Archives for September 2006

I had an interesting discussion with my friend David Teal last Wednesday. David's a smart guy and has read a lot. And I always consider it a pleasure to converse with people smarter than me. So this was a very fun conversation.The word feminist carries a lot of different meanings for different people. In many cases, the meaning of the word is so mixed up with emotional connotations that people forget what the word feminist really means. According to the Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary sitting on my desk, feminist means "the doctrine advocating social, political, and all other rights … [Read more...]

Motivational speaker and author John Maxwell relates a story about attending his nephew’s Little League baseball game. The nephew had not gotten a hit all season and the coach wanted him to just stand at the plate, do nothing and hope for a walk. This didn’t sit well with John. He began to shout, “Swing son! Swing as hard as you can!” So the nephew swung and missed.John voiced, “That was a wonderful swing! Do it again! We’ll all go out for pizza afterwards!” Second swing. Second miss. You can guess what happened on the third swing. Contact. A little dribbler down the first base line that just … [Read more...]

Emily and I had the chance to visit Tampa. We were able to visit my dad and step-mom. Plus, we got to do some fun stuff together. Busch Gardens was especially fun.One of the traditions that we always enjoy is her yearly pampering. So this year, Emily decided she wanted a cut-n-color. I love her new color!She also went with a very pretty nail treatment including a pattern along with the French manicure. Though we were having a mini-celebration of her 13th birthday, I ended up walking away thinking that she looked 5 years older (except for the braces).My dad and step-mom are doing quite well … [Read more...]

Weird Al has a new CD out. I think it's called "White and Nerdy" spoofing the song "Ridin' Dirty". Check out the new video...http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=1194164636orwww.myspace.com/WeirdAlEnjoy!-Kev … [Read more...]

Finding out what your last name means is cool. Learning about its origin is kewler. It's a great project for you and your kids to work on together. The sites below can offer some great help. Have fun!http://www.last-names.net/http://www.rootsweb.comHere's a sappy little poem about last names that's very male centric. I wonder what you ladies feel about names since it's much more common in our society for you to change your names during your lifetime. Let me know what you think:You got it from your father,It was all he had to give,So it's yours to use and cherishFor as long as you live.If you … [Read more...]

World-renowned artist Edgar Degas said, “Painting is easy when you don’t know how, but very difficult when you do.”I'd suggest that the same thing is true of adults and fun. We (adults, that is) know how to play. We can still remember playing and having fun. But it's so hard for us to truly play. First of all, we're to busy to stop and play. And on those rare occassions when we do roll up our sleeves to play, we just can't seem to really let go and fully enjoy the experience.So I've thought a lot about learning to play again. I'm of the mind that it'll help me stay young. Whipee!-Kev … [Read more...]

I've been having riding mower problems. And when you have a yard that is almost 2 acres, riding mower problems are big problems. My 15 yr old Snapper riding mower broke three times during the season, each time costing about $100 to fix. Well, in August, it broke a fourth time and this time the bill was going to be $275. That's it - I need a new mower. The repairman offered me $150 to part out my old mower. I said "That's a down payment on a new mower. I'll take it."Now the Snapper was a great mower for its time, but I've learned that mower technology has come a long way. My new mower was about … [Read more...]

I think 9/11 is one of those things that we all will never forget where we were when it happened. I was at work that morning and I recall a coworker telling me that a plane had crashed into one of the Twin Towers. I thought to myself "Some drunk idiot in a Cesna did what?" A few minutes later, the coworker came back and said a second plane had crashed into the other tower and that they weren't little prop planes, but great big 747s. I was stunned.I gathered my team and we all huddle around our PCs looking for news on the Internet. Many of us called home to find out more information. I … [Read more...]

Overall, the kids are doing great in school. Sometimes, however, one of them will ask me "Why are we studying xyz? We'll never use it in real life. Who cares about the date of a battle or when Train A left Station B?"How do you respond? I tell the kids they’re probably right in some instances. But I also go on to tell them that academics isn’t just about memorizing facts. It’s really about learning how to learn and building perseverance to get through circumstances they may not enjoy. Very few classmates master these character traits. And it’s these students who go on to change the world.I'm … [Read more...]

One of the guys that I've had the honor to get to know while at Quest Software is one of our SQL Server SC's named Darren Mallette. Darren is extremely talented with SQL Server and, without even knowing it, he's made my job a lot easier by doing things to make his job easier. For example, he's created scripts and demos to highlight certain problems on SQL Server. But by doing so, he makes it much easier for me to do the big webcasts and customer visits that I do all the time.One of the really cool things about Darren is that he's very active in the "World's Strongest Man" kind of competitions … [Read more...]