Wow. November 3rd. That’s the last time I posted to my blog. Largely, that’s been due to my work load “harshing my mellow” when it comes to recreational writing. Also, I’m not sure if anyone else noticed, but the theme I was using in WordPress was very slow to load. I changed themes (although I’ll be tweaking it for a bit), and it seems to go much faster. This pleases me.
Let’s see, what’s new… Well, after my laptop died, I didn’t restart on NaNoWriMo. That’s a little depressing, but really I didn’t have time anyway. I also didn’t have time to go without a laptop for the better part of a week, but I survived.
I’m also leaving on Tuesday, bound for Texas. It should be a fun trip. I’ll be at Supercomputing ’08 in Austin, and then back in Houston for a day or so at the Linux Journal corporate office. I’ll be sure to post lots of photos and video. 🙂
Holidays are coming! This year, Donna and I are trying really hard to figure out how to handle Internet access for our children. I can’t go into too much detail, what with Christmas just around the corner, but suffice to say it will be an issue pretty soon. I’m not a big fan of blocking all the potential naughty sites, because it really seems to be starting with an attitude of mistrust. Also, I’d rather our girls approach Internet creepiness with their eyes wide open. It seems that education and trust trump electronic countermeasures any day. Since I see the worst of the worst at work (a school), it’s difficult for me to separate that reality from our own. And yes, it is different when parents actually care and talk to their children.
So, how have you been? 🙂
Your old one wasn’t slow for me, but this works too. A theme is a theme, but we need your mug with Tux up there 🙂
Both of our kids (5 and 8) have their own computers. They are on the internet. Jamie was allowed to move his into his room over the Summer. We don’t monitor it heavily. We have icons on the desktop that go to sites he wants to visit. His home page is Yahoo Kids! He know show to search for stuff. He knows that if he sees anything, he has to tell us. Cassie’s is in my office/kitchen area and we keep an eye on her. Mainly because she can’t really read or type.
Also, your comment box doesn’t scroll. So I’m typing blind… LOL
Well, thanks.
School is officially “over” for the year, and I’m on winter break.
My hair’s growing back.
Work is a bit dicey, but I’m still employed, so I’ll take it.
I made blueberry jam yesterday.
Why, yes, my life boring as all get out.
I love this new look, but agree that your mug needs to show up somewhere prominent. Also, stop by that other place for a private comment.
And now I’m just gonna type random stuff until I see if I have Candy’s problem with the box not scrolling so we’ll know if it’s just her problem or yours and yada yada yada, not there yet, but looking like I will be in about two more lines…………………..ooops, make that at least three more lines, but getting close and ooooooooooh I’m so almost there just another line and…yup…blind.
Two things…one forgot, one just noticed.
I didn’t mention that you sound like a really awesome parent. You do.
My old avatar is showing up every time I comment on a wordpress blog. I’ve tried changing it and nothing seems to work.
And one more thing…
Even when you insert blank lines…they don’t show up after you submit a comment.
Comment box bug. Oooooh, get it offa me.
So glad that you finally decided to post…starting to get worried, thought maybe we might have to send Jim out looking for you.
Ditto on the ‘your mug needs to be up there on the banner” idea…have fun in Texas.
You’re back! Yay!
I kinds liked the old design, but this one might grow on me.
I have a project assigned by an arm of the state government that is doomed to failure because it’s a poorly thought out idea. But, what the heck, it’s job security.
Making up a Thanksgiving menu for John, and getting baked good orders from the family. Hey, I’m getting a weird scrolling thing in IE when I type a long enough comment. Odd.
Sounds like you and Donna are on the right track. If you make too big of deal out of the nasty stuff, they’re going to look for it to find out why you find it so objectionable. Go you guys! ::waves at Donna::
Yay renovations! 🙂
Glad to hear you’ll be doing the educating thing rather than the hide-everything thing. 😉
Wow, nifty. I figured nobody would stop by this dusty ol’ place. 😉
And now, I’m going to type something rather lengthy, mainly to see if it helps with the scrolling issue. See, I think I fixed it, but there’s really no way to tell until I type and type and type. So, that’s what I’m doing. And apparently the font size is rather small, because it seems as though I’ve been typing silliness for a while, and still haven’t gotten to the bottom. Perhaps the person that designed the theme only has terse commenting friends.
Oh look! It scrolled! The scrolling bar is a bit on the “I don’t match” side, but that’s ok. It scrolls. Life is good. 🙂
And yes, the tux photo will be back, I just ran out of time last night. I think the butterfly graphic might be gone too, as they bother me for some reason.
Oh, and the (what I assume is) Chinese text as well. I have no idea what it says, but my luck it’s something like “I pick my nose and eat the findings.”
Filtering for kids is such a losing battle. A co-worker was just asking me for advice about this on Friday.
She put one of the web filtering programs on her daughters computer. Her daughter promptly figured out how to use proxy sites.
So she wanted to know how to keep an 11 year old from using proxy sites.
I missed you. I noticed it was all different here and thought I went to the wrong place but then enough stuff was the same to make identification possible. The other place was warm and friendly, this is like a new home, and you gotta live there a while before it feels like home. I like to see your face here. The butterflies and Chinese don’t make it feel like it’s your place, so good if they go, good you know how to make these things happen. Oh, by the way, our chickens are laying eggs now, could you use some? And now I’m to the scroll and typing on darker green but yep it’s working. Love ya
Hey Shawn, welcome back. I don’t envy your internet decision. Fortunately, we don’t have to worry about that for a few years. The only site Logan goes on is the Fisher Price animal zoo game thingie. That’s too bad about your NaNoWriMo work, better luck next year.
This is a test. Shawn emailed me the answer to my Avatar difficulties and I went there, and oddly enough, I already had an account. Who knew. Well anyway, let’s see if it worked.
Not so much.
Nah, it’s fixed. You just need to shift-refresh in order to see the new avatar. 🙂
w00t
Hey, Shawn, good to hear from you and see your theme update! You can probably sepia-filter Tux a little so that he blends with your new theme a bit better – or maybe you don’t want to. 😉
I like the theme – but you and I are both suckers for clean three column themes.
What a great site! I keep trying to do a blog and failing. No creative talent here, but this inspires me to try again. Guess I will go back to hacking my N800 for now. (Tnx LJ.)
Shawn,
I would strongly recommend ignoring the web filtering software, and simply placing the computer in a very public room, like the kitchen or living room, with the monitor facing out.
Even good kids can get caught up in something they don’t understand. This way, if they see something, you all can talk about it, as opposed to them accidentally finding things and learning all *kinds* of wrong information.