Easy Reader

As some of you are no doubt aware, I am quite a political guy: often known to break into a diatribe against the Wal-Marts of this world and injustice in general. It’s odd because I despised politics as a teenager and young adult. Many events and activities in my life contributed to my relatively recent transformation into a political (I hate to use the term) “activist,” but I will save that discussion for another time. Right now I want to talk about Kelly, my wife.

Kelly is an amazing woman and her influence has, quite literally, made me a better person. She is kind, compassionate, and giving while at the same time never afraid to tell you exactly what she’s thinking. She can cut through the bullshit and get right to the point without being abrassive and also has the ability to look at both sides of an argument and suss out some common ground. These are some of the many reasons I love her and they are also the reasons I think her recent interest in helping steer our town is a good thing.

That’s right, Kelly is running for office – our town’s legislative council to be exact. The thing I find most impressive is that so many of the people in our neighborhood—no matter what their political affiliation—have come out in support of her. They obviously see in her all of the great characteristics I do.

Our town is deeply divided right now—as many Connecticut towns are—because there is not a balance of power. The Democrats have a supermajority in elected offices—though less than half of our towns voters are registered as such—and little competition from the Republicans. Any of you who live in one party towns probably know the story: the major party has no competition, so it breeds its own internally. The Dems are constantly infighting, with one faction undermining the other on a nearly perpetual basis, which does little to improve the state of our town or the use of our tax dollars. I bring this up because Kelly is running on the Green Party ticket. I think this is a good thing because third parties provide a much-needed balance to the political process, acting as both watchdogs and luminaries by keeping the two major parties on task and bringing to light issues and ideas often overlooked or simply unknown to them.

I am really hopeful for Kel’s campaign and I think she has a really good shot. The seat she is going for—in the town’s 5th District—has no incumbant and neither major party candidate is as in tune with what is going on in the neighborhood as she is. The more people she meets, the more she attracts to her cause… it’s really impressive to see grassroots politics in action. I think the main attraction is that she genuinely listens to their concerns and wants to truly represent them on the council, not just act on their behalf.

At this point in my life, I have no interest in political office. I am content to be the man behind the woman, making her a kick-ass website.

I’ve been insanely busy building a new Rails app for a client and travelling a lot for speaking engagements. I just got back from an incredible trip to San Jose (well, Cupertino actually) where Molly, Andy and I were doing some training. I had an amazing time with both of them and it was really fun to see Andy in action (I, unfortunately, did not have the peasure of seeing him rock the audience at @media). We had a really great group of conference attendees too. I am a little saddened that this was my last stop on the WOW tour (I am missing Hawaii as it takes place on election day, but more on that later), but I have heard some rumblings that the show may go back on the road for a European leg. Fingers crossed.

Anyway, we’ve pushed a new issue of ALA out the door which includes a fantastic piece by Eric on the new ALA print stylesheet and I have a new article is in there as well: Improving Link Display for Print. It’s print mania at ALA aparently.

Anyway, I am apparently going to New Jersey today for work, so I need to get ready. Ta for now.

In the wake of the tragedy that befel the citizens of and visitors to New Orleans recently, I’ve been amazed at the amount of support and kindness being shown to the survivors (Barbara Bush’s comments notwithstanding). Help has come from the likely places as well as some unlikely ones and I am sure most of you have already donated money, blood and possibly even a room or two in your house/apartment. While a good deal of assistance is still needed for our fellow humans, there are others in need too: their displaced pets.

I received an email from a friend in Florida who has agreed to take in two dogs that made it through OK, but there are thousands more animals that need temporary homes, be they in kennels, animal boarding houses, veterinarian’s offices, animal shelters, foster homes or rescue programs.

From what I understand, there are all breeds of dogs and cats in need of our help. Some are in family groups of 2, 3 and 4 while others are solo. And there are volunteers willing to drive them to you, no matter where you live. The current safe houses for these animals are being inundated and some of these pets will have to be euthanized if they are not moved to make room for the incoming animals.

If you are interested in taking in a dog or cat (or know someone who is), contact Lynda V. on her cell: 203-515-3024 or at home: 203-227-5308 at any time (day or night).

It’s funny, but the more I take on, the more zen I get about work. Perhaps it’s the recent addition of a daily trek to the gym in the wee hours of the morning which is getting my day off to a better start. Or maybe it’s the Pragmatic philosophy which is beginning to take hold since finishing The Pragmatic Programmer and starting Agile Web Development with Rails. Who knows, but I am thankful for the calm.

So what else have I added to my already overfull plate? Well, I recently joined the staff of A List Apart as a copy editor. In fact Ross Howard’s High-Resolution Image Printing (in Issue 202) marks my editorial debut at the famed publication. I am very excited about getting to work with Erin, Jeffrey, Eric, Jason and the rest of the ALA all-stars as I have been an avid reader since I discovered it back in 2000. If you are reading an article and notice an overabundance of <abbr> and <dfn>, there’s a good chance I am to blame.

I am also pleased to confirm that I will be speaking at SXSW Interactive in March of 2006. At present, I am working on one session with Jeremy Keith and two other panels which are still in the formative stages. I will have more details to provide you all in the coming weeks.

Also to come are some great award announcements, a few more articles, and another potentially big announcement in the web standards arena. In the mean time, I am preparing for a private web standards training session down in North Carolina and next week’s trip to Silicon Valley, where Molly, Andy and I will be putting on a great 3-day training session as part of the Web Design and Project Management Tour from WOW.

Kelly and I are members of a CSA farm in North Haven, CT called Mill River Valley Gardens. For those not familiar, in a CSA, you buy shares of the farm’s harvest in advance, guaranteeing a market for a farmer’s produce. A share usually consists of seasonal fruits, vegetables, and herbs that you receive each week during the harvest season (in CT, June–October). Our farm offers three options for joining, with the possibility of reducing your cost by working a certain number of hours on the farm.

When we joined three seasons ago, we joined under what they call the “Intensive Workshare,” which amounts to 60 hours of farm work, spread over the growing season. Being that Kelly owns her own business and has most mornings relatively free, she ended up doing pretty much all of the work. This year, we’ve reduced the number of working hours we’ve committed to on the farm to 9 and I decided to tag along for a Sunday morning potato harvest.

I had worked on the farm once time before, when we first joined, harvesting cucumbers and New Zealand spinich, which was somewhat miserable. Potato harvesting, however, was really fun. It was like a hunt for buried treasure, especially since I have a major love affair with potatos (especially the red variety we were hunting for). All told, we probably brought in about 100lbs of red skins.

I really enjoyed the experience. Though it is exhausting, working on a farm is very peaceful and rewarding too… especially when Thursday rolls around and we get our share of those yummy little spuds.