I think that these do not work for me.

Bummer.

sorry lpc.

Sparks : Pulling Rabbits Out Of A Hat (1984): Pretending to be Drunk

That is what I had intended, pretending to be drunk
A little change in character, pretending to be drunk
You think I am weak and feeble
You think I’m a bore
When you drag me to a party
Soon I’m out the door
Next time I’ll portray a suave sophisticated hunk
That is what I had intended, pretending to be drunk

God Box
God’s Boxes
I have in my hands two boxes
Which God gave me to hold.
He said, “Put all your sorrows in the black box,
And all your joys in the gold.”

I heeded His words, and in the two boxes
Both my joys and sorrows I stored.

But though the gold became heavier each day
The black was as light as before.
With curiosity, I opened the black,
I wanted to find out why,
And I saw, in the base of the box, a hole
Which my sorrows had fallen out by.
I showed the hole to God, and mused,
“I wonder where my sorrows could be.”
He smiled a gentle smile and said,
“My child ,they’re all here with me.”

I asked God, why He gave me the boxes,
Why the gold, and the black with the hole?
“My child, the gold is for you to count your
blessings, The black is for you to let go.”

Related Exercise: get a small box and designate it your “God box.” Write some problem you’re having on a piece of paper. Put the paper in the box. It’s now God’s. If you’re tempted to consider the problem, remember: you have given it to God to solve; it is no longer yours. Remove the problem when God has solved it for you.

I actually cannot tell anymore that I had an ingrown toenail.

I think it’s was a lot of sandal-wearing, and a few days of soaking, along with some massaging of the area to relieve pressure on the toe and nail.

Feeling: thankful.

O Click All Ye Faithful: The nun who launched the Vatican’s Web site is at work on a MySpace for Catholics

via robotwisdom 

Leah and I (and Alex and a friend bff of hers) were at the Simi Valley mall this weekend, and one of the storefronts was an “under construction” Apple Store.

We actually have one in Thousand Oaks, maybe 15 minutes away, at another mall, but it’s neat to see one coming for Simi.

ColdFusion TitleCase Function was updated with the addition of U.S. state abbreviations, via a reader submission.

We’ve done some web updates to the site for Davis Davis Architects in San Diego. They had almost no alt attributes before we worked on the site, and now they’re loaded up. They do some great architecture.

I kept telling her today that she might like to watch the new Mac ads. Here they are!

And here it is:

Minority Report Screen at ORD – Gizmodo

Affirmations of the day:

Just for today I will be vulnerable with someone I trust.

I am a child of God and I deserve love, peace, prosperity, and serenity.

Just for today I will act in a way that I would admire in someone else.

“It helps to have a friend going through the same”

“I’ll be your other”

“Join us for Mancala Hour!”

They’re Made Out of Meat by Terry Bisson

“Omigod. Singing meat. This is altogether too much. So what do you advise?”

kirupa.com – Fixing the Flash/Embed Issue:

This script worked on a project that may actually launch sometime soon.

See also: “Click to activate and use this control”

I kinda like Flash. I kinda dislike it too.

Like all programming environments and languages, it sucks, but can also do cool stuff.

So today I got two offers or employment — well, specific interest in me for jobs for which I’m quite qualified.

The first was a job in Respiratory Therapy in San Diego. The problem? I no longer live there, and I no longer do that. And yes, the offerer had been to see my resume for Respiratory Care. And I did point out that it says right on there that I don’t do that anymore.

The second was for a ColdFusion job located in the Inland Empire. That’s fine, but I am working as part of Crawberts, and I live nowhere near the Inland Empire. Still, it’s only slightly closer than San Diego.
I’m flattered to be wanted for jobs, I just wish they were a little better targeted.

What Leah and I really need are some tasty web applications we can build for folks. That’s what we’re good at. Websites too, and flash animations, and navigation systems. All things web, as we say.

A new day, again. Lessons and centering and learning.

Leah and I use Flickr quite a bit — in this post to FlickrBlog they indicate several changes that sound pretty great. I’m looking forward to seeing them roll out. I particularly am looking forward to improved search capabilities.

via waxy 

Like a Prayer: Madonna

Life is a mystery, everyone must stand alone
I hear you call my name
And it feels like home

When you call my name it’s like a little prayer
I’m down on my knees, I wanna take you there
In the midnight hour I can feel your power
Just like a prayer you know I’ll take you there

I hear your voice, it’s like an angel sighing
I have no choice, I hear your voice
Feels like flying
I close my eyes, oh God I think I’m falling
Out of the sky, I close my eyes
Heaven help me

When you call my name it’s like a little prayer
I’m down on my knees, I wanna take you there
In the midnight hour I can feel your power
Just like a prayer you know I’ll take you there

Like a child you whisper softly to me
You’re in control just like a child
Now I’m dancing
It’s like a dream, no end and no beginning
You’re here with me, it’s like a dream
Let the choir sing

All is full of love.

Nifty: Apple Store – Simi Valley Grand Opening May 13

I noticed it just 9 days ago, and here it is opening up in two!

Kewl.

Quote of the day:

Everyone wants to feel like a winner. And feeling like a winner requires that you win. You get a feeling of the winner by completing a task 100 percent. When you do this repeatedly, eventually you develop a habit of completing the tasks that you begin. When this habit of task completion locks in, your life will begin to improve in ways you cannot today imagine.

In psychology, the reverse is always true. The “incomplete action” is a major source of stress and anxiety. In fact, much of the unhappiness that people experience is because they have not been able to discipline themselves to follow through and complete an important task or responsibility.

From Goals! by Brian Tracy.

So the contents of my keys and wallet were the subject of today’s brilliantly funny slice-of-life post over at leahpeah: I Don’t Want One wherein she says:

and I continue to drive Joe a little crazy because he is the kind of guy that has had the same 3 club cards for over 5 years and they are always in his wallet in the same slots. But he also carries around 500 keys that he doesn’t need, so whatever.

It’s true. I don’t mind doing the monkey dance for the store people, and I hate to be unprepared when someone wants to see my documents, licenses, access codes, club cards, etc. I get really embarassed and feel like a dope. It’s years of family training to NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER lose your keys, or your passport, or your proof of insurance, or your bank book, or leave your keys in your car, or forget your home phone number or address or else the GODS OF BUREAUCRACY WILL PUNISH YOU AND YOU WILL NO LONGER DESERVE TO HAVE THE SURNAME CRAWFORD. That’s only a slight exaggeration.

So let’s clear up the contents of my keyring. I have 6 keys, 3 swipey things, a bottle opener, and a electronic door opener thingy. The keys are to the house, the mailbox, the car, actually the other three are to uh… okay, I’m not sure, but it’s only three keys I don’t know, and NOT 500, but when I need them I’ll have the last laugh! And yes, if I have my keys I am ready AT THE DROP OF A HAT to purchase at club card prices at Ralph’s and Albertson’s. Taste the savings! I can also get into our gym at any second as well. My Vons card is in my wallet, since they’re pretty much Nazis and haven’t caught on that the little key fob bar code thingies are really the right way to go when it comes to shopping discount technology. I don’t think the “oh, you don’t have your card, give us your phone number” works for any of them since they’re all tied to phone numbers I had sometime during the Clinton administration. Thus, Leah would not really have access to my super-secret club discounts. I do intend to update them so that my wife can use my discountsclub information, but it’s not high on my to-do list. I do, however, have a little slip of paper in my wallet from Ralph’s reminding me I need to do that since a few weeks ago when I didn’t have my keys and I had to give them like 3 phone numbers before I got one that worked to give me the discount on the bread, wine, and water I had bought. The NSA has nothing on Ralph’s when it comes to knowing my personal home phone number history.

It’s at this point I’ll point out that I need to get back to work, since that’s what I need to do today. The watchword is goal completion today, baby. If I can stick to a goal like “I will not lose my club cards EVER, since without them I can’t save 15 cents on Gatorade for the boys” I should be able to meet deadlines too. So, yeah.

Godspeed, y’all.

For Leah especially, and for my Mom and Mother-in-Law, and all Moms in the world
Happy Mother’s Day!

I’m sort of between things just this second. Doing lots of work psychologically and spiritually. It’s really hard work.

Lots of other stuff going on, but I’m not going to talk about them just now.

Hard work, but rewarding work.

Affirmation of the day:

The pain that I might feel by remembering can’t be any worse than the pain I feel by knowing and not remembering.

And another one:

Just for today I will act in a way that I would admire in someone else.

Three month coin.

Thanks for listening.

My Old Kentucky Blog: Love Will Tear Us Apart Covers

One of my favorite songs, ever. All about exultant depressed bittersweetness.

via kottke.org

Sometimes the only thing that feels possible is to do the easy thing first.

Small task completion is so much more satisfying than working on big tasks that take lots of time and never seem to be finished.

But then if all you ever work on are small tasks, big tasks will never ever get done.

And then where does that put you with your true responsibilities?

(Wait, back up, the implication is that the big ones are the only true ones, that’s not true. The small ones are true too).

Prioritization, then, is the watchword to meditate on today. Also, courage to tackle the things that seem insurmountable.

Just what makes that little ole ant think he’ll move that rubber tree plant?

Questions to ponder, brother.

Straighten up and fly right!

It’s raining this morning here in Simi Valley. Nice somber rain, perfect for a mellow day like today.

On the agenda is some work, and some other things too. It’ll be another busy week of learning and life.
My favorite color is green.

Internet Archive: Details: Elements Of A Successful Website: Joe Crawford: MacGathering

I myself have not yet listened to it, but there it is, in all its imperfect glory.

It’s not through any great foresight that I have a recording of it, rather, Chris Glenn of Christopher Glenn Photography managed to record it and send it to me. Thanks Chris!

More about MacGathering

This article reminds me very much of The Lawrence Doctrine and Postindustrial Insurgency, from Islands in the Net:

Global Guerrillas: THE BAZAAR’S OPEN SOURCE PLATFORM
The decentralized, and seemingly chaotic guerrilla war in Iraq demonstrates a pattern that will likely serve as a model for next generation terrorists. This pattern shows a level of learning, activity, and success similar to what we see in the open source software community. I call this pattern the bazaar. The bazaar solves the problem: how do small, potentially antagonistic networks combine to conduct war? Lessons from Eric Raymond’s “The Cathedral and the Bazaar” provides a starting point for further analysis.

Question of the day:

What would Zappa do?

Acquired.

Progress indeed.

Slog, perservere.

Pray for the courage to act in a way I would admire in others.