Posts

I know I said that March 1 was the 21st anniversary of the site, but the actual date of the first post was March 23. The post on the 1st was added later becuase Sam wanted to see something on the calendar widget that the site used to show. I am out of the habit of posting anything to this site. I would like to change that. Right now the limiting factor to keeping this blog going, to actualy writing more, is time.

The first post on the original SysMango.com was on March 1st, 2003. Sam had asked that the first post be on March 1st. I didn’t see a reason why not (#DaddyDuty). The original site was developed using Movable Type. When the licensing for Movable Type changed, I moved over to Drupal. I had looked at a lot of of the available software for hosting a personal site. The primary limiting factor at that time was what could I use with the hosting options I was paying for in 2003.

Well, this is awkward. I posted something in April of 2022, blinked and it’s mid-January 2024 already. Actually, I had originally started this post in Jan 3, but well, things happened. Between work demends, everyone getting the normal winter sick (thankfully we haven’t had COVID-19 in the house since May 2022), I just haven’t had the time. I have tried to keep the daily photos thing going, but honestly who really wants to see my face every day?

I have been a little busy, but I did want to note that today is the 14th anniversary of my starting to work from home. April 1, 2008, was the day I moved out of the last office building where I had a dedicated space. People couldn’t tell if my moving out of that office was some sort of April Fool’s Day joke. A few, if I remember correctly, actually expressed some degree of panic that maybe I had lost my job.

Happy New Year! The last two years feel like they’ve lasted a decade. The last five years feel like they’ve lasted longer than anything else I can remember. Let’s hope 2022 dosn’t live up to the threat of being 2020, part 2. Love and Coffee Butch

Over the last couple of months I have been thinking about how this site is run and managed. I decided that it was time to make some changes. When I first made the decision to move the site to Drupal, the decision was driven around not only what I was already doing with MovableType, but also the thought that I could maybe move beyond just being a simple blog. At the time, a lot of sites had a blog (usually WordPress) managing some content and then a forum to allow what ever community happened around the site to talk to itself.

As I mentioned in the yesterday’s post, there were a few posts that the boys insisted that I carried forward to the new site. Here is the listing of posts, for your amusement. May whatever gods you believe in have mercy on your soul. On Apathy Personal Hells Existential Poetry from Cryptographic Applications A weird morning if ever there was one Why today is Thursday Sam’s First Day 9th Grade An open letter to Jake’s Teachers Share and enjoy.

Unlike the letter that I wrote for Sam, this letter to Jacob’s teachers I actually sent in to school. Dear Teacher, If I were there with you right now, I would stride boldly across the room, and climb, one foot firmly planted on top of a desk, the other on a chair and, before the pull of gravity sends me crashing to the floor, point at my son and bellow at the top of my lungs: “Beware, for there be dragons!

Today was the first day of school here in Virginia Beach. One of the teachers at Sam’s high school included an assignment for parents to send them an e-mail. I’d like to present to you for your reading pleasure, my first draft: An Open Letter to Sam’s Teachers Hello. I am Sam’s father. I think Sam is great. He loves learning, and is capable of absorbing information like a sponge. Unfortunately, Sam is also highly flammable and would probably dissolve easily in most solvents.

Let me start by saying that you are sitting there, looking at the date of this post, and saying to yourself something along the lines of “according to my calendar, May 17, 2008, is a Tuesday.” At this point, you must be thinking any number of questions related to my sanity. Here I am sitting at a computer typing and demanding that you listen and hear and agree with me that today must be, absolutely must be, Thursday.

I was up late last night. I was also up early. All of that was work related. Then there was the knock on the door. I did not hear the knock on the door. I was in bed, trying to sleep. Natalie was up. So were the boys. The knock on the door, much to Natalie’s surprise, was a Virginia Beach Police officer. It seems there was some sort of call placed and through some strange set of circumstances, the police were sent to our address.

The wisdom one finds in key fingerprints: beeswax almighty newsletter revenge atmosphere drunken suspicious glitter blockade insurgent pheasant retrieval rematch stupendous puppy Scotland, Medusa dropper December reindeer yesteryear provincial waffle sympathy Tub jail ally till Joan them ow near toot lop caw fool volt core pin mad cry doll seal Jane cube tour slew Ruth Hurt mars end bait blew wane them edgy IRA lend block stew beeswax almighty Is this not beautiful.

After the meeting that I just got out of, I found that I required a fair amount of walking around to get my head in order. An associate offered to lend an ear if I needed someone to talk to. Right now I think I just need someone to tell the following: I am a reasonably competent individual There is nothing about this issue that I cannot overcome The act of actually killing someone does nothing to educate them Getting upset over someone who does not know any better just makes me upset, and this accomplishes nothing Getting upset at someone 300 miles away for less than an act of war is useless.

Prelude, and a Warning I am writing this little note with the full knowledge that someone who may understand some of the specifics that I am basing my generalizations on will read it, understand it, and take this personally. Please do not take this personally. It is not something to be taken personally. This is just me ranting. This makes me feel better. There are no specifics, only generalities. Part the First I just do not know which is worse: People not knowing or people not caring.

A long time ago, this page was the landing page for the In Cavern content from when Myst Online: Uru Live was running. A lot has changed since then. I’ve been thinking about what I wanted to do with the Myst-related content that used to be on this site. I still lurk around the edges of the Myst community. This page exists so that the Rel.To link to here has somewhere to go that doesn’t 404.