Nathan W. Ho

Hey -

It’s been a long time since I blogged, as I’ve been very busy with life, family, work – and the house!  I have some great stories that I want to share with everyone about that (yes, Paul – lawn care stories even).  But I mentioned the following to someone (who found it interesting), and wanted to document this before I forgot.

My family loves games – all kinds of games.  Board games, card games, computer games, indoor and outdoor games.  We have a lot of fun!  But with some – as much as we love them – they get a little old after a while.  What do we do about this?

We modify the rules or create new ones of our own!

Now, this isn’t all that unusual; I know others do this as well – but we’ve done this quite a bit with a variety of games, and I thought I’d share one of my favorites: Phase 10

This is a great card game that my family still adores.  But seriously – only 10 phases?  That doesn’t last very long if you’re playing at a decent pace.  So a few years ago, we sat down and drafted up another 10 phases (we have a few more beyond that, but not a full set yet – you’ll have to wait for those).

Anyway – the classic game has the following 10 “phases”:

1. 2 sets of 3
2. 1 set of 3 + 1 run of 4
3. 1 set of 4 + 1 run of 4
4. 1 run of 7
5. 1 run of 8
6. 1 run of 9
7. 2 sets of 4
8. 7 cards of one color
9. 1 set of 5 + 1 set of 2
10. 1 set of 5 + 1 set of 3

And my family now offers you the joy of playing the next 10 phases of:

11. Run of 5 and set of 5
12. Run of 6 of same color and set of 3
13. Run of odd OR even of 6 and set of 4
14. Run of 9 of same color
15. Run of 10 alternating 2 colors
16. Run of 4 and 2 sets of 3 (both sets all different colors)
17. Set of 4 and run of 4 (both all 4 colors)
18. 2 runs of 5, each a single color
19. 2 sets of 4:  one set – no wilds; one set – all wilds
20. Run of 10 all one color (no wilds)

If you enjoy this game as well – we hope you enjoy the extra fun

Nathan.

I am quite happy to announce that I am now an official home owner!  I have acquired a 7-ish man hot-tub, attached to a nice 4 bed / 2.5 bath house on the western side of Lancaster, PA!

Pictures and further details forthcoming, after the shock wears off a little more….

(1) I’m house shopping again (this time in PA) – and I’m very serious about getting a house by this summer!  More on that later…

(2) If you’re a mac user, you will want to check out the new MacHeist:

http://www.macheist.com/bundle/u/94384/

$39 for 12 programs is a pretty sweet deal – and since they’re each worth about that retail, if you like even two of the apps being offered, then it makes total sense to buy!

For me, I’m really interested in:

• SousChef (been wanting a cooking / recipe software package for my mac)
• PhoneView (for my iPod Touch)
• World of Goo (I’ve heard great things about this game)
• Wiretap Studio (to use to record work calls for project needs)
• Espresso – looks like an interesting / new programming editor

So anyway – I pay for one, and basically get the rest free….whee!  If you’ve got a mac, it’s definitely worth checking out!

Oh – and if you bother to join in their “heists” (puzzles) which are separate, you can get a lot of other apps for free….

Cheerios!

Happy Chinese New Year to everyone

It is now the Year of the Ox (Ji-Chou) – I hope everyone had fun “practicing” their American New Year’s, because now the _real_ one starts

I’m working on a dynamic system that maps out the 60-year cycle of the Chinese New Year schedule (zodiac + chinese stem / branch + dates) – but still have a few kinks to work out in the logic.  Until then, here’s what I have if you care:

           http://www.theoslogic.com/hong_bao/

Nathan.

So, ever since I made the move to the Mac operating system, there have been a few functionality features that I’ve really missed about Linux.  The first – windowshading – is the ability to “minimize” a given program window to just it’s title bar (and back again) with a double click or so.  I use Unsanity’s Windowshade haxie to gain this ability in Mac OS X (now that they’ve released a Mac OS X Leopard compatible version). But as great as Windowshade X is, it doesn’t have everything that I want.

The other major (related) functionality that I’ve missed was the ability to click-drag anywhere on a program window to move it around on the screen.  For instance, being able to click in the middle of a browser window and drag it to a new location.  Linux has had that ability for ages – but with Mac OS X, for whatever reason, I’ve been reduced to using the titlebar to move windows around (which works fine – but is a hassle).

Enter Afloat 2.  While this little app duplicates some of the functionality of Windowshade X, it ALSO gives you the ability to click-drag windows just like I want!

It’s even OSS / free, so hey – why not give it a shot?

So I’ve now been in my new place (a townhouse) for a week, and things are finally starting to take shape! And as has been my goal – it’s all coming together on my birthday! (Happy birthday…to ME!!)

What’s been happening today that’s so special? Well, my new dining room table and hutch was delivered today, just in time for my birthday dinner – a great way to “christen” my new place with my whole family

Also – since I moved in, I’ve been having horrible trouble with my Internet connection (broadband through Comcast cable). Instead of a 3-6MB connection (3000 – 6000), my connection speeds were only rating an average of about 400KB (400). NOT exactly the “broadband” speeds to which I am accustomed. So I’ve been after Comcast for the last week to get it fixed…

After about a dozen phone calls, and 3 techs (including a fully-rated supervisor) – I got my connection fixed today!!

On top of that, in the last few days, I’ve also gotten my PA drivers license, voting registration and my PA license plates – as well as moved my insurances to PA, setup a will (have to do this in each state in which you live), moved my AAA account, and a few other random things…..so now I’m an (almost) fully vested PA resident….just have to wait for some final paperwork to work it’s way through the various systems

*LOL*

I’m currently watching my two nieces play ring-around-the-rosie with my younger sister (Rachel), and they are having quite the blast together

….. time passes……

Well, I just opened my presents, said good-bye to my parents (who had to drive home to NY tonight), played a game with my siblings, and then sent them all off home….and ended my birthday!

All in all, this was a very good birthday – spent with a loving family, in my new home. Once again, I am so grateful for the family that I have – and for my God who has given it all to me!!

Thank you, God, for the wonderful beginning to another new year of my life….

For those who don’t know it yet, my recent life has been consumed recently with moving away from my home of 4.5 years (west Michigan) back towards my family. Just today, I have arrived in South Eastern Pennsylvania – which is going to be my new stomping grounds for the forseeable future.

Why the move? In a word: Family. For the last 10+ years, I’ve been the “remote” family member, who had to catch a flight back to the east coast to be with family. I’d make it out to be with my family two or three times a year – and the occasional extra-special occurrence. However, for the most part all of my participation in family events and discussions happened over the ‘net or by phone.

No longer! My family is all within a 4 hour radius of my new “home” – and I’m very grateful for the opportunity to be able to do this.

It’s true that I had to give up a lot to move back east (great friends, good health / few allergy problems, being next to the lake, etc) – but I am more than willing to give that all up for the sake of my family.

The drive out to PA was nicely uneventful – my mom was gracious enough to spend the week with me, helping me prepare and organize everything for the move (doubly so, since I had to work during the days and was only available at night to do things). And extra thanks to my sister, who helped do a TON of legwork on potential places to live.

I’ll be blogging a bit more about the move and the repercussions – but I wanted to blog briefly about something that came up during my drive out to PA.

As my mom and I were crusing down the highway, we noted that several of the semi’s (18-wheelers) had large, fancy advertisement-type paintings. This one in particular had a large painting of some beautiful rooms (a kitchen and a living room). Unfortunately, this type of painting can have a deletirious effect on the driving skills of people passing by.

Not that we had any particular trouble (since we were actively discussing that issue at the moment) – but it occurs to me that these larger-than-life advertisements can be a *REAL* distraction to many drivers. If someone doesn’t have the skills to stare and drive straight, then you’re creating a huge potential for car accidents. In my opinion, most drivers don’t need yet another distraction on their minds.

It’s bad enough when you see all the drivers rubber-necking (and causing traffic jams around traffic accidents and other stationary attention-grabbers). But now people are trying to get them to pay attention to MOVING ADVERTISEMENTS on the road?!?

I swear…..some people are so wrapped up in trying to get us to give them money, that they don’t stop and *THINK* about what kinds of potential trouble they might be causing with their advertisements….

Another reason to be glad I don’t have to drive to work, I guess *heh*

Hey everyone – it’s been a long and silent period on my blog. Last year (2006) was a painful year for me in a lot of ways….too many funerals, for one. The loss of my friend, Po, was the start of it all – one full year ago. I certainly cannot give a full accounting of why God has allowed my life (and the lives of my friends) to take the directions that they have – but I do trust Him and His handling of each situation – even when I don’t understand.

However, the long quiet is over – and I am re-launching both my blog (Expostulation & Reply), as well as a new look and feel for my website! I hope to blog more often about whatever strikes my mind, as well as to keep the design fresh (and more in tune with myself, rather than just as a rough attempt website identity).

What do I mean about the design? Well, let’s start with the logo. The old logo was simply a stylized “TL”, the basic inspiration for the layout being two-fold: (1) The web icon used in the movie “The Net”, starring Sandra Bullock – which was a styled Pi symbol. (2) The two warring sides of human nature (good vs. evil). This captured much of the idea I had planned for the identity of my first site. A sort of techno-repository of my offerings, thoughts and concerns – where I explored the concepts of good and evil. However, I got a little too involved in the functionality of the site (writing the old personal “MyPTh” blogging software, etc).

The new logo is actually based on what has been my personal “crest” for many years (think emblems on the shields of ye olde Knights). You can read more about my logo elsewhere on my site, so I won’t go into the explanation of that here. My reason for going this route is that I want the site to be more about “me” rather than any specific portion of ideology that I might hold (and I, of course, have plenty of strong opinions on a wide variety of topics….as do most people *heh*).

There will still be a variety of things in flux on this website – but I plan to use more pre-built software packages (like WordPress, Gallery, etc), rather than writing my own software from scratch. The new software that I will be writing will aim to fill personal needs that cannot be filled by pre-packaged software that is freely available (CSS-based family tree software, personal secure information storage software, etc).

I really need to thank my friend Lynn for help with various graphical elements of my site – both with feedback as well as direct help. Girl got skillz

Anyway, only time will tell how well this new layout and system will work. I’m getting into working with a new CMS package called “MODx” – and while I won’t be using it for my primary website, I plan to turn some of my development skills towards the direction of extending and improving that package.

So – this is my great “hello again” to the blogging world.