random neuron misfires

Well, its time to make it public… after so may people have asked for it, so here goes.

I’ve taken the original 9/11 Commission Report and converted it all to validated XHTML so I could then read and redistribute it in Plucker format. It is also on MemoWare and on PalmGear, and on FreewarePalm. I may convert it to iSilo format, if there is a great-enough need.

I took the original 567-page PDF and converted it by hand to validated XHTML, chapter by chapter, and paragraph by paragraph. I also added a lot of usability features that were not in the original, specifically for people reading it on a PalmOS handheld device. No less than 20 hours were used to convert this over to this “superlinked” copy. I also have my conversion ChangeLog as well, for those who are interested in how this is progressing. I’m at version 1.5 now.

• Every annotation mentioned in the document has been linked to their respective Notes page
• The Notes pages were restructured to facilitate this usability
• A completely new Table of Contents, linked to every section and sub-section
• Each chapter has its own mini-TOC at the top which links to the sub-sections in the chapters
• The List of Illustrations page links to each image in the report

…and lots of other features
This copy is much more useful than the original PDF, because of the depth of the crosslinking I added to it and the wrapping and punctuation corrections I also made in thousands of places.

Please link to it. My hope is that this will become the most widely-used version of this document, because it is currently the only one searchable via the web, due to the fact that it is online in HTML format.

The information presented in this report is too important to ignore.

Our online photo album of our new daughter Seryn is almost done. We’re trying not to be overly zealous with the camera taking dozens of pictures a day, but its hard, she’s so darn cute!. We’ve got 569 photos in there so far, all categorized, sorted, and resized for web viewing.

I’ve tasked Erika with taking control of that little project, and she’s done an amazing job of it. I’m very impressed, and she worked hard to get it done.

When its all set and ready to launch, I’ll announce the link here, of course. All kinds of new things going on these days…

Yes, Home Depot does replacement windows, and siding, and all kinds of things. They contract it out to local contractors who do the actual install.

We have had several of our windows replaced by Home Depot so far. The first one was our big bay window facing the back yard. That was a complicated replacement, because there were some side “porthole” windows, and the big set of bend-out bay windows, and some tall side windows. The installers did a really amazing job.

The next round, was three windows along the side of the house. The installers for the second job were a different pair of guys, and they didn’t do such a good job. They spilled some solvent on our newly-painted window trim, causing it to “smear”, they forgot to caulk and seal the inside of the windows, and they managed to just “rip off” the thermometer from the side of the house, without even asking if we wanted to keep it there.

They installed the windows, and then.. true to form… Murphy’s Law kicked in. We ordered a very specific style of window called “Prairie Grids” or “perimeter grids”, for the upper half of the window. This style is very unique to the style of our home. Of course, we got the normal colonial “pane” windows instead.

So we called Home Depot, and mentioned it to them, and they said they’d just re-order new top-window pieces. So far, so good. 2 days ago, we get a call that the guy is just a block away with the windows in the back of his truck, and he wanted to know if he could just stop by and drop them in. Sure, I said.

He arrives, with the windows in towe. As he’s bringing them to the front of the house, I notice that they’re… not… quite what we wanted. One of them is a solid piece of glass, and the other two look fairly normal.

I mentioned this to him, and he says

“Well, if you don’t want ’em, I’ll just throw them in a dumpster, and re-order you some new ones.”

Apparently it costs more for them to store the mis-ordered, mis-shaped windows, so they just toss them.

So I said I’ll just take them, and use them as spares, in case we break one of these (or in case we sell the house, and we don’t have all of the windows replaced with prairie style windows).

Sigh. Just another example of how we can’t ever have clean closure to anything we rely on other people to do for us.

We wanted to outfit our front deck with some comfortable “sitting” chairs. We looked for awhile for something we both liked. I’m not a fan of the low deck chairs, or those el-cheapo white plastic “patio” chairs. Quite a few chairs have a sharp edge, or right-angle right underneath your knees when you’re sitting down. Not really a nice feeling when you sit for as long as I do, working.

So we found a place called Teak Wicker & More that had a set of Adirondack chairs in solid mahogany. Not only was it solid mahogany, but it was 5/4″ solid mahogany. Thick.

The company delayed the shipping week by week, and we thought we’d never get them, but two months after we ordered them, they arrived. They came in two smallish boxes, and went together very easily. It took me about 10 minutes per-chair to put them together.

The construction and craftsmanship was flawless. Every hole mated up with every bolt, and all of the screw holes were countersunk and pre-drilled (this mirrors the horror story we had to endure with the cradle and changing table for Seryn, where after 3 separate physical units were shipped to us, they still couldn’t get it right!).

Sitting in these chairs is SO comfortable, it is almost beyond words. The height of the arms is perfect, and the back is curved perfectly for the human back curvature. Every piece of wood is sanded, with no splinters, cracks, or rough edges at all.

Absolutely stunning and amazing. I can’t wait to sit out there and start working through the early morning hours and after-dark hours.

We decided to finally commit to buying a “real” grill, for our summer cookouts, instead of wishing we had one.

After much reading, we decided to get a Weber Genesis Silver B, from a local dealer. The purchase was flawless, and we got a few free items to boot (free propane fill, free Weber canvas grill cover, and free delivery.. that night). We decided to get one in a box, instead of taking the floor model (which was the only black one left). We ended up with a dark blue unit. I’m not partial, its a grill, after all, not a sports car.

After unboxing the unit and beginning the easy assembly, I noticed something odd..

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Is it really this hard to make a piece of baby furniture? Really.

We ordered a white “Aspen” changing table from WALMART, online, made by a company called “StorkCraft“. We received it in the normal shipping period. After opening the box, and realizing that the instructions to assemble it were “generic” across all of their model units, I put it together using logic instead. Everything went together fine, except the drawer.

I’ve worked in woodworking for years, and I know how a drawer is constructed. This drawer wasn’t drilled properly, and the front and back pieces were the same size! As anyone who has built furniture before knows, a drawer front is almost always wider than its back, so as not to show the mounting holes or side ends when closed.

The drawer was about 4″ too narrow for the space it should have occupied. We telephoned StorkCraft, and complained. I took about 8 digital pictures of the various “incorrect” pieces, how the holes were drilled wrong, and so on, and mailed it back to “Francis” at StorkCraft, as she requested, within 30 minutes of our call. She got the email right away, according to my mail logs.

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Have you ever had one of those years, where you’re just so busy, you forget to eat, or sleep, or even go to the bathroom? I’ve been having 5 of those years in a row. I literally plod along and work, work, work.. until 12 hours later, I think to myself.. “Self, you forgot to eat breakfast!”, and now it’s dinnertime.

I am so incredibly busy now with work and work lining up for the summer season, that I’m completely losing track of time, as my days slip right through my fingers, and I don’t even realize it. With clients stacking up on my right, ongoing contracts stacking up on my left, and my own Free Software work and maintenance stacking up somewhere on the edges waiting to find a place to slip through, it is getting very difficult to manage everything all at once. I think I need a secretary. Seriously.

And now I have a daughter to tend to, watch her grow, and help her become the best she can be. Oh, and that house renovation to complete, my own health and hobbies to deal with, and somewhere in there, find a sliver of minutes or hours to spend some quality time with my wife.

Somehow, I always find a way to get everything done, on-time, and with enough sanity left to wake up fresh for the next day.

It looks like there must be some sort of biological or cyclical phenomenon that brings out the idiots right around the holidays.

Why is it people insist on driving 90mph in a 65mph zone, then race up on the left or right of you, barely slip in-between you and the car in front of you, then jam on their brakes, because they’re going too damn fast!

They don’t want to rear-end the car in front of you, but they seem to think its OK if they force you to rear-end them instead. I’m going to start carrying a video camera in the car, and filming these cave-persons behind the wheel, just in case there’s an accident, I’ll have it all on tape.

I don’t quite understand the whole competitive edge behind getting one (1) car length ahead of where they were before. Is getting only one car further ahead really that important, so important that causing an accident is something they’re willing to do?

I’ve taken to seeing this coming, when they tailgate you, then try to pass you when a gap opens in the next-lane over. I just speed up, and box them in against the next car up in the next lane over, and they’re forced to slip in behind me again. I’ll do it again and again, and even slow down to 55mph as I creep past an 18-wheeler in the other lane, just to see their faces cramp up and sense their blood boiling behind me.

You want road rage, bring it on, miscreant. I’ll show you road rage.

We finally did it. We now have our first child. Her name is Seryn Makaela, and she is the most beautiful thing in the world. She is just over 48 hours old, and already doing well with feeding and changing and all things baby’esque.

She was born on July 2nd at 16:48. She came in at 3.97kg (8lb. 12oz.) and 52cm (20.5″) long. She and her mother are doing well; both healthy and happy.

The delivery was amazingly fast, and relatively pain-free. I can guarantee that her digestive system is going to be working just fine. She’s already up to 4 solid waste diaper changes per day, and she’s not even on her third day out!

We’ll have pictures up soon…

Now to figure out how to integrate this new life into our own.

We’re parents now!

After spending 2 days at the hospital, caring for my wife and new daughter, I can’t take any more of the sleeping situation on their 5′ long vinyl couch in the post-delivery room. It is the most uncomfortable thing I’ve ever tried to sleep on, so I decided to head home to sleep on a real bed, in my real house.. a 90-minute drive East.

After several hours of comatose sleep, I’m awaken by a phone call at 2:00am. The only thing that races through my mind is that there was some sort of complication and they needed me back at the hospital urgently.

I pick up the phone, and it is a scratchy “fake” Spanish woman’s voice.

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