Amusement Park!

Oh Crap, Oh Crap, Oh Crap

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!

This is me!

Just substitute chocolate for the wine: Come home, Daddy!\
I can handle the kids the first 90% of the time Kevin is gone. Once that anticipation of Kevin coming home hits me, I am done for. If he is just at work, then I start to lose it around 4 pm. If he is gone on a three-day business trip, I lose it about half way through the third day. If he is gone for three weeks, I am fine for 18 days in a row- IN A ROW!!- until I sense that he will soon be home. It’s weird to me that I can be fine for 18 days in a row but can’t always handle a whole regular work day. I guess it is because I know I have to handle it when he is away on business.

Big Brother Spoilers Below!

I’ve joked in the past about being a bad mom, a bad friend, maybe even a bad wife. Tonight, I come to you humbly to admit, with no reservation or joking, that I am truly a bad, bad person: I LOVE BIG BROTHER! Kevin’s all sad and thinks it is a train-wreck of a show because the people are mean, dumb, and selfish. I, however, think it is entertainment gold because the people are mean, dumb, and selfish. I haven’t intentionally watched Big Brother since the first or second season, but this season just grabbed me from the start (I was in the room when Kevin watched the premiere).\
Amber asking, “What’s integrity [etc] mean?” Priceless.\
Amber crying while saying that she was done crying. Priceless.\
Amber adamantly saying that she wasn’t going to agree with anything Danielle offered and then volunteering to give away ALL of her power to Danielle? Priceless.\
And just so you don’t think it is all about Amber, Zack cock-blocking Eric was so awesome! Add in Eric’s squeaking and it becomes… Priceless.\
I don’t like any of these people, so watching them go at it is entertaining as hell. However, I feel like an attendee at one of Michael Vick’s parties. I need a shower.\
My one non-bitchy thought: I am naively hopeful that Amber or Danielle will win something during their surprise trip. It won’t happen, but the thought makes me squeee. Really.\
Also, I don’t mind Amber’s focus on God, but I wish someone could give her some kind, but faithful, perspective. I am sick of the sentiments like this one from TWoP: “…perhaps the lord has been remiss in his duties in Iraq because he has been planning this big event for Amber.” I laughed, cuz yes, I am a bad person. But really, maybe God is blessing Amber by not winning. Seriously. Or maybe God gave her a vision (I am just going to accept that she believes it) so that she would have the confidence to win 2nd place and get to go on a neat trip and/or to get off of the block.\
CBS has been editing the hell out of the show- not showing Dick’s misogynistic attacks on the women, Amber’s anti-Jewish rant. But whatever, I am enjoying the show. Like I said, I am a bad bad person.

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…

I’m alive! And Awake!

Brian’s nocturnal activities sent me to sleepyland by 7 last night. It was so glorious until he woke up again in the middle of the night. He kept jumping on me in bed. He knew though that it was still “bedtime” until the sun and sky got up. But since he was in bed, he wasn’t breaking any rules!

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.

Ughh

Brian has turned into a terrorist. He gets up at all hours of the night, flipping on the lights, disturbing everyone’s sleep, jumping on anyone with a pulse. Max keeps yelling at him to turn off the light and leave him alone. Kevin ran away and said, “Don’t bother me until the sun is up,” (I’ve been trying to teach Brian that) and I stuck my head under the blanket and tried to sleep with him playing leapfrog over me.\
I’m not sure what to do to fix it and it is really hard to be rational or reasonable on very little sleep. Any suggestions?

BarCampDC: The Kid Comes Along

Youngest BarCamper
\
by Kelly Gifford

(that’s Dr. Joe talking to Max)\
Max and I went to BarCampDC this Saturday. BarCamp is an “un-conference” (no set schedule, everyone participates), and they’re held all over the world. This one was organized by Jason Garber, Jackson Wilkinson and Justin Thorp. They did a great job, and were cool with Max coming and participating.\
I spoke on Rails, did the live coding demo I’ve done at other unconferences, and helped out in the portable social networking session.\
Here are some links related to those sessions:

  • Ficlets, Rails and OpenID – I used this presentation during the intro to show off some of what Rails can do (also has some good OpenID info).
  • Tapping the Portable Social Network – Explains some of the concepts behind the prototype I put together, and
  • Portable Social Networks – The blog post that explains the prototype and presents the flow (and has a link to download the app).
  • The International Day of Awesomeness – Because I “sponsored” (on accident, I swear), I got to speak before one of the sessions. Of course, I spoke about The International Day of Awesomeness.\
    Now that’s out of the way, let’s talk about Max! When I originally asked Max if he wanted to go to BarCamp with me, I wasn’t sure he’d want to go. We talked about it a couple times on the way to summer camp and the more he found out about it, the more excited he got. I was excited for him to see me give a presentation and see what it is that I do when I travel. He had a great time. Everyone was really great with him. He was so excited to talk about Scratch and Hackety Hack and to learn from everyone. He was by far the youngest attendee there (I mean, Jason only looks 15). He was insanely well-behaved, and other than him clicking markers together a couple times or tearing paper, he was as well-behaved as any of the adults. He zoned out a little bit in the afternoon, but I think most people did.\
    On the way home, we talked a lot about what he thought of the day. Even after almost twelve hours of non-stop geekdom (we left the house at 7:30AM and this was at about 7PM), he was asking when the next BarCamp was going to be (in the last twenty-four hours, he’s asked me when the next one is about ten times), and asking me if I’d help him do a presentation on animation and using Hackety Hack.\
    Thank you to everyone who sponsored BarCamp, helped organize things, presented, and talked to Max during the day. I can’t tell you how cool it was to watch him talking to people and share his passion. It was great to share that with him, and to see him get out there. He said afterwards that he was a little shy in the morning, but that everyone was really nice. Max is an interesting kid, and I love seeing him learn and discover new things – and I love being able to share the things I’m passionate about with him.

Picture post!

Kevin twittered it, but this picture deserves a real post of its own: Max at BarCampDC\
He looks so professional!\
Plaid shirt? Check.\
Short-sleeve plaid shirt? Check.\
Back pack? Check.\
ID tag? Check.\
Animated expression while talking about computery stuff? Check.