Notes: The credit belongs to

It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat. - Teddy Roosevelt

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion…

"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects." - Robert A. Heinlein

Energy follows thought

"Energy follows thought. We move towards, not beyond, what we imagine. By expanding our deepest beliefs of what is possible, we change our core experience of life." -Jane Roberts

The Echo of a Alternative Path

I realized today, while watching a clip from the war in Iraq, that the past four years of my life could have taken a much different path. Four years ago, before I bought my first house, I had seriously considered joining the Marines -- serious enough that I had contacted a recruiter to ask questions (he called me every 6 months after that, up until last year, to ask if I was still interested in joining). No one knew how seriously I was considering it.

However, around that same time, my parents introduced me to an old friend of my Dad, Paul Brouillete. He is one of the top real estate agents for Century 21 in this area. After I bought my first house, he was nice enough to spend a lot of time talking to me about real estate investment and how to develop financial freedom. From that point, my whole life moved in a different direction -- I started doing computer consulting on my own, I bought two more houses, learned a lot more about plumbing, electrical, roofing, house framing, and many other things.

So, do I like the path my life has taken thus far? I won't say that I don't like it, but I can't help but wonder and imagine how things could be different right now. Would I be in Baghdad, Iraq instead of Cambridge, Massachusetts? Would I be sleeping in a tent in the middle of the desert with gun shots echoing in the distance, instead of dealing with leaky water pipes and worrying about waking up late for work in the morning? Would I be driving a humvee, praying I don't hit an IED, instead of trying to find a parking spot close to my apartment?

It hit me pretty hard when I was watching the video of soldiers in Iraq and I suddenly said to myself -- "Wow, that could've been me".

Life is a train which can easily, and probably does quite frequently, jump the tracks. Our paths are about as defined and predicable as ripples from a line drawn in the waves of a turbulent ocean.

The Way I See It #165

I was ahead in the slalom. But in the second run, everyone fell on a dangerous spot. I was beaten by a woman who got up faster than I did. I learned that people fall down, winners get up, and gold medal winners just get up faster.

-- Bonnie St. John
In 1984, she was the second-fastest
amputee skier in the world, and the first
African-American Olympic ski medalist.

The Way I See It #141

"I used to feel so alone in the city. All those gazillions of people and then me, on the outside. Because how do you meet a new person? I was very stumped by this for many years. And then I realized, you just say, "Hi." They may ignore you. Or you may marry them. And that possibility is worth that one word."

-- Augusten Burroughs
Author of Running with Scissors.

Being an anti-social, keep-to-himself kind of guy, this quote was eye opening to say the least.

House Hacking

Hacking your own house can be pretty fun. I don't want to incriminate myself on my own blog so I won't go into the details. I may not have any gas, but after 45 minutes, I do have hot water.

    The power of knowledge is not realized until that knowledge
    plays a key role in bridging an otherwise impossible gap.

I was having trouble displaying PNG images in Internet Explorer while cross-browser testing the programming work I'm doing for Aerva. A Google search later and I found this site providing the solution. Very useful if you've ever wondered why PNG images don't maintain their transparency in IE.

I removed the collapse categories plugin I had previously installed for the side bar. I found a page with information on how to use the wp_list_cats() function, which is apart of the standard WordPress installation, to format the category list in a much more useful way. Calling the function with particular options allows you to see all the categories in hierarchal fashion. I used the following options to display the categories as you see them on the right. Just edit your sidebar.php file inside your current theme's directory:

wp_list_cats('sort_column=name&optioncount=0&hierarchical=1')

I was tired of not having any light outside my back door at night, so I installed one today. $35 and an hour of running 14/2 wire from a junction box to the back door (yes, the door is dirty. rain + dirt + door = what you see below):

Genuine Junk

It's rather easy to overcome the urge to keep junk. However it's very difficult to determine what things you genuinely have a need for, before actually accumulating them.