Heads Up! Massive Life Changes on the Way

I'm back! After a two week vacation, I have a lot to share!

While I have avoided publishing much about my family, for privacy reasons, you need to know a few things for the next few posts to make sense. My wife and I just finished adopting two young sisters from Ethiopia. We have several biological children already, but even before we married, my wife brought up adoption as one of her life's goals. We have now finished the long, hard process and I've learned a lot.

Welcome!

Please be patient. I recently upgraded this site to Drupal 6 and I'm still changing the file handling practices.

If you are visiting for the first time, you might enjoy looking over my 3D models, my timelines, or maybe my professional blog. I am always adding content, so be sure to subscribe to my RSS feed to track areas that interest you.

Radiant Floor Heating

I am interested in radiant floor heating and cooling as the backup heat source for a passive solar home. This page is where I am collecting information about it.

Best Materials

  • Concrete
  • Tile

I need to find some evaluations of bamboo flooring on concrete, without insulation.

Temperature Stratification

Heating from the floor seems to produce a more even heat in the air, as compared to forced air heat.

 

Persuasion, Correction, and Righteous Influence; a How To

The following is an excerpt from a post to the MormonVeg email list that I helped moderate several years ago. After a major upheaval over post topics, conflicting opinions, and accusations of apostasy (in both directions), I wrote a studied response which really summed up my feelings about righteous influence and persuasion, while respecting an individual's agency.

Originally posted Mon Apr 22, 2002 12:22 am, I have added some links and edited a little here and there to apply the message generally.

Do You Belong In Your Zip Code?

The New York Times recently published a web service showing the movie rental habits, by zip code, of 12 major cities over the past year. The data comes from Netflicks movie rentals for 100 movies. I initially visited the site just to see how they presented the information (very well) and it really made me think. This is a great example of how data is only what you make of it. And, that no matter how unbiased you try to be, just collecting and presenting data induces inacuracy or bias.

Managers, Meet the Maker's Schedule

How do you manage your day-to-day schedule?

A friend just pointed me to this recent post by Paul Graham, about a schedule's impact on the productivity of creative types, "makers" as he calls them.

Frugal Families Are Happy Families

One of the best outcomes of this adoption was a unified monetary policy in my family. We saved every penny before spending it. This was extremely challenging, but more rewarding than I expected. I discovered quickly that most of my stress in life relates to money (particularly with someone else spending it). But with a plan in place, stress is reduced, fear is gone, and life is simplified and happier.

Little Fingers, Big Problems; Kids and Computers

Each of my children relates to computers differently. While age plays a part, most of the differences are psychological. Some of my children are puzzlers, thinkers, explorers. Others are quickly frustrated and want others to make tech work for them. But all of them love keyboards, mice, and mischief.

Coping with Loss: Tales of a Garbage Can

I am bereft! I am feeling shock, anger, fear, anger, frustration, sadness, shame, and um, anger. This is very rare for me. In fact, the analytical portion of my brain is intrigued by the extent of my emotional reaction to this tragedy. You see, I may have accidentally thrown away $500 worth of library books and media.

The World's Technology Podcast

I have listened with great pleasure to PRI's The World: Technology Podcast (WTP) since 2007. The episodes are typically about 30 minutes long and cover a wide range of topics from around the world. Unlike many other netcasts focused on technology, the Tech Pod focuses more on people, societies, cultures and how technology impacts them.

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