Lewies Blog

Stick People Dancing,
originally uploaded by lewismoten.

I draw a lot of stuff at home, work, and just about anywhere. Come and take a look at my doodles on flickr!

Lewie and Angel,
originally uploaded by lewismoten.

Angel got me a tripod for Yule this year and this is the first photo from it. Everything is crisp and clear. No more worries about the camera shaking when taking a picture. Now we don’t need an extra person to hold the camera.

I used to have a job where I worked at night. I would go to different farm houses and look up at the stars and the moon. This was around that time when the HalBop comet was around, so I had a clear view of it all.

On one night, I looked up and saw an awe inspiring sight. The moon had shown in such a way that a large ring of light could be seen encircling it. I immediately thought “Moon Halo”. Googling Moon Halo shows that many people coined the same term. Some of those pictures are amazing.

Since that day, I have looked up more often at the night sky hoping that I would see it again. About eight years have passed and tonight I saw it. It wasn’t as strong, but it was still there. I also tried to take a picture of it, but my camera didn’t do to well focusing on the moon.

I have found out within the past few days that the code in source safe does not match the code in our database. This has been causing a lot of problems. Bugs that were fixed long ago are popping up again. I usually don’t look at the database code when fixing bugs. I go strait to my IDE environment that has Visual SourceSafe integration and lets me work on the database.

I’ve been comparing code in VSS between two different branches and do not see any differences. Why then does one branch work appropriately, and the other breaks? VSS is not in synch with the databases that we are using.

Let me give you guys a tip. If you (or someone you know) works on a database that is under source control - make sure that you work within an IDE that has VSS integration. Query Analyzer would not be one such application. A past co-worker appears to have disliked the teams preferences for Visual Studio and I am suffering for it.

Ok, this is cool. I didn’t know where a particular Bichon Frise Breeder was located in Virginia, but I had a phone number. So I typed the phone number into Google just for kicks and it came back with an address. It also linked me to a map on Yahoo! Maps and MapQuest. It looks like it would take six and a half hours to reach this place. Ack! Well, if the price is rite, then I’ll certainly go the distance. It’s better then spending the standard $200 to have it shipped.

Hello, I saw your ad for Bichon Frise puppies on:

http://www.puppydogweb.com/caninebreeds/ads/bichon.htm

This is what I saw:

Beautiful, healthy, excellent quality puppies. Occasional litters. Home-raised that are well-socialized. Some are tiny. Vet-checked. 1 year health guarantee pawsall4u@mail.com, 276-762-0431.

Club Affiliations and Registries: CKC

I am primarily contacting you because you are in the same state as I am. I would like to know if you have any Male puppies, or when the next litter would be ready (about 9 weeks old I think?) that may have a Male. Also, I did not see a website or a price.

I’m looking for a puppy for my home (mainly my wife) and not for show. I have other pets (cats) and I hear that the Bichon Frise is not only adorable, but would get along with other pets. Can you confirm if this is true? I also hear that they do not shed, or that they don’t shed as much. My nephew (11) and niece (3 1/2) come over almost every weekend and my concerns are how well the puppy will get along with them and strangers in general.

Are they mainly outdoor or indoor puppies, or does it not matter? My plan is to keep him inside most of the time with us, but I have a large back yard and a quiet neighborhood. Are these puppies good for going out on walks with?

One final concern is maintenance. In my research, I have seen that there is low maintenance. However, the hair looks puffy, curly, and very fine. I’m worried about the hair matting up and getting into knots. Is this a problem where I need to regularly get a professional to groom them, and if so, how often?

I guess you can tell that I’m a little new to being a dog owner. It is just that I am trying to find out what I’m getting into before I invest into something that will be with me for a long time. I’m doing my best to find a few things on the Internet as you can tell. My wife is more of the dog person and has been begging me for a canine companion for a while now. If you do have a Male available, I would like to come and visit sometime to take a look. Can you let me know what area of Virginia you are located? I’m up north in Woodbridge in Prince William County.

I found a cool link (World of Froud) to some artwork that was kind of like Lisa’s stuff. I shot an email to her to check it out and she said that he was the guy who made the puppets in Dark Crystal and Labyrinth.

I love those movies. I have the DVD for Dark Crystal, and a video tape for Labyrinth. I also have the sound track to Labyrinth.

A few years ago when I was attending the Art Institute in Pittsburgh, some of the puppets from those movies were on display at the Children’s Art Museum nearby. I took a few photos, but this one is the best one:

I dreamt of reading a book where this guy sold designer curtains. I went to his house, but it was empty except for the curtains on all of the windows. The house was more of an art gallery for the curtains so people could see them. The only problem was that the curtains were really simple and basic. Something you would buy at Wal-Mart.

Then, there were blankets over areas to the side that we were not supposed to look behind. My wife looked behind one and three kids were back there. Everywhere we looked, there were more kids behind the blankets. Finally the guy showed up with a big bowl of cereal and I had the feeling that I was in deep trouble for finding out something I shouldn’t have known.

I can’t make heads or tales out of this one, except that I’ve been having the need for curtains (or something) to insulate my windows so that the heat doesn’t escape. I don’t know what the kids mean.

Ok, rite now there is a lot of commotion in the house over a new pet. Being a pet owner with nine cats in the house apparently doesn’t let me put my foot down on this issue. Neither does my past experiences with dogs. There are a few more points, but let’s just keep it at that.

Anyway, I’m searching for information about dogs that may be appropriate for this house. I found a quiz that let me answer a few questions and came up with breeds that are most likely suitable for my preferences. Of course, these may be something totally different then what they want, but just for the fun of it, I’m going to post them here so that I can look back on them at a later time. First - my answers to the quiz:

1. Size: Tiny: 5 to 12 lbs.

2. Coat: Texture:Soft, Type: no preference, Length: no preference

3. Grooming: Strongly prefer easy, low-maintenance

4. Shedding: strongly prefer a dog that does not shed or sheds minimally

5. Allergies: no preference

6. Activity Level: Strongly prefer calm demeanor

7. Intelligence: no preference

8. Trainability: no preference

9. Pet tolerant: strongly preferred

10. Stranger tolerant: strongly preferred

11. Kid appropriate: kids 4 years and older (exclude any dog not appropriate for kids)

12. Social or independent: no preference

13. Quiet/Watch dog: strongly prefer quiet dog

14. Guard Dog: no preference

15. Biters: avoid all dogs that are more likely to be aggressive

And these are the scores for what breeds are best for me.

100 Bichon Frise

94 Border Terrier

94 Whippet

87 Poodle (toy)

84 Fox Terrier (Wire)

83 Beagle

82 Bulldog

78 Labrador Retriever

78 Pug

77 Manchester Terrier (terrier)

76 Dachshund

76 Havanese

75 Welsh Terrier

73 Brittany Spaniel

73 Lhasa Apso

71 Fox Terrier (Smooth)

71 Pharaoh Hound

67 Boston Terrier

66 Miniature Pinscher

66 Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier

63 Bloodhound

63 English Cocker Spaniel

63 Wirehaired Pointing Griffon

62 Golden Retriever

62 Schipperke

60 Cocker Spaniel

60 Irish Terrier

58 Australian Terrier

58 Flat-Coated Retriever

58 American Water Spaniel

57 Chesapeake Bay Retriever

56 Lakeland Terrier

55 Cairn Terrier

55 Irish Setter

55 Siberian Husky

54 Irish Water Spaniel

53 Sealyham Terrier

53 Borzoi

53 Keeshond

53 Welsh Springer Spaniel

51 English Setter

51 Clumber Spaniel

51 Giant Schnauzer

49 English Springer Spaniel

48 Airedale Terrier

47 Newfoundland

46 Field Spaniel

46 Otterhound

46 Sussex Spaniel

46 Samoyed

44 Norwegian Elkhound

38 Mastiff

37 Gordon Setter

37 Scottish Deerhound

35 Great Dane

My bad. It turns out that the authentication with the blogger API was not the part that was giving me problems. Apparently, I was still running into the “x” removal problem because they changed the “type” attribute values.

Well, this fixed things all up and my atom client was up and running once more. I was able to parse through an old XML file containing all the data from my old scripts and post individual code entries to a new blog of mine, Lewies Code. Wow, this is so grand. Now it is easier to find all of my code online!