Category: Life

I promised some New Year’s Resolutions the other day, so here they are in no particular order:

• Earn at least $1,000 in 2006 from things not related to my day job. I’m not sure exactly how much I made last year from consulting, but I know it was less than $1,000. I’m going to try to focus on what Steve Pavlina calls “passive income” – that is, things that make money without my having to do any work. For example, a product that I can create once and then sell on a web site many times. I’ll also be reducing monthly expenses wherever possible to make this extra income really count.
• Simplify my life and get things done. If I’m ever going to accomplish anything, I’ve got to get organized. I’ve starting using HipCal to keep up with my schedule. So far it does everything I need. I’ve got to get back into the habit of working out. My office is filled with junk that I hardly ever touch. This means all of the old computers are going away and I’ll be culling my bookshelves. There will be a huge garage sale some day soon as well as some stuff on eBay. I’ll keep you posted.
• Network more with my peers. I’m going to get out and talk to people both online and in person. This means going to community events like Refresh Dallas and the BarCamp Dallas. I might even join the local Linux Users Group. I would like to attend at least one event per month. I’ll also be updating this site (and others) more frequently – hopefully at least 2-3 times a week. I’m also going to try to comment more on other people’s sites or use TrackBacks if I have something interesting to say.

That seems like a pretty short list, but that’s the idea. All of these are things that I can easily accomplish this year.

The idea is to develop a network of peers and a system of organization that I can use to develop my ideas and finally start launching some of the products that I have in my head and on my computer.

Check back this time next year to see how things turn out…

Over the last couple of weeks we’ve celebrated both Matthew’s birthday and Christmas. We had Matthew’s birthday party was on December 17. He had a great time and got lots of presents. Here he is enjoying some cake:

Unfortunately, we didn’t get a picture of him sticking his whole mouth on the cake, but you can see the results pretty good in this shot.

Christmas also went really well this year. I think Matthew got one of everything. Here he is with some of his gifts:

He was obviously a very good boy.

It looks like this will be the last post of the year. Check back tomorrow for some New Year’s Resolutions…

If you haven’t done so already, now might be a good time to think about taking care of your Christmas shopping…

It looks like I got my wish – today’s a snow day. I think I wanted it worse than the kids.

I’m going to try to spend some time today working on a movie of Matthew’s first year. Hopefully I’ll have some clips to post here soon.

Well, actually it’s more like sleet, but I’ll take what I can get…

Another benefit of working for a school district – snow days. I hope I don’t have to go to work tomorrow.

Oh well, I’m off to make some hot cocoa.

Here are some of the interesting things I’ve been looking at online lately:

X-Men 3 – I can’t wait to see this movie. The teaser trailer is up at Apple.com. Also, USA Today has a nice picture gallery. Kelsey Grammer makes a very nice beast.

Try Ruby! – I’ve been following the Ruby programming language for a while now. This web site lets you try your hand at programming in Ruby right in the browser. This is a great demonstration of the power of this language.

Pandora – This is a really slick site that helps you discover new music. Just tell them a few of the bands that you like and they’ll play songs that you might also like. If you don’t like something, just tell them and they’ll never play it again. It works pretty well for me.

Well, it turns out our furnace problem was actually more than just a dirty filter. The flame sensor was going out so about half the time the furnace would just turn itself off. We got it fixed first thing Friday morning, but not before a mostly sleepless Thursday night.

The good news is, we get the entire week off for Thanksgiving this year. Now that is something to really be thankful for.

This is a public service announcement from Tony and Paige:

Now’s a great time to change (or clean) the filter on your furnace. The weather’s getting a little colder outside and you’ll be wanting to keep warm.

If you don’t keep the filter clean, your furnace will probably get too hot and shut itself down. How do I know all of these things?

We woke up cold this morning.

One Red Paperclip is the blog of a guy named Kyle MacDonald. His plan is to trade his red paperclip for a house. Or an island. Or a house on an island.

Yes, he’s serious. And he’s made pretty good progress. So far he’s traded the paperclip for a pen, then pen for a cabinet knob, the knob for a coleman stove, and the stove for a (red) generator.

He’s been at this since July 12. Contact him if you have something better than a generator that you’d like to trade. He’ll even travel to you to make the trade.

But you’d better hurry, he’s going to be on TV tonight. And after that he’s traveling to New York City.

Why can’t I ever think of crazy things like this to make myself rich and famous?

Matthew dressed up as Yoda for his first Halloween:

Nana made really good caramel apples. I shared a few bites of mine with Matthew:

While we were out trick-or-treating we ran into a smiling red lobster named Jackson:

We also visited Aunt Peggye:

By the end of the night Matthew’s pumpkin was full of candy:

It’s a shame Matthew couldn’t eat all of that candy. Luckily Mommy and Daddy are always here to help out…