Unconnected

It's weird, after all these years, to be so disconnected from everyone.

I feel like I'm on a distant island, all alone and unreachable. Going online makes me feel as though I've just opened the curtains to look at the horizon. It's like I've peered out from my portal at the world beyond.

Offline and I'm blind. I'm in third class, down in the bowels of the ship without a viewport. I know the ship is moving along, I can sense it's movement, but I don't know the direction or the speed.

What's happening out in the great expanse of the Internet while I type this in the seclusion of my basement? What's up with the storm coming up through Florida? What's it's name? I can't even Google it! I'm lost. What will the weather be like tomorrow? What's happening with the war in Iraq? So many questions and so little access.

So here I type in my cellar. We've just moved to a new location. So it takes awhile to switch all our phone lines and DSL.

Tomorrow Bellsouth promises to deliver DSL and I'll again be connected to the great either beyond. I'll be able to see again. I'll be moved up to first class and will scan the horizon from my balcony. I'll read my daily news and blogs. I'll share my ideas and drawings and photos. I will feel connected again.

...dave (connecting at Panera Bread Company)
If you don't know where you're going, when you get there you'll be lost. -Yogi Berra

Sitting by a lake

I didn't even know this was here -- a lake by Smyrna's "Public Library." It's not really a lake, it's more like a pond but want do you want for the middle of town? (I put "Public Library" in quotes. I'll explain later.)

There is a small pond near work where I can go and read, eat, or just rest. This little pond is about 300 feet across with a water feature in it's center. (A water "feature" is just a fountain in common-speak.) It's absolutely beautiful. I don't have wireless Internet but that's just a few hundred feet away in the library itself.

Arranged around the pond are a few picnic tables, benches, and even a love-seat hanging swing. Lots of trees give the area great shade in the hot summers here. They are all marked with those cute little brass tags that tell you that the tree next to you is a "Water Oak." Hmmm, I thought all oaks liked water.

The fountain provides that constant white noise. It's thrusting 30 foot bursts rain down against the water's surface making that slapping sound. It is calming. Why is running water so relaxing?

There are fish in the pond. Occasionally I see carp jump above the water's surface and snatch a quick bug snack.

Last week I was in the library itself. Just outside it's doors is a sign that reads: Smyrna's Public Library. I didn't have my Cobb Library card but asked the guy re-loading the shelves if I could check out some books if I provided a drivers license. "Sure, no problem, but you'll pay a 25 cent penalty for not having your card." I've never been in trouble for so little a cost.

So I picked out the books I wanted, brought them to the counter, and flashed my driver's license with photo ID. I was reaching into my pocket, ready to produce the penalty, when she asked me if this was my current address. "Yeah, it is." I told her.

"Well, I'm sorry, you can't checkout books with a Cobb Country library card."

Huh? So it turns out that Smyrna's tax paying community who put the library in place, does not honor another county's library system! Who thought up this? So I said to the nice lady:

"Ah, so this is really not a Public Library then?"

Nah, I didn't dare. She didn't make up the policy. It's not her fault. She didn't make the rules. But this just smacks of backwardness. Who thinks up such silliness? One county doesn't recognize another's library card?

I did tell her that I worked just down the street and spent lots of time at my desk, almost as much time as home so it's as good a living there. But none of that logic worked.

"But you can buy a Smyrna Library card for the whole year for just $30."

No thanks, I'll just enjoy the free park.

Nothing is free anymore.

...dave
"Don't ever save anything for a special occasion. Every day you're alive is a special occasion" -Jim Gaston

Move In

We spent the entire day driving around signing papers to turn over our old house and purchase our new. What a lot of papers. I heard lots of trees cry.

So were here, right here on Castle Lane, but this is no castle. Still, it has potential. (That simply means that we have lots of work ahead of us.) One thing's sure, we'll have lower rent, lower taxes, and not HOA (home owner's association) dues of $500 a year! I feel my wallet getting heaver already.

But it was a shock to our system. Before, we were living in a huge four bedroom brick place, oak floors, immaculately painted interior and exterior with a quarter of an acre of trees in the back. Now? Every room needs work. Wallpaper removal, carpet removal, scraping and painting, and we haven't even replaced the floor! Eric got wild and tore out his carpet and drapes. Now there is a pile of trash in the middle of his room. He plans to paint tomorrow. He's got more energy than I.

But it's the right thing for us. After we "freshen things up" it'll look like our home again.

It will get simple after the complications.

...dave
"Don't go around saying that the world owes you something. It owes you nothing; it was here first." - Mark Twain

The containers are loaded

Well, it's done . . . almost.

Terry showed up with a couple of guys that, well, he might have picked up from the local gas station.

They worked for eight hours with little rest. When it got to lunch, we told them they were free to go eat but Terry said: "Nah, we'll just take a rest after we are done upstairs."

So they sat around drinking some water from some bottles we gave them. No lunch. They just sat, and drank, and sweat.

Terry is a nice guy, gentle, kind, and has his head on straight -- even if his family is kind of a mess. While he sat drinking my water he told me about his life, his wife, and the son they had between them .

"She's bipolar" he revealed. "She's black and she's got that thing going on. She's got more personalities than I can keep up with. Plus, her and I have different views on education. So my son is 12 but reads like a second grader." I gathered that the son lived with her until recently.

So Terry has taken custody and through Sylvan Learning Center is trying to give his son an education and bring him up to his own grade level. I feel for Terry.

He told me a little more about the improvements the son has made since living with him.

Terry told me: "The first stage was keeping him in school. He kept getting suspended because of all the trouble he was causing. Then I had to get him to stop being the class clown. Now I have to give him some self-esteem and bring his grades up. You and your son seem close." He told me as he looked up at me from the lower stair tread.

I told him a little about the relationship Eric and I have and some of the successes we've had. He was happy to hear it and said he'd like to try some of the ideas with his son.

After their lunch of water I went out and bought some burgers for the three of them. There were two reasons for this. Number one, I didn't want them to keel over while loading my stuff. I'd have to call an ambulance and that would only mean they would not be able to finish loading our containers today. And secondly, I wanted them to go faster. We were paying them $75 an hour!

They were grateful for the burgers and they seemed to pick up a little speed.

They all finally left after laboring for eight solid hours. We waved goodbye after we handed them a check and another round of bottled water. They drove off in a little red Toyota truck. The three of them were stuffed in the front seat. I guess they really are good at this packing thing. Anyway, some of our junk was tied down in the back. They were headed for the dump. Well, at least that's where he said they were headed. "It's on our way home." he told me. But I'd guess I'm likely to see my stuff piled off to the side of the road near one or our neighborhood construction sites.

In the end we didn't fit all our stuff in the 20 footer. Nor was Terry, Rodruiguez and Emanuel able to fit the the rest of it in the additional 12 footer. So we ordered another 16 foot container. It'll be here tomorrow morning and maybe I'll finally be able to clean out this huge house of it's junk.

...dave
I was born by Caesarian section...but not so you'd notice. It's just that when I leave a house, I go out through the window. -Stephen Wright

Subscribe

"Why is this site called 365 when you don't post everyday?"

Don't get me started!

Okay, so I can't keep up. But...

Now you can subscribe to this blog. Why would you want to do that?

We'll, then you wont have to keep coming back to this site to see if anything new is posted. That's a drag.

So every time something is posted here, you get an email. You can always click on the link in the email to get to this site but you don't have to. You can read it right within your inbox, pictures and all. You can unsubscribe anytime you get tired of the posts. And I don't do anything with your email. I don't sell it to anyone. (Who's going to buy it anyway?) I don't blast you with news or ads or junk like that.

You don't have to. It's totally up to you. Just click on the "Subscribe" link off to the right, under the picture and the "Why 365?" link. It's easy.

...dave
The learned fool writes his nonsense in better language than the unlearned, but it is still nonsense. - Benjamin Franklin

The containers are coming, The containers are coming!

(Sketch from work.)

Those big moving containers are to be delivered today. Our plan is to hire some guys to pack and fill them up this weekend and have them delivered to the new place on Monday when we sign the papers. Then we'll call what few friends we have to help us unload them. After that, we may have fewer friends still.

And so ends our four year stay at our current house. It's been a good four years here.

We love this place, except for it's size, it's distance, it's Home Owners Association Fees, it's, well you get the idea.

We are ready to downsize. This place costs us $300 to heat and cool each month. It's simply too big for us.

And we are looking forward to remodeling the new. It needs some windows, flooring, painting, and some attention to the kitchen. Our goal is to finish it all within three months or so. We want to settle in quickly and get on with life.

So it's all been very busy around here lately. Ruth has made many phone calls for repairs to be done to this house. There were not many but lots of phone calls. Meanwhile, Eric and I have been packing when we get in from work or school. Eric is looking forward to painting his own room with a sort of mural. I'm afraid to ask for too many details.

The new place will give us more options since our overhead will be so much lower. Once we finish upstairs and rent the downstairs maybe we can think about a concerted focus on Chinese.

We feel so fortunate that we have these options. When we look out at the world's scene we see that so many have so little for and for so long.

...dave
In war, truth is the first casualty. ~Aeschylus

Thinking with a pencil

I found a gem of a book. Wow. I'd say this guy is the father of diagrams.

The initial page reads: "With 692 illustrations of Easy Ways to Make and Use Drawings in Your Work and in Your Hobbies."

He has illustrated every kind of drawing you can think of: people, graphs, objects, flora, fauna, 3 dimensional mechanical objects, drapery, lettering, and more!

I got my used copy through Amazon for about a buck + $3 shipping.

What a wealth of information in this 350 page book.

If you are looking for examples and approaches to sketching for hobby or work, this is a must have.

Here's just one thing I learned:

When drawing objects behind other objects, stop your contour lines of the objects behind just before they meet the objects in front. He shows examples in the book. (And I'd post them here if it weren't for copyright infringement.)

Great stuff!

...dave
"The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time" -Abraham Lincoln

Entertainment at the Enterprise

The things I like about working on a 50 million project:

Spending an hour on what floor the developers will sit on
Spending two hours on what to label the boxes on a whiteboard
Spending a week figuring out the conflicting "visions" of the VPs

These are my favorite things. Sometimes it would just be better to stay at home.

Sad but true but I'm just one of several software architects on a 50 million dollar project. It's amazing how much cash these huge projects burn and on what little gets accomplished.

For example, can you imagine spending an hour arguing over the building and floor location for the developers. Why? Who cares? Because the perception is, the Director they sit next to, gets more respect and power. Think about it. If the core team sits next to you, you are perceived as having more control and power over what they do on the project. But an hour?

Since there are conflicting views on what we are supposed to do with the big bucks, we spend an inordinate amount of time on variants of the solution. Without a project charter no one really knows what the high level requirements are. But that's no matter, we plow right ahead. It reminds me of a cartoon of the boss yelling over his shoulder at his gape-mouthed developer: "Start coding, I'll go find out what the requirements are."

Crazy. Just plain crazy.

I could go work for Google. That place sounds very cool.

...dave
Yesterday, is history...
Tomorrow, is a mystery...
Today is a gift...
That's why it's called,
The present...

Waiting for a friend

Deng Xiang is a friend of mine. His English name is David but I always use the Chinese word for David, Dawei. He's become one of my many Chinese teachers. When we go to lunch he'll say to me: "We need to speak Chinese." And so we switch to his language.

And so he begins to correct my Chinese. It's great. Trouble is, in a restaurant I'm not always sure I'm hearing him correctly. So I write down what he says to verify in writing his spoken words. It wasn't always like this. He uses to just nod in agreement whenever he didn't understand me. That's no good I told him. "How can I improve if you don't correct me?" He'd just nod again, politely.

He's been studying English since grade school but he admits his pronunciation is not always accurate. He's always asking me if he said this or that word correctly, or if his meaning was understood, or if his English is colloquial enough. So I'd help him. But then it hit me.

One day I just nodded politely at one of his not-so-understandable sentences. He was puzzled because he had asked a question and I wasn't answering him. "Dave" he said to me "what is the correct way to say this?"

"You know Dawei" I said to him "If you don't correct me, I'm not going to correct you!"

We both started laughing and from that time forward we are not at all bashful about correcting each other.

Dawei is a great friend.

I drew the quick sketch while waiting for him in front of a Thai restaurant.

...dave
A thousand cups of wine do not suffice when true friends meet, but half a sentence is too much when there is no meeting of minds.

Drawing breakfast

In an effort to sketch everyday, sometimes I sketch my breakfast. Trouble is, if I take too long, my food gets cold. Fast sketching is good.

Here I've sketched the greatest deal of the century. A Loaded Omelet for just $2.79 available at our company's cafeteria. It even comes with salsa. (That's the squiggly stuff in the upper center.)

What a life: egg omelet with salsa, a fresh cup of Peet's coffee, a blank journal, and a Uniball Vision Micro pen. You gotta love it.

It's easy to make excuses for not drawing everyday. Sometimes I get hung up on not having the right sketchbook or pen or pencil. I imagine that I'm doing some masterpiece and need my special sketch tool. Hogwash all of it. As Michelangelo said to his apprentice: "Draw, draw, draw. Stop wasting time, draw!" (This statement is accreted to Michelangelo but as yet unverified by me.)

The point is: I'm NOT sketching a masterpiece. Just sketching. The objective: To be lost in the moment. The right brain takes over and time slips by.

Sometimes I'll add watercolor to my sketches. I've been using a Uniball Vision Micro pen. The ink in them is permanent and acid free. Which means, I can watercolor over it without the line bleeding into a blur AND it'll maintain it's jet black color. The micros have a very fine 0.5 point.

This sketch was done in my daily journal. It's got a leather cover and clean snow-white pages. I bought it at Borders (where else) last year on their 50% off rack. It was just 15 bucks. To create my page-a-day journal, I added a date to each page using a date stamp. After stamping 365 pages I still had pages left over in the back for indexes, quotes, ideas, and special lists.

It's a great book for sketching and journaling.

...dave
"Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake." - Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821)