Category: Daily Life

Ramblings, often stream of conscious, journaling the events of my life.

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Early Birding It

Productive day ahead! My simple goal today is show results to my client. One of the challenges of freelancing or working remotely is showing results. Sometimes a developer’s time is spent behind the scenes or working through an issue in test files that are isolated from your application. That is how I spent my day yesterday. So at the end of the day, there is nothing to show and if your boss is not in a possible to peek in on you or look over your shoulder than not showing anything is comparable to not working.

Today I rose at 4am, in a jolt. I sprang from bed, sat in the cool air of the morning for a little chanting, bathed and dressed, ate a banana, and got to work. What a great way to start the day!

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From the mouths of babes

Dad, excited to see Tommy calling from college: "Hello!"
Nothing
Dad: "Hello?"
background noise
Dad: "Tommy, you there?"
Tommy: "Tech support question."
Dad, of course, why else would family call me: "What is it?"
Tommy: "My friend’s computer boots but goes to a blue screen before getting into Windows."
Dad: "Does he have a warranty with someone?"
Tommy: "BestBuy but the nearest one is in Knoxville."
Dad: "Then he needs to find a way to get to Knoxville."
Dad: "Okay. Can you boot into safe mode?"
Tommy: "Same thing happens."
Dad: "Is this a desktop or a laptop?"
Tommy: "A laptop."
Dad: "Has this computer been dropped?"
Tommy: "Well, yeah."
Dad: "Go to BestBuy."

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From the mouths of babes

I like to change the picture on my desktop from time to time. I have two monitors and the picture appears on each of them. The theme lately has been family so I have had a variety of pictures of the children and Cathy as my desktop. Today I thought I’d try on something artsy. I went looking for a picture and came across a very tasteful, black and white nude that the composition just seemed far more striking than any of the other photos on the site. 30 seconds later, Evan comes strolling up to my desk.

Dad, trying to get an application to cover up the picture, instead gets an hour glass: "Hi Evan."
Evan, 3 years old, very loudly: "Nice butt!"
Dad, watching hour glass: *blink*
Evan, making sure Dad heard, places emphasis on butt: "Nice BUTT!"

At least the boy has good taste! Now, time to find something more abstract…

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Leading Scouts

Last night I took a break from programming to do something important to me. As a Boy Scout Leader, I mentor boys between the ages of 11 and 18 to help them develop life skills and build character. I have skipped the past 3 meetings or so to work as well as the past couple of outings. Scouting is a volunteer organization in which you practically pay to participate. The activities are often expensive and there is enough training and time sinks to turn Scout leadership into a full-time job. There are professional Scouters and I personally think that would be a blast! I derive as much from the Scout program as the boys. My leadership skills stay sharp and grow better. I am reminded of my lessons as a Scout in wilderness survival, first aid, and just being a good person. I also learn new skills, particularly cooking. I work with a great group of intelligent, achieved adults and the boys in the program are outstanding. These are our future leaders!

Cliff Stoll implored us to "teach a class" and he was meaning to take 4-5 days a week and teach children in a classroom setting. Scouts does not meet his 4-5 day request but is still teaching. I relate to Clifford Stoll’s meaning. I hope you too teach children in some way be it Scouts, Boys and Girls Club, a church, or just interacting with them in your neighborhood. Be a mentor!

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Weekend in Review

This was a working weekend. My current project needed to see some drastic visual improvements that have to look good in Internet Explorer 6. (I’m a semantic programmer that advocates CSS over tables for design.) This weekend was dedicated to those visual improvements. My reward as I made progress was to do some wiring and drywalling in the downstairs bedroom. The light switch used to hang, in an uncovered gangbox, dangling from the 12-2 wiring in the hallway. I was always afraid one of the kids was going to get a terrible shock from turning on the lights. Evan loved to get a step stool and turn on the lights himself. Now the switch is installed in the wall just inside the bedroom as it should and is covered with a face plate. It is also reachable by Evan without a step stool. I’ve had fun watching the children try to figure out how to turn on the lights. Evan is having a blast dimming the lights and turning them on and off.

If I continue to use fixing that bedroom as my milestone reward, we’ll have paint on the walls by the week’s end!

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Today’s bizarre dialog

I began the week with this conversation and end it with this one:

Me, at Chick-fil-a drive through squawk box: "One more thing. I’d like a large carrot and raisin salad."
Her: "You wanna a what?!"
Me: "A large carrot and raisin salad."
Her: "I’m sorry. Could you repeat that?"
Me, considering describing it by color: "Please add a large carrot and raisin salad. One caaaarrrroottt and raisin salad."
Her: "Huh?"
Me, about to give up, raising my voice and yelling to the window instead of the speaker: "A carrot and salad please! Large."
Her: "Okay. Drive up."

Yes, in hindsight, I’m sure she heard me the first time but was just in utter disbelief. The employee dialog, amidst laughter, must have been, "Hey, do we have any of that carrot junk left over from last week?"