My blog. Personal thoughts, anecdotes, and musings.
It seems a certain multilevel marketing company has managed to infiltrate the small town where I grew up. I’ve received solicitations from a few of my high-school classmates to join up. I guess it would be nice to have them call me and want to know what’s new, or tell me about what’s going on in their lives, or say “Hey, why don’t we meet for coffee or a drink and catch up?
We’ve had issues with the bathrooms in our house since we moved in. The previous owners did a lot of strange things that we are still undoing. The upstairs bathroom had some sort of water problem before we moved in, and the toilet was replaced. Unfortunately they put the toilet on top of the water-damaged floor which, over time, caused the flooring to sink a bit, breaking the seal on the toilet tank.
For those that don’t know, I am now using a Mac most of the time. It feels really weird but it is by far the best experience I have ever had with a computer That’s a pretty strong thing for me to say, especially from someone who pays the bills using Microsoft technology. The thing is that I can run Windows on my Mac so I can have the best of both worlds.
I am really excited to be working with Erich again. We hired him at UW-Eau Claire to work on our content management project. It’s going to be great having him around again.
Richard Jeni, one of my favorite comedians, died this weekend from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. One of his best routines is Jaws 4. Really funny stuff. I also recommend the Political Parties routine. Great stuff.
Just a quick note to let you know that I have been working on my book for O’Reilly lately and we are making really good progress. I’ve learned a lot about the publishing process in the last few months. One thing I’ve learned is that if you’re trying to write a book with a day job and a family, you’d better learn to stay up late or start getting up earlier.
Some interesting tips to save your eyes. Some are obvious, like make sure your CRT monitor isn’t set to the wrong refresh rate (flicker effect) to less obvious ones like placing the screen an arm’s length away from you and looking at the screen at a downward angle. More at http://www.ipnlighting.com/blog/2007/02/22-ways-to-reduce-eye-strain-at-your.asp
I managed to pull some muscles in my back Monday morning on my way to work. I wasn’t doing anything different, but they just decided to clench up and cause a dazzling array of pain. I ended up getting some muscle relaxers that help quite a bit, but I am still pretty uncomfortable if i sit down for any period of time. If you’re wondering, yes I am still insanely busy but I am hoping to get rid of a few projects soon.
I just got a nice present from Microsoft for helping them along with a project. I can’t really say what it’s about because they want me to keep it somewhat quiet. They sent me a copy of Visual Studio 2005 Professional, which means I can go and install Ruby In Steel now. Who knows, maybe I’ll find another use for VS too.
Just sent another draft of my “Rails for Windows” book to my editor. This is what he had to say after reading 2/3 of it. The writing is really good. I think you’re saying what needs to be said, and I’m certainly looking forward to expanding this into a book once we get the short cut done. That feels pretty good.Now if I could just make progress on my other book, I’d be all set.