The Ubuntu Girl

Jackalope riding - all the kewl kids are doing it

2009-04-23T17:51:51Z

Jaunty Jackalope, the latest Ubuntu release is ready for your consumption.

http://torrent.ubuntu.com:6969/

more info: http://www.ubuntu.com

Tonight I get to be kewl and let the Houston Loco team help me upgrade my Netbook at the Januty Release party.

Front Ent Drupal

2009-04-14T00:06:57Z

My friend Emma Jane wrote this awesome book on theming Drupal . I just ordered two copies, you should too!

When I go to Writing In Open Source conference this summer I'll have her sign my copy. You should register and go to this conference too!

recent ubuntu encounters. . .

2009-03-13T19:00:23Z

Past month or so has been ripe with various ubuntu encounters. The first in Cancun while making reservations for the Mayan Adventure zip lining, rapelling jungle tour thing. The guy say my Ubuntu backpack and started telling me how his brother uses Ubuntu. schweet.

Then last week one of the contractors I had out to give me some estimates on hurricane damage repairs (yes, it's still going on!) started asking what I did and when I told him I worked for an Open Source company he said, "yeah, like Ubuntu - I use that on my computers!" He got the job.

Then a few days ago at lunch a guy came up to us and commented on my Ubuntu shirt. Turns out he's a big open source fan and the perfect target for what we are trying to do get out the message that "UBUNTU SERVER IS ENTERPRISE READY!" Yeah, he loved Ubuntu on the desktop but at work he used "other" OSes to run his servers. Since we were right in the middle of our new server course pilot, we had to figure out what we could tell him to change his mind.

So, if you have it, show off your Ubuntu gear and get folks talking! or go to the Shop and buy you some new swag. . .or come help out the community and you just might be rewarded with some Ubuntu goodies along the way.

Ubuntu in space?

2009-03-10T00:18:10Z

NASA is soliciting names for the new Node 3 module about to added to International Space Station. I suggested Ubuntu. You should too!

http://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/name_ISS/index.html

b/c I don't think they're gonna let it be called Colbert ;)

Ubuntu Desktop Course Materials Updated!

2009-01-14T15:30:07Z

We quietly released the updated Ubuntu Desktop Course materials a few weeks ago. But now we're ready to publicly announce the materials are ready for your use and translations!

The Romanian team already has a translated version and I know the Russians are right behind them. There have been inquiries from several Spanish speakers, an educator in Sweden and others wanting to work on translation efforts. I invite you all to gather in #ubuntu-training to try to coordinate your efforts.

Here's the branch where the source files can be found:

https://code.launchpad.net/~canonical-training/ubuntu-desktop-course/ubuntu-desktop-course-beta

Happy learning!

major dell fail. . .

2008-12-20T00:53:16Z

I just found out the order I placed for the Dell mini 9s on Dec. 4 was inexplicably cancelled by Dell and then re-ordered by Dell today with a new ship date of Jan. 7. Well, that's too late, way too late. So now I'm canceling all my Dell orders - I had 4 minis in total on order- and going with some of the Acer Aspire Ones from my Holiday Store:
http://astore.amazon.com/dinda-20?node=3&page=2

There a Sylvania Ubuntu netbook on amazon but I've never heard of it so I'm passing on those. It's all probably for the best as the first Dell Mini 9 I have in hand has a dead screen after only two weeks. Plus, the Acers have better specs and overall prices but alas only available with XP. Two ordered, two to go. I may go to Frys in the morning to see what they have in stock or maybe even Best Buy. I really hate shopping, shopping during the holidays is even worse -r.

If you have any other recommendations on last minute Netbook options, send em my way.

Dell Mini 9 Fail

2008-12-15T02:31:34Z

The less than two week old Dell Mini 9 has failed. Power button lights up but a completely dark screen. This is a bad sign. I just ordered 4 more of these things for gifts. So tomorrow morning, I start the wonderful world of Dell tech support calls - oh joy. Will report back on that process as it proceeds.

I like it! I really like it!

2008-10-10T20:41:40Z

Disclaimer: I work for Canonical. This post reflects only my personal opinion, not my employers, friends anyone who ever knew/knows me.

When I started my new job with the commercial sponsor of the Ubuntu Linux project I forced myself to pretty much go cold turkey on my other OS. I mean after using primarily one OS since 1985 (yeah, the one that appeared in 1984) I knew the day had finally come to embrace all things Open Source and especially Ubuntu.

And so almost exactly one month ago (Sept. 8) I went cold turkey over to Ubuntu only. And guess what? I like it, I REALLY like it! Now you skeptics are saying, well yeah, that's just b/c you've been involved in the project 4evar and now your hobby is helping to pay the bills but you have no idea how hard this was for me to make the final (well almost) break. I hate change. If it ain't broke, don't fix it and I've been getting along pretty well with my triple boot machine but ever since 9/8 I find I'm cranking up Ubuntu and don't 'need' to crank up the other OSes at all. And yeah, working for an Open Source company certainly helps but then that has also been one of my goals - to work for a company that support FOSS.

But then all of you already knew how great Ubuntu was/is and how easy it is to switch but see, some of us are stubborn. And Thanks to all the Community members who answered my ever growing number of questions as I continue my journey.

Training Team Meeting

2008-10-07T19:43:52Z

The next Ubuntu Training Team meeting will be held on Wednesday, 8 October at 20:00 UTC. The place is: irc.freenode.net in channel #ubuntu-training. Hosting will by by yours truly, Dinda, and the meeting details and agenda can be found at:

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Training/Meeting

Invite your friends, family and countrypersons. If you're looking for a way to help contribute back to the fabulous Ubuntu Community or are just interested in learning more about Ubuntu Training offerings, then stop by and chat with us in #ubuntu-training.

Dells new sub-notebook

2008-08-21T14:11:24Z

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080818-dells-eee-killer-to-ship-with-ubuntu-preinstalled.html

If this is true, then I want one. Correction I want at least five; one for me and one for each highschool aged niece/nephew. yes, I spoil them muchly.

BarCamp Houston this weekend!

2008-08-07T02:49:37Z

I've been wanting to attend one of these for a long time but. . . I'm still not sure if I'll be able to. Family stuff happening or trying to happen this weekend as well. But if anyone is in the Houston are this weekend, be sure to check out Bar Camp Houston. Here are the various links to info about the event:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=20557754137

http://barcamp.org/BarCampHouston3

Managing user expectations. . .

2008-05-26T03:10:32Z

Just documenting here some notes from various meetings at Rice University with the Connexions and Sakai projects.

Cnx is trying to position itself as a wiki alternative. Not an LMS but certainly a CMS for academic materials. They still haven't publicly released their source code, rapthos, and are looking for some technical answers on version control and other management issues. I think they need to talk to the Launchpad and Bzr folks, I told em so. It's a Zope/Plone back end.

License for materials is CC-SA but not NC.
Once something is published it can never be removed, only deprecated or modified - ack, scary.
Performance issues need to be worked out; servers not optimized.
Gov't of Taiwan is using it internally.
Need to think about ways to integrate/link multiple sites instead of one big repository currently hosted by Rice.
Just hired a Community Services person to assist in content conversion.
Uses it own xml - cnxml for authoring material.
Not that user-friendly but getting better.
Print on demand - they say it works but it doesn't really yet but it does export some nice PDFs.

Sakai at Rice. Can I just say there are some really Smart folks over there at Rice. (Disclosure: they did finally give me a degree in the mid 90s and I did work there for a bit too.) But really, every time I go back there and get to talk with some of the folks there it gets me all itchy to be back in a think tank like environment. Imagine being paid to think about creative ways to do things and having the budget to try them. And having really smart folks around to ask your most basic questions to and they don't treat you like an idiot. Well anyways, they switched from WebCT to Sakai a few years ago after WebCT tried to blackmail, er, charge them a half million dollars in licensing fees; jumping from about $100k to $500k in one year. This when you discover you're being screwed by a proprietary model and you start seeking alternatives. Not that the school can't afford that amount but still, there were better solutions and they settled on Sakai.

Rice is a small school who will never offer distance learning classes in the traditional sense but rather it was looking for course support. Sakai was chosen over Moodle b/c of its bent toward higher education as well as the consortium involved in development and support. Rice is a growing part of that process. Overall they are pleased with the product even though:
- there is no set release cycle
- there is no real "Search" (indexing issue) functionality

They currently only have part-time staff devoted to keep their Sakai servers happy and provide user support. They are usually one release behind; try to keep server upgrades in the summer.

Carlos also outlined an interesting problem they had in rolling out Sakai. The fact that it was open source was overstated (in his opinion) b/c it gave end users an unrealistic expectation that they could change/fix any and everything their hearts desired. They need to do a better job of managing end users expectations b/c just b/c you can change things doesn't mean it should be. There is now a whole process of deciding what needs to be fixed/changed for Rice and what might be rolled upstream to the Sakai project.

the best words on the olpc state. . .

2008-05-14T14:21:30Z

http://radian.org/notebook/sic-transit-gloria-laptopi

Amen, Ivan!

and history repeats itself. . .

reminds me of why I left the education sector; the politics overriding the learning, the children. I can't tell you how many "laptop giveaway" projects I've been involved in and even more I've heard of. The same mistakes get made over and over again. "If you give them away, all problems will magically be solved." argh! It's not about the machine, it's the people who use them and genuinely need them but are left with no direction. Start with the learning! I spent a few summers training hundreds of teachers on their new 'free' laptops and yet the trickle to students was negligible. We were literally given a million dollars to spend on hardware but no training development, no curriculum integration and no social issues. I should stop now. . . but only b/c I have a meeting in two hours to discuss, what else, education and free software and new technology in academic settings. Sakai anyone? Connexions?

lol - guess I'm still the idealist who wants to reach those billion children. If Ivan and Walter do start the Open Learning foundation you can bet I'll be sending my resume.

Why I stopped programming. . .

2008-04-17T23:08:57Z

I've been pondering that question for a few days/weeks now. There doesn't seem to be an easy answer. I can't point to one event or any bad experience but somewhere along the way it just stopped being fun.

I can clearly recall the day I wrote my first real program. Highschool computer fundamentals class; i.e. Basic programming, Mr. Bacon (probably no relation to Jono) was our teacher and my teammates were Amy Pollak and some guy who I can't recall. We had procrastinated on the assignment for weeks and we had all of 50 minutes to turn in our project. They both turned to me and said, "Help." I sat down at the Apple IIe and 48 minutes later I had created a program that drew a rainbow-colored sun that then dropped into the blue horizon line of the ocean. Magic.

The pixels were huge too. Big lego-sized blocks of color to form the sun and ocean. I used a loop to make the sun drop and then disappear below the horizon. We got an A! And I learned two very important lessons that day; 1.) That I could make computers do things for me and 2.) That I could procrastinate weeks of work into a few short minutes if I really concentrated. The second lesson being the bane of the way I continue to work today. Give me a deadline and I'll meet it even though it may look like I'm doing nothing in the interim.

And then I finished all my HS classes early and so they let me take some college courses while still a Senior. The best thing about the whole arrangement was that my college classes were on Tues & Thurs. but I didn't tell my HS that and so on MWF I had three hours off in the middle of the day to go to my Grandma's and have a free lunch and take a nap or write my English papers which were due when I got back.

The classes were Fortran and Pascal. And yes, I'm "that" old. I did well in the classes and found them interesting even I thought I wasn't doing as well as I really was. I got A's and graduated with honors from HS and then went off to college to study. . . Theology. Don't ask, it was an interesting time. But computers kept their hold me and I took extra classes to learn more about them and even considered Comp Sci for my Master's studies but something happened along the way.

I found a more interesting challenge. I ended up majoring in Education with a concentration in Instructional Technology; I find the best way to use technology to teach people things. That along with the whole science of how people learn things I just found fascinating and still do to a certain extent. But alas my journey into the world of Open Source has me wondering why I'm no longer a coder. I figure if I can answer that question we'd have the key to why there are so few women in F/OSS.

And the only answer I have is that somewhere along the way it stopped being fun/challenging/interesting. I think once I found out I could make computers do things for me, the challenge of following the rules of programming to make it happen disappeared. There were enough other folks doing the coding but to me at least, the real challenge was in adoption policy and user training. A visit to any school will tell you that it's not the technology but the policy that is holding us back But then again, that may be my bias of a Political Science degree and too many technology committees who insist kids have to use Windows "because that's what we use at work," or even better, "We'll get sued if we use Open Source software."

So "Good on ya" to all the coders of the world. I'll keep using your programs and I'll keep fighting the good fight to get your work into the hands of the world.

Lug Radio USA

2008-03-25T03:45:42Z

Lug Radio USA - be there! I will. I just confirmed my flight and try as I might just couldn't fit in a side trip to Vegas. (woe is me) But alas the event is looking to be a great time. Now I really should get my talk straightened up, eh? When I was commuting, I practiced on the way home but the talk always ended up being way too long. So now I need to get it together, gather up the giveaway toys and get serious about putting on a good show for the masses.

It's strange, b/c I'm really a rather shy person but for some reason talking about Open Source and especially Ubuntu have made me really enjoy public speaking. Perhaps one of the big changes is that talking for myself and not having to represent some company or other entity who's paid my way to such conferences. That's freedom.

The topic this time around will be "Finding Your Voice in the Open Source Community." The past few months I've become interested in how new contributors find their way into the various groups. It seems every group is always asking for help and new folks are always looking for mentors but I think the path into being a contributor is more difficult than most think.

Hope you can make it out!

Ubuntu Desktop Course - almost final. . .

2008-03-11T04:45:05Z

or as final as any living document gets. I just finished proofing chapters 5, 7 & 8. Eesh, too much like real work but I'm glad I was able to lend a hand. Like all Ubuntu projects, we could use your help with the Training Team. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Training for more info. The next meeting is scheduled for 3 April 1600 UTC.

Looking forward we'd like to get more folks involved, work closer with the Doc Team and I'm pretty sure there is also a match with the Classroom Project. Perhaps now that I'm working from home (yeah, my home even) I'll have some time to devote to some of this fun. That or I need to schedule a Vegas trip soon. . .

more FUD in the education sector. . .

2007-11-21T13:23:56Z

Argh. I had a conversation last night with someone in the education sector. I mentioned that I was now using Moodle and they made the comment that "We can't deploy open source in the elementary schools because it's not secure. We'd get sued." I was too shocked to even reply. Now this was coming from a colleague and not just your average education person and I've been championing open source technologies to them for over a year including the security benefits but geez, was that frustrating.

So we're back to FUD in education, where we need emerging, collaborative technologies the most. Speaking in schools is great b/c the kids just get it, the Administrators not so much.

. . . and a little child shall lead them. . . (I hope).

UDS Boston

2007-10-29T23:30:56Z

Forgot to post over here - I'm going but won't arrive in Boston until Wednesday afternoon. I tried to listen into some of the voip sessions this morning with not much luck so far. I'm still troubleshooting this error message: "The NetworkManager applet cannot locate some required resources. It cannot continue." No luck in various support places; irc, forums, etc. I'm going to try a reinstall in a bit - argh.

Here's how you can Participate via voip or listen to the icecast.

Once I get there we'll also be having a Training BOF. And I'm hoping to help map out our next steps for the Ubuntu Community Training Team and brainstorm on community-based training offerings for next year. As usual there is lots of other interesting stuff happening - see the daily schedulea here: http://people.ubuntu.com/~scott/uds-boston-2007/

should I stay or should I go?

2007-10-25T01:42:08Z

Story of my life, really. I'm debating with myself over going to next week's UDS in Boston. There are tons of great stuff happening and lots of great specs plus it's an LTS release so knowing what's going on at this level will no doubt help with our training plans. My problem is that I'm waiting to hear on some new job news so I may need to conserve financial resources a bit longer and the trip will not be cheap. ugh, decisions, decisions.

Also would love to be seeing lots of great folks who are scheduled to be there and most importantly would love some whiteboard time with Billy C to help map out the Community Training map for next year.

What to do? what to do? what to do?

Ubuntu Open Week happening NOW

2007-10-23T14:58:48Z

Just a reminder that the ever entertaining and informative Ubuntu Open Week sessions are happening this week in #ubuntu-classroom with chat in #ubuntu-class-chat on freenode. Unfortunately I'll have to miss tomorrow's "Ask Mark" sessions but am looking forward to Billy Cina's Thursday morning session on Training at 15:00 UTC. Then Lyz will host the Ubuntu Women session on Saturday at 16:00 UTC.

Stop in if you get a chance!

Ubuntu Houston Loco Meeting Tonight and other misc.

2007-10-17T14:41:44Z

The Ubuntu Houston Loco Team is having a Gutsy pre-release cheerleading session led by our own Lee Sharp tonight. The venue is Texadelphia way out at 6025 Westheimer in the big city. Not sure if I can make it as there is a kayak I need to retrieve first - don't ask, long story. There's also the topic of Gaming on the menu so get the word out to anyone in the area. See http://groups.google.com/group/ubuntu-houston-team for more info

Speaking of getting the word out, one of today's goals is to get my blog up and running over on the "real" Ubuntu Planet. Unfortunately this will first involved troubleshooting the wonderful "Network Manager cannot locate some necessary resources and cannot continue" error messages I keep getting on that machine - argh. Once that happens then I can start the long awaited call for the Ubuntu Texas Team! We have two really strong city teams; Houston and Dallas so there's been some opposition to adding a state team to the mix but it's a big state and it really bothers me to see that huge empty white space over Texas so I'm hoping we can get the state team organized and then approved on the basis of the existing city teams. (was that the longest sentence ever? quite possibly but I digress. . .)

After all that fun then there's the Ubuntu Community Training Team to work with! More details on that soon but see https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Training for more info. We, -er, I'm hoping to work with folks from the Classroom Project, Doc Team and UW Project to get more folks involved in the upcoming training offerings.

And some sadness as things are looking doubtful for my attending the upcoming UDS. . .ugh, timing just couldn't be worse with finances and job stuff but we'll see what the fates bring.

Cheers all!

Unemployed!

2007-08-20T16:20:11Z

very happily and temporarily so! I've got a two week window (if it all works out) between projects that finds me temporarily unemployed. It's a nice feeling given the chaos of the past few weeks on the last project yet a bit unsettling as the paperwork for the next thing is not in place yet. I usually try not to leave/finish one project without knowing exactly when and where my next paycheck will be coming from.

Regardless, I'm going to spend some quality time at home fixing up the spare bedroom for guests, fishing and other assorted tasks. I'm sure there will be at least one trip in the offing but not sure on details yet. Oh and I'm about to start flying again! It's been almost two years since my last flight as a PIC (Pilot in Command) flight so I'm really looking forward to getting back into the friendly skies and resuming my pilot training. Just a hundred other or so other things to do before that though.

And I'll have some time for my various FOSS projects. Eesh, more hornet's nest seemed to have been kicked into activity so it should be an interesting few weeks. As always, I'm looking for the positive and seeing where we can make things better. I still need to post up some of the great questions I received from the audience after my Ubuntu Live talk and then from the LinuxChix BOF. But right now, the post office, errands and lunch are calling.

more bad Apple customer service. . .

2007-08-15T14:35:05Z

I spent more time than I'd like filling our online rebate forms for my latest purchases. At the every end there is a linked text phrase to print your submission form. Mine didn't work, for either rebate. I called the listed 800 customer service and reported an error on the webpage. Melissa, who received the call, was extremely unhelpful and was rather one of those folks who seemed put off by having to deal with a problem. I guess that part of the group never hears of problems from users. Her advice was to just wait and try as there was nothing she could do, nor did she indicate she was going to actually report a problem to anyone. She even said she didn't know who to report it to.

Now I guess I'm spoiled b/c being a web designer/developer and having tons of friends who are too and reporting bugs on the Ubuntu website usually gets some sort of response if not a "thanks." I guess I expected something more than "there's nothing I can do" simply b/c most web developers want to know if there is a problem on their site so they can get it fixed asap. Okay, fine, whatever, but I do ask to speak to a manager, who finally comes on the line and at least listened to the problem I was describing. She offered the standard pop-up blocker line and at least said she would report it; though she seemed clueless as to where to report a website problem as well. But I guess only when enough customers are inconvenienced and they get enough calls will someone actually look into any problems.

A few years ago I spent the good part of an entire afternoon going through the scripted Apple support line explaining that I had a new machine with a hard drive failure. Of course, the end user canNOT be trusted to diagnose that so before they would issue an RMA number I had to go through about 30 reboots, zap the PRAM, so the guy on the other end could hear it - I kid you not! and after all that, the jerk, er customer service rep says, "yeah, it sounds like your hard drive has failed." DUH, that's what I said four hours ago and I wouldn't have called you if I hadn't already gone through the advanced troubleshooting process in advance. Grrr. and they wonder why so many customer service call centers are being outsourced to foreign countries.

I'm starting to wonder why I continue to buy any Apple products at all anymore. . . here's hoping that good design continues to infest the open source world.

The Upgrade Path and Opportunities for FOSS

2007-08-05T14:47:52Z

In the past few weeks both myself and a coworker upgraded to new laptops. Me a shiny new 15" MacBook Pro and her a shiny new red HP/Sony?? I forgot the brand but that's less important on the PC side of life, it's red, blood red. Anyways, we both had the same bad experiences on the windows side of our upgrades and we even had all the fully purchased licensed stuff too! most annoying.

Here's how it went for me:
Bought home new laptop, connected it to the old 12" PB via a firewire cable, booted up using the "Y" key on the old to make it a slave, let the apple "new machine" software auto detect and move EVERYTHING - yes even all my fully licensed MS Office products and Adobe stuff. In the past I had to keep the old machine around and occasionally boot it up b/c inevitably there was something that didn't get moved. This time I haven't even turned on the old machine since that night. Flawless - nice job apple.

Next I installed Parallels and my fully licensed version of XP and then attempted to install MS Office since the main tool I'm using for work these days in a PPT plug-in. Install failed, said it was on too many machines. I called the 800 activate by phone number and was connected to someone somewhere in India, I had to read back the cryptic code on the screen, then he gave me another 30 something long code back it finally worked. Most annoying. Then of course, the main tool I'm using would also not install. (Did I mention this all happened while on travel so I didn't actually get to work but had to wait until I got home to deal with it all.) Even though I followed all their instructions and removed the software from my old machine and their magic uninstall software reported back to the mothership that it had been taken off that machine, still no joy. Again, have to wait for daytime support hours, call the support line, explain the situation, and they 'release' something on their servers/my serial number and I can try again to reinstall software I own/purchased/have all the right serial numbers to. I now have a double boot Mac/Windows machine.

But that's not good enough. . . so I run Parallels install again and this time use the only Ubuntu CD for Mac I had around, 6.06 LTS (I was on the airplane at this point so no net access). It's smooth, clean, we have lift off!

At Ubuntu Live I knew they had Linux/XP machines and since I'd never done a presentation fully in Linux and Open Office I was a bit concerned. My original presentation was created on my old Mac with Office X then ported to Open Office with the new machine and then sent for review to a colleague with windows-only and finally came back to me to test on the presentation machine with Ubuntu and OO about two hours before my talk. Ah, technology, sometimes things just work and I was happy that all but two slides had some funky font issues at that point, I was happy it was readable and the clicker worked.

Oh and my coworker had the equally bad experience on the Windows side of things as she decided, well, was forced to upgrade to Vista on the new laptop. Did I mention her other laptop, a two year old Dell, died a horrible motherboard overheating death two days before she was to go on travel. We rescued her data from her drive but then getting everything reinstalled on her new machine was a licensing nightmare. Again, she had paid for everything, had the right serial numbers but since the other machine died there was no way to 'remove' the software off the old machine and let the MS and other software vendors mothership servers know that her old machine died. It took her about two weeks and lots of calls to India to get things reinstalled and working in a productive manner. And now she has to remember to save everything in non-upgraded MS mode so everyone else can open her documents.

The Ubuntu upgrade, once I got to the internet again, went flawless. I let it run in the background while working on other stuff through parallels. Have I mentioned that I love Parallels? I can now travel with one laptop, switch effortlessly btwn OSes and continue on my journey toward software freedom while still accessing my "old" proprietary stuff. Progress. . . but at a price. . .

So word to the F/OSS world make upgrading to a new machine as easy as upgrading on the same machine and you've overcome a HUGE hurdle.

Your tax dollars at work. . .

2007-07-30T13:31:40Z

Matt Assay writes a nice article about a US government agency choosing a proprietary software package and ignoring any open source solutions. It's sad b/c it's true. United Space Alliance, a company I used to work for and a NASA contractor, made the same bad decision a few years ago too. I even heard managers say things like "well if it's free it can't be any good" and in another case refusing to send folks to the free/no cost training options of companies as opposed to same offerings where the cost were several hundreds of dollars, if not more given travel and time away.

It's frustrating when it's your tax dollars not at work and even moreso in the public school setting where kids are the target of bad decision-making. But don't get me started on that rant this morning. . . work to be done and the fish are calling for this afternoon post work.