morrowlife

Here’s LRN2’s new computer booting up for the very first time.  Ahh . . . what a thing of beauty!  Great Art courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam and part of my famous Machinery series.  Those are LRN2’s hands there, shortly after he Pushed the Button.

Extreme Short Shrift.  It’s already bedtime, and I’ve been staying up WAY too late recently.

We got a great invitation from our cruising buddies Connie and Doug yesterday – they have a house at South Lake Tahoe for the Labor Day weekend, and they invited us to join them.  So we’re going.  Apparently, the house is in her family, so there’s also no charge.  Nice.  We’re looking forward to seeing that area and to having a nice weekend with Connie and Doug.  LRN2 is coming on this trip, of course.

Had a nice time at iOS devcamp.  I went on Friday and Saturday.  Didn’t really do any software development – I spent my time studying iPhone programming and attending various talks, all of which were very interesting.  There was one unhappy-looking young man who talked about how an application  for which he and some colleagues spent a grand total of three hours in development has made over $100,000.  The app is free, but they have advertising on it, and they have a company that allows you to choose who will serve your ads on a minute-by-minute basis if you want, and they managed to get a lot of downloads.  Hence, they made a lot of money.  Kind of sad.

And it’s time for bed already.  I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this exciting new Morrowlife Employment Agency opportunity: mosquito catcher!

See you tomorrow.

Here’s . . . ummm . . . . a US Forest Service . . . ummm . . . thing.  I do know it goes on railroad tracks.  I have no idea what else it does.  I’m assuming it’s just supposed to transport a person or two, but I’m not sure I see how.  Or where those people would sit.  Great Art courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam and part of my famous Machinery series.

Greetings from the train! I finished a few emails, indexed a hundred names, updated my to-do list for the weekend – all while listening to Jesus the Christ – and watched a little bit of my iPhone class, and now it’s time to blog a bit. I only have a bit more than ten minutes before we pull in to Lardville, and writing on my beloved iPhone is a bit slow, so I’m unlikely to finish this before I get home. Might as well get a start, anyway.

Devcamp starts tomorrow afternoon! I’ve been a bit worried about going, seeing as how I’m still a student and rank amateur iPhone-programming-wise, but I’ve decided to go, listen to the speakers (if any), and work on my own. I’ll spend as much time as necessary learning, and I have an idea for a program I hope to write during the conference.

I’m kind of excited about the idea. It’s easy enough that I think I can accomplish it, and I think it might find an audience in the App Store. I won’t charge for it, so there’s no money to be made, but I’m thinking it will be good experience and maybe get me some exposure. I think something good might come of it. Details on the app next week.

Nothing else new, other than that the weekend is here! I have a million things to get done tomorrow before the conference (which doesn’t start until 5:00, and I probably don’t need to be there before 6:00). LRN4 apparently has a pretty long list, and I have a few things of my own. Ought to be a busy day.

We’re slowing down for the Lardville station. See you in a bit.

– Later –

I’m back.  Checked the devcamp website, and it looks like a fairly large percentage of registered attendees also have little to no iPhone programming experience.  So at least I’ll be in good company.  I’m expecting it to be fun.  And I plan to just dedicate my time to finding a quiet place and working on my app.  And maybe I’ll make a friend or two.  Wish me luck, Loyal Readers!

And that’s about it for tonight.  I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this exciting Morrowlife employment opportunity (which is an actual job opening with the actual United States Federal Government!  I’m not kidding this time!): Native American Medicine Man.

See you tomorrow.

Here’s LRN2’s new iPod Touch, as photographed from my beloved iPhone.  Slightly fuzzy Great Art courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam, of course.  Part of my famous Machinery series.

Another Extreme Short Shrift night.  It’s already almost 10:00 and I need to get to bed.

Worked, ate, and commuted.  My train ride this afternoon was especially productive – I listened to some more of Jesus the Christ (turns out I’m enjoying it – the reader is interesting, although he forgot to eliminate his mistakes from the recording, which is kind of amusing in the world of audio books), indexed 150 names, finished the current draft of my Arduino program, and wrote this Sunday’s talk.  Also worked for an hour in the morning.  Whew.

I was a bit surprised to hear today that Glenn Beck has kinda sorta endorsed gay marriage.  His argument seems to be that as long as they’re not harming him, he doesn’t care what they do.  While I agree with his argument in principle, I couldn’t disagree more in practice.  The problem as I see it is that it’s never enough for the gay lobby.  As soon as something becomes permissible, it isn’t long before it becomes mandatory.  Assuming gay marriage truly becomes legal in California in the near future, it won’t be long at all before anyone legally licensed to perform marriages is required to perform gay marriages, regardless of their own moral standards.  The LDS church (and many other churches, of course) will never agree to such a thing, so our right to perform marriages will be stripped from us.  The designs and purposes of God can’t be frustrated, of course, but people who make themselves our enemies will make it as hard for us as they possibly can.

Besides, the idiot (and, incidentally, gay) judge who took it upon himself to overturn the will of the people of California argued that the people have no right to impose their morality on the state.  What he doesn’t seem to understand, and what every intelligent creature in the universe except for him and his friends does understand, is that all law is based on generally accepted standards of morality.  What else is there to base it on?  We believe it’s wrong to kill, it’s wrong to steal, and it’s wrong to harm other people.  So we make those things illegal.  What’s the difference?

Anyway.  I can’t understand what Mr. Beck is thinking.  How can he not see that these people mean us harm?  How can he not see that they’re nowhere near finished?

Okay, that’s it for politics for today.  In the good news arena, we got the new PDA for the pool today.  I got it paired with the transmitter, and it works!  The pool is back in business.  Meaning that we can turn jacuzzifying mode and the heater on again.  It was very trying without those things for a few days.

And I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this shocking food violence news: melon chaos!

See you tomorrow.

Here are the telltale signs of LRN2’s new toys – Apple stickers, large and small.  The big ones came with his laptop and the little ones came with his iPod.  Of course.  Slightly fuzzy Great Art courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam and (a merely symbolic) part of my famous Machinery series.

I have tons of those Apple stickers, and I can never figure out something cool to do with them.  I even have – get ready for it – a few of the old-school rainbow Apple stickers.  Those are certainly collectors’ items by now, no?  I just looked them up, and somebody is trying to sell a single one on eBay for twelve bucks.  If that’s not cool, I don’t know what is. Anyway, I don’t want to look like either a geek or a jerk, so they’re all in a drawer right now.  Any suggestions?

Greetings from the train! I’m trying hard to improve how I use my train time, and doing a bit more blogging is one part of that. Right now, I’m on the morning train, in fact, having finished my hour of work already and not quite having reached the Great America station. Also listening to Car Talk on my iPod.

Arriving now. See you this afternoon.

That didn’t last long. Good afternoon! I’m back. Had a good day at work. Lots to get done still this afternoon. I need to finish this post, index 200 names, get the Arduino data transmittal function working right, attend two church meetings, and remember to put the magnet I bought at the Grand Canyon into my briefcase. Everything but the meetings and the magnet will be done in the train, time and laptop battery permitting, fortunately.

Had a good iPhone telecon today. We’re very close to our initial release – just need to get the final name incorporated and get final Legal approval. Any minute now. I’m excited to get it into users’ hands. That’ll get the trouble ticket pipeline started up too, I expect.

I found another interesting and highly meaningful website today: The Art of Manliness.  Very entertaining and a good read.  I particularly enjoyed the article on man caves, which was linked to by Instapundit.  It got me thinking – I have my own office now, and it looks terrible.  I need to turn it into a really cool man cave.  I’ve always been kind of partial to the old English club look, but I’m open to suggestions.

I guess I have a garage I could do something with too, but I really want to start with my office.  Or should I call it my study?  My library?  What sounds coolest?

Not much else exciting right now, so I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this shocking food violence news: hamburger-related injuries!

See you tomorrow.

Here’s the view from my hotel window in Cannes, France one day in 2002.  I wouldn’t mind having one of them there yachits.  Part of my famous Machinery series.

Lonely day.  LRN1 left for Young Women camp this morning.  LRN2 and I are here all alone tonight.  How sad.  We had a nice dinner of beanie weenies (don’t laugh – they were tasty) and went swimming  and jacuzzifying for home evening.  Then we came inside, got changed, and had a nice big bowl of ice cream.  Now we’re fiddling around with our computers.  So were lonely but having a fairly nice time.  We sincerely hope LRN4’s having a great time too.

The weekend was enjoyable, but a bust as far as my to-do list was concerned.  I did get the pond filter cleaned and my talk written, but that was about it.  Went to six hours of church (two wards – the one where I spoke and my own) and made two home teaching visits and went to dance instruction and the youth dance on Saturday evening and stayed incredible busy otherwise.  No complaints.  I think I’ll have plenty of time to do my hobby stuff this coming weekend, it being an off Friday and all.

LRN2’s been keeping himself busy with drawing today.  I’m really looking forward to seeing his website come up.  We still need to work on getting it ready.  Maybe Friday!

Got some work done today.  We all received an email from our program manager this afternoon, informing us that we were going to be receiving a monetary reward for the missile shootdown event we achieved in February either this week or next.  He of course didn’t mention how much, so now I’m dying to know.  LRN2 thinks it’ll be ten million dollars.  I doubt it some, but I’d certainly accept it.  I’m thinking more like a few hundred bucks, about half of which will be withheld in taxes.  I’ll either buy something pretty for myself (a couple of books, maybe – or even an iPhone 4 if it’s enough money!) or use it to pay bills.  Probably should do the latter.  Might not, though.

Heard from LRN1 this afternoon, as usual.  He’s doing pretty well – still struggling with the companion relationship a bit.  He’s doing his best and I’m positive things will work together for his good.  This is great experience and it sounds like he’s having the time of his life.

And it’s way past bedtime already.  I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this exciting Morrowlife employment opportunity: fire-watching gorilla!

See you tomorrow.