http://dwPortraits.com

I have also added a gallery to this website (instead of sending you to a different place), and I encourage you to check it out.

No more change. At least for a while.

I will also be moving most of my faith based content to another website over the next week or so and will use this site as more of a family based site.

I have been in the process of creating a new blog for my faith based content to live on and using this one for my family focused stuff.  It isn’t because I don’t think it’s important to share my faith with my family, but rather I think that most of the people out there that would be interested in what I will be doing with the other blog don’t really care to see the new pictures of Rachael or Isaiah, and at the same time, I want this site to be more accesible to my friends and family without them having to sift through all of the other content to get to updates on my family.

Anyway, you can expect change in the future, and it won’t be in the form of bailouts or crazy social programs.

For the back end, I use XML files for much of the content so that she can easily add and rearrange items without having to get into any coding.

My mom uses her maiden name for her mosaic business because it is Italian and therefore more related to the Italian mosaics of old.

She has a bunch of pieces for sale and does commissions as well.

Check out MosaicsByMassaro.com.

Audio Video Systems

I have worked with Bill at Audio Video Systems (AVS) for a year and a half (I think), and worked with him for another couple of years when I was in California (he moved to Texas too and we got working together again).  He’s a great guy, and even if I wasn’t in the industry, I would use AVS to do my audio and video work.

I have been working on a new website for AVS for the past month or so and have finally finished it up.  It ended up being a lot more stressful than I thought because I underestimated the anticipation for it to be done.  I had wanted to do it in my free time, so I could take all the time I wanted to play around with different ideas and see what I liked best, but once they found out about it, they started putting deadlines on it.  So the leasurley pace that I desired ended up being a sprint to the finish.

It did turn out well though, and I believe that we are all happy with the results.  Check it out when you get a chance (and subscribe or check back often for news from the AV industry), and leave a comment below to let me know what you think.

Audio Video Systems
http://avsonline.tv

I had a week long’s jury duty about harassment. Which I now know that it is illegal and you can be sent to jail for “harassment” by simply knowing that you are annoying somebody and continuing to do it.  It doesn’t have to be threatening or intimidating, it only has to be annoying. And which one of us would not have been guilty of that from time to time? Is it criminal? Collin county thinks so. It seems that since Collin county does not have to deal with the crime that Dallas has, that they spend our tax dollars going after people who say annoying things to their ex-spouses after a bad divorce. 

Because of one stubborn juror with an ax to grind against men (because of something that happened in a divorce with her sister and her ex in a bad divorce), who trusted every piece of evidence that the state brought because she also worked for the government, we were not able to come to a unanimous verdict.  We were 5 to 1 not guilty, and the decision had to be unanimous.  So, in order to show a complete disregard for your tax dollars, the case is going to be retried in December (wasting more time for more people on something that should not end up in the courts in the first place).  Here’s hoping that the they get a unanimous verdict from people who do not come into the case with such personal baggage, and that the jurors don’t have to miss work for a week like we did.

I have also been playing Mr. Mom for the past few weeks, because Alina has been in a lot of pain lately with her pregnancy.  She has had a lot of pain that is preventing her from doing a many of the things that she normally does, so I have get to pick up the slack.  And I’ve got to admit that 1) I am enjoying doing more of the cooking and 2) that I still hate cleaning up the mess I make when I cook.  Anyway, please pray that she will be able to get some release for the pain she is feeling and for me to have the patience and grace to want and to be more helpful.

The second indication of my aging is a piece of mail that I received a few days ago. It looked like any other piece of junk mail, but the word “Irvine” caught my eye. Irvine was a city that I lived in while I lived in California, it was the name of the city and of the high school from which I graduated in 1998. Yep, it was junk mail advertising my 10 year high school class reunion. I say junk mail because I don’t get it. I don’t get why I would want to go back to that place. I know that some people have good memories of their high school times, but I don’t. I was just the quiet and awkward kid who sat in the back of class so I could be better ignored by the cool kids. But don’t read that as me being bitter, because it was part of what brought me and formed me into who I am today… A loud and awkward old dude.

I just hope my hair doesn’t start going gray and falling out, requiring me to use just for men and cut it with the number 1 trimmer to camouflage the fact that my appointment with a cane is getting closer every day.

- Aesop

Hmmm. Anybody else immediately think of the all-talk-no-action-politicians that are unwilling to do what needs to be done to solve our energy problems?