Yesterday I made the trip out to Northern California for MAX. I made it here without any major issues, but there were a few weird things (good weird, not bad weird) that happened solely because I am a Ginats fan.

It started in the wee hours of the Morning at Dulles Airport. I should note I was wearing a Giants windbreaker  While I was sitting at the gate waiting to board the plane, one of the Vrgin America (great airline, BTW) emplyees who was making announcements told me she was also a Giants fan at that becasue I was 'showing my colors' in DC, I could board the plane when first class did.  I thought it was a cool gesture, but just that, a gesture.  However, when it came time to board the plane, she called for first class passengers, passengers with chilren or who need exra time boarding the plane, and "my Giants fan".  It was not a huge deal, but still pretty cool that I could just gt on the plane and sit sown.

The next 'weird' thing accured at the golf course (Does anyone think I would come to California and not play golf?). We played Poppy Ridge in LIvermore, CA. On a side note, this was an absolute gem of a find.  It was a really nice course (I would rank it in top 5 I have played in the US) and the vista from the course was simply stunning. Back to the weirdness... when we checked in at the club house, one of the guys behind the counter noticed my Giants shirt and mentioned that the 'general manager' was also a Giants fan.  We I paid for my greens fees, the cost was quite a bit lower (about $40.00) less than what I expected to pay.  When I verified the cost, we were told, 'I gave you the guest rate' and when I asked why he said because the general manager woudl have told him to do so since I was a Giants fan.

What I find funny about both these things is that I got some preferential treatment becasue I was a Giants fan in DC and Northern California when I would ot have gotten any such treatment in New York.

I always used to say that your age was just a number.  Of course, that was before my own age became a big number.  Today I turn 40.  Which, to many, means I am 'old'. Like most people (ok, men) I know, I spent the last week or so fretting over turning 40.  I spent a lot of time dwelling on what I have wanted to do, but have not; things I had hoped to accomplish, but fell short.

It was not until a recent IM conversation with a friend of mine that I realized I was going about it the wrong way.  I should not be dwelling on what I have not accomplished, rather embracing that which I have. So, with that in mind, I tried to come up with a list of all the things I have done in my life, rather than those I have not.  And, because you are a faithful reader, you get to see my list.  This is in no particular order, other than how it came to my mind.

• I married my best friend
• I have been to the Parthenon
• I have been to Spain
• I was the 'king' of the circus (I was 10 or so)
• I used to do stand up comedy
• I have delivered 3 babies (1 even has 'Scott' as his middle name)
• I have gone hang gliding
• I have saved someone's life
• I have had 2 successful careers
• I have flown in a helicopter
• I have a somewhat popular blog
• I have visited the White House
• I have gone bungee jumping
• I have played golf at the Old Course
• I have seen the birth of both of my children
• I tried out for Jeopardy
• I have seen Tiger Woods play golf in person
• I have seen Wayne Gretzky play hockey in person
• I have been to Yankee Stadium (numerous times)
• I have taken my kids to Yankee Stadium
• I have taken my kids to Disney
• I have met Bruce Springsteen
• I have met Leonard Marshall (true Giants fans will know who this is)
• I have seen my favorite football team win 3 Super Bowls
• I have seen my favorite football team lose a Super Bowl
• I have been to a Giants palyoff game
• I have been to a Yankees playoff game
• I voted for Ross Perot
• I have been on TV
• I have been in the newspaper
• I was at 'ground zero' after 9/11
• I have played golf in 4 different countries
• I have written an article for a magazine
• I bought a house on a golf course
• I have had 2 eagles in one round of golf (on a course I never played)
  
• Did I mention I married my best friend? If so, its worth mentioning again

Keep in mind this list is by no means all encompassing, but more to help me appreciate all the things I have accomplished in my life, rather than to dwell on those I have not.

This is a repost from last year on this date.  I will continue to post this every year until I feel it is no longer fitting.

Unless you live under a rock, you are undoubtedly aware that to day is the 6th 7th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.  As I am sitting here working, I am reminded of how I spent that day.

Like most Americans, I first heard news of the first plane that hit the World Trade Center on the news, and then watched in horror as the second plane hit the other tower and ultimately watched both towers fall.  Unlike most Americans, I was unable to watch the events of the day unfold on TV.  I had already made the switch to web development and was working in the IT department of the company where I had spent 12 years (at that time) as a paramedic, including 2 as a manager, but I was still certified as a paramedic and frequently worked extra shifts to pick up some extra cash.

One of the things my company was tasked with was setting up a staging area at a  local airport.  The plan was, as survivors were removed from 'Ground Zero' they would be flown to airports around the area so as not to overwhelm hospitals close to lower Manhattan.  It was decided that I would be in charge of setting up and coordinating this staging area.  I was sent to the airport at about 11:00AM and started preparing for what could have been hundreds of victims.

At the staging area, we coordinated with well over 150 people from approximately 50 different police, fire and EMS agencies.  It felt good to be doing something, something we were sure would help.  From the airport in central New Jersey, about 40 miles from Ground Zero, we could see the smoke from the towers.  We did not have a TV and relied on phone calls from others to get information as the day wore on.

As time passed we would get messages that we would be receiving patients soon, yet none ever came.  After 9 hours at the airport, having not treated one person, we were told our services would no longer be needed and we could go home.  It became a stark reality to me that anyone who would survive was already out of the towers.

In the days following 9/11 my company sent numerous crews to offer assistance at Ground Zero. I was on one of these crews at Ground Zero.  While we were not on the pile of rubble trying to find bodies, we were close enough to see the utter devastation that was lower Manhattan. It is a scene that will never be wiped from my mind, but I am not sure I would ever want to.

My whole career as a paramedic I always said that as long as I could walk, I would continue to do the job, even if it was only part time. After 14 years as a paramedic, I let my certification lapse in December of 2003. The events of 9/11 played a huge part in that decision.  It had nothing to do with fear.  It had everything to do with the fact that I knew if something similar happened on my watch, I'd be running in to help people, regardless of the danger, and this would not be fair to my family.  I also knew I could not change who I was, so the only way to ensure I wouldn't do that would be to remove the possibility of it happening, so I left EMS completely.

To this day, when I think of the towers falling, or seeing Ground Zero up close and personal, I get nauseous, I get physically ill.

I have been fighting an issue with ImageGetBlob().  I am trying to run some very simple code:

<cfimage action="read" name="img" source="#expandPath("zoid.jpg")#"  />
<cfset moo = ImageGetBlob(img) >

When I run this on my dev macine, which is running Mac OS X with ColdFusion 8 installed as 'multi-server', I get a JRun 500 error, the first few lines of which are:

ROOT CAUSE:
java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError
at coldfusion.image.Image.getImageBytes(Image.java:519)
at coldfusion.runtime.CFPage.ImageGetBLOB(CFPage.java:5642)

There have been 2 other people who are running ColdFusion under similar operating system/server install configurations that get the same error.  I have also asked someone running ColdFusion 8 as a 'stand alone' on a Mac and the code works as expected.  The code also works as expected on Windows XP running ColdFusion 8 as a 'multi-server install.

Has anyone else seen this problem?  If you are running ColdFusion on a Mac, either as a 'stand alone' or 'multi-server', would you mind giving the code above a try (obviously changing the image path) and reply back to say if you were successful or not and what your set up is?

Thanx in advance!

Yesterday, I attended what will be my last game at Yankee Stadium.  For those who do not know, after this season, they will be tearing down 'The House that Ruth Built' and next season they will be playing in a new stadum right next door.

First, let me say that this is kind of bittersweet for me.  As a kid, we would go to Yankee games several times a year and I have fond memories of beign there with my entire family.  But, if we are being honest, Yankee Stadium is a dump.  It outgrew its usefulness long before I even knew it existed.  I have been to baseball games at Coors Field in Denver and Camden Yards in Baltimore adn those stadiums are simply amazing. That being said, the new stadium looks like it will be absolutely astounding.

As I said this was the last game I will see at Yankee Stadium, but it was also the first time my kids have seen the Yankees play a home game.  They seemed to enjoy the experience, but, what made it best was that at one point during the game, the kids were shown on the 'Jumbo-tron' at the stadium as part of what they call 'fan-cam'.  Unfortunately, I was unable to get a picture of them on the screen.

All in all, it was a great day (the Yankees wound up winning in extra innings).  I got to take my kids to a place from which I have such wonderful memories and they seemed to enjoy it as much as I remember enjoying it. Here are some pictures I snapped before and during the game.

These are the kids, pretty good looking if I do say so myself.

Here is a picture of Joba Chamberlain throwing a 101 MPH fastball. If you look closely at the umpire, you can see the ball.

Here is a picture of Brett Gardner about to get caught in a rundown.  He was trying to steal second, put the pitcher threw the ball to first base.  You can see the ball on its way

One thing I was hoping for with our golf trip to Scotland was that we could play the Old Course and I could get a photo of the 4 of us on the Swilcan Bridge which is in the 18th fairway.  Well, I was just going through all my digital pics and found this one.

If you click the photo, you can see the full sized image.

Today was the last day of golf and boy did we end it the right way.  We got to play the Old Course at St. Andrews (the oldest course in the world).  What a magnificent day.  It was sunny for most of the day, but we got a taste of true Scottish golf when it rained for about 2 holes.  I wish I could have played better, but I was so entraced by the place, it really didn't matter.

We each had a caddy, which was wonderful. Playing a course like the Old Course, you want to have someone there to tell you where to hit the ball, or, more importantly, where not to hit the ball.

When we first started this trip, the Old Course was #1 on our 'must play' list.  To be able to play the Old Course with my dad, brother and uncle is something that words could not express adequately. I had to choke back tears as we walked up the 18th fairway, and afterwards, I pretty much lost it when I was talking to my wife about the experience.

Speaking of my wife, one thing I have not yet mentioned here, but tell everyone, is that she is a main reason for this trip. When it was first discussed about me speaking at Scotch on the Rocks, I had asked her if I could stay a few extra days to play golf.  She suggested asking my father if he would like to fly over for a few days to play.  The idea morphed into a week and asking my brother and uncle as well.

We played 3 Open Championship courses, 4 courses in the world's top 100 in 6 days. This was truly a trip of a lifetime and one I will cherish forever.

Tomorrow we head back home and I plan on blogging about things I discovered about the Scots purely by playing golf here.  I also plan on weeding through the hundreds of pictures to post some.

Goodbye Scotland, I will truly miss thee.

I have been to paradise, and its name is Turnberry.

Today we played Turnberry, the site of next year's Open Championship and let me say, I find it difficult to believe that there is a golf course in the world with better scenery.  This was by far the most beautiful course I have ever played.  The view of the Irish Sea was simply stunning.

I shot a 94 today, not bad considering at one point I was playing so bad I said I was not playing tomorrow.  I parred 17 & 18 3rd day in a row I finished with a par), as well as the #2 handicap hole (2nd hardest hole on the course) directly into a 30-40 miles an hour wind, uphill.

This has been an amazing experience, which will be made better by the fact that we actaully got a tee time at The Old Course tomorrow at 11:00 Am GMT.  This will be the perfect ending to what has been, so far, a perfect trip.

Today we played a course named Longniddry.  It is not a very well known course like some of the others, and was in good condition, but will suffer by comparision.  If you plan a golf trip and a course like Longniddry is the worst course you play, it would have been a great vacation.

The rough was incredibly tough to get out of and we finally got some real Scottish weather with consistent 20-25 miles per hour with gusts of up to 35-49 miles per hour.  It also semed like the wind was always in our faces. On the second day in a row I parred the last hole into a strong wind.

Next up is Turnberry, another Open Championship course (the Open will be played there in 2009).  From the weather report, it looks like we will have some stereotypical weather there as well.  They are calling for winds of 15 MPH and light rain.  We are really looking forward to this course.  We have been told by several different people that Turnberry is spectacular.

We have a few more options for playing the Old Course.  We have entered the daily lottery for tomorrow and the current plan is that if we do not make the lottery, we will drive up there and try to get on by breaking up into 2 twosomes.  Keep your fingers crossed, pray, meditate, or whatever it is you do that we can get on one way or another.

Today, we walked in the footsteps of legends at Carnoustie.  To those who do not know, Carnoustie is one of the courses in the Open Championship (British Open) and was last contested there in 2007.

First, let me say this was the most difficult course I have ever played.  The bunkers are almost impossiblt to avoid and ever harder to get out of AND advance the ball. You either had to hit the ball sideways, or as happened to me frequently, backwards.

Second, this course was awesome!  Playing a course I have seen on TV during the Open Championship was incredible.  Hitting some of the same shots I have seen pro golfers play was humbling.  However, I did do something the Jean Van DeVelde could not do on 18 in the final round...I hit it right down the middle of the fairway. 

Lastly, the weather was perfect.  We were told they had a 'warm wind', which apparently means that it was blowing from inland rather than off the Firth.  On 18 the wind changed and started coming of the firth and the temperature dropped about 10 degrees.

So far, this has been an amazing vacation. Next up, Longniddry.  I will post pictures soon, I promise.