Roblog

Amanda wasn't eating much of anything Friday evening. Like myself, she is sensitive to a lack of protein, so I was continually to try to get her to eat something for dinner to try to help her mood (she was rather fussy). I was not successful, and she went through the evening cranky and without eating much of anything.

That, night, she threw up in her crib. It has been working through her system since and today is beginning to resume her normal appetite.

It struck me how I thought the lack of eating was the cause and not the effect of Amanda's problems. I didn't really give much thought to the possibility she might be sick. She didn't really have any other symptoms besides being a little fussy, but Amanda sometimes feels that way just on a normal day. It was a good lesson for me as a parent to always try to be observant and not to be so quick to jump to conclusions.

I was a little embarrassed to realize that after two months with my new computer, I had not uploaded any pictures. I had developed a really cool way to get my pictures out of iPhoto and onto my web page, inserting all the picture data into my MySQL database in the process. The problem was that my iMac G5 did not have all the extras that the method needed to work: jhead and ImageMagick.

But I was putting this off because I ran across some information that seemed to indicate I didn't need ImageMagick now that I had Panther (Mac OS X v10.3). Although I still needed jhead to extract all the EXIF data from the pictures I wanted, this means I could eliminate one external tool from the process. So I couldn't bring myself to get my process running on my new computer without tweaking it to take advatage of this.

I finally found the time to do this in early December, and posted new pictures then. Now the AppleScript uses Image Events to resize the pictures. It definitely is much faster, although I can't say how much of that is due to avoiding ImageMagick and how much is due to my new, speedy computer.

I also added some information about the .netrc file that this process depends on. I did not have that documented before in my AppleScript, which I found out when I went to try to run it on the iMac. The .netrc file contains both the password to my FTP site and the macro I created that finds the picture to upload in the appropriate directories. Thankfully, I was able to retrieve a copy of it from my old computer rather than have to figure it out again.

So it's officially the NFL playoffs now. The regular season has ended, with my team, the Philadelphia Eagles, having clinched home field advantage throughout the playoffs several weeks ago. Since they clinched, the Eagles have performed poorly, dropping to 13-3 (still 2 wins better than any other NFC team), mostly due to playing their second string and giving their starters a rest.

I really didn't want to see that happen. It's great that the Eagles clinched so early and that their starters could rest for a few weeks, but psychologically other NFC teams are now looking at the Eagles as vulnerable. At 13-1, they looked nearly invincible. No so, now.

I understand it's important to keep everyone as injury-free as possible going into the playoffs. After all - in the 2003 playoffs, Donovan McNabb was injured and just came back for the NFC championship game (which they lost). In 2004, Brian Westbrook was out and they lost the NFC Championship game. Now, in 2005, both McNabb and Westbrook are healthy and should be well-rested, but Terrell Owens, arguably the biggest difference-maker on the Eagles team, is out for the playoffs (although there is an outside chance he could return for the Superbowl if the Eagles make it that far).

But having two consecutive losses going into the playoffs, regardless of the circumstances, is not a positive situation. Will the Eagles be rusty after nearly one month of resting their starters? Will they have lost the psychological edge against the rest of the league? Will they be unable to match the intensity of teams who have had to fight their way into and through the playoffs?

I don't know. I just hope they can actually make it to the Superbowl this year. Three consecutive NFC Championship game losses are enough for me.

Here is the announcement for all the internet to hear - my sister is pregnant! She was married in June, so I am impressed with her efficiency, but mostly I'm excited. She's really looking forward to motherhood, and I know my mother will be thrilled to have a grandchild within an hour's drive from her house.

I actually already have 2 nieces and 5 nephews (not to mention several half-nieces and nephews, but I don't know them), but these are on my wife's side of the family. Genetically speaking, Rebecca's child should be about 25% Rob.

I just got back from my trip to Boston with Donna - it was the first time both of us had been away from our daughters overnight. Donna's parents stayed at our house while we were away to take care of them. Everyone did just great! The grandparents appeared to weather the experience just fine, and the girls were happy and playful. Even Donna and I did pretty well, although we were ready to get home after being away for 4 nights.

The "work" part of my trip went well. I assisted Donna with a presentation about using blogs as a tool for teacher reflection. She did the part about how a blog helped her with this, and I covered the technical aspects of getting a blog up and running. I think it went well, and I hope the participants who appeared to show a genuine interest in it follow through and get as much out of having a blog as Donna has.

There was good news in three other interests of mine during the trip

• Space: The Huygens probe successfully landed on Titan
• Macs: Apple introduced a bunch of new and intriguing products, including the Mac Mini, Pages, and upgrades to iLife
• Eagles: The Eagles won their playoff game handily, without needing to resort to any 4th and 26 miracles like they did last year