I am changing hosting soon. I have transferred a couple of domain names already and will migrate the others once I prove the host works and that the transferring process goes smoothly.

So watch out, if things don’t work.

I have transferred ISP’s and hosts a few times. Each time I do, I am left with this feeling like I flipped a very important light switch, but the lights are still on in the old room and off in the new room. The experience just isn’t very tactile. I like tactile. I want my keyboard to “clack” like one of those old IBM 101 keyboards. (Even though I use a happy hacker myself. It saves me room, so I cam pile more junk on desk.).

Minnesota lifted their ban on sparklers last year. It’s consistent with Minnesota nice as we can only buy fireworks that fizz, nothing that goes bang. This means the neighors have loaded up on bottle rockets. and firecrackers. It really helps toddler to nap and go to sleep at night. Thanks heaps.

irony link.

Saw “Bruce Almighty” yesterday. While I can’t claim to be a huge Jim Carey fan I really enjoyed this movie. While some might complain about the plot’s relative lack of sophistication, I thought it was a fun story. There were moments where I laughed at loud, which I often don’t do at movies. The “sticky note” scene was by far the funniest to me.

I generally like the theme of “what would you do if you were God?”, so was predisposed to like a movie that explores this theme, even in small ways. I have been more interested in being a benevolent dictator, but hey, God for a week works very nicely as well.

A former co-worker Michael Jackson, (no not the singer) once opined wisely, “Not every show should be the Walton’s but one of them should be.” Not every movie should be like “Bruce Almighty” or “It’s a Wonderful Life” but one of them should be. Not that I am saying “Bruce Almighty” is as good as “It’s a Wonderful Life”, but it has some of the same feel good elements.

Caveat: I saw “Bruce Almighty” as a matinee. I am always happier with movie I see at half price.

Here are a few newish photos of the Matthew on the farm field trip.

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In the last couple of years I have spent a lot of time reading to my kids. I thought I would share some of my favorite books to read outloud. I have memorized some of them. Here they are in no special order.

• Hippo’s Go Berzerk, Sandra Boynton
• Barnyard Dance, Sandra Boynton
• The Going to Bed Book, by Sandra Boynton
• Frog and Toad are Friends, Arnold Lobel
• Frog and Toad Together, Arnold Lobel
• Days With Frog and Toad, Arnold Lobel
• The Complete Adventures of Curious George, H.A. Rey
• The Story of Babar, the Little Elephant, Jean De Brunhoff
• The 20th-Century Children’s Book Treasury: Picture Books and Stories to Read Aloud, various
• Blueberries for Sal, Robert McCloskey
• Make Way for Ducklings, Robert McCloskey
• Guess How Much I Love You, Sam McBratney
• One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish, Dr. Seuss
• The Cat in the Hat, Dr. Seuss

I am half way through “The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt”, by Edmund Morris. I had previously read “Theodore Rex”, the second of the planned trilogy biography of Teddy Roosevelt, by Morris.

I have to say that reading about Teddy makes me feel inadequate. By 23 he had graduated from Harvard with academic honors, traveled Europe, the Middle East, written a book about naval warfare, two volumes of nature research, was an accomplished taxidermist, was listed on a registry of biologists, mastered several languages, been elected state assemblyman in NY state … The list goes on and on.

One could say, well of course, people born to great wealth are free to do things mere working folks could never do. While this is true on one level, on another level it makes Mr. Roosevelts accomplishments more bewildering. If he had wanted to he could have never worked a day in his life. He had an income of over $8,000+ per year without working, which could have bought a life of relative lazieness, not to mention the kind of jobs his connections could have landed him. He wouldn’t have been the first heir of a wealthy family to make nothing of his life.

I used to wonder why Roosevelt was on Mount Rushmore. I mean Lincoln, Washington, and Jefferson seem like obvious choices, but why Teddy. Well after reading a book and a half, I have changed my mind. He certainly seems like he belongs up there among his equals. Hard to imagine that people thought of him as an accidental president initially.

I wonder if someone like Teddy would be elected today. He had a poor speaking voice and was strange looking. He also liked to gallop through local Washington parks shooting at things and whooping. It would be hard to imagine that kind of behaviour happening today.

I spent an exciting weekend at Lake Vermillion. During three days I hiked in Bear Head Lake State Park, boated on Lake Vermillion, camped on a quiet island, grocery shopped in town, kayaked both with and without my children, walked a portage into the BWCA, fished with my son, swam and waded in the lake, made smores on an open fire, went on the Soudan Underground Mine tour, finished “Forever Peace”, by Joe Haldeman, and started “The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt” by Edmund Morris. Did I mention it’s 4 hours by car so I also drove up there and back?

What a weekend! I thought about planting a letterbox or geocache while I was out but just couldn’t find the time.

This parody is too funny.

I can’t believe I have read all the blogs parodied on that page, at one time or another.

I wish I was (?:self) important enough to parody.

mamamusings points out the joys of the end of the school year.

“Remember how it felt to be a kid at the end of the school year, free of constraints, summer stretching out in front of you like an endless open road? That feeling, my friends, is one of the reasons that so many of us put up with the vagaries and frustrations of the academy.”

I loved that feeling and miss it desperately.

In software development, you have the roller coaster of the release cycle, but there is very little down time. Once one release is done there is a mad rush to deal with patches, defect backlogs, and planning for the next release. I shouldn’t complain too loudly, but I envy folks who have extended breaks. In the high tech industry I suppose that comes in the form of a rif (reduction in force) or layoff, which simply isn’t as fun.

I purchased a fishing rod and reel for my son last night. He is quite an avid fisherman, even though he is only 3 1/2. Up until this point we have used a section of one of my fishing poles, with a static piece of line for simplicities sake. This sort of replicates a cane pole experience. It’s worked fine, but it is limited by not being able to get the bobber more than three feet from the dock. This weekend however we’ll be able to fish more naturally with his new rod and reel.

He was thrilled to get his own rod and spent the day casting off the deck at home. He is still working on a fluid casting motion. At this point he prefers to pick up the dummy lure, which has no hooks, and throw it. Needless to say, that won’t work so well with a real hook. He called me at work to warn me it was a little tangled up. I expected as much.

My grandfather and I spent many hours fishing in Central Wisconsin growing up. While he didn’t teach me to fish, that I can remember, he spent more hours fishing with me that anyone else. When I visited him on Memorial Day 2003, we were able to get out and do some fishing, with Matthew as well. It was a real torch passing moment I thought. Grandpa was content to watch Matthew and not fish himself, but you could sense pride at being able to pass on a skill and an interest to the next generation.

This makes me think about my first experience fishing with Matthew.

It was last year when Matthew was 2 1/2. I had to go up to Lake Vermillion later than the rest of the party. When I got there Matthew was already fishing. I felt a little jealous. I hadn’t realized it previously, but I had wanted to take Matthew fishing for the first time, and some other relatives had jumped in line ahead of me. Luckily for me, although not for Matthew, Matthew was unable to land any fish that weekened. Immediately, when we got home, the two of us headed out fishing.

We went fishing at Reschanau Lake near my house. I had scoped it out ahead of time. It had a nice fishing dock and the look of panfish. I knew the best fish to start out with would be eager panfish like bluegills or ugly bullheads. Each are easy to catch and in plentiful supply. I wanted our fishing expedition to be short but successfull. Then as skills and attention spans grow we could build on those early successes.

We headed out to the lake with our rods, fishing tackle, and the mis-guided notion that our activities would resemble a illustration out of Field and Stream magazine. Did I mention I was going fishing with a two year old?

Being misguided I had taken my own fishing rod and reel as well. Certainly, I could catch fish at the same time as Matthew. Obviously, I had never really thought through fishing with a two year old.

We walked out onto the rickety old dock and I baited Matthews hook and cast the bobber out. I handed the rod to Matthew.

Bang, the bobber dissapeared and he had a fish on. I helped him set the hook and we had a bluegill. Now is where it starts to get complicated. I need to extricate the fish from the hook, Matthew is excitedly waving the rod around, and the fish is flopping. I did my best to get the fish off the hook, while Matthew seized on the oppourtunity to investigate the tackle box and walk a little to close to the edge of the dock. Never mind the slight disobedience, it’s celebration time. We vigorously celebrated capture and subsequent release of the fish. We re-baited the hook and cast the line out again.

Honestly, I have never felt quite as much pride in my son’s accomplishment as I did at that moment. I had passed on a meaningful skill to the next generation, he had mastered a portion of that skill, and most importantly he was loving it. I felt pride at his walking, talking, jumping and other important milestones, but this was different. To some degree if he was raised by wolves he would probably learn to walk and jump. Fishing was different somehow, perhaps as it was migled with nostalgia from fishing with my grandfather, or perhaps because I was passing on a tangible part of my own passion for the outdoors. I don’t know all the reasons why I felt so full of pride and emotion but it was a momentous occasion to me. I thought my heart would burst with pride and happieness.

Matthew gained some confidence at this point and decided sitting safely with his rod was not neccessary. I foolishly started to set up my line and bait my hook. This resulted in a round of “don’t touch, please sit down, I’m going to count, your’e going to get a consequence … ” Arggh.

Then we caught another fish, almost as soon as I had cast my own line out. Matthew quickly caught another two fish in a row, managing to tangle my line, which had it’s own fish on, in the process. By this time, his two-year old curiousity started working in over drive. If I could have seen the tought bubble over his head, I ‘m sure thoughts like the following were going through his head.

• I wonder if dad’s tackle box floats?
• Are these plastic worms edible?
• Why is dad so happy?
• It’s funny to run with sharp hooks, while dad trys to snag his tackle box that is floating away.
• Why is dad bellowing?
• It’s fun to whip this rod around. Why is dad cowering?
• I caught another fish, I’ll try and get the hook out myself.
• I wonder what fish slime tastes like.
• Worms and the box they came in also float.

As you might guess the moments of incredible pride, just moments ago were immediately followed by the sucker punch of reality, when my two year old had thrown my tackle box into the water for the second time, had came dangerously close to falling in, had lodged the hook into my finger through willful disregard for safety, and disobeyed more times than I could count to three.

After seven fish for Matthew and one for me we packed up and headed home with some howling and crying, mostly from Matthew. The primary emotion in my heart was no longer pride, but anger and dissapointment. Not so much at Matthew, since he was acting his age, but at myself for losing my normally even keeled “cool” and for not providing a more idyllic disney-esque fishing experience.

Since then I have learned a lot about parenting and fishing. It seems like a lot of special parent moments are filled with conflicting emotions. Now, I make sure Matthew has a life preserver on at all times when we are near the water. That helps with his safely and my sanity by extension. I don’t really try and fish very hard myself when we are fishing together. I figured out it’s a full time job being Matthew’s fishing guide at this age. Then most importantly, I try hard not make the moment be a Kodak moment. It’s enough to simply experience the joy and reality of the moment by itself.

I can’t wait to fish some more this weekend. Hopefully, we’ll be able to catch our first walleye!

On an unrelated note. Last week, Matthew and I were reading a book about a farmer. At the end I asked, “Matthew do you think you want to be a farmer when you grow up?” He responded, “No, I think I’m going to be a Japanese Restaurant.” I don’t know where he gets it from …

I finally saw the movie. It took me an unbelievable three weeks and three days since it was released.

How did I like it?

I enjoyed it immensely. It’s story like the original movie has riddles and layers of meaning. It also has the one thing that makes me enjoy a movie more than anything else. It is the notion that “perhaps what is real isn’t real and then again perhaps it is.” Sometime I phrase it this way, “is the main character crazy or is he the only one who is sane?” The movie has this notion written all over it.

The other thing that I like about the movie is that is has archetypal elements. Those elements allow one to transpose many meanings and stories onto it as a way to understand other events. For instance, some folks have taken great pains to point out Christian elements, symbols, and phrasing in the movie. While that is clearly one possibility, you could also transpose the monumental struggle of IBM Mainframes and Open Systems on the story with the same ease. It can be the story of communism, fascism and liberal democracy. It could be the story of large corporations and anti-consumerism. I won’t bore you with a list of possiblities as it would be endless. Suffice it to say the elegance of the the movie is that it is many stories simultaneously.

There is another theme that I really enjoy. It is the theme of awakening to purpose. If the reader doesn’t believe the central Christian narrative, consider the following as a thought experiment. If the account of Jesus is accurate and he is the son of God, fully God and fully human, when was he aware of this? Was it in the crib? Did this realization come later. Was it sudden and distinct. Was it a gradual awakening. These questions have almost no answer in conventional Christian narrative or tradition. This theme existed in both movies. It is a theme that fascinates me, perhaps as I wonder about my own purpose and when or if I will become fully aware of it.

What didn’t I like? I thought the first real fight scene was rendered like a video game. Perhaps that scene should have had more atttention. Perhaps by the time the DVD with goodies comes out it will be even better.

I was curious how Neo would behave with the throng that greeted him after he got off the elevator in Zion. That scene could have been longer IMHO.

This certainly was the best movie I have seen this calendar year.