Well folks, the interview went really well yesterday. The position is a big step down in pay, but the hours are more conducive to me working on building my side business. The location is pretty ideal too and when I saw the CTO’s office, I knew it was a good match. He had a nice new shiny iMac sitting next to a MacBook Pro (I’ve got an earlier generation iMac and a MacBook Pro at home) – and he was running Visual Studio on Windows in Parrallels on the Mac (just like I do). He showed me how fast VS opens and runs on the Mac, and I smiled to myself, “sweet, this guys gets it.”

Viv is sitting next to me on the couch while I do my best to blog, finish a redesign quote for a friend of Jackie’s, and not pay attention to Sponge Bob. She noticed me pulling up a legal agreement for the 13 Stories song I cowrote (that I need to fax to the agent today) and she asked what it was…

Me : Well, do you remember seeing the pictures of Daddy with long hair and wearing silly clothes?
Viv: And everyone thought you were a girl?
…

The kids and I read a bunch of books last night – Skippyjon Jones in the Doghouse (fun and silly), Stone Soup (good one from the author of Zen Shorts), Train to Somewhere (sad, but nice ending), and Going Home (loved the illustrations, the story drags a bit but ends well).

• Nothing Beats the Durex Warranty – thanks Justin
• It’s Impossible Not to Stare – thanks Mel
• Here’s Beyonce Sucking – thanks Marty
• Chick Makes the Same Dumb Face in Every Pic – thanks Mel
• Shii – the Wii for Women – thanks Mel
• Dr. Shine and Dee Dee – thanks Mel
• Meatcards – thanks Chris
• Celebizzare

Yesterday was a good day. A friend of mine finally got an answer for a long term medical problem (more on that possibly in a later blog post). Helped a client move his site to a new domain. Finished In Search of Corky (book review is coming, check back tomorrow!). I fixed some issues with zeropercentcards.com version duece. Coded a JavaScript for one of my developers at the day job. Did a load of laundry. Installed VS 2008 and SQL 2008 on my work laptop. Did the dishes. Took the trash out. Recorded myself reading Adele and Simon in America (great artwork, kids really liked their first book) and Miss Rumphius (great book! especially if you work in the yard with your kids) for Daddy Reads Volume 4. Watched the Flyers beat the Wild. And I watched a movie.

Movie review (see I just told your ass right in the last sentence)…

The Agony and the Ecstasy – OK, here’s the plot… tell me if you get my point here… this movie is 138 minutes detailing Pope Julius II commissioning Michelangelo to paint the Sistine Chapel… I know, seriously. Why stop looking at internet porn or whatever reality celebrity cock fighting special you’re watching to check THIS one out? Well, it turns out there’s some really great acting. And I fucking hate Charlton Heston (btw, for those of you that I have been waiting to pry that gun out of his cold dead fingers – now’s your chance), but he doesn’t Shatner his lines into overacted crap (in my opinion, as he did in Ben Hur). About an hour into this film, I kind of had this “look at me… liking this movie… how about that?”

More fun with Abbe…

• xkcd : Windows 7
• Clever and Creative Billboards
• Super Broker – oh. dear. jeebus. Charlie Carson broke it doooooooowwwwn
• Electric Bath Ducky – one use only
• 3rd Race at the Honeymoon is Over Downs – haha, thanks Franki

I got all my work done during the day yesterday and took it easy last night. I got some PERL work done for a new search tool for NitroVideo. I’ve got more fixes to take care of for ShopCurtainRods.com, write a PHP class to extend an API for some third party company for another client, and work on a conversion from a classic ASP/SQL to a PHP/MySQL website.

I started a new book, The .NET Developer’s Guide to Directory Services Programming. I’ve worked with LDAP and Active Directory plenty (in fact I just finished writing Windows Workgroup exporter and CSV-> AD importer tools for a former employer), but I really didn’t take advantage of the System.DirectoryServices class like I probably should have.

When I got home, I was settling into a light depression – just suffering a bit from kid withdrawals. I decided to hurry through some chores (laundry, feed animals, etc.) and then sweat this karmic poison out. Getting 4 miles in at dusk is really cool, especially the route I’ve been doing through the woods and lakes.

I linked to a CNN article about Bush’s reluctance to call the killing of Armenians by the Turkish government a genocide. Well I wrote W an email…

Dear Mr. President,

I am deeply saddened by the news I have read today about your urging Congress to reject the Armenian genocide resolution. Over 1.5 million Armenians were systematically killed during the early 1900s by the hands of the Turkish government. While Armenia is not as fiscally or strategically as important in the eyes of yourself, we Armenian-Americans are proud of our heritage and very saddened by your decision.

What is right is right. No relationship that gives you the ability to easily respond to terrorism is worth denying the lives of 1.5 million people is it? Go to Ellis Island with an Armenian immigrant like my grandfather, stand with them and look at the images of Armenians being raped, hung, and mutilated in the streets. Are you sure this wasn’t genocide?
I wrote a letter very similar to this one several years ago to President Clinton, so please don’t write my concern off as a person that is a democrat or disgruntled republican. I am an American and one with the ability to admit when a mistake has been made, even one that might weaken my own hand.
Respectfully,
Van Kapeghian Sr.

I BCC’d my relatives and within minutes my father responded with an email of his own to the President. My real fear after letting this sink in is that just as this was raised to a vote under Clinton’s presidency, this is just a strawman issue to further another partisan policy or candidates. If you look at this map of Turkey, scroll right, you will see the Lake and city which was part of Ancient Armenia that I was named after. Notice the large red dot indicating the relative number of Armenians that were killed by the monasteries near Mush, a city close to Lake Van.

• Face in Places
• The 40 Worst Lyrics in Rock
• LOLCats, the Musical
• Fully Loaded Chair
• Woopie Cushion Infant Halloween Costume
• Man goes for world record leg hair – sweet jeebus how exciting.

The back deck, she is done. I rolled the deck with the Cappucino solid stain while listening to my Phils drop the first game of the NLDS to the Rockies. Speaking of which, there’s a bet now with Rockies fan and fellow blogger buddy, Open Grove Claudia. If the Phils win, she’s promised a jar of honey from her bees (yep, she’s an apiarist) and if the Rockies win, I have to code a search engine for her blog. Van and Viv love honey on their biscuits.

Speaking of the Phils, I’ll be heading to the game today, with my good buddy Doug. I’ve got a surprise for Doug the Bug, but he sometimes reads mah blog, ergo, I’ll reveal it tomorrow.

After the deck painting was completed, I talked to the kids for a few minutes. I can’t wait to see them tomorrow. I love that my suitcase has very little room for my own clothes. It’s filled with Phillie Phanatic dolls, a Phightins rally towel, DVDs (including the Diver Dan DVD I won), and stuff for my short people. In the same way, I’m proud of doing that work on the deck myself, how empty my fridge is, and being tired all the time from working all the time. I will give those kids everything I can.

I finished the VB.NET Workgroup to Active Directory Import tool for IVCi. I then helped Marty out for a little bit before I got too tired and passed out face down in the laptop. After I get home from the game tonight, I’ll be hitting the Marty code until I wake up with an IBM ThinkPad logo imprinted on my forehead.

I started reading Burning in Water, Drowning in Flame by Charles Bukowski last night and it’s fucking brilliant. I’m only through about 10 of the poems in the book, but his dark, blue collar poetry is really interesting to me for some reason. I’m sorta ok as far as my breadth in reading poetry, but I’ve read very little contemporary stuff. So poems that don’t have rolling hills and 19th (or earlier) century references has me a bit like Miranda in The Tempest meeting the deformed witch’s son, Caliban. It’s not pristine corners and edges, it’s honest and has warts. But I like that.

but as God said,
crossing his legs,
I see where I have made plenty of poets
but not so very much
poetry.

from “to the whore who took my poems”

I’ve come to the conclusion that the best anti-depressant I take is a 4 mile run in the morning, sweating as much as possible. I did that this morning and yeah, I feel pretty good. Off I went, little orange running hood (orange sweat hoody and sweatpants) into the woods. I could channel myself through all this. I could see myself maybe happy again through all this sweat. Like Jaguar Paw, one day, my children will run through these woods with me. After all, the hood over my head keeps the heat in and prevents a deer tick from latching onto my noggin.

• Jewsrock.org – I’m sending this one out to BSam and Vodkafish
• Mustaches of the 19th Century – of course there’s a blog dedicated to this, yes
• Halloween cupcakes, 3D Monster Cupcakes – this one is for all you bakers

I hurried home last night and got to staining the vertical surfaces of the deck – the railings, the insides of the stairs, the sides. I got that done. I’ve decided I really like the color. It’s lighter than I kind of had thought it would be, but it works because it’s slightly funky. Tonight, weather permitting, I will get the decks done and then I’ll be done!

After cleaning up (mostly) the stain off of the majority of myself, I sat down ate some leftovers, had a quick iChat with the kids, and started a-codin’. I fixed a few pages to display a min and max price based on product attributes for the OSC store. I worked on the Active Directory .NET application and I’m getting stuck on negotiating the container objects in the AD store. I need to put the AD project to bed so I can help Marty some more. Oh yeah and get some of that stuff … what’s it called again? Ummm, oh yeah …. rest. Maybe even make some of that stuff I used to do all the time … it had noises… involved guitars and things… oh yeah, music.

If it does rain tonight, I’m going on a 4 mile run when I get home. I really need to clear my head right now. Just be out and zone out of myself to the cadence of my footfalls. Running in some rain actually might make for a nice aural escape from the thunderclouds of projects and personal failures circling my head lately.

Tomorrow will be a nice escape as my buddy Doug and I get to play hooky from work in the afternoon to go watch game 2 of the Phils-Rockies NLDS. It’s really incredible being in the stands during this playoff run, I’m looking forward to being part of a raucous crowd and yelling at Matt Holiday in left (our seats are in left center right in front of Harry the K’s). Hey Holiday is from Stillwater, OK – just like Jason Lee’s fictional band in Almost Famous. The shared trait? I don’t want to see or hear either one of them sing along to Tiny Dancer ever again.

• The Shoe Project
• Baguette Computer Wrist Rest
• How to Use an Indian Toilet
• Encyclopedia of Stupid
• Bush Vetoes Expansion of Kids’ Healthcare – good call dummy, even Orrin Hatch disagrees with you W.
• Doody Calls