Geek Update.

Wednesday I moved all of my bookmarks, RSS feeds, and favorites over to Firefox 3.0 after getting bogged down by Safari’s memory leaks and slow response times once too often. Firefox has a nice new interface (much improved from 2.0) and seems to be zippy enough, but it’s got a nagging annoyance I’m not sure I’m cool with yet: the bookmarks bar allows for folders of links and RSS feeds, but doesn’t display the number of new RSS entries like Safari does. This, and some other minor differences, will take getting used to.

Meanwhile, the drive I spent an afternoon archiving ten years of digital pictures on started to go wonky, so I did some musical chairs with hard drives and servers and now I’m backing that up to a secondary drive, even though I don’t have much faith in either of them. Looks like I need to seriously consider yet another storage solution for all of our digital media. The need is increasing daily, too, because I’ve taken over 2 gigs of video of Finley since she was born, and I’m terrified of losing any of it. It’s all backed up on DVD, but given the uneven predictions for the lifespan of that media, I’m thinking I need to shoot some Super-8 film of her so that we’ll have physical media in 50 years. (I’ve already shot some medium-format film of her with the Rolleicord, but that’s a small amount relative to the digital format).

Asleep

Diesel KLR650

Daddy wants. This is a short article on the diesel version of the Kawasaki KLR650, made only for the Marine Corps. Eventually, I’m going to own one of these, diesel or not.

One Good Thing…

…about the 1/2 of snow crippling the greater Baltimore area this morning is that it has confirmed a suspicion of mine about the lack of insulation in our porch ceiling. I originally put R-19 up there, thinking it would be plenty for the application, but as my lovely bride will tell you, it’s fucking freezing out there. The radiators do in fact heat the space up, but all warmth dissipates within about 20 minutes or so, making it useless for an all-season office (we’re currently using the dining room table).

This morning I peeked out the front bedroom windows and noticed the snow melting on the porch roof directly over the office area, which tells me I need at least another layer of R-19 over top of the existing insulation to keep that warmth in. Which means I’ve got to find a way to get up in there that doesn’t involve carving a hole in the drywall or using a shrink ray. Fortunately, I’ve got fresh freelance checks in my back pocket and there’s a sale on insulation at the H-D this week.

To Social Network, Or Not To Social Network?

I consider myself a pretty technologically savvy idiot. I’ve had a weblog for eight years, I’ve been working on the internet for over ten; but I’ve resisted jumping on the social networking train, with one exception. It seems like everybody’s on the Facebook these days, and in the last two weeks, I’ve had three different people tell me I should join. I’ve made my reservations about social networking pretty plain here before, which basically boils down to avoiding the same crap I dealt with in high school, but this evening I decided to stick my toe in the pool, for reasons I don’t quite understand yet.

Happy Morning

Awesome Music Video.

This is why the internet is awesome. Kick back, turn up the speakers, and rock out. (YouTube link). There is no word to describe the awesomeness of this video.

Thoughtful Face

Miss Finley is going for her first daycare appointment today so that Mama can get some work done. I can’t imagine the house without her in it.

Quiet Morning.

Finn stirred at 6:15 this morning, and we both listened to her from across the room, wondering if she would fall back to sleep or start crying (she amused herself quietly for 45 minutes). She’s gotten so much better at settling herself in the last month, there have been days where she’s put herself to sleep alone after being put down in the crib wide awake—something I thought we’d never be able to do.

Not wanting to upset her inner clock, Jen waited until 7 to get her some breakfast, and I stayed in bed to try to get a little more sleep. At 8, right about the time I usually get up, she brought Finn back in and laid her down in the bed between us, a rare and special treat I haven’t experienced since we started the sleep routine. She played with my beard and kicked her feet against my leg as I nestled her up against my chest, and within a few minutes fell fast asleep clutching the collar of my shirt, peaceful and serene. I stayed with them both for a few minutes, stretching out the time as long as I dared, before grudgingly and quietly rising to rush around and get ready for work.

Thank you, ladies, I needed that.

Back To The Island.

LOST is on tonight at 8PM. We won’t be answering the phone.

Change of Venue?

After making the decision to keep the Scout, I decided to revive the old /scout/ directory on my work server. (For a time in the early part of this decade, that directory was the most popular destination on that domain). After reviewing a page I’d last edited in 2003, I decided to install WordPress in that directory and document my progress with a simple weblog. Installation was a snap, and within minutes I’d changed the template to something cleaner and more useful—a process that would have taken hours in Movable Type.

I’ve been wanting to update/upgrade/redesign this site for about a year now, and the technical and logistical realities of working with Movable Type have been the thing that holds me back. I don’t really want to spend hours fighting with a clunky template interface just to change a color sitewide, or have to wrestle with MySQL to upgrade the database using lousy installation instructions. The WordPress interface is smooth, there are a million plugins to make life easier, the PHP is cleaner, as are the templates, and it just feels better.

So, at the crossroads, I’m considering a switch of allegiance. Doing some preliminary research, I found some pages that talk about migrating data, which doesn’t sound easy but could be harder. I think what I’ll have to do is set up a subdirectory here on idiotking.org, export the data from MT and then import it into WP to get the guts in place. Then it’s going to be a lot of tweaking to get all the old URLs working correctly (this seems to be the biggest hassle) and stuff where it belongs. Where I’ll find the time for this I don’t know, but it will be nice to have a change of scenery around these parts again.

Four Months/One Year.

Hi little girl. Mama tells me it was a year ago today when she found out you were on the way, and I’ve spent some time reflecting on the difference a year makes. It’s hard to remember what life was like without the scent of your fuzzy warm head in my nose, the beautiful sound of your voice, or your bright early morning smile.

A lot of things have changed since last January, many of them not so good. Outside our cozy little house, the world is trying desperately to hold itself together until a new sheriff comes to town with the almost impossible task of getting things back on track. It amazes me that you will grow up with a black President, something I thought I’d never see in my lifetime, and you will think nothing is out of the ordinary about this fact while the rest of us hold our breath and pray he is able to accomplish half of what we hope he can. As much as I like him, I haven’t gotten as worked up about his first day as the rest of the country seems to be; we’re only an hour from the Capitol, but your Mama and I have no desire to try to see him inaugurated in person with the rest of the country. Perhaps it’s the cold weather. Or maybe the projected ratio of people to portable sanitation facilities. Whatever the case, we’re going to stay home and watch it from here in front of a warm fire.

It’s hard to believe the difference a month makes too, for that matter. You’re a completely different baby since the middle of December: you’re sleeping on a regular schedule now, you’re happy when you’re awake, full of giggles and energy, and you’re making great leaps in development. We’ve even moved you into a full-sized crib from the cosleeper, which didn’t seem to faze you at all—we were terrified it would be a struggle to get you used to a larger bed. Especially seeing how small you look in that thing, like a duck landing on an aircraft carrier. Mama has spent a lot of time getting you ready for sitting up and rolling over, and even though being on your stomach makes you scream like we’ve stuck you with a cattle prod, I think you’re getting bored with the view from your back. For a kid who kicks her feet as much as you do, I think you might go straight from laying down to pole vaulting in the space of an afternoon.

You’re getting bigger by the minute, too, which is wonderful and terrifying all at the same time. It seems like last week I could fit your entire hand on my thumbnail, and now your fingers encircle mine with a grip of iron and direct the bottle to your mouth: MORE FOOD NOW. Slow down so we can enjoy you as an infant just a little while longer, OK?

DIY Flash cord with RJ-45

Camera Hacks: Extend Your Flash Cord with Network Cable I wonder if this actually works or not? It might be worth a try.

Morning with Baby.

This morning I pulled my giggling daughter from her crib and fed her breakfast as she smiled back up at me. Her mama tells me mornings are her best time of the day, and now I can see why.

New Drinkware

Our CEO bought us some mugs for the office. Instead of something false and shallow (I’m imagining about mug-versions of those inspirational posters with titles like “Success” and “Teamwork”), he bought us a set of ten Pantone color mugs. I must have a set for our house.

Symmetry, with Bjorn.

Finn is getting too big for the Bjorn now. It seems like only last week her head still fit below the top edge.

heavy metal band name chart

This is brilliant: the heavy metal band name chart.

Yahoo Pipes

Now that I seem to be back on the Scout wagon, I decided I’d use Yahoo Pipes to build an RSS scraper for Craigslist to keep an eye on spare parts for sale. I’m impressed with Pipes-it was easy to set up, and I’m going to keep fooling with it to refine my searches further. Not that I can afford anything right now, anyway.

Chow Mein Charlie.

I’ve always loved this sign across from Alonzo’s in Roland Park, and today I stopped for two minutes to shoot a picture of it, even though the overcast sky allows for no contrast.

I’m Keepin’ It.

At 10AM this morning, a trio of trucks descended on the house, and the driveway was quickly filled with tools. We pulled the cover from the Scout and looked over the engine compartment. There was plenty of oil, all the hoses looked reasonably clean, the wires were connected, and there was enough juice in the battery to light the brake indicator. After attempting to jump it with the Jeep (not enough power), we swapped out a battery from Mr. Clean’s pickup, cleaned the carburetor, added some gas, and cranked the engine over.

Unbelieveable.

After letting it run for a short while, Mr. Scout suggested we check the coolant level, and it was a good thing he did. The radiator was dry, so we immediately filled it with coolant and water. The next question was what condition the transmission was in. After a quick run through the gears, I put it in reverse and felt the clutch grab almost immediately, then tested first gear with the same result. After we engaged the hubs, I tried out the transfer case and found it easy to engage, even while sitting still.

While we had it running, Finn brought Jen outside to inspect.

After a short while, there was a little leakage from the water pump, so we resorted to a backwoods remedy: eggwhites in the coolant. The engine ran smoothly and a little fast, but there is no better sound than that of a big American V-8, and it was singing to us: Take me for a spin. A historic plate was -ahem- borrowed from Mr. Clean’s pickup, and we jockeyed vehicles to make room for its passage.

We took it up the side street and everyone took a turn behind the wheel except Mr. Scout, who is saving himself for the day his mistress is ready for him. First, second, and third gears all shifted smoothly, and the engine made a lovely howl through the dual exhaust.

After returning it to the driveway, we retired to the mexican restaurant down the street to enjoy some warm food and cold beer while the battery charged.

It felt good to be behind the wheel of a Scout again.