The Time Sink

Well, well, well... The school year is in full swing once again. Soccer practices, Back to School Nights, and Very Important Events compete with family time and study time. We've had two weeks to shake things out and it looks like we may be settling down a bit. ...until the soccer seeding tournament this weekend.

That's okay; Bradley and I have several late summer/early fall projects we can work on while Daniel and Shelley are off sorting out who plays whom in what order. ...to say nothing of the internal cleanup/sorting/trashing/reboxing I need to do in the library if I'm to have a hope of projectifying anything anytime soon.

I did manage to pull a page from Tom and Bo's book over the weekend: I cleaned the heck out of my main Outlook pst, sorting and archiving and compacting the main mailbox file. I started with something like 170megs plus and got it down to around 32mb. That's still too big, but I got real tired of creating rules and sorting all the mail from the summer into the proper folders. Ah, well; now there's room for some more software on that box.

I had a post. It's long gone. Today's comments, such as they are, will be on the alternate site.

I will offer one word of business advice: If you rely on "next day air", "second day", or "third day" as shipping methods, you need to immediately re-think your plan: those are gone for the moment. Any system that relies on a air-based "Hub" will be scrambling for the next several days.

Not too much to say today on this part of the site... There's a post in draft form, but I really don't know if it will see the light of day due to the subject matter. If it does, it'll be up on the blog later this evening.

In the meantime, the gang I get my web design software from has been in the forefront of corporate response to the events of September 11. ...at least for the pack of vendors I deal with. Their CEO, Nicholas Longo, sent out a support email to his list very early in the day Tuesday with his heartfelt feelings regarding the loss, the world situation, and advice to business. ...a much appreciated response from an American businessman. ...to which I responded with an "Amen".

Today, he's offered his users free software in exchange for aiding the Red Cross just by adding the following banner to our sites. ...and on his bandwidth dime! (Bear with the graphic though; his server is getting hammered as I write this.)

Easy enough. ...and though it links through to Amazon<sigh> and I already own most of their software, I'll include it as a "Thank you" to his firm and in case anyone is still looking for an international donation route:

...and I did manage to find something on his list I didn't have (and normally wouldn't even consider buying): WebCam software. So maybe, just maybe, some evening...

Today's a mundane day... The pool filter needs cleaning, whether is really needs it or not; there's a budget spreadsheet to update and bills to pay; and there's also a need for an attempt to move toward the more normal routine.

...and frankly, I need a break from my thoughts for a bit; writings such as Dark Shadows take a bit of a toll. My thanks to those who responded to that and the other recent pieces; if I haven't gotten back to you, I will sometime this weekend.

...and yes, there may be a follow-up piece; there is enough information and opinion in my email responses to both the Daynotes and Weblogs circuits to put together a little something. Again, I keep that sort of thing over on the other site. ...and yes, some day I'll get around to explaining the "whys" and the "wherefores" of that.

...and it's a late cap to the week. Uninvited Guests, the follow-up to Dark Shadows is up over on the alternate site. This one's posted directly as it shouldn't be the material of nightmares. ...rather a response to them. My thanks to everyone who gave me feedback on the first story; there are some cool people out there.

Yesterday, the boys joined in with some other kids from the neighborhood to make red, white and blue lapel pins. The pins will be sold at a local grocery store with proceeds going to the Red Cross. In related news, church was packed this morning; I usher at the second service and we were setting up chairs in all the reserve locations. I'll be most interested in the attendance figures. There too, the Red Cross benefited through a second collection.

I really don't think I can emphasize enough the work done by organizations like the Red Cross and the Salvation Army in times like these... Having been on the receiving end of their canteen trucks and having watched them help people make contact with family and friends and help displaced people with relocation, I can only say, "Please Donate". They run on cash; blankets are nice, but cash is king in this type of thing.