Summertime 2006

It isn't very often that we all get to see each other all at once, so...

... i'm in the planning stages of a Summertime 2006 party over at the house. If everyone could do me the favor of posting any plans they might have in June so that i might choose a date with minimal conflicts, i would appreciate it. Plus, if anyone wants to get in on the planning (for food, decorations, activities, etc...) just drop me a line.

If you're reading this, you're prolly invited.

This one is for all you Beatle fans

Check it out here!

For you

Listening to this makes me happy.

Howdy blog people.

It has been a while since I participated in the community.
I have been reading but not posting.

It is good to see what is going on in all of your worlds. I forget, since I am aware of what is going on in mine, that the information doesn't just zap to ya'lls brains without the need of cumbersome communication.

Still out here in Oregon, still sitting in a cube in the "WORLD HEADQUARTERS" of nike, still hating the rain, still loving the summers up here.

Laura and I are currently seperated.
No one can prepare you for the demands of life. sometimes you just get thrashed. Sometimes it's our own fault. sometimes you don't know if things can heal. sometimes you can just hope and work to make yourself more into the person you are supposed to be.

I want to write about wonderful trips or interesting gadgets or something light and easy to swallow. I seem to get pretty heavy. oh well. sometimes that's how it is.
most of my time and energy right now is put twards delving the depths of my emotional swimming pool. seeing therapists and the sort. writing and reading alot about how and where emotions and there repercussions come from and how to learn to recognize what is going on. I have always been quite good at not dealing with difficult issues so it is refresing to start to handle my shit.

it feels like growing up. starting to actually see my place in the larger world, how and who i am. and that what i do has an effect on my surroundings.

blah blah blah.

Spend my days working on clothes. mostly graphics for clothes for the various soccer teams that nike has contracts with.
you can look on the niketown website under the soccer section and the in the club gear and national team gear sections.
all the t-shirts are mine and some of the other stuff.
chella and i went to see the mexican national women's team play the university of portland. while we were at the game i saw three different people wearing things i had designed. that's always cool.
i just started doing baseball.....which to me is a bit of a bore.

the girls are growing up. for all of you who know her, Hannah is a teenager. and never have i met a more creative person. truly an individual. as i have said to some others before, there is no distance between her idea of something and her doing it.
in any medium, she has a wonderful outlook as all things around her have the possibility of being bent and twisted and woven and carved and glued into so many wonderful expressions. she is playing the guitar writing her own songs and going to school.

chella is still a dream lightly attached to the world by the tips of her toes. sometimes when the sun glitters off her golden hair it does seem that she floats as her constant chatter of imaginary games flows in and around the sounds of birds flying and the wind blowing. she writes and illustrates pile after pile of books with name like, "All Birds Wide and South" "A Girl of the Country" and "What She Did There." she is taking a gymnastics class and is kind of uncorrdinated.
I have never know love this pure. it is easy to believe in the devine in the presence of your children. that is of course right before you yell at them and tell the to go to their room.

Laura is applying to graduate school and creating an impressive body of prints. she has been enrolled in 2 printmaking classes at the local art school. she always has been an enormous fountain of creative energy. to give perspective, most people in her class finish 2 to 4 well workes plates by the end of the class. both times she has finished about 13. while homeschooling chella. she can cook like a badass and usually make most of the food we eat from scratch. she has an impressive garden in the background and a basement full of homemade jellies and preserves. i am always still impressed by her.

i have been painting some watercolours. it is nice to have part of the creative process conciously out of your controll. the way that the pigment lays down so slow and quiet, gently blending into wonderous patterns. i did a bunch of smaller kind of squiggle paintings last night. has the look of fake chinese calligraphy. just the motions that my hand makes from handwriting, just mixed up. painting some rocks and sticks.

played soccer today at lunch.

type type type send.

bees!

bees!
Originally uploaded by featherbed.

fantastic drawer illustrator image maker

Long Time, No Post

what a nice weekend i had! i got to spend a bunch of time with the lovely young lady pictured here. We attended the iFest downtown, where we caught performances by Grupo Fantasma and Yerba Buena.

to those looking for a customized, user-updatable website(amber, antony and taggart) i have been working on a package for some time and recently had a major breakthrough. i have been looking for a combination of some lightweight blogging/cms software and an equally lightweight photo gallery and i think WordPress and ZenPhoto each hit the sweetspot. i recently discovered that i can install the ZP tables into the WP database, which means i can use elements from either package on any page. i still have a bit of a to-do list, but having cleared that major hurdle. My site (still pending) will be the guinea pig, but once that is working i will start accepting requests for sites from my homies.

the to do list includes:

1. creating a wordpress theme that will work the way i want.
2. creating a zenphoto theme that will work the way i want.
3. tweaking a wordpress/zenphoto plug in to do something different that it is doing now so i can offer two options for including images in posts.

what do you, the user, need to do to get your hands on this high tech radness? first off, you will need to be patient for just a little longer ‘til i get everything done and working. next you will need to get a real hosting plan. i have been very happy with Verve Hosting, but Fat Cow’s Fat Cow plan looks pretty good also. You will also need to update your domain name servers which is pretty easy. The only other thing i can think of is possibly updating you email settings, but that will vary depending on the host you select. Doing all of those things will generate a few new usernames/passwords which i will need access to. then i’ll install the software, give you a tutorial on how to use it, and viola! you’re off to the races.

watch this space for more details.

PS: pablo, i am digging this textile stuff

My New USB Stick

Not sure what happened. I think an electro-varmit chewed off the back panel in order to get to the tasty micro-innards. The doodad still works as a usb drive, but I can’t turn it on to play the music.

I liked the shuffle. Too bad it only lasted 1.3 years.

Also, I finished John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War (thanks Taggart and Adolph for the hookup). It was a fun read! Taggart warned me not to read it too fast, but it is such page turner that I could not help myself…

So I enjoyed the book, but I am not very interested in reading the followup, The Ghost Brigades. I guess I just don’t find the universe Scalzi presents interesting enough to draw me into another novel…

Bye Bye

Bye, Bye Mamiya. I hardly knew thee.

Good Luck Adolph!

Good luck with the big bad bp bike tour this weekend!

AMS, Launched!!!

So I went to M.D. Anderson Cancer Center yesterday with a couple of my co-workers to oversee the launch of the AMS (Access Management System) project that we have been working on for the last year or so…

It went great!

Also, I got a chance to stop by Killy’s office and witness the firepower of the fully operational battlestation of a monitor he has on his desk…

Here is a short clip of the experience of being in the office of the killy…

Also, If y’all aint heard the Gnarls Barkley or seen this video y’all got to check it out!

Google SMS

I guess Google SMS may have been out for a while, but I just discovered it tonight. Its pretty slick! You can message google (short code:46645) with a query, e.g “Pizza 78703”, and it will respond with a message listing pizza places in the area. You can even get driving directions by entering something like “address1 to address2!”.

ari's bike

ari's bike
Originally uploaded by shanedenson.

Recently, Karin and I spent a week in Berlin and left Ari at his Oma's house near Kassel. While there, he tried out his new (very old) bike. When we picked him up, he said he was ready to try without training wheels. Within a day, he got the hang of it, and now we have to run after him all the time. A little more exercise for all of us is a good thing, though. (Did I mention how proud I am?)

Houston, tomorrow

I am going to be in Houston tomorrow hanging out at M.D. Anderson. Maybe get lunch Killy, Todd?

also, how do I add Pablo In Houston event to the chairjockey calendar?

No relief

It hasn't rained in a month and it's hot. Gas prices are rising (as are silver and gold) and rolling blackouts have come to Houston. I turned my a/c up to 82 during the day and keep it at 78 at night. I'm not looking forward to my electric bill this month.

Speaking of, check out this trailer

UPDATE It turns out there will NOT be rolling blackouts today.

Chingo Bling!

Yellow boots with the nike swoosh.

Coloring book and churts

May 7th is Chingo De Mayo in Austin.

Question

My little brother will be touring and traveling in Europe and the Far East for most of the coming 8 months. I am very excited for him because he has not had much opportunity to travel before, and certainly not in Europe, etc.

Anyhow, he is considering either buying an iPod or a digital camera. If you were to travel for this long, had neither of these items, and could only acquire one of them, which you would you choose?

Vice and Versa

:

(i)  a metal, wooden, acrylic, glass, stone, 
plastic, or ceramic pipe with or without a screen, permanent 
screen, hashish head, or punctured metal bowl;
    (ii)  a water pipe;                                                         
    (iii)  a carburetion tube or device;                                        
    (iv)  a smoking or carburetion mask;                                        
    (v)  a chamber pipe;                                                        
    (vi)  a carburetor pipe;                                                    
    (vii)  an electric pipe;                                                    
    (viii)  an air-driven pipe;                                                 
    (ix)  a chillum;                                                            
    (x)  a bong;  or                                                            
    (xi)  an ice pipe or chiller. 

One of the really interesting things about proscribing stuff is that law must define what it says is illegal. It makes for some interesting lists. Has anyone ever heard of a chillum before?

2005 Instructions for Schedules A & B (Form 1040) (2005)

2005 Instructions for Schedules A & B (Form 1040) (2005) :

Certain whaling captains may be able to deduct expenses paid in 2005 for Native Alaskan subsistence bowhead whale hunting activities.

2006 is the year I start paying attention to what I pay in taxes.

Chairjockey Campfire

I created a Chairjockey Campfire Room.

Campfire is a web-based chat service. It is kind of like doing a group iChat or irc.

Adios, iCal

Google Calendar

Jobby McJob Jobs...No kidding..For real though

Greetings and hey ya'll...

Here's the thing. My new job needs a "web guy/gal" . I don't know what the rate would be but, if you're interested send me your resume. We already have a site in place but my boss is looking for someone who would be able to add some functionality that we presently don't have. Don't ask me what it is, it's just clicks and wheezes to me. Here's the website...www.plsx.com

Also...Yeah there's more...

Frank's mom, yeah that's my guy, is looking for a photographer that would be available for an informal shoot for a Central Market thing that would happen next week. This is a legitimate deal. Her company is called Reveal Productions...and here's that website...
http://www.revealproductions.com/default.html
This gig would be in Houston...so lemme know.

Sorry to get all Craigs list on you but I thought y'all might wanna crack at this. I haven't called anybody else about it.

Lemme know
Cheers,
-JP
Johnnyvelvet@hotmail.com

What Does This Mean?

Form follows Function, but then Function puts a potted plant on Form instead of sitting on it.

Green Glass Bottles

I really like green glass bottles. I like them more than brown or clear glass bottles. It seems to me that if you are stranded on a deserted island and you had a message and three bottles, a clear, brown and a green one, the best bottle to choose for the message-in-the-bottle type communication strategy would be the green one.

also

also

¡Sí, Se Puede!

I wish my Grandfather were alive to see these massive protests.

Teh Amazing!

C H I N L O N E

Screen Door!

Thanks Todd and Adolph and Taggart for helping me install a sweet screen door in my apartment!!!

This is going to make my summer nights much more pleasant!

The State Cup, or even just a regular one would have done the trick...

Not only did we get knocked out the State Cup by losing to a team from San Antonio, but during the game I got kicked in the balls so hard that my nuts are now in orbit around the moon. It was horrible. It felt like someone had taken off my head and bowled 3 strikes and a gutter-ball with my brain. Oh man, it was horrible. I mean, the whole boot got me- we’re talking the frank and the beans, both big willy and the twins…

A Todd in Need is a Todd, Indeed ...

Calling all Todds!
I am in dire need of your web design capabilities ... especially right now, while landscaping requests are at a peak. I've got to strike while the iron is hot. Are there any other cliches I might use to illustrate my point?
Don't want to lose any clients over an amateurish website, and I've lost your e-mail address. I'd like to have something done right away -- preferably in the next week or 2. Are you still too booked up with clients to even consider? If so, can you recommend anyone else? I can pay, too.
Let me know. My new website/e-mail:
http://www.amberfreda.com
amber@amberfreda.com
THANKS!

Voicemail Instructions

Nothing infuriates a Pablo more than having to wait through voicemail instructions. I don’t know how things work on other phone systems, but on Sprint you can disable the voicemail instructions by doing this

1. Call voicemail
2. Choose Personal Options
3. Choose Greeting
4. Choose Change Main Greeting
5. Choose Add or Remove Caller Instructions

Voila! The infuriating voicemail instructions will be banish-ed!!!!

A Night Out With The Gang

So Todd in town tonight. We all meet up at Maudie’s and Drink The Margarita and Eat the Fajita. Good to see the gang

Waiting for Trudeau

Am i the only one waiting to hear adolph's take on the signifcance (or otherwise) of Apple's Boot Camp? Of course, anyone can chime in if they'd like.

My intital reaction is one of excitement as i have a PC user in the house that just can't get 'used' to the mac despite her best efforts.

In other news, as i made my way out of the neighborhood this morning i noticed that the lawns were looking pretty shaggy. Of course everyone knows that this means i'll be trolling for bags of fresh grass clippings for my super enormous compost. Speaking of which, i'll be constructing compost bins this saturday out of old fence boards. Anyone interested in compost bins and peach iced-tea can come over for composting happiness.

In even more other-news, Adolfo has his first show-and-tell today. He walked out of the house with his leapPad (his laptop computer), climbed into his car seat and played with it all the way into town.

No April Showers

For those Austi-nuts who were paying attention there was a truely glorious electrical storm
passing through.

Riverwalk in San Marcos??

link

Flashing

Now that i've finished presentations for the beginning of the year, i can continue my struggles with action script.

The first thing i encountered was not being able to add a click event to a movie clip (or button) inside of another movie clip that also had a click event.



originally, clicking the arrow moved it in and out, but when i did that the button inside (child) wouldn't accept events. I later learned this was called propogation (which flash doesn't support). To get around it i took the event off the arrow and placed only on the tip so that the embedded button movie clip could perform.

UPDATE: The button was generating multiple text boxes if you clicked on it more than once, so i had to start it off with an

if(!button) {
//do this}
else { //do this};

for a clean finish.

A.P.E

Oh how I wish I could go to A.P.E, the Alternative Press Expo, in San Francisco this weekend.

Some of my favorite comic making folks are going to be there…

via BoingBoing

I saw this article on Malcolm Gladwell and thought some of you might like to check it out.

Without DeLay!

Woo hoo! Killy hooked me up with link last night.

PostNotFoundException

The other day I was posting to a blogger.com blog, my sweet blogging client Paper Lantern reported a horrible error

Exception caught but no reason given com.google.blogger.exceptions.PostNotFoundException

I thought, oh no, blogger.com has changed up something on the server again and I will have to push up another Paper Lantern release.

But just to be sure the problem was on my end I googled around for the error. No results. Still believing that something must be wrong with Paper Lantern I decided to hit the blogger.com server with curl. This is what I did

curl -u <username>:<password> -H 'Content-Type: application/xml' --data-binary @test2.txt https://www.blogger.com/atom/<blogid>

This curl test threw the same error.

Happily convinced that Paper Lantern was not to blame I decided to ask for help to the Blogger Dev Google group

Believe it or not after years or writing code I had never really posted to a dev forum, so I did not know what to expect…

To my surprise minutes after posting I got a reply from Steve Jensen, one of the folks working on blogger.com . He wrote that he was aware of the bug and was working on a fix. It was great to get a response so quickly!

IMG_0185.JPG

IMG_0185.JPG
Originally uploaded by tcserpa.

so we actually took the WHOLE WEEKEND OFF and went to the coast. Dropped by rockport to see D's mama, then spent Saturday and Sunday in Corpus Christi, ancestral home of Whataburger®.

ARE YOU READY!?!

i just thought this was funny after the back to back 'adorable child' photos. it is no way intended to imply that either child is not, in fact, the most adorable, smartest, talented and potentially super-intelligent, child in the known universe.

it's just funny to me.

Reasons why Todd should never live in LA

Saw this and it made me think of Todd for a couple of REALLY different reasons.
(and one of them isn't because he is A HUUGE Debra Harry, Missing Persons fan.)

Why is Pablo So Happy?????

BECAUSE HE SCORED A GOAL TODAY!!!!!!!!

After twenty years of not scoring in an official game I finally put one in today. I wish I could remember the details. It is all blurry in my mind. I seem to recall that I received the ball at the top of the box. I beat two defenders, broke towards the goal and knocked the ball into the left corner as the goalee came of his line. I am so happy. My focus for the last year of soccer has been on learning some ball control, and offense type moves- maybe it is all starting to pay off.

Next week is the first round of the state tournament; we play a team from San Antonio...