The freezy stuff is expected to begin this afternoon and last all weekend. I’m starting to miss the 70-degree January days.

I came across a collection of my old business cards and thought it would be fun to scan them all in. Thus, here is my business card resume, showing who and where I was.

(Many of these companies no longer exist. What does that say about me?)

Its no longer Australia Day. As fine a day as it was, it is instead Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s birthday. Happy birthday, Mo!

I hope everyone is enjoying a joyful Australia Day today. I plan to celebrate by listening to the music of Midnight Oil, AC/DC, INXS, and Men At Work, watching movies by Nicole Kidman, Olivia Newton-John and Mel Gibson, and wishing Rupurt Murdoch would just go away.

They might do everything upside-down, but Aussies are all right, mate.

This is from Smash Mouth‘s first album, Fush-Yo Mang.

Neighbor called my landlord
She said that she was pissed
Up all night making noise
And she cant get no rest
She said we was running a flop house
Full of thieves and thugs
Musicians and hooligans and we were all on the drugs
So she got bent and raised the rent
Said it would only take one more
Phone call from my whiny neighbor
Continue reading →

I ran across an interesting new project from Free World Dialup-creator Jeff Pulver called Bellster. Bellster is like Napster but for phones. Participants share their phone lines with other participants. Thus, participants can make calls throughout the Bellster network for free. The service runs through each individual’s Asterisk server, and thus can be locked down to prevent toll calls and to limit abuse.

With VoIP already making international calling dirt-cheap, I wonder how this service will fit in. Still, you can’t argue with the success of Free World Dialup.

Keep an eye on Jeff Pulver. The man knows what he’s doing.

I opened my paper this morning to see this picture of Tanner and Bram Lovelace in the “City and State” section. They were out demonstrating their Geocaching expertise for this N&O story. Pretty cool, guys!

I only wish you could see Bram’s face a bit better. He’s a cute kid.

We stayed close to home with the lousy weather that was predicted. We got out to get some paint samples, then stayed in most of Saturday. We did buy a coat rack, which turned out to be money well spent, and long overdue, too.

One of my birthday presents was Dan Zanes’ Parades and Panoramas CD. Its liner notes are worth the purchase alone, with the song chords for each song. I dusted off my guitar and spent Saturday evening playing, singing, and dancing around with Hallie as she played maracas along to the music.

The fun time playing guitar spurred me to dig out my multi-track recorder and set up shop in our sitting room. As I hooked everthing up, I began dreaming of owning an M-Audio Delta 1010T soundcard, where I could sample music at 24 bits and 96 kHz. My puny cassette-based 4-track doesn’t hold a candle to that.

Oh well, someday I’ll get it. Maybe by that time I’ll actually know how to play, too.

I enjoyed a busy birthday Friday.

The morning had me opening cards and presents. My first present, however, was Travis sleeping for a 6 and a half-hour stretch. Hurray! I collected many smiles and hugs before heading grudgingly off to work.

At the office, my phone rang off the hook, not with birthday wishes but with customers needing help. I juggled three or four customer issues at the same time, taking 20 minutes for lunch. I did get emailed greetings from family, which was a nice break from my work. I also had a nice chat with my brother Al, who was also celebrating his birthday.

I took my last call at 5:30 and headed home, where Kelly had made us a nice dinner. Afterward, I had a nice, lively chat with my parents. Then after lots of playtime with the kids, Kelly and I went to bed around 10 PM, after which Travis slept another marathon stretch during the night.

I know. Exciting, huh? But its all I really wanted. The best presents I’ll ever get are the smiles and the shrieking of “Daddy!!!” when I walk through the door. Who could ask for anything more?