Well, we’re back online. Kinda. Looks like I lost about a month of postings (again), though. Things are working, we’re on a fresh new server (love that new server smell) and we are resolved to making regular backups from now on.
I’ll be restoring all the more recent postings that I could find via Google’s cache later this evening.
I can’t read French, and I don’t know this author, but her book is eerily close to my manifesto proposal!
And this article nails it on the head! You definitely get the stinkeye when you leave work on time–even if you come in super early. The fix, though, is to send some email to people early in the morning. People notice the timestamp on their emails–they’ll see that you were an early bird and they will respect you. Oh yes, they will respect you.
I can feel a worldwide movement beginning… This is going to be bigger than…well…I don’t know what. But big.
Well, the new adoption fund got off to a healthy start with a contribution from an old friend. Thanks again, old friend…you’re a blessing to us.
I was going through a mess of pictures, getting ready to update some albums. I ran across a picture of Tru’s freaky face. He does this sometimes when he’s grumpy. Totally looks like he’s possessed. Enjoy.
Don’t bother checking the albums, by the way. Haven’t updated them yet. Relax, I’ll do it soon. Remember, I’m a slacker.
I haven’t mentioned it on the blog yet, but we’re in the process of adoption a second (and final!) child. From South Korea, like Tru. We indicated no preference with respect to gender. Even though we opted for no preference, we’re pretty likely to get another boy. Out of country adoptions from South Korea are mostly boys. That’s probably due to a few cultural reason, one being that in-country adoptions tend to favor girls because male bloodlines are so important. Anyway, we’re going for it one more time.
This time it’s going to be more of a stretch, financially, than it was last time, since I’m in a different job and Amy’s only been working half-time. Amy’s going back full-time this year, to help with the savings and we’re probably going to have to liquidate one retirement savings account early next year. So it was with interest that I learned about this new DropCash thingy that a couple of guys put together. I posted it on the Link Harvest a while ago and today I created a “campaign” for our adoption expenses. You can see the link in the upper left corner of this page. I don’t expect that we’ll actually generate much funding that way, but it’s an interesting experiment in any case. So, if you’re inclined, throw a couple of bucks our way via the campaign. 🙂
An interesting side note…Amy’s been busy this weekend, making new photo albums of Tru’s early years. Tru loves looking through them and this morning he started asking about where he came from… He asked if we got him at the hospital and if God made him. We’ve been a little nervous about this day. We’ve never tried to hide or mask the fact that he’s adopted. We’ve been pretty open about talking about Korea with him. But he’s just beginning to question things on his own.
So, yesterday was my v-day. I was at work until 3pm, then Amy drove me up to the hospital. We had to drive to a hospital in another town because, apparently, the hospital in Newberg doesn’t allow such procedures to occur within their facilities, on account of their Catholic affiliation. So we had a bit of a drive to make. I was fine with driving myself, but Amy insisted, since we heard a story of a friend who had the same procedure. It seems he drove himself, but the anasthetic wore off too quickly and he actually had to pull over and compose himself before continuing home. My physician took care to prescribe appropriate preventative and palliative remedies–namely, beer. No joke, my doctor prescribed one beer prior to the surgery and then beer and ibuprofen as needed for the next couple of days. I like the idea of medicinal beer.
Anyway, the procedure was fairly benign. I went into the operation with visions of the end of Braveheart, when William Wallace is disemboweled. You only see the top half of him, grimacing in pain while, presumably, the bottom half of him is removed, bit by bit, culminating in an understandable cry of “FREEDOM!” The doc “numbed” the target area with some rub-on stuff, which didn’t work. Let me just state for the record that the relationship between hyperdermic needles and scrotums is not friendly. No worries, though, when the needle-stuff started working. The doc was cuttin’ and tuggin’ away and I didn’t feel a thing. The whole procedure, including both sides, only took about 20 minutes. When everything was tied up, the doc stuffed my pants full of gauze and sent me home to lay down for a couple of days. No jumping jacks for me this weekend.
So now I’m resigned to sitting and laying around the house for the next couple of days. The big idea is to stay “well supported” and reduce any hangtime. No boxer shorts, either. I actually had to buy new underwear just for this weekend. I’m feeling generally okay right now…but that could change quickly if Truman decides to come jump on me when I’m not expecting it…
I really like Seth Godin’s new “ChangeThis” website. It’s a compelling idea–basically, people write “manifestos” of ideas that they think are important. The site is getting lots of attention since it’s launch last week. The first manifestos that were featured on the site were solicited by Seth and his team. Most of the writers are known in their fields and the content of the manifestos is diverse and interesting.
The site contains two parts. The first part is all the manifestos that have been written so far. The second part is the manifestos that are proposed. The proposed manifestos are just ideas that people have. The quality of these ideas is measured by how often the ideas are emailed around, and how many votes they get. Ideas are reviewed by an editorial board before being
approved for the website. Then, I guess, the ideas that generate the greatest interest become more fleshed out manifestos by their authors.
So I submitted an idea that I’ve written about before–the “slacker @ work” book idea. I figured that if the idea actually made it to the website, I could get a sense of how interesting the idea is to other people. If it’s of sufficient interest, I’ll write both the manifesto for the site
and, later, the actual book. But writing the manifesto would be a good impetus to writing the book.
Well, I found out today that my proposal was accepted to the site. You can view it (and vote for it and email it!) here. The ChangeThis website doesn’t have a place for comments, but if you have any thoughts regarding the proposed manifesto, I’d love to hear them. Just drop your comments into this post…
I’ve always wanted to play the harmonica. As long as I can remember, I’ve liked the sound, and it’s seemed like a portable and low maintenance instrument. I played trombone when I was in high school, and that was neither portable nor low maintenance. When I was still in the single-digit ages, I was pressed into piano lessons. I hated the lessons, though now I wish I could play. But again, the piano isn’t very portable. When I was a single fellow, I bought one of those package deals you find at discount or novelty stores–you know, the harmonica and a book “for idiots.” That got me a little ways down the road, but the harmonica was a cheapo and it broke. I didn’t get another one for a long time. I finally bought a decent new harmonica a while ago and I’ve borrowed some harmonica books from a friend. I’ve committed myself to practicing during my walks to and from work. That gets me about 20-25 minutes a day of playing time. I also practice a bit at night, when I can read the books and try different things out. I’m a looooong way from being able to jam, but I’m beginning to get the feel for some blues riffs, and that’s kinda fun. I can work through some simple hymns, but only with single notes–chords still escape me. Anyway, it’s fun and I hope that in a year or two I’ll be proficient enough to play real songs on demand.
Tru was going pee sometime during the weekend and I was helping him. He was pinching the noodle a little too tight and squeezing off the flow. I advised him to ease up a bit, which he did and everything was fine. When he was done, he kinda sighed heavily and huffed “I don’t want a penis!” (can’t wait to see what kind of search term referals this post brings!)
…dry ice bomb! Our 4th of July went pretty well. A couple of parties and some fireworks. The capper, though, were the two dry ice bombs that we made at Ron and Erinn’s house. It doesn’t take much to make ’em–just an empty 2-liter plastic bottle, about a pound of dry ice and some water. You crush the ice and put it in the bottle, then you pour in some water until the steam really starts coming out the top of the bottle, then you cap the sucker and run! It’s loud.
I poured the water and capped the first one myself. It started expanding so fast that I kinda freaked and just hucked it out into Ron’s backyard. It took about two minutes for it to explode and was the loudest thing in the neighborhood. For the second one, we decided to cover it with a 5-gallon bucket, to see how high it would shoot the bucket. This time we filled the bottle with ice and three of us set it up. I poured the water and ran, then Ron capped it and another guy, Joachim, put the bucket over it. Problem was that when Ron went to cap it, the steam was coming out so fast that it blew the cap from his hand–we lost a lot of steam while he scrambled for the cap. The result was that it took about 15-20 minutes for the thing to blow. We ended up throwing things at the bucket to try and set it off. When it finally blew, the bucket was right-side up again (open end toward the sky), so it never went up in the air. The explosion did shoot the bucket across the yard, though, but it’s just not the same… 🙂
