He slept over last night. In the evening, while we watched Ice Age (1st one) out in the rec room, he insisted on removing his shirt.
It wasn't cold, but not warm enough to play Tarzan. Yet he was adamant about not wanting to wear one.
So I'm trying to figure out how to get him dressed. And I remembered a trick I saw his mom do .. the ol' trade > "If you want this, you gotta do that."
Ice Age ended and he wanted me to put in Polar Express (excellent flick, btw). So I said, "Okay, if you want me to put on polar express, you first have to put on your shirt."
Dude, it totally worked! Real slickly, too. Not one bit of grumbling. I was so pleased with myself .. outwitting a 2-year-old . =)
••••• today's entry continues below •••••
For the first time today, he also asked the question, "Why?" While standing on a mini step-ladder at the kitchen sink, he squirted water from a spray-nozzle there (attached to flexible hose) while I fixed us a snack at the stove .. and water started spraying everywhere.
I said, "Don't do that. Spray it down into the sink." And he asked, "Why?" My folks would usually say things like, "Cuz I *said* so." I tried to come up with something a little more imaginative > "Cuz you're making a mess." Later I thought, "We've entered a new era." > the Why? era.
With a toddler, the word mess takes on new meaning. I've learned not to sweat the small stuff. After dealing with untold volumes of poop, pee & puke (the 3 P's) you learn not to sweat little things like water. And when I have him, I've learned to avoid friends I consider fastidious.
Back to technology. I enjoy technology, for the same reason I always enjoyed math in school (highest grade in Calculus class) > it's either right or wrong. With technology, it either works or it doesn't.
Being a good dad involves too many variables outside my bailiwick, which make it difficult to produce results that are similarly clear-cut. My dad world is not black-or-white, or right-or-wrong, like math is.
Oddly enough, I find comfort in technology (tho many hate it, for the troubles it can cause), cuz there I find a certain predictability not possible with my dad world. And if technology ever turns on you, it's never personal.
Perhaps I should note, that last week, I donated my weekend to the Bug's mom, since it was Mother's day. Awful generous of me, wouldn't ya say?
Been looking into Virtual Private Servers (VPS) .. by trading emails with Lunarpages support to learn how that deal that works.
Odd how Basic Hosting (which I have now) comes with 350 gigs of storage (which few will ever use) & costs less than 10 bucks a month. Yet a VPS account only comes with 20 gigs storage (still way more than the 2 or 3 I need) .. tho costs $40/month. Seems like the numbers are backwards (you pay more, but get less). So I asked why. Their response:
VPS is specifically for customers who have higher CPU/RAM usage than a normal site, or for people that need shell access. You trade off a lot of space to get that.
There are many restrictions on shared servers that are necessary to provide reliable services to all users on the server. VPS users control a lot of the settings on the server thus getting customized environment for website and server needs.
The only difference between VPS and dedicated server is that in VPS you share the physical server hardware with other VPS accounts, while you are the only user on the dedicated server who can utilize entire server. Consequently, VPS has a reduced cost, however, with reduced performance.
They said they put ~25 VPS accounts on a server. (I have no way to verify.) Notice how dedicated hosting (you get your own server) costs $100/month (up to $210). If they put 6 VPS accounts on one server, they already make more than max possible for a dedicated server.
Yet they say, "25". Do the math. Seems like they make way more on a (shared) VPS server, compared to one that's dedicated.
With a VPS, you can configure it *exactly* how you want. With Basic, you get what they give you (or move to a new server). Tho what they give isn't shabby.
I think a web site uses more server CPU cycles when it runs what they call a dynamic site, typically based on MySQL databases & PHP web scripting (like Drupal uses).
Both the Rad forum & new blog, tho each a CGI script, are based on a "flat file" system, with web pages generated *before* you request them (not when you do, as dynamic sites do), which means you get my web pages a little faster than you would had I used a dynamic blog or forum.
Movable type (my blog) has the ability to run dynamically and I thought of testing that feature (via new installation). Tho they caution against a site using too many server CPU cycles. (Tweaks available to minimize.)
Nobody wants to get the call from their web host saying their site is using too many server resources.
I don't need a VPS (and certainly not a dedicated server), tho it would definitely be cool, and allow me to experiment with things, which I would enjoy doing. Wouldn't have to worry about Drupal or other dynamic prgms using too many server resourses. Hard to justify, tho.
Finally, Maria called today, wanting to know how to get a domain name for a web site on Feng Shui she wants to start. She has flown to classes in San Francisco. She said I should write something on it, but I know nothing about Feng Shui (except you're supposed to keep shut the toilet lid, so the energy in the house doesn't escape down the drain .. and you're supposed to keep a shiny tea kettle on the stove).
I sent her to GoDaddy. I think she was looking for domain named time-space-mgmnt.com. I was eating late brecky with the bug at Plums and couldn't hear her well, cuz that place is kinda loud. (They have the best sausage I've ever had. It's from Oregon.)
This just in. (Good news.) Looks like it's possible to tweak TinyMCE WYSIWYG editor (which I use with the blog) to quit stripping out the rel="lightbox" tag used by Lightbox. That was starting become a real nuisance.
Lotsa apps use TinyMCE, such as Drupal, tho I haven't yet installed that module.