Liloia.com

Hanging Out

Tara made this great cake last week. I was wary of any cake that doesn't come with icing, but this stuff was awesome. It was a raspberry-apple pie, although we searched all over for raspberries and all we could find were blackberries. It was still very good. She got the recipie from Epicurious.com If you want to try it out here is the recipie. 

R2D2

A year or so ago, while I was still working for Aventis, Tara and Trevor came in for a visit. Trevor must have been about 15 months old. (That's a guess, I really don't remember exactly.) Now, I keep a ton of toys on and around my desk. Why? Who knows, I am broken, but thats what I do. Trevor saw R2D2 there (which by the way was supplied to me via the great people at Taco Bell as a give away when Star Wars: Phantom Menace came out.) and snatched him up. It took a few hours to get that toy out of his hands and as he has gotten older, it has only gotten worse. When Trevor draws a picture, it's a robot. When he makes something out of his LEGO's, it end up being a robot. When he is pretending to be something, chances are it is a robot. We watch movies about robots and rent videos about robots.
When Trevor did see Star Wars: Episode I, yes he did like Jar Jar (ech!), but he liked C3PO and R2D2 even more! If we end up staying in New England until he goes to college, he could check out the MIT Robotics Lab. He's better off waiting a while on that one, he would probably explode from excitement. 

Harry Potter

Harry Potter For those of you who are dying for the movie version of this pop culture phenomenon, here is a sample of what is to come. The Official Harry Potter site is interesting in and of itself, but what is more interesting is the release of the second Harry Potter movie trailer.
It's a great glimpse of what is to come! Marvel.com While the house of Marvel is in the process of moving, they have graciously kept up the online versions of three of their comics for fans. They take a while to load if you are not on a high speed connection, so be patient.

Make the Pie Higher

This being National Poetry Month, here is something that will truly celebrate this month of culture. This is a poem made up entirely of actual quotes from George W. Bush. The quotes have been arranged only for aesthetic purposes, by Washington Post writer Richard Thompson.

MAKE THE PIE HIGHER - by George W. Bush
I think we all agree, the past is over.
This is still a dangerous world.
It's a world of madmen and uncertainty and potential mentall losses.
Rarely is the question asked, Is our children learning?
Will the highways of the internet become more few?
How many hands have I shaked? They misunderestimate me.
I am a pitbull on the pantleg of opportunity.
I know that the human being and the fish can coexist.
Families is where our nation finds hope, where our wings take dream.
Put food on your family! Knock down the tollbooth! Vulcanize Society!
Make the pie higher! Make the pie higher!

Flatland

While randomly searching for a new decent sci-fi book at the library, I came across Flatland. It wasn't new, or pretty. The softcover book was torn in a few places and looked generally boring from the outside. This could not have been farther from the truth. This fantastic novel brings us through the Gulliver-esque travels of a Mr. A Square who leads us on a trip through his 2 dimensional society.
"Flatland is one of the very few novels about math and philosophy that can appeal to almost any layperson. Published in 1880, this short fantasy takes us to a completely flat world of two physical dimensions where all the inhabitants are geometric shapes, and who think the planar world of length and width that they know is all there is. But one inhabitant discovers the existence of a third physical dimension, enabling him to fina lly grasp the concept of a fourth dimension. Watching our Flatlandnarrator, we begin to get an idea of the limitations of our own assumptions about reality, and we start to learn how to think about the confusing problem of higher dimensions.
The book is also quite a funny satire on society and class distinctions of Victorian England." 

Countdown

So, I wanted to post something here today, but I don't have a whole lot to say. I counting the days until my vacation. Only 9 days, 1 hour and 18 minutes, but I am not obsessing. Not really going to do anything on vacation, besides play outside with Trev, go for walks, rent videos, sleep, surf, watch TV, go to the park, read books, play video games, hang out with some friends, start a non-profit organization, climb a mountain, write the great American novel, learn to ski, build a robot, paint the house, run for political office, master chess, scuba dive, join the army, and get some ice cream. I wish I had something to do! 

Millennium Clock

 "It ticks once a year, bongs once a century, and the cuckoo comes out every millennium." -Danny Hillis Sit still for one minute; sixty seconds. Stop reading and just sit ... ... ... What happened while you sat? Your heart beat about 70 times, you took a few breaths, perhaps someone walked past you or a phone rang. Think about your day now. Maybe you took a shower like you do every morning, or sat with your first cup of coffee before driving to work. Now go back over the last year. All of those routines in the minutes and the days of your life become a pattern. Now make a big jump and imagine the billions of humans that each have their own routines, acting out patterns of increasing complexity as years pass into decades. Economies rise and fall, hemlines go from short to long and back again and our planet Earth goes through its ritual seasonal cycles.
Take one last step- the step from generations to centuries. It's not easy to think of something that has survived for that long. The pyramids or Stonehenge come to mind. It's hard to envision the immense amount of time that has passed since those monuments were constructed. Their longevity dwarfs the human lifetime. The members of the Long Now Foundation are fascinated by these and other concepts of time and civilization. This group of foresighted people intend to build a 10,000 Year Clock that will keep time for several millennia. The clock will reside in Ely, Nevada - nestled in a picturesque area of the Great Basin National Park. It will be in relative isolation now, but in a few thousand years the Clock may be in the Times Square of a new Nevada city. Think again about Stonehenge. How has it survived the ravages of man and nature while other historical wonders have been eroded and pillaged?
Possibly because the inherent worth of the components (stone) is next to nothing. Many founders believe that the Clock should walk a fine line between enduring symbol and worshipped idol. It needs to be cared for and about, but not invested with such potent meaning that it becomes the target of zealots. The Clock will mark time in such large increments that visitors will be able to get a sense of the enormity of Time. Imagine visiting the Clock as a child with your parents, then returning again as an adult with your children, then perhaps once more with your grandchildren. Each time the clock hand will have moved just a tiny bit. Your lifetime would be represented by just a tiny fraction of the Clock's face. You can get more information about the 10,000 Year Clock at the Long Now Foundation site. In addition to articles, pictures, and updates, the Foundation also offers message boards.
Visit to discuss issues as abstract as the purpose of the clock and the meaning it will carry or as mundane as cleaning the clock and vandalismprevention. 

Norwood

Driving around town last weekend, we took some pictures from the car. The center of our town, has about 5 large churches, all of which are within a 1 block radius. After talking to some of our neighbors we found out that one of the largest ones actually is no longer a functioning church, but serves as the Town Hall! This picture is actually from the church that is right next to it. All of them are this same style and are impressive buildings.

Ouch

Trevor, always being the cutest kid in the world, snuggled up on my lap and gave me a hug. He curled up, rested his head on my arm, and right as Tara took this picture, he promptly bit me!
Immediatley after biting me, he knew he was in trouble. Trevor stood up, walked into the kitchen and stood in the corner. Too funny.

Herbal History

It has been suggested to me recently, that I may benefit from taking some St. John's Wort. Now I have always associated the use of St. John's Wort with reducing depression and thought to myself, "I am not depressed, I don't need that!". But in a recent search that I completed on this herb, I found out that it has many benefits, one of which is a general mood enhancer, anxiety reliever and can also help with sleeplessness. It also has been found to help combat infections that are caused by viruses! St. John's Wort also treats a variety of other ailments. From a historical perspective, drugstore.com has the following informations about it.
"St. John's Wort has been a valued herb since the time of the ancient Greeks when it was thought to have powers that could ward off evil. Early authors claimed the red spots on the leaves of theplant are symbolic of the blood of St. John, hence, its name. Today, St. John'sWort is one of the most popular and widely used herbs in Europe. Hypericin, the active ingredient in st. John's Wort, may inhibit the breakdown of specific neurotransmitters and may lead to a feeling of mood elevation." I think I am going to have to go pick some of this up tonight, I'll post the results after a few weeks of use. 

Would you like a babysitter with that?

What disturbs me most about this article is not the relative unsafety of the playground nets at fast food restaurants, but the fact that the mother of the child who died had to bring her kids to work with her; leaving them to play unattended in the Burger King Playground. That says something about the difficulty and expense of child care in the US.


A Boquet of One. No roses for Valentine's Day honey; I'll take one of these. Only 15 blooms have been recorded in the US and the flowers, when opened, emit a smell like "rotting-fish-with-burnt-sugar". How romantic.  

Not a book

Nope, not a book. So this is the first post in the books area and it's not even a book. But I bought it at a bookstore (at least, that's what Amazon used to be) so it counts. The Little People Discovery City is the Sesame Street Playhouse for the year 2001. The Little People can swing, drive around the city, sing and call each other on the telephone. It comes with two cars, a picnic set and four Little People - generous by today's toy standards. A bit tricky to put together, but will be played with at least once a day.

Secret's and Time

 

The melodies on Enya's latest album, A Day Without Rain, run the gamut from sweetly innocent to hauntingly menacing. Only Time is the song from this album you have probably heard on the radio recently, but there are a few other songs on the album that stand out more than that single. Wild Child and Flora's Secret come to mind immediately. It is worth buying this album just for those three songs. 

Got a towel?

 
There are few things better than reading a set of books in order, one after the other. The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide by Douglas Adams, is a compendium of all five Arthur Dent novels, plus "Young Zaphod Plays It Safe" as a bonus short story. I'm in the middle of book two and every few pages there's something amusing enough to share out loud with whomever is in the room. 

Flair for Hair

Trevor has switched his shampoo this week. Do you notice any difference?

Rose Bush

Yesterday, while on a quest to find some garage sales, we saw this great rose bush that someone had growing in their front yard. We could not resist taking the picture so that we could show everyone.

Playing

Trevor had a great time playing with Clay yesterday After which, he slept very well....  

New Begining

Until now, Liloia.com was completely HTML based. Everytime that we wanted to add something to the site, we would have to update the entire page, upload it and hope that we had not messed something up. This weekend Clay wrote a new backend to our site using PHP and a MySQL database. We spent a decent amount of time setting it up and testing it. This is the first "new post" to the site using our interface and I am pretty excited. This should make it very easy for us to keep the site updated every day and post lots of new pics and links that we find in our travels. If in the course of using the site, you find anything that is still not 100%, please let us know. Enjoy! 

Links

Plastic.com - Plastic is a live collaboration between the Web's smartest readers and the Web's smartest editors, a place to suggest and discuss the most worthwhile news, opinions,rumors, humor, and anecdotes online. Drawing from the best material posted to Plastic's sections by editors from SPIN, Modern Humorist, The New Republic Online, and other top sites, Plastic homepage editors Joey Anuff and Tom Dowe give you a summary view of what Plastic is talking about at any given moment.

Upromise.com - Finally, someone has organized one of these "reward for purchase" programs into something that I can actually make use of. This site has Biz Dev relationships with a number of large companies including CVS, GM, Toys 'R Us, AOL, AT & T, Exxon and Fidelity to name a few. By registering your credit card, any purchases that you make with their partner companies nets you a percentage of your puchase into a college savings plan for your loved ones. What is really cool is that friends, relatives, heck even perfect strangers can opt to have their savings be directed to another persons fund! Hint, hint.


StockBack.com - Here is another reward program that I participate in from time to time. Purchases made with any of their member companies gets you a percentage of your purchase (up to 10%) that is placed into the StockBack Mutual Fund. Negative to this is that their system relies on the merchant reporting back to them that the purchase has been made.

Links

Instead of just throwing away. While some Internet companies are floundering, others are profiting from the misfortune of others. Not all are as crassly vulture-like as those infamous message board sites that let you trash the latest failing dotcom. For some, the purpose is to make use of the billions of lines of Web site code that is now languishing in the offices of defunct dotcoms. The Website Recycling Company aims to connect owners of useful code with prospective buyers. A promising idea, but you must register before getting a look at the goods.

Walk for the Cure. 2 Years ago, my life was altered forever. I was diagnosed with Diabetes. Besides having to spend a long time learning about what it was that I personally had to deal with, I also learned numerous facts that amazed me. For example, 1 in 16 people have Diabetes, which basically guarantees that you know someone with Diabetes. The average Diabetic has a life span that is reduced by 20 years. Diabetes is called the silent killer because it damages your body slowly over a long period of time. And it goes on. What's the point of all this yammering? Well, if you were bothered by any of this, then get involved! For the last few years I have participated in the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation, Walk for the Cure. Each Fall this International Organization organizes Millions of people to get out and do something. Go to the site and pre-register for the walk in your area!

Dinner Discounts. Formerly "Dining a la Card", iDine offers a great discount dining program. For $49 a year you can have access to a 20% discount at over 7,500 restaurants across the United States and for no fee you can join the program to receive frequent flyer miles with 9 different major airlines! The one twist that they have done which makes them 10 times better than any other dining program out there is that there is no card to present. You register up to three of your credit cards on their website and when you go out to eat, that is the card you use. No longer will you look like the cheapskate who is rolling out the wrinkled coupons after a fancy dinner!

Loss of Perspective

On Wednesday evening, one of the management in my company approached me. He said, "Dave, we are going to be meeting at 5:30 to talk about the project we worked on today." So I told him nicely, that I could not be there because I had to pick up Trevor from daycare. He then asked, "Is this an everyday thing?". I thought to myself, "well, I like to see Trevor every day and his teacher gets annoyed if we just leave him there", so I answered "yes". His reponse floored me. He said, "Hmm, that's unfortunate.", unfortunate for who? Trevor likes to go home sometimes, I don't feel bad about it, whose priorities was he thinking of? I can understand if I said that I was leaving work early to take a nap, or that I was going to feed ducks at the river, but my family responsibility was a burden to him The meeting was not scheduled in advance, and he told me at 4:55 (I had to split at 5) so there was no time to plan, reschedule or get someone else to pick up Trevor. Whatever, I am not going to stress about it,
but it really shocked me to hear that. Any thoughts? 

Office Objects

So this weekend I needed to purchase a Dry Erase White Board. Now there was the option of going to someplace like Staples.com and purchasing a 3' x 4' board for $50, but that just won't cut it. So here is a trick that I learned from one of my numerous dot-com experiences.

If you swing by Home Depot, go to the bathroom building materials section. There you will find an item called a Shower Wall Board. This 4' x 8' hard particle board is generally used for building low cost bathroom walls. It is painted with a high gloss, water resistant paint for use in damp areas like bathrooms.
As it turns out, it also makes a great Dry Erase Board for use in an office! This hugeboard gives you plenty of space to get your ideas out and also only costs, get this, $9.57!


It does require a bit more care that a normal dry erase board does. The edges aren't finished so they can get beat up if you aren't careful, and needs more frequent cleaning to maintain it's surface. On the other hand, if you mess it up, for $10 you can grab a brand new one!

In the process of writing this up, I wanted to cite HomeDepot.com and give them credit for this great product, but their website was so bug ridden and choppy that it was impossible for me to get two clicks past the first page.

High Speed Nothing

So at the end of April, I ordered DSL service from my current ISP,Earthlink. I was informed that the service would start on May 18th and that the installation was simple and easy. The modem arrived in 2 days and they were correct, installing it and the NIC card was a snap. On May 18th I tried the DSL modem and I was unable to connect. I called Earthlink and they said that it would be fixed in 4-7 business days and if it wasn't to call back then.

Six calls later and numerous emails, I am still dialing up with my 56K modem and there is no resolution in sight. The most recent email from Earthlink is that they think the modem is bad and needs to be replaced. I remain unconvinced. I feel very confident that when I receive the new modem in about 2 weeks, the service will still be unavailable.

All of this I can understand, even forgive. What is more concerning to me is the very low level of customer support and the lack of concern on the part of Earthlink to get this resolved. At one point I asked that they get it fixed and call me back. I was flat out told that this was not an option. Being an advocate for the customer experience, I asked why. The answer was, "If we did that, there would be thousands of calls to make and lots of people calling in would not be helped because we would always be on the phone calling people back." Hmmmm, an interesting thought. My take on that is that there is something wrong with the process then. Why are so many people experiencing problems?

Well, not a whole lot I can do about it besides finish writing the letter that I have drafted to the CEO, Director of Technical Support and other sundry executives within the company, cc'ing their competitors and advocate groups, right? 

Good Eats

I found Epicurious.com while searching with Google for a carrot cake recipe. The Carrot Cake with Maple Cream Cheese Icing caught my eye immediately. It was unique without being fussy and I happened to have pure maple syrup leftover from a gift package. I made the cake for a mid-week treat; it was delicious and moist. I returned directly to Epicurious the next week to find an apple pie recipe. A search on 'apple pie' at the site brings up 34 recipes - all relevant and ranging in style from all-American apple pie to an elegant Apple Ginger Pie with Cider-Bourbon Sauce. I opted for a middle of the road, Deep Dish Caramel Apple Pie.
I had a bit of trouble with the homemade caramel at first, (it did nothing for 10 minutes, then immediately turned very dark brown), but thesecond try came out fine. I even dared to serve it to a guest and receivedpositive feedback from everyone.
I found myself going back to the site every day to find something new, so I decided to plan an entire week's meals around interesting recipes on Epicurious. On Monday, I searched the site and was extremely pleased to discover their personal recipe box service. I added everything I had tried so far to my box and searched the site for 5 easy, inexpensive and intriguing dinner recipes. Accessing your favorite recipes from any computer may not be overwhelmingly useful to the typical cook, but with my Web-centered lifestyle, I'm grateful for the value.

I chose Chicken Piccata on Monday and followed up with Pasta with Artichokes and Parsley Pesto on Tuesday. The Chicken Piccata was a little too lemony, even after I adjusted the other ingredients to compensate, but it was still very tasty. On Tuesday night, Dave wouldn't stop raving about the parsley pesto and even Trevor "I can survive on air and chocolate milk." had seconds. I think the secret there was exactly the right amount of garlic and high quality, fresh grated parmesan (don't go using the canned stuff as a main ingredient). And, as an added bonus, I was able to prepare the pesto dinner using only one hand! (I burnt a finger rather badly while cooking and had to hold an ice pack while cooking.) Tonight we'll be trying Chicken with Sun-Dried Tomato Cream Sauce
and Baby Potatoes withParsley and Lemon Butter.
One of the recurring issues in our house is that food often spoils before I can think of a recipe to use it in. I was impressed by the extensive search available at Epicurious where I can search by ingredient and find ways to use what's already in my fridge. I had a huge bunch of parsley leftover from the Chicken Piccata and searched 'parsley' to get that fantastic pesto recipe. I guarantee that before I knew of this site, that parsley would have wilted and gone in the trash. This translates into stretching our food budget with less waste.
We also usually eat out at least once a week and buy mainly prepared foods like Skillet Sensations, but we found this week that our grocery bill was reduced by a third because we bought no pre-packaged dinners. Now that Dave is on 80% pay, that's going to be a huge help.
And we don't feel deprived of tasty restaurantfood. As Dave said last night, "This would be a hit at a restaurant!"

Features to note:

• Robust and accurate search capability
  
• Several selections for each basic recipe
  
• Clear instructions
  
• Printer formatting
  
• Personal recipe box to save your favorites
  
• Shopping area featuring hard-to-find spices and pre-made gourmet meals from Dean & Deluca
  
• Complete schedule and inside information about Epicurious shows on the Discovery Channel
  
• Food dictionary
  
• Much more… go explore!

Wish list:

• Pictures for each recipe
  
• Customizable organization of the personal recipe box (good, so-so, yet to try, etc.)

 

Who's to blame?

Reading a CIO.com article on the destructive power of computer viruses made me wonder; at which point does the creation of a virus become illegal? Is it the act of creation itself or releasing it to the public that constitutes the illegal act? I ask because some virus writers appear to believe that they are no longer responsible for their creations once they are posted on a Web site for the public to take and use.

The virus writer in the article compares himself to a gun manufacturer; claiming that he is not responsible for what others do with his creations. But a virus is different than a gun in that it is invasive and often self-perpetuating. Imagine a gun that would shoot the target person, then continue on and shoot everyone they knew, and so on. Viruses are also hidden weapons, like letter bombs. And those are certainly the responsibility of their creators. 

Turn for the worse.

So anyone who knows me and what I have been through over the last few months knows about my first dotcom collapse. I had been working at LearningBrands.com for only six weeks and they called us all together and sadly told us the news. Having just moved my family to Massachusetts from New Jersey, it was imperative to get a new job fast.
After a bunch of interviews and tons of searching, I connected with a local company that had heard about me through another source and they wanted to interview me. I went in to see them, and after a few interviews they offered me a position on their small (15 people) team.
I have been here for six months, and I won't pretend that they have been the best months that I have ever had at a company, but not the worst. The job that I am doing might as well be called Haberdasher, for all the hats I wear on a given day. Last week they called us in to a meeting. Due to cash flow issues, they reduced everyone to 80% pay and have now closed the office on Fridays.

Lots of thinking to do. More on this tomorrow. 

Fun

Everyone keeps telling me that Trevor looks so much like me that he is basically a "mini-Dave", I don't see that but he is pretty darn cute.

My parents came up for a visit last weekend. We all had a great time, especially Trevor who stayed in the pool until his lips were blue. 

Picture this

After a dip in the pool this weekend, I tried to take a picture of Trevor. He just can't seem to look at the camera with a normal face. That's my boy.

Second Try.

Close enough!

Rose's Pose's

 

Dad's been growing roses this year (as always) and just sent a picture of his horticultural pursuits. Good work Dad! 

Silly Boy

Trevor is frequently quite weird.


That boy, he
just ain't right in the head. 

Gaiman's Gods.

 When you browse in a bookstore, there are often comfortable chairs that allow you to sit and sample the wares before you make a purchase. Rarely is anyone chastised for lingering too long with a book in each hand, wondering whether (or which) to buy. However, on the Internet, readers are often asked to invest their time and money into a novel without the slightest touch of the unbroken spine. Online shoppers can either hold, nor skim a novel to give the tactile senses a chance to lend a hand with the decision.
But if you are a fan of the fantastic and the extraordinary, then you are in luck. The entire opening chapter of Neil Gaiman's new book, American Gods, has been made available to the public online. This is more of the story than you would usually have time to read in the bookstore. What reader, given the first chapter of nearly any novel, wouldn't opt to see how the story unfolds? We feel as if we've just stepped into the party and been handed a fresh drink. We're not going to leave until we mingle and get a feel for the room and its occupants.
If the first chapter of American Gods is any indication, this will be one incredible journey. In it, we are introduced to Shadow; a newly released inmate who finds that life on the outside is nothing like he remembered it. As the pieces of his old life fall away, he finds himself inexplicably in the company of a most unusual man. It seems that this man will not be satisfied until Shadow agrees to accept the job he is offering.
American Gods is available as a preorder from Amazon or in stores on June 19th. 

Daily Grind

In his most recent release, Everyday,Dave Matthews continues his string of great albums. Dave Matthews drinks a lot of coffee. So much coffee that he has admitted in interviews that he is addicted to caffeine. His music is real mellow for a guy hooked on caffeine though - maybe someone's been slipping him decaf. Seriously, the whole album is song after song of top 10 material. He also looks like he's wearing lipstick in the picture inside the CD cover.

King of Hearts

In Hearts In Atlantis Stephen King brings us three stories about people at different
stages in their lives. While reading this book, I felt that it was a great read,
but a bit choppy. It seemed in some places that he wrote the whole story and
then took some parts of it out, just to keep us guessing. Hearts in Atlantis
also keeps to his recent format of resticting the horror in his writing, while
still keeping us turning pages about the strange and weird.

New World Order

Peppers and Rogers have revolutionized the worlds of Customer
Relationships, Marketing and New Media with their thoughts on marketing to
people as opposed to marketing products. The One to One Future : Building Relationships One Customer at a Time is an
excellent example of this new thinking and a decent read too. Originally
published in 1993, the first chapter suggests that in the year 2000, everyone
will be producing thier own TV shows and all content will be personalized.
Sometimes you may come across a thought or idea that they propose and say "These
guys are nuts!". I have thought the same thing numerous times, but what you need
to keep in mind is when you are suggesting to the business world that they
rewrite all of how they do business, you have to throw a little "crazy" in there
just to grab people's attention. Whether you are a seasoned business person or
someone new to the biz world this and all of their other publications are a
MUST.