Animals at the Zoo and Kilts

Yesterday my wife showed me the website of the Northeast Louisiana Celtic Festival. I think this will be fun to get out with the boys and see what these guys have come up with.

Depending on how much I may have gained weight I might wear the kilt my wife brought back from Scotland before we were married. If this ends up being an annual event, we might have to have a matching set of kilts for the boys next year!

Social Browsing, Flock

This is a post from the new developer preview of Flock. I think I would end up blogging more if I had this as my main browser. I look forward to the first official release of this new fun browser.

Hurricane Katrina

My prayers are with those who have been affected by the hurricane.

I am in north-east Lousiana so I see the people who have evacuated and are now left wondering about their homes and livelyhoods, but here there wasn't much rain.

More info on Michelle Malkin's Blog.

Talk from around the webverse

Just as I sign up for a skype account (blueknightwriter) Google comes out with Google Talk, an Instant Messenger and Voice Channel combined. I love watching to see what Google is gonna do next, and I found a nice site for that, Google Rumors.

Have a wonderful Geeky day!

-R2

Marking Time - Anniversaries

I figured out that I wanted to be more than a friend to the woman who is now my wife on this day, not long after midnight. We were out celebrating her birthday (yesterday) and had started holding hands during the late showing of a movie and the local cineplex. I met her for the first time less than a month before, but we had talked online for several months before I accepted a job in her area.

Our sons just woke up from their nap, so I will finish this later. We are going to their grandparents house to have a birthday supper for my wife.

Well, it's later than I thought, the next day in fact. We just got out of the pool and the boys are getting baths before naptime. Here's a picture of my wife from the time I described above:



This is actually a shot Raleigh took in an internet cafe in Scotland. She was away for 5 weeks starting 5 days after we started dating. It was tough being apart when we were just getting started, but I think it helped us to learn more about each other. The time apart also showed us how much we cared for each other already.

Cleaned desk

Cleaned desk
Originally uploaded by BlueKnightWriter.

I have figured out why my study is so messy! I prefer to clean after 1 am!

You really don't want to know how late I was up last night.

In other news it's another jeans day at work, and I'm getting fed again. What a nice way to start the weekend.

Small fun things at work

Today is jeans day, which means it is the last Friday of the month and I can wear jeans if I donate to this month's charity. I really miss parts of former positions in this company. For example, my old department is wrapping up a 'jeans week' today. They typically wear jeans every friday. If we go a bit further back, the ISP I originally worked for didn't even have much of a dress code. I wore jeans and a t-shirt just about every day (I sometime wore shorts).

On the other hand, another good thing today is free pizza. It's great to have friends who decide to invite your department to their planned lunch treat. I've moved up into more corporate working environment, but there are still good people around if you pay attention.

In other news, I think many of you share my joy at the prospect of a three day weekend.

Tags: job perks bright_side

Geeking out - What I want to play with

There are several new items of interest that I have been wanting to investigate first hand. Some, like the new PalmOne LiveDrive is probably not within my reach for a while. However the great thing about being a geek these days is the broad range of fun that can be had for little or no money. Here's a bit of a list of things that have caught my attention lately.

Tagging/Folksonomy
You can't talk about tagging without mentioning del.icio.us and I even have a reference to back that up! I love using this site. I only hope I get around to reading all the things I'm tagging toread! To get a beginners view of delicious click here.

Weblogs
Obviously this is on my mind as I write a post for my own blog, but some of the sites that have my attention include: Bloglines, FeedBurner, and Technorati. I recently added my 100th feed to Bloglines. FeedBurner is great for collecting stats on the feeds you publish and it rolls in the del.icio.us links I post each day. Technorati is another site that allows you to search the current state of the blogosphere and has the bonus of allowing you to tag your posts with rel links.

Ruby on Rails/AJAX
Rails is the next big framework I want to learn, as I think I might have fun putting together some of the ideas I am seeing in places like Backpack and GMail. Backpack is the latest offering from the people at 37signals. They are the ones who came up with Rails, which is a web application framework for Ruby. AJAX stands for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML and you can find out more about it here or read an article on it here.

Wiki Wiki Web
I have been nuts over the Wiki concept for ages. The latest coolness from this area is a all-in-one html file wiki that you can save to your harddrive or USB thumb drive called TiddlyWiki. Once you turn off the animation option this is a very neat way to play with writting into a web page on the fly. There have been many changes and developments including a version for:

Getting Things Done
I have to admit that I have had this book for several months, but I haven't even read it through once! David Allen has managed to write a book that gets motivated people moving on getting their things done. I love to read about the tips, tricks, methods, and ideas that this methodology has spawned, but I haven't effectivly implemented it myself. See more good stuff at 43Folders including the HipsterPDA and the newish 43Folders wiki (already filled with lots of useful advice).

Time Passes Swiftly - Anniversary

How amazing it seems now to know that three years of marriage can go by this quickly! Even through tough times that everyone will face, it doesn't take much for me to feel that flood of amazment, joy, and love that comes when I realize that she decided that I was the one for her. I am increadibly grateful to know that I have the rest of our lives to continue to learn about my wife.

We have two beautiful boys, who amaze us almost daily with how wonderful they are. I couldn't imagine being a parent with anyone else.

I love you Raleigh.

Proud moments for a geek daddy

My wife and I on IM (edited for privacy):

(12:38:38) (BlueLady): oh my goodness
(12:38:43) (BlueKnightWriter): ?
(12:39:37) (BlueLady): I have the TRU web page opened and (our older son) recognizes it! "Toys R Us, mama. That's Toys or Us dot com." that's exactly what he said!
(12:39:55) (BlueKnightWriter): Oh my goodness!
(12:40:00) (BlueKnightWriter): holy crap even!
(12:40:06) (BlueLady): LOL
(12:40:12) (BlueKnightWriter): Proud geek daddy here
(12:40:14) (BlueLady: he's soooo smart!!!
(12:40:17) (BlueLady): LOL

See, that time spent at the Sesame Street website pays off!

-BKW

Motivation

A big thought on my mind lately. How do you motivate yourself? Anyone willing to offer their methods?

-BKW

Happy Geek

How much fun is it to have something you've wanted for a while? How much more fun is it to get 3 or 4 things you've wanted for a while? Yes, all the items I mentioned in my previous post have arrived, and I'm having fun!

The hard drive and enclosure arrived on Wednesday. I have wanted a larger, faster portable storage device ever since I figured out how cool it was to have the SD cards and USB Cruzer from Sandisk. I really like having things at hand no matter where I am. I really miss my Palm Zire 71! I have hopes of using the money from the hard drive rebate to remedy my PDA woes. A new mainboard for the Zire is only $69.

The digital camera arrived around 12:30 PM on Thursday. I must admit I was nervous about this one. I had forgotten my wife wanted to talk more about this item before I purchased it, so I ordered it before we got a chance to talk about it. However, as you can see on her post yesterday, I think I escaped the woes of a bad impulse buy. Kudos go to my buddy WirelessMike for his research and recommendation of the Pentax Optio S40.

The last item to arrive, somewhat surprisingly was the DVD-RW from ZipZoomFly. I have not done much more that put it in it's new home, but I have large plans for the utility of this little device. VHS to DVD transfers anyone?

To top off my almost-end-of-week fun, I managed to correct two issues I was having with my machine at home. Tower, as it's known, is now talking nicely with the HP PSC 2210 multi-function printer we bought a while back, AND Tower now is able to communicate and entertain with the correction of the sounds problems it was having.

As you wonder why I capitalize Tower instead of saying, "my tower case" let me say that it's currently the most capable machine in our small collection, so it's the Tower of BlueKeep. More on BlueKeep later, for now it's my web site that has been out of public view for a while.

Tax shopping

Federal Tax return is in! I get to have some fun shopping for the geek side.

I will update this post with what I settle on buying.

I have a budget of $500.

UPDATE: I have officially come in under budget (by about 3-4 dollars!).

Details:

I am excited about the hard drive and enclosure from Outpost.com. So far, that's the only package that is showing to have shipped, but, as WaWaDigital isn't the best at far as customer experience goes, I don't know what the status of the Digital Camera is.

ZipZoomFly is Performing excellently as is Outpost.com. I have to say, if the rebate goes through properly on the hard drive I'll be very happy, even if I did miss the rebate on the hard drive enclosure.

All I have to say about WaWaDigital is they seem to be well named. If you don't watch out the experience may leave you in tears. I didn't stop and research better, so I am paying $59 for a rechargable battery that I do not need to get started with the camera. This prevented me from getting parts I need to fix my Palm Zire 71, so that I'd have a decent PDA again, and incidentally another digital camera.

Pentax Optio S40 Digital Camera	$174.90 $235
Seagate 200GB ST3200822A-RK UATA100 8MB Buffer Hard Drive	$119.99, $69.99 after mail in rebate
Kingwin 3.5" USB 2.0 External Hard Drive Enclosure	$34.99, $19.99 after rebate
NEC ND-3520A 16X Double Layer DVD±RW Bare Drive (Black) ***Free 2nd Day***	$59.99

-BKW

Frequency, how often, and wavelength

Here I am, right on time for my next not quite weekly blog post. I recently watched the movie Frequency on DVD. I have to admit that, while it is one of my favorite movies, I had to watch it in two sittings as I fell asleep part way through the first attempt. As I sat down to write this entry I was thinking about how often I'd like to post versus how often I actually do post. I realized it doesn't matter how often I have something to say as much as that I post when I have something to share.

That brings me to my the second meaning of frequency: wavelength. I have many times thought that I wasn't on the same wavelength as those around me, but I realize that at this point in my life I have a lot of good friends to whom I can express what I am thinking without worry that they won't dismiss my thoughts without regard. It's a good feeling to know that your input matters.

I am especially glad that I found a lady that I can always talk to. I don't know how some husbands and wives can exist in their relationship without thinking of their spouse as their best friend above all others on this earth. I know there are things that my wife may not enjoy as much as do (mainly the geekier things in life), but she always is interested in hearing what I have to say. I value her ear and her opinion.

I think that I will have to start posting something to generate more comments and interaction. Isn't that what a blog is for?

-BKW

Valentine's Day

I had thought to write on other topics, but at the moment I'm just very happy to think of the time I get to spend with my wife today at lunch. During the time we were dating we regularly went to a local chain of Chinese resturants together. I think remembering that, eating there again, and enjoying having our children with us will be a great way to spend lunch on Valentine's Day.

Granddad, Future

Now that I have your expectations lowered as to just how often I'll be posting here, I think we can continue.

Actually, I have been busy lately. If you are one who also reads my wife's blog then you know I'm not thrilled with my current employment.

On more pleasant topics the boys where very awake this morning. I think they quickly realized something was different when Daddy was in bed with them both instead of Momma. They both must have slept very well, but I think BL and I could both use naps!

It looks to be a busy weekend here. My Mom is coming in for a vist with, I hope, my Grandmother. I really enjoy getting to spend time with my family, and I don't get to see my extended family often enough. I know my boys will have fun with Mamaw and GG-ma here to see how they've grown and changed since we were visiting last.

Yesterday marked a month since my Grandfather died in a car accident on the way home from a funeral. I thought a lot about my Grandfather this weekend, as friday was 4 weeks since he died also. I am so extremely thankful that I know I will see him in heaven someday. I don't know how people who don't have the assurance of knowing what will happen deal with thoughts about the end of their lives. I'm also thankful for my friends and family who are a great help and encouragement when times are hard.

My Grandfather was an awesome christian and a great man to know. His church, the church I was baptised in as a baby, celebrated its 40th anniversary this past Sunday. I am told that much of the program seemed to make mention of him and what memories the three pastors who were there had of my Grandfather. I'm proud to think of the influence and impact my Granddad had while he was here on this earth. I only hope I can make him proud of me by the time he sees me again.

conception

I have often thought about starting a journal of sorts, now I'll take the chance on doing it online.

Here you will find out what goes on in the mind and heart of a husband, father of two sons, and, in his own mind at least, sometimes knight.

I'll be letting my friends know about this blog, so we'll see how deep into the knight we get....

-BKW