Single Dads

Recently I’ve been doing a little guest posting on a website called Shakadoo.com.  What do they do?  Take a look at their first page:

Shakadoo is a site written and created for those who love their home. Whether you live in a condo or a castle, Shakadoo has a place for you.

Shakadoo has several different “shaks”: the LoanShak, WorkShak, ShakYard, Shaktronics, Shak In Style, Shakhammer and the Love Shak, Baby (love that title).  It’s an interesting community that they are trying to build there that I would recommend that you check out.

However, don’t think that my “pro” blogging job will decrease my regular blogging output.  You see, I know how to use Google.  Ah, the Internet is a wonderful place.

There are some single dads out there that I owe a post to, though.  I haven’t forgotten about you.  Expect it tomorrow.

I know Google could change their mind again, but it seems that Gmail is finally open to everyone.

If you don't live in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Brazil, Australia, New Zealand, Russia and Japan (Gmail is already open there), go to gmail.com and see if you can create a new account.

In looking at Google's public technology discussions, it appears that a thin client, distributed computing future is exactly what they are expecting.

Google has created and continues to expand huge datacenters around the world. From whats been written, they contain tens, if not hundreds of thousands of processors all clustered and networked together. They are connected to each other via fiber, and are in turn connected by dark and lit fiber to every and any internet peering point they possibly can.

Its a critical distinction that they only have fiber to peering points rather than having direct access to homes. First, in a world with net neutrality, it means Google has the fastest access to common points connecting to the last mile than anyone else. More importantly, it throttles how much bandwidth they can deliver to the home. You can lead a 10mbs stream to a peering point, but you can't make the ISP drink it. Sure it will pass through, but there are no quality of service requirements at that peering point. Google can put some beautiful HD content out on their servers, and it will be perfect.. until it gets to the peering points, at which point it loses all its priority and becomes just another packet. Which is the downside of net neutrality. Google can't buy their way to having their packets given priority, so those who expect big bandwidth video to the home from Google Video… as both Google and I mentioned in this post, it aint gonna happen the way things stand today.

That said, Google is in a unique position with their datacenters and infrastructure to dominate thin client computing and everything they are doing seems to point in that direction..

Google Book Search is our effort to expand the universe of books you can discover, and this year we’re joining libraries and bookstores across the country to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Banned Books Week – a nationwide initiative to help people learn about and explore banned books. You can start by browsing these 42 classics – books we couldn’t be more pleased to highlight.

Dear Mom:

This comes a bit late, because I spent most of my day with you yesterday.  However, I’m pretty confident that you’ll read this soon.

I wanted to thank you for being such a great mom.  Sure, we’ve had disagreements.  I believe that every family does.  But the truth is that you are one of the best, most intellegent, most thoughtful, and best people that I know, period.  Without you, I wouldn’t be… me.  I’d be someone else.  I’d probably be a lot darker, a lot more confused, and a little bit scarier. 

All of my friends think that you are one of the best people that they know. 

I know that you’re not perfect, and no one is, but I can definitely see the sacrifices that you made to make me who I am.

People like to hang out with my family largely because of you. 
I know that you’re not perfect, and no one is, but I can definitely see the sacrifices that you made to make me who I am.  This was your gift to my brother and I, and we know it.  In fact, we know it more than we will ever tell you.

I love you, Mom, and will always appreciate you.  I can’t say that enough.  You are my sister, my mother, my daughter’s grandmother, and my friend, and I can’t wait to see you again.

Thank you.  Happy Mother’s Day.

I couldn’t possibly be more sincere.

A story for you all.

Yesterday was Sunday. Typically, Sundays are really not special. You know, people go to church, people watch football, people goof around outside. Some people sleep. That’s Sunday.

However, yesterday was special. Why? Because my ex-girlfriend’s daughter had asked me to go to her first communion at her church, and I pledged that I would, in fact, go, for her sake.

I have no idea if any of you have been to a first communion. I hadn’t. But it was very interesting. The idea is that instead of deacons or whatnot, children (all about the same age) read the passages from the Bible. Now, I must say, I am not a Biblical scholar by any stretch of the imagination. However, I knew that these cute kids, all dressed up in their Sunday best, had little presentations that they had to give.

Now, I had no idea where my ex’s daughter was in this whole presentation, but I knew that she had to do something, because I had seen and heard her practice. I knew she was kind of nervous.

Imagine my shock when right at the beginning of Mass, she was one of the first to read from the Bible!

Ok. Here’s something you should know.

When I first met my ex-girlfriend’s daughter, she was not a good reader. Diligently, as any father would, I would like to think, I worked with her. Daily. I bought educational videos. I read phonics books to her, and lots and lots of Dr. Suess. After a while, I could see her reading improving. But not too long after that, her mother and I split up (after 2 plus years).

So, naturally I was shocked to see her up at the podium reading for the whole congregation.

I was so proud, I cried.

She will remember Sunday for the rest of her life, and I will too. For the rest of my existence on this planet, I can look back on what she did on that podium, and be proud of myself, and of her. Truly, I have accomplished something important. Now I know exactly how my parents feel on certain days.