Bright and Early

What better way to get back into the swing of working with a 6:30am meeting? I can think of better ways, but it works for getting moving. At least with going to bed somewhat earlier, it's not too hard to get up that early, but I still don't like it.

Balance

Notice where the purple juice cup is balanced. Gracie did that all by herself.

Bedtime!

More experimenting with new phones. This comes from a Nokia N73.

It's Not A Phone, Gracie

Not sure this Nokia N93 I took this picture with is a phone either.

Lather, Rinse, Repeat

Gracie is having a repeat of last night. Jaden has also decided to join in with random screams from his bed for no discernable reason. Needless to say, the mommy and daddy aren't liking this at all.

I was in bed when all this happened. Wasn't sleeping soundly before, certainly not now.

QotD: My Vox Name

How did you pick your Vox name? Does it mean something?
Submitted by LeendaDLL.

The name PhoneBoy was given to me by one of the hosts of Radionet Talk Radio, a radio show I used to work on in 1996. I used to screen calls for the show. The host forgot my name one day and called me PhoneBoyjust to call me something. The thought I had at the time was "[Thehost] is never going to let this name go, so I might as well embraceit." And embrace it I have.

As I've evolved my web presence over the years, the name PhoneBoy became very closely tied to FireWall-1. In fact, if you Google for FireWall-1, you'll see that www.phoneboy.com comes up right after Check Point, the company that makes FireWall-1 (now marketed as VPN-1). Considering that I haven't done much with the product in a number of years, that's a fairly strong association! Maybe I should go back to that and make some money. ;)

My day job involves customer support, which means some phone work. These days, I don't talk to nearly as many customers as I used to. Goes with the backline support role, the products I support, and the location of the customers. However, the name "tech support" seems to have a strong linkage to phones.

I also happen to have a collection of Nokia mobile phones, which seems to be shrinking as I give them away to my friends that need them. I believe that trend will reverse itself here very shortly. I've also been working with VoIP over the past three years, not as part of my day job, but as a hobby/side venture.

I guess you could say that I've been adding some emphasis on the "Phone" part of my name as time passes. :)

Bleck

This evening, I was planning to go to bed a little earlier than now. Unfortunately, real life kicked in around midnight or so and I had to help my wife clean up my daughter's bed--she lost her dinner (and possibly lunch) all over it. Right now, she's asleep on mommy. The sheets, blankets, jammies, and a Tigger are in the dryer after having been through the wash.

Meanwhile, I need to get to bed. I have to go play IT guy tomorrow at my mother-in-law's office and I've got a long drive ahead of me. Maybe I'll take a trip over to Frys when I'm done, since I'll be in the neighborhood.

Not Many Trick or Treaters

W'eve always had a fairly small turnout of trick-or-treaters in ther past, but this year was small even by our usual standards. Maybe 20 kids or so at the most as on about 7:45pm. I suppose the freezing temperatures outside and the fact that houses are closer together elsewhere in the neighborhood probably have something to do with the low turnout.

Next year, the road outside our house that leads out of the neighborhood should be open. Surprised it's not open now given that it's basically done. That should increase the turnout for Halloween, since a lot of the surrounding neighborhoods come into our neighborhood to trick or treat.

Meanwhile, my wife is taking Jaden around to trick or treat. Gracie did a little, but she's too little to do much of it. It's also freezing outside, so there's some motivation to keep her in. She's watching The Wiggles while we wait for trick or treaters, though I'll be surprised if anyone else shows up tonight.

Who are these masked children?

Say Cold!

What a difference a week makes in terms of temperature around these parts…