in recounting his school day ethan told me about a new behavior program his teacher created where students would get points every day based on their behavior. this isn’t a private score, but one the whole class sees for everyone else in the class.

ethan said he was very angry about the new program. he was angry because he thinks its being done because of just a few problem kids in the class, and he’s angry because its yet more rules.

like his father, ethan can be good on his own, but if someone creates a rule stating to be good, that’s an overwhelming temptation to break the rule.

when i asked if he got all the points possible he said “no”, he then went on to say that he is going to try and get zero points every day to demonstrate to the teacher that he disapproves of the new program.

i suggested that may not be in his best interest and explained why not, but inside i knew that when a stupid rule is created someone has to say so…

on monday i was performing production support creating tons of files from a content repository. on one leg of our clustered server environment the file creation caused an rsync job to go crazy and spawn thousands of copies. the system load spiked over 500. i didn’t know such numbers were even possible.

today, a colleague called to tell me that my account was locked out at his university because of suspicious behaviors. initially, i assumed he was using the application we collaborated on and the university didn’t recognize “productivity” as typical behavior, but it appears there may be more to it than that.

wonder what i will “infect” tomorrow…

lately i’ve been getting a lot of spam from smart, beautiful girls that live in my city and want to meet up.

sometimes these girls even send me pictures of their mostly uncovered behinds to encourage me to write.

what these “smart” girls don’t realize is that where i am in life a photo of them graduating cooking school with tables full of lovely home cooked items is far more alluring than their own tight buns…

i didn’t realize the rental car company thrifty was named for the rate at which they will give away your car reservation.

after my plane arrived late to oklahoma city, this exact scene played out with me and an equally unhelpful thrifty associate…

every now and then when i’m talking to one of our kid’s friend’s parents i feel like i’m ten years old and talking to a grown up.

there is obvious truth that you never feel your age, but more curiously i wonder if anyone who talks to me thinks they are speaking to a grown up?

the other night while jon stewart was making fun of the director of kony 2012 for trying to explain the warlord’s crimes against children to his five year old, my wife was showing our eight year old youtube videos of jfk being shot.

if, or when these poor kids end up disturbed later in life, be sure to reference back to this point in time for insight in to their conditions…

my father thinks i betrayed his trust when i posted his story of changing a refrigerator light bulb.

as a result, he said this in his last message to me:

i won’t tell you the story of me setting my shop vac filter on fire while vacuuming ashes from the fireplace yesterday for fear my story will be published…

guess he wouldn’t have wanted me to post that bit either…

my aunt’s death wasn’t a complete surprise. in the past five years, her mother and husband passed away and she became estranged from her siblings and step kids as a result of bitter disputes that erupted over both their estates.

she had been depressed and lonely and talked about being ready to die, but i didn’t expect that it was so bad she would resort to taking her own life.

as expected, i am going through the typical stages of grief, but what has surprised me is that along with the anger and sorrow has been physical pain. my body aches when i think of her and how sad she must have been to do what she did.

and i see once again how naive it is to imagine i could know how someone else may feel when this happens in their life.

i don’t know how many eight year old boys pine for neighborhood board meetings – but my son does. not only does he anticipate them, but he is captivated by the minutia of the procedures, the neighborhood business and then really lights up when the guest speaker begins their talk.

as we imagine forward his future it always seems to be a life in politics and like kids who go on to the nba who got their start in neighborhood courts, ethan has been cutting his teeth in neighborhood board meetings.

after being out a week i was anxious to “unsubscribe” from the many mail lists i have flooding my inbox. in that flurry, i accidentally clicked on a link in target mailing that went to some other site.

when i got over the sick feeling in my stomach from being duped in to clicking on spam – i went looking to find out who bfi0 was. turns out they are the legitimate bigfoot interactive or epsilon email communications company simply masquerading as spammers.

for a company who “specializes” in email communications they need a lesson in making their email look less suspicion.

and for an software engineer who prides himself on being security conscience, i just need to be conscience next time i go clicking around in my email…

after settling in to my assigned seat and stowing my carry on bag in front of me i looked up to see a large lady wearing three giant sun hats, all stacked one on top of another with lots of golden, frizzy hair pouring out from underneath them. to complete the ensemble she had on a vividly colored sun dress and sandals.

in one hand she was carrying a large butterfly net that kept getting crossed between the seats and she was repeatedly apologizing to everyone she hit with it. in the other hand was a eight year old miniature version of herself.

i couldn’t help but smile and laugh as they went by and i was wondering if the events of the past week had finally caught up with me until i noticed the lady sitting beside me was smiling just as brightly.

i almost feel the need to send the butterfly lady a thank you letter.

from a letter my grandmother wrote my aunt in 2000

thank you for being who you are and bringing me so much joy.

i love you,
mother

what more is there to say…