Somehow I've agreed to teach HTML & PHP classes on Friday mornings. Two down, at least two to go. I enjoy teaching, and you know I enjoy making websites, but the getting-up-before-dawn-at-the-end-of-a-long-week part is agony. I wind up stumbling over the finer points of the lecture and forgetting answers to questions, and then being dizzy all day from lack of sleep. It has helped me discover that Friday afternoons are the best time to group-interview job candidates, because the loopy spirit in the room puts them at ease. But it has also reconnected me to a love of the basics of building web sites, and I see the enthusiasm in the classroom that got me started on this stuff years ago. Anybody can learn how to make a web site, and it's a lot of fun to make one, and the fact that I get paid to do what I'd do all day anyway continues to make me feel like I've unlocked some secret code for happiness.


Six Replies to Happiness, That's My Livelihood

Amy Austin | August 31, 2009
Color me all kinds of jealous... and wishing that I could take one of your classes, too. ;-)

Steve West | August 31, 2009
I was thinking the same thing. That sounds like an awesome class.

Jackie Mason | August 31, 2009
[hidden by author request]

Aaron Shurtleff | August 31, 2009
Dang! And here I was thinking it would be cool to learn this stuff, and everyone's already said it!

Of course, I might be close enough to sneak in and ninja audit the class...

Dave Stoppenhagen | August 31, 2009
You do virtual classroom? I'd like to learn as well. LOL

Amy Austin | August 31, 2009
Sign me up for ninja audit, too, please. Or not. Either way, we r n ur klasrum...


Logical Operator

The creator of Funeratic, Scott Hardie, blogs about running this site, losing weight, and other passions including his wife Kelly, his friends, movies, gaming, and Florida. Read more »

The Revised Revised Revised Story

Last spring, This Modern World ran a great parody charting the decline of civil liberties in recent years, after the then-shocking revelation that the government was building a database of every call made in the country: (link) I was reminded of that over the weekend as the latest shocking revelation came out, that the FBI has vastly abused its new ability to request confidential information in the interest of national security (link), almost as if it was the next panel in the strip. Except I'm not laughing. Oh, what I'd have given to be the reporter at Alberto Gonzales's press conference this morning. Go »

Illinois 2013: Four Pictures

As a follow-up to my Illinois road trip, here are photos taken at our engagement party. Shown are Kelly and me, Matthew Preston with his wife Liz, and Jackie Mason with her husband Will. I wish that our photographer Lori Lancaster was in one of the shots, but I'm grateful to her for taking the pictures all the same. Go »

Fur and Feathers

Yesterday was a good day: To celebrate my mother's 75th birthday, we took her out for a day around Sarasota doing things that appealed to her love of animals. After starting with a big breakfast, we went to a local attraction that we've all been meaning to see for years, the Big Cat Habitat that takes care of exotic animals that were born in captivity but abandoned by their owners. The lions and tigers and liger were the prime attraction, but they also had bears, monkeys, a chimpanzee, parrots, emu, turkeys, goats, koi, and even stranger animals like a kangaroo, kinkajou, and coati. Go »

Open Letter to a Lab Technician at Manatee Memorial Hospital

Just a few things that I would have liked to have said if I could have gotten a word in edgewise: - Yes, there is a strong correlation between ultra-processed food and obesity, but so far, no causal connection has been proven. - No, organic produce is not *all* covered in pesticides anyway, although some is farmed using non-synthetic pesticide and some winds up exposed to synthetic pesticide anyway for a variety of reasons. - Bill Gates promotes and invests in soy-based meat replacements because he believes that soy products are better for the environment and for human health. Go »

Scary Mary

New horror film? Thanks, Jon. Go »

The Phoenix

This is the last of four weekly blog posts about diagnoses that have completely changed my life since the pandemic started, after The Dragon, The Tiger, and The Serpent. I saved the lightest one for last. Many people who discover later in life that they're neurodivergent have reported spending years aware of the symptoms and signs of their condition without ever considering that the description might apply to them, and when they do finally realize, it's as if a thousand mysteries are solved at once: Things that never made sense are all suddenly explained. Go »