March 2006 Archives

Finally, we got around to throwing up a photo gallery for the blog. We're using Gallery, a free program that really makes building galleries super easy. Right now the design is pretty plain, and to tell you the truth, I dooubt I'll do a whole lot to it because I'm really digging the clean look. Our first Album is a collection of pictures from a couple of weekends ago when Chris and the kids met the Stuevers over at the Dallas Aquarium. We have a few more sets of pictures in the pipe right now, so look for some more active posting in the near future. You can view our new gallery by clicking on the "Photo Gallery" link to the left or by clicking here.

PS -- you'll have to use your browser back button to get back until I figure out how to add a link back here.

This weekend, Ricky and I shot a wedding at the University Christian Church on the TCU campus. I've been in a lot of different churches in this town and they all seem to stick to the basics when it comes to artwork. They'll have paintings of Jesus on the cross, the Last Supper, and other scenes from the Holy Land in the olden days. It seems that the UCC at TCU is a more hip and happenin' church than I'm used to as evidenced by their choice of artwork. There were paintings of Jesus hanging with Bhudda, a room decorated like a synagogue, and the coup de grace:

This painting is about 10 feet tall and hangs in the stairwell of the Sanctuary. It was painted in 1979 and is called "Jesus knocking on the door". How can you not love it? Nothing says 70's like Jesus sporting a 'fro in his faded blue jeans and butterfly collar. And when's the last time you saw him trade in his sandals for some sneakers. Finally, I like how his hand is positioned in a way that suggests we caught him about to throw us the peace sign. This painting seems to say, "Don't call me Jesus. I'm just your buddy JC. Now let's order a pizza!"

So, Josh already mentioned the fun we had looking (and laughing) at old photos with our parents over Spring Break. He posted his favorite picture so, of course, I had to post mine. This is one of Granddaddy and GranGran showing us the hottest moves of 1972. Aren't they cute? I hope Josh and I have the same amount of energy when we get to be 60.

While we were in Oklahoma, we had a chance to go through a lot of pictures at both the Davis and Irons houses. I just thought I'd show off one of my favorites. This picture is of the Davis family sometime around 1979 or 80. It's in the old house, so I must have been around 2 or 3. Quite a few things jumped out at me and the memories flooded back as I studied this photo.

Nate looks so different in this picture. There are a ton of him as a baby, but very few of him in this in-between age.

It looks like Angie is cheesing in Mom's rocking chair, which rocked Davis babies to sleep for probably 20 years.
It made the most comforting creaking noises as it rocked.

I'm in the background holding a balloon looking a little like Noah with longer hair. Right behind me is a red Tonka pickup truck that I remember solely because of its untimely demise. Someone left it in the driveway and either mom or dad backed right over the top of it. It was pretty dented up, but I've seen real cars that have looked worse after minor fender-benders. Tonka made TOUGH trucks back then.

Sarah is cute as a button in her green dress and chubby cheeks. It's easy to see Kenzie in her.

Anna looks a little ticked off, which is too bad because everyone else seems to be in such a good mood. We must be teasing her about being the "Cheese that stands alone" or being the daughter of Flookie.

Dad has an amusing look on his face, but to tell you the truth, I can't stop staring at those pants he's wearing. There is only one word for them: plaid-tastic.

I remember disliking having so many siblings when I was younger, but over time I came to really appreciate them all. I now feel sorry for people who didn't have enormous families growing up because I feel like they missed out. All in all this photo is a great glimpse into our family life from a period that I can just barely remember. Does anybody else have any insight on this picture?

I saw this idea on a friend's blog and had to steal it. It's called song tag and it works like this: "List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they're any good, but they must be songs you're really enjoying now. Post these instructions in your blog along with your seven songs. Then tag seven other people to see what they're listening to."

1. Here Comes the Sun - George Harrison
2. Inaudible Melodies - Jack Johnson
3. Ice Cream Man - Modern Lovers
4. Flood - Jars of Clay
5. Two Step - Dave Matthews Band
6. Pearl Snaps - Jason Boland
7. More Than She Knows - Spin Doctors

Let's hear your 7 songs!

Last night Mommy and Noah were having fun playing a new version of Copy Cat. The next time you see Noah, BEWARE! You never know when he'll purr or pounce.

We caught a glimpse of this store window while we were in Stillwater this week. I'm not sure what these guys are selling, but whatever it is, I'm not buying.

I ran across a sweet Greasemonkey script this morning that made me want to stand up and scream Hallelujah. It got me to thinking about how if I were still using Microsoft Internet Explorer, I'd still be stuck cursing the crappy interface that Netflix calls a movie cue. Right then and there, I decided to tell all of you--yes, even you, Granny--about the greatest program ever written: Firefox. I know what you're saying, "What makes Firefox so great?" I'm glad you asked.

1. It has a great name. Firefox. Fire....Fox....Oh yeah! This name is so cool, Clint Eastwood made a movie about it. It involved a stolen Soviet fighter jet that you could control with your mind. Dirty Harry and a super bad-ass mind controllable jet, how cool is that? That's right. Very cool.

2. Tabbed browsing. The ability to organize and browse multiple web pages through the use of tabs is the greatest web innovation since......Google (you thought I was gonna say porn, eh?) This idea is so great that Microsoft has decided to include it in their newest version of Explorer which, by the way, will still suck. Once you try tabbed browsing, you'll wonder how you ever got along without it.

3. Security. There's no arguing that Internet Explorer is a less sescure browser than Firefox. How much less secure is a subject of debate on the web. Let's just say that Firefox doesn't allow websites near as many ways to install really bad stuff on your computer like spyware, trojans, or even Spice Girls midi files.

4. Extensions, extensions, extensions!!!! This is, without a doubt, my favorite feature of Firefox. Extensions are those cool little add-ons that make Internet Explorer users turn green with envy. There are extensions for EVERYTHING. I'm really fond of AdBlock which makes the internet a far less cluttered place by blocking all sorts of ads from text to images and even flash. It's very customizable. I also love me some Forecastfox. It gives you constant updates on the weather wherever you live. There are literally hundreds of extensions that do all kinds of things. I know you'll find a ton that you love. Which brings me to my last reason to love Firefox:

5. Greasemonkey. This is the MacGyver of all extensions. It can do ANYTHING. I once saw Greasemonkey cobble together a rocket launcher out of a roll of toilet paper, an underwear waistband, and a half-eaten Chick-o-Stick. OK, so maybe it can't do THAT, but it can get awful close! There are hundreds of Greasemonkey scripts which will format webpages exactly how YOU want them. Hate reading stories that are 2 inches wide on your favorite news site? Change 'em! Only care about the negative feedback on eBay? Your wish is my command. Are you frustrated by the way Netflix movie cue works? Me too! Not anymore! I got this script that allows you to make your Netflix cue drag-and-droppable. This is super cool because if you've ever tried to re-arrange your cue when something new comes out, you may have found it a bit of a pain.

So, what have we learned today, class? "Firefox is the bomb!" That's right. Class dissmissed. Have a great Spring Break!

Hooray! I can still be a teacher! Today I got this official looking letter from one of the Superintendents that told me that I had better get my butt in gear and renew my Texas teaching certificate. I got to say I was a little worried because I had no idea what all I had to do in order to get this done. I vaguely remember signing a document 5 years ago that said I would not commit crimes, I'd teach to the TAKS, I wouldn't tell kids that there's no way they'll ever use hyperbolas in the real world, oh and something about completing a boatload of continuing ed hours. Well 5 years has flown by and although I'm pretty sure I did all those things I'd agreed to, I wasn't so sure I'd documented the training hours so well. Needless to say, I was sweating bullets as I logged on to the State Board of Ed website. Turns out, all you have to do is submit to a bacground check and pay them 20 bucks. Life is good again.

I wanna be a trash man! Noah loves watching vehicles go by our house. He even calls them out as they go by with "Car! Car!" or "Truck! Truck!" His favorite day of the week is no doubt trash day. This is that special day when a REAL, LIVE garbage truck visits his house and puts on a show for him! He can't take his eyes off them while they toss bags of trash into the very cool trash compactor. They're superstars to him. I'm hoping he grows out of this stage and starts looking at doctors and engineers in the same light.

I remember when I realized that my name was pretty common. I wasn't too happy to share my name with anyone. I didn't know very many people named Josh, and none of them had my last name as well. Over the years, I've come to realize that my name is super cool. Not only have I won 5 gold medals in Olympic swimming, I also won two Academic All-state scholarships in 1995--and one of them was REALLY me! In college, I was somehow granted 5 years of eligibility in order for me to play football for 3 years at Marshall and another 2 years at Nebraska. Apparently, I played a couple of those years concurrently. That was a couple of busy fall semesters! I even made it to the NFL and was a kick returner for the Jets, but my career ended (maybe) when I tore my ACL. Lately, I've just been hangin' out and jammin' with my band out in Iowa, and I've even let my hair grow out a bit (I'm going for that Jesus look). I bring all of this up because today I found out that there is a feature in Wired Magazine about me. According to them, I am a skateboarding ex-cocaine addict whose body is tattooed almost as thoroughly as Tommy Lee's. They go on to say that I am a"...punk, a provocateur, the bad boy of Web design." I love that line. I think I might have it put on my tombstone.

We took a family trip to Wal-Mart and Sam's Club this weekend and let me tell you, those places are an absolute blast (if you're under the age of 15). I wasn't too jazzed about going shopping with the masses on Saturday, but we ended up having a pretty good time. Lucky we had our camera with us.

First off, we saw a fire truck. Everyone loves those!

Then we played in a really cool--and expensive--playhouse.

Myra loved opening all the doors, Noah loved shutting them.

Next, we tried on funny hats.

Finally, we ate some pizza.

I took the Aviation club to Alliance Airport yesterday for a field trip. It was the first time I've ever taken students on a trip like that. Luckily, Bob Read, a retired airline pilot, club volunteer, and all-around good guy met us there to help out. I even saw Ben, my old college roommate, working hard. The place was really cool and I kept thinking to myself that everything seemed bigger than I thought it would be. The jet engines for the 777's that American Airlines flies were as big as a garbage truck and cost in excess of $10 million. The massive building that is the most striking feature from I-35 is truly a marvel. It's on the left in the picture below. The huge cantilevers allow the building to have no internal support structure so they can park more jets in there at a time. We were lucky enough to get to go through a gutted 777 that was in for a total remodeling.

Our new C:\ drive is in transit from Newegg.com. I got its tracking number bookmarked on my homepage. It's like waiting for Santa. The drive is going to be 200 GB. That will bring our HD capacity up to 520 Gigabytes! I remember when I had a top-o-the-line computer as a college freshman that had a whopping 80 MB hard drive. I could fit 6500 of my old computers into our new one. Wow.

We've got some home-improving to do. It seems that climbing in and out of the cabinets just wasn't enough fun for Noah and so he did his best Incredible Hulk imitation and snapped one of the cabinet doors in half. I hope wood glue will hold that thing back together.

I just discovered this super-cool extension for Firefox that you gotta get. It's called Reveal and it makes little thumbnails of all the pages that are on your tabs. If you don't know what the heck I'm talking about, skip this paragraph, or better yet, go get Firefox for yourself and join the 21st century.

Tomorrow, we are heading to the Castle Douglas over in Rockwall (east of Dallas) to shoot a wedding. It's a pretty cool place, we got a quick look at it last night at the rehearsal. This husband and wife decided to build a castle on top of this hill in the country. Now they live there and hold weddings in it. It's got a real weird vibe to it. From far off, it looks amazing, but up close, I couldn't help but feel a little short-changed. I'll take the camera tomorrow to illustrate.