On the brink of lunacy. The stress right now is beyond description. My golden plan for this year has fallen to pieces. We were supposed to take a right at the last fork in the river which would have led to calm waters. One of my boats has sunk and now we are in cascading rapids and fighting the current to keep from barreling over the waterfall’s edge. We devoured most of our remaining rations at the last camp and our dry bag with our wallets washed out of the boat on the last class 5 rapid which doesn’t matter because who knows when we will see another trading post! Is everyone wearing their life jackets?
Year: 2008
Programming self into corner
With programming, over thinking a problem is a common pitfall. Sleeping on a problem often results in a quick solution for the mere fact that you quit thinking about the issue long enough to see the simpler solution. As we contrive our Rube Goldberg devices to solving programming challenges, we become like plumbers simply adding more pipes to divert the water to the end result. Quickly we paint ourselves into a corner and waste valuable time. I am there right now on what should be some simple css.
If I have a <tr> that has a class <tr class="foo"> and the <td> within the tr has an <a href> how do I style the anchor?
Before anyone jumps on the "Don’t use tables" bandwagon, this is semantically correct because the output is tabular data.
The solution should be tr.foo td a { }. But nothing changes. CSS is not magic; not spooky. CSS is relatively simple, and fun! But hiccups like this drive me to the brink!
State of Me
I’m a little shaken. I’m very angry. I can’t think straight. I’m going to see if I can build a penny stove (see also and also) in 20 minutes to demonstrate to the scouts tonight. Then I am back to coding. Must deliver a feature by midnight tonight or my head is going to crack open.
Update: Fail. Back to code. Skipped scouts.
The ever shrinking room
We’ve hit that time of the Monday where the walls begin to close in. This is the moment that I feel I need to continue programming to hit a milestone, simultaneously I need to be on the phone doing unpleasant bureaucratic things, and I also have a load of paperwork which demands I not ignore it a single more day. All the while I feel like I’m walking in glue. Since the world has gone micro, I think I’ll go have a micro-breakdown. Back in 15 minutes.
From the mouths of babes
Dad:"Give me that bop please."
Evan, 3 years old handing over pacifier:"Here go."
Dad:"Thank you."
Evan:"Welcome."
Dad:"You’re a good boy."
Evan:"Yeah Dad dy."
Upcoming Pixar Movies
- May 29, 2009 – Up
- October 2, 2009 – Toy Story in 3-D
- February 12, 2010 – Toy Story 2 in 3-D
- June 18, 2010 – Toy Story 3 in 3-D
- Summer 2011 – Newt
- Christmas 2011, The Bear and the Bow
- Summer 2012 – Cars 2
Read the summaries at The Animation Blog and be sure to watch the first video of Pixar’s next movie – UP.
Fancy Light Cycles!
Oh yeah! Tron2 trailer leaked.
Bush or Batman
Who said it?
From the mouths of babes
Evan, 3 years old: "Bye-bye Daddy!"
Dad:"Bye-bye."
Evan:"Thank you Daddy."
Dad:"You’re welcome. I love you!"
Evan:"I love you too Daddy"
These exchanges make me melt. Evan’s speech has inflections, pauses, and energy that we take for granted. His words say, "I have mastery of this language but I am still learning." I love to see a child grow!
Man Shoots Lawn Boy
What is our society coming to when you cannot even shoot your lawn mower in your own yard without going to prison!
I understand the Wii fit!
Watch this NSFW video titled Why every guy should buy their girlfriend Wii Fit and you’ll understand too!
Now the real reason I linked to the video: Views: 5,362,590 in two months! Holy cow! That’s called "going viral!" If Youtube was paying $5 for every thousand views (as suggested in Business Week) that one minute, nine second video of a girl in her panties swinging her hips would be worth $26,812.95!
How does it get viral? Emailed, social networks, links from sites like Asylum.com (AOL) and Popurls.com. This one in particular is being passed around so much that you almost have to work to not see it. Getting content to go viral is the dream of most content producers such as bloggers, video makers, podcasters, and so forth. But only one viral piece can bring down your servers and net you very little money. Figuring out the secret to getting content to regularly go viral is how people quit their day jobs and make their living blogging. Is it the underwear? Am I wearing the wrong underwear when I type?
Joystick Division interviews Giovanny Gutierrez who works for Tinsley Advertising to see if this one minute video was a marketing stunt.
Now even though the president of the company told me this is just a private video you posted with your Tinsley account, I’m not fooled. Admit it: you’re a part of a clandestine, Nintendo-sponsored viral marketing campaign!
The whole thing was just an idea I had for a spec viral video. I came up with the idea because that really is my girlfriend (not my sister like many have assumed), she loves Wii Fit and even more, looks hot doing it. [Source, Joystick Division, Q&A With the Man Behind "Why every guy should buy their girlfriend Wii Fit"]
So he did pre-meditate it going viral! That’s powerful. The LA Times even picked up the story. Here’s a great spoof video!
Today’s Deep Thought
Maintaining the illusion of normalcy during troubled times is like maintaining the illusion that you can breathe underwater. However, both are important.
Website advertising experts
Knoxville needs a sign ordinance.
I am the creepy stalker guy
I have had a post in draft that I thought Dr. Helen would enjoy but I just haven’t found the time to finish it. Today she posted "Every possible form of interaction between an adult and a child is perceived as yet another opportunity for child abuse." and I commented with the story from my post:
We are creating a horrible side affect in the way our children perceive the world. The lack of trust and an understanding that most people are good will impact the choices they make in our future as they become voters and influence laws in our society.
Last year I dropped by the high school band practice to give my daughter some money since she decided to stay from practice to the game instead of coming home. My wife and 3 other children were in the van as I approached the field. The girls on the flag team became concerned because "a creepy stalker guy" was approaching the field. Their response was an immediate jump to the negative.
How strong was the impact of this experience with my daughter? Two days ago I offered to drop by during band camp to offer support to the team and my daughter begged me to stay away. She reminded me specifically that I am “that creepy stalker guy.” Wow. Gee. Thank you society for the hollow feeling you have put in my chest, destroying bonding opportunities between my daughter and me, and embarrassing my daughter in front of her peers.
How can we be raising happy children to become happy adults when we are teaching them to focus only on the negative…and a negative that is highly unlikely?
As a male in our society, I encounter these horrid attitudes more and more frequently particularly as I lead scouts or visit schools. Boy Scouts of America has added training for the adult leaders as well as the children regarding child abuse. Nothing is more uncomfortable than talking to an 8 year old about potential child abuse except maybe talking to a second grader about sexual harassment but that’s a different a story for a different time.
Recently, an adult was asking about how to handle my children while they were at camp and I instructed, "Be firm. Be direct. Tell them they are being annoying." He said he couldn’t do that to another person’s child. You know. We used to say, "it takes a village [to raise a child]." Now everyone in the village is a suspect for an imagined crime that has yet to happen. I believe in the school of hard knocks. I believe in common sense. And I believe in people! Wrong me once, shame on you; wrong me twice, shame on me. I will protect my children within reason. I will not/cannot bubble wrap them and protect them from every sharp corner or hard surface. They will learn more and live fuller lives by me allowing them to fall down or break a bone than by my words and fears. I will teach them trust, and impact upon them common sense.
See also: Slate, 800,000 Missing Kids? Really? Making sense of child abduction statistics.
The Day Begineth
After a false start at 3am, I woke at 5am to taxi a child around town and have landed at my keyboard to frantically get some code out in the next hour. How goes your Thursday?
