While stopping by the Arlington Central Library, I couldn't help but notice the exhibit on container and square foot gardening. Here are some quick snapshots:
Dang, they make it look so easy.
I love that they are encouraging folks to turn the now-defunct yellow recycle bin into a planter. Unfortunately, we already have a use for ours.
The exhibit is described here and is part of a most impressive program.
Sure makes me want to go out buy a bunch of containers.
For weeks (maybe even months) I've been frustrated with how slow my G2 has been running. Here's how I got it running quickly today:
And now my phone is super fast.
My plan is to add in apps either as need them, or as the occasion arises (say, my next trip, I'll install the items on my travel apps list).
Sure does feel good to have a super fast phone again.
*You do use appbrain, right? Cause you should. Really. It's essential.
Yesterday, Shira and I took a jog to the Lyndon B. Johnson Memorial Grove - which is yet another little gem tucked away in Arlington. We accessed it from the Pentagon parking lot, which doesn't exactly seem like the kind of place you'd want to be loitering around.
The sun was out, the shade in the grove was delicious, and the view across the way to DC was perfect. Here's a few snapshots. I don't quite understand what the big rock was all about - but, it too, was looking quite fine in the sunshine.
The grove is relatively small - but it's a great place for a picnic or to just chill.
For years now, my brother has been suggesting I read O Jerusalem!, and for years I've been putting it off. At 656 pages, it just looks like it's going to be a painful read.
And then my brother picked up the audio version of the book. Still, I resisted.
Then a few weeks ago, I finally broke down and loaded the first 6 of 22 disks into my CD disk changer and hoped for the best. I figured I was going to be in for a long dry read that I'd just suffer through.
Oh, how wrong I was. I found all 22 disks, from the opening introduction to the epilogue to be absolutely riveting.
The story follows the fate of Jerusalem, from the UN vote to partition the country of Israel through the war that followed. It's absolutely packed with unbelievable story, after unbelievable story. If this were a novel, you would write it off as being too out there to be true. And yet, it's all real.
Unlike, say, A Case for Isreal, by Alan Dershowitz, the book doesn't take a purely positive view of Isreal. Both Arabs and the Jews have events in the book that evoke both condemnation and praise. Without any points of reference, it's hard for me to say the book is balanced - but that's how it felt to me.
Equal to the entertaining stories was the amazing historical lessons it had to teach me. The lessons and conflict from 1948, in many respects, are still present in the current Israeli and Palestinian conflict. Heck, while I was reading the book, my brother pointed me to this current op-ed, which directly discusses events that happened in 48. And after reading the book, I can see both the truth of what the author is saying, as well as the points that he's conveniently leaving out.
My brother was right to keep on me about reading this book. And now, I'll go around, nudging people to do the same. You won't be sorry.
To date, our little one has pretty much been infatuated with Elmo and the Sesame Street crowd (that, and slightly off Indian TV). But, over the last couple weeks, his world has expanded. It's official, our little guy is now a Mickey Mouse man.
His gateway drug to Disney: a sing along CD with Mickey Mouse and friends that my mother-in-law bought him. What makes the CD special, is the fact that it's personalized. Integrated in with the music and dialog is his name, which he just finds thrilling.
Literally, the first thing he asked for this morning when I went into his room, was to listen to this CD (the request sounds something like: "mooooosic puhleees"). And how could I argue? Any activity that keeps him entertained for 30'ish minutes is a winner in my book.
A tiny part of me does think that having his name injected in there doesn't exactly teach him the best lesson (that he's the center of the universe). But, at 20 months, I say, let the boy enjoy. And like any other media, moderation is key.
You might want to check out the site -- apparently it's Little Guy approved.
For years, I've been impressed with Zappos.com. If you're a shoe lover, how can you not love the massive selection and details (like 275 reviews of a shoe - a shoe I tell you!).
But today, as I opened up a box of running shoes that I had ordered from them, it occurred to me they are the ultimate guys shoe store.
And why is this? Because, they allow me to trivially replace my running shoes with exactly the same make, model and size I have now. All it takes is a few clicks of the mouse, and two days later, my replacements show up. No worrying about shopping around. No fears that the new shoes won't fit as well as the old ones.
If you care deeply about shoes, Zappos is for you. If you couldn't care less about shoes, Zappos apparently is also for you.
Now, if they offered an automatic buying program where ever N months a fresh pair of shoes (of the same exact model I've been buying, of course) just magically appeared on my doorstep, well, that would simply be perfect.
Amazon offers this service with some products, and I use it for razor blades. No more running out and then having to go buy them at some overpriced store.
Hmmm, random thought: what if you had a business that offered the service of this automatic buying program? It wouldn't need to be limited to shoes, or any other product. The company would make any purchase off the web for you on a regular basis (from shoes, to sending flowers to your wife). You just set it, and forget it. They'd need to be experts in handling cases like when stuff goes out of stock. But that shouldn't be too difficult to handle.
I stumbled on this ad for FosterParentsRock.com at adrants. Check it out. I think it's really well done:
Of course, I may be a little biased.
On a related note: you can learn more about Arlington County's foster care services here. I know they are always looking for volunteers. (fosterparentsrock.com is apparently a Wisconsin based group.)
There's no question in my mind, David Sederis is an amazing writer. His book Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk is proof. Somehow he effortlessly creates stories that let animals be animals, yet also give them human powers and concerns.
Take the first story: it's about a cat getting a pruning from a baboon. Which, of course, the cat is doing because he has a party coming up. And the poor baboon, every time he tries to strike up conversation with the cat, he steps in big time (Baboon: was at this wedding, and the couples wrote their own vows - yuck! Cat: Uh, we wrote our own vows -- that sort of thing). You wouldn't think this would work. Certainly my description doesn't do it justice. And yet, I found that I couldn't put the book down. Seceris' animal world is just too quirky.
There's only one itty bitty problem with the book: the stories are awful. Alright, awful is probably being too harsh. Sederis may have been going for dark humor - and I think he may have just hit dark. Each story seems more depressing than the last one.
I certainly have to give credit to Sederis - he's managed to find a clever way to poke fun at us humans, all while not making us the center of attention. But still, couldn't there have been at least a couple up beat stories?
For a book I didn't enjoy, I sure couldn't put it down. So, I guess I'd have to recommend it. If only to see the magic that Sederis can pull off. Just don't expect anything warm and fuzzy.
Here's a fake trailer played during the White House Correspondents Dinner. It's classic stuff. Me, I never had any doubt that Biden can save us all.
The plan was coming together perfectly: our friends Nick and Lauren were able to pick up the deck furniture with their truck, Shira had a thank you dinner prepared and David was manning the grilling churning out perfect burgers, hot dogs and portabello mushrooms. Nick and I even managed to assemble the table and a couple of the chairs quickly enough that we were going to be able to eat on it.*
It was looking like our first meal on our deck with real deck furniture was really going to happen.
And then Mother-Nature stepped in, and the rain began. D'oh.
Oh well, the food tasted just as good inside as it would have outside, and the company was still delightful.
Best of all, I got to try out the Aquapak cell phone case my mom bought me for my birthday, to capture a few photos in the rain. I can confirm: (a) the G2 fits perfectly in it, (b) the touch screen works effortlessly through the case, (c) the camera works well too and (d) the whole setup is waterproof.
So, I guess you could say it was a win all around.
*For the record, we had 2 extra washers remaining, as well as 2 spare tiles. So yes, there were extra parts.
Just in case you thought you had seen everything on the Internet, I give you: Famous Lumberjack Nicknames -- filed under "L" in the Dictionary of Wisconsin History, of course.
I'm not sure why I find this list so fascinating. Perhaps I crave a nickname as cool as: Moonlight Pike or Three-fingered Ole.
There, you have your useless information of the day. Enjoy.
Learning about edible plants, without the help of a guide, is tricky business. The resources that make identification easy (guidebooks and the web) don't travel particularly well in the wilderness. And then there's a knowledge catch-22: you need a certain base level of knowledge to know what you're looking for, yet the resources available present you with so many possible plants, that it's hard to know where to start.
Enter Wild Cards, a deck of cards, where each card contains a photo and description of an edible plant. My Sister and Brother-in-law picked these cards up for my birthday (thanks guys!!), and so far, I've been really impressed.
First off, the cards are nice and portable (they also feel durable - perhaps water proof?), so I can easily bring them along when I'm out for a hike. They are also small enough that I can grab them and review them while I'm waiting in the doctor's office or if I have some other gray time. Because it's a deck of cards, you can even grab just a few, and focus on learning those. Or, use them as flash cards.
The cards also solve the problem of which of the gagillions of plants to learn first. Most of the 50 or so plants described are available throughout the US, and many are very common. Some, you'll already know, such as dandelions, roses, cat tails - which is a nice feeling.
The cards have a fair amount of information packed on them, including a photo, hand drawing, describing of what parts you can eat, additional identification methods ("small like mustard", for example) and how to prepare it.
Of course these cards don't replace a complete guidebook, or multiple guidebooks. But, as a beginner's tool, it's small enough to go everywhere, comprehensive, yet not overwhelming that you'll just give up on trying to learn all the information.
Incidentally, the weakest part of the cards is the the card part - both sides of the card have unique information on it. So, while the cards are marked like regularly playing cards, they can't be used without some modification (the directions suggest you cover the backs of the card with your hand). I think they'll work for playing card games, but they aren't ideal.
The real test should come in a few weeks, when I hope to spending a bunch of time outdoors. I've got to do some studying before then, and then keep my eyes peeled for possible bounty.
You've got to love: Dads Are The Original Hipster. Sure, the photos are whacky, but the descriptions rock. Take this one on your dad's outdoor skills:
Your dad was into mother nature before you were and he has the tent popping skills to prove it. He knew that partying in the city was played out, so he stepped his game up and stepped into the great outdoors. With his Igloo cooler filled with sangria and man musk scented flannel, he marched cocksure into the wilderness. He was the Bear Grylls of his generation, but unlike Bear, he drank fragrant wine instead of his fragrant piss.
In an odd way, this may be one of the kindest sites dedicated to dads on the web.
In true Internet fashion, though, I should really dig up some old photos of my grandpa and start: GrandpasAreTheRealOriginalHipsters.com.
Thanks: BuzzFeed.
Traveling Light: On the Road with America's Poor by Kath Weston was not exactly a book I was looking forward to reading (yes, actually reading, not listening to). The topic of America's poor sounded like it was going to make for some seriously depressing reading. But, I figured it was an import read none the less.
The first few pages left me a little dazed and confused. There was just something about the author's style that was "off."
Luckily, I stuck with it, and boy was I rewarded. While Weston's style may have started off a little disorienting (for reasons she explains an afterward in the book she uses present tense and no formal quotes - both for good reasons), I quickly adjusted and found that I couldn't put the book down.
Weston's approach to tackling the subject of the poor is brilliantly simple: she picks a destination, purchases a Greyhound ticket, and let's the experiences and adventures just happen. Heck, for not much more than the price of an airline ticket you can buy a Discovery Pass, which gives you 30 days unlimited riding anywhere in the US and Canada.
Having done many a marathon bus ride (Buffalo, NY to Philly - 12hrs baby!!), I've got a special affinity for Greyhound. Oh, were memories brought back. Some even good. The Rochester, NY station, where I grew up, did get a mention. Specially, as one of the most dangerous stations in the country. Ahhh, Rochester, we love you.
As for teaching me about the poor - I think Weston did a good job. This is a travelogue, not dissertation on how to handle America's needy. If Weston's goal was to raise awareness more than anything else, I think she's succeeded.
My two big take aways: read the book, it's entertaining and touching; adventure travel doesn't have to mean expensive plane tickets to a far off destination, it can be found as close as your local bus station.
I was telling my brother about this trailer I caught a while back:
Alone on the Wall - First Ascent from Mountainfilm in Telluride on Vimeo.
Seriously, I get sweaty palms just watching it.
And only slightly less terrifying (only because there's at least rope involved) is this video:
Jumping off Cliffs in Utah from Mason Earle on Vimeo.
How people can manage to do these things is beyond me. But they sure are fun feats to watch!
My brother picked up these cell phone camera lenses for my birthday. What first shocked me was just how heavy the lenses are - these are real glass and metal, not some plasticy hack.
They work by magnetically attaching to a metal ring they provide you with. The ring has a bit of adhesive on it to stick to your cell phone.
The ring installed on my G2, and does get awfully close to the flash - but I think the flash should continue to work just fine with the ring installed.
The magnet on on the lens is wonderfully strong - it makes a very satisfying click as it attaches to the ring, and doesn't move unless you forcefully pull it off.
As for the quality of the lenses, there too, I'm impressed. Here's a few hastily shot tests with the fish eye and macro lens:
As you can imagine, I'm really impressed with these lenses. If you're even remotely into photography, they'll be a really fun addition to your camera phone.
We just got back from a super quick trip to Rochester (in on Friday evening, out Sunday morning - whew). And unlike in the past, we decided we'd drive - a decision we considered a little risky, considering we'd have a 20 month old along for the ride.
He's not old enough to be enamored with TV yet, so while he has his favorite youtube video, he doesn't really have a favorite TV show or DVD.
But, with 16 hours of drive time in the car, we figured now was a good time to find one.
Usually, we'd just rent videos from the library. But, for this trip, we hadn't pick up a movie until the last minute - and the local library branch was closed. That meant a trip to the central library, which could easily have turned into an hour long affair.
Instead, Shira had a brilliant idea: rent some kids videos down the street from RedBox. In fact, using their reservation ability, Shira was able to pick out the movie from home and send me to retrieve them. I swiped my credit card and out popped two movies. It couldn't have been faster. And while they didn't have a huge selection of young kid movies, they had enough for our purposes.
And of course, this being RedBox, we could just return the movies at our destination, and optionally rent new ones for the trip home.
In the end, we only ended up watching one 30 minute episode from The Cat In Hat: Tales About Tails. After 30 minutes, our little one lost interest and was ready for a new form of entertainment. But still, those 30 minutes were precious.
Shira made me Birthday cake last night. We have a road trip to Rochester today. Could I imagine leaving the cake at home? No, no I couldn't.
I may not get WiFi on this device, but at least it won't run out of batteries and will be keep me well entertained.
Thanks Babe for such a delicious birthday!
From Buzzfeed:
And sure enough, on this, my 35th birthday, I can clearly recall this scene:
D'oh - I'm old :-). How did that happen?
Seriously, though - I've got a super wife, loving family and friends, the most amazing 20 month old on the planet, a job that rocks, and a full head of hair. I really, truly, couldn't ask for anything more.
Yep, life at 35 is good.
For years, I've noticed a path that appears to follow Rt 66 -- though, it was only a few days ago that Shira and I decided to venture out and explore it. The path is known as Custis Trail, and it's a real gem. It essentially connects the W&OD trail to Rossyln. And while it follows 66, we didn't find the road noise especially distracting.
Here's what we managed to get accomplished last Sunday (with a kid on my back, no less):
After seeing an Urban Survival Kit like this one (and this one, and this one and this one), I just couldn't resist making my own. Forget the Boy Scouts, this little project brought back memories of Cub Scouts, where we crammed a survival kit in a film canister. My, that was fun, though good luck to us if we ever needed one. Still, it planted the seed of preparedness.
So here goes - what I managed to cram in an Altoids Tin. It's worth mentioning that I decided: (a) to focus the kit on things that would actually be useful on a regular basis (b) I tried to limit what I stored in there so that it wasn't impossible to repack.
Contents:
So what's in your get-through-the-day kit?
This 5 minute video follows the creation of the first soccer team of the Thai island of Koh Panyee. Whether you like soccer or not, it's a must watch.
Who said you needed a little thing like a grass field to play soccer?
Via: Kottke.org
Yesterday, our little one was diagnosed with a bacterial infection. That means no returning to Day Care for 24 hours while he's contagious (ignoring the fact that he's already given whatever he had to everyone there over the last few days - but, whatever - rules are rules). What a prefect opportunity, I figured, to ditch work and play for the day. So, that's what we did.
I wanted to get outside for a little hiking adventure, but I wanted to do it close to home. I thought I'd give Potomac Overlook Park a second visit, as I recalled seeing a 2 mile loop there that looked intriguing.
The hike, which starts off taking you through the park itself, is pleasant enough. You get the feeling of being in the woods, but with a family friendly trail. Then the trail hooks up with Donaldson Run, and things actually get kind of interesting. There's 3 or 4 stream crossings to make, as you go from one side of the run to the other. There's a mysterious abandoned structure to oggle, and finally the hike finishes in a steep a slightly nerve racking (well, with a 29lb toddler on your back, anyway), finish to the Potomac Heritage Trail.
You get all this excitement in a stretch that's about a mile or so long. It turned out to be the perfect little day trip out.
Got to love those sick day policies after all!
Preparing for Passover this year has been surprisingly, well, not stressful (I can't go as far as calling it relaxing). The secret, I think was that I managed to spread the tasks out over multiple weeks. For example, I usually do a fridge cleaning marathon - but by spreading it out over multiple sessions, it was a lot easier.
Here, for my use next year, is basically the schedule I followed.
(NOTE: there's mention of 1 shopping trip here. Shira and David have probably made half-a-dozen. I'm on the cleaning team, not the shopping team, so their timeline and tactics don't concern me)
Here's to a Happy, Health and Kosher Passover - Chag Semeach and L'chiam
Hard to believe, but the 7 dozen eggs shown here will most likely all be consumed during the 8 days of Passover.
Got to love this Holiday!
Note to self: avoid a cholestrol test over the next couple weeks.
It's crunch time in the world of Passover Preperationville. Today's goal: clean out the car. Good Gosh, having a toddler makes this experience unique: as I peeled back every surface I could find in the car and car seat, I found another batch of crackers. I must have cleaned up an entire box of Ritz during this process.
I did, however, stumble on a useful car seat fact: rather than jam the top of the car seat into the headrest, it's trivial to just remove the headrest altogether. Now the headrest won't get damaged from the car seat, and my field of view is improved back there.
With the cars cleaned up, I've only got about 742 things left to do before Passover starts Monday night. Gulp.
I've found that webdav can be a really handy way to publish file to a server. With a modern version of Apache I usually find that webdav is just waiting for me to turn it on. That means I can enable publishing just by tweaking my Apache config, and not having to bother with setting up an FTP server (with the firewall rule and unix accounts backing it up).
It all Just Works. That is, with one itty bitty exception: by default attempts to upload a .htaccess file fail with a 403 error code. Inside the Apache log, I find:
[Thu Apr 14 06:06:00 2011] [error] [client xx.xx.xx.xx] client denied by server configuration: /var/www/vhosts/yyyyyyy/.htaccess
This is actually quite explainable, as there's the following standard configuration in /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf:
#
# The following lines prevent .htaccess and .htpasswd files from being
# viewed by Web clients.
#
<Files ~ "^\.ht">
Order allow,deny
Deny from all
</Files>
I knew I didn't want to simply yank out these lines, as that would leave a gaping security whole. Instead, after much poking and prodding I came up with the following recipe:
<VirtualHost xxxx>
ServerName xxxxxxxxxxxx
DocumentRoot /var/www/vhosts/yyyyyyyy
...
<Location />
DAV on
AuthType Basic
AuthName "Private"
AuthUserFile zzzzzzzzzz
<LimitExcept POST GET>
Require valid-user
</LimitExcept>
</Location>
<Files ~ "^\.ht">
Require valid-user
Satisfy any
</Files>
</VirtualHost>
For the most part, the above is the standard virtual host setup for using webdav. For GET and POST requests you allow any user to access the URL, and for other types of requests (which include webdav requests), you require a user.
The funky part happens within the Files block. The Require statement is fairly obvious - it insists that any user who wishes to access a .htaccess file must be logged in (which is a requirement for using webdav). The Satisfy directive took a little longer to figure out. Without it, the original rule in httpd.conf was still taking effect, which always denied access. With that Satisfy directive, I'm saying that you can *either* be a logged in user, or be denied.
Slowly but surely, I'm understanding Apache's configuration rules enough that I can actually use them to my benefit. And I suppose that's another bonus you get for using webdav - you have one powerful set of configuration rules to control access for both web viewers as well as publishers, versus needing two different systems (say, Apache for web viewing and an FTP server for publishing).
A friend of mine asked me for some links/suggestions for learning Emacs. While, I was naturally excited that another soul was interested in the emacs religion, I do appreciate the awfully high learning curve involved. It's been years since I sat in a University at Buffalo CS113 class getting schooled on how emacs worked.
To help him get started, though, I've compiled the following 10 links into emacswiki.org - a site that consistently shows up first when I search for all things emacs. I've tried to focus this list on some core concepts that I absolutely rely on. Many of these aren't sexy topics, but emacs has never been about flashiness - it's about editing text quickly and never having to take your hands off the keyboard.*
Once you've mastered the basics, it's time to ponder the emacs lisp list - which provides plenty of add on functionality for emacs.
So, if you were learning emacs today - what topics would you focus on?
*Yes, I know your whiz bang IDE can do all this functionality. Congrats. This list isn't meant to be a: "emacs is better than X list" -- I'll leave that to others to duke out.
HikingUpward.net has an impressive catalog of Northern Virginia hikes. Like LocalHikes, the list is quite extensive. But, they go beyond simple descriptions and reviews.
The handy overview map and easy to use get directions to this hike cool. But, by far, the coolest feature are annotated photos. Such as,
There's nothing more frustrating than trying to take a hike in some far off location, only to be stumped as to where the trail actually begins.
Definitely a useful site.
Pop Quiz: your 0-3 year old wants to play with the digital camera you left lying within reach. You should:
Positive Discipline: The First Three Years, which I just finished reading, is essentially dedicated to teaching you about option (d) - None of the above.
As I've mentioned, the book tries to focus on interacting with children using methods other than punishment (options a. and b.) and permissiveness (option c.).
At stake is far more than simply a "well behaved child" (an absurd notion at 0-3 years old). The idea is that the techniques behind positive discipline help set the foundation for a confident and capable child. I really like this notion - for example, that the struggles our 19 month old is having with tantrums is really an opportunity for growth, more than anything else.
This isn't the best book I've read on parenting - right now, these books hold that title. But, it definitely felt like key information that I should know, and that I wasn't going to figure out on my own. Basically, if you're wondering should you be spanking your kid, or what the heck you can do about your child's misbehavior - this book is a must read.
You've got to feel for this kid: being told your too young the job you've always wanted is a frustrating experience. I'd probably cry if I was in his shoes. Just watch it, it's hilarious.
I left our little one, who's 19 months old, in front of my work laptop for about 20 seconds while I ran upstairs to get my car keys. What's the worst that could happen, was he going to delete all my e-mail or something?
I came back, and found this:
He managed to flip the orientation of the screen from landscape to portrait. The only way I know how to do this is by going through a series of menus and hitting the confirm button a dialog box. Yet he managed to find some mechanism to do this in the 20 seconds I left him alone.
Amazing. Makes me wonder what kind of skills they're teaching him at day care. I'm going to have to have a talk with them - in this household we learn Emacs shortcuts first, *then* Windows shortcuts. It's just our way.
I'm making my way through Positive Discipline: The First Three Years - a day care recommended book on the topic of discipline. For the most part, I'm really enjoying it and finding it quite useful. I'll do a full review when I'm finished with the book, but reading through the chapter on technology got me thinking enough that a blog post was called for.
A very quick and dirty summary of the book might go like this: Your 0-3 year old needs to learn about the foundations of discipline*. To do this, you need to find the midpoint between punishment and permissiveness. In other words, spanking your child is out, and so is letting them do whatever they want. Instead, you want to help your child achieve the age appropriate level of independence.
Got all that? The book then goes through the classic range of topics, from tantrums to toilet training, and explains how this philosophy applies. It's a sensible approach and one I think they do a good job with. That is, until they hit the chapter on technology.
As you can imagine, the chapter on technology (TV, computers, and other screen time activities) leaned heavily towards the danger of these mediums. Everything from the "it's not healthy for their brains" to the "they'll see poor role models" is covered. Essentially, it's easy to swing to the permissive side of things when technology is involved. And the points are all valid.
What got me buzzing though, was that there was no suggestions for how technology could be used as a positive force in a child's life. You're telling me that with infinite content of YouTube, the highly interactive nature of cell phones and power of the desktop computer, there's no way to harness this good? When our little one listens to CDs of nursery rhymes, it's a good thing - he learns all sorts of language constructs. Yet, when you add a visual component, it suddenly becomes TV and is evil?
I'm not suggesting the book shouldn't have had plenty of stern warnings about technology being a trap for kids. I just wish that they would have considered the technology what it is: tools. And giving parents suggestions for how these tools could be used in a positive way would be far more valuable than just writing them off as a necessary evil.
*That's discipline as in "man, that Olympic athlete is disciplined!" not discipline as a euphemism for punishment or spankingI've always struggled with wrapping my head around the various configuration parameters of MySQL. Whenever I try to read the docs or look around for informative articles I either find obvious stuff I know (such as using explain to check for index usage) or the content goes way over my head in a hurry.
I saw the recommendation to give mysqlreport a try and because I'm always on the lookout for new tools I jumped at the chance.
The install couldn't have been more hacker friendly, with one option being:
wget hackmysql.com/scripts/mysqlreport from your terminal
With no crazy dependencies to fulfill, I was able to generate a report from one of my servers in just a few seconds.
As I glanced over the report my eyes definitely started to glaze over - so many numbers, and buffers and more numbers. And then I started reading the myqlreport guide. What a truly wonderful document. The author of mysqlreport not only takes you through the output of his software, but explains how the information presented interpreted.
It's the best read on MySQL performance I've ever found. It's fairly dense stuff, and you can't rush through it - but it's worth the read. Definitely a find.
My I get hungry, I get cranky. This is a bad thing. So, taking a lesson from my Mom and Grandma, I try to always have a snack at the ready when I'm out and about. From my perspective, the LÄRABAR is about an ideal EDC food as you can get:
In the winter, I kept one in my jacket pocket and found it to be ever so useful. Come summer time, I'm not sure where I'll stash one on me.
What's your favorite portable snack?
OK, maybe Best should be replaced with Geekiest. I guess if I was really clever I could have left a note mentioning closures, lambda or continuations.
Gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo Lisp!
Yesterday was an absolute perfect day - 80'ish degrees and sunny. I had chance to take an excellent walk outside with our little guy, and most importantly - for the first time ever - eat on our deck:
That humble little setup may not be much, but my gosh it was nice sitting outside in the warm breeze.
Today, we've gotten torrential rains and it's currently cold and cloudy outside. And soon enough it'll be too hot and muggy to sit outside - but in DC, when you get a perfect day, you've got to enjoy it to the max.
Relayed through Parent Hacks:
This may be brilliant or evil, but being sick of the endless holiday candy train with my kids, I'm going to just get a small set of Legos and fill their eggs with them.
Again, not knowing anything about Easter, I think I can still call this a clever and useful hack. In fact, I wonder if the same maneuver could be applied to Halloween? Probably not, as the whole cool factor of accumulating lots of eggs and then resulting in lots of Lego pieces is unlikely. But still, it's a thought. Or maybe there's a way to mix in hidden legos during the whole search for the Afikoman?
Last week I actually picked up a sleeve full of plastic Easter Eggs at the store for $1.75 or so with the intention of giving our little one something fun to play with. So far, he's had great fun mashing them together and practicing opening and closing them. I definitely got my $2.00 out of them.
If I could sing like these guys I would make it my goal in life to sit around with 3 of my buddies and spend the day signing. My gosh, they are beautiful.
This video has embedding disabled, so you'll have to click over to YouTube to watch it. Luckily, this one I can embed:
Magnificent stuff, no?
Last Thursday night (yes, on a school night!) my brother and I had the chance to see Judah Friedlander at the DC Improv. Here was my take on the evening:
All in all, it was a wonderful evening and I did get in plenty of laughs. The true high point, however, may have been the food. The Mexican salad I ordered was both fresh and gigantic (and how can you overdue it on salad?) and the chocolate mousse cake was off the charts good.
