So What's up with you John?

So, just what is up with me these days? I suppose it is about time I made a little update just so that I don't forget what I did now that I have nearly forgotten already.

Let's see, starting with this weekend and going backwards. Yesterday was Father's Day and I really didn't do anything special. We went to visit my wife's father in Waterloo, Illinois. We had a nice meal and I got to watch a pretty exciting Cardinals baseball game. I took the boat out in the morning and, once again, in the evening. I did receive phone calls from my children who are away from home and it was nice to hear from them. My own father played a round of golf and had a nice day on his end.

The main reason I have been so busy that I couldn't post is because I am working on a deadline for a book chapter submission. I developed an algorithm to auto-generate navigable space meshes for AI characters many years ago. I have used the algorithm now in four separate game engines and I am really pleased with how it works. So, when the guys from the AI-Wisdom series made a call for submissions I went ahead and added my name to the list. That was several months ago but the deadline was on Friday.

As of Thursday evening I had yet to have written a single word of the article! I worked on it for a couple of hours Thursday and a few more on Friday and managed to submit a 6,000 word book chapter, with illustrations, at the end of the business day. I have since proofread it and the submission is pretty clean up until the end where it is clear I was running out of steam. Of course, I'm sure my editor will be able to straighten things out.

I also wrote a piece of software to illustrate the algorithm and that is what I spent the bulk of my time on. I created some new source code snippets in the process of writing it and I have uploaded those latest submissions to my coding website. I'm still going to need to polish up the article and write some more documentation for the code but I'm now quite relieved that the bulk of the effort is over. It's not like I get paid anything to do this and I view it generally as a public service. I do wish I could get more of my colleagues to make a small donation to my website as a minor acknowledgement for giving away so much source code for free.


As I have already noted in the past couple of weeks I attended the DeMolay State Conclave and drove down to Georgia for my son's graduation ceremony. What with the work on the book chapter I have yet to get all of the pictures organized and write up a new newsletter or post them on the site. That will have to wait I suppose.

My wife worked all last week. As a school teacher she was quite looking forward to her summer vacation time off. Yet, last week, she was contacted about teaching summer school for three weeks. Since we are going on our vacation soon it seemed like too good of an opportunity to pass up. Today is her birthday, though, and I know she is not enjoying being at work.

My daughter Lauren has been gone for over a week at a Fine Arts Academy in Springfield, Missouri. It was quite an honor for her to be accepted and she is working on a number of projects. She will spend a total of three weeks living in the University dorms just working on her art.

This being the third week of the month it is my busy week for meetings. Tomorrow night I have a Lions Club meeting where I will be inducted as an officer. Apparently I am to be anointed the 'tail twister'. That entails me giving out fines for people who speak out of turn at a meeting or violate some other minor transgression in etiquette. The position is supposed to be all in fun but, to be honest, I suspect I will spend most of my time just fining myself.

On Wednesday I have my last meeting at Wentzville Lodge before we go dark for the summer. We will presenting a 3rd degree, so that will be a great way to close down for the year. My nephew, Brother Charlie Ratcliff, may be able to attend and that will make it particularly special.

On Thursday night I have my meeting at Napthali Lodge downtown at the New Masonic Temple. It is our last meeting before we go dark there as well. It appears I am in line to become the Worshipful Master next year. Of course, there are no guarantees until the election occurs but it should be an interesting evening nonetheless.

On Saturday I am throwing a giant party for a bunch of teenagers at my home. It will include some DeMolay boys, some Rainbow Girls and Jobs Daughters, as well as prospects and friends. I plan to throw a BBQ, pool party, and take the kids boating. In the evening I will probably show a 16mm movie around the swimming pool outdoors.

As of now there are less then three weeks until I go on my big vacation. This is the most extravagant vacation I have ever taken in my life. A total of almost two weeks, five days in Paris and five days in Rome, with my wife and daughter. We are going on a tour and we purchased one of the top tier packages.

In preparation for the trip I purchased a Garmin Nuvi 670 handheld GPS. It was a bit pricey but I am hoping it was worth it. This model contains maps for all of Europe and it also has a 'pedestrian mode'. I am hoping that this time when I am in Paris I will be able to find any point of interest without wasting any time being lost. Let me assure you, in the past I have wasted a lot of time being lost in Paris. I expect it to be even more useful in Rome since I have never travelled there before.

So, this closes out what I am up to these days. Maybe not the most exciting post in the world but it does place me at a certain time and place in the Universe and serves as a repository for the archives of my activities.