Thomas…  Stayed up late last night and watched the “4th of July” celebrations from NY and Boston on TV.  It is the biggest and most important of the American holidays, and it had quite an effect on me.  Not like when I was younger.  For one, the march music seemed to take over my soul.  Music can do that, and I want to write about that and how I feel about music.  I don’t play, I don’t follow my peers and let them do my thinking for me, so my views on the power of music are a little different, and I hope worth reading.  There is some music that we simply can’t forget about, music we must be aware of.

I spent more time than ever this last year studying about government and citizenship in my schoolwork.  I’m a little older, and the impact that the entire holiday had on me was profound and unexpected.  Over the last 5 years of having penpals around the world, many many kids ask me questions about the USA.  Among them, there seems to be quite an interest in what it means to be an American.  Unfortunately, among kids here in the US, there seems to be very little.

So I think I want to write about both topics.  Not “articles” about the internet or computers, but personal thoughts that our visitors can take or leave as they wish.  And it’s not the usual stuff that you would expect.  It is based on my studies and my observations.  My parents don’t share their political thoughts with me.  And I try to avoid anyone who is telling me what I “should” think.  The 4th of July is a celebration of the documents that created and defined the American adventure.  Anyone who is curious about this country, or who enjoys citizenship in this country, should find a different view of the concepts that make the US what it is, good and bad.  It’s not really about independence, it’s about defining who and what we are, how government works, and how individuals fit into the plan.  I think it’s worth writing, and for anyone serious about the human experience, I think it will be worth reading.

I will be very careful to clearly label opinion as opinion, and fact (as in computer facts) as fact.  And I will try hard to make it readable and pleasant, without upsetting anyone, even for my youngest readers.

Thomas …. The blog has been unavailable to me the last two weeks.  I upgraded to the new, better version of WordPress, and then I could not log-in (and post) anymore.  Big improvement

It’s not WordPress, the other blog (“What’s New?”) still worked fine after upgrading.  It was just dumb luck (I realize now) that the database was trashed.  If I wasn’t a little luckier than most, I would not have backed up the database before I did the upgrade.  It took me a long time to realize where the problem was though.  But then that’s why I chose to use WordPress, it’s the best and I didn’t know anything about it.

Along those same lines, I got a Windows 7 machine in for upgrading this week.  I get to keep it till September.  I am a firm believer in sticking with XP for most purposes, and for most people that is all the time.  So I get to try Windows 7 and I’m sure it won’t be any big deal.

Thomas…  I have taken a couple of days off from my programming.   I love it, it’s a remarkable challenge and something that I feel I am up to with lots of trial and error.  But after awhile I need a break.  I was out with Mom (with birthday money in my pocket) the other day when I saw something at a garage sale (they are never in someone’s garage, they are always out on the lawn) nearby.  Something that attracted my attention,  something that I had been thinking about but whose price had always kept me at bay.

A bird cage.  Not a tiny canary cage but a fairly roomy cage in good condition cheap.  Someone didn’t find birdkeeping enjoyable I guess.  I have always been intrigued by parrots, though I could never keep one.  Way too much work.  But a parakeet  (budgerigar, budige) is simple and easy and plenty small.  Not that any bird is simple, or can be ignored, if you do it right.  And it sickens me to think of any pet that is not kept correctly.

So I got the cage.  You can’t build a cage, the paint and construction has to be just right, since the bird will be chewing on it.  And too small a cage, what most folks might consider a normal-sized cage, is just cruel in my book.  The number one problem with parakeets is boredom.  So I brought it home, put up a shelf for it (large) on the wall above my bed where no other animals can get to it (we also have a golden retriever and a housecat) and with the proper draftguard and full-spectrum lighting (no bulb yet).

The next day I managed a ride to a national chain pet store, the best we can do here in this town, and got a bird (as young and as active as I could find, nothing else mattered) and took a good look at the various accessories available and got ideas what I would be forced to buy, and what I could produce on my own.  And what is manufactured solely to please humans with no real benefit to the bird.  The last step now is to get a full-spectrum bulb at the home improvement store today.

Our other pets are accustomed to getting along in all situations, and I don’t expect any trouble.  I intend to have a bird that chirps and talks, but not one that ever flies freely around the house.  We are just not set up for that here.  I  don’t mean that it would get away, but staying inside my room, with a closed door, without open fans, in a relatively pesticide-free environment, is enough of a safety margin I figure.  He won’t be flying free.  Some do, but that is only in well-organized households.  Not here.

So all my time the last two days has been spent researching parakeets online.  Is there anything you can’t learn online?  Ain’t the internet wonderful?

This is Thomas.  I have run across something that is unlike anything I’ve ever done.  Big thanks to Chase, my computer teacher, for pushing me.  I am doing some programming to make things work “behind the scenes” on the website, and it’s more than I could ever do before comfortably.  That’s good, that’s how we learn.  But this…

The webserver account that I got for my birthday, it is full-featured and it’s a 4-year contract.  Thanks Dad.  But it’s not with one of the expensive outfits.  I have always heard that one of the biggest expenses of any internet company, whether its sales or internet services or whatever, is customer service.  And the harder the questions are, the dumber the public is on the issues that arise, the more expensive it becomes.  Well this must certainly be true when your customers are budding new programmers and webpage publishers.

This outfit has bad customer support.  No, that’s not true.  I am sure that they do well for the average guy with simple questions.  After all, it is not their job to understand computer languages, or to educate their customers.  And the issues that I need help with (“is your server set up to do so-and-so?” – really strange techie questions) they don’t know.  I shouldn’t expect them to.  They have to configure their servers to prevent someone like me from going astray and messing things up for everyone else.  Even if I am not intentionally “hacking”.

Chase gave me (finally, after two years) gut-level access to his webserver (from a reliable, more expensive, less paranoid provider) and I have been testing the little snippets of code that I am writing on his server.  They work so well and it’s so nice.

But not on my server.  Grrrrrr.  And the people in customer service, who would like to help me, can’t.  They just don’t know.  It’s not their job to know everything.  I suspect Chase sometimes of knowing but not telling me.  Not making it simple for me.   He will tell me what he thinks I should do next, but without explanation.  And answering my questions with plain and simple answers?  No way.  He usually answers my questions with questions of his own.

So you see the problem?  Chase and my Dad have dumped me into this near-impossible predicament without easy access to the answers I need.  What do they say?  “Without a paddle”?   And what’s the frightening discovery?  I LOVE IT !!!