New Site

10-29-2008

I was looking through the stats on this site the other ( musing to myself about how little traffic it gets, mostly), when I noticed that quite a few people are still coming to this page. I switched to using a WordPress driven blog format a while back, and I guess I never put a link to the new website on here.

So, if you are looking for any new content within the last year, please visit http://michaelrunyon.com/index.php.

First Week of December

12-03-2007

First snow of the year happened on Saturday, and it was a nasty one. We started noticing flurries around 3:30 on Saturday while we were cleaning house, and shortly thereafter, it accumulated a near inch in the next half-hour. So, naturally, we bundled up the dog in his new eskimo coat (clearly, not a purchase that I made) and sent him out to his first snow. He ran around like a banshee for about 5 minutes, then proceeded to mark his territory on any surface that smelled of any other dog (including, apparently, Leah's tire...).

He was pretty cute. But he got cold and so we took him inside, after trying for 5 minutes to get him to hold still for a picture. I will/have posted the pictures to Picasa.

Speaking of Picasa, I have put up the pictures from our time in Fresno and San Francisco/San Jose up on Picasa, as well. If you don't remember the link, go to "Pictures" on the menu, and there is a handy link there. Some great sights in San Fran got squeezed into 4 hours, and we paid for our hustling with sore feet and backs later, but it was fun! The warm weather and the proximity to family was very much enjoyable as well.

Miss you all, and hope that you are enjoying your respective winter locations. Except for Julie and Marlon, who are in San Diego. They can enjoy their warm weather. Speaking of Julie... I have a funny story to tell.

My phone rings 2:48 on Saturday afternoon. I walk into the office, see that it is Julie, scratch my head for a second and then answer.
Me - "Hello?"
Julie - "We're here!"
Me - "You're where?"
...Long Pause...
(I remember that Michael, the photographer lives in San Diego and Julie and Marlon were headed there on their honeymoon)
Me - "Did you mean to call Michael, the photographer?"
Julie - "Yes..who is this?"
Me - "This is Michael...your brother?"
Julie - "Oohh....hi? We're on our honeymoon in San Diego. I mean to call Michael (I forgot his last name)"
Me - "Figured. Have a good time!"
Julie - "Ok, sorry, talk to you later"

She didn't recognize my voice or that she called the wrong person until I told her who I was. I thought that was pretty funny, and so did Dad when I told him.
Anyway, have a happy holiday season all of you.

-Michael

Gift Registry 2007

11-21-2007

Leah and I depart for California today. 8:20 out of O'Hare, non-stop to San Francisco. I'm exicted, if for no other reason than to get away from work for a few days. I like my job, but I have been absolutely swamped the last few months.

I have opened up the gift registry again for this year, although it's been nearly 2 weeks now since that happened. I have also offered the use of the site to Leah's family for their gift registry needs.Some bugs here and there that need worked out. Actually, the whole site is pretty shoddy in the way of coding and design. I apparently didn't know how to do joins and the like when I first did it. There are some queries and such that are quite redundant, but as long as it's still working OK, I think most are happy.

Well, I am heading out for now -Michael

Website Updates and House Photos

03-14-2007

As many of you who have made your way here have already discovered, I have fallen out of the habit of updating this website, to say the least (it's been almost an entire year since the last regular update). I pledge to try and write at least a little bit once a week about what's going on, post some pictures, etc. I will also try to write a little about some of the nifty code that I have been writing lately. I know that some of the things that I have found out lately would/will be helpful to other people, and I will be nice to try and "give back".

I have been publishing pictures on Picasa as of late, as it dynamically imports pictures, generates thumbnails, hosts them, allows comments, and a host of other nice features. So I am planning on creating a re-direct link on pictures to my Picasa webspace.

If you'd like to see pictures of the house that Leah and I closed on this weekend, here's the Picasa link: http://picasaweb.google.com/mrunyon/HousePicturesInitial

Thanks to all who read this, and my apologies if you have. More content is coming soon.
-Michael

Register Updates and Photos

10-19-2006

I have released this year's version of the Runyon Gift Register, so feel free to start doing your business whenever you like. It's still quite a ways until Christmas, though.
Bethany and others have expressed interest in the past about setting up a family photo and comment section of the website. I'm going to work on this coming up soon, and see what people have to say about the end product.

Wedding Updates

10-19-2006

After much prodding from Leah, the wedding page is finally up, with information on it about the various aspects of our wedding.

SBC Outages

7-24-2006

Puzzlement arose today, as the internet connection at the office fluctuated greatly between high latency and out and out termination. Rebooting the modem did no good, as we could still get to parts of the net very quickly, but totally cut off from others. A quick trip to handy-dandy Internet Health Report showed that SBC and Cogent had extremely high latency between each other's networks. Seeing as how our main datacenter is hosted on a Cogent bandwidth-provided line, and we are on a SBC provided Business DSL line...you can do the math.

Certain persons will remember the squabbles between Cogent and Level3 a while back about ultrapeering between each other's networks, that caused days-long outages between the 2 networks, removing access from schools, businesses, and the like. Hopefully, the news will be soon be able to tell the difference between these petty squabbles between giants, and the real story of what's keeping me from my work.

Back Again!

7-18-2006

Ok folks, I was gone for quite some time this time. Judging by how small the weblogs for this particular corner of the Internet are, I'm guessing that not too many of you are broken up about it.

I have added some pages and information about the various new aspects of my life (however mundane), including stuff about the wedding, new coding projects, some new pictures, and hopefully a whole bunch more. I'll be back in a couple of days, complete with a brand new toy to show off in the technology section.

Slashdot: Frist Psot!

3-6-2006

On Friday, yours truly got his first ever "first post" on Slashdot. Too Bad that I didn't actually read the article, and made a stupid comment that got modded as -1 Troll. Oh well....frist psot's never really seem to go that well.

I got a couple calls from Leah, briefly, from Rome/Tuscany. She has lesser access to a phone than she originally thought, so she will only get to call me briefly maybe once a day ( a minute or two). I really miss that girl...

Italy Jealousy, Meet California Envy

2-27-06

The 2nd to last day of February, and I'm not sad to see it go. This has been an odd weather month, an odd schoolwork month, and if for no other reason, that makes it one month closer to spring break, and the summer.

So, over the course of the last few months, I've been growing with my jealousy over Leah's trip to Italy. I'm quite convinced that I will never leave this country, and I have always wanted to visit Europe, especially Rome and the Vatican (not because I'm Catholic, because they house some of the world's greatest treasures). So, as of yesterday, I have made plans to visit my older sister Julie in beautiful Fresno California (the hottest city in california, the T-shirt that I am wearing proudly proclaims). I make light of my previous sentiments and I am truly happy for Leah that she has the wonderful opportunity to attend another culture and see yet another part of the world. I am glad to be visting Julie as well, for I have yet to visit California, while some of my other family members have been out there numerous times (and frankly, I'm starting to feel left out).

So yes, that is all for now. Two tests in both of my math classes tommorow, but I'm not really that worried (Obviously evidenced by the fact that it is the night before at 1:49 AM and I'm still here, coding away). Goodnight and God bless to all. I hope that this note finds you well.

Valentine's Day Masterpiece Theater

2-14-06

My goodness...it's been 2 weeks since my last post. I need to do better about writing more stuff on here. People might start to think that I don't have a life (which is sadly the truth, but nobody has to know that).

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone, especially Leah (my snugglemuffin...Yes, everyone retract your fingers from your throat). Props to the parents for sending me lots of candy and stuff to make myself fat with. School is going well, got mostly A's on my tests from last week, but still far too many entirely full days, with classes and work and homework until bedtime. I'm far too lazy a person to make a habit out of this.

Hopefully some new pages going up soon. I'm going to devote a page to my various programming projects, one to the Leah and our wedding plans, and perhaps one to random technological events in my life. Until then, though....

Gematria and Other Nonsense

1-30-06

As many of you well know, I am quite into trivia and knowledge in general. I spent large quantities of time reading Wikipedia, filling my head up with facts that I will probably never regurgitate again (although, again, many of you know that I certainly make a go of it). Anyway...I came across an interesting article the other day about Gematria. It was developed by Ivan Panin, and is a method of determining the good or evil of a particular passage of text. Interestingly enough, I came across a website that crawls your site's text and posts a score. (These are the images you see at the top of the post). It goes from the Finnish alphabet, looks for "divine" combinations such as 7 and 3, and all other sorts of things like that. Fun stuff, and humorous as well.

I am trying my best to post more stuff. I am also trying to come up with a couple more pages. Leah thinks I should make a page about the minutia detailia that our wedding plans have thus far accrued. Also starring in upcoming pages are Linux, Zaurus, and other sorts of Technology. I also got my hands on some pictures from Leah's camera from a few weeks ago...some of them might make their way into a picture post.

Ooh! Before I forget...When out this weekend, Leah and I ran across a used bookstore that was going out of business. Yes, those volatile combinations led to prices of $2 per paperback and $4 per hardcover. I ran around the store, dropping books, adding books...finally I got Leah to leave before I spent too much money. Needless to say, I bought like $150 of books for $12. I love books, and good deals like that. (There were even a couple O'Reilly Java books in there).

EDIT: Apparently, adding this post (and probably this edit, too) changed my evil/good ratings on the Gematriculator. Don't get technical, just laugh.

Ebay and the New Semester

Sigh...So the new semester has started, with all it's glory. I'm going to be quite busy this semester, as my schedule will quickly tell you. Both of my required math classes, an evening electronics class and lab, working for 12 hours a week, etc, etc. But I can't complain, this is what it takes to get out of here by next spring. Leah and marriage are just that much closer.

On a more positive note, Leah and I have recently discovered the joy of selling stuff on eBay. I hate to jinx it by telling others, but the story is just too good to pass up. We scrounged around her house on Sunday for stuff to sell, setup an account, and immediately sold her old phone for $45. Whoa!. The NEXT DAY, frustrated with the illegality of my calculator (TI-89) at this particular academic establishment, I listed it on eBay. Someone bought it within an hour for $70! I was elated. Then, to keep up the streak of good luck, someone from Amazon bought my history book from freshman year for $55! It's like a newly discovered drug, people are giving me money for stuff that I would've just stuck somewhere anyway. The euphoria...

Not too much else is going on. Leah got a job at Pizza Hut, doing the waitress/hostess/cashier thing. (Sorry if you didn't want people to know that!). That brings back memories of my days at Papa Johns (or, as we affectionately referred to it at the time, Papa Juans). On a really random note, that reminds me. The last time I was at a Friday By the Fountain in South Bend, I saw the old manager I worked for at Papa Johns in Mishawaka, and her daughter, whom I also worked with. I quit that job almost 5 years ago! I guess there's something to be said about job security there....

J-Term Midterm Madness

1-13-06

I'm nearly done with the 2nd week of J-Term here at Huntington University. The above picture is a humorous reference to the class that I am currently taking, called The Origins of Life in the Universe. Of course, being that Huntington is a conversative Christian private school, there is an obvious bias towards creationism.

That particular picture is the main symbol of a movement started shortly after the Kansas Board of Education allowed intelligent design to be taught in their classroom. Evolutionists and the brunt of the scientific community argued that they could no more prove that a Flying Spaghetti Monster created man than God (which is an admitted downfall of creationism, it can't be proven).

So, these persons donned the name Pastafarians (in reference to the Carribean religion, Rastafarianism, which worships Jah). They have also set out a $100,000 challenge to anyone who can prove the existence of God. It all seems quite a bit silly, but, that's life.

Moving onward....There's not too much else going on just this second. J-Term means class from 9-11, and thus I am also working from 1-5 everday at Tech Services at the school as well. This keeps me pretty busy, but the entire experience can be a bit boring at times. Also, the students here have been unrelenting in hammering the school's bandwidth quite fully until about 3am everday, making it quite hard for me to do any kind of RDP work for web development. Quite frustrating, if you will.


Lastly, a new toy for the Mikester.....a Sharp Zaurus SL-5500. Respite with an full Linux embedded operating system, this baby has all the multimedia and wireless capacities of the a full laptop, tools for synchrozation to my Ubuntu desktop and laptop, and a neat-o slide-out keyboard. Complete with a version of Java and utilizing the QT system, this is a geek programmer's dream (that's me!).

More details and updates to come. Sorry for the long pause before.

We're Engaged!

12-20-05

Leah Marie said yes to my proposal last night. I made a candelit dinner at my parents house, then told her I had an early Christmas present. She unwrapped the travel Scrabble I got for my birthday, and inside it said "WILL U MARRY ME". Then I got down on one knee and gave her the ring!

Last Week of Classes

12-08-05

Oh my, lots of stuff going on since the last post. Thanksgiving a couple weekends ago, all the family was there. Got to meet my older sister's boyfriend Marlon. Cool guy. Pictures of Thanksgiving weekend are up in the pictures section. Check that out.

Last week of classes and I'm not breaking my neck to get it all done. This has to be a first. Granted, I've definitely been stressed this week, but I've amazingly gotten my stuff in a day or two before deadlines.

Other news.....I hit a deer last weekend on the way to Grace. Scared...me...to...death. They just come out of nowhere and I hit it doing 65 on SR 9 between Huntington and Columbia City. Thankfully it was more of a glancing blow, but it still managed to completely shatter my headlight, chip some paint and crinkle up the front driver side fender a little bit. Scary, but not as bad as it could've been, certainly.

One more thing....Weirdest thing I've ever seen happened tonight at the Huntington/Grace basketball game here at Huntington. HU does a drawing at all the home games, where they give out lottery tickets to the students. The numbers that get called, get 4 shots (a layup, a free throw, a 3-pointer, and then a half-court shot. The prizes are popcorn, 2-liter, pizza, and 25-inch TV, respectively).
2 guys and a girl get called. The first guy misses the first 3 shots completely, sometimes completely air. Then, unbelievably, swishes the half-court shot. Crazy. Then, unbelievably, the guy following him does THE EXACT SAME THING. Insanity. The students stormed the floor, utter madness. What are the odds of that happening....

Weekend Update

11-21-05

The above picture is tiny people playing hockey (The Ft. Wayne Mite Select, to be exact). Just reporting on the weekend. Went to Into the Blue at the $.50 theatre, and watched a Ft. Wayne Komets hockey game (Komets are a semi-pro team here in Ft. Wayne). Komets lost 4-2, and squandered nearly an entire second period of powerplays from what was an extremely rough game on both sides. They managed to score two goals in quick succession at the end of the first period, due to their large amount of powerplay time, but their baseline defense left much to be desired, and they have practically no offensive thrust.

Some new pictures are up in the pics section. These are from the Halloween season, which was just a few short weeks ago. Sigh...school is roaring to a close.

For those of you family members, more updates done to the gift register, which is nearly completed. I'm still taking ideas, however. Hop on over at http://michaelrunyon.com/register/index.cfm. All right, that's about enough for now. I'm excited to see everyone on Wednesday. Have a good week, all!

Server Update

11-16-05

I'm back after a brief pause in service. As the picture above shows, the main production server here @ IBS decided to die Friday afternoon. (Disclaimer: not an actual picture). The testing server was moved back to the production environment temporarily. We will probably seek new hosting service soon.

In other news, more work is done with the gift register side of things. Most of the forms and the login system have been completed. Only a few more things to do before you can all start uploading and saving gifts like good girls and boys. Also, some pictures should be going up in the next couple days, so check on those periodically.

Welcome to michaelrunyon.com!

11-07-05

This is a personal web page, all in good fun. There are a few other puposes of this domain, and those links can be found along with others. Pictures, blog entries and the like should be up pretty soon here. Also, I am certainly not a designer, so don't expect a staggering amount of fun and excitement from this.