Happy June!
Hey everyone… happy June! It's been a great month so far for me — I've made great progress on a client's web site and my article is still drawing reads.
Ah, now if it was just warm enough to swim (but not miserably warm)…
Friday Five after the Fry
Well, before I dive into Friday Five this week, which is again a pretty good one, I must say Cracker Barrel's fried cod is delicious Yum.
Hmm… I'm not really sure I have one particular thing I want to be remembered for. I guess ideally, I'd like to be remembered as someone who tried his best even if things didn't always work out best.
2. What quotation best fits your outlook on life?
“Have you learned lessons only of those who admired you, and were tender with you, and stood aside for you? Have you not learned great lessons from those who braced themselves against you, and disputed the passage with you?”
—Walt Whitman
3. What single achievement are you most proud of in the past year?Really getting Open for Business to take off (including hitting ~ 200,000 page views for January!).
4. What about the past ten years?
Doing a 180 on my views concerning politics, life, faith, etc., seems like a good choice. I'm certainly not proud of my old views and I'm not really proud of this “accomplishment,” as I believe God did it and not me, but I guess that's true of many things (I give myself far too much credit on most things). Ten years ago, I was a relativistic, liberal “wacko.” I supported Clinton/Gore. 'Nuff said? Anyone who knows me knows that isn't the case today, well, except perhaps for the “wacko” part.
5. If you were asked to give a child a single piece of advice to guide them through life, what would you say?
“If everyone was jumping off a cliff, would you jump off it too?” No, I'm just kidding.
Actually, I might stick to a similar theme to that. Namely, despite what others say or do, or what might be easiest or best for yourself, always “'[l]ove the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.'” and “'Love your neighbor as yourself.'” (Mark 12:30-31a [NIV]). If you succeed in these two things, you have taken care of everything else you ever need to do.
Good Day So Far
Well, it's been a good 24 hours, I would say. Last night I introduced a new library catalog system, using the KOHA Free Software library program, to our newly formed librarian staff and the Educational Resource Center committee. Things went very well — KOHA has allowed us to do virtually everything (and in some ways more than) a $1,000 library program for gratis. The system is now running a Mandrake Linux desktop customized to make exactly two programs accessible: KOHA and BibleTime.
I still have a few “battles” before everything is right. For instance, we still need label printing and I somehow need to link a label printing program with KOHA's MySQL backend. I'm hoping to accomplish this with KBarcode, but if that doesn't work, I bookmarked the site of another alternative.
Oh, for the first time in months, Open for Business also got Slashdotted… well, sorta. My current article about Lindows' announcement concerning the SCO-IBM case hasn't been picked up by Slashdot, but some Slashdot reader that liked it posted a comment on the latest Slashdot story on SCO and it has drawn roughly the same number of people as a “real” Slashdotting normally would. Fortunately, my PHP caching system, which dep was kind enough to help me with, is keeping everything running much more efficiently than during my previous encounters with Slashdot.
Well, that's all for now, except that I would like to give a great big “THANK-YOU” to Josiah and Christopher for both promoting my run for the BlogShares BSEC. I never expected anyone to actually do so, so it was a nice surprise. Thanks guys!
Don't forget to VOTE!
The first monthly BlogShares Player Securities Board vote has begun and will go for one week. PLEASE vote and let your voice be heard. I'd appreciate your vote in my “campaign” for a Free and Fair Market (just vote Timothy Butler on the ballot), but even if you choose to vote for someone else, it's good if you do exercise your cyber voting privilege.
Click the button to be taken to the BlogShares Voting Page
What a day
At approximately 10:00 A.M. Central Time this morning, Network Access
Corporation's (NAC) Site B datacenter in New Jersey, where Universal
Networks' name servers are located, had its fire suppression system activated
after what appears to have been the explosion of a [capacitor for a] uninterpretable power
supply located in the building. This resulted in the loss of power and
consequently the loss of access to Universal Networks' internet properties.At 11:00 A.M. Central Time the fire department allowed NAC personnel back
into Site B, however due to various circumstances, the section of the
datacenter housing Universal Networks' nameservers, and those of our hosting
affiliate, were left without power until after 6:00 P.M. Central Time.Everything now appears operational again.
Thank-you for your understanding.
-Tim
Then, to make things more interesting, the Linksys ethernet router I installed for my church was on the brink today (I think I have “collisions” going on with DHCP assignment). Between the two events I had to squeeze in some actual work.
And speaking of work, the most interesting piece of it was writing on the on going SCO-IBM conflict. That conflict now envelopes Novell and Linus Torvalds too. I was going crazy today not being able to put anything about it on OfB.biz (not to mention going crazy because no one could access the article I put on OfB.biz last night).
At any rate, hopefully things will calm down now. I haven't forgotten about finishing my trip summary (complete with traveling tips for those going to the Ozarks), but I didn't want to rush putting together the second entry. It'll be on soon, however.
Sunday/Monday Fives
1. What drinking water do you prefer — tap, bottle, purifier, etc.?
I like bottled water, in particular Aquafina, but Coca-Cola's brand (name escapes me at midnight) is good too. Tap is alright, although I never realized how “bad” it was until I got a water purifier on my sink. Now I only drink that from the tap.
2. What are your favorite flavor of chips? Probably “Original,” although I like BBQ as well. I consistently prefer just a good old salted chip though, and a freshly cooked chip is even better.
3. Of all the things you can cook, what dish do you like the most? Probably my barbecued burgers.
4. How do you have your eggs? As I see it, there are two ways to eat eggs: fried or as an omelet. I prefer an omelet, especially one with ham, cheese, green pepper, onion, and possibly jalapeno.
5. Who was the last person who cooked you a meal? How did it turn out? Well, being a holiday, my mother made a very good meal I enjoyed today. Nothing fancy, but she always makes a nice dinner on Memorial Day Sunday that I enjoyed. BBQ'ed sausage, cheese and broccoli rice, stir fried vegetables, apple sauce and brownies with Eddy's vanilla bean ice cream.
Ozark Trip 2k3
The weather was absolutely beautiful this week, making the trip even better than I expected. I went with mom and a close family friend who had gone down to the Ozarks with us last year. This year we stayed for five nights/six days at two different resorts — the old tried-and-true Rock Lane Resort (of which I am suppose to build a new website for soon) and Big Cedar.
Rock Lane is a forty something year old place that was first discovered by my grandparents in the 60's. We have been there enough to know everyone at the front desk (and stay in contact with them when at home) and the owner, all of whom couldn't be nicer. While much of the resort, including our favorite cove side rooms, have been or are now on the chopping block to make way for timeshares, 40 or so rooms remain and it's still the very best view of the lake I've seen. Rock Lane is on a peninsula, actually they own it, so it's very easy to get to the lake and walk the shore line. It also features a very nice, expanding marina and lots of Canadian geese, ducks, and other wildlife that wait for feedings.
As an added plus, Rock Lane is only minutes away from Silver Dollar City, both of which are on Indian Point, and only about thirty minutes away from Branson and just a few more from Kimberling City. At any rate, we stayed there for three days and enjoyed it immensely as usual.
Silver Dollar City was great, just like always, as well. Up until last year, we would actually buy seasons passes to the 'City, unfortunately, time restraints have prevented visiting it as much recently.Spring is a pretty good time to go there, although as a little tip from a wanna-be-local, I'd recommend the Fall for the smallest crowds. Christmas at Silver Dollar City (November 1 - December 31) is also not to be missed and everyone should go and see their six story Christmas tree with synchronized light and music show and their multimillion light bulb decoration job which takes two months to prepare (notably, SDC — like much of the Ozarks — remembers the REAL reason for the Christmas season).
Another favorite stop we hit was Scoops, the great ice cream shop across from the Route 165 scenic overlook. Scoops, which has won blue ribbons at the State Fair five years in a row (three blue ribbons for the majority of those years), makes all of their own ice cream and make one amazing chocolate ice cream ice cream soda. Like Rock Lane, we know all of the people at Scoops, and they too couldn't be nicer. I just wish I could bring some of their great ice cream home with me.
Speaking of food, a trip to the Wooden Nickle, located by Branson West (that's on the other side of Indian Point from Branson) should not be missed on ANY trip to the area. Their salad “tree” (named such since it is a round salad bar build around an old tree) is exquisite and their fried chicken is the best I've had anywhere. The salad bar can easily be a meal by itself for just $8.99 (this is a serious salad bar), but you can add three pieces of great chicken and an excellent baked potato for just $4 more. The salad bar has tons of goodies beyond the normal fare, including fresh baked breads, cut-your-own cheddar and pepper cheese, stew, and good pudding.
Well, before I move on, I might as well continue my food review with one more notable mention. Billy Gayle's Uniquables and Cafe on Route 265 looks rather unassuming. It's an old cabin with a few gas pumps out side and flea market fare in in the first few rooms, but the last brightly decorated room is home to (IMO) the world's best omelet. Yum! You get a large plate that is half filled by a square omelet, half filled by hash browns, and then topped by four pieces of Texas toast perfectly toasted. “Gayle's Famous Omelet” (without mushrooms) is my personal favorite and is one of the food highlights of the trip.
Moving away from food, after a stop at Country Mart for some bread (okay not away from food) for the geese and ducks, we headed back to Rock Lane and enjoyed the quiet beauty of the place. This is really a great place to accomplish my mission on the trip — to relax and enjoy. If you're looking to get away and the Ozarks are an option, consider Rock Lane. I've probably been there 20-something times and it's never been disappointing.
Well before I put everyone to sleep, I will stop for the night, and pick up tomorrow with the details of Big Cedar and another place that is quite possibly one of the Ozark's most beautiful areas. Stay tuned.
I just did that???
Call me a glutton for punishment, but I just decided to run for office. Not a real office, but the BlogShares Player Securities Board. To get in the real election, all I need is someone to second me as a candidate, and then of course during the polling days, I need votes. If anyone is interested in reading my platform and/or seconding or thirding me, please take a look here. If you really want to get into the fun, feel free to take a copy of my campaign sign too:
This should be kinda fun. Being an avid political observer, it's fun running for a virtual office. I'm not use to trying to sell myself in such a manor, so who knows how this will go, but it should be fun no matter what…
Gone For a Few Days
Well, I'm off for a few days of R-n-R on Table Rock Lake. Woo hoo! Have a great week everyone…. as Arnold Schwarzenegger says, “I'll Be Back.”
Note for blogs4God
It seems that the good people that bring us blogs4God are doing some list updating. Jen Kibler-McCabe is asking blogs that should be included in the “20somethings” cache to say something to indicate this. So, I am saying something… hopefully not too late, I had meant to do this a few days ago. There, now, back to work. sigh
