05.01.2006

(off-site links open in new windows)

Don says:

Wait'll you see the artwork Lisa's done lately.   PCLinuxOS, our favorite Linux distribution, was having a contest for a new logo image.   They wanted the actual image to be in SVG format and the sample, for judging, to be a PNG image.   Because SVG is one of her passions and because I know she has a competitive spirit, I mentioned the contest to her.   We discussed it for a while and I helped her firm up a couple of good ideas but I was out of the equation at that point.   Everytime she tries to teach me anything about vector graphics my eyes glaze over and my mind shuts down for the duration.   My favorite of her PCLinuxOS logo images shows a penguin as a chess piece with the caption "Your move".   She's the artist in the family so I left the competition to her but for my own enjoyment I opened MS Paint, you know, that clunky old app that's come with every version of Windows (so far), "borrowed" her caption and made my own little image which I then copy/pasted into Irfanview to crop, decrease the color count, edit the palette, and save as a transparent PNG image.

Reprinted from my blog at MySpace:

Every so often I get an email that goes on and on about the "good old days" and I always wonder which planet they're talking about because things were a little different on the planet where I grew up.   For example:

A black man could be killed or spend the rest of his life in jail if a white woman accused him of raping her.   No evidence was necessary.

White men could cover their faces with a sheet and never fear prosecution for destruction of property, rape, or even murder of black citizens.

Adults of all races could molest the children in their family, their neighbor's family, or children who were entrusted to them for care or teaching and never fear reprisals.   Don't ask me why, that's just the way it was.

Several families on the block where I lived, in Norman, Oklahoma (but it could have been anywhere in the U.S.) invested sizable amounts of their hard-earned income in bomb shelters because everyone lived in fear of nuclear attack by the USSR.

Women couldn't own businesses, a credit card, or buy a car without their husbands written permission.

When a couple married, the wife's property became legally the property of her husband.

Kids who did badly in school were beaten by teachers, principals, and/or parents and sometimes institutionalized because there was no such thing as learning disabilities.

A woman who committed adultery was ostracized, abused, and maybe even prosecuted.   When a man committed adultery, everyone chuckled and shrugged their shoulders.

Retarded or mentally ill persons had to be looked after by their families, otherwise they wound up in jail, or institutions that resembled jails, because there were no other facilities for them.

There's more, but frankly it's a little painful trying to recall all the things I really hate about the "good old days" so if it's all the same to you, I'll just move on now.

Lisa says:

This April 24th was our first anniversary.  Should anyone ever ask me what was the most wonderful day of my life, I'll be hard pressed to decide between August 31st, 2004; the day I first met Don in person, and April 24th, 2005; our wedding day. The pictures of our wedding are posted on this site, labelled 'Our Wedding Photos' on the home page and here is a photo of us on our anniversary this week. We didn't do anything special, just visited a few friends who meant a great deal to us.

First Anniversary

This was also a great week because we had a tremendous thunderstorm, a rarity around these parts. After a good soaking rain, everything tries to bloom as fast as it can.  All the wildflowers "go for it". It was time for the nopal cactus to bloom and the rain made it spectacular. Three days after the rain, rain lilies appeared everywhere.  In many places it looked like white confetti sprinkled across the pastures, lawns and roadsides in waves. Incredible.

 
Springtime in Texas

We've been having a blast testing the various Linux distributions. My personal favorite so far is PCLinuxOs. It's fast, light and full-featured.  The one thing I love about it is the extensive help that they offer, a distinct difference from other OSs which expect you to 'know stuff'.  When it's installed there are icons installed on the desktop that take you directly to the new user pages and to an IRC chat should you need answers to questions not covered in the help files or wiki.  Apparently the only thing lacking is a logo that captures the eye and imagination so they are having a contest to design a new one.  Here are the two I submitted but I must say there are two in the running that I like as well or better than my own. Don't you hate it when that happens?

Entries in logo contest for PCLinuxOs