Chris.Weekly.org - A Web Space

Just back from Becca’s wedding in MN, and I am in as good a mood as there is. My sister is as happy as she’s ever been. Jason is a good guy who loves her, and he comes from a big, tight-knit family. It feels Right. I said a few words at the reception along the lines of “there aren’t many moments like this, where you’re aware of their importance and memorability while they’re happening, and seeing your only sister married is one…” and I meant it. Psyched to see them off on their honeymoon the next day too. The ceremony was lighthearted but touching, and the reception was a ball in every sense of the word.

Reconnected w/ Forsyth cousins and started planning a CT reunion for that clan, and Shawna volunteered (to my mom’s great relief) to plan the next Weekly reunion too, which will be somewhere on the Cape.

Seeing my brother in a tux giving pretty girls rides in a convertible sports car then gifting his niece a slice of his successful startup is par for the course for that incomparable sibling. As was closing down the joint w/ yours truly dancing and drinking too many godfathers and beers.

Thinking about my sister being happily married… my brother casually dating models and managing his multi-million-dollar company to great success… my baby daughter thriving and already proving herself a born traveller… feeling close with Shawna as we continue figure this parenthood gig out together… listening to Chris Smither’s “Leave the Light On” with an easy heart… yeah. Life is good.

I’m trying to get in the habit of posting here instead of emailing people when I find something interesting or useful. Here are some links that qualify:

http://www.belarc.com
A free tool for comprehensive analysis of your Windows system, very useful.

http://www.pivotalblabs.com/articles/2007/05/24/rest-theory-to-practice
Very helpful article about applying REST principles in a Rails application.

http://www.jedit.org
Text editor / simple IDE for programmers, a big upgrade over EditPlus2 which I used for years. I’ve been using it recently for Ruby development, but it’s suitable for use with any language.

In recent weeks I’ve spent hours exploring Plymouth county on my motorbike (a 2006 Triumph Scrambler 900) and I am convinced I live in motorcycle heaven. Mile after mile of winding, twisty, well-paved, low-traffic country roads passing by horse farms and through forests, past rolling meadows and cranberry bogs, with views of ponds and lakes and the ocean… Lots of bikes in the area increases driver awareness and I probably get a wave from 95% of the riders I pass. It’s hard not to just grin the whole damn time. With my new mufflers (now my bike sounds like it looks — retro, simple and unadorned, and loud) singing along, the engine humming and the smell of fresh-cut grass or the ocean in my nostrils, there isn’t a better way I know of to shed all the distractions and weight of life and simply be. Here’s a pic of my bike I took last week:

It’s been about two years, thanks to ankle injury and then priorities changing, but a couple weeks ago I finally joined a local indoor soccer team and as of tonight have played three games. The first was brutal (though I scored a goal, I was not in anything like soccer shape), the second was merely painful, and tonight I had energy to spare. Hitting the gym more regularly has helped. Good folks on the team, we’re winless but have stretches of playing very well and will do better. It’s great just to be playing again. There’s nothing like even mildly-competitive sports to get the blood flowing and that leads to lots of other positive changes (e.g. inspiring me to eat better and go to the gym more than once a week)… here’s hoping I stick with it for a long time.

I’m almost done reading a book a friend sent me a couple days ago, and it has (forever?) changed the way I think about my time. In a nutshell, it’s a how-to manual (from someone who’s done it) for radically reducing the number of hours spent earning money (by being smarter and more efficient, not by becoming ascetic), in order to spend more time doing the things you really want to do [such as spending months at a time abroad, skiing in Argentina, spear-fishing off remote islands, etc.]. I’m grateful to be in a postition to put some of these ideas into effect immediately (largely because of my freedom to work at home as much as I like), and I plan to post again in coming days and weeks about how it’s working out. I’ve already bought two other people copies of the book, and have recommended it to several others. Note, the website is incredibly cheesy-looking, I’m glad I received the book before seeing it, just ignore the website design and read the book, it’s inspiring and full of practical, rational wisdom. Amazon link to buy the book | Author’s website

Abi gets easier and more fun every day. I am so grateful for her life. We had a professional photo shoot done on Saturday, and I put up my favorite pictures from the shoot here.

FYI, Kristin Chalmers is a talented, reasonably-priced and friendly professional photographer and I highly recommend her services.

“… electricity, heights, and women.”
This video has two out of three, and is worth watching.

http://www.glumbert.com/media/highpower/fs

Well that felt good. I’ve been a semi-regular at Club d’Elf shows at the Lizard Lounge for many years, and I’ve long enjoyed micro’s funny, insightful and useful newsletter emails. I realized recently that the newsletter was more interesting than most of the blogs and rss feeds I subscribe to, and that it deserved a broader audience. Enter wordpress — the blog software behind this site — which is a perfect vessel for the kind of content micro was already producing. So I went out on a limb and created http://clubdelf.wordpress.com and populated it with this year’s d’Elf newsletters and a few relevant links. With trepidation I contacted micro to see if he’d be ambivalent, upset I took liberties with the delf name, or psyched I was trying to help; I needn’t have worried, micro was glad for the help, and after just a few emails among myself, micro and his cool webmaster jeremy, I handed admin control over to them and called it a day. I always want to support the artists I admire, and this was a very tangible way for me to do just that. So, hop on over to http://clubdelf.wordpress.com, subscribe to the RSS feed, and make plans to go see a show.

Slainte!