I got this procedure from this MacWorld forum post.

If you have iTunes set to open on login, deselect that.  This will take care of it.

Create the following plist file in the LaunchAgents folder of your home Library (~/Library/LaunchAgents) with the name user.launchkeep.itunes.plist:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
  <key>Label</key>
  <string>user.launchkeep.itunes</string>
  <key>KeepAlive</key>
  <true/>
  <key>Program</key>
  <string>/Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/MacOS/iTunes</string>
</dict>
</plist>

Load this launchd job by running the following command in Terminal:

launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/user.launchkeep.itunes.plist

Now if you quit iTunes it will start right back up.  In order to quit the app at any time other than logout or shutdown you’ll need to disable the job.  To do that run the following comman in Terminal:

launchctl remove user.launchkeep.itunes

Dear Friend,

I wouldn’t bother saying this unless I was trying to be a friend, and not just a Facebook friend, but a REAL freind… And I don’t know how to say it other than just saying it… you need to be selective with the pictures you post. I really want to look at the pictures of your travels, but c’mon, 200 pictures!  When I see 200+ pictures in this gallery, I physically groan and either unhappily slog through the gallery or don’t bother at all–depending on my mood and general busyness. Because I like you.  And like your family.  And I want to keep up with what you are doing. But seriously, you should stop posting every picture you take.

Here are some tips you didn’t ask for:

• Professional photographers take a lot of pictures and then choose only the best for publication. Take a cue from that. Pick a few that are truly representative of your trip. You don’t have to capture every moment, place or event.  Select pictures that capture the overall feelings, impressions, beauty… from your trip. I use a max 10% rule.  Only post 1 in 10.  You will have to make tough choices.  It is OK.
• Do a little post processing. It isn’t so intimidating when you only have one or two dozen photos to work on. In iPhoto there is an auto-adjust that is very often all that is needed to improve the color and exposure on an ordinary picture to make it a lot better.  To make it come alive.  This is important.  One great picture will leave a stronger impression on the viewer than 200 “meh” pictures.
• If you are just using fb as a way to preserve your photos in the event of a disaster there are better ways to do it… Carbonite, Flickr, Phanfare, SmugMug…
• If you have friends or family who really want to see every single picture from your trip, Phanfare or SmugMug are good options.  You can create private galleries and send invites to those people, or you can simply include a “to see more follow this link” in the description of your galleries on Facebook.  Then everyone who wants to see some highlights from your trip can see that and if they want to see more, they can go to the SmugMug or Phanfare gallery.

Of course you can just say “I don’t give a rat’s a$$ if Kendall looks at my galleries or not. I’m gonna just keep doing it this way.” That would be fine and I won’t think any differently of you. Just trying to be helpful.

KG

Today I received an update from Andrew Erlichson, Phanfare founder and CEO. I get the impression that we had the same conversation by phone that he had with several other lifetime subscribers. In short, Phanfare needed to sell. They needed to partner with a larger company with the finance, marketing, and strategy resources to take an excellent product and make it profitable. If Phanfare had not arranged the buy out by Carbonite it is likely that they would have shuttered. That would have left all their customers without service, their data, or a refund. So selling to Carbonite was not an easy decision, and it was not a good solution, but it was the best Mr. Erlichson could do for all of Phanfare’s customers. Standard annual subscribers should see no change in service or pricing . And although lifetime subscribers are not getting a good deal, they can get three more years at no additional charge and most importantly this is a plan that will keep their data secure for the foreseeable future. For those not satisfied with this arrangement, Mr. Erlichson is now being totally clear that customers who so desire can get a full refund of their $299.95, original purchase price per the 2006 Terms of Service:

Phanfare may terminate a lifetime subscription at any time by returning the photos and videos to you and returning your original purchase price, currently $299.95.

Some people will quibble that the 2006 TOS also include a provision “to receive your photos and video back on DVD once at no cost”. Mr. Erlichson has been clear that they will not be burning and mailing DVDs. Users will be able to receive their data “via electronic download with a new program we are writing”. I would argue that it is better to download your files yourself, to a PC or attached harddrive anyhow. You will get your files sooner–it would take weeks to burn and mail all the requested DVDs. Also downloading to a PC or attached HD will allow you to have all your files in one place. The average Phanfare user would require at least two or three DVDs. Then you get in the business of searching through multiple DVDs looking for a particular photo. Better to download them yourself and have them all in one place. Personally, I would not wait for this downloader program to arrive and you don’t have to. If you are Windows user you can download your files today using Mirgatr.

One final thought: Mr. Erlichson requests that we not be too hard on Carbonite. And I don’t really intend to be hard on them here, more than to say that it really would not have been that difficult for Carbonite to have maintained the lifetime subscriber program and associate the program to “annual revenue” which is their practice. All they would have had to do as part of the buy out is place a certain sum of money in an annuity that would pay out according to their revenue requirement. The annuity would not have to be perpetual, as lifetime subscribers will ultimately die and the membership is not transferable. Would this quantity equal the $250,000 dollars we all paid to Phanfare five or more years ago? I don’t know. Because I don’t know what their revenue requirement is nor can I assume how long this annuity should last. But clearly there is a sum of money that could be annuitized and reasonably be expected to meet their revenue requirement. They opted to not do this. Why? Because it was an additional expense and it was slightly more complicated. Now is the convenient time to make a clean break from the lifetime program. I am wondering if it was worth it. Carbonite is in the process of issuing an initial public offering aimed at raising $100 million. Negative press could impact their final valuation. Making good by lifetime subscribers would surely have cost less than $500,000. Could this ill will affect their final IPO take by half a percentage point? I doubt it. Because, under the terms of the buy out, this presents absolutely no legal or financial liability for Carbonite. However, could negative press raise questions about the character of Carbonite’s leadership which would affect the final valuation of the IPO? Perhaps. So, why take the risk? Certainly they don’t want this story to go far. And I get the impression that Andrew Erlichson’s first official duty at Carbonite is to quiet the chatter about this lifetime program snafu and fast. And I hope he does, otherwise they could be in for a rough transition with Carbonite asking why they bought this thing in the first place.

At this point Mr. Erlichson is clearly left holding the bag as the only one responsible for satisfying the legitimate expectations of lifetime subscribers. I think that is exactly what he is now doing. As in 2008, it would have been better if they could have more accurately predicted lifetime subscriber reaction to the change. But also as in 2008, they are now listening to their customers and making their best effort to right the situation.

As for me, I am taking Mr. Erlichson up on his offer to refund my $299. In this way, my “credit” won’t be married to Phanfare, I won’t get locked into three years of service, and I can take my photos elsewhere when and if I please. In that vein, I am seriously checking out SmugMug right now, as it appears to offer near feature-for-feature parity with Phanfare at a $40 per year discount. SmugMug offers competitive upgrades for Flickr users and the rumor is they do the same for Phanfare users with discount code “PHANFARE”. I’m not sure if this is 20 or 50%, but either way not bad since the service is already 40% cheaper. UPDATE: The “PHANFARE” code does not work, but I contacted SmugMug support and they gave me a current coupon code for 50% off my first year. I cannot share the code here, but I imagine if you contact SmugMug directly they would offer you the same discount. For a bit more detail about moving to SmugMug, expect another post to that effect soon. In the mean time, this comment at the “Phanfare Suck Again” post does have a bit more information.

Ultimately, I have to say that I’ve loved being a Phanfare customer. I love the product, particularly the web, desktop, and iphone clients. I also think Carbonite is a fantastic company with a solid product. I think that this partnership will be good for Phanfare. These guys are just people and I suspect they’ve learned something from this mess. I wish Phanfare and Carbonite the best going forward.

Here is the complete “Additional Explanation” message from Phanfare founder and CEO Andrew Erlichson:

Dear Customers,

I have received a tremendous amount of feedback about our ending the Lifetime Program in the past few days and I want to share some additional thoughts of explanation with you all.

There are about 850 Lifetime customers. Phanfare was a small company and never grew to very large size. This transaction was modest in size, although the details remain confidential.

It became clear that we needed a larger partner to survive long term and that is why we began the process of selling the business.

Although we did try to negotiate to have Carbonite take on the Lifetime Program intact, the final agreement was that Lifetime customers would be offered a credit of their original purchase price of $299.95 by Carbonite and offered annual memberships.

Had we not needed to sell the company, we would have certainly continued the Lifetime Program indefinitely.

I wrote the Lifetime Program terms myself and I specifically created a way for us to end the Lifetime Program if we needed to in a scenario such as this. My goal was to protect Lifetime customers in a transaction from arbitrary action by a successor while bounding the liability of ending the program so as not to create a poison pill.

The agreement was that if we wanted to end the Lifetime Program at the time of an acquisition, we would return photos and videos and purchase price, which we proposed doing in terms of a credit. This agreement can be found in the Internet Archives.

The result will be that Lifetime customers will have received about seven years of service for their original fee and get continuity of service.

I am very sorry that we could not do better than this for the Lifetime customers. Many of you are personal friends and and I have come to know many more.

The Phanfare service is continuing unchanged under Carbonite and I will be running the Phanfare division as VP, Phanfare, reporting to Carbonite’s CEO, David Friend.

If you are certain that you do not want to continue at all with us, please write me and we will refund your original purchase price. This refund will come not from Carbonite, but from what remains of Phanfare, Inc. It will essentially be paid for by me, my employees and my shareholders. In that case, we will also return your photos and videos to you via electronic download with a new program we are writing.

Again my sincere apologies that we did not manage to create a better outcome for Lifetime subscribers.

A final thought. Don’t be too hard on Carbonite in this. The Lifetime Program is not profitable and while we feel a strong commitment to doing right by all of you, Carbonite is fairly looking after their own customers and shareholders and not taking on something that they don’t feel makes any business sense. I respect that decision and hold no ill will about it.

Sincerely,

–
Andrew Erlichson
aje@phanfare.com
Founder & CEO
Phanfare, Inc.

Phanfare is doing it again, sucking that is.  Three years ago, Phanfare abandoned their lifetime members by moving to a free model like Flickr, Shutterfly, Picassa, and others. They also put the whole thing behind a login, meaning no public galleries.  After several weeks of hearing from outraged users, Phanfare reversed its decision and welcomed back their subscription members including their lifetime members.  When we started using Phanfare, you could purchase an annual subscription for $59 or a lifetime subscription for $299.  $299 was a pretty good chunk of money to throw down on an Internet service, but it was supposed to be for a lifetime.  And it was a pretty good investment, because their annual subscription price has been going up steadily and is now $99 for the premium account.

Well, in 2008, when they moved to the free model they refunded our lifetime subscription in full.  And when they took me back as a lifetime member, they took me back for $299 less the $59 I had paid to SmugMug for an annual subscription.  See, I had cancelled my account and moved my galleries to SmugMug. You can read about that whole thing at this other post. So, now they are up to it again.  Phanfare has been bought by Carbonite.  And Carbonite is not honoring lifetime subscriptions.  They also are not refunding our annual subscription.  They have converted it to Phanfare credit.  So, they have effectively turned my lifetime subscription into a six year subscription that I’ve paid in advance, and I have but three years remaining on it.  No offer to refund my subscription so I can take my business elsewhere.

I’m pretty agitated, but I tried to remain civil in my letter to Phanfare’s founder and CEO, Andrew Erlichson.  I also avoided making lame threats about unliking them on Facebook, blasting them on Twitter, and emailing and phoning the major tech podcasts and blogs. Here is the letter I just sent to Mr. Erlichson:

Dear Mr. Erlichson,

I have been a Phanfare member for a longtime. I find the service elegant, the desktop client and the iPhone client too. I simply love it. There are few Internet services I like as much as Phanfare. That being the case it was very difficult when in 2008 you changed your business model and dispensed with public galleries, lifetime subscriptions, and as I recall custom domain names. It was painful, frustrating, and fundamentally a breech of trust. Reluctantly, I cancelled my account and went through the less than painless steps to migrate to smugmug. However, you ultimately listened to your users, reinstated public galleries and lifetime memberships, and I gladly came back. Now it seems you are doing it again, only worse.

I have a couple of questions for you:

1. Will you back-peddle on this decision like in 2008? Because I certainly would prefer you did, and before I go through the work of moving my galleries to another service.
2. Will you refund my lifetime membership? Three more years does not in any way equate to a lifetime. Also how is it fair that I should pay three years in advance? Let the money sit in my bank account rather than yours. That is, should I even decide to stay with Phanfare for three more years. Phanfare is a considerably different value proposition than it was when I started with it back when an annual subscription was $59.

I have been an evangelist for Phanfare and Carbonite, both at my work as a systems engineer at a major research university, but also among my social network. I really like both brands. However, I find this kind of behavior, this mistreatment of your most loyal customers, intolerable. And its not merely abandoning the lifetime program, but also the ungenerous terms by which you are doing it. I hope you are willing to listen and use your position to fight for your most loyal members with your new Carbonite management. Please, honor what I see as a reciprocal agreement, the lifetime membership program, that is, and you will keep this happy Phanfare and Carbonite customer and advocate and likely many others.

Sincerely,

Kendall George

http://gallery.georges.nu/

What follows is Mr. Erlichsons letter, just for the record. This is not his response to my letter, but the letter he sent to notify lifetime members of the purchase by Carbonite and what is going to happen to our memberships. I’ll post any response I get from him in another post.

Dear Customers,

I am writing to inform you that the Phanfare business has been acquired by Carbonite, the online backup company. When we started Phanfare in 2004, our goal was to create a beautiful, permanent online archive for our photos and videos. Carbonite shares our values, our commitment to data integrity and our attention to customer support. They are also a significantly larger and better-capitalized company. The entire Phanfare team is joining Carbonite including myself.

But there is a wrinkle. Carbonite is not acquiring our lifetime subscriber program, as it does not fit with Carbonite’s disciplined approach to ensuring that all customer storage accounts are associated with annual revenue. We are therefore discontinuing the lifetime program.

Your account has been converted to an annual Premium account and Carbonite has deposited $299.95, your original purchase price, in Phanfare credit into your account.  This credit is good for Phanfare merchandise and annual subscription renewals and will expire if not fully used after three years. You will need to accept Carbonite’s terms of service when you next login to your account.

I am sorry that we have to discontinue the lifetime program, and I am sure you are disappointed, but I am certain that in nearly every way, the sale of the Phanfare business to Carbonite will help us deliver on our commitment to store your photos and videos for life. We sincerely hope that you stay with the Phanfare service as an annual customer so we can continue to serve you.

I want to tell you a bit about Carbonite. Carbonite is a leading provider of online backup solutions for consumers and small and medium sized business.  Our vision and their vision are very much aligned. Carbonite was founded by David Friend, who serves as their CEO. Like me, David loves to communicate and interact directly with customers.  I think we have found a great home for Phanfare and I believe that your personal investment in organizing and uploading your photos and videos is even better protected under Carbonite.

You have been with us a long time and we appreciate your ongoing support. We have exciting plans as a combined company as we embark on this new adventure.

As always, don’t hesitate to contact me personally if you have any questions or concerns.

Sincerely,

–

Andrew Erlichson

aje@phanfare.com

Founder & CEO

Phanfare, Inc.

First you will need to copy this script into a text document and save it as /Library/Scripts/toggleAirport.sh.

#!/bin/bash

function set_airport {

    new_status=$1

    if [ $new_status = "On" ]; then
    /usr/sbin/networksetup -setairportpower en1 on
    touch /var/tmp/prev_air_on
    else
    /usr/sbin/networksetup -setairportpower en1 off
    if [ -f "/var/tmp/prev_air_on" ]; then
        rm /var/tmp/prev_air_on
    fi
    fi

}

function growl {

    # Checks whether Growl is installed
    if [ -f "/usr/local/bin/growlnotify" ]; then
    /usr/local/bin/growlnotify -m "$1" -a "AirPort Utility.app"
    fi

}

# Set default values
prev_eth_status="Off"
prev_air_status="Off"

eth_status="Off"

# Determine previous ethernet status
# If file prev_eth_on exists, ethernet was active last time we checked
if [ -f "/var/tmp/prev_eth_on" ]; then
    prev_eth_status="On"
fi

# Determine same for AirPort status
# File is prev_air_on
if [ -f "/var/tmp/prev_air_on" ]; then
    prev_air_status="On"
fi

# Check actual current ethernet status
if [ "`ifconfig en0 | grep \"status: active\"`" != "" ]; then
    eth_status="On"
fi

# And actual current AirPort status
air_status=`/usr/sbin/networksetup -getairportpower en1 | awk '{ print $4 }'`

# If any change has occured. Run external script (if it exists)
if [ "$prev_air_status" != "$air_status" ] || [ "$prev_eth_status" != "$eth_status" ]; then
    if [ -f "./statusChanged.sh" ]; then
    "./statusChanged.sh" "$eth_status" "$air_status" &
    fi
fi

# Determine whether ethernet status changed
if [ "$prev_eth_status" != "$eth_status" ]; then

    if [ "$eth_status" = "On" ]; then
    set_airport "Off"
    growl "Wired network detected. Turning AirPort off."
    else
    set_airport "On"
    growl "No wired network detected. Turning AirPort on."
    fi

# If ethernet did not change
else

    # Check whether AirPort status changed
    # If so it was done manually by user
    if [ "$prev_air_status" != "$air_status" ]; then
    set_airport $air_status

    if [ "$air_status" = "On" ]; then
        growl "AirPort manually turned on."
    else
        growl "AirPort manually turned off."
    fi

    fi

fi

# Update ethernet status
if [ "$eth_status" == "On" ]; then
    touch /var/tmp/prev_eth_on
else
    if [ -f "/var/tmp/prev_eth_on" ]; then
    rm /var/tmp/prev_eth_on
    fi
fi

exit 0

you will need to make the script executable.  Open Terminal and change the permissions on the script by executing the following command:

chmod 755 /Library/Scripts/toggleAirport.sh

Copy the following xml code into a text document and save as /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.mine.toggleairport.plist

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
  <key>Label</key>
  <string>com.asb.toggleairport</string>
  <key>OnDemand</key>
  <true/>
  <key>ProgramArguments</key>
  <array>
    <string>/Library/Scripts/toggleAirport.sh</string>
  </array>
  <key>WatchPaths</key>
  <array>
    <string>/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration</string>
  </array>
</dict>
</plist>

You will need to load the plist into your launchctl daemon.  You can do this by opening Terminal and executing the following command:

sudo launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.mine.toggleairport.plist

When I first tried this, I would get the error “Dubious ownership on file (skipping)”.  I changed the ownership on the plist  to match other launch agents with the following command  and the plist loaded properly into launchctl:

sudo chown root:wheel  /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.mine.toggleairport.plist

Now when I unplug my Ethernet cable my AirPort turns on and connects to known networks automatically, and when I plug in an Ethernet cable my AirPort turns off.  Magic.

UPDATE: I just upgraded my MacBook Pro and monitor.  I now have one of the new thunderbolt displays.  These displays have an internal PCI Express network interface, so this script will not work properly when using the display’s network interface.  This interface is ‘en3′ so an additional check for this interface is required.  Simply add the following lines of code:

# Check actual current ethernet status for the Display Adapter
if [ "`ifconfig en3 | grep \"status: active\"`" != "" ]; then
    eth_status="On"
fi

I added these lines after the identical lines of code for ‘en0′.

Here is a sample feed for my Persons of Interest podcast website:

I don’t know how this expression became so popular. I wonder who was the first to say it. Doesn’t matter, but maybe we can stop it. It’s just a dumb thing to say. When people say this they sound ignorant–ignorant of the English language anyhow–but for me it spills over to whatever they’re talking about. Funny, because ignorant is what agnostic means. Agnostic means quite literally “I don’t know.” It comes from the Greek /a/ + /gnosis/. Literally /not/ + /knowing/. So, what these people are saying is, “Our technology doesn’t know. Maybe it’ll work, maybe it won’t. If your technology works, that’s good for you. But for me, personally, I’m just not committing to anything just yet. I’m just gonna shelve it for now. I’m holding out until I get more compelling evidence.”

Whereas, if what you are trying to say is that our stuff will work with anything, then your stuff is nonpartisan. You aren’t committed to any single vendor or technology–not committed to a party–you will cross party lines, reach across the aisle. There are other words you could use: nondiscriminatory, impartial, unprejudiced… Or you could just say what you mean: that your technology is standards based, or open, or flexible, or has multi-vendor support… However, if you want just a buzz phrase or just like a word that conjures up imagery or is more metaphorical, then I’m gonna have to advocate nonpartisan. It evokes images of Democrats and Republicans working together.

Anyhow, that is pretty much all I had to say about that. Just my little crusade to clean up the English language. I’m not going to get radical here. Not going to be rude. Just know when you say you’re agnostic, it means you’re ignorant. That’s what I’m thinking, even if I don’t say anything.

1. Take a large paperclip.
2. Straighten it out.
3. Wind a bit of electrical tape around it so that it would fit neatly inside the jack, leaving about 1/8″ of the paper clip exposed.
4. Put a tiny dab of JB Weld on the tip of the paperclip.
5. Slide the paperclip carefully into the headphone jack, being careful not to touch the insides of the jack with the JB Weld. I stood the laptop up on its side so the paperclip was perfectly vertical inside the jack.
6. Let set for 6 hours.
7. Gently pull the clip out with the broken off piece attached.

So that’s what I did, and it worked! Thanks Internet for saving me several hundred dollars and several days sans laptop.

My Special Tool.

Setting Up.

It worked!

Here's the little bugger that was causing all the trouble.

He was not my role model. I think a lot of us don’t want to become like our parents. When we see our parents in the way we look, talk, act… parent our children… well, we don’t like it; we hate it. But for me with my father, I think it was even more acute. I did not want to become like my father in any way. I wanted to actively distinguish myself from him. I wanted to chart a different course for my life than he did for his or would for mine. Actually, that makes it sound like I tried to figure him out. Actually, I didn’t. I actively tried to make decisions without any concern for his opinion in the least. Secretly, deeply I wanted his approval, but was disappointed often enough that I quit trying, utterly.

Don’t misunderstand me. My dad was not a bad guy. Not at all. There are a lot of people with bad dad stories… drugs, alcohol, abuse, abandonment. That is not my story. And I don’t want to give that kind of impression at all. My dad was a good guy. And he was a good dad. It took me too long to realize it. I realize it more and more as time goes on, as I grow older.

My father passed away ten years ago, the day before Christmas Eve 1999. Is it that he is no longer with us, that I have learned to appreciate him more? Is it because he is dead that I don’t have to contend with him any more? Would I appreciate him as much if he were still around? When my father passed away, we were on good terms. We didn’t have any outstanding issues between us. Nothing that was left unsaid. Our accounts were clear, at least as clear as they could have been at the time. I have changed. I have grown over the past ten years. I’ve learned to appreciate where he was coming from. I’ve learned to appreciate where he was coming from on issues… social, religious, political… I still may not agree, but I’ve learned to appreciate and respect his opinion. His point of view, his world view, his life, and experience.

Could we relate as adults now? Or would I still be a kid. On the verge of my fortieth birthday–man, that is hard to believe–but on the verge of my fortieth birthday would he still treat me like a kid? Could we be friends now? Could he be my counselor now?

I say we never talked about important things. That may be hyperbole, but I recall that very often our conversations about important things would end in an argument. I used to be very much at odds with my father about a great many things. And there was no one I could argue with more vigorously than my father. Now I am beginning to realize that my father was right about a lot. In time I may find that he was right about everything.

It started subtly, this notion, this apprehension. It snuck up on me. Surprised me. Last fall, I was working in the yard. We were rearranging our flowerbeds. We had these rose bushes scattered around. They had not been care for well by our house’s previous owners. They were wild and misshapen. We thought we’d clean them up, prune them, and put them all together in one place to make a little rose garden. There was also this pile of rocks on the side of the house that wasn’t doing anything, just collecting dirt and weeds. We transplanted three rose plants to a flower bed in the front of the house, to join one plant that was already there. We laid down some weed control fabric. We cleaned those rocks and covered up the fabric. When we were nearly done, I had a flashback to my childhood home. This rose garden in front of my house bore an uncanny resemblance to the rose garden we had in the front of the house I grew up in. Down to the same kind of rocks. Weird. How had circumstances conspired with my subconscious to make my house become more like the house I grew up in–my dad’s house?

I was talking to my step-mother the other day on the phone. I had to tell her how I was finding that I was becoming more like my dad in surprising ways. I told her that when I got my Oklahoma driver’s license I also registered to vote, as a Democrat. I haven’t been registered as a Democrat since I lived in my dad’s home–before I knew better–before I realized that “Christians were Republicans.” My father was a life long liberal and Democrat. He was also not only a member of the California Teachers Association, but an officer for a number of years. I find that I am now also a strong supporter of organized labor. Capital is organized; labor should have a right to organize. I’m not in a union though–there are unions for state employees, but the university is not unionized. I am, however, entertaining the idea of joining the IWW just out of principle. I may end up being more liberal than my father before long.

My father was a Christian. I am a Christian. So it probably goes without saying that on matters of religion, there were ample opportunities to butt heads. Just one example… My dad would say things like, “You don’t have to go to church to worship God.” I used to think that was just a cop out. He was just lazy and preferred to watch football. Now I think that a lot of people, probably most, would be better off if they’d just stay home. How I arrived at that conclusion I’ll save for another post.

So, I’m becoming like my dad. And that’s alright. I love my dad. I miss my dad. He is with me because he’s in me in good ways.

I like to craft with my kids regularly and for a season I was looking for crafts to do during our house church time. I found lots of free websites with wonderful ideas to inspire me or implement if I was not feeling especially creative. This is one of two websites that I feel is worth the annual cost: http://www.daniellesplace.com/

Check it out for free and search it completely once you have joined.

Enjoy!
Claudia