tony.mcdonough

A Preschool Graduation

2009-06-14T22:02:00.001-04:00

Now I’m going to sound like a doting father when I say this, but it really can’t be helped. In my 30+ years, my most vivid memory ever is the day I first laid eyes on my little girl. I’ll never forget. It seems time has passed so fast and the Noodle has grown so much these past four years. It’s just simply amazing watching Neve take a giant step into the big wide world.

Hi There Stephie

2009-06-01T15:57:00.001-04:00

Just wanted to say hello to my internet stalker, Stephanie Hicks. Lurk and stalk away.

A Day in the Life

2009-05-04T19:25:00.001-04:00

Welcome to the bits and pieces of my daily life. It's a typical life, but a great life. It's even better with the Noodle in it! By the way, the song playing in the slideshow is Jack Johnson's Better Together.

Spinal Stenosis

2009-04-30T10:47:00.001-04:00

My L-Spine series x-rays have been looked over by the doc and the diagnosis is in...I have a narrowing of the spine. The correct medical term is spinal stenosis. As my doctor so aptly put it, this condition is very common in people who are middled aged and older. Jeez doc, thanks for making me feel so young.

So what exactly is spinal stenosis? Well spinal stenosis occurs when there is a narrowing of your spinal canal caused by the forward slipping of one vertebra on another. In my case, my L5 is the vertebrae that is the root of my troubles. This narrowing pinches on the nerves that leave the spinal canal to go to your foot.

The pain of this conditions is a constant soreness of ache located from the lower back to the thighs. It is worse when I straighten my spine or walk for a prolonged period.

Working From Home

2009-04-28T15:30:00.001-04:00

This is what I've been staring at off and on for the past 30 minutes. Boring.

create or replace trigger MIRASSOC_B_IU_SIDSWAP
    before insert or update of MIR_OBJ_FROM, MIR_OBJ_TO
    on T_MIR_MIR_ASSOC
    for each row
declare
    TMP   varchar2(20);
begin
    :new.ASSOC_DIRECTION := upper(:new.ASSOC_DIRECTION);

    if :new.ASSOC_DIRECTION not in('AB', 'BA') then
      RAISE_APPLICATION_ERROR(-20200,
         'Invalid Relationship Direction (' || :new.ASSOC_DIRECTION || ')');
    end if;

    /* Make sure that A < B so that the PK will prevent the same
       assocation be recorded twice */
    if :new.MIR_OBJ_FROM > :new.MIR_OBJ_TO then
        TMP := :new.MIR_OBJ_FROM;
        :new.MIR_OBJ_FROM := :new.MIR_OBJ_TO;
        :new.MIR_OBJ_TO := TMP;

        if :new.ASSOC_DIRECTION = 'AB' then
            :new.ASSOC_DIRECTION := 'BA';
        else
            :new.ASSOC_DIRECTION := 'AB';
        end if;
    end if;
end;

Facebook

2009-04-28T00:33:00.001-04:00

I've had a Facebook profile since February 2009 thanks to my Auntie Sue. You see...she sent me an invite to look at her newly uploaded photos on Facebook. Well, the only way that I could actually look at any of her photos was to register with Facebook and create a profile for myself. Initially, I set up Facebook to automatically retrieve my latest blog posts from tonymcdonough.com and my latest uploaded photos from my Flickr photostream and post them to my Wall. It has worked out really well. All my blog entries and photo uploads have been posted to my Wall without any effort on my part. I really dig the effortless approach of maintaing Facebook. Anyway, I did a little housekeeping on Facebook tonight. I've uploaded a few pictures of my face painted Noodle, filled out some profile information, become a Fan of some sports teams, products, and places, and set some privacy settings. I've even managed to put a few friend requests in. So, if you're interested in finding me on Facebook...

Oh, My Aching Back!

2009-04-26T23:24:00.001-04:00

Local Pharmaceutical
Photo taken by mcdonoughab

I've been living with lower back pain for over 15 years. Until this past Wednesday, I've always been able to cope with the stiffness and soreness. So, I really don't have a good explanation as to why my back suddenly seized and went into spasm. All that I do know...when you can't walk or even sit up in bed and your father and neighbor carry you out of the house and to the doctor's...you probably should have been in the emergency room a lot sooner than Friday. Anyway between the Flexeril, Vicodin, and Prednisone, I'm a walking pharmacy at this point. Speaking of walking, I wouldn't consider what I'm doing as walking. Holding onto someone and shuffling my feet isn't really walking, but an adult form of crawling.

By Jess

2009-04-22T22:13:00.001-04:00

Tony can't type his blog post right now because his back is not playing nice with him. So I am sitting here thinking about what to write and Tony is dictating some stuff but I still don't know what to write so I'm rambling like usual. But that is okay because it is not my blog. However you can check mine out at jess05.wordpress.com. Wow, that was a shameless plug but if I'm writing his blog for him, then I get to type whatever I want. But I have nothing else to write so I'll leave you now but go check out my blog!

Oh! My aching back! by mcdonoughab

A Duck Awash in Blue & Green

2009-04-19T18:23:00.001-04:00

BG Duck
Photo taken by mcdonoughab

There he (or perhaps she) was standing alone on one leg, perhaps even sleeping before Neve yelled out, "Daddy! Look! There's a duck!" My only thought..."Wow, that water sure is an artificial greenish/blue color. That can't be good for the duck."

Neve, Sean, & Der Wirbelwind

2009-04-19T16:33:00.001-04:00

I've never had a really good opportunity to take video of the Noodle when riding any ride at Busch Gardens. Well, today was my chance. The Massachusetts McDonough's are visiting and Neve is 1) tall enough to ride the bigger rides and 2) confident in herself to ride without me.

Friday, Which Was Yesterday

2009-04-18T18:32:00.001-04:00

It's a great feeling to wake up in the morning and look out the window and see an absolutely gorgeous day just beginning. It's even better when you finally get outside and feel the warmth of the sun on your face and the back of your neck. The weather was perfect...72 degrees, sunny, calm winds. Let me say that again. The weather was perfect. So as was the plan all week, the McDonough crew (Neve and I) plus friend (Abby) headed to Busch Gardens for a day of fun in the sun (sans beach). We stood in some lines, rode some rides, ate some food, had some laughs, and had an all around great day. You don't believe me? Check out this picture of Neve and Abby. It pretty much sums up our day. Fantastic!

Thrill Seekers
Photo taken by mcdonoughab

A Red Sox Fan's Frustration

2009-04-16T11:39:00.001-04:00

I know this is old news, but I want to post anyway. I need to vent my frustration.

Boston right-hander Daisuke Matsuzaka went on the 15-day disabled list Wednesday with a mild right shoulder strain after his second straight poor start to open the season. Matsuzaka didn't make it to the second inning Tuesday night against the Oakland Athletics, giving up five runs and five hits on 43 pitches...Dice-K is 0-1 with a 12.79 ERA this season.

This is just ridiculous. This is the same guy who won three games and was named the MVP of the World Baseball Classic. Once the MLB regular season started did we see the WBC Dice-K? Heck no! What we see is a guy who has "arm fatigue" and is out on the mound basically throwing batting practice. You don't believe me? Check out Matsuzaka's stats from his last two outings...

Like I said, batting practice. Thank goodness for Tim Wakefield last night. The Sox needed him.

What do you do...

2009-04-14T13:38:00.001-04:00

...on a Tuesday afternoon when it's raining pretty hard outside? Well, after lunch you try to coax your four year old into taking a nap. You even go as far as letting her lay in your bed and watch Disney's Enchanted. At best she'll take a nap and there will be some peace and quiet for an hour or so. At worst you'll fall asleep and the Disney movie will keep your kiddo entertained long enough for you to get a refreshing nap in. Either way, you win this little battle. :)

Song Request

2009-04-13T18:51:00.001-04:00

Last night I had a request for The Hollies' Long Cool Woman (In a Black Dress). This is for @keltothefirst.

5 Day Weather Forecast

2009-04-13T13:07:00.001-04:00

I really was looking forward to Neve's spring break. I had all these elaborate plans to do outdoorsy things and head to the local fun park. But, is the weather going to cooperate? I have to report a big fat NO. If you don't want to take my word for it, look at the weather forecast for the next five days. Icky.

Friendly's

2009-04-12T21:50:00.001-04:00

You know I really wish I would have taken a picture of Jess feeding Neve. That would have been classic. Neve was acting like a little baby, putting on a show. Jess was looking at me like, "What in the world should I be doing!?!?" Luckily, I told her to feed Neve. That little girl would have gone hungry. ;) Too funny.

80's Magic

2009-04-12T18:55:00.003-04:00

It's definitely an oldie, but it's a goodie. Taking it way back to the 80's.

Lady In Red (Chris DeBurgh)

Happy Easter!

2009-04-12T18:16:00.001-04:00

Dyed Easter Eggs
Photo taken by mcdonoughab

For those who have stumbled across tonymcdonough.com, I just wanted to say Happy Easter! So when you think about Easter, what is the first thing that comes to mind? For me, it's always been dyed easter eggs. On that note, no Easter is complete without dying some eggs. What you see is 10 eggs dyed in traditional vibrant pastels.

Flickr Support in iPhoto '09

2009-04-12T11:44:00.001-04:00

It's not often I buy software when I already have a piece of software that does the same thing for free. But, that's exactly what I did. For those of you familiar with iPhoto, Apple added Flickr uploading to iPhoto '09.

The iPhoto offering of Flickr integration is severely lacking. The only thing you can do from iPhoto is change the size of the exported images and their privacy settings.

Why is the significant? There is a ton of metadata that can be edited that iPhoto's Flickr uploader doesn't address. More importantly, iPhoto ‘09 knows nothing about your existing groups, photosets, settings on Flickr, so none of the photosets you already have will appear in iPhoto. You won’t be able to upload to an existing photoset using iPhoto ‘09, unless you first created that photoset using iPhoto ‘09. This has to be one of the biggest weaknesses of iPhoto's Flickr integration.

Well there is good news. There is something better. It turns out that FlickrExport is more than capable of handling Flickr uploading duties. It offers metadata editing prior to upload, group support, photoset creation and photoset reuse. For $16.63, it's cheap, more robust and useful alternative to iPhoto's Flickr uploader.

Neve's Photostream

2009-04-11T22:25:00.001-04:00

So, the Noodle finally got herself a digital camera. Thanks to Papa, she finally settled on a Hello Kitty 1.3MP Digital Camera. For a little kid, the camera isn't that bad. It has a 1.4" LCD Screen, 4x digital zoom for minor cropping, has user selectable ISO, automatic flash, and even takes video clips. It comes with 8MB of internal memory...honestly even at 1.3MP, that isn't enough memory. Luckily the camera can use an SD Card as external memory. So we wound up getting a 2GB SD Card (which can hold about 3144 1.3MP pictures). Like I said earlier, not too shabby for a 4 year old. Before I forget, head over to Flickr and check out Neve Noodle's photostream. She's been busy with that new camera. :)

Beautiful Spring Friday!

2009-04-10T16:29:00.003-04:00

Today is (or depending on when you are reading this, was) absolutely beautiful! It's currently 81.6 degrees and sunny. So what do you do when it's that nice outside? You get your face painted, sit on a bench somewhere and eat chicken tenders and a corndog, and play in the new water park at Sesame Street Busch Gardens.

Old School...

2009-04-09T18:35:00.001-04:00

Taking it back 90's style. Enjoy.

Treat 'Em Right (Chubb Rock)

Homemade Chia Pet

2009-04-08T13:09:00.001-04:00

Homemade Chia Pet
Photo taken by mcdonoughab

So how do you make a homemade chia pet? You will need:

1 nylon stocking
potting soil
grass seed
Elmer's Glue
pair of goggly eyes

Now for the instructions. First cut the stocking up to the calf and put some grass seed in the bottom of the stocking. The next step is to fill up the stocking with potting soild until you have a nice round ball. Once you've done that, twist off and tie a small section of soil using a rubber bands or a piece of string to make a cute round nose. Now cut any excess stocking and tie off. Glue on your goggly eyes. Find a small bowl to put your chia pet in. Finally find a nice sunny spot for your chia pet and water daily. In a couple of weeks, your chia pet should be growing hair. Neve's did.

Optimizing My MacBook's Performance

2009-04-07T00:58:00.001-04:00

Every now and then my old G4 began to feel a little sluggish. There were many potential reasons why: I tend to run 8-10 applications simultaneously and sometimes push 15 or more. This alone will bog down any Mac. At other times, I realized that it has been weeks since I restarted the computer, and a simple restart would solve a lot of these slowdowns. When those don't speed things up, I've found a number of things I can do to encourage my G4 back to its youthful snappiness. So looking back at my experiences with my old G4, I decided to apply some of those old optimizations to my new MacBook.

1. Clean Out Unnecessary Languages and Code
Apple is very considerate in providing language localizations for many, many languages. But the chances are you aren't using the Catalan, Farsi, or Klingon language localizations on your Mac. And even if you are, you can strip out the other ones you aren't using and gain more efficiency and drive space. You can take it even further. Most recent Mac software comes programmed for both PowerPC and Intel. My MacBook is Intel Core Duo 2. I don't need the optimization for both processors. So, I use Xslimmer. This little utility will determine which code your machine needs and removes the rest. This is achieved by removing the code inside the Universal Binaries that does not fit with your machine's architecture, a code that never gets executed and just wastes your disk space. And while it's at it, Xslimmer will remove any extra languages.

2. Clean Off Your Hard Drive
It doesn't matter how large your hard drive is - eventually it will begin to fill up. Whether it is a huge iPhoto library, some videos you're editing, or simply accumulation of lots of "stuff", a full hard drive can cause problems. You may not realize that Mac OS X (and the Classic Mac OS, too) uses the free space on your hard drive as "virtual memory", and it depends heavily on that virtual memory to run efficiently. If you're starting to feel sluggish, it may be because your drive is too full.

3. Run Cocktail
Whenever things get slow on my Mac, one of the "go to" solutions is to run a utility like Cocktail. There are several, many of them free; I've found OnyX and TinkerTool to be other good and popular options. These utilities offer a variety of "jobs" and "repairs" to the system, and while some are skeptical about how much this is necessary, my experience has been that they do bring a good level of optimization back to my G4. I tend to run the whole battery of tools - both the maintenance and the cleaning options.

Chili Cook-Off

2009-04-06T11:50:00.001-04:00

The annual office chili cook-off is today! Needless to say, I'm so excited at the prospect of eating all the chili that I can get my hands on. So what exactly is chili?

Photo taken by mcdonoughab

Chili, like Apple Pie, is an American icon. It's featured in cook-offs, in cookbooks, and on television (think Food Network). Most Americans love chili and most have their own favorite recipe.

Chili may have its roots in Spanish cuisine. Mexican cooking doesn’t claim it. Chili, as we know it, is not served in Mexico except for areas that cater to tourists. However, I do not think that anyone can deny that Spanish and Mexican cuisine had a profound influence on its development.

Chili has been known in America since the early 1800s, and possibly before then. It was originally a food for those who couldn’t afford good cuts of meat, or for the pioneers going west. They used dried beef, fat, salt and chile peppers together to form “chili bricks” which were then cooked out on the trail.

Since then, chuckwagon cooks, café owners and chefs all over the United States have worked to make a “perfect” bowl of chili. Even the basic ingredients in chili differ, depending on where one is standing in the U.S. Some basic ingredients include ground beef, tomatoes, chile powder, salt, pepper and paprika. However, in Texas, stew meat is frequently used for a “bowl of red” and plenty of cayenne pepper goes in the mix, as well. Texans also frown on chili with beans.

Anyway, I have noticed that restaurants always list Chili on their menus along with soup. Chili is not really soup. It is, in fact, a stew consisting of mainly meat and sauce of a viscous nature, with some onions and a few beans and spices thrown in.