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Week in Review — WW26’10

Jun 27th, 2010
by Brent Logan.
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Day by Day

Sunday. Happy Fathers’ Day! Rather than sleeping in, we decided to go out to IHOP for breakfast. Dane joined us for the fun and we all ate too much.

As the weather starts to warm, Meisa has started shedding. Rather than sending her to the groomers, we decided to DIY. After brushing, shampooing, shaving, cutting, clipping, and lots and lots of vacuuming, Meisa has a nice, short summer do. I’m not sure she looks like a Sheltie anymore. I like it! ;-)

Monday. Jamison and I went to guitar group in the evening with cousin Ethan. We have a newbie in the group, so I pulled out Guitar From Scratch to lend to him. What a great beginners’ guitar book. Highly recommended.

Tuesday. I miss teaching my 6th grader group math on Tuesday mornings. :’-(

The third Tuesday of the month is school board meeting night. Budgets, enrollments, parent surveys, and student security were all topics of discussion.

Wednesday. WFH today (and not the normal H). What I thought was going to take five hours took ten. A very long day — sort of like baseball: long innings of boredom with brief plays of excitement. At least we knew a few of the players.

From our view out the waiting room windows, it was a beautiful day. Nice. I need a “sun” emoticon. A picture will do.

Thursday. Schedules, schedules, and more schedules. I want a big office with a shiny wall and lots of Post It notes. Or a couple double-wide white boards with black tape and lots of colored dry erase markers. Instead I make do with a spreadsheet — not near as much fun, but I can e-mail it. And I do have a 28″ 1920×1200 monitor. Okay, I’m happy. :-)

It’s the second beautiful day in a row, and it’s not even the weekend. Suzi and I thought it time to to show off Meisa’s new do. A walk around the neighborhood did the job and tired out the dog.

Friday. Every day above ground is a good day.

Saturday. Church, family, food, and a church farewell party for dear friends. We’ll miss you, Kings.

Books.

The books I ordered last week arrived and I glanced through them, though not enough to say I’m reading them.

My books page provides more information on the books I’ve read or discovered this year.

Blogs and RSS Feeds

  • Cool Infographics. “Charts and graphs can communicate data; infographics turn data into information”
  • Blurgh! “The ThinkGeek blog. Grok it!”
  • Otto on WordPress. “You have to use an Ottopress to get fresh squeezed Otto.”
  • Bridgetown – Rediscovering the bridges of Portland, Oregon. “As I said, I started this project with very personal goals, I wanted to encourage myself to open my own eyes a bit wider, to see these bridges from new perspectives, but as I am wont to do, I began posting the products of my nightly wanderings to Flickr. I enjoy sharing in that regard, and I was not surprised to discover the impact the images began having on others. It was not long before I had other photographers beginning to join me on my nightly strolls under these bridges. Now I want to catapult beyond the reach of Flickr. I want to reach a wider audience and to make something a bit more tangible out of this. This is where you come in.” Thanks go to @bobpotter for this discovery. I don’t know why it’s not showing up in my probation blogroll.

My blogroll lists the blogs I read.

___
Photo credit: Vishvarupa on Flickr / CC Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic

Posted in: General.
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Web Badging Like It’s 2002

Jun 25th, 2010
by Brent Logan.
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Oh, for the good old days, when everyone plastered web badges all over their blogs. Thanks to 80×15.com, it’s easy to make your own. Here’s mine:

To keep the nostalgia alive, I put it in my page footer.

Posted in: blogan.
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Out of Context Endorsements

Jun 22nd, 2010
by Brent Logan.
4 comments

At the risk of alienating my commenters, I perused my comment database for phrases that sound like endorsements (but aren’t) — the more out of context, the better.

For now, these are also in the sidebar. Enjoy!

Posted in: blogan.
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Week in Review — WW25’10

Jun 20th, 2010
by Brent Logan.
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Day by Day

Sunday. What an awesome day! We had an open house for Melissa and a couple of her classmates to celebrate their graduations. Among the three families, we had lots of food and lots of guests. I counted about 75 people in our backyard at one time, with more scattered throughout the house, coming and going.

As the open house was ending (or maybe I was just tired), Dane, Tyler, and Jamison had an impromptu jam session on electric guitar, drums, and electric bass. Hearing Dane play my guitar is both inspiring and disheartening at the same time. It is nice to hear how nice my guitar can sound in the right hands. I’ll need to practice a lot more before those hands are mine. Thanks to the absence and/or tolerance of our neighbors, no officer knocked on our door to shut us down.

Later in the evening after most of our guests had left, we gathered around Suzi’s new firepit and made s’mores. All the fun of camping with none of the mess. :-)

Monday. Jamison’s 6th grade promotion was Monday afternoon. One last opportunity to take a picture of Jamison with his teachers.

That evening, Jamison and I went to guitar group to prepare for church — and have a bunch of fun.

Tuesday. Suzi and Melissa left for Melissa’s senior class trip to Sun River. I wish I could have gone. This is the class I went to Mexico with and once to Wi-Ne-Ma — a great bunch of kids. Turns out that many of the adult sponsors were the same as the Mexico trip, too.

Wednesday. Jamison’s 6th grade class had an end of the year pool party. I dropped by to say “hi!”

Wednesday and Thursday afternoon, my group taught a couple of sessions at the server Technical Bootcamp Series about our tools.

Much later that evening, our team went out to see “The A-Team.” I love it when a plan comes together.

Thursday. More training with the team. It’s great fun to see our friends from Taiwan and PRC. Celia always come prepared with gifts. I’m looking forward to trying brown sugar sweet potato candy.

Friday. Friday was another great day. Together with my admin, we were able to accomplish something that on Tuesday had looked impossible.

Suzi and Melissa got home from Melissa’s senior class trip. We went to Darla’s house for hot dogs and s’mores.

Saturday. Church and family. Jamison and I played for praise sing with guitar group. I played Ashley’s acoustic guitar unplugged and in the back. I’m not sure anyone even heard me, probably a blessing. ;-)

Saturday night offered one more chance to use the fire pit — and we took it.

Books

I didn’t really read this week, so I won’t claim to be currently reading anything. I discovered the following book while wandering through the science section of Barnes & Noble:

The following three books were recommended by the Manager Connections Newsletter at work. I ordered all of them.

My books page provides more information on the books I’ve read or discovered this year.

Blogs and Other RSS Feeds

I started reading the following blogs:

  • Simple Justice. “A New York Criminal Defense Blog.” A tip of the hat to Ron Coleman for this discovery.
  • Daniel Payne Photography. “As Vice President for the Portland Metropolitan Photographer’s Association I’m involved with continual education in my craft. I used my first 35mm film camera in 1980, shot my first wedding in 1982 and turned pro in 2001.”
  • The Points of Light Blog. “Points of Light Institute is organized to innovate, incubate and activate new ideas that help people act upon their power to make a difference. Read and respond to our reflections on 21st century volunteerism here.”

As always, my blogroll lists the blogs I read.

One more awesome week for the record books. ;-)

So, how was your week? Let me know in the comments.

Posted in: Family.
Tagged: · · · · · · · · ·

Guy Kawasaki’s Advice: Live With Mom and Dad

Jun 18th, 2010
by Brent Logan.
3 comments

Ashley and Heather informed us they are planning to live at home after college to pay off student loans and save some money. It brought to mind Guy Kawasaki’s famous commencement speech:

#10: Live off your parents as long as possible.

I was a diligent Oriental in high school and college. I took college-level classes and earned college-level credits. I rushed through college in 3 1/2 years. I never traveled or took time off because I thought it wouldn’t prepare me for work and it would delay my graduation.

Frankly, I blew it.

You are going to work the rest of your lives, so don’t be in a rush to start. Stretch out your college education. Now is the time to suck life into your lungs-before you have a mortgage, kids, and car payments.

Take whole semesters off to travel overseas. Take jobs and internships that pay less money or no money. Investigate your passions on your parent’s nickel. Or dime. Or quarter. Or dollar. Your goal should be to extend college to at least six years.

Delay, as long as possible, the inevitable entry into the workplace and a lifetime of servitude to bozos who know less than you do, but who make more money. Your parents and grand parents worked very hard to get you and your family to this point. Do not deprive them of the pleasure of supporting you.

Living with parents is only part of Guy’s advice, and it isn’t the only part our kids are doing right.

Go read items #9 through #1. Good advice all the way through.

And kids, we’ll keep your rooms available.

Posted in: Quotes.
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Week In Review — WW24’10

Jun 14th, 2010
by Brent Logan.
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Sunday. This week started in the wee hours of Sunday morning. Dave and Rachel volunteered to help us move Ashley’s and Heather’s stuff home from college. So, a little before 6 AM, I rang their doorbell, ready for the drive to Walla Walla. Better yet, I was ready for the ride to Walla Walla, because Dave was driving and pulling the trailer we picked up from Art the afternoon before. After a short stop at Starbucks, we drove to Walla Walla, loaded the trailer, the back of Dave’s truck, and Suzi’s van with boxes that Suzi and the girls had already packed. We celebrated our quick progress at Worm Ranch (don’t ask — you either know and approve, or don’t and maybe wouldn’t understand), drove back home, unpacked, returned the trailer, and went home to collapse. It was a long day!

Clearly, we have the best friends. Thank you, Art, Dave, and Rachel! :-)

Monday. Busy, busy morning and a frustrating afternoon. I finally got something to work by going home and accessing the site using my home computer. There’s more than one way to skin a cat (do people really skin cats?). Next time I have to access this  business web app, I’ll know what to do.

At least we accomplished something at home. Suzi rented a carpet cleaner and I vacuumed and cleaned the downstairs carpets and the stairs. Jamison mowed the lawn. I love that boy. :-)

Tuesday. This was my last Tuesday teaching math to an awesome group of 6th graders (plus one 5th grader). It’s a sad day because these kids are going to different schools next year. I will miss them. (How do teachers handle losing a class of students each year?) I’m also going to miss teaching math over the summer. I’ve volunteered to do the same next year and am looking forward to meeting a new class.

Tuesday evening, we attended Melissa’s senior dinner. I love hearing the parents talk about how wonderful their kids are. Suzi and I joined in the fun. And it was all true!

Wednesday. Wednesday was a travel day. I took the Intel shuttle north to spend the day in DuPont, Washington.

Thursday. I started the day with setting up a tent for Jamison at school and getting Starbucks with Suzi for some very deserving teachers.

Once at work, I set up my new 28-inch, 1920 x 1200 pixel monitor. Wow, I like it! I’m discovering that some applications and web sites are not designed for wide screens (e.g., non-fixed width web sites). Others could use even more (Excel, Seesmic web).

Friday. I had graduation practice in the morning. Once again, our school board chair was unavailable, so I was able to fill in for him, reading all the graduates names. Friday morning, I made sure I could pronounce all the names — correctly.

Melissa graduated Friday evening. We’re so proud of her.

Saturday. Church and family. Like always. :-)

We also visited some graduates’ open houses and practiced with Jamison for VBS.

We can’t review this week without mentioning the amazing weather we had on Saturday. I believe it was our first 80-degree day this year.

Sunday. Yeah, I know. It’s part of WW26, not WW25. But it’s my excuse for the delay in getting this posted. Details next week. :-)

Books

I’m currently reading:

I finished reading:

I discovered:

My books page provides more information on the books I’ve read or discovered this year.

Blogs and Other RSS Feeds

I started reading:

  • Sherman’s Lagoon: “Sherman’s Lagoon is an undersea cartoon featuring a dimwitted shark named Sherman, his sea turtle sidekick, and an assortment of other coral reef critters who team up to battle the encroachment of civilization on their remote tropical paradise.” Don’t forget the polar bear.
  • Sarcasymptote: “An acerbic misanthrope teaches squirrely kids math in Brooklyn. Hilarity ensues.” @sarcasymptote is also on Twitter.

As always, my blogroll lists the blogs I read.

Posted in: General.
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Melissa Graduates!

Jun 11th, 2010
by Brent Logan.
2 comments

Melissa graduated tonight. We’re so proud!

Posted in: Family.
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Jackson School Camping

Jun 10th, 2010
by Brent Logan.
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Jamison and his 6th grade classmates had their end-of-the-year camping and service day at Jackson School today. The students set up tents on the playground and “camped out” between doing service projects on campus. The weather cooperated as usual, sending a light drizzle during pitching. It felt just like regular camping.

Suzi collected the orders and we delivered Starbucks to a few very deserving teachers.

Posted in: Family.
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Day Trip Between Hillsboro and Olympia Airports

Jun 9th, 2010
by Brent Logan.
2 comments

Today I flew from the Hillsboro Airport to the Olympia Airport, worked the day in DuPont, and flew back. Fortunately, I had my camera with me.

Posted in: General.

Help Find Kyron Horman

Jun 8th, 2010
by Brent Logan.
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Missing — Kyron Horman

  • 3’8″ Tall
  • 50 Pounds
  • Blue Eyes
  • Brown Hair

Last seen wearing black cargo pants, white socks, and worn black Sketcher tennis shoes with orange trim.

If you have any information, call the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Tip Line.
(503) 261-2847

Any Urgent Information, Call 911

Update. More pictures and information.

Posted in: General.
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