Asymptomatic

There must be intelligent life down here

My First Public Speaking Appearance
April 03, 2009

When I was much younger, I was in Cub Scouts. My parents were very involved in scouting. My mom was my den mother and later my dad was a scout leader. And in this short story, my mom had helped to organize a day camp in Kerr Park in Downingtown.

I remember it being my friend, Pat, that was also in the camp, but I could have that detail wrong. His mother was helping mine organize the event. This is relevant because when our scheduled speaker for the day didn’t show up, his model rockets were in the back seat of his mom’s car. This otherwise wouldn’t have been possible, since being a day camp, nobody else’s parents were present.

Meritocracy Versus Do-ocracy
March 21, 2009

At Drupalcon, there was a recurring theme of “do-ocracy”. Simply explained, a “Do-ocracy” is Drupal’s version of a meritocracy. Well, it’s not even so much Drupal’s version, as how people perceive the way that Drupal works, or how they choose to explain what a meritocracy is. Being involved with Habari and our own brand of meritocracy, I’m glad that they’ve come up with their own ridiculous term to explain how their project works.

As part of the definition of meritocracy on Wikipedia, you have this:

In a meritocracy, society rewards (by wealth, position, and social status) those who show talent and competence as demonstrated by past actions or by competition.

That’s the ideal scenario. But what the folks presenting do-ocracies at Drupalcon are advocating is something slightly different. They’re giving wealth, position, and social status (or whatever the open source equivalent is) to people who simply “do”, not by people who show talent and competence. That is, your work needs to be of no merit, you simply need to do it. That’s not right.

Web Design for Web Developers - A Book
March 15, 2009

I pitched a thought on Twitter about a book that I think should exist. The helpful folks on Twitter kindly responded with some candidates, but I should clarify what I’m looking for.

What I really want seems to change every time I say it, but fundamentally I’m a coder. It’s what I know how to do, and I’m pretty good at it. I realize that I just don’t have the design skills to be building designs every day like some of the more prolific designers that I work with. Especially not at their level of quality. But what I would like is some magic formula that gets me at least to the point that I can produce something that is not butt-ugly.

Let's Fix SEO
March 14, 2009

If you’re not a tool, you hate SEO as much as I do. If you hate SEO more than I do, you are possibly also a tool. What’s the deal?

It seems to me that people hate SEO because:

Hold
March 09, 2009

Riley turned four back in November. Shortly after that, he had his annual checkup at the doctor, and it was my task to take him over and have him looked over. We’d been prepping him for a week or two; talking about vaccinations, watching the relevant kids TV on the topic, reading the books on how your body works. He was both interested in and at ease with the idea, even though he thought he might be scared.

Finally the day arrived to visit the doctor. Riley and I both remained positive throughout the process. The doctor was friendly. She talked about the vaccinations that he was due for, and everyone was ok with that. She asked about some optional ones, since we were there and they were recommended. She asked about our recent trip out of the country and explained that Riley should have a TB shot, too. Riley was calm, only slightly apprehensive, and was happy to agree to getting the shots and being healthy.