A few weeks ago, my mom's side of the family went to the photo studio at JC Penny's to get a family portrait taken. It went well, but the photos would not be ready until my mom and stepfather were out of town. So they gave the people my phone number and asked that I be called when they came in.

Of course they did not call me. They called my mom, and left a message on the answering machine. When I checked, I found the pictures were ready, and had been for two weeks. So I stopped by the store today to pick them up. It was around 5:00 PM on Sunday. This is (roughly) the conversation:

Me: Hello, I am here to pick up some pictures. Here is my sitting number.
Person behind counter (PBC): I'm sorry, we don't do weekend pickups.
Me:
PBC: Is that OK?
Me: If it's not OK, can I pick up the pictures now?
PBC: No.
Me: OK. Can I pick them up any time during the week, or are there certain times of day that are allowed?
PBC: Any time during the week is fine.
Me. OK. Thank you.

As I was walking away, I realized that I did not ask the important question of WHY, if there is a person there at the photo studio (2 in fact), did they not know the magic incantation to pick up pictures? I will inquire further as to why weekend pickup is not allowed. God forbid! People might spend the weekend looking at their pictures! And we all know why THAT is bad. Or maybe we will later this week. Stay tuned.

Every morning during the Summer, the dogs enjoy sleeping in with Melissa. Mac does not even get off the bed when I get up, get ready, and leave. Fenway will watch me walk out the door and drive away, then he is back on the bed to sleep for another hour or two (or three!). I only see Fenway's eyes and ears. Here is my view:

I like this. The idea that the best way to plan and deal with an uncertain future is to have strong opinions, weakly held. As described:

A couple years ago, I was talking the Institute’s Bob Johansen about wisdom, and he explained that – to deal with an uncertain future and still move forward – they advise people to have “strong opinions, which are weakly held.”  They've been giving this advice for years, and I understand that it was first developed by Instituite Director Paul Saffo.  Bob explained that weak opinions are problematic because people aren’t inspired to develop the best arguments possible for them, or to put forth the energy required to test them. Bob explained that it was just as important, however, to not be too attached to what you believe because, otherwise, it undermines your ability to “see” and “hear” evidence that clashes with your opinions. This is what psychologists sometimes call the problem of “confirmation bias.”

Be passionate, but flexible. The world could use a good dollop of that thinking right now. I think religious faith and how people think about it could use an infusion of this perspective. The problem, it seems, is when the immovable object of one person's beliefs come up against the unstoppable force of another person's.

I admit right off the bat I do not "get" a lot of religious practices. If you PowerPoint the important beliefs among the various Christian denominations I would be hard-pressed to identify which set went with which sect. I grew up with an Episcopal background, and like their world-view. If you are called to serve, woman, married, in some cases gay (although they seem to be backing off of that), then you are given that opportunity. Structures and rules that exclude whole segments of the population from becoming priests seems like they do not represent their congregation fully. God's creation includes all different types of people, they should all be able to equally preach their thoughts and message.

That being said, I do NOT appreciate having people try and "save" me or convert me. Convert is a funny way to phrase it, like I'm switching myself from English to Metric. I am happy to discuss my faith when asked, because it forces me to examine my beliefs and really think about them, but please don't try to push yours on me. I don't think anyone has ever converted because they were swayed by the superior logic of a given argument. Faith is not something that can be proven. It is not a theorem, wrapped up with a Q.E.D. at the end. You cannot flow-chart it (I should know, I have been flow-charting like crazy these last two weeks), or neatly outline it. Faith is messy and ragged around the edges. I think of it like a puddle of water, always flowing, changing shape as your understanding of the world changes. It should not be frozen like an ice cube, ever static and rigid. Which brings me back to my original point. If two puddles collide, you get one bigger puddle. If two ice cubes collide, you get a mess.

To sum up: More puddles, less ice cubes! That's all I have to say about that!

The DogCam™ (using patent-pending Fun-o-vision) is back online. You will probably notice a paucity of dogs, but a plethora of cats. That is because the DogCam™ (Dander-riffic!) is now pointing towards the back bedroom, which is the cats' domain.

Microsoft has announced that VirtualPC for Windows is now a free product. So you can run multiple OS's at the same time on one machine. Great for testing when a client asks that the web site they want must run on Windows XP, 2000, 98, Me, 95, 3.1, NT, DOS, and the Atari 2600.

Also, a funny story via Daring Fireball:
Franklin, writing to typeface designer John Baskerville regarding a printing customer who had complained that Baskerville’s typefaces were inferior to William Caslon’s:

Yesterday he called to visit me, when, mischievously bent to try his Judgment, I stept into my Closet, tore off the Top of Mr. Caslon’s Specimen, and produced it to him as yours brought with me from Birmingham, saying, I had been examining it since he spoke to me, and could not for my Life perceive the Disproportion he mentioned, desiring him to point it out to me. He readily undertook it, and went over the several Founts, shewing me every-where what he thought Instances of that Disproportion; and declared, that he could not then read the Specimen without feeling very strongly the Pain he had mentioned to me.

Who knew old Ben liked to have some fun with his customers! What a shame he did not have to deal with web design, and comments like "I have a hard time reading it from the other side of the room."

Melissa and I spent an enjoyable weekend with her friends. We went to the Baltimore Aquarium on Saturday. I will give them a plug here. Go! You will have a good time! The frog exhibit is pretty interesting. And their new Australia building is also very nice.

Melissa is almost halfway done with her "Summer of Classes". She is taking 4(!) classes this summer working towards her Masters, two during the first Summer session, and two during the second one. So that is keeping her busy. I am slacking this summer, no classes. Melissa is moving to a new school next year (by choice) so our house is currently filled with her classroom, all in about 30 million boxes in our basement.

The site has been updated with a few new features, and has twice the cleaning power as the next leading brand. So enjoy. And have a great Summer!