Illuminatea

For the most part, we have good kids. We get compliments on their public behavior all the time. Usually, this is because we've taught the kids to hold it together until they get back home, where we give them a bit more leeway. However, what it also means is that when they mess up in public, they tend to do it large and with style. Witness Alaric's ...

After looking at a lot of options, Alaric has decided that he wants to be the ninth Doctor for Halloween. This is good for us -- it's a simple costume, in theory, especially since I've already got a sonic screwdriver prop I can lend him. The Ninth Doctor has very simple clothing, especially compared to some of the earlier versions, and beats ...

Nick has done a very bad thing. He bought me Star Wars: The Force Unleashed for the Xbox 360 as a late birthday present. After the stress of this last week, studying for (and passing) the Microsoft 70-237 and 70-238 exams (two-thirds of the Microsoft Certified IT Professional - Enterprise Messaging certification; I passed 70-236, the third, back ...

One of my friends on LiveJournal posted a meme. Now, I'm normally not the kind to participate in various memes, but I like this one: go here and pick out five random quotes that somehow resonate with you (keep going until you find the right five), then post them. Here are mine: If you want to catch something, running after it isn't always the ...

Stupid website, but it gives me a chance to taunt my co-worker Kevin. This morning I got a puzzled e-mail from him, asking me why this picture of me in Sydney from February (yes, that's Sydney, Australia; we were there for training for work) was the most-viewed picture in his online galleries (warning, probably not a worksafe gallery). I have no ...

This has not been one of the best weeks I've had. That's not to say it's been all fire and brimstone -- it hasn't been an Old Testament kind of week -- but the victories and good things have been few and far between. One of them happened last night; I passed a needed certification test on my first try. I just got word that my grandmother died. ...

We found out today that Alaric has a second set of armpits. No, it's true. You and I would call them ''elbow joints'' but in Alaric's world, they're ''second armpits.'' Bet you didn't know that.

Yesterday evening, I found out that author James Oliver Rigney died yesterday after a long struggle with amyloidosis (a disease where your body deposits insoluble proteins in its own tissues and organs). Mr. Rigney was better known under a variety of pennames; the one that touched my life the most was Robert Jordan, author of the best-selling ...

Earlier tonight while reading my LiveJournal friends' posts, I saw this video: The Mean Kitty Song This video has been cracking me up for hours now. I've watched it, like, a gazillion times, and I still am laughing my ass off. I'm also madly wanting a cat, but that's partly Ryan's fault, since he just got a new cat and we went over to his place ...

Alaric has a few close female friends at school. In fact, he's got so many we were slightly teasing him tonight about his harem. Then we had to explain to him what a harem was and assure him that we were not in fact accusing him of having multiple (or even one) sex slaves. Then I told him that of course he wasn't like that, because he was a ...

Edit: Started NFSMW last November, not April. It's been a long time since I posted on any of my blogs. Between lots of travel in April into May, a lot of work, and starting a new technical book for Sybex -- not to mention still trying to make time (and more often than not failing) to be a good supportive husband and loving, patient father -- ...

First, I would like it to be known that I am only doing this under protest. I don't usually participate in blog memes, because most of them are damned silly. However, I got tagged on this one by Paul in what looks like a fairly typical spree of spreading the love, so I'll go ahead and do it. So here's the meme, in Paul's words: ...

From today's IM conversation: coolsteph says: I have been trying to figure out how to explain what exactly SPAM is and how it works to some of the ladies on my Victoria list. One gal posted this: >> Is it a sin to put a curse on whoever of my email buddies or groups gave >> my name to a list that sends out porn sites and viagra ...

Treanna lipped off at me just now as she was sitting on the couch in the living room reading a book. In response, I lobbed a pillow at her. Her sole complaint? ''Now you made me lose my place!

You may have noticed that I posted a disclaimer in the comment thread on my previous Firefly review stating that I would delete comments that were personal attacks. Unfortunately, that wasn't a theoretical warning. I'd been given good advice -- which I full intended to heed -- that my comment was sufficient and that I should leave it alone. ...

Shout out to Jon Zeigler, who said it better than I ever could. Exactly, my friend. Exactly. (If this makes no sense to you, don't worry.)

When I did my last round of server and desktop deployments here at the house[1], I tried to set up each of my servers (Windows Server 2003) with at least 256MB of RAM and each of the desktops (Windows XP Pro) with 512MB. That may sound backwards, but I was working with what I could scrounge and frankly, the desktops in this house do a lot ...

If you're like most parents, The Talk fills you with a strong sense of discomfort. It might completely scare the living daylights out of you; you might find yourself breaking into a cold sweat whenever you think about it. You remember when your own parents gave you The Talk and how desperately uncomfortable everyone was. You may have been ...

It's all Steph's fault. No, really. She's the one who introduced me to Il Divo, a new male chorale group put together by American Idol's venom-tongued emcee Simon Cowell. These guys have some serious opera and theater cred, and I shamefully confess that I fell in love with their cover of Toni Braxton's ''Unbreak My Heart.'' Of course, Il ...

Today was a day of mileposts. It was my first working day of 2006. Because Paul and I got our various projects wrapped up before vacation, I went into the 3Sharp offices and spent a good part of my day doing something I've never done before -- pack up my office. No, we're not moving locations, and yes, I'm still with 3Sharp. However, we're ...

The title of this post is appropriate in at least three different ways: Sometime this afternoon, my servers got knocked offline thanks to a transient power glitch. Normally, this is fixed just by rebooting the servers in the correct order, but this time it was made much more difficult by the fact that I'm currently in Arizona. Mad props to ...

Actual conversation at the dinner table this evening: Treanna: I have three boyfriends on my list. Devin: No, you don't. Stephanie: You don't have any boyfriends. You're not mature enough. Treanna: What does that mean? Devin: It means that you need a lot more practice in being friends with people before you're anywhere near ready to have a ...

Right on the heels of me whining about whether or not my blogging is reaching anyone, I got an email from someone who I was friends with back when I was kid. He lived, for a time, in the town I grew up in, and we had a few shared interests. He moved on, I moved on with my life, and by the time I got to where I am today I only dimly remembered him ...

What do you get when you mix four third-grade girls, a green felt puzzle mat, a large dining room table, various blocks of scrap wood and posterboard, small dowels, and some of the components from Microtactix Dirt Cheep Dungeons? That's right -- a ''Design your own horse jump course'' activity at Treanna's birthday party. We've made it through ...

I told you the new Doctor Who kicks ass. Yes, I am gloating. And ''Father's Day'' is still my favorite episode.

Alaric and Treanna are by no means perfect kids, but they're pretty darn special. Steph and I happen to think they're pretty great, and judging by the compliments we get from other people, we're not just biased. One of the special joys of parenting these two has been watching their minds unfold over the past couple of years. Once Treanna took off ...

It is probably not a good idea to watch the video for Alan Jackson's ''Monday Morning Church'' when you've recently lost a friend, especially not when you are wondering how his wife is holding up. I'd imagine that Brad Paisley and Allison Krauss's ''Whiskey Lullaby'' would be a bad one too, but since that one brings tears to my eyes on a good day ...

I got some very difficult news tonight about a friend. I have no words of my own, so I offer these that were crafted by Annie Lennox, Howard Shore and Fran Walsh , to be sung so powerfully by Annie Lennox for the end of The Lord of the Rings: Lay down your sweet and weary head Night is falling; you’ve come to journey's end Sleep now and ...

I have found that one of the greatest joys of parenting is when you finally get to introduce your kids to something you loved as a child and find that they love it just as much as you did. We had some of that earlier this year with Alaric when I finally rented the Transformers movie (which I had never before seen). Alaric was an instant fan. ...

For those of you who don't follow Steph's blog, I'll link to her recounting of the recent home improvement projects we've been undertaking. The shelves look really good.