest of the family for a day on Siesta Beach. We headed home, but not before a stop at one of our favorite restaurants, Wright’s Gourmet House. A full weekend of fun in the sun, and I’m dead tired. At least my assignment for Thursday is done.

January 15th, 2007 | Category: General | Comments Off

Go Gators!

This year I went to see a Gator game, and they win the National Championship. Coincidence? You tell me…

GO GATORS!

January 8th, 2007 | Category: General | Comments (1)

Spring solidifying

Hopefully you’ve all been tracking the Carbone holiday through Tina’s blog, I don’t have much to add that I didn’t already say over there. We all had a great time with the cruise and visiting with family and friends.

I got registered for spring classes and I’m pretty excited to be able to get two classes out of the way. After this semester I’ll only have two classes remaining! I’m taking a graphics class taught by a friend of mine in CS that I’m really looking forward to, as well as one of the three required classes through modeling and simulation. I won’t be as busy as I was in fall, but still pretty busy.

January 5th, 2007 | Category: General | Comments Off

In the middle of the ocean

I won’t be on much, but I’ll be on a bit. We’re out in the middle of the ocean, having fun. Dinner was great, we all had prime rib and Tommy had shrimp ravioli. Olivia loved the parade and all the dancers, and our first show was very good. Tomorrow has a lot of activities planned, so we should be busy. I will check in again tomorrow.

December 17th, 2006 | Category: General | Comments Off

We’re off

We’re leaving for our cruise in about an hour, so the house is full of packed bags and excited parents and kids. Joey came over last night so he’d be here this morning to take us over to the ship…what a guy!

I’m hoping the water is warm so swimming is comfortable. I know the food will be great, but I’m hoping I don’t overdo it. I’m hoping Tina’s not too disappointed when it turns out I’m much more comfortable doing Karaoke in my house than on the ship. I’m hoping the kids get along. I’m hoping our house sitters don’t have any dog or TV or pool disasters. I’m hoping we can find some kickass $10 gifts (not including wrapping) for our Christmas party.

I’m bringing my laptop because Tina has asked that she be able to update her blog while on the ship. We’ll see how sucessful that is.

December 17th, 2006 | Category: General | Comments Off

Where are you?

I’ve been analyzing the traffic on my site to see where you people come from. In case you’re interested, here’s the answer (US traffic only shown):

Getting close to the end of a very busy time. Got all my work done in my classes, and I think I did OK. Got all my grades done for my teaching, and graduation is tomorrow for our cohort 1 students, so since I’m a faculty member, I will be there in cap and gown accompanying them down the aisle. Should be interesting. I had a party for programming students on Saturday night, and that went pretty well. We played Wii Tennis, Wii Bowling, Karaoke PS2, Wii Boxing, Gears of War, more karaoke PS2, watched parts of the King Kong HD-DVD, and finished the night strong with some Lumines Live. Not surprisingly with that much gaming, the party went from 7pm to 3am. Fun seemed to be had my most of the attendees, which is a good thing.

Saw the shuttle go up last night, and to say that a night launch is spectacular is not doing it justice. It was also the source of a new favorite quote of mine, when we went running outstide to look at it. All 25 of us are standing in the street in front of the house, looking up at this rocket with a HUGE fire plume coming out of the back streaking up into the sky, but Tina was a bit late. She came out and said to me, “Is that it?”, pointing at the shuttle. I just stopped for a moment, then calmly replied, “Yeah, Tina - that’s it.”

Speaking of Tina, we watched “The Breakup” on HD-DVD tonight - wow did the Chicago shots look good. In case I didn’t mention it, HD-DVD looks pretty good.

December 11th, 2006 | Category: General | Comments Off

Go Gators!

So my back is feeling better - when properly medicated. At least I’m comfortable most of the time. When the drugs wear off, it still hurts really bad, but I think it’s hurting less and less all the time. Hard to say, but I think so.

Tom Angus gave me the hookup that Target and ToysRUs would have Wiis this morning, so Tommy left the house at about 630am looking for them. He eventually wound up with Tom at Toys in Altamonte, #16 in line, and they got 20 units. Way to go Tom! So we got that bad boy setup and played some boxing, tennis and a bit of baseball too. So far, 10 out of 10 in the fun category.

Because of the Wii purchase, I got my TV all setup today with the AV system again. Major props to Mitsubishi for putting a coax digital audio out on the TV - now I have a very simple setup and just put the Yamaha on the CD in, monitor the 6CH input, and use the TV remote for everything. I was surprised it converted the analog input audio to digital for me, but I just had to give it a shot, and I’m oh so glad I did. So if you’re keeping track at home, I’m using both composite inputs (Wii, DirecTV (S/V)), both component inputs (360, XBOX), and the front composite as well (PS2). I have 2 additional inputs for the TV, but both are HDMI, so when I get a PS3 and a DirecTV HD Tivo, I have a spot for both of them as well. I’ve never had this clean of a setup before for this many game systems - Tina is thinking of getting something to keep the controllers in when they’re not in use.

The TV takes up the entire hole in the living room, and is quite cumbersome to move, but we had another major revelation today when we realized Olivia could fit under the TV and come out behind it. So she definitely earned her keep today, running wires everywhere back there, as we got it all hooked up. I rewarded her with several knockouts in Wii boxing, and she seemed to love each and every one.

Go Gators! What a weekend! And HD makes an already great thing about 100 times better.

December 4th, 2006 | Category: General | Comments Off

TBone’s weblog!

Happy Anniversary to my post

Finally. A Yard.

Busy week

4.0…I think

Chugging right along…

Geez

Pressure

All done…

Just passing thru

Busy Couple Weeks

Little Camping never hurt

I can’t believe it

Busy holiday weekend

Go Gators!

GO GATORS!

Spring solidifying

In the middle of the ocean

We’re off

Where are you?

Go Gators!

Almost