Been a long time since posting, as you may have noticed by the rollover to the empty page. Lots of things, mostly work, intervening to keep me away from the keyboard.

Been contemplating this weblog’s name (Convinced She’s Write) and while I like the wordplay, deciding that the wordplay is misguided. Cogitating on other grand titles…

In the meantime, here’re some links to things I’ve been working on:
* ACTiVATE program: pairs women with technologies developed in universities and labs, and prepares us to set up businesses. Even if my technology doesn’t net me a business, I know a lot more now about heat and light and satellites than I did a few months ago.
* Work for the Department of Veterans Affairs on a requisitioning system – the company’s writeup is here… Not that that tells you much technology-wise. Cool technologies (ASP.NET, web services, windows services), lots of interesting errors to track down.
* Raising BEAUTIFUL daughters.

A few other things, too. Life’s never dull.

Finally getting over my cold/cough combo. Opened up the dryer to find that some number of Kleenex had shown such great remorse over their lack of continued need that they had torn themselves to pieces in my dryer. All over my work slacks. Ah well. At least if I have to sneeze now, there’s a reasonable chance of some small snippet of tissue being attached to my ensemble somewhere handy.

I done done it today. Picked up my Treo 600 too quickly, lost my grip, and dropped it. Now I see the blue screen of death, and it’s not even on a product running a Microsoft operating system. Luckily for me, my carrier (T-mobile) has a handset replacement program. They’re shipping me another handset, I’ll swao the card out of my existing one, and then send back the busted one. They’ll charge me to repair the screen (dropping things generally doesn’t count as part of the warranty), and we’ll all be happy. I should be able to sync the new device up with my old data and not lose any information or programs.

Odd to realize how dependent I am on this thing: I can’t dial out, ’cause I can’t see if I’m in phone mode. I can’t check my email on it, can’t look up contact information, can’t check the various reference URLs and login information I have stored for the various dev environments I work in, … Definitely feeling some pain here. Time to invest in a metal cushioned case for my geektoy.

Looking back at my blog, it’s been over a month since I last blogged. This almost sounds like a confession to a priest, but I’m not Catholic. All I can say is, it’s been a hectic month. A visit to the extended family in PA, a visit from my bro-in-law too briefly back from Iraq, Christmas, project deadlines, schoolwork, and then the general business associated with being a parent of two toddlers. No promises for the new year, but there’ll probably be some more activity forthcoming. Maybe even a UI refresh. Content is king, but looks still count.

Stat seen in the December/January 2005 issue of Parenting magazine:
“Most Moms say they want to lose 10 pounds – but there are 11 pounds of chocolate per person produced in the U.S. each year.”.

Seems like, lately, an early night is one that has me in bed before 1:00 am. Looks like an early night tonight! Now just crossing my fingers that the kids don’t get up at 6 am again tomorrow. Had to tell Cora tonight that, just because I put her to bed with the statement “see you when the sun comes up” doesn’t mean I actually want to get to see the sun come up with her.

Yes, Matt, there really is a side of Tina that’s not quite sane.

The Washington Post’s website is currently reporting Bush as having 190 electoral votes and Kerry as having 112. Bush with 51% popular vote, Kerry with 48% of the popular vote. Their map shows blue versus red states. Blue states are basically the Northeast, plus Illinois. Red states have a bingo run from North Dakota down to Texas. Just looking at the map, Kerry looks like he’s gotten swashed with a red paint brush. I keep refreshing the map, though, looking to see when Pennsylvania, Ohio, Colorado, Wisconsin, and Florida turn colors. They’re still holding out.

In full disclosure, I voted for Kerry. Bush’s record on too many things comes up negative, and his tax cut plan just ring true for me. Folks who earn more money should pay more taxes, plain and simple. Kerry’s boundaries for where he’d roll back Bush’s tax plan don’t go far enough, in my opinion. We have a budget deficit. A Social Security morass. A war, for gosh sake. Cutting taxes isn’t stimulating the economy, particularly in a climate where the job outlook is cautious. Jobs are there, but the market isn’t booming, so you don’t have that same sense of self-confidence that you’d find something immediately, that you don’t need as much of a cushion to tide you over. So, a little more money goes into the savings account rather than into my taxes. Locked away, not to be spent by me or anyone else to stimulate the economy. No one benefits (not even me, given the lousy interest rates given our various deficits) from that money. No economic stimulation. And no social programs funded to help someone else bootstrap. Seems wrong all the way around.

Map’s beginning to show a bit more blue. Bush lost California (that’s gotta smart to Ahhh-nold) and Pennsylvania. Count’s 210 to 188. Better than watching the stock ticker scroll. No down numbers – only up, up, and up.

Working on my portfolio paper describing the defense industry for my class in ‘The Legal and Regulatory Environment’. Glass of Marsala wine at my side to “ease the creative writing process”. Feeling smart as I purvey Hoover’s online database, cross-referencing information with DataMonitor. The computer’s subwoofer is pumping Grease and ‘Rock ‘N’ Roll is Here to Stay’. The paper’s coming together and I’m feeling pretty smart. And then…

Wafting from the litter box side of the basement comes the distinct aroma of a cat fart. Since the big cat snuck outside earlier this evening, this has to be emanating from our little cat. The little cat who weighs all of 10 pounds (or did, anyway – she’s a prime candidate for Atkins of late) has dropped a nuclear stink bomb. All brain activity ceases, as my nose fights for survival.

Spent a few minutes hopping along the set of ‘Next Blog’ links at the top of Laura’s eBlogger blog. Not sure what the algorithm for blog presentation is, but the first few blogs were all blogs with one entry on them, which had all been posted today. (Technically, yesterday, but I haven’t gone to sleep yet, so, today, darn it.) That was my first surprise. Second surprise was to run across blogs in different languages. Why that surprised me, I assume, is that my bias is to think that things on the ‘Net happen in English. If I examined the pieces of data, I know that, even if it once was the case, there’s no reason for it to continue to be the case. Much of the world has Internet access and presumably believes it has something to say. But the final surprise point was this blog: I think it’s written in Arabic, I have little insight as to anything about the author other than what part of the world he’s from (Iran) and whatever else I can attempt to deduce from his ‘About Me’ picture, but the sole other picture on the page just makes me stop. That little baby, smaller than the hand laying beside it, wrapped in tubes and wires… no language translation necessary to have that post speak to me.

Odds are, friend, that we don’t worship the same God. But I offer up a prayer for this little baby, regardless, and pray that soon the wires melt away and this baby grows well beyond the size of that hand.