Wii

Posted on December 26, 2007 by mjpete

The Petersen household has the Wii. If your like me, playing video consoles was about 15 years in the past back when the Sega Genesis was the leading edge. I have to tell you the Wii level sets the playing field for everyone. In our house my son is very good with the video games and it can be a challenge to play against him. The full motion action that is required to play really resets the playing field so the novice gamer has a chance to compete.

I want to have the Wii installed in the basement. However I have to finish painting the basement and I have to build a set of shelves to hold the games. So for the short term I put the Wii on the TV in the family room. Playing the Wii on a 52″ TV is an experience in of itself.

The first game we played was bowling. All four of us played. What a trip to be swinging your arm to get speed on the ball. The second game was”Dance Dance Revolution”. This game has a floor mat and you have to dance to songs. You’re rated on your timing and accuracy of your steps. Watching each family member take thier turn only to have the Wii tell us we failed at dancing. It was hysterically. By the fourth or fifth attemptwe were able to be rated a “D” or “C” on the beginner level. If you want a good workout, I would recommend “Dance Dance Revolution”. After each game you could feel the tiredness in your legs and your breathing increase. We tried one game at expert level. It was a cruel joke to even attempt it. I would love to see someone play the expert level and be rated decently.

I’ve heard that a few people have been injured in playing the Wii. After playing it for a few hours, I can honestly see where bodily injury could occur.

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Storybook Land

Posted on December 17, 2007 by mjpete

To get into the Christmas spirit we took the kids to Storybook Land.

Typically Storybook Land is a fun day with the kids with rides and characters out of your favorite children’s storybook. For Christmas they decorate the entire place in lights.

I think Cathy and Maria had more fun than the kids!!

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Ruby on Rails Rocks

Posted on November 8, 2007 by mjpete

The title of the post is over used a bit, but it is accurate. I’ve been playing with Ruby on Rails for the past few weeks. Ruby is an interpreted scripting language. Rails is a framework built on Ruby for Ruby to develop web based applications. Ruby on Rails really simplifies the building of web applications.

I’ve played with PHP. In fact WordPress, which powers this blog, is written in PHP. I never liked the amount of HTML coding that I had to embedded into PHP. It always seemed like I was writing in two languages that were intertwined.

The Rails framework really reduces the amount of HTML coding that you have to worry about. It doesn’t remove it, but it reduces it to a point where I can focus on the application functionality.

If you want to build a web application and haven’t chosen the technology, take a moment and look at Rails.

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Cathy is Working

Posted on November 8, 2007 by mjpete

Well, there are some changes that are occurring in the house. Cathy has gone back to work, part time. She is really enjoying the challenge.

The challenge is actually two fold. One is being back in the work force and having to deal with a job. The second is trying to manage a household and the kids with a reduced amount of time. Since I’ve never been a fan of folding laundry, Cathy typically does most of the folding. Well, with time being short, you can guess the size of the clean laundry pile.

The kids are out of school today, tomorrow and Monday. And I have no idea why school is out. Seems like they are off from school almost as much as they are in. Since I have more vacation days than I can use, I took the days off from work to stay home with the kids, so Cathy could go to work.

With having a day off today, I pulled out the ski gear. I knew that I was going to have to replace both Jill’s and MJ’s boots. The local ski shop has a great deal on kids gear. I can pick up second hand gear and trade in last year’s stuff. I can keep them in correct fitting ski gear at a price that won’t bankrupt me 🙂 I was able to trade in their old ski boots and get correct fitting ones for $42 for both. The gear is ready…Now the clothing. MJ and Jill are trying on their ski pants and jackets. Very doubtful that I’ll get off easy withthe clothing.

Tomorrow there is a few things around the house that needs to be fixed. With Cathy off to work, I’m hoping we have time to do the fixin’ and go to either a movie or bowling.

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Apple & Pumpkin Picking

Posted on October 21, 2007 by mjpete

We went to Battleview Orchards over by Monmouth Battlefield Park for some apple and pumpkin picking today. Its the freshest apples you will ever have – straight off the tree and into our bags.

We try to go every fall. It’s a blast to have the kids run through an orchard picking apples. Last year we had two full bushels of apples. There were more apples in the house than we could reasonably use. Today we managed the number of bags of apples alot better. We came home with two full bags of apples and 4 large pumpkins.

During this week we’ll be carving the pumpkins!

Also I picked up a pumpkin for this coming Friday. On Friday, Divers Two is having their annual under water pumpkin carving contest.

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Egyptian Canopic Jars

Posted on October 18, 2007 by mjpete

Tonight’s project with MJ was to create an Egyptian Canopic Jar. We did it in modelling clay that will cure in the open air. MJ wanted to create the owl faced jar. We started with an empty seltzer bottle, covering it with clay.

I think our jar came out superb!!

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NJ State Police BSA Camporee

Posted on October 18, 2007 by mjpete

The 2007 NJ State Police Boy Scout Camporee was an amazing event! Over 9,500 scouts from the state of New Jersey attended the camporee in Sea Girt, NJ. It was held on October 5th, 6th and 7th. The State Police really went all out with an amazing event.

There were so many scouts that I could capture all of them in a single photo!

The State Police had demonstrations from virtually every department, division or group within the State Police. Here are some of the departments that were there: Aviation, Cavalry, Bomb Squad, BioHazard & Chemical Response, Forensics, Criminal Investigation, Park Police, Game Conservation, SCUBA Team, Beach and Shore Patrol, SWAT Team, Hazmat, and Search & Rescue Squad… There was alot more there! I can’t remember all of them. The scouts saw demonstrations of automatic weapons by the sniper team and an assault on a building by the SWAT team that began with them fast roping out of a helicopter.

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Assault on Reason

Posted on September 4, 2007 by mjpete

With all the travelling I do, I tend to read alot in the airports and on the planes. Vice President Gore’s latest book, “The Assault on Reason” looks into American politics of today. I found the first few chapters to  be insightful to the decisions and assumptions of the current White House administration.

However as I continued to read, the book turned into a Bush Bash. Now, I am normally one to enjoy a good Bush Bash, but it went way to far. I had to put the book down for a while. While I did finish the book, I was disappointed. The points that Vice President Gore made were lost in the political rubbish. Also I found the ending of the book to be rushed.

If your reading list is running light and your library has to book, I would read it. However if you are like me and have multiple books in progress or waiting to be read, don’t run to the book store.

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Family Vacation to Maine – Part II

Posted on August 28, 2007 by mjpete

Here are some pics from the top of Table Top Rock.  We were about 900 feet above the valley floor.

 

 

 

 

On Thursday we took the high speed ferry from Portland, ME to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. The ferry was a really nice way to travel.  The trip over took 5 hours.  The ferry has 3 movie lounges, 3 food courts, a casino and several observation lounges.  Going over MJ Jill slept most of the way.  On the way back we took advantage of the movies.  I enjoyed the casino.

 

Yarmouth is a sleepy fishing town. We easily walked the town, enjoying some of the restaurants and shops.

The only bummer about the trip was the drive home.  In total, it took 8 hours to drive back to NJ.  Still I could be convinced to explore the Portland and Bar Harbor areas.

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St. Lawrence Seaway Dive Trip

Posted on August 27, 2007 by mjpete

Instead of creating a series of blog entries to try to capture my recent trip to the St. Lawrence Seaway, I created a series of pages.  So much happened within the span of a week, that it was easier to link to everyone’s websites or blog’s.  The diving was superb.  The people on the trip were fabulous.  I’m looking forward to next year’s trip!!

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