daden's blog

Chloe is born!

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 12:14:00 -0500

My son's daughter was born today! 6 pounds, 7 ounces and absolutely perfect. Actually, the work "perfect" was one of the most used words the whole day by everyone around. It was a very good day!

July flew by

Sat, 02 Aug 2008 11:39:00 -0500

Man, but July flew by! There was a lot going on, very busy at work. Right now I'm sitting in an airport in North Caronlina on the way home having spent a couple of days doing requirements gathering. Did the same thing a couple of weeks ago but that was in Houston, Texas. Requirements gathering is actually pretty interesting -- it's nice to see how it both clarifies what needs to be done technically and also helps businesses clarify for themselves what they want or need to do. Anyway, the upcoming month is going to be wild. My younger son's wedding is in a couple of weeks and two weeks after that my older son is going to be a father for the first time. I think that will make me a first time something too.

Still alive!

Thu, 21 Sep 2006 12:18:00 -0500

I've been traveling a bit and haven't updated anything on her for awhile. So, here's just a short entry to indicate that I'm still alive!

by the way

Thu, 27 Jul 2006 10:28:00 -0500

Am in Clearwater Florida now...have been here since Sunday. Having a great time, seeing lots of old friends -- including someone I worked with years ago and didn't recognize at all. Actually, last time I saw her, her now 12-year old daughter who is probably about 5'8" was a large bump on her mother's belly. A lot happened in that decade. More later about what I'm going.

Okay, another lag in posting here....

Fri, 14 Jul 2006 12:02:00 -0500

It's been a pretty active last week or so. Probably too much to briefly summarize here. But one thing that was brought home to me in connection with some issues that arose at work is the power that correct communication has to resolve problems. I think we intuitively know about (or at least pay lip service to) that power when it comes to organizations or marriages, but I also had it redemonstrated to me on a personal level. In other words, communication that follows the formula of communication is quite therapeutic. An interesting point is that there IS a pattern of communication that to some extent we may feel we "all know" but the fact that we "already know all about it" doesn't seem to interfer with our ability to screw up communication six ways to Sunday. The idea that there is a formula to communication, that communication has component parts and that an understanding of the formula and those parts can make life easier is described in an online article. d

Listening to some old music

Tue, 27 Jun 2006 19:16:00 -0500

On my long trip home from California, I ended up listening to some songs that I used to listen to when I was a kid (or a relative kid) like some of Jackson Browne's early stuff. Well, actually, a recent live album of him singing some of that stuff. What's interesting is that the music has aged well. It's funny to look back those many years (decades truth be told). I was younger then than my sons are now. A mere kid in search of a few simple things and, of course, meaning and the answer to life. I wonder what they'll be listening to 20 or 30 years from now, how they'll look back. I suspect that both of them will have far less to clean up from their youth than I did. So I guess in that way things have improved -- the maturing of one generation over its predecessor.

Okay, made it to Cincinnati

Mon, 26 Jun 2006 13:07:00 -0500

Okay, made it to Cincinnati. The flight home is delayed due to more weather in DC, but at least it is earlier in the day and it doesn't sound quite as extreme as it was yesterday. I ended up talking with a pilot who was headed home on the flight from detroit to cincy. Learned a bit about how jet engines work, what it's like to be a pilot and some things about the industry. Apparently, pilots aren't the high-paid elite they used to be -- and jet engines sounds like a pretty cool engineering feat. Relatively simple design and, it seems, pretty efficient. Anyway, it would be nice to get home sometime today.

Stuck in Detroit

Sun, 25 Jun 2006 22:21:00 -0500

Okay, here I am in Detroit airport, standed by an electric storm in DC. At the moment the whole situation is pretty funny -- hopefully I end up in a hotel tonight and getting out tomorrow so it remains so. Here's what we did: 1) We boarded. 2) They announced we were delayed due to rain in DC. 3) The delay was extended. 4) We were told the flight was postponed until tomorrow morning and got off the plane. 5) We were told the flight was back on and everyone (but me) reload. 6) The flight was cancelled and everyone got off. 7) Now, everyone's in line getting rebooked and hotel vouchers. Of course, I was sitting and working so didn't get in line to get a good spot and so am still not in line because I'd be at the end anyway -- might as well wait where I can do some work (though not sure this would qualify as such). I wonder if there's any great tourist attractions in Detroit.... d

Well, it's been awhile

Sat, 17 Jun 2006 16:54:00 -0500

Has definitely been awhile since I posted here. Things have been a bit busy, but really should have posted before now! Lots of things in the last several weeks -- here's some highlights/info: 1) A couple of weeks ago my parents visited and helped us get some stuff out of a building that is going to be gutted in the not too distant future. Nice cabinets for the shed, a new desk for me. Got a lot done and it was, as usual, fun spending a weekend with them. 2) I've been playing with VMPlayer "appliances", i.e. virtual machines. Created a Mepis installation, got CF installed to it, worked nicely. Tested a process for uninstalling the ColdFusion standalone server and doing individual CF installations on top of JRun. This worked well and I used the process to change around a client's server. Turned out the server (which was a dev box) wasn't really up to the challenge, but it was good to find out that out early on. 3) I helped to edit some articles for an upcoming edition of ABLE's magazine. I enjoyed doing it and hopefully contributed to the overall product. There's some pretty impressive stuff being done. Don't tell anyone, but I'd actually like to help out with the mag more in the future. 4) I have a trip to LA set up for 6/21 for a possible opportunity -- also will get to see friends and my son and his wife. Hopefully, will have some time to talk to someone about the ABLE mag as well. Okay, there's a quick note. Actually quite a few things have been going on work-wise as well, but the above will do for now. d

Drug Prevention Education

Sun, 21 May 2006 07:49:00 -0500

I just finished the initial edit of some articles on drug rehab and drug education for a friend. It was interesting to get a bit more up to speed on the scene faced by kids entering middle and high school. Probably a good thing I wasn't going through my teen years today -- the availability of drugs was bad enough back those many years ago; today things sound even worse. One thing that struck me, though, is the contemporary idea popular in some circles that drug education should consist of teaching kids how to "safely" do illegal drugs. Talk about an attitude born out of failure! The flip side, of course, is that there are effective ways to do drug education that truly get results. In fact an old friend of mine has, over the last 20 years or so, delivered drug education lectures to something more than 500,000 people, mostly kids. Info on what has become an international effort, is available on the Narconon site.

saying goodbye

Sun, 09 Apr 2006 21:08:00 -0500

We had to put our cat of almost 20 years to sleep today. She was born to us in the apartment we lived in five places ago. I don't remember how many were in the litter, but she was the runt. My oldest son knew we'd lost the runt in a previous litter and so he'd come home everyday from school and encourage her to live, to help her out, to make sure she was eating. We knew she had more than a fighting chance when she'd hold up her paw to push away her larger brothers and sisters when it was time for her to eat. Turns out, she was feisty throughout her life despite her small size -- later on, she'd take on any cat that dared to come into her yard no matter their size. We named her "Purr" because she purred literally all the time. When she was around us, when we pet her (which we were required to do frequently), when she watched TV with us or just whenever. She'd follow us when we walked outside, she expected to sit in on family meetings, she'd get grouchy if my wife and I didn't go to bed on time and she generally talked and participated in everything we did. All our friends knew the truth, that she ran the house. And amongst all other things, she helped us raise our kids and in that she did a great job. About a month ago she got sick and the prognosis wasn't good. After nearly 20 years of good health, a good life and being involved in every major event in our lives, it was time for her to move on. We'll miss her.

Back in DC

Thu, 30 Mar 2006 17:24:00 -0500

The trip back to DC was pretty uneventful, though I volunteered to take a later flight and ended up with a free round trip I'll use sometime early in May to go back to CW for a weekend or a week. Tampa airport now has free wireless so spending a couple of extra hours there wasn't terribly burdensome. Kansas City airport ought to follow the lead and get rid of the pay-by-the-hour service they have. It was remarkable how quickly I got used to Florida weather -- coming back to the cooler DC temperatures was, at best, disappointing.

Religion and stuff first posting

Thu, 23 Mar 2006 11:22:00 -0500

Okay, this is an area to stay out of if you don't want to discuss religion or possibly politics. If you don't want the potential arguments, just don't read the postings in this category. To kick things off, here's a couple of basics: 1) I've been a Scientologist for about 30 years. I worked for the Church for about 10 or 15 years and it was easily the best, most enjoyable job I've ever had. Some info on Scn is available at: What Is Scientology? site. 2) I think that everyone has a right to believe as they choose and practice their faith as they see fit. It seems to me that the only boundaries on this are when someone's beliefs or religious practices impede someone else from believing and practicing their chosen religion. 3) I think there are things at large in the world today that should be, but aren't generally, classified as religion. An obvious and unoriginal example is psychiatry. My impression is that this was pointed out by Dr. Thomas Szasz among others. It seems to me that when a group purports to know and be working with the basic nature of man (in the case of psychiatry that he is a biological accident, with no spiritual side) that we are talking about something religious. There are no blood tests, x-rays, MRI's or other objective tests that show up mental illnesses. Categorization of someone as mentally ill is based on opinion and in particular the foundational opinion that man's problems or differences or peculiarities are attributable to physical differences in the brain and, more often than not, in chemical imbalances. In other words, an opinion about the basic nature of man. Christians have an opinion about the basic nature of man and the source of his problems; Buddhists have an opinion about the basic nature of man and the source of his problems as I'm sure do Jews and Muslims and a host of other religions. These are all opinions or beliefs and are classified as religious in nature. So, why isn't psychiatry considered a religion because of its opinion about the basic nature of man? Simply because it denies, ignores or doesn't care about the spiritual nature of man? Why isn't it prohibited from receiving governmental funding and support? The moment psychiatry shows up with the following: 1) An objective physical test that reliably and consistently identifies something we could call "mental health" or "mental illness" and 2) A regular treatment that does, by test, cure both the symptoms and the underlying cause (which change should show up in the same tests mentioned above). we could reconsider classifying psychiatry as something other than religion. But for now, let's be blunt -- it is a religion. d