First off, I’m really excited that Julie has expressed interest in my goofball widgets. I have no clue why I seek validation through coding. Anyway, I’ve created a page with how to put them on your website.

I had a pretty good weekend. I got to play pretty much all of Saturday and Sunday with Stella. Julie had a big honking birthday party for me on Saturday and I got completely soused and received great presents and a Oreo cookie cake. One of my gifts from Ashley and Tarv was a gift certificate to iTunes. Which rocks. I heard they supposedly have DRM free tracks now. Does anyone know how I’d find them? iTunes DRM doesn’t work particularly well with linux. I can always do the whole burn to CD, and then rerip route, but that’s kinda lame, and I want to support a DRM free iTunes.

Stella’s gotten big and silly. She makes all kinds of adult faces now. Plus she’s getting really good at communicating just by pointing. My favor face is when she’s clearly up to mischief and daring you to do something about it.

Ah well, back to the grind. And the repainting of the house so that we can sell it.

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Comments

Jooley Ann (www.julieholden.com)

2007-05-08T02:50:38.000Z

Hey, I’m playing with the code. It’s not working just yet, nor is the Flickr badge I just added, but I’m on it! Yay for cool sidebar content!

Tara (http://rabid-fraggle.blogspot.com/)

2007-05-08T18:33:40.000Z

I could swear that the widget page is blank…

Tim (http://www.loadedguntheory.com/blog/director/listblog/tim.html)

2007-05-08T18:52:41.000Z

to load the widgets. Or are you saying it’s truly blank? Like no text at all.

Tara (http://www.rabid-fraggle.blogspot.com/)

2007-05-10T02:44:14.000Z

I swear that the page used to be blank, but I see stuff there now. I don’t know if it was just the computer that I was using or what.

I’m not good at free association. Maybe chronological?

1. I was born in Rabaul, Papua New Guinea, a city that is no more and is now covered in volcanic ash.

2. In high school I did a lot of German competitions. I actually was first in the state for advanced reading comprehension, and my folkdancing team came in third. I have a trophy for this somewhere.

3. I got beat up daily in gym in 7th grade for being tall. This is the downside to being tall. Midgets want to beat you up to improve their self-confidence. Because we all know that height directly corresponds with fighting ability.

4. I have held 13 jobs. Usher, Barista, Box Office Sales, Melt Shop Worker, Ranch hand, Cafeteria Worker, Computer Lab Proctor, Phone Computer Support, Onsite Computer Support, and Programmer. Don’t let anyone tell you that switching jobs is bad for your career. They’re just trying to keep you employed for too little money. The only thing you owe companies is the labor for which they pay.

5. I don’t mind eating shrimp shells and all.

6. I haven’t driven a car in about two weeks.

7. My favorite bus driver, who no longer drives the morning route I take is the best bus driver in Austin. I really enjoyed riding with him. He was friendly and the ride was always really comfortable. I used to complain about how rough the ride was on my evening commute. He was featured in an episode of the Downtown TV show and apparently he’s won an International Bus Driving Competition twice. They compete by driving a bus through an obstacle course. Cool stuff.

So there you have it. Seven very random things.

So what do you think of the new look? I think it’s kind of bland, but it’s pretty easy to read. I’ve also added the Netflix widget over there on the left, so you can see what we’re watching. And comment on it and stuff… I also added twitter. Which I initially thought was completely stupid, but now I think is kind of interesting and indearing. So think about signing up for an account at twitter.com and adding me as a friend. Maybe we’ll figure out the point of it together.

Yesterday was a bit dreary, and Julie wasn’t having a great day so we decided to break our eating out rule and go out to lunch together. We ended up at Sandy’s, which was awesome. We both had burgers and fries, and then we had chocolate dipped cones. And the chocolate was totally that plasticy tasting chocolate. It was brilliant. The rest of the day was kind of blah. I ended up running over to Garrison with Stella, and by the time I got back it was about 8:10. So I fed her and had to put her directly to bed without a bath. That was her third day running without a bath so I had to promise Julie I’d give her one this morning. Ok, I didn’t have to promise her. I just felt guilty and did so.

This morning Stella woke us up crying randomly at 6. I worked my sleep-fu on her and sent her back to the land of dreams. Of course it monkeyed with my sleep schedule, and I’d had a bit of a headache all night. Probably dehydration from the run. I wasn’t feeling great this morning so I decided to work from home. Which was great. I got to spend a lot of time playing with Stella, and we had a really fun day. Let me just interject that I really like kids. And I really don’t like babies. Babies are boring. Kids rock. They’re smart and stuff. Babies are dumb. Down with babies! Up with kids who do wacky fun things!

Anyway, I ended up doing some work, I added that twitter capsule up in the top right, and then we went to Home Depot and Kohls. Wherein I decided that I hate shopping for mens clothing. It’s all 100% cotton and right now everything looks like they bought their stock from goodwill. It has a slightly used feeling to it, and everything’s faded. And I’m not talking about the distressed look. I’m talking about golf and polo shirts that just look like they’ve been washed too many times.

So my 30th birthday is tomorrow, and I’ve already gotten some cool presents. I got Jacque Pepin’s Complete Techniques and 7th Generations guide to natural cleaning. I’m sure I’ll get into the cleaning book, and I do really want to read it, but Jacque is so amazing that I’m completely in awe. I already used one of his knife techniques to do a fantastic dice of some mushrooms last night. And he’s got everything in there. From making chicken stock, to hollendaise, to fashioning a rabbit out of an olive. And it has pictures. Truly amazing. Then we’ll use the seventh generation book to clea

Anyway, got to actually eat dinner. It was ready about 5 minutes ago, and I’m just letting it get cool on the stove while I write this.

Oh, if you want to use the Netflix or Twitter widgets on your own website let me know and I’ll get you the code.

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Comments

Jooley Ann (www.julieholden.com)

2007-05-06T02:04:31.000Z

I like the new look very much! I think I for sure want the code for Netflix, and I might even want the code for Twitter… I’m with ya on the babies thing. I looooove my daughter more than life itself, but as she gets older & more interesting, I get more engaged & enthralled with her. If that’s even possible, which apparently it is b/c it’s happening. And while I’m trying to be patient and cherish her baby moments, truth be told I can hardly wait ‘til she’s able to *really* communicate with me. So yes, huzzah for kids!

A meme from Travis. Btw, part of Julie’s problem with meme is related to her name for Stella’s maternal grandmother. She calls her MeMe. Which is pronounced Me Me. We went to Fredericksberg, though and they had shirts for what I consider the proper spelling of that pronunciation - MiMi. So um… no point there. Just rambling.

Magazines I have subscribed to:

3-2-1 Contact Magazine - That one rocked when I was a kid. I dunno who’s subscription it was, but we all read it. I especially liked the episode and magazine article on how they did the makeup for the Thriller video.

National Geographic - Ah, the memories.

Smithsonian - We always had this vaguely interesting magazine around if you were bored.

Boy’s Life - Much like Travis I also got Boy’s Life. I really didn’t find the magazine that interesting, but I loved the ads in the back for secret decoder rings and wood burning kits. Also it had lots of good jokes.

Wired - I had Wired magazine back when all this computer stuff was new. It was awesome. Except that all the articles are the length of short novellas.

Gourmet - Julie’s been getting a subscription to this since we got married. I love it. Each month I go through and dog-ear and rip out recipies. The number one source of recipes� for what I cook.

Spin - technically Julie’s subscription, but I read it because it’s there. You know technically the only subscription I have is that damn Smithsonian magazine. How lame. I love Spin.

Rolling Stone - Julie got this free. It sucks. I especially hate their political coverage. They are left wing jack’n’apes. It’s like reading the left leaning version of the emails I get from the Family Research Council (motto: “We can make roads a religious issue).

I got many other science magazines throughout my life. I’ve forgotten their names though.

I tag you. You reading this. Write your own!

I am watching the immigrants rally outside my office window. Listening to Devotchka. No matter how cynical I can be, this is a wonderful country.

*I don’t know if I’m going to make my bus though.

*Now they’re chanting U-S-A and I’m trying not to cry.

I need to leave to catch my bus, but I’m afraid if I go down to the street I’ll just sob like a baby.

but it got eaten. This forced me to fix some really old buggy code with how logging in works around here. But I still lost the damn post. So quick recap:

this is the kitchen in our new house. Well it’s what our kitchen will look like. Sort-of. This is the half-constructed model. Our house is the other way around, and hopefully when we move in will look more like a kitchen. But bsaically the same. The sink is under that window. The fridge is behind my back and the oven is to my right. Where you see that vent coming through the wall. So not a lot of counter space. I’m going to get an island from ikea, but still not a lot. We’ll see how it works at thanksgiving. On the upside we’ll be able to have a ten seater table, so no more riding a table leg during thanksgiving dinner. I think that trade off will be ok. Julie is still fretting about the size of our bedroom ala Albert Brooks in Lost in America. Oh hey, look, if you have Netflix play you can just watch that movie. And find out what I’m talking about. It’s in the first 10 minutes or so if you don’t want to commit to it. Which you should. Just click that big ol’ Play button if it shows up. I love that feature. But they need more movies.

But anyway. I think we’ll have enough space. Even if Stella’s bedroom is larger than ours. By something like 40 square feet. The architect screwed up.

On to my next topic. Snakes. Specifically in our yard:

Hooray for native plants encouraging increased biodiversity. I do feel like I’m saving the world, thank you very much. And my grass looks like a soft wolly bed.

Finally. Yuck:

I made stuffed shells Sunday. Stella ate them for dinner Monday night. She has sophisticated tastes. The feta, prosciutto, and parmesian reggiano did not phase her a bit. She liked it so much she tucked quite a bit in her hair for later. This picture still makes my skin crawl. I had to take her upstairs immediately after dinner, strip her down and bathe her. I have no clue why I can’t handle this sort of thing. Oh well, it’s cute.

So that’s my post. Much abbreviated. This better go through…

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Comments

SMashley

2007-05-02T14:58:52.000Z

As we were selling our house I found a rattlesnake in our front garden. yum. Henry looks like that every day. Sometimes the kitchen wall looks like that too. You have to extract them from their high chair and somehow keep the goobers from getting all over yourself. Its not easy.

Tara (http://rabid-fraggle.blogspot.com/)

2007-05-02T16:53:57.000Z

Can you imagine how much money could be made by the inventor of the bubble chair? See the concept is that it is a chair that hooks up to your water lines somehow, I’m not a plumber so don’t ask me how. Anyway, after the child is done making this mess you raise a dome from the back over the child and nozzles spray them down. … We’d need to warm the water slightly of course, and it would have to be quieter than a mouse. You’d have to clean large pieces out of the drain pan in the bottom once in a while, and you would have a soggy baby, but still. You could even raise the “shield” if baby starts tossing food around all crazy like and keep it contained.

Kate (http://katiekatworld.blogspot.com)

2007-05-04T03:30:35.000Z

I always want to take home leftovers. I just hadn’t thought about putting them in my hair. Your house is going to be gorgeous! I can’t wait to invite ourselves over some time. We’ll babysit for free, of course.

Man, this guy sums up how I feel directly. He’s way more blunt than I am (which I realize most people will find hard to believe), but it really needs to be said.

http://www.slate.com/id/2164914/fr/rss/

I think he goes a bit overboard in mocking the dead. But really, I don’t understand what people get out of watching the same pain and suffering over and over. How well broadcast tragedies can somehow unglue people from their day-to-day lives. What causes this need to be part of these mass funerals? Is this news as presented by Lifetime Drama? It’s more painful because it’s real? In church this sunday we dwelt for 30 minutes on virginia tech. We spent less than 2 on Malaria, which kills every 30 seconds. Today on CNN.com they’re still devoting roughly half of their coverage to Virginia Tech. They devoted 1 commentary about malaria.

The church is dying. The theater is dying. Perhaps it is because all of your catharsis can be found 24-hours a day by flicking on your remote. Maybe it’s not bad. Maybe this is the emotional outlet of the future. Just like Joey, Phoebe, Chandler, Rachael, Monica, and Ross became friends of everyone on the planet, perhaps these carefully chosen events are the real news. Like the best theater they allow us to empathize more deeply and laugh harder than anything in real life. I don’t know where I’m going with this. I’m pretty sure there’s a play here though.

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Comments

Tara (http://rabid-fraggle.blogspot.com/)

2007-04-25T16:35:03.000Z

I had a comment, but it blew up and turned into a post. So I’ll just say, yeah I agree with you Tim.

So you may remember (but probably not), that I wrote a play called “Big Box God” for Frontera Fest this year. It was about churches changing to stay viable. And I thought when I was writing it that I was on the side of flexibility, against all those stodgy blue hairs who refuse to change. But I’ve come to realize that I’m a Blue Hair. And I don’t want to go to one of those newfangled churches. I’m less unhappy about the changes than Julie is, but I’m much more used to being angry and unhappy in church.

So we’ve been getting grumpy because slowly they’ve been adding more “contemporary” songs into the service. “Contemporary” here means that they were written in 1978, and mainly just suck. They also added an LCD projector. And they’ve been projecting powerpoint slides to accompany the service that have become more complex and invasive each week. They also changed the Lord’s Prayer to a contemporary version. A version we have to read off of the LCD projector. I find staring at a wall leaves something to be desired in the genuflection department.

So yesterday they started off the sermon playing a powerpoint presentation of stills from the Virginia Tech Shooting accompanied by “Hurt” as performed by Johnny Cash. I just read my bulletin, but Julie only took about two seconds of it. She announced rather loudly that she needed to go to the bathroom, and exited the pew. As she did so, her leg caught a hymnal and sent it flying. It was awesome. But then it just kept going. And going. And “Hurt” is not even remotely an appropriate song for a mass shooting. It would be appropriate if you were showing pictures of the shooter. But it doesn’t make sense as a eulogy for the victims. Unless you’re somehow saying it’s their fault they got shot. I understand that sometimes you don’t get the lyrics of a song, or it can be hard to understand the symbolism. But that song is completely straightforward and easy to understand. It’s just sad.

So now we’re contemplating if we want to continue going there. I’m just not even sure that Hyde Park needs a United Methodist church. There are plenty around it, and the demographics just don’t line up. If you check out Austin Contrarian frequently you’ll know that central Austin is not a particularly good area for a church. It’s mostly hungover singles, and young workaholic couples. There are no kids in central Austin. It’s ridiculous how few. You probably couldn’t have fewer kids if you passed a law outlawing them. And there’s little hope of having a church without a lot of families with children.

So we’ll see how it goes. If we do go Julie is going to raise hell about all the changes, before hand. So at least they’ll know why we’re leaving.

On happy notes. Sunday morning and afternoon were depressing, but we ate some good food last night and watched “Lost in America”, which is a brilliant comedy. Add it to your Netflix queue. It’s sort, too the point, and hilarious. Then today we just went out to talk to our builder, and got to tour the under-construction model home that’s the same plan as ours. I was really excited about it. Julie became Albert Brook’s character in “Lost in America”. The bedrooms are much smaller than what we have now. But in a bizarre twist, in order to accommodate� our elevation they’re having to add something like 40 square feet and a walk in closet to Stella’s bedroom. Which makes it substantially bigger than the master bedroom. And the window in front has a window seat. It’s wonderful. I’m psyched.

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Comments

Jooley Ann (www.julieholden.com)

2007-04-24T19:15:37.000Z

The contemporary stuff you describe really drives me nuts. I strongly prefer good old fashioned hymns & liturgy — and I grew up unchurched. Go figure. We go to First English Lutheran, 30th & Whitis (down the street from the central location of Trudy’s), where the service is traditional but the pastor & congregation are very liberal and forward-thinking. I love it there. But it is as you say WRT the kids thing in that part of town. There are *so* few kids at our church. I’m not worried about it right now, but if things don’t somehow change by the time Johanna starts understanding the whole Sunday School thing, we’ll have to look elsewhere. That’ll make me soooo sad, but ya gotta do what ya gotta do. Wish I’d seen your play. Be sure to post a note about it here if you ever produce it again!

Tim (http://www.loadedguntheory.com/blog/director/listblog/tim.html)

2007-04-24T20:27:53.000Z

The play’s here: http://www.loadedguntheory.com/collab/index.php?title=BigBox\_God if you’re feeling bored. I doubt we’ll do it again as it was pretty site specific. But who knows…

Today I drove home from church. Normally I just drive TO church. But today, I drove both ways. Actually, I’ve been driving a lot this week. I drove Thursday. Julie and I had to jump my car that doesn’t like being not driven for long periods of time. I drove again Friday. I drove some yesterday. So I’ve been driving a lot. Today reaffirmed why I don’t do that.

On the way home we were driving down MoPac. At that point there were three lanes. An entrance ramp entered the freeway at Barton Skyway. There was a car entering kind of slowly, and rather than slow down and let them merge the SUV next to me decided to just get into my lane. Which was currently occupied by us. They did this fairly quickly and I had to swerve into the left lane to avoid them. Unforunately the left lane was occupied. The driver went over onto what there was of the median, fishtailed, but was able to keep control. Somehow we all ended up in lanes without hitting anyone. I guess on the upside, my evasive techniques are getting better. On the downside, crazy drivers seem bent on taking me out.

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Comments

Tara (http://rabid-fraggle.blogspot.com/)

2007-04-23T19:44:42.000Z

Glad to hear that everyone was unharmed! You sure bring out the crazys, don’t you? I’m glad none of them seemed to find us on the way back from Fredricksburg. Maybe your magnetism only affects the bad drivers on major freeways?

I’m bored of being productive: Let’s do this meme from my sister Kate.

Favorites Meme

10 FAVORITES

1. Color: Hmm… Probably a browny orange.2) Food: I don’t think I can pick one. I have a problem with dark chicken meat though. When I boil it for Stella I have to restrain myself from gobbling it up.
2. Musical Group: Oh, heck if I know. Um… Depeche Mode I’ve enjoyed for an awfully long time.
3. Song Right Now: I really love “The Prayer” by Bloc Party
4. Movie: It’s hard to say. I find that I often love a movie the first time I see it, and then don’t like it as much when I rewatch. I do love Fight Club though…
5. Sport: Baseball
6. Season: Spring
7. Day of the Week: Friday
8. Ice Cream Flavor: Probably vanilla or chocolate, with junior mints crushed in. Mmmmm… thanks Amy’s.
9. Person: Julie

9 CURRENTS

1. Current Mood: Bored
2. Current Scent: As little as possible. But this new generic brand shaving cream that Julie bought has a really interesting cinnamon hint to it.
3. Current Clothes: jeans. too tight t-shirt. brown socks. I need to wash clothes.
4. Current Desktop: Stella at work. Nothing on my laptop.5) Current Ringtone on Cell Phone: Ring Tone? Punk-ass kids.
5. Current Music: the Dandy Warhols - Welcome to the Monkey House
6. Current Time: 5:49PM
7. Current Surrounding: I’m in my office. Alone. I have my red ikea lamp on because it’s dreary outside. And frickin’ cold in here. The light makes it seem warm. It is a CF bulb though, and so consequently is not even remotely warm.
8. Current Event Happening Today: It strikes me that the Virginia Tech killer was a playwright. Strikes me how? I dunno.

**8 FIRSTS
**1) First Best Friend: David Patricola
2) First Kiss: Julie Winston-Thomas. In the smoking lounge behind the theater building if I remember correctly.
3) First Screen Name: oh wow… um… monkey_boy is the oldest I remember. That was college era. I don’t remember what I used for BBSes before that. Probably something incredibly dorky and Tolkien derived.
4) First Pet: A rabbit I guess. It was evil. And huge.
5) First Piercing: My Ears, summer I turned 18. I got them pierced at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln while attending the Internation Thespian Festival.
6) First Crush: Katie Allen in 4th grade. She was super pretty and smart.
7) First Music: Rich Mullen’s album with “Screen Door on a Submarine” I believe was the first record I could ever truly call mine.
8) First Car: 1998 Toyota Corolla. Bought to get me back and forth to my first job at Dell Computer.

**7 LASTS
**1) Last Class: um… Advanced Web Accessibility?
2) Last Drink: water
3) Last Trip: to Fredericksberg to eat suasage and drink beer with Jeff, Tara, Julie and Stella.
4) Last Kiss: Julie, goodbye this morning.
5) Last Movie Seen at the Theater: Pan’s Labyrinth. So brilliant.
6) Last Phone Call: Trying to get an update from the people building our new house.
7) Last CD Played: Julie and I listened to the new CDs we bought with some Border’s gift certificates we had lying around in the car. Um… those were Lily Allen and Balkan Beat Box.

6 HAVE YOU EVERS

1. Have you ever dated one of your best guy friends? Nope. I have dated my best female friends.
2. Have you ever broken the law? Yes
3. Have you ever been arrested? No
4. Have you ever skinny-dipped? No. Although I’ve done a bit of swimming and hottubbing in my boxers.
5. Have you ever been on TV? Yeah, we were on an episode of Warehouse Warriors for the DIY network.
6. Have you ever kissed someone you didn?t know? Yes. For a play. That they forgot to tell me I got uncast from.I hope these things were not related.

**5 THINGS
**1) 1 thing you?re wearing: a belt
2) 1 thing you?ve done today: created a new action to delete ports (hey you asked)
3) 1 thing you?re bothered by: Pretty much everything. Lately it’s been pro-gun nuts claiming that the Virginia Tech shooting wouldn’t have happened if everyone carried concealed hand guns.
4) 1 thing you can?t live without: milk. Because you also get butter and cheese from it. I need those too.
5) 1 thing you do when you?re bored: Read RSS Feeds. Program. Play Video Games.

**4 PLACES YOU HOPE TO TRAVEL TO (just randomly assembled off of the top of my head)
**1) Spain
2) Seattle
3) Czech Republic
4) Vancouver

**3 PEOPLE YOU CAN TELL ANYTHING TO
**1) Julie
2)
3)

**2 CHOICES
**1) Black or White? Black
2) Hot or Cold? Hot. I don’t mind hot that much. I hate when my joints hurt from the cold.

**1 THING YOU WANT TO DO?
**1) Write a really good play. Something I’m really proud of.

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Comments

Julie (http://www.loadedguntheory.com/blog/director/listblog/julie.html)

2007-04-18T15:10:59.000Z

Our first kiss was on the bench outside my apartment at Northcastle. But at least you remembered it was me! And we did do a lot of kissing in the smoking lounge;) Probably more kissing than smoking:) :)

Ashley

2007-04-20T15:39:50.000Z

So like your favorites are really close to my favorites. Thats funny. I have a secret obsession with dark meat right now and I dont think Travis appreciates it. It makes such good chicken stock. And its just yummy and so full of flavor. Mexican Vanilla with crushed junior mints is my all time fave Amys concotion. One is hard pressed to get me to try anything else. However, I dont do brownish orange. Thats for UT people. :-)