Catching up

Work and Life have been pretty busy the last couple of weeks. We had a great visit with my mother, step-father, step-brothers and their wives and children both at our house and over at my nephew's graduation party. We have done a lot of catching up with the family and we have eaten our way through many days. It always feels good to get together with family and have a good meal. The last time this many of us were together was at Thanksgiving time. I really need to get better at making our way over there because it is only an hour and a half drive. We have gotten along so well the last few times that we've all gotten together and having the large family gatherings makes it feel special like when we all grew up in the same house.
Alex had another successful progression in his soccer season, which wrapped up last weekend. We had a little get together after the final game to have ice cream and celebrate with his teammates. Morgan is in her final week of preparation for her dance recital and then dance will be done for the summer as well. Her bowling league is about half way done and that wraps up in July. After that I am not sure what the kids will do. I get a lot of the "I'm bored" remarks each day now and since the school year is officially finished, they have all day to find things to do.
With the help of Michael, our fence is up! I was in full DIY to the rescue mode when he was showing me how things were done. I learn so much and it is great that he can be patient with me so I can try to learn by doing. I am still at little shy of the pneumatic nail gun, but it is a wonderful tool that saved us a ton of time. I still can't believe that we had it done in just two long workdays. All that is left is to hang and build out the gate, put on a latch and it's done. I really appreciate my yard a lot more now that it has the fence even if I hate to admit that Kelly was right about this one. The post and rail fence is really different in our neighborhood where there are more chain link fences than anything and I didn't want a privacy fence to make me feel all cooped up. It sets the boarder for the yard without being so confining. I know that more projects will be on the way, not just sure yet what the next one will be. Time will be needed to refill the coffers before we can start anything new.
This weekend we hit our first anniversary of being home owners. I can't believe that it went by so fast. We have been really lucky to be here and have things work out so well. Now all I need to do is make sure that I take the time to slow down even when the work pace is fast and enjoy what we have.

Fair(y) Use Explained

Amazingly funny video that explains the copyright laws and what fair use really is.

This is a video originally posted here:
http://www.boingboing.net/2007/05/19/fairy_use_tale_amazi.html

The rush for innovation?

Today I was working in my office when Morgan came in and said "I've got Chicken Pox" and showed off her spots. All of this even after the doctors and the school system forced us to deal with the Chicken Pox vaccine. What the hell is the point? The scientists claim that it is 85% effective. In the short history that I've known folks that have had the vaccine, most of them have ended up getting the Chicken Pox. Yet we get into this you must have it, we have to eradicate another disease that affects children. Is this going to be the same thing with the new Cervical cancer vaccine? We get so much hype about the new wonder drugs and with the companies trying to maximize the return on investment, one has to wonder if our study groups are long enough. What recourse does one have on a failure of an immunization like this?

On another innovation front, yesterday Motorola was pushing a new cable technology that could boost speeds up to 160 mb/s (megabits per second) over standard coaxial lines. This is a nice technology to see, but it will be years before anyone is ready to roll it out. Cable companies and telco's who run DSL have mini-monopolies in most communities and they have no reason to upgrade their systems. When they do, they charge through the roof for it because there is no competition to keep prices low. In my area you can get a cable modem with a highest speed of 3 mb/s or you can do like we did and get 6mb/s DSL. With the merger of AT&T and BellSouth earlier this year we were hoping that this might lead to some new updates, but local rules that create these mini-monopolies are in place to keep this new innovation out.

It just gets frustrating.

Fun being a Dad

Today was a good day. I was able to be the kind of dad that I know that I can be. I was the fun dad who was able to spend time with the kids and still get things done around the house. I took Morgan to practice her bowling while the lanes were having a special of 2 hours for $8.95 per player. Even when you throw in the $2.50 for shoes, it's a good deal. We ended up playing four games plus an extra frame. Morgan worked on her approach after we did some research on the side. I am very proud of her, she kept going even when she was frustrated and though she didn't get near her average in pins, she is building up confidence and learning how to do things the right way, using her brain and picking apart the issue until she can work it out. I did much better today than on Friday night. I dropped down to an 11 lb ball and I was much more comfortable. I bowled a 142 in our third game, near my all time high. After we got back home, I did some yard work using the grass hog to weed-eat around the front yard. I planted some mammoth sunflowers on the side of the house. This variety of the sunflower is not supposed to need a lot of tending to and should grow to be 9 to 12 feet high with big blossoms (yum, homegrown sunflower seeds!). While Kel worked on dinner, I took the kids outside to play whiffle ball in the yard. Both Alex and Morgan love to hit the ball and both are getting much better at throwing the ball back to me. After dinner, Morgan and I took a walk around the circle (our local block) and now I am so wiped out.

Family Fun Night

Tonight after we had a quick dinner, I had a mean desire to go bowling. Since Morgan started her homeschool league and has been going once a week for games, it has given me the fever. We went down to the local lanes and it was hoppin'. A nice reminder that we live in a smaller town again, the bowling alley is packed on a Friday night. Didn't do so well with my scores tonight, I was using a heavier ball than usual and not sure that I liked it. I have pains in strange places after our night of fun. Morgan is getting really good at keeping her cool even when she gutter balls it. Alex didn't like that we had a lane with no bumpers and he couldn't use any throwing aids. He tried his hardest and although he wasn't happy with his final score, we were very proud of him.
I think that this could become a regular thing for us. We have really started enjoying our family time together at night, something I think we'd been taking for granted. With my new work schedule having me working all sorts of hours, its nice just to have some time to still find fun together without too many issues. I want to see how things play out going through the summer but I might just have the guts to try and join one of the leagues. It all depends on time, money and the ability to commit to it. I need something that is fun for me. I love to play with the computers but after week upon week of working on them all day, I just don't have the same gusto with them like I used to (ack! !! scandal! Geek in distress???)

Happy Beltane!

Hope everyone is having a great day. It is a day full of energy and new vibes to make things better. Bightest Blessings!

Dude, your laptop is getting Feisty - Today Dell announced that they will sell a select number of models of desktop and laptop computers running Ubuntu Linux version 7.04, dubbed Fiesty Fawn. This is a huge impact deal because it is the first time a major company like Dell listened to the user base about what they wanted. Here is a link to the announcement: http://direct2dell.com/one2one/archive/2007/05/01/13147.aspx

Another interesting announcement is that Joost is going to open the beta up further. I can now send unlimited invites. Let me know if you want me to send you one and you can check out the iptv craze yourself. They now have the big advertisers linked up, all we need is full fledge content that they have been promising. I like the Lime channel, especially since I can't get it from my satellite provider.

In more somber news, today marks FOUR YEARS since our el dipwad 'W' said mission accomplished on our war in Iraq. Likely story bud. I wouldn't be worried about the safety of my little brother if you were really done over there. Here is a rather telling story about the numbers since the hoopla four years ago: http://thinkprogress.org/2007/05/01/mission-accomplished-07/

Hopefully our country will get it together and free us from this awful mess.