Why did you grow a beard?
Why did you grow a beard?
I can't leave you alone for five minutes
What the Christ?
What the devil?
Why did you grow a beard?
Why did you grow a beard?
Is there nowhere in the world for a no goodnik
Is there nowhere in the
Freedom-loving
Sister-hugging
Screaming, yelling

Why Did You Grow A Beard?

I've been at my new job for about a month now, so I thought it was about time for an update. I am working for a company called Trinity Transport. They're a transportation intermediary, or a trucking brokerage. You can find out more about them at their web site, but here's all you really need to know: When a company wants to move some freight, instead of calling a carrier directly they can call a broker. The broker arranges for a carrier and makes sure the load gets moved. Of course, they charge a bit more to the shipper than they pay to the carrier, but they handle all of the headaches. That's basically what the company does.

Trinity has offices and salesmen around the country, but the headquarters is in Delaware. I spent my first week on the job in Delaware. I went through the company orientation and sat down with the other programmers to learn about the projects we're working on. I was there over a weekend, so I spent a day in Washington DC. And I spent a day at the beach, which is about 40 miles from where I was working. Here are pictures from those trips.

I'm working on a product called TTI ShipDirect. You can't see anything there without a login and password, but it's a price comparison site for less than truckload shipments. It's written in PHP with a PostgreSQL database, but the company is starting to use Ruby on Rails for new projects, so I've been learning that, too. I made this little program in just a few hours. Feel free to poke around, create an account, add posts and add comments. The comment form uses AJAX, which is especially easy to do in Ruby on Rails.

While I was in Delaware, they gave me a laptop to get started. But now that I've got settled at my Kansas City office, I have a brand new Mac Mini with a 20" wide-screen monitor. I'm using Synergy to share the mouse and keyboard with both computers. And I'm using Textmate to edit code on the Mac.

I'm having lots of fun at the new job, and apparently I left the bank just in time. It was robbed at gunpoint last week, which had never happened in the bank's 70-year history. If I hadn't quit, I would have been covering the window that got robbed over lunch time.

I already know the ending it's
The part that makes your face implode
I don't know what makes your face implode
But that's the way the movie ends

Experimental Film

Turning to drugs to help you sleep
Will only lead to sleep
And sleeping is a gateway drug
To being awake

Wearing a Raincoat

Most with cones for seeds, most with needles for leaves
C is for conifers, my kind of trees
Larch, junipers and fir, spruce, cedars and pines
C is for conifers, more than five hundred kinds

C Is For Conifers

At once I awoke to a futuristic world
There were flying cars and gigantic metal bugs
I'd grown a beard; it was long and white
But I knew that the girl would be coming very soon
For though everything had changed, there was still that clock
And it still said four of two

Four Of Two

When Sleepy Bones says he's feeling tired
Lazy Head wants to rest
When Lazy Head says it's "number one"
Sleepy Bones says it's "best"
When Lazy Head uses imagination
Sleepy Bones daydreams
Sleepy Bones says, "It's not what it looks like"
And Lazy Head says, "It's not what it seems"

Lazyhead And Sleepybones

Marmalade's from Scotland
Rugs from Pakistan
Mexico has jumping beans
And cars are from Japan
Clowns are from the circus
Barking comes from dogs
Eggs come from a chicken
And log cabins come from logs

Where Do They Make Balloons?

But we decided long ago
We'd build a time machine and go
How 'bout another first kiss, kiss, kiss, yeah
I want another first kiss

First Kiss

But even when it's out of sight, the sun shines night and day.

Why Does The Sun Shine?