Site Developer
Well, just throw "Site Developer" on my resume. Mom has been on the board for the Southwest Symphony Orchestra for a while, and I volunteered to update the site. Not bad for coding it in Notepad essentially...
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April 30, 2003
Light Reading
With the commencement of warm weather and a hectic schedule, this weekend I had just enough time (between soccer games and family stuff) to sit down and do something I haven't been able to do for a while. Read.
Sat down with a book called A Man Called Dave. The book is a followup to his previous books A Child Called It and The Lost Boy which dealt with severe child abuse. His first two books are pretty much required reading for anyone that wants to take a special needs child; the last one is pretty much an autobiography of his 20's and 30's. It's an interesting read about how someone (Dave obviously) was able to get his past out of his life and move on.
Heck, it could have been stereo instructions. I was just happy enough to get a few hours to read in peace while my kids were out terrorizing the neighborhood.
Adding On
While working from home has been interesting, it's also brought forth the obvious need for me to get a different place. We've been bouncing around the idea of moving, but with the current commision structure of most realtors in this area, combined with the friends our kids have made; we've made the decision to add on to the house. I'm contracting out the majority of it (or all of it, depending on what the bids come back at).
Into the abyss...
April 26, 2003
Moral Equivalency and Shellfish
So as I've been running around the blog universe, I ran into Dean Esmay's blog about the war, liberalism, et al. Dean's wife Rosemary put up a post about how people who are against the war but support the troops are hypocrites just as the people who don't like abortion but want to keep it legal.
I don't know what to think about this issue. I obviously think the war was the right thing to do, but when it comes to pushing my "moral judgement" onto others, I personally think bad things happen.
The republic we live in depends on compromise. Derek I know would like to live in a tax-free haven just for himself, but I know that taxes need to be paid for those silly things like schools, roads, etc. And yes, government is corrupt in a good part of it.
So where do we draw the line? Where does the moral high ground meet the law?
April 21, 2003
End of the Apple Saga?
It's going back.. Got the RMA and I'm paying for the shipping. Ugh.
I wil admit that I like the interface, but for what I do on a day-to-day basis, this machine will not work for me. Yes, bad on me for not thinking about how I use my machines already (nice KVM switch to bounce between work and play machines).
So yes, the EMac is going back and after I do some KVM updating, maybe I'll put out the $$$ for the G4 tower.
Or maybe I'll get that new P4 Dell with the 18" LCD for the same price...I'm not sure yet.
Crash #2
Mac crashed again this morning. Don't know if this box doesn't like Safari or something.
Part of me really likes this box but the other part wants to ship it back to Apple and get stuck with the 10% restocking fee...
April 19, 2003
Mac Fallacy #1?
Never have to reboot after a program update??
I'm a "Mac"ing now
Fed Ex guy showed up this afternoon with a large and cumbersome box with my lovely little EMac in it. It's not a bad box, from what I've been able to play with so far. Here's the problems I've found so far.
#1. 1280x1024 is most likely at 60Hz, not 72Hz no matter what the box says.
#2. Navigating around isn't as "intuitive" as I thought it would be.
#3. The bar at the bottom is highly annoying.
#4. The CD-RW is shaky, almost like it's going to fall off.
On the plus side, it has nice sound and I like the browser at this point. Now just have to figure out how to get the box networked with my XP machnes.
Derek, you will be happy to know the CD that broke its cherry was "Echoes: Best of Pink Floyd"
April 17, 2003
For all of the cat lovers out there...
Looked "altered" but it's still quite funny.
http://www.eden.rutgers.edu/~curtisb/public_html/The%20Cats%20Meow.html
April 16, 2003
Duh
Some girl (Bitta Mostofi from Voices in the Wilderness) is spouting on Fox right now about how "Corporate America" is stealing money from the Iraqis since the US is awarding contracts to foreign firms and not Iraqi ones.
Umm Bitta, maybe you missed it. Iraq doesn't exactly have the world best infrastructure at this moment (thanks to Saddam's little party he's had for the past 30 years). How can you award a contract to an Iraqi firm to say, make books, if their presses we're blown up.
Of course, it was mostly ranting about "Corporate America" and the evil of corporations. Jees people, get over it. Some corporations are big and greedy to a point. But the majority of them are just out to make a buck and to make a good product.
Update: After a quick Google search, I found out what their real goal was.
Slow day
That or just about anything is making me laugh.
FoxTrot Rocks
Just saw the new strip this morning. The geek world is moving more and more into the mainstream.
April 14, 2003
I did it...
Ordered an eMac tonight. Apple threw the 700Mhz ones on clearance and I couldn't pass it up.
Now I have to make room on my desk for this new box...not an easy thing to do.
April 12, 2003
New Axis
Axis of Evil
Iraq, Iran, North Korea
Axis of Drivel
France, Russia, Germany
April 11, 2003
Emily on Video
Last night, my daughter sang for the Candlelight Vigil for Child Abuse Awareness in Huntington County. She did a great job, anyone who wants to watch it can download it here.
Warning, it's an 8MB Windows Media file. Sorry Mac Users, I'll update the Quicktime software sometime today.
April 10, 2003
Dave Barry has a blog??
Baghdad Bob's Website
Stolen from The Command Post:
Switching ain't easy..
So, for the past few weeks I've been bothering Derek ad nauseum to see if he knew of anyone that had a spare Mac lying around so I could at least play around with OS X. I've looked at getting a new IMac, but I really can't see parting with $1300 to play around with a machine that I might ultimately put on Ebay. And of course, Apple has a 10-day return policy, hardly enough time to really test out a machine to it's fullest extent.
I've been toying around with the idea of picking up a refurb IBook and slapping OS X on it just to get a good idea how well it runs. The problem is most IBook are G3s, which makes me think the OS X experience would highly suck on a really dog slow machine.
Germany Missing the Point
I was thinking about this while driving my daughter to school today (while she was chatting with her friends about movies, etc..).
Fort almost 40 years, the country of Germany was occupied by France, Britain, the Soviet Union, and the United States. In that time, the United States provded support (see Marshall Plan), security (see NATO), and help in forming a democratic government).
So it really makes me wonder why Germany is concerned about the US liberation and (their words, not mine) "occupation" of Iraq. Are they afraid that and a country the Middle East and the world can be proud of? Just wondering.... we won't do that same thing to Iraq, you know, make them an economic power
Good Cartoon
April 8, 2003
Newt Quote
I've never been a huge fan of him, but this quote on Fox News was quite funny.
"The United States saw Saddam Hussein as a threat while Jacques Chirac saw him as a customer."
War Photos
While you might be in support of the war or against it, this site is still well worth viewing.
April 7, 2003
Protesters & Rubber Bullets
You know, when you park your keister in the middle of a busy road; don't be surprised if the police don't take a liking to your perceived idea of "Freedom of Speech".
HIPAA Hell
Just spent the last hour going through HIPAA hell training. Since there is a small chance that I could possibly see customer data on the pipe (about the same chance as enjoying my son's "Lil Bow Wow" CD) I got to spend an hour on all the rules and crap involved with HIPAA.
Derek, if you have to deal with this shit on a daily basis, you have my sympathies. ;-)
April 6, 2003
Back Home
Well, I did it. 40 hours in the car to take three screaming brats down to Florida to see the relatives and the big rat in Orlando.
Haven't uploaded all of the pics yet, might get around to it this week.