csummers.org

I have an idea folder. It's just a folder with a bunch of text files in it. Each text file contains an idea. Some ideas are potential business ideas, others are programming projects that I think would be useful, others are book/article ideas. If it's an idea, it goes in the idea folder.

I've only been doing this for about six months, and in that time I've managed to come up with ideas to keep me busy working for several years!

Do you have an idea folder?

Several summers of my youth were highlighted with one week of fun at Pine Cove summer camp. Each night of the week was a theme night, and I recall a certain 50's sock-hop dance with the girls in poodle skirts and pony tails and the guys in white T-shirts with bad greasy hair.

After dinner and before things had really gotten hoppin', one of the girls made her way to our table and asked me to dance. This wasn't just any girl, though. This was the flamboyant, obnoxious, loud girl on campus. I was hesitant. My thoughts streamed all the reasons why I should say no:

…no one is dancing yet…we'll be the spotlight…I think that's what she wants…I should say no just because of her insensitivity to my fear of dancing in front of 100+ peers…she's not really my type…I have my eye on another girl…this spectacle will ruin any chances with her…if I do this, I'm gonna get so much flak from the guys for the rest of the week…can I even dance?…I don't think I can…

I said yes. And, despite my inhibitions, it was fun.

Most importantly, though, I made her day.

Every day is an opportunity to make someone else's day. That's what love is–laying down our inhibitions and selfishness for others.

Christ said, "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends." (John 15:12-13 ESV). He gave the ultimate sacrifice. I suppose I can start with just trying to make someone's day.

Apparently, doctors are using Google to diagnose diseases. As a public service, and for all those Google-searching doctors out there, I'm providing some information about the rare, but serious disease:

Count Choculitis

Symptoms

• Crave chocolate-flavored corn morsels
• May have unusually large canine teeth
• Hankering for ghost-shaped marshmallows
• May enjoy wearing a cloak

References
NBC's The Office (quote from IMDB):

Dwight Schrute: The problem, Jim, is that people who are really suffering from a medical condition won't receive the care they need because someone in this office is coming up with ridiculous stuff. Count Choculitis?
Jim Halpert: Sounds Tough.
Dwight Schrute: Why did you write that down, Jim? Is it because you know I love Count Chocula?

Chordbook's Guitar Chord Finder is the best guitar chord finder I've ever seen. Super-slick.

Features include capo, alternate tunings, hear it by strumming or plucking the strings, acoustic and electric sound, pick chords from a list or drag finger marker dots to create your own, right and left handed views, and chord inversions. Really awesome work.

Also check out the Guitar Scales and Guitar Tuner on the same site.

I hereby declare my household to be the Nation of Conster, presided over by my Royal Self, my Royal Queen, and our two Royal Princesses.

This morning the Nation of Conster was one worthy of its name. The eldest Royal Princess awoke early with a catastrophic failure of her Princess Panties (i.e., pull-ups) and a resulting two-legged, oozing, "we're going to get more messy before we can get clean", Royal Poo. His Royal Highness would have rather worked the stables, where at least He would have the benefit of a pitch fork's distance. I nearly used a whole box of wipes.

Somewhat calmed and looking forward to Royal Cinnamon Rolls, the eldest Royal Princess smote His Highness's jovial mood when deciding to drop and shatter a Royal Bowl. The Royal Broom and Royal Vacuum were called to duty.

By now, the younger Royal Princess had awoken from her beauty sleep, and was requesting her breakfast to be hastily provided. In the midst of cleaning up the shattered Royal Bowl, the Royal King had forgotten to put the Royal Cinnamon Rolls in the Royal Oven. The Royal Queen attempted to assuage the starving Royal Princess with a Royal Banana, but she would not be satisfied.

A day in the life of the Nation of Conster. This is my family, and I wouldn't trade it for anything.

For those of you who don't get it, Nation of Conster = Consternation.

Seal made with Official Seal Generator.

Every so often our cable internet (Time Warner Road Runner) will go "out." Only it's not really "out": the cable modem's internet connection is still on and I can ping IP addresses. What's really happening is Road Runner's DNS servers stop responding to DNS queries. This doesn't happen very often, and it is usually resolved in a few minutes, but that's too long when I'm trying to work.

The solution: OpenDNS. These guys run a top-notch DNS service. It's free, reliable, fast, and supposedly safer. The Getting Started page has detailed instructions for using OpenDNS's servers in place of your ISP's servers.