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Today we think

Today, as you raise your hand to the driver that just cut you off, think
Choose to raise that middle finger, or give a friendly wave

Today, when the children learn that a whole roll of toilet paper won’t flush, think
Yell at them, or give them a hug and tell them it is ok to make mistakes

Today, when you miss the deadline again, think
Self-flaggelate to no end, or focus and get it done

Today, when your loved one snaps at you in stress, think
Sulk away and be hurt, or smile and give a hug

Today, think
Because sometimes tomorrow never comes.

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Car woes

The car has a problem that requires a $66 part…and $400 in labor because FORD designs their cars so that the common person can’t possibly work on them! In this case, the whole dash board needs to be removed so that a heater core can be replaced.

At least I don’t have to generate my own power for my computers.

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Shape your reading material

Dean and Jeni have asked for reader input on their blog. I’ve toyed with this thought myself. “What do you like? dislike? Want to see more of? less of? etc.” I always stop myself because I assume if you are reading this post then you come because you either like the style or the content as is. I have several things I want to do but cannot because time and money haven’t permited. But fear not! I’m certain that I will knock Dooce off her throne and become the envy of all daddy bloggers! The wealth from the sponsorships pouring in will allow me to staff some writers and research assistants and get us the endless pot of coffee that we have forever sought!

Special thanks to each of the 4 of you who read this.

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Good clean fun

The girls at one of the lads will listen to your commands at The Carwash. This has an element of Zork along with an element of Playboy. Work questionable. And here is a list of commands (these words might offend) for when you get bored trying your own.

YIKES! Pasted that list without reading it!

I tried a couple of words and saw nothing any less tasteful than a trip to your local Hooters but viewer beware! “Herbie” was funny btw.

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Satellite Technology Is Amazing!

If google and other services can provide such detailed satellite imagery, can you imagine what the government can do? I bet the NSA can read your newspaper at the breakfast table! From Google Maps you can see the transformer that blew out yesterday giving us a few hours of no electricity. That white line running over the road and over the blue car is the powerline. Yes! A satellite took a photograph that picked up a cable that must be no larger in diameter than a roll of film. That white dot in the trees just left of the blue car is one transformer (it’s blown out twice in 8 years) and if you continue to follow the line left (West) to the end of the street you can find the transformer that blew yesterday. Granted, it had the aid of a tree. What is remarkable is this photo has to be several years old because we have since had a new roof put on the house.

I wonder what kind of lists you get put on when the NSA sees your website in their referral logs.

UPDATE: I’ve had it explained to me that this level of photography is done by plane not satellite. Btw, apparently the link doesn’t bring you in at the maximum zoom level. So zoom in as much as you can.

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Hours in my day

For health, 8 hours sleep
I should keep two fulltime projects running at all times. Let us assume one of those is a regular job with a required 1 hour break. That would be 9 hours. The other one can be 8.
Blogging (reading, writing, researching), 2 3 4 hours (this one was for humor sake but we’ll leave them in anyway)
Driving kids around town and other errands: 2 hours
The 3 s’s (bathroom stuff): 45 minutes
Cooking/eating: 1 hour 15 minutes
Quality time with the kids: 2 hours
Phone calls: 1 hour
Television: 1-2 hours

Total thus far: 38 hours in my day

Of course, I left out things like email, billing, finances, marketing, exercise (yeah,right)….

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The frustrating part of working from home – addendum

Concerning my earlier post: But I love it! I take on this stressful, risky lifestyle not for riches of money but for the riches of time well spent with the children. It means I work late at night and get up early and work on the weekends but I get quality time with the kids that I love. The frustrating part is when exhaustion, procrastination, self-indulgence, or lack of focus cause me to miss some of those late night or weekend hours.

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The frustrating part of working from home

I’ve hit that frustrating part of the day. I’m trying desperately to please a client and am literally a few lines of code away from accomplishing it but the needs of the dog and of the toddler won’t let me finish so I’ll receive a scathing phone call while I’m driving her to school. My self-esteem will take another hit. I can’t even finish this paragraph. I’m being paged to the toddler’s aid.

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House of Reps Banned from Wikipedia

Looks like the House overstepped its bounds.

The staff of U.S. Rep Marty Meehan wiped out references to his broken term-limits pledge as well as information about his huge campaign war chest in an independent biography of the Lowell Democrat on [Wikipedia]…

Matt Vogel, Meehan’s chief of staff, said he authorized an intern in July to replace existing Wikipedia content with a staff-written biography of the lawmaker.

Looks like it becomes a question of ethics particularly considering that the logs show vandalic changes to other political profiles coming from the House ip addresses.

the sheer breadth of changes emanating from the House reflects an abuse of public time and equipment, said Stephen Potts, former director of the federal Office of Government Ethics, now chairman of the Ethics Resource Center.

When will integrity return to politics?