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Monday 14 February 2005
	A busy day juggling a sick boy and [Macro error: There is no glossary entry named "Mac OS X: Icecast install"] after libxslt, libxml2, libcurl, libogg, and libvorbis. (I actually corrected compilation errors in libvorbis-1.1.0 and had MikeS, from the #icecast IRC channel, checked in the fixes. Yeah me!) Isaac's fever goes up and down between 99.7° F (37.6° C) and 103.7° F (39.8° C). So we have him on acetaminophen (paracetamol in Europe). He's in good spirits, and hungry, so I'm not terribly worried. Luckily I'm a work-at-home dad, so it's no great bother. I just pull a longer 10-base-T cable to the bed and I'm good to go. Here he is in the family bed, enjoying his favorite sick-day pastime: videos. I've been hitting all the library branches, picking child-appropriate DVDs. When it's time to start viewing I dim the room lights. I'm using the PowerBook at right. After school, as we're setting the nook table for dinner, Lila models her sun visor worn upside down. Hippie :-) I celebrate stovetop espresso, another great way to enjoy the bean. The OmniWeb browser has rendered one too many pages badly, or not completely. And Apple Safari still doesn't seem to deal with the variety of poor web page coding styles. So I've switched whole hog to Mozilla Firefox 1.0, the open source browser that's taking the world by storm. (Wow, I wonder how provincial these sentences will sound a quarter-century hence, or more.) The functionality in Firefox is amazing, and the open architecture has spawned so many niche extentions that it's a different kind of joy to use. It's not completely a "Mac OS X" application, parts of the user interface aren't right, and I don't think it renders things as beautifully as OmniWeb, but it does more things right, and that counts for something :-)
Sunday 13 February 2005
	Hey Lila, happy 3-and-a-half years! No more "three and five quelts" (5/12ths) for you :-) Isaac is febrile: 101° F (38° C) last night, 99° F (37° C) today, 103.6° F (39.7° C) this evening. Sigh.
Saturday 12 February 2005
	A follow-up to my installation instructions for the [Macro error: There is no glossary entry named "Mac OS X: Apache web server install"] and the [Macro error: There is no glossary entry named "Mac OS X: Jakarta Tomcat install"] under "Mac OS X", here's how to install the [Macro error: There is no glossary entry named "Mac OS X: Apache Cocoon install"] . Now they all work together. K. M. Peterson sends us an update from Uganda.
Friday 11 February 2005
	Google Maps is released to the public, and the combination of real-time updates of sizing and scrolling is very, very nice to see. And the maps have a lean, clean look to them.
Thursday 10 February 2005
	K. M. Peterson's adventures in Uganda; read all about it! Reading the following The Duke of Edinburgh and I [HRH The Queen of England] are very happy that The Prince of Wales and Mrs Parker Bowles are to marry. We have given them our warmest good wishes for their future together. reminds me of when the story of Lady Diana intersected our lives. As "Rupert Birkin" said on fark.com this day, I care. I want Charles to be happy. He's a widower and the plants and trees don't talk back, so let him have his companion/consort/whatever. He may be inbred and jug-eared, but he didn't ask to be born and is still human at the end of the day. A funny-looking one, but human, I'm pretty sure.
Wednesday 9 February 2005
	I'm a fan of axonometric maps. Norbert Ceulemans - a Belgian - has drawn maps of London and Jerusalem which are said to be stunning. Not that you could tell from the 'net. His work was showcased at the International Maps Agency, imapa.com, which seems to be long-gone. And that, in itself, is telling. What an interesting kind of digital mortality we have.
Sunday 6 February 2005
	Isaac and Lila were invited to a birthday party at our local Randall Museum. There's a for-profit Buddy Club that presents some sort of entertainment for the kids; the birthday parents had covered the cost of the kids going to see the Brian Waite Band. I thought it'd be too dark and too loud, but both kids surprised me. They, and all the kids and parents, loved the music and patter. That's Isaac at the right edge of this picture. Lila is to his right, very hard to see. Once the concert was done, the birthday invitees headed upstairs to feast on pizza, snacks, and birthday cake. Rose and Lila at left; Isaac at right. I don't know how this happened, but Isaac wound up next to the birthday girl. And loved it! And here's my boy handing her one of our birthday gifts, wrapped and decorated by our kids.
Saturday 5 February 2005
	Isaac, at his desk at home, looking over his class picture (which he keeps on the tansu nearby.
Friday 4 February 2005
	John Vernon, the Canadian actor who played Dean Wormer in "National Lampoon's Animal House" has died at 72 at his Los Angeles house following complications from recent heart surgery. I enjoyed this role, and am saddened by his passing. In reading his obituaries I discovered that he was the off-screen voice of Big Brother in the 1956 film "1984." His film credits include "Point Blank" (1967) with Lee Marvin and "Dirty Harry" (1971) and "The Outlaw Josey Wales" (1976) with Clint Eastwood. The kids have filled up the Hess Gasoline truck - a gift from Oma Karin & Opa Emil - with Lila's treasure-trove of beads and other sparklies. I happen to have my digital camera with me as I drop Isaac off at his classroom.
Wednesday 2 February 2005
	Yesterday we celebrated at Rose's parents, today Dziadziu and Zofia come on over to our place to continue the festivities. Here Isaac is lighting the candles all by himself: And cutting the birthday cake to hand out to the rest of us.
Tuesday 1 February 2005
	Today Isaac decided he wanted to celebrate his birthday here (in addition to the celebrations we had on his actual birthday, when we were on our Canary Island vacation. Here he is adding sprinkles to his cake. Isaac tells us all about his confectionary adventures. And here we are at Rose's parents, to celebrate. From left to right: Lila, Auntie Pamela, Rose, Isaac, Bubbie Marion, Zadie Leonard: One of Isaac's favorite gifts is a klickety-klack, a gravity-operated toy that dates back to my childhood. Where the grandparents found it I don't know.