Truer Words - A Journal

Happy New Year, One and All

seth@macrobyte.net — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 16:22:11 GMT

2006 was a good year for me and mine, in many ways.

To all of my family near and far, to my ecclesia here and worldwide, to all of my friends new and old, close or distant:

Happy
New Year!

Hoping 2007 will be even better, for all of us...

Mother's Day

seth@macrobyte.net — Sun, 14 May 2006 22:55:32 GMT

This is a very difficult "Hallmark day" around my house. As with all of the special days, you can feel it approaching for at least a week in advance. It's like "smelling" a storm before you hear any thunder.

I do want to wish Corinne a happy Mother's Day, but it just seems so unrealistic right now! Shane has been gone for two years, two months and two days. We've healed a lot in that time – even Corinne has healed — but that doesn't mean the pain is gone. Anyone reading this who has lost a child, or who is close to someone who has lost a child, knows what I'm talking about.

There's a pain, like a migraine, that never goes away. You learn to survive with it, and some days it's more bearable than others.

Birthdays, holidays, and Mother's Day are not those "more bearable" days.

Corinne's friends have learned how to help her cope on these days: they try. I mean that trying is how you help. For the last few years, Andrew has given her a hanging flower pot for the front porch. Last year, some of the sisters in the ecclesia gave her a gold heart pendant which was laser-engraved with Shane's face, and Katie gave her a beaded necklace that says, "Shane's Mom." This year, Allysia (sp?) gave her a handmade, miniature, wall quilt with four pictures of Shane. Loanne (sp?) C. always sends a card, or a thoughtful gift.

It might sound otherwise, but the key isn't the gift, it's the thought. Or really, the expression of it.

Loanne always brings a tear to Corinne's eye because they've never even met and live 3,000 miles apart, but Loanne just never forgets! (I know you'll read this, so: thank you.)

Children become your future, your heritage. Losing them makes you feel broken and alone. Thoughtfulness can't make you feel whole again, but it does a great job of taking away the Alone.

To everyone who told Corinne, today, that you know this is a 'tough day' for her, or that you're thinking of her, or love her: thank you! You all helped make it a little easier.

Oh, and Happy Mother's Day to my own Mom, and my sister, and grandmother, and aunts, and...

Happy Belated Birthdays

seth@macrobyte.net — Thu, 19 Jan 2006 22:18:23 GMT

I missed Andrew's birthday, yesterday. He's 22! Sorry dude! (There was a cake for him at the hall last night after class, which is how I found out!)

Even worse, I missed Ellyn's birthday last month. Really sorry.

Can't tell you how old she is, of course, as that wouldn't be polite. But she's eight years older than me, and I'm 33. ;-)

Score One for Those Clever Malware Authors

seth@macrobyte.net — Mon, 16 May 2005 00:36:15 GMT

A week ago, my cousin Kt sent me a link via IM that said something like, "This is cool, check it out." We haven't spoken on IM in months, so I immediately guessed that it was a virus/worm/malware doing the talking. I wrote back to tell her that she was infected.

I clicked the link anyway. I'm on a mac, and figured I'd be impervious to all but a kryptonite-powered virus. I was right, it immediately downloaded a .exe file. No harm done.

The next day, Andrew E. sent me the same message. Andrew and Katie are friends, and I knew where he got it. I wrote back to tell him he was infected, but -- like Kt -- he wasn't actually there at the time.

Thursday night it finally turned funny. I was over at Eric and Bonny's house, tutoring Avonlee, when Eric told me that he got an IM from Andrew. I told him I'd seen the same one a couple of times. Eric uses a mac at work, so I figured he was as impervious as me.

But, no. Eric didn't realize it was a virus. He actually put the file on one of their Windows servers so he could see what Andrew said was cool.

Really, I'm not making this up. Not sure I could have if I had tried.

He was lucky, though. For some reason -- possibly because there was no instant message program installed on that server -- it didn't infect the machine. Perhaps with no way to replicate itself, it simply self-immolated.

I haven't done any research, so I don't even know the name of this bug. If you're on Windows, though, just be careful about the fairly innocuous sounding "this was cool" or "check out my pics" messages from people on your buddy list.

Darn virus writers are a clever bunch, aren't they?

(I realize that virii-via-IM isn't a new phenomemon, but this is the first time I've seen it first-hand.)

Congrats, Andrew!

seth@macrobyte.net — Fri, 25 Mar 2005 02:12:18 GMT

Andrew got promoted to warehouse manager. Very cool, congratulations, Andrew.

Good Riddance: My Closing Thoughts for 2004

seth@macrobyte.net — Fri, 31 Dec 2004 18:53:58 GMT

Not everything about 2004 was bad, even on the personal front. Things I'm pleased about:

Corinne and I found a new level in our relationship, and discovered that our love can weather the foulest of all circumstances and events.
I worked out an important issue with my brother and feel a lot less tension with him now than I did a year ago. Then again, we're brothers, so who knows how long we'll go without him doing something wrong again? (Just kidding...)
My best cycling season ever. There's still a lot to improve, though. I'm hoping for a 4500 - 5000 mile year starting tomorrow, and I have a new goal: by September, my training rides should regularly be hitting 21 mph. I came close this year.
Well it's still not exactly "back on its feet" (certainly nothing like it was in '99), the bid'ness is showing signs of life. Business clients are showing an interest in our services again, the software is getting some major improvements, and a number of long-term customers have me looking (and working!) in directions I've never been before (deep science being one of them). You know who you are, and I thank you.
Some new, newly-improved, or renewed friendships. Especially Darren, Steve and Andrew. (Even though I have to let Andrew beat me at ping-pong on a regular basis.) Corinne has some of those, too, like Katie, Ellyn, and some of the girls at the bank where she works.

On the other hand, let's be realistic. How would you like to be described as "not all bad?" That's the best I can say about this year. "It wasn't nightmarish 100% of the time." Whee, what a party!

From Shane dying in March and us reliving it 150,000 times, to 150,000 people dying horrific deaths in one insane day in late Decmeber. From the country I live in being split almost exactly in half by a non-choice between two greater evils (or "the devil we know, and the devil we don't want to know"), to a "we can't lose" invasion which has eviscerated a nation and turned into a civil war.

I'm stronger for surviving this year, and perhaps more focused, but what a price to pay. Good riddance, 2004. Let's see what your child has in store for us. Perhaps this is finally the year? (Bah. Optimism is for the weak. ;-)

The Victor Is: Ping Pong

seth@macrobyte.net — Thu, 24 Jun 2004 16:02:13 GMT

Last night after Bible class -- like every Wednesday night -- I played ping pong. The plan was to play until 10:30 and then go home for some careful consideration of the backs of my eyelids. Unfortunately, Andrew Ellison and I were both playing so well and having such a good time that we kept at it until 12:30 AM! (And that after a 40 mile ride in the afternoon.)

In fact, we spent at least 30 minutes just practicing serves and smashes. We joke that we're in training for Jim Burns, who has achieved legendary status as the unbeatable player in our ecclesia. It's a joke because everybody knows that I've never actually seen him play... he's never there on Wednesady nights, and I'm not there on Friday nights.

Anyway, in the war between sleep and ping pong, sleep was vanquished. I'm just what they call a "non-combatant casualty" or "innocent bystander" or simply "really, really tired."

Navigators with the Ellisons

seth@macrobyte.net — Tue, 22 Jun 2004 18:54:58 GMT

Corinne got skybox tickets for the Navigators again (through the bank), so I brought Andrew, Eric, and Leah Ellison with me. The Navs lost, of course, even though they've had an impressive streak going this month.

Andrew "won" a free T-Shirt. That's what he keeps saying, anyway (and that it's the only thing he's ever won before), though he didn't actually win it. At some point during the game, they started sling-shooting balled up T-Shirts into the stands. One went into the skybox seating next to the bank's. Nobody was over there, so Andrew hopped the fence and grabbed it. Leah (almost) immediately nabbed it from him, of course. Typical sister.

Like last year with Art, I have a picture of Leah's head being gnawed on by Tater the Gator. (Haven't pulled it out of the camera yet, though, so you'll just have to wait!) On the way out of the game, Tater signed the back of the T-Shirt.

After the game, Eric and Leah followed Andrew and I to Buttonwood Farm for icecream. Just before we got there I said to Andrew, "Duh! It's almost 11:00! As if an ice cream shop in the middle of the woods is going to be open this late!" I was right, unfortuantely.

I arrived home about 11:30, and then Corinne and I talked until well after midnight. Man, I have not been getting enough sleep for the last four or five nights. Five-and-a-half to six hours just doesn't cut it. I want eight!

(Why Sleepy?)

seth@macrobyte.net — Thu, 03 Jun 2004 07:18:59 GMT

Oops, forgot to mention why that last one was called "sleepy." After the ride, I was pretty tired. Went to bible class at 7:30, and then stayed at the hall until midnight playing ping pong with Andrew Ellison. Duh.

Back in the Kitchen

seth@macrobyte.net — Wed, 11 Sep 2002 11:20:42 GMT

After more than three weeks of not wanting to cook anything, Corinne has suddenly resumed her role as Queen of the Kitchen (aka "the Diva of Dining"). She's been cooking all day, literally.

Jed and Mark have a new roommate, Andrew Ellison. I heard him complaining that they never have any food in the house (he doesn't have a car yet), and mentioned it to Corinne. She talked to him and found out that he's surving on daily trips to Taco Bell with Mark (this may be an exaggeration, but it's a confirmed story).

This obviously woke her maternal instincts. Poor kid's going to be a butterball by this time next week, if he eats everything she's cooked for him.