Kevin Lawver's blog about life, programming, culture and learning.
Web developer, Software Engineer @ Gusto, Co-founder @ TechSAV, husband, father, aspiring social capitalist and troublemaker.
I have the next several days off. I’m not coming in to work next week, and most of the next one. We’re going to paint the basement, and hopefully put together my new computer (if the case ever shows up).
Work is a ghost town today. There are two of us on my row. My Buddy List is looking a little lean. Yes, it’s Holiday Time, and no one wants to work.
Beware geeks with free time.
I’m a freakin’ social butterfly! I took the Autism-Spectrum Quotient Test over at Wired and got a 13. I’m slightly more social than average. I don’t believe it…
I love looking at pictures of Max. Those were taken this summer, just a few months ago, and it’s amazing to realize the changes Max has gone through since then. He’s taller and faster, which is expected. He’s talking now, in complete sentances sometimes. He has shorter hair, and yes, it’s still crazy. He’s a joy to be around (which isn’t really change). He’s a lot more fun now that we can have little conversations and our little drawing sessions where he tells me what to draw, and then I tell him what to draw. I love having a son. I love him. I honestly wouldn’t exchange it for anything.
We made cookies last night. Yes, I know! It was so completely fun and domestic that I almost crapped myself in the total Normal Rockwellian joy it produced. I didn’t even get mad when, mid-cookie mixing, our mixer decided that randomly ejected the blades was a good idea. I wasn’t annowed that I had to make a 7pm run to Bed, Bath & Beyond to get a new mixer (I was going to go to Target, but BB&B is closer, and I remembered as I saw the sign that mixers are included in the “Beyond”). We made orange juice/coconut/hershey kiss cookies, thanks to a recipe from Penny. We completed a first pass at my aunt’s famous pecan “little white balls” which turned into pecan sandies thanks to my lax rolling o’ the dough (They’re still good, just not “ballsy”). Jen made fudge, and cut and bake chocolate chip. Then, at 10:45 last night, after I went over to my fam’s to get cinnamon and play pool on dad’s Christmas present, we made Pineapple Walnut Drops that turned into Pineapple Walnut Pancakes (but again, still yummy).
We listened to Ska, danced, let Max play in the pan cupboard, and had a great time. I think we’ll have cookie night every week.
I’ve been looking at some very well done blog sites lately, and have had cool border envy. I started poking around the source and saw that in most case all these people who have cool borders are using tables! I thought for sure they’d discovered some secret CSS code to use to make things work. Nope, just tables. Since that was no challenge, I decided that I need to do neat-o borders without tables. So, you should now notice that there is only one table on any of the main pages, and it’s just to hold the about me list o’ crap. Pattin’ myself on the back right now, let me tell you.
Some new pics of musical maestro Max are up. (and in the pics of him and our tiny Christmas tree, he’d just gotten out of the tub – he’s not dirty)
Mom, thanks for never sending me to vacation bible school.
I have no idea why I thought of this guy today, but I did. In my one year at BYU, I met some pretty interesting (well, as interesting as Mormons get) people. There was a guy who lived across the hall named John. He was slight, had a slight lisp, was into drama and opera, and wasn’t into sports at all. I asked him one day, being the 18 year-old idiot that I was, if he got asked if he was gay a lot.
Gay is a dirty word in Utah. I think it’s officially been added to the words you can’t say on TV. When I asked him, he practically broke down. He told me the story of his trip to Paris and guys hitting on him constantly. He told me about the looks he got in church back home, and now the looks he was getting at school. I felt really bad for him. Here was a guy who was just who he was. He didn’t try too hard to change to make himself look or act more macho. He didn’t even try that hard to dispell the rumors.
I don’t know what he’s doing now, and I don’t think I’ve thought of him more than twice in the 8 years since that conversation. I hope he’s happy, and being accepted for who he is and not what bucket people think he fits in.