Janene's graduation

Janene’s graduation

I came to the realization the other day that I never so much as peeped about my wife’s graduation back in May. I have a draft here that looks like I was planning to embed a video, but the video I took wasn’t real great because I started it a split second too late ((If you listen carefully at the beginning of my mom’s video, you can hear my dad telling me I should start my video.)) and only got Janene’s last name being announced. I think I was waiting to blog about it until I could grab a copy of my mom’s video and then it got lost in the shuffle like so many things seem to do. I’m especially puzzled as to why I didn’t even Twitter anything from the commencement ceremony. That’s the least I could’ve done. Anyway, I’ll quit my rambling and get to the point.

My lovely wife, Janene, graduated from University of Utah on May 3 with a Masters of Science in Speech-Language Pathology. Here’s my mom’s video of the commencement ceremony (not the whole thing, just the important bit):

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This achievement is the culmination of six years of hard work and dedication, and I’m very proud of Janene. I wish I had half the drive and determination she does when it comes to things like this.

Janene is now completing her clinical fellowship year—the last thing she needs before being fully certified to practice as a speech therapist—working full-time for a local school district in early intervention. She meets with parents of toddlers and infants who are at risk or already showing signs of speech disorders to educate the parents on how to best interact with their children speech-wise and to explain the services the public school system will have to offer them when they’re old enough. She’s also working part time in acute and rehab for a local hospital doing speech therapy and swallow evaluation and treatment with various kinds of adult patients. She keeps busy, but it’s obvious to me she has a passion for the work she’s doing.

Congratulations, sweetheart. I love you! End mark

See also

Meme of fours

I was tagged for this by my lovely wife, so here goes:

Four jobs I’ve had

  1. Pizza deliverer for 5 Buck Pizza
  2. Coffee and danish gopher ((This is a joke, actually. I can’t recall getting anyone coffee or a danish once during the three months I was there. This was actually a very rewarding internship where I learned boatloads about what it means to work in full-time ministry.)) for the Youth Pastor at Southeast Baptist Church
  3. Superhero ((This is an exaggeration, obviously, but not far from the truth. As an IT Service Desk Technician, I put out a lot of fires and generally save the day on a regular basis.)) for Western Governors University
  4. Evil junk mailer ((This one’s no joke. I maintained a Microsoft Access database full of leads (mostly homeowners gathered from public records) and printed, stuffed, and mailed several hundred mail merge letters per week to people on the list. It was a good paying high school job, but I’ll never do it again, I promise.)) for Centex Home Equity

Four films I could watch over and over

  1. Stranger Than Fiction
  2. Minority Report
  3. Lord of the Rings: Return of the King
  4. A toss-up between The Incredibles and Ratatouille

Four places I’ve lived

  1. San Antonio, Texas
  2. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
  3. Louisville, Kentucky
  4. Salt Lake City, Utah

Four favorite TV shows

  1. Heroes
  2. House
  3. Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe
  4. Smallville

Four favorite foods

  1. My wife’s Ziti
  2. Small sweet pork salad at Costa Vida Fresh Mexican Grill
  3. Half Santa Fe salad at Applebee’s
  4. Sticky fingers dinner at Winger’s Grill & Bar

Four websites I visit daily ((There are many sites I visit daily, but to keep things interesting I’ve left out sites that pertain directly to work (since you can’t log into most of them anyway) and sites that I created myself such as this blog, the Homestar Runner Wiki, and FellowSites.))

  1. Google, Google Reader, and Gmail
  2. Wikipedia
  3. Amazon — my private wishlist, consisting mostly of books, is an order of magnitude longer than anyone’s ever should be
  4. introPLAY — I track all my bicycle rides here

Four places I’d rather be

  1. At the movies
  2. On my bicycle
  3. Curled up with a good book on the couch at home
  4. Curled up with my wife on the couch at home 😉

Four people I’m tagging

  1. James over at Fremlog
  2. Cody over at What’s it all about?
  3. Steven over at WilcoxZone
  4. Parker over at the insanity farm End mark

My setup: AutoHotkey and Launchy

By nature, I’m a lazy person. If there’s a faster way to do something, I will inevitably find it. Continuing the series about my software setup (which kicked off with Windows XP Tablet Edition over a year ago), I’d like to tell you about two programs I use called AutoHotkey and Launchy.

Ever since I discovered Windows key shortcuts I have wanted more of them. I love using Win+E to open Windows Explorer, but have often wondered why there isn’t a hotkey for my default browser and for more of my favorite programs and Control Panel applets. So, naturally, I went looking for something that would let me set up my own hotkeys.

The first such program I stumbled across was WinKey, an extremely simple program that let me map new Windows key shortcuts to applications, documents, or scripts. Unfortunately, WinKey was discontinued, so I went looking again and found an even better program called AutoHotkey.

AutoHotkey

AutoHotkey is open source software released under the GNU Public License. Hiding within its tiny package is a fairly full-featured macro system. Not only can you create custom hotkeys to run programs or open documents and files, you can also create more robust mouse and keyboard macros to handle repetitive tasks. Incidentally, this program also replaced QuickMacros in my repertoire of software tools. ((My macro needs are pretty modest and AutoHotkey exceeds them, but if you’re looking for a more robust macro program, I’ve heard Macro Express is the best. Be prepared to slap down $40 for it, though.))

I regularly use these native Windows key shortcuts:

  • Win+E: Windows Explorer (My Computer)
  • Win+L: Lock the workstation
  • Win+M: Minimize all windows
  • Win+R: Run
  • Win+Pause: System Properties

And here are the additional application shortcuts I’ve set up using AutoHotkey:

  • Win+F: Macromedia Fireworks
  • Win+H: Mozilla Firefox
  • Win+I: Microsoft Internet Explorer
  • Win+N: NotePad++
  • Win+O: Microsoft Outlook
  • Win+P: Palm Desktop
  • Win+Q: Quicken
  • Win+T: Mozilla Thunderbird
  • Win+U: Apple iTunes
  • Win+W: Microsoft Word
  • Win+X: Microsoft Excel

On top of the application hotkeys, I’ve added a few additional conveniences:

  • Win+F3: Hibernate the computer
  • Win+Z: Lock the workstation and activate the screen saver (I use this more than Win+L)
  • Win+PrintScreen: Call up the Microsoft Tablet Snipping Tool

As nice as all this is, there are still a good number of programs I use semi-often but not enough to really need hotkeys (ColorCop and PuTTY come immediately to mind). For the rest of my application launching needs, I use another great little program called Launchy.

Launchy

Launchy—also open source software—is a command-line application and file launcher similar to Quicksilver for the Mac OS. Every review of Quicksilver I’ve read just raves over how cool it is, so I really wish I could get that, but Launchy is a fairly suitable alternative in a pinch (though it’s missing many of Quicksilver’s features). Basically, when you want to launch an application or a file, you hit Alt+Space and then start typing. Even after just a few letters, Launchy’s find-as-you-type interface will present you with the closest match and some similar alternatives in a drop down list. From there you just hit Enter to launch your chosen item.

At first blush this may not seem much faster than double-clicking a desktop icon or the two or three clicks it would take to find something on the Start menu, but try it a couple times and I guarantee you’ll be hooked. I’ve had people see me use it while looking over my shoulder and nearly everyone asks me how they can get it. Those who I’ve asked about it later tell me they absolutely can’t live without it. Incidentally, after I started using Launchy on my computer I also went and found a similar program for my Treo called PetitLaunch.

Conclusion

So, there you have it, two new ways to boost your productivity as it relates to your computer work. Let me know if you know of any other ways to get to things quicker. I’m always looking for ways to be more productive. End mark

Elephant jokes

A friend got me started on elephant jokes today, so here are a few favorites from my own memory and around the web. Enjoy!

Q. How do you shoot a blue elephant?
A. With a blue elephant gun.
Q. How do you shoot a red elephant?
A. Choke him until he turns blue and use a blue elephant gun.
Q. How do you shoot a green elephant?
A. Tell a dirty joke so he’ll blush red, then choke him until he’s blue, then use a blue elephant gun.
Q. How do you shoot a yellow elephant?
A. There aren’t any yellow elephants, silly!
Q. How do you put an elephant in the fridge?
A. You open the fridge, insert the elephant, then close the fridge.
Q. How do you put a giraffe in the fridge?
A. You open the fridge, remove the elephant, insert the giraffe, then close the fridge.
Q. If the king of the jungle, the lion, decides to call a meeting and all the animals but one show up, who isn’t there?
A. The giraffe, of course. He’s still stuck in the fridge.
Q. How do you cross the nile?
A. Just swim across. All the crocodiles are at the meeting.
Q. Why do elephants wear tennis shoes with yellow soles?
A. So you won’t see them floating upside-down in bowls of custard. (Have you ever seen an elephant in a bowl of custard?) ((Elephants also paint their toenails red to hide in cherry trees and wear tiny green hats to sneak across pool tables.))
Q: How do you know if there is an elephant under the bed?
A: Your nose is touching the ceiling.
Q: What do you give a seasick elephant?
A: Lots of room.
Q: What do you call an elephant on a bicycle?
A: Optimistic!
Q: How do you know if there is an elephant in the pub?
A: His bike is parked outside.
Q. Why do ducks have flat feet?
A. To stamp out forest fires.
Q. Why do elephants have flat feet?
A. To stamp out flaming ducks.
Q. How do you catch a white elephant?
A. Go to a place where there are white elephants. Bring with you a muffin with raisins. Climb a tree. When the white elephant is close, drop the muffin with raisins in front of it. The white elephant will be happy and eat the muffin with raisins. White elephants like muffins with raisins. Repeat this procedure for five days in a row. After the fifth day, the white elephant will become accustomed to its daily muffin with raisins. The sixth day you climb the tree, bringing with you a muffin without raisins. Drop the muffin without raisins as usual. When the white elephant finds out that the muffin lacks rasins, he will darken with anger. It’s precisely at this moment when you catch him the same way you catch an ordinary gray elephant.

Feel free to post additional elephant jokes in the comments. Cheers!