Today, I wanted to dedicate my blog to an awesome family that lives right around the corner from me, Charlie Haughey and his family. I’m going to let his mother, Julie tell you guys what they are up to…

“I am writing you today to ask for your support of an incredibly important organization, CureSearch for Children’s Cancer. As you may know, my son Charlie was diagnosed with stage 4 neuroblastoma on December 24, 2009. Three days later he celebrated his 3rd birthday and began 14 months of very aggressive treatment at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Your generous donation supports CureSearch for Children’s Cancer, a national non-profit foundation whose mission is to fund and support children’s cancer research and provide information and resources to all those affected by children’s cancer. CureSearch raises funds for collaborative research conducted at more than 175 hospitals across the nation, including CHOP. These hospitals participate in National Cancer Institute sponsored clinical trials conducted by the Children’s Oncology Group. In the last 40 years, collaborative research has increased the overall survival rate for children’s cancer from 10% to 78%. At CureSearch, our goal is 100%.

Two years ago, I ran the New York Marathon with Team CureSearch. This year, I have chosen to join CureSearch in their fight for a cure by participating in The CureSearch Walk. The CureSearch Walk celebrates and honors children, like Charlie, whose lives have been affected by children’s cancer, while raising funds for lifesaving research. I have set an aggressive fundraising goal, because all children living with cancer and those who have lost their fight deserve it. Please consider making a donation to my campaign – there is no gift too big or too small.

Thank you for your support. I can promise that you are making a difference in the lives of all those affected by children’s cancer. Together, we can Reach the Day when every child with cancer is guaranteed a cure.

With hope and gratitude,

Julie Haughey”

To donate to CureSearch for Children’s Cancer, please use this link.

Do something good today folks. A Child Dies From Childhood Cancer Every 38 Seconds. Who is ready to stand with this brave family? Make a difference today.

Movie Reviews…

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides – there’s only two reasons you want to see this movie… either you’re 12 or you would pay money to watch Johnny Depp do anything. Or both I guess.

Small Business/Tech Links…

• OS X 10.7.3 causing CUI errors for some, Combo Update recommended
• SQL Fiddle
• 7 Ways to Lower Your Website’s Bounce Rate

Funny/Interesting Links…

• OK, Sonic you might be on to something here… the guys from the real TV commercials have filmed a response video to Giorgio’s I Love Sonic video (posted yesterday). If Sonic puts Giorgio in a Super Bowl commercial, I (and lots of other folks) will suddenly become big Sonic fans.
• Is LoMoing the New Tebowing?
• Old Spice’s Terry Crews Crashes a Bounce Ad
• How to ward off a mental disorder during a meeting
• What every woman wishes her ex-boyfriend’s dating profile looked like
• Sh*t Barefoot Runners Say - thanks Bill!
• Tea Party Jesus

Well, at some point yesterday, my Verizon FIOS Internet and TV service went down, so I’m rocking a 3G connection from my iPhone until Verizon gets this working again. I believe it is due to the winter storm that hit several days ago (although we did not get much in my area).

A blog reader this morning pointed out a bit of hypocrisy on my part in yesterday’s post, the ads. Here I am spouting off to buy local and I’m showing ads on my blog from Office Depot and Amazon. Well, if you noticed – they’re gone now. Truth is, those ads have amounted to probably $20 over the past year. Wasted space in the grand scheme of things for sure.

Now, don’t get me wrong – I fault absolutely no one for shopping at Wal-Mart or Office Depot because their prices are low. We are all faced with tough times and saving money for my family is absolutely my top purchasing decision point. If there is a local merchant that is at least competitive with their prices, great. There is nothing wrong with shopping at a national/international chain store at all when there is no local option. Or heck, what if the guy at the local shop is a dick -  by all means, shop at the non-dick run store.

The point of my post yesterday was squarely aimed at the folks that are distraught at the cheese shoppe’s closing that never shopped there and to a larger extent, the folks that complain about the sad state of Main Street and do nothing to help.

In addition to taking those ads down, I will offer ad space on my blog to any local merchant for $10 a year (for either a 468×60 banner – between the posts or a 160×600 skyscraper – sidebar). Only caveats are no porn, violence, or gambling links. My blog averages around 1,300 uniques per month, this is a very fair deal – but if any business owner has another offer, I’m all ears.

On the lighter side… Titan is doing well after a visit with Dr. Frame on Tuesday. He either pulled a muscle in his back leg or bruised something while hopping up into the back of the car. He was whimpering whenever he put weight on his back leg going up stairs, but was walking without a limp. He is going up stairs with no pain and hopping back onto the couch (when he has permission) just fine already… see?

And this is really sweet… all Viv asked for when we were searching for a dog was a big doggy she could put her head on and cuddle with when she watched TV at night. Mission accomplished. Good boy, Titan!

Movie Review…

Source Code - I think this was the strongest of the recently released alternate reality films (Limitless, Adjustment Bureau). The story, acting, and action were all much better.

The Greatest Movie Ever Sold – what a great concept and although the material was sorta weak, Spurlock’s personality and directing really carry the film. Abbe and I really enjoyed this one.

Small Business/Tech Links…

• Are You a Victim of the 5 Biggest SEO Content Myths?
• MacTech benchmarks Parallels and VMware Fusion
• Apple Confirms iOS 5 Battery Issues, Software Fix Coming
• A Free Task Management Tool From Asana
• Generate HTML Forms From SQL On the Fly
• 7 Ways to Create a Memorable Customer Experience With Social Media

Funny/Interesting Links…

• BAYHEM
• Katana + Butterfly Knife + Corgi + Grandma
• We’re Going To Be Friends
• Mike Tyson Quotes: The Song

I feel much better this morning. I got some rest last night. I worked out in the hotel gym. I spoke with Bubs and Vivienne on the phone. Bubs told me about his Tae Kwon Do class he’s taking now and Viv giggled at me when I said “bon jour!”

Sylvain and I solved a couple of our SQL work. Despite being told this in a SQL 2005 class a couple of years ago, I couldn’t for the life of me figure out why we were having issues creating any link to our 2005/2008 servers. See, starting with SQL 2005, TCP/IP connectivity is turned off by default after you install the server. Ergo you can’t connect to an instance until that is turned on. Luckily Sylvain found an MSDN article explaining this and I let out an “oh yeah.”

Some shots during my morning walk to the office…

Movie review…

Doubt -this film is great, but slightly flawed script wise. I’m guessing there were some scenes omitted or something, because some of the questions wrap up rather quickly towards the end seemingly compensating for something that didn’t happen? The acting is brilliant though – Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman are excellent. The central message of the film – “Doubt can be a bond as strong as fear,” rattles the viewer. The pursuit of the supposed child molesting Catholic priest by the school principal nun creates the very same doubt within the audience as is portrayed in the film itself. Great film, highly recommended even with it’s faults.

• If Movie Posters Were Honest – thanks Cynnie
• Beatbox Chef – thanks Oh, The Joys
• The Art of Can Tabistry
• David Lee Roth Assteroids – somewhat NSFW
• xkcd : Space Elevators
• One Cake to Rule Them All

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

Did you know that Tony Danza doesn’t have any nipples? That’s totally true, and if I’m lying… may I be blown by 1000 hot Brazillian super models.

See? Told you so. Shit… didn’t work.

I am happy to report that I have been given the green light to start running again by my chiropractor. This is a really good thing, because the inactivity has not been kind to my midsection (aka I’m getting fat as crap). Tonight (when the sun goes down so I don’t self immolate) I’m going to do a mile, and then ice my back when I get home. Hopefully I won’t die or anything.

Vivienne read for the first time last night. I am so proud of her. I went to the library at lunch and picked up a bunch of the same We Both Read books that I taught Van with and also some for Van’s reading level too. I also have a nice summer activity handout with a reading list for him from Carolyn (Bub’s former kindergarten teacher and good friend of mine) that was given to the soon to be 2nd graders at Nokomis. I can’t wait to dig into that list as well. Reading with my kids is one of the greatest things I’ve done.

I love this lyric from Open Ended by Sebadoh…

Here’s an open-ended threat to tip the balance we’ve been riding
With all this talk of honesty, I look and see who’s really hiding
Know who deserves it, who got there first
Who lied about it and made things worse
See, it don’t matter I’ve only begun to confuse you
It’s what I do
You deserve it, you got there first
I didn’t make it and that’s still hurts
I could be floating or ready to explode
If I don’t show, no one knows

The kids had peanut butter spoons after dinner and when Bubs was done with his, he shared it with Yogi. This was a hit for the Yogi and Viv apparently too…

After I got the kids to bed, I got a ton of work done last night. A couple of fixes for NitroVideo and a ton of work for some surprise requirements for the Lifecycle project (that is due for another demo tomorrow!). I finished up working around 11:30 and watched a few more episodes of Dead Like Me and sipped on a nightcap of a vodka tonic (yum).

• How Long Could You Survive in the Vacuum of Space?
• Ping.fm – allows you to update your status on multiple social networks in one place
• 7 Deadly Glasses
• The Cool, Insane Artwork of David Mach
• Portraits of Phone Sex Operators
• Hair Hats – (thanks Chris)