My daughter has some friends over by her mom’s house. The boys are (usually) really nice and she really likes them. It’s her first real neighbor friends since her mom lives in what is basically a retirement neighborhood (not really, but most of her neighbors are probably enjoying liver and onions for dinner right now) and my neighbors are constantly outside smoking – not really my first choice for play friends.

This morning, my four-going-on-five-year-old daughter says, “Daddy, what are balls?” Knowing what she was getting at, I probed, “what do you mean by balls?” She nervously replied, “you know, on your body…”

I said, “lets just call those ‘jubilees,’ sweetie. The word, ‘balls,’ is rude.”

As you can imagine, I needed to find out where she learned her new vernacular… and, of course, it was the older of the two neighbor boys. I figured as much. I’m not really mad, because eight-year-old boys say those kinds of things, but I was taken aback since, well, she’s four.

Okay, time to go teach some boys what a ‘baseball bat’ is (an actual baseball bat, you pervert).

This is a shoot that I did with three-month-old Ryan and his parents, yesterday. It’s best viewed by clicking the “full-screen” button on the bottom right of the slideshow. Enjoy.

http://www.fuzzmartinmedia.com/clients/2009/Ryan/

While remarking about the recent shooting of two police officers, allegedly by an 18-year-old that may have schizophrenia, Milwaukee’s mayor, Tom Barrett said,

I don’t care what these special interest groups say. I want them to see what happens in that hospital room when you’ve got police officers laying there because someone says it’s a great idea to be carrying a gun in the middle of the city. It has to change and it has to change now. I don’t want to go through this again in this community.

Are you kidding me, Tom? Yes, there are SO many special interest groups calling for 18-year-old schizophrenic thugs to carry guns.  You “don’t want to go through this again in this community?” Well, then you better start teaching parents how to better raise their children, eliminate gangs, oh, and find a cure for schizophrenia. This has nothing to do with responsible citizens owning guns, this has everything to do with irresponsible parenting and an inner-city culture of violence.

The shooting was a tragic event. My prayers are with the officers and their families. This situation, however, can in no way be put upon the shoulders of the “special interest groups” that Barrett was referring to. He should be ashamed of himself for trying to cash in on the officers’ injuries, politically.

…why hast thou forsaken me?

60°? Seriously? 60°.

I know it looks funny, but the proper spelling of the past tense of the word “cancel” is “canceled.” “Cancelled” is acceptable, but the one-L version is the right way (unless you’re British – then use two Ls).

If you are, indeed, an American, and you don’t spell flavor as “flavour” or color as “colour,” then use one L.

Carry on.

If you haven’t heard already, the West Bend Library is immersed in controversy over whether or not books that contain explicit, adult-oriented material should be moved from the library’s young adult section to the regular adult section.

Those opposed to moving the books consider the proposal to be censorship.

I’m on the record as stating that both sides of the West Bend Library issue are flawed and unable to look at things logically. Last night’s library board meeting only highlighted my sentiments.

The side that wants to move the books is backed by an ultra-religious group that thinks that supplemental pro-Christian material (pamphlets, etc.) should be placed in the library to balance out all of “the smut.” Last night, in fact, one of the “move the books” proponents went as far as to say that books like Harry Potter should be torn up and burned.

Whooooooa, pops. You lost me.

There are books in the young adult (11-15 years old) section that talk about fellatio and all sorts of other sexual acts in great detail. I would feel more comfortable with the library moving those books the regular grown-up section. But burning books? Sorry, Hitler, this is America. We don’t do that here.

The problem with the opposing side is that they come off like they are forcing sexuality down everybody’s throat (so to speak). They say that sexually explicit books should be left in the youth section so that parents “have the choice” of whether or not their kids should be able to read them.

The “parents’ choice” concept sounds reasonable, but then that group also brings kids’ sexuality into the argument. Some of their speakers over the last few months have talked about their own sexuality and how hard it was for them as homosexual teens growing up. They use the adversity that they experienced as an argument for keeping the books where they currently reside.

This issue isn’t about being gay or straight, it’s about sexually explicit books that are mixed in with books written for 11-year-old children.

As a logical parent, without religious or sexual agendas, I would much rather see the books moved to the grown-ups’ section. Moving them still allows parents the ability to dictate what their children read, and since there are no age restrictions on any areas in the library, there is no actual censorship taking place. Everyone is a winner.

Last night, however, the board decided to leave the books amongst the rest. After hearing those screaming about burning books and how God was going to strike them down, there was no way that the board could have sided with those people. I don’t like their decision, but it was the right one at this time.

You know, because it’s Monday.

It’s sad that I even noticed they were using a Hassleblad camera in that shoot… but I did.

Stealth beer can – for those times when your shakes are so bad that you just can’t stand it.

I don’t like American Idol.

I can’t stand The Bachelor.

I hate John and Kate (though I can’t hate their eight).

But I can’t get enough of the National Spelling Bee on ABC. Kudos to a big network for putting something smart on television for once.

When XM and Sirius merged last year, many figured that the new company would give listeners the best of both services. After all, providing separate programming is expensive and defeats the purpose of the merger: cost savings.

That hasn’t happened.

I first purchased an XM radio when it was rolled out in Wisconsin in either 2000 or 2001. In 2004, I dropped the service for a few years, and then picked it up again in 2007. Last month, when I traded in my Pontiac for a new 2009 Ford, my service switched from an XM-branded radio to a Sirius-branded one.

After owning both brands, here’s what really irks me about the two:

1. Many good stations from XM (20 on 20, Fox Sports Radio, Kiss, et al.) are not available on Sirius.
2. The “Best of XM” package on Sirius does not include any of the really good stations. In fact, most of the “best of” stations are quite horrible and should simply be dropped altogether (especially XM Public Radio, The Bob Edwards Show, and The Virus).
3. The “Best of Sirius” includes: Howard Stern, Martha Stewart, the NFL, NASCAR, and Playboy Radio. That’s a little more value than the garbage that comes with the “Best of XM” package.
4. Though my car is new and came out after the merger, some of the stations do not show the right channel name yet. Backspin (Sirius 39), for example, displays some other station name.
5. The packages cost the same, except XM has over 170 channels, and Sirius has 130 channels. The audio quality is the same, so why is the price the same for 40 less channels on Sirius?

I’m going to let my Sirius trial expire and go back to 100% local radio. Sirius XM needs to get serious (sirius? ). What they truly need to do is merge everything together at the same price point, get rid of similar talk stations, and increase the perceived value for the subscribers.

Local radio already has the highest value for its ’subscribers’: it’s free. Plus your local radio stations do great things for your community, including:  offering up-to-date local news and information from local personalities, employing local staff, promoting local events, and the programming is just as diverse as  you’ll find on XM or Sirius.

It was a beautiful, but long day. I figured I’d try to release some stress by taking my camera for a long walk. I didn’t actually think that it was four miles from my house to the Horicon Marsh… but it was. My feet hurt. 

My fiance, Tracy, is graduating from UW-Milwaukee with her Bachelor of Science in Nursing, this Sunday. I am so proud of her. Congrats on all of your hard work and your new (or at least newly upgraded) job. :*

And we were told George Bush was an idiot:

How embarrassing.

Hopefully this article will save one person from getting a headache.

If you have created a PHP file upload script and you are not able to get the file to actually upload to your GoDaddy.com hosting account, here are a couple of things to check for:

1. Run a phpinfo script (create a new page with only <?php phpinfo(); ?>) and open it up. Check to see which version of PHP you are running.
2. If you are running PHP 4, then open the PHP.ini file (in the root directory) and change the upload_tmp_dir line from “/tmp” to “./php_uploads”
3. If your phpinfo script states that you are running PHP version 5 +, then make the same change, above, then duplicate your PHP.ini file and rename it php5.ini

That should do the trick. YMMV.

For a good 75 seconds, I was all alone on my side of the Panera restaurant trying to get some work done. While there were are at least 13 empty tables on this side of the divider wall, two HUGE women decided that they wanted to sit down at the table right next to mine. These weren’t just big women, they were big women that had two of the loudest mouths and stories that I have heard in a long time.

It was impossible for me to even think, much less work, with this kind of garbage four feet from my head:

Woman one: “Well, Tommy has never even been to Summerfest, but he’s really looking forward to going this year.”

Woman two: “You know, they’re saying that if this Swine Flu turns into a pandemic, there won’t be a Summerfest this year. They’re going to cancel Summerfest, and the Washington County Fair, and the State Fair, and all of those other big events. I bet there won’t even be baseball games.”

O.M.G. I need to leave.

Why do we need the rain, anyway?

…way to go SEALs!

…like a boss…