travis johnson

Serenity comes out tonight. I will be going to see it tonight with Rachel at the only theater we have been able to find in town (actually, it is in the town across the highway).

7 Comments » Categories: Television

I watched the Oregon vs. USC game yesterday. I think everyone in town, except Rachel, was either at the game or watching it on TV. The whole day, everywhere we went, you could feel the excitement of the upcoming game against the number 1 team in the nation. I seriously think every single person in town was wearing at least one piece of U of O gear, many in excess five.

Since most people couldn’t have even watched the game on TV if they wanted to, I will give you my take on the game. First let me say that USC is amazing and I in no way think that Oregon could have or should have beaten USC. Reggie Bush has got to be the best player in college football. The game should have been closer, though, if it weren’t for awful officiating. In the second quarter the Ducks scored a touchdown only to have it taken away because of unsportsman-like conduct during the play. They thought one of the lineman punched an oncoming rusher as he broke free. Replay showed that wasn’t quite the case. Oregon was not able to recover from the 15 yard penalty and I think they went on to miss the field goal attempt on that drive, even.

In the third quarter, the officials missed an obvious block in the back that led to a USC touchdown. Of course, USC can move the ball better than any team in college football right now, so they probably would have scored anyway.

In the fourth quarter, the officiating took a turn for the even worse. Oregon made a great drive and eventually put the ball in the end zone on about a 10 yard run only to have it called back because of an illegal block. The block was bad and certainly should have been penalized, but it happened probably a full second after the ball carrier crossed the line for a touchdown. He had already thrown the ball on the ground and had his hands in the air celebrating before this illegal block was even committed. I don’t know my college football rules too well, but I think they should have tacked the 15 yard penalty onto the ensuing kick-off rather than take the touchdown away. Needless to say, Oregon couldn’t recover, again, from the 15 yard penalty.

In the end, it was 45 - 13, but should have been at least 45 - 27 (from events that actually happened) and you never know what the extra points would have done to the players and fans momentum. The crowd was so loud at the beginning of the game that they caused a few communication errors for USC which resulted in a couple of turnovers and penalties. As USC put up 21 points in the third quarter, the crowd fell silent.

I guess I don’t know why I just recapped the game. You could have gone to the espn site and read a professional recap that would have fact checked (for instance, I am not really sure which quarters the atrocities about actually occurred) and proof-read the article before publishing - I did neither. I just spent a few hours of my Saturday enjoying the game and felt like sharing my view.

5 Comments » Categories: Eugene, Sports

While on the subject of projects, last night I created a new lamblefamily.com website. The seeds for this project were planted months ago when I moved my site and later Rachel’s blog to a Wordpress system. Doing so, removed our posts from lamblefmaily. Two weeks ago I finally moved the rest of the lamblefamily bloggers over to Wordpress, as well. This meant that nothing was getting added to lamblefamily.

If interested in brief technical details, keep reading. I first created an XML-RPC server that is pinged as posts are published or updated. The XML-RPC server then verifies the ping and updates a list of all posts by members of lamblefamily.com. Other than then displaying the blog entries in order, there aren’t any other technical details.

If you interested interested in implementing this on your own, please contact me. I would be happy to share what I did and wrote in more details.

3 Comments » Categories: PHP, Programming

For a couple of years I have wanted to make a webpage that automatically tracked the score of the annual baseball bet my dad has with his friend Jerry. This morning I finally did the little project. I haven’t heard from my dad yet if the score is correct, but he did say that he was up by one point today. So check out the site.

2 Comments » Categories: Programming, Rails

I look back fondly on last year when it only took me three trips to the Missouri DMV to get our license plates. Last years trips were a mix of my fault for not knowing exactly what I needed and the DMV’s for just being confusing. This year is a different story. I went to the DMV this morning for the third time in as many weeks and left fuming mad. I don’t know if I have ever been so mad before in my life.

The story begins with us not having our title to our WRX since we still are making payments on the loan. The story gets confusing when I started to try and track down our title. I called Chase Manhattan (our lien holder) and inquired about our title. I don’t remember much of our conversation, but I do remember that the representative ended by saying that he was going to have Missouri send our title to us and then we could take it to the Oregon DMV. We even got a letter from Chase saying the title from Missouri should arrive any day. It didn’t. So I called the Missouri Department of Revenue and found out that they didn’t even have our title. It was still on request from the state of Kansas. So, our title is still in Kansas, no big deal, I will just call Kansas and see what I need to do to get the title to Oregon. The process to get the title to Oregon is almost too easy, but this is where I get mad.

Quick back story: When I got our plates in Missouri I only registered them for the year instead of two, since I thought there was a good chance we would be moving. Our plates expired on September 1st. Since we wouldn’t get our Oregon plates in time, we had to apply for a trip permit. They cost $20 and last for 21 days. The catch is that you can only get two. We are on the second day of our second trip permit. Time is now of the essence.

So, after talking to the Kansas DOR, I downloaded the form, filled out my part and took it to the Oregon DMV so they could fill out their part. Their part consisted of giving me the address of where they wanted the title sent. After explaining what I needed and being told ‘that isn’t how things are done here in Oregon’ I finally convinced the lady that actually is how things are done when getting a title from Kansas. Round one: Travis. Round two: Oregon DMV.

When on the phone with the Kansas DOR lady, she told me the fastest way to get the form back to them fully completed would be to fill out my part, have the Oregon DMV fill out their part, fax the form to Chase (my lien holder), and Chase would fax the form to Kansas. Please note the recurring ‘fax’ theme. The Oregon DMV would not fill out their part until Chase filled their part first. Why? I just needed their gorram address (and a signature of the representative that provides the address). They refused to fill out their part of the form because Chase hadn’t signed it yet. It wasn’t Oregon that was giving up the title, it was Kansas! I don’t know why Oregon cares if Chase approves my request or not. They are simply the recipient. That whole notion was lost on everyone that tried to ‘help’ me.

So instead of the flow of paperwork going from me to Oregon DMV to Chase to Kansas DOR to Oregon DMV it goes me to Chase to me to Oregon DMV to Oregon DMV in Salem (our capitol) to Kansas DOR to Oregon. And instead of zipping across the country via fax, every leg of the journey will be traveled via the postal service. Good chance we won’t be (legally) driving after October 12th.

4 Comments » Categories: Eugene, General

I wish I had ESPN right now so I could be watching the Chiefs vs. Raiders game. I have to ‘watch’ it on espn.com. Wish less than 2 minutes, the Raiders have the ball on the Chiefs 10…

The page updated and the Chiefs got the ball back. Chiefs win!

On a related note, being out here in Oregon has left me with plenty of options when it comes to sports teams to root for, just none of them local. I’ve had some time since moving here to think about which teams I plan on rooting for and when I get a little bit more time will share my list of teams. We’re off to get some ice cream!

6 Comments » Categories: Kansas City, Sports

I am a procrastinator. Well, not exactly a procrastinator, but I have more fun starting something new than finishing what I am currently on. It is why I am currently reading three books. It is why I made Track My Links when I should have finished Swap-bot (don’t worry - it is done now). I want to start something so bad and I don’t have enough time to finish what I should.

A few months ago I made a wordpress plugin for Rachel to display her The Things I Want list. Well, the creator of TTIW, Emiliano Martínez Luque (he lives in Argentina), contacted me and really wanted me to make the plugin public. I said I would, and believe it or not, I haven’t done it until right now. Of course, completing this plugin didn’t come without starting something else first. Today while at Home Depot, I realized that I could achieve the same sort of thing as the wordpress plugin using Javascript. So, rather than complete the plugin, I wrote some javascript for Emilliano that might work out pretty well. I am going to send it to him and let him get it all in order.

Actually, I should be finishing those things instead of posting…

No Comments » Categories: PHP, Programming, Rails

I am looking forward to the rest of September. There are so many great things that will happen in the next few weeks. Here’s a rundown:

• Arrested Development Season premiere is on tomorrow at 8/7c.
• There are two Monday Night Football games tomorrow starting at 4:30 for us out here in the Pacific time zone.
• CSI:Miami Season premiere also tomorrow night! And many other great shows start this week, too.
• Then, a week from this Tuesday, Ryan Adams and the Cardinals’ release their latest musical offering, Jacksonville City Nights. That’s the 27th, by the way.
• Finally (and most highly anticipated), Serenity hits the big screen on Friday the 30th. I got a mite hooked on Firefly (the television series that spawned Serenity) this summer thanks to Seth. I read the Serenity book, which is based on the movie screenplay last week and that only made me even more excited to see this movie.
• I guess I should also mention that the success of Swap-bot has me pretty happy this month. As of right now, we have 23 people signed up for the first swap and I have been finding various complimentary references to swap-bot all over the net.

And if all that isn’t enough, while at the library yesterday, I was passing by the new book section and saw Steven Turner’s new Johnny Cash biography, The Man Called Cash. I am only 30 pages in, but it is pretty enjoyable.

1 Comment » Categories: Music, Television

Rachel tagged me.

Here are the rules for this meme:

1. Go into your archive.
2. Find your 23rd post (or closest to).
3. Find the fifth sentence (or closest to).
4. Post the text of the sentence in your blog along with these instructions.
5. Tag five people to do the same.

Be sure not to miss him when he comes soon to a town near you.

I can’t think of anyone to pass this along to, so if you are interested in carrying this on, let me know in these comments.

2 Comments » Categories: General

My first week of work went really well, and since the request was made, I will share the details. My job as a web programmer started on Monday. I am working for Right Media out of the Eugene office. The company is headquartered in New York, with the majority of the company located there. I have a 5-7 minute commute depending on which direction I am going and the time of day. Since Rachel hasn’t started classes, I have been able to come home and have lunch with her a few times. As I write this, I realize that I don’t have too many details to share. I am getting integrated into the development system pretty quickly, I think. I am already writing code that will be used in production by the end of this month or maybe next month.

I am really having a fun time at work and enjoy the people I work with. Sorry for the lack of ‘highlights’, but I can’t think of anything too great. I think my biggest highlight of the week was actually getting Swap-bot working and tested. We already have 19 people signed up for the initial Postcard Swap.

5 Comments » Categories: General, Programming, Rails