Daley Ponderings

Jonathan got this toy for Christmas. He and the other kids who come over like it a lot. This review will have positives, negatives, and funnies. As a toy, it's fun for kids; as an educational toy, it's not really any good. The box claims all sorts of things, but here are my complaints: The... (More)

The night we arrived (Monday) was "Christmas Eve" so we each opened our one present from "Mr. Ho" and filled the stockings for the morning. It turns out that Santa had also visted Bermuda, because we each received a souvenir ornament from Bermuda. "Christmas" morning was leisurely, as Mom had to... (More)

Christmas Eve morning, Jonathan threw up. It turned out to be a stomach bug, so the performance repeated itself several times. We took a bath and napped in a chair. (He seemd to throw up more if he was lying down, so I held him upright and tried to sleep myself.) We tried to nurse, but it just... (More)

I guess I don't really have time to write these as they happen, so you get a week's worth of stuff at once: December 14 - In women's Bible study babysitting, Jonathan pointed to the door and said, "door." When Miss Rachel did not respond to that, he went to her, grabbed her hand, took her to... (More)

I decided to write a post to describe the features of the plugins that I wrote, and upgrades that I made to existing plugins to others can benefit from their use as well. You can see the actual source code, or else read my feeble descriptions. User Comments by Jon Daley : Description:... (More)

It had always annoyed me that you couldn't use smarty commands in the stylesheet files in plog. It turns out it wasn't that hard to figure out, and the original authors had it basically done, but if you believe the comments, didn't think it worked yet. It is helpful to change... (More)

Our DSL went down and Jon called me and did a three way with Speakeasy to see what was going on. After trying a couple of things that did not work, Jon mentioned that it was raining, but not lightning. I went to the window to check things out, and I saw a Verizon guy up at the telephone pole.... (More)

For those of you who have successfully installed Mercury's Test Director , and have it die suddenly, you need to check the IIS/NTFS permissions. ( Note, for those of you asking questions, you should read all four pages of comments - there are various questions and answers given throughout the... (More)

Jonathan's most recent set of family bits includes the people he knows best - Daddy, Mommy, and Jonathan. The Daddy and Jonathan bits, especially, get a big smile and happy sound when he sees them. When one of those happens to be the last one, he exclaims and points joyously, saying "Daddy!" or... (More)

I went to vote this morning on the way to Women's Bible Study. The most interesting part was that Jonathan somehow got ahold of the "Independent" label from the voting machine and was chewing on it when we got back outside. I thought I had kept him from touching it! I gave it back to one of... (More)

I have been teaching Jonathan using a not-so-intense version of the programs recommended by The Institutes . I'm adding this post here, because I want to give updates as a kind of diary. But I wanted to clarify in public why I am doing it. If it really does work, what better and easier... (More)

I went to a dermatologist this morning to have a mole removed and a small skin lump checked out. My referring doctor said this dermatology practice is the best in Pittsburgh. However, I really am getting more and more disillusioned with medical practice as we know it. As soon as I walked in, I... (More)

I have been evaluating different version control programs for my company for the last month or two. My current evaluation is that all of them are broken, although I hope to discover a good solution someday soon. Serena's Version Manager (PVCS) I have spent a lot of time with Version... (More)

Jonathan likes to watch me "take the diapers out of the washer and put them into the dryer." This evening, he closed the dryer door before I had finished transferring the diapers. So I asked him to please open the door, and he did! Then, when I had finished, I said, "ok, now it is time to... (More)

The last of our four gospel fish was so weak on Monday that he got stuck in a plant. Then when I freed him, he got stuck on the filter intake. So it was time to put him out of his misery. I can't do the most humane way - that is, one quick slice to cut the head off - so I did the next, a cup... (More)