Drew's Blog

I've added a couple of things, one thing you might notice right away is the title for each blog. This was a feature that used to be part of their premium package and not part of the free service that I use. I see that it's now available to all the blogs. Another cool thing is that I could set it up to blog by email, although it's not that big a deal to open a browser, even in a hotel room with 9600 bps dialup.

I've also done some "programming" to redo my Books page with multiple blogs instead of the book lists I have to redo every time I add something. This will be almost invisible to someone viewing the page, but extremely cool. For example, I'll have a "What I'm Reading Now" blog, and post to it whenever I finish a book. The page will include only the latest post, so it will update automatically. Then, I'll cut and paste the contents from the previous "what I'm reading now" into a post in the "Last 10 Books I've Read" blog, and it will only show the last 10 posts. Very, very cool. And all free. I still don't understand how the blogger folks make their money, but I don't think I want to know, since it probably derives from some form of invasion of privacy.

The new page should be out there soon, I have some small formatting issues.

To check out the test page, look here. The blog posts are the ones with a date in front.

Late.

9/11

I watched a Nova special I had been keeping on my TiVo since 2002. It's called "Why The Towers Fell", and very interesting to me as an engineer, the program follows a team of forensic engineers during their in-depth investigation of the precise causes of the Twin Towers' collapse. I didn't feel able to watch it until recently, though. The images of people jumping off the building to avoid being burned alive have haunted me, and while I didn't have a huge cathartic reaction to the catastrophe, I guess I've been storing it inside. Anyway, I felt able to watch it, and it turned out to be very technical in nature, which is what I was hoping for, emotionally. It was a very good discussion of the modes of failure of the towers, and some things that could be done in the future to prevent or limit the damage. It's been more than three years, and I can't imagine what the folks who were there or who were directly affected are feeling even now.

I sincerely hope that they catch Bin Laden. I don't know what would be the best form of justice. But I hope they catch him, so we can make that decision.

Late.

Prehistory of the Mind: The Cognitive Origins of Art, Religion and Science by Steven Mithen by Steven Mithen

The Prehistory of the Mind was a Houston Book Club selection. It seemed more like a college textbook than popular nonfiction, with small print, tables and charts, and a zillion references(1). It's about minds and consciousness from the point of view of an archeologist instead of a psychologist, talking about skulls and art and stone axes and bear skins. It had some interesting conclusions about how the mind works, and many seemed to be plausible, but some I don't think are valid. Interesting book, nonetheless.

(1) Literally

Most of the new site is up, but several pages haven't been converted to the new format. Looking at the difference, the old format is really embarrassing. I wanted to design the page myself, and it really looks a lot better in Word than in IE, but I guess that's because I need to rewrite the template in HTML.

My Blog is next, I'm trying to figure out how do to some complex blog stuff on the Books page, like including multiple blogs on one page. I'm also trying to figure out how to automatically create updates for news accumulators. Also, a nicer format.

I really haven't had enough time lately, with work and the KFFL draft coming up, so it may be a week or two before I get the final few pages updated.

Late.

The Confessor by Daniel Silva

A spy novel about a Mossad agent who moonlights as an Italian art restorer and foils an assasination attempt on the Pope. It's 393 pages and a quick read, a pretty good spy fiction novel and it comes at it from a different angle.

I've been on the road all week, following around a government inspector. We started in lovely Logansport, stayed in Shreveport two nights, traveled to Bienville, and now Ruston, home of my alma mater (go Bulldogs). It's hot and we're spending most of the time outdoors. I realized that I am probably the palest I've ever been for it being the end of August, I haven't spent a single day out in the sun.

Most of the hotels have high-speed internet access (which I am accessing at high-speed as we speak). Very cool. Lots better than dial-up, I can remember starting my computer synchronizing my email before going to supper, and it still going when I got back.

Check out the dorky political donkey and elephant on the Bienville site. I am sick of hearing about the elections, let's just vote already and stop talking about it.

Later.

My high school had a twenty-year reunion last weekend for (obvious to people who know what year it is and can do math) the class of 1984. I graduated three years previous, but I knew many people from that class, certainly more than I knew from my own. My friend Scotty called me around 8:30 on Friday and talked me into leaving the office and coming up to meet him and some other friends up in the part of town near where we grew up. It's about 30 miles, about a 45 minute drive, and I half-way didn't want to go, because I was tired, and STILL WORKING AT 8:30 ON A FRIDAY NIGHT, but a friend that I haven't talked to in years got on the phone and she talked me into going, I knew I couldn't miss it. So I drove out there, and I had a great time.

I knew I was going to post about it, I even tried to record some ideas as I was driving home at 3AM, but I wanted to wait a while, to get some perspective, so I didn't sound maudlin or sentimental. I haven't really had much of a social life the last few years, and if you've been reading these posts you might get the impression that I would rather not have one. I think that I may have thought that. But it was very reassuring on some primative, reptilian part of the brain, some Maslowian level to have friends, long-term, geological time-scale friends. I saw many of my friends, some I hadn't seen in fifteen or twenty years. They remembered me, I remembered them (except for this girl named Ashley, who I still have no idea who she is, but she remembered me, I hope she didn't take offense, but I think it's better to be honest if you don't remember someone than to try to fake it. "Oh, yeah, HI, you!!") and we remembered a lot of really good times.

After I bought my house, I went out with this girl a couple of times (if you asked me which celebrity she looks like most I would have to say Julia Roberts), and I think she was weird, because she kept asking, "So where are your friends?" and saying "I like to go out in big groups and meet people". I was getting mixed signals. I think that she thought that I was a loser and that I really didn't have any friends. I can't be a loser. I have a house in Bellaire. My friends have all gotten married, had kids, moved away, and I don't often see my real friends, but when we do it's like no time at all has elapsed, and we don't need to talk every day to stay friends.

I was too insecure to go to my own high school reunions, for a lot of really dumb reasons, mostly that I haven't lived up to my own image of me at twenty-seven or thirty-seven or now forty. But I think that there may be a flaw to your high school precognition when you are envisioning yourself at age 40.

I did get asked "the questions" that I have to constantly avoid:

"Are you married?"

"No? Have you ever been married?"

"Oh, really?!! Never?"

and sometimes, "Do you have any kids?"

and then, "Are you seeing anyone?"

"No? Oh, really?!!"

And the (usually) unspoken follow-up:

"Are you gay?"

Well, that answer is no, I used to get upset and say something back, but now I just say no.

And with my real friends, my true and secret friends, I only get asked one of the questions, and I just have to say no once: "Are you seeing anyone?" Or sometimes, "Hey Drew, are you gay or what?"

This post is for my true and secret friends. You know who you are.

Late.

I don't know what to write... I've been working too much, no social life. No life outside of work, really. I need to get caught up, and then start slacking off.

I tend to get burned out after a while. Usually after spectacularly productive periods, burning the candle at both ends. That's what's happening now. Burnt. Out. Work work work. Twenty-four, seven, three-sixty-five. All work and no play makes Homer...

Go crazy?

Don't mind if I do!!!

Late..

I'm about five or six pages short of uploading my new website. The format is all new, and I've added about a dozen new pages as well. The only thing holding me back right now is the blog page, I need to update the custom Blog and Blog Archive templates that I created with the new format.

I'm going to try to add at least one other Blog to the site, so I can update the book reviews more conveniently, and hopefully more expeditiously.

Late.

Drew 3.0 Redesign

The site got a much needed redesign, in order to add more links, clean up the HTML, and to make it more contemporary looking, with more white space and higher resolution. I tried to keep the "Big Blue" look I've been going for, but add more features to the home page, and make navigation easier by adding expanding menus. There's still a lot to do, and I haven't migrated over to a decent template (I'm still using Word to lay out the pages graphically). The design is much cooler in Word format. I put navigation links on bottom as well as on the left side, and in keeping with the previous version of the site, I left the links on the left the same on every page.

The new design uses smaller text and smaller headers, to get more stuff on each page, and is optimized for higher resolution. I used Veranda 10 point instead of Arial 12 point for the body text. I tweaked the color scheme, getting rid of the green bar and put borders around the menus. I updated the header, but what you see after the conversion to HTML is different.

The big change is all the new pages; the What's New? page (this page) tells you everything that has changed since the last update. I also added a Site Map. I added pages for Bass Guitar, Computers, Cooking, English, Fantasy Football, Music, New House, Photography, Skepticism, and Skiing. I also added a Legal Disclaimer page. Be sure to agree to the Terms and Conditions of Use!

On the Home page, I added links for various current events, such as Houston weather, the official US time, the Internet Movie Database, reverse phone number searches, a link to track my 401k investments, a TV guide, word of the day, Dilbert, today's horoscope, and some other cool sites. I also added a map to my house and a satellite view of my house. I hate links pages, but I have some that are worthwhile, so I added a Cool Sites page and a News links page, mostly for my own benefit. I am still working on some pages for an automated fortune cookie, a Poll and a Quiz, and maybe a "Drew on the web" page.

And lastly, I added links for some of my friend's web logs and personal web sites.

second redesign (drew 2.0), circa august, 2004

site history

Reformatted existing pages, added Bass, Computers, Cooking, English, Fantasy Football, Music, New House, Photography, Skepticism, and Skiing pages. Added What’s New page, Disclaimer and links on Home page. Whew.