I am having one of my “moods” right now — and I am trying a new coping strategy: writing about it. My moods come when I feel unheard or misunderstood AND feel hopeless/frustrated with where I am going in the many parts of my life. I have a full body visceral reaction, and lash out physically, emotionally, and intellectually with the notion that it can assuage my emotions by attracting comfort and support.

Unfortunately, the long-term effects are the complete opposite. In my quest to be heard and understood, my verbal and written attacks end up alienating family, friends, and coworkers. I don’t know which is worse: knowing people are not listening to you, or not having people in your life that choose to not listen to you? I am quickly finding myself in the latter, and it is a scary, lonely place to be.

Listen is actually not the right word. It is more appreciate, validate, and use my ideas. I think, quite honestly, that the real reason why I have these moods is that I often do not give myself these things that I am asking/wanting from others. My anger is really sadness and fear with myself. I have many ideas and dreams for my own life, but I am often immobilized by fear. I need to break the cycle, I just don’t know how.

As I am fond of saying to others: Just get out of your own fuckin’ way.

Four days after my DSL was fixed, somehow the second monitor malfunction and fried the video card of the G5. I was amazed that I was able to get it fixed — for from — because I had purchased Applecare. Not only that — they came to my house to do the repair!

The second monitor is still at the manufacturer, but, except for that, I am back in the saddle.

It brings back fond memories of the 5 day trip I took in college down the Green River. Isn’t self-employment about being able to do wild stuff like this?

According to the BBC Vice President Dick Cheney made this Gaffe in Tuesday night’s debate:

During a televised debate Mr Cheney told viewers to visit factcheck.com when answering accusations by vice presidential nominee John Edwards.

But rather than being the address of a project to check the facts politicians use, the site merely hosts adverts.

Soon after being mentioned, it began redirecting visitors to the website of billionaire George Soros, who is very critical of the Bush administration.

There is interest in opening similar establishments in London and New York City. This is such a cool way to o/pen people’s eyes (pun very intentional).

I am less concerned with eBay’s investment in Craigslist after reading this. It sounds like Craig has a style like Ben & Jerry, and won’t cave to the corporate way. (I hope).

High school student Latoya Nesmith of Albany, N.Y. dreams of becoming a translator at the UnitedNations as she completes her classroom assignments using a keyboard that mitigates her limited dexterity. Floyd Stewart, paralyzed in mid-life by a car accident, uses assistive technologies to runMiddle Tennessee’s Center for Independent Living. Blind physicist Dr. Kent Cullers taught computers to do what his ears can do, and now leads the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence(SETI) Institute in Palo Alto, Calif. Susanna Sweeney-Martini is completing her college education in Seattle with the aid of a power wheelchair and voice-input software.
These are a few of the people whose stories are at the center of Freedom Machines, a new documentary having its broadcast premiere Tuesday, Sept. 14 at 10 p.m. (check local listings) onPBS’ acclaimed non-fiction series P.O.V. This poignant and thought-provoking film tells the stories of people typically labeled (and dismissed) as “disabled”, whose determination and access toinventive new technologies are transforming their lives and their communities.

There is also a 30 second video trailer with a text transcript. http://www.ataccess.org/community/freedommachines.html.

My common response is: “Well, I don’t make them look good — I make them work.”
I really believe that there is a difference, and that you do not have to be an expert in both in order to do work in either. This is especially true nowadays, because there are so many server side applications to build dynamic sites.

The fact that I am weaker in the intricacies of CSS than I am with the innards of PHP, MySQL and Apache does not make me a “poser” when calling myself a professional. I believe that being a good technologist is not knowing all the answers, but know where to find the answer after clarifying the question.

If it sounds like I am defensive, it is because I am. PassingNotes.com, drive-thru now open ’til 2 a.m. is the reason.

Wilmeea writes:

Good grief.

Fixing stuff for people who have a pro working for them pisses me off.

This thread is regarding a client I have had for the past two months. He makes it sound as if I represented myself as a professional designer and someone asked this guy to rush in and fix the work that I should have done.

Umm, excuse me? Isn’t the opensource movement all about collaboration? Isn’t participation in a threaded discussion helping more than one person?

If you don’t want to contribute, don’t. There is no need to put other people down to strengthen your own skills.

June 29, 2004  |  Washington — The Bush administration is offering a novel reason for denying a request seeking the Justice Department’s database on foreign lobbyists: Copying the information would bring down the computer system.

“Implementing such a request risks a crash that cannot be fixed and could result in a major loss of data, which would be devastating,” wrote Thomas J. McIntyre, chief in the Justice Department’s office for information requests.

If this claim by the Department of Justice is true, it validates my view that our own government is on the wrong side of the digital divide. How can we ever expect to ensure that the disadvantaged get access to modern technology when the federal government does not?

If this is a bogus excuse — it’s just as scary to think that the public will accept it as being true. It is 2004, people, excuses that were semi-plausible 10 (or maybe even 5) years ago are not acceptable today.