Today is noteworthy for a handful of reasons. First, our graphics team moved into new space last Friday while I was away in San Diego. In my office was a pair of big orange boxes with my packed stuff. I got the two computers (the desktop and the laptop) all setup again and unpacked the rest of the books, office supplies, knick knacks, etc. One thing I must remember to do is to order a new femtocell for this wing of the building. There is no Sprint signal in the building from external towers.

The second thing I'll be monitoring is the status of how things are going at the annual Mobile World Congess (MWC) in Barcelona, Spain. While silicon bring ups are normally pretty intense, the pressure these past couple weeks has been on getting decent demonstrations ready for MWC. Even though I have not yet read any releases of our newest stuff, the recently shipped parts are getting really good reviews. What we dealt with in the lab raises those stakes even higher.

One last thing I was excited about is that I won an eBay bid for Father Robert Barron's 'Catholicism' DVD series. I've been wanting to see it for a while but was not inclined to spend ~$100 for the box set of DVDs. I opted to wait a few months and give eBay a try. I managed to get a set for ~$40, much more in our budget. The trailer for the series follows below:

YouTube Video Trailer

People who've known me long enough know that I spent ~7-8 years working for a company in Nashua that underwent four names in that period before finally being forced to close. I tended to work with the same group of guys across those mergers, acquisitions, and sell offs. Same work but different signatures on the paystubs. Once the doors closed, I went to ATI and many others went their separate ways. In the It's a Small World meme, today I connected with two of my former co-workers that I hadn't heard from in some time. My old boss contacted me by email to say hello and ask me a Perl question. Later as I was leaving for the day, another friend who'd moved to AMD upstairs caught me and I gave him a little tour of our new space.

I saw three cute pieces of humor related to tomorrow being Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent. The first is the cartoon seen at right. Click it to see the origins. The second is a meme I saw on Twitter about Ash Wednesday being the ideal day for single Catholics looking towards marriage. Originally posted by Matt Swain, it says, “Tomorrow is Catholic Singles Awareness Day: Ashes+No Ring=Fair Game. Happy hunting!” The last is from my friend Jeff Miller who has perfected the art of Catholic snarkasm. He posted “Having a hard time determining what to give up for Lent. So much perfected already and I nailed humility last year.” Yup, it's hard to be humble when you're perfect in every way. Good night all! Have a blessed Lent!

“He was teaching his disciples and telling them,
‘The Son of Man is to be handed over to men
and they will kill him,
and three days after his death the Son of Man will rise.’ ” — Mark 9

I was away last week in San Diego to help assist in the silicon bring up of the latest generation of our SnapDragon S4 series chips. Without going into specifics, it was exciting to see it all come together. Exciting new technology. Really exciting. The weather in San Diego was pretty decent. Every morning I walked for ~25 minutes from the hotel to the lab and enjoyed it. Up here in New Hampshire I live 55-60 minutes away from the office by car, so a daily brisk walk was a treat.

I flew out last Sunday, February 12th and returned Saturday morning at Logan after taking the Friday night non-stop redeye flight. Both flights are brutal in their own ways. At least for the flight out (over an hour longer than the return flight) I watched Season 2, episodes 5, 6, and 7 of Downton Abbey on my Kindle. One might say it was a drama overload, but not the syrupy kind I see in some dramas. (Dr. Quinn comes to mind) On the way back I was blessed to have the row to myself and dozed on and off through the flight.

Saturday had the usual shuttling with Timothy at piano, Abby and Daniel at dance classes, and the whole family at 4pm Mass. Sunday we took the family to DFE for breakfast and Claire worked the 9 to 3 shift at Subway. While she was at work we took the rest to see The Secret World of Arrietty. Our kids have enjoyed most of the Studio Ghibli films for their creativity and artistry. This one certainly lived up to the heritage. I also watched the last two episodes of Downton Abbey: Season 2 episode 8 and the Christmas Special. I really loved the Christmas Special. Claire agrees!

Today of course is President's Day. I joke that, Left or Right, it is a day to honor our great past Presidents, not complain about the current one in office. For the past few years it has been like an anniversary for Michelle and I. It is the only scheduled day where the kids are at school and I have it off from work. A day to relax with my much, much better half. I took Michelle's cardio class at the Merrimack YMCA. We enjoyed an early lunch together. I went for a quick haircut and then the two of us went out for coffees. When the kids got home I helped them with their math homework and helped Timothy with his laptop. Timothy has been experimenting a lot with OpenBox.

Before I go I wanted to recommend two longer articles I read over the trip on my Kindle (via Readility). On the way out I'd received a pointer to an excellent article by Peter Kreeft entitled “Weakness into Strength.” Dr. Kreeft always writes well and in this case did a great job explaining an often misunderstood aspect of the Christian Faith. The second is by Sci-Fi author John C. Wright entitled “Contra Contraception.” John was an atheist until 2008 and took a position against contraception well before his conversion. In this article he reasons why he believes it is harmful to marriages and society without any “religious trappings” but rather from stoic philosophy in a step by step logical manner.

Good morning! Michelle generously brought me a nice little breakfast in bed. Claire and I just wrapped up the Saturday morning Step and abs class at Golds Gym. Light attendance today. I think it's because this slot alternates weekends with a different class and people are starting to lose track of whether it's a Step class or a Turbo kick class. 10:46am

Michelle is taking Abby and Daniel to their dance classes. I just finished watching Season 2, episode 4 of Downton Abbey. Soon I'll take Claire to piano lessons. 12:42am

Picked up Claire and then enjoyed a hot coffee from A&E that Michelle picked up for me. Picked up Abby from dance class. Helping Claire with her trig before she heads to work tonight. I was really rusty on the Law of Sines and Law of Cosines. And strangely there's no textbook for her trig class. 3:32pm

Dropped Claire off at Subway. She accepted a last minute sub request. I was a bit reluctant as she has to serve 7am Mass tomorrow and work the 9 to 3 shift again. Then I took the rest for dinner at Chapangas. 6:47pm

Took a nap after dinner. Michelle put the boys down to bed with their prayers. I picked up Claire from Subway without any "headlight issues" with the local police. Good night all! 10:24pm

“He ordered the crowd to sit down on the ground.
Then, taking the seven loaves he gave thanks, broke them,
and gave them to his disciples to distribute.” — Mark 8