The long weekend is now over. There’s been a lot going on throughout. I’ll try to summarize as best I can.

I left work Friday a little earlier than usual in order to swing by DHL to drop off some shipments for work. I assumed this would be routine, but it was anything but. The packages are headed to Mexico, which means a buttload more paperwork needed to be filled out. I rushed home to pull up the DHL website and complete the paperwork, only to find their website absolutely sucks. It crashed Mozilla and Firefox straightaway, but in IE, it waited until I’d filled out 99% of the forms before it ate it. I cursed that thing for the three times it took for me to get it right. I’m crossing my fingers that it will actually get there.

Kelly, Hallie, and Travis joined me for my trip back to DHL. We got there ten minutes before they closed (so much for leaving early, eh?). With that off my plate, we got dinner at Zest in Celebration at Six Forks. After a tasty meal of fried catfish and a side trip to Goodberry’s, we wandered home, laughing all the way. The night was capped when I got another chance to put Travis to bed all by myself, which I accomplished successfully. There’s nothing better than the feeling of your child falling asleep in your arms.

Saturday began a bit earlier than we had hoped. Travis woke up at 5:30, thinking it was time to get up. We had decided to let him holler for a while with the thought that he’d go back to sleep, but he was having none of it. When we fetched him around 6, Hallie was awake, too. Sleeping in? Hah!

I’d volunteered to help my dad with replacing an attic fan, so I headed over there for about two hours. It involved balancing on a 12′ ladder while unbolting the fan over my head, trying hard not to drop it on my noggin all the while. Dad handed tools up when they were needed and kept me laughing while we worked. Once the old fan was down, we palled around long enough to make me late for being home in time for Kelly’s haircut appointment. Once again, I got to put Travis to sleep – this time for his nap. You’d think I’m getting to be a pro at this stuff.

Once everyone was back and awake, we got ready to head to the pool at my Mom and Dad’s club. We were met at the house by Kelly’s friend Marnie, her daughter Susanna, and her husband, John. We had a blast watching the kids splash around.

It was Travis’s first dip into a real pool. He seemed to take it in stride. At one point, we watched amused as he floated away from us. He had figured out how to kick and apparently decided to go exploring. Kelly and I both knew he’d take to water, but like his sister has consistently done he exceeded our expectations. Guess we should’nt have been surprised.

On Sunday, we had a more normal wakeup (6:30AM). After a lazy breakfast, I remembered I still had to help Dad put in the new fan. I put Travis down for his nap (woo woo!) and headed out the door around 10:30.

More attic fun followed. The installation was easier than I anticipated. Once again, it was fun spending time with my Dad and Mom. After an hour or so, the job was done. We then spent the next hour yapping together downstairs to the point where Kelly had to call over there to see where I was! In actuality, she wanted to know if I would be joining them for a trip to the store. I did, and off we went.

We navigated through the aisles of our local Red Big Box Store, filling the cart to overflowing with … stuff. Half the haul was baby food, the rest plastic stuff. I did pick up a new pillow, though, which went a long way towards last night’s fantastic night of sleep. At thirteen bucks, I’m wondering why I didn’t buy a new pillow sooner.

We had lunch and then did another round of naps. I stepped outside and began to cut the grass. Our neighbors and we had planned a block party for Sunday afternoon. Some of them were already arriving next door. I had time to mow the front yard before Kelly appeared around the corner with a smiling Travis in her arms. It was time to party, apparently.

We got cleaned up and headed next door to the party. There were three tables stocked with all kinds of food. There were two kegs of beer iced down in the garage. Spread out under two tents were our friends and neighbors, all laughing and carrying on. There were too many bad jokes, too many Jello shots, and too many mosquitoes, but everybody had a good time. We left around 10 PM having met some neighbors for the first time and knowing our other neighbors a lot better.

Kelly and I awoke feeling fine. In my case, excellent. I’m thinking it was the new pillow, rather than the 6 or 8 drinks I had at the party. A breakfast of pancakes with strawberries and blueberries started the day on the right foot.

Speaking of feet, the neighborhood sponsored a Fourth of July parade for the kids. The kids rode bicycles down the main street, following the ladder truck from nearby Raleigh Fire Station 22. Though it was his nap time, Travis was really in his element among the new faces. Hallie enjoyed the parade in the back of her red wagon. We walked with our neighbors, Frank and Brea and their daughter, Madison.

On the way, I spotted a professional-quality DV camera in the hands of a neighbor who runs an aerial photography business. We left the parade with new friends. Man, this is a cool neighborhood.

Travis went down like a champ at 10 AM, an hour after his usual naptime. I took the time to finish mowing the yard. It was oppressively hot today, without the breeze we enjoyed the day before. I was happy to finish things up just in time for lunch.

The kids took their usual naps. Kelly asked me if I was planning to nap, too. Unlike most weekends, I didn’t feel the need to nap at all – another testament to my good night of sleep. Instead, we got even more chores done around the house.

I spent spare time this weekend working on building my own MythTV box, a free Tivo-like PVR. After much head-scratching, I got it to the point where it downloads the TV listings and tunes my satellite card. The big obstacle remaining is getting the channels properly configured. DVB satellite signals have a number of parameters which must be specified. I don’t know enough about MythTV yet to know where to put it all. I’m maddeningly close to completing this project, but I ran out of time to finish it tonight. Perhaps this week I’ll have it up and running.

That brings things up to date. I’m looking forward to the short work week and the next weekend that comes along. This has been a summer that didn’t really have many things planned for each weekend. It’s been great just doing what we want to do.

On my lunch hour Friday, I stopped by the television studios of the Raleigh Television Network, the city’s cable TV community access channels. A very helpful Mr. Ted Savage welcomed me and gave me a tour of the facilities.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, the studio is now all-digital, with equipment free to for anyone’s use providing they have taken the appropriate course for using it. These courses were scheduled for September, but as I understand it classes will be opening sooner. A meeting anouncing the upcoming courses will be held on July 16th in the Raleigh City Council chambers.

I drooled over the three-CCD Mini-DV field cameras now available for use. They provide a quantum-leap in quality for a fraction of weight that the clunky SVHS cameras provided. The two Final Cut Pro editing stations (with widescreen flatpanel monitors) were sitting idle. The all-digital studio (with chroma-key), was also waiting for activity.

I never put together a show the last time I was a registered producer as I was busy with one thing or another. This time, however, I fully intend to put this digital system through its paces. I don’t even know what shows or programming I want to produce, but it’ll be something interesting. My three years of blogging has been good training for coming up with ideas.

(And if you’ve got something you’d like to see on community access TV, drop me a comment below.)

Yesterday, a coworker and I were driving back from lunch when we had to stop at the light for Jones Franklin Road. The light turned green as we chatted and we were first in line. Rather than jet out across the intersection like I sometimes do, I hesitated. The car on the right was stopped. Out of my left, a green car was headed straight for us at 45 miles per hour.

As she saw me edging out into the intersection, she had enough time to slam on brakes. She veered off to the right, her car stopping ten feet from mine. The look of shock and embarassment on her face was all the apology I needed.

If I hadn’t gone with my intuition and waited, I might have at best a few broken ribs now. At worst, I’d be dead. High-speed side impacts are no picnic.

Let’s be careful out there over the holiday weekend. And always keep an eye out for the other guy.

I was searching for some information on the FCC‘s website. What got my attention is their use of the word “consumer.” The FCC has a section – an entire bureau, even – devoted to consumers.

Uh, at what point did we become “consumers?” How about “citizens?” Or better yet, “frequency spectrum owners,” lest the FCC forget who actually owns the spectrum it pretends to manage?

This “consumer” stuff has seeped in coutresy of the entertainment industry, which would like to hold all the cards. I’m sick of being called a consumer! The word consumer implies one with no rights. A consumer’s role is limited to consuming what others produce. We’re supposed to take it and like it. The First Amendment only applies to big corporations now. Its the Golden Rule.

Screw that! We’re citizens, dammit! Take a moment to send former Tar Heel and current FCC Chairman Kevin Martin a note and remind him that we’re citizens.

The Recording Artists Coalition is praising the recent Grokster Supreme Court decision. I figured a little Mojo was in order.

Man, I miss Mojo.

—
Don Henley Must Die
Mojo Nixon

This is the sound of my brain
Then I said -This is the sound of my brain on Don Henley
Then I said -One two three four

He’s a tortured artist
Used to be in the Eagles
Now he whines like a wounded beagle

Poet of despair
Puffed up with hot air
He’s serious, pretentious and I just don’t care

Don Henley must die
Don’t let him get back together
With Glenn Frey, Don Henley must die

Cut on the TV
And what did I see
This bloated hairy thing winnin’ a grammy
Huah

Best rock vocalist
Compared to what
Bunch of pseudo-serious Kraft angst-a-matic
Satanic plot

Don Henley Must die
Put a sharp stick in his eye, don henley must die
Ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya
Oh

Quit playin’ that crap
Youíre out of the band

I’m only kidding, can’t you tell?
I love his sensitve music
Idiot poetry swell

You and your kind
Are killin’ rock and roll
It’s not because youíre o-l-d
–Cause you ain’t
Got no soul

Don’t be afraid of fun
Loosen up your ponytail
Be wild, young
Free and-a
Get your head
Outta your tail

Don Henley
Must die
Donít let him get back together
With Glenn Frey

Don Henley
Must die
Put him in the electric chair
Watch him fry, Don Henley must die

Don Henley must die
Ah ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya

No Eagles reunion
The same goes for you too Sting
Ah
Oh

I was thinking that I haven’t heard much noise coming from Microsoft. Seems like the only headlines they’re getting lately are of security vulnerabilities in their software. Google and Apple seem to have a lock on creativity lately. They’re the ones pushing boundaries today.

It actually saddens me to think of Microsoft as old and busted. What happened to the company I once loved to hate? Now they just don’t seem to matter, even if they’re still making money hand over fist. Its not like they ever did much “innovation,” but what little they have done has been overshadowed by others.

If you had any doubts that America has the best government money can buy, the recent Supreme Court decisions should convince you. First, the Court rules that governments can take property from one private owner and sell it to another private owner. Then yesterday, the court rules that peer to peer services are guilty of infringement, even if they themselves aren’t doing the infringing. Using that logic, why aren’t gun manufacturers liable for murder?

In another case, the Court ruled broadband monopolies don’t need competition. Even though most experts agree that America has lost its edge in broadband innovation, the big cable companies praised this decision as “allowing them to continue to innovate.”

Innovate, my butt. What kind of “innovation” has occured in broadband service since its inception? The entertainment industry’s paranoid fear of piracy has kept a lock on upstream bandwidth that broadband customers can have. This has severely hampered innovative new technologies – especially multimedia-rich ones – which depend on such bandwidth to work.

These decisions prove that money talks, and the Supreme Court loves to hear it.
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It was an interesting weekend, to be sure. Quite busy, too. On Friday night, I joined a group of ghost hunters looking for ghosts at the State Capitol building. We romped around the darkened building until 3 AM! Though I didn’t see any ghosts, I certainly experienced unexplained things with my other senses. And I also got my picture taken at the desk I may one day occupy for real.

Saturday, I rode down to Columbia with my parents to attend my aunt and uncle’s 50th wedding anniversary. It was great seeing my aunt and uncle and cousins, though my uncle has Alzheimer’s. He seemed to have a good time, though, even if he didn’t recognize everyone there. It was also fun spending time with my parents on the drive there and back.

Sunday I had plenty of Daddy Time, as Kelly needed to focus on her work project. I enjoyed being top parent for a change. 🙂

As I mentioned before, we went tree shopping this past weekend, buying four trees for our yard. Yesterday, we had them planted. Kelly and I are still marvelling at how great they make the yard look. What used to be a empty, grassy yard has leaves and shape to it now. We’re particularly pleased with how the maple looks. Already, its providing relief from the brutal afternoon sun, with the temperature markedly cooler in its shade than out of it.

Our neighbors have admired our new trees, too, which seems to be the start of a landscaping arms race. Hey, if it spurs our neighbors to plant more trees, we’re thankful for the competition. Adding trees to the sparse yards in our neighborhood would make a huge difference in the the appearance of the neighborhood as a whole.

Our huge back yard needs some additions, too, though we’re not too sure what to add there. In my mind, I’ve been reserving space around our existing deck to save space for a future, expanded deck. Any plants or trees we might add to the house have to work around these imaginary boundaries. I think I might be wasting my time with this approach, though, as no one knows when we may decide to expand our deck, if ever.

The tree planting was not without its adventure. Our planting guy cut a utility line when planting one tree. We were puzzled how it could happen, since we had the utility lines in our yard properly marked. The line that was cut was not marked at all. From the looks of it, it appeared to be an electrical cable: one for our streetlight, I supposed. A Progress Energy lineman came out and declared it a telephone line.

A telephone line? How did that not get marked?

After the lineman left, I probed the cable with my fox-and-hound set. Hearing no telltale telephone buzzing, I realized the line was unused. Curious, I hooked up another tool that measured wire length (thanks, Al!). The reading on one side of the cut was just 25 feet. Hmm…

Getting out my tape measure, I walked off 25 feet. It ended exactly at the foot of our mailbox! Aha! The line had been severed when the house was built (and the mailbox planted). The phone company left the dead copper in the ground and buried another line under the sidewalk. That’s the one which was properly marked.

An aside: I had called Bellsouth repair after realizing it may be their line. Upon learning we were not a Bellsouth customer, the repair rep refused to help me. “But I’m calling on behalf of my neighbors. Their service could be out now,” I protested.

“Sorry, you’ll have to go through your local provider, sir,” was the reply. It didn’t seem to matter that I was doing them a favor by reporting it. Nice.

If that’s the kind of attitude they have, I told Kelly, we were gonna plant the tree there anyway, outage or no outage. And we will.