A few nights ago, my home security system started beeping at 12:30AM.  After a few seconds, I figured that nobody was breaking in because it would just beep once every 5 seconds.  You might think that was obvious that nobody was breaking in, but nothing like this had ever happened and I'd just been woken up so my brain was nowhere near full thinking capacity.  The security panel had a message that said, "CH Trouble - Call 800-.....".  So, I called the number to figure out what was going on.  Here are some exerpts from the conversation I had with the not-so-helpful night shift worker.

Me: What does the code "CH Trouble" mean?

Brinks: I can't tell you.

Me: Are you serious?  My alarm system is beeping at me, and it's saying "CH Trouble" and you can't even tell me what that means?

Brinks: I can't tell you.

Me: Well, how can I fix it?

Brinks: I'm not allowed to give that information over the phone.

The conversation continued along a similar vein for about 20 minutes.  I was at a loss for words.  Eventually, he did offer me a solution.  Step one involved climbing into my attic to unplug the system and disable the entire thing.  Then, I would just have a few empty and worthless security panels on my walls.  Even without a monitored service, it was nice to be able to know when the doors and windows were being opened.  If somebody opened our daughter's window, we'd know immediately.  So, the guy from Brinks was basically telling us that instead of fixing the problem, we just throw the whole system away.  Awesome.

The next day, I reset the system (I had to go in the attic several times), and the error went away.  Unfortunately, our power went out over the weekend, and the error, with the associated beeping, came back.  I'm preparing for round 2 of argument with Brinks to get them to fix the problem.  Apparently, they own the equipment in my home.  I thought that was a little odd, but since they own the equipment, I figure they have some responsibility to make sure it doesn't start beeping at me for no good reason in the middle of the night.

Anyway, before you decide to get a home security system from Brinks, remember how helpful they can be.

In my mind, there are two ways to pick the college football bowl games:

1. pick who you think will win, or
2. pick who you want to win.

I haven't decided which strategy to use this year.  Strategy #1 gives me a better chance of winning any pools I enter, but #2 would make me happier if the teams I chose ended up winning.

I'll post my predictions once I decide what to do.

So, we got a new camera a few days ago.  We're still learning how to use it correctly, so some of these shots didn't turn out as great as we wanted.

  The drooler:

The cutie:


We started giving Cambry solid foods.  She does not like rice cereal or peas, but she seems to eat pears pretty well.


My original pretty girl:

Here's us at the zoo.  The Houston zoo is free on the day after Thanksgiving.  So, we're planning to make this a new family tradition.  The photos turn out a lot better in natural light.

  We went to the petting zoo.  Cambry was not a huge fan of the goats.  Tears were shed.

At BYU, I think I only checked out books once, and that was because my sister had to do some research for her thesis.  I found everything I needed in their electronic catalogs or through other resources online. Marissa basically re-introduced me to the library after we got married.  She's an incredible reader.  She can read at least 4 times as fast as I can.  So, we go through a lot of books.  Our local library system has a fairly large selection of books, and until recently I've been able to find what I was looking for, or at least a suitable alternative.  But as I've learned more about my profession and have better judgment about what books are useless trash and what books are invaluable, I find that the people at the library who order the books don't always share my opinion.

A few months ago, I used an online form to request that the library request a bunch of books.  These are top selling books that are considered classics.  For example, Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams is one of the best books about managing technical people.  On Amazon, it gets 4.8 out of 5 stars.  It's also timelss in a sense that it doesn't focus on any one piece of technology, so it won't be out of date in a few years.  I thought it was a good candidate for purchase.  So, I waited.  And nothing happened.  None of the 10 or so books showed up in the library catalog.

So, I went to the library and talked to the librarians about the process of getting new books.  They told me that all requests first go to the people at the local library.  If they think the books is worth buying, they'll send the suggestion to a central committee.  Then, the committee decides whether or not to get the book.

I'm going to go out on a limb (and not a very long limb) and say that when the librarians reviewed the books I suggested, they had no idea what they were about.

I left the library with a different view of our public library in general.  I used to think that the library supported continuing education for everybody.  Unfortunately, for non-fiction books, it looks like it stops at high school or a beginning college level.  I might just have to talk to my supervisor at work and see if he'll give me a book budget so I can get things on Amazon.

Cambry will be 5 and 1/2 months old this Friday.  I think her intelligence has tripled in the last week.  She just noticed that she can move her fingers independently.  Sometimes she'll just stare at them and touch her thumb to each of her fingers.  She has also learned to play with toys.  Somebody I work with gave us a little piano and Cambry will just sit there and push the ubttons to hear the noises.  I used to think she was left hand dominant because she would only suck her left thumb, but she seems to favor her right slightly hand when playing with her toys.  This sometimes causes her to roll over accidentally as she pushes too hard with her right hand.  But, she can now roll from her back to her stomach easily.

 Babies are interesting.  Cambry is a good baby.

I'm a proponent of a regulated free market.  But in general, I think the government thinks it should be in charge of making economic decisions for the people it governs instead of letting people decide for themselves.  John McCain has said that part of his platform will be to help protect home prices.   Hmm.  He's going to use the government to protect prices.  It's that what Venezuela is doing?  I.e. the government thinks that something is not being sold on the market for the right price, so they nationalize it and try to set the price themselves?  Hugo Chavez is proud to call that socialism.  I don't think we're close to what Venezuela is doing, but there are similarities.

But I don't think Barak Obama has anything on McCain.  He recently said that he wants to redistribute wealth.  The words actually came out of his mouth.  I know most Democrats believe in this to some degree, but it's rare that they'll come out and say it so directly.

So, both John McCain and Barak Obama are trying to win votes by appealing to the masses.  That's understandable.  There are more middle and lower class voters than rich upper class voters.  I just worry that they're basing their policy on what souns good, rather than what is economically sound.

I still like Ron Paul.  He tells it straight.  I'm not sure why his straightforward message didn't catch on more.

Today is Marissa's birthday.  I wanted to write and let her know that I love her and think that she's the best. She's the best wife and the best mom, and I don't know what I'd do without her. 

Marissa has a lot of strenths that I don't have.  I think we make a pretty good team.  (It will be interesting to see whose personality Cambry takes on the most.)

So, Marissa, I love you!  You will be my pretty girl forever!

-Jim

My friend Peter asked me what I thought about the [taxpayer] bailout of the financial institutions, so I thought I'd write my opinions here.

• Some smart people think that a bailout is necessary, which I tend to agree with.  I think most people are opposed to the bailout in principle because they see it simply as a way to help rich people keep their money.  But the rich people aren't the ones who would suffer if we went into a recession.
• In the past few years, there has been an increasing number of shareholder proposals to try to regulate the pay of CEOs.  I think this is going to lead to some of those proposals actually passing in the next go-round.
• Business and politicians are too focused on the next quarter and posting big headlines than long term growth.  This is probably the worst time for a bailout plan because it is happening around an election.  There's no doubt in my mind that congress will include billions in perks for their respective states along with a huge bailout.  I fully expect part of my taxes to go to buying junk mortgages, subsidies for rich farmers, a celery museum somewhere, an education on the proper use of sporks in somebody's district, and an educational grant to a community college to determine if vitamin B12 can help albino mice metabolize glucose.
• People don't trust big businesses, and I think the anger level is rising.  I don't like this because the only other place people can look to put their trust is the government through regulation and beaurocracy.
• The government doesn't know what to do to fix the problem.
• The entire world economy depends on the US economy succeeding.  Stocks crashed in Asia earlier today because they feared that the US wouldn't pass legislation to fix our own economy.  When we suffer, everybody suffers.  I don't like the rampant hyper-consumerism attitude in the US, but it does keep hundreds of millions of people employed around the world.
• Democrats' stock would rise in my opinion if they would accept some responsiblity for any negative thing that has happened in the past 8 years.  They continue to blame President Bush every single ill in the country.  President Bush is not my favorite politician, but to continually hear the democrats whine and complain incessently is just disgusting.

 Those a few of my thoughts.  I've avoided reading too many articles about the bailout because it's frustrating.