Frenzied Daddy

Frenzied Daddy, you’ve mauled the grass, butchered the roses, defoliated an entire microecosystem… What are you doing now?

Drinking my coffee and going back to work! I’m listening to small is the new bigby Seth Godin and plugging away on some audio stuff for CelleCast. I’m also trying to figure out how to make another site not have to be read from a subdir ( like www.example.com/blog ). Once those few tasks are complete, I can focus on some other ideas for making a buck online

This FreeLance Switch article on why one should work with smaller jobs ( and getting paid more frequently than monthly ) rung a bell for me. I love working with FileFront but with the size of some of our bills, I’ve got to keep working these side jobs. One of them does pay monthly, but also quickly; I send out invoices and they write a check usually that same day and mail it out. That’s ok, most of my bills come in at regular intervals.

I prefer the checks because Paypal takes a small but noticable cut out of the amount, and it would take the same amount of time to transfer my money from paypal as it would to have the check mailed.

Hope your weekend is fun, relaxing and productive!

Did you know that Maurice Sendak was gay? News to me- at least officially. I did read “Where the wild things are” and I have to admit, it did sound like the author was rebelling Thanks Christian!

Was there anything he had never been asked? He paused for a few moments and answered, “Well, that I’m gay.”

“I just didn’t think it was anybody’s business,” Mr. Sendak added. He lived with Eugene Glynn, a psychoanalyst, for 50 years before Dr. Glynn’s death in May 2007. He never told his parents: “All I wanted was to be straight so my parents could be happy. They never, never, never knew.”

source

It was interesting to listen to my brother and his wife talk about the dissatisfaction they have with their realtor; not returning phone calls, not showing up when they say they’ll show up. I was listening with half an ear because I have to admit, I’m not the best at returning phone calls or showing up on time myself. ( The other half an ear was listening to and watching my kids ). And then Seth Godin had the same thing to say this morning.

If you want to build trust, you need to be trustworthy. The simplest test of trustworthiness for most people is whether or not you keep your promises, and the first promises you make are about time.

A programmer wrote:

when you don’t create things, you become defined by your tastes rather than ability. your tastes only narrow & exclude people. so create.

source ( actually, it’s a twitter tweet, but anyway )

One of the things I liked about working at Hot Off the Press, and now, working with Jeff Schader at Hyperdesk is their artistic bent. I’ve said before that creativity is like a fire that spreads from tinder to tinder, or perhaps an infection that spreads across the globe. When I work with artists ( beyond the code-poet or the web design aspects ) I am encouraged to create beauty in other aspects of my life.

Another programmer responded with the reverse:

When you create things, you restrict your experience to your abilities. Take in the works of others; expand and test your tastes. Learn.

( same source page, in the comments ).

I think, actually, the second makes more sense to me as a lead-in for the first. It’s easy for your tastes to narrow and harden into a channel if you don’t “take in the works of others.” But as you do this, work with those inspirations and create, to keep your tasts from narrowing.

The Chevy’s been running a little ragged, and it’s due for DMV renewal, so I took it back into the dealer. It went into the dealer about a month ago and got a new “ignition module,” and it was doing the same thing, so I took it back to them. The check engine light was on. Their normal “diagnosis fee” is about ninety bucks, but they said it’d be free of charge since it was related to the previous work.

I don’t know exactly what they did- maybe someone out there can enlighten me about what it entails…but I think they just hook their diagnostic module up to the output on the car. Just like the DEQ does, and it takes about thirty seconds. Apparently, there was a “misfire in cylinder 1″ and “catalytic converter needs replacing” and something about a leak ( which, they admit, could have been due to an open gas tank or something ).

While they were hooking the doohickey to the thingamajig, I hoisted the laptop around the area looking for some wi-fi. I tried “wifipdx.com” and found some good options, but they were closed since it was before lunchtime. I came across “coffee shop people” on Grand, which looks really neat ( they rent out studio space for artisans, and sell art in the coffee shop ). I bought a cuppa joe, sat down and started the process of getting connected and learned their wifi was on the fritz. I wound up walking down to Starbucks.

This all took me about an hour to ninety minutes. How long does it take to hook the thingamajig to the doohickey? Ok, maybe they could see the problem and could fix it but it would take a little bit. I sat at Starbucks drinking their new standard blend and using the expensive t-mobile connection. Finally, at the three-hour mark I called them. “Oh,” they say, “the paperwork was just coming in on that.”

Yeah, buddy, I’ve used that line too. You’ve been sitting on it and haven’t bothered to call me ‘cuz you’ve been surfing for porn, haven’t you?

Anyway; to cut a long post short, they charged me $43 because two of the three error messages didn’t have to do with the “ignition module.” Not particularily amused, but willing to play along, I went ahead and wrote them a check. Ms B has already cashed in all of her stock options to pay for the expected repairs. I still need to replace the Cat Converter, and by gum the brakes need replacing too, so that money will still be spent; I’m glad it’s not the ignition module again, but I’m slightly annoyed that they took longer than 30 minutes to plug the parts together and read the output, and that they charged me for it.

You know the joke about the guy who goes to Heaven and finds out that it’s nothing like he was told in church. Have you ever lain in bed wondering if the Hare Krishnas will greet you at the pearly gates with a daisy, a robe and a funny haircut?

What if we’re wrong about Obama? I know; I’m totally in Obama’s camp, and righteously aghast at the Palin choice for the Republicans. Have you seen this letter from someone who knows her? My gods, if that woman is even half-right, Palin needs to be McCain’s VP like Anakin Skywalker needs Senator Palpatine. Complete with bad heart.

I was reading the transcript of Guilani’s speech, however, and some of his points got me thinking. Sure, yeah, that’s the point, make us think and convert us and all that. Maybe I’m naive, but surely everything Rudy had to say wasn’t wrong? McCain shows himself to be a leader, Obama can’t choose “yes” or “no.” McCain had a ( wrong, IMHO but still ) “firm response” to the Russia-Georgia conflict, Obama wanted to look at the underlying causes.

Actually, as a parent, Obama’s response made more sense to me. Sure, Dad would knock my head and my brother’s head together and send us on our ways on the hah rare cases we fought. And I’d like to figure out if there’s a better solution than just beating them up when my kids fight. But anyway.

What if Obama turns out to be the wrong choice? It’s really not enough for me to say “he’s better than Bush” or even “he’s a better choice than McCain.” Even if Guiliani gives me reason to doubt Obama, there’s no way in a frigid hell I’d be voting McCain-Palin. Kind of an aside; it’s important, but doesn’t go into the flow here: have you seen this article? Or the one I can’t find now that asks the same question and reflects on Palin’s firing of a librarian when she wouldn’t remove certain books? Even if the race is showing up to be between an old man who makes rapid ( and amazingly wrong ) decisions and his ambitious, corporate-sponsored cheerleader against a charismatic, ultimately ineffectual middle-road-seeker ( moderate?! ) with his elder statesman sidekick, what if we’re backing the wrong horse?

I don’t know. I can only hope that someone will prevail and lead us out of this nightmare.

Edited to add: I guess I am naive. Here’s a rebuttal of Sarah Palin’s speech, where almost everything she said of substance proved to be false. And some of these apply to Guilani’s speech as well.