Category: Life. Don’t talk to me about life.

So, with this splufty new monitor, I’d say I have about 2/3rds of a ‘home theater’. As such, why not have a movie viewing night?
To keep things family centric, I’m planning on doing Chronicles of Narnia starting around 6:30, preceeded by a well-selected cartoon. Families, kids, popcorn all welcome. We’ll most likely follow it up later for the adult crew with something more adulty. Any suggestions?

It’ll come as no surprise to anyone that I’m someone who enjoys alone-time. On that Myers-Briggs thing? The ‘I’ gets pegged and glows orange. Others may argue, and possibly rightfully so, that I’m one of the most extroverted introverts around, but when it comes to “What do I want really?” – frequently it’s “I want to be alone.”
This week, in a fit of randomized events, things came together that allowed me to head up to my favorite refuge for a few days of quiet alone-time. The practicals of this cosmic convergence aren’t all that interesting – a long holiday weekend approaching, Zach having an overnight sleepover at his camp, an infininately understanding partner who recognizes and supports my antosocialness, and the ever present job that doesn’t require me to be anyplace in -particular-, as long as I’m productive.
So, off I went. Thursday saw me speeding north toward our refuge in the hills. The house has been in Cat’s family for about 50 years now, progressing from a small shack up to what some would call a compound. Regardless of the configuration, it had the things I find most soothing, most conducive to my away-ness. It was quiet. I was the only one there. It had a coffeemaker and a broadband wireless internet connection. It was my Utopia.
So the last 2 days have had me sitting quietly with my laptop, a tasty cup of coffee at hand, the local radio station playing classic rock on the kitchen stereo, and me being… productive.
The last bit came as a hoped for, but not necessarily expected, result. While I certainly like ‘getting away’ and being on my own, if I don’t actually produce anything, the afterglow fades quickly into the overwhelming list of things that STILL need to be done. And just being on my own with no distractions is no definitive recipe for productivity. I can easily manufacturer a thousand distractions on my own.
Not so this time. The combination of the space, the wide-open schedule, the laptop, and the amazingly cool, clear weather have all combined to let me get into my ‘groove’ – the term I use to mean “the brain is working, problems are being solved, the complexities of what the work at hand are meshing well, and I’m not getting distracted”. A fellow with an unpronounceable last name termed this mode “Flow”, and wrote a book about it.
But there’s more to it than that. Flow or groove or whatever you want to call it is great, but it needs a larger environment in which to thrive and return. In my office at home, I can groove along for a few hours, then need to go… somewhere. A walk, a bike ride, something, and hope that lets me slip back into Groove when I return, which doesn’t always work well. Here, however, I can step outside, and I’m on the shore of a mile long lake, with wind, trees, and the ever-present slap of water on the docks to remind me that the world is still fine, take a rest, you can go back when you’re ready.
Snapshots and images…

• A storm moving along Thursday night. The clouds were perhaps 200′ up, but no rain. The lake angrily tossing up waves under the steady gusting wind. The clouds churning over my head as the entire front slid by. The clouds had the look of a steady ocean wave, constantly collapsing on itself, leaving tendrils and whirls behind.
• The quiet of Friday morning, the lake smooth as glass, dotted here and there with early morning fishermen. The sound of someone’s voice, realizing that it was one of the fellows in the boat, almost half a mile away, quietly talking to his fellow angler.
• Hastily closing the windows as another storm came in last night, then standing on the dock as the gusts washed over me.
• Waking in the morning to just the sound of wind, water, and trees rustling, making morning coffee, and sitting on the chairs out on the waterfront, watching as the boats on the lake slowly change from morning fishermen into jetboats and skiers, like a shift change at some loosely structured business. Later there will be sailboats and kids on innertubes, and as it gets dark tonight, with the inevitable quieting of the breezes, the deck boats will put in their appearance.

It has been a great few days, but I’m also looking forward to the arrival of the rest of the family, they should be here soon. Another 4 days here, socializing, playing, and with a little luck, sailing.
I feel a bit like Lazslo in Real Genius. I haven’t actually spoken to anyone in 2 days, I wonder if I’ll remember how.

Overheard this morning whilst picking up supplies for the trek to connecticut. A very
large woman was in line ahead of me, putting in a rather large order. Now, granted she
could have been ordering for friends / coworkers / family / dogs / whatever. But she was
taking an inordinate interest in choosing boston creme over chocolate iced over jelly
doughnuts. With nothing else to focus on, I engaged in the age old practice of
evesdropping and listened in on the order…
2 dozen donuts
such and such boston cremes, glazed, iced – the whole litany of insulin shock inducing
materials.
But that apparently wasn’t enough cholestrol and salt, so she added on…
1 Sausage egg and cheese croissant
1 Bacon egg and cheese bagel
I guess somewhere along here she decided it would be nice to have something to drink.
But folks have to be careful of their weight remember! So she ordered…
A large french vanilla with 4 equals.
Words fail me.
[Written on Friday morning on the Treo]

In the late 90’s, I was a director at one of the coolest companies on the planet. Wildfire Communications, Inc in Lexington, MA. During my 2 and a half years there, I saw the system grow from a single-host local database server into a clustered ‘network-centric’ system, and finally deployed to some fairly large customers.

Continue reading “Farewell Wildfire” →

Cat made a comment today that I’m still one of the fastest typists she knows. I sort of laughed and moved on, because, yeah, I do crank the keys pretty fast. I wonder if this is why I’m so touchy about my keyboard types.
It got me wondering though, how fast do I really type? Well, the net came to my rescue. I went to typingtest.com, started up their little Java applet, and typed away. I got:
Gross speed, 112 WPM. Errors: 6 words. Net speed: 106WPM. Accuracy 94%
Not too shabby!

So thanks to blk dragging me to a couple pickup games on Saturday while visiting scenic Pittsburgh, I’ve gotten the urge to look for some evening volleyball leagues in the Boston area.
I found the Boston Area Volleyball Players forums, which I’ll be posting to shortly, but does anyone have personal groups they play with? Would be good to share the court with some folks I know. I’m a knowledgeable player with very rusty skills, though they seemed to coem back okay on Saturday. Playing weekday evenings would be best. Metro Boston (Framingham / Natick) would be ideal. 🙂
Update 5/14/06 – Found this listing on Yankee.org of local groups and pickup games.

Just because math education is something I’m curious about – how much do folks really hold on to later in life?

You Passed 8th Grade Math

Congratulations, you got 9/10 correct!

I even know which one I got wrong. And no, I’m not going to tell you.

This is a GREAT video posted on YouTube – it’s part of a documentary about the Fairhaven School in Maryland. Fairhaven is a Sudbury Valley-like school, which is where my son Zach goes. This video covers all aspects of the school, interviewing students and showing what life is like in a environment democratically run by the students.
BoingBoing has the link to the video.
If you’ve ever had any questions about the Sudbury Valley School, this is a fantastic overview of what it’s like.

Our first newsletter has been posted Mosaic Commons Blog. Check it out, lotta cool stuff going on!
LJ folks, you can subscribe to the mosaicblog feed.

I’m a little late coming to this, but NPR’s All Things Considered aired an interview with the CEO of Zillow.com and I had to give it a shot. Forget Mrs. Grundy, this tool lets you find out how much your house, your neighbors house, your bosses house, or any house in fact is worth given current market conditions. The folks at Zillow are the first to admit it’s not 100% accurate (in fact, looking at when we sold our last house, the chart showing property values rates that house at 20% higher than what we sold it for. Sort of sad, actually), but it’s fascinating looking up house prices and history of sales for not only the house you’re in, but the houses around you as well.
Update: fixed broken HTML. Sorry

I think it’s a sign of the apocalypse. In the space of about 15 minutes, I not only smoked a video board (no, didn’t toke it up… it literally started smouldering while installed in the machine. The fan bearing had failed on the cooler), not only crashed said XP box right in the middle of getting information i was looking for, but in a fit of excitement, I apparently broke the seat of my nice Size C Aeron chair.
Since this was basically an ebay special, warranties are out of the question. I’ve had the chair about 7 months now, and use it daily day in and day out. I guess I wasn’t sitting on it properly or the like, but I’m not an -enormous- guy. I weigh about 270. The chair is a ‘large’ scale, it’s built to carry large people.
Now to find out what repairs or replacement costs will be for parts. Yippee.

So far three people have pointed me at this T-shirt at tshirthell.com.
Should I be worried?