Ry came over last night and helped move my blog over to my new high bandwidth web host.  The original intent was to get my photo album moved over.  But we failed that task after a couple hours of attempts.  More research is required.  Having the blog moved was a worthwhile accomplishment however.  As I sit here and watch the blinking lights on the network switch for the old host they only blink occasionally as compared to constantly before we moved all 23 of my (and my family’s) domains and a similar number for Ry off of this machine.

Assuming you have a fairly high speed connection yourself my blog and all my websites (except for joehuffman.org/*) should load much faster than they did a week ago.  And except for my photo album all the joehuffman.org contents can be accessed off of the high speed site via http://www.joehuffman.info.

As I mentioned last week (and here) I interviewed for two different positions and both groups were interested in hiring me.  Our son James interviewed with two other groups with the same company the Friday before (March 3rd).  Then last Friday (March 10th) James got an email saying both the groups he interviewed with were also interested in him and he has to make a decision between them.  And no, I didn’t have anything to do with him getting the interviews nor did he interview in the same groups as I did.

James will graduate from the University of Idaho with a B.S. in Computer Science this spring (currently he has a 4.0/4.0 GPA) and so it’s not surprising he would do well on the job interview front.  We are very proud of him and assuming he accepts an offer from them we will be pleased he will be working close by.

Xenia is back together with her old boyfriend, John.  Much to my surprise one of my favorite jokes, calling him “Xenia’s John”, has gotten old for some people in our family.  I can’t imagine why this is but I’m willing to abide by daughter’s wishes.  He does seem to be a pretty nice kid and I don’t have any objections to him dating my daughter.  Being that I’m not all that good with social skills I need some hints on dealing with new social situations.  I am therefore very pleased to see Xenia post in her Live Journal detailed information on how to make someone feel part of the family.  I would have never have guessed.  I can’t wait to follow Zanita’s lead in making John comfortable in our house.

I have tears coming down my cheeks from laughing.  This is so funny to me.  A bunch of kids doing something dangerous–following the law.

People with Asperger get annoyed, angry even, with people who don’t follow the rules.  To have other people get angry because someone else is following the law and inconveniencing the law breakers is just so sweet.

Thanks to Sean who sent it to me with the subject line “More hope for today’s youth.”

I got a call from our son James yesterday.  He had just finished taking the Graduate Record Exam (GRE).  Except for the essay portion they get the results back immediately afterwards.  He got a 560/800 on the verbal portion and 800/800 on the quantitative portion.  This is particularily noteworthy because it is an online, adaptive test.  The questions presented get harder if you are getting them all correct or easier if you are having difficulties with them.  He said it was “brutal”.  He just barely finished the problems in the time given.  He was pretty “up” about things though–as well he should be.  We are very proud of him.

Xenia had four days off from school this weekend so Barb took some time off too and visited me in Kirkland rather than me driving home to Moscow this weekend while James and the two attack dogs and two flesh eating cats guarded the Huffman-Scott compound.  Yesterday was mostly consumed with shopping at “thrift stores.”  It always seems to me it would be much more thrifty to not go shopping at all, but that argument is always met with such a clamor that I seldom bring it up regardless of the unassailable logic.  We had lunch at a Japanese buffet which was very nice.  Today we visited the Seattle Center and had lunch in the restaurant at the top of the Space Needle.

Pictures are here.

Update: Xenia posted some more pictures.

Read all about it here.

Xenia went on trial for murder this weekend–actually there were three trials.  She was found not guilty in the first two by a votes of 10-2 and 9-3.  Barb figured with her brother on the second jury she would be found guilty for certain.  But I knew him better than she did.  There was no way with the ‘evidence’ given that he would vote for a conviction let alone try and convince other jurors.  Just before the third trial, as I was about to leave for the Seattle area, I gave her a handcuff key just in case they convicted her.  She was found guilty but didn’t need the key because she was able to squeeze out of the handcuffs.

It was a good performance.  I didn’t realize Ayn Rand had written any plays.  This was apparently her first and it shows it in many ways but it wasn’t really bad.  When Xenia got on the stand and told the court she had been raped by her employer ten years earlier on her first day at work and was proud to became his mistress from there after we gave each other “the look”.  Yup, just the part Xenia would like to play.  Check out the pictures Xenia has on her Live Journal.

Background is here.  This has been bugging me for several months now.  Maybe grumbling about it here will relieve the frustration some.

And before you start laughing at me please realize that I know it’s a minor thing and “it really doesn’t matter” but it still bugs me.  It’s that I want the world to be perfect and expect people would want to work toward that goal.  I know it’s not possible but why can’t people make the changes that they can instead of being so random?  It makes me look down on people in general.  Give me a reason to believe that the Neurotypicals are worthy of my respect.  But no.  That’s not the way it works.  I’m looked down upon when it is they who are inaccurate and random.

The thing that has been bugging me?  The one of the pizza types in the cafeteria is labeled “grilled vegetable pizza”.  It has red peppers, yellow peppers, black olives, yellow squash, and mushrooms along with the usual cheese and tomato sauce on it.  I’ll bet 99+% of you won’t see anything wrong with this “picture”.  I do.  And it bugs me.  There’s only one vegetable there–the mushrooms.  All the other plants parts are fruits.

This sort of irritation is perversive in our society.  Why can’t people get it right?  And they tend to get irritated when you politely inform them they made a mistake (no, I didn’t inform the cafeteria staff about their mislabeling of the pizza) and they almost never correct their errors.

There’s a reason I’m into computers, guns, and explosives–they are understandable, rational, and predictable.

Usually when I arrive back in my room near my job, 300 miles from home, I send Barb a short email since it’s frequently past her bedtime.  “Trip was uneventful.”  This time was different.  When I arrived in Ellensburg, about two thirds of the way here, I found out Snoqualmie Pass was closed indefinitely.  Blewitt Pass and Stevens Pass to the north were open with some restrictions so I topped off the gas tank and headed north.  The traffic advisory radio said traction tires were recommended on Blewitt and required on Stevens.  I saw three cars off the road.  I stopped at the first one which was way off the road down a steep bank because there were no emergency vehicles present.  There was another car with a couple there and I asked if everything was under control.  The woman said 911 had been called and everyone was okay and I continued on my way.  In the other cases it was clear they didn’t need my help.  It was snowing constantly from the time I left Ellensburg and the normally 50 and 60 MPH road now had variable speed limits in place from 35 and 40 MPH.  At times the long line of cars that caravaned over the mountains was only going 25 MPH.  The roads weren’t really that slick.  When I would test things I could get a little bit of slippage but it wasn’t that big of a deal.  Blewitt pass was first and was no big deal.  Very pretty actually with all the snow covered trees.  Leavenworth was beautiful will all the Christmas lights still up and the snow coming down.  Then as I was climbing to the top of Stevens the radio said chains were required on Blewitt.  I hate putting on and driving in chains.  Glad I made it through there before that restriction went into effect.  As I was coming into town the radio said Stevens pass was closed.  I made it through just in time.

The alternate route was 50 miles and 2.5 hours longer than normal.

Katy reports our nephew Jason will be in the gallery of Congress tomorrow night for the State of the Union speech tomorrow night.

A couple days ago I subtly mentioned I may have Asperger syndrome.  Boyd and David, in the comments, disagreed with that diagnosis.  Boyd in particular said, “Asperger syndrome is marked by poor social skills so that kinda knocks Joe out of the running (sorry man ; ).”  Uhh… you didn’t know me until I was over 40 years old.  If you had know me in the first 20 years of my life you would have had a much different opinion.  And besides, Boyd, you’re an engineer type yourself!

Barb obtained a book on Asperger syndrome and read it in one night this week.  She called me every few minutes:

Date    Time  Minutes
01/24 08:35 PM   3
01/24 08:28 PM   4
01/24 08:05 PM   3
01/24 07:53 PM   2
01/24 07:50 PM   3
01/24 07:48 PM   2
01/24 07:32 PM   5
01/24 07:25 PM   5
01/24 07:20 PM   5
01/24 07:09 PM   2
01/24 07:05 PM   3
01/24 06:43 PM   2
01/24 06:25 PM   3
01/24 06:09 PM   3

Every time she called it was to tell me about another thing she read and about how well it described me.  Right down to some of the physical characteristics that are sometimes associated with AS.  I’m a high functioning AS and somethings didn’t match but it’s pretty clear that using this phrase to describe me is appropriate in the world of the Neurotypicals.  It explains a lot of the frustration I have dealing with Neurotypicals too.  They are irrational, refuse to explain themselves, or the datasets they are working from and tend to attempt refuting your bullet proof logic and data set with phrases like, “It doesn’t matter, you are still wrong.”  Or “I don’t believe your facts.” End of discussion, no facts that contradict the facts I presented, no rational explanation as to why “my” facts might be wrong.  They just issue a blanket dismissal of my argument and they are perfectly happy to continue believing whatever it is they want to believe.  My insistence that they definitely shouldn’t be allowed to vote and perhaps shouldn’t be allowed to reproduce either are all consistent with AS behavior.  Just as is their complete disregard for facts and logical, if it is convenient for them, typical of the Neurotypicals.

When is it we will make first contact with Vulcans?  Beam me up Spock.  I’m on the wrong planet.