Conflicts

My team’s first soccer game starts in seven minutes, and I’m stuck at home.

I had a work project scheduled for overnight last night since before I signed up to coach. It’s very rare for me to have things like that lately, but this one is in its 16th straight hour and still not done. I got maybe an hour’s worth of sleep last night.

I made arrangements last week with the assistant coach to handle today’s game, and he’s completely OK with it.

On the upside, this work thing should end within the next hour or so. And we have a second game on Tuesday, with practice on Monday, like usual.

I just hate to miss the first game!

Apple & Boot Camp

I do have a few things to say about Apple and Boot Camp. I’m just too short on available time to write much about them. That “don’t blog from work” rule really puts a damper on things when work gets crazy and normal life intrudes…

So, quickly, then.

Boot Camp reminds me of those dual-platform Macs Apple had a long time ago. They were two computers in one box: a PowerPC Mac and an Intel, uh, computer. They ran on separate hardware (mostly - I think they shared RAM, and I know they shared the hard drive and I/O devices) but you could copy and paste from one OS to the other and back again.

Eric points to Jon Gruber’s post on the subject, and suggests that we may go from “dual boot” (choose your OS at startup) to “concurrent operation” — which is what Apple used to offer 6 or 7-ish years ago in those dual-platform Macs I mentioned.

Of course they will. And that will rock like little else. I have a Windows box at home for two reasons - to see how websites look through the Windows browsers, and so my dear, sweet wife can play the vast array of solitaire games that Windows spontaneously generates every couple of months. (It was bought years ago for other, more compelling reasons that no longer hold.)

So, I can ditch that whole computer for an Option-Tab to see the site I’m currently working on in Windows, immediately? Sign me up!

Who says “Macs are Expensive”? One computer is cheaper than two.

I haven’t read Jon’s article yet, but I’m with him on the “now that they’ve announced this and I’ve had a few minutes to think about it, it seems an obvious and good thing for Apple to do,” sentiment.

Badger Hands

Here’s what’s cool about drawing; you can draw anything and make it look just as real as anything else. So long as you keep a consistent style within the drawing, you can’t tell for sure what’s real and what’s made up. (”willful suspension of disbelief” and all, of course). What better way to get a glimpse into the mind of another human?

You may have figured out that I have a thing for Kevin Cornell’s work at Bearskin Rug (in PA, I think, despite the .co.uk suffix). He does impressive things with watercolors, and recently did a before/after thing with some of his illustrations, showing how he develops an idea into a published illustration.

He’s also doing an illustration inspired by a comment left by a reader. The reader mentioned his childhood fear of “prowlers,” and described how he pictured them - with a corner-knotted pillowcase over their heads. Kevin liked the idea, so he’s creating it.

Anyhow. Badger Hands. This is hilarious. Look at page 86 of his sketchbook. Go there and type “86″ into the page number thingy at the top of the page.

(Oh - if you riffle through it, be aware that you’ll stumble across the occasional unclothed male or female body part now and then. Page 86 is boss-friendly. Unless your boss is put off by the brushing of teeth. Or badgers.)

Badger hands. I can’t stop laughing.

And one more thing. If you use Google to search for “sketchbook,” you’ll see that Kevin’s is the top hit. So I’m not the only one who’s impressed. His work is great to look at, and he seems a very kind person, to boot.

Soccer Practice #2

Man, was it nasty out for soccer practice, tonight! Strong, blustery winds, cold and a slight off and on drizzle.

I had 9 of 12 this time, and put into practice a few pointers from the assistant coach. He helped me out with the drills, and with refereeing the scrimmage. We played for about 20 minutes at the end. You know how guys’ll do “shirts” and “skins” for teams sometimes? We did “hats” and “hoods.” I need to go buy a package of colored t-shirts, so I can keep ‘em straight out there.

The teams were evenly split - 4 on one with a coach goalie, and 5 on the other with a player-goalie, but the ball never left the one half of the field. It truly is “bunch ball” they play.

It was hard to tell if it went well or not. The assistant coach tells me it did, and I got a little encouragement from some of the parents. My son told me he had fun, but only “kind of.” I’m not sure how much of that’s because of the cold and how much is my inexperience as a coach.

Our first game is this coming Saturday. I’m very much looking forward to that - to get them out there in a game with referees and a real opposing team. I’m hoping to get a few specific ideas for practice out of watching them play.

The Monster Engine

Dave Devries’ has done an “Experiment With Children’s Art.”

He takes childrens’ drawings and re-creates them - sometimes adding scenery and backgrounds. There’s a whole book, and the samples on the site make it very tempting.

(via Bearskin Rug)