So, it’s time to redesign because I’m tired of the white, and well, I kind of half-assed it this morning while I was waiting for an e-mail. Trust me, it won’t stay like this for long.
It must be a slow news day, cuz I have nothing to talk about…
Author: Kevin Lawver
Web developer, Software Engineer @ Gusto, Co-founder @ TechSAV, husband, father, aspiring social capitalist and troublemaker.
There are tons of beautiful
There are tons of beautiful colors that fall outside of the web-safe palette. I can’t wait for the day when I can use them all. I found a great orange today that I’d love to use, but alas, we must remain members of the Web-Safe Army and only use the approved colors!! Let’s all march to the tune of 216 colors of happiness and long for the days of many colors, when it will be safe to come up with fabulous designs that use colors that no one’s discovered, lying under hats in the closet to the left of the old shoes we never wear and should probably give to charity. Yes, I’m talking about THOSE colors!! Aahhhh, what a nice dream, maybe some day.
I love Sunday afternoons. It’s
I love Sunday afternoons. It’s this time, after church and lunch, and everyone’s come home and changed clothes that I feel like I have nothing to do and nowhere to be and I love it. Jen and Max are asleep; I keep listening for them, trying to decipher creaks and sounds from the baby monitor as the signs of waking. The TV is on, providing background noise to my surfing and goofing off. The laptop is on the dining room table, and I’m not working. All is quiet, and peaceful. I’m a husband, a father, a son, a brother, a friend – and right now I’m all alone doing nothing, all of those things that I am in the background to me being me to myself, doing nothing but sitting and taking a break. This is the best time…
I’ve realized that there are
I’ve realized that there are two types of people in the world – target=_new people and who don’t mind if someone else comes in and talks for awhile. Unfortunately, I’m a target=_new person…
So, where was I yesterday?
So, where was I yesterday? I went to the Baltimore Museum of Art with my wife, son, mother-in-law and mother. Other than taking the looooooooooooooooo-oooong way there through downtown DC (all to avoid congestion on the beltway. reminder to self: never trust mom with a map), it was a great trip. Max was an angel the whole time. We saw some great art.
If you haven’t been, and live in the area, I totally suggest it. It’s not as impressive as the old Getty or the LACMA, which are full of the paintings you see on postcards and calendars. It still has a very nice collection of Matisse, Picasso drawings (which I enjoyed more than the paintings), and some great abstracts by some of my favorite artists like Paul Klee and Kandinsky.
It really got me in the mood to paint again. There’s something wonderful about seeing real paint on canvas. The texture of paint is so gorgeous. It’s never carried over in prints or even in reproductions. And it’s funny, it’s those details that make a work great. Looking at some Matisse in books or postcards makes it look hurried and childish. On closer inspection, the care taken in the brush strokes to bring out the knee and calf of a dancer, or a painter in a grove of olive trees make the painting beautiful and complex. I loved it. I need more…
We also ate at the museum restaurant, which, in most cases is a baaa-aaad idea. But, this museum has Gertrude’s (which I hear is closing… so sad). The food was AMAZING and the place was packed. I had the salmon alla bella and almost died of seafood happiness. It was the best I’ve ever had – and I’m an expert on restaurant salmon. Everyone else got crab cakes, and they were a little too full of old bay spice for me, but they were still very good.
My mother-in-law is headed back to Tucson today. It makes me sad. Yeah, really. I dig my in-laws. They’re fun, funny and caring. They’ve accepted me and my family and are always great to be around. I really wish they were closer or could visit more often. It also makes me feel guilty for dragging their daughter and grandson across the country. When we’re independantly wealthy, we’ll make it up to you Connie, I promise.
So, what am I doing?
So, what am I doing? I think next week, I’ll start posting a bunch of the cool AOLserver stuff I’ve done on my own, like the adp-tag db call, the calendar and my instructions on how to install AOLserver and Postgres in Linux. How does that sound? It’ll be nice to have some content up here other than my ramblings and Max’s pics (which are cool and need to be updated).
I’m also thinking of building a search engine into AOLserver. There used to be this cool text indexing stuff built right in back in 2.1 when Illustra was still the primary db (and which I still have running somewhere on my O2). I’d love to see it come back. Why, you ask? Because I’ve been doing Search stuff for two years and think I can do it. So there.
What has to go into a search engine? Here’s what I’ve got so far:
- Indexing: There has to be a way to get content, and it has to be fast. Also, it has to be able to index parsed content from ADP’s, which means lots of http gets, or ns_adp_parses (which would be cool but cumbersome).
- Searching: I have to find some way to search other than tacking SQL wildcards on either side of the query. It just doesn’t produce good results. That means cool meta searching stuff which I know nothing about.
- Results: I’ve used lots of API’s, and I don’t really like any of them. This isn’t a knock against the people who wrote them, it’s just the way it is. They’re usually written by people who do all backend stuff and don’t take the pains of UI development into consideration. I do some of both, so hopefully I can do it the way I wanna do it.
Ok, I think that’s it… Wow, what a geeky post.
Here’s a tip: Never wear
Here’s a tip: Never wear a white t-shirt the same day you bring spaghetti for lunch.
I wanted to write this
I wanted to write this before I lost the feeling. Six Feet Under is going to be a great show. Last night’s episode was so beautiful and painful. The last scene where Brenda takes David and Nate on the bus was the most cathartic thing I’ve ever seen on TV. The look on David’s face as he finally let go, finally opened the door and felt real grief was amazing. In a second he went from stuffy and cold to real and grieving. I couldn’t stop crying (yes, I can admit it, I cried). It was one of the only times television has made me do that, and I loved it.
In two hours of screen time, I love this show. I love the characters. I love the pacing of the show. Think about it. In TWO HOURS, I’ve become emotionally invested enough in the characters to CRY! Jen cried last week (sorry sweetie) and I came close. How amazing is that? It honestly doesn’t get better than this. I know people will disagree, but this show is better than the first two episodes of The Sopranos by far. I can’t wait to see where it goes…
What a great game!
What a great game! The Evil Lakers lost! Aaaahhh. As a long-time Phoenix Suns, Utah Jazz and San Antonio Spurs fan, all I can say is FINALLY! Sheesh. If I had to see one more happy fake hug between Shaq and Kobe, I was going to puke. I’m tired of Phil Jackson and his constant cheap attempted manipulations (of players, media, officials, you name it). I’m tired of the make-nice story of Shaq and Kobe (you mean, if we kiss and make up we’ll win? Thanks, ZenMaster Phil!). I’m glad the Sixers won. I was no great fan of Allen Iverson, and I’m still not. But, wow, to watch him go into the paint against a guy who really is twice his size and MAKE the shot is just amazing.
Which brings me to my next point. This is one of those Karmic things about sports, any sport. When your team goes out, root for the underdog. Everyone was saying that the Lakers would sweep and then the D word would come up (dynasty for the uninitiated). But now, there’s actually a reason to watch! GO SIXERS!! And pay attention, because that’s probably the last time I’ll ever say that.
On a totally unrelated note, Elvis Costello is on Letterman tonight. Painted from Memory is one of my favorite songs ever. It’s heart-breakingly simple in its message and artful in execution. Just a painful song, and I love that in my music. Why do you think I like Morphine so much? (and if you like Elvis’s version of the song, check out Cassandra Wilson’s on The Sweetest Punch).
Ok, one more. Max is feeling better!! I got up with him this morning and we played and he laughed which hasn’t happened in WEEKS!! And just in time for Grandma Connie’s visit. YES!
So now I have a
So now I have a Linux box on (under) my desk. It’s nice to sit here and look at a lovely GNOME desktop while doing my work. Linux is fun. Linux is groovy if you want to run a website on it. Linux isn’t so hot when it comes to working in a company that’s 100% windows-centric. So, I’ve got Win2k in the middle, a Sun box to the right of me, my RedHat box to the left, and my Powerbook in a drawer. Does it get any better than that?