I'm Not Dead Yet

It's terribly late and I just can't seem to get tired, so I decided to write something on the blog just to let everyone know I haven't abandoned it. It's just been quite a while since I felt like sitting down and writing.

The big news this week, of course was the unveiling of the iPad. Wow. Can anyone say "Newton?" (Remember 1993 when it came out? Apple's PDA, which bombed. To be fair, Jobs was nowhere near Apple when that occurred.)

Now, I'm an Apple fan, but not a fanatic. Working in graphics I kind of ended up on Macs by default, and when the iPhone came out, it seemed like a perfect solution to my commuting and communication needs (which was true). Although I haven't actually seen an iPad in person or played around with it at the Apple Store ... gosh, it doesn't seem like it's anything as revolutionary as they're touting it to be. Friend Frank Wilson put this picture up on Facebook, and I think it sums things up nicely.

January at school has been Flash and Dreamweaver classes and coding, coding, coding. I'm trying to learn HTML, CSS, ActionScript and a little JavaScript all at the same time. Moving from one to the other is a little daunting, but I've just got to wade through it until comprehension bursts through. My unemployment claim has been used up, and I'm waiting for them to OK my first extension, which should be a no-brainer since I'm in approved training. Still, it's always a little unnerving when the income stream dries up. I mean, I just went through this a month ago, and it took seven weeks to get things cleared up (as I'm sure all readers of this blog remember quite clearly, since I bitched about it until the cows came home ... HAVE the cows come home?

So you see, nothing of importance to report. Steve's fine, getting new glasses tomorrow. Pure excitement!

No Lovely Photos

Just a quick note dashed off during lunch break at school. Today, we're starting in on Flash. The teacher talks way too much about stuff that has nearly nothing to do with the subject matter, and it was an hour and 20 minutes before she actually put hands on the computer and started in on the lesson.

Steve and I spent New Year's Eve and Day up at the moms' house with the other immediate family. There are no photos here because I took one the entire weekend: Steve sitting at the Goleta IHOP waiting for our brunch. If anyone else has pix, e-mail me a couple and I'll include them later.

On New Year's Eve we had our siblings' meeting about the estate and spent the evening putting colored dots on the tiems around the house that we wanted to take as a remembrance of Mom and Aunt Kit. Luckily, there were very few items that received more than one dot, so everyone got something close to his or her heart.

Mom's memorial was on Saturday at noon, and was very well attended. It was a pot luck, and there was plenty of food for everyone. Steve and I took off after the memorial/party and drove back to Pasadena in order to avoid the last-minute traffic crush of Sunday.

It was really good to see everyone in the family one more time. More than once it was voiced that Mom was the last of the Big Seven (her generation of siblings), and that we were now the Big Ten -- or thereabouts -- (the remaining offspring of the Big Seven). To put it briefly: We're the old guys now.

Cousin Robin and her husband Evan were at the memorial, and Evan approached me about putting together their Web sites, since the people who were doing it were charging exorbitant prices for almost no work at all. I was honest about just starting out, but it would be a good beginning for me, as far as having work on the Web for folks to view.

Only a few minutes until I have to dive back into the Flash interface and learn some stuff I didn't know already. A short note, but painfully newsy. Not terribly auspicious for the first blog entry in the new year.