Notes

October 22, 2024 View single note
A lion statue made out of yellow LEGO bricks that matches statue on the Chain Bridge in Budapest with the Castle Hill Funicular in the background.
@realrita on Instagram. Original photo

I came across this photo of a LEGO sculpture on Facebook. It is a reproduction of one of the four lions that flank the entrances to Lanchíd (Chain Bridge) in Budapest. I had captured one of the lions in a photo on my trip to Budapest in April.

This LEGO sculpture was well done. It looks like it is a 1:1 scale with the real thing. I loved playing with LEGO as a kid and still enjoy them. It was fun to see that someone had built a model of these iconic lions.

One of the four lion statues on the Chain Bridge in Budapest. The lion is covered with some golden sunlight from late afternoon and shadow.
June 17, 2024 View single note
Selfie of myself, daughter, and son in movie theater

My son, daughter, and I saw The Two Towers yesterday in the theater. Fathom Events was showing all three of the Lord of the Rings movies on consecutive days last weekend and this one. It only worked out for us to see The Two Towers because of our schedules.

It would have been fun to see all three movies in the theater. I am glad that we decided to see at least one of them. I got chills when the movie started and enjoyed seeing it in the theater again and getting engrossed in the story. These movies are best seen in this setting. My youngest daughter is seeing the movies for the first time. We watched The Fellowship of the Ring last week and will plan to watch Return of the King soon.

May 15, 2024 View single note

I liked this thought from Cameron Moll that he shared on LinkedIn.

“Most of life’s important decisions are simply trading one set of problems for a new set of problems.

“Once you understand this, you’re equipped to take a more informed approach to your decision-making.

“Your goal should be a new set of problems whose net result is somehow better than the previous set of problems.

“However, it’s important to keep in mind that while the grass might truly be greener on the other side, it’s still grass. It might require more watering than the previous grass to keep it green. Or perhaps it’s Bermudagrass instead of Kentucky Bluegrass which requires a different maintenance routine.

“So, the next time you’re faced with an important decision, try reminding yourself that the end goal isn’t to eliminate *all* the problems with your current situation.

“The end goal is to get to a better set of problems.”

March 8, 2024 View single note

My son is in Uppsala, Sweden this weekend. I am so jealous. I would love to go to Sweden someday. I knew several Swedish exchange students who went to my high school. Two of them played on the soccer team with me.

I tried to track them down today. One of them was a bit easier to find because he stayed with a good friend of mine so I was able to track him down on Facebook. I took a long shot and reached out to a Joakim Axelsson who was about the right age to have been the Swedish friend I was looking for. Joakim wrote back and told me that he encouraged my efforts but he was not the Joakim I was looking for.

I also found someone that might be my friend, Svante, on Facebook. There were only a couple of pictures and the account doesn’t look like it has been touched in some time. My friend had red hair and the man in the pictures also had red hair.

I am excited that I will be traveling to Europe at the end of April. My son and I are going to visit Budapest and Barcelona. Hungary is a special place in my heart so I get to show him around there and he will show me around Barcelona. It will be my first time back in Europe in 17 years.

February 8, 2024 View single note
Football cards of Chiefs players Gary Barbaro, J.T. Smith, and Gary Spani.

I have thought about these cards several times over the past 5 years. I wasn’t sure if I still had them. OI found them in a box of baseball cards recently stuck to the side. The Kansas City Police Department would hand them out at games and other events around town.

The recent Chiefs success has made me think about the first years I started attending games at Arrowhead in the late 70’s. I don’t think any of those teams had a winning record. But each year I had new hope. My dad was able to get some good seats from his workplace and we went to a lot of games, especially in the pre-season. I got to go on the field several times through various clinics. I remember one involved kicker Nick Lowery. For more Chiefs memories, see my recent post, How ’bout those Chiefs?!

February 2, 2024 View single note
"Architecture is always a response to limits—physical constraints, financial ones, or the demands of function." (Mr. Paul Goldberger, Why Architecture Matters)

Web projects are also a response to limits. Budget constraints, resource constraints (people and skills), client constraints, number of stakeholders, and time constraints (some projects are event critical). All of these different constraints will shape the solution that you deliver.