tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-149071312009-07-04T09:52:23.745-05:00“A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions.”<br> -- Oliver Wendell Holmes.Steven Rigneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14175444989891279162noreply@blogger.comBlogger717125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14907131.post-79084301615905292002009-07-03T15:57:00.001-05:002009-07-03T20:46:45.886-05:00

Sarah Palin has resigned, I don't understand the reason, but this is definitely putting her in my do not vote for President pile. At the very least I want a President that will finish out the office that they were elected for, when the Presidential election will not happen in the middle of that term.

Steven Rigneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14175444989891279162noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14907131.post-56387897005163602172009-07-02T19:00:00.000-05:002009-07-02T19:00:01.223-05:00

The Integrative Design Guide to Green Building: Redefining the Practice of Sustainability (Sustainable Design) has been released to help builders learn how to make buildings greener.I find it ironic though that this 416 page tome is not offered in an electronic format. They'll tell us how to make our buildings green, but they aren't offering a way to help us cut down on the paper, and all of the

Steven Rigneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14175444989891279162noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14907131.post-85411695460198367872009-06-30T19:00:00.000-05:002009-06-30T19:00:05.854-05:00

I think all of the major cities should switch their trains and buses to Fuel Cell vehicles. Fuel cells already work and are viable in larger vehicles (although not cheap). However, one of the biggest issues with large cities is air quality. The government should not be another contributor. No public transportation should be emitting these pollutants. This comes with the benefit that

Steven Rigneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14175444989891279162noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14907131.post-30481603249836607682009-06-29T07:00:00.000-05:002009-06-29T10:36:51.129-05:00

I've let myself get fat. Too fat. I've moved up a pants size and if it weren't for expandable waist pants, I would be up two sizes.I plan on posting a once a week update on where I'm at and what I did in the previous week to exercise.Today: 241 pounds.Previous week.Sunday: 3 mile bike ride. 1.5 mile run.Saturday: Some pushups.Friday: Walked to the library and back about 1.75 milesThursday:

Steven Rigneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14175444989891279162noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14907131.post-43502824336666912132009-06-22T08:33:00.003-05:002009-06-22T08:54:34.588-05:00

Everything I've read about a smart grid is based on houses being able to run without electricity, with the electricity being supplied by a PHEV. However, if I'm driving a PHEV and lose power at my house, I don't want to use my car to power my house, then also run my car dead. I want to be able to take my car and leave without it causing my house to break down again.Instead, the smart grid

Steven Rigneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14175444989891279162noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14907131.post-34983427486853307752009-06-12T23:00:00.000-05:002009-06-17T09:20:30.709-05:00

Game 5 and the 3rd this week. The kids did good again. We got another putout on the bases. And Chloe, the youngest on the team, nearly got a hit. She it the ball and ran to first. But the other team was able to beat her there and get the putout. I was so excited and hollering "run, run, run" I may have scared her some, she's the 2nd fastest on the team and was slowing down as she got to

Steven Rigneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14175444989891279162noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14907131.post-11171653949870459402009-06-10T22:38:00.003-05:002009-06-10T22:58:40.918-05:00

Game 4 from 7:30 PM tonight.Wow! My kids going into 1st and 2nd grade vs a team that is 7 and 8 year olds. I chatted with the other coach and 8 of his 10 kids were in the 8 year old category, while my team is all 6 and one 5 year old. We lost, and we only played 3 innings in the one hour time limit. The other team scored 17 runs. However, our team scored 4 runs, and we hit the ball a ton. We

Steven Rigneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14175444989891279162noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14907131.post-44265970392700062382009-06-10T08:33:00.001-05:002009-06-10T08:39:34.336-05:00

Game 3 was tonight at 7:30 PM. We lost.Last week the pitching machine went bad enough that the other coach and I agreed to pitch to the kids ourselves. That was probably the biggest mistake. Despite pitching to the kids all the time in practice, I could not get them a good pitch to hit, and the limit of 3 strikes was really a problem.We did get our second putout of the season when the

Steven Rigneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14175444989891279162noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14907131.post-66076373505558911552009-06-09T07:00:00.001-05:002009-06-09T09:00:52.989-05:00

I've read that there are up to 10 banks that will be repaying TARP funds. This seems to be generating quite a bit of excitement as these banks which were not stable very long ago have now quickly turned around their fortunes.What I haven't read, and can't find anywhere, is what is the profit to the government. These funds were being "invested" in banks and were going to pay back more than was

Steven Rigneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14175444989891279162noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14907131.post-48454383320406444102009-06-06T22:00:00.002-05:002009-06-06T22:07:38.651-05:00

The kids and I went to Chinese for dinner tonight. I think one of the reasons that they like chineses so much is that they get the fortune cookies. Ady and Jonas now read their own.Today our fortunes went like this.Me: Leaders are readers.Jaden: To be content with little is true happiness. (Obviously written by a woman)Jonas: Know and believe in yourself, and what others think won't

Steven Rigneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14175444989891279162noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14907131.post-36091106864617326592009-06-04T20:23:00.001-05:002009-06-05T08:35:29.999-05:00

In our second game of the season we played well. We faced an odd spring loaded pitching machine that made it more difficult for the kids to hit than before. At the end of the game we had 6 hits, and no runs. We outdid our opponents who only had 4 hits and no runs. The most exciting moment came in the second inning when we recorded our first putout at first base. Savanah moved to her right 3

Steven Rigneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14175444989891279162noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14907131.post-72285705772295615502009-05-30T20:30:00.000-05:002009-06-05T08:33:33.477-05:00

Wow. After two rainouts we played a make up game. The electric pitching machine was not the greatest, but something about it clicked with the kids. They could see the ball and get their timing (for the most part). Ten of my eleven kids showed up. We had hits every inning and scored 4 runs. It was awesome! Saturday afternoon games with a temperature of 85 made it hot to play. I ran

Steven Rigneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14175444989891279162noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14907131.post-5294879908629669432009-05-20T07:00:00.001-05:002009-06-10T08:41:36.497-05:00

The new Green Day album is out, and I want it, even though I haven't heard a single song from it. I love Green Day, despite not caring for most of the music on the radio stations that they play. So I don't hear their songs very often when new ones are released.I got my newsletter from Amazon and noticed in it that there are two Green Day albums that are in the top 10 best selling. So I went to

Steven Rigneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14175444989891279162noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14907131.post-36738815157526242442009-05-19T08:58:00.003-05:002009-05-19T09:11:18.987-05:00

The Normal baseball team has had a name voted for them. Honestly the name choices were lame. Apparently it's completely wrong to have a team with any native history (Indian) assigned to it, and animals have become a hard sell anymore as well. I guess all new teams are going to some name that indicates the area they are from. The Lakers are a great example of that. Everyone knows L.A. for

Steven Rigneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14175444989891279162noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14907131.post-33651390317505836972009-05-12T22:32:00.003-05:002009-05-12T23:07:57.536-05:00

I am now 33. An age that amazes my kids as old, and my niece as surprisingly young. Apparently I look old for my age.I didn't expect to get anything. Erin had told me that the kids wanted to get me flowers. They got a couple of annuals for me to plant in the yard.There was a huge surprise coming for me. Erin got me a Kindle. It's a pretty neat piece of technology and I'm looking forward

Steven Rigneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14175444989891279162noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14907131.post-62912421221281847102009-04-29T09:59:00.002-05:002009-04-29T10:08:55.087-05:00

Dear Mr. Garbage man.I would like to start with an apology. It dawned on me today that for the past nearly 4 years I have not been meeting your expectations with my garbage. I have continually gone out of my way to make sure that my garbage was bagged and in garbage cans sitting upright, with lids on them. I realize that this was a mistake. I should have noticed the hints that you had given

Steven Rigneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14175444989891279162noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14907131.post-4715589203639310512009-04-22T21:58:00.002-05:002009-04-22T22:41:27.524-05:00

The challenge: What 10 things do you/we do to help the earth.Sounds simple enough but there is a catch, Erin and I are both posting the challenge on our blogs so we need to have 10 different items.Since we were coming up with the list and she started first, she got some of the easier ones that we do. However, I have managed to come up with a pretty good list.1. Compact Flourescent light bulbs.

Steven Rigneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14175444989891279162noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14907131.post-9181165252010699862009-04-10T08:25:00.002-05:002009-04-10T08:31:12.491-05:00

I got an awesome card in the mail from my son yesterday. He wrote that he's sad that he couldn't be with me this Easter and I nearly cried.Holidays as a divorced parent are hard. Holidays are when the most planning has to be done in order to make sure that you can spend time with your kids and family. Getting little things like this card when you aren't expecting them make any pain that you

Steven Rigneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14175444989891279162noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14907131.post-63286715908561013262009-03-30T21:48:00.002-05:002009-03-30T21:58:40.842-05:00

The economy, the war in Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel. This is nuts. What's next, is China going to invade someone?Companies keep trimming their employees in hopes of staying ahead of the economic curve. But less employees means less people who can afford someone else's product, and it's those people that are buying yours. It creates a chain reaction.People temporarily stopped buying cars to

Steven Rigneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14175444989891279162noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14907131.post-81042925219012491402009-03-11T11:41:00.002-05:002009-03-11T11:43:25.995-05:00

The dinner guests were sitting around the table discussing life.  One man, a CEO, decided to explain the problem with education.He argued, 'What's a kid going to learn from someone who decided his best option in life was to become a teacher?'To emphasize his point he said to another guest;  'You're a teacher, Bonnie. Be honest. What do you make?'Bonnie, who had a reputation for honesty and

Steven Rigneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14175444989891279162noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14907131.post-74758999269157661722009-03-09T07:00:00.000-05:002009-03-09T07:00:00.999-05:00

SaphireSteel.com gave away the free book The Little Book of Ruby and I took advantage of it. Due to some things I was working on I had to restart the book several times. Now that I've finally finished it I thought I'd write up my thoughts.The Little Book of Ruby does a decent job of explaining the very basics of Ruby. It does not delve into detail or give best practices on things, however,

Steven Rigneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14175444989891279162noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14907131.post-79989599814320103672009-03-04T20:16:00.002-06:002009-03-04T20:29:25.141-06:00

McLean County Woman awarded 2.6 Million for asbestos exposure. She died at the age of 93, 44 years after the exposure to asbestos. I feel bad, but at 93, even with the cause being listed as asbestos related, at some point you have to chalk it up to natural causes.If I were on that jury I would not have agreed to award anything to them.

Steven Rigneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14175444989891279162noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14907131.post-12913581958681604932009-03-03T07:00:00.000-06:002009-03-03T07:00:00.319-06:00

Shooter is a good book talking about the trip that Sgt. Jack Coughlin took on his way to Baghdad during the Iraq War. It's an entertaining book to read, and lets you see through the eyes of a sniper at a very high level.There are no secrets revealed, and his descriptions of shooting aren't very graphic. I enjoyed reading about the life of someone from the front lines during those first days in

Steven Rigneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14175444989891279162noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14907131.post-59244707215102983022009-02-20T07:00:00.000-06:002009-02-20T07:00:00.749-06:00

I've been studying myself. What makes me effective? What do I spend time getting lost in?I get all philosophical when I get into these kinds of thoughts. What is effectiveness? Is it only my effectiveness or those of my team? Is effectiveness limited to my project or does my taking time to help another department and upltimately the company also count? I think there is a balancing act

Steven Rigneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14175444989891279162noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14907131.post-67538089877625053072009-02-13T07:00:00.000-06:002009-02-13T08:28:16.646-06:00

MIT has been working on building Power Generating shocks that can be used to improve fuel efficiency of the vehicles. I've been waiting for this kind of thing for years.A while ago someone invented a similar thing for shoes that could recharge a battery. Anything and anywhere that there is a natural bouncing motion we can attach a device to generate electricity.Maybe next is a smaller shock

Steven Rigneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14175444989891279162noreply@blogger.com0