"In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." –John 16:33

Month: July 2010

Big changes at Betty Blonde comic stripBig changes at Betty Blonde comic strip

Well, I am very proud of Kelly and Christian with all the work they have done in getting Betty Blonde out every day without ever missing a day.  They will both be starting college full time in mid-August, so we have decided to ratchet the strip back to once per week.  Their last daily strip can be found here.  Kelly will tell you more about that in a future post.  Most of all, though, this occasion for much congratulations for such a great two year run with dramatic improvements in art, story, and every element of production.

Planning tools

My boss, Andrew, brought in a book last week titled Getting Things Done.  I wrote about the The Dip a little earlier.  Between the two books and with college starting for Kelly and Christian, we have been on a big “getting organized” kick.  The worst part of all this is the realization that I am way over extended.  If I ever hope to have a life AND get some things done, I am going to half to perform and aggressive triage on my planned activities.  The up side is that it made me realize that I am doing a few things right.  Andrew introduced us to a tool called Basecamp.  You can find the free version here.  We use a paid version of Basecamp at my job at Centice that has a lot more functionality.

We use Basecamp extensively at GaugeCam.  Five people work on multiple aspects of the project and it is an absolutely great way to keep track of where we are.  Ease of use is a big part of the usefulness of this tool.  There are other tools that have more and better functionality, but require more knowledge to use.  This has worked well enough that we have decided to see if we can use Basecamp to help manage school work starting this fall.  I am not sure it translates perfectly, but since the kids are learning how to use it, I think it might be a good way to keep track of what and when things need to be completed.  There are a several other tools we use extensively in the GaugeCam project that we can recommend heartily.  I will describe them all in future posts.  They include DropBox, ProjectLocker, and some other tools.

Hurricane Alex floods Monterrey

There is a crazy flood caused by Hurricane Alex occurring in Monterrey, Mexico, Lorena’s home town.  No one goes to work, virtually every sector of the city is flooded, people are stranded–some drowned.

Russian spies

I grew up with David Joyce, the guy that hired one of the Russian spies.  I feel SO famous!!!!  It is the third story in the following video.  Click here.

The family comes home

Night before last, there was a bad car wreck at about 3:00 AM on the main road that runs past our subdivision.  Four people died.  I was able to show the skid marks and crash site to Lorena and the kids on the way home from the airport this morning at 2:00 AM.  The car was traveling at a high rate of speed so that it could not make the turn so it ran off the road and into a tree.  None of the four young men in the Chevy Blazer were wearing a seat belt.  It was very sad.  Still, it is great to have everyone home.  Even the twin cat sisters, Rubix and Kiwi, are happy.

I used the time well last night when I was waiting for everyone to arrive (an hour and a half late) at the airport.  I fixed an on-going, but nagging problem with our GaugeCam project.

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