Blatant Advertising…..Yep, I’m doin’ it.

“37signals” is a software company that I find myself drawn to. I have been dabbling with Ruby on Rails as a software development tool for a little over a year now (maybe a little longer, but who’s counting). I empathize with the 37signals Rails design philosopy simply stated as “Goodbye to bloat. Simple, focused software that does just what you need and nothing you don’t.”

So, 37signals is now introducing an affiliates program which allows individuals to recommend 37signals products and actually get a little compensation for the recommendation when users sign up. I’ve been 37signals “Basecamp” user for a few months now and am really appreciative of the simplicity Basecamp offers for managing collaboration efforts on team projects. My software development team members are starting to get spread all over the world. Basecamp provides an excellent team collaboration and control tool for managing all of the projects in one places. We especially love the “Writeboard” feature which acts as a version control for ideas, specification, user stories, etc.

So, I am shamelessly including this flagrant advertisement,

And, if you decide Basecamp, or any of the other 37signals products might fit your needs, please use this link => 37signals Basecamp or click on the Basecamp badge (above) prior to signing up. If you do, 37signals will throw a few bucks my way :0)

Thanks!

Memorial Day Weekend

I decided to finally re-seal the driveway pavers this weekend. On the way home I thought I’d stop at Lowe’s and pick up all the stuff I needed so I could get an early start on Saturday morning.   We  were let off from work early Friday,  around 2pm, which was a nice gesture from senior management.  So, I had a good chunk of the remaining day to really get an early start on my project.  (Yes, I know this is boring stuff, but need to keep the blog cops off my back for not keeping up with my posts).  Anyway, I went ahead and power washed the driveway pavers thinking that this would provide at least a head start for the next morning’s work.  I finished the wash job around  4pm and  sat down to  cool off. (It  was pretty hot here yesterday).   About  4:20pm I inspected the drive and  found it had dried up very nicely.  Merry wasn’t home yet so I decided to go ahead and get started with the rest of the application.  I donned rubber gloves, face mask, old clothes, hat, and sunglasses and got started.  The store clerk warned me about the fumes and insisted I have a mask.  Glad I did, because about half way through applying the sealer I was getting pretty loopy. Fortunately, it appears I applied the stuff in the right places and didn’t do too bad of a job.

Now, we hadn’t had rain for many weeks and the forecast was pretty much the same for this weekend.  As my luck goes, I awoke around 1:30am to hear the sound of pouring rain.  I got up, turned on some lights to look outside just to make sure I wasn’t dreaming.  Yep, big pouring rain.  I checked the drive this morning and it looks like the rain didn’t do any damage to my sealer job.  I guess it had dried enough before the downpour. Whew!

Between 6:30am and 7:00am this morning we heard an explosion (big bang).  This shook us both up and we jumped out of bed.  First thoughts were that the remaining sealant I had in a 5 gallon can in the garage had exploded.  I checked and everything AOK.  We went outside and checked to see if anything else was blown up or missing.  We couldn’t find anything disturbed or missing.  We don’t know what that noise was.  Was the shuttle up and coming home today? We sometimes hear a sonic boom when it flies over on approach for landing on the other side of the state.

Anyway, we hope everyone has a safe Memorial Day weekend.

- Tim

My mother…..the blog cop!

Yes, I do have a college degree, and just recently received my MBA; but apparently, I have forgotten how to spell, or maybe more appropriately “how to type”. I was reading my email this morning and was taken by surprise by my mother’s email subject line: ‘Just playing “Spell-Check” ‘.

I didn’t even know such a game existed and I’m not even quite sure how this game is scored. However, “Spell-Check” gamers apparently target public internet blogs and go after low-hanging fruit by checking for typo’s and grammatical foibles. Once they find these typographical anomalies, they then copy and highlight the offending verbiage in their chosen color (red is often used) and fire an email to the offending blogger. I assume a copy is also sent to the international word and grammar police, which I believe reside in Geneva, Switzerland, along with all those other well-known global monitoring do-good organizations.

As for me, I am also intent on comma and semi-colon proliferation, as you can see by this post. This new “Spell-Check” game now has me nervous and cautiously watching over my shoulder just in case I use an incorrect tense or flub a computer key. I now know never to use my iPhone to post a blog due to its perverted aggression and proclivity to alter my typing based on its own belief system and interpretation of my thoughts.

Sew, just four those spatial “Spill-Chick” gamers out their who are hooked on this new gaming fad, I’ve included a few spilling errors in this post. I have hidden these errors carefully sew yew won’t bee able to find them easily. Good Luck!

BTW, I can’t find out how to correctly spell “BLOG”, any ideas? And yes, I did correct my last posting atrocities.

Thanks Mom ;o)

Ok, so I’m a little behind……….

So, the family’s been emailing flak about me not keeping up to date with my blog.   I didn’t know that signing up to do a blog was accepting so much responsibility )  Anyway, just to keep ya’ll posted, I had a bout with the infamous “Collier County Crud” that made national news.  Seems everyone in this area is or has come down with a strange flu-like virus that lasts about 72 hours or so.  I got mine on Thursday and kept the darn thing until Saturday afternoon.

Merry had booked us to help with the postal worker food drive from 4pm to 8pm on Saturday so we trucked down to Naples and chipped in.  It was a little more than I counted on, but made it through somehow.  We unloaded 12 trucks of donated food, sorted and repacked for distribution to shelter for the needy and hurricane relief.   My arms felt 2 feet longer by 8pm.  Glad that’s over.

Tried to call Julie (my sister) on Mother’s day, but seemed all of Texas had shut down their phone lines.  Never did connect, but she kindly sent me an email.  Maybe I’ll get another chance later this week.  Sounds like she’s got her hands full with Ali’s graduation.    Way to go Ali!  Merry and I are very proud of your achievements.

All for now!

Tim

Sent ‘em back to Minnesota

Our friends from Minneapolis were here for 6 days packed with activities and fun.  We got to attend a large YTB meeting in Ft. Lauderdale and meet many other YTB’ers and connect with some of the shakers and bakers in our Southwest Florida area.  It’s kind of funny because before we decided to purchase our own YTB travel store, we hit the internet and looked for information about scams, pyramids, and MLM’s, etc.  You can find 360′ worth of opinions out there.  What I did find was that the positive reviews were from folks actually making it work (and we met several in Ft. Lauderdale who are from the Naples/Ft. Myers area) and the negative charges of scam and pyramid seemed to be from those folks who could never make it work, or from other travel businesses scared to death about loosing business to YTB Reps and RTA’s.  The MLM/Network Marketing controversy continues, as it will forever.  Anyway, Merry and I have a website with YTB so you can all book your travel here http://merrytimetravel.com

I almost forgot, we went fishing in Marco Island (Caxambas Pass) on Sunday and had a great time.  I couldn’t catch anything for about the first two hours and I handed my pole to Daryl so I could go get a bottle of water.  Just as soon as I handed him the pole, wham…..he landed a keeper Spanish Mackerel.  The fish now started hitting.  We landed Sea Trout, Pompano, Sheephead, more Spanish Mackerel, Lady Fish (we threw these back, kind of a small tarpon).  Rob, our host for the day, offered to filet the fish and gave us about half of the bounty.  We just finished of the last of the fish this past weekend.  It’s amazing that fresh saltwater fish have no fishy odor when cooking.  We used Jane’s (Rob’s wife) recipe which was simply grind up Ritz crackers in the food processor, add Everglades seasoning, some salt & pepper and bake for about 20 minutes at 375′ or 400′ (I think, but for more specific info you’ll have to ask Merry).   

All for now,

Tim

Friends from the frozen north are coming……

Merry and I are looking forward to seeing long lost friends, Chris and Daryl from Minneapolis, on the 26th of March.   I used to play in a band with Daryl and remember their two young daughters as infants and toddlers.  Chris and Daryl are grandparents now having many stories for us to catch up on these past 30+ years.  We are excited about their visit and hope we can infect them with Florida-itis so we can see them more often.

Gotta go to Boulder……..

I am not looking forward to our trip to Boulder, CO. next week. There are several of us from HMA going out to exercise due diligence as we investigate McKesson application software for our hospitals in the Jackson, MS. market. Physician pressure in this market is forcing us in to this product adoption. Anyway, I guess I’ll dress for colder weather……..

Learning Radiant CMS

I’ve been seeking a tool (something I don’t have to re-invent) to allow me to publish content without restrictions.  What I mean is, I want to be able to dynamically render web pages using my own style sheets and layouts but not have to go through the plumbing in order to simply “get it out there.”  I found Radiant CMS and am attempting to immerse myself in how this thing works.  By all appearances, Radiant looks to be as close to what I have been looking for as anything out there.  It also has the added benefit of being a Ruby on Rails application.  Anyway, I also need to bone up on CSS, so I grabbed my O’Reilly CSS book and am re-orienting myself in CSS.  I’ll throw a post in here later with my status and perspective.- Tim 

More Opportunity……

You will all probably think we have gone crazy, but I’m putting this multiple streams of income theory to the test. Not only has Merry embarked on her business adventure with MerryTimeTravel.com, but I now have a new website that I am promoting labeled MyMedication4You.com.

After much research and several conversations with representatives of Online Medication RX, I decided to sponsor MyMedication4You.com. Online prescription needs are filled by U.S. licensed physicians and U.S. licensed pharmacies. Please read the FAQ section when you browse the site. Admittedly, buying prescription medication online is not for everyone, however there are individuals and groups that may not have other means to supplement their health needs. The FAQ’s can answer most questions, but live online help is always available.

- Tim

Opportunities Abound

Just before going up to Orlando for the Rails_for_all conference we were contacted by old friends Daryl and Chris Eastburg. Chris introduced us to YTB (Your Travel Biz). Merry and I were pretty skeptical at first but did some research and found the company and concepts to be totally legit and decided to participate. Since we do quite a bit of traveling, we found the idea of getting checks back when you book your own travel to be quite a nice enticement. Yes, YTB is a multi-level marketing organization, and Yes, if you want to be a success in the business then you have to recruit others into the business. Such is the way of American business anyway. Can you imagine only one McDonald’s restaurant in America? Outlet franchise is how business in America has grown. Multi-level has received it’s share of reputation problems over the years but our personal investigation has proven to us that YTB presents a legitimate opportunity, if not only just to get checks back when you book your own travel through your own web site. Ok, since Merry and I are just getting started with YTB, this is probably the most lame and weakest pitch you will hear from me. The more I learn about YTB, the more I am convinced that there is really no down side. Anyway, Merry now has a new YTB site located at http://www.merrytimetravel.com

Ok, so it’s a kind of corny name, but it is something you should be able to remember. Check the site out and play with the travel booking to see that you can get airfare, hotel, car rental, etc. as cheap as you can on other online sites. In some cases, package deals are less expensive. When you book travel arrangements through Merry Time Travel, you will also be putting some cash in Merry’s account. For that, we thank you very much ) You might want to also check out the opportunity with YTB. Who knows, along with getting checks back when you travel, you could also get some bucks when your friends and business associates get clued in and become part of your organization.

- Tim