January 2007 Archives

The nature of the Internet is decentralization and an attendant lack of control. I think this is one of the reasons why it has become as popular as it is—even though CompuServe, AOL, and Minitel all had tread similar ground prior to the Internet boom. The fact that it was built with precisely this nature is fascinating and amazing at the same time, especially given that it originated as a military and government project. (Side note: its purpose, however, was not to reroute around damage caused by a nuclear war as is commonly thought.)

Since the Web has exploded in popularity, many entities and individuals have bristled at this systemic lack of control. They don't like the unbridled power of the free Web, just as they didn't like the power of the free press in previous era. They send out cease and desist orders to have content removed, they try to stifle free speech by subjecting bloggers to the same onerous restrictions as campaigns, and they attempt to control how other Web sites link to them. The latter is the matter I'd like to focus on.

The recent case in Texas is only the latest example of the phenomenon. For years, many companies have been trying to stifle linking entirely. This is a ludicrous notion that is antithetical to both the nature of the Web as well as the actual self-interest of the companies. Linking brings traffic, recognition, and influence—there's a whole industry built up around soliticiting linkage. To be sure, there are problems with linking but they fall under the leeching of bandwidth, which is an actionable property rights infringement.

Lately, though, I've noticed a disturbing trend among people where they don't want links to their blogs because they don't want people reading their sites. They think that their employers, their friends, or their family won't find their site if they keep a low profile or use a fake name. Security through obscurity (or, in this case, privacy through obscurity) is a chimera: if it's on a public site without password protection, you can consider that everyone you know has or will read your writing. If Google can find it, I can find it via Google. Promise. Operating under assumption will save you a lot of grief and embarrasment.

Anyone or anything that seeks to require permission to link to their site is a fool. In my capacity as a link blogger, I never consider whether or not I should ask about linking to a site. My rule of thumb is that if it's something I can see then it's something I can link. If you don't want me doing that, then make your blog or site private—there's plenty of tools that allow you to do just that. Otherwise, suck it up and enjoy the traffic.

I've been reading Violent Acres for a bit now and I'm really torn about it. On the one hand, it's very well-written and takes controversial sides. That's refreshing in the blogging world of sameness. On the other hand, it oftens seems to be controversial for controversy's sake—a John C. Dvorak of the political and cultural realm. With all the ads on the site, it's hard to tell whether she's an Ann Coulter for advertising or a serious blogger who's just trying to cash in.

This recent entry, though, has cinched it for me. It's another salvo in the long-winded tirade against the phenomenon known alternately as the "echo chamber" and a "circle jerk".

If you don’t have the guts to step outside of your comfort zones, you will never grow and change as a person. If being well liked is more important than being yourself, then you will never say anything of value. If you don’t have the balls to be hated, then you don’t deserve to be loved.

This sentiment sounds bold and fresh at first blush, but rapidly unravels when you start to think it through. It's a false dichotomy—there's more to writing than being loved or hated. There's plenty of reasons for writing that are not incendiary: education, edification, or clarification, for example. Any of those reasons could involve a style that is qualifying or tempered or measured. Writing need not be passionate or inflammatory to be effective—any traipse through the literature of any culture would indicate that.

I've come to the conclusion that she is a troll, taking positions and writing explosive commentary for the purpose of driving traffic. It's been quite successful, but I don't like it and it seems phony. I think her popularity is akin to Dr. Phil's: he's got nuggets of wisdom and good advice but people watch him for the outrageous things he says. I'm done—unsubscribed.

My wife and I have finally gotten the initial rough draft of our online store out there, Need2Bead.com. The layout and design still need a lot of work, but all of her products are done so there was no sense in waiting any longer.

I think this venture is going to be pretty successful. She does local bead parties (in metropolitan Phoenix) in addition to the online business. I think that will be an important marketing vehicle in the future since all partygoers will be familiar with her site because the invitations list the address prominently. Plus, the name is un *pause* believable.

Once the design is finished, then I can move on to my projects and get them started. I've been putting them off for a long time; I felt like I made a commitment to help her get an online presence and that it would be wrong to put it aside to work on my own stuff. But I can't help but feel jazzed at the prospect of adding a few more revenue sources to the family coffers.

On a technical note, the store is built using the fabulous open-source ecommerce engine Zen Cart, an offshoot of openCommerce. The templating system leaves something to be desired, but I'm sure I'll get used to it at some point. It is an extremely powerful application, which is partly why it's taken me so long to get it going. But the dizzying array of options have helped me more often than they've hindered me and I would heartily recommend it to anyone.

I am so tired of the "un *pause* believable" phenomenon. In nearly all the times I've encountered it, it seems to be a form of unexpressed emphasis. In my mind, it's a verbal crutch and a cliché. I hate it. There's so many better options for the user: "absolutely incredible," "friggin genius," or even "totally bonkers" spring immediately to mind.

If you're an abuser of this, please think harder.

Today I finally had the chance to revisit the first service I ever wrote. I christened it Pingarooni and it handles all the outgoing trackbacks and pings for Quick Blog. It's been a long time since I've been in a position to re-examine early code done in a state of relative ignorance—I've been coding in ASP.NET for so long that my code is generally something of which I'm quite proud.

But I had never created a Windows service. The only non-Web application I'd ever created was a console application—certainly a world apart. I didn't really know what I was doing so my code evinced a certain textbook formality that subsequent services I wrote had thankfully shed. The flow of it was horrendous and I'm surprised it lasted as long as it did.

Here are the things I learned in revising it:

• Make your service work on batches at a time. By doing so, you'll be able to see progress and some freak error will only affect a small number of work items.
• Make the service work on discrete work units so that many instances of the service can be run in parallel.
• Make the service update the database to report its progress as soon as possible. At the least, it should report every batch if not throughout the batch.
• Make the service run continuously if possible, stopping only when an OnStop event is raised. If the work load is neverending, there's no sense in pausing between runs.
• Make the service use plugins along command pattern lines to define its work. If possible, these plugins should be put into a separate assembly or module so that additional plugins can be introduced with a simple restart of the service.

The views expressed on this website/weblog are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of Go Daddy.com Software, Inc.

Mike Judge's new movie, Idiocracy, is a dystopic comedy about two completely normal, average people who are forgotten in a top-secret Army hibernation experiment gone awry. Instead of the one year that they signed up for, they find themselves awaking in an America five hundred years in the future. Expecting an advanced civilization, they quickly discover that the dumbing down of American culture has left succeeding generations dumber and dumber. In that climate, they are hailed as the smartest people in the world and quickly placed in the service of resuscitating the degenerating American economy.

I was eagerly awaiting this movie's release since it had had a very limited run in theaters. As you may know, Mike Judge is the man behind Office Space, Beavis and Butthead, and King of the Hill. Like each of these works, Idiocracy is a mixed result that is more good than bad.

The premise is rife with possibility since it represents an excellent opportunity to make fun of current events and culture using slippery slope. Given 500 years to play out, nearly any penchant or fashion in our culture could lead to the most bizarre and fantastic conclusions. There are times in Idiocracy when this is used to great effect, such as with the most popular show on television, Ow My Balls!, and the most popular movie in theaters, Ass—which is just 90 minutes of footage of someone's behind along with accompanying flatulence. But there are times when it just falls flat, such as when the Rock Army plays electric guitar in the House of Representing or a Carl's Jr. ATM-like device calls the police to take custody of a woman's child because she can't afford the large fries. To my recollection, the ratio of biting satire to eye-rolling groaners is about 40-60. That's acceptable and consistent with Judge's other works.

I would recommend this movie keeping in mind that it is a light comedy.

Yesterday as I was egressing from the parking lot, I pulled up behind a Cadillac something or other that had the license plate "IBSHARP". I chortled because I just got my own license plate that reads "ICSHARP".

This entry by Jeff Atwood made me realize why I like working on Quick Blog so much. It's not just that it mirrors my own interests or that it's challenging on a daily basis. The thing that makes it all so wonderful is that people are using it. As Jeff puts it:

A smart software developer realizes that their job is far more than writing code and shipping it; their job is to build software that people will actually want to use.

I'm not turning into some altruist. Be sure that I'm doing what I do because I get paid. But it's enormously satisfying to know that you're helping people find their voice. Every day I see the entry counts grow, the comment counts grow, and the number of fascinating blogs grow. Sure, there are other blogging engines out there—but they're paying me (well, Go Daddy) for mine.

The views expressed on this website/weblog are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of Go Daddy.com Software, Inc.

Brown's Theory of Multitudinous Object Cleanup: After cleaning up seemingly all of the objects, there will be one remaining unretrieved on the periphery of one's vision. And then one more after that.

Also known as my developing theory of Lego and puzzle cleanup.

I discovered Grammar Girl awhile ago but thought nothing more of her at the time than "Oh, she's using Quick Blog." Then a co-worker brought this CNN article to my attention and I realized that she's actually quite popular.

I don't know why but it's always astounding to me when I find a Quick Blog being popular or being used by someone high-profile. I shouldn't be surprised—it is a quality product after all—but I can't help it.

The views expressed on this website/weblog are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of Go Daddy.com Software, Inc.

I finally got my personalized license plate! I've never had one before in my 16 years of driving mostly because I couldn't afford it and I regarded them as frivolous. Now I can certainly afford it and it seems de rigueur for MINI Coopers.

I wrestled with a bunch of them including "101BAHN", "1012XDY", and "QCKBLOG". But none of them were really me (except "QCKBLOG", that is). I do C#, so that's what I went with.

I just completed defensive driving class last Saturday and it's time for my biennial reformation. I'm hoping I can make it stick this time because tickets are such a waste of time. They're like a tax on the impatient. And I hate taxes.

But first, I suppose I should confess to my sins in this regard. My speeding has gotten worse since my earlier mention, and I've added an element of daredevilishness to it as well. At the time of that earlier entry, I was driving a 1999 Toyota Camry but I was driving it like I drove my Ford Mustang. Now that I have my MINI Cooper I finally have the combination of speed and maneuverability that fully released my inner speed demons.

I speed excessively: I've gone over 100 MPH so many times that it's stopped being special and I've gotten my car up to 121 MPH on I-17 at night. I change lanes aggressively in an effort to pass and I do so on all sides, across multiple lanes, and usually abruptly. I egg road ragers on. I speed on residential streets, I speed through school zones (but only when those signs are still up at 5 PM in defiance of the law). I've done moves that left me cackling uncontrollably afterwards with amazement that I made it through without a scratch.

I still don't think that speeding is inherently evil or that I was putting anyone's life in danger. I maintain tight control of my vehicle and always focus on driving as my primary activity when I'm in the car. I like to think of myself as a good driver who likes to get from Point A to Point B in as little time as possible. I also love the act of driving (especially with the MINI Cooper): a great car becomes an extension of your will and the grace of well-executed driving is beautiful.

Now I won't go more than 30 MPH in a residential area. On the freeway, I limit myself to 10 MPH over the posted speed limit. I make infrequent lane changes and I strive to drive defensively. I've stopped worrying about the time it takes to get places and just think to myself that I'll get there when I get there.

What brought about this sea change? Was it seeing all the fatal accidents in those insipid traffic school videos? Am I just trying not to get another ticket? Am I just a-scared of my wife, who disapproves of my need for speed?

I am sick of giving money to municipalities unduly, but I can afford the tickets and the higher insurance premiums. I certainly don't want to get in any accidents, but I had never really got into an accident prior to the ticket. My wife definitely complains about the risks I take, but I've been married 13 years and she's realized that that set of complaints has fallen on deaf ears.

In the end, I just don't see my life being better for being a speeder. As careful a driver as I am, I am one drunk driver away from being in a situation where my competence is irrelevant. I'm good at anticipating other drivers' actions but I'm not omniscient. I could not imagine leaving my family without me; I can't imagine ending that relationship prematurely.

Further, speeding is stressful. You're constantly looking out for policeman, calculating how to get around a wolf pack, and speeding up only to slow down. Constant speeds are so relaxing. And I've found that I might only save a few minutes by driving like I did. I've got enough things in my life to stress over, but driving isn't one of them. I'd much rather fret and expend mental effort on something important.

Given that rationale for my behavioral change, I think it's going to be a long time before I get my next ticket. This move just feels right and driving has become more pleasurable, not less, because I can focus exclusively on my handling. And when I do need to speed, it will be like when I use a curse word: exhilirating from its rarity.

Adam Bosworth, bigwig at Google, is interested in tackling health URLs. As soon as I saw that term, my mind exploded with possibilities. Imagine no more charts that must be transferred between family physicians, full medical histories available to emergency personnel, and the ability to know whether doctors have ever considered you "difficult."

But then I remembered that the health care industry is one of the most regulated segments of our society. For a moment, I was under the misapprehension that it would just take an agreement between me, my HMO (possibly), Google, and my doctors. But that's not possible in today's political environment: you know that every branch of government would want to make sure that it followed onerous regulations, complied with their whims, and required paperwork that utterly defeated its purpose.

All that would be done in the name of protecting the patient's privacy. Never mind that the patient could protect his own privacy, thank you very much. The nanny statists know that consumers just aren't as sophisticated as they are and that those who would provide such record retention would jump at the chance of selling it to anyone who expressed an interest.

But I don't believe that. I believe that I should make my own decisions and the idea of having my entire medical history available on the Web, no matter what health care insurance I have or who my doctor is, excites me. If Google does an adequate implementation and limits access to those whom I specify, then I don't see anything untoward happening.

And if they restrict access by the government by requiring a subpoena, all the better.

The good thing to come out of last night's meeting was a newfound respect for Go Daddy, my employer. Now don't get me wrong, I love my job and think Go Daddy's a great place to work. But the blogosphere has not been kind to Go Daddy.

Since that's where I spend my life, I've acquired a certain tint to how I think the world perceives us. Google is revered, but Go Daddy is often mocked and derided. It always felt like we were regarded as Web 2.0 for beginners. So I had it in my head that we were one of those great but misunderstood companies.

But last night I got to interact with some real people. They couldn't sing the praises of Go Daddy enough. Incredible customer service, excellent product offerings, great value. It was an eye opener.

I never really thought that our 24/7 phone-based customer service was anything special. Or helpful, from some of the escalations I've seen. But thinking about it more, I realized that I, as a developer, only get to respond to incidents where things have gone far wrong or for too long. My time listening in on customer service and sitting with them was very different and I had attributed it to lucking upon the good reps. But I think now that the bad ones that I had encounterd via escalations were the exception.

There's a reason why we're the number one domain registrar and shared hosting provider. There's cheaper companies out there, but they're cheaper in other ways as well. And the barriers to leaving hosts and registrars is quite low. There's got to be some compelling about our offering to grow as spectacularly as we have.

I'm glad that I found it.

[The views expressed on this website/weblog are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of Go Daddy Software, Inc.]

Last night I attended my second meeting of the Phoenix branch of the Social Media Club. The first meeting was utterly useless and I gave the club three strikes before I was done with it entirely. After last night's meeting, I'm going to say that's it out. (I couldn't give it the second strike because it conflicted with a holiday party.)

I have a pretty high standard for organizations and meetings. If I'm not getting something out of them that I can't get elsewhere, then I'm not going to bother. I'm not into any sort of networking because it generally devolves into a sales pitch coupled with feigned interest in my life and work. I've got better things to do; even watching Law and Order reruns is a better use of my time than that sort of thing.

So last night's meeting was on some drivel called the New Media Release. It's supposed to be Press Release 2.0—boy am I glad they didn't think of that—with the ability to get past blogger's bozo filters in a single bound. As far as I can tell, it's a press release littered with graphics, movies, links to post to social bookmarking sites, and a litter of buzzwords. The example from the club itself is decidedly underwhelming: it looks like a press release embedded in a blog entry. Ho hum.

That was pretty bad, but the deciding factor for me was Francine Hardaway. She just wouldn't stop talking, a problem she herself noted in her entry on last night's meeting. But that's not the big problem I have with her: there were several annoying sorts there that loved the sound of their voices. She's one of those insufferable types that is so self-absorbed and pretentious that it made me want to leave mid-meeting. From the name-dropping ("As my friend Scoble said", "As so-and-so said, you do read so-and-so, right?") to the tedious anecdotes (Paraphrase: "Social media is everywhere ... I was attending a real estate conference ... My daughter, who own's her own company, was reading Engadget ... sent me an email with photos of the new iPhone ... All the real estate professionals around me were agog over the pictures and asking questions ... See it's everywhere because they weren't reading blogs during the presentation.") to the elitist pretensions ("Us tech people", "Of course this is baby stuff for us", "I've been in PR for 17 years", "I've been blogging since before it was called blogging", "And they said that Phoenix was too small to have a social media club") to the constant stream of buzzwords ("background himself"), she just rubs me the wrong way. I couldn't imagine attending another meeting of Francine's klatch.

But don't get me wrong, it's not just an issue of personality. The entire notion of the club strikes me as missing the point. It is dominated by marketers whose sole goal appears to be penetrating through to and using the fora of user-generated content producers. How can we get our stuff noticed by bloggers? How can we get our "viral" video onto YouTube? How can we adapt our current way of doing things to the real-time, no-holds-barred new media?

At the same time, however, it's aiming for those interested in social media who don't know much about it. (Its aim is errant because I think that type probably doesn't even know SMC exists and wouldn't attend even if they did.) So it becomes a social media for dummies forum. Let's talk a bit about del.icio.us. Let's have a meeting about how to get your blog recognized by search engines.

The missing party in this is the social media producer: the blogger, the podcaster, the vlogger. But that's where it's at, man. These people could really stand to meet each other, bounce ideas off each other, and get acquainted. That is what I hoped this club would be about, but it'll never happened if it's dominated by marketing flacks. There were a few bloggers there, but I couldn't get a read on whether they thought it was a waste of time as well. Oh, apparently, a couple of them liked it.

The social media producer, however, doesn't need a club for tutorials or acquiring knowledge. The producer is, by definition, comfortable with the Web and there are far better resources on the Web than could ever be assembled in an over-crowded wine room at La Madeleine. So it's not about the presentation by Francine (that would have to stop); it should be about sharing information or advice with people you've never met in person. That's the only advantage a geographically-based meeting has over a virtual one.

If I were changing things (and I don't care enough at this point to even bother trying), I'd have each meeting have a theme relevant to the producers: getting traffic, best services, thinking up content ideas. And then people ask questions, get answers, and share knowledge in a freewheeling conversation. Or announce the topic, have people introduce themselves, and then end the meeting while people gravitate around to talk about the theme.

And for chrissakes, get a meeting room without a substantial table taking up 90% of the floor space, relegating people to the walls and outside the room.

Happiness is …

That iPhone is hot. Buried among the announcements was a name change to Apple, Inc. from Apple Computer, Inc. and the playing of a Beatles song. As this Slashdot commenter noted, the long-standing troubles with Apple Records must finally be over. It's not a press release, but it's awfully close.

Also, I sure hope they have some more special events this month or next detailing the changes to Mac OS X and announcing the new eight-ways. The keynote was long but it focused solely on the AppleTV and the iPhone. It's hard to call this the year of the Mac when the keynote was about anything but.

[UPDATE: One other thing I noticed was the June 2007 availability. A lot of people are puzzled by this because FCC compliance certification wouldn't take five months—most people say it might take two months at the most. Watching the introduction, it dawned on me that this baby's going to run Leopard and it probably won't be available much earlier than that.]

I encountered a pregnant concept in Edwin Locke's article "The Educational, Psychological, and Philosophical Assault on Self-Esteem" in the most recent issue of The Objective Standard. Since it's only available to subscribers, here's the relevant quote:

A third type of defense is the use of defense values. A defense value is a personal attribute or aspiration that one uses to gain the illusion of self-esteem. The value itself may be irrational (e.g., the approval of others, sexual conquest, the ability to manipulate people, power-seeking), or it may be a legitimate value that one holds in a distorted way (e.g., intelligence). A person who holds intelligence as a defense value may, for example, seek compulsively to prove to others that he is smart, react with anger or anxiety if he meets someone who seems to be smarter than he is, avoid situations where his intellectual superiority might be threatened, boast of his genius, and/or scorn those who are less intelligent than he is. Defense values are not always held in the form of actual traits that one possesses; they may also be held in the form of aspirations—aspirations which one has no capacity to achieve and/or takes no action to achieve (e.g., becoming a great novelist, businessman, or singer). Defense values are held in a kind of desperate, compulsive manner, as though they were a matter of life or death—which, in a perverse way, they are, considering that they are used as a substitute for real self-esteem. Achieving defense values temporarily lowers anxiety but does not lead to happiness.

The only problem with the notion is that it could easily be overused. That's a problem with psychologizing in general: there's a subtle line between pretentious and well-read that only becomes obvious with time and observation.

Postscript: Dr. Locke offers this footnote to the passage quoted above: "The concept of defense values was first identified by Dr. Allan Blumenthal." Does anyone know where that identification was made? To my knowledge, Blumenthal has only published in the periodicals associated contemperaneously with Ayn Rand.

After resolving to blog more, I thought it would be interesting to see how my blogging frequency stacked up in the past across all my blogs.

Wow, that's a lotta blogging. The Five Browns blog entries are approximately half or more written by my wife. All in all, though, I've got a pretty high bar to hurdle to match or exceed my previous output.

If you normally do a Regex.Escape(string) in C# to get some text ready for use as a regular expression, be aware that a string like ^Lijit (+http://www.lijit.com/)$ will be escaped like so ^Lijit\ \(+http://www\.lijit\.com/\)$ instead of ^Lijit\ \(\+http://www\.lijit\.com/\)$ as you would expect.

Using that "escaped" regular expression will result in an ArgumentException along the lines of parsing "^Lijit (+http://www.lijit.com/)$" - Quantifier {x,y} following nothing. That message is virtually un-Google-able until now.

The .NET exception occurs, I think, because the parser just doesn't understand the unescaped quantifier being next to an escaped control character. I believe that the escaping misses it because it uses that same parser because the plus sign is definitely one of the characters that the Escape method can handle.

It's been a while since I had any real New Year's Resolutions. I haven't been sloughing it off, goal-wise, though. And I think New Year's Resolutions are a great idea. So here's mine for 2007 (numbered for future reference):

1. Get things done: I have fallen off the GTD wagon despite several fitful starts in 2006. It's time to get serious about my life. I firmly believe that GTD is the best time management system out there but I haven't quite gotten my personal style of it figured out. I think that GTD-PHP is my best bet, but I need a mobile version of it or it's not going to cut it. Perhaps that will be the motivation to learn PHP that I've always lacked.
2. Reduce my Mountain Dew consumption to one can a day: I'm currently at two cans a day with occasional lapses to three (and once in a very blue moon, four). Notice I specifically said Mountain Dew. I plan on drinking Rooster Booster Lite but my goal here is to eliminate soda-related weight gain. It's the number one reason for my weight fluctuation—up or down—throughout the year. I will maintain two cans a day for awhile and then gradually lower it to one a day, perhaps by an arbitrary time like February 1st.
3. Stop the fighting: I need to stop fighting with Sandi. It's imperative. The last year has seen the number remain roughly the same, but the intensity has definitely gone up due to circumstances that I won't discuss here. I won't turn the other cheek, but there's got to be ways to keep cool even when one's buttons are being pushed.
4. Reread Atlas Shrugged: I can get this one accomplished fairly easily since I've already started. But it's been a long time since I've reread it. With the movie coming soon, it'd be nice to have the plot fresh in my mind as I mercilessly pick apart the adaptation.
5. Develop a Web application: I think that this has to be the year where I start my software company. It's on my 50 by 50 list (linked in the first paragraph), but waiting until I'm closer to 50 is insanity. I think that there's some rich opportunities to create a Web application that dovetails with Objectivist principles and a book idea I've been nurturing for the last couple years. I may junk this resolution in favor of writing that book, but I think the software might be more likely in 2007.
6. Start saving money: We've always contributed heavily to my 401(k) plan but we've been hit or miss on shorter-term savings. We need to assess our income and sock money away in both ING and Desert Schools. We fritter away money each month and it'd be nice to have something to fall back on that didn't involve IRS penalties.
7. Re-carpet the downstairs: We've got berber carpet downstairs and we were planning on replacing the carpet throughout the entire house once The Girls were old enough to control themselves (and the dog would stop whizzing on the floor occasionally). But it's gotten to the point where we actively hate laying on the floor because it is so god-damned uncomfortable. When we almost bought a house in 2006, one of the biggest joys was picking out some carpet to die for. I think the relatively small space downstairs would make re-carpeting fairly affordable.
8. Blog more: December was a banner month here and I'd really like to keep it up. I look at my other blogs and the vibrancy they exhibit with considerable regret. bblog was supposed to be the scene, man, but I've focused all my energies on those other ones. I think if I can keep up the posting here, I'll at least feel like I'm giving it a shot. I may even start up a new blog or two in 2007—I've got some ideas and plenty of domains just sitting around.
9. Get Phoenix history site rolling: I've got an incipient encyclopedia of Phoenix history and big plans for it, but it's sat idle for too long. If I can end 2007 with 10 good articles and perhaps 10 active contributors, then it will finally be building up a head of steam. Phoenix is a great city and the history of Phoenix is too easily forgotten in the hustle and bustle. Getting people active in recording and remembering it will fulfill one of my life's goals and, I hope, one of my legacies.
10. Simplify my life: This is somewhat ironic given the previous resolutions, but I've got to get back to my basics. Hike more, love more, reflect more, be frugal more. If I were New-Agey (and boy am I not), I'd say I need to re-center but I think it's more of a re-focusing.
11. Do something romantic at least once a week: Sandi is worth that. I'm already fairly romantic and I try to do it every week as it is, but I'm also a busy guy so it sometimes lapses. It'll also help me to remember that romance isn't always the big things, the grand gestures, but also the small, thoughtful actions as well.
12. Keep library fines under $5: You don't even want to know how much I pay in library fines. Let's just say it generally amazes librarians whenever I come down and write a check. My major blemish on my credit record is a collection item from the Maricopa County Library because they assessed $30 in fees related to a lost book that I had returned. They wouldn't waive it and so I said, "Screw 'em!" In the end, they screwed me.
13. Go the entire year without a traffic ticket: I got one in September and I really don't want to have another one until I'm eligible for traffic school again.

So that's it, off the top of my head. I think I'll write up progress reports throughout the year. That will help in checking my re-focusing. I hope that you can use the beginning of the year as a reflection point as well.

[UPDATE (1/2/2007): Added numbers 11, 12, and 13. I had resolved to do them but forgotten to add them to the list. I think that's all I've got.]

[UPDATE 2 (1/2/2007): Added IDs to the elements for easy reference.]

This morning we decided to break in the new year by going on a road trip. To be more exact, we decided it the night before but I was in no position to partake in any planning.

Sandi suggested going up to the Wickenburg area, an eminently-advisable idea since we could avoid I-17 and the tons of Phoenicians who might use the day off to go north. Wickenburg wasn't a destination so much as a focal point since the town is not particularly picturesque or interesting. There's a ton of history there, but not much of it is still there there.

So we looked around the Phoenix day trips book that we own and found a route that took us up to Congress. We had passed through the town on a previous journey and I'd since regretted not stopping. The book also suggested a trip three miles up the highway to a dirt road leading to Stanton, Octave, and Weaver. Unfortunately, we never made it further than the Parker Dairy Farm because the washboard road was just too jarring in our minivan. (We later learned that Stanton, the first of the ghost towns on that road, was another five miles still. So we made the right decision.)

After turning around, we cruised Congress for about a minute and stopped to eat at the Congress Cafe. I think we were something of a novelty because everyone was gawking and waving at our kids. I believe Congress is now mostly a retirement community. The food was quite good diner-style cuisine and the service was outstanding.

After that, we drove down Ghost Town Road and came up to the pioneer cemetery of which all the ghost town sites have photos. We didn't go see it because Annie was coughing too much and I really didn't know how far it would be to reach it. Looking over the photographs, I'd say that it would be worth visiting on a return trip though.

The drive home was uneventful. We took the US 60 all the way down to Bell Road. I love that stretch of US 60 because it is almost exactly the course of the historical Grand Avenue that connected Phoenix to Wickenburg for the entirety of the former's history. I like that kind of association. All in all, a nice day off.

[UPDATE (1/2/2007): I forgot the most interesting part of the trip! After finishing our meal at the Congress Cafe, we ambled out to the minivan and saw that a DeLorean had parked in the "lot!" I've only seen one other DeLorean in my life (Back to the Future aside) and that was in Phoenix doing the morning commute on the Squaw Peak. Very nice-looking car even after all these years.]

Last night my wife and I had our New Year's Eve tradition where we invited her best friend over for the night and played games to ring in the new year. This go 'round, Sandi decided that we should have some peach Bellinis.

My experience with champagne was unwaveringly bad. I begged my parents for a drink of it when I was really young, like eight or nine. They gave me a swig and I promptly threw up. Then I had a whole cup of it when I went hot air ballooning my first time and I yakked something fierce. I decided to give champagne one more try since childhood drinking is definitely not the same as adult drinking.

One side note for those who don't know me well: I am generally a teetotaler. Post-high school, I had two mudslides on a cruise in Mexico and two martinis at a friend's thirtieth birthday party. In my entire life, I've been drunk twice: once on account of said martinis and once in high school after downing an entire bottle of root beer Schnapps at an after-work party. So I thought I'd humor Sandi and have a few drinks because it was New Year's Eve.

Fast forward to 10:30. One bottle of champagne consumed entirely by me, save for a few sips by the ladies. I was drunk as a skunk. Let's skip over the entertaining, had-the-girls-in-stitches inebriation part and go right to the part with me over the kitchen sink, horking up more spew than I ever have before. I blew at least three good chunks. Went up to bed shortly thereafter and emptied out my stomach four more times.

Champagne: never again.