Change, not change I got tired of the colors on this blog, so I changed it. It is a little bit Christmas-like, but I hope not too strong. I also redid the logo. (A couple of days from now I'm sure I'll find something I forgot to fix ...) A real redesign is badly needed, but I'm not sure I'm up for that right now. Maybe sometime this winter. I've looked at some skins like snazzykat has, but somehow none are quite what I want. I want this to be about the content (yeah, like I am really writing here very much!) and don't want a lot of ornamentation. Also, even though I am not a real designer I think that this blog should reflect my design ideas, and not necessarily someone else's. Much of my life I've been trying to fit into other people's templates in one way or another. At least for this blog, I'd like to do it my own way.

Hey, thanks A great Thanksgiving this year, even if I've been sick through it all. I hate being sick on holidays. And it seems like I always am sick on holidays. Stress, I guess. Anyway, my wife made a wonderful dinner and her mom and brother were here and the little one is having tons of fun playing with them. Sometimes so much that he forgets about me for a little while, which is great because it lets me sneak off and rest for a while. He's very happy with everyone around, and so am I. Something about this boy seems to bring out the best in everyone -- instead of bickering everyone is playing! This has helped distract me from a cold/flu that has made it very hard to sleep. To top it off an eye infection has run round the family. A new kid in preschool is a wonderful vector for lost of nasty germs. I hope things are going good where you are; if not, they really can get better next year, and I hope they do.

Happy Thanksgiving Sometimes in the past it coming up with a list of things to be thankful for seemed forced. It wasn't that my life was so bad or anything. Just maybe something about me. This year is different. I am so thankful for my wonderful new family. Everything else is just an afterthought right now.

I wonder ... It would be interesting to speculate on the effects of morale at a development shop when work you once did is now outsourced. It would be more interesting if the people who the work was outsourced to seem unable to do it, and the people who once did the work now have to do the work again because of that. Of course, I've never actually seen this happen. But it would be interesting to see ...

I used to be a biologist, sorta, so ...

You are glucose. People feed off of you. You are
sweet, caring, and a source of energy for
everyone around you. You can inspire others
with your creativity and depth, and you can
keep people alive when in times of famine.
People love you...or at least the way you
taste.

Which Biological Molecule Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

This seems to make very little sense. My wife does have diabetes, however, so go figure....

Sick bay The boy was sick, my wife has been sick, and I'm now (hopefully) just getting over the same thing. We've all been home almost all week, dealing with a couple of bad nights and a trip to the emergency room for a high fever; he was fine but we had to be sure. Amid all of this were two Internet outages; one yet another problem with water in our cable splitter, the other my fault (bad router configuration). This didn't make working from home any easier. Fortunately I'm essentially wrapped up on one project and waiting to see what I do next. Amid all the hassles of this, it did occur to me that being with a sick child is one of those times where you don't have to wonder if you are in the right place. And it is so good to see him back to his old self (alternately angel and devil, often in the space of 5 minutes). Two other observations: * After watching enough cartoons, even the PBS kind, your mind can no longer deal with the adult world. * eBay can be very dangerous when you have a lot of time on your hands. I managed to do very little damage, but probably only because the little one keeps insisting on going to the Barney site.

Shadows I took a few quick looks at the lunar eclipse tonight -- pretty cool. I was too wimpy to stand outside in the cold for very long, but fortunately we had a very good view of most of it from our front porch, and we could even see it pretty well from indoors. A nice warm fire and hot chocolate and good company were pretty cool too.

Quiz time

First trick-or-treat Our little one went out with us to a few of the neighbors' houses last night. At first he didn't want to put on his Jay Jay the Jet Plane costume. But then he saw the bowl of candy by the door, and seemed to figure out what was going on here. He had a good time and saw lots of scary pumpkins. I usually don't like Halloween much, but this one was a lot better with a kid. PS: I got to try out the "nightshot" mode on my video camera. It makes very spooky looking shots (sort of like those we saw on TV from Iraq).