Technology, Innovation & Telecomm

Well. when last I wrote, I talked about American Idol and how sometimes it seems that the judges sort-of try to “lead” the public towards or away from specific performers. Since then, I was totally shocked to see Chris get canned by the viewing public. He was the odds-on favorite to win. For the longest time, I had it figured that the final two would be Katharine McPhee or Chris Daughtry. I was half right. Katharine was one of the finalists last night, along with one of my favorites: Taylor Hicks. Truth told, I wanted it to come down to Elliot Yamin and Taylor. I wanted Elliot to win. But alas, America wouldn’t hear of it. So, it was Taylor and Katharine. I think Taylor did the best over all, but of course he was my choice so I’m a wee-bit biased. In any case, tonight will tell the tale.

Next question: What do I do all summer long, now that my shows are off until fall? I guess I need to do something *outside*…! Let the warm weather commence.

I’ve gotten the basic installation of WordPress 2.0.1 done.  Things will continue to change, but I’m on my way in any case…

I was properly chastised by my sister for not posting for the last couple of weeks. Truth told, there have been a number of factors:

1. I’ve been quite busy working on the house to get it ready for a visit from said sister and for new carpeting and some new furniture.

2. I’ve been mulling over just what direction to take this blog.

3. I’ve been watching events surrounding the Katrina disaster. Each time I feel the urge to post due to some bone-headed report I’ve just seen, I pause to let the steam die down.

4. I wonder if *anyone* (besides my family) gives 2 hoots about this blog.

Since I was on a bit of a kick to tell some stories about my youth, I was given the suggestion that maybe I should break the blog into more than one…with one focusing on tech topics while the other being more oriented toward story-telling. I just don’t know what I’ll do and so I’ll ask you, dear reader, to post your suggestions as to the direction I should take.

My wife and I are going on a brief, but much-needed vacation. It’s informal and we’ll be back the last part of the week or at the latest, Saturday. My brother-in-law will be house-sitting, but he’s not into blogging so don’t count on anything from him whilst we rest… Look at this as a way to post comments on the topics that have been burning in your inner-most being.

So fear not, posting will resume next week. Stay tuned for another exciting episode. Same Bat-time. Same Bat-channel.

Anyone who knows me will pretty much tell you that home-repair isn’t my strong suit. (take a look at “Defying the Laws of Physics” for some background.)

It isn’t so much that I can’t do it. Rather, it’s a matter of how long it takes me to get it done before it becomes more cost-effective to have someone else do the work…in something less than geological time scales.

So it came to pass that I was working on one of the closets in a bedroom of our house, repairing plaster. Our house is tiny…I mean it….tiny. Imagine then, what the size of a closet would be in a house so diminuitive and you get a decent mental picture of me working in it (a slight clue: I’m 6′.2″ and about 230 lbs.). Anyhow, I was using a spackling material to correct some minor chasms created by the gradual settling of that part of the structure over time. That stuff smells, let me tell you. In fact, I’m pretty sure it’s at least somewhat intoxicating. I know this because I found myself making the outlines of Mickey Mouse and other Disney characters in the stuff with my fingers and wondering just where my scraper was… The slight buzzing in my noggin’ should have been a clue, but I suppose that by the time the thought made its way forward in my consciousness, it was too late.

Eventually I did have enough sense to back out of the space and let my head clear. Coming back to it a day or so later, I was amused to find various cartoon characters’ images imprinted in the material that was supposed to have *fixed* the closet. I also noticed that I hadn’t even completely covered the spots that I meant to repair, meaning that the drywall mesh I was using was only partially covered in spackle, and there were some spots that weren’t even in need of repair with compound covering ‘em. Go figure.

Lesson learned: limit the time you spend with your head immersed in the vapors of a material that’s really intended to be used in spaces where air is actually flowing… I made my next passes at this in much shorter time periods and last I checked, the areas meant for repair were actually covered.

Now, if I could find that scraper…

My wife insists that I have the gene. I’m beginning to believe her and I’m convinced it must have come from my grandfather. In fact, I’m sure of it.

In his will, my grandfather left me all of his computer, electronics, and Amateur Radio equipment. At the time, it really wasn’t clear to me what that meant, even having spent a considerable part of my life in his house, garage, workshop, etc. As my wife, mother, Aunt and I were sorting through things it became all too clear that he had the ability to defy the laws of the known universe: He was actually able to put multiple items into the same physical space. I swear it’s true. My wife swears it’s true. My mother swears it’s true. And my aunt swears the same thing. That much swearing must make it so.

That was in 2001.

Fast-forward to 2005. My wife and I are working towards moving to another house. As anyone who’s lived anywhere knows, when you begin that process you pretty much always begin to clean out stuff that you don’t really use or need. You assess whether various items actually have sentimental value and if you decide not, out go those goodies. We’re doing that right now and having just hauled what feels like 64,000 garbage bags to the curb for trash pickup, I can confirm that I have managed to inherit that same super-physical ability from my maternal grandfather…

I don’t know how it’s possible, in 1100 square feet, to have crammed as much stuff as I have. But indeed I’ve done it. The way that I know that I’ve acquired this dubious talent is that each time I remove an item from some location in order to throw it away, another item appears in its place. (what’s the inverse of a sucking sound?) And it hasn’t just happened once or twice in a few different places. It seems to be happening throughout the house, from the garage, to the basement, clear to the attic. I’m amazed, and the effect hasn’t abated. It’s overwhelming and so I’ve looked in the yellow pages for some kind of “junk exorcist” or something similar. They just don’t exist. My wife and I have read all the books on the proper methods for getting ready for a move, trying desperately to find a solution. I can tell you that they simply didn’t have me or my grandfather in mind when they wrote those tomes.

So, I’m an aberration. The question is: Just exactly how much real-world space will I need to contain all the items that currently fit into the multi-object space that I’ve created?

We rented a storage space. I’ll let you know.

I’ve moved my blog from blogger to WordPress. I was sorta tired of relying on Google for my blog and I wanted something that was Open-Source, configurable and hosted on my site. This is the result.

I’ve tried replicating some of the most recent posts. Not all of the links survived and I didn’t go too far back. But it’s good enough (hopefully) that folks get a flavor of my most recent stuff.

Let me know how you like it. I’ll be changing the look here and there and adding features as I become more familiar with how WordPress works.

Enjoy!