This is my cousin Bruce. He was a professional tennis player and now is the Director of Tennis at a fancy schmancy place in Maryland. He was always my image of an athlete.

One time, when I must have been around 18 or 19 we played tennis at the tennis club. I played my best tennis of my life. I could do no wrong, and yet still, he was toying with me. He kept lobbing the ball up and land it directly on the T. I slammed it each time with all my might and he barely got to it, lobbing it up once again only to land perfectly on the T. I would drop shot, perfectly, and he would stretch and get it at the last second, I would lob over his head, he would sprint back and just grab it, I would drop shot again and over his head again and slam and slam and slam and each time, he would lob it up and hit that T.

I got exhausted and quit when the score was 5-4 or something. I couldn’t move.

He went bald a few years back probably as punishment for putting me through that, but I always wondered; How good could I have been with more training? I loved playing tennis. My 2 weeks in tennis camp were 2 of the best weeks of my life. I haven’t played once since moving to California. I haven’t played any pool either. And my cue got lost in the move from Berkeley. I had to quit softball this year to help Katie with the baby.

Sport is important. It is good for the soul.

Katie and all three boys are sleeping over at MaryAnn’s house. I get the whole house to myself. Ahhh, sleep, wonderful sleep.

I was just reading an article in the New Yorker about Intelligent Design. The basics of ID, as it is called, is that living cells are so complex and specific, that they could not have been the process of natural selection and therefore must be designed, by something, long long ago.

In the beginning, there was nothing. Then God said, “Let there be DeoxyriboNucleic Acid!”

Why is it so difficult for human’s to understand. There is a rational logical explanation for everything. No matter how complex or complicated. We are so silly to think that because we can’t explain it, or don’t understand it, then GOD must have made it so. Lightning is not God’s anger. Thunder is not bowling in the sky.

People get so wound up over this issue. It doesn’t deserve this much attention. As my brother likes to say, “We have starving children all over the world. Why don’t we tackle that problem first?”

Anyway, I am ranting, but the intelligent design thing is just silly.

Allergies this year have been brutal. Some of the most intense reactions ever. This website is helpful. This one is not quite as good, although it shows that the Pollen count on 5/21 was sky high.. Looks like this weekend is going to be a pain in the ass. I am considering Allergy Shots. (Also known as Immunotherapy.) The problem with this is that you have to get shots year round for up to 5 years and it doesn’t even show any results for at least 4 to 5 months. Who the hell needs that crap? Man, this blows. I don’t know about this.

I really do not like medication of any sort. I think medication will get better and more targeted, but I am hesitant to take anything on a “regular” basis. I don’t know. I don’t know. I am torn. I am allergic to the planet.

Yesterday was my Birthday. I am turdy tree now. One third of a century. I am hoping to live forever, but each year is nice to commemorate. We had dinner at The Alameda and roasted marshmallows (Jared calls them Schmellos) on the fire to make smores. All in all a good time.

I spent most of yesterday looking at houses on the peninsula. It’s hard looking for homes in an area far away. We had Penny to look in Berkeley when we moved from NY, but now we are on our own. Some of these places are going in days. Katie is doing a great job of keeping track of everything, but it is difficult based on the kids needing attention all the time. We are waiting for some money coming and then I will purchase a laptop for Katie. That will help her some. I am trying to decide which is better for her…5 lbs or 10lbs. The 10lbs has a bigger screen and is faster. The 5lbs is lighter, which allows her to carry it around, like in the car.

Matthew is almost walking.

This trendline is disturbing to me. It reminds me of when Jefferson anilhilated the Federalists between 1800 and 1808. Democrats need to believe in progressivism. They do not need to be the party of medium and middle of the road and lukewarm. They need to be the party of justice, and fairness, and common human decency. They need to be the party of flattening out the hockey stick of economics.

I am looking for a link, but I can’t find it.

This morning, on NPR, they had a guy on with a perspective. He talked about an experience he had years ago watching a woman on a bike doing ballet movements with her arms while she biked through Berkeley. She rode no-hands in this manner and made a 90 degree turn gracefully without ever stopping her ballet. He thought she looked like a beautiful swan. It inspired him to think about the bicycle as a liberation device for women.

The rest of his perspective was about bicycles, however, the best part is this. The lovely woman on the bike was none other than my lovely wife Katie. She heard the perspective this morning and was giddy with excitement. He smile kept me buoyant all day long.

My wife, the swan, is as graceful today as she was the day I met her. I hope when I am a thousand years old, she is still putting up with me and my nanobot shenanigans.
You can listen to the perspective here.

Danny having his first baby today.
House in Hercules has an accepted offer, pending closing.
Looking for new house on the penisula.
Kids need alot of my time and unfortunately, I am not spending enough with them.
Work needs my time too. Balance is hard these days.

I started reading a autobiography by Ron Dellums. It’s not bad. I like stories of character building through personal and professional adversity. This book is short, so I need to decide on my next book. I have blown through the list, so I am open to suggestions. Only one requirements: It must be non-fiction.

My brother, Danny, just informed me that his wife Lindy has just broken her water and is entering the final stage of baby creation, Labor. We have a countdown of anywhere from 6-24 hours. We know that it is a baby girl, named Molecule. Molly for short. I have no idea about the middle name. Hmm, I should’ve asked about that.

I am excited for him. Kids are fun. I imagine he will make a perfectly acceptable father. Quite.

Good Luck to Lindy and Daniel on their joyous entrance into the parent club! I remember the curse my father put on me, “I hope you have children JUST LIKE YOU!”. All I can say is, If my kids are just like me, then my dad had nothing to complain about.

My allergies have arrived with a Vengeance. (capital V) My eyes are itchy, my nose is running and plugged up and my head feels like a water balloon. Not fun. Not fun.

Our friend Mark mentioned to me that they have injections that might help. I need to do something.

This weekend we saw some good houses. Nothing has struck us as perfect. One house we LOVED was near Atherton, but the school district was bad, so Katie nixed it. Such a difficult decision. So many schools, so many choices. Everything expensive. Money is the grand equalizer. Anyone can have the best of everything….as long as you are rich. We need to make a budget and see exactly how much money is required to live like kings. Or at least like Dukes. Not the court jester, he doesn’t live so well.

Rules for a great web application: (in no particular order)

1. Use CSS. Try as hard as you can to eliminate all presentation specific information from your html. Abstract the presentation layer!
2. Use DOM. Try as hard as you can to eliminate all client side interactivity from your html. Abstract the interactivity layer!
3. Use a text Editor. Never ever ever use a WYSIWYG editor to make a product.
4. Think Human factors before data model. Many applications look like they started with some forms and some data and then tried to glue it all together. Better approach is to start with what the Users are trying to do from a human standpoint and then figure out what information they need to do that and then model your data into that structure.
5. Use the client. Server-side applications are fine for certain things, but use the power of the client. It is one half of your client-server architecture.
6. Watch the users work. For some reason this is always the most obvious, yet hardest part to accomplish. Keep pushing for it.
7. Build Profit into your App. Always look to build something extra into your code. Make it abstract, make it scalable, make it do anything above and beyond the exact specs. This is your profit margin in the code. Good products do more than what they are required to do.