December 2012 – Page 2 – Bus Driver Jim

Glock 17

I took an NRA handgun training course down in Idaho Falls today. My weapon of choice was the sweet Glock 17 with an added grip. I loved this gun, it fit my hand perfectly and just felt right.

It was a class of nine, with three seasoned instructors, held in the break room of the large, exceedingly busy and popular, Sportsman’s Warehouse.

After class we headed to a private gun range out in the sticks,

where the instructors assembled targets for nine shooters.

I first set down here…

But ended up here.

At the end of a 75 round shoot we got to fire at cans :-)

It was bitterly cold out on the range and the toughest part was loading ammo into the clips with frozen fingers. We moved back into a warm building afterwards to receive certificates and to hear the news about the latest shooting tragedy. How sad and ironic.

Here I am, a bus driver who loves and transports kids, defending his right to bear arms while some animal is taking children’s lives. Excuse me while I cry.

SlideShow (Glock 17)

Field Layover

There was a funny moment on our bus communications system today. I was telling dispatch that I would drop my clients off at the Animal Shelter, go sit in a field somewhere, and then come back and get them in thirty minutes.

I qualified that by saying there are some really nice fields up here, and I was cool with it.

Where did I end up? Why, the county dump of course!

Also, a great Christmas card arrived from the kids so I thought I’d scan it and share…

Creek Snow

This is Teton Creek at the bridge heading towards the cemetery, covered with a dash of snow. In the summer this is a roaring body of water that often nips at the homes here.

Today with the wind blowing it was just, nippy!

Happy 12/12/12!

SlideShow (Creek Snow)

jQuery Mobile

Cell Phone/Tablet application development is an amazing complex world with pathways unknown until we happen upon them. I always thought that the Apple and Android world of app development involved exotic platforms and expensive tools.

Today I discovered jQuery Mobile. I’m an accomplished jQuery developer but it just never clicked in my brain that I could write Mobile Apps using skills I already have! This pretty much changes everything…

I’ve put together an HTML5 experiment using the latest jQuery Mobile code along with the current version of jQuery itself. Nothing fancy yet, but please try it out Here…

Mobile Devices

I’m really enjoying my mobile toys lately. After being the wired dude back in Seattle with cell phones and radio devices hanging from my belt, I chose not to connect that way when I came to this valley. Our land line was just fine for everything…

I watched with envy as the smartphone/tablet evolution arrived and people were downloading apps. Here I am the old programmer guy writing code in PHP and jQuery thinking I was at the cutting edge, while other people were downloading apps!

There is no more envy in that regard. I now own a new Nexus 10 tablet and a Motorola Razr Maxx smartphone. I have apps now, I rule Android and I’m turning Steph on to the New World. I’m also moving my code brain in this new direction!

Transitioning to a small format is interesting. As I use my devices from the field (i.e. the seat of my bus while idle) I realize the limitations. Tonight I wrote a program that presents my favorite creations into little boxes that just fit my finger when I press on the screen. Here’s the link: www.busdriverjim.com/mobile Try it from your smartphone!

Just Visiting

Looks like we had a visitor in the night, probably looking for a little pussy but I kept Piper in due to the snow and the 10° temperature this morning.

A fresh dusting of snow works for spotting visitors but a motion activated video camera would be able to determine between a neighbors dog or a hungry coyote…

(Hmmm… Christmas gift to self?)

btw: A big 26th birthday shout-out to my talented, successful, handsome son Riley!

Falls Back

I shot this video of Upper Mesa Falls when Riley and Jess were here. My camera has this cool mode that reverses video based on the direction the camera is moving.

Commute Crossing

My commute is 2.3 miles between our house and the bus yard. There are very few signs along the way and this one is pretty cool. Yes, I have seen moose here :-)

Start Screen

I continue to play with the Windows 8 Operating System and my learning curve is steep.

I’ve figured out how to bring some advanced functionality to the Start Screen, how to import stuff from my other OS on another partition, but I can’t figure how to go back!

Sigh… The main friend it found and highlighted over there on the left is my brothers ex-wife of thirty years ago. Deb’s a nice lady but really Windows 8? :-)

Windows 8 Sucks

In the early 90’s I was writing scanner device drivers for Zsoft (PC Paintbrush). These guys had a tight relationship with Microsoft so I got my hands on every early version of Windows that came out, and I’ve been through every version since. The clear standouts over the years have been 2000 and XP, along with the best ever (my current OS), Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit.

A month ago I bought Windows 8. The PayPal purchase went very well, the download process sucked, I never could get it to install. So, I purchased a full backup CD which after shipping snafus and a call to Microsoft, finally arrived this week.

I created a new partition and installed it next to Windows 7 so I could boot into it and test it. I think the title of this post sums up what I feel about this version. I hate it! Ugly, non-intuitive and designed for dummies!

I’ll continue to play with it but I’m writing a Craigslist ad in a back partition of my brain.

El Niño

Talk of a possible non-white Christmas is beginning to circulate around this 6500 foot high valley. The lack of snow due to our buddy El Niño, is noticeable!

Normally our deck has a foot or two of snow about now that doesn’t leave until Spring. There’s lots of Gnarly Pow on the Hill to bring the skiers in, so all I can say is Sweet!

Back Seat

The Teton Pass between Victor, ID and Jackson, WY is one of the toughest winter drives in America. Riley and Jess were here a few months back and we drove the Pass down to Jackson. This is when I went over the cliff and we visited Mesa Falls.

Here’s a video that never made the blog until now, just a shot from the back seat as we cruised easily over the Pass. Jess was receiving notices of a friends house break-in…

Rustic Desk

My desktop was getting crowded with new toys so I moved it around a bit. I shoved my big monitor and lighted keyboard over to the left, cut my big mouse pad down to size, and set the Nexus 10 (with keyboard and mouse) off to the right.

You can see other peripherals here: my new phone on the pad with my wireless mouse, microphone, card reader, external disk, phone and speaker in the background.

You may wonder about the state of the desk that holds all this goodness: justified! I bought the desk from Greg Worthing when I lived in Washington. Greg was the art teacher at Kent Meridian High School for many years, and a friend of mine. This desk has much character and if I could extract chemicals from the surface, who knows…

Bottom line, I love this rustic old desk and I’ve merged it into our log home nicely.

Goodies

As another season rolls in, I’m armed and ready, thanks to Steph. One Christmas a few years back I gave the kids brand new five dollar bills. Fortunately, only a couple of my current kids remember that. :-)

btw: Each bag contains a variety of little chocolate candies…

Home Screen

I’ve tweaked the home screen on my new Motorola Droid Razr Maxx by installing a solid black background. The three links below the time are my blog functions using the Android version of the tabbed Chrome browser.

It’s now in the cloud, of course…