Illuminatea

One of the reasons I've been a lot quieter on the blog front for the past month is Call of Duty 4 (actually, let's be honest; that's one of the ways I've chosen to spend a lot of my free time since Christmas). However, at the beginning of July, I added a new reason: I started taking a class two days a week at the local new YMCA. This class has ...

If you're already having the kind of day where you feel a bit dizzy, and you're walking through the parking lot at your place of employment after coming back from lunch, do not under any circumstances close your eyes for any reason. No, I didn't fall, but I should have.

Dear iPod, Over the years that I've had you (as your second owner), we've had our rocky times. You've worked well with both my Windows and Mac workstations -- that's a plus. Your battery life is damn near useless (and I understand that's not really your fault), but with the appropriate adapter therapy we've been able to work around that. I hardly ...

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.

E. Gary Gygax died yesterday at the age of 69. They say that anything you do more than once is tradition. I guess that mine is to offer the words written by Annie Lennox, Howard Shore and Fran Walsh, as sung by Annie Lennox, at the end of The Return of the King: Lay down your sweet and weary head Night is falling; you’ve come to journey's ...

So, I'm in Sydney for a training conference that I'm talking about in my work blog if you're interested. There's a lot of interesting small differences that have more of a mental impact to me than the big ones:The exit signs inside buildings are green with white letters. I'm used to the opposite.Didn't find a single country radio station. Of ...

In just a few more hours, I'll be on my way to do something I've never done before -- cross the equator. I'm just going to kayak down to the big black line floating on top of the ocean, nip across, spin around counter-clockwise, then nip back home. No, seriously -- I'm heading to Sydney, Australia with my cow-orker Kevin to a week-long training ...

I've been knocked off my sleep schedule this week -- I had to test some sleeping medication I need for an upcoming business trip and verify that I wouldn't have any unanticipated side effects before I was in Australia and unable to do anything about it. However, in the midst of all this, I had an interesting thought, spurred a discussion with my ...

That I've managed to successfully get myself back on an ''into work by 6am'' schedule for nearly three weeks now. Even though I am not a morning person, I find that this schedule has a number of benefits, the most important being that I feel like I get more work done (of better quality) and that I correspondingly have an easier time keeping work ...

Wrote this Christmas 2007 newsletter over two weeks ago and forgot to link it here until now... ...blame the meds. 

INTRODUCTION Merry Christmas to you all from the cold and wet northern Puget Sound region, the jewel of lovely Western Washington and the place we like to call home. If you've seen our fair state on the news lately because of all of the flooding, you can rest assured that we came through just fine. We are grateful for that; many roads up in our ...

...so very, very true.

To finally learn (and never forget) how not to take my wife and kids for granted.To write a sung SATB Eucharist liturgy and get it recorded with Alison Krauss, Sara Evans, Sting, and Josh Turner.To always have a story to write that I'm passionate about.To have the resources I need to help my family, friends, and the people around me.To be content ...

The more Steph and I listen to Brad Paisley, the more impressed we are. (Those of you who don't know who he is, he's a country singer. If you don't like country, that's fine, you can stop reading, although I suggest you go to the video section of his website and at the very least watch Whiskey Lullaby, the duet he does with the incomparable Alison ...

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 ...

I have something in my head trying to come out. It's about 9/11. It's not ready to come out yet. In the meantime, here's John M Ford's 110 Stories.   

For those of you keeping track, I'm 35 now. Yup, had my birthday Wednesday. Going by a literal reading of the Bible, I'm half-way through my life span (''threescore and ten''). Going by modern numbers, I could in theory be only 1/3 of the way through my life. Going by actuarials....forget that. I could get hit by a bus tomorrow. I should have ...

I'm working from home today, for various and sundry reasons. It's been a stressful week, for more various and sundry reasons.I figured out why I was getting particularly steamed today by looking at my Caller ID. 18 inbound calls. Dude. That's not counting the frequent outbound calls. No wonder I'm still stressed. 

Wow. Thank you for sharing Harry's story with us. It was amazing, and I am grateful.

Summer is here and school is out, so the kids are looking for more to do. One thing they won't be doing for the next couple of weeks, however, is riding their bikes. You see, some bastard(s) stole their bikes at some point in the last couple of days (we were out most of Friday, so it could have been any time from Friday afternoon until Saturday ...

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 -- ...

I was looking back through my LiveJournal and found this piece from 2004 Jun 30. For some reason it struck me, so first I'm going to repost the content here, then I'll add my additional thoughts after. Put on the extended version of Fellowship of the Ring tonight to help grease my mental wheels while catching up on the badly neglected Exchange ...

Four 3-day trips in four weeks:Apr 2-4, Orlando, to present 3 hours of sessions at Exchange Connections.Apr 8-10, Denver, to be the main speaker at the Exchange 2007 Unified Messaging Roadshow.Apr 18-20, Anaheim, to be the main speaker at the Exchange 2007 Unified Messaging Roadshow.Apr 23-25, Dallas, to be the main speaker at the Exchange 2007 ...

While Steph and I were getting our Battlestar Galactica[1] fix last night, I did something I haven't done since mid-December 1992: have a shoe-shine party. I've got four pairs of nice black shoes that were in various states of repair, but before we figured out which ones were worth keeping and which ones need a new home, they all needed ...