ps -u dad

Plimsolls are back

2012-03-28T09:00:00.001-04:00

About this time last year I made a half hearted attempt to get fit and start running. My attempts, to this day, continue to be pretty half hearted, but my trainers were beginning to wear out.

I've been thinking about the idea of barefoot/minimal running for a while; my thoughts on the subject have always been pretty simplistic, we've been running for thousands of years without heavy shoes, why do we need them?

Well it turns out that there are a lot of people with the same opinion. We'll I've been fairly well convinced that heavy heal shoes are doing no end of harm to my knees, bones and muscles, so I thought I'd give the minimal shoes a try. There are a lot out there, but the key part is that there is zero drop between the ball and heel, basically the sole is thin, all the way from the front to the back.

According to wikipedia basically the best thing to run in is the plimsolls we used to wear at school (if you don't know what plimsolls are you should ask your parents). Children, and soldiers alike, did their exercise in them, they are cheap and effective; unfortunately their modern incarnations are both expensive and have thick soles.

On to plan B. There is no way on earth that you are going to get me into a pair of 5 toed shoes, sorry, I look enough of a prat just running, I don't need help. Fortunately Merrell have partnered with Vibram to create their "Gloves", basically the FiveFingers without the FiveFingers; and according to REI they are a better shoe.

I went to my local REI, to pick up a pair. I was hoping for the "Road Glove", but they didn't carry it, and I had read that the Merrell glove range are all pretty good, so I picked up these nifty "True Gloves"

I decided that it would probably be best if I wore them in, walking, before I ran. Sure enough I got myself some lovely blisters, but that's about all.

Yesterday I finally went for my first run in them; and they were great! I'd already been trying to run hitting mid-foot, instead of heal first, but these made it basically impossible to hit heel first! If you try, it really hurts. I had a very comfortable run, and as the warnings said I kept it short. My feet did feel like they had taken a pounding, but that didn't last long. They certainly make your feet stretch out more, but not in a bad way.

I'm really looking forward to my next run, and that is something new for me!

dad@home ~ $ ps -u dad
PID TTY TIME CMD
12311 pts/0 00:20:32 run > /dev/road

/dad

Politics and Religion

2012-02-09T08:35:00.001-05:00

The two things that we should never talk about, because the conversation becomes heated. Well, let's talk about it, let's have that heated conversation. My discussion here is not a delve too much into either, it's about the merging of the two.

I grew up in a country that had an official religion, and religion never seemed to be an issue in politics; I now live in a country that has an explicit separation of the two, and have never seen more discussion of religion in politics in my life. I know that is an oft stated comment, but it's true.

I believe that there should be no merger of politics and religion, there shouldn't even be a blurry line. Many people make comments like "No Catholic should vote for candidate X because he's pro-choice". We'll, here's my problem with that....

I was brought up Catholic, I was enshrined with the belief that life is sacred, from conception right through to natural death. I was also taught that I should not force my beliefs on other people, and there's the rub. If I vote for a presidential candidate (which I cannot by the way) because he wants to overturn Roe v. Wade, then that would be to force my belief on other people. The other aspect of this is at the other end of the scale; all life is sacred, and we should "hate the sin, not the sinner", so the death penalty should be abolished! Now we're in a dilemma, for the most part the candidate that is pro-choice is anti-death penalty, and the candidate that is pro-life is pro-death penalty; crap, can't vote for anyone!

If I were a Jew I could also make the case that I should only vote for a candidate that wanted to make eating pork illegal (even imagining this scenario makes me sad). There are many more religious rules that could be pushed into governing law like this, but if we do, we go down a very slippery slope.

It is up to a Catholic as to whether they follow the rules of eating meat on Fridays in lent, there should be no law that enforces it. Catholics also must not use contraceptives, or take part in abortions; this is for them to enforce on themselves, and not a rule that should be pushed on others.

It's not fair to ask people to completely ignore their religious morals when selecting their political affiliations. Morals are good, they make us what we are. I don't know of a religion that doesn't preach for us to take care of our less fortunate, our elderly, our infirm; this is something that governments can, and should take under their remit.

So, let's not debate about political candidates as to their attitude towards some religious rule or another; let's debate things like healthcare reform, the economy, infrastructure, defence... real politics.

dad@home ~ $ ps -u dad
PID TTY TIME CMD
21219 pts/0 00:12:08 cat /dev/spark > /dev/tinder

/dad

The Perfect Brew?

2012-02-02T06:42:00.001-05:00

It was not until I was 21 that I first consumed a... coffee. Until then I had felt that coffee was pretty foul, and only drank tea.

I would never consider myself a tea snob, I've never used leaf tea in a pot; I brew my tea with a bag and a mug. However, that tea must only have a small amount of milk, and be red!

Although I still drink tea, after my first, properly brewed, coffee, I've been hooked. What once was foul to me, now smells and tastes like morning sunshine!

The ways I've drunk coffee have changed over the relatively few years that I've been drinking it. When I started it was just instant, because I was a student and didn't have any machinery! We got an espresso maker for our wedding, a Gran Gaggia, all very fancy, but I never really got on with it.

Once we moved to the States we bought a filter coffee maker, and have been pretty happy with them since, until now. Now I've made, what I believe to be, the perfect cup of coffee. I believe that the final product is a cappuccino, but others may disagree. I shall enlighten you as to the process:

First you don't need to spend a crap load of money on a machine, we came by a 6 cup stove top Italexpress by Pezzetti. You also need a jam jar, or any that can take a bit of heat, and is at least 3 times the volume as the milk you use. The most important thing is what you put in it, this is where the expense should be made, it has to be Illy Medium Roast espresso coffee...

I fill the water well of our espresso maker, and then add 3 spoons of Illy.

Then put the beast together and pop it on the stove.

As the coffee begins to flow, I basically follow these directions to get a good foam on the milk: Pour about 125ml of milk into the jar, making sure it doesn't come up any higher than a third of the way.

Shake like hell for about 30 seconds, this should give you a foam like this:

Now put it in the microwave for 30 seconds, to make the foam take hold, and to warm the milk.

Pour out your black goodness into a couple of cups; I just have mugs:

Now pour in some milk, not too much, but don't be too shy

Spoon the foam onto the coffee, and voilà, a perfect cuppa!

Enjoy, it might just be your cup of tea!

dad@home ~ $ ps -u dad
PID TTY TIME CMD
21708 pts/0 00:12:08 brew install coffee

/dad

I guest blogged this over at:

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2012-01-18T14:00:00.002-05:00

X xxxx xxxxxx xxxxxxx xx XXXX xxx XXXX, X xxxxxxx xxxx xx xx xxxxxxxxxx xxxxxx xxxx, xxx xxxxx xx xxxxxxx

Xxxx XXXX xxx XXXX

Dreaming?

2011-11-11T16:34:00.001-05:00

We recently watched the film Inception, it was entertaining, it was thought provoking (hence this entry) but it was not perception altering.

My problem is with the basic concept of the film; no, not that you can share a dream; but the 'fact' that you don't know that you're in a dream, when you're dreaming.

I understand that, when we wake up, we 'realise' that we were having a dream, and until that point 'accepted wisdom' says that we didn't know we were dreaming. How do we know that we didn't know we were dreaming? We don't! We only know what we remember, and that is usually very little about the dream; it's perfectly feasible that we knew that it was a dream, in the dream, but we forgot, that we knew, when we woke up.

I like to think of it in similar terms as to watching a horror film. When we're watching the film, we know that it's a film, we know it isn't real, but we're still scared.

Then again, what if Inception is right, and you're all a projections? At least, in that case, I'll go with Descartes statement "Cogito ergo sum", and carry on spinning my top!

dad@home ~ $ ps -u dad
PID TTY TIME CMD
48513 pts/0 08:00:08 echo "thoughts" > /dev/dream

/dad

We Will Remember Them

2011-11-10T13:05:00.001-05:00

As you all know today is Armistice Day. In the US it's recognised as Veteran's Day. In the UK, and many other countries, there will be Remembrance services on Sunday; where all will proudly wear their poppies.

Remembrance Sunday at the Cenotaph

On this day, in 1918, the Allies and Germany signed an armistice ending the war, hence the name. At the "eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month" the guns fell silent.

This is not the time to contemplate the rights, or wrongs, of wars specific or in general. It is not a time for shops to lure us in with big sales. This a time to remember the fact that so many soldiers have laid down their lives to protect us, and the freedoms we enjoy. Not only that, but to reflect on the fact that they continue to do so.

There is a poem that strikes a chord every time I hear it. The fourth stanza of it is read during the remembrance ceremonies in the UK and other Commonwealth countries. The poem was written, by a man named Laurence Binyon, just after the Battle of Marne in 1914, to commemorate the casualties of the British Expeditionary Force. He wrote it whilst at Pentire Point, just down the road from my childhood home. I quote it here in it's entirety.

For the Fallen - Laurence Binyon

With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,
England mourns for her dead across the sea.
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,
Fallen in the cause of the free.

Solemn the drums thrill; Death august and royal
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres,
There is music in the midst of desolation
And a glory that shines upon our tears.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted;
They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;
They sit no more at familiar tables of home;
They have no lot in the labour of the day-time;
They sleep beyond England's foam.

But where our desires are and our hopes profound,
Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,
To the innermost heart of their own land they are known
As the stars are known to the Night;

As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain,
As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,
To the end, to the end, they remain.

I Love to Fly

2011-11-04T08:46:00.000-04:00

Ever since I was a little boy I've loved the idea of flying. Superman is, of course, the best super hero. I've often dreamt of flying around, like a bird. The thought of never having to depend on a machine to get from place to place appeals to me.

Obviously I have not, yet, figured out how to defy gravity; however, I still love flying. I always try to sit in the window seat, looking out over oceans and great land masses, seeing the well known landmarks from above, it's just mesmerising. As I type I am sitting in a mid sized jet, above the atlantic, off the east coast of America. The feeling of being above the clouds is just amazing.

The fact that you can travel hundreds of miles in less than an hour is wonderful. As most are aware I am an English Ex-Pat, living in the States. Without jet planes (and free international calls) it would be next to impossible for me to live here. The ability to be on the other side of the atlantic is as few as five and a half hours is just plain mind boggling. I just wish I could afford to do it more often!

Humarock from above!

I know that a lot of people are frightened of air travel; the idea of crashing is terrifying. The oft said response to this is that it's the safest form of transport; in fact, on TV this morning (so it must be true!) they stated that the equivalent of a plane load of people die on the roads of America every day (33,000 per year I think they said). I suppose the main worry people have is that they are not in control of their own fate in a plane; having said that I would never want to be in control of the plane itself, nor would most travellers!

So, once I have figured out how to create an anti-gravity suit I'll be flitting around with the birds!

dad@home ~ $ ps -u dad
PID TTY TIME CMD
24841 pts/0 01:53:08 cat /dev/dad > /dev/plane

/dad

Off Season

2011-11-02T09:59:00.000-04:00

I grew up in Cornwall, an area of England that is quite dependent on tourism. Now this comes with the good, and the bad. The good, obviously being jobs, and money. The bad, as most people from tourist regions know, is that tourists clutter the place up, they apparently never learned to drive, and they are EVERYWHERE. In fact, in Cornwall, we have a word for them: Emmet, it means 'ant'.

John on the Beach in Cornwall, a couple of years ago

At the end of summer the roads would settle down, the pubs would have seats and the jobs were gone. I suppose, it's safe to say, that for people in the industry, the offseason is a pretty depressing time. The thing for me is that I've always loved the offseason; there is a great sense of calm when you walk on the beach, it's so peaceful. The main downside to the offseason is the decline in the weather!

I've lived in Scituate now for four years, it too is popular with the tourists, but not quite to the same extent. The majority of our tourists are second home owners. The offseason here brings the same sense of calm to the area, we can walk our dogs on the beach, and enjoy the quiet moments in the town.

The dog and I were alone on the beach

Along with the calm quiet days come the stormy days, these bring amazing stormy seas. We have our Nor'Easters which are both awesome and awful. However, we get to live in one of the most beautiful parts of the country, one where everyone wants to visit.

Minot after the 'Snowtober' storm

Yes, I love being a year-rounder.

Working in the Office

2011-09-28T08:00:00.002-04:00

As you all know, I work from home. However, every week we do meet up in our office. This sucks. Sorry, let me rephrase that, it feels like a complete waste of time. I know, my dear commuting friends, that I should not complain about the travel, you do this every day, but driving in an hour of traffic to get some 'face time' feels a little ridiculous. Not to mention, on the days when there is a car chase, or some other road based nightmare, it takes you two hours to get home. This time is usually spent actually working, so productivity goes down!

Obligatory picture of a traffic jam

Obviously working face-to-face has some serious advantages. It can be easier to communicate ideas and work through problems. However, I'm becoming less and less convinced of this. I think it was true a few years ago, however things change.

To make remote working more effective the whole team needs to be remote. If some people are in an office, and others are not, the remote people end up being left out of a lot of the conversations; leading to poor communication, which is the source of most problems in companies. My team has always had a daily call, which is absolutely key to remote working; everyone stays involved, and everyone knows what's going on.

This all brings us back to face time. When your meetings are all on phone conferences people begin to seem like disembodied voices, and it becomes very easy to do other work during the call, and not take much notice, ending in poor communication... This usually reinforces the traditional argument that working in the office is better for productivity, however, things have changed for the better.

As I've said before, our daily call is now over google+'s hangout feature. Now that we've been using this for a couple of months I can attest to the fact that this makes a huge difference in the way we work. Before, when we got together in the office, it felt awkward, like you didn't know each other that well. Now that we actually see each other, every day, it feels like we actually work together, not separately. Our daily meeting is much like any office meeting, where, at the start and the end of the actual discussion, we chat about other stuff, 'water cooler' style.

I'm not saying that occasional meetings at the office are a bad thing, but the true benefits are not anything to do with productivity; they are the social aspects of working in an office. This is a very important aspect of work life, and should never be downplayed.

Well, having said all that, off to the office I go... Looking forward to lunch with the guys!

dad@home ~ $ ps -u dad
PID TTY TIME CMD
21761 pts/0 02:20:00 cat /dev/dad > /dev/office

/dad

Funny Shaped Balls

2011-09-21T08:18:00.001-04:00

I believe that the second most asked question, of an Englishman in the US, is "What 'football' team do you follow?"; of course, they put the the air quotes around the word 'football'. My response usually disappoints the enquirer, as I don't 'fit' with the expectations of an Englishman...

... I've never been a fan of Football... There I've said it! Now, of course, I mean the game with the spherical ball. Yes, "the beautiful game" is not something that I find much beauty in. I used to enjoy playing the game at school, but I played with my coach's words in my mind... 'A man can't run without legs'. This made me for an unpopular defender. Of course, the coach I am talking about was Mr Brown, the guy that trained me in the other football game, the one started at a school in Rugby.

I believe the adage goes that "Football is a game for gentlemen, played by animals; Rugby is a game for animals, played by gentlemen". I've found this to be such a telling truth, both on and off the field. Football is basically a non contact sport where people kick at each other with fury; roll around screaming on the floor, for no particular reason; and louts scream at each other in the stand and start riots after games! Don't get me wrong, rugby is played with much aggression, but it's through the rules of the game, hands are shaken before the game, and after. Unlike football, all of the fans sit together, there is no separation.

After moving to The States I found that there was a pretty vibrant rugby scene here. I joined the South Shore Anchors and played for a year or two, before I found that time becomes very short with kids.

I've started watching a third type of football, one that I have discovered was developed out of Rugby; the American variety. It's a fun game to watch, the only trouble I have with it is that it takes three hours to play a sixty minute game; oh the power of advertising.

Getting around to the reason that I'm writing this entry... The Rugby World Cup is currently being played in New Zealand. It's the 4th largest sporting event in the world, after the FIFA World Cup, the Summer Olympics and the Tour de France.

Earlier this year I was very excited to hear that NBCUniversal had the US rights to the tournament; so that I didn't have to worry about PPV on Setanta or something similar, or so I thought. I've been horribly disappointed in the fact that only the US games, and some of the knockout stages are being played on the regular stations, the rest are PPV.

I think NBC has made a horrible mistake with this. Rugby has the potential to become a very popular sport in the States; it's similarity with American Football is obvious. Rugby is a family sport, it's both much safer than American Football, and much cheaper to play. Currently people really start playing when they get to College, but it's already coming into High Schools, and younger. I think that Americans will, given the opportunity, fall in love with the true Beautiful Game.

dad@home ~ $ ps -u dad
PID TTY TIME CMD
21432 pts/0 00:25:00 find /opt/tvguide | grep -i 'world cup'

/dad

Meat & Beer

2011-08-19T11:31:00.000-04:00

What more could you want? In fact, there is almost no point in me continuing this post, the title says it all! Yes, leave now, it can only go down hill from here!

What? You're still reading, well ok... Every year the Scituate & Cohasset Newcomers Club has a BBQ night for the guys. This is something that we started a couple of years back, and has been pretty successful.

The event entails myself, and another guy (who actually is much better than me), spending the preceding day and a half smoking meat on our respective smokers. I cheat, and use my gas smoker, his is wood fired.

This year I cooked some ribs, and a couple of pieces of pork shoulder (I couldn't get any boston butt). The butt goes in a good 24 hours before the event, the ribs only take about 8 hours. I use a standard rub recipe from Dinosaur BBQ. The dog spent most of the time begging for some of the pork.

The other cook did some brisket, some more ribs, and some chicken thighs. He usually does brisket, but this year he really outdid himself; I can't wait to see what he does next year!

As you can see the picnic that I used was not quite right for the job. However, it turned out ok, I just wish I had organised a butt in advance

The process of smoking is infuriating. The trouble is, it all smells so bloody good, and all you want to do is eat it! However, once it's all cooked I wrap it in foil and put it in a cooler to keep it hot until I go to the event.

I leave the pork butt/picnic in the cooler until I arrive; once there I pull the pork, adding some more rub and some vinegar to set it all together.

Basically it boils down to eating smoked meat, drinking bear and playing corn hole. Perfect night eh?

How the stock market ruined my day (first world problems)

2011-08-10T14:11:00.000-04:00

No, this post is not about the nightmarish situation of the ups and downs of the stock market; or the collapse in value of my 401k, but quite literally how the stock market has ruined my day!

One of my favourite saying, one that I have stolen from other people, is "You only need three friends, one with a pool, one with a truck and one with a boat"; and I have found them all, so my life is complete!

On Wednesday evenings, in the summer, I often partake in an evening of racing sail boats; I know tough life isn't it? It's a great evening where we sail around Hingham Bay, desperately trying not to come in last! By far, the most important point of the evening, is to have fun and enjoy a few beers.

Tough night on the seas

One of the great advantages of working from home is that I can get to the dock in time for the race, after a full days work, without leaving early! This is not so for people who work in Boston, and have to commute.

Back to the point... My boat owning friend happens to work for a company that trades on the market; so therein lies the problem. With the current, erm fluctuation, in the markets, there has been an awful lot of what 'volume', or so I've been told.

I don't particularly understand the markets, and I don't particularly care to; but all that I know is that the high volume of trading has meant that my boat owning friend is stuck at bloody work, and can't go sailing tonight.

My friend usually also works from home on a Wednesday, but it seems that he has to be in the office this Wednesday; so the problem is, he can't get home and get to the boat, after finishing a normal office hours day.

Working in an office sucks, the stock market sucks.

dad@home ~ $ ps -u dad
PID TTY TIME CMD
22852 pts/0 03:25:08 cat /dev/tv | stew

/dad

The Tide Waits for No Man

2011-08-06T17:41:00.001-04:00

Today we spent most of the day in Scituate Harbour for the celebration of Heritage Days and Scituate's 375th anniversary. It was a good time, and fun was had by all, except for this family!

Yes it would seem that they arrived in the morning, when it was low tide, and forgot that the tide tends to ebb and flow!

A tough break for them as the seem to have travelled down from NH for a good day; and probably had one too, until they got ready to go home.

dad@home ~ $ ps -u dad
PID TTY TIME CMD
22852 pts/0 00:15:00 learn < ./other_peoples_mistakes.txt

/dad

My take on working from home

2011-08-06T11:26:00.001-04:00

I know that this subject has been covered many times before; one of the most interesting by Dale Harvey. The closest thing to the truth is the oatmeal's take. However, I think, like every other blogger out there, that I have something to say, so I might as well say it!

The bad parts - from the oatmeal

The big question

I think the most common question that gets asked is "How do you get any work done?", usually followed up with statements like "I'd just spend my time cleaning, or doing the laundry"; yes I do happen to have a lot of strange friends! Now I know that I suffer from the common problem of "bone idleness", and the newly defined "Bacheloritis", and I have never been a workaholic. In fact, I think under normal work conditions, I was pretty good at the whole work/life balance, until I started working from home! The simple answer to the question is that it's easy to get work done, it's actually hard to stop.

The first few months

In the early stages, of working from home, you spend a lot of time gloating to your old colleagues about how wonderful life is; at the same time you're going out of your mind by the fact that there just isn't anyone around! Now Skype is all well and good, but it's not the same as chatting around the coffee maker.

Initially my wife was worried that she, and the boys, would disturb me if they were around, so she did everything that she could to keep out of the house. This is obviously unsustainable, and ended up stressing both my wife and me out. The real trouble was, with my family out of the house, I was getting a bit of cabin fever, and would end up aimlessly wandering around the house.

Learning to cope

By far the hardest thing to get over is the fact that you're sitting on your own all day. The best ways that I've found in coping with this boil down to about four main areas:

The first is to get together with colleagues every now and then. The fact is, there are some things that are much easier to accomplish when everyone is in the same place. Our team is spread over a couple of states, so that makes meeting a little harder, but we all get together every six weeks or so and go out for a few beers.

Have a daily meeting, with video! Most of our meetings are over the phone, but since google+ came out with the hangout feature, we decided to try doing our daily team meetings there. In all honesty I think this has been a godsend, it's made the meetings feel more normal. The fact that you are visually interacting means that everyone is (mostly) paying attention, and it's way easier to get your point across when you're waving your arms around too!

The next is to take time off and hang out with the family, at various points in the day. One of the joys of working from home is that you get to have all of your meals together. Now I think this is a really important thing to do, as it's all too easier to grab something and go back to your office/desk. It's a great time to switch off from work, and have the all important human interaction.

The last is to get out! Get out and have a beer with non-work friends, once a week or so. I think this is important for office dwellers too, if it wasn't you'd never see any of them there!

Work/Life Imbalance

Another hard problem to deal with is the work/life balance. You thought you had it bad when you were in the office! One of the great things is the lack of a commute, however you always end up working that time anyway. My day basically seems to go like this: get up, make a quick trip down to the office to make sure that nothing major happened over night, then breakfast, then work, then lunch, then work, then dinner, then some work in front of the TV, then pay attention to the TV, then a last look at to the computer to make sure nothing major happened, then bed.

The fact that your hours are flexible makes for the problem of never having a fixed time that you leave work. One of the things I liked about my commute (an hour and a half on the train and the bus) was that I used the time to switch off, and leave my work at work. That doesn't happen anymore. It's important to switch the computer off, and walk away, at the end of the day. I say all of this but, in practice, it's the hardest thing to do, and I am still trying to learn. I try to keep weekends as non work time, but, like with any job, there is stuff that needs to get done. I am also now experimenting with having a hard cutoff at 6ish, so that after that I am 'not at work', and spend some more quality time with the family.

Most days I take some time out to take the dog for a walk, and some times I try to head out with the family for an hour or two. When work is really getting stressful, there is nothing like going to the beach for an hour with the kids to calm you down (or get you more stressed, because the little buggers refuse to do what they are told).

My mobile phone is one of the best tools I have. The fact that I get emails instantly is nothing too special, but the fact that I can set skype up on it, and still be IMing colleagues, whilst taking a walk to the beach is huge. I use a google voice account for my phone number, so any work call's I get go both to my desk, and my cell phone. This has basically made it a lot easier for me to get out of the office for a while, without constantly worrying that there might be a huge fire drill at work.

As with anything there is the good and the bad of working from home, but overall I love it, and don't know that I could go back to working in an office full time.

It's a work in progress....

dad@home ~ $ ps -u dad
PID TTY TIME CMD
22852 pts/0 03:15:00 cat /dev/dad > /dev/beach

/dad

First Post

2011-08-03T14:14:00.001-04:00

So, here goes; my first post! I suppose this warrants a bit of uninteresting drivel about me; I'm a Dad, if you hadn't already guessed from the title, along the same lines you may have also guessed that I'm a software engineer. I also happen to be an English ex-pat living in the States.

I'll probably be throwing just random thoughts at this blog, but the main 'theme' is likely to revolve around the fact that I am one of those lucky guys that gets his cake and eats it too; yes, I work from home!

So, what is dad doing?

dad@home ~ $ ps -u dad
PID TTY TIME CMD
22852 pts/0 00:15:00 write_first_post.sh

Right, best get on with some of that actual 'work' from home.

/dad