i am still messing with css [seriously, i am i am] as 2009 is the year i catch up and make a complete site in css while using dreamweaver instead of my trusted GoLive. at the end of each month i will cap the css file and leave it for that month and continue playing with it for the next month. by the end of the year i should have a css flip book.
to get to the rest of the blog, go to the home page, go to the index page, or just crack the bit in the url of /YY-MM.html where YY is the year and mm is the month, just as you see it now
2009, consider yourself owned
feb4th
courtney has taken to climbing our trees, none of which are really good climbing trees but it is all we have. i heard the kids yelling and i went out to find them. courtney had goneto the top of our largest silk oak. what a nut. it is a good thing she weighs next to nothing. trevs got stuck in the grapefruit tree and as he was crying he stepped on a small branch that had broken off and pointed straight up like a pencil. as i warned him to get off that branch it snapped and his foot shot out backwards. he landed on the stub just below his knee. i thought he had skewered himself. it turns out he didn't but got a really good scar and 6 inch scratch instead. he hasn't been climbing anymore.
febsomething
i was making a treefort behind the pool for the kids and had a powertool mishap. i was pushing down on the power driver really hard and instead of the bit/chuck/whatever slipping it caught and jumped [or i just slipped?] and i jammed the philips drill bit head really hard into my finger. i almost passed out from the pain. it bled and bled and i iced it but everyone was playing rock band so i joined in as drummer. after the 2nd song it was pounding again and i had hit droplets of blood on the beat onto my shorts. 6 hours later i squeezed the bandage and hundreds of droplets of fresh blood popped out of the mesh all over the bandage.
click on the photo to see the hole i drilled into my finger. it was a pulpy mess.
addendum: 2 weeks later it is finally not bleeding but still hurts like all get-out if i bump it. i will expect my future x-rays to show a knick on the bone.
feb1something25
facebook [hereafter referred to as FB] has a «25 random things about me» thing going around so i did mine. of course it is long:
[1] i can't sleep with my wrists facing up and uncovered. they must either be facing down or be covered. i have no idea why, and you can fight me about it, but it won't change. my wrists must be covered.
[2] i don't hear the lyrics in songs as words but as another instrument. the only way i can understand what they are saying is if i read them. this means i often offend people that try to share music with me because if it is lyric-centric and not musically engaging, my eyes glass over and i pass out. it made for fun the first time i did karaoke with me thinking «is THIS what they are really singing?»
same thing goes for foreign languages - they sound pretty, but i don't think they are saying anything.
[3] i ride my bike to and from work and i leave all my clothes there. to preface this next part, i sit on my butt all day in front of a computer and the only way i get dirty is from cosmic dust settling on me. i do not believe that clothes must be washed immediately after they are worn - maytag or someone spread that lie. underthings get changed out often but my one (1) shirt and one (1) pair of pants do not. i think the record is 6 weeks. i talk to nobody back in my office - i may as well shorts and flip flops but nooooo. so i wear what i call my uniform. interesting side note - i ripped the knee of my pants two mondays ago. it is still torn - who cares, really?
[4] i could live on the beach. no, make that in the surf. i could play in it forever. something about always getting beaten around by ever-moving water is the best workout in the world.
[5] i programmed the video game «light cycles» from tron while in junior high on a radio shack color computer with 64k of ram. kilobytes, not megabytes.
[6] i wouldn't consider myself random - i just don't have many walls in my head and that means things leak from one area into another. that seems very unrandom to me. then you add to that supposed «gifted» part which i think really meant i was just quick with thinking and that equals trouble in the back of the room. everyone already knows that.
[7] i am very poor at body motions. dancing is horrible for me as well as many sports. that is why i stick with simple sports like cycling - same position, feet move in 12" circles and repeat 60,000 times. when i played volleyball i had to repeat everything over and over and over to get my body to figure out what it was supposed to do. i do not like natural athletes.
[8] on that, i just remembered that i once got into the men's intramural finals and another time mike and i [and two girls i forget - sorry] won the coed intramurals. go figure. that must make me famous.
[9] i was on roper room as a kid. i don't think i liked it much, especially when they gave us bananas instead of cinnamon rolls. one time some disney characters came and as we were driving to the station i saw donald and minnie walking underneath the freeway from their hotel to the station. it was eerie.
[10] i was the skinny runt kid growing up, always sick. i think i spent a week in the hospital every other year or so. i hated having asthma. i still have my asthma, but i had it removed and now it is in a jar at my parents house.
[11] my two front teeth are mostly fake - bashed them out on a tailgate while riding my bike in a dust storm. it would be nice to fix them good for once and be done with them. i had the temporary cap on after a root canal and while vacation in san diego it slipped off and i ate it along with the taco. i wouldn't open my mouth for the rest of the trip [todd remembers]
[12] [running out of things already] i've been shaving my legs for cycling since 1985, longer than many of my friends have been alive.
[13] though i do enjoy finely crafted items, if it was just me, i would probably be fine living in a friends backyard in a tent and not much else. i could do that and not be bored - all i need is my friends around me and i would be good. maybe i am getting set up for being homeless.
[14] my dad made the mistake of letting me watch «the great escape» as a kid. along with his 3' x 4'deep holes for compost, we began to dig our own holes. 3' in diameter and 6'-8' deep, and then we connected them. then my dad fell in the hole late at night while taking out the compost and we filled it in with tires, wood and dirt. a few years later my sister's car sank to the frame. oops.
[15] quite often i don't really believe what i am saying. i am trying to figure it out for myself. i also don't always know what i am doing, but that is fine.
[16] i never saw a counselor while in college. maybe that is why my classes didn't do too well. i really didn't like the classes part of college.
[17] i soak up some information rapidly and i know it forever. in a past life i was a sponge and some of the dna has stuck with me. i want to know how things work, how things go together, how cultures work and so on.
[18] i was a brain on a stick for a long time and i really had a hard time with interactioning with others. i used to chew gum in college so that my mouth was already in motion so i might squeak out a «hi» to someone.
[19] i have two major fears: needles and black widows. i'll fade and pass out so i have yet to give blood. sorry if you are reading this and you died because i did not give blood - tough. one time i had a picc line inserted in my elbow clear to my heart for 10-14 days. i put the fears together to describe it as having a black widow sitting on my open eye. yes, it is that bad.
[20] stretching this out, i have had black widows on me twice and i am calm until i am able to get them off me and then i smash them back into individual atoms. i wonder if it stems from me waking up as a kid and opening my eyes to a black widow inches from my face, it having built a web during the night from the window to my pillow. wherever that black widow is right now, i wish it to be even more dead.
[21] my first [and only] wife is the best. really, she is. i could not have done any better, and though it has been rough at times, together we are right. oh, and she is my only. seriously.
[22] tall women scare [intimidate?] me, though not as bad as before. if you are tall, treat me like a wary dog and approach me where i can see you and do it slowly.
[23] i have no desire to go to south america. or central america. not even africa, really. or asia. europe and russia will do fine. i know, i am geographically racist, but i needed 3 more things.
[24] i have given a lot of people nicknames over the years and they have stuck. i wish i could make a living from it. also, if i like you, i'll joke around with you and give you crap. if i don't, buy me gift cards and i may one day like you.
[25] i think i have said more dumb, stupid, inappropriate and clueless things in my life the first 40 years that i must be running out of them and hopefully i'll start saying things with great wisdom. i know it is not a random face, but we'll see how it plays out
i still can write a lot. that hasn't changed
feb11getting healthy
i like when certain thoughts in my head are brought up in other conversations without saying anything. it seriously goes in waves. of course, this is still baking so it isn't supposed to be doctrine:
there is the idea that the healthier you get, the more fully functional and capable you are, and as a result become more useful for helping out in God's kingdom. it goes against [a bit] that «God can use everyone» as it means that the less healthy you are, the less useful you are [unless God needs to use you for a sandbag, then everyone is about equal]. i think of people with hangups with other people, people that can't see another persons viewpoint, people lacking in grace and love, insecure people, prideful people, lazy people, obsessed people, etc etc — we are those people, and we know people like that.
i can think of plenty of great people that, when helping someone with their house or with moving become the least useful people ever. i was helping feed the hungry in the rain and afterwards i was breaking down tables with my busted finger [oh yeah, i haven't posted those photos] and my parents and others were waiting to leave and i was still going. they even commented and i finally said «well, this tables do need to get put away» and i verbalized what they knew but didn't really know. that is sort of different, but still funny. it wasn't an obvious «oh look at all these tables and dann is busting them down one by one». i know people with hangups and lack of grace that keep people from realizing God's love while around these people. the more healthy we allow ourselves to become [holy spirit, counseling, friends, etc] the more capable we are in the kingdom.
so then i get this message: I think this is why contemplative traditions of all kinds have appealed to me. The idea of community is supposed to spring from silence and solitude. And so we meet one another having first met ourselves...and perhaps that poignancy and mystery.
i thought of the same thing: we can't have good community without first knowing ourselves somewhat well. an over the top example is a room full of rock stars or sorority girls [stereotypical ones, like in the movies] - by pushing who they are away from everyone else and not allowing openness and honesty about who they really are and coming to terms with that, community is going to be about as shallow as a saucer — upside down. mull it over and write it in your journal already
oh, and add to it this idea that i wonder if that is what jesus was doing during the 3 years with his chums. maybe he was über-educating them on the text, but i wonder if he spent 3 years working with these guys non-stop to get them to healthy place so that when the bubble burst they were ready to go. that, plus tons of hands-on experience if anyone has had any counseling, just imagine having the greatest counselor working with you all the time, knowing you far better than you know yourself — ever — for 3 years. your insides would be so clean you could eat off them.
feb11th in review
yesterday was my birthday, and the night before i was so tired from coding that i missed out seeing appleseed cast. i already missed devotchka and crooked fingers for a great carne asada rockband night. kramer belted out the beastie boys «sabotage» so loud [and well - that boy has a voice] that i couldn’t hear my own part. it was worth skipping
here is the breakdown of my birthday [and no, there is never any short version in my life]:
6-6.30am, more coding of a website that is ALL css - finally
6.30-7.20am, get the kids ready and off to school and then leave for work in cold weather
8am-5.25pm - work. the digital press in the back is running and the air gets turned way down and with the mismatched ductwork i think my office is 55°F. i can barely work and i put on my cycling jacket and wear my beanie.
i also chipped a tooth a last week - cracked off a piece like the junk left in a candy cane wrapper. i forgot to floss the night before and now there is food packed in there an my gums are on fire. i clean that out and it hurts the rest of the day like a toothache.
work is also crazy busy and a customer is upset i have yet to get to his website. well, i don't get time to do it. ah well
i ride home at get there at 6pm
clothes are changed and i get right to work on allie's gate project, checking over her essay on a topic she obviously doesn't understand. i am about done. spencer gives me my dinner and i eat a bit and leave at 6.35 for courtney's university high school orientation.
7pm-8.30pm orientation highlights:
all the kids are freaking smart. the auditorium has well over 1000 people and it is huge. the senior class is 180 students, the sharpest of the sharp, taking all kinds of über-AP classes with some students leaving high school with 30-40 college credits so they start off a sophomore. last year's seniors had 16million in scholarships which averages out to just under 90k a kid. all the questions we had about no social life and stuff turns out to not exactly be true. they do have 2-4 hours of homework but they are taught time management skills and many excel in sports/state championships. 3 students speak to the crowd, all with more stage presence than most adults i know and none are reading from a sheet. the last one pushes the mic away and says he doesn't like mics. he freaking projects to the entire auditorium as if he was a kennedy or obama, talking about his experience an how he took AP micro-economics, AP macro-economics and is getting a post graduate level class at the university audited on some kind of economics that i barely understood. that kid is going to own a country some day.
me: totally impressed by the school, students and staff.
8.45 get home to a bite of cake with the boys who are know insane and i got a pack of white undershirts as mine are all dead and two really cool led flashlights, one big enough to defend an island outpost. then back to work painting allie's posterboard and writing up a blurb to stick on it.
9.45 crawl into bed and go to sleep instantly.
hooray, happy birthday to me!
oh, and then an hour later jennifer aniston was able to celebrate her birthday at 10.22pm. me, corey, jennifer and poling's kid — all on the same day except that jennifer and i are the same age. as erica pointed out, she wins as she was born in sherman oaks.
other gifts: clay got me the internet and then erica was bummed as she got me the same thing. i asked if i could regift it.
feb12th — almost and almost
barely south of speedway, a half mile from my house an old lady almost brushes me with her big red suv. i watch as she continues to move into the bike lane, getting less than a foot from the curb. aye yi yi, this old bat is going to kill someone. she gets about 3 cars up and BLAM she has a massive blowout. as i slow and she comes to a stop in the right lane i come across a 4x4 inch piece of tank armor she ran over. the cars behind her slowly move around her and she has no intention of moving. great. i pull up alongside her window an wave her into a business' driveway. as she barely gets in i wonder if she has AAA and then think «oh no, her first words are going to be "can you change it for me?"> and they were. it takes a while but i get it done and with a handshake she is off again with her daughter’s truck. she did tell me that my mom raised a good boy. i guess she doesn't know i am 40. look at the size of this cut. that tire is not getting patched.
feb16th, the never ending story
our little family went to an early showing of coraline on saturday and it ended up being the 3d version. i was hesistant to watch it in 3d as i could only think of the red and green glasses that destroyed all the color in the film. i was wrong. after spending an extra $2 for each of us to get in with glasses, the few trailers started up and they were all 3d. ice age 3, some pixar stuff from yesteryear and then «up». gorgeous. spencer, of course, fought us with the glasses and after the movie was an hour in i gave up. i am sure he was tripping on the dual images.
i am unsure of what to make of the movie. it was dark [as expected] but was it a solid story? i am not sure. at the beginning coraline herself was animated with great expression but i do not remember how well she was animated later in the movie [the infamous «make it look good at the beginning and people will forget later when we don’t do as great of a job]. i do not remember if that was true. there were plenty of gems in the movie but i am discovering a personal flaw of sorts: i like the stories better before they conclude.
i am not fully sure i know what that means but i do not like it when the stories get wrapped up. they seem to easy, too simple or something. i love when they build the story and set the stage and then the endings are bingo, slowly punching the numbers until you are finished. i am not sure i like that. build, create, add — maybe i like the middle movies in a triquel. wrapping up the movie or book rarely leaves me satisfied.
i may be wrong on all this, too. maybe it is just the way some stories are wrapped up is what i do not like.
feb17 books!
i won a set of 39 time-life ww2 books on ebay during the final minutes of the superbowl. maybe that is why i won it — everyone was watching one the great 4th quarter.
what great books, mostly because of the photography and the good stories. this is fulfilling my world history requirement for the year. so now i give my dad all the duplicates from the ones i had started collecting and get back to reading. this should take me quite some time as i have no time for reading.
speaking of world history, this is a surefire way to make sure the government never forgets you.
feb 27th summary
aye yi yi, talk about busy busy. i dislike busy as there isn't as much time to ponder [or shall i scare those in the christian bubble and use the word «meditate»] and even less time to write anything down.
space shuttle launch present
sarah forgot her government pin # for getting grants to NAU - she could have done it without the pin, but she couldn't remember it so she sent off for another one. i looked on the site and duh, she just needed to get them to send her old one to her [as if she would get another pin #]
so i went in last night to get it, and the security question was "what was your mother's maiden name?"
i try "Joling" and no, so i drop the cap and try "joling" and still no. i go ask sarah and check, and yeah, that is correct
i scratch my head and then type "Van Vuren" and it works. i asked her why and she said it would be easier to remember
seriously
stuff to be expounded upon one day
[johann olav koss, speed skater for norway]
unintentionally pooping on others
«some day you will get married»
«just pray about it»
«you are letting the terrorists win»
«we'll allow you to do that»
position of control as well as knocking the other down, even if it is meant well
[spencer, big red, and my loupe]
[shortest distance between two points is a straight mime - there has got to be a better joke in there]
ari and seth’s dogs, the small one that follows along the other being called «sidecar»
In 1932, the Soviet state proclaimed that all artists must embrace the Socialist Realist philosophy and style. Its three principles were: partiinost’ (loyalty to the party), ideinost’ (correct ideological stance and content), and narodnost’ (ready accessibility to the people). In 1936, Stalin publicly attacked Dmitry Shostakovich in Pravda for his atonal music. This marked the end of artistic experimentation and the beginning of the purges in the creative unions.
mines in ww2 with sappers and tunnels. just crazy