Blog blog...where is the blog?

Hi everybody,
I'm losing my blog steam! I haven't been blogging as much -- it seems like I only have time nowadays to actually do something or blog. So where is the time going? House and work. These combined create bad blog content or no blog content. Booo!

Hopefully, tomorrow, I will post photos of our journey to Maine to see Summer Sweater and Personable. We had a great time, and I'll try to give some highlights of our trip to Portland.

Til tomorrow!

I'm going bald

Today, I made the cruel realization that I am going bald. For the past ten years, I've been living in denial of this twisted fate. I thought I had received my Sisko hairline (simple receding), but after today's haircut I was greeted with the classic Spano look: a barren follicle wasteland. Yes, honey, I'm going bald.

I started asking myself when this started. Was it three years ago, two years ago, or was it actually the past 6 months when things took a turn for the worse. Three months ago I noticed those small tufts of hair that old bald people get. What are those things? Little pubic hairs? Why even bothering having hair when you just have those tufts?

I guess as a kid you think you can trick mother nature. Oh no, not me, silly fate. My hair will be good, and I will escape the dreaded inherit from your mother's father rule. I will triumph and prevail. I will have my hair. However, this triumph over fate and biology was not to be mine. Yes, honey, I'm going bald.

Other news...
Rosanne had insisted I blogged tonight, as I've lost some inspiration of late. What else has happened? Well, we did a few things this weekend:

* Had tasty donuts at Anna's in West Roxbury
* Bought cat food at Pet World (Kitty City)
* Went to Drew Farm orchard
* Went to giant estate sale in JP, bought magazine holder
* Got haircut/discovered I'm going bald
* Read about N-tier architectures
* Moved air conditioners that weighed 40 pounds each
* Watered the plants

I will post pictures hopefully tomorrow. Seeing Mogwai tomorrow night as well.

Good night!

Stooping to New Lows: Sleeping Cat Video - Wyatt

Thanks to an anonymous commenter, we are today featuring Wyatt passed out on a chair. As I point out in the video, he's a handsome guy, and for an additional bonus, you get to hear me use my "jo-booboo" cat voice. (Is that how you spell that?)



Take notice, fellow thought leaders, I believe today I raised the bar some, eh?

Trying to sell stuff on Craig's List + Slater Mill

Today has been productive. I've been sick, went to Slater Mill, tried to sell a dresser and also edit in Final Cut Pro. I had some successes and some - you could say - challenges.

First, I awoke feeling like the way I did yesterday: stuffy head, fairly woozy, and just plain slow. Every word that came out of my mouth seemed to be in slow motion. Things did not really improve much until early evening health-wise. That being said, I still had a good day with Rosanne going to Slater Mill in Pawtucket, RI. I'd like to say we went for historical considerations, but rather, we went because we just saw Slater Mill on Ghost Hunters, one of our favorite programs on TV.

The Mill

We drove down to RI, which is not too far from us. I must say Rhode Island, while very close to us, has its own special flavor. Everybody we saw was very nice today, but this had to be one of the most bizarre historical tours I have ever taken. First, there were only two employees today working the mill -- they would rotate from being at the door and giving the tour. Giving the tours, both guides had a simple earnestness that was very admirable, but done with a local flavor that gave it a very unique twist. Our first guide mentioned how if a 12-year-old boy started bleeding into a machine, he just had to clean up the blood, and make sure he could continue working. To clarify, she mentioned that this mill only produced white thread, so the red would not do and hopefully the boy would still have enough blood to finish the job. We got a lot of little historical facts just like that to keep the day interesting.

While learning about history, we were also seeing if we could capture any ghostly encounters. Frankly, the only odd thing we saw were among the living, but we could definitely imagine some young child spirits there, since children were basically the main workforce for the whole factory. The machines we saw were imposing and ghastly -- imposing for most modern adult men -- let alone for a small child.

All in all, if you are in the area, do check out Slater Mill. The staff worked very hard and we had a great time.

VIDEOS!

I'm going to try to include more video in this here blog, so please enjoy me drilling a hole in a piece of wood at Slater Mill. The drill is powered by water, by a very large wheel -- very impressive.





Craig's List

Since I got my new old dresser, I'm trying to sell my old dresser. If you talk to me in person, I often complain about Craig's List, and once again, I've been stung. I was waiting tonight for like 90 minutes for the purchaser to show up to no avail. I had to put the cats in their respective rooms too so they wouldn't escape during the transaction. So in addition to waiting, I got to hear the cats howl. Yay.

Cat on Table

Tonight, Wyatt is playing the role of a table ornament...

More Great Content!

I'm now on Twitter -- what's left for young Cotton, Facebook? We'll see.

Must Continue Blogging

So I've basically lost some steam on the blog express. I was blogging almost everyday, but lately, it seems like I haven't had the time. I'm going to try to get going again with baby steps. So what's been going on in my life?

Tonight I made a taco bake from a recipe from my old place of employment, America's Test Kitchen. Most of their recipes never really turned out right for us (the Cook's Illustrated recipes take TOO much work), but for some reason this little taco recipe has always been quite easy.

Work is getting busier the longer I am there. I'm now currently dropped in the middle of the giant web redesign project. This is good. I was very used to be constantly busy at my last job, so I'm sort of getting my rhythm back.

Have a good evening.

Playing Catchup: Portsmouth

Dear Readers,

I've been bad. Very bad. I have not blogged in a week. Other things have got in our way, like work, life, cats, my wife (kidding), and eating. This week, I overheard someone comment that blogging can sometimes become a full-time occupation. A good occupation though. It allows us to reach our friends, and let them know what's going on in our lives and keep up as our lives get more seemingly complicated and busy. In order for me to stay connected, I may try my hand with Twitter, thus, you can follow me through my day as I tweet. Lovely.

Anyway, let's go ahead to Portsmouth. Last Sunday we went to New Hampshire to see probably the hippest city in the state. Portsmouth does a nice job of combining cultural vibrancy, history, and shopping (huh?) in one small, cute package. You can walk around beautiful Victorians, see old Colonials (see the John Paul Jones House), and still pick up your foo foo coffee in a short matter of time. We had a great day.

Below, you will see my virtual photo tour with commentary.

Who is this grumpy man, J. L. Coombs? This grumpy man sells shoes that Rosanne bought later in the day.

I finally buy my pink flamingos for the yard. I was looking for the reissue of the original Don Featherstone design; however, these were definitely good enough.

The Friendly Toast Men. This eatery is full of cool, kitschy items for you to look at it as you consume.

Neon sign.

My chicken burrito. It was interesting because it had a corn salsa topping and olives in it. I may review this place in a later blog.

Rosanne's melt sandwich. It had ham, brie, and asparagus. Very melty.

John Paul John's house. JPJ wasn't just the bass player for LZ, he was also a mighty sea captain.

I was surprised to see lobster art in Portsmouth, as it seemed like Portland, ME, had cornered the market. This sculpture was downtown to greet everybody as they enjoyed the day.

New Hampshire is very interesting as it has its own state liquor stores. This store had cases of hard liquor and wine -- but no beer. I had to have my picture taken in front of this noble state institution.

Portsmouth Recap...

Anyone in the area I definitely recommend you check out this little place right on the border of MA, ME, and NH. I don't know if I'd stay for more than a day (it is small), but for those looking for a day trip this won't disappoint.

Poll Update
It seems as if we had a double vote on last week's poll, which basically ruined it for all of you. We're redoing the poll, and if the results are valid, I will keep or shave my beard.

Lots to add today...

A lots gone on this week, some highlights include:

* Revs game at Foxboro
* Visit from Chris
* Another trip to Cathay Kitchen
* Brimfield Antiques Show with new dresser and gnome
* More housework
* The underwhelming tropical storm.

Real content later!

Thorny Bush Out!

Breaking news...the bush is out!

More details later today.

Cutter Mattox

The shrub is still up, and I'm just getting in from trying to cut the rest of it down. I called my father to see if he had any sagely yard advice about the situation, and he recommended we go with this thing called a railroad pick/cutter mattox/grub axe. I was relieved not having to buy a chainsaw, because as I much as I wanted to hear that mofo purr, I don't think I'm exactly qualifed yet to use such a device. Anyway, this large striking tool is helping us get some headway, and I think I will be able to remove this bush by 6.

Pictures later

Make a decision, so I don't have to

Help me decide the fate of my beard.

VOTE

More organic waste

I was washing our green leaf lettuce, and I found a surprise. What kind of surprise you may ask? I found a dead worm. This was pretty nasty.

Other news...
Still squeezing eye ointment into Wyatt's right eye -- we have 8 more days of treatment. Saw Bill Clinton on the DNC -- he's still an awesome speaker. After Bill, a woman from Virginia was going to speak, but the network felt this was a good time to cut to a commercial.

That's it -- a lean post.

Please vote for this week's poll -- your results will determine my next facial hair decision.

Removing the Thorny Bush: A Story Told in Pictures (8/24)

We wake up early in the morning, drive to frickin' Home Depot and buy some tools to remove the thorny bush.

A view of our front yard. Thorny bush noted by arrow.

Rosanne helps clear the land.

The rubbish and organic waste we've created. We cleaned up the front corner of our lawn that was overgrown.

A girl with her tools.

Tools. Not being used.
(I enjoyed tilling the land with the device on the right.)

Leftover beer from the 30 pack we bought from the move. Still drinking.

This part of the lawn is full of rocks, which Rosanne is picking up.

We go to great lengths to dig up this shrub. We use a saw, a big shovel, and even trowels.

The moat we dug. Lovely.

Rosanne is glad we're done for the day. We didn't get the friggin' shrub out though. I called Home Depot to see how much it cost to rent a chainsaw. Yes, I said a chainsaw. It costs 60 dollars for 24-hours. We're going to wait on this.

We discover Sasha hard at work finding a new cat bed.



...to be continued.

Restaurant Review: Cathay Kitchen (Dedham)

Restaurant Review: Cathay Kitchen
Downtown Dedham.

So I picked out our new local Chinese place. We ordered chicken with mixed vegetables, udon noodles with vegetables, vegetarian spring rolls, an egg roll, and some pork fried rice. In brief, the food was pretty decent for take-out, not really exceptional, but good enough to go there again. Really, how often does one have stunning Chinese food?

Rundown of the items:

• Chicken with Mixed Vegetables -- had your classic brown sauce, good mix of vegetables. Grade: 82
• Udon Noodles with Vegetables -- we weren't expecting what we got. I was expecting udon noodles with a light, clear sauce with steamed vegetables. In reality, the udon was served and fried lo mein style with minimal vegetables. If you're looking for healthy like we were, be warned. Grade: 75
• Spring Rolls -- a tad greasier than I had liked. Grade: 79
• Egg Rolls -- good flavor, not greasy, egg roll mixture wasn't a total mystery. Grade: 84
• Pork Fried Rice -- pretty typical, but not bad. Grade: 84

It must be noted, I ordered a combo meal, and the amount of fried rice I got was insane. Also, the food presentation (not that I was expecting much or any) wasn't all that great, and frankly, was mediocre enough it would make some people falsely judge the food. On a more positive note, the staff was very friendly, and the establishment itself was very clean.

Chicken with Mixed Vegetables

Udon Noodles with Vegetables (Note browness and lack of discernable vegetables)

Rosanne's feelings about her meal (the udon noodles)

Overall conclusion: If you're looking for decent Chinese food in this area, you will be fairly pleased with Cathay Kitchen. Again, I wasn't blown away by my experience, but keeping in mind my expectations for Chinese food are typically low, I will return once again when I have the hankering for some kind of chicken or vegetable in the chef's special brown sauce.

Grade: 82

Taking Wyatt to the Vet

Wyatt went to the vet today. I've told a few of you about this, but our fuzzy cat, Wyatt, has experienced some eye crust, gook, cheese -- you pick your word, but it's unpleasant. Rather than drive to CT, Rosanne and I figured there might be a qualified professional in our state, maybe even in our town. One thing lead to another, and we took little Wyatt to our local vet in Dedham.

The diagnosis was good.

I got Wyatt packed up in his pet mobile rather quickly-- it doesn't take much to get him in his carrier -- and we were on our way. During our drive, I got treated to his meow, which was more crow-like than usual. Once at the vet, we checked in, filled out some forms, and began waiting. The nice woman who processed our form remarked he was singing to us, and joked that he was a member of the Backstreet Boys (AJ McCatt?). I then wondered to myself if that was even a pop culturally relevant remark anymore.

Down to the serious business.

The tech came in, weighed him (8 pounds, which is good) asked me what was wrong, and then we waited for the vet. As usual, Wyatt was very calm and a very good patient. The vet came in and did a few things to him. First, she checked and cleaned his ears (lot of wax). She then checked his eyes. Wyatt, I guess, has conjuctivitis that was brought on by the stress of the move (see my other post on the secret costs 0f moving). She performed a procedure on him that involved her squirting this lime-green fluid into eyes that allowed her to check for any ulcers or damage to his cornea. She turned off the light, used some laser/light device to examine his eyes, and fortunately, determined he was clear of any eye damage. Good news, indeed. After she did this, she told me he would need an eye ointment to further clear things up, and showed me how to apply it. He'll be on it for 10 -14 days.

Wyatt after his great ordeal

All in all.

All in all, it was a very good trip, and we both had a good experience at the vet. Not to plug Dedham Veterinary Associates, but I'd definitely bring our cats there again -- they were all very nice and professional.

Tech stuff - Usability

Today I got to sit in on a phone call from a usuability expert. The guy sounded stoned. This individual took a long time to make his points, frequented with many "cool's."

Some takeaways for you:

• Avoid the use of red for links and non-error content, as individuals associate it with negative feedback (error, bad, wrong). Not really new in the literature, but still something to think about in your daily life - design is all around you.
  
• If you're going to have a lot of content on a page, don't make it hierachical, and do a raw dump of evenly-weighted information (think nasty html tables). Editorially control your content, and shape your voice by emphasizing certain elements (and not all) by using white space, planned typography, and a well-thought pallette.
• Color means a lot. Plan your pallette thinking about your brand and/or the message you're sending to your audience.

Food
I'm tired of Chinese food. However, despite having eaten too much bad Chinese food, I will again be partaking in it. Tonight, I will be taking up the challenge of finding our new local Chinese restaurant.

I'll let you know how things go.

Prime Rib Video Clip

To get richer media, I'm embedding this clip of Prime Rib in NYC. I believe we played to two people at this show. I never really like playing in New York -- the bookers always crammed 8 bands per night. Once, Mike and I bumped into the handsome guy from the show Northern Exposure with his hot European girlfriend in NYC. We told him we were playing that night, but I believe they went else where.

New father, Mike, digitized this clip. Again congratulations to Mike and Emily!

PS: You can find more clips like these on YouTube.

Pictures from the Move

I am uploading pictures from the move. I'll be posting more when I can.

Please enjoy...

Sasha helping us move box spring in Newton.

Doug enjoying a peaceful moment with duct tape.

Day of the move we (actually Rosanne) get to drive this gorgeous truck. Notice my stick legs and lack of beard.

Now in Dedham, and after the storm, Frankie finds snails in our front yard.

Rosanne is tired and not as fond of our new neighbors, the snails.

Boy Chris and Girl Chris share fond recollections of their move a few weeks prior.

Super heroes all, the moving team takes a pose.

The young homeowners.

Lurkers needed...

If you're a lurker, please leave a comment.

Thanks!

Thought Leader

What is it to be a thought leader? The term seems to be coming up more often. Has information proliferated so much that we need various leaders of this sort to comment on particular domains of information? Is the information demanding some kind thought authority to organize it? Further, has information gotten so cheap that we're beginning to see it become some commodity (I'm quietly wretching at this sentence)? Lumping all information into one bucket is a bit shortsighted, but that being said, each of these thought buckets/domains has gotten so vertically developed they're all potentially suffering from the same symptom: s hyper-expansion of information without any means of ensuring some level of quality. (Hence, the need - and demand by the community - for these thought leaders.)

Other thoughts...
Dealing with change and culture at my job while trying to get a handle on our systems at an enterprise level. Writing about work and technical matters with a great deal of business jargon.

Other other thoughts...
Played my guitar. I'm enjoying my Boss CS-2 compressor. It doesn't kill the high-end of my guitar, yet still has some organic squish. I'm really digging it at this point. While I like my Barber Tone Press quiet a bit, I always get the feeling my high-end is suffering just a tad.

Cool Jazz

Things I'm excited about (sort of)
* The local cable access channel plays jazz. (I don't even like jazz that much, but I like local cable access.)
* JQuery Conference in Boston. I haven't coded at all the past 12 months, but I've begun coding a bit recently. It's been out of practical necessity and also for fun. This should be a good time.
* Alfresco training in Virginia. If things go well, I'll be heading to ol' Virginia for training on Alfresco, one of the hottest content management systems out right now. I haven't been on a training trip in a while, so again, I'm stoked.
* Taking Wyatt to the vet. Rosanne hopefully found Wyatt a good local vet. We can figure out why his eyes have been so gunked up lately.

Last thought.
It seems like everyone's blogging again. Why? Is there some material reward? Chris (see from previous blog) mentioned he knew somebody who blogged because they wanted to be a thought leader. A thought leader?! Yes, I knew what he was talking about, and I quietly felt some shame. Did I want to be a thought leader? I started blogging again because it seems like blogging has more credibility than when it first started out as some kind of rebranded live journal. I hated live journal for its self-involvement and its "dear diary" vibe. Is blogging okay now?

I think we're at the point blogging seems to be a legitimate channel of information (though rough). There's been a wave of blogger personalities for a while now -- do i want to be one?

Anyway, thought leaders anyone?

Deadheads*

Do we really know what we're going to do when we wake up? Are we going to do something great? Waste another day? Am I going to win the lotto? Am I going to wipe up more cat puke? Or am I going to garden? Well, today, was the day where fate chose gardening. Mrs. Sheridan (Rosanne's mom) brought up her gardening tools, and we set out to clean out a portion of our front yard. While the previous owners of our house did a nice job with the plantings, there were/are some sections that are a bit overgrown. While I was initially skeptical of Rosanne's need to level the land, I began to see her vision, and I got into her deforestation plan. With some strong shovels and steady hands, we were able to deweed and remove some unsightly shrubs.

Tomorrow, we head off to see Chris to celebrate his birthday. We're going to meet in Oquinquit, Maine, and enjoy the beach.

Proudest purchase: Buying SPF 75 suntan lotion -- I never knew it came in such a high number.

* In addition to referring to hippies, deadheads are the parts of plant or flower where the leaves or flowers begin to die or dry up. Removing deadheads improve th health of your plants. I remove some deadheads today.

Mood: Some sense of accompishment, yet annoyed (I have a summer cold.)

Some factual errors

One of my readers has astutely noticed I lied to all of you. The pictures below are not from my move, but rather, the move of Chris and Chris. The sweaty looks and the obvious hardwork fooled me into thinking it was our move. Sorry for any confusion!

The Olympics.

I'm actually watching them this year. Kind of. I've been watching gymnastics and swimming right before I go to bed (don't have much choice, that's all NBC broadcasts). Overall, it's been engaging; however, I'm pissed I can't watch them in HD. I tried unplugging the coaxial cable when I reorganized our TV table, and I ended up breaking our HD cablebox. The cable was on so tight, I broke the actual jack on the box. Bad.

Other Comcast discomforts.
Comcast has been a pain in my ass. I don't normally bash them, as they seem to be obvious game for everybody, but they have really sucked the past week. First, they included two phone numbers in my work order which caused my installation to take an additional two hours. Second, the technician arrived 30 minutes after my slot ended (not really his fault if he's reading), effectively killing last Saturday. Third, once installed, I had to call Comcast to refresh my signal. Honest, I could go on...okay, I will -- one more. I then had to cancel the second phone number, and then have to explain more than I liked I didn't request the second number to cancel the additional charge. Comcast just has a really inefficient and balkanized structure that is incredibly evident when you actually need to get stuff done. The technician too had to talk to five people, be put on hold, and go through the seven circles of hell to finish my installation.

Next post will contain real photos from the move.

Happy Olympics.

The hidden cost of moving (with pictures)

Doug and Mike share a guy moment on moving day

Trust me when I tell you that your stress levels will quietly creep up on you or your loved ones during a move. Living in chaos will eventually drive you batty. With that being said, please enjoy some pictures from the move!

More pictures...

Rosanne enjoying the joie de vivre of moving.

Also, to my loyal readership, congratulations to my buddy, Mike and lovely Emily on their new baby, Alastair!

New Haircut?

I was mildly surprised today by the non-reaction to my now defunct beard. For me, it was a very big move to rid myself of the muskrat at the end of my chin. I got a few questions of "new haircut," yet nobody really zoned in on the beard.

Other news...I'm enjoying the new home in Dedham, and I'm getting very interested in vintage lighting. I really don't know how this happened - I'm normally into guitar pedals and associated boy toyz -- am I entering a new phase of my life? I do think if we didn't move into an Arts and Crafts-style house, I wouldn't be half-interested in this domestic pursuit.

Work has been good. Howvever, in my usual style, I'm trying to absorb the entire IT, business, and editorial infrastructure in a month, which as you may guess, it has produced a small amount of frustration. That being said, things are going very well.

I promise I will get pictures of the house up and my face in the coming days.

RIP -- Beard 2/12/2001 - 7/25/2008

Beard has been shaved off. Why I did this I don't know, but I'm now clean-shaven. Pictures online tomorrow. In other news, I moved my 50 amps to the new house. I met my new neighbors, and discovered my neighbor's son also plays guitar. As she said, "My son saw that you had tons of amps."

Closing Tomorrow

Tomorrow is our closing. So do you think I'm packing? No, I'm stuffing my mouth with yellow corn Tostitos watching House Hunters, Designed To Sell (same thing). The episode I'm watching features a dude in Atlanta trying to sell his converted church. The personality/designer has recommended that this individual install a bar into his basement to maximize his value. Huh?

Pictures later...

Technology Teams

I work with technology. But the more I work in technology, the more time I spend working with people. We have the all these great systems in place, but they are nothing if you have not built the following soft human aspects into them:

1) business intelligence or rules built into your code
2) some kind of UI for human beings to access your great box
3) processes for managing change

And in almost all cases, you can assume that everyone thinks they have steps 1 through 3 locked and sealed, but they always don't. I forgot the author, but s/he posited that the web's ease of use made everyone think they're an expert and that any change is a piece of cake. Result: CHAOS. And you have no infrastructure to support building intelligence into your technology because it's all assumed.

How do you manage change?
In larger, more mature organizations, you already have systems in place, but what about smaller groups? Smaller groups remind me of the primordial soup theory where you hope to god some lightening bolt hits your content group or some business users in the ass, and you'll some emergent process or organization. Nah, in reality, you need to reach out to people and effect change by shifting attitudes. Sans technology. By changing attitudes and perceptions you can put in the foundation of a functioning IT or technology group.

Links for your edification:
Life Soup

Here We Go!

Every so often I choose to blog (like every three years), and the urge has struck me once again. I'm normally a very private person, so sharing on the web feels a bit odd. If I do write anything, I'm usually adopting some kind of persona, so I'm making a conscious effort this time at writing with some degree of sincerity and honesty. We'll see how long it lasts.

Initial tidbit of the day. Why Cotton Mather? I was named Cotton Mather in my college years for my great "moral fortitude." I earned this reputation for basically giving up light beer for a year. The sacrifices we make! The name stuck, and despite some disagreements I may have with dear Cotton's writings, I resonate with the clan's crabby New England persona.