Someone asked what I am up to on Facebook – Hi Matt! – and I have not written much in quite a while about what is happening in my life so here’s a little catch up for everyone. I am sure that there is more than this, but this is all that I can remember for now.

Uliana

We will be celebrating her 1st birthday here in a little bit. She is a good little girl and officially started to crawl on Fathers Day! =) This is of course a mixed blessing. It is great that she is crawling, but that now means she has another method to find stuff to put in her mouth. =O

New House in Baraboo

We bought a second house in Baraboo which is twice the size (1300 sq ft) of our first house (700 sq ft). We closed on it on May 21, and finished moving in on Friday and Saturday – June 18th and 19th. Two days ago we finally got Charter installed so now I have internet! Yea! I have moved up from a 768/128 DSL up to 8 meg Cable. Happy Days! =) Our first, fortunately, shall be rented by Tanya’s brother and his wife.

Baby sitters: We are looking for a few baby sitters in Baraboo that either occasional or fairly steady as options. We are set for now, but are looking for more baby sitting options.

New Yoga Studio

New Classes and New Studio: Tanya (and a few others) will be teaching Yoga out of our new house. We have a grand opening on Saturday, June 26 from 12:00pm to 5:00pm, with classes starting there on July 1. Classes will be free to all through the entire month of July, so come and bring your friends and family and give it a try. We have 18 classes scheduled for every one young and old. We have some children’s classes, beginners, intermediate, and advanced classes, as well as relaxation classes.

You can check our website for our new schedule and  more information. We also have an article about us and the new studio opening in the Baraboo News Republic too. We were quite nervous for this interview.

Candles: We are looking for any spare candles that you may have for some of our studio classes. Feel free to drop them by or let us know so we can pick them up.

This just shows the power of the internet to bring people together. I could listen to this sort of music all day. Playing for Change brings musicians from around the world to perform for each song in a beautiful and progressive layering of talent from around the world – Zimbabwe, India, Ireland, Tibet, United States, etc.

Get more info at “A Woman is not a Pre-existing condition.

I am looking for part-time, or short-term/contract work in the following areas:

• Realtor - if you or someone your know is looking to
  • buy
  • sell
  • lease a property
  • or relocate
• Web Development
  • website creation
  • usability consulting
  • accessibility consulting
  • basic computer repair
  • basic networking

I am a licensed Realtor working for First Weber in the Wisconsin Dells and am looking to work in the Baraboo/Dells area – Reedsburg will work as well.

I am available after 4:30pm each day from 5:00pm – 10;00pm Monday through Friday, as well as weekends. If you know of a position that might be suitable for me please let me know and I will follow up.

I found this website called “Mr. Deity which is a kind of insightful and humorous personification of God and biblical events.

Comedian, Deven Green, as Betty Bowers, America’s Best Christian, in this amazing and insightful video with a tang that takes a walk through the plethora of the Biblical examples of marriage to show how tame same sex marriage really is:

Betty Bowers Explains Traditional Marriage

This article titled “Who Controls the Internet?” from ‘The Weekly Standard” really highlights for me why the US should maintain control of the Internet’s servers. As long as they are responsible and as neutral as possible, this is a great idea. They have done well so far. My biggest fear with losing control is that what will happen will be very similar to the UN Human Rights Council, of which having China and a few other countries is a complete mockery of. Eventually freedom of speech and censorship shall be the name of the game as oppressive regimes advance their tyrannical agendas. Eeeeek!

I know this is a little unusual for a post of mine, but for you music enthusiats I found this little gem while surfing the internet. World renown cellist Yo-Yo Ma, who performed most of the soundtrack for ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon‘ and ‘Memoirs of a Geisha‘, is allowing people to collaborate with him through Indaba Music.

If you are into this sort of thing do not miss this wonderful opportunity to work with a master.

I finished It’s All About You’s site for our Yoga Studio to-be. It took me one day to put the basic site together. A second day was used to tweak and play with the navigation. The third day was used to get some of the content out there.

There is still some work that needs to be done. It is definitely not perfect, but it is working and it doesn’t look too bad. If you note any issues with it, or if you have questions, comments or suggestions please let me know. This is my first real production site.

I should note, rather importantly, that the design is not of my own. Michael Lopresti of Lopresti Designs came up with the design and I coded it. He is working on porting it to the Wordpress or Drupal CMS

Please watch this video of Jon Stewart Railing Mike Huckabee on Gay Marriage and send Jon a line to say thanks.

I have been playing with the signup form which was not working due to the CAPTCHA thingy. I had to add a PHP line to make it work. That is done and tested. Yea! I have done some minor CSS tweaking too.

As a follow up to yesterdays Vertical Split Keyboard post I will also say that I am ordering a new mouse from ‘The Human Solution’ which is also basically vertical as well. I had to choose between the Aerobic Quill Mouse and the Evoulent Vertical Mouse. In the end I chose the left-handed Quill Mouse for the lower hand support and hooking to make it easier to move without having to grasp the mouse.

Also as a side note I am also starting to work on using the Dvorak Layout.

I also found this interesting keyboard and mouse replacement: the Orbitouch Keyless Keyboard.

I have not posted about this before, but quite a while ago I have been diagnosed with overuse syndrome which is a precursor to carpal tunnel syndrome. I had some annoying symptoms like a slight burning senesation in my wrist and near my elbow. At that time part of how I combatted that was to mouse using my left hand and the use of a Microsoft split ergonomic keyboard, which I will say that I love and would never go back to a conventional keyboard… evah. This combo took me about a month to get used to and then it rocked. =)

So, now a few years have passed and now some symtoms are starting to manifest again and I am cranking my response up a notch. Work will be buying for me a split vertical keyboard (SVK) from Safe Type so that I can combat this problem. I am excited, yet afraid. This keyboard is so strange and it will really force me to touch type all-of-the-time. I can basically touch type, but I definitely do look at the keyboard on occasion. I know, I know. – “Cheater, cheater, pumpkin eater!”. This will be a good moment to improve my typing skills as well as save my hands from a horrible fate.

Perhaps this is also a good time to move to the Dvorak keyboard layout as well. =) I am also looking for a suitable ergonomic replacement for my mouse since that significantly contributes to my issues as well.

I will let you know how it turns out.

Let us all take the time to Free the Airwaves

Obama GOOD!

McCain BAD!

If you care about civil rights here is another reason to “Vote for Obama“:

Ultra-conservative Puritanical Religionist Republicans of Dooooom!

Civil Rights has a history, (especially under Bush politics) of suffering and being violated horribly under a Republican regime – I am talking to you Patriot Act, to which the ACLU has had to fight hard to try and fix. Who knows how many innocent people’s lives have been wrecked with these horrible laws in effect. Will these people whose rights have been violated ever be compensated for their governments enforcement of these broken laws? No. They will receive a “My bad!” and then be left tot recover from having their life destroyed by an illegal law.

The next president will most likely have the chance to nominate 2 or 3 Supreme Court Judges. The McCain camp is against Gay Rights which is very strongly a civil rights issue which he is against from a puritanical and ultra-conservative (save me some votes) standpoint. This way of thinking is one of the greatest problems with the Republican Party – Conservative Christian Religionism is their hidden mantra.

McCain will appoint judges that will enforce a close-minded backwards-traditional mindset and in an attempt to crush all of cultural progress out of fear, as well as crushing our civil rights in the process.