Plumbers
So, I’ve had no hot water since Friday. These are the men that came and fixed that problem.
Two highlights from that event:
- Plumber #1 welding copper pipe on top of the cardboard box that my new water heater came in.
- Plumber #2 lighting a cigarette with the torch that Plumber #1 just used to do said welding atop a cardboard box.
They were nice, and in about 20 minutes I should have hot water again. Woohoo!
The End.
Focus Cloud != Tag Cloud
Aaron Bassett wrote up a cool concept/article on using a “Focus Cloud” instead of the usual Tag Cloud (link to explanation and picture on Wikipedia) for conveying popular categories/tags.
From the Article:
For example when the iPhone was announced bloggers all over the world started talking about it. I would guess that for some of them it would have been the first time any apple product got a mention on their blog. But suddenly its what everyone is talking about. So if we looked at all the tags for all their posts iPhone would be a tiny little spec. But if we had visited their blog during the inital buzz period it would have been the main focus.
So a Focus Cloud should show not what has been the most popular tags overall, but what is the most popular tags at present. What is your current focus.
Basically, he has a good idea in turning the “point system” around a bit. If you know how tag clouds work, you might already understand how all this is working. In the comments section, he had this to say about the scoring:
Rather than penalizing a tag for being used a long time ago, I decided to reward those used recently. This way I hope allows new tags a chance to gain traction while still allowing more established tags to receive some attention as well.
I think it’s a great idea, and I’m very grateful that he was willing to share the PHP code for implementing this as well.
The End.
Departure(s)
I have 90 spam messages in my email inbox. (one inbox, anyway). I have a pile of clean laundry to put away. A basket of dirty laundry to wash. I had pizza for dinner… after 10PM. There are several more things on my list to do, “today”, but I wanted to write you. I haven’t spent much time thinking about what to write, or how to come across, so I hope it all comes out alright.
Those of you who got the MySpace bulletins, messages, IMs, emails, phone calls, text messages, voice mails, and carrier pigeons have all heard the truth. At least part of it. Hopefully nobody’s making stuff up or adding to the story.
Yes, “Pastor Kevin”, as we all know him, officially announced his resignation.
I didn’t. Laura didn’t. I know at least 15 other people that didn’t. And therefore I know at least 15 other people that will be extremely sad not to see you if you suddenly stop showing up. You’ve probably already heard the “hang in there, now is when we need you most” speeches (if you haven’t, I’m sorry… call me, I’ll give you one for free).
I just want to encourage you to be the next best thing. We’re not going away, so I hope you don’t either. Yes, there will be shifting. It’s kind of like an earthquake just happened. Lots of things have moved around, and you might be a bit dizzy – but it’s all still there.
Someone wondered out loud about how many people would be leaving. Who else is leaving? Are you? The only reason people will start leaving is if everyone’s walking around all “ho-hum” and gloomy, and sad, and depressed, etc. Those kinds of attitudes will make people not want to show up. I wouldn’t want to come either if it sounded like no fun.
So persevere. “Hang in there”. It’s not easy. And yeah, you’re probably sad/mad/confused/careless/depressed/angry… And I bet you know someone else who feels the same way you do. In that case, I think you should give them a phone call or some such, and make sure they know that you’re there for them, and that you’re their friend.
The “leaders” will change a bit. The group will change. There will be new people. There will be the people that have always been there. Things will change. They will only change, though, based on what “the group” does. You’re part of that group, and the things you do, the things you decide, will decide what your little slice of the group does.
My slice of the group is going to be there, waiting for you to make it awesome.
If you don’t know what the heck I’m talking about, or if you have any questions, you should know that you can call and ask/tell me all about it.
If you don’t have my number, call the Church and ask for it. The Church’s number is 901-873-3000.
The End.
[PS: If you happen to be a future employer of mine - firstly "hello" - feel free to ask me about the content of this note. It was personal in nature, as normally only those that already know me ever check on this site.]
