"Murphy was an optimist!"
Nothing starts your day like… April 11, 2011 10:37 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Daily Life…painting trim on the clubhouse! A carpenter bee found one of our untreated boards but we caught it early so hopefully all will be well.
add a commentThis weekend’s project – preparing to paint the bathroom April 10, 2011 3:44 pm
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Daily LifeEach weekend, we debate: bathroom or clubhouse. This weekend bathroom won with preparing the drywall for painting.
Tim Minchin’s Anti-woo beat poem Storm April 8, 2011 6:10 pm
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Humor, Philosophy, Poetry, Touchy SubjectsVery well produced!
Seen on BoingBoing.
What is woo-woo?
add a commentWoo-woo (or just plain woo) refers to ideas considered irrational or based on extremely flimsy evidence or that appeal to mysterious occult forces or powers.
Get Your War On April 8, 2011 9:15 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Humor, Politics, Touchy SubjectsEntertainment Opportunity for You April 8, 2011 8:47 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Of InterestUnion County seeks entertainers for their Renaissance Faire Saturday, April 16 from 11am-4pm.
I am too booked that day to be able to help.
Would anybody (and multiple people can do this) be interested in providing walk-around entertainment at this event? This is volunteer work. Their one request is no clowns.
Here’s the link to their flyer.
If interested, email me juggler@gmail.com or call/text 865-898-7189 or skype: djuggler and I’ll get you contact information of the event organizer.
add a commentBest ev’r reminder service fails to its own success – RIP Jott.com April 7, 2011 7:58 pm
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Announcements, Daily Life, Of InterestI can’t remember…oh right, RIP Jott.
"We founded Jott in April of 2006. … In 2006 Jott emerged as a leader in mobile voice-to-text applications… we will focus our voice-to-text service investments on carrier and enterprise distribution, and no longer on Jott.com." [Source, Jott blog]
Of all the services I’ve played with and have seen go, this is the first that almost brought a tear to my eye. 
My first Jott was on September 5, 2007 at 9:54am. I spoke into my phone and the service translated my words to text. I would later learn that Jott used a combination of computer software and people at call centers. I imagine that if the software failed to understand a word, that segment of the message would be pushed to a queue and transcribed by person. Jott sat on my speed dial and I could verbally leave a message, send it to another service like Remember The Milk or another person via email/sms/etc, and even set a reminder which would send the transcribed message to me via SMS. I even had Jott installed as the default software for my Jawbone Icon
How the hell am I going to remember anything?! (Springpad of course!)
add a commentFrom the mouths of babes April 7, 2011 4:01 pm
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Amy, Daily Life, Family, From the mouths of babes, Of Being DadiPhone: *barrrring bringg*
Amy, 8 years old: "What’s our family’s email address?"
Me: "Um. What do you need it for?"
Amy: "I want to comment on videos on Youtube."
Me: "Uh. We need to talk…"
Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! April 7, 2011 3:39 pm
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Of Interest, Publishing, VideoA Tiny Day in the Jackson Hole Backcountry from Tristan Greszko on Vimeo.
This looks like something that belongs on Adult Swim.
add a commentKnoxville STEM School Excites Students April 7, 2011 10:41 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Daily Life, Education, Family, Health, Noah, Of InterestThe student/parent orientation and final tour of the STEM school before major renovation begins was this week. Noah received his official acceptance letter and will be one of 43 students in the sophomore class. A graduating class of 43! My graduating class from Germantown High School in 1988 was 672 people. I can only imagine how unique and special Noah’s education will be. The orientation was akin to a family reunion. Everyone seemed to know each other and be very like minded with regard to the goals of education. The principal is extremely enthusiastic. I have high hopes and think the Knoxville STEM Academy will do great! Oh, one of the highlights was the announcement that all students will be issued an iPad 2. There will be no textbooks. I’m thrilled and I’m thrilled for Noah.
Video source: WBIR.
add a commentHeard in 5 states! April 6, 2011 11:26 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Daily Life, Publishing, RadioWhat was I doing this morning between 9am and 10am? Hanging out with Bob Thomas, Ed Brantley, Mike Howard, and Brian Hornback on WNOX‘s The Ed and Bob Show! I had a blast! I hope they do this segment again. I think we could have talked for 8 hours on various blogging topics. Shoot, privacy and safety could be an entire show.
- Brian blogs at http://brianhornback.blogspot.com/ and tweets as @brianhornback.
- Bob Thomas tweets as @BobThomasWNOX
- Ed Brantley tweets as @edbrantley
- WNOX is online at http://www.wnoxfm.com/ and can be found on Twitter as @WNOX1003 and the studio is live streamed for video through Justin.tv
- The Ed and Bob show has a webpage, a Facebook page and can be found on Twitter as @ed_and_bob. The show accepts callers at +1-865-243-TALK (8255) or text messages to 41513
- Shameless plug: Cathy McCaughan blogs at http://domesticpsychology.com
Where’s the Jeep?! April 6, 2011 7:51 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Daily Life
I wish Clara Peller was still around to narrate this post for me. She could squawk out, "Where’s the Jeep?" See, last night was the parent and student orientation for Knoxville’s newest high school, the STEM Academy and my 14 year old son will be attending in the fall as a sophomore. With a household of seven, mobilizing our crew is no simple matter and when the plans get changed at the last minute, anything goes. Last night the plan changed to me staying at my client’s office and the family picking me up for the orientation. The STEM school orientation was incredible. The principal is so enthusiastic and everything about the school fits into my vision of the future of our education down to the students being assigned iPad 2’s! The gathering was like a reunion. So many familiar faces showed that it felt like family and the school hasn’t even opened. But that’s for another post. Where’s the Jeep? Well, we left so excited (and with a 5 and 8 year old up past bedtimes) that we just drove home. Muscle memory steered the van, not logic. And the sad, forgotten Jeep stayed somewhere overnight in its lonely parking spot, leaving me this morning with but one question…how do I get to my client’s office today?!
n.b. The Neon has an engine that goes cachug kachug cachug right now and expired tags so it’s not an option. Taking the van strands Cathy at home.
add a commentTune in tomorrow 9-10am April 5, 2011 1:01 pm
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Announcements, Blog, Communications, Of Interest, Publishing, Technology
Tomorrow, April 6, 2011 from 9am to 10am, I’ll be discussing blogging with Brian Hornback (Twitter: @brianhornback), Ed Brantley and Bob Thomas on WNOX‘s 100.3 The Ed & Bob Show (listen live online). You can interact with Ed and Bob on Facebook and Twitter. I suspect you can call in with questions or feel free to use twitter to send messages to @djuggler or post in comments here. This will be a blast!
Monday April 4, 2011 9:30 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Daily LifeOh Monday…
- can’t find parking pass
- tags on Jeep expired
- shoe rubbing heel raw
- fingers cut to pieces from shingling in the dark
- iPhone feels dirty since I haven’t been able to restore it from its latest backup
- one eye itching and watery…no, Spriiiing
- head filled with smog
- today needs to be my administrative day where I just deal with the bureaucracy in my life
- the lights are too bright
- Rain coming and the roof ridge on the club house needs 2 hours or so.
- still no toilet in the upstairs bathroom although progress was made on drywall
- client obligations weighing heavy on my mind
My April/May 2011 Juggling Performances April 3, 2011 11:22 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Announcements, Health, Juggling, Of InterestThis is my upcoming performance schedule.
- April 15 11:15-11:30 and noon-12:15 – UT’s International Festival on the UC Plaza. Fire will be allowed.
- April 15 3:00-3:30 Dogwood Art’s festival children’s stage near Krutch Park downtown – Fire will be allowed.
- April 16 5:00-8:30 Zoo-to-do juggling at the Knoxville Zoo. No fire. LED show if darkness comes soon enough.
- April 17 4:00-4:30 Dogwood Art’s festival children’s stage near Krutch Park downtown – Fire will be allowed.
- April 30 time tbd (event is 8-5) Dogwood Art’s Chalk Wallk walk-around juggling in Market Square and Krutch Park – details still being worked out. Probably a G to PG-13 rated crowd since this will be atmospheric/walk-around the performances will be shorter more adhoc depending on what crowd gathers to watch. Fire will be based upon each location that is density of the crowd, nearness to flammables, etc. You know.. the standard safety considerations.
- May 6 5-8:30 Dreamnight at the Zoo with Children’s Hospital – the event is for children with severe ongoing medical concerns and terminal illness. – No fire. LED equipment if darkness comes soon enough.
- May 7 10-11:30 (probably more like 10:45-11:30 – event is 10am-2pm and the only slot taken is 11:30-noon when Michael Messing performs magic). The event is Children’s Mental Health Week sponsored by TN Voices for Children and will be near Krutch Park.
If you are interested in joining me on any of these endeavors, just let me know. Obviously most of the events are G-rated but I think we can have a little more fun with the UT students. Note: At this point, none of the performances are likely to be amp’d ie. no microphones or PAs. I currently do not have a passing partner for any of these events. If you want to pass with me or have some solo time at one of these events, please let me know. Don’t sell your skills short. If you learn to pass clubs Monday night, you’re already good enough! Performances are much less about perfect juggling and far more about audience engagement.
Juggle til you drop!
add a commentComputer Lesson of the Day April 2, 2011 6:17 pm
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Daily Life, Hardware, TechnologyIf you find yourself asking, "I wonder how hot that heat sink is?" use an infrared thermometer
