More Gems from the VaultAs part of the divorce agreement with Kelly, I have a major piece of work ahead. I'm slowly going through and cleaning up all of the photos that Dylan scanned. Most of the scans ended up having two to four photos saved in a single image file. So it's going to take a lot of work to get them all broken out into separate files. Considering that there are 10's of thousands of photos, you can imagine the work ahead.Here's a pic of me and Emily just after she was born. Even though it's mid-summer and I have one of my best tans ever, you can see that she was a shade or two … [Read more...]
July 10, 2007 by Leave a Comment
An old favorite
July 9, 2007 by Leave a Comment
I saw this eons ago and forgot all about it until my musician friends, Kevin and Lara Lay, forwarded this to me. It's called "All the Great Operas in 10 Minutes" and it's quite funny, especially if you don't like opera that much. I'd long been a fan of classical music (of all sorts from medieval music, madrigals, and most all periods of classical music except for the 20th century atonal works). Anyway, I made several attempts to try to like opera and always failed. I hate it - still do. So if you're in the same boat as me, you'll get a kick out of this … [Read more...]
July 8, 2007 by Leave a Comment
Dylan had worked hard for me all last week to get all of my old photographs into digital format. He'd been scanning full time, even overtime, late into the night for the whole week. I still have a lot of work to do in cleaning up all of the photos. But there are lots of rewarding finds throughout. Like this one (above). I remember that photo - taken at a dump of a hotel called the Blue Horizon down in Ft Walton Beach, FL. It wasn't a great hotel, but it was great for what we could afford. Dylan was on his way to 2 years old and Emily hadn't been born yet. And we both had great tans! We had … [Read more...]
Check out what’s up with Darren
June 25, 2007 by Leave a Comment
In case you haven't noticed the new blogroll item, check out the blog of my friend and amazing power lifter, Darren Mallette.Darren is really cool not only because he's a top notch professional who knows his work inside and out. He's also really cool because he's a competing power lifter and "strong man" who beats guys who outweigh him by 150 lbs. That's amazing and illustrates the power of a superior intellect over a purely brawn-based strategy to winning strong man competitions. Rock on, Darren! … [Read more...]
Ok, this just makes me mad!
June 21, 2007 by Leave a Comment
I'm not saying that the federal government has to solve or salve every problem of the common man. But I do believe that the federal government should tackle problems that are far bigger and more societal in nature. Taking the "head in the sand" approach never made anything better for anyone. See below for the source of my current feelings of scorn:http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/15148655/the_secret_campaign_of_president_bushs_administration_to_deny_global_warming … [Read more...]
Now that’s a back rub!
June 21, 2007 by Leave a Comment
I took Katie Jo to the doctor and then to Walgreen's for a perscription. As we waited on the Rx, KJ took advantage of the opportunity to use the demo back rub station they installed near the pharmacy. For some reason, I thought she looked hilarious, so I snapped a photo of her:Later in the week, she was playing with Anna Lynn and her friends Kaylee and Savanna. The conversation was also grin-inspiring: Savanna: I'm the Queen of England. Kaylee: Well, I'm the Queen of Sweden! Anna Lynn: Oh yeah? Well, I'm the Empress of Japan. Katie Jo: Ok, then I'm the Queen of Kentucky!I just … [Read more...]
I Dreampt of Odysseus’ Return…
June 8, 2007 by Leave a Comment
A favorite passage from Robert Fitzgerald's translation of the Odyssey....Now from his breast into his eyes the acheof longing mounted, and he wept at last,his dear wife, clear and faithful, in his arms,longed for as the sunwarmed earth is longed for by a swimmerspent in rough water where his ship went downunder Poseidon's blows, gale winds and tons of sea.Few men can keep alive through a big surfto crawl, clotted with brine, on kindly beachesin joy, in joy, knowing the abyss behind:and so she too rejoiced, her gaze upon her husband,her white arms round him pressed as though forever.... … [Read more...]
Like Greeks at the Gates of Troy
June 6, 2007 by 2 Comments
Odysseus is one of my heroes. He was a mighty warrior and a brave leader, but he was most famous among the Greeks for being their smartest warrior. Odysseus was the epitome of arete, the Greek honor code of excellence (of the same ilk as chivalry to the knights of late medieval Europe or bushido to the samurai of the Shogunate era) because he embodied not just the coarser aspects of warrior excellence but also the quieter virtues such as intelligence, self-restraint, creativity, loyalty, and wisdom.It was Odysseus who came up with the idea of the Trojan Horse. It was he alone who lived to hear … [Read more...]
Another TechEd
June 4, 2007 by Leave a Comment
TechEd is Microsoft's largest conference of the year. This year it's in Orlando and has about 13,000 attendees. I'll be speaking on Wednesday afternoon on "SQL Server Performance Benchmarking & Monitoring". Doesn't that sound like the most interesting thing you've ever heard of? One of the things that I do indeed enjoy about TechEd is that I get to catch up with a number of friends who I only seem to see at the big conferences.There are times when I'm really excited about travel. It had better be, since it's such a big part of my job. Lately, though, it's all I can do to keep up the pace. I'm … [Read more...]
The TN Renaissance Fair, our Memorial Day tradition
May 29, 2007 by 1 Comment
We've been doing the TN Renaissance Fair every Memorial Day weekend it seems for at least five or six year. I can imagine that we'll be doing it for many years into the future.The budget wasn't as big this year as in some previous years, so we didn't get to play quite as many games. But it seems like everyone had a lot of fun. Both of the girls tried their hands at "Dragon Joust", but alas, they did not vanquish their foe. (grin)We got to see lots of the shops, the living chess match, and the falconer's demonstration. I really wanted to see the entire knight's tournament event. But it'd … [Read more...]
