monitorhead

Our company employs web filtering software to limit access to certain kinds of content on the internet. I have run up against this restriction on a couple of occasions. These were understandable exclusions-one was a news story at a game related site (RESTRICTED: games), another was a message board on Yahoo! Groups (RESTRICTED: personal or classified ads), and another was the music section of apple.com (RESTRICTED: music). These were all reasonable exclusions since my internet access is supposed to be for work purposes.

Today, I was shocked to find that I can no longer check Megan’s blog or my own from work (RESTRICTED: non-traditional religious, cult or folklore). I have no idea what content on our site elicited such a filter classification. I would really like to know how this happened. If you see anything on my blog or Megan’s blog that you think would fall into that category please post a comment.

So, I suppose this will put a further damper on my already infrequent blogging.

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On a side note, Ryan’s post today covered a litany of subjects he would rather not blog on today. I completely agree with his disgust with the fear related to the U.A.E. owned company that will be overseeing operations at a handful of American ports. Furthermore, I think this has really blown up in the face of the Bush administration and led to a historically low approval rate for the President. 

A few weeks back, I wrote about a small coffee related mishap that killed the keyboard on Megan’s laptop. I had my own minor coffee incident this morning on the drive to work. While trying to recover a bit of the delicious foam from my espresso-based drink, I managed to precisely place an aliquot of that drink directly in my lap. What a way to start the day! My pants have now dried leaving behind a distinct coffee colored ring next to my zipper.

On a totally unrelated note, it is nice to be working in a place where people are friendly. There are a lot of people that I don’t know in my office but passing someone in the hall always involves a hello, a nod or exchange of some sort. This was not the case at school where I often passed my labmates without acknowledgement. In general, this scenario also plays out in other public places in this area. Perhaps it is due to the friendly nature of Texans in their native habitat. The social atmosphere of L.A. seemed to create an insular barrier around each individual and discourage interactions with strangers.

I took a bike ride last week to get some much needed exercise.  It was quite enjoyable but I haven’t managed to repeat the feat. Our neighborhood is surrounded by a system of gullies to drain rainwater. The gullies are probably 20 feet deep and 100 feet wide. On either side is a flat levee wide enough to drive a car on. This is perfect for a ready made bike trail. It is also extensively used by the neighbors for riding ATV’s and go-carts. 

I took a half-hour sojourn along the gullies and managed to find more than a few mud puddles. This is the thick black mud of Houston that reminds me a bit of crude oil. My tires, brakes, gear sprockets and derailers were caked with mud when I returned home.  I concluded my ride with a 10 minute wash down to clean up. I’m looking forward to the next ride.

Waking up before sunrise feels manly.

In September, I started an "early to work" regimen during my thesis writing. At the time, this allowed me to work for 12 hours a day and still be home for dinner before the kids went to sleep. I can’t say many positive things about the 3 months that followed other than, I got a tremendous amount of work done in a short period of time. In December, I began my new job. I have continued the "early to work" program though it is slightly later now. And I only work for 8 hours now. Even after adding another hour or so for travel time to and from work, I am back home before 5pm.  This is great!

Being the only one awake in the morning while everyone else still sleeps feels like I am doing some important–being the bread winner. Maybe it goes back to the agrarian roots of our society when hard work started before sunrise with egg-collecting, cow-milking, and pig-feeding. I’m not quite sure. But I feel like I am making a deeper commitment to protecting and providing for my family just by waking first. If you are familiar with my sleeping schedule during most of grad school, you would probably agree that this is indeed a committed act.

There are some benefits to rising early. I’ve already mentioned my early return time which allows me time to exercise after work (more on this in future posts) and play with the boys before bed. Plus, I get to see the sunrise every morning. What a blessing it can be to see God make a new day. Traffic is lighter, the day seems faster, and coffee somehow tastes better.

Now, if I could manage to get to sleep before midnight, that early morning wake up time will be much more welcome.

A quick follow-up on the "Great Coffee Spill of 2006." I successfully replaced Megan’s laptop keyboard with a brand new one from eBay. After snapping the keyboard into place and tightening the screws, the laptop worked without a hitch.

Of course, Megan was hopeful that the laptop was beyond repair thinking that we could rush out and replace it with a brand, new Apple PowerBook or MacBook. Unfortunately, she will have to save that dream for another day.

eBay Keyboard replacement = $35

Apple MacBook Pro = $1999

do-it-yourself husband = priceless

A couple of days ago, Megan called me at work with an emergency. "My computer is typing random letters when I type!" At first, I suspected the worst–a virus or piece of mal-ware had been installed and was hijacking her keyboard. After a couple of troubleshooting questions, we eliminated that possibility. Then we recalled that Logan had accidently yanked the computer off a counter the day before. The laptop had not exhibited any problems after the fall, but I suspected it might be a cause.

I continued asking Megan questions about the situation: When did the symptoms begin? How long had she been using her computer before the trouble? Had she moved the computer? Had anything unusual occured? At that point, she mentioned that she had "splashed" a little coffee onto the keyboard earlier. I began to suspect we had isolated the cause. I had her turn off the computer and let it dry out.

When I got home, I removed the keyboard and found a sizeable portion of the keyboard was sticky with the remains of her sweet, caffeinated concoction. The dried coffee spread roughly from the left shift key to the F key. I made several attempts to clean up the keyboard including rinsing the keyboard with water (the keyboard was removed and I have seen this described before) but only succeeded in making the problem worse. Currently, a new keyboard for her laptop is on order from a seller on eBay.

The moral of the story: Wireless laptops and delicious lattes are good things best enjoyed separately.