Hello everyone. We like to do things a bit latter…
you know, catch the after Christmas sales and have more time to
prepare. This year that philosophy also extends to Christmas cards and
in this case, emails.
The year of 2007
January of 2007 Alan’s team got outsourced to Singapore and he found a new job working for friends doing web development. Alan also picked up a contracting job which ended up being part-time which ended up being his new full time job this November.
A good and busy Christmas this year. We stayed in Louisville because Anita’s too close to due-date to travel. Had 7 different family engagements in two days and enjoyed every one… though at the end of things we are certainly tired. We had too much food and too much sugar, enough sleep and a great amount of fun.
Photos of Christmas:
PS: +Facebook
Also – I setup a facebook profile +photos, because it’s the thing to do.
<p> </p> <blockquote> <p> The Pig type is usually an honest, straightforward and patient<br /> person. They are a modest, shy character who prefers to work quietly<br /> behind the scenes. When others despair, they are often there to offer<br /> support. This type of person is reserved with those they do not know<br /> too well, but as time passes and they gain confidence, those around<br /> them may discover a lively and warm-hearted person behind that mask of<br /> aloofness.
It’s long, but great – go read the Nerd Handbook and understand your favorite nerds just a bit more. Here’s a quote from the top:
Understand your nerd’s relation to the computer. It’s clichéd, but a nerd is defined by his computer, and you need to understand why.
First, a majority of the folks on the planet either have no idea how
a computer works or they look at it and think “it’s magic”.
I recently came up with a VERY simple algebraic equation… trying to figure out how many months it would take for something to become cost effective. I looked at the equation and thought I would see if google search could solve it (it can solve basic math problems and even unit conversions), but google couldn’t handle it. So I thought I’d see if there was something else. It took no time to find Algebrahelp.
As Douglas Adams put, humans really can’t deal with having a sense of proportion. We aren’t capable. But we can stretch for it…
(I can touch my toes, but I can’t bend further over… but I should try to)
Take 5 minutes and read this fantastic piece on an image from Hubble Ultra Deep Field. It’s a great reminder of what we know about space and a few tools to help you start to realize that you can’t ever come close to grasping a true sense of proportion.
Not that it matters to most of you, but a friend of mine reminded me that I should indicate who I am voting for… If for nothing else I like the following line:
I offer trustworthy, competent and genuine leadership. I am not a Politician.
Of course, anyone can say that – but my general feeling is that he would be a good Senator.
Anita and Alan and Cathy (Alan’s mom) visit Chris and Jenny Parker in the hospital ~2 days after the birth of Emmalynn Parker.
more…
This was a “scary” birth story. After 7-8 hours of early/active labor, everything normal and in the Hospital… the baby monitor showed significantly decreasing heartrate. Chris hit the “call nurse” button about the same time as 4 nurses ran into the room and moved Jenny around. The changed position got the heartrate up some, but not enough… so an emergency cessarian was preformed.
I may well get around to uploading pictures of it myself, but until then… I’m going to ride on the accolades of giants… My mom flew into town and has already posted a bunch of photos with captions:
http://picasaweb.google.com/cathypennington/AnitaSBabyShower
Update: 2007.12.26
I finally got around to uploading the images for this babyshower in my photos.
Heading to the company meeting in Dallas, I was able to swing into Gainsville, TX for a couple of days to visit Bob And Doris (my Uncle and Aunt on my Dad’s side).
Doris is pretty much confined to a bed or wheelchair, but amazingly she seems to be in good spirits and would be her same old self if only her body would cooperate.
Bob is ok aside from a month long lung infection of some sort and continual problems with his coumadin.
After a very short time at the company, I’m (currently) at the company meeting in Dallas, TX. It’s been fantastic, and for me to say that about a company meeting – you had better recognize the significance. The people are spread out over the country and all work in their own areas, so most I havn’t met. The purpose of these meetings is to get together and basically say what we’ve each done and what we’re going to be doing.
Everyone seems to be gearing up for the baby-shower. I’m sure its going to be rife with “ooohh” and “awww” and “isn’t that
cute”. Typically I’m pretty easygoing about such things, but in this
case, I’m glad it’s a woman-only-affair. That said, Anita is surprising herself with how into the whole affair she is becoming. Those hormones are potent, it seems.
To all friends who were not invited… guess what… no friends were.
I’ve been working part time for AudiologyOnline for months (after hours and on the weekends), and have finally started there full time as of Nov 15th. It’s been wonderful, not only has everyone been very nice and supportive, but I’ve ben able to jump in with both feet and get to work.
It’s meeting time central. I’m in LA for a conference on Local Search this week and in Dallas for a company meeting next week.
This site [hearthsong] looks like they have a lot of really cool stuff for kids… In a couple of years I suspect we’ll get a bunch of stuff from here – a lot of learning toys and slightly less corporate-nickelodeon commercialism (it seems).
Here are some fun pictures of Anita and Penelope. She’s now 7 months pregnant and starting to get a bit un-comfortably pregnant. Parts of her fall asleep without reasonable cause. Getting up is more of a challenge than it’s ever been before. Penelope is kicking most of the time, sometime flipping around and keeping things interesting… occasionally kicking down – apparently very painful, that.
Checkout these photos of a spider “taking care of” a recently caught moth. The color leaves a bit to be desired, but the subject matter afforded an opportunity to play with manual focus on the camera from a close distance… also it’s neat to see something like this, zoomed in.
[Checkout these photos of a spider “taking care of” a recently caught moth. The color leaves a bit to be desired, but the subject matter afforded an opportunity to play with manual focus on the camera from a close distance… also it’s neat to see something like this, zoomed in.
Clusters are inherently cool anyway… there are much cheaper ways of doing it… but how sexy is that? Take one of the clustered PS3’s out of the mix, play some games… put it back in to crunching.
Engineer Creates First Academic Playstation 3 Computing Cluster
This is about the best news ever. (my stomach thinks so)
We just heard about this today, and went to Maido’s (in Louisville, KY – map)…. it was absolutely fantastic!
For less than $9, you get to pick over some of the best Japanese food in Louisville. As of now, it’s only been open for lunch for about a week and there were few people there. So go quick.
I suspect when word of this gets out, it will either stop or get ridiculously busy.
A few people have asked me for photos of Anita… I’ve been lax in uploading and in fact I have more on a camera still… but I might as well provide easy links for the ones I’ve uploaded so far…
https://zeroasterisk.com/photos/v/friends/2007/ (slideshow)
Here are some samples:
So, I’ve been remiss to put anything about us on here recently. I’m thinking that I might split the blog into two seperate blogs… one on the Blounts, and one on general stuff I feel like talking about… 2 weeks. (the perpetual two weeks)
Anyway…
Anita’s very pregnant… always holding her belly and still, gloriously asymptomatic. She’s working at a low cost mdeical center pharmacy for this month’s rotation. not very interesting for her.
Sadly for Bush and Cheney, Greenspan decided to put prudence aside in his new book, The Age of Turbulence, and answer the most neuralgic issue of our times – why the United States invaded Iraq.
Greenspan writes:
“I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil.”
Everyone knows? Would that it were so. But it’s hardly everyone. Sometimes I think it’s hardly anyone.
This is a fear inspiring story, all too easy to imagine. Carol Trainer could hardly process what was happening. To her, a
60-year-old grandmother and Vietnam veteran, of all people. On Memorial
Day, of all times. Arrested for protesting the war…
“He comes up to me and says, ‘Drop your sign,’” Trainer recalls. “I
said, ‘Why?’ He said, ‘I told you to drop your sign.’ He grabbed it out
of my hand when I didn’t drop it.
Well… it’s been a day – just like any other day. I wore black… biked to work… worked… biked home and walked in the park with Anita and Nova. A beautiful day. Nothing in my day to tie this date with six years ago… I was looking for it to come up.
Perhaps if I watched television more, or talked to strangers more… perhaps if I got out of my daily life and tried to make a change in the world which reflected my beliefs (such as they are)… perhaps if I didn’t live so comfortably I’d work to fix what seems obviously wrong with the world.
This is an excellent article, discussing the specific misunderstandings and mistakes made by the US government in response to the 911 attack on the WTC and Pentagon.
“Freedom itself was attacked this morning by a faceless coward … and freedom will be defended.” In other words, George W. Bush thought that the reason the United States was attacked was that the attackers hated our freedom. How did he reach this conclusion?
If you’re tired of propaganda; tired of conspiracy theorists telling you that your media is mostly brainwashing you into the party line of big brother… Wake up.
There is a lot of conspiracy theory which must be wrong. It’s nuts… so you choose not to belive it. You don’t accept things at face value. You look for evidence to refute crazy stories.
Good.
Do so. But do so, also, to the “official story”.
Great article on Bush’s current strength and resolve to bring war to Iran and again devastate a sovereign nation.
Hearken to the astonishing rhetoric Bush used at the American Legion Convention in Las Vegas against Tehran:
“Iran … is the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism. … Iran funds terrorist groups like Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which murder the innocent and target Israel. … Iran is sending arms to the Taliban.
I must be brain-dead – this is funny to me now:
Also, not yet added to the photo gallery on my site, but here’s some of the photos I’ve recently been taking with the camera:
Thanks to Anita doing research (and generally being excited in all things baby’ish) we have a more solid conviction to cloth diapers.
http://www.mothering.com/articles/new_baby/diapers/joy-of-cloth.html – good article on pros and cons http://www.greenmountaindiapers.com/newmom.htm – good pictures and helpful info on how to use and chose which type And in case you haven’t heard or picked up on it… we have pretty much decided on the name “Penelope” after finding out that it was going to be a girl at yesterday’s ultrasound.
A Little Bit of History [BME Guest Column]
And now I wondered if that son ever cried for the man who raised him and watched him grow up? I’d be curious as to how Karl Rove would ever explain his pierced, gay father? He never told the people in Louis’ phone book that he had died, nor invited them to a service if there was one. No one even knows where he is buried.
Here are the ultrasounds from Anita’s Dr. visits. Poor quality images all, as they are on some kind of heat-transfer paper they don’t last, especially not in the heat. That said – they weren’t good quality images in the first place.
They are neat images though.amazing to see it grow from a bean to a vertebrate in a fairly short period of time. Fingers and toes… brain and legs. All looks healthy.
Well we made it back to Lou. after going to a family reunion in Arkansas and then visiting family in Texas.(photos)
We’ve now rolled over 140,000 miles on our Honda CRV (1997) and it’s doing great. We are nothing but happy with that vehicle.
Anita’s doing well. She’s had some “symptoms” of pregnancy, but for the most part she’s avoided most of the typical complaints. She attributes the lack morning sickness to vitamine B6 and the lack of fatigue to being on vacation and napping all the time.
I’ve been using the “Control Suite” for a couple of development projects and I’m 100% pleased. The tools are modular (so you can take what you want), class based (so they don’t break your other code), well documented, fast, easy, and clean.
Anyone who works with/develops AJAX and a dynamic web-user-interface… especially if you already use prototype… I highly recommend you try this set of tools.
Control Suite : High Quality Controls & Widgets for Prototype
We have spent the last several days moving way too many boxes and things from columbus, oh to louisville, ky. We a glad to be donea nd back at work… well… mostly.
The “lil’ nug” inside Anita is currently the size of a kidney bean. The organs have all begun developing and the heart is beating strong, at 142 beats/min. Bloodwork and whatnot seem fine. We’ve got very uninformative ultrasound images which I may get scanned and post sometime…
We’re still both pretty attached to the name “Ruby” for a girl. Not sure about a boys name.
After several years of marriage and putting off having kids till we were more financially stable… we are now pregnant. Due in Jan. or Feb. 2008. We have no data, but “think” it’s going to be a girl…
Apparently, a few days ago, anita woke up from an amazingly realistic dream where she was holding “our baby girl”. We didn’t really think she was pregnant but after the dream, she had to take a pregnancy test and it turns out we are.
From “Shoes” to “Muffins” to “Text Message Breakup” Liam has been keeping thousands of video watchers entertained… ok… so “Muffin’s” was a little less entertaining than the other two, but all three are great. I also found his youtube profile, with some other video’s I’m not yet familiar with… researching…. Here are the three video’s, for the convenience of any who need to watch (again).
Firebug is a fantastic Firefox Add-On which allows realtime viewing and editing of a page’s DOM, CSS, etc. as well as net usage reports, and even JS timing and profiling.
If you work on the web, it’s well worth your time to familiarize yourself with this tool.
Here’s a video presentation: YUI Theater: Joe Hewitt, Welcome to Firebug 1.0 » Yahoo! User Interface Blog – summary
I’ve switched all my personal email to gmail, and have been using it for a couple of years now (i think).
But, I have work emails which I can not just forward (or would get confusing if I did). So, of course, I use Thunderbird – which is perfect… but it doesn’t have a calendar.
Well, now it does.
Check out this tutorial which gives an overview of 2 different plugins which allow 2-way communication between thunderbird and your google calendar.
I haven’t been posting a lot… partially to keep the blog a bit more official while looking for employment and partially because I’ve been busy.
work updates: So I’ve been working at Via, from home, as a contractor. I’ve been doing that since Feb. Working with friends and doing mostly LAMP development (thankfully). The only downside is that it’s a smaller company and can’t afford to pay me what other places can.
This video involves a not-so-subtle analogy…. I give it a clever rating of 3.8 stars (out of 5), but I liked it enough to post.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGHty_S0TU0
Petition to save Internet Radio: http://capwiz.com/saveinternetr
I’ve been reading up on copyright laws in America and internationally and it seems blatantly obvious that the extra costs and constraints put on internet radio are one symptom of a larger problem… that our copyright system is outmoded by the technologies of the past 20 years. That’s a larger problem for another day {read “Free Culture” for more information}.For now… lets look at Internet Radio.
So, due to a degraded HDD in my RAID5 array, I decided to build a new array.
I bought 4 320G Seagate drives… those drives have many benifits, not least of which, a 5 year warranty.
I already have a 3ware escalade RAID controller (7506-4LP), one of the best options for a hardware RAID controller.
Instead of building another RAID5, I chose to build 2, RAID1 arrays. I chose this because it’s much easier to buy 2 hard drives (upgrading one mirrored pair) than to buy 4 hard drives (to upgrade a 4 disk array).
Ran into a problem installing the 3DM2 (3ware raid management tool) on Ubuntu today.
Got an “” error when trying to run the install script.
After a bit of debugging, I figured out that the failing variable was in the “check architecture” section of the script… In my case, I simply stripped out the logic and put in the following text to just set variables to my specific setup:
After that it worked fine… but once installed, the service wouldn’t start… due to the following error “Failed to create SSL context”.
Five questions that will dictate your personality for the rest of your life.
I don’t get it. It’s like those people who go around with those t-shirts and stickers that say “you laugh at me because I’m different, but I laugh at you because you’re all the same.” How different are you if you’re wearing a mass-produced t-shirt with a registered trade mark sold through one of the largest clothing franchises in the world?
I have never been sucked into WoW like so many of my friends (because I’m too cheap to spend $15/month) but this article is still great. (It’s so well written, non-geek should enjoy)
johnaugust.com » Seven Things I Learned from World of Warcraft
irreverent videos – compliments of jason s.
Asylum Street Spankers – Pussy Cat Song – (YouTube)
Asylum Street Spankers – Misc – (YouTube)
Asylum Street Spankers – Whatever – (YouTube)
Asylum Street Spankers – Winning the War on Drugs – (YouTube)
TELL THE TRUTH – Mos Def – Immortal Technique – Eminem (YouTube)
A hip-hop track talking about the Bush Administration conspiracy… all content you and I are very familiar with, but a great mainstream presentation of that data. Just one more nail in Bush’s coffin (at least in regards to public opinion).
As you can see below – it’s cold and wet… It hasn’t stopped snowing or sleeting in about 24 hours.
Anita’s birthday was great. I drove her to get coffee and then to school. I picked up lunch and delivered it. School actually got cancelled early today (unheard of here). We hung out and watched Battlestar Gallactica for a while and then went to eat at the Surly Girl with some good friends.
I am now hired on a 2 month contract with via studio, a very well respected design/development/consulting company. This may turn into a long term position, but the 2 month contract period is a good trial run for them and for me. I’ll update as I have more information.
Today is my last day of work at Mercer. It has ended lack-luster (painfully), but the whole experience has been great for me.
As you can see, I’m looking into my options for employment. I have a few leads, but would like to explore all of my options… at least all of the options I can get in quickly, as I’d like to have a choice made by late January.
1-page resume 2-page resume Ideally, I’d like to find a position which afforded me the opportunity to manage, design, and develop web-based projects / solutions.
As one might so commonly read on IT employee blogs, “our team has been laid off”.
That’s right, the whole team is being outsourced to Singapore, effective Jan 31.
It will be a near-future disaster for the company, though it might encourage the abandonment of many applications and proceedures which I’ve been complaining about for years. But though on paper it looks like money saved, I suspect it will end up as more costly to keep things working/improving or a less expensive disaster where nothing works.
I’ve been very remiss at updating the blog here… I’ve had lots of good family time and some travels, some interesting stories and what-not.
but no… I’ve not been updating with anything important… and I’m apparently not going to start… Here’s a very minor update:
I’m getting on a greyhound bus today from Columbus to Louisville. Going to a few “in-the-office meetings” and also to help Karen and Bryan (Anita’s Mom & Stepfather) as they frantically get moved from their house in the suberbs to their Victorian house in Old Louisville.