Man, It's Dusty In Here

Good thing I brought my feather duster and maid outfit.

Good luck getting that image out of your head.

Life has been truly ridiculous the last month. Whether it be three jobs, a baby, family, friends getting married or just working on a totally awesome Zombie video game (details coming soon) I just haven't had a chance to breathe. When I do get a moment, I tend to post my good stuff over at DPUD since it will be read by far more than the three or four people that stop over here.

I'll be unveiling my new part-time consulting company via its new website shortly. In addition to other professional services, I intend to offer blog installation, maintenance, programming and update services. Also, I want to provide scripts for anything from polls to random phrase generators, etc. I've got pretty solid talent at programming in PHP, Javascript, ASP, etc (if I really list it out it sounds like bragging these days) so I can interface with most any blog engine you happen to be running.

Also, I think I'm going to start posting a bunch of pictures of my daughter and other photographs I take. I'm trying to train myself to use GIMP to create good logos and other web graphics and, while the progress is slow, I'm getting somewhere.

Eventually, you'll all want to purchase your products from Moron Solutions. No, I'm not kidding. Not even a little.

Moron Solutions: We don't think we're smarter than you.

100% Bitches*

100%ALCOHOLIC

OnePlusYou Quizzes and Widgets

* - I'm going to go ahead and claim my exceptional score is because I bartended for two years but you make up your own mind.

PHP Bleg

I'm not sure how tech savvy my readership is but I have a rather complicated, obscure problem with PHP and consuming web services that I could really use some help on.

Anybody?

The Lights Aren't Off Yet

I know it has been pretty quiet around here because I've been posting most of my good political and odd news stuff over at doubleplusundead.  This blog, however, is not dead.  I think I'll use it to focus in more on personal stories, Wisconsin news and other oddities that may otherwise clutter up DPUD's fine establishment.

 

I had intended to cross-post most of my material here but found that to be tedious, to say the least.  Beyond the fact that I had to post an article twice, the method by which Blogger translates text into HTML is different than mee.nu (it has to do with converting line breaks) so I end up having to do a lot of code cleanup to get it to look right.

 

Other topics I will continue/start to write about here include computer programming, web consulting and the future of several personal projects I'm working on including a book (Sci-Fi), a computer game (it has to do with killing ZOMBIES!) and the company I'm starting that will not only offer professional services to businesses but provide myriad blog installation and software solutions to the world at large.  I hope to make my professional website available soon at www.m0r0n.com. 

 

If only I had an extra 5 hours per day!  Anyone want to lend me some?

Tragedy and Parenting

Before I had my daughter in January, I could have never fathomed the agony a story like this must produce:

A 3-year-old girl drowned in a pool at a friend's home in Milwaukee.

Officers said it happened at a home near 80th Street and Tesch Avenue at about 6:30 p.m. Saturday.

Police said the girl might have been wearing a flotation device earlier in the day, but took it off to eat dinner.

While I can't even imagine surviving the death of my daughter, I have many family members who have lost children and they all say "You find a way, you have to."

The worst part is that the child had the water wings on and took them off to eat. This oversight by the parents will inevitably lead them to endless self-recriminations that are, obviously, undeserved. Yes, they probably should have noticed but life is fast and frantic and children are as kinetic as quicksilver. The reality is, terrible terrible things happen and no amount of care can prevent that.

I must qualify all of this by saying that I regularly go into my daughter's room to check if she is breathing and have an absolutely irrational terror about walking when my daughter is on the floor for some reason. Vivid images of me stepping on her skull flash into my mind and I almost have to immediately sit down.

Who knew you could ever care about something so much? Even with the risk of such terrible loss, I can only pity those who have chosen not to have children. I'm not better than you, I just feel sad that you'll never know the most powerful love in the world.

I'd Like You to Meet My New Girlfriend

That's right. A fucking bread maker. After getting back from my vacation out west I bought some supplies for making bread and fired that little darling up. Result?

I have finally achieved true bliss. I only made basic white bread but it was fantastic. The quality difference between store bought bread and the stuff you make yourself cannot be overstated. And the recipes I can try are many and varied! Homemade banana bread? I win.

I just fucking win.

I hope to never eat store-bought bread again.

Alive

And not in Wisconsin, but out west with the family. I'll be out of Wisconsin until the 24th and hopefully will immediately shoot out to Detroit for a little party.

I hear the levies on the Mississippi broke and that my home county was declared a federal disaster area so going home should be fun.

I'll post some pictures from the trip soon.

Wisconsin Has Angered God

And we're about to get punished.

The state hasn't even backed off from record flood levels and we're about to get 3+ inches of rain tonight. It appears that at least 3 dams are going to give way tonight at least.

Also, most of the interstates are being closed due to flooding, semis are being blown over by high winds and power is slowly turning off for thousands of residents.

I'm just waiting for some retarded Packer fan to blame this on Favre's retirement.

At any rate, wish us luck. We're going to need it.

P.S. Do you know why Bush hasn't visited the effected areas yet? He hates white people.

Update: Current reports show that each of three dams are currently expected to hold by county officials if the rain total is less than 3". That is, unfortunately, a big if. We're up to 19,000 without power.

Only about 6 hours of storms to go.

Update Part Deux: I was right, Fond du Lac is fucked:

County Executive Allen Buechel declared a State of Emergency for all of Fond du Lac County on Thursday evening. All citizens are asked to remain in their homes unless they need to evacuate.

Many streets and roads are impassable across the county. The County is urging residents to stay home unless they need to evacuate.

One resident said some sewers are gushing out like fountains in the city of Fond du Lac. The sewers backed up into many basements and many city roads are impassible due to flooding.

Those poor people have been under the red on the radar screen for five hours straight. It is going to be a rough morning for them. Unfortunately for points south, that water has to go somewhere and I have a suspicion it might be this way.