personal
There are 16 entries for the tag
personal
This summer, we were faced for the first time with more kids capable of mowing the lawn than we have lawns to mow. Last year, with Teleri and Aerin mowing the lawn, it was pretty easy to simply have them work out who wanted the front yard and who wanted the back. They had distinct preferences so things were pretty smooth. This year, we needed to add Rhys to the mix. Facing this organizational headache, and the prospects of argument and recriminations, I was struck by inspiration (which is not, as Melissa claims, best described as “an episode”). How about...
Melissa has been grooving on the jewelry thing for a couple of years now. It’s an activity she enjoys, both the design/layout/planning and the actual act of putting it all together. Which is a good thing, even though it removes an entire category of things I can safely buy for her.
Well, she now has more than any single non-rap “singer” can reasonably wear in a lifetime so instead of despair and waste, she has begun offering her skill to the masses. Or to discerning individuals at any rate. You can view her shop at Etsy, Rogue Impressions, if you want...
My mom wrote me an email recently saying that she missed reading my blog. Things have been sparse here lately, so I think I'll crib one of those TMI memes from a friend of mine. In five words, explain what ended your last friendship? Not on last one yet. How was your prom night? It was good. I went with a girl I haven't heard from since graduation. It was a “friends solve mutual problem” situation. Do you have any famous relatives? Not really. Had one fall off the Mayflower, but that's more of an ancestor than a relative. Have...
Two developments in two different life aspects both went live today. On a personal level, an article by a friend of mine in an online gaming magazine mentions me by name. Also, I’m the one with the post-digested d6, though I think it was my sister and not daughter who did the not-quite-digesting. I say "I think" because my memory is truly terrible and I’m never sure about anything that happened that long ago (even the interesting stuff). Second, on a professional level, I recently joined a jolly band of rogue developers on a relatively new group blog called The...
I take a risk in posting this because I don’t want it to get back to Cordy and I know some of my older kids might see it. I rely on their discretion. I hope they have some. At any rate, inspired by the book Dear Tooth Fairy (and largely copied from it), Cordelia decided she had found a great idea and wrote two letters she dutifully gave her mother this morning. I share the results with you here. (Clicking them will bring up a larger version.) Technorati tags: Personal, Family, Tooth Fairy
The main occupation of the family these days is the arrival of a bedraggled kitten. When found, he was barely two weeks old. A neighbor boy found him in a ditch that is now likely haunted by the ghosts of his siblings. He brought the poor thing to us. It’s flattering that we’re known in the neighborhood as people who can take care of distraught animals, actually (and will). Anyway, the veterinarian told us that he had only about a 50% chance of survival, particularly as he had an infection that could turn out to be...
My oldest daughters are to the point now where they are large enough (physically) to mow the lawn. I actually had to put off this next stage in molding my children into proper minions because Teleri is such a shrimp. Since her sister Aerin takes after her mother's side of the family and is larger than her older sister, this means that I get to train two future henchgirls for the price of one.
In that spirit, here are the three main tips for lawn mowing efficiency.
A square is by far the easiest shape to mow. Since...
I've always been one to jump on technology bandwagons early. The latest is Twitter. It's a logical step up from Instant Messaging in the same way that blogging is a step up from email—a broadcast, single update push protocol with subscriber opt-in. In its way, this is brilliant. Still, you gotta wonder about a service that has it's subscribers calling themselves Twits... follow RabidPaladin at http://twitter.com Technorati tags: Twitter, Personal, Exhibitionism
One of the cardinal rules of creating a blog you want people to read is to keep it well-focused. That generally means keeping to a single topic, at least mostly. Personally, I'm too ADD to only post on a single topic, so I've been struggling. I've wanted to post mainly on technical and professional topics and want that to be my main audience. On the other hand, having 10 siblings and being married to a woman with 8 means that blog posting is a really easy way to keep them all informed about what's going on with our family and...
Suweeet!
Technorati tags: Personal, Star Wars, quiz
The folks at The Golden Compass (advertising the upcoming movie) have an ingenious twist on the personality quiz meme. Obviously, I couldn't resist. The twist is simple: after you answer, let's give your friends 12 days to modify it. Well, here's your chance. My answers have me matched up with Hypatia, a badger. I've no idea what I'll end up with...
Technorati tags: Personal, Quiz, Golden Compass, Daemon
I don't know how it happened, but one way or another, Melissa and I stumbled on a really useful parenting technique early on in our child-raising careers. Do you ever have those situations where a child asks for something only to throw a fit if the answer is "no"? Personally, I hate when this happens. I even hate it when it isn't my kids and I'm just collateral damage. Well, here's one way to cut down on this occurring in the first place. I've never seen or heard of this anywhere else. I don't know why not. Anyway, here you...
I think I'm the last blogger on the planet who hasn't yet done the whole "5 things you might not know about me" thing. I was tagged by my brother a couple months ago and by Jay a couple weeks ago. Anyway, in case the fad hasn't entirely faded (fadded?), here goes.
I'm the oldest of 11 children and Melissa (my wife) is the oldest of 9. This means that our kids have 18 aunts and uncles before counting marriages. Counting marriages, it now comes to 29. 30 if you count committed gay partnerships. Another of my sisters is getting married...
I found out the other day that I can't actually seem to post comments on my own blog. Now that's a disheartening development. Apparently, others aren't having this trouble as my brother left a few comments here recently. Weird. Since I suspect that he's using Firefox, I'm guessing that it's an issue with the JavaScript validators that are handled differently in the two browsers. This happened after I updated the blog software with my own compile, so I may roll it back and see what happens. At any rate, if you have tried to leave a response and were thwarted,...
Another dinner-table moment:
Aerin: Mom, phone is for you.
Mom: Who is it?
Aerin: Sean Connery.
<puzzled phone conversation>
Mom: That was Jon Connelly dear. Big difference...
Technorati tags: Sean Connery, Personal, Humor, Phone
Quick dinner-table moment:
Teleri (talking about having just finished Fantastic Voyage by Isaac Asimov): The white blood cells were kind of scary--like monsters.
Dad (only a little officiously): They police the bloodstream, you know.
Rhys: Yeah, they pull over the red blood cells who are speeding and give them tickets.
Technorati tags: Humor, Personal, Biology, Blood, Asimov