Category: Burningbird

Categories
Just Shelley

Good-Bye Mom

February 27, 2015

My Mom died.

March 1, 2015

I’ll be leaving for Sandpoint tomorrow, and probably not be back for three or so weeks. I’m Mom’s executor, and I have to set everything in motion to handle her estate closure remotely.

Internet access will be erratic at best, so I may be quiet for some time. Again, thank you all for your kind words. They help more than you can know.

March 4, 2015

Services are tomorrow. I think Mom would like what we planned.

We have had wonderful help from neighbors. We are gifting some stuff to friends and family, having antique place take some others, but habitat for humanity us getting most of the furniture and the panhandle animal shelter is getting the small stuff for their store. Goodwill is getting clothes.

Found wonderful lawyer to handle probate. First of real estate agents on Friday.

I think I can come home end of next week.

March 6, 2015

I an flying home a week from today, thanks in large part to the extraordinary kindness of my Mom’s neighbors.
When I returni have so much to say about the Ringling decision.

March 7, 2015

My brother found this in a box. My Mom made all my school dresses in grade school. She kept the fabric scraps and made this comforter.
Is it cool or what?

March 10, 2015

Rich and his son from Home Sweet Home took most of the furniture and the cabinet contents. As usual, they are extremely nice. Nicest town in the world.

So tomorrow, the movers take the big stuff, I have one or two trips to Panhandle animals shelter with stuff for their thrift store, and Sam, another neighbor is taking one last load to dump.

Thursday cleaning crew comes in, hopefully I have probate letters and manage rest of stuff including signing real estate agreement.
Discovered today my Mom didn’t have house insurance. A desperate call to agent providing car insurance and we’re covered

I am so bone tired, but I’m coming home Friday

March 14, 2015

My Mom’s home is now officially listed. The realtor didn’t take the best photos, but I feel people will be pleasantly surprised.

Zillow listing

March 16, 2015

Sandpoint, Idaho and Good-Byes

April 2, 2015

Wow, we got an offer on Mom’s house. And it’s a good one.

May 7, 2015

Mom’s house sold, and the new owners are moving in today. The Locust tree in the front yard bloomed yesterday, just in time to welcome them to their new home.

I hope they find the two bottles of wine I stashed in the cupboard for them.

Categories
Just Shelley

Home Sweet Home Outside the St. Louis Inner Loop

The last few months have been a blur of activity as we found, and bought, our new home. We’re now proud owners of a 3 bed/2 bath in unincorporated St. Charles county. I’m writing this from my office in the new home, watching the sun rise, sitting in its light by the window. The photo of the backyard is from the realtor’s photos. I’ll take some of my own when the weather clears.

One of the moving company people and the cable hookup guy both talked about how quiet the area is where we’ve moved. “Unlike St. Louis county and its recent troubles”, was left unsaid. I hate the thought that folks think we’re leaving St. Louis county because of those “black problems in Ferguson”. We picked the location because a) it’s close to Roomie’s job, and b) the housing is still relatively affordable where we moved.

But, it is true that we we also wanted to move away from Shrewsbury, though not for the reasons some would assume. If Shrewsbury is not Ferguson now, it will be in ten years. It has the same problems Ferguson has: too many police for too small a population, many of whom suffer much of the same arrogance demonstrated by the Ferguson police department. I haven’t seen any racism, but if other communities are any indication, it’s there, just under the surface. Compounding the problems of racism, and too many police stations under too loose a civilian control , is the fact that the generally liberal, white leadership in this area is the most astonishingly insipid group of people I’ve ever come across.

The attitude of the leadership is don’t rock the boat, don’t speak out; if you must protest, do it quietly and try not to disturb those attending the Cardinals game. Where the rural, conservative leadership in the state encourages people to speak out and to make a noise (as long as you’re speaking what they want to hear, and the noise suits their agenda), the leaders in the liberal urban communities surrounding St. Louis do the opposite: just shut the hell up and do what you’re told, people. You will vote for this candidate. You will follow these rules when you’re unhappy. Above all, you never question the leaders, because the leaders know what’s best.

It’s no wonder that Missouri swiftly tilted from purple to red in recent elections: the blue blood in our veins is thin, and anemic.

Now, in our new home, we’re surrounded by conservatives. We’re unlikely to agree with our neighbors on anything. But at least we’ll be surrounded by people who aren’t afraid to speak above a whisper.

And we have trees in our backyard.

Categories
JavaScript Writing

JavaScript Cookbook 2nd Edition: Live and Personal

JavaScript Cookbook cover

The second edition of the JavaScript Cookbook just went live at O’Reilly. If you’re wondering why I haven’t been writing about technology as much lately, it’s because I was saving all my tech writing mojo for the book.

We went a somewhat different path with the second edition. I spent a lot less time on syntax, and a lot more on JavaScript in use. When I wrote my first book on JavaScript, in the dark ages that was the mid-1990s, syntax was about all you had with JavaScript. Now, JavaScript is everywhere. It’s the programming language that ate the world.

Well, nibbled the world. JavaScript is still that friendly, approachable language, even with the new ECMAScript additions. JavaScript has never roared; it’s meowed and purred its way into our lives. Good kitty. Nice kitty. Here, have a closure.

In the new edition of JavaScript Cookbook, I covered JavaScript in the browser, and re-visited our old friends (Ajax and the JS objects), yes. But I also spent a considerable time covering JavaScript in the server, in the cloud, and in our mobile devices. The only environment I didn’t cover is the open source hardware, DIY, wearable world, and that’s because I feel these need more preliminary introductions to the environment, so you don’t do something like fry your new Raspberry Pi. Or Computer. Or shirt.

I will never join with those who are critical of JavaScript. I have always had fun with this language. There’s just so much you can do with it.

Categories
Documents

Mother Jones Fascinating Murder Mystery with an NRA Twist—and Documents

Mother Jones has a fascinating, longer look at an early murder mystery associated with none other than the NRA’s general counsel, Robert Dowlut. It would seem that Dowlut was originally convicted of second degree murder, a conviction that was later overturned.

In an act I’ve come to expect from Mother Jones, the publication has also provided easy access to all of the documentation that provided the basis for the story.

Journalists can’t always provide all of their background material, but when they can, they should. This allows others to review the material, enabling them to either agree or disagree with the writer based on the same material, if the writer forms a conclusion. At a minimum, this sharing ensures open access to documents that may be difficult for non-journalists to obtain—documents that may form the basis for other, future works.

There is nothing to agree with or disagree with in the Mother Jones article, since it’s very careful to remain neutral and factual in its retelling of the older story (and the more recent activities Dowlut has undertaken for the NRA). But the author, Dave Gilson, provides much to think about.

Categories
Books Writing

Writing from the bleeding edge

One of the challenges writing a book on technology is not only do you need to put words together in some form of coherent, possibly even interesting, manner, but you also have to understand the underlying technology enough to be able to explain it to others.

You can’t just “talk” about the technology, you have to understand it.

Not a problem, except when you’re getting into bleeding edge technology, like some of the ECMAScript 6 objects I’m covering in the second edition of my JavaScript Cookbook.

All you can do is work with the object, work with the object, and work with the object until you go from, “I hate this object. I hate this object. I really f**king hate this object” to, “Oh hey, this object isn’t so bad.”

Then you can write about it in the book.