Sewing Party
My wife (not pictured) is teaching kids to sew today.
A whole pile of kids learning to sew.
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Posterous Archive (Page 2)
Posterous was a blogging platform that made it easy to blog from a mobile device. I really liked the simplicity of this site. It was much less fussy to edit and post than tools like WordPress and Blogger, and it supported custom domains. I used this for my personal blog for a few years before it was acquired by Twitter and shut down.
Before it shut down I archived all my posts because I’m a digital hoarder.
My Posts
Vonnegut's Humor
I’ve been a Vonnegut fan since I was in high school. Of course there’s a lot to like about his work. But one thing I’ll mention here is his dry humor. This, for example, is one of the greatest things ever written:
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Inferi?
I bought something on Amazon today and this promotional banner popped up:
Inferi?
This immediately made me think of the Inferi from Harry Potter. Apparently Voldemort wants me to buy a swim suit. Creepy.
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Duped by a Nine Year Old
True story:
SOPHIA: [Loudly, to the room in general] What is 7 times 6? It isn’t in my homework or anything, I’m just curious.
ME: [Distractedly while I work on my laptop] 42
SOPHIA: [cackles with glee, writes the answer on her homework sheet] Thank you!
This reminds me of another Sophia story worth recounting. When she was 4 years old, riding in the shopping cart at the grocery store. I turn down the alcohol aisle looking for cooking wine for a recipe.
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Lost Connection to MySQL Server During Query When Dumping Table
I’ve seen this error a time or two. It happens sometimes when I dump/load a database to copy it on the same server. Today I decided to fix it on my development machine. These entries in my my.cnf did the trick:
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Submit!
This is what you see when you start the process of filling out a passport application on the State Department web site.
Submit?
So far as I know, the word “submit” only has two meanings. Since I haven’t even started my application, I’m clearly not presenting an application to a body for consideration. The only other meaning of “submit” is to yield to a superior force, so…
Wait, never mind. It makes perfect sense.
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Body Awareness in Stoner
I love the novel Stoner by John Williams. [ed: Since this was written I’ve read Williams’ Augustus twice and it has become one of my favorite novels.] One thing I appreciated is the way Williams writes about Stoner’s awareness of his physical self, especially his hands.
For example here where it seems to symbolize Stoner’s anxiety:
Stoner wet his lips and shifted on the chair. He tried to fold his large hands together so that they would be invisible.
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Anybody Care to Explain this Control
A checkbox and yes/no radio buttons for a single option. Just for emphasis.
Yes, you can turn the checkbox off and set the radio to “Yes.” Or turn it on and set it to “No.” Heaven only knows what it does then.
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Anybody Who Can Write Like This…
…will forever be admired by me.
Shrouded in the black thunderheads the distant lightening glowed mutely like welding seen through foundry smoke. As if repairs were under way at some flawed place in the iron dark of the world. All The Pretty Horses, by Cormac McCarthy, pub. 1992
This is What Custom Software is All About
It was fun to read this email forwarded from our contact at a client today:
Mark this day in the calendar,
I took a phone call for the dreaded DUPLICATE CARD REQUEST!!! In the past this has been one of the most time consuming, aggravating and plain worst thing to do. BUT!!!!
I was able to pull up the students name, run her credit card, and generate and email a receipt to her all without leaving my desk.
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An Anachronism
I discovered this anachronism lurking on my doorstep.
A “Phone-Book” (archaic).
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Fixing uninitialized constant MysqlCompat::MysqlRes
For reasons I don’t fully understand, using ActiveRecord in Rails 2.3 (or at least 2.3.11) with the MySQL gem version 2.8.1 on Mac OS X 10.6 (or at least 10.6.7) produces this error. With other versions of Rails, you may get a different error, but the underlying cause is the same. The internet is rife with suggestions that may or may not be helpful with various version combinations. But none of them helped in my case.
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Anthropomorphize
[the smoke detector in our house chirps a low battery warning]
SOPHIA: “Ugh! I hate that noise.”
ME: “That noise was just telling me how much it loves you.” (laughs)
SOPHIA: [tears begin to well in her eyes] “Don’t! You’re making me feel bad for the chirp!”
Rotated Text in FileMaker
Matt asked if there was a way to show askew text on a FileMaker layout. (Rotated something other than 90°.) You can’t do this directly with the text object, but you can get the same effect using a web view with HTML + CSS.
Here’s an example HTML snippet:
<html> <body> <h1 style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 20px; -webkit-transform: rotate(-3deg);"> Matt Petrowsky </h1> </body> </html> To embed this in a web view, use a data url (which can be the result of a calculation):
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A Little Math Help?
Anybody want to help me with some math? Consider:
Diagram 1
I know angle A, distance D, angle AΔ and distance DΔ. I’m trying to find angle A?. This is what I came up with:
The proposed formula.
At first I thought I was all good, but this doesn’t work for all A and AΔ (which is obvious in hindsight). For instance, this works fine if A is negative:
A working case with negative angles.
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My New Kindle Case
This is my glorious new dinosaur kindle case, courtesy of Mamie and a Saturday afternoon at her sewing machine. ❤️❤️❤️
My new one-of-a-kind Kindle case, closed.
And here it is opened.
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The Chillier-Than-Usual-Pocalypse
It is upon us here in Phoenix.
Sophie warming up by the fire with a hot bowl of oatmeal.
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Isabel’s Second Helping of Ratatouille
Strangely, this has been Isabel’s favorite dish since they were two and a half years old. “Ooh want!” they used to say at the grocery, holding a shiny black eggplant as big as their head…
Isabel with their favorite meal.
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I Tried to Read an Article
Chris and I were discussing online reading. He sent me a link to an article about people using apps and devices to convert online content into more readable forms. This is how the article displayed in my browser. Ironies.
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The Shut the Heck Up Act
My proposed congressional bill.
Whereas incessant honking outside my window induces unhealthy rage which is potentially harmful to the people of these United States, the following shall take effect immediately:
If any vehicle is sold in the United States with the capacity to honk repeatedly against the wishes of its operator, the CEO of the vehicle manufacturer shall be subjected to 300 consecutive hours, in a standing position, of a loud looping recording of Sara Palin being sassy.
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Imagery
“Imagery” is when you’re reading a book while standing on a crowded train and, because it is raining in the story, you are surprised when you look up and remember that it isn’t really raining today.
Isabel Drew These
My little budding artist…
Glass bottles (for a school project).
Study of a dragon (just for fun).
Detail of a dragon’s head (just for fun).
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My First Astrophotograph
Jupiter through Sophia’s Celestrong FirstScope telescope taken with my iPhone through thin clouds and central Phoenix’s terrible light pollution. Moons were barely visible through the eyepiece but my iPhone didn’t pick them up. I assume Steve Jobs is working on this.
I fully expect to see this featured on the Bad Astronomy blog soon.
Jupiter, I guess.
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Pedant
I saw this article in Google Reader tonight:
http://www.cultofmac.com/did-picasso-influence-the-mac-finder-icon/75608
The association itself is neat because it seems crazy to me that nobody noticed this before. But I have to put on my old-mac-user-pedant hat for a second.The article says:
But did the concept for this graphic originate in Cupertino in the 1980s, or much earlier on another continent? The blue Mac OS logo definitely did not originate in the 1980s. I remember clearly when this logo was introduced, first in the press and then in the Mac OS startup splash screen.
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Sophia’s Letter to J.K. Rowling
Pardon me while I indulge in the cuteness of my little 9 year old.
Sophie’s letter.
Transcription:
JK Rowling:
I love the book Harry Potter. They are my favorite books in the world. The books are way better than the movies.
I did a report on you in school. I learned what JK stands for. It stands for Joanne Kathleen. I learned other stuff too. I want to meet you Miss Rowling.
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I Feel Like the Quality of 7th Grade Dioramas has Increased
This is not how we did it in my day.
Isabel with their model Kiwi bird and egg.
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Buchmendel
I do this thing where I ask non-native-English speakers who is the “Shakespeare” of their language. They can interpret this any way they want, and it is a great source of new things for me to read. When I asked my friend Ines—who is German—this question, she suggested Stefan Zweig on the grounds that he is someone every school-aged German reads.
To my surprise, Ines gave me a collection of Zweig’s short stories over Thanksgiving.
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Sophie and I Made the Tallest Tower we Could
I’ve had these wooden toy blocks since I was a little boy. They still get the job done.
Sophie with our masterpiece.
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We're Peeling Blanched Almonds
This may be the most tedious thing I’ve ever done.
Peeled blanched almods.
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I Gave Mamie a Mohawk
But she wouldn’t keep it…
Mamie likes to shave her head, but she’s not sure about the mohawk.
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A Phoenix Snowman
Chris told me it couldn’t be done. Eat your heart out.
The Phoenix snowman, complete with Arizona flag, ASU cap, gold-nugget eyes, chili-pepper nose, and cotton boll buttons.
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My Preferred Kitchen Torch
I see a lot of ads these days for special kitchen torches for things like Crème Brûlée. In my humble opinion the best kitchen torch is just a regular hardware store torch. They’re cheap, hot, and (for kitchen use) last forever.
I light mine by turning it on and aiming it at the stove burner.
My preferred “kitchen” torch.
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Isabel Carries All the Groceries In
Super-kid.
Isabel carries groceries, Sophie carries a cat, and the floor carries both of them.
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The Most Wonderful Time of the Year
I get so amped up when the Thanksgiving cooking starts.
Step one for me is a quadruple-batch of ginger-pear cranberry sauce.
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Happy Halloween
The kids are ready for halloween…
Isabel (left) with their friend Cody dressed as Arwen and Legolas from Lord of the Rings. (Grandma Schultz made Isabel’s costume.)
Sophia dressed as her (current) favorite artist, Frida Kahlo.
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Boojum Tree
Found this strange beauty at the wonderful Desert Botanical Gardens here in Phoenix. I’d never heard of a Boojum Tree before. I love this thing so much.
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A Sad Sophia with her Sad Pumpkin
The kids carved pumpkins at Grandma and Grandpa Coffey’s house this week.
A sad girl with her sad pumpkin.
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Isabel Made Christmas Presents
Isabel practiced sewing and Grandma Coffey’s house by making Christmas presents for family members.
Isabel with their hand-made quilted drink coasters.
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I Made Chocolate Pie for Vince for Thanksgiving
This is obviously a break from tradition but he’s Canadian so he doesn’t know any better.
Vince loves this pie so I make it every time he visits.
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My Failed iChat Video Chat Caught Me by Surprise
I laughed at myself.
This is precisely how the video froze when my chat disconnected.
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Peanut Butter Pie with Isabel
So sweet and lovely. And the pie is good too ;)
Isabel with their slice of pie from LGO.
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