Category Archives: uncategorized

Sure has been quiet around here.

I’m currently gearing up for the start of the school year. Lots to do this year. Normally, at this point, I’m up to my ears in computers that need to be configured, cloned, or otherwise dealt with. This year, however, I am virtually uninvolved in hardware. This summer, we restructured the department and I became the data manager, a new position created this year. As data manager, I’m responsible for getting and keeping all data systems up and running, including child accounting, inventory, tech support, etc. Child accounting is proving to be the biggest challenge, as we try to come to grips with which child accounting/SIS package we’re going to settle on (this year, we’ll be running PowerSchool and IMSeries concurrently, which should keep me plenty busy).

Beyond that, I’ve been frantically at work on Tangelo. I hope to release 1.0b6 (which I hope will be 1.0fc1) this week. I’ve added some great stuff, including custom file names for posts and sections, better image management, and much improved FTP publishing (now with error reporting!). My goal is to have b6 done by Thursday, for reasons which I cannot disclose at this time.

Jen, Gracie, and I have been trying to settle into life at a new church. It’s weird, and it’s different, and sometimes I really don’t like it and I wish that Westwood were still around and that I could see God’s plan from His perspective, but we’re doing the best we can. I’ve been playing on the worship team, along with Josh. To be honest, it’s sometimes a struggle for me to part of the worship team and not the one picking the songs, running rehearsal, and choosing arrangements, but we only grow in situations we’re not used to. And it’s mostly my own ego that sometimes makes me feel that way. Don’t get the wrong idea: I’m not leading an insurrection or anything, and I’m happy to be a team player. It’s just another adjustment.

Time for bed. Hopefully I’ll have more time to update this site.

I’m sitting in room 621 of the University of Chicago’s Gleacher Center, waiting for PowerSchool University to kick-off.

Fortunately, Jen and Gracie were able to come with me on this trip, which is good, because otherwise, I may have gone insane.

We arrived yesterday afternoon. Gracie was very nervous about the flight, and the 90 minute delay, while we were already sitting in the plane, didn’t help. So I missed early registration for PSU and had to come early to register this morning. We checked into the hotel last evening and I discovered, much to my dismay, that they want $10 per day for high speed internet access. Bull crap, say I. I’ve stayed in two other (much cheaper) hotels this year, and they both provided high speed access for free. Fine, so I’ll use the remaining hours on my AOL trial. Oh, wait – the hotel wants to charge you for dial-up, too! Thank goodness PSU itself has high speed wireless. Aaaaahhhh…

We went down to the Navy Pier last night. Very cool place. I’m sure we’ll be going back. Gracie loved it.

I decided to wear my black Apple Developer Program t-shirt today, because that always throws people off and then they think I work for Apple. But the PSU people gave us each a t-shirt, color-coded by region and asked us to wear them today. So now I’m wearing my royal blue PowerSchool t-shirt, and I look like the rest of the dinks around here.

PSU provides breakfast and lunch every day as part of the tuition. That’s pretty cool. So this morning, I leave my hotel and walk over to the Gleacher center, only to find out that the meals are over at the hotel. Dang. Well, there’s always lunch.

Hey, there’s Wayne! He did my Object Reports training at the IU back in April.

So, let’s see… what else is in my goodie bag? Well, for starters, there’s the bag itself. Really nice laptop backback. PowerSchool keychain, one of those mountain climber clip kind of things (hopefully Mike will provide the correct name in the comments). Ticket for a cruise on the Spirit of Chicago. Probably won’t be going, though. 10% off my next Apple Store purchase. Nice. 4D propaganda. Ehhh, not interested. I’m really finding 4D to be a major turn-off. There would be an iBook in there for me to borrow for the week, but I declined. I’d rather use my own machine, and they were totally cool about that.

More later.

I’m back from Ocean City, MD. Actually, we got in last night. I got through all of the things I wanted to accomplish during the trip:

– Frontier Town: check. What a great place. There’s a water park with lots of kid-friendly stuff, and unlimited miniature golf. They also have campsites. We’re looking into staying there some time.

– Eat pizza at Dough Roller: check.

– Eat breakfast at Dough Roller: check. We stayed on 41st street; Dough Roller was right across the street.

– Hit the beach: check, check, check, check, check…

– Ride the Sea Rocket: check. I love the Sea Rocket. It’s cool to see the beach and boardwalk from the ocean, and the ride’s a blast. You get soaked if you sit toward the back of the boat. And the crew is always a hoot. Two kickers this time. First, we saw dozens of dolphins. Usually when you see dolphins in Ocean City, you might see one or two and get a glimpse of the top of their dorsal fins. But there were many dolphins out that day, and they were jumping completely out of the water. But the best part was that they let Gracie drive the boat for a while. That was seriously cool, and she loved it.

– Discovery Nature Cruise to Assateague Island: check. My parents and my sister’s family did this last year and convinced us to try it. It was pretty cool. The guide was obviously a science teacher somewhere; we figured this was his summer job. He was extremely intelligent and told us all sorts of stuff about Ocean City and the bay. The tour lasts about 90 minutes, and in the middle, they drop you off on Assateague Island with a net and tell you to catch whatever you can. Then the tour guide came through with a huge dragnet and told us about all the critters that he caught in it. He got my two nephews to help with one end of the net, and he had Gracie assist him on his end. The kids really got a kick out of that.

– Dumser’s: check. Mmmmmm. Dumser’s.

– Check out Randy Hofman’s sculptures again: check. This guy is so amazingly talented. I can’t believe the things he can do with sand. A couple years ago I was lucky enough to walk up to his display while he was working. He talked to the gathered crowd briefly, then left. I got the impression he doesn’t like crowds.

– Quality time with family: check. ‘Nuff said. Most of my family is still down there and won’t come home until next week (my parents, my grandparents, and my sister and her family). Me? I was ready to come home. I’ve got a ton of work to do this week, and I kind of missed Jackie Boy.

– Boogie Boarding: check. We actually had decent waves this time, and Jen and I were able to spend a lot of time on boogie boards. I had to correct Grace repeatedly that they’re boogie boards, not buggy boards. I don’t think she gets it yet. The waves were so good that we had to replace one of the boogie boards we borrowed because it snapped in half. Then, as I finished riding it in, I nose dived and front tip snapped.

Just wanted to note that after using a cable modem for the past two years, I’d totally forgotten how slow dial-up access is.

And now I’ll find out how Tangelo fares over dial-up.

I’m off to the beach for a week. Feel free to talk amongst yourselves while I’m gone.

As for Internet access at the beach, I think I’ve been reduced to installing AOL on my PowerBook. I feel so… dirty.

So hopefully I’ll have enough connectivity to check mail once a day, and maybe even update this site once or twice during the week. I’m curious to see how Tangelo performs over dial-up. It’s been over two years since I’ve even used dial-up.

Anyway, if you don’t hear from me, that means I couldn’t get connected.

See you on the flip side.

After years of effort, I’ve finally been recognized as an evil genius.

You are an SEDF–Sober Emotional Destructive Follower. This makes you an evil genius. You are extremely focused and difficult to distract from your tasks. With luck, you have learned to channel your energies into improving your intellect, rather than destroying the weak and unsuspecting.

Your friends may find you remote and a hard nut to crack. Few of your peers know you very well–even those you have known a long time–because you have expert control of the face you put forth to the world. You prefer to observe, calculate, discern and decide. Your decisions are final, and your desire to be right is impenetrable.

You are not to be messed with. You may explode.

That’s what this test says about me. I’m curious to hear your results, as well as your analysis of mine.

Thanks to Dave and to Noel for the link.

I need help from diabolical minds. Here’s the situation. My sister let me know the other day that neighborhood kids, mostly teens, are using her yard for a bypass. They cut through all the time, about six to twelve on any given day. This is rude, but it wouldn’t be so bad if not compounded by the fact that they tend to linger there, near the deck, and socialize. They tend to use language that she would rather not explain to her four-year-old and seven-year-old sons.

Now despite my sister’s attitude about Thin Mints, I want to help her. Of course, the situation gets more complicated. Her neighbor doesn’t care, and so won’t cooperate with any efforts to keep kids from wandering through.

So what we’re looking for is this: some way to prevent or deter miscellaneous people from cutting through her yard that doesn’t rely on the cooperation of neighbors. I thought of some sort of motion sensitive hose, but that may prove to be difficult to build. The catch is that it can’t be anything that some kid’s parents would sue over.

Looking for suggestions. Thanks in advance.

You may have noticed in the header above that we’re celebrating ten years of matrimony. That’s right, Jen and I passed the ten year mark on Friday. I can’t believe it’s been ten years.

I know the common thing is to say, “Oh, it only seems like a couple weeks!” But that’s not true. It seems like forever that I’ve been with her. And I mean that in a good way. I don’t remember what I did before she was in my life. And it doesn’t matter. Nothing that happened before her really matters.

We were high school sweethearts. We were assigned to be dance partners in the spring musical during our senior year. My girlfriend-at-the-time, who had jealousy “issues”, came up to Jen and said, “I’m glad you’re his partner, because I don’t trust any of the other girls around here.” Whoops. Bad judgement, there. Jen and I started dating a few weeks later. Three years and change after that, we were married.

We’ve been through a lot together. Four homes. Six vehicles. Twelve jobs. One church that we left in disgust, and another we helped to build and then dismantle. One miscarriage and one stillborn son. And the best thing we ever did: Gracie.

Here’s to the next ten years, Jen. I love you more than ever.

Dave Winer’s How To Avoid Flamewars: When you’ve written something strong and personal, before posting, re-read it and pause for a few moments. Re-read what you’ve written and imagine that someone said what you’ve said, about you. Would you like it? Would you feel it was fair? Or would you feel angry? If so, you should probably reword it, so at least you would be okay with it. That doesn’t guarantee that the person you’ve written about will be okay with it. We’re all different, our buttons are in different places, we’re sensitive to different things.

I think my head just exploded.

I’m back from Tennesee. Actually, I’ve been back since Saturday. I’ve been busy doing things like sleeping in my own bed, hugging my wife and daughter, and not eating in restaurants.

I wasn’t sure if I was going to make it back. I was booked for a 7:30 flight on Saturday morning. Let’s see, try to get to the airport around 6:00 so I have time to drop off the rental car (Chrysler Sebring, a car I’d be happy never to drive again, but not as bad as Clair’s work truck, a GMC Behemoth that handles exactly the way I would expect an elephant with a gland problem would handle), get through security, etc. Hmm. Better wake up around 4:00. Shudder. Go to bed around 11:00. I can function on five hours with no problem. Noise in the hall; can’t sleep. Finally start to panic around 12:40. I can’t function on three hours. What if I don’t wake up? I woke up in time after all. Ate my well-planned breakfast of a Diet Coke and two Atkins bars. Dropped off the rental car and started through security when I realized that I still had my car keys. Whoops. Back to the beginning. Make it to the Atlanta airport, which is ridiculously large. Take a full twenty minutes to walk to the right terminal. Foolishly chug a soda about a half hour before departure. I did go to the bathroom, but as soon as the plane started to taxi, I felt an amazing pressure in my bladder. It was intense and sudden. OK, no problem. In ten or fifteen minutes, we’ll be in the air, and I’ll be free to move about the cabin. What’s taking so long. Sorry for the delay, folks. We’re number four for takeoff, so it’ll be a few minutes yet. Please don’t say number one. We’re in the air. I’m dancing in my seat. There’s a marine in the back row giving me funny looks. I guess I seem nervous. Ladies and gentlemen, this is the pilot speaking. We’ve reached our cruising altitude, but it’s a bit rough, so I’m going to leave the seatbelt light on for a while. When I turn it off, you’ll be free to move about the cabin. I don’t think I’m going to make it. I wonder if they charge you extra if you wet yourself on the plane? Beverage and snack service? Great – now I can’t go anywhere even if I were allowed. Finally, after 45 agonizing minutes, I had my first airplane restroom experience.

On second thought, maybe I shouldn’t have shared that story.

Other ramblings:

I’ve got Gmail (thanks to dda). And it’s killing Dave. Pretty cool so far. It’s one of the best web interfaces I’ve ever seen, which isn’t terribly high praise from me: I dislike the overwhelming majority of web interfaces. So does Deane.

Speaking of Dave, here’s a great story that reminded me of him. But Dave did point me to the 50 Coolest Song Parts, so thanks for that. The bass riff from out of nowhere in Paul Simon’s “You Can Call Me Al” is number 36.

And I ran across this link about a guy who made the switch in several ways: Philips, an account manager for Choice Communications, was baptized shortly after his conversion and is in contact with Apple computers as a potential candidate for the company’s popular “Switcher” ad campaign. Pretty funny stuff.

On another note, I got my 17″ PowerBook the other day. What an amazing machine. The screen is huuuuuuge. The illuminated keyboard is wonderful. I have yet to come up with a proper name for it. My last PowerBook (15″ titanium) was named Scooby.

And here’s something for Dan and Mike.