Archive for September, 2008

Wolf head

Monday, September 8th, 2008


Here’s another work of Great Art from the BYU professors’ show. In fact, this one was painted by the same guy from last Friday. I don’t know whether the perspective is goofed up or the painting just isn’t square. The background looks straight, doesn’t it? In any case, I’m sure my Loyal Readers will agree this Art is Great.

This will not be a good week for blogging. Short Shrift is the order of the day today, as it probably will be on Thursday (meeting night) and Friday (Loyal Reader Number Three’s arrival). I’ll just have to find ways to pack the maximum amount of content in the minimum amount of space. And time. Especially time.

Good weekend, notable for nothing. Loyal Readers Numbers Five, Six, and Twelve visited us – it was murderously hot both at their place and at ours. The chief difference, though, was that we have air conditioning and a swimming pool. Anything to get them here. We had a pleasant weekend. Relaxed, goofed around, read to LRN12, played with legos with LRN12, etc. No complaints.

I should have been washing cars and working on things, but I didn’t. They’ll wait. It’s supposed to cool way down this week – it’s not supposed to be above 93 during the day and will be getting as low as 56 at night. If you believe the Weather Channel, of course. Fortunately, the Weather Underground is largely in agreement.

I always feel a little bit shady when I look something up on the Weather Underground. It sounds just a little too much like some kind of Sixties Radical organization. I half expect to see the forecast for peace marches and love-ins there. It’s just the weather, though. Far out, man.

All’s well otherwise. I’m sorry to hear that Loyal Reader Number One wasn’t quite ready when the people from InfusionSoft (no link to their site – it plays music) called, but I hope he’ll get another chance with them. I’m just delighted they called in the first place! It proves there’s a market for the product. I’m sure he’ll be devoting some time to getting the project in shape, and maybe they’ll still be interested.

Today’s Morrowlife controversy: Do you believe this? My answer: I’m still working up to the “caring” stage before I even consider the “believing” stage.

Time for bed. See you tomorrow.

Pink dress

Friday, September 5th, 2008


Here’s some true Great Art. Well, at least a photo of Great Art. Taken at the Harris Fine Arts Center on the BYU campus. Part of a faculty exhibition. Reproduced here without permission. But with the best of intentions. And I’m sure my Loyal Readers know Great Art when they see it. That’s why they’re here, after all. Picture ever so slightly touched up to eliminate a perspective anomaly.

Short day at work. Which is fine with me, since it was also a free day at work. I’m not too crazy about the off Fridays I have to spend at the office. But I do it anyway. The bright point was that I got to drive my new pickup. Did I mention it yet? Did I say anything about its stunning pickupish beauty?

Spent most of the afternoon installing, updating, and configuring Windows XP under VMWare. It’s working fine, although it does seem a little less stable than my Windows 2000 installation.

The cool thing, though, is that I was finally able to install the music server for our built-in Sony music player in the kitchen. It came with the house. The software only works on XP, which I didn’t have until now. It allows you to connect a music collection on your PC with any number of music players throughout the house, of which we have one. The software’s a little buggy, but I think it’s really cool anyway. I can control it from either the PC or the wall unit, including being able to turn it on downstairs from my desk upstairs. That’ll keep Loyal Reader Number Four on her toes.

Oh, I also downloaded the new Google Chrome browser. As with all things Google, it’s simple, elegant, and cool. I have no idea how they do that.

Good weekend planned. I’ve decided to actually learn Android, which will require me to become a competent Java programmer, which shouldn’t be too hard. I also need to get familiar with the Android API, but that’s doable too. I hope to find some time tomorrow to study and maybe run through a tutorial session or two. I found some excellent Android introductory videos, which I’ve started watching on the train. Maybe I’ll see some more tomorrow or Sunday. Otherwise, plans are nebulous.

It’s way past bedtime. See you Monday.

Tiny reader

Thursday, September 4th, 2008


Here’s an extremely old picture of Loyal Reader Number Twelve having a quick bite, thoughtfully provided by Loyal Reader Number Five. Can you believe how much she’s grown in such a short time? Me neither.

Extreme Short Shrift tonight. I went to my Thursday night leadership meeting and got home right on schedule, otherwise known as too late to blog.

But I do want to address Loyal Reader Number One’s question in yesterday’s comments regarding the Windows XP installation on Loyal Reader Number Two’s computer. The answer is that we haven’t tried installing it yet. LRN2 isn’t quite sure he’s ready to muck around with his computer in such a serious way. I’m thinking of installing it as a new virtual machine on my Mac first, just to see if it will work. I’ll keep my ever-curious Loyal Readers fully informed, of course. That suggests a possible new motto for the blog: “Way more information than you want.” What do you think, Loyal Readers? I’ll probably stick with “Marginal content, twenty-seven readers.”

No new controversy again today. I need Dave Barry to get home from the stupid political conventions and start doing his job. Namely, being the Official Morrowlife Controversy Research Department.

In the meantime, what do you think of this delivery truck driver? My answer: Well done, compadre.

See you tomorrow.

Ranger

Wednesday, September 3rd, 2008


Here’s the new pickup, courtesy of the exclusive low-quality RAZR-cam. I’m quite sure all my Loyal Readers will agree that’s true Great Art, regardless of the actual image quality. Note the delicate lines, the majestic sweep of the fender, the timeless beauty of the wheels. Wow. Part of my famous Machinery series. But only dubiously so.

Speaking of which, maybe I need to join the Ford Ranger Club. I never joined the Miata club (although I do use their excellent tech forums often to figure out how to fix my car) or even the Accord club (they don’t seem overly enthusiastic there, do they?), but this may be different. I think I may skip this club, though. Don’t have the scooter. I like their Ranger attitude, though.

I’m recommending that Loyal Readers Numbers Three and Five join this club. Now that’s the definition of cool.

No new controversy today. I’ve looked in all my usual spots, but there’s just nothing controversial going on in the world. So I’ll have to satisfy myself with Loyal Reader Number One’s controversy from last week. I agree completely with LRN3’s take on the issue. There’s nothing like a pair of Mormon missionaries to strike fear into the hearts of the fearless. That may be the ultimate home security device.

I tried to download Google’s new browser, Chrome. Sadly, the current beta will only work on Windows XP and Vista. No Mac version yet. And my virtual PC on the Mac is running Windows 2000. So I’m not included. Sigh. Have any Loyal Readers tried it out yet?

Time for bed. See you tomorrow.

Gravely Ford

Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008


Here’s a fascinating historical marker we found in Nevada on our way to Utah last week. See if you can pick out the date this thing was posted. Picture courtesy of the famous low-res RAZR-cam. Sadly.

No posts Friday or Monday. Sorry. We had company Friday. At Loyal Reader Number Four’s brother’s house. Old friends from Virginia came over. Had a nice time, but posting was impractical. Monday seemed like Saturday and I forgot. Fortunately, good old Anon hasn’t noticed yet.

Good weekend. We got home Saturday afternoon in time to welcome Loyal Readers Numbers Five, Six, and Twelve for the weekend. Which was pleasant. We all got sunburned at the ward picnic on Monday afternoon, especially LRN12. Poor her. Get better soon, LRN12!

Things at work were pretty much unchanged today. That’s probably a good thing. The great news, though, is that my pickup was untouched by human hands. I finally got to drive it today! My Loyal Readers will be delighted to learn it’s still working perfectly.

Anyway. Things have returned to normal and life is running at its usual pell-mell pace. And we’re having a great time at it.

See you tomorrow.