Just writing that I'm aware I haven't updated my journal... but I will shortly. I've been spending whatever time I would normally writing in my diary working on my new Wiki (which, actually, is NotARealWiki.)

Expect some announcements soon from Tux4Kids. I have a couple new (small) projects there, plus we will get a mention at the upcoming LinuxExpo. We also have a stregic alliance with Debian Jr... so that's cool.

Also, I'll probably recount my recent trip to my parents later on....

2002 Jul 30 (Tue), 11:12 Cretinous Ape

Okay, it's been a very long time since a real update. I have been busy, and moderately active in my projects... but a great deal of time has been spent worrying about my father. Honestly, I don't see that changing any time soon.

For those who don't know, my father (in his 80s, I guess) has always been a real fighter. He's always been a very strong person (mentally, physically, and spiritually). He's tough... the kind of tough they really don't make anymore.

He grew up on a ranch in Idaho during the depression in the early 1900s. He was artistic and intelligent. He had wanted to go into mathematics in college when World War II dictated otherwise (his brother, Sylvester, went off to war and my father was left taking care of the ranch. Sylvester died during the invasion of Iwo Jima [I think it was Iwo Jima]).

Many many years later, when my father had his first heart attack, he knew he was having his heart attack, but didn't tell anyone. Instead, he went to bed, got up the next morning, went to work and had his heart attack there so that his family would be provided for by workman's comp.

My father would have one other heart attack (they day before my wedding, talk about a bummer) and something like four or five by-pass surgeries (at least one was a triple by-pass). But he always kept active and full of vitality. He has never really retired... when other men were living in retirement homes sipping pudding through straws, my father was selling Real Estate (he actually became a top-selling agent). Currently, he is a forest ranger working for the forest service. He's always has been someone you'd have never been able to correctly guess the age of.

This last year, he has been having many heart troubles. He's had congestive-heart failure, and actually got down to 5% pumping-power. Then they put in the "Cadillac": A $100,000 experimental pace-maker. This pace-maker worked well for about a month, but now his pumping-power is back down to about 20%, so it's success was short-lived.

At any rate, this month my wife and I went up and spent some time with my father and mother. It was a good visit, but did not set my mind at ease with respect to my father's health. I'm aware my father is in his 80s... but he's always been such a fighter. He's the toughest person I know. So it's very hard for me to think of him doing so poorly.

Anyhoo... as far as my personal projects are concerned, I plan on having another stable release for Tux Typing (Jesse is the new project manager over there... but I'm staying on to handle the stable branch until Jesse's dev branch reaches a point of maturity). I also started two new projects at Tux4kids.org (Vidsimple and Tux Alphabet Soup). We also were recently given an HP NetServer as a donation, and I've been busy getting it up and running (it's too underpowered for a web-server, so we'll be using it for a dev file-server and backup box [it has these swappable SCSI drives that I can pick up for ~$20 for 4 Gigs.. which makes it a very inexpensive backup solution]). Of course, I've also been working on my Wiki pages.