Max and I talk about all kinds of things, and you already know that he reads everything. It’s sometimes hard to figure out how to explain things to him. He’s worried about stuff like the environment, and recently, the war in Iraq. I’ve been trying to tell him not to worry about it (because he’s eight), but once he latches on to something, it’s hard for him to let go.\
He’s also been in his school’s writing group since last year (for 3rd graders, but they made an exception for Max), and likes poetry. He was home sick today, and wrote this. Again, it’s not like we spend a lot of time indoctrinating him…\
The Iraq War\
bq. The USA is bad to me.\
Being very bad to my glee.\
After the 2008 election,\
The USA will reach perfection.\
The Iraq War is over,\
So unfair! No government left.\
With great stubbornness,\
W. Bush refused to stop it,\
it’s true,\
so blue.\
He’s a great kid, but he’s got to learn to lighten up.
Author: Kevin Lawver
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Max Is a Poet
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Luray Caverns: Escaping Underground
We decided to get out of the house yesterday and take a drive. It’s been a stressful few weeks at Chez Lawver and we needed a break. So, we piled the boys in the car with snacks, paper, pens and books and headed out to the country to go play in a cave. We’ve lived here for eight years, and I didn’t realize how close we are to the mountains. Silly Kevin.\
The drive was less than two hours, with great scenery on all sides, and only about half of it on a major highway.\
The boys were lovely, as usual, and they both loved the cave. Brian was constantly tugging on us to “walk faster” so we could see more. They were constantly looking up, around and pointing at stuff for us to look at.\
I took over three hundred pictures and only ninety or so came out. I uploaded fifty of them over on flickr. Jen says they look better than the postcards she didn’t buy (which makes me really happy). I tried to avoid using the flash, except when I was taking pictures of people. I think they came out pretty well.\
Luray Caverns also has a little car museum… emphasis on little. Brian pointed out almost every car saying “I want that for my birthday!” excitedly. Well, I’d love a Rolls Royce Silver Ghost too, kid, but that ain’t happenin’ any time soon. I did get some good shots of hood ornaments though. My personal favorite is the archer on the front of the Pierce Arrow.\
We’re planning on taking more day trips out to the middle of nowhere in the near future. Suggestions are welcome! -
The Internet Fast
I’ve been stressed out a lot lately… and pretty consistently for the last two years. It finally came to a head this week, and I decided I needed a break from everything. So, I decided that yesterday through Saturday, I would try to live completely without the internet: no blackberry, no laptop, no wi-fi, no nothin’. Since it’s only Friday afternoon, you can see – it didn’t go so well.\
I’ve worked for AOL for over twelve years. In that time, I’ve only been completely offline for more than twenty-four hours twice: first when a bunch of friends and I went to Carlsbad Caverns and none of us had laptops yet (this was 1998), and in 1999 when Jen and I got married and went on a three day cruise. That’s over eight years of pretty much constant connection to e-mail, IM, and everything else.\
Back to the break… in the beginning of my internet life (1995), it was just e-mail, and not a lot of it. I worked with a relatively small number of people, I was relatively isolated within the company, and wasn’t involved in anything outside of work that would produce much e-mail. Then, came the buddy list and instant messaging. OK, two forms of interruption, but pretty much exclusively used for work and at work. Fast forward 12 years, and now here’s what’s built up in the almost thirty-six hours I was able to stay away until the DT’s got me and I had to check:- over 270 e-mails
- over 2,100 unread items in my feed reader (from 581 feeds – recently pruned down from 680 – and I just marked them all read… didn’t even read ’em – it you blogged something you really need me to read, send me e-mail)
- untold messages on twitter (I haven’t even checked… thankfully, I can ignore all of them and I don’t think anyone’s feelings will be hurt)
- 45 Facebook notifications (also ignored, mostly because I don’t like Facebook)\
I checked recently and I receive, on average, 21 instant messages an hour (that’s almost 200 during the course of my regular 9 hour work day).\
If you figure that out over twenty-four hours and consider the last day and a half “average” (it feels like the normal flow), I handle over 1,700 distinct pieces of communication and information a day, and still manage to do my real job, which is not to just read e-mail, respond to IM’s and read feeds. This pace has only increased in the last five years, and doesn’t show any sign of slowing. It’s only getting worse.\
I’m not sure what the point of this was, other than to document for myself how bad my information overload is and trying to explain to myself that it’s OK that I was overwhelmed. Dealing with this ever-increasing torrent of data every day for over a decade – it’s OK to take a day off. It’s OK to let people answer their own questions, let the world keep spinning while I take a day to close my eyes and read a book (I’ve been reading Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard to try to cleanse my system from all the technical books I’ve been reading in my spare time… the most beautiful English prose I’ve read in a long time – a modern Walden).\
I have another blackout day coming. Monday, I’m heading to London for the Future of Web Apps conference. I’m looking forward to the speakers, but, I’m really looking forward to the eight hours of uninterrupted (well, mostly) reading time on the plane where there’s no way for me to check my mail.
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The Great Stache Off Continues
I’m posting daily photos of the ‘stache’s progress. Today marks the beginning of the return of the ‘stache lovingly known as The Cletus. The sideburns may follow, but I’ll have to go to the judges and see if that’s allowed in the rules.\
It’s never too late to donate , but why wait? It’s all for saving testicles from cancer. Please, think of all the nuts you’ll be saving (and their balls)! -
The Great Stache Off Begins
It’s started! For two months, I’ll be shaving every day, except for my mustache “area”. Yes, The Great Stache Off has begun! I have a goal of raising two thousand bucks for the Sean Kimerling Testicular Cancer Foundation () in two months. I’ve never really done anything like this, but, I think the idea is so funny, and such a great way to raise money, that I couldn’t resist.\
So… if you’ve got some spare dough, why not help a nut out? If for nothing else, so Cletus can make a comeback!\
(the possibilities for puns and naughtiness for the next two months are endless… expect lots and lots of ball jokes)\
Update: I’ll be doing daily photo updates over on Flickr. You can follow along (yes, day one is kind of pathetic, but I’m not a yeti… it’ll take a good week before it looks like anything)!\
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A Couple Awesome Things
First off, anyone who can find a funny way to raise money for a charity, especially one dealing with hairblz, is awesome. The Great Mustache Contest is awesome. Not only do they have a killer tag line: “Because it takes balls to grow a mustache”, they’re raising money for testicular cancer research – by getting guys to grow mustaches!\
I’m still thinking about it… the only thing holding me back is that I may be speaking at a conference smack in the middle of the contest, and I’m not sure I want to go speak, representing AOL, sporting a Cletus. But, I may go ahead and do it anyway (update: I went ahead and signed up – the donate button will appear on the site shortly).Secondly, the awesome Scott Andrew is self-producing his new album. I accidentally discovered Scott a long time ago and loved his work with The Walkingbirds. I met him at SxSW, and he’s a really good guy. He’s accepting donations to try to finish up the album, and I think that’s great. It takes balls (there they are again!) to go it alone and try to do it all yourself, and I think that should not only be applauded, but supported. The more artists are able to really go it alone without having to sell their souls to corporate record labels, and make it work, that can only mean good things for music fans. It means more music for us, and gets us closer to the artists we like. Go, Scott, go!\
I’m slowly working on the Rails app that will power The International Day of Awesomeness blog and an extra special something that my pal Kedar suggested. Slowly because by the time I do 9-10 hours of “real” work, and spend a couple hours playing with the boys, I’m pretty much shot. I’ve got things started, but nowhere near ready to launch – but keep your eyes peeled. I’m hoping to launch it in the next month or so… -
Amusement Park!
Tim, Monica and Sam are in town, so we all went to Six Flags (“we all” = Tim, Monica, Sam, Dad, Steve, Jen, Max, Brian and me)! We spent most of the day in the kiddie area and then we hit the water rides.\
This picture above was taken on Brian’s first roller coaster ride. The boy’s a daredevil. He loved it, and went several more times with with whoever would take him.\
A good time was had by all, but we’re all exhausted. Brian conked out on the way home for an hour, and then was so tired when we got home, he asked to go to bed. While we’re sleeping, enjoy the rest of the pictures! -
Morphine Day!
No, I haven’t decided to become a morphiend. I’m talking about one of my all-time favorite bands, the amazing, soulful, power trio – Morphine. For no reason in particular, I’ve decided that today is Morphine Day and I’ll be listening to the wonderful sounds of the band, plus the related bands that came before and after: Treat Her Right and Twinemen (and I’ll probably even throw in Orchestra Morphine). Here’s the playlist:\
From Morphine (in order of how much I looooove them):- Bootleg Detroit
- Cure for Pain
- Good
- Yes
- Like Swimming
- B-Sides and Otherwise (I might skip this one in favor of Sandbox)\
From Mark Sandman: - Sandbox\
From Treat Her Right: - What’s Good For You\
And then Twinemen and Orchestra Morhine: - Live Boston, MA 10/23/03
- Twinemen\
In other news, my 30gb iPod is almost full…
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SxSW Panel Pickin’ Time!
The SXSW Panel Picker is finally up, and y’all can go vote for our panel proposal! It’s called Career Transitions: From DIY to Working for the Man and will be a discussion about moving between different jobs, and coping mechanisms for making those transitions – from big company to small, to startup, to government and anywhere in between. If it gets accepted, you’ll get to see Jason Garber, Cindy Li, Thomas Vander Wal and me live and in person… which will be a treat.\
Go vote now or Jesus will be sad! -
Canadian Music Day
I’ve decided that today is my personal Canadian Music Day. I started this morning with the CBC Radio 3 Podcast, and have now moved on to The Arcade Fire. I’ll probably finish up the day with The Constantines and James’ mix cd from SxSW ’05 (not all Canadian music, but since it was compiled by a Canadian, I’m declaring it OK).\
Update: Thanks to James’ aforementioned mix cd, I’ve found some more music to fill Canadian Music Day. This afternoon will be composed of (none of which I’ve listened to yet):- Rheostatics – Night of the Shooting Stars
- The Magnetic Fields – i (oops, they’re not Canadian, but James put them on the CD!)
- Martin Tielli – We Didn’t Even Suspect He Was the Poppy Salesman
- The New Pornographers – Twin Cinema\
Yes, record companies, this is what happens when you let people play music on the internet – we buy more music. I never would have purchased any of this music if not for the internet, if not for mix cd’s. Give away a little, and people will return the favor by buying a lot.
