Being relatively new to the world of Apple computers, I hadn’t ever seen or heard about the “Here’s to the Crazy Ones” manifesto. Now that I’ve seen it I wanted to put it here on my site as a reminder to always look outside the box.
##To The Crazy Ones
Here’s to the crazy ones
The misfits.
The nerds.
The troublemakers.
The round pegs in the square holes.
The ones who see things differently.
They are not fond of rules,
And they have no respect for the status quo.
You can praise them, disagree with them, quote them,
disbelieve them, glory or vilify them.
About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them.
Because they change things.
They invent. They imagine. They heal.
They explore. They create. They inspire.
They push the human race forward.
Maybe they have to be crazy.
How else can you stare at an empty canvas and see a work of art?
Or sit in silence and hear a song that’s never been written?
Or gaze at a red planet and see a laboratory on wheels?
We make tools for these kinds of people.
While some see them as the crazy ones, we see genius.
Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can
change the world, are the ones who do.
Think differently.
Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln
Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation: conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war. . .testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated. . . can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war.
We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate. . .we cannot consecrate. . . we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.
It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us. . .that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion. . . that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain. . . that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom. . . and that government of the people. . .by the people. . .for the people. . . shall not perish from the earth.
{{ $image := .ResourceGetMatch “pdfplugin-icon.jpg” }} Ever since switching over to Macintosh last January I have thoroughly enjoyed using Safari as my primary browser. My only complaint is Safari’s inability to view PDF files inline.
Thanks to Schubert it and the PDF Browser that complaint is now happily removed.
This browser plugin makes viewing PDF files served on the Internet easy once again.
It would seem that I’ve come down with a mild cold. Two weekends ago we visited my brother and his family for the day. His youngest, Alyx, spent a large portion of the afternoon asleep on me. Later that evening her mom, Lisa, wondered out loud if maybe Alyx was coming down with something.
Michele did come down with a cold starting the next day, Sunday. Her cold was mostly in her head and involved sinus pressure and post nasal drip. We were careful with glasses, toothbrushes and kissing for a few days, until she was past the worst of it. Just when I though I would miss this cold, I started feeling achy yesterday.
I managed to get to work this morning, but the longer I stayed the worse I felt. Finally, about 1:30 I threw in the towel and came home. I slept for about 2 hours and feel a little better now. Hopefully some TLC from my sweetie and a good night’s rest will have me feeling better tomorrow.
Previously in this space I wrote about discovering that the Mac OS X 10.2.8 upgrade reset the value used for CPU frequency. In my case I lost about a 3rd of my overall speed.
By reseting the PMU I was able to get full horsepower again.
For a while.
It seems that rebooting the machine loses the correct PMU value. Nuts. So now, until I upgrade to Panther (maybe soon now) I have to reset the PMU every time I restart or reboot my Powerbook.
Panther here I come.
There is a file, called robots.txt, that when associated with a web site instructs search engine robots not to catalog the file or files disallowed. I have a teeny, tiny one here on zanshin.
The White House has a huge one, covering a huge list of topics.
I think this is wrong. The White House works for me, I’m a member of the board of the United States of America, along with nearly 300 million other citizens. The President, and his staff, are temporary appointments put there by us to oversee the running of the country for four years. How dare they play keep away with information.
JJ sent me an instant message today letting me know that some of my tags were showing. One of the dangers of copy-paste coding had reared its ugly head. I had an extra “/>” embedded in the individual archive template. And I also had some residue from a previous-next navigation scheme that I had only partially removed.
After getting these gaffs cleaned up I took the time to modularize the primary pages of the site. The header, left and right side, and footer sections of the page are now coded once and reused.
I also correct a CSS problem that was preventing the left side border from displaying properly when the content was anything other than standard “paragraph” text. By moving the border definition to a new CSS element I was able to strip it from all the normal HTML tags. Now they work regardless of where they are used.
I’ve added a category summary page that lists all posting categories, and a count of entries for each. On my to-do list is creation of a page that will list the entry titles (as a hypertext link) for each category. Maybe over the weekend.
For the most part I think design is complete. I may tweak the fonts here or there over time, but on the whole I am very pleased with site now. I have tested it in
Today’s reading is from the Book of Corporate Life. Chapter 1, verses 1-15:
I continue to come down from my peak of anger and upset at yesterday’s news about my rate reduction. It is amazing what a good long talk with a trusted and safe partner, followed by a sound night’s sleep, can do for a guy.
In the clear light of a new day I realize that this is still the best game in town. I make a substantial amount of money, doing work that I by and large enjoy if not love. I have tremendous freedom within the job itself, flextime and independence to set my own priorities and tasks. There are few other engagements that would allow me so much freedom.
Further I realize that I would be extremely lucky to find a job with similar compensation levels anywhere else in the country. Sure, with the added value of paid benefits, and paid time off, I could afford to work for less and still maintain the same standard of living I have now. But I would likely give up some measure of freedom to achieve such a position.
My employment situation has evolved several times over the course of 20 years, and that evolution is continuing with this latest wrinkle. My prime goal for working independently was to free myself from the arbitrary constraints so often placed on salaried employees. I have accomplished that goal, and staying here allows me to keep that perk.
Like all of life’s situations, this one will come to an end eventually. My job now is to take some time to discover what needs I have, and to express those needs in terms that will help me define the parameters that will make my next work experience satisfying for me.
After getting home this evening I had long talk with Michele about the rate situation. It felt good to rant and rave and let all my emotions run free. After a good venting I was able to see my situation more clearly. Along the way, Michele made several excellent points that helped bring me back into balance.
She pointed out that we had suspected this rate cut was coming months ago. Towards that end we reorganized our finances and prepared ourselves to live on less monthly income. Sure this rate cut smarts, but it isn’t the end of the world.
Michele also reminded me that although this feels personal in the moment it really isn’t about me. No one sat down and decided to make my life miserable. If I pursue that feeling I’ll only end up hurting myself.
The change in my rate status doesn’t mean that any change needs to occur in my life. Running around screaming the sky is falling isn’t going to solve anything, and it may end up hurting me. Sitting back and letting this situation, and my emotions, find equilibrium is a much better way to take care of me.
So maybe the boats and helicopters from earlier aren’t meant to take me away from this situation, but rather to rescue me from making a mountain out of a molehill.