Red Is A Flavor

I bet there is not a techie anywhere that has not seen a Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator (MAME) cabinet and not wanted one.  Building one is somewhat akin to earning an eagle scout badge, in the world of geekdom.

For those of you who’ve never heard of a MAME cabinet;  it is a PC built within a normal looking arcade cabinet, running a specialized piece of software which “emulates” the old hardware of real arcade machines.  This emulator allows the actual ROMs from arcade games to be loaded and run, in all their 8-bit glory.

Apparently MAME’ers like to brag and gloat, because there are a ton of information online about MAME cabinet projects, because .  While the best source of information is Arcade Controls.com, it was Chris Moyles’ “The Story of a Cabinet Built in 24 hours” that gave me the itch.

Growing up, Halloween was different for us that it is for kids now.  We are part of Generation X, had the pleasure of growing up in the last generation before fear of “everything” and helicopter-parenting took hold.  Unless you were younger than eight or nine,  you trick-or-treated by yourself.  There were no “limits” to distance or time.  Our neighborhood had fifteen blocks full of houses ready to hand out candy, and you’ll be damn sure every kid was going to hit each one (and hit the neighborhood next to us if we could carry it).

But each year my friends and I would make one particular house one of our first stops;  The Romprey’s.  Mrs. Romprey, was known far and wide (at least within the sub 16 year old population) for her popcorn balls. 

I have now worked with the DoD in some capacity or another for nearly 15 years.  During this time I’ve met and worked with a wide variety of people.  Many I encounter are woefully unsuited/untrained for their tasks or are simply not goal oriented.  All too often I come across people that would rather stall or over-complicate problems just to delay the effort toward a solution. 

Occasionally, I encounter “stars”; ones that strike me as logical go-getters, solving real problem with real solutions and doing so in a way that is professional and 100% goal established.

Yesterday, after disconnecting from a conference call in which a couple of these people were participating, I found myself beginning to think of how I could convey to them how impressed with them and their handling of situations and personalities during the call.   But while doing so, I came to the realization that they both worked for the same contractor where a surprising number of others that I highly respect work or have worked;

Booz Allen Hamilton.

During my lifetime I’ve had a few pets.  Dogs, cats, even rats. Usually, I’d keep them for awhile, but would eventually have to get give them away because of some circumstance like housing, space, or behavior.  Each of these were merely “pets”.  While having to see them go hurt, it never emotionally hurt to my core, until yesterday.

The Beginning

In 1998 we were living in Bellevue, Nebraska.  I was still in the Air Force, trying desperately to get out early to go to school full time.  We had moved off-base with the anticipation of being civilian again.  Trevor was 4 ½ years old.  A year or so earlier we had gotten rid of our latest basset hound Dottie, which like our other dogs, she just have issues that we could no longer work with.

Jennifer’s birthday was approaching and she wanted another dog, so I told her to start looking.  Within a week she found a breeder in Iowa that had Lhasa Apso and poodle mixed puppies.  We new nothing of the coming “hybrid movement”, so it sounded like a small mutt to us.  It was a small and cheap (only $75); perfect.

While I’ve (thus far) neglected to blog about the details of our Puerto Rico Vacation, here are some “lessons learned” for those of you that are considering it for a vacation.

Soda – In the nearly two weeks on the island, only two restaurants had fountain soda.  Nearly all of the rest had only cans.  So plan or order accordingly if you are a big soda drinker.

Rain – Rain in Puerto Rico is inevitable.  Make sure that your itinerary has some “fluff” to accommodate rain days.  We were extremely lucky, with only one full day of rain.

“Cheap” is Relative – You will read reviews of restaurants noting their cheap or affordable menu.  Be aware that this is not quite what it is back at home.  An affordable dinner is sub $25 in Puerto Rico.   Plan on paying at least $15-20 per person, if you want full service, even in the Luquillo Kiosks.