Testing e-mail to blog goodness

If you’re seeing this, it means that:

• I can post to my blog via e-mail
• I have a little time
  on my hands (being sick will do that to a guy)

Ham Radio Update

I’ve been appointed the Amateur Radio Emergency Services Emergency Coordinator for Bayfield County. That’s neat, but it’s also a little daunting, what being the go-to guy to try to draw other ham radio operators out of the woodwork and get them trained, certified, and useful in an actual emergency response.

I’ve got a great opportunity for a little local net training/community service coming right up: the Apostle Islands Sled Dog Race. I’m trying to get even one or two other guys to commit to doing communications for the Feb. 2-3 event with me, but so far, there’s a lot of “Well, that sounds neat; I’ll have to look at my calendar.”

And finally, I’m hoping that Santa will overlook that little toad-licking incident in June, and bring me a nice new soldering iron in my stocking. How ever else shall I maintain the head of nerdy geek steam that I seem to have built up?

This Dumb Blog #1

Here’s my beginning shot at videoblogging…

Counting Croup

We’re back from the hospital with The Boy. That’s a good thing. The Wife called me last night at about 18:30 while I was setting up a tape backup system for one of my outside-of-work clients. Said she was taking The Boy to the E.R. because he was having a hard time breathing.

Because I’m a brilliant conversationalist and extremly quick on the uptake, I said, “Really?”

She put The Boy on the phone. I don’t know if you’ve ever had your heart ripped out of your chest just by the sound of someone struggling to say “Hi Daddy,” but it was a new experience for me.

I raced home in the “Red Sporty Car” (The Boy’s designation, not mine), picked up The Wife and The Boy, then raced (a little more slowly; the roads were getting slick with a “wintery mix”) to the Accute Care Clinic at the hospital. At least, that’s where I think we raced. It’s a little hard to know for sure because they’ve recently remodeled the E.R. and everything kind of flows together. And, of course, we got there right when the docs were changing shifts, so we went from nice, polite, competent middle-aged doc to old, grumpy, curmudgeon doc. That was (as The Boy likes to say) “pretty sweet.”

The Boy got some steroids, some mist in an O2 mask, and some Tylenol to cut his fever. He got pictures of his chest and abdomen. After it’s highest point, his heart rate was 209 beats a minute, but that came down after a while. And then he started driving his car. And squirming like only a three-year-old can. When he started playing with the controls of the gurney and trying to get at the computer on the wall, we knew he was going to be fine.

The Boy still has a pretty good cough, and his breathing isn’t so whisper quiet, but he’s doing about 603% better today than he was last night.

Of course, now I’m home sick…

Open House in the New Offices

Sometimes, it’s amazing how fast things can come together if you just go for it.

I’ve been thinking for a while that the IT office at work needed to have an open house so that people can come down, see our new digs, get the nickel tour of what we actually *do* all day. Since we finally got our new furniture last week, and actually got our floor mopped this week, I struck while the iron was hot.

Yesterday morning, I told the other guys that an open house was imminent, I sent out an e-mail to “everybody” inviting them over for tours and snacks, and then we put out a posh spread of geek food: Doritos, Oreos, chololate, and Dew. Life was good.

What the Google?

Or, It’s All in a Name

Just on a whim, I decided to see how easy it is to find me on Google without using any variation of “aj” in the search. Shockingly enough, my first hit is #34 and the second one is #39 for the search phrase “van beest.” Apparently, I need to do some SEO for my name. And dang that Van Beest hardware company, anyway! (And yes, I know I’m hurting my SEO efforts here, but the things I’ll do in the name of a mildly interesting post…)

Holy Crap!

There are only eleven-and-a-half days left ’till Christmas. Need I say any more?

Rocket Man

I got home a couple nights ago, hopped out of the car, and as always, looked up to see what the night sky had in store. And there, right in front of me, was a thing.

It was a pretty bright-ish thing with a well-defined point on one side and a wispy cone-shaped tail on the other side. Naturally, I assumed this was the comet that everyone (he said, with his tongue in his cheek) is talking about. I went inside, got The Boy and The Wife out of the house into the cold dark and pointed out the thing, and we all made appropriate noises of excited awe.

Then, later that evening, when we got home from an emergency chocolate run, we looked up again, and the thing was gone. Huh, we said, that’s weird. You wouldn’t think a comet would just go away over the course of an hour. Perhaps there is haze.

But then The Wife, ever curious and Google-rific, did a little digging. “Uh, honey,” she said after a bit, “that wasn’t the comet. That was a rocket.” Apparently the comet-like thing we saw was the booster jettisoning extra propellant after its spy satellite payload reached orbit.

You see the damnedest things when you look up.

Something, but not an environmentalist, necessarily

Thinking about the world and my place in it, I’ve come to realize something: I’m not necessarily an environmentalist.

This may not come as a great shock to the folks who regularly spend time with me these days, but it was eye-opening for me. For the longest time, I’ve assumed I was an environmentalist, but I’m not sure I fit the bill anymore.

I’m all for clean air and clean water. I’m against corporate usury and greed. I think everyone should have a shot at the good life, provided they don’t trample other people in the process. I like to consider the downstream effects of my actions.

However.

People who drive 30 miles to work but think leaving their computer in “sleep” mode overnight is “wasteful” drive me nuts. People who preach about native vs. invasive species don’t see the forest for the trees. And folks who drive hybrid cars because they’re “saving oil” need to refresh their knowledge of physics, ecology, and economics.

Lately, “environmentalism” seems to have become just another way to sell stuff. You’ve got your “green” this and “organic” that, all significantly marked up because if it’s not expensive, it couldn’t possibly be good for the planet. What used to be people taking independent, thoughtful action has been co-opted by the suits at the corner of Wall Street and Madison Avenue.

No matter what label I use for myself (and why, really, do I feel the need to label myself?), there are a few things that I hold sacred. Critical thinking (especially when combined with common sense) is chief among those. Next comes justice, compassion, and personal responsibility. Only after that is a pristine environment any good to me, and really, shouldn’t that flow from the whole “critical thinking” bit?

Flickr upload alert

I’ve put some of the better pics from our Christmas photo shoot up on Flickr. Go have a look. And check out The Wife’s account of the shoot.