Bah

I have, let's say, a complicated relationship with Christmas these days.

I don't get into the religion of it — I never have. I am not observant, I guess that's the term, of any particular religion (or of any religion, really), and I really don't care to be. So that's out.

And I'm disillusioned by this idea that Christmas is a season that begins on or about the end of October, an increasing frenzy of buying stuff (and more stuff) that reaches a peak on the Friday after Thanksgiving — this year, several hours before that — and lasts for another month or so, more or less at that level. Even in the best of times (for us), when money wasn't a very real worry, I wanted nothing to do with that.

But you can't really escape it. You're obliged to take part in it. It's everywhere.

I love the joy on my son's face when he opens a gift (which can occasionally be glimpsed through the flurry of wrapping paper). And I know, there's no practical way to make a nine-year-old understand the concept of "excess," particularly when it comes to toys. But as he's a bit older, I'd like him to better understand that it's important to appreciate what you already have, rather than what you just received.

And each year, when my wife is indifferent to my concerns and finds new limits to the term "extravagance," I get just that bit more frustrated, and just that bit more dispirited. (More so this year, when more resources went toward a Christmas for him we could not afford.) Too much is too much is too much.

The one gift I'd want to give my family this year is a sense of security — I only wish that I could.

No Go

Say, remember how I had mentioned, just the other day, I didn't want to do business with GoDaddy as a domain registrar? Here's another reason. (Something on the order of 72,000 domains were transferred away from GoDaddy just last week.)

Bored.

I am bored. Bored, bored, bored. You wouldn't think that was possible, in this house full of unread books, unwatched DVDs, a handful of pre-code films on the DVR — but I can't seem to find the attention for any of it this evening.

I hate boredom. I'm almost never like this, and when I am, it seems impossible.

The Elusive Ideal

I like to sketch. I still like to do thumbnails as part of the design process. And I want to use my iPad, I really do, but I have yet to find a stylus that I feel completely comfortable drawing with. I know I'm never going to duplicate the tooth of the paper, or the way the point of a Sharpie Ultra Fine Point Marker drags over it, but I kinda need better precision than that enormous rounded foam rubber tip found at the end of most of the styluses (stylii?) I've seen or tried.

I was looking at an "active" stylus just last week (that's a new Kickstarter project — I think a third of all Kickstarter projects must be to create an iPad stylus), that promises to provide a "fine point" experience, but it will also require developer support (and close to $100).

I remember hearing about The Cosmonaut (yes, that had been another Kickstarter project) months ago, but I'd forgotten all about it. It's just about ready to ship as a real, actual product. It seems more crayon than pen, and while the point still isn't all that small, it looks like it might be easier to use. And it's only $25. I might try it.

Too bad it doesn't come in purple.

Vocabulary

We had a meeting with my son's fourth grade teacher not too long ago — nothing extraordinary or unusual, just an opportunity to find out how he's been doing. She mentioned that he had been part of (I think) a small group of children in the class, working with a program of enhanced vocabulary words — but he hadn't been all that enthusiastic about the idea.

My son has, you might say, an interesting vocabulary for his age. We've always had fun, he and I, with words — with what they mean, and the way they sound. (We must have read an entire library of Dr. Seuss books through the years, just before nap time.) I've never made much effort to "dumb down" what I say to him, if I think he'll understand it, so he's probably picked up some uncommon words (for a nine-year-old) from me. (That, and the sort of documentary programs he often watches are full of strange and unusual technical terms that are unfamiliar even to many of the adults he encounters.)

I couldn't understand how he wouldn't have been interested in this program — that just didn't seem like him at all — but I asked his teacher to send along the set of vocabulary words. I told her I was sure I could inspire some enthusiasm.

So each day, when he would arrive home from school, I'd ask him for one of the words he'd studied. ”Ramshackle" was one of his favorites. (It's fun just saying it.) ”Surly" was another — I got to demonstrate that by acting, well, surly. I think "guffaw" was another. (I got to demonstrate that, too.)

Today, he brought back the results of his vocabulary test: 50 questions he had to answer, covering 25 words (several with two or three definitions), filling in the missing vocabulary word when given the definition. (I think that's a big test by fourth grade standards.) He aced it. Didn't miss any of 'em.

(Can you tell how proud I am?)

Fun with Domain Transfers

I have — or rather, I had — three domains registered through Google, that I had set up a few years ago. At the time, that seemed like the quickest-and-easiest way. But behind the scenes, those domains are registered through GoDaddy — and I do not want to do business with them. I've been putting off transferring them, mostly because I had too much else to do — there's almost always something more important than a domain transfer that needs to be done — but they're all up for renewal in the coming weeks, so "now" seemed like as good a time as any.

Geez, what a hassle it is to transfer your domain out of Google.

First, you have to go to GoDaddy and make sure they're no locked (they probably are), but don't do anything else — even a simple change to your account records will lock you in for another 60 days! From there, you have to go to DomainsByProxy — turns out, this company I had never heard of, they're managing the contact information on each of my domains for some reason, and I'll need to go through them to turn off "Privacy." Of course, having been unaware that this service was being provided to me, I had no login or password to access the account (I have an account?), so I had to go through several steps to change the password I had never (to my knowledge) set up in the first place. Then, I could turn off "Privacy."

On good advice, I decided to bring the domains over to Hover. They have lots of information and useful tutorials on their site to guide you through the process of transferring a domain specifically from Google, as it isn't for the faint of heart. If not for the minor point that there's nothing (anywhere on the site!) to clue you in that your user name needs to be all lowercase when you set up an account, why, the transaction, it might have been just about perfect.

(I'm sure there will be all kinds of jiggery-pokery required to complete the transition, but that shouldn't be too difficult.)