¶ The cave is empty: Davison Online as it was ceases to be as of today...

Happy Easter, everybody! This crossposted news entry represents the death of the HTML-editor-based weblog I've run since February 1997. It started with simplistic Adobe PageMill 2.0, moved quickly to also simplistic Adobe PageMill 3.0, underwent a sizable transition to GoLive's CyberStudio 3.0 which was at the time the state-of-the-art, and followed all this by transitions to Adobe GoLive 4, 5, 6, and now CS.

For those wondering why I'm abandoning this sort of blogging, the answer is easy: For running a weblog, the HTML-editor scene has run its course. I've created a workflow in GoLive that is about as streamlined as can be, and it's painful in its tedium and its time-consuming steps. Even this entry will take at least 5 to 10 minutes in addition to typing time simply because various files need to be updated or moved. That doesn't include a secondary but no less bothersome point: Five years worth web site materials under GoLive on a G3/500 makes for pretty slow computer response times.

So Davison Online as it was ceases to be as of today....

...and yet your favorite(?) self-deluded online superstar is not finished with his online prattling. No! Only death or incarceration—no bets, please on which is more likely—will stop these online missives. As I've mentioned previously, I'm moving everything to a Movable Type-based weblog system, and I'm happy to announce that the prototype is ready for viewing at http://www.siterev.com/davison/mt/. You may even see a few new entries from earlier this month.

A few notes about the new site: The user interface is incomplete, most of the old site has not been moved (yet), and the commenting system is not presently operational. Nonetheless, I think what you'll find ultimately is that this new system is as good if not better than the old and that if offers a few features that I could not hope to have implemented using GoLive. Further, because the updating is dramatically easier and more efficient, I should be posting more frequently. We'll shall see if this is a good thing.

And so my friends, an online rebirth on a day that seems made for just that thing.

¶ Notes from all over: There's a darn fine reason I've not updated in a week or so. Actually, there are several.

Trinity is basically out of hard drive space. Considering that this is a 3 year old business machine, I think it's done pretty well. But I need it to do better, so I dumped 400 MB yesterday and will probably need to deep-six another gigabyte shortly just to reach minimum safety levels.

For those of you who are unaware, when you run low on hard drive space under Mac OS X, everything slows to a crawl. Unless you have just gobs of RAM (which Trin at 384 MB doesn't), the system uses virtual memory to page out stuff to the hard drive so that you can run tons of different programs simultaneously. When that hard drive space is full, clunk, clunk, clunk. Look at the pretty beach ball cursor. So that's one thing.

A second item is that I've been busy finishing up www.DavisonFamily.us, my genealogy site. Feel free to check out my family tree and play with the forums. Something similar, so far as the forums go, is coming to Davison Online in the near future.

Thirdly, which I should have perhaps mentioned first, is that I've got www.JonahDavison.com online and running—including a really spiffy picture gallery. (The Dot Mac galleries will be offline soon.)

Other random notes:

Although the actual date is today, we celebrated Erin's birthday yesterday with dinner at a local Mexican restaurant and dessert at my parents' place. She got flowers at work today from a couple of folks including her parents. She's 29 again this year.

Jonah started his swimming lessons this evening. The water was a little cold (83 degrees) and he was a little uncertain about everything, but both Erin and I thought he did great considering this is the first of four straight weeks in which he'll be going to the pool.

Although it was truncated, our visit with Erin's cousin Adam and his family on Saturday was very nice. We enjoyed seeing his twins on their first birthday, and we're looking forward to meeting with everyone again soon for a more extended visit.

We loved seeing everyone at Joe and Carol's baby shower. Good food, good people, great times.

I've started a little bit of the demolition work in the room upstairs. Hopefully I'll have some help coming this Saturday to assist me in destroying things. It's always more fun as a team.

Weather permitting, Joe and I will be making a remodeling materials run using his truck this Friday. If we could get the sheet rock here still in 8 x 4 foot sections, that would be awesome. Hopefully the sun will be shining.

Davison Online will be undergoing a substantial transformation as I transition it away from Adobe GoLive to MovableType. GoLive is a fine product, but when there's automated blog software available (for free), I'd have to be crazy not to consider it. Presently I'm using it for Jonah's site, and assuming I can get the look I want for my site (something I didn't fiddle with very much on Jonah's), then I'm going for it. MT is so much easier to use and so much less work, that in the long run it's going to save me a huge amount of time.

Once you have kids, it's all about saving time.

¶ Here goes nuthin': The remodeling projects begin, leaving me with feeling somewhat akin to hitting the Hyperspace button in Asteroids.

I've begun hauling stuff out of Erin's office. Over the course of the next week we'll be attempting to get both her office and our bedroom emptied so that we can begin the demolition work. I plan to order windows for her office on Monday. If everything goes according to plan, we'll have the room converted into a nursery for Baby Davison #2 by early June at the latest. (Baby Davison #2's planned arrival is next Spring sometime, but I'm getting way ahead of myself just mentioning that.)

The master bedroom will see insulated walls and new windows. Probably a closet organizer and new lights as well. Ultimately, that room will get re-worked with a walk-in closet, but that's part of the Big Remodel™ that's some seven to 10 years off. For now, I'll just be thrilled with new windows and insulation.

I'm also going to be remodeling Davison Online soon. Things have gotten unwieldy on the HTML coding end, and, believe it or not, I'm running out of web hosting space both here and on Dot Mac. So we're going to separate some things, work some mojo, and try to keep the dust down to a minimum.

First, you'll soon be able to visit www.JonahDavison.com for all the latest pictures and news on everybody's favorite pint-sized superhero. Admittedly, this will probably just kill traffic to my own site.

Second, my domain of www.TyDavison.com will become a music-centric web site featuring, as you might guess, music, news, and information about my musical endeavors. Later this year, you'll be able to order my CD from here.

Third, www.DavisonFamily.us will actually acquire some genealogical content. I've had a site and the domain name for a year now and done almost nothing with it. That'll be changing come this summer.

Fourth, I may update www.SiteRev.com. Or I may not. Business is good, but it's not because of the web site. So a remodel here is low on the priority list.

Fifth, I may be closing down Ty's Dot Mac. This will shock a few of you who've been on the receiving end of my rants about how great Dot Mac is. Well, Dot Mac remains pretty cool. What it offers is the cat's pajamas when it comes of easy of use and smooth Mac integration. They've a number of features that integrate with their software (iCal, iPhoto, iMovie, Backup, etc.) to form an incredibly nifty service. Really, it's a bargin at $99 a year. But for the things I use it for, I can replicate the functionality on a WebDav-enabled web server and get a lot of other bonuses (not to mention 16x the web space) for about twice the money. So Dot Mac may not be a great deal for me just because I'm running so many web sites. It's a sparkling deal for just about everybody else, though.

Sixth and lastly, I'll be reworking Davison Online substantially. A number of sections (News, Opinion, Sports, Macintosh) will be melded, though they'll remain searchable by category, keyword, and date. Additional interactive features like polls and comments will be added. The Yahoo! Groups Clubhouse, an online ghosttown if ever there was one, will be permanently shuttered, and we shall resolve never to speak of it again. The Chess!, Quotes, and For Sale sections will be updated to conform to the new look of the site. The For Sale section in particular will receive a gigantic make-over in hopes of, you know, actually selling things. The relatively static Who I Am and Site Info, visual tweaks aside, will remain almost unchanged.

All of the above represents a gigantic if not overwhelming amount of work, and to those of you who will be helping us in any fashion, already my thanks.

¶ Welcome to the world: Travis Anthony Hemstreet, 9 lbs. 3 oz and 22 inches long, chooses St. Patrick's Day to make his first appearance.

Our dear friends up in Alaska, Suzanne and Dave, are the proud parents of a baby boy! They're planning a family trip to Oregon in a few months time at which point I should have more information and perhaps a few images. In the meantime, everyone is doing well. Congratulations!

¶ Into the Woods: Where we find the Jonah, the USDA, and Ty's computer travails.

While our friend Vicki did some babysitting, we took my parents to Sprague's production of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's Into the Woods, a life's journey musical allegory using Brothers Grimm characters. The performances were, in a word, superb. I had my favorites, but to list them would be almost a disservice to the other actors. There wasn't a bad cookie in the bunch. Since this was a musical, I will, however, take this opportunity to highlight Amanda Hopkins, who played Cinderella. Hers is an enchanting voice, and I would not be surprised if it were heard again on a larger stage. Indeed, were it up to me, she should go through life singing instead of talking, such a joy her voice is to behold.

Jonah's had a cold these last few days. His coughing isn't too bad and although his nose is running a fair amount, it's nothing compared to the drool he's laying down everywhere thanks to the teething. He can walk around now holding onto just one hand. We think his first independent steps may be only a week or so away.

Latest on the USDA front: Some consumers quite understandably wish to have the beef they buy tested for Mad Cow. Some slaughterhouses would like the same, both to reassure US consumers and to resume exports to countries like Japan which now require such testing. The USDA's position? Independent testing for Mad Cow is illegal and not allowed. Since this makes no sense whatsoever—even Republicans are in favor of individual freedom and free markets—most of the present speculation is that Mad Cow may be rampant in US herds and that by controlling the only testing lab in the US (in Ames, Iowa) the USDA can continue to ring the dinner triangle for the US beef industry. That they tested less than 20,000 cattle last year out of 35 million slaughtered in the US (with some 135,000 downers) should continue to way heavily on all non-vegetarians.

I've sent the Compaq Presario to recycling after pulling all the usable components (CD-RW, Floppy drive, 10 GB hard drive, RAM). I talked with KFE Microsystems, a local PC vendor, and was told the Compaq's stuff is, mildly put, crap. They had similar things to say about Dell, in case anyone wonders. So I may—with emphasis on may—try to dig up a PC case, motherboard, and processor to get a Linux box running. I'm in no rush to acquire these items, but if they fall into my lap at a price approaching free then I might see what Linux is all about. In the meanwhile, I'm plenty content with the Macintosh platform.

¶ I don't need more hours in a day: I need more days in a week.

We enjoyed a nice get-together at Matt & Ginger's over the weekend. It provided attendees, namely Dennis, Maria, Joe, Carol, Matt, Ginger, Laura, and ourselves, a good opportunity to catch up. Jonah was, I'm sorry to say, not in best form, having slept only 30 minutes during the day. That coupled with a lot of teething pain made him a lot less friendly than normal. He's no better off today, so what do you other than wait things out? Unfortunate that those in attendance didn't get to see his good side since he is regularly a very sweet and mild child. Regardless, we had a fun time.

The weather turned spectacular yesterday with a high hovering near 70. I took the opportunity to head to Bush Park for my first kick-around soccer game of the new year. I would characterize the quality of my play as somewhere south of "mediocre." I had a few decent shots, passes, etc.—including one brilliant over the head trap and score (thank you, thank you)—but the totality of my performance would not be regarded as masterful.

A number of factors have conspired to set back my off-season soccer training, though I continue it in earnest. First, Jonah's inability to sleep through the night, when it happens, absolutely levels me the next day. I can usually barely stay awake let alone go run on a treadmill. Second, I tweaked my back last weekend and pulled a neck muscle this weekend. Both have responded well to treatment—the latter well enough that I could play on Sunday—but it's been tough. As I say, I'm still at it though.

I've made no progress whatsoever on my little Compaq Presario Linux box project, but it's not like I'm in a big hurry either. The bigger task facing us begins later this month when we move all our junk out of Erin's office and our bedroom in preparation for remodeling those rooms. We're looking at two months of big-time chaos, but we're hopeful that this is the last of the major remodeling headaches until we do the big one that vaults the living room ceiling, expands the kitchen and dining area, and moves the stairs. That's 10 years off, but I dare say it will probably cause some inconvenience.

I wanted to say my bit about gay marriage, and my bit is this: In the absence of any demonstrable harm, how can anyone say this is a bad thing? If two people love one another, let them get hitched. Religions are free to define marriage however rightly or wrongly they choose, but government—which proposes to be separate from the church—should be in the business of insuring equality under the law for everyone, including in this case gays and lesbians. Those who feel like the institution of marriage is somehow assaulted by gay marriage would do well to consider no-fault divorce, Who Wants to Marry a Millionaire?, and the Fox TV channel as far bigger threats.