Author: Kevin Lawver

  • My Oldest Son

    We finally got all the pieces of the video camera out and I’m now going through and importing all of our tapes of Max into iMovie so we can burn them on DVD. I’m sitting here watching the video of us “doing the reveal” of Max’s room on his second birthday, and I can’t stop smiling. Max is so much fun. Watching him explore his new room, with its racecar bed, the mural, and everyone there is so great. He was so excited, happy and adorable.

    He’s still adorable, still funny, still excited, but it’s different. Not as many things are new, and he can talk in complete sentances, read, and knows everything (or thinks he does, which is as annoying as it is funny). He’s no longer a toddler, no longer walks with the diaper-induced waddle he once did, and won’t sleep on my lap in a little ball anymore.

    Max can carry on conversations now. When he was two, there were no conversations. There was a lot of talking to, but the only responses were giggles or an occasional, “Oh Wow!”. Now, there are long conversations about everything. Max asks really good questions, and I occasionally have a good answer for him.

    Max, I love watching you grow up. It’s all moving so quickly. You’re your own person now, not just this little ball of cute waiting to know stuff. You’re so smart and funny now, so much smarter and funnier than I ever hoped. Your a good boy, better than I ever thought I’d have. I can’t wait to see how you grow up tomorrow, and for the rest of my life.

  • New Baby Pics!

    I know you’ve all been waiting patiently for them. Your wait is now over!! I present to you, poppin’ fresh

  • Brian Gets Scared of the Camera

    Brian Gets Scared of the Camera

    How great is this picture? Brian didn’t like the camera yesterday for some reason… as soon as I put it away, he was fine.

  • Clinical Analysis of 9/11

    From Juan Cole, a great analysis of what’s happened since 9/11, and our response to Al Qaeda.

    I, of course, have nothing to say.

  • Don’t Leave Those Ballots Blank, Vote Obscure!

    This one’s for Reid.

    Can’t decide who to vote for? Can’t pick between Bush or Kerry? Need more choices? You need to go check out the real list of who’s running for president. Personally, I’m drawn to the Anti-Hipocrasy Party’s candidate. That’s a party name I can get behind. There’s always Mike’s Party, or the Turtles.

    As I’ve said before, I know who I’m voting for. But, if you don’t, and the two choices you’ve been given don’t work for you, then you gotta make your own.

  • Pirates and Scribbles

    I love Jon Morris in ways that should be illegal (and in Alabama, they are!). To prove my point, today he teaches us that some of the best things in life end in ‘tee’, among other Pirate Wisdom. Trust me, you’ll love it.

    In other news, I’ve decided that I need to get more of my pals to blog. To that end, I’ve set up a new site just for them (my friends who want to try blogging): Scibbles Here. Melissa is the first, sure to be followed by others.

    Relatedly, this makes me really happy that I have Dreamhost, and that I got in on that crazy anniversary sale last year. I have all sorts of flexibility, bandwidth and options, so setting up a new site is a lot easier than it should be, and they keep lowering prices on domain registration, which makes them even better! All hail Dreamhost! (and yes, that link up there will get me cool stuff if you end up signing up with them, but I really do love them).

  • Need to Edit XML?

    On the recommendation of a coworker, I tried out Oxygen last week, and I love it. It’s a great XML/XSL editor and debugger, with in-place validation and transformation, and useful error messages. So, if you need to write some XML or XSL, check it out. Best part… it runs on OS X, Windows or Linux, and it’s got the smoothest Java GUI I’ve ever seen. Very well done!

  • Fantasy Football 2004 – Draft Night Redux!

    It’s Fantasy Football time!! We had our draft last night, and for having the last pick, I think I did OK. It’s a fairly risky team, but I think I’ll do well. Here are my guys:

    Starters:

    • Matt Hasselbeck

    • Jamal Lewis

    • Duce Staley

    • Chad Johnson

    • Amani Toomer

    • Freddie Jones (TE)

    • Jeff Wilkins

    • Patriots

    Reserves:

    • Joey Harrington

    • Kyle Boller

    • T.J. Duckett

    • Peter Warrick

    • Marty Booker

    • Mikhael Ricks

    • Packers

    I had to pick up Boller because Harrington and Hasselbeck have the same bye week (stupid, should have looked at that when I drafted them). Duckett and Booker may move up to the starting lineup, but we’ll have to see. I think I’ll be in the hunt again… Yay, Fantasy Football!

    And being the commissioner of a league where the commissioner sets the time limit on draft picks, and the draft is really “live” is a pain in the butt.

  • Hypocrisy

    “The politics of tax and spend are the politics of the past.” — George W. Bush

    Ummm, Mr. President, isn’t it better to pay for what you get instead of running up huge debts? Like, oh, six trillion dollars with no end in sight? Yeah, i thought so.

  • Wikified Yumminess

    I’ve never liked wikis. I didn’t like wiki syntax, and I thought they always looked really slapdash and ugly. But, I’ve seen the light. I’ve seen Instiki (found via a whole lotta nothing. It’s painfully easy to install, and even easier to use. You can use Textile, Markdown or RDoc with it, and it gives you basic formatting tips right next to the editing window, so there’s no chance of getting confused. In OS X, it even gives you a Wiki menu item, which makes using it for random meeting notes and to-do lists REALLY easy.

    If you’re looking for a personal note-taking app, or a wiki for your team, Instiki’s the way to go, really.