en-ushttp://www.danielcoburn.com/ Babbling\'s http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_right_thing_to_do.html We know our son is going to have problems when he is born. He's going to have the Cleft, either lip or lip and pallet (most likely both). There is a hospital in Virginia that actually does all of the surgery quickly after birth vs. waiting to do them over the course of a couple of years. I would like to go there and have it done simply because I'd rather have the risk of one surgery vs. 3+. Also babies are constantly growing and are very resilient. Not 100% sure, but it's what I'd rather do, even if there is an extra cost. I want to do what is best and least stressful on my child. Wed, 11 Jul 2007 14:09:24 EDT http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_right_thing_to_do.html http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_cleft_lip_and_palette.html As I mentioned in my catching up about my next child. We have had a lot of ups and downs with this pregnancy, from my wife's health to the recent discovery that my son will have a Cleft lip and Palette. The cleft is a bi-lateral cleft which is the rarest form, and affect both sides of his lip, and with that there is about an 85% chance he has the palette as well. And one of the ultrasounds was pretty evident of that. I'm a stats person so I live by numbers. The chance of getting the birth defect is .018% (no not 1.8% it's .018%). So the chances of a nurse having experience with it are minimal, but fortunately we have Primary Children's in Utah that are some of the best. With my wonderful wife, we've been studying what to expect. 1. 3.9 surgeries in the first 5 years. They will start at about 10 months 2. 66 Dr. appointments in the first 5 years. 3. 15% mortality rate in the first year because of other issues that might stem from this. So what does it mean? Stress. Lots of it. The bottles cost $16 a piece and then last 15 feedings. Feeding the baby will be unique cause he won't be able to suckle. But good news it's a boy, and yes we already have the name picked out :P Fri, 29 Jun 2007 11:08:20 EDT http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_cleft_lip_and_palette.html http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_movie_evan_all_mighty.html I haven't done a movie review but felt like this one deserved one. So Evan Baxter the news anchor that Bruce made a fool of in the first movie, runs for Congress and wins on the platform of changing the world. They move to a BEAUTIFUL HUGE house and start all over. His wife and kids have a little prayer, the kids want to hike with their dad, and the wife wants their family to be closer. She suggests that if Evan wants to change the world he might need a little help.... So Evan says his prayer. Things happen and sure enough God presents himself and gives Evan the task to build an ARK. Overall the reviews on this movie were not flattering, but I think they saw the movie for the wrong reason. #1 It was funny #2 It had a good message #3 It was not offensive #4 It had birds crapping on John Goodman (Not that John's bad, but his character was a jerk) The best item in the movie was God's talk with Evan's wife. She was leaving her husband cause of his "ARK" project, but "Al Mighty" there to save the day as a waiter. Evan's wife told him about his husbands problems and about God, and the topic of prayer came up. The gist of it was, "If you prayer for God for more patience, does he give you patience, or does he give you opportunity to be more patient; if you ask for courage, does he make you courageous, or give you the chance to show courage; if you ask for time together as a family, does he put you together, or give you the opportunity to be together with things in your life" So thumbs up, go see it! If you don't like it sorry, if you do you can thank me Fri, 29 Jun 2007 10:55:17 EDT http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_movie_evan_all_mighty.html http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_catching_up.html So I've been pretty quite lately, mostly because I didn't have much I wanted to say in public. But here are a few quick things to catch people up. Rule #1: Life kicks you when you're down Rule #2: Understand rule #1 and recover. Car I've had since '94 a '95 Nissan Maxima broke down It was the day after we discovered a purchase on EBay for kids furniture is going sour, the person dropped off the face of the earth, but when we bought they had 99%+ feedback and are now at 98.1% and "No longer registered" on ebay. This followed finding out that our child has a bi-lateral cleft lip and more than likely a cleft pallet which will require several surgery's starting at 10 months going to 8-9 years. Fri, 29 Jun 2007 10:23:59 EDT http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_catching_up.html http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_kids_say_they_funniest_things.html I've been working all weekend on a project so I've missed my girls a lot. I like to spend most of my Saturday with them, but I couldn't. I was on the phone with my wife and my youngest wanted to talk to me. So she asked me, "You coming home?", in the most adorable toddler voice. I sadly had to tell her, no I was working. She then started to cry and tell me she wanted me home. It nearly broke my heart. On Sunday I had to go into work and my oldest was playing an "Incredibles" game. She had just passed the part where Mr. Incredible was in his blue outfit and switched into his red one. And she made the comment, his not as big as he use to be. I said, "He's not as fluffy as he was". She looked at me and said, "No he was fat just like you". Boy if kids don't say em like they see em. As hurt as I was, I was laughing as well cause it was so cute and so innocent. Kids, you have to love them! Sun, 11 Mar 2007 11:47:20 EDT http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_kids_say_they_funniest_things.html http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_idiot_s_on_the_road.html Today was a really bad snow storm and it took me 4 hours round trip to get to work and come back home since the roads and weather was so bad. On the return trip the roads had been cleared pretty well and had some slush on them, so still dangerous. Everyone's moving along pretty well, and suddenly this JERK in a big 4x4 pick up truck come whizzing by at an excessive speed and throws 1 - 2 inches on my window, and I mean my WHOLE window. So much crap that my wipers wouldn't move. I'm going about 40 on the freeway, blind, cannot see a thing. Fortunately I was able to move to the side of the road, still blind, but able to see that I'm not about to side swipe anyone. I end up on the side of the road about 30 feet off of it. I was lucky enough to have seen a pole that informed me I was about 10 feed from a large wall. I get out clean my window and slinked my way through the snow back to the freeway. So some jerk speeding far more than they should in their 4x4 almost cause me to be in a serious accident, and I would have NO WAY to find out who they were. Sadly my windshield has a horizontal crack that I now need to get replaced. So Thanks JERK! (I feel better now) Tue, 27 Feb 2007 12:48:48 EST http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_idiot_s_on_the_road.html http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_ears_and_more_ear_ruptures.html The other day I decided I would get my hearing checked. For a couple of reasons. First, I have had a horrible ringing in my ears for many many years. Second, my wife will hear things and look at me and say "Can't you hear that?" The going joke with her is she'll look at me now and just say "of course not it's that one pitch". Third, sometimes I think I miss things. And finally going along with #2 my wife keeps telling me I'm def. So I get the test done and sure enough I do have hearing loss. They said it's nothing to really worry about, I'm not def, but I do have a lose in the higher ranges. Which isn't surprising since the high pitch that is in my ears all the time is in the higher range. So go figure.... They also said, "You are a candidate for a hearing aid, but I wouldn't strongly recommend it". I took that as you could hear better, but you're not hearing that bad right now to worry, so come back later. So I'll wait. More Ears. That night my daughter had a bad ear ache and we put cotton in it etc. etc. and when we took it out later it looked like it had blood on it. So we went into lets get her checked ASAP mode. My in-laws came over quickly so my wife and I could both go with Gena to the Doctor. We get to an urgent care about 8:00 PM and she gets in pretty quick. The Dr. looks in her ears and says they need to be flushed. If you have EVER had your ears flushed you know it sucks, feels weird etc. Now imagine your ear already hurts. So my sweet daughter gets the drops to loosen the junk in her ear and sits there for a few minutes. A nurse comes in and proceeds to flush her ear. A LOT of stuff comes out including a really big piece of wax. At this point my daughter is upset, and I mean irately upset. And the nurse says there's more. She tries again and my daughters had enough of it. I ask to just put more drops in and the nurse finally complied. I figured it'll loosen what's in there up. We convince my daughter and talk her up to let the nurse do it again, but that was not going to happen any time soon, she wouldn't even let them look in her ear. Finally with her on my lap hugging me, a different nurse looked in her ear and said she could see the ear drum, so the Dr. could look again. Her ear is infected and the drum is bulging. The Dr. said he wouldn't be surprised if the ear drum didn't rupture. So we internally freak out as parents until the Dr. said it would actually probably make her feel better and he then explained that it would heal. So we felt relieved. My daughter went home and we let her sleep in our bed last night. Lucky for me, it was just her and I, and she woke up several times just screaming, "Get Away From Me, Get outta here". She was still asleep yelling at the Dr. and Nurses. Today she also threw up, but we aren't sure why. But she's my girl and I'm getting ready to go spoil her. She'll recover, she always does, but once again she's really learning to hate Doctors. I hope she gets over that and later realizes how beneficial they are, vs. how bad. Fri, 23 Feb 2007 15:16:15 EST http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_ears_and_more_ear_ruptures.html http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_movie_bridge_to_terabithia.html On my birthday, my wife and I ran off to see the movie Bridge to Terabithia. I had never read the book so my perception of the movie was based on the previews. If you've seen the previews, and expect a fanciful movie similar to The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, you'll be disappointed. If you have read the book, you will probably be prepared for what you'll see. In short the story is about two young kids and the trials they face in life and how through their friendship and imagination they create a wonderful world called Terabithia. They are the King and Queen and we see their friendship grow to something truly meaningful. As all of us grow up we have those friends that we are inseparable from. They are the folks that help mold who we are, for better or worse. This movie has it's tragedy which I didn't feel was portrayed in such a way that made it as wrenching as it should have been. The tragedy does lead me to believe it would not be a movie I'd take my daughter too, but it makes me think that I want to read the book and then possibly read it to her. I cannot give this movie really high marks because the marketing was very misleading, but I can give it a recommendation to those that want a good story and a reminder of your youth. Wed, 21 Feb 2007 13:58:01 EST http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_movie_bridge_to_terabithia.html http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_mitt_romney.html So I'm categorizing this under "Religion", why? Because I don't have a political category yet. This might also end up being a rant, but lets see how this goes. So Mitt Romney decides to run for president. I don't know Mitt, I've never voted for him, until recently I didn't know much about him. I first started hearing his name a couple of years ago about MA allowing Same-Sex marriages. I then hear he's LDS, which is a good thing to me. Now George W. Bush is our current president and he's a religious man, God fearing man, etc. So that makes me happy as well. Honestly it's nice to have a president that doesn't shy away from his beliefs so my hat's off to GWB. And you should as well even if you don't like his policy, too many people are too worried about the polls [read Hilary]. What got me the past few days are all the headlines "Mormon, Mitt Romney..." "Mormon enters..." When is the LAST time you saw "Southern Baptist ..." "Catholic ...". What does it matter, what matters is their convictions, core beliefs. I guess it just frustrates me that society is so messed up sometimes. I wish Mitt the best of luck, and if his platform is good, then he'll have my vote. Wed, 14 Feb 2007 13:19:37 EST http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_mitt_romney.html http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_nintendo_wii_wireless_connection_issues_52030_error_resolved.html Some one may find my blog and find something useful in the post. I tried to hook up my Nintendo Wii and kept getting a 52030 error. Now you search on the web and everyone says the same thing. Upgrade your firmware Set it to Channel 1 or 11 if already on 1 or 11 change it to the other You should be fine Well that didn't work. What I ended up doing to finally get it to work is all of the above then I switched from WEP to WPA2 (AES). And sure enough it work. Hope this helps someone else. Tue, 13 Feb 2007 21:00:39 EST http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_nintendo_wii_wireless_connection_issues_52030_error_resolved.html http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_click_to_call_technology.html At work we've deployed a technology called click to call. The company we are using is LivePerson, and they have a really nice all around solution, it has the click to call features, full blown chat, co-browsing and the ability to pick customers that exhibit certain behaviors to approach for a call or chat. You know how you'll be on a site and a on screen message will pop-in asking if you want to chat with an agent? It's that sorta stuff. How successful is the technology? Right now it's performing ok, it could be a LOT better, but it could be much worse. I think it needs more time in our deployment to really get it settled and work out some of the "issues". I believe our biggest issue is with our customers. Not that your stupid or anything, but it's a new technology, and also how do you convey in a small button "If you click this button your phone number will be called immediately and our call center will be called at the same time to connect the two of you." That would be a rather LARGE button. So we're going to be working on some a/b testing to see if we can convey the message better. One thing we have done is placed a tool tip box over the button, but the issue is it take a second to appear so by that time the mouse has moved or the customer has moved on. Also another issue, the phone needs to be near you! If you're at work, put in your work number to be called (just in case anyone's reading this) It's a great technology to help getting customers on the phone and our business is centered around that happening. Tue, 13 Feb 2007 20:43:42 EST http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_click_to_call_technology.html http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_wii.html For my 20th birthday (or a anniversary of it) my wife got me a Nintendo Wii. Yes I want it for me, and I also wanted it for my kids. And you know what? I'm really glad I have it. My kids stand up and move vs. sitting in front of the TV or Computer. The first day I had it my daughter turned to me and said, "Daddy can you wipe off my forehead? I'm all sweaty". So that's good. What are the benfits of the Wii? It's the first true next generation system I've seen since the Nintendo came out. Yeah sure the PS2, XBox, 360 and PS3 have all taken huge steps in graphics and performance, but the Wii takes huge steps in playability. The games for the PS3 are no different (yet) than those on the 360 or PS2. While the Wii has no real comparison. Heck I haven't even played anything other than a handful of games, the 5 sports games that came with it, and Zelda. "So what you swing a controller at the screen, it's not even HD!?!" ... You're right, good news neither is my TV. If I were going to go out and buy an HD TV, HD DVD or Blue Ray then I'd get a PS3 since it's cheaper than a Blue Ray player, but I'm not so I won't. Nintendo has truly made me reconsider them as the top of the industry. They fell behind with their Game Cube and N64, but came out of the gate's swinging with the Wii. I've only had issues getting the wireless hooked up and working. (AND YES I SWITCHED to Channel 11 or 1, so if you have a solutions other than that one, post it ). With seeing the Wii bringing you more into the game what is it going to be like in 10 years? With new technology being introduced daily, I can only imagine. Intel showed off an 80 Core Processor today, so now think of having all of your movement tracked. Turning and facing a monster, wearing an interactive head set vs. hooking up to a TV.. the possibilities are endless. Mon, 12 Feb 2007 22:32:15 EST http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_wii.html http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_click_fraud.html I haven't written a lot about my new job, since I've been busy with the ski season etc. But I thought it would be an appropriate time to write once and a while about it. I wanted to talk about PPC(Pay Per Click) and Click Fraud. I work with Yahoo and Google to pay for ads and I have a substantial amount that I spend on it. So fraud is a big concern. Now my amount compared to some is small, but when you do the math some of the numbers can be astronomical. Let’s look at some figures. Click Forensics says that click fraud for Q4 was 14.2%, and Shuman from Google believes it is high Shumans Blog. Let’s say Shuman is right and the number is high, lets half it. So 7.1% Click Fraud... If you advertise and spend only $100k that's still $7100 in fraud. My opinion is that too much, and I'm sure everyone would agree. I do believe search engines are doing a better job finding and correcting bad clicks, but I would say they are more in the realm of 1 - 2% vs. 7.1%, so that still $5-6k someone's losing. Now if Click Forensics is right then the numbers balloon up. "But Google credits you"... They sure do but they don't tell you what clicks were credited etc. I don't blame them, but still I don't know if they simply look at my $.10 clicks and write them off and keep the fraudulent $5.00 clicks... I just don't know, and THAT is the problem. I do not trust them since they police themselves. Looking at raw data from Click Forensics on my companies logs, I'm seeing a HUGE potential for click fraud. For Google alone on a single account I've seen several thousands of $ in possible exposure, so even getting a portion of that will add up to big returns. What can people do to reduce their exposure to fraud? 1. Don't advertise on content networks, they'll kill you ever time (yes I know I have adsense on my blog :P ) a. if you choose too, watch your terms that get high clicks and think of removing them b. look at your logs and look for possible places of high clicks that do not have a lot of page views. 2. Watch your high bids and strip them from your campaign. 3. If you don't want to remove the high bid terms, reduce the amount you want to spend. 4. Look into click forensics; they have a free product that people can use, if you spend a lot give them a call. That's it for now. Feel free to comment on it, I'd love to hear from others. Daniel Fri, 09 Feb 2007 15:36:03 EST http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_click_fraud.html http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_here_s_a_video_of_a_really_bad_accident_on_ice.html Ok people in Oregon on what appear to be roads that are sloping. This is insane! Lots of ice, lots of wrecked cars... "Heads UP!" Thu, 18 Jan 2007 20:46:02 EST http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_here_s_a_video_of_a_really_bad_accident_on_ice.html http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_perfect_circle.html Guy can draw a perfect circle (nearly) and shows off to his students. It's amazing they have a championship for it. Mon, 15 Jan 2007 22:22:59 EST http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_perfect_circle.html http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_what_happened_after_the_death_star_was_destroyed.html Saw this video, it was too funny and had to share it: Sat, 13 Jan 2007 01:41:54 EST http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_what_happened_after_the_death_star_was_destroyed.html http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_best_offline_message_i_ve_seen.html So Overstock.com had Dead Man's Chest for $9.99, and they had some issues, and here was the offline graphic: I thought it was funny since I know it's true people were running around frantic I'm sure. Tue, 05 Dec 2006 10:24:13 EST http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_best_offline_message_i_ve_seen.html http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_world_s_strongest_dad.html I wish I could say this story was about me, or something I was a part of, but it's not. It's a wonderful true story about a truly wonderful man and his son. It's about believing and loving, about caring and simply being. Read the story and watch the video: [From Sports Illustrated, By Rick Reilly] I try to be a good father. Give my kids mulligans. Work nights to pay For their text messaging. Take them to swimsuit shoots. But compared with Dick Hoyt, I suck. Eighty-five times he's pushed his disabled son, Rick, 26.2 miles in Marathons. Eight times he's not only pushed him 26.2 miles in a Wheelchair but also towed him 2.4 miles in a dinghy while swimming and Pedaled him 112 miles in a seat on the handlebars--all in the same day. Dick's also pulled him cross-country skiing, taken him on his back Mountain climbing and once hauled him across the U.S. On a bike. Makes Taking your son bowling look a little lame, right? And what has Rick done for his father? Not much--except save his life. This love story began in Winchester , Mass. , 43 years ago, when Rick Was strangled by the umbilical cord during birth, leaving him Brain-damaged and unable to control his limbs. \"He'll be a vegetable the rest of his life;'' Dick says doctors told him And his wife, Judy, when Rick was nine months old. ``Put him in an Institution.'' But the Hoyts weren't buying it. They noticed the way Rick's eyes Followed them around the room. When Rick was 11 they took him to the Engineering department at Tufts University and asked if there was Anything to help the boy communicate. ``No way,'' Dick says he was told. ``There's nothing going on in his brain.'' \"Tell him a joke,'' Dick countered. They did. Rick laughed. Turns out a Lot was going on in his brain. Rigged up with a computer that allowed Him to control the cursor by touching a switch with the side of his Head, Rick was finally able to communicate. First words? ``Go Bruins!'' And after a high school classmate was paralyzed in an accident and the School organized a charity run for him, Rick pecked out, ``Dad, I want To do that.'' Yeah, right. How was Dick, a self-described ``porker'' who never ran More than a mile at a time, going to push his son five miles? Still, he Tried. ``Then it was me who was handicapped,'' Dick says. ``I was sore For two weeks.'' That day changed Rick's life. ``Dad,'' he typed, ``when we were running, It felt like I wasn't disabled anymore!'' And that sentence changed Dick's life. He became obsessed with giving Rick that feeling as often as he could. He got into such hard-belly Shape that he and Rick were ready to try the 1979 Boston Marathon. ``No way,'' Dick was told by a race official. The Hoyts weren't quite a Single runner, and they weren't quite a wheelchair competitor. For a few Years Dick and Rick just joined the massive field and ran anyway, then They found a way to get into the race Officially: In 1983 they ran another marathon so fast they made the Qualifying time for Boston the following year. Then somebody said, ``Hey, Dick, why not a triathlon?'' How's a guy who never learned to swim and hadn't ridden a bike since he Was six going to haul his 110-pound kid through a triathlon? Still, Dick Tried. Now they've done 212 triathlons, including four grueling 15-hour Ironmans in Hawaii . It must be a buzzkill to be a 25-year-old stud Getting passed by an old guy towing a grown man in a dinghy, don't you Think? Hey, Dick, why not see how you'd do on your own? ``No way,'' he says. Dick does it purely for ``the awesome feeling'' he gets seeing Rick with A cantaloupe smile as they run, swim and ride together. This year, at ages 65 and 43, Dick and Rick finished their 24th Boston Marathon, in 5,083rd place out of more than 20,000 starters. Their best Time? Two hours, 40 minutes in 1992--only 35 minutes off the world Record, which, in case you don't keep track of these things, happens to Be held by a guy who was not pushing another man in a wheelchair at the Time. ``No question about it,'' Rick types. ``My dad is the Father of the Century.'' And Dick got something else out of all this too. Two years ago he had a Mild heart attack during a race. Doctors found that one of his arteries Was 95% clogged. ``If you hadn't been in such great shape,'' One doctor told him, ``you probably would've died 15 years ago.'' So, in a way, Dick and Rick saved each other's life. Rick, who has his own apartment (he gets home care) and works in Boston, and Dick, retired from the military and living in Holland, Mass. , always find ways to be together. They give speeches around the country and compete in some backbreaking race every weekend, including this Father's Day. That night, Rick will buy his dad dinner, but the thing he really wants to give him is a gift he can never buy. ``The thing I'd most like,'' Rick types, ``is that my dad sit in the chair and I push him once.'' Thu, 26 Oct 2006 15:41:10 EDT http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_world_s_strongest_dad.html http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_things_are_changing.html So my Nutri-system diet is still going on. I'm at between 15-20 lbs dropped. I'm feeling pretty good about the diet and the way I'm eating. Sometimes I'm tempted to just binge, but so far I haven't. I ate pizza with my family this weekend, but that didn't seem to have a lasting impact on things. My weight is in flux, but I'm still creeping downwards. I'll be adding exercise to my mix probably next week. I wanted to get used to the food change first and then add in motion. I think I'm about ready. Overall things are okay, sometimes I feel hungry, but when I do, I just grab a little snack or chew on some gum. For some reason Gum is a savior for me. We'll see how things progress. Tue, 10 Oct 2006 14:38:34 EDT http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_things_are_changing.html http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_diet_update.html So been doing the diet thing. Been on it 2+ weeks now and have list about 15 lbs. Is it hard? Yeah lately it has been. Really hard since the weekend, but I'm getting it under control. I think I need to remember my vitamins. But hey 15 lbs, and I think I'll have lost a few more by tomorrow since I haven't weighed myself for a couple of days now. Wed, 04 Oct 2006 14:29:02 EDT http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_diet_update.html http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_diet_errr.html So I started to change my eating habits today. So no it's not a "diet" it's a change of life. I'm doing the nutri-system plan. The benefit of this system is it will help with portion contol while also helping with the quality of the food I'm eating. i.e. less junk, more substance. Each day I'm eating 1-2 salads, with a nice lunch or dinner, so that's good. Also eating fruits and yogurts. A little on the hungry side right now, but still have a snack waiting for me tonight. I'll be posting updates from time to time so check back, wish me luck etc. Tue, 19 Sep 2006 20:48:38 EDT http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_diet_errr.html http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_new_work.html With changes at evo-dev, I found myself in the market to find a new job. I got a call from Overstock Travel during my search and interviewed for a position there. I was offered a job as their Internet Marketing Manager. With this job I'm responsible for working on their PPC for Yahoo and Google, SEO for their 80 sites, and many other things. I really enjoy going into work everyday. My manager is a great guy. I'm surrounded by many compotent people, with great attitudes that are very capable. Sun, 13 Aug 2006 07:34:10 EDT http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_new_work.html http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_brother_s_visit.html After two years my brother's come to visit from Texas. He went to Chicago first to visit my mom and sister then he flew out to Utah to visit my family. He has never seen my 20 month old, so I was excited for him to see here. One concern was that my oldest daughter woud be afraid of him. He was always there for her when she was young, and when he use to come to our house in Texas he would pass everyone until he saw Gena. We would go out sometimes and he'd come over and stay at the house while we went out, after she went to bed. They had a great relationship and they always played together. But that was two years ago. So I was worried about her reaction to him. So the weeks before we reminded Gena of all the things they use to do together, how she would crawl all over him and tey always played etc. So the big day came on Thursday. When he showed up she was "shy" of him and hid behind me... but that lasted about 20 minutes. After a while I see Dennis and Gena having what could only be called a "pillow fight", i.e. he was tapping her head with a pillow and she was throwing it back at him. Then she piled all the coushins from the couch on him and burried him. Then my youngest started to loo into the pillows to see who was hiding, and she found her uncle. Now I have the two kids loving their uncle so that was good. Next couple of days I watch Gena "CLING" to her uncle. She asks him to put her to bed, asks him to play with him. They sit down and play world of warcraft together. And now she knows uncle is leaving and she cries, cause she doesn't want him to leave. I'm so sad and happy all at once. Sun, 26 Feb 2006 00:00:37 EST http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_brother_s_visit.html http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_panic_attacks.html Ok, so what is with them? And why do you get them? Your heart starts to race at a million miles an hour, your stomach clenches, you feel flush, and there is nothing you can do about it. You try to "control" your breathing, you try to think yourself out of them, but for what? Nothing... you're lost in a giant void with no room to breath. Your hands don't work as well and your vision is goes blurry. Not sure if anyone who reads this has them, ok not sure if anyone reads this... But Holy crap they suck. And what's really sad for me, is I give them to myself. No one else does it, but I think myself into them. I think of something, and let it fester, then it begins. I try to stop them before they start but they are a boulder down a hill, they just don't stop, they only get hiccups once and a while. I even told my wife that the petrify me and I think I worry about them while I'm having them. So what kinda sick thing is that, a panic attack about a panic attack while having a panic attack about something else? WTF! God can be so mean sometimes. Fri, 24 Feb 2006 00:15:11 EST http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_panic_attacks.html http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_adwords_mesothelioma_mortgage_etc.html So my friend showed me this site: View Bids. It actually shows you what people are bidding on for words and per clicks. Like mortgage is something like $4+, Mesothelioma is at $11 + . Now I ask you WHAT IS: Mesothelioma ? I think is a type of cancer, I guess maybe I should click on a link and find out? Good tool for people back pocket though. Cause you never know when someone might click on a Mesothelioma link. Mon, 20 Feb 2006 21:29:46 EST http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_adwords_mesothelioma_mortgage_etc.html http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_sfw_link.html New pet project, SFW Link. Once going will be a list of links you can browse safely at work, right now this link it to test referres Mon, 20 Feb 2006 00:05:30 EST http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_sfw_link.html http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_my_wife_rocks.html So today is my bday, I'm turning 25 for the 10th time. Last night we went out to celebrate my bday. Sadly my wife tried to get dinner reservations but the place calls up 2 hours a head of time and says sorry we over booked. So her and I end up at the same place we went last year, but this is no way a bad thing, it's a great steak house and you pay for it! So the dinner rocked, and of course I'm with my wife (no kids) so it was even better. So I knew we were going to have dinner, and some other surprise, and she scared me on our way to the resturaunt when she said, "I've never been to one of them before"... ONE OF THEM??? WTF!?! So I'm getting scared... but at dinner she spilled it, she bought tickets to a Monster Truck Ralley. And I had never been to one either, so yeah I was pretty excited. Granted it's one of the most redneck things I'd ever been too, heck the guy in front of us had a mullet. I had a great time, and well my wife ROCKS! Cause honestly I would have never thought to go to one of those, but I had a complete blast! Just had to share. Sun, 19 Feb 2006 09:03:54 EST http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_my_wife_rocks.html http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_what_is_she_thinking.html I'm talking about my 19 month old here. I'm sitting at the table with my notebook and she's literally running back and forth. Nothing to accomplish, just running back and forth. It's adorable and confusing all at the same time. Now she took oat meal out of the pantry and opened it up and she's eating it uncooked. Not sure if that's good for her or not, but heck horses eat it. Thu, 16 Feb 2006 11:57:59 EST http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_what_is_she_thinking.html http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_new_site.html Just got a hold of the site FunToCheat it's a site to post and find cheats to games, in general games for console etc. It's not on the box now, but I'll soon have 100% control over it. Just thought I'd mention it. Daniel Fri, 10 Feb 2006 23:53:26 EST http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_new_site.html http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_new_version.html We released evoArticles version 2.1 the otherday, and it rocks. Munzir out did himself. This should really be version 3 in my opinion with all the new features and enhancements. The media support is a HUGE seller, many people are enjoying it. I'm hopefully going to get the demo up and working again, so I'll cross my fingers on that Swing by and give it a look: evoArticles 2.1 Mon, 06 Feb 2006 21:38:56 EST http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_new_version.html http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_sick_kids.html So, people always want "personal stuff" so here is some reality about my life. My youngest (the one I have the picture of on the nebulizer), goes in for her 18 month check up. Her height and weight are in like the 60%, but her head is off the chart. She's always had a large noggin since she was born, last time she was 97%, but now it's extreme. The Dr. is concerned, which in turn makes us concerned. Is it hydrocephalus? Well the Dr. isn't too concerned since she is acting normal. But the two days after the appointment the kids throws-up which is one of the signs. So it freak me and my wife out. But she seems ok now, but now she's just got a cold or allergies. Kids, they are worth every second, but scare you every minute. Sat, 04 Feb 2006 17:13:11 EST http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_sick_kids.html http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_how_old_do_you_act.html You Are 29 Years Old Under 12: You are a kid at heart. You still have an optimistic life view - and you look at the world with awe. 13-19: You are a teenager at heart. You question authority and are still trying to find your place in this world. 20-29: You are a twentysomething at heart. You feel excited about what's to come... love, work, and new experiences. 30-39: You are a thirtysomething at heart. You've had a taste of success and true love, but you want more! 40+: You are a mature adult. You've been through most of the ups and downs of life already. Now you get to sit back and relax. What Age Do You Act? http://www.blogthings.com/whatagequiz/ Mon, 16 Jan 2006 21:22:20 EST http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_how_old_do_you_act.html http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_movie_king_kong.html When I first saw the preview, I thought, "Cool Kong!". I loved watching the remake back in the 70's (I think or 80's). Well Peter Jackson did a great job. What I really loved about the movie was that Kong was a wild Animal. The really didn't humanize him anymore than Gorilla's really are. He movements, sounds, fantastic! Special effects rocked. And I HATE BUGS! So I hated parts of the movie The Trex scene was great. Now about the actors. Jack Black was great, he played a self centered producer/director who only saw life through the lens, regardless of the cost. I think Naomi Watts, did a good job conveying feeling for the Gorilla, not love, but compassion. She realized he was a victim, and only lived off of instinct. 4.5 outta 5. Go see it, it's a must on a big screen! Thu, 22 Dec 2005 17:14:51 EST http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_movie_king_kong.html http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_movie_chronicles_of_narnia.html This was one of my favorite stories when I was a kid so seeing it come to the big screen was very exciting. I wasn't sure how things would turn out, how would Aslan be on the screen? Well I have to say it was fantastic! I do believe it was given an incorrect rating, it should have been PG-13 not simply PG. There was a lot of violence and a bit of older content (i.e. sacrifice of Aslan). The picture was definately a beautiful piece of work, breath taking visually and stunning special effects. As a friend said, "It reminds me of LOTR with kids". I'm really interested to see if they do all stories from the Chronicles, but so far, I'm looking forward to the next in this fantastic story! First 5 outta 5 I've given. Could be becuase it had everything I look for in a movie, a story I love, great visual effects, and a yearning for more. Sun, 11 Dec 2005 10:35:03 EST http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_movie_chronicles_of_narnia.html http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_great_tech_support_comcast.html We've been having constant issues with our internet connection the last couple of days. So we call Comcast and they give us the whole, "Unplug your modem and router" blah blah. Well last couple of days it's worked great, but today no dice. Get Joe Support on the line (wife does cause I'm sick of stupid people), tells us to do our thing which we just did. Then he says, well its something wrong with your computer. So yeah just this morning both of our computers decided to change a random setting to make it not work. WHAT EVER. "Go hire a network geek pay him $50 and supper to get him to fix it." Yeah sure... "Or replace your router and cables" Nice another $50 non-solution. I guess they only look inwards cause later we went to the internet health and did a few tracerts and found out AT&T was hiccuping something serious. So I guess Comcasts support is about as helpful as my daughter. Simply restart... that's their solution, then blame the customer NICE! Sun, 04 Dec 2005 23:41:42 EST http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_great_tech_support_comcast.html http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_movie_van_helsing.html We went out and bought the DVD the other day. We loved that movie, wanted to borrow it from my slacker brother-in-law, but he wasn't around so we grabbed it. The Van Helsing character used to be an old foggy. Hugh Jackman was perfect, however he seems to be stereo-typed. Both of his big roles are characters that are violent, they are lost and have no idea about their past. Guess it makes it easy to prepare for the role when the underlying characteristics are the same. Movie had great special effects, decent story, nice mix of the three big monsters, Count Dracula, Werewolf, and Frankenstien. If you want a great movie, and want to see a good monster movie this is for you! Enjoy go rent, GO BUY! 4 outta 5 stars. Tue, 29 Nov 2005 00:14:48 EST http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_movie_van_helsing.html http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_good_morning.html Saturday Morning, the whole family actually got up together. Usually my wife or I sleep in a little bit while the other wrangles with the kids. But this morning there was snow on the ground, so after I let the dog out, I go to our room (where the wife is trying to sleep while the 2 kids jump on the bed), and announce "Hey Come here it's snowing!" Sure enough Gena (4 year old) comes running, which has a domino effect on her sister who come rambling along. Then the wife followed shortly after. A very nice morning as we all gazed out at the snow, and it put us in a Christmas mood. Then it happened. My wife whispers someting in Gena's ear, and she walked over to me with the cutest look on her face. "Daddy will you make pancakes". So I did. First time in a while we sat together for breakfast, but it was a good morning After that we started to put up decorations, garland on the banister, flowers around the entertainment center, and the I moved the couch in the front room (again), so we could put up our tree. It's SO nice to be in our own house for Christmas, it just feels more "special" if you know what I mean. I'm really looking forward to Christmas morning with our kids. I'm sure it will be something really special! Sun, 27 Nov 2005 00:09:42 EST http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_good_morning.html http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_why_people_should_blog.html Today I was talking to a good friend that works for a gaming development company. I'll keep his info blank just in case :P Daniel Said: that's normal price, then you can set up a blog Daniel Said: like http://www.danielcoburn.com Friend Said: purdy Friend Said: I;m not the blog type.... you're doing well with it though Daniel Said: me? I hate blogging, I just do it from time to time Daniel Said: heck gaming peoples blogs rock Daniel Said: people swarm Friend Said: yeah, I like me privacy Daniel Said: just post lies Friend Said: ah... shoulda known Daniel Said: November 21st. I animated stuff today Daniel Said: November 22nd. Re-anmiated stuff, I feel like a mad scientist Friend Said: makes for a predictable read, don't you think? Daniel Said: November 23rd. Dang thing sucks, started over Daniel Said: November 24th. I think I saw Jesus today, or it was someone that hasn't showered or shaved for 3 weeks from the DDO team. Daniel Said: Novermber 25th. Drinking no longer makes lines blurry. Daniel Said: See you could mix it up Friend Said: thought you said lie. Daniel Said: Good point Daniel Said: November 21st. Forgot my Coffee today (obvious lie) Friend Said: lol Friend Said: you know me too well. He drinks more coffee than Juan Valdez Tue, 22 Nov 2005 17:13:44 EST http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_why_people_should_blog.html http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_moive_just_like_heaven.html Reese Witherspoon, is just a beautiful woman. Not sure why, just very pretty to me and a decent actress. This movie was "Cute". It was predictable at times, I saw a few of the twist very early in the movie, where my wife didn't see them all. It was a nice movie with a cute story. It is defiately a "Chick Flick", but at the cheap theater it was definately worth seeing on the big screen. If you want a feel good movie / love story this is a good movie. It has it's moments of funnies, and a few very serious moments. But overall it was enjoyable to me. I give it a 3.0 outta 5 (if I paid full price I might have said a 2.5 ) Mon, 21 Nov 2005 07:31:20 EST http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_moive_just_like_heaven.html http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_fear_factor.html I come home last night and my in-laws have fear factor on. I really do enjoy this show because it can sometimes really push a person. Now many of the stunts they have that are physical don't really impress me since there is no "real" danger. Yes people can still get hurt, but without a horrible accident, no one would ever fall off the building. The ones that get me sometimes are those involving eating or creatures. Last night they had a tank of water and threw a bunch of snakes in it. I believe they were just Garter snakes and an Albino python. None of these are threatening creatures, sure the snakes might nip at you, but face it they are IN WATER, and they are petrified of you, they are trying to get away from you, not invade your body. I've had snakes as pets and I only had one that was just couldn't handle cause it was mean (Grey Rat Snake). My biggest fear would have been biting one of them with the Plum I had to remove. So I think people need to understand that the fear of some of these creatures is greater on the side of the animal than on that of the human. Fear Factor Trivia's: #1 There is some psycho exec. producer that comes up with all the "edible" stunts. He doesn't ask any one to do anything he hasn't done. SO basically this crazy guy whips up all this nasty stuff and eats it. If he can't eat it, he won't ask anyone else to do it. So everything you see on the show that's disgusting one person's eaten it ALL! Not just a stunt on one show, but every one on EVERY show. That would be a sick day at the office. #2 Sources tell me the host doesn't, I heard he only ate one thing. He was a member of a clan a former co-worker belonged too. Sat, 19 Nov 2005 10:27:19 EST http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_fear_factor.html http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_some_people.html We just moved into our new house about 2 months ago, and the builder is building a house next door to us. They stopped working on it for abut 2 week and then a flurry of activity when the owner decide they wanted to finish the basement. Let me give some background before I go off on why I'm irritated. A few weeks ago a guy knocks on the door and asks if he could use my water to fill his pressure washer to clean the park down the street. Now mind you it's a 50-60 gallon container. I said sure, he replies, "how about 5 times?" I figure sure, its for the neighborhood so why not, at least he asked. So back to my story. The other day I see my hose pulled over to the house next to me. Now I didn't do it, and I sure didn't bring it to the back yard where all I have is dirt! So I know it's the construction workers next door. So I UNHOOK my hose and leave it there. So today these AHOLES rehook my hose and start using it. So I call the builder and say WT Heck is going on. If they would have asked I wouldn't be upset at all, but the fact that they REHOOKED it and didn't even ask! That's what chaps my hide. JUST FLIPPEN ASK PEOPLE! I still have to pay for it, and in UT water isn't cheap. Fri, 18 Nov 2005 18:01:10 EST http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_some_people.html http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_wake_up_calls.html My 4 year old thinks 5:00 AM is a great time to wake the ENTIRE house up. She currently shares a room with her 1 year old sister so the 1 year old is in her crib crying, she runs into mommy and daddy's room yelling that her sister is hungry. We know darn well if she'd been allowed to sleep she'd be out like a light. I tend to go to be around 1 or 2 AM depending on stuff for evo-dev. So I wake up CRANKY at 5. It's good to have kids though, I love em, but man do I hate their energy sometimes. Wed, 16 Nov 2005 13:12:32 EST http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_wake_up_calls.html http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_what_fish_are_for_me.html So I'm in my new house, and I would love to have another fish tank, but the big question is where do I put it? and what kind to get? Here are the issues: 1. Really no place to put it since we don't have our living room set up yet, and my computer room is too packed as is. 2. I have young kids. "But what do kids have to do with fish?" "They try to feed them which is bad" 3. Money (of course) 4. What kind, fresh or salt The advantage really goes to fresh simply because they are much easier, and less expensive in the short and long run. But I'd love to get 100+ gallon tank, and they cost a pretty penny to buy and set up. So for now I'll just have to get a new screen saver, but I might have a few items on fish tanks in the future. Mon, 14 Nov 2005 09:23:06 EST http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_what_fish_are_for_me.html http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_kids_and_dogs.html Today I'm sitting there watching my 15 month old. And she goes up to the dog and just starts to smack it (not too hard she's only 15months). So I tell her "gentle" and she understands and starts to pet the dog. Then the Adessa decides to go away and the dog goes after her... So Adessa just starts to run her little 15 month old legs off. So here I am watching my little girl run as fast as she can, and I can could think about is that she looked like she was running on a treadmill, legs just going 1000 miles an hour and not making progress. But Darwin wasn't going "After her", the kid just thought she was. Once the kid looks back and sees that the dog went to drink water she goes over to pet her again... Rinse and repeat. I don't know what's more interesting watching my two kids together or watching my dog with my kids. If I call the dog, she comes running, if my four year old calls the dog, it's like she didn't even exist. But get the dog started and she quickly puts the kids in their place cause they cannot out run her. And for the record 4 to 1 girls win! Sat, 12 Nov 2005 22:18:24 EST http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_kids_and_dogs.html http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_movie_zathura.html Basic Outline: The game is played by two brothers; they are 10 and 6 3/4's years old. They have the standard sibling rivalry and the pretty much hate each other. The younger brother admires the older brother, but dislikes how he's treated. The older brother blames the other brother for their parents break up. So you have the outline for the classic combat between brothers when they realize, they are sometimes all they have. They play this whacked up game that takes them into space for a trip to Zathura! Threw meteor showers, violent robots, and some sort of funky incest's under tones.... they have one heck of a trip! Went and saw Zarthura (Jumanji II) tonight. It was a fun show. It was predictable, half way through the movie; I realized one of the major plot twists. So I was disappointed that it was so transparent. The visual effects were very good, if you like to see movies cause they have lots of explosions; then this ones for you! I would NOT recommend it for younger children probably 9+ on this one, lots of freaky things, violence etc. I left the movie the same way I felt after Jumanji, it was a fun ride, but I didn't gain much from it. I'll have to give this one a 3.25 outta 5, the effects are worth the big screen! Sat, 12 Nov 2005 01:30:04 EST http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_movie_zathura.html http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_favorite_pet.html Kinda curious and would like comments from those that visit here. What is your favorite pet? Let me list off a few that I've had: Dogs Cats Birds (Cockatiel & Quacker) Fish (Fresh and Salt) Lizards (Iguana and Legless lizard [sounds like a snake but lots of differences]) Rodents (Gerbils, Hamsters, Mice) Snakes (Ball Python, Rat Snake) I have to say I'm still a big Dog fan. My buddy Einstien, who I had to get rid of, he was my best friend. We have Darwin and she's a great dog, but she's not "mine". Granted Newton, my quaker was cool, and Fred my cockatiel was with me for a LONG time... My Einy will always be my best bud. He slept in bed with me since he was a pup, and never wanted to be away from me. He did learn to sleep on the floor (most of the night), once I got married, but he put my wife into her place by making me sleep else where. He also had epilepsy, and some times they were horrible seizures. I still remember his first one... He's in a great home now, I've never called to check on him cause I'd start to miss him too much. So what's your favorite? Thu, 10 Nov 2005 16:56:43 EST http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_favorite_pet.html http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_new_pets_top_200.html Just opened up my new site Pets Top 200 if you know of anyone with a blog about pets, a site about pet, or just any animal related site (no psycho's though :P ) Send them on over. Thu, 10 Nov 2005 07:41:06 EST http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_new_pets_top_200.html http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_time_outs.html WTF is up with Timing out? I have a great post almost ready and then I hit submit and the dang server timed out on me! What good is that! I mean it wasn't that long. And I have timeouts set to like 5 days on the application. So you all missed a great post on the DVD Iron Giant I saw the other day. Deal with it :P Wed, 09 Nov 2005 00:29:19 EST http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_time_outs.html http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_movie_chicken_little.html Yes I saw it the second day it was out, yes I loved it. So it was the big day, Daddy/daughter date. I took my four year old to the theater and we piled out to go to the theater. There was an 11:00 and an 11:20 showing and it was about 10 till. There were only 78 seats left in the 11 so I decided to go to the 11:20. I mean you don't want to be with THAT many kids, and the 11:20 was in a big theater compared to the earlier one. But there are massive numbers of kids/parents at the theater, and of course NO BOOSTER Seats are near the theater, they were all in the 11 o'clock show. So took while to get one, but if I don't have one Gena falls through the back of the seat, as funny as it is and as hard as I would laugh, it's ultimately not funny (Sure it's not ) So to the movie. Perfect length about an hour and twenty minute, but then tack on like 30 minute for the preview OMG! *shrug* The movie starts off with Chicken little's "The sky is falling" bit, and no one believe him, then you move a year later. The real point of this movie is to define parent’s relationship with their kids. If you have kids go see this with them, don't send them to see it. I think all parents can learn something from it; it's really about believing in your kids no matter what they are like. And supporting them no matter what they want to do. Not expecting them to become something for you, but you being a person there to encourage them no matter their dreams. So now I'm going off, but hey it's my blog As far as the movie, I definitely say it's a great one to watch, whether your a kid or a parent. I give it 4.25 out of 5 simply because it's nice to have something to see with the kids. Sun, 06 Nov 2005 09:15:30 EST http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_movie_chicken_little.html http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_blog_flux_suggest.html So you like blogs? Why cause you're wierd...! Admit it, you really do care about what others have to say, otherwise you probably wouldn't be here. As if I'm some guru. I am, however, a person with unlimited useless knowledge! But if you want to find some really cool blogs, head over to Blog Flux Suggest. It is not a search engine, it is a masterful idea of algorithms and wisdom. I did testing, and I found some interesting things. So head over and give it a whirl. So take a look let me know what you think. Fri, 04 Nov 2005 19:51:49 EST http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_blog_flux_suggest.html http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_movie_revenge_of_the_sith.html Well I don't want to ruin the movie for anyone, but Ankin's really Darth Vader. I know SHOCKING revelation, sorry if you live in a swamp under a toad stool and didn't know it. But irregardless SEE THIS MOVIE. First 5 outta 5 I've given. Why? Cause #1 the visual effects were great, unlike the previous two where the fx were what seemed to be a primary focus, on this one, it was the story and the turning. Palpatine was AWESOME, great actor, the lightsaber battles were teh best I've ever seen (well the Darth Maul was sweet too). So Go SEE IT (rent it whatever, it's like $14.44 this week at WalMart and $14.99 everywhere else). Wed, 02 Nov 2005 17:01:40 EST http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_movie_revenge_of_the_sith.html http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_linklog_another_cool_feature.html So my buddy asks me to drop some javascript into my template for "link tracking". I say sure why not, I have that cool Mapstats why not track links? Well I guess I was a testing bed since the service wasn't announced yet. But today they actually have output! YEAH. Take a look Link Log. So I don't get heavy traffic, but it's still a pretty sweet feature for free. I know you can look at some of this stuff via your server stats, but this is nice because it's all at the same place, visual stats and link. So go sign up... what are you waiting for? Again this is a service for blogs. Mon, 31 Oct 2005 23:32:05 EST http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_linklog_another_cool_feature.html http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_movie_bewitched.html My wife went out and got the DVD the other day. I'm not sure about you, but I had really low expectations. Maybe that is why it wasn't that bad. I rather enjoyed it, maybe it was because Nicole Kidman was in it, but maybe it was because it was "Cute". The story of a witch playing a TV witch, pertending to want to be normal, who's character want the same thing.... *shrug* not really sure how good of a plot there was, if there was one. Also I thought it was an interesting twist, when I first heard of this movie, I thought it was going to be a movie based on the TV show, not a movie based on the re-making of the TV show. So at least it was something different. But by the time I got to the end of the movie, I realized, it WAS a re-make of the TV show, just disguising itself as a "Show". Eitherway, it's now on video or dvd. It is definately worth a watch, for a fun show. If I were to have seen this in the theater I might have given it a 2, but since it's a video, I'll give it a 2.75 outta 5. It doesn't suck, but it sure won't win any oscars. Sun, 30 Oct 2005 11:26:39 EST http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_movie_bewitched.html http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_kids.html So yesterday we celebrated my daughters 4th birthday. With it being close to holloween my wife decided to decorate it with spiderwebs, eyeball punch, jack-o-lanterns and skeletons. My job was to distract the kid while they decorated. So we went to GG's (Great Grandmother). First the kids were HORRIBLE, we get there and my 3.99 year old and my 1.3 year old are screaming and crying. So this makes GG feel horrible, but finally they calm down, and it ended up on a good note. Then the call comes... "Were ready". Well I'm abou 30 minutes away, so get the oldest to go to the bathroom (what a chore, who would have thought it would be so hard to get ANYTHING to go to the bathroom. I mean it's a battle of wills). Then we head home, get two "where are you" calls on my way. I'M in Mexico, I just thought I'd take a detour... I'll get there when I get there YEEESH :P My daughter see's the spiderwebs out side on the porch and ghosts in the trees, and a big yellow 'X' on the door. "Daddy Look at the X". "Hunny it says 'Danger Haunted Area'". Talk about something STUPID to say to a 3.99 year old (she actually turns 4 on the 28th). Great now she stops, "Why is it haunted?"... great, now I do the whole, it's just decorations. So we get ready to come in... no I need to tell you my daughter INFORMED us everyone was supposed to yell "SURPRISE" for her... guess she doesn't get that concept yet. *shrug* Well needless to say the house was decked out, a huge spider above the table, spiderwebs everywhere, balloons the whole 9 yards. My wife and her family did a great job, and it was a very memorable night. I think my daughter loved everything, her art kits from her aunt (and family) in Chicago, her clothes, her stickers, her bike, and honestly just having her family near her. I can't wait till she turns 5. Thu, 27 Oct 2005 22:09:46 EDT http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_kids.html http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_great_people.html So in our house we have a porch and around it is a hand rail. The builder was going to paint it, but we have the nice natural wood columns, and painting them would have just destroyed the look. So we left them. The other day I bought my waterproofer (cedar toner), and it was too orange. So I bought Clear. Wouldn't you think if it said Clear you'd open it up and it would be clear. Well to my surprise it's still brown with a slight tinge of Orange. But after you put it on and it drys it looks great. I wanted to take this time to simply say that it looks awesome. It's not done yet, but the rail up the stairs looks great. The best part about it, is Monday night my in-laws pop over. Why? To help with the staining. My father-in-law is a wonderful man, he went right too it even though, I had just finished cooking dinner, and still needed to eat. He didn't care, he just did it. What a great example of service he is to me. We bought an entertainment center for them the other week, but how can I truly every re-pay them for letting us stay with them for almost 2 years, and then they come to do things like this. So if they read this, thanks for everything. Mon, 24 Oct 2005 23:14:23 EDT http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_great_people.html http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_i_am_not_this_daniel_coburn.html Sgt Daniel Coburn is NOT ME! I'm the good guy! Sat, 22 Oct 2005 23:59:33 EDT http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_i_am_not_this_daniel_coburn.html http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_movie_doom_ed.html So I went in saw it with my brother-in-law. We both told my wife we thought the movie sucked. Then I later told my wife, it wasn't a bad movie, it simply sucked, BUT it lived up to all of my expectations. So the question is, if you go into a movie and expect it to suck what does it mean when you are right? It was not a bad movie when you take into account what they had to work with. A first person shooter. How much can you really do? Go in kill things or be killed. The Rock was stellar, (i.e. he carried a gun around well). *Side note: If he's "The Rock" is his first name The?* Special effects were actually pretty good, so I have to give them that, the first person view was interesting, felt like I was watching a demo. My wife said, "But the never straffed, you can't play DOOM without straffing!" Granted you show me anyone that can run sideways at full speed. Why did the movie suck? Story, script, plot, characters Why didn't it suck? Special effects, action, interesting seeing the "game" on the big screen. Should you go see it? That's tougher. You'll probably get just as much out of watching it on your TV, just make sure it's dark, and you have the sound turned up. Overall 2.25 outta 5 Sat, 22 Oct 2005 23:43:06 EDT http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_movie_doom_ed.html http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_movie_the_greatest_game.html Watching golf on T.V. is like watching a race... you hope someone has horrible luck so you can laugh at them or cringe for them. But this movie was not as boring as watching golf on T.V., I actually enjoyed it. The smug Brits vs. The everyday man (both British and American). I don't know if I was so much rooting for the American or rooting against the Snobby English "Gentlemen". I would have even enjoyed seeing the commoner from Jersey winning and shoving it in their faces. The movie is about two peoples struggle against society, and their place in this world. Someone born into society would always be better than the others. While those born outside could only ever look in. Also an under lying story was about a father that was beaten down with the system, and could never hope to see his son be anything but a common man. He never encourage his son, but tried to take his dreams away, not because he hated him, because he didn't want to see him fall. Ultimately his father realized (read: his wife told him off) that he needed to support his son because failure was not the end... As they said in Batman Begins, "Why do we fall? So we can learn to pick ourselves back up!" On my scale this got 3.75 outta 5. Great family film night when it comes on video. Decent date night if you can't find anything else you can both agree upon. Thu, 20 Oct 2005 21:44:57 EDT http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_movie_the_greatest_game.html http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_movie_batman_begins.html FINALLY a return to the Batman I love. Darker, seedier, not florescent. I loved the original movies with Michael Keaton, they were the best. This movie was top notch for me too. If you've ever wondered about how Bruce Wayne became Batman (not why cause we all know why), but how he got his gadgets, his car etc. This was a great show. The scarecrow was sorta weak, but he was not the major focus in this movie. In the original Batman movie the real focus was the joker, this movie the focus was Batman. One of my favorite movies of recent times. So head out buy the DVD, you won't be disappointed (unless you look at the extra features they only have the trailer on it). Definitely a 4.5 out 5 for me here! Wed, 19 Oct 2005 20:31:18 EDT http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_movie_batman_begins.html http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_online_vs_in_store.html So I go to Walmart.com yesterday and I see a couple of DVD's I'd like to get. One is season two of smallville for $19.95 a great price considering Best Buy has it for $44. I didn't really expect it to be in the store so I wasn't disappointed when it wasn't there. But while I was on their website, I looked up the move "Kingdom of Heaven" and it was $15.87. I thought great when I'm at the store I'll just pick that up instead. But NOOOO it's $19.95 at the store, and Walmart won't price match itself. So I could go home buy it from walmart.com and have it shipped to me cheaper than if I were to buy it in the store. Now that's retarded! Also if you live in an area with multiple Wal-Mart's check the prices you'll see they actually vary their prices from location to location according to the area they are in. Example when I was in Dallas, I went to one in Arlington and they had the book cases for $39.99, then a little north (can't remember exact store, but a nicer [wealthier] town) they were $49.99, then in South Lake (very rich area) they were $59.99 so look for your low economic area and shop your favorite Wal-Mart there.... Tue, 18 Oct 2005 08:09:12 EDT http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_online_vs_in_store.html http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_map_stats.html So I hooked up MapStats to my blog the other day, and I must say it is a very cool service. It lets you see where people are visiting your site etc. If you have a blog sign up and get the service. If you are running a site they will be offering evostats soon. I like it cause I don't have to worry about the stats etc. It tells me what I really care about, visitors, where they are coming from, and their geography. Now if I did ads it would be invaluable, but I don't so I guess I'll just enjoy the stats. Hats off to the crew that created it at Enthropia parent company of the software developers that created this blog software Evo-Dev. Oh and I also work for them Sun, 16 Oct 2005 21:48:00 EDT http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_map_stats.html http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_day_after.html So I'm in a good amount of pain, my mouth is throbbing, even worse my entire face is... They had to drill into my mouth between my mouth and nose and then put the screw in, ironically here is a picture of what they will be doing to my mouth That image is just the opposite tooth (that's #8 next one is mine #9). So right now I have the screw in, in a few months they'll put the crown on the post. Sat, 15 Oct 2005 11:31:53 EDT http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_day_after.html http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_surgery_today.html So I had my #9 Incisor removed. (Front left tooth). And I'm in pain, but no idea how much I'm really in since I am on pills I had what was called an inner root resorption (resorbtion) which mean my root was eating itself away from the inside. So you have 3 choice on what to do with it. 1. let it rot and fall out (problem could cause bone problems) 2. Use a bridge, but then you have to mess with your teeth on both sides. 3. Get an implant. Where they remove the tooth, pull the remaining root out since it isn't attached to the crown anymore (cause of the resorbtion), and then screw a post in that will later have the tooth put onto it.) So I chose #3 since I'm still pretty young and I wanted a good solution. Now I have to wear a flipper that is basically an artificial tooth on a retainer. It actually doen't look tht bad. Biggest problem $3k. Just in case a lost relative or generous person wants to help out. Any money I get for it I'll probably turn around and spend on Adessa or Genevieve for Christmas. Fri, 14 Oct 2005 13:57:34 EDT http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_surgery_today.html http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_another_found_thing.html So yesterday I got the great news that Teri's dogs were found, a little skinny, but still kicking. And today I get a call from my Father-in-law saying that they police had recovered his stolen car. It had been missing for about 2 or 3 weeks, so it was a great relief. Odd thing this is the 2nd time it's been stolen in as many months. Stranger thing... it's a 1992 Saturn SL1. Now why would you steal it? No idea. But what was learned from this? A couple of things. 1. People will steal anything 2. Park your car in a garage CLEAN it out! Tue, 11 Oct 2005 18:07:01 EDT http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_another_found_thing.html http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_teri_found_her_dogs.html This won't mean much to most people, but I received and email today from my friend that she found her dogs. They had run away from her son while they were hiking several weeks ago. I feared she'd never see them again, but felt they were safe. We'll I'm happy to report she did find them. Some folks found them and happen to see one of her flyers. I'm glad they are home and hope they stay that way Mon, 10 Oct 2005 23:00:22 EDT http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_teri_found_her_dogs.html http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_movie_serenity.html Last night had a chance to go see a movie with my wife. First it was a great night because we got to get out alone, we had 2 free movie passes AND free popcorn and drinks, so it cost us nothing. For the first time in a while I told my wife what we were going to see vs. her telling me or a discussion. I had heard it was pretty good, so I really wanted to see it. From my understanding this is a TV show that was cancelled that is now a movie. The movie was very funny, so I laughed and really enjoyed the movie. The characters had a really fun interaction and the story line was pretty interesting. A lot of the movies out now days try to have a nice pleasant underlying love story, this one has a small one, but it's never really that main focus of the movie, except to add some humor. It was one of the more enjoyable movies that I've seen in a long time. If you like action movies, sci-fi, or comedies (or any combiniation) You'll love this movie. I gave this a 4.5 outta 5. Not the best, but compared to anything I've seen in the past couple of years it was everything I wanted and more in a movie. Go see it, and let me know if you run across this Sun, 09 Oct 2005 13:58:21 EDT http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_movie_serenity.html http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_food_storage.html Today I had lunch with several people and we spoke about many things. We got to talking about some of the tragedies of the recent Hurricanes in the U.S. and the devistation it brought to families. My Church recommends having a food storage that could last you for 1 year. At minimum you should have a 72 hour kit that you can grab and go. Why? They say on average it takes about 3 days for help to arrive. Some of the issues faced by people in Katrina was that they might have had a year supply, but now it was underwater, so a lot of good that did you. Also some were able to pack some of their storage and evacuate early, but many had 50 gallon water drums. Now how are you supposed to move that? So my plan is to have water storage, but also make sure I have an ample supply of bottled water, or a means to distill water. Also in my Church we don't believe in drinking or smoking, but I told some people I plan on having a drum of liquor and cigarettes, why? Because people will always trade for their habits. Agree or disagree *shrug* Also what other things do you put in for a 1 year supply? I have an 16month old, do I put diapers in it? If so how many? How often do I upgrade, "cause she aint gettin' smaller"! Dog Food? (Or do you just eat the dog? [sorry Darwin]). How much laundry detergent do you need? Can you use it to really clean anything? Dried goods... MRE's... canned foods... SPAM (lots of that). I just moved into my house so I have to think about these things. Once I start my storage I'm sure I'll put a list of some of the items. Fri, 07 Oct 2005 23:11:23 EDT http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_food_storage.html http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_product_release.html So last night we release evoTopsites Pro. Most people don't know everything that had to happen to get it out the door, but it takes a lot of time and effort. We are a small shop with several developers (myself included), product management (2 people), and support. We are not Microsoft, but we do take pride in the quality of work we put out. What did it take? We have evoTopsites, but wanted to make it better, wanted to make it worth buying. So what did we do. We looked at the down falls of many topsites and we made a better product, but that was evoTopsites, how can we make it better? Simple, add more. Munzir came up with a great caching system that basically stores information and writes it every X minutes. And it works, it works great! (Proof!) Also people do use them to make money so each category can now sport it's own ads (yeah) same with SOTD you can do it per category as well. One HUGE thing for any site is Search Engine Optimization (SEO), so we improved the way the the urls are displayed to make it better for spiders to crawl the site. All in all, it's a great product! Demo. Thu, 06 Oct 2005 20:33:58 EDT http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_product_release.html http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_church_conference.html So today was the 175th semi-annual conference for my church. My wife and I are listening to an overview of the morning session of conference when they played a snippet from our Prophet stating that two new Temples would be built in UT. Great news for us one is being built in our neighborhood. That should definately help our property value (Yeah ) I went to the priesthood session this evening and really enjoyed all of the talks. Most were aimed towards our youth and that was fine; because it's a message anyone can take with them. One thing that stood out as the Prophet spoke last was about being prepared. He spoke of the millions of dollars sent to help with hurricane relief and he spoke about use being prepared. Now I just moved into a house so I do NOT have any storage, but it is something we plan on working on soon. We will hopefully start building up a storage of about one year of non-perishable food, but it will take time. Some day maybe we'll be like my in-laws have have a gaggle of food ready for everyone, but I can only hope to live up to their example Sat, 01 Oct 2005 21:48:33 EDT http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_church_conference.html http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_video_robots.html So decided to buy the DVD, and really wanted to watch it. Three times have come and gone where I've started it, but never finished. Unlike some of the other animated movies, this one lacks something. Maybe it's a weak story. I say that because the animation is very well done. The imagemaps were great and the voices were well done, but the story lacked flare or zip. It drug through parts of the show, and there were only some parts that were funny enough to keep my attention. I generally like to rate movies based on my willingness to watch them again, OR if it's for kids I rate it on my 3 year olds desire to watch it. Usually she will watch a movie OVER and OVER again, like the stupid movie Elf, she won't stop watching it if it gets in the DVD. So as much as I want to love this movie, it gets about a 1 out 5 on the kid scale. Sorry Robin, you're funny but the plot and it's movement couldn't pull it through. Fri, 30 Sep 2005 22:03:58 EDT http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_video_robots.html http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_last_day.html I have been really blessed over the past 11 months to have a great contract job. The work has been very interesting and the people have been great. I'd like to give them all a shout to let them know how much I'll miss them and invite them to stop by here from time to time to check in, drop me a line. A little about the group, they are a coldfusion development house, which allows them to do a lot of quick, high quality coding. They use Oracle for their dbase (BOOOooo) (just kidding Michael). I have never worked with such an intelligent group. They have PM's that actually know what is going on, and listen to the developer and the developers they are top notch. I have learned more from this group than I have any where else. The group consists of a great diversity of people. Gilligan, Ginger, Mary Anne, The professor, Skipper and the Howels were all there. At all of my previous jobs, I worked with plenty of great developers, but for the second time I actually had to co-developers that were women. I bring it up for one reason. They were incredible! Both Cari and Alicia amazed me with what they were able to do. It might sound sexist, but I was surprised and impressed. They truly took the opinion I had gathered from my only other experience and turned that around. So thanks There are so many people there that I would like to mention and how wonderful they are, but then if I miss someone I'll get hate mail, threats of mis-guided weapons etc. etc. But seriously, Pat, Troy, Greg, Duane, Wayne, Teri, Cari, Alicia, Bryan, Dan A., Jeremy, Michael, Jim, Vijay, Clinton, Kent, Mark, Lynette and Scott you are all the best and thanks for the time I was able to spend with you. And finally, Ed. I guess since it's my last day, this wouldn't be considered sucking up Thanks for everything, I have worked in many jobs, and I have yet to have a manager with your class, compassion and intelligence. You are what most managers should aspire to be. Thanks for everything! Fri, 30 Sep 2005 14:09:54 EDT http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_last_day.html http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_flight_plan.html So I saw flight plan this past weekend, and I won't give away the movie, so feel free to read on When I first saw the previews of the movie I wasn't sure I really wanted to see it. I was afraid it would be another "Forgotten", which I wish I could forget. But my wife convinced me that maybe it was more. So I sucked it up and decided to go see it. And I'm glad I did. Now it's not the best movie in the world, but they definately make you wonder what is happening throughout it. Is she crazy? Is there a conspiracy? What is going on? The build up was definately a rush, the resolution made you think, but the ending brought it down a little bit for me. If I were to rate it, which I'm about to , I'd say it was a 3 out 5 Stars. Worth seeing if nothing else peeks your interest. Definately worth a rental. Thu, 29 Sep 2005 10:51:08 EDT http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_flight_plan.html http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_hospitals_kids.html The other evening, we had to bring my youngest into the hospital cause she was having issues breathing. She is only 15 months old, and had just gotten over pneumonia from 3 weeks prior. She was having problems breathing so we called up my father-in-law to watch our oldest (thank God for family). We take the forty minute drive to the hospital and get to see the doctor pretty quickly since breathing issues is a higher priority than most others. I think it's a great thing that the hosptial does NOT take people in the order they arrive, but in the order of severity. As things like heart issues, breathing, broken limbs should definately have a higher priority than a runny nose. They listen to my daughter here her wheezying and then give her a nebulizer treatment. She still has some problems, so they x-ray her to make sure it is not pneumonia (which it wasn't). So sadly we are facing the fact that our 1 year old has asthma and may have it for the rest of her life. We are also give a steroid for her to help with the inflammation in her lungs, only side effect it might stunt her growth. Now that is a horrible thing for a 1 year old, so I know my wife and I would prefer to only give her it when it's needed vs. as a preventative. Now we give her an inhailer with a little mask, and what makes me so sad, is we take it out and she'll walk up to it and place her face on it. It's a sad thing to see a 1 year old use to something like this already Tue, 27 Sep 2005 12:32:48 EDT http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_hospitals_kids.html http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_what_will_be_here.html No idea really, I'm testing out evoBlog for evo-dev to see how well it works and figured I might as well try the whole blogging thing out. You'll probably see political topics, computer topics, gaming topics etc. So we'll see what happens Tue, 27 Sep 2005 13:02:01 EDT http://www.danielcoburn.com/p_what_will_be_here.html