Posts

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....

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....