A Birthday Wish to my Niece

May your consciousness be accurately duplicated, into a bio-crystal lattice, or perhaps an n-dimensional YOU stored in the very quantum structure of space-time, creating an effectively immortal you, and set forth, into the cosmos, to explore the universe, until the final energies of the universe dissipate to a state of no gradients, before you die.

- Uncle Dan

My Advice to a Dad Who is Being Mr. Mom for a Week

 We'll miss you, Vinnie. I promise to aim as many Twitter quips, at Melissa, as I usually target at you.

As a father of three myself, I offer the following advice culled from my nearly 1.5 decades of parenting:

• Clifford is your friend.

• Juice rots teeth, so utilize it only as a bribe, when needed.

• My now-14 year old became a 4 yr. old PS2 prodigy during "Daddy Week 2002". #LifeSkills #AllThumbs #JustSayin'

• Taking the kids on a picnic, to Frame Park, makes Daddy the hero to passers-by. "Wow, that guy has it all together!", you'll hear. At home that usually translates into, "I saw the McDonald's bill on the credit card statement! How could ANYONE spend $40 AT MCDONALD'S!?"

• Training wheels, schmaning wheels. Helmets, schmelmets.

• Re-usable grocery bags were made for sun-screen, extra hair brushes, Entertainment Coupon books, DSi chargers, phone chargers, e-readers, towels...OR five pounds of sand. Not both.

• Never a better opportunity to have everyone in the car singing along to Foo Fighters. "It's too loud, Daddy" should be taken as a request to crack a window. #Acoustics

• An entire day's "Honey Do" list can be condensed down to the last 45 minutes prior to one's wife's return home. This can be further reduced by an additional 10 minutes if one makes sure to have made the requested call to make a play-date for Child X. [Editor's note: I preferred to avoid that and simply start the list at the 45 minute mark instead.] 

Seeking Information Regarding Online Chat Support

Seeking:  

I need information regarding what online chat tools you and/or your organization use to support your clients/customers.  Some things in which I am interested:

; Name of service

; Do you host the solution or outsource it?

; What is your staffing model?  I.e., do phone staff support online chat or do you have a separate staff for online support?

; Are you happy with the service?  What would you change for the better?

Thank you in advance for any information.

Please post your responses to this post.  Thanks much!

Liquid Direction

Awaking to whiteness
Vague shapes surrounding
Sense of form, structure
Scuttling away before nearly grasped
Sip, ingest
Swallow, breathe
Center found, growing to encompass
Clarity
Coffee is the laser pointer to the white board that is life.

My op-ed piece on the value of Waukesha Friday Night Live

My op-ed piece on the value of #WaukeshaFridayNightLive
http://tinyurl.com/7erkuma

UWM Alternate Web Addresses

    Should the main UWM (UW Milwaukee) web site be down, please note you can access the other resources at the following locations:

PantherLINK: http://pantherlink.uwm.edu
PantherFILE: http://pantherfile.uwm.edu
PantherLIST: http://pantherlist.uwm.edu
PAWS:        http://paws.uwm.edu
D2L:         http://d2l.uwm.edu

How to Generate a Decent TrueCrypt Beginning Number Sequence & Smoke Afterwards

    When I generate a TrueCrypt beginning number sequence, I use my right hand, to randomly jiggle my mouse, up, down, and up again. Then, thinking perhaps I am using a predictable beat or cadence, I introduce my left foot, slowly stroking the mouse in a circular pattern, clockwise, left and right, counter-clockwise, etc. I lean up to my mouse, surprising it, by yelling at it, so severely, the vibrations move it, just a teensy bit, upon its near frictionless surface. My left hand comes up, pinching the mouse wheel, and I giggle, then go crazy zooming my mouse around the desktop.

    Finally, nearly spent from the effort, I click the 'Format' button, and together, we deliver a bouncing baby set of numbers, probably never seen before, or again. I then slide my 1997 Yahoo! email contact list, into the container, knowing no one, but I, shall ever access the data.

    And I rest.