Microsoft Visual Studio Express

   A few days ago, a guy walked into our office at Famous Davis, interested in potentially becoming a part of the programming world. He wasn't sure where to begin. He has never touched a line of code, tested software or answer calls for a support line. He didn't know the potential in the field or if it's even worth a shot. I was impressed that someone with no prior experience in computers beyond normal use would be interested in such a field. Yet, he is looking for something new to try for a line of work as his current field is something that he wants to make a closed chapter in his life.
 
Microsoft Visual Studio Express   After a quick talk with my Dad on what is available in the wonderful profession of software development, he was on his way. I told him I would check into a few resources to get him start in Microsoft development. I knew Microsoft had a good deal of resources and a free version of Visual Studio, but what I had not realised is exactly how much they offer beginners. Complete beginners at that. I managed to find their Beginner Developer Learning Center, which has everything needed to start coding, even with no prior coding experience. I've always been a Microsoft Fanboy, but this is absolutely amazing to me! I understand behind the scenes it means if Microsoft can get more developers, it means more money for them in the end. I'm quite alright with that. Microsoft treats their developers great and I'm very pleased to witness that they bend over backwards to help see that a man with no experience can potentially start a new career.

Tags: Technology, Microsoft, Work

posted at 1/31/2008 Open this article in a new window.


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Famous Davis Open House

Minnwest Technology Campus Front Doors   Good afternoon my beloved readers! I'd like to take a minute to invite you to the official Famous Open House which will be taken place tomorrow, January 29th, from 3:00-6:00pm at the MinnWest Technology Campus. You will get to see me wearing a tie as well as a bit of what I do at my job. It will be a lot of fun and the coffee will be home roasted by yours truly. We are looking forward to seeing you there!
 
 
 

Tags: MinnWest, Work, Open House

posted at 1/28/2008 Open this article in a new window.


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The Eglu

Here is another great example of Organic/Go Green activists gone wrong. The Eglu made by Omlet USA. My friend Carl showed me this bizarre housing for chickens a couple weeks ago. I thought I'd share my take on it.

EgluFirst of all, I'm just going to throw this out there, the Eglu is a grand total of $665.00, shipped with love, straight from Omlet USA. Don't get me wrong, click around demo on their website about it, it's a real slick chicken house. It's easy to clean and retrieve eggs... But I absolutely cannot get over the steep price. Convieniently, you can also buy chickens, which if you do, they suggest you buy their 50lb bag of Organic feed. My jaw dropped when I saw the additional price tag on these. I added three chickens, since that should tide a small family over for the week and have a few left over for neighbors. I come to find that they are charging $10.00 per chicken!!!!! Holy Mackerel!!! If you must know, the 50lb bag of feed was a whopping $50, not to mention the additional 50lb shipping charge. Grand total for chicken operation: a staggering $811.00.

If you don't find that steep for roughly 18-21 eggs a week, then I'd like for you to sit through a short math lesson. The night before, I bought 18 eggs for 2.08. Rounded up, that is $0.12 an egg. Definitely more than I'd like to spend on store eggs, but that's besides the point. Lets say I totally love eggs (and I do) and end up buying 18 eggs a week for a year, with no egg price fluctuation, for 52 weeks, I am going to spend $108.16 on eggs in a year.


$108.16 is my number. Now lets do the math on Eglu. Up front, you are spending 811.00 on the whole kit and caboodle, chickens and all. It'll take roughly 4-5 months for a chicken to start laying eggs (if they were purchased as chicks.) and will have about a year of prime egg laying in them before they get the axe. So while waiting for them to become of age, you will probably end up buying $40 worth of eggs from the store. Also, you will need another bag or two of feed for the year (we'll say you wised up and started buying 50lb bags from a farm store for $12 each). 811.00 (eglu) + $40.00 (eggs) + $24.00 (chicken feed) equals a whopping $875 for a Chicken operation. This equals roughly $.93 an egg or $11.16 a dozen. This is a modest guesstimate.

Don't get me wrong, I do understand the fun, enjoyment and satisfaction of running your own egg operation. I have raised chickens before and I am going to give it a shot again this spring. However, there are much more cost effective ways of doing so, and it requires a little handy-work and time compared to the Eglu. I am betting I will be able to house 3-4 chickens for about $50. From there, I will be paying $1.25 for the same chickens eglu offers and I will be buying feed for $12.00 a bag.

I believe this is what happens to the customers of Omlet USA. They are the same people that fall for the organic trap as well as the Go Green trap. It's something you buy to prevent eating the fertilized sludge in the grocery store and something you buy to reduce the use of containers and reduce consumption of oh so precious petroleum. The eglu is a status symbol to let people know that you are more conscientious about mother earth than anyone else. It's flashy, sterile, green, organic, attractive and eye catching so that people will notice it. If raising chickens was truly the primary objective, these people would allow themselves to realise they can run the same egg operation for as little as $100 total. Unfortunately, the cheaper route will not be noticed nearly as much and it wouldn't be cute enough to house their farm animals.

That's my beef... or egg.

Tags: Chicken, Consumerism, Hobby Farm, DIY, Urban Farming

posted at 1/24/2008 Open this article in a new window.


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Board Game - Ticket to Ride

Ticket to Ride   What's more fun than a game which is themed entirely around Trains, right? I just purchased Ticket to Ride last week for half-price at a kiosk in the Kandi Mall. At first you think, "Ehhh... Kiosk? Half price? The game certainly must suck."
Uhhhh, heck no, man.
 
   Ticket to Ride isn't rated #44 best game on BoardGameGeek.com for no reason at all. This game is easy to pick up, fast paced, yet can get downright competitive by the end of the game. Also, this wonderful game lasts an hour tops. So far, Jacinda and I have played this game five consecutive nights in a row and we are not the least bit tired of this masterpiece.
 
Ticket to Ride in game.   Here's a quick run-down as to what goes down. Each player recieves destinations they are supposed to connect on a board which resembles the United States (Say, New York to Los Angeles). They connect these destinations by simply drawing train car cards until they have the same color and amount of cars necessary to finish a rail from one city to another. Kicker is, you can choose to either draw cards or lay rails. So the whole time you are squirmy in your seat because someone may take the line you had your eyes on.
 
   No, this is not a paid blog. I just love this game so much.

Tags: Ticket to Ride, Board Games

posted at 1/18/2008 Open this article in a new window.


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Comments Work Again

Alert!!!!!!! I effed up my comments a while back. Looks like they work again. Maybe now people will comment! Or not!

posted at 1/16/2008 Open this article in a new window.


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Gardening for the New Year

   Ahhhh, It's hit me, I can't wait for spring! Don't get me wrong, winter is great and I enjoy the snow and the cold quite a bit (alright, this negative zero stuff could go away.) Sledding is a blast, the trees are beautiful when frosted over, I even gave ice skating a try, it was wonderful and I'm planning on doing a bit more of it this year. I'm also wanting to give snowboarding another shot. As charming as winter is, however, it does not halt my desire to maintain my garden. I'm going to safely say that having a garden is my favourite part of our warm weather seasons. What the hey, you give it care and it turns around and gives you food! Excellent!
 
Gardening
   We are going to build onto our operation this year, I believe. As of right now, we have a couple pots and one raised garden bed. We were able to produce incredible amounts of food from this single 4x8 box. Pounds each of tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and lettuce. This year, I would like to make at least two more garden beds and perhaps a sort of raised herb shelf thing which will hold pots of herbs. It should be pretty fancy. We made just a little bit of basil pesto this year and would like to see that turn into jars.
 
   Also, I would really like to try and preserve a lot more food this year. Last year I canned about fourteen jars of pickles, and despite having a bounty of pears, I failed to do anything with them due to landscaping, road trip and other things. This year, I would like to can more pickles, relish, tomatoes, peppers, salsa and jams for starters, freeze a good amount of spinach and try my hand at drying a few things while I'm at it. I'd like to see Jacinda and I stocked up for winter.
 
   As of right now, I believe we will support the basics in our garden, tomatoes, green peppers, lettuce, spinach and cucumbers along with basil, oregano, chamomile and other herbs. If you have any suggestions as to what we should plant, no matter how much fun, practical, difficult or tasty it is, I would love to hear from you!

Tags: Gardening, DIY, Urban Farming

posted at 1/15/2008 Open this article in a new window.


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City Chickens

Chicken
   Since my family moved back to Willmar eight years ago, I've been exposed to the wonderful life of maintaining a hobby farm. Sure, at the time it was quite bittersweet, I was in my teen years, so of course I was at times a little resentful having to do a decent amount of the chores with the sole payback of being able to eat a healthy proportion of eggs and poultry. Unlike most kids, however, I oftenly enjoyed the time I had with the animals as well as watching them grow to become tasty tasty meat. Alas, I am now twenty-two, my parents no longer live in the boonies and I seemed to have rooted myself, along with my wife, in middle of town. No more farm fresh eggs or poultry for this guy.
 
   A year ago, just to make sure, I double-checked our city's laws on keeping livestock, poultry and other farm animals within the city. I was a little suprised to see that our town isn't necessarily against raising chickens in town, per-say, for as long as they find favor in you. Meaning you must apply for a permit (cha-ching) and pass their inspection (cha-ching)[1]. I haven't applied for this yet. 100% of me wants to, though I feel my fate is totally at the hands of whoever issues the permit and whoever is going to be inspecting my property. I'm quite positive, based on the fact that I haven't seen anyone else raise poultry in town, that I will be denied. I could be wrong, however.
 
   So what respawns my interest in raising chicken in town today? This has been an on going idea of mine since a pro-Urban Chicken group started in Duluth back in November. They share similar views on the subject with  me: Chickens are cleaner than most other pets, they aren't loud, they are natural, they are far less suseptable to salmonella and other diseases carried by birds and they prove to aid a self-sufficient lifestyle (as well as fits some interpretations of "Going Green"). Cities such as Seattle and New York allow Urban Chickens, so why can't a city the size of Willmar do so as well?
 
[1] Municode Willmar, Mn Sec. 4-1. Keeping of livestock, fowl or swine.

Tags: Chicken, Consumerism, The Law, Urban Farming, DIY

posted at 1/14/2008 Open this article in a new window.


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Getting Closer

   Ahhh, make it end already! I am so close do wrapping up my color belt training in Tae Kwon Do! It sounds like my test for first degree black belt may be at the end of Feburary. I'm not really complaining since that gives me more time to get my act together. However, I wish I had been a little more dilligent in December with it. I could have been done with it by now. I'm relatively anxious and getting quite sick of looking at all the material. Don''t get me wrong, I love TKD, but I'd love it more if I could just get myself to wrap this one test up. I went in to the gym today for a brief period of time to review some of my material. I feel pretty well about the beginner stuff and I am on orders to not look at anything else but beginner until Monday. I can't complain about the blinders one bit. Also, since when did I get out of breath so easily at Tae Kwon Do? Wow, Christmas Break took a lot out of me! Time to start excersizing.

Tags: Tae Kwon Do, Test, Black Belt

posted at 1/10/2008 Open this article in a new window.


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Long Days

Oof, I didn't get done with work until 12:30am last night. That's 16.5 hours straight of work. I'm hoping the project I've been working on gets settled really soon. I feel my brain is about to explode from being inside the computer's mind for too long.

Tags: Work

posted at 1/8/2008 Open this article in a new window.


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First Anniversary and the Cities

   Good morning Life, universe, and everything. Welp, it was quite a fun weekend. As a few of you know, Jacinda, Aaron and I buzzed up to the cities for Saturday to see some friends and participate in Party and Mike's 4. I had a hollow victory in a seven player Magic battle (as in, the game went too long), ate too much and finally got to give Halo 3 a try, which depending on the level, I totally rocked at.

   One of the main reasons we went to the cities was to pick up a darkroom kit, which included just about all the tools needed as well as two enlargers, which I am very excited about learning how to use. I believe, from my limited amount of studying the topic, we got quite a deal on it. The star item was the Saunders LPL enlarger, which I believe only works with 35mm film (Color and B&W). Jacinda and I like taking a lot of Medium format pics, which the other antique dinosaur enlarger (name escapes me) will do in black and white. I'll get back on this subject when we give them a shot. Cross-processing here we come.

   I'm also really excited to say that it was mine and Jacinda's first anniversary yesterday! The past year definitely went by fast. We have grown a lot together. Our wedding cake was less desirable than our marriage, which is probably a good thing.

Tags: Jacinda, Party at Mikes, Photography

posted at 1/7/2008 Open this article in a new window.


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Cities Ho!

   Hello my lovely interwebbivilians! Today should be a pretty fun day. I'm wearing a T-shirt and Jeans at work, which usually means something funnnn is gonna happen! Todays fun will consist of Party at Mike's FIVE. That's right, people. FIVE. Number five since August 1st, 2006. Our trip should include Village Wok, Medditeranean Market, Gaming with Jesse and Sarah, picking up a darkroom kit and playing Rook. I know, it seems like a TON of stuff, but it will be done!

  Also, I would like to say hello to everyone who will be reading this blog from Blog365. I'm going to try and write as many blogs possible this year, one a day, ideally. We'll see how that works, however. BTW, I already beat Blog365's system, as this year is a leap year, so it should actually be called Blog366.

http://blog365.ning.com/profile/NickDavis

Good day!

Tags: Blog, Party at Mikes, Photography

posted at 1/4/2008 Open this article in a new window.


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2008 is Great

Hey hey hey, it's Two Thousand and Eight! Isn't that nice? I believe I will start off the blogging year with a list. Yes, a good ol' fashioned "Nick's been lazy" list. This will cap off what happened in Two Thousand and Seven, and perhaps I will even give you a sneak peak into what I believe will be my Two Thousand and Eight! Commence!

  1. Despite popular belief that I could ever marry, I did in fact, get married to the wonderful and beautiful Jacinda Doll. Biggest change in '07.
  2. I took a commercial flight for the first time in my life.
  3. I went to Chicago for the first time in my life.
  4. Fixed my roof (with a lot of assistance). Leak free!
  5. Cooked Roughly 400 meals.
  6. Mafesta finally bit the bullet.
  7. Attended Party at Mike's Two and Three.
  8. Tore up my front lawn and put it together again (for the most part).
  9. Built a raised garden bed and proceeded to grow quite a harvest out of it.
  10. Developed a strong Website Content Management System.
  11. Taught myself how to give my cars moderate tune-ups.
  12. Tried Squid. And enjoyed it thoroughly.
  13. Fixed various plumbing and hated every minute of it.
  14. Canned about fifteen jars of Pickles.
  15. Butchered my chickens.
  16. Started roasting coffee by the pound.
  17. Achieved Red Belt status in Tae Kwon Do.
  18. Placed first in board breaking at the Tae Kwon Do Marshall spring tournament.
  19. Made a decent amount on freelance work in the first half of the year (in order to pay off The Man).
  20. Got Whiplash
  21. Enjoyed a trip to the West. Colorado and Utah to be precise.
  22. Quit my job at E-Markets and started working at Famous Davis. Definitely one of the bigger leaps in '07.
  23. Took some pics, posted some blogs, etc etc.
  24. Gained 10lbs.

   That's the major notable events, really. As a person, I believe I have changed a good amount. I came into '07 with intention of "taking a break" from trial. which looking back is relatively selfish and quite laughable. Those who knew me in '06, I was very much into getting stuff in line, which strained a lot of relationships and was definitely not good for the ol' morale on my end of things. I was able to raise the money needed for our wedding and I got a good start in debachelorizing my house.

   So really, it only made sense to me at the turn of the year ('07, mind you) that I would just "take a break". Like I expected life to stop for me to take a breather. Shyeah right. Instead, God opened my eyes with a nice stack of things to do. Needless to say, I'm pleased with what was accomplished in 2007, and I'm very excited to see what 2008 holds in store for my wife and I. No resolutions here, just doing.

Tags: List, 2007

posted at 1/2/2008 Open this article in a new window.


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