100% AI-free half-assed writing hand crafted by Kevin Lawver about programming, life, cooking and random nonsense.
I’ve been messing with photoshop again and the results are fantastic! Never will I have to worry about one kid not smiling at the right time again! (Knock on wood.)
I started out with two pictures, where the kids were smiling in separate pics:
and I turned it into one cute pic of the both of them!!
Bow down to my awesomeness!!
Kevin’s mom sent him a giant Congratulations cookie to celebrate his promotion:
She ordered from Two Smart Cookies and they did a great job. Just passing it along in case anyone in Savannah needs some awesome cookies.
Our CEO came in today and wanted to see me in his office. Now, this doesn’t happen all that often, so I was a little surprised. But, it was good news! Since I’ve been at Music Intelligence Solutions, I’ve been referred to as everything from “Lead Engineer”, to “Lead Technical Architect” to, in rare cases, “CTO”, depending on who I or David (the CEO) was talking to.
Thankfully, all of that title confusion is over, as I’m now officially the CTO of the company!\
I never thought I’d be CTO of anything. The thought never entered my mind until a few years ago when AOL’s CTO left and I e-mailed the COO and asked if he would be replaced. I thought to myself, “Hey, I could be CTO. Wait a minute, I really could be CTO.” And that’s where it started. I had a new goal – be good enough at what I do to some day be CTO of the company. At the time, the goal was to be CTO of AOL, but I’m now glad that didn’t happen. I’m the CTO of the right company at the right time, and it feels pretty damned good.
My job isn’t going to change at all. I’m still lots of other things at the moment – sysadmin, developer, manager, project manager, product manager in a couple cases, etc. But, it’s still a big step to be the CTO of any company, especially one with the potential we have at MIS.
Enough celebrating – I have to get back to work!
I saw a commercial for the tv show, My Kid Is Smarter Than Me. This isn’t a jokey show like Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?, it’s a reality show about kiddie-geniuses and how their parents try to keep up with them, keep them grounded, and well-rounded. Sounds like something Kevin and I should check out, yes? The show seems to focus on young kids. Parenting Max when he was three was relatively easy. I would make up chemical compounds so Max could compute its atomic mass and he would be in heaven. But now, wooo, boy. A couple of years ago when Kevin came home from work, Max welcomed him with, “Quantum physics is hard!” Imagine what Max’s brain is like now!!!!
My mother-in-law is going to hate this; my mom will love it!
I went with a traditional bob, as a nod to my old-lady/mom-status. But I am rocking the pink streaks as a nod to my fabulousness!
I am so glad we got a bunch of formal family pictures taken over the summer. 🙂
I watched the documentary 8: The Mormon Proposition about the LDS Church’s involvement in getting California’s Prop 8 passed. It was depressing as hell, no lie, and I felt like I had just watched a movie about the holocaust. I encourage you all to watch it too.\
Non-LDS should watch, and then speak out about the church’s tax-exempt status. They clearly overstepped the lines in this case and it’s disappointing that more people aren’t outraged.\
LDS should also watch and ask their leaders for an explanation about the backroom shenanigans. I don’t care about what the LDS Church preaches to its own members or the reported strong-arm tactics of getting people to donate money, but all that sneaking around and manipulating and outright lying to the voting public is inexcusable. That is not the way any organization purporting itself to be of God should behave.
My pal Murray Wilson does great things – he and AWOL take kids the system doesn’t want and teaches them to take apart, clean and refurbish computers the system doesn’t want – computers that would otherwise go to the landfill.
They then put linux on them and put them out into the community with families that need them. He’s one my absolute favorite people in Savannah (nay, the world) and I’m proud to know him.
The computers will, of course, end up in the landfill eventually, but the “Goon Squad” gives them easily another 2-5 years of life, and the kids learn useful and marketable skills. It’s a win-win, and an amazing program and Murray and AWOL built from the ground up.
If you can spare it, AWOL can always use some help. Every little bit helps, and every kid they help is one that’s not in the juvenile justice system or out on the street by themselves.
Murray is awesome in the best sense of the word.
This is one of the sexiest things I have ever seen. You should see it too, and it’s safe for work!!! (The good stuff starts at 1:40):
For several weeks, I’ve had the phrase, “What do you want from me?” running around in my head and spontaneously coming out of my mouth, in song form. One day I actually paid attention while watching Nickelodeon with the kids and saw that it was from a song on Kidzbop 18.\
I decided if I heard the real version, maybe it would finally get out of my head. Google led me to this performance on The View by Adam Lambert, which I immediately LOVED. I had heard of Adam Lambert before, but since I don’t watch American Idol, he was basically unknown to me. Apparently he was also one of Barbara Walter’s Top 10 Fascinating People of last year, who knew? Oh, I also had a vague recollection of some controversy about it being ok for girls to kiss on stage but not guys. But for the most part, I didn’t know anything about him or his music.
One Youtube clip always yields another, yes? I ended up listening to a bunch of his stuff. Check out: Fever, If I Had You, Soaked, and Mad World. Soaked and Mad World completely blew me away. And if you don’t like them, keep that to yourself. Don’tcha like how helpful I am 🙂 but you should just go youtube the hell out of him yourself, especially the American Idol performances. And his new stuff. And some of his older stuff.
Though I am late to the party, I’m glad I am finally here! These songs are going on my “Music to dance to while doing chores so I don’t stab myself in the eye with a spork” playlist, which can never be large enough if you ask me. As famous as this guy is, he doesn’t need me pimping for him. But for those of you living in cave like me, you should definitely check him out.
I hope I don’t kill y’all’s computers. More cute pics! While visiting my parents, we went to Pep’s Point which has water slides, a river to swim in, canoeing, a couple of docks to jump from, and various other games. Since I wasn’t swimming with them, I made each kid wear a life jacket. They were good sports about it and I got some cool shots:
Brian:
Max:
Brian’s hair cut before the Avatar one. I really like the cut, but it’s being overshadowed by the awesomeness of the arrow!
Brian with glasses. We don’t have many of these. Brian looks so great with them on, don’tcha think?
The boys being silly:
More Brian-as-Avatar photos:\
\
\
\
\
