• Finally fixed the text color and bullet style for bullets within blockquotes.

• I am trying an idea I saw Slashdotted, whereby my comment form has a field in it that's hidden by CSS. A "real person" won't ever see this or attempt to enter anything into it, but a Spambot will. If the field has any value in it, the comment form rejects it. So far, it seems to be working, but I need another 24 hours to be sure.
• I've also added a winter seasonal background, which is easily switched by the style sheet. I should probably add some date-based code to switch it, but ... nah ... not yet.

• I got tired of my search not doing comments and not supporting Boolean operations, so I've added the Google Free site search to the sidebar. I had to tweak it just a tiny bit to get it to do what I wanted. Here's what it looked like when I was done:
  
  <!-- Search Google --> <form method=GET action=http://www.google.com/custom> <A href=http://www.google.com/search><IMG SRC= http://www.google.com/logos/Logo_40wht.gif border=0 ALT=Google align=middle></A><br /> <input type=text name=q size=25 maxlength=255 value=""> <input type=submit name=sa value="google search"> <input type=hidden name=ie value=UTF-8> <input type=hidden name=oe value=UTF-8> <input type=hidden name=cof value="S:http://blog.wilcoxfamily.net/;VLC:#800000; AH:left;BGC:#f5f5f5;LH:76;LC:#800000;GFNT:#777;L:http://blog.wilcoxusa.net/wp-content /themes/wilcox-family-blog/images/wilcox_masthead.jpg;ALC:#FF4500;LW:452;T:#000000; GIMP:#800000;AWFID:35bb6041557faead;"> <input type=hidden name=domains value="blog.wilcoxusa.net"><br> <input type=radio name=sitesearch value=""> Search the WWW<br /> <input type=radio name=sitesearch value="blog.wilcoxusa.net" checked> Search blog.wilcoxusa.net</FORM> <!-- Search Google End -->

• Added animated and standard "favicons" by creating them using the Favicon from Pics tool.

• Modified the sidebar.php to query the visitor count for StatTraq only once by replacing <?= getVisitorCount('day')?> with <? $visitorCount = getVisitorCount('day')?><?= $visitorCount ?> at the top, and using <?= $visitorCount ?> at the bottom.

• Modified the comments.php (comments template) in my theme folder to include the rewriting of the form action via JavaScript (see the update notes for Friday, January 20, 2006) as an experiment in preventing comment Spam. A Web form has an action associate with it; the action is generally the URL of a page to which the form data is submitted. Without that action, the form (if submitted) defaults to sending the data to its own containing page. What I've done is remove the action from the HTML of the forms that are commonly Spammed (comments and subscriptions), and reassign that action only when the submit button (which is no longer a "real" submit button) is clicked by the user. In the case of subscriptions, there's a confirmation dialog the user must acknowledge; this is primarily because I kept typing search terms in the subscription field!

• We expect to go to WordPress 2.0 within a month. I don't have time yet to update my customizations, although almost all of them are contained in the content folders (under themes), which won't be affected.
• Added a sidebar heading and link for "Substantial" posts.
• Modified the subscription form to require human clicking of the confirmation dialog. (The form cannot be submitted by a script clever enough to parse the form, fill in its fields, and execute its action.) This should prevent "Spam" subscriptions.

  <script type="text/javascript">
  function doSubscribe(){
  	var bool = confirm('Do you wish to subscribe to the 
  		WilcoxnFamily BLOG using the e-mail address 
  		of n' + document.getElementById('subscribeEMail')
  		.value + '?');
  	if(true == bool){
  		document.getElementById('subscribeForm')
  			.action='maillist/index.php'
  		document.getElementById('subscribeForm')
  			.submit();
  	}
  }
  </script>
  <a id="notif"></a>
  <h3>< ?php _e('Subscribe'); ?></h3>
  <p class="cmeta">
  	<form id="subscribeForm" method="post">
  		Enter your e-mail address to receive 
  		notifications when there are new posts.
  		<br /><br />
  		<input type="text" name="email" 
  			id="subscribeEMail" size="15" />
  		<input type="button" value="sign up" 
  		onclick="doSubscribe()" />
  	</form>
  	</p>
  

• Installed Randy Peterman's StatTraq. Added sidebar links in two places to show unique visits per day and link to more detailed statistics. Also modified wp-admin/menu.php to include StatTraq as an Admin Link:
  
  $menu[40] = array(__('Options'), 6, 'options-general.php');
// DMW: Added the following line for StatTraq:
$menu[50] = array(__('StatTraq'), 0, '../wp-stattraq/index.php');
• Removed bold attribute from the style.css file that made certain levels of list items bold. (Thanks to Mark Sohmer for pointing out the problem.) To fix it, I commented out the style below:
  
  

  .commentlist li {
  
     font-weight: bold;
  }

• Remembered that the ABSPATH in wp-config.php needs to be changed for a Windows box: define('ABSPATH', dirname(__FILE__).'/'); becomes define('ABSPATH', dirname(__FILE__).'\');

• Added a confirmation dialog to the subscription link, because I kept entering search terms in the subscription box! It was a nuisance to keep deleting the mistakenly entered search terms from the e-mail address MySQL table for subscribers. Here's what I changed:
  
  <input type="text" name="email" id="subscribeEMail" size="15" />
<input type="submit" name="submit" value="sign up" onclick="return confirm('Do you wish to subscribe to the WilcoxnFamily BLOG using the e-mail address of n' + document.getElementById('subscribeEMail').value + '?')" />

• Added Amazon link to raise funds for the Casa del Menor Vida Nueva children's home in Ejido Constitución, Chihuahua, Mexico. (All my Amazon comissions are sent to them.)

• Remembered that I had modified (in wp-admin) the upload.php to make photo-uploading behave the way I wanted. Restored and tested my version of upload.php. I don't think I have made any other changes to admin files, but have resolved to keep better track of this. (Normally we avoid using the computer on Sunday, but I was working on a project for Springer-Verlag (formerly Kluwer Academic Publishers).

• Upgraded WordPress (quasi-manually) to 1.5.2 (from 1.5.1.3).
• Modified the Get Firefox link to include two links, the latter of which points to Blake Ross's BLOG entry about his grandfather's Firefox evangelism to the head Rabbi of Israel: Get Firefox: The one that blocks all the schmutz.

• Added Jennifer's (of ScriptyGoddess.com) plugin to do show/hide comments.
• Unsuccessfully attempted to integrate a couple of different AJAX (XmlHttpRequest object) -driven spelling checkers.
• Revised formatting on post footer information and show/hide comments (mostly style tweaks and removal of hard HREF in show/hide comments link).

• Added a "negative Easter Egg" for Mark Sohmer to find.
• Added Verse of the Day to sidebar.

• Determined to stop Mark Sohmer's whining about my photo popup script being disliked by popup blockers, and wrote a workaround that seems to be cool with Firefox's popup blocker. The Google toolbar makes the darned script throw a JavaScript exception, but that is to be expected. I may tackle that later, as that problem can be fixed with some error-trapping code.
• Followed the WordPress Changelog to patch WordPress to version 1.5.1.3.

• Fixed bug in photo_popup.js, the script that launches the photos. It was appending 'hi-res' multiple times upon multiple uses. This was a side effect from when I branched it to use the "old" photos with a hi-res folder and the "new" photos where the thumbnails have a different name but are in the same folder.

• Officially retired the old BLOG.

• Moved the BLOG, and all my sites, to a new Windows 2003 server.
• Copied the MySQL database to that server. Re-pointed to the new database.

• Added "Posted by" heading to each post. (Mark Sohmer's suggestion.)
• Added Powered by WheatoniX link.
• Added login link to top set of links. (I got tired of scrolling down to find it.)
• Manually upgraded to WordPress 1.5.1.2 (even though the information still reports it as 1.5.1.1).
• Added books read and BLOG updates pages. (I posted this page, mistakenly, as an article twice, and have had to explain to all the subscribers why the article links they were e-mailed don't go anywhere.)
• Fixed photo popup JavaScript for Safari.
• Lots of content tweaks, especially to the sidebar. Added e-mail links, activated search form, activated recent posts and recent comments (played with that one quite a bit), added miscellany pages, added show/hide for categories, activated calendar-based archive links, activated archive links by month dropdown, ported Web links from my old BLOG.
• Integrated photo-upload module. Lots of PHP tweaks to get it to do what I wanted. Added a Boolean parameter to my photo-popup JavaScript to preserve legacy behavior. (The original script called for identical file names in different folders. Thumbnails are now uploaded to the same folder as the full-size image, with the thumbnail name prepended with thumb-.)
• Added e-mail subscription feature, by Brian Groce (http://briangroce.com). Click here to subscribe.
• Found a theme I liked enough to modify, Plain Vanilla 1.0 Theme for WordPress 1.5 and above, by Chetan Kunte.
• Integrated my preferred photo popup JavaScript—the one I wrote. (My friend Mark Sohmer hates the script, but he's wrong.)
• Cleaned up the database with a bunch of search-and-replaces, using the MySQL Query Browser.
• Upgraded to WordPress 1.5.1.1.
• Imported all my old BLOG entries. I used Excel for the column transformations I needed. I had to write a few messy formulae to reformat and combine columns, and my SQL skills weren't up to the task. (I know, you don't believe it.) One side effect of that was that each post got truncated to 256 characters. That was fine, as I needed to separate out the titles, anyway, so I cut-and-pasted from the old BLOG over a couple of days.
• Converted the ancient, much-kludged ASP-based BLOG to WordPress 1.5.1.0.

• National Weather Service National Hurricane Center / Tropical Storm Prediction Center
• The Deadliest Atlantic Tropical Cyclones, 1492-1996
• The Deadliest, Costliest, and Most Intense United States Hurricanes from 1900 to 2000 (and Other Frequently Requested Hurricane Facts)
• History of Hurricane Naming

• how to build squirrel feeders (I know the answer to this one: Just follow any instructions for building bird feeders!)
• Limited atonement scares me
• "toast gun"
• scnt minister letter blood bible
• is god a mormon?
• boa eats crocodile

• pedophiles and Jesus
• sexual predators manipulate trick
• Reasons why sexual predators should be stopped
• Grooming Techniques Sex Offenders
• Interactional Assessment
• dr. anna salter child abuse
• I am a situational sex offender
• sexual predators grooming behaviors
• sexual predators what causes them
• if parent molests one child should other children be allowed visitation

Nashua Commuter Rail Advisory Committee is pleased to announce the implementation of our web site.

www.nhcommuterrail.com

The Nashua Commuter Rail Advisory Committee has developed its Web site to benefit the citizens of the state of New Hampshire. We have gained a tremendous amount of support from state and local legislators in the past, but we still need more. Feel free to use the Web site to keep up with where the project has come from and where it is going. While using the Web site, please take notice of the links that will directly connect you to our state and local legislators e-mail addresses. This is the area where we need your help; please take the time to e-mail the legislators about your feelings on the commuter rail project.

On Thursday, February 8, 2007, New Hampshire Public Radio aired Keeping Track of Rail in New Hampshire, on its morning "The Exchange" program, hosted by Laura Knoy. You can listen to the program via the link provided.

• Rail authority could usher in a new era in N.H. (Bob Sanders, New Hampshire Business Review, Friday, July 6, 2007)
• Rail station remains in picture for S. Nashua (Nashua Telegraph, May 14, 2007)
• Officials say Nashua rail plan still rolling along (Nashua Telegraph, May 14, 2007)
• Time to re-link the region with railroad (May 29, 2006, Concord Monitor; some very cool things happening with rail throughout New England.) The same article was published on June 23, 2006, in the Providence Journal under the title "Neal Peirce and Curtis Johnson: Cooperation might work -- Rethink New England transportation"
• N.H. towns seek new 93 exit (March 19, 2006, Boston Globe; includes information about the return of bus service from Nashua to Boston.)
• Fast lanes: Speed limit on Route 3 to increase (March 5, 2006, Boston Globe; includes information on restored bus service, and the statistic that 25,000 of Nashua's 87,411 [2004 estimate] residents commute to Massachusetts daily.)
• Keep commuter rail in the picture (February 16, 2006)
• Meehan still backs Mass.-N.H. rail link (February 14, 2006, Eagle-Tribune Online; Meehan outlines his committment to the Communiter Raill; also includes some discussion of the various court cases that have affected the rail.)
• Future built on 2-lane highway: New England's poor transportation network a liability (February 5, 2006, Times-Argus perspective on transportation upgrades New England desperately needs.)
• Ready for the return of the rail? Advocates say the state needs to get on board (January 29, 2006; excellent, detailed article on the need for current planning and the great possibilities for rail in southern and central New Hampshire)
• Officials seek state action on rail line: Commuter service funding uncertain (January 12, 2006; an unusually detailed article; "Nashua is hoping to break ground on a commuter rail station and parking garage next year, with train service starting up in 2008.")
• Gridlock Expected to Grow (December 13, 2005; talks about traffic, increasing population density, and public transportation in southern New Hampshire)
• Meehan calls for Rte. 3 sound barrier (November 6, 2005; the second half of the article is about the Commuter Rail project)
• Rail service in NH: Next stop Merrimack? (October 30, 2005)
• Candidate outlines his agenda for city (October 26, 2005)
• Commuter Rail Service Push is On (October 22, 2005)
• Tougher terms for offenders, Lynch goal (September, 27, 2005; mentions the commuter rail project as one of Governor Lynch's goals)
• High Mass. Housing Prices Mean Long Commutes for Some Workers (September, 2005)
• Transport Bill Keeps NH Commuter Rail Alive (August, 2005)

1. Polaris (Jack McDevitt)
   
   Jack McDevitt writes excellent science fiction, although he must have been absent the day they discussed the denoument in literature class. My favorite book of his is still Eternity Road (I've been a sucker for ruined civilizations since reading "Magic City" in the two-volume A Treasury of Great Science Fiction edited by Anthony Boucher), but this mystery is quite worthy of Mr. McDevitt's talents.
2. Allies in Healing: When the Person You Love Was Sexually Abused as a Child (Laura Davis)
   
   As part of my ongoing reading into the problem, effects, and healing of child sexual abuse, this book is written to benefit the spouse (primarily) or family of someone who is dealing with sexual abuse. I would definitely include this book on my resources list if I were in the position of working with those who have been sexually abused. (Slight caution: Laura Davis is an open lesbian, but that isn't what this book is about, although one of the questions answered is, "Is my wife a lesbian?") Most of the book is presented in a series of questions grouped by topic; it ends with a set of biographical stories from interviews with partners of sexual abuse survivors. Healing from sexual abuse is a perilous, painful process; it can be especially painful for those who are closely or intimately involved with a survivor; Davis's book provides balance, reassurance, and extremely practical advice on dealing with abuse.
3. Magic Street (Orson Scott Card)
   
   Orson Scott Card is still one of my favorite authors, but my opinion of him is fading somewhat. Magic Street is one of Card's urban fantasy stories, the first of which was Lost Boys. (to be continued)
4. Have Space Suit, Will Travel (Robert A. Heinlein)
   
   Although this is "juvenile fiction," it's my all-time favorite book. Heinlein weaves a fascinating and unpredictable story here that anyone who grew up (or remains) "crazy to get to space" will appreciate. The hero is Kip Russell, and the story begins with him explaining how he ended up the owner of a space suit.
5. Sketches of Jewish Social Life: Updated Edition (Alfred Edersheim)
   
   This was a gift from Debi Costine. It's a fascinating glimpse into the everyday social life, in numerous aspects, of Palestine at the time of Christ. I've already started teaching things gleaned from this to my Sunday school class, who should benefit from a better understanding of what life was like for the New Testament believers. Edersheim is a bit difficult to read, so I went very slowly, but this is fascinating. I've learned about just how much the Galileans of the time were looked down upon by other Jews, "the road of the roofs" (see Mt. 24:17), at what age daughters could no longer be compelled by their parents to marry a particular person (12 years and one day), that nose rings were popular adornments for women at the time (ugh), and that there were only 6,000 Pharisees, but they held significant power.
6. Night Train to Rigel (Timothy Zahn)
   
   Timothy Zahn achieved renown by being one of only two authors I've ever read who can write in the Star Wars universe and actually produce books that are worth reading (R.A. Salvatore is the other). Even were it not for that, Zahn would still have a well-deserved, excellent reputation as a crafter of science fiction (and yes, fantasy). Zahn has a background in theoretical physics, so he understands the science in science fiction quite well. This book is a mystery/adventure, with a compelling enough plot to keep one moving. Zahn's creation and descriptions of entirely alien cultures is convincing. Overall I found this book quite enjoyable, although not as much a page-turner as some of this other works, such as the Conquerors trilogy, or the Cobra novels.
7. Zorro: A Novel (Isabel Allende)
   
   Fun and interesting. Not quite as amazing as I'd expected. I loved the background; this covers mostly Zorro's childhood to very early adulthood.
8. The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe: Movie Tie-in (C.S. Lewis; read at family mealtimes)
9. The Sexual Healing Journey: A Guide for Survivors of Sexual Abuse (Revised Edition) (Wendy Maltz)
   
   After reading this book, I found I favor it slightly---especially as an initial read---over The Courage to Heal - Third Edition - Revised and Expanded: A Guide for Women Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse (Ellen Bass and Laura Davis). To a sexual abuse survivor, I would still recommend both, but Maltz's work is very well-balanced, quite a bit less graphic (which may be easier for some survivors), and provides thorough and practical advice and exercises for healing. Maltz was the only author I have read so far that dares to acknowledge that sexual abuse will sometimes have an effect on "sexual orientation," an unusually bold statement. Based on its contents, I believe this would be of value for couples whose sexuality suffers from the aftereffects of sexual abuse, as it offers a large amount of instruction in carefully relearning touch and disconnecting sexuality from the abuse. Maltz is also very outspoken against the harms of pornography, which is another very refreshing viewpoint. This is a vital book for those seeking to understand or recover from the long-term effects of sexual abuse.
10. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Book 1) (J.K. Rowling).
11. Secret Survivors: Uncovering Incest and Its Aftereffects in Women (E. Sue Blume).
    
    The title of this book might lead it to be overlooked by much of its intended audience, as the author redefines incest to essentially mean nonsttranger sexual abuse.
    
    E. Sue Bloom has some stereotypical feminist leanings, including one obvious rant against the Biblical account of Lot's incest, in which E. Sue Blume places the blame on Lot. (I'm not sure this blame is unfounded; although in that particular event it seems to be the daugthers who came up with the plan, she fails to take into account the cultural background, recorded in Scripture, of the extreme and violent sexuality present in Sodom, which would have virtually guaranteed Lot's daughters growing up in an environment of sexual abuse, and their actions certainly could have resulted from that. Also, according to some behavioral analysts, such as FBI profiler John Douglas, alcohol or drug impairment will not cause someone to do something they didn't already want to do, just lower inhibitions against doing it.)
    
    That slight warning aside, this is, overall, an excellent book on identifying and understanding the effects of sexual abuse.
    
    

    Incest combines all the forms of abuse that can happen to a child. It contains the violence and violation of physical abuse, the self-esteem consequences of emotional abuse, and often the actual or perceived abandonment of the nonperpetuating parent or parents as well as the confusion and chaos of family alcoholism. Incest is the most devastating form of abuse that a child can endure. It robs her of her childhood, her innocence, her ownership of her body, and her sexuality. It damages trust and disrupts bonding. It isolates her in an unpredictable, emotionally confusing bond with her abuser, secured with secrecy and threats. In short, incest kills. Not all at once, not totally, but one way or another, sooner or later, piece by piece. (Blume, p. 19)

    
    
    Much of what was in this book I'd already aborbed through my othe reading. One item that was new to me was that, in the presence of addictive behaviors, such as alcoholism or drug abuse (even if they stem from the incest), those behaviors must be corrected---and under control for a long time (a year or more)---before dealing with the other issues generated by the incest itself.
12. In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex (Nathaniel Philbrick)
    
    This is the story that inspired Herman Melville's Moby-Dick (Bantam Classics).
    
    From the cover: "In 1819, the 238-ton Essex set sail from Nantucket on a routine voyage for whales. Fifteen months later, the unthinkable happened: in the farthest reaches of the South Pacific, the Essex was rammed and sunk by an enraged sperm whale."
    
    It's 20-man crew, ignorantly fearing cannibals on the islands to the west, decided instead to, against the trade winds, sail east to the west coast of South America.
    
    This is a fascinating, easy-to-read story of survival after a maritime disaster. The book was chosen for Nashua's 2006 "Nashua Reads: One City, One Book" program, and I highly recommend it.
13. Mindhunter: Inside the Fbi's Elite Serial Crime Unit (John Douglas and Mark Olshaker).
    
    An amazing book.
14. The Teeth of the Tiger (Tom Clancy)
    
    This is the best Clancy I've read in a while. He peaked with The Sum of All Fears, and bottomed out with The Bear and the Dragon (Jack Ryan Novels). Here we transition to the lives of Jack Ryan, Jr., and twin cousins, who end up being employed at a non-government-controlled intelligence operation called "The Campus." There are some interesting points for thought and discussion, such as extrajudicial assasination and Machiavellianism. The book ends a bit abruptly, seemingly geared to be in two parts, but provides and entertaining, if not gripping, adventure. I like it better than Red Rabbit (which I simply could not escape into), but not as much as my most recent (chronologically by publication date) favorite, Rainbow Six. Clearly, Clancy has lost his magic in the past decade, but this gives a hint of hope that he just may regain it: He's still far from there, but seems to be at least heading in the right direction.
15. Shadow Puppets (Orson Scott Card)
    
    I've actually come to like Bean better than Ender. This excellent book by Card continues to follow the story of "Ender's Shadow (Ender, Book 5)," Bean, an unlikely survivor of a genetic experiment that gives him extreme intelligence while shortening his life. I think the only weakness in this is that Peter Wiggin features prominently, and just isn't a convincingly powerful character alongside Bean or the villain Achilles. (He also does not seem to be as ruthless as his childhood would have indicated.) Bean's development is excellent and welcome. This was very enjoyable overall; while not particularly groundbreaking, it was best Card I've read in recent years. Now if only he would finish the Lovelock (Mayflower Trilogy) trilogy.
16. Dark Dreams: Sexual Violence, Homicide and the Criminal Mind (Roy Hazelwood and Stephen G. Michaud)
    
    An excellent book on criminology and profiling. This has a slightly less informal style than John Douglas' Mindhunter: Inside the Fbi's Elite Serial Crime Unit, and is very well written. I highly recommend it.
17. Spiritual Depression: Its Causes and Cure (D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones)
    
    This is currently on loan from Debi Costine. I asked for C.S. Lewis's The Problem of Pain, and Debi gave me this instead. (I think she doesn't want Lewis' Arminianism to influence me, as a fairly recent convert to God's sovereignty and the doctrine of grace!)
18. Perfect Victim: The True Story of "The Girl in the Box" by the D.A. That Prosecuted Her Captor (Christine Mcguire and Carla Norton)
    
    
19. The stone that never came down (Doubleday science fiction) (John Brunner)
    
    I'd first come in contact my brunner via the recommendation of my "not-father" (the man who was alleged to be my biological father, but who in point of fact, was not); Brunner's Stand on Zanzibar was his favorite book. I snagged this at our local library for 50¢. This novel by Brunner struck me as a cross between the novelettes "Brain Wave" (Poul Anderson) and "The Food Of The Gods" (H.G. Wells). There is some atheistic bias which many (to be continued)
20. Among Schoolchildren (Tracey Kidder)
    
    
21. One Blood: The Biblical Answer to Racism (Ken Ham, Carl Wieland, and Don Batten).
22. Outbound Flight (Star Wars) (Timothy Zahn)
23. The Breathtaker (Today Show Book Club #19) (Alice Blanchard).
24. Omega (Jack McDevitt)
25. Dragon and Thief (Dragonback) (Timothy Zahn): One of the 3 books bound together in Dragonback Bargain (Dragon and Thief; Dragon and Soldier; Dragon and Slave) as one volume.
26. Dragon and Soldier: The Second Dragonback Adventure (Dragonback) (Timothy Zahn): One of the 3 books bound together in Dragonback Bargain (Dragon and Thief; Dragon and Soldier; Dragon and Slave) as one volume.
27. Dragon and Slave: The Third Dragonback Adventure (Dragonback) (Timothy Zahn): One of the 3 books bound together in Dragonback Bargain (Dragon and Thief; Dragon and Soldier; Dragon and Slave) as one volume.
28. The Evil That Men Do (Stephen G. Michaud with Roy Hazelwood)
29. The Lord of the Rings (Collector's Edition) (J. R. R. Tolkien)
    
    I've just finished reading this (my third read-through), and I am overwhelmed by what an amazing story it is, as well as by how well Peter Jackson adapted it for his films. (I'm going to rewatch the extended editions of Jackson's films, and then post some comments about the very few mistakes I think he made.)
    
    I will venture a couple of comments about the book: The Fellowship of the Ring: Being the First Part of The Lord of the Rings (The Lord of the RIngs)/i> actually is a bit slow. There is a huge amount of background information and backstory to be communicated, and I don't think LotR becomes a "page-turner" until The Two Towers (The Lord of the Rings, Book 2). Secondly, if you don't read the appendices, especially the first one, you're missing a huge amount of the story. You haven't learned where Gimli and Legolas eventually traveled, how long Aragorn and Arwen lived, or what prohibition Aragorn made (and honored himself) for who was allowed to visit the Shire. You'd also miss Tolkien's notes on languages and his translation strategies, which give a glimpse into his special areas of knowledge.
30. Preparing for Adolescence: How to Survive the Coming Years of Change (Dr. James Dobson)
31. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Book 2) (J.K. Rowling)
32. The Bridge Over the River Kwai (Cinema Classics) (Pierre Boulle)
33. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Book 3) (J.K. Rowling)
    
    This has been my favoirte Harry Potter book to date. My only gripe is that the characters seem too willing to be dishonest with each other and even occasionally with authority figures, which would be a good discussion point for parents whose children are reading these books. I like my heroes to be near-perfect, or at least morally so. (Of course, then there's Superman Returns (Two-Disc Special Edition) ...
34. 102 Minutes: The Untold Story of the Fight to Survive Inside the Twin Towers (Jim Dwyer and Kevin Flynn)
    
    I borrowed this book from our friend Mahli DeLaCruz, and read it in about two days. I don't think I've gone through a book so quickly since Isaac's Storm. I love disaster stories, and this one is well-written and gripping, detailing the tragedies and triumphs of the evacuations of the World Trade Center after they were hit by terrorist-piloted aircraft. Tragically, misinformation and lack of information led to the death of some, like a group of employees of the WTC who were told to stay on the 64th floor, while others were evacuating. In fact, a public service announcement in Tower 2 told many they could go back to their offices, because that building was secure, just as they were nearly out of building, and minutes before the second plane struck. The same lack of information and lack of good communication led directly to the death of dozens of firefighters in Tower 1 who did not hear the order to evacuate, and who would not heed the second-hand information given to them by others. Another interesting thing I learned was that the real heroes of the WTC evacuation were not the police and fire officials (although they did help)---but the building residents, some of whom died in the tower collaspe, while still in the process of moving rubble and prying open doors while getting others out. Were it not for the actions of numerous building residents, far more lives would have been lost. This also contains information that helps dispell the silly conspiracy theory that the towers were brought down by demoliton charges within them. I highly recommend this book.
35. The Terrible Hours : The Man Behind the Greatest Submarine Rescue in History (Peter Maas)
    
    Charles "Swede" Momson is a classic Americna hero, and an inventor as well. (The following is from the Amazon.com review): Swede Momsen was, according to master storyteller Peter Maas, the "greatest submariner the Navy ever had," and he was determined to beat those odds. Momsen spent his career trying to save the lives of trapped submariners, despite an indifferent Navy bureaucracy that thwarted and belittled his efforts at every turn. Every way of saving a sailor entombed in a sub---"smoke bombs, telephone marker buoys, new deep-sea diving techniques, escape hatches, artificial lungs, a great pear-shaped rescue chamber--was either a direct result of Momsen's inventive derring-do, or of value only because of it." Yet on the day the Squalus sank, none of Momsen's inventions had been used in an actual submarine disaster.
    
    I grabbed this from my nephew Andrew's bookshelf on Thanksgiving afternoon, and finished it before we left on Friday.
36. World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War (Max Brooks)
    
    Nichelle purchased this for me for Christmas, and I absolutely devoured it! This was definitely one of the most fun books I've read this year, and---although one would think the subject matter could produce nothing more than trite clichés, I was mesmerized by the varied human elements, including political, Max Brooks has included. The book takes the form of interviews transcribed from around the world, from people such as the doctor who first encountered the zombie outbreak in China, or a soldier who was part of the Battle of Yonkers, where the military attempted to stop milliions of zombies on the move out of New York City. There is some clever and subtle linking of references among some of the stories. Great imagination, and surprisingly gripping.
37. Currently reading: Mao's China and After: A History of the People's Republic, Third Edition (Maurice Meisner)
38. Also currently reading: Treating Child Sex Offenders and Victims: A Practical Guide (Anna Salter)

 

---

 

Children's Books:
39. Niagara Falls, Or Does It? #1 (Hank Zipzer) (Henry Winkler and Lin Oliver)
40. (Read aloud to David) Me and the Terrible Two (Ellen Conford)
41. (Read aloud at mealtime.) Roald Dahl/Charlie Boxed Set (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator) (Roald Dahl and Quentin Blake (illustrator))
42. Currently Reading aloud at Mealtime: Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator (Puffin Modern Classics) (Roald Dahl)

1. Starship Troopers (Robert A. Heinlein)
2. Dragon and Thief (Dragonback) (Timothy Zahn): One of the 3 books bound together in Dragonback Bargain (Dragon and Thief; Dragon and Soldier; Dragon and Slave) as one volume.
3. Dragon and Soldier: The Second Dragonback Adventure (Dragonback) (Timothy Zahn): One of the 3 books bound together in Dragonback Bargain (Dragon and Thief; Dragon and Soldier; Dragon and Slave) as one volume.
4. Dragon and Slave: The Third Dragonback Adventure (Dragonback) (Timothy Zahn): One of the 3 books bound together in Dragonback Bargain (Dragon and Thief; Dragon and Soldier; Dragon and Slave) as one volume.
5. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Full-Color Collector's Edition) (C.S. Lewis): One of the 7 books in The Chronicles of Narnia series.
6. The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (Narnia) (C.S. Lewis): One of the 7 books in The Chronicles of Narnia series.
7. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (rpkg) (Narnia) (C.S. Lewis): One of the 7 books in The Chronicles of Narnia series.
8. The Silver Chair (rpkg) (Narnia) (C.S. Lewis): One of the 7 books in The Chronicles of Narnia series.
9. The Horse and His Boy (rpkg) (Narnia) (C.S. Lewis): One of the 7 books in The Chronicles of Narnia series.
10. The Magician's Nephew (paper-over-board) (Narnia) (C.S. Lewis): One of the 7 books in The Chronicles of Narnia series.
11. The Last Battle (rpkg) (Narnia) (C.S. Lewis): One of the 7 books in The Chronicles of Narnia series.
12. The Iron Giant (Ted Hughes)
13. A Wrinkle in Time (Madeleine L'Engle)
14. A Wind in the Door (Madeleine L'Engle)
15. The Guide to Owning a Bearded Dragon (David Zoffer, Tom Mazorlig)
16. Many Waters (Madeleine L'Engle)
17. Heir to the Empire (Star Wars: The Thrawn Trilogy, Vol. 1) (Timothy Zahn)
18. Dark Force Rising (Star Wars: The Thrawn Trilogy, Vol. 2) (Timothy Zahn)
19. The Last Command (Star Wars: The Thrawn Trilogy, Vol. 3) (Timothy Zahn)
20. The Hobbit (J.R.R. Tolkien)
21. Niagara Falls, Or Does It? (Hank Zipzer, the World's Greatest Underachiever #1) (Henry Winkler and Lin Oliver)
22. I Got a D in Salami #2 (Hank Zipzer, the World's Greatest Underachiever #2) (Henry Winkler and Lin Oliver)
23. The Day of the Iguana #3 (Hank Zipzer, the World's Greatest Underachiever #3) (Henry Winkler and Lin Oliver)
24. Zippety Zinger (Hank Zipzer, the World's Greatest Underachiever #4) (Henry Winkler and Lin Oliver)
25. Preparing for Adolescence: How to Survive the Coming Years of Change (Dr. James Dobson)
26. Currently reading: The Fellowship of the Ring (The Lord of the Rings, Book 1) (J.R.R. Tolkien)
27. Plus approximately 16 Hardy Boys books read in school, and numerous readings of Calvin and Hobbes, Peanuts, and Fox Trot comic collections.

• Books Read, 2004
• Books Read, 2005
• Books Read, 2006
• Books Read, 2007
• Books Read, 2008
• Books Read, 2009
• Books Read, 2010

"New Tribes has westernized indigenous people by force, while spreading a sense of shame and guilt, disguised as teaching the gospel: they taught the Panares that Satan had turned into a Panare Indian and that they were guilty of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ."

• The Guardian: Venezuela VP Defends Missionary Expulsion
• New Tribes Mission: Surprise Announcement in Venezuela
• The New York Times: Chávez Ousts Missionaries
• Edinburgh Evening News: 'Imperialist' missionaries to be thrown out
• VenezuelanAnalysis.com (leftist slant): Venezuela to Expel U.S. Evangelical Group
• Scoop: Evangelicals in Venezuela: Long Bizarre History (Seems to be unequivocably anti-NTM, but gives the history of the controversy.)

There burns a fire with sacred heat White hot with holy flame And all who dare pass through its blaze Will not emerge the same Some as bronze, and some as silver Some as gold, then with great skill All are hammered by their sufferings On the anvil of His will Chorus: The Refiner's fire Has now become my souls desire Purged and cleansed and purified That the Lord be glorified He is consuming my soul Refining me, making me whole No matter what I may lose I choose the Refiner's fire I'm learning now to trust His touch To crave the fire's embrace For though my past with sin was etched His mercies did erase Each time His purging cleanses deeper I'm not sure that I'll survive Yet the strength in growing weaker Keeps my hungry soul alive

David at the Quechee Gorge, White River Junction, Vermont

1. Fullmetal Alchemist, Volume 1 (Hiromu Arakawa)
2. Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse (John Joseph Adams, editor)
3. Time 1968: War Abroad, Riots at Home, Fallen Leaders and Lunar Dreams - The Year that Changed the World (with CD)
4. Anathem (Neal Stephenson)
   
   Absolutely masterful. The best description I can find comes from the NYT Book Review: "[Stephenson] cares as much about telling good stories as he does about farming out cool idea.... [He] wants to blow your mind while keeping you fed and happy."
   
   Anathem is a work of hard science fiction, taking place on an planet somewhat similar to Earth. In describing this planet (called Arbre), Stephenson has completely envisioned the culture, history, and even language, the use of which throughout the book makes reading it a wonderfully immersive experience. Alternate histories abound in science fiction---enough to be considered cliché---but this should not be confused at all with that particular subgenre.
   
   Just like in Cryptonomicon, Stephenson applies his brilliance in explaining scientific concepts within the narrative. (His was the best explanation of public-key/private-key encryption that I've ever read.) The subject matter in this case deals with polycosms and quantum mechanics, wrapped up with intrigue, adventure, danger, and an absolutely fascinating world.
   
   I highly recommend this one.
5. Moonwalker (Charlie and Dotty Duke)
6. Journey from Texts to Translations, The: The Origin and Development of the Bible (Paul D. Wegner)
7. Abandoned: Civil War Medicine: Care & Comfort of the Wounded (Robert Denney)
   
   Aside from a few amusing anecdotes, the presentation style of this book was so boring I realized I'd never get to the end of it. I returned it to its owner.
8. Read aloud to the kids: Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia (C. S. Lewis)
9. The Heavenly Man: The Remarkable True Story of Chinese Christian Brother Yun (Brother Yun, with Paul Hattaway)
10. Twilight (Twilight, Book 1) (Stephenie Meyer)
11. The Hope (Herman Wouk)
12. Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God (Francis Chan)
13. Heirs of Empire (Dahak series) (David Weber). (Read as part of the single-bound volume, Empire From the Ashes.)
14. The Armageddon Inheritance (David Weber). (Read as part of the single-bound volume, Empire From the Ashes.)
15. Mutineer's Moon (Dahak Series) (David Weber). (Read as part of the single-bound volume, Empire From the Ashes.)
16. Byzantium (Stephen R. Lawhead)
17. Currently reading: The Physics of Christianity (Frank J. Tipler)

• Best news we've had in a while: Nichelle is feeling better, and consistently so. She still needs quite a bit of rest, but is starting to return to her workaholic tendencies.
   
• The first ultrasound of the upcoming addition to the Wilcox family is done. The creature appears to be human, and doing well. Due date is sometime in October.
  
  Isaac believes this is much too long to wait, and says a month should be enough. I explained to him that babies take a long time to cook. He replied, "You mean develop, Dad.” I tried to weasel my way around that by explaining that he had to cook in an incubator for a month after he was born, but he didn't buy it.
   
• We are probably going to take our house off the market when our contract expires in 10 days, and do some cosmetic work to bring it as close to perfect as we can, including the long-postponed finishing of the upstairs bathroom and probably replacing the kitchen cabinets and countertop. We still hope to move to Nashua before the baby is born.
   
• Today the US began its campaign to free Iraq from their oppressive dicatatorship. Interested in what kind of regime we are trying to topple? Consider this article from the New Zealand Herald.
   
• The Iraq war is a complex subject, and I'll post some more of my views on this big issue later. I am not really a fan of war, but there are times when it is necessary. Remember that Israel was severely criticized for taking out Iraq's nuclear research facility years ago, which proved to have been vital when we were forced to get the Iraqui's out of Kuwait. We pray that our leaders would have wisdom in this matter.
   
• We have a new pet in the house. Isaac's leopard gecko died, apparently from old age, a few weeks ago. We now have an absolutely adorable crested gecko. This guy can climb smooth or rough vertical surfaces, change colors (light-green, sandy, or dark brown we've seen, and we expect to see red as he gets bigger). There are some fairly decent photos of these critters here.
   

“If Saddam Hussein fails to comply and we fail to act or we take some ambiguous third route, which gives him yet more opportunities to develop his program of weapons of mass destruction and continue to press for the release of sanctions and ignore the commitments he's made? Well, he will conclude that the international community's lost its will. He will then conclude that he can go right on doing more to build an arsenal of devastating destruction. If we fail to respond today, Saddam and all those who would follow in his footsteps will be emboldened tomorrow. The stakes could not be higher. Some way, someday, I guarantee you he’ll use the arsenal.”

A report on the human cost of Saddam’s policies
by the Foreign & Commonwealth Office

The file is in Adobe Acrobat format.

The views of the explosions are terrific—in the older sense of the word (causing extreme terror).

We continue to hope that the campaign will end quickly, and that Iraq will know freedom and democracy.

Here’s a rough transcript of remarks by Iraq’s Information Minister:

“Therefore, what had been mentioned in some stooge’s media is completely unbased, in regard to Kufasa [sp?], in regard to Kafou [sp?], and in regard to their stupid columns moving and now stopped fully, and they will be surrounded near Nassaria and near Ur, historical antiquities there.”

That being said, I am reminded of the human cost of this war, both with the servicemen and woman who have died, and in the inevitable collateral damage.

“The causalites on civilians up to now we have in hostpitals 207 injured children, women, and other civiliians. We are going to take you, if you like, to visit them.” (Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf)

This, of course, pales in comparison to the millions of his own people Saddam has been responsible for killing, including the 500,000 exterminated after the Gulf War.

Regarding how accurate the specific targeting of regime facilities for propaganda, the KGB-like secret police, communication, and military sites, has been (at the exclusion of civilian infrastructure), U.K. Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon said, “The lights stayed on in Baghdad, but the instruments of tyrrany are collasping.”

War, indeed, is a depressing subject. I continue to hope and pray for a rapid end to this conflict.

Hello Doug (and to the rest of your family), I’ve been alerted by a couple of people about the entry on your blog concerning the email we sent you. It seems that your concerns about our request for families to participate in TLC’s new series have spread on the web. Many apologies to have caused you any alarm but I can assure you that the request to participate in the program is legitimate and not in any form an identity scam Let me explain: Diverse USA is the US-based production subsidiary of Diverse TV in the UK. I work for Diverse’s parent company FBC Media (www.fbcmedia.com). The casting notice in question pertains to a bona fide production for TLC. Additional information regarding the company and its various programs may be obtained at www.diverse.tv I’m enclosing (below) in the body of this email a scanned copy of a news story from Broadcast magazine, the UK television industry magazine, which confirms this and here’s a URL link to the story as well: http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/frames/master.asp?sid=20&aid=150246 I’m in the slightly invidious position of trying to prove a negative to you: that I’m not an identity scammer. Please feel free to contact Diverse TV UK’s Creative Director, Roy Ackerman on 011 44 207 603 4567 to confirm my identity if you wish. (The number is also listed on Diverse TV’s website here: http://www.diverse.tv/home/contactprogrammes.asp). More urgently, I need you to correct the misinformation on your blog. Please can you call me at your earliest convenience on either my office number: 011 44 207038 0950 or on my cellphone [removed by Doug Wilcox] (I’m based in London and so 5 hours ahead of EST). Don’t worry about the cost – I’ll call you straight back. Alternatively if you shoot me an email with your contact telephone number I’ll call you. I’ve also changed our application form online so that at this stage we don’t request social security & driver’s license numbers. I can see how that might get people’s suspicion glands going. As you identify this could be used for identity theft. However your statement that nobody legitimate would ask for this information is incorrect, as you can see in the applications forms for other programs seeking applications from the general public. As one example here’s the application form for Fox’s Nanny 911 program http://www.fox.com/nanny911/info.htm. Our program is very different from Nanny 911 in terms of editorial content but we eventually we need the information for the same reason: to prove that people are who they say are (ironically). I was given advice to approach you via our attorneys. However I’m sure we can sort this out much more quickly and amicably without lawyers. After you’re satisfied that the original request is a legitimate one I’d be really grateful if you could pass that information on to your blog readers. I’d hate to see anyone missing out on the opportunity of a little advice from one of America’s leading parenting experts because of a mistaken belief. Andy Andrew Harrison FBC Media + 44 (0) 207 038 0950 www.fbcmedia.com

Subtitle: Thanks to one little boy, who never lost his mistrust. A couple of days ago, I received the following e-mail:

From: Andy Harrison (address was aharrison@fbcmedia.com) To: Doug Wilcox (address removed) Sent: Tuesday, June 07, 2005 10:00 AM Subject: new TLC series Hello Doug, I was really interested in your family’s blog. You seem like you may be the kind of family we’re looking for for a new TLC series. After all, nobody’s got a monopoly of wisdom on bringing up our kids and we can all use a little help sometimes. Here’s the blurb on the series. I’d be really grateful if you could pass the information ion to anyone you think might be interested…

• TLC show is looking for parents to share their secrets and learn a few new ones from the country's leading parenting experts. Are you clever parents who have come up against a new problem you don't know how to clever your way out of? The kids have been great, but recently they've changed and you're not sure how to deal with them? All good fodder for TLC's new show ‘Parent Coach’ based on a popular UK series, where experts will come to your home and work with you and your family with a variety of exercises and trainings to improve the family relationship. Want to know more? Email Brenda Della Casa at bdcasa@diverseusa.tv as soon as possible or checkout www.diverseusa.tv. Include names and ages of family members and a brief description of your current situation.

Andrew Harrison FBC Media + 44 (0) 207 038 0950 www.fbcmedia.com

Diverse sets up shop in New York Maria Esposito 16 June 2005 07:50 Diverse has won its first original commission in the US and opened a New York office to produce it. The London-based indie is in pre-production on parenting format Parent Coach (working title) for TLC. The 10 x 60-minute series will see an expert try to help couples with differing parenting styles. Executive producer Andy Harrison said the unnamed expert will be "less Mary Poppins and more Vin Diesel". Parent Coach was commissioned by TLC's new executive vice-president and general manager, David Abraham, and is being series produced by Ronnie Krensel, with Roy Ackerman as an executive producer. The series will air in a primetime slot early next year. Diverse will produce the show out of its New York office, which is currently housed by BBC America. The office is also in development with a number of undisclosed projects. Diverse, which also has an office in Bristol, is in talks with American broadcasters to bring its Channel 4 talent format Musicality to the US. Source:broadcastnow.co.uk

Governor Jim Douglas
109 State Street, Pavilion
Montpelier, VT 05609-0101

• Not used hyperbole with an Independent Baptist Church audience. Despite the fact that this is an oft-used literary device (ask my Sunday school students), even by our own pastor, the people were not familiar enough with my teaching style to stop to listen beyond the radical statement.
• Asked questions instead of making statements about semantics---I still have no idea (for several reasons) what specifically those most offended disagreed with. Had I introduced the topics with questions about specifically what people meant by certain phrases, they probably would have been lest hostile. (Several people disagree with me on this, believing I was doomed no matter how gentle my presentation.)
• Not tried to put quite so much into the presentation.

I told the kids if it’s not a girl, we’re not keeping it ...

We had some good family time for a change (with Nichelle sick/me overworked for the past couple of months). We watched the newly remastered Chitty-Chitty, Bang-Bang, which should have been in Widescreen, but has not been issued that way (except for the opening race scene and credits and closing credits). The sound and picture quality are superb, and the DVD features a cool “sing along” feature for the musical numbers. I need to start a Web petition going about the widescreen/pan-and-scan issue ... I’ve e-mailed MGM’s customer support several times, but not once received an answer.

Sunday afternoon we watched the new Veggie Tales Jonah film. I should add that Nichelle and I both fell asleep partway through. The kids liked it. Big Idea did a good job of explaining what the job of an Old Testament prophet was. David, after his class on Sunday night, presented me with his coloring sheet of the 10 Commandments, and said, “This is a message from the Lord.”

Sunday night I jumped over to www.shineband.com to make a quick edit (remarking out a live performance that had past). When I went to check my work, I discovered that the site had been defaced by some juvenile crackers with an obscene anti-war message. Apparenlty Interland had a little security problem sometime early Saturday morning. Other evidence indicates their mail server was commandeered as well. Just what John Harris needs—his site defaced on a day when people were likely to be visiting the site to get directions to the performance Saturday evening.

The war news was negative for the first time so far. We have six people from our church on active military duty, plus another moved-away friend (he started riding our bus to church when he was in fourth grade—right now his neice is in Nichelle’s and my 4th grade Sunday school class.

We have decided to let our current contract with our realtor expire (it ends at the end of this month), and re-list the house in a couple of months after we finish some cosmetics/minor repairs.

Here are a few things to consider when talking about Iraq:

• President Bush and Saddam Hussein ... Saddam is the bad guy. Read the Dossier.
• If you have faith in the United Nations to do the right thing, keep this in mind: they have Libya heading the committee on human rights and Iraq heading the global disarmament commitee.
• Even if you are Anti-War, you are still an “infidel,” and Bin Laden wants you dead, too.
• If you believe in a “Vast right-wing conspiracy” but not in the danger that Hussein poses, well then, that explains a lot.
• If you want to believe in a conspiracy, make it a big one.* Of some interest may be a RealVideo movie (downloadable from various sites) entitled 911: The Road To Tyranny. I will leave you to find it on your own.
• It’s all about a regime change. Hussein poses a danger to everyone.
• Whether you are for military action or not, our men and women are overseas fighting for us to defend our right to speak out. We all need to support them without reservation.
• It’s no wonder the Iraqis don’t trust us. We encouraged uprisings against Saddam in the Gulf War, and failed to back them up immediately afterward, essentially condemning them to torture and death.
• “And when ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars, be ye not troubled: for such things must needs be; but the end shall not be yet.” (Mark 13:7)

*For the record, I’m not looking for conspiracies around every corner, but the Bible does predict a global, tyrannical government under “The Beast.” What isn’t prophesied is when this will occur. Historically, religious leaders have repeatedly been proven wrong by setting a specific date on these events.

I have always found the Urban Legends section of about.com (formerly The Mining Company) immensely entertaining. It’s also extremely useful in debunking the ever-present hoax virus warnings and too-good-to-be-true “Forward This to Everyone on Your List” e-mails.

This may fall under the unanswerable questions category, like “Why did The Man in the High Castle win a Hugo award?” but ki pointed out that many global conspiracy theorists and their organizations are strongly anti-semitic. This makes little sense to me, as this future New World Order is, according to Scripture, going to be anti-semitic itself—attempting (and failing) to destroy Israel. Ki suggested that I am looking for logic and reason where none exist.

The mydomain forwarding service is currently experiencing problems and will be taken down temporarily because of a DOS attack. Specifically, the domain, ALJAZEERA.NET, is currently pointed to the mydomain service and causing service problems.

The forwarding pool which usually has an average of 600 connection setups/second this time of the day shot to over 8,000 connection setups per second. As more and more people discovered the new Ip the connections continued to climb. Our A records have 30 minute TTL's and we have propagated a new zone with null values for the problem domain. We will lift our ACL's as soon as we can.

[I]t was the United States—under Bill Clinton, for those of you keeping score at home—that worked hardest to prevent UN intervention or even from saying the word “genocide” in any official documents.

Read Samantha Powers’ prize-winning account of this, A Problem from Hell, if you doubt this. It is just this kind of combination of ignorance and arrogance that gives rise to anti-Americanism, and no wonder. (And by the way, the Rwanda episode is by far the most shameful act undertaken by Clinton and company.

—Eric Alterman, MSNBC

• The main Animatrix site: http://www.intothematrix.com/
• An MSNBC article about these: http://www.msnbc.com/news/887676.asp
• And a Warner Brothers Press Release: http://whatisthematrix.warnerbros.com/rl_cmp/rl_press_jan_27_03.html

Then, I got an e-mail at home saying the CenterWatch project was not quite finished. Just a few revisions in the entire book, including two chapers that seem to have mismatched fonts.

At supper time, David’s question of the day was, “Where does the sun go at night?” His answer was quite interesting, more or less along the lines of the sun goes into space at night and comes out into the sky at daytime. There was something thrown in about gravity pulling it down. I demonstrated what really happens using a flashlight and a coffee cup, then remembered I had a globe in the basement, which would be even better for demonstration.

I got down in the basement to find 3 or more inches of water throughout, meaning that when John told me on Saturday the “thing was flooded” he meant it. (I thought we’d just had a puddle on the non-sump-pump end.)

After wrestling with the sump pump for a few minutes (thankfully it wasn’t bolted to the floor), I discovered the float on the float switch had become detached from the shaft. Now it’s back working, but life was full of surprises today.

Anyway, around 8:00 am, David knocked on the door, and I told him to come in. He had a set of keys from some toy handcuffs that had come with a police role-playing kit he’d been given. Now, understand that David is quite advanced in his speech for his age, so I was ROTFL when he said, he had the keys, but couldn’t find the cheese puffs they went to.

This item would have assured my dominance in the hierarchy of Geekdom—although Kevin Miller would probably argue that I need not worry about my position in that respect.

Anyway, the item was indeed as cool as I expected, but guess what I left at home this morning!?

Any takers on guessing what I actually ordered?

At any rate, the last seminar I attended was run by a Microsoft consultant, and opened my eyes to just how cool .NET is, and how radically different it is from other Microsoft our-way-or-the-highway approaches to technology.

I’m going to give the ASP .NET Web Matrix Tool (a free product, although the full Visual InterDev .NET is available as trialware) a whirl, if I have time.

From the Dogbert’s New Ruling Class newsletter:

A co-worker was lamenting the fact that she got a speeding ticket on her way to and from traffic court. She concluded with, “I’ve had such a run of bad luck.”

Eric has been my closest friend since early high school, and our families are very close.

I was actually somewhat responsible for Eric meeting Juana, way back when she was Juana Evangelista del Corazón de Jesus Gonzalez Guerrero, but I will save that story for later.

We will miss them greatly.

• 2004 Pages
• 2003 Pages
• 2002 Pages
• 2001 Pages

Enjoy, and let me know what your favorite item(s) are.

I don’t think I’ve ever heard an adult explain it better.

I once got a parking ticket when the fuel pump died on a car I was using; I managed to coast off I-93 at the Government Center exit, and park behind the first legal parking space on the right. This was way before everyone’s dog had his own cell phone, and I had to leave the car to make phone calls, so I left a note on the dash. I thought about leaving the keys in the car so the traffic officer could verify that it really was a breakdown, but then someone would probably have taken the keys or locked them in the car. Obviously, when I got back to the car, it had been ticketed. Next time I’ll just cause a massive traffic jam.

To quote a famous Bloom County comic strip: “Just what your four-year-old needs to compete in today’s cutthroat world of high-tech and high expectations…”

Nichelle here: We have a few people that come over to use our computers from time to time. One person, named Kherna, has used it on several different occasions. This morning David asked me, “which computer does Kherna use?” I pointed to the one on the right (we have two side-by-side), and his response was, “Why? That’s not the fastest!” I thought that was quite cute, seeing that he’s only 4 and knows the difference.

BLOG Updates

The BLOG has gotten a bit older, too. I’ve added a navigation structure (10 entries per page, now), and the masthead.

To complicate matters, he kept begging to watch Jurassic Park, having seen the dinosaur pictured on the DVD case. Of course, given his nightmares (and having some negative leanings toward showing somewhat-violent programming to small children), we did not grant his request.

But the nightmares continued for weeks. Finally, I reasoned, he was already having nightmares about the dinosaurs, what harm could there be in letting him watch Jurassic Park? As I recall, we did skip over the scene where the T-Rex attacks the jeep with the kids in it.

After watching the film (actually, after watching all three JP films), his nightmares went away. Go figure.

Woo-hoo!

We received a phone call today from Christy-Sue Olson, a classmate I haven’t seen since junior high school, with some sad news. Beth Camplese, who lived just about across the street from where I grew up in Easton, passed away at Mass. General Hospital on May 1, succumbing to a battle with lymphoma, complicated by pneumonia and infections. (I think we all expected her to outlive us, if by nothing else than sheer stubborness.)

A memorial service will be held on Wednesday, May 7, 2003, from 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m., at the Copeland Funeral Home, 38 Center Street, North Easton, Ma.

In respect for Beth’s wishes (and in lieu of flowers), a scholarship fund in honor of Beth’s lifelong devotion to teaching has been set up. Donations may be made to the Elizabeth Camplese Scholarship Fund, c/o Washington Irving School, 105 Cummings Hwy., Roslindale, MA 02131 (617-635-8072).

Beth was a teacher at the Washington Irving Middle School in Boston. She was a fascinating person, with a fiercely independent spirit, a wide range of talents, a love for books, a willingness to share what she had, and a complete lack of prejudice of any kind.

She enjoyed taking care of animals, including, among the years, sheep, goats, a retried race horse, dogs, and geese. (The meter readers used to hate going to her house.)

Following are a few (of many) memories I have of her.

• Her house was full of books. In fact, she started a book store at the Washington Irving School, and I would sometimes buy some titles of interest from her to aid the bookstore, called “The WISE Place.” One book she refused to sell to me was a copy of Cervantes’ Don Quixote, in Spanish, published in Barcelona—I kept haggling, but she never relented.
• When I was in elementary school, I remember repeated run-ins with her sheep, especially one particularly ornery one named Saffy—Sheep can kick, and this one seemed to enjoy kicking me repeatedly.
• My brother, Aaron, when he was only 2 or 3, had one of her geese grab his coat through the fence, and it just wouldn’t let go. (Maybe the coat was goose down?) Better his coat than his fingers, I suppose.
• When I left for college, my parents moved to Florida. Beth let me store my things in a room at her place. I made 17 trips over, but her kindness let me hang on to many things that otherwise would have been lost.
• One time someone snatched her purse on the subway, and she chased him down. I don’t think she caught him, and remember her friends were mortified. “What if he’d had a gun?” I doubt that would have impeded her retribution. It might have been better to ask, “What if she’d caught up with him?”
• My favorite story regards her long-standing problem with dozens of pigeons taking up roost in her eaves and gutters. They made a terrible mess of her house for years. My wife, Nichelle, and I, when our son, Isaac, was an infant, were visiting her, when I asked, “What happened to the pigeons?” She replied with a wicked gleam and a laugh, “I shot them all.” She had done exactly that, over a period of weeks.

The world is a poorer place without her.

So, Nichelle has been doing some finish work on our upstairs bathroom, as part of getting the house ready to go on the market again. When I got home from work, I was ordered to go take a look at the bathroom. It looked good, and I said so. I pointed out that a lighter color, perhaps a floral pattern, would improve the darker sponge-painted border Nichelle had created. David, of course, trumped me. “Oh, Mom, it’s beautiful!” That little weasel.